November 01, 2014

www.thenationonlineng.net

VOL.07 N0. 3019

SATURDAY

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

PAGE 27

NOVEMBER 1, 2014

N150

THE NATION

2 NEWS

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

Tambuwal: Presidency shops for pliant judge •Tambuwal’s ADC, others get new postings•Muazu I summons Ihedioha, all PDP Reps for meeting on Monday

NDICATIONS emerged yesterday that two judges had declined hearing a fresh application to sack the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal.

The judges were said to have turned down the matter to avoid the hammer of the National Judicial Council (NJC).

The judges were said to have claimed that it would amount to abuse of court process if the application was entertained since a similar suit on defection was already before a Federal High Court judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed.

Besides the legal option, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Muazu, has summoned the Deputy Speaker of the House, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, and 205 PDP members in the House to a meeting scheduled to hold on Monday.

It was gathered that the party would give a directive to the Deputy Speaker and others to reconvene the House plenary.

Tambuwal’s ADC, others redeployed

While the PDP was neckdeep in its plot, the InspectorGeneral of Police, Suleiman Abba, has redeployed the Aide-de-Camp to the Speaker and his other police aides to different police formations.

They got their letters of posting on Friday, putting paid to any hope of restoring Tambuwal’s security apparatchik.

Investigation by our correspondent revealed that antiTambuwal forces in the Presidency had been pushing for a fresh suit to get a declaratory judgment against the Speaker to vacate his office.

A highly-placed source, who spoke in confidence, said: “There is a plot to file a fresh application at the court to declare Tambuwal’s seat vacant in the light of Section 68(1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution.

“But two judges have declined pressure to entertain the new application because it would amount to abuse of court process since Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court is already handling a similar matter.

“The judges claimed that if they go ahead to consider the application, the NJC might sanction them.

“I can tell you that the antiTambuwal forces have run into a roadblock. The only option they have is to consolidate any fresh suit with the existing one in line with Order 11 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2009.

The order says: “Where two or more matters are pending in the court and it appears to the Court that (a) same question of law or fact arises in both or all of them; or (b) the rights to relief claimed therein are in respect of or arise out of the same or similar transaction or series of transactions; or (c) the interest of justice of the trial so demands, the Court may order that the causes or matters be consolidated on such terms as it thinks just and the Court shall give such directions as may be necessary with respect to the hearing of the causes or matters so consolidated.”

Muazu champions

Outrage spreads as Buhari, others caution Jonathan

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UBLIC outrage over the withdrawal the security detail of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, continued yesterday with presidential aspirant and national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) cautioning President Goodluck Jonathan against abuse of the Principle of Separation of Powers.

A statement issued by the Buhari Campaign Organisation (BCO) said intruding in the affairs of a legislative house which on its own accord adjourned its sitting, would amount to rigging the 2015 general elections.

The statement, signed by Yusuf ALLI, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

move to reconvene house But the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alh. Adamu Muazu, has summoned the Deputy Speaker of the House, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, and 205 PDP members in the House to a meeting on Monday.

A notice of the session was served to all the lawmakers on Friday.

A principal officer in the House said: “Some of us have got a hint of the agenda. The party leadership wants to direct us to cut short our recess and reconvene at all cost to elect a new Speaker.

“They said we should either move against Tambuwal or forget our second term ticket.

I think they have forgotten that not all the PDP members in the House will back the party’s position.

“The House has adjourned sitting till December 3 and only the Speaker can reconvene the House.

“They are trying to put Ihedioha in a tight corner by tying his governorship aspiration to his loyalty to the party at this crucial moment.

“The Deputy Speaker is a man of principle. He will

•It's plot to eliminate Speaker, says El-Rufai Abdulgafar ALABELEWE, Kaduna BCO's spokesman, Comrade Osita Okechukwu, said: "The Buhari Campaign Organisation pleads with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, to use his good offices as the C-in-C to protect and guarantee the security of Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, the Speaker of House of Representatives.

"We are making this passionate appeal following the less than elegant manner his security details were withdrawn by the Inspector General of Police, and exposing him to danger. " It is our candid view that

Hon. Tambuwal as of today remains the valid Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If this is the case, he should enjoy all the privileges and perquisites of the office. " We opine that the greatest disservice to our fledgling democracy will be when we deliberately expose our public officers to harm's way and when the executive fragrantly invades other arms of government in utter violation of the doctrine of separation of powers."

The statement reminded the President of the promise he has made at different

times to Nigerians and friends of the nation to oversee free and fair 2015 general elections.

"If this promise is genuine, then The Buhari Campaign Organisation is compelled to remind you that election is a process," the statement said..

It added: "If you agree with us that election is a process, then intruding in the affairs of a legislative house which has on its own accord adjourned its sitting, will amount to rigging the 2015 general elections via the back door. " From all indications it seems Hon. Tambuwal is being hunted for defecting

rather stand by the members than being used as a pawn by anybody. This is the same man they have not been too disposed to as the PDP governorship candidate in Imo State.

“We will go there on Mon-

day to listen to their ‘advice’ or directive as the case may be.”

Another source who responded to the InspectorGeneral of Police, Suleiman Abba’s redeployment of the

Aide-de-Camp to the Speaker and other police aides to different police formations yesterday said: “Despite public outcry, the IGP has reposted the Speaker’s ADC, driver and other police aides.

to our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Assuming this is the case, then we appeal that due process and rule of law should be strictly adhered to in the collective interest of our dear nation.

"The Buhari Campaign Organisation would be very sad to witness the ugly and sordid tale of our recent past when Harry Marshal, Rt. Hon. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Bola Ige and a host of others died in controversial circumstances, and up till date, their killers have not been found."

Plot to eliminate Speaker In his own reaction, former Minister of the Federal Capi•Continued on Page 4

“They were all served their reposting signals on Friday with a directive to resume at their formations with immediate effect.”

•Vice President, Alhaji Namadi Sambo (third left); Lagos State Deputy Governor, Hon. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire (second left); Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwanu Akiolu 1 (left); Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo (second right); Chairman, Island Club, Prince Ademola Dada (middle) and Chief Sunny Odogwu during the Independence Day Anniversary/ 71st Anniversary Lecture of Island Club, Lagos... yesterday.

PHOTO: Biodun ADEYEWA

Withdrawal of Tambuwal's security details rascally, says Kwara Speaker

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HE Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon. Razak Atunwa, has described the withdrawal of the security details of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) as an act of gross rascality.

Hon. Atunwa told reporters in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital yesterday that the IGP’s action was “improper, unfortunate and unconstitutional.”

Atunwa, a lawyer, said: “The issue whether or not he is entitled to defect to another party with or without consequence is a matter to be interpreted solely by the court. The rules are clear, and that is once he is a speaker, he should remain the speaker and should have all the necessary security details.

•Carpets National Planning Minister

Adekunle JIMOH, Ilorin “He has not been impeached. He has not been removed. No court has declared his seat vacant. Nothing of that nature has occurred. For me, it is an act of gross rascality by the federal government and particularly the Inspector General of Police.

“The reaction we learnt was that as of yesterday his security has been withdrawal from him. For me, it is most unfortunate. It is improper and unconstitutional. He, as we speak now, remains the Speaker of the House of Representatives and therefore, he is entitled to all the appurtenances of that office, regardless of party affiliation.”

He congratulated

Tambuwal over his decision to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC). “I think, he is the man who put his money where his mouth is. He is a man who stands for righteousness and what is right. He believes in it and he has taken the necessary and right action,” he said.

On the criticisms launched against the state government by the Minister of National Planning, Dr Abubakar Suleiman, Atunwa said: “The Minister for National Planning has an obsession for attacking Senator Bukola Saraki. I read in a lengthy interview in one of the dailies recently what he had to say.

He is a minister for the entire nation. I do not think it is

proper. It is rather not decorous for him to be attacking personalities.

“I cannot fathom a developed system in a developed world where a national minister will be discussing and attacking personalities. I do not think that the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the United Kingdom (UK) or Secretary of State in United States discusses personalities whatever party affiliations they may have.

“I ask myself the question: doesn’t this minister have any work to do? He does not have files on his table to treat?

Doesn’t he have the ministry to run?

“This country has issues too deal with. We are sixth in the

world in terms of oil export.

We are 10th in terms of export of natural gas, yet this country is economically regressed.

“Eighty per cent of government revenue comes from oil and gas. “Yet we have neither adequate infrastructure nor progress to boast of. Our economic growth is stunted and this is largely due to corruption lack of corruption and lack of transparency.

“The Transparency International Corruption perception Index of 2013/14 rated Nigeria as top 25 in the world most corrupt countries. It says that the country’s budgetary provisions and processes are zero in terms of openness and transparency.”

THE NATION

NEWS 3

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

Reps Speaker sues PDP, Muazu, I-G, others •Seeks to restrain party, others from sacking him •Justifies defection T

HE Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, yesterday stormed the premises of the Federal High Court, Abuja to personally depose to an affidavit in support of a suit he filed, seeking, among others, to restrain the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and six others from taking steps to remove him from office.

Dressed in white agbada and white cap, Tambuwal, who was accompanied to court by a large crowd comprising aides and supporters, arrived the court around 12 noon and left some few minutes after his lawyers completed the necessary documentations in respect of the case.

Joined with the PDP in the suit, with his new party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) as co-plaintiff, include PDP’s National Chairman, Adamu Muazu, the House of Representatives, the Deputy Speaker of the House, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney general of the Federation (AGF).

Why he defected Tambuwal argued that he still remains a member of the House of Representatives and the House’s Speaker. He added that he was elected the House’ Speaker on June 6, 2011 by members of the House, not because he was a member of the PDP, but by virtue of his being a member of the House.

He stated that he had been a member of the New PDP faction of the party when it became factionalised late last year. He added that his faction of the PDP merged with the APC on November 26, 2013 and that by virtue of the merger he became a member of the APC. The Speaker stated that the PDP still remains factionalsied in his home state of Sokoto, which informed why he informed members of the House of Representatives that his defection was also informed

Eric IKHILAE, Abuja

by the situation of things in his state.

“I know as a fact that all efforts to harmonise the factions of the PDP in my home state in Sokoto has failed as there are still factions in the state. I informed the members of the 3 rd defendant (House of Reps) whilst announcing my decision to join the New PDP faction, who merged with the 2 nd plaintiff (APC) that my membership of the 2nd plaintiff was based on the circumstances in my home state.”

Tambuwal further stated that since he announced his defection, the PDP and its Chairman have consistently threatened to declare his seat vacant and withdraw all rights and benefits including security details attached to him.

He stated that he is aware that the court had in two deferent cases held that the seats of other former members of the New PDP, who are now members of the APC cannot be declared vacant. He cited the case to include that of the PDP and 1 other vs.

Honourable Rasak Atunwa and 20 others, suit No: FHC/IL/CS/ 6/2014 delivered on June 26, 2014 and the case of Ibrahim Magaji Gusau and 2 others vs Honourable Lawal Mohammed Zyyana and 20 others, suit No: FHC/S/CS/4/2014 delivered on July 3, 2014.

He further stated that when he became a member of APC, all the defendants, except the INEC, “began to intimidate, harass and use self-help against me, and they purported to declare my seat vacant.

“In further demonstration of the unconstitutional conduct, the 5th defendant (IGP) withdrew all my security details and thereafter issued a press statement justifying the said withdrawal by citing provisions of the Constitution.

“I know that I received threats that the 1st – 5th de-

Reps Minority Whip warns Jonathan on Tambuwal

T

HE Minority Whip of the House, Barrister Samson Osagie, has warned that President Goodluck Jonathan and principal actors in his government would be held responsible if anything unpleasant happens to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Tambuwal.

Osagie gave the warning against the backdrop of the withdrawal of the security details of the Speaker after his recent defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress.

He said that it was barbaric and smacked of gross intolerance for Jonathan and his government to interfere in the internal affairs of the House of Representatives instead of allowing the House to decide the fate of its leader who he said legally sought a platform for his political future.

The Minority Whip opined that security agencies must

Osemwengie BEN OGBEMUDIA , Benin tread cautiously whenever the powers that be seek to use them illegally to achieve selfish political ends.

The Edo South senator said it amounts to an affront on the legislature for the police to determine when a person ceases to be Speaker.

He said: “I wonder whether the police is an arm of the PDP. Given the circumstances under which Tambuwal became Speaker, no one should be in doubt as to the fact that he is a child of destiny whose political future or ascendancy cannot be truncated by anybody or authority.”

While urging Jonathan to remember that there is God in everything we do, Osagie called on the security agencies to immediately return the full complement of security personnel to Speaker Tambuwal, adding that he remains the undisputed Speaker of the House of Representatives.

fendants will cause the 3 rd defendant to remove me from the office of Speaker because of my membership of the 2nd plaintiff and the 5th defendant issued a statement in that direction after he withdrew my security details.”

He said he has become apprehensive that all the defendants, except INEC, “will use unlawful means to make good their threat if this court

does not intervene to stop them.”

Injunction ambuwal is praying the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants and their agents from taking any steps or further steps to abrogate or diminish or take away or interfere with or infringe his rights and privileges as Speaker and a member of the House before the expiration of his term of office on June

5, 2015.

He also wants an order of injunction restraining the defendants and their agents from taking any steps to remove him from office as Speaker and member of the House or in any manner taking steps or further steps to abrogate or diminish his rights and privileges as Speaker and member of the House before the expiration of his current tenure of office on June 5, 2015.

Tambuwal seeks an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from accepting any nomination of candidates or otherwise organising or conducting a by-election for the purpose of replacing him or taking over his seat as Speaker and member of the House before the expiration of his current tenure of office on June 5, 2015.

•Continued on Page 4

•President Goodluck Jonathan (2nd left); his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan (left); Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Seriake Dickson (2nd left) and his wife, Rachael (right), during the visit of the President and his wife to the state at the Government House Helipad, Yenagoa.

C

ONSTITUTIONAL lawyer and human rights activist, Mike

Ozekhome, SAN, has said that the withdrawal of the security details of the Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, amounts to setting a bad precedent for the country’s democracy.

He, however, implored Tambuwal to explore judicial interpretation of his defection to counter the withdrawal of his security aides by the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Abba Suleiman.

According to him, the section of the 1999 Constitution which the Acting IGP premised his action of withdrawing the security details of the Speaker on has a window of exemption for such action taken by the Speaker.

He told The Nation yesterday in Abuja that the Speaker can prove his defection right if certain events were taken into perspective.

Section 68 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution as altered, merely prohibits carpet crossing or defection from the original sponsoring political party to another.

Where that happens, a member of the Senate or House of Representatives is to vacate his seat.

“Though the Speaker, Tambuwal, has defected from PDP to APC, he has not yet been pronounced upon as having lost his seat in the House.

“For now, it is presumptuous. Even at that, we should rise above the level of petty

IGP's action, ill wind that blows no good —Ozekhome

...Says Tambuwal still remains Speaker and number four man in the country der“Ifoftheprotocol.

Speaker can show Victor OLUWASEGUN and Dele ANOFI, Abuja politics and do the right thing by not desecrating our institutions and the quintessence of our democratic culture through actions that call to question the institutions of the Nigeria Police and the National Assembly.

“Tambuwal remains the

speaker of the House, at least till December 3, when the House resumes Plenary. He has not been impeached.

“He remains the number four person in Nigeria. He therefore deserves full complement of security, not because of his person as an ordinary Nigerian, but as the Speaker of the lower House, the 4th person in or-

that his defection is as a result of a division in PDP, or that PDP has lost its identity because of its merger with another political party, he will be excused by the proviso to Section 68 (1) (g) of the Constitution.

“For now, the Police should immediately restore his security aids without much ado”.

It's act of desperation by Presidency —Ikimi •Says action against separation of power

A

renowned Niger Delta human rights lawyer and activist, Mr Oghenejabor Ikimi, has described Presidency’s withdrawal of the security aides of the Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, as an act of desperation.

He accused President Goodluck Jonathan of contravening the principle of separation of power as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution and acting beyond his powers in the matter.

Ikimi, who is the National Coordinator of the Centre for the Vulnerable and Underprivileged, a non-governmental organisation, said: “We therefore call on the Presidency to restore all the security details of the in-

Shola O'NEIL, Southsouth Regional Editor cumbent Speaker, his name and picture on the National Assembly website as he remains the duly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“However, should the Peoples Democratic Party feel strongly about his defection, the party can set the law in motion against his seat in the House as the Acting Inspector General of Police do not have the constitutional power to either adjudicate on or interpret section 68 (1)(g) of the 1999 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) nor does the Presidency have the constitutional power to remove the name and picture of the

incumbent Hon. Speaker from the National Assembly website while the latter is still in office,” he added.

Ikimi reminded the Presidency that based on the principles of separation of powers as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution, it is only the members of the House of Representatives that can remove the incumbent Speaker from office, adding that until that is done, “he remains the people’s Speaker on the floor of the green chambers and the Number Four citizen in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Therefore the incumbent Speaker is entitled to all the privileges ascribed by the Nigerian constitution to his present office.”

THE NATION

4 NEWS

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

APC warns as PDP plots secret move to reconvene House

T

HE All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned the Federal Government to desist from compounding illegality by inducing members of the House of Representatives to sign a paper seeking to reconvene the House ahead of the December 3 adjourned date. ‘’We have heard from the grapevine that the FG is inducing legislators with a view to reconvening the House, but this will amount to piling illegality upon illegality since only a resolution by all principal officers of the House can reconvene the house,’’ the party said

in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. ‘’We cannot put anything beyond a government that will unlawfully withdraw the security details of the country’s number four citizen, who has not been removed as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, simply because he defected from the ruling party to the opposition.

“For as long as he remains Speaker, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal is entitled to all the statutory perks of his office,’’ it said.

APC accused the Admin-

Atiku’s supporters back modified direct primaries

S

UPPORTERS of former Vice President and presidential aspirant of the All Progressive Congress, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, under the auspices of Turaki Vanguard said on Thursday that reverting to the modified direct primaries by the party will boost the democratic credentials of the party.

In a statement signed by the National President of the group, Oladimeji Fabiyi, the Atiku Support Group praised the national leaders of the party for endorsing modified direct primaries for producing the party’s presidential candidate.

The group said that the decision has shown that the APC has now fully democratised and boosted its democratic credentials and credibility and described the move as a victory for democracy.

They noted that by the amendment to the guidelines to make way for the modified direct primaries as against the modified indirect primaries earlier planned, the APC leaders have re-

istration of President Goodluck Jonathan of ruling by vindictiveness, rather than in accordance with the rule of law.

The party said despotism, arbitrariness and impunity are the watch words of the Jonathan administration, hence it has desecrated most national institutions, including the judiciary, and has now put the legislature in its cross hair. ‘’The legislature is one of the last standing institutions after the onslaught of the ravaging Jonathan administration, which has nothing but contempt for the concept of the separation of powers, the rule of law and

perception of the country by the international community. ‘’For this government, it is power for the sake of power, not for the achievement of anything ennobling. That is why the police and SSS details of a man who remains the country’s number four can be removed without consideration to what the law says.

“That is why public funds will be used to induce lawmakers to sign for the reconvening of the House when it is clear that only the principal officers, and not even the Speaker alone, can reconvene the House before the adjourned date,’’ it said.

APC said it would not be surprised if “the lawless, vindictive and predictable Jonathan administration” would even prevent the Speaker from accessing his residential quarters, offices and even the planes in the official fleet for carrying out his official assignments. ‘’This President has said publicly that he does not give a damn. This administration has shown clearly that it does not believe in the rule of law. Therefore, it does not matter to the President or his administration what the civilised world thinks of the country, as long as he can have his way, using all

sorts of dirty tactics including unbridled corruption that is the hallmark of the administration. ‘’We are therefore calling on all concerned citizens to condemn what is happening in our country today before one desperate power monger brings the country crashing down on all of us.

“This is because even if the Jonathan administration is voted out of office next year, it will take a long time to reverse the harm that is being done to national institutions, which have become punitive tools in the hands of an increasingly despotic leader,’’ the party said

Tony AKOWE sponded positively to the aspirations and wishes of the people.

They said further that internal democracy is essential to the entrenchment of democracy, pointing out that the APC has set a standard, which all political parties should emulate.

The group also said that the move would go a long way to reinforce people’s confidence in the APC as the alternative platform for better change in Nigeria, stressing that internal democracy is about respecting all diverse interests within a political party to ensure fairness and transparency, which are necessary conditions for unity, harmony and internal cohesion.

The group ask all Atiku supporters and other APC members to mobilise their support behind this democratic decision of the APC national leadership, adding that the measure would strengthen the opposition party and make it even stronger.

•From left: Mr. Olalekan Garfar, Deputy Director, Lagos State Internal Revenue Services (LIRS), guest of honour; Chief Mac Dike, President, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), chairman of the occasion;and Adewuyi Josiah, Deputy Director, Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), at the National Universities Tax Debate Competition organised by the Tax Club Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos.

PHOTO: Rahman SANUSI

Reps Speaker sues PDP, Muazu, I-G, others •Continued from Page 3 He wants the court to grant an order of mandatory injunction compelling the IGP and AGF to restore to him, his security details and all other rights, benefits and opportunities appurtenant to members of and office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Speaker also seeks a declaration that the decisions or threatened decisions of all the defendants, except INEC, purporting or planning and or attempting to declare the seat of the 1st plaintiff in the 3rd defendant vacant as a member and Speaker thereof, is unlawful, unconstitutional and ultra vires the powers of the defendants Tambuwal wants a declaration that he remains a member and the Speaker of the 3 rd defendant until the expiration of his current term of office on June 5, 2015 notwithstanding his membership of APC unless he is removed in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

He also seeks a declaration that by virtue of the decisions of the court in the case of PDP and 1 other vs.

Honourable Rasak Atunwa and 20 others, suit No: FHC/IL/CS/ 6/2014 delivered on June 26, 2014 and the case of Ibrahim Magaji Gusau and 2 others vs Honourable Lawal Mohammed Zyyana and 20 others, suit No: FHC/S/CS/4/2014 delivered on July 3, 2014, and the fact of the 1st plaintiff’s membership of the New PDP that merged with the 2nd plaintiff, his membership of the APC is legal and constitutional within the purview of the Constitution.

He urged the court to further declare that since his membership of the APC is legal, he remains a member and Speaker of the House of Representatives until the expiration of his current tenure of office on June 5, 2015, unless he is removed in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

Tambuwal further seeks a declaration that the withdrawal or purported withdrawal of his security details at the prompting of the defendants, when he has not been removed from office as the Speaker and member of the House of Representatives is unlawful and unconstitutional.

He wants the court to hold

that the withdrawal of his security details amounts to an act of self-help and a fragrant violation of his constitutional rights to life and security, and constitutes a denial of the rights and privileges, perquisites associated

with and appertaining to his office as Speaker and member of the House.

In a separate suit filed by Dr. Tunji Abayomi on behalf of Tambuwal, Abayomi prays for a temporary order of court directing the return

of the security aides of the speaker pending the determination of the suit.

Abayomi also prays the court for an order restraining the defendants from interfering with the rights and privileges whatsoever at-

tached to the office of the Speaker pending the determination of the suit.

The two cases are yet to be assigned to a judge.

It's plot to eliminate Speaker, says El-Rufai •Continued from Page 2 tal Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, described the action of the IG as a plot by the Federal Government to kill Tambuwal.

This was as the first Executive Governor of the old Kaduna State, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa said the Police was acting President Goodluck Jonathan's script.

El-Rufai accused President Jonathan of masterminding the removal of Tambuwal's security aides, alleging that the Speaker was one of the targets of snipers being purportedly groomed by the President.

According to him, expresident Olusegun Obasanjo had in his open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan last year alleged

that the President was grooming snipers that would target some prominent Nigerians.

Warning that no harm must befall the Speaker, the former minister noted that it was irresponsible of the Inspector-General of Police and the Federal Government to have withdrawn the security details of the Speaker.

He argued that the withdrawal was done to pave way for the "killer squad" to exterminate the Speaker for defecting to the All Progressives Congress.

He described the removal of the Speaker's security details as part of the continuation of the Jonathan government's penchant for impunity.

The former Minister, however, reminded the government that impunity has limi-

tations, saying that the Nigerian government should learn from what happened in 'Burkina Faso' when the people were fed up with the government.

He said: "The withdrawal of Tambuwal's security aides is on the orders of President Goodluck Jonathan. The IG doesn't act that way. The President ordered the IG to order the removal. It is just the continuation of 'Jonathanian impunity'.

"This people have no respect for the law. They have no respect for rules. They think they are in power to abuse their control of coercive instruments of power, and we should warn them that impunity has limits. If anything happens to Tambuwal(Speaker), the whole world will hold them responsible.

"He (Speaker) was on the list of those to be wiped out by snipers. So, if anything happens to him, we know that it was done intentionally so that this will succeed.

"They should look across Burkina Faso and see what is happening when a government overstays its welcome or engages in wanton impunity. They should learn from history. I think it is very irresponsible on the part of IG and the government to do that."

Balarabe Musa said the Police were acting President Goodluck Jonathan's script, arguing that the Speaker is still entitled to all his aides, including security until members of the House remove him as their leader.

Balarabe Musa also faulted the police for interpreting the law, which he said was not their constitutional duty.

THE NATION

NEWS 5

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

Mubi occupation: Boko Haram kills district head As more jet fighters moved to liberate Mubi, Boko Haram yesterday killed Alhaji Dalailu Digil, the Acting District Head of Nasarau, who is also Barade Mubi.

The insurgents, who have hoisted their flag at the Palace of the Emir of Mubi, Alhaji Abubakar Isa Ahmadu, were also said to be hunting for the emirate chiefs.

But the Coalition of Mubi Women in Abuja has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to step up efforts to stop the wanton killing of innocent residents of their hometown.

‘Situation still tense’ According to a reliable source, the situation in Mubi was still dicey and tense yesterday.

Yusuf ALLI, Managing Editor, Northern Operation The source said: "The insurgents have held on to Mubi, but the troops were already advancing to liberate the town. More fighter jets were deployed by the military to pound the camps and cells of Boko Haram.

"But the sect members became daring when they waylaid and killed Barade Mubi, who was also the Acting District Head of Nasarau, Alhaji Dalailu Digil. The district head was on his way to Degel.

"We do not know why the sect had been after all emirate chiefs and district heads."

Responding to a question,

the source added: "Heavy fighting was in place in Mubi and there is assurance that the troops might recapture the town."

Jonathan told to contain insurgency The Coalition of Mubi Women in Abuja last night pleaded with President Goodluck Jonathan to end the siege to the town.

The group made the plea in a statement in Abuja, which was signed by Hajiya Aji Bello.

The statement said: "We are constrained to draw Mr. President's attention to the fluid security situation in Mubi and neighbouring towns and villages, after the security operatives in the area absconded giving room to Boko Haram el-

ements to overrun the entire area.

"It is unfortunate that fellow citizens are daily being turned into ‘refugees’ as the terrorists move from one community to another, mounting their flags and branding all such 'captured territories', including Mubi, a major commercial hub in the North-east, as extensions of their ‘caliphate’.

"For about two months now, Madagali, Michika and all their environs have been under the control of Boko Haram, and sadly the security forces are fully aware of this fact.

"It is really disheartening that at the moment, thousands of our aged parents as well as young brothers and sisters are missing due to the current state

of anarchy and uncertainty that has enveloped Mubi, Madagali, Michika and environs."

The coalition said there was no basis for Boko Haram to continue to undermine the nation's security.

The statement added: "We believe this is a clear affront to in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and an expression of the terrorists' contempt for our collective freedom as citizens to live in peace and harmony in our country.

"We, therefore, enjoin Mr. President to use his good offices to deploy adequate troops and provide them the enablement to contain this rising insur-

...attack, bad omen for Nigeria — Atiku

T

•Panelists: Isa Inuwa, Deputy Managing Director/CEO, Nigeria LNG (second left); Dada Thomas, CEO Frontier Oil limited (third left); Frank Umole, Executive Director, Oando Gas and Power (fourth left) and Dikko Atanu, Business Development Manager, Afren Nigeria ( fifth left). Isa, responding to a question posed by the session Chair, Osten Olorunsola, Chairman, Crestar Limited(L) during the West African Gas Conference organised by the Nigerian Gas Association in Abuja... yesterday

Expect fast train ride from Lagos to Abuja soon, says minister M INISTER of Trans port, Senator Idris Umar, has said that passenger train service from Lagos to Abuja would come on stream by 2015.

According to the minister, the train journey from Lagos to Abuja and vice versa would take only three hours, adding that the express train would stop over at only three stations before destination.

Umar, who stated this in Abuja yesterday while giving the account of stewardship by his ministry in the last three years, said the train service would be competing favourably with air transport service.

Stressing the importance of functional transportation system, the minister said: "The role of transportation in the

Gbade OGUNWALE, Assistant Editor, Abuja

socio-economic and political development of any nation cannot be over-emphasised as developments in all other sectors of the economy depend on the efficient performance of the transport system.

"Generally, the fundament goal of the transport sub-section under the transformation agenda is to develop an adequate, safe, environmentally sound, efficient and affordable, integrated transport system within the framework of a progressive and competitive national and international market economy".

Umar further stated that

rehabilitation of over 90 percent of existing narrow gauge lines throughout the country was ongoing, being the first segment of the 25-year railway strategic vision.

The minister said intra and inter city train services had since been restored in Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Ofa, Minna, Ibadan and others, adding that rail system targeted about five million passengers in 2014.

He listed companies patronising train cargo system for their products to include Flour Mills, Lafarge Cement, Inland Container Limited, Eastern Line Contractors, NRC and Connectrail Limited.

The transport minister revealed that the ministry worked within the framework of N50 billion budget in the 2014 fiscal year for railways alone, stressing that government had thought it wise to involve the private sector in the project.

To smoothen participation by the private sector in the rail and water transport system, Umar said four bills aimed at necessary reforms were being processed, for onward transmission to the National Assembly.

According to him, the bills include The Nigerian Railway Authority Bill, The Nigerian Ports and Harbour Authority Bill, The National Inland Waterways Authority Bill and the National Transport Commission Bill.

Ozolua seeks $800,000 for mobile surgery facility

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S part of efforts to pro vide free surgery to the less-privileged, founder of the Body Enhancement Foundation, Princess Modupe Ozolua, is seeking support to acquire a $800,000 mobile medical facility.

The mobile surgery unit that has two fully equipped theatre compartments is expected to provide medical supports to victims in rural areas.

Ozolua, while briefing media executives in Abuja during the week yesterday, noted that since inception, the foun-

Dele ANOFI, Abuja dation has restored lives of about 11, 000 people with various forms of deformity.

While she debunked insinuations that her kind gestures were motivated by political motives, Ozolua noted that her philanthropic activities became imperative considering the population of those who could not access expensive surgeries.

"The essence of acquiring this mobile surgical facility is because some of the hospitals are not well equipped to meet up with the need of the less-

privileged people in the country.

"We fly in medical experts from abroad to treat these victims. We have done it in Edo, we are doing it in Bayelsa next month and by January we will visit Kano. So we need supports from all the relevant stakeholders," Ozolua said.

On the possibility of future political ambition, Ozolua said politics was not in her nature.

"I am not a politician, and I am not interested in politics.

I have been doing this for years now.

"I don't have the intention of going into politics. Already I am serving my country in my own way and I am satisfied with that.

"It is not true to say politicians hijacked our event in Edo, but I want to say that we can not stop politicians who want to contribute to our cause, irrespective if their political affiliations.

"Everyone wants to identify with good causes, so we won't stop those that want to help our cause and our activities are not limited to any geopolitical zone", she said.

gency before it consumes the entire country", the women coalition urged.

The women said that they were forced to join the few voices of reason, following the seeming cavalier handling of the imminent threat to Nigeria's sovereignty by key stakeholders from Adamawa State, especially our representatives in the national and state assemblies.

"We pray and hope that Mr. President will heed our frantic calls as mothers and take the necessary steps that will nip in the bud, once and for all, the needless spate of killings and destruction by these misguided elements.

"We say: 'Enough is enough'."

HE former Vice Presi dent, Atiku Abubakar, has condemned the recent Boko Haram overrun of Mubi and the hoisting of their flag in Adamawa State’s second largest town, as a tragic act and a worrisome affront to the corporate integrity of Nigeria.

The Turaki Adamawa, who was abroad when the sordid incident took place in his home state on Wednesday, October 29, told a group of journalists on arrival yesterday that: “With what I have gathered so far from online news reports and other sources from Mubi town, the situation is very unfortunate and undermining for our country.”

The visibly angry statesman also said: “If the reports are true that the Armed Forces had abandoned their assigned duty posts a few days before the overrun, it was an indication that the attack was not sudden after all. If the soldiers also left behind their ammunition and armoured carriers at the mercy of predatory insurgents, it raises a question of complicity in the sordid episode."

He described as most unfortunate a situation where unsuspecting civilians who had relied on security agencies for their protection and were expecting an improvement in

their security status as a result of the announced ceasefire, were suddenly left defenceless at the mercy of the marauders.

Atiku, who said he was not a conspiracy theory convert, did not hesitate to frown on the undercurrent of connivance that might have fuelled the sudden retreat of the military in the face of imminent invasion of a vital commercial town, less than three hours away from Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

"No Commander-in-Chief or General that is worth his salt will surrender his territory with folded arms and running heels.

“On every occasion that leaders from the North East raised the alarm about the dangerous trend, we have either been ignored or called names.

“If there’s any iota of truth in the suspicion of the people that they were deliberately abandoned, then it becomes a dangerous trend and a bad omen for Nigeria and all Nigerians,” he said.

Meanwhile, the former Vice President said he was heading for Yola to meet with those managing the displaced people and see what assistance he could render to reduce the sufferings of the people.

APGA petitions police, INEC

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LL Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Lagos State chapter, has petitioned the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to avert a serious crisis in the state over the activities of some unscrupulous politicians parading themselves as APGA executives.

In the petition dated October 30 and copied INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) and APGA Vice National Chairman (South West), Alhaji Tayo Showunmi and jointly signed by Prince Adeshina Olayokun, APGA Chairman, Lagos State Chapter, and Barrister Sylvester Ezeani, state Legal Adviser, the party drew attention to what it described as illegal and malicious activities of some people who continuously parade themselves as APGA executives in Lagos State.

The party stated that this action was detrimental, and “it flies in the face of the au-

thentic APGA executives in Lagos State led by Prince Adeshina Olayokun and recognized by the national officers of the party in Abuja and south west.

The authentic APGA urged the Lagos State CP to use the weight of his office to investigate the matter with a view to removing all insignia of APGA i.e signboard, indicating another Lagos Chapter of APGA. In a statement, the party also alerted the general public to the deceitful and fraudulent activities of the self-styled executives.

While making reference to a publication in Sunday Newswatch of October 19, 2014 in which the National Vice Chairman of APGA, South West, Alhaji Tayo Showunmi disclaimed these people, the party warned the general public not to transact any business with them on behalf of the party, and that any relationship with APGA should be done at its Lagos office located at 95/ 129, Okota Road, Isolo, Lagos.

THE NATION

6 NEWS

SATURDAY,NOVEMBER 1, 2014

Burkina Faso’s president resigns B

URKINA Faso’s Presi dent Blaise Compaore has announced his resignation, following violent protests at his attempt to extend his 27-year rule.

Mr Compaore issued a statement saying the presidency was now vacant and urging elections within 90 days.

Military chief Gen Honore Traore said he had taken over as head of state “in line with constitutional measures”.

People jubilate

Crowds danced and cheered in the capital, Ouagadougou, after Mr Compaore’s resignation was broadcast.

On Thursday, protesters angry at his attempt to amend the constitution had set fire to parliament and government buildings.

Mr Compaore had earlier vowed to remain in power until a transitional government completed its work in 2015, although he had agreed not to seek another term.

However, the opposition continued to demand that he resign-a key leader, Zephirin Diabre, urged protesters to occupy public spaces.

After the resignation, Mr Diabre told an international

news agency: “We are all relieved by what is happening and this is our demand for so long, so we are very happy and we need to work on the transition to take care of our country.”

But a BBC reporter in Ouagadougou, says that many demonstrators see Gen Traore as too close to the ousted president-he was Blaise Compaore’s aide de camp-and not enough of a rupture with the past.

Mr. Compaore’s statement, read on television, said: “In order to preserve the democratic gains, as well as social peace, I declare a power vacuum to allow the establishment of a transition leading to free and fair elections within a maximum of 90 days.”

He added: “For my part, I think I have fulfilled my duty.”

However, agency report says a heavily armed convoy believed to be carrying Mr Compaore was travelling towards the southern town of Po. One protester said: “Blaise Compaore has gone away; he’s running away and we are happy. The words are not coming so easy because I’m very happy, my children are going to know another president.”

France welcomed the resignation, saying it “allows a solution to be found to the crisis”.

Traore takes over

In a statement, Gen Traore said: “In line with constitutional measures, and given the power vacuum... I will assume as of today my responsibilities as head of state.”

He added: “I undertake a solemn engagement to proceed without delay with consultations with all parties in the country so as to start the process of returning to the constitutional order as soon as pos-

T

D

Gbade OGUNWALE, Assistant Editor, Abuja were not available.

According to the National Organising Secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha, the only presidential nomination form available was meant for President Goodluck Jonathan.

Incidentally, Jonathan was at the party secretariat on Thursday afternoon to pick the form with fanfare.

Balewa said: "The PDP has decided to go so low as to deny a Nigerian and a party member the right to be voted for.

"When I got to the party secretariat on Tuesday, the party officials who were sup-

HE Federal Government has officially protested the stigmatization of the country over the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak.

The killer-virus was imported into the country by the late Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American in July, resulting in the death of seven people including the Liberian himself.

Nigeria was able to contain the spread of the virus, while at the same time treated over 12 others who had either primary or secondary contacts

posed to give me the form decided to be running in circles. At a point, the Financial Secretary barricaded his office, thereby preventing me to gain access to him.

"I went ahead to see the Treasurer who told me to take my case to the National Chairman, saying that the form had not been printed. I waited till Thursday only for them to give the from to President Jonathan, whereas I was the first to pay.

"I am going to do everything the Constitution allows me, including taking a legal action, to get the form. Already, I have started the process exploring available channels of communication available to the party to seek redress".

APC chieftain submits nomination form, calls for patriotism

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prominent member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a House of Representatives aspirant, Hon. Morufudeen Adeola Adefolabi, has submitted his Expression of Interest and Nomination forms.

Hon. Adefolabi, who represented the Ifako/Ijaiye/ Ojokoro Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011, was accompanied to submit the forms at the party secretariat in Ogba, Lagos by his supporters who all expressed confidence that the ex-lawmaker would be elected as a member of the House in 2015.

In an interview immediately after the submission, the APC chieftain said: "I am in the race to bring about a change in my constituency.

And this change would manifest as the improvement in the living standards of my people, development of my constituency, robust representation, creation of wealth and existence of other good things of life for all the residents of my constituency.

"I gave effective represen-

tation in many capacities before. I was a councillor, council executive secretary, local government chairman and the House of Representatives member. I performed with excellence in those offices.

The records are there, and my constituents are aware of my great accomplishments.

With modesty, I can say that I have a reputation for excellent representation."

His supporters, namely, Mr. Ayo Alaba-Ogunsanwo, Hon. David Olaniyi, Hon. Musibau Adeniyi and Mrs Mojisola Lawal spoke of Hon. Adefolabi in glowing terms.

Mr. Alaba -Ogunsanwo said: "Hon. Adefolabi is our man. He represented us well before. And it is our belief that he is going again to the House to give us good representation. He brought many projects to his constituency, and these are facilities we still enjoy till now. We believe in him. He will not disappoint us."

Hon. Olaniyi said: "As I speak, I am expressing the minds of the people of the Ifako/Ijaiye/Ojokoro Federal Constituency. Hon.

•Compaore

nomic orthodoxy prescribed by international financial institutions. But Burkina Faso did not escape the poverty trap. It remains one of the least developed countries in the world.

Ebola: Minister summons ambassadors over discrimination, stigmatization

Balewa's son threatens to sue PDP R. Abdul Jahlil, son of Nigeria's late Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, has threatened to sue the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for denying him the presidential nomination form of the party.

At a press briefing in Abuja yesterday, the younger Balewa said he would explore every existing channel of conflict resolution within the party to enable him obtain the form before resorting to the legal option.

Having paid the mandatory N22 million price tag for the nomination form, Balewa arrived at the national secretariat of the PDP on Tuesday, only to be told that the forms

sible.”

An army spokesman, Lt Col Isaac Zida, later told reporters the constitution had been suspended, but it was unclear whether he was speaking on behalf of Gen Traore.

Blaise Compaore was a young army officer when he seized power in 1987, a taciturn man who became known as Beau Blaise - good looking Blaise.

The nickname did not necessarily suggest he was popular.

Many blamed him for the death of his predecessor, the charismatic revolutionary Thomas

Sankara, who was killed by soldiers in mysterious circumstances.

Controversy would be a perpetual feature of Beau Blaise’s time in power. The president was accused of stoking rebellions around West Africa. Yet over time, Mr Compaore oversaw a transformation of his image, internationally at least. This inflammatory figure became a man relied upon to put out fire around the region.

Mr Compaore won a series of elections, though the opposition always complained the odds were stacked dramatically in his favour.

He largely followed the eco-

Adefolabi is a man of the people. He listens. He is accessible and God-fearing. He loves all, both the rich and the poor. This is the kind of person we want as a representative in our constituency.

He is ready to sacrifice his comfort for people."

Hon. Adeniyi said: "The elders are in support of Hon. Adefolabi. The youths are for him. All our women are solidly behind him. We all support him because of what he has done for his people before. He will do it again. We repose much confidence in him".

Mrs Lawal said: "I am a widow. My husband died many years ago. Hon. Adefolabi has been taking care of my children financially since then. As he helps me, he treats others in my shoes similarly. All widows and widowers are in his support. All women will vote for him. He is a good-natured person."

Earlier, Hon Adefolabi called on Nigerian leaders to be patriotic in all their activities because, according to him, "this is a catalyst for development."

Vincent IKUOMOLA, Abuja with the index (Sawyer).

On October 20, the World Health Organization (WHO) gave Nigeria a clean bill of health.

But the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali, noted that despite this, countries still discriminate against Nigerians, a situation he strongly frowned against warning that such profiling of the country will not be acceptable.

The minister listed China, Turkey, Ukraine, South Africa among the sixteen countries discriminating against Nigeria.

Others are Bahrain, Cameroun, Egypt, HongKong, Cote d'voire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cuba, Kuwait, Qater, Sri Lanka, Zambia, United Arab Emirates, South Sudan, Seychelles, Mauritania and Sao Tome &Principe and Namibia.

The minister said: It is dis-

appointing that inspite of the decisive measures taken by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the subsequent positive declaration by the WHO, some countries have regrettably chosen to flout the WHO rules on the virus by adopting deliberate policies of stigmatization and discrimination against Nigerians simply because we were unfortunately exposed to the virus.

"I will like to make it categorically clear that the continued discrimination and profiling of Nigeria is not acceptable to the government and people of Nigeria. Since the index case was brought to Nigeria, we have received unpleasant reports from a number of otherwise friendly countries targeting and discriminating against our nationals."

He added: "Indeed, rather than institute discriminatory practices, the international community should increase

assistance to countries afflicted with the deadly Ebola Virus, with practical solutions to the problem that is beginning to respect no boundary."

He further assured the gathering that Nigeria would continue to assist the affected countries and also share experience on the successful control of the virus with the rest of the world.

The minister also warned the diplomatic corps against middling in the internal issues of the country, stressing "I avail myself of this medium to inform you that the Federal Government has also noted with deep concern that some heads of mission are in the habit of making inflammatory and reckless statements against the government on matters of domestic policy."

This, he said, “is an unacceptable interference in Nigeria's internal affairs.

Such envoys are advised to respect the sensitivity of Nigerians.”

THE NATION

NEWS 7

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

M

ANY people were feared dead as mul tiple explosions rocked Gombe, the capital of Gombe State, yesterday.

The explosions occurred at a time that palpable tension was gradually giving way to some calm.

Checks carried out by our correspondent at some hospitals around the city revealed that eight people had died in the explosion, while about 30 others secured various degrees of injury.

The explosion occurred at the Gombe State Transport Corporation (Gombe Line) at about 9:40 am, after the usual morning rush.

The Medical Director,

Bomb blasts rock Gombe •Many feared dead, three arrested •Violence not solution, Dankwabo tells insurgents Vincent OHONBAMU, Gombe

Gombe Specialist Hospital, Dr. Reuben Ardo, said that eight people were brought into the hospital dead, while some others in critical conditions were being attended to.

He said a few others who sustained minor injuries had been treated and discharged.

At the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH), the Head of

Department, Accident and Emergency, Dr. Saleh Adamu, confirmed that a victim was brought in dead, while eight others were injured, including one in the operation theatre.

A resident, who identified himself as Bello Sule, said a lot of the victims had been conveyed to various hospitals in the city at the time of visit.

He called on government to expedite action on ending the activities of the insurgents, even as he called on them to embrace dialogue and press their demands with human face.

A newspaper distributor in Gombe, who identified himself simply as Joshua, said he barely escaped the explosion as he had just left the motor

The former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi (second right), with Bishop Jude Ayodeji Arogundade of Ondo State (first right) and Archbishop Joseph Ekwem of Calabar(first left) being presented, on behalf of Catholic Bishops of Nigeria with an award for his Outstanding and Significant Contribution to Education in Nigeria by Archbishop Anthony Obinna of Owerri (second left) at the second Catholic Education Summit at the National Centre for Women Development, Abuja...yesterday

BBOG shocked at increased insurgency since ‘ceasefire’ MEMBERS of the #BringBackOurGirls advocacy have expressed shock at the increased number of attacks by Boko Haram in the Northeast and Mubi Local Government Area of Adamawa State. #BBOG said that it is gravely disturbed that the insurgency seems to be engulfing more cities after the Federal Government confidently announced a ceasefire.

The group, which commiserated with all Nigerians that have lost family and friends to the Mubi attacks, said that they fiercely hope and demand that the Federal Government moves immediately to restore the territorial integrity of Nigeria in the coming days. #BBOG stated this in a press statement signed by former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, and the group’s convener, Hadiza Usman, marking 200 days of the abduction of the Chibok girls, who were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok.

It stated,: “We wish to ex-

Grace OBIKE, Abuja

press our commiserations with all Nigerians who may have lost dear relations or friends in the Mubi Local Government Area of Adamawa State and the neighbouring communities as the towns and villages in the zone came under heavy and horrendous assaults from the Boko Haram insurgents in the last few days.

“We are shocked and gravely perturbed that the insurgency seems to be engulfing more cities within the North-East zone even at a time the Federal Government confidently announced a ceasefire in its counter terrorism war. It is extremely worrisome that the rampaging terrorists are carrying out this carnage in Mubi and other parts of the North East less than two weeks after the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Bardeh, publicly conveyed a stand down instruction to our troops prosecuting the war.

“We, like most Nigerians, are at a loss on what the latest development means to our

counter insurgency war and the safety of our citizens and territory. Has the purported 'ceasefire' failed, in the assessment of our military and the Federal Government?

What explains the gruesome reality that after the "ceasefire" announcement of October 16, the terrorists have been attacking many more communities, especially in Borno and Adamawa states? How do we explain the escalation in the number of innocent people killed or taken hostage after they had been informed by our government of a truce and détente?

“Our movement is privy to several on-the-scene reports of the bloody and horrendous attacks on Mubi as told by affected persons. For example, the family of two of our abducted #ChibokGirls were involved in an accident earlier today in which two of their daughters sustained injuries while fleeing Mubi.

Another case concerns a member of our movement who has lost contact with about thirty members of his nuclear and extended fami-

lies that were resident in Mubi. Even more heart wrenching are confirmed reports of Internally Displaced Persons camped in Mubi town who are yet again on the run now, unsure of destinations to find safety.

“While we continue to fiercely hope, we demand that the Federal Government moves immediately to restore the territorial integrity of Nigeria in the coming days. We also demand that the worsening humanitarian conditions of all Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) be immediately addressed and their suffering ameliorated.

Lastly, we cannot but remind our Federal Government and our President that time is running out fast on the Rescue Plans for our 219 Chibok Girls. Since the confident announcement was made that our girls would be brought back two weeks ago, a number of their agonizing parents were hospitalized for hypertension. We must by all means avoid any situation that would be fatal for these long suffering families of our Chibok Girls.”

park where he went to send unsold copies of a magazine when the explosions occurred.

Confirming the incident, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Kudu Abdullahi Nma, said the improvised explosive devices were transported into the motor park in a 10-seater mini bus with Yobe Line inscribed on it.

He said the vehicle was driven into the Gombe Line motor park unchecked and it offloaded the improvised explosive device (IED), which later exploded, killed and injured a lot of people in the process.

Three suspects were said to have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo appealed to the perpetrators of the blasts to consider the anguish the victims were going through and have a rethink over their actions.

The Governor spoke yesterday evening at the Federal Teaching Hospital after visiting the scene of the blasts and the State Specialist Hospital where survivors were receiving treatment.

It was learnt the governor immediately flew in from Abuja on receiving the news of the blasts.

He said: “It is important again to call on the perpetrators of this act to come to the hospital and see the conditions of these people; they are in pains while some have lost their loved ones.

“Violence is not the solution to solving any grievances. I am sure the President is ready to discuss any kind of issues and address them.

We are ready to listen. We are ready to take the interest of everybody and we are ready to proffer solutions.”

He said the government would take care of the medical bills and support the families of the victims.

“We will provide some

kind of support to their families while they are in hospital. For those that have died, we will take care of their burial expenses and take care of certain family responsibilities.

“I call on our people to continue to pray as no situation surpasses God. We will all one day go back to our father, the creator of heaven and earth. We pray for peace, stability and unity of our people and country”, he said.

The Governor also called on the people to always be vigilant, observant and be very patient while avoiding rumour and hearsay as these could complicate the problems.

“It is an unfortunate situation. It is so sad that this is happening. The only thing we can do is to pray to God Almighty to help us see the end of it,” said the Chief of Staff, Government House, Gombe, Alhaji Ahmed Yayari.

He described the incident as “very sad one designed to test our faith. We will take up the test.”

He added: “It is quite sad, and government is doing everything possible to see that it averts this kind of situation. The people of Gombe have also been prayerful all through to see that we don’t witness this kind of thing.

But whatever we do is a test of our faith and we will take up this test.

“What we can only do is to pray for the soul of the departed. We that are surviving, we pray that this is the last of this kind of incident we will see.

“Gombe has been one of the most peaceful states, not only in the Northeast, but in the country at large, and government and the governor are trying as much as possible.”

The Chief of Staff, who spoke at the Specialist Hospital, said: “So far, I have seen eight dead bodies, and I have seen a lot of injured people. It is quite sad.”

The Deputy Governor, Mr. Jason Tha’anda Rubainu, was also at the hospitals with some top government functionaries on visits to the victims.

Boko Haram leader, Shekau denies peace talks with FG

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EADER of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, has denied any involvement in peace talks with the Federal Government.

His denial was contained in a video released by the sect yesterday. The video claimed that the 219 secondary school girls abducted from Chibok, Borno State, by the sect in April had “long been married out.”

He also denied knowledge of Danladi Adamu, who is parading himself as the Secretary General of the sect and holding talks with the Federal Government in Chad.

"We don't know that impostor called Danladi Adamu. We have never asked him or his type to speak for us because in this war, ther is no going back," Shekau said.

On the Chibok girls, he said: "The issue of the Chibok girls is long forgotten because

Joel DUKU

I have married them out long ago."

The video, which was done in Hausa,has vindicated many Nigerians who have expressed doubt over the authenticity of the FG/ Boko Haram truce.

The Defence Headquarters had about two weeks ago claimed that it had struck a ceasefire agreement with the sect after a meeting in Saudi Arabia.

It also claimed that negotiations with the sect would continue in Chad Republic early this week.

Not a few people, however, doubted the claim, particularly because the sect struck in some Borno and Adamawa vilages, killing scores of people.

The military authorities could not be reached for comments at press time late last night.

8

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

NEWS

Cynthia: We were engaged to be married, suspect alleges A Lagos High Court, Igbosere, yesterday heard that Facebook lover, Cynthia Osokogu, was engaged to her alleged murderer, Okwumo Nwabufo, before she was killed.

Nwabufo, who is the first defendant in the trial of the suspected killers of the undergraduate, told the Justice Olabisi Akinladepresided court that he and the deceased were lovers.

The court also heard that the prime suspect paid the deceased a visit when he visited Abuja and invited her to the hotel� he lodged in Bwari (Satellite Suite Hotel).

Other defendants in the trial are Olisaeloka Ezike, 24; Orji Osita, 33 and Nonso Ezike.

Led in evidence by his lawyer, Chris Opara, Nwabufo told the court that they were about to get married, adding that they did not meet on Facebook as reported.

The defendant claimed that he

n Precious IGBONWELUNDU n

met Osokogu at Shoprite Lekki in 2011 while he went shopping, stating that after they introduced themselves, they exchanged contact details.

Nwabufo, who told the court he was a car dealer and undergraduate at the University of Lagos, alleged that from their first meeting, they became very close.

"The late Cynthia was my girlfriend. We were close the way lovers are before they get married.

"She visited me often in Lagos and she has been to my house up to five times. I have been very helpful to her doing everything a boyfriend can do to his girlfriend like monetary support, moral support and advising her always.

"I promised her that I will marry her and she accepted, but told me it is still early that I should wait till Christmas when I will visit her parents in Delta state.

"Everything about us was going well till the day I heard about her death. I was so devastated, but the police did not give me chance to express my feelings and they made me look like a murderer," said Nwabufo.

Continuing, the defendant said the deceased had earlier sent her blackberry phone to him so he can sell it, adding that he received a call from her on July 21, 2012, notifying him that she will be at Cosmilla Hotel, Festac Town, La�gos, the following day."She had earlier sent a BlackBerry phone for me to fix. I asked what was the problem with the phone and she said most items on it wipe out easily. I gave it to my second cousin, Chidera, the second defendant, to assist me in giving it to a repairer because I am busy.

"When the phone was ok I called my girlfriend and she said people were telling her that once a Black Berry has issues, the best thing is to sell it. So, she asked me to sell it

if I can get a buyer. That was how I asked my second cousin, who is the second defendant, to sell and give me the money. So, when they sold it for N40,000, he gave me the money," he alleged.

With the N40, 000 in his possession and excited to see his lover, Nwabufo alleged that he went to the hotel and asked to see her, but did not know her room number.

"I tried calling her phones, but it wasn't connecting. I pleaded with the receptionist to please check the name on their guests’ list. The receptionist said there was no such name and I was confused and asked if there was another Hotel around or if they have a branch around, but she said there was no other hotel.

"I was still worried over why her phone was off. So, I and the second defendant started dialing the number, trying to reach her. At a point, I got tired and decided to call the hotel.

30-man gang attack bank in Ekiti •Banks forced into early closure 30-man gang of daredevil armed robbers yesterday besieged the Ifaki-Ekiti, Ekiti State branch of a first generation bank, allegedly injuring one person whose identity could not be immediately ascertained.

It was, however, not clear whether the armed robbers gained entry into the bank.

According to reports, the robbers, who reportedly came on motorcycles around 11:30 am, made for the only police post in the town, where at-

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n Sulaiman SALAWUDEEN, n Ado-Ekiti

tempts to attack the station were also repelled by vigilant officers on duty.

The Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti police command, Mr Victor Babayemi, in an interaction with journalists in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, said the robbers shot sporadically into the air, injuring a bank official who had been taken to an undisclosed hospital in the state.

Meanwhile, banks across the state hurriedly shut their gates on customers as early 12 noon, while commercial activities around places like the Adebayo area of the capital stood still for nearly two hours.

The source said motorists coming from Ido Ekiti were forced to make a detour through Osi-Awo road, while those coming into Ado through Oye-Ifaki road had to turn back.

According to the PPRO, police officers repelled the robbers while attempting to overrun the police post in the town, adding, “The Commissioner of Police, Mr Taiwo Lakanu quickly drafted his men to the town. They engaged the robbers in a gun duel and botched the operation."

Speaking further, he said: "Though they wanted to overrun the station, but we repelled them. When they knew that we were gaining an upper hand, because we succeeded in putting them in disarray, they fled into the bush and as I am talking to you, our men are on their trail.”

Reacting to the early closure of the banks in the state capital, Babayemi said, “They can only rob in the rural area because of the tight security network we have on ground in Ado Ekiti. So, banks in Ado Ekiti can operate without fear.”

"We used the second defendant's number and I told him to ask if they had seen her. But the only time I reached her again, I was surprised to hear that she had an accident and that she was at Rabiu Hospital in Abuja," he claimed.

Nwabufo, said after a long search for the deceased, he was sad and at some point thought she did not come to Lagos or that she was sick.

He described the deceased as a very nice and truthful lady�.

Under cross examination, led by the Lagos State Attorney General, Ade Ipaye, Nwabufo claimed he could not remember anything in the statement he made at the police station.

He claimed he does not have a facebook account and so could not have met the deceased on that medium.

The matter has been fixed for December 12 for continuation.

2015: Opeifa denies governorship ambition HE Lagos State Commissioner for Transport, Kayode Opeifa, has distanced himself from an alleged plan to run for the office of the governor of the state next year.

Opeifa, in a statement, tagged ‘APC my principal’, reacted to rumours making the round across the state that a group of friends procured the party’s nomination form for him to contest the governorship election.

The statement read: “My attention has been drawn to the action of some of my friends to procure on my behalf, nomination forms for the post of Governorship of Lagos State on the platform of our Great Party, the All Progressive Congress (APC).

“While appreciating this gesture, I am profoundly grateful for their holding me in high esteem.

“I humbly wish to� categorically state that as a product of our collective struggle, I am in full agreement with the position of the party leadership and strongly believe in the supremacy of the party.

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Ondo PDP caretaker committee takes off HE caretaker committee of the Peoples' Democratic Party in Ondo State on Friday commenced work with a courtesy visit to the state Police Commissioner, Issac Eke, at the Akure Command Headquarters with a promise to hold an all-inclusive consultative forum for members of the party.

The committee Chairman, Hon. Dare Adeleke, who dropped the hint while meeting with the Commissioner of Police, said the forum is to consolidate on the gains recorded so far in resolving all differences following recent developments in the state chapter of the party.

He said whatever remained of the differences within the ranks of the PDP would be resolved amicably as a united family within a month.

Adeleke said his committee was in the commissioner's office to thank him for his support in maintaining peace in the party and to solicit for more assistance, stressing that the unity of the party is paramount.

Hon Adeleke also lauded all the reconciliatory moves of Governor Mimiko , stressing that his Committee will consolidate on this to achieve success in its task.

"Governor Mimiko, to us in PDP represents a true leader and we will consolidate on his antecedents to ensure Ondo PDP remains one," Adeleke Said.

In his response, the police commissioner restated the commitment of the command to zero tolerance for the breakdown of law and order, as well as maintain peace in the party and state. He urged the committee to be magnanimous in its task and carry along all interests.

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Onigbongbo Day kicks-off Nov 4 RRANGEMENTS have been concluded for the 2014 edition of the Onigbongbo Day celebration.

According to the programme of events, the monarch, His Royal Majesty, Oba Munirudeen Olatunji Yusuf and his chiefs will kick-off the celebration on Tuesday, November 4.

The celebration will be rounded off with the grand finale on November 9.

While speaking with news-

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men on the preparation for the event, the Oloriebi Ilu Obi and Aremo of Onigbongbo, Hon. Wakilu Sadiq, said: “Activities lined up for the celebration are: the worship of gods and goddess, football match, seminars on skill acquisition, motivational talks, masquerades’ outings, environmental sanitation, installation of chiefs, Jumat service, beauty contest/fashion parade and thanksgiving services.”

2015: ACPN releases timetable HE Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) has released its timetable for the 2015 general elections.

In a communiqué issued at the end of its meeting in Abuja, the spokesman of the party, Prince Babatunde Sarumi, said:” The National Executive Committee (NEC) of our great

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n Kunle AKINRINADE n

party reaffirms its confidence in the leadership of our National Chairman, Engr. Olu Okunrinboye and urged him to remain focus. The NEC has also approved the introduction of a national data base for accurate record of party members.

“NEC directed old members

to meet their financial obligation upon which their membership cards would be renewed from November 1 to November 14, while those who wish to join the party are enjoined to visit ward, local government and state headquarters of the party across the federation. “

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

COMMENTARY 9

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We have looked so far to France so that we can see our position on the ground at home very clearly over the management of the Boko Haram horror and the peaceful conduct of our coming elections

Global security, insurgency and elections read with concern and great interest the news of the assurance that Senate President David Mark gave to a delegation of the EU that Nigeria will come out of the present Boko Haram insurgency stronger and that our 2015 elections will be fairer because our institutions are better and Nigerians have become used to the processes of democracy. That really is how leaders should talk to strangers who can be of help on various issues in and outside the nation especially on the simple matter that we can still not find the over 200 missing Chibok girls even as the ruling party, the PDP gave a blank cheque to the president to be its sole candidate in the 2015 elections.

Just as it also endorsed its first time governors with automatic tickets for the governorship elections of 2015.

Obviously to our distinguished Senate President, the ruling party, and the President of the Republic, insurgency and elections are mutually exclusive issues. Which means that they are independent of each other. Or that one can do without the other That really is where I beg to disagree - and saying how and why I do this, is the kernel of discussion today.

I have no doubt in my mind that the Senate President, the ruling party and especially President Goodluck Jonathan must have a robust political strategy for containing the Boko Haram insurgency and conducting a hitch free, rigging free elections through INEC in 2015. I do not for now expect them or the PDP to divulge such a strategy so as not to give ammunition to the Opposition to attack or subvert it. But then I want to share with them some knowledge and theories on the principle of Strategic Management, beginning with a basic definition of a strategy. The definition says that a strategy is a plan, a pattern, a perspective, a position and a ploy and that a strategy is inseparable from its environment. It is to these five Ps of Strategy that I want the leadership of the ruling Party to address their great minds to see if they know what they are doing in steering our ship of state in the direction that says clearly that global security, our insurgency and the coming 2015 elections can exist in isolation of each other. On my part I will show here, with examples of events and global news, this last week, why I think they should not go in this direction as it is very dangerous.

Given the state of our insurgency and the fact that the Boko Haram has reportedly seized Mubi where I served as a youth corp while the government was said to be negotiating the release of the over 200 abducted Chibok girls with expectation rising over their release this week, one could say that there was nothing cheerful about this insurgency and our management of it, at least on our own soil. But worse news came from abroad, from France to be precise, to show that global security is being

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threatened and the threat is really not far from hitting our shores very soon, if care is not taken. The news is that drones have been buzzing or circling the nuclear facilities, at least five of them, that provide 75% of the electricity that France uses. Drones are unmanned aircraft and the French government - owned EDF France at first thought that Greenpeace the anti nuclear, pro environment, global institution was responsible but Greenpeace has vehemently denied this claiming that it is transparent in all its activities and accusing the French authorities of negligence on the matter. The buzzing have been reported between October 5 and 20 but EDF said that the drones were of little sizes available commercially and have little security threat. The French government has nevertheless started inquiries on the sighting of the buzzing.

Which really is commendable when you realise that drones are the effective weapons being used in Afghanistan and Pakistan against terrorist groups such as Taliban and Al Qada and are an integral part of the air strikes against Islamic State in Syria, Iraq and Kobani. I find the way Greenpeace has reacted fascinating, proactive and thoughtful. Greenpeace saw the security implications of the buzzing clearly and the possibility or potential of its being wrongly given a bad name in order to hang it, if something nasty happens later, given its well known stance against the use of nuclear power to generate electricity anywhere in the world because of its harmful effect on the environment. In blaming EDF so clearly and pointedly, Greenpeace was also salvaging its image that it is not a terrorist organisation in its quest to preserve the environment globally. Anyway the French government has launched an inquiry into EDF negligence on the drone buzzing of the French nuclear facilities.

The implications of a blow up of French nuclear facilities which supply almost all its electricity and power is better imagined than stated here but are nevertheless of concern to us today. This enables us to look far and beyond the nuclear facility buzzing in France itself and to see role of France especially in the war against terrorism in Francophone Africa and the Sahel which the North East of Nigeria belongs and which is where the Boko Haram is creating caliphates with impunity. In a world in which a Malaysian aircraft carrying over 200 people can literally disappear from the skies and not be found till now, in spite all the modern technology available, the drone buzzing of the nuclear facilities in France should not be casually dismissed like the French power authorities did. Similarly the fact that the over 200 Chibok girls are still missing should make us ponder on any strange happenings in our global environment.

This is especially pertinent and relevant, given France’s role in saving Mali from the Tuaregs and Islamist militants who invaded that nation and providing stability while ECOWAS leaders were not sure of what to do to save Mali at the

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time. It is also significant that France still maintains close ties with its former colonies of which three of them Niger, Chad and Cameroon share borders with our troubled North East.

Indeed the news that the Chibok girls were to be freed this week centred on negotiations going on reportedly brokered by the President of Niger Republic in the capital, Niamey. It therefore goes without saying that France is a legitimate and potential target from the perspective of Boko Haram and their foreign partners and sponsors for an attack, indeed any attack, especially one that can cripple its electricity supply and wipe its people off the face of the earth with nuclear bombast from hostile drones. When and if that happens to France, there is no doubt that it will put its extra territorial concern for Islamist terrorists at bay and put its house in order first as no one goes to sleep while its house is on fire. Which definitely will give Boko Haram a free rein to establish more caliphates in our North East to strengthen the saying that when the cat is not at home mice will play.

We have looked so far to France so that we can see our position on the ground at home very clearly over the management of the Boko Haram horror and the peaceful conduct of our coming elections. So far I have illustrated strategy as a plan, a pattern, a perspective and a position using France’s EDF, Greenpeace and France’s role on terrorism in Africa as convenient signposts. Now I want to use our leadership role in managing both Boko Haram and the 2015 elections as a ploy to give Nigerians peace of mind in making a success of both. To me the recipe is clear and that is to carry the fight to Boko Haram and finish it off before the elections. Aggression is needed in this regard both on the political terrain and the military front. All hands need to be on board including the opposition looking to wrest power from the ruling Party as a conducive environment is needed if the competition for power is to be on a level playing field. Definitely the government cannot do it alone.

I recommend therefore, the strategy of the Israelis in the 1967 Six Days War with the Arabs. According to Moshe Dayan the famous Israeli war strategist, attack was the best form of defence. According to Moshe Dayan - ‘We had aggression flowing in our veins and blood. The Israeli air force pre emptively attacked the Egyptian air planes on the ground and crippled them successfully to win the war in just six days.

Why can we not do the same in Six days to Boko Haram?

This is really what we need to do to really believe what the Senate President told the visiting EU delegation on our insurgency and elections. This is no wishful thinking . This is what the President and Commander in Chief should order his troops to do, to justify his not paying a kobo to get the form to contest for his party, while giving all of us a run for our money in terms of patience and security over the insurgency and the coming elections.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

COMMENTARY

So, who is gloating over Tambuwal's defection?

I Knucklehead

T is understandable if the outfoxed foxes in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party chew their anger in loud silence as they rue the day they allowed a relatively unassuming Hon. Aminu Tambuwal to plot his way into the highly influential seat of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. If Knucklehead's memory is not fading, Tambuwal's emergence as Nigeria's Number 4 citizen in the 7th Assembly was anything but smooth. It was neither accidental, even though providence had a lot to do with it.

The powerful forces in the PDP had anointed a woman candidate from the South-West, Hon. Adeola Akande (the current Majority Leader), to be crowned as Speaker. It was meant to be a fait accompli as Akande is said to be the favoured choice of former President Olusegun Obasanjo following the failure of former Speaker Dimeji Bankole to make it back to the House. It was clear then that, without the cooperation of the lawmakers from the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change in the Green Chamber, it would have been practically impossible for the PDP to foist a leadership on the members. Tambuwal and his deputy, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha rode on the crest of their popularity, political suaveness and general acceptability to win their positions. Therefore, it is safe to presume that they rode on the back of the tiger, to assume power.

Perhaps, if the leadership of the ruling party had been tactful in handling the dicey situation that the emergence of the Tambuwal leadership threw up in the House, it would not be mourning today, over the loss of one of its leading members to a reinvigorated opposition party. The leadership was too fixated on kicking Tambuwal out of his seat by any means possible that it completely forgot to weigh the implications of burning its fingers at the end. Now, all the political filibustering has come back to haunt the same set of people that ignited the fire of hatred in the first place.

Question is: why is the executive always jittery of an independent legislature in Nigeria? The answer, we all know, is not rocket science. We are far gone in our brand of prebendal politics to appreciate that democracy cannot thrive unless we chose to live by its ethos. It was not as if there were no opportunities to close ranks and forge forward in the interest of the nation. Those who think the executive and legislature would operate a headmaster/pupil relationship just could not stomach the 'excesses' of what they termed an ‘overreaching’ House of Representatives that calls to question the action of the Presidency and its hangers-on. They forget easily that there is nothing in our laws, even as amended, that ties the legislature to the apron strings of whoever occupies the seat in Aso Rock. And the same applies for the charade going on in the states where state assembly members line up to drink pap as crumbs off the table of state chief executives. This sacrilege, I confess, has gone on for far too long that it has become part of our democratic process. Pity.

Then, you ask: why the fret over Tambuwal's defection to a party that the PDP has pronounced as being dead on arrival and lacking the simple basics of internal democracy? Maybe the ruling party is afraid of the monster it created. It is in a desperate race to escape its shadows. Unfortunately, a man has to die with his shadows. This time, this behemoth has left the sore legs of the remains of a late soul hanging menacingly in the cemetery. So Chief Bode George, of all persons, could stand before a national television and pontificate about the need for Tambuwal to resign as Speaker on the warped illogic that a lawmaker from the majority party should occupy the position? Where was George when a legislator from a minority party occupied the same position in this country? Where was he when, in spite of the full deployment of state powers, Tambuwal emerged as the populist Speaker of the 7th Assembly? Moreover, where is the law that says he must step down as Speaker when dozens of lawmakers had defected to different parties without losing any of the privileges? In addition, by the way, is George morally qualified to vomit such atrocious gibberish about someone who has piloted the affairs of the House of Representatives without any blemish for more than three years?

With

Yomi Odunuga E-mail:yomi.odunuga @thenationonlineng.net SMS only: 07028006913 While Bode George was whining on the television, the party’s hollow gong, Chief Olisa Metuh, was busy drafting the dumbest statement ever issued from Wadata House. Hear him: “After a thorough consideration of the matter (Tambuwal’s defection), the National Working Committee came to a conclusion that the Honourable Speaker, as a responsible elected officer, knows full well what is needful and honourable of him since his new party is in the minority. We are not unmindful of the fact that Hon. Tambuwal became Speaker on the platform of the PDP as the political party with majority of seats in House of Representatives and this incontrovertible fact has not changed.”

You know, there is something about selective amnesia that makes this town crier an object of pity. So Metuh, of all persons, could use such elevated language to persuade Tambuwal to do the ‘needful?’ He could appeal to the conscience of the Speaker and boast about who is in control of majority seats in the National Assembly! Is this not the same Metuh that was beating about the bush when asked to justify why his party of self-crowned apostles of internal democracy, printed only one set of Nomination and Expression of Interest forms to pave the way for a single candidate amidst a throng of presidential aspirants? And if the PDP controls majority seats as claimed by Metuh, why can’t it command same members to begin a process that would lead to a kangaroo impeachment of Tambuwal? Could it be that the party is not sure of forming a quorum or getting the appropriate number of lawmakers that could lead to a smooth change of leadership in the House? If the PDP could not foist a leadership on the House at a time when it thought it was fully in charge, how does it hope to muster the number to force the will of the executive on the House now? I just hope any of sulking band of presidential apologists can answer these questions.

Let me make one thing clear. This is not just about the morality of Tambuwal’s defection. It is more about the charade we call politics here. Didn’t someone say what is sauce for the goose should also be sauce for the gander? It would be apt if Metuh and his cotravellers in the PDP could define the forms and shapes of what it means to “do the needful”. When Governor Olusegun Mimiko defected to the PDP after appropriating the governorship seat in Ondo State on the platform of the Labour Party for more than six years, did Metuh ask him to vacate his position? Did any of the lawmakers that jumped ship with Mimiko lose their seats? Has there been a change of leadership in the structures of governance in Ondo State up till now? Is there any Senator or House of Representatives member that has been removed or recalled on the excuse that he defected to the ruling party?

I almost cried blue murder when I learnt that Governor Godswill Akpabio ranted on and on about the need for Tambuwal to vacate his seat as a man of honour and integrity. By the way, Akpabio, who doubles as the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, is one of the problems with Nigeria.

Sometimes, he places too much importance on himself and his much--vaunted uncommon transformation of the state that chokes from his stranglehold. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a desire to play politics at the national level. It is just that

Akpabio’s tactics are pedestrian, insipidly repulsive, queer and utterly despicable. If every other state chief executive talks recklessly like Akpabio regularly does, this country would have been set ablaze by now. Here was a man who has turned his state into a theatre of the absurd in a convoluted effort to impose his anointed candidate on the party in addition to grabbing, by hook and crook, a Senatorial ticket, ordering Tambuwal to display integrity by vacating his seat. Anyway, I have always suspected that the words, “honour and integrity”, do have malleable characteristics in the minds of not-so-scrupulous politicians whose manipulative interpretations seem to have originated a jejune Nigerian lexicon of Political Acrobatics.

Instead of practically living his life in Abuja to genuflect before The Presidency, Akpabio would serve the people of his state better if he practices what he preaches. How much of internal democracy does he allow in Akwa-Ibom State where he reigns like one drunken oil Sheik with lots of money to throw around?

Why has the ruling party, under his watch, witnessed a worrisome opprobrium to the point that the leading lights in the state hierarchy have threatened to pull out if his reign of terror continues unchecked by Abuja? What defence does Akpabio have against the allegations by a former Governor of the state, Obong Victor Attah, that his 7-year reign has scripted “an uncommon hunger, anger and tension” in the consciousness of the people of Akwa-Ibom? What kind of integrity can he lay claim to, when his blood brother is said to be the Secretary of the PDP in the state?

Why can’t physician Akpabio, who readily embraces anyone that defects to the PDP, heal himself now? Why can’t he remove the log in his eyes before seeing the speck in another?

However, in all this, the most inexcusable blunder over the Tambuwal matter came directly from the Office of the Inspector General of the Police, Suleiman Abba, who, in one moment of outright idiocy, defended the immediate withdrawal of the Speaker’s security aides on the tendentious excuse of his defection to the APC. If there were any prize for dishonour, Abba would be the undisputed winner! To support his gloating over a matter that the police should not have interfered in, Abba said: "In view of the recent defection by the Right Honourable Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Having regard to the clear provision of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has redeployed its personnel attached to his office".

Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria outlines how a member of the Senate or the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat. Specifically, it states thus: “being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which he is elected, provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”

Now, when did Nigeria Police become such an arbitrary and obviously biased interpreter of our laws? No doubt, while serving known interests other than that of taxpayers, it has acted as accuser and jury in this matter! Besides, will anyone argue that the ruling party has remained a cohesive whole within which no factions exist now or, even when the New PDP commanded national attention?

Oh, what a country! We all try to endure in a country cursed with politicians who twist everything to justify brazen disregard for citizens. What scares me mad is a country with a police force that manipulates the laws of the land to arm-twist citizens and entrench lawlessness. So much for all the claims of having regards for democratic ideals! Phew!

History repeats itself SLAM has five pillars. They are: (1) Faith – believe in the Oneness of Allah, His Prophet, Muhammed (SAW) and the Holy Quran. (2) Salat – the prescribed five times daily prayers. (3) Zakat, giving alms to the needy, a certain portion of one’s wealth, as spelt out in the Holy Qur’an. (4)Fasting, as stipulated in the month of Ramadan and (5) Hajj (pilgrimage) to Makkah, Medina and other holy places in Saudi Arabia.

This year’s Hajj, in which I participated, has just been concluded. May it please Almighty Allah (SWT) to accept the pilgrimage, the supplications and struggles of all the pilgrims. Amen. As a Talim (student of Islamic religion) or “Omokewu”, one is far too junior to sermonise on Hajj and Umrah. That is best done by our well-verzed teachers and leaders (Imams). Nevertheless, I humbly intend to share my modest observations / experience with the public through this piece, based on my 1989 and 2014 Hajj.

Allah works in mysterious ways, and I cannot find a better title for this piece, a testimony of His amazing ways in human lives, than the above – “History repeats itself”.

This piece captures the lessons drawn by me from the 1989 and 2014 Hajj performed by me, as I analyse the original lessons and the follow – ups with – RoH (abbreviation for Repeat of History). Because of the sanctity of the fulcrum on which this piece is based, Hajj, I state, on my honour, that all the names, places and dates mentioned herein are true and correct.

First Lesson – I had the good fortune of serving four (one civilian and three) former governors of old Oyo State (present Oyo and Osun states) as press secretary between 1983 and March 30, 1989. They were the late Chief ’Bola

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• Oloye Alabi Oloye ‘Lekan ALABI

Ige, retired Major-General Oladayo Popoola, retired Brigadier – General Adetunji Olurin and the late Brigadier – General Sasaenia Oresanya. On my last day in office as his press secretary on March 30, 1989, I paid the late Governor Oresanya a goodbye visit, as it were, in his office. After protocols, he said “Alabi, make a wish, any

wish, and I will grant it”. After a long pause, I rose from my seat, thanked him for the unprecedented offer and replied “Your Excellency, can you please sponsor me to Hajj”? He nodded and told me to consider it done. I departed the Governor’s Office and started a six-month accumulated leave.

RoH – Sometime in March, this year, the Nikhai / introduction ceremony of one of the late Alhaji AbdulAzeez Arisekola Alao’s daughters, Lubabah (now Mrs. Elias Adeojo) was held at Aare’s Oluwo, Ibadan home. The officiating was led by Professor Kamil K. Oloso. As he handed over the microphone to me to co-ordinate the protocol / family introduction aspect of the programme, Prof Oloso said “Oloye ‘Lekan Alabi, the Aare Alaasa Olubadan is Alhaji AbdulRasheed. He performed the pilgrimage in 1989, while I was the Chairman of the Oyo State Pilgrims Welfare Board”. Amongst the distinguished personalities at the ceremony was the Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. He noted my introduction

by Prof. Oloso and stamped my historic second Hajj, just as it happened during his predecessor’s (the late Governor Oresanya) tenure.

Second Lesson – There was a threat to the 1989 Hajj. It was the costliest in Nigeria, in that the fare was increased by almost 1000%. Many intending pilgrims could not meet up with the cost, but I was among the lucky ones because my sponsor, Governor Oresanya, kept his promise. May his noble soul continue to rest in peace. Amen.

True to his name, Sasaenia, the late General and former military governor was a unique being.

• Continued on page 11

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

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Still on Fayose’s flawed ideology Saturday Flakes

NE of the most bizarre stories in the Bible is that of Esau and Jacob, the two sons of Isaac.

Rebecca, their mother, was delivered of them the same day with Esau as the elder brother. Esau became the favourite of Isaac, their father, because he was a hunter and Isaac was a lover of bush meat. Jacob, on the other hand, was Rebecca’s favourite because he was always at home to keep her company.

One day, Esau returned from the hunting field and was famished. As fate would have it, he entered the house and found Jacob, his younger brother, preparing pottage. Esau begged Jacob for some pottage and Jacob said he would only oblige him on the condition that he (Esau) conceded his birthright to him. Esau thought nothing of a seemingly harmless demand that would see his hunger assuaged. He willingly took an oath to concede to Jacob his rights as the elder brother. That became the reason Jacob was greater than Esau in every respect.

I would not know how familiar Ekiti people were with this story before the last governorship election in the state. It might have been sheer coincidence that they reasoned like Esau when they voiced their preference for the stomach infrastructure Governor Ayodele Fayose promised them against the social infrastructure of the immediate past administration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi in the state. Expressed in more familiar terms, a guaranteed daily supply of amala and gbegiri soup makes far more sense than roads, schools or hospitals.

Following in the tradition of the amala brand of politics espoused by the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu in Oyo State, it had seemed an unlikely path the Ekiti would toe until the People’s Democratic Party began a cynical campaign slogan that caught the fancy of many undiscerning minds and spread like Ebola. Confronted with the reality that they might never be able to catch up with the pace of work in most APC-controlled states, the hawks in the ruling party hit on an insidious slogan that seeks to exploit the ignorance of the average voter by giving them the impression that nothing else counts but food.

So, in a state like Ogun where Governor Ibikunle Amosun has embarked on massive construction of roads, rather than admit the APC governor’s triumph in a sector where the PDP administration of Otunba Gbenga Daniel could not make an impact for eight years, the hawks ask the short but deadly question, na road we go chop? Rather than commend the novel

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Vincent Akanmode vincentakanmode@yahoo.com SMS only: 08034426263

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But if the biblical injunction that man should not live by bread alone was lost on the people; if they have lost terms with the saying that there is no free launch even in Freetown; the one they ought not have forgotten so quickly is that Fayose was kicked out of office in his first coming principally because he squandered the state’s resources on a poultry project that was nonexistent

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accomplishment of the Rotimi Amaechi government in building the light rail in Rivers State, they ask the unethical question, na light rail be our problem? In Lagos, Osun, Kano, Ilorin and other APC states where schools and hospitals are being renovated or upgraded, you find the hawks asking, “We are hungry but they are constructing hospitals. Are they praying that we fall sick?’

As would be expected, the worst victim of the negative slogan is the army of disillusioned artisans who have been pauperised by the failure of successive gov-

ernments at the centre to provide the environment needed for their businesses to thrive. Denied electricity, the welders, the barbers, the tailors and others whose vocations are driven by the critical social amenity are left frustrated and disillusioned because they don’t even know where the next meal would come from. It is a perfect setting for the mischief makers who reasoned that the only way they can play on the emotion of the hungry artisans and their dependants is to make food an issue. Unfortunately, this category of Nigerians constitutes the fulcrum of elections.

But if the biblical injunction that man should not live by bread alone was lost on the people; if they have lost terms with the saying that there is no free launch even in Freetown; the one they ought not have forgotten so quickly is that Fayose was kicked out of office in his first coming principally because he squandered the state’s resources on a poultry project that was non-existent.

The natural question to ask is: If billions of naira would vanish on account of a non-existent poultry project at a time that abundant food was not on the card of the Fayose administration, what will become of the meagre resources of the state now that stomach infrastructure is its defining principle?

The question is asked in the interest of well-meaning Ekiti indigenes who still believe that strategic gains of governance, like roads, schools and hospitals, weigh more in importance than bowls of pounded yam and egusi soup. Those who voted for rice and beans would see it as a positive development, if the roads in AdoEkiti are abandoned until they become dilapidated and waterlogged because they would constitute alternative ponds for fishermen in a state that is not blessed with major rivers. From the verandas of their homes, they can cast their nets and catch as much fish as they desire.

Unfortunately, they have wormed the state into the Yoruba lexicon of insults. A few days after the governorship election, I heard a neighbour calling his daughter alatenuje bi ara Ekiti. It is like calling someone an FFO (for food only) or FMF (food minded fellow) like we did in secondary school, all for no fault of theirs. They acted innocently or ignorantly as the case might be. That leaves the more discerning voters in the state and, indeed, the nation with the arduous task of re-orientating the innocent or ignorant ones ahead of the 2015 elections. They must no longer allow their minds to be swayed by campaigns that are based on nothing but mischief or religion.

History repeats itself • Continued from page 10

RoH – The Ebola virus disease also posed a threat to this year’s Hajj. We thank Allah for the personal sacrifices of patriotic medical personnel like the late Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh for their commitment and government’s quick action that led to its curtailment. The fact that the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia closed her eyes to the threat, especially Nigeria, was and still in a miracle.

Third Lesson – On the day of my departure for Hajj in 1989, a former protocol officer in the Governor’s Office, Ibadan who would years later rise to become a permanent secretary in present Osun State Civil Service, Mr. Kola Fatunmbi, saw me and others about to board the state pilgrims board chartered bus from Ibadan to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport at Ikeja, Lagos State.

Kola stopped the protocol bus in which he was, came out shouting “Congratulations, sir,” and gave me a big bearhug. I thanked him and wondered why my pilgrimage would attract so much hilarity. Kola proved me wrong when he said “Egbon, your pilgrimage is one. The other is your appointment as the pioneer Public Affairs Manager of Odu’s Investment Company Limited which the board has just ratified”. I did not know that the Odu’a Board would meet that day in Oyo State Governor’s Office and ratify my appointment. In no time, the news was on the air and one could not have wished for a better departure news.

RoH – As I boarded the Oyo State Muslim Pilgrims Board chartered bus on September 24 this year from its Olodo Office, Ibadan to Ikeja, a senior official of the Local Government on whose Traditional Council I am priviledged to sit, Mr. Folaranmi, called my cell number wanting to know my whereabouts. I told him I was on my way to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia via Ikeja. When I asked him the reason for his call, he replied, “I have good news for you, sir”. I thanked him and my mind went back to Kola Fatunbi in 1989.

Lesson Five – The day my group departed MMIA, Ikeja for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia in 1989 was the day the incumbent President Omar Bashir toppled the Sudanese government in a military coup. Sudan is today divided into North and South. Our aircraft flew into the already – closed Sudanese airspace inadvertently. We, the pilgrims,

were oblivious of the violent change of government and the several threats to our pilot to turn back to Nigeria. The pilot and his crew disclosed all these to us after the new Sudanese authorities led by Omar Bashir had allowed us to proceed. “On compassionate grounds because the aircraft was conveying pilgrims to Saudi Arabia”. We were told to start praising Allah for the concession as the aircraft’s fuel could not last a detour! You can therefore imagine our plight on learning of the near disaster on landing at Jeddah Airport without a single official of the State Pilgrims Welfare Board on board with us, nor any on the ground at Jeddah to welcome/receive us, the very terrified first-timer pilgrims.

An adhoc pilgrims caretaker committee was therefore constituted immediately by the contingent at the airport. I was made the secretary and Alhaji Mikhail Adeogun, then General Manager (Marketing) Concord Press Limited, chairman respectively of the committee. We took charge of affairs. Allah and the pilgrims support gave us total success.

RoH – this year, in the celebration of Tarwuyah and Dhul-Hijjah, pilgrims moved, as it is the norm, from our “comfort zone” in Makkah to Mina, a journey of about six hours. On arriving in Mina, pilgrims experienced hot weather condition due to a technical breakdown in the A/C system of the open tents at the pilgrims General Camp 20. Temperature was very hot and unbearable. We, the pilgrims in cabin 17, however, bore our hardship with very rare calm. An elderly pilgrim who I respectfully refer here to as a veteran, because he was a member of our 1989 (Oyo State) contingent, Alhaji Rahman Mustapha, in consultation with some elders in our cabin of about 80 pilgrims, set up a committee to make our civil protest known to the Saudi authorities through the Association for Hajj & Umrah Operators of Nigeria (AHUON) and the Nigeria Hajj Commission (NAHCON) My humble self and Professor Dikhrulahi Yagboyaju of the Political Science Department of the University of Ibadan were chosen as chairman and secretary respectively of the “Majekobaje” Committee. We prepared and signed a formal civil protest paper on 5th October on the pilgrims hardship. Our paper was tabled at the 7th October post Arafat meeting of Tour Operators with

NAHCON at its office in Khalidiyah, Makkah. I attended that meeting.

Sixth Lesson – Professor (then Dr) K.K. Oloso was the Chairman of the old Oyo State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board in 1989. As I stated earlier in this piece, he it was who publicly announced my performance of that year’s hajj at a Nikkai ceremony in Ibadan this year.

RoH – This year, twenty –five years after his 1989 chairmanship, Professor Oloso led the Oyo State Hajj contingent as the Amir-ul-Hajj. When he saw me at the AHUON/NAHCON meeting in Makkah, he shook my hands and I added some nods to silently remind him of 1989.

In concluding this piece, I wish to nurge our political office holders and public officers on the need to borrow a leaf from their Saudi counterparts on how development evolves from vision, good planning and progressive ACTION. I saw a lot of the foregoing in 2014 in Saudi Arabia when placed side – by – side with the facilities provided us (pilgrims) in 1989. And as we departed Saudi Arabia for our countries last week, the Saudi authorities were intimating us with their plans for better services/facilities come 2015.

In my dynamic group of four at this year’s Hajj were Professor Yagboyaju, Honourable Justice G.I. Sunmonu and Honourable Justice Olalekan Owolabi, both of the Oyo State Judiciary. And what helpful instructors, they all were to me, their Talim. I cannot but also mention the unprecented courtesy and charity of two Saudi policemen to my humbleself, Malam Malik Mustapha, a 2001 graduate of the University of Medina and now an entrepreneur in Sabo, Ibadan and four other pilgrims (one man and three women) whose taxi fares from the Holy Ka’abah to our hotel (after our Tawaf) in Makkah were paid for by the (policemen)! Their kind act was my first experience of such in life and a miracle to all those I recount the story to.

The 2014 Hajj Arafat Day on a Jumat (Friday) is indeed a rare blessing and repeat of history.

•Oloye Lekan Alabi is the Aare Alaasa Olubadan of Ibadanland

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PEOPLE SOCIETY ROMANCE ENTERTAINMENT SPORTS

Abdulgafar ALABELEWE, Kaduna

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THE NATION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

'Hook UP'…

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Doyle

Adeyinka

Koffi

A gathering of expectant mothers

Pregnant women at a health function in Delta State

Pregnant women

waiting for ante

natal care

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

Why I dumped the body of my r i v a l ’s 4-yr-old child in u n c o mpleted building –Murder suspect

twenty-four-year-old murder suspect has explained why she dumped the body of the four-year-old daughter of the first wife of her husband in a swampy uncompleted building in Lagos. Amina Akanni, a hairdresser and indigene of Ibadan, Oyo State residing at No. 2 Moshalashi Close, Alakara George, Lagos, is cooling her heels in the cell of the Lagos State Police Command Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti, Lagos, She told our correspondent that she kidnapped the four-yearold girl because her husband, Mr. Moshood Mubo, failed to give her money to celebrate the last

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, •Amina

n Ebele BONIFACE n Sallah festival and had not been taking care of her and her twoyear-old son, Yusuf. She said she had abducted six-year-old Lateef and four-year-old Nosifat, the two children of the first wife, Funmilayo, in the hope that the husband would come looking for them and she would have an opportunity to get some money from him.

Unfortunately, she said, Nosifat died in her custody and she felt that the only way she could cover herself up was to throw the child into a swampy uncompleted building in the area where it would decay and get eaten up

by rodents. Luck, however, ran out on her as the other child, Lateef, was found in her possession by someone who knew the family and was aware that the two children had been declared missing for more than five days.

Amina was arrested by operatives of SCID, Panti, Lagos for discreet investigation.

Confessing her involvement in the tragic incident, she said: “I am a hairdresser. I don’t have a salon. I used to scout for customers and people who want to plait their hair used to call me on the phone. At other times, I would go to their offices, shops or residence to do their hairs.

“In 2011, I got married to my husband, Mubo, I had for him a child named Yusuf.

He is two years old, but when the police arrested me, he took Yusuf from me. The child is with him now.

“I am his second wife.

We reside at Orile in Lagos, while the other wife resides in Isale Eko. My husband does not take care of me and my son. Since I got married to him, he has never cared to ask me how I was feeding his son. He does not also ask me how I take care of myself or how I pay for the one-room apartment I live in at No. 2, Moshalashi Close, Alakara George area of Lagos.

“The problem that brought me to SCID, Panti, started during the last Sallah day. I called my husband and asked him how I would celebrate Sallah but he openly told me that he had nothing to give me for Sallah.

“Annoyed and frustrated, I started thinking of what to do to make him look for me. What came to my mind was to go to Isale Eko where he lives with the first wife.

“When I got there, I saw his first wife’s two children and took the two of them to my house without their mother knowing that I took her two children away to deal with my husband.

“I took the two chil-

I took the two children to No. 2 Moshalashi Alakara George area on Friday. They stayed in my one-room rented apartment from that Friday to the following Tuesday. When I woke up on Wednesday, I found that Nosifat had not woken up and was no longer breathing. I found that she had died and I thought of what to do...

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I told him I was menstruating but he insisted on sleeping with me, says 22-yr-old woman detained for killing suspected rapist FEOMA Okechukwu, a 22-year-old indigene of Mgbidi, Imo State, has admitted killing a man who insisted on raping her after telling him that she was observing her menstrual period. Narrating how she was attacked by the suspected rapist whose identity could not yet be ascertained at press time, Ifeoma, who was being detained at the State Criminal Investigative Department, Panti, Lagos on Tuesday, said she had finished West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination at Umuorji Secondary School, Mgbidi, Imo State, in 2011. And while she awaited her result, her aunt asked her to come and stay with her in Lagos.

“But at about 12.30 pm on October 20 this year, I left our house to go and buy a sanitary pad because I was observing my monthly period. At the Alpha Beach Road on Atlantic View Estate, Igbofon Lekki

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n Ebele BONIFACE n Area, Lagos State, I saw the late rapist, a man above 40 years, standing by the roadside. As I made to pass by him, he called me and put his right hand in his pocket, pretending that he was holding something like a pistol. The place was lonely at the time.

“As he continued to call me to come to him, I became afraid and wanted to run away. But before I could try to run away, he came very close, still posing as if he was armed with a dangerous weapon. He started warning me to comply with his instructions or he would kill me and go away and nobody would see him.

“Because I was afraid, I stopped to know why he was calling me. I was shivering as I listened to him. He started reeling out in-

Continued on page 20

•The digger Ifeoma used to hit the suspected rapist

Continued on page 45

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

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OTHER STORIES

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Continued from page 19

n Okungbowa AIWERIE, Asaba n

2014 by a Mobile Policeman attached to an indigenous company based in Kolokolo community in Enerhen, and currently engaged in some electrification works within the said community’’.

Ikimi said executives and elders of the community met with the company’s management team and scheduled a meeting with the host community on 20th day of October, 2014 but officials of the local contractors failed to show up.

He said the victim and two others went to the company to inquire their reasons for failing to honour the meeting it had scheduled with the community.

According to the petition, the manager ordered the mobile policemen to beat up the trio and in the process shot the victim on the right leg with his gun.

Ikimi said despite a series of petitions, the police have failed to carry out proper investigation into the shooting incident.

Efforts to reach the Delta Commissioner of Police did not succeed as his phones were switched off.

‘I told him I was menstruating but he insisted on sleeping with me’ Continued from page 19 structions, ordering me to stop or he would waste my life and nothing would happen. As I went close to him, he asked where I was going. I told him that I was observing my monthly period and was going to buy sanitary pad.

“He ordered me to start going to a nearby house and was threatening to kill me if I failed to comply. I asked him why he was ordering me to go to the house and he said I should not ask questions but do whatever he asked me to do or he would kill me.

“I started begging him to allow me to go and buy what I wanted to buy, •The suspected rapist’s mobile phone but he refused, saying that I would go only after he had finished with me. He also gressive. He shouted: ’come quick or I will warned that I should not waste his time. I come and kill you there!’ I covered myself then turned back and started walking to- with a wrapper so that he would not see the wards the building he ordered me to go to. digger. As he was still trying to fix the con“When we got to the gate, I opened it and dom on his organ, I hit him hard in the head both of us entered the compound, while the with the digger and he fell down and gateman in the place entered through the started shouting.

“He crawled to the generator side still other gate. He asked me who the man that entered through the other gate was. As I shouting. As he was wreathing in pains, I made to answer him, he said I should not went for my phone and used it to call my uncle and he quickly came with policemen. say anything.

“As we entered, I turned the key. He said The policemen asked me what happened I should remove my clothes and that if I and I told them exactly what happened. I made any noise, he would kill me. I told told them how he attempted to rape me. him that I was observing my period and How he forced me into the house and how begged him not to have sex with me, but he I used the digger to hit him when he atgrew more annoyed and threatened that if tempted to rape me.

“I did not know that the man would die.

I made any noise again, he would kill me. I It was God that gave me the courage and obeyed and removed my clothes.

“As I was trying to remove my knickers, the strength to lift the digger and hit him so he started wearing a condom. I told him hard.”

A police source said the body of the susthat I wanted to go and remove the pot I had put on fire. On getting there, I saw a pected rapist had been deposited at a mordigger and carried it. Fortunately for me, tuary in Lagos for autopsy and none of his when I got the digger and looked out at relations had come forward to ask of him. him, I noticed that he was in a bent position His name and address were also still not known. still trying to wear the condom well.

The police also recovered from the scene “When he felt that I was wasting time trying to remove what I claimed to have put the sum of N800, the condom the suspected on the fire, he shouted at me, ‘Come here! rapist allegedly wore, his spoilt Nokia 210 phone, a pair of shoes and the digger the Don’t waste my time!’

“He tore his shirt and looked very ag- lady claimed she used to kill him.

olukunle87@yahoo.com

‘Why I dumped the body of my rival’s child in uncompleted building’

Policeman shoots emissary in Delta N armed mobile policeman attached to an indigenous oil contractor has shot and wounded a youth following an altercation in Kolokolo Enerhen community, Udu L.G.A, Delta State.

In a petition made available to The Nation, Oghenejabor Ikimi, co-ordinator, Centre for the Vulnerable and Underprivileged (CENTREP), accused the Delta State Police Command of shielding the policeman allegedly involved in the incident.

The victim, Joseph Agbabule, who was allegedly shot on the orders of the manager of the oil firm was in the team of emissaries sent to the company engaged in electrification project in the community.

According to the petition, the company, which is currently engaged in electrical work in the community, had met elders of the community to trash out issues affecting the community as they relate to the smooth operation within the community.

Part of the petitions reads: ‘’We members of the Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged (CENTREP) do hereby condemn the dastardly shooting of Citizen Joseph Agbabule on the 21st day of October,

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•Joseph Agbabule, the victim

dren to No. 2 Moshalashi Alakara George area on Friday. They stayed in my one-room rented apartment from that Friday to the following Tuesday. When I woke up on Wednesday, I found that Nosifat had not woken up and was no longer breathing. I found that she had died and I thought of what to do.

“I could not inform my husband that Nosifat was dead because they were not aware that I was the one that took the two children away. I could not tell my neighbours so that they would not spread the news.

“I decided to wrap the dead child in a cloth and threw it into the swampy room in an uncompleted building near my house. I threw the body there and water filled the place, including the room. The place is called Orile Baale. Nobody saw me when I dropped the dead child there, hence I felt relieved.

“On Thursday, I took Lateef to CMS area. Unfortunately, a neighbour that stays in her mother’s place saw him and said his parents had been looking for him and his little sister. She alerted the parents and they in turn alerted the police.

“When the police came, I told them that I called my husband to give me money to celebrate Sallah and he said he had no money. Hence I took the two children, Lateef and Nosifat, who are the children of the first wife, so that my husband would look for them and give me money to help find the children.

“Anytime I demanded money, he would tell me that he was doing some work.”

Taraba police arrest 11 suspects, recover arms, car LEVEN suspected criminals are being detained by the Taraba State Police Command, Jalingo, for various criminal offenses.

Their names were given as: William Tanko (23 years), Magai Tanko (25), Elisha Tanko (25), Tsukyahi Tanko (27), Daniel Tanko (20) and Ato Tanko (32).

Others are: Musa Mohammed (20), Yusuf Musa (19), Tanko Atohikon and John Bala and Ibrahim Jibo.

The state Commissioner of Police, Ademola Omole, who briefed reporters in his office at the State Command, said the first 10 suspects were arrested for "attempting to commit offence and illegal possession of firearms" in relation to the crisis in Gindin Dorowa area of Wukari local government. While Jibo was apprehended for "stealing a Toyota Corolla car."

Omole said the suspects were arrested by a joint police and military team. One double barrel gun, one single barrel gun, a locally made resolver pistol, three axes, 48 live cartridges, an animal skin bag, a designed stick for burning houses, container of fuel in Ragolis bottle and a designed wood with nails were recovered from the 10 suspects believed to be an ethno-religious militia.

Some of the suspects said they inherited the weapons from their late relatives, while one of the suspects, Yusuf Musa, said he picked the locally made revolver pistol on the ground.

After a thorough interrogation, the suspects revealed that they got the weapons from Bala.

For Ibrahim Jibo, police said he allegedly stole a Toyota Corolla car with registration number: JAL 136 CL, ash colour, chassis number JT152AEB103041613, valued N700,000 and a cash of N3,600 from one Usman Buba of Nguroje village of Sardauna local government area.

Police said the suspect, who hails from Tudun Wada, Kano State, collected the car and money from Buba at Shield Hotel, Jalingo, the Taraba state capital in a "deceitful manner."

"The suspect chattered the complainant as his commercial driver from Nguroje to Jalingo

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n Fanen IHYONGO, Jalingo n and to convey him back, at the rate of N12,000.

"While they were in the hotel, the suspect picked the car's key without the knowledge of the complainant and moved to Katsina state where he was arrested with the car," the police commissioner said.

Omole said all the suspects would be charged to court after investigation, adding that the Nigerian police have now adopted the

•Some of the suspects with the weapons recovered from them

"Visibility Policing," a proactive form of community policing, to crackdown on criminals in the country.

He said: "I want to assure the citizens of Taraba State that the police command will not leave any stone unturned in developing crime prevention strategies to improve on the level of safety in the state.

"I urge the people to assist the police with useful information to help nip in the bud all criminal activities in the state."

In Bayelsa, pirates rule the waterways ECENTLY, maritime workers in Bayelsa State, under the aegis of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), embarked on a one-day strike.

The workers in anger shut down the waterways and halted the movement of goods and passengers to various coastal communities in the state.

Indeed, the action paralysed the state and adversely affected its economy, especially since over 70 per cent of the state lies in water. Passengers consisting of traders, contractors, tourists and persons dressed up for events and other social functions were stranded.

They groaned, lamented and pleaded with the workers to resume normal transport on the waterways. But the adamant and aggrieved members of one of the most important unions did not bulge. All the passenger and commercial boats took the day off as they floated at the banks of various jetties.

It was, however, not surprising to many residents that the maritime workers took the action. The waterways have become a death trap. In fact, pirates and sea robbers rule the waters. Everyday, passengers are victims of vicious attacks by pirates who lay ambush for boats.

Many have been killed in recent times along the waterways of terror. Traders and other travellers have lost valuables and cash worth millions of Naira to hoodlums.

Security operatives and the government have failed to secure lives and properties in the waters.

The state Chairman, MWUN, Comrade Lloyd Sese, said they embarked on the strike because the security situation along the waterways had become frightening. He said sea pirates had taken over the waters robbing and killing innocent boat drivers and passengers at will.

"Sea pirates rob and kill innocent boat drivers and passengers", he said threatening to embark on indefinite strike if the government failed to solve the problem.

He demanded that members of the union should be integrated into a maritime task force to work with security agencies to tackle the nefarious activities of the sea pirates.

But the government immediately intervened and prevailed on the union's leadership to suspend the strike. The government described the industrial action as "ill-advised" citing "the numerous ongoing developmental and political activities which require marine transportation".

A statement signed by the governor's Special Adviser on Security Matters, Col. Bernard Kenebai (retd), said: "Dwindling revenue and resources, however, have made it extremely difficult for the state government to support acquisition of transport boats as planned".

Following the pressure, the workers called off the strike and allowed transport activities to resume in the waterways.

But two days after resumption of transportation, the suspected criminals returned to their evil operations. Sea robbers waylaid a passenger speedboat, wounded travellers and carted away valuables, including cash worth millions of Naira.

The pirates attacked their victims near Kiberi-Bio along the Ogbia-Nembe-Brass waterway in Bayelsa East Senatorial District. The hoodlums, who struck at about 3pm, also made away with the speedboat after forcing the driver and the passengers onboard to disembark into the mangrove forest.

"They also carried two women and two children away. We don't know what they want to do with them", a source who pleaded for anonymity said. The source, however, said that nobody was killed in the attack, adding that the pirates did not fire a shot.

In fact, Sese was livid with anger. He confirmed the attack on the Okpoama-bound speedboat. He said the incident had further justified the strike and alleged that the government had resorted to the intimidation of the union's officials.

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n Mike ODIEGWU, Yenagoa n Sese said a meeting between the government and the union's leadership would hold following the suspension of the strike. He said the union has warned it would shun the meeting if its national officials were not invited to be present.

He further threatened an indefinite strike if the government failed to address waterway insecurity.

"But we have also given them (government) three weeks to resolve the issue of insecurity in the waterways if not, we will resume strike", Sese said.

Sese was right. The situation is not getting better. Security operatives recently became the target of attacks by the sea robbers. The Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Pulo Shield, was on Tuesday morning thrown into mourning after pirates killed a soldier and wounded others in Bayelsa State.

The incident occurred along the Orukiri waterways in Nembe, Nembe Local Government Area of the state. The soldiers were on patrol of the waterways when they ran into the pirates who reportedly operated on a vessel •Awotimigha Iyabi, a 42-yearold ex-commissioner's aide who that looked like a speedboat.

The soldiers on sighting the speed- was killed by pirates in July boat attempted to flag it down for a routine check. Instead of stopping in obedience tack along the waterways.

The Media Coordinator, JTF, Lt. Col. to the soldiers' diriective, the hoodlums Mustapha Anka, said: "Troops of the Joint opened fire on the patrol team.

The soldiers engaged the pirates who im- Task Force, Operation Pulo Shield, pamediately escaped in gun duel. One of the trolling along Ogbia-Brass route on a tip of soldiers identified as Rabiu was hit by the sea robbery operation were attacked at bullets of the suspected criminals, while the Orukiri – fishing Camp in the early hours driver of the patrol boat, a civilian, and of today 14 October 2014.

"The incident resulted in exchange of fire some others sustained injuries.

Rabiu later died at the Brass Terminal op- between JTF troops and sea robbers. A solerated by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company dier was wounded during the incident, (NAOC) where the injured casualties were while the rest returned back to base safely".

The incidents occurred a few days after rushed to for treatment. A security source who pleaded anonymity said medical per- the governor of the state, Mr. Seriake Dickson assured that concerted efforts were sonnel battled in vain to save Rabiu's life.

Narrating the incident, he said: "The sol- being made to check acts of criminality indiers were on patrol that early morning at cluding sea piracy.

The governor said the days of militia and Opokiri in Nembe Local Government Area.

While on patrol, they sited a speedboat that gunrunning were over, adding that the institutions of the state would not succumb looked like a passenger boat.

"They didn't know that the occupants of to partisanship and undue pressure.

Also, after the State Security Council the speedboat were pirates. They waved them but they refused to stop. The next meeting, the Commander, JTF, Major-Genthing was that the pirates engaged the sol- eral Emmanuel Atewe said the security agencies were determined to protect the diers.

"One corporal was wounded and the lives and property of travelers.

He said: "The creeks are too hot for the boat driver was also wounded. The incident happened this morning. They were kidnappers and the security agencies are rushed to the Brass terminal treatment but not relenting in their bid to rid the state of criminals." unfortunately, the soldier died."

But everything appears to be rhetorics.

But JTF vowed to arrest the pirates. Reacting to the incident, JTF said the patrol The waters seem too deep and too wideteam successfully repelled a sea pirate at- spread for the security agencies to effectively police. Pirates returned again without resistance and wrecked havoc on the waterways.

This time around, the police were their soft target. The hoodlums killed four policemen and hijacked their gunboat. They stripped the policemen of their uniforms and collected their rifles in an incident that occurred between Nembe and the Santa Barbara.

Also, in a separate attack, pirates kidnapped six persons working for a company identified as Icon Xearex at Oluasiri in Nembe. The whereabouts of the workers are still unknown.

Two days after, a tugboat belonging to the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) was attacked along Bayelsa State waterways by gunmen suspected to be pirates.

The tugboat was conveying unknown items to the Agip Brass terminal in Brass Local Government Area when it came under attack. The Captain, of the tugboat identified as Famous Abrakata was reportedly abducted and whisked away to an unknown place by the hoodlums.

A security source lamented the porosity of the waterways, especially the NembeBrads axis. The source who pleaded anonymity said: "The water is very bad.

There is no how you can deploy people in all the nooks and crannies of the waterways. It is too prone to activities of pirates".

,

CRIME

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

This time around, the police were their soft target. The hoodlums killed four policemen and hijacked their gunboat. They stripped the policemen of their uniforms and collected their rifles in an incident that occurred between Nembe and the Santa Barbara

,

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

28

eze-Corona ation as Ifeoma Ani br le ce le ub do as w It ago. The top flying turned 50 a few days ief Tour d socialite is the Ch businesswoman an of d Managing Director Operating Officer an n and also into constructio is e Sh . er ag oy V e Worldwid from the uate of Theatre Arts beauty spa. The grad in some u State, also trained ea at Pl s, Jo of ity rs Unive rty started Her 50th birthday pa aspects of aviation. ex at Onikan new business compl a of g in en op e th ernors with ests included ex-gov gu e th d an s, go La area of is was e corporate world. Th and top players in th ht dance g day with an all-nig in w llo fo e th ed w follo ntre, ball room of Civic Ce affair at the spacious PAUL ith w y s. She shared her jo go La , nd la Is ria to event.

Vic SADUWA after the CE EN TI PA d an O UKPABI T 50, you maintain a high sense of fashion.

How does it feel to hit the golden age?

A

,

•Anieze-Corona

(Laughs) At 50, I watch what I do. I like to dress in a way that people will admire my outlook, no matter how simple it is. That makes it different.

Fifty is a number really. I still feel very young and good. But I am happy and grateful to God that I am alive to enjoy all this. Having come this far, I am grateful to God. I don’t have any reason to reduce my age because if I told you that I left the university in 1986 and I turn around to tell you I am celebrating 40 years, you will just wonder.

Though I know most women do it, for me, 50 is just a number.

How would you describe yourself?

I was born in Ibadan. I grew up back home in my village in Delta State. So, at some point, I came to Lagos—Federal School of Art and Science, Victoria Island. From there, I proceeded to the University of Jos where I studied Theatre Arts. I graduated in 1986 and did my youth service in Today newspaper where I was the Woman/Children News Editor. I moved over to the NNPC where I completed my youth service. After that, I started working in a construction firm in Kaduna as a Public Relations Officer until I moved out in 1990.

After that, I tried my hands on business. The beauty business is what actually gave me exposure, and it is something I really love doing. I have enjoyed doing it for over 20 years now. There is also a mechanical construction company which I own with my husband. So far, so good.

Why didn’t you pursue a career in Theatre Arts?

Well, at the time I left school, though Theatre Arts was a good career, I didn’t have the time and the patience for practising the profession. For instance, if you wanted to shoot a film of 30 minutes then, you could spend more than three days doing that because you would have to wait for a camera that was coming in from Ibadan and another from elsewhere. At that time, I didn’t have the patience for that. So when I was posted to the NTA for the national youth service programme, I asked them to reject me because I wasn’t just that kind of person that sits in one place and gets bored. Film production then wasn’t what it is right now.

What were your fears about acting?

Yes, I loved acting on the stage. I loved being on stage at that time and even now. But at that time, people didn’t have the means to do stage shows and all that. But for me, I kept my love for stage acting alive. I could travel to any part of this country to watch a play that I really loved. I enjoy seeing stage plays. I may not sit down to watch a film, but if I know that

For me, I believe in naturalism in acting. For instance, a scene shows us somebody that is just waking up in the morning, just getting out of bed, but the person is wearing make-up. That is not it! I believe so much in acting, but when I see some of these errors, it is a put-off. Of course, if I was in Nollywood, there would be scripts I would never touch

,

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

There are scripts I would never touch if I were in Nollywood

37 easier for my accountants to come here and meet me, while those that are working at the sites can still be at work.

A woman in engineering and beauty industry, how does that work?

It works well. I have a lot of female engineers.

However, my own part of the work is not engineering per se. I am not an engineer by profession, like you already know. I take care of financing and the administrative aspect of it, which are key. So, those who work on site do so while I coordinate so many other things.

How profitable is beauty business?

Well, it depends on how you see it.

You know there are so many things you can’t quantify her.

But it’s a good business if you put your body and soul to it. If you have a flair for it, you will make something out of it. If see it like nothing, then there will be nothing. But if you see it as a business, it will work as a business; a serious business at that.

How would you describe beauty?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (laughs). For me, beauty is something natural. Some people believe in a lot of artificial things to make them beautiful. I don’t have anything against that, but some people go too deep into artificial things. When it comes to the hair, anything that makes you look good is what you should do. I don’t do it according to fashion or because it is in vogue. There are some things that are in vogue that I can’t do. That is because I know that if I do it, it won’t look good. But even then, some people just want to spend their money and they think because they have the money, you must do what they want or ask.

But sometimes you must try as a professional to say that this may not look good on the person. At the same time, you do not make it look as if you are forcing them to do what you think is right and will look good on them. Some people just want to do what is in vogue, irrespective of whether it fits the or not! If you come across such people, let them be.

Of course, there will be others who would listen to the professional advice you give them.

Did your background in Theatre Arts help you in the make-up aspect of beauty? And you’re your knowledge of the industry make you see Nollywood differently?

Unfortunately, a lot of those in Nollywood today are not professional. If you truly attended a university as a professional, you will do things differently. If you sit down to watch a film with me, you may not really like it, because I’m going to tear it into pieces. Fred Amata was in the same class with me at the university. Zack Amata was my lecturer. So, when I sit down to watch a movie, I watch with a critical eye for details. There are so many things that you can present at the theatre but should not show on television.

For me, I believe in naturalism in acting. For instance, a scene shows us somebody that is just waking up in the morning, just getting out of bed, but the person is wearing make-up. That is not it! I believe so much in acting, but when I see some of these errors, it is a put-off. Of course, if I was in

–Lagos socialite Ifeoma Corona someone is doing a live performance somewhere, I will like to be there to watch. I must also say that actresses didn’t have much encouragement at that time.

What was the cinema culture like then?

It was not like we have it today. Now you can just tell someone, ‘Let us go to the movies.’ Then, it was not so. We didn’t have much of them around. I mean the cinemas. That does not mean that it wasn’t there at all. There was a play I did, a Hausa play. My role in it was just one small part. But for that, I had to stay at the location the whole night.

And after I finished it, I remember being paid N250. I had to walk in pains, taking the cheque about to get paid. That was indeed one of the things that discouraged me. But I enjoyed journalism; at least for the brief period that I did it.

Do you miss not building a career in Theatre Arts?

No, I don’t miss it. God has been faithful to me. I mean when I see my colleagues who tow that part, there is always a smile on my face. What I do puts a smile on my face and I enjoy doing what I do. So, even if I practise Theatre Arts now, it must be for the love of the theatre. That is because I don’t have all the time in the world. If I must do anything that has to do with acting on location, studio productions or stage performance, I will do it with somebody who is very serious, because I am a stickler for time.

Do you still have a flair for acting?

Oh yeah. My friends, those who really know me, complain that they do not know what I am doing in the beauty profession. They believe that I could do even better in acting. That is because I am always entertaining them. They enjoy my company. I love the profession. It is in my blood. It is naturally a part of me.

What kind of roles appeal to you?

It doesn’t really bother me. If you want me to

show you right now the image of a drunk. I can deliver that role right away and you will be shocked. There is really no role I can’t take on and perform. The only problem I have is the time.

When Nollywood emerged, did you feel like going back to acting?

Being in Nollywood requires time, and I am hardly sitting! It requires time and I am hardly sitting. I am hardly ever here in the office. I do a lot of shopping and moving around because of the nature of my different works. Being in Nollywood is something one really needs to sit down and do. I was too engrossed with the things I was doing then, and I don’t even have time to really think about Nollywood now.

Is Nollywood missing an actress in you?

I don’t know, but I think so (laughs). Definitely, if I had started with it, I would have been big in it now.

Why did you choose to be in beauty business?

It started like play. I had a friend I used to help with the work. When she was about to leave Nigeria, she wanted to sell her business. I was in Port Harcourt then. I bought over the business. But even then, I didn’t know I was going to stay in it. I mean I just thought well, let me just do it because I loved making people look beautiful and all that. So, I started it and before long, I found that I had fallen in love with it. I met quite a lot of people in the course of the business.

It sounds nebulous when you say you make people beautiful. Can you please break it down?

Making people beautiful means styling the hair, giving ladies different kinds of facial looks through different hair style. We also do body massage and all kinds of beauty treatments. I operate from here (Ikoyi, Lagos). Even my engineering company too, I work from here and go to my engineering workshop at Oshodi from time to time. But this is a base for me. Everything is complete here. So it is

Nollywood, there would be scripts I would never touch.

So, how would you describe your style?

Well, my style is simple. I love to look good and I don’t believe in a lot of artificiality. I just love to come out and feel good. I do that thing that gives me self confidence. I am not going to do what is in vogue because everybody is doing it.

Can you tell us about your childhood days?

Whatever I am today, I owe it to my mum because she was a very hardworking woman. Being the last child meant that every other person must have gone out to work. So I used to be with her, disturbing her. That was why she sent me to school early to avoid disturbing her when she was sewing.

She told them to find a place for me to stay there.

At school, I started writing in class more than those I met there because I was really hot. That was how they told her she had to get me a uniform. By the time I left primary school, I was just nine. I never went to a business school. I learnt so many practical things from her. So, whatever I am today, I owe it to my mum.

How many are you in the family?

We are five.

How about your father?

My father was a very wonderful man. He worked with the NBC (Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation) of those days, and he was a man about town; very amiable. He died about 19 years ago.

What was your relationship with him like?

If I knew he was going to die then, I would have recorded a lot of things. I know a lot of jokes and adages and proverbs that I got from papa. If I knew that he was going to die, I would have loved to have papa on tape. He was very close to me because I grew up at home. Papa had a special name for me.

He used to call me Kekere (smally). I used to tell him that I would be a broadcaster and I would read the news.

He would then come around me and mimic me.

He would then say, that was how he could imagine that I would come out with my k-leg, and that made me laugh. He was such a wonderful man. He looked at things as if they were never anything. Till date, whenever I go home, people tell me I’m just a carbon copy of my father because of his jokes.

Was he there when you got married?

Yes, he was. He simply asked the man to take care of me.

Were you with him when he passed away?

No, I wasn’t. I received a call from two of my cousins who hardly called me.

Can you tell us a bit about your love life?

I am happily married. I met my husband in Kaduna during the National Youth Service programme. I was working in Kaduna then.

Was it love at first sight?

It wasn’t love at first sight but love that kept growing and growing.

Which of your holidays did you enjoy the most?

I travel a lot. There is nowhere that I do not go to.

I just love it in southern Africa. I love Zimbabwe because they have some places you cannot imagine exist in this world. I think my stop over at Victoria Falls was very memorable. I didn’t stay long the way I would have loved to because my holidays are very short. The day I went to Victoria Falls, I didn’t think twice about going there all alone. The people I met there thought I was from America, but I told them I am proudly Nigerian.

What does success mean to you?

Success to me means coming this far, excelling in my chosen field and having done what is expected of me, like going to school and touring through the whole world.

How do you enjoy your leisure?

I love reading. And travelling is one of my very good hobbies. When I travel, that is the time I really relax. Getting out of here and putting up in a place without stress.

How do women fare in business?

Some women do better than men in business, particularly in Nigeria. We have to accept the fact that women are doing very well here. Nigerian women are hard working.

Where do you see the Nigerian woman in the next five to 10 years?

Well, I’m sure that things are bound to change.

But we still need to work on the men because when you see a woman going for the post of president, she gets only one vote. It is really not a nice thing.

But it depends on the kind of woman. For me, I think more women should come out. If women support women too and more men believe that women can do it, I think it will be good.

How do you balance business with family life?

By the grace of God everybody in my house works and my son is not her. So we make out time to be together.

When you are happy, what do you cook?

Vegetable soup. The one the Yoruba call efo riro.

How do you keep fit?

I go to the gym.

THE NATION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

32

IKER CASILLAS

JAMES MILNER

REAL MADRID WANTS TO OVERHAUL BARCELONA

WE WANT TO WIN THE DERBY FOR OUR FANS

33

INTER 'TRULY SHAW: MAN UTD BECOMING SCARY MINE', PROPOSITION

SAYS UNDER-FIRE MAZZARRI

DestromayconsiderRomafuturein summer

SUAREZ SET TO MAKE DEBUT AT CAMP NOU

JUVENTUS MUST SHOW GREATER MATURITY - BONUCCI FIXTURES

WENGER SWEATING ON GIBBS INJURY AHEAD OF BURNLEY CLASH

TOP SCORERS

ITALIAN SERIE A TABLE

FIXTURES SPANISH LA LIGA TABLE

ENGLISH BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE

TOP SCORERS

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AKINLOYE

AT LARGE

08050246155 atlarge84@yahoo.com

THE NATION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

41 with KAYODE ALFRED

E-mail:kayflex2@yahoo.com TEL:08116759807

Happy times

for Hosa Okunbor

Bishop Bola Odeleke in the news

Zainab ABUBAKAR

GOVERNOR AJIMOBI

F

Repair these roads

IRST, I must commend Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State for bringing development to the state in all areas.

The majority of the people of the state are happy that they have an action governor controlling the affairs of the state.

As I praise the great governor for his achievements, I implore him to repair the following roads in the Felele Estate in Ibadan: Jayesinmi, Rasheed Akande, Aboderin and Bello.

I also want him to give us potable water in the estate. People in this place have been suffering as a result of the lack of this amenity.

You are a good governor. You are working. And we all love you in the state because of your dynamism. Please, make us happy by fixing these roads and giving us potable water.

Gbola Alagufon, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Gov. Ajimobi

PRESIDENT JONATHAN

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

46

Hon. Omowunmi Olatunji-Edet is a pretty and amiable member of the Lagos State House of Assembly representing Oshodi-Isolo constituency, she is Chairman, House Committee on Establishment, Training, Pension and Public Service. The Assembly’s beauty queen was a guest of the Assembly correspondents at the weekly programme tagged; ‘Time Out With The Press,’ where she speaks on issues bordering on life as a woman politician, especially as it relates to sexual harassment, her divorce, relationship with the Fuji Music megastar, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (KWAM 1) and other issues. OZIEGBE OKOEKI, who was there, reports S a woman in politics in a man’s world, what are the challenges you have seen, and as a young, beautiful woman in politics, I want to know if you have experienced sexual harassment because that is why many women shy away from politics.

Of course, I have been sexually harassed. When you have a House of 40 members and you have only five women when we came in 2007, five to 35, don’t forget that you said I am young and very beautiful, which is also tempting, it now depends on individuals. Initially, when I came on board and they tried to woo me, I would say, ‘I bind you,’ they used to call me ‘I bind you.’ But with time, I started studying them, most of them don’t mean any harm, but if you are not careful, you are in for it. When they took their time to look at the women that just came in, they started placing us, which does not mean they would not try, but I did not succumb because I knew where I was going. You can imagine if I now become the governor of a state, and I look back and start seeing plenty of people that have undressed me. There are times, when I hear what some male pastors do to their female members, I wonder that these are the people that call them ‘daddy.’

This is the same thing that guides me, it is not limited to me, what about you, the organisation where you work, are you supposed to do such? You can imagine me coming to the floor of the House and when I want to talk, I would start stammering if I just had a ‘short time’ with somebody, all that will take away your confidence, and I don’t want to lose it for any man, it is not worth the trouble. This is what has kept me going. We are humans, some times the flesh wants to give in, but what keeps me on is this word that ‘your future is very bright, where you are going, you have not got there,’ I cannot abort God’s vision for me mid-way, there is a propelling factor that ‘Omowunmi, where God is leading you, you cannot stop here.’ I am going to re-marry and it would be known to the whole world, don’t worry, the guy is warming up. So, there is no vacancy.

You said you got married at the age of 20, did you face any challenge then and is the marriage still intact?

It is a straightforward question, you are only asking me to state the obvious, it is no longer news that Omowunmi Edet is divorced because my marriage broke up in 2009. But sometimes, you get stories that are not true; I am divorced though I hold on to the name because three children are involved. It is important that I manage the situation very well. Being a pastor, I try to convince the people around me that you could find yourself in an unpalatable situation. I never envisaged that I would have to go through a second marriage; I wanted a marriage that would work because I grew up with my father, mother and siblings. So, no matter what you go through as a woman you can make things work. I found myself in a very nasty situation, which I couldn’t help and I did not leave my husband, it is the other way round for reasons best known to him. I never at any point left Pastor Edet. I did not leave him for any other man.

I want to know if you have a church and what does it take to own a church?

I do not have a church, you do not need to have a church to be a pastor, we had a church in place before my marriage break-up and I had to step aside, when the issue came up, I could no longer be part of the church. But, I do a lot of evangelical work; I minister, when I am invited. For instance, I am ministering in the church of Bishop Odeleke this month, so I do have invitations to minister in different churches. Church is people, it is not the building; you can have a big cathedral and you are not affecting the lives of the people, it is a matter of time before they would leave because if your church cannot change you, you would change your church. So, it is not about the structure. To own a church depends on what you have in your head. I don’t believe that I must build a church before I can affect lives. I do not own a church, what it takes to own a church is if God leads you, if God does not lead you, it is a matter of time, you would pack your bags and baggage. To own a church is secondary, it should not come first, one thing should precede the other.

You are a pastor, and as a female lawmaker, we have read much about you, especially about your relationship with King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, can you clear the air on your closeness to him?

When you see a man and a woman standing even under a tree, you would say something is going on between them. The relationship between me and KWAM 1 was orchestrated by God, I met him divinely. I had been working as a board member of the state Ministry of Youth and Sports before I met King Wasiu Ayinde. I had contested several elections and lost, but somebody where I worked told me to "go and meet KWAM 1, he lives around your area, you can talk to him, he is a factor that you must reckon with." In Isolo, where I come from, you have two people that are very prominent; the founder of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, and you have KWAM I, you cannot ignore these two people. The day I went there, I gave them my complementary card at the gate, and I told them I was from the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Sports and he gave me audience. I told KWAM 1 that I had been contesting election for some time and lost and I said I wanted him to support me and he endorsed me as his candidate and we have been working together. But all these stories that I was befriending KWAM 1 are not true. Even for three years that my marriage broke up, I never set my eyes on Wasiu, I was far away from him.

Thank God there was no link, if there had been a link, people would have had photographic evidence, but they were just baseless news that was flying around. I want to tell you that I don’t have anything to do with Wasiu and we are even related, his mother is from Ilupeju in Lagos and my father’s mother and Wasiu’s mother are first cousins, you can add that to whatever you have in your archives, so he is my big brother. I call some people five fingers staring with God Almighty, then Dr. Frederick Fasehun, through him I met Opeyemi Bamidele, who led me to Mutiu Are, who introduced me to KWAM 1, who is the last finger. These are the people I call helpers of destiny, they have helped me in my journey. Wasiu has helped me at a point, so I cannot leave him; he is not my boyfriend, husband or sugar daddy. He is my father and he would remain that in my life.

A

•Hon. Olatunji-Edet

How I handle sexual harassment –Female lawmaker

,

Don’t forget that you said I am young and very beautiful, which is also tempting, it now depends on individuals. Initially, when I came on board and they tried to woo me, I would say, ‘I bind you,’ they used to call me ‘I bind you.’ But with time, I started studying them, most of them don’t mean any harm, but if you are not careful, you are in for it

,

How do you combine being a pastor with your political career?

They are both the same; as a pastor, you are dealing with human beings, and as a politician, you are representing people, so both work hand in hand. You want to give value to the lives of people, you want to do things that would make people remember you for two things. the problem you create and the problems you solve, I want to solve problem, I don’t want to create problems, I have enough problems in my hand, so I am trying to go around and solve people’s problems. So, that is the essence of pastoral work and political representation, I am representing people, trying to solve problems, if there are issues of security, lack of infrastructure, I intervene, I am there to solve problems. I may not be able to create infrastructure, but I can facilitate some to the area, and that is what I have been doing.

From your presentation, I discovered that you are passionate about youths, do you have any programme to train the youths?

It is important we understand that some of us are still youths; at 41, I still believe that I am a youth. I can add value to the generation that is coming behind. Who is a youth? Is it a 14-year-old boy or a teenager of 15 or 18 years of age? Youths must be experienced, so they must be ready to work with those in power, most of our youths are in a hurry, they want to ride posh cars, they want to build houses, they want to have modern structure, these are the things we need to know. We need to ask our youths questions or else people go away with so many things. Be receptive to knowledge, and scrutiny, they are on a fast track and they want to arrive at a destination in a jiffy. All these are the things we need to work on, they want everything now, they must know that they must wait for their time. My programme for the youths is well spelt out, I do not encourage laziness around me, I introduced skill acquisition to my youths. I tell them they can engage themselves in several ways; even as a graduate you can still add value to your lives.

We cannot all have white collar jobs, we can do things that can add value and put food on our tables, and then you can pay your bills.

Some of our youths are lazy and we have some political jobbers, this is their season. Don’t allow people to use you for their selfish aims. I encourage the youth and I give them soft loans periodically to assist them to have financial autonomy.

THE NATION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

48

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A pregnant woman Kids at a creche

Continued from Page 47

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Email: counselling@faithoyedepo.org

53

Coping with Diseases h it

W

Professor Dayo Oyekole,

Ph.D. (Ibadan), NMD, FNCP.

Tel: 0803-330-3897 Website: www.holisticlifecare.com E-mail: kolemetric@yahoo.com

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

54

How I coped when I was installed king at the age of 16 —Lagos monarch The Alara of Ilara, Oba Abdulhakeem Adesanya, is the deputy chairman of the Lagos State Council of Obas. He is one of the longest reigning kings in Lagos. He became the king of Ilara 54 years ago, precisely on October 10, 1960, at the age of 16. In this interview with OKORIE UGURU, he speaks about some of the myths surrounding his kingdom and his experience on the throne in the last 54 years.

Excerpts:

•Oba Adesanya

HAT is the history of your kingdom?

Alara is the son of Oduduwa. The people came to this place through spiritual direction of a deity. They left Ile-Ife. After the children of O’odua became so many, they started finding their ways, leaving to establish their kingdoms. Some went to Benin and so on.

Alara settled in many places before coming to this place; this was the final place they settled.

You know in the course of travelling, some could decide that they were no longer travelling with them and would stay back. The deity led them.

The last settlement was Ilara. They would stay in a particular place, the deity would tell them that it was not the final destination; they would continue until he got to Ilara.

W

What is the peculiarity of this town?

It is the deity that tells people what to do.

Before the modern day, it was human beings what they used for sacrifice. At a point when we were told not use human beings again, it was the deity that gave instructions to use kola, goats, and all other things to appease them. The people have some deities that are appeased at a particular time of the year.

What are some of the dos or don’ts for the sons and daughters of Ilara?

Sons and daughters don’t eat Ogbono seeds.

There are some women that cannot come into Ilara. There are some women with a particular kind of spirit, if any woman has it, that woman cannot enter Ilara, and cannot pass through Ilara.

How will the woman know?

The parents of the woman would have told her.

As an infant, the parents of the child will be told by seers when the child would be between eight and nine days after birth. The parents would be warned that they should tell the girl should go, pass or marry from Ilara. There are many of them that don’t come into Ilara because of that spirit in them.

There is this belief that a stranger can’t come into Ilara and steal, how true is this?

Ah, that person will not go scot free.

Why? The reason some cannot steal in Ilara is a long story.

Let’s hear it.

In the olden days, if the people of Ilara wanted palm kernels, they would to the tree, say something to the seeds and they would come down.

If a stranger can’t come and steal here, can a son or daughter of Ilara go outside and steal?

It has never happened that somebody would come out and say an indigene of Ilara came to their place and steal. It has never happened since the beginning of time.

If you people have succeeded in securing your place, why can you help other communities secure their towns and villages?

We don’t drink the same water with other people. Our water is different from theirs.

How did you become an Oba? At the demise of the Oba before me, it was the turn of my family to produce the next Oba. My family was called to present candidates for the throne. I was not born here. I was born at Waterside, Ijebu-Ode .

My uncles, those younger and older than my father were called upon to contest for the throne.

My name was also placed inside a match box and taken to the oracle. We were about six in number . Out of the names, my name was chosen.

How old were you then?

I was 16 years. I did not know anything about kingship. I did not even have a wife. I was trained and guided by the Ilara elders after I was crowned oba. They were taking me round and • Continued on page 55

THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

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I fled home, hid in the forest two weeks when I failed Standard Six exams —Ogun Monarch T HE monarch of Irolu - Remo, and agrarian community in Ikenne Local government Area of Ogun State, Oba Sikiru Adeyiga, shocked his subjects and family members during the week when he revealed how he kept his parents in suspense and worry -sick for two weeks hiding in the forest following frustration over his failure at the Standard Six examinations.

Adeyiga, who admitted that he spent 10 years (1946 - 1955) at the primary school due to his playful attitude, said for the two agonizing weeks the parents were searching for him, his father in particular began to consult one native doctor after another to find out if he was still alive and well or dead.

The monarch, who spoke while fielding questions from reporters on Thursday few hours to the launch of his autobiography, My journey through life, same day, said when he repeated Primary Six but failed, he resolved he was not going back to school anymore.

The 283-page book forwarded by the Akarigbo of Remoland, Oba Adeniyi Sonariwo, and launched by Sir Kensington Adebutu, tells the story of Oba Adeyiga as one who rose from grass to grace.

According to him, when the plan to leave the village for Enugu to learn tailoring trade under his uncle was rebuffed by his parents, he ran away from home and headed to his father's farm where he hid in the "bush" for two weeks.

He said: " I was angry and frustrated after failing my Standard Six examinations in 1955. I told myself I was not going back to school. I wanted to join my uncle in Enugu where I would learn tailoring but my parents refused.

"I eventually fled home and went to my father's farm and hid in the bush all alone. I was not bothered by any danger and occasionally, I sneaked into the village to buy food. My father began to visit native doctors to find out if I was alive or dead.

"And each time he consulted them, he was told I was alive and would return home soon. While in the

Ernest NWOKOLO, Abeokuta

•Oba Adeyiga

bush and from the tree top, I would observe my father feed his chickens in the farm with corn, guiding myself carefully so that I was not spotted.

"Once he left the farm for the day, I would climb down, enter the farm hut and cook coco yam for food. After spending two weeks in the farm, I decided to return home. " And my parents, who had been warned by the native doctors not to beat me when I returned, received me warmly and with we the help of one Baba Ijesa, I returned to school and completed my primary education."

He warned Nigerians, particularly the youth to be wary of con-artists and fraudsters, saying they are not modern day thing but a phenomenon that has been around in the country for over six decades now.

‘

While in the bush and from the tree top, I would observe my father feed his chickens in the farm with corn, guiding myself carefully so that I was not spotted. "Once he left the farm for the day, I would climb down, enter the farm hut and cook coco yam for food

‘

He said providence saved him from being swindled of his master's money when he worked has a shop clerk in Ibadan when a fraudster - magician turned six shillings he gave him into bundles of clean, new bank notes.

He said he had he not paid his master's money into the bank when the magician accosted and dazzled him with his money doubling tricks; he would have surrendered everything to the conman, saying that the whole turned out to be a hoax.

‘How I coped as a king at 16’

‘

• Continued from page 54

being a king. Because of my age, I did not know that there was something special attached to being a king.

After your selection as king at age of 16 years, when did you get married?

When I left Ijebu-Ode, I had a girlfriend that we played together. An Oba sent a girl with a letter for me. That was in 1963 at the age of 19 years. The father of the lady wrote a letter and

I did not understand all those responsibilities, I was just living my life as a normal kid despite being a king. Because of my age, I did not know that there was something special attached to being a king

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teaching me what I was supposed to do as an oba. I was just a kid.

After your selection, how did they get across to you?

My mother was around then. She was still alive. My father died in 1959 a year before I became the king. After I was chosen by the kingmakers, because of my age, they could not even discuss anything with me.

They called my mother and discussed with her.

It was her they first told that her son was the next king of Ilara.

How did he manage a teenager to know that he cannot play or run around like a normal kid, being a king?

I did not understand all those responsibilities, I was just living my life as a normal kid despite

•Oba Adesanya

gave it to the daughter to give me. When I opened and read the letter, I gave it to the girl who brought the letter to read the content. After reading the letter, she started crying. That was how I got married.

How has it been like ruling for 54 years?

As a young king, the interest of my people is uppermost in my mind. While growing up, the

king makers rallied round me to take care of me, showing me what to do until I became mature. I never had the opportunity of having friends , going for outing and so on. My father who trained me was the supervisor of all Moslem schools in Nigeria.

You have seen a lot as a ruler, from the military to various to civil rule.

I remember the era of Aguiyi Ironsi. I have seen different military administrations. If something would happen, they would send military personnel to come and pick me here. I would follow them.

What were your most memorable experiences then both good and bad?

They were all good as far as I am concerned.

The military era had its own good, so also the civilian regime. The experience I would never forget was the day Dimka killed former Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed in 1976. I will never forget that day. Dimka betrayed Murtala, which was bad. If somebody did that to me, I would not forgive the person.

What is the secret of your longevity on the throne?

I don’t steal, I don’t visit the police station over one offence or the other. I don’t write petitions. I am the son of a poor man. I came out from a poor home. I am contented. Nobody has ever reported me at the police station or had any case with me. I don’t sell land. I have never done anything to warrant going to the police station from the time I became king up till today. I manage myself.

Your should have advised some other traditional rulers?

Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola said so; he called me one day and called some other traditional rulers in Lagos State. He said I should talk to them and encourage them. My secret is contentment. The Lagos State government went through my file right from my youth up till now, it was after that they built this ultra-modern palace for me to compensate me for my forthrightness.

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Malaria control: Over 57.7 million LLIN to eliminate Malaria HE National Coordinator, National Malaria Control programme, Dr. Nnenna Ezeigwe said so far over 57.7 million nets have been distributed across the country in the last four years as part of the government effort to eliminate malaria.

The national coordinator disclosed this in his speech at the flagging off of the net distribution at Kafingana village in Birnikudu local government area of Jigawa state.

This national coordinator explained that the journey for the implementation of the long lasting insecticides nets (LLIN) in the state started long ago where the national office supporting the state to carry out number of activities, "including micro-planning, engagement with stakeholdars, development and adoption of demand creation materials etc".

He noted that "2,939,479 long lasting insecticides nets (LLIN) had been allocated to Jigawa state for distribution to beneficiaries", adding that "the current strategy is to deliver 1 LLIN to 2 persons in the state through house to house approach."

Speaking at the occasion the state's Commissioner of health Dr. Tafida Abubakar while flagging off net distribution at Kafingana village in Birnikudu local government area of the state, explained that it was the state government’s effort to ensure healthy communities, particularly children and pregnant women that led the Lamido administration to give free medical attention to all the children under five and pregnant women in all government owned health institutions.

According to him the provision of over 2.9 million treated nets would complement the state government effort in fighting malaria in the state and country at large.

In his speech, the state Chairman All Local Governments Association of Nigeria, who is also the council chairman of Birnin kudu, Alhaji Khalid Ibrahim said in an effort to support the easy and speedy distribution of LLIN the 27 local councils in the state agreed to provide additional 500 distribution unit and recruited about 6, 000 personnel in addition to the national and state personnel.

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Fishermen, livestock, irrigation farmers endorse senator in Yobe Duku JOEL, Damaturu ishermen, livestock and irrigation farmers in Nguru, Jakusko, Yusufari, Karasuwa, Machina and Bade in Yobe state said they are supporting the re-election of Sen. Ahmad Lawan to the senate to continue defending their interest against the construction of Kafin-Zaki dam The Nation checks gathered there are over 14, 000 registered farmers engaged in livestock, irrigation and fishing in the five local government areas that make up the senatorial zone. Out of the figures, Bade and Nguru have the highest number of farmers with over 3000 fishermen and approximately 2000 irrigation farmers operating on the banks of Yobe/Kumadugu River.

Alhaji Garba Mustapha, spokesman of the group told newsmen in Damaturu that Sen. Lawan had defended the interests of the people effectively especially on the construction of the KafinZaki dam and deserve re-election to represent us more."

He stated that Lawan's motion against the construction of Kafin Zaki dam, had guaranteed means of livelihood for fishermen, livestock and irrigation farmers in Nguru, Gashua, Machina, Yusufari, Jakusko and Karasuwa.

"If the dam has been constructed, the waters would have reduced grossly with negative consequences on the lives of livestock and irrigation farming communities on the shores of the Kumadugu/Yobe river.

"We are glad that the river is still rich in fish and, the river banks rich in pasture for the livestock thereby empowering the fishermen, irrigation and livestock farmers in the area.

"Let me say without fear of contradiction that presentlly in Yobe North, we have no better or capable hands than what we have in Sen. Lawan and, we have every cause to support his reelection back into the Senate," Mustapha said.

"His courage and resilience in resisting the dam construction from 2010 to date had made us proud with confidence that the senator will continue to defend our interests at all times."

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•President Goodluck Jonathan decorating Mr Tunji Owoeye, President, Rice Importers Millers Association of Nigeria (RIMIDAN) during Owoeye’s investiture for promoting agriculture. On the left are Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Ms Onyeka Onwenu

El-Rufai, Lukman pick Kaduna APC guber form •Say rescuing Kaduna inevitable mission F

ORMER FCT Minister and Deputy National Secretary of All Progressive Congress (APC), Malam Nasir El-Rufai and Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum Alhaji Salihu Mohammed Lukman have respectively picked governorship nomination forms.

El-Rufai who arrived the party secretariat in Kaduna around 10:49 am in the company of his supporters said rescuing Kaduna state from the state of what he described as ‘low ebb’ is an inevitable mission that must be carried out to the later.

He said, “We are here with my team to fill our expression of interest and nomination form to contest governorship of Kaduna state. We are contesting because our state is backward and ready to change it. We are not contesting to make money for ourselves; we are not contesting for selfishness but contesting

Abdulgafar ALABELEWE, Kaduna

to re-build a new Kaduna State.

“Our prayer always to God is to give us opportunity to serve but if it is not so, may God deny us and give to whoever pleases Him for unity, peace, development, justice and progress of our dear state.

“What I want to say to our people is simple, don’t vote wrongly, we shouldn’t allow people to cheat us and make us slaves. We must all vote wisely and vote competent people to man our state.

On the forthcoming APC governorship primaries in the state, El-Rufai who said he considered all aspirants as brothers, said, “I consider my other aspirants brothers, competitors and not enemies. I respect them and don’t make any disparaging comment

INEC, police collaborate on peaceful 2015 elections in Kwara

Groups call for cancellation CP: People are apprehensive head of the 2015 generAdekunle JIMOH, of voters cards al elections, the Kwara Ilorin Johnny DANJUMA, Lafia

OME groups in Nasarawa state, Eggon Cultural Development Association, ECDA, and Eggon Youth Movement, EYM yesterday in Lafia, Nasarawa state capital called on the national electoral commission to put on hold, the Permament Voters Registration (PVR) due to hold in the state next month.

Citing the incessant crises in the state for the call, the group said continuing with it will end up disenfranchising their people against the 2015 election .

The call which was made by the group during a press conference yesterday explained that their areas have been deserted because of the continuous attacks on them by suspected herdsmen acting as mercenaries.

The press statement jointly signed by ECDA president, Usman Offor, and EYM president, Daniel Anyuabaga stated that, "We certainly will not sit by and watch the exercise take place in other parts of the state while our people in the affected areas are denied their right to perform their civic duties.

"The atmosphere and the environment in the state are presently not conducive for the conduct of the exercise", the statement said.

The group explained that the calling for the cancellation is coming because over a hundred Eggon speaking communities in the state who have been attacked by suspected hired Fulani has left them with no other option than to desert their ancestral homes for safer places.

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state police command is collaborating with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state for free, fair and peaceful elections.

Accordingly, the state police in conjunction with INEC organized a-one day workshop for officers and men of the command on the role of police during elections. In his remarks, the state Commissioner of Police, Salihu Garba said as the elections draw nearer people are getting more apprehensive.

He cautioned politicians and their supporters in the state to play the game by the rule, urging political parties to school their followers/supporters against thuggery and violence before, during and after elections.

Said Mr. Garba: “Ahead of 2015 general elections, many

people are getting too apprehensive. It is our hope that politicians and their supporters will try to play the game by the rule. “It is not supposed to be a do or die affair.

Every supporter of any political party is expected to do it with decorum. We pray that we the participants will have listening hear and imbibe what we have been told here.

We also pray to execute whatever we learn today from the state Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”In a paper entitled: “Electoral Duties, the state INEC’s Head, Voter Education and Publicity, Jacob Ayanda said peaceful elections could be achieved if the political parties play according to the laid down laws and security agents are alert to their duties.

against any one because at the end of the day APC is one family and we will unite to defeat PDP. “My aspiration is not do or die, that is why we don’t use hate or abusive words in our engagement and it is about constructive engagement and genuine demonstration to serve passionately. We are running open campaign for nothing but new Kaduna state, please join us and let's run a better system.”

Similarly, the Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum, Alhaji Salihu Mohammed picked his nomination form at the APC State secretariat amidst mammoth crowd of party supporters who accompanied him chanting solidarity and support songs.

Addressing the crowd in a formal declaration program at the Event garden precinct shortly after picking the nomination form, Alhaji Lukman said, “My strong position is that we have no alternative but to work hard and take over the government of Kaduna state and in doing that, we must learn from our

past mistakes and build a strategy that would really deliver the state to APC in qualitative way.”

He said he was not one of those who just want PDP defeated for the sake of defeat, but wants to see the real alternative, a reason why he has virtually engaged everybody on the need to work hard for the alternative.

On his agenda for the state, he told the party supporters that, “The first is that we must approach the issue of unity in a more fundamental way because I believe we will not make a head way on anything if the people of Kaduna state are not united.

“The other priority issue we must address is the issue of e m p l o y m e n t .

Unemployment is so high now. Many of our youths don’t have jobs. You must create a situation where you have employment targets across sectors, like agriculture, industry, public sector, education, health.

“I will also give priority to security, education, health, agriculture and urban renewal,” he stressed.

Arrested gun running DSP dies in Kaduna Police custody •Suspected vandal electrocuted Abdulgafar ALABELEWE, Kaduna HERE was confusion in Kaduna yesterday as a police officer arrested during an attempt to steal firearms from the Command’s Armory died in police detention.

The Kaduna Police Command authority said the suspected gun running officer committed suicide.

In a related development, a young man was electrocuted while attempting to vandalise PHCN cable at Angwan Dosa, in Kaduna North Local Government area.

The State Commissioner of Police, Umar Shehu Ambursa, who confirmed the death of the suspected gun runner to newsmen said, investigation has commenced in earnest to unravel what led to the death of the officer while in detention.

However sources say, he shot himself while in the custody of the command around 5am yesterday.

It will be recalled that the suspect, and two others had on Monday, 20th October at about 22.30hours, gone to the Armory at the State Command's Headquarters in Kaduna with two unknown persons in a private vehicle, parked behind the Armory and loaded some firearms into the vehicle.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

Uduaghan swears In HOS, special advisers, others

C/River REC calls for peaceful delegates election

•Urges professionalism in civil service

S the delegates’ elections kicks off today, the Independent National Electoral Commission in Cross River State has called for a peaceful conduct.

The state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr Mike Igini, in a statement made available to reporters yesterday said, “The people of Cross River and all Nigerians expect people who aspire to be leaders and their supporters to demonstrate the highest level of decorum and respect for law and order as they conduct these delegates elections, primaries and convention leading up to 2015 general election.”

Igini charged various political parties in the state to abide by the published guidelines for an orderly and peaceful conduct of the delegate elections in compliance with the provision of section 85 of the Electoral Act. He said, “INEC acknowledges that the nomination of aspirants by parties to be candidates for election is entirely the responsibility of political parties. However, the third schedule paragraph 15(c) of the constitution enjoins INEC to ‘monitor the organization and operation of the political parties including their…conventions, congresses and party primaries’. Consequently, all electoral officers and staff of area offices would monitor the delegates’ elections of parties in their respective local government areas with the INEC checklist.

“As always, it is in the best interest of all that the rules/guidelines which parties have written for themselves and to which your members are expected to abide by as submitted to INEC as required by law should be observed and enforced, fully, fairly and impartially to all aspirants and your members.”

ELTA State governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, on Friday, sworn in a new Head of Service (HOS), three special advisers and 12 permanent secretaries.

Mr. Patrick Origho took oath of office as the HOS, while Chief Uche Ugbomah, Mrs. Georgina Evah and Mrs. Lilian Ofili were sworn in as Special Advisers to the Governor.

Governor Uduaghan explained that the appointment of the special advisers was aimed at strengthening his administration's drive of finishing strong.

He advised them to bring their wealth of experience to bear in his administration's quest to bequeath a peaceful and prosperous Delta State that would not be dependent on oil revenue alone.

Uduaghan advised civil servants to be loyal, diligent and conscientious in the discharge of their duties to enable them attain the zenith of their profession.

According to Governor Uduaghan, the choice of Origho as HOS was based on several considerations ranging from seniority, wealth of experience and tract record of performance.

n Nicholas KALU, Calabar n

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2015 elections will be violentfree –Jonathan n Innocent DURU n RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday reassured Nigerians that the2015 general elections will be devoid of violence. He said that his administration's policy will create a strong foundation for democracy in the country and Africa in general.

He gave the assurance in Lagos at a public lecture titled, “Industrial Relations, Labour Productivity and National Development”, organized by the Island Club to commemorate its 71st anniversary. The president was the guest lecturer of the event.

He was represented at the occasion by the Vice President, Architect Namadi Sambo.

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, was equally represented by his deputy, Orelope Adefulire.

Speaking, the president allayed the fears of Nigerians about the forthcoming elections, saying: “I want to assure everyone that it is a policy of this administration that we must have a free and fair elections. We must have elections that are properly conducted. The elections will give one man one vote, one woman, one vote and one youth, one vote.

“We must ensure as Nigerians that we cooperate and say no to thuggery and strive to ensure peaceful elections.

Mr President has said it several times that even his political ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian. Therefore, this is our policy. That is what will create a strong foundation for democracy in Nigeria and in fact, Africa as a whole.’’

In his remark, the chairman of the club, Prince Ademola Dada said: “We identify with the strenuous efforts of the Goodluck Jonathan administration to entrench the tenets of democracy in the Nigerian polity.’’

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•Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State (left) congratulating the new Head of Service, Sir Patrick Origho (right) shortly after taking the oath of office at the Government House, Asaba, Friday.

Rivers PDP secretariat set ablaze HE crisis rocking the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took a turn for the worse yesterday, as unknown men set ablaze the state secretariat of the party along the ever-busy Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway.

The two security men on duty at the time of the attack were said to have narrowly escaped with their lives.

The incident occurred barely 24 hours after seventeen governorship aspirants on the platform of the PDP and other officers of the Rivers Mainstream Coalition, led by Prof. Israel Owate, held a unity rally at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt, and insisted that there must be zoning, especially for the governorship, to ensure peace, justice, equity and fairness.

The 17 aspirants and leaders of the coalition kicked against the alleged attempt to impose the immediate past Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, as the governorship candidate of the party, particularly him being Ikwerre as Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

The anti-Wike PDP chieftain also condemned the decision of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the party, led by Chief Felix Obuah, for declaring that there would be no zoning of political offices, which they said was not in line with the constitution of the party.

Obuah, who is the state chairman of the PDP, said, in a telephone conversation, that desperate politicians who did not want the ward and local government congresses of the party to hold today were responsible for the fire, declaring that the congresses would go on as planned.

While speaking with The Nation, security men on duty at the secretariat, who pleaded anonymity, said the sec-

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•It’s the handiwork of those who want to scuttle today’s ward, LG congresses- Party chair n Bisi OLANIYI, Port Harcourt n retariat was attacked by four young men at about 4:30 am.

They said the young men came with a four-litre keg filled with petrol, adding that their effort to stop the men from carrying out the dastardly act failed.

According to one of the security men, one of the four suspected arsonists rushed to the main entrance of the party secretariat and poured fuel on the building and set it ablaze.

The security personnel said they raised the alarm over the fire, while the four suspected arsonists melted into the darkness. He said neighbours assisted to put out the fire before the arrival of fire fighters from the Rivers State Fire Service.

Reacting to the fire, the Rivers PDP chairman said: “It is the action of des-

perate politicians, who want to create a scene so that the ward and local government congresses will be postponed.

No matter the desperation of these politicians, we will go ahead with the congresses.”

He also called on the people of the state, especially members of the PDP, to give peace a chance and to avoid politics with bitterness.

The Rivers Police Commissioner, Dan Bature, who confirmed the fire, visited scene.

He condemned the incident and ordered that security be beefed up in the area to prevent a reoccurrence.

Speaking on the crisis, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the part, Nimi Walson-Jack, Walson-Jack, pleaded with the national leadership of the PDP to postpone the ward congress of the party in the state until the complaints and grievances of some members of the party were addressed.

2015: Former A/Ibom dep gov presents four points’ agenda HEAD of next year governorship election in Akwa Ibom State, the former deputy governor of the state, Obong Nsima Ekere, yesterday visited the state headquarters of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Uyo, to formally announce his intention to run for the office of the governor on the platform of the party.

Nsima, who was accompanied on the visit by his father, Sir Gabriel Ekere and thousands of his supporters from across the state, met the PDP leaders, led by the party chairman, Obong Paul Ekpo and his deputy, Sir Essang Michael.

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n Uyoatta ESHIET, Uyo n The governorship hopeful said the former governor of the state, Chief Victor Attah, laid the foundation for a modern Akwa Ibom State, while Governor Godswill Akpabio has built visible and laudable infrastructure for the state.

Nsima said as governor, he will continue the march to greatness by unleashing the creative power of the people, providing them with quality education, leadership and resources that they require to soar, adding that he decided to run for the office of gov-

Amaechi's wife slams Wike over N35m monthly deduction allegation HE immediate past Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, and the wife of the Rivers State Governor, Dame Judith Amaechi, have disagreed over alleged N35 million monthly deduction from the allocations of each of the Rivers 23 local government councils, to fund her pet project, the Empowerment Support Initiative (ESI).

The wife of Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors' Forum (NGF), yesterday in Port Harcourt, expressed surprise over Wike's ‘lies and campaign of calumny against her and ESI’, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), declaring that she never demanded money from any former or serving council chairman, much less asking a lawmaker to fund her pet project.

It will be recalled that Wike, a former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and the Director-General of Amaechi Cam-

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n Bisi OLANIYI, Port Harcourt n paign Organisation in 2011, while speaking in Port Harcourt, accused Dame Judith of forcing each local government chairman, since her husband became governor in 2007, to contribute N35 million monthly to support ESI. According to sources, the former minister may have opted to attack the Rivers governor's wife in response to reply Amaechi, who accused Wike on Saturday at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt, during the 7th anniversary of his Supreme Court victory, of embezzling N3 billion he ought to have used to construct the roads around the stadium.

Also, while speaking in the Rivers capital, the factional speaker of the state's House of Assembly, Evans Bipi, who is the leader of the six lawmakers loyal to Wike, accused

Amaechi's wife of extorting N36 million from him to fund her pet project.

Bipi, an indigene of Ogu, the headquarters of Ogu/Bolo LGA and represents Ogu/Bolo constituency alleged that Amaechi's wife was guilty of corruption and extortion, through the lawmakers' constituency project funds.

But Dame Judith, while speaking yesterday in Port Harcourt through his Media Assistant, Dike Bekwele, accused Wike, Bipi and other "enemies of progress" of desperation and attempting to mislead Rivers people and cause confusion.

Bekwele said: "The allegations against Dame Judith Amaechi are baseless, spurious, malicious, cheap blackmail, campaign of calumny, political gimmicks to drag her name in the mud and the enemies of Rivers State people should not be taken seriously, if they cannot provide proof or evidence of their frivolous allegations.

ernor because he wants to put Akwa Ibom people first, inspire them to dream big and see their dream come to pass.

He said over the past many months, he has consulted widely with a large segment of the people, both at home and in the Diaspora, visited thousands, met with and heard their concerns about the future.

As part of agenda, Nsima presented a four-point agenda, which according to him, represents what Akwa Ibom people need to move to the new era of growth, progress and prosperity.

He tagged the four-point agenda to include, Akwa Ibom: From Good to Great.

The four points’ agenda are: Education and people development; Economic prosperity; Health and social wellbeing and Rural development.

He appreciated the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP for laying to rest the issue of 2015 governorship in Akwa Ibom State by stating that only candidates from Eket Senatorial District are to contest for the seat.

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•Enugu State governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime (center) flanked by the new state chairman of the PDP, Chief Ikeje Asogwa, Chief Rex Onyeabor, Senator Ken Nnamani, State Secretary of the PDP, Barr. Steve Oruruo, Members of the National Assembly, Hon. kingsley Ebenyi, Hon. Stella Ngwu, State Chairman of ALGON, Prince Cornelius Nnaji (right) and the Deputy Governor, Rev.Ifeanyi Nwoye, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Eugene Odo, Vice Chairman PDP (Enugu North), Mr. Mike Ejinima, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Chime Oji, Hon. Cornell Onwubuya (left), shortly after the SEC meeting of the party, at the party secretariat in Enugu...yesterday

PDP appoints Confusion as Abia PDP goes ahead Enugu new state chairman with congress T I

HERE was confusion yesterday over the fate of the congress election of the Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with reports that the ward congress, which had earlier been stopped by a court, will go ahead.

Sources close PDP leaders in the state yesterday informed The Nation that party faithful close to the state government had obtained a court injunction at the Obingwa High Court to go ahead with the ward congress.

A source at the Abia PDP

office confirmed that the congress will hold as expected, stressing that they are continuing with the ward congress.

It will be recalled that an Abuja high court had earlier gave an order restraining the state chapter of the party from conducting any congress.

The national assembly caucus had a few days ago petitioned the national chairman of PDP, Alhaji Adamu Muazu and the

NWC over the illegal composition of congress committee by Governor Orji and Abia PDP. A source close to the trio of Senators Uche Chukwumerije, Nkechi Nwaogu and Enyinnaya Abaribe told our correspondent that the Abia National Assembly Caucus had since distanced itself from the purported congress and advised party loyalists not to allow political jobbers take advantage of them.

But this is even as a reli-

able source, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed that the governor’s camp has pre-arranged a congress with a doctored delegates' list set to be adopted and ratified by illegal party officials.

Efforts to reach the Abia State PDP chairman and Chief Press Secretary to Governor Orji were to no avail.

Similarly, all efforts to speak with the three senators of the state did not succeed. But Senator Enyi Abaribe, in a response to an SMS, confirmed that the congress will hold today.

Nwabueze-led Igbo leaders of thought reject confab’s final report HE Professor Ben Nwabueze led Igbo Leaders of Thought, yesterday, rejected the final report of the national confab.

The group made its feelings known through its convener, Prof. Ben Nwabueze (SAN), after its 9th Assembly in Enugu.

Nwabueze said it was regrettable that the confab failed to address the issue of regional government, which he said was paramount to-

T

Say ‘There can’t be peace without restructuring along regional lines’ wards a total peace in the country.

He observed that, "We cannot have peace in Nigeria unless the federation is restructured along regional lines. The President did enough for convening the confab, but the actual work leaves less to be desired.

"The question of the restructuring of the federation is the most critical aspect, as it affects us here in the South-

East, so we have always made it very clear that part of the creation of a new and better Nigeria is that the federation should be restructured.”

He added that, "each of the nationalities, within the context of the federation, should be allowed to develop at its own pace. This can only be done if the federation is restructured, restructured in the sense that the powers of the almighty central government

should be drastically reduced to at least 50 percent; all those powers should be taken away, now if you take away, who are you going to give those powers? We are not talking about abrogation of the existing states, but having them united under the zones for more efficiency.

"This is the whole essence of what we are saying, we must restructure the federal system."

Imoke proposes N149 bn for 2015 ROSS River State governor, Senator Liyel Imoke has proposed a budget size of N149,442,681,821.02 for the 2015 fiscal year.

Delivering the budget speech at the State House of Assembly on Friday night, Governor Imoke said it represents a decrease of N26.87 billion over the 2014 appropriation.

Tagged “Budget of Transition”, Imoke said of this amount, 60 per cent shall be committed to capital development, while 40 per cent is to service recurrent bills.

He said he was proposing the following sectoral allocation of the state’s limited resources: Economic sector; N70,285,060,527.68 representing 47.03% of the budget; Social Services; N34,871,977,563.56 representing 23.34%; Regional Devel-

C

n Nicholas KALU, Calabar n opment; N11,469,766,973.77 representing 7.68% and General Administration N32,815,876,756.01 representing 21.95%.

The governor said although the journey has been very challenging, it has also offered the unique platform to serve the people with the best of intentions.

“In spite of excruciating fiscal climate, our judicious application of funds has left in its trail, landmarks which offer yardsticks for our assessment.

“Mr. Speaker, we are not unmindful that this Administration shall exit on May 29, 2015, just seven months from now. Conscious of this fact, therefore, we shall place great premium on the completion of all on-going projects to enable the incoming Administration take off on a clean slate.

“We shall employ our time tested Action Planning Strategy (APS) and the Medium Term Budgetary Framework (MTBF) to drive the programmes of this government, anchored on the 7-point development agenda, to safe landing by next year.

“Due to the obvious strain which government is contending with as a result of

dwindling revenue inflows from the federation account, we shall adopt the All-handson-deck approach and the Revenue-driven budgeting system for the 2015 fiscal management. This system places the burden of revenue generation on both the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and all MDAs accordingly,” he said.

N compliance to the directives of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Enugu state chapter of the party has appointed a new state chairman.

He is Chief Ikeje Asogwa who was earlier appointed before the NEC directive.

The meeting appointing Asogwa, which held yesterday, followed the request by 86 members out of the 109 members of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the PDP in Enugu State.

The number, which represents more than two-third of the SEC membership in the state, is empowered to hold an Extra-Ordinary meeting in line with Article 24(4) of the PDP constitution.

The section stipulates that: ‘an extra-ordinary meeting of the State Executive Committee shall be held if requested for, by two-third of the members of the State Executive Committee’.

In a communique signed by the Publicity Secretary, Dr. Okey Eze, said it deliberated on urgent and fundamental issues affecting the party in the state and took the following decisions: "Noted the resignation of Engr. Vita Abba from office as the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State, which enables him stand for election in the forthcoming party primaries in the state.

"In line with Article 47 (6) of the PDP Constitution, which states that “where a vacancy occurs in any of the offices of the party, the executive committee at the appropriate level shall appoint another person from the area or zone where

n Chris OJI, Enugu n

the officer originated from, pending the conduct of election to fill the vacancy”, appointed Chief Ikeje Asogwa who is from the same zone with the former state party chairman as the new chairman of the party in the state, with immediate effect, pending the election of another chairman at a state congress to be convened for that purpose.

"Charged the new state chairman of the party, Chief Ikeje Asogwa to take all necessary measures in his capacity as the chairman to oversee and ensure smooth and successful Congresses and party primaries and victory for the party at all levels in the 2015 general elections."

Those that attended the Extra-Ordinary SEC meeting included the state governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime, the deputy governor, Rev. Ralph Nwoye, the Speaker of Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Eugene Odo, former Senate President and member of PDP Board of Trustees, Senator Ken Nnamani, members of House of Representatives, a member of Board of Trustees, Rex Onyeabo, National and Zonal Officers of the party from the state, council chairmen and their deputies , local government party chairmen and state executives members of the party among others.

Meanwhile, the Wadata Secretariat of the PDP in Abuja was turned to a war zone yesterday, as some federal lawmakers from Enugu State failed in their bids to hijack the materials to be used for the election of the threeman delegates slated for today.

Catholic bishops honour Obi over contribution to education ORMER governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi ,was yesterday honoured by the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria for his contribution to education during his tenure as the governor of Anambra State.

The award was presented to him by the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri, His Grace, Archbishop Anthony Obinna, on behalf of the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria at the 2nd Na-

F

tional Catholic Education Summit, held at the National Centre for Women Development, Abuja.

Archbishop Obinna said that the decision to honour Obi was due to his phenomenal contribution to the advancement of Catholic education in Nigeria, adding that he hoped the honour would spur other leaders to realize that the society appreciates good things and leaders

that serve the people and society well as Obi did.

In his remarks, Mr. Obi, who thanked the Catholic bishops on the award, said that the church in Anambra, including Catholic, Anglican and others contributed to the success of his government through healthy and positive collaboration, especially in the area of education and healthcare delivery.

He called on the church in

other parts of the country to strive and partner with the government in a way that will bear fruit for the society.

Recounting the opposition he encountered when he was about to return schools to the church, Obi said that everybody now appreciated that because the fruits were now manifesting, with Anambra State suddenly coming first in national examinations.

60 SOCIETY

THE NATION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

The exit of a philantrophist

Ogun State Governor, Sen. Ibikunle Amosu and wife, Olufunso

•Mrs Oluwabunmi Olowude, the widow of the Executive Vice Chairman of Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc, Oluremi Andrew Olowude (2nd left) during the funeral service of her husband at Ikoyi Baptist Church, Lagos, penultimate Friday. With her from left are the children: Dr. Sade Adeyi, Bukky Olowude and Andrew Olowude Olatunde ODEBIYI

Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowan and wife, Victoria

Osun State Depty Governor, Mrs. Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori and Sen. Olabiyi Durojaye

•A one-time Lagos State Commissioner of Finance, Wale Edun (left) and Lai Are

PHOTO: ADEJO DAVID

THE NATION

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 31-10-14

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Equities shed N142b as earnings fail to market

IGERIAN equities closed the last trading session for the week yesterday with a loss of N142 billion as stream of corporate earnings being released at the market failed to halt the successive bearish trend that has gripped the market in recent days.

With an average of seven companies releasing their third quarter results every day, the stock market continued to wriggle under the negative overhang of massive selling pressure from anxious investors. With more than two losers to every gainer, aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped from its opening value of N12.579 trillion to close Friday at N12.437 trillion.

The main index at the NSE, the All Share Index (ASI), closed at a low of 37,550.24 points compared with its opening index of 37,979.99 points. The negative overall market situation was driven

By Taofik Salako, Capital Market Editor

by widespread decline in share prices as well as losses suffered by several highly capitalised stocks.

Guinness Nigeria topped the 34-stock losers’ list with a loss of N8.50 to close at N161.50. Total Nigeria followed with a loss of N8.29 to close at N157.71. Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc lost N8 to close at N165. Cadbury Nigeria dropped by N4.62 to close at N42.78. Nigerian Breweries declined by N4 to close at N162. Forte Oil slipped by N3.05 to close at N211.95. PZ Cussons Nigeria lost N2.57 to close at N23.84.

Oando dwindled by N1.14 to close at N21.66. Guaranty Trust Bank declined by N1.08 to close at N25 while Stanbic IBTC Holdings dropped by 80 kobo to close at N29.60 per share.

Turnover remained on the average with the exchange of a total of 330.86 million shares valued at N3.56 bil-

lion in 4,567 deals. Banking subsector was the most active with a turnover of 148.02 million shares valued at N1.46 billion in 1,779 deals.

On stock by stock basis, Linkage Assurance was the most active with a turnover of 41.07 million shares worth N20.53 million in 88 deals.

Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) followed with a turnover of 34.79 million shares worth N140.55 million in 363 deals. Sterling Bank trailed with a turnover of 32.81 million shares valued at N76.57 million in 167 deals.

On the positive side, Lafarge Africa rode on the back of its third quarter earnings to lead the gainers with addition of N1.78 to close at N109.99. Dangote Sugar Refinery followed with a gain of 26 kobo to close at N7. Portland Paints and Products Nigeria added 22 kobo to close at N5.23. Zenith Bank rose by 20 kobo to close at N21.20 while Fidson Healthcare chalked up 16 kobo to close at N3.48 per share.

DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 31-10-14

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THE NATION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

THE NATION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014

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SPORT EXTRA

Technical C’ttee accepts Amodu’s plea for Keshi T

HE process for the return of Stephen Keshi as Head Coach of the Super Eagles appeared complete on Friday after the NFF Technical Committee accepted the plea for his reconsideration, made by Coach Shaibu Amodu on Monday.

Amodu was announced to take over the senior squad in the early hours of October 16, hours after the team’s 3-1 win over

• Pinnick says ‘no objection’ Sudan in Abuja only took it to third place in the Group A table of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.

However, in a letter dated October, 27 and addressed to NFF President Amaju Pinnick through the Chairman of NFF Technical Committee, the 56 –year old tac-

tician pleaded that Keshi be reconsidered for the two matches as the time –frame was too short to tinker with the fabric of the squad or start to build a new one altogether.

“As Technical Director of the NFF, I am ready and willing to help build a better relationship

• Ike Uche

Keshi swings into action, invites Ike Uche • 24 others for Congo, South Africa matches

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OACH Stephen Keshi has called up 25 players for the must-win 2015 Cup of Nations qualifying matches against the Red Devils of Congo and Bafana Bafana of South Africa.

Much –respected, Spain – based striker Ikechukwu Uche has been called for the first time in nearly two years, and there is also a first senior

team opportunity for Nasarawa United midfielder Tony Edjomari.

Home –based defender Solomon Kwambe also returns, and Aaron Samuel (who got one of the goals against Sudan), Hope Akpan, Sunday Emmanuel and home –boy Emem Eduok have further chances after being called for the matches against the Falcons of Sudan.

Skipper and goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, defenders Godfrey Oboabona and Elderson Echiejile, midfielders Ogenyi Onazi and Mikel Obi, and forwards Ahmed Musa, Emmanuel Emenike and Babatunde Michael are also invited.

All the players are expected to report at the Bolton White Apartments, Wuse, Abuja on Sunday, November 9.

‘My love for Nigeria made me reject offers’

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ETURNING Super Eagles head coach, Stephen Keshi has revealed that the patriotic spirit in him was the reason why he decided not to take offers from other serious African countries in the past.

In the past the 2013 AFCON winning coach was linked with a number of clubs and countries, but all failed to materialise.

“If I wanted a job outside the shores of this country, I would have stayed in Equatorial Guinea, and Alhaji Aminu Maigari, the former Nigeria Football Federation chairman, can bear me witness.

“The offer I had in Equatorial Guinea is far from what they are offering me here, but I decided to come back because this is my country,” he

said.

Recent reports in Ghana had linked the 52-year-old to the Black Stars coaching job vacated by Kwesi Appiah and was even quoted in the Ghanaian media as saying it would be a ‘dream come true’ to manage the team.

It was a failed adventure, as the Ghana Football Association (GFA) dispelled such links.

among Keshi (with whom I have enjoyed a good working relationship in the past and who is still very close to me), the players and the NFF Technical Committee,” Amodu wrote, inter alia.

Speaking on Friday morning, Chairman of the NFF Technical Committee, Chief Felix Anyansi-Agwu, said his committee has accepted the plea and forwarded same to the NFF President.

“We have deliberated on Coach Amodu’s letter, and after speaking to my committee members, we decided to accept it and informed the NFF President of our approval.”

On his part, NFF Pinnick simply said on Friday that he had no objection to the proposal.

“I have never had anything against Keshi as a person.

Amodu is someone we all respect and since that is his opinion and the Technical Committee has approved, so be it.

“I have always said that the work of the committees will not be interfered with. We will give the committees the independence to do their work for optimum results. I am also assuring Nigerians at home and abroad that the NFF will give Keshi all the necessary support to successfully prosecute the two very crucial final matches of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series.”

GOALKEEPERS: Vincent Enyeama (Lille OSC, France); Austin Ejide (Hapoel Be’er Sheva, Israel); Chigozie Agbim (Gombe United, Nigeria) DEFENDERS: Elderson Echiejile (Monaco FC, France); Juwon Oshaniwa (Ashdod FC, Israel); Efe Ambrose (Celtic FC, Scotland); Solomon Kwambe (Sunshine Stars, Nigeria); Godfrey Oboabona (Rizespor FC, Turkey); Kenneth Omeruo (Middlesbrough FC, England); Azubuike Egwuekwe (Warri Wolves, Nigeria) MIDFIELDERS: John Mikel Obi (Chelsea FC, England); Ogenyi Onazi (SS Lazio, Italy); Hope Akpan (Reading FC, England); Raheem Lawal (Eskisehirspor FC, Turkey); Omatsone Aluko (Hull City, England); Tony Edjomari (Nasarawa United, Nigeria) FORWARDS: Ahmed Musa (CSKA Moscow, Russia); Emmanuel Emenike (Fenerbahce FC, Turkey); Gbolahan Salami (Warri Wolves, Nigeria); Osaguona Ighodaro (Enugu Rangers, Nigeria); Ikechukwu Uche (Villareal FC, Spain); Aaron Samuel (Guangzhou R&F, China); Sunday Emmanuel (SV Scholz Grodig, Austria); Babatunde Michael (Volyn Lutsk, Ukraine): Emem Eduok (Dolphins FC, Nigeria)

Sports without a minister • Continued from back page first on the road and then inside one hotel in Abuja, maybe Giwa would have seen reason to give up his ambition in the interest of Nigeria.

The spates of arrest of key functionaries of the NFF gave the now de facto group some hope that their dreams would soon be realised. Now that they are left holding the short end of the stick, they have no other option but to play the spoiler role or become the monster that could consume the minister, if he isn’t careful.

The minister encouraged the charade at the court by immediately implementing the judgment. He appointed an interim secretary for the NFF – an action which negates the statutes. The Jos court ruling was unnecessary when the end of the Maigari-led board was less than 30 days away. Pundits wondered why the minister was in a hurry to sack a board on the verge of finishing its tenure.

Had the minister listened to submissions from stakeholders and perhaps bothered to speak with FIFA men, he would have known that only the Congress can do what he had in mind. Besides, the minister also refused to deny the fact that he was supporting Giwa to replace Maigari. His body language gave him away and set other stakeholders against Giwa if to prove to the minister that he is human after all.

How the minister blew the chance to redeem himself still baffles this writer. He could have divided the Maigari-led camp than muscle them through needless harassment. The minister would have stopped the kangaroo elections, the moment some aggrieved people stormed out of the hotel to conduct their meeting in one of the streets in Abuja.

Again, the second meeting should not have been in Warri, not Abuja. FIFA’s insistence on having Maigari to supervise the last congress ought to have shown the minister where the pendulum was swinging. It is, however late, in the day for the minister to do CAF’s and FIFA’s biddings, having allowed Giwa to spend money on the elections.

No one will blame Giwa, if he tries to play the spoilsport, if that is what he needs to show that he cannot be taken for a ride. Again, had the minister being neutral in his disposition to the two sides in the impasse, he could have pleaded with Giwa to shift grounds, having known that the earlier arrangement would not be accepted by FIFA. Interestingly, it has dawned on the Nigerian government that FIFA can ban us, unlike after the South Africa 2010 World Cup when the defunct Presidential Task Force (PTF) advised the president to withdraw the country from all soccer competitions for two years for us to reinvent the game here. FIFA threatened a ban and the president, after reading thewisecounselfromhisFacebook fans, reversed his decision.

CAF President Issa Hayatou said Nigeria has become an embarrassment to both FIFA and the continental body. Indeed, Hayatou revealed that he begged Sepp Blatter not to stop the final game between Nigeria’s Falcons and their Cameroonian counterparts stating that if he didn’t do that, he would have been accused of helping his country to lift the trophy without kicking the ball.

That is true Hayatou. One hopes that Nigeria will utilise this window to get the illegal NFF off our backs in the interest of the youth who play this game to eke out a living.

We are in this quagmire because certain key government

men who dabbled in the peace moves earlier played politics with the matter. Rather than tell all the parties to abide by the tenets of the FIFA statutes, they were interested in stopping the previous board from staging a return. It will be sad if FIFA bans Nigeria. Falcons would have laboured in vain as they would be prevented from participating at the World Cup slated to hold next year in Canada. All our national teams would stop all their playoffs. We would be declared a pariah nation. Even the domestic games’ results wouldn’t be regonised because they would be handled by referees not recognised by FIFA. So, those rooting for the ban so that we can redefine our game must know that for the locust period, nothing would be valid.

It would be sad if the government shuns this disturbing trend because many of our good players would seek new nationality in a bid to earn their living for the period when we would be banned. Thank God Giwa has withdrawn the case from court.

I hope he won’t drag us back to it, if his demands are not met?

Let’s boo these fumbling coaches The story of the return of the Super Eagles technical crew is laughable. In this crew is a man who told us before his sack that he had seven offers, now being asked to rescue an assignment that has placed our chances of defending the trophy we won in South Africa last year in the cliff hanger. Some say it is a presidential directive. Hmmm! Nigeria, we hail thee. Nigeria jaga, jaga.

Change, ordinarily, is meant to retrieve something that has lost its course. Indeed, when changes are made, the best gauge to find out if the decision is good rests with how people receive the news. When the technical crew with jaded tactics was eased out of office, the ovation was very loud round the country. Till date, no player has openly supported the return of the technical crew.

Their silence means consent and that is where the decision to recall these coaches may further ruin our chances of making it to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco. These Eagles don’t want to help these coaches to succeed because of what has befallen their colleagues who lost out after feuds with this vindictive technical crew.

Besides, the person who persuaded the NFF to reverse its decision must stand up to accept that he made a mistake if we fail to get the qualification ticket. I also hope that the coaches would be made to sign a code of conduct, where they would be mandated to submit their team list to the NFF for scrutiny before it is made public.

Part of the code of conduct for these coaches is the need to guard their utterances that have made Nigeria a laughing stock in the soccer polity. I hoped that the returning coaches know what they are doing because it would be foolhardy for them to complain about late payment of their salaries. Now is the time to reject the offer because I don’t see how this federation can pay coaches N5 million monthly, if Nigeria isn’t at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

If Nigeria fails to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, I hope that the coaches would resign honourably, now that our Ogas at the top have given them a lifeline to rescue the Eagles. I wonder what they would tell Nigerians when they return. What a pity. Let’s boo these fumbling coaches.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL.9, NO. 3019

TOMORROWPUNCHLINE IN THE NATION For if you think that the crisis of the massive production and reproduction of mediocrity and illiteracy in our schools and universities is one which can be simply corrected by holding the feet of federal and state governments and of teachers and lecturers to the fire of responsibility, accountability and patriotism, then you are not likely to think that you need to worry yourself about the liberation of Nigeria.

—Biodun Jeyifo

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N the 27thof August, the widely read syndicated columnist, Mallam Mohammed Haruna, published an article on the public exchange of emails by two of Nigeria’s eminent intellectuals, Professor G.G Darah and Professor ChinweizuIbekwe (simply known more popularly as simply Chinweizu). The subject of their exchange was the then on-going Jonathan National Conference and the structure of the Nigerian federation. The tone and tenor of the exchange between the two men was particularly frightening bitterness against the far north and their advocacy for the polarisation of the country along NorthSouth ethno-regional and religious fault lines.

Chinweizu in particular urged Darah, who was a delegate at the conference, to help work towards a new alliance between the Christian South and Middle belt against the far north which he referred to rather derisively as ‘Shariya-land’. In his uncompromisingly incendiary words as quoted by Haruna “The main point is that we can’t afford to prolong our agony under Caliphate Colonialism. Our liberation requires that they leave Nigeria earlier and the sooner the better. If they are allowed to remain on any terms, even by return to 1960 federalism or Aburi, we’ll still have them polluting our polity”.

If the iconoclastic and polyvalent Chinweizu – Africanist, teacher, author, journalist and devastating polemicist - has his way, he unrepentantly advocates the excision of the far north from Nigeria as attempted by the misguided Major Gideon Orkar-led coupists in 1992. Going by his logic, the north is the problem of Nigeria. Remove the north from the country’s geographical space and all the problems of Nigeria will presumably vanish.

Professor Darah, the former Marxist and foremost theorist of oral African literature, apparently supports this position. No wonder the Urhobo-born professor is an ardent supporter of hisIjaw Niger –Delta kinsman, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, quest for a second term in office, notwithstanding the widespread perception of the administration’s lack lustre performance in diverse sectors.

When some of our best brains can indulge in this kind of highly reductionist, overly ethnocentric and substantially misleading analyses of Nigerian politics, then what can we expect from those who do not endowed with their level of reasoning and rigorous intellection?

In a certain way, Professors Chinweizu and Darah symbolise the new found political amity between the South-East and SouthSouth. The South-East is one of the strongest support bases of President Jonathan today.

Yet the relationship between the dominant political elites of the two geo-political zones is an unequal one. There was a time when the late eminent political scientist, Professor Billy Dudley, analysed Nigerian politics in terms of game-analytic permutations among three dominant power blocs – the Igbo,

Who casts the first stone?

•Map of Nigeria Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani power blocs. The truth, however, is that the hegemonic Igbo political elite no more constitutes a coherent or effective power bloc in Nigerian politics. It has strangely opted to play junior partner to a new, emergent Ijaw power-bloc.

The Igbo political class appears to have reached a strategic impasse. With the staunch support of leading Igbo politicians for Dr Jonathan’s second term, the once popular and emotive idea of a possible Igbo President is clearly in abeyance for the foreseeable future. Yes, many distinguished sons and daughters of Igbo land hold key strategic positions in the Jonathan presidency. But given the limited vision and competence demonstrated by the administration so far, this is unlikely to translate meaningfully into the radical transformation of the region or the revolutionary liberation of the unrivalled technological potentials of the Igbo people.

Yet, most members of the Igbo political elite do not see the strategic sense of having a substantial presence in both major parties – the PDP and APC in order to more maximally take advantage of whatever opportunities may be thrown up for the political advancement of the region.

However, like Chinweizu and Darah, many

Nigerian intellectuals and other members of the political elite tend to create the impression that their respective ethnic groups or geopolitical zones constitute some kind of super or superior groups, which would have made far more progress but for the constricting effects of a deformed Nigerian political structure. But then nobody is born a Nigerian. We are all first and foremost members of our respective ethnic groups before we are members of the more ‘artificial’ Nigerian house in which we are all accommodated. If the Nigerian house is in perilous danger of falling (apologies to Karl Meir), it is a collective responsibility of the country’s multi-dimensional elite that cut across all ethno-regional and cultural groups.

I do not subscribe to the simplistic and misleading notion of amonolithic ethno-regional elite that is in dominant control of political power at any time just because one of its members occupies the apex of political authority. It is utterly delusional, for instance, to assume that there is any significant re-configuration of Nigeria’s power matrix in favour of the Ijaw or Niger Delta simply because an Ijaw man is president. The more things seem to change the more they actually remain the same. It was also this kind of reasoning which made the Yoruba political class across party lines to flock behind a non-performing President OlusegunObasanjo in 2003 with ultimately nothing to show for it.

Power domination is a far more complex phenomenon to track. To discover its concrete content may involve a rigorous and scientific investigation of the actual ethno-regional composition of the various factions of the elite including the political elite, bureaucratic and professional elite, business and commercial elite among others. It may in fact be the case that actual and meaningful power is wielded by less visible but strategically placed operatives who are not in the public glare.

Can any faction of Nigeria’s multi-dimensional elite summon the moral right to cast the first stone, lay the blame for our national perils at the feet of others and proclaim its innocence? I do not think so. For instance, northern leaders such as Dr Junaid

Mohammed, Professor AngoAbdullahi or AlhajiAdamuCiroma sound offensive and haughty when they assert the right of the north to produce the president after Jonathan because of the 1999 zoning arrangement that was truncated by President UmaruYar’Adua’s unanticipated demise.

But they cannot easily or persuasively discount the argument that the north has produced the country’s apex political leadership – civil and military – for the better part of Nigeria’s post-independence history and cannot dodge part responsibility for her present pitiable plight. Thus, rather than claim a right to the presidency, the north should be more subtle, humble and emphasise the positive values of its candidates.

On its part, the Igbo political class still understandably smart from the tragic experience of the civil war particularly the genocide that precipitated the conflagration. They no doubt suffered a great historic injustice.

But any sober analysis will situate the genocide in the north within the context of the ethnically skewed composition of the arrowheads of the January 1966 coup, the no less suspicious pattern in the killing of military and civilian leaders during the coup and the perceived ethno-regional predilections of theAguiyiIronsi regime.

Professor Billy Dudley, who was teaching at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria at the time noted in his definitive study of political instability in Nigeria, that “Outside the university, the practice of Ibo men holding up Northerners to ridicule had become a common enough experience. Pictures of Nzeogu with one foot over the corpse of the slain premier of the North, Sir Ahmadu Bello, symbolic of the ascendancy of the East and the Ibo, were to be found on sale in the markets of the north”. That was one of the indiscretions of the Igbos resident in the north that created so much resentment from their hosts in the region.

And those Yoruba elite who cite the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election won by Chief MKO Abiola as a historic injustice are right. But a more nuanced reading of history shows that the annulment of the June 12 polls came after the earlier cancellation of the SDP and NRC primaries. The late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua had won a clear cut victory in the SDP while UmaruShinkafi and AdamuCiroma were headed for a run off in the SDP. The cancellation of the primaries and subsequent banning of the leading aspirants received enthusiastic support in the south and the wily Babangida had thus undertaken a successful dress rehearsal for the future annulment aimed at self-perpetuation in office.

The point is that mistakes have always been made on all sides in the evolution of our political history and this reality should spur the various ethno-regional factions of our political class to discard self-righteousness and adopt a more accommodative spirit in the quest for political power.

Ade Ojeikere on Saturday talk2adeojeikere@yahoo.com

Sports without a minister

S

PORTS Ministers are the problem with Nigeria’s football. They come with jaded mindsets about what is happening in the GlassHouse in Abuja. For most ministers, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is the most corrupt body in the universe. So, they always come for the jugular of its president, not minding if he is achieving results or not.

Every new minister visits the NFF secretariat first, even when all the stadia are in ruins. Rather than ask National Sports Commission (NSC) officials where all the cash budgeted for stadium development goes, he listens to their advice and calls for a change immediately without following the due process.

Ministers want to run NFF budgets, even as no NFF board has been found guilty of corruption. Since ministers deal directly with

the President, they tell tales about what they see as the administrative tardiness at the Glasshouse. Our shambolic outings in the other 43 sports do not matter. Till date, the NFF is the most successful federation among the others, yet this is where the most bizarre changes are made.

Many sports federations don’t attend major competitions as important as the Africa Cup of Nations and nothing happens. Members fight themselves and provide evidence of corrupt practices in their sports, but such incidents are treated with levity.

Indeed, most ministers divide the ranks in our football anytime our male footballers raise any dust. The women understand why such things happen and win laurels. Super Eagles and ministers are the cancer in our football.

Eagles have embarrassed us twice in Namibia and Brazil. Rather than disband the team, we are busy trying to smuggle the coaches, who

couldn’t get the boys to travel back, into the team.

For instance, majority of the countries at the World Cup have not received their appearance fees. Our Eagles have, alongside Cameroon and Ghana.

Our girls’ teams (Falconets and Super Falcons) have shone despite these crises. The Eagles are struggling to qualify for the Cup of Nations – a competition in which they are the defending champions.

It is the eagerness to remove everyone in the GlassHouse and install the minister’s men that has always set Nigeria against the constituted authorities in FIFA and CAF. Some 208 countries abide by FIFA’s simple rules; Nigeria won’t. Ministers see the window in Decree 101, which gives them the power to intervene at any time they feel that things are not going well with our football. Sadly, the Aminu Maigari-led NFF qualified for all

FIFA’s competitions, earning the body accolades from the world football ruling body.

Nigeria was the only country out of 209 - our country inclusive - to achieve that feat, yet our minister hounded that board out with ignominy.

In a desperate attempt to remove Maigari, all manner of people were recruited and promised positions at the NFF. Perhaps, the minister thought he could muscle in Giwa.

But the insistence on doing the election on the basis of the FIFA statutes scuttled an effort which would have sailed through in the past where the minister would have invoked Decree 101 to install Giwa. The minister’s tacit support in the kangaroo election that ushered in Giwa left much to be desired.

Again, the swiftness in implementing the initial court verdict gave an indication about what the government wanted.

Had the minister withdrawn from the illegal attempt to enthrone Giwa, especially when the legitimate NFF held its congress,

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