Sun News - October 10, 2012

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

DAILY SUN

25

ABUJAMetro THE COMPREHENSIVE

FCT MAGAZINE

ABUJA: Flambouyant city of slums

•Unbelievable tale of Utako and Jabi shantytowns

By CHINAZA ONOH

W

hen you hear of comedy of errors, what readily comes to mind is the theatre but that properly applies to the Abuja city.

The signs are there all over the large and flashy city. But strictly speaking, what one sees in Abuja city is just the opposite of the pictures and stories that have been painted in the mind of an intending visitors. When you set feet on Abuja, move around for sometime to see places and it dawns on you that Abuja is as beautiful as it is ugly.

The rude shock of slums, doting the beautiful city amid the splendour and wealth, is enough to trouble the mind.

Abuja, long before now, was known for order, quietness and bustling with

affluence. But the city is presently struggling with the old fiend that Lagos is aiming at getting rid of; traffic congestion, filthy environment and the worst of them all - the slums in the major parts of the city. They exist just at the city centres. It is so out of place to juxtapose a sprawling highbrow city like the wide, wonderful architecture, paved streets of Utako and Jabi with the slums next door.

Utako slum The major slums being referred to here are those of Utako and Jabi Villages because there are so many of such places all over Abuja. They are the traditional villages reserved for the natives in the course of the development of the city.

These slums however are found right at the middle of the city. Despite the amount of money sunk into Abuja, the billions of naira swirling in the city, the populations of these shantytowns have not in any way been affected. They

remain poor, wretched slum dwellers.

The common features of the slums in the big city are thatched houses littered everywhere, the pools of stagnant water found almost at every corner serving as fertile breeding grounds for mosquitoes and the piles of refuse found at every corner of the area which makes it difficult for both humans and animals to live.

In addition to the non-conducive nature of this environment, the dwellers lack health centres for their healthcare needs.

On a day of visit to the slums in Utako and Jabi, Abuja Metro was received warmly by an indigene who explained that the slums live in order and a particular mode of political and social control.

The close-knit settlements are little in space but heavy in population density.

Most migrants who storm Abuja for livelihood, at last end up in these places where the cost of living is at its lowest.

The slum of Utako for instance seethes with leaders and chiefs – each for the

ethnic groups with population there.

There are of Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Igala extractions in addition to the Esu of the Gbagyi, who are owners of the land.

In an encounter with the traditional ruler he gave a brief history of the village saying that Kutako village now simply ‘Utako’ came into existence during the 1930’s and was originally handed down to him by his forefathers whom he said, came to the area in search for larger farmlands. The village that was mainly inhabited by the native Gbagyi then, has become a place where common Nigerians of different tribes find cheap abode as entre port to access the goodies and trappings of Abuja at little cost.

The result is terrible congestion in the village the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) intentionally spared in the course of the FCT development as the natural niche of the natives of the land. Although the village is located in

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

ABUJAMetro

DAILY SUN

Flambouyant city of slums

How touts hijacked MTN, Glo SIM registration PAGE 37

Wuse Market: Where Abuja shopping begins and ends PAGE 29

Need scrap metal?

PAGE 35

Job seekers write applications in SMS language PAGE 38

the heart of the city, accommodation is relatively cheap because of the quality and standard of what serves as homes here.

He pleaded with the government to officially allocate the lands to them and give them prototype of structures required there. He said they don’t enjoy living in the shabby structures, but are afraid that they may build good houses only to face demolition in the future by the government. Esu noted that having better homes would better assure a decent future for their children.

Jabi shanty Away from the Utako slum into the ambient highbrow neighbourhood on the way to the Jabi slum, the expansive Obafemi Awolowo highway, beautiful structures, tree-lined clean streets and paved driveways make you feel glad breathing cleaner air.

But in about five minutes, after crossing the busy Jabi Park junction, driving up the same Obafemi Awolowo, to the right, at a major junction directly oppo-

site a gigantic Apostolic Faith Church is another jungle in the city. It’s the Jabi slum in the heart of the Jabi flashy city.

Lost in admiration of the architectural wonder, of this area of Abuja, one was jolted back to reality when the voice of the bus conductor called out, ‘madam na here be Jabi village, drop ’- meaning that one was already at the destination.

Abuja Metro felt like having seen it all at the Utako slum. But nothing from the old scene prepared one for the pictures in Jabi.

Jabi slum in its effects seems to take the shine off Utako in filth and the stench that attacks your nostrils. It is not different from the one at Utako in terms of the structures and environment. A visit to the chief’s palace was most rewarding as he did not hesitate to educate about the village when told the purpose of visit.

He said Jabi village was founded by hunters and farmers that migrated from Abuchi, Gariki, Maitama and Kado in the 1940s. The traditional head quickly handed out the basic history of the founding of the village, noting that those

days, only the Gbagyi people lived there.

But since the advent of the FCT, the ethnic composition and economy of Jabi is a world away from those days of yore.

For ease in administration, the erstwhile pristine village is now split into five villages of many tribes and governed by their chiefs. He wants the FCT government to formally allocate the remaining lands to them so they could build more houses for their children.

Nevertheless, the indigenes despite all these challenges strive to survive as majority engage in farming and petty businesses to make ends meet while some work as unskilled hands in some of the government offices and other outlets.

The village head has word of advice for the FCT administration. “Pictures and places as Utako and Jabi villages should not form part of the city. The government should wake up to its responsibility to her citizens, treat the matter of health and environment with priority because these places can become safe havens for terrorist groups, armed robbers, and miscreants.”

ABUJAMetro

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

DAILY SUN

27

CRIME TREND

Cynthia’s killers did expert job, says cop that cracked incident

By MOLLY KILETE

W

hen the news of the murder of the late Cynthia Osokogu by her social media friends in a hotel room in Lagos first hit the airwaves, many had thought the police would as usual tell the public that investigation was on going.

But when the case was assigned to Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Dan Okoro, head of the investigating team, many, who knew him, expected much. His records in service have details of performance. To his credit are stories of busting of several crimes.

ACP Okoro, the officer from Imo State, joined the services of the Nigerian Police in 1984. He immediately moved to the scene of the crime. But what he saw in the hotel room, shook him to his marrow, that he broke down like a child.

Known for his bravery in the police and having taken part in so many suicide operations, including the arrest of foremost Sierra-Leonian war lord, Foday Sankoh, Okoro, said there was something different about the late Cynthia’s operation because for the first time in almost 30 years of his service, he saw the wickedness of man proudly displayed when he came in contact with the body of the deceased.

“I was emotionally touched. I felt so bad that somebody could do this to a human being. The body was really in a bizarre and gory state.”

He told Abuja Metro his story in an interview after receiving an award from the National Orientation Agency (NOA) for the good job he did in the investigation.

After the initial shock he experienced on sighting the body, he had to put himself together and vowed to get the killers at all cost even if that would be his last mission in service or in life.

Getting the killers was not an easy task, as he and his team spent so many sleepless nights, cracking their brains because most of the GSM numbers used by the killers were not registered. To make matters worse, the killers, according to the police officer, cleared their tracks and left nothing to trace them.

Okoro said at a point, he even had to play the role of the manager of the hotel where the deceased was killed to get information about the killers.

The real gist “Getting those that murdered Cynthia took intensive and painstaking investigation. After the lady’s murder, there was no trace left by the actors. It was like a job done by real experts.

“I came into that hotel and found that what was before me was not easy to unravel because they left nothing in the room where she was murdered. But I picked up a card, it was a vaccination card with a passport number. So, I called for the particulars of the girl from the immigration services, that was when I was able to identify her as Cynthia Osokogu and it was from there we proceeded and thought of what next to do.

“There was a call that came and said remove that dead body from the hotel we are not coming back. After the call, I had to call for the call log of that number. It was very unfortunate that the number was not registered and there was no photograph and so, it became a little bit difficult through an unregistered sim and how to get the owner of the number.

“Then I called for the log of the same number in the past three months and started working from there.

“Two weeks later, another call came again to Cynthia’s phone and said I am the elder brother of the late girl and I am calling from Abuja. I told the hotel management that I should be called when the person calls because he had promised to call in two hours time.

“So, I decided to go to the hotel and assumed the position of the hotel manager. When the call came, I received it and asked the caller questions. I noticed he pretended to be the brother of the deceased girl and I asked him some certain questions and he told me he got the information of the hotel on Google. I said okay, not in this very hotel that he should call back in about a week’s time so he dropped the call.

“I called MTN to give me the call logs pertaining to that particular number who claimed to be the victim’s brother in the past three months. When I got the threemonth-log, I equally discovered that it was not registered and there was no photograph for the same subscriber. But when I checked the first call that said remove the body and that of the second caller, I discovered that two months back, the two numbers called each other.

Beyond that, there was high traffic of calls between the two, and possibly they know each other.

Okoro

“

Getting the killers was not an easy task, as he and his team spent so many sleepless nights, cracking their brains because most of the GSM numbers used by the killers were not registered. To make matters worse, the killers, according to the police officer, cleared their tracks and left nothing to trace them...After the lady’s murder, there was no trace left by the actors. It was like a job done by real experts”

“We also discovered that 16 calls had been made between these two numbers, so we decided to check how we could get more callers to these number and we got 40 of such calls and decided to take it up from the two callers.

“At last we zeroed it down to 10 callers. When we got the ten consistent callers, which we found to be of different genders, we knew we were very close to the target.

“We invited so many persons along the line and because we painted a scenario unknown to them that it was a case of murder that we are investigating, at the end of the day, we had two and one of the subscribers was in Benin Republic.

So, we had to go to Cotonou, and equally discovered that the caller was in American International University. We had to go there also, saw the subscriber and played around to lure him into Lagos.

“We checked his phone and discovered that the subscriber had been interacting very highly with the person that claimed to be the brother of the late girl. Again, we checked the call log of the one that claimed to be calling from Abuja, we discovered that the receiving mast of the caller was in Lagos and the sending mast was equally in Lagos as against his claims to be calling from Abuja and that aroused our suspicion that the person we are looking for must be very close to this heinous crime.

“I had the feeling that whoever that must have killed Cynthia should not be let loose and must not be allowed to escape justice. It was that high passion that those that committed this dastardly act should be arrested and brought to book that actually drove me. And it was on that light that we decided that we should painstakingly go into the investigation to unravel the killers.”

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

ABUJAMetro

DAILY SUN

FCT NEWS NIMC to issue 100m Nigerians ID cards in 2013 From Abuja

T

IKENNA

EMEWU,

he National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has assured that its plans and preparation for the issuance and renewal of national ID cards will yield dividends before the end of next year.

The Director General of the NIMC, Mr. Chris Onyemenam, gave the assurance recently in Abuja when he addressed media men on activities of the agency.

He also used the occasion to address the position of protesting laid-off workers over their complaints.

He indicated that the new ID card in the works would be faking-proof and serve multiple purposes for the identification of a citizen and bearer where it could be used in all manners of security and identification related transactions and deals.

On the contrary, the NIMC noted that almost all the former workers involved in the protest were ghost staffers, who never came to work or knew when the commission did its staff audit and eventual lay-off.

The DG told the media that contrary to the claims of the former workers, who had ben besieging the gate of the NIMC demanding pay-off, the real workers had been settled.

Displaying bank alerts indicating payments, the Director of Finance explained that all the genuine workers had been paid their entitlements as at August 24. “This is my personal phone, but I make it available to convince you of the payment transactions.”

The notifications from the bank indicated that on August 14, the commission paid the affected former workers their outstanding salaries and arrears. On August 22, they got their promotion arrears while in the last payment, on August 24, their salary accounts were credited with their promotion arrears.

“Let me explain to Nigerians what really went wrong. In 2008 when we came into place from the former agency, NIMC took over the assets and liabilities of the former Department of National Civil Registration (DNCR) after which we conducted due diligence, evaluation and audit.

“The nominal roll of the defunct DNCR had over 10,000 staffers, most of whom were over 88 per cent in the junior staff category. We found that most of these workers were idle after the 2003 mass ID production project that ended in December 2006. Absenteeism was no doubt very high among these workers. The ICR department, for instance, ran two

FCT N210m training institute underway

T

he Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration has said it is setting up a training institute that will cost N210 million at Kubwa, Bwari Area Council.

This was disclosed last week to members of the House of Representatives Committee on Area Council and Ancillary Matters during their oversight tour of the FCT. AIhaji Attahiru Abdullahi, a director with the FCT told the House members that the perform-

ance of the Area Councils at Area Council Service Commission office is really commendable.

He said part of the cost of the construction of the institute had been paid to the contractor as mobilisation and construction is already in progress. “I assure you that we have already started work on the site and the work will be finished at agreed time and the institute, we are sure, will be of great use to the FCT and the nation.”

Alhaji Abdullahi used the forum of the visit to implore the House

Committee to increase the budget of the FCT instead of a plan to cut the allocation.

He assured that the FCT administration headed by Senator Bala Mohammed has good intentions on what to do to lift the FCT, but lack of adequate fund has always hindered it from carrying out its crucial projects.

The acting Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Kamisu Mailantarki in reaction to the issues presented to him during the visit said it would be premature for him to comment without look-

ing into the papers they got.

He assured the FCT that his team will gt back and study the documents and through them ascertain the extent of compliance of the government to openness, due process and integrity in governance.

Yahaya Al Hassan Gwagwa, the Secretary of the Area Council Service Secretariats told the House members that all hands are on deck to serve the common man better through the office and many measures on to actualize the goals of the government.

PDP in UK to honour outstanding governors From DIANE EZEH, Abuja

T

Chief Emeka Ngige, SAN (middle) with some other Nigerian lawyers, including Mr. Ricky Tarfa, SAN (right), Niyi Akintola, SAN at the International Bar Association conference in Dublin recently

Fake drugs prevalence blamed on weak enforcement

E

xperts have said the reason fake drugs abound in the nation’s markets is because fakers and dealers get lenient penalty.

The President, Nigeria Medical Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, made the assertion recently in Abuja and also challenged the government to adopt stricter measures as punishment for offenders and through that help in discouraging and taming the scourge.

He said this during the international Sanitisation workshop organised by National Agency For Food And Drug Administration And Control (NAFDAC) and Christabel International.

The interactive, tagged Effective Leadership in Eradicating Fake and Unwholesome Food and Drugs, also featured the presentation of a book, Modern Approach to Food and Drugs Administration and Control.

The NMA chief also urged NAFDAC to take a closer look

at registered herbal medicines in which the makers claim such drugs are suitable for the treatment of multiple ailments.

He said that NAFDAC number on herbal drug should be based on a cure. He attributed the trend where the consumer is harassed with fake drugs and those with multiple cure on poverty.

The Special Adviser to president on Ethic and Value Mrs. Sarah Jibril commended NAFDAC on its role in combating fake drugs and food and also urged all agencies in charge of monitoring the standard of drug administration to sit up and do their work effectively to save lives of the citizen.

Mrs. Joys Ugwu who represented the Minister for Health, at the occasion frowned at uncoordinated drugs administration, lamenting that Nigeria is the only country where drug sales is carelessly liberalized, and people can walk into shops or pharmacy to buy drugs like every

other commodity.

She said that the Federal Ministry of Health and the federal government would launch a guideline on drug coordination to eradicate the problem this year.

“The project has been on and it will come up on the guideline soon.”

She noted that most of the fake drugs in the country come in from India, yet Nigeria never exports any drugs to India in return. She urged the right authorities to stop the importation of fake drugs to the country.

Alhaji Ali Abrahim, who represented the Director General of the NAFDAC blamed the existence of fake drugs on the nation’s porous borders and called on government to enact capital punishment for fake drugs offence.

He said only such stringent measure will help in eradicating fake drugs administration in the country.

he PDP United Kingdom Coordinator, Barr. Ese Okotie has indicated that the party in diaspora will establish a chair to honour governors of the party who perform well in office.

Okotie said the investiture will be part of the stengthening of the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The position was disclosed at a meeting of the youths of the party organized by the South-East Zone PDP Transformation Movement recently in Abuja.

He also noted that they are going to engage international organizations and universities to honour PDP performing governors because the purpose of the transformation agenda is practically proving that the taste of pudding is in the eating.

In addition, he explained that Bill Clinton while presenting his speech in Nigeria in 2001 mentioned that among 20,000 Nigerian medical doctors in the United States of America 18,000 are consultants and not limited to medical professions.

“We have the same in architecture, the legal profession as well as business and other fields of expertise,” he said.

With the intention of projecting Nigeria in a different light, he invited all members in advance to the UK inauguration while engaging members of UK parliament, businesspeople and other professionals to the forum.

Commending Nigeria leaders, he described Arc. Ibrahim Bunu, a former minister and the First National Patron, PDP Transformation Movement, as a special man, who has Nigeria’s interest at heart.

In the same vein, the PDP Zonal Coordinator, Ikechukwu Anazodo assured members of the party that the transformation agenda is real and plans are ongoing to ensure successful inauguration of the Anambra State chapter soon.

ABUJAMetro

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

DAILY SUN

29

BUSINESS

Wuse Market: Where Abuja shopping begins and ends

Traders displaying their goods

By DIANE EZEH, CHINAZA ONOH and HEAVENS KELECHI KINGS, URSULA MBALA OJIJI

I

f you have been to Abuja, then you must have heard of Wuse Market. Of course, there are supermarkets, road shops and other transaction centres located in Abuja but the market that first springs to mind whenever Abuja markets or shopping is mentioned is the popular Wuse Market, a name gotten from the town it is found, Wuse. The reason for the popularity of this Market is trendy and inspiring.

This is the centre of shopping in Abuja that has space for the pedestrian and the moneybag.

Wuse Market depicts a paradigm shift from the status quo, projecting a new beginning in Nigeria where public facilities meet reputable standards. A person, blindfolded and carried to Wuse Market in Abuja would swear with his life that: “This is not Nigeria.”

Despite its grandeur, however, nothing can be said about its origin. It can hardly be ascertained whether there are people doing business in the market with knowledge of the beginning of Wuse Market. It suffices to say, therefore, that the market sprang out of nothing just like Abuja in which it is located came out of the blues.

People need beauty as well as bread. They need places to play in and pray in, food and drugs to sustain health and prolong life, clothes and shoes to keep up with the fashion, restrooms for convenience, easy access to facilities, security, and many other cherished factors and facilities orderliness.

The market offers these and more in an

amazingly modern fashion. It may also be appropriate to term Wuse market, an allpurpose market and centre point of shopping in Abuja, hosting residents of all classes that want products at affordable prices in a city where cut-throat bidding is the fad.

Someone who is not circumspect will end up buying impulsively as there are things of all sorts displayed, some on shelves, the bare floor, the ground outdoors and others in showrooms. You can just buy and buy and never feel satisfied only to be disappointed upon getting home that you bought things you do not need.

The deafening jostle and bustle that characterize typical Nigerian markets are nonexistent in Wuse. This does not imply that Wuse Market is as quiet as a grave otherwise it would cease to be a market. One can notice order and serenity, scarce attributes of markets, in Wuse while serious business goes on.

Someone standing in front of the market at night without prior knowledge would conclude that it is a residential estate of some sort because of the peculiar way in which the shops are arranged.

The gates that lead into the market are guarded by giant billboards that stand tall above the gates.

From the entrance gate, the driveway leads directly to the car park where patrons pay and park for safety. The market is arranged into different parts to facilitate movement such that anyone who wants to buy ladies wears or bakery materials will not have any difficulty locating the shops. This characteristic is distinct from that of Ogige Market in Nsukka where shoes are sold in a shop and cooking items in the next shop.

One can easily locate one’s destination and walk freely within the market as there are signs that show directions. When lost, a patron can look up to the sign boards hung up between shops in the same manner the Israelites in the biblical story looked up to the serpent in the wilderness and found healing.

Remarkably, the market has two parts: the outer part, located outside the gates and the inner part. Apart from the size, the ground space is tarred making it look much more modern and cleaner than other large markets

in Nigeria such as Onitsha Main Market.

Outside the market, around the fence and at both sides leading to the market are traders – hawkers, vendors and others displaying their goods on the ground, barking out their wares and prices at passersby. One could also get off balance at the loud voices of bus conductors as they scream to beckon on passengers that are going towards their direction to board their vehicle. The entrance to the market is so busy that one would be held in awe how busy the entrance is when compared with the main market. If one happens to visit the market at rush hours, it would make a sour and harsh experience maneuvering through. Without walking into the market, one can purchase all s/he wants outside the market. It is even preferable to shop outside the market as things are much cheaper there from our finding.

Rowdy is the right word that would define the atmosphere of this outer part of the market with endless noise and drama of people in transaction. This part of the market is typical of our day-to-day markets with a milling and raucous crowd. You easily and often hear abuses and the funny names the seemingly frustrated and haggard-looking petty traders render on their customers. What makes this market spectacular is that despite its rowdiness and the noise, people conduct their affairs without concern for what others are doing. So it sufficiently means Wuse is a “mind your business market.”

The inner part is well organized, less populated, spruce and is not as noisy as the outer part. There are banks adjacent to the market, apparently for easy access to cash The calibre of people who trade at the inside the market are the rich and middle class, in contrast to the outer section where the lower class make their purchases. This is evident from the types of cars at the parking lot.

Despite the splendour of the market, prices are lower here than in other markets in the Abuja metropolis, but still higher compared with the popular markets found in the suburbs of Abuja like Nyanya, Karmo. Deidei. Karu etc. An item could be sold for N1500 in Nyanya market and N2500 in Wuse market, confirming the sumptuousness of the market. This characteristic is attributed to the amount paid for rent in the areas adjacent the market and for shops in the market. Abuja Metro discovered from a trade that paying for a modest lock-up shop takes a bill of about N1.6m for a year.

More so, Wuse Market is governed by a federal corporation - Abuja Markets Management Ltd which was established in 2005 during the reign of Mallam Nasiru Ahmed el-Rufai. This management is in charge of coordinating the facilities in all government-owned markets in Abuja such as car parks, waste evacuation etc.

Shopping experience in Wuse Market, is a must-have for any one intending to make a good bargain with options and choices in Abuja.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

ABUJAMetro

DAILY SUN

HUMAN INTEREST

Help! Nkiru needs N5m to fix her kidney

By HEAVENS KELECHI KINGS

M

iss Nkiru Nkwocha is a fatherless lady with chronic kidney disease.

Her mother, on hearing the news of her daughter’s ailment, could not bear the burden of the financial cost and in heartbreak, she died.

Nkiru’s life is ticking away like the hand of the clock and unless there is N5 million to pick the bill of her medial treatment, the possibility is high that she would not see many days from now before she collapses into the hands of death.

She hails from Umugota Orishaeze in Ngor Okpala Local Government Area of Imo state. According to Dr. Mamven Manmak, the consultant Nephrologist, handling her case, she undergoes haemodialysis every week in preparation for a kidney transplant as soon as possible in India.

However, all depends on the availability of funds and will definitely not come from her family because she has none to pick such a bill. She is relying on public goodwill to live.

Her situation has put her friends, family

Nkiru

and well wishers in an unstable state as they try to raise the money. Mr. Augustine Nkwocha, a close relative, also a petty trader, has sold all he has on her twice-a-week haemodialysis at the University of Abuja

By DIANE EZEH and KINGS HEAVENS KELECHI

J

eff Okoroafor is a young graduate of the Adamawa State University that made it big with a record First Class honours degree in Computer Science. In addition, he is also a graduate of African University of Science and Technology in the same discipline. He, in this interview, narrated to Abuja Metro why he shunned the opportunity to teach after graduation, preferring instead to try his hands in self-employment in the InfoTech field.

What was your experience as undergraduate?

My experience as a student was simple and difficult.

Schooling in a very far northern location from Abuja was not easy in the first place but it was an opportunity for me to make a difference. Part of my experience while in school was holding on to a value of standing up to create a record that will be unbreakable for years. So, I will not say that the school passed through me, it was a mutual kind of relationship I had with the school. I had a social life in school, very robust one and I had devoted time to study. I was the president of my departmental students association and I was the vice-president of Nigerian Federation of Catholic Students (NFCS). I was also the provincial secretary for my chapter.

I held a few other posts in school. I was a performer for MTN and the good thing about my undergraduate life is that I was able to meet the expectations my family had on me to graduate with special grade.

What inspired you to make first class?

My inspiration mostly came from a signpost I saw in my department when I first came to school. I saw various grades. I saw somebody with 5.0 points grade and I said ok, that I am going to make first class too. I didn’t know how I was going to do it but I was determined. I knew that if I give in more time and strength, I would make it. I also had people who were looking up to me because my dad made me a promise that if I perform very well, he would do something remarkable for me. With that, I was determined to make a difference. As God would have it, right from my first year, I had a first class mark. I made 4.62 points. Now the challenge was to sustain it. So luckily for me, I was able to play it up to the final point. I won a scholarship while in school. Every year, I got N25,000 for encouragement. I still receive a reward from my school every year because nobody has been able to break the record my colleague and

Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada. Miss Nkiru Nkwocha is pleading to all Nigerians and organisations to come to her aid because there is no hope anywhere else except in anybody sent by God to help.

With first class degree, young Nigerian graduate dreams big like Zuckerberg I set in that school. It is good to make record and be the one to break them.

How were you able to combine social and academic life?

I will say thanks to my late father. Okoroafor While in secondary school, my dad was very strict. He made my twin brother and I very strong.

When others are watching movies in the sitting room, we were made to go and study. We spent reasonable time sitting down, studying. Other people might go to parties, come back and sleep but after going to a party, I come back, pull off my party clothe and head for the library and I don’t return till about 5am. I usually had two hrs of sleep. My life in school was triangular. It was mostly from the hostel to the class, from class to library and then back to the hostel. It really helped.

You got lecturing job, which you rejected, why?

It all depends on your passion and what you want. It has to do with what you derive happiness doing, it’s not about the money. I don’t want to be a man that always stands in front of a class holding marker and writing on a board. I want to create something that the world will look up to and say, ‘this is the creator of this particular stuff and he is a Nigerian.’ Why I decided to go into certain projects of my own is that I see lots of application that people have produced in America and South Africa such as Facebook and 2go and I discovered that Nigeria has none to its name. It makes us look as if we don’t have any talent. We don’t have any useful invention accredited in our name, yet we are the greatest consumers of them all. I don’t want lecturing job

Her family said all assistance to her should be sent to an Ecobank account number: 0063295224, account NAME: Nkiru Nkwocha to enable her undergo surgery for transplant. because I don’t want to be streamlined in what I can do. I want to develop a mobile application to cover Africa. It is something that has taken me much time and caused me sleepless nights because I know that by the end of the day, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.

So, what do you do now?

I am into web application development. I design web pages and database and develop software. I am also into mobile application development to create application platforms like androids, iphones, symbian application and blackberry. I am also into consultancy for companies on IT. I own a blog named Opinion Nigeria where Nigerian issues are shared and criticized. I give thanks to God because it is not easy standing on your own, trying to push forward but I will say that God has opened a way for me. I am scaling through little by little and I am happy at the stage I have got to right now because all things being equal, next year will be remarkable for me.

Do you have any company established to drive your dream?

Yes, I have a registered company called CetFront. It is a multimedia platform that is into web application and database design. By the end of October this year by God’s grace, we may be able to launch it and I will let the cat out of the bag. For now, we are still at work.

What can you tell students struggling to make good grades but have not seen the light yet?

I have this belief that if you want to get to the moon, aim at the sun, so that if you miss, you can get hold of the moon. So, if you are aiming for first class and you are putting all your strength but not able to receive it, what will get you to that particular place you are looking for is in your heart, not that qualification. In as much as you want to have a first class, it is not a mandate for success.

Develop your skills. Grow in other areas.

ABUJAMetro

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

DAILY SUN

31

CELEBRITY

Abuja residents prefer gardens for relaxation –Tola Ademosu

By KEMI YESUFU

R

ather than the aroma of food, a whiff of air freshener is what hits your nostrils immediately you walk into Grandma’s Pot Kitchen, one of Abuja’s upscale bukka-styled restaurants.

This day, as often, the prominent Abuja restuaranteur, Tola Ademosu, looks more like the head designer of a fashion label than the woman, who is famed for drawing hundreds of classy lovers of Yoruba food to her restaurant where she prepares the meals over fire from wood.

Ademosu is decked in a heavily embroidered red and black Ankara kaftan. Though her hair is tied up in the Eryka Badu scarf style, her well applied make-up and her contact lens adorned eyes give her an outstanding look.

The waiting room is not spared the scrutiny that looks like the rule here.

You later learn that Ademosu loves the air, fresh and smelling nice. She sprays air freshener from a plastic can round the room and in its adjoining restroom.

Regarding her hands-on approach to running her restaurant, she discloses that after investing much in the business, it would be unwise not to look into how her staff carries out duties.

“I invested my savings in this business. So I have to see that things are done they way they should be done.

If any businessperson wants good results he/she has to look into how staff handles assignm e n t s .

However, the do-it-yourself style can be exhausting, Abuja Metro is told.

“It can be tiring because you have yourself to supervise things but thank God, I have a supervisor that knows what to do. I have a lot of business ideas but Grandma’s

Pot Kitchen has to run on auto pilot before I expand into other sectors”, she says.

Ademosu lived in the United States of America for 12 years where she worked in a bank for a greater part of her stay before returning to Nigeria where she set her sight on catering business. Like many people of her ilk, most times, she is exasperated by the work ethic in her home country. Slightly waving her hands, she expressed her frustration thus, “I have passion for what I do. I love cooking. If I don’t love cooking, I would have closed this place way back. There are too many challenges here especially the staffing. I have trained quite a number of people but I let them go because they are hardly committed to their job. I still don’t understand why some people don’t show commitment to their employers. It shouldn’t be that way. I remember that I started work as a cashier in America I got training and with hard work I enjoyed rapid promotion. I won awards. But here you spend money and time training them (workers) but they just don’t show enough commitment.”

After battling with uncommitted staffers within, the ex-banker also contended with overzealous officials of government agencies who took turns to besiege her with different levies. On how she survived these unfriendly policies, she says, “To God be the glory, my company has survived the difficult terrain in the country.

It is not easy doing business in Nigeria because most of the time it seems some people just want to frustrate you. I don’t think things should be this way.

When I wanted to start I asked people I thought should know which agencies I had to visit for proper documentation. It

Ademosu

was hard to get any information, so I went ahead to launch this place. But immediately after opening, different agencies came knocking asking for payment for this or that levy. Even the Abuja Municipal Areca Council (AMAC) came with heavy levies. But I am better off now that I joined the association for owners of restaurant and fast food. The association has done a lot to protect people like me.”

Despite the difficulties she has faced in the last three years, this lady who described herself as an Ijebu woman to the core will rather stay put in Nigeria only visiting her children as frequently as she can. “Regardless of the difficulties here I prefer not to return to America, I would rather stay here. In Nigeria you can save money unlike America where you have little or nothing after paying your bills. With patience, hard work and dedication an investor can make it big in Nigeria”, she told Abuja Metro with confidence in her breathe.

The presence of other well known eateries on the Ladoke Akintola Boulevard is not enough to reduce Ademosu’s belief in her brand. “The more the merrier. When I moved in here I actually had the American style in mind where you have similar brands on the same line. Because I do more of Yoruba food, when people come to ask for things that aren’t in our menu, I direct them to any of the other restaurants where I know they can get what they need. No matter what, my cus-

tomers still come.”

What amazes many who have eaten unique delicacies such as ewa agohin in her restaurant is that it took an American returnee to give lovers of Yoruba cuisine the kind of food they eat only when they travel to the South West. On her preference for serving Nigerian dishes, she says, “I grew up in Ijebu Ode. I remember going to my grandma’s home in Ago Iwoye, Ogun State during my holidays.

I enjoyed eating the food she prepared.

This is especially because she used to prepare food with firewood. So this is what I am trying to replicate. We cook our meals with firewood; I keep things natural, not too much seasoning excerpt healthy spices like the food found in Mama Put.” On her sense of style, she reminded of her training is cosmetology, and has no apologies dressing hilt when it’s time to go to work even when work means cooking with firewood. “Lots of customers walk in asking for the grandma but my supervisor has to explain that there is no granny here that what we have is the kind of food she makes.

They are even more surprised when they see me. But I just like to look good.

I dress up even when I just want to buy a loaf of bread in the neighborhood supermarket. I have always been this way all my life. I also want people to understand that restaurant is also corporate business and as the CEO of a restaurant, I have to look the part. I am just like any other CEO in Abuja.”

32

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

DAILY SUN

ABUJAMetro

Fun in

Old Parade G

Big boys and girls sports

By IKENNA EMEWU

Y

ou live in Abuja and want to have fun in sporting? If you are interested in the two questions, then you will need to read this story.

Listen to health workers in their treatise, listen to your doctor and other experts and they will recall their major refrain that living healthy means living active. To live active, you need to exercise your body physically.

A good number of Abuja residents have heeded the call. Every Saturday morning, they head to the Old Parade Ground (OPG) at Area 10, just opposite the Radio House on the Moshood Abiola Way and the International Conference Centre on Herbert Macaulay, the ritual is sustained.

Come to this place and very likely, you will also develop interest in leisure sporting. OPG boasts of a great array of a motley crowd – the children, the teens, middle-aged men, women, parents, grandparents and even people you will know are recuperating from ailments all throng the ground to sweat it out.

Everyone comes for sporting but with some pleasure and fun. It is a free affair where nobody regulates what anybody does. You see the kids jump around free with parents and family members. You see mothers cuddle their babies, jogging.

It is like a bazaar of fun where you approach it from the most convenient point. Many men with interest in bodybuilding and muscular fitness find their shop at the left corner immediately you step into the sports arena away from the car park. They do their thing with all manner of weight lifting, boxers gloves and the rest. Far away at the inner extreme, some isolated individuals take to the podium many others shy away from using and do personal exercise all at their pace.

At the centre of the arena is the football pitch barricaded from the outer court where the tracks are by wirework. In the pitch, all sizes of men of various ages sweat it out from early morning to about 10 am. The pitch is large enough to accommodate two playing groups. They take the space horizontally playing what is popularly called monkey-post football. The other end is occupied every Saturday morning by female footballers that do their thing with energy.

The centre of attraction seems to be two activities – aerobics and jogging. Round the tracks, men and women, and even children do their turns jogging, walking and chatting, most of them clutching phones and intermittently making calls.

The rounds go on and on for hours. But the beauty remains the variety of the activities. Everyone seems to exercise oblivious of what others do. There is no referee, no rules to keep or break, so it remains a relaxed sporting place where everything is strictly leisure.

Sometimes, you see elderly people trying to move themselves round the tracks and you sense such are exercising on medical requirement and must be recovering from heart-related ailment and need physical exercise to return to fitness.

Residents at OPG

Residents jog-

ABUJAMetro

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

DAILY SUN

33

n THE SUN

Ground

s playground d e s i r e .

Sometimes, you notice running of the hands of the men too close to nogo-areas, all in the name of the game.

An observer told Abuja Metro that Even a nursing mother finds delight at OPG the running of the hands that doesn’t really have a borderline w i t h romance apart from the public sphere is part of the fringe benefits of the job.

It is a ground that It’s keep-fit time at parades all manner of It is common to see mothers sports wears of quality, brands herding their children along, and colours. While sporting goes entire families all jogging and on, a lot of other things are also some others taking to badminton attracted. That other side is busipitches to slam away on the rack- ness. There are sellers’ stands where sports wears are sold, ets.

The most popular and most especially of the second hand patronized is the aerobics. The qualities. They are sports shorts, second podium in the stadium at shoes, anorak etc. Right now a the left remains the popular stand new dimension seems to be where all shapes, colours and creeping in – the beauty stands sizes and ages of mostly women and shops for women. Make-up items and other beauty products gather and dance away in joy.

A tutor stands at the edge of the naturally tag along women, and it crowd, and with the music blar- is common to see sellers of every ing, the entire crowd sways in imaginable pencils and make-up unison side to side and some just kits, perfumes, jewelry, under dancing in excitement. This goes wears and many others pitch on for hours and because it is stands.

Abuja Metro’s effort to know free, a participant exercises his/her freedom to pull in or out why the OPG has become this popular among the leisure sportat will.

There are also massagers at ing elite of Abuja opened anoththeir worshops running their er vista. Mr. Ignatius Odo said hands artfully on people who he comes there to keep fit pay some token for such atten- because he knows the benefit of tion. You notice in their stands fitness especially for people women being ordered to stretch who are coming of age. “When on the mat sprawled out while one steps up to 40, there is every the work goes on to mould their reason to live carefully and body into whatever shapes they physically fit,” he advised. To

him that is the main reason he frequents the OPG. But another revealed that in addition to fitness, the ground serves as market place for social and business networking. “Many come here because it is easy to make friends in this arena that would help give one a lift in life. Big boys come here. Most of the people you see ere are powerful and privileged men and women in this city. When you make friends with them here, your life might not remain the same any longer. Here at the exercise turf, there are more relaxed and approachable and it’s easier to strike a relationship with them.

“Some even come here for social enhancement. There are so many ladies and young men that exercise at the ground, and through interactions here many can develop good relationships that could lead to marriage,” he said.

At a closer inquiry, Abuja Metro found that it is true privileged persons congregate at the OPG. Most of them are directors in so many government offices, business chief executives, professionals and people with powerful links in the society.

To underscore this truth, just step out of the exercise pavilions into the car park area, watch the sporting crowd leave for home when they are done. You will simply be marveled by the quality of cars they pull out of the parking lot. At that point you start to have a better grasp that for real the OPG is Abuja’s arena for the powerful that seek relaxation in exercising.

It is very common to see crowds of people from many corporate organizations troop to the OPG with all manner of entertainment and music to exercise and stay fit for their work later in the week.

Beyond sporting fitness, the ground serves as platform for creating privileges for people who want to stay fit physically and economically using the easiest and most accessible and friendly forum.

ABUJA TOUR GUIDE

Shopping places Banex Plaza Area 11 Shopping Complex Area 3 Shopping Plaza Amigos Supermarket LG showroom, Wuse 2 Samsung Showroom, Wuse 2 Exclusive Stores, Wuse 2 Sharrif Plaza, Wuse 2 Emab Plaza, Wuse 2 Grand Square, Central Area Area I Shopping Plaza Area 11 Shopping Plaza Area 3 Shopping Plaza Sahad Stores, Zone 4 and Area 11 Area 10 Plaza Shoprite, Apo Quarters Apo Mechanic Village Kugbo Mechanic Village Gudu Shopping Plaza Danjam Plaza, Gwarimpa Excellent Plaza, Gwarimpa MIB Plaza, Gwarimpa Chembian Plaza, Gwarimpa Ekeson Plaza, Utako Guoba Plaza, Utako Paisy Plaza, Jabi Eda Plaza, Jabi Ruqqayat Plaza, Jabi Hamdala Plaza, Asokoro Mangal Plaza, Area 11 Ceddi Plaza, Central Area

Markets Kugbo furniture market Karu Village market Gudu market Nyanya market Deidei building materials market Kubwa market Dutse market Wuse market, Utako market Gwarimpa market Idu/Karmo furniture market Karmo foodstuffs, second clothes market (Tuesday) Timber market, Lugbe Garki Monday market Garki model market Kadombiko market Pape market Kuje timber market Zone 3 GSM village

Embassy of Guinea 349 Central Business District, opposite United Nations premises Tel:09- 461 86 12, 273 27 35 Embassy of Liberia Plot 352, Cadastral Zone AO, Central Business District Tel: 080 395 71 624, 09-890 00 17 Embassy of Mauritania No. 3, River Nahau Close Off River Niger Street Maitama Tel: 080 734 12 886 Embassy of Chad Plot 305, Zone AO Central District Tel: 09-460 19 83, 460 19 84 Embassy of Sudan Plot 337, Zone Ao, Mission Road, Central Area District, Abuja Tel: 09-461 48 31 Embassy of Algeria Plot 09, Justice Mamman Nasir Street, Asokoro Tel: 070 340 45 321 Embassy of Egypt Buzi Close, off Amazon Street, Maitama Tel: 070 341 858 802, 070 641 84 050 Embassy of Morocco No 5, Mary Slessor Street, Off Udoma Crescent, Asokoro Tel: 09-874 66 97 Embassy of Congo DR No. 5, Malabo Street Off Aminu Kano Wuse 2 Tel: 070 982 12 317 Embassy of Angola Diplomatic Way, Central Area District Tel: 09-461 16 34 Embassy of Cameroun Lobito Crescent Wuse 2

Embassies and Foreign Missions Ghana High Commission Off Olusegun Obasanjo Way Area 10, Garki Tel: 09-461 54 00, 461 54 17-20 Embassy of the Republic of Benin Plot 2579, Yedseram St. Maitama.

Uganda High Commission No. 28, Ontario Crescent, Off Mississippi Street, Maitama Tel: 09-523 48 27-5 Kenya High Commission 21, Yedseram Street off IBB Way, Maitama Tel: 09-413 91 57

Embassy of Togo No. 36 & 38 T. Y. Danjuma Street, Embassy of Gabon Asokoro 3680 Erie Crescent, Tel: 070 315 81 407 Off Nile Street, Maitama Embassy of Cote d’Ivoire Tel: 09-870 08 49, 09-873 49 65 No. 8, Gurara Street Off IBB Way, Maitama Botswana High Commission Tel: 09-413 30 87

•Continues on page 38

34

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

ABUJAMetro

DAILY SUN

JUVENILE the world.

12-year-old novelist tells his story •Says he wants to be an engineer

Y

oung Amos Oche Ebiega is from Benue State and, at just 12, he is already a mature writer. He tells Abuja Metro the story of why and how he start-

ed so early.

How old were you when you started writing?

I was nine years and in primary 4.

What kind of books do you write?

I write storybooks.

So, what motivated you to start that early?

I see other children, who do extraordinary things in music and writing. And the question that came to my mind was, ‘Amos, if these children are doing something like this, won’t you also do something like them?’ the answer was, yes I can.

How many books have you written so far?

I have written three books with two stories in three of them.

Can you give us a hint of what these stories are about?

I will like to start with ‘The Ruthless Ruler’.

The book is about a ruler, who is ruthless. This ruler in the book was hard and offensive in rulership. He was a womaniser and greedy.

Greedy in the sense that when his subjects harvest their crops, he will pick the best of their harvest and every animal caught in the hunt by any of the villagers must pass through his palace for him to pick his choice before he gives the remnant to the owner. He is marrying and divorcing women and when he divorces a woman, no man dares propose to that same woman as it is an abomination to taste what the ruler has tasted.

The second book, ‘The Twin’, is about two women, a rich woman with no child and a poor woman with two children. The rich woman got God’s intervention with instructions and she took in. The poor woman also got pregnant and the two women delivered at the same time and in the same hospital. The rich woman lost her baby as she failed to follow the instructions while the poor woman gave birth to twins, all boys and identical.

The rich woman couldn’t face the pain of having carried the pregnancy for nine months without any baby, so she connived with the hospital nurse to buy one of the identical sons from the poor woman. If you want to know more about the book, they are

Why did you pick her as your role model?

That’s a good question. She encourages me. She lives a life of discipline. She is very hardworking and she never gives up.

What course do you have in mind to study at higher school?

I will like to study Aeronautic engineering Why did you pick such course?

I love the course and I believe that is where I am supposed to be. My dream has always been there. Writing is my hobby.

Oche Ebiega

By DIANE EZEH and HEAVENS KELECHI KINGS

Do you have a mentor? Who do you take as a role model?

Well, I don’t have a mentor but I do have a role model. My role model is my mother.

on sale.

Did your parents assist you in writing any of these books?

No, they didn’t. When I started writing, I wrote ten stories. At the fifth story, I got stock with a word and I asked my mum the meaning of the word and she asked me, “is that word not big for you?” I told her I wanted to use it in my stories. She said, “stories?” I said yes.

So I brought the books in which I was writing the stories and she went through them but she was not convinced. So, she told me to sit down and continue writing and as I was writing, she kept watching me. When she was later convinced, she took the book from me and that’s how we got here today.

What advice do you have for children your age?

I want to advise them that every child has a talent in him or her and they must work towards developing it. Instead of watching cartoons and spending their time playing, they should be serious and target meaningful use of their time. They should get into reality, they should wake up and begin to try to find their talents and develop them. Let others watch them.

How would you advise parents who will read your story?

I will want to advise them to have time for their children because in the quest to make ends meet, most parents neglect their children and so the children are left on their own to go the way they like and do the things they want to do. If my mother didn’t have time for me, we wouldn’t have been where we are Can you tell us about your today. So parents should create time for their parents? children.

My father’s name is Mr. Emmanuel Ebiega. He works with the bursary departIf you were to ask government of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. My ment to do something for mother’s name is Mrs. Enali Ebiega. She Nigerian children, what will works in the welfare department of the that be?

Nigeria Prisons Service, Kaduna.

I wish and pray that Nigeria should have peace because in the face of crisis, the chilAre there schools currently dren suffer. I want to call on UNICEF and using your books? the communication industries to partner with No. but I don’t wish for that. I wish that my the ministry of education in raising the stanbooks be read all over Nigeria and all over dard of education of Nigerian children.

Youths, that headphone can undo you

By DIANE EZEH

K

en Ndu, a resident of Utako, Abuja, told Abuja Metro the story of how he almost got knocked down while crossing the road with his ears stuffed with earphones from his music player.

He was not even aware that he was crossing a major road with high vehicle traffic because his whole mind was attuned the lyrics of Rick Ross’ recent song with Psquare and, therefore, could not hear the horning cars and the shouting of the passersby until one car almost ran over his leg.

A man popularly, called Handsome, also had another story to tell. He was walking with his headphones on one day when he noticed everyone in the street moping at him. With curiosity, he unplugged the speaker in one ear to ask one of them what was happening and this was the reply he got: “You are a mad man, don’t you know you are shouting?

Everyone can hear you singing foolishly, you’d better watch it.” Handsome said he was so embarrassed and did not need a soothsayer to tell him to put the headphones in his bag. As he did that, people around started laughing at him. “I felt like entering the ground,” he said.

William Hamza who was very addicted to wearing headphones while walking also narrated how he was diagnosed of eardrum problems. He said that for more than two weeks, he wore cotton wool in his hear and was able to hear only fairly.

What about the experience of Uju Parish? She bought headphones of various colours in line with the clours of her dresses.

Whenever she wore a red dress, she had the red headphone to go with it. One day, she was singing and nodding her head sheepishly on the road. She did not notice that there was a fallen tree forward and as she got there, she tripped heavily and

fell, losing consciousness momentarily. She said she found herself in the hospital and after that, her mother burnt all her coloured headphones.

In the streets, markets, schools and even in offices, may youths are seen wearing headphones. One wonders if this trend is a sense of fashion or an attitude in sync with flare for music. Whatever it is, results have shown that this is causing a lot more harm than good, especially to the youths as Abuja Metro found from addicts.

In Abuja and most streets of the cities, in the campuses of higher institutions, the rave is getting higher everyday with youths and headphones. Most of them are not concerned with any hazards of the habit. But experts have said that people who wear headphones while walking are at greater risk of serious injury or even death than people who don’t.

According to a new study published in the journal on injury prevention between 2004 and 2011, the study found 116 pedestrians wearing headphones died or were injured in accidents involving trains or cars they didn’t see or hear coming.

Researchers say that using headphones distracts users from the task at hand, whether that means concentrating on the road and navigating traffic as a driver. Headphones also serve to isolate users from their environment, cocooning them so that they are less aware of what is going on around them. In the study, researchers found that in 29% of cases, victims who were hit by car or train apparently failed to hear the warning sounds of horns and sirens.

The bitterest seems to be an encounter with a resident of Abuja who narrated how wearing headphones cost her a job she was almost sure of.

Her uncle had given her a reference to see someone who would assist her with a job three years after youth service. “I

tell this story in shame, therefore I can’t disclose my name. It was a very bad experience that day.

I had walked into the office, and suddenly met a team of five dignitaries who I later found were waiting to interview me for the job. They had been seeing other applicants. But when I walked in after a call to my uncle to inform him that I was at the place, he asked me to ask of the man that he was waiting for me. The call I made was also through the headphone, so I never remembered that I was already at a place I should unplug the phones until I had opened the door and stepped in.

By the time I remembered to remove them, I had already taken the embarrassment and the gaze of the five made me understand the depth of my error. One of them asked why I should walk into an interview with my headphones on. Before I could open my mouth to explain or apologize, they had ordered me to step out and shut the door behind me. The last word I heard from some of them is ‘this is an unserious young lady. She is not the type anybody would want with all the headphone into this place.’As I came back, I could not find a word to give to my uncle about what happened. I found out his friend later told him. Since then, he finds it difficult to refer me anywhere for employment. I learnt my lesson the very hard way.”

Abuja Metro warning is just a re-echo of the lady’s caution to people ensnared and held captive by headphones that the dangers are many and they should watch the habit to know the limits.

ABUJAMetro

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

DAILY SUN

35

BUSINSS

Need scrap metal?

Take a trip to Nyanya disused items market

By GODWIN TSA

A

lhaji Suleiman Adamu sat at the extreme corner of a rusty shack that serves as his office at the Nyanya Pan-Taker market. At the left hand side of the shack were heaps of discarded scrap metals, including unused wheelbarrows, refrigerators, old iron door frames, pot, etc. He smiled lavishly in response to Abuja Metro’s greetings, exposing his kola nut-coated teeth.

The noise that enveloped the market was harsh and ear-shattering: the rasp of shaft-lifts; the jangling of pocket size generators and the distant rumble of quarreling filled the slum.

Life at this slum is exhilarating and precarious. Its atmosphere is alive, its spirit adventurous. The environment is a living testimony to the neglect by the

authorities. The road, leading to the market.. is unpaved and dirty and filled with hungry, undernourished children, scampering around half-naked. The air was tick with the smoke from the fire in tin braziers and stove.

Pools of stinking stagnant water full of maggots collected by the side road.

The area is overcrowded; every square foot was occupied either by a ramshackle house or tin-rooted shack.

In spite of the hellish aspect of life, it is a booming business environment.

The name is the Nyanya pan-taker market. The article of trade here is essentially scrap metal, old household and industrial materials, and for real, business booms. The market, which shares a common boundary with the goat market, is notorious for the number of scavengers that mill around with the paraphernalia of their trade.

Alhaji Suleiman, a 27-year-old from Kano State and he makes a living

from collecting metal scraps. These heaps of discarded scrap metals are valuable raw materials for metal industries that use them to produce steel and iron bars.

Speaking with Abuja Metro on his kind of business, Suleiman said, “I pick metal scrap for living. I find most of it from refuse dumps, along the streets or buy from households that no longer need them at small price.

“I buy anything metal – tin pots, metal plates and even window frames. I however prefer getting my scraps from the mechanic workshops because metals found there earn me good money compared to small scraps. The heavier the metal, the more money it would attract.”

Although he confessed that work is hard, he said “it is good as it provides me enough to feed and clothe me and my family members who I send money to in Kano.”

The scrap merchant disclosed that the price of a truckload depends on the category of metal. However, special products, which is sold for between N20,000 and N37,000 per ton includes industrial scrap and big automobiles machines which are easier to melt and require fewer materials for purification.

Scraps from automobiles like cars are bought at between N22,000 and N25,000 per ton. Scrap from household material like pots, plates, spoons, and industrial waste are in the third category and cost N18,000 per ton. This is because the factories require larger quantities of these to run the furnace-and they require more additives to purify.

Of course, Suleiman is not alone in this business, sitting at the far end of the market, in an abandoned, and suitably rusty refrigerator is Shehu Markefi, a middle-aged man dressed in a blue gown.

Markefi said the boys who work for him were also learning the trade. Some of them sleep in the yard. “I use about 10 to 15 boys to load a truck and to

assist a buyer.

The boys earn N700 for loading a truck. Sometimes, they load up to seven trucks a day. A truck can contain 10, 15 or 17 tones of metal scraps, depending on the size.

The father of six who could not disclose the actual price of a truck-filled metal, feelers around the market reveals that a tone of metal sells for N18,000 N33,000 depending on the category of scrap.

Speaking further, he said “there are middlemen who buy from us on behalf of companies owned by Chinese and Indians.

“I buy my scrap from these cart boys who either buy from people who want to dispose them at cheap prices or pick them up at refuse dumps. I pay them N10 per kilo.”

He also sells to welders, mechanics and people who need to get some metal spare parts.

“These people find spare parts they want from the used materials brought by my boys. Most of these parts are still good, so I sell it to the welders or mechanics at a cheaper price than what they can get at the market.”

At the inner extreme of the market two trucks were positioned ready to be loaded with scraps for onward transportation to steel factories in Lagos who buy and transform them into iron bars, steels and other finished products.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

DAILY SUN

ABUJAMetro

CITY LIFE

Sex business in Abuja

By KEMI YESUFU

S

-e-x. This three-letter word sells like pure water in the country’s capital city. Sex is a common denominator, from dingy brothels in slums such as Daki-Biu located behind the Jabi park to the ‘short time’ motels in satellite towns like Kubwa and Mararaba, up to posh hotels where the rich and famous tango.

This explains why the move to stop commercialised sex is a bigger failure than the ban on smoking in public places. In June 2010, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) placed a ban on prostitution. He ordered the Social Development Secretariat, headed by Blessing Onu, the daughter of the Senate President, David Mark, to rid Abuja of commercial sex workers.

No less than 300 commercial sex workers were hurled off the streets by a team raised by the Social Development Secretariat. Abuja Metro found that as at early this year, the same streets and hotels, which the FCT swept with its moral broom, notorious spots such as Port-Harcourt Crescent Garki, Wuse Zone 4, have again become littered with sex workers, hustling for a meal ticket. In fact, these ladies of the night have found for themselves new spots around the Solomon Lar and Augustus Aikhomu Way axis of the highbrow Jabi neighborhood. This is probably because of the presence of two four-star hotels and a chain of Abuja’s famous beer and pepper soup gardens.

“These girls around the Solomon Lar way are just crazy,” exclaimed Alexandria Rabiu, a young businesswoman, who spoke about an astonishing encounter with one of the sex workers, who accosted her on her way out of a garden. “I was in my car waiting for my husband to meet with me, having pulled out. Then one of these girls walked up to me and asked if I wanted company for the night. I wound down my window to show her I was female. But she only smiled and repeated the question. It was then it dawned on me that some of them are bisexual; they can sell themselves to both male and female. What was meant to be an evening with my husband was almost ruined by these girls of easy virtue. I still feel the shock of what happened.”

Where do these ladies, living on the fast lane come from, every night to ply their trade? It is mostly from the satellite towns. Mararaba a suburb in Nasarawa State is where a large number of these girls pay an average of N150 fare to Wuse Zone 4 or Wuse market from where they can pick a cab to their favorite street for the might. Other places like Gwagwa, Idu, Karimu, Suleja just like Mararaba have shantytowns that provide cheap accommodation. They also have a fecund quarter in Jabi Village popularly called Jabi Upstairs. This however is not to say that all the females living in these areas are call girls.

Highbrow trade While the less educated and largely illiterate girls go for selling their bodies on the street, the much more sophisticated students of higher institutions in the FCT and nearby states go for the power brokers, expatriates and big career men. Pretty-faced and sexy looking undergraduates as well as young working class ladies ensure that while there was a brief hiatus for daughters of Eve who sell their bodies on the streets after minutes of haggling by lusting customers, the high and mighty in Abuja never stopped the trade of sex for contact and contracts. From the luxury guest houses of the nation’s male and female power brokers, to permanent suites costing as high as N320 thousand per night, young men and women satisfied the sexual cravings of their wealthy patrons.

Smart businessmen or people simply desperate to see men in high positions, especially after failed efforts to cut through bureaucracy, resort to ambushing them at the lobbies of big hotels. This is because they carry their ‘handbags’ to these pricey points while other lesser mortals are fast asleep.

According to Dorcas, a University of Abuja graduate who is awaiting her National Youth Service Corps posting, her school girls reign supreme despite the incursions of other ‘runs girls’ from Nasarawa State University, Benue State University and a number of polytechnics around. “There is no way they can compete with us,” boasts Dorcas whose buxomly appearance hardly goes unnoticed. Sipping on a glass of stout supplied by Abuja Metro reporter, Dodo as she is fondly called by friends who stopped to say hello said fur-

•Market spots, how it runs and those that oil the wheels •And the lady sex workers that scout for patrons of same sex

ther that Abuja big boys prefer UniAbuja babes. “We know what’s up more than any of these imported babes and these men know it.”

UniAbuja supply chain Giving a peep into where to find the real happening babes on campus she said an area popularly known as Phase 3 is the place to be on a Friday evening. There are other places such as Obana, EFCC flats and a notorious female hostel known as Green Roof. “Greenroof is where the hard girls stay. You can see people smoking weed openly there. It’s directly behind the boys’ hostel. Phase 3 is where the big chics stay. A few of them are rich kids whose parents paid for their accommodation but most of the girls in this area pay for their rent from their pocket and you know what this means. We have to do ‘runs’. By Friday afternoon we move to town. There are always deals for us during the weekend”.

Shedding light on the kind of deals that bring UniAbuja’s ‘runs girls’ to town, a long forty-five minutes drive from campus, Dorcas said with a wry smile, “You know now, we

answer when big spenders call”, adding that sometimes the deals keep girls out of school for days.

“Somebody might just tell you that there is a white guy that needs a babe for a week and they will pay 100k for your services and when you come back you drop their cut. The person asking for your company could be a top government person who cannot come out to chase girls. These big men send their boys who in contact some big girls on campus who give us the deal.”

Sex-for-rent in UniAbuja Speaking on the sexual habits of the men they have dealings with Dorcas said most of the men use them to fulfill their fantasies. “What they can’t try with their wives, they experiment with us. If you satisfy these guys, they will even give you more than they agreed fee. They can even buy a regular babe a car or take her abroad for holidays. But there are some mean ones among them too and girls avoid the mean guys”.

Dorcas was honest about how small she started. She disclosed that in Gwgwalada where the UniAbuja is located some of the landlords sleep with willing girls in lieu of rent. “I have done it before. Those landlords love going to bed with girls for rent. But if you are smart, you will still look for money because one day he might get tired of you and start looking for a new girl.”

Risky, but profitable It’s not only the sophisticated girls that make money from their flings with men. Beauty, a commercial sex worker turned HIV/AIDS campaigner told Abuja Metro that life on the streets is profitable but risky. The lady who worked in a Mararaba brothel for four •Continues on page 37

ABUJAMetro

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

DAILY SUN

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ABUJA AND YOU

By FRED ITUA

C

ontrary to a strict directive by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) that telecoms service providers must henceforth compel customers to register their sim cards before activation, investigation by Abuja Metro has, however, revealed that two major service providers, still condone illegal vendors, selling registered cards to customers within their corporate head offices in Abuja.

Abuja Metro visited the Abuja offices of the service providers and confirmed the widespread speculations that despite the series of threats that have been issued by NCC, stringent measures are not in place to get rid of touts, who sell registered sim cards to customers. At the Globacom office on Aminu Kano Crescent in Wuse II, touts that parade as staffers usually swoop on customers as they alight from vehicles. Flaunting their Glocrested T-shirts, the touts that were more than 15 flaunt their different products.

According to one of the vendors that said his name was Emmanuel, Globacom doesn’t engage in the sale of unregistered sim cards. “We don’t sell unregistered sim cards. You need to register it yourself. It won’t take long at all,” he also disclosed, adding that: “We used to hang out here to sell sim cards but it has been banned. For you to buy from us, you must register. We can sell to you but you can only receive calls with it.”

In a swift turn of tone, the vendor revealed that some people around the Globacom office in

How touts hijacked MTN, Glo SIM registration

Eugene Juwah, Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communicatio

•We work for them, so we’re covered –Touts Abuja still sell registered sim cards to customers.

“There are still people around, who sell registered sim cards. It is risky these days, I must tell you,” he stated. “But we sell special phone numbers if you need one. We have different range of prices. From N4000 to N8000. If you go inside the Glo office and buy, it will cost you N10,000.”

At the Maitama office of MTN Nigeria, a haggard-looking tout alongside several others approached our reporter with their regular question: “Do you need a registered sim card? It will only cost you N1,700. Depending on the sim card you want to buy from MTN directly, it will cost you about N500 since you have to go through the stress to register it yourself,” the tout, who gave his name as Jerry, revealed.

Making further revelations, he said: “The MTN browsing modem will cost you N8,500. If you want to buy from MTN, it will cost you the same amount.” Asked how they make their profit, Jerry

said: “MTN usually ‘settle’ us at the end of the day whenever we sell these sim cards and modems.

They give us some money for helping them.”

He also admitted that operatives of the NCC have swooped on them and arrested some a number of times. They find their way back after each raid because they feel they are secure with the backing of the operators. He, however, revealed that the arrested touts were released after some money exchanged hands.

“They used to come here. They said they are against it. They always make arrests and the last time they arrested some people, they paid some good sum of money to them after which they were released,” Jerry revealed.

Sex business in Abuja

•Continued from page 36 years disclosed that it’s been tough battle staying off the streets despite her traveling to a few African countries on the bill of Non Governmental Organisations to share her experience on promoting safe sex among sex workers.

“I have fought hard not to go back to that bad work. Nobody will tell you say asewo na good work and this is why I am doing everything to resist the urge to start prostitution again. There is money in asewo work but the risk is just too much”, she said.

Another good case was one narrated by another sex worker who identified herself as Loveth. She said in one of her nights of outing recently, a man picked her in his car at Utako in front of a popular garden purporting to take her to Zone 4, Wuse for the night.

But somewhere on their way, along the Kado-Mabuchi highway, the man pulled up and pointed a gun in her face demanding to have all in her possession. The man in his hurry even cut her handbag in pieces to extract the contents. She went back home shaken and terrified, but her problem got rather perplexing when she narrated her experience to her colleagues who just waived her aside and told her all of them have had such experiences.

Smart hawkers One thing about the sex workers from their stories is that the men that patronize them underrate their intelligence and readiness for the job. They play tricks and play smart too.

“Most times a man picks us, our friends

around use their phones in lit places to snap the man’s car capturing the plate number. That is the reason most of us carry camera phones. Some of us who use smart phones and blackberry can take photo of the man taking them home and send it to their friends immediately. This is a security measure so that incase the person goes missing or is in trouble, the colleagues can have a report to file before the police.

Many of us also take photos of the home of the man that takes us home and send to their friends and co-sex workers. But none goes with a man without calling others to inform them where she has gone. The risk is what makes many of us prefer short-time deals. But many men don’t accept that, arguing that it is not decent and portrays desperation. They say they want the lady’s company more than just sexual satisfaction.”

Daring AIDS scourge She said despite fact that the FCT is number three in the national prevalence rate for HIV/AIDS many customers double the money charged by sex workers in order not to use condom. “We have been visiting brothels sharing condoms and telling girls how they can protect themselves. But I can tell you that when you see a girl having very few customers, you will know that she insist on condoms, while those that have up to ten customers in a day are the ones who will charge more because they don’t care about condoms.”

Despite being a prominent advocate for sex workers, Beauty disclosed that neither she nor any of her members has been contacted by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to attend any of their rehabilitation programs for commercial sex workers. “I don’t know anything about

the FCT administration rehabilitating sex workers. The only people that have been of help include the Director-General of National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Professor John Idoko, staff of the UNFPA and Women Health Education and Development (WHED)” Complicit police She said, “I think the whole idea of banning prostitution is hypocritical. Policemen patronise commercial sex workers (CSWs).

For instance when they raid nightclubs, they will take CSWs aside and have sex with them without condoms. They will tell you, ‘I go make love to you without condom or you will go to the station.’ Most girls will easily agree because they don’t want the shame and disgrace of going to the police station. Sometimes, policemen come to patronise us in the brothels and they insist on paying half the price. This doesn’t stop us from paying them monthly to avoid trouble. Even when we pay they will still do what they call ‘general raid’ where they take both the clients and the girls at the brothel to their station.”

Sitting up as if to emphasis her opinion, Beauty further noted that, “They can ban prostitution but it will end up being a waste of time. It is not only the oldest profession in the world, everyday; thousands of girls get into this job.

Coming back to the rich folks, Abuja Metro investigations showed that membersonly clubs are places where Abuja’s high and mighty experiment with sex and drugs. These clubs are run by top madams and male pimps who operate under a high level of secrecy. Most of these highly exclusive clubs are located in Maitama, Wuse 2, Asokoro and Jabi. These members-only clubs don’t have even as little as a sign post, they don’t advertise, the security men simply know who to open the gates for.

Once patrons drive in, a night characterized sharing illicit drugs; hard partying and heavy petting begin with

arranged females. Probably due to years of many travels to tourists’ haven, those who prefer these highly exclusive clubs are unabashed about their love for sex, drugs and partying. Tales abound of how much money ‘lucky’ girls who make into these hedonistic dens go home with just for satisfying demands of the superrich.

Massaging spas, too The search for sexual fun isn’t restricted to clubs and hotels, in recent time there has been an increase in the number of Middle Eastern women running spas in the capital city. Last year, a Moroccan lady and her Nigerian rival engaged each other in a battle of wits over special masseuses who don’t mind giving male client special massages in their erogenous zone. The mousses these spa madams fought over also don’t mind going for home services just to meet the expectations of rich clients.

These special mousses dumped their Moroccan boss for the Nigerian madam.

Unfortunately for the Moroccan a large chunk of her top clients followed suit.

Abuja’s nouveau-riche also love to experiment with sex toys. A source at Sypherotica Lingerie, Abuja’s most talked about sex shop told Abuja Metro that expatriates and wives of wealthy polygamists make up majority of their clientele. According to her the fastest selling items at the shop are the vibrator and aphrodisiacs.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

ABUJAMetro

DAILY SUN

ABUJA &YOU

Job seekers write applications in SMS language –Julius Berger •That’s the reason they ask for your discarded books to revive reading culture

By DIANE EZEH, CHINAZA ONOH and KINGS KELECHI HEAVENS

J

Nduka

ulius Berger Construction Company (JBC) proves their avidity for education and servitude to human kind as they embark on a project to donate books to secondary schools whose libraries are not sufficiently stocked.

In an interview with Abuja Metro, the Public Affairs Adviser, Mr. Iloba Nduka, reveals that their project is derived from the discovery that young people of Nigeria have lost the zeal to read and write.

“We are doing this because we want to encourage Nigerian students to read and write because our young people do not know how to read or have the interest to do that any longer. The things they go for are blackberry, smart phones, social media and Ipad. Worse, some of them use the text message language to write exams. People write application for job and using these atrocious languages. When I see such things, I just tear the letter. Imagine someone writing “application 4” for a corporate and formal company like Julius Berger. These are the things we are trying to remove,” the PAA said.

He identified fault-lines that hamper interest in reading and writing among youths as their self-imposed aversion to reading books and the growing penchant for social media slang that has already made inroad in formal writing.

To achieve this program successfully, the PAA said Julius Berger has already started a campaign in which it distributed boxes to almost every state in Nigeria, where people can drop books they no longer find useful.

“We have the boxes located at several places in Abuja. In Lagos, we have them almost everywhere, in plazas, bars and café.

In Uyo, it is the same thing. We ask people to store books there, either brand new books or not. We will come and collect them, remove the names and then share the books

into bundles, whether they are literature or text books, and distribute to schools who need them”, he said.

He also said that three schools have been chosen in Lagos and Abuja each for the project. For those schools that they were unable to help, he encourages them to go to other libraries and borrow books for their assignments.

Currently, 6,000 novels written by popular authors have been donated to the students of these schools to study during the long vacation after which the students will have an interactive session to ascertain their level of comprehension. “They are going to look into how to write, the students will ask questions and answers provided also.”

Shopping places •Continues from page 33 Plot 1241, Oguta Lake St. Off River Benue Street, IBB Way, Maitama Tel: 09-782 28 18, 09-782 27 82, 070 341 03 930, 070 641 86 01 Zambia High Commission Plot 351, Mission Road, Central Area District Garki Tel: 09-461 86 05, 09-461 86 01 Tanzania High Commission No. 11, Ganges Street, Off Alvan Ikoku Way, Ministers’ Hill Maitama Embassy of Namibia 16 T.Y. Danjuma Street, Asokoro District Tel: 09-780 94 41, 09-780 54 85 Gambia High Commission No. 7, Misratah Street, Off Parakau Crescent Wuse 2 Tel: 09-524 12 24, 09-524 12 25 Sierra Leone High Commission Plot 308, Mission Road Opposite Ministry of Defence (Ship House) Diplomatic Zone, Central Business District Tel: 09-870 42 41, 09-872 54 13

Embassy of Burkina Faso No 7, Pope John Paul Street, Maitama Embassy of Equatorial Guinea No 20, Dakala Street, Off Parakou Crescent Off Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse 2 Tel: 09-781 68 67, 09-781 68 22 Zimbabwe High Commission Plot 2908, opposite Supreme Court Judges Quarters,Off Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse 2 Embassy of Eritrea Plot 1510, Yedseram Street Off IBB Way, Maitama Tel:09-413 60 86 Embassy of Burundi No 59, TY Danjuma Street Asokoro Tel: 08085286039 Embassy of Senegal No 12, Jose Marti Crescent Asokoro Tel: 09-314 60 59 Embassy of Congo Brazzaville Plot 447, Lobito Crescent Wuse 2

Recently, Abuja celebrity lady, Queen KC, celebrated her birthday at the Ciroc Winebar, Utako, Abuja. She displays her birthday cake here.

ABUJAMetro

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

DAILY SUN

39

DIPLOMATIC SUITE Nigeria last week celebrated its 52nd independence anniversary.Though at low key, there was still some fun and attendance of the powerful in the society at a banquet held in the State House, Abuja

Photos: BAYO OBISESAN

Interdenominational service held at the National Christian Centre, Abuja, to mark the anniversary. It was graced by the prominent in the society.

R-L: President Goodluck Jonathan, Senate President; Senator David Mark and wife, Helen, and former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd.) at the interdenominational service.

President Goodluck Jonathan, with the assistance of the personalities, cuts the 52nd independence anniversary cake at the forecourt of the Presidential Villa, State House, Abuja.

L-R: Vice President Namadi Sambo, President Goodluck Jonathan and the former Chief Justice of Nigeria; Justice Alfa

Last week President Goodluck Jonathan had a harvest of new ambassadors posted to Nigeria. In a large diplomatic ceremony, he received the diplomats, who presented him with their Letters of Credence at the State House, Abuja.

President Goodluck Jonathan being welcomed by Chief Alex Ekwueme while the Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, looks on.

President Goodluck Jonathan, C A N President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, and the Executive Secretary, Christian Pilgrims Commission during the interde-

R-L: President Goodluck Jonathan, receiving the Letter of Credence from Hungarian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Zsolt Maris.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Hoang Ngoc Ho (left), presentating his Letter of Credence to President Goodluck Jonathan.

Jamaican Ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs. I. Ann Scott (left), presenting her letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.

R-L: President Goodluck Jonathan receiving the Letter of Credence from Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Rolf Kristion.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

ABUJAMetro

DAILY SUN

CITY GIST

Day motor park operators nabbed man with dead child in suitcase

Lifeless body of a child in the lugBy MOLLY KILETE

S

aturday, September 9, is a prime date for Abuja cab drivers with business base in Katampe.

That day, drivers and other officials of the mini motor park caught a young man with a suitcase, containing a very strange and frightening luggage, the body of a young boy whose age was put at about three.

The fresh body of the little boy was neatly bent over and packed in a black suitcase by the young man, who claimed to be the father.

Even though most Nigerians feel that nothing good can come from people, who work in the motor parks, the members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Tipper Garage Branch, proved the feeling wrong that day.

But for their intervention the corpse-suitcase-man, who boarded a commercial bus all the way from Bwari, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory with his deadly luggage, which he placed on his lap throughout the journey would have had a smooth sail to his destination.

Trouble caught up with him when he told the bus conductor he would come down at the tipper garage. On getting to the bus top, he came down from the bus but refused to pay the transport fare on the ground that he had no money on him.

The conductor of the bus, who did not find his excuse funny, tried to force him to pay but he refused and not knowing what else to do, the conductor decided to seize his luggage.

The man struggled with him and threw the bag into the booth of the bus. The conductor, who was bent on getting his money opened the booth, reached for the bag and decided to open it to see the content before confiscating it. What he saw baffled him and he immediately closed the bag and shouted.

Not knowing that the conductor had already seen the dead body of the little boy in the suitcase, the owner ran to the backside of the car and started struggling with the conductor over

his suitcase.

The incident, which happened at about few minutes to seven in the morning, attracted operators of the tipper garage, who, after hearing the dispute between the man and the conductor, offered to pay the transport fare.

But the officer in charge of the park, Sir Moore Modestus, a retired soldier, after settling to pay the transport fare, insisted that he opened the bag for them to see the content since the conductor was insisting that there was a human being inside. But he refused.

On suspecting that the man might be up to something funny, one of the taxi operators, Obong Kokoette, dragged him into the bus and then got some people and forced him to open the luggage. To their amazement, the fresh body of

a little boy was right inside there.

At this point the man tried to run away but was overpowered by the taxi operators, who grabbed him and tied his hands. Angered by what they saw, the crowd pounced on him and gave him the beating of his life while the conductor and the driver of the bus left the scene.

Several attempts by the taxi park operators to know where and how he got the deceased child got no answer but he kept saying “na my pikin, na my pikin”. He also told them he was coming from Bwari.

When the beating from the mob was getting worse, they decided to contact some soldiers posted to guard the PHCN station across the road, who ran to the scene to rescue the man from the mob and later called in the police from Maitama Police Station. The man was later arrested with his luggage.

The body of the little boy was later deposited in a mortuary.

Modestus, who said he had been working with the NURTW for over seven years, told Abuja Metro how he was about paying N150 fare for the man because he took pity on him when he said he had no money.

He recalled that but for God’s intervention, the man, who boarded the vehicle all the way from Bwari, would have succeeded in getting to his destination without being caught. He also attributed the arrest of the killer to cry of the blood of the innocent child, who he said looked very handsome and healthy even in death.

He advised commercial drivers to always insist on searching the luggage of their passengers before allowing them to board their vehicles because, as he puts it: “Today, we saw somebody carrying a dead body, what if it was something else that ended up attacking passengers

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