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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2017 VOL. 3. NO. 539

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CURRENCIES/CBN: CBN: N305.55 PER DOLLAR, Parallel Market: USD N365 POUND N475 EURO N424 NSE: ASI 37, 425.15 MARKET CAP 12.90 FMDQ O/N 22.50 OBB 22.00 COMMODITIES: Wheat US $455.00/MT Rice US $12.40/MT Cocoa US $2,004.00/Bag Coffee US $139.60/Scoop Cotton US $70.95/Unit Sugar US $14.15/Ounce METALS: Gold US $1263.10/Ounce Silver US $16.21/Ounce Copper US $2.87/Ounce ENERGY: Brent US $52.21/PB, N/Gas US $2.78/CB

Waste to wealth:

The hidden treasure, attraction and scorn Heaps of plastic wastes beaten into piles in preparation for recycling Ladesope Ladelokun, Lagos

ÏÏÏHe doesn’t cut the picture of one that works with a corporate entity as his signature torch and sack give him out as one who has his office on the street. Unlike some entrepreneurs who are not in a hurry to rise early because they are their own bosses, Ebenezer combs the streets of Mowe and its environs in Ogun State as early as 5a.m. every day, scavenging and creating an avenue for his daily bread.

Nigeria loses N222bn in shady crude oil swap –NEITI P.6

A waste recycling plant

Worried he could sink deeper into the poverty hole with his paltry N7,000 pay as a primary school teacher, Ebenezer, 29, sought direction for his life from God. And, according to the teacher-turned scavenger, he got God’s nod to earn a living by harvesting disposed items on the streets.

As a little boy, he had a sneaking admiration for accounting, but fate had another plan for him. Hear him: “I lost my father when I was about to write my SSCE, he wanted me to be a char-

Liberia: World leaders, soccer stars to grace Weah’s inauguration P.22 Sunday

tered accountant and I actually liked the course as a kid. When I lost my father, I knew I had to carry my cross myself; I got a teaching job in a primary school where I taught music. But I had to resign because I was struggling to live on my N7,000 monthly pay. ‘‘But since the Holy Spirit told me to start this business, I’ve had reasons to thank God. I feed myself, my mother, and I’ve been able to establish other Continued on page 6

Senate: No $25bn contract fraud in NNPC, says N10trn spent on subsidy in P.7 8 years

My song ‘Nurse Alabere’ was in response to my ex-girlfriend –Adekunle Gold L2

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Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

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Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

News 5

We’ll not rest until Nigeria becomes exporter of food –Buhari Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

ÏÏÏPresident

Uncommon passage on a bike on Lagos Ibadan Expressway…on Friday.

Photo: BOLAJI OLASUNKANMI.

Waste to wealth: The hidden treasure, attraction and the scorn Continued from page 1

businesses. For instance, I sell bags, shoes and wears.’’

Asked if he would still study accounting, Ebenezer said, “I want to concentrate on my business. Having more streams of income is my focus.’’

At a dumpsite along the MoweIbafo corridor of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, not even the sickly odour that hung in the air could deter Adebayo from harvesting can and bottles from the mountain of refuse called ‘Bolah’ in local parlance. For Adebayo, many are blind to the wealth in waste.

The 39-year-old Edo-born scavenger said: “Initially, I was shy when I started, but that is now in the past.

Some young guys say they cannot do dirty jobs. They believe their fathers have properties. What will they inherit? Which property will they leave for their children? I wish I had started this business long before now. There are big men and women that are into this business, but many people don’t know.’’

He added: “There are things you would not even expect that people would buy and they would come here to request for it. And you won’t believe what we find and resell. As I speak to you now, there are big women who come here as late as 10pm. and 11pm to either buy stuff from us or sell to us because they are shy to be seen with us during day time.’’

On how he began the business, Adebayo said: “I was working with NURTW before I started this business. I was inspired by my boss who died about a month ago. He started as a truck pusher in Lagos, but he later grew very big in the business that he established other businesses from the profit he made from this job. I know he had two big buses for

his transport business and he lived in his own house.’’

However, one would be dead wrong to assume the scavenging business is strictly for men. A mother of two who gave her name as Blessing was spotted by our correspondent near a dumpsite in Mowe, gathering her ‘wares’.

For Blessing, she would do anything to raise her kids as long as it’s not what the law frowns at.

“There’s nothing I can’t do to make money as long as it’s not what I will do and policemen will start hunting for me. I’m a widow, and I don’t believe in begging to live. This is how I make my daily bread.’’

How Lucrative?

According to Adebayo, one can earn 100% on one’s investment and can earn as much as what one wants to earn.

“If I get the kind of financial support I want, there is no limit to what I can earn. I buy a tonne of waste for N20,000 and I can sell it for N40,000.

In a month, if I have the financial muscle to buy 5 tonnes for N100,000, I can make another N100,000 profit, and I can make more depending on how deep my pocket is.

“Apart from buying and reselling, there are other areas of making money here. For instance, every truck pusher that dumps anything in this dumpsite pays N100, if he dumps 10 times a day, that’s N1000.

“Government also gets its own share. We pay N4,000 to government every day.’’

For Ebenezer, he would not disclose figures, but he’s grateful for the mercy of God. “I’m not where I used to be but my life is more meaningful now by the grace of God.’’ The stages involved ‘‘There are also those who help in picking and selecting when people bring us ‘market’. Many things are mixed together. Picking is the pro-

cess of getting all that we need in one place from the whole rubbish.

After this, the next stage is selecting. This is the stage where, for instance, every item gets its own bag.

For instance, cans are bagged in a place, plastics are bagged separately. Then, we bag and scale.

“It’s then that we can now sell.

Chinese are our best customers.

They buy everything. From condemned slippers to polythene, from plastics to empty cans, they buy everything and recycle. “You will be surprised.

“They buy the most useless things you can think of,’’ Adebayo averred.

Would you have a romantic relationship with a Scavenger?

Owing to what some consider the dirty nature of scavenging business and its profitability as claimed by the players, The Daily Times went to town to seek the opinion of some Nigerian ladies on the possibility of dating a scavenger.

Anuoluwapo Atere is a civil servant with the Lagos State government. She bares her mind: “I can’t for any reason date a scavenger.

What will I tell my parents he is doing to earn a living? “Let him have the whole world, I can’t. The job is a turn off for me.’’

Another lady, Fowobi Akeju, a banker, said “it’s not all about money. I can’t o. No. If I’m deceived into the relationship, the relationship is over the day I know.

For Roseline West, a business woman, what a man does is inconsequential as long as he earns his money legitimately.

“Money does not smell. If you like, deal in faeces. What is important to me is a man that will love me and be a responsible father. What is the usefulness of a neat man that can’t meet the needs of his family? I don’t care what man does as long as it’s legit and can provide the needs of his family.’’

Muhammadu Buhari has said that his administration will not rest in reviewing and strengthening ongoing reforms in the agricultural sector until Nigeria regains its pride of place as a food exporting country.

Receiving the All Progressives Congress (APC) family from Kebbi State in the Presidential Villa, on Friday, Buhari said that the country’s huge rice import bill had dropped significantly by more than 90 per cent, adding that it wasn’t good enough by his expectation.

He said, “Beyond self-sufficiency, we must strive to become net exporters of food commodities.

“We are not doing badly in the agricultural sector and Nigerians, and the world, are beginning to appreciate our efforts. We will not be satisfied; we will work harder until we start exporting food.

“We are happy that rice and beans importation into the country have gone down by over 90 per cent, and visibly everyone can see how productive states like Kebbi have turned out to be and states like Lagos, Ogun and Ebonyi are following the example.”

He said Kaduna, Katsina, Kano and Sokoto states had already reported remarkable turn around in the agricultural sector, with more youths taking interest in entrepreneurship.

The President said he disagreed with the astronomical food import bill presented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from the inception of the administration, pointing out that it was later discovered to be “fraudulent practices’’ by some of the elite to deplete the foreign reserves.

“When I was told that the CBN had no savings after the windfall of selling oil for more than $100 per barrel for many years, and the production was 2.1 billion barrel per day, I did not believe them.

“I did not believe them because majority of Nigerians cannot afford imported food; they rely on what is locally grown. It turned out that 50 per cent of the export bills were fraudulent. That is what the Nigerian elite did.

“Unfortunately, we will not know all that happened because the elite worked in collusion with institutions

in developed countries, like insurance firms, shipping companies and other financial outfits, to perpetuate the fraud,’’ he added.

On security, Buhari said the return of farmers to their farm lands in the North East, with glaring results of high yields, was a testimony to the relative peace that had been achieved.

He assured that more would be done to check the mayhem of suicide attacks.

The President said his administration will increase its effort to reposition the educational and health sectors to compete with other global institutions.

Speaking while introducing the delegation, the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), told the President that the political leaders of Kebbi State have now abandoned the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, and moved over to the APC. “We came to show you that the good policies of the administration have made the leaders of the PDP to abandon their party and move to the APC. With this development, the PDP is now pronounced dead in Kebbi State,” Malami said.

In his remarks, the Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu said the APC family was pleased with the performance of the administration in securing the country, reviving the economy and fighting corruption.

Bagudu and members of the delegation, including former Kebbi State Governor Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari and other former PDP stalwarts, prayed for the quick recovery of the President’s son, Yusuf.

Buhari

News 6

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Nigeria loses N222bn in shady crude oil swaps –NEITI Idu Jude, Abuja

ÏÏÏThe

Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has disclosed that Nigeria lost a whopping N222billion between 2014 and 2015 in its crude oil swap deal, even as the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was unable to account for another $1.45billion NEITI stated this on Friday in its report for 2014 and 2015.

Also, the nation’s oil and gas revenues plunged from $54.5 billion in 2014 to $24.8 billion in 2015, while the country’s oil production fell from 798 million barrels in 2014 to 776 million barrels in 2015.

According to the official statement issued by its director of Communication Mr. Orji Ogbonnia Orji, NEITI also stated that 2015 total outstanding revenue from the sector as at 2015 was $3.7billion and N80billion, while losses incurred stood at $2.2 billion and N60billion, and un-reconciled revenues amounted to N317billion.

The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mr Waziri Adio, also disclosed during the release of the report on Friday that, “Beyond providing a snapshot of what transpired in 2015, this report reveals money to be recovered, leakages to be blocked, and urgent reforms to be undertaken.

The most critical take-away is the need to expedite, expand and sustain reforms in this still critical sector of national life.”

The report shows that Nigeria suffered a 54.6% decline in oil revenues but only a slight 2.7% fall in oil production. “This was due to drastic reduction in the unit price of crude oil in the global market,” states the report.

It will be recalled that the yearly average price of crude oil per barrel tumbled from $101.91 in 2014 to $52.16 in 2015.

It further stated that Oil and gas revenues have been declining since 2011 when total revenues peaked at $68.4b. A five-year analysis in the report reveals that revenues declined by 8%, 7.7% and 6% in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. However, the decline leapt to double digits in 2015 when total revenue dwindled by more than half.

Total oil production also dropped but not by much: from 798 million barrels in 2014 to 776 million barrels in 2015. The report attributed the decline to oil theft and militancy. However, total gas production went up by 20.23% from 2, 593,090 mmscf in 2014 to 3, 250, 667 mmscf in 2015.

The jump by a fifth was on account of the combined effect of increase in gas utilisation and decline in gas flaring.

According to the report, the total oil lifted in 2015 was 780 million barrels, about four million barrels higher than the amount produced with the balance drawn

from previous years. Of the 780 million barrels, the companies lifted 467 million barrels while NNPC lifted 313 million barrels.

NNPC’s lifting was split almost evenly between Federation Export and Domestic Crude Allocation, which accounted for 159.4 million barrels and 153.9 million barrels respectively.

But only 8.7 million barrels or 5.6% of crude oil allocated for domestic consumption went to the refineries in 2015 on account of the state of the refineries.

Other major highlights of the report include the following: NLNG Dividends In 2015, it noted that Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) paid $1.07billion as dividend, interest and loan repayment to NNPC, broken down as follows: $1.04 billion as dividends, $3.1 million as interests, and $29.1 million as loan repayment. This brings to a total of $16.8 billion NLNG’s payments to NNPC for the period 2000 to 2015. The payments are for the loan grant to NLNG and for the 49% stake that the government holds in the company.

While the NNPC has always confirmed receipt of the payments, it has never shown evidence of remittance to either the Federal Government or to the Federation Account. NNPC maintains that it has authorization from the presidency to hold the dividends in trust and utilize as directed by the government.

NEITI recommends that NNPC should provide documentary evidence of the authorization to hold the money in trust and to give account of the expenditure from and the status of the $16.8 billion collected in 16 years.

NEITI says the volume of crude oil declared lost to theft by 13 operators in 2015 was 27.1 million barrels. Though it said this amounted to only 3.5% of total oil production, the loss was valued at $1.4 billion. PPMC also declared loss of crude worth $25 million, bringing the total declared losses to $1.45 billion. This brings the established loss to theft from 2011 to 2015 to a total of 113.1 million barrels valued at $11billion.

Also, PPMC declared losing products worth N56.4 billion, broken down as follows: N52 billion for losses on petrol, N3.8 billion for losses on diesel, and N123 million for losses on kerosene.

Deferred production on account of sabotage or repairs came to 57 million barrels. NEITI reiterates its call for effective and adequate metering infrastructure and enhanced security of our oil and gas assets.

On the deduction from domestic crude allocation (DCA), the 153.92 million barrels of crude allocated for domestic consumption (at 445, 000 barrels per day) was utilized as follows: 56.11 million barrels or 37% to PPMC for

Commuters at Gwagwalada/Giri Expressway in Abuja…on Friday.

export; 89 million barrels or 57% for Offshore Processing Arrangement (OPA) and 8.74 million barrels or 5.6% for local refineries.

The total value of the domestic allocation came to $7.77 billion or N1.5 trillion.

When combined with the closing balance for the previous year and with allowance made for liability acknowledged and upfront deductions by NNPC, there was an un-reconciled sum of N317billion from the value of crude allocated for domestic consumption. NNPC acknowledges having a liability of N418 billion as at 31 December 2015. Also, NNPC deducted the following upfront from domestic crude account: N60.9 billion for losses; N316.7 billion for subsidy; and N112 billion for repairs and maintenance.

A breakdown of the repairs and maintenance expenses shows that N24.2 billion was spent on crude movements; N22.1 billion on fund releases for salaries; N15.6 billion on demurrage; N13.2 billion on share of upfront; N11.37 billion on product distribution; N10.5 billion on through/marine; N4.12 billion on facility repairs; N3.27 billion on operations; N1.9 billion on security; and N1.3 billion on projects, among others.

NEITI recommends that upfront deductions should be discontinued and that the NNPC should settle its liabilities and reconcile the un-reconciled amount. NEITI also recommends that detailed records of losses and repairs be kept to ensure transparency and accountability.

The total cash calls paid to joint venture operators in 2015 was $4.37 billion. Out of this, $597.8m was paid on what the report considers non-cash call items. This included $307.83 million paid to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Navy for security; $238 million collected by NAPIMS as administrative charges; $7.2 million for travelling and accommodation; and $4.8 million for consultancy, among others. NEITI

recommends that non-cash call expenses should be paid from NNPC overhead budget, and payment to NIA and others from cash call account should be discontinued.

OPA and Other Losses The report shows that in 2015 the country recorded a net loss of $723 million from getting refined products through Offshore Processing Arrangement (OPA).

This means that the value of refined products that the country received through OPA was less than the value of the crude given by $723 million, even after allowances had been made for costs and margins. The President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration cancelled the OPA in November 2015 for being uneconomical.

However, there was an outstanding liability of $498 million by companies contracted under OPA from under-delivery of imported products.

The report shows that $90m was lost through a practice where the NNPC used a revised/lower pricing option at the point of payment instead of the higher price at the point of purchase.

The report states that NNPC has stopped the practice of double valuation with the coming of the resent administration.

NEITI recommends close monitoring of the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement that replaced the OPA to ensure the country is not being shortchanged. It also calls for government to recover the $498m OPA liabilities from the affected companies.

From the report, the NPDC (the upstream arm of NNPC) reduced its legacy liabilities from $1.45billion and N80billion in 2014 to $757 million and N68 billion in 2015.

However, the NPDC incurred liabilities of $822million and N9.6billion in 2015, bringing its total liabilities at the end of 2015 to $1.5 billion and N78 billion.

The report also showed that NPDC promised that by 31 De-

cember 2017, it will pay the balance of $1.7 billion that it owes the Federation from the eight OMLs divested to it from the Shell JV between 2010 and 2011.

It will be recalled that the OMLs were valued at $1.8 billion, which is believed to be is counted and that NPDC paid only $100m. The report also showed that the valuation for the four OMLs divested to NPDC from the NAOC JV in 2012 was revised down from $2.25 billion to $1.55 billion by DPR. NPDC claims that the Federation owes it $95 million, having lifted oil from the divested assets and received payments from gas proceeds between 2012 and 2015.

NEITI recommends that the NPDC should pay its outstanding liabilities and that the basis of the revaluation and mode of payment of the divested assets be examined to ensure that the Federation is not short-changed.

The NEITI 2015 Oil and Gas Audit Report is the eighth to be produced since the extractive sector transparency regulator came into being in 2004. The report was released on Friday , after approval by the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG), which is the governing board of NEITI headed by Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the Minister for Mines and Steel Development. The audit was conducted by Haruna Yahaya & Amp Co., a Nigerian accounting and audit firm selected through an international competitive process.

The 2016 audits will commence early next year while the procurement process for the 2017 audits has commenced.

The NEITI ES Adio also said that, “Our goal is to clear the backlog as quickly as possible.

We are embracing mainstreaming and automation to ensure we speed up our reports to make them as close to real time as possible and to enhance their reform and accountability utility. Resources and process permitting, we will release the 2016 and 2017 reports next year.”

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

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Senate: No $25bn contract fraud in NNPC, says N10trn spent on subsidy in 8 years

Samuel Idowu, Abuja

ÏÏÏThe

Senate has disclosed that there is no $25billion contract fraud in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had reportedly in a leak memo, alleged lack of due process in the award of contracts valued at over $25billion by the NNPC. Disturbed by the allegation raised, the Senate set up an ad-hoc committee to probe the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, over the alleged award of contracts worth over $25 billion without due process.

The committee, headed by Senator Aliyu Wammako, is yet to submit its report.

But the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Senator Kabiru Marafa, while addressing journalists in Abuja on Friday, said there is nothing like $25billion contract fraud as widely reported.

Senator Marafa said, “There is no contract fraud anywhere. Part of the contract alleged to have been awarded were presented to the Federal Executive Council two weeks ago.”

Marafa also claimed that the Federal Government had between 2008 and 2016 spent over N10trillion on petroleum subsidy.

We’ve tamed the monster of fuel scarcity- NNPC boss Meanwhile, Baru has boasted that the Federal Government has successfully tamed “the monster” of fuel scarcity that marred Christmas holidays nationwide.

Baru stated this on Friday during an interview with State House correspondents after joining fellow Muslims for Jumat service in a mosque at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said information available to him showed that normalcy had returned to Abuja, Lagos and many other parts of the country as far as fuel distribution was concerned.

He attributed the scarcity to the activities of “some greedy marketers” who he accused of hoarding and diverting products because of a rumoured

price increase.

The NNPC boss said, “I’m happy to report that we have tamed the monster that reared its head as a result of the rumoured price increase about three weeks ago.

“Unfortunately, that rumour instigated a lot of marketers to be very greedy and they decided that their fellow citizens should not enjoy the Christmas holiday and New Year with ease and decided to profiteer, starting by hoarding and diversion of products.

“At the beginning, I did address the press, telling the world that we have sufficient products that will last us 30 days through the New Year into January; but because the marketers wanted to inflict harm and pains on fellow citizens, they decided to hoard products, divert them and in some cases, even smuggled products out of the country.

“This has been tamed by the actions we took and I personally led the war around Abuja and other teams led the war in Lagos and other parts of the country.

“As of this (Friday) morning, I have gone round the Abuja metropolis and I have seen that the queues have reduced significantly to almost normal level and few motorists that I heard speaking on morning programmes concerning what I have seen said they have not spent up to 30 minutes to fuel their cars.

“So, the monster has been tamed in Lagos, the situation has been brought into normalcy as far as two days ago and we are also achieving the same thing in all other cities.”

Baru reassured Nigerians that the country has sufficient products that will last for the next 30 days, adding that the government keeps bringing in 50 per cent above Nigerians’ normal consumption into the country.

The NNPC boss added that as at Friday, eight vessels were discharging products at various ports around the country.

Senate vows to stop FG over illegal fuel subsidy *Says corruption now rules in oil and gas industry In a related development,

Long queue of motorists at MRS Filling Station, Kuchigoro in Abuja…on Friday.

the Senate on Friday, knocked the federal government for allegedly subsidizing the pump price of petrol by N26 per litre to cushion the landing cost put at N171 per litre, while the official selling price remained at N145 per litre.

Baru had stirred the hornets’ nest last week when he disclosed that NNPC has been making up for the short fall in the price of fuel which should have been N171 rather than the official price of N145.

According to Baru, the intervention by the NNPC was meant to prevent scarcity of the product while cushioning the price regime for Nigerians with the official rate of N145.

Addressing the media on the lingering problem of fuel scarcity in Nigeria, the Chairman, Committee on Petroleum Resources ( Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa vowed to stop the illegal subsidy regime which according to him, was not in any way appropriated for by the National Assembly.

Marafa said the NNPC and other stakeholders in the sector will have to explain to Nigerians how they arrived at the alleged subsidy payment more than a year after its stoppage.

He said, “At our slated investigative public hearing on the sector next week Thursday, NNPC and other stake-

holders should be prepared to explain to Nigerians who approved the subsidy for them and who appropriated it ?” .

“There is complacency in the sector and sharp practices that must be stopped. They want to take us back to subsidy regime that has never been beneficial to ordinary Nigerians across the country.

We cannot go back to such scam called regime, which robbed the country N10trillion between 2006 and 2016”.

He said it was high time the government stuck to principle of transparency, which it initiated in 2015 to ease the sales and importation of fuel.

According to him, while the previous government swapped exported crude for imported refined PMS, the present government has been using a more transparent model of direct sale of crude oil and direct purchase of refined product.

Marafa vowed that the probe of the NNPC which the process of which the Senate has set in motion, will lead to a logical conclusion, as according to him, the Senate is not a rubber stamp to any arm of government or anybody.

He added, “Before we went on recess, I remember submitting on the floor of the Senate that I am nobody’s man or rubber stamp. The same way I strongly believe that the

Senate is not a rubber stamping platform for anybody or arm of government Marafa, however, apologised on behalf of the Senate to Nigerians on the untold hardship they have been facing, adding that the Senate is poised to find possible solutions to remedy the lingering fuel crisis.

He decried what he described as large-scale corruption in the petroleum industry, just as he lamented the alleged sharp practices in the sector with regards to subsidy payment.

He also lamented that fuel at the moment was being sold as high as N300 in some parts of the country, while the product has not been available for purchase in other parts.

He reiterated that the Senate would convene an emergency public hearing on the January 4, 2018, inviting the Minister of State for petroleum, NNPC GMD, DPR and other relevant stakeholders to hear their views on the incessant crisis.

The Senate spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi, said the Senate was unhappy with the turn of events and happenings caused by the fuel shortages, alluding to an earlier remark by the Senate President that the situation has assumed an alarming dimension which urgently needs to be addressed.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday December 30, 2017

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News

Don’t occupy govt secretariat, Alaafin pleads with striking workers The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, has appealed to workers of the six state-owned tertiary institutions in Oyo State to, in the interest of peace and tranquillity; suspend their plan to occupy the Oyo State government secretariat

over their unpaid salaries.

The traditional ruler made the appeal when the workers visited him in his palace to solicit for his intervention.

He commended the workers for considering him worthy of interven-

ing in the matter, saying if they had gone ahead to occupy the secretariat in Ibadan without exploring all available avenues, they might not get the desired result.

Having listened to the workers through their spokesperson, chairman,

Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the five trade unions (ASUP, COEASU, NASU, SSANIP AND SSUCOEN), Mr Adeniyi Babatunde Afees, Oba Adeyemi, after due consultations with the Oyomesi, the supreme advisory body in Oyo kingdom,

put a call through to the governor and informed the workers that he and the governor would meet on the matter.

Oba Adeyemi urged the workers to always toe the path of caution and peace even when fighting for their right.

One killed, six injured in multiple road crash in Anambra

By Nkiru Nwagbo Awka

ÎÎÎ A multiple road acci-

dent involving trailer, a bus and two cars has left one dead and six others injured at the popular Azia junction of Ihiala axis along Onitsha-Owerri road in Anambra State.

The ghastly accident which occurred around 10.00a.m Friday according to an eyewitness at the scene said that the accident was caused by a break failure of the articulated vehicle conveying drinks and heading towards Onitsha.

“The trailer lost control and hit two vehicles and the bus which was picking passengers at the junction,” “Thank God it happened like this, it would have been something else, if not that God always knows how to prevent and save situations, because the bus that is picking passengers had more than 10 people in it already, “ You can imagine what would have happened if the trailer that failed it break hit the bus. Thank God it stopped at this, just one person lost his life on the spot,” the eyewitness said.

In his reaction, the state Sector Commander Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Anambra state Sunday Ajayi said that about three vehicles were involved and about six casualties were also involved in the catastrophe.

APC 1: L-R: Former Kebbi State Governor, Saidu Dakingari; Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu; President Muhammadu Buhari, and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, during the Kebbi State All Progressives Congress (APC), Family’s Visit to the President at the Presidential Villa Abuja yesterday

Boys’ Brigade installs Akeredolu’s wife as Patron ÎÎÎ The wife of the Ondo State Governor, Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu was on Friday honoured as the Imo State Patron of Boys’ Brigade of Nigeria at a colourful Award and Investiture service held at the Christ Anglican Church Emeabiam, Owerri West LGA, Imo State.

Mrs. Akeredolu expressed gratitude for the honour and noted that the Boys’ Brigade as an International institution is known for it stand on principles of obedience, reverence, discipline and true Christian value.

She advised the

youths, as the future of the state and the nation, to take their education seriously and shun all social vices and be good ambassadors of the ‘Boys’ Brigade’ wherever they find themselves.

While promising to continue to support the organization in all capacities in order to move it forward, Mrs. Akeredolu reaffirmed her deep commitment to empowerment and developmental projects most especially when it comes to women and youths.

Her words: “I cannot quantify my gratitude towards this honour

you have bestowed upon me. The Boys’ Brigade Worldwide as an institution has existed since 1883 and stands upon the principles of obedience, reverence, discipline and all that tends towards true Christian value.

She further charged the youths to think about their future and how they can leave a lasting mark in the sands of time stressing that they must discover activities that will stimulate their mind and develop their bodies.

In her speech, the State President of Boys’ Brigade, Lady Edith Onyejiaka congratu-

lated Mrs. Akeredolu while describing her investiture as one that will remain dear to the hearts of the people as it was the first time a Governor’s wife was so honoured.

Earlier in his sermon, Rev. Cannon Daniel Emuka appreciated the efforts of Mrs. Akeredolu while also praying that the tenure of her husband in Ondo State will be of immense benefit to the people of the State.

Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, an indigene of Emeabiam, Owerri West is in Imo State for her installment as Ada Emeabiam II.

Pyrates confraternity donates educational materials to schools

By Titus Akhigbe,Benin

ÎÎÎ The Natational Asso-

ciation of Seadogs (NAS) (aka Pyrates Confraternity), Benin I branch, in collaboration with Canada branch has donated educational materials to students of two Senior Secondary Schools in Benin City as part of NAS Child Education Project.

The materials included over 200 school bags, 800 note books and pens. Benefiting schools were Iyekogba Secondary Schools, Irhiri and Midwestern Primary and Secondary Schools, both in Oredo Local Government Area of the State.

President NAS, Benin branch, I Mr. Bello Ganihu said the choice of the schools was informed by the need to positively affect members of its host communities where the schools are located.

Vice President NAS, Canada branch, Mr. Teddyson Iyonmana said the donation was part of NAS Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) to freely give to members of the society.

According to him, since NAS was founded over 60 years ago, it has been in the business of promoting good neighbourliness and helping to promote an ideal society, where everyone is his/her brother’s keeper.

Receiving the items on behalf of Iyekogba Secondary School, the Principal of the Senior School, Mrs. Kate Ehimhen thanked NAS for the gesture.

On his part, the Principal II of the Senior School, Mr. Lawrence Igbinoghodua said the gesture of NAS was laudable and prayed God to continue to support the association’s noble cause.

Highlight of the ceremony was the distribution of the bags containing notebooks and pens to the students.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Wike kicks against $1bn ECA fund for FG Andrew Orolua, Abuja.

ÎÎÎ

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state on Friday kicked against the authorization for the federal government to withdraw the sum of $1billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) belonging to all tiers of government.

He was at the presidential villa, Abuja to brief President Muhammadu Buhari on the current security situation in the state af-

ter which he told State House correspondents that the withdrawal from the fund by the federal government would be illegal.

The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) had approved the money for withdrawal by the federal government to aid it in the fight against insurgency in the north east.

Governor Wike however said that he was in support of the federal government’s fight

against insurgency.

He said: “Even though for me it’s illegal, for me it is. However, we are told we are fighting insurgency and no right thinking person in the country will say that he would not support the government in fighting against the insurgency.

“But on the other hand too, I believe that when you are talking about environmental issues in the Niger Delta particularly the Ogoniland, I believe that we can also

take money from there (Excess Crude Account) to solve the problem of Ogoniland and other Niger Delta areas. That is my position.”

On the meeting with President Buhari, he said he updated the President on the security situation in the state.

Wike said the meeting focused mainly on security and other developmental issues in Rivers state, adding that he was happy with the discussion.

9

News

CONNAK Foundation graduates ICT experts, holds Founder’s Day

By Sunday Nwakanma – Umuahia

ÎÎÎ A non-governmental organization, CONNAK Foundation early this week, held its Founders Day, while graduating over 85 youths on ICT and other different skills.

In her welcome speech, the founder of CONNAK Foundation, Mrs. Carole Emeka-Sunday, disclosed that “Over 85 youths attended 9 months ICT training on computer hardware, computer software, programming, web development, 57 of them finished the first 6 months training while 45 completed the 9 months training” Others, she highlighted include students of entrepreneurial studies as well as scholarship beneficiaries, disclosing that the foundation started in 2012 “with the mission to redirect and groom youths in our local community who were about to be overtaken by social vices like drugs, rape and cultism”.

Speaking with Daily Times later, Mrs. EmekaSunday said beneficiaries come from many places, even beyond the state, stating however that the Foundation wants to harvest much of the Ohuhu youths and others later, stating “it is basically to cover Ohuhu land first”.

She disclosed that Foundation is open to partnership, stating that those who will like to help will fund the youths, while the foundation monitors the progress for them.

Items of empowerment which was free include computers/laptop and printers, maximum cash of N1 million each to entrepreneur students, and other hardware items to the ICT, entrepreneurial, fashion designing, hairdressing, barbing saloon and other skill youths.

The Foundation used the occasion to honour illustrious sons and daughters of Ohuhu land and friends of the foundation who are from within and beyond the state.

Rotary Club of Ikeja presents gifts to patients, donates medical equipment

ÎÎÎ L-R: All Progressives Congress, (APC), Deputy Chairman (South), Engr. Segun Oni; Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and his wife, Bisi, during the APC stakeholders summit in Isan, Ekiti State…on Thursday.

Rape: Kano Police Command records 334 cases in 2017 - PPRO Saka Bolaji, Minna

ÎÎÎ

The Kano State Police Command on Friday said it had recorded 334 cases of rape and other sexual offences in the state from January to date.

The command Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Magaji Majiya disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the command’s year review in Kano. ”Five hundred and

forty-seven cases of rape and other sexual offences were reported in 2016 while 334 cases were received in 2017, indicating a major reduction of crimes in the state,” he said.

According to him, the command had recorded 601 major crimes, recovered 35 stolen vehicles and recovered N744.6 million property in the period under review.

Majiya noted that the rate of crime had drasti-

cally gone down in the year under review considering the adequate security arrangements strategically deployed in the State and the number of criminals arrested with the synergy of the public and stakeholders involved.

He said 52 kidnapped victims were rescued and reunited with their respective families, 73 different types of local arms and 273 live ammunitions were recovered from sus-

pects.

“In the year 2016, the command witnessed 72 cases of armed robbery with 117 suspects arrested, while for the current year (2017), only 35 cases of robbery were reported and 76 suspects arrested.

According to him, the command had successfully arrested 497 members of different gangs of Yandaba (miscreants) in collaboration with traditional rulers and other security agencies.

The Rotary Club of Ikeja on Christmas Day visited the Lagos State Teaching Hospital to spend the special day with the patients and to donate medical equipment to the Hospital Management.

It was also an occasion to reward some of the staff and departments of the hospital that were adjudged to have distinguished themselves in course of duty within the year.

Members, in large number, and led by the President, Rotarian Adeniyi Adelaja, arrived the hospital early and were there all morning, visiting the wards giving gifts to the patients and cheering them up.

The Club later presented medical equipment valued at close to N3 million to the Hospital Management.

Items presented included Desktop Sphygnanometre [Accoson], Standing Sphyg

[Health line], Thermometers [voice, non-voice, etc.], Stretchers, Examination Beds, Wheel Chairs, Nebulizer Omron, Suction Machines and Oxygen Concentrator.

The Items were received on behalf of the Hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Prof. Adewale Oke, who stood in for Dr. Jide Idris, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health.

The CMD expressed deep appreciation to the Club for the gesture and gave assurances that the items would be deployed as intended by the Club.

The Club also used the visit to reward some of the Hospital Staff for diligence and acknowledged dedication to duty.

Those rewarded included Christiana Ogidan and Dr. Bamidele Oluwadamilare, who respectively got the Best Junior Staff and the Best Doctor of the Year Awards.

Mƅƒ 10

# ƇƊƔ jƇƋƅ MƇ ƅƎƇ Saturday December 30, 2017

Nigerians won’t go into New Year with ÎÎÎThe

Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, has vowed that Nigerians will not go into 2018 with the scarcity of petroleum products.

Baru, who disclosed this to State House correspondents in Abuja on Friday, reiterated

NNPC’s position to ensure the pump price of fuel was maintained at the current official price of N145 per litre.

According to him, any marketer found hoarding fuel or selling above the official price will be punished.

“I’m happy to report that we have tamed the monster that reared its head as a result of the

rumoured price increase about three weeks ago.

“Fortunately that rumour instigated a lot of marketers to be very greedy and they decided that their fellow citizens should not enjoy the Christmas holiday and New Year with ease and decided to profiteer starting by hoarding and diversion of products.

“At the beginning I

did address the press, telling the world that we have sufficient products that will last us 30 days through the New Year into January but because the marketers wanted to inflict harm and pains on fellow citizens, they decided to hoard products, divert them and in some cases even smuggled products out of the country.

Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade and other bikers, during the carnival show in Calabar, Cross River State… on Thursday.

^Ǝƅ ƇƖƅ Əç Ə ƅƎ ƌƎ Ɣ Ɔ Ǝ ó ƎƅƄ ƑƅƎƔ Ə CƐƋ Ə ÎÎÎ

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday joined fellow Muslims to pray for the quick recovery of his son, Yusuf, who was involved in a bike accident on Tuesday in Abuja.

The prayer session formed a part of the Jumat prayers held in a mosque at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Government officials who participated in the session alongside the President were the Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura; Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu; and the Group Managing Director of

NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru.

The prayer was led by the Chief Imam of Aso Rock Mosque, Sheik Abdulwahid Suleiman.

Others at the prayer session were presidential aides and villa staff, among others.

Suleiman urged the first family to accept the tragedy in good faith.

He prayed for God’s guidance and protection of the first family and all Nigerians.

The clergy man also prayed for peace and tranquillity in the country.

A similar prayer session was held on Thurs-

day in the same Yusuf mosque.

In a similar development Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has urged Nigerians to continue to remember the First Family in their prayers for the quick recovery of Yusuf.

A statement by the governor’s Special Adviser, Communication and Strategy, Mr. Yomi Layinka, quoted the governor as describing the unfortunate incident as depressing.

Ajimobi hopes that “The abiding grace of God that allowed the ebullient young man to survive the crash will see

to his quick and complete recovery. It is indeed heartwarming to hear that he is in a stable condition now and responding well to treatment.

“On behalf of the government and people of Oyo State, I pray that Yusuf will soon be back on his feet. The incident is a temporary setback and one of the vicissitudes of life. He will come out of it stronger and will live long to fulfil his destiny.

“In the African culture of being our brother’s keepers, I urge Nigerians to continue to remember the first family in their prayers and thoughts in this difficult period.”

Fayose is Pharaoh in Ekiti, says former PDP spokesman Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

ÎÎÎ

A former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Dayo Adeyeye, has accused the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose of trying to muscle the party in the state.

He, therefore, called on the national leadership of the party to call Fayose to order.

Adeyeye accused the governor of harassing other members of the party that do not belong to his group.

The former minister of state for works stated this in a statement by the Media Director of Prince Adedayo Adeyeye Movement, Chief Niyi Ojo, a copy of which was made available to journalists in Abuja on Friday.

Ojo accused the governor of making life difficult for the people, insisting that Fayose had become a pharaoh in the state.

He said the actions of the governor, if not checked, could make some members of the PDP to defect to the All Progressives Congress in the state.

While quoting Mo Ibrahim as saying that “intimidation, harassment and violence have no place in a democracy,” Ojo said “we wish to draw the attention of the national leadership of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party to the violation of the above words of wisdom and sustenance of democracy by the Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose who has become a Pharaoh in the state.

“We are worried that a sitting governor, who has refused to make life comfortable for the people of the state, will shamelessly prevent good gesture by other party members in ameliorating the problems of the citizens of the state, and the PDP members in particular.

“PAAM wishes to condemn in clear terms the harassment being visited on party members by the governor who has been arm-twisting them across the 16 Local Government Areas of the state, forcing them to reject palliative Christmas gifts from other party chieftains while he, as a governor, has refused to help their cause.

Four killed in auto crash along Makurdi-Gboko road ÎÎÎ

Four persons were reported killed in an auto crash along Makurdi/Gboko highway on Friday.

The accident was said to have occurred around 2:00 pm.

An eyewitness said that the accident involved a passenger Picnic bus and a RAV 4 Jeep at Tiortyu village along Makurdi -Gboko highway.

The cause of the accident could not be explained except that the vehicles were said to be coming in opposite direction.

Two persons in the RAV 4 Jeep were said to have died while the driver and a little boy

in the front seat survived.

Two other persons were said to have died in the passenger bus while others were said to have been seriously injured.

Benue State Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Mr David Mienyague when contacted on phone confirmed the accident.

He said that he could not give details of what happened until his men, who had gone on rescue, return.

“I cannot say anything now until those that went on rescue come back”, Mienyangye said.

Politics

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Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Ambode’s style of governance worthy of emulation – Adekunle ≥≥≥≥P12

11

Buhari’s administration has fallen short of expectation of Nigerians Omokhuale≥≥≥≥P.14

APC set to rescue Kogi from Bello’s alleged maladministration-Faleke

Idris Ahead Lokoja

The running mate to late Prince Abubakar Audu in the 2015 governorship election in Kogi State, Hon. James Faleke has said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is set to rescue the state from the maladministration and the ongoing anti people activities of the government in the state.

Speaking at his country home in EkirinAde in Ijumu Local Government Area of the state while celebrating his birthday, the National Assembly member stated that Kogi State has never witnessed the kind of maladministration “we are witnessing, never before had Kogi ever received the amount of money that we have received.”

He maintained “I can tell you that since the present administration came on board, each local government in Kogi State has collected minimum of N2.1b from January to December each month, unfortunately our people are still in abject poverty Faleke who regretted that under the Bello administration, infrastructure in the state are completely decayed, explained that unfortunately salary has also become a mirage, “Unfortunately, Kogi State happened to be the first state that a civil servant on level 16 committed suicide, so many of our people have died since this administration came on board.”

He stated that though he is in the same party with the Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, it does not mean he should keep quiet to the maladministration being played out in the state.

His words, “We are saying that the government must change for the better if it wants to continue to be in office, because it is only by the will of the people and when these people are not happy, it

BELLO becomes a problem.

“I have heard Governor Yahaya Bello compare himself to President Muhammadu Buhari and I have said it openly and I am saying it again that President Buhari, in character, behaviour, in his observance of religious ethics, in his conduct, relationship with people is the complete opposite of the governor.

“When the President was the chairman of PTF he had every opportunity to own petrol stations all over the country, but he does not have one filling station, that is a man of character.

“Throughout his stay as PTF boss and as former military Head of State he only owns one bungalow in his home town; a three bedroom bungalow, he never lived

FALEKE a lavished life. So if anybody says he is emulating the President, that person must be of good conduct, that person must

Council boss tasks Muslims on celebrating season with Christians

Esther Taiwo

The Chairman of Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, Mr Suleiman Jelili has sued for peace among Christians and Muslims during this yuletide period, saying this is not the period to show religious differences.

He said this at the Carol Concert organ-

Nigerians still prefer Buhari to continue beyong 2019- Shittu tells PDP The Minister of Communications, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu, has told the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that despite whatever they may say against President Muhammadu Buhari, many Nigerians still prefer his style of governance.

Shittu, said this in Ibadan while speaking with newsmen during the 50th birthday ceremony of a PDP chieftain in Oyo State, Mr. Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde.

The minister, who said the people of the country were neither fools nor ingrates and would appraise the President when he presents his score-card, added that those who drove Nigeria into a mess through corruption and mismanagement during the 16 years of PDP’s misrule were the ones now accusing President Buhari of nonperformance.

Shittu, however, told the PDP leaders that Nigerians appreciated the achievements of the President in the areas of the fight against corruption and insurgency and uplifting agriculture, infrastructure, education, and employment.

The minister said the ruling All Pro-

SHITTU

gressives Congress (APC) would come out to showcase the achievements of the President for Nigerians to compare with those of the PDP that ruled it for 16 years at the appropriate time.

He said, “Nigerians voted for President Buhari because he was the only presidential candidate that could be trusted. The President is running a government devoid of greed and corruption. Although the work ahead is enormous, I am happy that a lot of posi-

behave as the President behaves in terms of payment of salary for workers.

“When the President came on board he gave all the governors money to pay salary of workers, Kogi got N20b as the first tranche, unfortunately till today our people are still in abject poverty and Kogi happened to be a civil service state.”

The legislator lamented that “when the civil servants are not paid, the petty traders would not have any business because their business depend on the salary of civil servants to survive.

“So it has a multiplier effect in the negative perspective, but I assure you that change will come. I want to implore you, don’t be afraid, we hear they have bought guns for their vigilante to intimidate people during election, but God who made it possible for those guns to be manufactured will silence those guns at that time.

While admonishing the people to use their voters cards wisely, Faleke stated, “I tell you on the election day it is going to be your ballot paper and the voters card, those are what will decide your future. If you want the situation to remain the way it is, the card is in your hands, if you want to change for the future, the card is also in your hands.”

tive changes have occurred in the areas of agriculture, education, infrastructure, and employment.”

The event was attended by the former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; a former minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran; a former minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, a former first lady in Oyo State, Alhaja Mutiat Olayinka Ladoja, and many other chieftains of the PDP.

ised to mark this year’s Christmas celebration where he stressed that it is the season to share best feelings from the bottom of one’s heart.

Reading from psalm 150, verse 1-6 the Council boss said it has been a tough year but, thanked God for what his administration has been able to achieve in the year 2017 in Alimosho Local Government which some local governments areas have not been able to achieve.

“Despite what we have been through especially the dreaded recession, it has been a success story and we have got a lot of things to be grateful for. We are holding this concert so that the spirit of Christmas can be shared among us and so that we can do away with all bad feelings like unforgiveness, malice and become more united as one big family in Alimosho Local Government because Christmas brings us many pleasant memories.

“It gives us the opportunity to meet with our loved ones and leave more special moments that we will remember with great affection, that is why we must prepare our hearts to celebrate this yuletide full of hope and love to share with people around us, we must remember that Christmas season is full of so many beautiful things, but in the midst of all these the most beautiful thing in Christmas is to show love among ourselves,” he said.

He also used the period to give the score card of his achievements within the period which he said includes the celebration on International Girl Child Day in conjunction with the United Nations, establishment of local farm market called Oja Irorun within the local government secretariat, construction and commissioning of Olatunbo street at Akowonjo in Alimosho Local Government, construction of foundation base of new office complex in the secretariat.

Politics 12

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Ambode’s style of governance worthy of emulation – Adekunle Mr Adeniyi Adekunle, a Public Affairs commentator is the Chief Executive Officer of Samad Kunle Investments Ltd. In this interview, he speaks on the activities of the Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode saying his style of governance is worthy of emulation. He also speaks on other issues of national interest. PATRICK OKOHUE report.

ADEKUNLE How would you assess Lagos State in the last two years under Governor Akinwunmi Ambode?

Honestly speaking, Lagos State has become a wonderful state. At the rate Lagos State is being transformed under Governor Akinwumi Ambode, Lagos State would soon become Dubai of Africa.

I’m not a politician, and I’m apolitical, but I’m an advocate of good governance.

Sincerely speaking, Ambode’s performance in the last two years has been stellar. He has surprised everybody. You know there were initial doubts by some people as to whether Ambode would be able to step or fit into the shoes of his predecessor, but see how God works, Ambode has been performing brilliantly and the positive touch of his administration is being felt in every sector in Lagos State.

Those initial doubting Thomases and other skeptics have now been forced to eat their words, and majority of them are now Ambode’s admirers. The doubting Thomases are now admirers of Ambode showering encomiums on him.

You said some people were initially doubting whether Ambode would be able to step into the shoes of his predecessor. Why do you think these people had initial doubts about Ambode?

You know Ambode has not been a politician, and his name has not been ringing bell to many people, but all along, Ambode has been an accomplished professional, a chartered accountant who has distinguished himself in public service.

Ambode rose to become Lagos State Accountant-General before he retired from public service, but many people don’t know him because he was not in active politics.

But what many people don’t know is that even while in public service, Ambode had excelled. It was the period when he was the Accountant-General of Lagos State that former President Olusegun Obasanjo who was in office then withheld monthly statutory

allocation to Lagos State following creation of new 37 Local Council Development Areas by the Bola Tinubu’s administration.

When that action was taken by Obasanjo, the belief by many was that Lagos State would be starved of funds, and the government of Tinubu would be brought to its knees. During this critical period, it was Ambode that God used to rescue Lagos State, he was able to use his wealth of experience to increase Internally Generated Revenue, IGR of Lagos State which enabled Tinubu’s administration to remain on course. And for three years or more that Obasanjo refused to release Lagos allocation, it was the internally generated revenue that Lagos State government depended on to survive.

I believe that a man that deserves credit should not be denied his due, the success of Tinubu’s administration can’t be divorced from Ambode’s ingenuity.

This is why it didn’t come as a surprise to me when Ambode was announced as the governorship candidate of APC. I knew that if Ambode eventually become the governor that Lagos State would be transformed beyond expectations, and since Ambode became governor of Lagos State, he has been proving his mettle. He hit the ground running, and Lagos State has been better for it. It is only those who didn’t know about Ambode’s pedigree that initially doubted his ability to deliver. Today, Lagos State has been a success story under Ambode. But I also believe kudos should be given to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for discovering Ambode.

Do you think other state governors or even the Federal Government have one or two things to learn from Ambode’s governance style?

I believe they have a lot to learn from his style of administration. Ambode has clearly shown that you don’t have to be a politician of 30, 40 years experience before you can get it right.

Look at how the man has been doing a lot of things at the same time. New roads with fly-over bridges have been constructed, in Abule-Egba and others are ongoing. Look at the new BRT lanes, BRT stations are being constructed. If you get to Ikeja especially at night now, you will think you are in New York City. Also take a trip to Oshodi, getting there now you see a lot of construction works going on. Very shortly, Oshodi will be transformed into Disneyworld of Nigeria.

However, one thing I admire in all these is that projects that are being currently undertaken by Lagos State government are of high and standard quality. Not only that, projects and construction works being undertaken are being given to both foreign and local contractors. You know there was a time that some of our leaders believe and trust only foreign firms for any construction work. Ambode is not one of such, his administration has been giving jobs to local contractors and they too in turn have been living up to expectation.

One fallout of this is that with new projects and contracts going on in different parts of Lagos State, Ambode has been creating job opportunities for the unemployed.

He has been helping to tackle problem of unemployment. I believe other state governors and even the Federal Government should emulate him.

For Lagos State, other states in the federation and even the Federal Government which areas would you like them to accord top priority in the New Year?

Power is the key to everything. Efforts should be made to ensure that there is stable and steady supply of electricity.

There was a time Lagos State government was even talking about Independent Power Project. It is a good idea which I will want Governor Ambode to pursue to a logical conclusion.

I will also like the Federal Government to make efforts to increase power generation.

Look at a country like South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia where stable electricity is being generated, all their industries are working, and their economy is vibrant. If there is steady power supply in Nigeria today a lot of things that have been moribund will come back to life.

If there is steady power supply, industries will function optimally, and in the process job opportunities will be created, and not only that small scale entrepreneurs like hairdressers, welders and barbers will have work to do. Steady power supply will engineer rapid socio-economic transformation of Nigeria.

I implore all stakeholders to do everything possible to ensure that in the coming year 2018 that steady power supply becomes a reality in Nigeria.

What’s your position on the clamour by some Nigerians that Lagos State should be accorded a special status in view of the overwhelming pressure on

infrastructural facilities in the state as a result of the massive population?

It is long overdue that Lagos State should be accorded special status. I don’t know why members of the National Assembly have not deemed it fit yet to do the needful on this.

Since federal capital of Nigeria was moved to Abuja in 1990, Lagos State has more or less been abandoned by the Federal Government and this would not have been so. Lagos is a unique state with bustling population, and one thing about the massive population in Lagos State is that different ethnic groups from different parts of Nigeria make up the population in Lagos State.

Lagos State is melting pot of Nigeria, and if all ethnic groups from different parts of Nigeria are in Lagos, what then prevent Lagos State from being accorded a special status? The benefits that comes with according Lagos State a special status will not be for Lagos State indigenes alone but for all residents in Lagos, whether you are Hausa, Igbo, Nupe, Ijaw, Urhobo, Itsekiri or from any other place.

If not for the ingenuity and managerial acumen of succeeding Lagos State governors, the surging Lagos State population and its attendant effects on the infrastructural facilities in the state would have been overwhelming. I appeal to members of the National Assembly and the Federal Government to do the needful on this issue.

For elected public office holders, what’s your advice to them?

They should be service-oriented. Public office holders and other elected public office holders should henceforth see public office as an avenue to serve. They should be more patriotic and not self-centred. They should realise that the task of making Nigeria great is a duty for all of us.

And for all Nigerians, my appeal is this, even though things are tough, but our prayer is that very soon everything will be okay. Let’s cooperate with our leaders, let’s give them the necessary support so that Nigeria can attain the desired greatness.

Even the scripture says that we should pray for those in authority so that they will lead us along the right path. Nigeria is a nation that is richly endowed with both human and natural resources to make her a great nation. We should all work together with unity of purpose and intention to make Nigeria great.

On its part also, the Federal Government should strive to put in place policies that will be favourable to business and stimulate the economy in order to enable more jobs to be created by employers of labour.

When job opportunities are available, crime will be reduced, and more youths, some of whom are idle now will be engaged in meaningful ways that will enable them to take care of their immediate needs, and also contribute to the nation’s socio-economic development.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

13 Politics

Aregbesola tasks Adams on Yoruba unity Patrick Okohue, Lagos and ‘Tosin Ajuwon, Akure.

The Aare Onakakanfo designate, Otunba Gani Adams has been challenged to coordinate Yoruba all over the world and network them for global collaboration.

The governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola who made this call while hosting the Aare onakakanfo who paid him a visit at the Government House, in Osogbo, said that the choice of Otunba Adams by the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III for the position was not accidental, but a divine selection of a person whose deeds, acts and steps have distinguished him as a man of heritage assignment.

He said he was happy that Otunba Adams was selected based on his sequential experience as a street protester, social and human right activism, cultural revivalism and self determinism. “You undergone these stages in preparation for this heritage assignment,” he said, adding that “your new assignment bestowed on you the onerous responsibility of ensuring the unity and stability of Yoruba race within the territory of Nigeria, interface with the Yoruba inside Africa continent and network the Yoruba in the Diaspora for global collaboration in the areas of cultural integration, skills development, mental enrichment and social interaction.”

He called on Otunba Adams not to be perturbed by the common tale that Aare onakakanfo always die young.

“Matter of life and death is within the exclusive domain of Allah not of attachment to a title. For there are many Aare Onakakanfo who were entitled at young age and lived long. Aare Ogabi became Aare onakakanfo at a young age and lived long.”

He assured Otunba Adams of his support now and till he reigns “as the generalissimo of the Yoruba army, who is leading us into a new paradigm of inter-ethnic cultural understanding, inter - continental race relationship and fostering of better relationships among the Yoruba, I want you to see me as a reliable partner and supporter of all worthy endeavors of yours which can add value to the title.”

Governor Aregbesola also com-

…As Adams says Nigeria won’t move forward it is unless restructured

AREGBESOLA

ADAMS

mended Prince Segun Akanni, Chief of Staff to the Aare for being the last man standing and for being loyal since the time OPC was in the trenches.

In his speech earlier, Otunba Adams said he had to pay a personal courtesy call on Governor Aregbesola who has been a reliable supporter and believer in the cause of OPC Otunba Adams recalled many acts of good deeds which Ogbeni Aregbesola has done him and the OPC in the past “I cannot and never forget his role as a bridge for the OPC and the government of Lagos State when he was the Commissioner for Works in Lagos State.

“I cannot of course forget that you were one of the very first VIP and prominent Yoruba leaders who visited me when I was detained in Abuja in 2006. I cannot estimate your moral and financial support for me and my organisation in the past, hence, it is sensibly normal for me to come here personally not only to invite you for the installation ceremony, but to formally inform you of my selection as the 15th Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland.”

Otunba Adams also expressed gratitude to the Deputy Governor of Osun State for her loyalty to the governor and people of Osun State.

Otunba Adams promised that he

would not only live up to expectation but would make an indelible mark in the sand of unity of Yoruba race.

In a related development, Otunba Gani Adams, has again reiterated the call for the restructuring of Nigeria as a nation.

Otunba Adam said for the country to witness any meaningful development it must be decentralised for each region to tap from its own abundant resources.

He maintained this while speaking with some journalists shortly after visiting Pa Reuben Fasoranti, the foremost leader of Afenifere, a Pan Yoruba Sociocultural group in Akure, the capital of Ondo State.

Adams also faulted the 1999 Nigerian Constitution noting that its content was biased and does not represent the main wishes of the people of the country.

He observed that the book of law which was drafted by some military men cannot continue to hold the existence of the country despite calls for its review.

The Aare Ona Kakanfo designate who was in company of Oba Yisa Olanipekun, the Zaki of Arigidi Akoko, said he was in the house of the Afenifere leader to also seek his prayer and fatherly advice.

“I’m here to visit the main socio-cul-

tural group in Yoruba land, the political arrow head which is Afenifere in Yoruba land. The pacesetters, our leaders, those we can say have very strong antecedents.

“We are talking of those who have started this struggle in the 40s, those who built a standard that every living Yoruba man is proud of.

“You can’t get to a position like this without visiting Afenifere, there is a vacuum in your success without visiting them, because of the very good antecedents and at the same time, to listen to a very good advice. You can be installed as the Aare Ona Kakanfo, but your performance after installation matters.

Post-event, post strategy, post-ideology is very key.

“So this will not be my last visit, I will be very frequent to this house, to listen to the useful advice of the elders.

“We met them in that cause, I joined the struggle in 1993, and I can tell you the details and the knowledge of true federalism, restructuring, we learnt from Afenifere.

“We are their students in terms of ideology, and when an elder is growing to a certain stage, he has to hand over to some youths, so I believe without restructuring, Nigeria cannot move forward.”

Otunba Adams, however, saluted Alaafin of Oyo, for appointing him the new Aare Ona Kakanfo, which he said was first of its kind from the Ondo/ Ekiti region.

He added that his appointment would strengthen the unity amongst Yorubas and the people of the country at large.

In his remark, Pa Fasoranti appreciated Otunba Adams for his visit and stressed that the leaders of the Afenifere would continue to support him in his quest to see a brighter future for the South West.

The Daily Times reports that Otunba Adams was received during the visit by Seinde Arogbofa, the Secretary General of the group, Olu Falae, the erstwhile Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Bakkita Bello, a former Speaker of Ondo State House Assembly among others.

Anambra Central: Umeh confident January 13 rerun will hold Stories by Patrick Okohue

The candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), in the Anambra Central Senatorial rerun election already scheduled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for January 13, 2018, Chief Victor Umeh, has said the date is sacrosanct.

This is coming as INEC is studying the judgments in its custody over the vacant Anambra Central Senatorial District seat.

Umeh, who spoke in a Radio programme at Obosi in Idemili North Local Government of the state assured the people that nothing would prevent the election from holding on the date already fixed by the electoral body.

His assurance came just as personalities in the state, including the traditional ruler of Ndiokpalaeke, Igwe Kanu Okpa-

laeke, have expressed their support for him and called on electorate in Anambra Central to come out en masse and vote for Umeh.

Giving reasons he was optimistic of the January date, Umeh dismissed the order of the Federal High Court, Abuja which gave an order that Chief Obiorah Okonkwo of PDP should be sworn in as the Senator representing the zone.

Describing Okonkwo’s claim and order as a huge joke, Umeh noted that the Court of Appeal judgement of December 7, 2015 had effectively nullified the result of the March 2015 Anambra Central Senatorial District election.

He said the claim by Okonkwo was “a nullity and cannot be enforced,” adding that the constitution of Nigeria and the Electoral Act have guaranteed the January 13, 2018 date already fixed by INEC for the re-run election.

He therefore called on the electorate

in the Senatorial District to brace up to exercise their franchise for effective representation of their District at the Senate.

In a related development, Centre for Democratic Governance (CDG), has flayed INEC for the continued delay in the presentation of Certificate of Return to Okonkwo in line with the directive of the Federal High Court, Abuja, for the Anambra Central Senatorial seat.

Coordinator of the group, Dr. Bassey Etim, said the commission must obey the judgment even if it was opposed to the court’s decision warning on the implication of INEC’s flagrant disobedience to the ruling.

The group said this in a statement issued in Abuja accusing INEC of taking side on the matter, CDG claimed that by refusing to issue certificate of return to Obiora despite being asked by the court to do so and by insisting on the Janu-

UMEH ary 13 rerun election for the seat, the commission was showing that it has no regard for the court.

Politics 14

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Buhari’s administration has fallen short of people’s expectation - Omokhuale

rule that out as far as human beings are concerned. We are watching and when government policies become unbearable we come to make our voice heard.

We are working, we are recruiting new members and training them, we don’t just come out, we strategies on whatever we want, its all not in the media, we have our way of working.

Comrade Ehi Omokhuale is an activist and the Lagos State chairman of the Civic Liberty Organisation (CLO). In this interview with INIOBONG IWOK, Omokhuale spoke on the state of activism in the country, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration among other issues.

What is your view of the Buhari administration?

The Buhari administration generally has fallen short of expectation of Nigerians; that is not to say he has been a total failed mark generally. But when we now zero in on some sectors like education, health, you would realise that not much progress has been made.

Look at the economy, it is still in a state of quagmires. That is not to say he has failed generally in all sectors, but the expectations Nigerians placed in him were so high and by Nigerians, I mean the people were expecting instant succour form the APC government and you know the promises they also made raised people expectations.

But about three years in office, what is on ground is nothing, unemployment has risen further, insecurity has not been totally taken care of, look at electricity, I still think this government can do more. But that is not to say it has not gotten marks in the anti graft war, unlike previous government, we are seeing prominent people been tried and the judges were put to trial; it is a credit and progress. But I want this government to be responsive to the masses and fulfill its campaign promises.

Is CLO surprised that this administration has made efforts to check the freedom of the media and distort free flow of information?

That is another minus for this Buhari administration; they have scored low mark in trying to gag the media , look at the NGO bill that was introduced by this senator from the North, in advanced societies such bill would die before arrival, it is unheard of; we fought against it, it is an angle that this government have score low. The other time they were talking about hate speech, and we at the CLO asked them to define what hate speech is.

It leaves us with the question of what is this government afraid of ? If the government is carrying out its responsibility the way it should; it would not be afraid of the views of the people. The press is very important in any society, it mirrors them, there is no democracy that can survive without the press, it should not happen.

But are you happy that compared with the military era, much progress have been made in terms of human rights protection in Nigeria?

We can’t be happy yet, before we say

Do you still have confidence in the anti graft war of the Buhari administration?

We don’t have 100 percent interest in the anti corruption war again, due to recent happenings in this administration. We want to see more prosecution, that is not happening, what happens now is that if the accuse joins the ruling class they are made sacred cow, it is bad.

Let people be tried and jailed, we want to see a situation where people with corruption allegation are not allowed to join the ruling class, imagine; if you join the ruling party all corruption allegations against you is dropped. That is the problem, and we have lost confidence in the war with this attitude of government.

OMOKHUALE we are okay with the standard of rights and progress that have been made now, the NGO bill should be thrown out and the idea of hate speech be thrown out, all these have affected the government’s ranking, it would not help or promote democracy in the country; it is anti people.

But a lot of people would argue that not much is heard of CLO these days?

Things have changed a bit, because times have also changed. Those days when Ayo Obey was the national chairman and after her, we had Olisa Agbakoba, those were eras of the military rule and you can testify the role the CLO played in pursuing the military from power. And then Ibrahim Babangida came to power and did all he did.

But now we have democracy, but a lot of people think it has not delivered to expectations of Nigerians, though we can’t say we have democracy; but it is still better than were we are coming from, but we have to allow democracy, especially considering we were coming from a dark tunnel. We still come in

when we notice that the process is about to be derailed, and we offer advice.

We also recruit new members through going to schools, NYSC and we hold training for them, we can’t stay forever, the Young ones would have to take over one day. Our job is not to criticise unnecessary, it has to be constructively done, where the government is derailing we advise them. If you are hearing from us, it is not as if we are not working, but we just decided to give government a chance. But when you look at the activists these days much have changed in terms of the personality, the likes of Bamidele Aturu, Chima ubani are dead, also the Kutis, some of them have gone into politics, others have moved out of the country or aged.

But civil societies In Nigeria have been criticised for being dormant while some have compromised?

Yes a few of them have become partisan, and others have joined politics. You cannot only say of what you are doing; time and events has also changed. I told you earlier that some people have died.

Others have left the country, you cannot

The Buhari administration generally has fallen short of expectation of Nigerians; that is not to say he has been a total failed mark generally. But when we now zero in on some sectors like education, health, you would realise that not much progress has been made. Look at the economy, it is still in a state of quagmires. That is not to say he has failed generally in all sectors, but the expectations Nigerians placed in him were so high and by Nigerians, I mean the people were expecting instant succour form the APC government

Are you comfortable with the plea bargaining method?

Plea bargaining is practiced all over the world. But not like we are doing here in Nigeria. You need this recovered loot to fund the budget, but what we are saying is that you don’t just recover the money and let them go like that, there must be some punishment, he or she must serve part of his jail term, of course we know it should be reformation and not punitive. But we are against total setting them free without punishment, it does not set a good precedent.

Has the APC delivered on it change promises?

The change mantra has become a fallacy. It’s all lies, nothing is working, look at the economy, it is a quagmire, you need the economy to work, so that local industries can survive and grow, the people can have jobs. But that is not happening right now. If the people think Buhari has performed enough to merit a second term let them vote him in again, if not let them vote him out of power.

Do you have confidence in INEC conducting a credible election?

We are still watching, but there is nothing wrong in been innovation; like INEC introduced PVC in the last election. And now that it has been approved by the National Assembly I think it would check rigging and sanitise the system. Rigging has been a big problem in our election in Nigeria, but with PVC now things would change.

What is the next target for CLO? Very early next year we would be holding a gathering, we want to review our democracy and how far we have gone. We are also aggressively recruiting members and carrying out training.

We want young Nigerians to join us, we can’t be there forever, and we are getting older, we need young people to join and replace us.

News15

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

LEDAP asks FG to exercise moratorium on death sentence executions Ibe Uwaleke

ÏÏÏ

Recently, there have been concerns regarding Nigeria’s stance on death penalty and the execution of death row inmates. From the Federal Economic Council recommendation to State Governors to execute death row inmates as a means of decongesting the prisons to reports to the lifting of moratorium on executions by some state governors and the signing of execution warrants by

others, it seems apparent that Nigeria has gradually begun to rescind its declaration to the international community that she exercises moratorium on execution of death sentence.

Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) expressed concerns about the present state of affairs and believes such acts have undermined the progress Nigeria had made in upholding the defector moratorium on the death penalty.

It viewed that the time is ripe for legislative action towards the exercise of moratorium in line with international best practices.

The group recalled that since 2006, a defector moratorium had been in place on executions of death row inmates in Nigeria, however it was broken with the 2013 executions in Edo State and from then there have been several reports of executions and possible executions, gradually eroding Nige-

ria’s moratorium stance.

The human rights organisation recognised that about 40% of all death sentences are over turned on appeal, a fact which is an indication of the high degree of wrongful convictions occasioned under the present dysfunctional criminal justice system.

Many of these convicts are indigent; hence do not have the resources to go to the appellate courts and pro-bono service providers are but a few. The execution of death row

inmates would therefore have an unjust outcome in many cases. Yet, this is but one of the several arguments against the executions and in favour of the need for exercise of moratorium on executions.

LEDAP noted that the statement by a former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the UPR Working Group in 2006 that Nigeria “continues to exercise a self-imposed moratorium (on the death penalty),” and urged the government to give legislative impetus to this moratorium, as also rec-

ommended by Nigeria’s National Study Group on Death penalty (2004), Presidential Commission on Reform of the Administration of Justice (2007), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and in line with the

more recent UN resolution on moratorium on the use of death penalty in its resolution A/RES/71/187 of 19th December 2016 and the second protocol to the ICCPR. It said: “LEDAP continues to pioneer the move towards legislative enactment of moratorium on the use of death penalty in Nigeria and has introduced the moratorium bill in about two states with plans of introducing same at the National Assembly.

We call on the Nigerian Government to abolish the death penalty or in the alternative pass a binding law on moratorium on use of death penalty, pending the improvement of the administration of criminal justice system”, the statement signed by its executive director of programmes, Adaobi Egboka said.

Fraudster rips-off business woman in Delta ÏjƏ ƇƆƏ ƌ Ɔƕ ƈ Ɛ Ɠ ƅƅ Ƒ Ɛ Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

ÏÏÏA 52-year old busi-

Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (right), presenting 2018 Budget to the State’s House of Assembly in Osogbo, Osun State…on Thursday. With him is Chairman Committee on Education, Hon. Folorunso Bamisayemi.

Better days ahead for Deltans, Okowa proclaims Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

ÏÏÏDelta

State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has said with continuous peace which translates to improved revenue, the fortunes of Deltans will witness a boom in the coming years.

The Governor who spoke yesterday at a thanksgiving service held at the Government House Chapel, Asaba, stated that God has positioned the state to witness tremendous developmental projects.

He emphasized that at all times, he will tell the people the truth, disclosing that when the situation was bad to the extent that it was difficult to pay salaries, he told the people that the state had no money which led to the popular saying, ‘ego aria’, but observed that through the grace of God, the state has gone beyond

that stage and positioned to attain greater heights.

“The things that will take place in the years to come will make other states to come to our state to ask how we did it, the spirit of God has taken over this state, Deltans should be confident that in going forward, from this day, the Lord will do remarkable things in 2018 and we shall have every reason to worship Him,” the Governor said, attributing the existing peace in the state to the grace of God. He continued, “our state will be much better if we continue to keep the peace investments will come in and our state will grow, we can all see the impact of having peace because, with increased revenue as a result of peace, we have cleared all the debts owed trade unions, state civil servants, cooperative societies and we have assisted the local govern-

ment councils to pay their salaries monthly; we have come today to thank God for His goodness to us as a state, and as a people.”

The Governor at the thanksgiving service paid glowing tribute to his Deputy, Barr. Kingsley Otuaro saying he was chosen by God to work with him to transform Delta State as they share a lot in common.

He also, thanked religious leaders, traditional rulers, the youths and all stakeholders for the different roles they played for peace to return to the state and urged them to continue to keep the peace because of the numerous benefits of having such.

Governor Okowa who was accompanied to the thanksgiving service by his wife, Dame Edith, wife of the Deputy Governor, Mrs Ebi Otuaro, and attended by the Chief Judge of Delta State, Justice Marshal Umukoro,

former Deputy Governor of the state, Chief Benjamin Elue, the Senator representing Delta North, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, members of House of Representatives, members of the Delta State House of Assembly, Commissioners, traditional rulers led by the Chairman, Delta State Council of Traditional Rulers, HRM Emmanuel Efeizomor II, among numerous others asserted that the thanksgiving service was necessary because, “we are alive today, the air we breathe is a gift from God, in the last two and half years, God made it possible for us to survive the trying period.”

Earlier in a sermon, the Chaplain of Government House Chapel, Venerable Charles Osemene, stated that no man can stand against God and that it is important for Christians to always honour God.

ness woman in Asaba, Delta State, Rosemary Ejeh yesterday in the early hours lost N50,000 to a fraudster whose name could not be identified as at the time of this report.

It was gathered that the woman at one of the new generation banks, (name withheld) along Nnebisi Rroad, Asaba was said to have requested for assistance to transfer the sum of N50,000 to her customer when the bubble burst. Sources said unknown to the woman, the suspect first allegedly transferred N50,000 into his account and hoodwinked the victim there was no net work, a situation he fled the scene. Bank Security operatives who spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity, said they have severally wanted members of the public to b careful of those them seek assistance from while in

the Bank to do transaction. But the victim Madam Ejeh in a swift reaction said, “I was confused at the ATM stand and requested the help of somebody who transferred the money into his own account unknown to me when he said there was no network and disappeared” she said the incident was however reported to the Police who currently are on the trail of the fraudster. Meanwhile, armed bandits operating in Ughelli axis yesterday broke into the house of a female politician (name withheld) and carted away her belongings after ordering her and he family members to face the floor at members to face the floor at gun point.

The armed hoodlums were said to have also made away an undisclosed amount of money but Mr. Andrew Aniamaka, Police Image Maker in the state, confirmed that the Police were on the tail of the armed hoodlum

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Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

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News 18

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Quash corruption charges against Tompolo, Niger Delta students tell EFCC ÏÏÏScores of

L-R: Attorney General of Ogun State, Dr. Olumide Ayeni; Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Chief Moses Adeyemo and Oyo State Attorney General, Seun Abimbola at a joint meeting of National Boundary Commission in Ibadan, Oyo State… on Thursday.

Court sentences ex-Katsina perm sec to 7 years imprisonment ÏÏÏJustice

Sanusi Tukur of the Katsina State High Court on Friday sentenced a former permanent secretary in the administration of former Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema, Yusuf Saulawa, to seven years imprisonment without an option fine .

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had arraigned the convict on a one -count of charge obtaining

money by false pretence.

The convict fraudulently obtained the sum of N2.5million from the complainant while he was a permanent secretary attached to the office of the Deputy Governor of Katsina State on the pretext that the office would award the complainant a contract for the supply of fertilizer to all the Local Government areas in Katsina State. Saulawa further claimed that the

money was for the purchase of bidding documents. It was further alleged that after obtaining the money, the convict cut all contacts with the complainant.

In the course of prosecution, lawyer to the EFCC, Mr Sa’ad Hanafi Sa’ad called three witnesses and tendered many exhibits.

After both parties closed their case on October 3, 2017, final written addresses were ad-

sha.

“The trailer lost control and hit two vehicles and the bus which was picking passengers at the junction,” “Thank God it happened like this, it would have been something else, if not that God always knows how to prevent and save situations, because the bus that is picking passengers had more than 10 people in it already, “ You can imagine what would have happened if the trailer that failed it break hit the bus. Thank God it stopped at this, just one person lost his life

on the spot,” the eyewitness said.

In his reaction, the state Sector Commander Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Anambra state Sunday Ajayi said that about three vehicles were involved and about six casualties were also involved in the catastrophe.

Ajayi also confirmed that only one person was confirmed dead while others were taken to a nearby hospital for urgent medical attention noting that his men were equally on ground to remove obstructions from the accident scene.

One killed, six injured in multiple road crash in Anambra Nkiru Nwagbo Awka

ÏÏÏA

multiple road accident involving trailer, a bus and two cars has left one dead and six others injured at the popular Azia junction of Ihiala axis along Onitsha-Owerri road in Anambra State.

The ghastly accident which occurred around 10.00a.m Friday according to an eyewitness at the scene said that the accident was caused by a break failure of the articulated vehicle conveying drinks and heading towards Onit-

opted and the case was subsequently adjourned to December 29 for judgement.

In his judgement on Friday, Justice Tukur held that he was convinced that the EFCC had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt and pronounced the accused guilty as charged.

The judge further sentenced Saulawa to seven years imprisonment without option of fine.

students from the Niger Delta embarked on a peaceful protest to demand the dropping of all corruption charges against former militant and fugitive, Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in courts.

Tompolo’s travails obviously began after the defeat of his benefactor and political leader, Dr Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election which brought in the current Muhammadu Buhari-led government.

The students, comprising members of the National Association of Gbaramatu Students (NAGS) and the Law Students Association of Nigerian Students, Delta State University (DELSU), formed part of the protesters demanding Tompolo’s freedom from the charges.

“Tompolo is not guilty,” “Tompolo is a prominent builder of the future of youths in Nigeria,” “EFCC

must drop all charges against Tompolo,” “Though politically prosecuted, Tompolo maintains his support for national security,” were some of the inscriptions on placards the protesters were armed with.

According to them, Tompolo remains a saviour of some sort to many students who had hitherto had no access to education.

President of NAGS, Freeborn Abraiye, while addressing journalists enthused that, “Tompolo is being witch hunted, his efforts in education of students cannot be overemphasised and his passion is enormous.

“Tompolo always ensured that youths of the region get scholarships to study. He is a selfless leader; the charges against him should be dropped.”

Attorney General of LAWSAN, DELSU, Jonathan Obiri on his part averred that, “Tompolo has done well. The charges against him are frivolous and of no effect.

Appeal Court upholds Ekiti PDP lawmaker’s election ÏÏÏThe

Court of Appeal in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, on Friday upheld the election of a member of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Musa Arogundade, dismissing the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti judgment of July 4, 2016, declaring Toyin Obayemi as the rightful occupant of the Assembly seat for not being validly nominated for the 2015 election by the Peoples Democratic Party.

Appeal Court, in its unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Ahmad Belgore, said the lower court judgment

delivered by Justice Taiwo Taiwo on July 4, 2016 was a fundamental flaw and baseless.

The court noted particularly that Obayemi lacked locus standi to challenge the Appellants and the decision of court in FHC/ABJ/ CS/125/2015, alleging fraud, wherein he was not a party, no relief granted in his favour or against him nor challenge same on appeal.

The Court of Appeal also noted that the trial court was biased by determining the matter on originating summons wherein fraud was alleged.

In nullifying Arogun-

dade’s election, Justice Taiwo had on July 4, 2016 dismissed the argument by counsel for the second to fourth respondents’ (Odunayo, PDP and Arogundade) reliance on the Supreme Court’s judgment in the case of Alhassan Vs Ishaku, which vested the power to choose a candidate in an election on the political party.

In its judgment today, the Appeal Court unanimously set aside the lower court’s judgment, thereby paving way for

Arogundade to continue as member of the Ekiti State House of Assembly.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

19 News

8 Bayelsa Communities benefit from E&P/NNPC joint venture donations Akam James, Yenagoa

ÏÏÏEight

Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima (left), handing over Borno’s 2018 Budget document to Speaker, Borno State House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan in Maiduguri, Borno State…on Thursday.

3 feared killed in farmers, herdsmen clash in Delta Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

ÏÏÏNo fewer than three

persons were feared killed in Okpanam Community near Asaba in the wake of fresh attack allegedly orchestrated

by Fulani Herdsmen.

The incident which reports said, occurred on Thursday night at farmlands of the victims, had triggered fear among residents in the community.

It was gathered that the victims were allegedly attacked by the herdsmen who were said to have in revenge mission attacked them after a prolonged shouting match accompanied with weapons attack.

But the Police in Okpanam Division, who did not want their names in the print, dispelled as untrue the killing of the three persons, confirming that there were complaints of attack by some Ibo residents in the community by the herdsmen, adding that no life was lost.

Expectedly, following the complaints of alleged incessant threats to lives, livestock by some residents in the Community, particularly the Fulani herdsmen in Abodel Camp, Umuomake farmland, Okpanam, alleging that some

Ibo men shot and killed two of their cows, and a certain Mallam Bawa by unknown persons in the early days of this month.

His Royal Majesty, Michael Mbanefor Ogbolu, has petitioned the Police Division in the community to as a matter of urgency investigate the allegations and the alleged killings in the area.

The petition dated December 14, 2017 titled, “Alleged Belligerent disposition on the part of Messers Albert and Adada against Fulani Herdsmen in Umuomake Farmland OKpanam” a copy made available to our reporter, however urged the police to as a matter of necessity swing to action to unravel the veracity of the complaints brought by the Fulani Herdsmen.

The spokesman of the Fulani herdsmen, Mallam Damina Audu alleged that Messrs, Albert, Adada had openly boasted that they were planning an attack on they (Fulani) herdsmen including an action that would be allegedly aimed at wiping them (Fulani herdsmen), out of Okpanam kingdom.

Meanwhile, the Okpanam traditional ruler has sued for peaceful coexistence, and appealed

to the Fulani herdsmen not to resort to self reprisal attack, and called on the law enforcement agents to promptly swing into action and intervene in the current crisis for the safety of lives, and property in the community and its environs.

Investigation revealed that the Anti-robbery Unit of the Police Command in Asaba, has arrested four suspected

Fulani herdsmen who were allegedly involved in the stealing of tubers of yam.

The Police Image Maker in the State, Mr. Andrew Aniamaka who confirmed the arrest of the suspects to journalist in Asaba, said the suspects were currently undergoing interrogation, adding that they would be charged to court on completion of investigation.

Communities of Brass and Southern Ijaw Local Government Councils of Bayelsa State Friday benefited from the donations of thousands of branded relaxation Chairs and Tables from the First Exploration Petroleum company/EFDI over their peaceful disposition to the Seismic data acquisition operation in OMLs 83 and 85.

The donation to the benefiting communities, under the KEFFES host communities, an acronym for Koluama I & II, Ekeni, Fish Town, Foropa, Ezetu I &II and Sangana located on the Atlantic fringe of Southern Ijaw and Brass local government areas of the State, was part of the E&P/NNPC Joint venture to fulfill its cooperate social responsibility to the communities.

Speaking in Yenagoa during the presentation of the over 1,360 branded chairs and tables to the beneficiaries and other stakeholders, the Yenagoa office Manager, Miss Obomo Spiff, said the gesture was aimed at fulfilling FIRST E&P’s corporate social responsibility commitment as contained in the signed MoU regarding the Seismic data acquisition operation in OMLs 83 & 85.

Miss Spiff, noted that it is in appreciation of the communities cooperation and provision of enabling environment for business activities that the donation is been made, adding that the company appreciates the different community stakeholders that have made it

possible for the smooth collaboration in respect of the Seismic operation.

According to her, “We acknowledge the good relationship between the RDF and FIRST E&P and wish to express our profound gratitude to the KEFFES RDF and all the communities’ stakeholders that have made it possible for us to be where we are now. It is in appreciation of your cooperation and provision of enabling environment for business activities that this donation is being made today” Also speaking, the Community Affairs Manager for IDSL/BGP, Mr. Moses Okojevoh, further stated that the gesture by the company is a good start for a prosperous working relationship between all stakeholders, adding that the company has identified what they have to do and they have to meet up.

Okojevoh, said more donations will come as the relationship progresses, noting that crisis occurs only when the communities feel slighted.

In his contribution, the Chairman CDC Forum and CDC Chairman of Sangana Community, Benjamin Christopher, commended the companies involved in the smooth handover of the project items to the various communities, adding that the materials will be put to good use in the communities.

He also said the items are coming at the appropriate time where the communities needed them most.

Community protests over kingship stool in Lagos Esther Taiwo

ÏÏÏThe people of Isheri-

Oke Church town in IkosiIsheri Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State, yesterday stormed the Governor Office and National Assembly in Ikeja, to register their grievances over the controversy surrounding the kingship stool in the last 18 years.

Members of the community, in their hundreds, marched to the House of Assembly and converged in front of the complex chanting solidarity songs.

They said they needed to see Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to use his good office to ensure that justice prevails.

Lawyer to the Olofin family, who claims ownership of the throne, Lekan Odunsi, described the people’s struggle to have their king installed

by the Lagos government as “long suffering and oppression”.

“Our clients’ long and endless wait, hoping against all hopes seem to have been stretched to its elastic limit,” he said.

Some of the inscriptions on the placards they displayed read: “Governor Ambode give us our right”, “we deserve our crown”, “please stop the injustice and give us our king”, “the kingship belongs to the Olofin family”, “we have waited for too long”, “we don’t need strangers as our oba”, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, stop embarrassing Ambode’s government”.

Lawyer to the Olofin family, who claims ownership of the throne, Lekan Odunsi, described the people’s struggle to have their king installed by the Lagos government as “long suffering and oppression”.

“Our clients’ long and

endless wait, hoping against all hopes seem to have been stretched to its elastic limit,” he said.

Odunsi said the state government, in the last 18 years, had consistently refused to consider the yearnings of Isheri-Oke Church notwithstanding intrinsic judicial and historical facts presented before the constituted authorities.

He alleged that a member of the state House of Assembly in connivance with the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Musiliu Folami, was working round the clock in a bid to install a nonindigene of the community to become a king over them.

He stated that the community was neither desperate nor begging to have their son installed as the Oba but demanding what rightly belong to them.

Addressing the protest-

ers, Folami, after admitting that he was aware of the case, promised that justice would be done.

He said he was not in the office when they arrived, but Ambode directed him to rush down and attend to their grievances.

He denied taking side with any party, explaining that he had installed 14 kings since he assumed office. Folami said government would have installed a king at the community but was mindful of a pending legal action.

But the lawyer quickly countered and reminded him that the case had been withdrawn on the advice of the immediate past administration.

The commissioner asked the lawyer to return to his office by first week of January 2018.

He assured the Awori people that they would get the kingship by the grace of God.

News 20

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

NATFORCE arrests 9 bunkering suspects in Abia, to employ 5100 natives Sunday Nwakanma – Umuahia

ÏÏÏThe

L-R: Sen. George Thompson Sekibo; Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike and former Minister of Transport, Dr. Abiye Sekibo, during the Solidarity visit by the Wakrike Ethnic Nationality to Ezenwo…on Wednesday.

Boko Haram: Saraki lauds US over sale of fighter jets to Nigeria ÏÏÏPresident of

they promised they would help to ensure the arms sales embargo against Nigeria was lifted. Now, we can see that they are true partners in the fight against terrorism in Nigeria.

“It is obvious that if the Congress had vetoed the arm sales deal, we won’t be talking of this expected new fighter jets which will definitely help us to finally defeat the Boko Haram insurgents and fully restore the confidence of our fighting force”, he stated.

The President of the Senate further commended Ambassador Symington for demonstrating consistent commitment to helping Nigeria fully restore peace in the troubled North-east zone.

“Since his first meeting with me after he resumed, Ambassador Symington had promised that he would make the lift of the US ban on sale of

military hardware to Nigeria one of his priority deliverables. Now, he has shown he is a true partner in Nigeria’s counter-insurgency campaigns”, he added.

He also called on Nigeria’s partners across the world especially in Europe to emulate the United States by also supporting the anti-insurgency campaign of the present administration in the country through gestures like sale of arms and provision of assistance towards the rebuilding, reconstruction and rehabilitation of the war-ravaged areas in the North east.

Saraki urged the Buhari administration to move speedily to conclude all the formalities and make payment in respect of the 12 A29 Super Tucano Aircraft so that the nation’s military could be stronger in confronting the insurgents and giving confidence to the fighting soldiers.

the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has commended the United States government for its support for Nigeria’s bid to defeat the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-east zone through the approval of the sale of A29 Super Tucano fighter jets to the Nigerian Air Force.

Saraki was responding to Wednesday announcement by the Nigeria Air Force that the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Stuart Symington had presented Letters of Offer and Acceptance which represents the official American government’s offer to sell defence articles and services to Nigeria during a visit to Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sidique Abubakar.

The President of the Senate said the development was a positive indication that the Americans are genuinely desirous of helping to enthrone

peace in Nigeria and ending the insurgency in the Northeastern part of the country.

While promising that the Senate would support the plan by the Buhari Administration to purchase high powered security equipment in order to strengthen the armed forces, Saraki recalled that on August 28 when he received an eightman US Congressional delegation headed by Senator Christopher Coons of Delaware, the issue of the need to lift embargo on sale of weapons to Nigeria by the United States was a major point of discussion.

“My gratitude and that of my colleagues goes to Senator Coons and other members of his delegation for giving Congressional backing to this arms sales arrangement. They have kept their words and back it up with action. During that visit,

Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

Motorists flay FERMA’S alleged repair neglect, seek urgent attention.

ÏÏÏ The deplorable con-

sleepy posture of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to repair the failed portions of the roads, has sparked off protests and condemnation by motorists plying the road. One of the motorists, John Oke who spoke to our reporter, said “FERMAN is doing nothing to help us on this road, we need urgent repairs of the failed portions of the road many persons have died, and we need government attention”.

Sources said the continued failure of the road,

63 killed in Delta, Edo highway crash in 8 months

dition of Asaba- Ebu Abuja highway has in the last eight months claimed the lives of sixty three persons.

Investigation revealed that the road currently records multiple failures; a situation which stems from the pressure of heavy vehicular movement often times loaded with bags of cement and other heavy goods by popular cement manufacturers (name withheld).

Unexpectedly, the

especially in the last raining season, had claimed several lives.

During nightfall, further investigation revealed that unsuspecting motorists often crash into the deep pot holes where they will somersault most times into the bush with the vehicles heavily damaged and their passengers who are not lucky die on the spot.

Most worrisome, is the gully erosion growing wider, and had cut-off some parts of the road especially as it has made it retrogressive in nature.

But officials of FERMA who did not want their names in print in a swift reaction, said. “We are doing or best, just that our best is not being appreciated by the public, we will continue to be working on the failed portions, after New Year holidays we will resume works”.

It will be recalled that the Delta Sate government had repaired some damaged portions of Ughelli/Warri Road, prone to accident, including the failed portions of the Ogwashi-Uku axis of Ughelli/Asaba road.

National Task Force, NATFORCE, Friday arrested no less than nine persons for adulterating fuel and kerosene products in Aba area of the state, even as the agency has concluded plans to employ about 5100 Abians soon.

NATFORCE is recognized by law to checkmate illegal importation of arms and ammunitions as well as curb bunkering in the country Displaying the seized petroleum products to newsmen in Aba, the State Director of NATFORCE, Mr Silas Ihemeremadu disclosed that the products which were found on them were also confiscated, adding that suspects have been handed over to the appropriate authorities for prosecution.

Ihemeremadu disclosed that following a tip off by some patriotic Nigerians the organization achieved the feat by raiding the hideouts of the suspected adulterators at Ekeakpara in Osisioma LGA and some parts of Ugwuanagbo.

Ihemeremadu further revealed that his men recently intercepted eight trailers carrying bans goods across the boundaries Abia State and that an unspecified number of trucks conveying petroleum products suspected to have bunkered were also intercepted.

He regretted that some

security agents were in the habit of aiding some bunkering suspects; as he disclosed some of the suspects intercepted by his men were aided to escape by the police and army. He therefore warned security agencies to stop interfering with the duties of NATFORCE. According to him, the NATFORCE is saddled with the responsibilities of checkmating illegal importation of arms and ammunitions, smuggling, as well as the destruction of oil pipelines, saying that the organization has during the past two weeks reduced the rate of smuggling and importation of illegal weapons in Abia State.

The organization, he maintained has not taken over the duties of the Customs and Excise, DSS or the police, but compliments with these agencies. The NATFORCE boss lamented that despite their good role to checkmate crimes and criminalities, some of security agencies still see the organization as an worrying opponent.

He revealed that six of his men were recently detained in the course of discharging their duties, adding that it was only when he signed a bail bond that they were released by the police.

“There’s a cabal operating in this state; this cabal has been conniving with smugglers in the state to flood the state with banned goods”, he observed.

Yuletide: Adamawa ,Gombe, Taraba roads experience accident free Christmas - FRSC Tom Garba, Yola

ÏÏÏSensitization

campaigns embarked upon the Federal Road Safety Corps with a view to reducing the carnage on our roads during yuletide has yielded results, as the FRSC Zone 3 recorded accident free Christmas in Adamawa, Gombe and Taraba States.

Assistant Corps Marshal in charge of the Zone, Abdullahi Ringim made this known in interview with journalists in Yola, Wednesday.

He noted that the success was recorded following intensive sensitization campaign awareness to grassroots embarked upon by the zonal office and the three commands’ offices.

“The zone 3 Commanding office of the FRSC comprising of Adamawa ,Gombe and Taraba states had recorded zero acci-

dent during Christmas and Boxing Day holidays.” Ringim said.

He pointed out that the record was first of its kind in the history of the zone adding that the men of the road safety would not relent in ensuring safety on major highways across the zone.

He explained that the zonal office through states’ Commands had deployed significant number of personnels on twenty four hour patrol to maintain traffics and road safety.

“We also strategies to ensure accident free New Year holiday.” Ringim added.

He thanked the general public for maintaining the rules and regulations of roads traffics that made the Yuletide holidays hitch free and prayed for continuation of such attitude.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

21 News

Jubril Aminu cautions politicians, journalists over hate speeches 2019 general elections in the Country, Senator Jibril Aminu, has called on Nigerians, particularly politicians and journalists to be careful about hate speeches and careless talks.

Senator Aminu who gave the warning on Friday in an interview with journalists in Abuja, also said that hate speeches and careless talks were capable of wrecking havoc on the country.

He said promoters of hate speeches should be punished to serve as deterrent.

Reflecting on Nigerian civil war, Senator Aminu said it is essential Nigerians look back at that avoidable 1966/67 crises in Nigeria which led to the 30 months bloody civil war, and we would discover that the crises of the time started with hate speeches and careless talks by politicians and journalists. He warned that they could

still wreck havoc on the country if not checked.

Aminu, said: “You can say what you want and damn it or you are saying something which is useful to the country. In this my short intervention, I will tell you, I have seen this country quite a bit and I believe more than ever before , now people should be careful about what they say’, pointing out that ‘regrettably, people are not.”

He explained that those promoting hate speech and careless talks “forget something which they shouldn’t forget.

You don’t have a crises, riot, a- war immediately, deliberate planning and decision making, it could happen by accident and the more you expose yourself with the possibility of meeting that accident, the more these things are likely to occur by accident.”

He said “... I honestly think , in this country, everybody has to be careful, we can’t just continue to be talking and saying anything, some-

body is a politician, later somebody is a governor, is a an Editor, they can say anything they like in this country, haba! That is the way I feel, the leaders are not considered to be anything.”

He said “ I have seen a country in a very bad state, particularly, in 1966/67, when we did not know where we are going, when great people like the late Alhaji Babatunde Jose would write an editorial in the Daily Times, saying “... sorry o. We found that we can’t continue, we have to break up...”

He said everybody should become the legislator, the courts and the police for himself or herself in the control of hate speeches and careless talks, saying, “ If they ask me to get out of Nigeria now, to go, where would I go, you wouldn’t go out, I can’t. There is no where you will go and enjoy the kind of freedom without interrogation, like you do in this country, nowhere.

I know that because I happen to have been around.

You can’t just say whatever

you like anywhere. Some of these big nations, you say one thing against them, they either deny you a visa or fine you or put a stamp on you. “ He observed that in Nigeria “ I regret to say, people are not being careful, I am happy that the government has targeted hate speech.

It is very important, particularly, if it pursued and those who make hate speeches are made example, it would be very good, ” saying, people say these things because there are no consequences for hate speech and careless talk.

He explained that the actors are “first of all its the politician, he wants to make an impression on some audience. Number two, the Journalists, I apologise to you and I always remind people that the Nigerian crises but I keep telling the people that the crises of 1966 which led to the Civil War, and even the civil war itself, a lot of things contributed by careless and reckless Journalism.”

Specifically, he said:

OLAREMU INNOCENT FRANCIES

CHIGBU PRISCILLA ODINAKACHI

OKONKWO CHINEDU ONYEDIKACHUKWU

MRS OSSAI HARRIET NDIDIAMAKA.

I formerly known and addressed as OLAREMU INNOCENT FRED. Now wish to be known and addressed as OLAREMU INNOCENT FRANCIES. All former document remain valid.

General public should please take note.

. I formerly known and addressed as EMEREONYEKWE PRISCILLA ODINAKACHI now I wish to be known and addressed as CHIGBU PRISCILLA ODINAKACHI .All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

OKONKWOR: I formerly known and addressed as CHINEDU OKONKWOR now wish to be known and addressed as OKONKWO CHINEDU ONYEDIKACHUKWU. All former documents remain valid.

Banks and General public should please take note

ISEMEDE BOSE TEMIDAYO

RICHES SUNDAY UDO

AKANDE AFEEZ SHOTONWA

Andrew Orolua, Abuja

ÏÏÏA head of

FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS ISEMEDE BOSE BOLUWATIFE NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS ISEMEDE BOSE TEMIDAYO,ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID,GENERAL PUBLIC PLEASE NOTE

MRS MABEL OVO KANU

I, former Miss Mabel Ovo Irimisose wished to be known and addressed as Mrs Mabel Ovo Kanu. General public take note. Former documents remained valid AILERU WAHEED OLAJUWON FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS AILERU WAHEED AKANNI NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS AILERU WAHEED OLAJUWON,ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID,GENERAL PUBLIC NOTE

I formerly known and addressed as INYENE SUNDAY now I wish to be known and addressed as RICHES SUNDAY UDO .All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note

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General public to please take note.

EMIOWELE SUCCESS ITOHAN

LOSS OF PREPAID METER CARD

. I formerly known and addressed as AGBONKHESE SUCCESS ITOHAN now I wish to be known and addressed as EMIOWELE SUCCESS ITOHAN .All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

I, GBENGA SALAU the lawful owner of Prepaid Meter Card with No.106211171556 issued by Ikeja Electric Distribution Limited got lost in transit and efforts made to trace it proved abortive. General public to please take note.

NSA MARGUERITE EMODI I formerly known and addressed as NSA MARGUERITE NTUK now I wish to be known and addressed as NSA MARGUERITE EMODI . This is due to my marriage of 25/11/2017.

All former documents remain valid.

General public to please take note.

BEDROCK SALVATION MINISTRY This is to inform the general public that the above named ministry has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under part ‘C’ of the Companies and Allied matters Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: (1) NNABUIHE, JULUS EKWUGHA- PRESIDENT (2) NNABUIHE, MERCY ELEBECHI -SECRETARY AIMS & OBJECTIVES:

MRS OMOLADE ABOSEDE ABRAHAM-AJAYI

I formerly known and addressed as MISS OMOLADE ABOSEDE ADEDIRAN and MRS OMOLADE ABOSEDE ASILOKUN now I wish to be known and addressed as MRS OMOLADE ABOSEDE ABRAHAM-AJAYI .All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

“I have mentioned their names at different meetings. People like Nelson Author, Peter Enahoro, I don’t care about them, they didn’t care about Ni-

geria, so there is no reason why I should respect them. There are many others and even recently, we are getting some of them.”

APC chairmanship: Why they want me out-Oyegun

Titus Akhigbe, Benin

ÏÏÏThe

behold the whole situation fizzled out.

“The only thing you can punish him for is loyalty. Edo people are loyal. We look at something; we make sacrifices to ensure that those hands are upheld and neat” He however called on Nigerians to be patient with the present administration in delivering the right and purposeful leadership for the country noting that change takes time, consistence of applications and that Nigerians cannot afford to go back to the old days.

In his welcome address, President, Benin National Congress, (BNC), Mr. Aiyemenkhue Edokpolo said when the country was facing series of frightening existential challenges by ethnic groups, when President Muhammadu Buhari was away on medical trip, Chief John Odigie Oyegun took epistemic steps to preserve the sanctity of the presidency; protected the interest of Nigeria as one and indivisible nation; and defended the founding values of his party- the ruling party.

Edokpolo said as a distinguished Benin and humble son of Edo State that has made landmarks in civil service and party politics he deserves the honour hence, the decision by the Benins to honour him as a role model

EYA: I formerly known and addressed as EYA IKECHUKWU IKECHUKWU now wish to be known and addressed as EYA IKECHUKWU INNOCENT. All former documents remain valid. Banks and General public should please take note.

national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie Oyegun has revealed that he was being persecuted because of his loyalty to the present administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He disclosed this in Benin City at an event put up by the Benin National Congress, (BNC), to honour his selfless and leadership style over the years.

According to him “I grew up in an environment where bringing disgrace to the family is the worse thing you can possibly do, even the family will be the first to disown you.

“So in all my life, this is the circumstance that has conditioned me. I do not do things that will not make me sleep soundly at night. I do nothing that will appear as headline in any of the national dailies.

“Yes, I have been through several trials, but I have overcome them all. Why have I done so? Because at the end of the day, whether detailed or forensic nor examination, you will not find that your own Oyegun has done something dishonourable.

“And so, with all the hue and cry, at the end of the whole thing, when we sit down, and ask tell us what he has done,

IRENE DAISY EZEWELE.

OSUNMAKINWA MARY OPEOLU.

RUTH ONYINYECHI OBIOMA

Formerly known and addressed as ADESANYA MARY OPEOLU now wish to be known and address as OSUNMAKINWA MARY OPEOLU. All former documents remain valid.

General public please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as RUTH ISAAC UMOH, now to be known and addressed as RUTH ONYINYECHI OBIOMA. All former documents remain valid. Authority concerned and general public should take note.

OMOBOLANLE ADERONKE MARYAM AJIBOYE

PAUL ROSELINE ENIMIEN

OLADIPUPO VICTOR SUNDAY

Formerly MARIAM ADERONKE IBILOLA AJIBOYE now..

OMOBOLANLE ADERONKE MARYAM AJIBOYE. Former documents remains valid.

General public should take note.

i formerly know and addressed as jatto roseline enimien now wish to be known and addressed as paul roseline enimien.all documents remain valid, general public take note.

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PPSMB, Banks and General public should please take note.

EYA IKECHUKWU INNOCENT

I formerly known as IRENE DAISY IMOEKOR now wish to be known, called and addressed as IRENE DAISY EZEWELE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

HE’S ON THE THRONE FRUITFUL AND HEALING MINISTRY This is to inform the general public that the above named ministry has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under part ‘C’ of the Companies and Allied matters Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: (1) ONUOHA, KELECHI MAGDALEEN - PRESIDENT (2) ANYANWU, QUEENETH OGECHI -SECRETARY

I, formerly known and addressed as OLADIPUPO SEGUN SUNDAY, now wish to be known, called and addressed as OLADIPUPO VICTOR SUNDAY. All documents bearing my former names remain valid. General public and Authorities Concerned should please take note.

THE RIGHT PLACE GOSPEL CHURCH This is to inform the general public that the above named ministry has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under part ‘C’ of the Companies and Allied matters Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: (1) PST KINGSLEY OVUTOR EMMANUEL - PRESIDENT (2) PST NKECHI BLESSING EMMANUEL -SECRETARY

(1) TO PREACH THE MESSAGE OF THE GOOD NEWS OF CHRIST TO ALL NATION (2) TO REDEEM LOST SOULS BACK TO GOD (3) TO HELP THE POOR PEOPLE IN THE SOCIETY

AIMS & OBJECTIVES: (1) TO PREACH THE MESSAGE OF THE GOOD NEWS OF CHRIST TO ALL NATION (2) TO PREPARE BELIEVERS TOWARDS THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST (3) TO REDEEM THE LOST SOULS BACK TO GOD

AIMS & OBJECTIVES: (1) TO PREACH THE MESSAGE OF THE GOOD NEWS OF CHRIST TO ALL NATION (2) TO REDEEM LOST SOULS BACK TO GOD (3) TO HELP THE POOR PEOPLE IN THE SOCIETY

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the RegistrarGeneral, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED NNABUIHE, JULUS EKWUGHA- PRESIDENT

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SIGNED PST KINGSLEY OVUTOR EMMANUEL - PRESIDENT

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30 , 2017

22

Foreign News

Weah: World leaders, football legends to grace inauguration Sunday ÏdƆƅƑƏƈƐƕ ƄƆƆƇƆƗ Ƒƍ ƈ L Ə ƒƈ ê&ƋƋƆ C dƈƏƋƆ Ƈ ƓƏƈƐƆ ƌƆ ƈ ƋƗ Bonny Amadi with agency report

ÏÏÏ With the emergence

of George Weah as Liberia’s President-elect in the runoff presidential pool held on 26th December, the flood gate has opened for world leaders and football icons to converge in Liberia to celebrate the latest Africa’s symbol of democracy.

The inauguration of George Weah as Liberia’s President scheduled to hold on Sunday December 31st 2017, would also be further deployed to celebrate Liberian outgoing President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first Africa’s female president, for her ingenuity and dexterity at ensuring a smooth and transparent election, devoid of rancour, which produced her successor from another party.

On Sunday, December 31, 2017 the latest African heroine, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Unity Party (UP), would be handing over the reigns of power to one of Africa’s greatest footballers, George Weah, Liberia’s President- elect of the CDC party.

Nigeria set the pace in the renewed democratic development, when the former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 conceded defeat of the PDP in Nigeria and handed over power to the current President Mohammadu Buhari of the APC. Ghana followed in 2016 when Ghana’s main opposition leader Nana AkufoAddo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) won the presidency in his third run for the office. He defeated the incumbent President John Mahama of the New Democratic Congress (NDC).

According to political commentators in Nigeria, who have lauded the West African country for conducting a free and fair election devoid of crisis, however called on the Liberia’s President-elect not to betray the trust bestowed on him by the people of the country as they urged him to ensure that he enhances the economy of the country and living condition of Liberians.

Meanwhile, congratulatory messages have been

Nigeria’s president Buhari French President Emmanuel Macron

trooping in from around the world to the latest president-elect as well as making last minute preparations to grace the inauguration of George Weah on Sunday.

Great football legends and clubs from across the world including Pele, Maradona, PSG English, AC Millan, L’UEFA Didier Drogba , among other world renowned football ambassadors.

Expected among the world leaders are representatives from the Nigerian government of which, two former presidents of Nigeria are already in Liberia in different capacities, delegations from the US government, representative of the British government and that from France, most of which have also sent the Liberian president elect, congratulatory messages.

France For instance the French President, Emmanuel Macron, immediately after the official announcement of Weah as Liberia’s President-elect sent him a congratulatory message “Emmanuel Macron @ EmmanuelMacron wrote “Congratulations to Mister George for this election! Great moment for Liberia!”

Nigeria’ is expected also to send a powerful delegation to Weah’s inauguration, Nigeria’s President, Mohammadu Buhari having already congratulated

Liberia’s George Weah

Weah on his electoral victory, Nigeria President Muhhammadu Buhari has congratulated the Liberian Presidentelect, Mr George Weah on his election as the next President of the Republic of Liberia, describing Weah’s victory as an affirmation of the will of the Liberian people to remain united, peaceful and prosperous.

Buhari also commends the Liberian people on the peaceful conduct of the historic presidential runoff election, stressing that “this is another plus on Africa’s democratic scoreboard.”

The President, applauded the efforts of the National Election Commission of Liberia, as well as regional and international observers who have contributed immensely to the electoral process and the strengthening of postconflict democracy in the West African country.

Buhari pledged Nigeria’s readiness to work with Liberia on issues of mutual interest at bilateral, regional and global levels for the benefit of citizens of both countries.

The Nigerian leader also commends outgoing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, under whose 12year watch Liberia had transformed from being a pariah state to a country doing remarkably well on

many fronts such as, women and civil rights issue, peace building and consolidation, ECOWAS and the Mano River Union.

The Nigerian president lauding the outgoing president, said that President Sirleaf deserves special commendation for the statesmanship she has shown in ensuring free and fair elections that will pave the way for a peaceful transfer of political power from one democratically elected leader to another for the first time in 73 years.

He therefore, wished the President-elect and Liberians a peaceful transition, reassuring them of Nigeria’s determination to sustain the current cordial relationship with Liberia.

Burundi Burundian president, Pierre Nkurunziza has also sent the good wishes of Burundians to the Liberian President- elect.

Pierre Nkurunziza, in a congratulatory tweet @ pnkurunziza, soon after announcement of Weah’s victory said “Congratulations to @GeorgeWeahOff, most likely President elect of Liberia. His talents have made him an exceptional footballer and will certainly make him a Great Statesman. He’s an inspiration for Burundi and for Africa. https://twitter. com/pnkurunziza/status/946459756968992769 …

Kenya Kenya’s president Uhuru

Kenyatta who won reelection and was sworn in November 29th 2017 has also written to congratulate the president elect, George Weah. Uhuru Kenyatta @UKenyatta wrote “My very warmest congratulations to President-elect @ GeorgeWeahOff. His excellence and persistence have now won him the leadership of his people. Kenya sends its very best wishes to him and his administration. We look forward to closer ties in the years ahead. Congratulations!

President-elect Weah’s victory is a triumph of democracy. Kenya will stand with Liberia, for we believe that Pan-African cooperation will win every African the prosperity and freedom they deserve.

I look forward to working with President Weah in the service of those ideals,” he added.

Somalia Somali’s President also wrote from Villa Somalia @TheVillaSomalia “Congratulations presidentelect @GeorgeWeahOff. #Somalia wishes you success in your endeavors. We look forward to close cooperation and partnership. #Liberia Burkina Faso President of Burkina faso Roch Marc Christian Kaboré hs also congratulated Weah. Roch M. C. KABORE @rochkaborepf wrote “Congratulations Mr George Weah on win-

ning the Liberian Presidential election. Wishing you and Liberian people all the best. Greetings from Burkina Faso. RK” PSG English The English football club also has congratulated Weah, @PSG_English wrote in a tweet “We knew George Weah way before he became President-elect .Congrats to the PSG and world football legend on the latest chapter of his brilliant career!!!”

AC Milan The Italian club @acmilan has also indicated interest in the political development in Liberia led by one of its greatest footballers, AC Millan wrote “Congratulations to the Red&Black legend George Weah on becoming the new President L’UEFA @UEFAcom_fr also has congratulated Weah “ George Weah. Le meilleur buteur de l’#UCL #LdC 1994/95 – seul Ballon d’Or africain – sera président du Liberia, son pays, à partir du 22 janvier!

“Mikael Forssell Mikael Forssell,Finnish International football striker currently playing for Veikkausliiga club HIFK has also congratulated Weah , he wrote @ MikaelForssell “Congrats to my former teammate at @ChelseaFC George Weah @GeorgeWeahOff who was my boyhood idol and now the new Liberian

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Health

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Why FG, private sector should invest in cancer care Stories by Angela Onwuzoo Cancer is one sickness in the world today that many people fear like death owing to its devastating impact on its victim. To many, it is even a death sentence not because it has no cure, but as a result of the huge financial resources involved in its management coupled with lack of functional treatment facilities.

Currently, Nigeria has no comprehensive cancer treatment centre in place while the few available radiation machines are not working.

Yet, the country is witnessing an alarming increase in new cancer cases on daily basis according to experts.

More disturbing is that thousands of children are now coming down with the disease annually.

According to reports, the cost of treating cancer both in adults and children, is extremely expensive and beyond the reach of the poor, hence, the survival rate is poor owing to lack of proper treatment in developing countries like Nigeria.

Considering the current economic hardship in the country, where many parents are still struggling to feed their children, experts say, it would be practically impossible, for poor parents whose child is diagnosed of cancer to foot the bills.

Even the rich, some experts say can still not afford cancer treatment without necessary support from the government.

The attack of cancer on any member of a family in Nigeria, usually comes with so much pain and grief, owing to the huge amount of money required for both diagnosis and treatment.

President Buhari

The World Cancer Report 2014, shows that the disease is now the world’s biggest killer.

Hence, stakeholders are fashioning out more proactive ways of addressing the burden of cost of cancer treatment in Nigeria, especially childhood cancer which they say can be treated or even cured when detected early.

It is against the backdrop that The Dorcas Cancer Foundation (TDCF), a non governmental organisation for children living with cancer, is calling on the government and the private

Aliko Dangote

sector players to invest in cancer care.

This, the foundation said would help in saving the lives of children battling with the ailment in the country, by making treatment accessible and affordable to them, thereby reducing the huge financial burden on the parents who are still struggling to pay out of pocket.

Besides providing financial support for children living with cancer, TDCF, also believes that increased information about childhood cancer and availability of equipment for di-

agnosis and treatment would boost early detection and survival rate.

Speaking at a cancer awareness programme in Lagos recently, Founder and Executive Director of TDCF, Dr. Adedayo Joseph, said with adequate support and care, no child will die of cancer in Nigeria.

Joseph who is a Clinical Radiation Oncologist, said troubled at the way children were dying of cancer in Nigeria and the huge financial challenges faced by their parents, she decided to devote her life for the fight against cancer in children and

How regular eye check reduces risk of blindness To reduce the number of Nigerians going blind by the day as a result of glaucoma, eye experts also known as ophthalmologists, have urged Nigerians to embrace regular eye check while those affected by the disease should ensure they receive appropriate treatment.

Glaucoma according to experts is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Though glaucoma is a serious disease, experts believe its progression can be halted by effective and consistent treatment.

According to them, unlike in the case of cataract, blindness from glaucoma is irreversible.

One of the experts who is the chairman, Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria, Lagos State chapter, Dr Abiola Oyeleye,

revealed that no fewer than 1.2 million Nigerians above 40 years are living with glaucoma.

Oyeleye revealed that late diagnosis, poor medication compliance, high cost of treatment, and poor access to eye care were some of the challenges facing the management of glaucoma in the country.

Insisting that the issue of glaucoma should not be treated with kid glove if the rate of blindness in the country was to go down.

He pointed out that the above figures were valid statistics from the Nigerian National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey of 2005 to 2007.

According to him, up to 90 per cent of those affected with glaucoma are unaware that they have glaucoma and one in five people, that is, 20 per cent

of those with glaucoma, are blind.

“These statistics are staggering. However, early detection by screening and appropriate treatment can prevent blindness,” he said.

Oyeleye said that glaucoma, when not well managed, could alter the strata of an individual’s life.

“Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide.

“Before glaucoma gets to that stage, vision diminishes progressively and the individual may not be able to maintain the same job to earn a living.

“The individual may also be vulnerable to all sorts of accidents, which may cause loss of life.

“There can be poor health

indices like depression and the need to rely on others for dayto-day things.

“In Nigeria, you will see a lot of blind people being led around by children; what is the future for that child, who loses the opportunity to get educated,’’ Oyeleye noted.

Corroborating the views of her colleague, another consultant ophthalmologist, Dr Chigozie Mbadugha, urged governments at all levels to subsidise the cost of test, drugs and treatment of glaucoma to prevent blindness in the country.

She enjoined the government to ensure that drugs were available at the teaching hospitals across the country and make it accessible for other government hospitals.

by providing financial assistance to those currently battling with the disease through her foundation.

Calling on well-to-do Nigerians to support children living with cancer, Joseph noted that children have higher chances of survival than adults when detected early.

She explained: “ The truth is that many childhood cancers have an excellent prognosis when detected and diagnosed early; promptly and properly treated.

The good thing about childhood cancer is that it has higher survival rate abroad that is close to 90 percent and that is what the TDCF wants to achieve in Nigeria because our survival rate is very low.”

Listing other ways to tackle childhood cancer, Joseph urged parents especially mothers to always take their children to the hospital whenever they are ill for proper medical check.

According to her, the Childhood Cancer Handbook Series was written to dispel the stigma associate with the disease and provide parents and physicians with good understanding about facts and myths surrounding cancer.

She noted that the foundation established two years ago in memory of late Dorcas Adepitan, a 13-year-old girl ,who died of bone cancer in 2015, had so far, sponsored the treatment of four children with many still awaiting sponsorship.

A board member of the foundation, Dr. Peju Daodu,in her welcome address, said though Nigeria is ranked as a developing country, no child should be allowed to die of cancer in the country, going by her huge natural resources.

She called on the government to address the challenges in accessing cancer treatment in the country and to also invest in research. “ We have to do everything possible to change the face of cancer in Nigeria”, she added.

For President, Cancer Education and Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria (CEAFON),Prof. Abayomi Durosinmi- Etti,a renowned cancer expert, “Cancer is terrible and destructive.

Let’s do something about it.”

He decried the lack of cancer treatment facilities in the country, stressing that doctors would only work with equipment and not their teeth, while appealing for early diagnosis and proper treatment of the disease in order to reduce the mortality associated with it.

Another renowned oncologist with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Prof. Remi Ajekigbe also said:, “the poor cannot survive cancer and even the rich do not always survive.”

The reason, according to him, is because treatment is either unavailable or, where available, it is extremely expensive.

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NFF urged to settle players’ bonuses ahead of CHAN 2018

ome football enthusiasts in Ebonyi on Friday in Abakaliki urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to ensure the settlement of all bonus issues regarding the home-based Super Eagles before Jan. 13.

The home-based Super Eagles team is participating in the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Morocco scheduled for Jan. 13 to Feb. 4.

The Eagles are in Group C alongside Rwanda, Libya and Equatorial Guinea, with their first match on Jan. 15 against Rwanda.

The football enthusiasts, in separate interviews with NAN, also suggested some ways of achieving a credible outing for the team at the competition which would be staged in four Moroccan cities.

Emmanuel Utobo, Director of Sports in Ebonyi, noted that the issue of bonuses and other motivational packages should be set-

tled immediately to avoid distractions during the competition.

“The NFF should hold a meeting with the team’s representatives to sort all contending issues, just like it did with the Super Eagles during its recent friendly match in Russia.

“History has shown that the greatest cause of Nigeria’s dismal outings in major football events is bonus rows, and the NFF

must curb this ugly trend,’’ he said.

Supporting this assertion, Obumneme Anyaorah, a former goalkeeper, urged the NFF to accord the same attention given to the Super Eagles to the CHAN Eagles.

“Nigerians are expecting the team to win the competition since its best outing of a bronze medal finish in South Africa 2014.

“Winning the competition will place the Eagles in a good stead before ‘Russia 2018’

Ebonyi to build a stadium modeled after Emirates Edward Nnachi, Abakaliki

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he Ebonyi state government will build a state-of-the art stadium that will be at per with the Emirates at Nnorom, Abakaliki the state capital where it has acquired a large expense of land for this purpose, the Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Emma Uzor has said yesterday.

This according to Uzor, would help leverage the state’s economy which he noted had left indelibile mark in all sectors, adding “Ebonyi state is making wave in all sectors, in spite of the challenges it inherited from past administrations”.

The Governor’s media boss noted that sports was a veritable engine that the economy of any nation, and added that the government had modernized and provided world-class facilities at the already constructed stadium with the aim of positioning it for both national and international matches and other sporting activities.

Uzo spoke when the leadership of the Sports Writers Association of Nigerian (SWAN) Ebonyi State Chapter, led by the Chairman, Chukwuemeka Opara paid him a courtesy call in his office at the Government House Abakaliki.

Eagles line up

Russia 2018: We expect more commitments from Eagles- NFF

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ohammed Sanusi, the General Secretary of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), says the federation expects more commitment from the Super Eagles when they campaign at the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup. Sanusi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday that the football body expects nothing short of this from the team.

“What we expect from them is what they have been doing before, which is being committed to the job.

“They have shown a lot of commitment, revealing that they are ready to die for their country and that is why God assisted us to qualify for the World Cup with a match at hand. “They have demonstrated that trust and commitment, showing that money is not everything.

“Even when the money was not there, they played without asking, not to talk of when there is money available.

“We are now hopeful that they will deliver at the bigger stage in Russia,’’ he said.

The NFF official also lauded the players for their dedication to the country.

Nigeria, who became the first African country to qualify for the 32-team mundial with a game to spare, is pitched in Group D alongside familiar foes Argentina, Iceland and Croatia.

Rohr

Sokari could make Eagles team against Poland

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uper Eagles manager Gernot Rohr is considering inviting CS Sfaxien midfielder Kingsley Sokari for the pre-World Cup friendly against Poland on March 23, 2018, according to reports.

Although respected Tunisian outlet Gnet has claimed that the playmaker will definitely be summoned by the Nigeria Football Federation for the friendly in Poland, it is known that the list will not be made public until the first week of March next year.

The former Enyimba star, dubbed the New Iniesta in his homeland, has consistently churned out brilliant displays in the Tunisian Ligue 1 in the on-

going season and has taken part in all but one of the games played by the club.

Sokari was named CS Sfaxien’s Player of the Month for November 2017 and officially picked as Man of the Match in his team’s 1-0 win over Metlaoui late November.

A product of Port Harcourt City Academy, Sokari starred for the Flying Eagles at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup and was on target from 25 yards out in their 4-0 win against Korea DPR. He has full caps for the Super Eagles but has not been invited to the national team since the appointment of Gernot Rohr.

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Stephen Odey hopes to become next George Weah

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witzerland-based Stephen Odey on Friday said George Weah’ feat of becoming the President of Liberia is a good source of motivation for many other footballers.

The former player of MFM Football Club of Lagos, who is now with FC Zurich, said he hoped to become the next George Weah.

Weah was on Friday announced the new President of Liberia, after winning the runoff poll in the country’s presidential election.

The former Liberian national captain was a footballer who turned out for several topflight European clubsides, including Paris St-Germain (PSG) of France and AC Milan of Italy.

He is the only African footballer to have won both the FIFA World Player of the Year award and the prestigious Ballon D’Or. Odey, in his twitter account @stevenodey31, congratulated Wean and added that the feat will serve as a motivation to other football players.

“From the pitch to the presidency. I join others to say congratulations to George Weah.“ This alone is enough motivation for every footballer to go beyond the field of play. I hope to be the next George Weah,’’ the tweet read.

Odey, a top-scoring forward in the 2016/2017 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), signed a four-year deal in August with the Swiss Super League clubside.

Harry Kane doubtful for Swansea clash

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arry Kane’s hopes of rewriting history further by scoring a hat-trick of hat-tricks when Tottenham travel to Swansea on Tuesday could be derailed by illness.

The Spurs striker has a cold and missed training on Friday, with manager Mauricio Pochettino telling the hotshot to stay at home.

Kane, who scored back-to-back trebles against Burnley and Southampton over the festive period to take his 2017 tally to 56 goals for Spurs and England, will be assessed on a day-to-day basis.

The last player to score three hat-tricks in consecutive games in the English top-flight was Liverpool’s Jack Balmer in 1946. Spurs aren’t in action this weekend but must then play three times in six days from Tuesday as they visit rock-bottom Swansea, host West Ham on Thursday night and then welcome AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup third round on Sunday.

A sniffly Pochettino said: ‘He is ill, a cold like me. He is at home and not feeling good. But we will see tomorrow if he comes to training. We’ll see, I don’t know whether he will be available or not.’

Kane has even outscored the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo during what has been a spectacular 2017, reigniting suggestions that Real Madrid may come in for a mega-money bid.

But Pochettino insists no price will be big enough to tempt Tottenham to sell their prize asset.

George Weah in action

GOTV Boxing Night 13: Oladosu lauds sponsors for N2.5m cash prize

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ilwan “Real One” Oladosu, the lightweight boxer who won the N2.5 million cash prize attached to the Mojisola Ogunsanya Memorial Trophy for the best boxer at GOtv Boxing Night 13, has thanked GOtv, sponsors of the event.

He was voted best boxer on account of his performance in the bout against Kehinde “Ijoba” Badmus at the event, which held on Boxing Day at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island.

Speaking in Lagos yesterday, Oladosu said the cash prize will motivate him to aim higher.

“I am happy at what GOtv is doing for

boxing. Boxers are being encouraged and made to have a sense of pride in their trade.

“I want to say a big thank you to them.

They have made me happy and have motivated me to aim higher,” he said.

Also at the event, Rilwan “Baby Face” Babatunde, who won the national light welterweight title by defeating Chijioke “Painless” Ngige, was voted runner-up to Oladosu and went home with N1million.

Rilwan “Scorpion” Oyekola, the second runner-up, won N500, 000.

GOtv Boxing Night 13 produced two Af-

rican Boxing Union (ABU) title winners from Nigeria.

Oto “Joe Boy” Joseph knocked out Abdulrahim Ahmed of Egypt to win the ABU lightweight title, while Olaide “Fijaborn” Fijabi knocked out Shadrack Ignas Kobero of Tanzania to claim the light welterweight title.

Nigeria’s Abolaji “Afonja Warrior” Rasheed successfully defended his West African Boxing Union title against Arye Ayitteh of Ghana, winning by unanimous decision.

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PREMIER LEAGUE...................PREMIER LEAGUE....................PREMIER LEAGUE

Striker Lukaku is exhausted

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anchester United boss Jose Mourinho is reportedly fearful that £75million striker Romelu Lukaku has lost some of his speed because he’s added too much muscle to his frame.

The Sun claim that the Belgian striker, who joined Old Trafford in the summer, has gained around half a stone since his big-money switch.

Club doctors insist the weight is all muscle rather than body fat and there are no lifestyle concerns around Lukaku.

However there is a concern that the 24-year-old has lost a yard of pace recently because of his bulked-up frame.

The former Chelsea man has struggled in front of goal recently and has

scored just four times since the middle of October - a run of 19 games.

That follows his remarkable start in a red shirt, where he bagged at least once in nine of his first 10 games.

Lukaku’s loss of form has coincided with United’s title challenge faltering in the wake of their unstoppable rivals, Manchester City.

Mourinho’s men are 15 points behind the runaway leaders after 20 games of the Premier League season.

They’re winless in their last three games in all competitions, including an embarrassing loss to Bristol City in the Carabo Cup. United take on Southampton on Saturday at Old Trafford where Lukaku will be hoping to find form, before going up against his former side Everton on Monday.

Manchester City targets Samuel Umtiti van Dijk

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iverpool’s £75million move for Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk could spark a bidding war between Manchester United and Manchester City for the services of Barcelona’s Samuel Umtiti.

Van Dijk will complete his move when the window opens on January 1 and that will leave all the Reds’ rivals in thePremier League’s top six scrambling to catch up.

There’s also plenty to play for at the bottom of the table, with January moves having the potential to make or break a club’s season.

Day to date with the latest transfer news.

Bailly

Lukaku

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Ajax gets new coach

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jax Amsterdam appointed Utrecht boss Erik ten Hag as their new head coach on a twoand-a-half year contract on Thursday.

The 47-year-old Dutchman will replace Marcel Keizer, sacked last week after the four times European champions were knocked out of the Dutch Cup by Twente Enschede.

Ten Hag worked alongside Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, where he coached the club’s reserve team, before returning to the Netherlands to take charge at Utrecht in 2015.

He guided Utrecht to a fifth place finish in the championship in his first season in charge and to fourth spot last season.

Ten Hag’s Utrecht also reached the Dutch Cup final in 2016 where they lost 2-1 to Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Feyenoord.

Ajax sit second in the Dutch championship, five points behind PSV Eindhoven, who they beat 3-0 on Dec. 10.

Ten Hag’s first game in charge of Ajax will be at home against champions Feyenoord on Jan. 21 after the winter break.

Erik ten Hag

Jose Mourinho has questioned Jurgen Klopp over his remarks about signing Paul Pogba

Jose Mourinho challenges Jurgen Klopp over £75m signing fee

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ose Mourinho has challenged Jurgen Klopp to explain Liverpool spending £75million on Virgil van Dijk after the Anfield boss criticised Manchester United’s world-record signing of Paul Pogba last year.

Van Dijk will become the most expensive defender in history when he completes his move to Liverpool from

Southampton next week.

But Mourinho reminded Klopp about his comments when United bought Pogba for a then world record fee of £89m from Juventus in the summer of 2016.

The German said then: ‘Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players, yes. But if you bring one player in for £100m or whatever, and he gets injured, then it all goes through the chimney.

‘Do I have to do it dif-

ferently to that? Actually, I want to do it differently. I would even do it differently if I could spend that money.

I want a special team spirit – I don’t feel it is necessary, I want it.

‘The day that this is football, I’m not in a job anymore. Because the game is about playing together.’

Mourinho seized the opportunity to take issue with Klopp when asked about the Van Dijk deal at his weekly press conference on Friday,

with a thinly-veiled accusation of hypocrisy.

‘I think the one to speak about it in a specific way has to be Jurgen, and if I was one of you I would ask him about his comments about one year ago,’ he said.

‘Virgil van Dijk is the most expensive defender in history of football. Is he better than (Paolo) Maldini, (Giuseppe) Bergomi or (Rio) Ferdinand? You cannot say that, is just the way the market is and you pay or you

Marcos Alonso celebrates birthday

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Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso celebrates his birthday with a lavish cake and candles

arcos Alonso risked upsetting his Chelsea teammate Cesc Fabregas by not inviting him to his birthday celebrations.

The full back was busy celebrating turning 27 when Fabregas was quick to ask his friend for an invitation.

Alonso will have to think up an excuse quickly before their match against Stoke on Saturday.

The Blues defender posted a picture on Twitter of his lavish birthday cake with a message for his fans.

He wrote: ‘Thanks everyone for the bday wishes!’

Alonso appeared to be enjoying his celebrations, so much so that his fellow Spaniard could not resist poking fun at the defender.

Seemingly put out by his lack of invitation, Fabregas quickly responded in Spanish, writing on Twitter: ‘Thanks for the invitation’.

The tongue in cheek comment

don’t pay.

‘If you pay obviously you pay a crazy amount of money but if you don’t you don’t have the player. Is as simple as that, so no critics at all about what Liverpool did, is just the way it is.‘But not speaking specifically about that case because in Liverpool they do what they want to do and I am nobody to comment on what they do.

‘The reality is that if they think that the player is the right player for them and they really

Pogba

want the player, they pay his amount or they don’t have the player because that is the way the market is at that time.

‘So when we compare now the amount of money certain managers and clubs spend, you cannot compare the realities.’

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Barcelona has always had issues with Brazilian players, Ronaldo warns Coutinho

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egendary striker Ronaldo has issued a warning to Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho that Barcelona have always failed to treat their Brazilian players well.

Coutinho has been the subject of repeated transfer bids from the La Liga leaders and they came close to landing the 25-year-old playmaker in the summer but Liverpool held firm to hang on to their star midfielder by rejecting three bids.

In an interview with Esporte Interativo, Ronaldo listed examples of the Brazilians treated poorly at the Nou Camp and revealed he felt much more at home at their rivals Real Madrid.

‘I felt much more happy and more connected to Real Madrid, despite having lived a great year in Barcelona,’ the 41-year-old said.

‘In the end, my history with Barca was very bad, similar to the one Neymar had.

‘Barcelona has always had issues with Brazilian players: Neymar, Romario, Ronaldinho and me.

‘We were all treated badly by the club in the end, despite all our contributions and dedication.’

Ronaldo only spent one season at Barcelona but was deadly in front of goal and scored an impressive 34 times in 37 appearances. He departed for Inter Milan before then returning to Spain with Real Madrid in 2002.

The Brazilian lasted a lot longer in the Spanish capital and played for Los Blancos until 2007, scoring 83 goals in 127 games.

The club has a long history of tapping into the South American market with a host of players from Brazil pulling on the jersey.

Ronaldo is not the only one to have left in acrimoni-

Coutinho

Donnarumma plays down Milan exit rumours

Ronaldo warn Coutinho

Griezmann

Donnarumma

Neymar, the most recent Brazilian player that dropped Barcar

ous circumstances though with current PSG full back Dani Alves critical of the club when he left in 2016.

He claimed he grew tired of always being ‘the one in the firing line’ and he ‘did not feel as comfortable any more at Barca.’

The experienced Brazil international enjoyed eight years at the Nou Camp after arriving from Sevilla in July 2008, but after making nearly 400 appearances and winning three Champions League titles, he sought a new challenge at Juventus before moving on to Paris.

Neymar was the most recent Brazilian departure as he shattered the transfer world record by moving to PSG in the summer for £198m, dismantling their formidable three-pronged attack, affectionately known as ‘MSN’, which comprised of himself, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

Despite a messy transfer, Neymar declared ‘Barcelona and Catalonia will always be in my heart’ as he sought a new challenge in the French capital.

The Nou Camp also carries fond memories for Ronaldinho, who described his five years there as the ‘best of my life’.

Purchased from PSG in 2003, the wizard with a distinctive smile made 145 appearances and scored 70 goals, winning La Liga twice and the Champions League in 2005/06.

‘I would like to take advantage of this occasion to thank you all for everything we shared together during the five years I defended the Barca shirt,’ he said in an open letter after leaving.

‘They were certainly the best years of my life, both professionally and personally. I honestly think we enjoyed so much whilst we were together.’

Former Tottenham midfielder Paulinho is one of two Brazilians in Ernesto Valverde’s current squad and he has flourished since arriving, delivering some vital performances and scoring six goals in 22 appearances.

Barcelona are ready to revive their interest in Coutinho ahead of the January transfer window.

A Spain sports newspaper claimed on Thursday, under the headline ‘Coutinho D-Day’, that the Catalan giants will meet with the Liverpool man’s agents on January 3 in order to thrash out a deal.

Eddie Jones names England squad for new year training camp B illy Vunipola has been named in England’s 34-man training squad which will act as the first step in their preparations for the Six Nations.

The Saracens No 8 has been recalled as he nears full fitness after a knee injury that sidelined him for the November internationals while there is also a return to the squad for Wasps flanker James Haskell.

Manu Tuiliagi was omitted from the squad. The centre has recently returned to action following a three-month layoff due to knee surgery but has been overlooked by England head coach Eddie Jones for a two-day camp in Brighton in the new year.

Tuilagi, 26, was dismissed from England’s training camp in August in disgrace after undertaking a late night drinking session, although Denny Solomona, also sent home after that incident, has been included in this trip which starts on New Year’s Day. Bath prop Beno Obano and Newcastle openside flanker Gary Graham have received their maiden international callups as England build towards their Six Nations opener against Italy in Rome on February 4.

Jones said: ‘This camp in Brighton is important for us to set the tone as a squad ahead of the Six Nations. We will need to improve if we are to hunt down our opponents and beat them.

‘This tournament will be exciting and

Manu Tuilagi misses out on a call up despite recently returning to action with Leicester challenging, as we know we will play against some very strong teams.

‘We will need to improve if we are to hunt down our opponents and beat them.

‘Brighton will provide a great base to begin our preparations with play-

ers coming away with a clear plan for our opening match of the campaign against Italy.’

Northampton lock Courtney Lawes will miss the camp for personal reasons while there is no room for Saracens duo Alex Lozowski and George Kruis.

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Hughes backs Rodriguez to succeed S

toke City manager Mark Hughes has backed Spain forward Jese Rodriguez to be a success at the Midlands club after coming through a tough period in which he was forced to return home to deal with his infant son’s health problems.

Jese arrived in the close season on loan from French side Paris St Germain and struck against Arsenal on debut but has not added to his nine league appearances since the 3-0 defeat by Liverpool in November.

The former Real Madrid player was disciplined by the club after leaving the substitute’s bench before the end of the 2-1 win over Swansea City earlier this month and has not been available for the next five games.

Asked if the frustration of limited game time would force Jese to cut his loan deal short, Hughes replied: “No, he wants to be a success here.

“Clearly the Premier League is where he wants to be, with us. It’s just unfortunate because of his family circumstances that he hasn’t been able to fully commit to what he’s needed to do here to be effective for us.

“You have to understand it’s something that couldn’t have been avoided. It seems like his family situation is settling down so he might be able to refocus now for a decent length of time. Hopefully that’s the case.”

Stoke are 13th in the table with 20 points and travel to Stamford Bridge to face champions Chelsea on Saturday but Jese is unlikely to feature after returning to England last week.

“We’re not quite sure how much work he’s been able to do,” Hughes said.

“He’s not quite where he needs to be to be able to be a factor for us. He might get back to the level he needs to be at very soon, hopefully.”

ovak Djokovic’s comeback match in Abu Dhabi will be against Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.

Bautista Agut, ranked 20th, defeated young Russian Andrey Rublev 7-5 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the grandly-titled exhibition Mubadala World Tennis Championship.

Djokovic has not played a match since shutting down his season following his quarter-final exit at Wimbledon because of an ongoing elbow injury. The former world number one, who has slipped to 12th in the world rankings, should face a good test of his level against Bautista Agut, one of the grittiest competitors on tour.

The other semi-final will pit fifth-ranked Dominic Thiem against Kevin Anderson, who secured a repeat of his US Open semifinal victory over Pablo Carreno Busta, beating the Spaniard 6-3 7-6 (7/2).

Meanwhile, Andy Murray held his first practice session at Zayed Sports City after flying out to the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday. The three-time grand slam champion is working his way back from hip problems that, like Djokovic, have sidelined him since Wimbledon.

Murray is due to make his comeback at next week’s Brisbane International but aborted his plans to head to Australia early and looks set to test his fitness by practising against some of the world’s best.

Coach Jamie Delgado was Murray’s practice partner on Thursday during a relatively gentle session lasting nearly an hour and a half.

Rondo dishes out NBA season-high

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ew Orleans point guard Rajon Rondo dished out an NBA season-high 25 assists on Wednesday against the Brooklyn Nets to become the first player to reach the total in 21 years.

Rondo delivered the 25 assists in just 30 minutes to help the Pelicans top the Nets 128-113.

Jason Kidd was the last player to achieve

25 assists back in 1996. The record for most assists in a single NBA game is held by Scott Skiles, who tallied 30 in 1990.

Rondo, who joined the Pelicans on a oneyear deal in the off-season, put his passing skills on full display in helping four New Orleans players score more than 20 points on Wednesday. The 31-year-old Rondo had a previous career-best of 24 assists.

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OTHER SPORTS..................OTHER SPORTS...................................

BOXING: Joseph Parker says a March fight with Anthony Joshua is close

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The former Australia stars lined up to suggest Anderson was involved with ball tampering

England boss Trevor Bayliss dismisses balltampering claims

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ngland have angrily denied Australian accusations of ball-tampering that overshadowed a rain-hit Melbourne Test.

The cheat storm was sparked by Australian TV network Fox Sports claiming England had been questioned ‘multiple times’ over potential ball-tampering with Jimmy Anderson the alleged culprit.

A posting on Fox Sports’ Twitter account read: ‘England questioned multiple times by umpires over potential ball-tampering at the MCG. Legend may have gone too far.’

England spokesman Danny Reuben complained to Fox Sports about the incendiary tweet, for which they

apologised. They then took it down.

But by that time the damage was done, with other outlets, including Cricket Australia’s website, quoting former Aussie Test players, such as Shane Warne, suggesting Anderson might have done something untoward.

While commentating on Channel Nine Warne said: ‘I’m not sure you are allowed to use your fingernails there. This might get some people talking.’

And Mitchell Johnson, the bowler who destroyed England on the last Ashes tour, posted a quizzical emoji face on Twitter with the message: ‘England getting reverse swing after 10 overs.’

UFC’s Dana White threatens to sue Pacquiao

3

8-year old Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao has reportedly reached out to UFC champion Conor McGregor about a potential boxing match in April of next year. Pacquiao hasn’t fought since July, after he surrendered his WBO welterweight title to Jeff Horn, in a controversial decision in Australia, but is considering a return to the sport in 2018.

Pacquiao told AFP that a fight between him and McGregor would be “OK with both of us.” That said, Pacquiao indicated talks have not progressed very far at this point.

“Initially, but we have not yet had any follow-ups,” said Pacquiao, when asked if there has been communication between the two camps.

“It depends who they can finalize as my opponent by April.”

While Pacquiao says both he and McGregor would be OK with a fight, UFC President Dana White has a much different take on these rumors.

White has threatened to sue if Pacquiao continues to push for a fight with the biggest name in UFC, because Conor McGregor is still under an exclusive UFC contract.

“That would be weird, because (McGregor’s) under contract with us,” White told ESPN. “If that’s true, I will be suing Manny Pacquiao and whoever’s representing him. So, I’m assuming that’s not true.”

McGregor has not fought since his loss to Floyd Mayweather, by way of a 10th round TKO, back in August. At this point it’s unclear whether his next fight will be in the boxing right or inside the octagon.

In fact, thanks to the enormous amount of money McGregor made of the Mayweather fight, Dana White says it’s reasonable to believe that he may not want to fight ever again. Although, it’s hard to believe the 29-year old fighter is truly ready to hang up his gloves for good.

BO world heavyweight title holder Joseph Parker is confident that his next bout will be a unification fight against IBF and WBA champion Anthony Joshua.

The New Zealand power puncher has said the fight is “close,” will likely go ahead in March, and that he is “excited” to showcase his skills in the UK for a second time having beaten Hughie Fury in Manchester in September.

“I think the Joshua fight can go ahead early next year when both teams are locked in and happy,” Parker told ESPN. “In March we can definitely make it happen. I’m excited to showcase my skills in the UK more.”

For the fight to be formally announced, Parker and Joshua’s promotional representatives — David Higgins of Duco Events and Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing — will need to agree on the purse split.

The purse split is determined before an event is confirmed so there is transparency over the money allocation each team receives on fight night, regardless of who wins and who loses.

Parker is gunning for a 35% split of the purse, with the more popular fighter Joshua earning the remaining 65%.

But this is not good enough for Joshua, according to Parker.

Parker wants to be paid more before he agrees to a March fight with Joshua. Getty Images “They’re stuck at 30%, we’re stuck at 35, so it’s just finding the middle ground,” he said. “We’ll take 35%, which means Joshua will take 65, which is nearly double me.

Joseph

TENNIS: Federer voted BBC overseas sports personality of the year

R Federer

oger Federer has been voted BBC overseas sports personality of the year for a record fourth time after an astonishing season during which he picked up two more Grand Slam titles. Roger Federer The Swiss, 36, returned from six months out with knee trouble to win the Australian Open before picking up a record eighth Wimbledon crown and ended the season with a 52-5 record, ranked world number two behind his great rival Rafael Nadal.

Federer previously won the award, which is voted for by the public, in 2004, 2006 and 2007. Muhammad Ali and Usain Bolt have each won it three times.

“It makes me incredibly proud that the UK

public have chosen me as the BBC overseas sports personality of the year for 2017,” said Federer.

“The support that the UK crowds give me whenever I’m here is amazing and to be recognised on the shortlist alongside some of the greatest sports people of all time is extremely humbling.”

He overcame competition from American football quarterback Tom Brady, swimmer Katie Ledecky, para-athlete Tatyana McFadden, athlete Sally Pearson, and darts player Michael van Gerwen. Federer and the other award winners will be honoured during Sunday’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony in Liverpool. AFP

Saturday, December 30, 2017

EXTRATIME

31

OTHER SPORTS..................OTHER SPORTS...................................

MMA: Two former champions slug it out in Winnipeg

F

Robbie Fowler and Rafael dos anjos

BOXING:

BOXING:

Floyd Mayweather admits he pays and charges for sex

F

loyd Mayweather admits he pay for sex in an explosively candid live stream chat directly with his fans online today.

Mayweather’s love of strip clubs, strippers and women in general is legendary.

So much so, he now even owns his very own lap dance club in Las Vegas called “Girl Collection” which he’s been promoting heavily since he retired from the sport of boxing.

Speaking today on a live stream to his fans, Mayweather said: “One thing I don’t do – I don’t do nothing for free. I don’t even f*** for free. Either I’m paying her or she’s paying me. At the end of the day after all that paper – they keep saying Floyd bought this girl this, Floyd bought this girl that. Like I said before my man, I’m not no trick. I’m a sponsor. I put that money behind you to elevate you to the next level. If you’re willing to go the next level.”

Mayweather also today revealed that he has had offers to comeback to fight already and said that if he wanted he could sign a multi-fight contract to fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship under mixed martial arts rules.

As it stands his pro boxing record stands at 50-0.

BOXING:

Promoter reveals plans for Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury Fight

A

Mayweather

global, mega Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury fight is something that all parties involved want and now one of the promoters has spoken of how he wants to do it.

Tyson Fury received the good news this week that he is free to apply for his British Boxing Board of Control license again in January and straight away he called out Anthony Joshua once he got the good news.

Following that, he also sent a “special message” to Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn where he was less than complimentary to the Englishman.

Speaking to IFL TV, Hearn spoke of his delight to see Fury back and how they plan on making a mega fight with him and current heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua: “I saw his Instagram to me but I’ve got a very love hate relationship with Tyson Fury. When I see him he tends to love me. We’ve talked to MTK. We’d like to make him an offer to fight and we would like to make that lead towards the Anthony Joshua fight. Obviously if he’s with us (Matchroom) its a lot easier to make that fight. Politics wont get in the way and in the mean time we’ve got a few other heavyweights for him to fight as well – Dillian Whyte, Tony Bellew, AJ. That’s a nice little three-fight deal.

Listen, he’s (Fury) a character. We’re pleased to see him back.”

A match between Joshua and Fury would easily be one of the biggest fights in world boxing given their history and star status at present.

People who don’t even follow boxing would likely tune in to watch one of those rare boxing events that reaches many outside the sport.

For the full interview with IFL YouTube check it out here:

ormer champions clash in Winnipeg, Canada, this weekend, as two experienced veterans put it on the line for a crack at the 175lb title.

Rafael Dos Anjos has only had two fights in the welterweight division but in a solid debut against Tarec Saffiedine and a first round submission over Neil Magny, he has positioned himself against Dos Anjos in a contender fight in a very short time. Magny is a tall, well-rounded fighter and Saffiedine is an excellent striker with good takedown defence. Two tough tests for a former lightweight champion to see where he stacks up against the top 10 in the division above, and Dos Anjos passed with flying colours.

Now it’s time to step up once more and the next level is “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler, the former welterweight champion and one of the most respected and seasoned fighters in the sport. He showed up in the Octagon 15 years ago as a tough 20 year old brawler with natural power and a lot of potential.

At this stage in his career he was still a raw talent, but fighting out of the renowned Miletich Fighting Systems in Iowa he was improving fast. Alongside greats like Matt Hughes, Jens Pulver and Spencer Fisher, it was the perfect place for a young fighter to learn his trade. After amassing a UFC record of 4-3, taking him to 8-3 overall, his martial arts journey took him on a tour of the other big promotions around the world. That experience proved invaluable, and following appearances in Pride, EliteXC and Strikeforce, the ruthless one returned to his old stomping grounds and re-signed with the UFC. Almost 10 years since his last fight in the Octagon, Lawler made his presence known at UFC 157 in February 2013, knocking out Josh Koscheck in devastating fashion. By the end of 2013 he had three impressive victories and was set to face Johny Hendricks in the new year. In what turned out to be ‘Fight of the Year’ in March 2014, Lawler lost a hard-fought five round decision, but was back in title contention by December and was successful in the title rematch.

In his first defence, at UFC 189, he not only retained his world title, but also his ‘Fight of the Year’ title. This time it was against Rory MacDonald in what was one of the most incredible fights I’ve ever watched. I actually have a photo from the fifth round on my home gym wall to inspire me during my own training sessions. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend that you check it out.

Needless to say Lawler is one of the few fighters that achieved ‘legend status’ whilst still active. He lost the title last year to current champ, Tyron Woodley, but got back in the win column with a tough threerounder against Donald Cerrone at UFC 214 this summer. This fight is his opportunity to get back to the top of the division and a win here gets him half way there.

I feel like Rafael Dos Anjos brings some new challenges to Robbie and I am intrigued as to how this fight will play out. Coming up from lightweight, Dos Anjos will be slightly undersized, giving up three to four inches in height and reach. What he lacks in stature though, he makes up for in work rate and aggression.

Typical of the Rafael Cordeiro style of Muay Thai, Dos Anjos commands the centre of the Octagon with good hand combinations and punishing low kicks. Adding in clinch work and takedowns, he reminds his opponents that a ground assault is also an option, making them more jumpy when he moves forward. He is a skilled technician in all ranges, but will have to be cautious of that single punch knockout ability when closing in.

Lawler learned early on what his gifts are and he built his whole game around them. Over a 15 year career he has honed those skills to the point where he was the best in the world in his weight class and he still feels like he can prove that status once more. For Dos Anjos it is about breaking a record and realising a dream.

A win here gives him the opportunity to be the first Brazilian two-weight champion and add his name to a very exclusive page in the history books. They both have about as much experience as each other and they will both need to draw on that to get the victory this weekend and move on to the title attempt.

This card is loaded with talent, from the first fight to the main event. Kicking off the preliminary card we have the UK’s own Danny Roberts, taking on a very durable and strong Nordine Taleb.

Then the main card begins with Misha Cirkunov and Glover Teixeira, both trying to gain ground in the busy light-heavyweight top 10. The co-main between Emmett and Lamas will be a great scrap but the firecracker on the night will be Santiago Ponzinibbio against “Platinum” Mike Perry.

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Editor Daily: TONY AMOKEODO

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2017

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Business Times Daily Times Nigeria

Obaseki signs Edo’s N150bn 2018 Budget into law Page B2

Residents urge government to fix electricity, end fuel scarcity Page B3

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Governor Ambode assures of development of key sectors in 2018 Page B4

More Investors head to Edo as Azura-Edo Power begins generation Simon Ugwu

Riding on the back of the impressive outing of Azura Edo Independent Power Project (IPP), which has just begun generation of electricity seven months ahead of schedule, investors are thronging Edo State to pitch their tent and partake of the conducive business environment and progressive posture of the government towards genuine investments.

Governor Obaseki Special Adviser to Governor Godwin Obaseki on Media and Communication Strat-

Simon Ugwu The Director of Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr Mordecai Ladan has assured Nigerians that the lingering scarcity of petrol will soon come to an end.

Ladan gave the assurance after an inspection of some private depots within Apapa axis in Lagos.

According to the director, I can confirm to you that products are coming in gradually in most of the depots visited, some are being discharged while there is assurance that more product will soon come again within the nest 48hours.

“I think with all we have seen now in the depots visited, petrol should be available in all filling stations across the country in a few days time.

“It will soon ease out in days to come,” he assured Nigerians.

Ladan appealed to depots to focus more supply on independent marketers’ filling stations because they were most affected by the scarcity of petrol.

He said the independent marketers had filling stations in most major location in the country and most of them had not received supply for weeks.

The DPR inspection team visited Folawiyo Energy Limited and NIPCO tank Farm in Apapa.

At Folawiyo, Mr Dipo Makanjo-

BUSINESS TIMES Business Editor Ganiyu Obaaro Asst. Business Editor Simon Ugwu Capital Market Editor Bonny Amadi Money Market Correspondent Motolani Oseni

egy, Mr. Crusoe Osage, in statement, said that the influx of investors and the outstanding success recorded

by Azura-Edo Power, is a testament to the numerous reforms undertaken by the Governor Obaseki-led administration, sustained from the earlier efforts of his predecessor, to disentangle bottlenecks, institutional bureaucracy and other lapses and administrative barriers that have hindered public-private partnerships (PPP) projects in the country.

According to him, “The Azura-Edo IPP has just come on stream and has been linked to the National Grid, a

feat that is happening seven months ahead of schedule. This, for us, is not just a commendable feat, but also a confirmation of what we have been saying all along that Edo State is ready for business. With the success of the Azura-Edo IPP, the state is seeing a growing influx of people trooping in to key into the boundless opportunities for investment, presented by the state. “There is no denying that the Edo State government has undertaken reforms to see it attract and keep investors.

A number of reforms have been undertaken and the Azura Edo Pow-

er Project, which is being financed by a number of development finance institutions shows that we mean business. But what we must not lose sight of in this case is the pace of the construction, which has not suffered any setbacks since commencement.

In fact, the project is even being delivered ahead of schedule.” Noting that the economic benefits of the project to the state are numerous, he said, “In recent times, stakeholders have watched the impressive handling of the project with the support of the state government, we have held a number of meetings from interested

investors from all over the world, who have all expressed their intentions to set up factories in Edo State.

“At the moment, we are treating enquires from companies that are into steel-making, agro-allied, construction, building materials, Information Communication Technology (ICT), energy, to mention only a few. “The Azura-Edo IPP is estimated to engage 1,000 persons. Some of that have been done, but we expect that with the influx of investors to the state, a lot more jobs will be created, which dovetails with the government’s job creation strategy.”

Fuel Scarcity Will Soon End—DPR Boss

la said the depot had about 6million litres of petrol and had been operating 24 hours to ensure that Nigerians get the product.

Makanjola said the product belonged to Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and they were loading the product according to the directive of the corporation.

According to him, the last time we received the product from NNPC was on Dec.23 and that is what we are loading, we hope to get another supply by Saturday.

At NIPCO, a vessel was discharging over 23 million litres of petroleum as at the time DPR

reached the tank farm.

Mr Taofeek Lawal, the Head, Corporate Communications of NIPCO said about 600 trucks of petrol that was given to NIPCO has been scheduled for loading to marketers.

Lawal said with 23 million litres of petrol, the company would load over 600 petroleum tankers in three days, adding that NNPC had assured the company that another vessel carry the worth of product will arrive on Saturday.

He assured the team that the company would work tirelessly to ensure that scarcity of petrol ease out in few days.

Baru NNPC boss

Business News B2 The Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has signed the state’s 2018 appropriation bill as passed by the Edo State House of Assembly, into law.

At the signing ceremony in Government House, Benin City, on Friday, Obaseki said the speedy passage of the appropriation bill was remarkable as it shows the harmony between the state’s executive and legislative arms of government.

The 2018 budget estimate which was pegged at N146 billion by the executive, was increased to N150 billion by the House of Assembly to allow for more infrastructural and agricultural projects.

According to him, “We cannot express our gratitude enough as an executive arm of government for this unique and historic event of the signing of our Appropriation Bill before the end of the year. I cannot recall when this sort of thing occurred in Edo State in the last seven to eight years.

“This portends a lot of good things to come. It shows the seriousness of both arms of government and more importantly, it shows that we are working together in the interest of the people of Edo State.”

The governor assured that his administration has set a target of at least 95 per cent performance level for the budget, noting, “The House is totally aligned with us and agrees with the principle of our budget, which is growth. This is taking a cue from what is happening at the centre. We have to invest in areas that will help us grow the economy, create jobs and improve the revenue of government.”

Obaseki said that the legislature’s move to allocate N1bn to livestock production and fisheries as well as the decision to retain the about N1bn estimate for job creation in the state showed that we all appreciate the need to invest in youths and accelerate economic growth.

He noted that the focus on agriculture was to ensure that youths are carried along in our development

The Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Kabiru Adjoto (l), presenting a copy of the 2018 appropriation bill to Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, at the Government House in Benin City, Edo State capital, on Friday

Obaseki signs Edo’s N150bn 2018 Budget into law Ï Əƈƅ Ɔ Ɛƈƌ ƐƆ Əƈ Ɔ Ƅƕ ơƠƠü initiatives, adding, “I am particularly grateful that you improved our provisions for critical areas of growth, particularly agriculture.

“In the area of agriculture, I observed that the House increased our estimates significantly by almost 100 per cent. In particular, in the area of livestock and fisheries, there was a N1billion increase.

“This is important because, as you know, we have a lot of initiatives in

Medview begins normal flight operations ƑƊƓƑƆƌƆƊƆ 9ƓƆƋƑ ƌ

Flight operations of Medview Airlines might have normalized , following a series of unfortunate fracas with passengers due to rescheduling flights after the airline’s aircraft out of London- Gatwick hit a snag and was grounded.

The airline, on Thursday night checked in its Dubai passengers, who were allowed access through immigration and screening to the Airbus with 326 passenger capacity.

According to information, flights to Gatwick-London yesterday also departed.

The airline had promised Thursday that Its normal flights resume Friday for London, Dubai and Jeddah. It was learnt that the Med-view station manager confirmed that the Gatwick flight would leave in the evening of yesterday and that departure time would be communicated to the passengers.

In a statement signed by Chief Operating Officer/Accountable Manager, Mr. Michael Ajigbo-

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

tosho the airline apologised and sought the understanding of its esteemed passengers.

“We use this medium to appeal to our Nigerian customers.

As much as we appreciate their patronage and apologize for the experience they went through this Christmas, we seek for their understanding to know that their safety comes first before any other thing,”the statement read.

Med-view yesterday explained that its flight VL 2101 out of London to Lagos on Friday December, 22 returned to Gatwick after departure as a precautionary measure taken by the Pilot- in – Command (PiC) in line with Aviation Standard and Recommended Practices. This, the airline said, led to cancellation of the flight as the aircraft was declared AOG (Aircraft On Ground).

After the aircraft was declared AOG, the airline said it had to wait for a maintenance report.

The aircraft had to remain on ground until a certified expert carried out the necessary checks and certify that the aircraft is airworthy.

this regard, especially as it relates to the resettlement programme we have for persons who were trafficked and have now returned, as well as the young people we are encouraging to go into entrepreneurship.”

On job creation, he said, “We also appreciate that you retained a cardinal job creation initiative, which we are promoting for the first time. This is significant and it is a novelty. We appropriated almost a billion naira,

which you retained. This will help us train and give skills to young men and women and match them with jobs as part of our programme to create a minimum of 200,000 jobs within four years.

“So, you are not just aligned with us as a government, you are aligned with the principle and thinking on which this administration is anchored.”

The Speaker of the Edo State

House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Kabiru Adjoto, while presenting the passed budget for assent, said the increase in the budget figures was to enable government drive its developmental goals without financial hiccups.

According to him, “The initial budget was N146 billion but we have increased it to about N150 billion taking into cognizance the prevailing realities. We are confident that this is within a realistic range.”

He said that the parliament identified areas of growth and made minor adjustments in the interest of Edo people, particularly in agriculture and infrastructure.

5,222.3MW: &ƔƍƆƅƐ ƌ ƏƆ ƍ ƓƆƏè j M ƑƏƆ ƅ ƑƌƆƏ

The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, has assured Nigerians that with the national peak power generation of 5,222.3 megawatts, the incremental power supply is on the way. TCN said it is adding to the achievement with standard transmission equipment which it has cleared from different ports to optimize transmission of electricity.

Power General Manager, Public Affairs of TCN, Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, in a statement yesterday said the milestone achievement is the highest ever recorded in the nation’s power sector to-date. Mbah said that the gradual,

but steady improvement in the nation’s power sector was attributable to the strategy of President Buhari’s administration policy on incremental power.

She recalled that at the 22nd Power Sector Stakeholders Meeting, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola assured that the current synergy among the presidency, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and other major power sector stakeholders working through the Power Sector Recovery Programme, PSRP, would continue to deliver improved power supply.

“To properly key into the incremental power policy, TCN has developed the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion programme to enable it to prioritise and execute critical transmission projects,” she said. “This necessitated the clearing of the company’s stranded containers carrying various transmission equipment at the seaports, to enable it to complete previously abandoned projects to further expand the grid capacity,” Mba disclosed.

She noted that out of the 759 containers abandoned by contractors at the seaports within the past five

years, 454 were cleared; Payment for 193 containers have been made and was being cleared, while payment for the outstanding 112 containers is yet to be made. TCN further explained that all the 454 containers cleared from the ports have been taken to various construction sites such as Yola, Gulak, Katsina, Jos, Dambatta, Ganmo, Abeokuta, Onitsha, Jos, and Benin. Other construction sites include Odoguyan, Ede, Igangan, Okene, Walalambe, Akwanga, Kachia, Kumbotso, Kaduna, and Yola.

The statement added that the containers were abandoned at the ports for between 2 to 6 years by contractors, for various reasons including suspension of TCN Import Duty Exemption Certificate, IDEC, in 2013 by the Ministry of Finance, slow processing of IDEC by TCN in the past and inefficiency of the contractors.

“The result was several uncompleted transmission projects in various parts of the country.” TCN reiterated its commitment to continue to work to further stabilize, rehabilitate and expand the grid and called on all Nigerians to work with the sector in safeguarding electricity installations nationwide.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

B3 Business News

SMEs are Nigeria’s growth engine - MLF Ladesope Ladelokun The Chief Executive Officer of MyLibertyFamily(MLF) scheme, Mr Benson Adesokan, says Small and Medium Scale businesses (SMEs) are the country’s growth engine, noting that they are essential providers of jobs and economic growth.

Adesokan said this in a statement to celebrate the company’s first anniversary in Lagos recently. According to Adesokan, many members of the scheme are now millionaires. He added that the MLF scheme was set up to lend a helping hand to Libertarians in order to enable them get financial freedom with the support from other family members. He says MLF is miles ahead of other multi-level marketing scheme that only empower a few early registered members and make others slaves.

The MLF CEO noted that any government that takes economic growth seriously must see SMEs as an essential part of the private sector and an area of priority in any country’s economic reform, stating that MLF was determined to the way Nigerians are perceived. His words: “ It is a platform designed to change the way Nigerians are perceived.

Many are known for many bad things but some of us have proven that our country is a nation of talents and creativity.It is the first coming out of Nigeria and we believe that with the right education and opportunity, everyone can live as they wish and go where they want to go.’’ Also, at the event, MLF launched SeamWith, a social media platform which the CEO says was birthed by the desire to give answers to the needs of registered members.

He added that SeamWith provides the platform for crossfertilization of business and financial ideas. The SeamCentre, he adds, offers a one-stop digital library for authors, developers and publishers. “ It also serves as a platform for advertisers where they can get maximum exposure and earn,’’ he concluded.

Residents urge government to fix electricity, end fuel scarcity Simon Ugwu Residents of Nsukka in Enugu State have urged the Federal Government to prioritise electricity and fuel supply in 2018, to boost the economy.

They spoke yesterday at Nsukka in interviews with News Agency of Nigeria.

A lawyer and rights’ campaigner, Mr. Jude Ugwuja, said the government should ensure local refining of petroleum products. He said incessant fuel scarcity had adverse effects on the economy.

“The government should commit more resources to repair and upgrade our refineries to operate at full capacity next year.

“This will help to stabilise the prices of petroleum products and end fuel scarcity.

“If Nigeria continues to produce crude and send it abroad for refining, the country will experience petrol scarcity.

“It is sad that Nigeria, a leading oil producer, cannot refine its petroleum products to meet local needs,’’ the lawyer said.

Mr. Samuel Ezema, a lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), said steady power supply would stimulate every sector of the economy and create jobs.

“With steady power supply, local and foreign investors will be willing to invest.

“Investors will like to set up businesses, generating millions of employment.

“If the power sector is fixed, small-scale businesses will spring up in every nook

Nestle committed to making young business owners – CEO Ladesope Ladelokun The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Nestle Nigeria ,Mauricio Alarcon has expressed the determination of the company to sharpen the entrepreneurial skills of youths and make them gain the required experience to help them become business owners. Alarcon says he believes securing the fu-

ture of the young is instrumental in building resilient and thriving communities.

As part of efforts to walk the talk of the company, Nestle Nigeria , in partnership with Imperial Integrated consulting have concluded plans to hold National Career Fair which will hold in states across the country and the Federal Capital Territory with the theme: “ The Bold Move’’.

Speaking on the importance of the fair, Alarcon noted that,” The National Career Fair provides a platform for the convergence of undergraduates,graduates, entrepreneurs and job seekers as well as major corporations , government agencies and Small and Medium Scale firms to explore opportunities for reducing the growing rate of the unemployed in Nigeria.’’

and cranny,’’ the don said.

The traditional ruler of Okpuje community, Igwe Oliver Ayogu, told NAN that the government should invest more in agriculture.

He said improved agriculture would facilitate achievement of food security and earn more foreign exchange.

Ayogu, however, hailed the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for efforts to boost agriculture.

“Early this year, there was an increase in prices of foodstuffs, but today the prices have reduced because of government’s special attention to issues concerning agriculture.

“Earning power of rural farmers has received a boost; they even boast of bumper harvest.

“Agricultural programmes have provided jobs for thou-

sands of graduates, thereby reducing unemployment and youth restiveness,’’ he said.

Mrs. Ngozi Ugwuoke, who retired from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, told NAN that the government should focus on agriculture, “because it is a heavy foreign exchange earner.’’

“In the 1960s and 1970s, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy, as older universities, such as UNN and University of Ibadan (UI) were built from its proceeds.

“The economy at the time was good.

“People from other parts of the world longed to come to Nigeria, as the economy was robust; food was enough and many people were employed in farm settlements,’’ she said.

IHS gets $231m loan to boost broadband services Ladesope Ladelokun with agency report.

Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator,MTN Group, has assigned a $231m shareholder loan to phone tower group, HIS Holding Ltd, impacting its 2017 profits. The company said in a statement that the agreement will enable MTN and IHS to mutually benefit from continued investment and commitment to the roll

out of broadband and data services in Nigeria.

MTN, which returned to profit in the first half of its financial year in the absence of one-off charges related to a $1.1 billion Nigerian fine, said the assignment of the loan to IHS will lead to a loss of 2.8 billion rand($228 m) on transfer of the carrying value of the loan.

The loss on transfer will impact headline earnings per share(HEPS) for 2017, the main profit measure in South

Africa that strips out certain one-off items, but not earnings before interest , tax depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), the firm said.

According to MTN, the loan will allow its Nigerian unit to continue to invest in its network and simplify MTN’s interest in IHS . MTN formed a joint venture partnership with specialist tower company IHS in 2014 to own and operate MTN’s transmitter towers in Nigeria.

Tourism B4

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Nigeria Travel Week set to boost tourism Stories by Simon Ugwu

The over one week event, billed to hold between November 20 and 29, including pre and post event hosted-buyers familiarisation tours is aimed at changing the negative narrative that trails Nigeria as a country adversely affecting its tourism potentials. There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria Travel Week (NTW) will by no small means change the ‘Nigerian’ perception that travel is luxury, promote domestic tourism in Nigeria and change the media and general narrative of Nigeria as a “Boko Haram and Corruption Country” to a rich ecotourism and cultural tourism destination in the next five years.

NTW could not have come at a better time especially with the advocacy for proper balance in the ‘Africans travelling Africa’ campaign on the continent. Thanks to the effort of the trio companies; Avantgarde Tours Limited, Afro Tourism West Africa Limited and Rewards Travels and Tours Limited, the Nigerian public will benefit from a befitting end of year event that serves to promote Nigeria.

Speaking during the unveiling of the new travel project, the Managing Director of Avantgarde Tours Limited, Efetobo Awhana, who is also the CEO of NTW, disclosed that it is aimed at promoting domestic tourism by making Nigerians see the need to patronise the country’s tourism as it targets 20% of Nigerians ex-

ploring the country in the next five years with over 20 million direct and indirect jobs created. According to him, NTW ‘‘is a multi – day tourism event platform that aims to drive the Nigeria tourism sector by bringing together buyers, consumers, travel technologies, tourism/travel service providers and the media to network, review and discuss the development of tourism in Nigeria.’’

The goals as revealed by him include to achieve 20% of Nigerians travelling Nigeria in five years and to create 2,000,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2022 as it impresses it on the Nigerian public that travel increases creativity, boosts health, improves satisfaction and happiness; Nigeria as a destination worth first consideration for leisure and short breaks and that trav-

Benin

5 interesting things about Benin city Benin City is the stunning capital of Edo state.

It’s the center of Nigeria’s rubber industry and processing palm nuts for oil is also an important traditional industry there. There many interesting things to explore in this historic and cultural city.

Jumia Travel, the leading online travel agency, shares 5 interesting things about Benin City.

The Royal Oba’s Palace Really, what’s more interesting than a palace? In truth, no vacation or visit to Benin City is complete without a visit to this cultural and historical splendor. The Royal Oba’s Palace is at the heart of the city and a repository of Benin crafts. It’s really a cultural and historic ‘goldmine’ with interesting ancient adornments and ornaments that are sincerely a delight to explore.

The Benin Moat You’ve probably heard this name once or twice and wondered what exactly it was.

The Benin Moat also known as ‘Iya’ is one of the largest man made earthwork in the

world. The Benin Moat was actually used as a defensive fortification for the Ancient Benin City and its archaeology is recognized as something that is indeed admirable. However, the monument has in recent times been described as a ‘neglected monument in search of a rescuer’. Nevertheless, it’s still a truly interesting feature of the city and a testament to the ingenuity and engineering acumen of the old Benin Kingdom.

Igun-Eronmwon Quarters It’s also called Igun Street and is listed as a Cultural Heritage site by UNESCO. The quarters is home to brass/ bronze casting industries in Benin City and gives an opportunity to witness bronze casting in its various stages and buy any piece of your choice. It’s the home guild of Benin Bronze casters with various popular bronze works of kings, queens, other notable royalties and other artistic motif to explore.

Igue Festival This is the most popular festival in the city and is where

the Oba celebrates the history and culture of his people as he blesses the land and the people. The festival is typically celebrated at a time between Christmas and New year and it involves traditional dances, a mock battle and a procession to the palace to reaffirm loyalty to and respect for the Oba. The festival is typically an annual cycle of rituals and rites, and is used as a platform by the Edo people to display their rich culture and tradition.

Revelation Tourist Palazzo A place with an interesting name indeed; the palazzo has been described as a place the history of Nigeria comes alive and for cultural enthusiasts is ‘the heartbeat of culture in Nigeria’. It’s a privately owned museum and tourist center put together by music maestro Prof. Victor Uwaifo.

There are different exhibition points at this palazzo and each one extensively treats a specific subject, from music to culture, telling different sides of the Binis. It’s an educative and culturally enriching site to explore.

elling Nigeria and Africa helps fight poverty in Nigeria and on the African continent even as it shows the international community that Nigeria is endowed with unique tourism attractions and numerous investment opportunities. Towards this end, the project, which he has tagged as a massive campaign to get Nigerians to travel Nigeria, is expected to attract about 5, 000 people over the duration with youths and adult as the target audience, will among others generate buzz and discussions on domestic tourism; get Nigeria trending for the right reasons over 10 days; publicise destinations around Nigeria; help in data collation of travellers and tourism statistics in Nigeria and create awareness of the benefits of travel in-coun-

try and on the continent.

Awhana also disclosed that the activities slated for the platform, which include media (Radio and TV) tour, familiarisation tours, travel roundtable, tourism Cup (Golf), village square, travel hangout and Nigeria tourism awards, would hold at different locations, such as: Wheatbaker Hotel, Freedom Park, Ikoyi Club, Lekki Leisure Lake and Federal Palace Hotel. He urged corporate bodies and government ministries, departments and agencies to take advantage of this history making platform to expose their products and services to the international audience, beside Nigerians as over 50 international delegates from 24 countries have already signed up as hosted buyers.

Gov Ambode assures of development of key sectors in 2018

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, on has said his administration will give priority attention to the development of key sectors that would boost the economic prosperity of the state in the New Year.

Speaking at a special Christmas Party put together by the State Government and held simultaneously in all the twenty Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state expressed profound gratitude to residents of the state for the massive support extended to his administration in the outgoing year which made the achievements recorded in key sectors possible, assuring that more projects would be implemented to make life comfortable for the people in 2018.

Ambode said the

Lagos Project was on course, and that his administration was gradually and steadily building a state that works for all.

He said, “I want to use this opportunity to once again, express this administration’s profound gratitude to you all for your support which is the cornerstone of the modest achievements we have recorded in the outgoing year. I want to assure you that our Lagos project is on course and we are gradually and steadily moving towards actualizing the dream of building a state that works for all.

“As a government, we are moving into the New Year with more vigour and determination to move our state to the next higher level particularly in the critical sectors including transportation, sustainable and healthy en-

vironment, social and physical infrastructural development, power, housing, tourism, education, etc. “Together we can and we will achieve more landmark successes in 2018. I look forward to your continued support in the performance of your civic obligations, obedience to rules and regulations and ensuring peace and harmony in all our communities.”

The Governor said he was delighted to join in the celebration of Christmas in a special way in the State being the first time it would be held simultaneously in all the twenty LGAs, adding that the significance of the season was important as it brought to the fore the need to remind each other of the virtues of love, kindness, tolerance, piety and humility which Jesus Christ personifies.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

B5 Personal Finance

Bonny Amadi Barely 48 hours from today, Nigerians will ushers in a new year 2018, which offers hopes, prospect and unwittingly, despair.

To be on the side of the sunny side of the year, one need to take into account review of 2017, opportunities gained and lost and how also to position for the opportunities in the fourth coming year. As 2017 is gradually wining up and the 2018 rolling in, you need to review your investments and businesses in the outgoing year and make amend where necessary as well as plan for your family’s future as you review your savings and investment strategies.

Apart from doing a reality check on your investments when they are doing well, when the markets are down and you’re nervous, it also makes sense taking the time to do an annual review of your investments and other financial matters, as the 2017 financial year draws to a close.

“Careful planning is essential in all economic climates,” says Ann Dowd, CFP Vice president at Fidelity, Ann Dowd, CFP said “Think of it as if you were driving on a dangerous road. That’s not when you check your brakes and tires. You do that before, so you know they are in good shape.”

An annual financial checkup can take place at any time during the year and can help you better understand the “big picture” of your overall financial planning efforts. You can stop and think about your family’s financial goals, such as saving for retirement, a house, or a child’s education.

You can consider reducing taxes on your investments, protecting your income, or building a financial cushion. Once you are clear on your goals, you can then work on ensuring that you are investing appropriately for those goals. And while you are looking at your accounts and holdings, take care of “housekeeping” items, too, like checking beneficiaries and completing a health care proxy, which are not complicated but can have serious consequences if neglected. Here are key questions to ask when you do a financial review.

Take a long-term view for your family While all this might sound like a lot of ground to cover, an annual review is well worth the effort when you consider the hard work you have invested in building and protecting your wealth. It is important to have a long-term view of your financial strategies.

The annual review can be scheduled at any point throughout the year. It represents an opportunity to reassess your investment and financial situation, while also thinking about future milestones and moments that matter for the people you care about the most.

Is my investment strategy on track?

You probably have several savings goals and accounts. Your annual financial review should revisit each of your priorities and your strategy for reaching them. If your conditions have changed, make adjustments as necessary.

At least once a year, check your target asset mix to ensure that it continues to meet your time frame, risk tolerance, needs, and preferences, and to perform any rebalancing that might be necessary in light of the past year’s market performance.

On your own or with your adviser, take some time to look at specific investments and evaluate whether they continue to have a role in your portfolio. It’s important to match your investments to certain time frames or specific goals. Some may be long-term such as saving for a child’s education or your retirement. Others may be more short-term such as saving for a new car, a vacation home, or travel.

For example, you may take on more risk saving for a retirement that is decades away, but you may want more conservative investment options to fund 25% of a grandchild’s college education in five years. Or, you may earmark $35,000 from a particular fund this year to pay for a new car for your spouse.

Am I protecting my income?

You’ve worked hard and want to protect your income. So it’s wise to evaluate your family’s total insurance needs annually to make sure you have the right amount and type of insurance to cover unforeseen circumstances that can derail a financial plan.

Life insurance may be a good place to start. If your family is growing, you might want to increase the amount of your life insurance to protect your loved ones. On the other hand, many people find as their

Reviewing 2017 and planning your 2018 personal finance net worth climbs and their children reach adulthood, they need less life insurance.

If you choose to reduce your life insurance, you may want to apply the savings toward your health insurance, which becomes more critical as you age and continues to increase in cost. You might also benefit from looking into long term care insurance, which may offer a variety of features and options.

One more thing: Your annual review should also include a simple check of your insurance beneficiary designations to see whether they are up to date.

Am I saving tax efficiently?

What strategies are you exploring to help defer, reduce, or more efficiently manage taxes on your investments?

The overall impact of taxes on performance can be significant: Morningstar cites that, on average, over the 88-year period ending in 2014, investors gave up from one to two percentage points of their annual returns to taxes. A hypothetical stock return of 10% that fell to 8% after taxes would, in effect, have left the investor with 2% less investment income in his or her pocket, according to Morningstar.1 Although you cannot control market returns or tax law, you can control how you use accounts that offer certain tax advantages. This type of approach is often referred to as active asset location. Employing this strategy allows you to choose which assets to keep in your tax-advantaged accounts and which to leave in your taxable accounts. In general, the more tax inefficient an investment is, the more tax you pay on it.

Our basic rule of thumb, consider “tax inefficient” investments which generate taxable income—for example taxable bonds and Real Estate Investment Trusts—in tax-deferred accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs. For those investments which are more “taxefficient”—like stocks and ETFs held for more than a year—place them in taxable accounts.

Are you already taking full advantage of a 401(k) plan, Keogh, IRA, or other qualified account that may be available to you? Generally, these accounts are the best place to start a program of active asset location, because of their tax advantages, but each comes with contribution and withdrawal restrictions.

If you are entering retirement and transitioning from saving to spending, a tax-savvy withdrawal strategy can help your savings last through retirement. While the traditional withdrawal hierarchy of taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-exempt assets is a

good starting point, individual situations and changing circumstances may require making adjustments.

Aim to withdraw no more than 4%–5% from your savings each year to help ensure that your saving will last for a 20–30 year retirement.

Am I preserving my assets?

Use your annual review to make sure you have an estate plan, and that it continues to reflect your family status and financial situation. Ensure that it helps make the best use of the latest estate and tax laws, and that key individuals know where to find relevant documents and information.

If you do have a plan, do the people you care about know about it? Where is it, and what role should your loved ones play if something happens to you?

Marriage, divorce, birth, and death are the four big events that affect estate plans, but you may also want to consider other factors, such as longevity and health, that could affect your planning.

Thinking about a will, health care proxy, and power of attorney can be uncomfortable, but consider the alternative. Do you want someone else making these decisions for you? If you don’t have any of these key documents, take the time to set them up. If you have them, review not only your paperwork but any life events that have occurred. Changing careers, moving, having children or grandchildren, or losing a loved one can have a big impact on your plan overall.

How does my plan affect my family?

It’s not just your retirement or financial future that you are planning for, especially as you age. You are likely researching and cultivating strategies to provide financial assistant to a number of people that you care deeply for including to parents, children, or even grandchildren. Beyond college, a lot of parents are helping to launch their millennial children into the world of fully independent living.

Meanwhile, many have aging parents who can no longer live on their own or manage their own financial and personal affairs. Will caring for others affect your financials goals, priorities, and outcomes?

An annual review can help prioritize financial decisions that you need to make to support your family’s goals across the generations—and help tee up long-neglected family money conversations. It can help you bring your family together to sort through vital matters related to such things as college savings, caregiving responsibilities, health care decisions, estate planning, and the tax implications of an inheritance.

Features B6

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Adesola Afolabi The discussion surrounding deepening Nigeria’s insurance industry has been ongoing since the reforms in 1997. However, a look into the financial sub-sector, listed on Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), show that investors still wait to get meaningful returns on their investment in insurance stocks. Diverse challenges persists and shows no signs of abating unless drastic actions are taken to deepen the insurance culture among Nigerians.

Issues of low patronage, nominal value trading on the NSE coupled with little or no insurance culture of Nigerians continues to take toll on the insurance sector, as an analysis on the performance of listed insurance companies’ in the year 2017 confirmed that the sector continues the struggle to break even. On this note, ADESOLA AFOLABI delves into an industry analysis to discover its real state and the industry’s readiness on contributing immensely to Nigeria’s economic growth.

Introduction: “If you take automobile insurance away, the Nigerian insurance industry will inevitably die”. This statement was made by Mr. Abiodun Atobatele, Information Technology (IT) Expert and solutions provider, and former Head of IT at Leadway Assurance Plc, during a pub-

Deepening Nigeria’s insurance penetration for economic development

lic forum in Lagos, tagged: ‘Breaking the Code’. The consensus at the forum held in September 2017, with a cross-section of experts as discussants, was that the penetration of the insurance sub-sector, is dreadfully low. The experts also agreed that the low penetration does not bode well for the Nigerian economy.

Insurance in Nigeria in comparison with regions across Africa: Agusto & Co, Nigeria’s first Credit Rating Agency and a Pan African leader in credit ratings and credit report recently affirmed in its May 2017 report “Into Africa” that Nigeria’s estimated insurance penetration rate is at 0.4 per cent and only 1 per cent of the population holds any form of insurance policy. This statistics means that only 1.7 million Nigerians out of 170 million of the populace are covered under any form of insurance policy. This suggests that the transformation agenda by the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM for written premiums to hit the N1 trillion mark from its current N300 billion (approx.) will require no small task. The initiatives in order to achieve the transformation agenda includes job creation in the insurance Industry, enforcement of compulsory insurance, building of consumer trust and public awareness for insurance services.

Although, a financial analyst at Agusto & Co, Ada Ufomadu opined that cultural and religious beliefs has negatively affected the desire for insurance in Nigeria.

She was however optimistic about the industry, stating that the industry remains resilient, recording a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.2 per cent in gross premium income (GPI) since 2012. In her report on the challenges and opportunities in the Nigerian Insurance industry, she discovered that GPI grew by an estimated 10 per cent to N356 billion, adding that the growth was upheld by the enforcement of compulsory insurance policies, particularly in the group life and motor insurance business lines. This suggest that the recent drive embarked on by the insurance sector which inaugurated a technical committee to drive the enforcement of compulsory insurance for public build-

ing nationwide could yield rewarding results.

Is compulsion the way to go?

Researchers and industry stakeholders have for long pushed for a more robust and inclusive target that encompasses the oil and gas sector, the manufacturing sector, education sector, building and construction sector among many others, for mapping and strategic implementation.

Ideally, all schools, hospitals and public services such as mass public transport should have a compulsory insurance policy that individuals who use such service must pay for. These were the submissions of AIICO Insurance’s Head of Retail Sales, Taofik Ayeni, during an August training organised for members of the Capital Market Correspondents’ Association of Nigeria, CAMCAN, in Lagos.

According to Ayeni, ordinarily, an economy with a population such as Nigeria (180 million as at 2016 estimate, Word Development Indicators) coupled with its many challenges arising from business unease and cultural differences, the Nigerian economy is arguably a thriving pot for insurance development potentials. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the Nigerian scenario.

The inability to milk these challenges by the insurance sector can be traced to the inadequacies in insurance education and sensitization among the citizenry. Nevertheless, an inference from Ada Ufomadu’s report recommends that to tap into the enormous opportunities prevalent in the country and compete favourably with countries like Kenya and South Africa that boast of insurance penetrations of 2.9 per cent and 14 per cent respectively, a starting point will be the untapped female retail insurance market waiting to be served.

A survey conducted by the credit rating firm Ada works with, revealed that women are increasingly becoming empowered in Nigeria, enabling them to make spending decisions. “About 22 per cent of female respondents from the survey earned above 10 million ($33,000 @ 305/$). In addition, female entrepreneurs are becoming a growing part of the real sector as 24% of the female respondents were self-employed and man-

agers of various small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This highlights the need for insurance products specified to underwrite risks involved in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as life policies for female entrepreneurs.

From our survey, we discovered that 57per cent of female respondents’ preferred direct sales agents as an avenue in purchasing insurance policies. This somewhat reflects a knowledge gap as women would prefer to relate one on one with sales agents in order to build trust and be given opportunities to ask questions in order to deepen their understanding of insurance. This point is buttressed by a significant 72 per cent of female respondents who indicated mistrust of insurance companies and policies offered as the reason for not subscribing to insurance policies. Insurance operators need to equip their marketing agents with adequate understanding of the insurance products offered and the needs of clients. Our survey revealed that 42 per cent of respondents had not had any insurance products marketed to them in the last 12 months”, Ada reported.

Benefits accrued from insurance sector: It is no doubt that a growing insurance industry aids in the development and growth of the Nigerian economy. It encourages savings and investment, job creation and growth in capital markets and financial assets. Over the past decade the Nigerian insurance industry has grown steadily and this can be shown in the total premiums which have gone from about N75 billion in 2005 to over N300 billion currently. NAICOM’s transformation agenda supports the Central Bank of Nigeria’s financial system strategy 2020. The sector is aspiring to employ 100,000 people in the insurance industry, a growth from the 30,000 personnel currently engaged in the sector. Growth in the number of people holding an insurance policy is also included in the agenda. Presently, Nigeria has an average of 2 million policyholders out of a population of 180 million people. This means that there is a lot more Contd. on page B7

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

B7 Features

Deepening Nigeria’s insurance penetration for economic development

Contd. from page B6

potential to increase the number of policyholders to 10 million in the next 3 years.

Demand for insurance: Let us consider these simple scenarios. Mr. Charles Uzodinma; a petty trader, got involved in two consecutive road accidents. Fortunately, his life was spared on both occasions, but his vehicle was a write off. He got a replacement for the first vehicle in less than one week but got involved in the second accident that also destroyed a second car. Although, Mr. Charles was a petty trader at the popular Sango market in Ogun State Nigeria, I wondered how he managed to replace two cars in less than a month. I summoned the courage to ask him about the incident and how he managed to progress in his business despite the monumental losses, he simply told me an ancient Ethiopian Proverb that says “The elephant does not limp when walking on thorns”.

Perplexed at the statement, I pondered on what it could mean till I got home. My conclusion was that Mr. Charles Uzodinma was into some fetish practices to be able to replace his wrecked cars so fast. Thankfully, I met his wife in a local taxi on my way to work some days after, who disclosed that her husband engages in some general business insurance policies. Now, that’s is financial intelligence from a less literate man which prepared him for the rainy day.

Shortly after this incident, I attended a meeting which comprised of financial journalists and discussions surrounding insurance came up. The meeting was geared towards encouraging journalist to engage on some form of insurance policy, the meeting ended in chaos, not because of indecisions on the policy to take (we decided on Life Insurance) but because it was rather difficult to achieve a collective agreement on how to pay for the policy decided on.

Naturally, this two (2) incidents came to mind when I decided to write this article and further perusal into the subject matter exposed lack of basic knowledge on insurance, its uses and benefits as a major bane to the development of the sector. These two (2) scenarios pointed to the fact that it is not about the level of literacy but the knowledge available to either parties on available insurance products.

A trend analysis carried out in 2016 by Olayungbo and Akinlo in a research work titled: Insurance penetration and economic growth in Africa, reveals that insurance demand varies in African countries and is still relatively low compared to their counterparts in Asia and Europe except for South Africa. In Nigeria, although the performance of the sector has been blamed on the nation’s low income per capita ($1092 per annum). Reports reveal that 70 per cent of Nigerians are poor (National Bureau of Statistics), but the population’s top 20 per cent are responsible for 59 per cent of national

“We need to take a cue from countries like Kenya and South Africa who have adopted various strategies including the support of other sectors such as telecommunications to drive penetration of insurance. Industry operators must be more aggressive in their marketing approaches, offering products and services that are bespoke to the Nigerian environment and populace.” consumption expenditure. Agusto & Co believes that it is imperative for both operators and regulators to work together to increase awareness and educate the populace on the benefits of insurance. “We need to take a cue from countries like Kenya and South Africa who have adopted various strategies including the support of other sectors such as telecommunications to drive penetration of insurance. Industry operators must be more aggressive in their marketing approaches, offering products and services that are bespoke to the Nigerian environment and populace.

For example, selling of insurance policies can be done through mobile phones due to the high penetration of mobile phone with over 70% of Nigeria’s population connected via different Telcos. This allows for the insurance industry to tap into the informal sector in order to increase the number of policyholders.

The Nigerian economy is expanding and new risks are evolving, hence a growing need for companies and individuals to insure businesses and protect themselves in the event of unexpected losses. By this, the economy is able to rebuild and recover from losses quickly.”

Insurance and its contributions to economic growth.

The insurance sector may well be on its way to outperform other financial institutions operating in the Nigerian Economy as revealed by the recently released third quarter report on Nigeria’s GDP at the National Bureau of Statistics (2017). The insurance subsector under the financial and insurance sector of the economy recorded a positive growth in 2017. A year to date (Q3’17) performance review showed that the insurance sector has grown by 1.26 per cent from Q1, 2017 to Q3, 2017, however, a sharp decline of 1.86 per cent was recorded in the third quarter of 2017 from 3.79 per cent recorded at the second quarter when the sub sector recorded its largest growth in 2017.

Even though researchers and analysts from the Lagos Business School (LBS) agree that the insurance industry is a major driver of financial activities and

actively plays an increasing role in stable and efficient risk diversification. By this, it contributes vastly to economic development of many countries. The insurance sub-sector in the case of Nigeria, appears to be playing a passive role in economic development, trailing behind in major policy reforms required for harnessing the huge economic potential that remains largely untapped in the industry. In addition, the sector has attracted relatively large volumes of foreign private investments in recent years owing to the nation’s population, its emerging middle class and lingering low insurance penetration. In spite of the challenging landscape of insurance in the country, the industry recorded N319.1 billion in 2014. From the available records, the total assets of the insurance sector rose from N488bn in 2008 to N793.6bn at the end of the first quarter of 2015.

The insightful session held by experts from various sectors of the Nigerian economy at the 2017 Insurance September forum addressed the need for a change in the dynamics, innovativeness and depth of the Insurance Industry as reported Proshare Nigeria. The report which noted several brilliant suggestions for repositioning the industry, quoted the convener of the forum Mr Ekerete Ola-Gam Ikon to have said, the Insurance September will create more room for strategic collaborations between the Insurance industry and other related sectors of the economy to explore how the Industry can be attractive to Nigerians and become more customer-centred. According to the report, Mr Stanley Zebulon said there was need for a proper reorientation in the sector, as there were immense opportunities for it to grow in the country. He however noted that the issue of pricing needs to be resolved in the industry to make it viable.

In terms of scale, depth and capacity, Mr Dienye Peterside a chartered marketer believed it was time for the integration of the informal into the insurance space. Peterside shared that Nigeria should learn from Rwanda who currently has a robust and comprehensive national insurance scheme that is all encompassing. Mr Peterside decried the fact that while Insurance companies in the United States and Europe owned banks, the reverse was the case in Nigeria with banks acquiring insurance companies. It is high time the insurance sector in Nigeria controlled the game in the financial sector of the economy. Giving his perspective from the unfolding digital revolution, Mr Abiodun Atobatele asserted that the Nigerian Insurance Industry required critical transformation to deliver valuable service to the citizens. The ICT consultant/ expert identified four ways insurance companies can embrace the digital transformation namely; empowering employees, improving communications channels, optimizing operations and transforming products to adapt to changes and innovations. A brand consultant Mr Charles O’Tudor in his brief remarks made a strong case for the industry to think about customers in its branding process, and fully adopt the innovative platforms to delivering effective service. In her intervention Edobong Akpabio an Agripreneur called for an improved customer service relations strategy that will engage the customers, sensitize them and also add value to the industry. Also sharing her perspective Ini Abimbola a consultant, called on the Insurance industry, to give consideration to micro-insurance initiatives that will target the MSMEs in the country.

Finally, it can be recalled that several years ago it was a challenge for husbands to write their “will”. The erroneous belief that if they wrote their will it was a sign of an impending death. This action put many women and children into perils after the demise of the husbands while extended families and strangers took over the properties. Suddenly, there was a change, informed husbands now write their “will”. But how did this change? A major factor can be revealed in the actions taken by religious bodies that encouraged their members to take the bold step of securing the future of the immediate family. To deepen the activities of the insurance sector to positively influence the Nigerian economy, the religious and cultural barriers must be steadily and judiciously fragmented. Insurance operators must devise ways to take the gospel of insurance products to the pulpit of religious organizations. Another aspect that controls the Nigerian mind is politics. When things are done in compulsion rather than voluntary, it sells well to the Nigerian public. From politicians to students, there must be an insurance package for these kinds of people that is serviced by one form of policy instrument. Insurance products must be innovative, well packaged and well suited for the Nigerian populace in order to greatly impact the Nigerian economy.

B8

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, December 30, 2017

Life&

TIMES Saturday, December 30, 2017

My song ‘Nurse Alabere’ was to my ex, she did me dirty - Adekunle Gold L P

2,

Interview L2

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, December 30, 2017

My song ‘Nurse Alabere’ was to my ex.; she did me Adekunle Kosoko, popularly known as Adekunle Gold, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and graphic designer. For the longest time, he was known as

Congratulation on the success of your concert, how do you feel?

money and contacts in the industry. You have to do it

I feel happy that all the works put in towards the success of the show has yield positivity; it can only be God and efforts of all the members of the team.

capacity for it now.

Unlike the Gold album, I have more collaboration on this one.

Is that a correct assumption?

First I have to correct that; my music appeals to a lot of people, you will be shocked. My concert in London,

Djs as well.

(Cuts in) But there is a plan for it?

It takes so much to produce great music like you do.

What inspires you? What brings the lyrics to your mind?

Yes, I do. had been blocked.

How did you feel?

label, was that intentional?

Why did you decide to keep it a secret?

Has that affected your mindset about love? “who do I hear on this song?”,

bassist what I want to hear. I did a lot of that in this new remain that way.

How do you intend to take your kind of music to the streets as you are considered a classical musician?

own and operate a label?

who were you referring to?

Do you mind sharing the story?

If not music what will you have been doing?

Before music and the fame, did you do menial jobs?

Life&

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Gist

L3

Mutiat Alli

Davido declares Wizkid “New Best friend” at #30bn Concert It was a night of exemplary artistry and entertainment, witnessed by a mammoth audience as Davido headlined what can easily be described as Africa’s biggest concert of the year; ’30 Billion Concert’ – bringing out some of the most celebrated and revered names of the industry; including Nigerian Starboy WizKid, Patoranking, Wande Coal, 2Face, Reminisce and several others on Wednesday, December 27, 2017 at EKO Hotel Convention Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The thousands of fans in attendance witnessed Davido bring out several acts to perform for the night, and just right before bringing out WizKid, the DMW boss bellowed; “Would you like to meet my new best friend?” to which everyone heartily yelled.

Wizkid soon emerged from backstage and the two embraced.

Wizkid went on to per-

form one of his recent street jams ‘Manya’ alongside Davido raising the ecstasy in the atmosphere several notches higher.

WizKid soon gave Davido a hearty shout out before exiting the stage.

It is clear that this occa-

sion would mark the beginning of a long-lasting romance between both stars.

Other notable artistes who contributed to the excitement of the night include South African rapper Nasty C, Mo’ Hits

stars - Don Jazzy, Dbanj, Dr Sid, Kay Switch, Ikechukwu, Wande Coal, D Prince, CDQ, Terry G, Humble Smith, Dremo, Mayorkun, Dice Ailes, Reekado Banks, Daddy Showkey, Solidstar, and several more.

Marcykeyz

Davido & Wizkid

Fake Posters: Biola Alabi not involved in politics However, I am truly grateful to everyone who has reached out to me one way or another, offering counsel and pledging support for such a cause, although fictitious. I am indeed honoured by your faith and belief that some-

New Act alert: Meet Marcykeyz

how I could run for the highest office in Nigeria.

“What this confirms to me is there is indeed a strong clamour for young people in leadership, and there is already a significant portion of Nigeria’s

electorate hopeful for this outcome.

This should not go unnoticed.

“I do believe that young, qualified and credible Nigerians deserve a chance at leadership, and this is a dream that I look forward to witnessing in

Biola Alabi and Fela Durotoye

my lifetime. I remain committed to leveraging my platforms and network to support democracy, good governance and the progress of our great country Nigeria.

Fast rising singer, Ezeala Gloria, better known as Marcykeyz, is one budding dancehall singers to look out for in the music industry as she is ready to storm the industry real big with her distinctive style of music and stage craft.

The Afro-dancehall artist disclosed exclusively to Life & Times that music for her kicked off at a very young age while she was a member of the church choir and the love for music grew stronger when her parents got her a music book to further brace her up.

Marcykeyz, who left Auchi Polytechnic for

Peter King College of Music, Badagry- Lagos noted that she has always been influenced by the music of Michael Jackson and other noteworthy industry big guns.

Marcykeyz released her first single titled ‘Soweto’ a track she described as a new vibe that the industry will appreciate as the new song talked about love, loyalty in love ,the joy it gives and lastly the sweetness of love.

When asked where she would find herself in the next five years, Marcykeyz said she should be a household name in the music industry and be at the top of her career.

Singer Ric Hassani involved in auto crash Singer Ric Hassani was involved in a serious car accident on Wednesday, December 27, 2017.

According to his publicist, Ric Hassani was on his way from an event when he had the accident at around 5:30 am in Lekki. Thankfully Ric Hassani did not sustain any major injuries only minor cuts and bruises.

Speaking on the accident, Rick said: “I’m thankful but generally I’m just very shaken up by everything,” “(I have) minor bruises and cuts on my shoulder, knee and arm because the hospital said it’s like my chest hit the wheel before the airbag,”.

Ric and Ric damaged car

L4

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, December 30, 2017

L5

Society circle

L6

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Isaac Isaac Oguntoye Oguntoye

Ex-Taraba Acting Gov Umar Celebrates

CEO, Segun Odukoya of Mingles Place Mingles Place is one of the happening points in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital and owned by Segun Odukoya, a renowned businessman who has been a major player in hospitality business.

One is to have a hotel but another thing is to build it to taste.

Mingles Place is a 3-star hotel that harbor elite both within and outside the state.

The neat and highly conducive conference hall for staff training, annual general meeting and top management meeting is second to none in the entire Ibadan, according to information.

In his word, the Ibadan big tion is their major priority, add-

Former acting Governor and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Garba Umar, is an epitome of good governance.

The man who implemented N18,000 minimum wage for local government workers and paid backlogs of pension arrears during his tenure as the acting governor of Taraba State, is in a joyous mood at the moment as he celebrated his 70th birthday amidst friends, family and well-wishers.

Umar is an apostle of peaceful coexistence, Alhaji Garba Umar

across ethnic and religious groups due to state. His good gesture tohis contribution to dewards workers in the state velopment of Taraba recently earned him an

award of excellence from RATTWU. Umar has been de-

Shina Peller too‌ not only her children well but take care of many whom she is not even related with.

Royal fathers who graced the event include

Mass attendance of dignitaries was recorded at 70th birthday celebration Alhaja

Silifat Adeboyin

as movers and shakers from Royal, Political, and economic spheres graced the occasion. ler was the pretty wife of

magician, Professor Moshood Abiola Peller, who has been in the social scene for over 40 years and still rocking it. She was also partner with late Professor Peller as they both performed magic side-by-side all over the world.

Witnesses at the event Peller is a virtuous and

Adeyemi; Aseyin of Iseyin, Oba (Dr.) Abdulganiyu Adekunle Salau; Oba Saheed Elegushi, Oba of Itire, Oba of Igbosabe, amongst others.

Also in attendance were: Senator Gbenga Babalola representing Oyo North Senatorial District; Former Ekiti state Governor, Segun Oni, Hon. Oladimeji Wasiu Dauda; NairaBet founder, Otunba Akin Alabi; Ace Musician, Yinka Ayefele, Salawa Abeni Shoda (NCWS), Bayo Adelabu, AIG Tunji Alapeni, Osifeso, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, Madam Hannah Ogunesan, Hon. Abayomi Oke, Hon. Ajiboye Omodewu, Ogbeni Abisoye Fagade, Kayode Thomas, Ayo Animashaun and a host of others.

scribed as a political colossus whose contribution to the state is immeasurable.

customers; that is our major watch word. Our event centre is a very unique one, because we provide all what our clients want for their occasions.�

Nasir Ramon Olanrewaju Celebrate mother @80 It was indeed a gathering of those that matter within and outside corporate circle penultimate Sunday, December 24, 2017 when United Bank of Africa head, Media and Corporate Communications, Nasir Ramon Olanrewaju, celebrated day amidst fanfare.

The ambience of the event was alluring as guests were treated to high cost liquors ranging from cognac, champagne, vodka, red and white wines, tequila and other assorted soft drinks. Aside drinks, both local and intercontinental dishes were in abundance as the entire attendees felt at home.

According to friends, some members of the family and well-wish-

Nasir Ramon Mum)

ers, Mama is a rare gem with large heart that deserved nothing other than to be celebrated.

She was also described as an astute prayer warrior who believes in the power of prayer.

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, December 30, 2017

L7

Society circle

Isaac Oguntoye

The savvy entrepreneurial skill Igebor Rebecca gets N350,000 as best designer of BUA boss, Samad Rabiu Penultimate Monday, the glamorous Harbour Point, Victoria Island, Lagos was

winners emerged during the Annual Fashion event put together by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) City of David Parish where Igebor

Abdulsamad Rabiu

ness maverick, Abdulsamad Isyaku Rabiu is enthusiastic, optimistic and future-oriented is like stating the obvious. But self-belief, hard work, discipline and dedication have been the watchword of the founder and chairman of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate with interests in manufacturing. lanthropy and savvy entrepreneurial skills.

The 55-year-old businessman billionaire who has appeared in Forbes magazine of the world richest men

many people in Nigeria and throughout Africa. take away from the chairman of Nigerian Bank of Industry is the fact that he broke an eight-year monopoly in the Nigerian sugar industry by commissioning the second largest sugar However, the very humble businessman who owns a penthouse at the one and only hotel in Cape Town uses BUA Foundation for his philanthropic activities that have contributed towards the development and upliftment of individuals and government parastatal.

Finally! Iyaloja Shade Tinubu-Ojo gives birth Amiable Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, the Iyaloja and President General of Association of Commodity Market Women

Iyaloja

bed. Her joy, according to information, knew no bond as she welcomed a baby boy after several years of childlessness.

Shade, who is married to Hon Oye Ojo, a former member, House of Representatives, has been ridiculed within the social circle for failing to conceive after several years in marriage.

Now, the question on the lips of many is: who is responsible or who is the biological father since the couple (both Shade and Ojo) have never lived together as husband and wife ever since she was installed as the Iyaloja General?

Before now, rumour had it that Shade was having an affair with one Babaloja of Oshodi, Alhaji Abdullahi Sanni a.k.a. Provida.

Meanwhile, we shall update you as events unfold.

Fashion Palace eventually emerged as the overall winner with N350,000, while the ner up went home with 200,000 and 100,000, Akerele Finyinfoluwa Sharon (FinyinbyFinyin), Oni Opeyemi Sharon (Le Couture Peony) respectively.

The 4th edition was exceptional as young creative designers competed favourably well among themselves as they brought back decency in dressing especially among the youths and society at large.

The 2017 GFS featured exquisite designs from Fashion Designs Masterclass with Ejiro

Quincy, Becky and the Host and Models

Peter Adebayo among others.

The event, however, created an avenue for budding young entre-

for fashion, modeling, photography, media, videography, graphic designs among other related vocations to showcase their talents.

Abuja-based Pastor, Bishop Emmanuel Esezobor condemned Contrary to a biblical scripture that frown against individual judging man of God, Nigerians have thrown caution to the wind when the general overseer of Firehouse Assembly in Abuja, Nigeria, Pastor ture surface on social media where Staff, followers and junior pastors kneel down for him as he walk by. a form of respect, which has become a norm within the church.

Many have condemned this act saying the pastor is operating a tion as no scripture in the bible says every disciple or follower must kneel before their pastors whenever he walk through them.

Interestingly, this reportedly happened at last Sunday service and neither the pastor nor the members have come out to defend the gen-

Biodun Fatoyinbo and wife Pastor, Bishop Emmanuel Esezobor

Relationship L8

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Mutiat Alli

Common phrases you don’t realize are actually abusive Books and movies from “Twilight” to “50 Shades of Grey” teach society to buy into the idea that dependent and harmful relationships are the epitome of love. Because of these complicated versions of romance, it can be challenging for people to recognize emotional abuse.

However, anything that causes the victim to feel degraded, guilty, invalidated or humiliated may be a result of emotional abuse. While this list does not include every form of emotional abuse, nor indicate a partner is abusive, the following list may help you evaluate whether your relationship is suffering from emotional abuse.

“Get over it” Rather than validating feelings, this phrase implies that the person who needs to “get over it” is overreacting. This is a form of gaslighting_a type of abuse where the abuser

makes the victim feel like they are crazy.

them. Your partner should not disregard them.

You are entitled to your feelings and to express

“You don’t know”

need

to

Communication in an exclusive relationship is definitely on a need to know basis—meaning, if you feel you have a need to know you should know.

Your partner shouldn’t define that for you because, really, healthy relationships are not built on secrets.

“I love you, but …”

If your partner expresses love to you but tacks on a caveat, they don’t really love you. Rather than building you up as expression of love should, it decreases your self-esteem, leading you to believe that your abuser is the only person who could “put up’ with you.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” Another form of gaslighting, this form of abuse makes it seem like you don’t what you are talking about. Someone who loves you will try to your point of view instead of disregarding it.

“It’s for your own good”

Abusers may try to make you feel as though they’re trying to help you. However, what they’re doing is really for their own good.

It also places the abuser in the place of authority, which can make the victim feel dependent on the abuser.

“Your problem is …”

This phrase masquerades as constructive criticism, alerting you to your issues so that you can improve.

However, abusers use this phrase repeatedly to destroy the victim’s selfesteem by making hyperaware of their flaws.

“It’s your fault” While at times you need to accept responsibility for your actions, you shouldn’t feel persistently guilty. No matter what, your partner is responsible for his or her own actions. You are not the cause of their actions.

They should not make you feel guilty for things that they did.