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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2017 VOL. 3. NO. 480

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L-R: Mrs Lola Peter Okoye (P-Square), Mrs Aisha Achimugu, Mrs Jennifer Uzor Madu, Publisher of Daily Times, Mr Fidelis Anosike, Ms Adaobi Nwakuches and Mrs Uju Anaghara at the funeral ceremony of Jennifer Uzo’s mother in Owerri Ezukala, Anambra State ... on Friday.

Couples beware:Broken

home ‘ll produce corrupt leaders, deviant adults Suicide Mission: Police identify man who jumped into Lagos Lagoon 7

US rates NAPTIP high in combating human trafficking 7

Man to marry 15-year-old girl he impregnated in Kano 14

Gbubemi God’s Covenant Snr, Lagos ÏÏÏThe state of moral decay and dearth of ethics in leadership and professional circles, especially in government and the judiciary have been traced to broken and dysfunctional family structure back in time.

Structurally, family/homes are either broken or intact. A broken home in this context is one that is not structurally intact, as a result of divorce, separation, death of one of parent and illegitimacy.

According to researcher Frazer (2004), psychological home conditions arise mainly from illegitimacy of children, the label of adopted child, broken homes, divorce and parental deprivation. Such abnormal conditions of the home have a detrimental effect on school performance of the child.

Broken homes on academic performance of children In a study of Iguekhiho Community in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo Continued on page 6

Why I like to sing about real life – Simi L2 & L3

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Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

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Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

5 News

Excitement as Adesina gets $250,000 World Food Prize Laureate in US

ÏÏÏNigeria’s

image has attained a positive rating in far away United States when the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and current President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, received the prestigious $250,000 World Food Prize Laureate.

Adesina had in the early hours ofFriday in Des Moines, the capital city of Iowa, US, became the sixth African to be awarded the World Food Prize in a ceremony witnessed by two former African PresidentsOlusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria) and John Mahatma (Ghana).

Adesina also used the occasion to state that he will used the award prize money of $250,000 to set up a foundation for African youth development in Agriculture.

Thanking God for the award, Adesina said, “It is simply amazing that the son of poor farmer can be at the world stage receiving this award. I will dedicate my life to feeding the world.”

Adesina also thanked Obasanjo for nominating him to serve as a minister in Jonathan’s government, He said “For me, the World Food Prize is a great honour and recognition for all of the work that I have done

for decades of my life. “ But it also puts wind behind our sail as we now take off to feed Africa, because it is a job that has to be complete.

“Not only must Africa feed itself, it must feed itself with pride. Africa must also unlock the potentials of agriculture, turning agriculture from something that you use for managing poverty, to something that you use for creating wealth.”

“The World Food Prize is a great motivation which puts the wind behind the sails of what the African Development Bank is doing with its development pri-

cially Feed Africa.”

He also stated how the High 5s were all linked, and pledged the commitment of the Bank to continue its development work in Africa.

According to Adesina, there is the need to put technology and information in the hands of farmers, describing the mobile phone as the most important tool in the hands of a farmer.

He said, “With it, they will find out information about the market, about weather, and about to access finance.

“They will be able to get information about nutrition for mothers, for instance.

That is very important.

That was why when I was

Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria, we launched this electronic wallet system that allows farmers to access fertilizers, and we reached well over 15 million farmers.

“Awareness and empowerment, can only come through providing information, democratizing the access to information to farmers. I have never seen a farmer that wants to be poor.”

President Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented at the ceremony by minister of state for Agriculture , Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, in a video message earlier , said the choice of Adesina as 2017 World Food Prize Laureate is a clear recombination and appreciation of his standing contributions to food security and for driving change in African agriculture for over 25 years.

Buhari said, “By dint of hard work, persistence, diligent efforts and God’s sufficient grace, you have risen above many limitations to emerge as a notable figure and a true champion. Your life story mirrors the resilience of the Africa spirit and doggedness for which Nigerians are well known.

In June, the World Food Prize announced Adesina as the 2017 Laureate for

his work in improving the availability of seed, fertilizer and financing for African farmers, and for laying the foundation for the youth in Africa to engage in agriculture as a profitable business.

Known as the ‘Nobel Prize for Agriculture’, the World Food Prize was founded by Nobel Peace Prize-winner Norman Borlaug and is considered the foremost international honour recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

The Prize is presented each October on or around UN World Food Day (October 16) in a ceremony in the Iowa State capital of Des Moines.

Under the watch of Adesina, the AfDB is accelerating agricultural development through its Feed Africa Strategy with planned investment of US $24 billion over the next 10 years.

The prize also recognizes Adesina’s work over the past two decades with the Rockefeller Foundation, at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture of Agriculture and Rural Development.

NEPAD Nigeria reformed for better performance - Akobundu

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

L-R: Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Onofiok Luke; Senate Minority leader, Godswill Akpabio and Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Akwa Ibom State, Obong Paul Ekpo, during the anniversary lecture to mark the Silver Jubilee celebration of the House in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State… on Friday

Amnesty boss settles rift with contractor

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

ÏÏÏThe Special Adviser to

the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig-Gen. Paul Boroh (Rtd), on Friday said that he had since forgiven Mr Miebi Bribena, a contractor, handling capital projects in the Presidential Amnesty Office, Abuja.

Boroh said, “the Bible makes it very clear that forgiving others is necessary.”

The contractor was said to be angry with Boroh because the Amnesty boss

insisted he most complete all the projects procured or risk prosecution, but the contractor rather went online to publish a defamatory statement against the person and office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

Responding to a written apology from Miebi Bribene, a contractor, handling capital projects in the Presidential Amnesty Office, Abuja, the Amnesty Coordinator, who quoted from Matthew 6:14-15 in the Holy Scriptures main-

tained that he believes in what the scriptures say; “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”.

According Gen. Boroh, “Being able to forgive those that offend you is the only sure means of having the Lord’s forgiveness as well, reiterating further that “forgiving those who have wronged us, frees us from feelings of anger, hate, holding grudges or seeking revenge”.

He noted that, “such

emotions damage us from the inside out, rather than affecting the person who hurts us, pointing out that forgiveness does not mean we condone what the other person has done and it does not also imply that the other person is right”.

It would be recalled that Miebi Bribene, in his written apology to Gen. Boroh, had stated that, “I publicly apologise to my brother General Paul Tareala Boroh (Rtd) for every offense I have caused him. I have had to travel to Abuja to reconcile privately with him, but I strongly felt I should do this”.

ÏÏÏ

The Special Adviser to the President and Chief Executive Officer of New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) Nigeria, Princess Gloria Akobundu has said that NEPAD is being reformed for a better service-delivery of its mandate in line with the dream of its founding fathers and newer challenges arising from the continent.

According to her some of the challenges confronting the Africa continent include long years of military regimes, wars and other forms of civil strife that had thwarted the continent’s growth like other continents.

Akobundu stated this in Friday in Midrand, South Africa, while fielding questions to journalists at the end of the 57th meeting of the NEPAD Steering Committee, which held at the

NEPAD Agency Office in Midrand.

In a statement by her Special Assistant, Media and Publicity, Nkem Anyata-Lafia, the CEO said that the 57th meeting discussed aspects of the African Union (AU) reform regarding the proposed transformation of NPCA into the Africa Union Development Agency and to consider a draft agenda in preparation for January 2018 Heads of State and Government (HSGOC) Summit.

Akobundu, who lauded the efforts of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) CEO, Assan Mayaki and his team for keeping the dream of NEPAD and its operations in Africa and the entire world; expressed the hope that, with the series of reforms that have been put on the board by the NPCA leadership, there were surely better days ahead for the Agency and the Country Offices across the continent.

News 6

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Broken home‘ll produce corrupt leaders, deviant adults

Continued from page 1 State, some social and academic maladjustment which are likely to affect a child’s performance in school, were identified.

Parents in Iguelahia community were selected and a total of 50 parents were used which formed representative and sample for the study. It was discovered that children from broken homes perform badly than children from stable and happy homes.

Furthermore, the findings

proved that children from monogamous homes perform better in schools than their counterparts from polygamous homes. The study proffered suggestions to alleviate the identified problems.

The importance of education cannot be over emphasised. The problems in this research are that education has a tremendous impact on one’s life. Therefore, the home is the primary source of education for a child. Every child has his or her own home background.

Education is of vital importance to the individual as well as to the nation. Therefore, the home background of a child dictates the progress of an individual in a learning situation.

One cause of broken homes is hinged on time management.

Retired principal and counsellor in a prison ministry in Lagos, Lawrence Ikeguonu said child (and eventually) adult delinquency is a product of unsettled or uncaring family structure.

FG, BoI disburse N380 m on GEEP Sunday Nwakanma Umuahia

ÏÏÏThe

Federal government in partnership with Abia State Government and Bank of Industry, BoI Friday, disbursed a total of N380 million to 7000 beneficiaries in Abia State through the Government Enterprises & Empowerment Programme, GEEP. However, some beneficiaries were disappointed when they did not receive their own bank alert as others did.

The programme was built to assist the rural women and youth to start small trade or any other business. While some beneficiaries smiled home with fifty thousand naira, others went home with their faces looking like people that failed football competition because they did not receive any bank alert.

Government enterprise empowerment programme is the brain child of the federal government to partner the state governments and bank of industry to assist the rural people with loan payable within six months.

Speaking at International Conference Centre, Umuahia, venue of the exercise, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo commended the Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu over his efforts and commitment in Micro Small & Medium Scale Enterprise, MSMSE. The Vice President, who spoke through his Special Adviser on MSMSE, Mr Tola Johnson Ade said the earlier launch of OneStop-Shop and Abia Investment House deepened the relationship between the Federal government and Abia State government, disclosing that Abia is the only State where 90% of the applicants were qualified for the loan.

He assured the beneficiaries that the more they deploy the money meaningfully, the more they would get more loans, adding that the loans are gradually being released.

The Vice President expressed his happiness that 90 percent of Abians qualified for the loan and urged them to make judicious use of the money, pledging that the relationship that

attracted the programme would be sustained.

He said that at least 3,000 Abians will benefit from this first batch.

In his speech, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu who believed that Abians can create nothing from something, commended president Muhammadu Buhari and his vice Osibanjo for collaborating with the 36 states to give the loan.

Governor Ikpeazu warned the beneficiaries that the loan is not for solving family problems, payment of school fees or giving it to third party, but prayed God to give them the wisdom to use the money well.

While reiterating that bank of industry is ready to give additional loan of 30 thousand soon, the Governor pledged that the state will send those that will train the beneficiaries on skills they wish to learn and charged the beneficiaries to deploy the money accordingly, adding that the loan is strictly for business and urged them to approach it prayerfully and ensure the money is not to be misused.

“Many parents neglect their homes at the expense of their work. I can’t imagine homes that care less about their children just because they must meet official and business appointments. Everyone is busy but the ability to draw up good working schedule makes a perfect parent and therefore a perfect home,” he told The Daily Times.

The corruption and insurgency factor Social scientists in series of investigative studies have revealed that corruption, insurgency and all forms of vices in societies across the globe are manifestations of adult delinquency as well as hallmarks of broken homes which, the researchers say, are direct products of dysfunctional family structure.

In a comparative assessment of the impact of family structure/quality on delinquency and functional factors in the human persona, author and Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati, Patricia Van Voorhis and colleagues, authors Francis Cullen (Professor of Criminal Justice and Sociology at the University of Cincinnati), Richard A. Mathers (Chair of the Department of Sociology and Associate Professor at Western Illinois University) and Connie Chenoweth Gamer, a Sociology Professor from Western Illinois University, revealed that despite the plethora of studies of broken homes, multivariate studies comparing the effects of the broken home and other theoretically relevant measures of the quality of family life are rare.

In a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, the researchers examined the family structure versus family function issue by testing the comparative effects on self-reported delinquency of family structure and five measures of family function.

Of five types of delinquency discussed, two types of family structure examined include presence of both biological parents in the home versus other and single versus two-parent homes.

The data were obtained from a survey of 152 high school students in a small Midwestern town. Item analysis and data reduction techniques were employed to construct six family quality indices and five delinquency indices.

Family size was also cited as a factor which can differentiate between delinquents and non-delinquents, with delinquents seen as more likely to come from larger families. The study found that there exists a significant difference between a mean of 6.85 children in the delinquents’ families and 5.90 in the non-delinquents’ families. ‘Most delinquent” boys were classified more often from large families, but it was found that no such relationship for existed for girls.

Marital adjustment This differential in the relationship between family size and delinquency is not restricted to sex differences. Several writers have suggested that large families may have a varying relationship to different types of delinquent offenses.

One of the most important aspects of family relations, closely related to the concept of broken or unbroken homes, is the quality of parental marital adjustment.

Author Browning (1990) dealt with marital adjustment and family solidarity and found that both of these bore a significant relationship to truancy and auto theft; the two types of delinquency he studied.

Among boys and girls from completely “happy” homes — 23 and 22 percent, respectively, were “most delinquent’; from “unhappy homes” — 46 and 49 percent.

The research found that significantly, more delinquents than non-delinquents had parents with poor conjugal relations (31.2 percent: 14.9 percent). It was also found that marked family cohesiveness was present in 61.8 percent of the non-delinquents’ homes but in only 16 percent of the delinquents’.

In a report study of Washington State schoolchildren, 52 percent of the ‘most delinquent” boys Continued on page 7

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Broken home ‘ll produce corrupt leaders, deviant adults Continued from page 6 called their families “uncooperative”, compared to 16 percent of the boys in the “conformist” category.

Some causes of broken homes In many homes, it was found that some partners are pathologically secretive in their attitude and way of life. They smile when you expect them to react to something serious you know that hurt them. Instead of opening up, they bottle up their emotions and never share their feelings about any issue with their partners.

Others would even go to the extent of over monitoring the schedule of their partners. This shows the lack of trust and confidence in the home.

“If partners will learn to overlook some issues and be openly conversational with one another, relationships will be more stable,” Social worker,” Dr. Maxwell Onifede said in the course of this study. “Money is good but interaction will never let a family down”.

Liberty over exercised The spirit of the letters of the word “help-mate” in the home has lost its meaning as a result of “right” and liberty between couples.

“Some spouses sees their partners as slaves putting all duties especially the house chores on them. I see no evil if a man decides to cook dinner for his family.

But over-consciousness of being called a fool is affecting the mentality of most people,” he added.

To err is human Humans are bound to make mistakes. Over reaction to these mistakes may sometimes determine the structure and duration of a home. Some people react irrationally to some issues that need to be settled amicably. When the man is angry, what is expected of the wife is to be quiet and vice versa because two mad people cannot build a house, instead, they will set it on fire.

Two is company Since there is bound to be disagreement in the home, the cautious thing to do is, settle it amicably in the four corners of the house and not calling on outsiders or members of the extended family because it will not always work out that way. The best way is to settle it between yourselves.

In a separate study, early researchers found that tests of the relationships between broken homes and delinquency were not significant, except for a moderate relationship between broken homes and status offences.

For example, a bivariate relation between single-parent homes and delinquency was observed for status offences only. Other forms of family dysfunction all were significantly related to overall delinquency and to status offences.

As a result of methodological limitations, prior research may have artificially attenuated the magnitude of the broken homes/ delinquency relationship. As a

result of theoretical limitations also, prior research has achieved only limited success in identifying the mechanism through which broken homes may promote delinquency.

The present study addresses both issues using a national probability sample of 1, 725 adolescents.

Results suggest that divorce/ separation early in life course may be more strongly related to delinquency than prior research implies and that remarriage during adolescence may be strongly associated with status offending.

Overall, results also suggest that association with defiant peers and attitudes favourable to delinquency account for the broken homes/delinquency relationship better than do a number of alternative explanations.

Family structure and antisocial behaviour On the relationship between parental cohabitation and blended households (on the one part) and correlation fragments between family structure and anti-social behaviour (on the other part), authors Robert Apel and Catherine Kaukinen in a paper jointly presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) drew these conclusions: Intact and non-intact families The American family in the last few decades has undergone considerable change, with less than half of all adolescents residing with two married biological parents.

Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, the researchers constructed an elaborate measure of family structure and found considerable heterogeneity in the risk of antisocial and delinquent behavior among groups of youth who reside in what are traditionally dichotomized as intact and non-intact families.

In particular, it was found that youth in “intact” families differ in important ways, depending on whether the two biological parents are married or cohabiting and on whether they have children from a previous relationship.

In addition, it was found that youth who reside with a single biological parent who cohabits with a non-biological partner exhibit an unusually high rate of anti-social behavior, especially if the custodial parent is the biological father.

With governments across the world struggling to accommodate and raise delinquent youths in correction and bolster homes for boys and girls as well as curtail the ever rising crime by offspring of broken homes in the society, no glimmer of light appears to be shining at the end of the long tunnel of a stable family, crime free society, in the foreseeable future.

News 7

US rates NAPTIP high in combating human trafficking

Matthew Dadiya, Abuja

ÏÏÏThe

renewed efforts by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to curtail incidences of human trafficking in the country has received a major boost as the United States of America (USA) has thrown its weight behind the activities of the Agency in order to improve its effectiveness as a model of specialized crime fighting Agency in Africa.

The USA also commended the Agency for the number of convictions it has secured since its inception which stands at 331 as at September, 2017, adding that such a feat was laudable bearing in mind the technicalities associated with prosecution of cases such as human trafficking.

Acting Director of Trafficking in Persons Office, Washington, Ms. Kari Johnstone, gave the commendation during a visit to the NAPTIP Headquarters in Abuja.

The Daily Times recalls that Nigeria was recently downgraded from Tier 2 to Tier 2 Watch list in the United States ranking of countries compliance to the minimum

standards in the fight against Trafficking in Persons.

Addressing the Management of the Agency on Friday, during an interactive session as part of her official visit to Nigeria, Ms. Johnstone who was visibly impressed with the achievements of the Agency in the areas of Policy formulation, Prevention, Partnership, Prosecution and Protection of victims of human trafficking , disclosed that the said TIP report was not an appraisal of activities of NAPTIP, but an aggregate assessment of responses by other parties including the government of Nigeria on issues of human trafficking.

According to her, other variable that constituted the assessment include the controversial issue of child soldiers in the North as well as the situation in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in some parts of the country.

The visiting US Official disclosed that the US Trafficking in Persons Report is not an indictment of NAPTIP but to spur policy makers, government and non-governmental actors to accord NAPTIP the desired attention in the areas of policy implementation and improved budgetary allocation in order to

scale up its performance.

She expressed satisfaction with the provisions of the re-enacted 2015 Trafficking in Persons Prohibition Enforcement Act which made provision for compensation for victims of human trafficking as well as stringent punishment for convicted offenders.

While promising that the United States will consider possible assistance to the Agency in the areas of awareness creation, capacity development of Officers as well as other operational needs, the US TIP Director urged NAPTIP not to be discouraged by the TIP rating, adding that she was in Nigeria to have a first- hand information on issues of human trafficking.

In his response, the Representative of the Director – General, Mr. ArinzeOrakwue, commended the US TIP Official for the visit and advocated that NAPTIP should be rated only on its mandate rather than other areas which require the attention of other arms or Agencies of government. He added that the Agency has remained a unique model not only to the African region, but the entire world in the area of combating human trafficking.

L-R: Secretary, Prophetess C. F. Abodunde; Treasurer, Supt. Ap. Femi Fakorede; Special Apostle Adisa Ramah; Chairman, Apostle Dare Dada; Financial Secretary and Snr. Ap. S. O. Ebofin, during the induction of New Executives of Alimosho Local Division of C&S Unification Church of Nigeria, Lagos State chapter… recently.

Police confirm identity of man who jumped into Lagos lagoon

Joy Anyim

ÏÏÏThe Lagos State Police Com-

mand, on Friday, confirmed the identity of a 40-year-old man who jumped into the lagoon from the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge in Lagos on Friday in an apparent suicide plunge.

The state Police Command spokesman, ASP Olarinde Famous -Cole, identified the man as Adekunle Oluseyi John from Ondo State.

Famous-Cole said “Report on the suicide was reported at Maroko Division at about 10:15am and police operatives quickly rushed to the scene and alerted rescue unit.

During a search of the area, his mobile phone was retrieved from the scene. The man is about 40 years of age named Adekunle

Oluseyi John from Ondo state.

Rescue operations by the police and other bodies is ongoing.

“Although the body is still missing but effort is on going to recover the body by men of the Marine Police and the Lagos State Waterways Authority combing through the waters for over three hours on the possibility to recover the body with no sign of the body in the water now.

“Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) and the Marine Police were at the scene in search of the body.

But after a four-hour search without recovery of the body, the officials of the three agencies carrying out the search, called off the search operation.

According to the Lagos State Emergency Agency (LASEMA),

“a distress call was received from the LCC officials regarding a man who reportedly jumped into the lagoon around Lekki Toll Gate bridge at about 9:58am this morning.

The footage which was captured through the camera revealed that he suddenly pulled off his clothes and shoe while noticing there was no one around him and jumped into the lagoon.

The General Manager LASEMA Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu, had earlier said that it would be inappropriate to release the identity of the man but his family has been contacted while all items found on him were also handed over to the Nigerian Police from Maroko Division for further investigation.

He however assures that his officials and other responders are on ground for indication as to how the body will be recovered.

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8 News

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Lagos govt to establish commercial courthouse to handle disputes resolution Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Friday unveiled plans by the State Government to establish a designated Commercial Courthouse with the overall objective of ensuring speedy resolution of disputes as well as drive commerce and enhance the ease of doing business in the State.

Speaking at the State Executive Chambers in Alausa while swearing-in Justice Opeyemi Oke as the 16th substantive Chief Judge of the State, Governor Ambode also called for more reforms aimed at fasttracking justice delivery without necessarily compromising the fundamental principle of fair hearing and the rule of law.

He said: “There is no gainsaying that Lagos is the commercial nerve centre of

the country and it deserves a modern state-of-the-art first class Commercial Courthouse to speedily address commercial disputes in the State.

“We plan to establish a designated Commercial Courthouse with the objective of ensuring speedy consideration of commercial matters. It is hoped that this courthouse will accommodate all commercial related organs of the judiciary in order to drive commerce and improve the ease of doing business.”

The Governor, who described the swearing-in ceremony as an affirmation of the belief of the present administration in the rule of law and the importance of the judiciary to the democratic system, said it was gratifying that the State judiciary, since the emer-

gence of Justice Idowu Conrad-Taylor as the first Chief Judge of the State in 1967, had been the only democratic arm of government that had experienced a seamless transition in its leadership.

He said the 50 years of seamless transition aptly qualified the judiciary as one of the most resilient institutions in the State, and congratulated judiciary workers and all the past and present Chief Judges of the State for maintaining the integrity of the institution.

While congratulating Justice Oke, Governor Ambode said the development was a confirmation of her competence, experience and character to preside over the sacred temple of justice, just as he expressed absolute confidence in her intellectual capacity to

steer the ship of the State Judiciary on a smooth sail.

The Governor, who alongside the Chief Judge are fellows of the Fulbright Scholarship of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship from the United States of America, said it was important for Justice Oke to see her appointment as a platform to sustain and improve on the enviable reputation which the State Judiciary had built for itself over the years.

Speaking on areas requiring improvement, Governor Ambode said: “One area of our Judicial System which I consider as work in progress is the speed of justice delivery in the State. We have made significant progress in this regard with the various reforms that have been initiated and implemented.

Rivers judiciary rededicates 2017/2018 legal year Amaka Agbu, Port Harcourt

ÏÏÏThe

Rivers State judiciary has been rededicated to God for greater service to humanity in the vineyard of Justice. The re-dedication took place on Friday at the State Ecumenical Centre as part of the opening of the Legal Year.

The service had in attendance, the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, the State Executive Council, State Lawmakers, the Bench and the Bar. The Wife of the Rivers State Governor, Justice Eberechi Suzzette Nyesom-Wike was also present.

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike took the first lesson for the rededication service from Joshua Chapter 1, Versus 1 to 18. The Chief of Rivers State, Justice Adama IyayeLaminkara read the second lesson.

In his sermon, Anglican Bishop of Evo Diocese, Rt. Reverend Innocent Ordu said that justice was a divine service, adding that justice was a divine service which required that those in charge of the justice system to adhere to the tenets of the law.

Bishop Ordu said: “Jus-

tice is relevant for the promotion of social order.

Judgment is necessary.”

The actual re-dedication witnessed the filing out by the Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Adama IyayeLaminkara, the President, Customary Court of Appeal, Justice Christiana Gabriel-Nwankwo, Judges of the High Court and Customary Court of Appeal, the Chief Registrar and Secretary, Justice Service Commission and Deputy Chief Registrars for prayers by the Cleric.

The Chief Justice of Rivers State, Justice IyayeLaminkara declared on behalf of the state judiciary: “Our Father in Christ, I present ourselves representing the entire Rivers State Judiciary to be rededicated to God for the 2017/2018 Legal Year and for prayers of the Church.

Selected re-dedication hymns were rendered all through the service, backed by the Archbishop of Anglican of Niger Delta Province, Most Reverend Ignatius Kattey and Rev. Mgsr. Pius Kii conducting the re-dedication process.

The Judicial Officers publicly made pledges committing themselves to the delivery of Justice.

VC charges graduates on ingenious ways to survive kehinde Akinpelu Ilorin

ÏÏÏThe

L-R: New Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Opeyemi Oke; Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode and Deputy Governor, Dr. (Mrs.) Oluranti Adebule, during the swearing-in ceremony of Oke, at the EXCO Chamber, Lagos House, Ikeja… on Friday.

CAN reacts to Plateau killings, says enough is enough Kingsley Chukwuka, Jos

ÏÏÏThe youth wing of the

Christian Association of Nigeria (YOWICAN), has frowned at the incessant killing of Christians by the Fulani Herdsmen without any steps taking by President Muhammadu Buhari led federal government to address the ugly trend and bring the perpetrators to book, saying that CAN is stamping it’s foot insisting that enough is enough.

The YOWICAN President, Engr. Daniel Kadzai who spoke yesterday through a press statement and made available to our correspondent also accused the Nigerian Army for aiding the Fulani bandits in the recent massacre

of over 29 people at Nkiedonwhro village of Irigwe Chiefdom in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Kadzai said CAN reliably gathered that soldiers masterminded the killing, “the people were at home when they heard gunshots, some of them were assured by the soldiers of safety, then, one of the soldiers told the ward head to follow them for protection, and he obliged, believing that the soldiers would give them safety.

“As this was going on, some young men, women and children were gathered in the classroom of a primary school: one of the young men refused to enter the classroom, insisting on staying with the soldiers;

the person saw everything that happened.

“He saw some people in the bush giving signs with their hands to the soldiers; It was between 6 : 30 and 7 : 00 pm; he saw the hand as if it was calling some people; the boy told the soldiers, ‘See oo, there is somebody in the bush giving signals with his hands and he is a Fulani person. ‘‘He said that immediately after that, there was a gunshot and the soldiers advised residents to remain in the classroom while they (the soldiers ) went for the attackers: he alleged that one of the soldiers signalled the assailants to attack”.

The CAN youth President also said “YOWICAN has obtained audio record-

ings of the incident with confirmation from a former Local Government Area Chairman and one of the pastors in the area: this audio piece of evidence will be made available soon to the general public”.

He said the brutal attack on Christians in Bassa last Saturday and Sunday respectively is the second of such attacks in just less than 3 weeks, saying that a similar case was also sighted in the attacks against Christians in Agatu, Benue State and Southern Kaduna few months ago.

“We affirm that the massacred were first Nigerian citizens before they were Christians and among those killed were mostly young Christians”.

new vice chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Sulyman Abdulkareem, has charged new graduates of the institution to be purposeful and ingenious to survive present life of struggle for survival in the country.

Speaking during the 33rd convocation of the university in Ilorin on Friday, where a total number of 9,018 were graduated, Professor Abdul Kareem Age said that there were now few offers for multitude of fresh graduates, adding that, “the world is indeed different now”.

“Gone were the days when employers waited on convocation arena with assorted plum and well paid job offers from which fresh graduates made their choices. We now live in a reality characterized by the survival of the fittest, and the fittest are those with special edge of unique and uncommon skills and knowledge.

The candid truth now is that just graduating from university is no

longer enough to get a job. You need to have the uncommon commonsense.

Competition for jobs is now very high. It is only the few that can exert more efforts that get the few offers and who begin the new life with hope, less challenges and frustration “, he said.

Professor Abdulkareem, who titled his speech, Life has just begun, told the new graduates that they were about to start a life of another form of struggle.

“As you are stepping out of this hall, probably thinking erroneously that the struggle has ended, I must caution that the majority of you, especially those of you that have humble background, will begin a life of another form of struggle. Unfortunately, you might be on your own on the struggle. One sure way of winning the struggle is to be purposeful and ingenious. My advice is that you give it your all; dare to be all you can be. You need to persevere because perseverance is the common trait most successful people have in common and that is what has made them to succeed where others have failed “, he said.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Politics Olufemi Samuel, Abuja The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it would recruit not less than one million ad-hoc staff for conduct of the 2019 general elections.

The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu disclosed this during an interactive session with Senate Committee on INEC during the week.

The Chairman, however, assured Nigerians that the major electronic device for the election, the smart card readers, will function well during the next general election since according to him; staff of the Commission would be adequately trained on usage.

He said, the one million targeted adhoc staff for the election which remains would be about 300 higher than the over 700 thousand ad-hoc staff engaged for the 2015 general elections.

He said, “The projected increase in the number of ad- hoc staff to be engaged in the elections by the commission arose from the need to make provisions for adequate manpower for the exercise on a general template and specifically to take care of peculiar needs for that purpose in some polling units across the federation.”

On the Smart Card Readers which caused a lot of controversies during the conduct of the 2015 general elections due to malfunctioning, Professor Yakubu allayed fears over use of Smart Card Readers, noting that the controversy that trailed its use during 2015 elections would not arise in the 2019 elections.

s

Too much politics without development ruining Nigeria’s economy -James–P.10 & 11

INEC to recruit 1 million adhoc staff for 2019 elections Ï ƋƋ ƕ ƇƆ Ə Ƒ Ɔ Ƈ ƅ ƏƗ ƏƆ ƗƆƏ Ƈ Ə ƆƋƆƅƐƈ

PROF. YAKUBU

He said solid plans had been made adequately for training of staff on use of the Card Readers ahead of the next elections.

“Controversies and challenges raised on the Smart Card Readers in the 2015 elections to us in INEC were over magnified because the problem was not technological

on the part of the device but altitudinal on the part of the users due to lack of adequate training.

“Thus, because the problem is more of altitude than technological defects, solid steps are being taken by the commission to bring about robust interface between the machine and those to use them in terms of practical trainings before the elections,” he explained.

The INEC boss said Nigerians should expect an improve performance by INEC with the coming gubernatorial elections in Anambra State next month and those of Ekiti and Osun states, given its level of preparations so far.

According to him, INEC has also been planning on how to make the five categories of disfranchised Nigerians participate in the 2019 general elections The five categories according to him are the 16,000 INEC staff, members of the civil society organisations who serve as election monitors and observers, the media, Security personnel and Prison inmates.

In his remarks, the Senate Committee Chairman on INEC, Senator Suleiman Nazif said the interactive session would be a continuous exercise between the committee and INEC ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Lagos Assembly confirms another female Chief Judge Alade Tasma The Lagos State House of Assembly at plenary on Thursday confirmed Hon. Justice Opeyemi Olufunmilayo Oke as the new Chief Judge of the State.

Justice Oke who was appointed the Acting Chief Judge of the state two months ago following the retirement of the former Chief Justice of the state, Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade become the third consecutive female Chief Judge of the state.

The governor had earlier forwarded the name of Justice Oke to the State Assembly about two months ago in line with the constitutional provisions for confirmation as the substantive Chief Judge of the State.

With her appointment, Hon. Justice Oke follows in the line of the last female Chief Justices of the state after Justice Ayotunde Phillips and Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade both retired.

Responding to questions from lawmakers just before her confirmation, Justice Oke expressed her support for the controversial death penalty to serve as a deterrent and went ahead to challenge state governors to sign awaiting death warrants in their various states as a means to discouraging people from unnecessary killings.

She explained further the need to sustain the death penalty, saying that those who kill others should be killed to serve as a deterrent to others.

“Those who kill others should be killed. I challenge the state governors to sign death warrants so that people would be discouraged from killing others. So I am for the death penalty,” she explained.

The new Chief Judge was asked questions ranging from prison decongestion, delay of cases in courts, integrity of the Judiciary,

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GOV. AMBODE

RT. HON. OBASA

establishment of more Courts, Judiciary handling of rape cases as well as Capital punishment at which she expressed her backing amongst others.

The newly confirmed number one Judge in the state took time to address the issue of juvenile delinquency and hard drugs amongst the undergraduates in the country.

The Chief Judge assured the lawmakers that foster homes would be created to house juvenile prisoners in the state.

Justice Opeyemi Olufunmilayo Oke, who was born in 1954, studied law at the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University and the Nigerian Law School.

She worked briefly at her father’s chamber, Okesanya and Okesanya & Co. before proceeding to the United States of America for Masters Degree in Criminal Justice Administration and specialise in Criminology and Juvenile delinquency.

She joined the Lagos State Government, and started her career with the state government as Chief Magistrate and later worked as Chairman of Armed Robbery Tribunal, Election Petition Tribunal and handled civic cases as well as land cases.

The House of Assembly also on Thursday passed the Bill making the teaching of Yoruba Language compulsory in schools in the state into law.

The passage of the bill was sequel to the Bill successfully scaling through the Third Reading on the floor of the House.

The Bill among others, make the teaching of Yoruba Language compulsory in all schools I the state, both private and public by including it as a core subject at all levels; and that state owned tertiary institutions shall incorporate the use of the language as a course unit into their General Nigeria Studies (GNS).

9

Anambra poll: INEC assures albinos of vision magnifiers–P.12

Anambra governorship: PPA candidate promises to link up Awka North communities Nkiru Nwagbo, Awka The candidate of the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA) in the Anambra governorship election, Godwin Ezeemo, has told the people of Awka North that he will link all the communities in the area if elected as the governor of the state come November 18.

Speaking at Achalla in Awka North Local Government Area during his familiarization tour, Ezeemo promised that the first six months of his government would be dedicated to ensuring that the link road that joins all the communities of Awka North would be built to world standard.

He expressed dismay over what he described as government neglect of the area by marking it as well as other parts of the state as forest.

While his motorcade struggled through the near impassable terrain in Awka North and had to pass through several other local governments to connect from one community to another, Ezeemo lamented that it was an act of wickedness by the past and present governments to deny the people of the area of good roads, the most basic infrastructure, even when the resources to provide them were available.

According to the candidate, “How can an ex-governor tell us that that he left N40 billion in cash while leaving office when we have such pressing needs like linking up sister communities in Awka North with good roads which will facilitate socio-economic development in the area and ultimately in the state?

“How can the present government be proud to spend billions of naira on high quality billboards, endorsements and posters for a second term when the same money was enough to build the long neglected link roads in Awka North, a more effective way of winning the heart of the people to vote him in for a second tenure?

In his response, Igwe Nwokedi, who was the Chief Press Secretary to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1978, while appreciating Ezeemo’s candid observation, revealed that he spent his days during the Nigerian Civil war in Aguata, Ezeemo’s local government and that Aguata people left a good impression on him?

According to the monarch, “Umuchu people are good people; very decent, humane, genuine people who are highly controlled by their nature, and I believe that Ezeemo will behave like his people,” he said.

Politics 10

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Too much politics without development ruining Nigeria’s economy -James Bassey James, a renowned criminologist, security expert and cleric, is also the National President, Southern Youths Development Forum. James, a man passionate about Nigeria, Niger Delta region and empowering the youths for leadership is worried the way Nigerians are playing politics to the detriment of development of the economy.

He believes that unless Nigerian leaders change their approach to politics it may take a while for development to come. He also speaks on the much talked about restructuring and the war against corruption by the President Muhammadu Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) government in this interview with PATRICK OKOHUE Nigeria recently had its 57th independence anniversary and many people expressed concern over the slow level of development, arguing that the country is not doing well; do you think the country is on course?

Nigeria is on course, I thank God for keeping us together, and I believe we will continue to be together. I want to appreciate the founding fathers of Nigeria for coming together to fight for the independence of this great country and I believe their efforts will not be in vain and that we will continue to sustain the integrity of Nigeria and for our young men and women to support the idea of a strong nation, we believe very strongly that Nigeria will grow from strength to strength, glory to glory, God willing and we will achieve those things that are laudable and those things that will keeping holding us together as one nation.

One thing agitating the minds of many Nigerians is the issue of restructuring the country and the way many are going about it is assuming a new dimension, do you think Nigeria needs restructuring?

I believe that restructuring will bring more development to Nigeria; you will agree with me that almost everybody is saying it. The North is saying the same thing, the South East, the South South, the South West and the middle belt, in fact, I believe that we will keep the unity of this country and make it stronger if we devolve power, restructure the polity, the economy and the fabric of service. For instance it is very wrong for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to be going into the villages to look at issues of agric at the local government level, if there is restructuring the local governments and the states should be given powers to run their education, agriculture and those basic things that are closer to the people and that will ginger development and it will also give

JAMES

I want to appeal to Nigerian politicians, because we have problems, the major problem in Nigeria today is politics, politics has eaten into the fabrics of our national cohesion, today nobody is talking about development, everybody is talking about party, everybody is talking politics, no physical development in most of the places, everyday Nigerians wakeup to talk about party, about issues that are not sustainable, forgetting that no government can stay more than eight years, so we must be able to build a nation that will last for ages every state the opportunity to compete with themselves.

You know we use to have it in the 1960s and the South and the North were in strong competition, with the groundnut pyramid, the cocoa revolution and the oil palm revolution, the regions were developing at very fast pace. So for me, there should be no fuse about restructuring, I believe that if we restructure the local governments should be able to do local government roads. In those years we use to see road maintenance officers from the local government, they use to work on local government roads, it is very wrong for the Federal Government to take all the problems on their heads, it is not easy to maintain federal roads, state roads and local government roads. Restructuring will give local government an identity and the state government will also be able to work on their own, what we have today is that everybody goes to Abuja at the end of every month to collect money, it doesn’t give room for competition or growth. There is no growth again in Nigeria; no matter the

change of government from whatever government it will not solve the problem. The easiest way for Nigeria to move forward now is to reconsider the identity of Nigeria, let us look at issues that the states can handle, the ones that the regions can handle and allow the Federal Government to concentrate on the issues of foreign affairs, part of policing, because even in policing we should be able to have up to the local government police, state police, enforce community policing and that will help in checkmating crime, because the community leaders knows those who are good and bad and the village heads will be empowered.

I remember those days when we were very young, my father at the age of 60 or 70 was part of those they will call on every two weeks to come and guard the community roads and it was beautiful then and I think it is necessary for us to go back to that era so that we can bring development to the country. Look, today in Nigeria we are talking of a population of almost 180 million people, in the next two years we may be talking about

200 million people, it will be difficult for the Federal Government to control everything.

Let the Federal Government take responsibilities in some areas and the state governments take responsibilities in some areas.

There are many suggestions about how to handle this issue of restructuring, while some are talking about a return to regional structure, others are talking about restructuring along states lines, others are also saying instead of having headache over it the 2014 confab dealt with all these issues take it and implement even if it will be adjusted to meet present challenges, what is your view?

Well, the 2014 confab report to me is a good report, but will it be accepted by all Nigerians? Because a lot of people say it was hurriedly put up by Jonathan (President Goodluck Jonathan) for the purpose of the 2015 election, even though I do not agree. But, be that as it may, whatever report the Nigeria people are going to agree with should be brought to the fore so that the people can sit down and discuss. Nigeria is the biggest country in Africa, Nigeria is the most important countries in Africa and one of the most important in the world, our population is a threat to a lot of countries, as a result I want us to keep the identity of Nigeria, because we are stronger together as Nigeria and the call for separate countries out of Nigeria is not the solution. The solution to me is that let us use the 2014 confab report or any of the other reports and projections, whatever CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21 2017

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

means that will bring unity and equity to the polity, to the Nigeria nation, I am for it.

We have tried in our own way to convene a national youth conference, believing that we should be able to talk to our youths, because when you talk about war, when you talk about kidnapping and all sorts of crimes, these are done by the youths, not the elders who are 60 or 70, so the Nigerian youths should be carried along, by the grace of God we are prepared to do a conference in the North, South East and South West to see how we can build the Nigerian spirit in our youths, so that by the time the issue of restructuring is put on the table, the Nigerian youths would have seen the need for the development, the unity and the oneness of this country.

Talking about carrying the youths along with regards to your Southern Youths Development Forum, what are you really looking at doing and how soon do you intend to kick start that and do you intend to bring the government into it?

By the grace of God, it will be soon, we have been talking, we have been holding conferences and seminars on the unity and peace of this great country, because we believe that Nigeria is our country and we must all come together to build this nation.

We are planning to have a very big conference in December by the grace of God in Akwa Ibom State, we have reached out to Professor Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, because we want to partner with many groups so that we can come together and talk about the unity of our great country and we are also reaching out to the youths of our great nation, but we want to start in Akwa Ibom State, we are not just going to talk about Nigeria, we will talk about enterprise, how the youths can be engaged in business development, how the Nigerian youths can engaged in building enterprises and also be engaged as peace ambassadors.

We are extending invitation to the Prof Wole Soyinka Center and many other centres, so that we can use such platforms and see how we can reach out to more youths. We will talk to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and other such development agencies in Nigeria, also the Arewa youths, Oodua youths, Igbo youths among others, we wants to see how we can build a united Nigeria, we want to see how we can build a nation devoid of crisis and that starts with the youths.

Elections will come in 2019, if we don’t prepare the grounds for the youths to understand the issue of togetherness and the needs for unity, the youths can be used and we don’t want our young men to be used again to cause mayhem and violence, destruction in our country. For instance in the Niger Delta region where we come from, the Southern Youths Development Forum have been spending time and resources to reach out to spread the gospel of development and love and I am happy to say that till today the Niger Delta is very calm and I want to thank the President, the Vice President, the Niger Delta youths and the leaders of the Niger Delta for the peace they have been able to sustain in the Niger Delta region and because there is peace in the Niger Delta region you can see that there is a lot of development across Nigeria today, because oil is the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy, so when there is peace in that region automatically it reflects on other parts of the country.

How do you intend to organise the programme to ensure that the government or even politicians do not hijack it for their benefits?

We will invite political groups and leaders, but we are not asking for funding, we are not even asking the Federal Government to fund it, all we want is to give opportunity to ministers of the Federal Government to come speak with the Nigerian youths. We are

11 Politics

‘Too much politics without development’

JAMES

going to send invitation to Ministers from the Niger Delta, from the North, governors of the region, political leaders of the APC, PDP, APGA, PPA, all the political parties will be invited. You see, the issue of Nigeria has gone beyond political parties, because parties will always come and go, PDP was in power for 16 years and today they are no longer in power, APC is in power today, nobody knows who will be there is 2019, but Nigeria is bigger than PDP, APC and all the political parties put together. Remember we use to have Action Group, NCNC, later parties like GNPP, those are now out of order, so we must build a nation that is seen to be carrying development at heart, it is not the issue of political parties. I want to appeal to Nigerian politicians, because we have problems, the major problem in Nigeria today is politics, politics has eaten into the fabrics of our national cohesion, today nobody is talking about development, everybody is talking about party, everybody is talking politics, no physical development in most of the places, everyday Nigerians wakeup to talk about party, about issues that are not sustainable, forgetting that no government can stay more than eight years, so we must be able to build a nation that will last for ages. I have been involved in the management of youth programmes for a very long time; we have held seminars in Abuja, in Lagos, in Abia, in Enugu, in Port Harcourt and so many other places. Politicians can only hijack your programmes when you go for funding and by the grace of God we will not allow anybody to fund this National Youth Impact Conference, because we believe that we have to build our nation. Nigeria is bigger than any individual and the peace in Nigeria is the peace in Africa, peace in the world. Look at what is happening in South Africa, our young men are dying almost on daily basis and so many are dying across the Mediterranean Sea, so there is need for us to develop Nigeria, talk about the structure, talk about business, talk about empowerment, talk about the issues that would keep Nigeria together.

The President’s wife only recently expressed her frustration about the dearth of equipment at the State House Clinic and many are saying that if there can be that level of lack in the State House Clinic that it is evident of what Nigerians are going through on daily basis, monies are voted for projects, yet noth-

ing is done and the money is not seen, how do you think Nigeria can deal with this situation and develop its infrastructure to world standard?

I want to thank the President’s wife, I want to commend the daughter of the President, infact if I have my way we will send invitation to the daughter of the President to come and speak at the youth programme, because it is this kind of mindset that we are looking for in our youths. For the wife of the President to speak out in that manner, it means that they mean well for Nigeria, so they must come out to talk to Nigerian youths and see how they can use their position to influence the greatness of this country. For me, the decay in infrastructure is so sad, there is no road in most of the communities, in most of the states, federal roads are completely out of order, the East West road is out of order, you cannot have an easy ride from any part of the country without having to spend hours and days on the road. I think the government should declare a state of emergency on roads and that is why we are saying for instance that a minister of works should move round the states, round the country to see the state of the roads. The minister of health should do the same thing. You know, if Aso Rock clinic is bad and the President’s wife had to cry out, to me it is not worth hearing and she said that out of frustration.

Imagine if any member of the first family is sick in the night and you cannot take them to the State House Clinic, this cannot happen in any part of the world, at least some people should be sanctioned. Look, education sector is bad, the road network is bad, even look at the airways, today we don’t even have a national carrier, this was not caused by Mr. President, it has been part of the problem in this country, no light, no water, nothing, there must be a solution to these problems.

One issue that is plaguing this country is corruption, the government said they are fighting it, yet many people are complaining that it is not effective; do you think the war on corruption is on course?

The President alone cannot fight corruption, I must confess to you that his team is trying, I must commend the EFCC and the other anti-corruption agencies, but they alone cannot fight corruption, every Nigerian must rise to the issue of fight against corruption in Nigeria. I have said this severally, let the war on corruption start from the

local government. If you start it at the local government you would have succeeded in eliminating corruption from Nigeria up to 30 or 40 percent. A man that has not seen one million naira before, a man who was never known to have any business before suddenly he becomes a local government chairman and before you know it he is building hotels everywhere, that is why there is increase in the number of people that wants to be local government chairmen. Let the anti- corruption war start at the local government, the moment you become the local government chairman give account of your assets, when you leave you do the same and it is given to the EFCC or any anti-corruption agencies, before we move to the states and the federal. If we don’t do that we cannot succeed and also at the federal parastatals, government agencies or businesses, you might have discovered that most of the big people in government are the ones running businesses. Nobody can go to any ministry today to quote for any job, you will not get it, so in Nigeria today, it is either you are in government or you are a poor man, that is why every Nigerian wants to go into government, but some of us don’t want to go into government, we can survive outside. Any country where people promote politics and present politics as a means of survival cannot survive, so we must begin to look at what is going on at the local government level, let us start from there. Let us tell all the 774 local government chairmen to give account, let us call for the account of the local government in the last 10 years or in the last five years and let Nigeria have a programme where citizens themselves can have access to what is going on in the local government.

We are trying to incorporate a citizens’ right initiative, a programme that will incorporate if approved work with so many agencies, at the end of the day it is obvious that President Buhari alone cannot fight corruption. So, everybody must come on board and for me I believe that the EFCC should also extend the fight against corruption to other Nigerians, invite them to become anti-corruption ambassadors, involve the pastors, imams and various religious leaders and other stakeholders, let them become anti-corruption ambassadors, some people can be posted to local governments, some can be posted to state headquarters, the situation is really very sad. Somebody who was never known to be very productive, never known to be a business person just see himself or herself in government and before you know it is already living larger than life.

Today, everybody is a politician in Nigeria, it is not good, 180 million Nigerians cannot all go into politics, we will have problems if we do not resolve these political issues in Nigeria, there is too much politics in Nigeria, that is why the National Youths Impact Conference must be convened so that we talk to our young ones, people just leaving schools.

In the next five years almost five million Nigerians would have graduated, all of them are not going into politics, we do not want an implosion or explosion in Nigeria, there is need for us to build enterprise, for government to build enterprise. For instance the Central Bank is trying to do a programme, though it is a good initiative, the Central Bank of Nigeria should not be directly involved in the business, they should engage banks, if you are a graduate and you are interested go to a Nigerian bank and get a loan, not Anchor Borrower programme, we have had NEEDS it didn’t work, we have had other programmes that didn’t work, all these things is going back to politics. Let the Central Bank Governor develop a programme with the banks, so that people can access funds from banks, not from Central Bank, I have never seen anywhere in the world where the Central Bank directly take charge of businesses, it is not done anywhere.

12 Politics

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21. 2017

Why I want to be chairman of PDP, by Daniel

Patrick Okohue

Former governor of Ogun State and a National Chairmanship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Otunba Gbenga Daniel has expressed his willingness to correct the past mistakes of the party.

Addressing party faithful, his supporters and members of the press during his official declaration to contest for the position in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja Daniel promised to restore the lost glory of the party.

“I think I am most eminently qualified to correct some of our mistakes of the near and remote past having served as a Chief Executive officer of one of the most complex States in Nigeria, Ogun. Having supervised and won elections twice under the platform of the PDP. I have conducted and managed not only national elections, but also local government elections with all their attendant complexities.

“I have built a network of personal relationships across the length and breadth of Nigeria, both in my private capacity as a businessman and public life as a governor and politician; these networks are expected to come handy in the process of healing wounds and building bonds and synergies necessary in rebuilding and refloating the political party,” he stated.

OGD, as he is fondly called declared that he stood as a bridge between a conservatively hostile and restlessly progressive, different and diverse generations, adding that the party “must harness the abundant energies of our youth and gain from the timeless wisdom of our elders.”

The PDP, he said, needs a chairman that can lead the party to meet the needs, aspirations and yearnings of young Nigerians.

The politician emphasised to the gathering that he had gone round visiting many of the leaders and stakeholders of the party in the last few weeks.

He said further that he believed that he had sufficiently interacted with many of the party leaders, elders and members to have identified various fault lines, which needed closing up so that the party could return to the ideals and vision of its founding fathers.

According to him, “one of my focus as

DANIEL

the National Chairman is to bring back many of our party men who have left.

“My ultimate goal is to work towards the victory of our party in the 2019 general elections and in all other elections in between. To achieve this, I am prepared to work with all leaders of our party, various interest groups and individuals.”

Commenting on the current Federal Government headed by President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), OGD said that Nigeria is yet to have an appreciable 12 months of economic growth under the party since 2015, and that this is an F9; failure.

“It is disquieting that the APC led government claim to focus on fighting corruption, while facts on the ground suggests that Nigeria has become worse off and sinking low even in graft.

“For instance, latest corruption index in Nigeria (2016) according to Transparency International (the global watchdog for measuring corruption) was 2.8/10.

Before 2015, Nigeria had a P8 in corruption but and A3 in economic growth, now we have an F9 in both economic growth and corruption.

“About two months ago, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s number one repository of facts and data, revealed that more than N402 Billion was paid as bribes within the last 12 months. What is N402 Billion? - It is more than the Federal Government’s capital,” OGD said.

OGD explained that as a professional engineer, he had learnt over the years, both in the course of training and years of practice that whenever there is a near system collapse, sometimes the wheels should be reinvented; “sometimes, we need to pause and go back to default settings, we need to refresh, recreate and regenerate.

“And I believe, as a member of the most prestigious Academy of Engineering in Nigeria, I am equally qualified in the engineering of default setting and the strength of character to do what has to be done,” he said.

While stating that a new possible, he said that the party is going to fight poverty like never before.

“The judiciary, legislative or several unhappy people are not our enemies. We have a common enemy in ‘failed promises’, a common enemy in ‘poverty’, a

common enemy in ‘high interest and inflation rates; which by the way is not interesting,” he declared.

He however, stated that most Nigerians today have come to recognise that the PDP midwifed democracy for Nigeria and that the country fared better under the political party, while regretting that the people did not vote out the party for want of performance.

“We lost out because we miscalculated on certain aspects of our politics; outside the management of the nation’s economic resources. We failed to ask some critical questions needed for planning.

“For instance, when President Muhammadu Buhari in 2011 as the candidate of the CPC got less than 5,000 votes in Abia State, we did not ask why? When in 2011, the 15 states that Muhammadu Buhari had the least votes came from Southern Nigeria, we did not ask why?

When the trend repeated itself in 2015, who asked why?” he said.

OGD, whose aspiration has been applauded by top members of the party, stressed that the people failed to appreciate that the 2015 election was not just an election, but that it was a referendum.

“A referendum not for secession, but for “effective governance”. I hold firmly that more than planning, leadership needs to ask more questions at all times.

Asking the right questions is what the new leadership of the PDP under my watch will focus on.

“Our inability to ask the needed questions at the appropriate time no doubt affected the fortunes of the PDP and reflected in the final outcome of the party in the 2015 general elections,” he submitted.

Speaking further about his readiness to vie for the PDP National Chairmanship position during the party’s National Convention on 9th December, OGD declared that the difference between the PDP and APC is in two words ‘Vision’ and ‘Mission’, and that the PDP has a ‘Vision’ for Nigeria, while the APC only has a ‘Mission’ He said further: “Like I said, especially in the light of current reality in the management of our Commonwealth in the present dispensation, Nigeria’s economy was better managed, under the PDP.

Anambra poll: INEC assures albinos of vision magnifiers

Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

From the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has come an assurance that registered voters who are suffering from albinism will have the opportunity to vote during the forthcoming governorship poll in Anambra State with the aid of vision magnifiers.

The Anambra State governorship election is scheduled to hold on Saturday November 18 this year.

The Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, stated this on Thursday when he played host to the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM) in Abuja.

Yakubu explained that the move is to enable the albinos to properly identify the logos of political parties

in the ballot paper while casting their votes.

According to him, magnifying glasses would be provided to albinos at all the polling units in the state.

He said this would fast-track the voting process at polls and called on all albinos in the state to ensure that they participate fully in the exercise.

His words, “One of the things we introduced in the forthcoming Anambra election based on representation from the association of those living with albinism is the provision of magnifying glasses at the polling units to enable them see the logos of the parties and make their choices.

“We have made provision for magnifying glasses in all the polling units in Anambra on November 18,” he said.

Prof Yakubu pointed out that the

Commission had implemented eight of the recommendations of the EUEOM in the post-2015 elections, adding that 22 of the recommendations were beyond the electoral body.

He listed the implemented recommendations to include: biometric identification of voters, simultaneous accreditation and voting by electorate among others.

Earlier, the Team Leader, Santiago Fisas, had said they were at the INEC headquarters to discuss ways of improving Nigeria’s electoral system.

The team also paid a courtesy call on the National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where the Committee’s national chairman, Ahmed Makarfi thanked the EU for supporting the country’s electoral process.

GOV. OBIANO

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

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Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Housemaid bolts with lawmaker’s $2, 000, other valuables in Delta Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

ÏÏÏA 23-year old house-help

L-R: Delta State Governor, Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa and Oduosa of Utagba-Ogbe Kingdom, Isaac Obi, during the Governor’s visit on Obi at his palace in Kwale, Ndokwa, Delta State… on Friday.

Commercial sex workers take over major streets in Cross River

Edem Bassey, Calabar

ÏÏÏCommercial sex work-

ers have taken over major streets in Cross River State.

The call girls stationed at strategic positions in various major streets of Calabar, the State capital. They are mostly found at political venues, hotels and major roads, making the areas their regular business locations.

Investigations conducted by our correspondent revealed that these sex workers popularly referred to as prostitutes floored the streets of Calabar and are in their teens, twenties and above thirties. They roved round the Streets in the evening from 8pm till late hours of the night soliciting for potential customers.

Our correspondent gathered that most of these ladies are students from the University of Calabar, Cross River University of Technology and College of Education Akamkpa. Some secondary schools students in the state also joined in this night business.

These fun seeking ladies are mostly seen at MCC, along

the Channel View Hotel in Calabar, Calabar Roads, Marian Road, Mayne Avenue and Bedwell. Daily Times also found these call girls around Atekong areas where popular Paradise City Hotel is located, Housing estates, Floor mill junctions, Goldie, Chamley, Calabar road, Yellow Duke, Bassey Duke, Mayne Avenue, and other areas where hotels are located.

Besides taken over some major streets, the girls also appeared in political and social functions held at important Hotels including Transcorp Metropolitan Hotel, Peoples Democratic Party secretariat and big places in the land.

The girls, our findings revealed, appeared in two or more, wore miniskirts, short skirts, skimpy and tight fitting dresses that exposed their physiological appearance and moved round the area on high heel shoes.

Some went into the Hotel, sat quietly at the reserved corner, raising their legs on side stools, prompting many of the men in the hall to look at their raised legs and barely covered

chests. Interestingly, single and married men, young and old people as well as people who come to Calabar for one government and private functions and the others patronized them.

In a chart with our correspondent, a lady who gave her name as Virginia Okoro disclosed that she make profitable amount whenever she goes out. “It will be difficult for me to leave this work. I really enjoyed it, besides the money, I enjoyed meeting different people, I drink free and eat free and sleep in comfortable hotels” she said.

Another girl who said her name is Christian Uwem Akpan said she was a drop out from secondary school and has no regret for what she was doing and owed nobody any apology. “I have no regret of what I am doing but I thank God for given me the grace to survive difficult situation I found myself. It was rough, she recalled.

Sadly, the residents of the Housing estates lamented the taken over of their streets by the call girls. A

married woman who simply gave her name as Mrs Paulin lamented that so many homes are threatened by these ladies as their husband patronized them at will.

“I am telling you, I almost had a broken marriage because my husband befriends one of these girls who always came around.

We have complaint to the authority concern on the present of these girls but nothing seems to be done.

According to her, the areas are exposed to armed robbery and other crimes that make the people to sleep with their eyes half closed, “Whenever security operatives swoop on them, after some times, they come back in large numbers”.

Disappointingly, some of these girls are customers to security operatives hence they are not afraid of the threat by security operatives. The danger of operations of these girls are in many folds as they littered the environment with used condoms, cigarettes, empty cans and other unidentified items.

Man to marry 15-year-old girl he impregnated in Kano Yakubu Salisu, Kano

ÏÏÏA 40 years old man

Hamisu Rabo a residence of Tudun Bojuwa Fage Local Area who hails from Niger Republic has been compel to marry a 15 years old girl Maryam Iliya Audu whom he impregnated.

According to the Commandant Hisbah board Fagge local government Salisu Umar, that the command received a complain from one Alh. Aliyu Audu who accused his neighbor

Hamisu Rabo of defiling his 15 years old daughter Maryam and as a result she was found with pregnancy. “ Hamisu was accused of impregnating a minor whom he initially wasn’t ready to marry but after we received the complaint, we arrested him and after investigation, he admitted to committing the crime and promise to marry her” I advise that parents take good care of their children in order to avoid such occurrences.

He further revealed that

the teenager has given birth to a bouncing baby girl and according to Islamic rights marriage preparations between the two is already in place.

Bar. Amina Umar Hussain a lawyer from International Federation of women lawyers, Kano State Branch who has also joined in the case to ensure justice is done to the under age girl stated that the accused has written an undertaking with the Hisbah to marry her and as such every legal steps would be suspended in

order to ensure the underage girl doesn’t end up as a single mother. “ since he has agreed to marry her we will ensure he fulfils his promise.

Because if we sue him to Court that means imprisonment and that means she alone will have to raise the daughter alone and that also means a boarding on the parents.

So marrying her would be the best option” The board has promised to ensure that Hamisu marries and take good care of her.

(name withheld) working for a lawmaker, Angela Nwaka representing Aniocha-South constituency at the Delta State House of Assembly has bolted into the air after allegedly stealing $2, 000 and other valuables of the lawmaker on Thursday evening in Asaba.

It was reliably gathered that the house-help allegedly executed her “evil act” during when the lawmaker was still at the plenary session of the House after she was sued to have hoodwinked the security men at the main gate that she was taking a bag on her shoulder containing the items to a friend hence they did bothered to search her.

But the lawmaker who was trained as a Nurse, visibly angry told journalists that it was unfortunate that such inexplicable incident happened to her, adding she had ordered the security men be detained.

She refused to speak on the alleged $2, 000, but managed

to say: “I’m shocked, I can’t speak for now but the security men will rot in jail, it is painful” unconfirmed sources said the house-help had under distinguished been faithful since she was brought from the far Eastern State; a situation the lawmaker admired by members of her constituency “never smelt a rat”. Investigation revealed that the house-help had in the early hours moved out a gas and was stopped at the gate where she explained the security that she was going out with it for a refill, but this was not to be when she returned few hours to alleged removed the said $2, 000 and others.

Police Officers at the GRA Division Police Station who did not want their names in the print, confirmed some persons were arrested, while investigation was ongoing.

But the lawmaker who allegedly wept told journalists that her efforts to reach the house-help through her GSM line failed, adding that she was still investigating the act.

Residents cry out over unlawful use of firearms

Ajibade Alabi

ÏÏÏAn appeal to the po-

lice from Chief Oluwaremilekun Aina Shobote , the Alase of Oke Eletu under Ijede Local Government, Ikorodu, Lagos has gone out over the continue harassment of some people who claimed they are the authentic owner of a certain portion of land in Ijede area of Ikorodu which has led to many violence attack recorded in the area Even though a petition has been written and sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, IGP X Squad Abuja over the matter on 5th of October and acknowledgement sent back to the complainant (a copy of which was presented to Daily Times), yet the old man is not taken things with lightheartedness .

According to Chief Shobote while addressing newsmen on the matter one Mr Toyin Taiwo Olokun approached him some years back for a portion of land at Oke Eletu to be used as meeting venue, though Shobote younger brother said no but he went ahead and consented and gave the land to Toyin “But contrary to his initial request he actually turned the place to meeting point of Ogboni Awopa. Toyin and his friends Biodun Nofiu Afereji,Niyi Ajayi,Sariyat iya Agan,Yiga Saka,kuye kasumu and Monsuru

Bobo bread came with their cult members three weeks ago even with police men from area N ,they beat me up, they brought video recorder and forced me to sign papers that I have sold the land to them even in the presence of the police.

When they left, many youths in my area said they want to retaliate but I told them I will rather go by the law. My lawyer wrote petition to Alagbon and the approval of the petition was submitted to area N in Ikorodu but to my surprise the same area N police came to my house in the night alongside Biodun Nofiu and some cult members, I opened the gate for them because I saw police with them but right in the presence of the police these people beat us up ,broke my house and police took us including 4 year and 8 year old children even a pregnant woman to area N but release my children on bail that night after collecting some money. So the next day which was Wednesday IG monitoring unit came from Alagbon and told area N police to report at Alagbon the next day.

I want Lagos state government to save me from this Biodun Nofiu ,he is a thug parading himself as regent, but he grabs land by force even the land I gave out for town hall he has sold most portion of it.

ÏÏ

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Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Dangote to showcase $1.5bn investment in Edo at Alaghodaro summit Titus Akhigbe,Benin

ÏÏÏAs preparations hit top gear for

the Edo State Investment Summit tagged Alaghodaro 2017, international industrialists including the Mahindra Group of India, Tolaram Group from Singapore and Dangote Group are set to showcase their over $1.5bn investment outlay in the state.

The companies are billed to share their experiences, prospects and insights from investing in critical sectors of the state such as agro-industries, manufacturing and human capital, and will be storming Edo with their partners at the event holding from November 10 to 12, at Edo Hotels, Benin City, the state capital.

The three-day summit is christened ‘Alaghodaro,’ which means progress and will host business leaders, investors, bankers, financiers, industry experts, policymakers, among others to engage, discuss and explore Edo’s rich potential

across various sectors.

The Dangote Group proposes extensive investment in cement manufacturing in Okpella axis of the state estimated at over $1bn, which is strategic to extending the frontiers of the conglomerate in southern Nigerian. The plant is expected to take advantage of Edo’s strategic location as a logistics hub linking eastern, northern and western parts of the country, in moving its finished products across the country. The state’s massive limestone deposit is also a major consideration for investments in cement manufacturing.

The Mahindra Group is partnering with the state government in building the Edo Industrial Park, on which major industralisation efforts in the state would be anchored. The Industrial Park will be situated at Ologbo in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of the state, and would serve as a hub to train human capital and engage major industries in the state. The implementation plan has been concluded

and submitted to the state government.

On its part, Tolaram Group will, at the summit, showcase its over $50m agroallied investment outlay, which covers oil palm, cassava to feed processing plant, expected to create 50,000 jobs across the state.

Chairman of Alaghodaro 2017, Asue Ighodalo, said the summit is a deliberate move by the state government to steer off heavy dependence on oil money, noting that the state intends to get investors to buy into its ideas and programmes aimed at guaranteeing a better future Edo and its people.

According to him, “The world over, governments are looking beyond oil to alternative revenue sources in order to ensure sustainable development, and we must also get creative and take action today for our future and the future of our children.

The summit would foster knowledge sharing, and provide avenue to build re-

L-R: National Chairman, Action Democratic Party (ADP), Mr. Yabaji Sani; Deputy National Chairman South, Alhaji Najeem Awodele and National Women leader, Mrs. Esther Habu, during the party’s 3rd National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja… on Thursday.

We will support academic research to solve economic problems - Dogara Afolabi Adesola

ÏÏÏ

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara has declared the full support of the National Assembly towards Academic research that will solve pressing economic problems.

Dogara who was the Guest lecturer at the 16th matriculation ceremony of the Covenant University, in Ota, Ogun state, also disclosed that the National Assembly will consider laws that will promote quality education, innovation and research.

Dogara while delivering the keynote lecture at the event titled “Leadership by Products: The Role of Universities” said “Our roles as leaders is to make available adequate facilities in form of student

loans and others to ensure that the right products are created.

He stressed that the need for more innovative training of students in the nation’s universities will ensure a sustainable national development.

He charged institutions to “discard the colonial masters’ style of churning out products that will depend on the world to survive, but to create products that the world can depend on to survive” According to him, no nation can move forward and achieve any meaningful development without innovations achievable through qualitative education.

“It is important for the nation’s tertiary institutions to be innovative and qualitative in education, so as to attract foreign ranking and national development”.

Dogara noted that Covenant University was already ahead in promoting innovative and qualitative education, urging the matriculated students and their counterparts in other universities to key into it.

Delivering the closing remarks, the chancellor of the institution, Dr David Oyedepo, said that students must imbibe a new way of thinking to achieve the desired future.

Oyedepo said university graduates could only compete favourably with ‘what is available and not what is not available’.

He said that until jobs creators took over the scenes, the problems of unemployment would continue unabated in the country.

The chancellor, however, advised the students to be disciplined in the course of achieving their goals, in order to raise the dignity of the black man.

APC chieftain arrested for alleged cultism, kidnapping Edem Bassey,Calabar

ÏÏÏ

A critic of Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade’s government and All Progressive Congress (APC) Chieftain, Paul Efere has been arrested and detained at the Cross River State Police Headquarters, Diamond Hill, Calabar on allegation of cultism and kidnapping.

The suspect was arrested in Abuja and drove to Cross River State, where he was taken straight to the cell at the Police Headquarters, Diamond Hill, Calabar. The APC Acting Chairman in the State, Mr John Ochala told Daily Times that the arrest was political and not criminal as alleged.“Paul Efere is an APC stalwart, he is a social critic, he has been fighting for good governance in Cross River State, he has nothing personal with anybody. 99% of his assertions are right, there are all what people see in the state and called for correction.

He said Efere’s arrest was engineered by the government of the day, “You remember the case of Joseph Odock, the case of Hon Paul Adah, the case of Venatius Ikem, this is their own method of preparing for 2019, instead of them facing governance, they are busy intimidating innocent people.

“Is it a crime to say, Mr Governor govern well, stop putting bailout fund in the account of your brother, is it a crime to say, be prudent in management of

resources. Efere is one of the respected members of All Progressive Congress (APC) and he has been very vocal, he is one of the few media personalities who have been on the case of present government in the State, even the blind can see that we are being miss-governed in the State and Efere is one of those who have always being putting this miss-governance in front burner and call for a change for better.

Ochala revealed that Efere was arrested in Abuja, handcuffed and drove to Calabar where he was thrown into a cell without his lawyer and family members having knowledge of where he was. “If there is any challenge or you want to clarify anything from him, why don’t you invite him to the Police station, why do you go in a juxtapose manner to arrest a free citizen of the federal republic of Nigeria, hand cuff him as a common criminal.

“They did it in such a discreet manner, from Abuja to Calabar, he got here by 3am, Thursday. They wanted to bring him here without the knowledge of anybody and my fear is that they should not poison him in the Police custody. Anything that happened to him would be at the door steps of Governor Ben Ayade and the Police. It is very disheartening that in a democratic society such thing could still happen.

Engage informal sector for economic advancement’ Don charges FG Afolabi Adesola with agency report

ÏÏÏ

Prof Isaiah Olurinola a university lecturer, has advised the Federal Government to provide an enabling environment for the informal sector to thrive.

Olurinola, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics, Covenant University, Ota, gave the advice at the 10th Inaugural Lecture of the institution on Friday.

The lecture had the theme: “Repositioning the Informal Economy for Employment Creation and Entrepreneurial Development in Nigeria.’’

According to him, the informal sector has outperformed the formal sector and it is the greater employer of labour.

The don said that informal sector was responsible for the employment of 50 to 60 per cent of non-agricultural labour in the Nigerian economy.

“The informal sector has rescued many people from open unemployment to informal employment in the urban labour market,’’ he said.

Olurinola said that the formal sector was not helping Nigerians to escape from poverty as much as the informal sector.

He said that the informal sector had the potential to increase employment and output phenomenally if properly nurtured by addressing such problems like lack of access to credit facilities, poor infrastructure and lack of good policies.

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Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

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FEATURES

s

Economic boost: Australian govt, NGO encourage women, youths to embrace mining

Edokpolor Osayande

The Australian Government, working in collaboration with Conservative Environmental Growth and Development Centre (CEGDEC), a non-Government organisation in Nigeria have held a one-day workshop on building a local economic and social development initiative for women and youths in the mining sector.

The event took place at the Olode Aquamarine community, Oluyole, Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.

Speaking, at the occasion, the Executive Director of the organisation, Mrs Maryam Olayeni said that a transformation in the mining industries worldwide, targeted at creating wealth in the mineral industry, has not been significantly recorded for a number of minerals in Nigeria.

She regretted, however, that Nigeria, as a rich nation, has not fully invested positively in the mining, as a wealth creation platform for her economic development.

“It is good that the current national drive towards breaking the depen-

Woman miners

dence on oil has now attracted development on solid mineral sector across the country.

“Oyo State is rich in mineral resources, ranging from the semi-precious metals, precious metals, base

metals to gemstones, and they have attracted many mining activities in the recent times.

“Olode aquamarine gems field of Oluyole Local Government has particularly received massive par-

ticipation of medium scale mining activities in recent times. Whereas the women and youths in this community have not fully benefited as stakeholders, as there has not been significant social and economic development attributed to them from the aquamarine,” Olayeni said.

Touching on the challenges in the sector, Olayeni said that the people lack the skills and technology to process the gemstone, coupled with the fact that they are faced with marketing challenges. “The locals here do not get good value on their stones in the supply chain in the long run,” she said.

Olayeni said that the workshop would empower the local women and youth, who in turn would in turn build up others in area of capacity building.

She is optimistic that the training would help build the people’s capacity through cooperative and engagement in meaningful businesses to grow the nation’s economy, which would provide economic and social benefits for Nigerians similar to the situation in Australia.

Strange passion of industrial physicist who found peace in event planning Afolabi Adesola A BSc holder in Industrial Physics from Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria, Oluwapelumi Olorunfunmi Onatuga belongs to the generation driven by passion unrelated to their professional degrees.

At a rendezvous with The Daily Times early in the week, Onatuga said she had to put the quest for her Masters aside when it dawned on her that the world of science was really not her passion.

“I sensed it at the last semester of my final year when it dawned on me that reality was about to set in but I couldn’t put my finger to it. I began to wonder what I wanted to do with my life; what would I really enjoy doing that would give me absolute fulfillment?”

With only one year to her graduation, Funmi confided that she was really confused because she didn’t see herself working for a long while, so she resorted to praying for clarity and divine direction on what she should do with her life.

“I didn’t get any response until the following year when I was serving. I had prayed God that night to show me what I should do with the next phase of my life in my sleep tonight – and that was sit!

“I saw myself in a dream that very night, organising and coordinating a big party and it went very well. When I woke up, I was surprised because I didn’t even know event planning is a business one could earn money from, but I heeded the revelation.”

After a careful search, Funmi enrolled in an event academy where she did a course in event management.

Now Oluwapelumi is a certified Event Planner and currently the Lead Event Director of Lumirolls Events Company, would you say you are really fulfilled?

“I aim to be fulfilled in the near future, but right now, I am still establishing my mark in the terrain. I am learning that being an event planner, gives me the opportunity to learn how to handle different kinds of clients and people generally.”

Prior to starting her own business she had worked with Multichoice Nigeria as a customer. Though young in the business, Oluwapelumi has some fond recalls.

“My biggest moment was when the father of a client met me for the first time and thought instinctively that I may not be able to deliver because I looked so young. But at the end of the event he gave me thumbs up.

“The man said later he was impressed and he prayed for me: Exceeding your client’s expectation in this business comes with high rating, so that was a big deal for me.

“And my lowest moment?” she shook her head, “I haven’t any now, and I trust God I will not have any”.

Though young in the field, Oluwapelumi has some counsel to beginners.

“My advice for upcoming planners is to be passionate first, then braise up for

competition because events planning is a very competitive industry.

Understand too that there would be challenges but make up your mind to be different from the rest. To do that successfully you need education, on-the-job training and be prepared to be an intern/volunteer for event companies you look up to; gather experience and be as open minded as possible and, with God on your side, the sky will not even be your limit.”

The vivacious and “still single” entrepreneur was born in March of 1993 at Ojowo town in Ijebu North Local Government of Ogun State, but grew up in Alagbado area of Lagos.

Pelumi frowns at single parent status and states why: “I am not comfortable with single parent status because the role of both parents to bring up the child properly cannot be overemphasised; a child needs both party.”

What’s your vision for Nigeria of the future?

“My vision for Nigeria in the future is to see more young promising youths like me take over the affairs of Nigeria, especially in areas like health, the public sector, everywhere, making a difference and impacting lives and be a good example for others.”

Oluwapelumi Olorunfunmi Onatuga

Crime

s

Power Uti breaks silence over wife’s death Stories by Joy Anyim, Lagos

There seem to be a new twist to the circumstances surrounding the death of Power Uti’s wife, Toyin at their Illupeju home in Lagos.

Reports had it that Toyin who had died on October 9, 2017 was alleged taken to a church by Uti and kept there for days instead of a hospital/ morgue.

Following this development, the wrestling champion, Uti was arrested by the police and is still being detained at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba.

Although Uti had refused to speak on the death of his wife for over a week, he recently broke the silence when our correspondent visited him in detention.

He narrates how it all happened and clears the air as to how Toyin the mother of his four children died. He said, “My wife complained of having headache, on the Friday before the Monday she died. We felt it was just as a result of stress and that she needed rest. The headache persisted and even when my cousin came visiting on Saturday, he offered to take her to the hospital but she refused and said she will be okay that it was nothing serious. “ the fact remains that as a family, we have always enjoyed good health and have never visited the hospital except for child birth and immunisation. Even as a wrestler, when I go for a fight and get injured. I would always return back to the house and once my wife massaged me I am okay. I believe that was why my late wife objected to going to the hospital even when the headache persisted.

“On Monday, I prepared the children for school and took them to school. When I got back home, I discovered her condition had become worst so I immediately rushed her to Gbagada General hospital.

Unfortunately she gave up and was confirmed dead at about 10:25 am .

On the circulated report that he took his wife’s corpse to a church for spiritual attention, Uti said. “ I never took my wife’s corpse to any church.

The doctor confirmed her dead in the hospital and there is proof. You can go to the hospital and confirm. But then I am of the opinion that if my wife had gone to church on Sunday, she may not have died.”

Speculations had it that Toyin may have died as a result of domestic violence but Uti said, “ I am a wrestler and I know my capabilities. I never raised my hand to hit my wife. I loved her and would never do anything of such. The truth remains that I did not kill my wife. Why would I have killed her, to gain what?

On the possible cause of her death, Uti said, “ yes we are waiting for the autopsy report and I have no fear about that because I know I am innocent. In fact they should ask her family what caused her death, they

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Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

.... Reveals possible cause of her death

Uti

have a terrible family secret which she revealed to me before her death.”

When asked what the secret was, he said. “I will not say it now until when I am finally freed.”

Investigations revealed that Uti and Toyin until her death were not traditionally married for the ten years they lived as husband and wife.

Our correspondent asked why it was so and he said, “ when I went to her family ten years ago to make my intentions known, she was already pregnant then and the family said we cannot do the traditional marriage because she was pregnant then. They advised we go for a registry marriage which we did in Ife, Osun State.

“But I however noticed that the

attitude of the family had changed towards me in the last years for reasons best known to them especially since their father died.”

Our correspondent also contacted the family of late Toyin for comments. They however refused to make any comment on the issue.

However, a family member who insisted he didn’t want his name on print said, “we have nothing to say for now as we are waiting for the autopsy report. When that is done, we will let the media know our own side of the story.”

A police source who also spoke in anonymity said they were called on Thursday that the autopsy result is ready but were yet to go get it.

Police arrest traditional ruler, four men for assaulting octogenarian A traditional ruler in Lagos state, Oba Bashiru Oluwatoyin, the Oloworo of Oworoshoki has been arrested by Policemen attached to the Special Fraud Unit SFU Milverton Road Ikoyi Lagos for the alleged unlawful possession of hemp ,forceful entry and assault causing grevious harm to an elderly man in Lagos.

The Oba who was arrested on Thursday was arrested alongside Four men suspected to be his hired thugs.

The victim Elder Akinola Oloruntoba said he was inspecting his land at Ifako along the Lagos Ibadan Express Road when armed men said to be thugs attacked him and his lawyer last week.

Elder Oloruntoba said he was beaten up mercilessly by the thugs and though he escaped death by the whiskers,he was left with a swollen mouth and a broken teeth.

Following the assault, he petitioned the Inspector General of police IGP Ibrahim Idris and the case was transferred to the SFU. Narrating how he was assaulted that day , elder Oloruntoba said”I was at home when I got information that the Oloworo of Oworo Oba Tijani brought a surveyor to my land at Ifako area.I ran to the land five plots along the Lagos Ibadan Express way.

This is a land that we have supreme court judgment delivered by Justice Oputa in our favour of DT Elanbanjo in 1986.

“I have all the documents on the land and I wrote a petition to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).The EFCC invited him and two of the EFCC men came to see the land in question. Shortly after they left, thugs he hired attacked me and my lawyers. The thugs beat me up mercilessly and I was left with a swollen mouth and a broken teeth.

“I have been treating myself in the hospital. I wrote a petition to the acting Lagos state Commissioner of Police Edgal Imohimi and he direct the Deputy Commissioner of police

in charge of State Criminal investigation department Panti Yaba but the Oba did not show up as he went to write a petition to the Xsquad Unit and they took over the case. He told me that I am from Ondo state and I cannot own land in Lagos state.

“I saw it as a clear case of land grabbing and I wrote a letter to the Chairman land grabber Taskforce but nothing came out of it. Nigeria is not a lawless country where traditional rulers can use hired thugs to take over people’s land with impunity.

The Oba built a house for his thugs close to the land. He went as far as sponsoring the thugs to break down the fence we erected. I had to erect another one. “ The thugs in their devious bid to scare me, went to my block moulding factory and destroyed over one hundred blocks. As I am talking to you, his tipper loads of sand and gravels are on the land for him to start construction as he has written all over the bridge that he owns the land. This is a land I have all the documents. I have been living in Lagos for more than sixty decades and I pay my taxes here. This land is in Ifako not Oworo.

I did not buy the land from him. I am appealing to the government to save my soul.”

Elder Oloruntoba

Stabbing him was not intentional -17-year old murder suspect cries out Call it lack of parental care or a pre-destined act; you may not be far from the truth in respect of what transpired between Hannah Osazuwa and late Akintewe Tomide, both of whom were lovers.

The news broke on Monday, October 16th, when Osazuwa had reportedly stabbed Tomide on the chest with a scissors over a misunderstanding at Road 34, Block 71 E Close , Gowon Estate.

Contrary to reports that the Edo born Osazuwa had killed her boyfriend over a case of infidelity, the 17 year old who is currently been held at the State Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Department (SCIID) Panti, Yaba has said it was a mistake.

Our correspondent took time to hear Osazuwa who is a secondary school graduate tell her story. She said she was only trying to defend herself

because Tomide was always beating her.

In tears she said, “ I live with my mother and my step father who is a policeman. My biological father and mother parted ways a long time ago before my mother remarried. “ Tomid has been my boyfriend for a very long time and I do go over to his place to spend the weekend. That weekend before his death, I had gone there and he threw me a surprise birthday party that Friday. “ Trouble however started on Saturday when I interfered in his discussion with his friend Odafe. Odafe and his girlfriend were having issues and he was explaining to Tomide when I asked why they couldn’t just settle the issue and move on. Tomide got angry and asked why I had interfered in their discussion. He hit me and ordered I go to the room.

Tomide and Osazuwa

“ I went into the room and he also came in and started beating me. Friends around intervened and pleaded with him to stop. “ On Monday, while I was helping my friend loose her hair, Tomide who was sleeping suddenly woke up and called me to go and get his laptop from the room. I went to get it and he also followed me. He locked the door after him and said I was too stubborn,

he said it was like the beating he had given me on Saturday was not enough. I asked him what I had done but before I knew it he had started hitting me again. I was holding a scissors which I was using to loose my friend’s hair, so I threatened him with the scissors and he attempted to take it from me. It was while we were dragging it that I mistakenly stabbed him on the left side of his chest.”

Osazuwa said she immediately ran to the sitting room to call for help to take him to the hospital. But unfortunately Tomide gave up at the hospital while she was taken to the Gowon Estate Police Division and later SCIID. Gbenga Daramola who is a cousin to the deceased and his flatmate also spoke with Daily Times on the death of the 20 year old.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21 , 2017

Kenya’s electoral commission CEO takes leave …As calls for his sack thicken

ÏÏÏ

The chief executive of Kenya’s election board, who the opposition has demanded must be fired before a repeat presidential election scheduled for Oct. 26, said on Friday he was taking three weeks of leave.

According to agency report, Ezra Chiloba said he had taken a personal decision to take leave in light of the opposition’s demands, without giving more details. He said all arrangements were in place for the election, as ordered by the Supreme Court.

“This is the first time I‘m taking leave since my son was born. He turns two years (old) in two weeks’ time,” he told Reuters.

The court annulled the first election, held in August and in which incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta was

Singer and former Member of Parliament Jennifer Kestis Ferguson has alleged that the President of the South African Football Association Danny Joordaan raped her 24 years ago in a Port Elizabeth hotel after a performance.

According to agency report, the Sweden-based accuser said she was inspired to speak out by a social media campaign hashtag #MeToo which is urging women to come forward with their allegations of sexual abuse and harassment. “…he entered and without a word grabbed me and forced me onto the bed from behind. He overpowered me and painfully raped me.

It must have been over in about 20 seconds although it felt like a lifetime. He left immediately without saying a word,” she alleged in a blog post recently.

According to her, the 1993 incident happened after singing at a dinner for sports officials where he invited her for a drink and later joined her in her hotel suite when she wanted to change from her performance dress.

“The thought of going to the police felt intolerable.

What would I say? Should

Winnie Mandela undergoes ‘successful’ surgery, Bonny Amadi with Agency Report

ÏÏÏ

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta declared winner, over procedural irregularities.

The opposition, led by Raila Odinga, has said it will boycott the re-run unless several demands, including the sacking of Chiloba, are met.

Odinga met the chairman of the election board, Wafula Chebukati, on Thursday and later told reporters that if there were

serious consultations and serious reforms, the opposition could review its boycott.

The board has said the election will go ahead and Kenyatta, has insisted the vote must be held. On Thursday, the president snubbed an invitation to meet Chebukati, saying he would instead spend the time campaigning

Ex-MP, singer, accuses South African FA boss of ÏÏÏ

20 Foreign News

I have screamed louder?

Fought him off harder? Had I been complicit in some way? All these questions raged in my mind. I wept,” she wrote.

Even as Danny Joordan has not yet responded to the allegations, the singer said “ I am not speaking out to get revenge on Danny Jordaan or a million South African men like him. I am doing this so we can help each other be courageous, speak out and begin to heal as we find we are not alone.

Jennifer Kestis Ferguson later became a member of parliament like Joordan and “I would see him at many political gatherings thereafter, in the corridors of the parliament, in our caucus. He would never meet me in the eye. Slide

away as fast as possible”.

She said the reason she is disclosing it now is “partly because we need to understand how hard it is to come forward and speak out …

Survivors of abuse do not need to feel any shame, anymore.We are not to blame.

We are not guilty of anything”.

She added that her alleged rapist used her as “an object for his sad need for power and twisted gratification. I was not a person to him. Where men in leadership positions…have all been entrusted with power, yet it is especially in these terrains that there is a concentrated and distorted culture of abuse. This needs to be changed. The abuse needs to stop!!!”

South Africa’s Danny Joordaan

Hero of South African anti-apartheid era, Winnie Mandela has undergone a minor surgery on her knee and the family said the procedure was successful.

Agency reports has it that ,the first wife of Nelson Mandela was admitted at the Milpark Hospital on Tuesday evening and will stay at the hospital for the next two weeks to recover, her spokesperson Victor Dlamini was reported to have told local media.

“I visited her at the hospital this afternoon and she was in high spirits.

She said her health problems go back to her time when she was banished to

Brandtfort [in 1969] and her knee first started giving her trouble,” Victor Dlamini.

He added that she’s looking forward to the ANC conference in December which will choose the replacement of Presi-

dent Jacob Zuma.

I visited her at the hospital this afternoon and she was in high spirits.

She said her health problems go back to her time when she was banished to Brandtfort [in 1969] and her knee first started giving her trouble.

Winnie

Odds favour ‘President’ Weah as supporters rejoice over election lead ÏÏÏ

Popularity votes across Africa and Liberia has shown that the odds favous the ex-football star, George Opong Weah as emerging Liberia’s nest president, following a run off election in November.

George Weah won the first round of Liberia’s presidential election with 38.4 percent of the vote.

Vice President Joseph Boakai came in second with 28.8 percent and will face Weah in a run-off next month, the country’s electoral commission said recently.

According to agency report, Supporters of Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) party lauded the Former soccer star‘s lead over Boakai outside the party headquarters in the capital Monrovia.

The official final results showed Boakai, representing Johnson Sirleaf ’s ruling Unity Party, had

won 28.8 percent of the vote, putting the two frontrunners comfortably ahead of a large field of mostly minor candidates.

“King George”, as Weah’s supporters call him, is wildly popular among the youth and

Liberia’s George Weah

the disenfranchised, especially in the shanties of the rundown seaside capital Monrovia, but his campaign has so far been light on policy in a difficult economic climate of low prices for the commodities that are Libe-

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Public Notice 21

Robbers raid students’ hostel in Asaba Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

ÏÏÏArmed

hoodlums numbering about three, operating with a motorcycle during the night of the day, robbed students’ hostel located at Area 74, back of Ibori Golf Club between 9 and 10pm in Asaba.

It was gathered that the hoodlums robbed apartments, including that of a banker residing in the hostel. According to one of the students who UGWUMEHIE ROSELINE NGOZI

I formerly known and addressed as OBIKEZE NGOZI ROSELINE now wish to be known and addressed as UGWUMEHIE ROSELINE NGOZI. All former documents remain valid. Banks and the general public should please take note.

MRS EGBO ONYINYECHUKWU CHRISTIANA

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS CHUKWU CHRISTIANA ONYINYECHI, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS EGBO ONYINYECHUKWU CHRISTIANA. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

CHINONSO .C. ONYEDIKACHI

I, formerly known and addressed as CHINONSO .C. AGBARAKWE, now wish to be known and addressed as CHINONSO .C. ONYEDIKACHI. All former documents remain valid.

General Public should please take note.

MRS EKOH CHISOM BLESSING

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS IGWESI CHISOM BLESSING, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS EKOH CHISOM BLESSING. All former documents remain valid. NYSC and General Public should please take note.

MRS ATUOGU CHIOMA GLORIA

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS EGBUJI CHIOMA GLORIA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS ATUOGU CHIOMA GLORIA. All former documents remain valid.

General Public should please take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to certify and confirm that MRS CHARITY UCHE AGBARAKWE and MRS CHARITY UCHE ONYEDIKACHI refer as one and the same person now wish to be known and addressed as MRS CHARITY UCHE ONYEDIKACHI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

TASIE ELLEN UGOEZE

I, formerly known and addressed as TASIE ELLEN EMMANUELLA, now wish to be known, called and addressed as TASIE ELLEN UGOEZE. All documents bearing my former names remain valid. General public and Authorities Concerned should please take note.

OHWOKEVWO UFUOMA PEACE

Formerly known and addressed as ADOMI UFUOMA PEACE, now wish to be known and addressed as OHWOKEVWO UFUOMA PEACE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

spoke to our reporter, they were in their rooms watching movie when they heard knocks on their doors telling them to open at gunpoint.

According to the source, the robbers got hold of one of the students who went out to buy something to eat; they grabbed him at gunpoint straight to his apartment and raided the house, carting away his handset phones, his feeding money, laptop and other items.

After they were done with

the first victim, the robbers, who were heavily armed, broke into the apartment of a female banker, and, also at gunpoint, carted away about seven handsets, three laptops, jewelries, an undisclosed amount of money, electronics, clothe and ATM cards.

It was learnt that the robbers forced the female banker to disclose her ATM card number, and, thereafter, hurried of the hostel to a waiting

MRS. ONYEMEKARA CHINYERE MARVELOUS

MRS. MANUENYENWA IMMACULATA CHINWE

I formerly known and addressed as MISS OGBUAGU CHINYERE MARVELOUS now wish to be known and addressed as MRS. ONYEMEKARA CHINYERE MARVELOUS. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

OZIOKO CHINWENDU EMMANUELLA

I, formerly known and addressed DANIEL EMMANUELLA CHINWENDU, now wish to be known and addressed as OZIOKO CHINWENDU EMMANUELLA. My correct date of birth is 11th November 1994. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

UZOCHUKWU ONYEDIKACHI

I, formerly known and addressed as UZOCHUKWU ONYEDIKACHI AGBARAKWE, now wish to be known and addressed as UZOCHUKWU ONYEDIKACHI. All former documents remain valid.

General Public should please take note.

MRS AMAEFUNA SOPHIA OBIANUJUNWA

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS ONYEMAECHI SOPHIA OBIANUJU and MISS ONYEMAECHI UJUNWA SOPHIA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS AMAEFUNA SOPHIA OBIANUJUNWA. All former documents remain valid.

Banks and General Public should please take note.

MRS ANEKE VIOLET UZOAMAKA

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS UDEOZOR VIOLET UZOAMAKA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS ANEKE VIOLET UZOAMAKA. All former documents remain valid.

General Public should please take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to certify and confirm that ONYEKE AMOS, ONYEKE CHIEDU AMOS and OGBENE CHIEDU AMOSrefer as one and the same person now wish to be known and addressed as ONYEKE IKPEDILICHUKWU AMOS. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

GILBERT EDEWOR AITEBE

I formerly known and addressed as MISS OZURUONYE IMMACULATA CHINWE, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS. MANUENYENWA IMMACULATA CHINWE. All former documents remain valid. NYSC and the general public should please take note.

IHEONUNEKWU GOODNESS CHINYEAKA

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to confirm that BENJAMIN OBEWU ELEZUO is the same person as OTISI BENJAMIN OBEWU. General Public please take note.

APEH MOSES AGADA

we are out for lectures, the robbers will break into our apartments and steal our property, particularly laptops, handsets and money”.

“We are calling on the police to beef up security in the area, particularly at night, to check this trend, because what surprises some of us, for the three times the robbers have attacked the hostel and other hostels in the area, no arrest and they go home unchallenged”.

SAKA OLUBUNMI ESTHER

I formerly known and addressed as KOMOLAFE OLUBUNMI ESTHER. Now wish to be known as SAKA OLUBUNMI ESTHER. All former documents remain valid. General public and authorities concerned should take note.

MUHAMMAD SULEIMAN BALARABE

MRS ESHILOKUN AMINAT OLABISI

Formerly known and addressed as AMINAT OLABISI AZEEZ, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS ESHILOKUN AMINAT OLABISI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

SAKA MICHAEL ALABI

I formerly known as ADEFISOYE MICHAEL ALABI. Now wish to be known as SAKA MICHAEL ALABI. All former documents remain valid. General public and authorities concerned should take note.

MRS NGWUTA QUEEN NKEMDIRIM

I formerly known and addressed as NKWOCHA EKWUTOS DORIS now wish to be known and addressed as IHEONUNEKWU GOODNESS CHINYEAKA . All former documents remain valid.

General public to please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as MOSES BANJOS .F. APEH now wish to be known and addressed as APEH MOSES AGADA . I was born on 14/06/1998 not 14/06/1994.

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

I formerly known and addressed as MUHAMMED SULEMAN BALARABE now wish to be known and addressed as MUHAMMAD SULEIMAN BALARABE . All former documents remain valid.General public to please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Ogbuefi Queen Nkemdirim now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs Ngwuta Queen Nkemdirim. All former documents remain valid.

Banks and the general public should please take note.

IKENNA JOYMARY OBIAGELI

MRS FELICIA NWADIUTO ANTHONY

MRS NWEKE CHINWE GENEVIEVE

MRS REGINA UZOAMAKA OGBOZOR

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS OTENYI JOYMARY OBIAGELI, now wish to be known and addressed as IKENNA JOYMARY OBIAGELI. All former documents remain valid. General Public should please take note.

MRS ADAEGO CLAUDIA IGBOKWE

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS ADAEGO CLAUDIA OPARA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS ADAEGO CLAUDIA IGBOKWE. All former documents remain valid.

General Public should please take note.

NWOKPA ONYINYECHI RUTH UCHENNA

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS FELICIA NWADIUTO NWAFOR, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS FELICIA NWADIUTO ANTHONY. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

OKORIE UCHECHI LOVELINE

I, formerly known and addressed as GREEN UCHECHI LOVELINE, now wish to be known and addressed as OKORIE UCHECHI LOVELINE. All former documents remain valid. General Public should please take note.

MRS KALU GLADYS OLUCHI

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS OBIAKO CHINWE GENEVIEVE, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS NWEKE CHINWE GENEVIEVE. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

IKECHUKWU SUCCESS IFEBUCHE

I, formerly known and addressed as IKECHUKWU NNEKA, now wish to be known and addressed as IKECHUKWU SUCCESS IFEBUCHE. All former documents remain valid.

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CYRIL CHUKWUDI CHEDOM

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS REGINA UZOAMAKA ONYIA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS REGINA UZOAMAKA OGBOZOR. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

MRS OBIANYO CHINYERE JOAN

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General Public should please take note.

MRS AMADI KOSISOCHUKWU LINDA

I, formerly known and addressed as NWOKPOR ONYINYECHI RUTH, now wish to be known and addressed as NWOKPA ONYINYECHI RUTH UCHENNA. All former documents remain valid.

General Public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS EJIKE GLADYS OLUCHI, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS KALU GLADYS OLUCHI. All former documents remain valid. Banks, NYSC and General Public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as MARTINS DIKE CHEDOM, now wish to be known and addressed as CYRIL CHUKWUDI CHEDOM. All former documents remain valid. General Public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS EJIOFOR KOSISOCHUKWU JENNIFER and MISS EJIOFOR KOSISOCHUKWU LINDA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS AMADI KOSISOCHUKWU LINDA. All former documents remain valid.

Banks, NYSC and General Public should please take note.

ADDITION OF NAME

OKAFOR EKENE PATRICK

MRS EMEODI LEONARD SARAH NORA

JOHNCLIFF CHIGOZIE I, formerly known and addressed as JOHN EMEH, now wish to be known and addressed as JOHNCLIFF CHIGOZIE. All former documents remain valid.

Banks and General Public should please take note.

That I was formerly known and addressed as ANEM CHUKWUEBUKA, that I now wish to add JOHNPAUL to my former name that I now wish to be known and addressed as ANEM CHUKWUEBUKA JOHNPAUL. All former documents remain valid. Banks and General public should please take note.

ODONG FRIDAY MOSES

I, formerly known and addressed as GILBERT EDEWOR ANYANGBE AITEBE, now wish to be known and addressed as GILBERT EDEWOR AITEBE. All documents bearing my former names remain valid. General public and Authorities Concerned should please take note.

I formerly known called and addressed as ODONG FRIDAY AKPAN, Now wish to be known called and addressed as ODONG FRIDAY MOSES. All former documents remain valid and BANKS general public, Authorities Concerned should please take note

ODOZI-ANTHONY EFE BLESSING

ODOZI-ANTHONY EFE BLESSING

Formerly known and addressed as MATTHEW EFE BLESSING and IGBEYI EFE BLESSING, now wish to be known and addressed as ODOZI-ANTHONY EFE BLESSING. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

motorcycle they used for the operation. The source told our reporter that the first set of students to stay in that hostel were frustrated out by incessant armed robbery attacks on them by unknown gunmen.

It was gathered that this last operation made it about three to four times robbers had raided the hostel. According to one of the victims, “we are afraid to even go out during the day because once they know that

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to confirm that ANGELA ISIBHENBHEN OJEMEN and OJEMEN ANGELA ISI refer to one and the same person.

All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

Formerly known and addressed as OJO JANET OMOTAYO, now wish to be known and addressed as OLAOLUWA JANET OMOTAYO. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as IKECHUKWU EKEN, now wish to be known and addressed as OKAFOR EKENE PATRICK. My correct date of birth 29/12/1987. All former documents remain valid.

General Public should please take note.

PHILOMENA NDIDI ADAGBON

I formerly known as Philomena Ojo wish to be known and addressed as Philomena Ndidi Adagbon.

All former documents remain valid General public please take note.

OLAOLUWA OLAKUNLE JAMES

Formerly known and addressed as OLAWOAGBO OLAKUNLE JAMES, now wish to be known and addressed as OLAOLUWA OLAKUNLE JAMES. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS UKANDU SARAH NORA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS EMEODI LEONARD SARAH NORA. All former documents remain valid. NYSC and General Public should please take note.

CORRECTION OF NAME

This is to inform the general public that my name SAMUEL OSONWA CHIDI was wrongly written during my BVN registration but now wish to be corrected and addressed as SAMUEL CHIDI OGBOSO. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

MRS IKECHUKWU PRECIOUS CHIZOMA

Formerly known and addressed as MISS OPARAKU CHIZOMA PRECIOUS, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS IKECHUKWU PRECIOUS CHIZOMA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to certify and confirm that NWEKE UDOH NDIGWE, NWEKE UDOKA NDIGWE and EBENEZER NDIGWE UDOH refer as one and the same person now wish to be known and addressed as EDENEZER NDIGWE UDOH. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

BALOGUN AJARAT ADERONKE

Formerly known and addressed as TAOFEEK HAJIRAT, now wish to be known and addressed as BALOGUN AJARAT ADERONKE. That my date of birth is 01 November 1966 and not 01 November 1967. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

News 22

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Tuface, Timaya, others storm Ikorodu for Glo Mega Music Tour today ÏÏÏShow-rousing artistes including

L-R: National Chairman, Action Democratic Party (ADP), Mr. Yabaji Sani; Deputy National Chairman South, Alhaji Najeem Awodele and National Women leader, Mrs. Esther Habu, during the party’s 3rd National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja… on Thursday.

Bindow felicitates with Gowon at 83

Tom Garba,Yola

ÏÏÏGovernor

of Adamawa state, Senator Mohammed Umaru Jibrilla Bindow, felicitates with former Head of state, Gen yakubu Gowon (rtd), on the occasion of his 83rd birthday, describing him as “icon of unity peace and development of Nigeria”.

In a statement by his SA Media and publicity, Macauley Hunohashi, Jibrilla said the former Nigerian leader is a modest and humble statesman who is living an exemplary lifestyle.

He recalled that, “it was Gen Yakubu Gowon who held the country together during her trying times, which was occasioned

by our unfortunate civil war, hence the need to celebrate the icon”.

Sen Jibrilla Bindow noted that his humility, nationalistic fervour, pan-africanism and moral rectitude are qualities worthy of emulation by aspiring leaders.

He prayed for long life, added wisdom and good health for Gen yakubu Gowon @ 83.

African Queen Exponent, Tuface Idibia, Nabania crooner, Flavour, Egberi Papa 1 of Bayelsa, Timaya, Marvin Records queen, Di’ja, iconic vocalist, Kiss Daniel, and latest hip-hop sensation, Axterix are billed to perform today, Saturday, October 21, 2017, at the 27th edition of Glo Mega Music Nationwide Tour scheduled to hold at the Ikorodu Musical Village, Lagos.

According to Globacom, the show which is scheduled to begin at 4.00 p.m. will be anchored by Nollywood jewels, Juliet Ibrahim and Uche Jombo, while Nollywood legends, Patience Ozokwor, a.k.a. Mama G, Kanayo O. Kanayo (KOK) and Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD) would be making guest celebrity appearances.

The company said the show is holding for the fifth time in Lagos, adding that “this goes to show the prime place Lagos State occupies in our minds in the scheme of things. As a company, we believe that nothing is too big for us to celebrate and reward our teeming sub-

Literary society appoints AmuNnadi resident poet Amaka Agbu, Port Harcourt

ÏÏÏThe Port Harcourt Literary So-

ciety has appointed Mr. Chijioke AmuNnadi, an award winning poet and a Deputy Director in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, as Resident Poet of the Society.

This is coming on the heels of a recent honour from the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, Rivers State chapter, for his contributions to literature, at the 2017 Literary Excellence Day of the association in Port Harcourt.

Presenting the appointment letter and keys to his office, during a brief ceremony at the NDDC headquarters,

Lagos socialite emerges Oba-elect

… As Community Leader sues for peaceful co-existence Jide Oke

ÏÏÏA

Lagos socialite and foremost printer, Prince Olajiide Adeniyi has emerged Oba-elect for Apamu Kingdom, a community in Isokan Local Government Area of Osun State.

Prince Adeniyi (a.k.a) Poatson emerged the new Oba-elect to the Atapomu throne having defeateda other candidates and satisfied the required guidelines laid down by the Apomu kingmakers for a new Atapomu.

Adeniyi emergence as the Alapomu - elect ended a four-year period of uncertainty about who would succeed the late Alapomu, Oba Afolabi Ajagbe Olasiyan who died in September, 2013.

Prince Olajidee Adeniyi from Ayope Family in Apomu became famous in the 80s among notable musicians for his socialite sta-

tus which traversed the whole of South-West, Nigeria.

A man endowed with a refined mind, reserved and not covetous with wealth, Prince Olajide Adeniyi becomes the first Christian to emerge as the Alapomuelect in the over 300 years existence of Apomu Kingdom.

Chairman of Apomu kingmakers and Oosa Apomu land, High Chief Raheem Adekunle Lawal told our correspondent that the names of the Oba-elect had been forwarded to the State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola for approval adding that majority of the sons and daughters of Apomu kingdom have also approved the choice of Prince Olajide Adeniyi as their new Oba. Chief Lawal stressed that the era of illiterate Oba was over in Apomu-land noting that the

choice of Prince Olajide Adeniyi to the royal stool would bring development to the ancient town in no distant time.

The chairman Apomu kingmakers however, called on those who are against the choice of Prince Adeniyi to sheath their differences and support the Alapomu-elect in the overall interest of Apomu-land.

Meanwhile a community leader and head of Ayope family in Apomu land, Chief Alani Ajawesola has called for peaceful co-existence among the Apomu kingmakers in order to give room for more developmental projects within the community.

Chief Ajawesola particularly charged the kingmakers to give their total support to Oosa Apomu land, High Chief Raheem Adekunle Lawal and come to terms especially with regards to

scribers for their loyalty and faith in the Glo Brand”.

Just last Sunday, residents of Ajah and its environs were treated to a lavish dose of laughter and joy when the sister show, the Glo Laffta Fest, was held in the locality.

The Glo Mega Music Nationwide Tour, which kicked off in Awka, Anambra State, on April 15, 2017, has been organised in 26 different cities and locations such as Aba, Calabar, Asaba, Benin, Victoria Island, Ajah, Ikeja, Benin, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Ekpoma, Enugu, Kubwa, Abuja, Suleja, Makurdi, Lokoja, Ayingba, twice in Port Harcourt and Ibadan, Akure, Abeokuta and Ijebu Ode. Globacom announced that attendance of the show is free-of-charge and urged subscribers willing to attend the show to recharge their Glo SIM cards with a minimum of N2,000 within a month for either voice or data usage and send a text message “MUSIC IKORODU” to a short code 207 to get an invitation for the show.

the Obaship tussle that had been generating controversies in different quarters of the community, stressing that the community would continue to miss opportunities until the issue was amicably resolved.

He said that until peace reigned among the Apomu kingmakers of which Oosa Adekunle Lawal is the Chairman, no meaningful development could take place in the ancient community.

Chief Ajawesola commended Governor Rauf Aregbesola for sustaining the age-long traditions in Osun State and for upgrading the royal fathers and chiefs in the state to a more befitting status, urging him to as a matter of urgency approved the new Alapomu-elect in the overall interest of the community.

Chidinma Ubakanwa, Programme Coordinator of Port Harcourt Literary Society, underlined the need to provide mentorship for young writers. She said that the appointment of Amu-Nnadi as resident poet would create new opportunities for budding writers to hone their skills.

“This is done in recognition of your bod of works, literary awards and as an inspiring figure who would make a positive impact and help advance the objectives of our Society,” the letter said.

The Chairman of the Rivers State chapter of ANA, Mr. Uzo Nwamara described Amu-Nnadi as one of the best poets in Africa. He declared: “He has been a big inspiration to many young writers and that is why ANA found him worthy of recognition.”

Nwamara lauded the NDDC for promoting literary excellence through the sponsorship of the literary prizes, one of which was the ANA/NDDC Gabriel Okara Prize for Poetry in 2002 won by The Fire Within written by Chijioke Amu-Nnadi.

Accepting his new role, Amu-Nnadi, promised to live up to the expectations of the literary society, noting that he derived joy from writing.

He recalled that he got into writing poetry by chance. According to him, a challenge from a fellow student drew him into poetry. “As a first year student of Mass Communication at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, I had the privilege of sharing the same class with a few young men who loved poetry. But I was the only one who had no time for poetry. So, I was forced to rise to the challenge.”

In his remarks, the NDDC Director, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Ibitoye Abosede, gave kudos to Amu-Nnadi for his literary prowess, which he said had produced several books, including The Fire Within, pilgrim’s passage, through the window of a sandcastle (which won the 2013 ANA Poetry Prize and the 2014 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry) A River’s Journey, A Field of Echoes, among others.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

News 23

Journalists counselled on diversity reporting for socio-economic growth Bonny Amadi

ÏÏÏJournalists in Nigeria

Officers of the Peace Corps in Plateau State, during the presentation of relief materials to Internally Displaced Persons in Jos, Plateau State… on Friday.

Aspirant, youth group protest alleged imposition of candidate Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

ÏÏÏA

councillorship aspirant under the platform of the People Democracy Party, PDP, in Bomadi ward one, Mr. Nelson Gomeromo has alleged that some party leaders had concluded plans to impose his cocontestant and incumbent councilor of the ward, Hon. Nurse Edeinmene, on the people of the ward in the runoff election earlier scheduled for this week.

The duo had tallied in the party ward primaries held Friday last week, as a result, the party leadership had scheduled Sunday 15th October, 2017 for a runoff election that was further postponed indefinitely without concrete reasons given to contestants and delegates, leading to chaos in the council headquarters.

Protesting against the postponement and the perceived plan of imposition, Mr. Gomeromo and his supporters marched down to the Bomadi Police Division to play their complaints and grievances, carrying placards with inscriptions that read “Bomadi ward one rejects imposition”, “We say No to imposition

of candidate”, “For the sake of 2019, Okowa please intervene” and others.

Addressing newsmen, Mr. Gomeromo said “the election we held last week was historic; it was the most credible and transparent election so far in Bomadi. I think the credit should go to the party ward chairman, Mr. Tanko Awipi, because Bomadi has recorded what I call the freest, fairest and most credible election in the history of Bomadi politics.

“But now, we got information from an impeccable source that, the election will not hold today (Sunday) and that some party leaders want to impose the incumbent lady on us, which is a rape of the smooth democratic process that we are trying to nurture. We are saying no to the planned imposition.

“The emphasis that women should be encouraged vie for political offices should not be misconstrued for imposing a candidate on the people as it used to be done, as the party hierarchy both at the national and state levels are bent on encouraging true democratic processes and principles.

“The plan to introduce

female favouritism is an unacceptable imposition which Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the State Party Chairman/Executive abhor in their promise to be fair to all. Nobody should accordingly drop their names and tarnish same in their plans to impose candidates.

Governor Okowa is reportedly an advocate of female gender imposition in elective positions and I agree with that.

“Those who seek gender favouritism should seek available options where only female candidates could contest and emerge, not in the middle of an ongoing process where winners are expected from either a male or female in contest.

The party leadership had battled to create unity; some selfish interests should not let the party relapse into deep schisms and be inflicted with deep scars”. s in Nigeria have been urged to replicate knowledge of diversity nature of the people in reporting developments across the country to strengthen national cohesion, socio -economic development and peace.

The call was made at a

media discuss in Lagos recently, organized by the pro media right group, Journalist for Democratic Rights (JODER) , as diversity reporting was highlighted as one of the most strategic ways Journalists can enrich the debate on future of the country as well as strengthen Nigeria’s democratic institutions.

“Nigeria is passing through difficult moments, since the country’s independence in 1960, there has not been an inspiring national ethos. The country remains deeply divided.

Poverty and underdevelopment remains, justice and human rights issues are yet to be fully addressed. The media needs to come forward to shape the future of the country through diversity reporting” JODER executive director, Mr. Adewale Adeoye said, the event was organized by JODER in collaboration with the New York based International Institute for Education (IEE).

The event, according to JODER capped series of training programs and advocacy organized by JODER in the past one year on reporting diversity as a way of building the capacity of media practitioners.

Pay our pension buy-out,defunct NITEL workers beg FG Titus Akhigbe,Benin

ÏÏÏ

Former workers of the defunct national carrier, Nigerian Telecommunications Limited ( NITEL) and Mobile Telecommunication Limited ( M Tel ) under the auspices of former telecoms employees of Nigeria have appealed to President Muhammandu Buhari to order the payment of their pension buy – out.

The association in a statement in Benin by its President Mr. Gabriel Oluti lamented that they were only paid five years pension buy-

out when the company was privatized by former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration as the 25 years pension buy-out as severance.

He stated that President Buhari recently approved N45billion severance package to be paid to workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways while leaving out that of former NITEL and M-TEL workers, insisting that NITEL was also liquidated like the Nigeria Airways after its privatization exercise failed..

He disclosed that former

workers of the telecommunication companies whose entitlements and pension buy-out has been hanging with the Federal government were now languishing in abject poverty while many of them have died due to lack of proper health care.

They disclosed that about N90billion staff pension fund belonging to their members was lying idle in government account after the federal government’s liquidation of NITEL and M-tel staff pension scheme through the Bureau of Public Enterprises in 2006

and stressed that they were entitled to pension buy-out for 25 years as severance.

It would be recalled that the Association of former Telecoms Employees of Nigeria (ATEN) obtained a

judgment at the liquidation Court which they entered as interested party as in the matter of Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990 in the suit filled at the Federal High Court at Abuja as secured creditors who were qualified for pension buy-out for 25 years.

have been urged to replicate knowledge of diversity nature of the people in reporting developments across the country to strengthen national cohesion, socio -economic development and peace.

The call was made at a media discuss in Lagos recently, organized by the pro media right group, Journalist for Democratic Rights (JODER) , as diversity reporting was highlighted as one of the most strategic ways Journalists can enrich the debate on future of the country as well as strengthen Nigeria’s democratic institutions.

“Nigeria is passing through difficult moments, since the country’s independence in 1960, there has not been an inspiring national ethos. The country remains deeply divided. Poverty and underdevelopment remains, justice and human rights issues are yet to be fully addressed. The media needs to come forward to shape the future of the country through diversity reporting” JODER executive director, Mr. Adewale Adeoye said, the event was organized by JODER in collaboration with the New York based Interna-

tional Institute for Education (IEE).

The event, according to JODER capped series of training programs and advocacy organized by JODER in the past one year on reporting diversity as a way of building the capacity of media practitioners.

Adeoye said “by reporting diversity, Journalists are also promoting good governance, conflict prevention, deepening the culture of debate, dialogue and strengthening the capacity of media to advance public good” JODER stated that represents the various shades of materials, social, political and cultural relations in the society and the manner the media engages them.

It added that diversity reporting remains the media responsibility to the people as it tests for effective media coverage of all in relation to the people’s activities, the environment, culture, poverty, gender, disability and the interplay of other social factors in the society.

Former Deputy Editor, Daily Independent, Mr. Wale Abatan urged Reporters to approach diversity reporting through and intensive constructive dialogue. He said that diversity reporting enhances utilitarian value and advances public good.

Ezeleke needs government presence – PG, Nwosu Sunday Nwakanma – Umuahia

ÏÏÏKano State elder state’s

man Alhaji Gambo Dan Pass also Dan Saran Kano, has described the report of the Senate which allege that over 3 million bottles of cough syrups are consumed daily in Kano and Jigawa states as an ugly trend which every leader should be worried about.

The Ezeleke community of Umuopara in Umuahia south LGA has urged governments at all levels to come to their aid, just as the community celebrated its 2017 annual new yam (iri ji) festival Wednesday.

Speaking with Daily Times in his palace, the President General, Ezeleke community, High Chief Gideon Nwosu said the massive votes and support given to governments at all levels in the country, Ezeleke community has nothing to show for that, regretting that politicians are yet to make good their electioneering promises to the community and people of the area.

According to him “We are not happy with the government at all levels in this country. There are many promises which they are yet o fulfill.

“There is no government presence in Ezeleke. Our secondary school, Umuopara Seconday school is dilapidated and now a desert today.

“Such promises include the reconstruction of Umuopara Ring Road, other rural roads, including the Trans- community road of Nkwoha market (Ezeleke Umuopara Umuahia South LGA) - Umuohuru Nkwoegwu (Umuahia North LGA) which was a project under the defunct DFRRI (Directorate for Rural Roads and Infrastructure) among others.

“Governments should come and fulfill their promises during the campaign promises. They should come in and do our market square for us ad they did in other places”.

On the new yam celebration, High Chief Nwosu explained said the occasion was their yearly festival that reminds them of how their yams and other products did well and to thank God who made our new yam to do well”, pointing out that in Ezeleke community, the festival is not fetish and transcended from their forefathers to them.

He disclosed that many Christians celebrate with their minds because of financial incapacitation.

He expressed his view that the festival as well as other cultural festivals can be made to be tourist attract and urged Christians to avoid double standard in their view of cultural activities.

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Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

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rancisca Ordega, Super Falcons player, on Friday, joined Atletico Madrid Women on loan from the Washington Spirit.This was posted on the Club’s website: www.atleticodemadrid.com and twitter account @AtletiFemenino.

The Washington Spirit is an American professional soccer club based in Germantown, Maryland that participated in the National Women’s Soccer League.

The movement of the Nigerian forward

Super Falcons player, Francisca Ordega joins Atlectico Madrid Women from the Washington Spirit is to strengthen the Spanish team’s offensive line.

“The 24-year-old Nigerian footballer is on the front line and will wear our jersey until next March when she will start a new edition of the American competition.

“After successfully completing the rel-

evant medical examination, Francisca Ordega signed the contract that binds her to our club and was happy to wear rojiblanco,” the website stated.

Ordega, who turned 24 on Thursday, said, “For me it’s an honour and I’m very happy to be here. Atletico Madrid is a great club,

internationally recognized, and I really want to start.

“I am a strong player and very fast” and although she recognised that she would to adapt to the new environment, she concludes: “I will make the fans feel proud of me.”

Russia 2018: NFF should arrange Grade A friendly matches N for Eagles - NFSC boss

Francisca Ordega

National team coaches tutor prospective Kwese Basketball League players

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ational Chairman, Nigeria Football Supporters Club (NFSC), Samuel Ikpea, has urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to strengthen the Super Eagles World Cup preparations with Grade A friendly matches.

Recall that the Super Eagles of Nigeria have qualified for the Russia 2018 World in June ahead of their other Group B teams of the Africa qualification.

Ikpea told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos that such matches would go a long way to make the team’s technical crew to regularly identify the players’ lapses.

“This is the time that the coaches need to do more because the qualification has created the platform for the team to intensity their preparation.

“High profile Grade A friendly games should be given priority in the calendar for its build-up for the World Cup because the players need to be technically sound.

“I am sure that the coaching crew must have taken cognisance of the players as individuals as well as a team, which friendly matches will help to appraise again,’’ he said.

He advised that team spirit must be developed, while such must be brought to play so that every opportunity would be significantly converted to goals for victory to be attained.

The chairman said that the supporters club would endeavor to live up to its responsibility of drumming support in their preparation, adding: “We always have been there for them.’’

Amaju

ational basketball team coaches, including Scott Nnaji, Ayinla Johnson, Adeka Daudu and Emma Odah, are presently drilling prospective Kwese Premier League players at the ongoing Kwese Prospect Camp in Kaduna.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a total of 65 young players are in the camp, participating in the inaugural edition of the basketball youth camp.

The players are being taken through various drills in the morning and afternoon sessions of at the outdoor courts of the Murtala Square in Kaduna.

Ebuka Ifeanyi, who is one of the players, told NAN the camp was one of the best things to have happened to his career so far.

“I believe with what I am seeing so far. l will not find it difficult in playing in the premier league soon.

I want to get better mentally and physically in order to get recruited to play in the Kwese League,’’ he said.

Speaking also, Kwese Premier League Director, Ajibarede Bello, said with the level of enthusiasm displayed by the players in the camp so far the intensive three-day exercise would achieve its aims.

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Mourinho’s pragmatism reaping rewards for United

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ccustomed to winning trophies with prolific scoring more than by cagey, safety-first displays, Manchester United fans may have to get used to Jose Mourinho’s preferred strategy.

Manchester United’s dour 1-0 Champions League win over Benfica came against the backdrop of a typical Mourinho pragmatic approach to such matches.

The result left United on the verge of reaching the Champions League knockout stages and the Portuguese manager was happy.

“I never felt we could concede a goal and were solid defensively,” he told BT Sport.

“Sometimes I feel being good defensively is a crime, but that is a way of getting results.

“We are one point from qualifying and one victory

away from winning the group with two games at home to play.”

Bereft of cutting edge up front or creativity in midfield without the injured Paul Pogba, United won thanks to a freak Marcus Rashford goal and a solid defensive display.

Still unbeaten in either the Champions League or in domestic competitions, United, who are two points behind local rivals City in the Premier League, are in position to challenge for their first league

title since 2013.

Having netted four goals in wins over West Ham United, Swansea City, Everton, Burton Albion, CSKA Moscow and Crystal Palace, United’s last two games against Liverpool and Benfica made those performances look like flat-track bullying.

Romelu Lukaku, the club’s only out-and-out striker with Zlatan Ibrahimovic injured, made a dream start to his United career by scoring

11 goals in his first 10 games after arriving from Everton.

But the Belgian looked toothless in a dour 0-0 draw at Liverpool followed by the narrow win at Benfica.

Injuries to midfielders Pogba, Marouane Fellaini and Michael Carrick have hampered Mourinho, but his back line has held firm.

“Without any pressure, we knew the goal would arrive,” Mourinho said after the Benfica game which was settled by a dreadful error by the Portuguese side’s 18-year-old keeper.

“I knew how good the goalkeeper was, I told the players that. We had a little bit of a strategy, especially on set-pieces to make him uncomfortable.

We put men around him on corners so he cannot come out,” Mourinho said.

The wily Portuguese knows goals like Marcus Rashford’s freak effort against 18-year old novice Mile Svilar, the youngest goalkeeper in Champions League history, will be difficult to come by against stronger rivals.

But with a rock-solid rearguard he also knows United will usually be in with a chance of winning those games.

Mourinho

Wilshere will get Premier League game time – Wenger

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rsenal’s Jack Wilshere will get a chance to prove himself in the Premier League, Manager Arsene Wenger, said after the midfielder impressed in Thursday’s 1-0 Europa League victory over Red Star Belgrade.

Wilshere, who spent last season on loan at Bournemouth before sustaining season-ending leg injury in April, returned to action for Arse-

Wenger

nal in their Europa League opener against FC Cologne in September.

The England international has been in good form in his three Europa League appearances, but is yet to play in the league and Wenger says the 25-yearold has now earned his

chance.

“He will get a chance in the Premier League, don’t worry about that,” Wenger told reporters after the match.

“I think at the moment it’s going like that. He got a big kick in the first half on his ankle, but he managed to get through the 90 minutes and games of that intensity will, of course, help him a lot.”

Frenchman Olivier Giroud scored an overhead kick to win the match for Arsenal and Wenger says the 31-yearold striker had predicted that he would score.

“At some stage he came to the touchline and told me, ‘We will score,’” Wenger said. “He knew more than I did.

That’s Olivier Giroud.

“He keeps belief when it is tough. That’s why he scores at moments you didn’t expect him to score.”

Wenger also praised defender Mathieu Debuchy, who returned to first-team action for the first time since November 2016.

“I am pleased for him that he survived 90 minutes without any setbacks,” Wenger added.

“Overall it was a positive performance for someone who has been out for such a long time.”

Arsenal, currently sixth in the league, now turn their attention to Sunday’s trip to Everton.

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Simona Halep

WTA Finals: Hopeful eight seek starring role in Singapore showdown

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Klopp

Klopp unsure if Liverpool’s Mane will return for Senegal WC qualifiers

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iverpool manager Juergen Klopp is baffled by Senegal manager Aliou Cisse’s claim that forward Sadio Mane will be fully fit for their World Cup qualifiers next month.

Liverpool have already ruled him out for up to six weeks, as the 25-year-old is still training indoors after suffering a hamstring injury on international duty earlier this month.

However, he was named in Cisse’s squad for their matches against South Africa in mid-No-

vember.

“I don’t know how he (Cisse) can know. I don’t know, so that’s how it is,” Klopp told a news conference ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday.

“Sadio is still in rehab, still indoors. So, that is the situation at the moment. If he is fit earlier, I would be really happy, but nobody knows at this moment. So, nothing else to say.

“They have very important games, I think they need one point, so let’s hope they qualify. I can imag-

ine they are feeling the pressure a little bit, but we cannot change the situation.”

Last weekend Klopp’s defensive unit succeeded in thwarting in-form striker Romelu Lukaku, who had found the net in seven consecutive league appearances for Manchester United before the goalless draw at Anfield.

Klopp, however, reckons that striker Harry Kane can influence the game in a wider variety of ways than Lukaku.

The England player has scored 15 goals for Tottenham and England in his last 12 appearances.

“The difference is that Harry is much more a part of the game when he is not scoring — but I am pretty sure Lukaku can make these steps too,” the German added.

ll eight women competing at the WTA Finals will go into the tournament believing they have a genuine chance of finishing the season on a high note.

Round-robin play starts on Sunday with no clear favourite, and there is ground for all to believe they can do it.

Three women in the field have topped the world rankings this season — incumbent Simona Halep and her predecessors Garbine Muguruza and Karolina Pliskova.

But none of them have been able to kick on and cement their place as the tour’s dominant player.

All three are also the only survivors from last year’s tournament, where they failed to make it out of the group stage.

And they will at least be hoping to advance to the semi-finals to improve on their underwhelming displays of 12 months ago.

Spain’s Muguruza is arguably the most talented all-round player of the octet in Singapore.

However, bouts of inconsistency and a high-risk strategy have often been her downfall in big matches as well as a tendency to get over-emotional.

A tearful exit at the French Open in June was followed up by a brilliant fortnight at Wimbledon.

At the All-England Club, the 24-year-old stormed through the field to claim her second grand slam title by defeating Venus Williams.

Both Halep and Pliskova have been consistent rather than spectacular throughout the campaign.

The Romanian has the ingenuity to make up for her lack of power, while the Czech can call on her big serve to put any opponent under pressure.

Veteran Venus will fly the flag for the Williams family in the absence of new mother Serena, who plans to return from her maternity leave in early 2018.

Venus will be a clear crowd favorite in her first finals appearance since 2009.

The 37-year-old has enjoyed a brilliant season in the twilight of her career, losing the Australian Open final to pregnant sister Serena in January.

She got dispatched by Muguruza after navigating a tough path to the Wimbledon title match.

Venus is also the only former WTA Finals winner playing in Singapore.

But she will need to come through five tough matches against top-eight opponents in a week, if she is to add to her 2008 success with what would be a first title of the season.

The only other grand slam champion present is 20-year-old Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.

She stunned the tennis world to claim the first title of her career when she rallied past Halep to won the French Open in three sets.

Her youthful exuberance and aggressive game helped her bag a second title in Seoul.

For now she is one of the dark horses in Singapore, along with in-form Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, the last to book her Finals berth with backto-back titles in China.

Elina Svitolina won five tour title this season to qualify for the first time, although the Ukrainian struggled to replicate her top form at the grand slams.

There is also Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, who is making her fifth WTA Finals appearance.

Wozniacki suffered a frustrating campaign in spite of being ultra-consistent.

The Dane lost six finals in a row in 2017, before finally tasting victory with the defence of her Pan

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SPECIAL FEATURE

By Frank Jumbo

Conte (left) and Mourinho

Is crisis hit Conte’s Chelsea career destined to end like Mourinho’s?

Peter Staunton

C

helsea have been unable to match their titlewinning form so far this season with injuries beginning to pile up and energy levels low Chelsea cantered to the Premier League title last season, propelled to glory by a 13-game winning streak that left the rest reeling.

But the question was always lurking in the background: how well would they fare when European football was factored in? We now have the answer.

Not very. That’s because the conditions for the victories last season cannot be replicated.

Conte alarmingly revealed on Friday that his squad are working up to 70 per cent less on the tactical and physical aspects in training due to the increased demands in the calendar. It is only natural that an on-field drop-off would follow.

“I have my methods,” Conte said in response to reports that the Chelsea squad were wearied by their current training schedules. “They’re the same as last season when we won the league.

“Honestly, I think we are working maybe 70 per cent less this season. Maybe for this reason we are having trouble. On tactical and physical aspects, [it’s] less.

“When you play every three days it’s impossible to work above all on the physical aspects. On the tactical

aspects, you have to work less and pay less attention on every detail. We are doing this.

“I think that when you have to play four competitions, this is the path you must follow. But it’s normal.

The problem is to play every game with the same players. That’s a big problem.”

A combination of factors has put Chelsea into their current downward spiral. Tomorrow’s game against Watford – one of the league’s biggest overachievers – will bring one more chance to arrest it.

But they are not themselves at the minute; not only in terms of personnel but also the football they are playing.

Chelsea’s waspish play last season served them well. They quite often out-ran and outlasted opponents from first minute to last. That kind of tempo seems beyond them currently and they suffered the indignity of seeing a 2-0 lead evaporate against Roma in midweek.

They were too standoffish, occasionally far too deep and not nearly dangerous enough to put the Italians away. Worse, they have suffered three league losses already – to Burnley, Manchester City and Crystal Palace. That which was working last season is now malfunctioning.

Conte can’t keep his squad fit. Key members of his team are dropping like flies with muscular injuries.

N’Golo Kante is the highest-profile absentee. Like

Leicester before them, Chelsea simply don’t appear to be the same team without their one-man midfield.

He was missing for the Palace defeat, as he was for the midweek draw with Roma. Cesc Fabregas and David Luiz have tried their best to staunch the bleeding in that sector but to no great effect so far. He cannot come back quickly enough.

They have also had to do without Eden Hazard, injured at the end of last season on international duty with Belgium. He’s back now and scored twice midweek but he has yet to reach his consistent best.

Against City, for example, he was nowhere to be found.

There are simply too many matches for Conte and his squad to negotiate this time around and the same kind of preparation is not working. Overall, though, Chelsea are still counting the cost of an uneven and negligent summer transfer campaign.

Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic were permitted to leave – two of their best performers in the title win – and have been replaced by Alvaro Morata and Tiemoue Bakayoko. Granted, those two are good replacements for the departed duo but Conte does not have anything like the squad depth he needs for the season ahead.

Davide Zappacosta has had to deputise for Victor Moses, who has also been struck down with injury.

Danny Drinkwater has yet to feature for the Blues having been signed injured. Antonio Rudiger is doing plenty

to impress the Stamford Bridge faithful when called upon and Conte must use him to keep the pressure off Gary Cahill and the overworked Cesar Azpilicueta.

In short, the team is no better and neither is the squad. With that lack of resources Chelsea are attempting to do something which is twice as hard as last season, namely stay in the upper reaches of the top flight and fight the good fight in Europe.

Last season, Conte managed to hold the lead in the title race from matchday 12 to 38. He’s already nine points off the pace set by Manchester City. It’s looking more likely that he could go the way of Claudio Ranieri at Leicester – sacked less than a year on from winning the title – or even Jose Mourinho at Chelsea. Mourinho failed to make Christmas after winning the title for Chelsea in May 2015.

Conte had a luxury denied to the rest of the competing coaches last term. He had a full week to prepare for most Premier League matches; no Champions League campaign getting in the way.

His players had as much rest as possible between games and very few of them suffered long absences through injury as a result.

The same approach is doomed to fail this time around because the conditions are not the same. For Conte’s sake, he better hope he’s not the last one to figure that out.

Culled from goal.com

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

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Saturday, October 21 2017

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ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP… ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP… ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP… ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP… Stories by Frank Jumbo with Agency Reports

Rudiger

Roma charged by Uefa for fans ‘monkey chants’ at Antonio Rudiger

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Chelsea fear Cesc Fabregas will be only fit midfielder against Watford

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lues boss Conte still doesn’t know if David Luiz or Tiemoue Bakayoko will be fit to face Hornets as he defends his training programme amid claims of fatigue in his squad CHELSEA fear Cesc Fabregas may be their only fit senior midfielder for the crunch Premier League clash with Watford.

The Premier League champions have been crippled by an injury crisis which has exposed the lack of depth

in Antonio Conte’s squad.

And the Chelsea boss says he will not know until a couple of hours before kick-off tomorrow just what players he will be able to choose from to face the Hornets.

Conte is already without N’Golo Kante, Danny Drinkwater and Victor Moses for the lunchtime kick-off at Stamford Bridge.

But Tiemoue Bakayoko and David Luiz are both battling to be fit in time to face Watford, who are two points

ahead of the Blues in fourth in the table.

Asked about his team news for the game, Conte said: “At the moment I can tell you nothing about the starting eleven for tomorrow “I hope in this 24 hours we will try to recover some players.

“Cesc Fabregas may be the only fit senior midfielder available.

Fabregas

oma have been charged by Uefa after some of their fans were heard making “monkey chants” towards Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger.

The German international came on as a 77th-minute substitute during Wednesday’s Champions’ League Group C tie which ended 3-3 at Stamford Bridge.

Rudiger, 24, moved to Chelsea from Roma in the summer. The case will be dealt with by Uefa’s control, ethics and disciplinary body on 16 November.

Before his move to England for an initial £29m, Rudiger said racism at football matches was a “serious issue” in Italy.

UEFA opens disciplinary proceedings against Everton

E

uropean football’s governing body (UEFA) has opened disciplinary proceedings against Everton after one of the club’s fans tried to punch an Olympique Lyon player.

The incident was during a melee which broke out during Thursday’s Europa League game at Goodison Park.

Merseyside Police are also investigating the brawl on the pitch between players from both teams, while Everton have banned one individual.

“Disciplinary proceedings have been opened following the UEFA Europa League group stage match between Everton FC and Olympique Lyonnais (1-2), played on Thursday in England,” UEFA said in a statement on Friday.

The governing body added that the English club had been charged with “Aggressions by supporters against players” under Article 16 (2) (H) of its disciplinary regulations.

Everton captain Ashley Williams sparked off the trouble in the 64th minute when he shoved Anthony Lopes into the advertising hoardings.

This was after the Lyon goalkeeper had collected the ball from a corner kick.

An all-out melee ensued with players from both sides getting involved, while at least one fan behind the goal was caught on video throwing punches at a Lyon player before stewards intervened.

Everton issued a statement saying they had banned an individual from future matches after reviewing footage of the incident and would be making a formal complaint to Merseyside Police.

The force said its detectives would review footage and speak to witnesses to establish what, if

any, offences had been committed.

Everton manager Ronald Koeman said on Friday that Williams had acted out of frustration born partly from Wales’s failure to qualify for the World Cup and needed to control his emotions better.

“I understand his situation yesterday,” the manager told a press conference ahead of Sunday’s Premier League home game against Arsenal.

“His personal situation, it was difficult after (being knocked) out of the World (Cup following the qualifiers) with Wales. He had some mistakes that cost a goal but I like that mentality.

“From frustration you get maybe more aggression and that’s not bad. But you need to control yourself.”

The defender, who scored an equaliser for Everton minutes after the incident, and Lyon striker Bertrand Traore, who got the winner for his side, received yellow cards for their parts in the struggle.

Koeman also praised his skipper for his leadership on the pitch.

“He showed his face yesterday, he played well,“ he added. ”He was a captain on the pitch and of course in the situation of the brawl he needs to control himself.

“But okay, on one side I understand frustration, disappointment, because everybody was disappointed.”

The loss increases scrutiny of Koeman, whose team sit bottom of their group with no wins in three Europa League games.

They are on a two-game winless streak in the Premier League, where they are 16th in the standings.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

EXTRATIME

31

Tornadoes FC FIBA Africa championship ticket: Gombe Niger not destined to win Bulls won’t succumb to intimidation- Gimba AITEO Cup -Audu C H hairman of Gombe Bulls basketball club, Ibrahim Gimba, says the club will not allow itself to be subjected to any intimidation by any group over the ticket it rightfully earned.

Gimba was reacting on Friday in Kaduna to reports the club had been asked to explain why it participated in the Final 8 phase of the 2017 Kwese Premier Basketball League.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gombe Bulls had in Kano booked one of the two tickets to represent Nigeria at the 2017 FIBA Africa Men’s Club Championship Quaifiers.

Gimba, while speaking on the sidelines of the Kwese Basketball Prospects Camp, said there was no explanation to make to any group as far as the club was concerned.

“This is because we participated in a league duly recognised by the international body, FIBA, and no amount of intimidation or blackmail will succeed against Gombe Bulls’ qualification to represent Nigeria alongside Kano Pillars,’’ he said.

Gov. Dankwambo

The Gombe Bulls chairman said any group which wanted to be taken seriously should produce any letter from FIBA authorising it to stop the Kwese Premier League from being completed.

“Gombe Bulls will not write any letter to any group to explain our participation since we took part in a FIBA-recognised league which started under a board before the election crisis and which must be completed.

“I want to make it categorically clear that we will not write to any group to explain our participation in the concluded Kwese Premier League.

“As far as we are concerned, we have qualified to participate in the FIBA Africa zonal qualifiers and nobody can intimidate, blackmail or confuse us as we have already gone far in preparations to represent Nigeria.

“We want to align with the position of Kano Pillars basketball club, as clearly stated by the Chairman of Kano State Sports Council Ibrahim Galadima, who maintained that Kano Pillars duly qualified for the continent through a FIBA-recognised league.”

Gimba said nothing would change the position of the two clubs and they owed no group any apology since the Kwese League and Zenith Bank League ran concurrently under a board.

“But, if we may ask, why were the final phases of the Zenith Bank Women League accepted by those causing confusion now, while trying to dispute the authenticity of the final phases of the men’s league,’’ he said.

The club official said the development was a case of double standard by the group, saying “it is pure mischief’’.

“What offence did we commit by participating in the Kwese League? This same league started with the Zenith League and the Zenith League was completed. So, when has it be-

come an offence to conclude a league?

“If nothing can affect the Zenith Bank League and its qualifiers, nothing also will happen to the qualifiers from the Kwese league.

“I challenge those speaking from both sides of their mouths to produce a letter from FIBA Africa asking them to stop the Kwese League from being completed. If that can be done we will listen to them,” he said.

Gimba advised the management of Kano Pillars and Gombe Bulls to remain focused, and urged Mark Mentors and Civil Defenders basketball clubs of Abuja to be cautious.

“They have to be wary of their nomination to represent Nigeria, because there has never been a time in Nigeria when a team is nominated to represent the country without completing a process that is performance-based.

“Basketball is the fastest growing sport in Nigeria today. So, these clubs must not allow themselves to be used to disrupt its normal and just flow. If they allow it, it will happen to them tomorrow. Qualification is strictly participation-based.’’

He disclosed that Gombe Bulls have commenced preparations for the qualifiers and were currently in camp.

“We had to go on break last week to sort out other issues, and will resume camp by next week,’’ Gimba said.

He added that the club’s management had tabled its proposal and estimated expenses to participate in the continental championship to the Gombe State Government and this has reached the approval stage.

“Our proposal have reached approval stage before the governor, who has promised to approve it because he is happy with the continental slot we have secured,’’ the club chairman said.

assan Audu, Head Coach, Department of Athletics, Niger Ministry of Sports Development, on Friday said Niger Tornadoes Football Club of Minna were not destined to win the just-ended AITEO Cup Competition.

Audu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna that it was just destiny that denied Niger Tornadoes the men’s AITEO Cup title because they put up an impressive performance.

NAN reports that Niger Tornadoes lost 2-3 to Akwa United FC of Uyo in the final match of the competition on Sunday at the Agege Township Stadium in Lagos.

“I want our Tornadoes to put behind the loss to Akwa United to enable them focus on the 2017/2018 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), where they will have another chance to prove themselves.

“Players of Niger Tornadoes had a very wonderful game during the final match of the AITEO Cup, but it was not destined for them to win the trophy,’’ Audu said.

He said they should realise that losing the trophy does not take away from them their good efforts in the just-concluded 2016/2017 NPFL season where the club finished 11th.

The coach however expressed optimism that with the crop of talented and youthful players currently in the club the sky would be their limit in the 2017/2018 season.

“If the kind of commitment I am seeing in the players, coaches and management team is sustained, Niger Tornadoes will be there again,’’ he said.

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Business & Economy Saturday, October 21, 2017

BVN: CBN direct banks to keep database of fraudulent customers

Page B2

Simon Ugwu As Nigerians continue to grope in darkness, experts say that diversifying the country’s energy mix to include coal-to-power projects can add an additional 4,300MW to its electricity power generation for 20 years with its proven coal deposits estimated at about 2.8 billion metric tons.

“At the calorific value of coal in the Anambra basin (Enugu, Anambra, Benue and Kogi), 3.2 million tonnes of coal is required to generate 1000MW per year. A typical coal fired power plant is designed to last for a minimum of 20 years. This means that 2.8 billion metric tonnes can sustain 4375 MW”, said, the former Minister of Power and Chairman, Geometric Power Limited, Professor Bath Nnaji.

Africa: DG NCAC Otunba Runsewe arrives for Calabar Carnival Dry Run

Page B6

What SEC might do to Oando parties after forensic audit

Nigeria’s Coal deposits can sustain additional 4,300MW for 20 years – Experts According to Nnaji, a-1,000MW coal-fired power plant costs about $1.7 million to $2 million to set up and it takes approximately 3 years to set up.

“Nigeria should definitely make use of coal as a source of fuel. Nigeria needs enough base load power – that is power that is industrial and stable.

The main sources of such power are large hydro’s, natural gas and coal.

There is a need to have fuel mix in order to have stable and reliable power supply in Nigeria’, said Nnaji.

“If you look at the history of power supply in Nigeria, the question is not whether Nigeria should

introduce coal-to-power into its energy mix but rather the question is, should Nigeria turn back to coal because coal was the primary fuel the country used to generate electricity many years ago”, said, a veteran engineer and power expert, Omorodion Uwaifo Uwaifo said that Nigeria is in dire need of power supply that is stable and constant which makes a case for a large coal-fired power plant in the grid. But despite the electric power conundrum, some experts say the country should tread with caution in its deployment of coal-fired power plants.

“Of course, it is an option to add coal to Nigeria’s energy mix as the country have high quality coal deposits but the question is to what extent and at what price”, said Director Nigeria Office, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Christine K. According to Christine K, “what you need to calculate to the cost of a coal power is the external cost of producing it. These costs are not usually calculated into the cost of coal power project in Nigeria.

The real cost of coal power project should include economic cost, environment cost, social cost, human right cost.

L-R: Founder/CEO, Dragon Africa, Obi Asika; Chief Marketing Officer, Sterling Bank Plc, Henry Bassey; Managing Partner, Brandzone Consulting LLC /Conference Convener, Mrs. Chizor Malize; Moderator/Founder/Managing Director, Biola Alabi Media, Biola Alabi; Partner/Head, ICT and Entertainment Group, PwC West Africa, Femi Osinubi and President, Ali Baba Hiccupuray3rd, Atunyota Akpobome, at the Brand Innovation Conference 2017 in Lagos…recently.

EFCC trains KPCACC officials on corruption fight

Ganiyu Obaaro

Ibrahim Magu, Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) at the EFCC Academy, Karu, Abuja, pledged training support for the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Cor-

BUSINESS TIMES Business Editor Ganiyu Obaaro

Deputy Business Editor Azubike Nnadozie Asst. Business Editor Simon Ugwu Capital Market Editor Bonny Amadi

ruption Commission, KPCACC. Magu, who disclosed this during the opening ceremony of a 5-day intensive training programme on Anti-corruption and self defence, spoke through the Acting Commandant of the EFCC Academy, David Tukura.

He advised KPCACC officials to initiate moves towards having a good working relationship, in terms of capacity building with the judiciary since the sector is key to the fight against corruption.

“If you fail to develop a judicial system that is just and ready to complement your efforts in the fight against corruption, you may end up being frustrated at the end of the day”, he said.

The EFCC boss further stressed the readiness of the EFCC to collaborate with other states, agencies and international bodies that might wish to take advantage of the “state of the art” in-

frastructures at the EFCC Academy in capacity building.

“We are by all standards the best in Nigeria when it comes to the area of training on economic and financial crimes” Magu said.

He urged the participants to imbibe the attitude of the EFCC operatives which has served as its strength in discharging its duties without fear or favour.

Muhuyi Magaji Rimin Gado, Executive Chairman, KPCACC, in his remark thanked the EFCC Chairman for the support.

“This is the first time in history, the Kano State Public Complaint and AntiCorruption Commission is allowed to carry out the diligent recruitment of the one hundred and forty (140) staff under-going training at the EFCC Academy .

Page B7

JED gets nod from NEMSA to distribute meters

By Kingsley Chukwuka, Jos. The Jos Distribution Company (JED), PLC, said it has recommenced the distribution of meters across it four states of jurisdiction, which are Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe and Benue States.

Managing Director of JED, Alhaji Gidado Modibo, stated this in a chat with newsmen in Jos, adding that the meters has been certified by the Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), for onward installation.

Recall that NEMSA halted the installation of the new smart meters earlier this year sighting calibration as the reason raised by consumers for the temporal suspension of the installation.

However, the JED boss was happy to information Journalists that the meters has been certified to be calibrated for installation, adding that it has always been so but due to consumers apathy in paying electricity bill, the smart matters were faulted.

He said “our meters are well calibrated and certified, the Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency, NEMSA has tested our meters and have given us the mandate to continue with our mass metering: we have installed about 26,000 meters in Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe and Benue States, and we aim to install another 40,000 between now and December 2017.

Nigerian lenders pick Barclays to find new investors for 9mobile –sources Tony Nwakaegho with Agency report Nigerian lenders have picked Barclays (BARC.L) to try to find new investors for debtladen 9mobile, two banking sources said on Thursday.

Barclays, the source said has started work on the mandate and is in the process of setting up a database for prospective investors to conduct due diligence.

Banking sources had previously said Citigroup and Standard Bank were in the running for the role, but the lenders decided against them due to their previous links with 9mobile, the sources said on Thursday.

Standard’s local unit, Stanbic IBTC Bank (IBTC.LG), is among the group of lenders to 9mobile while Citi has advised the telecom company, formerly known as Eti-

salat Nigeria, in the past, they said.

Barclays was not immediately available for comment.

Etisalat Nigeria took out a $1.2 billion (£912.4 million) syndicated loan from a group of 13 local banks but struggled to make repayments this year due to a currency crisis and recession in Nigeria.

The Nigerian central bank intervened to save the company from collapse and prevent creditors from putting it into receivership, leading to a change in its board and management, as well as the new name 9mobile.

The crisis forced the telecoms company’s one-time parent Etisalat (ETEL.AD) to terminate its management agreement with its Nigerian business and surrender its 45 per cent stake to a trustee following the central bank intervention.

Business Review B2

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

BVN: CBN directive to banks on database of fraudulent customers Ï `Ɔƅ ƏƗöƢèǀƠƠ ƅƕƄƆƏé ƐƐ ƅƊ è ƣƠü ƑƅƅƆ Ə ƐƆ

By Tony Nwakaegho The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed banks to establish a database of their customers identified through their Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) to be involved in a confirmed fraudulent activity in the banking industry.

The directive was contained in the Regulatory Framework for Bank Veri fication Number (BVN) Operation and Watch-list for Nigerian Financial System released by the CBN, while the implementation of the framework is with immediate effect.

Dipo Fatokun, CBN Director, Banking & Payments System, who signed the framework, said bank customers are to by this framework, abide by the regulatory framework for BVN operations and the watch-list for the Nigerian Banking Industry and also report all suspicious or unauthorized activities on their accounts.

Data from the CBN showed that Nigeria experienced a total of 3,500 cyber-attacks with 70 per cent success rate and loss of $450 million within the last one year mainly through cross-channel fraud, data theft, email spooling, phishing, shoulder surfing and underground websites.

Although e-fraud rate in terms of value dropped by 63 per cent, after the BVN introduction and improved collaboration among banks via the fraud desks, the total fraud volume still rose significantly by 683 per cent.

The new regulation is expected to assist the CBN in curbing the menace of fraudsters.

Fatokun said the new framework is in the exercise of the powers conferred on the CBN, by Sections 2 (d) and 47 (2), of the CBN Act, 2007, to promote the development of efficient and effective payments systems for the settlement of transactions.

He explained that the framework provides standards for the BVN operations and watch-list for the Nigerian Banking Industry, adding that the watch-list comprises a database of bank customers’ identified by their BVNs, who have been involved in a confirmed fraudulent activ-

FINANCE MINISTER, KEMI ADEOSUN

CBN GOVERNOR, GODWIN EMEFIELE

ity in the banking industry in Nigeria.

Fatokun said the regulatory framework shall guide activities of the participants in the provision of the BVN operations in Nigeria and that the CBN, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) and Bank Customers are participants in its implementation.

According to him, the CBN, in collaboration with the Bankers Committee, proactively embarked upon the deployment of a centralized BVN System and

volved in confirmed fraudulent activities.

The framework is expected to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders; clearly, define the operations of

“This framework, without prejudice to existing laws, is a guide for the operations of the watch-List in the Financial System.”

launched the BVN in February 2014.

This, he said, was part of the overall strategy of ensuring the effectiveness of the Know Your Customer (KYC) principles, and the promotion of a safe, reliable and efficient payments system.

The BVN gives a unique identity across the banking industry to each customer of Nigerian banks.

“This framework also defines the establishment and operations of a Watch-list for the Nigerian Banking Industry, to address the increasing incidences, of frauds, with a view to engendering public confidence in the banking industry.

“This framework, without prejudice to existing laws, is a guide for the operations of the watch-List in the Financial System.”

The Watch-list is a database of bank customers identified by their BVNs, who have been in-

The BVN gives a unique identity across the banking industry to each customer of Nigerian banks.

“This framework also defines the establishment and operations of a Watchlist for the Nigerian Banking Industry, to address the increasing incidences, of frauds, with a view to engendering public confidence in the banking industry.

the BVN in Nigeria; define access, usage and management of the BVN information, requirements and conditions and provide a database of watch-listed individuals.

It is also expected to outline the process and operations of the watch-List and deter fraud incidences in the Nigerian Banking Industry.

In implementing this framework, the CBN is expected to approve the Regulatory Framework and Standard Operating Guidelines as well as approve eligible users for access to the BVN information.

The Nigeria Interbank-Settlement System (NIBSS) is to collaborate with other stakeholders to develop and review the Standard Operating Guidelines of the BVN while the banks are to ensure proper capturing of the BVN data and validate same before the linkage with customers’ accounts.

Tours&Travels

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B3

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Hospitality: Stakeholders rue multiple taxation, other charges

FACTS FILE ÏAdoroh said, frivolous taxation,

excessive consultancy levies and a host of other charges dominated discussions at a recent conference by stakeholders in the hospitality industry. Ï Ɨ Ə ƈƗ Ɛ Ɛ Ɛ Ɔ ƅƈ Ɛƈ came into existence four years ago to serve as a dependable association through which their voices could be heard. Ï Ɨ Ə æC^ç Ɛ Ɔ ƅƈ Ɛƈ ô president, appealed to the government to consider employers Ƈ Ƌ Ƅ ƑƏ^ Ï6Ɔ ƈƗè ƌƑƋƐƈƍƋƆ Ɛ ƔƆ ƅ ƑƋƗ Ƈ ƏƅƆ them out of business in the country, if immediate solution was not provided.

Chief Jerome Adoroh Multiple taxation, excessive consultancy levies and a host of other charges dominated discussions at a recent conference by stakeholders in the hospitality industry. The hoteliers said these were some of the Ƅ Ɔ Ƈ Ə ƓƐ Ƈ Ɛ Ɔ ƍƈƐ ƋƈƐƕ ƆƅƐ Ə ƈ Ɛ Ɔ ƅ Ƒ ƐƏƕê `ƆƅƆ ƐƋƕè Ɛ Ɔ d ƑƐ ézƆ Ɛ 6 ƐƆƋƈƆƏ ô ƅƈ Ɛƈ RƇ Nigeria took their campaign to Lagos at a conference organised to tackle these and a host of other charges problems. EBERE CHIBUZOR, who was at the event, highlights efforts made by the group to encourage domestic tourism through hotel brands.

CONTINUES ON PAGE B4

Akwaaba Travel Market organisers set to launch ƄƑƉ C Ƅ ƌ è ƐƆƋ Ɠ akwaaba Page B6

Page B4

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Tours & Travels

Daily Times Nigeria Satrurday, October 21, 2017

Daily Times Nigeria Satrurday, October 21,2017

B5

Tours & Travels

Hospitality: Stakeholders rue multiple taxation, other charges Continued from Page B3 Multiple taxation, excessive consultancy levies and a host of other charges dominated discussions at a recent conference by stakeholders in the hospitality industry. The hoteliers said these were some of the bane of growth of the hospitality sector in the country. Recently, the Hoteliers Association Of Nigeria South-West Zone took their campaign to Lagos at a conference organised to tackle these and a host of other charges problems. EBERE CHIBUZOR, who was at the event, highlights efforts made by the group to encourage domestic tourism through hotel brands.

The Hoteliers Association Of Nigeria South-West Zone(HANSWZ) used the 2017 South West Hotel Conference held at Administrative Staff College of Nigeria in Badagry, Lagos, to describe multiple taxation, excessive consultancy levies and a host of other charges by the government as a bane to the growth of the hospitality sector in the country.

The Association came into existence four years ago to serve as a dependable association through which their voices could be heard.

In the conference, the association announced that it was embarking on the conference to share strategic insights on major challenges facing the sector and Nigeria, in spite of

Chief Jerome Adoroh, President of SWHAN presenting an award to the representative of Chief (Mrs) Folashade Tinubu Ojo, the Iyaloja at 2017 South West Hotel Conference tagged Badagry 2017, held at Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, Lagos...recently. its contributions to the nation’s employment and the GDP. With the theme, ‘Emerging Marketing Trends in Tourism and Hospitality sector of the Nigerian Economy,’ the conference attracted people from all walks of life.

According to the association, it is partnering with individuals and corporate citizens, including MTN Nigeria, Access Bank and many others to really get to encourage the sector.

This is also in a bid to ensure

it continues to create more jobs and brings development to the rural areas as it has a significant multiplier effect on other sector of the economy.

Speaking at the event Chief Jerome Adoroh(JP) the association’s president, appealed to the government to consider employers of labour, adding that government should revisit the issue of multiple taxation from the hoteliers.

He said the Federal Government should use their position

to stop the state from this multiple taxation. We have been discussing with the state government, but we will be writing to the government to channel our complaints to the House of Assembly. Multiple taxes could force them out of business in the country, if immediate solution was not provided.

Beyond these, the hoteliers said they opposed some of these bills because they could not even fathom what is meant for,

as there are already tax for plenteous purposes hoteliers pay in the state.

Guest at the conference included Director General, Lagos Chamber Of Commerce & Industry, Mr. Muda Yusuf, General Manager, Audio Visual Right and Film in Nigeria, Mrs. Olubunmi Fawole, representative of Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Acting Commissioner of Tourism, Arts & Culture Mrs. Nosimot Adebimpe Akinsola,

His Royal Majesty, De Wheno Aholu Menu Toyi 1, The Akran of Badagry Kingdom, among others.

While expressing the position of the association at the conference, Prince Femi Egbodofo, Deputy Chairman of the Association, said the hoteliers are ready to pay taxes that are meaningful, sensible and very reasonable.

Egbodofo said that, “Imagine the Federal Government promulgated a law and said that 50 per cent would be paid on food eat in the hotel, the room occupied and same government has the audacity to say they promulgated another law on the same material which we have been paid.

“In some states today, we have about 18 different taxes being paid; and this thing does not stop right there. According to him, a non -governmental agency has an arrangement through the same government to collect money from us. He said, adding that, “the hospitality sector contributes greatly to the nation’s growth through job creation and called for urgent federal government intervention to enable the hotels thrive”.

However, it is interesting to note that a cross- section of four- man panelists educated the hoteliers what frivolous taxes are all about .Daily Times reports that such was not the first time in the history the owners and staff go out of their way to make the stay during the conference a relaxing one.

Cross section at 2017 South West Hotel Conference, tagged Badagry 2017, held at Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, Lagos ...recently.

Also part of the greatest challenges facing the sector is poor record , whereas, it is vital that hoteliers keep record of any thing that they sell, it was learnt.

A participant said, “That means comprehensive stock taking has to be done. Accountant can ensure that all financial detail are under the supervision of a competent auditor.”.

Earlier, Director General, Lagos Chamber Of Commerce & Industry, Mr. Muda Yusuf has expressed optimism over the state of tourism and hospital-

ity industry in Nigeria, urging that for tourism and hospitality industries to thrive there have to be stronger collaboration between the media and the tourism and hospitality industry.

He said,”It is perception that defines the brand of an institution of a country and industry; and the media has a lot of role to play in shaping the perception of tourist either the domestic tourist or international tourists. Every country has it s challenges, but it is not a good thing that the only thing that made headlines are the bad

things.

“You puck up a newspaper, the headlines are most often very negative, you switch on television the headlines are very often bad things. All those things adversely affect the growth of tourism and hospitality industry. We need to do a lot in the area of branding and the media has a big role to play on this”.

Yusu said, We have hospitality and tourism group, but we need to get them to be more active just as I was also telling them they need to be more vis-

As a tourist destination, Lagos ticks all boxes when it comes to a great travel experience: lots of entertainment and attractions, scenic landscapes, impressiveneighborhoods, and numerous transport options but one thing its is not known for is its vegan food culture. The concept of “vegetarianism” is not very popular in Lagos, in spite of how metropolitan the city is. A majority of its people love meat and hardly acknowledge the existence of beets, radishes, lettuce and kale; except during special occassionswhen they include salad as a side dish. This however does not mean that all hope is lost for vegetarians who dare to visit the Lagos.

Be very clear about what you want Not everyone will understand what you mean by vegetarian, so rather than simply asking if a restaurant offers a vegetarian menu, be specific about what you want to eat and what ingredients you are looking for. That way they do not just say ‘No’ to your order, when in fact they may have those options you actually are looking for. If there is nothing on the menu, make a request. Simply ask for a meal to be prepared with your favorite vegetable(s) instead of chicken or fish. This usually works with a la carte meals.

Rent an apartment The best option for a vegetarian visiting Lagos is to rent an apartment rather than a hotel or inn. This affords you the flexibility to cook your own meals and takes away the worry of possibly consuming something that is not completely made from vegetables. It also takes away the stress of having to explain to the hotel kitchen staff the ingredients that should be included in your meal.

There are a number of apartments within the city and you can find several on here.

Seek out restaurants with vegetarian options Vegetarian food is not hard to come by in Lagos; you just have to know where to look. Actually, from delis in large shopping malls like Park ‘n’ Shop and Shoprite, to proper restaurants, especially Indian and Chinese, there are plenty of places to get healthy vegetarian meals. There are also some cafés and bakeries that specialize in meatless dishes. You will find vegetarian sandwiches, quiches or other baked products that are way cheaper than wholemeat meals.

ible, they need to more active to bring up issues affecting the industry because the louder you are the more attention you get.

So, they should also be visible to push the industry forward.

Musibau Olanrewaju, Regional and SME sales Manger Enterprise Solutions Division, said, the partnership would help to reposition the nation’s tourism sector; and expressed optimism that the collaboration would enable them viewing the details about their assets afar off and to give them ultimate guide to business valuation.

Stick to Local beverages While visiting the city of Lagos, it would certainly be great to try local cuisines and delicacies; especially those available on the streets, however, aside from fruits and leafy vegetables, it will be safer to stick to beverages, as most times the local cuisines have meat and fish or the stock included as ingredients.

With beverages however, you are safe as they are mostly made from roots and leafs.

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

Akwaaba Travel Market organisers set to launch Abuja Jabamah, hotel show akwaaba

The bottom line of the various programmes and strategies that he has put in place is to increase the arrival figures as he targets 1.5 million international tourists arrivals for 2018.

‘Currently, we are hovering around one million arrivals into Ghana. That is not enough, we were hoping that we should have done 1.2 million as of December and we are moving gradually towards that. So, our target for next year is 1.5 million.

Zuma Rock

with a post event tour on 18th November for all delegates.

The 2- day event, will feature tour operators’ forum, destinations marketing from various countries, training on how to start online travel business by a renowned ex-

pert. Also, on the show is the top 50 boutique hotels in Abuja awards, as well travellers’ award top 50 pioneers in Abuja Tourism on Day 1.

Day 2 will involve hotel training by expert on digital skills for hotel; day 3 -the 18th- will be tour expe-

rience of Abuja –Kaduna by rail with a visit to Kajuru castle and Kamuku National Park.

Expected participants are top travel agents from surrounding states, hoteliers, tour operators, state tourism boards and destination managers.

Africa: DG NCAC Otunba Runsewe Arrives for Calabar Carnival Dry Run

Runsewe

Africa: Ghana Tourism Authority targets 1.5 million arrivals in 2018 Ghana Recently, Agyeman led a 27-man delegation to Lagos, Nigeria, for the Akwaaba African Travel Market 2017, where the country made a huge impression with their presence and presentations.

Stories by Ebere Chibuzor Organisers Of Akwaaba Travel Market Lagos, recently announced the launching of a ‘M.I.C.E and Hotel Show’ in the Federal Capital Territory,- “Abuja Jabamah”.

After 4 years since the last Abuja BANTABA event, which was later held in Port-Harcourt in March this year, organiser, Mr. Ikechi Uko, says Abuja is ready to host a M.I.C.E and Hotel event now to promote meetings, events, conventions and hospitality in Nigeria.

This event is aimed at reaching Northern Nigerian region; exploring tourism potential for domestic tourism, and exposing tour operators and hotels to their foreign counterparts to promote domestic and outbound tourism.

Exhibitors will be able to schedule meetings with about 70 tour operators from Abuja, Jos, Kaduna, Benue and Kano, which we hope will generate businesses thereon.

Abuja JABAMAH is scheduled to hold from 16th – 17th November

B6 Tourism

The Director General, National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Runsewe has arrived Calabar for the flag of the 2017 Carnival Calabar dry run scheduled to commence on 22nd of October 2017.

Also, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Information, Deacon, Grace Gekpe, will be gracing this year’s event long side the NCAC DG. The dry run is part of the state’s drive for domestic and responsible tourism for sustainability.

The new additions for this year’s event are the beach carnival, wonder on wheels convertible and vintage cars, black music festival, Formular K, repeat of Nickelodeon kids Festival at Tinapa, the Governor’s Fete, Miss Africa and the Buy Naija participation through the introduction

of the Market Square Carnival and the Lighting of the Carnival torch at a ceremony tagged carnival jam carnival in collaboration with the Fed Min of Trade and Industry in line with executive order 3 of the Fed Govt. to promote made in Nigeria goods and services.

This is a sure boost for the famous 32 days festival village that has existed for about 17 years since the inception of carnival Calabar and Festival in the wake of the millennium year.

The Gov has asked me to assure Nigerians and Africa that 2017 carnival will be fireworks and with mobilization of seed monies to carnival bands since August and Sept the needed excitement to wow the Tourists in Calabar is assured.

‘‘That is a huge figure and we can do it by doing what?’’ He then outlines some of the things that GTA needs to do: ‘‘Working with the private sector in bringing events into Ghana, bringing serious in out of the box activities.

For example, the back to Africa campaign that we are running. We are going to do PANAFEST every year because presently it is done every other year. ‘‘But if you do PANAFEST every year it will bring in the African Diaspora and more people, it is on their calendar and they know that every year they have to pay a pilgrimage home and not this year I go and next year no. They lose track.

Besides, Agyeman said he wants to create a new brand for the country’s

tourism as he wants the country to be rated among the league of serious and notable tourist destinations: ‘‘Under our watch Ghana tourism will be taken more seriously than we have ever been taken in terms of competition, competing with the big boys. Two, we want to attract various tour operators, the big players – The Thomas Cooks and the Thompsons of this world.

The ones who do big bookings. Ghana is not on their radar and we want to put Ghana on that radar. ‘‘We have been engaging them and they told us certain things to do and some of them are regulatory and we are working on them. When it comes to tourism arrivals, we want to be able to meet the target that we have set for next year December 2018, 1.5 million.’’

Achieving this is a tall order, as he tells you that ‘‘it is not an easy target that we have set for ourselves but we are being very aggressive and that is why we came to Akwaaba.

For five years or more we have never been here, Nigeria is our third largest market in terms of arrivals. We are engaging with Nigeria and in November we are coming to Lagos to have a Ghana Film Theatre Festival with Freedom Park. ‘‘We want to engage, so for us, one of the key yardsticks is the level of engagement with West Africa, the level of engagement with the big tourism operators and the level of engagement with our stakeholders back home.

Business Features B7

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21, 2017

What SEC might do to Oando parties after forensic audit

By Ugodre Obi-Chukwu The Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, on Wednesday issued instruction to the Nigerian Stock Exchange to place the shares of Oando Plc on technical suspension.

The exchange was further requested to place the stock on full suspension for 48 hours and then place it on technical suspension till further notice.

This is to allow SEC conduct a Forensic Audit that shall be handled by a consortium of experts made up of “auditors, lawyers, stockbrokers and Registrars.”

Oando Plc was reported to SEC by two of its shareholders, Gabriel Volpi and Alhaji Mangal over allegation that Wale Tinubu has mismanaged the firm, and are thus pushing for his removal from the board. We explained the debacle in this article.

The controversy surrounding the allegation grew louder a few weeks back, after the House of Rep waded in asking SEC to hurry up and conclude the investigation. It appears this may have played a part in this latest twist into the saga.

According to SEC, it has now decided to carry out a forensic investigation after it claimed it made the following findings amongst others; * Breach of the provisions of the Investments & Securities Act 2007 * Breach of the SEC Code of Corporate Governance for Public Companies * Suspected insider Dealing * Related party transactions not conducted at arm’s length * Discrepancies in the shareholding structure of Oando Plc. Etc SEC also claimed that it had powers under section 13(k), (n), (r) and (aa) of the ISA 2017, to enforce its statutory duties. Here is an excerpt of the sections; Section 13K Act in the public interest having regard to the protection of investors and the maintenance of fair and orderly markets and to this end establish a nationwide trust scheme to compensate investors whose losses are not cov-

GMD, OANDO Plc, Wale Tinubu ered under the investors protection funds administered by securities exchanges and capital trade points; Section 13 n Protect the integrity of the securities market against all forms of abuses including insider dealing; Section 13r Call for information from and inspect, conduct inquiries and audit of securities exchanges, capital market operators, collective investment schemes and all other regulated entities; Section aa Prevent fraudulent and unfair trade practices relating to the securities industry; Possible outcomes With these powers as enshrined in the ISA, SEC appears poised to take decisions that could impact on the corporate existence of Oando. Whilst we await SEC’s forensic audit and without prejudice to the outcome and

its subsequent decision, we have decided to give our readers our independent view of what the outcome of its investigation might lead to. Again, this is purely speculative as it is limited to the information that we currently have of this matter.

Force the board to resign – This is probably the most extreme action that could be taken after the forensic investigation is completed. It is a decision that can be considered as end of the road for the current directors of Oando. If SEC investigation concludes that insider trading and other allegation it listed holds true, it could decide that this happened under the watchful eyes of the board and as such they would have to resign.

Force the CEO and deputy to resign – SEC could pursue a less punitive measure by asking the CEO and some of the executive management personnel of the company to

resign. This of course is if its forensic investigation affirms its findings. While this exempts other board members from the hammer, they may also be compelled to exit following the embarrassment that this may cause.

Cracks at the top – It is also likely that the board and management of Oando may weigh its options amidst these allegations and thus decide that it is in the best interest of the company for the CEO and some of his executive management team to step aside pending the determination of the case. This scenario could play out if the pressure ramps, particularly from shareholders, creditors and their technical partners.

Banks stepping in to takeover the company – This may seem like an unlikely option but banks also have a say in what happens to this company. Seeing that their loans to the company may be at

risk, they could pile pressure on the board to take action against management pending the determination of the SEC investigation. This also gives them the level of comfort that ensures the business continues to run smoothly without the weight of a SEC investigation.

Ban Mangal and Volpi – Things could also go south for Alhaji Mangal and Volpi who may also be found culpable of flouting the ISA. You will recall that Oando has also accused Alhaji Mangal of not declaring that it owned over 5% of Oando, a statutory requirement for publicly quoted companies. Volpi’s could also be on the hook for its role in the shareholding structure of the company.

Ban all parties – The outcome of the investigation could also lead to an ugly scenario that could have SEC ban all parties involved in the allegation from ever participating in capital market activities or being on the board of any publicly quoted company. SEC has powers under its Code of Conduct for Capital Market Operators and their Employees as contained in the SEC Rules and Regulations made pursuant to the Investments and Securities Act 2007. It recently invoked these powers in the case of Partnership Investments Ltd. Reach an amicable solution with Volpi and Mangal – Perhaps with the National Assembly involved and lobbying from the powers that be, all parties can reach an amicable solution in the best interest of the company. In this scenario, the main parties in Oando, JAT and Mofe might hasten its debt repayment plan to Volpi, while also ceding a significant direct ownership in Oando to the Italian.

In return, all charges could be dropped.

Go to court – Either party, perhaps not satisfied with the outcome of the final ruling could drag SEC and the other party to court. This would likely be a very messy route for all parties, including shareholders of the company.

We also do not rule out a remote possibly that all this investigation may just amount to nothing. After all this is Nigeria.

Personal Finance B8

Daily Times Nigeria Saturday, October 21,2017

Multiple accounts regularis ation deadline & forfeiture Bonny Amadi 31st December 2017 represents important date in Nigerian capital market. The date has been fixed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as deadline for free –dividend mandate registration and also deadline for multiple account regularization.

Investor usually buy shares in the capital market either from the primary market or the secondary, market, it is ideal to understand primary and secondary market, multiple account and e-dividend mandate registration.

Primary market The primary market is where securities are created. It’s in this market that firms sell (float) new stocks and bonds to the public for the first time. For our purposes, you can think of the primary market as the market where an initial public offering (IPO) takes place.

IPO According to Investopedia, Initial public offering (IPO) or stock market launch is a type of public offering in which shares of a company usually are sold to institutional investors that in turn, sell to the general public, on a securities exchange, for the first time.

Through this process, a privately held company transforms into a public company. Initial public offerings are mostly used by companies to raise the expansion of capital, possibly to monetize the investments of early private investors, and to become publicly traded enterprises.

A company selling shares is never required to repay the capital to its public investors. After the IPO, when shares trade freely in the open market, money passes between public investors.

Secondary market The secondary market, also called the aftermarket, is the financial market in which previously issued financial instruments such as stock, bonds, options, and futures are bought and sold.

Understanding the primary market In the primary market where IPO is offered to investors ,details of the proposed offering are disclosed to potential purchasers in the form of a lengthy document known as a prospectus. Most companies undertake an IPO with the assistance of an investment banking firm acting in the capacity of an underwriter. Underwriters provide several services, includ-

Oscar Onyema, CEO NSE

Mounir Gwarzo, DG SEC ing help with correctly assessing the value of shares (share price) and establishing a public market for shares (initial sale). Alternative methods such as the Dutch auction have also been explored.

In terms of size and public participation, the two most notable examples of this method is the Google IPO and Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc. China recently emerged as a major IPO market, with several of the largest IPOs taking place in that country.

What is multiple registration?

When the Nigerian capital market was buoyant with increased number of retail local participants, IPOs are usually greeted with over subscription and in most cases funds are returned to some investors who were not given share allocation.

Yet some investors instead of buying with one IPO form, went ahead to apply or share subscription with different forms bearing different names. In some cases, the names are similar, while in other cases they names are dissimilar.

With the e-dividend registration and the Bank verification number, it was discovered that many shareholding accounts are traceable to one name, or account number even as they bear different names. The need to harmonize this discrepancies informed the multiple accounts regularization initiated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Multiple account regularization committee

The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC set up a committee to fix the deadline for account consolidation by investors who have multiple accounts which were part of the reasons why unclaimed dividend had risen to over N90 billion.

The committee is also expected to address all other issues of multiple accounts by investors.

“A committee has been set up as I said, we are working out the modalities; how a period of grace will be given to all investors who fall into this category so that they can amalgamate their accounts to sanitise the system” SEC DG said.

The committee came out with the relevant information which was presented to SEC, and this informed the grace period given by the market regulator for harmonization or regularization of multiple accounts.

Account consolidation Investors in the capital market who have multiple accounts in the system, through accounts consolidation, are made to fuse them into a single account.

“The SEC has set up a committee to look into the issues of multiple accounts and they are expected to recommend measures toward tackling the issues.” Mr. Joseph Mekiliuwa of the CSCS told Daily Times The account consolidation exercise encourages require shareholders to consolidate their accounts, hence it is better and cheaper to maintain fewer accounts for ease of tracking investments.

How multiple accounts

come about?

The SEC DG, Mounir Gwarzo TOLD Daily Times at the last CMC meeting in Lagos that multiple accounts usually arise from Initial Public Offering / Public Offering (IPO/PO) during which some investors applied for the IPOs by switching their names or using different variations of their names to acquire shares to beat the system that has placed a cap to every investor’s allotment.

“Sometimes, non -natural person’s names were used in different permutations with the implication that such accounts would become orphan accounts not tied to any living nor dead persons.

So, in the wisdom of SEC, NSE and CSCS and other stakeholders, a committee was set by SEC involving all stakeholders to work out the modalities for resolving such issues” a member of the committee said.

How to regularize multiple accounts To regularize multiple accounts, there are some relevant documents that would be required for evidence of purchase of the shares during the IPO. If possible, the photocopy of the IPO forms submitted at a point of purchase would be required.

Usually the investor submits the original form, but expected to be proactive by doing photocopy and perhaps sworn affidavit that you actually bought the shares at a time mentioned.”

Why multiple subscription holders may lose their investment The Securities Exchange Com-

mission (SEC) recently warned investors in the Nigerian Capital Market with multiple subscriptions, that they may forfeit their investment.

According to a circular from the SEC, “the Nigerian Capital Market cannot and should not be seen to reward the wrongful acts/illegality of the perpetrators. This was with a view to ensuring the global sustainability of the Nigerian Capital Market’s integrity and reputation” The Circular observed that one major source of unclaimed dividend remains the use of non-existent identity to make multiple subscriptions to public offers.

The Committee unanimously agreed that the action of submitting Multiple Applications for the same Public Offer was, in every consideration, illegal.

Also it was agreed that the wrongful acts were carried out, by the perpetrators, under false pretense, describing two groups of investors involved in multiple subscriptions.

In the first group, according to the report, investors actually existed but joggled their names in different forms to enable them purchase more than the permitted units of shares on offer, while, the second group was the class of investors that did not actually exist but used fictitious names for the purpose of purchasing more than the permitted number of shares during public offers. The report agreed that both groups had fraudulent intentions and their actions were collectively illegal.

v

Life&

TIMES Saturday, October 21, 2017

Why I sing about real life –Simi L2 & 3

P

Interview L2

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Love is the most universal thing –Simi She needs no further introduction in the entertainment industry;

Is this your debut or your sophomore album?

Does it mean that the success of an album depends on how many people you feature?

Looking at the album so far, what can you say about the reception?

foot by just featuring one person in your album?

So you featuring Adekunle Gold, is it a sort of pay back for the work he did on the album?

Your song Joromi explores a rare theme. Does it relate to your life?

Why did you switch to secular music?

Did you write all the songs yourself?

At that point you wanted to put out your album, was there no fear that these album will not make it at all?

Are you in a relationship?

Life&

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Interview L3

‘Why I sing about real life’ Although it is regarded as un-African, do you hints on a guy that she likes?

There is nothing wrong in showing a guy you like there is a limit that you should adhere to, not that

L4

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, October 21, 2017

L5

Society Circle L6

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Isaac Oguntoye

Chief Mrs Nkechi Obi mum’s Influence Chief Joko Oni’s whereabouts

Nkechi Obi

Chief Mrs Nkechi Obi (MON), who was the Executive Vice Chairman of Techno Oil and Gas, in the year 1998, is an astute business woman, whose doggedness nurtured Techno Oil, from an Exxo franchise and Lubricant product seller, to the fastest growing indigenous Oil

ber 15, 2017, Nkechi was invited as one of the keynote speaker at the National Company of the year competition organised for secondary school students across the country by Junior Achievement Nigeria

Popular gold merchant, Chief Mrs, Jokotade Oni is in the

The event was held at The Orchid hotel event centre, Lekki-Epe ex-

The aged socialites who has been away from the social scene for some time now leaving admirers wondering has

she mounted the podium to address the students and other attendee present at the event, her oratory prowess caught the attention of those

her success story to inoften say that; “If there words, she said; I started is one thing she despise business when I was in so much, it is the sight of people around her in During holidays, my mom would tell me to join “Nkechi would spare no cost in rendering as- gun market, where she

Over the years, she Reluctantly, I heeded to has always been in the forefront of champion- business today, I learnt it Today, Techno Oil can ing wealth creation and from that small shop with conveniently boast of women empowerment its annual revenue runmarket and today it has ning into over $400 Million with over 500 staff On Thursday, Octo-

Princess Toyin Kolade remembers mother one year after x

She took to her Facebook page, where she eulogized her late mother, one year since her passPrincess Toyin Kolade was at her hometown, to organise a small remembrance celebration for her late mother, who taught In her words, she said exactly one year ago that Toyin Kolade

Princess Toyin Kolade is a successful businesswoman and socialite, who has her hands in a lot of pies, such as Oil and Gas, interior decoration, real estate, maritime and hospitality, just to

Iya-laje as Toyin Kolade is popularly called, gathered the high and mighty of the Nigerian society, to her hometown in Ilesha, Osun state, on the 17 of October 2017, in celebration of the one year remembrance of her

that you are resting in d Continue to rest in eternal peace Iya daada, we love you but God loves to people out there for your continued prayers

around, it is not about her sudden disappearance from the social circle but her new found

It was said that, she spends most of her time -

Joko Oni

And her love for Dubai is not restricted to just the beauty and vibrancy of the city, but she has a church set up in Dubai and that has made her

traveling more frequentJoko Oni is a philanthropist who enjoy her social life and never joke with her business empire

Sir Olu Okeowo remains unruffled Sir Olu Okeowo, Chairman of Gibraltar Property has been around for some time doing what he knows standards, his a sucmerous estates and golf courses scattered around the world there is no gainsaying the fact that he is a big player in the property and real estate The shrewd businessman, is unarguably one of the best property merchants of He is known for a number of imposing properties scattered Very determined, the dark-skinned businessman has been globe-trotting lately to network with alities, while making efforts to expand his He has hosted two African presidents privately in his palace in to dazzle his competitors and delight his admirers, he works so hard and little wonder he also takes time to spoil himself with the successful man, people would like to bring you down, some traducers have been peddling ugly rumour about the internationally recognized businessman over his

Olu Okeowo

acquisitions, according to the rumour, it was alleged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has seized his numerous cars over some undone government contracts in his possessions, but a source revealed to us that the story is nothing but a lie from the pit of

from Government or their agencies to live or

does not do government

It was gathered that Okeowo has been highly focused, very industrious and had in the past worked so hard and made good money from such ventures, his assets and investments are from legitimate means that can be eas-

It was gathered that this was the handiwork of his detractors that would want to bring him down for their jealousy over his impressive and intimidating achieveThe doyen of philanthropy has been a renowned international property merchant for over three decades and has not secured contract from any branch of ”How people can go to any length to destroy aire

needs

contracts

That one builds the best of home and have in the garage the best of cars that money can afford, does not translate that such a person, who enjoys the best of life is a thief nor a govern-

He has also given out private scholarships and glasses to the years, he has touched almost forgot to add that he sends members of Gilbartar Orchestra abroad to learn more about music and to im-

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Society Circle L7

Isaac Oguntoye & Ajibade Alabi

Funmi Ajila Ladipo lofty dream for FADAN

Meets Mimiko’s mother

Call her one of the forerunners of the Nigerian fashion industry and you cause she is the creative head of foremost fashion one designer who despite having started out in the fashion industry at a time as recognized as it is today, has not only remained managed to successfully evolve to still remain at the er par excellence whose creativity and professionalism has continually distinguished her in several forays, it is little wonder that she emerged the President

her onions when it comes

of Nigeria

not given any chance what

will not leave anything unto demonstrate the es-

is schedule to hold at the Civic Centre , Victoria Is-

direction in youth empowerment and highlighting the

many years in a glamorous and star

a sawmill in Ondo was at the event

away and entertainment as

Aminat Omotayebi set for the next step Having her name amongst top Muslim singers in Nigeria and in -

Segun Oni’s kind gesture

cynosure of all eyes amongst Is-

Her way to stardom, the pains gards her musical career in few years to come

the world gun Oni Campaign Organisation

Gospel songstress, my songs and inspiration is from what I read in holy Quran and the teaching of inspires me and I love doing my

were selected from an open screen“I have so many people in mind He said that the screening was

Segun Oni

programme in one of the leading tertiary institutions in Brazil, South

decades has paid well and made -

Mixed Grill L8

Daily Times Nigeria

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Mutiat Alli

ROBAZ Entertainment will AU, AFRIMA unveils exciting events calendar nurture talents –Asiotu mogul-cum-label

owner,

revealed that one of the main reasons that spurred was his drive to give talented up-and-coming ar-

The African Union Commission, AUC and the International Committee of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) has unveiled some of the exciting programme of activities and performers billed for the AFRIMA 2017 main events to hold -

Asiotu further hinted that the new venture is not here to compete with plishment of his dream and love for music and

set to showcase live performances of over 40

thing meaningful out of this platform, in other to their lives through music and other area of enter-

-

skills, could be described came up with this platform, as one of the reasons be- ROBAZ Entertainment, an

gest awards event on the continent include the Africa Music Business Roundtable (AMBR) on sic executives, investors and artistes to chart a course for development towards the nurturing

-

and organisations will also showcase products and services at the 2017 AMBR exhibition with attendance subject to registration on the AFRIMA tendance for the music village will be activated Chairman of the Moshito Music Conference and

-

Adekunle Gold bares all on his new song ‘Money’

Asiotu

wealth of experience in promoting talents, a wellstructured management an place to make the initiative a force to be reckoned Asiotu, who believes in the prospect of the music

“The high rate of unem- produce the best of talents - and position them for the ing and unbearable, and I discovered that a lot of

at large, suggested that stakeholders can improve right promotions, as well as charged agencies saddled with the responsibil-

with diverse talents, in music, acting, and other businessman also highlighted that aside his

environment for artistes to allow them reap from the

Skales to Eedris Abdulkareem: Don’t insult us if you must give advice

x

that speaks volumes about the realities of

afford

all

the

good

This song was penned down as an outlet to voice out what affects In the first verse, Adekunle sings “Father

out, veteran singer Eedris Abdulkaon some members of the indus-

he referred to most of them as in-

corded live with the releases

his

latest

masterpiece off his urban highlife song

recession

for

where sage that opens up

singing about himself and not add-

colleagues also appear to be un-

-