Peoples Daily Newspaper, Friday 21, June, 2013

www.peoplesdailyng.com

Vol. 11 No. 25

Friday, June 21, 2013

. . . putting the people first

President Jonathan advocates two-party system >>3

Sha’aban 13, 1434 AH

N150

Traders foil attack, capture six insurgents in Borno >>5

2015: ACF accuses Jonathan of dividing North

From Muhammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

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rewa Consultative Forum (ACF) yesterday raised an alarm that President Goodluck Jonathan has started using divide and rule tactics on

northern leaders for a political gain so as to render them powerless before the 2015 general elections.

The Forum stated that it noticed with dismay that some members of the forum have already gone to the President to prevail on

PDP NEC

him to contest for election in 2015.

Chairman of the Forum, Alhaji Aliko Mohammad, who disclosed this while reading the speech on behalf of the BOT Chairman, Jeremiah Useni at the Annual General Meeting of the body held in Kaduna

said the ACF believed that starting politics of 2015 two years earlier is counterproductive, adding that such a thing will only heat up the polity.

“I am very sad that the presidency has Contd. on Page 2

Tukur survives sack lFive governors absent ‘

Prior to the NEC meeting, there were speculations that the PDP stakeholders, especially the governors on the platform of the party, have perfected plots to remove the National Chairman

lNew exco emerges July 20 ’ l2015 presidency behind crises — Jang

By Lawrence Olaoye

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ension was doused yesterday as the embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Baman ga Tukur, survived removal plot at the National Executive Committee (NEC).

This is coming as the PDP NEC passed a vote of confidence on President Goodluck Jonathan for his performance in the last two years that he has been in the saddle as the head of the executive arm of government. The vote of confidence motion was moved by the former Senate President, Senator Ibrahim Mantu.

Prior to the NEC meeting, there were speculations that the PDP stakeholders, especially the governors on the platform of the party, have perfected plots to remove the National Chairman.

Tukur had recently come under severe attacks following the suspension of the Rivers state governor and a factional Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi Contd. on Page 2

L-R: National Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice-President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, Senate President David Mark, and Speaker, House of Representatives Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, during the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Joe Oroye

‘200 Nigerian girls trafficked to Russia monthly’ >>6

News PAGE 2

CONTENTS News 2-10 Editorial 12 Op.Ed 13 Letters 14 Opinion 15 Metro 16-18 Business 19-22 Stockwatch 23 S/Report 24-25 Islam 26 Int’l 27-30 Strange World 31

FAAC: Things fall apart, Page 4

Revue 32-33 Feature 34-35 Digest 36 Politics 37-38 Newsxtra 40 Sports 41-46 Leisure 47 Columnist 48

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PDP NEC: Tukur survives sack Contd. from Front Page and his Sokoto state counterpart, Dr. Aliyu Matagakarda Wamakko.

A Presidential committee chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Dr. Anyim Pius Anyim, set up byPresident Goodluck Jonathan to investigate the crisis in the PDP however recommended Wamakko’s recall.

The Sokoto state governor was recalled and he attended the PDP NEC held in Abuja yesterday.

Two other members of the NWC, the National Auditor, Alhaji Adewole Adeyanju and the National Financial Secretary, Elder Bolaji Anani, equally survived the removal plot as they were both duly elected at the 2012 convention.

Some other members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) that were not properly elected at the 2012 party congress however were not that lucky as they turned in their resignation letters yesterday.

Sixteen members of the NWC who resigned would have to recontests for their positions at the July 20th PDP Special Congress.

Briefing newsmen on the outcome of the NEC meeting yesterday, Professor Jerry Gana, said the Committee accepted the resignation of the 8 NWC members and their deputies affected by the INEC report.

Five governors shun PDP NEC Eighteen governors on the platform of the ruling party attended the NEC with only those of Bauchi, Ebonyi, Adamawa, Enugu and Rivers states conspicuously absent.

Governor Rotimi Amaechi is currently serving a suspension term handed down to him by the leadership of the party.

Governors at the PDP NEC include those of Abia, Kogi,

Ag. Taraba governor, Kaduna, Niger, Kwara, Kano, Bauchi, Gombe and Kebbi. Others are the governors of Cross Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Akwa-Ibom states.

Other important personalities at the meeting, apart from Presint Goodluck Jonathan and his Vice, Arc. Namadi Sambo, include the Senate President, David Mark and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and his Deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, and other principal officers of both chambers of the National Assembly.

Other notable personalities at the PDP NEC include the PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Alhaji Musa Babayo, Chief Jim Nwobodo, Chief Bode George, Dr. Adamu Muazu, Alhaji Haliru Bello, Chief Adolphus Wabara, Professor Jerry Gana, Chief Ken Nnamani, Dr. Ahmed Gulak amongst others.

Sacked NWC members get replacement July 20 The PDP NEC has fixed fixed July 20 as the date for Special Convention to fill the positions made vacant by the resignation of some members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC). Professor Jerry Gana who briefed newsmen on the outcome of the NEC meeting yesterday said that guidelines for the congress would be made available having been approved by the NEC even as he disclosed that the delegates expected to participate in the Special Congress would be the same set of people that participated in the 2012 Congress.

According to him, the list of the delegates has been ratified by the NEC and their role at the Congress would be to properly

ratify the NWC officials who resigned their appointments.

This means that there would be no congresses to elect new delegates at the state levels except in the a South West zone where its 2012 congress was challenged in court. The South West congress is expected to hold on the 11th of July.

Gana, who assured that the NEC would painstakingly observe all democratic process in order to avoid the mistakes of the past, disclosed that the Akwa-Ibom state governor, Barrister Godswill Akpabio, would deputize him as the chairman of the Convention Organizing Committee with the Deputy Senate President serving as the Secretary of the body.

He added that two delegates each would be on board the Organizing Committee to represent the 36 states of the federation but the modalities for the selection of the representatives would be made public at the appropriate time.

The committee will meet today in Abuja to deliberate further on how to carry out its assignments.

The NEC has approved 21 names as interim replacement for those NWC members who resigned their positions. These include Hon. Chibudom Nwuche, Ag. Deputy National Chairman, Dr. Remi Akintoye, Ag. National Secretary, Sen. Emma Agboti, Deputy National Secretary, Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar, Ag. National Organising Secretary, Tony Ceasat Okeke, Sg. National Publicity Secretary and Simon D. Jok, Ag. National Legal Adviser.

Others include Ag. National Youth Leader Barr. Tanko Beji, Ag. National Woman Leader Barr. Oyibo Nwaneri, Ag. Deputy National Legal Adviser Barr. Yau Kwadon, Ag. Deputy National Youth Leader Hon. Peter Adefunmilayo, Ag. Deputy National Auditor Nasiru

Ibrahim Birchi, Ag. Deputy National Women Leader Mrs. Torkwase Ajoh, Ag. National Treasurer Mohammed Dandari, Ag. Deputy National Organizing Secretary Onyemaechi Ikechukwu Jideofor.

Ag. Deputy National Financial Secretary Hon. Awalu Gwalabe, Ag. Deputy National Treasurer Chief Augustine Lugbenwei, Ag. Deputy National Publicity Secretary Calib Yahaya, Ag. Ex-Officio Chief Akin Taiwo, Ag. Ex-Officio Tope Ademiluyi, Ag. Ex-Officio Chief Mike Akinfenwa and Ag. Ex-Officio Hon. Gbenga Oduwaiye.

2015 Presidency behind NGF crises-Jang Plateau State Governor and factional Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Jonah Jang, has said the quest for the 2015 Presintial ticket was responsible for the crises in the Peoples Democratic Party and the NGF. He made the remark at the end of the meeting of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday.

“We know this whole thing is about 2015,” he said. “But I want to let them know that 2015 is in the hands of God. Let us wait and see.” Jang however insisted that he remained the authentic chairman of the NGF and promised to make peace with the other governors keeping away from the meetings presided over by him.

“In a big party such as this, you will expect these crises to happen,” the governor further said. PDP is solid and if some opposition thinks they will use our members to break our ranks, they are wasting their time. By the time we finish our NEC meeting, PDP will come back stronger,’” he assured.

2015: ACF accuses Jonathan of dividing North Contd. from Front Page started divide and rule on the north. Recently we noticed with dismay that some members of this organization have gone to the President and assured him that he must contest for election in 2015.

“We were surprised that some of the members that went there are also members of ACF, particularly two gentlemen. The two gentlemen, one belongs to ACF and the other one is in Elders Forum. We were surprised that really because one of them has being very helpful to us. We went to Madugri together when we went to see Dr Datti Ahmad he was with us. He made it possible for us when we went to Maiduguri to meet with the leaders of JTF. “We also feel that every meeting we have, we do it together and he went with the group saying that the president must

contest. Edwin Clark was the one who asked them to go and they went thereby showing the whole world that now the north is divided,” he said.

The group also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct all elections into political offices in the country in one day in 2015 for there to be free and fair polls.

ACF stated “We have noticed that for a free and fair elections in 2015, we think that there should be only one election day. If Kenya would have one day election for seven elections i.e the president, governors, senators, House of Representatives, State House Assembly and Local governments all in one day, I cannot see any reason why Nigeria could not do so.

“We also feel it’s going to be cheaper because it’s going to be just one day election and all the

security thing will be done on that same day. If Kenya can do it, I don’t see any reason why Nigeria cannot do it.We also feel there is the need to pressurize INEC to see our point of view to have elections same day.

He continued: “During one of our visits to Kano, when we saw the Kano state governor he suggested that ACF should reconcile about leadership of the north. I think now it is necessary for ACF to intervene on what is happening with regards to Northern governors.

“We are not talking about Nigeria Governors’ Forum where 36 people cannot decide whom to lead them. We are talking about north where already two governors have already withdrawn. It is something that should not be. I come from Bauchi, I feel unhappy that our governor has withdrawn from the governor’s forum.

“At the same time when he didn’t attend the meeting, the governors appointed a man as Group Managing of NNDC from Bauchi state. That means they still see Bauchi as part of the north,” he said On their plans to come under one umbrella with other northern groups, the ACF chairman said “ ACF also want to bring all members of the forum who have opted out and formed their own platforms in order to speak for the north. This effort to come together is necessary for common vision, common goal and common strategies needed to negotiate from position of strength and secure some favorable terms in the polity. We were approached in the beginning of this year by Northern Elders Forum; they suggested that we have a meeting with all the groups in the north and we accepted,” he disclosed.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

News

I never begged to be NGF chairman - Jang

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L-R: Etsu of Pategi, Alhaji Ibrahim Umar, Etsu Nupe and Chairman, Niger state Council of Traditional Rulers, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, chairman of the occasion, General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), and the book author, Mr. Solomon Adama Yisa, during the public presentation of Nupe Heritage Dictionary, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

Emergency rule has improved national security — Jonathan resident Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that the declaration of state of emergency in the northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa on May 14 has ushered significant improvements in national security.

According to Jonathan, the emergency rule has drawn the sympathy and support of ordinary Nigerians in the areas, a situation he the President noted, confirmed the people’s discontentment with the hitherto regime of terror and perpetrated by insurgent groups.

Jonathan spoke in his opening remarks at the 14th meeting of the Honorary International Investor Council (HIIC), advisory council

to attract global financial players into the Nigerian economy, coordinated by Baroness Lynda Chalker.

He explained that the insurgencies witnessed in the country had nothing to do with religion but activities of internationally backed terror groups determined to destabilize the country.

He said that government was not unmindful of the fact that in order to attract investments and development, government must guarantee safety of lives, property and investments.

He expressed appreciation to the members of the HIIC for their efforts at attracting business and

investments into the country and encourage them to do more, He said the nation’s economy is growing, but he would like to see it improved to an appreciable level of double digit growth.

The President informed the Council that he presented a midterm report of performance of his administration on May 29 to correct the “lots of misinformation” going on among the people.

He said the presentation had helped to correct the negative projection of the administration particularly through the media.

Earlier, Chalker said that government must take pro-active action to address the problem of oil

theft which she said was “diminishing income into the treasury”.

She also charged the government to double its drive on the development of infrastructure, roads, rails, power, which she said “are key to solving other problems’’.

Giving accounts of impacts of the activities of the HIIC on national development, Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga said there was significant increase in foreign direct investment in the conomy.

Specifically, he said the petrochemical sub-sector attracted over 20 billion dollar investments with over 8 billion dollar contribution by the Dangote group.

Aganga said the investments in petro-chemical have encouraged value addition into the oil and gas sector and generate employment.

He said the country will soon launch its auto-programme with a plan by Nissan Automobile to launch an assembly plant in the country.

By Lawrence Olaoye

PDP now is that if you look at the evolution of political parties, it is now stable. Before, when elections are coming, by now you will be hearing about new parties being formed and at a time, the ballot paper was becoming too long; INEC was finding a way of deregistering parties.

“Because PDP has come on very strong, no matter that they are criticizing us, they know that we are very strong and they realize that what they need to do is not to form new parties but parties coming together. So, we are helping to stabilize the polity.

“We will encourage them to come together more. We want a situation where it is PDP versus one.

In that case, the polity will be more stable. Even our members will be more loyal to the party because you

will have nowhere to go.

“All this time, immediately we disagree in PDP, somebody is picking form in one PPP, DDD party and contesting House of Assembly or House of Reps or Senate. When we have only two, before you get there, they have already occupied that place. So, even if we disagree, we will agree at the end of the day and it will even help to build a stronger party.

“So, Nigerians should commend PDP. If PDP were weak, people wouldn’t have gathered together.

There wouldn’t have been any reason for parties to come together to fight PDP. But when you have so many parties on their own, they know they cannot face us until they come together; then you know that we are formidable. And PDP will become stronger and no matter the

gang up, I don’t see how they can uproot the PDP.” Jonathan also observed that the number of states under the umbrella of the party at inception of democracy in 1999 has dwindled but urged the PDP stakeholders to ensure that the party builds on its current 23 states by 2015.

He also dismissed claim that the recent killings in Zamfara were done by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents insisting instead that ethnic intolerance was at the heart of the attack.

Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the PDPGF who pledged the body support to the party’s leadership and the President said “The PDP Governors’ Forum is therefore a new baby, a new organ and we are now reporting ourselves to NEC that we are now born and we are ready

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l a t e a u state Gove rnor, Jonah Jang, has denied a claim by the Kano Kano state governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, that he (Jang) begged to be nominated for the contentious position of NGF chairman.

A statement yesterday by the Plateau state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Yiljap Abraham, said that Jang never begged any governor to nominate him.

According to the statement, Jang lost the election by 16 votes to 19 to Amaechi.

“Governor Jang never sought to be consensus candidate, he never begged for NGF chairmanship and so cannot be disgraced.

“We refuse to consider that political deception should be celebrated as a national value or that it proves a graduation from elementary politics.

“Rather, leaders should be made to uphold universally accepted values such as truthfulness, unity, sincerity, courage and integrity,” the statement said.

2014 council polls: LASIEC announces new wards, polling units

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he Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) says it has created more wards and polling units in the state ahead of the 2014 council polls.

The LASIEC Chairman, retired Justice Afolabi Adeyinka, made this known to newsmen after a stakeholders’ forum in Ikeja on Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state currently has 245 wards created by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 20 old councils.

In 2013, additional 131 wards were created by LASIEC for the 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) bringing the number of wards in the state to 376.

Jonathan advocates two-party system

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resident Goodluck Jonathan yesterday tacitly advocated a two party system in the country while commending the opposition parties for coming together to form a formidable force against the ruling party saying such would stabilize the polity.

The President who lauded the creation of the PDP Governors’ Form (PDPGF) chaired by the Akwa Ibom state governor, Barrister Godswill Akpabio, however declared that such merger cannot stop the ruling party from winning elections in 2015 and beyond.

Jonathan, while speaking at the PDP National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the party’s secretariat said “One good thing that Nigerians should commend

to serve. We have been serving, on behalf of my colleagues, I want to say we have come to NEC not just as governors individually, but we are now coming under the PDP Governors Forum.”

Meanwhile, the PDP National Chairman,Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, lamented that internal communication has declined considerably in the party just as he wondered whether the apathy in party funding by critical stakeholders under his leadership was not meant to deliberately weaken his administration.

He however warned that internal wrangling, confrontation of the party leadership and overheating the polity because of inordinate ambition of some individuals would not be of any use to the development of the PDP.

The Page 4 Report

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

FAAC: Things fall apart

inister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Lawal Ngama is a fine banker of immense pedigree, no doubt. At the defunct Inland Bank Plc where he held the prestigious position of Executive Director (ED), his imprints still stand the test of time in the banking sector.

However, typical of humans as political animals, the political instinct in Dr. Ngama ignited his interest in partisan politics. Listening to his inner conscience, coupled with the burning desire to serve his people, Ngama craved to serve Yobe at the top position of Governor, under the magnificent umbrella party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The clique of power brokers in Yobe state however denied Ngama the platform to actualize his governorship ambition.

A dutiful and loyal member of PDP, Ngama refused to quit the umbrella party even when he was denied the ticket. He was compensated with a ministerial slot in the cabinet as Minister of State for Finance As customary with the occupant of the slot, he chairs a powerful congregation comprising States’ Commissioners of Finance, AuditorGenerals (states), representatives of Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

The platform determines on monthly basis, revenue accruals to Federation Account for sharing among the three tiers of government.

Going by the crucial nature of this organ, FAAC is thus, the live wire binding the federating units that make up Nigeria. It is this forum that brings together the States and the Federal Government monthly to share funds accrued to the Revenue Consolidation coffers to oil the wheel of governance.

Unfortunately, Ngama’s sterling qualities and intimidating profile as a fine banker have not come handy to aid him in his present job schedule as Minister of State for Finance, which confers on him the responsibility to superintend over FAAC meetings.

So far, his performance as the chair of FAAC has not been palatable.

It has been a running battle between him as FAAC chair and the entire States’ Commissioner s of Finance, who are the eyes of their respective states when it comes to the sharing of monies in the consolidated revenue accounts.

Indications of cracks in Ngama’s FAAC surfaced very early on his assumption as chair of the forum.

The Commissioners - the few that have close relationship with reporters covering the forum – regularly condemn what they see

The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), which is a congregation of the 36 State Commissioners of Finance and officials of the Federal Government that meets monthly to consider and share revenue accruals to the three tiers of government is fast going the way of crisesridden Nigeria Governors Forum. Abdulwahab Isa, in this analysis, x-rays the twin issues of lack of coordination and cash crunch which are at the centre of the current crisis.

Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Lawal Ngama

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So far, his performance as the chair of FAAC has not been palatable. It has been a running battle between him as FAAC chair and the entire States’ Commissioner s of Finance, who are the eyes of their respective states when it comes to the sharing of monies in the consolidated revenue accounts. as his unserious approach to the activities of the forum, alleging that he chooses when to show up for FAAC meetings .

They compare Ngama’s leadership of FAAC to the previous chair of the forum in the person of Remi Babalola, and many of them conclude that though both are experienced bankers, Ngama has failed woefully in the handling of FAAC affairs. According to them, Remi Babalola’s performance remains unequalled.

Two recent crises that engulfed FAAC, if anything, have validated the Commissioners’ position. The most

recent was last week Thursday. The Commissioners of Finance walked out on Dr. Ngama, and left Abuja without any cash.

Speaking on their grouse, Commissioners of Finance Forum Chair, Timothy Odaah (Ebonyi State) said there would no longer be FAAC meetings “until all the conditions are met by the Federal Government”.

The same Odaah had, sometime in March this year, lamented on the ‘undignified treatment’ Ngama was subjecting them to in the course of FAAC meetings. He said, “the implementation of the decisions

and resolutions taken in most FAAC meeting plenary sessions, especially the May 2013 resolutions still remain inconclusive based on the fact that the arrears of February have not been paid.”

He also complained about the failure of the committee to pay “augmentation of last month (April Allocation) passed with a resolution.

This augmentation has not been paid and there is no clue as to why”.

Odaah lamented that “every month, returns from the states Accountants-General appear to be shabbier than the previous one”.

He said states “have taken a lot of disappointments from the administration of FAAC which by all intents and purposes have become templates of ineptitude”.

The states and local governments, he added, “have been bearing with the situation. Workers and contractors have to be paid, the various programmes of the state governments and local governments that are embodied in their various manifestos to carry the federation of Nigeria along with other obligations have to be met”.

The commissioners of finance say they have decided to take the matter up with the President “so that he and the state governments can meet on these decisions for the problems to be resolved once and for all”.

But curiously, Ngama is not entirely to be blamed for the current slow pace of FAAC. While his lukewarm disposition to FAAC meetings is entirely his problem, the ‘no-cash available to share’ is a problem of oil theft and pipeline vandalism which is already a threat to 2013 budget implementation.

Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, his first since last week’s boycott of FAAC meeting by states’ Commissioners of finance, Ngama brushed aside the purported agreement the Commissioners claimed he (Minister) reneged on implementing , saying there was never an agreement.

“There is nothing like an agreement. The main issue is, we have shortages in the revenue.

So the amount that was available statutorily is reduced to three tires of the government including the Federal Government. We don’t have enough because there is a shortfall.

The timing is the issue”.

At a recent forum addressed in Abuja by the Coordinating Minister for the economy and the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi OkonjoIweala, and the Director General, Budget Office, Dr Bright Okogu, the duo raised alarm that the 2013 budget is facing a serious threat occasioned by unrestrained oil theft and low demand for crude oil at the international market.

Highlighting some of the factors that may hamper the country’s oil revenue projection, the minister stated that some African countries such as Ghana, Liberia Cote d’Ivoire and Uganda that normally buy the Nigerian crude oil are now oil producing countries while the United States of America is now self-sufficient in oil and would no longer have the need to import oil from Nigeria.

Besides this, the Coordinating Minister for the economy also stated that oil theft and pipeline vandalism were capable of making nonsense of the oil production projection of 2.63million barrels per day. To corroborate the huge quantum of oil theft, even when billions of naira was signed out by Federal Government to some ex-militant kingpins for contracts to secure oil pipelines and crude theft, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) recently raised the alarm on the absence of reliable data on the quantity of crude oil being lost to theft, bunkering and pipeline vandalism in the country.

The Chairman, National Stakeholders’ Working Group, NEITI, Mr. Ledum Mitee, made the organisation’s position known to President Goodluck Jonathan when he led members of the Board and Management to a meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Mitee sought the President’s intervention in the area of putting in place a proper metering regime for the oil industry.

He said, “One of the major problems in the industry is the issue of oil theft; NEITI is concerned about this ugly trend in our oil and gas sector in view of its huge negative economic implications and massive revenue losses to the country. We are of the view that the absence of a reliable baseline information and data on the actual quantity of crude either lost through theft, bunkering or pipeline vandalism remains a major challenge”.

According to him, “Whilst our reports will always try to capture this, NEITI wishes to call for urgent presidential intervention on the issue of proper metering regime, which has always been a recurring recommendation of our audits”.

As things stand now, oil militants whom the Federal Government is paying heavily with tax payers’ money to protect oil installations have questions to answer.

News

PEOPLES DAILY,FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Borno confirms five pupils, six teachers killed in schools attacks From Mustapha

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orno state government yesterday said six teachers and five pupils were killed in last Monday’s multiple attacks carried out by suspected Boko Haram insurgents on some primary schools in various locations of Maiduguri.

Peoples Daily reports that nine final year students who were writing the ongoing National Examination Council (NECO) were also killed when suspected insurgents launched coordinated attacks on the primary and secondary schools.

The Commissioner for Basic Education Prof. Tijjani Abba, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the achievements of his ministry in the last two years, saying government has so far adopted concrete security strategies to avert recurrence of the incidents.

Abba who described the killings as ‘barbaric’, warned that if remained

unchecked the trend would thwart the ongoing educational revolution embarked upon by Governor Kashim Shettima.

“It was very unfortunate that the hoodlums attacked and killed innocent souls in the line of duties, this heartless and unjustifiable madness must not be allowed to continue unchallenged due to its negative impact on the educational sector and the citizens in general”, he said.

The Commissioner added that as part of measures to ensure safety of teachers and pupils, government has directed the

chairmen of the 27 local government councils to utilize parts of their monthly financial allocations from the Federal Government in providing security cover for all public schools in their respective domains.

He noted that as an expression of sympathy and solidarity for the slain teachers and pupils, government is planning to assist their families and parents.

He also said that 50 primary schools in northern and central senatorial districts of the state were allegedly burnt by the

Human trafficking: U.S. report indicts Nigeria

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he U.S. Department of State has released its 2013 report on Trafficking In Persons Report

indicting Nigeria for not not fully complying with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons.

According to report released by the the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, “in the 2013 TIP report, Nigeria remained in Tier

up and arrested six gunmen, before handing them over to the operatives of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), witnesses told newsmen.

This came even as spokesman for the insurgent

group, Abu Zinnari declared war on the youth vigilante group popularly known as ‘civilian JTF’, who are engaged in the massive manhunt for the fleeing militants.

It was further gathered that

Traders foil attack, capture six insurgents in Borno

From Mustapha

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ome gallant traders at the popular Gamboru market in Maiduguri metropolis, on Wednesday foiled an attack by suspected Boko Haram insurgents as they rounded

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Court strikes out $48 million land suit against FAAN

From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

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Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos has struke out a suit over a disputed parcel of land besides the terminal building of the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos. The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and AIC Ltd had been locked

in a protracted dispute over the land.

AIC Ltd, owned by former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Chief Harry Akande, claimed to have acquired the land for the construction of a hotel complex at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Ikeja.

Delivering judgment in three separate suits over the case, presiding Judge, Justice

Buba, ruled that the Arbitral tribunal, which had earlier awarded AIC Ltd the sum of $48, 124, 000, miss-conducted itself and went outside its jurisdiction in rendering the final award between the parties on June 1, 2010.

Buba declared the award null and void.

AIC Limited had filed two suits on the matter, following

the award of the arbitration, seeking first, an order to set aside the decision contained in part of the final arbitration award and ask that the same be remitted back to the arbitrator for reconsideration and the arbitration be enforced.

Also FAAN had equally filed an application challenging same before both parties were locked in disputes that resulted

in minor scuffle on the land in January.

A source at FAAN told our correspondent that the Federal Government has earmarked the said land for massive infrastructural development that will include an ultramodern hotel complex, a multi-storey car park and other projects, designed to expand facilities at the airport.

Why FG took custody of Kenya Airways aircraft From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

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L-R: President, Association of Women Engineers of Nigeria, Mrs Olayinka Abdul, Minister of Works, Mr Mike Onolememem, and President, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Mr Mustafa Shehu, during the public lecture on the road sector reform for sustainable development, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: NAN

‘200 Nigerian girls trafficked to Russia monthly’

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o fewer than 200 Nigerian girls are trafficked every month to Russia for prostitution, the Nigeria’s ambassador to Russia,Asam Asam, has said.

Mr. Asam, who spoke against the backdrop of consular challenges faced by the embassy, disclosed this in an interview with the Europe Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria in Berlin.

An investigation revealed that the crime has declined in Western Europe following strict laws on illegal migration, and joint efforts

by Nigeria and the governments of those countries to curb the menace.

However, attention has shifted to Eastern Europe as the new

destination for the trade.

“The major consular challenge we face in Moscow is the influx of trafficked persons from Nigeria, not less than 200 girls are trafficked every month, and we have so many of them exposed to danger.

“Some are thrown out of the window and treated harshly, there must be a way of stopping these racketeering; these girls are not tourists, students or government officials yet they are given visas from the Russian embassy in Abuja.

“So far we have deported over 240 girls since 2012. You will be shocked at the extent of resistance from the girls; we tell them Russia is not a destination for prostitutes, yet they still come,” Mr. Asam said.

He said the mission tries to curb the menace by arranging deportation exercise for those caught, but the challenges are enormous.

The envoy said such intervention would be more effective at the point of entry, saying “the strategy is to stop them from Nigeria, and fish out those involved in the trade.”

“For instance a well known Russian human trafficker who has been in the trade for about 20 years was caught in Nigeria.

“The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons( NAPTIP) was on the verge of releasing her before I filed a protest from Moscow to the Comptroller General of Immigration,” Mr.

Asama stressed.

He said even the parents of those trafficked encourage their children “I spoke to the mother of one of the girls and she said her daughter should remain in Moscow and try to survive the ordeal, this is very sad indeed coming from one’s parent,” he said.

He tasked the media on sensitising the public on the dangers of trafficking in Russia, saying “this East European nation has become a new destination for them, and believe me it is a very big crime here.’’

Mr. Asam, however, said that other Nigerians who reside in that country were students, and professionals in various fields.

was expended on tuition fees of 57 s t u d e n t s f r o m t h e council studying at the Sultan Abdulrahman School of Health Technology, Gwadabawa. ``We have also spent N600, 000 on the payment of the registration fees of NCE 1 and NCE 2 students at the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto. ``The council has also spent N2.45 million in the payment of registration of 56 indigenes of the area at the

Sultan Maccido Institute for Qur’an and General Studies, Sokoto for 2013 academic session. ``In the same vein, the local government has spent N300,000 as fees of its indigenes studying at the College of Nursing and Midwifery, Sokoto,” ‘YarRimawa said.

He further said that his administration printed 20,000 exercise books, at the cost of N1.5 million, which were distributed to all the primary schools in the

area.

‘Yar-Rimawa said the council had repaired the grounded bus of the Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu Science Secondary school, Goronyo with N750,000, while a generating set worth N150, 000 was donated to the school.

According to him, 20 per cent of the students being assisted by the local government to study in the tertiary institutions are women as part of the council’s efforts to encourage girl-child education. (NAN)

LG spends N6.2m on students’ registration fees in Sokoto

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he Goronyo local government in Sokoto state on Thursday said it spent N6.2 million on the registration fees of its students studying in various tertiary institutions in the state.

The Council Chairman, Alhaji Faruk ‘Yar-Rimawa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto that out of the amount N1.98 million was spent on fees of 100 students at the state polytechnic, Sokoto. ``Similarly, N1.4 million

he Federal Government yesterday gave reasons for the continued detention of an aircraft belonging to Kenya Airways said to have been prevented from flying out of the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos since it arrived the terminal on June 3rd this year.

According to the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the custodian of all airports in the country, the jet, a DC-9 marked 5Y-SAX, violated security the security procedures of entering the territorial airspace of Nigeria.

The aircraft, said to have arrived Nigeria about 6.36 p. m with 18 passengers including three deportees from the East African country on the said date was detected to have breached routine checks usually carried out on any aircraft.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Aviation and General Manager, Corporate Communications of FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati, said the aircraft had been detained by security agencies since June 3, 2013, under the directive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and will be release once it satisfies routine security checks.

Dati told reporters that the plane operated by Cavoc Airlines arrived Nigeria on June 3 with 15 crew members and the three Nigerians who were deported.

The deported Nigerians who were said to have been involved in various offences in the country were still in a detention facility at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the watchful eyes of security agencies.

“On the 3rd of June at about 18:36 hours, a Kenya aircraft with registration number 5Y-SAX, owned

by Cavoc Airlines arrived Nigeria with a total of 18 persons. Among them, 15 were crew members while three were passengers.

“The three Nigerians were said to be deportees from Kenya, but the security agencies in Lagos discovered that certain procedures were not complied with and subsequently grounded the aircraft.

“That is why the aircraft has been grounded and it is going through security routine at the moment. As soon as the grey areas are clarified the aircraft will be released according to the laws of the land. The type of aircraft is DC-9 and the deported are still under detention,” he said further in a statement.

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 7

Photos Splash

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Managing Director, UBA Foundation, Ms. Ijeoma Aso, Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, and Group Managing Director/CEO, United Bank for Africa Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, in a group photograph with students of Police Secondary Schools in Nigeria, during UBA Foundation donation of literature books to the pupils at a special edition of the Foundation’s Read Africa initiative, yesterday in Abuja on Thursday

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

L-R: Chairman of the Occasion, General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), Niger state governor, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, and Etsu Nupe and Chairman, Niger state Council of Traditional Rulers, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, during the public presentation of Nupe Heritage Dictionary, yesterday in Abuja.

R-L: Chairman, Jaiz Bank, Alhaji Umaru Abdul Mutallab, President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman, Forte Oil, Mr. Femi Otedola, and others, during the 14th meeting Honorary International Investor Council (HIIC), yesterday at the state house, in Abuja.

Commandant, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Plateau, Mr. Barture Vincent (left), monitoring National Examinations Council (NECO) examinations, yesterday in Jos.

L-R: President, Nigeria Labour congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, President, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Peter Esele, and Minister of Labour, chief Emeka Wogu, during the TUC 9th triennial national delegates conference, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Joe Oroye, Justin Imo-Owo & NAN

News

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 9

Katsina to establish marketing board

Pensioners decry non-payment of N90m arrears

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overnor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina state has said that government would establish a produce marketing board in its bid to develop agriculture and guarantee food security.

Shema said this in Katsina yesterday when he received a report of the committee to work out the modalities of establishing the board.

He said that the decision to establish the board was hinged on the fact that more than 80 per cent of the population of the state are farmers.

According to him, the state also has fertile land suitable for almost all types of crops.

Shema promised that his administration will strive to eradicate poverty, create job opportunities for unemployed youths and improve the revenue base of the state.

He also said that the government would support farming to enhance the socio-economic development of the state.

Shema said that the government would look into the possibility of supporting farmers to cultivate gum Arabic in view of its monetary value in the international market.

He urged the committee to assist the government to set up the legal framework for the establishment of the board. (NAN)

Al-makura re-affirms determination to develop Nasarawa

By Umar Muhammad Puma

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asarawa state Governor, Umar Tanko Al-makura, has said that he would not succumb to any form of intimidation and threat by critics that are perpetually bent on distracting his administration progress.

This was contained in a press statement yesterday issued to newsmen in Abuja by his senior special assistant on Media and Press Affairs, Sani Musa Mairiga.

The Governor said that, “some unpatriotic people have been threatening this administration and want it to fail.

“I want to assure them that we will not fail and that no amount of pressure will make us lose focus.”

Al-makura said his government would not betray the social contract he signed with the good people of Nasarawa state and would turn the pages of history in their favour by improving their living standard.

The statement said that, “this government will not negotiate the future of our dear state with detractors because doing that will be tantamount to mortgaging the destiny of our people with the same group which held it hostage in the past.

“The task of building the state politically, economically and socially is not a child’s play and as such the governor has refused to be distracted by those whose expectation he had surpassed.”

By Emmanuel Eko

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L-R: Company Secretary, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Mrs. Cecilia Ekanem Madueke, Managing Director, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Mr. Wolfgang Goetsch, and Chairman, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Air Vice-Marshal Mohammed Nurudeen Imam (rtd), during the company’s 43rd Annual General Meeting, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

he Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) yesterday said that contrary to directives of President Goodluck Jonathan for immediate payment of the 14 months arrears of the check-off dues owed the union, only six months arrears was released.

Jonathan had last year directed the Head of Service of Federation to pay all the outstanding arrears of the union’s check- off dues.

The amount for the six months, according to the General Secretary of the NUP, Comrade Elder Actor Zal, in a statement put the total amount at about N90 million.

He described the NUP as the only voice and representative of entire civil pensioners.

FG moves to check corruption in police salaries

By Lambert Tyem

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he Federal Government yesterday began moves to check corruption in the Nigeria Police salary system by integrating its payment and personnel information system with the Ministry of Finance.

Speaking at a training workshop for the police in Abuja yesterday, a representative of

the Accountant General of the Federation, Mrs. Fatima Nana Mede, said that the move would eradicate all forms of corruption associated with police salaries.

Mede who said that over 300,000 police officers are currently on government payroll, noted that the measure would also rid the force of incidences of ghost workers and other per-

sons who are not entitled to police salary.

She further disclosed that the government was set to deploy auditors to every police station and formation to carry out physical audit of the policemen across the federation.

According to her, government officials had been engaged in age and documentation falsification and have continued to

receive salaries even when they should have been retired from government service.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar, urged the participants to ensure that they embrace the mechanism of the new salary system pointing out that intentional mistakes which could lead to corruption would not be tolerated by the police management.

lack of discipline in the society.

But the group called on the Federal Government to respect the existing moratorium on execution of death penalty.

It identified inefficient investigation mechanism by security agents, extraction of confessional statements from suspects under duress, the delay in trial as a result of constant court adjournments, non adherence to due process and the principle of fair trial from arrest, trial and sentencing as the major chal-

lenges facing the criminal justice system in the country.

According to the statement, “the irrevocability of execution where evidence later reveals the innocence of the convict and the non proportionality of offence to the punishment are some of the major concern in the use of capital punishment.”

The lawyers stressed the need for a review of the criminal justice system in the country.

They noted that the move by the government to resume ex-

ecution of over 700 inmates on death row in Nigeria will be contrary to commitments made by the Nigerian government at the international level.

In November 2008, the statement said, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights at its 44th Ordinary Session in Abuja, Nigeria, adopted a resolution calling on state parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to observe a moratorium on the death penalty.

Death warrant: Group condemns presidential directive to governors

By Sunday Ejike Benjamin

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group, Lawyers Without Borders, has condemned President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent call on governors to exercise their constitutional responsibility of signing death warrant for the enforcement of capital punishment for convicts on death penalty.

The group, in a statement described the order as insensitive.

Jonathan had called on governors to sign death warrants under the guise of curbing the

Jonathan appoints Osahon new DPP boss as Bello takes charge of Shippers’ Council

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resident Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Mr. George Abiodun Osahon as the new Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

Osahon who has over 30 years experience in the petroleum sector replaces Mr. Osten Olorunshola who was appointed to the position in 2011.

A statement by Jonathan’s spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati,

noted that Osahon is expected to reposition the DPR and enhance the department’s ability to address the critical challenges of regulating the upstream and downstream sectors of Nigeria’s petroleum industry and enforcing the provisions of the country’s petroleum laws.

Previous positions held by the new DPR Director include Group General Manager – National Petroleum Investment Management

Services (NAPIMS), Managing Director – Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and Managing Director of Energia.

He was until the latest appointment, Managing Director of GeoConcept Technical Limited and hails from Edo state.

Jonathan has also approved the appointment of Mr. Hassan Bello as the substantive Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers

Council.

Bello hails from Kebbi State and graduated from Ahmadu Bello University’s Faculty of Law in 1981.

He later obtained a Masters of Law Degree from the University in 1990.

Before joining the Nigerian Shippers Council in 1998, Bello worked with the Sokoto State Ministry of Justice and the Sokoto Investments Company.

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 10

News Briefs

Zamfara blame Police over Kizara killings

From Ibrahim Sidi Muh’d, Gusau Zamfara state government yesterday blamed the police for Tuesday’s killing of over 60 persons at Kizara village of Tsafe local government area.

Speaking when he went on assessment visit to the area, the acting Governor, Malam Ibrahim Wakkala Muhammad, lamented the withdrawal of policemen from the area without replacement.

He said the situation gave the bandits a chance to launch a the attack.

He directed the Zamfara State Emergency Management Agency (ZEMA) to prepare relief materials for the families of victims affected by the incidence.

He said the government was doing everything possible to avoid reoccurrence of the incident.

“It is the duty of the state government to ensure adequate security not only in Kizara and surroundings but the state at large for the safety of lives and properties”.

In his address, Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa, contended that, the case of police withdrawal from the area has become an issue to be presented before the Senate as the National Assembly would not fold its arms to continue watching people are dying of attacks.

Marafa reiterated that the police must take all possible steps to face the challenges of incessant attacks especially of the people living in the rural areas of the state.

Union Charges FG to implement recommendations of railway committee

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ational Chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) Railway Branch, Alhaji Abdullkadiri Bida, yesterday appealed to the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of Railway Pension Review Committee (RPRC) on harmonization of salaries, income and wages of his members.

He therefore called on the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar to release fund for immediate implementation of the report to ease the sufferings of the Railway Pensioners in the country.

Bida stated this at the NUP National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Minna, Niger State, said the basic concept of harmonization is to prevent abnormal gap between salary and pension hence, “our pension should be harmonized with current salary structure”.

He applauded members of the union for their dedication and support to move the union forward, stressing that, “NEC meeting is a stock taking event and statutory platform for meaningful decisions and resolutions that will enable us to achieve our goals and objectives”.

Earlier, the National General Secretary of the union, Comrade Rafiu Balogun, in his report enumerated some of their challenges which includes; the peculiar problem of NRC Pensioners which requires a peculiar solution as no amount of general increase in the pension rates will correct the disparity in the earnings of Pensioners.

L-R: Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ms. Amal Pepple, Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, and FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, during the 2013 Ministerial Platform, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Joe Oroye

Union chairman makes case for LG autonomy From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

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he National President of Nigerian Union Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ibrahim Khalid, has described the issue of autonomy to the third tier of government as the Nigerian project that requires full participation of all and sundry.

Speaking in an interactive session with media in Kaduna

yesterday, Khalid said his union had taken a bold step towards the actualization of the autonomy for local governments with view to carrying out their social responsibility effectively.

Khalid who expressed dismay over the manner some state government use local government resources to achieve their selfish aims.

According to him, “it is well known that the local government

is the only tier of government that is closest to the people.

“In the last 1999 constitutional review exercise conducted by the National Assembly at 350 various constituencies, about 90 per cent of the outcome of the exercise agreed that local governments should fully independent and autonomous and the issue of joint accounts be abolished.

“Now we waiting the National Assembly to pass it in to law.

“If governors really cherish the tenets of of democracy, they should hands off the resources of local governments as this will go a long way in enhancing the dividends of democracy at the third tier of government.

“What we want to see from them as leaders is that they should allow the local governments to manage their resources without interference.”

FG partners association on enhancing oil palm produce

By Stanley Onyekwere

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he Federal Government through the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment yesterday said it was partnering with the National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NIPPAN), to host First International Palm Produce Conference (IPPC) in the country, by the end of this year.

According to the plan, the proposed conference would serves as a platform for interaction with local and international stakeholders in the oil palm industry to renew and widen contacts as well as advance strategies needed to resuscitate the country’s lost glory of the industry.

Speaking at a stakeholders meeting with commissioners of Commerce and Industry from the 24 palm oil-producing states including Kano towards the successful hosting of the conference, the Minister of state, Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom, disclosed that theme for the conference is “Investment in oil palm and its derivatives, a

panacea for economic growth and sustenance.”

He said the planned conference was part of the Ministry’s commitment to setting building blocks in the transformation of oil palm industry as a catalyst for economic development and prosperity.

“This programme no doubt will open up new investment opportunities and set a roadmap for tackling the challenges facing the development of the oil palm industry in Nigeria.

“It is also timely, as the forum intends to send strong signals to investors and other stakeholders of existing opportunities in the industry in Africa with participation of more than forty countries worldwide”, he explained.

While assuring the Ministry’s commitment to the success of the conference, the Minister also appealed to all stakeholders, government agencies and corporate bodies to contribute generously towards the

Army alerts public on impostor without official leave and was

By Joy Baba igerian Army has drawn the attention of the public to one Yahaya Shinko, an impostor who is claiming to be a retired Major and a security expert.

The Director of Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, stated this yesterday in Abuja during the monthly press briefing.

He said the officer was reduced to a Second Lieutenant on disciplinary ground for absent

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subsequently retired from service in 1999 because his service was no longer required.

According to Attahiru, “judging from the circumstances under which the officer left the service, no in depth analysis and sound judgment on any military operations could come out from such an inexperienced officer.”

He explained further that the soldier in question was retired as a Second Lieutenant and not a Major as he claims and urged the public to disregard his views and

successful hosting of the historic event.

In his remarks, the National President of the Association, Henry Olatujoye, said that it would cost a total sum of N89 million to organize the conference.

“We had fixed 12th-14th August of this year for the conference, but stakeholders are suggesting we reconsider and shift the date further to may be early October of the year; but we are still debating the matter, and very soon will announce a suitable date for the event” what he stands for or report him to any military unit nationwide.

In another development, Attahiru said that the Army had reviewed its recruitment procedure to include prescreening examinations aimed at selecting the best personnel.

According to him, the Army has procured new marking machines to enhance the recruitment exercise.

He noted that the machines will be put into use for the first time during the 70 regular recruitment exercise scheduled to take place later in the month.

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 11

Money Sense

10 misconceptions about retirement security

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etirement is one of the most important financial goals for most people. Unfortunately, many workers and retirees have an incomplete or misleading picture of how much they need to save, how to invest their savings effectively, and how to make their money last as long as they live. Clearing up common misconceptions about retirement is essential so that you can fulfill your dreams of a comfortable retirement.

A joint project by LIMRA International, the Society of Actuaries and Matthew Greenwald and Associates identified the following 10 ways in which Americans lack a realistic understanding of retirement saving.

Saving too little - Most people haven’t tried to estimate how much money they will need for retirement and those who have tried to do the calculation often underestimate their income needs.

Not knowing when retirement will occur - Many workers will retire before they expect to, and before they’re ready.

Living longer than planned - As individuals manage their own retirement funds, they may not understand that life expectancy

is a very limited planning tool. In fact, some retirees will live long beyond their life expectancies, with a substantial risk of outliving their savings.

Not facing facts about long-term care - Many people underestimate their chances of needing long-term healthcare.

Relatively few people either own longterm care insurance or can afford to self-insure an extended long-term care situation.

Trying to self-insure against long life - Although people may find guaranteed lifetime income attractive, in practice they usually choose to receive retirement plan benefits in lump-sum form. They pass up opportunities to get a lifetime pension or annuity, failing to recognise the difficulty of self-insuring their longevity.

Not understanding investments - Due to the growth of the workplace retirement savings plans, workers are now largely responsible for managing investments for retirement. However, many workers misunderstand investment returns, expenses, and how each investment vehicle works.

Relying on poor advice -

Many retirees and pre-retirees indicate a strong desire to work with a financial professional, yet fail to see this guidance.

Not knowing sources of retirement income - Workers often don’t understand what their primary sources of income will be in retirement. They may be surprised and disappointed when they try to live on the income that is actually available.

Failing to deal with inflation - Inflation is a fact of life that workers may deal with through pay increases, but after retirement few people can increase their income to keep pace with the cost of living.

Not providing for a surviving spouse - Many married couples fail to plan for the eventual death of one spouse before the other.

Identifying these common misconceptions is an important first step. If you recognise yourself in any, or many of these scenarios, take corrective action right away. Get an accurate estimate of your retirement income needs, identify your sources of income after retirement and understand your investment and distribution options.

Take the time to educate yourself in areas of personal finance and retirement planning.

Money Tip: Watch it! There is no ‘free money’ in credit cards

Ways to save money

Pencil out a budget After working for a few months and getting used to the amount of take-home pay (after taxes) you’re earning, figure out how much money you can afford to spend each month.

Mapping out your budget is a great way to help you quickly uncover whether you’re on the rocky road to spending more than you make.

To begin budgeting, first add up the essentials, like your rent, utilities, groceries, transportation, student loans and a car loan. That’ll let you know how much is left over for other spending and saving.

Be spendthrift Try not to eat out at restaurants too much, take taxis or spend frivolously on clothes.

You’ll probably need to jumpstart your wardrobe for work, but there are plenty of ways to do so frugally. Don’t forget to check out secondhand stores for lightly used clothing buys

Quote

“If you want to feel rich, just count the things you have that money can’t buy.” - From ‘Life: Your Inside Guide’Financial author ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’

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here is no free money anywhere, and that is why the credit card you have should not be too much your friend. That is true.

The reason is that it can put you into a lifetime debt burden that you would live to regret. Use it when you have no other option to meeting a particular need that cannot be ignored.

Credit card is simply described as a payment card issued to users as a system of payment which allows the cardholder to pay for goods and services based on the holder’s promise to pay for them.

In a very simple term, when you use credit cards, you are spending money you don’t have.

The word here is that there is no

free money in credit cards.

The issuer of the card creates a revolving account and grants a line of credit to the consumer (or the user) from which the user can borrow money for payment to a merchant or as a cash advance to the user.

Like most things, there are advantages and disadvantages to credit cards; knowing some of them can help you decide if you do or do not want to use credit cards. Credit cards can make life easier and be a great tool, but if they aren’t used wisely they can become a huge financial burden.

What is important here is that despite how easy this system of payment has made transactions, there are salient conditions when

your credit card company may not always have your best interests in mind when signing you up for one of their cards.

Yes, on the positives, credit cards can make it easier to buy things; may also offer you additional protection if something you have bought is lost; can also be useful in times of emergency; while some credit cards offer additional benefits such as discounts from particular stores or companies, bonuses such as free airline miles or travel discounts, and special insurances (like travel or life insurance.)

Despite these said advantages, most personal finance experts still believe that the disadvantages are enormous and needs to be

watched otherwise users will end up living lives full of debts.

For instance, using credit cards make you to blow your budget. The biggest disadvantage of credit cards is that they encourage people to spend money that they don’t have. Most credit cards do not require you to pay off your balance each month, so even if you only have N20,000, you may be allowed to spend up to N100,000 or above on your credit card.

While this may seem like ‘free money’ at the time, you will have to pay it off – and the longer you wait, the more money you will owe since credit card companies charge you interest each month on the money you have borrowed.

Again, credit card companies charge you an enormous amount of interest on each balance that you don’t pay off at the end of each month. This is how they make their money and this is how most people in the across the globe who use them get into debt and even bankruptcy.

Like cash, sometimes credit cards can be stolen. They may be physically stolen (if you lose your wallet) or someone may steal your credit card number –from a receipt, over the phone, or from a website –and use your card to rack up debts.

If you do decide to use credit cards, remember these simple rules: keep track of all your purchases; don’t spend outside your budget; pay off your balance on all of your credit cards at the end of each month; and don’t loan your credit or give out your credit card information to anyone but reliable companies.

PAGE 12

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

EDITORIAL

ndependent National Electoral Commission (INEC) last Sunday decided it was time to read the Riot Act to overly ambitious and impatient politicians who have jumped the gun in the run up to the 2015 presidential and general elections. A statement by INEC spokesman, Mr. Kayode Idowu noted that “campaign posters are being indiscriminately displayed while electioneering broadcasts are being aired” about elections that are still two years away.

INEC feels that premature electioneering is “overheating” the polity, undermining public order and, therefore, “a threat to democracy”.

According to Idowu, “this trend is unhealthy and portends ill for the political process. Indeed, it is a threat to Nigeria’s democracy”. The statement reminded elective office seekers and political parties of section 99(1) of Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) which says politicking is only allowed 90 days to the day of voting and “24 hours prior to that date”. Accordingly, the electoral umpire has directed security agencies to move against false-start individuals and political parties.

We at Peoples Daily are not amused by the INEC warning, coming as it did at this time. It is not as if the election ombudsman has just woken up to the reality that campaigning for the 2015 polls is well under way. And the fact that it waited until posters for people

who would likely challenge incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, including those in his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), began to go up last week, makes the INEC action suspect.

We recall that pro-Jonathan posters literally preceded Nigerians into the New Year. On January 1, 2013, the posters blazoned on lamp posts on major streets in Abuja, the seat of the federal

“

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2015: INEC’s ominous double standard

With this brazen double standard, what kind of polls INEC will deliver in 2015 is anybody’s guess government headed by Jonathan. The big posters carried larger-than-life pictures of the President and inscriptions in fine print such as “2015: No vacancy in Aso Rock. Let’s do more” and “One good term deserves another; support Goodluck Jonathan for 2015 presidency”. Their unexpected appearance quite excited the nation and the political opposition cried foul. But INEC did nothing to calm the rising tension then. In fact, it said the posters did not breach the Electoral Act at the time.

Indeed, INEC’s lack of concern

OUR MISSION “To be the market place of ideas and the leading player in the industry by putting the people first, upholding the truth, maintaining the highest professional and ethical standards while delivering value to our stakeholders”

emboldened the Presidency to be dismissive of the matter. It said President Jonathan did not authorize the posters and that security agencies knew what to do if they breached the law without his having to give them orders. In the end, they did nothing and the posters continued to appear in Abuja and other cities across the countries followed. Soon enough, the “faceless” Jonathan campaigners began to show familiar faces like septuagenarian Ijaw leader and rapid Jonathan loyalist, Chief Edwin Clark, Mr. Anthony Kuku, the President’s Special Adviser on Niger Delta and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) and, lately, Muhajideen Asari Dokubo, who said ex-Niger Delta militants would return to the creeks to make the country ungovernable if Jonathan is not returned to office in 2015 for a second term. Again, INEC was silent and the security people ignored calls for Dokubo’s arrest.

So why has INEC moved into action now that posters for a Sule Lamido/ Rotimi Amaechi presidential ticket appeared last week on the streets of Dutse, the Jigawa state capital? The fact that the two governors have denied nursing any presidential ambition hasn’t impressed Professor Attahiru Jega’s INEC. With this brazen double standard, what kind of polls INEC will deliver in 2015 is anybody’s guess.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 13

Opinion Kwankwaso and ripples of NGF crisis

By Abdullahi Safiyanu

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ontroversy in a democracy without a justifiable premise according to Wilson Lippman is perfunctory in as much as the political pendulum would superfluously be made to swing at the expense of those who had placed high premium on reaping the much bandied about dividend of democracy. In his contention, the downtrodden masses and the true apologists of a sound, vibrant and genuine democratic dispensation are the ones expecting much from the government of the people by the people, and for the people.

Where the political pendulum or centre of gravity goes berserk, according to Lippman, democracy is on tenterhooks because those who are saddled with the task of injecting sanity into the system are the ones fanning the embers of dissension. If what Lippman is alluding to is anything to go by, Nigeria can rightly be said to be at crossroads democratically speaking, given the current dismal state of affairs despite the much pronounced claim by the so-called apologists of democracy that in such a direction the nation is progressing.

But the question is how could a country like Nigeria be expected to be a leading political pace setter among her sister African Nations with the genuine indices of a foul free democratic system bastardized. How could Nigeria as

a nation be expected to make an appreciable inroad politically with the pernicious existence of a cabal at the centre of gravity turning the hands of the cloak backward. The current political chicanery going on at the nation’s corridors of power as regards the controversial Nigerian Governors’ forum election was akin to what Lippman is referring to as controversy without justifiable premise.

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in his capacity as prime actor at the pinnacle of power is expected to lead by example devoid of allowing things to drift in a jiffy.

Since Nigeria is beating her chest in the eyes of the curious global democratic powers Jonathan is much expected to serve as a beacon of hope not despair, not as one leading the crusade for breaching

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the constitution with absolute impurity.

He had woefully failed to take into cognizance the fact that not all the Nation’s Governors are mediocres. He should be made to know that some of the Governors are politically polished to the extent that they can never be stampeded into accepting what is politically anachronistic. Employing executive fiat to cow them into total submission would only be an exercise in futility since it will be a hard nut for Jonathan to crack if he thinks that it would be easy to cajole a Governor like Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to succumb to cheap political blackmail.

The controversial Nigerian Governors’ Forum election and its aftermath had exposed the lame-duck approach of the

president towards some crucial issues concerning the polity and the venom of hate and total isolation he spited on Governor. Kwankwaso and his ilk who are toiling blood and sweat to ensure that Governor Rotimi Ameachi of River State, is the dully elected candidate to lead the Nigerian Governors’ forum.

Kwankwaso’s major grouse is that things should be conducted in total compliance with the provision of the constitution and the way and manner the President influenced the formation of a parallel forum is a bad omen for democracy, and Nigeria would be seen to be a fool in her own eyes. Kwankwaso in his capacity as a savvy political manipulator can be said to be an expert in realpolitik, knowing the in and out of every gimmick or subterfuge to checkmate any

Kwankwaso’s major grouse is that things should be conducted in total compliance with the provision of the constitution and the way and manner the President Influenced the formation of a parallel forum is a bad omen for democracy, and Nigeria would be seen to be a fool in her own eyes. Kwankwaso in his capacity as a savvy political manipulator can be said to be an expert in realpolitik, knowing the in and out of every gimmick or subterfuge to checkmate any conspiracy.

conspiracy.

He entered the political foray at the time when partisan politics was at its high apogee even before people like Jonathan knew what politicking is all about. It is, however, a great disservice to the nation for having a president with the penchant to cause chaos and confusion at the time he is expected to lead by example. Kwankwaso has made it explicitly clear to the Governors making the greatest political mistake at the height of the furor dogging the aftermath of the Nigerian Governors forum election in an interview with the press recently, knowing that their antecedents are bad omen for democracy.

Jonathan should be resolute enough to bury the hatchet no matter his ideological differences with Governor Rotimi Ameachi of River State, since he was duly re-elected on the merit and full acceptability by a clear majority of his fellow Governors who are conversant with the fact that he has the much needed capacity to deliver. Kwankawso, should have nothing to fear in his stout defense of Governor Amaechi’s re-election as the chairman, Nigerian Governors’ forum since he is revered and touted as an honest and selfless leader. His fingers are on the political tiller and nothing can be done to suppress him from doing what is democratically right this is the crux of the matter.

Abdullahi Safiyanu lives in Gwarimpa Quarters, Abuja

NGF is another good reason to abolish states

By Olaitan Ladipo

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ivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi’s name is either a manifestation of Nigeria’s unity in ethnic diversity or, as United States President Barack Obama once said of a similar phenomenon, the beginning of a very funny joke. When you hear that a man’s first name is Yoruba, his surname Igbo, and he is Governor of a mainly Ijaw State, you might feel, instinctively, that a wazobia joke is on the way. Sadly, last week’s fiasco of an election of a new leader for the posh trade union (some say cult) Nigeria Governors Forum is nothing to laugh about, for three good reasons.

Firstly, the governors have confirmed the near total, moral bankruptcy of our country, in addition to proving, perhaps literally, that there is nothing like honour amongst thieves. It shows that some of our Governors should not be trusted with running a cigarette kiosk let alone a state.

A video recording of the event, incomplete as it may be, selective as has been alleged, and raucous as the proceedings were, clearly shows that Governor Amaechi won with nineteen votes. Governor Jang was the loser with sixteen.

While a lack of integrity and breach of faith are good enough reasons

to reject further association with certain individuals, as it clearly is in this case, Governor Jang’s faction should simply say so, instead of pretending that they have a problem with understanding that nineteen plus sixteen equals thirty-five, or understanding that nineteen is a greater number than sixteen. In any case, NGF can split into thirty-six factions for all Nigerians care.

Secondly, it is inexplicable that a vast number blame President Goodluck Jonathan, by all manners of inference, for the actions of a group of independent adults. It reinforces my long-held belief that leadership failure is only a tiny fraction of the trouble with Nigeria; it is more like one hundred and sixty millionth of the problem. The real trouble with Nigeria is collective failure of our moral society. How can a group of Governors gang rape our trust so openly, yet some people choose to blame another individual who was not even present at the crime scene, all in the name of partisanship?

Have we now also lost the ability to put blame where it rightly belongs?

Especially when the same people do not deem it fit to extend similar accusation of interference to Action Congress of Nigeria’s Senator Bola Tinubu whose sidekick, Governor Raufu Aregbesola, reportedly

facilitated the smoking gun video (Osun, what are you doing?). Nor do they extend the same accusation to General (rtd) Muhammadu Buhari, generalissimo of Congress for Progressive Change. Both men (Tinubu and Buhari), who by all accounts handpicked the incumbents, and going by public evidence, have never pretended that they expect their protégé Governors should have independent thought.

It is also sheer hypocrisy for the Amaechi camp to complain that the President tried to use his influence to favour another candidate, given the current antagonism between the two camps, and with Amaechi clearly giving as good as he gets. Amaechi is like a wife who fornicates openly, expressing surprise, when told to pack out of the matrimonial home.

Thirdly and perhaps the most important aspect of the NGF scandal, is that it once again raises the need for us to rethink the architecture of our country’s political system. There have been calls, following that show of shame, to ban the NGF. Such a call, apart from its capability to violate basic rights of freedom of association of the Governors, is like treating a symptom while ignoring the disease. The disease is that the military imposed an unwieldy, ill-

fitting, ill-thought and prohibitive political system on Nigerians.

Senate and states are the most glaring of these millstones, and I have long suggested that we should relieve ourselves of both. We have good examples to follow.

In September 2012, following a flood disaster, Senegalese MPs voted to abolish the country’s Senate to save funds. It saved their country about $15m, probably less than each of Nigeria’s 108 senators takes home. They also abolished the post of Vice-President. The exercise earned the applause of no less a personality than Senator Bola Tinubu who went on to recommend the scrapping of our own senate. I suggest we go further than that.

History of state creation in Nigeria is as arbitrary as the creation of the country itself, and it is a long tale of brazen gerrymandering. It started in 1963 when the then federal government carved Mid-West Region out of the old West. Gradually and unlike the colonial 24 provinces created along language and cultural lines by British, we now have an unwieldy 36 states and a Federal Capital Territory.

As the idiom goes, the devil finds work for idle hands. With stupendous federal allocations, lacking in vision, and left to their own devices, our Governors have

founded all manners of talk shop, where all they do is engage efforts to perpetuate themselves in power.

At the last count, there were no less than ten governors’ associations in all guises and forms—Northern Governors Forum, South-South, Southeast, South-South and Southeast Governors, Southwest Initiative, PDP Governors, and others. Many Governors spend more time in Abuja and Lagos, not to forget London, New York and Dubai, than they spend in their states. Governors have destroyed local governance, as they remove Chairpersons at will, handpick councillors, practically steal local government funds and usurp its functions, with some governors going to commission new primary school desks.

It is now clear, by the day and rather painfully, that the country cannot make political or economic progress without a national conference to renegotiate our rules of association. An obdurate rejection of that truth has and continues to wreak untold damage. When that conference finally convenes, as it inevitably will, and in whatever form, I hope it will scrap states, along with many other superfluous entities of our governance. The sooner it happens, the better.

Laitan Oladipo is on LinkedIn

PAGE 14

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Letters & Opinion Abiola, 1914 and June 12

By Dele Akinola

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xactly 20 years ago, there was a country! Nigerians of all persuasions – Christians and Muslims; Northerners and Southerners; Arewa, Afenifere and Ndigbo; OPC, MOSOP, MASSOB and even Boko Haram – so decided. That appeared to have effectively sealed and delivered the matrimony solemnized and signed

by Lord Frederick Lugard in 1914.

Unfortunately, the kernel of the Sermon on the Mount by American Baptist minister and civil rights leader, Rev. Jesse Jackson, ensured there was no country.

The former Democratic Party presidential aspirant delivered the sermon at a media forum during his recent visit to Nigeria.

According to him, “Nigeria is divided not so much by religion, region and tribe but by greed.”

With that powerful submission, as clearly demonstrated on June 12, 1993, Rev. Jackson was more on target than in his ambitious attempt at the White House. Right, religion, region and tribe are only demonic and destructive tools in the hands of egocentric power mongers and self-proclaimed champions of violence to nourish, pamper and institutionalize their greed for loot and power –loots captured majorly for the perpetration of evil, power just for the sake of it.

The eternal message of June 12, personified by Bashorun MKO Abiola, a decisive and demystifying barrier breaker, was on its way to ousting such obnoxious regime.

A new dawn of progress-enabling environment was emerging on

By Abimbola Lagunju

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reetings from Nigeria.

Excuse me for addressing you simply as “Mr. President” which is considered rude here, where our protocol demands that you be addressed as “Your Excellency, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Professor of Constitutional Law, Professor President of the United States of America!” And if I wanted a little political post in your administration (here we say regime), I, as a true Aso Rocker, would have added “the Father of Democracy, the most Powerful President in the whole world, our Great Leader”.

But Mr. President, I will not bother you with our obsession with titles and praise-singing, despite the fact that our national protocol and tradition demand that in my addressing you, I hero-worship you as “my great leader”. Despite the fact that you are a great leader of a great nation, I know that true democracy, where the leader is elected to serve and not to be served forbids that I transform myself into your subject, and more so, as a man of many achievements, you do not need a battery of sycophants to remind you of your many accomplishments. Therefore, I say boldly, and without fear of your aides, Mr. President.

You may wonder what your aides have to do with this. Here, our elected officials hide under the layer of many aides. After self (s)

the horizon come out and lay to place the down their arms country among and get some the comity of booties.” And Peoples Daily welcomes your letters, opinion articles, nations that so a dedicated be. In October, website was text messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All writ1990, the opened: www. ten contributions should be concise.

Word limits: Berlin Wall fell amnesty-bootiesLetters - 150 words, Articles - 750 words. Please and East and must-rotate-toinclude your name and a valid location. Letters to the West sections the-North.com. of Germany While regional Editor should be addressed to: came together elite and elders again as one have continued The Editor, people. Today, to terrorize the Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, no position of people with the power rotates anthem that 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja. between the “”the use of force Email: opinion@peoplesdailyng.com two sections. had never solved SMS: 08134607052 The East the problem is gone, the of terrorism West has been anywhere in country ungovernable.” And so it the world,” they have failed to confined into the refuse dump of show where in the world amnesty history, save for mere identification was and has been. Jonathan must, whether you like it or not, be rebooties had. It is absolute deceit of places. There is now only one elected or else “the country would and hypocrisy to equate the then country – Germany. Only one cease to exist.” Which nation exists militancy in the Niger Delta with president came in between father that would cease to?

Boko Haram’s terrorism. and son George H.W. Bush and “Under the PDP zoning policy, Take it or leave it, “if Jonathan George W. Bush in the world’s the North allowed the South to is not good enough to rule Nigeria most powerful nation. Nothing produce the president for eight for two terms of four years oscillates, as a must, between the years” Allowed? By those who own each, then Niger Delta is not North and South or East and West. the country? “Jonathan must be good enough to be in Nigeria.”

There is only one nation – United allowed to govern the country for In addition, “Nigeria cannot States of America – and only the two terms like other presidents continue to feed fat on our(?) oil best, the most qualified, wherever have done.” But how many such and still treat us as second=class he comes from, is good enough at presidents exist? Shehu Shagari citizens.” But Nigerians had no any point in time. was not allowed to rule for two such thoughts in 2011 when many But not so in the “mere terms. Death did not allow Umaru openly confessed they would have geographical expression” that Yar’adua to complete even one rejected the PDP but for Jonathan. found June 12 unacceptable! The term. Abiola was not even allowed And, in a June 12 republic, if the North, South, East and West, 100 to govern at all. What a tragicpeople savoured the sentimental years into a turbulent marriage, comedy: 1914 without June 12! leverage to embrace Jonathan in still hold on tightly to their “Government did not declare a spite of the PDP, they also reserve distinct identities. And so, if Ebele the socio-political latitude to reject Jonathan deployed his good luck to state of emergency in the states in Niger Delta. General amnesty was the PDP in spite of Jonathan. break the gentleman’s agreement declared and those who wanted to These are definitely not the best among the power cabal to deny the take advantage of it were asked to of times. For the selfish purpose of North its turn, “we shall make the

WRITE TO US

capturing political loot and booties, do-or-die power mongers have established a monstrous demonic industry of ethno-religious, tribal and political blackmail, thriving on the platform of violence. Barrierbreaking feats, like as performed by Abiola, are being made increasingly unlikely even by many who are supposed to be intellectuals. The terror of corruption sponsored by greed has almost completely enveloped the land, festering with gruesome assassinations and political gangsterism in high places.

The one who many observers consider to be the strong man the country needs at this crucial point continues, disappointingly, to make pronouncements that portray him as a religious bigot, instigator of violence and supporter of terrorism. Should a sacrifice be made to the prowling ghost of June 12 in this secret cults-infested land?

If June 12 was not good enough to confirm 1914, then the prevailing atmosphere is not good enough to sustain the subsisting socio-political arrangement. Therefore, revisit the marriage of 1914, not by rolling out the drums and the vuvuzelas in celebration, but by holding an inevitable family meeting to decide on whether you want to form a genuine nation or remain “a mere geographical expression.” There is nothing to celebrate in a long marriage in which each partner still prioritize, in a deadly feast of blood, his pre-marriage identity. But meanwhile, take a lesson from the Holy Bible and let he that thinketh he standeth as the Barcelona of violence take heed lest he falls, yakata, before a Bayern Munich.

This, from his famous armoury of proverbs, is President Abiola’s new message on June 12.

Dele Akinola wrote in from Lagos

Letter to President Obama elections, you cannot see them, except on scripted events on the television. You cannot hear them except occasionally on the radios.

On our shores, elected officials’ aides are more powerful than their principals and they can do and undo in the name of their masters.

Overzealous, toxic, dangerous and fierce, these aides read all the letters to their so called principals and allow him access to only those letters that hero-worship him, they read newspapers on his behalf and give him only favorable cuttings, they hold numerous obnoxious press conferences to fritter away whatever little goodwill their “principals” enjoy. But Mr. President, I am not writing to you about aides and their “principals”, neither about principalities in high places. In a previous article, titled “What President Obama wants from Nigeria” which you probably saw, I listed a host of good governance and good followership concerns which as a true democrat you would like to see in Nigeria and which probably you would not see at the expiration of your second term unless you do something about it.

Nigerians love your country, the United States unconditionally.

It is the country of reference for all Nigerians, irrespective of ethnicity or religion (forget about Boko

Haram). We so much love the US, that we copied verbatim the constitution of the United States, while the Swiss constitution would have been more appropriate for this nation of many nationalities and interests. Our leaders, both in the private and public sector, and even ordinary folks who have dual citizenships proudly waive their American citizenship in our faces to silence us in moments of disagreement or when they have gone beyond acceptable norms.

And believe me, Mr. President, they are proud to have substituted their Nigerianness for Americanness.

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Very often in the press, our rulers make reference to your country – “in the States, it is this or that”.

Scratch any Nigerian youth and he will tell you he dreams the American dream and on American shores far away from here. He hopes to substitute his green passport for a blue one. He wants to be diaspora! Heart and soul, we love the United States.

You cannot imagine how much Nigerians love you. One morning, I had cause to visit a private primary school and was pleasantly surprised that the head teacher was talking about you. She told the

You cannot imagine how much Nigerians love you. One morning, I had cause to visit a private primary school and was pleasantly surprised that the head teacher was talking about you. She told the children, all less than 7 years old, to be very proud of you. She told them of your “Yes! We can!” and how you overcame the odds to become the President of your great country.

children, all less than 7 years old, to be very proud of you. She told them of your “Yes! We can!” and how you overcame the odds to become the President of your great country.

She told them that “like President Obama, you can reach any height if you work hard”, and she asked them to repeat “Yes! I can!” several times. I had tears of pride in my eyes.

Mr. President, you are an inspiration to all Nigerians, over 160 million of us. You are an inspiration that this present democratic “conundrum” is a phase that will soon be history. You are an inspiration to millions of homes whichha ng your picture in their living rooms. You are an inspiration to millions of children across Nigeria who everyday chant “Yes! I can!”You are an inspiration to people like me of the same generation as you who have read the “Audacity of Hope”.

There is a saying in my language, which says, “One doesn’t abandon a bad child to be devoured by a lion, simply because he is bad”. Sir, think of this country, which experts say will be more populated than the United States by 2050. You can make a change. Set this nation on the right course. Inspire us with a visit to our country.

Abimbola Lagunju is reachable on abimbola. lagunju@gmail.com

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 15

Comment

Akwa Ibom 2015, Umana and mass hysteria

By Ini-Abasi Mboho

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he election to determine who will succeed Chief Godswill Akpabio as the governor of Akwa Ibom state may be two years away but it has generated considerable interest among Akwa Ibom people at home and in the Diaspora. The concern of people, even nonAkwa Ibomites on who will succeed Governor Akpabio is not misplaced.

Since Chief Akpabio took office in 2007, he has raised the profile of the state through unprecedented performance.

Indeed, the tenure of his administration has witnessed a renaissance of sort in infrastructural development.

The traffic of people and organizations who visit the state for seminars, retreats, conferences and private holidays attest to the state of infrastructure in the state.

Placing the state on such a high pedestal also means that the stakes are high and naturally the position would attract a lot of interest. One of the key actors in the administration of Chief Akpabio whose name has consistently featured as aspiring to lead the state in 2015 is the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Umana Okon Umana, who is often referred to as the “Engine Room” of the administration. A product of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and London Business School, Mr Umana who also has a degree in

Economics and a Master of Business Administration in International Finance, parades intimidating credentials that has set him apart as a leader who can make a difference in governance.

But it is not only in academic that the he has distinguished himself. A former Director of Budget in the state, who also served as the Commissioner of Finance in the previous administration, Umana’s knowledge of the state and issues of development through past and current engagement has been described as ‘amazing.’

The technocrat, who has been a recurrent decimal and a constant fixture of power equation in the state, combines an astounding intellectual capacity with practical experience in governance.

It need be stated that Umana

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has not yet thrown his hat into the ring. In some interviews that the media has tried to get his word if he would run for the governorship of Akwa Ibom State in 2015, the man had maintained that the present administration which he is a part should not be distracted with issues of the 2015 gubernatorial election which is two years away but often adds that it would not be out of place for him to consider taking a shot at the governorship of the state, since he has met the constitutional requirement, and that at the appropriate time he would make his decision known. Be this as it may, Umana’s perceived ambition has featured prominently in political discourses in the state.

Internet bloggers in yahoo mail groups and the social media who are fanatically promoting

his vision have met those who are also zealously opposed to his ambition. As a fact, those against his aspiration have gone some steps further to create emergency internet websites whose objective seems to be nothing else except to stop Mr Umana by every means possible, especially foul.

The modus operandi of the “Stop-Umana-at-allcost”campaigners is using the unconventional media, through propaganda, lies and outright fabrications, splash as much mud as possible on the Secretary to the State Government and impugn on his integrity, thereby turning him into hated figure.

They churn out salacious stories that would make WikiLeaks, the international online watchdog which publishes stories about government malfeasances, turn green with envy. Interestingly,

Umana has not yet thrown his hat into the ring. In some interviews that the media has tried to get his word if he would run for the governorship of Akwa Ibom State in 2015, the man had maintained that the present administration which he is a part should not be distracted with issues of the 2015 gubernatorial election which is two years away but often adds that it would not be out of place for him to consider taking a shot at the governorship of the state, since he has met the constitutional requirement, and that at the appropriate time he would make his decision known.

the more the cock-and-bull stories and hate commentaries are churned out in the internet, the more groups at home are falling over themselves to identify with the UOU 2015 password, as they have coined it. In all these, the SSG has maintained stoic silence as if he is saying, “I will not be distracted by name-calling and blackmail.”

By now, Umana may have learnt the bitter lesson that in Nigerian politics, falsehood and blackmail are potent weapons of the opponents and they have put them to good use in Akwa Ibom politics. It is expected that in the months to come the attack on the SSG to shoot down his aspiration will increase in intensity as the sponsors of this blackmail, knowing that they have failed to achieve their intention, would become more desperate.

The reasons for the Umana hate campaign are as diverse as there are political interests in the state. While some claim that he has been around for too long and in the process become too powerful and therefore should give way to other people, others assert that their hatred for Umana is because he has been too supportive and loyal to the Governor Akpabio.

Ini-Abasi Mboho, a Journalist and public affairs analyst, wrote in from Uyo, Akwa Ibom state

Pension reform: My father-in-law

By Chuks Ordi

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e all looked around in the plain of Ogbodze; in the lush greeneries of Aku villages; in the rocky crevices of mountain strings that gird the town; in nebulous alleys and crannies up straight to the paved asphalt linking Ogbede to the vanishing point of the Bibbianas, we saw that he is gone! Only the banal body lay limp, alone, in the morgue, with occasional visits by the mortician. The body was the one we found; the soul loitered at the last breath and then wandered off like un manned American drone to the judgment table. This is the trodden path of all mortals like us. We all glowered in glossy wet eyes at the pale sculptor like physiognomy that held a story of life- death dialogue, and saw end of an era.

It is true that omniscient God cannot be questioned! He cannot even be asked why He does what He does. He cannot be memoed on why he lifted our dad from the earth to rejoin the eternal world for a joy that has no end. He cannot be queried on why He chose the time He chose and on why He has not given any

previous notice to wife, children and relatives or to even the pupils that under study him in the school where he headed. He probably has to be out of sight for eternity for those who are not in the Lord.

Certainly, for those who are soldiers of the Lord, the vicarage and catechumen who are robustly in pursuit of divine light as our Dad, Charles Okagu, did, those in Fabian partnership with him shall continue to fraternize together in heaven in an endless eternal bliss under the midwifery of the towering man –god.

Eziokwu, God cannot be called

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upon to account for anything, to any being. Each death is but a million reminder of the eternity.

Death is but the same death but different signifier, transmitting lucid messages. Why! Many have died of something but its only few that have died for something. Our Dad died for something; for truth in the land; for continual life in Christianity of all the natives in our community; for justice and peace in Aku; as a model and a reference point for school pupils and his teacher colleagues and this is the truth! He planted his little seed that tomorrow shall

be big. Ex nihilo nihil fit (out of nothing come something great).

He was pensioned and yet was called back to keep on giving back to the community what he knew best- ‘Teaching’. Government!

Government! Government, that is faceless and peopled with hawk like brutish characters, maximum occupants of offices with no moderate feelings and nothing to give back.

They are as rotten as the opacity of their creativity, without human face but only the visage of ritual oddities and putrefaction.

They refused to pay him a backlog

Many have died of something but its only few that have died for something. Our Dad died for something; for truth in the land; for continual life in Christianity of all the natives in our community; for justice and peace in Aku; as a model and a reference point for school pupils and his teacher colleagues and this is the truth! He planted his little seed that tomorrow shall be big. Ex nihilo nihil fit (out of nothing come something great). He was pensioned and yet was called back to keep on giving back to the community what he knew best- ‘Teaching’.

Government! Government!

of many months salary skidding above octave and yet he remained glued to his payless job. Now for a year and half he has not been paid because some kill joys sat on the cash. He probably could have been alive to continue the warm relationship with mama Chinw, his wife and Chief S.U Okagu, his elder brother who I saw sitting with him in the frontage when last I saw him five days before the demise; and Mrs. Ngozi, my wife, who took my city neighbours 72 housr effort to tranquil her. The evil triumph because good men do nothing, let us find out why. I belong to a school of thought that proclaims “wrong the wronger until he renders right”.

Who cannot call God for conference as to why He could not give him time to rip the fruit of his labour? Such is human and the former devine. Well, this is but a worldly fruit which plays second fiddle to the Divine Banquet the Lord has invited our Father Charles to partake and eat to his fill. Eureka! Charly, my father in Law, I say good night! Adieu!

Chuks Ordi (son –in-law) is on www.facebook.com

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 16

FCT gets emergency mgt agency

By Stanley Onyekwere

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s part of efforts to effectively address the emergency challenges in the FCT, the Minister of the Territory, Bala Mohammed has approved the immediate establishment of the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The Minister also approved the appointment of Mr. Abbas G. Idriss as the pioneer DirectorGeneral of the Agency.

According to a statement on Wednesday, by the Chief Press Secretary to the FCT Minister, Muhammad Hazat Sule, , the new Agency is saddled with the responsibility of overseeing all emergency and response matters in and around the entire 8,000 square kilometers of the Territory.

It also has the mandate for swift and efficient management of all emergency challenges across the Territory.

“The establishment of this new Agency is as guaranteed under the umbrella of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Act 1999, which provides that all States of the Federation and the FCT should establish similar Agency”, the statement explained.

Zuba Motor parts market union appeals for transformer

By Usman Shuaibu

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he chairman of motor spare parts market Zuba, in Gwagwalada Area Council of the (FCT), Mr. Nnamdi Okoli, has appealed to the chairman of the area council, Abubakar Jibrin Giri to provide a transformer, in order to address the problem of electricity in the market.

He also called on the council leadership to rehabilitate the dilapidated access roads in the market.

Okoli, who made the appeal in an interview with Peoples Daily in Zuba, decried how the traders in the market were being neglected, terms of social amenities.

He explained that despite the huge revenue the market is adding to pulse of the council, no structure was put in place in the market.

While urging the council leadership to restructure the motor spare parts market for better, the chairman also assured the traders commitment to cooperate with the council for the upliftment of the entire council.

Women buying children toys, yesterday along Mararaba-Keffi road.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Rainy season: Abuja food stuff traders decry low patronage

BY Halima Mohammed with agency report

A

s the rainy season sets in, traders in some major markets in the Abuja metropolis have revealed they were experiencing low patronage.

According to a survey by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), which showed an increase in the prices of food items like tomatoes, onion and other perishable products, some traders said the low patronage could be attributed to the current rainy period.

Mr. Rabiu Ibrahim of Utako market, who spoke with NAN, said increase in the price of food items during rainy season was beyond traders’ control.

According to Ibrahim, the rainy seasons always cause the prices of food items to rise and also lead to shortfall in food supplies to the markets.

“Food shortage at this period is a usual thing because of the rain; and whenever it rains, food products like onions and tomatoes will be scarce in the market since they cannot grow well during wet season,’’ Ibrahim said.

He said that a small basket of tomatoes was now sold at N1, 200 instead of the former price of N600, and that a measure of onions had increased from between N400 and N500 to N800.00.

Sharing the same view was Mr. Musa Suleiman, a tomatoes trader,

who noted that traders could make reasonable amount of money during the period only if there was any festivity.

“We are only hoping to make sales during the forthcoming Ramadan fast in July,’’ he said.

Mrs. Amadi Ebere, a consumer, noted that prices of food items normally increased during the period, adding that some food materials were always out of stock during the season.

At Wuse market, Mrs. Juliana Sunday, a food stuff seller, said that a basket of pepper was now selling at N900 as against its former price of N500. Sunday, who sells yam, told NAN that prices of yam were sold based on their sizes. She said five tubers of the smaller size were sold at between N1,000 and N1,500 while the bigger size was sold at between N2,000 and N2,500.

At Nyanya market, most of the traders also complained of low patronage, attributing it to the rains.

Mr. Bashiru Ashiru, a beans seller, said that a mudu (measure) of white beans now cost between N250 and N280 depending on the variety, while brown beans were sold at N350N400, a mudu.

“During the rainy season, you find that new produce are introduced into the market, but because the old ones are sweeter, customers prefer them to the new ones, therefore, more demand for them.

“This makes their prices go up because they are fewer in the market, you know that demand of products

affect their prices,’’ he said.

Also, further investigation at the kado biko market, in Gwarinpa estate, however did reveal different story there as both traders and buyers confirmed the low patronage recorded in other markets in the territory.

A buyer, one Mrs. Amina Abdullahi Abdullahi also noted the slight increase in prices of commodities especially perishable items.

She complained of the increase in the price’s tomatoes and onions saying: “lately I noticed a change in prices of tomatoes from N600 – N700 to about 1200 – 1500, and a basket of pepper rose from N 500 to N800; depending on the trader you meet.”

According to the survey that a bin basket of Irish potato was sold at N800 while the sweet potato was sold at N500, while a basket of onion was sold for N600 while that of fresh tomatoes sold for between N900 and N1000. Pepper sold for between N600 and N800.

Mrs. Stella Onyebuchi, who trades in yam in Nyanya market, said that five small tubers of yam cost from N1000 to N1200, while a medium set cost from between N1200 and N2000.A set of large tubers cost between N2000 and N2500.

The survey also showed that a mudu of white garri cost between N160 and N170, while a mudu of yellow garri was sold at N220-N230.

At Karu market, a basket of tomatoes cost N7,000- N9,000, while 25kg bag of pepper sold at N7,000.

Also, a 50kg bag of white garri was N8,000, while the yellow garri went for N12,000. The traders attributed the increase in prices to the onset of rainy season.

Also the price of yam has increased as a set of 100 tubers of yam (medium size) went for N35,000 instead of the former price of N20,000.

For most traders and consumers alike, the major issue besides increased prices causing the low patronage is the season itself.

Checks also reveal that during the rainy seasons, the ground is muddy and packed with market wastes making navigation around the market extremely difficult and tiresome without getting some of the dirt on oneself.

Also contributing to trade difficulties during the rainy season is the bad state of access roads leading these markets, which during the rainy season are worsened.

However, to some, since it’s not really a culture of most Nigerians to watch the weather channel, they find themselves at the mercy of the rain and cold that accompanies it; and having this in mind, most often than not makes going to the market an odious task for most consumers therefore contributing to low food patronage the markets.

However, all the markets visited recorded increase in food commodities with the traders complaining of a drop in patronage. According to most of them, they make fewer sales during the rainy season.

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 17

Metro

Association wants compensation for displaced traders in Gwagwalada

By Usman Shuaibu

T

he chairman of the Abuja chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTs), Prince Edozie Ugwu, has urged the administration of Gwagwalada Area Council to compensate the traders whose shops were demolished in the market by the FCT Administration.

Also the association appealed to the council for a piece of land for the association, to help boost socio-economic activities in the territory.

Ugwu, who made the appeal during a courtesy visit to the area council, said that his leadership would continue to partner with the council for the benefit of the traders.

He said; “Despite the revenue being collected from the traders by the chairmen of the six area

councils nothing had been done by the government to protect the investment of traders as well as improve their general welfare.”

He explained that this leadership of the association would serve as communication link between the government and the traders in the FCT so as to alleviate the suffering of the marketers in their respective area councils.

The chairman said that the leadership of NANTs had concluded plans to arrest the menace of street trading or hawking in the territory.

Responding, the Vicechairman of the Council, Hon. Saidu Abdullahi, who addressed the traders on behalf of the council chairman, said that the leadership of the council would provide an enabling environment for traders to operate.

Guard jailed 3 months for negligent conduct

O

ne Sylvester Andrew was yesterday sentenced to three months in prison by a Grade Two Area Court at Kado, for negligent conduct while on duty.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Andrew, 22, residing at No. 27 Tunis Str., Wuse Zone 6 in Abuja, was convicted after pleading guilty to the charge.

The Judge, Mr Ahmed Ado, however, gave the convict an option of paying N2, 000 fine.

The Police Prosecutor, Mr Simon Ibrahim, told the court that one Mr Bayo Ogunlola of the same address with Andrew had

lodged a report on the matter at the Utako Police Station on June 10.

Ibrahim said that the convict, while on duty on June 5, had left his duty post, leading to the loss of some items belonging to Ogunlola.

The items include an air conditioner and a lawn-mowing machine, both valued at N100,000.

He said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 197 of the Penal Code.

The convict, however, pleaded for mercy after his conviction. (NAN)

Theft: Student bags 13 months imprisonment

A

23-year-old secondary school student, Babaji Abubakar, of Karu Village, Abuja, was on Thursday sentenced to 13 months in prison, for stealing 50 litres of diesel valued N10,000.

The convict was arraigned by the police in a Karu Senior Magistrates’ Court on a threecount charge of joint act, criminal trespass and theft.

Senior Magistrate Anna Akobi passed the judgment after the convict pleaded guilty to the charges.

Akobi, however, gave Abubakar the option to pay N5,000 fine.

She sentenced the convict to three months in prison for joint act, six months for criminal trespass and six months for theft.

The magistrate held that the judgment would serve as a deterrent toothers and that any aggrieved party that was not satisfied with the judgment, had 30 days within which to appeal.

Prosecutor Francis Udofia told the court that the convict and one Ali, now at large, were caught when they went to steal diesel from Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) office.

He said the security guard attached to the office, Hassan Umar, while on duty on June 15 at about 2 a.m. sighted the convict and Ali drawing diesel from caterpillar vehicle.

Udofia said the vehicle was parked in the AEPB office premises while they both criminally entered to carry out their acts.

The prosecutor said that the security guard struggled to apprehend the convict while Ali over powered him and escaped with the stolen diesel.

Udofia, who explained that the offence contravenes Sections 79, 348 and 288 of the Penal Code, respectively, said the convict confessed to the act and the drawing used for their operation was recovered from him. (NAN)

Two middle-aged men buying kilishi, yesterday in Central Area, Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

Nupe Chief tasks parents on capacity building for children

By Usman Shuaibu

T

he paramount chief of Nupe community in the FCT, Alhaji Musa Shaba Gupa, has advised parents of Nupe speaking tribe across the six area councils, to send their children to school to enable them acquire the necessary skills to play active role in the lager society.

He also advised the people to shun any act capable of tarnishing their image in the territory.

Gupa, who gave this advice

in an interview with Peoples Daily, in his palace in Bwari, stressed that his administration would carry everybody along irrespective of different tribes within the Nupe community.

Also the chief, call ed for greater understanding and loyalty among the Nupe people, noting he would continue to fight for the needs of the Nupes in the FCT. While appealing to the leadership of other Nupe

associations and groups across the six area councils, to continue to cooperate with him so as to discharge his duties effectively, he urged officials to always work hand in hand with him to move the Nupe chiefdom forward for the overall progress of the members.

Furthermore, Gupa, also advised the Nupes to support government policies and programmes, to enable the government of the day to consider them in terms of policy implementation.

Mechanic docked over cheating, mischief

T

he police yesterday arraigned a mechanic, Mukaila Abdulrahim of Sulka village, Abuja, in Wuse Zone 2 Senior Magistrates’ Court for alleged breach of trust, cheating and mischief.

The police prosecutor, Mr David Udeh, told the court that the matter was reported at the Wuse Police Station on June 11 by Mohammed Bello of Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Udeh said Bello entrusted his vehicle, a Honda Hennesy worth N1.8 million to Abdulrahim to help him repair it.

He said Bello also gave the accused N105,000 to purchase spare parts and for his workmanship, for the repair of the vehicle.

The prosecutor said the accused converted the said car and money to his use and absconded until he was arrested by the police.

“During investigations, the said vehicle was recovered from Abdulrahim and it was discovered that it was now more damaged than it was when it was handed over to him to repair.’’

The prosecutor said the offence

contravened the provisions of sections 312, 322 and 327 of the Penal Code, respectively.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The presiding magistrate, Mrs Chinyere Nwecheonwu, granted him bail in the sum of N100,000 with a surety in like sum.

Nwecheonwu said the surety must have a definite means of livelihood and his office and home address be verified by the prosecutor and court staff.

She adjourned the case to July 8 for hearing. (NAN)

Man jailed six months for stealing television

A

n Abuja Grade 2 Area Court in Kado, yesterday sentenced one Dini Abdullahi, 20, to six months imprisonment for theft.

Abdullahi, who resides at Utako Village, Abuja, was convicted after pleading guilty to the one-count charge.

The Presiding Judge, Alhaji

Ahmed Ado, however, gave the convict an option to pay N5, 000 fine.

The police prosecutor, Abdullahi Haruna, told the court that Mr Ibrahim Ali of Utako Village, Abuja, reported the matter to Utako Police Station on June 17.

Haruna said the convict stole

the complainant’s Samsung television set worth N15, 000.

He said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 287 of the Penal Code.

The offence carries a maximum of five years or fine or both.

The convict pleaded for mercy, promising that he would not steal again. (NAN)

PAGE 18

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 19

INSIDE

FIRS begins VAT automated payments system for airlines, others

- Pg 20

SMEDAN elevates Spokesman, 70 others - Pg 20 L-R: Vice-President Mohammed Namadi Sanbo, President Goodluck Jonathan, Co-ordinator, Honorary International Investor Council (HIIC), Baroness Lynda Chalker of Wallasey, and Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, during the 14th meeting of HIIC, yesterday at the state house, in Abuja.

Photo: Joe Oroye

Julius Berger defies huge unpaid debt

By Abdulwahab Isa

U

ndisclosed huge debts owed principally by its public clients has been cited as one of the prevailing risks that threatened 2012 operations of construction giant, Julius Berger Plc. Other identified challenges spotted by Chairman of the Board of the company, AVM(rtd) Mohammed Nurudeen Imam, in his presentation included, delay payment, hurdles that required modifications to performance planning; current security challenge in the country and the proliferations of new administrative

bodies introducing laws and regulations.

The occasion was the 43rd Annual General meeting (AGM) of the firm which held yesterday in Abuja. He said navigating the complex settings, and re-adjusting the processes to ensure compliance inflicted a toll in the resources of the firm.

Nonetheless, the 2012 financial operations of the construction giant was a robust one considering leaps and bounds it recorded both in profit and turnover compared to the previous year.

Turnover for the group hit N201.57 billion 2012

indicating an increase of 17.7 percent over previous year.

The shareholders had a good dividend payout of 250 kobo (N2.50) translating to total gross dividend payment of N3bilion, a mark improvement of 240 kobo (N2.40) paid out to shareholders in 2011 fiscal year.

Going forward, the chairman informed elated shareholders that the company will embark on pursuing diversification of future client’s portfolio as a means to mitigate cluster risks and better serve all sectors of the economy.

CAC to institutionalize customer satisfaction through company regulation 2012

T

he Registrar General Corporate Affairs Commission, Alhaji Bello Mahmud has said that one key factor that brings about weakness in Public Service is when service staff are illequiped.

Alhaji Bello Mahmud has therefore called for continuous training of service providers to institutionalize the culture of service.

He was speaking while declaring open the in-house interactive session organized by the Registry Department on institutionalizing customer satisfaction through company regulation 2012 held at the CAC head office in Abuja recently.

Alhaji Mahmud called on the staff of the Commission

to render services beyond the satisfaction of its customers.

The Registrar General who was represented at the event by the Director Public Affairs, Mr. Churchill Williams remarked that institutionalizing customer satisfaction is a sure way of creating and sustaining a service culture.

According to him, the achievement of a vibrant service culture is consequent upon a deliberate and purposeful policy activity, adding, this has brought to the fore the importance of this session which is targeted at a service environment where trained and motivated service providers render services beyond the satisfaction of the customers.

Alhaji Mahmud reiterated

that one key factor that brings about gaps in service delivery is when service staff is ill-equipped as a result, sessions like this provide the required capacity.

The Registrar General acknowledged that the Commission has made tremendous efforts to achieve 24 hour start-to-finish registration process and assured that the Management would leave no stone unturned to ensure that all the state offices are covered.

He urged the participants to take the interactive session seriously as it is only services that are tailored specifically towards the customer’s needs that attract the customer and this creates word of mouth publicity for the Commission.

Outlining plans for 2013 fiscal year and beyond, he said business development effort will be maintained, due diligence will continue to be carried out in key areas of opportunity , especially in regards to alternative financing models such as Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Build-OperateTransfer(BOT).

“We will continue to modernize administrative, engineering and operational departments and implement cost control measures that optimize the functioning of our company and ensure that capacity building , through investments in the professional development of staff across all functions and operations takes precedence, as a means of reinforcing the specialized knowhow needed to deliver quality work and superiority in performance ”, said Imam.

CBN

Exchange Rates

as at 17th June, 2013 Buying Selling

$

154.75

155.75

€

239.33

240.88

£

204.47

205.79

Riyal

41.26

41.53

Parallel Rates Buying

Selling

$

157.50

158.40

€

250

253.00

£

206.00

210.00

Riyal

43.00

45.00

MANAGEMENT TIP OF THE DAY look at how many times “and” and Go ahead and “but” begin sentences in high-quality prose. As sentence-starters, these break some words keep readers following a train of thought and are more colloquial grammar rules than “additionally” or “however.”

W

hen it comes to business writing, some people feel paralyzed by grammar. But it’s important to distinguish between the rules that help writing and those that hinder it. There are some outdated “rules” that grammarians have long dismissed as ill-founded and unnecessary.

For example, you may have been told in school never to begin a sentence with a conjunction. But

It’s also acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition.

A sentence with a terminal preposition may sound far more natural than the same sentence forced into avoiding one. “What will the new product be used for?” sounds much better than “For what purpose will the new product be used?”

Source: Harvard Business Review

Economy

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 20

Company News

Western Union

T

he Western Union Company, a leader in global payments services, yesterday said that Nigeria is at the forefront of the company’s expansion plans in Africa – facilitating reliable cross-border payments with a growing retail agent network and expansion into new channels with mobile payments and account-based money transfers.

With more than half a million locations in 200 countries and territories, Western Union has been present in Africa since 1995 and has more than 27,000 Agent locations spanning 50 countries across the continent.

In Nigeria alone, Western Union has more than 4,800 locations represented by a majority of Nigeria’s banks.

AIICO Insurance Plc

A

IICO Insurance Plc is offering discounted rate to members of the public on its travel insurance policy this summer season. This is in line with the company’s determination to ensure that Nigerians are adequately protected whenever they travel outside the country.

The policy called AIICO Travel insurance, is designed to give cover to the policyholders should the need arise for emergency medical expenses, repatriation and evacuation during international trips.

According to the company’s Managing Director, David Sobanjo, AIICO aims at ensuring that Nigerians are not left to suffer unduly while away either for business or vacation in any of the overseas countries.

Abraaj Group

T

he Abraaj Group, a leading investor operating in growth markets, has announced its agreement to acquire a 100% stake in Fan Milk International (“FMI”), West Africa’s market leading manufacturer and distributor of frozen dairy products and juices.

Established over 50 years ago, FMI possesses an impressive track-record of organic growth in West Africa where it has become the undisputed market leader in frozen dairy products. FMI currently operates through subsidiaries in the rapidly growing markets of Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Ivory Coast, Benin and Burkina Faso.

The company, through its subsidiaries, currently sells over 1.8 million products on a daily basis across West Africa.

FIRS begins VAT automated payments system for airlines, others

By Abdulwahab Isa

T

he Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is to commence implementation of automated Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Tax deductions at source for the aviation industry beginning from September 2013, with extensions to other sectors such as the Telecommunication and Financial services to follow.

The Acting Executive Chairman of FIRS, Alhaji Kabir Mashi made this known yesterday in Abuja at a one-day sensitisation workshop for FIRS Field Officers, Collection Agents and Banks.

The Pilot Scheme of the automation processes, which is expected to go live in the third quarter of 2013, would cover other sectors such as telecommunications, power, and financial institutions.

Mashi, represented by the Coordinating Director, Direct Report Group (DRG), Mr. Onyekachi Ihedioha, also listed the automation of all our receipt processes, increase in the number of payment channels as well as the implementation of the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) as among steps taken by FIRS to ensure increase tax revenue collection for the government.

He also disclosed that FIRS is collaborating with the commercial banks to make the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) mandatory for opening of an account and all transaction with the individuals and corporate bodies.

Mashi said, “We have extended invitations to our Collecting Agents for their magnanimity in collecting and remitting taxes on behalf of the Service. Businesses now know that there is no hiding place for them anymore. Yes, they can run, but they

By Etuka Sunday

T

he Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria [SMEDAN] has announced the elevation of the Agency’s image maker, Mr. Levi Chukwuemeka Anyikwa to the rank of Deputy Director.

Seventy others were also elevated to various positions in the recent promotion exercise conducted by the Agency which

can no longer hide.

“We appreciate the level of cooperation thus far in the implementation of the Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN) system. We have achieved some significant mileage with the introduction of TIN and we hope the banks will fully adopt the “No TIN No Account” option as we go on.’’

According to him, suffice it to say that efficient revenue management entails generating the maximum level of revenue without leakages, prompt delivery of quality services to the taxpaying public and high level of transparency and accountability.

He said while part of the ITAS project focuses on Taxpayers Registration using TIN, the Filing and Registration and Returns Processes, Payment Processing was

being addressed by the collection automation project.

The FIRS boss explained: “We have adequate mechanisms for proper analysis and monitoring of these initiatives, to enable us address attendant challenges as they occur.

The success, or otherwise ,of some of the above initiatives depended on the level of cooperation of agencies like the Nigeria Customs Service, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation “I am sure you are all aware of the introduction of the Electronic Form ‘M’ by the Nigeria Customs Service and the Central Bank of Nigeria. We have also keyed into this arrangement in such a manner that transaction involving the use of e-form M cannot be processed

without a valid Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN).

Equally important for the success of this idea is the level of cooperation of banks, we therefore solicit for your assistance in the implementation of this and other various initiatives.’’

Mashi noted that the Service, at inception, focused on efficiency in collection, assessment and accounting, adding that: “While the primary mandate remained unchanged, a lot has since changed from process reengineering to process automation through our modernisation programme’’.

He assured participants of the Service’ commitment to keeping its mission statement to operate a transparent and efficient tax system that optimises tax revenue collection and voluntary compliance.

R-L: Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, Katsina state Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Mohammed Lawan, Jigawa state Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Nasir Umar, and Jigawa state Accountant General, Sani Ahmed Jahon, during the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting, on Wednesday in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

SMEDAN elevates Spokesman, 70 others produced four new Assistant Directors.

Thirteen of the beneficiaries were promoted to Chief [Grade Level 14] in their respective Departments, Twelve got to Assistant Chief [Grade Level 13] while six officers made it to Principal [Grade Level 12].

The list of promotions also has thirteen Senior Officers [GL 10], six Officers on GL 09,

three Officers on GL 08 and ten officers on Grade Level 07.

Anyikwa attended the Anambra State Polytechnic [now Federal Polytechnic] Oko [1984 - 1986] from where he obtained National Diploma in Mass Communication. He also has Bachelor of Science [B.Sc.], Second Class Honours – Upper Division, in Mass Communication from Anambra

State University of Technology [ASUTECH], now called Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, which he attended from 1986 to 1989.

He also attended the prestigious University of Lagos, Akoka – Lagos, where he obtained a Master of Science [M.Sc.] Degree in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management in 1996.

G8 pledges strong support for AfDB infrastructure agenda

T

he Group of eight most industrialized countries (G8) has expressed strong support for the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group’s priorities, especially its initiative on infrastructure and the African Legal Support Facility – which helps countries negotiate better contracts in the natural resources sector.

In a final communiqué after meeting in Northern Ireland,

the G8 also called for strong replenishment of the African Development Fund – which supports a range of poverty reduction programmes, including infrastructure development and capacity building.

The African Legal Support Facility is a legal technical assistance facility that helps low income countries address a growing problem of

litigation by vulture funds as well as a technical advisory facility that helps regional member countries to negotiate extractive resource contracts to create an appropriate, enabling environment with modern legal and regulatory frameworks for the extractive resources sector.

AfDB President Donald Kaberuka welcomed the G8 communiqué, saying it

reflected recognition of African priorities and an appetite for partnership between the G8 and African leaders.

“Africa seeks to trade her way out of poverty, but to do so she must deal with the issue of the cost of doing business, the risk of small fragmented markets through hard and soft infrastructure,” he said.

(AfDB)

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 21

Tax Implication of the adoption of International Financial reporting Standard (IFRS)

By Frank Obaro

I

n line with section 8 of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Establishment Act 2007, FIRS issued a draft circular in October 2012 to provide direction to stakeholders on the tax implications of the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

IFRS is expected to far have reaching implications on taxpayers, knowing that quoted companies are expected to adopt it, beginning from 2012, other businesses from 2013 while SMEs are to fully adopt the guidelines in 2014.

These is to give effect to the Federal Executive Council’s acceptance of the recommendation of the Committee on the roadmap for the adoption of IFRS in Nigeria, which places emphasis on the adoption of globally accepted accounting standards by reporting entities.

The adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in a phased transition in a process is to be supervised by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria(FRCN) formerly Nigerian Accounting Standards Board (NASB), under the supervision of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment.

Section 55 (1) of the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA), Cap C21, LFN 2004 requires a company filing a return to submit its audited account with the Service while sections 8, 52 and 53 of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Act, 2011 gave effect to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standard. This implies that the audited accounts to be submitted to the Service af-

ter the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standard shall be prepared in compliance with standards issued by IFRS. It is in line with the above that FIRS has published these draft guidelines on tax treatments to be given to each of the Standards especially where there are deviations from the present Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) after the adoption. The objective is to highlight some salient points in the FIRS draft policy document in alignment with the IFRS guidelines.

IFRS 1 - FIRST TIME ADOPTION -An entity shall prepare and present an opening IFRS statement of financial position at the date of transition to IFRS. This is the starting point for its accounting in accordance with IFRS. An entity shall use the same accounting policies in its opening IFRS statement of financial position and throughout all periods presented in its first IFRS financial statements. Those accounting policies shall comply with each IFRS effective at the end of its first IFRS reporting period.

In particular, the IFRS requires an entity to do the following in the opening IFRS statement of financial position that it prepares as a starting point for its accounting under IFRS:(a) recognise all assets and liabilities whose recognition is required by IFRSs; (b) not recognise items as assets or liabilities if IFRS do not permit such recognition. (a) reclassify items that it recognised in accordance with previous GAAP as one type of asset, liability or component of equity, but are a different type of asset, liability or component of equity in accordance with IFRSs; and (d) apply IFRS in measuring

all recognised assets and liabilities”.

FIRS draft guidelines emphasize that the new net asset based on the accounting balance shall be adopted for minimum tax computation and where dividend is paid from retained earnings, it shall be subject to tax in line with section 19 of CITA. Also the details of recognitions, de-recognitions and reconciliation must be forwarded to FIRS by the taxpayer including all adjustments to opening retained earnings.

Furthermore entities shall have the option to either completely expense or spread within 3 years the revenue expense component of its cost of conversion to IFRS as first time adopters. All conversion cost (Capital & Revenue) must be verified and confirmed by the Service before it can be allowed as Qualified Capital Expenditure or expense. While any additional tax/refund as a result of the conversion shall be settled by the company or refunded

by FIRS as may be agreed by FIRS within 3 years of adoption.

For the treatment of Finance Lease the FIRS guideline notes that in compliance with IFRS reclassification of lease asset, there could be a situation whereby an operating lease becomes a finance lease. Where two parties had correctly applied the old principle but are now compelled by the IFRS standard to reclassify operating lease as finance lease, FIRS will rely on the Tax Written down value of the asset in granting further capital allowance to the leasee.

Also, investment allowance and Initial allowance shall not be granted to the leasee on reclassification of the asset and where there are errors in compliance with pre-

Tax Alert

Ag. Executive Chairman, FIRS, Alhaji Kabir Mashi vious standards on leases, the tax consequences resulting from the errors shall be adjusted for accordingly. For assets reclassified to finance lease, paragraph 18(2) and (3) of schedule two of CITA which relates to Rights to Claim Capital Allowances on finance lease shall apply. The guideline on finance lease as described in FIRS information circular No. 2010/01 dated 12th April, 2012 which relates to Value Added Tax (VAT) and With- Holding Tax (WHT) shall apply.

In IAS 19 – which dwells on EMPLOYEE BENEFITS, the FIRS draft guidelines notes that provisions in respect of other long-term employee benefits (other than post- employment benefits and termination benefits) that are not due to be settled within twelve months after the end of the period in which the employees render the related service shall not be allowed for tax purposes until actual payment is made.

Profit sharing and bonus payments shall be allowed for tax purposes only if the amount and basis for its computation has been agreed and approved at the beginning of the accounting period and notably Personal Income Tax is payable on the bonus and profit sharing in line with the provisions of Personal Income Tax (amended 2011).

For Pension remittances employer’s contributions over and above the 7.5% compulsory threshold is an allowable deduction by virtue of the provision of the National Pension Commission Act

(section 7 & 9 of Pension Act) and Actual contribution paid to the pension fund in the current year shall be allowed for tax purposes in line with the existing practice.

The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) has been empowered to approve defined benefit plan for any entity that wants to run it. However, FIRS must be satisfied that a proper scheme manager is appointed for the security of the fund before allowing any expenses on the scheme for tax purposes.

Any provision charged to Statement of Comprehensive Income (SOCI) that does not have the approval of Pension Commission and FIRS shall be disallowed. Provision made for benefits payable to the employees offered voluntary redundancy shall not be an allowable deduction for tax purposes unless they result into cash payment to the employees.

There is no doubt that the transition to IFRS is a huge task, with over 100 countries already signed to it. IFRS has become the global reporting standards for accounts and it is imperative for various stakeholders to work together to engender a workable solutions in terms of capacity and enlightenment on the cut off dates. Its revolutionary impact tax requires a great deal of decisiveness and commitment. It is a new world order in corporate reporting that will alter not only the financial accounting and reporting landscape in Nigeria but also tax accounting, tax cash flow and tax distributable reserves.

PAGE 22

Business Features

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Ward-based clusters: A recipe for economic growth

E

conomists describe the recent announcement of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) regarding the development of a concept -- ward-based clusters -- as a good development.

They note that the concept is an innovative strategy aimed at boosting the economic development of the country via the establishment of small-scale industries in the rural areas.

The Director-General of RMRDC, Prof. Peter Onwualu said that the project would turn local raw materials into globally useful products.

He said that the council had produced a compendium reflecting the pattern of raw materials’ distribution in each of the wards and local governments of the country.

Onwualu stressed that efforts to transform Nigeria into one of the 20 topmost economies in the world by 2020 would be successful if the project, based on the cluster system, was effectively implemented.

He said that the concept, which was developed by the Ministry of Science and Technology, could create more than 10 million jobs.

He stressed that the project, a grassroots-oriented programme, would explore the raw material potentialities of all the local government areas in the country, with a view to establishing raw materials’ processing clusters in every ward across the country.

In this perspective, Onwualu said that a cluster referred to a geographical location where a group of people engaged in the same line of business, using the same raw materials.

He said that such activity would create a platform for the assemblage of small and medium enterprises in a given locality, sharing common facilities such as electricity, machinery, water and access roads, among others, to reduce the cost of production.

He explained that the aim of the project was to introduce technologies into already existing clusters, while establishing new clusters, with the aim of completing the entire project before the year 2020.

Besides, Onwualu noted that there were about 5,000 crops in Nigeria that could be used in the project, insisting that if the project succeeded,

Director-General of RMRDC, Prof. Peter Onwualu it would put an end to the importation of certain goods and raw materials.

“If the project is fully implemented, that is, if it is possible to establish these clusters in all the wards in the country; then, we are talking of 5,555 wards all over the country.

“In each of these wards, you could have a cluster of 10 to 20 industries; each industry employing five to 20 persons; then, you are talking about creating not less than 10 million jobs,’’ he said.

The Director-General said that since the establishment of RMRDC about 25 years

ago, it had consistently pursued a central mandate of promoting the exploitation, development and utilisation of local raw materials in the country. ``Our target is to increase the percentage of local content in industrial raw materials’ utilisation in Nigeria from the current 25 per cent to 60 per cent in the next 25 years.

“This, by our estimation, can save Nigeria more than N2 trillion in foreign exchange, which is hitherto used for the importation of raw materials and skills’ acquisition, among others,’’

“

he said.

Analysts also believe that a well-managed, wardbased clusters project will be a veritable roadmap to stimulate economic growth, economic empowerment and industrialisation at the grassroots.

Dr Solomon Nyagba, the President of Abuja Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ABUCCIMA), said that the programme would be particularly beneficial to smaller businesses which did not have the wherewithal to stand alone.

He said that the injection

Besides, Onwualu noted that there were about 5,000 crops in Nigeria that could be used in the project, insisting that if the project succeeded, it would put an end to the importation of certain goods and raw materials.

of modern technology and expertise into such clusters would make their products exportable in a competitive market, thereby improving the standard of living of rural dwellers.

Nyagba argued that it would be extremely difficult for Nigeria to attain the target of transforming into one of the top 20 economies of the world by 2020, if technology-based grassroots manufacturing was not encouraged. ``It is a good programme; it will reduce overdependence on imported products; hence, our chamber is solidly behind it. ``In this case, smaller businesses do not need a separate Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) to secure a land to operate; they just go to the cluster and get a space. ``The concept will create an easier platform for local manufacturers to export their products through a synergy,’’ he said.

Sharing similar sentiments, Dr Abdulaziz Mohammed, the Chairman of the Abuja Chapter of the Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), said that the concept would empower local entrepreneurs.

“The cluster concept, when implemented, will create a kind of economic integration which will, in no distant time, translate into economic boom,’’ he said.

Mr. Chucks Ngaha, the Deputy Director (Public Affairs) of RMRDC, said that a number of processing activities had already started, adding that a lot of foreigners had also expressed interest in the processing of Nigeria’s raw materials.

“Every hand must be on the deck; the government cannot do it alone but it has to provide the enabling environment,’’ he said.

Industrialists note that Nigeria is home to abundant agro-allied raw materials such as cocoa, coffee, cashew nuts, rubber, palm produce, coconuts, cotton and ginger, as well as assorted solid minerals.

They, therefore, maintain that the ward-based cluster project will trigger a massive economic transformation and industrial growth of the country.

(NANFeatures)

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 23

Stock Watch

Report as at Thurssday, June 20, 2013

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 24

PAGE 25

Special Report

Winning the war against Boko Haram insurgency?

By Constance Athekame

T

he Boko Haram camp, about 60 km to Chad, was deserted when journalists in company of members of the Joint Task Force (JTF) and Brig.Gen. Chris Olukolade, the Director of Defence Information, reached there.

At the camp, relics of the insurgents’ property, including burnt cars, refrigerators, electric fans and gas cookers, littered everywhere.

The abandoned belongings of the fleeing insurgents include clothes, shoes, used and unused condoms, drugs and injection syringes, among others.

The authorities said that the extremists had begun coating their vehicles with mud and hiding them under trees to avoid being spotted from the air.

At Kirenowa community, about 30 km from the camp, hundreds of people gathered to welcome the military convoy and journalists.

Zarna Ashak Zarma, the head of Kirenowa community, told newsmen that the community was grateful to President Goodluck Jonathan for declaring a state of emergency in the area.

Saying that the community could now sleep with their eyes closed, Zarma stressed: ``We are grateful to the Federal Government.

Those of us who fled have since returned home.’’

Boko Haram, an Islamic

Abubakar Shekau

NSA, Colonel Sambo Dasuki sect, has targeted the police, churches, mosques, politicians and public institutions in its violent campaign which began in 2009.

Mohammad Yusuf, a radical Muslim cleric, created Boko Haram in 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern state of Borno.

The group aims to establish a fully Islamic state in Nigeria, while setting up Sharia courts across the country.

Boko Haram literally means ``Western education is a sin’’ and the sect calls itself Jama’atul Alhul Sunnah Lidda’wati wal jihad or ``people committed to the propagation of the prophet’s teachings and jihad’’.

In July 2009, members

of the sect bluntly refused to obey a traffic regulation compelling motorcycle riders to wear crash helmets and the resistance snowballed into an armed uprising in Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, and Kano states.

The uprising, which was quelled by the army, left hundreds of people dead. It also culminated in the killing of Yusuf, his father-in-law and other members of the sect members, which human rights advocates condemn as extra-judicial killings.

The notoriety of Boko Haram grew by the day as the sect orchestrated a campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations in the northern part of the country.

Boko Haram’s campaign assumed a more dangerous dimension, as the group is

believed to have linkages with international terrorist groups.

For instance, on Aug, 26, 2011, a suicide bomber attacked the UN building in Abuja, killing at least 21 persons and wounding 60 others.

The Boko Haram group later claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The group’s terrorist campaign continued unabated in some states with frightening consequences, compelling President Jonathan to declare a state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states on May 14.

Following the declaration, Jonathan directed the Chief of Defence Staff to immediately deploy more troops to these states for ``more effective internal security operations’’. ``The troops and other security agencies involved in these operations have orders to take all necessary action, within the ambit of their rules of engagement, to put an end to the impunity of insurgents and terrorists. ``This will include the authority to arrest and detain suspects, the taking of possession and control of any building or structure used for terrorist purposes, the lock-down of any area of terrorist operation, the conduct of searches and the apprehension of persons in illegal possession of weapons,’’ Jonathan said.

Shortly after the president’s pronouncement, soldiers moved into the affected areas and took control of the three states.

In an attempt to ensure media access to first-hand

information about the operation of the JTF in Maiduguri, Borno State, the Defence Headquarters organised a two-day media tour of the area for local and foreign journalists.

In Maiduguri, Maj.-Gen. John Ewanshia, Commander of the JTF in Borno, briefed the journalists on the achievements recorded by the JTF since its operations began on May 14.

He said that the task force was working in line with President Jonathan’s directive regarding the restoration of law and order to Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. ``As we speak, the operations are ongoing and a lot of grounds have been covered; a lot of achievements have been recorded but I won’t go into details. ``I will rather allow the gentlemen in the field to do the briefings,’’ Ewanshia said at the beginning of the tour.

Prior to the commencement of the tour, the journalists were conducted round the JTF premises where the weapons and vehicles confiscated from the Boko Haram insurgents were stockpiled.

Speaking, Lt.-Col Gabriel Olurunyomi, Commander of Combat Team C of the JTF, told the journalists that the troops had begun a process of peace and confidence building.

He said that after dislodging the Boko Haram insurgents, the JTF had been working with the police to restore law and order in the states. ``Presently, we are working on peace and confidence-building for the people; that is why it is safe for you to be here now,” he said.

The tour revealed some hard facts about the Boko Haram insurgents’ invasion of some farming and fishing communities and their secessionist moves which culminated in their establishment of an ``Islamic state’’ with its distinctive red flags hoisted everywhere.

From all indications, the insurgents appeared bent on achieving their goals but they apparently succumbed to the superior firepower of the JTF. Locals recalled that they witnessed, from a safe distance, how fighter jets

and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) pummelled the camps of militants.

The journalists confirmed such accounts via their observation of the relics of the military offensive such as burnt vehicles and personal effects like shoes and clothes that were strewn across the sacked Hausari Camp on the outskirts of Kirenowa village.

A member of the JTF, Lt.-Col. Danladi Hassan, who is the Commander of Combat Team One, told the journalists that a lot of progress had been recorded in the JTF operation.

He said that the insurgents fled their camp on May 16 after an encounter with the JTF, adding that the rebels had relocated to woody areas to evade being spotted. ``This is to ensure that the rays of sunlight and surveillance from our aircraft do not expose them,’’ he added.

He said that the deserted camp hitherto served as a training ground for new recruits of the outlawed Boko Haram sect.

Hassan, however, said that the insurgents destroyed their belongings when they discovered that the JTF troops were advancing towards them.

The officer said when the troops moved into the camp, they also discovered some drugs which the terrorists used.

In the meantime, socioeconomic activities in the neighbourhood have picked up, as residents were seen going about their routine duties.

At the Kirenowa community, the residents commended the Federal Government for declaring a state of emergency in Borno,

JTF patrolling a major street in Maiduguri, Borno state Yobe and Adamawa states.

The locals, who spoke in Hausa and Kanuri, described the military operation as very successful, adding, however, that the visiting journalists could have seen ``more action’’ if they had

“

The troops and other security agencies involved in these operations have orders to take all necessary action, within the ambit of their rules of engagement, to put an end to the impunity of insurgents and terrorists

visited the area earlier.

They recalled that there were serious battles between the insurgents and JTF troops at many locations.

However, Zarma, the community’s head, commended the troops for the way they related with the members of the community, adding that the soldiers’ efforts to share information with the residents also aided the fulfillment of their assignment.

He noted that the JTF donated medications to the community. ``We, however, want you to take our message to the President that we need some assistance from the Federal Government in the areas of food and drugs. ``Majority of us are farmers and we have not been able to farm for some time,’’ he said.

Zarma also solicited the

government’s assistance in the provision of farming equipment, adding that the residents, who were mostly farmers, needed tractors to plough the soil in preparation for the planting season.

Also speaking, Babagida Mohammed, the Deputy Village Head of Kirenowa, recalled that his people suffered a lot in the hands of the terrorists before the coming of the troops, saying: ``We were badly terrorised.’’

He, however, reiterated that the residents of the community were law-abiding citizens, insisting that the Boko Haram insurgents were not indigenes of the neighbourhood. ``We want Mr President to help us with potable water and good roads because we don’t have roads,’’ he said.

Sharing similar sentiments, another

resident, Mohammed Walgore, stressed that ``the insurgents are strangers. We don’t have any business with them. ``They came and settled here. We did not have any business with them; that is why we can stay here and tell the world today that they are not part of us.’’

Brig.-Gen. Olukolade told newsmen after the tour that there had not been any civilian casualties in the ongoing operation in the three states.

The director of defence information said: ``The main concern of the Federal Government from the beginning of this operation is how to ensure that there is no civilian casualty. ``I, therefore, want to tell you that this has been substantially achieved. ``The next thing is to ensure that the miscreants

and trouble makers do not have access to civilian populated areas to cause other problems. ``To the best of my knowledge, no civilian has been killed; we can’t call anyone killed in a camp a civilian anyway,’’ he said.

Olukolade said that most of the camps were populated by terrorists, who were the targets of the operation.

He said that the operation was a wholesome one, which involved not only the military but all the other security agencies.

All the same, observers maintain that with the military takeover of the states under the state of emergency, there is increased optimism that the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents will come to an end, while peace returns to the country.

Source: NAN

PAGE 26

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Islam

Islam and the five mysteries (V) A

llah says: “He knows what is hidden and what is open: too high is He for the partners They attribute to Him!” [al-Mu’minun: 92] In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All Praise is due to Allah! We praise Him and we seek help from Him. We ask forgiveness from Him. We repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from our evils and bad deeds.

Anyone who is guided by Allah, is indeed guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship but Allah, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and final messenger to mankind. May the peace and blessing of Allah be

natural tendency to attract tiny predictions and forecasts on weather specks of dust which are ever- for various reasons in anticipation present in the atmosphere in the for preparing our daily or annual desert-regions. These are then events. This is because, weather carried up from the emitters by forecasting is simply the appliance convection – upward currents of science and technology to envisage of air generated by the heat the state of the atmosphere for a release from sunlight as it hits given setting. This prediction did the ground. Once the dust particles reach the right height for cloud formation, the charges will attract water molecules floating in the air which then start to

By Husain Zakariyya condense around Yawale them. If there is sufficient moisture +234-8052952900 (sms only) in the air, it induces islamexplained35@yahoo.com billions of droplets to form which finally

upon His last and final apostle, his household, his companions and all his followers until the end of time.

In 2010, a project trespassing into Allah’s exclusive jurisdiction was made by some scientists who were encouraged and sponsored by some Muslim leaders in one of the Arab countries, headed by Helmut Fluhrer, the founder of Metro Systems International, the Swiss company in charge of the project. The project was to make rainfall for some part of the country which experience scanty rainfall.

When asked, the head of the team said that they are operating an innovative rainfall enhancement technology, Weathertec, in the region with the acute problem, and that they have achieved a number of rainfalls.

The mock rain was made possible by ‘using giant ionisers, shaped like giant lampshades, to generate fields of negatively charged particles, which create cloud formation. The ionising sites has five 20 emitters each that sent trillions of cloud-forming ions into the atmosphere which produce negatively charged particles called electrons. This, they said has a

means clouds and rain.

‘But how controllable the weather can be is still in doubt, and the consequences of meddling with nature at this level are yet to be seen’ someone commented.

Indeed, the consequences of meddling and interfering with the exclusive rights of Allah will cause laughter at the end.

If any sensible mind will contemplate on this type of trespass, is enough to cause pandemonium in the psyche of a true Muslim. In fact, if anybody sees this interference as ingenuity, please count me out! While the challenge which Allah presented to mankind of all times and spaces remains till eternity, I will not be part of any celebration of that kind.

Allah says: “Verily... it is He who Sends down rain...” [Luqman: 34] That is the challenge!

Therefore, nobody on this universe or institution or technology can send down rainfall in the same process, measure and manner, He does! I will never support such encroachment in our lands, let alone financially support the mock rain project!

However, Islam permits

ISLAM EXPLAINED

not start with Western technology or methodology. Human beings have attempted to forecast the weather informally for millennia. In fact the present method started around the nineteenth century. Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere on a given place and using scientific understanding of atmospheric processes to project how the atmosphere will evolve on that place in a given future happening.

This know-ledge is not against the teachings of Islam at all! Because nobody is claiming the validity of the prediction 100%! The weather can change without the knowledge of any forecaster, and anyone trusting its dependability or accuracy can blame no one but himself.

What I am emphasizing is that sending rainfall to the earth is an exclusive blessing of Allah to the dwellers of the mother earth. He wets and moistures wherever He likes, when He likes and how He likes without the inputs or influence of anyone or anything, anywhere at all.

Rainfall is a blessing in many instances, and a curse in many other instances. When the rain gives life to the earth and its dwellers, by making food and water in favourable abundance, it is a blessing. But where it submerges the buildings and their inhabitants, destroys the land and rivers, such rains are curse and torment. Therefore, heed to the words of Allah: “Who has made the earth your couch, and the heavens your canopy; and sent down rain

from the heavens; and brought forth therewith fruits for your sustenance; then set not up rivals unto Allah when ye know (the truth).” [al-Baqarah: 22] Thus, without rain, there would be no life on earth. Through the water cycle, the water descending from the sky maintains life. As Allah, the Most High reminds us: “Seest Thou not that Allah makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a heap? - then wilt Thou see rain issue forth from their midst. and He Sends down from the sky mountain masses (of clouds) wherein is hail: He strikes therewith whom He pleases and He turns it away from whom He pleases, the vivid flash of His lightning well-nigh blinds the sight.” [an-Nur: 43] The benefits of this rain are not limited to the land given life, but ultimately this also becomes sustenance for us in the form of agriculture and livestock.

Allah , Most Glorified, Most High, rebukes those who reject His Blessings upon them, such as the rain which gives life to the land, causing the crops and fruits of the earth to grow; instead, they attribute it to the movements of the stars which can neither harm nor benefit, saying: “We have been given rain by virtue of the movement of the moon and the stars.”

In Islam, we are educated to believe and uphold that no star or stars has any influence in the descending of the rainfall to any particular place or time. Neither can any one imitate Allah in the sending of rainfall to the earth.

I would like inform you that as from next week, we will start discussing on fasting the month of Ramadan. Meanwhile, we will conclude on this topic thereafter.

May Allah bless us with witnessing the coming month of Ramadan and many more, amin.

PAGE 27

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

International Brazil’s perfect storm of discontent ANALYSIS

By Rodrigo Nunes

B

razil has been roiled by protests in recent weeks.

At first, tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country to protest bus and subway fare hikes and demand free public transportation.

Rather than scare people off, the heavy-handed police reaction helped stir things up. In Sao Paulo alone, 235 people were arrested last Thursday - many for carrying vinegar to minimise the effects of tear gas. Reports abounded of police brutality and provocation, including a policeman caught on camera vandalising his own vehicle.

Brazil’s corporate media, which until then had vilified demonstrators and called for forceful policing, changed its tune when seven journalists working for one of the country’s biggest newspapers were hurt. Two of them were shot in the face with rubber bullets. Protesters went home chanting: “Tomorrow it will be bigger.”

Indeed it was bigger. Monday saw hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating in more than 20 cities. More than 100,000 people hit the streets in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In Brasilia, the capital, protesters occupied the parliament, though they left the area peacefully after some time.

Police violence is a structural problem in Brazil. But the fact that Brazil is presently hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup, and thus is preoccupied with its international image and under special rules agreed with FIFA, makes the situation much worse.

Protests against human rights abuses and misuse of public funds in the preparations for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics - which took place over the weekend - were again heavily repressed.

Qualitative and quantitative demands The government’s reaction to the protests have intensified the demonstrators’ anger and given focus to a number of diffuse and relatively independent grievances.

There have been two kinds of struggles in Brazil in recent years. On the one hand, indigenous peoples in far-flung corners of the country have fought against the encroachment of agribusiness and big government projects like the Belo Monte dam on their land and livelihoods, while the urban poor have resisted rampant property speculation.

These are the ones who have not benefited from Brazil’s rapid growth in recent years; they are victims of what we might term quantitative development.

On the other hand, many urban Brazilians have risen up to advocate on issues like public transport, cycling lanes, public space, the environment, intellectual property, reproductive rights, LGBT rights, et cetera: struggles around the quality of development.

While these two types of struggles involve very different constituencies, the struggles themselves are not unrelated.

Planned hikes in bus and subway fares in Brazil sparked mass protests across the country [AP]ikes In both cases, the government’s standard response to its citizens’ complaints has been to dismiss them as naive or disingenuous particularisms in the face of Brazil’s economic growth and wealth distribution projects, ignoring their universality.

These qualitative demands are universal in that they are ultimately about the production of new commons and new rights. Although the public transportation protesters have mostly been young, educated urbanites, polls indicate that they have popular support - hardly a surprise in a country where the quality of public transportation is so low and its cost so high in relation to the average income.

At the same time, the government’s claims to the universality of its project appear dubious when one sees Brazil’s most marginalised groups, such as indigenous people and favela dwellers, dispossessed in the name of development - losing their houses, their livelihoods and sometimes their lives while private fortunes are being made.

Besides, it is not difficult to see the connections between poor communities affected by the oil industry and the governmentsubsidised swelling of Brazil’s private automobile fleet and disinvestment in public transport; or between the erosion of public space and the exclusionary “urban regeneration” projects spurred by the major events the country is slated to host in 2014 and 2016.

The potential for an explosive new social force in Brazil’s political landscape may lie in turning these connections into actual alliances, bringing together what could be called the quantitatively excluded and the qualitatively concerned. If this is looking like a perfect political storm, it is because the callousness and brutality of the state’s response are acting as a catalyst for several mishandled grievances.

Ultimately, if there is one thing that these protests are about, it is unresponsiveness and insensitivity: local governments refusing to negotiate with protesters, state government-controlled military policies, a political class generally regarded as corrupt and indifferent, mega-events like the World Cup and the Olympics that are - whether legally or illegally - lining the pockets of a few, a state with poor basic education and health services, and a horrid record of violence against its citizens.

The protests are also, perhaps especially, about Brazil’s ruling centre-left Workers’ Party, or PT, which emerged out of Brazil’s social struggles and rode on high hopes of change. Increasingly, however, the PT has become incorporated into the workings of a self-serving political system and developed an attitude that seems to say that, as long as standards of living keep going up, the government is above criticism.

Quantitative reduction of poverty Worrying about quality now, the government’s argument goes,

“

stands in the way of the quantitative reduction of poverty: to raise obstacles is objectively to be against the interests of the poor.

While this suggests a two-stage approach - once quantity is done, we will deal with quality - the problem is that there is little indication this second stage will come. On the contrary: when the meaning of development is narrowed down to economic growth, the measure of success reduced to exclusively quantitative benchmarks like GDP or the total number of university students, and the main goal becomes raising levels of consumption, this seems to contradict the idea of a future qualitative leap.

It is not true, in other words, that everything is fine as long as standards of living go up. The decision, going back to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s presidency, to prioritise a few big players and sectors like agribusiness and construction has created a trap: dependence on a handful of interest groups whose political clout is proportional to their economic weight.

If the PT’s plan is to create a trickle-down economics that actually works, success depends on maintaining rapid growth, which is presently not the case.

When the economy goes well, everybody wins; but when it does not, someone has to take the fall.

It remains to be seen from whom the government will demand sacrifices, and whether it will have the wherewithal to impose them on the powerful.

While this suggests a two-stage approach - once quantity is done, we will deal with quality - the problem is that there is little indication this second stage will come.

Since Dilma Rousseff’s election as president, popular participation has decreased. Negotiations take place in the corridors of Brasilia, and while political and economic elites inevitably get their way, social movements and the PT’s base are invited to put up or shut up.

Maintaining the coalition created by Lula comes at an ever higher cost. In the last two years, the Brazilian government has repeatedly acted as a progressive cover for profoundly reactionary interests, such as those of landowners and the Christian right.

For decades, the PT played an important role as a channel for new demands and social groups. Now, however, the party is failing to take the initiative in creating new commons and rights, has increasingly tended to turn a blind eye to attacks on existing ones, and has adopted an arrogant, dismissive, “lawand-order” line when faced with popular demands for change.

And by focusing development solely on quantitative growth and consumption, the government reinforces tendencies that go against a future qualitative leap and does a disservice to public debate in Brazil.

Rousseff’s campaign slogan in the last election was “For Brazil to keep on changing”. That is, in a way, what the current protests are about: the meaning and possibility of this next stage.

The protesters are not against the government in the sense that they would want to replace it with an even less popular opposition.

Rather, they are animated by a growing feeling that if this next stage is to occur, the PT may function as an active force against it.

Even if many participants declare themselves as being neither on the left nor the right, and even if corporate media try to associate them with the opposition’s agenda, this is in essence a progressive movement. It seeks to redefine “development” as qualitative as well as quantitative, and “inclusion” as not only about distribution, but redistribution of wealth and power. “This is not about cents,” says one of the main slogans, “it is about rights”.

For a while now, the PT has hidden behind its undeniable success in raising Brazilians’ standard of living, with the blackmail that things would be worse were the opposition back in power. It is a qualitative measure of success that the country’s young generation, whom the last decade has prepared to expect more from their country, are now saying that this is not enough.

Rodrigo Nunes is an associate lecturer and researcher at PUCRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil, where he coordinates the research group Materialismos. He is a member of the editorial collective of Turbulence, and occasionally blogs here.

Source: Al Jazeera

International

Uhuru Kenyatta trial moved to November

Mr Kenyatta’s defence enough time to prepare for his trial, the ICC said.

Mr Kenyatta is accused of orchestrating violence after the 2007 election, an allegation he denies.

The African Union has called for the trial to be halted, saying the ICC was “hunting” Africans.

The ICC has refused to drop the charges, saying it pursues justice impartially.

It had rescheduled Mr Kenyatta’s trial from 9 July to 12 November after judges ruled that defence lawyers should be given more time to prepare for his trial “due to the delays by the prosecution in disclosing its evidence”, the ICC said in a statement.

Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto is due to go on trial in September on similar charges.

On Tuesday, the ICC agreed that Mr Ruto only needs to be “physically present” at key sessions of his trial.

He had requested to participate in the trial via video link.

-- back to prison in April.

Mubarak’s health has been a bone of contention during his trial and incarceration. He suffered a heart attack after relinquishing

power and had maintained that he was physically unfit to stand trial.

Mubarak has been held since his guilty verdict last year.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta

T

he International Criminal Court (ICC) has pushed back the trial of Kenyan

President Uhuru Kenyatta to 12 November.

The decision was taken to give

Court ruling favors Mubarak but he stays in jail A court in Egypt decided to release former President Hosni Mubarak on one charge, but the former ruler remains in jail on other counts, his lawyer said Tuesday, A misdemeanor court decided to end Mubarak’s detention in the case of making illicit gains, said Attorney Farid El-Deeb.

The prosecution will appeal in 48 hours or by Thursday, El-Deeb told CNN. The case involves how the family acquired several dwellings.

The ousted autocratic leader is being retried in the killings of hundreds of civilian protesters who took to the streets for two weeks in early 2011 to demand his removal from office after three decades of rule.

He is also charged with seizing public funds and misusing political influence. Mubarak is accused of selling natural gas to neighboring Israel for prices below fair market value.

Mubarak, who stepped down on February 11, 2011, and his former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison last year on charges that they were

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

complicit in the protesters’ killings.

A public prosecutor sent Mubarak -- who spent months detained in a military hospital

Mauritania’s PM and army chief visit Bamako

M

Mauritania’s Prime Minister, Moulay Ould Mohamed Laghdhaf

auritania’s Prime Minister, Moulay Ould Mohamed Laghdhaf, left Nouakchott on Wednesday in the company of the country’s chief of general staff, general Mohamed Ould Mohamed Ahmed, heading to Bamako, a security source has said.

No indication was given by the same source on the objective of the visit which comes at a time when Mauritania is deploying troops to the northern and eastern parts that border Mali.

The visit comes just 24 hours after the signing of the Ouagadougou peace agreement between the Malian government and the National Movement for

the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).

Mauritania has already announced that it will deploy 1,800 soldiers to Mali under the auspices of the United Nations peace keepers.

The modalities for the deployment of the Mauritanian contingent and its position in the battle field in Mali have not yet been worked out.

Speaking on Tuesday in Nouakchott, Michel Riveyrand who is the special representative of the European Union in the Sahel, said “Mauritania had confirmed that it will play an active role in promoting the security situation in the Sahel region.” (Xinhua)

Sweeden jails Rwandan for life for role in 1994 genocide

A

Swedish court on Thursday sentenced a man of Rwandan origin to life imprisonment for his role in the 1994 genocide in the African county, the first such case in the Nordic state.

Stanislas Mbanenande, 54, an ethnic Hutu from Rwanda who is now a Swedish citizen, was convicted of taking part in several massacres in Kibuye in western Rwanda, the court said in a statement. He had denied the charges.

He was also convicted of playing a leading role at a lower level and participating in murder and kidnapping.

“It has been proved that the purpose of the acts of which the defendant has now been convicted was to wholly or partly destroy the Tutsi ethnic group. The acts have therefore been assessed a genocide,” the court ruling said, setting a sentence of life imprisonment.

In a span of 100 days in 1994, Hutu soldiers and militiamen killed around 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis. Rwanda is now under a Tutsi-dominated government.

Some of the hearings in the Swedish trial were held in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital.

Norway convicted a Rwandan for masterminding the murder of 2,000 people in the genocide and sent him to jail for 21 years in February.

Source: (Reuters)

40 killed in tribal clashes in Sudan’s Darfur

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bout 40 people were killed and 45 others injured in fresh clashes between two tribes in Sudan’s Central Darfur state, Khartoum’s Al-Sahafa daily reported Wednesday.

Th e c l a s h e s b e t w e e n Al Salamat and Messiria tribes have spread from the areas around Zalengie of Central Darfur state to the Shataya locality in South Darfur state, the paper quoted Al-Saddiq Abdalla Hamdalla, commissioner of Shataya locality, as saying.

Five villages of the Messiria tribe have been burnt during the clashes, and the authorities have sent security reinforcements to the area, said Hamdalla.

Source: Xinhua

PEOPLES DAILY , FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 29

International

Haze casts shadow over Singapore-Jakarta ties

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ndonesia has accused Singapore of “behaving like a child” by complaining about severe haze from raging forest fires on Sumatra island that has cloaked the city-state.

“Singapore should not be behaving like a child and making all this noise,” Agung Laksono, the minister who is coordinating Indonesia’s response to the haze crisis, told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday.

Laksono was responding to Singapore’s demands earlier on Thursday for “definitive” action by Indonesia to quell forest fires raging in Sumatra.

Air quality has deteriorated to “hazardous” levels in both Singapore and Malaysia over the past few days as smoke from forest fires in Indonesia obscured skies and disrupted businesses and travel.

A technical meeting between Indonesian and Singaporean officials is scheduled during which Indonesia will share information on what it has been doing and will listen to concerns from Singapore.

Work at several Singapore construction sites slowed with few workers seen outdoors while the city-state called on Indonesia to do something.

“No country or corporation has

the right to pollute the air at the expense of Singaporeans’ health and well-being,” Singapore’s Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said on his Facebook page.

Balakrishnan said Singapore had sent officials to an emergency haze meeting in the Indonesian capital,

Jakarta.

At 1 pm local time on Thursday, the city-state’s pollution standards index (PSI) soared to a new high of 371, indicating air quality had deteriorated to “hazardous” levels, and exceeding the previous record set on Wednesday night.

A PSI reading above 300

indicates “hazardous” air, while a reading between 201 and 300 means “very unhealthy”.

The top PSI readings in Singapore over the past two days have exceeded the peak of 226 reached in 1997 when smog from Indonesian fires disrupted shipping and air travel across Southeast Asia.

Smoke from Indonesian forest fires has enveloped Singapore.

Chinese astronauts deliver lecture from space

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hina has held its first classroom lecture from its orbiting space station as part of efforts to popularise the successful manned space flight programme among young people.

Female astronaut Wang Yaping took questions live from among 330 elementary and middle school students at a Beijing high school from aboard the Tiangong 1 prototype space station on Thursday morning.

The class lasted 51-minutes.

Wang displayed basic principles of weightlessness and water surface tension, while fellow crew members Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang answered questions about living, working and staying fit aboard the station.

China launched its first crewed mission in 2003 and the Tiangong 1 in 2011.

The current Shenzhou 10 mission is the second crewed trip to the station, due to be replaced by a larger station in 2020.

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Abbas, a government source said.

Hamdallah “presented his resignation in writing to the president following disagreements with his two

China’s second female astronaut, Wang Yaping, delivers the country’s first-ever video lecture

Palestinian Authority PM offers resignation he newly appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah has offered his resignation to President Mahmoud

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah

deputies,” a PA official told the AFP news agency on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

It was not immediately clear whether Abbas was likely to accept the resignation of the 54-year-old who was named to the position on June 2 following the resignation of Salam Fayyad.

Abbas had asked Hamdallah, the former head of al-Najah University in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus, to form a new government.

A new 24-member cabinet under Hamdallah’s leadership was sworn in on June 6.

Upon accepting the nomination Hamdallah quickly pledged to follow a similar path to Fayyad and said he would leave the government line-up largely unchanged.

He made clear he would quickly

step aside in the summer after the formation of a government of national unity comprising Abbas’s Fatah party and its rival, Hamas.

Fayyad himself resigned in mid-April after months of difficult relations with Abbas that reached a crisis over the resignation of finance minister Nabil Qassis, which the premier accepted but the president did not.

That power struggle resulted in Fayyad stepping down but staying on as caretaker prime minister upon Abbas’s request, with his term drawing to a close on June 2.

WashingtonandEuropewelcomed theappointmentofHamdallah,whoon Wednesday had held his first meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Asia & Middle East

No date fixed for Taliban peace talks

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ensions over the Taliban’s new political office in Qatar have thrown planned talks between theAfghananti-governmentgroupand the US into disarray.

The meeting was expected to take place in Doha in the coming days, with some reports indicating this could be as early as Thursday, but the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has said his government will not be attending any talks.

Karzai has said he will boycott any peace talks unless they were led by his government.

“As long as the peace process is not Afghan-led,theHighPeaceCouncilwill not participate in the talks in Qatar,” he said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to a body he set up in 2010 to seek a negotiated peace with the Taliban.

The developments came one day aftertheUSannounceditwouldengage in direct negotiations with the armed group.

The dispute over the name of the Taliban’s Doha office, opened on Tuesday, has raised new concerns among the Americans too.

The row centres on the office calling itself the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” - the formal name of its 1996-2001 government - and portraying itself as a state in exile, officials said.

Jen Psaki, State Department spokeswoman, said on Wednesday the US does “not recognise the name Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”.

ShesaidJohnKerry,thesecretaryof state, had made that clear in two phone calls in the past 24 hours with Karzai.

Kerry also “noted that the government of Qatar has taken steps today to ensure that the political office is in compliance with the conditions established by the government of Qatar for its operations”, Psaki said.

“Reports of a meeting scheduled are inaccurate,” she said, saying that the US had “never confirmed” any specific meeting between US officials and the Taliban in Doha.

“We are now in consultations with the Afghan leadership and the High Peace Council on how to move forward.”

Karzai, who has headed the USbacked Afghan government since the US-led invasion in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks brought down the Taliban, opposes bilateral US-Taliban talks.

Psaki confirmed that James Dobbins, the US special envoy, had not left Washington on Tuesday as planned for the talks.

“Right now, Ambassador Dobbins is in Washington. I don’t have any planned travel for you to announce,” she said.

InanotherdecisiononWednesday, Karzai broke off ongoing Afghan-US talks on an agreement to allow the US tomaintainsoldiersinAfghanistanafter aNATOcombatmissionendsnextyear over what it called the US’ “inconsistent statement and action” over the peace process.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

International

NSA leaks: Wikileaks’ Assange seeks asylum for Snowden

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ikileaks founder Julian Assange is trying to broker a deal that would see US surveillanceprogrammeleakerEdward Snowden granted asylum in Iceland.

Mr Assange said he had been in touch with lawyers for Mr Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong before the scandal broke.

Iceland’s PM said “informal discussions” had been held with an intermediary of the ex-CIA contractor.

But Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson said Mr Snowden, 29, would need to be in Iceland to apply for asylum.

Mr Snowden, who most recently worked as a contract computer technician for the National Security Agency (NSA), the US electronic spying agency,hasvowedtofightanyextradition attempts by the US. The US has yet to file a formal request for his extradition from the Chinese territory.

The leaks, published in a series of articles this month in The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers, revealed that US agencies had systematically gathered vast amounts of phone and web data.

“WeareintouchwithMrSnowden’s legal team and have been, are involved, in the process of brokering his asylum in Iceland,”saidMrAssangeinaconference call from the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he himself is fighting

extradition to Sweden.

On Monday, Mr Snowden said US officials had destroyed any possibility of a fair trial by labelling him a traitor.

“TheUSgovernment,justastheydid with other whistleblowers, immediately andpredictablydestroyedanypossibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason,” he wrote in a live online chat.

FormerVice-PresidentDickCheney and two influential members of the US Congress have accused the leaker of betraying his country.

Mr Snowden’s father has also urged his son not to commit “treason”, using a US TV interview this week to urge him to come home and “face justice”.

NSADirectorGenKeithAlexander told Congress on Wednesday that surveillance programmes leaked by Mr Snowden had helped thwart 50 attacks since 2001.

Plans to attack the New York Stock Exchangewereamong10plotstargeting the US that had been stopped, Mr Alexandertoldtheintelligencecommittee of the House of Representatives, adding that the snooping operations were critical.

Julian Assange walked into the Ecuadorean embassy in London on 19 June 2012 when his appeal against extradition to Sweden for questioning on accusations of sex crimes was turned down.

Europe and Americas

Brazil government rolls back transit hike as protests continue

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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Ireland, Japan hope to strengthen economic cooperation

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reland and Japan on Wednesday expressed their strong wish to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a brief visit to Ireland following his participation in the G8 Summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland on Monday and Tuesday. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny held talks with Abe at Government Buildings in Dublin, discussing bilateral economic, trade and cultural relations between Ireland and Japan, as well as broader economic issues.

“On behalf of the government of Ireland I’m delighted to welcome Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Ireland

following his attendance at the G8 summit in Lough Erne earlier this week. Let me say to you that we had a very, very good conversation and a verygoodmeetingandwelookforward to continuing these discussions over lunch,” said Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, while holding talks with Abe. At a press conference after their talks, Kenny outlined opportunities in the areas of research, education and innovation which would be important for bilateral economic growth and job creation.

The prime minister mentioned three particular words that are important to him: challenge, openness and innovation and arising from this

we are very happy to work in the areas of aging societies.

“We know the demographics of Japan, the longest life expectancy of anydevelopedworldandclustersofour pharma-medical devices, academics and universities here will work with our Japanese colleagues. It is a very significant occasion as it is the first time since the independence of this state that we’ve had a visit from a Japanese Prime Minister and he is exceptionally welcome,” said Kenny.

Abe noted the importance of human resources and encouraged the exchange of research and ideas between the two countries. He also promoted the development of open

trade between Ireland and Japan to encourage economic growth.

“Ireland has maintained a tradition of peace and neutral diplomacy and mademajorcontributionsinareassuch as demilitarization, non-proliferation and peace building. She is an extremely importantpartnerforJapantoenhance the stability of the global community and maintain global order in line with the principle of rule of law,” he said.

Kenny also briefed his Japanese counterpartonIreland’sEUpresidency, and they discussed EU-Japan relations and progress on an EU-Japan Trade Agreement, which was established under Ireland’s presidency of the EU. Source: Xinhua

administration’s use of domestic surveillance.

Robert Mueller’s acknowledgement came in response to questions on Wednesday from

members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who said they wanted to know more about the federal government’s increasing use of unmanned aircraft.

“Does the FBI use drones for surveillance on US soil?” Republican SenatorCharlesGrassleyofIowaasked during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

“Yes,” Mueller said, adding that the use was in “a very, very minimal way and very seldom”.

Mueller did not go into detail, but the FBI later released a statement that said unmanned aircraft were used only to watch stationary subjects and to avoid serious risks to law-enforcement agents.

The Federal Aviation Administration approves each use,

the statement said.

“I will tell you that our footprint is very small,” Mueller said in his testimony.

“We have very few [drones] and of limited use, and we’re exploring not only the use but also the necessary guidelines for that use.”

Atthehearing,DemocraticSenator Dianne Feinstein of California said she was concerned about the privacy implications of drone surveillance.

“The greatest threat to the privacy of Americans is the drone and the use of the drone, and the very few regulations that are on it today,” she said.

Mueller reiterated that drone use is rare. “It is very narrowly focused on particularised cases and particularised needs,” he said.

Drones used to monitor people in US: FBI

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he US uses drones for surveillance in some limited law-enforcement situations, the head of FBI has said, prompting additional debate about the Obama

Robert Mueller, FBI director.

razilian officials in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have announced the reversal of the 10-cent increase in public transit fares, which prompted widespread protests across the South American nation.

The protests have evolved into communal outcries that have moved well beyond the original demand that public transportation fares be lowered.

Eduardo Paes, Rio mayor; Fernando Haddad, Sao Paulo mayor; and Geraldo Alckmin, Sao Paulo state governor, said the fare increase had been reversed.

Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from Sao Paulo, said there was little reaction on the streets to the reversal decision but social media, which has propelled the protest movement, was abuzz.

“A lot of the movement participants say [on social media] that it’s a good start, but not quite enough. They want free public transport, especially in Sao Paulo,” he said.

He said many protesters have told him that the protests now go beyond the transit issue and aim for better public services in the country.

Amid the transit-hike rollback, protests continued in Rio’s sister city Niteroi and clashes occurred in the northeastern city of Fortaleza, where police fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at demonstrators before a Confederations Cup football game.

Earlier on Wednesday, Brazil’s government deployed special federal police to the five of the six cities where the Confederations Cup football tournament is being played to protect the competition’s venues.

The government’s reaction is notable given that the Confederations Cup is seen as a dry run for the World Cup next year.

The National Force, composed of police and firefighters from different states that are called up for duty on special occasions, is a “conciliatory, mediating” force, “not repressive,” the Justice Ministry said.

Subsequently, the target of the protests quickly widened to include corruption and excessive government spending on hosting football tournaments instead of on health, education and other public services.

The protests have continued to escalate despite President Dilma Rousseff acknowledging the need for better public services and more responsive governance.

“The massive size of yesterday’s protests prove the energy of our democracy, the force of the voice of the street and the civility of our population,’’ she said on Tuesday.

“My government hears the voices clamouring for change, my government is committed to social transformation,” she said.

Strange World

In Indonesia professional hitchhikers do drivers a favour

Photo: ncellina/IndoFlick

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sually, it’s the drivers who help out hitchhikers by offering them a ride, but in Indonesia’s capital city, it’s the other way around. Professional hitchhikers get paid to ride in complete strangers’ cars and help them reach their destination faster.

The world’s sixth largest metropolis, Jakarta has a population of over 30 million and around 20 million registered cars.

Unfortunately, its infrastructure is far less advanced than that of other large cities like New

York, Tokyo or Singapore, which means traffic is terrible. In order to ease jams, authorities have created “Three in One” zones which can only be accessed by vehicles carrying at least three passengers. The measure was successful to some extent, only it also spawned a whole new industry – professional hitchhiking. Every morning, poor Indonesians from the outskirts of Jakarta can be seen lining the sidewalks near entry points to Three in One zones, offering themselves to commuters in a

Dancing with death – the train surfers of Soweto

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here’s no sea in Johannesburg so the poor young men from the inner city of Soweto get their kicks by surfing high-speed commuter trains. This dangerous pastime has claimed many lives throughout the years, but despite several initiatives to put a stop to it, train surfing remains pretty popular.

SouthAfricaisconsideredthebirthplaceof trainsurfing,withreportsofpeopleperforming stunts on top of moving train cars dating back to the early 1980s. From here, the extreme hobbyspreadallaroundtheworld,fromBrazil, to Germany and Russia, but Johannesburg remains unique through its variety of styles.

The most common and least dangerous form oftrainsurfinginvolvesclimbingontopofacar, jumping off as it starts moving and climbing back on again while it’s in motion. Then there is side surfing, with the wannabe stuntmen running alongside the train on the passenger platform as his friends keep the door open, or swinging out the door when the train passes through a tunnel and running on the walls.

Another one has daredevils get under the train while it’s moving and kicking the gravel with their legs. But the most lethal of all is surfing

Photo: Ziphozonke Lushaba/The Star

on top of the train while trying to dodge power cablesandbridges.Allthedifferentmoveshave names like Matrix, 2020, Gravul or Svandals.

Be one of Taiwan’s most important coal extraction sites, up until the 1970s. Then, oil and electricity took the place of coal, and the town suffered a steady decline. At one point it was reduced to a train stop along the Yilan line, one that most travelers ignored, and that forced many of its younger residents search for betteropportunitieselsewhere.Thepopulation of this defunct mining town dwindled from around six thousand inhabitants to a couple of hundred, who struggled to survive. But their fortuneschangedin2008,whenacatloverwho goes by the name “Palin88” organized a series of cat photography events in the mountain town. He and his friends posted the photos online, and got an overwhelming response from fellow feline enthusiasts. As they shared the photos on forums and social media sites, Houtong welcomed more and more tourists eager to photograph the cats themselves, or simply watch them roaming through the town. Nowadays, Houtong is known as the Cat Village, or Taiwan’s Cat Mecca.

hurry. They are known as jockeys, and unlike regular hitchhikers, they don’t raise their thumbs up to drivers, but their index finger to signal a jockey working solo, and the extra middle finger to signal a couple, usually a mother and a baby.

In a country where most p eople live on less than a dollar a day, these professional hitchhikers can earn up to $7.50 for a few hours of pretending to be someone’s employee, son or friend. Picking up hitchhikers to access forbidden areas of Jakarta is illegal, so the jockeys have to help the drivers stopped by policemen convince them they actually know each other. Cars picking up jockeys risk fines of up to 1 million rupiah ($106), but corruption in Indonesia’s capital is rife, and offenders often get off the hook with a 200,000 rupiah bribe.

Mothers with babies as young as two months have an advantage over the competition because they count as two people and take up less space, but clean clothes and an overall tidy appearance also give jockeys an edge, as no one wants to sit next to someone who smells bad.

Professional hitchhiking may seem like a great way to make a

living for poor Indonesians, but the truth is they expose themselves to risks every time they set foot in a stranger’s car. Women are often sexually harassed, and if caught red handed by police, they risk up to 12 months in jail. Also, it’s not the most certain job in the world.

Jockeys sometimes travel from villagers around the city and wait for hours without making any money. Still, for many of them, it’s the only way get by. Drivers on the other hand are happy to pay a small price for shortening their daily commute. On rainy days, it can take over three hours

to reach their destination without picking up jockeys, so it’s safe to say they are a blessing to those who can afford them.

The professional hitchhiking industry is booming, but its days may be numbered as authorities plan to discourage the practice by replacing Three in One zones with toll roads. Also, in 2012 the country has secured a $1.3 billion loan from Japan to build a rapid transit system, but things are moving very slowly.

Sources: Herald Sun, The World

Photo: Skyscraper City

Dog meat festival goes ahead despite protest

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“cruel” festival devoted to dog meat is going ahead in China despite protests by animal-rights campaigners.

The annual celebration in the Guangxi province of Yulin sees dogs being packed into cages before being killed, skinned and cooked for thousands of hungry diners.

However, China’s growing animal rights movement has responded with increasing determination.

Photographs from previous festivals, which show dogs being kept in cages and their meat being eaten, have sparked outrage on China’s social

networking websites.

Du Yefung, founder of the Boai Small Animal Protection Centre, said: “We have seen animals beaten just before being cooked ... the more we inspect, the more cruelty we discover.”

Activists have staged a number of protests in Yulin since the beginning of June and had called on the local government to stop the event this Friday from going ahead.

But Ms Du said the government had previously explained that they were unable to shut it down.

“This year the government has said they feel under

Caged dogs on display at a stall (file picture)

pressure from online activism ... so they have a special team to monitor the festival,” she said.

“I think the team will reduce the cruelty somewhat, but mostly on the surface.”

The event, which is reported to have started decades ago, is held to mark the summer solstice.

Organisers have been bringing in trucks loaded with dogs in the middle of the night in an attempt to stop activists from rescuing the animals before the festival starts.

Dog meat can be found on restaurant menus across China, but it is not widely eaten. Sources: BBC, Iol

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 32

Weekend Revue BBA: Angola bid farewell to $300,000

By Suleiman Idris

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ngolan duo Biguesas and Neyll were evicted from Big Brother: The Chase this week (Sunday 16 June) after receiving the fewest viewer votes from the continent.

The evictions follow the Heads of House having to reveal their ‘save & replace’ decisions. Diamond Head of House Melvin revealed he had saved Bolt and replaced him with Annabel. Ruby Head of House Selly found it easier to reveal her decision this week, telling the housemates that she’d saved Oneal and replaced him with Neyll.

Oneal’s eyes couldn’t have been wider when he heard the news.

After Monday’s nominations, Diamonds Annabel (Kenya) & Biguesas (Angola) and Ruby housemates Pokello (Zimbabwe), Neyll (Angola) & Natasha (Malawi) were left fighting it out for Africa’s votes this week. After the SizweNtsalubaGobodo auditor had delivered the verified voting results, IK

got down to business. The first name he mentioned was Pokello’s – but only to tell her she was safe. Biguesas wasn’t so lucky and had to say his goodbyes. Neyll was the next housemate to be evicted, leaving tears in his wake as his housemates consoled each other.

Out on stage, Biguesas told IK that switching between houses had made it difficult for him to open up, leading to the perception that he was quiet. He had no regrets about quitting his job to enter Big Brother: The Chase and that he’d had no idea that Natasha had wanted to spend time with him in the Rendezvous Room so badly.

Neyll said he’d had fun with Bolt and Beverley as he pingponged between the houses and that his beef with Oneal was down to the fact that the Botswana housemate had been “bossy”.

Ghanaian Channel O African Music Video Awardnominated star EL performed at the show in supersmooth fashion with his hit ‘Hallelujah’. He returned later to set the stage alight

Neyll with ‘Kaalu’ after Biguesas and Neyll had been evicted.

New Media guru Boity Thulo told viewers about the cameras that the housemates wear from time to time. The exclusive 360 degree footage gives viewers a different perspective on life in the house and is only available on

Biguesas

Another T Nollywood wedding collapses

his year alone, there are more than six marriage break in an industry that has just few married couples.

Nigeriafilms.com reported that one of the actors and movie producers in Nollywood, Gbenga Oyeyiga’s marriage to his banker wife, Lolade, has collapsed irreconcilably.

The marriage of just few years has ended after he allegedly beat her so badly and ended up in hospital for three weeks in January 2013.

According to close friends of Lolade, the January beating was not the first time as he had battered her severally in the past, but it was the last straw that eventually broke the camel hunch.

Sources also said that when the woman wanted to file the case of wife battery, Gbenga pleaded with her to tender justice with mercy and the woman later dropped the case and only moved out of her matrimonial home with her only child to Gbenga.

www.bigbrotherafrica.com.

The Ruby housemates were again victorious in this week’s Airtel Arena Showdown, meaning that Selly – Head of House yet again - could switch 2 Ruby housemates with 2 Diamonds.

She chose Feza and Fatima to join the Rubies – sending Maria & Neyll the other way.

Viewers also got a chance to hear from last week’s evicted housemates. Koketso said that she had gained some “awesome relationships” from her time in the house and made lifelong friendships.

She said she’d learnt a lot about herself and that she was happy for the chance to share some of herself with the continent. She told viewers that she and LK4 were friends and that they’d “see what happens”. LK4 said that the opportunity to interact with people from different countries had been valuable.

He felt that he and Denzel had represented Uganda well, called Koketso “amazing” and said the whole continent had fallen in love with her.

The viewer vote for last week’s most romantic gesture went to Koketso for the ‘strawberries & cream’

moment she shared with LK4 – which will see her entered into the competition for a special prize at the end of the show. This week, viewers can choose between Hakeem’s gifts to Cleo and Natasha & Biguesas’ dance – both shared moments from the Rendezvous Room.

IK reminded viewers of the three strike rule, w hi ch w i l l se e a h ou se ma te eliminated from the game if they contravene Big Brother’s rules three times. Selly got the first strike of the season for pouring a drink over Pokello during a party last week.

This week’s viewer vote winners were: Uhuru Tablet: Tendayi Mlalazi (South Africa); HD PVR Decoder – Mfon Edet (Nigeria) and DStv Walka – Mweeba Akakandelwa (Zambia). Don’t forget to vote to keep your favourite housemate in the game after Monday’s nominations, to stand a chance to win!

The winner of Big Brother: The Chase will be named after 91 days of head-to-head competition – and the power to award the USD 300 000 prize rests completely in the hands of the viewers.

Lolade Gbenga Oyeyiga

PAGE 33

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Weekend Revue Nollywood stakeholders gear up for Aki’s late father burial tomorrow T

o m o r r o w , o n e o f N o l l y w o o d heavyweights, Chinedu Ikedieze popularly known as Aki, will be burying his father in far away Abia State, Nigeriafilms.com has said.

Already, some of his colleagues are gearing up for the event and are planning to storm Aki’s village for the funeral ceremony, it said.

The occasion according to sources, is what is on the minds of some of his colleagues who want to attend the event and that his closest ‘cohort’, Osita Iheme well known as Pawpaw, has rescheduled his plans just to make himself available for the burial ceremony.

Aki

Aki’s late father

Veteran actor, Olu Jacobs loses iPad on movie location

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ndeed, nobody is above being hurt or whaled by real life challenges’. The above quote could better be explained by veteran and award-winning actor Olu Jacobs, when he unknowingly misplaced his iPad at a movie location in Owerri, Imo State.

The aged actor, till the moment he bared his mind to colleague and Nollywood actress, Ngozi Ezeonu, could not believe that as a star, he could describe his iPad as a lost-but-not-found item.

While on a movie location in Owerri, the prolific actor’s mobile device developed wings and flew away. Till this moment, the item has not

J

ohnny Depp is finally opening up about his split from longtime partner Vanessa Paradis, a year after their breakup.

“The last couple years have been a bit bumpy,” he says in a Rolling Stone cover story. “At

Olu Jacobs been found. Several efforts to ‘charm’ the iPad back to him

have been fruitless, sources have said.

Julius Agwu quits comedy

P

Julius Agwu

Johnny Depp breaks silence on separation with Vanessa

opular comedian Julius Agwu has quit comedy after decades of stage entertainment, according to information available on Linda Ikeji’s blog.

It added that the comedian who has made his mark in the entertain industry has decided leave the stage for other you g comedians in the country.

Agwu who recently doubled as a musician, had a good time in the industry, especially his good relationship with the late Stella Obasanjo, whom he once described as a mother.

Reacting to his decision, pundits agree that the veteran comedian has done a lot and mentored others comedians who presently stand tall in the industry.

Johnny Depp

times, certainly unpleasant, but that’s the nature of breakups, I guess, especially when there are kiddies involved.”

Depp and Paradis, who announced their breakup in June 2012, have two kids together: daughter Lily-Rose, 14, and Jack, 11.

“Relationships are very difficult,” adds Depp, who next appears on the big screen in ‘The Lone Ranger’. “Especially in the racket that I’m in because you’re constantly away or they’re away and so it’s hard.

It wasn’t easy on her. It wasn’t easy on me. It wasn’t easy on the kids. So, yeah. The trajectory of that relationship -- you play it out until it goes, one thing leads to another.”

Still he says he still cares for her, and adds that their kids have been “incredibly understanding, incredibly strong.”

MTN endorses Inyanya for N60m

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igeriafilms.com has reported that MTN signs the ‘Kukere’ singer, Inyanya, as one of its ambassadors with a whopping sum of N60m.

It added that the ‘All I want is your waist’ crooner, has joined other celebrities in this adventure.

Nigeriafilms.com recall that recently, Waje, Omawumi, Burna Boy, Bez and some other A-list celebrities were endorsed by Globalcom and paid handsomely.

Stars like Davido and Wizkid are also ambassadors of MTN brand.

Iyanya is indeed lucky. He started from “Project Fame” now he’s today a brand ambassador.

Inyanya

PAGE 34

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Feature Highlighting importance of water and science to human existence

By Folasade Folarin

B

y most accounts, water is a dependent variable in human existence; as man, flora and fauna cannot survive without water.

The fundamental importance of water to life is the main focus of the recent presentation of the Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe, at the 2013 Ministerial Platform in Abuja.

Explaining the Federal Government’s approach to water preservation, Ochekpe said that her ministry was expanding the country’s food production capacity via irrigation farming.

According to her, Nigeria cannot continue to depend on rain-fed agriculture alone because of its population growth rate, urbanisation and climate change.

She, however, stressed substantial achievements had been recorded in irrigation farming, as the size of the country’s irrigated farmlands had increased by over 31,000 hectares, while jobs had been created for over 75,000 farming families. ``Irrigation is, therefore, critical to the nation’s food production, agro-industrial raw materials, employment generation and poverty alleviation,’’ she said.

Ochekpe said that available records indicated that 75,802 tonnes of rice; 51,631 tonnes of maize, 2,800 tonnes of wheat, 50,695 tonnes of sorghum and 17 7 ,0 5 0 t o nne s o f a s s o r t e d vegetables had been produced via irrigation farming within the last two years.

On water supply schemes, Ochekpe said that Nigeria had made an appreciable progress in water supply coverage from 58 per cent in 2011 to 65 per cent in 2012.

She said that the ministry, through the aid of the World Bank, had completed small towns’ water supply and sanitation projects in Niger, Ekiti and Katsina state.

The minister stressed that the ministry had also secured an EU-assisted programme on water supply and sanitation reforms in Adamawa, Delta, Ekiti, Anambra, Cross River, Jigawa, Kano, Osun and Yobe states. ``With the assistance of the Chinese, we have also carried out the rehabilitation of boreholes in 18 states, while implementing rural water supply projects in 18 states and the FCT. ``The World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) have also assisted in

urban water sector reform projects in Ogun, Cross River, Taraba, Osun, Enugu, Lagos and Kaduna states. ``Through the assistance of Japanese International Cooperative Agency, (JICA), we have also undertaken rural water supply programmes in Yobe, Kebbi, Niger, Taraba, Ondo, Bauchi, Enugu, Kano and Oyo states,’’ she said.

Ochekpe said that there had been an increase of 422 million cubic metres in the volume of stored water in the nation’s reservoirs. ``During the period under review, substantial progress was made in the construction, operation and maintenance of dams nationwide for water supply, hydropower, flood control, irrigation, fishery development, tourism and recreation. ``Some of the dams are used for fishery development and irrigation for the cultivation of crops such as rice, maize, beans, sugarcane, wheat, potatoes, onions, pepper, melon, and legumes,’’ she said.

Nevertheless, the minister conceded that the water sector was facing some challenges which had impeded the full realisation of its goals. ``The relatively low budget allocation to the sector over the years has militated against the realisation of set targets; in addition, budget releases have been inadequate and untimely,’’ she observed.

She said other challenges included ``additional cost of rehabilitating damaged infrastructure after flooding and constructing new systems in drought-prone areas’’.

Also speaking on the same platform, the Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Ewa, who stressed the importance of science to national development, said that Nigeria had made appreciable progress in the areas of space science, engineering infrastructure and biotechnology.

He said that in line with the National Implementation Plan, the ministry had identified some key priority areas with great potentialities for impact in science and technology.

A c c o r d i n g t o h im , t h e s e areas include space technology, solar technology, engineering and manufacturing technology, building and roads technology and biotechnology.

Ewa also listed the achievements recorded in the solar power programme, for instance, as part of the milestones in the ministry’s feats.

“

Rather than importing these leather products, entrepreneurs and wellmeaning Nigerians should be encouraged to establish leather-based companies He noted that the ministry was currently supplying electricity to Danjawa village in Sokoto State via its 10-kilowatt solar minigrid power programme.

He explained that the ministry was also supply power to Igu community in the Bwari Area Council of the FCT through its three-kilowatt solar mini-grid power programme.

The minister stressed that the essence of the solar technology power programme was to ensure that small communities would not need to tap electricity from the national grid.

Besides, Ewa said that the ministry was engaging the ne ce ssary inte rnational collaboration for the development of the Silicon Valley Project, located at the Sheda Science and Technology Complex in Abuja.

The project, he noted, would boost the technological growth of the country via nanotechnology, biotechnology, agricultural technology and solar cell production.

Ewa said that the ministry was working on its cluster-based concept for the development of the country.

He said that the concept involved providing catalysts for

Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe the concentration of industrial activities around a particular resource and stimulating the production of different materials to boost local production.

The minister stressed that Nigeria had no reason to import leather products because the ministry, through its agencies, had perfected the technology used in producing leather products.

He urged Nigerians to refrain from importing leather products, adding that they should instead ``commercialise the few we ones have been able to produce’’.

He cited football and military boots as examples of items which the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Research could produce. ``Rather than importing these leather products, entrepreneurs and well-meaning Nigerians should be encouraged to establish leather-based companies,’’ he noted.

Ewa, however, urged the citizens to take advantage

of the nation’s vocational training institutes and incubate technology. ``We have built a critical mass of human capital in Nigeria; we have trained scientists, they have creativity and they have excess compatibility. ``Over the years the universities have trained Nigerian engineers; instead of a brain-drain, let us have a brain-gain,’’ he said.

D i s p l a y i ng a mo t o rc y c l e that was produced by one of the ministry’s agencies, the minister said that the local content of the motorcycle was 75 per cent, thereby making it a truly madein-Nigeria product.

The motorcycle was kickstarted by the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, who described it as a technological breakthrough.

Maku urged Nigerians to always strive to patronise all the available research products in the country.

Source: NAN

Feature

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Addressing the collapse of Nigerian roads

By Emmanuel Oloniruha

B

y most accounts, road transportation is the most preferred mode of transportation in Nigeria, as it accounts for 99.5 per cent of the nation’s passengers’ and freight services.

However, out of the 200,000 kilometres of roads in the country, only 39,000 kilometres are paved.

The roads are owned by the federal, state and local governments.

Experts, however, insist that Nigeria’s road network is grossly inadequate for a country that is aspiring to become one of the 20 leading economies in the world by the year 2020.

Mr Mike Onolememen, the Minister of Works, who spoke at a recent workshop organised by the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), conveyed the government’s concern about the inadequate road network of the country and the bad condition of the roads.

He, however, attributed the poor condition of Nigerian roads to the lack of maintenance culture. ``This is a country that boasts of the best network of roads in SubSaharan Africa in the 1980s, and the huge investment was allowed to deteriorate without any visible maintenance strategy. ``In most cases, huge resources are spent on the construction of roads while no provision is made for their maintenance. ``Also, significant a lot of productive Nigerians die annually as a result of failed roads through road mishaps. ``In the light of this, my ministry has adopted a policy that incorporates maintenance schedules into the design stage of all major road contracts in the country,’’ he said.

Onolememen reiterated that the country’s inadequate road network was a serious issue which required urgent attention. ``We need to compare this figure to those of the U.S., which is 6,506,204 km; India, 4,109,593 km; China, 3,806,800 km and Brazil, 1,751,868 km. ``The road network of Turkey is 352,046 km and that of South Africa is 362,099 km. These figures provide a better appreciation of the enormity of the challenge facing Nigeria in the road sector. ``So, for Nigeria to be among the first 20 economies in the world by 2020, our road infrastructure needs to grow from 200,000 km to about 300,000 km in the next five years,’’ he said.

The minister said that as a result of paucity of funds, the Federal Government was intensifying its policy of using the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) option for road constructions.

Prof. Danladi Matawal, the Director-General of NBRRI, said

Minister of Works, Mr Mike Onolememen

that road failures (total collapse of roads or appearance of defects in roads) should be checked, as part of efforts to reduce road accidents and damage of vehicles. ``The road defects include inadequate road shoulders, nonuniform lanes, uneven pavement, improper road markings and signs, malfunctioning traffic lights in municipal settings and construction

negligence,” he said.

Nevertheless, Matawal, a professor of civil engineering, blamed road pavement failures in the country to faulty designs, poor construction techniques, poor foundation and use of substandard materials.

He said that other factors included increased traffic flow, vehicles’ weight, poor drainage, use of unskilled workmen in some

“

The consensus of opinion is that the government should strive to ensure that durable roads, which would stand the test of time, are always constructed across the country

construction procedures and lack of maintenance.

Prof. Raifu Salawu, the VicePresident of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering, nonetheless, blamed the high failure rate of Nigerian roads on overloading by heavy-duty vehicles.

Salawu said that each road was designed and constructed with specifications on its weight of load, adding that if a road was subjected to a load which was beyond its capacity, it might not fail immediately but it would not be durable.

He advised the government to always incorporate weigh bridges in the design of major roads that would be constructed across the country, adding that the utilisation of weigh bridges would prolong the life span of the roads. ``If the bridges weigh a vehicle and discover that it is more than the axle load which the road can carry, they will not allow the vehicle ply on the road. ``That is what developed countries do that make their roads to last longer than ours,’’ Salawu said.

Dr Sunday Popoola, the President of Engineering Forum of Nigerians in the UK, also advised construction firms in Nigeria to ensure that they constructed standard roads. ``They should be mindful of the fact the road is always used by all the people; if the road is not wellconstructed, it could cause accidents and people’s deaths,’’ he said.

Nevertheless, Mr James Salako, the Executive Secretary, Cement Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (CMAN), advised the Federal Government to consider using cement as an alternative to asphalt in road constructions.

He noted that about 99.9 per cent of paved roads in the country were constructed with asphalt, which had a shorter life span, when compared with cement-based road pavement.

Salako reiterated that the adoption of concrete roads would go a long way in reducing the rate of road failures in the country. ``Asphalt roads, I am told, could only last for 30 years if well constructed and maintained. On the other hand, concrete roads could last for 50 years with minimal maintenance. ``In most situations, when you compare asphalt road to concrete road, what you always find that in some countries, asphalt road is cheaper but in the long run, asphalt road is more costly,’’ he said.

Salako, nonetheless, said that in Nigeria, the construction and maintenance of asphalt roads would be more costly because asphalt was being imported, unlike cement which was readily available in the country.

All the same, the consensus of opinion is that the government should strive to ensure that durable roads, which would stand the test of time, are always constructed across the country.

Source: NAN

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Digest

Babies of obese mothers are at a higher risk of premature birth

By Emma Innes

as overweight, and 30 or more as obese.

Dr Cnattingius said a third of all pregnant women in Sweden are either overweight or obese, and this impacts the number of premature babies.

He said: ‘Overweight and obesity also increase the risk of maternal pregnancy complications including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and Caesarean delivery.’

In Sweden there are about 100,000 births a year of which around 250 are extremely early, in that they are delivered more than 12 weeks before the expected date.

Another 500 are very premature (8 to 12 weeks too early), and 4,500 moderately so (4 to 8 weeks).

The study also found the risk was substantially explained by obesity-related diseases such as the severe pregnancy complication preeclampsia that endangers the health of both mother and child.

B

abies’ lives are being put at risk by the soaring number of overweight women in Britain, experts are warning.

Babies born to overweight women are more likely to be born prematurely, increasing the likelihood of serious illness and even death.

A study of 1.5 million births in Sweden between 1992 and 2010 found the danger of early delivery rose proportionally with the mother’s weight.

Women with the highest BMI (body mass index) also had the highest statistical risk of giving birth prematurely, and especially extremely early.

Compared to women of normal size, an extremely premature birth was 25 per cent more likely for overweight women and 60 per cent more likely for obese mothers.

For severely obese (BMI 35-39.9) or extremely obese (BMI 40 or more) women, the corresponding risk was doubled and tripled respectively.

Risks of very and moderately preterm deliveries also increased with BMI. The findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association are alarming with the obesity levels in Britain fast approaching those in the U.S. Three in five adults are overweight or obese possibly explaining the 40,000 babies a year born prematurely, the highest in Europe.

Professor Sven Cnattingius, of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, said: ‘For the individual woman who is overweight or obese, the risk of an extremely preterm delivery is still small.

‘However, these findings are important from a population perspective. Preterm infants and, above all, extremely preterm

infants account for a substantial Babies born to overweight fraction of infant mortality women are more likelyincome to be and morbidity in high born prematurely, increasing countries.’ theIn likelihood serious illness the study,ofhis researchers and even death calculated the women’s BMI

(weight in kilograms divided by height in square metres) from information given at their first visit to prenatal care.

A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 was assessed as normal, 25 to 29.9

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

Compared to women of normal size, overweight women are 25 per cent more likely to have an extremely premature birth, obese mothers are 60 per cent more likely to have an extremely premature baby

Teenagers with high blood pressure are happier and more successful at school

By Rachel Reilly eenagers suffering with high blood pressure are more academically successful than their peers, according to a new study.

Researchers found that these children are better behaved and more emotionally balanced than their peers with normal blood pressure too.

They also found that twice as many teenagers as expected suffered with the condition.

The study, carried out by the University of Gottingen, examined 7,688 boys and girls ages 11 to 17, and found that almost 11 per cent had high blood pressure. They had expected around five per cent to suffer with hypertension.

T

The children were asked to fill out two questionnaires about their level of psychological distress and quality of life.

Unsurprisingly, adolescents with hypertension were more likely to be obese and less physically fit than those with normal blood pressure. They spent more time watching TV or playing video games.

But unexpectedly, teens with high blood pressure were better off in several ways -- including being more academically successful than those with normal blood pressure.

Quality of life was also rated better by adolescents with high blood pressure, with higher scores in the areas of family life, selfesteem, and physical wellbeing,

reported Newswise ‘This is the first report linking elevated blood pressure to quality of life in a large ... study of adolescents,’ Dr Angela Berendes of University of Göttingen, Germany.

High blood pressure is one of the most frequent chronic conditions, leading to high rates of illness and death.

It can remain symptomless for years, causing blood vessel and organ damage if not detected and controlled.

Experts do not know why children with high blood pressure are happier and more successful, but they have come up with a number of theories.

They think that teenagers who are more achievement-

German scientists found a correlation between blood pressure and academic achievement. Those who had high pressure performed better at school and were happier oriented and do better in school may experience increased stress, leading to higher blood pressure -- but also to better self-esteem and quality of life.

But they have also suggested that some teens may repress their

negative emotions, causing them to have higher blood pressure -- as well as to give higher ratings of psychological functioning and quality of life.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 37

Hurdles before six-year single term proposal

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

S

ince the Senate committee amending the 1999 constitution disclosed its proposal to limit governors and Presidents to a six-year single term, hell has been let loose, with precipitous criticisms emanating from various quarters.

Shades of opinion, mostly kicking against the proposal have been adduced. This widespread criticism becomes anticipated particularly against the background of mutual suspicion existing among participants in the political class. Notably, the circumstance at which the trial balloon of this policy was released has grossly impeded its success. This obviously is the genesis of its misconception

by Nigerians, especially politicians belonging to the opposition camp.

It would be recalled that at the build-up to the 2011 general election, President Goodluck Jonathan was not chosen on merit as the standard bearer of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it was purely based on some political considerations. Political analysts have consistently argued that the emergence of Jonathan, despite hue and cries from both within and outside his party, was the juncture at which the political conjugation between northern and southern political elites in the ruling party became severed.

That era, according to this school of thought, also laid the cradle for the current permutation by northern and southern opposition politicians, having discovered that anyone can emerge President on PDP platform, until when other opposition parties can effectively unite to check the overbearing tendencies of the ruling party, which resulted in the current merger.

Meanwhile, as the opposition cried foul against the alleged manipulation of the entire electoral processes in 2011 to favour PDP, Jonathan, who was in the eye of political storm permeating the nation’s polity then, suprisingly came up with the suggestion that the constitution be amended to provide for a six-year single term.

In a swift reaction, the political class: opposition and ruling party alike, interpreted this suggestion as subtly and clandestinely navigating towards elongating his tenure beyond 2015. The north also thought it a hatched plot to renege on the single term pact he had reached with the Northern Governors Forum (NGF).

This gives flesh to why opposition leaders, even some PDP stakeholders and governors from the north, have been condemning the new scheme, despite having its origin from its folds.

The above tumultuous circumstances, therefore, have pitched the six-year proposal against political and opinion leaders in Nigeria.

Presently, even the Senate that is supposed to be leading the debate for the proposal is divided. From some obvious indications, this proposal, like the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), is one other issue which will divide

Sen. David Mark the Upper Chamber along regional lines. Feelers from the Senate indicate that the proposal is more appealing to northern senators, who are eager to see power returns to the north.

To these Senators, Jonathan has remained the only obstacle against the return of Presidency to north in 2015.

Conversely, the southern Senators are much more prepared to reject it on the grounds that it seeks to prevent Jonathan; a President of southern origin, from contesting the 2015 presidential election, despite being constitutionally qualified.

These southern senators are therefore determined to oppose this proposal, believing it is hiding in the shadow of constitution amendment to bar one of their own from concluding his constitutional entitlement of two terms of four years each.

Already, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang (PDP Akwa Ibom state), has lunched campaigns against it. Enang, who spoke on African Independent Television (AIT) programme recently, said the proposal is dead on arrival.

He argued that since the affected governors and the incumbent President were elected on double term constitution, they must be allowed to serve out their constitution entitlements.

Enang pointed out that the amendment cannot seek to invalidate what is already extant and valid, suggesting that the proposal can only commence with those seeking fresh mandates.

Before Enang fired the first salvo, President Jonathan, inadvertently acting out the earlier suspicion of the opposition, had indicated similar reluctance against the proposal, having been barred alongside other thirteen governors who are on their first term.

Surprisingly, he is currently

Hon. Aminu Wazirir Tambuwal

attacking his brainchild as he surreptitiously advised the state Assemblies not to pass it.

While pointing out that party politics will play out against it at the appropriate time, President Jonathan, through his Special Assistant on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, dismissed the speculation that Senate, being dominated by PDP, is speaking the mind of the ruling party.

According to him, “The President has the single tenure idea and he still

been abridged if this proposal goes through. Is it proper to shortchange them when they were elected under a constitution that allows them two terms of four years each? That is the crux of the matter”, Gulak submitted.

One important point to note about these complications facing the six-year single term is that Jonathan, who has already opposed it, remains the only one for now who is constitutionally empowered to sign the Bill into law; so what happens if he, as he has always

“

Presently, even the Senate that is supposed to be leading the debate for the proposal is divided. From some obvious indications, this proposal, like the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), is one other issue which will divide the Upper Chamber along regional lines stands by it. The difference is that the amendment should not be in such a way that it will be targeted at a group of people. The committee’s proposal is that those incumbent governors and the President who are supposed to enjoy second term will not participate.

What we are saying is that laws are not amended to target a particular group of people. It could have been okay if all those first term governors are allowed to participate, and after 2019, anybody coming in will know that he is going to be elected under the amended constitution.

“As it is today, it appears that the first term governors will be shortchanged because their rights to be re-elected or to contest under the 1999 Constitution as amended would have

done, withholds assent?

In addition to the above issues, the leadership of the House of Representatives are saying that the four- year double term should be retained. According to the House, even if the Senate insists on going on with the new arrangement, a joint conference of 360 House members against 109 senators would be convened and the majority opinion must prevail.

Now, for the National Assembly to send a bill to the executive for assent, the requirement is that both chambers must concur.

With this discordant tune between the Senate and House committees that reviewed the 1999 constitution, the tendency is high that this controversial section of six-year single term may

be jettisoned to have a harmonised proposals.

Reacting to the proposal, the chairman of the House of Representative committee on Information and Publicity, Mohammed Zakari, said the house position is not in favour of the six-year single term. According to him, “We are bringing out our own report soon.

In it, we have retained the structure of four years with two terms as it is in the constitution. When we present our report, of course, there will be a conference committee between Senate and House of Representatives.

“If they (Senators) don’t agree, there will be a conference, and it is about 360 members of the House of Representatives with 109 senators. At the end of the day, the position of the House will be in order.We went down to Nigerians – 360 federal constituencies – and everybody there wanted the retention of the four-year, two terms, as enshrined in the constitution. That is the judgment that we brought from the people. This is because our own constitution review was people-based and it was an opportunity to interface with our people.”

Also speaking on the issue, chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Peterside Dakuku, pointed out that doing the opposite of what their constituents voted for during the period of the zonal hearing, would amount to shortchanging their people and could cause them their mandate. “Our decision to stick to two terms of four years was arrived at after an exhaustive consultation with our respective constituencies and we cannot come back to change what they did not ask us to change”, he said.

In addition, this controversial proposal has equally had its share of criticisms from political parties and pressure groups. Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), in its opinion, said the current practise should be retained. The party, through its National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, rather suggested in place of the six-year single term, a more transparent free and fair electoral process, saying this would bring competent hands on board government.

The party argued that the essence of election in democratic government is not only for electorate to elect their leaders, but also to vote out bad leaders, wondering what the Senate intended to achieve with the single term proposal.

Also, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), whose position was made known by the Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said the two tenures of four years each should be maintained, adding that it will inspire the governors and Presidents to work hard while in office so as to merit re-election. ACN said that if the statusquo is altered, nothing prevents the incoming lawmakers from changing the law to something different. He therefore urged the lawmakers to effect only those changes that can stand the test of time.

PAGE 38

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Politics

Election: Rights Commission vows to expose, punish corrupt politicians

T

he National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) yesterday in Abuja said it had exposed all those involved in electoral impunity during past elections.

The Chairman of the Governing Council of the commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, made this known at the formal inauguration of a project with theme “Fair Trial and the Right to Effective Participation in Governance’’.

The project, which was organised by the NHRC with support from Ford Foundation, was meant to review evidences of violations of the rights of citizens to fair trial and participation in governance.

The chairman said the commission would do all within its mandate to stop electoral impunity and promote the rule of law. ``If we are going to change this country, we must mention names. We are not going to run away from our responsibilities because we have a will to mention names and we will. ``If there is a name that is disclosed and we find evidence we will mention it. We are going to name those who have been officially indicted of electoral impunity in our country.’’

He said that over the years, politicians did not bother to know about the needs of the masses because they felt they were not accountable to the people.

He, therefore, urged politicians, women, youths as well as other stakeholders to ensure that the right people were voted into power and that the culture of impunity was completely eradicated.

According to him, this will enhance development, stability and national integration.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Sen. Umaru Dahiru, announced the resolve of the National Assembly to adequately tackle the issue of electoral impunity ahead of the 2015 elections.

Dahiru said the senate had captured the funding of the NHRC under the first line charge in view of the need for the commission to effectively carry out its mandate.

He urged the committee to expand its scope to cover internal party policies, so as to ensure that parties fielded qualified candidates. (NAN)

CPC denies expelling Senator Bello

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

T

he Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has denied the rumours that former senator Kanti Bello, was sacked from the party by the Katsina state chapter of the party.

In a statement issued yesterday by the National Publicity Secretary of CPC,

Rotimi Fashakin, the party said the news of Bello’s expulsion is absolutely untrue.

Fashakin, who said the caretaker committee chairman of the Katsina state chapter of the party, Farouk Adamu Aliyu, has denied signing the purported expulsion order.

According to the statement, “This explains why we believe

this rumour, which was intended to cause disaffection among our teeming supporters, was the handiwork of mischief makers”, Fashakin said.

On this basis, he emphasized that Bello remains a bonafide member of the party, urging him to continue in his contribution to the growth and social harmony of the party in Katsina state and Nigeria.

“The expulsion allegation should therefore be discarded as a piece of fiction, lacking efficacy”, the statement concluded.

Meanwhile, the expulsion notice for Bello was allegedly announced by Katsina state caretaker chairman, Farouk Adamu Aliyu, during the party’s meeting to discuss the issue of merger in the state.

L-R: Jigawa state Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mahmoud Gumel, Kano state Governor, Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and Sokoto state Governor, Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Joe Oroye

Oyo former deputy speaker dies at 44 From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

F

ormer Deputy Speaker in the 6th Oyo State House of Assembly, Honourable Kazeem Ayilara, died of a heart attack yesterday at the age of 44.

Reliable sources said that the deceased drove to the University College Hospital by himself in the morning when he felt uneasy before he

later died as a result of a heart attack.

It would be recalled that the late professional Town Planner turned politician, was unceremoniously removed as Speaker in February 2008.

He was also one of the G-8, a group of eight lawmakers who opposed the leadership style of Otunba Adebayo Akala when he was the Governor of Oyo State. The group

was suspended by the other members of the House on June 8, 2010 for pushing for the impeachment of Governor Akala over alleged financial improprieties.

The assembly complex had been invaded by thugs who beat up perceived opponents of the Governor in the Assembly.

Ayilara while alive, sought redress in the court and his removal as Deputy Speaker was

declared illegal, null and void, as Justice Mukhtar Abimbola ordered his reinstatement in February 2011.

Meanwhile, the remains of the politician was interred in his Apata country home around 4:pm, while condolence has been opened at the same residence. Some of his colleagues and serving lawmakers were gathered to pay last respect.

No automatic ticket for LP guber aspirants in Anambra – Chairman

A

ny aspirant wishing to contest the governorship election in Anambra on the platform of Labour Party, will not be given automatic ticket, the Chairman of the party, Chief Sam Oruegbunam, has said.

The election is slated for November this year.

Oruegbunam, who made the announcement yesterday in Akwa while briefing newsmen, said the decision was reached at a meeting of

the state executive council of the party, held on June 19.

He said that the trio of Mr Ifeanyi Ubah, Sen. Andy Uba and Prof. Charles Soludo, who had indicated interests to fly the party’s flag should be ready to subject themselves for the primaries. ``I agree that these aspirants are good prospective candidates but they must follow due process as stipulated in the party’s constitution. ``They must also register officially with the party and become card-

carrying members. ``After that, they will have to subject themselves to the party’s primaries and whoever emerges becomes our candidate. ``The era of carrying money about has gone. ``What we want is somebody who would address the governance of Anambra and not those who would worsen the situation that has been created in the past. ``We need somebody that will go

in and take Anambra to the next level,’’ he said.

The Deputy Minority Whip of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Dr Emeka Anohu, who is the only member of Labour Party in the house, said that the three aspirants were yet to join the party. ``I have it on good authority that Ifeanyi Ubah is yet to become a member of the party. I also know that Sen. Ubah and Soludo are still members of the PDP.

``It is when they become members of the party that we would begin to talk about who takes the ticket. ``Our party is democratic and will not give room for somebody to come in and get an automatic ticket.

(NAN)“Everyone of them must follow the laid down democratic process. ``The party is not ready for any form of horse-trading because we are poised to produce a credible person as governor of Anambra State,’’ Anohu said. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY| WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013

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PAGE 39

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

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED MINISTRY HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. REV.FILIBUS KUMBA GWAMA-CHAIRMAN 2. REV.DANIEL GULA 3. BISHOP MUHAMMED NAGA 4. REV.ABDULLAHI KUMANGRI 5. REV.JOSHUA RUWA 6. JOSELPH NAGA AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. TO UNDERTAKE DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS FOR THE BENEFITS OF ITS MEMBERS AND OTHERS. 2. TO PROVIDE RELIEF MATERIALS TO VICTIMS OF SOCIAL UNREST. 3. TO COLLABORATE WITH GOVERNMENT, PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS AND OTHER NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS IN PROVIDING SKILL ACQUISITION TRAINING TO ITS MEMBERS AND OTHERS. 4. TO ADVOCATE PEACEFUL CO-EXISTANCE AMONG ITS COMMUNITY AND NEIGHBOURING COMMUNITIES AND TO PREACH AGAINST THE OPPRESSION OF THE DOWNTRODDEN. ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: BARR.B.Y.ATSEN 08066070855

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. MRS. ANN NOSIKE OGBUENYI 2. MRS. CHINWE NMADU 3. MRS. SANDRA MBAGWU

OLD TRUSTEES ARE: 1. BISHOP MONDAY ROBERT 2. ELDER GIDEON EWAYE 3. PASTER BENJAMIN UDOH

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. TO EMBARK ON EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN AND ERADICATION OF POVERTY. 2. TO CREATE AWARENESS ON VARIOUS GENDER ISSSUES BY SUPPORTING AND EMPOWERING NIGERIAN WOMEN FOR SELF RELIANCE. 3. TO PROVIDE NECESSARY ASSISTANCE FOR WOMEN TO GAIN ACCESS TO SELF AND FULL EMPLOYMENT 3. TO PROVIDE SKILL DEVELOPMENT CENTERS. 5.TO DEVISE MECHANISMS AND TAKE POSITIVE ACTION TO ENABLE WOMEN GAIN ACCESS TO FULL AND QUALITY PARTICIPATION IN THE FORMULATION OF POLICIES THAT IMPACT ON WOMEN.

NEW TRUSTEES ARE: 1. BISHOP JOCOB IMENE HARRY 2. BISHOP UDOFIA SMART AYARA 3. CHIEF ELDER MATHEW M. URANG 4. CHIEF ELDER JONNY J. UDOM 5. APOSTLE TRUST E. ZACHARIAH 6. PASTOR UDO UDOMKPEK 7. PASTOR MONDAY O. AKPANEYEN 8. CHIEF ELDER OBEDIAH O. UWUOWA

ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: MRS.ANN NOSIKE OGBUENYI

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

FOLGEFONNA FUTURE FOR CHILDREN INITIATIVE

COVENANT KINGDOM FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY

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

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.ADEBAYO ALABI –CHAIRMAN 2.TINA AGBONYINMA-SECRETARY 3.ISMAIL KASALI 4.MODUPE KAPPO 5.EDWIN GHANANAHARAN 6.AGNES IREN LOTHE 7.ELSA BLEIE 8.BABATUNDE OLUFEKO AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1.TO PROMOTE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHILDREN IN NIGERIA. 2.TO PROVIDE FREE EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS TO INDIGENT PUPILS. 3.TO CREATE CONDUCIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR CHILDREN

BY UNDERTAKING DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS IN BOTH SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES. 4.TO COLLABORATE WITH THE GOVERNMENT,CORPORATE BODIES AND OTHER NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS IN REALIZING ITS OBJECTS. ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: EMEM BENSON O. ESQ SOLICITOR

DISCLAIMER NOTICE

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

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.REV.DR PROSPER ORJIUMO NKWOCHA 2.MRS CAROL OGBENYEALU NKWOCHA 3. OBIOMA AKPAGBULA AIMS & OBJECTIVES TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

SHITTU TAIWO ATTANDA

(From Atiba LGA in Oyo State) The general public is hereby notified that the above named person is no longer a staff of Peace Microfinance Bank Ltd.

ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

Therefore, any customer of theBank dealing with him does so at his/her own detriment. Please inform others of this notice.

SIGNED: BARR.B.Y.ATSEN 08066070855

SIGNED: BARR. CHENNA OFOEGBU

Signed: Management

LOSS OF DOCUMENT

LOSS OF DOCUMENT

PUBLIC NOTICE

This is to inform the general public that the original provisional offer allocation issued by Gwagwalada Area Council in respect of Plot No. 241 Kuje road layout in the name of ABDULLAHI KABIR ISA got missing and all efforts to trace it have proved abortive.

If found, please contact: Gimba Isa on 08036345885 or Abdullahi Kabir Isa on 08034528355 CHANGE OF NAME

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS ASADU LOVINA LEBECHUKWU, NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS EZE LOVINA LEBECHUKWU. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COURT OF NIGERIA AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO TAKE NOTE.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS VICTOR IBRAHIM, NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS VICTOR SUMI. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. ARMY CHILDREN SCHOOL, ARMY DAY SECONDARY SCHOOL KACHIA AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO TAKE NOTE.

CHANGE OF NAME

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THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFY THE LOSS OF THE FOLLOWING ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. UMANEK EMEN UMAKA BLK 68 FLAT 2 AREA 1 SECTION 1, ALLOCATION OF OPEN SPACE IN UTAKO ULTRA MODERN INTERNATIONAL MARKET SPACE NO STB 181 STATIONARIES. SPACE NO STB 170, VICKE OMORUBI COSMESTICS AREA 3 OFF FOTOTEK NO STB. 336 STATIONERIES, BLK 70 PLOT 2 AREA 2 GARKI ABUJA ALL BELONGING TO ALHAJI MOHAMMED KABIRU IS DECLERED MISSING. ALL EFFORTS MADE TO TRACE THE SAID DOCUMENTS PROVED ABORTIVE, IF FOUND CONTACT THE NEAREST POLICE STATION. LOSS OF DOCUMENT

This is to Inform the General Public of the Loss of Original Offer of Grand/Conveyance of Approval allocated to CEBOJI NIGERIA LIMITED, Plot No 2N36 of About 1849M2 Within Durumi District File No. Nfct/La/91/Misc6885. Allocated by Ministry of Federal Capital Territory Abuja on 26th April 1993.

All Effort to Trace the Document Proved Abortive. If found Contact any Nearest Police Station, Agis and FCT please note.

LOSS OF DOCUMENT

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFY THE LOSS OF THE FOLLOWING ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. UMANEK EMEN UMAKA BLK 68 FLATS AREA 1 SECTION 1, ALLOCATION OF OPEN SPACE IN UTAKO UTRAL MODERN INTERNATIONAL MARKET SPACE NO STB181 STATIONARIES. SPACE NO STB 170, VICKE OMORUBI COSMESTICS AREA 3 OFF FOTOTEK NO STB 336 STATIONERIES, MICHEAL B. OKOKON BLK 70 PLOT 2 AREA 2 GARKI ABUJA ALL BELONGING TO ALHAJI MOHAMMED KABIRU IS DECLEAR MISSING ALL EFFORT MAKE TO TRACE THE SAID DOCUMENTS PROVE ABORTIVE IF FOUND CONTACT THE NEAREST POLICE STATION.

THE SHAMSUDDEEN USMAN FOUNDATION

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED MINISTRY HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

OLD TRUSTEES ARE: 1. MR. ISA USMAN 2. MR. DAHIRU USMAN 3. MR. SADIQ USMAN AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. TO ASSIST, SPONSOR AND AWARD SCHOLARSHIP TO DESERVING AND ELIGIBLE UNDERGRAUATE STUDENTS OF BAYERO UNIVERSITY, KANO AND AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA. 2. TO GIVE GRANTS, AIDS, SUPPORTS AND SPONSOR HEALTH CARE PROJECTS IN ALL ITS BRANCHES. TO GIVE GRANTS AND AIDS TO ORPHANS, MOTHERLESS BABIES, WIDOWS, DESTITUTE WOMEN AND CHILDREN, CHID WELFARE, YOUTH ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIAL AGENCIES. ANY ABJECTION ON THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL, CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION PMB 198, GARKI ABUJA. SIGNED ADEJOKE AKINGUN-ROBERTS & CO. LEGAL PRACTITIONERS, SUITE 44 DANSVILLE PLAZA, BEHIND AP FILLING STATION APO, ABUJA

LOSS OF DOCUMENT

This is to Inform the General Public of the Loss of Original letter of allocation of Plot by the Bauchi State Government in favour of IBRAHIM MOHAMMED AMINU of Ministry of Education Headquarters, Bauchi, is declared missing. All efforts to trace the said letter proved abortive. If found, please contact the nearest police station CHANGE OF NAME

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS MISS IKWUBIELA PEGGY ODEH, NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS MISS OCHANYA PEGGY ODEH. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO TAKE NOTE.

PAGE 40

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

News Extra Briefs EFCC arrests alleged Oyo pension fraudsters

Niger Assembly urged to enact law on vigilante corps

S

ecretary of Civil Security Corps in charge of Suleja Emirate, Tafa and Gurara local governments of Niger state, Alhaji Suleiman Badaru, has called on the leadership of Niger State House of Assembly, to enact a law on the vigilante for the smooth running of the corps in the state.

Dadaru, who made this call during the conferment of media merit award of visionary Commissioner of Security by the management of Orator Weekly Newspaper in Tafa, said that his administration would continue to parley with the security agencies in the state.

He pleaded with Niger state government to provide more vehicles for the corps to enable them carry out their duties successfully.

By Usman Shuaibu

From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

O

fficials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday arrested 10 persons accused of defrauding the Oyo state government of N1.59 billion at the premises of a Magistrates Court, Iyaganku, Ibadan.

The defendants were arrested by the EFCC immediately they step out of the court premises and were conveyed in the commission’s bus to Lagos immediately.

One of the accused, Alhaja Iyabo Giwa, however escaped arrest even though she was present at the court premises.

The arrest was sequel to an Ibadan Chief Magistrates’ Court earlier ruling by Chief Magistrate Durosaro Kehinde-Tijani which struck out the case, based on an application by the Principal State Counsel, Ademola Ojekunle on June 4.

She cited section 75 and 211(1) of the1999 constitution earlier cited by Ojemola, empowering the

Attorney General to withdraw the matter.

The Oyo state government had applied for the striking out of the case to enable the EFCC take proper control of the matter for effective investigation.

It would be recalled that the prosecutor and Principal State Counsel, Ademola Ojekunle, had told the court that the state’s Attorney General, Mr Adebayo Ojo, had instructed him to withdraw the charges against the accused persons.

700 Bauchi intending pilgrims lose bid to perform Hajj From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

A

Company donates vehicles to Jigawa govt

T

he Jigawa state Ministry of Health has received a donation of delivery vans worth N3.6milion from Cipla Evans Nigeria Limited.

Presenting the vehicles to the Commissioner, Dr. Tafida Abubakar, the MD of the company Mr. Wale Oyenuga, said the vehicles were designed to complement the efforts of government in health care delivery services.

Abubakar expressed appreciation to the firm for the gesture and pledged that, the government will maintain the cordial relationship with the company.

From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

Uyo varsity sets up panel to investigate riot

T

he Governing Council of the University of Uyo has set up an investigation panel to probe the circumstances which led to the June 12 students’ riot in the university of Uyo, the Governing Council of the university has set up a panel to investigate the mayhem and arson unleashed on the university.

A memoranda issued by the Council gave the panel two weeks in which to submit its report.

Already a seven-man InterMinisterial Committee on campus Safety led by Prof. Adebisi Balogun had visited the university to assess the extent of damage.

By Mike Etim, Uyo

Ojekunle said that the withdrawal of the charges would aid further investigation and prosecution of the matter at the state High Court.

But the defence counsel, Adeyinka Okunade, opposed the application for withdrawal, arguing that the prosecution could continue its investigation and present the outcome while the case remained at the court.

The accused were arraigned on a three-count charge of conspiracy, abuse of office and stealing.

L-R: Commander, Corps of Engineers, Major-General Funsho Owonibi, Goc. 2 Div. MajorGeneral Ahmed Tijani, and former Commander, Corps of Engineers, Major-General Abubakar Atofarati, during the 2nd Quarter Conference of Commander Corps of Engineers, yesterday in Ibadan.

Photo: NAN

Minanuel estate demolition case for June 26

By Sunday Ejike Benjamin

A

n Abuja High Court has adjourned till June 26, 2013 to continue hearing in a matter of alleged unlawful demolition of 500 houses at Minanuel Estate, by the Development Control Department of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).

The trail Judge, Justice Danlami Senchi adjourned the matter at the at

the instance of the FCTA, a defendant in the suit filed by the developer.

When the matter came up yesterday, a defence witness, Ibrahim Yusuf, in an effort to justify the demolition exercise, presented a map, showing an overview of Abuja.

The said map was sought to be tendered in evidence by the defence counsel, Dr. Amaechi Nwaiwu (SAN), but plaintiff’s counsel, Chief Chris

Uche (SAN), raised an objection to its admissibility, on the ground that the map was not certified.

The defence asked the court for an adjournment to enable him study the map sought to be tendered.

The court granted the request and adjourned the matter till June 26, 2013.

Earlier, the court admitted in evidence purported new allocation papers in the said plot of land.

bout 700 intending pilgrims from Bauchi state will not be able to perform this year Hajj exercise in Saudi’a Arabia.

The Zonal Coordinator of the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON), Alhaji Umar Bala, disclosed this at the training of the trainer workshop organized by the Bauchi state Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board yesterday in Bauchi, He said this was as a result of slashing the number of the Hajj seats allocated to Nigeria by 20 per cent by the Saudi Arabia government.

The coordinator also lamented that Saudi Arabia increased accommodation fare especially in Mecca due to the on-going expansion of the Grand Mosque of Ka’aba.

According to him, the mosque has an accommodation capacity of 50,000 pilgrims but would take only about 20,000 due to the renovations.

Meanwhile the Secretary of the Board, Alhaji Umar Yayagana, said there were 20 biometric registration centers across the state and a center at the Board’s headquarters.

He advised local government officials to educate the intending pilgrims in their respective areas on the biometric data capture system and the implication of giving false information.

30,000 patients receive free eye treatment in Niger

N

iger state Governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, yesterday in Minna said that not less than 30,000 patients suffering from various eye ailments received free treatment in Niger state between 2007 and 2012.

The Governor’s disclosure came on the heels of the free treatment being given to another set of 10,000 patients by the MTN Foundation Eyesight Restoration

Intervention Scheme in the six health zones in the state.

Aliyu spoke at the flag off of the programme at the IBB Specialist Hospital.

He said that over 5000 patients had cataract surgery while another of 5000 were given reading and sight glasses while the others were treated for different eye diseases.

Aliyu who was represented at the ceremony by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji

Saidu Ndako Idris, noted that government had also been partnering with non-governmental organizations including the Talba Success Movement and the International Federation of Women Lawyers to achieve the free eye treatment programme of the administration.

“This ceremony therefore adds momentum to our commitment towards ensuring that our people live not only long lives but health

and qualitative lives, indeed we believe that the realization of our Vision 3:2020 is contingent on healthy citizenry of which sight plays a significant role,” Aliyu said.

Director of the MTN Foundation, Mr. Akinwale Goodluck, said that the MTN had intervened in the various eye problems facing Nigerians as one of its social responsibilities adding that the programme has been carried out in five other states.

PEOPLES DAILY| FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 41

FIFA U-20:

Flying Eagles kick-start campaign against Portugal today

N

Olarenwaju Kayode, to lead junior Eagles’ attack

igeria and Portugal will take to the pitch today in their opening group game in the FIFA U-20 World Cup Championship in Turkey.

The time is 7pm Nigerian time.

The Flying Eagles will be meeting their Portuguese counterparts for the third time in about a month, having clashed at a recent invitational tournament in France with the second meeting ending in favour in the Edgar Borges’ side.

But that game was far from being the true reflection of the character and depth of the junior Eagles largely because eight first team players were missing in that line up. Today though offers John Obuh the chance to exhibit the true form of the squad.

Obuh will parade three players from the Colombia 2011 edition of the competition including strikers Olanrewaju Kayode and Abduljaleel Ajagun and addition to new talents that will be aiming to establish themselves on the global plateform.

Among these are Shehu Abdullahi, Samuel Eduok, Michael Olaitan, Christian Pyagbara, Umar Aminu and Ovbokba Agboyi among others.

Obuh is likely to present a squad strong in depth and focus especially as he hopes to use the championship to redeem the team’s image after their lacklustre performance at the African level where they lost their crown.

Portugal were not European champions either but courtesy their final placing berthed at the tournament.

They have exciting players in Thiago Silva, Aladje, Edgar among others and could pose no little threat if not well contained.

A win for the Eagles will set the path for greater hope in the tournament.

Aladje is aerial threat

Messi’s tax fraud hearing FIFA set to modify for September 17 offside law

B

arcelona star Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge, have been indicted on tax fraud charges and a court hearing has been scheduled for September 17, according to El Pais.

District court on June 12 alleging that the reigning, four-time World Player of the Year evaded €4.2 million in tax between 2007 and 2009, the Spanish newspaper reports.

Both son and father in a statement have denied the wrongdoing.

The case was submitted at the court in Gava, near the Mediterranean coastal town where Messi lives. If found guilty, and barring an out-of-court deal with the tax office, Messi and his father could face two to six years in jail, according to Professor Sandalio Gomez, a sports finance analyst at the IESE Business School.

In the complaint, state prosecutor Raquel Amado alleges that from 2006-09 Messi “obtained significant revenue derived from the transfer to third parties of his image rights, income which should have been taxed”.

Messi, who has had an unprecedented four straight FIFA World Player of the Year awards, scored 133 goals for Barcelona over the last two seasons, has Barca to win their fourth La Liga title in five seasons last term.

The 25-year-old, who is rated

by Forbes as the world’s tenth highest-paid athlete, reportedly earned $41.3 million to June this year; with $20.3 coming from his club salary and $21 million in endorsements.

Messi is not the first athlete to be investigated in Spain for taxes.

Last year former Portugal star Luis Figo - himself a one-time World Player of the Year - was forced to pay €2.45 million in income tax pertaining to image rights from 1997-99 while playing for Barcelona.

In 2009, former top-ranked women’s player Arantxa SanchezVicario had to pay millions in back taxes.

Lionel Messi

F

IFA are planning a major change to the offside law this summer, according to German football magazine kicker.

The current interpretation of the Law 11, as noted on the official, states that a player is offside when the ball “rebounds off an opponent to [the] attacker” if the attacker has previously been in an offside position.

It is currently not seen as an offence if an opponent interferes with a planned and intentional action by the defender - such as the ball being cleared - as the attacking player had previously been in a passive position.

According to the report, the law will no longer differentiate between an intentional nor nonintentional “defending action” which should make life easier for referees, coaches and spectators.

Only if the defending player is clearly continuing with play and makes an error can the attacking player play the ball. So a defender would have to have control of the ball and essentially enter a new phase of play for the attacker to become active.

German referees’ chief Herbert Fandel is expecting to receive a letter from FIFA over the next couple of days in time to brief officials during a pre-season camp in Bavaria next week.

Water sports can produce gold medalists…if, says Porbeni

By Albert Akota

T

he Nigeria poor Olympic Games fortunes at London 2012 could be changed for better, beginning with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games if government, through it machineries give the necessary support to the growth and development of water sports in country.

This was the conviction of Rear Admiral FBI Porbeni (Rtd) the board president of the Rowing, Canoe and Sailing sports in Nigeria during the 1-day National Summit and Fund raising dinner at Jabi Lake in Abuja yesterday.

The one day summit which tagged “digging the sporting treasures in our waters” observed representatives of states at the Lake exhibitions.

Porbeni said that the board is working in synergy with the Nigeria Swimming Federation and the Nigeria Navy to ensure the country’s medal prospects are bettered in future international competitions like the All Africa Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics.

“The board is working hard to ensure Nigeria win medals in the water sport in the near future; we are set to produce medalists in the Rowing, Canoe and sailing sports because it was unfortunate at London that Nigeria could not win a single medal, “he said.

Meanwhile the Chairman/ Minister of the National Sports

Commission (NSC) Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi who flag-off the exhibitions charged the board to win medals for the country especially in Rowing and Canoe engagement.

The minister who was represented at the summit by Director, Grassroots Sports Development Al-Hassan Yakmut said the NSC would do everything possible to support the board in order to achieve it target.

Also speaking at the event, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba promised to support rowing, canoe and sailing sports in training potential gold medalists for the country.

He said the defence would focus more on sensitizing it staff on the need to engage on water sport because young talents who can do wonders in water can be found in the military.

Admiral F B I Porbeni

PEOPLES DAILY| FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PAGE 42

Sports

Zamfara Utd defend NNL withdrawal

Z

amfara United officials, Adamu Alhassan and Jafaru Ibrahim have faulted claims that the side pulled out from the Nigeria National League (NNL) to aid the promotion ambition of a certain club side.

The Gusau-based said were recently withdrawn by the financiers, Zamfara State government from the ongoing 2012/2013 Nigeria National League due to financial difficulties.

That decision has not gone done well with many club sides who insisted that the eleventh hour withdrawal was a ploy to fast track the promotion ambition of certain club that is alleged not to be affected by the imminent can-

cellation of points accumulated by Zamfara United.

Speaking yesterday, Alhassan, who is the Director General (DG) Directorate of Sports, said the decision was dearth of finance and was never meant to favour or disfavour any side in the race for promotion.

“I was the last person that agreed to pull-out the side from the ongoing league but the demand dated back to the first fourweek of the season for reason not unconnected with finance.

“Initially, I thought I could pull the side through by footing their bills to the extent of mortgaging personal effects but there is a limit to what an individual

could effectively do as far as finance is concerned.

“The state government said there is no money to further run the team more so as they considered the position of the side on the log with the fact that nothing could be done to rescue the team from going on relegation.

“So it’s not true that we’re bribed to pull-out to ensure a certain club gain promotion to the premier league rather we pulled out because there is no money to run the club and avoid an ugly situation where the club will be expelled for not honouring matches.

We weighed the options before we chose the path of withdrawal than expulsion.

Long jump talents abound in Nigeria, says Coach

C

ontrary to the fears expressed by some persons, coach Kola Adebayo has said that talents abound in long jump across the country, but needs painstaking efforts to fish them out.

Talents in the otherwise called horizontal jump - long and triple jumps in athletics, are everywhere in the country, according to Adebayo who asserted that Nigerian athletes had always performed well in the horizontal aspects of the jumps.

“We have potentials in this country, looking at it from history right from the onset jumps were the areas that Nigerians dominate and those were the areas we performed excellently

most even in the world.

“Looking at the history of African championships, All Africa Games as well jumps were the areas we never lose out of the medal table. ``It is either we won it or we either be in the second or third place positions since the history of the All Africa Games (AAG). Then, you will get to understand we have talents for those events in this country.” ``What I think, we need to do is to improve on ways to discover talents, rather than the situation where they were left to waste away,” he said stressing that the manner sports was being administered was hindering discovery and nurturing of fresh talents.

“I’m not happy that the team pulled out but that appears to be the feasible option in the circumstance, I’m really pained but the situation is beyond my control,” said Alhassan to supersport. com.

NNL Division A leaders, Giwa FC could be the biggest gainers from Zamfara United withdrawal as they are most unlikely going to lose any point against other chasing packs like Tin City Landlords, Plateau United, Niger Tornadoes, DSS, FC Emeka Inyama, Chairman of NNL Taraba, among others.

Deaf athletes beg corporate organizations for sponsorship

D

eaf athletes under the Nigeria Deaf Sports Federation (NDSF), have appealed to corporate organisations and philanthropists in the country to sponsor competitions that would enable them to develop their skills.

Some of them, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos, said that without local and international competitions, it would be difficult for them to improve their skills.

Ismaila Aderemi, a table tennis player, said that one of the challenges deaf athletes faced was the lack of championships, noting that competitions were essential to the development of any sport. ``When we train very hard without competitions to show our hard work, we become discouraged. We need the help of corporate bodies because the lack of tournaments may send some of us back to the streets,’’ he said.

Another table tennis player, Sunday

Olowoniyi, said that deaf athletes should be considered capable of representing the country very well at international competitions. ``Some of us are the bread winners of our homes; we have chosen sports and without adequate competitions to show our skills and probably win awards or cash prizes, we will lose our integrity. ``I appeal to sports lovers to please consider deaf sports; we can also make a huge difference with sports thereby making the country proud,’’ he said.

Nuru Badmus, a deaf athlete, decried the lack of local competitions and training tours, noting other countries treated their able and disabled athletes equally. ``I am appealing to private organisations to please assist us because without their help and support, we will be inactive.

When we do not have events to show for our training, we become discouraged,’’ he said.

Deaf athletes beg corporate organizations for sponsorship

L

Tosin Oke at the last Olympics

ongdi Dasbak, one of the country’s leading female squash players, says her recent suspension by the Nigeria Squash Federation (NSF) will not affect her preparations for the Minna Squash Tournament. ``Since we have observed our two-month ban, we intend to use the competition to check our fitness level, having been away from all competitions since April,’’ Dasbak said yesterday.

Dasbak, Sodiq Taiwo, Bodam Jonathan and Yalmy Kallil, were suspended for two months by the Femi Ajagbe-led NSF board in April after they boycotted the final match of the David Mark championships over prize money.

The winner-take-all tournament is slated to hold from July 2 to July 6, and Dasbak said that since the Minna tournament was the first of its kind in the country, she would strive to prepare well for it.

The winners in the male and female categories of the tournament are expected to each go home with a car as prize for winning.

The former numCHANGE OF NAME ber one ranked female player said that she I, OLAIDE ADENIKE FUNMILOLA NOW WISHES TO was currently under- BE ADDRESSED AND KNOWN AS MRS. ADAMSON going a course at the OLAIDE ADENIKE TNS, RMS LTD AND GENERAL National Institute for PUBLIC TAKE NOTE ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS Sports (NIS), Lagos, but would adjust ac- REMAINS VALID cordingly.

LOSS OF DOCUMENT ``Although I have not been training be- The general public is hereby notified of the loss cause I am currently in school at the NIS, of Abuja Geographical Information Systems I still intend to train (AGIS) stamped receipt for the C of O of plot hard. ``The prize at No. ED10, Jikwoyi Phase III, Abuja, belonging stake will motivate a to Mr. L.C. Chima, submitted to AGIS in lot of players to come 2005/2006 for recertification. Information well prepared for this tournament. I believe about the missing document can be sent to that it will be highly AGIS Abuja, nearest police station or MR. competitive, which will bring out the best SAMUEL MMADUABUCHUKWU UZOHO from us,’’ Dasbak said (08065478688)

PEOPLES DAILY| WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013

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PAGE 44

Sports

FIFA U-20: Starlets look to shine in Turkey

with agency report

B

eginning from today, 24 countries comprising of 504 starlets will hit the stage in search of podium honours in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey.

Of course, in keeping with tradition, the tournament should

Flying Eagles’ skipper Abdul Ajagun

throw up fledgling talents that may in later years take the world by storm with glittering soccer display.

So Turkey 2013 offers yet another opportunity for these prospects to showcase their talents and ascend the ladder of fame and prestige.

Common to all the fledglings is the dream of winning the prestigious trophy, succeeding reigning champions Brazil - both A Seleção and Argentina surprisingly failed to qualify for the finals in Turkey.

Even at this early stage of their careers, the players who take to the field in the seven host cities of Antalya, Bursa, Gaziantep, Istanbul, Kayseri, Rize and Trabzon have a unique opportunity to follow in the footsteps of idols including Sergio Aguero, Seydou Keita, Robert Prosinecki, Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona.

All these greats are previous winners of the adidas Golden Ball for the best player at this series of tournaments, and all of them went on from there to build truly illustrious careers, a process which in certain cases is far from over.

Firstly though, a rundown of the list of contenders would suffice. France would be only too delighted to match or better their achievement in Colombia two years ago, where they lost the semi-finals to Portugal.

Les Bleuets are hoping on midfielder Paul Pogba, who is growing in Juventus. As for the Portuguese, two-time champion at this age level, the team is built around playmaker and occasional Benfica first-teamer Andre Gomes.

The man to watch for Spain, who arrived in Turkey as U-19 European champions, is winger Gerard Deulofeu. The Barcelona youth product laid down a marker at the European tournament in Estonia a year ago, where he was named player of the tournament.

England included highly promising midfielder Ross Barkley, currently rapidly enhancing his reputation with Everton in the Premier League.

Mexico come to south-east Europe with their sights set on success. After winning the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2011 on home soil, El Tri feel they will have a say in the final destination of the U-20 honours, and will be looking for inspiration from midfielder Jorge Espericueta of Tigres de la UANL, winner of the adidas Silver Ball two years ago.

For Egypt, playmaker Saleh Gomaa of ENPPI was not only named best player at the most recent CAF U-20 African Championship after leading his team to the trophy, but has also already made numerous appearances for the senior national team.

The names of Uruguayan Nicolas Lopez and Colombia's Juan Quintero catch the eye, the two strikers that made their mark at the South American U-20 Championship earlier this year with six and five goals respectively.

They are also rapidly rising in the ranks in Italy. Lopez plays for Roma while Quintero laces boots

in the Serie A for Pescara. As for hosts Turkey, one of the men to watch will be creative midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu.

The wily schemer grew up in Germany, where he is rated a major talent with a strong likelihood of a Bundesliga debut for Hamburg next season.

Daniel de Silva is the rave of the moment for Australia. The 16

ing matches.

The players now making their final preparations for Turkey 2013 will certainly not be short of inspiring examples to follow when the action begins today.

But there are some of last edition's gifted stars: Oscar, a midfielder for the winners Seleçao of Brazil, who has emerged as a key playmaker for UEFA Europa League winners Chelsea, and currently featuring in the FIFA Confederation Cup with Brazil's senior team.

Philippe Coutinho another member of Brazil's 2011 squad.

Already, he has made his breakthrough with Inter, and switched Liverpool in January. Of course, the Selecao of have Fernando, who sealed a move to Shakhtar Donetsk following an excellent season at Gremio. The latter has likewise caught the eye of Luiz Felipe Scolari, earning a spot in Brazil's squad for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. Spain's Isco is wanted by sev-

Spain’s sensational Isco

years old attacking midfielder is the youngest player in this tournament. He was still only 15 at the time, making him the A-League’s second-youngest player.

With so many up-and-coming stars and hugely promising junior players on display in Turkey, the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2013 stands every chance of reproducing the high competitive standards of previous tournaments.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the teams striving to win the most prestigious trophy in global junior football, and the race for individual honours, should produce exciting football and thrill-

Philippe Coutinho

eral top European teams after completing a superb season with Malaga in both domestic and UEFA Champions League. Oriol

Australia’s youngster Daniel da Silva

Romeu his La Rojita's colleague joined Chelsea Both Marc Barta and Christian Tello have earned promotion from Barcelona's reserve team to the professional squad.

Goalkeeper Jack Butland kept three clean sheets during the Colombia 2011 group stage to impress with Birmingham City, make his senior debut for England and also wear the gloves for Great Britain during the 2012 Olympics.

The only goal Butland conceded in Colombia was struck

by Nigeria's Ahmed Musa in the last eight – and he too has done well since, winning the 2013 CAF Africa Cup of Nations plus a Russian league and cup double with CSKA Moscow and now is featuring for the Super Eagles in the FIFA Confederation Cup.

“

By Patrick Andrew

Saleh Gomaa of Junior Pharoah

With so many up-and-coming stars and hugely promising junior players on display in Turkey, the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2013 stands every chance of reproducing the high competitive standards of previous tournaments.

England’s Jack Butland

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VISION ESTATE ALLOTEES ASSOCIATION LUGBE

UNITED ANGELS OF CHRIST MINISTRY

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THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. INNO ANOLIEFO 2. SUNDAY NWANKWO 3. OKECHUKWU OKEREKE 4. OSITA CHIME 5. MARIAM OFOEDU 6. OKOEBOR MACACLAY THOMAS

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. MR JULIUS NWANKWO 2. JACOB ANIEKE 3. PASTOR HYCIENTH NWANKWO

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. TO PROTECT THE INTEREST OF MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION 2. TO PROMOTE PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING AMONG MEMBERS. 3. TO CATER FOR THE WELFARE OF MEMBERS. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420,TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET MAITAMA P.M.B 198, GARKI ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED EYEE BLESSING SOLICITOR 08032573457

PUBLIC NOTICE IJEGUN-EGBA TANKFARM OWNERS AND OPERATORS ASSOCIATION

- PRESIDENT - SECRETARY - MEMBER

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE BIBLE. 2. TO PROMOTE PEACE AND UNITY AMONG CHRISTIANS IRRESPECTIVE OF DENOMINATIONAL AFFILIATION. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420,TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET MAITAMA P.M.B 198, GARKI ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE

HAPPY FAMILY LIVING INITIATIVE

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

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

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. MR ANDREW OLUJIMI - CHAIRMAN 2. MRS WOLISAT ABIMBOLA BABALOLA 3. MR JOHNSON OBOH PETER 4. PRINCESS ROSELINE OSIPITAN 5. MR BABATUNDE ADEOGUN 6. ALHAJI AMINU OGUNRINDE 7. ALHAJI AUWALU ABDULLAHI RANO 8. ENGR. BABATUNDE BABALOLA

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. REV. ADEDAYO BABALOLA EJIWUNMI 2. MRS AKINSOLA ELIZABETH KEMI 3. MR MOROUNKEJI OLUMIDE 4. MR AKINMUSIRE PETER

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1.TO PROMOTE AND PROTECT THE INTEREST AND WELFARE OF MEMBERS. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420,TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET MAITAMA P.M.B 198, GARKI ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED PRINCE ESHIET CHAMBERS 08034677551

CHANGE OF NAME

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS WENDE RABIU EMMANUEL, NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS WNEDE RABIU MUSA. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO TAKE NOTE.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. TO TEACH MARRIED COUPLES THE WORD OF GOD SO THAT THE FAMILY UNIT CAN RUN AS GOD INTENDS IT TO RUN. 2. TO ENCOURAGE TEENAGERS TO PURSUE THEIR GOD GIVEN DESTINIES WITH DILIGENCE AND REGARD TO GODLINESS. 3. TO PROVIDE GUIDE AND COUNSEL FOR YOUNG ADULTS AS THEY INTEND TO START THEIR FAMILY. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420,TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET MAITAMA P.M.B 198, GARKI ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED OMONUWA OGIEMUDIA ESQ SOLICITOR

CHANGE OF NAME

I FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESS AS MISS IDOWU ADENIKE OLUWAFUNMILOLA NOW WISHES TO BE ADDRESSED AS MRS. AKANDE ADENIKE OLUWAFUNMILOLA: OF ELIZADE NIGERIA LIMITED. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAINS VALID. GENERAL PUBLIC TO TAKE NOTE.

CHANGE OF NAME

LOSS OF DOCUMENT

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS MUSA ABUBAKAR ABDUL, NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS ALHAJI ABUBAKAR MUSA MAIDOKI “A, A, MUSA MAIDOKI”. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES, FADAM A III AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO TAKE NOTE.

This is to Inform the General Public of the Loss of Original Land Allocation paper, No AMAC 24916 located at Angwar Koro Pashe Karu village Abuja belonging to MR. INUWA AUDU.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS AISHATU INUWA, NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS AISHATU INUWA NUHU. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC, NYSC AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO TAKE NOTE.

All efforts to trace it proved abortive, if found contact the nearest police station.

PEOPLES DAILY| WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013

PUBLIC NOTICE

KAFE GARDEN CITY RESIDENTS & OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT 1990 THE TRUSTEES ARE 1. MR. OKORO ANICHO SUNDAY 2. BARR. ROTIMI OGUNJIDE 3. HAJIA HAUWA INUWA 4. LADY BIBIANA OKEREAFOR 5. MRS. DOO JIRBO 6. ALHAJI AHMED ABDULGANIYU 7. MR. JOHN UDOSEN AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1. TO PROMOTE THE INTEREST AND WELFARE OF MEMBERS ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL. CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUYI IRONSI STREET. PMB 198, MATIAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS FROM THE DATE OF PUBLICATION SIGNED; BARR. ROTIMI OGUNJIDE (SECRETARY)

PUBLIC NOTICE

JUBILEE PRAISE CENTER INTERNATIONAL

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

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. REVEREND JAMIN JAMES. 2. MRS. ANGELA OMONIGHO JAMES. 3. MRS. KEMI IGWONOBE. AIMS & OBJECTIVES: 1. PREACHING THE WORD OF GOD. 2. TO GAIN SOULS FOR CHRIST. 3. TO PREPARE MEN FOR THE COMING OF LORD JESUS CHRIST. ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL, CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA, WITHIN TWENTY EIGHT DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: REVEREND JAMIN JAMES.

PUBLIC NOTICE

DIVINE ASSIGNMENT MINISTRY INT

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

TRUSTIES (1) REV. BAMIDELE SAMUEL DIEKOLA - FOUNDER/PRESIDENT. (2) REV. BAMIDELE ROSELINE BOSEDE -VICE-PRESIDENT. (3) REV. BAMIDELE DAVID OLAGUNJU- MEMBER. (4) PASTOR OLATUBOSUN TAIWO THEOPHILUS -MEMBER. (5) PASTOR AMURE PAUL OLATUNDE -MEMBER .

(6) PASTOR GBOLASIRE OLUBUKUNMI ADEWALE -MEMBER. (7) ENGR. PAUL OLOTU OGWUCHE- SECRETARY. AIMS/OBJECTIVES (1) TO EVANGELIZE THE WORLD BY PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. (2) TO CONVERT THE HEATHEN AND PAGAN TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND TO ESTABLISH CHURCHES AND MISSIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. (3) TO FOUND AND ENDOW SCHOOLS, HOSTELS AND ORPHANAGES; AND TO WORK FOR THE UNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN AFRICA. (4) TO ESTABLISH A FUND FOR THE PROPER EXECUTION OF THE FOLLOWING OBJECTS AND TO PROVIDE FACILITIES FOR EDUCATION AND MORAL, AND SPIRITUAL TRAINING OF ITS MEMBERS AND WORKERS. (5) TO PREACH AND SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST BY MEANS OF OPEN AIR SERVICES, MEETINGS, SACRED SONGS CONSISTENT WITH GOD’S LAWS AND ORDINANCES. ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL, CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA, WITHIN TWENTY EIGHT DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED ENGR. PAUL OLOTU OGWUCHE- SECRETARY.

PUBLIC NOTICE

ANIOMA WORLD ASSEMBLY

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSEMBLY HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. MR ECHIEMEZE OFILI 2. REV. FRANCIS UKWAMEDUA 3. MS LAURETTA ONOCHIE 4. DR. CHARLES OSEJI 5. DR. OSADEBE ANAM 6. MS GLORIA ADAGBON 7. MR HENRY MOLOKWU AIMS: 1. TO RENDER SELFLESS POSITIVE SERVICES FOR THE WELLBEING OF ANIOMA PEOPLE ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

PAGE 43

PUBLIC NOTICE

DESTINED CHILD EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE

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

TRUSTEES: 1. REV. (MRS) AZUKA GBOGBOADE 2. REV. (DR.) WOLE GBOGBOADE 3. MR. ADENIRAN EZE GBOGBOADE 4. MISS. ADEFUNKE OBIAGELI GBOGBOADE 5. MR. OLISAMEKA ADETORERA GBOGBOADE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. TO GIVE QUALITATIVE EDUCATION TO LESS PRIVILEGED CHILDREN 2. PROVISION OF SCHOLARSHIP FOR EDUCATION OF LESS PRIVILEGED CHILDREN 3. ORGANIZING TRAINING, WORKSHOPS AND SEMI ARS FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT, CHILD ASSESSMENT AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL WORK 4. ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATIONAL OF VILLAGES SCHOOLS FOR LESS PRIVILEGED CHILDREN 5. DISTRIBUTION OF EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES TO VILLAGE SCHOOLS AND LESS PRIVILEGED CHILDREN 6. SETTING UP OF LIBRARIES IN RURAL AND POOR COMMUNITIES 7. WRITING, PRINTING OF BOOKS AND EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

PUBLIC NOTICE

HAPPY SONS DIVINE LOVE FOUNDATION

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

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. MR. BASSEY ETIM. 2. MR. EKOM ABASI 3. AMOS ETIM AIMS & OBJECTIVES: 1. TO HELP THE NEEDY IN THE SOCIETY, ESPECIALLY ORPHANS AND WIDOWS.

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

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

SIGNED: OLUWASINA OLADEJI AND CO 08023809593 O8062275747

SIGNED: SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

UNIVERSAL RESCUE RESPONSE & SUPPORT FOUNDATION

THE MUSLIM UMMAH ASSOCIATION, LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

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

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. MICHEAL A. ABRAHAM. 2. MOMOH A. MOSES. 3. SIMEON OLU ABOLARIN. 4. AYERIN JONATHAN. 5. ANTHONY ADENIYI. 6. FRANCIS OLU OLASOJI. 7. SURAJUDEEN ADISA BELLO. AIMS & OBJECTIVES: 1. TO PROMOTE THE PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTIVES OF A DISCIPLINED VOLUNTEER RESCUE FOUNDATION TO RESCUE HUMAN, PROPERTIES AND OTHER MATERIAL RESOURCES IN EMERGENCY SITUATION, ON LAND, AIR AND WATER. 2. TO PROMOTE AND UNDERTAKEN THE PROMOTION OF EDUCATING THE PUBLIC OF EMERGENCY RESCUE OPERATIONS AND SECURITIES IN NIGERIA. ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL, CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA, WITHIN TWENTY EIGHT DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

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

TRUSTEES: 1. TAJUDEEN AYINLA BABATUNDE 2. AHMAD YAHAYA 3. ALI DALA MAINA - PRESIDENT 4. AMINU KAMARU - SECRETARY AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: TO GIVE ENLIGHTENMENT ON ISLAMIC TEACHINGS ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL, CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA, WITHIN TWENTY EIGHT DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: TRUSTEES

SIGNED: MICHEAL A. ABRAHAM.

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

MUSLIM COMMUNITY MPAPE

BELOVED BROTHERS COMMITTEE OF FRIENDS CLUB OF OYIGBO RIVERS STATE

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ORGANIZATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. ALIYU MAGAJI BAPPAH

5. MAITAMBARI USMAN 2. UMAR BELLO MUHAMMAD 6. IBRAHIM ABDULLAHI 3. KAMSALEM BETARA

7. MUKTAR ANDU ALIYU 4. LAWAL ABDULLAHI KAZAURE AIMS 1. TO CATER FOR THE LESS PRIVILEGED MUSLIMS OF MPAPE COMMUNITY 2. TO GIVE BACK TO THE MUSLIMS OF THE COMMUNITY THROUGH CHARITABLE EVENTS AND PROGRAMS 3. SPONSORING RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES IN THE AREA OF ISLAMIC STUDIES AND COLLECTING RELEVANT INFORMATION THAT WILL SERVE AS A DATA BANK FOR ISLAMIC SCHOLARS AND MUSLIMS OF THE COMMUNITY 4. TO BUILD MOSQUES, SCHOOLS, AND ORPHANAGE HOMES FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COMMUNITY. 5.

PROMOTING ISLAMIC VALUES TO THE CONSCIENCE OF INDIVIDUALS AND THE COMMUNITY IN GENERAL 6.

TO LIAISE OR CO-OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER FORUM WITHIN OR OUTSIDE NIGERIA HAVING SIMILAR AIMS AND OBJECTIVES WITH THIS FOUNDATION ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE

SANAB DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED CLUB HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. KINGSLEY ANYANWU 2. IBEKWE KELECHI 3. EMEKA INNOCENT 4. OBI UCHE 5. NZE FESTUS OJINNAKA

6. CHIDI IWUAGWU 7. AKAS CHINEDU 8. CHINEDU OHAJI 9. INNOCENT NNABUIHE 10. MANDELA WILSON

AIMS 1. TO ADVANCE SOCIAL,CULTURAL,CHARITABLE AND EDUCATIONAL INTEREST OF MEMBERS $ SOCIETY AT LARGEM. 2. TO PROMOTE D SPIRIT OF PHILANTHROPY AND MUTUAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ASSISTANCE TO MEMBERS $ SOCIETY AT LARGE. 3. TO CREATE A FORUM FOR SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INTERACTION. 4.TO RENDER ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL WELFARE ASSISTANCE TO MEMBERS. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE

GARMENTS OF SALVATION MINISTRY

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED FOUNATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED MINISTRY HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. ANABA SARAH NWANJUOBI 2. ONWUCHEKWA IHUOMA CHIEMELA 3. NWANGWU OLUCHI 4. UCHE PHILIP ULOAKU

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. AILEMEN NESTAL 2. ODUMEH AFORKOGHENE JUDITH 3. OKE GLORIA 4. OSAGIE GENESIS OZIEGBE 5. CASMIRE OJINNAKA 6. AZOR OYEINKURO GODSPOWER 7. ITSABEMOR OSHOLE

AIMS 1.

TO FACILITATE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT THE GRASSROOTS 2. TO PROVIDE CARE AND SUPPORT FOR AGED PERSONS ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: EZEJI GLORIA; 08038769236

AIMS 1. TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST 2. TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST JESUS ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: BARR. JULIET NWANKWO

PEOPLES DAILY| WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013

PUBLIC NOTICE

MERCY & COMPASSION WOMEN LIBERATION INITIATIVE

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED INITIATIVE HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. PATRICIA EZIKE 2. VERONICA OBIKA 3. IKPEAWUJO AUGUSTA 4. ANGELINA ENWEANI 5. OLIVIA OBODOZIE 6. FAITH JIMOH

PRESIDENT SECRETARY TREASURER

AIMS 1. TO ERADIATE ILLITERACY AMONG WOMEN 2. TO ORGANIZE SEMINAR/WORKSHOP TO EMPOWER WOMEN TOWARDS SELF RELIANCE 3. TO ASSIST POOR WIDOWS AND AGED WOMEN IN OUR IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY; 08034524564

PUBLIC NOTICE

ASSOCIATION OF MARINE OPERATORS AND TRANSPORT BOAT OWNERS DELTA STATE

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. EFIYE ORUWARE CHAIRMAN 2. JOHNBULL OROMONI 3. CHIEF CHARLES AKPENZUKUMO SECRETARY 4. FIDELIS LAGOS 5. CHIEF PATRICK SEIBI 6. FRANK OROMONI 7. ALEX ALOKPA 8. EBI KUKU AIMS 1. TO PROMOTE HARMONY AND PEACE AMONG TRANSPORT BOAT OWNERS AND OTHER MARINE AND INLAND WATER USERS. 2. TO ENSURE HEALTHY AND IMPROVED SERVICES IN THE WATER WAYS 3. TO PROVIDE INSURANCE, AND SAFETY PRECAUTION TO MEMBERS AND OTHER OPERATORS 4. TO GUIDE CONDUCTS OF OPERATORS AND THEIR STAFF ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: J.K NANA 08037769526, CROWN KINGS CONSULTANCY CO.

PAGE 47

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

THE CHRIST CHURCH OF THE LORDS GOSPEL INT’L

BRIELLA FOUNDATION

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED CHURCH HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ ABOVE NAMED FOUNATION HAS APPLIED TO THE OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR TRUSTEES ARE: 1. AMU SAMUEL ADEWUNNISE PRESIDENT 2. BABAMUYIWA SUNDAY AREMU SECRETARY 3. ADESHINA SAMUEL ABIODUN 4. OLADUNJOYE MICHAEL ATANDA 5. AJAYI OLUYEMI ISAIAH 6. OKEOWO JOSEPH OLADELE 7. DUROJAYE ABIODUN RASIDI 8. ONIFADE ADUNNI ELINAH 9. ADENIJI OLUSEYE DANIEL

REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. STELLA THOMAS 2. AYO THOMAS AIMS YOUTH AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. AIMS TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST

PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE

LIGHT OF ISLAM MEDIA INITIATIVE

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED INITIATIVE HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. NURUDEEN ABUBAKAR SALIHU PUBLIC SERVANT 2. KHADIJAT ALIYU MEMBER 3. MARYAM MOHAMMED MUSTAPHA SECRETARY AIMS 1. TO STIMULATE, PROMOTE AND HARMONIZE VIABLE MEDIA INITIATIVES FOR CONTINUOUS ISLAMIC ENLIGHTENMENT, KNOWLEDGE SHARING, COMMUNITY INTEGRATION AND PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE. 2. TO PROMOTE THE ADVANCEMENT OF ISLAMIC TENETS 3. TO ASSIST THE NEEDY, WIDOWS AND ORPHANS 4. TO ASSIST IN THE RENOVATION OF CEMETERIES, PLANTING OF TREES AND PROVISION OF BOREHOLES 5. TO PROMOTE ISLAMIC EDUCATION..

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

SIGNED: SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE

OBIO/AKPOR PEOPLE’S FORUM

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED FORUM HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (CAC) ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

TRUSTEES ARE: 1. HON. CHIEF IKE CHINWO 2. CHIEF TONY OKOCHA 3. HON. CHIKORDI DIKE 4. CHIEF FREDDY ICHEGBO 5. HON. FRIDAY KINIKANWO OWHOR 6. CHIEF GODWIN AGBARAOSIMINI 7. MR. LUCKY CHIZI AMADI 8. MR. KELSELY MAKELE AIMS 1. TO PROTECT THE INTERESTS OF OBIO/AKPOR COMMUNITY 2. TO CATER FOR THE LESS PRIVILEGED, ORPHANS AND WIDOWS IN THE COMMUNITY 3. TO ENCOURAGE YOUTH EMPOWERMENT OF THE COMMUNITY’S YOUTH AND MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY AT LARGE ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: OKEKE KATE (ESQ.) 07086177261

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FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

SPORTS LATEST

FIFA Confed Cup:

Nigeria slip as

Uruguay take full points

T

he Super Eagles of Nigeria announced their presence at the big star with an impressive performance against La Celeste of Uruguay though the South Americans left the pitch three points richer.

It was Diego Forlan’s centenary goal for the La Celeste that did the magic, It was his 34th international goal. And what a cracker it was!

Forlan blasted home a bullet of shot that left Vincent Enyeama completely lost in whirlwind.

It was a defining climax from a combination between Lius Suarez and Edinson Cavani.

Lugano had opened the score sheet off a loose defensive work between Efe Ambrose and Godfrey Oboabona that the Uruguayan capitalised on.

That goal was cancelled out by Mikel Obi who showed flashes of brilliance by holding off two defenders before blasting home for the leveller. It was his second goal for the Super Eagles in recent times.

Before then, the Eagles had dictated the pave of the game with beautiful passes though their last 15 metres touch was perpetually suspect.

The South Americans started impressively and Diego Lugano, who will miss the next game after picking up his second yellow card of the tournament, soon broke the deadlock. The Eagles had soaked the frenetic attack of their opponents and then took almost total control in rhythm and pace.

Nigeria narrowly missed out on taking an advantage into the interval as a scrambling Muslera did brilliantly to stop Diego Godin from putting through his own goal with a looping header in first-half stoppage time.

The AFCON champions resumed the second half with higher tempo but it was Uruguay who struck next with 51 minutes on the clock.

Nigeria will need to something from Spain to stay while Uruguay should bury Tahiti by at least four goals to secure a berth to the semi-finals.

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. . . putting the people first

QUOTABLE QUOTE It will be in the interest of Nigeria for government to terminate the Presidential Amnesty Programme by 2015… This is because it will become an alternative government in the Niger Delta region .

— Chairman, PAP, Anthony Kuku, who is also Presidential Special Adviser on Niger Delta

Survival strategies of Nigerian youth T

he terrible state of the Nigerian economy, declining revenue from oil, state irresponsibility and authoritarianism in consequence of the ascendancy of the ideology of neo-liberal globalization, the dedication of the little available resources for debt servicing and yielding the management and control over the state to forces amenable to transnational and domestic primitive capital accumulation, rapacious looting of state resources have forced on Nigerian youth multiple modes of livelihood and the development of different survival strategies.

Whereas given their boundless energies, skills and creativity, the Nigerian youth were hitherto the leading agents of national development through their engagement and contributions, contemporary socio-political and economic conditions engendered by the crisis and contradictions of decadent capitalism at home have led the youth into unemployment, underemployment, idleness, unproductive and criminal existence. The result is that Nigerian youth now depend on their otherwise aged dependants who had retired or were forcefully retrenched from gainful employment in an economy lacking the minimum welfare, social safety-net and old aged provisioning. Under a system that has become increasingly corrupt, uncaring, unresponsive, inhuman, materialistic and coupled with the desperation for survival, the energies and creativity of the Nigerian youth have increasingly found expression through multiple survivalist strategies underscoring a generational crisis.

For instance, a major consequence of the adjustment

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GUEST COLUMNIST Adelaja Odutola Odukoya

Minister of Youth Development, Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir regime was the frontal attack on education through the policy of commercialization and underfunding. As a response to the skewed educational opportunities in the country, a big examination racketeering industry has developed by and for the youth.

With the commercialization of education, failure to increase opportunities for tertiary education coupled with massive graduate unemployment, the majority of Nigerian youth now look outside the borders of the country to make a living. Since the late 1980s there has been a massive exodus aboard of Nigerian youths mostly as illegal immigrants. Unlike the first voluntary migrations by Nigerians during colonialism and the 1960s for educational attainments, this second voluntary migration

abroad is to make a life as unskilled labour, fraudsters, criminals and prostitutes.

This is considered better than a life as “okada” riders, cab drivers, security operatives, professional job-seekers after graduation. Very recently, a PhD holder was said to have applied for the job of a truck driver with the Dangote Group!

Most of the youth that did not go abroad also make a living through “area boy” gangs, visa rackeeting, drugs, “yahoo-yahoo”, criminality and child trafficking abroad.

In order to have a firm footing abroad marriages are contracted particularly by the male with white women old enough to be their mothers. Similarly, many marriages contracted by young Nigerians at home have broken down with the partners migration abroad or ending in foreign prisons as a result of their running foul of the laws of their host nations.

Unlike their progenitors who were agents of socio-political change through the struggle for independence and against the continuation of imperialist domination after independence as represented by the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact, contemporary Nigerian youth are champions of ethnic irredentist, religious and identity based movements, as against social justice. The struggles of the Oduaa Peoples Congress (OPC), Egbesu Boys, Niger Delta Militia Volunteer Froce,

With the return of the country to civil rule in 1999 under a democratization programme that enthroned a façade of democracy with superficial role for the Nigerian people in the choice of their leaders, unemployed youth became tools in the hands of rival political entrepreneurs as instruments of political vendetta, thugs, hired assassins and election riggers. The role played by the youth in the massive rigging of the 2003 and 2007 general elections across the country was a negation of the historical and patriotic credentials of the Nigerian youth in the struggle for independence.

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Movement for the Restoration of the Independent Sovereign State of Biafra amongst several others are in the context of redresssing the injustices, exploitation and political marginalization of sections of the Nigeria federation rather than a pan-Nigerian platform for social justice. Even the Boko Haram insurgency is said to be a response and fight against the economic crisis, youth unemployment and socio-economic injustices endemic in the Nigerian federation. The lack of ideological clarity, low level of class consciousness and focus, lack of political correctness, self-serving interests and materialism have misdirected and robbed the energies and activism of Nigerian youth to narrow and particularistic pursuits.

With the return of the country to civil rule in 1999 under a democratization programme that enthroned a façade of democracy with superficial role for the Nigerian people in the choice of their leaders, unemployed youth became tools in the hands of rival political entrepreneurs as instruments of political vendetta, thugs, hired assassins and election riggers.

The role played by the youth in the massive rigging of the 2003 and 2007 general elections across the country was a negation of the historical and patriotic credentials of the Nigerian youth in the struggle for independence.

This is not to say that Nigerian youth response to contemporary crisis of the state and the contradictions engendered by global capitalism is totally negative.

The youth across the country have risen up as vigilantes providing security for life and property where state failure has made the life of Nigerians precariously endangered. Similarly, the youth have made remarkable strides in the world of entertainment. Their creativity, resilience and energies created the Nollywood global brand as the second largest firm industry in the world in the midst of material poverty, privation, lack of government support and infrastructural decay.

Not withstanding the success that has been achieved in this regard, for Nigerian youth to meaningfully contribute to development there is the urgent need to moved away from the periphery of their country’s economy and become a major player in the productive sector. What Nigerian youth did with entertainment is a remarkable testimonial to their boundless capacity and potential as change agents given the necessary ambience for generational empowerment and transformation.

The promise of the Nigerian youth cannot be realized except its crisis of generational relevance is resolved once and for all.

Adelaja Odutola Odukoya, PhD, lectures at the Department of Political Science, University of Lagos

Published by Peoples Media Limited, 35, Ajose Adeogun Street, 1st Floor Peace Park Plaza, Utako, Abuja. Kano office: Plot 3, Zaria Road, Opposite Kano State House of Assembly. Lagos Office: No.8 Oliyide Street, off Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos. Tel: +234 814 292 9046. Cell: +234 802 443 2099; 803 7007 759. e-mail: contact@peoplesdailyng.com; pmlnewsdesk@gmail.com ISSN: 2141– 6141