Dtn 10 1 17

Sodiq Adekunle, Osogbo

Pensioners in Osun State have set up an Internally Displaced Pensioners (IDP) camp for themselves as a way of protesting the non-payment of their gratuity and

Continued on page

Why Pinnacle

When the history of digital broadcast is told in Nigeria, Pinnacle Communications Limited will be proudly remembered as the firm that blazed the trail and set standards for the emergence of world class digital broadcasting in Nigeria.

Tony Ailemen, Jude Idu, Abuja & Chukwuemeke

Iwelunmo, Lagos

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, approved the appointments of new heads of aviation

parastatals.

The president also on Monday approved the immediate removal and replacement of the Executive Secretary and the reconstitution of the board of the

Suspected kidnappers of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bagudu Hirse, being paraded by the Police at the Force Headquarters in Abuja… on Monday.

Caring for autism sufferers in Nigeria

Recent report has it that Nigeria is among the countries with noticeable cases of autism, with about 380,000 children. This was disclosed at the World Autism Awareness Day held at the United States Embassy in Lagos. The event, which was organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, is to sensitise Nigerians on the disorder in order to get appropriate cure. Addressing the audience, the United States envoy to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle, noted that autism is a global problem that affects one of every 68 children in the United States,adding that the disorder affects all classes and races in the country. We may ask what is autism. Autism,a spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. Scientists do not know yet exactly what causes these differences for most people with ASD. However, some people with ASD have a known difference, such as a genetic condition. There are multiple causes of ASD, although most are not yet known. There is often nothing about how people with ASD look that sets them apart from other people, but they may communicate, interact, behave, and learn in ways that are different from most other people. The learning, thinking, and problem-solving abilities of people with the disorder can range from gifted to severely challenged. Some people with ASD need many help in their daily lives; others need less. ASD begins before the age of three and last throughout a person’s life. Some children with ASD show hints of future problems within the first few months of life. In others, symptoms may not show up until 24 months or later, while some children with an ASD seem to develop normally until around 18 to 24 months of age and then they stop gaining new skills, or even lose the skills they once had. Studies have shown that one third to half of parents of children with an ASD noticed a problem before

their child’s first birthday, and nearly 80 –90 percent saw problems by 24 months of age. Estimates put it that autism is the third most common childhood disorder in Nigeria and is the fastest growing developmental disability. Before now, children with autism are also thought to be schizophrenic or mentally retarded because of some ‘odd behaviour they present with which, due to lack of understanding, can be frightening for people around them to witness. There is fear and stigma associated with autism and parents are sometimes blamed for their child’s autism. The truth, of course, is that autism is not due to bad parenting. It is not due to witchcraft. The children are not witches, as alluded to in certain places in Nigeria. It is important to recognise the early signs of autism and seek early intervention services. One of the most important things a parent or caregiver can do is to learn the early signs of autism and become familiar with the typical developmental milestones in the your child. The following ‘red flags’ may indicate your child is at risk for an autism spectrum disorder. No big smiles or other warm, joyful expressions by six months or thereafter,backand-forth sharing of sounds, smiles or other facial expressions by nine months,lack of babbling by 12 months, no back-and-forth gestures such as pointing, showing, reaching or waving by 12 months,no words by 16 months, lack of meaningful two-word phrases by 24 months and loss of speech, babbling or social skills at any age. Fortunately, some people with autism are able to live relatively independent lives, but others may have learning and behavioral disabilities that mean they need constant help and support. That is why we are calling on the various governments, corporate bodies and non- governmental organisations to be at fore front in taking the initiatives to provide requisite and adequate training facilities for such group of children to enable them live healthier and normal lives like their peers.

Any priest who preaches resurrection of Jesus Christ without seeing the resurrection of the economy - is wasting his time

“The work of Nigeria is not complete for as long as there is any one Nigerian who goes to bed on empty stomach.”

Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta (right) in a handshake with Nigerian Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, during a courtesy visit on Kenyatta to canvass support for the Nigerian candidate on the forthcoming African Union Commission elections at the State House, Mombassa … recently.

greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.”

Ogbonnia Nwodo, during a courtesy visit on Umahi on the forthcoming Ohanaeze Ndigbo President-General election in Abakaliki… on Monday.

Ogun State Governor, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun (2nd left); Head of Service, Mr. Abayomi Sobande (left); Chief of Staff, Chief Tolu Odebiyi (right) and Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs. Adepeju Adebajo, after the swearing in of the trio at the Executive Council chamber, Governor’s office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, Ogun State... on Monday.

Ibrahim Babangida Wole Soyinka “The

Monsignor Livinus Ukah

Buhari’s axe falls on aviation agencies, FRC

Continued from page 1

Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC).

The appointment of new heads of aviation parastatals was announced in an official statement signed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, Sabiu Zakari, on behalf of Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika.

The statement reads in part:

“President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has approved the following appointments: Captain Fola C. Akinkuotu as Managing Director, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA)”.

Captain Akinkuotu is a seasoned transport pilot, flight and aircraft maintenance engineer, airline chief executive and a trained aviation industry regulator.

According to the statement, Professor Sani Abubakar Mashi, has also been appointment as Director-General, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET).

A Professor of Geography with specialty in environmental application of remote sensing, Prof. Mashi is currently a deputy vice chancellor at the University of Abuja.

While Captain Abdulsalam Mohammed has been appointed as Rector, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) Zaria, Engr. Akinola Olateru has also been made the Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB).

An alumnus of the College, Capt. Mohammed is a renowned civil aviation trainer and examiner with accreditation by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority and the Federal Civil Aviation Administration.

On his own part, Olateru, an engineer of international repute, is a trained Air Accident Manager and Certified Safety Officer with Aircraft Maintenance Engineering licences in Nigeria, USA and

the United Kingdom.

Since assumption of office, the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has embarked on a wide range of restructuring processes cutting across manpower, security and infrastructural developments.

Senator Sirika has in many fora reiterated that the ongoing restructuring in the aviation agencies was to ensure justice in the system and reposition the sector for profitability.

Speaking on some changes made in some of the agencies recently, the Minister said the restructuring at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was far from over, adding that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) were next.

Sirika, while addressing stakeholders in Lagos, had also explained that government re-deployed, demoted and terminated some appointments of staff due

to improper placement at these agencies.

According to him, the restructuring became imperative because of top-heaviness in these agencies with a combined total of 88 general managers on grade level 17 and above on the payroll.

“Government is handling the restructuring in phases with a view to creating leaner and more effective agency instead of the over-bloated workforce that has provided little or no impact in the system,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, President Buhari in approving the immediate removal and the replacement of the Executive Secretary and the reconstitution of the board of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRN), appointed Mr. Adedotun Sulaiman, MFR, as the new chairman, FRC board.

Sulaiman was a former Managing Partner/Director of Arthur Anderson and later, Accenture.

He is a chartered accountant and a product of the University

of Lagos and Harvard Business School.

The President has also approved the appointment of Mr. Daniel Asapokhai as the Executive Secretary of the FRC.

Asopokhai is a partner and a financial reporting specialist at the PricewaterHouseCoopers (PWC), Nigeria. He is a product of the University of Lagos and the University of Pretoria.

A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said President Muhammadu Buhari also instructed the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment to invite the 19 ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government and private sector organisations specified in the FRC Act to nominate members of the board of the council.

In a related development, the Presidency, on Monday, said the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, did not use the funds of the Nigeria High Commission

in London to pay for his medical bills during a recent visit for emergency medical treatment.

The Presidency in a statement signed by Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President, (Media and Publicity), described the allegations against Abba Kyari, contained in a report published by an online news medium, as totally incorrect, misleading and a fabrication.

Shehu said the Nigeria High Commission in London did not at any time ever settle the medical bills or any other bills for that matter as Abba Kyari personally took responsibility for paying his own bills, adding that this was by the Chief of Staff’s choice.

The statement reads in part: “For the records, Kyari was rushed out of Nigeria for an emergency medical treatment on the fateful December 1, 2016. To receive him on arrival, the Wellington Hospital needed to have cash deposited, or in the absence of this, a letter of guarantee.

Chibok girls: BBOG group accuses FG of complacency

Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

The #BringBackOurGirls movement has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government of complacency, lethargy, and inertia in its handling of the issue of the abducted Chibok girls still in captivity of the Boko Haram.

The movement, rising from the second day of its seven-day protest to commemorate the 1000 day of abduction of the school girls in the hitherto sleepy town

of Chibok in Borno state, noted with regret that despite all assurances that negotiation were ongoing for the release of another 83 of the Chibok girls “soonest”, there has been no further communication on the status of their release.

The BBOG movement said this on Monday in a statement by its spokesperson, Sesugh Akume, in Abuja.

The movement specifically said that they would no longer tolerate excuses and delays on the issue of the remaining abducted girls from President Mu-

hammadu Buhari.

It said, “Mr. President; No More Excuses! Mr. President, No More Delays!! Mr. President, Decide Now!!! Mr. President, Act Now, We Want More Results!!!!.

Out of the abducted Chibok girls, 195 are still in the captivity of Boko Haram.

According to the BBOG’s statement, “our movement is justifiably worried that the Nigerian government has, once again, relapsed to the same complacency, lethargy and inertia that has been recurrent on this tragedy.

“What else explains the fact that despite all assurances that another 83 of our Chibok girls were under negotiation for release ‘soonest’, there has been no further communication on the status of their release?

“Very sadly, the Nigerian president’s Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, speaking on the President’s behalf on yesterday’s return of Rakiya Gali, said: ‘The President notes that the recovery raises renewed hope that the other captured girls will one day be reunited with their families,

friends and community.’

“Note that he said ‘...will ONE DAY be reunited with their families...’ Not ‘as soon as it’s humanly possible.’ There is no tone of urgency.

“This confirms our doubts as to the federal government’s rescue mission.

“Is the strategy that each one would escape of their own accord and be recovered for how long the process takes? This is excruciatingly pitiful.

We therefore go ahead with our #Day1000 activities with recommitted zeal,” it said.

FG amends charges against Justice Ademola to include Aji

Andrew Orolua, Abuja

The federal government said on Monday she intends to amend the 11 counts Criminal charges against Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court to include a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Joe Aji.

The announcement came just as Justice Jude Okeke of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory granted a motion for accelerated hearing of criminal charges bordering on corruption filed against Justice Adeniyi Ademola and his wife Olabowale.

The ruling followed an application by defence lawyer for speedy trial and an agreement between the Federal government lawyer and the defence lawyers that the matter be adjourned till Wednesday 11 to enable the prosecution re-arraigns Justice Ademola with Joe Aji a senior advocate of Nigeria accused of barbering Ademola

According to the prosecution, the application is seeking a situation where the defendants could be tried together in one suit.

Recall that FG in the 11 count charge filed against the defendants had alleged that the Senior Advocate had on several occasions offered

various sums of money to the first defendant in form of gratification.

The Judge who had earlier granted Justice Ademola’s application for abridgement of time for accelerated hearing also fixed Monday 16 to Wednesday 18 January for trials to commence.

Justice Okeke also urged counsel in the matter to avail them of every situation that would ensure speedy trial of the matter.

Both Onyechie Ikpeazu SAN and Robert Clerke SAN, counsel to the Ademolas had in their different application prayed the court for an accelerated hearing of the matter in order to prove the innocence of their clients.

The counsel disclosed that they had filed a motion dated Dec. 16 for abridgement of time for an accelerated hearing of the case.

They argued that this was in pursuant to the provisions of Section 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015.

Counsel to the Federal Government Segun Jegede, did not object to the motion, he however told the court that he would file an amended charge to bring in a third defendant, Mr Joe Agi (SAN).

Recall that Justice Okeke had fixed Jan 18 for commencement of

trial of the Ademolas last December following his granting bail to them on self-recognition ground.

In considering the application, Justice Okeke stated that the prosecution did not deny the administrative bail granted the defendants.

He also observed that the prosecution did not oppose the application, nor filed a counter-affidavit contra-

vening the averments of the defendants in their applications.

He further held that by not filing a counter-affidavit, the prosecution has concluded its investigation of the matter.

While stating that the offence with which the defendants were charged are bail able, he held that though the requirement for the submission

of passports and other travel documents were not required for the administrative bail, the court however cannot over-look it.

He therefore granted them bail in self recognition in the sum of N50m each and ordered that their international passports and other travel documents be deposited with the court registrar.

Dismissed police officers: Dakuku, Rivers’ PDP in war of words

Amaka

Agbu, Port Harcourt

The dust raised by the sacking of six police officers attached to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state by the Police headquarters, is yet to settle as the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the state have opened up a fresh round of verbal cross fire over the issue.

Last week, the police headquarters in Abuja announced the dismissal of the six officers for accompanying Governor Wike to Port Harcourt local Government Council Secretariat, one of the collation centres in the December 10, 2016, legislative rerun elections and misuse of fire arms against police regulations.

Dr. Peterside, who was also the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the 2015 general

elections in the state, on Monday, accused the governor of causing much embarrassment to the collective interest and aspirations of Rivers people.

The NIMASA boss was speaking against the background of the sacked policemen, saying that the actions of the governor were giving the state a bad name and rubbishing the achievement of her founding fathers. His position was contained in a statement issued by his media team, signed by its spokesman, Mr. Parry Saroh Benson.

In its reaction however, the PDP in the state said that the comments by Dr. Peterside on the sacked policemen, had exposed the inordinate role played by the Inspector-General of Police to ensure that the APC candidates won the election, describing the IGP’s action as real professional misconduct.

Dr. Peterside recalled “that according to police, the dismissed operatives were said to have disobeyed senior

officers by preventing officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from moving election results of Emouha polling unit to the appropriate collation centre, an action that contravenes the provisions of Force Order 237.

“The policemen, upon arriving the collation centre with Governor Wike, started shooting sporadically into the air without provocation, contrary to directive from Police IG against such act,” he said.

The former APC gubernatorial candidate expressed deep reservations over what he described as the unbecoming attitude of the governor, who he alleged, had serially compromised security in the state and has been allegedly involved in several electoral malpractices.

He queried: “What manner of a man is Wike? His desperation to become governor at all cost led to loss of many lives and destruction of properties. Since becoming governor, it

Rampaging workers shut down FUOYE over

Gbenga Sodeinde, Ado Ekiti

Workers at the Federal University Oye, (FUOYE) Ekiti state on Monday practically shut down all activities at the university while protesting the non-paid salaries and other entitlements.

The protest, which was against

the management and authority of the university, stalled the orientation programme that ought to have been organized for the new students of the university, while their parents, who brought them in their vehicles were disappointed when they met the main gate under lock and key. led by the leadership of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Uni-

versity (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), the rampaging staff closed down the school and prevented their colleagues, both academic and non-academic from entering as early as 7am at the main gate of the university up till the time of filing this story.

The protest later spilled to the heart of town, where the placard-

has been bad news all the way. Many people, including security personnel have been murdered in different parts of the state. Now, policemen have been dismissed from service all because of the inordinate ambition of one man,” he said among other things.

However, in a statement issued on Monday signed by Mr. Jerry Needam, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, of the state PDP chairman, Chief Felix Obuah, said “recent ranting by Dakuku against the Rivers State Governor was unbecoming” and wanted security agencies to call him (Dakuku) to order.

The PDP chairman stated that the issue of the sacked policemen called for a rational examination by wellmeaning Nigerians, irrespective of party affiliation, adding that “the careless comments by Dakuku have vindicated the position of the PDP that the sacking of the six policemen has political undertones.”

unpaid salary

carrying staff had chanted various songs to deride the Vice Chancellor, Prof Kayode Soremekun and threatening to make the university ungovernable if their demands are not met.

Academic staff who forced their way into institution were harassed by the rampaging workers, branding them as betrayer’s partners in struggle.

Navy hands over ‘oil thieves’, vessels to EFCC

The Nigerian Navy on Friday handed over three suspected oil thieves and four tug boats to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Port-Harcourt, Rivers.

Spokesman of the commission, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Monday.

He said the move was part of collaboration between the Navy and the EFCC to rid the country’s waterways of illegal oil bunkering.

He named the suspects as Damiete Kemuel, Francis Egbedi and Dum Nwineedam, and the vessels as MV Kessy1, MV Thames, MV Lolo14 and MV Lolo 20.

According to him, the suspects were intercepted by officials of NNS Pathfinder at Abuloma following intelligence.

“The vessels were said to have been loaded with an estimated 40 metric tonnes each of suspected illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil (AGO).

“The suspects will be arraigned in court as soon as investigation is completed,” he said.

This development is coming a month after the commission arrested an oil vessel off-loading products suspected to be diesel on Eagle Island also in Port Harcourt.

Uwujaren had said that the arrest of that vessel, the first by the EFCC since its inception, followed highlevel intelligence and surveillance by the agency.

Debris of popular Olorunsogo ultra-modern market, Oshodi, Lagos… on Monday.

Rivers Golden Jubilee: Wike promises to complete key projects

Amaka Agbu, Port Harcourt

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has stated that the state government would complete some key projects in 2017 which would be christened “Jubilee Projects” to mark the 50th anniversary of the state coming up in May, this year.

The governor who was speak-

ing at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Monday, when he received the Interim Report of the Golden Jubilee Committee, noted that the Golden Jubilee celebration would further project the state positively as it would showcase the best of the Rivers people.

He called on the committee to swing into action immediately so

LHS school committed to high standard -Hassan

A Chartered Accountant and Chairman of LHS Nursery and Primary School, Ota, Ogun State, Mr Olawale Hassan, has described the existing 100 percent facilities and quality of staff in the newly opened school as a confirmation of the school’s commitment to high standard of education.

Hassan, who said this during an interactive session with a section of the media at Ota, Ogun State recently, stressed that the school’s conformity to quality standards with both Nigerian and British integrated curriculum has, no doubt, confirmed the institution’s core objective of ensuring the production of accomplished and ambitious young boys and girls of proven integrity who are ready to make significant contributions to the society.

The Chairman noted that LHS Nursery and Primary School was established to meet the needs of parents by bringing value, care and intelligence to kids, adding that the infrastructural facilities at the school’s disposal was a clear evidence of the man-

agement’s efforts to build a school that can produce pupils with entrepreneurial and leadership skills grounded in ethical values and ready to lead the train for positive change in the world.

“At LHS, greater emphasis is placed on the carrying capacity and qualification of our pupils. We are also more competitive and more creative in the use of human and material resources, while skills acquisition is embedded in our curriculum at all levels”, he said.

Hassan further stressed that the Crèche, Pre-Nursery, Nursery and Basic Classes would focus on flagship programmes that would promote the development of the child and equip him or her to be self-disciplined, honest and self-reliant, stressing that developing these skills was the cornerstone of the education the school offers.

The Educationist pointed out that the pupils were daily being counseled to have the fear of God, develop their talent, work hard, follow due process, be role models and to strive to leave a good legacy.

that the state would have a worthwhile Jubilee celebration and lauded the committee for a wellresearched report, pointing out that implementation would start after the State Executive Council had met with the committee.

“I want to urge members of the Golden Jubilee Committee to immediately swing into action. This celebration requires Publicity,

that is why we must begin early,” he said.

Speaking earlier, Chairman of the Rivers State Golden Jubilee Committee, Chief Ferdinand Alabrabra, informed that the unveiling of the Golden Jubilee logo and a world press conference would herald the celebration.

Chief Alabraba said that cultural events and performances

would showcase Rivers State to the world, while a book on Rivers State at 50 and recognition awards for those who contributed to the growth of the state would also feature.

The committee chairman added that the committee also suggested the way forward by proposing Vision 2067, which stipulated where the state would be in 50years.

Moses Oyediran

The Federal University Ndufu Alike Ikwo Ebonyi State (FUNAI) has concluded plans to run international collaboration with other Ivy League varsities to make impact on

Catholic Bishops president calls for unity among Christians

The President of Catholic Bishops of Nigeria, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama (Archbishop of Jos), has decried the level of dis-unity among Christians, saying that worshipers don’t seem to be together amidst the many challenges that have bedeviled the country.

Kaigama stated this yesterday in Jos, during a courtesy call in his honour paid by the Arewa Christians and Indigenous Pastors Association.

He said that the different denominations among the Christian folks disagree a lot, adding that Christ teachings as instructed in the holy books should be the parameter for living a good Christian life.

The visit to the Catholic Bishop by the group was to seek his blessings as Arewa Christians and Indigenous Pastors Association set to launch its programme aimed at uniting Northern Christians and championing a new cause for northern believers.

President of the group,

Rev. Luka Shehu, told our correspondent that the group is to protect, evangelize and foster cordial relationship between Northern Christians and other religious faiths, especially Muslims.

Meanwhile, the President of Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Rev. Dr. Jeremiah M. Gado, assured the group of his support, adding that Northern Christians need a unifying body that will devoid of compromise, that will protect and liberate not just the people in the north but Nigerians at large.

FUNAI

partners

foreign varsities on exchange programmes

research, development and collaborative teaching programmes for both staff and students, its Vice Chancellor, Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba stated.

He stated recently at the University adding that the institution was geared towards producing graduates that can meet the demands of the 21st century economy.

According to him, “Aberystwyth University and University of Edinburgh both in the United Kingdom, University of Leiden in the Netherlands, University of Lisbon, Portugal and a number of Universities in France with the help of the French Embassy in Nigeria have all indicated interest to

collaborate with the institution.

He also said that the partnerships have the potential to make an impact on curriculum development, collaborative teaching programmes and research networks of the University.

“The partnership will provide opportunities for staff and student exchange programmes, staff training secondment, research collaborations and knowledge transfer benchmarking.

Prof. Nwajiuba explained that it is anticipated that the partnership will further raise the international profile of the University and assist in the recognition of FUNAI

overseas as well as in the acceptance of our alumni to run programmes of postgraduate study and research at prestigious foreign Universities.

On the quality of its students, the VC said: “The good performance by our students are attributable to a number of factors including excellent world-class staff-student ratio, staff commitment, students willing to learn, dearth of common vices plaguing some older Universities, good laboratories, workshops, and among others.

“External examiners and recent NUC accreditation report have been attesting to the quality of our graduates”.

Students of Government Secondary School, Garki at the assembly ground, during the 2017 school resumption in Abuja… on Monday.

Photo: TEMITOPE BALOGUN.

Chijioke Kingsley, Jos

Resolving Anambra Central Senatorial quagmire

ment barring PDP from participating in the poll. Justice Chikere had refused to join Umeh as an interested party in the matter.

INEC appealed the judgment; Umeh also appealed the refusal of Justice Chikere to join him in the matter. The Court of Appeal Abuja Division on the 17th May, 2016, granted Umeh leave to appeal the judgment and upheld its decision on the issue on 22nd July, 2016, following PDP’s objection to the court’s ruling granting Umeh leave to appeal.

Umeh has since appealed the Abuja Federal High Court judgment. In a twist, the Mega Progressive People’s Party (MPPP) and the United Progressive Party (UPP) also filed applications at the Court of Appeal to be joined in the Chief Umeh and INEC appeals against Justice Chikere’s judgment.

The appellate court adjourned the Anambra Central Senatorial matter indefinitely pending the Supreme Court determination of the PDP interlocutory appeal on the leave it granted Umeh to appeal Justice Chikere’s judgment.

Maduka

Ibebunjo

Democracy is government of the people, by the people, for the people. A free, fair, peaceful, credible and acceptable electoral contest is the beauty of democratic governance which reaffirms that power belongs to the people.

The power of the electorate to vote into office or vote out a non-performing public office holder is the glue that holds and sustains representative governance as witnessed in the March 28, 2015 presidential election where Nigerians voted for General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in place of the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is democracy in action.

The reverse is the case in the March 2015 Anambra Central Senatorial poll with three major contenders, Chief Victor Umeh - All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Hon (Mrs) Uche Ekwunife – PDP and Dr Chris Ngige- APC. It was a charade called election. INEC declared Ekwunife the winner of the contentious election.

APGA rejected the result. In an advertorial in the Union newspaper of April 1, 2015 signed by the party’s Public Relations Officer, Anambra State chapter, Emeka Aforka, APGA strongly condemned the thuggery, brigandage, impunity, late arrival of INEC officials at various polling stations, failure of the card-reader device in most parts of the state and manipulation of results.

“That the results of the Senatorial Election as announced by the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra State do not by any stretch of the imagination reflect the expressed will of Ndi Anambra and therefore stand out as a monumental electoral injustice on our people,” Aforka stated.

Victor Umeh who was the front runner in the Anambra Central Senatorial poll challenged the purported election of Uche Ekwunife at the Anambra State National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal and lost. He appealed the tribunal’s

judgment and won. The court nullified Ekwunife’s election and disqualified her from taking part in the fresh election ordered by the Court of Appeal.

INEC slated 5th March 2016, for the rerun. Dr Chris Ngige of APC said he would not contest following his appointment as Minister of Labour and Employment by President Buhari. PDP said it would conduct fresh illegal primaries to choose a candidate and later postponed it indefinitely in protest against the arrest and detention of the party’s erstwhile National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Irked by the PDP action, Ekwunife joined the APC to actualise her senatorial ambition. In an interview published in The Authority newspaper of January 19, 2016, she said:

“What happened was that for the six months I was in the Senate, I was in different courts, from the FCT High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court. I spent the six months going from one court to another; everybody was claiming to be the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). As it is, there are two products in the market now, Umeh and myself. So, looking at the market, which one is more marketable that the voters can buy out of the two?” Ekwunife asked.

She had answered her question in a paid advertorial in the Sunday Sun newspaper of July 20, 2014 in a tribute to Victor Umeh on his 52nd birth-

day. Ekwunife who was then Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Environment on the APGA platform said; “I heartily congratulate you on the auspicious occasion of your birthday.

As a front-liner in the development of our nascent democracy, you have distinguished yourself in various strata of leadership.

“You have shown great resilience and commitment in the discharge of your duties as Chairman of our great party. These qualities, no doubt, have stood you out as a visionary leader of our time,” she asserted.

Indeed Umeh was the front-runner for the Anambra Central Senatorial rerun earlier scheduled to hold on 5th March, 2016, as Ekwunife lost in the APC illegal primaries. She rushed back to the Court of Appeal Tribunal at Enugu to review its December 7th, 2015 judgment that nullified her election. The application was dismissed on Thursday 3rd March, 2016, the same day the Department of State Security invited Umeh at its Awka office, Anambra State and took him to Abuja over allegations bordering on treason during his senatorial campaign. He denied the frivolous allegations and was released.

Four days to the rerun election, the Federal High Court Abuja presided over by Justice Anwuli Chikere delivered judgment on the PDP suit directing INEC to include the party in the March 5, 2016 Anambra Central Senatorial rerun poll in violation of the Court of Appeal Tribunal judg-

Undeterred, Ekwunife (now APC member) and PDP rushed to the Supreme Court to seek a review of the Anambra State National Assembly Election Appeal Tribunal’s judgment. The apex court partly heard the matter on 27th September, 2016, and noted that the appeal tribunal was the final court on legislative election matters.

It also noted that the application was incompetent, and incomplete, adding that the proceedings of the lower court must accompany the Brief. The matter was adjourned till when the complete record would be filed. The Supreme Court heard the appeal on 14th November, 2016, and fixed judgment for 10th February, 2017.

As the Anambra Central Senatorial rerun poll legal fireworks continue at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, political pundits are of the view that the court should accelerate the wheel of justice, as justice delayed is justice denied. More so, the apex court had set precedence on candidates who are qualified to participate in rerun elections declaring that only candidates who contested the previous poll could contest a court ordered rerun.

In its ruling, delivered on 13th of February, 2009 by Justice Ikechi Francis Ogbuagu, the Supreme Court in the case between Labour Party and INEC agreed with the Court of Appeal that, “Where a general election has been held and there is a false start, for example, a candidate who ought to have been part of the election was unlawfully excluded or there was no level playing ground for all the candidates and that election is subsequently either cancelled by the regulating authority like INEC or nullified by an order of a court or tribunal, and a rerun or re-start is ordered, it is my humble view that the re-run or re-start refers to that general election cancelled or nullified, and not a bye election”.

“The consequence of this is that all the candidates including the one unlawfully excluded would now get back to the starting line for a fair and free contest. It does not admit of any other candidate since as it were the period for nomi-

As the Anambra Central Senatorial rerun poll legal fireworks continue at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, political pundits are of the view that the court should accelerate the wheel of justice, as justice delayed is justice denied. More so, the apex court had set precedence on candidates who are qualified to participate in rerun elections.

Uche Ekwunife, Victor Umeh Dr Chris Ngige

What Lagos must do to compete with other world class cities -Olowo

Do you think N813Billion Budget size for the state for year 2017 is realistic?

You will appreciate the fact that the 2016 Budget was over N600 Billion and the people appreciate the fact that we have achieved a lot. As at 2016, the naira was about N220 to a dollar, today, it is about N490 to a dollar. So, when you look at the budget, we cannot operate in isolation, we are affected by what is happening all over. We are the second biggest economy in Nigeria and number seven in Africa. The whole budget for the year is less than 2 Billion dollars. When you go to a states like Atlanta or Chicago in the United States of America, their economy is bigger than that in terms of potentials. We are looking at Lagos as a global economy, we are looking at what Cairo is doing, what Johannesburg in South Africa is doing. If you go to Casablanca today, you would appreciate what we are talking about. The economy of Lagos is more than N2 Trillion because we are not just looking at now, we are looking at the potentials. To me, it is small compared to the leap we want to take. We want to take a great leap in Lagos because it is the economic hub of Nigeria. Lagos was better than Dubai in the past, but Dubai alone now, as a district in the United Arab Emirate, their budget is running into billions of dollars. The Lagos State budget is not bogus, we are only complaining because of our mentality.

Is there any certainty that the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would perform up to expectation in the year?

That is the message we want to pass to them, many of them don’t meet the required targets. We have cut the target of some, but we have increased the target of some of them, because what we discovered was that many of them could do better. We increased the target of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) from N20.1 Billion to N30 Billion and we discovered that they needed capacity and tools to perform, so we increased their subvention to over N200 Million. If at the end of the day, they don’t perform, we would cut it off. We are also treating some others like that, we want them to operate like the private sector so that they could meet their target.

How have you been able to cope with the technicalities in a large budget like this since you are not an Accountant?

People have asked me that question before. I am not an accountant, but I have worked with structured companies before, I was an operations manager with Oando Oil Plc, I was a divisional manager. I have managed organisations and people, when I had over 100 retail outlets under me. So, it becomes easy for me, it bothers on my background, I studied marketing, I was into transportation management, urban planning and stuffs like that. So, the issue has to do with my experience over time.

Does your committee have the capacity to monitor the MDAs to guide against loopholes?

Every committee of the House performs oversight functions on each of the MDAs, mine is just a co-ordinating committee. My own is just to appropriate funds. They would do their work before any of the MDAs come to me. The

Olowo

committees go out and perform their oversight functions. The MDAs go to their committees before they come to me for budget defence. It is when they are through before they come to me. Once the committees do their works, my own is just to collate. If they don’t do their job, the bulk of the job would be on me. So far so good, many of the committees are working.

You recommended an increase in what the LIRS generates into the purse of the states, would this not lead to over taxation or unnecessary burden and pressure on the people and organisations in the state?

The interest of the people of Lagos State is paramount to us. But, really how many people are in the tax net of the state. We have less than 30percent of them on the net, so we still have 70percen that are not yet captured in the tax net. Unfortunately, they are not people like you and me, many of them have many children,

and their families depend on the government for a lot of things. We will not over-tax anybody. We have over 20 million people in Lagos State, which was why we felt that we needed their data and we came up with the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA). When you look at the budget, we talk about e-insurance and we are investing over N2 Billion on that. Once you pay your tax, you would have access to a lot of things in the state. We will not force anybody. But we will correct the wrongs, we are going to have progressive taxation, the rich people are not paying tax, it is only the poor that are paying taxes.

How many employers of labour are paying taxes. You see them in Banana Island, Ikoyi and Lekki areas of the state. We are going to beam our searchlight on them and it is going to be a progressive taxation, the more you earn, the more you pay. We have estate taxation, tenement

We are the second biggest economy in Nigeria and number seven in Africa. The whole budget for the year is less than 2 Billion dollars. When you go to a states like Atlanta or Chicago in the United States of America, their economy is bigger than that in terms of potentials. We are looking at Lagos as a global economy, we are looking at what Cairo is doing, what Johannesburg in South Africa is doing. If you go to Casablanca today, you would appreciate what we are talking about.

rates, property tax and all that. We want to take more from the rich and expand the tax net. Asking LIRS to generate N30Billion monthly, we know what we are doing, and we know it is possible.

Why did you stop subventions to the state owned media and directed them to henceforth generate money for the state and to run their businesses?

Are the media houses not partially commercial, are they father Christmas that they would just offer services free of charge? It is about return on investment. Until we are able to dispassionately analyse this, there would be problem. We should not allow our emotions to take over, when we are talking about this. Flash back to three years ago, when the Lagos State Printing Corporation was generating about N100 Million yearly and I was part of the committee that said that let us reposition the corporation so that it can now become a revenue generating corporation, and they moved from N100million to over N400Million and they access the whole money through dedicated revenue and they still receive subvention.

But, somebody that was generating N100Million now generating over N400Million and you still give them subvention, what kind of system is that. They use the money generated for overhead. I believe that if we still give LTV 8 money and they generate money, what of privately owned media houses, are they not surviving. They can give us five years to provide them with state of the art facilities if that is the problem. We could even give them N2Billion, but there must be return for investment. So, let us know what the problem is. We have invested in them overtime, let them compete with others, that is the only way the state could move forward. We need money for development and for a lot of things.

We need a lot of money for the environment, any government agency that is not for public or social order must generate money for the government. For instance, we don’t expect money from the Ministry of Health or that of the Environment because they are for public and social order, but for some others, they should generate money for the government.

How would you advice the people of the state in relation to the budget as passed?

I just want them to support the government. The government is doing a lot with the construction of roads across the state. They should protect the facilities of government. Another initiative of the government that I love so much is the street light project, it has increased the economy of the state and reduced crime in the state. The lights are working without waiting for power supply from Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC). Also, those working in the state should pay their taxes regularly. You could also see the 10 lane road from Festac to Badagry. Lagos is an island inhabited by about 25million people. I want the people to co-operate with the government. We are starting the 4th Mainland Bridge, it is capital intensive, we have done the drawings and alignment, even if we are not starting it this year, work is on-going on it. We have invested along Badagry area because of its nearness to other countries and a lot of job is going on there for the benefit of our people.

Hon. Rotimi Olowo is the Chairman, House committee on Economic Planning and Budget in the Lagos State House of Assembly. Olowo is a third term member of the House representing Shomolu constituency 01. In this interview with ALADE TASMA he speaks on expectations of the recently passed 2017 budget and why some government agencies must generate revenue for the state among other issues.

Daily Times Nigeria

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

11 Politics

458 APC members decamp to PDP in Plateau

Chijioke Kingsley, Jos

Over 458 members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the weekend decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Langtang South Local Government Council of Plateau State.

The decampees were received at Kumbur community where the state commissioner for special duties, Hon. Hitler Dadi hails from. Speaking at the ceremony the deputy chairman of the party in the state, Hon. Amos Gombi commended the people of Kumbur community in Langtang South for returning en mass to PDP. Accord-

ing to him, the returnees will be accorded the same status with other members of PDP in the locality.

He said he was happy that the people has discovered that the APC lied to them in Plateau State in 2015 and are still lying to them till today.

Gombi added that the road linking Shendam to Langtang South was constructed by sen. Jonah Jang’s administration stressing that after two years that the APC came on board nothing has been added to it.

The vice chairman of the PDP in Plateau South, Simon Domle on his part said he was happy to receive APC decampees back to their original home, assuring that the true

change will come in 2019 when the mandate of the people will be return to them.

Similarly, former Deputy Speaker and member representing Langtang South state constituency in the Plateau State House Of Assembly in the last dispensation, Joyce Rapnan said she was overwhelmed by the gathering of the people to say no to APC in the area while assuring them that the mistake of 2015 will be corrected.

She pointed out that apart from the bore hole she provided for her people when she was in the state House of Assembly, nothing has been added to them under the APC government.

Buhari Coalitions charge Ugwuanyi on N9b FG refund

Moses Oyediran, Enugu

A coalition of Buhari Support Groups (BSGs) on Monday applauded Enugu State governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi over his decision to deploy the N9billion the state received from the Federal Government to payment of arrears of workers’ salaries, pensions and monies owed contractors.

The coalition however urged Governor Ugwuanyi to ensure that unelected council chairmen do not participate in the disbursement of the money.

The opinion of the coalition was made known after a meeting of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for meeting of the National Committee, Buhari Support Groups in the South-East, billed for Enugu on January 21.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Chairman of the LOC, Buhari Support Organisation (BSO), Anike Nwoga, described the massive influx of Ndigbo into APC since after the 2015 elections as a testimony that Ndigbo were happy with efforts by the Buhari administration to upgrade infrastructure in the South-East region as well as the transparency exhibited by his administration so far in managing the country’s resources.

Nwoga noted that in just 24 months, the current Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration would achieve what its predecessors in PDP led Federal Government failed to do on the roads in the SouthEast region - Aba-Calabar, UmuahiaIkot Ekpene, Owerri-Port Harcourt Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu-Port Harcourt expressways- in 16 years.

According to him, in the 2017 budget, the South-East region got an allocation of N26bn for road projects, with Anambra State getting N13.7bn; Abia State, N1.3bn; Ebonyi State,

N1.4bn; Enugu State, N7.5bn, while Imo State got N2.2bn.

Nwoga recalled that penultimate week the Federal Executive Council approved additional N16billion payment for the construction of the Second Niger Bridge and the job has commenced, “underscoring Mr. President’s commitment to raising the infrastructure base of the South-East as an to industrial and commercial region of the country.”

“As you are equally aware, the Federal Government recently released N388.304 billion as refunds of over-deductions on London-Paris Club loans, of which Enugu State got N9 billion.

“Whereas, we use this opportunity to applaud our governor, His Excellency, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, for making the N9.972billion received by Enugu State open and channeling it into payment of arrears of salaries and pensions as well as monies owed to contractors as President Buhari directed. However, we urge the governor to ensure that unelected local government chairmen do not per take in the disbursement of the monies recently received, since they do not hold the mandate of the people. We still use this opportunity to call for local government elections as enshrined in Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as

amended).”

The LOC Chairman said the BSGs were happy with the massive entry into APC of Igbo sons and daughters after the 2015 general elections, adding that they would use their meeting of 21st January to strategise on how to give their brothers and sisters a rousing welcome in the months ahead.

He however, said time has come for Ndigbo to count their teeth with their tongues and abandon those ethnic merchants and religious bigots who preach hate only for their selfish interest as these were the few who became millionaires when millions were impoverished and who never remembered the federal roads in the South East when their brother Senator Anyim Pius Anyim was Secretary to Government of the Federation, their sister Dr Mrs Ngozi ÖkonjoIweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinator of the Economy and their brothers, Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker among others. Nwoga used the opportunity to once again appeal to Ndigbo to have faith in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that they were optimistic that in the fullness of time, the Buhari administration will fulfill all promises made to the South-East region.

Rapnan called on her people to be ready to vote massively for PDP candidates in the forte coming local government council election and 2019 general election from the locality.

Leader of the decampees, Denis Waidu, on his part said he was happy to lead hundreds of decampees back to PDP in the locality saying that PDP is a moving train that will take them to the Promised Land.

Member representing Langtang North/South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Beni Lar in her good will message thanked the people of her constituency for keeping faith with PDP that her father founded for Nigeria.

Hon. Amos Gombi

Lagos Speaker lauds Ambode on vehicle registration

Alade Tasma

The Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, has commended the state governor, Akinwumi Ambode’s initiative on online verifications of number plate describing the introduction of a website, through which motorists and law enforcement agencies can verify the authenticity of vehicles number plates, as a welcome development.

The Speaker stated this while commending the Smart City initiative of the governor and the Lagos State Motor Vehicle Administration Agency (MVAA), noting that this initiative is a right step in the right direction, as it will no doubt curtail many forms of criminal activities in the state.

It would be recalled that the General Manager, MVAA, Mr. Lateef Lawal recently announced the existence of the website, which he said

became necessary in order to eradicate the unnecessary harassment of motorists by officials of the Nigerian Police, Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) and other Security Agencies.

In a statement issued from the office of his Special Adviser on Political and Legislative Matters, Mufutau Egberongbe, Obasa, while noting that this will go beyond eradicating harassment by law enforcement agencies, said, “Personally, I believe that the introduction of this website will do more than eradication of harassment by officers of the law. It will also help reduce crime rate in the state.

“Let us imagine a situation where a vehicle with a particular registration number plate is used to perpetrate a crime in place and the number is captured, once that number is entered on website, it will reveal every detail about the car including the name of its owner, vehicle model, colour of the car and so on.”

Resolving Anambra Central Senatorial quagmire

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

nation and screening of candidates would have elapsed. In the final analysis or conclusion, this appeal, I hold in my respectful but firm view, is unmeritorious. It fails and it is accordingly dismissed”.

From the Supreme Court landmark judgment, it is manifest that political parties cannot conduct fresh primaries to select new candidates for rerun polls as the period of nomination of candidates had elapsed. Political parties and their candidates disqualified by the National Assembly Court of Appeal Tribunal from participating in rerun elections cannot also contest as the appeal tribunal is the final court on legislative elections. This is the clear position of the law. A position INEC, Umeh and all lovers of democracy, due process and rule of law are determined to defend.

With 720,000 registered voters in Anambra Central Senatorial zone, close to 840,000 total registered voters in Bayelsa State, the people of the zone deserve an effective representative in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Umeh who used his 52nd birthday anniversary organized by the APGA Solidarity Movement at Awka, Anambra State on 19th July 2014, to declare for the senate, received numerous endorsements in Anambra Central Senatorial zone in particular and the State in general. He has received numerous national and international awards for his service to God and humanity. With multiple frivolous, spurious and flippant suits instituted against his senatorial bid, pundits wonder who is afraid of Victor Umeh going to the Senate? Will he overcome the legal hurdles? Time will tell.

Gov. Ugwuanyi

News 12

Daily Times Nigeria

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

N2.6bn fraud: Absence of EFCC’s witness stalls proceedings

How I moved cash into Justice Ajumogobia’s accounts –EFCC witness

Peter Fowoyo

The planned trial of a former director-general of Nigerian Maritime Administration Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, on Monday, suffered a setback as a Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, adjourned till February 28.

The trial of the accused was earlier slated for January 9 to January 13, for the defense counsel to cross-examine the 11th witness for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Chukwuma Orji, and for the continuation of trial.

However, on Monday, the witness, was unavoidably absent from court, following his trip to the United Kingdom with the Acting Director-General of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, for a meeting with the nation’s anti-graft agency.

The Judge expressed regrets on the adjournment on the grounds that he had ensured his punctuality in court to attend to the sole case on his diary, even though the day marked his birthday.

Buba expressed regrets on the adjournment on the grounds that he had ensured his punctuality in court to attend to the sole case on his diary even though the day marked his birthday.

His words: “I am 59 years old today, and I am here in court, prepared to go on with the matter, hoping we would make progress.

“If I had this idea that the court will not sit, then, I wouldn’t have bothered.

“This is the only case listed in my diary for the week, and I came here in the hope that there would be a remarkable progress.”

Akpobolokemi, a former chief at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, and five others, were arraigned on a 22-count charge by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The accused persons allegedly converted to their own use, N2.6bn between Dec. 23, 2013 and May 28, 2015.

The other accused persons were Captain Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche and Governor Juan, Blockz and Stonz Ltd, Kenzo Logistics Ltd and Al-Kenzo Logistic Ltd.

A prosecution witness in the on-going trial of a Federal High Court, Justice Rita OfiliAjumogobia, alongside a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Godwin Obla, Adedamola Oshodi, Monday, testified before a Lagos High Court, Ikeja, on how a corporate account with the name Nobel Colive and account was opened for the first defendant despite the building on the registered address was still under construction.

Adedamola, a staff of Diamond Bank Plc, told the court presided by Justice Hakeem Oshodi, how the bank conceded on opening the corporate account for Justice Ajumogobia based on the fact that she is a customer of the bank and that the property belongs to her.

Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, alongside Chief Obla, were docked by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Hakeem Oshodi sometime in November, 2016 on a 30-counts charge that bothers on perversion of the course of justice.

The witness further narrated to the court the procedures involved in opening of such accounts and how the first defendant did her beat by filling the necessary form and how representatives from the bank visited the property situated on 18, Layi-Bembe Estate, Fajuyi, Lagos.

“Based on the instructions of

the Hon. Justice Ajumogobia, transactions were made into the corporate accounts after it was opened,” he said.

While being led in evidence by counsel to EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, the witness further confirmed to the court that the first defendants, operates two other accounts with Diamond Bank, which he worked with.

He also disclosed how he had helped Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia on several occasions to deposit cash into her Diamond account and another account he named as a US dollar account.

“I have done several transac-

tions for the first defendant. She usually calls me as her account officer if there is need for me to assist her in doing any transaction.

“Whenever the money was above the lawful threshold that could be deposited in the judge’s account, I normally split the money into two, deposit a portion into Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia’s account, while I keep the remaining portion into my own personal account and I will later transfer the money from my personal account to the judge’s account.

“I often make huge cash deposits on behalf of the first de-

fendant and I usually go to her office chambers on the premises of the Federal High Court on Oyinkan Abayomi Drive, Ikoyi or her house to collect the cash intended for transaction.

Based on the instructions of the defendant, I do receive money from one Saheed Danladi Abbah on behalf of Hon. Justice Ajumogobia and I also fill tellers on her behalf and pay the money into her preferred account,” Adedamola said.

However, Justice Oshodi ruled that the matter be adjourned till January 30, for continuation of trial.

Osun retirees set up IDPs camp over N22b unpaid arrears

Continued from page 1

pension arrears.

The pensioners, under the aegis of Forum of 2011/2012 Group of Retirees, Nigeria Union of Pensioners, on Monday, alleged that the state government was owing N22 billion as gratuity.

The N22bn, they said, covers gratuity for primary and secondary schools retirees, civil servants and local government pensioners.

When our Correspondent visited the IDP camp that was set-up, food was being shared to the retirees.

Some of them were seen undergoing check-up on their eyes at about 01.00pm.

The retirees also placed placards showing their grievances against the Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola-led administration.

Among their demands were completion of payment of their 18 months’ half-pension arrears; payment of gratuity and funding of gratuity account.

Chairman of the forum, Mr.

Omoniyi Ilesanmi, in his address, asked the state government to commence full monthly pension payment to them.

He maintained that they were being owed no fewer than nine months pension arrears.

He said, “Today marks a milestone in the history of pensioners in Osun State as we are displaying the pathetic living condition of these noble, respectable and peaceloving senior citizens of the state, who have served the state and the nation, patriotically and meritoriously. I welcome you to the internally displace pensioner’s camp, first of its kind in the country.

“This group of people started serving the state when they were young and energetic to nurture our state to an enviable position, which attracted the present crops of the ruling class to come to the state as governor and the likes. The emergence of the present administration has caused irreparable damage to the lives of pensioners, workers and by extension the people of the state.”

According to Ilesanmi, the pensioners are also demanding the payment of their gratuities from 2008 to 2012 and the stoppage of half-payment of pension to them.

“We call on the state government for the immediate payment of the balance of our 18 months’ half-pension and the stoppage of any form of taxation on our pension, because our pension is not subjected to taxation,” he added.

He appealed to the Federal Government to set up a probe committee to find out how the monies released to the state were spent.

Asked if the Aregbesola-led administration was the only government in the state that owes the N22bn gratuity to the workers, one of the pensioners’ leaders, Comrade Yemi Lawal, said, “The entire money is N22bn. It is not really accumulating. During the regime of former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, he used to put reasonable amount like N100m every month into the pension and gratuity account and were paid on first-come first-serve basis.

“But in 2012, there was exodus. Large number of workers retired because of the new pension scheme, they didn’t want to participate and we went there to warn the government not to flout our money, that if there is reduction in monthly salary, monthly wage will increase. We told them that the figure used to pay workers should be retained and the excess should be deposited in the pension account, but Aregbesola was spending the money and didn’t put any money in the pension and gratuity account since 2013 and that was how the money accumulated.”

A retired octogenarian, who identified himself as Adeniran said he has given up and was preparing for death.

While speaking to our Correspondent in the IDP camp sideline, he lamented that the suffering was too much for him to bear.

“I have stopped all my children from going to school. They are now learning local trades. This government must change attitude,” he added.

Students of Ijegun Junior Grammar School, Lagos at the assembly ground, during the 2017 school resumption.

PHOTO: BOLAJI OLASUNKANMI.

Akpobolokemi

Titilope Joseph

Ibori: London and cesspool of stolen monies

For those anxious for James Onanefe Ibori’s touchdown in Nigeria, patience has to be a virtue. For the Ogidigboigboi is not coming home just now. Why? London is not done with him yet.

London lawyers are circling like vultures over Ibori’s head, forming an apparent evil looking halo even as the British Home Office seeks to squeeze and confiscate, as much as possible, what they willfully describe as Ibori’s loot in London’s real estate and banks and even beyond.

Indeed, but for Mrs. Justice May, the London high court judge who granted Ibori’s emergency appeal for release, our former governor would still have been locked behind bars. The Home Office lost its plan to block Ibori’s release on grounds that the hearing for Ibori’s asset confiscation is inconclusive.

Ibori is out of the slammer. But he cannot leave London until after the asset confiscation hearing is heard sometime soon, January, February, March…… one is not too sure. But certainly in 2017.

So the Delta State government welcome planning committee, along with Ibori’s boisterous political acolytes and well wishers, may have to wait until sometime in 2017 and maybe beyond, to have a glimpse of the revered Ogidigboigboi on Nigerian soil.

But this article is essentially not about Ibori, even if he sets the tone. It is about London, that rapacious capital of England. London is a city of sophisticated roguery. Much of its politicians, civil servants, courts, lawyers and real estate dealers are a sophisticated lot of unforgiving, greedy and grabbing rednecks.

London holds out its image of the world’s most opaque business capital as a bait to thieves around the world seeking to hide the billions looted from dirt poor, frontier countries, particularly African countries.

London lawyers, in particular, are specialists in the setting up of shell companies, with the most opaque of legalities so that the company owners are never revealed to the public. With such legalised illegalities, tons of looted monies from impoverished third world are moved into London banks and to buy top end London properties at astounding prices with no questions asked.

If the details of thousands of those shell companies were made public, it will shock Nigerians to know the vast numbers of loaded bank accounts and high end properties valued in thousands of millions of pounds which thieves from Nigeria own in London. And the silence of the omertà is maintained by the UK financial authorities until any of the rogues break the code by making his nuisance value a public spectacle.

London courts would dutifully jail any of the “alien” rogues who is unfortunate to have his dirty, stinking underwear exposed to public glare. London cannot bear being called a rogue city, so if you fail the secrecy

test, you are ruthlessly sacrificed on the public altar.

But if the London courts can get away with it, such as if the exposed fraud being contested did not happen on British soil, then the London courts can joyfully adjudicate and share looted asset among thieves (check out the Dan Etete and rogue Malabo story).

Thereafter London’s mafia politicians and civil servants move to confiscate the foreign rogue’s looted asset into the greedy red maws of Her Majesty’s Treasury, where it is lost forever and ever and ever.

London never returns loot stolen from foreign countries. Like Charles Dicken’s Fagin, the celebrated “receiver of stolen goods”, London snaps up all stolen loot without as much as a wink of shame. The UK rogue legal system allows London to receive and confiscate monies stolen from abroad and never, with display of ruthless national shameless, return the monies to the countries where the loot came from. That is unlike say Switzerland and some other countries that have been returning Abacha loot to Nigeria.

The World Bank estimates a conservative $40 billion (forty billion dollars) stolen by corrupt leaders of poor countries are stashed in overseas banks and properties. London is a major receiver of these illicit funds. Transparency International notes that £23 to £57 billion of dirty money is laundered in the U.K. by rogues and criminals from all over the world. Indeed London reeks.

Anthea Lawson is a British investigative journalist who works for Global Witness, a campaign organisation that investigates the links between natural resources, conflict, corruption and environmental degradation. In a FEDx HousesOfParliament presentation titled, How London Fuels Corruption, she said she was ashamed of London.

Lawson detailed how London fuels corruption in some of the poorest countries in the world. One example she gave is the celebrated billion dollar corrupt oil deal involving Dan Etete, a former Nigerian minister of petroleum, Shell Petroleum, Eni Oil and an aggrieved middleman. Shell and Eni had paid $1.1 billion for Nigeria’s most

lucrative off-shore oil block from an illegally set up company called Malabu Oil & Gas.

It turns out that Malabu is owned by Etete and that of the $1.1 billion paid to the Federal Government as a mere conduit pipe, $800 million was wired off immediately to rogue registered shell companies owned by private individuals, who ended up buying private luxury jets and armoured luxury cars with the funds.

But there was a snag, which made the billion dollar deal public. A middleman had dragged Etete and the oil companies to a high court in London seeking a ten percent cut of the corrupt deal. The London high court, as Lawson put it, decided that the middleman is entitled to the ten percent cut, without questioning whether the British court should be dividing the proceeds of corruption.

Global Financial Integrity, an organisation which works to curtail international illicit financial flows, undertook a 39 year (1970-2008) study of illicit financial flows from Africa. Its report, that “Nigeria, is by far the dominant driver of illicit outflows from the Sub-Saharan region, losing capital at the rate of nearly $10 billion dollars a year.”

Where are much of these illicit outflows going? London. And when it gets there, it never comes back. Not even when Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s hypocritically threatened to expose Nigeria’s wealthiest rogues. She never did. Why?

So too did Prime Minister David Cameron publicly declare in 2016, without shame, that Nigeria is fantastically corrupt.

Worse than the posturing and all the noise of fake civilised decency, is UK’s mean pinching of a few million pounds from the billions of illicit funds they rake in, to publicly donate as aid to the countries the stolen monies come from.

These meaner than rattlesnake British leaders pinch a measly £257 million as annual aid to Nigeria and make a huge din of global publicity about supporting the poor and infrastructural development of the perpetually poor

sub Saharan African country. Slavery cannot be worse than this neocolonialist deception driven in the main by our own leaders.

We ought to wonder what the bloody hell is wrong with our leaders who loot our treasuries to fill Her Majesty’s Treasury! Why do they impoverish their people only to stuff personal bank accounts and acquire real estate in the UK, USA, France, South Africa and elsewhere? For how do you explain Etete buying a massive chateau in France? Is it exotic taste or bland stupidity?

From the north to the south and from the west to the east of Nigeria, the story is the same up till today. A breed of ravenous men, proud in their stupidity, hailed by dumb followers, steal and haul our patrimony to private foreign bank accounts.

Why stash billions of dollars needed to grow Nigeria into a prosperous, productive country into personal foreign accounts? Are our leaders mad?

Why would Abacha steal from his own country and stuff the billions abroad for himself and his family. Why would Ibori pay millions of pounds in cash for properties in London among other properties around the world?

London makes it easy for international robbers. With such legal loophole of shell companies, cities like London, Dubai and others are havens for country looters, drug and weapons dealers. It is easy to hide the loot, and enjoy the spoils. The rogues and their families enjoy luxurious jet set lifestyles at the expense of millions of children and women dying of preventable diseases, the lack of potable water, poor electric power, horrible roads, and terrible state of schools, hospitals and industry.

They and their children live in opulence, quaff champagne in top flight London clubs, are in the best schools in London, drive plush cars and fly private luxury jets, while millions of people in their home country have no food to eat, do not attend school and have no jobs.

I can understand that the Brits do not give a damn, after all the harvests from the looting benefit their pockets and national economy.

Perhaps, time has come for my people to think. Time has come to ask what we gain when we help oil companies, in particular, the Royal Dutch Shell Company, to fleece our oil and pollute our lands for a few crumbs.

Time has come to learn from the experiences of folks like Ibori. For after jailing him, they would wring him dry of his asset. Those asset are lost to London for ever.

But the biggest challenge is not those who return home to the hero’s welcome. The real challenge is the huge number of unveiled Nigerian thieves who continue to maintain massive bank accounts and own huge swaths of properties in London and other major cities of the world. It is the smug sanctimonious posturing of London as a decent city when in truth it is no more than a hardened receiver of stolen monies, of illicit funds, which it never returns.

Conversations with African Liberation fighters

hen I boarded the protocol bus at Algiers Airport on November 28, 2016, a lady politely greeted me in faulty Yoruba. Given my dressing, she guessed correctly that I am Nigerian. She then added “Iyawo Naija la wa”, meaning ‘I am married to a Nigerian’. Her name is Boshigo Ntsi Rosinah Matlou, a South African who at 15 in 1966, arrived in Nigeria with four of her younger ones, the youngest being seven.

The children, refugees from the insane Apartheid regime in South Africa, had arrived Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana from Tanzania certain of being given refuge. Their father, Jonas Matlou was the African National Congress (ANC) Representative in Ghana.

Unfortunately, Nkrumah was overthrown in a CIA-organised coup and part of the coup plotters mandate was to expel all African liberation fighters taking refuge in Ghana.

The new government which expelled Matlou, gave him a concession, that his young family could stay. But the children were not allowed to go to school.

A white South African informed their mother that a social crusader, Tai Solarin ran a school in

WNigeria called May Flower School, Ikenne and that he would readily accept and educate the children. That was how five of the six Matlou children made their way to Nigeria. After May Flower and Sixth Form in Ijebu Ode Grammar School, she went to Cape Coast University, Ghana and returned to Nigeria in 1980 where she worked for a dozen years before making her way to Botswana, and finally to a liberated South Africa. While in Nigeria, she worked for the Liberation Movement.

The senior Matlou had opened the ANC Office in Botswana in 1961 before moving to Tanzania and then Algeria, where he helped to bring in South African youth for military training. He went on to Cuba and sent for his family to join him in Ghana. They did, only for him to be expelled. He went back to Tanzania, then Europe, back to Botswana in 1985 and was killed in a car crash in 1991. He never saw a free South Africa. The Algerian Government in organising an international conference on ‘Algeria’s contribution to the decolonisation of Africa’ remembered Jonas Matlou, and invited his daughter to the conference.

His face was unmistakable. TheoBen Gurirab, the outstanding liberation fighter from Namibia. In liberated Namibia, he went on to become its Foreign Minister, Prime Minister, and, internationally,

President of the United Nations General Assembly. He said he was a primary school child in the village when he heard over the Apartheid South African Broadcasting Corporation that the French was carrying out a massacre of Algerians who dared challenge their takeover of Algeria.

The liberation war took an ironic twist for Masala Mziwandile. Fifty three years ago, he was one of the enthusiastic youth trained in Algeria. He returned to Tanzania and was, in 1964, infiltrated into South Africa. His brief was to anchor the attacks of Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC, in the Soweto area. He told me: “We started underground operations in Soweto. Unfortunately, the comrade housing me was arrested on an unrelated charge. When you are arrested, the police took you back to search your home. The kids came running, shouting ‘The white people are here!’ I could not break the burglary proof and they found me in the room. They didn’t know who I was, and that was the beginning of a gruesome interrogation. I had a DOOM –PASS; it was actually a pass, it had my photograph, but the details on the pass belonged to somebody else. Eventually, they cracked my identity. They took me to court in 1965 and I was sentenced to eleven years imprisonment which I spent on Robben Island. I was released in 1976 and settled

On the forthcoming cabinet changes

hen, late 2016, the rumour made the rounds that the Buhari administration was looking to a refresh of its cabinet this year, the buzz around the prospect of new blood being infused into the federal government was palpable. As in the run-up to the last general elections, expectations were heightened of some movement in the direction of fixing the economy. For, whatever the incumbent administration’s conceit, it is hard to escape the sense on Main Street that it has not been as forthcoming on the change agenda, as its campaign posturing promised.

Doubtless, a difficult global economic environment has played its part in the administration’s frustration. Basically, cheaper global crude oil prices have denied it the revenue with which to finance major reform efforts; just as global appetites for emerging market asset waned.

Equally arguably, the administration may have underestimated the rot it inherited. So, two years into the administration’s first term, we find that the federal government’s budget is still substantially about

Wspending on salaries and overheads to the detriment of spending on maintaining existing infrastructure and/or building new ones. Despite alluding to the high cost of governance on assuming office, not much has been done about streamlining ministries, departments and agencies of state. The net effect of this is that the duplication of functions and overlaps of processes that this profusion of government institutions represents shows up in higher costs across the economy. The failure of the Buhari administration to lift the huge burden of the Nigerian state on the economy is the most obvious explanation for the country’s continued sub-par performance on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) ease of doing business ranking. The Forum’s latest Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) for 2016-2017, shows the country in at 127th (of 138 countries surveyed), whereas it ranked 124th when last the index was published.

Since May 2015, government has additionally failed to improve domestic terms of trade in ways that support private sector activity. Instead, from its management of the foreign exchange markets, through the slew of sanctions it has

meted out on domestic businesses, it may be supporting a sense of the “state” in the old Marxian acceptation — one interested in controlling the commanding heights of the economy. No surprise, therefore, that entrepreneurship continues to thrive only in sectors either cosseted by the state — cement, for example. Or in those ignored by the state — Nollywood, and the local music industry. Although, as with most initiatives by the government, the outlines of the proposed cabinet change were not clear as at when the government’s apologists began bruiting the idea abroad, the notion of it alone held out the possibility of a reset in the government’s direction and trajectory, just by the simple expedient of bringing in new perspectives on the myriad problems confronting the economy.

That was before the government indicated that the proposed changes to the cabinet were neither a task nor a process response; but an anniversary observance.

In other words, the cabinet change is not designed to deal with identified lapses in the performance of existing ministers, or to reward ministers who have performed exceptionally— difficult to name any,

in the Eastern Cape Province, mobilising for the ANC. In 1983, we founded the United Democratic Front, which we operated until the ANC was unbanned in February, 1990. I was elected the Mayor of my home town, Alice, in the Eastern Cape and after a few months, I went to the Provincial Legislature.”

In the case of Ambassador Reddy Mampane, alias Mazimba, it was initially the challenge of how to enter the Apartheid enclave after his military training: “ We could not go through Botswana because it was a British colony, Rhodesia (Zimbabawe) was under Ian Smith (White minority rule) and Mozambique was a Portuguese colony. So we joined the ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Peoples Union) forces to go fight in Rhodesia in order to infiltrate South Africa. But South Africa sent its military to fight on the side of Ian Smith and we were pushed back to Tanzania.

“In 1972, I was part of a group of ten who were to be infiltrated into South Africa by sea. We had trained in Baku, USSR, and from Moscow we were taken to Somalia where the ANC had a boat to take us to South Africa.

Reddy was Head of ANC Security during the Negotiations that led to independence. Later he was South African ambassador to Angola, Zambia, Sudan and Swaziland. Learning from the liberators, was itself liberating.

from my admittedly poor vantage. Rather, halfway into the administration’s term it would just be bringing in new faces — feeding the game of musical chairs that has gone on the inner reaches of government since October, 1960.

It is easy to put down this reading of this government’s policy response as typical Nigerian cynicism. However, the absence of a sense of urgency, i.e. one that would have been unequivocally signalled by an immediate replacement of underperforming ministers as soon as the New Year was birthed, suggests that the Buhari government may be satisfied with both the direction and pace of its policy options. Despite clear economic evidence of their failure.

Set your sights low enough, and any movement in the general direction is admirable progress. Ultimately, this may be the most enduring charge that would be laid at the doorstep of the Buhari administration. Damning, though the charge would read, the administration will have one important extenuating argument. It’s extremely low targets were set for it by the tunnel-visioned Jonathan administration that it took office from.

NFF holds Match Commissioners’ seminar

Frank Jumbo

The 2017 NFF Match Commissioners’ seminar will take place at the Sharon Ultimate Hotels, Abuja today.

Chairman of the NFF Match Commissioners’ Appointment Committee, Alhaji Babagana Kalli told Extra Time that about 800 match commissioners are expected at the seminar from the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

Match commissioners for the

Nigeria Professional Football League (about 280 in number) will take the stage today, immediately after the opening ceremony, with the officials for the Nigeria National League having their time on Wednesday, 11th January and those for the Nigeria Women Football League and the Nigeria Nation-Wide League taking their turn on Thursday, 12th January.

Chairman of Chairmen of State FAs and Member of the NFF Executive Committee, Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau will represent NFF President

Amaju Pinnick at the opening ceremony, with NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi and members of NFF Management also expected.

NFF Executive Committee member, Otunba Sunday DeleAjayi is the vice chairman of the NFF Match Commissioners’ Appointment Committee, with Mrs Faith Irabor, Sir Emmanuel Ochiagha, Alhaji Mohammed Manzo, Mr. A. B. Yabagi, Alhaji Magaji Abdulkadir and Prince D. I. Mbeazue as members. Mr. Danlami Alanana is secretary.

Glo/CAF award Mahrezwinner,eyes AFCON crown

first AFCON crown in 27 years.

the world.

Algeria and Leicester City striker, Riyad Mahrez who was recently named the king of African football at the glamorous CAF/Globacom Africa Footballer of the Year award, has set his sights on leading his country on winning the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) holding in Gabon.

The Algerian winger pipped Gabon’s PierreEmerick Aubameyang to the continental accolade and will now be hoping that he along with his fellow countryman can claim a

“The next thing after this award is the Africa Cup of Nations. My team will try to do good things there,” Mahrez said.

He also thumbed up the organization of this year’s CAF/Globacom Africa Footballer of the Year award which finally held at the prestigious International Conference Center, Abuja on Friday night, with all the pump and pageantry.

Several categories were also contested for as the event paraded the best of African footballers and talents who are working very hard to making the continent proud across

The various categories include the National Soccer team of the year, which was won by the Ugandan national soccer team, the Cranes.

The Women National team of the year was won by the Super Falcons of Nigeria, while Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa won Africa Football Club of the Year.

The Most Promising Talent Award went to Kelechi Iheanacho of Nigeria; Youth Player of the Year was won by Alex Iwobi of Nigeria and Coach of the Year award went to Pitso Mosimani of South Africa.

Tokyo 2020: NOC tasks sports federations,stakeholders

ANDREW EKEJIUBA

National Sporting Federations operating in the country have been charged to wake up from their slumber by re-strategising ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan if Nigeria must make meaningful impact at the Games.

This was the fallout of the 2016 Annual General Meeting of the Nigeria Olympic Committee held at the Conference Hall of the Star View Palace Hotel, Abuja where over forty delegates representing various sporting Federations were in attendance.

President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee Engr. Habu Gumel gave the charge while giving his key note address at occasion.

According to him, the next Olympic movement period that has started with 2017 Olympic year is loaded with activities to prove that it is

indeed going to be a busy year for sports globally starting with the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bahamas in July 2017; the Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku, Azerbaijan in May 2017; the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina in October 2018; the African Youth Games in Algiers, Algeria in 2018; the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, in April 2018 and the 2019 All Africa Games whose venue is yet to be determined.

And with all these activities lined up ahead of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, “We in the Federations must wake up from our slumber and rise to the occasion. We must not fold our hands and expect miracle to happen. We need to work hard enough to reposition our sports instead of depending on government. We must not depend on government because government cannot do it all alone. We must look for sponsors for our programmes and encourage private partnership for our sports.

Uzama: Infantino commiserates with NFF

F IFA President Gianni Infantino has written to NFF President Amaju Pinnick to commiserate with Nigeria over the killing of former youth international Douglas Uzama.

In a letter dated January 6 and personally signed by him, the FIFA supremo wrote: “I would like to express my deepest sympathy on hearing the news of the tragic passing of Nigerian youth international Douglas Uzama.

“On behalf of FIFA and the worldwide family of football, please allow me to extend my deepest condolences to the

football community of Nigeria, and most importantly, to his family, friends and loved ones.

“We hope that, in some way, our words of support may help bring a little bit of peace and solace in this time of sadness.”

Former U17 and U20 international player Uzama, who was on the books of Gombe United FC, was murdered by unknown persons in Benin City, Edo State on Thursday, December 29, 2016. The NFF has already called on the Nigeria Police to intensify the search for his killers in order to bring them to justice.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Tony Ailemen Abuja

Pinnick

Mahrez

President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee Engr. Habu Gumel.

PREMIERSHIP BRIEFS

Coutinho set for Liverpool return

Philippe Coutinho is set to return to Liverpool’s squad for the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final against Southampton. Liverpool travel to St Mary’s Stadium on Wednesday and should be able to call upon the attacking midfielder for the first time since November 26, when he suffered an ankle injury in the home Premier League win over Sunderland. Manager Jurgen Klopp who made 10 changes for the 0-0 FA Cup third-round draw at home to Plymouth Argyle on Sunday insists it will be a full strength team against the Saints, with his side only one tie from Wembley.

Hazard: I was like a ghost last season!

Eden Hazard has admitted he was “like a ghost” during Chelsea’s dismal campaign in 2015-16. The Belgium international won the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year and was named the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year after inspiring Jose Mourinho’s side to the title two seasons ago. Hazard’s performance level then dipped markedly last term, however, the 26-year-old has recaptured some of his best form in Antonio Conte’s table-topping side and he is determined to reestablish his place as the leading light in the division.

Conte unsure over Terry’s future

C helsea head coach Antonio Conte is unsure what the future holds for John Terry at the club. Terry, 36, was sent off during the second half of his team’s 4-1 win over Peterborough United in the FA Cup on Sunday. The club captain, whose contract expires at the end of the season, has made just eight appearances in all competitions. Asked about Terry’s future, Conte said that still needed to be discussed.

Ibrahimovic

Drogba hints at Marseille return

Didier Drogba says he still hopes to return to Marseille and has revealed that he has received an offer to join a club in Ligue 1.

The 38-year-old is a free agent after leaving Montreal Impact and has been linked with a possible move back to Chelsea in a coaching capacity.

But Drogba, who insists he does not want to retire, has hinted at a return to the club where he scored 32 goals in a single season before transferring to Stamford Bridge in 2004.

“There is an option for a return to France, but I will not say more,” the striker, who has expressed an interest in going back to Marseille a number of times in

his career said.

“I hope to be able to keep my promise one day to go back to Marseille. You just have to take the time to sit down and talk.

“My comeback at OM has been the eternal question for more than 12 years now. I respond every time and people say I’m just talking.

“I would like to come back as a player. I’ve even done what was necessary to make it happen. But I can’t force the board to take me back.

“I want to play. I still have my legs and I’m still like a kid with the ball. My knee got a bit aggravated, but I feel good. Why should I stop?”

Hernandez ‘happy’ in Bundesliga

Bayer Leverkusen forward Javier Hernandez insists he is happy at the Bundesliga club as he continues to be linked with a move.

Hernandez is believed to be a target for Chelsea and Liverpool and Leverkusen are reportedly ready to sell the 28-year-old.

The Mexico international has scored just five goals in 15 league games this season, but said he wanted to stay in Germany.

“Why would I like to stay in the Bundesliga? Because I feel good and I’m happy,” Hernandez told reporters.

“I’ve learned a lot in the Bundesliga, as a player and as a man.

“I like playing in the Champions League, and luckily Bayer have been involved in the last few years. We hope we can achieve that goal again in the second half of the season.”

Leverkusen are struggling in ninth in the table, eight points behind fourth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt.

Drogba

Terry

Hernandez

Lagos 2017 budget will be IGR-driven, says commissiomer

Benjamin Omoike

Lagos state Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Akinyemi Ashade, has given a breakdown of the N812.998bn 2017 Appropriation Bill, which was signed into law by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Monday.

The breakdown came on the heels of the signing into law the 2017 appropriation bill as he addressed journalists in Alausa, Ikeja. According to Ashade who is also the Commissioner overseeing the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, the 2017 budget, which

Ego Ogbaru dazzles as Glo’s Professor Johnbull’s draws attention to homecooking

Babajide Okeowo

Globacom-sponsored TV drama series, Professor Johnbull, scheduled for transmission this Tuesday, will advocate a return to the traditional value of home-making as a way of keeping the family unit intact.

Aptly tagged Kitchen on the Run, the episode chronicles the dilemma of an average modern day working class woman who has to strike the delicate balance between home-making and career building.

Kitchen on the Run is the story of how African women undertake their traditional roles as African wives in view of their professional careers. The episode also looks at the ingenious ways husbands are coping with the rising cases of wives who do not have enough time to cook for their families.

According to the show sponsors, Globacom, Kitchen on the Run will help to raise awareness about the fundamental issue that potentially can destabilize a family unit.

The episode is redolent with hilarious scenes that teach vital life changing lessons that will stabilise the family, Globacom said in the statement.

The telecoms company urged viewers to look forward to seeing the velvety-voiced singer, Ego, playing the role of a busy wife in the episode. She has newly secured a job that has changed her status and she must manage the responsibilities of her new status with her traditional role as a wife.

What are the coping strategies she will deploy to manage her now expanded duties to hubby and to employers? Are women the only ones who should cook? How does Abednego (Martins Nebo), who does not have a wife, cope with culinary duties?

Viewers can also look forward to seeing Ufoma (Bimbo Akintola) trying her charms and luck on his crush, Professor Johnbull (Kanayo O. Kanayo). What trick is she going to use? Will she be successful?

Answers will be provided to these questions on Kitchen on the Run airing this Tuesday at 8.30 p.m. on NTA Network, NTA International on DSTV Channel 251 and NTA on StarTimes airwaves will provide answers to these posers.

The episode will be repeated on Friday on the same channels and at the same time.

would largely be driven by Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) made up of taxes, rates, levies and others, would be focused on continuous promotion of massive investments in security, infrastructure, transport/traffic management, physical and social infrastructural development, environment, health, housing, tourism, power, e-governance, education, agriculture and skill acquisition.

He said a total of N507.816 billion had been earmarked for capital expenditure, while N305.182billion is allocated to recurrent expenditure

making up a total expenditure of N812.998billion and an aggregate capital to recurrent ratio of 62:38.

While explaining the sectoral breakdown of the budget, Ashade said a total of N141.692billion was earmarked for roads and other infrastructure, while Agriculture and Food Security got N4.795billion with Tourism and Environment getting N20.247billion and N24.031billion respectively.

A further breakdown of the budget showed that Water got N20.082billion; Housing, N50.344billion; Health,

N51.447billion; Sports Development, N9.457billion; Education, N92.445billion; Commerce and Industry, N1.500billion, Wealth and Employment Creation, N6.250billion; Women Affairs, N2.193billion; Youth and Social Development, N2.698billion; Governance, N11.193billion; Science and Technology, N11.000billion; Security, Law and Order, N39.722billion, while N3.800billion was set aside for the 7.5 percent Government Share to Pension Contribution and N7.150billion for Pension Redemption Bond Fund-Shortfall.

Carpenter docked for stealing cables

Oguntade Ismaila

A 32-year-old carpenter at Eko Atlantic City, Francis Humbe, has been arrested by the police for allegedly burgling a firm, Eko Pearl Construction Company.

The police said Humbe, from Benue state, was caught by the firm’s security guards carting away 50 meters of armoured electrical cables valued at N250, 000.

According to a source, at about 3 a.m. on January 4, one of the firm’s guards was on patrol when he reportedly saw the suspect hacking away the cables with a saw blade.

He raised the alarm and along with his colleagues, they chased the suspect and wrestled him to the ground.

It was gathered that Humbe told the police afterwards that his wages of N2000 per day had not been paid since 2016 and that his wife and newborn baby were on admission at the hospital with no money to settle their hospital bills.

Humbe, who lives at 20, Oguntolu Street, Ijaiye, Lagos was arraigned yesterday at an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court in Lagos on a charge marked Q/01/2017.

He is standing trial before Mr. P. A. Adekomaya on a count of stealing.

Prosecutor, Corporal Friday Mameh, told the court that the offence contravened Section 285(7) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011.

Humbe pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Magistrate Adekomaya granted him N50, 000 bail with two sureties in like sum and adjourned till January 25.

Edo sets up committee to fine-tune bill on revenue collection

Titus Akhigbe, Benin

The Edo government has set up a committee to fine tune a proposed bill to harmonize revenue collection by local government councils in the state.

The Chairman of the Edo state Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Chief Oseni Elamah, disclosed this to newsmen shortly after a meeting with the state governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, at the state government House in Benin on Friday.

Elamah said that the committee was to work out a bill for the State Local Government uniform levies, rates, fees and charges law 2017.

He said that the bill sought to eliminate cash as a means of revenue collection and encouraged the use of POS or revenue scratch cards.

According to him, all revenue consultant, agent or contractors have been prohibited from collecting any form of revenue on behalf of any of the state government agencies or local government.

“The committee seeks a system that will be transparent, accountable and treat Edo people with dignity in the collection of revenue.

Elamah listed members of the committee to include the deputy governor of the state, Rt. Hon Philip Shuiabu, who will chair the committee, Secretary to the state government, Barr. Osarodion Ogie, his humble self and three representative of Local Government heads from the three Senatorial District of the state.

He said that the Committee was to work out the bill before January 15 and forward to the

state house of Assembly for due consideration.

Meanwhile, Edo state Commissioner of Police, Haliru Gwandu, assured residents of the state of implementation of the ban on collection of revenue by private individuals as pronounced by the state governor.

Mr. Gwandu said that the command had put in place 20 squad that would ensure compliance to the pronouncement of the governor.

Speaking to Journalists in government house, he said: “I will shell out 20 squads who will go round and ensure there is diligence and compliance of the ban.

``You have heard the pronouncement and I am sure the people are happy. I can also assure you that the police will not rest on its oars.

``Very soon, I will hold a meeting with my DPOs. I implore the

people of Edo state to do the right thing and ensure that there is sanity. I will enforce the order to the letter,’’ he said.

Ebonor, r Macaulay head of Local government administration, who spoke on behalf of other local government councils, commended the state governor for the initiative.

He said that the state government initiative would help sanitize revenue collection in the state.

Mr. Ebonor, who is from Esan South East Local Government Council said that the proposed system would enable the government render quality services to people of the state.

The meeting was attended by the Executive Governor of the state, Heads of Local Government Councils, Ministry of Local government and Internal Revenue service.

A cross section of beneficiaries, during the free medical scheme programme sponsored by Chairman, House Committee on Rural Development, Hon. Ladi Kessington-Adebutu, at Odogbolu Local Government area, Ogun State… recently.

THE OSUNDINA SOLOSUN FAMILY FOUNDATION

This is to inform the general public that the above named has applied for Registration to corporate Affairs Commission under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act NO1 of 1990.

Trustees Are:

1. DR. KAYODE AKINLAWON

2. MR. AKINRINOLA O. AKEEB

3. MR. AKINWALE DAUDA AYINDE

4. MR. AKINRINOLA A SUFIANU

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1. FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY

2. FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF WELFARE OF THE LESS PRIVILEDGE.

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

Signed – Secretary

This is to inform the general public that the above named Association has applied for Registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE:

1. DR. KALU OJI

2. BARR. ODEY OBULE

3. BARR. OLUFEMI OLUTIMEHIN

4. ALHAJI ISA ADAM

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1. To establish and maintain Jubilation Comfort Court Estate as a secured, safe, highly aesthetic and high-net value residential estate.

2. To promote peace, understanding and good neighborliness among landlords and residents of the estate

3. To promote collective responsibility for the security, decency and aes- thetic beauty of the estate

Any objection to the Registration should be forwarded to the Registrar general, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off AguyiIronsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Signed: OLUFEMI OLUTIMEHIN & CO.

Suite 303 Anbeez Plaza, Ndalo Square, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja – FCT.

BRIDGE TO SUCCESS INITIATIVE.

The general public is hereby notified that the above named INITIATIVE has applied to the Corporate affairs commission Abuja for registration under the part C of the companies and allied matters act 1990.

The Trustees Are:

1. Ebula Nicholas Besidone

2. Charles Oseghale Adimah

Aims & Objectives:

1. To teach members and audience on the secrets of good success.

2. To inculcate a success mentality into young Nigerians

3. To launch a mastermind of young and success oriented people

4. To encourage and mentor people towards success.

Any objections to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar general corporate Affairs commission plot 420 tigris crescent off aguiyi ironsi street maitama Abuja within 28days from the date of this publication.

Signed: Barr. Temple Williams

JUBILATION COMFORT COURT LANDLORDS & RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

This is to inform the general public that the above named Association has applied for Registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE:

1. DR. KALU OJI

2. BARR. ODEY OBULE

3. BARR. OLUFEMI OLUTIMEHIN

4. ALHAJI ISA ADAM

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1. To establish and maintain Jubilation Comfort Court Estate as a secured, safe, highly aesthetic and high-net value residential estate.

2. To promote peace, understanding and good neighborliness among landlords and residents of the estate

3. To promote collective responsibility for the security, decency and aesthetic beauty of the estate

Any objection to the Registration should be forwarded to the Registrar general, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off AguyiIronsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Signed: OLUFEMI OLUTIMEHIN & CO. Suite 303 Anbeez Plaza, Ndalo Square, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja – FCT.

AFAM CHUKWUDI ECHECT.

Formerly known and addressed as CHUKWUDI AFAM SAMUEL, now wish to be known and addressed as AFAM CHUKWUDI ECHECT. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CORRECTION OF NAME

My name was wrongly written as MODU MAINA instead of MODU MOHAMMED and that my date of birth is 12 November 1995. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

THIS IS TO NOTIFY THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART C. OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE:

1. AWO PRINCE BROWN - CHAIRMAN

2. TUMIN KELVIN BROWN - SECRETARY

3. BIEBARA BROWN - MEMBER

4. ATTONI HENRY DIENYE - MEMBER AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1. TO EMPOWER THE YOUTH

2. TO PROTECT THE INTEREST OF OUR MEMBERS 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.

SIGNED: SECRETARY

FACES OF YEWA INDIGENES FOUNDATION

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT, NO. 1 OF 1990.

The Trustees Are:

1) MRS ELIZABETH OLUWAKEMI WELLINGTON.

2) MR ADETUNJI CLEMENT EBO

3) PRINCESS ADEBUKOLA ADEYINKA ADEDOKUN

4) MR FEMI KEHINDE AKINLADE

5) MR OLUWATOBI OLAMIDE AKINOLA

6) MR ADEGOKE OYEWOLE ADEJOBI

7) MRS OLUWATOSIN TAIWO ADEYINKA

Aims & Objectives:

(i) To promote Unity, Love & Oneness among Yewa indigenes.

(ii) To help the less privileged women and youths of Yewaland. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL, CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420 TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, P.M.B 198, GARKI ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

Signed: OLUSOJI EMMANUEL

FINIMA INDIGENOUS MARITIME ASSOCIATION, BONNY ISLAND.

This is to notify the general public that the above named has applied to the corporate affairs commission for registration under part C. of the companies and allied matters Act No. 1 of 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE:

1. Awo Prince Brown - Chairman

2. Tumin Kelvin Brown - Secretary

3. Biebara Brown - Member

4. Attoni Henry Dienye - Member

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1. To Empower the youth

2. To protect the interest of our members

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.

SIGNED: SECRETARY

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART C OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES:

1. ENGR. EMEKA EZEANI - PRESIDENT.

2 EVANGELIST TIMOTHY OGBOO - SECRETARY

3. BISHOP ANTHONY ABASILI CHUKWUMA - MEMBER

4. SIR EMMANUEL IBENEME CHUKWUMA - MEMBER.

5. PASTOR GODWIN OGBUGHALU - MEMBER

6. BRO MARTIN OKPALA - MEMBER

7. BRO EDMOND ILOGHALU - MEMBER

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1. TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST.

2. TO WIN SOUL FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL, CORPORATION AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI-IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

SIGNED: SECRETARY

FOST FOUNDATION

The general public is hereby inform that the above named Foundation has applied to Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under Part ‘C’ of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, Degree No. 1 of 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE:

1. Felix Ifeanyi Okonmah

2. Mayen Arit Effiong

3. Kesiena Oluwatosin Magbegor

4. Felix Idemudia Agbonrofo

5. Edim Etim Inyang

6. Omatseyione Nesiama

7. Josephat Udokamma Izunobi

AIMS/OBJECTIVES:

1. To bring unity and togetherness amongst 1989 students of Federal Government College Warri and their families. Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420 Tiqgris Crescent, Off Aguiyi ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja, within 28 days of this Publication.

Signed: CHAIRMAN.

RHEMA WORLD EVANGELICAL FAITH MINISTRY INT’L. THE EMMA CHARITABLE FOUNDATION.

This is to inform the general public that the above named has applied for registration to Corporate Affairs Commission under part C of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

TRUSTEES;

1. REV.DR ANDREW OBIOMA OKORO - GENERAL OVERSEER/ CHAIRMAN

2.MRS. BEAUTY. O. OKORO - SECRETARY

3. SAMUEL CHRISTIAN - TREASURER

4.MR CHUKWUOMAH UCHENNA HARRISON - PRO .

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE:

TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar General Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28days of this publication.

SIGNED. BARRISTER NNUBIS CHIOMA JUSTINA

The general public is hereby notified that the above named has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE:

1. Prince Emmanuel Ogba,( president )

2. Princess Dema Kierama,

3. Mr Ogaga Moses Edibe.

The aim and objective:

1. Charitable donations for the needy and widows

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED: A. R. Gidado esq

OCHIEZE BENJAMIN TOOCHUKWU MARY EBHOMIENLEN IVIE. OYEBAMIJI DANIEL TOAFEEK. SEGBUWA

Formerly known and addressed as STELLA FRANCIS, now wish to be known and addressed as SEGBUWA STELLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

MAGRET ODEY OBI

Formerly known and addressed as BRIGHT MARGARET ODEY, now wish to be known and addressed as MAGRET ODEY OBI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

JOSEPH KAYODE DANIEL

Formerly known and addressed as JOSEPH KAYODE PETER, now wish to be known and addressed as JOSEPH KAYODE DANIEL. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

TOMETY ANDREWYOUNG SUNDAY

Formerly known and addressed as GASTON ANDREWYOUNG SUNDAY, now wish to be known and addressed as TOMETY ANDREWYOUNG SUNDAY. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

Formerly known and addressed as OCHIEZE BENNONI TOOCHUKWU, now wish to be known and addressed as OCHIEZE BENJAMIN TOOCHUKWU. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

Formerly known and addressed as ETIWE ALERO BETTY, now wish to be known and addressed as AINA ALERO BETTY. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

Formerly known and addressed as MARY ADESUA EBHOMIENLEN, now wish to be known and addressed as MARY EBHOMIENLEN IVIE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

Formerly known and addressed as NWANNEKA EZE, now wish to be known and addressed as FRIDAY GODWIN AJAH. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

Formerly known and addressed as OYEBAMISI DANIEL OLUWASEUN, now wish to be known and addressed as OYEBAMIJI DANIEL TOAFEEK. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OF NAME

This is to confirm that I, BUNMI OGUNLAMA wish to be known as OGUNLANA OLUWABUNMI VICTORIA. Any document(s) bearing both names is same and should be accepted. General public take note.

JUBILATION COMFORT COURT LANDLORDS & RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

AGULU BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

FINIMA INDIGENOUS MARITIME ASSOCIATION, BONNY ISLAND.

STELLA.

AINA ALERO BETTY. FRIDAY GODWIN AJAH. CONFIRMATION

Daily Times Nigeria 22

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

CORRECTION OF NAME

On my Diamond Bank Account, my name was wrongly written as

NWAGBARATO PRECIOUS instead of NWIGBARATO

PRECIOUS on my BVN

General Public and Authority Concern should take note

AYAFA HELEN BOLOUEBI

I, formerly known and addressed as, MISS HELEN SOLOMON, now wish to be known and addressed as, MRS AYAFA HELEN BOLOUEBI All former documents remain Valid General public should take note.

KPANAI BORO AMALABO

I DADAWO WOLO AND KPANAI BORO AMALABO refer to one and same person but now wish to be known and addressed as, KPANAI BORO AMALABO All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

NDUBUISI DARLINGTON JUSTINE

I, formerly known and addressed as, NDUBUISI DARLINGTON ANYANWU now wish to be known and addressed as, NDUBUISI DARLINGTON JUSTINE All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

OGONDA JOY IHUNWO

I formerly known and addressed as, MISS JOY OBY AMADI, now wish to be known and addressed as, MRS OGONDA JOY IHUNWO

All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as CHINWEOKE MARCUS, now wish to be known and addressed as, MARCUS INNOCENT CHINWEOKE All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

MARCUS INNOCENT CHINWEOKE OGONDA JOY IHUNWO

JAMES BECKY ANURIKA.

I formerly known and addressed as MISS ANYANWU BECKY ANURIKA now wish to be known and addressed as MRS JAMES BECKY ANURIKA All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

DEGBOE DIEUDONNE

I, DEGBOE DIEUDONNE, DEGBOE NONVI DONNE, AND DEGBOE DIEUDONNE MATHEW refer to one and same person but now wish to be known and addressed as, DEGBOE DIEUDONNE All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

FRANKLIN NNANNA.

I , f o r m e r l y k n o w n a n d a d d r e s s e d a s , E K U M A C H I U M A H I , n o w w i s h t o b e k n o w n a n d a d d r e s s e d a s F R A N K L I N N N A N N A A l l f o r m e r d o c u m e n t s r e m a i n v a l i d G e n e r a l p u b l i c should tak e no te.

OKIRO REMIGIUS CHIKERE

I, formerly known and addressed as, WISDOM CHIMAOBI CHIKERE, now wish to be known and addressed as, MR OKIRO REMIGIUS CHIKERE All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

DEGBOE DIEUDONNE CORRECTION OF NAME

I, DEGBOE DIEUDONNE, DEGBOE NONVI DONNE, AND DEGBOE DIEUDONNE MATHEW, refer to one and same person but, now wish to be known and addressed as, DEGBOE DIEUDONNE All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

CHUKWUEJIM SAMUEL OGBONNAYA I formerly known and addressed as CHUKWU

SAMUEL OGBONNAYA, now wish to be known and addressed as CHUKWUEJIM SAMUEL OGBONNAYA All former documents remain valid Banks and General public should please take note.

EGBO MICHAEL FRIDAY

I formerly known and addressed as EGBO MIKE, now wish to be known and addressed as EGBO

MICHAEL FRIDAY UCHENNA

All former documents remain valid General public should please take note.

CHINYERE FRANCISCA ABANI I formerly known and addressed as MISS CHINYERE FRANCISCA EKUMA now wish to be known and addressed as

I, DAVID LINUS NTUK, wish to correct my name which was wrongly as, DAVID NTUK, instead of, DAVID LINUS NTUK, in my bank document I now wish to be known and addressed as DAVID LINUS NTUK. All former documents remain valid General public should take note

ONOVO CHINYERE SONNYTA

I, formerly known and addressed as EWANG CHINYERE SONNYTA now wish to be known and addressed as ONOVO CHINYERE SONNYTA All former documents remain valid Banks and General public should please take note.

NDUBUISI DARLINGTON JUSTINE

I, formerly known and addressed as, NDUBUISI DARLINGTON ANYANWU, now wish to be known and addressed as, NDUBUISI DARLINGTON JUSTINE. All former documents remain valid. General public should take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as, MISS JOY OBY AMADI, now wish to be known and addressed as, MRS OGONDA JOY IHUNWO All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

I, DAVID LINUS NTUK, wish to correct my name which was wrongly as, DAVID NTUK, instead of, DAVID LINUS NTUK, in my bank document I now wish to be known and addressed as, DAVID LINUS NTUK All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

n o w n a n d a d d r e s s e d a s , E K U M A C H I U M A H I , n o w w i s h t o b e k n o w n a n d a d d r e s s e d a s , F R A N K L I N N N A N N A A l l f o r m e r d o c u m e n t s r e m a i n v a l i d G e n e r a l p u b l i c s h o u l d tak e no te.

I, formerly known and addressed as WISDOM CHIMAOBI CHIKERE, now wish to be known and addressed as, MR OKIRO REMIGIUS CHIKERE All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

I formerly known as ONYEBUCHI PEACE ADANMA Now wish to be known as MPAMUGO CHIKERENMA PEACE All documents bearing my former names remain valid, the general public please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as OBONIYE BRIGHT

INEGBENOSE AMBROSE EKIOBA

OKOHUE, now wish to be known and addressed as, EVANG BRIGHT

EHIZOKHALE GREGORY All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

I formerly known and addressed as, MISS ELENDA

EKPE ENI, now wish to be known and addressed as, MRS

ELENDA NSIKAK BILLIE All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

BRIGHT EHIZOKHALE GREGORY ABACHA DANJUMA AYAFA HELEN BOLOUEBI

I formerly known and addressed as OBONIYE BRIGHT INEGBENOSE AMBROSE EKIOBA OKOHUE now wish to be known and addressed as EVANG BRIGHT EHIZOKHALE GREGORY All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

ELENDA NSIKAK BILLIE.

L E N

E

NNEKA SOPHIA CHIDINMA IGWE I, formerly known and addressed as MISS NNEKA SOPHIA CHIDINMA ANIAKU, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS NNEKA SOPHIA CHIDINMA IGWE

All former documents remain valid General public should please take note.

UKAEJE FAITH

I, formerly known and addressed as UKAEJE CHIMAOBI AGATHA, now wish to be known and addressed as UKAEJE FAITH. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

OFORDI HELEN ADAEZE

o r m e r l

H E L E N A DA E Z E , n ow w i s h t o b e k n ow n a n d a d d re s s e d a s

M R S O FO R D I H E L E N A DA E Z E

A l l fo r m e r d o c u m e n t s re m a i n va l i d N YS C a n d G e n e r a l p u b l i c should please take note.

OPARACHUKWU EZINNE EBERE I, formerly known and addressed as MISS NWOSU EZINNE EBERE now wish to be known and addressed as MRS OPARACHUKWU EZINNE EBERE All former documents remain valid General public should please take note.

I , fo r m e r l y k n ow n a n d a d d re s s e d a s , E Z E K I E L DA NJ U M A , n ow w i s h t o b e k n ow n a n d a d d re

s

e

I, BOB KESSINGTON SIMEON, TONY SIMON, AND BOB TONY SIMON KESSINGTON, refer to one and same person but now Wish to be known and addressed as BOB TONY SIMON KESSINGTON All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

NWANKWO MODESTA UCHENNA

I , fo r m e r l y k n ow n a n d a d d re s s e d a s O KO R I E

J E N N I F E R , n ow w i s h t o b e k n ow n a n d a d d re s s e d

a s N WA N K W O M O D ES TA

U C H E N N A A l l fo r m e r d o c u m e nt s re m a i n va l i d G e n e r a l p u b l i c s h o u l d please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS HELEN SOLOMON, now wish to be known and addressed as, MRS AYAFA HELEN BOLOUEBI All former documents remain Valid General public should take note

I formerly known and addressed as MODINAT OSHUNDAIRO, now wish to be known and addressed as MODINAT ABEGBE OSHUNDAIRO former documents remain valid public note

CHINEDU LUKE NGENE.

I f o r m e r l y k n o w n a n d a d d r e s s e d a s H U M B L E L U K E N G E N E , n o w w i s h t o b e k n o w n a n d a d d r e s s e d a s C H I N E D U L U K E N G E N E A l l f o r m e r d o c u m e n t s r e m a i n v a l i d B a n k s a n d G e n e r a l p u b l i c s h o u l d p l e a s e t a k e no te.

ONYIA IKENNA HYACINTH ONYEJE OBIANUJU JECINTA

I formerly known and addressed as ANTHONY FREDDY; Now wish to be known and addressed as ONYIA IKENNA HYACINTH. All former documents remain valid, General public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as ONYEJE EBUBECHUKWU JENIFFER, and AZOIGE UJUNWA JECINTA, now wish to be known and addressed as ONYEJE OBIANUJU JECINTA. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

ABACHA DANJUMA

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, BOB KESSINGTON SIMEON, TONY SIMON, AND BOB TONY SIMON KESSINGTON,

refer

MARCUS INNOCENT CHINWEOKE

INNOCENT

documents

JAMES BECKY ANURIKA

I, formerly known and addressed as, MISS ANYANWU BECKY ANURIKA, now wish to be known and addressed as, MRS JAMES BECKY ANURIKA All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

KPANAI BORO AMALABO

I, DADAWO WOLO, AND KPANAI BORO AMALABO refer to one and same person but, now wish to be known and addressed as, KPANAI BORO AMALABO. All former documents remain valid General public should take note.

AUDU JOHN.

I formerly known and addressed as AUDU JOHN YAKUBU, now wish to be known and addressed as AUDU JOHN All former documents remain valid Banks and General public should please take note.

I fo r m e r l y k n ow n a n d a d d re s s e d a s

, n ow w i s h t o b e k n ow n a n d a d d re s s e d

a s

n

TERRY OBUNIKECHUKWU NNAMANI IBEZIAKO IFEOMA ELIZABETH OKAFOR-AMECHI ONYINYE GLADYS MARYJANE

I

, f o r

I, formerly known and addressed as JOHN OBUNIKECHUKWU NNAMANI, now wish to be known and addressed as TERRY OBUNIKECHUKWU NNAMANI All former documents remain valid General public should please take note.

OKOLO NNENNA LYNDA CHINYERE NDUBUISI EVELYN .A

CORRECTION OF NAME LOSS OF DOCUMENT

ic should please take note. OLANREWAJU YUSUF I, FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS OJO ADEBISI ISOLA HENCEFORTH WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS OLANREWAJU YUSUF ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID GENERAL PUBLIC, PLEASE TAKE NOTE. NEWMAN SAMSON OKWEY I Fo r m e r l y Kn ow n A s N WA B U E Z E SA M S O N O K W E Y, n ow w

I formerly known and addressed as MISS OKOLO NNENNA LYNDA CHINYERE, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS NWAFULUAKU NNENNA LYNDA All former documents remain valid General public should please take note.

i s h t o b e k n ow n a s N E W M A N SA M S O N O K W E Y fo r m e r d o c u m e nt s re m a i n va l i d public note.

I, formerly known and addressed as AMAKA EGBO now wish to be known and addressed as NDUBUISI EVELYN A All former documents remain valid General public should please take note.

OYEDE, IDAYAT ADEOLA LOSS OF DOCUMENT

OBAMOJURE: I, formerly known, called and addressed as Miss OBAMOJURE, Idayat Adeola now wish to be known called and addressed as Mrs OYEDE Idayat Adeola All former documents remain the same General public please take note.

This is to inform the general public of loss of original Allocation Paper Plot No 22 Block No: XII, Size of Plot About 1,200m2 at Land Registry belonging to UGOCHUKWU UDEH the plot located at Republic Layout, Enugu got lost If found contact the Ministry of Lands and Urban development Enugu

This is to inform the general public that my name ETTAH EKONG EKOT was wrongly written during my BVN Registration but now wish to be corrected and addressed as ETTAH ETENG EKOT All former documents remain valid Banks and general public should please take note.

BROWN, CHIOMA FUBARAIBI. KAREEM ADEDAYO SOGEYINBO

BROWN:I, formerly known, called and addressed as Chioma Nwachukwu Esther now wish to be known, called and addressed as BROWN, Chioma Fubaraibi All former documents remain the same General public please take note.

I formerly known called and addressed as ABDULKAREEM ADEBAYO SHOGEYINBO, now wish to be known, called and addressed as KAREEM ADEDAYO SOGEYINBO All former documents remain valid General public take note

ODUPELU MODINAT ABIKE

Formerly known and addressed as ADEDOKUN MODINAT ABIKE, now wish to be known, called and addressed as ODUPELU MODINAT ABIKE. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to confirm that ADOH THERESA OSITA and TESSY O. ATUKPAWU refers to one and the same person. That all former documents bearing both names are mine and remain valid. General public and Authorities Concerned should please take note.

OLANREWAJU TEMITOPE HELEN

Formerly known and addressed as MAKINDE

TEMITOPE HELEN, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS. OLANREWAJU

TEMITOPE HELEN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

PATIENCE ONEHIOMEN

Formerly Miss. Patience

Onehiomen Oriere. Now Mrs. Patience Onehiomen Lasebikan. Former documents remains valid. General public please note.

ENESI DAN SULEIMAN.

I formerly known and addressed as ZUBAIR DAN SULEIMAN now wish to be known and addressed as ENESI DAN SULEIMAN. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

IYEKEORETIN SYLVESTER OSARO

I, formerly known, called and addressed as OKORO SYLVESTER PETER, now wish to be known, called and addressed as IYEKEORETIN SYLVESTER OSARO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF SURNAME

I, formerly known and addressed as ABRAHAM EFEMENA EVRO, that I have changed my surname from ABRAHAM to EVRO. That I now wish to be known, called and addressed as EVRO EFEMENA ABRAHAM. All former documents remain valid. General public and Authorities Concerned should please take note.

AMADI MATINA GRACE. I formerly known as AMADI TINA GRACE now wish to be known and addressed as AMADI MATINA GRACE. First Bank of Nigeria PLC, NYSC and the general public should please take note.

BIANCA NKONYEASUA OGBU. Formerly Miss. Bianca Nkonyeasua Ekpe. Now Mrs. Bianca Nkonyeasua Ogbu. Former documents remains valid. General public please note.

OMODIA STEPHEN IFEANYI

I formerly known and addressed as STEPHEN IFEANYI OMODIA now wish to be known and addressed as OMODIA STEPHEN IFEANYI. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note

AKINBODE ADEWALE OLAONIPEKUN OPOOLA EZEKIEL OLAYIWOLA

I formerly known and addressed as AKINBODE MOSES ADEWALE now wish to be known and addressed as AKINBODE ADEWALE OLAONIPEKUN . All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

OKUTUBO FUNMILAYO REBECCA.

Formerly known and addressed as Dr. Miss Olure Funmilayo Rebecca now wish to be known and addressed as Dr. Mrs. Okutubo Funmilayo Rebecca. All former documents remain valid, general public take note.

OMOLE OLAMIDE NIMOTA

OMOLE: I, formerly known as KAREEM OLAMIDE NIMOTA, now wish to be known and addressed as OMOLE OLAMIDE NIMOTA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

IFUNANYA ONYEMAECHI OKORO

I Formerly Known As MISS

IFUNANYA ONYEMAECHI MBAH

Now Wish To Be Known As

MRS IFUNANYA ONYEMAECHI

OKORO. All Former Documents

Remains Valid. Fed. Ministry Of Education, FGGC Bwari, FCMB And General Public Should Take Note

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to confirm and certify that CHIEJI IFEOMA is same person as CHIEJI IFEOMA EUNICE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I formerly known and addressed as OPOOLA OLAIWOLA now wish to be known and addressed as OPOOLA EZEKIEL OLAYIWOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

Formerly known and addressed as Chukwuebuka

Ajah Emmanuel now wish to be known and addressed as Chukwu Emmanuel Chinonso. All former documents remain valid, general public take note

OLADUNNI OLANIYI PAUL.

OLADUNNI: I, formerly known as DISU TOHEEB ISHOLA, now wish to be known and addressed as OLADUNNI OLANIYI PAUL. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OLUWASEUN OMOBOLANLE ARISE PEREGRINNO

I formerly known as MISS OLUWASEUN OMOBOLANLE ARISE wish to be known and addressed as MRS OLUWASEUN OMOBOLANLE ARISE PEREGRINNO .All former documents remain valid, general public please take note.

ALABI-OLOWOJEUNJEJE OLANREWAJU

Formerly known and addressed as ANOINTED

SIMEON ALABI SEMIU OLANREWAJU, now wish to be known and addressed as ALABI-OLOWOJEUNJEJE OLANREWAJU. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OLUWAFEMI VICTOR

I, formerly known, called and addressed as OSANYINGBEMI OLUWAFEMI and OSANYINGBEMI FEMI, now wish to be known, called and addressed as OLUWAFEMI VICTOR. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

RASAK ENIOLA ABIGAIL.

I, formerly known, called and addressed as RASAQ ENIOLA, now wish to be known, called and addressed as RASAK ENIOLA ABIGAIL. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

AGBOOLA DAMILOLA ADENIKE

Formerly known and addressed as AYENI DAMILOLA ADENIKE now wish to be known and addressed as AGBOOLA DAMILOLA ADENIKE. Financial Institutions and General Public, please take note.

I was formerly knw as LAWAL RASHEEDAT OMOWUNMI,nw wish to knw as ADELEKE TEMITOPE OMOWUNMI.all document bearing my former name remain valid.general public note.

CHRISTINA LYESOGIE OYEDIRAN.

Formerly known and addressed as NKECHOR TINA EVIE, now wish to be known, called and addressed as CHRISTINA lYESOGIE OYEDIRAN. All former documents remain valid. General public and Authorities Concerned should please take note.

PATIENCE ELE DAVID.

I, formerly known, called and addressed as PATIENCE ELE ADEJOH, now wish to be known, called and addressed as PATIENCE ELE DAVID. On my BANK DOCUMENT my date of birth was wrongly written as 20/9/1983 instead of 21/11/1983. All former documents remain valid. General public and Authorities Concerned should please take note.

OGBONNA UGOCHI FAITH.

I formerly known as AKINBO UGOCHI FAITH wish to be known and addressed as OGBONNA UGOCHI FAITH. All former documents remain valid, general public please take note.

IYA.

Formerly known and addressed as PETER MARY YEMARU, now wish to be known, called and addressed as SARAH AYUBA

IYA. All former documents remain valid. General public and Authorities Concerned should please take note.

ONABAJO ADEREMI ADETOUN.

Formerly known and addressed as MRS. ONABAJO VERONICA, now wish to be known, called and addressed as MRS. ONABAJO ADEREMI ADETOUN. All former documents/ credentials remain valid. General public should please take note.

ANIAH ISAAC AGRIYAN

Formerly Aniah Isaac now to be addressed as Aniah Isaac Agriyan. All documents remain valid. General public please note.

OLANREWAJU IQMOT OMOLADE AGAVA ABDULMULIKU OZIGI ADELEKE TEMITOPE OMOWUNMI I formerly known and addressed as OYEDELE IQMOT-OMOLADE now wish to be known and addressed as OLANREWAJU IQMOT OMOLADE. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

OLUKOYA HEZEKIAH OLUGBENGA

I formerly known and addressed as OLUKOYA HEZEKIAH ‘GBENGA now wish to be known and addressed as OLUKOYA HEZEKIAH OLUGBENGA. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

METUIWE MARY AISHA

I formerly known and addressed as MISS GARBA AISHA MARY now wish to be known and addressed as MRS METUIWE MARY AISHA. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

LAWAL SHERIFAT OMOLARA.

I, formerly known and addressed as TEWOGBADE SHERIFAT OMOLARA, now wish to be known and addressed as LAWAL SHERIFAT OMOLARA. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

MOHAMMED DAUDA TAYE.

MOHAMMED: I, formerly known as TAYIE DAUDA, now wish to be known and addressed as MOHAMMED DAUDA TAYE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

i was formerly knw as AMINU ABDULMULUK OZIGI,nw wish to knw as AGAVA ABDULMULIKU OZIGI.all document bearing my former name remain mine and valid. General public please note.

BENSON OLUCHUKWU IKEMEFUNE A CHUKWUNYERE

I formerly known and addressed as IKEOGU CHARLES OBIOMA now wish to be known and addressed as CHUKWUNYERE LOVE CHARLES OBIOMA. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

OJOMO JEROME. I formerly known and addressed as AMOUSSOU JEROME now wish to be known and addressed as OJOMO JEROME. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as BENSON O. NWORGU now wish to be known and addressed as BENSON OLUCHUKWU IKEMEFUNE A. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

OLORUNTOBA TOYIN

I formerly known as Adeniyi Toyin now wish to be known as Mrs. Oloruntoba toyin. All fomer document remain valid and the general public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, OKEDIRAN HAMMED OLABAMIJI am the same person bearing OKEDIRAN OLABAMIJI HAMMED. Henceforth I wish to be known and addressed as OKEDIRAN HAMMED OLABAMIJI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

HASSAN AISHA ABIBA.

Formerly known and addressed as MOHAMMED AISHA ABIBA now wish to be known and addressed as MRS HASSAN AISHA ABIBA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHINANU SAMUEL NWEKE. Formerly Benjamin Uchendu Onyekachi now Chinanu Samuel Nweke. Former documents remains valid. General public please note.

OLANREWAJU SODIQ AJANI.

I formerly known and addressed as AJANI TUNDE LANRE now wish to be known and addressed as OLANREWAJU SODIQ AJANI. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

NARTEY ELIZABETH

I formerly known and addressed as ADJOA AMA NARTEY now wish to be known and addressed as NARTEY ELIZABETH. All former documents remain valid. General public to please take note.

ANTHONY OLUCHUKWU BLESSING

I, formerly known and addressed as ONWUDIWE OLUCHUKWU BLESSING, now wish to be known and addressed as ANTHONY OLUCHUKWU BLESSING. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

OKAA ADAEZE IVEONU MUSA PETER JOSEPH EDET UDOH

I, formerly known and addressed as Okaa Adaeze Michelle, now wish to be known and addressed as Okaa Adaeze Iveonu. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as Moses Peter, now wish to be known and addressed as Musa Peter. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as Joseph Nsikan Edet, now wish to be known and addressed as Joseph Edet Udoh. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

COSMOS IKECHUKWU. OLALEYE AYOMIPOSI EUNICE ADETOLA ADENIKE BELLO. COSMOS: I, formerly known as BRIGHT IKEMEFUNA OMEJE, now wish to be known and addressed as COSMOS IKECHUKWU. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

EZEHI CALISTA PHILOMINA. AKINOLA-FAYOMI HANNAH NGOZI.

CALISTA: Formerly known and addressed as CALISTA PHILOMINA NKIRUKA OKODUWA, now wish to be known and addressed as EZEHI CALISTA PHILOMINA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

Formerly known and addressed as YAKUBU ZACK ISMAIL now wish to be known and addressed as YAKUBU ISMAIL ISAAC. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

EBONE: Formerly known and addressed as EBONE HANNAH NGOZI, now wish to be known and addressed as AKINOLA-FAYOMI HANNAH NGOZI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

Formerly known and addressed as MISS BASIRAT ADEKUNBI BASHUA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS BASIRAT ADEKUNBI BASHUA-DABIRI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I formerly known and addressed as ADETOLA EUNICE AYOMIPOSI. Now wish to be known as MRS. OLALEYE AYOMIPOSI EUNICE. All former documents remain valid. General public and authorities concerned should take note.

I formerly known, called and addressed as Adetola Adeyinka Bello. That henceforth,now wish to be known, called and addressed as Adetola Adenike Bello. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

MICHAEL ISSAC AMAECHI. PAUL CAROLINE OLUWAJUWON

OKOYE: Formerly known and addressed as OKOYE ISSAC

AMAECHI, now wish to be known and addressed as MICHAEL ISSAC AMAECHI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

This is to confirm that I, TAJUDEEN OLATUNJI AHMED is one and same person bearing TAJUDEEN OLATUNJI AHMOD. My date of birth is 10th Aug, 1972. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

Formerly known and addressed as AWOGBEMI CAROLINE OLUWAJUWON, now wish to be known and addressed as PAUL CAROLINE OLUWAJUWON. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

This is to confirm that I, ALIU YUSUFU OKOGHA is one and same person bearing ALIU YUSUF OKOGHA. Any documents bearing both names is same and should be accepted. General public take note.

CHUKWU EMMANUEL CHINONSO.

LOVE CHARLES OBIOMA

SARAH AYUBA

Okerafor Athanatius, Jalingo

The Taraba state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has debunked speculations making the rounds that the national leadership of the association

is characterized with crisis.

The state chairman of CAN, Rev. Ben Ubeh, who refuted the speculations while answering questions from journalists shortly after a prayer session organized by the association in the state in commemoration of Christians massacred

by Fulani herdsmen in Southern Kaduna, held on Monday at the CAN Secretariat, Jalingo, said the national leadership of CAN is united. He pointed out that CAN at the national level only experienced skirmishes during the election that ushered in

the present leadership of Rev. Samson Ayokunle as its national president, describing it as normal.

CAN leadership not divided, says Rev. Ubeh Make private institutions beneficiaries of TETFUND, varsity urges FG

Rev. Ubeh revealed that there were some elements who according to him, thought that they can divide CAN adding the Association is above an in-

dividual or group. He said “constitutionally, the North-East CAN is 100 percent in support of the present national president and the northern CAN, comprising of all the 19 states plus Abuja, all show solidarity and allegiance to the national president.

Ebonyi to establish technology village in Uburu

Ebonyi state government is to establish a technology village in Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government Area to enable Ebonyi youths who are technically gifted to hone their skills.

The Executive Secretary, Nasarawa State Christians Pilgrims Welfare Board, Mr. Clement Odeh,has attributed failure of pilgrims from the state to embark on 2016 pilgrimage to Jerusalem to nonavailability of visas.

Odeh, who disclosed this to newsmen on Monday, said that the Nigerian Christians Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) failed to secure visas for the state pilgrims last year.

He said that the board had concluded all arrangements, including payment of the required funds early enough to ensure a hitch-free exercise within the scheduled time of between October and December.

“Our job at the board was completed for the all the intending pilgrims.

“We had to push it to the NCPC saddled with the procurement of visas and flight schedules, but without the visas and flight schedules, we cannot travel.

“Nasarawa is among seven states that could not embark on the journey last year with over 2,000 intending pilgrims still waiting to be airlifted,’’ Odeh said.

He lamented that the NCPC could not sincerely explain to the board why it could not secure visas and flight schedules for the pilgrims to embark on the journey.

“This to me, is a clear indication that some people are not doing their jobs and should be prepared to take responsibility given the fact that the exercise had a time line,’’ he said.

Odeh also blamed the Unity Bank for not making available the Basic Travel Allowance (BTA) in dollars since the foreign exchange had been fully paid for over a month.

Governor David Umahi gave the hint during the Umunaga-Ikenegwu Union Day, held at his compound in Uburu, adding that the technology village would also give fillip to his administration’s desire to develop the state in all sectors through technology and make the state to become one of the major hubs for inventive activities in the country.

Umahi, who thanked the people of the union for their strong support, assured them that the on-going reconstruction of the Amasiri-Okposi-

OKAFOR AKUEYINWA VERONICA TREASURE

Formerly known and addressed as OKAFOR AKUEYNWA VERA, now wish to be known and addressed as OKAFOR AKUEYINWA VERONICA TREASURE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ALIMI GANIYAT IBUKUN.

Formerly known and addressed as OMISORE GANIYAT IBUKUN, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS. ALIMI GANIYAT IBUKUN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

Uburu road would be completed and asphalted this year while the construction of most of the internal roads in Uburu and adjoining communities would commence soon.

Umahi also announced that the construction of water project to serve the entire Uburu and beyond had already started.

He affirmed that his administration was poised to establish rice mill and other industries on the piece of land already acquired by the Ikenegwu union.

The governor called on the people of Uburu to embark on large scale farming, which he said had become the policy thrust of his administration, adding that mechanized farming would be in vogue in the

UMAR NAIYA BALARABE.

Formerly known and addressed as UMAR LAWAL AMINU, now wish to be known and addressed as UMAR NAIYA BALARABE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ESEMAYA CHUKWUDUMEBI OLUNFUNLOLA

Formerly known and addressed as TERRENCE CHUKWU DUMEBI OLUFUNLOLA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS. ESEMAYA CHUKWUDUMEBI OLUNFUNLOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

BARRY PEACE UZOMA SUNDAY UNWANA.

Formerly known and addressed as ETIM SUNDAY UNWANA, now wish to be known and addressed as UZOMA SUNDAY UNWANA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHUKWU PRECIOUS AMARACHI

I, formerly known and addressed as WILLIAMS PRECIOUS now with to be known and addressed as CHUKWU PRECIOUS AMARACHI. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

IGWE CHINYERE MARIANA

I, formerly known and addressed as NWANKWO CHINYERE MARIANA now with to be known and addressed as IGWE CHINYERE MARIANA. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

Formerly known and addressed as BARRY PEACE NDUDI, now wish to be known and addressed as BARRY PEACE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note

FRIDAY GOWOK.

I, formerly known and addressed as FRIDAY DOMINIC now with to be known and addressed as FRIDAY GOWOK. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

OTIBE CHIGOZIE MICHAEL.

I, formerly known and addressed as NWACHUKWU MICHAEL now with to be known and addressed as OTIBE CHIGOZIE MICHAEL. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

state.

Earlier, the interim President of the Umunaga- Ikenegwu Union, Chief Mike Agwu Umahi, explained that the occasion was to thank God and celebrate their son, Governor Umahi, whom he said, God used to enthrone quality leadership in the state.

He assured the governor that the people of Umunaga-Ikenegwu were solidly behind him.

Chief Umahi said, “You have awarded contracts for road construction in Uburu, including Umunaga. You have also given us street light, motorised boreholes and even started a new water scheme in Uburu.

“You have given our people scholarships and empow-

FAJEMINIGBA KEMI MODUPE OMOLOLA

I, formerly known and addressed as OJO FADEKEMI MODUPE now with to be known and addressed as MRS. FAJEMINIGBA KEMI MODUPE OMOLOLA. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

ELIZABETH. ADUNNI. AJANAKU

Formerly known and addressed as MRS. ELIZABETH. ADUNNI. OLAOSEBIKAN. Now wish to be known and addressed as MRS. ELIZABETH. ADUNNI. AJANAKU. All former documents remain valid. General public take note

OLOYODE

This is to confirm and certify that OLOYODE SUNKANMI OMOBOLANLE and OLOYODE SUNKANMI JAMIU refers to one and same person. But now wish to be known and addressed as OLOYODE SUNKANMI JAMIU. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

BADMUS SULAIMON ADEMOLA

I, formerly known and addressed as OLADELE SULE now with to be known and addressed as BADMUS SULAIMON ADEMOLA. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

ADEBAYO TOPE

I, formerly known and addressed as NENE EKPO ENI now with to be known and addressed as ADEBAYO TOPE. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

ered some of our women and youths. We cannot enumerate all your efforts in changing our histories and persons.”

Sodiq Adekunle, Osogbo

Fountain University, Osogbo, the Osun state capital, has appealed to the Federal Government to include privately owned universities as beneficiaries of Tertiary Education Trust Funds (TETFUND).

The acting Vice-Chancellor of the Fountain University, Prof. Abdullateef Usman, said this during a press conference held as part of activities for the sixth convocation ceremony of the university.

He explained that giving infrastructural support to private universities would further enhance the quality of education in the country.

According to him, many private universities have been successful in their efforts to assist the federal government in the provision of quality education.

David Umahi

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to confirm and certify that OLADIPO EMMANUEL and OLADIPO EMMANUEL OLUSESAN is the same person. But now wish to be known and address as OLADIPO EMMANUEL OLUSESAN. ALL Documents bearing all names remain valid. General public take note.

OKWUASHI ANTHONIA ELUMUNOR

Formerly known and addressed as IGWE ANTHONIA ELUMUNOR, now wish to be known and addressed as OKWUASHI ANTHONIA ELUMUNOR. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

YUSUFF MUSA OLATOKUNBO.

I, formerly known and addressed as YUSUFF MUSA OLAYEMI now with to be known and addressed as YUSUFF MUSA OLATOKUNBO. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

AYOOLA ABODEDE OLAITAN.

I, formerly known and addressed as MOSHOOD BOSEDE OLAITAN now with to be known and addressed as AYOOLA ABODEDE OLAITAN. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

ELUMS. JUDE. UGOCHUKWU.

Formerly known and addressed as ELUMOGO. JUDE. AGI. Now wish to be known and addressed as ELUMS. JUDE. UGOCHUKWU. All former documents remain valid. General public take note

This, he said, served as a supplement for the already-burdened universities owned by state and federal governments.

He said, “No private university can make bold to say that it breaks even. Also, over 70 percent of those who write Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) yearly are still not admitted and this is the responsibility of the government - educating its citizens - and if the private universities are sharing this responsibility with the government, they are supposed to be enjoying something.

“The TETfund should not be a forbidden thing for the private universities. Let me use this opportunity to reiterate our call for the inclusion of private universities as part of beneficiaries of TETFUND. This, we believe will go a long way to assist the universities to contribute to advancement of research and national development.”

He expressed concern over the inconsistent education policy in the country, noting that new efforts are being made to standardise the policy.

DEBORAH OMIJE OMISOPE

Formerly known and addressed as DEBORAH OMIJE OJEIKERE. Now wish to be known and addressed as DEBORAH OMIJE OMISOPE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note

Visas, BTA deprive Nasarawa Christian pilgrims from traveling –Scribe

SUNKANMI JAMIU.

Buhari, Atiku mourn former Niger governor, Kure

Tony Ailemen & Lateef

Ibrahim, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has extended his heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Niger state on the passing on of former state governor, Engr. Abdulkadir Kure.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said Buhari has also commiserated with wife of the deceased, Senator Zaynab Kure and her children, all the

Kwara OPC to promote cultural practices

Kehinde Akinpelu, Ilorin

The Kwara state coordinator of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Mr. Maruf Olanrewaju Salam, has said that the group will soon launch its Asa Socio-Cultural Organisation (ASCO) to foster cultural practices in the state.

Comarade Olarewaju announced this on Monday in Ilorin at the group’s New Year prayer session.

He said that the group would also introduce Neighborhood Watch, a security outfit, which he said enjoys the backing of the state government to ensure effective security surveillance in the state.

Olarewaju added that Quranic competition would be organised to promote Quranic recitation in the state.

“As part of this year’s activities, we will launch Asa Social Cultural Organisation (ASCO) which accommodate all Kwara residents; be they Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo.

“ASCO will also feature display of various cultural costumes, food and traditional way of life,’’ he said.

According to him, OPC members in the state would reclaim the celebration of Oya festival under ASCO.

The OPC state coordinator also commended members of the group for their contribution toward the success of the prayer session, saying nothing was paramount than to begin the new year with divine supplication.

An Islamic cleric, Alhaji Musa Omar, who led the prayer session, urged OPC members to refrain from all social vices and fetish objects.

Kure

family and the Nupe people, on the unfortunate demise of their illustrious son.

Also reacting to the demise of the politician, former vice president and chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar said on Monday that the death of the former governor has robbed Nigerian democracy of one of its finest, decent and peace loving politicians of our time.

Atiku said this in a condolence statement issued by his media office in Abuja.

The former Vice President

explained that it was impossible to encounter the late Kure without respecting and admiring him particularly for his humility, gentleness, patience and peace loving nature.

According to Atiku, “Kure looked at power as an opportunity to serve his people without keeping a ledger of ill will towards anybody, whether you supported him or not.”

He said the exemplary life of Kure was good evidence that there are gentlemen in politics, despite the widespread negative perceptions of politicians in the country.

The Turakin Adamawa also stated that he valued every moment he shared with the late Kure because “you couldn’t help admiring his wisdom, experience, patience and knowledge.”

The former governor who ruled Niger state for two terms was said to have died on Sunday at a German hospital of undisclosed illness at the age of 61.

The death of Kure has thrown the state into mourning as the state government has declared a three day mourning period.

President Buhari, in the

statement, said he was joining them in mourning the twoterm governor and vibrant political leader who was a great promoter of peaceful coexistence, development and the unity of the Nigerian state throughout his life.

President Buhari paid tribute to Engr. Kure’s unselfish dedication to the progress of his state, symbolized by his selfless services to his community even after leaving office.

The President prays that the Almighty Allah will receive Governor Kure’s soul and comfort all who mourn him.

FG commissions low level wind shear at Katsina Airport

The Federal Government said that safety and security are paramount for the turnaround maintenance and restructuring of Nigerian airports.

The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, stated this in Katsina state, while commissioning the NIMET low level wind shear installed at the Umar Musa Yar’Adua International Airport, Katsina.

The Minister stated that weather phenomena generally affect air navigation and wind shear is one of the most hazardous weather events to aircraft. He further noted that the wind shear occurs when the speed and or direction of the wind changes abruptly. This period is always dangerous when landing or during take offs.

In ensuring that Nigeria is free of the hazard, the Katsina state International airport, is now one among 12 other airports across the country with the low level wind shear alert system, a facility that detects the dangerous wind shear that drops aircraft in low altitudes.

Ambode signs 2017 budget into law

Benjamin Omoike

Lagos state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, on Monday signed the N812.998bn 2017 Appropriation bill into law, with a promise that it would be judiciously implemented to consolidate on the modest milestones recorded in the last 18 months and propel the State to a path of prosperity.

The governor, who spoke at a brief but impressive ceremony, held at the Lagos House, Ikeja, said the 2017 budget, christened, “Golden Jubilee Budget” was his administration’s contract with Lagosians to continue to build an all-inclusive economy throughout the year.

The governor thanked the Speaker and members of the House of Assembly for their forthrightness and speedy consideration and approval of the Appropriation Bill, which he presented to the

House on November 29, 2016, and was passed to Law on January 3, 2017.

He said the N812.998bn Y2017 budget was in line with the State Development Plan 2012-2025, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework for 2017-2019, based on the State’s Four Pillars of Development Plan which include: Infrastructure Development, Economic Development, Social Development and Security as well as Sustainable Environment.

Governor Ambode, while assuring that his administration would immediately hit the ground running to implement the budget, expressed optimism that the national economy would begin a path of recovery this year.

“We are encouraged by the budget performance of last year (2016) which stood at 78 per cent. Our total Capital Expenditure in 2017 will be N507.816bn while Recurrent

Expenditure is estimated at N305.182bn.

“Our government is committed to prudent financial management and equitable allocation of resources for the general good and will ensure proper fiscal discipline in the implementation of this Appropriation Law,” Governor Ambode said.

of citizens like tax payments have become noticeably better, self-induced and encouraging, Governor Ambode sought the cooperation and understanding of all taxpayers to successfully implement the budget, saying that government would continue to strive harder to improve service-delivery in all sectors.

“We encourage all tax payers to continue in this spirit and also take advantage of available multi-pay channels in fulfilling their civic obligations. Do not pay to touts or illegal channels. Make sure your tax payments count. We are doing everything to eliminate poor services to you,” he said.

According to records, NIMET low level wind shear has previously caused air fatalities in Nigeria, the most recent being the Sosoliso aircraft which crashed landed in Port Harcourt on December 10, 2005 and the ADC aircraft which crashed while attempting to take-off from Abuja airport on October 29, 2006 with 96 casualties.

Other airports across the country with the LLWAS built by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) include Abuja, Benin, Calabar, Enugu, Ilorin, Kaduna, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Sokoto and Yola.

He said a recent study by the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and NiMet established that winshear is prevalent in all parents of Nigeria even as AIB aircraft accidents investigations also found out that wind shear phenomena was linked to some accidents.

While alluding to the fact that obligations and duties

In his goodwill message, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, said the judicious implementation of the 2016 Budget by Governor Ambode, against all odds, has gone a long way to confirm his financial expertise.

“Aviation safety and security are top priority issues for the present government. The successful installation of LLWAS at 13 airports in the country by NiMet is therefore in consonance with the aviation safety policy of this administration. The agency has procured and installed other weather monitoring equipment including Meteorological image receivers.

Idu Jude, Abuja

Chairman, Eleganza Group, Alhaji Rasak Akani Okoya (3rd right); Group Managing Director, Eleganza Group, Mrs. Shade Okoya (3rd left); Alhaji Tajudeen Okoya (2nd right) and other dignitaries cutting a cake during the Eleganza Group end of the Year party in Lagos… recently.

Ambode

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Times Law s

Lawyers are engaged to espouse the case of their clients. It is a monopoly and they should bear in mind that like all monopolies, their conducts are subject to strict rules of accountability for adherence to set ethical standards. They can fight the cause of their clients, but as lawyers they must act within the rules regarding ethical conduct. They owe a duty to their clients but they owe a higher duty to a higher cause- the cause of justice.

EDITOR: Ibe Uwaleke, 08033151041, ibeuwaleke 2012@yahoo.com

Plea bargaining not responsible for increase in corruption -Akpedeye

Dafe Akpedeye is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a former Delta State AttorneyGeneral and Commissioner for Justice.

In this interview with PETER FOWOYO, he speaks on plea bargaining, capital punishment and signing of death warrant, corruption in the judiciary, performance of the 8th National Assembly and other sundry issues.

What is your take on the views by some Nigerians that plea bargain is responsible for rising waive of corruption in the country.

Plea bargaining, a novelty introduced under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 is a modern way of disposing of a case under the criminal justice system. It is an arrangement whereby the accused person agrees to plead guilty to one or some charges in return for the prosecution agreeing to drop other charges or accept a lesser offence than that charged by the prosecution in return for a lighter sentence. Plea bargain in itself cannot be responsible for the increase in corruption. Anyone who says that is not knowledgeable of the practice of plea bargain.

Plea bargaining not only allows the country to save the huge cost of embarking on litigation from the trial court to the appellate courts but also saves time thereby executing timely justice by allowing quick conviction of the accused person. There is also some economic national benefit as some of the looted funds have been recovered. Statistics from the Economist in 2014 showed that over 95% of convictions in the United States are reached through plea bargaining saving the taxpayers millions of dollars in prosecuting cases, ensuring the conviction of the accused persons and de-clogging of the criminal cases within the country. In all, we cannot say that plea bargain is not worthwhile to our society. Ensuring that a high-level government official or an elite of society admits to embezzling public funds and thereby becoming an ex-convict for life unless he/she is granted pardon is not an easy feat. Thus, it cannot be the case that plea bargaining is responsible for the increase in corruption. The reason for the bad press of plea bargaining in Nigeria, is due to the fact that it seems only to be utilised in cases involving politicians or high status individual. That has been a major drawback for the plea bargaining arrangement.

Governor Ibrahim Ganduje of Kano State recently called for the review of death warrant law to allow the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN)

take over the signing of death warrant. How feasible is this call?

Nigeria operates a federal constitution hinged on the principles of separation of powers, checks and balances and rule of law. All these are protected by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). The three arms of government have specific roles and thus the Legislature makes the law, the Judiciary interprets the law and Executive implements the law. Therefore, it would be contrary to the spirit and intendment of the constitution to foist on the Judiciary, the additional function of executing its decision. The signing of death warrants is the responsibility of the Executive and it falls on the Chief Executive of the State or Federation, being the Governor or the President respectively. Such a review, as propounded by the Governor of Kano State is not a step in the right direction as it would be inconsistent with the entrenched principle of separation of powers and rule of law, required to ensure a balance of power between the ruling arms of government.

What is your take on the plan by the House of Representatives to remove the power to appoint Election Tribunal Heads from the President of the Court of Appeal to the CJN?

In order to decide whether this propos-

al is meritorious, the important question to pose is, what exactly is the motive behind such move or attempt? Honourable James Faleke sponsored the Bill and we can recall his turbulent legal journey after the Kogi State governorship election. Perhaps, he saw a lacuna in that regard during the court sessions. Personally, I do not see the need for it. As it is now, the authority to appoint the judges for the tribunals as well as the appellate tribunals rests on the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA) in consultation with the Chief Judge of the State, the Grand Khadi of the Sharia Court of Appeal of

Legal JOKE

A fox may steal your hens, Sir, A whore your health and pence, Sir, Your daughter rob your chest, Sir, Your wife may steal your rest, Sir, A thief your goods and plate. But this is all but picking, With rest, pence, chest and chicken; It ever was decreed, Sir, If lawyer’s hand is fee’d, Sir, He steals your whole estate.

Plea bargaining not only allows the country to save the huge cost of embarking on litigation from the trial court to the appellate courts but also saves time thereby executing timely justice by allowing quick conviction of the accused person. There is also some economic national benefit as some of the looted funds have been recovered. Statistics from the Economist in 2014 showed that over 95% of convictions in the United States are reached through plea bargaining saving the taxpayers millions of dollars in prosecuting cases, ensuring the conviction of the accused persons and de-clogging of the criminal cases within the country.

the State or the President of the Customary Court of Appeal of the State, depending on the State where the said tribunal members are to be appointed from. Thus, the President of the Court of Appeal is not the sole appointor. The spirit behind the constitutional provision that vests the responsibility on the PCA, I believe is to relieve the CJN of some tasks. Thus, calling for the CJN to be in charge of the appointment may be overbearing on the CJN. The status quo should remain.

Would you subscribe to the appointment of the CJN outside the Supreme Court?

Interestingly, in our political history, the appointment of the CJN was the prerogative of the Executive. In fact, the first four Chief Justices of Nigeria were highly skilled and intelligent people recruited from outside the Supreme Court. However, in our current clime, the seniority norm has been firmly institutionalised. Many argue that this has led to a lackadaisical culture within the judiciary al-

lowing judges to be promoted, not entirely based on merit but merely seniority. It has also created an insular judiciary, without external influences from senior lawyers in private practice or academia outside the judiciary. On the other hand, there is also the danger that appointing non-judges to the highest court in the land may lead to nepotism and patronage, which would almost certainly harm the institution of the Supreme Court. Therefore, in order to ensure a fair and unbiased judiciary, any appointment of a CJN (whether within or outside the Supreme Court) must be within carefully crafted parameters specifying the skill set for the CJN, who shall be appointed by an independent committee and subject to the confirmation of the Senate. I believe such a criterion for the appointment should be treated with the utmost reverence, as the Supreme Court is the ultimate protector of the liberties of the citizenry.

What is your assessment of the 8th National Assembly since its inauguration?

The 8th National Assembly was inaugurated on Tuesday, 9th June, 2015. It started on a very turbulent note, with stiff leadership tussle in both houses. It took quite a while before this leadership brawl was finally resolved which invariably led to delays in attending to legislative matters. Coupled with the controversy over altering the Senate Standing Rules for the election of Senate President and his Deputy and the criminal prosecution by the Code of Code Tribunal against Bukola Saraki (the Senate President), it is no wonder that legislative activities stalled during the first few sittings of the Senate.

We must however, acknowledge the fact that the 8th Assembly had already sponsored a total of 327 Bills within the first 6 months of its inauguration, compared to the 132 bills considered by the 7th Assembly within the same period. In addition, they have instituted some checks and balances on the actions of the Executive. On the whole, the 8th Assembly still has a long way to go in fulfilling its legislative role. We hope to see a more vibrant and selfless Assembly in the coming year.

Lagos State recently enacted a law making kidnapping a capital offence. What’s your view on that law?

Generally, there are proponents of the death sentence and there are opponents to the death sentence regime. However, globally, there has been a shift away from the death sentence as a criminal punishment. In fact, research has shown that the death penalty has not been a deterrent in certain states in the United States where it is

-Ngwuta,JSC.inDariyev.FRN&2Ors(2015)2S.C.(Pt.1)120

Akpedeye (SAN)

- John Gay (1685-1732), English dramatist. Peachum, in The Beggar’s Opera, act 1, sc. 9, Air 11.

Man docked for break-in, N108,000 theft

An unemployed man identified as Chukwukere Akachukwu, who allegedly broke into an apartment and stole N108,000, was on Friday has been docked before a Lagos Magistrates court sitting in Ikeja.

The accused who pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Mrs. M.O Osinbajo was arraigned on a two count charge bothering on burglary and theft.

The 35-year old accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the two charges brought against him by the police.

According to the prosecutor, Sgt. Yomi Egunjobi, the accused committed the offences at No. 14, Yomi Are St., New Oko-Oba, Abule-Egba, Lagos, at about 10.30 p.m on Nov.14.

He alleged that the accused burgled the apartment of the complainant, Mr Ogbolu Stephen.

Egunjobi also told the court that the accused broke into the complainant apartment through the window while he went to work on night shift.

“The accused was seen by the complainant’s neighbour who went outside to urinate and raised alarm.

‘Akachukwu was apprehended by security guards in the area and handed over to the police,” the prosecutor said

Compos Mentis Chambers organises 5km walk

Peter Fowoyo

A Delta-based law firm, Compos Mentis has stated that there is going to be a first of its kind five kilometer walk in Warri next Saturday 14th January to promote fitness and wellness of residents of the oil city.

The event which will take place at the venue of the NNPC Housing Estate at Ekpan, is being sponsored by a law firm, Compos Mentis Chambers and Perfectus Laundi.

In a statement by Emokiniovo Dafe Akpedeye the Managing Partner of Compos Mentis Chambers, stated that the aim of the event is to promote the welfare of the people of Warri.

“To promote fitness and wellness of residents of Warri and environs, this novel, first of its kind event is being sponsored by Compos Mentis Chambers and Perfectus Laundi.”

Court orders MTN to forfeit N8bn over alleged money laundering

MTN Communications has lost a whopping N8billion for allegedly involving in suspected money laundering activity.

Justice Abdulaziz Anka of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the temporary forfeiture of the sum of N8 billion allegedly belonging to MTN Communications Limited to the Federal Government.

The order was given because the money is suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity, which are stashed in account number 0012005379 domicile in Ecobank. The court ordered for the money to be temporarily forfeited following an ex-parte application to that effect filed before the court by the federal government.

Also affected by the order of the court is another account number 1013607079 containing billions of Naira domicile in Skye Bank Plc, whose owner has not file any application before the court to contest ownership.

Justice Anka further gave an order directing the publication of a notice in two National Daily newspapers inviting any person(s) who may have interest in the subject funds to, within 14 days of the publication of the order, show cause why a final order should not be made forfeiting the said funds to the government of Nigeria.

The judge also directed that the order should be served on the respective branch managers of the respondents banks and to stop forthwith all outward payments from the subject accounts and to immediately deliver to the court the respective statements of

account with certificate of authentication and other relevant documents as at the date and time of service of the court order on them.

The suit, in which the government obtained the order, was marked FHC/L/CS/1676/2016 and filed by an Abuja based lawyer, Barrister John Opeyemi, on behalf of Attorney- General of the Federation (AGF), and an Asset Recovery Agent of the Federal Government, Algaita Group Nigeria Limited.

In an affidavit sworn to by the Managing Director of Algaita Group Limited, Abdullahi Mohammed Maiturare, he averred that the AGF appointed his company as an Asset Recovery Agent of the Federal Government of Nigeria to track, freeze and recover funds and ensure it is remitted to the

designated bank account of the Federal Government of Nigeria through legally permissible means as may be directed by the Attorney General of the Federation.

Maiturare, a former operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), also claimed that his company has credible information at its disposal which reveals that funds which are strongly believed to be Federal Government of Nigeria’s funds stolen, diverted and laundered are hidden in some coded accounts in the two banks Ecobank and Skye bank.

He further maintained that credible information at his disposal, from reliable sources, indicates that there is an account maintained at Ecobank Nigeria Limited in the name of MTN

Nigeria Communications operating account number 0012005379 that has a credit balance of N8 billion.

Maiturare also alleged that “from the totality of the credible information at our disposal, the applicants reasonably believe and satisfied that the funds in the possession of the two banks are unclaimed properties or proceeds of unlawful activity of stealing, diversion and money laundering of some public officials and their cronies in the private sector.

“Consequently if urgent steps are not taken to obtain certified documents of the accounts and statements thereof as well as stop outward transactions on the accounts, the funds may be dissipated and the account documentation or statements may be tampered with,” he insisted.

However, MTN Communications Limited is contesting the court ruling. In a preliminary objection, MTN has urged the court to discharge and set aside the orders made on it, as it relates to its account held with Ecobank Limited.

The telecommunications company, in an affidavit sworn to by a legal practitioner, Mrs. Ibukunoluwa Owa on behalf of MTN communication and filed before the court by Adeniyi Adegbonmire (SAN), the deponent averred that from information delivered to him by Babatunde Adewumi, the Manager, Banking and Treasury in the employment of MTN communication limited, the applicants did not comply with the order of the court.

Fake soldier sentenced for harassing lady

An Ikeja Magistrates Court, Lagos has sentenced a middleaged man, Akin Akinsetu who has been parading himself as a military personnel to six weeks community service for assaulting a lady.

The sentence was handed down to Akinsetu by Magistrate B.O Osunsanmi after he was found guilty of a one count charge of assault.

In her ruling, Magistrate Osunsanmi said: “ based on the fact the defendant has pleaded guilty to the offence and pleaded for leniency,

I hereby sentenced you to 6 weeks community service, two hours daily. Earlier, the prosecutor, Insp. Simon Imohoma, had informed the court that the defendant, Akin Akinsetu committed the crime on 20, October, 2016, at Toyin street, Ikeja Lagos.

Imohoma said, Akinsetu who resides at 16, Ilaje Ojo , Lagos assaulted the complaint, Janet Oladosun while she was sitting with her boyfriend on the said date.

“He was putting on a military sin-

glet while he accosted the victim and her boyfriend and he ordered the boyfriend to lie down and he started to beat him and kick him with his boots.

“After beating the complaints’ boyfriend, he ordered him to leave the vicinity, which he obeyed. He also asked the complaint to follow him to a corner, so as to have canal knowledge of her but she refused to carry out his order and he started beating her too”, Imoghoma said.

He further told the court how a

Plea bargaining not responsible for corruption

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26 utilised for some offences. It would be interesting to consider what research Lagos State carried out to determine the level of deterrence that will be achieved from such sentence flowing from the results achieved thus far in other capital offences like murder, armed robbery etc. Did the imposition of the death penalty affect the rate of commission of such crimes? If we ask people in certain regions in Nigeria, I believe this answer would be in the nega-

tive. Then, one must question what is the driving force behind the new law in Lagos State. We are aware that kidnapping has become a common crime in this nation, as it is seen as an avenue to garner huge sums of money within a short space of time. It is possible that the imposition of the death penalty is a reactionary approach by the Lagos State government to appear tough on such criminal activities. What is important is to consider creative ways to deter young people from a life of

crime and also set up the right infrastructure to capture kidnappers. For instance, in Akwa Ibom State where kidnapping is also a capital offence, the State has set up a GPS locator to easily track mobile phones to their point of origin. This makes it easier to arrest the kidnappers and save the victims. Also, providing the right education and job opportunities to alleviate poverty and idleness will prevent youngsters from delving into criminal activities as a source of income.

Despite the introduction of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, cases are still dragging in our courts. What do you think is responsible?

Unfortunately, the enactment of the ACJA has not brought about the quick dispensation of justice. It is the singular Nigerian problem of inefficient working of our processes. We must get our ‘processes’ right. The truth of the matter is that no law can itself curb the incessant delays of the criminal prosecution of

good Samaritan who was also a police officer intervened and rescued Janet from the defendant.

‘Akinsetu was arrested and taken to the police station where he made a voluntary statement’, he said.

The defendant however, informed the court that he is not a military personnel, that he is only a member of Man’O’War and pleaded for leniency.

Magistrate Osunsanmi found him guilty and sentenced him to six weeks community service in Ikeja.

cases in any society. The prosecutorial process in Nigeria is still fraught with so many challenges ranging from evidence gathering to incompetent prosecutors. Although the ACJA is a step in the right direction and definitely a springboard for reforms in the criminal prosecution process, it requires institutional changes in employing the proper equipment and personnel to fast track the process. We must have set up and operate an effective and efficient modern system.

A cross section of Senior Advocates of Nigeria at an event in Abuja....... recently.

Internet subscribers drop to 92.4m in November –NCC

Many companies underprepared for digital transformation globally -Ovum

Stories by Tony Nwakaegho

A new study from global data, market research and advisory firm, Ovum, has revealed that 33 percent of enterprises globally are underprepared for “digital transformation.”

Digital transformation is the process of replacing legacy networks and dedicated service platforms with a coherent digital environment that is flexible, cost-effective, and capable of delivering changes rapidly and dynamically.

The research also revealed that while 60 percent believe their organization’s process of digital transformation is “well advanced” or “in progress,” only 7 percent believe it to be complete. The findings are published in Ovum’s ICT Enterprise Insights for 2017, the world’s largest research report of enterprise IT decision makers, capturing insights from 7,000 enterprise organizations across 62 countries and 15 industries.

Respondents from the financial services sector demonstrated the most confidence in enabling digital transformation, with 60 percent of enterprise IT decision makers in this industry believing the process to be “well advanced” or “in progress.”

Retail banks claim to be the most advanced (with 45 percent) of these organizations, followed by payments, insurance and financial markets (40 percent).

Respondents from the retail sector, by contrast, considered their industry the least prepared for digital transformation.

In the public sector, 38 percent of respondents thought their sector was experiencing some or significant disruption to services

from digital technologies, with only 29 percent thinking their own organization was affected.

Commenting, Daniel Mayo, director of IT, Data & Tools at Ovum said: “The uneven maturity of digital transformation by industry and country has created a complex landscape for sales teams to navigate, but our data plays a significant role in quantifying for our customers their target markets’ investment appetite and timescales. This enables them to quickly and confidently make decisions about where to focus their go-to-market and product investments.”

In addition to this, the study indicated that while IT spend is growing globally, the top three regions where spend is increasing most rapidly are South Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America, with North America, Western Europe and Australia showing the slowest increase in spend.

The new study closely examined the process of digital transformation currently taking place within enterprises today and found many are struggling with omnichannel customer/ citizen engagement, predominantly focused on online/mobile channels to date.

Thirty percent of enterprises are only at the early or not-started stages, while 25 percent of enterprises claim to be at least well advanced in this area.

Ovum’s ICT Enterprise Insights report provides insight for Ovum clients to help determine which industry in each market region is best prepared for digital transformation, how enterprises in their target vertical markets are prioritizing their IT and communication investment, and how much IT budgets are expected to increase or decrease for their target customers in 2017.

This comprises which of the latest technologies (IoT, mobile, BYOD, cloud) will be most important to their target markets in 2017.

Sales teams can then clearly see which part of their portfolio is most in demand within their target market sector and know how to align their sales resources (managers, reps, sales engineers, field marketers) with market size by factors including country, vertical and target company revenue.

“Ovum ICT Enterprise Insights has broad appeal in the technology market. Our clients, including enterprise software vendors, industry application vendors, information management, digital service providers, system integrators, and enterprise hardware vendors, are able to interrogate Ovum’s data with high granularity to better address their target markets’ needs,” Aneil Rakity, managing director of Ovum, said.

Nigeria, Ghana top Google’s global interest in bitcoin search

As the search interest in Bitcoin seems to have heightened in parts of Africa, Nigeria and Ghana are currently ranked as topping the list of 25 countries globally in search of information about the digital currency, according to Google Trends.

NCS advises FG against relocation of NigComSat, NITDA, others

In Nigeria, interest over time - which represents search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time - has reached a peak popularity value of 100 for the term Bitcoin. This is a swift climb from its value of six as at the first week of July 2016. By the last day of last year, the value was at 66.

Second-placed Ghana currently has a value of 85, while South Africa has 54. In between are Estonia, Slovenia and The Netherlands with 69, 62, and 54, respectively.

Canada has an interest value of 53 while USA and Singapore which both have a number of Bitcoin exchanges have 50 each.

On a city-by-city basis, Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, retains a peak popularity value of 100 in search interest for Bitcoin, while no other African city made the Google Trends list in this section.

These indicators are not a guarantee that people in these countries are buying the digital cur-

rency. Instead, they are a depiction of the people’s level of curiosity to know what has been fueling the uptake of the currency whose value has increased by almost 14 percent in the last seven days to be worth US$1,097 average price (as at the time of this writing) across top exchanges worldwide, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

However, despite this global surge, it looks like the new Bitcoin bull run is just starting - if Google Trends’ analysis is anything to go by.

Globally, it indicates that the search interest

has been on an upward trend since the week ending December 17, when the interest value was at 24, to its increased value of 42 today.

Described as the money of the internet - or the internet of money in another quarter based on the concepts of its use for exchange, trade, value storage and transfers, the Bitcoin technology allows for easy transfer of wealth without an intermediary like banks. Mainstream media’s coverage of its recent price rise to over $1000 has been cited for prompting the keen interest from all over the world.

Daniel Mayo

E-Governance for good governance, the Sokoto example

By Imam Imam

Until now, not much was known about Sokoto’s huge investment in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. But that situation changed when it defeated the other states in the country to win the award of Best State in e-Governance at the 2016 ENigeria Expo and Conference. The award, instituted by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), recognizes and promotes excellence in governance through ICT.

The assessment criteria for the highly competitive award include capacity building in the sector, generation of employment opportunities, improved education and healthcare services using ICT, operational efficiency of ICT tools, and self-help services, among others.

E-governance is regarded as the ICT-enabled route to achieving good governance. It integrates people, processes, information, and technology in the service of governance initiatives. The expected benefits have led to increasing in the efficiency of government operations, strengthening democracy, enhancing transparency, and providing better services to citizens and businesses.

The vision of e-government is the optimization of services so that government can achieve its goals. When Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal took over the mantle of leadership in Sokoto State in May 2015, he outlined the ‘Government ICT Strategy’ which aimed to ensure that, in a dynamic technology environment, it can achieve the government’s plan of an ICT-enabled transformation of public servic-

es of the state.

The ICT Strategy provided an opportunity of benefitting from several emerging gamechanging trends that support better public service by putting citizens and public institutions at the centre of design and delivery of digital services.

The Government ICT Strategy 2015 has three focus areas: Enhancing Citizen Awareness about ICT; Applying ICT in public sector transformation; and Partnerships with the private sector and other stakeholders to deepen application of ICT in the state. The success of the strategy has so far led agencies to collaborate with one another and with vendors to deliver better public services to the people of Sokoto.

In practical terms, to achieve the aims and objectives of the government’s e-strategy, Tambuwal revived the State ICT Directorate and made it a parastatal under the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Directorate has helped to coordinate and spearhead the transformation

of the state’s ICT landscape. To demonstrate government’s commitment to the sector, the ICT Directorate was allocated the sum of N1.1 billion for its operations in the 2016 budget. This amount is staggering considering the fact that only N80m was allocated to the Directorate in the preceding year.

Realising the importance of social media to today’s governance strategy, Tambuwal, upon his assumption of office, created a Social Media Unit domiciled in his office. The new Unit, which operates closely with the office of the Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, is enjoying the same privileges as the (traditional) media crew attached to the Government House. The Unit coordinates activities of all government-assisted online groups, and interacts, on behalf of the government, with interested persons and groups seeking information about government’s policies and programmes.

Tambuwal had made it clear that he would continue to explore different avenues to widen

interaction with special groups, especially the youths. “Adequate training will be organised for the youths to equip them with the latest knowledge in online information management. By the creation of this Unit, we hope to engage our youths and also get their inputs in the running of the government. Our youths played critical roles during the campaigns to mobilise our people for the task ahead. We want them to do more by offering quality suggestions on their vision for Sokoto State,” the Governor had said while announcing the creation of the new Unit. Buoyed by the success of the Unit, the government later gave approval for the integration of Social Media Units into all MDAs to effectively publicise government activities.

In March 2016, Sokoto became one of two states to represent Nigeria at the Smart Cities Program in Washington DC, USA, which was organized jointly by the United States Government and Government of Nigeria through NIST & NITDA respectively.

Widening the scope of the application of information technology in governance saw the state deploy ICT in the accreditation of all its students schooling abroad, thereby modernising record keeping at the State Scholarship Board. This ensured massive savings of public funds. The focus of egovernance also led to the provision of computer facilities in all tertiary institutions, and select primary and secondary schools to serve as pilot centres for ICT education. This is not forgetting the building of Computer Based Test Centres (CBT) in the three senatorial zones for students writing JAMB and other public officials writing promotion examinations.

The government has made a

public commitment to support entrepreneurs in the ICT sector. Once the policy is implemented, knowledge will be enhanced, while start-ups will benefit from new investment to develop their expertise.

Another important project that will come on stream in 2017 is the world class Data Analysis Centre for the state Ministry of Health. The Centre will be used in tracking and analysis of health-related data in Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi States.

The government is not relenting in efforts to deepen application of ICT in all public endeavours. Recently, it announced that it is working with the Federal Government to develop the sector. Briefing reporters after a meeting with the Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, Tambuwal said the state government will leverage on the modest achievements recorded in the ICT sector in the last one year, and welcomed the opportunity to partner the Federal Government for the benefit of the state. He said his administration has “extensively applied ICT in various spheres of governance,” and will continue to do so because the new method enhances good governance and helps in tackling corruption at all levels.

No doubt, use of modern day technologies such as medical treatment databases, cell phones to improve livelihoods, and computers to enable citizens to compete for online jobs in the global market, will continue to enrich the lives of the people in many ways. The example set by Sokoto is that governments can become closer to its people through the use of information technology and communications, thereby increasing efficiency and helping to make their lives better.

Internet subscribers drop to 92.4m in November –NCC

Tony Nwakaegho

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that internet subscribers in Nigeria dropped to 92,446,687 in November.

The Commission made the disclosure in its Monthly Internet Subscribers Data for November.

The data indicated that internet users on both Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks reduced by 759,683 in November.

It showed that of the 92.4 million internet users in Novem-

ber, 92,416,378 were on GSM networks, while 30,309 users were on CDMA networks. Also, the GSM service providers lost 759,683 internet customers after recording 92,416,378 users in November, as against 93,176,061 it recorded in October.

The CDMA operators had retained 30,309 internet subscribers in November as recorded in October 2016.

The data revealed that MTN had 32,017,779 subscribers browsing the internet on its network in the month under review. It said that MTN recorded a decrease of 447,000 internet subscribers

in November, after recording 32,464,779 in October.

According to the data, Globacom has 27,122,892 customers surfing the net on its network in November, revealing a decrease of 62,660 users, from the 27,185,552 that surfed the internet on the network in October.

Airtel had 19,143,700 internet users in November, adding 311,462 customers to its October record of 18,832,238.

The data also showed that Etisalat had 14,132,007 customers who browsed the internet in November, revealing a decrease of 561,485 users against the

14,693,492 users recorded in October.

The NCC data revealed that the CDMA operators, Multi-Links and Visafone, had a joint total of 30,309 internet users on their networks in November, maintaining the same record of October.

According to the data, Visafone has 30,305 customers surfing the internet in November, while Multi-Links has just four internet users. The decrease in the use of the internet in November showed that service providers had a great job of ensuring that more Nigerians embrace data, as the next revolution.

Umaru Danbatta

AMINU TAMBUWAL Sokoto State Governor

NCS advises FG against relocation of NigComSat, NITDA, others

Stories by Tony Nwakaegho

The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) has advised the Federal Government against moving core Information and Communication Technology (ICT) agencies such as the National Information and Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone, and Nigeria Communication Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) from the Federal Ministry of Communications to the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.

The advice follows reported moves by the present administration to subject these key agencies to inter-ministerial transfer. If implemented, the Ministry of Communications will be left with only the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST).

The NCS fears that the relocation will set back Nigeria’s development over 15 years.

Professor Sola Aderounmu, the NCS president, in a statement on the Society’s website, described ICT as central to the creation of the emerging global knowledge-based economy “and it is a pivotal instrument in accelerating growth, promoting sustainable development and eradicating poverty in developing countries such as ours.”

He reaffirmed that ICT provides economic opportunities to both urban and rural populations, hence the NCS, the umbrella body of all Information Technology Professionals,

Stakeholders, and Interest groups in Nigeria with over 20,000 members, in 2011 worked with the Federal Government to establish the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology, disagrees with the Federal Government on the recent moves.

“The Nigeria Computer Society also agreed with the Federal Government in 2011 to retain the three agencies – NIGCOMSAT, NITDA, and Galaxy Backbone under the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology for sustained development and actualization of ICT objectives towards diversifying Nigerian economy as communicated by the SGF (Secretary to the Government of the Federation) upon creation of the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology in 2011.

“The missions of Nigerian Communications Commission, National Information Technology Development Agency, Galaxy Backbone and Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd., are related and the focus is more on Information and Communication Technology.

“Presently, National Information Technology Development Agency formulates policies and develops Information Technology initiatives, while, NIGCOMSAT and Galaxy Backbone are providers of Information and Communication Technology infrastructure and services to Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies; NigComSat is a satellite operator and not a space agency;

“As of today, there are 17 agencies/ parastatals under the Ministry of Science and Technology, while, there are 5 agencies under the Federal Ministry of Communications,” the NCS president pointed out.

Prof. Aderounmu revealed that all over the world, Ministries of Information and Communication Technology were created to foster the development of an information society and stimulate the growth of a strong, competitive, vibrant, export-oriented ICT sector.

“Examples of such countries are Egypt, Singapore, India, United State of America, United Kingdom just to mention few. The Information and Communication Technology sector is a converged sector for Communications and Information Technology, thus the need to have a converged supervision of the agencies operating

in this sector,” he said.

According to him “it would be counterproductive to separate operators NIGCOMSAT and Galaxy Backbone Ltd) from their regulators (NCC and NITDA) in the supervisory/regulatory framework. This is also contrary to best practices the world over.”

The statement also highlighted the need to streamline government expenditure adding that the fight against corruption cannot be realized if the regulator of the communications sector is placed under the supervision of a different Ministry.

He emphasized that the mandates of both Ministries as described on their websites, http://www.scienceandtech.gov.ng/ for the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, and http://commtech.gov.ng/ for the Ministry of Communications, respectively differ.

Internet of Things in utility market to reach $11.73bn in 2020

According to a market research report published by MarketsandMarkets, Internet of Things (IoT) in utility market size is projected to USD 11.73 billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) period.

Currently, the IoT is at the centre stage of digital transformation. IoT technology can bring exceptional operational efficiency to the utility sector.

It can provide more visibility in the challenging operational environment, where the automation process can have a potential role to play. Cost efficiency, reliability, and safety are the desired goals achieved with the IoT application in the utility sector.

Due to the accelerated growth and low market entry barriers for the new entrants in the IoT market, start-ups are getting opportunities of venture funding from investors all around the world.

The major driver for the upsurge in demand for IoT solutions in the utility sector is the increase in the operational efficiency with less infra-

structure investment and integration of existing technology solutions and hardware over a common platform.

Additionally, declining cost of IoT components and regional government initiatives for smart grid rollout are some of the driving factors which are accelerating IoT in the utility market.

“The IoT is eliminating barriers and allowing the utilities target large audiences and enabling new

business opportunities and delivery models.

On the basis of software, IoT in utility market is segmented into analytics, security, operations control, smart grid management, predictive asset management, and Customer Information System (CIS) and billing system.

The increasing trends of mobile, cloud and smart devices along with factors such as predictive analytics

Nigeria records 589.34bn mobile transactions in October 2016

Despite some setbacks stemming from lack of wide -spread agent network and basic infrastructural challenges such as power and telecommunications network, official figures released by the Central bank of Nigeria have shown that mobile money in Nigeria has continued to gain strength and traction, as over 37.33 million transactions with total recorded as at October 2016.

Mr. Chai Gang, who represented the Director, Banking and Payment System, CBN made this known while speaking at the recent Nigeria Mobile Economy Dialogue, with the theme “Growing the Nigerian Economy Through Mobile Innovation and Investment”, organized by the Centre for Cyber Awareness and Development (CECAD) in Lagos, adding that since the takeoff of mobile money few years ago, the scheme has experienced significant transaction both in number and value year to year.

He disclosed that figures available has shown that the number and value of mobile transactions increase from a total value of 31.50 billionactions with a total value of over 37.33 million transactionslion by October 2016.

for business, conducive platforms for analytics and end-to-end automation are significantly driving the market across the world.

These benefits are the prime reasons for the increasing investment in analytics solutions segment by major enterprises and business.

“Asia Pacific (APAC) is expected to experience extensive growth opportunities in the next few years.”

For exhaustive regional analysis, the IoT in utility market is segmented into North America, Europe, APAC, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America is expected to witness the highest market size during the forecast.

The major push factors for the market in North America are: the smaller co-operative utilities are expected to inject funds for IoT deployment, and the regional government initiative to offer low-interest federal loan for large water infrastructure projects to utilities are.

APAC is fastest-growing region owing to the public and private partnership models developed for the infrastructure re-development in the major parts of the region.

“We know there are challenges making mobile money not to have gotten the desired attention and subsequent growth, but we are glad to announce that mobile money has continued to experiencetions with a total value of 31.50 transactions with a total value also moved up to over 37.33 million transactions with totalber 2016,” Gang added.

He stressed that considering an estimated population ofgeria and a large mobile phone subscriber base, it is obvious that mobile money transactions are barely scratching the surface.

He is optimistic that with the various efforts the CBN and stakeholders are making, Nigeria’s mobile money space will soon become a referenced point.

ADEROUNMU President, Nigeria Computer Society

Stories by Tony Nwakaegho

The governing council of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has increased general access to more information and documents held, managed, or generated by ITU, by making them be available online.

Head, Corporate Communications, ITU, Mr Paul Conneally, who made this known, stated that the Union started the New Year by launching a new access to information policy, hence committing to make more information and documents openly available online.

He explained that the decision was made by ITU’s governing Council in 2016, which aims at bringing public access to information for ITU’s main conferences and meetings in line with other international organizations like the World Bank, United Nations Develop-

ITU approves more open documents for ‘Access to Information’ policy

ment Programme (UNDP), and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“The decision will enhance transparency to ITU’s decisionmaking processes,” Conneally added.

Conneally quoted ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao’s remark that the ITU Council decision provides more information and insight into ITU’s working methods and decision-making procedures to the general public and promotes greater transparency and accountability.

“One of the powers of ICTs is their ability to make organizations more trustworthy. ITU aims to lead by example,” he

noted.

Zhao also declared that as of 1 January 2017, input documents, summaries of decisions, reports and other output documents would be available to the public through the ITU website.

This process, according to Zhao, will be a standard feature of ITU’s main conferences and meetings in the coming years, including ITU Council Working Groups, ITU Advisory Groups Meetings, the upcoming World Telecommunication Development Conference 2017 and the ITU principle governing body, the quadrennial Plenipotentiary Conference, the next one of which is scheduled for the last quarter in 2018.

5G to dominate mobile subscriptions in Africa by 2022- Ericsson

As several companies gather for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the USA, efforts will be made to connect the dots between the latest technology innovations and their dependence on infrastructure.

Among those technologies is 5G, which Ericsson envisages will hold a considerable share of mobile subscriptions on the African continent closer to 2022.

In view of this, attendees at CES 2017 will learn more about the support 5G can give to personal entertainment experienc-

In today’s digital world, bringing Internet access to rural communities is a tremendous step in the right direction of social development and education, hence Mozambican technology start-up company Kamaleon has developed an innovative and engaging way of promoting digital literacy through a shared platform called the “Community Tablet” (“Tablet Comunitário”).

The Community Tablet is a solar powered mobile computer with touch screen displays and virtual keyboards built in on a trailer to provide Internet access to remote areas. In order to facilitate interaction with the virtual world, Kamaleon also offers training on how to use the Internet and its features to members of the community and the local workforce.

The Community Tablet launched in November 2016 in

es, industrial efficiencies and future smart cities.

Delegates will also be given the opportunity to experience how the 5G ecosystem will enable innovation for new use cases, and business models over 5G.

Ulf Ewaldsson, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at Ericsson, has applauded the advent of 5G and is scheduled to discuss practical daily uses of the technology with guests from SK Telecom and BMW during a CES SuperSession.

Ericsson is demonstrating

some of the latest 5G capabilities including higher bandwidth, lower latency, greater density, lower energy requirements, greatly increased security, network slicing and cellular for Massive IoT (Internet of Things) technologies at CES 2017.

“The only way we are going to get to a 5G world is through the cultivation of use cases that expand our understanding of what 5G technology can do, as well as provide real value to consumers and enterprises,” Ewaldsson said.

Ericsson forecasts threefold growth in mobile broadband subscriptions in the Middle East and Africa between 2016 and 2022.

The company has predicted that, over the forecast period, the Middle East and Africa will dramatically shift from a region with a majority of GSM/ EDGE-only subscriptions, to a region where 80 percent of the subscriptions will be WCDMA/ HSPA, LTE and 5G. Coverage by 5G will commence, according to Ericsson, in metropolitan and urban areas.

Tech start-up, Kamaleon develops solar powered mobile computer

Mozambique, ultimately aims to promote digital inclusion and a knowledge-based society in Africa.

The Internet services have been quite phenomenal in the rest of the world and one of the most important enablers of social development and education, however, access to the Internet remains very low in Africa, especially in the rural communities.

According to the Internet World Stats for Africa 2016, only 9.3 percent of people across the African continent are Internet users.

“A few years ago anyone who could not read and write was considered illiterate, but today this concept goes further, encompassing people who do not know how to use information and communication technologies. Health organizations and

schools in Africa often face a unique set of obstacles, including a lack of access to muchneeded health education and counselling platforms. The Community Tablet was created to help solve these problems”, Dayn Amade Founder and CEO of Kamaleon said.

The Community Tablet beginning in Mozambique with an astounding 24 million people with no Internet connection will be used to support campaigns on various Health and Education initiatives in partnership with governmental and private organizations by spreading up-todate messages and interactive lessons that showcase symptoms, prevention and treatment options – replacing the need for leaflet distributions to convey lifesaving information.

Kamaleon is on a mission to close the digital divide and empower more people in Africa to engage in the digital economy and its educational benefits.

“I believe technology and digital literacy can contribute to the greater effectiveness of civic education campaigns in various communities,” Amade stressed.

Ewaldsson

Dayn Amade Founder and CEO of Kamaleon

HOULIN ZHAO ITU Secretary General

Maradona backs 48-team FIFA World Cup plan

Argentine football legend Diego

Maradona on Monday backed controversial plans to expand the World Cup to 48 teams, a day before world football’s powerful governing council faces a key decision on the issue.

“It sounds like a fantastic idea to me,” the 56-year-old told reporters at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters.

“This will give more possibilities to countries that have never reached that level of competition,” he added.

The hobbled Maradona spoke dripping with sweat after rumbling his way through a mini-tournament involving former football greats and current executives.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has organised a series of so-called “Legends Tournaments” since taking charge of the body last year, playing

alongside former football stars in front of assembled media.

Infantino has made expanding the World Cup the centrepiece of his young administration, but his plans have faced criticism, including from those who warn that it will dilute the quality of play at football’s showcase event.

Nigeria irrelevant in world football —Fashanu

Ex-England international, John Fashanu says Nigeria has lost its international reputation in world football due to lack of quality players.

The Super Eagles failed to qualify for the African Cup of Nations twice in a row and the former Wimbledon forward blamed the country’s poor grassroots development for the slow and pain death.

“We ask ourselves where are

the potentials? Where are the Jay Jays, Kanus and the Fashanus - where are they?” Fashanu told Goal.

“They are not coming out now. Sometimes you need to take one step back to move forward.

“Because right now there are lot of potentials but there is no international quality we need to breakthrough.

“And if it is not there, we are

surely not going to get recognition. What do we rank now? The ranking of Nigeria is currently between 50 to 60 in the world.

“I’m sorry to say that we are irrelevant. And when it comes to football we should be right up there in the top 15 to 20.

“We want to see some of the potentials and let’s not keep calling it potentials but let’s see some stuff come back again.”

Mikel

Maradona

The Abia Times

What Abia needs do to attract more investors -Eze

Amaeke Item marks centenary of British invasion, elects new PG

Umuahia North Legislative council will bring democracy dividends to the grassroots –Leader

The newly elected Leader of Umuahia North Legislative Council, Hon. Ogbonna, says the council legislature under him is set to bring democracy dividends to the grassroots.

Ikpeazu’s wife makes case for sports development

Stories by Sunday Nwakanma Umuahia

The third edition of the Nkechi Ikpeazu National Open Para-badminton Championships has ended in Umuahia with a call on sports philanthropists and corporate sponsors not to allow the current economic situation dampen their support for the development of sports in the country.

Speaking after the three-day sports event held at the Umuahia Township stadium, the sponsor, Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu, said Para-badminton is a new sport in the Olympics, adding that she is promoting it so that the country can win international recognition through it as well as medal hauls at the Olympics.

She said: “The current na-

tional economic state is seriously affecting sports development in Nigeria. We pray it will end soon so that our sporting community will once again thrive.

“Nevertheless, I urge conglomerate and sports philanthropists to see this period as a challenge and do their best to keep our games alive.

“Apart from this event, I often sponsor our disabled athletes to several sports events all over the country. I am also a major sponsor of Abia Angels Female premier League Club. Sports is in my blood and I love it.”

Also speaking, the state Commissioner for Sports, Chief Chinwe Nwanganga, said the event buttresses the fact that Abia State is a major hub for sports development, pointing out that the state parades sev-

eral champions in track, field and indoor sports while also boasting of being the only state with three premier League club sides - Enyimba FC, Abia Warriors and Abia Angels FC.

According to the National Coordinator of the Para-badminton Association of Nigeria, Mr. Samuel Ekeoma, the competition has afforded the athletes the opportunity of staying fit while evaluating their performance against other athletes.

Ekeoma emphasised the need for more support to be given to Para-badminton and other disabled sports, pointing out that Mrs. Ikpeazu has so far given the development of the game a desired push.

He used the opportunity to challenge corporate bodies, individuals and state governments to emulate Mrs. Ikpeazu and support the growth of the games, revealing that sports for the disabled has remained the leading source of International laurels and recognition for Ni-

geria given the consistency of athletes in the various track, field and indoor events and called on the Federal Government and the Nigeria Olympic Committee to give more attention to the games.

The National Open Parabadminton championship held at the indoor sports hall of Umuahia Township stadium, featured athletes from eleven states of the country and they include Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Kano, Kaduna, Imo, Delta, Edo, Kwara and the host Abia.

The reigning champion of Men’s sitting category, Dada Dixon from Delta State won the star match and took home a gold medal and cash prize courtesy of the sponsor.

A total of 26 winners in various categories of Gold, silver and bronze got medals with cash prizes while every athlete that participated in the competition received cash gifts from Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu.

Speaking with newsmen in Umuahia, Hon. Ogbonna, who also represents Umuahia Urban Ward 4 in the LGA council, expressed the desire of the Legislative House to partner the LGA chairman and state government in making the people of the LGA to feel the impact of the new executives of the council, stating that all efforts will be geared towards grading all rural roads and other infrastructure within the ambit of what the LGA is capable of doing for its people.

He commended the state Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, for ensuring that the LGA election was conducted, paucity of funds not minding, assuring that they will work closely with him for the benefit of Abians.

He assure that autonomy for the LGAs in the country will be good, stating that it will be under the guidance of state governors for effective implementation.

Hon. Ogbonna also assured that the LGA legislative council will work in harmony with the LGA chairman in order for the council to be vibrant, assuring that the legislature will ensure it guides the LGA chairman for a better LGA services in Umuahia North.

“We hope to make Umuahia North Local Government Area the best of the seventeen in the state”, he said.

Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu (left) receiving award of excellence from the Seventh Day Adventist Church Choir, Ossah Ukwu, during her first weekly prayer and fasting programme for the year at Okpara Auditorium Umuahia... at the weekend

PDP youths reward Ikpeazu over road projects

A political youth organisation, PDP National Youth Reap, at the weekend, honoured Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, over his road projects in the state.

Presenting the award in Umuahia, the Acting Secretary of the group and Administration Secretary of PDP South-South zone, Mr. Usen Udemaka, who came with a national officer of the party, Alhaji Bauchi, disclosed that the PDP National Youth Reap, after critical assessments on PDP governors in Nigeria on road projects, found Governor Okezie Ikpeazu emerge as the best among his peers.

Udemaka said the unprecedented achievements recorded by Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration in the state in area of road infrastructure surpasses that of other governors in Nigeria, hence their choice for the award.

He informed journalists shortly after the award that PDP National Youth Reap is not biased or religious but based on assessment they undertook three months ago following a resolve to move round PDP states in Nigeria before coming up with the recommendations and subsequent award.

Accordingly to him, the awardees have contributed in no small measure to ensure success of PDP at both local government, state and national during the period under review and enjoined other members of PDP family to emulate the exemplary good leadership of Governor Ikpeazu and his PDP allies in Abia. Speaking after receiving the

award, the state Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu explained that his government’s decision to embark on road project was to boost the internal revenue generation (IGR) base of the state, stating that developing Abia through provision of access good roads will enhance state IGR, thereby creating the enabling opportunity to develop other parts of the state and thanked the group for honouring him.

The governor, who was represented by the state PDP Secretary, Chief Ibe Nwadioha, noted the award will spur him and encourage his administration to continue offer developmental services to the people of the state.

Others in the recognition list who were given awards for their excellent contributions and service to the party include the state party chairman, Chief Jonson Onuigbo; the organising secretary of the party, Barrister St. Moses Ogbonna; Hon. Charles Nzechi of Chalres Nzechi Foundation; and Mr. Charles Ogbonna, the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

In his remarks, the state PDP chairman, Chief Johnson Onuigbo, lauded the PDP National Youth Reap for their foresight, assuring them that the state under Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s watch will continue to be record success.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the occasion and one-time commissioner in the state, Chief Okezie Orji, has described the award to Governor Ikpeazu and PDP family in the state as in the right direction.

Tradinational ruler confers chieftaincy title to 23-yr-old U.S graduate of medicine

The traditional ruler of Ajatanigu autonomous community in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State, King Larry Ogbonnaya Agwu, at the weekend, conferred the chieftaincy title of “Enyi Oha l of Ajatanigu on a 23-year-old Nigerian US-born graduate of Medicine, Dr. Noel Ndubuisi Ogbonnaya, who was visiting Nigeria for the very first time.

Speaking in his Eze Onyeoruru Palace while giving chieftaincy titles to three personalities for being good ambassadors of his community, King Larry Ogbonnaya Agwu praised Noel Ogbonnaya for his decision to rediscover his root, stating that the young Doctor braved up the stories that are been told abroad concerning Africans and came back to his land.

The twenty-three-year-old USbased Noel Ogbonnaya Ndubuisi, he said, was honoured for falling in love with Africa’s rich culture, despite visiting the country for the first time, stating that the young Doctor had complained about the nature of Nigerian movies which he said had discouraged people like him in Diaspora to come back home.

The traditional ruler therefore advised movie producers in Africa, especially Nigerians, to always paint a

Amaeke Item marks centenary of British invasion, elects new PG

Stories by Sunday Nwakanma Umuahia

Amaeke Item in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State last week held a centenary anniversary of the community’s invasion by the British Royal West Africa Frontier Force (RWAFF) in 1916, as well as elected a new President General to run the affairs of the community.

Speaking during the celebration, Chairman of the event and Chief Executive Officer of Soulemate Industries Ltd, Chief Ndukwe Osogho Ajala, described the occasion as one of the ugly sides of colonialism, and commended the community for their thoughtfulness in using the memory of the event to mobilise the people for community development.

He urged the state government to rehabilitate the major road that passes through the length of the community to enable the commu-

nity evacuate their farm products.

In his speech, the host and the President General of Amaeke Item Community Development Union, Evangelist Samuel Obande, described the occasion as “a century survival from an intended annihilation of our people, a century of God’s goodness and mercies upon our lives, a century of sustained and preserved cultural heritage, a century of producing citizens well prepared to make meaningful contribution to the society in multitude of fields and disciplines, a century of self-determination and communal efforts at fostering development, a century of forging life-long friendships and mutual cooperation with others”.

According to the chairman of the event’s planning committee and President, Lagos branch of the union, Onwuka Orji, the invasion 100 years ago was a stake of hu-

man catastrophe which is of monumental proportion and which left Amaeke Item depopulated, observing that some of the negative issues the invasion generated amongst their people had been resolved.

Speaking, the state governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu commended the community for their doggedness and steadfastness in preserving their cultural heritage and economy after the deadly invasion by the RWAFF more than 100 years ago.

The event culminated in the change of baton between the immediate past President General of Amaeke Item Welfare Union, Chief Kinsgley Ogba Nwokoro and his successor, Chief Okoji Nmaju, and featured honouring of their illustrious sons, dramatic display of the invasion of the community and other cultural heritage of the community.

It was a harvest of who is who in the community and beyond.

good picture of the people before the Western world.

King Agwu, who is also the Chairman of Oboro council of traditional rulers, decried a situation where some movies portrayed Africans as killers and ritualists, thereby scaring away tourists and investors.

He also expressed worry that the Western world was only interested in introducing some inimical cultural practices to Africans, especially those ones that dealt on same sex, expressing his delight that despite the situation, some sons of his land were still interested in African’s rich way of life, while urging Diaspora Africans not to be misled by what they watch on cable networks but to usually visit home to be in tune with their forefathers’ tradition and norms.

Narrating what led to the chieftaincy title, the mother of Dr. Noel Ogbonnaya, Mrs. Joy Chinyere Ogbonnaya, said: “This is Noel Ndubuisi Ogbonnaya first time in Nigeria. Upon arrival to his maternal village, he attended an occasion, danced to the music, danced with the elderly women and children, mixed up with the villagers, etc. His behaviour was extraordinary. The King spotted him and at the end acknowledged him Enyioha l of Ajatanigu chieftaincy title”.

Okaiuga-Alike community to rank best in Abia, says Monarch

The traditional ruler of Okaiuga-Alike Autonomous Community, HRM Eze (Sir) Innocent Adiele Nwaigwe, at the weekend, expressed his desire to make his community the best of all the more than 750 communities in Abia State.

Eze Nwaigwe, who is the Ike Uga II of Okaiuga-Alike Ancient Kingdom, disclosed this on the occasion of conferment of chieftaincy titles on some citizens of the community and other Abians in his Umule-Nso palace, said he will harness the human and material resources in the area to make their community the best, stating his resolve to liaise with his subjects at home and in Diaspora to make life meaningful to his subjects.

He said the areas of development will include infrastructure, education, empowerment and job placement for his people, stating that it is only then that his subject will appreciate his worth as their former President General.

Eze Nwaigwe therefore extended

his hands of forgiveness and fellowship to others who contested with him over the stool and who may still be feeling aggrieved, stating: “I have long offered my olive branch and hand of fellowship to all my brothers, who in the course of the ezeship tussle, felt aggrieved for one reason or the other”.

“In unity, we can build the Okaiuga-Alike of our dream, devoid of rancor, bitterness, division and altercations.

“As the custodian of our culture and tradition of my people, and by the power and authority conferred on me as your traditional ruler by the people and the government of Abia State, I hereby state unequivocally that peace, unity, security of lives and property of our dear community cannot be compromised for whatever reasons”.

He told recipients of the chieftaincy titles that their support and assistance to his cabinet chiefs in moving the community forward in whatever

rightful ways would be highly appreciated.

Speaking during the occasion, a former Editor of the Daily Times of Nigeria and former Executive Director/Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, Owubirimo of Ohuhuland, called for the support of the royal father, advising that there is the need by all citizens to contribute to the uplifting of the lives of the people of the community.

Also speaking, an Ohuhu son and founder/CEO of Charles Nzechi Foundation, Charles Nzechi, urged the people of the community and by extension, Ohuhu people in Diaspora, to replicate their business investment that are outside at home so that their communities would be upgraded to the standard seen outside and made more comfortable for the people.

He urged Eze Nwaigwe to continue with his leadership style in his community, assuring that all helping hands would be extended to him to succeed.

Wife of the immediate past President-General, Amaeke Item Community Development Union, Bende Local Government Area of Abia State,Mrs. Ijeoma Nwokoro (Centre) with other women during the centenary anniversary of the community’s invasion by the British Royal West Africa Frontier Force (RWAFF), at the weekend.

Release our member at Awka, MASSOB-BIM urges Police

The MASSOB-BIM has passionately appealed to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 9, AIG Hassan H. Karma, to intervene and see to the release of one of its members who is in detention at Central Police station, Awka in Anambra State.

In a letter dated December 28, 2016 with the caption “Unlawful Detention of one Mr. Eze Israel at Awka Central Police station for No Just Cause”, addressed to the AIG Zone 9, Umuahia and made available to newsmen by MASSOB-BIM Zonal Information Director, Abia central zone, Anselam Ogbonna, the body alleged that Mr. Eze Israel had been arrested for weeks, without being charged to court.

The letter read in part: “Information reaching to us revealed that one Mr. Eze Israel was apprehended by police and later was dumped at Awka Central police station by the Anambra State police command on the 15th Dec. 2016. Eze Israel, a MASSOBBIM zonal information director of Enugu West and also MASSOB-BIM regional information director in Oji River in Enugu State was coming to a meeting of our leader, Chief Dr. Ralph Uwazuruike in Owerri, Imo State before he was arrested on his way without reason”.

Ogbonna alleged that Mr. Eze Isael has been in the police custody for 13

days without trial, stating that all efforts made for his release has proved abortive as the Anambra State Police Command refused to release or even take him to court since his arrest.

The MASSOB-BIM Abia central Zonal Information Director expressed the worry of the group over the poor health condition of the detainee, lamenting over the alleged recent ugly incident that involved MASSOB members.

The letter further read: “Sir, I also wish to draw it to your attention that Mr. Israel is a diabetic patient, even as of now the condition of his health is deteriorating. This is bringing a retrospective drawback to our minds over the arrest of eleven of our members by the combined team of Army, SSS, police in Anambra State on 22nd October, 2012, which the dead bodies of those arrested members were later found floating in the Ezu river at Amanse community, Awka North L.G.A, Anambra State on Saturday, January 19th 2013”.

He reminded the AIG Zone 9 that MASSOB-BIM is never a violent organisation, which is widely known for their peaceful movement and wondered why they are receiving unjust treatment. According to the letter, “we are not like other violent groups. Therefore I don’t know why our people should be treated in such a brutish manner”.

Oboro community tasked on unity

The people of Ahuwa-Oboro ancient kingdom have been reminded on the need to move in unity as no meaningful development can be actualised in a divided house.

Speaking at Ahuwa-Oboro community primary school field, Ikwuano Locl Government Area of Abia State, during the AhuwaOboro day and project 2017 almanac launch, Chairman of the occasion, Mr. Chijindu Awazie, appealed to community members to always strive to put the interest of the community first, reminding them that if they want the community to progress, they must contribute their quota.

He advised the youths to shun wicked lifestyles and embrace that which is profitable to them, their families and the community. He also appealed to parents to properly guide their children and inculcate in them the right attitude to life, so that they will be useful to the community in the near future.

Awazie, who is noted for his various philanthropic services in the community and beyond, called on members to rally round their President General in order to succeed in office. He also commended the President General, Engr. J.D.N Obadiah Uchegbuo, for the visible strides recorded by his administration within the period under review.

Presenting a welcome address earlier, the President General,

Ahuwa-Oboro ancient kingdom, Engr. J.D.N. Obadiah Uchegbuo, described Ahuwa-Oboro day as a day set aside by his community to look at the events of the outgoing year, with a view to making amendments and plan/set agenda for the next year.

“We use this event to gather together, cross-fertilize ideas on how to move the community ahead”, he said.

Uchegbuo lamented the ugly activities of some of the youths in the community, stating, “Our community has been having series of security challenges, arising from youth restiveness which include cultism and other criminal vices”.

He equally lamented the headaches his community is facing in the hands of Umuode people in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area of the state, stating; “AhuwaOboro shares common boundaries with Umuosu Ngwa, who incidentally gave part of their land to Umuode people many years ago. Umuode people in their desperate desire to expand, encroached into Ahuwa-Oboro land and instituted a court case against us, claiming N500, 000 .00 as damages. We pray to every Oboro son and daughter to help, to enable us protect Oboro territorial land from Ahuwa-Oboro axis from being ceded to Umuode in Isiala Ngwa North”.

No threat will make me misappropriate N10.6b Paris Club fund, says Ikpeazu

Stories by Sunday Nwakanma Umuahia

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu says no amount of threat or intimidation will make him misappropriate the 50 percent of the N10.6 billion Paris club inflow meant for payment of salaries.

Ikpeazu made this disclosure at Ohanze primary school field during a grand civic reception organised by the Ohanze Isiahia community in Obingwa Local Government Area for him and his wife, Nkechi, pledging that “no kobo from the funds will be unaccounted for”.

He announced that to make good his promise, his government will begin the payment of Abia State staff salaries through individual cheques to ensure that ghost workers are checked.

While reiterating that the 50 percent of the Paris Club refund must be used to pay salaries in line with the instruction of the Federal Government, Ikpeazu assured Ohanze people that their secondary school will benefit

from school renovation that will soon commence in the state.

The Governor, who provided N1.5 million for Ohanze Congress to be used for school fees of indigent youths in tertiary institutions, promised to assist them in building their civic centre, informing that he is indebted to them as they gave him the best wife on earth.

Ikpeazu warned his aides, stakeholders and the people of the state not to bring to him proposals that will distract him from using the fund for salaries, lamenting that the issue of ghost workers in the civil service has been distracting his government through loss of fund.

In his welcome address, the Chairman, Reception Committee, Ven. (Dr.) Felix Erondu, said the people of Ohanze chose to honour the Governor because of his efforts and achievements in the last 19 months as the State Governor, stating that in spite of the recession, the Governor has made giant strides in infrastructure, health, security, housing, educa-

tion among others.

Venerable Erondu pointed out that Ohanze Secondary School was proud to have taken delivery of school desks, a three classroom building, and teaching equipment as well as benefited from his free school meal initiative.

According to him, people are happy that their daughter and wife of the Governor, Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu, has been a strong tower complementing him in many ways including building houses for indigent persons, payment of hospital bills for sick people, giving scholarship to students, sponsoring people to learn various skills, providing empowerments and others.

The Committee Chairman, who thanked the Governor for appointing their sons and daughters to positions of authority, pleaded with him to renovate their secondary school and assured the Governor of that the people of Ohanze are solidly behind him.

Royal father changes Olokoro professionals on innovation, advancement in technology

Olokoro Professionals have been challenged to make innovation and advancement of technology part of their culture and called upon to work for the establishment of a polytechnic in Olokoro.

The resource person and traditional ruler of Amangwo-Olokoro autonomous community, Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, HRH Eze (Dr.) Chris .N. Onyegbule, made the challenge during the maiden conference of Olokoro Professionals’ Forum (OPF) worldwide, recently, held with the theme “Olokoro in the 21st century: Prospects and challenges in development and empowerment.”

Presenting a paper on the theme at Olokoro Civic Hall, Eze (Dr.) Onyegbule said with the favoured topography of Olokoro, the people should think about development of clusters of small scale industries, adding that in the face of a competitive and technology driven 21st century, the people of Olokoro need to engage in serious strategic planning (at least for a period of five years) with a view to determining where they want to be in the future and develop benchmarks.

The royal father said in order not to lag behind in the world that is now very competitive, the community needs to go for qualitative and

motivational leadership at all levels of the clan, adding that such leaders must undergo regular training to ensure effectiveness.

Interacting with newsmen shortly after the event, the OPF coordinator, Don Ndubuka, said the forum is about moulding the future of Olokoro by connecting people, ideas and resources and to cater for the welfare of members, and inspire the people to be best they can be in the clan.

He said the theme of the conference is apt and timely as it will encourage Olokoro people to know where they should be in the 21st century.

Sen. Theodore Orji (right) in a handshake with one of the recipients of his Annual Scholarship scheme for undergraduates from Abia Central Senatorial Zone, Mr. Mpama Frank Ifeanyi (visually impaired) as Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu (middle), looks on at the ceremony in Umuahia...recently

What Abia need do to attract more investors -EzeEkueku

His Royal Highness, Eze Wisdom Ndubueze Ekueku, is the traditional ruler of Dim Na Opara Kingdom in Umuahia South LGA of Abia State. An engineer by profession and the MD/CEO of a property company, WISS Properties Ltd and WISS Engineering Ltd among others, the royal father in this interview with SUNDAY NWAKANMA spoke on some state and nationals issues, calling upon the Federal Government to encourage those who are found to have embezzled public funds to invest it locally to create jobs for Nigerians among others.

Excerpts:

How is business like in your companies?

Business is low not only in my companies, but globally.

In your own opinion, why do you think it is so?

Just like life, it goes up and comes down. This is the down period in the economy of our country and a recession period, so all businesses are affected.

Is it true that you built and commissioned an exclusive class hotel in Umuahia?

I built a small hotel for my people and I do not know if it is an exclusive class.

Why build such an exotic hotel in Nigeria, particularly in Umuahia of Abia State?

There is a clarion call by my governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, for all Abia State indigenes to come home and develop their state. I have to answer that clarion call to come and make a little contribution. I am still going to make more.

But you had a choice of build the hotel elsewhere. Why did you choose Umuahia?

I am a traditional ruler from Umuahia and as you know, charity begins at home.

Do you think the present condition of Nigeria’s economy will allow hospitality businesses to go on?

Am new in the business, but so far, it is not really bad. Tourism is still underdeveloped in Abia State. We still need more hotels and we still need more entertainment centres. So it (tourism) is still a virgin area in the state. So far, the business is not bad.

How can Federal Government come in to assist hospitality business at such a time like this?

One of the important ways to encourage hospitality business is by making sure there is regular power

supply. Operators of the power industry have to be made to sit up. They are not doing well. The power supply is erratic. We also need to have good roads and clean water. The new industries need waivers so that they will be able to survive. They need loans and if the Federal Government pays attention to some of these things, I think it will be a jolly good ride for Nigerians.

In Abia, how do you think the state government can boost tourism through hospitality businesses?

In Abia State today, I know that there are companies that have come in to set up assembly plants for cars and I have met with some of them. These companies, in the past, when they come into the state, they went to lodge in Owerri, while some will go to Enugu. But today, they move into WISS Castle hotel quietly and they were happy. They said at least, there is a place for us to stay and take off. So, if the state government can encourage investors, local and foreign to invest in this industry in Abia State, it will encourage other investors, construction companies, manufacturing companies to be able to have a footing from where they can take off.

In what ways do you think the state government can start the encouragement?

They can make lands available for them. They can, without compromising quality, minimize requirement, make it less stringent so that the investors would be encouraged and wooed into the state to come to invest. Take a look at Owerri, they are all over the whole place. It is a function of the government policy to provide security, good roads, and light. All these things encourage development of the industry in our neigbhouring states. The governor of Abia State is not doing badly in this area. He is doing his best, and we should remember that the Abia is not as old as Imo State, neither are we as old as Enugu State. So for our own age, we are not doing badly.

The current economic recession in the country is biting harder. What will be your advice to the Federal Government as a panacea to getting Nigerians out of it?

The economic hardship is not a surprise. It did not come suddenly. Nigerians saw it coming and prepared the ground for it to hatch and the thing settled down with us. The way we saw it come, we can also chase it away. How do we do that?

Engage more Nigerians in working than receiving free money. Improve war against indiscipline, war against corruption. Let people have minimum access to our fund through corrupt means, and find a way to encourage the people who have stolen already to bring out the money they

have stolen to invest and for them to stop hiding it. The war against corruption has to look at, critically, to find out a way it does not encourage people to hide the money they have stolen, but to encourage them to bring out some amount to invest in the country to alleviate the suffering of the people. Nigerians are aware that some suspects on corruption are still walking the streets freely. Nigerians are also aware that some people we saw that are good crooks, because of their affiliation to parties, nobody is trying or talking to them; it has to be an unbiased axe. The government should not bother who it falls upon. It should be aimed at everybody, no matter their political loyalty. So be it and it will yield some fruits and we will be able to recover some of these funds. I think that one of the ways the Federal Government can also do this is this: you have embezzled our funds to the tune of N10, if you can invest N8 local in our economy, we will write off your debt and grant you amnesty. The government has to start thinking and our intelligent men have to go back to the drawing board. Nigeria has to do smart things and get smarter so that we can survive. We saw the economic hardship walk in. The way we saw it walk in, we should also find a way to walk it out.

That is to say you are in support of President Buhari anticorruption stand?

Of course, nobody wants that around him. Corruption is an evil, but because of the length of time it has survived in Nigeria. We should find a way to eliminate it without suffocating ourselves.

Are you also in support Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade in the judiciary?

If it is done without bias, it is good. But if it is with bias, it is wrong and will not yield any fruit. If it is done because you want to victimize a given

group of people, a given ethnic group, a given political class or a given interest, it is not going to work. But if it is a globalized activity, I think it is nice move.

The Federal Government and states are calling on citizens in diaspora to come home and invest. Don’t you think that the level of corruption in the country is discouraging them from coming home to invest? And your advice?

Our children in Diaspora should come home and invest and many of them are already coming home to invest. I do not think that why they are not coming is the level of corruption in the country. Sometimes it is due to government policies. How can you set up an industry where there is no light, no road, and no water? How can you set up an industry where the education and the educated are half-baked, where tribalism rules the day? It is difficult. A lot of efforts and emphasis

have to be put on unifying Nigerians, making them believe they are Nigerians, and making them to understand that they are Nigerians. When these things are done, a whole lot of things will flow. Take for instance, when the president come from one section of the country, other areas suffer. This is not good and has to be decentralized and discouraged to enable the government function better to the benefit of her citizens.

How do you think Nigeria and the states can make tourism to yield the much desired foreign earnings?

Tourism everywhere in the world is a strong avenue for making foreign exchange. But there is a minimal investment in tourism and minimum patronage for one obvious reason: security of lives and property and ideas. The country is not secure. In other civilized worlds like America, if you want to move from Dallas to Huston, the best time to move is from twelve O’clock midnight or may be 2 am and by 6 am, you are in Huston. Here, nobody disturbs you on the road, or talks about armed robbery or any crimes on these highways. The highways are good and secure. People live in houses overseas without burglary proofs in their houses. Burglary proof is only popular in this country because the country is not secure enough. They (foreign countries) have small thieves who are not strong criminals, but they control the system and their society. So the federal and state governments should endeavour to improve on the security of their states and the nation at large. When this is improved upon, every other thing will flourish.

How is your hotel different from others in Umuahia and in the state?

This is because we select our guests. We do not accept every guest, but only responsible ones. When we have the guests, we compile their lists and send to the government and the Department of State Security because of its proximity to areas of interest. It is different in that instance.

What is your word to Abians about WISS Castle hotel?

For Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, the man who first stepped on the moon, it is a one man step. But for my people of Abia State, it should be a giant step. We should start scrutinizing who comes to our hotel to ensure that criminals do not come there or those who want to fight the government come to stay there. Something needs to be done to discourage people who are anti-government. We should not allow that to happen. We only need people who will proffer ideas on how to improve Abia State in order to provide jobs and food.

Ekueku

One of the important ways to encourage hospitality business is by making sure there is regular power supply. Operators of the power industry have to be made to sit up. They are not doing well. The power supply is erratic. We also need to have good roads and clean water. The new industries need waivers so that they will be able to survive

GEEP: FG captures 8,436 market associations

Be patient, Fashola tells power investors

Opeoluwani Akintayo

Minister of Power Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, has urged investors in the power sector to be patient with electricity consumers or leave the sector for those willing to invest.

The Minister made the call during the 11th Monthly Power Sector & Stakeholder Meeting held in Ikeja West Transmission Station, Ipaja, in Lagos yesterday.

While speaking, Fashola de-

L-R: Grama

Narasimhan, Executive Director, Retail Banking, Sterling Bank Plc; Omolara Akinfolarin, Head MSME Banking, Sterling Bank Plc; Moses Agosu, BM Ikoyi Branch, Sterling Bank Plc and Mark George, Principal Consultant, OMG Consulting at the Sterling Bank MSME Academy workshop held recently in Lagos.

scribed jobs in the power sector as a “thankless” one but worthwhile at the end.

“We must use this year to tell our staff that without our customers, they don’t have a job, and if you are not in a good mood, don’t pick the telephone.

“Without the customers and the consumers there is no business and I think that all of us in the public and private sector must understand that. If you don’t have the skin and the patient to serve, leave.

“It is a thankless job but it is no good undertaking to serve,” Fashola said.

He said that the Ministry of Power is aware of investors’ challenges, promising that the government is making efforts to address them. He, however, added that investors must be willing to carry some share of the burden.

“I am conscious of the challenges operators in the sector face. My team and I are working as hard as we can to make the environment more responsive to you and as I

have said and will repeat that as pioneers you will carry some burden.

“You will have to sacrifice perhaps more than what you have done but I am optimistic that it will get better, I am optimistic that we can win together and we can win for the Nigeria people,” the Minister said.

On the issue of liquidity, the minister assured operators in the sector that work has commenced with development, local and in-

CONTINUED ON PAGE B2

How renewable energy beat coal in 2016

The International Energy Agency has said that it was significantly increasing its five-year growth forecast for renewables thanks to strong policy support in key countries and sharp cost reductions. Renewables surpassed coal last year to become the largest source of installed power capacity in the world.

The latest edition of the IEA’s Medium-Term Renewable Market Report now sees renewables growing 13% more between 2015 and 2021 than it did in last year’s forecast, due mostly to stronger policy backing in the United States, China, India and Mexico. Over the forecast period, costs are expected to drop by a quarter in solar PV and 15 percent for onshore wind.

Last year marked a turning point for renewables. Led by the wind and solar, renewables represented more than half the new power capacity around the world, reaching a record 153 Gigawatt (GW), 15% more than the previous year. Most of these gains were driven by recordlevel wind additions of 66 GW and solar PV additions of 49 GW.

Chad ratifies Afreximbank establishment agreement

sation of the country’s membership of the continental trade finance bank.

An official message from Ngabo Seli Mbogo, Minister of Finance and Budget of Chad, transmitting the instrument of ratification to Dr. Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, showed that the ratification followed an Act of Parliament passed by the National Assembly during its session on 23 December, which authorised the President to ratify the Agreement.

The National Assembly also provided that the Act on the ratification should be recorded as a national law of the country.

The ratification of the Agreement marks the full activation of Chad’s membership of Afreximbank and allows the Bank to fully deploy its programmes and facilities in the country in order to stimulate trade activities and develop value-added exports across its economic sectors. It also opens up opportunities for the Bank to provide much-needed financing for the

construction of trade-enabling infrastructure in the country.

The Agreement on the Establishment of Afreximbank, concluded in 1993 in Abidjan, requires that countries that did not sign it before its entry into force, should first issue an instrument of acceptance and accession and then formally ratify the Agreement in order to fully activate their membership of the Bank as Participating States.

CONTINUED ON PAGE B2

About half a million solar panels were installed every day around the world last year. In China, which accounted for about half the wind additions and 40% of all renewable capacity increases, two wind turbines were installed every hour in 2015.

“We are witnessing a transformation of global power markets led by renewables and, as is the case with other fields, the centre of gravity for renewable growth is moving to emerging markets,” said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director.

There are many factors behind this remarkable achievement: more competition, enhanced policy support in key markets, and technology improvements. While climate change mitigation is a powerful driver for renewables, it is not the only one.

Opeoluwani Akintayo

BUSINESS TIMES

Editor Andrew Odioko

Head Business Azubike Nnadozie

Capital Market Editor Bonny Amadi

President Idriss Deby Itno of Chad has ratified the Agreement on the Establishment of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), concluding the formali-

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) says it is playing its role in ensuring that insurance companies comply with the set rules and laws of the industry.

Mr Ahmad Adamu, Deputy Director, Enforcement and Compliance, NAICOM, said this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja yesterday.

“We have been of much assistance to the insurance companies to ensure that they comply because it is not just an issue of enforcement.

“As a sensible regulator, compliance means that you ensure that people are enlightened, they know the required legal expectations of them and you also assist them.

“And when you do this, those that are penalized for failure to comply will know that you have done your beat as a regulator.’’

On enlightenment, Adamu said the commission already had a document that contained all the legal requirements that would be compiled in form of a booklet.

“This will be distributed to operators and other stakeholders to ensure seamless compliance.

“We also engage managements of the companies to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion when necessary.

“If you have issues and we write to you saying that you have been penalised and you come up with your defence which seems not to be understood by us, we invite you to explain.

“We invite all the staff of the unit, we all engage in a discussion and try to understand ourselves from the proper point of view and that helps a lot.”

GEEP: FG captures 8,436 market associations

About 8,436 market associations and cooperatives have been captured nationwide under the General Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) as disbursement begins in eight states including the Federal Capital Territory.

According to a paper obtained from the Presidency yesterday in Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari is meticulously implementing the N500 billion social investment programmes in spite challenges of declining revenues.

The paper, however, did not name the eight states now benefiting from GEEP which is one of the four social intervention

programme of the Federal Government.

The programme is a loan scheme with no interest element and only a 5 percent administrative fee for costs to more than 1.2 million Nigerian artisans, traders, market men and women, as well as women cooperatives.

GEEP which is estimated to gulp N140 billion is being disbursed through the Bank of Industry. The loans range from N10,000 to N100, 000 per applicant.

The programme, is designed to ensure that states and local government areas buy-in, as well as community ownership, for the building of capacity and

NBS to release 162 reports on economy

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is to release no fewer than 162 reports on different sectors of the economy this year.

According to the 2017 tentative data release calendar posted on the bureau’s website yesterday in Abuja, the NBS is expected to release 34 data in the first quarter.

According to the calendar, the bureau released data on consumer price index and inflation, price watch on diesel, petrol and kerosene.

Other items on the calendar are telecommunications sector data, monthly Federal Account Allocation Committee disbursements, gross domestic products and capital importation in the quarter.

Also in the statistics are foreign trade merchandise, airline and passenger travel, multiple indicator cluster surveys and report on women and children.

Unemployment and underemployment watch, labour productivity report and online recruitment service report are also listed.

The bureau is expected to release 43 data in the second quarter.

The data will focus mainly on statistics on corruption, motor vehicles, road accidents, energy and environmental statistics.

It will also focus on airline and passage travel data in addition to petroleum products and inflation reports.

In the third quarter, the bu-

Be patient, Fashola tells power investors

CONTINUED FROM PAGE B1

ternational partners to resolve the issue.

He, however, noted that the partners would have shown commitment and inspiring appetite to play in the market.

“We are trying to see what we can do together in order to bring the liquidity issues under some control and from there eventually solve it.

“I am happy also to announce that our partners in government are also inspiring understanding of what the challenges are. So it is quick decision making now, collaboration, decisions will be fair but firm and we expect people would respect the decisions and also processes to re-engaged as they come.

“I think it is important to set this meeting to set these agenda of what to expect in the New Year. We have listed and identify what the problems are, what we are trying to finalize is what comes first, what follows, what runs concurrently because some of them have domino effort that is, if you solve one problem, you will solve three together.

Chad ratifies Afreximbank establishment agreement

CONTINUED FROM PAGE B1

reau will release 38 data ranging, from financial services data, household consumption expenditure, port activities, national agriculture sample survey and solid mineral and mining sector survey.

However, the bureau will be releasing 47 reports in the last quarter which will be the highest data in the year.

It will also be releasing social statistics report for 2016, demographic statistics bulletin and 2016 statistical report on men and women, among others.

The bureau will also be releasing monthly reports on FACC disbursements, consumer price index and inflation reports as well as price watch on diesel, petrol and kerosene.

The Participating States become shareholders when they acquire shares in the Bank. Afreximbank shareholders are a mix of public and private entities divided into four classes and consist of African governments, central banks, regional and sub-regional institutions, private investors and financial institutions, as well as non-African financial institutions, export credit agencies and private investors.

Class “A” shareholders are African states, African central banks and African public institutions, including the African Development Bank, while Class “B” is made up of African financial institutions and African private investors.

Class “C” shares are held by non-African investors, mostly international banks and export credit agencies, including Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, Citibank, China Exim Bank and Exim India. Class “D” shares, a tier approved in December 2012, are fully paid par value shares that can be held by any investor.

Buhari

Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Unity Bank Plc, Tomi Somefun in a handshake with a shareholder, Sir Sunny Nwosu, flanked by Chairman of Unity Bank Plc , Thomas Etuh and other Directors during the Bank’s 10th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos... recently.

We assist companies to comply with insurance laws

– NAICOM

Naira slips to 491/$1, as experts predict further depreciation

Stories by Motolani Oseni

The Naira yesterday fell slightly at the parallel market to 491 per US dollar, a rate far better than the N500 predicted by some financial analysts before the New Year.

However, analysts at Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) in their outlook for the naira in 2017 believed that the local currency under the current market regulatory framework will remain under pressure, unstable until the market is allowed to operate freely and efficiently.

But the naira, on the parallel market, closed at 491 to a dollar against the

490 it traded on Friday and throughout the weekend.

Forex traders said that the local currency on Monday morning exchanged around 510 to a Euro and 600 to Pound, but closed at 511 to the Euro and remained unchanged against the Pound Sterling on the parallel market.

The analysts, who were led by the company Chief Executive Officer, Mr Bismarck Rewane, said that the adoption of multiple exchange rates which involves the use of different exchange rates for different transactions has a lot of consequences for the local currency.

In its monthly economic report with the theme, “2017 Periscope: Year of Hope, Anticipation and

Aspiration,” the FDC crew said multiple exchange rate usually forms an important component of an interventionist or statecontrolled economic development model.

The consequences according to the analysts include pervasive state intervention in the economy; financial repression; restrictive trade regimes and closed capital accounts.

The costs are high in terms of trade regimes, exchange controls leading to barriers to export sector and reduced foreign exchange (forex) earnings.

According to the FDC think tank, the multiple exchange rate regime also leads to misallocation of resources, lower fiscal

revenues and a smuggling boom as well as rent seeking activities driven by a complex set of administrative controls.

For Nigeria to escape from this forex trap, the authorities need to understand that there is a need for a properly functioning market said FDC analysts.

A well functioning forex market the company stated, allows the exchange rate to respond to market forces and reduce market distortions.

In the words of Rewane: “Russia and Kazakhstan recently did this and their currencies sank for a short period and then recovered sharply. On the other hand, Venezuela fell into the trap and has become a basket case.

First Bank of Nigeria has announced increased transaction limits on its FirstMobile Lifestyle app to a maximum daily limit of N150,000 without the use of a token and a total daily transaction limit of N1,000.000.

This development would boost convenience and ease of banking as well as enhance customers’ digital banking experience in line with the bank’s commitment to offering valueadded services that suit the lifestyles of its customers.

The lender launched FirstMobile as part of its drive to leverage evolving technology in providing cutting-edge banking services to its customers and the mobile banking app which is secure and easy to use, allows users to carry out banking transactions on the go from their mobile phones anywhere in the world.

The banking app comes with a user-defined transaction pin which is an extra security feature and customers can also perform the following actions on the enhanced app: Change Transaction PIN, Reset Transaction PIN, Synchronize token, and change their log in pin – mPIN.

The bank explained that its customers can enjoy real-time mobile banking services such as domestic funds transfer from selfowned accounts to FirstBank accounts and other banks’ accounts; make quick airtime purchase for self and others on all mobile networks; bills payments; cheque services including confirm cheque and stop cheque; flight booking; and quick account services such as account balance inquiry, statement view and much more.

In December 2016, FirstMobile recorded a milestone in its user numbers with the attainment of one million active users while over N1.3 trillion transaction volume has been consummated using the FirstMobile app since its launch in 2015.

According to the Head, Digital Banking at FirstBank, Mrs Folasade FemiLawal, the bank will continue to leverage evolving technologies to support consumers’ lifestyle by providing them with a suite of financial options in a convenient and highly secure environment.

Nigeria’s private sector downturn softens in December

The headline Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) showed that the Nigeria’s private sector downturn softens in December 2016, as the headline figure rose to a five-month high but remained below the crucial 50.0 no-change mark, thereby signalling a further contraction of Nigeria’s private sector.

The Stanbic IBTC’s PMI indicated that the index attained a five-month high of 48.1 in December, up from November’s 47.7, which was a reflection of an improvement in the macro-

economy.

This emerged after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revealed that its Manufacturing PMI stood at 52 index points in December 2016, also indicating an expansion in the manufacturing sector during the review period. The central bank’s PMI index had recorded decline in the preceding eleven months.

Stanbic IBTC explained that the headline figure was derived from its Purchasing Managers’ IndexTM (PMITM). Readings above 50.0 signalled an improve-

ment in business conditions on the previous month, while readings below 50.0 show deterioration.

Commenting on December’s survey findings, Ayomide Mejabi, Economist at Stanbic IBTC Bank said: “The rate of contraction in Nigeria’s private sector slowed in December as a result of weaker declines in output and new export orders as well as a slower increase in output prices. The headline PMI rose to its best level in the last five months, perhaps indicating that underlying

macroeconomic bottlenecks are being resolved. Having said that, most other facets of activity continue to deteriorate as new business orders returned to contraction territory.

“In addition, after recording marginal growth in October, employment extended its recent decline from November into December. The price PMI sub-indices, on the other hand, show that underlying inflationary pressures may be subsiding, as while output prices continue to increase, they are doing so at

a slower pace compared to earlier in the year.

In summary, it is perhaps still too early to ascertain if a turnaround in Nigeria’s economic challenges is imminent as anecdotal evidence still suggests that many of the productive sectors continue to struggle with foreign exchange needed to boost domestic investment and consequently, growth.”

Furthermore, it stated that the main findings of the December survey were the weakening of Nigeria’s private sector stemmed from a slower decline in output, with panel members citing weaker underlying demand.

First Bank Designate, Adesola Adeduntan

L – R: Sports Presenter/Producer, Mr. Mgbeoji Paterson; Outlet Owner, Mr. Chris Okorie; 1M Winner, Felicia Etaroghene; Ex – International, Mr. Victor Ezeji and Territory Manager, Trans – Amadi Town Territory Guinness, Mr. Francisco Demedeiros at the prize presentation of the Guinness Every Minute Made of Black Promotion in Port Harcourt. recently.

3-day warning strike begins tomorrow over sacked NUPENG workers

Stories by Joy Ekeke

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) may begin a three-day nationwide warning strike from tosacking of workers without benefits and refusal to allow workers to unionize.

Chairman of NUPENG, Lagos chapter, Tokunbo Korodo, stated that the warning strike will hold to make the international sack of its workers.

“I don’t know if the oil companies are big-

dialogue with the oil companies. The Minister of Labour and Employment insisted that the workers be paid full entitlement. listen.”

The last time Nigeria witnessed total oil workers strike was in 1994 when all the unions June 12 crisis.

Korodo stressed that the strike will be nationwide, with all NUPENG affiliates participating.

“The last time Nigeria witnessed this kind of strike was in 1994 when all arms of NUPENG went on strike, after then affiliate of NUPENG will embark on this warning strike; from lifting to dispensing, which include fuel pump attendants”

issue for the IOCs (international oil companies), companies are not registered with the CAC. How can an international comscam?”

them in solidarity for our cause.”

Global youth unemployment up 13.1% last year - ILO

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said global youth unemployment last yearcrease from 12.9 percent re-

for countries to redoubleable economic growth and decent work.

According to him, “After this warning strike and our demands are not met, Nigerians should not follow next. We are always there when issues affecting Nigerians come up, now we can only call on

“This will cause the panic of buying petroleum products by Nigerians, but we are fully prepared for the strike action and we are preparing to make it a success.”

It will be recalled thatPENG members without benefits late last year and efforts by the union for

This was contained in ILO’s latest research report titled: “World Employment and Social Outlook

She noted that the report also highlighted wide disparities between young women and men in the labour market, adding that there was the need for ILO member states and social partners to be addressed urgently.

Youths.”

Deputy Director-General for Policy, ILO, Ms Deborah in the report that the global number of unemployed youths would rise by half a million to reach 71 million in the first such increase in three years.

According to Greenfield, “Of greater concern is the share and number of young people, often in emerginging a job.

percent of working youths are in extreme or moderate per cent of working adults.”

She said the alarming rise in youth unemployment and the equally disturbing

how difficult it will be to end

Greenfield said in the report that there was the need

The disturbing research also quoted ILO Seniorbin, as saying that the labour force participation rate percent for young women.

Tobin, who is the lead author of the report, said that the disparity between young men and young women repcent.

“The challenge is particularly acute in Southern Asia, the Arab States and Northern Africa, where female youth participation

than those of male youth inemployment increases were emerging economies.

Tobin said that global ecoper cent lower than the fig-

NLC blames government for ghost workers’ syndrome

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) hasment for compromising the biometric data of workers to create room for ghost workers in the country’s

The NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba, said, “The ICT (information and communication technology) system is about garbage in, garbage out. Once the system is compromised at any point in time, it then makes the entire data actually unreliable.

“And, therefore, this is a conspiracy at the highest not the workers that encourage this issue of ghost

“We checked with the Corporate Affairs Comnames of the companies that handled the labour worker’s syndrome. No, It is employers at the highest out money in the name of workers’ salary through this ghost workers syndrome.

“Therefore, this same people now to engage consultants to do biometric capturing whereas they know what is happening. Therefore, it has not yielded any desired results.

“If we want actually to eliminate ghost workers entirely in our system – it is not possible to do that – there must be a commitment on the part of our It would be recalled that

the President Mohammadu Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said recently that the Fed-in its payroll.

He described ghost workers’ syndrome as another form of corruption, saying, “in fact, it is a glorified way of corruption, where stateployers of labour use the payroll.’’

He said that the synin the Nigeria Air Force payroll, where fake names were included by corrupt officials.

The NLC president, therefore, called on the Fedthat the capturing of workers’ biometric data is not manipulated.

ernance to the people by shunning corruption in the

He said, “If certainly they really want to eliminate this ghost workers’ syndrome, they can do it. Let there be a joint effort by the organized labour and once they are not committed to it, that means we’ll now and then.”

NLC President

South-West NUPENG Chairman

Stories by Afolabi Adesola

The equities market on Monday sustained the gains garnered last Friday to post a growth of 1.25 percent in market indicators.

The growth was prevalent on increasing bargain hunting in banking stocks, buoying the banking index that led other sector gainers with a growth of 4.04 percent. Other Sector gainers were the ASeM that grew 2.27 percent, the Pension Index added 1.9 percent, Premium Index added 1.80 percent and the NSE 30 increased 1.3 percent.

As a result, the Nigerian Stock Exchange’ All Share Index (NSEASI) added 328.83 points to close at 26,580.22 points compared

Banking stocks boost market gains by 1.25 percent

to 39.3 points gained previously to close at 26,251.39 points.

The market capitalization also added N113.1 billion to close at N9.146 trillion, in comparison with N13.5 billion added previously when the market capitalization closed at N9.032 trillion.

Market Statisitics showed investor sentiments turned positive as market breadth closed with 20 gainers against 16 losers.

UCAP for the second consecutive trading session, led the advancing stocks by 9.60 percent to

close at N3.31 per share, FCMB also followed with an increase of 9.40 percent to close at N1.28 per share, Fidelity Bank grew 8.43 percent to close at 90 kobo per share, Sterling Bank appreciated 7.14 percent to close at 75 kobo per share and Afri Prudential Registrars gained 5.63 percent to close at N3.19 per share.

On the flip side Cadbury, 7up descended by 5 percent to close at N122.55, Ashaka Cement dropped 4.99 percent to close at N10.86 per share, Cadbury fell

4.95 percent to close at 9.03 per share, Capital Hotel depreciated 4.86 percent to close at N3.33 per share and Nigerian Aviation Handling Company of Nigeria (NAHCO) completed the list of top five declining stocks to close at N2.59 following a decline of 4.78 percent.

A cumulative overview of the day’s transactions show that investors in 3,423 deals traded 219 million units of shares valued at N1.4 billion.

Banking stocks retained their

NSE Indexes; A Window to tracking ETF Performance

With the ETF becoming an increasing go to choice for investors on the Nigerian Capital Market, it is imperative, market analyst have urged investors on the need to increase knowledge surrounding the product and the indices they track

The Nigerian Stock Exchange explained an exchange-traded fund (ETF) as a type of fund that tracks the performance of an index, or a commodity. They trade like shares on a stock exchange and derive their value from the index or commodity they track.

Unlike shares or equities, ETF’s were recently introduced into the Nigerian Capital precisely in December 2011 and has since then recorded a 1900 percent growth in 5 years, with about 31.8 percent year-to-date (2016) return to investors, but currently

have just 8 ETFs listed on the NSE as against 74 listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

According to the NSE CEO Mr. Oscar Onyema in a publication with Vanguard, the introduction of the ETF’s in December 2011 with cross listing of NewGold ETF with AUM of N287.5m provided investors with new opportunities to diversify their portfolios and access the market.

“The total ETFs in our market has increased to 8 with about 506 ETF investors in the market. The existence of ETFs in our market is beneficial to retail and institutional investors, as ETFs offer a direct and inexpensive way to attain diversified exposure to an index, commodity, sector or region. Investment strategies Aside diversification and tradability” he said ETFs provide investors

the opportunity to diversify their portfolios without going through the rigours of selecting individual securities. For example, when you buy an ETF that tracks the NSE 30 Index, it gives you ownership of a portfolio of shares of all the securities listed in the NSE 30 Index.” He said

The NSE says the ETF’s are for Investors who are looking for benchmark return at a minimal cost, they are also for Investors looking for diversification in a single trade transaction, for investors looking to hedge and spread their risks and for investors who may not have time to actively monitor the market.

Highlighting the benefits of Exchange Traded Funds, the NSE noted that and easy to understand. With an ETF, you can emulate the return on capital of a particular index in-

Rak Unity Petroleum Announces Changes to Financial Year End

RAK Unity Petroleum Company Plc has announced the change of the company’s financial year end from 31st March to 31stDecember with effect from the year ended 31st December 2016.

The company in a notice signed by its company secretary Alsec Nominees Limited, to the Nigerian Stock Exchange explained that the decision was taken based on the advice of the company’s external auditors. Akintola Williams

Deloitte, for ease of reconciliation with the accounts of the other downstream entities to which the company relates and for best practice.

The company noted that a resolution approving the financial year end was taken by the Board of Directors on the 7th of December 2016.

The company which had released its results for the second quarter of 2017, ended 30th September 2016, reported a gross revenue of N5.2 billion representing

a growth of 125.4 percent amidst plans to expand the company’s operations to enhance performance, efficiency and sustainability.

The company, listed on the Alternative Securities Market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, recorded a Profit Before Tax of N91.7 million growing 65 percent from N55.5 million and a profit after tax of N59.8 million, 54 percent higher than N38.9 million recorded as profit after tax for the corresponding period of 2015.

cluding the underlying assets.

Another benefit is Dividends as ETFs investors enjoy the benefits of dividends on all dividend paying stocks in the constituents of the index.

Furthermore, with a Single transaction and ETF investor can purchase an ETF on a single transaction yet owning a whole portfolio of stocks and at a one transaction per trade, therefore commissions and management fees will only be charged on that one transaction as opposed to buying individual stocks and be charged individually for each stock. Most ETFs do not have annual fees.

ETF’s are also Tax friendly. Capital gains tax are generally lower for ETFs than the traditional mutual funds due to the structure of each trade.

positions at the top of activity chart, as Fidelity Bank emerged the topmost traded stock with 33.9 million shares worth N30.2 million. Access Bank followed with 29.2 million shares worth N189.7 million while UCAP was next with 19.7 million shares amounting to N64.6 million.

FBN Holdings came fourth on the day’s activity chart having traded 16.8 million units of shares valued at N59.9 million while UBA was fifth with 15.8 million shares worth N77.2 million.

Afolabi Adesola

By Simon Ugwu

Nigerians expect a better result and encouraging activities in the Energy Industry this year 2017. Oil and Gas experts who bared their minds on what Nigerians expect in the New Year were precise on what should be done in the sector to better the lives of Nigerians.

The Chairman/CEO, International Energy Services Limited, Dr. Diran Fawibe, told Daily Times on the issue of Federal government target of 7,000 megawatts of electricity generation which was not achievable last year, that one good thing is that we have a proactive Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachukwu, who is working with the various stakeholders and he has a clear strategy to achieve the government objective of provision of energy.

When you look at the 2017 budget, he said, you will find out that power has the highest allocation in terms of funding which means that government is taking power seriously and it is large because of the potential that electricity has for this country. “In other words, if you want to unlock the potential and the resources of this country like human resources, you provide power and the seriousness of the government in this direction has been indicated in the budget allocation and if we are able to achieve the programmes that have been underlined in the budget, you will then see that there will be improvement.”

“It is unfortunate that Nigerians don’t have enough power supply and people are sabotaging the little available. Instead of progressing, we are retrogressing. A lot will depend on the effort of government in reaching an amicable settlement with the militants in oil producing states. If what is allocated is disbursed and spent wisely, obviously, it will go a long way.”

The chairman, however, stated that the government alone cannot generate enough power required in this country. And that is why the private sector comes in. The privatization of power sector according to him is directed towards encouraging the private sector. “You have the independent power arrangement whereby anybody who gets the license can set up a power plant and starts generating. If the Generating Companies (Gencos) and Distribution Companies (Discos) are doing well, more people will be encouraged to invest in the sector but if they are not doing well, no one will want to Invest in the sector,” he said.

Supporting this view, Dr Ade Afolabi, Chairman/CEO, Dansaki Petroleum Limited, said that there is a noticeable increase in production and reduction in the case of pipeline vandalism. So,

The Energy sector in 2017

Dr Fawibe said all things being equal, the nation will be producing more than 2.2 million barrels projected per day in 2017. “This is with regards to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries exemption from production cut granted Nigeria and the government’s exit from cash calls obligation. So, the production capacity will increase substantially as there will be resources to operate seamlessly by the companies. All these revolve around peace in the Niger Delta. So hopefully, 2017 will be a better year,” he said.

But Dr Afolabi said the government has to devise a means that will prevent people from going close to the pipelines, using the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps. Anybody who goes close after all these efforts to deter people from going close should be arrested.

On full deregulation of the downstream in 2017, the Dansaki chairman stated that there should be full deregulation of downstream. “Sometime in the past, around September 2015, petrol sold for N87 or N90 per litre without subsidy. The problem started when the issue of vandalism surfaced again”.

he said that the 7, 000 megawatts is achievable come 2017.

“The government should encourage gas to power producers. So that we can generate more power supply, so also the Discos should also improve revenue collection. They should embrace the Information Technology (ICT) being used now. It will help, Eko Disco has embraced the technology and it is working for them”, he said.

Speaking of the debt owed GENCOs and DISCOs by government ministries, departments and agencies, he urged the government to do something with regards to settling the debt owed by its ministries, departments and agencies. “It is very vital if the government wants a turnaround in the industry”.

However, Dr Fawibe said there must be a mechanism for the government to pay for electricity consumed by its ministries, agencies and departments. “We should not allow accumulation of debt and each government department and agency must take responsibility for payment of its bills just like other organizations are paying. The way things are now, it is clear that the private sector has been sustaining the power sector. In other words, if the private sector has not been paying like the government parastatals, then there would have been a complete breakdown in the system.”

“Don’t forget that the government agencies, ministries and

departments represent a very sizable market. If they are not paying, how will the generating and distribution companies carry on in their business? They should state at the beginning of every year how they want to pay for electricity supply from their budget. If the GENCOs and DISCOs are going to raise fund, it will be at a high-interest rate and that will add to the cost of power generation,” he stressed.

The IESL boss said whatever should be done to arrest this situation on vandalism of power equipment and energy theft through the bypass of meters and illegal connections must continue to be done and other strategies that can lead to success in this area should also be embarked upon.

However, Afolabi pointed out that the challenge can be overcome through the use of the recent technology in place. “They need to get inspectors to follow through not just relying on information technology and sit back in the office. The inspectors should be going round to check the prepaid meter so that nobody bypasses the meter”, he said.

Speaking of the negative effect of the crash on the global oil price in the country, he said when there is a decline in the price of crude oil, the option is to refine in the country and also promote energy means. “The refineries should be maintained, while new ones should be built.”

But Dr Fawibe said the coun-

try should save for the rainy day. Also, those who steal from the government account must be disciplined to stop stealing from the government. “So whatever we have should be used judiciously as there will be another recession in the future.”

On gas development, he said, “the fact that power has the highest allocation in the budget allocation shows seriousness on the part of government on gas to power development and also the total energy needs. The government is also encouraging investment in the renewable energy with regards to energy needs in the country.”

But Dr Afolabi stated that there is an enabling environment in gas production as there is a willing buyer, willing seller. “It is just like crude oil now as we buy at the international market price. If it continues like that, it will encourage production.”

On Scarcity of foreign exchange, the IESL boss said the government through the Ministry of Petroleum, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the marketers should sit down and examine the issue realistically and address it.

The Dansaki boss also said the government should make the marketers and importers confident about the business they are into and also convince the public that it can provide the foreign exchange for their business.

Speaking on 2.2 million barrel projected per day by the Federal Government in the budget,

Speaking further on divestment he said the International Oil Companies (IOCs) were divesting because of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which is yet to be passed. It keeps lingering at the National Assembly. It is creating uncertainty in the business environment. So also, the vandalism and oil theft contributed to the issues that made IOCs divest. He urged the government to create the enabling environment.

But the IESL Chairman, however, said that one of the major problems of the IOCs is being addressed now by way of exiting from the cash call. If that is done, it means that for 2017, you may not see major divestment because their complaint is now being addressed. This policy according to him is going to stop the tide of divestment by IOCs.

Dr Afolabi said in order to address vandalization of oil pipelines, the government should improve on the preventive mechanism so as to be able to determine the spillage soon enough to be able to stop it. “There are ICT controls that will tell you when you are losing oil from the pipelines”.

Speaking on illegal refineries, he said, there should be public awareness to enlighten people on the need of being abiding. Those involved should be sensitized not engage in illegality because it doesn’t pay to be breaking the law. There are gainful ventures they can go into and they will be earning income from there.

Afolabi

Fawibe

Life TIMES &

Grace Amah: PL4

The delectable screen diva

Why Pinnacle emerged DailyTimes company of the year

CONTINUED FROM PAGE L2

The introduction of a Digital Access Fund (DAF), would become platform to help collect present opportunities for local of the grassroots.

The decision by Daily Times Nigeria to crown as the DAILY TIMES COMPANY OF THE YEAR 2016, is therefore, born out of the fact that with these great feet, the June 2017 timeline to complete a assured.

Pinnacle, a company registered as Pinnacle Communications Limited, is an international communications Equipment solutions that takes its customers for wireless, broadcast, network digital radio equipment. The company was incorporated World class technical facilities at the broadcasting site of Pinnacle Communications Limited at Mpape.

When the history of digital broadcast is told in Nigeria, Pinnacle Communications Limited will be proudly remembered as the standards for the emergence of world class digital broadcasting in Nigeria.

With its state of the art facilities, to join the league of nations broadcasting to world class digital broadcasting

Despite surmounting the initial tough obstacles to emerge winners of the 2nd Broadcast Signal Distribution license Network for transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, in 2016, yet many had feared that the company may not be

able to meet the deadline set for facilities and manpower for the But it took the company just six weeks to secure, clear, built up the site and installs what is now known in the world at the Mpape site Telecommunication Union, ITU as the deadline for the transition of analogue to digital terrestrial frequency bands, while they also stated how frequencies will be interference in the transition period

not only restored the hope that Nigeria is capable of the June, 2017 Telecommunications Union, ITU but has also culminated to the for Abuja residents.

a clear example of the Nigerian entrepreneurial ability as Pinnacle of many, that Pinnacle is capable when guided by a focused entrepreneur, like its Chairman, Sir Lucky Omoluwa.

Following the switch on, Abuja

residents can now watch close to news, entertainment, sports and business, for free.

Before the digital switch on,

Abuja populace, thereby offering them unique opportunities to enjoy spheres including educational programmes broadcasting as well

to be listed here, but some of such include the possibilities of instant feedback which would assist in deepening the democratic processes, while also enhancing the opening up of the Nollywood

access to the rich repertoire of These low hanging fruits, as it were, will also help to sweep the carpets off the feet of pirates, thus

third largest in the world. As the regulatory agency, Nigeria Broadcasting Commission has rightly situated, “under the new

would be local and this has the catalyst of offering job opportunities as well as wealth creation for through the entire broadcasting

CONTINUED ON PAGE L3

with the Corporate Affairs Commission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with

then it has been solely responsible for the radio communication of Republic of Nigeria as well as design, supply, installation and commissioning of Radio, AM/ equipment

The company to digital broadcasting after a keenly contested bidding process on digital migration, BSDGROUP, which had expressed initial interest in the project. This bidding process came after the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC experimented the switch-on of broadcast transmission from analogue to digital broadcasting in Jos, the Plateau State capital From Limited, Pinnacle Communications Limited and Trendcorp Africa limited met the mandatory requirements and were therefore Pinnacle Communications which

phase, but expectedly, Pinnacle per cent higher than the 20 per Phase3 bided N100 million, which

has less than 20 per cent.

Communications Limited wasted no time in deploying a national terrestrial broadcasting signal the dream.

The Board of Directors,

Management and Staff of Daily Times Nigeria, join millions of Nigerians to say hearty congratulations to the Board of Directors of Pinnacle Communications for this great

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed flanked by the Chairman of Pinnacle Communications, Sir Lucky Omoluwa and DG of the Nigeria Televion Authority, NTA, Alhaji Yakubu Muhammad.

One of the technical experts at the facility working inside the technical room One of experts inspecting installed equipment.

I want to remain a role model to young ones -Grace Amah

What is your relationship with his father?

Grace Amah needs no introduction in Nollywood, as far as the Nigerian movie industry is concerned, having cut her teeth as an actress early in life. The Ebonyi State-born thespian who had been off the screen but now back, in the interview with AJIBADE ALABI, talks about her current engagements, career and sundry issues. Enjoy…

What is new for Grace Amah?

Would you say you are fully back to Nollywood?

I read an interview where you said that Nollywood is a gathering of professional prostitutes. Are you still standing on that?

Do you mean the upcoming artistes disrespect their seniors?

What makes a good actress?

Does he pay special attention to him?

What do you really want from the man to spend the rest of your life with?

Talking of new actresses, how do you see them?

What do you think is responsible for that?

Your son is four. How does he feel?

What are you most grateful to God for and your greatest wish?