15th October,2016

NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER NO 16,604 WEDNESDAY, 5 OCTOBER, 2016 www.tribuneonlineng.com

FG puts up 2 presidential jets for sale

—P36

•Bidders to quote in dollars

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TODAY'S SPECIAL

Tips to guard against tyre blowouts TAKE it from former race-car driver Johnny Unser — checking for telltale warnings of a worn-out tyre is more important than you think. It can prevent tyre blowouts and save you and others from unnecessary anguish.

“Checking your tyres is like going to the dentist,” says Unser, five-time veteran of the Indy 500. “It’s something we don’t do often enough, that we put off until we absolutely have to.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration (NHTSA), tyre failure causes around 11,000 car crashes each year. Both Unser and the NHTSA recommend doing a quick tyre inspection once a month.

Here’s what to look for: Bulges, gouges or cracks When a tyre deflates, it bulges at the sides. Unser says Continues pg34

FG accuses Shell of crude oil theft, demands $406m —P9

NDDC: Senate committee turns back Ondo, Abia nominees

ECOWAS court orders immediate release of Dasuki —P5

•Senator declines nomination Taiwo Adisa - Abuja

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HERE was a drama on Tuesday in the Senate as two nominees from Ondo and Abia states on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), who were to appear before the Senate committee, were turned back on the grounds that they were not indigenes of oil-producing areas of their states.

Also, another drama played out in the Red Chambers as a former Senator and the National Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Osita Isunazo, declined his nomination as the representative of Imo State on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Continues pg34

From left, Ayo-Fasan Temitope, Glo Ambassador, Odunlade Adekola; Head, Corporate Sales Kamaldeen Shonibare; and the Head, Information System (IS), Ajay Satyarthi, at the launch of Glo 4G, Nigeria's first nationwide 4G LTE network in Lagos, on Tuesday.

Asset declaration: CCT orders Orubebe to forfeit Abuja property to FG —P5

Ondo: Akeredolu's, Abraham's supporters in free-for-all •I can't be removed on pages of newspapers —Oyegun —P2

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politicsnews

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

I can’t be removed on pages of newspapers —Odigie-Oyegun •Says no going back on Ondo gov primaries Clement Idoko-Abuja

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HE national chairman of All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has said that the call for his resignation by the national leader of the party, Senator Bola Tinubu was illegal and not in comformity with

the provisions of the party constitution.

He has also declared that there was no going back on the outcome of the gubernatorial primaries in Ondo State that produced Rotimi Akeredolu as the APC standard-bearer.

APC chairman spoke with State House Correspondents, on Tuesday in Abuja, after a closed-door

meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, insisting that he could not be removed on the pages of newspapers.

Odigie-Oyegun, who however denied any rift with Tinubu, accused the national leader of the party of using harsh words on him.

Tinubu had in a strongly worded letter made public

by his media aide, asked Odigie-Oyegun to quit as the national Chairman of the ruling party over the outcome of the just concluded primaries in Ondo State, where Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, emerged as the party’s standardbearer.

When asked about the latest on his rift with Tinubu, especially if his was stepping down as demand-

ed by Tinubu, the APC chairman said: “There is no rift with Asiwaju. We have difference of opinion, difference of perception and I think that it’s normal. Yes I agree that the nature of the statement was a bit harsh.

“The method of getting rid of a national chairman if that is what I will call it, is spelt out in the constitu-

Supporters of Akeredolu, Abraham in free-for-all in Ondo •Many injured Hakeem Gbadamosi-Akure THE crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State took another dimension on Tuesday, as supporters of the the candidate of the party, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu and Olusegun Abraham, engaged in a free-for-all in Akure, the state capital.

Many of them sustained various degree of injuries as the supporters used dangerous weapons during the clash that forced residents of Akure metropolis to remain indoors for several hours.

Trouble began when the supporters of the closest rival in the APC primary, Abraham, gathered around Adegbemile area of Akure to stage a peaceful protest over the choice of Akeredolu as the party candidate.

As they were marching towards the party secretariat, some APC supporters believed to be Akeredolu’s supporters allegedly attacked them.

The clash lasted for about two hours thereby paralysing social, and economic activities, as well as impeding vehicular movement in the ever busy Adesida/ Oyemekun road.

Some members of the public and supporters of Abraham sustained various degree of injuries, while a vehicle belonging to the protesters was destroyed.

The protesters, who were armed with placards with inscriptions as With Abraham we stand, Restore Abraham’s mandate, Abraham is APC’s candidate and Abraham is the authentic winner of September 3 primary, moved from Fiwaye Rounabout to the state APC secretariat.

Speaking before the fracas, the leader of the group, Enas Mohammed,

•Police read Riot Act

said the protest became imperative in order to correct perceived injustice by the leadership of the party over Akeredolu’s choice as APC candidate.

Mohammed, who blamed the party leadership for the crisis in the party, noted that APC National Working Committee, had ordered for a rerun of the primary, the party.

However, the protesters regrouped, mobilised and stormed the party secretariat in a reprisal attack, and were able to dislodge Akeredolu supporters who had taken over the secretariat It took the combined effort of men of the state Police Command, and the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to bring the situation under control.

Speaking on the attack, the coordinator of the protesting group, Rotimi Agbede, condemned the action of the attackers.

He said: “We have refrained from conducting ourselves in a manner that is capable of causing injury to the party, but as it is, it is obvious to us that some people, particularly in tAPC national leadership are bent on destroying the party in Ondo State.

“That is why the people have come out in a large number to protest against the injustice during the primary. In any election, the primary tool for such election is the voters’ list.

Where you don’t have the credible voters’ list, you can’t have a credible election.

“During the last primary election that we had, we observed that a number of people close to 200 that are not supposed to be part of the delegate list found themselves in the voting arena and eventually had the opportunity of voting.”

Agbede said they staged the peaceful protest “against the name submit-

ted by the national leadership of our party.

“If as a party, we are preaching anti-corruption and a sane society, we cannot be seen to be doing otherwise. We don’t want some people to drag our party to self-destruction.

We are with the belief that the national leadership will see reasons with what we are saying. We are not leaving the party; we are founding members of the party.

He, however, expressed optimism that Abraham’s mandate would be restored before the October 19 date set for substitution of candidates by the parties stressing “It is not too late; what we are saying is appealing to the sense of our national leadership to do the needful; do what is right. “ However, Abraham while speaking, appreciated his supporters for the show of love and concerns and called on the leadership of the party to toe the line of the masses and majority.

Abraham, who rode in a convoy and was received with loud ovation by the crowd, described the attack on his supporters as very uncivilised and barbaric.

He stated that such people should not be trusted with governance, as their administration would further worsen the present economic and financial crises facing the state “It was a peaceful rally asking for our mandate to be restored and not to be delayed. All of a sudden, the Aketi people brought and attacked the people,” he alleged.

He insisted winning the September primary of the party, during the election proper, saying any other candidate would spell disaster for the party.

“The difference between the legal votes and the illegal votes is 34. It is not

•Camps trade blames

all about me, but at this level we think we should work together so that we can rescue our state. I am afraid that we don’t replace PDP with another PDP government.

“This crowd has also shown clearly and I believe that the powers-that-be would also listen to the crowd because these are the people that will vote, unless they don’t want their votes. And that is a recipe for failure. I don’t pray that our party to fail.”

All effort to speak with leaders from Akeredolu’s camp was not successful, the Vice Chairman of the party and the publicity secretary of the party could not be reached as at press time.

However, one of the supporters of Akeredolu denied the attack, saying the protesters were the aggressors and looking for ways to stain the good name of the party’s candidate.

Reacting to the allegation, the chairman, Research and Communication for Akeredolu Campaign group, Kunle Adebayo, claimed that the protest was sponsored by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state to impersonate and embarrass Akeredolu.

Adebayo who affirmed that the protest staged by the people against the decision of APC’’s National Working Committee to uphold the election of Akeredolu, was designed to cause panic by the opposition.

He said: “We are aware that those hands were deployed by the PDP from its huge pool of thugs and miscreants. To emphasise the mistake of PDP is the fact already in public domain that reknowned members of the PDP are fingered among the alleged APC protesters. it is the great wish of PDP to sow a seed of discord into the APC

“APC members are disciplined individuals who are well versed in the rules and procedures of our party.

They are united and focussed at working together to chase out the PDP from the stronghold of Ondo sSate.

“Party primaries are and remain internal process of a political parties. Ours have come and gone and our great party is moving on. Members, who may have concerns, know fully well the channels open to seek redress. They are also aware of the irrelevance of the members of the public to the internal processes of our party.”

Adebayo said further that “In this season of election, when blackmail, impersonation, betrayal and mudslinging thrive like the devils trade, members of the public are advised to be wary of the different strategies of the desperate PDP in its struggle to survive its nearing end.

“We use this opportunity to call on the Nigeria Police and other security agencies to scale up their efforts to deal decisively with perpetrators of such nefarious and unacceptable acts.”

Speaking on the fracas, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Femi Joseph, said his men were able to curtail the hoodlums.

Joseph, who said no arrest was made, however called on politicians to always play the game by the rules.

He warned: “If you are expressing your grievances, it must be done with maturity and within the ambit of the law and not by resorting to violence “We are advising politicians to talk to their people and warn their supporters, because we will not hesitate to deal with anyone or group that decides to constitute any breakdown of law and order.”

tion; they don’t take place on the pages of newspapers,” he said.

On why the party had not called on the National Executive Committee (NEC) members to meet over the issues, he said it was proper for them to meet, and that they would all meet at the appropriate time.

While also responding to allegations that people might assume that he was behind some youths who were protesting at the party’s headquarters over alleged highhandedness of Tinubu, Odigie-Oyegun said: “God forbid, anybody who knows me knows that that is not my style. I’m equally shocked and I’m going to look into it and find out why and who is behind it.

“Do they know how far back our association goes?

Do they know that we were in the trenches together in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) days?

Why can’t people, who have mutual respect for each other, have different opinions?

“All we had was difference of opinions, yes it was expressed a bit harshly, but that doesn’t remove the basic fact that we have worked together for a very long time,” he said.

Asked if he was going to make U-turn on the Ondo primaries since it was causing controversy, the APC chairman only Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could effect such change.

Speaking on the justconcluded gubernatorial election in Edo State where his party won, the chairman said the outcome affirmed that Nigerians still have faith and confidence in the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, in spite of the current economic challenges.

He said: “Well, it was a hard-fought election that was clear. Two things really, it was more of a referendum first on the performance of the governor, second, the quality of our candidate and most importantly, given the economic situation, it was an opportunity for us to measure the continued popularity and acceptability of our president.

“And what it indicated is that by and large, the people of this country still have faith and confidence in the fact that if there is any one man that can fix their situation, it is President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Assets declaration: CCT chairman to rule on Saraki’s application to disqualify self today As Court slates Nov 26 to hear fresh suit seeking to stop trial Sunday Ejike -Abuja

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HE Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), sitting in Abuja will today, October 5 deliver ruling on the fresh motion seeking to suspend hearing on the 16-count criminal charge pending against Senate President Bukola Saraki.

The Federal Government is prosecuting the Senate President on the allegation that he made false/anticipatory declaration of assets, operated foreign accounts while in office as Kwara State governor between 2003 and 2011.

Saraki was also accused of receiving the salary of a governor, four years after his tenure had elapsed.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), prosecuting for the Federal Government, had on April 6, 2016, opened its case by calling its first witness, Mr Michael Wetkas, a detective with the anti-graft agency, who had started testifying before the tribunal.

Wetkas was the head of a three-man crack team the anti-graft agency constituted in 2014 to investigate six separate petitions against Saraki.

Meanwhile, after crossexamining the star witness for 12 days, Saraki, through his team of lawyers, led by Chief Kanu Agabi, asked the chairman of the two-member panel of the tribunal, Danladi Yakubu Umar to disqualify himself from presiding over his trial.

Saraki maintained that some of the remarks the CCT chairman made in the open

court clearly portrayed his bias against him.

He said Umar, had in the course of the proceeding, threatened to ensure he faced the full consequences of the charge, despite whatever delay tactics he (Saraki) chose to employ in the course of the trial.

The Senate President insisted that the statement eroded confidence he had in the ability of Justice Umar to grant him fair hearing.

He, therefore, prayed the CCT chairman to suspend further hearing and handsoff the matter.

However, the prosecuting counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs, in his submission, urged the tribunal to dismiss the motion on the ground that it constituted an abuse of judicial process.

Jacobs contended that the motion was a deliberate ploy by the defendant to stall the

trial of the Senate President.

Meanwhile, Justice Gabriel Kolawole of a Federal High Court in Abuja, will, on November 26, 2016, commence hearing in a fresh suit filed by the Senate President, seeking to stop his ongoing trial at the tribunal.

The enforcement of fundamental human rights suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/117/2016, filed by one Timipa Jenkins Okponipere, on behalf of the Senate President is seeking the court’s declaration that the plan to resume Saraki’s trial at the CCT is a breach of his fundamental right to fair hearing as guaranteed

by Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

He is also praying for an order compelling the CCT and AGF to suspend indefinitely, any plan to resume the trial.

Among the grounds relied on by the Senate President included that the trial at CCT

commenced at the wrong time; four years after Saraki allegedly committed the offences.

According to him, “Having regard to the aims and objectives of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and its functions in Sections 2 and 3 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal (CCBT) Act, Senator Saraki ought to have been prosecuted by the respondents long before he returned to public life again in 2015 as an elected senator.

“Indeed, the CCBT Act never contemplated that an incumbent public office holder was already corrupt before he attained public office, otherwise, people like Senator Saraki, who had a case to answer regarding his activities between 2003 and 2011 would not have been permitted to return to public life.

“However, four years later, in 2015, Senator Saraki not

only returned to public life as a senator, he went on to become the President of the Senate, Chairman of the National Assembly and Nigeria’s number three citizen “It is nobody’s fault that the first and second respondents were not vigilant enough to stop or prevent Senator Saraki from attaining public office. If truly the respondents were proactive institutions of government, they ought to have prosecuted Senator Saraki immediately after he left office as governor of Kwara State in 2011, but they never did.

“The failure, refusal and/ or negligence of the respondents to prosecute Senator Saraki for the offences he allegedly committed between 2003 and 2011 before he returned again to public life as a senator, vitiated all his past alleged misdeeds such that, as of June 8, 2015 when he

N22.8bn fraud: Ex-Chief of Air Staff, others still on plea bargain talks with EFCC Ayomide Owonibi Odekanyin -Lagos

COUNSEL for former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu (retd.), on Tuesday, told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, that his client was still on plea bargain talks with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over an alleged fraud of N22.8billion.

They are being tried alongside two other officers of the

Air Force – Air Vice Marshal Jacob Adigun and Air Commodore Gbadebo Olugbenga.

The trio are standing trial alongside eight companies, namely: Delfina Oil and Gas Limited, Mcallan Oil and Gas Limited, Hebron Housing and Properties Company Limited, Trapezites BDC, and Fonds and Pricey Limited.

The EFCC accused them of conspiring among them-

selves on March 5, 2014 to convert N21.5billion belonging to the Nigerian Air Force to their personal use.

The alleged act, according to the EFCC prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo, was a violation of Section 18(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012.

But upon their arraignment on June 26, 2016 the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges, following which Justice Idris ad-

mitted Amosu, Adigun and Olugbenga to a bail of N500 million each with two sureties in like sum.

But on July 8, 2016, the defence counsel, comprising Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, Norrison Quakers, Mr Kemi Balogun and Mr A . Etuokwu, informed the court of their clients’ intention to enter into plea bargain.

They sought an adjournment to perfect their bail condition and to smoothen

indicated that 4.5 million persons were in dire need of assistance in the NorthEast, out of which, he said, one million had their lives endangered by malnutrition.

He added: “The Senate is bothered that such projects as the award of N80.7 million to JMT Global Technologies Ltd for rehabilitation of police station in Kwambir, N203.357 million to another company, JOSMAN Technologies Limited, for removal of invasive plant species along river channels and another N117 million paid to Lintex International for supply of temporary shelters with no record of these shelters anywhere.

“The Senate is further disturbed that the rather incoherent and largely fragmented state of the procurement process so far points to a vague and corrupt scheme that is not in tune with help-

ing our people in the NorthEast out of their present harrowing experiences and misery.”

In his contribution Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume, said a foreign agency recently lamented that the worst humanitarian crisis ever witnessed in the world might be the current situation in the North-East.

While rounding off the debate, Senate President Bukola Saraki described the situation as nothing but insensitivity on the part of those diverting IDP funds to the plight of the IDPs. He, therefore, announced the composition of a nineman committee to probe the menace and report findings to the Senate within two weeks.

The committee, headed by Senator Shehu Sani (APC Kaduna Central), is to organise public hearing in the course of its assignment.

Senate probes diversion of N5bn IDP fund To donate N32 m to IDPs Taiwo Adisa -Abuja

THE Senate, on Tuesday, resolved to probe the alleged diversion of over N5 billion meant for the management of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

The senators resolved to raise an ad hoc committee to probe what was called incessant diversion of funds allocated to the IDPs by the Federal Government.

The resolutions were taken, following the adoption of a motion by Senator Baba Kaka Garbai (APC Borno Central), who alerted the Senate to the claim that some individuals and groups had been denying the IDPs of the benefits of funds allocated to them by the Federal Government.

He said such persons fraudulently collected N1.2 billion from the Federal Government for the supply

was inaugurated as a senator, he was assumed to be a public office holder without blemish in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of the respondents, otherwise they would have long since initiated proceedings against him.

“The subsequent attempt to put Saraki on trial over offences allegedly committed between 2003 and 2011 are not only tainted with political mischief and desperation, they constitute a breach of his fundamental right to fair hearing.”

Responding to the suit, the AGF, in a notice of preliminary objection, faulted the suit and urged the court to dismiss it for lacking in merit.

The AGF noted that the subject matter of the suit did not fall within the provisions of chapter four of the Constitution, containing the guaranteed fundamental human rights.

of needed items to the IDPs only to end up diverting the money or fraudulently reselling the items purchased to the people.

The senators also resolved to donate the sum of N300,000 each to aid the IDPs, amounting to N32 million. Only 105 senators are currently on the floor.

The lawmakers decried the plight of the IDPs, which had reportedly left some 150 children at the throes of death daily.

It resolved to also conduct a public hearing to investigate the alleged diversion of grains and other food items from strategic grain reserves, by officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and others.

While commending the United Nations, the senators also resolved to contribute N300,000 each for the wellbeing of the IDPs .

The lawmakers also tasked the Committee on Health to investigate the Health Ministry over its perceived indifference to the health conditions of the IDPs. He said: “the removal of invasive plant species and irrigation project in Komadugu, Yobe water channels” as the senators further wondered what removal of plant species from water had to do with the plights of the IDPs. He also stated that the payment of N117,000 million paid to Lintex International and another N108,000 million to Dantex Nigeria Limited for the supply of temporary shelters in April, are far cries from the true values of the products.

He sated that the value of shelters found in the camps was did not exceed N4 million.

The senator recalled that a recent UNICEF report

their talks with the EFCC. At the resumed proceedings on Tuesday, the EFCC lawyer, Oyedepo, told the court that he was ready to open his case against the defendants and had already brought two witnesses to court for trial to commence.

Oyedepo said the EFCC had discharged its obligation by serving the proof of evidence on the defendants.

But responding, Ayorinde told the court that the matter was only adjourned till Tuesday for mention and that the case could not be heard.

He said the record of the court could bear him witness.

In his own submission, Quakers aligned himself with Ayorinde, adding that the defendants were still in plea bargain talks with the EFCC. In a short ruling, Justice Idris said he found from the court’s record that the matter was adjourned for mention and not for trial.

He consequently granted the prayer of the defence counsel for an adjournment.

He adjourned till October 20, 21 and 24, 2016 for trial.

Amosu and others were arraigned by the EFCC on 26 counts before Justice Idris.

The charges bordered on conspiracy, stealing and money laundering.

The defendants were accused of indirectly converting a sum of N3.6 billion belonging to the Nigerian Airforce to their own.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Buhari calls for strong global alliance against terrorism Clement Idoko -Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari, receiving letter of credence from Ambassador Designate of Germany to Nigeria, Dr Bernhard Stephen Schlagheck, at the State House, on Tuesday.

Former minister, husband kidnapped in Kaduna Muhammad Sabiu -Kaduna

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HE Kaduna State police command has confirmed the kidnap of a former Minister of Environment , Mrs Laurentia Laraba and her husband, on the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway.

It was gathered that the duo were kidnapped at Bwari/Jere on Monday evening by the abductors .

The Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Aliyu Usman, confirmed the abduction of the former minister and her husband in an interview with newsmen in

Kaduna, on Tuesday.

As of the time of filing this report, the police imagemaker revealed that the duo were whisked away to an unknown destination.

Aliyu, however, said the police was on top of the situation, saying it would do its best to find and secure their

release as soon as possible.

It will be recalled that there are increasing cases of kidnapping on the Abuja /Kaduna highway in recent times. Prominent among those kidnapped were three pastors of the HEKAN Church and Sierralonian deputy high commissioner.

More looters will be prosecuted —EFCC Saliu Gbadamosi -Abuja

THE acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has told Nigerians that they should expect more investigations, arrests, trials, convictions and recovery of stolen assets as the commission enforces its mandate.

The anti-corruption Czar made the declaration on Tuesday, at the unveiling of EFCC programme, Creative Youths Initiative against Corruption (CYIC) in Abuja, submitting that every Nigerian ought to be a stakeholder in the war against corruption.

“Let me clarify that EFCC will continue to vigorously enforce its mandate alongside engaging in preventive initiatives such as this. Therefore, even as we appeal to the old and the young to shun corruption and other forms of fraud, expect to see more investigations, more arrests, more trials, more convictions and more recovery of stolen assets,” Magu declared.

While noting that enforcement alone could not win the war against corruption, the EFCC boss submitted that prevention was an effective weapon which ought to be deployed in conjunction with enforcement.

He declared that the

youth were better equipped to wield the weapon, adding that Nigerians could not afford to let the future generations down.

According to Magu, the task to rid Nigeria of corruption could not be left alone to the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies in the country, hence everyone had to join hands together to build the future desire for the children.

“We are the first to recognise that enforcement alone cannot win the war against corruption. Prevention is an effective and necessary weapon that must be employed in conjunction with enforcement and there is no group of Nigerians better equipped to wield that weapon than the youths.

“Let us bear in mind that the task to rid the nation of the corruption cankerworm cannot be left to EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies alone. We are all stakeholders in the war and cannot let the future generations down; it is for their future that we must sacrifice our today.

“Let us work together for our dear nation; let us join hands to build for our children the future we desire,” Magu stated.

He informed that the CYIC, which he said, was the brainchild of Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole

Soyinka, was aimed at expanding the anti-corruption mandate using the innate creativity of the young ones.

“I really have to express my sincere appreciation to Professor Wole Soyinka, whose brainchild this initiative is. When I met him in January, he offered me this unique platform to carry forward the prevention mandate of the commission.

“I am really happy to see that we have reached this stage of the programme and with the support of all stakeholders, I am confident that the initiative will definitely expand the anti-corruption mandate using as vehicle, the innate creativity of our young ones,” he said.

“That is the essence of this Initiative, which is a forerunner of sorts to the EFCC Women Against Corruption initiative, that will be rolled out by the First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari, in November. That project will bring on board the anti-corruption train, Nigerian women from all walks of life.”

Magu declared that mindless looting of the commonwealth of Nigerians was being felt most by women and children, who he described as the vulnerable ones in the society who should be not only be protected, but also armed

with the necessary tools to fight corruption to a standstill.

“As we know, the people most impacted by the mindless looting of our commonwealth, are women and children. These are the most vulnerable in our society and must not only be protected, but armed with the necessary tools to fight a sustainable and winnable war against corruption.

“Our children must see that there is a future away from corruption and be encouraged to take that path of honour, moral rectitude and creative employment of their talents, which had been shunned by so many of our corrupt leaders,” he declared.

In her remarks on the occasion, the coordinator of the Initiative, Foluke Michael, noted that the programme was aimed at catching children young, adding that it was meant to focus on the future of the country for children to identify corruption with a view to rejecting it.

“We are focusing on the future of Nigeria so that children can identify corruption and also reject it,” she said.

Michael, however, urged Nigerian youths to build a new and corruption-free Nigeria for the betterment of all.

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has called for stronger global alliance, in order to effectively combat the scourge of terrorism across the world.

He made the call at the State House, while receiving Letters of Credence from the Ambassadors of the Republic of Tunisia, Mr Jalel Trabelsi; Federal Republic of Germany, Dr Bernhard Stephen Schlagheck; Kingdom of Sweden, Mrs Inger Ultvedt and the High Commissioner of Canada, Mr Christopher Thornley, at separate meetings.

Buhari noted that there was the need for intelligence and information sharing to halt the spate of terrorism that currently haunted both developing and developed countries.

Special Adviser to the President, Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, in a statement in Abuja, on Tuesday, said Buhari particularly told the Canadian High Commissioner that countries must always be on alert, and be willing to share information on activities of terrorists.

The president said Nigeria received support from several countries to fight Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East, after the invitation to the G-7 meeting in Germany in 2015, recording remarkable progress in degrading the group and saving many lives. ‘‘The terrorists are all over

the place; and we must be more watchful. If a developed country like France can be attacked by terrorists to the point of killing about 130 people, then what more of developing countries. ‘‘We need to build, and keep increasing our capacities to network and stay ahead. We need to build these capacities across borders because terrorists operate across borders,’’ he said.

President Buhari said the rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East also received attention from some countries, who were quick to render services and material support to alleviate the humanitarian crisis that followed the overpowering of Boko Haram.

The president said his government had instituted reforms in various sectors of the Nigerian economy to ensure stability and integrity in operations, promising to create a more enabling environment for new partnerships and attractions for Foreign Direct Investments.

In his remark, Thornley said the reforms in the Nigerian economy were necessary to build global confidence and deeper relationships that would benefit the country. ‘‘We want you to know that Canada stands by you as a friend to Nigeria, and your government,’’ he said.

EFCC arraigns Keystone, NULEC, others over alleged theft of N285m Ayomide Owonibi Odekanyin

KEYSTONE Bank, (formerly Bank PHB Ltd), NULEC Industries Limited, Anayo Nwosu, Ashok Israni, Olajide Oshodi and Sunny Obazee, were, on Tuesday, re-arraigned for allegedly stealing N285 million, property of Dozzy Oil and Gas Limited.

All the accused were alleged to have between July 14 and July 31 2008 in Lagos fraudulently converted to their own use the sum of N285million when the money was credited to NULEC’s account so as to defray its debt owed to Bank PHB .

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alleged that Bank PHB, NULEC, alongside others, between July 14, and 31 2008, in Lagos, fraudulently converted to their own use the sum of N145 million,

being the property of Dozzy Oil and Gas Limited, when they transferred the said sum into the account of NULEC Industries Limited with Guarantee Trust Bank.

One of the counts read: “Anayo Nwosu and Olajide Oshodi, between June and September 2008 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did fraudulently convert to your own use, the sum of N110, 000,000.00 (One Hundred and Ten Million Naira), being the property of Dozzy Oil and Gas Ltd when you received the said sum through the account of Drillcom Investment W/A Limited as premium charge of N1.10 per share as payment for the purchase of shares of NULEC Industries Limited under a Private Account.

All the accused pleaded not guilty when they were arraigned before an Ikeja High Court.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

ECOWAS court orders Dasuki’s release from detention Slams N15m fine on Nigeria for unlawful detention Sunday Ejike -Abuja

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HE Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court in Abuja, on Tuesday, ordered the immediate release of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Muhammadu Sambo Dasuki (retd) from detention, where he has being kept without trial since December 2015 by the Federal Government.

The court, in a judgment delivered on Tuesday, held that Dasuki’s detention violated both national and international laws on the right of persons and citizens to freedom of liberty.

The judgment, as delivered by Justice Friday Chijioke Nwoke, imposed a fine of N15 million against Nigeria as compensatory damages to the former NSA for the deprivation of his freedom to liberty and the deprivation of his properties.

The regional court dismissed the allegations of unlawful possession of firearms and economic crimes by the Federal Government to justify Dasuki’s detention and added that the Nigerian government missed the track because the applicant applied before the court for the enforcement of his breached and contravened fundamental rights.

Justice Nwoke said even if the applicant had committed a crime, the law still had it that due process must be followed in his trial, adding that it was an established fact that the applicant was put on trial in three different Nigerian courts and was granted bail by the courts.

The ECOWAS court condemned the action of the Nigerian government for subjecting the former NSA to an indefinite detention without trial because no act of criminality was established against him.

The court faulted the Federal Government’s claim that it detained Dasuki without trial because he (Dasuki) was planning to stage a coup and wage war against millions of Nigerians, adding that the defendant (Nigeria) was so confused and not consistent throughout its defence in the suit against it.

Justice Chijioke further said the Nigerian government took laws into its hands and made mockery of the rule of law by arresting Dasuki without warrant of arrest or warrant of detention when he had legally been granted bail by

appropriate courts.

According to the court, detention order must be made in writing and must be delivered to the detainees, adding that in the instant case, none of such was obtained and delivered to Dasuki by the Federal Government before arresting and forcefully took away his properties in Abuja and Sokoto State.

The court also dismissed the claim of the Federal Government that Dasuki was arrested and detained in his own interest, adding that the claim was an assault to the Nigerian Constitution and other international laws be-

cause there was no iota of evidence placed before the court that Dasuki applied for security protection.

The ECOWAS court said the claim that Dasuki was detained in his own interest was against the claim made by the Federal Government that he was arrested and detained because he constituted a security threat to the country and having also committed some economic crimes.

The court held that the claim that Dasuki was detained in his own interest was unreasonable and that Nigeria, being under a democratic government, ought to act within the ambit of the law since every nation was subject to the

rule of law.

“Having perused the case before us, we have come to the conclusion that the re-arrest and detention of the applicant after he had been granted bail by three courts since December, last year, make mockery of the rule of law. Executive arm should not interfere with the judiciary.

“Even if the applicant has committed crimes of whatever nature, the principle of innocence must be respected and the fact that he has been charged to court does not dis-entitle him to freedom of liberty. Courts must rise to their responsibilities and prevent executive lawlessness.

“It is the applicant today, it could be anybody tomor-

row. There is no legal basis for the re-arrest of the applicant other than to circumvent the bails granted by courts.

“We have no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that the purported search warrant claimed to have been obtained by the Nigerian government was an afterthought aimed at perverting the course of justice, because the socalled search warrant was not certified and, to worsen the case, the defendant claimed that it could not serve the same search warrant on the applicant.

“For the avoidance of doubt, anybody who commits crimes must be put on trial before an appropriate court, but in doing so,

Rally organised for Olusegun Abraham by Ondo APC, in Akure, on Tuesday, PHOTO: HAKEEM GBADAMOSI

CCT orders Orubebe to forfeit landed property to FG Sunday Ejike -Abuja

THE Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Tuesday, ordered the seizure and forfeiture of a landed property allegedly belonging to a former Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Peter Orubebe.

The chairman of the tribunal, Justice Danladi Yakubu Umar, who delivered the judgment of tribunal, said the Federal Government was to take over the land from the former minister.

The Federal Government had dragged Orubebe before the tribunal on a onecount charge of non declaration of a landed property located on Plot 2057, Asokoro District of Abuja, when he was a minister between 2007 and 2011.

At the argument stage, Orubebe had told the tribunal that the land no longer

belonged to him, as he had transferred the ownership of the land in question to one Barrister Akinwumi Ajibola in lieu of his (Orubebe) two years house rent in Mabushi, in Abuja, where he stayed as a minister.

The former minister had further told the Danladi Yakubu Umar-led tribunal that all the documents as it concerned the land had been transferred to Ajibola, including the Power of Attorney.

Umar held in the judgment that, having analysed the submissions of the parties, it was observed that six years after the transfer had been made, the documents of the land were yet to be registered in lands registry and added that the prosecution had established its case against the former minister beyond reasonable doubt.

He further held that the defendant was under obli-

gation to register the land in the land registry in Abuja, adding that, “failure to register the document at the land registry renders the transfer null. In the circumstance, the defendant is still the owner of the said Plot 2057, Asokoro District, and not Barrister Akinwumi Ajibola who testified as the Defence Witness 1.

“Based on the provision of Section 23 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Plot 2057, Asokoro District Abuja, belonging to the defendant is hereby consfiticated and forfeited to the Federal Government,” Umar held.

He recalled that Orubebe was also facing trial along with two others before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, for allegedly diverting the sum of N2.3 billion of public funds.

The former minister, an Assistant Director, Ministry of Niger Delta Affiars, Oludare Lawrence Alaba, the Director of Contracts in Gitto Costruzioni Generali Nigeria Limited, Ephraim Tewolde Zeri and the company were arraigned, docked on a six-count charge by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).

The former minister and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted a N50 million bail by the court.

According to the charge marked: CR/265/2016, they are accused, among others, of diverting about N2.3 billion meant for the compensation of property owners to be affected by the Federal Government’s dualisation project of Section IV of the East West Road.

the state must respect local and international laws in the prosecution of such persons,” the court held.

The court then declared that the arrest, detention and the continued detention of Dasuki since December 2015 without warrant of arrest was unlawful, arbitrary and done in contravention of both local and international laws, especially Article 5 and 6 of the African Charter on People’s and Persons’ Rights to freedom of Liberty.

The court also held that the invasion of Dasuki’s house in Abuja and Sokoto and forceful removal of his personal properties violated all the relevant laws, especially the Constitution of Nigeria under Section 37 and 44 and ordered that the properties seized must be immediately returned to him.

The court also ordered payment of N15million as compensation to Dasuki for his unlawful arrest, detention and forceful seizure of his properties without lawful court order.

Dasuki had, in March this year, dragged the Federal Government to the ECOWAS Court to challenge his continued detention without trial since December 2015.

Dasuki, who was rearrested by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) shortly after perfecting the third bail conditions granted him by Nigerian Courts, asked the regional court to enforce his fundamental rights as enshrined in the African Charter on the People and Human Right.

The former NSA had asked the ECOWAS Court to declare as unlawful, unconstitutional and breach of his fundamental right by his arrest since last year without a lawful court order.

He had also asked the ECOWAS Court to declare the invasion of his privacy, home, and correspondence at his Abuja and Sokoto homes between July 16 and 17, 2015 and forceful and unlawful seizures of his properties without any lawful order or warrant of a court, constituted a gross violation of his fundamental rights under Section 44 of the Nigerian Constitution and other relevant laws.

He had, therefore, prayed for an order for his release and that of his properties during the invasion of his houses and also demanded a compensatory damage of N500 million against the government for the violation of his right as guaranteed under the law.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Metro...

crime, security, court

Police nab 3 kidnappers, 4 robbers in Ondo

Hakeem Gbadamosi - Akure

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HE Ondo State Police Command has arrested suspected members of gang, which specialised in robbery and kidnapping in the state.

The three suspects, Muhammed, Isah and Bello (other names withheld) were arrested by the security operatives in the state after trailing the hoodlums to Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

Speaking on the arrest, the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Femi Joseph, explained that the three suspects with others at large, robbed one Mr David Alasoniyi of Oda Road, on September 16, before kidnapping him.

He said the hoodlums who kidnapped Alasoniyi at Igbaraoke in Ifedore Local Government Area of the state took him out of the state before they were trailed and arrested in Ilorin by police from Ondo command.

“We were able to recover all the stolen items while the kidnapped victim was freed from his captives.

But our men are still on the trail of other members of the gang and they will be brought to book soon,” the DPO stated.

According to Joseph, the victim, Alasoniyi identified the three men arrested as part of the gang which held him hostage.

He added that the three suspects would be arraigned in court immediately investigation was concluded.

Similarly, four suspected robbers were arrested by the police in Igbodigo area of Okitipupa in Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state after a shootout with the police.

Joseph disclosed that four out of the eight armed men were arrested, while one of the suspects who was fatally hit as a result of gun duel with the police died on the way to the hospital.

The arrested suspects were Akinwande, Austin, Sunday and Niyi (sur-

names withheld), while items recovered from them included a locally-made revolver pistol with three

rounds of live ammunition, two cutlasses and charms.

“Other members of the group will be arrested

soon as our men have been combing the area for the suspects,” the PPRO added.

Nurse docked for allegedly drugging, raping 19-year-old patient FOR allegedly drugging and raping a 19-year-old girl, a 27-year-old male nurse, Olugbenga Isaac, was on Tuesday arraigned in an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court in

The suspects.

Security man organises hoodlums to rob employer’s company Olalekan Olabulo - Lagos

A security officer with an auto shop in Ikoyi area of Lagos State has been arrested for allegedly organising a robbery attack on the company.

The security man, Bala Usman, was reported to have facilitated the theft of one of the vehicles in the company.

Metro gathered that four other people who took part in the invasion of the auto shop had also been arrested, while investigations had commenced into the whole incident.

One of the suspects was reportedly arrested while attempting to sell the stolen car, a Honda Crosstour Sports Utility Vehicle worth N6 million for N2 million.

Metro also gathered that the trouble started brewing for the gang when one of them, Chika (other name withheld) was arrested around Ire Akari area of

Isolo, Lagos State while trying to dispose of the vehicle.

A police source at the Ire Akari police station told Metro that “we got a hint that Chika was trying to sell the vehicle at a ridiculously low price.”

He added that “the DPO instantly drafted a decoy to the area and it was discovered that he was trying to sell the vehicle at about N4 million less than the current price.”

The police source also said that “the people around the area were very surprised that with the high exchange rate of dollar, someone would want to sell the vehicle at that price.

When he was confronted by the policemen, he could not convince them on the source of the vehicle and was arrested and taken to the station.

“It was at the station that he confessed that it was a security man at the auto

Nigerian Tribune

shop where the vehicle was stolen who gave his gang the key to the vehicle.”

Metro learnt that Chika’s confessional statement led to the arrest of the security man, Usman who, in turn, facilitated the arrest of

Abubakar, Chile and Ekene (surnames withheld).

When contacted, the state’s police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the arrest of the suspects and said they would soon be arraigned in court.

Lagos, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Isaac, a resident of Ajah area of Lagos is being tried for rape.

The prosecutor, Inspector Clifford Ogu, told the court that the accused committed the offence on September 15 at Onipanu, Lagos.

He said the accused unlawfully had sexual intercourse with the 19-year-old girl.

“The accused had sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent,” he said.

Ogu said the complainant was sick and called the defendant, a nurse, to treat her.

“The complainant had toothache, she called the nurse to administer drugs on her, instead the accused injected her with some substance suspected to be sleeping injection.

“The complainant slept off and the accused raped her and left.

“The complainant regained consciousness after several hours of bleeding from her private part, it then dawned on her that she had been raped,” he said.

The accused denied committing the offence, while the Magistrate, Mrs T. Akanni granted him bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum and adjourned the case till November 30 for mention.

Niger Police Command establishes joint operation centre Adelowo Oladipo - Minna

IN line with the directive of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, for inter-agency collaboration in fighting crime and criminality, the Niger State Police Command has said that it has adopted same mechanism in fighting crime in the state.

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Bala Elkana, on Tuesday, in Minna, told Metro that the collaboration required men of the command, Army, Air Force, Nigeria Security and Civil

Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Immigration Service, Department of State Service (DSS), Nigeria Customs Service and the Vehicle Inspection Office working together in unity.

Elkana said the new innovation culminated in the establishment of a Joint Operation Centre at the command headquarters in Minna, where officers and men of all the security agencies in conjunction would work on 24-hour basis to combat crime.

He added that heads of all security agencies in the state, with the Police Com-

missioner Zubairu Muazu as chairman, formed a strategic team which would meet regularly on the way to tackle emerging crimes and deploy men appropriately.

“All the arms-carrying agencies bring arms in the event that such operation is tactical in nature and will require arms,” he further disclosed.

He disclosed that the innovation had created a synergy among all the security agencies working for the same goal of bringing crime and criminality to the barest minimum in the state.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Edited By Oluwatoyin Malik

08116954633, 08078891950 e-mail: tribunecrimedesk@gmail.com

Ogbe-Ijoh, Agbassa youths clash over revenue collection in Warri Ebenezer Adurokiya - Warri

The suspects.

Months after robbery operations, Zone 2 police arrest suspects through stolen phones

By Oluwatoyin Malik

SEVERAL months after alleged robbery operations in Lagos and Ogun States, some suspected armed robbers/burglars have been arrested by the operatives attached to the Zonal Intervention Squad (ZIS) of Zone 2 command through the use of some of the mobile phones stolen from their victims.

Through a statement issued by the Zone 2 Police Public Relations Officer, SP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, Metro learnt that the operatives were intimated of the suspects’ robbery operations at Arigbajo area of Ogun State where they robbed one of the residents (name withheld).

The victim was said to have reported attack to the police, disclosing

Party thugs attack woman in purdah during campaign Olayinka Olukoya - Abeokuta

PEOPLE suspected to be thugs of a political party, on Monday, during election campaign, attacked a woman, Mrs Hamdalat Ayinde, at Saje area of Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Metro learnt that the motorcycle on which the woman rode from the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Idi Aba area of the town, ran into the campaign train of the party, ahead of next Saturday’s local government and Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) election.

The thugs reportedly descended on the motorcycle rider and the woman who was in purdah, and attacked them.

Speaking with Metro, husband of the victim, Mr Abdul-Akeem, said he and his wife had gone different ways to source for money before he was informed of the incident.

He said “our first born died in the hospital and

FMC charged us N116,000.

We were struggling to source for the money and had to go different ways to do so.

“I was later called that my wife was attacked at Saje area and on getting there, she had been harassed, as I met her naked, but we couldn’t approach the thugs because they were armed with cutlass.

“Some of the thugs later escaped in a Sport Utility Vehicle, but we were able to catch one of them. We took him to the police station, but to our dismay, the other people later appeared at the police station and they were all released.”

The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident, saying the matter was being addressed by the police.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Rights Concern, (MURIC), has called on the authority concerned to investigate and prosecute anyone found culpable.

that the armed robbers were still using his stolen phone. Police investigations also revealed that the gang members had been terrorising residents of more than 15 communities in Lagos and Ogun, prompting their being placed under surveillance by the Zonal Intervention Squad before their eventual arrest on September 25, 2016.

The zonal PPRO revealed in the statement that the operatives who worked with the police ICT experts arrested one Lekan (surname withheld). Lekan was said to have opened up on other gang members, leading to the arrest of four others in their hideouts in Lagos and Ogun states.

Those nabbed included Mutiu, Akeem, Olahusi

Rasaq, Kazeem and Waheed.

“The suspects confessed to have carried out robbery operations at Abata, Ifo, Ewekoro, Mowe, Adigbe area of Abeokuta, Iju, Ota, Alakuko and Agege in Ogun and Lagos states, among others,” the statement further read.

Items recovered from the suspects, according to the zonal PPRO, included refrigerators, laptop, plasma TV sets, generators, wears, electrical appliances and the gang’s operational vehicle, a Mazda bus with registration number Lagos BDG 602 XM. He added that some of the gang’s victims had identified the suspects and their stolen items recovered by the police.

TENSION, on Wednesday, engulfed oil-rich city of Warri for close to three hours, as youths from Ogbe-Ijoh community and Agbassa, an Urhobo extraction, clashed over collection of revenues from shop owners and traders at Ogbe-Ijoh Market, in Warri South Local Government Area of the state.

No casualty was recorded while the mayhem lasted, but when Metro got to the scene of the clash, traders were seen locked outside the gate of the market.

Banks and courts located in the area, for fear of attacks, resorted to providing skeletal services amid tight security.

From Ginuwa junction on the ever-busy Warri-Sapele Road to Warri Main Market, sporadic gunshots rent the air.

A pandemonium ensued as traders on the road closed shop, while road users made brisk U-turns to avert being caught in the melee.

Hoodlums allegedly took advantage of the melee to steal wares of shop owners while parents hurried to nearby primary school to withdraw their children for fear of being caught in the web.

8 in court for stealing 1,000 chickens EIGHT persons, on Tuesday, appeared before an Osogbo Magistrates’ Court in Osun State over theft of 1,000 chickens from a poultry farm.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the accused were Odebiyi Yinka (20), Ayoola Samson (20), Cecilia Ochilla (35), Elizabeth Akira (30), Oyelami Tajudeen (30), Regina Philip (40), Grace Odelia (35) and Akira Hanna (24).

The accused and others at large are facing charges bordering on stealing.

The prosecutor, Inspector

Taiwo Adegoke, told the court that the accused committed the offence between the months of May, June and July at Erin-Osun, Osogbo.

Adegoke said the accused conspired with others now at large to steal 1,000 chickens owned by one Mrs Titilayo Aluko.

He added Yinka and Samson, who were co-workers at Aluko Poultry Farm, conspired to steal 1,000 chickens valued at about N1.5 million, but sold them to the six other persons at N1.2 million.

He disclosed that the of-

fences contravened Sections 516, 390(9), 383(9) and 427 of the Criminal Code cap 34 Vol.11, Laws of Osun, 2003.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty.

Counsel for the accused, Mrs Bose Dada, prayed the court to grant her clients bail in the most liberal terms.

The Magistrate, Mr Olusola Aluko, granted the accused bail in the sum of N100,000, with two sureties each in like sum, adding that the sureties must reside within the court’s jurisdiction, as he adjourned the case till November 25 for hearing.

At the shut market, Urhobo traders were barred from gaining access to the market which front and back gates had been put under lock.

Scores of respondents, who spoke with Metro, said the crisis between the youths was on the instance of an alleged court judgment over the disputed land where the Ogbe-Ijoh market was situated, which was ruled in favour of Agbassa community of Agbarha-Warri kingdom on Monday.

The case was said to have lingered in the court, but its verdict on Monday allegedly infuriated Ogbe-Ijoh youths, who took to dangerous weapons to hinder execution of the court order.

Meanwhile, it took the combined efforts of soldiers drafted from 3 Battalion, Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy and the Nigeria Police anti-crime patrol team from A-Division to quell the mayhem and avert bloodshed.

Area Commander, Warri Area Command, Muhammed Mu’azu, who spoke with Metro, said his men had to quickly storm the area at about 9.33 a.m. and had brought the tension under control.

He added that the police was having a meeting with the warring factions to avert further violence.

On his part, chairman of Warri South Local Government Area, Mr Mofe Matthew Edema, assured residents that the area was calm, saying: “I am aware of the matter. I am in a security meeting.”

Police Public Relations Officer, Delta State, Celestina Kalu, said on phone that the skirmish had been put under control, but warned parents to prevail on their children and wards to shun violence.

As of the time of filing this report, the meeting being held with representatives of the two communities by the Warri Area Command was still in progress.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Benin Crown Prince receives Obaseki Demands improved welfare for prisoners Banji Aluko - Benin City

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ROWN Prince of the Benin Kingdom, Prince Ehenede Erediauwa, on Tuesday, received the Edo State governor-elect, Godwin Obaseki, expressing joy that the September 28 election, was peaceful The Crown Prince, who noted that due to the earlier

tension prior to the election, “we all went down on our kneels to pray harder and honestly, our ancestors and God almighty, answered all we prayed, that He should give us a peaceful election and a governor that will keep food on the table of our people and respect the traditional institution.”

The Edo State governorelect was joined at the Pal-

ace of the Crown Prince by Governor Adams Oshiomhole, his wife, Iara and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to pay him a visit.

The Crown Prince, who commended Governor Oshiomhole for his ardent respect for the traditional institution, urged all the Benin chiefs to continue to pray for the outgoing gov-

ernor and Obaseki, who he charged, to surpass Oshiomhole’s record.

“I thank God and our ancestors for hearing the fervent prayers we prayed before the election and for bringing out somebody that will uplift our people and respect the tradition.

“I will tell the governor -elect, ‘keep to your promises, keep your words, put

food on the tables of our people, respect the traditional institution and ensure you build on what Oshiomhole, has done.

“The passion and respect Oshiomhole has for our tradition, is great. Oshiomhole is today a Benin son of the palace.

“He is one governor, who has catapulted the image of the Oba of Benin and

Obasanjo chairs the Zero Hunger Initiative Says Nigeria will be successful in agribusiness Collins Nnabuife - Abuja FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Tuesday, said that Nigeria will soon be successful in its agribusiness drive.

Obasanjo ,who also chaired the Zero Hunger Strategic Committee, said that some committees, have been inaugurated and headed by some ministers and governors to achieve this aim.

Addressing journalists during a meeting of the Zero Hunger Strategic Committee,

Obasanjo said: “We had the first meeting in the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan and we broke into nine sub-committees to look at the aspects of what we have to do, for instance, where we are now, there is a sub-committee to do that, research and innovation, the needs of producers, processing and marketing.

“What we have done is that we have sub-committee to submit a report which they did, we put the report together and what we have

been doing today is to take each sub -committee report and open the report for discussion.”

The former president said the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, headed a sub-committee as well as the Minister of Health, the governors of Sokoto and Ebonyi states.

“So, what we believe we will do in this meeting is to synthesise these committee reports, see where they overlap, where they need to be

Senate summons Ngige over lopsided appointments Taiwo Adisa - Abuja THE Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Employment, Labour and Productivity, on Tuesday, summoned the Labour Minister, Senator Chris Ngige, over what was called lopsided appointments at the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

The joint committee, at a sitting on Tuesday accused the minister of alleged impunity and abuse of office, and asked the Ministry of Labour to cancel the employments done between July and September this year.

The committee also summoned the Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Shettima BukarAbba and Managing Director of NSITF, Umar Munir Abubakar who are to appear alongside Ngige on Tuesday next week.

Chairman Senate Committee on Labour, Suleiman Nazif, who chaired the Joint Committee, said that employment undertaken by Ngige were skewed and allegedly violated the federal character principle.

The senator said: “Employment is of paramount importance and the committee would ensure that employment is done in a manner to reflect the prin-

ciples of federal character.

“I think there’s something going on in NSITF that no one is willing to talk about.

It is clear that the minister, Chris Ngige, is responsible for this irregularities, impunity and anomalies, resulting in gross abuse of his office, and we’ll take action on it.”

He also urged the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, to brief President Muhammadu Buhari on the development, adding that the committee intended to indict the ministry.

fine tuned and then ,we will have a final report and the final meeting that will look at what will be the final outcome of our report. The hope is that Nigeria wil be an agribusiness success”, he added.

Meanwhile, a member of the Nigerian Zero Hunger Strategic Committee, Sani Dangote, has said that the reason why the tomato paste factory in Kano was shut down was as a result of continued importation of tomato paste into the country.

He said if some of the companies that import tomato paste from China can patro-

nise locally manufactured tomato paste, it will aid production locally and put their factory back to production.

“The problem is because there is still a lot of imports coming in, even though, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)officially said it is not giving any import duty to bring in but other countries like China, had dropped their price value more than 50 per cent to ensure that, even though, there is devaluation of Naira, they will still be able to sell to those who want to buy through the parallel market.”

our tradition to the highest level.”

Meanwhile, the plight of prison inmates has caught the attention of the Benin Crown, who has called for the improvement of the welfare of prison inmates in order to integrate them into the society.

The Edaiken N’Uselu, who will be crowned the Oba of Benin on October 20, said this on Tuesday, when he received the Edo State Comptroller of the Prison Service, Amadin Osayande, in his palace in Benin City He said there had been concerns over the living condition of inmates both in the state and across the country.

He, therefore, urged the state controller to contribute his quota towards improving the condition of the prison facilities in order to achieve the overall objective of reforming inmates after serving their respective prison terms.

In his remarks, Osayande, who was accompanied by the management staff of the command, said that he was making his first official visit to the Edaiken palace.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

FG accuses Shell of crude oil theft, demands $406 million

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HE Nigerian government is demanding $406.75 million minimum from Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited and its surrogate Shell Western Supply & Trading Limited over alleged crude oil theft, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has reported.

The amount, according to court papers in Lagos, represents the shortfall of the money paid by the multinational oil firm in the account of the Nigerian government with Central Bank of Nigeria, for crude oil lifted in 2013 and 2014.

Government lawyer, Professor Fabian Ajogwu accused the Anglo-Dutch company of not declaring or under-declaring crude oil shipments during the period, following forensic analysis of bills of lading and shipping documents, Ajogwu, armed with sworn affidavits of three United States of America based professionals, claimed that Shell cheated Nigeria of the revenue.

Among the three professionals employed by the Federal Government of Nigeria are: Professor David Olowokere, a US citizen who is the lead Analyst at Loumos Group LLC, a technol-

ogy and oil and gas auditing firm based in United States of America and Jerome Stanley, a counsel in the law firm of Henchy &Hackenberg, a law firm based in United States of America and head of the legal team engaged by Loumo Group LLC. The third professional is Micheal Kanko a citizen of the USA and resident of the state of Arizona , who is the founder and the current Chief Executive Officer of Trade Data services Company.

The consortium of experts was able to track the global movements of the country’s hydro-carbons including crude oil and gas with the main purposes of identifying the companies engaged in the practices that led to missing revenues from crude oil and gas exports sales to different parts of the world.

In reconciling the export records from Nigeria, with the import records at ports in the United States of America,

the experts found mind boggling discrepancies.

The Nigerian government averred for instance that on 6th of January, 2013 the defendants lifted crude oil using the vessel AUTHENTIC and shipped same to BP Oil Supply of 28301 Ferry Road, Warrenville, Illinois, USA at the port of Chester, Pennsylvania, United States of America. The shipment had the Bill of lading number ALMYSVDM161212A3.

This particular shipment was not declared to the relevant authorities in Nigeria, resulting in the shortfall of 660,712 barrels of crude oil in the value of $72,678,320 as revenue to the Government.

On 3 January, 2013, Shell and its surrogate company lifted crude oil that resulted in the shortfall of 979,031 barrels in the value of $107,693,410.

On the 14th of December, 2014, Shell also lifted crude oil using the vessel EAGLE

TUSCON and shipped same to Shell Deer Park of 5900 Texas 225,Deer Park, TX77536,USA at the port of Houston, Texas, United States of America with Bill of lading number AETK0909US14.

The shipment was not declared to the relevant authorities, resulting in the shortfall of 499,048 barrels of crude oil in the value of $54,895,280 as revenue to the Federal Government.

Shell, with its allied company, was also alleged at three different times to have shipped crude on board EAGLE TUSCON, EAGLE SEVILLE, OVERSEAS EVERGLADES, that resulted in the shortfall of 3,697,737 barrels of crude oil.

This brings the total value of all the shortfall to $406,751,070 On 21 January ,2016 the Federal government through its legal representative wrote a letter to the defendants

drawing their attention to the discrepancies.

Government asked them to clarify the discrepancies, with documentation, as a prelude to the repayment of the revenues and debt they now owe the government.

Till date Federal government has not received from the defendants any payment pursuant to the said letter nor the requested documents.

Nigeria’s government averred that it has suffered huge and enormous financial loss as a result of the defendants under-declaration of the value of the crude oil they lifted and exported to the United States of America.

Nigerian government now seeks a court order compelling the two companies to pay into the Federal government of Nigeria account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the sum of USD 406,751,070 being the total value of the missing revenue from the shortfall /undeclared/under -declared

crude oil shipments of the country, made by the companies to United States of America.

Government also demands interest payment at 21% per annum on the sum of $406,751,070 until the entire sum is liquidated.

Shell in addition is being asked to pay general exemplary damages in the sum of $406,751,070 and the cost of instituting the legal action.

The presiding judge, Mojisola Olatoregun Isola has adjourned till 20th of October 2016 for mention of the case.

Nigeria has also sued Chevron, Total and Agip asking for a total of $12.7 billion over alleged non-declaration of some 57 million barrels of crude shipped to the United States between 2011 and 2014.

The oil firms are among up to 15 oil majors targeted by the Nigerian government for the recovery of $17 billion in deprived revenue.

Edo polls: PDP rejects results as Makarfi meets Senators, Reps over reconciliation Taiwo Adisa, Abuja The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) met with the Senate and House of Representatives Caucus of the National Assembly on Tuesday and resolved to re-

ject the governorship election conducted in Edo State on September 28.

The meeting also resolved to consider the resolve to reconcile the Makarfi-led PDP with that of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.

It was gathered that the

meeting agreed that a 24-member committee would be set up on both sides to resolve outstanding issues between Makarfi group and the Modu Sheriff group.

The PDP resolved to drag the APC to court over the outcome of the just-concluded

Edo State gubernatorial election.

The leadership of the party, according to sources at the closed door meeting, expressed optimism to get victory through the judiciary. It was gathered that the meeting was called at the instance

of the national caretaker committee after it received briefings from the Modu Sheriff led faction.

Briefing the meeting, the national caaetaker committee chairman said the parley would assist leadership of the continues pg34

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news

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Bankole calls for stronger trade relations between Nigeria, Britain FORMER Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole, has called on Nigeria and Britain to discuss modalities for strengthening trade relations between the two countries.

Bankole, who was earlier announced as the new voluntary Honorary Vice President of Africa House and the Africa for Growth Initiative, made this call recently at the United Kingdom Houses of Parliament, where he addressed VIPs from the world of politics and commerce, including Lord Oates, Chief of Staff to former UK Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg and Andrew Boff, Chairman of Africa House, a social enterprise initiative that brings high end UK investors to Nigeria, said the time to renew the trade relations between the two countries is now.

He challenged Britain to use its recent Brexit decision as a spur to build stronger, reciprocal trading relations with Africa, especially Nigeria.

The former speaker noted that Nigeria’s trading relationship with the EU, including the UK, was not always straightforward and not always in Nigeria’s favour, stating that “our trade relations with the EU are far from easy at the moment.

“We currently benefit from duty free access to the EU Single Market for goods, guaranteed under the regional Lomé convention.

But the EU – and I should stress this, has included the UK – has sought to replace this trade deal with a somewhat less favourable successor agreement, the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).”

Troops foil attempt to bomb Forcados export line again Ebenezer Adurokiya-Warri

Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed (left); Managing Director, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim and the Administrator, National Judicial Institute, Justice Rosaline Bozimo, during a sensitisation seminar for Federal Capital Territory ( FCT) and state High Court Judges, with the theme: ‘Challenges To Deposit Insurance Law And Practice In Nigeria,’ in Abuja, on Tuesday. PHOTO: NAN

Buhari sends 3-yr spending plan to NASS •Proposes N6.8trn 2017 budget, N1.6trn for debt servicing Jacob Segun Olatunji and Kolawoel Daniel-Abuja

P

RESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, laid the foundation for the 2017 budget as he submitted the 2017-2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) to the House of Representatives.

The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) is a working

document that will prepare ground for the 2017 budget expected to be submitted to the National Assembly before the end of the year.

The President in a letter dated September 30, 2016 and addressed to the Speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, noted that the submission of MTEF/ FSP was in compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal responsibility Act 2007.

According to him, the 2017-2019 MTEF/FSP ar-

ditiously approved so as to move the preparation of the 2017 Budget preparation forward.”

He also commended the partnership between the Legislature and Executive arms of government, particularly in the passage and implementation of the 2016 Budget.

He urged the lawmakers to consider and expeditiously approve the MTEF/ FSP document, adding that it will move the preparation of the 2017 Budget forward.

Glo unveils first nationwide 4G LTE network in Nigeria AS part of efforts to boost service delivery in Nigeria’s telecommunication industry, next generation network, Globacom, has unveiled the country’s first world-class nationwide mobile 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.

The launch which was held on Tuesday followed a successful test-run of the advanced network.

The unveiling of this facility will afford telecom subscribers in several cities across the country including Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja as well as Jos in Plateau State, Warri in Delta State, Eket in Akwa Ibom State, Benin City in Edo State, Yola in Adamawa State and Zaria in Kaduna State the opportunity to connect to Glo 4G LTE network immediately.

Etisalat, Cross River govt flag off fight malaria initiative •Sign MoU to reduce prevalence of disease NIGERIA’S most innovative telecommunication company, Etisalat and the Cross River State government, in partnership with Mediatrix Development Foundation, have pledged to forge a close working relationship in the fight against the scourge of malaria in the state.

The partners made this commitment on Thursday, at the official flag-off of the Etisalat Fight Malaria Initiative and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that will see them coordinate efforts and resources to eradicate the menacing spread of

ticulates the Federal Government’s economic, social and development objectives, as well as the strategies for achieving defined objectives and priorities.

He added that the MTEF document was designed against the backdrop of generally adverse global economic environment as well as domestic challenges and domestic economy.

He said, “I hereby forward the 2017-2019 MTEF and FSP to the House of Representatives and trust that it will be considered and expe-

malaria in the state.

Speaking about the partnership, the Director, Regulatory & Corporate Social Responsibility, Etisalat Nigeria, Ikenna Ikeme, said the telecommunication company identifies a healthy populace as a precursor to achieving economic growth, hence, the alignment of its business growth strategy with societal goals such as health.

Also speaking at the event, wife of the Cross River State governor and founder of the partner NGO, Mediatrix Development Foundation, Dr (Mrs)

Linda Ayade, expressed delight in the capacity of the partnership to help fill the existing gap in the fight against malaria by providing the much needed support to the state structures in the health sector.

“I believe this is the beginning of a rejuvenated fight to end malaria for good in Cross River State.

We are delighted that our efforts to check the effects of malaria in communities is yielding results and has attracted Etisalat to partner with us to strengthen existing state structures in the health sector,” she said.

The company said services will soon be extended to other major cities in quick succession.

The successful launch of the Glo 4G LTE, the country’s first nationwide network implementation of the technology, will make it possible for millions of Nigerians to enjoy instant, efficient broadband internet at speeds far superior to the 3G network, thus enabling them to download ultra high definition videos in seconds.

With this development, individuals who consume huge volumes of data, government agencies, corporate organisations including banks, oil and gas companies, academic institutions and health institutions, which utilise seamless data transfer for their operations will benefit immensely from Globacom’s data intensive applications.

“We are pleased to once again play a leading role in empowering Nigerians with world class data services, helping to close the digital divide.”

“In the last one and a half years, the people of this

great country have spoken repeatedly by making Globacom the largest data network in new subscriptions.

The best we can do for our people who believe in us and made us their number one data network is to give them the best technology.

What we are offering is the new speed of life,” said Kamaldeen Shonibare, Head, Corporate Sales, Globacom.

In addition to the launch of 4G LTE services, Globacom has also unveiled a set of 4G data bundles to enable all categories of subscribers to have access to the unique products and services. Under the new plan, subscribers will get a whopping 1.6GB of data for N500, while N1000 will give them 3.2GB data.

Other exciting offers include 7.5GB for N2000, 10GB for N2,500, 18GB for N4000 and 24GB for N5000. The benefits also include free access to thousands of music, video and movie on demand while the data plan range from N50 to N18,000 for the benefit of all.

FURTHER economic woes were averted on Sunday, when troops attached to Operation Delta Safe, patrolling Warri river, intercepted militants from bombing the Forcardos Export Line operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SNPECo) in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.

This happened barely five months after the same crude oil export line fell to the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) in June 2016, which led to the arrest of six community leaders by soldiers.

The hoodlums were said to have arrived at a spot along the crude oil pipeline at about 9:00 a.m. in the oil-rich Ogulagha community.

A security, which disclosed this, said the hoodlums were about planting an improvised explosive device (IED) when they suddenly saw a military patrol boat on top speed approaching.

N/Delta: We’ll abide by FG’s negotiation with militants but ...

—Defence Hqtr Chris Agbambu-Abuja

THE Defence Headquarters, on Tuesday, re-emphasised that military will continue to abide by the ongoing negotiation effort of the Federal Government with militants in order to have peaceful settlement of the Niger Delta problem.

It, however, said that while trying to achieve the feat, the military would not take kindly to any individual or group taking military’s good gesture of adherence to ceasefire and peaceful disposition to the impasse for granted.

In a statement, the Defence Headquarters said, otherwise, military will respond proportionately to any armed attacks against its location in a decisive but professional manner in line with its constitutional mandate of defending innocent citizens as well as national critical infrastructure.

“It is also instructive to state that the Armed Forces has the capacity to defend itself just as it did recently when a group of misguided elements under the militancy guise attacked its location at Efut Esighi waterfront in Bakassi Local Government Area of Cross River State where they paid dearly for their evil act.”

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

World Teachers’ Day

oday, the world celebrates teachers. Since 1994, the world has commemorated teacher organisations worldwide to mobilise support for teachers and to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to be met by them. The World Teachers’ Day is celebrated globally in recognition of the important role that teachers play in society. The day is generally marked by expressions of appreciation of the work of teachers in various schools and communities. Students, parents, proprietors of schools, faith-based organisations and governments shower gifts and distribute posters and e-cards to honour teachers on this occasion.

In some countries, like the United States for instance, a day is considered too small for the celebration of the teacher.

Hence, there is a separate Teachers Appreciation Day and Teachers Week. The youths are the leaders of tomorrow only because teachers equip them with the requisite skills to make leadership real. Indeed, teachers guarantee a secure future for society by training the young on the fine values and goals of society. In many societies, the contribution of teachers to development is considered so high that their reward in the temporal world, no matter how robust, is considered inadequate. Hence the saying that “the reward of the teacher is in heaven”. Many societies not only ensure that teachers are adequately trained; they also ensure that they are properly remunerated and recognized for their roles.

In Nigeria, the saying that the “reward of the teacher is in heaven” has been interpreted to mean that the teacher should wait until he or she gets to heaven before receiving any reward. Today, teachers are among the least paid white-collar workers in the formal sector. In the event of an economic recession, the government quickly defaults in paying teachers’ salaries. Under the current recession, there is concern that public servants are being owed several months’ arrears of salaries in the states. What is not often emphasised is the fact that the majority of the so-called public servants are teachers in primary and post primary educational institutions. The tragedy of this is that when the problem of bloated public services is broached, teachers are lumped with the civil service as if Nigerian schools have sufficient teachers.

Indeed, there is usually a shortage of teachers in public schools in the core subjects of English and Mathematics and

in the science courses. The shortage of teachers is the rule in schools in rural areas. Many schools depend on fresh graduates on the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme to get the needed hands in the classroom. Even when public servants moonlight and engage in absenteeism, as salaries are not being paid, teachers cannot do the same.

They can be monitored with ease. And their absenteeism and ineffectiveness reflect easily in the performance of students in external examinations such as the West African School Certificate Examination or the National Examinations Council school certificate examination. It is to the credit of the teachers that students performed well in both examinations in 2016.

Sadly, the state of the salaries of teachers has become the index for determining when a government is facing financial problems. Once there is a fiscal squeeze, teachers do not get paid. But when government revenue increases, the teachers do not gain. Teachers have moved from their revered position as custodians of morality and the future of society during the early days of western education to the position of the dregs of society. Teachers receive the poorest pay in the public service. The situation has become so bad that people take up teaching appointments only when the alternative is joblessness. Hardly do people set out to pursue a career in teaching.

The time has come for politicians and policy makers to review the status of the teacher in Nigeria. State governors must ensure that teachers are paid some if not all the arrears of salaries this month as a mark of appreciation for their priceless work. Teachers should be encouraged and recognized, especially because of the poor conditions under which they continue to work. They should be duly rewarded for their invaluable contribution to national development through the training of the young, the future leaders of Nigeria.

Denigrating the work of teachers does grievous harm to human capital development and the moral fibre of society.

Indeed, the sorry conditions under which teachers work largely account for the poor state of education in Nigeria. If Nigeria must achieve development and improve the broad welfare of its citizens, teachers must be put at the centre of the educational policy. They are at the heart of service delivery in the educational sector.

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14 LETTERS TO THE

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

editor

Letters to the editor should be sent to letterstribune@yahoo.com or by sms to 08054005323. It MUST be accompanied by the full name and address of the writer.

FG, continue with YouWin project to create jobs

I

want to urge President Muhammadu Buhari to continue the YouWin project of the last administration.

This project was providing entrepreneurs with the needed capital to set up their businesses.

In actual fact, many young Nigerians benefited from the project, and they are now employers of labour, paying the salaries of fellow Nigerians.

If the truth must be told, this project was able to get some people to be employed, and it is, therefore, necessary that the project is sustained.

If the president is not comfortable with the project being called YouWin again, he can order the Ministry of Finance to come up with something similar to it.

It is only small-scale businesses that can pro-

vide the opportunities for millions of Nigerians to be employed. The government cannot absorb all unemployed youths into the federal and state ministries, but opportunities must be created for businesses to be established.

One of the biggest impediments to starting one’s business is the lack of capital, and this was what the YouWin project tackled when it was launched by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

I know this administration is trying its best to come up with policies that will reduce unemployment in the country, but one of the easiest ways of doing this is supporting the ideas of business-minded youths.

We should not see all the projects executed by the last administration as bad because the former president really gave his

best for the country. This particular YouWin project was one of the success stories of Dr Jonathan, and I hope that President Buhari will order the minister of finance to continue with it.

At a time when there is high unemployment in the country, as well as the economic crisis we are experiencing, then empowering Nigerians to set up their businesses will be

of immense benefit to the country. I hope this government can look beyond party position and act on those things that will lift the country out of its current economic misery, and

assisting young Nigerians to create jobs is one of the ways through which we can achieve a prosperous Nigeria.

•Vincent Odeh, Enugu.

On the proposed Federal Housing Estates Nigeria ought to have gone past the stage of highfalutin promises by now; it is a big shame that this appears not to be the case.

Now, the Federal Government is promising to utilise its “federal” might to provide “Federal Housing Estates” to a very, very minuscule fraction of the population.

On the pages of newspapers, this idea looks grand and doable, but I don’t think government has the direction it will take to achieve this. Thus, this brings up the issue of how best to implement any

housing estate scheme; true, contiguous housing estate schemes are veritable slum-fixers in addition to their purpose of providing low-cost habitation over the long-term.

Now, expending resources through the mass media to make promises does anyone no good at all.

What can be done in this regard is pretty straightforward; venture capitalists should be provided large hectares of lands at prime locations in state capitals at no cost, and these investors would be required to engage expert construction

firms like Julius Berger, to develop these lots according to low-cost template designs that would result in buildings that are easy to maintain and ones that would be there for a long time.

How the “federal” might can help here is ensuring that the home leasees pay their rents promptly

through deductions from sources in favour of the venture capitalists.

In the end, a win-win situation ensues; long-term low-cost houses are available for rent and the venture capitalists now have stakes in long-term real estate investments.

•Sunday Adole Jonah, FUT, Minna.

The destruction of Ibadan roads FOR some time now, people of Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State, have been experiencing unprecedented destruction of their community roads by a telecommunication firm and a water firm. In the name of laying their pipes, these firms dug the tarred roads, while just covering the dug portion with sand after they had buried their pipes.

Today, the well-tarred inner community roads at Ososami, Vulcanizer, Liberty Road, Apata, Kuola Adedayo, Oloruntumo, among other areas, have been destroyed by these firms. What pains me the most is that these firms cannot embark on such projects without the support of the government, and I wonder why the relevant agencies of government are not mandating the firms to use asphalt to tar damaged portion of the roads.o It is so unfortunate that the few good roads we are enjoying are being destroyed daily by these firms, with the connivance of government officials who have turned blind eyes to the destruction they are wreaking on our roads.

Getting government to rehabilitate bad roads is always a problem, but for some firms to just come and destroy the roads the citizens are enjoying without any action by govern-

ment is not fair enough.

When I accosted one of the supervisors of the telecommunication firm that was digging a recently constructed road at Apata, Ibadan, he made me to understand that the firm had sought permission from the government before embarking on the project; but did the government also permit the firm to leave behind the destroyed road just like that? We keep saying that the country is not developed, but how will it develop when those who are in government, who ought to ensure that things are done the right way, look the other way after collecting bribes?

I hope this letter will spur government officials who are responsible for ensuring that these firms rehabilitate the roads they have destroyed into action, thereby, mandating the firms to put the roads back into the shape they met them.

I also want to urge our citizens in the state to ask questions when they see things that will negatively affect their welfare. While the destruction was going on, no one could challenge the officials of the firms on what they were doing, and this even gave them the courage to do as they like.

•Alhaji Olaoluwa, Ibadan.

Saheed

opinion Nigeria at 56: Between adversity and opportunity 15

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

By Ayo Olukotun

L

AST Saturday, Nigeria’s independence anniversary coincided with what some have described as the worst recession in its post-colonial history. Economists disagree over the depth and possible length of the slump, but it is hard, if not insensitive, to ignore the tell-tale signs of adversity all around us, especially as it affects the embattled citizenry, several of who are dying silently, some coping in heroic ways with the severe downturn.

Come with me first however, to Oloibiri, a small community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, which on November 30 will mark the 60th anniversary of oil-find in Nigeria. Oloibiri, recall, was where Nigeria’s status as a petrol-dollar state was born, with the first crude oil export emanating from there in 1958. That community, despoiled, ravaged and abandoned by the Nigerian state and oil multinationals, remains today an open sore and a mockery of its illustrious antecedent as a harbinger of our once glittering oil prosperity. A British engineer recently testified to this when he reportedly said, “I have worked in several oil producing countries and I have never seen an oil producing community as desperately poor and neglected as Oloibiri.”

Needless to say that Oloibiri and its picturesque abandonment is a metaphor for the tragic failure of the Nigerian state to employ our collective wealth to uplift the material status of the majority of its people, including, especially, the people of the Niger Delta. Presidents, governors, “arrange” elections have come and gone but Oloibiri, like most of our communities, sits in abjection, watching with frustration what great uses the oil wealth has been put by an infinitesimal proportion of the elite.

Successive oil booms, even downturns have produced their billionaires living in opulence of a scale comparable to American billionaires, but the people who magically become real citizens only in election seasons are left behind.

So, where did the money go? That brings us to another dismal comparison between Nigeria and other oil producing countries.

In the ongoing debate about whether or not to sell our national assets, it became known that several other oil producing countries had sold minority shares and stakes in their national assets, in the case of Saudi Arabia, less than five per cent. Why were they sold? It was not to create another easy cash window and loose spending for a consumptive elite, but to build up their Sovereign Wealth Fund, so as to join the league of countries such as Norway and cities like Abu Dhabi, which have the highest Sovereign Wealth Funds, built up by modernising political

elite who prepare, not just for their own generation but future ones as well.

Recall that Nigeria once toyed with the idea of a Sovereign Wealth Fund, but it never really got off the ground because too many politicians and their cronies wanted a piece of the action, with immediate effect. We do not have a full account of how much money disappeared under the bend in successive regimes, but if ongoing revelations are anything to go by, it must be handsome enough to have transformed the country to an industrial state with diversified avenues of wealth creation and earnings. Consider the paradox: As an agricultural state, Nigeria built world class universities which offered degrees as good as any in the English speaking world; fashioned world class hospitals, created an emergent industrial sector and scored a series of “Firsts in Africa.”

Then came the petroleum rush and Nigeria had far more revenues from oil than it could ever imagine. Then, institutions such as universities multiplied, infrastructure expanded and opportunities for mass education were to an extent seized. But this dizzying expansion, under Nigeria’s prebendal elite, was not matched by quality. With each passing regime, institutions, some of which once enjoyed global status shrivelled into provincial organisations, universities which had ballooned to about 130 and still counting, have long retreated, for the most part, into mimicries of their once glorious selves. Infrastructure became far less durable than they once were, and under our emergent “contratocracy”, the phenomenon of collapsed buildings, rickety roads, with short lifespans, became more and more pronounced. The professions, once the epicentre of an efflorescent civil society declined, pushed to the back stage in the brave new world of newly arrived political breeds, replete with tool kits for padding elections, budgets, certificates, and justifying them as perfectly normal.

What went wrong? There was spiritual decentring, an ethical rank shifting, and an aggressive philistinism celebrating easy money rather than time tested virtues. In short, Nigeria lost its soul or sold it for a mess of pottage in desecrating bazaars, in which the only value that counted was how much money you had in your bank account. The politicians of the First and Second Republics thought long and hard about national problems, wrote books about them, surrounded themselves with think-tanks, and engaged for the most part in evidence-based policymaking. Today, in a shocking lowering of the bar of public office, most politicians are educated illiterates, several of them with forged or doctored certificates; do not read any books or engage in intellectual activity at any serious level. For them, the universe begins and ends with the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress. No wonder, all of Nigeria’s problems for them begin and end with Goodluck Jonathan or Muhammadu Buhari.

A broader perspective on our current economic challenges was recently provided by Professor Banji Oyeyinka, Director, Regional Office for Africa of UN- Habitat. Postulated Oyeyinka: “Our current economic difficulties stem in large part from our import-mindedness, the absurd reliance on the outside world for everything we use daily, eat, drink and build our shelters with. Nigeria needs to diversify and invest heavily to bring back manufacturing capacities and capabilities. The roots of our economic problems run deep far back into our history and we are being naïve if we ascribe the problems to events of the last one or so year alone.”

Running deep, similarly, is the recurrent question that will not go away in a hurry, concerning under what terms and arrangements, should the diverse peoples of Nigeria constitute a nation of unity in diversity. Most of our leaders have merely postponed or papered over the huge cracks in the national wall.

So, political adversity and divisiveness come with the opportunity to reshape national destiny through inter-ethnic conversations that build bridges rather than bomb them.

Economic adversity also carries with it the seed bed of its own amelioration, if we turn it to an opportunity to refashion the national economy away from over reliance on imports, taking into account the need to create new windows of economic activity in agriculture, services especially Information Technology and strive harder to build a knowledge economy by recovering our lost intellectual utopias. That is how to turn adversity into opportunity. In spite of all, Happy Independence Anniversary!

•Olukotun is a professor of Political Communication.

Northern Nigeria and the quest for federalism

By Ugochukwu Amasike

Once upon a time, before the era of coups and counter-coups in pre-oil Nigeria, there were four financially independent regions, namely: Northern region, Western region, Mid-Western region, and Eastern region. They all maximised their unique comparative advantages for the development of their respective societies and for the overall development of the national economy. It was a situation of “live and let live”, with all four regions developing at their pace.

The Northern Region of Nigeria, occupying 70 percent of Nigeria’s land mass, with its huge solid mineral deposits, growing mining industry, rich arable lands and a blossoming agroindustrial economy, was Nigeria’s most thriving region. It was in fact Nigeria’s wealthiest region by GDP and the region with the brightest prospects for further accelerated economic growth.

The Northern region was also blessed with good leaders such as: Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Joseph S. Tarka, Mallam Aminu Kano, amongst others. These leaders were men who were driven and motivated by love and compassion for their people. They understood the people’s needs and worked tirelessly to develop programmes and policies specifically tailored to meet and cater to those needs.

However, today, the once thriving Northern region is now the poster child of under-development, illiteracy, poverty, and sectarian crises; with inter-ethnic and ethno-religious riots now assuming the status of a bi-annual cultural event in most of the 19 states that constituted the old Northern region. The North of Nigeria is a region that, more than most other sections of Nigeria, bears the shameful scars of poverty and underdevelopment.

So what changed? Military rule did! That’s what changed.

After the invasion of the political arena by Nigeria’s erstwhile

military adventurers and in the aftermath of the Nigerian civil war, a new extractive and exclusive political order was created (one that exists till today), and this new order gave birth to a rent-seeking economy, solely dependent on the oil in the Niger-Delta – a resource which was considered by Nigeria’s new leaders, nay, rulers, as “the spoils of war.”

The entrance of these new operators witnessed the abandoning of Nigeria’s hitherto traditional agriculture-based economy, and this was the beginning of the destruction of the Northern region’s predominantly agro-industrial economy. The consequences of that arrest 50 years ago continue to haunt Northern Nigeria and the larger Nigeria till date.

According to the current Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, whilst speaking at the Northern Re-awakening Summit in 2015, the 19 states of the Northern Nigeria have the highest levels of poverty in Nigeria, with the region also having the highest infant mortality rates in the country, the highest number of unemployed people and the lowest rate of child enrolment in schools, and with Lagos State producing more West African Examination Council (WAEC) candidates than the entire North-East and North-West geo-political zones combined.

To remedy the situation, Nigeria’s political system needs to be liberalised, to empower the states in the North to properly expand and harness their agro-industrial economy and march to economic development through the harnessing and development of their comparative advantages for the wellbeing of their people and the betterment of the Nigerian economy.

It is generally known that the political systems in any society determine its economic institutions, and by necessary implication, the prosperity or lack thereof of the members of society. North Korea is a vivid and extreme contemporary example of faulty politics and the resultant dysfunctional economy it brings and the infliction of poverty on human beings.

Nigeria and the region formerly known as Northern Nigeria is in particular danger of becoming another negative example of gross underdevelopment if urgent and necessary steps are not taken to re-work our politics and national economic framework.

The truth is that Nigeria’s current political and economic structure has not served any part of the country well. It has only served the treacherous vested interests of a predatory band of men and women who consider Nigeria and its resources as their patrimony, and are thus passionately opposed to the idea of federalism, a system which would dislodge their fangs from our resources.

To move Nigeria forward economically and otherwise, we must re-adopt and practise a political-economic system that re-awakens Nigeria’s sleeping economic giant – Northern Nigeria, and that system is federalism. Therefore, if Nigeria is to grow and blossom, then the North must develop.

•Amasike, lawyer, lives in Lagos.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

inside

nigerdelta Alphonsus Agborh - Asaba

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OUNG entreprenueurs were enthusiastic as they gathered at Songhai Delta, an agricultural training centre in Amukpe in Sapele last week for the inauguration of 2016 cycle of the state government job creation scheme.

Under the Youth Agricultural Entrepreneur Programme (YAGEP), Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) and newly introduced Graduate Employment Enhancement Program(GEEP), the teeming youths were there for the 2016 training after which the state government will empower them with starter packs that are expected to make them employers of labour.

No doubt, the success stories that have been recorded in the first cycle, i.e 2015, are testimonies of how job creation scheme has become the key driver for turning unemployed youths into entrepreneurs, business owners and managers etc, all in an attempt to make Delta State, the first to turn into China in Nigeria.

So far, over 17, 173 private jobs have been created by the Okowa administration. This figure consists of 6,800 direct jobs and 10,373 indirect jobs of both skilled and unskilled workers.

This is aside from the disbursement of N546m to over 3.110 persons within the various micro, small and medium enterprises.

However, the experience of the past whereby some trainees, after collecting their starter packs, decided to sell them off did not go down well with the state governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, the initiator of the job creation scheme.

Whether on agricultural or vocational skills acquisition, the state government provides tools and cash for the trainees to take off.

Regrettably, one trainee who arranged the sales of his starter pack after collecting N50, 000 from the buyer ,was promptly arrested by the police at the venue of the empow-

Femi Olukunle Co-ordinating Editor 08065167178

Sell your starter packs, sell your future, Okowa tells entrepreneurs

Across section of participants at inauguration of the scheme in Sapele. erment in Asaba where the 2015 trainees passed out.

Series of stories abound on how many of them sold out their packs and wasted the money on frivolities, thereby denying more serious persons to become successful

through the programme.

Angry with the attitude of those who indulged in such act, Governor Okowa at Amukpe expressed unhappiness, but advised the 2016 batch against selling their future.

FADAMA III: Ayade assures of prompt release of counterpart fund Anthony Ubong - Calabar CROSS River State governor, Professor Ben Ayade, has assured the Federal Government and Donor partners of its prompt release of counterpart funds for Fadama 111 additional financing project in the state.

Ayade stated this in Calabar during the flag off of the additional financing of Fadama 111 development project.

He said: “Let me quickly reassure therefore, that, we shall honor all precedent obligations for assessing funds through the prompt release of counterpart funds.’’

He described agriculture as the bedrock of development of any nation, adding that the state had the potentials to becoming the food basin of the country.

“As a state, we are blessed with vast arable land and suitable climatic conditions in participating in different agricultural value chains,” he said.

The governor advised farmers in the state to key into different programme like Fadama 111 additional financing project and other programme to better their lots and increase the revenue base of the state.

He reminded the benefiting farmers that the funds that would be disbursed to them were strictly meant for business and warned them of waste or mismanagement.

According to him, “you must therefore

apply the funds religiously for the purposes they are meant for. No form of mismanagement or diversion of funds will be tolerated. ‘’He charged project managers and supervisors to closely monitor the project implementation by the beneficiaries in order to expand cassava production in the state.

Speaking, State Project Coordinator, Mr Bassey Elemi, said that Cross River was selected to participate in the additional financing due to its excellent performance in the last Fadama 111 project between 2009 and 2015.

He commended the state government for

paying all its counterpart funds for Fadama 111 implementation project which facilitated the selection of the state for the AD+ project.

He urged beneficiaries to do everything possible to make the project succeed as this would give the state an opportunity to draw more in the project from the $200 million World Bank funds.

He disclosed that a total of 970 hectares had been earmarked for the take off of the project which would last till December 31st 2017 with cassava production as the state’s comparative advantage.

He said: “If you want to become successful, you must be passionate about what you are doing. There are some who may want to sell their starter packs, I advise you not to do so because it is like selling your future.

“You can make use of the opportunity you have now to create jobs for yourself and others and as you know, there is no job anywhere. In the first batch, over 1000 youths are doing well.

“Please help me in this programme to be studious, focused and committed because we are training you to become job creators”.

The governor later made them to take an “oath” to be job creators after their training before praying for them.

According to him, starting from 2017, the programme would run in two streams (A and B) in order to drag more youths into the job creation bracket, adding that it was his dream to make the Songhai Delta a functional training ground.

Oba’s coronation: Ogiamien family pledges loyalty to Benin Palace Banji Aluko - Benin City THE Ogiamien family of the Benin kingdom is willing to collaborate with the throne of the Oba of Benin and has pledged loyalty to the Benin Palace.

To this end, the family has declared that it was prepared to participate in the coronation of the Oba of Benin scheduled to hold on October 20, disregarding the claims of one Arisco Osemwengie as the Ogiamien of Benin Kingdom.

Speaking after an enlarged meeting of the family at the Palace of Ogiamien in Benin City, head of the family, Pa Aibangbee Emopkpae Ogiamien, said the family never autho-

rised the crowning of Arisco Osemwengie as Ogiamien, insisting that they were prepared for the crowning of the Oba even if the reigning Ogiamien, Chief Osarobo Okuonghae, failed to return to Nigeria.

Recalled that Arisco was last year accused of crowning himself the Ogiamien and declaring himself the Imperial Majesty of Utantan Kingdom of Benin nation. He was, however, later charged to court over the matter.

Pa Aibangbee said the family did not know Arisco as a son of an Ogiamien and that the Ogiamien title is an hereditary one.

He said, “We kept quiet since because we didn’t have money to fight him, but we have put resources together to tell the world that

we do not know Arisco in this family.

“No former Ogiamien gave birth to him.

We have no quarrel with the Benin Palace.

All the words used against the palace were not authorised by the family.”

Younger sister to Ogiamien Okuonghae, Mrs Ehimwenma, said her brother would return at the appropriate time before the coronation, but if he didn’t return, another person that joined in the burial of their father would perform his Ekiokpogha function.

The family later protested through the streets of Benin City with placards telling Arisco not to enter the Ogiamien Palace again.

17 insidenigerdelta

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Education minister visits Asaba for Chevron 2016 Competition Ebenezer Adurokiya - Warri

Convener of SSRG, Joseph Ambakederimo (middle) at the forum to mark Nigeria’s Independence Aniversary last weekend.

‘Don’t withdraw troops from N/Delta’ Ebenezer Adurokiya - Warri

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HE South South Reawakening Group (SSRG) has urged the Federal Government to ignore calls for the withdrawal of troops from the Niger Delta region.

Convener of the group, Joseph Ambakederimo, said in Warri that people of the region were the architects of the deployment of troops to the area and therefore should be ready to bear the brunt.

“On the call for the withdrawal of the military from the region, we say NO. “SSRG supports the militarisation of the region as this has brought some sanity and safety of lives and property. It is only those

who have something to hide that are uncomfortable with the presence of the military.

“If we follow due process and employ civilised means of ventilation of grievances, there would have been no need for the military to be deployed to the region.

“We invited them and therefore we have to endure the pains and discomfort that come with it,” the SSRG boss averred at a forum held in Warri to mark the 56th Independence Anniversary of the country.

He noted: “what should be paramount in our hearts is the overall development of the area which is gradually taking place with the approval and establishment of an army battalion formation in Bayelsa, and Agbarotor in Delta State as well as the establishment

of a marine police training school in Bayelsa State.”

Describing the institutions as agents of development, Ambakederimo further urged President Buhari to approve the establishment of another military formation in the Bonny axis of Rivers State and the Escravos axis in Delta State.

According to him, “this will unarguably forestall and bring to minimum the activities of criminal elements,” in the region.

It will be recalled that heavy military deployment came on the heels of resurgence of destruction of oil and gas installations and freedom agitations by militant groups in the region which has brought the country to its knees economically.

Union to impound unregistered tricycles in Cross River Anthony Ubong - Calabar HENCEFORTH, tricycles popularly called ‘Keke Napep’ operating in Cross River State without being duly registered with the tricycle union would be impounded, Chairman of tricycle Union in the state, Pastor Ekpenyong Nya has said Nya, who stated this in a chat with the Nigerian Tribune in Calabar said the union was working with security agencies to arrest tricycle operators that did not have the union’s registration tag.

He said the measure was aimed at checkmating the menace of crime in the state.

According to him, criminals hide under the guise of being tricycle operators to perpetrate heinous crimes, adding that the union’s registration tag would contribute in no small measure to identifying each operator.

Nya said, “We have observed that some criminals use keke to rob and they will say it is our member. So, in order to identify our members, we have agreed that all tricycles should carry the union tag. This is to enable us identify you in case of any crime. As it stands, any keke not carrying our registration tag should be impounded and the operator arrested’’ This is even as the Chief Vehicle Inspection Officer (VIO) in the state, Chief Paul Bepeh, threatened to impound tricycles plying the road without being duly captured and certified in the ongoing biometric exercise carried out by the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO).

Bepeh stated this in Calabar while declaring open a 3-week biometric exercise for Keke operators in the state.

He said following the upsurge in crime in the state, the exercise became necessary to enable the VIO regulate the activities of keke operators.

Bepeh said, “The biometric exercise is absolutely necessary to enable us regulate and ensure that tricycle operators follow the laid down rules and regulations for better service so that we would have less crisis, less theft issues.

“Recently, there were cases of kidnap and theft with the use of Keke. So, there is need for us to get their data and know them.

There is need for us to give them routes and feeder roads to ply. Besides, they need to have basic knowledge of road signs and regulations.

“We have captured some of them and inspected the quality of their Keke to ensure that anyone that is roadworthy is issued with tags. It is also to ensure that they have orientation and are licensed to operate in those routes.

He said prior to the issuance of a drivers and roadworthiness tag, the image of each keke operator would be captured and stored in the state database to ascertain the number of tricycle operators in the state.

The VIO boss warned that at the end of the 3-week exercise, any tricycle plying the road without drivers and roadworthiness tag would be impounded and the operator charged to revenue court set up by the state government.

“If your Keke is not seen with a roadworthiness tag and you don’t have a driver’s licence hanged on your neck at the end of the three weeks exercise, your keke will be impounded and you will be charged to revenue court recently set up by the state gov-

ernment.

“If you are a certified keke operator, everything about you will be in the Cross River State Data base, we are going to share the data base with the police, FRSC and other agencies that will need it so that they will be aware that everything about our members has captured.

MINISTER of Education, Adamu Adamu, will be in Asaba, the Delta State capital Thursday for the closing event of the 2016 edition of the National Arts Competition (NAC) involving secondary school across the country.

The competition is at the instance of Chevron Nigeria Limited on behalf of NNPC/Chevron Joint Venture in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Education.

General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs (PGPA), Deji Haastrup, in a statement made available to the Nigerian Tribune in Warri, said the event would hold October 6, at Grand Hotel, Asaba.

According to him, the programme, which was initiated in 2005, will feature an exhibition and award of scholarships and other prizes to winners.

The competition, he noted, was initiated with the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and NNPC/Chevron Joint Venture for all Nigerian Secondary Schools to stimulate their interest in the field of Fine and Creative Arts, and develop an avenue for the children to see their potentials of becoming future entrepreneurs.

Haastrup further disclosed that the competition, created to use Art to achieve patriotism in Nigerian children from cradle, had produced over 200 winners including other beneficiaries of scholarships covering educational disbursements.

The theme of the 2016 edition, Waste to Wealth, he added, aligned with Chevron’s commitment to using its experience, technology and perseverance to overcome challenges and deliver value.

The Nigerian Tribune reports that the event will involve cash prize to winner of the competition in the form of scholarship for the rest of the recipient’s secondary school education.

The runners-up and other top performers will also receive one-off cash prizes.

Also expected at the closing event are top officials from the Delta State government.

Old boys seek N11m for borehole at St. Anthony’s college, Ubulu-Uku Alponsus Agborh- Asaba THE old boys’ association of St Anthony’s College, Ubulu-Uku, Delta State, has commenced plans to sink a borehole in the institution.

Over 2,000 feet are expected to be drilled in order to get sustainable water level.

The project also includes the provision of a stanchion, laying of a network of pipes for distribution of water to the school community and purchase of a 30kva diesel generator to be dedicated to powering the borehole.

Unveiling the plan as part of activities to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the institution in Asaba, chairman of the Planning Committee, Sir Okey Ofili, said the project was necessitated by the hardship students and staff of the college were facing in getting water.

“In our days in the school, there was a nearby stream where, as young boys, we regularly shuttled to get water. The stream has since dried up and this has posed a huge challenge for the staff and students of the school”, Ofili, a retired Head of Service in Delta State, explained. According to him, Ubulu-Uku, a

town in Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State, has a challenging terrain.

“Experts have surveyed the area and found that we have to drill to over 2,000 feet to get a sustainable water level, hence the seeming high cost of executing the borehole”, he stated, adding “it is a task we are determined to see through.”

Despite its designation as one of the few model secondary schools in the state, St. Anthony’s College, Ubulu-Uku, has not received adequate government attention with its science laboratories, students’ dormitories, library, classrooms and other facilities dilapidated.

Ofili said the old boys’s association would mobilise its members to aid in the rehabilitation of some of the facilities while pleading with the state government to join in restoring the glory of the college.

Programme for the celebration includes a novelty football match between members of St. Anthony’s College, Ubulu-Uku Old Boys Association (SACOBA) and their counterparts from St. Patrick’s College, Asaba, October 31 a public lecture and luncheon during which the borehole project will be launched.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

By Wale Ojo-Lanre 0803 349 0986 waleojolanre@gmail.com

Motherland Beckons takes on Destination Akosombo Ghana MOTHERLAND Beckons has continued to build on its Continent Building project as it extends its influence in promoting and marketing the African continent to Ghana.

This time specifically to the northern district of the West Africa country, picking on the famed Akosombo town as its next destination to expose to the world.

To this end, an all inclusive promotional tour package, labelled Destination Akosombo Ghana (DAG) has been designed to draw traffic to this sleepy, but richly endowed community in the south of Asuogyamna District, Eastern Region of the country.

It is a naturally richly blessed and endowed destination of choice with serene and picturesque scenery boosting the famed Akosombo Dam, which has plants in nearby Kpong, Tema and Aboadze. There is also the Lake Volta, which is reputed as the biggest and largest artificial lake in the world and of course, a friendly eco tourism environment signposted by the existence of a monkey sanctuary.

In its bid to further entrench the new found love for destination Ghana by exposing business travellers and tourists to other equally enriching and attractive regions of the country that Ghanaian High Commissioner to Nigeria, William Azumah – Awinador Kanyirige, approached the founder of Motherland Beckons, Otunba Wanle Akinboboye, seeking the deployment of his expertise and platform in this regard.

Besides holding discussion, the envoy alongside over five of his aids hosted Akinboboye and his team on tour of the various districts of the country, at the end of which Akosombo was settled for as the next destination to be promoted given its enduring and rich history, development, business opportunities and tourist attractions.

Motherland Beckons, which has the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja 11, as its grand patron, is designed primarily to serve as a link between the people of African descent in The Diaspora to Africa, their ancestral root. Over the years it has succeeded in bringing thousands of the over 700 million people of African descent in The Diaspora to the continent with them engaging in tours across the various countries and investing in businesses among other profitable and adventurous engagements.

Therefore, Destination Akosombo Ghana is geared towards giving vent to this belief by encouraging and creating a platform, particularly for Nigerians and other Africans on the continent and in The Diaspora to travel to Ghana to explore its rich history, culture, tourism, businesses and people among others.

To jumpstart this new move, a comprehensive tour package has been put together for October 22 with the following activities: Kamp Africa - A camp for children aged 5-17.The essence of this camp is to inculcate African cultures, values and norms in children in an African themed eco friendly environment. Activities at the camp would include learning how to prepare African cuisine, tying head gear (gele), playing simple African instruments, African dance, experience simulated African wedding and naming ceremony, and tales by moonlight every night around the bon fire.

YATE (Youth Africa Tourism Expedi-

tion) -This is aimed at encouraging youth to travel and explore Africa. YATE is designed for undergraduates and young business ex-

ecutives. CAER (Corporate African Eco Retreat) - A corporate retreat in an eco friendly African themed environment spiced with

team bonding exercises such as volleyball, basketball, paint ball, swimming, tug of war, and kayaking.

Musical jamboree, which is to deliver a first entertainment to the people with a mix of Nigerian and Ghanaian musical artistes slated to perform. Also, comic and fashion shows as well as other culture performances that would expose the people to the rich and colourful cultural heritage of the people would be on display.

Going forward, the partnership deal would also see the building of a mountain resort and lake resort both a reflection of the La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort African themed type resort in Ikegun Village, Lagos, the home base of Motherland Beckons. While a yearly festival and other sports and adventure tourism related activities are expected to be created and weaved round the uniqueness of Akosombo so as to offer different options to the expected tourists.

Also collaborating on the October 29 debutant tour is African World Airlines (AWA), which is the official carrier, Best Western Hotel, Accra, and Royal Senchi Hotel as well as Volta Hotel, both located in Akosombo.

Private sector essential partners in tourism development —Lai Mohammed

By Wale-ojo Lanre

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he Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has called on tourism private sector players to gird their loins in readiness for a productive partnership with the government at developing the tourism potentialities in Nigeria Alhaji Mohammed who said this while giving his remark during the World Tourism Day event at the Eko Atlantic City, revealed that “The private sector’s energy and focus is critical and indispensable in any developmental process or agenda aimed at developing or harnessing the tourism potentialities of any given country. And no government or any institution which set to achieve sustainable development in any subsector of the economy will relegate the private sector into the background.”

He likened the government to medical doctors whose main job is to ensure the safe delivery of a child while the nurturing of the child to adulthood is of the parents pointed out that the private sector is to nurture the baby while the government provide and ensure the availability of conducive environment The Minister declared “The tourism vision of the present government is based first on the domestication of domestic tourism with the view of calling the attention of Nigerians to appreciate the beauty of the wonderful tourism assets within the country and in our values and secondly by creating the necessary enabling environment and platforms for the private sectoral players to be behind the wheel of tourism motion in Nigeria.

Alhaji Mohammed pointed out “we all

From right: The Director General , Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) Chief Sally Uwechue – Mbanefo; Deputy Governor, Lagos State , Dr Oluranti Adebule; Honourable Minister of Information & Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Chairman, South EnergyX Nigeria Limited, Ronald Chagoury during the 2016 World Tourism Day celebration held at Eko Atlantic, Lagos State recently. agreed that Government has no business in being in business. We also concur with the maxim that tourism is private sector driven.

We are of the opinion and conviction that the public sector has an onerous responsibility of providing and making available palliatives and concession which will serve as soft and rising platforms for members of the private sectors.”

Alhaji Mohammed revealed “President Muhammed Buhari has a bigger picture of the tourism as a potent and powerful eco-

nomic sector which must be enhanced for its upper and low hanging fruits to blossom for employment generation , wealth creation and revenue generation.”

He assured tourism stakeholders “We should not lose hope or give up about Nigeria. The present situation being foist on us by the recession will soon be a thing of the past.

President Buhari is striving hard at ensuring that the economy is back in shape and we are getting near day by day and very soon it will be over.”

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tourism

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Forget your Music Tourism: Nigeria loses $5b differences, annually NCPC boss —Emmanuel Akapo, President, Tenstrings Musical Institute tells churches

Revd Tor Uja

By Wale-ojo Lanre

A

call has gone to the Federal Government to harness the potentialities of the musical sub sector of the tourism sector in shoring up the economic base of the country.

Mr Emmanuel Akapo, The President, Tenstrings Musical Institute, who made this call in an interview with TTM in his office in Lagos, lamented “My brother , Nigeria is losing over $ 5 billion in revenue for its inability to harness, organise and synchronise the musical tourism potentialities within the economic rhythm of the nation.”

The man who has trained over five thousand musicians in Nigeria declared “Nigeria’s musical tourism sector is the biggest in the whole of Africa with clear advantages of its uniqueness, varieties, styles and form.

There is no country in Africa which can rival Nigeria when it comes to authentic African music. But it is sad that there has been no conscientious efforts at tapping these assets for the enhancement of the people and the country.”

Mr Akapo revealed “It is sad and regrettable that our country does not see the golden egg in the musical tourism despite having been blessed with various kinds and forms

s

THE Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC), Rev. Tor Uja has called churches in Nigeria to unite for the purpose of the propagation of the gospel.

He made this known while playing host to the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria at the NCPC corporate headquarters, Abuja.

The NCPC boss intimated that the entire church is built on one strong pillar which is Jesus Christ and urged the body of Christ in Nigeria to forget their differences and doctrines and put their resources together to preach Christ and promote the gospel. According to him, “this is the only way we can sustain the future of the church”.

Rev. Uja explained that the Catholic Church has ran pilgrimage over the years even before the establishment of NCPC and has opened up so many countries and Holy Sites for Christians to visit all over the world.

In his words, “the Catholic Church has done well in the participation of pilgrimage”. He called on churches to emulate the Catholic Church and create opportunities that would enable Christian participate in pilgrimage.

He commended the Catholic Church for how they have been able to build Churches all over the world. According to him, “there is nowhere you go that you will not find the presence of a Catholic Church”.

“This is highly commendable”, he added.

The NCPC helmsman called on the Catholic Church to provide leadership and partnership to other churches so that they could benefit and experience pilgrimage too. He said that “the reason God gives a go ahead to a person is to strengthen others along the way”.

He informed that the commission is emphasizing on the spiritual elements of pilgrimage so that people who would go on pilgrimage will come back to strengthen the church and be a blessing to Nigeria.

Speaking earlier, the Director Pastoral Affairs Department of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Rev. Father Ojaye Idoko informed the Executive Secretary that the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria organises different pilgrimages and solicit for the support of the commission to make their pilgrimages stress free and successful.

of music’s, musical festival and human capacity to do this.”

He pointed out “Nigerian music stars have registered the impact of Nigeria on the international scene even which cultivated to them many awards, respect for the country and regard for its music industry. But that is where the music stopped.”

Mr Akapo said “We should leverage on these legacies and musical marks made and still being made by the musical enigma as Victor Olaiya, late IK Dairo, Fela Anikulapo, King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey , KWAM 1 , and others “ He further opined “ South Africa, Canada, Ottawa, Toronto rake in millions of dollar from jazz festival, while Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, are smiling to the banks with Raggae Sunsplash, their positives are there for Nigeria to rake in millions of dollars from music festivals if we take time to organise them.”

Mr Akapo revealed “The musical assets in this country are unquantifiable. Nigeria is leading the Hi Pop scene; we have maintained a space in the high-life genre. We have hold in the reggae particularly in the sub region, we are in the afro – funk. We have “both the Juju / Fuji fusion. Over all, we have what it takes to organise bi – annu-

al mega musical tourism festival in Nigeria.

Apart from the upper and low hanging fruits and benefits which musical tourism will engender to the nation, Mr Akapo said “already we have over 7000 Nigerians who I have trained in the art of music and lyrical composition and who are not only doing well, but who can be useful in packaging and organising the musical festivals .”

He added that musical tourism would not only cultivate foreign revenue but also stimulate domestic wealth.”Essentially, it will create employment opportunities as many will either take to inauguration of studios, musical equipment repairing and rental service, music writing and composing.”

Mr Akapo said “the music festival of Insomniac contributed over $ 3 billion to the US economy by staging only 48 shows in recent years. Insomniac, the dance music promoter in the US employed Beacon Economics, a consulting firm, to showcase how its activities have contributed to the economy of US —everything from travelling fans splurging on restaurants to local firms seeing a bump in business . This can happen in Nigeria if the government, we in the music sector and the public can come together and inaugurate a Mega Music Tourism Festival.

Kids should imbibe cultural tourism values – Mopelade Owolabi, Proprietor, Citadel Private School

By Wale-ojo Lanre Parents, guardians and proprietors of primary and nursery schools in Nigeria have been urged to develop interest in teaching and encouraging pupils/ wardscultural–tourism values.

The proprietor, Citadel Private School, Mrs Mopelade Owolabi made this call in her welcome speech during the Cultural day celebration held in the school premises at Ojo badan Street, Off Oshuntokun, Old Bodija Ibadan last Friday.

Mrs Owolabi revealed ‘one of the cardinal objectives of this school is to ensure the impartation of socio-cultural tourism values on any pupil who pass through the four walls of our school.’

She pointed out “we found out that knowledge without the basic understanding of the cultural- tourism values of a child as an entity in his or her community is nothing, but a fluke. Products of such a process mostly turned out as cultural misfits and of having no respect to the values of the society which he or she emerged from. This is what we at Citadel Private School have set out to

preven.

Mrs Owolabi opined “We are producing for the society a crop of thoroughbred pupils who are not only good at academics, but culturally responsible, tourism inclined, socially wise and patriotically alert.”

She said “An academically sound pupil who understands and appreciates the basic cultural values of his or her community from teens has high tendency to reject or withdraw from anti – social culture and

values which might be inimical to what he or she is used to.”

Mrs Owolabi said that “Researches have discovered that culturally mentored pupils are not always able to interact and operate within the confines of the socio- cultural expectations of any society in which they find themselves, but they have been found to be responsible and attain accomplishment in whatever they do. Hence, at Citadel, we ensure that our pupils are academically sound and culturally fit.”

20 with Doyin Adeoye

m:08038000394 e:doyinadeoye@tribuneonlineng.com t:@kreatif_ink

Discovery of Jatropha plant will provide additional means of livelihood for local communities —FG Ademola Adegbite - Abuja THE Federal Government has announced that with the discovery of a Jatropha plant in Nigeria, as a viable green alternative to fossil fuels in the country, the government would now be able to provide an additional means of livelihood for local communities that were losing ground water and vegetation every year due to desertification.

This project, according to the Federal Government, if it works out as planned, would create an avenue for the diversification of the Nigerian economy through empowering people, taking climate action to fight desertification, as well as reducing poverty, thus enhancing socio-economic growth across the country.

The Minister of State for Environment, Mallam Ibrahim Usman Jibril, who made this

Jatropha seed

announcement at a media dialogue in Abuja, further said the new approach would lead to rapid creation of a New Green Economy in the rural areas, thereby, creating jobs and wealth from the cultivation of Jatropha and its value chain.

He explained that the plant has been identified by the Nigerian Bio-fuel policy and incentives 2007 as the most preferred non-food plant for bio-fuel feedstock for production in the country.

According to him, “this policy as well as NNPC`s renewable energy division were set out to link the agriculture and energy sectors and promote job creation, technology acquisition attract foreign investment in the bio-fuels industry.”

He noted that the plant could be grown in all 36 states, but as a pilot project, about 12 states affected by desertification in which over 40 million people were affected would be the take off point.

Consequently, the minister said, the ministry was to embark on sustained advocacy visits to secure the commitment of the states as the approach would lead to rapid creation of a new green economy in the rural areas, thereby, creating jobs and wealth from the cultivation of Jatropha and its value chain.

7 bee species placed on endangered list The United States is on a mission to save some of its busiest workers: bees.

In a first for bees in the nation, seven bee species native to Hawaii are now protected under the Endangered Species Act. The US Fish and Wildlife Service said it added the yellow-faced bee species to the federal list of endangered species Friday night after years of research concluded they are under threat.

The rule is effective October 31.

Bees pollinate plants producing fruit, nuts and vegetables, and are crucial for the nation’s food industry.

This is one of the seven bee species protected under the Endangered Species Act. They have declined sharply in recent years due to various factors, including habitat loss, pesticides, wildfires and loss of genetic diversity.

“Native pollinators in the US provide essential pollination services to agriculture which are

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

valued at more than $9 billion annually,” said Eric Lee-Mäder, pollinator program co-director at the Xerces Society, which was involved in petitions calling for the protection of the bee species.

During pollination, insects, birds and bats transfer pollen between plants, which allows them to make seeds and reproduce.

Listing the bees allows authorities to provide recovery programs and get funding for protection.

A person who cares about the earth will resonate with its purity. —Sally Fox

ecoscope

EU ratifies Paris climate change agreement T

he European Parliament, the European Union’s executive arm, ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change on Tuesday, triggering global approval of the accord.

The 28-nation bloc approved the pact, the most sweeping effort to combat global pollution, at a session in Strasbourg, France. The vote indicates the threshold for ratification approval by at least 55 parties, accounting for 55 per cent of global emissions was reached.

The EU, which seeks to be regarded as a leader in the fight against climate change, came under pressure to endorse the plan, codified in 2015, after the United States, China and India did so.

Parliament President, Jean-Claude Junker, who in September noted slow delivery on promises has undermined the EU’s credibility, as he said on Tuesday that “Today the European Union turned climate ambition into climate action. The Paris Agreement is the first of its kind and it would not have been possible were it not for the European Union. Today we continued to show leadership and prove that, together, the European Union can deliver.”

The main element of the agreement is a promise, by 190 nations, to work toward capping global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius over temperatures in the pre-industrial era. The EU has set a goal of reducing heat-trapping gases by at least 40 percent, compared to 1990 levels, by 2030.

Delivering the Parliament’s ratification document to the United Nations, later this week, will fulfill the agreement’s enactment criteria; the deal will take effect 30 days later, in time for the start of a November 7 climate change conference in Morocco.

European Union President, Jean-Claude Juncker

NEMA recommends rebuilding of tremor affected houses in Kaduna The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has recommended the rebuilding of tremor affected houses in Kwoi, Kaduna State, pending the outcome of assessment reports by the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency.

Mr Musa Illalah, NEMA North-west Zonal Coordinator made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said there was urgent need for the over 300 houses affected to be rebuilt pending the outcome of the assessment report.

According to him, the report from the agency will enable them take action on whether or not to relocate the victims from the area.

“We, in collaboration with other stakeholders like the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, the local government officials, and traditional rulers in Jaba local government undertook

and assessment of the affected areas.

“We wrote our report and recommendations to the Federal Government for urgent intervention to the victims, which we recommended the provision of building materials.

“Ours is to keep close touch with the Geological Service Agency and when they share the report with us we will know what role to play.

“It is not the responsibility of NEMA to say the people should be relocated, that is why the geological agency is on ground and we are working in close collaboration.

“Unless that recommendation is made, I don’t know whether we can say it is safe or not for people to live there’’, Illalah said.

The coordinator said NEMA would do everything necessary to avoid further disaster and any loss of lives in the area in line with its Risk Reduction goal.

Waste-to-wealth: LASG to partner Holland-based company

Call to close ivory markets agreed at Cites conference

As countries fail to agree on complete ban of African lions from global trade Delegates at a United Nations (UN) wildlife conference have endorsed calls for the closure of all domestic ivory markets.

The non-binding proposal was approved at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in South Africa.

According to BBC, conservationists have hailed it as a significant step towards ending the current elephant poaching crisis.

However Japan, which has a large domestic ivory trade, said the proposal did not apply there.

While the international market in ivory has been closed since 1989, legal domestic markets have continued in many countries around the world.

There has been growing concern that domestic trading has encouraged the poaching of elephants.

A surge in killing over the past seven years has seen populations across Africa shrink by a third, according to the recently published Great Elephant Census. What is driving the slaughter is the value of ivory, which can sell for around $1,100 (£850) per kilo in China.

“It is an important step on the road to closing worldwide ivory markets. It is the first time that Cites has agreed to intervene so directly in domestic ivory,” said Robert Hep-

worth, a former chair of the Cites standing committee.

Meanwhile, the 182 countries at the summit were unable to agree on a proposal from nine African countries to ban all international trade in lion parts.

African lions have shrunk to just eight per cent of their historic range, with only 20,000 left in the wild. About 1,500 a year are hunted as trophies, a practice that attracted global attention last year after an American dentist killed Cecil the lion with a crossbow in Zimbabwe.

A rising trade in lion bones to Asia, where such bones are replacing scarce tiger bones in supposed tonics, has raised fears of further declines. South Africa alone legally exported 1,200 skeletons (11 tonnes of bones) between 2008 and 2011, the latest figures available.

The UKguardian reported that instead, a compromise agreement banned only the trade in bones, teeth and claws from wild lions.

Tsekedi Khama, Environment Minister in Botswana, which backed a total ban, said “It would be a very, very sad day when we are not able to show our children’s children what a lion looks like because they have been hunted into extinction.”

Determined to give a fillip to its waste-towealth project in a bid to create more jobs, the Lagos State Government says it is collaborating with a Holland-based company to harness the waste.

Already, the state has begun gas production from waste dumps.

Mr Olumuyiwa Adejokun, the Executive Chairman, Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that the project would be a public-private initiative.

“It is a veritable option to adopt in recycling our waste which we generate daily in thousands of tons.

“Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration has invited a company from Holland whose specialty is on converting waste to wealth to create jobs for both old and young.

“We are expecting them anytime form now to come and collaborate with us on the project,’’ said the LAWMA boss, who took over in 2016.

According to Adejokun, the state-owned enterprise is not to recycle waste, but to encourage recyclers as private initiatives.

“It is not for LAWMA to recycle waste, but to encourage recyclers; for example, we have WeCyclers owned by the Abiolas.’’

LAWMA was inaugurated following the industrialisation and urbanisation of Lagos with the resultant high volume of waste which became an intractable problem for local councils in the state to manage.

Lagos was branded the “dirtiest’’ capital in 1977 when Nigeria hosted “FESTAC ’77’’, and consequently in April 1977, the first waste management outfit in West Africa was inaugurated known as Lagos State Refuse Disposal Board (LSRDB) under Edict 9 of 1977, with Powell Duffen Pollution Control Consultants of Canada as managers.

In 1981, its name was changed to Lagos State Waste Disposal Board (LSWDB) because of the added responsibilities for industrial-commercial waste collection and disposal, drain clearing and disposal of derelict/scrapped vehicles.

Clean-up: MOSOP to generate database of graduates, contractors and artisans in Ogoniland The Movement for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has commenced the process of generating comprehensive database of graduates, contractors and artisans in Ogoniland ahead of the full implementation of the Ogoni clean-up.

MOSOP Publicity Secretary, Mr Fegalo Nsuke, made the disclosure in a statement made available to the News of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.

Nsuke said that Mr Legborsi Pyagbara MOSOP’s President, made the announcement after a meeting between the organisation and representatives of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in Port Harcourt.

From left, CEO Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, Mr Tony Attah; Women Affairs Minister, Hajia Aisha Alhassan and the Environment Minister, Mrs Pyagbara explained that compiling Amina Mohammed, during the inaugural meeting of the NLNG and NLG development Committee chaired by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo at the the database of Ogoni professionState House, Abuja. als, graduates, skilled and unskilled

personnel was necessary to access their capacity and the level of training required for the engagement of the Ogoni people for the clean-up.

“As part of our preparations, we will launch database of Ogoni graduates and contractors to enable us have good understanding of our capacity as a people ahead of the full implementation of the cleanup.

“We also need data of artisans, skilled and unskilled personnel to enable us determine our training requirements,” he said.

Pyagbara said that the implementation of the clean-up was expected to be accompanied with sustainable livelihood programmes like job creation, entrepreneurship development, training and infrastructure development.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

with Tunde Dodondawa m:08029370304 e:mrdodondawa@yahoo.com

Crude Price Volatility: Why OPEC exempted Nigeria from output freeze Stories by Olatunde Dodondawa

I

N an attempt to arrest the volatility at the crude oil international market, member countries of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) met recently in Algeria to discuss possible crude oil output freeze among members with the aim to move crude price north.

However, Nigeria will enjoy an exemption in production cut as the group tries to steady oil prices slump in November.

After about a reported 48 hours of consultation amongst its members in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, the OPEC agreed to effectively cut their oil production volumes to 32.5 million barrels per day (mbpd) from around 33.24mbpd, thus shaving off about 0.74mbpd.

The news of the production cut by the group came to the oil industry as a landmark deal, one which will see output levels for each member country determined in November 2016, but will also exclude three of its members, Nigeria, Iran and Libya from participating in the output cuts due to their peculiar production challenges.

Reportedly coming for the first time in about eight years, the deal according to AFP was largely successful on the back of Saudi Arabia softening its stance on its arch-rival Iran as well as on the mounting pressure from low oil prices.

While the group would reduce their output to 32.5mbpd, and determine how much each country will produce at the next formal meeting, it also hopes to extend an invitation to non-OPEC countries such as Russia, to join in the output cuts, at least to buoy its desire to see some improvements in prices.

Why Nigeria should use the opportunity to stabilise Niger Delta The deal was coming at a time when Nigeria is faced with the steady disruptions of production from her oil fields; the OPEC deal has provided Nigeria an uncommon opportunity to stabilise the Niger Delta region.

The deal, according to reports, will exempt Nigeria from participating in the output cuts. It will perhaps allow the country to produce at levels previously allowed for the simple reasons that it has had a significant drop in her production from February 2016 when militants in the Niger Delta took to destroying oil facilities in the region.

From a 2016 budget production benchmark of 2.2mbpd, the country’s production slipped to about 1mbpd and then 1.2mbpd as recently disclosed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu.

Kachikwu had said that so far the ceasefire negotiated by the government with the

Niger Delta militants has enabled production from oil fields in the region to come up to 1.75mbpd. He added that this was, however, expected to rise to 1.8mbpd by October and then 2mbpd by December 2016. The OPEC deal could be a sweetener to this plan and expectation.

In a statement acknowledging its delight

with the deal, the ministry predicted the success of the deal to the loosely tied role Nigeria and some others played in refocusing OPEC to work harmoniously to identify the needs and challenges that are peculiar to it and surmounting them.

It explained that one of the key challenges was the low price of oil in the international

market and how it had largely affected the economies of its member countries.

The statement noted that Kachikwu led the request for the exemption of Nigeria from the production cut, adding that the concession was given considering the recent challenges the country has been through.

Shell urges Nigerian youths to embrace peace, shun vandalism SHELL has urged Nigerian youths to embrace peace and shun vandalism in order to promote conducive environment for its operations and operations of other oil producing companies in the Niger Delta region.

Speaking in Lagos at a reception organized for some youths who were sponsored by Shell to train with Dutch Club, Feyernood FC, the General Manager, External Relations, Shell Nigeria, Mr. Igo Weli, stated that “part of our job is to provide enabling environment for the youths to expressed their talents. But we can achieve this in a stable and conducive environment where peace reigns.

“You can do as much as social investment as your business permits. Everything goes back to enabling business environment

without willfully destroying values. We see improvement in oil production, discussion and negotiation still ongoing but we wish the industry operates at normal level.”

He argued that Shell believes that youth can combine education with sport. “We have ongoing commitment to youth development, we will sustain it and see that the dreams of our youths come alive. We have built a library in Port Harcourt to be commissioned soon,” he said.

In 2015, Shell emerged best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Innovation company at Social Enterprise Report and Awards (SERAs).

The company was among the 62 shortlisted and the panel, which included experts from United Kingdom, U.S. and Ni-

geria, based their assessment on outcome of field visits and verification of data.

Shell companies in Nigeria have undertaken several social investment projects in Nigeria, focusing on community and enterprise development, education, sport and health.

Much of it was done in partnership with Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

“In 2014, Shell operated ventures contributed to the NDDC as required by law.

Some $112 million was directly invested

by SPDC JV and SNEPCo in social investment projects.

“Collectively, this made Nigeria the largest concentration of social investment spending in the Shell Group,” the company stated.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Chevron Nigeria invested $3.6bn on Nigeria Content in 2015 —Report CHEVRON Nigeria Limited CNL) has reiterated its commitment to local content development in Nigeria by investing $3.6 billion in 2015 according to a report.

Chevron’s commitment to local capacity building is yielding positive results, boosting local economies, creating job opportunities, and multiplier effects in the Nigerian economy.

Chevron said in the report that it consistently reserves significant portions of job scopes to benefit indigenous companies and community contractors from areas close to its operations.

In 2015, Chevron spend on Nigerian Content was approx-

Climate change: BOI, UNDP to provide $2m solar power to communities Stories by Olatunde Dodondawa

I

N its commitment to provide energy solutions to rural communities in Nigeria, the Bank of Industry (BOI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have signed a partnership agreement to provide more communities across Nigeria with solar power worth $2 million.

This partnership represents the second round of solar power provision for rural communities across the country between the BOI, which is the implementing agency on behalf of the federal government, and the UNDP. At the signing ceremony, the acting Managing Director of the BOI, Mr Waheed Olagunju, said the six communities in which solar power projects had been carried out are enjoying stable power supply.

“This commenced in 2015 with a pilot phase in which the first set of low-cost, off-grid solar electrification projects were deployed in one community in each of the six geopolitical zones, in partnership with GVE Projects Limited and Arnergy Solar Limited.

“The pilot project involved the provision of long-term financing for the installation of micro-grid and stand-alone solar solutions in Bisanti community, Katcha LGA in Niger State, Idi-Ita/Onibambu community, Ife North LGA in Osun State, Kolwa community, Kaltungo LGA in Gombe State, Onono community, Anambra West LGA in Anambra State, Obayantor 1 community in Edo State and Charwa/Chakun communities, Makarfi LGA in Kaduna State. These projects were commissioned in record time between October 6, 2015 and May 24, 2016.

“The blend of BoI’s contribution in the sum of $1.4 million as debt financing for the projects, with UNDP’s grant contribution of $600,000 will provide the much -needed stimulus to scale up the projects in view of the attendant reduction in the cost of deployment and enhancement of its overall viability,” he said.

He explained further that BoI’s contribution and the UNDP grant would be deployed to provide solar energy solution in states where both BoI and UNDP had existing collaboration.

Olagunju said the pilot project scheme in Gombe, Niger, Osun, Anambra, Edo and Kaduna states, was aimed at giving rural communities the opportunity to take control of their energy generation and also pay for only the energy used.

He disclosed that plans were underway to replicate the project in other off-grid communities in Edo State, in collaboration with

the state government as well as other parts of the country, working with the various state governments.

Olagunju stated that for Nigeria to meet up with its energy needs, it must diversify into the use of alternative sources as the country had some of the world’s most abundant and least exploited renewable energy sources, especially solar power.

He maintained that solar power could be utilised to provide the much-needed electricity for the nation’s rural communities, rather than waiting in vain for the national grid to get to these areas.

He, however, said the Development Finance Institution’s (DFIs) medium term vision was to have about 100,000 homes installed with stand-alone solar home systems, pointing out that this move was essentially a programme aimed at poverty alleviation, reduction in rural-urban migration to foster rural economic development.

“We are all aware that power remains a major obstacle to growth in Nigeria, as inadequate and unreliable electricity undermines investment opportunity, economic growth, social and infrastructure developments,” he said.

imately $3.6 billion (including company labour costs).

Chevron supports upgrade of existing local plants and facilities to drive in-country fabrication. 50 Nigerians were trained

by PEM Offshore Facility, an in-country DP Marine Training School which Chevron is supporting with a $1 million scholarship to Nigerian Seamen over a period of five years.

Fifty young Nigerians graduated from the Vocational Training Program (VTP) in October 2015 and are currently at Chevron field locations for the second phase of their training On-theJob Learning (OJL).

The Sonam Non Association Gas Wellhead Platform (NWP) Topsides were fabricated at Nigerdock and construction training for 160 Nigerians on welding, fabrication & craft was completed in December 2015.

Twelve trainees completed a one-year Onshore Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) training under the Funiwa Gas Project Chevron strongly believes in the development of local capacity and is committed to the successful implementation of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s policy on Nigerian Content Development (NCD).

Chevron demonstrates its commitment to development of local capacity by empowering Nigerian service providers and suppliers through human and business capacity development, local patronage, work scope reservation and fostering of business partnerships.

NERC enacts draft regulation for mini-grid THE Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has produced a draft regulation for Mini-Grids in a bid to address erratic power supply and effective regulation in the power generation.

The objective of the 140-page Regulation according to NERC is to accelerate electrification in areas without existing Distribution Network (Unserved areas) and areas with an existing but poorly electrified or non-functional distribution grid (Underserved areas) by attracting participation of private sector, communities, Non -Governmental Organisations (NGO) in achieving nationwide electrification.

The regulation seeks to minimize major risks associated with Mini-Grid investments such as: (1) Sudden tariff changes, as tariffs would have been agreed in advance by the relevant parties; and (2) Stranded Mini-Grid Operator investments due to extension of main grid to cover the Mini-Grid area.

In such cases, NERC said a fair compensation mechanism would be applied for Mini-Grid Operators that choose to exit.

The regulation provides for permit and tariff approval procedures which will ease the administrative burden on the Mini-Grid

Operator and ensure the process of obtaining the Permit in a timely manner.

The Distributed Power of the Mini-Grid determines the regulatory procedure to be followed.

“For Distributed Power of up to 100kW, a permit is optional for the Mini-Grid Operator; while for Distributed Power of over 100kW and installed Generation Capacity of up to 1MW a Permit, will be required.

“Beyond that limit, a full licence is required which is outside of the scope of this Regulation and is taken care of by other already existing Regulations,” NERC said.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has told Kaduna Electric that the federal government may soon reveal its position on the debts owed the 11 Distribution companies (Discos) by the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

Speaking during an inspection visit, the Deputy Director on Post Privatisation, Mallam Rabiu Abubakar Abba, while responding to the challenges of the Disco said, “Very soon the government will come out with a position particularly on the debts owed Discos by MDAs as well as issues of liquidity bedeviling the sector.”

In his address, the Managing Director of the Disco, Mr Garba Haruna, said the whole process of privatisation is to reduce losses and increase efficiency in the power sector.

He noted that the agency is part of Kaduna Electric as the government owns 40 per cent equity while BPE represents its interest on the Disco’s board.

The Deputy Director, Enterprises at BPE, Mr John Olalekan Joseph, tasked other Discos on deploying similar GPS technology saying it would bring down significantly then commercial losses of the firms.

How Shale producers may frustrate OPEC deal THERE are strong indications that Shale Oil producers in the United States may eventually frustrate the deal by member countries of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut output by November 30, 2016, in order to push crude prices up north.

Several member countries of OPEC have been hit with declining crude price overtime which has declined from about $120 per barrel in June 2014 to less than $30 per barrel in January 2016.

It is relatively selling at less than $50 per barrel and OPEC is determined to cut output and push the price upward.

However, studies have shown that at relatively $50 per barrel or less, shale gas producers cannot operate because of the expensive technology they used in fracking.

Most of them are out of production because they will be producing at a loss.

They shut down operations because it was only recovering its variable cost at a time crude price

was selling at less than $50 per barrel.

If crude price rises above $60 per barrel and moves towards $70 per barrel, shale producers will return, glut may rerun to the markets and crude prices may move south again.

While OPEC identified glut in the market to be around less than 1million barrel per day, experts argued that glut may actually exceed what OPEC projected. They put it at about two million barrels per day when they considered non-OPEC activities in the market.

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016 24 politicsnews Aregbesola’s visit: PDP chides Ekiti APC Sam Nwaoko=-Ado Ekiti

T

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has chided the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state for its verbal attack on Governor Rauf Aregbesola, of Osun State for his recent visit to Ekiti.

The PDP, in a statement on Tuesday, in reaction to APC’s derision of Aregbeaola’s visit to celebrate Ekiti at 20 with Governor Ayodele Fayose, said state APC was being held down by a “sadist mentality.”

PDP, in the statement signed by its publicity secretary, Jackson Adebayo, claimed that “though APC has never hidden the fact that it doesn’t want anything good for Ekiti State, the opposition party should have refrained from exposing itself as party of sadists, who will not even rejoice at the progress of the state for the past 20years.”

Adebayo said “by the attack on Aregbesola for being part of the celebration of 20 years of steady development of Ekiti State and recognising the landmark achievements of Governor Ayo Fayose, the APC has once again displayed its hatred for the people of the state, as well as expressing sadness at the rapid transformation of the state by the present government.”

PDP added: “It is very unfortunate that the party that claims to be progres-

sive would not see any reason to rejoice with the people of Ekiti State but

went ahead to attack a governor, who is a member of their party just because he

came to celebrate with the people and extol Governor Fayose for his reliability

Edo State governor-elect, Mr Godwin Obaseki and his wife, Betsy, receiving royal blessings from the crown prince of Benin Kingdom, His Royal Highness, Prince Eheneden Erediauwa, Edaiken N’Uselu, during a visit to the royal father in his palace, on Tuesday.

Tinubu, Frank can’t force Oyegun out of APC —APC disciples Ebenezer Adurokiya-Warri

A group, the APC Disciples in Edo State has declared that efforts being exerted by forces within the leadership of the All Progressives Congress against its chairman, Chief John OdigieOyegun, would crumble.

A stalwart of APC in the state, Chief Francis Inegbeniki, made the declaration on behalf of the group in a statement made available to journalists, on Tuesday, in Warri, Delta State.

“It is unfortunate for Chief Bola Tinubu, our national leader, whom we all respect so much and

Timi Frank, to have asked Oyegun to resign from office, as both of them never disclosed any offence that Oyegun committed to warrant him resigning his position,” the group averred.

The statement further noted that Tinubu’s anger against Oyegun was not unconnected to the justconcluded Ondo APC governorship primaries, while Timi Frank’s anger was the unfortunate crises rocking the National Assembly.

It posited that since Oyegun was not the cause of the crises in the National Assembly, he could not also have taken decision alone

without the other members of the National Working Committee.

The statement submitted that the anger directed at Oyegun, who was not an aspirant in the Ondo APC primaries, was absolutely unnecessary.

“It is not fair to put all the blame on the head of Oyegun. Nobody should use Oyegun as the sacrificial lamp. He has done his best for the APC. He must tread softly because of the people he is working with,” the group warned.

The caucus, therefore, called on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and

Kogi Assembly suspends ALGON chair, 4 others •No cause for alarm —Gov Bello Yinka Oladoyinbo-Lokoja

The Kogi State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, suspended the state chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Alhaji Taofiq Isa, and four other administrators from office over alleged recklessness spending.

While Isa is the chairman of Ijumu local government area, other affected administrators are Mr Baron Okwoli of Igalamela/Odolu, Mr Moses Akande of Ogori/Magongo, Mr. Moses Olorunleke of Kabba/ Bunu and Mr. Abdulrahim Ohiere of Okehi local government council.

The affected persons were suspended for alleged financial recklessness and absence from their duty posts.

But the state governor,

and giant stride since assuming the leadership of the state.

Alhaji Yahaya Bello, said there was no cause for panic over the development in the assembly, assuring that the situation would be brought under control.

The governor, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Petra Onyegbule, said the resolution of the House was yet to be communicated to him as the person who appointed the suspended officials, saying that such communication was expected to detail the offences committed by the administrators.

The suspension of the council bosses followed a motion brought under matters of urgent public importance by Friday Sani, representing Igalamela/ Odolu state constituency, saying that it was necessary for the assembly to ask questions on the administration of local gov-

ernment areas in the state.

In his motion, he alleged: “They spend without appropriation. The House must not be undermined and so the five administrators must be suspended to allow for investigation. The secretaries of the local government are to act in their stead.”

Seconding the motion, Honourable Sunday Pedro of Mopa Muro state constituency, said it was high time the assembly started its oversight functions, otherwise members might live to regret it.

Contributing, Honourable Oluwatoyin Lawal of Yagba West state constituency, who also supported the motion, said the doctrine of separation of powers conferred the duty of over sighting the local government areas on the state assembly.

However, the member representing Okehi state

constituency, Sani Kekere, opposed the motion, arguing that there was the need to give the people fair hearing before suspending them from office.

The assembly has however directed the affected administrators to hand over the property of the local governments in their possession to their secretaries, who would take over the administration pending the outcome of the investigation, while the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and that of Public Accounts were to investigate the allegations and report after four weeks.

However, the governor said he would continue to hold the assembly in high esteem and would never inhibit their operations in respect to the principle of separation of powers.

members of the National Working Committee to call Timi Frank, to order.

Adebayo maintained that APC could not deny Aregbesola’s commendation of Fayose, hence they went for his head instead of celebrating Ekiti State at 20 with some level of a dignified, progressive mind.

PDP stressed that what jolted the opposition party in Ekiti most was the assertion by Aregbesola that Ekiti had been transformed by Governor Fayose, and that when he flew in, he could see that the state had been tremendously transformed from what he saw when he came during the past administration.

According to the party, APC should come out and join Aregbesola in commending the Fayose administration for doing what a former governor from their party, Dr Kayode Fayemi, failed to do.

The Ekiti PDP commended Aregbesola’s courage and benevolence in grace the Ekiti at 20 event, shunning the sentiments of politics.

Edo poll: PDP accuses APC of wiping out rigging evidence •Let them prove —APC Banji Aluko-Benin City

The controversy that followed Edo State governorship election has taken a new turn, as the Ize-Iyamu Campaign Organisation, on Tuesday, raised the alarm about a ploy by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) government in the state to obliterate evidence that revealed the rigging of the election.

A statement signed by Mr Efe Igbinovia for the campaign organisation said it had received calls from many people seeking to understand the reason presiding officers, who participated in the election, were being called back by the INEC to its office to sign undisclosed documents.

He said “We are also told that some Presiding Officers are also moving in and out of Government House to sign these said documents. Fortunately, some of these persons have volunteered information about the documents that they were invited to sign and they have pledged to give evidence in court.

“We are determined to continue to fight for the people in order to reclaim the mandate freely

given to us by the good people of Edo State.

“Edo people came out to vote on Wednesday, September 28, 2016, and voted for justice, equity, fair taxation, industrialisation, freedom from dictatorial tendencies and economic recession, only for their votes to be upturned in the night.”

The organisation advised youth corps members who participated in the election to desist from such act of illegality as it was capable of landing them in jail, adding that “to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

He also called on the security agents to investigate the matter and bring the culprits to book, adding that it was unreasonable for someone to be signing for election documents days after its conduct.

Reacting to the allegations, state publicity secretary of the All Peoples Congress (APC), Comrade Godwin Erhahon, said: “If the PDP is sure of the allegation, I will expect them to have duplicate copies of whatever they have.

“At the end of the day, they are not going to call INEC to tender the results, having been given copies of the election results. We are not bothered about that.”

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politicsnews

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

2000 APC, PDP members defect to PDM in Niger Adelowo Oladipo - Minna

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ore than 2000 members of the Niger State chapters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have defected to the Peoples democratic Movement.

Among the defectors were former governorship aspirant and a caretaker chairman of Lapai local government area of the state.

At a reception in honour of the defectors in Minna, the state capital, the leadership of PDM assured them of an alternative platform to meeting the

yearning and aspiration of the people for good governance.

The party claimed that both APC and PDP had failed the people of the state, promising a better deal for the people and the state from PDM. Speaking to newsmen shortly after the brief cer-

emony, the acting publicity secretary of the party in the state, Malam Ibrahim Muddasir described the exercise as unprecedented in the political history of the state.

Muddasir, who said PDM in the state had put its leadership crisis that affected its fortune in the

past behind it, said the party would capitalise on the goodwill it current enjoyed to its advantage.

He promised that PDM would be fair to all members, including the new entrants, while urging them to join hand in the on-going effort to rebuild it for future elections.

Zamfara gov reconciles Shinkafi, Sani Muhammad Sabiu Kaduna Two former governors of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Sani and Alhaji Mahmuda Aliyu Shinkafi, may have settled their rivalry over political issues in the state.

Indications to this effect emerged at the 20th anniversary of the creation of the state, which attracted prominent indigenes of the state.

The duo fell apart immediately Shinkafi assumed office in 2007 and continued up till 2009, when he dumped the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) .

The supremacy contest became more pronounced during in 2011 when the anointed candidate of Senator Sani, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, defeated the then incumbent Shinkafi, to become the governor of the state.

It was gathered that Yarima and Shinkafi never met in public until the 20th anniversary organised by the current administration.

The two gladiators became the centre of attraction as they engaged in discussions, with Yarima stating that he had reconciled with Shinkafi after the 2011 election that brought Yari to power.

He confirmed that the anniversary brought him and Sani together since he left government in 2007 and lauded the effort of the present governor in organising such event, which he noted had reconciled many politicians who were not on talking terms before.

“I want the reconciliation move to continue even after this event,” Yarima stressed.

Also, in an interview, Shinkafi said that politics should not be seen to be dividing politicians.

President Muhammadu Buhari with the national chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, at the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday.

Group advises FG on criticisms Isaac Shobayo - Jos A pressure group in Plateau State, Compass, has advised the Federal Government not to ignore the constructive criticisms of well-meaning Nigerians on its policies and programmes.

The national chairman of the group, Dr Daniel Kokang, said the advice was based on the open letter of a former governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa to President Muhammadu Buhari, concerning some national issues.

He said it was an indication that some people within the corridors of power often made it difficult for well-meaning individuals, who wished to offer useful suggestions on national issues, to reach the president.

Kokang, who said his group was in support of the open letter in which the former governor urged the government to consider inclusive governance, said the approach would promote unity and reduce tension in the country.

He said: “Bafarawa’s placing advertorials in international, national and local publications to get Mr President’s attention is an indication of his personality

as a patriot. His efforts need applause and commendations, especially in a situation where most leaders are mute even when the nation is in recession.”

Kokang was concerned that the country was yet to occupy its rightful place in the comity of nations 56 years after independence, stating

that his group planned to organise workshops, conferences, seminars and symposia to discuss how countries like Brazil, India, Singapore, Honkong, Dubai (UAE) and others were able to move from grass to grace.

However, Kokang commended the government for discarding the idea of sale

of national assets, as there was known nation that sold its properties to get out of recession.

“The idea will be counterproductive; it will bring further hardship. Those muting the idea simply want to purchase national assets through the back door,” he alleged.

Ondo APC crisis receiving Buhari, others’ attention —Spokesperson Bola Badmus - Lagos The controversy trailing the emergence of a former president, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), as the governorship candidate of the Ondo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in next month’s poll in the state is already receiving the attention of the Presidency with a view to finding an amicable solution.

Sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Nigerian Tribune that President Muhammadu Buhari, APC top hierarchy and other stalwarts were collaborating to get the National Leader of APC,

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the aggrieved contestants to a round table towards resolving the impasse.

Tinubu, who is also former governor of Lagos State had, in a letter, faulted the primary election that produced Akeredolu, claiming it was rigged and that the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, waived aside the majority decision of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) which recommended nullification of primary.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the fresh move to seek President Buhari’s attention on the crisis followed unsuccessful efforts by emissaries sent to appease Tinubu on the issue.

However, the sources hope that with the intervention of Buhari, the crisis could soon be over so that the party could forge a united front ahead of the poll.

“The Presidency is already looking at the matter; the crisis will soon be resolved. I can assure you that the APC is still a united family in Ondo State with a large following,” the source said.

When contacted, the spokesperson of the Ondo chapter of APC, Abayomi Adesanya, confirmed that the crisis was already receiving the attention of President Buhari, and other main stakeholders in APC, saying APC remained a united family.

Anambra, Enugu Police commands with highest rights abuse record in Nigeria —NGO Jude Ossai - Enugu A non-governmental organisation, Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) based in France, has identified Anambra and Enugu state commands of the Nigerian Police Force as possessing the highest record of human rights abuse in Nigeria.

The NGO specialises in the defence of human rights and justice.

According to the body, out of 50 cases of torture and various human rights abuses in the Enugu Command of the Nigeria Police Force, 40 had to do with gunshot wounds.

It said such cases were perpetrated by officers and men of Special Anti Robbery Squad Unit (SARS), with Anambra State having the worst record.

Country Head, Avocats Sans Frontières, Angela Uwandu, made the allegation at a training workshop for judicial actors, CSOs, Security formations and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) with the theme: ‘Promoting the United Nations Convention Against Torture in Nigeria’.

She said the organisation was not in any way promoting or supporting criminals but its goal was for the due process stipulated by local laws, regional and international laws to be followed while officials carried out their duties.

She said the documentary report of the Amnesty International released recently about the activities of Anambra and Enugu state police SARS was alarming, even when torture was prohibited by law.

In his keynote address on the occasion, a former Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice Innocent Umezulike, said the theme of the workshop was apt, especially at this time in the nation when Nigerians were confronted daily in the courts and in the media with cases of torture.

Represented by Justice Ani, Umezulike said torture happened nearly everywhere, noting that the major reason it had persisted was the low report rate, as most people often failed to speak up when they saw acts of torture going on.

“We should be our brothers’ keepers and report acts of torture being committed in our neighbourhood, no matter who the perpetrator is,” he said.

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tribune cartoons

Adeeko Olusegun adeeko.olusegun@yahoo.com 0811 695 4638

GIANT IN THE TROPIC OF AFRICA

Professor Felicia Adetoun Ogunseye

FUNOLOGY

First female Professor in Nigeria

CHURCH BOY

• Born on Sunday, December 5, 1926 in Benin City, Edo State.

SEGELUULU

• In 1939, she got admitted to the prestigious Queen’s College, Yaba, Lagos. From there to Yaba Higher College, then to the University College, Ibadan where she studied from 1946 till 1948. At the University of Ibadan (where she was the first female student), she received the prize for the best female graduating student and got a scholarship to proceed to Cambridge.

• She became a Professor of Library in 1973 and was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Nigeria Book Fair Trust in 2012.

• Professor Adetoun Ogunseye will be 90 years old next December.

There are 10 differences in the cartoons below. the differences should be marked in b

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

A

B

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Femi Olukunle Coordinating Editor 08158610216,

FCTA, Indian investors explore investments in agric, waste management Christian Okeke - Abuja THE Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and investors from India have opened discussions on ways of making further investments in the areas of agriculture and waste management in Abuja.

The Indian investors were led by Mr Pradeep Kumar Gupta in a meeting held with the FCT Minister, Musa Bello.

At the meeting, the minister asked the investors to take advantage of the potentials in cashew in the territory and establish industries in Abuja that will turn the nuts into acceptable finished products for export.

He noted that apart from the comparative advantage which the country had in agriculture, the climate in Abuja remained friendly for growing of different cash crops.

The minister assured that the FCTA would support the investment with enabling environment in line with the policies of the Federal Government.

FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello (left) with the leader of Indian business delegation to Nigeria, Mr Pradeep Kumar Gupta, when members of the delegation visited the FCT minister in Abuja recently.

2,825 vehicles fail FCTA test A Christian Okeke - Abuja

total of 2, 825 vehicles, out of the 5, 034 tested for road worthiness in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in August, failed the test as the FCT administration is set to commence clamp-down on rickety vehicles in the territory.

The administration had fixed till end of September to commence the exercise and rid the territory of such vehicles.

Managing Director/CEO of Temple Resources Nigeria Limited which manages the computerised vehicle inspection centre for the FCT Directorate of Road Transport Services, Segun Obayando, confirmed this to the Nigerian Tribune and said that 1, 298 vehicles failed same test in July.

According to him, the inspection centres have been extremely busy since the commencement of mass awareness campaign ahead of the clamp-down operation.

He stated that the mass awareness campaign consisted of highly-trained multilingual personnel fluent in English, French, Hausa, Gbagi, Yoruba, Nupe and Igbo languages.

Obayando disclosed that the team toured the entire territory including motor parks, parastatals, ministries, schools, banks, hotels, agencies, hospitals, private and government institutions with the campaign message.

He disclosed that the current FCT minister, Musa Bello, gave approval for the computerised vehicles’ inspection which was established during the last administration

as a way to end road accidents in the territory.

He said, “One of the major tasks before us was the imperative to enlighten the

public and get them acquainted with the new safety innovation of vehicle inspection. “We decided to engage in mass publicity and awareness campaign to educate

the entire FCT residents on the legitimacy, legality, rudiments, rationale, justification and benefits of vehicle inspection as well as having a safe road.”

NEITI plans grassroots publicity for industry audit reports Ademola Adegbite THE Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) is to take further steps aimed at scaling up its public education and disseminating industry audit findings to the grassroots.

It argued that citizens at the grassroots needed to be provided with information on issues bordering on management of the country’s natural resources.

The agency noted that the step would enable the citizens to effectively demand accountability from the managers of the resources.

Economy: NEPZA to create more industrial parks Tyavzua Saanyol NIGERIA Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) is currently working to establish more industrial parks in the country with a view to stimulating economic growth.

It said the action was targeted to increase the percentage contribution of the manufacturing sector to the overall Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of the country from 9.75 per cent to 21 per cent.

Managing Director of the agency, Gbenga Kuye, confirmed this in Abuja at a workshop for journalists.

He stated that the industrial parks were expected to generate employment opportunities and boost the country’s revenue when completed.

“From the major events in the global

and regional arena coupled with the present economic situation in the country, it is evident that now is the time to start developing industrial setups and implementing policies that would support rapid diversification of the country’s revenue base,” he said.

According to him, four economic cities were currently under construction in the country and it included the Abuja Centenary City licensed in 2014 with focus on business and tourism activities at an estimated investment of $18 billion.

Others include the $38 billion Nigeria International Commerce City situated in Lagos, the $15 billion Ogidigben Gas Revolution Industrial Park (GRIP) in Delta State and the $2.8 billion Maritime Economic City (Badagry port), Lagos.

Executive Secretary of the agency, Mr Waziri Adio, has already led the NEITI team on a visit to the BBC Media Action in Abuja where he stated that the partnership would leverage on the two organisations’ strengths on resource governance.

In a statement signed by the acting Director, NEITI Communications, Mrs Obiageli Onuorah, Adio said: “When you dramatise the issues contained in the NEITI audit reports to educate the citizens of their role, the impact will be huge.”

He went further to say that the BBC Media Action had programmes that were very effective in creating the much-needed awareness and influencing high-level policy making.

Responding, Country Director of the BBC Media Action, Mr Seamus Gallagher, expressed optimism that the partnership would provide opportunities for the expected information dissemination.

He said: “Our mandates connect, but we can do more for our different organisations and for the country. We can help the media to communicate better with their audiences through capacity building while we reach the audiences and communicate with communities across Nigeria with our messages of transparency and accountability and ultimately help improve and bring about lasting changes in their lives.”

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CAC romances non-governmental organisation THE need to bridge the gap between The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) with the aim of understanding each other prompted the CAC and Nigeria Network of Non-Governmental Organizations (NNNGO) to organise a one day roundtable workshop in Lagos recently.

The Workshop with the theme; Achieving Global Best Practices in NGOs and Management, was coordinated by the Incorporated Trustees Department of the CAC to provide and ensure, prompt, efficient registration and supervisions of all Incorporated Trustees (NGOs). This equally brings to the fore the necessity to close up the knowledge gaps that exist among the network members in relation to the new registration and post registration processes.

In her opening remark, the Representative of the Registrar-General, Director, Incorporated Trustees, Hajia Saratu Shafii, said that NGOs actions should be conducted strictly in line with their aims and objectives as stated in their constitution submitted to the Commission.

She stated that in the course of discharging regulatory roles and responsibilities, the Commission realised that some NGOs were not operating in accordance with the international standard hence the desire to ensure that all NGOs function optimally in the national interest.

She further stated that in line with the Commission’s policy focus in the area of sensitisation and enlightenment, the decision to hold the workshop had become imperative and timely.

Paper presentations were made by various resource persons and stakeholders who noted that legendary roles needed to be played by the NGOs in assisting the government to attract development in various sectors of the economy. This stimulated constructive feedback and debate among participants.

Key among the resource person were the Executive Director, Nigeria Network of NGOs, Oluseyi Babatunde Oyebisi and Anthony Ubani, CEO, Africa Leadership Advance.

Dignitaries in attendance were the representative of the Director, Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering, Mathew Enu and the CEO, BVS Professional Service, Yemi Abaola-John.

More than 300 NGOs were in the workshop. Asides from gaining from the workshop, the occasion enabled networking which is the soul of NGOs globally.

Hajia Saratu Shafii, Director, Incorporated Trustees, Corporate Affairs Commission, (third left), flanked by other speakers at the roundtable workshop, organised by CAC in conjunction with NNNGO recently.

Ministry facilitates intellectual property protection for investors Ademola Adegbite

T

HE Federal Ministry of Science and Technology has taken the lead in ensuring that intellectual properties of investors in the country were protected.

It said such action would ensure that the investors made more money and also boost the country’s economy.

Speaking when he presented patent certificates to some inventors in Abuja, Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnya Onu, noted that dependence on other countries would reduce if enough energy was invested in science and technology.

“We want to make sure that our inventors protect their intellectual property so that they can make money out of it and this will make more people to go for invention,” he said.

The minister stated further: ”We want to see Nigerian inventor to be wealthy. If Bill Gate can be the richest man in the world through invention, then we need people like Bill Gate in Nigeria.

“The missing link in our developmental aspiration is science and technology. If we put enough energy in science and technology, we would not depend on other

NCAC to turn national festivals into contributor to GDP —DG Christian Okeke - Abuja THE Director General of National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Mrs Dayo Keshi, has said the agency is currently working to turn national festivals into major revenue earner for the country.

Speaking on the annual National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) which is ongoing at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Keshi, said the festival would be used to brainstorm on how to make indigenous cultures and heritages have multiplier effect on income generation at the grassroots.

She stated that the council was already

working in line with Federal Government’s initiative of raising revenue through nonoil sources.

Also speaking, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed that the government was collaborating with local and international partners to enhance the capacity of festival managers through training as part of the deliberate effort to turn festivals into revenue earners.

According to him, festivals around the world were already moving from just being a forum to showcase arts and culture to becoming a tool for economic growth.

countries; if we meet our needs locally, we would strengthen our economy and our nation.

“We have so many of our research findings that should go into the market as quickly as possible. For example, the High Density Nutrient Biscuit (HDNB) produced by NASCO has been taken to East Africa and we are also in the process of getting a patent for that.

“We have nutrition that we are using

for those who are malnourished and for things like these, we don’t need to get patent before we commercialize them; we also have nutrition for those who have sickle cell anaemia,” he said.

Earlier, the Director General of National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr Danlami Ibrahim, warned that investors would shun investments if innovation was not protected.

SMEDAN, GIZ partner on jobs creation Collins Nnabuife THE Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) is to partner GIZ (a German Government Initiative) to create over a million jobs annually through the national Economic Advocacy for Growth of Local Enterprise (EAGLE).

The jobs are expected to cover the entire 774 local governments in the country and will be focused on micro, small and medium enterprises.

Director General of SMEDAN, Umaru Radda, stated this during EAGLE’s summit in Abuja.

The DG, who was represented by Wale Fasanya, described the initiative as huge and ambitious.

He, however, stated that it was achievable with the right support and buy-in of all stakeholders.

“It is our belief that if this programme is replicated in all states of the federation, it will salvage the overwhelming unemployment situation as well as address youth restiveness and other social vices currently faced by this country,” he said.

He described MSMEs as the engine of growth for economic development, observing that they contributed greatly to employment generation, utilisation of local resources as well as provision of platform for rapid industrialisation and rural revitalisation.

He said: “Following the recent collaborative survey between SMEDAN and

the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), it was revealed that of the over 37 million MSMEs, micro enterprises form the bulk with about 96.4 per cent. This clearly shows that the number of the micro enterprise is huge and should be nurtured accordingly.

“In order to create jobs and wealth that would facilitate self reliance and poverty alleviation, all hands must be on deck through a more coordinated approach at the federal, state and local government levels.

“SMEDAN would be very much favourably disposed towards collaborating with GIZ and lending the necessary support to ensure that the programme realises its objectives and becomes sustainable.

“The Agency is very much prepared and willing to sit down with representatives of the BDCN to work out a sustainable framework for the activities of the BDCN and its extension into other states of the federation.

“As a way forward therefore, the agency would immediately put all necessary mechanisms in place in order to secure the buy-in of all relevant stakeholders as well as sensitise and create awareness for the programme in all the 774 local government areas of the federation.

“Apart from this, the agency would also facilitate peer review meeting of the three pilot states in order to consolidate on the programme, facilitate the necessary network and to share experiences.”

businessnews CBN disbursed over N467 billion on intervention projects —Emefiele Says roadmap to increase lending, investment currently developing 29

Ademolas AdegbiteAbuja

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HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday announced that about N467.92 billion has been disbursed to various projects under its development fiancé intervention scheme between 2009 and 2016.

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, made this announcement while delivering his goodwill message at the ongoing two-day international conference on “Environment Dialogue 1: Diversification of EconomyThe role of Jatropha,” a programme being organised by the Federal Ministry of Environment, held at the NAF conference centre, Abuja.

He stressed that the banking industry was currently developing a roadmap to increase lending and investment in renewable energy

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

and energy efficiency in line with the global momentum on climate finance.

Mr Emefiele, whose message was delivered by Dr. Aisha Mahmud, said the CBN, as a major stakeholder in the financing value chain has a number of development finance interventions which producers, processors and other significant players in the jatropha value chain could access so as to realize the desired objectives.

The interventions, according to him, include Commercial Agriculture Credit

Scheme (CACS), Micro Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund (MSMEDF), as well as Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) and Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF).

The CBN boss explained that CACS which was established in 2009 to address the financing challenges of the entire agriculture value chain (production, processing, storage and marketing/ distribution) has provided finance to large scale commercial farmers at single digit interest rate, with a total of N366.39 billion dis-

bursed to 465 projects since inception to June 2016.

“MSMEDF was established in 2013 to cater for the financing needs of the micro to medium enterprises. The objectives include provision of cheap wholesale funds, deepening access to finance, job creation and grassroots economic development. It targets various subsectors including agricultural value chain activities and cottage industries. As at June 2016, a total of N81.13 billion was disbursed to 315 projects.

“ABP is a CBN policy initiatives aimed at reduction

of agricultural imports, diversification of the economy and creation of jobs. It provides small holder farmers (out-growers) with credit facilities at single digit interest rates and at the same time links them up with anchors (up-takers) of their produce to mitigate their risks.

“Although, originally launched for rice farmers, it is being extended to other agricultural commodities.

The sum of N15.8 billion has been disbursed as at June 2016,” he added.

On RSSF, the CBN governor said about N4.6 billion

Nigerian Tribune

has been disbursed to two projects since its establishment in 2014, adding that the scheme was aimed at closing the short term/high interest financing gap of the SME/real sector.

According to him, it focuses on projects with high growth potentials, high employment capabilities, capacity to extend the industrial base and consequently diversify the economy.

He, therefore, declared that the interventions were loans and not grant, which must be repaid as at when due to ensure their sustainability.

In her keynote address, the Minister of Environment, Hajia Amina Mohammad said there were about 175 species under the genius jatropha but jatropha curcas (L) appears to be the most popular because of its environmental and economic values.

Heritage Bank set for N3bn CBN-YIEDP loan disbursement

Stock Market investors opens Q3 with loss of N20.5bn

Chima Nwokoji-Lagos

Kehinde AkinseindeJayeoba -Lagos

Heritage Bank Plc, Nigeria’s most innovative banking services provider, has concluded arrangement for a pre-disbursement of loan to beneficiaries of Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN)­ , Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP)­­.

The CBN-YIEDP fund is a N3 billion fund set aside by the apex bank for serving NYSC members and ex-NYSC members who have concluded their service since 2010.

An individual beneficiary can have access to N3 million. It has a tenure of three years at an interest rate of nine percent.

In recognition of Heritage Bank’s commitment to Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) and Youth development, the bank has been adopted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as the sole pilot bank for the Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP).

A statement made available by the Divisional Head, Corporate Communications of the bank, Olusola Longe-Okenimkpe, explained, “In a bid to get the scheme off ground, Heritage Bank has organised a pre-disbursement training programme for select members of its staff across the country that will implement the scheme. The workshop was held simultaneously in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja recently.

Managing Director/CEO, Skye Bank Plc, Tokunbo Abiru (middle) flanked by a customer of the Bank, Alhaja Sekinat Bamiro and Taofik Aminu, Business Manager, Skye Bank, Alausa, Lagos branch during the 2016 Customer Service Week.

AfDB will support Nigeria but needs to fix FX reforms —Adesina The African Development Bank will help Nigeria to overcome its recession,but Nigeria should increase taxes and lift hard currency curbs to ease the dollar shortages choking the economy, its President said.

The bank’s boss, Akinwumi Adesina, said in an interview late on Monday in London, that “Nigeria is too big to fail.

“The African Development Bank (AfDB) will rally strongly around Nigeria to overcome its recession.

“They (Nigeria) have a liquidity problem. We (AfDB) want to make sure Nigeria gets resilient,” said Adesina, a former Nigerian agriculture minister.

But the government should also lift hard currency curbs imposed by the central bank, Adesina said.

“In our view it would be better to have gradual (customs) tariffs as opposed to (Forex) restrictions,” he said, adding that such a move would end the pressure on the naira.

“Attracting investment was the only way for the

central bank to lower its interest rates. The interest rate is way too high.

“You cannot drag the economy out of recession with those interest rates,” Adesina said.

He said Nigeria had agreed on several reforms such as increasing its val-

ue-added and corporation taxes to offset a loss of oil revenues.

He added that the tax-toGDP ratio was four to five per cent, less than other countries in the region at around 15 per cent.

Nigeria has been hampered after a plunge in oil

revenues, which makes up 70 per cent of national income and currency reserves needed to fund imports.

In September, the central bank left its benchmark rate at 14 per cent, resisting calls to lower borrowing costs to attract investment.

Recession not deterrent to UK businesses in Nigeria International Trade Adviser at the United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Trade, Mr Carl Woolf on Tuesday said that London companies would not be discouraged by Nigeria’s current economic recession.

Woolf told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of a ‘Market to Nigeria’ trade mission to Lagos that London companies would continue do business in Nigeria.

“London companies will continue to see Nigeria as a country with 180 million population with future huge opportunities.

“Economic recession or not, London companies strongly believe in the huge

investment opportunities in this country, Nigeria.

“It is even better for us to be here during this current Nigeria’s economic recession for us to really know what the future holds for our companies here,” he said.

Woolf, who led a mission of London companies to Lagos, said that the companies were visiting Nigeria to establish long-term business relations with Nigeria.

He said that the mission was being part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to enhance the competitiveness of London SMEs in international markets.

The UK International Trade Adviser said that the companies were interested

and would be providing a wide range of products, services and expertise to Nigeria’s energy, infrastructure, agriculture and education sectors.

Woolf, however, said that it was imperative for Nigeria to examine her recent World Bank’s low ranking in Easeof- Doing Business.

The UK government official said that if Nigeria’s Ease-of-Doing Business was favourable, more British and other foreign companies would increase their investments in Nigeria.

He also said that it was important for the British and Nigerian governments to look at the possibility of making their bilateral relations mutually favourable.

The Nigerian Equities market resumed the first trading day of the last quarter (Q3) on a negative note as lead key indicator the NSE All-Share Index depreciated 0.20 percent to close at 28,277.93 basis points increasing year to date losses by 1.27 per cent.

Consequently, investors on the Nigerian equities market lost N20.5 billion as market capitalization closed at N9.712 trillion from its opening figure of N9.733 trillion.

Investor sentiment turned negative as market breadth closed with 11 gainers to 16 losers. Nestle Nigeria Plc led the list of declining stocks as it fell by N10 to close at N815 per share, Nigerian Breweries Plc followed with a decline of N4.15 to close at N145.85 per share.

Flourmills Nigeria Plc dropped by 82 kobo to close at N21.1 per share, while E-Tranzact Plc decreased by 29 kobo to close at N5.69 per share and UBA Plc recorded a depreciation of 19 kobo to close at N4.01 per share.

On the other hand Guaranty Trust Bank Plc led the day’s gainers with an appreciation of 99 kobo to close at N24.99 per share.

This was followed by Zenith Bank that added 36 kobo to close at N15.57 per share.

Champion Breweries grew by 14 kobo to close at N2.65 per share, as Oando Plc improved by 7 kobo to close at N5.47 per share.

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FG floats N25bn loan scheme for mass transit sector

T

he Federal Government has set up N25 billion revolving loan scheme for transport companies in the country to access funds for purchase of mass transit vehicles.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Okechukwu Enelamah, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday at the opening of a two-day national workshop for chief executives of mass transit companies.

Enelamah said that the initiative was aimed at boosting the country’s mass transit system as well as encouraging local patronage of local vehicle assembly plants.

He explained that the loan would be administered through the Infrastructure Bank at zero per cent interest rate.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop is organised by the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute for Transport Technology (NITT), Zaria.

The theme of the workshop is “Nigeria Automotive Policy: A National Agenda for Sustainable Mass Transit Operation Development.’’

“Government is determined to develop the automotive industry because of its extensive linkages, impact on job creation, technology transfer as well as foreign exchange savings and earnings.

“The response by investors has been encouraging and we have brought back vehicle assembly and are now focussing on local content development.

“Many of the new assembly plants produce buses and mini-buses. I hereby call on all Nigerians to patronise the products of these assembly plants,’’ he said.

Enelamah urged the workshop participants to come up with innovative solutions for the development of an efficient and affordable mass transportation system in the country.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, stated that the mass transit sector was one of the major engines driving the nation’s socio-economic and cultural development.

He, however, said that in spite of this, the sector was facing huge challenges, including low operational capacity, broken down vehicles, obsolete facilities and poor maintenance culture.

The minister said that a vibrant local automotive industry would significantly address those challenges while at the same time depending on the mass transit sector for patronage.

“This workshop is, there-

fore, organised to appraise the mass transit perspective of the Nigeria Automotive Policy.

“It is a platform for stakeholders to meet and ex-

change ideas on the effective implementation of the policy and make recommendations for realising a sustainable mass transport agenda for Nigeria.

“The dynamic leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari is poised to address the challenges facing the transport sector. The Federal Government is willing to

invest heavily in this sector.

“We are already seeing practical efforts in that regard, especially with the rail transportation system,’’ he said.

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism , Alhaji Lai Mohammed (left) and Chairman Heirs Holdings and Founder, The Tony Elumelu Foundation(TEF), Mr. Tony Elumelu, at the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between the Nigerian Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and the Tony Elumelu Foundation to develop a framework in support of the Nigerian creative industry, which was held at the National Arts Theater, Lagos on Tuesday.

Our top priority is to end extreme poverty by 2030 —World Bank World Bank’s Group President Jim Kim said the bank was determined to boost shared prosperity to end extreme poverty by 2030.

Kim said this at the Brooking Institutions on the eve of the World Bank/IMF Annual meeting in Washington DC on Tuesday. The Theme of the conference is “We can end poverty together.’’

Kim said a new World Bank survey showed how income inequality among peoples had decreased, and inequality within nations had fallen in many countries, both rich and poor.

“Today’s report identifies strategies to address inequality that even the poorest nations can adopt whether through conditional cash transfers, connecting farmers to markets or rural electrification.

“The lesson is that inequality is not an unsolvable mystery. Pro-equality policies are not luxury goods and can work in any country.

“Ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity is our bottom line.

We will achieve these goals in three ways: firstly, accelerating inclusive and sustainable economic growth, investing in human capital, and by fostering resilience to global shocks and threats.’’

Kim said to end poverty, massive infrastructure and no matter how much money the bank and other international organisations were investing would never be enough to bridging that gap.

He said that in recent years, the demand for infrastructure investment had far outstripped available re-

sources.

He said that according to a World Bank survey, about 1.2 billion people in the world do not have electricity.

“At least 660 million people lack access to safe drinking water; about one billion people in low-income countries lack access to an allweather road.

“While more than three billion people now have access to the internet, still, more than four billion peo-

ple do not have access.

“It is estimated that emerging markets and low-income countries face an annual gap of up to $1.5 trillion dollars a year in infrastructure finance,” he said.

Kim said to address this and substantially boost global economic growth, the bank would create opportunities for public private partnerships in emerging markets.

News Agency of Ni-

geria (NAN) reports that about 3000 delegates from member countries and aspiring member countries are expected to attend the meeting which would take place from Oct 7 to 9.

NAN also reports that a high powered delegation from Nigeria, led by Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele and stakeholders would attend the meeting.

Naira drops to N476 to dollar at parallel market Chima Nwokoji - Lagos THE Nigerian Naira on Tuesday, October 4, dropped one point at the parallel market to trade at N476/$1 as against the N475/$1 rate it was on Monday. It also exchanged at N585 at the same unofficial market.

This is just as experts have said the depreciation of the British Pounds against the US dollar means that the potion of Nigeria’s reserves denominated in the Sterling will also depreciate in value.

The local currency at the interbank market closed at N320.312 to the dollar as against Friday’s close of N311.62 to the greenback.

According to traders, the dollar liquidity remains a major challenge in the market, but the rate looks to be stabilizing following the introduction of Travelex, a licensed forex dealer.

It would be recalled that the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria had last week, predicted the

naira would recover due to the introduction of Travelex, a licensed forex dealer.

According to Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, Travelex has the technology to sell forex to about 1,000 BDCs in a couple of hours, which is a major advantage.

Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that the nation’s over £500 million in foreign reserves may have moderately depreciated in value by about 12.3 percent.

However, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) could not specifically confirm depreciation of the country’s foreign reserve due to drop in value of the British Pounds (BPS).

When contacted on telephone, CBN acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okoroafor, said the portion of the reserve held in BPS is very negligible, and would not affect the country’s reserves in any significant way.

Nigerian Tribune

Ebonyi governor hails CBN for helping states pay salaries Chima Nwokoji-Lagos The Governor of Ebonyi State, Mr Dave Umahi has commended the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) as the bank to the Federal Government, for rising to the occasion when there was need to help states pay up workers’ salaries.

The governor said Agriculture that is driven by technology is what will save Nigeria from its present economic challenges; stressing that he will soon start constructing the Chinese-style of irrigation system for rice farming in Ebonyi State.

He also applauded the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele for his prudent management of the nation’s economy.

Governor Umahi gave the commendation in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State recently at the gala night of the Finance Correspondents and Business Editors seminar that held in the state.

Passing a vote of confidence on the CBN Governor, the Ebonyi State Chief Executive said CBN was doing quite a lot as many states in the country would not have been able to pay salaries without the intervention of the Apex Bank.

“We urged naysayers to desist from playing politics with national issues saying that the nation needs patriotic and God fearing People to succeed,” he said.

Mr Umahi also commended CBN on the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) and Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).

The Governor said the Country will not need to import Rice anymore as the Apex Bank twin programme is helping Ebonyi to improve and enlarge its Rice production.

He explained that the state is evolving an agricultural scheme called one man, one hectare so as to attain food security for the State and country.

Nigeria in top 10 Africa’s sustainable economies Nigeria is one of 10 countries in Africa that have improved across all four sub-categories of Sustainable Economic Opportunity category, the 2016 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) has revealed.

The index, which was launched by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation in Abuja, also ranked Nigeria 36th out of 54 countries in “Overall Governance’’ with a score of 46.5 points from

100, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The index, the 10th edition, is the most comprehensive analysis of African governance undertaken to date, and has brought together data to assess each of Africa’s 54 countries against 95 indicators drawn from 34 independent sources.

It indicated that the country’s score had improved by +2.5 points over

the last 10 years.

The statistics, however, showed that Nigeria had the second most deteriorated score in the “National Security’’ sub-category, having declined by -28.6 points over the course of the decade.

It revealed that improvement in overall governance in Africa over the period had been held back by widespread deterioration in “Safety and Rule of Law’’ category.

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Nigerian Tribune

Fayose commends FG, Tinubu over call for reintroduction of History in school curriculum Sam Nwaoko - Ado Ekiti

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KITI State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has commended the Federal Government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, for aligning with his position on the need to reintroduce

History in the school curriculum.

Governor Fayose, had early September, directed that History be reintroduced in schools in Ekiti State, noting that; “Ekiti people must learn from past events to have a better future.”

Last week Thursday, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu,

while declaring open the ministerial session of the 61st National Council on Education (NCE), in Abuja, called for disarticulation of Social Studies and reintroduction of History as a subject in the current Basic Education curriculum, adding that there was the urgent need to give the Nigerian children character.

Also yesterday, Tinubu made a strong case for the return of History as a subject in the country’s school curriculum, saying any nation which forgets its past has lost a beacon to guide its actions.

He said this in a short remark after reviewing the book, entitled: Muhammadu Buhari: The challenges

of leadership in Nigeria, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

In his reaction, Governor Fayose, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said he was happy that those holding power in Abuja listened to what he said on September 2, 2016 on the need to reintroduce History in schools.

He described the removal of History as a subject from the current education curriculum as a mistake that should be corrected without further delay.

“I have consistently maintained that democracy is about those in power listening to the people because the power of the people is greater than the power of those in power and I am glad that on this one, they listened.

“The reality we must all face is that no society can progress without reference

to its pasts, and one of the reasons our value system has been so bastardised is that we no longer talk about our past. We no longer tell our children what our past leaders did either wrongly or rightly.”

Speaking further, Governor Fayose said; “When we were growing up, we were made to read about great leaders of our nation like Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Aminu Kano, King Jaja of Opobo and so on. We read what made them great and that shaped our lives.”

While admonishing those holding power at the federal level to listen more to the opposition, Governor Fayose said; “When we speak, the impression should not always be that we hate President Mohammadu Buhari and his government. Rather, it should be about how beneficial is what we say to the country.”

World Teachers’ Day: Oyo teachers observe day off

By Wale Akinselure

From left, wife of Ekiti State governor, Mrs Feyisetan Fayose; newly wedded couple, Mr and Mrs Segun Thomas and the wife of the Deputy Governor, Deaconess Janet Olusola, during the wedding, held at All Saints Church, Jericho, Ibadan, on Saturday.

Stakeholders must collaborate to ensure success of Oyo education initiative —Group

By Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare A socio-cultural group, Oyo Development Initiative, has reemphasised the need for collaborative efforts of stakeholders to save the education sector in the state from further degenerating.

The organisation, while addressing a press conference after its monthly meeting in Ibadan, at the weekend, said that efforts of the Governor Abiola Ajimobi-led administration to overhaul the sector should be commended.

It said that “the Education Reform Committee’s report, which vindicated the governor, has shown the endemic rot in our educational system in the state.”

The coordinator of the group, Dr Adesola Okanlawon, said “Education needs restructuring in the state and all stakeholders must have inputs into the process. We should stop deceiving ourselves about the government doing it alone.

The rot is overwhelming and we all need to support the government.

“We believe there must be support from groups, individuals, PTAs and corporate organisations towards restoring the lost glory of education in the state. We

are the pacesetter and we must set the pace again.

“We appeal to genuine lovers and supporters of education not to relent and seek for the understanding of all and sundry to ensure that we improve the standard of education in Oyo

State. We urge the government to have a structure and create the enabling environment for stakeholders to offer useful support,” Okanlawon added.

Dr Okanlawon stressed that the reduction in subvention to tertiary institu-

tions was inevitable due to the economic situation of the country, saying that the management of tertiary institutions should think out of the box and diversify to meet up with their expenditure while not creating hardship for the people.

Amosun to commission N50m Alaye Ode-Remo palace

By Tunde Ogunesan OGUN State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, will, on Thursday, October 20 commission an ultramodern N50 million Alaye Ode-Remo palace.

This was disclosed by the coordinator of the project, Dr Kola Oyefeso, while addressing journalists at the press briefing to herald programmes for the commissioning ceremony, at the 400-seater hall of the new palace.

Dr Oyefeso said the idea of the new palace was mooted by the traditional ruler of Alaye Ode-Remo, Oba Amidu Adetunji Osho, who ascended the throne in 2009.

The new palace is situated on a three and half acres of land, with the first phase ready for commissioning.

“We thank God for making our Kabiyesi, Oba Amidu Adetunji Osho, to dream this big dream of a palace for Ode-Remo. It is novel in our town’s development,” Oyefeso said.

The Chairman, Alaye Ode Palace Project Committee and former Commissioner for Finance and Industry, Prince Tola Sotunwa, promised that the rich historical culture of OdeRemo would be showcased during the celebration.

The Alaye Ode, OdeRemo, Oba Amidu Adetunji Osho, thanked all indigenes of Ode-Remo for their contributions in making his dream of having a befitting palace a reality.

Members of various committees on the building and commissioning of the palace that attended the

press briefing included Prince Afolabi Adeyemi, Chief Femi Ogunfowora, Lisa of Ode-Remo, Chief Kola Olubodun, Prince Tola Sotunwa and Mr Kola Ademola-Osinuga.

COMMEMORATING this year’s World Teachers’ Day, the Oyo State government has declared today workfree for teachers in the state.

This declaration was conveyed in a statement by the state Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Professor Adeniyi Olowofela, on Tuesday.

The World Teachers’ Day is an annual event celebrated globally by teachers and teachers’ organisation in commemoration of ILO/ UNESCO declaration and recommendation of 1966 on the status and the noble profession of teaching as the world most important profession in terms of principle, ethics and practice.

While felicitating with teachers in the state on the celebration, Olowofela restated the commitment of the state government to repositioning the education sector.

“Teachers are integral part of national development as they passionately mould the lives of future leaders. We urge them not to relent in their calling to reposition the education sector and collaborate with the state government towards ensuring the success of the education reform initiative in view of the current national economic challenges,” he said.

In the same light, the state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) felicitated with its members, while calling on stakeholders in the education sector to be resolute in promoting conducive learning environment and greater productivity of teachers.

The NUT, in the statement signed by its Secretary, Mr Waheed Olojede, enjoined teachers to rededicate themselves to their duties, especially with greater sense of responsibility.

Oyo judiciary prepared for ACJA 2015 —CJ Calls for appointment of more magistrates

By Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare THE Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Muntar Abimbola, has stated that the state judiciary is prepared for the successful application of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 once adopted by the state.

Abimbola also noted that efforts are ongoing, as the new legal year starts, to decongest prisons across the state Justice Abimbola made

these statements on Monday while receiving the new Comptroller of Prisons for Oyo State, Alhaji Kasali Oladipo Yussuf, at the board room of the High Court, Ring Road, Ibadan.

He said that “It is a sad development that the prisons are congested with awaiting trial inmates,” emphasising the need for appointments of more magistrates in the state.

“It touches my heart when I hear the statistics

of awaiting trial inmates in our prisons. Immediately the legal year commences, certain operations will be put in place to decongest the prisons especially for simple offences. We will put in place a special court that will visit the prisons to hear minor offences.

“We are already working on the ACJA 2015 to be domesticated. The bill is before the legislature and we are waiting for it to be passed into law,” he said.

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Nigerian Tribune

Mimiko appeals to police over Ondo election

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HEAD of the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State, the state governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has appealed to the police authorities to provide unbiased and fair policing to the

electorate.

Governor Mimiko made the appeal while playing host to the new Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 11, Mr Dan Bature, in his office, in Akure, on Tuesday.

According to Mimiko, his

administration had invested heavily in the security of lives and property in the last seven and a half years, adding that the various infrastructural development of his government was as a result of the prevailing peace in the state.

He noted that the only way to guarantee free, fair and credible gubernatorial election is for the police to maintain neutrality and be unbiased in performing professional duties.

He explained that the previous elections conducted

by the National Union of Roads Transport Workers (NURTW) and other unions under his administration had been peaceful and fair contrary to the usual rancour and mayhem that characterised such elections.

He, however, lauded the various security agencies in the state for their synergy and pro-activeness in ensuring maximum security.

He said: “I want to appeal to you in the name of God Almighty to give adequate, fair and unbiased policing. If you do it, you will be happy about the outcome.

We don’t want bloodshed in our state and the only way to guarantee this is for the people to vote. One man and one vote. Let the votes count and let the winner

carry the day.

“There should be no snatching of ballot boxes.

From the report we got from the recent Edo election, we don’t want it to happen here because we know the natural reaction of our people. We want you to please save lives by ensuring free and fair policing during our election in November.”

Earlier in his speech, AIG Dan Bature thanked the governor for his supports to the police in the state and assured him of adequate security of lives before, during and after the gubernatorial election.

He noted that his visit to Ondo State was to assess the performance of officers and men of the force and see their affairs.

105 persons electrocuted in 9 months —IBEDC Oluwole Ige - Osogbo

The Deji of Akure, Oba Ogunlade Aladelusi Aladetoyinbo and the AIG Zone II, Dan Bature, when the latter paid the monarch a visit in his palace, on Tuesday.

More security operatives will be drafted to Ondo —Bature Hakeem Gbadamosi – Akure

AHEAD of the governorship election in Ondo State, the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 11, Dan Bature, on Tuesday, assured that there would be more security operatives on ground to ensure the success of the November governorship election in the state.

Bature stated this during an interactive session with officers and men of the Ondo State Police Command during an official visit to the command headquarters in Akure, Bature, who stressed the need for his men to brace up for the challenges ahead, assured that his men would put in place all measures to ensure that the election is rancour free.

He called on politicians and political parties to conduct themselves during electioneering campaigns and after the election.

Commenting on the last governorship election in Edo State, Bature said the election was devoid of any electoral malpractice as against rumours being peddled, saying that “the election was free and fair and the winner emerged at the end of the day.”

He assured that the police would ensure that peace reign during the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State just as they did in Edo State.

He also called on his men to key into the anti-corrup-

tion campaign of the present administration, just as he stressed the need for police officers to expose corrupt persons in their environments.

Bature disclosed that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Ibrahim Idris, had concluded arrangements to sanction any officer involved in corrupt acts.

The police boss explained

that the authorities have banned road blocks across the 36 states of the country and threatened to sanction any officer involved in such illegal act, stressing the need for officers to be disciplined and law-abiding at all times.

Bature said “hoodlums do not have respect for us as police officers. In fact, they have shifted attention to

police stations, hence the need for us to improve the security of all our stations and commands across the country.”

He noted that the attack on police posts in the recent time was unusual, and therefore called for improved security in the police posts, even as he tasked officers to be more security conscious.

NO fewer than 105 persons have lost their lives through electrocution nationwide in the last 9 months, authorities of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBDEC) have disclosed.

Similarly, during the period under review, over 65 sustained severe injuries as a result of electricity mishaps.

These disclosures were made on Tuesday by Health, Safety and Environment Officer of IBEDC, Mr John Segun Samuel, at a community engagement forum organised by Osun region of the electricity provider company.

Ondo SDP candidate promises to give priority to workers’ salary, welfare Hakeem Gbadamosi – Akure

THE candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State, Dr Olu Agunloye, on Wednesday, described the non-payment of salaries in the state “as criminal and sinful.”

Agunloye, who stated this while speaking with journalists in Akure, the state capital, pledged to give priority to workers’ welfare and salaries, if elected governor of the state.

According to the SDP candidate, workers should be treated with dignity by every government and said his government would device appropriate economic plans to address the economic challenges facing the state.

Agunloye said “It is sinful and criminal to have workers work and you don’t pay them.

“If you find them doing another thing, you can ter-

minate their appointments.

But now that they have put all their lives in their jobs, you are not paying them. .”Our programmes are both short and medium term. Once we get there, we will start to do debt management so that we can start paying monies owed.”

The aspirant said “in looking for solutions, we are coming up with an economic plan that is simple, correct, appropriate and doable.

Speaking on the chances of the SDP in the November 26 governorship election, Agunloye pointed out that the crisis within the camps of the ruling political party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) would be an added advantage for the SDP in the election.

He noted that the two political parties had failed the people of the country and the state and said

“the popularity of either of the parties had not led the state to anywhere. There is no difference between APC and PDP. The way they blame each other is the same.

“What are they going to do new now, having caused these problems? The reserves have been spent, even at the federal level, the ruling party is having fiscal measures that are in conflict with the monetary measures,” he said.

Oyo Assembly wants police to control indiscriminate sale of knives, cutlasses THE Oyo State House of Assembly has urged the police and other relevant government agencies to put in place measures to stop the hawking of knives and cutlasses at motor parks and unauthorised places.

The call followed a motion by the Minority Leader, Mr Joshua Ojo (Orire/LP) and seconded by the Majority Leader, Mr Kehinde Subair, during plenary on Tuesday.

The motion, entitled “Need to urgently stop the hawking of cutlasses in open locations such as motor parks and roadside”, received a lot of contributions which were deliberated amid series of contrary views from a large percentage of the house.

While explaining the motion, Ojo said that cutlass was being used by violent individuals in addition to

guns and daggers to perpetrate atrocities in the society.

He added that cutlasses were wielded as weapon of choice by cultists and touts.

He explained that “several havocs and dastardly acts have been committed with the use of dangerous weapons, including cutlasses which we learnt are used to even kill people when guns proof ineffective.”

He attributed the increase in the number of casualties to nonchalant attitude to basic safety measures by people, stressing that despite aggressive campaign against the act, many people were still in the habit of citing their businesses under high tension or near electrical installations.

According to Samuel, “these worrisome developments have led to the unnecessary loss of lives and property and subsequently, we have warned that the company would henceforth wield big stick against anyone caught contravening safety measures guiding movement near electrical installations.”

Earlier in her remarks, Osun Region Branding and Communication Officer of the IBEDC, Kikelomo Owoeye, said the meeting was convened to deliberate on the challenges militating against steady power supply.

She lamented that the challenge of energy theft had hampered efforts by the company to improve electricity infrastructure, just as she advised community leaders to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in exposing individuals perpetrating the acts.

Osogbo Business Hub Commercial Manager of the company, Mr Dele Falade, said power supply to the state would improve when people begin to pay commensurate amount for the energy supplied to them.

While assuring their consumers of better services and quicker response to distress calls, they demanded cooperation of community leaders to fish out economic saboteurs stealing energy and electrical installations across the region.

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Rice importers up in arms against Nigerian economy •Says Nigeria can survive without imported rice —Customs boss Saliu Gbadamosi-Abuja

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HE ComptrollerGeneral of Customs, Colonel Ahmed Ibrahim Ali (retd), on Tuesday, raised the alarm that importers of rice through the country’s borders are up in arms against the Nigerian economy, declaring that Nigeria can do without importation of rice.

This is even as he disclosed that a total of 117,034 (50kg) bags of rice were seized in the first three quarters of 2016 at a duty paid value of N774.282,300.

Addressing a joint press briefing with the Acting Director-General of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mrs Yetunde Oni and the Chairman, Presidential Committee on Trade Malpractice, Alhaji Dahiru Ado Kurawa, on illegal rice importation to the country, Colonel Ali

stated that since the reintroduction of ban on importation of rice through the land borders in April, the importers were yet to cease their war against the economy.

He stated that the reintroduction of the ban was informed by the high level of non-compliance by rice importers who resorted to smuggling, adding that

till date, the Customs was being inundated with periodic intelligence about ship loads of parboiled rice being offloaded in neighbouring Benin Republic.

“In April 2016, the Nigeria Customs Service reintroduced the ban on the importation of rice through the land borders.

The reversal of theodicy introduced in October 2015

was informed by the high level of non compliance by rice importers who resorted to large scale smuggling of the product.

“Five down the line, it has become imperative to raise the alarm that importers of rice through the borders are still up in arms against the economy,” the Customs boss stated.

He added that despite

the fact that Beninoise do not eat parboiled rice, the product was being offloaded regularly in Port of Cotonou, ultimately destined for Nigeria by smuggling through the country’s land borders.

On her part, the Acting NAFDAC Director-General, Mrs Oni, noted that smuggled rice through land borders were unregistered and largely substandard, adding

Multi-million naira Sunti Farm submerged by flood in Niger Adelowo Oladipo-Minna

SUNTI Farm, a multi-million naira subsidiary of Nigeria Flour Mills Plc, situated in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State, has been submerged by flood.

The land mass of the farms, which is estimated at about 900 hectares in size and consisting of rice and sugarcane plantations, was said to have been submerged by flood after a heavy rainfall on Monday, September 26, 2016.

The Director General, Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), Mallam Mohammed Ibrahim Inga, confirmed the incident in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune, in Minna, on Tuesday.

He stated further that asides the rice and sugarcane plantations, that are presently under water, the company’s heavy duty equipment, such as bull dozers, pay loaders, excavators, were also submerged while the farms’ drainage channels, irrigation pumping stations and internal road networks, among others have also collapsed.

The NSEMA boss explained that following the special interest of the state governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, on the multi-million naira investment of Sunti Farm in the state, that has made the governor to send him (Inga) and the state Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development to the farm for on the spot assessments of the damages so far caused to the farm.

From left, Chairman, Presidential Committee on Trade Malpractice, Mr Dahiru Dogorawa; Kebbi State governor, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu; Comptroller, Customs Service, Colonel Hameed Ibrahim and the Acting Director-General, National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mrs Yetunde Oni, exchanging pleasantries, during the joint press briefing on Anti-Smuggling products, in Abuja, on Tuesday. PHOTO; SUNDAY OSUNRAYI

Women in Boko Haram not just cooking and cleaning —Research FEMALE members of Boko Haram are almost as likely as men to be deployed as fighters in Northeast Nigeria, challenging a widespread perception that these women are mainly used as cooks, sex slaves and suicide bombers.

This was contained in the report of a joint research by Finn Church

Aid, The International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), The Network of Religious and Traditional Peacemakers and the Citizen Research Centre released on Tuesday, in Dakar.

The report, according to The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), noted that while men in the Islamist group dominate in leadership and training roles,

women may outnumber them in other senior roles, such as recruiters and intelligence operatives.

The report, based on interviews with 119 former Boko Haram members, found that four in 10 female respondents said they served as soldiers, compared with 45 per cent of men, while both sexes carried out domestic tasks

NASDRA concludes investigations on causes of tremor in Kaduna •NEMA recommends rebuilding affected houses THE National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), has concluded investigations on the remote causes of the recent tremor in Jaba local government area of Kaduna State.

In a statement, Head, Media and Corporate communications of the Agency, Dr Felix Ale, said the comprehensive report will be presented to the general public through a media conference on Thursday, October 6, 2016, at the agency’s headquarters, in Abuja.

According to him, since the reported case of the tremor, the Space Agency has deployed a team of experts, particularly from

one of her centres of excellence, Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics, to critically assess, observe and examine the situation in order to come out with a comprehensive analysis of the reoccurring events, which has been a source of concern to both the government and the entire Nigerians.

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has recommended the rebuilding of tremor affected houses in Kwoi, Kaduna State, pending the outcome of assessment reports by the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency.

Mr Musa Illalah, NEMA North-west Zonal Coordinator made this known

in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Tuesday, in Abuja.

He said there was urgent need for the over 300 houses affected to be rebuilt pending the outcome of the assessment report.

According to him, the report from the agency will enable them take action on whether or not to relocate the victims from the area.

“We, in collaboration with other stakeholders like the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, the local government officials, and traditional rulers in Jaba local government undertook an assessment of the affected areas.

like cooking and cleaning.

Mahdi Abdile, Director of Research at Finn Church Aid and co-author of the study, said that recruiters are adapting to the tightening security environment.

He added that women and girls are increasingly being targeted for recruitment.

“The intelligence community is on the lookout for young men, so it is easier for women to navigate past security barriers and penetrate communities.”

Boko Haram has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in Nigeria, in a seven-year insurgency to carve out an Islamist caliphate, and it still launches attacks despite having been driven out of much of the territory it held in 2014.

The Islamists have stepped up suicide bombings carried out by children in recent years, many of them carried out by girls, according to the UN children’s agency (UNICEF).

Vincent Foucher, of the International Crisis Group (ICG), said that while there has been a global focus on the female suicide bombers, women in Boko Haram have long been involved in planning logistics, planting mines and bombs, and fighting as soldiers.

that those imported through the seaports were registered and are of good quality.

She stated that the ban on importation of rice through the land borders “will help reduce the amount of foreign exchange used in the importation of rice, reduce loss of revenue through smuggling activities and grow the milling of local rice through the promotion of strategic investment in local rice production.”

Oni further declared that from regular laboratory reports during NAFDAC products approval meetings, “Nigeria produced rice are safe, wholesome and of good quality.”

She assured that NAFDAC was poised to join hands with the Customs to increase surveillance and monitoring activities at all borders posts to curb smuggling of rice through the land borders.

“The existing cooperation and collaboration with NCS will be strengthened and sustained to continue to assist NAFDAC in delivering on our mandate of safe guarding the health of the nation,” she declared.

Ambode appoints Dickson as new DG safety commission Bola Badmus-Lagos LAGOS State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, on Tuesday, approved the appointment of Mr Hakeem Olaogun Dickson, as the new Director General of Lagos State Safety Commission (LASSC).

The appointment was contained in a statement signed by the state Head of Service, Mrs Olabowale Ademola.

Governor Ambode said Dickson’s appointment was in line with his administration’s commitment to turn around the agency for optimal performance.

The governor urged him to bring his political clout and experience on the importance and safety practices, especially at work and construction projects, to bear on the mandate of the commission, saddled with the responsibility of safety regulations and enforcement in the state.

The new LASSC Director General, Dickson, holds a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts from the Thomas A. Edison State College, Trenton, New Jersey U.S.A. and two Masters degrees in Business Administration, specialising in Accounting and Finance respectively, both from the Fairleight Dickinson University, Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.

34 news

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Tips to guard against tyre blowouts Continued from front page

this is a sign of low tyre pressure or a slow air leak. “If you see cracks in the sidewall, gouges or anything that looks odd, take it in to your dealer and have them look at it.”

Tread wear The old-school penny test is one way to check your treads: Place a penny into the tread, if you can still see the top of the noggin, the tread is dangerously low. Most modern tyres, however,

have wear bars: bits of rubber woven into the pattern at a specific depth. “You can find the wear bars that go across the groove, and if the tread pattern is worn down to that wear bar, you need to replace your tyre,” says Unser.

Tyre pressure Tyres deflate at a rate of about one pound per square inch (PSI) per month. “You’re not going to wear your tyres down in a month,” Unser says, “but you should check that you

have the right inflation pressure.”

Temperature Tyre pressure drops in extreme cold. The challenge in summer, says Unser, is “excessive heat buildup in the tyre.” If you’re heading out on a road trip with an underinflated tyre, it will generate more heat and wear out faster.

Vibration Watch out for vibration or thumping when you’re driving. If it feels like it’s coming from

under the seats, the rear tyres may be out of balance. Vibration from the steering wheel could indicate suspension issues. Unser says anything less than a smooth ride means you should take your car in to the dealer.

When it’s time to replace your tyres, Unser recommends doing so in pairs or all four at a time for better performance and traction and, ultimately, a safer ride.

Culled from www.geico.com

NDDC: Senate committee turns back Ondo, Abia nominees Continued from front page

When the nominee from Abia, Donatus Enyinnah, appeared before the committee, he was simply asked whether he is an indigene of oil producing area of the state.

When he answered in affirmative, the chairman referred him to a document from Shell Petroleum Company and the office of the Surveyor General of the Federation, which both confirmed that the nominee was not from oil producing area.

The chairman asked the nominee to leave the screening venue.

Similar drama was played out when the Ondo nominee, Chief Tokunbo Ajasin, appeared before the Senate committee.

Senator Nwaboshi asked him whether he was from oil producing area and he said ‘No.’ The Senator told the Ondo State nominee: “I don’t want any crisis from Ondo State that is the more reason that l made the screening open for everybody to witness. I respect your father the late Pa Adekunle Ajasin, the leader of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) but the power to appoint resides with the Presi-

dent, we can’t decline the nomination, we would recommend to the Senate who has the power to decline the appointment.”

He said that there were over 30 petitions against Ajasin, adding that the committee would make appropriate recommendations to the Senate.

The Committee, thereafter, asked Ajasin to leave the screening venue.

Earlier, Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Peter Nwaboshi, who told his colleagues of the decision by Isunazo to decline the nomination, told the Senators at the screening that the lawmaker had written the committee to decline the offer.

In the letter by Isunazo, the former Senator told the committee that he does not want crisis in the state and that he would not want to take up the appointment since he was not an indigene of oil producing area in the state.

The APC chieftain said that while he appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari’s nomination, he would not be taking up the nomination because it was against the NDDC Act.

There were, however, more drama as two other nominees, from Abia and Ondo states appeared before the committee.

Earlier, the Senate Committee had screened the former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, who is a nominee into the board of the NDDC. The chairman of the committee had told the lawmakers during the exercise that the committee would not bend the rules.

He said that the committee had written to appropriate authorities to collect necessary data following the barrage of petitions against some nominees.

He said: “We have made the screening open; we don’t want to hide anything.

We want Nigerians to see everything; some said we have been compromised, we have the backing of the leadership of the Senate not to bend the rules and we are not ready to bend the rules.”

Ndoma-Egba, who later spoke to newsmen after he was asked to take a bow and go, said that the NDDC Board, when constituted would take stock of all NDDC projects, systems and finances, with a view to

Edo polls: PDP rejects results as Makarfi meets Senators, Reps over reconciliation continued from pg9

party to harvest fresh ideas and move forward in the reconciliation process.

He also said the meeting was part of the strategic steps being taken to return the PDP to the path of greatness ahead of 2019 general election.

Spokesman of the PDP, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, who briefed newsmen after the meeting said that Edo election matter was discussed.

He said: “We discussed it. We know that we were robbed in Edo State. We believe that we will have our day in court. And by the grace of God, we still have confidence in the judiciary. What happened in Edo State will not stand.

“The members of the national caretaker committee, led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, came in here today to brief our National Assembly caucus. The Minority Leader

of the House of Representatives is here, the DSP was also here. We had very good representation at this meeting.

“Basically, it was to brief them on new developments in the party, particularly relating to the peace efforts that we are making in the party. We have to put them into confidence in some of the actions we have taken lately. And ask for their own contribution because after all they are major critical stakeholders. They put us there, we need to consult with them, we need to brief them on developments from time to time.

“And I’m happy to say that after the review of what has happened, we have come to the conclusion that the peace efforts already taken by the caretaker committee are in order. And the National Assembly Caucus have given full endorsement to all the efforts made so far by the

National Caretaker Committee to reconcile all the aggrieved members of this great party.

“We don’t have any faction in PDP. I’ve said some people are aggrieved. And we are trying to make peace with everybody. The PDP is one single body. In every party, you have people who could be aggrieved from time to time.

And we are making efforts to reconcile everybody.”

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who welcomed Makarfi and others to the meeting, expressed appreciation for the recognition accorded them by the national caretaker committee for the briefing.

Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio and his House of Representatives counterpart, Honourable Leo Ogor, also thanked the lawmakers for their collective resolve to ensure a peaceful and stable PDP.

cleaning the books.

He also said that his board would do the right things adding: “We promise a new narrative for the Niger Delta Region; the commis-

sion was set up for the Niger Delta Region and the commission must return to the regional body.

“We will take stock of our projects, systems, processes

and finances and to know which projects are viable, we need to clean our books and start on a new slate. We will do things right when we get there.”

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Hammed Saheed Aremu now HAMMED SAHEED TITILOPE. All former documents remain valid.

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CONFIRMATION OF NAME I, Ayodele Odunayo Oluwafunmilayo am the same person bearing Ayodele Odunayo Deborah. Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as AYODELE ODUNAYO OLUWAFUNMILAYO. All documents bearing these names remain valid.

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I, formerly Adebajo Rasak now BAJO RASAK ENIOLA. My correct date of birth is 06/08/1976 and not 06/03/1973. All former documents remain valid.

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35 CHANGE OF NAME

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CORRECTION OF NAME I, Nemideinotubo Ebiyaibo, my correct name is NEMIDEINOTUBO EBIYAIBO. All documents remain valid.

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Wednesday, 5 October, 2016 CHANGE OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Blessing Madule now BLESSING MADUKA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Famuyiwa Ayo Bukola now MRS OLUGOROYE LYDIA AYO. All former documents remain valid.

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CONFIRMATION OF NAME I, David Durodola Saul Olojo am the same person as David Saul.

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Keziah Nuhu now MRS KEZIAH JOSEPH ANZIZI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

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I, formerly Alabi Oluwarotimi Sunday now OLAFIMIHAN MATTHEW OLUWAROTIMI. All former documents remain valid.

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I, formerly Miss Abomini Rebecca Tamaragalaemi now MRS PERESEI REBECCA TAMARAGALAEMI. All former documents remain valid. First Bank of Nigeria Plc, UBA Plc, Wema Bank Plc, FUG Pension, Mayflower Private School and general public take note.

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these names remain valid. General public take note.

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I, formerly Pastor Gabriel Onajite DavidOkoro and erroneously described as Rev’d Dr. David-Okoro Gabriel O. on my National Drivers Licence. Now, I wish to be known as Rev’d Dr. David-Okoro Gabriel Onajite. All former documents remain valid. First Bank of Nigeria Plc, other concerned banking institutions and general public take note.

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CONFIRMATION OF NAME I, Ramoni Akanji am the same person bearing Babalola Ramoni Akanji. Now, I wish to be known and addressed as BABALOLA RAMONI AKANJI. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

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NYSC and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Abd Rauf Abd Lateef Agbaje now RAUFU LATEEF AJEDOKUN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

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CHANGE OF NAME AND CORRECTION OF DATE OF BIRTH

I, formerly Fabiyi James Sunday now OLABIYI JAMES SUNDAY. Also the surname of my wife and children is OLABIYI as against Fabiyi. All former documents remain valid. GOFAMINT, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo.

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I, formerly Salami Yakub Bukola now SALAMI YAKUB ABIMBOLA. My correct date of birth is 07/01/1985 and not 07/02/1985. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

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CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Azamosa Itohan Mercy now EDALE ITOHAN MERCY . All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Imman Suleiman Babatope now AJIKANLE SULEIMAN BABATOPE. All former documents remain valid.

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Aderinto Adedayo Oluwaseyi now DERINTO TAYE ADEDAYO. All former documents remain valid.

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Foluke Shokunbi now ADIE FOLUKE SHOKUNBI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Oseni Mudashiru Segun now KEHINDE SEGUN SUNKANMI. All former documents remain valid. Skye Bank Plc and general public take note.

36

news

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

FG makes case for establishment of Electoral Offences Tribunal Inaugurates 25-member constitution, electoral reform committee Sunday Ejike - Abuja ORRIED by incessant cases of violence in the electoral processes in the country, the Federal Government, on Tuesday, made case for the establishment of an electoral offences tribunal to prosecute electoral offenders and to prevent electoral misbehaviour.

The Attorney- General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said this on Tuesday, in Abuja, while inaugurating the Senator Ken Nnamani-led committee on constitution and electoral reform.

“The issues of internal democracy structures and the need to prevent the use of illicit funds in the electoral processes as well as the establishment of an electoral offences tribunal are pertinent, if we must evolve globally acceptable electoral system”.

He said a situation where electoral officials are killed, kidnapped or where politicians make the environment for elections a war theatre, forcing the electoral body to seek extra-security measures to protect their officials, are issues that require bold legal, legislative and institutional action.

The AGF said, it is therefore, imperative to undertake a constitutional and electoral reconstruct to address the challenges confronting the nation’s electoral process so as to enthrone more transparency and to build people’s confidence in the democratic process of the country.

He reminded that, it is out of President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to democracy and to entrench the culture of an enduring electoral system as well as the imperfections inherent in the current electoral process that the committee on constitution and electoral reform was inaugurated.

Malami said he expects the committee to look into possible amendments to the Constitution and the Electoral Act as well as other legal instruments concerning elections to facilitate the attainment of a robust and generally acceptable electoral system.

He charged the committee to review the electoral environment, relevant laws and experiences from recent elections in Nigeria and make recommendations that would ensure the conduct of a free and fair election in the country.

The terms of reference for the committee are: the review of the laws impact-

W

ing elections on Nigeria to access their impact and adequacy for the administration of elections in Nigeria and to also review the recent judicial decisions on

election petitions as they relate to conflicting judgments, absence of consequential orders and delays in the insuance of certified true copies of judgements.

Other mandates of the 25-member committee include, the review of the lessons learnt from 2015 elections and make recommendations for the

improvement of the electoral process, identify and assess international best practices on elections and electoral systems relevant to Nigeria’s experience.

2017 Armed Forces remembrance day: Ministry inaugurates committee THE Ministry of Defence, on Tuesday, inaugurated a 28-member national planning committee for the 2017 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration (AFRDC).

Ambassador Danjuma Sheni, the permanent secretary of the ministry, who inaugurated the committee, said that members were drawn from relevant ministries, departments and agencies of government.

Burial

From left, Special Adviser to the President on Justice Reform, Mrs Juliet Ibekaku; chairman of the committee, Senator Ken Nnamani and the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, during the inauguration of the Committee on Electoral Reform, in Abuja, on Tuesday. PHOTO: NAN

FG puts up 2 presidential jets for sale Bidders to quote in dollars Clement Idoko -Abuja THE controversy and speculations surrounding Nigeria’s presidential fleet, were finally laid to rest on Tuesday, as the Federal Government announced the plan to sell two of the presidential jets.

In a move that might not be unconnected with the need to reduce the cost of governance, following months of economic recession and widespread criticisms from Nigerians on the high cost of governance, the Federal Government, offered two aircraft in its fleet, the Falcon 7X and Hawker 4000 for sale in a newspaper advertisement on Tuesday, calling on interested buyers to

submit bids four weeks after the advertisement and to quote all bids in United States dollars.

The Presidency, through the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, also confirmed this in a statement, saying the sale was to reduce waste.

According to the Presidency, “The newspaper advertisement for the sale of two Presidential aircraft, a Falcon 7x executive jet and Hawker 4000 were duly authorised by the president.

“This is in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that aircrafts in the Presidential air fleet be reduced to cut down on waste.

“When he campaigned to be president, the then All Progressives Congress(APC) candidate Muhammadu Buhari, if you recall, promised to look at the presidential air fleet with a view to cutting down on waste.

“His directive to a government committee on this assignment is that he liked to see a compact and reliable aircraft for the safe airlift of the president, the vice president and other government officials that go on special missions.

“This exercise is by no means complete. I am sure the Commander of the Presidential air fleet, will any time from now, call you to a ceremony at which he will hand over some other

We have no plan to demolish 1,000 buildings at Abule-Egba —Lagos govt Bola Badmus - Lagos LAGOS State government, on Tuesday, said it has no plan to demolish 1,000 buildings in Abule-Egba, to make way for the construction of fly-over in the area, declaring that only fences, building setbacks and illegal constructions, as well as attachments, would be pulled down.

This was just as it clarified its position on the Right of Way (RoW), to be established for the construction of a Reinforced Concrete Dual Carriage Flyover bridge, at Abule Egba junction.

The state Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, said this in a statement made available by the head, Public Affairs, Mr Shina Odunuga, adding that the 1,000 houses quoted in the report, were only a figment of imaginations.

According to the ministry, most of the structures affected by the proposed removal, are fences, building setbacks and illegal constructions as well as attachments to buildings.

“It is, however, regrettable that formal institutions involved, like banks and eat-

eries, could engage in illegal development without valid C of Os or planning permits.

The ministry reiterated that members of the public whose property might be affected and having valid claim, to forward documents of such for record and other administrative purposes.

The ministry stressed that the said 91.44 metres as contained in the removal notice, was from the centre of the existing road and not 91.44metres, from existing electricity poles as contained in the report.

aircraft to the Airforce for their operations.”

According to a source at the Presidency, the Presidential Air Fleet comprises of 10 aircraft. These are: Boeing Business Jet (Boeing 737-800 or AirForce One), one Gulfstream 550, one Gulfstream V (Gulfstream 500), two Falcons 7X, one Hawker Sidley 4000, two Agusta Westland AW 139 helicopters and two Agusta Westland AW 101 helicopters.

The Nigerian presidential fleet had been a subject of much controversy and speculations in recent months as several Nigerians and civil society groups called for the sale of some of the aircraft, citing the wastage and high cost of maintenance of the fleet.

Allegations that the Federal Government spent about N6 billion to maintain the fleet in six months in 2015 had immediately elicited wide criticisms, as Nigerians called for the disposal of some of the aircraft.

Though the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Mallam Garba Shehu, insisted that the government only spent N2 billion to maintain the fleet in six months, Nigerians had continued to insist that the number of aircraft in the Presidential Air Fleet was too many.

The burial ceremony for Princess (Chief) Grace Bolanle Bayode (nee Ogunoye), who died on September 18, 2016, will commence with a Christian wake on Thursday (tomorrow), at No. 5, Temidire Quarters, Elenusonso Road, via Idi-Ishin Nihort, Ibadan, Oyo State, from 500pm till 700pm.

On Friday, there will be lying-in-state at her residence,Ile-tuntun, Ibadan, from 8.00am till 900am, while burial service will hold at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Oke Ado, Ibadan, by 10.00am.

Entertainment of guests will take place at Labod Civic Centre, Alesinloye Road, Ibadan.

She is survived by her husband, three children, 14 grandchildren and one great-grand child.

Princess Bolanle Bayode

Abandoned baby

This baby boy was abandoned at Orioke Abiye prayer ground on July 25, 2016, in Iwoye, Egbedore Local Government Area, Osun State. Anyone with useful information about the relatives or next of kin, should, please, contact the Social Welfare Department, Ede zone or the nearest police station.

37

Tuesday, 5 October, 2016

foreig naffairs

08116954632 withseyigesinde foreignn ewseditor@gmail.com

South Africa: Police fire rubber bullets, stun grenades at student protesters

Protesting students of University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP.

S

OUTH African police fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and teargas at student protesters in Johannesburg on Tuesday, as authorities tried to reopen the prestigious Wits University after weeks of demonstrations.

According to AFP, the university, along with many campuses across South Africa, has been closed for at least two weeks during protests over tuition fees, with violent clashes regularly erupting between students, police and private security guards.

“There has been an attempt to disrupt lectures at Wits today,” the university said in a statement.

“Police are dispersing the protesting students as we speak, using teargas and

stun grenades.”

University authorities had vowed to re-open the

Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to British trio for study of exotic matter THREE British-born scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for discoveries about strange states of matter that could result in improved materials for electronics or quantum computers.

David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, who are now affiliated with universities in the United States, were honoured for breakthroughs they made in the 1970s and ‘80s, The Associated Press reported.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work opened the door to a previously unknown

A woman pushes a wheelbarrow in a partially Haitian flooded street, on Tuesday. PHOTO: AFP/ GETTY IMAGES.

hitting the whole area and the people have fled to a shelter,” Les Anglais mayor Jean-Claude Despierre told Reuters news agency.

Failed coup: Turkey suspends 13,000 police over links to US-based cleric

Tens of thousands with alleged links to Gulen have been arrested since the attempted coup. EPA FILE PHOTO.

TURKEY has suspended almost 13,000 police officers, more than 5 per cent of the country’s entire police force, over suspected links to Fethullah Gulen, a United States-based cleric blamed

by Ankara for orchestrating a failed coup attempt.

Al Jazeera said in a brief statement, the Turkish police headquarters said that 2,523 of the 12,801 suspended were police chiefs.

The officers suspended “have been assessed to have

communications or links to the Gulenist Terror Organisation, identified as a threat to national security”, the police statement said.

The government blames the July 15 failed coup bid on Gulen, though he denies the charges.

According to the state-run Anadolu Agency, 37 people working in the interior ministry’s headquarters had also been removed from their posts.

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange said on Tuesday the group would publish about one million documents related to the United States election and three governments in coming weeks, but denied the release was aimed at damaging Hillary Clinton.

Assange, according to Reuters, speaking via a video link, said the documents would be released before the end of the year, starting with an initial batch in the coming week.

Assange, 45, who remains at the Ecuadoran embassy in London, where he sought refuge in 2012 to avoid possible extradition

to Sweden, said the election material was “significant” and would come out before the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

He criticized Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, for demonizing his WikiLeaks group’s work after a spate of releases related to the Democratic National Committee before the Democratic political convention this summer.

WikiLeaks’ Assange signals release of documents before US election

Hurricane Matthew causes life-threatening rain, batters Haiti RESIDENTS of Haiti’s southwestern peninsula are bracing themselves for a long night of dangerous rain and catastrophic storm surges, as the strongest Caribbean storm in nine years began bearing down on the country.

Hurricane Matthew, a violent Category 4 storm packing 230k/h winds, was due to pound the western tip of Haiti early on Tuesday, according to the United States National Hurricane Centre.

“Life-threatening rain, wind and storm surges” had begun to spread over parts of the country as Matthew approached, the centre said in a 09:00 GMT advisory on Tuesday.

Haitians living in vulnerable coastal shacks frantically sought shelter as the outer bands of the cyclone had already reached the country’s southwestern areas late on Monday.

Dozens of houses were flooded in the town of Les Anglais when the ocean rose, according to the local mayor, while strong winds caused power outages in Les Cayes, on the southern coast.

“We have gusts of wind

campus on Tuesday, with vice-chancellor Adam Habib warning of the “immense consequences of not finishing the academic year.”

He said most students wanted to return to lectures, adding that police and security staff would ensure teaching could go ahead and that mass protests would not be allowed.

“The university wants to arrest us, instead of listening to us,” said 21-year-old Patrick Shabalala, a thirdyear law student.

other NEWS

In Tiburon, another town nearby, authorities said people who had been reluctant to leave their homes also fled when the sea rose.

world where matter can assume unusual states or phases.

“Their discoveries have brought about breakthroughs in the theoretical understanding of matter’s mysteries and created new perspectives on the development of innovative materials,” the academy said.

The 8 million kronor ($930,000) award was divided with one half going to Thouless and the other to Haldane and Kosterlitz for “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”

Topology is a branch of mathematics that describes properties of objects.

Julian Assange

Trump snares more Twitter attention than Clinton — Study

Refugees stranded in Somalia after Kenya eviction

THE camp sprawls across a grey sand dune overlooking the Indian Ocean. A multitude of small shacks lashed together quickly by hand using whatever could be found: crumpled sheetmetal, acacia branches and cardboard. Children play in

heaps of rubbish.

Al Jazeera reported that more than 16,000 people are living here, destitute and stranded, on the fringes of Kismayo, a port town in Jubaland state, on Somalia’s southern frontier.

“There is nothing, there

A makeshift settlement built by returning refugees from Kenya to Kismayo in southern Somalia is currently home to at least 16,000 people. PHOTO: AL JAZEERA.

are no good services here…

We don’t have a house, no education, no health, no work. We don’t know where to go and where to find what we need,” said Ahmed Mohamed Abukar, a father who returned to Kismayo his hometown - in February.

Hillary Clinton

TWEETS supporting Donald Trump are grabbing most of the attention on Twitter in the United States presidential race, with the Republican candidate obtaining more support than Hillary Clinton every day except for a week in September, researchers said on Tuesday.

The number of supportive

Donald Trump

retweets for Clinton, according to Al Jazeera report, spiked sharply above Trump’s on only two days during the month - the day following the September 26 televised presidential candidates’ debate, and after Trump disavowed his false claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

38

communitynews

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

Save us from land grabbers, community urges Ambode olatunde dodondawa-lagos

S

OME members of Akesan community in Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State have called on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to save the community from persistent encroachment and threat to lives by land grabbers.

Governor Ambode recently signed a bill into law outlawing land grabbing and extortion of money from land developers in the state.

The law prohibits forceful entry and illegal occupation of landed properties, violent and fraudulent conduct in relation to landed properties in Lagos State.

According to a statement issued and jointly signed by the Head of Iposu family,

Kwara to remodel, renovate 30 secondary schools Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, on Sunday, said the state government would soon embark on renovation and remodeling of 30 secondary schools across the state, the New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has reported.

Ahmed made the announcement in Ilorin in his message at the 1438 Hijra celebration, which commemorated the beginning of the new Islamic Year.

The governor, who spoke through Alhaji Musa Yeketi, the state Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, also said the state government would embark on palliative programmes that would benefit traders, artisans and civil servants.

According to him, the Infrastructure Fund popularly called IF-K, which was launched by the state government recently would serve as window to fund critical projects since a plan to raise N20 billion bond did not yield the desired result.

The governor also said that an asphalt plant that would take care of the deplorable state of the roads in the state had been installed.

He said mobile workshops had been established for entrepreneurship training of students in secondary schools across the state.

Also speaking, the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, said he was delighted by the atmosphere of peace in the state, which, he said, was a departure from last year’s experience.

The Chief Imam of Ilorin, Sheik Mohammed Bashir Salihu, had earlier led the gathering in a special prayer for the nation.

Professor Talabi Owolabi and the Secretary, Chief Alade Oladunjoye, some individuals have been encroaching on the land belonging to Iposu Chieftaincy family in the community.

According to the statement, the Oloja of Epe, Oba Kamoru Animashaun, has barred the land grabbers from encroaching on Akesan land but to no avail.

“Sometime in 2004, the illegal occupation of a portion of Iposu family land was identified. It was reported to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Epe, in a letter with ref: com/005/2004 and dated 7th May 2004.

“The Iposu Chieftaincy family is one of the most prominent families in Epe Division and it is an organised and law-abiding family. It abhors all forms of lawlessness and acts of vandalism which could tarnish the good name of the family and which is buttressed by our relentless efforts to employ persuasion and the law to advance our cause,” the statement read in part.

The statement further

explained that as beneficiary owners of the parcel of land, the family has standing agreement as far back as 1971 with the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture for the purpose of developing agriculture in Lagos State.

It said the family also has a long term lease agreement with Julius Berger Nigeria Ltd. and has a joint venture with Epe Health Farm and SPA Limited.

It, however, alleged that the land grabber led a team

of hooligans armed with cudgels and other dangerous weapons to the community to remove signposts, deflate tyres of vehicles belonging to residents of the community in the presence of two police officers.

A failed portion of Alaro-Sango-Eleyele Road, Ibadan, Oyo State. PHOTO: NAN

FG pledges infrastructure in communities johnson babajide-makurdi

The Federal Government has pledged its commitment to the provision of infrastructure in communities across the country

through the Sustainable Development Goals project (SDGs).

This was disclosed by Mr. Idowu Adetunji, a director at the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, dur-

ing the commissioning of five motorised boreholes in Benue State.

The project was constructed by MALE Integrated Science Nigeria Ltd under the National

Aregbesola charges newly installed Olowu on communal clash oluwole ige-osogb

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has charged the new Olowu of Elemowu, Oba Sikirullah Omoyeni Ogunleye Oyewale I, on ensuring communal peace in his domain.

He gave the charge while presenting the staff of office and instrument of appointment to the traditional ruler at Ilemowu in Olaoluwa Local Government Area.

Represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, Aregbesola explained that there cannot be any meaningful development in a place where there is no peace, urging the people of the community to join hands with the king to ensure peace and progress in the town.

The governor, who promised to continue to work for the progress and development of the state, emphasised the need for the people to cooperate with the government by paying taxes and levies as at when due.

In his remark, the council Manager of Olaoluwa Local Government Area, Mr Francis Ige thanked Aregbesola for his developmental ef-

The family head, therefore, appealed to the Lagos State government to send its task force that is saddled with the responsibility of preventing unrest caused by land grabbers to the area.

forts in the council area, just as he expressed the readiness of the people of the area to continue to support the government.

Responding, the Olowu

expressed his gratitude to God and the state government for the honour done him, promising to render selfless service to his people.

NEMA official advises flood-prone communities Against the background of the prediction by NIMET that there will be rainfall above average in October, an official has advised communities prone to flooding to always monitor the sea level to avert disaster.

The Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Owerri Operations Office, Mr. Evans Ugoh, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.

Ugoh said Ohaji/Egbema and Oguta Local Government areas were major areas prone to flooding in Imo State.

He said there were many casualties, while houses were submerged in the area in 2012 because residents were not conscious of the sea level.

The coordinator explained

that if concrete measures were taken the communities could avoid disasters.

He pointed out that the agency was more interested in preventing disasters than donating relief materials to victims.

Ugoh said the only way to prevent the occurrence of emergency situations was for people to adhere to early warning measures.

“When there is a prediction from a competent body, people must be very conscious of their environment.

“If there is change in the sea level, those involved should report to NEMA immediately for proper action,” he said.

Ugoh also cautioned against people building filling stations around residential areas as the danger associated with it was enormous.

Urban Water Sector Renewal Project. Benue is one of the 12 benefiting states.

Adetunji said the focus is to construct water projects in motor parks, churches and markets in communities even as he enjoined communities where they are sited to protect and maintain them.

Chief Executive Officer of MALE Integrated Science Nig. Ltd, Dr. Michael Ale, said it is a World Bank project, adding that each of the water project has capacity for 45,000 cubic meters and is powered by solar energy panel.

While appealing to benefiting communities to maintain the facilities, Ale advocated that incentives be given to communities that adequately maintain and protect the projects against vandals.

A consultant with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Dr. Festus Akinduni, also called for the duplication of the project by the state government.

In his remarks, Benue State Commissioner for Water Resources and Environment, Mr. Nick Wende, noted that the facilities will impact positively on the lives of the people.

While pledging the state government support for the project, Wende stated that the state would partner the Federal government to establish more of such projects in the state.

OgwashiUku laments lack of power supply alphonsus agborh-asaba

Fifty-six years after the nation attained independence, many communities in Aniocha area of Delta State have been without electricity.

Ogwashi Uku, headquarters of Aniocha South Local Government Area which became a colonial administrative headquarters in 1910, is worst hit as electricity to the community has been cut off for the past six years.

Some respondents, who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune at the venue of the Independence Day celebration in Anishi Primary school, Ogwashi Uku, expressed disappointment over the neglect of the town by the three tiers of government on one hand and the natives on the other.

Okafor Johnson, a retired school teacher, noted that despite the step down of national grid in the area, the Benin Electricity Distribution Company had failed to supply light to the town as “it continues to give one form of excuse or the other.

Another respondent, 70-year-old Rebecca Isitor, attributed some of the problems confronting the communities to the indigenes, who have failed to learn from the ants with regards to team work, urging the various groups to cooperate with the traditional institution in order to attract development to the area.

39 tribunesport

Wednesday, 5 October, 2016

West Ham Utd storms Nigeria for talent hunt

By Nurudeen Alimi

Nigeria’s captain, Rasheedat Ajibade (right), battles with Connie Scofield of England, for ball possession, during their FIFA U-17 Women’s group C clash on Tuesday in Jordan.

FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup:

Flamingoes’ q/final ticket in jeopardy

By Ganiyu Salman

T

HE Flamingoes of Nigeria, for the second time in the ongoing fifth FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, fired blank as they settled for a barren draw with England in a group C game decided on Tuesday at the Prince Mohammed International Stadium, Al Zarqa.

The Bala Nikyu-side had lost 0-1 to Brazil in the group opener, as Nigeria is left with other option, than to beat Korea DPR in the last group game on Saturday billed for 2pm Nigeria time.

Nigeria remains last on the table with only a point.

The Korea girls also on Tuesday stunned many soccer fans as they defeated Brazil 1-0 to lead the group with four points, while the young Samba girls slipped to the second spot on three points.

The Flamingoes on Saturday will now have to go for the maximum points to finish with four points, but they still require a better goal advantage to scale through and pray for Brazil to beat England.

The Koreans only need a draw to advance on Saturday and finish with five points, while Brazil need to beat England. The English side equally needs to beat Brazil to advance provided Korea and Nigeria game end in a draw.

However, should Nigeria beat Korea and Brazil beat England, the Flamingoes will finish second behind Brazil, on head-to-head rule at the expense of Korea as both sides will finish with four

points apiece.

The Flamingoes were able to raise their game against England, but still lacked the scoring initiatives to finish well in front of goals.

Captain Rasheedat Ajibade would have secured the lead in the 16th minute of the game, but

goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck was well positioned to save the situation.

Meanwhile, Ghana came from behind to produce one of the biggest shocks of Jordan 2016 thus far by beating USA 2-1 in Amman.

The victory has brightened the

Unveiling of Oshoala, move to rebrand Federation Cup —NFF Wale Joseph - Lagos THE Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Tuesday unveiled Nigerian international, Asisat Oshoala as the face of 2016 Women’s Federation Cup. Unveiling Oshoala in Lagos, in conjunction with the official media partner of the NFF, HS Media Group, Chairman/CEO of HS Group, Taye Ige, said there was the need to celebrate and support the competition which is a platform for the celebration of women football and a channel for the discovery of players for the female national teams.

He noted that as a result of the dwindling perception on female football and consequent failure to hold onto existing sponsorships or attract new ones, the competition had solely been financed by the NFF from its meagre resources.

Oshoala, who plays for Arsenal Ladies Football Club of England, via a recorded message, urged

Nigerians and the upcoming players to remain focused and use the opportunity provided by the competition to launch their career.

T h e two-time African Player of the Year disclosed that she w o u l d continue to inspire young and promising players, adding that she would be physically pres- ent in the final of the Federation Cup holding later this month in Lagos.

First Vice-President of the NFF, Seyi Akinwunmi, submitted that the unveiling of Oshoala was part of plans by the organising committee of the NFF to rebrand the Federation Cup. He informed that the NFF was working round the clock to get sponsors for the oldest football competition in the country.

hope of the young Black Maidens who started with a 0-5 loss to Japan, to qualify for the quarterfinal if they win their last game against Paraguay on Saturday.

Japan has already qualified for the quarter-final following another 5-0 drubbing of Paraguay on Tuesday.

Ghana after conceding a fifth minute goal through Frankie Tagliaferri levelled up in the 64th minute through Gifty Acheampong’s header, while captain OwusuAnsah secured win in the 84th minute after a spot kick.

Oshoala

Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) side, FC Ifeanyi Ubah, will this week host the representatives of West Ham United, a Premier League side in Lagos and Nnewi in a bid to strengthen the partnership between both clubs.

Top executives at West Ham led by the Managing Director, Angus Kinnear and the president of FC IfeanyiUbah, Dr Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah will today unveil the blueprint that will guide the hunt for the next generation of Nigerian football stars.

The project which is aimed at discovering talented kids between the ages of six and 15 years will kick off in December with coaches and scouts of the EPL side in attendance to offer technical support.

Selected kids will be enrolled into IfeanyiUbah football academy with the aim of harnessing their talents, thus providing West Ham United with a pool of talented players to pick from on a quarterly basis.

Tribunesport recalls that FC IfeanyiUbah recently signed a partnership with West Ham last August which would see both clubs join forces on a number of football-related projects executed

by FC Ifeanyi Ubah, from bestpractice coaching initiatives to establishing grassroots football programmes in Nigeria, all with a view to improving the standard of football.

Lagos, Oyo win Ochei Wheelchair Basketball openers The fifth Hon. Victor Ochie Wheelchair basketball championship at the Molade Okoya Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, kicked off on Tuesday with defending champions, Lagos starting their title defence with an emphatic 44-0 win over former two-time champions, Delta State.

The Lagos team lead by coach Ahmed Ibrahim took out their opponents with a high press defence which was impenetrable throughout the match leading to the lopsided win.

Also, star-studded Team Oyo led by France based Ibrahim Lukmon also made their title aspirations clear with a 61-0 blowout of Kwara State.

Vistors Ghana lost 2-8 to Imo State, while Delta lost to Kwara 16-0 and Edo defeated Lagos 8-0 in front of their home crowd.

SIDELINES

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W/Cup qualifier:Zambians Saliu Gbadamosi — Abuja SUPER Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr, on Tuesday stated that though Sunday’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against the Chipolopolo of Zambia is a must-win for the Eagles, the Zambians are no pushovers.

Nigeria begins its quest for a place in the Russia 2018 World Cup away to Zambia in Ndola on Sunday, October 9.

Speaking with sports reporters on Tuesday, the Franco-German declared that no team is small in Nigeria’s group, which comprises Algeria, Cameroon and Zambia, adding that the Zambians would not be pushovers on Sunday.

He, however, expressed confidence that his charges are rearing to

are no pushovers —Rohr

go, adding that the Eagles will give a good account of themselves against the Zambians on away ground.

“No small team in our group; we saw the Zambians against Kenya and they will not be pushovers on Sunday. We are going there to give a good account of ourselves,” he said.

Rohr stated that despite reports that the pitch in Ndola is bad, the Eagles will go all out for the three points at stake in the qualifier, saying he was impressed with the enthusiasm shown by the players so far.

He added that the players had been displaying a big solidarity since their arrival in Abuja to prepare for the World Cup qualifier, saying, however, that the Eagles ought to extend to the away encounter with a

FG to concession Abuja, Lagos stadia —Minister Clement Idoko -Abuja THE Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung has disclosed the readiness of the Federal Government to fully concession Abuja and Lagos stadia, saying government will open bids for them in the coming weeks.

Dalung, while addressing State House correspondents shortly after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, said the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) has already bought into the concession arrangements which was brokered in 2012.

He explained that the concession idea was mooted to put both stadia in constant use and to generate some form of revenue for the government.

He further revealed that government was handicapped in maintaining the facilities, hence the concession, as most parts of the stadia have been overgrown by grass.

The minister, however, disclosed that part of the concession would see the building of five star hotels close to both stadia to boost tourism potential.

“I agree that there is underutilisation of sports facilities in Abuja.

That has taken us to the issue of concession. The facilities cannot be managed effectively by government, looking at the budgetary allocation for even the maintenance.

“Government cannot maintain these facilities. So what we intend to do is to proceed with the concession process which we met on the ground.

“FEC had in 2012 approved the concession of Abuja and Lagos stadiums. We have proceeded with it and even appointed consultants.

“We are at the stage of getting the approval of Bureau for Pub-

A suspect, Trust Bourdilon, allegedly confessed that his dad now at large, is the kingpin of their gang, and that he gave him N350,000 as share out of the N12million ransom they collected for kidnapping four landlords recently in Isheri, Lagos. If one may ask, who did Trust want to blame for his predicament, is the devil or his dad, who recruited him

lic Enterprises (BPE). From there, we can now proceed to call for bids and engage the private sector, so that we can run with the concession arrangement, so that they can come in and invest.”

view to excelling in Ndola.

The Eagles technical adviser confirmed that Victor Moses, Leon Balogun and Odion Ighalo have been excused and their places taken over by players drawn from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

Meanwhile, the full compliments of all the invited players, including last-minute invited leading NPFL goalscorers, Godwin Obaje and Chisom Egbuchunam, defied the rain to train at the National Stadium, on Tuesday.

The players had had a light training in the morning and trained under the rain in the evening under the supervision of Rohr and his lieutenants head coach Salisu Yusuf, Imama Amapakabo, Alloy Agu and foreign assistant Jean Luc Royer and video analyst, Nabil Trabelsi.

The Eagles will this evening square up against NPFL side, Plateau United FC of Jos in a friendly match at the mainbowl of the National Stadium in preparation for Sunday’s World Cup qualifier.

No funds for Zambia game NFF tells Senate

Taiwo Adisa — Abuja

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RESIDENT of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mr Amaju Pinnick, on Tuesday said that the Federation did not not have funds to prosecute the World Cup qualifier between the Super Eagles and the Chipolopolo of Zambia on Sunday.

Pinnick, who stated this while appearing before the Senate Committee on Sports, said that lack of funds was frustrating the Federation’s efforts at ensuring efficiency.

He said: “Nigeria was paired with former Africa Cup of Nations winners, Zambia; Algeria and Cameroon that won the Nations Cup four times, and they have been to the World Cup seven times. Algeria is the highest ranked team in Africa as we speak. It is a group that is called ‘group of death.’

He further said: “The good news is that I think we have a very sound technical crew and we also have a lot of our players doing very well, but the missing link is our financial incapacitation which activates practically every-

Super Eagles manager, Gernot Rohr talking to the players during training, on Tuesday morning in Abuja.

thing you do on the field and off the field.

“Before now, we have sent representation to government for intervention because funds were not coming in from our sponsors, which relates to the economy of the country at the moment and is being very difficult for them; that is what they claim. So, we didn’t have any option but to resort to writing to government, which we did and we are still waiting response from them and the match is in five days.”

According to him, arrangements have been concluded for a chartered flight with Arik Air which he said had already assigned a technical crew.

He also said that the Federation had secured accommodation at a hotel which is ten minutes away from the stadium but added that the NFF was unable to pay for the accommodation.

Pinnick stated: “We have been able to secure about 60 to 70 rooms but we need to make some payments so that they [the hotel management] will keep the rooms because everybody wants to come and watch that game from Zambia and that is our predicament.

“Beyond that, we are also looking at the next game against Algeria, which is coming up on the 9th of November in Uyo [Akwa Ibom State].

The Algerian national team has informed me that they are coming with about two to three private jets that will be bringing their team.

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