DTN 1-5-2015

NSE GAINERS AND LOSERS AS AT 29th April 2015

EXCHANGE RATES AS AT 30th April 2015 Currency

Buying(NGN)

Central (NGN)

GAINERS

Selling(NGN)

LOSERS

US DOLLAR

196

196.5

197

NESTLE

950

10.00

1.05%

FO

177.65

-9.35

-5.26%

POUNDS STERLING

302.4476

303.2192

303.9907

DANGCEM

184.5

8.50

4.61%

7UP

162

-8.00

-4.94%

EURO

219.5004

220.0604

220.6203

GUINNESS

170

6.00

3.53%

GLAXOSMITH

55

-1.12

-2.04%

3.71%

FLOURMILL

35.74

-0.51

-1.43%

SWISS FRANC

209.4465

209.9808

www.facebook.com/dailytimesngr

210.5151

https://twitter.com/DailyTimesNGR

NB

157.01

https://plus.google.com/+DailytimesNgr/posts

NIGERIA

ABUJA Low 25°C High 37°C

5.83

dailytimesng

FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015 VOL. 1. NO.98

ENUGU Low 26°C High 37°C

KANO Low 25°C High 47°C

LAGOS

Low 26°C High 34 °C

MAIDUGURI Low 29°C High 45°C

N150

P/HARCOURT Low 23°C High 34°C

Igbinedion’s brother gets N3m fine for N25b crime Titus Akhigbe Benin

•••

For a second time, the Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion family has received what may be described as a slap in the wrist despite being convicted for corruption.

Michael Igbinedion was on Thursday handed a N1 million fine on each of a three-count charge of money laundering by Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court sitting in Benin, Edo State.

His accomplice and former Accountant General of the state, Mr. Patrick Eboigbodin, was sentenced to two years imprisonment, without an option of fine, in a 10-count conviction that will run concurrently.

Michael’s elder brother and former Governor of the state, who was similarly convicted in 2008, was CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

•Co-accused jailed 20 years

Former Ogun State governor and one-time Managing Director of Daily Times, Chief Olusegun Osoba (right); Publisher of Daily Times, Mr. Fidelis Anosike (2nd left); Chief Commercial Officer of Daily Times, Mr. Doyin Awomosu; and his bride, Ufuoma; at their traditional wedding in Ikoyi, Lagos... on Thursday

Troops raid 13 more camps in Sambisa forest

APC accuses FG of g4 hindering smooth g25 transition Jonathan: PDP defectors’ll return with empty stomachs g6

Bullion van kills Okada rider in Ogun g 5

2

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

3

Politics Page Three Æ s Editorial Choosing Buhari’s cabinet

C

ome May 29, the country would witness the change of leadership baton from President Goodluck Jonathan to President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari(rtd), following the latter’s victory at the last presidential election on March 28.

Definitely, one of the most looked-out for indicators to the seriousness or otherwise of the new administration in confronting the country’s many problems will be the composition of the federal cabinet.

Even when it still remains a closely guarded secret, such issue has become a subject of intense speculative debate.

This is not unusual, given that Nigerians clamoured for change, especially after 16 years of being governed by a political party and administrations that many saw as being out of tune with the prevailing times.

No one doubts the sincerity of the new government to turn the country’s fortune for good. However, it would take more than good intentions and dreaming to achieve the desired results. One of the high points of the presidential system of government is the freedom it gives the Chief Executive to choose those he or she will work with without encumbrances of party dictates.

What it means is that a President can go beyond his political party to bring into the cabinet those in his or her judgments are capable of delivering on government promises. That is why we are calling on President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari not to renege on the promise to employ those technocrats capable of making all the difference in

the quest to install good governance.

In doing so, we are not unmindful of the fact that he owes some consideration to his party being the platform, which he rode to power. However, such considerations should not trounce the need to seek out capable hands outside his party to occupy cabinet positions.

Such diligent search is imperative in view of his vow to make the cabinet lean and responsive. Buhari should demonstrate the ability and foresight to move Nigeria forward by avoiding any temptation to fill his cabinet with deadwoods out of compensation. This is not time for undeserved political patronage.

Given the depth of the nation’s problems, we expect he brings aboard those to assist and guide him in crucial decision-making process. Importantly, all key ministries must be manned by those with thorough knowledge and understanding of how those institutions could be leveraged to turn the country’s battered fortunes around in the shortest possible period.

There is no gainsaying the first 100 days in office would be crucial to assessing the administration by Nigerians. How he goes about instilling confidence in the system will be a function of the ability of those in his cabinet. He should therefore shun all tardiness and even pressures from his party’s powerful barons, if ever he is to succeed in the arduous tasks ahead.

In all, whether he will fill his cabinet with recycled sycophants, political hangers-on, praise singers or astute thinkers and visionaries will depend on him. However, he must have an eye on prosperity.

More info: www.dailytimes.com.ng https://plus.google.com/+DailytimesNgr/posts https://twitter.com/DailyTimesNGR

Service men: Who’ll watch the watchers?

Sam Nzeh

•••

For some time now, the behaviour of a growing number of the personnel of the nation’s security forces - the military, police and para- military organisations, has brought shame to the institutions and also painted them black in the eyes of the public who they exist to serve.

Just last Wednesday, one of such incidents was reenacted in Lagos, when a female police inspector attached to the Airport Police Command and identified as Mrs. Florence Anih, was reportedly slapped by a Ni-

gerian Air Force Lance Corporal, identified as Friday Zadiel, at a filling station along the Murtala Mohammed Airport road, Ikeja.

On January 20, 2015, a yet-to-be identified air force officer attached to the office of the Commandant, Airport Command, Group Captain, Victor Ajiboye, was also reported to have slapped a Chief Superintendent of Police, Felicia Victor.

In August 2014, two military officers, identified as Hilary and Sheu Abdullahi, died after a brutal clash at a popular night club on Pen Crescent, Apapa area of Lagos. The two officers had disagreed on the propriety of allowing the girlfriend of one of them who wore a

Words On Marble :

dailytimesng

military outfit into the club.

The disagreement resulted in a fight which consumed both officers.

These incidents are just a fraction of the high number of the nation’s security personnel who vent their anger on fellow service men at the least provocation and in the glare of the public.

These incidents are unbecoming and worrisome.

So, they must be brought to an end soonest. The high commands of these security services must to do something quick to whip personnel under them into line. All officials of these services must realise that their institutions thrive on discipline and decorum which must be upheld in any circumstance.

STATEMENTS BY THOSE WHO MATTER

www.facebook.com/dailytimesngr

Publisher

Fidelis Anosike

Group Managing Director

Editor, Standard, Archives and Special projects

Associate Editors

Tunji Okegbola

Isime Esene Remi Ogunkoya

Chief Commercial Officer

Editorial Director

Group News Editor

Group Managing Editor

Deputy Editors

Editorial Page Editor

Noel Anosike

Doyin Awomosu

Gabriella Osamor

Editor

Yinka Olujimi

Chude Jideonwo Yemi Ogunsola Sam Nzeh

Acting Bureau Chief, Northern Operations Lateef Ibrahim

Segun Adio Okay Osuji

Sports Editor

Andrew Ekejiuba

Head of Operations Innocent Nwankwo

Online Editor

Adetayo Adelaja

Business Editor

Albert Einstein

Maya Angelou

Desmond Tutu

Head ICT (Shared Services) Banjo Ayorinde

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes.

When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.

Emmanuel Ogbonnaya

Head Graphics King Ododoru

The opinions expressed in the articles published in this newspaper are solely those of the authors. Articles may be reproduced, provided that the original source is indicated.

News 4

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Igbinedion’s brother fined, co-accused jailed Continued from page 1 given an option of fine of N3.6 million.

Lucky, who attended that court in Enugu in the company of aides, paid the fine within minutes after the verdict. He was driven away in a white Peugeot 307 marked Nasarawa AG 16 NSW, a free man.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which prosecuted the former Governor appealed the judgement.

On Thursday, Justice Liman also pronounced that the sixth accused in the latest trial, PMI Security Nigeria Limited, a corporate body, be wound down and its asset forfeited to the government.

Before Thursday’s sentence was passed, the counsel to the first and second accused presented their briefs where they pleaded for leniency for their clients.

The counsel pleaded for an option of fine rather than jail term for their clients.

Chief Richard Ahonanuogho, who represented Eboigbodin, the first accused, said that although the relevant punishment for the

offence is jail term, the court also had the discretion to impose fine.

He argued that no money was traced to the personal benefit of the accused and as such, deserved a lighter punishment.

“He has shown complete remorseful, not only during the trials but at all times,” the lawyer said, adding: “He will never, if given the second chance commit the same offence again. This appeal for leniency also became necessary from the length of time the accused has been on trial.”

He also urged the court to apply the principle of suspended sentence if it was necessary.

Alhaji Abubakar Shamsuddeen, who represented Igbinedion, told the court that the plea for leniency became necessary since his client had no previous criminal record.

He admitted that the punishment for the offence for which his client was convicted was punishable by a jail term of not less than two years and not more than three years. But the lawyer urged the court to note that the offender had been remorseful and repentant. He therefor called for an op-

PHOTOS OF FORMER SAMBISA CAPTIVES AND THE WAR FRONT, RELEASED BY MILITARY AUTHORITIES... ON THURSDAY

tion of fine.

Shamsudeed told the court that a fine was appropriate since the essence of punishment was to rehabilitate rather than destroy.

He also argued that the accused was only a victim of the system which allowed payment by cash as at that time.

However, the EFCC counsel, Mr Tayo Olukotun, objected to the plea for fine. He told the court that an option of fine being canvassed by the accused was not justifiable.

He argued that the trial was not all about the accused but the state as well as the man on the street of Edo. Justice Liman had on Wednesday convicted the duo of 10 and three counts respectively.

The accused persons and four others were tried for N25bn money laundering charges.

The offences were committed during the tenure of Igbinedion as Edo State Governor between 1999 and 2007.

The trial which has been on for over three years now have suffered several postponements of judgment.

Troops capture 13 camps in Sambisa • Olukolade urges patience over identities of freed girls, women

Lateef Ibrahim Abuja

•••

The Defence headquarters on Thursday confirmed that over 13 strongholds of Boko Haram members, including the notorious Tokumbere camp in Sambisa forest, have been captured by Nigerian troops.

He added that several other camps have been overrun and destroyed.

Some of the destroyed camps, according to the Director of Defence Information, Major-General Chris Olukolade, include, Wulari Bukar, Gangala, Anguwar

APC lawmakers shun peace parley with Fayose

Bakwai, Jigide, Kotorima, Lagura Bello and Lagina Fulani.

Major-General Olukolade, who addressed journalists yesterday, further disclosed that several field commanders and foot soldiers of the terrorist group had died, while several weapons belonging to the terrorists had been destroyed.

These include armoured personnel carriers, Bufallo vehicles mounted with Anti-Aircraft guns, a truck and several Hilux vehicles.

While stating that the true identities of some of the women and girls rescued from the ter-

rorists this week were yet to be ascertained, Olukolade pointed out that the priority at the moment is their movement to a conducive place where they are now undergoing thorough profiling. The military authorities are working on verifying where the rescued people come from and how they found themselves in the forest, among others.

The Army chief vowed that the momentum of the operation being carried out by the troops in Sambisa will be sustained until the forest is comprehensively cleaned out and all Nigerians held captive there are rescued.

Gbenga Sodeinde

planned to get them arrested at the venue.

Fayose won the Governorship election on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Other legislators from his party, in the outgoing Assembly, recently claimed to have impeached the APC Speaker and purported to have appointed another Speaker, who is a PDP member, despite being minority.

Ado Ekiti

•••The peace meeting called by

eminent lawyer, Chief Afe Babalola, between Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, and the 19 legislators on the platform of the All Progressives Party (APC) failed yesterday.

It was shunned by the lawmakers who alleged that the Governor

At exactly 11am, Chief Babalola was already seated with other Ekiti elders like Chief Deji Fasuan, the Secretary of YCE, Dr kunle Olajide, and the former Minister of National Planning, Chief Ayo Ogunlade to receive the parties.

Shortly after, the PDP Speaker, Dele Olugbemi and his other colleagues arrived with Governor Fayose who also came with his entourage to the meeting which

dragged for more than two hours.

Security around the Afe Babalola University, the venue of the meeting, was tight as heavily armed policemen and officials of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) numbering about 300, led by the Commissioner of Police Joshua Ibine, and DSS Duke Fubara were seen battle-ready to ensure safety as directed by the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase.

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Pandemonium in Abeokuta as bullion van crushes motorcyclist ••• There was fierce protest

Commuters stranded due to fuel scarcity at the Berger bus stop, Lagos… on Thursday Photo: BOLAJI OLASUNKANMI

However, rather than take to the plea of the police officer, the protesters went wild and starting throwing pebbles at every passing vehicles and innocent citizens.

An eyewitness account reported further that the presence of more policemen angered the protesters who became wilder

in their actions. It took the intervention of a team of soldiers who calmed the frayed nerved.

However, further pandemonium occurred following gunshots and teargas used to scare away the protesters. This also forced many banks and shops to hurriedly closed businesses, while passersby and residents of the

Don’t attempt to bribe us – Ogun tribunal warns politicians, lawyers Nkiru Nwagbo, Awka

•••The

National and State Houses of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Thursday, began with a stern warning to politicians not to attempt to influence its decisions in any way.

Also, the Tribunal had granted the Ogun East Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the March 28 National Assembly elections, Prince Dapo Abiodun, leave to inspect the Independent National Electoral Commission documents used during the conduct of the polls in the area.

The tribunal vowed to vehemently resist attempts by anyone to bribe or compromise its members throughout the duration of

Ebonyi cholera death toll wrises to 25 Jacob Mbam, Abakaliki

•••

The death toll arising from cholera outbreak, in Ebonyi State, has so far risen to twenty five.

The State Director of Public Health and Disease Control, Ministry of Heath, Abakaliki, Dr. Christian Achi, made this known to journalists in Abakaliki, the state capital.

He said 256 persons had been affected by the epidemic and are hospitalised in various hospitals in the state, since the outbreak in February this year, and had spread to seven out of the thirteen local government areas in the state.

He traced the outbreak to Amachi community, in Abakaliki Local Government Area.

He said twenty-two persons who had died as a result of the disease resorted to self-medication and warned the residents against the scourge.

Abiodun Taiwo, Abeokuta in Oke Ilewo area of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, yesterday, as a hit and run bullion van belonging to one of the new generation banks knocked down a motorcyclist, killing him on the spot.

The development immediately trigger a violent reaction from the deceased’s colleagues resulting in many residents and passersby running helter-skelter for dear lives.

The incident occurred at Opic roundabout in Oke-Ilewo area of the town, when the bullion van, supposedly on top speed, rammed into the motorcyclist.

The driver of the van, rather than wait, sped off the scene immediately leaving the corpse beside the road.

The sad news spread like wildfire in the town, attracting several commercial motorcyclists across the town to protest the killing, insisting that Governor Ibikunle Amosun should come and carry the corpse.

The Police Area Commander, who arrived at the scene shortly afterwards, pleaded with the protesters over their stand that the governor should come and pick the corpse.

5 News

its sittings.

It appealed to the litigants, politicians and their agents to do their jobs and refrain from attempting to influence them “by whatever means, whatsoever.”

The Chairman of the threeman Tribunal, Justice Ebiowei Tobi, warned that it would have zero-tolerance for corruption.

In his inaugural speech on behalf of the two other members, Justice Adekunle Lawal and Hon. Quadi Adamu Usman, made in court to petitioners and their couinsels, including the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Abimbola Akeredolu, Tobi stressed that they were not ready to “mortgage” their conscience.

He advised politicians, their lawyers and others not to allow themselves to be deceived by any-

area took to their heels while motorists were seen making a quick detours.

Speaking to journalists at the scene of the incident, Ogun State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi said the runaway driver had been arrested, while the bullion van had been detained.

Aviation union seeks more roles for women in unionism Chukwuemeke Iwelunmo

•••Nigerian workers have been

Amosun

one into believing that they could reach to the tribunal with a view to influencing its decisions.

Said Tobi: “We are here in Ogun State to carry out this assignment with the fear of God, impartially and zero tolerance for corruption, in any way it presents itself, expressly or disguised, in whatever form. Apart from seeing this assignment as a national assignment, we also see it as a divine assignment.

advised to educate and organise themselves, as well as give women greater roles in unionism, so that they could be relevant in the emerging labour market.

The advice was given, on Thursdaty, by Comrade Abiodun Aremu, at the first annual PreMay Day Seminar organised by the leaders of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE).

Aremu, who delivered a paper at the seminar noted that the changing work environment had called for better education , organisation and a need to give women greater and more demanding roles in unionism.

Govt summons Indonesian envoy over executions •••The recent execution of four

Nigerian drug convicts by the Indonesian government was on Thursday condemned by the Federal Government.

The government’s position was made known to the Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Harry Purwanto, who was summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Nigeria faulted the execution on the ground that both countries enjoy a “robust relationship.”

The execution of the Nigerians, and four other nationals was carried out on Tuesday in spite of appeals from the international community, including the United Nations (U.N).

The convicts who were executed by firing squad were Jamiu Owolabi Abashin, 50, Martin Anderson, 50, Okwudili Oyatanze, 41, and Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, 47.

But Purwanto told the Ministry that the executions followed due process as the convicts were allowed to explore all legal avenues.

Purwanto met with the Undersecretary, Economic and Consular Affairs Department of the Ministry, Amb. Bokunolu Onemola.

But Purwanto defended the executions in an interview with journalists after the meeting. He said: “There was nothing we could do for those four Nigerians because every legal process was completed and only then did the government of Indonesia implement the decision of the court”.

News 6

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Jonathan: PDP defectors ‘ll come back with empty stomachs •Queries polls results in the North, as Uba, Nenadi weep Egena Egena Abuja

•••President

Goodluck Jonathan yesterday warned members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who might be contemplating defecting to the incoming governing party, the All Progressives Congress, (APC) to better shelve such plans as their expectations would be dashed sooner than later.

The President said that those who had already defected to the APC with the hope to be patronized by the APC would get the shocker of their lives and return to PDP hungrier than when the left.

Jonathan made the assertions on Thursday at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja when he received the report of the 2015 PDP Presidential Campaign Organization.

As he spoke, the Founder of the Transformation Agenda of Nigeria (TAN), Dr Ifeanyi Uba burst into tears and was guided out of the meeting room at the new Banquet Hall.

Uba was also joined by former Minister of Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman in the weeping.

President Jonathan emphasised that it would be better for members of the party to stay put, and reposition the PDP and strategise for the next general election.

He expressed misgivings in the performance of PDP in some states, especially the northern part of the country, but advised the party members to let bygones be bygone and plan ahead for future political contests.

He said: “Ffor PDP, I always say that you don’t need to go to Amer-

icans to know how they moved from Democrats to Republican and so on...you can even come to Ghana very close to us. The present administration lost election some eight years back and it came back.

“The issue is how do we reconsolidate our party and we are committed and work hard, PDP will come back stronger.

“PDP is still the dominant party. If you look at the result, the difference is two point something (million) votes. If you look at areas where it appears that the PDP scored so low, PDP cannot get that kind of result.

“But the elections are over, the country remains. It is not as if Jonathan alone made the sacrifice. It is all of us. I just made the pronouncement. Some people here paid more sacrifice than I did.”

Jonathan spoke further: “I know how some of you are already being persecuted. I know how much was involved. The key thing is that as a party we must continue to unite and work hard so that as we go into the subsequent elections in 2019, PDP would be able to come up stronger.

Even in the interest of the nation, we need PDP. “Though we have lost the presidential, National Assembly and governorship elections massively in the northern part of the country, PDP is still the dominant party.

“Let us not judge PDP by the result of the presidential election. Our duty is to go back and identify those areas. PDP is still the most organised party that nobody owns. I encourage members of our party to remain and not be

disillusioned just because we lost presidential election and decide to go to where they think they will feed their stomachs or something.

It is not easy, I have been here for over five years and you can hardly satisfy 50 percent of those who worked for you. So, these people who are running, some of them are already carpet-crossing, they will come back with empty stomachs because they would touch the primary members of their party before they would look at you, the peripheral, because they know you are coming because you think there is food. Before it will get to you, the food will be gone. So let us be committed to PDP.” President Jonathan disclosed that though he did not consult with PDP chieftains before call-

ing General Muhammadu Buhari to concede defeat, he made the call on behalf of all.

Speaking earlier, Chairman BoT of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih who eulogised Jonathan for taking the path of peace and stability of the country said though the ruling party lost the election, it won peace and the heart of Nigerians.

The Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization, Dr Amodu Ali, who presented the two-volume report to Jonathan, stated that it was disheartening that PDP lost the March 28 Presidential election.

He added, however, that the president made the world proud despite other options, by promptly conceding defeat.

Jonathan “You brought Nigeria back from the precipice. It was Nigeria that won. PDP will emerge stronger and wiser.”

PDP defectors story that Uba and Nenadi wept over Jonathan’s defeat in the presidential election and that Uba is said to have invested heavily in the project.

Special Assistant to the President on Amnesty Program, Mr. Kingsley Kuku (right) addressing the media after the meeting with the Leaders of Ijaw Youths in Abuja… on Thursday. With him are President of Ijaw Youths Council, Com. Udengs Eradiri and President Ijaw National Congress, Chief Jephchah Kalaiti.

Mu’azu not under pressure to resign, says PDP

•••Contrary to reports in a sec-

tion of the media (Daily Times not included), the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu is not under any pressure to resign.

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the party made this clarification on Thursday, in reaction to the report that Governors on the platform of the PDP have asked the National Chairman and his team to resign, having led the party to a failure in the last general election.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a press statement on Thursday said that neither the

PDP Governors’ Forum nor any other organ of the PDP had made any such demand as reported.

He said that Mu’azu and his team enjoyed the confidence of key stakeholders in the party, including the PDP Governors’ Forum.

The statement read: ”The NWC was never asked to resign by the forum of governors or any other organ of the party for that matter.

“For the avoidance of doubt therefore, the NWC states that at no time was the National Chairman of our great party, Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu walked out of the meeting of the governors, neither was he in any way ill-treated at

that meeting contrary to reports in some section of the media.

“To put the records straight, our National Chairman upon invitation by the governors, attended the meeting alongside our Deputy National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus and National Legal Adviser, Barr. Victor Kwon and left after a brief and fruitful discussion with the governors. Mu’azu was not at any time asked to resign and nothing close to such was ever insinuated at the meeting.

“For purposes of clarification, the National Working Committee as a duly elected organ of the party has a constitutionally guaranteed tenure which expires in March

2016. It is therefore focused on galvanizing every organ and interests within the PDP with a view to reengineering it for the task ahead.

“To this end, the NWC is currently working hand in hand with strategic stakeholders, including PDP governors towards repositioning our great party and regaining power at the center by 2019.

“In this regard, the National Working Committee in its meeting on Wednesday April 29, 2015 constituted a special committee under the chairmanship of the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu. The committee membership is drawn from all the key stakeholders of the party, in-

cluding members of the forum of governors.

“Furthermore, the NWC states that it holds the PDP Governors’ Forum in very high esteem, especially its Chairman, Governor Godswill Akpabio, who has worked assiduously for the progress of the party.

“Finally, the NWC restates that it enjoys the confidence and respect of all our organs and structures across board, particularly the PDP governors who individually and collectively appreciate that the supremacy of the party is more important than anything else at this point in time.”

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

7 News

90% internet access in Nigerians via mobile devices- Expert Opeoluwani Akintayo

•••

President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) (2nd right) in handshake with mother of former Governor of Abia State, Chief (Mrs.) Eunice Uzor Kalu, during the visit of Imo State delegation to Buhari at the Defence House in Abuja… on Thursday. With them are Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha (right) and others.

Army chief vows to end insurgency Segun Adio

•••Chief of Army Staff (CAOS),

Lieutenant General Kenneth Minimah, on Thursday, reiterated the military’s determination to end insurgency in the country.

Gen. Minimah made this vow at the commissioning of the newly refurbished 81 Division Officers’ Mess built by the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Tamunomeibi Dibi.

He said, “Never again will Nigeria walk this path where insurgency and terrorism will come to redefine our oneness and unity as a nation and bring the Nigerian Army to a low level of concern to its own.

UNILAG VC to Buhari:

Consolidate on Jonathan’s strides in education

“We will continue to push in major operations in the fight against insurgency to a close. It is achievable and we are working towards that.

“It is our wish that we find them (Chibok girls). It’s just one of the camps that were destroyed that we found that number of Nigerians.

“I am sure that as we edge further into the forest, we will begin to capture more camps. We pray that we rescue more people. Every Nigerian looks forward to this.

“Let me commend the efforts of our gallant officers and soldiers who continue to make enormous sacrifices to ensure that Nigeria

remains a safe, united and stable country.

“I wish to reassure all Nigerians that the Nigerian Army will continue to do what is in the interest of the nation in pursuant of our constitutional roles.

“We will always rise to the occasion wherever and whenever duty calls. We will not fail Nigeria and Nigerians.

“May I express our profound thanks to President Goodluck Jonathan for his unwavering support for the Nigerian Army, who has in various ways, particularly his morale boosting visits to the North-east operational theatre, demonstrated unique leadership and solidarity.”

Sam Nzeh

Chairman of UNILAG Governing Council, Deacon Gamaliel Onosode and General Theophilus Danjuma (retd).

Danjuma was conferred with Doctor of Science while Onosode and Adeboye were conferred with Doctor of Letters and Doctor of Science respectively.

Bello, who lauded President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for support towards education in the country, charged Buhari to tread the path to revitalisation of education through completing the implementation of the Needs Assessment Funding programme.

“We like to also draw attention of the incoming government to the need for a funding mecha-

••• The President-elect, Gener-

al Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) has been urged to consolidate on the gains recorded in the nation’s higher education sector under the outgoing administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos, UNILAG, Professor Rahamon Bello, gave the advice on Thursday at the grand finale of the 2013/2014 Convocation of the institution, where three eminent personalities among others bagged honourary doctorate degrees.

They are the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, immediate past

An ICT expert has hinted that 90 percent of internet access in Nigeria is through mobile devices.

MTN’s General Manager, Consumer Marketing, Mr. Richard Iweanoge, said on Thursday, during the launch of the company’s new app called, the APPtitude campaign, held at the Best Western hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.

According to Mr Iweanoge, only few Nigerians own laptop devices through which they access the internet, hence, the preference for mobile phone internet browsing.

The APPtitude campaign is geared towards the urgent need to simplify access to the internet in order to grow uptake and consumption.

Iweanoge, who hinted that the MTN APPtitude campaign, is

a buildup on the Better Me app introduced earlier in the year, declared that the app will expose Nigerians to the power of the internet to make them better people.

“MTN is proud to announce to you that the democratisation of the internet created by the people and for the people is here. The app is what everybody can use whether you are literate or illiterate. It’s free depending on which area you are interested in,” Iweanoge said.

Through APPtitude, MTN subscribers can download free apps of their interests from a pool of apps gathered by the telecommunication company.

Consumers can download apps ranging from sports, to entertainment, socials, religion, news, media, banking, using zero-rated access. APPtitude apps can be downloaded starting from May 1 to May 30.

BCI educates working mothers on security Emmanuel Ogbonnaya As the spate of child kidnapping reaches alarming rate in Lagos, a firm, Background Check International (BCI), will today flag off a national awareness and sensitisation event among working mothers in Nigeria.

The company said the event with the theme: “Averting the Rising Spate of Child Kidnapping in Nigeria”, also forms part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the country.

The Managing Director of the company, Mr Kola Olugbodi, told Daily Times, that the inaugural seminar will be coming up at the

Lagos Chamber of Commerce (LCCI) Conference and Exhibition Centre, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos by 11am.

Olugbodi said the awareness campaign will further be taken around major cities of Nigeria, adding that his firm, BCI, believes that education can help dust off the ignorance making the populace fall prey to kidnappers.

“Our strategy is to make those that will attend the seminars go back to their workplaces and communities and enlighten others on the causes, effects and future implications of kidnapping in any society”, the BCI managing director noted.

nism that will insulate higher education in Nigeria from fluctuations of the Nigeria economy,” he advised.

The UNILAG VC said this is the only way universities can become stable and maximally contribute positively to the economic development of the nation.

The grand finale of the convocation ceremony witnessed the awards of postgraduate diplomas, Masters and Doctor of Philosophy degrees to a total of 4,764 persons. Professor Olayide Mojeed Abass, Professor Francis Fajemirokun and Professor Soga Sofola, all retired professors of the university were also conferred with emeritus professorship.

Bello, who was elated with the feat achieved by the institution, said: “University of Lagos is gradually becoming a postgraduate university”, adding, “45 per cent of our graduating students are with higher degrees.”

Furthermore, Bello revealed that the institution produced 103 Ph.Ds, asserting that many of the Ph.D holders will be able to fill the yawning gap in the newly established universities across the country.

In his remark, titled “The Mathematics of Greatness”, Pastor Adeboye, who expressed delight at the honour by the university, said “God is sovereign because He only can promote from the lowest to the highest.”

•••

8

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Politics Saheed Popoola

Æs

Politics Editor: Akinjide Akintola E-mail: akinjide.akintola@dailytimes.com.ng

POPOOLA Why Saraki should be Senate President

Prince Saheed Popoola is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State. He spoke with KEHINDE AKINPELU on national issues.

Excerpts: How do you see the recent general election won by your party?

When I was the only Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chairman in the whole 16 local government areas of the state, we did our best for the council

SIR OLANIWUN AJAYI @ 90

and we ensured that we were focused. Instead of us jumping from one party to the other, we remained in the defunct ACN. We believed that one day opposition party would wrest power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that is what has actually happened.

Thank God the likes of the state leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bukola Saraki and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed joined APC. I was the first person in

the whole federation to be on the platform of APC to contest election. We started victory for APC in the whole country.

Thank God for the people of Offa, Offa local government area that stood by us and they are still standing by us. I want to also say that if not for the coming on board of Senator Saraki and the governor of the state to APC, we couldn’t have attained the level the party is today in the state.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

How Buhari can carve his name in gold Elder statesman, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi is one of the few surviving close associates of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. At 90, he is still saddened about events in Nigeria particularly about the inability to achieve the dreams of the founding fathers. In this interview with POLITICAL EDITOR, AKINJIDE AKINTOLA, he regrets and he is disappointed at the turn of events in Nigeria and expresses the fear of the unknown with the emergence of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as President-elect. But he is optimistic that if Buhari behaves like a patriot as he claims, then Nigeria would be saved from collapsing. Excerpts: Congratulations sir, on your 90th birthday. How do you feel at 90 considering the situation in the country?

I feel very happy and very thankful to God for sparing my life for that length of time. Of course, that I’m alive is a great privilege and a rear grace and I feel very happy.

It is noteworthy that at 90, you are still agile in your walk while your memory is still intact; what is the secret?

The secret is the grace of God. In any case, what is man without the help of God? What is man without the mercy of God? Be-

cause man basically is a sinner; man commits sins, iniquities, here and there but God is so merciful and for a person like myself, he spared my life and with all the best things of this life which He has given unto me; for me, these are things I should be profoundly grateful to God and indeed, I am grateful to God. From your own wealth of experience, how do you want to advise our incoming leaders?

We have been doing that and we shall continue to do it. And that is that we should acknowledge the fact that Nigeria is not properly constructed. The book I’ve just published is titled: ‘Political Power Imbalance in Nigeria’; because the political power in Nigeria is so imbalanced, therefore, we have not been running our lives correctly and properly.

Take for example, the presidential candidate whom we voted recently, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. I pray that God Almighty will uphold him and prepare him and be with him to run the affairs properly, correctly and in the overall interest of Nigeria and not in the interest of a section of the country. And of course, the things that he should promote is the sort of conference CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

Ajayi

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

9

My regrets over Nigeria –Ajayi CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

that was convoked by President Goodluck Jonathan between March and August last year, the Confab. That was the first time when a conference to examine the problems of Nigeria was held. The one of 2005 convoked

by General Obasanjo was just for his own personal purpose.

And I think, being a man of advanced age, the President-elect who is 72 now, I think he should sit down and ask himself: why is it that Nigeria, having been independent for the past 55 years and yet lags behind other countries which were at the same stage of development as Nigeria in 1960?

Countries like China, Brazil, India, USSR- these were the countries that attained the same level of development as Nigeria but they are now ahead of Nigeria.

Why is it that we are not developing? Why is it that our boys and girls still go to other countries to look for greener pastures at very great risks? See what is happening in Indonesia now? See what is happening in South Africa? Our boys and girls who are between the ages of 20-25; when they get to England or America for studies they settle down and they don’t want to come back because the atmosphere here is not conducive to proper learning. In any case, what do we have to learn from Indonesia? The Presidentelect should sit down, think deeply how he could help this country to find peace, stability, progress and advancement.

The way to do it calls for only one answer which is to grant each nationality in this country, self determination like the south east, south south, south west or north central, north west and north east. Grant them

self determination.

Does he have the power to do that?

He does not but he should promote it. Jonathan did with the Confab, Buhari should also convoke it and see it through to take care of all our problems. We have so many problems.

What about the last Confab report you were also a member and which many have applauded and recommended for Buhari; can he implement what he knew nothing about?

Its government’s report. He can’t say he knows nothing about the Constitution of the country, therefore I’m not going to follow the Constitution. Its government document. There are some of them which can be done administratively, there are some of them which will receive the attention of the national assembly. These are the things he should watch because failure to do it, sooner or later, Nigeria would get into serious trouble; Nigeria may suffer the same fate as Yugoslavia and this is what we are trying to avoid and Nigeria should be made to realize the problem of Czechoslovakia, the problem of Belgium, USSR and how these problems were solved. USSR had so many countries either by war or otherwise constituted USSR but the people at a time asked for self determination but the authorities of Russia would not grant such request and what followed was war with the result that what used to be a very huge country some years ago is now a country of 25 units. In the case of Czechoslovakia Republic, the Czechs and Slovaks have been together for centuries but

Ajayi

“We don’t want to go into conflict, we don’t want Nigeria to explode, because if this happens, we would overrun the whole of West Africa. The whole of West Africa will be flooding with refugees, this is what we want to avoid.”

in the late 80s Slovaks said they want to be on their own. Then the agitations and movements grew and grew and ultimately, the Slovaks went to parliament and their parliament passed a law that they should separate from Czechs and that their leaders should take steps to convince the leaders of Czechs to do the same so that they could amicably separate without any brouhaha. Then the leaders of Czechs saw the reasonableness in their being separate and they too passed the same law; so the two went their separate ways even though in the finality of the whole events, the Slovaks suffered as their administration was wobbling because they were very corrupt and very weak eco-

Politics nomically. But then they were running their own affairs and after some time, they would overcome their problems. Today, both of them are at peace. In the case of Yugoslavia, all through the years, their leaders had resisted agitations that each nationality should have self determination.

The last thing was that in the 80s, the late Joseph Tito who was a retired soldier stood his ground that self determination be granted to each of the units. But he died and the people started what we did, they were meeting, trying to find solutions to their problems but they couldn’t agree because some people were benefiting from the irregular nature of the country. They were benefiting just as here. And of course what followed was war. They started to kill one another and that took place for nearly 10 years. Their last leader was arrested about five years ago and he was the last leader to be arrested; others had been arrested and dealt with in The Hague. I think he is still under trial in The Hague. He was one of the people who conducted what is called ethnic cleansing, inhuman things. If the pleas of these ethnic nationalities had been answered, that wouldn’t have happened. This is what we are trying to avoid here.

We don’t want to go into conflict, we don’t want Nigeria to explode, because if this happens, we would overrun the whole of West Africa. The whole of West Africa will be flooding with refugees, this is what we want to avoid. If you go deeply into the affairs of Nigeria, you will find out that there is no state out of the 36 states of the federation that does not have minerals upon which the people can depend. Despite this, we continue to have a large army of unemployed graduates.

It’s a very terrible way of creating future problems for ourselves.

That is why I say General Buhari has nothing to lose to ensure that the imbalance of political power be eradicated completely. There should be fairness, equity and justice and principled restructuring of the nation for peace to reign.

Outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan agreed to reCONTINUED ON PAGE 10

“That was the first time when a conference to examine the problems of Nigeria was held. The one of 2005 convoked by General Obasanjo was just for his own personal purpose. And I think, being a man of advanced age, the President-elect who is 72 now, I think he should sit down and ask himself: why is it that Nigeria, having been independent for the past 55 years and yet lags behind other countries which were at the same stage of development as Nigeria in 1960?”

Obasanjo

Politics 10

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

structuring but having lost the election, don’t you see this as a setback for the restructuring of the nation?

It may happen eventually if Buhari gets there and turns his back to the conclusions of the Confab. He can say: ‘take it away, I don’t want that’, which is very easy to do. Because, as I said before, a section of the country has been taking benefits, undue advantages from the irregularities in the country. It’s a pity. Well, Jonathan is on his way out, there is very little he can do because his days are numbered. It is for Buhari now as a patriot if indeed, he is a patriot not to run an exclusive government because he has started to say something to that effect, like: ‘I shall do this’, ‘I wont allow this when I get there’.

Its not so, it should be ‘we’. He should work with the governors because the governors are not under him. He should work with them in a united manner, to forge out stability and progress.

Look at this, they sold electricity company to some bodies in a bid to improve electricity supply but the case is worsen now. For many days now, I’ve been using generator, how can a country develop like that? So, he should as a patriot, face our problems and solve them and if he does that, he will be carving his name in gold.

But to continue with the status quo, is to continue injustice is to continue to water the inequity that is going on in the country; if he fails to address that then our catastrophe is just near.

At the moment sir, do you have any regret about how the country as being run?

Saddening regret. And very often, I’m very sad, frustrated and disappointed. I’m unhappy with what is going on. We look at these problems and for six years, we haven’t gotten an answer to the problems. These are the things that make me very sad, very sad.

Even this last election, it was all function of money. The money they used over the last election was like no man’s business, and yet our people are wallowing in abject poverty. It’s very sad.

And can things go on like this?

It may go on like this but in the end, Nigeria will collapse. In any case, Nigeria had never been one, would never have been one.

What we had was Sokoto Empire, Borno Empire, Oyo Empire, Benin Kingdom, etc; that’s what we had until the British came and they were signing treaties with the Obas, Obis, Sultans and Emirs and all these are on record because we were different. But they believe we just emerged from slavery, therefore lets put them together and call them a protectorate- Lagos Protectorate, Northern Protectorate and

Buhari

Ajayi: My fears of a Buhari Presidency

“these are political parties that are not well founded, they are all self serving people. They are not political parties based on any ideology or for the interest of the masses. They are making money for themselves.”

Southern Protectorate and later they created 24 Provinces across the country, then they created three regions- North, East and West, just as it suited them. Ultimately they decided to amalgamate all of them because it was very difficult for Westminster to manage them because there was no money in the north but in the south there was much revenue to use to run all together. That was the reason for the amalgamation which was to the detriment of the country. Like I always say, if God keeps a birth register, you won’t find the name of Nigeria in that register, because Nigeria is not the name given to us by God like God gave Israel their name.

The name was given to us by a female correspondent of the London Times and the name stuck.

Of course, the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in his book described Nigeria as a pure geographical expression that could not last. How can you put oil and water together and expect them to blend? The principle of federalism has not been observed. A country like ours which is mul-

tinational, multilingual and multicultural should have true federalism. That’s what we should have and unless we practice true federalism, we are gunning for trouble.

But the incoming government claims to be progressives with some of their leaders professing to believe in federalism?

One is PDP, the other is APC; they are the same. PDP, thank God is going gradually into progressiveness. I’m sure, APC will follow because these are political parties that are not well founded, they are all self serving people. They are not political parties based on any ideology or for the interest of the masses. They are making money for themselves. They demonstrated this during the last election when both openly distributed money between N500 - N2000 to win votes. Voter turn out in the presidential election was more than that of gubernatorial because more money was shared to people. They are not founded on

ideology, did you hear their manifestoes during the campaigns that they are going to ensure that Nigeria is properly constructed?

Nothing like that.

Jonathan’ conceding victory as peace balm?

Yes, it contributed to peace but what happened was the grace of God because if the position had been the other way round, violence might have happened. But we thank God for that. But the crucial thing is what happens after the election? People who have been elected, let us see how they would run the affairs of the country. Nigeria as a country does not need a President; if we do need a president, it should be a nominal president as we have in a place like Switzerland, where each nationality, like we have six geo-political zones, each one will nominate one person to go to Abuja; then we would have six or eight persons in the Presidency in Abuja who would work together as leaders of the counCONTINUED ON PAGE 11

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Saraki is taking after his father –Popoola CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

Bukola Saraki as senate president, your take on it?

The good thing is that our party the APC knows the quality and the stuff that the likes of Senator Saraki is made up.

I remember very well when I had problems with them in the state, I went to our national leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu and he told me frankly that he has great respect for the Sarakis. He said the late Olusola Saraki assisted him in 1991 when he had problems. That it was when he came out of the problem in 1991 he was elected in the Senate in 1993.

History is not far-fetched.

The role that the late Dr Olusola Saraki played in the history of Nigeria cannot be

down-played. Look at what his son, Senator Bukola Saraki has done starting from when he was the chairman of the Governors’ Forum. The APC should appreciate that if not for the coming of Senator Saraki, Governors Kwankwaso and Chibuke Amaechi of Kano and Rivers states what APC is calling victory today wouldn’t have been. If Kano and other states had voted against us, we would be singing a different song now. Remember that the gap between Buhari and Jonathan is just three million.

When Bukola Saraki was the chairman of the governors’ forum then PDP led Buhari in the 2011 elections with about 12 million votes. I want to tell you and prophesying that APC will not break. I want to say that Senator Saraki is the most

11

Politics qualified person for the senate presidency of the country. He has a lot of wisdom; he is experienced. So he should be given the chance.

I want to advise our party to treat the issue with tact. The PDP with its 48 members in the senate is waiting for us. We are 61 and PDP is waiting for us not to be united. We should just concentrate on one person and move forward. As a rooted member of defunct Action Congress (AC), ACN and now APC, I want to suggest that our party should not make any mistake.

Even if APC does not support Bukola Saraki in this matter, he might still get it because many of the senators in PDP love him. Even in our party, he has a lot of people he sponsored to the senate.

Asiwaju Tinubu is a very brilliant politician. Other politicians in the country should go and tap from his political sagacity. Either anybody likes it or not, today, Tinubu is the greatest Yoruba politician.

There is no Yoruba politician that has for now surpassed his record. Late Obafemi Awolowo and late Moshood Abiola started the race but they couldn’t finish it. Tinubu has finished the job. It is not that he should become president but he did a good work for us in the Yoruba nation.

Asiwaju that did not dictate to Governor Babatunde Fashola as a civilian will never dictate the President-elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari who is a military man.

Saraki

I’m saddened, frustrated over Nigeria –Ajayi CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

try with one of them answering the name- President of the country for a period of one or two years; after that, another person takes over. Then there will be no fight when we are running the elections. There would be no violence, no conflict. If there would be conflict at all, it will be in the regions or in the states; there will be peace and more understanding in the country.

I recall in 2007, Afenifere leaders supported Buhari’s presidential aspirations, what happened now in 2015 that you backed Jonathan instead?

I can’t really recall what happened then but it’s true we gave some backing to General Buhari because Obasanjo had disappointed us, Obasanjo is a failure

as he has always being. Because we expected Obasanjo to bring sanity into the system which he never did. He was trying to feather his own nest. You know in his first term in 1999, this part of the world didn’t vote for him. He was seriously aggrieved then and he made up his mind that come 2003, he would make us to lose unless we supported him. he made some of our governors to support him like the man in Ogun State, he supported him and in doing so, the governor failed. The governor felt that if he supported Obasanjo as agreed, he too will benefit, but Obasanjo knew his onions and schemed him out. It was all due to the machinations of Obasanjo and this was all over the country.

Fear of incoming government?

I have never been at home

with anything Fulani. This is because the Fulanis are basically, fundamentally and traditionally feudalistic. They have forever been feudalistic. And of course, if you know who the Fulanis are, you will agree with me that nothing can come out with any arrangement you have with the Fulani unless it will end in his favour. And apart from that, the Fulanis love power with passion. They love power so much and that’s one of the things that gave me some doubts about Muhammadu Buhari being a Fulani. I wont be surprised even if he is not going to contest second term, he will make sure that a northerner takes over from him, a fellow Fulani man. And if he doesn’t do that, I will be surprised because basically the Fulanis love power. They want to be in power all the time.

Ajayi

News 12

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Adamawa Assembly sets up committee to probe disloyalty Tom Garba Yola

•••The on-going crisis rocking

the Adamawa State House of Assembly, has resulted into the setting up of a committee that will investigate why the faction, led

by Hon. Jerry Kundisi, shifted their loyalty against the faction led by Hon. Umaru Ahmadu Fintiri.

Hon Wilbina Jackson, who was appointed on Thursday to head the investigative committee, during the House plenary

sitting, said she would investigate Jerry's group and find out why the sudden shift of loyalty against the most respected speaker they have ever had in the house.

According to her, Fintiri, still enjoys the loyalty of majority members of the House and the people of Adamawa State still recognises him as the Speaker of the State Assembly.

“Whatever I find against them, I can't preempt them now, neither will I say this is exactly what will be done to them or to

us, my own job is to write a report and submit it to the House and decide what it should be done to them. I know I will make my own suggestions on the report", Jackson said. The lawmaker, who represent the Guyuk constituency at the Assembly, added that the crisis rocking the House was normal and healthy saying that it shows democracy at work in the country for the benefit of the state. On her defeat during the National Assembly election to represent Guyuk/ Shelleng at the House of Repre-

sentatives, she described it as an act of God adding that at the appropriate time she will represent her people at the National Assembly.

She maintained that she is loyal to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that she can never defect to any party just because she could not make it to the National Assembly, while adding that she will enjoy being a very good opposition woman that will give constructive criticism which will shape up democracy in the country.

NEMA unveils relief plans for freed Sambisa victims •••

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has unveiled plans to distribute relief materials to the hundreds of females liberated by the military from the captivity of terror group, Boko Haram, in their hideout in Sambisa Forest, Borno State. The military had announced the rescue of 293 women and girls from Sambisa Forest on Tuesday while another set of 160 women and children were freed on Wednesday. NEMA, in a statement on Thursday by the Information Officer of the North-East office of NEMA, AbdulKadir Ibrahim, stated that “contacts have already been established with the military to deliver immediate relief support to the women that were recently rescued by the troops from the camps of the insurgents in Borno State.”

Ibrahim revealed that the Director General of NEMA, Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sidi, during a visit to the headquarters of the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, said the agency had also commenced a special need assessment of the Internally Displaced Persons, rescued from previously occupied communities in the state, to strengthen humanitarian supports to them.The NEMA boss, who was represented by the Director of Relief and Rehabilitation. Mr. Udemezue Ezeh, explained that the agency had packaged some relief materials for immediate distribution to the rescued women.

Speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Suraju Adekunbi (right) receiving his Certificate of Return from Ogun State Resident Electoral Commission, Chief Timothy Ibitoye, at INEC office Magbon, Abeokuta, Ogun State... on Thursday

Kwara lawmaker barred from gaining entry into Assembly Kehinde Akinpelu Ilorin

•••

A member, representing Malete/lpaiye/Oloru constituency at the Kwara House of Assembly, Alhaji lliasu lbrahim, was on Thursday, prevented from entering the Assembly premises by security operatives.

Hon Ibrahim, who arrived the Assembly gate in a convoy at about 10 am, was refused entry by the Assembly security men.

Daily Times gathered that all the entreaties made by the lawmaker to allow him access to the Assembly premises were turned down by the security men.

The security men told the law-

maker to go back home as they were acting on the instructions given them by the authority of the House.

Ibrahim, a second term member of the House and PDP member, while speaking with Daily Times, the action as unfortunate and illegal. He said the House suspended him for three months in Dec, 2013 which he challenged at the Kwara State High Court where judgment was delivered in his favour on June 13th, 2014.

Ibrahim added that the Assembly filed an appeal to the judgement at Court of Appeal, llorin, where a similar judgement was delivered in his favour on 7th

March, 2015.

The lawmaker lamented that the Assembly is yet to pay all his entitlements as directed by the Courts in their separate judgements.

Ibrahim alleged that it was the Speaker of the House, Mr Rasak Atunwa that instructed the security men from preventing him from entering the Assembly premises. The lawmaker regretted that he was unable to fully represent the people of his constituency who voted for him.

Effort to speak with the Speaker of the House on the matter proved futile as he was in Abuja for official assignment.

Ebonyi inaugurates transition committee Jacob Mbam Abakaliki

•••

In her bid to ensure peaceful transition, Ebonyi State government has inaugurated a transition committee with a charge to work for the success of the inauguration of the incoming administration.

The committee is made up of central committee and nine subcommittees to ensure smooth handover to the incoming administration in the state.

Performing the ceremony at government house Abakaliki, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Chief Boniface Chima urged the committee to ensure smooth handover to the incoming administration in the state.

He also urged members of the committee to be diligent and honest in the discharge of their responsibility and emphasised that the inauguration of the committee became necessary to ensure successful transition to the incoming administration.

Bauchi gov’s mother dies at 85 Daniel Jolly Bauchi

•••

The mother of the Bauchi State governor, Hajiya Hauwa Yuguda, popularly known as Goggo, has died at the age of 85.

Hajiya Goggo died on Thursday at her residence in Bauchi following a protracted illness.

Governor Isa Yuguda, senior son of his late mother, described her death as a great loss to the entire family.

While receiving condolences from sympathisers at Ramat House, Bauchi, Governor Yuguda described Goggo as a very caring mother to her children and accommodating to humanity.

Yuguda stated that the death of his mother did not come as a surprise in view of the fact that every soul must surely taste the bitter pill of death.

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Burundi shuts down major varsity, sends students home

••• Burundi has unexpectedly

closed its national university in the wake of political protests against the nomination of incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third term.

Reports say the university in Bujumbura shut its doors on

Thursday and sent home the students living in residence halls on campus.

At least five people have died in the protests that erupted after Saturday's controversial nomination, as police clashed with the hundreds of protesters that have

marched in the streets in the days since then.

Critics of the nomination say allowing the incumbent president to run for a third term is unconstitutional.

On Tuesday U.N. SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon announced

Students carry their belongings as they leave the Kiriki University campus in Bujumbura, Burundi Thursday.

he is his sending a special envoy for the Great Lakes Region, Said Djinnit, to Burundi to hold talks with the president, other government officials, and political party leaders.

The U.N. chief has called on security services to exercise restraint, and for all parties to reject violence and avoid inflammatory speech.

The United Nations refugee agency says more than 5,000 Burundian civilians have crossed into Rwanda since the weekend.

It says most are women and children, who say they experienced intimidation and threats of violence related to the upcoming presidential election.

The protests began a day after the ruling CNDD-FDD party nominated Nkurunziza to run for the third term. The president's eligibility comes down to the wording of a peace agreement and the constitution.

Burundi's existing political structures were founded on the 2000 Arusha agreement, which brought to an end the civil war between Hutu and Tutsi factions that killed up to 300,000 people.

That agreement says the president can serve no more than two terms in office.

Mali peace deal threatened as army, rebels clash •••

Armed insurgents exchanged fire with soldiers in Mali on Wednesday, plunging peace negotiations into disarray in the first clash this year between government forces and the main Tuareg rebel alliance.

A Malian army colonel said fighters from the Tuareg-led Coordination for the Movements of Azawad (CMA) had ambushed military positions in Lere, a cen-

tral town near the Mauritanian border.

"Groups of armed Tuareg rebels have been attacking us since 16:00. We are fighting back and defending our positions," a Malian army colonel told AFP from the town.

The CMA had warned in a statement after it came under attack from a pro-government militia on Tuesday it had "no other choice

than to use its right to exercise legitimate self-defence to protect civilians, its people and its positions".

The army source said the militants had arrived in several vehicles from the west of the town.

"We are under fire. Everybody is hiding at home. The rebels are shooting, the Malian army too," a local councillor told AFP by telephone as gunshots rang out in the

background.

The attacks came on a day of violence which started when unidentified militants opened fire on troops at a national guard camp in northern Mali, killing two soldiers and a child, security sources told AFP. The gunmen struck at 5:00 am in the former Islamist stronghold of Goundam, 80km from the ancient desert city of Timbuktu, a Malian security source said.

Mugabe taunts black South Africans •••

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has reportedly said that only white people are “living better lives” in South Africa while black Africans are "still very low".

According to The Herald, Mugabe, 91, said this during a media briefing at the end of a one day extraordinary Southern African Development Committee (SADC) summit in Harare on Wednesday.

The nonagenarian was answering questions relating to recent xe-

nophobic attacks which killed at least seven people in South Africa.

Mugabe urged SADC member states to come up with mechanisms that would encourage citizens to take up opportunities at home and stop flocking to South Africa.

"They are people who voluntarily go to South Africa..... They think South Africa is the heaven...

Yes, it's more highly developed.

True. But go there and you will

see that the Africans in the country are still very low. It's the whites who are living better lives. More advanced," Mugabe was quoted as saying.

Mugabe, who is the current chair of SADC, made reference to people living in Soweto, saying their lives were "very elementary", adding that immigrants made the "the situation of the Africans more worse".

AFP reported on Thursday that

Mugabe

the SADC meeting was meant to discuss industrial growth, but attention focused on recent xenophobic violence in Johannesburg and Durban.

13 Africa Somali journalist, wife shot dead

•••

Suspected members of the Islamist group al-Shabaab have killed a Somali journalist and his wife, police said on Thursday.

Daud Ali Omar, 35, who worked for an independent radio station in the southern-central city of Baidoa, and his wife, were shot dead while asleep by gunmen who entered their home on Wednesday night, local police representative Mahad Mohamed said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but alShabaab has frequently targeted journalists in the Horn of Africa country.

Mohamed said the group had staged a string of attacks in Baidoa over the past few months, targeting moderate Islamic scholars and entrepreneurs.

Mohamed Ibrahim from the National Union of Somali Journalists said the killings were "aimed at silencing the freedom of the press and of expression".

Hollande vows punishment for CAR child rapists •••

French President Francois Hollande is promising tough punishment for any soldier found guilty of sexually assaulting children in Central African Republic.

Speaking to reporters Thursday in western France, Hollande said any sanctions should correspond to the gravity of the crime and "set an example.''

Authorities in France are investigating allegations that French soldiers sexually abused a number of children during a C.A.R. peacekeeping mission.

The French government "was made aware at the end of July 2014 by the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights of accusations by children that they had been sexually abused by French soldiers," the defense ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

The activist group AIDS-Free World said about 16 French soldiers were accused of abusing 10 boys, between 8 and 15 years old.

The alleged abuse reportedly took place at a center for displaced people near the airport in the capital, Bangui, between December 2013 and June 2014.

World 14

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Vietnam celebrates 40th war anniversary

Vietnamese veterans gather for a parade celebrating the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War which is also remembered as the fall of Saigon, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

•••

Vietnam is holding a parade to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the military victory that ended the Vietnam War and reunified the country under communist rule.

As top officials looked on

Police net $750m cocaine haul off Scotland •••

British police on Thursday said they seized more than three tons of cocaine with a record street value of some $750m from a tugboat off the north-eastern coast of Scotland.

Officers detained the nine Turkish crew members found on board the vessel after it was boarded in a joint operation by border police and the British navy, the National Crime Agency said.

The tugboat MV Hamal was intercepted last week about 160km off the Scottish city of Aberdeen and specialists found the cocaine

Thursday, thousands of flagwaving Vietnamese soldiers, war veterans, and others marched toward the center of Ho Chi Minh City.

The parade was a reenactment of the events of April 30, 1975,

after a "lengthy and painstaking" search, the agency said without giving details of how the drug was hidden.

It said the nine Turkish citizens, aged 26 to 63, were charged with drug trafficking in an Aberdeen court on Monday.

The cocaine had "a likely potential street value of more than 500 million pounds, depending on purity," the agency said. "The search of this vessel has been lengthy and painstaking, undertaken by hugely skilled specialists working in difficult conditions," said John McGowan, a senior investigating officer for the agency.

"The result is this massive discovery, believed to be the biggest single class-A drug seizure on record in the UK, and likely to be worth several hundred million pounds," McGowan said, adding that investigations were continuing.

He said the ship was intercepted after intelligence cooperation with French customs authorities and the Lisbon-based Maritime Analysis and Operational Centre.

when North Vietnamese tanks victoriously rolled into the center of what was then the South Vietnamese capital, known as Saigon.

The victory marked the end of the North Vietnamese government's decades-long war, first

Jong-un

•••North

Korean leader Kim Jong Un has canceled his planned trip to Moscow for Russia's Victory Day, according to the Kremlin.

"He has decided to stay in Pyongyang," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday, saying Moscow received the information via "diplomatic channels."

The visit, which would have been Kim Jong Un's first overseas trip since taking power, was called off due to unspecified "internal North Korean issues," Peskov added.

Russia invited world leaders, including Kim, to the May 9 ceremony in Moscow marking the 70th anniversary of Russia's victory over Nazi Germany in World

with France and then with the United States. Around 58,000 U.S. soldiers and up to 4 million Vietnamese were killed in the conflict.

The U.S., which supported the South Vietnamese in an attempt to stop the spread of communism, pulled its last embassy officials out of Saigon as North Vietnamese troops entered the city.

During Thursday's festivities, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung praised the victory as one of "ardent patriotism" and national reunification.

"I call on Vietnamese people at home and abroad to uphold the sense of patriotism, the tradition of humanity and tolerance; to rise above the past and differences; to sincerely engage in national reconciliation," he said.

Prime Minister Dung also slammed what he referred to as Washington's "countless barbarous crimes" that he said caused "immeasurable losses and pain to our people and country," according to the French news agency.

No U.S. diplomats attended the parade. However, American officials were expected to attend a separate, small ceremony at the U.S. Consulate on Thursday to remember U.S. troops who died during the final days of the war.

N’ Korea leader cancels Russia trip War II. Until Thursday, Russia had said it was preparing for Kim to make the trip, telling VOA's Korean service recently it was "working through all the logistical questions."

The cancelation comes a day after South Korea's intelligence service told lawmakers it is likely that Kim will make the trip.

Kim is not known to have visited a foreign country or met another head of state since he took power in late 2011 following the sudden death of his father, Kim Jong Il. South Korean President Park Geun-hye was invited to the event, but decided not to attend.

The U.S. will be represented by its envoy to Moscow.

Pakistan court jails ten for Malala Yousafzai attack •••

North A court in north-west Pakistan has jailed 10 men for life for the attack on education activist Malala Yousafzai.

Ms Yousafzai, who was 15 at the time, was shot in the head on board her school bus in the Swat valley in 2012, in an attack that shocked the world.She was awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for children's rights, despite the risk to her life.

Officials say the 10 men, who do not include the man named as chief suspect, belonged to the Pakistani Taliban.

Ataullah Khan, a 23-year-old militant, was identified by a police report at the time of the shooting - but he did not appear in the list of 10 men convicted on Thursday.

They were tried in an antiterrorist court in Swat. Also not included in the list of the 10 sentenced, according to an unnamed security official quoted by Reuters, were the gunmen who boarded the bus and shot Malala.

Malaysia charges six suspected ISIS militants •••

Six suspected ISIS militants, including two Air Force personnel, were charged on Thursday in Malaysia, police said.

They face up to 30 years imprisonment if convicted of promoting acts of terrorism. The suspects, who appeared before the Sessions Court of Alor Setar in the northern state of Kedah, were among 17 arrested this month in several raids throughout Malaysia.

They allegedly plotted bomb attacks on key government installations in Kuala Lumpur and in nearby states to punish Malaysia for being a secular non-Islamic state. Prosecutors allege they advocated the ideology of the ISIS fundamentalist group that has declared a caliphate across a swathe of northern Syria and Iraq.

Last week police arrested another 12 suspected militants also allegedly plotting bomb attacks in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Police said at least 63 Malaysian citizens have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside ISIS militants.

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

15 Opinion

Can Jonathan sign off as a hero?

S

Emmanuel Onwubiko

ocial media is indeed intriguing in many ways and at the same token exciting.

Social media is like an open school whereby the good, the bad and the ugly hibernate and cohabit with each competing to outdo each other in mischief and virtues.

For contemporary Nigerians the social media has become one forum whereby persons of divergent opinions converge or rather congregate to market their ideologies even as others are busy dishing out warped opinions.

It was therefore not out of place that the social media more than other mainstream and conventional media has hosted the war of words between supporters and opponents of the recent decision by the Nigerian President elect General Muhammadu Buhari to bar the African Independent Television (AIT) from covering his activities.

This decision which has now been reversed by the the All Progressives Congress,(APC) was not unconnected to the less than professional role played by the television house during the last presidential campaign.

Ironically, the outgoing ruling party-Peoples Democratic Party has joined the debate by criticising

Buhari for his anti press freedom stance. Interestingly, as the press statement of the PDP hit the newsrooms, the story of the prosecution of some senior editorial raff of the Abuja based Leadership Newspapers by the current President for alleged forgery of his letter headed paper emerged when the Abuja High Court took a long adjournment to continue further hearing.

Whilst the PDP was criticising the President -elect for being anti media, it pretended not to remember that this same government is still prosecuting journalists for simply doing their job.

Those who praise the current government for signing the Freedom of Information Act(FOI) has therefore asked President Jonathan to discontinue the prosecution of Leadership Newspaper editors so he can leave office as a complete hero of democracy.

Earlier in the day coinciding with the issuance of the PDP’S press statement lampooning Buhari for what it calls anti -media freedom stance, the absence of Justice Usman Musale of an Abuja High Court in Jabi reportedly stalled further hearing of alleged forgery of presidential bromide levelled against two journalists.

The Group News Editor of the newspaper, Mr. Tony Amokeodo and

Senior Correspondent, Mr. Chibuzor Ukaibe, pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to them during their arraignment.

In the suit, the federal government had accused the journalists and the newspaper of alleged involvement in forging a presidential bromide.

At the last adjourned date of the matter, the court rejected a Letterhead paper emanating from the Chief of Staff to President Goodluck Jonathan.

The trial was supposed to continue on Monday but parties in the matter were told that the judge travelled out of the country. The court had rejected the letterhead paper, which the prosecution claimed was from the Office of the Chief of Staff to President Jonathan.

Lawyer to the federal government, Chief Adegboyega had intended to prove that the bromide as published by the Leadership newspaper was forged and therefore did not emanate from the President.

The first prosecution witness from federal government, Mr. Ibrahim Bako, had testified that while investigating the forgery allegation,he approached the Presidency and was given a blank letter head paper from the Office of the President by one Abiye White, an assistant director.

The police officer said he discov-

ered in the course of the investigation that the bromide and the Coat of Arms did not tally with the document from the Presidency.

But the lawyer to the journalists, Mr Femi Falana ,objected to the admissibility of the document.

According to him, what Awomolo sought to tender was just a blank letterhead paper, which did not emanate from the Office of the President, but from the office of the Chief of Staff to the President.

He said: “What the prosecution sought to tender is a blank sheet of paper from the office of the Chief of Staff to the President.

But Awomolo in his reply, disagreed with Falana, saying that his objection was misconceived and a misunderstanding of the law.

He said the document came from the officer who had custody of them,stressing that, “It is wrong to expect that the President will certify documents by himself.”

The judge however ruled against the argument of Awomolo and accepted the submission of Falana.

Justice Musale consequently rejected the document as exhibit in the case.

The case has been adjourned to June 8, 2015.

The long adjournment is somewhat a huge victory to media freedom.

Real losers of the Presidential election

F John Ukpe

or Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel. Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar lov had him! This was the most unkindest cut of all; for when the noble Caesar saw him stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms, quite vanquish’d him: then burst his mightyheart . . ..

Julius Caesar Act 3, scene 2.

Every leader eventually faces the Julius Caesar situation - beneficiaries of his most noble and patriotic efforts stab him in the back. However, leaders with a treacherous streak, take it in their stride more than leaders like Julius Caesar, who was without guile. Such leaders as Caesar are victims of the truism that to the pure all things are pure; they live their lives believing that everyone is good. When their “Brutus’s” bare their fangs, they are vanquished by the weight and depth of their ingratitude and betrayal. Such was the case with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the last presidential election. He conceded defeat with the feeling of “ET tu Brutus.”

The list of betrayers is endless... ET tu Prof Jega, ET tu some northern

PDP Governors (particularly the one who voted openly for APC and showed his ballot paper shamelessly to the people), ET tu some PDP senators etc. He was not defeated by the conspiracy of the leaders of some of the majority tribes against the SouthSouth. He was not defeated by the vote count, because he had severally been warned that Prof Jega was not going to execute his mandate fairly and impartially. When Prof Jega refused to embark on his mandatory terminal leave, he should have smelt a rat. President Jonathan was vanquished by the shocking depth of treachery and betrayal to his noble and patriotic cause by persons who were close confidants and who assured him of their support. These were wolves in sheep clothing. It was a rude awakening for him to discover that the loquacious Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State was right when he said that they were in talks with some fifth columnists and traitors within the ranks of the PDP (including governors). That such a boast was made at all by a governor publicly is an indication that Nigeria is morally bankrupt. It is to Jonathan’s credit that in the campaigns, he was indicted for omission, not commis-

sion. He should have declared a full emergency in the three insurgencyravaged states (like Chief Obasanjo did in Jos), but he did not. He should have known better than to seek to end insurgency in the three APC states and give them the opportunity to vote, knowing fully well that these were states, which could swing the votes away from him - but he did not.

He did not want to disenfranchise them at the expense of his ambition.

He could have stopped Amaechi and others from decamping from the PDP to APC, but instead of defending the Constitution in line with his oath of office, he went to court. He was a very good man caught in a vortex of spiraling evil, and he could not play the devil’s game. No one accused him of corruption. Yet they claimed his government was corrupt. If his government was corrupt, it was because Nigeria is among the five most corrupt countries in the world not his fault. But all his accusations resembled an oily paper parcel, containing a hamburger, wrapped hurriedly in a driving rain - it had many holes. The main burger was let out of the bag by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who claimed that there was an agreement that President Jonathan should

go for only one term. Why was his fate sealed before his journey of service? The most pertinent answer is because he is from the SouthSouth. Is Obasanjo not the man who wanted to tweak the Constitution for a third term? Nigeria needs zoning and zoning should reflect justice in structure and content. We are too attached to our ancestral homes and we think in terms of that - that is why we need zoning as a principle.

There is a sense of belonging when someone from your region is the President. The president may not do anything for your area, but his merely occupying that office inspires your confidence in the Nigerian project. That confidence by the South-South in the Nigerian project was asphyxiated that Saturday of March 28, 2015: Starved of the air of justice, fair play and equity. However, nature abhors a vacuum, and in its demise, hope was born. Confidence in the Nigerian project gave way to a newfound sense of brotherhood and solidarity with the South East. That sense of solidarity is strengthened by a common sense of distinctiveness and grievance. It will remain so until Nigeria concedes the presidency to an Igbo.

16

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Features

Igwe Orizu

The skill and ability of Nnewi people are in our blood – Igwe Orizu

17

Æs GBUBEMI GOD’S COVENANT SNR visited the home of foundries recently and reports a skill inherent in the ancestry of Nnewi indigenes.

As one enters Nnewi from Nnobi town, you will not need any introduction to know this is the home of metal fabricators and skilled technical craftsmen; from welders,

aluminium technicians, refrigeration repair shops, bolts and nuts, oil and grease shops, etc.

Four out of every six shops is selling or repairing one technical item or the other.

From the market women, the vulcanizers, okada riders, the apprentices and all, Nnewi is a place where women compete favourably well with male riding okada. Apart from the UltraModern Market called the Japan of Africa for a good reason, women and young ladies delight

in flaunting their motorbikes as their personal two-wheels Mercedes Benz with no apology to anyone. Just as the rich women drive to school to pick up their children home, so mothers ride to the same school and can take as many as four children home on their bike.

The Monarch and Paramount Ruler of Nnewi land is HRH Dr. Kenneth Nnaji Onyemaeke Orizu III, JP, CON. He is the 16th Monarch in his father’s genealo-

opment Authority fourteen years on has become a mirage following the new dimension the deal is taking.

It would be recalled that the inferno which destroyed goods and shops worth billions of naira, caused the FCDA to set up a Technical Committee on Relocation of Traders. The Committee was charged to recommend palliative measures for the casualties as well as come up with a package aimed at relocating the affected traders to Wuye Market, otherwise called Wuye Ultra-Modern Market.

The affected traders were asked to pay fees ranging from N2, 000, N5,000 to N8,000 upon which they

were given letters of allocation for shops/spaces in the market.

The letters of allocations did not mention any further amount that the traders would pay apart from the amount stated in the letters of allocation.

The construction of the market took almost a decade, during which the traders had patiently waited, hoping that someday the magnanimity of the FCDA would be a reality, but that was not to be.

The traders’ hopes were dashed on the 3rd of October 2012, when some of them went to monitor the extent of work. Before them was a signpost erected by ‘All Purpose Shelters Limited’. They gathered

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

Side view of the Wuye ultra market, Abuja

WUYE ULTRA-MODERN MARKET INFERNO:

Jilted traders slug it out with FCT in court

Fourteen years after the Federal Government granted traders who lost their goods to the 2001 inferno at the New Market, Central Area, Abuja, in 2001, AUGUSTINE AMINU reports that the traders are now caught in a legal crossfire with the FCT over the allocation of shops promised them as compensation. His report.

Hope for the actualisation of the compensation granted to over 706 traders whose shops were gutted by fire at the New Market, Central Area, Abuja, in 2001 by the Federal Capital Devel-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

Features 18

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Traders battle FCDA in court

Mohammed, FCT minister CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

that the shops/spaces would soon be‘re-allocated’ to any interested person that paid between N3.5m and N4.5m to All Purpose Shelters Limited.

The traders then approached an FCT High Court for interpretations of the market. In Suit no.

CV/440/12, the traders dragged the Minister of the FCT, and the FCDA to court as first and second defendants respectively. They were joined as third and fourth defendants by All Purpose Shelters Limited, and Abuja Investments and Property Development Co Ltd. The fourth defendant, Daily Times gathered, claimed to have understanding with the FCT Minister and the FCDA to develop some markets and, in consequence thereof, an alleged agreement to build, operate and transfer was executed between All Purpose Shelters Limited and Abuja Investments and Property Development Co. Ltd. In the Suit dated 10th December 2014, filed through their lawyer,

Sepiribo Cromwell Peters Esq. of God’s People Legal Consult, Abuja, the plaintiffs prayed the court to grant them interlocutory injunction restraining the 3rd defendant from re-allocating the shops earlier allocated to them as compensation.

One of the contentious issues is on technical grounds. The 3rd defendant alleged the plaintiffs filed their suit on 19th October 2012 in respect of a cause of action which arose in 2002 against the 1st and 2nd defendants and others. The lawyer contended that the 1st and 2nd defendants are public officers in the eye of the law, thus the Suit is statutebarred against them.

She contended that in law, the case against them must be instituted within three months that the cause of action arose, and averred that the 1st and 2nd defendants were protected under the Public Officers’ Protection Act. She further said since the suit against the 1st and 2nd defendants cannot stand, the suits CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

‘‘One of the contentious issues is on technical grounds.

The 3rd defendant alleged the plaintiffs filed their suit on 19th October 2012 in respect of a cause of action which arose in 2002 against the 1st and 2nd defendants and others.’’

‘In Nnewi, we don’t struggle for the throne’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

gyand has been on the throne for over 50 years.

A devout, born-again Christian and skilled business administrator himself, the royal father has motivated and aided the establishment of industries and educational institutions in his kingdom.

In this exclusive interview granted Daily Times at his ancient palace in Nnewi, Igwe Orizu, holding his wits high against age at 90, took our correspondent back to the good old days before he ascended the throne at the age of 26. A photograph in the palace showed the chiefs and people of Nnewi presenting him to Dr. M.I. Okpara as their new monarch before he sat on his father’s throne.

“I worked with white people as a young man in the late 1950s and later became General Manager of the Eastern Nigeria Outlook which was owned by the government of the Eastern Nigeria that time. In that capacity I was area manager for the I had the responsibility in that capacity to open the Port Harcourt office of the newspaper, then Onitsha branch followed

by Asaba before the final one in the whole of Midwest based in Benin City.”

The monarch recalled his salary started from £8 flata month, and then grew steadily to 12 pounds, 15 and rose to 30 pounds before he left office. ‘I was a fairly rich man with that kind of salary at that time’ he said with a chuckle.

The young Kenneth was called to the throne following ascen-

A woman with goods on a bike in Nnewi

sion of his father, Igwe Orizu II in 1961. It was not the tradition for young princes to refuse the call to the throne because according to the Monarch, it is ancestral and only in the genealogy of the Orizu family house.

“We don’t struggle for the throne in Nnewi kingdom; it comes to the young princes naturally whenever the reigning father journeys home.”

A proof of the new reformist monarchs of our times, Igwe Orizu is a sound, born-again Christian who preaches the gospel of Christ and the necessity for salvation and repentance to his subjects.

It has been suggested that the town got its name from an animal which name begins and ends with the last three letters of Nnewi, and as a result indigenes of the kingdom do not eat the creature called ewi, but the monarch waved our correspondent to order, adjusted himself on his seat and set the record straight.

“Nnewi is a person, a full blown human being who had four children named Otolo, Uruagwu, Umudim and Nnewichi; and like the 12 sons of Jacob that became the 12 tribes of Israel, the four children of Nnewi became the four regions or communities that make up Nnewi kingdom.

“Though it is true that there is an animal called ewi which our people don’t eat because of its name which has some closeness to the name of our people but let it be known that Nnewi from whose bowels the people CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

19 Features

There’s not one child in Nnewi that lacks ideas- Igwe Orizu CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18

of this town came from is a person.’

History has shown that indigenes of this land have undisputable affinity with steel and transportation as the town has turned our Nigeria’s massive land transporters over the ages. The Monarch nodded with satisfaction and counted on his fingers, transporters of the early days like L.P. Ojukwu Transport, the father of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegu from Umudim lineage; Ekesson Transport from Uruagwu; Ekene DiliChukwu from Otolo; D.D. Onyemelukwe from Nnewichi the last quarter. There also is J.C. Ulasi, Mbanefo Motors; Chisco Motors,andone of the newest transport companies, Orizu Motors, among others.

Among the roll call, Ekene Dili Chukwu is a relation of the Igwe, while the Chairman of Orizu Motors, as the name implies, is a cousin of the monarch.

When asked what is the spirit behind Nnewi’s big boys dominating the transport business in the country the question stirred something in the old man’s ego;he pointed that Nnewi is not only the home of mighty transporters alone, but that his kingdom is a land of technical giants, skilled craftsmen, manufacturers, importers and exporters and he praised their ancestry for this.

“The skill and ability of Nnewi people is hereditary; it is in our blood; there’s not one child in Nnewi that lacks ideas of what he or she wants to do and become; in fact they are CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

Art work on display at Igwe Orizu’s palace in Nnewi

Traders, FCDA in court over burnt shops CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18

against the 3rd and 4th defendants cannot also hold water.

But in a counter submission, plaintiffs’ counsel asserted that it was only on 3rd October 2012 that the plaintiffs became aware of the 1st and 2nd defendants’ conduct in respect of the alleged threat to re-allocate their shops and spaces to others when their shops were about ready for occupation. He argued that the cause of action accrued on the 3rd of October 2012 when the plaintiffs went to Wuye Market and discovered the 3rd defendant’s signpost and were told of the plan to reallocate their shops and open spaces to others. He quoted the Su-

preme Court’s ruling in the case of A.G Rivers State v. A.G Bayelsa State inter alia: ‘The protection afforded public officers under the Act does not apply in cases of recovery of land’ which he likens to his clients’ efforts to recover their shops.

Another issue is whether the FCT Minister and the FCDA, in view of the alleged Build, Operate and Transfer agreement, are liable to pay for the construction of Wuye Ultra-Modern Market.

The counsel to All Purpose Shelters Ltd, Joseph Oluwarotimi Ojo, Esq., argued that the alleged BOT agreement the 3rd defendant signed with the 4th defendant is for the 3rd defendant to build, operate and recoup her expenses, then transfer to the 4th

Wuye market, Abuja

defendant.

But the plaintiffs’ counsel, relying on a submission by witness, Mrs. Mary John, argued that his clients were not aware of such agreement between the 1st and 2nd defendants, and the 3rd defendant. Mary had testified that Wuye Market, otherwise Wuye Ultra-Modern Market, was under construction when the plaintiffs

got the allocation, and that ‘there was no prior agreement with the defendants that our (plaintiffs’) relocation from the aforementioned New Market, Abuja, to Wuye Market as a result of the fire incident will attract any further payment, apart from the sums specified in the allocation letters’. She submitted that ‘it is for the 3rd defendant to hold the

1st and 2nd defendants liable for the arbitrary imposed costs of the shops originally allocate to them’.

SC Peters Esq. averred that with the failure of the defendants to disagree with the evidence that the shops and spaces allocated to his clients were in numbers, having downstairs and upstairs, the CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

Features 20

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Igwe Orizu: Nothing will change until we return to the land CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

gifted in this regard from the womb. Move around the town and you confirm that no hand is idle, male or female.’ The royal father praised sons and daughters of Nnewi kingdom who have worked so hard to bring so much good to the land in particular and to the country in general. ‘Our sons are on the forefront of putting Nigeria on global economic chat,” he said.

Since his reign the Monarch, one of the most revered in Igbo land has not been sitting idle; his track record of achievement is as good and worthy as those of the sons and daughters he has acknowledged and commended. Igwe Orizu has a reputation of going outside to bring in what will benefit his people

and ensures it works.

“The problem people have is that they don’t want to work anymore; they just want quick money and that is why they have problems.

“What used to sustain the nation before the colonial days have been abandoned, and you know that when you forsake the land, the land will also forsake you. We had agriculture, cocoa, coal, steel and other things, but where are they now? When you refrain from sowing into the land, how then can the land give her fruits to you?”

Being skilled technical men and traders of all ventures, the Monarch regretted the shortage of raw materials to aid his people’s traditional work.

“The people of Nnewi do

foundries from the days of our ancestors. If Ajaokuta Steel Mill is operating well, our people here will here will have steel to do a whole lot of work and achieve great heights. But Ajaokuta is not working, there is no light to power anything and this makes everything to fail.

“Since Ajaokuta Steel Mills and Aladja Steel Mills have not been producing any steel; there is no profit in running an industry and importing raw materials to run the industry in Nigeria; that is not progress.

Progress is when you run your industry and you get the raw materials here. M.I. Okpara supported agriculture in his time. Until they return to the land, I don’t see how anything will change.”

Igwe at a function

WUYE market Abuja: Court defers ruling on traders, FCDA suit CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

claim of the 3rd defendant that the 1st and 2nd defendants did not build any market in Wuye Market is faulted. He quoted His Lordship Galadima J.S.C. in the case between Gov. of Zamfara State and Cyalange (2013) stating that, ‘The settled law is that evidence that is neither attacked nor successfully challenged is deemed to have been admitted and the court can safely rely on the evidence in the just determination of a case’.

The third argument is whether the plaintiffs met the requirements set out by the committee. The 3rd defendant’s counsel had argued that ‘from the letter of offer given by the 1st and 2nd defendants to the plaintiffs, it is pertinent that certain conditions were not carried out to fully entitle the plaintiffs to an allocation of shops/open spaces’.

SC Peters Esq. argued that the argument held no water because the relocation of the plaintiffs was a result of the fire incident at New Market, and that it was a compensation for their lost shops.

With the relocation, he pointed out that, they also forfeited their

shops and spaces in the burnt market. He argued that since the evidence of the plaintiffs on the issue of writing and submission of letters of acceptance has not been contradicted by the defendants, especially the 1st and 2nd defendants, the court is bound to accept it and act on it as was held in the case of Nwakonobi v. Udeorah. He also averred that a plaintiffs’ witness, Mary John, in her additional written statement on oath submitted that the original letter of acceptance was issued to them after the payment and satisfaction of other requirements of the allocation.

The 3rd and 4th defendants posited that they were mandated to build Wuye Ultra-Modern Market, and not Wuye market. The plaintiffs’ counsel here maintained that the name with which a party described a given portion of land or property is not necessary; all that is required is to make the description in evidence which will make a disputed land ascertainable. He cited the case of Peter Odili J.S.C. in Aiyeola v. Pedro (2014) where it was stated that “there is no law or practice which

Other issues which the plaintiffs identified were that there was no building approval from the 1st and 2nd defendants tendered to show that there was any development made either by the 3rd defendant or 4th defendant or both on any land establishes that a plan is a sine qua non in a claim for declaration of title to land’. He also relied on the evidence of the plaintiffs’ witness that the property is located behind the Family Worship Centre and that it is fenced round and situated in Wuye District, FCT,

which was also in tandem with the submission of the 3rd defendant’s witnesses.

The alleged BOT agreement between the 3rd defendant and the 4th defendant was also faulted by the plaintiffs. Their counsel, SC Peters Esq. identified that while a defendant’s witness mentioned Certificate of Occupancy No: FCT/ABU/MISC/22338, which was pleaded, what was tendered was Certificate of Occupancy No: 180w-4295z-6593s-806 eu-20. She then prayed the court not to admit it because the given evidence does not relate to Exhibit F but an untendered C of O with the number FCT/ABU/MISC/22338.

Peters further posited that even if Exhibit F replaced FCT/ ABU/MISC/22338, the defendants ought to have produced the C of O No: FCT/ABU/MISC/22338 for the court to examine. She added that ‘the irrelevant Exhibit F remains worthless because the certificate of occupancy never referred to or relate to Wuye market otherwise called Wuye UltraModern Market’.

Other issues which the plaintiffs identified were that there was no building approval from

the 1st and 2nd defendants tendered to show that there was any development made either by the 3rd defendant or 4th defendant or both on any land on the strength of Exhibit F. S.C Peters Esq. submitted that the non-production of the document has ‘set this court on a voyage of speculation in an uncharted ocean to find whether any market, including Wuye Ultra-Modern Market, was ever built on the strength of Exhibit F’. She cited the Supreme Court judgment in a case between Mulima v. Usman (2014) to buttress her argument.

The plaintiffs’ counsel also contended that there was no memorandum of understanding mentioned on the alleged BOT agreement the 3rd defendant entered into with the 4th defendant.

She also argued that the alleged BOT was not signed and registered, and that the power of attorney which was tendered was inadmissible because it was not registered by virtue of Section 15 of the Land Registration Act, Cap. 515 Laws of the Federation, Abuja 1990.

Ruling has been adjourned indefinitely.

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

21

Daily Times Advert Rates Sizes

Rates

Vat

Colour

Sizes

Rates

Vat

F/PAGE

409,500.00

17,403.75

10”X6

389,025.00

16,533.56

H/PAGE

233,415.00

9,920.14

10”X5

324,252.34

13,780.72

Q/PAGE

125,716.50

5,342.95

10”X4

259,401.87

11,024.58

14”X5

397,215.00

16,881.64

10”X3

194,551.41

8,268.43

14”X4

317,772.00

13,505.31

10”X2

101,415.24

4,310.15

14”X2

158,886.00

6,752.66

9”X6

350,122.50

14,880.21

FPS 6”X3

671,835.94

28,553.03

9”X5

291,827.10

12,402.65

FPS 6”X2

447,890.63

19,035.35

9”X4

233,461.68

9,922.12

BPS 6”X3

652,640.63

27,737.23

9”X3

161,635.50

6,869.51

Sizes

Rates

Vat

6”X3

87,749.87

3,729.37

6”X2

58,499.95

2,486.25

5”X5

121,874.89

5,179.68

5”X4

101,415.24

4,310.15

5”X3

73,124.89

3,107.81

5”X2

48,749.95

2,071.87

4”X2

38,999.96

1,657.50

3”X3

43,874.94

1,864.68

3”X2

29,249.98

1,243.12

2”X2

19,499.98

828.75

1”X2

9,749.99

414.37

1”X1

4,875.00

207.19

BPS 2”X2

268,734.38

11,421.21

BPS 6”X2

435,093.75

18,491.48

8”X6

311,282.25

13,229.50

ROP2”X6

152,382.01

6,476.24

8”X5

259,401.87

11,024.58

FPS 2”X6

447,890.63

19,035.35

8”X4

207,521.50

8,819.66

BPS 2”X6

435,093.75

18,491.48

8”X3

143,693.55

6,106.98

13”X5

368,842.50

15,675.81

8”X2

95,786.12

4,070.91

7”X5

226,976.64

9,646.51

EARPIECE 2”X2

281,531.25

11,965.08

13”X2

126,749.88

5,386.87

11”X5

356,677.57

15,158.80

11”X4

285,342.06

12,127.04

11”X2

107,249.90

4,558.12

7”X4

158,886.00

6,752.66

CENTRE SPREAD

1,151,718.75

48,948.05

7”X2

68,249.93

2,900.62

DOUBLE SPREAD

1,023,750.00

43,509.38

6”X4

143,693.55

6,106.98

DOUBLE SPREAD (1/2)

511,875.00

21,754.69

Black & White Sizes

Rates

Vat

S/N

Sizes

Rates

Vat

16

10”X2

73,734.38

3,133.71

31

6”X2

44,240.63

1,880.23

17

9”X6

264,780.15

11,253.16

32

5”X5

92,160.88

3,916.84

4,040.61

18

9”X5

220,687.29

9,379.21

33

5”X4

73,734.38

3,133.71

12,766.71

19

9”X4

176,566.55

7,504.08

34

5”X3

55,300.74

2,350.28

240,315.08

10,213.39

20

9”X3

119,483.60

5,078.05

35

5”X2

36,867.18

1,566.86

14”X2

121,533.92

5,165.19

21

8”X6

235,399.77

10,004.49

36

4”X2

29,493.75

1,253.48

13”X5

278,936.62

11,854.81

22

8”X5

196,185.05

8,337.86

37

3”X3

33,180.45

1,410.17

8

13”X2

95,847.32

4,073.51

23

8”X4

156,948.04

6,670.29

38

3”X2

22,120.32

940.11

9

11”X5

269,728.90

11,463.48

24

8”X3

108,668.25

4,618.40

39

2”x6

48,173.99

2,047.39

10

11”X4

215,783.12

9,170.78

25

8”X2

58,987.50

2,506.97

40

2”X2

14,746.87

626.74

11

11”X2

81,107.81

3,447.08

26

7”X5

171,661.92

7,295.63

41

1”X2

7,373.44

313.37

12

10”X6

294,200.16

12,503.51

27

7”X4

121,533.92

5,165.19

42

1”X1

3,686.72

156.69

13

10”X5

245,208.10

10,421.34

28

7”X2

51,614.05

2,193.60

14

10”X4

196,185.05

8,337.86

29

6”X4

108,668.25

4,618.40

43

DOUBLE SPREAD

774,210.94

32,903.96

15

10”X3

147,138.80

6,253.40

30

6”X3

66,360.90

2,820.34

44

DOUBLE SPREAD (1/2)

387,105.47

16,451.98

S/N

Sizes

Rates

Vat

1

F/PAGE

309,684.38

13,161.59

2

H/PAGE

176,520.09

7,502.10

3

Q/PAGE

95,073.11

4

14”X5

300,393.28

5

14”X4

6 7

S/N

Political

Colour Rates

Vat

Sizes

F/PAGE

532,350.00

22,624.88

H/PAGE

303,439.50

12,896.18

Q/PAGE

163,431.45

6,945.84

Sizes

PHOTO SPLASH 100,000.00

4,250

Pictures & Captions 1

F/PAGE

35,437.47

1,506.09

1

Classified

3,675.00

1

Per 1000 copies

24,500.00

1,041.25

2

Handling charges for the 1st 50,000 copies

71,662.50

-

S/N

Rates

Vat

1

F/P

262,756.26

11,662.81

F/PAGE

402,589.69

17,110.06

2

H/P

158,581.13

7,038.85

H/PAGE

229,476.12

9,752.74

3

Q/PAGE

85,411.25

3,791.10

Q/PAGE

123,595.04

5,252.79

4

10”X2

55,476.05

2,357.73

5

8”X2

44,380.56

1,886.17

6

7”X2

38,832.99

1,650.40

7

6”X2

33,282.11

1,414.49

8

5”X2

27,736.42

1,178.80

9

4”X2

22,187.85

942.98

10

3”X2

16,640.27

707.21

33,283.03

471.54

Rate for Computer & IT/Educational Property/Vacancy/Home & Décor (Color)

Sizes

Rates

Colour

Vat

1

F/P

347,446.29

15,421.90

2

H/P

209,694.05

9,307.57

3

Q/PAGE

112,940.48

5,013,02

PLEASE CONTACT ABUJA Femi-08033550468

Sizes

Vat

-

Loose Insert

LAGOS Moses-08169118913 Helen-08035208749 Rolland-08055086970

Black & White Rates

S/N

Classified Advert

Rate for Computer & IT/Educational Property/Vacancy/Home & Décor (Black & White)

11

2”X6

(BOTTOM STRIP)

12

2”X2

11,094.96

471.54

13

1”X2

5,547.58

235.77

14

1”X1

2,773.79

117.89

OPERATIONAL HEADQUARTERS DTN COMPLEX LATEEF JAKANDE ROAD, AGINDIGBI, IKEJA, LAGOS CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS 44 ADETOKNBO ADEMOLA CRESCENT WUSE 2, ABUJA

22

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Today in History Æ s Compiled by ‘Tunji Okegbola

Cartoons from our Archives

1886 International Workers (Labour) Day International Workers’ Day is a celebration of labour and the working classes that is promoted by international labour movement and that occurs on May 1 every year. That day, May 1, is also the traditional European Spring holiday of May Day. Therefore, May 1 is a national public holiday in more than 80 countries, but in only some of those countries is the public holiday officially known as Labor Day or some similar variant.

In the other countries, the public holiday marks the Spring festival of May Day. May 1 was chosen by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International as the date to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago that occurred on May 1, 1886 .The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre or Haymarket riot) refers to the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square

1915

in Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour day. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they acted to disperse the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; scores of others were wounded.

In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy. The evidence was that one of the defendants may have built the bomb, but none of those on trial had thrown it. Seven were sentenced to death and one to a term of 15 years in prison. The death sentences of two of the defendants were commuted by Illinois governor Richard J. Oglesby to terms of life in prison, and another committed suicide in jail rather than face the gallows. The other four were hanged on November 11, 1887.

Daily Times May 1, 1961

International Congress of Women adopts resolutions

On this day in 1915 in The Hague, Netherlands, the International Congress of Women adopted its resolutions on peace and women’s suffrage.

The congress, also referred to as the Women’s Peace Conference, was the result of an invitation by a Dutch women’s suffrage organization to women’s rights activists around the world to gather in peaceful assemblage during one of the most divisive and intense international conflicts in history: World War I. It included more than 1,200 delegates from 12 countries—including Britain, Germany, AustriaHungary, Italy, Poland, Belgium and the United States.

Starting with two basic assertions—that international disputes should be handled by pacific means and that women should have the right to exercise their own vote in government— the International Congress of Women called for a process of continuous mediation to be implemented, without armistice, until peace could be restored

among the warring nations.

By continuous mediation, the delegates meant that a conference of neutral nations should be convened that would invite suggestions for settlement from each of the belligerent nations and submit to all of them simultaneously, reasonable proposals as a basis of peace. Their resolutions, announced at the close of the congress on May 1, endorsed measures designed for international cooperation, including an international court and a so-called Society of Nations, general disarmament and national self-determination. The delegates included a specific call for women to be given the vote: Since the combined influence of the women of all countries is one of the strongest forces for the prevention of war, and since women can only have full responsibility and effective influence when they have equal political rights with men, this International Congress of Women demands their political enfranchisement.

The congress founded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), an organization that still exists today. The first president of the WILPF was Jane Addams, the leader of the American delegation to the congress and the cofounder of the Chicago social service organization Hull House.

Addams and other delegates met with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson during the summer of 1915, knowing that the success of their plan depended to a great extent on the president’s agreement to initiate and lead mediation between the hostile nations of Europe. Though Wilson was sympathetic to the proposals of the congress, he eventually moved away from the principles of mediation and towards military preparedness (and eventual U.S. entrance into the war in April 1917).

Printed in English, French and German, the resolutions of the International Congress of Women were distributed to European heads of state in early May 1915.

1926

Ford factory workers get 40-hour week

On this day in 1926, Ford Motor Company became one of the first companies in America to adopt a five-day, 40-hour week for workers in its automotive factories. The policy would be extended to Ford’s office workers the following August.

Henry Ford’s Detroit-based automobile company had broken ground in its labour policies before. In early 1914, against a backdrop of widespread unemployment and increasing labour unrest, Ford announced that it would pay its male factory workers a minimum wage of $5 per eight-hour day, upped from a previous rate of $2.34 for nine hours (the policy was adopted for female workers in 1916). The news shocked many in the industry--at the time, $5 per day was nearly double what the average auto worker made--but turned out to be a stroke of brilliance, immediately boosting productivity along the assembly line and building a sense of company loyalty and pride among Ford’s workers.

The decision to reduce the

workweek from six to five days had originally been made in 1922. According to an article published in The New York Times that March, Edsel Ford, Henry’s son and the company’s president, explained that “Every man needs more than one day a week for rest and recreation....

The Ford Company always has sought to promote [an] ideal home life for its employees. We believe that in order to live properly every man should have more time to spend with his family.”

Henry Ford said of the decision: “It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either ‘lost time’ or a class privilege.” At Ford’s own admission, however, the five-day workweek was also instituted in order to increase productivity: Though workers’ time on the job had decreased, they were expected to expend more effort while they were there.

Manufacturers all over the country, and the world, soon followed Ford’s lead, and the Monday-toFriday workweek became standard practice.

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

SAND MINERS ASOCIATION OF LAGOS STATE, LEKKI CHAPTER LOST OF DOCUMENT

The general public is hereby notified that the above named association has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission, Abuja for Certified True Copy (CTC) of Certificate of its Incorporation under part C of Companies and Allied Matter Act 1990.

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

GOOD NEWS TO ALL NATIONS BIBLE CHURCH

YENIDEN INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named church has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named FOUNDATION has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

Trustees.

1. Williams Ajayi - Chairman 2. Moyosore Williams – Secretary

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Mr. Bernard Nkem Ekwe 2. Mrs. Clara Otekpe Ekwe 3. Mr. Felix Nmehielle 4. Master Favour Nyekachi Ekwe

Aim and objective.

1. To preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. To set the captive free.

3. To help the less privileged orphans and widows in the society.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the registrar general, corporate affairs commission, plot 420 Tigris Crescent, off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, P.M.B 198, Garki Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Signed: Chairman CLOBEK CROWN ESTATE HOUSE OWNERS ASSOCIATION, LUGBE ABUJA The General Public is hereby notified that the above named ASSOCIATION has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Mr. David Agbo 2. Mr. Kamilu Omokide 3. Prof. Henry Njoku 4. Mr. Vincent Oladapo Kolawole 5. Mrs Clara Ekwe 6. Mr. Bernard Ekwe AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To ensure cooperation of residents in tackling issues affecting homes.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, P.M.B 198, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To contribute our quota to the development of the society.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, P.M.B 198, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication Signed: SECRETARY

Signed; Chairman

REFINER’S FIRE CHRISTIAN CENTRE

GILGAL FARMS GLOBAL EMPOWERMENT FOR WOMEN & YOUTHS

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named center has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

Trustees.

1. Dada Modupe.

2. Dada Oluwaseyi Caleb.

3. Dada Rufus Oladele.

4.Dada Ogooluwa

TRUSTEES: 1. Mrs. Christiana Joseph Malgwi 2. Mrs. Ladi Ayuba Bello 3. Mr. Adetutu Adedoyin

Aim and objective To preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Any objection to this change should be forwarded to the Registrar General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Maitama, Abuja within twenty-eight (28) days of this publication.

Signed: Barr. Ebenezer

Signed: SECRETARY

GORONYO IRRIGATION DAM WATER USERS ASSOCIATION

23 Public Notice

ENGLISH SCHOLARS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1. To empower women and youths to face the challenges of the society.

2. To promote enterprise development through assisting farmers in establishing small scale business like fish farming, poultry farming, snail farming among others.

3. To assist the less privileged Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, P.M.B 198, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication SIGNED: Secretary

HANDS AT WORK IN AFRICA INITIATIVE

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named association has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named association has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

The General Public is hereby notified that the above name Association has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Change of its Trustees under Part ‘C’ of the Companies and Allied Act, 1990.

Trustee.

1. Alh Aminu Taloka.

3. Mani Nabatsami.

5. Rabiu Sada Falaliya.

7. Bello Saidu.

Trusteee.

1. Emeritus Prof. Ladipo Ayo Banjo 2. Prof. Munzali Jibril.

3. Prof. (Mrs.). Akachi T. Ezeigbo.

4. Prof. Victor Olusegun Awonusi.

5. Prof Adewale Adegbite.

6. Prof. Mrs Asabe Kabir Usman.

Old Trustees A. Marc Myburg. -Removed B. George Snyman - Retained C. Rex Yinusa Ajenifuja -Removed D. David Oluranti Aderinto - Removed E. Dan Adeleye Aderinto - Removed

Aim and objective To promote research in English.

The reason for change of Trustees is as result of the removal of four Trustees who have ceased to be members of the Initiative.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, P.M.B 198, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, P.M.B 198, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication

Signed. Trustee.

Signed. Secretary

Any objection to this change should be forwarded to the Registrar General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Maitama, Abuja within twenty-eight (28) days of this publication.

Signed: Secretary

2. Salisu Habibu D/Boko.

4. Alh. Sule Kweaddo Takakume.

6. Muhammad Sahabi.

8. Yusuf. Lumu.

Aim and objection To assist the farmers with modern irrigation farming techniques.

NDU-RU YOUTH FOUNDATION

ANGELIC EMPOWERMENT ORPHANAGE HOME

The general public is hereby notified that the above named foundation has applied for registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, Under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matter Act 1990.

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE:1. Amauche Modestina Ekezie 2. Amechi Joseph Onuorah AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:1. To provide free training for unemployed youths.

2. To cater for the welfare of youths.

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

Signed: Okolo Nnamdi

BLESSED CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH INTERNATIONAL The General Public is hereby notified that the above named CHURCH has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Elder Ignatius Worlu 2. Elder Osilem Kemkanma Wachukwu 3. Elder Emmanuel Woriji Amadi 4. Samuel Onwuchekwa Amadi 5. Elder Stephen Achinike Ichendu 6. Elder Emmanuel Wali Amadi

Trustees: (1) Etunim Lauretta Ifeoma -President.

(2) Mr. Etunim Adim Kingsley - Vice President.

(3) Mr. Mebele Henry Chukwueweni - Secretary.

(4) Ndobu Raymond Ugochukwu - (Member) Aim and objective To assist the less privilege and orphans.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the RegistrarGeneral, Corporate Affairs Commission, P.M.B 198, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication

Signed : Mr. Mebele Henry Chukwueweni - secretary.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, P.M.B 198, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication

Signed: SECRETARY

IDIDEP PROGRESSIVE ASSOCIATION, LAGOS The General Public is hereby notified that the above named association has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

Trustees.

1. Chief Emmanuel Ben Otu 3. Mrs. Arit Edem Ekefre 5. Mr. Efiong Edet

2. Mr. Ubon Charles Akpan 4. Mr. Edem Eyibio Eyo

Aims and objectives.

1. To promote love and unity among members.

2. To promote and encourage peaceful co-existence among members and with neighbours.

3. To liaise with the Parent Association, Mboho Nkaiso Ididep, or any other Association for that matter for the overall development of Ididep.

4. To liaise with Ibino Ibom Welfare & Development Association, Lagos, or any other Association for that matter for the overall development of Ibiono Ibom.

5. To initiate and/or undertake such development project(s) as hall enhance the general development of the Association and/ or Ididep.

6. To undertake such investment as shall enhance the finances of the Association.

Any Objection(s) to this Registration should be forwarded to the Registrar- General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 Days of this Publication.

Signed: Adenike Adedeji ESQ 18th Floor, Western House, Broad St. lagos.

OSABIOKUNLA FOUNDATION

BIFFO CHARITY FOUNDATION

The general public is hereby notified that the above named foundation has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission, Abuja for registration under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matter Act,1990.

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

The Trustees Are: 1. Abifarin Kayode Gabriel.

2. Habib Rahman Babatunde.

3. Rotimi Abifarin.

The Trustees Are 1. Amas Sunny Erhemwenyeke 2. Edobor Sunny Osayormwanb

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to all nations

New Trustees: A. Oluyede, Oluwagbenga Omotayo B. Lynn Chotowetz C. Mwenda Levy

Aims and Objectives : 1. To assist the less privilege once 2. To assist orphans education Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the RegistrarGeneral, Corporate Affairs Commission, P.M.B 198, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication Signed: Trustees

Aims and Objectives: 1. Helping and giving aid to the poor, the sick, old persons and persons with disabilities.

And to cater for the poor for charity purpose.

2. To provide decent living and recreational centers and homes for elderly citizens, giving money, food and providing assistance and shelter to people who are in need, homeless, destitute, orphans widows and internally displaced persons as a result of natural disasters.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the registrar general corporate affairs commission, plot 420 Tigris crescent, off aguiyi ironsi street, maitama Abuja within 28days from the date of this publication.

Signed: seccretary

News 24

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Plateau LG chair lauds Jonathan, NMA boss elected WMA Adviser Jang’s achievements Akor Ejumene

Chijioke Kingsley Jos

•••The Chairman of Bassa Local Government Area, in Plateau State, Mr. David Racha, has praised the administrations of the out-going President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Jonah Jang on their transformation programmes in the areas of infrastructure, human capacity-building, saying that Nigeria had profited from them.

He was of the view that politicians were becoming

more responsible to their constituency, in this dispensation, by giving back to the society that voted them into power.

According to him, although the duo recognised that the change in power reflected a true democratic situation, Racha called on Nigerians who were clamouring for change to count their blessings and give credit to Jonathan and Jang for bringing the much needed gains of democracy to all, especially in the areas of agriculture, industrialisation and

extensive construction of roads. He also hailed Jang for paying the salary of workers.

“If for any reason, a local government employee is being owned salary, then you should know that he or she is having issues with biometrics data capturing, Racha said.”

Racha, who celebrated his one year in office, some weeks before the just concluded general election, reeled out his record of achievements.

However, Racha emphasised that Jonathan would

now be vindicated from his statements on tackling the Boko Haram insurgency, as he had always said the security challenges would not be solved overnight as President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari has stressed.

Jang

Abuja

•••The President of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lawrence Kayode Obembe, has been elected as Council Adviser of the World Medical Association (WMA).

A statement of the association signed by the chairman of the publicity and publication committee of the National Executive

Times man loses documents •••The Editor, Standards, Archives and Special Projects, Mr. Tunji Okegbola, has lost vital documents to bandits, who broke into his car and removed his wallet file at Wuse Market, Abuja, on Saturday April 25, 2015.

Items lost included: In-

Council (NEC) of the NMA, Mr. Obitade Obimakinde, said Obembe was elected the adviser of the world medical body at the 200th Council Session held in Oslo, Norway.

At the occasion, Dr. Daniel Gbujie was formally presented to the Council as the Awardee of Junior Doctors Network having made the best presentation in the competition among Junior Doctors. ternational Passport No: A055977052 Drivers Licence, Company ID card, IRC-PAS membership card, ATM cards of First Bank, GT Bank, Wema Bank and UBA, Flash drives, house keys, etc. and cash.

Any of the items, if found, should please be returned to Folio Media Group, 44, Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja, or the nearest police station.

Anambra NIPR honours Bishop Ezeokafor Nkiru Nwagbo Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Anambra State Chapter, has honoured the Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, His Lordship, Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor, with excellence award for his humanitarian services, purposeful

leadership and for his ardent belief in dignity of human labour.

Presenting the award, on Thursday, the body described Ezeokafor as a man of uncommon character, a selfless pastor, friend of the poor and a cheerful leader, whom, it was said, derived joy in making others happy even at the expense of his comfort.

OLAYEMI ILEMOBAYO LEO

BANKOLE-OKUBADEJO OLUWAKEMI MODINAT

I formally know and addressed as Miss Olayemi Ilemobayo Sipasi, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Olayemi Ilemobayo Leo. All former documents bearing my former name remain valid. The General public should take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as Okubadejo Oluwakemi Modinat, now wished to be known and addressed as BankoleOkubadejo Oluwakemi Modinat.

All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ROSA STEVENSON IMARHIAGBE

ISMAILA AISHAT AYANRONKE

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Philips Rosa Ufot now wished to be known and addressed as Mrs. Rosa Stevenson Imarhiagbe. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Johnson Felicia Ayanronke now wished to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ismaila Aishat Ayanronke. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

Awka

•••The Motorists waiting for fuel at NNPC filling station at Gudu in Abuja... on Thursday Photo: Temitope Balogun

Workers protest rocks FMC Owerri Val Okara Owerri

•••Activities

at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri were temporally paralysed, on Thursday, following a peaceful demonstration embarked upon by staff of the hospital over planned privatisation of the establishment.

The protesting workers, under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), alleged that the management of the hospital had concluded plans to privatise the hospital, under the guise of private

public partnership (PPP), before the expiration of the current administration in the country.

The aggrieved staff, who marched to the hospital board room, where the board members were holding a meeting, to press home on their demands, carried placards with different inscriptions. Some of the placards read: “With privatisation, our jobs are at stake”; “Laboratory department is not for sale”; “Hospital is not a profitmaking company”; and “We need help. This is a farce. This privatisation is fake.”

Speaking to journalists at the hospital premises, the Chairman of NUAHP, FMC Owerri branch, Mr. Clifford Ezeugwu, described the FMC Owerri as the most expensive federal government-owned hospital in the country.

Ezeugwu, who explained that every unit in the hospital was functional and efficient, stressed that, the internally-generated revenue of the hospital was the highest among the federal health establishments in Nigeria.

“What is going to happen to the masses and staff, if the hospital is privatised?

No FMC in this country has been privatised except FMC, Owerri,” Ezeugwu said.

Also speaking, a member of the union, Mr. Sam Nwokeji, alleged that the management had not paid the 2013/2014 promotion arrears, lamenting that it was only the FMC Owerri that had not paid the arrears.

“Our management wants to sell off the hospital, under the guise of PPP and we say ‘no’ to it. We will continue to kick against it, because it is against the interest of both the staff and the masses”, he stressed.

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Freddie Adamgbe

APC accuses govt of hindering smooth transition Segun Adio

••• The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan administration of plotting to hinder a smooth handover of power on May 29.

The APC claimed that the PDP-led government was not ready to fully cooperate with the incoming government, despite its public posturing in that regard.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC also described as “an act of hostility and a patently-misplaced aggression the unnecessary vitupera-

tion against the incoming Buhari administration by the Jonathan government, ostensibly because of the terms of reference of the Buhari Transition Committee but in reality part of an orchestrated plot to sabotage the transition.”

It rejected the continued blackmail by the Jonathan administration as a result of President Jonathan's concession of defeat, wondering whether the concession, gracious as it was, has now become a shield for all wrong doings.

According to the statement, ''We are sick and tired of being blackmailed by the Jonathanians. Gen. Buhari won the 28 March

Plateau Gov-elect’ll protect non indigenes, says Eze Igbo Chijioke Kingsley Jos

••• The Eze Igbo, in Plateau State, Chief J.E.C Obilom, has expressed confidence in the in- coming administration of the Governor-elect, Mr. Simon Lalong, stating that one of the cardinal manifestoes of the Governor-elect was to protect every tribe in the state.

Obilom made his position known when Lalong was on a courtesy visit to his palace to seek his blessings in the just concluded governorship elections.

Lalong promised to address the issues that had caused some crisis in the state, since 2001, with a high number of Igbo victims.

Obilom told the Daily Times that he was dissatisfied with the Jang administration, stating that the Igbo people in Plateau State had suffered wanton kill-

ings from all the crises that had engulfed the state, even though they had nothing to do with them, as they were based on issues between the Jang administration and the Hausa-Fulani people.

Obilom said that the Plateau State Government had actually done nothing to ameliorate the sufferings of the Igbo people, who had been victims of recent Jos crises. He noted that the Igbo had contributed to the economic development of the state, and for which the government should see the Igbo community as a partner in progress.

Daily Times gathered that the relationship between the Eze Igbo and the present administration in Plateau State could have been a lot cordial had it accorded the throne of Eze Igbo its due recognition in the political and economic affairs of the state.

Presidential Elections fair and square, having satisfied both constitutional and other statutory requirements. We have no apology for our victory, and the concession of defeat - while it may have increased the political stock of President Jonathan - has by no means diminished the historic and emphatic victory of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress,'' APC said.

Justifying its statement that the Jonathan administration was plotting to hinder a smooth transition of power, the APC said while the outgoing government had earlier issued a memo to all ministries, depart-

Makurdi

ments and agencies to make sure their handover notes are ready by April 20th, the same government has now reversed itself and said the handover notes will not be ready until May 14th. ''With the new date, the Buhari Transition Committee will have little or no time to take a thorough look at the handover notes or seek clarification on knotty issues, effectively handing it (Buhari Transition Committee) a fait accompli as far as the handover notes are concerned. This does not augur well for a smooth transition and gives the impression that the outgoing Administration is trying to hide something", APC said.

•••A traditional ruler, Chief Iorbee Lada, has called on the leadership of Miyyetti Allah Cattle Rearers Association of Nigeria to impress on herdsmen grazing their cattle in Benue State to formally register with traditional rulers and community leaders, so as to fashion out how they could move with their cattle without destroying farm lands and so avoid crisis.

Lada, who was addressing newsmen, in his palace, in Adeke community, a suburb of Makurdi, on Thursday, condemned the forceful manner, in which the herdsmen enter into the state and choose, for themselves, where to settle, without regard to the owners, on the excuse that they also were Nigerians, and could settle

?

Are you working on a book of Poem, Short-Stories, Novel, Memoirs, Motivational, Text Book, etc we offer

1st Class

Critique, &Editing Publishing

We edit

Syntactic Errors Inadvertent Tense shifts Redundant Parallelism Misplaced modification Poor Punctuation and spelling Sloveness Malapropism

Lalong

Benue monarch urges herdsmen to register with host communities in any part of the country.

He debunked allegations that he had collected over N2m and a Jeep from Fulani leaders, in exchange for farm lands, which led to the protracted clashes with Tiv farmers in the area, saying it was fabricated falsehood by some of his enemies who were always creating enmity between Fulanis and Tivs.

According to him, he held a meeting with Fulani leaders, who also agreed that there would be no more fighting.

May Day: Rights group slams govs over unpaid workers’ salary •••A human rights group

@

Obliqueness/Ambiguity Cluttering - Verbosity - Monotony Sloopy Plot Drab Dialogue Weak Imagery Provincial Tongue Interference (Nigerian English)

08033081953, 08157561201 e-mail: t.okegbola@folioholdings.com www.1stoctober.com

Other Services

Researching Indexing Library, Archives, Media & ICT Consultant Printer & Publisher Digitization (Converting Books into CDs) Promotions

Gov. Jang

25 News

44, Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja - FCT.

in Nigeria, Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), has flayed state governors that were still owing their workers between six and ten months’ salary, saying such a situation was unjust.

It declared that the Federal Government, under the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has paid the monthly allocation from the Federation Account to the states up to the present moment.

The body’s reaction came on the heels of the recent comment by a factional leader of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), warning the affected state governors to pay their workers’ outstanding salary before the May 29, 2015, handing over date to new state governors or face workers' wrath.

Jonathan

26

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Our heritage Æ s

Socrates and Orunmila: Sophie Oluwole returns with another controversial book Book title: Socrates and Orunmila Author: Professor Sophie B. Oluwole Year of publication: 2015 Number of pages: 236 Price: Not stated Reviewer: Yemi Ogunsola For persons brought up to regard Western tradition of philosophy as the “ultimate” in the world, the suggestion of a comparison between the Father of Greek Philosophy, Socrates, and Orunmila, the founder of the school of Yoruba diviners (Babalawos), may sound ridiculous.

But it is especially to persons, Africans especially, with this mindset that Professor Sophie Oluwole directs her message in the book: They need to deliver themselves from a brand of intellectual slavery which blinds them to wisdom available at their doorsteps in search of a foreign brand of wisdom which has proved grossly inadequate for true global peace.

That Socrates is the Father of Greek Philosophy is generally known. But many do not realise that Orunmila is the Father of Yoruba Philosophy, a world view which has been acknowledged as among the richest in the world --especially in terms of its humanism.

The 236-page book starts with a preface and introduction that together take 22 pages. There, the professor of Philosophy marshals her argument for a truly objective view of philosophy unhampered by parochial definitions that seek to portray it as an exclusive property of the West rather than a global commodity manifesting in different forms in different cultures.

She points out parallels in the lives of both Orunmila and Socrates which showed them as leading lights of wisdom in their respective societies despite the fact that none of the two wrote anything down.

Orunmila and Socrates, she submits, “are two great thinkers who offer two rational options in philosophical thinking with positive contributions to world intellectual heritage.”

The next three chapters ex-

plore the personalities of both men according to written and oral records of their followers and critics.

Chapter three, titled “What They Said They Said” is particularly interesting as Sophie quotes profusely from extant records of what each had to say on a wide range of topics from the nature of reality, the nature of truth, the limit of human knowledge, the necessity of education to human destiny, death, Good, evil and political rights.

She has noted in earlier pages a problem common to both men arising from the fact that discussions on their teachings are carried out in a language different from the one in which they were originally written. She here acknowledges her indebtedness to the efforts of others like Wande Abimbola, Rev. E.M Lijadu, Pa Olarinwa Epega, William Bascom, Dr Abosede Emanuel, Ayo Salami etc, who have made translations of the Ifa literary corpus.

However, she takes full responsibility for her own translations.

But in two separate chapters, Appendix I and II, she provides the Yoruba originals of the Ifa verses quoted in the book. Unfortunately, the numberings are mixed up; such that it is with some difficulty that the reader locates the corresponding originals.

From Chapter Four, Sophie plunges into comparative philosophy in general. Citing several authorities, she points out the merits and demerits of their arguments in favour or against both African and Western traditions of philosophy. She launches a robust attack against the notion, especially in the West, that there is no African Philosophy or that if there is, it is inferior to the West’s.

“The greatest barrier to honest thinking about the existence and nature of African philosophy,” she declares, “is the presumption that no tradition of thought and philosophy other than those of the West can be scientific and rational…”

Continued on page 27

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Editor: Agozino Agozino Email: emmanuel. agozino@dailytimes.co.ng

NBFT holds book fair

Adio Mosanya unravels the Awolowo enigma

The 14th edition of Nigeria International Book Fair (NIBF), will hold on Monday, May 11 through 16 2015 at the Multi-Purpose Hall C, University of Lagos (UNILAG). The book event is on the theme: “African Youth Empowerment Through Book for Sustainable National Development”.

The event will be chaired by the Chairman of HEBN Publishers Plc, Mr. Ayo Ojeniyi, while the special guest of honour is Acting Executive Secretary, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Prof.

Ismail Junaidu, and the Keynote speaker is Professor of Oral Literature and Folklore, Delta State University, Abraka, Prof. G.G. Darah.

At a press briefing held at Excellence Hotel, Ogba, Lagos on Thursday, April 30, 2015 to kickstart the yearly international book fair the chairman of NBFT Rilwanu Abdulsalami said the fair is a platform setup by the NBFT to improve literacy and book trade in Nigeria by bringing books and other instructional materials closer to the people.

27 Our heritage

Book title: Post-Independence Political Evolution of Western Nigeria (The Obafemi Awolowo factors) Publisher: Datkeem Ventures Page: 314 pages Prize: Not stated Reviewer: Agozino Agozino Pa Jacob Adebayo Adio Mosanya’s Post-Independence Political Evolution of Western Nigeria (The Obafemi Awolowo factors) is a new 314-page book released recently. It dwells on the political evolution in the South Western Nigeria, especially, in the old Western Region, the crisis that engulfed that region during the early days of independence that, eventually, metamorphosed into the popular operation Wetie.

Secondly, it probes the intrigues, persecution, detention and subsequent incaceration of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the infamous Awo trial during the Balewa administration.

The author, a veteran trade unionist, wrote the book for whoever wants to know the history of the South Western Nigeria and how Chief Awolowo, a visionary leader, was greatly misunderstood.

The book is actually a combination of four previous books, including The Martyrdom, The Faults of the Yoruba, Awo! The Pacesetter, Oloye Obafemi Awolowo and the Historical Reflection, a collection of articles and columns which covers a variety of topics ranging from political to social

events among others.

This is how the author explained his inspiration for writing the book: “My granddaughter, Desola Willie-Desanya, from Convenant University, Ota Ogun State, told me she saw my book, Martyrdom of Chief Obafemi Awolowo on the internet remarked ‘out of print’.

This gingered me to re-print it for the benefit of the generations of Nigerians who had not known anything of our humble effort to prevent our country from gyrating towards failure and disaster.

As God Almighty grants me life, I resolved to combine my four books into one and republish it. I attach herewith copies of Papa’s two letters to me’’.

The first thing that will attract any reader of the book is the content page, which is presented in an interesting format using Yoruba and English languages, sometimes, which makes it very attractive and the lesson very comprehensible. The author followed this format, according to him, to aid the reader to understand the subject matter more easily.

The book is equally well illustrated with beautiful photographs and historical information. Moreover, the warm colour image of Chief Awolowo used on the cover adds to the beauty of the book and can easily make a reader interested in it. For the use of language, one noticeable thing that could entice the reader is that the author’s specific use of simple English.

Oluwole probes the myth of Socrates, Orunmila Continued from page 26 It’s however in Chapter Six that she submits that “on the testimony of Western philosophers… the fundamental difference between African and Western philosophy is located in their different assumptions about the nature of reality and the knowledge human beings can have of it.”

Sophie notes that while Western thought rests on Binary Opposition in which truth is either/ or and thus often results in conflicts, the African word view rests on Binary Complementarity/Complementary Dualism where different, even opposing views can be understood and accommodated without rancour.

It is mainly on this basis, she says, that African philosophy is by far superior to the West’s.

It is in the last chapter titled “Postscript” that the professor offers her most profound thoughts

on world affairs and the fate of humanity --- and some comments on the democratic rights accorded women in Africa long before the West did.

Quoting several Bantu proverbs as evidence of the merits of Binary Complementarity, Sophie declares: “The power and arrogance of the West today is in terms of the greater efficiency of technologies of murder. Westerners do not only shoot each other at war; they shoot groups of innocent children and civilian adults at peace time in their countries.

“No intellectual apologies have been offered for morally unjustifiable destruction of many highly civilised African empires by Western seekers of wealth who left wisdom (their philosophy) behind in using weapons of war the way Ogun did…”

Interestingly, she has earlier quoted an Ifa verse in which Ogun deity was branded “mad”

for misusing “technology”.

She warns, “The capitalist philosophy based on the freedom of the individual to pursue economic and social activities with minimal restrictions by government or consideration for the interest of others…remains one of the greatest Western anachronisms, a plague that delays the evolution of a healthy civilised world order.”

She then advises: “(African) Complementary Dualism is the most conceptually adequate antidote against the enigma of innumerable unfounded religious, philosophical, scientific, moral, economic, political, ethnic, national, international and, worst of all, intellectual terrorism brought about by treating Western monistic traditions of thought as absolute positions against which there are no other intellectually cogent, alternative traditions of thought.”

No thoroughbred African treats the admonitions of an 80-year-old with levity. Sophie clocks 80 on May 12, 2015.

We’ll all do well to listen carefully to this griot and amazon who never hesitates to launch into intellectual frays on behalf of the African race.

For African adults and youths alike, she has this parting warning: “Tragically, contemporary educationists instruct the African youth to buy the corpse of materialism, idealism and monistic dualism which Russel (Bertrand) and others have long declared failures…”

The book is not free of errors --- mainly editing and typographical. On page 68, for instance, “guitar” is spelled for “goitre”. About thrice “complimentary” is spelt for “complementary”. On page 195, “scholars are slow” is mistakenly rendered as “scholars as

low” suggesting that this portion was dictated to be written.

In some copies of the book, a couple of pages are misplaced or missing outright. All these can be easily corrected in subsequent editions.

I don’t agree with Mama Sophie’s interpretation of Yoruba “ori inu” on page 112 as “character”. I believe it’s a concept far more complex than that. It’s better interpreted as a person’s “soul signature” along with the “Guardian Spirit Entity” that goes with it.

Thus Ifa/Orunmila enjoins us to propitiate our Ori even more than the deities because while the deities are for everybody, the Ori is each person’s personal spiritual manager who screens the experiences that come our way in line with our individual destiny: “Ori la ba ma a bo, k’a f’orisa sile…ko s’oosa ti i da ni i gbe lehin ori eni...”

28

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Business Times Æ s

Business Editor: Emmanuel Ogbonnaya Email: emmanuelogbonnaya@dailytimes.com.ng

Despite economic headwinds Sterling Bank sees sustainable growth Sterling Bank Plc has posted an impressive 15.4 per cent Profit Before Tax (PBT) of N10.7 billion in a year (2014) described by not a few analysts as tough for the financial sector and has pledged to sustain its growth trend in 2015 despite foreseeable headwinds in the first three quarters.

In his address to shareholders on Thursday in Lagos, during the Bank’s 53RD Annual General Meeting, managing direc-

tor/chief executive officer Yemi Adeola admitted that macroeconomic shocks and tighter regulatory environment put significant pressure on margins of banks.

“The overriding macroeconomic theme for the global economy in 2014 was the sudden dip in the international price of crude oil in the second half of the year.

This was the case notwithstanding the currency and inflationary pressures faced by several emerg-

ing and frontier economies owing to portfolio reversals,” he said.

Adeola stressed that the domestic market was not spared these headwinds and cost pressures in the operating environment on account of the nation’s infrastructural deficit.

“Despite these headwinds, I am pleased to inform you that Management remained undaunted, navigating your bank successfully through what was in many

respects a very tough financial year. As a result, the Bank grew key revenue and balance sheet lines, while taking significant strides to place the institution on a sustainable growth path,” he said.

He stated that performance for 2014 lays credence to the commitment of the Sterling Bank team to its collective goals and the resilience of the Bank’s business model.

Adeola

L-R: Samson Akejelu, Marketing Manager, Spectranet Ltd; Mike Ogor, Head of Marketing, Spectranet Limited; Chief Ezekiel Fatoye, Director, Spectranet, and Hycent Nwabuisi, Account Director, Lowe Lintas at the Launch of Spectranet New Logo in Lagos, Wednesday

WCO canvasses coordinated border management approach Mathew Dadiya, Abuja The immediate past Vice Chairman of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) for West and Central African Region, and Comptroller General of Nigerian Customs Service, Mr Abdulahi Nde Dikko has said that only when a coordinated border management, capacity building and stakeholders collaboration is adopted that the Customs service can realise its core objective of revenue generation to the economic development of its country.

Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday at the 20th Conference of Directors General of Customs of the WCO for West and Central African region; Dikko said that with the dynamics of international trade and complex nature of border security, customs must see themselves as partners with other government agencies within and outside their borders.

According to him, the only guarantee for customs to build their strategies for a successful job, the service must accord priority to training of its officers and building of infrastructures to support skill development.

Dikko also revealed that the

Nigerian Customs Service is generating over $20million revenue to the government on a monthly basis.

He reminded the Conference that as part of its sub-regional approach to trade facilitation and border security, the last Conference mandated Nigeria to convene a meeting of Customs Administrations of Nigeria, Benin, Chad, Cameroun and Niger.

“I am happy to inform you that the Abuja initiative started by Customs, marked the beginning of a successful collaborative approach to combatting Cross-border terrorism in the region,” the Customs boss stated.

Cobham appointed NACCIMA Director General Charles Okonji Barrister Emmanuel Cobham a lawyer, journalist, broadcaster, and administrator has been appointed as the new Director General of Nigerian Chamber of Commerce Industry Mines and Agriculture.

An official statement from NACCIMA said Cobham is endowed with an excellent interpersonal, communication, and administrative skills: “He bestrides the public and the private sector managing information and providing leadership in the last twenty five years.”

The statement further added that Barrister Cobham has wide and varied experience which he garnered working at senior levels in the state, national and international organisations.

He had served as a Correspondent on the network service of NTA, served four different Mili-

tary Administrators and one civilian Governor of Cross River State as Chief Press Secretary and Director of Press Affairs from 1992 to 1999.

He worked briefly at the African Union Commission, AU, as Legal Officer in the Security Arrangements and Ceasefire Commission, one of the three Commissions during the 7th Round of the Talks on the future of Darfur in Abuja, thus putting him in a good stead to appreciate the workings of International organisations.

He had served as Executive Secretary, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, (MAN) Cross River / Akwa Ibom States Branch, and lately, Executive Secretary of the Calabar Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture before assuming office as the Director General, Nigerian Association of Chambers, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA.

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

NAICOM trains insurers for risk based supervision

Kari

Stories by Tony Nwakaegho The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has reiterated its commitment to increasing the level of awareness of insurance operators in readiness for full scale smooth implementation of Risk Based Supervision (RBS).

Mahammed Kari, Deputy Commissioner Technical, NAICOM, disclosed this at a day seminar hosted by Munich Re Africa in Lagos, that the Commission was responsible for ensuring effective administration, supervision, regulation and control of insurance business in Nigeria even as provided in Part II, Section 6 of National Insurance Commission Act of 1997.

Kari, also said that arrange-

ments have been concluded by the Commission for the adoption of RBS approach to the supervision of insurance and reinsurance Companies in Nigeria.

He said though the financial system in Nigeria is just evolving, “so too has the supervisory framework,” he added.

“We believe that a sound regulatory and supervisory system is necessary for maintaining a fair, safe and stable insurance sector for the benefit and or protection of the interests of stakeholders, as well as to promote stability of the financial system.

“In its earlier forms, supervisory approaches tended to be ‘compliance-based’, aimed mainly at ensuring compliance with the rules laid down for financial soundness and the conduct of

business.

“The risks associated with compliance-based approaches are that they may lead to excessive focus on observed non-compliance and to insufficient understanding of key business drivers and flaws in risk management practices of insurers.

“However an element of compliance monitoring is necessary in any supervisory approach to ensure that essential minimum standards are met and that the overall regulatory and supervisory regime has credibility,” he said.

He urged operators not to see the RBS as the regulator trying to introduce or push a new concept down their throats, but as an opportunity to imbibe the culture of risk based management.

29 Insurance

Following a deliberate and strategic decision to play a leading role in the nation’s insurance sector, the boards of SA Insurance Plc and SA Life Assurance Limited have approved the merger of both companies to form a frontline composite insurance company.

According to the organisations’ spokesman, Mr. Nelson Egboboh who disclosed this to our Correspondent in Lagos, the Boards’ corporate decision of combining the existing strengths of both companies was spurred by their desire to “create a bigger and financially strong composite insurance company with stronger capacity to serve its various clients and play a more dominant role in the insurance sector.”

He disclosed that the corporate action was further being taken with a focus on “delivering superior returns to the shareholders, provide much higher level of satisfactory service to our clients and to save cost of operations.”

He explained that to give the merger plan the necessary regulatory backing, “the management has applied for and secured a “no objection consent” from the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM,” noting further that in line with market procedures and pursuant to Rule 228 (ii) of the Investment and Securities Act 1999, the Management has also notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange of the development.

He noted that the companies are engaging the services of appropriate financial and merger experts to drive the transactions, stating that “it is our plan to complete the process before the end of the third quarter of this year.”

Egboboh assured that “the composite company to emerge will continue to build on the success of the transaction in the months to come, providing more innovative products and delivering on its promises to clients,” noting that “with the company’s formidable management team as well as its professional and resultoriented workforce, the company

Standard Assurance general, life companies merged was sure of achieving its set merger goals.”

He explained that SA Insurance Plc which became quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2003 currently has a shareholders’ funds of N4.7bn and asset base of N8.8bn while its affiliate company, SA Life Assurance Limited has a Shareholders’ Fund of N2.1bn and a total asset base of N6.9billion.

According to him, “with a combined asset base of N15.7bn after merger and a joint gross production of N8.41bn achieved as at 31st December, 2013, the future could only be better for the organisation and its clients as the company would be in a much superior position of strength to play dominantly to attract a higher percentage market-share and to further respond to claims’ issues much faster than we have been doing before now.”

Egboboh

Informal sector looks to PenCom for equipment loans

Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, (DG), PenCom

Workers in the informal sector who are presently wooed by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) to embrace the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), have demanded for a window that would enable them get soft loans for the purchase of machines and equipment from their savings.

This demand was made when executives of PenCom meet the workers in Lagos. The workers also asked PenCom to clarify the minimum and maximum entry age for self-employed persons and informal sector workers under the

CPS as well as how much and at what intervals they need to make contributions into the scheme.

They were also worried about the mode of payment of pension to them wondering “how can we access our pension when we retire,” adding “We don’t want to stand long hours on queues or suffer the fate of pensioners under the residual defined benefit schemes.”

They said they would not like their accumulated saving and interest thereon taxed and would appreciate it if government could

incorporate health insurance and loans scheme into the programme as well as making it possible for part of their pension saving to be used to provide them machines and equipment among other things.

PenCom has maintained that embracing the scheme would enable self-employed people and workers in the informal sector have sufficient income at old age, and also help inculcate savings culture through highly protected and regulated investment. PenCom also believes the scheme

would afford workers the opportunity to connect to other programmes of government while helping to finance infrastructure across the country.

“They could as well use the balance in their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) as equity contribution for residential mortgages and support their businesses and benefit from other micro-credit schemes and special awareness programme affiliated to the scheme,” Head of Research and Corporate Strategy Department at PenCom, Dr. Farouk Aminu said.

Transport 30

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

AIR TRANSPORT

Honda flies, breaks many records Honda is making bold claims in the aerospace segment with its private business class jet the HondaJet. Described as a breakthrough in aeronautics by the makers, the Over-The-Wing Engine Mount was engineered and proven by Honda after more than 20 years of extensive research and development.

“This innovative technology not only breaks the conventional mould set by the aerospace industry, but also provides category-leading advancements such as a more spacious cabin, noise reduction, and increased fuel efficiency,” a statement from Honda read.

The HondaJet claims to be the world’s most advanced light business jet aircraft, with bestin-class advantages in performance, comfort, quality and efficiency. It further boasts to be the fastest, highest-flying, quietest, and most fuel-efficient jet in its class.

“The HondaJet incorporates many technological innovations

in aviation design, including the unique Over-The-Wing Engine Mount (OTWEM) configuration that dramatically improves performance and fuel efficiency by reducing aerodynamic drag.

The OTWEM design also reduces cabin sound, minimises ground-detected noise, and allows for the roomiest cabin in its class, the largest baggage capacity, and a fully serviceable private aft lavatory,” the statement added.

The HondaJet is powered by two highly fuel-efficient GE Honda HF120 turbofan jet engines, and is equipped with the most sophisticated glass flight deck available in any light business jet, a Honda-customised Garmin® G3000 next-generation, all-glass avionics system composed of three 14-inch landscape-format displays and dual touch-screen controllers. The HondaJet is Honda’s first commercial aircraft and lives up to the company’s reputation for superior performance, efficiency, quality and value.

Innovations: over-the-wing engine mount design

PERFORMANCE

The next generation of flight The Honda Aircraft Company has recreated the business jet from the ground up with a truly clean sheet design. By mounting engines over the wing, designing Natural Laminar Flow for the wing and fuselage, and applying other innovations, the HondaJet outperforms all other aircraft in its class. The culmination of cutting-edge innovation makes the HondaJet the world’s most advanced light business jet. It climbs and cruises faster, soars higher, offers more room and less noise, and uses less fuel.

Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) maximizes performance.

Advancements in aerodynamics and NLF technology were applied to the design of the main wing airfoil and fuselage nose shape of the HondaJet to reduce aerodynamic drag. This cutting-edge engineering innovation contributes to high cruising speed and increased fuel efficiency.

From the sky, a greater appreciation of the Earth.

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

31 Transport

Advanced cockpit The HondaJet cockpit is built for optimum safety based on thoughtful ergonomic design and state-ofthe-art situational awareness. First, we give the pilot more space and greater visibility; next, fewer intrusions and more intuition. Our Garmin® G3000 next-generation all-glass avionics system brings pilot and aircraft closer to-

Advanced cockpit

General Specifications

COMFORT It’s called cabin space, and HondaJet provides more of it than any other jet in its class. But to you and your fellow passengers, it’s much more than a cabin. It’s a workspace, thinking space, quiet space, and a relaxing space. These are the true inspirations behind the HondaJet’s interior and why Honda designers meticulously considered every detail — from the completely adjustable executive seating to the fully private lavatory and a host of other modern amenities.

World Tour The HondaJet will travel from Japan to Europe for the 15th annual European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland, May 19 – May 21. For the first time, the HondaJet will be on static display at the Geneva International Airport as part of Honda Aircraft Company’s presence at Europe’s largest business aviation event.

“We are excited to bring the HondaJet to EBACE and showcase its performance capabilities in Europe,” said Fujino. “The HondaJet has broad appeal in this region with its speed, superior efficiency, and a range that connects most of the major cities in Europe and the United Kingdom.”

Certification The HondaJet has received provisional type certification (PTC) from the United States Federal Aviation Administration

(FAA). This achievement indicates the FAA’s approval of the HondaJet design based on certification testing, design reviews, and analyses completed to date.

A provisional type certificate is a design approval by the FAA and is common for business jets when final certification is near.

Honda Aircraft has demonstrated that the HondaJet is safe for flight and meets the airworthiness standards defined by the PTC. Melvin Taylor, manager of the FAA’s Atlanta Aircraft Certification Office (ACO), said: “It is a pleasure for the Atlanta ACO to issue Honda Aircraft Company a provisional type certificate for the Model HA-420.

It is a milestone event for a first time aircraft manufacturer to receive its first type certificate.

This issuance speaks well to the hard work put forward by all the Honda and FAA staff working in a collaborative manner. The Atlanta ACO takes pride in being part of Honda’s introduction of such an advanced and uniquely designed aircraft to the aviation market. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Honda as we move to final completion of their HA-420 approval.”

Honda Aircraft is targeting final FAA type certification in the next few months, following the completion of final testing and approval by the FAA. General Statistics

gether with touch-screen technology.

The dual touch-screen controllers and three 14-inch landscape high-resolution displays offer enhanced navigation, flight planning, and control. The cockpit is unquestionably built around the pilot to enable either single-pilot or dualpilot operation of the HondaJet.

Maximum Cruise Speed @ FL300420KTAS Maximum Cruise AltitudeFL430 Rate of Climb3990 ft / min NBAA IFR Range (4 occupants) 1180 nm Takeoff distance<4000 ft Landing distance<3000 ft Engines Manufacturer / ModelGE Honda / HF120 Output (Uninstalled Thrust) 2050 lbf each derated from 2095 each Bypass ratio2.9 External Dimensions Height14.90 ft [4.54 m] Wing Span39.76 ft [12.12m] Length42.62 ft [12.99m] Interior Cabin Dimensions Height4.80 ft [1.46 m] Length17.80 ft [5.43 m] Width5.00 ft [1.52 m] External Baggage Space Total66 cubic ft Within aft section57 cubic ft Within nose section9 cubic ft Configuration

At home, miles above it.

Typical configuration1 crew + 5 pax (2 crew + 4 pax) Alternative configuration1 crew + 6 pax (2 crew + 5 pax)

g Business

g Features g News

Despite economic The skill and ability headwinds, Sterling of Nnewi people are Bank sees sustainable in our blood – Igwe growth Orizu P17

Mugabe taunts black South Africans

P28

FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015

How Buhari can carve his name in gold

P8

Price: N150

VOL. 1. NO.98

www.facebook.com/dailytimesngr

P13

g Politics

https://twitter.com/DailyTimesNGR

https://plus.google.com/+DailytimesNgr/posts

dailytimesng

What Came Before Baltimore’s Riots New York Times •••

The riots that devastated urban America during the 1960s were often ignited by acts of police brutality that inflamed poor African-American communities where the police were seen not as protectors but as an occupying force. These same tensions resurfaced last year in the suburban St. Louis community of Ferguson, Mo., where riots broke out after a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, a black teenager. They have now erupted on a larger stage, in Baltimore, after the death of Freddie Gray, a young black man who suffered a catastrophic injury while in police custody.

President Obama has condemned as inexcusable the looting and arson that spread across the face of the city after Mr. Gray’s funeral. But he also implied that the Baltimore Police Department had “to do some soul-searching.” Indeed it does: A well-documented history of extreme brutality and misconduct set the

stage for just this kind of unrest.

Proof can be found in a meticulously reported investigation by The Baltimore Sun of lawsuits and settlements that had been generated by police-brutality claims. “Over the past four years,” the investigation noted, “more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations.”

The victims included a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant woman who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson.

The report, published last fall, detailed what it called “a frightful human toll” inflicted by the police: broken bones, head trauma, organ failure, and even death, occurring during questionable arrests. It found that judges and prosecutors routinely dismissed charges against the victims and that city policies helped to hide the extent of the human damage. Settlements prohibited the victims from making public statements.

Baltimore Police form a parimeter around a CVS pharmacy that was looted and burned The Sun estimated that the cash-strapped city had spent $5.7 million on settlements and $5.8 million on legal fees since January 2011.

Baltimore residents were familiar with these and other stories of police abuse when Mr. Gray’s case fell into the public spotlight earlier this month. The police chased and apprehended him on April 12, allegedly because he had “made eye contact” with a lieutenant and then ran away. Cellphone vid-

eos of his arrest showed him being dragged into a police van, appearing limp and screaming in pain. The police have acknowledged that they delayed in calling for medical help. When he arrived at the police station, medics rushed him to the hospital, where he slipped into a coma and died a week later.

His family has said that 80 percent of his spinal cord was severed and that his larynx had been crushed. This account is

at odds with a police report claiming that “the defendant was arrested without force or incident.”

The Baltimore Police Department has a particularly egregious history and has entered into a voluntary reform agreement with the Justice Department. But there is no reason to believe that it is unique in terms of its toxic relations with the people it is meant to protect.

Indeed, over the last five

years, the Justice Department has opened 21 investigations into local police departments around the country and is enforcing reform agreements with 15 departments, some investigated by previous administrations.

Mr. Obama was right on the mark when he observed on Tuesday that tensions with law enforcement had simmered in African-American communities for decades and now seemed to be bursting into view once a week.

“This has been a slowrolling crisis,” he said.

“This has been going on for a long time. This is not new, and we shouldn’t pretend that it’s new.”

He also said that addressing the problem would require not only new police tactics but new policies aimed at helping communities where jobs have disappeared, improving education and helping ex-offenders find jobs.

The big mistake, he said, is that we tend to focus on these communities only when buildings are burning down. ...Culled from h t t p : / / w w w. n y t i m e s . com/2015/04/29/opinion/ what-came-before-baltimores-riots.html?_r=0

Published by FOLIO COMMUNICATIONS LTD, Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja. website: www.dailytimes.com.ng; email: info@dailytimes.com.ng. Tel: 018447948. EDITOR: YINKA OLUJIMI News Hotlines: 08138773277, 08173901838. Advert Hotlines: 08169118913, 08075038528

Life&

TIMES Friday, May 1, 2015

Emmanuel

Ikubese On life as

Mr Nigeria L P

The scourge of cancer among socialites L5,6 P

2

High society congregates for Seye Kehinde @

50

L3

P

Interview L2

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

I would have been in the military

- Emmanuel Ikubese

Opeoluwani Akintayo and Mutiat Alli

a limit to everything.

An actor and a model, he is the current Mr. Nigeria and was the 1st runner up at the Mr. World 2014 contest which held at held at the Riviera International Conference Centre, Torbay, Devon, England. Emmanuel Ikubese stands tall as the CEO RAW(Respect A Woman), an NGO for the fight against domestic violence. He opens up on his new project, life as an actor and on his being the current Mr. Nigeria among several other things.

What have you been up to lately?

So much. I just finished the shoot for Shuga, (soap) Season 4. I also have other movies in the pipeline.

Then I’m also working on my own project, an NGO called Domestic Violence Against Women called Project RAW( Respect A Woman). I released the first set of pictures for the project and I’m planning on doing a tour of some Universities to talk about domestic violence.

You’ve been on Shuga show from the very first season. Why do you think they keep asking you back?

I don’t know but I think it’s the likeness for my character.

Has anything changed about the character you’re playing in this season?

Initially, Femi my character was a bad boy until he simmered down and is now trying to do something positive after contacting HIV. He’s now learning to live with the stigmatization as an African living in Africa.

Has the character you played in Shuga affected the way you live in real life?

It hasn’t because I try not to be a bad boy in real life.

Life&

T E A M

You mean like avoiding ladies?

Of course! The attention comes with you being a celebrity but, there’s

Talking about your NGO, why are interested in domestic violence?

It’s something I have always thought about while I was still in the university. I just had it in mind that I’d like to change the mind set of people towards domestic violence. So, now that I have a voice, it is something I want to do to impart into the lives of young people.

Do you have any friend who has ever been violent with his girlfriend?

Yes. I’ve seen friends and even female friends in bad relationships and a lot of them find it difficult to get out of it. Most of them try to talk to their boyfriends because you’ll always find them still going back to their abusers. It has to do with the mindset and it’s high time they know that the more they stay in it, the more dangerous it gets. A lot of times, the guys don’t change so, the best thing is to walk out of an abusive relationship.

How has the response of your message being especially to the young people?

The response has been amazing Are victims coming out to identify with you?

Yes. A lot of girls have sent me messages, saying they want to share their story and some who were bold enough to get out of an abusive relationship are willing to talk about their experiences. I got amazing responses that I didn’t even expect Have you met some of them?

I have and we’ve spoken that’s why I want to go to Universities and have a talk with them.

What do you intend to do with the stories they shared with you?

I intend to turn them into short films and movies because I want people to be able to relate with it and learn from their stories. I have a fe-

Editor Nkarenyi Ukonu n.ukonu@dailytimes.com.ng 08029030427

Music Correspondent Akintayo Opeoluwani o.ogunjimi@dailytimes.com.ng 08126223784

male friend who was stabbed by her boyfriend! All of these are real life experiences we should learn from.

They will always troop but we need to know when to draw the line so that we don’t get distracted.

Kunle Afolayan and a few other actors had a protest walk against piracy to both the Lagos State House of Assembly and the Government House, Alausa recently. Why didn’t you and many others turn out for the walk because piracy affects everyone in the movie and music industry?

I wasn’t aware of the protest but I know a lot needs to be done to curb piracy because it’s messing up the industry. It’s high time we come together and fight it while also working together with the government to ensure that piracy becomes a thing of the past. Someone can’t spend millions on a movie and someone else will just steal the intellectual work.

It’s daylight robbery because those selling the CDs in traffic didn’t work for the contents they are selling. So, the government has to do something about it.

How do you ward them off, by telling them you have a girlfriend?

Well, sometimes, there are different ways of discharging people. You don’t shout at them because they are still your fans, you have to be diplomatic about it.

How is life as Mr. Nigeria?

Well, it’s been good and it has really put me on a different platform as a brand. It has taken me to different countries and I’ve met a lot of good people. I am still growing as an actor and as an entertainer. It has opened my mind to achieve several other things. I thank God for everything.

Can you marry an actress?

Definitely. If she’s the right person, it’s all good. I don’t have any restriction. I just want someone who understands and appreciate me

And the girls, are they trooping in their numbers?

Movie Correspondent Mutiat Alli m.alli@dailytimes.com.ng 08115557378

Do you have a girlfriend?

I’m not seeing anyone right now Are you denying her?

I’m serious. I’m not seeing anyone Why? Because I haven’t found the right person yet. I just got out of a relationship that lasted long and I just want to take my time, especially now that I have a lot I am doing. I may not have the time and I don’t know if she will be there for me. I have to find someone who will love me for who I am.

What’s your description of an ideal woman?

Beautiful, sexy and smart.

Does being Mr. Nigeria put enough money in your pocket?

Well, it’s paying the bills

Society Correspondent Isaac Oguntoye i.ogundoye@dailytimes.com.ng 08069489893

Photography Quadri Olowolagba q.olowolagba@dailytimes.com.ng 08029745478

And you still have leftovers to save?

Sure! It’s taking care of my family and they are happy right now.

If you were not in the entertainment industry, what else would you have been?

I would have been in the military Why? I just like them. I’ve always wanted to be in the military but it didn’t work out. God knows why.

Is your dad a military officer?

No but he had a lot of close friends in the military. My intention to join the military was a personal decision. In fact, my younger brother is a military officer. I just love the discipline in military. If you notice, I always dress smart. I love the way they dress and walk with authority. I just love them.

You will be dropping your title this year. Are you already nostalgic at the mere thought of handing over?

Well, I still have a lot of things to do but, until then, I just have to wait. I’m just going to say that whoever I am handing over to after my reign has a lot of work to do.

What has clinching the second position at the Mr. World contest done for you?

It has opened a lot of doors. Like I recently traveled with the Miss World crew, and many more I can’t count.

Graphics Austine Agbovi a.agbovi@dailytimes.com.ng 07060402397

Daily Times Nigeria

Friday, May 1, 2015

L3 Event

High society congregates for Seye Kehinde @ 50 Mutiat Alli It was a gathering of the crème de la crème of high society who flocked to Time Square events centre, Ikeja, Lagos, to rejoice with Seye Kehinde, the founder of City People media group, publishers of City People weekly magazine(Nigeria and Ghana edition), City people extra, Today’s fashion and City People fashion and life style magazine. The occasion was his 50th birthday.

Hon. Funmilayo Tejuosho, a three time lawmaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, have made their appearance together at society events, a regular occurrence. They both attended the 50th birthday celebration of Seye Kehinde just as they did at the City People entertainment awards which held last month. This no doubt signifies that their friendship isn’t just by mere words of mouth but one that is bound by unity, a trait that the All Progressive Congress party, to which they both belong to, preaches always.

Rev. Olatunji Makinde preaches peace

Governor Ibikunle Amosun, turns cake cutting coordinator

Rev. Taiwo Ojo and Prelate Emeritus Methodist Church, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde To kick start the celebration, an elaborate thanks giving service led by Rev. Sunday Olatunji Makinde, the Prelate of the Methodist church of Nigeria set the ball rolling officially with an opening prayer for the celebrant and to declare the events of the day opened The very eminent Rev charged the congregation on the need to be closer to God and to always pray for peace to reign in Nigeria. To the celebrant, Rev. Makinde charged Seye Kehinde on the need to report the truth at all times through his various platforms.

Governor Babatunde Fashola’s description of the birthday ‘boy’

The Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola described the celebrant as one who has showed doggedness in the cause of practicing his profession, journalism. He added that Seye isn’t just a mere writer but a passionate publisher.

Between Muiz Banire and Funmilayo Tejuosho

Muiz Banire and Funmilayo Tejuosho Like conjoined twins, the duo of Muiz Banire, the legal adviser to the All Progressive Congress party and

Erelu Abiola Dosunmu’s wishes for Seye Kehinde at 50

Erelu Abiola Dosunmu

Cutting of cake by celebrant, anchored by Senator Ibikunle amosun The Ogun state governor, Ibikunle Amosun breezed into the party with his entourage that comprised of some of his commissioners, senior special assistants and a senator-elect, in the person of Heyden petroleum boss, Dapo Abiodun. Shortly after giving a short speech, he proceeded to co coordinating the cutting of the celebrant’s cake. One may not be wrong to assume that his rendition of the rhymes that led to the eventual cutting, perhaps shows how he handled his own birthday parties while growing up.

Aare Alaasa Olubadan Of Ibadanland, Oloye Lekan Alabi, Celebrant. Seye Kehinde & Chief Fassy Yusuf

Dressed in her usual white regalia which reeked of elegance, Erelu Abiola Dosunmu who has been out of circulation on the social scene for a while, made it to the event. When she was called on to say a few things about the celebrant, the ageless beauty said, “I feel wonderful and I’m so glad that I have come to felicitate with Seye because he’s a good man. He’s a nice young man, not a typical media person but one with a human face. So, he deserves the ovation, celebration and the good wishes he is receiving today especially from our Papa Makinde. I’m so happy for him and I wish him all the very best he can achieve in his chosen endeavour and I pray that City People magazine will go from strength to strength and continue to be a perfect example of a successful soft sell magazine that can progress without demeaning humanity or other human beings. I just wish Seye a very good life, good health, great success and to let him know that, life has just began for him at 50.”

On the band stand

A congregation of media ‘boys’ Taiye Currency and Saint Janet Bayo Ononuga, Publisher Encomium Magazine, Kunle Bakare

Governor Babatunde Fashola

birthday party considering that the birthday ‘boy’ uses his platform to celebrate them and to also publicize their works.

Mayor Akinpelu

Call them the shakers and movers of the industry with their pen and you won’t be far from the truth. From the Publisher of The News, Bayo Onanuga, to the Publisher of Encomium magazine, Kunle Bakare, to the Publisher of Global Excellence magazine, Mayor Akinpelu to the Publisher of E247 magazine, Biodun Kupoluyi, they were all present to felicitate with the birthday ‘boy’. Naturally, many were forced to behave themselves so as not to incur their wrath through their pen in their various medium.

Low turnout of entertainers

Iyabo Ojo, Dele Taiwo and Foluke Daramola With the exception of Iyabo Ojo, Foluke Daramola and Dele Taiwo, not many entertainers were seen at the

Veteran singer, Musiliu Haruna Ishola was on the band to thrill the audience alongside Remi Sax and a cameo appearance by Saint Janet and Taiye Currency.

Guests at the party

Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Ibikunle Amosun, Ganiu Solomon and Dele Momodu Ogun State first lady, Funso Amosun, Aare Alaasa Olubadan of Ibadan land, Oloye Lekan Alabi, Chief Fassy Yusuf, Hajia Abba Folawiyo, Dr. Akin Olugbade, former Punch Newspaper chairman, Ajibola Ogunshola, Otunba Adekunle and Erelu Ojuolape Ojora, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Mrs. Nike Akande, Special Adviser On Media to the Ogun State government, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Wakama, Alhaji Tunde Daoodu, Issa Esayor, Bisola Munis, Gbenga Adeyinka, Princess Toyin Kolade, Dr. Fola Rogers, Funmi Asike, Tayo Edo, Quincy Ayodele, Yinka King, Dele Momodu, Ganiu Solomon amongst others.

Photos: Olowolagba Quadri

Society L4

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Isaac Oguntoye

What is happening to Jimi Agbaje’s company?

He recently just contested the Lagos State gubernatorial elections under the banner of PDP of which he lost to Akinwunmi Ambode of APC. The trained pharmacist who is also a brother to Segun Agbaje, the managing director of Guaranty Trust bank runs a chain of pharmacies aptly called JK pharmacies.

However, the subject of discourse here isn’t how he lost to the APC candidate but to find answers to why his pharmaceutical and chemical Company, JAYKAY pharmaceutical and chemical company Limited has been under lock and key.

The outfit has been without activities during and after the Lagos State governorship election. Residents of Ikorodu are of the opinion that the three time governorship aspirant is still trying to recover from the shock of losing out in the last election while some allude the paralysed state of activities to be due to the huge amount of tax he has to pay to the government.

Jimi Agbaje

Erelu Abiola DosumuFernandez’s special message to President-elect, General Buhari The Nigerian general election of 2015 was the 5th quadrennial election to be held since the end of military rule in 1999.

And it would be recalled that some had threatened to declare war on the nation if their favourite candidate loses out on the election. But all that is now in the past as the incumbent president made a phone call to the president-elect even before he was declared winner of the presidential election. The ever-smiling estranged wife of Chief Deinde Fernandez in a brief interview took time to advice and congratulate the incoming president saying “I just wish him all the best. The campaigning, the rancour, are all over now and we are all one Nigeria. We’re all one citizen of this great nation and he should see everybody as his children and try to alleviate the problem of everybody equally and may God help him.”

Erelu Abiola Dosumu-Fernandez

Senate Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon bounces back Shortly after the All Progressive Congress primary election, Sen. Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon disappeared into thin air. Little or nothing was heard about the former Lagos State governorship aspirant up until the governorship elections ended. Now the socialite politician who is a staunch member of the All Progressives Congress, is back to public reckoning, honouring invitations but not disclosing his reasons for going on AWOL or where he went to.

Senator Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon

Bad times for Yes magazine publisher, Azuh Arinze Publisher of foremost celebrity journal, Yes magazine, Azuh Arinze, is in a sober mood as he recently lost his younger sister in an auto crash penultimate Sunday.The deceased until her death, was a final year student of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, and was the last born of the family. Known to be very friendly and sociable, Chinonso who was loved by all for her vivaciousness will be buried this week. A bereaved Azuh took to his Facebook page to break the bad news.

He wrote, “My God, My God…I’m tempted to question God, but I won’t. Not today, not tomorrow and not even forever. Never ever will I do that! And in spite of how much death has dared me.My youngest sister, the baby of the house and our last born, the ever cheerful and gregarious Augusta Chinonso Azuh, a final year student of Olabisi Onabanjo University (in Ogun State), just died in an auto crash.I’m crest fallen and devastated beyond words.

Yet I won’t question my God. I won’t even ask

Azuh Arinze anybody why a tragedy of this numbing proportion should visit my family again, and so soon after the demise of our patriarch, IchieAzuhChimezie, Ezeoma of Azia. God! My God, my God… Please, all I ask for now is your strength to carry on as the new head of the family; that strength that surpasses all understanding. Ogoo! Oberenwannem!

Kaemesia!”

Chief Festus Marinho and Dr. Thomas Asuquo celebrates

Chief Marinho’s Son, Gboyega Marinho and Dr. Thomas Asuquo John

It was celebration galore as Pat Utomi’s Foundation, Centre for Value in Leadership (CVL), again, honoured both Chief Festus Marinho and Dr. Thomas Asuquo in a grand style. The duo were honoured for contributing immensely to the growth and development of the oil and gas industry in the country. Chief Festus who recently celebrated his 80th birthday was represented by his son while Dr. Thomas Asuquo stayed till the end of the programme. The Right Honourable Cavalier (Chief) Festus Remilekun Ayodele Marinho, Papal Knight of Sylvester, officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Fellow of the Nigeria Mining and Geosciences Society, Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Imperial College Alumni Association (Nigeria Branch), was at the forefront of all the developmental policies and practices in the petroleum industry in Nigeria while Dr. Thomas Maurice Asuquo John also played significant roles in the development of the Petroleum Industry.

NDLEA spokesman, Mitchel Ofoyeju fetes friends and family as relation quits bachelorhood It was celebration galore as the spokesman for National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mitchel Ofoyeju, feted family and friends who came to celebrate with him as a member of his extended family, Alex Atule Alifa got married to his beautiful bride, Esther Abiola Okunaiya, last month. The solemnisation which took place at Christ Apostolic Church Alagomeji, Yaba, culminated into a lavish reception at V-ginia event centre, Yaba, Lagos. The calibre of people present at the nuptials was a testament to the goodwill Mitchel enjoys both within the organisation he represents and among his highly placed friends.

Groom, Alex Atule and bride, Esther Abiola Okunaiya

Daily Times Nigeria

Friday, May 1, 2015

L5

Society

The scourge of cancer among Nigerian socialites Isaac Oguntoye That cancer is very destructive cannot be over emphasized. The scourge and its ravaging effects have long been a recurring decimal and several Nigerian socialites have had to fall victim to this terminal disease. Arguably, the second leading cause of death in the world after cardiovascular diseases, early detection seems to be the only solution as no tangible cure for it has been found. There are several types of cancer but the major ones which has claimed so many lives includes; breast cancer, cervical cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer, ovarian cancer, cancer of the blood and prostate cancer. In this piece, Life &Times x rays a few notable socialites who have had to exit this world as a result of the deadly disease.

Oronto Douglas

Oronto Douglas was the special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Research, Documentation and Strategy and was one of the team of lawyers who represented Ken Saro Wiwa during his trial under the Gen. Sani Abacha regime.

For being an astute human rights lawyer, he was imprisoned many times by various dictators. Oronto who was also an author, an environmentalist and a philanthropist remained committed to his job as a senior special adviser up until his death.

Prior to his death, he was away from the public sphere,

Evangelist Bimpe Oluwayose-Sorinolu

The popular Lagos socialite turned apostle was the younger sister to Ayo Fayose, the governor of Ekiti State. Bimpe was diagnosed in 2011 of a stage 4 cancer of the breast and she was informed of her impending death six months after. Rather than lose hope, she however braced the health challenges, going in and out of hospitals. At a time, her condition improved causing her throw a thanksgiving party in Nigeria. She would later die at St. Joseph Hospice, Mare Street, Hackney, United Kingdom, after a long battle with the deadly disease.

in America precisely, for months on treatment and only came back to Nigeria to put his house in order having been told the exact time he would breath his last. He was said to be devastated when President Goodluck Jonathan lost his re election bid and many have said that were Oronto not so ill, the president may have probably not lost the election.

Such was his commitment and his ability to make things happen when he was hale and hearty. The former commissioner of Information in Bayelsa State was 49 at the time of his death. He died of stomach cancer.

Mariam Babangida

Dora Akunyili

She was the DirectorGeneral of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Minister of Information and Communications between 2008 to 2010. Dora Akunyili, a former professor of pharmacy, died of complications arising from cancer of the uterus. Ironically, she was completely healthy until she decided to go into politics when she lost the Anambra senatorial election in 2011 to Senator Chris Ngige. At the end of the legal tussle over the election, the former minister visited America in 2013 to undergo what she thought would be a routine medical check-up. Her doctor found out that she had a malignant endometrial cancer. It was the tumor that eventually took her life last year, in a hospital in the Indian city of Bangalore after she had struggled with the disease for two years. Before her

death, Akunyili maintained an optimistic spirit throughout her illness. She never believed she would succumb to the disease, she was determined to fight the disease and to prove so, accepted her nomination as a delegate at the National Confab which took place in Abuja last year. However, some family members believe that she may not have died had she not been given a wrong diagnosis of cancer while she served as the Zonal Secretary (Southeast) of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).

She had travelled to the UK then for treatment and doctors discovered that she was suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) which necessitated her to pay back the money she had given her for treatment. to the PTF. This was until last year when her US doctor found that she had malignant endometrial cancer.

Not too many Nigerians will forget Maryam Babangida so soon. If not for her role in nation building, it will definitely be for some controversy around her. She was the chairperson of the Better Life for Rural Women during

her husband, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s years in office, from 1985 to 1993. Maryam who it was glamorised the office of the first lady, died of ovarian cancer at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey in 2009.

Oluremi Osholake

Only a few close friends were aware of one of Nigeria’s finest fashion designer, Oluremi Osholake’s medical condition until her situation become critical. Fondly referred to as Remi Lagos, Osholake passed on at 51 at Harley Street Clinic in London from cancer of the womb. Even when she was diagnosed, she continued to put up a brave fight against the disease, receiving chemotherapy treatment. Her demise was as a result of complications that arose after undergoing surgery for the ailment.

Continue on page 6

Society L6

Daily Times Nigeria Friday, May 1, 2015

Cancer, the scourge of Nigerian socialites Continue from page 5

Olusola Saraki

Second Republic Senate Leader, Dr. Olusola Saraki, was widely known as the Kingmaker of Kwara politics. Fondly referred to as the Waziri of the Ilorin Emirate or Baba Oloye, the late Saraki who was a philanthropist died in Lagos on 14th November 2012 at his Ikoyi home at the age of 79, loosing a five year battle against cancer.

Naana De Souza

Originally from Ghana, the former popular TV/Radio personality, who used to be married to socialite, Magnus De Souza died after a six year battle with cancer in her native home town in Ghana. Naana in her prime worked as a colunmist for Punch Newspaper, City People and several other newspapers and magazines. She also worked with Silverbird TV where she helped organize many MBGN pageants. She can best be described as one of the best voices in the broadcasting industry in Nigeria.

Yinka Craig

He was a pioneer radio and television broadcaster and sports journalist extraordinaire with over 40 years of experience. He died from a protracted cancer of the blood which had kept him bed-ridden for months. His travails with the disease was highly publicized which resulted in a passionate response by prominent individuals, groups and corporate entities offering to contribute to Yinkaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s huge medical bills and did so. The Ogun and Lagos State Governments in particular were among the most generous contributors to the Yinka Craig fund, with the Lagos State Government donating as much as N15 million. Other prominent donors included the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;adu Abubakar III. The fund rose to about N38 million which enabled him to be flown to America for a Stem Cell transplant, a medical procedure that became necessary as a result of cancer of the bone marrow. He lost the two-year battle with cancer of the lymphatic systems at Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in the United States of America on September 23, aged 60.

Nneyin Allison Attah

She was the wife of the ex-governor of Akwa Ibom Obong Victor Attah and was originally from Barbados. A qualified librarian, Nneyin had a passion for child care and was chairperson, Child Development Trust (CDT), a non-governmental organisation that sought to change the lives of underprivileged rural children in Akwa Ibom through the provision of free health care services. She died from a prolonged battle with kidney cancer at the age of 72 at a Lagos hospital.

Sonny Okosun

He was one of the great musicians of his time but the music stopped playing when he died on May 24, 2008 of colon cancer at the age of 61 in the United States after a prolonged battle with it. He had gone to seek medical advice on his deteriorating health only to be told he had cancer.

Tayo Aderinokun

He was the Group Managing Director of Guarantee Trust Bank from 2002 to the point of his death in 2011, a bank which he co-founded in 1990 alongside his good friend, Fola Adeola and served as Deputy Managing Director for 12 years between 1990 and 2002. A very unassuming bank chief, Tayo had called some friends about a year earlier to his death to inform them of his diagnosis around August of 2010. One of such friends informed him of an experimental immunotherapy treatment in Germany where he was taken to, to receive treatment. His condition improved for a while to the extent that he felt the worst was over. However, his health deteriorated in early 2011 drastically and had to be flown to the UK for treatment. He passed on mid 2011 of lung cancer. He was aged 56.

Alaere Alaibe

She was the wife of the former boss of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Chairman, Timi Alaibe and the boss of top Cosmetics Store Pretty Woman, on Toyin Street Ikeja. However she was best known and highly praised for her charitable deeds as the founder of award winning NGO, Family Re-orientation Education and Empowerment (FREE), an NGO designed to help the women of the Niger Delta region become literate and empowered. The woman with a beautiful heart died in a UK hospital after being diagnosed in 2008 of renal cell carcinoma, a kind of cancer that is unusual but very dangerous. She was aged 45.

Comfort Ponnle

She was the wife of Tunde Ponnle, the chairman of Miccom golf centre and resort, Ada, Osun State and MicCom cables. The vivacious lady died in a private hospital in Cardiff, UK of cancer. She was aged 68.

Continue on page 7

Daily Times Nigeria

Friday, May 1, 2015

L7 Society

As cancer rages among Nigerian socialites...

Continue from page 6

Angela Onyeador

Clara Oshiomole

She was the wife of Edo state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

The former first lady, was initially receiving treatment abroad and quickly returned to Nigeria for her daughter’s wedding but unfortunately lost her battle with breast cancer a week to the wedding at an Abuja Clinic. She was the initiator of the Health Foundation for Maternal and Child Care, a pet project which was aimed at providing quality healthcare for pregnant women and the girl-child.

The very gorgeous late socialite and consummate art lover, Angela Onyeador died of the dreaded cancer disease in 2012. She was in her 50s.Angela whose sister, Stella, was the wife of the late Biafra Warlord, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was also an aunty to Amarachi Kanu, wife to ex footballer Kanu Nwankwo. Angela during her active years on the social scene was the yardstick for measuring the sophistication of other female socialites.

She was the envy of all and most women aspired to be like her. She bestrode the social space like a colossus and every other person had to follow her tempo. She was laid to rest at the Ikoyi Vaults and Gardens amidst a very solemn gathering.

Gani Fawehinmi

The irrepressible AbdulGaniyu “Gani” Oyesola Fawehinmi was sent to an early grave after battling with lung cancer for two years . The author, publisher, philanthropist, social critic, human and civil rights lawyer, politician and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was a prominent social activist who dedicated his life to the defence of human rights and the criticism of government’s insensitivity. The founder and presidential aspirant of the National Conscience Party in 2003, had earlier had a wrong diagnosis of his illness at a Lagos hospital before he got a proper diagnosis of lung cancer at a UK hopsital.

Mixed Grill Game Sudoku mp5

Admiral Augustus Aikhomu Uche Chukwumerije

His name would always ring a bell whenever and wherever Nigeria’s political history is in public discourse. The late lawmaker and nationalist was different things to many people depending on the circumstances of his interaction in both national and private capacities. The former Chairman, Senate Committee on Education who died at the age of 75, died of lung cancer. A former Minister of information, until his death, he was elected a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in April 2003, representing Abia North Senatorial District.

This week’s game Word Search

Move It Can you find the hidden words? They may be horizontal, vertical, diagonal, forwards or backwards.

Across 2. Cornelius in the 1968 movie, Planet of the Apes (5,8) 6. Linda in the 1978 movie, The Deer Hunter (5,6) 8. Viktor Navorski in the 2004 movie, The Terminal (3,5) 11. Patrick Gates in the 2004 movie, National Treasure (3,6) 12. The Ringo Kid in the 1939 classic, Stagecoach (4,5) 13. Hartigan in the 2005 movie, Sin City (5,6) 14. Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 movie, Rain Man (6,7) Down 1. He was Cool Hand Luke in the 1967 movie (4,6) 3. Clyde Barrow in the 1967 movie, Bonnie and Clyde (6,6) 4. He directed and starred in the 1992 movie, Unforgiven (5,8) 5. Director of the 1951 movie, The African Queen (4,6) 7. He was Ben-Hur in the 1959 movie (8,6) 9. Mrs Robinson in the 1967 movie, The Graduate (4,8) 10. Scarlett O’Hara in the 1939 classic, Gone with the Wind (6,5)

An Admiral of the Nigerian Navy, he served as Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of General Staff and later, as Vice president to General Ibrahim Babangida. He fought a nine year battle to save his life from the ravages of prostate cancer until he eventually lost the battle in August 2011.

e r e h W ‘N’ hen W

Code tune live in concert featuring 9ice, 2phat, Olamide, Jahbless @Eko Hotels and &Suites, Victoria Island, May 10th, 2015

20th Anniversay of Night of a thousand laughs @ Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja, May 1st, 2015

Throwback night; Clash of the jockeys @ Harrow Park Golf Club, Ahmadu Bello Way, Abuja, May 2nd, 2015

Lauryn Hill Mayday live concert @Eko Hotels and Suites, May 1st, 2015

L8 Television

Daily Times Nigeria

Friday, May 1, 2015

Showing on

Showing on

139 M-NET Movie Zone

128 SONY MAX Channel

12:20

00:55

Fri, 1 May | PG13

Fri, 1 May | 16VL

‘S1/E9 - The Unknown’. Five participants face their deepest fears. They face snakes, spiders, confinement and medical devices. Will they make it to the end, or will they hit their panic button?

101 M-Net West

00:55 Pompeii 02:45 Step Dogs 04:07 MasterChef Australia 05:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 06:00 Modern Family 06:30 The Blacklist 07:30 NCIS: Los Angeles 08:30 A Monster In Paris 10:30 Two And A Half Men 11:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 12:00 MasterChef Australia 13:00 NCIS: New Orleans 14:00 The Newsroom 15:00 The Fixer 16:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 17:00 2 Broke Girls 17:30 MasterChef Australia 18:30 Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. 19:30 Arrow 20:30 A Single Shot 22:30 Devil’s Due

161 Mzanzi Magic 00:00 Noose Of Gold 00:30 Good Morning Africa 01:40 The Dzigbordi Show 02:30 Good Morning Africa 03:30 Good Morning Africa 04:30 Noose Of Gold 05:00 Good Morning Africa 06:05 Miserable Wealth 09:00 Good Morning Africa 10:00 So Wrong So Wright 10:30 So Wrong So Wright 11:00 Lies That Bind 11:30 Lies That Bind 12:00 Jara 12:30 Jara 13:00 Series TBA 14:00 53 Extra 14:30 53 Extra 15:00 Kakibe Ki 15:30 Noose Of Gold

120 BBC Entertainment

118 Telemundo

00:30 The Del Monte Dynasty 01:20 The Impostor 02:10 Labour Of Love 03:00 Fearless Heart 03:50 Queen Of Hearts 05:20 The Del Monte Dynasty 06:10 Labour Of Love 07:00 Fearless Heart 07:50 Queen Of Hearts 08:40 Queen Of Hearts 09:30 Forbidden Passions 10:20 Labour Of Love 11:10 Fearless Heart 12:00 Queen Of Hearts 12:50 The Impostor 13:40 Forbidden Passions 14:30 Labour Of Love 15:20 Fearless Heart 16:10 Queen Of Hearts 17:00 The Impostor 17:50 Forbidden Passions 18:40 Labour Of Love 19:30 Fearless Heart 20:20 Queen Of Hearts 21:10 The Impostor 22:00 Forbidden Passions 22:50 Labour Of Love 22:50 Aurora

16:00 Foot Print 16:30 Lies That Bind 17:00 Lies That Bind 17:30 Star Gist 18:00 Star Gist 18:30 Star Gist 19:00 Prem 19:30 So Wrong So Wright 19:55 Wise Attraction 21:35 Jara 22:05 Series TBA 19:55 Redial 21:00 Making Of A Mogul

Sam Worthington (Avatar) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Losers) star in this thriller. Two detectives hunt a serial killer who dumps his victims’ mutilated bodies in a nearby marsh. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Sam Worthington. (2011) Ami Canaan Mann

154 AfricaMagic Family

00:00 Kopa 01:00 Stray Thoughts 02:00 Blue Flame 04:00 Aging Gracefully 05:00 Branded

00:40 Blackadder II

10:30 Deal Or No Deal

01:11 Top Gear

11:05 My Family

02:04 Above Suspicion

11:35 Hell’s Kitchen USA

02:49 Come Dine With Me

12:25 Top Gear Festival Special: Sydney

03:36 EastEnders

06:00 2 Sides Of A Coin 06:30 Crossed Road

13:25 Come Dine With Me

04:07 Top Gear

05:55 The Thin Blue Line 06:30 EastEnders 07:00 Antiques Roadshow 07:50 The Weakest Link 08:40 The Chase

10:00 The Next President

16:00 Casualty

11:28 Behind The Scenes: The Secret Room

17:00 The Chase 18:00 The Cube

12:00 Seasons Of Life

19:00 New Tricks 20:00 The Graham Norton Show 21:00 Dragons’ Den

09:25 QI 09:55 Would I Lie To You?

22:00 Michael Wembley!

McIntyre:

Hello

155 AfricaMagic World 00:00 Tinsel 00:30 The African Child 01:00 Star Gist 01:30 Making Of A Mogul 02:00 At Home With Michelle Attoh 03:00 Good Morning Africa 04:00 Channel O: Volt 04:30 Channel O: Volt 05:00 The African Child 05:30 The African Child 06:00 Good Morning Africa 07:00 Star Gist 07:25 Umbara Point 08:30 Living With Trisha 09:25 The African Child 10:00 Good Morning Africa 11:00 Tinsel

08:00 Windeck 09:30 Tinsel

15:05 The Weakest Link

05:25 QI

07:30 Star Gist 09:01 The Johnsons

14:10 Celebrity MasterChef

05:00 Fool Britannia

07:00 Comfort Zone

13:00 The Vacation 14:00 Love And Oil 17:16 2 Sides Of A Coin 17:45 Crossed Road 18:10 Comfort Zone 18:32 Star Gist 19:00 Windeck 20:00 The Johnsons 20:30 Tinsel 21:00 Silent Murder 22:20 Breaking Ranks 14:15 Repo Games 14:45 Repo Games

11:30 Star Gist 12:00 Music 13:00 At Home With Joselyn Dumas 14:00 Prem 14:30 Fashion Coast 15:00 Making Of A Mogul 15:30 Coco Bill 15:45 Coco Bill 16:00 The African Child

15:15 World’s Wildest Police Videos 16:15 1000 Ways To Die 16:40 Hole In The Wall 17:10 Hole In The Wall 17:40 Video Zonkers 18:05 Video Zonkers 18:30 What Went Down 19:00 Most Shocking 20:00 Tattoo Nightmares

INTERVIEW

Football is a religion in Nigeria â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Okochag X7

Poster!

MICHAEL JORDAN g X4,5 Friday, May 1, 2015

: N O C N RI

g X8

Interpol hunt for ex-Madrid star

Mayweather, Pacquiao talk tough g X6

X2

Friday, May 1, 2015

EXTRATIME

Etisalat U-15 School Cup: Angelone, Ibrahim thumb up tourney Stories by Andrew Ekejiuba

C

hief Marketing Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Francesco Angelone has expressed satisfaction with the level of the competition as well as the passion displayed by the teams at the just concluded Etisalat U-15 School Cup. Angelone told Extra Time that: “37 Secondary schools began with us at the preliminaries last year and eight regional teams emerged for the quarter-finals stage in Lagos and the thrilling semi-final matches produced the finalists.

“We commend all the teams that took part in the competition because Etisalat U-15 School Cup is our own way of providing a platform for these young footballers to express their passion for the game and be

Glo hails healthy competition in Premier League

T Celebration galore! Government Secondary School, Owerri, Imo State, celebrates with Chief Marketing Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Francesco Angelone (4th from right); NSSF President, Mallam Ibrahim Mohammad (2nd from right) and PRO of NOC, Tony Ubani (right) after emerging winners of the second edition of the Etisalat U-15 School Cup in Lagos. rewarded for it.”

Angelone added that their partnership with FC Barcelona continues to discover and mould budding talent for African football.

In his own contribution, President, Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF), Mallam Ibrahim Mohammad commended Etisalat Nigeria for creating such platform for secondary school students in the country to showcase their talent.

“We are proud to partner with Etisalat in this rewarding initiative.

The idea is to marry football with education and we believe that all the participants have benefited positively from the initiative,” he said.

In the final match, Government Secondary School, Imo, emerged winners of the second edition of the Etisalat U-15 School Cup after

beating Government Model School, Bida, Niger by 4-2 and carting home the trophy in a thrilling final game played at the Campos Square MiniStadium, Lagos Island last weekend.

For its feat, the winning school also took home the star prize of N2 million educational award and N50,000 each to players of the team, while the first-runner up Government Model School, Bida, Niger, went home with N1 million and N30,000 for each player of the team.

The second runner-up, Winners College Akure, Ondo who defeated Washington Memorial Grammar School, Anambra through penalty shootout after both schools had played for 90 minutes and extra time received the sum of N750,000 and each player took home N20,000.

he keen competition being witnessed in the Glo Premier League is an exciting development, says, Globacom, the sponsor of the League The Company believes it is a sign that the League was experiencing steady improvement.

While top teams like Pillars FC of Kano, Enyimba FC of Aba and Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt are struggling to find their rhythm, the likes of Abia Warriors, Giwa FC of Jos and Taraba FC of Jalingo have recorded away victories in the league which entered Week 7 on Wednesday.

According to Globacom in a press statement on Wednesday in Lagos: “We are impressed that the excitement which heralded the new

season has translated into impressive performances for some teams as they seek to upstage the traditional leaders.

“We also believe that recent away victories recorded have given the Glo Premier League credibility and we expect that the teams that have achieved these feats will sustain the momentum, while hoping that the traditional leaders will rise up to the occasion.”

Globacom, however, says that the early ouster of the duo of Pillars and Enyimba from the CAF Champions League which the telecommunications company recently described as unfortunate will make them focus on the Glo Premier League as they recontest for the top slots.

Milo Basketball: Kogi commends sponsors

T

he Kogi State Government has given full marks to Nestle Milo for their consistency in the sponsorship of the Milo Secondary Schools Basketball Championship which has been on for the past 16 years.

Kogi State Commissioner for Youth and Sports Hon. Attah Sule Ikani stated this when some members of the Organising Committee of the Confluence Conference of the Milo

Basketball Championship went on a thank you visit to his office in Lokoja.

Ikani noted that Nestle Milo has used the championship to develop Nigerian youths from grassroots by giving them the platform to showcase their basketball skills.

He revealed that sports development should not be left alone in the hands of government, but the support of corporate organizations are also needed.

Friday, May 1, 2015

EXTRATIME

Federation Watch

X3

With Osaretin Emuze

Road race: MOC shifts base to Okpekpe

T

Winners displaying their trophies at the just concluded NBC 2015 Coca-Cola Boat Championship in Lagos.

NNPC-Shell Cup: 27 schools battle at zonal preliminaries Sodiq Adekunle, Osogbo

T

wenty-seven schools that emerged as champions from the state finals in the ongoing 17th edition of the NNPC-Shell Cup for Nigerian secondary schools sponsored by the Shell Petroleum Development Company Joint Venture are currently battling for honours at the zonal preliminaries.

According to the Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF), organisers of the event, the state champions are now competing in the zonal preliminaries between April 27 and May 1 in nine zones.

The quarterfinals will take place from May 8-11, while the semi-final and the final matches are slated for May 22 and 24 respectively at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.

A press statement by Shell, made available to Extra Time quoted ‎SPDC’s Sustainable Development and Community Relations Manager, Mr. Igo Weli as saying the tournament would help to discover talent.

Weli said, “The NNPC-Shell Cup tournament has created a platform for the discovery of new football talent, some of whom have subsequently played for the Nigerian national teams at all levels.

“Every new edition comes with new excitement and innovations to help our young talented footballers blend their academic pursuit with their passion.”

Uduaghan bails Warri Wolves out again

NFF boss, Amaju Pinnick.

National teams receive NIKE boost

W

orld’s leading brand, NIKE, is to supply kits to the value of $750,000 to the various national teams of Nigeria in the first year of the contract recently signed with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Details of the contract, signed at The Soho Hotel, Richmond Mews, London, on Thursday showed that the products value would increase in the second year, with American company NIKE committed to supplying kits to the value of $1million to the national teams.

According to the PRO of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), Tony Ubani, NIKE will supply kits worth the sum of $1million to the national teams in the year 2017 and 2018.

The three-and-half year contract was signed by NFF President Amaju Pinnick and General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi, with Tina Salminen, NIKE’s African Football Sports Marketing Director, representing the American company.

T

he Managing Director of Warri Wolves, Davidson Owumi, has praised the sports-loving Governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, for coming to the rescue by bailing the team out after providing fund for the team to travel to Congo.

Apart from making available funds for the trip, the Governor equally released money to offset part of the salary being owned the players and that really gladdened the heart of the players who have vowed to play their heart out in Congo today as they confront Entancheite in the second leg of the CAF Confederation Cup tie.

The first leg had ended 2-1 in Wolves’ favour two weeks ago in Warri.

According to Owumi, the Governor deserves kudos for coming to bail the team out: “We are very grateful to Gov. Emmanuel Uduaghan for bailing us out by providing us funds for the trip and he also made available money to pay part of the salary being owed the players.

“This has gone a long way to motivate the boys and one can see the way they are behaving now. The boys have made up their mind to play their heart out and I pray that we qualify and dedicate the victory to the Governor once again,” said Owumi.

Meanwhile, the team which left Nigeria on Wednesday afternoon via Asky Airline through Lome arrived Kinshasha around 8pm and have since settled down.

he Main Organising Committee (MOC) for the 3rd Okpekpe 10km road race has begun the final countdown for the IAAF bronze label race scheduled to hold in Okpekpe near Auchi in Edo State on May 16.

Disclosing this to Extra Time, former Nigeria track and field international and two-time IAAF World Championships long jump finalist, Yusuf Alli, revealed that the MOC will converge in Benin today before leaving for Okpekpe.

“The final countdown is here and the MOC led by Dan Ngerem (former President of Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN) will meet in Benin on Friday before leaving for Okpekpe to physically inspect the race course as well as the security, accommodation and other arrangements that bother on the technical organisation of the race,” said Alli who also featured in the finals of the long jump event at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, USA. “The MOC will also check on the media arrangements for the event.

The race this year will be different from the first two editions because it is now an IAAF bronze label race.

This means it is one of the 100 races the IAAF has designated as one of the leading road races around the world in 2015.

“This is a great honour to Nigeria and the MOC is determined to ensure it is organised in strict adherence to IAAF rules,” he said.

NBBF: Umar justifies US trip Phillips Tayo

N

igeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) President, Tijani Umar has justified his recent trip to United States as necessary for the expected smooth preparation of the two national basketball teams, D’Tigers and D’Tigeress, for their international commitments.

Speaking to Extra Time penultimate week, Umar was coy over the main agenda of his consultation, but hinted of meeting with some NBA stars.

“Yes, I was in the US recently which I know the press gave adequate publicity, but it was not for any jamboree. Indeed, I met with some of our players in the NBA for their views on the national teams.

“Let me assert that the visit is much of consultation because the months of the two international competitions really clashed with the international calendar of some league commencements next season which is still 2015. What is vital is having a face-to-face talk on how we can work out modalities.

However the final outcome of my visit is not for public hearing,” he said.

X4

Friday, May 1, 2015

EXTRATIME

All-Star Game:

14 times (played 13 times) - 3 MVP 1985, 1986 (DNP), 1987, 1988 (MVP), 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996 (MVP), 1997, 1998 (MVP), 2002, 2003 Awards and Honors by Type: Season MVP - 5 times 1987-88, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1995-96, 1997-98 Finals MVP - 6 times 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98 Defensive Player of the Year - Once 1987-88 Scoring Leader - 10 times 1986-87, 1987-88, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98 Steals Leader - 3 times 1987-88, 1989-90, 1992-93 All-NBA First Team - 10 times 1986-87, 1987-88, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98 All-NBA Second Team - Once 1984-85 All-Defensive First Team - 9 times 1987-88, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98 Rookie of the Year 1984-85 All-Rookie First Team 1984-85

Other Highlights:

NBA Stats Summary: Career Averages Career Games Rebounds Assists Season 1072 6.2 5.3 Playoffs 179 6.4 5.7

REGULAR SEASON STATS

Season 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 2001-02 2002-03 Career:

Team Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Wizards Wizards

Playoffs 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1995 1996 1997 1998 Career:

Team Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls Bulls 179

PLAYOFFS STATS

Steals 2.3 2.1

Blocks 0.8 0.9

Points 30.1 33.4

Games 82 18 82 82 81 82 82 80 78 17 82 82 82 60 82 1,072

Rebounds Assists 6.5 5.9 3.6 2.9 5.2 4.6 5.5 5.9 8.0 8.0 6.9 6.3 6.0 5.5 6.4 6.1 6.7 5.5 6.9 5.3 6.6 4.3 5.9 4.3 5.8 3.5 5.7 5.2 6.1 3.8 6.2 5.3

Steals 2.4 2.1 2.9 3.2 2.9 2.8 2.7 2.3 2.8 1.8 2.2 1.7 1.7 1.4 1.5 2.3

Blocks 0.8 1.2 1.5 1.6 0.8 0.7 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.5 0.8

Points 28.2 22.7 37.1 35.0 32.5 33.6 31.5 30.1 32.6 26.9 30.4 29.6 28.7 22.9 20.0 30.1

Games 4 3 3 10 17 16 17 22 19 10 18 19 21 6.4

Rebounds Assists 5.8 8.5 6.3 5.7 7.0 6.0 7.1 4.7 7.0 7.6 7.2 6.8 6.4 8.4 6.2 5.8 6.7 6.0 6.5 4.5 4.9 4.1 7.9 4.8 5.1 3.5 5.7 2.1

Steals 2.8 2.3 2.0 2.4 2.5 2.8 2.4 2.0 2.1 2.3 1.8 1.6 1.5 0.9

Blocks 1.0 1.3 2.3 1.1 0.8 0.9 1.4 0.7 0.9 1.4 0.3 0.9 0.6 33.4

Points 29.3 43.7 35.7 36.3 34.8 36.7 31.1 34.5 35.1 31.5 30.7 31.1 32.4

Michael

Jor

rdan

Friday, May 1, 2015

EXTRATIME

X5

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Full name: Position: Jersey Number: Height: Weight: Nickname: NBA Titles: All-Star: Born: High-School: College: Drafted:

Michael Jordan Shooting Guard / Small Forward 23 (Bulls), 45 (Bulls), 23 (Wizards) 6-6 / 1.98 mt 216 lbs / 98.0 kg Air Jordan, His Airness, MJ NBA Championships 6 Championships 14 times (played 13 times) - 3 MVP February 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, USA Emsley A. Laney in Wilmington, North Carolina University of North Carolina By the Chicago Bulls with No. 3 overall pick in round 1 of the 1984 NBA Draft

HIS TEAMS: (at least 1 game played)

CHICAGO BULLS

1984-85 to 1992-93

CHICAGO BULLS

1994-95 to 1997-98

WASHINGTON WIZARDS

2001-02 to 2002-03

Hall of Fame:

Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 2009.

NBA CHAMPIONSHIPS DETAILS:

NBA Championship 1990-91 with Chicago Bulls NBA Championship 1991-92 with Chicago Bulls NBA Championship 1992-93 with Chicago Bulls NBA Championship 1995-96 with Chicago Bulls NBA Championship 1996-97 with Chicago Bulls NBA Championship 1997-98 with Chicago Bulls

Awards and Honors by Year: 1984-85: All-NBA Second Team Rookie of the Year All-Rookie First Team 1986-87 Scoring Leader All-NBA First Team 1987-88 Defensive Player of the Year Scoring Leader Steals Leader All-NBA First Team All-Defensive First Team Season MVP 1988-89 Scoring Leader All-NBA First Team All-Defensive First Team 1989-90 Scoring Leader Steals Leader All-NBA First Team All-Defensive First Team 1990-91 Scoring Leader All-NBA First Team All-Defensive First Team Season MVP Finals MVP

1991-92 Scoring Leader All-NBA First Team All-Defensive First Team Season MVP Finals MVP 1992-93 Scoring Leader Steals Leader All-NBA First Team All-Defensive First Team Finals MVP 1995-96 Scoring Leader All-NBA First Team All-Defensive First Team Season MVP Finals MVP 1996-97 Scoring Leader All-NBA First Team All-Defensive First Team Finals MVP 1997-98 Scoring Leader All-NBA First Team All-Defensive First Team Season MVP Finals MVP

X6

Friday, May 1, 2015

EXTRATIME

Boxing

Mayweather

Mayweather, Pacquiao talk tough

Pacquiao

Pacquiao to spend $4m on entourage

Manny Pacquiao will spend a whopping $4million (£2.6m) on tickets for his huge entourage for Saturday’s fight against Floyd Mayweather.

With tickets for the $300m showdown at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas at a premium, the Filipino will fork out millions to ensure his 900-strong entourage are in attendance.

Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum, said he paid $10,000 (£6,468) for his ringside seat and that Pacquiao will foot a bill in the region of $3m and $4m for 900 tickets.

The 36-year-old has been known for the size of his team, and on this occasion it looks like it will cost him alot.

Pacquiao is expected to pocket at least $120m for being involved in the fight of the century and $4m will seem a small price to pay to have his family and friends in the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena.

…Fight to shatter revenue records

The highly-anticipated boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquaio on Saturday will likely go down as the biggest in history, on a number of counts.

All signs suggest the fight—which has been five years in the making will break the all-time pay-per-view sales record—despite it costing between $90 and $100 to watch the bout live on television.

For venues such as bars and restaurants, there will be at least a $20 cover charge ($20 multiplied by the fire capacity of the venue) to show the fight.

Mayweather focused on game plan

Floyd Mayweather stood nose-to-nose with Manny Pacquiao for the first time at Wednesday’s news conference, then said he can’t promise their mega showdown will live up to all the pre-fight hype.

“I can’t say,” Mayweather said when asked if the richest fight in boxing history will live up to its blockbuster billing.

“Even if we fought at an extremely high pace, it is not for me to judge. My job is to go out and do my best. Just be Floyd Mayweather.”

Mayweather squares off against Filipino boxing icon Pacquiao in the richest fight in boxing history on Saturday at the MGM Grand Hotel that is expected to generate some $400 million in revenue.

Mayweather spoke to a small group of reporters following Wednesday’s news conference which finished with the two future Hall of Famers getting up close and personal for the cameras in a stare down at the front of the brightly-lit stage in the MGM’s Ka Theatre.

Bieber to bring in Mayweather’s belt to the ring

Floyd Mayweather counts the likes of Jay Z and Kanye West among his biggest fans, but there’s only one star, Justin Bieber, that will be seen strutting into the ring with his belt.

Bieber is the obvious choice for any man wanting to portray a hardened image at the biggest fight of his career.

He will be walking the defending champion to his $300million Las Vegas mega-bout with Manny Pacquiao, carrying his championship belt.

An odd partnership it may seem. But the two have actually formed a close friendship over the years. Bieber has accompanied Mayweather into the ring on a number of occasions, and joined him on stage at his press conference ahead of May 2.

Money, not record, spurs me—Mayweather

Pictures: Mayweather, Pacquiao

For Floyd Mayweather Jr, the money he earns is far more important than the undefeated record that he has compiled in 19 years of being a professional boxer.

Mayweather is 47-0 in a professional career that started in 1996. Since 2012, he has been the highest paid athlete in the world.

“Absolutely, the money means more to me than the unbeaten record,” Mayweather said.

Mayweather pointed out that his earnings will give his children financial security in a way that his boxing record can never will.

“My daughter can’t eat no zero,” he said. “She can’t spend a boxing record.”

Friday, May 1, 2015

EXTRATIME

Interview

X7

Football is a religion in Nigeria –Okocha

A legend of Nigerian football, former Paris Saint-Germain playmaker Augustine “Jay-Jay” Okocha was back in France for the 12th Match Against Poverty. Answering the call of Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo, the men behind this unique initiative, the 41-year-old lit up the star-studded event and showed he had lost none of his magical skills. Sitting down for an interview with FIFA.com, the inimitable Jay Jay also showed that his sense of humour remains very much intact. Displaying a love of life and for the game, the Nigerian great, who appeared in three FIFA World Cup competitions and won the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in 1994 and Olympic gold two years later in Atlanta, remains as much of an entertainer as he always was. Excerpts: What does it mean to you to take part in a charity match like this?

Jay Jay Okocha: This event means a lot to me. It’s an opportunity for us footballers, who’ve enjoyed all the advantages life has to offer, to give something back to people in need.

It’s a great and beautiful initiative.

How much pleasure do you get from being able to play again in front of a large crowd?

A lot. It’s a special feeling and it’s something you miss. It’s wonderful to have the chance to relive it all again, to run and play, to express yourself on the pitch, and all without any pressure on you either. I was very excited about it.

What’s your happiest memory of your career as a player?

I’ve got quite a few and it’s impossible for me to pick out one in particular. Every second I’ve spent on the pitch is a good memory for me, every moment when I’ve been able to express myself with the ball.

I enjoyed every single moment of my footballing career, for every club I played with. I’ve got nothing but good memories.

and my job was to keep the ball, but we put a break together and I suddenly found myself in the opposition penalty box with four or five defenders facing me. I just dribbled with the ball, going one way and then the next before putting the ball past the keeper, who was none other than Oliver Kahn.

Former Paris Saint-Germain playmaker Augustine “Jay-Jay” Okocha (right) in action during the 12th Match Against Poverty in France.

Okocha

That goal said a lot about how skilful you were, but do you feel you missed out on achieving something big in your career?

Yes, I feel like that about Nigeria, especially the 1994 World Cup. I really think we could have sprung a surprise, but at the time we didn’t know just how good we were. It was our first world finals and we settled for that. Looking back, though, I’m convinced we had the potential to shock the whole world.

What does football mean in Nigeria?

It’s a religion in my country. It unites the whole country as one.

If the football goes well, then everything goes well. It’s more than a game, more than a sport. It’s part of our culture.

You played for Eintracht Frankfurt, Fenerbahce, Paris SaintGermain, Bolton Wanderers and Hull City during your career. Is there one club that’s especially close to your heart?

Yes, there is one that is particularly important to me… just don’t expect me to tell you who it is (laughs)! I don’t want to disappoint the other clubs, who also mean a lot to me. I’m keeping my secret.

What’s your view on the state of the game in Nigeria?

You can’t be completely satisfied with the situation at the moment.

We’re lacking a bit of consistency, but there’s plenty of work being done at the top. We’ve been through some tough times, but the good thing is that we’re a big country with a lot of talented players. We just need to get the right structures in place so that the light can shine for good.

And do you have a favourite goal out of all the ones you scored?

Yes, the one I got for Frankfurt against Karlsruhe in 1993 stands out a little for me. I was very young and I hadn’t made a name for myself yet. Klaus Toppmoller was my coach at the time and he started me on the bench for that game, which I wasn’t especially pleased about. We were 2-1 up when he finally decided to put me on. We were under pressure

And what about African football?

Do you think African teams are closing the gap on the big European and South American sides?

I think so, but the problem is that we still settle for very little. We celebrate a World Cup quarter-final place when it’s not enough. You have to go further. The gap has closed a lot, though. African teams are getting harder and harder to beat, and that’s a fact.

“Football is a religion in my country. It unites the whole country as one.

If the football goes well, then everything goes well. It’s more than a game, more than a sport. It’s part of our culture.”

Who’s the best African player in the game right now?

I’d say Yaya Toure. He’s the most consistent performer. And then there’s Jay-Jay of course (laughs)!

Nigeria won the last FIFA U-17 World Cup and their U-20 side are the reigning African champions in the age group. Are we seeing the emergence of another golden generation?

I think so, but we have to make sure that these youngsters can kick on. If we’re going to do that, we must give them support and encouragement. If we don’t give them the right backing, then it’s just going to be the same old story.

We have youth teams that have shone in the past but which haven’t been able to push on at senior level.

Let’s try and protect this emerging generation of players and help them mature. I think it’s important that we set up structures that allow us to achieve the kind of continuity we’ve

always needed.

Can you see a new Jay-Jay Okocha coming along in that new generation?

One thing’s for sure: there’s an awful lot of talent among those youngsters. No two players are the same, though. Every player has their own attributes, characteristics and flaws, and their own story too.

Are you thinking of going into coaching one day?

No, not for the moment. I’m more interested in the executive positions. I prefer to be the one who appoints them and tells them what to do (laughs)!

You see yourself as the presidential type, then?

Why not? Yes. In fact, I’ve just been named the chairman of the Delta State Football Association, which I’m delighted about. Who knows what the future has in store, though?

X8

Friday, May 1, 2015

EXTRATIME

EXTRATIME

Ibrahimovic returns after match ban

Z

latan Ibrahimovic has completed a three-match ban following his rant at French officials and will be back with Paris Saint-Germain against Nantes on Sunday.

With four matches remaining in the French league, Lyon still has a chance to stop bigspending PSG from winning a third straight league title.

Although PSG has a three-point lead, the advantage is precarious. Lyon still has a better goal difference and will expect to increase it with a convincing win against relegation-threatened Evian on Saturday.

SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2015 Premiership Fixtures Leicester Villa Liverpool Sunderland Swansea West Ham Man United

v v v v v v v

Newcastle Everton QPR Southampton Stoke Burnley West Brom

O. Lyonnais Bastia Guingamp Lorient Montpellier Nice

v v v v v v

Evian TG Saint-Étienne Reims Bordeaux Rennes Caen

Schalke 04 Wolfsburg Augsburg Hoffenheim W/ Bremen Freiburg Bayer L.

v v v v v v v

Stuttgart Hannover 96 Köln B. Dortmund Eintracht F. Paderborn Bayern Munchen

Sampdoria Sassuolo

v v

Juventus Palermo

Córdoba A. Madrid Sevilla

v v v

Barcelona Athletic Club Real Madrid

Deportivo

v

Villarreal

Ligue 1 Fixtures

Bundesliga Fixtures

Serie A Fixtures La Liga Fixtures

TODAY’S MATCHES Ligue 1 Fixture

Metz

v

La Liga Fixture

Real Sociedad

Ibrahimovic

Bayern, Leverkusen in tricky tie

W

ith the Bundesliga title decided, the focus is on slots for the Champions League and the struggle against relegation.

Bayern Munich secured its 25th title last weekend but it can still play a role in the allocation of Champions League slots.

The Bavarians travel to Bayer Leverkusen, one of the teams seeking a direct place in the elite competition. Leverkusen cannot drop lower than fourth, but that means a potentially tricky qualifying round.

With four matches to play, Leverkusen is two points behind Borussia Moenchengladbach and six behind second-place Wolfsburg. The top three teams qualify directly.

However, Bayern’s minds will be on next week’s trip to Barcelona for the first leg of the Champions League semifinals.

Pep Guardiola’s team is also trying to put behind a dramatic semifinal exit in the German Cup, two days after securing the championship. Bayern lost the title when four of its penalty takers failed to score in the shootout against Borussia Dortmund.

O. Marseille v

Levante

SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2015

Premiership Fixtures Chelsea v C. Palace Tottenham v Man. City Ligue 1 Fixtures Lille v Lens Monaco v Toulouse Nantes v PSG Bundesliga Fixtures Mainz 05 v Hamburger SV Hertha BSC v Borussia M’gla Serie A Fixtures Roma v Genoa Fiorentina v Cesena Inter v Chievo Atalanta v Lazio Hellas Verona v Udinese Napoli v Milan La Liga Fixtures Espanyol v Rayo Vallecano Getafe v Granada Valencia v Eibar Málaga v Elche

Ex-Madrid star, Rincon, wanted

by Interpol

F

ormer Real Madrid midfielder Freddy Rincon is wanted by Interpol for charges relating to drug crimes in Panama.

The International Criminal Police Organisation has revealed they are pursuing the 48-year-old in co-ordination with the judicial authorities of Panama in a bid to arrest him over two alleged offences.

The ex-Colombia star has responded to the news by releasing a statement claiming authorities have no evidence to back up the charges.

“Panama do not have any evidence against me. That is also the reason why the Brazilian authorities closed their case against me,” Rincon said in reaction.

Rincon

Atletico’s resilience pleases Gamez

A Gamez

tletico Madrid full-back Jesus Gamez said he was delighted with the resilience shown by the whole team in the 1-0 win at Villarreal.

A second-half goal from Fernando Torres proved enough to down the Yellow Submarine and the former Malaga defender admitted it had come at an opportune moment for Diego Simeone’s men.

“First of all we knew this was going to be a difficult game that would be decided by the smallest details,” Gamez told

reporters.

“Fernando took advantage of his entry onto the pitch and the goal came at a good time. We were suffering, but managed to retain our composure and kept a clean sheet, so the three points are very welcome.

“The changes made when Raul Garcia, Torres and Saul came on were good for us and the dynamic of the game changed.

Fernando’s move was instrumental and then we just had to hold on, which we did and I’m very pleased about it.”