The Nation November 28, 2011

Page 1

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

News Ministers, presidential aides yet to get salaries Sport Eguavoen hopeful Olympic Eagles will redeem image Business Central Bank declares 82 Finance Houses unsound

P8 P24 P11

www.thenationonlineng.net

VOL. 7, NO. 1958 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2011

TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH

N150.00

•No room for rigging, says INEC •AND MORE •PDP denies role in attack on ACN supporters •I won’t probe Idris, says ACN candidate Audu

KOGI 2011

•PAGE 9

•COUNTDOWN TO THE DECEMBER 3 GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION IN THE CONFLUENCE STATE

A

NIGERIAN made car will soon hit the road, a company said yesterday. State-of-the-art facilities are being installed to push out the car, which its builders, VON Automobile Nigeria Limited, say will “replace the importation of fully built versions”. VON Automobiles Managing Director Tokunbo Aromolaran yesterday

Firm rejects Senate panel’s recommendation From Yusuf Alli, Abuja

urged the Ad-hoc Committee of the Senate on the activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to review its recommendations to reflect the reality in the company. VON Automobiles Nigeria Limited

is the new owner of the rejuvenated Volkswagen of Nigeria (VWON) assembly plant. The company said that with the imminent roll out of its first vehicles on Nigerian roads, VON’s performance has demonstrated that privatisation is workable.

The committee had advised the Federal Government to buy back the shares acquired by VON since it has not started production. But, in a statement issued in Abuja, Aromolaran said since VON took over the firm, it has transformed it.

His words: “We proudly present VON as one of the success stories of the Federal Government’s privatisation programme now and in the years to come. “Distinguished Senators and interested stakeholders should come on a facility tour of the

plant to verify the transformation going on at VON. “VON requires encouragement and appreciation rather than adverse allegations and obstacles. “Several Nigerians have been employed, helping it to achieve larger plans that would eventually benefit thousands of Nigerian, ancillary industries and other stakeholders.”

IBB: Igbo president will gladden Ojukwu’s heart Obi urges patience on funeral plans

Suspect linked to UN House bombing

From Yusuf Alli, Abuja

From Duku Joel, Damaturu

F

ORMER military President Ibrahim Babangida knows how to make the late Biafran leader, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, happy in death: ensuring that the Igbo produce President. Gen. Babangida yesterday joined a long row of prominent Nigerians eulogising the late Ojukwu, a fellow soldier, who died in London on Saturday. He described the late Biafran leader as a “wordsmith”, a “great orator” and a “courageous” Nigerian. Gen. Babangida, in a tribute he paid through his spokesman, Prince Kassim Afegbua, said of the late Ojukwu: “He was a man who felt the Igbo nation SEE deserves more than it is getting and did give me his word that ALSO he was going to support me on PAGES the assurance that I would take 6 & 7 a Nigerian of Igbo extraction as my running mate in the presidential contest. “I was going to do that before the aspiration petered out. Despite that, I still believe in the presidential aspiration of the Igbo in future elections and one thing that would gladden the mind of Dim, even in death, is to see an Igbo man becoming President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in the spirit of unity and stability.” He urged the Federal Government to immortalise Ojukwu by naming a monuContinued on page 2

•Sect kills four policemen •Churches burnt

S

•The late Ojukwu

•Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr Dalhatu Tafida, condoling with the Mrs Bianca Ojukwu, wife of the late Chief Ojukwu in London ... yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

ECURITY agents have uncovered a new lead linking a detained suspect, Ali Sauda Umar Konduga (a.k.a Usman AlZawahiri), to the bombing of the UN House and the Police Headquarters in Abuja. Konduga has named Senator Ali Ndume as one of the sponsors of the Boko Haram sect. Ndume and Konduga have been arraigned before an Abuja Chief Magistrate’s Court for criminal intimidation. Konduga got a nine-year jail term. Ndume is in the custody of the State Security Services (SSS). Security reports at the Presidency have foreclosed moves to “politicise” Ndume’s Continued on page 2

•SPORT P24 •POLITICS P25 •CITYBEATS P31 •JOBS P47 •CEO P49


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