Wednesday 12th April 2017 by THISDAY Newspapers Ltd

T H I S D AY WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2017

˾ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017

PAGE NINE

Amnesty International: Nigeria Only Second to China in Number of Death Sentences Lagos, Rivers handed down highest number of death sentences

Amnesty International (AI), in

a new global review of death sentences handed down by the courts in 2016, has stated that Nigerian handed down the second highest number of death sentences in the world. China was ranked number one in the world. A statement by Isa Sanusi, AI’s Media Manager in Nigeria stated that the massive and worrying spike in death sentences recorded in Nigeria in 2016 put the country at odds with the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty, AI said in its 2016 global review

of the death penalty, published yesterday. According to the human rights body, death sentences in Sub-Saharan Africa rose from 443 in 2015 to at least 1,086 in 2016, mainly due to an increase in Nigeria (from 171 to 527), putting it second only to China, whose death sentences are shrouded in secrecy. In Nigeria, Lagos State imposed the highest number of death sentences in 2016, 68 people, which was closely followed by Rivers State with 61, according to official records provided by the Nigeria Prisons

Service. “By handing down more death sentences last year than any other country except China, Nigeria has tripled its use of this cruel and inhuman punishment and skyrocketed up the shameful league table of the world’s death penalty offenders,” said Damian Ugwu, AI’s Nigeria researcher. “The danger of people being executed for crimes they may not have committed remains ever-present. Investigations show many death row inmates live in constant fear of execution in some Nigerian prisons.”

AI said on 23 December 2016, three death row prisoners were put to death in Benin Prison, Edo State. Their executions were carried out despite the fact that one of them, Apostle Igene was sentenced to death in 1997 by a military tribunal, and never had an appeal. “In 2016, Oyo State passed a law making kidnapping punishable with execution. In 2017, Bauchi and Lagos States passed similar laws. In May 2016, discussions were also held in Nigeria’s Senate about introducing a federal law that would make kidnapping

a capital offence. “These steps by state and federal authorities are retrogressive and unjustifiable as there is no evidence to suggest that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishment, or that it serves any useful deterrent purpose. “Measures already being undertaken by the Nigerian authorities to improve police training and technology in the detection and prevention of crime and reforms of the criminal justice systems are likely to have a greater impact

on the crime rate than any moves to expand the scope of the death penalty,” AI stated. It called on the Nigerian government to establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. “For years, the federal government has claimed to have a voluntary or selfimposed ‘moratorium’ but executions have happened nonetheless; including those in December 2016. “This demonstrates the urgency of formally establishing a moratorium,” it added.

African Migrants Sold in Libya ‘Slave Markets’, Says IOM Africans trying to reach Europe are being sold by their captors in “slave markets” in Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said. According to a BBC report yesterday, victims have told IOM that after being detained by people smugglers or militia groups, they were taken to town squares or car parks to be sold. Migrants with skills like

painting or tiling would fetch higher prices, the head of the IOM in Libya told the BBC. Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 Nato-backed ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. Hundreds of young subSaharan African men have been caught up in the so-called slave markets, according to the IOM report. A Senegalese migrant, who was not named to protect his identity, said that he had been

sold at one such market in the southern Libyan city of Sabha, before being taken to a makeshift prison where more than 100 migrants were being held hostage. Women, too, were bought by private Libyan clients and brought to homes where they were forced to be sex slaves, the witness said. The IOM’s chief of mission for Libya, Othman Belbeisi, said that those sold into

slavery found themselves priced according to their abilities. “Apparently they don’t have money and their families cannot pay the ransom, so they are being sold to get at least a minimum benefit from that,” he said. “The price is definitely different depending on your qualifications, for example if you can do painting or tiles or some specialised work then

the price gets higher.” An IOM staff member in Niger said they confirmed the reports of auctions in Libya with several other migrants who had escaped: “They all confirmed the risks of been sold as slaves in squares or garages in Sabha, either by their drivers or by locals who recruit the migrants for daily jobs in town, often in construction. “Later, instead of paying

them, (they) sell their victims to new buyers.” Some migrants, mainly Nigerians, Ghanaians and Gambians are forced to work “as guards in the ransom houses or in the ‘market’ itself”, the IOM employee added. The organisation has called the emergence of these markets “a disturbing new trend in the already dire situation for migrants in Libya”.

is being recycled with more lies added to garnish the narrative, at a time the ex-President is making efforts to resolve the issues in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). “Again, let us point out for clarity and for the umpteenth time that while he was in office and now that he is out of office, former President Jonathan did not open and does not own any bank account, aircraft or real estate outside Nigeria. “Anyone with contrary information is challenged to

publicly publish same. “Finally, Dr. Jonathan appeals to the media to report facts rather than innuendo and gossip. He asks that the media ought to remember that he signed the Freedom of Information Act into law and it is only fair to use it to investigate allegations and establish the truth. “Dr. Jonathan cannot stop criminals from ‘assuming’, but he can and he will stop them from getting away with blatant lies,” Eze added.

retail invisibles and wholesale forwards since February this year. Towards this end, SMEs yesterday got some relief when the CBN offered $100 million to small and medium businesses through spot sales from its new FX window for them. Also yesterday, the CBN released its results of 7-30 days forward auctions of $100million, just as it disclosed that authorised dealers subscribed fully to its offer on Monday. CBN spokesman Isaac Okorafor disclosed this, saying that the new window for SMEs provides small scale importers an avenue to source FX to boost their respective businesses through the importation of eligible finished and semi-finished items. He, however, restated that no SME will be allowed to transact more than $20,000 per quarter. Also, some authoritative

sources at the CBN disclosed that as part of efforts to boost FX supply, the CBN will soon not only begin FX auctions on the spot market, but also open a special window for investors to trade freely for certain eligible transactions, particularly dividends and investment remittances. A CBN source was also optimistic that with the current level of foreign reserves, the CBN has the capacity to sustain supply even if it has to keep doing so for the next three months. He pointed out that the central bank survived last September when reserves were as low as $24 billion, reasoning that the gap between then and now stands at over $6 billion. The current foreign reserves, he explained, can sustain the market for a long time, supported by the steady accretion from global oil prices and relative peace in the Niger Delta that has enabled Nigeria to ramp up oil production.

MALABU OIL ASKS COURT TO STOP FG FROM SIGNING FID ON $13.5BN OIL PROJECT “The man quoted by the report said he ‘assumed’ that Dr. Jonathan would be bribed. Since when has the assumption of a crook been enough to smear the reputation of a patriot and international statesman like Dr. Goodluck Jonathan?” Eze noted that the report also wrongly claimed that “Jonathan and Etete had known each other for years”, according to Shell staff, when Jonathan served as a tutor to Etete’s children while he was a minister. “This claim is clearly

ridiculous and nothing can be further from the truth,” he said. “In the first place, the former president couldn’t have been a ‘tutor’ to Etete’s children without first establishing contact with the family. “This is because Jonathan met Etete who served as the Petroleum Minister in General Abacha’s military regime for the first time under the succeeding civilian administration, when he was already the deputy governor

of Bayelsa State. “Even then, the fact remains that ex-President Jonathan has never met any of Etete’s children. “Besides, Jonathan couldn’t have been anybody’s private tutor during that period, because he was already in the directorate cadre in the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC (now NDDC), having already left the academia at the time Etete was a serving minister.

“This story, coming so soon after the fake news that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan refused British help in rescuing the Chibok Girls (a story that the British Government debunked) and that he plans to contest the 2019 elections (another lie), proves that these fallacious stories are deliberately contrived for reasons that are yet to be publicly disclosed. “It is instructive that this same old fable apparently intended to rubbish Jonathan’s name locally and internationally,

HOW SPECULATORS, CURRENCY TRAFFICKERS ARE COLLUDING TO FORCE CBNí S HAND A currency trader, who pleaded to remain anonymous, alleged that some currency speculators now connive with bank officials to generate fake airline tickets just to enable them access personal travel allowances. These funds are thereafter sold on the parallel market. Also, THISDAY findings showed that latent demand for FX, coupled with illicit funds from public office holders and others chasing few dollars, have contributed to the wild fluctuation of the naira on the parallel market in the past few days, despite the sustained intervention by the CBN. In addition, THISDAY learnt that due to the anticipated devaluation of the naira in the short-term, a lot of banks have been holding back their dollar cash in order to make a kill when the local currency is devalued. Furthermore, the sale of tickets at a discounted dollar price by some international

airlines has also contributed to the surge in dollar demand observed in the market recently, as passengers have rushed to buy the greenback for their summer holidays and for their children schooling overseas. Speaking in an interview with THISDAY, the President, Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, confirmed that the activities of speculators and currency traffickers were having a negative effect on the market. “We believe that there is lot of illegal money in the economy being used to distort the market. When you have such funds that cannot pass through the banking system, if they tell you that the naira exchange rate is N500/$1, you can buy, just for you to frustrate the system. “Most of the funds that cannot be kept in the banks have found their way into the parallel market. Also, I

agree that speculators are still strategising because they have lost money and so they can’t just go away like that. “Sometimes they (currency speculators) come up with propaganda saying that the CBN is not selling dollars to BDCs; CBN cannot sustain this policy, etc, and this kind of misinformation affects the rate,” the ABCON boss said. Gwadabe recently blamed the depreciation of naira on speculators’ onslaught and resistance by some banks. He urged the CBN to sponsor a bill at National Assembly to make the naira the convertible currency in West Africa. Similarly, an analyst at Ecobank Nigeria, Kunle Ezun, who agreed that the activities of currency speculators were responsible for the volatility on the parallel market, advised the central bank to “take its mind off the parallel market”. “It is a market it cannot control. It is an informal market. There is no way the

CBN can control the naira exchange rate on the parallel market because they (CBN) does not even know the depth of that market,” he said. However, Ezun disagreed that the central bank might devalue the naira in the short-term. “I don’t foresee a devaluation in the short-term because the CBN has a lot of exposure on its FX futures market. Once you devalue, the strike of the FX futures would go up to mirror the new rate and would hit the CBN negatively,” he said. The CBN on Monday announced that it was opening a special foreign exchange (FX) window for small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs). The initiative, according to the central bank, would enable businesses import eligible finished and semi-finished items not exceeding $20,000 for each operator per quarter. The central bank has intervened in the FX market to tune of over $3 billion for both

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017Ëž T H I S D AY

NEWS

Ă?ĂĄĂ? Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153; Davidson Iriekpen Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013; davidson.iriekpen@thisdaylive.com, 08111813081

Udoma: FG to Release Implementation Roadmap for Economic Recovery Plan Ndubuisi Francis Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x;Ă&#x201D;Ă&#x2039; The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has disclosed that the implementation roadmap for the National Economic Revovery and Growth Plan (NERG) is in the works and would soon be released. Udoma said the implementation roadmap, which would provideÂ more detailed strategies, timelines and derivables of the plan on a year-by-year basis, is being put together a team of experts who are working with officials of his ministry in collaboration with officials of otherÂ ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). Providing more insight on the NERG plan during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja yesterday, the minister said as soon as the roadmap was concluded, it would be uploaded on the website of the ministry of Budget and National Planning. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The implementation road map is being drawn up by a team of experts who are working with officials of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, together with officials of other MDAs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They will be working out a more detailed cost estimate and financing plan with detailed KPIs (key performance indicators) and so on. â&#x20AC;&#x153;While the Ministry of Budget and Planning will be coordinating the plan, the president has approved that a Special Delivery Unit be created in the presidency to monitor its implementation and remove all bottlenecks to plan implementation.Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;Implementation will be

coordinated by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning. There are a number of initiatives being put in place to ensure effective implementation,â&#x20AC;? he said, noting that apart from the implementation roadmap, which is in the works,Â other initiatives had been enunciated. According to him, these include a delivery unitÂ being set up in the presidency, and the use of Implementation task-forces, among others. â&#x20AC;&#x153;These task-forces are to focus on the key execution priorities. The execution priorities are (a) agriculture and food security, (b) energy which includes power and petroleum products sufficiency (c) transportation infrastructure and (d) industrialisation, focusing on small and medium enterprises. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The task-forces will monitor execution of projects and programmes in the respective sectors and report back. Some of these task-forces may also have representation from the states and the private sector. Already, we have task forces working on rice, power and tomato paste,â&#x20AC;? the minister stated. He stressed thatÂ active engagement with the private sector was part of the initiatives, adding: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We will be having regular and active engagements with the private sector on a sectoral basis. This will be led by the relevant ministers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In particular, the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry will be meeting with manufacturers to try to replicate the success in the cement industry. The aim will be to seek self-sufficiency, wherever possible, in the basic products that we need and use.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our initial concentration will, of course, be in areas where we have the raw materials locally, such as petrochemicals. We will seek to establish what constraints the particular sector has and how government can help to remove the bottlenecks. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As the NERG plan says, our role as government is to provide the enabling environment.â&#x20AC;? On how to ensure the plan did not suffer the fate of previous initiatives by past administrations, Udoma said it was developed through an extensive consultation process, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari has the political will to ensure the success of the NERG plan. The minister who also spoke about the expansionary budget and the debt implication, said the challenge was getting revenue up. According to him, a short to medium plan to boost revenue was already on with a committee set to work on that. He noted that additional revenue would help fast track the NERGP plan implementation as well as the economic recovery process. The minister listed some of the measures to increase revenue to include targeting increased tax collection without necessarily

increasing tax. He lamented that the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tax to GDP ratio is a paltry 6 per cent while the average is 15 per cent in Africa, noting that plans were on to increase this to about 15 per cent. Udoma also pointed out that the government was going to insist that all agencies and departments should henceforth present their budgets to the Ministry of Finance for scrutiny as part of overall effort to ensure efficient spending. The minister allayed fears that NERG plan implementation could be torpedoed by monetary policies, and stressed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was actively involved in fashioning out the plan. Udoma added that Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the apex bank would be involved to achieve the targets in the plan. On the non passage of 2017 budget, the minister said his ministry was working with the National Assembly and encouraging it to pass the budget as soon as possible. On the problems bedevilling the power sector, the minister stated that a power sector recovery plan was in place, adding that the target was to make all the components of the

sector viable. Udoma noted that a three to five year plan had been put in place to make the component units of the power sector viable. According to him, about N700 billion was being provided to the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) as an offtaker to ensure that power generated is paid for. Contributing on the problems bogging the power sector, the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said a major setback to the sector was huge government debt, pointing out that this must be sorted out to free the sector. The NERGP plan is a four-year (2017-2020) mediumÂ term plan of the federal government and is anchored on five principles, namely: r5BDLMJOH DPOTUSBJOUT UP economic growth; rĹ&#x2021;-FWFSBHJOH UIF QPXFS PG UIF private sector to drive economic recovery and sustained growth; rĹ&#x2021;1SPNPUJOH OBUJPOBM DPIFTJPO and social inclusion; r"MMPXJOH NBSLFUT UP function optimally while strengtheningÂ Â government regulatory oversight to minimise abuse; and r6QIPMEJOH UIF DPSF WBMVFT that define the Nigerian society as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution

By governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s projection, the implementation of the NERG plan , which was officially launched by President Buhari on April 5, ,2017, is expected to deliver on a number of outcomes. Some of these include: rĹ&#x2021; QFS DFOU BWFSBHF SFBM (%1 growth rate over the Plan period with seven per cent by 2020; r4JOHMF EJHJU JOĂĄBUJPO SBUF by 2020; rĹ&#x2021;$SVEF PJM PVUQVU PG NCQE by 2017 rising to 2.5 mbpd in 2020; r"U MFBTU HJHBXBUUT PG operational electricity capacity by 2020; rĹ&#x2021; QFS DFOU VOFNQMPZNFOU SBUF CZ GSPN QFS DFOU JO 2 rĹ&#x2021;0WFS NJMMJPO EJSFDU KPCT by 2020 - created in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, services, among others.Â r.BOVGBDUVSJOH TFDUPS BWFSBHF annual growth of 8.5 per cent, peaking 10.6 per cent by 2020; r"HSJDVMUVSF BWFSBHF BOOVBM growth rate of 6.9 per cent over the plan period; *Self-sufficiency in rice and wheat in 2018 and 2020, respectively; r QFS DFOU SFEVDUJPO JO imports of refined petroleum products by 2018 and net exporter of refined crude oil by 2020.

Osinbajo: Nigeria will End up Badly If We Fail to Sustain Anti-graft War Omololu Ogunmade Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x;Ă&#x201D;Ă&#x2039; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday said the federal government would do everything possible to sustain anti-corruption war and ensure the country is in good shape, saying otherwise, the country â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ll end up badly. The vice-president, according to a statement by his media BJEF .S -BPMV "LBOEF MBTU night, said â&#x20AC;&#x153;if we are not able to sustain the fight against corruption, we will end up in a very, very bad way as a nation. Akande said the vice-president noted that the Defence contract of $15 billion which was frittered away by individuals â&#x20AC;&#x153;is half of our countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foreign reserves.â&#x20AC;? He also said Osinbajo made the remark while receiving members of the Nigerian "TTPDJBUJPO PG -BX 5FBDIFST at the State House, adding that the vice president observed that â&#x20AC;&#x153;we have seen it in so many different ways that at almost every state, corruption fights back and fights very fiercely.â&#x20AC;?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We should be able to examine our priorities because for us corruption is not a moral issue, it is an existential issue. To a large extent, it will determine whether we will survive as a corporate whole because of the way people feel that when I get into an office I will go after the resources of the state, and I will go after it in the most vicious and the most reckless manner that is possible,â&#x20AC;? he was quoted as saying. The statement further said the Vice President Osinbajo appealed to all and sundry to confront the menace of corruption irrespective of their backgrounds whether religious, political or academic. The statement added that the leader of the group, Prof. Godwin Nwabueze Okeke, had earlier commended Osinbajo for making himself available for the group and offered him the task of declaring open the forthcoming 50th Conference of the association billed to take place in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in June

ARISE TV SOARING HIGH

Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Babatunde Fowler (right), appearing on ARISE News Night on ARISE TV, a THISDAY Newspaper sister television network, in Abuja...yesterday

Abuja Airport Runway Repairs 96% Completed The Minister of State, Aviation, Mr. Hadi Sirika, has said the repair of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, runway has attained 96 per cent completion. Sirika stated this when he visited the site yesterday, one week ahead the proposed reopening of the airport. He said the work which commenced from runway 04 had progressed to runway 22, adding the laying of asphalt had

been completed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can see that where we are is runway 22 and remember the work started from runway 04 and has ended at runway 22. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can see that we have finished ashpalting and we are at 96 per cent completion level of the runway. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What remains is a part of the airfield lighting and the markings which are being done simultaneously,â&#x20AC;? he stated. The minister, however,

explained that the runway had some undulating surfaces earlier but had has been reduced significantly to near-even level. The minister, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), added that the camber for draining rainwater had been improved upon to stop the runway from retaining water as was the situation before the rehabilitation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got about a week to the due date for opening so we

are on schedule,â&#x20AC;? he assured. Sirika debunked insinuation that the airport would be run for only 12 hours after reopening, assuring that it would not be shut after reopening on April 19. The airport was for six weeks from March 8 for rehabilitation of its failed runway and air travel operations were diverted to Kaduna airport during the period. Kaduna airport has been experiencing heavy traffic since then.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

Malami Asks N’Assembly to Consider Issuing Resolutions with Force of Law Blames arms of govt for dysfunctional institutions

James Emejo ÓØ ÌßÔË The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), yesterday advised the National Assembly to consider the use of resolutions that carry the force of law in its interactions with government agencies. He said this “weapon of attack” could help to make public agencies more responsible in their approach to the National Assembly. Malami had been asked by the Chairman, ad-hoc committee on the missing $17 billion oil funds, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, on the possible options available to the committee to deal with agencies that deliberately sabotage investigations by shunning public hearings or other summons. The AGF in his response, said the existing resolutions from the National Assembly were merely persuasive with no binding effect on those they are intended for. He said: “I want to bring to the attention of the committee is the fact that the resolutions as far as the legislations are concerned is ordinarily persuasive. There are resolutions that could have the force of law. “I think your weapon of attack is available at your disposal; that is having a resolution in place that has the force of law and not a resolution that ordinarily is persuasive and not binding.” The AGF was one of the heads of agencies invited to appear before the committee to provide clarifications on some of the litigation involving the federal government and oil companies, as the lawmakers attempt to unravel the mystery surrounding the undeclared monies between 2011 and 2014. Following yesterday’s summon to all heads of agencies to appear yesterday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the CBN, Nigeria Navy and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) turned up while many others shunned the hearing. But NNPC’s appearance made little or no difference, as its Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mr. Roland Ewubare, who lead the team failed to impress the committee, because he could not provide the crucial details needed to make progress on a heap of allegations bordering on crude oil production and lifting for the review period. Nevertheless, Namdas said some of the companies were pleading sub judice - taking cover under the excuse that they are already in court on the matter. Furthermore, asked to suggest what could be responsible for the dysfunctional system in institutions, Malami said

all the arms of government should share the blame for the rot in the system. According to him, the legislature is particularly culpable given that laws that seeks to correct these anomalies are often not given express attention while lawmakers occupied themselves with issues of less significance citing the recent controversy in the Senate on the adorning of uniform by the customs boss. He also carpeted the Judiciary for unduly delay of sensitive cases which have economic dimension. He said: “A lot has gone

wrong as far as the operations of the institutions in the Nigerian state are concerned. I will now start as a way of talking to the responsibilities of the National Assembly “It is rather unfortunate that while we were contesting on uniforms, we’ve not taken our time to consider passage of the relevant bills that have greater impact on the fight against corruption. “The executive on its own part has presented a bill for the consideration of the National Assembly and it has remained there for long and no position has been taken.” Malami said: “On the part of

the executive with all sincerity, arising from the desire to plug existing loopholes relating to corruption, we have in place TSA which has significantly added value as far as plugging the leakages are concerned. “When the whistle blowers act has been presented before the National Assembly and it has taken time and the bill has not been passed into law. The executive was held by circumstances by considering having in place a whistle blower policy which is equally making tremendous contributions as far as the plugging of loopholes are concerned.

“Well, before now, I think the legislature has been using the powers vested in it by the constitution including powers vested in it to make resolutions. According to the AGF:”There are responsibilities that are clearly part of legislature: power of making laws is vested in legislature and there are issues relative to executive and Judiciary. “Until we get to a state when we all key into the idea of fighting corruption as a unit- the executive, Judiciary and legislature coming together and working

for the purpose of fighting corruption, things will continue to remain wrong and then we will find it difficult to make progress. “Those laws that should naturally add sense and meaning and promote fight against corruption are not been addressed with dispatch. All things are wrong as far as the working of the system is concerned and we’ve a collective responsibility to work together.” He said the judiciary must ensure hat cases of economic undertone are treated with dispatch.

T H I S D AY WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2017

COMMENT

Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com

SEXUALISATION OF CHILDREN: MATTERS ARISING

Sonnie Ekwowusi argues that children should not be exposed to sex education

ast Wednesday I wrote on this page what I thought was a very innocent article incapable of rousing a sleeping rat. But somehow the article has been eliciting no small commentary from many readers from the different streams of the Nigerian society. That is why I feel obliged today to revisit the said article. The title of the aforesaid article was: Sexualisation of School Children. The article could be summarised as follows: primary and secondary school curricula in Nigeria have now been corrupted to include sex-related textbooks and English Literature books aimed at the sexualisation of the unsuspecting school pupils. I recalled in my said article how Ahmed Akanbi, a parent and a Lagos-based legal practitioner, was scandalised upon learning that his nine-year- old daughter who is in Primary Six is being systematically sexualised by the school where she is currently enrolled without the knowledge of Ahmed and his wife. I rounded off by stating that a society that gambles with the future of its children by exposing them to sexual promiscuity is heading for extinction. As I said earlier, since the aforesaid article was published on this page last Wednesday it has been attracting many commentaries. Many readers have been calling and wondering why any sane society would go out of its way to corrupt its impressionable young ones all in the name of sex education. Due to constraint of space and time, I would simply mention the names and respective commentaries of a few respondents to the article. My friend Solomon called and said: “Sonnie, frankly speaking, I don’t know what this world is turning into. We are in end times. How can a teacher who is supposed to be moulding the character of a child turn round to be sexualising the child? This is not the way I was brought up”. Mrs. Funke Adeyemi called from Abuja and was very upset. She said that rather than expose school children to sex education, the government should, as in the past, reintroduce moral instruction in schools in order to instil discipline and good virtues in the pupils. Mrs. Anene Odiyi wondered why things are getting very bad in Nigeria. Mrs. Chinelo Ujubuonu simply volunteered to lead the parents’ campaign against sex education in primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. Mrs. Rose Umeh cannot believe the tragedy that has befallen the Nigerian child. Mrs. Ebele Mbaso is proud to belong to the old generation of Nigerians that are still promoting family values. In contrast, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, Mrs. Oby Nwankwo and others are seriously campaigning that Nigerian teenagers should be allowed to exercise their “sexual rights” as contained in the Comprehensive Sexuality Education. Mrs. Nwankwo, in particular, claims that comprehensive sexuality education is being taught in Nigerian schools but “unfortunately, people with warped ideas are blocking it from schools especially Christian schools and this is why we are losing our children to unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions”. In fact, at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61), New York, March 13-24 2017, the African Group including Nigeria, rejected comprehensive sexuality education. But Mrs. Nwankwo staged a protest against the rejection. Then Princess Joan Jummai Idonije (the strong lady who coordinated the activities of the Nigerian delegation at the CSW61) and other women quickly reminded

IT IS OBVIOUS THAT SOME NIGERIANS ARE RECEIVING FUNDING FROM ABROAD AND CONSPIRING WITH SOME NIGERIAN EDUCATIONAL AUTHORITIES TO INTRODUCE AN ABRASIVE BIOLOGICAL SEX EDUCATION IN OUR SCHOOLS TO CORRUPT OUR CHILDREN

Mrs. Nwankwo that sexuality education promotes lesbianism and homosexuality. But Mrs. Nwankwo is undeterred. Presently, she is putting pressure on the National Assembly to pass the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill which also contains clauses that promotes lesbianism and homosexuality. It is obvious that some Nigerians are receiving funding from abroad and conspiring with some Nigerian educational authorities to introduce an abrasive biological sex education in our schools to corrupt our children. This is completely unacceptable. A school sex education aimed at luring hapless school pupils into sexual promiscuity is not worth experimenting with. For example, the comprehensive sexuality education which Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, Mrs. Oby Nwankwo and others are promoting is very damaging to the character of children. It does not seek to pass ordinary sexuality education information to the kids to enable them make their respective choices. Rather it seeks to corrupt the kids and get them to become sexually active. For example, under the so-called comprehensive sexuality education, school pupils in open classroom are required to touch each other’s genital saying: “I like you”. The pupils are also expected to touch each other’s private parts and find out the differences in their respective private organs. As I write this, I have in front of me the youth peer sexuality education training guide/toolkit, funded by the United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) in collaboration with other United Nations agencies. This guide contains suggested lessons for youth to teach their peers about sexuality. (See http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/jahia). I gather that the guide is already being used in some Nigerian secondary schools. On page 59 of the guide, students are required to give to their peers a list of sexual terms, including words like “vagina,” “breasts,” “orgasm,” “pleasure,” and “masturbation.” On page 61 the youth facilitators are told to share with other youths with whom they feel more comfortable things like “Your sexual fantasies (fantasies), “Your feelings about oral sex (oral)”, “Whether you enjoy erotic material (X), “Whether you have fantasided about a homosexual relationship (gayfan),” “Whether you have had a homosexual relationship (gay-exp)”. On page 75 there is a condom relay race activity involving boys and girls. It instructs the peer leader to “Ask two volunteers (participants or co-facilitators) to hold the two penis models” and then to invite two teams to race to put the condoms on the models. These startling revelations clearly invite Nigerian parents to stand up and be counted. As I said here last Wednesday, no school has a right to sexualise your children for you. Teen “safe-sex” is abhorred in virtually all Nigerian cultures. Above all, promotion of teen “safe-sex” in schools is unconstitutional in Nigeria. Therefore no school equally has a right to corrupt the morals of your children under the guise of sex education. Unfortunately the Nigerian crisis is also a crisis of passivity. We are too tolerant of evil in Nigeria. Evil thrives when the so-called good people sit back and do nothing. Therefore we can no longer remain passive in Nigeria. Happily, Ahmed Akanbi is dragging the school corrupting her nine-year- old daughter to court. You who is lamenting, what have you resolved to do beyond mere lamentation?

SUICIDE IN THE SEASON OF ANOMY

n societies with responsive and responsible leadership, the increasing rate of suicide is all that is needed to put things right. But here in Nigeria, the major concern of those at the helms of affairs is whatever threatens their hegemonic control of the national commonwealth. While suicide is not peculiar to Nigeria, the dimensions of suicide in Nigeria and the characterisation of those who have attempted or actually died of this reflects the mood of Nigeria. A society experiencing sudden changes in its social structure will alter the lives of her citizenry who may find it difficult to adjust to the new social reality. Put in other words, the country is hard and we live in anomy and what follows is anomic suicide. Emilie Durkheim, in his study on suicide noted that ‘what the rising rate of voluntary deaths denotes is not the brilliancy of our civilisation but a state of crisis and perturbation not to be prolonged with impunity’. By that he meant actionable policies, pragmatic enough to halt people from exiting the world ‘untimely’, must be formulated and social support mechanisms put in place. This is because Durkheim believes suicide to be a ‘pathological phenomenon becoming daily a greater menace’. Of course people now come to the public to voluntarily kill themselves. Because, suicide is mostly of social origin, understanding this and remedying it socially may be a timely intervention. Only a society with moral power (hardly true of the present Nigeria) can exercise control over the needs and aspirations of her members. In this season of crisis (recession, unemployment, loss of jobs, unpaid salaries, business collapse, botched relationship, poor/weak bonding, hunger, etcetera), Nigeria lacks the moral power to regulate the needs and aspirations of her people who are experiencing unprecedented changes in their needs and values. This is why suicide is on the increase during this

Economic tensions and crises increase the rate of suicide, writes Oludayo Tade anomic season. Durkheim had categorised suicide into egoistic suicide (which occurs when man no longer finds a basis for existence in life due to excessive withdrawal from the society and lofty but unaccomplished aspirations); altruistic suicide (insufficient individualism); and anomic suicide (which results from man’s norm-lessness and moral deregulation and its associated sufferings). The underlying deductions extractable from the narratives of those who left suicide notes or those rescued on their way-out-of mother earth as well as observations of those around them attests to the anomic state of things. History of kingdoms and their rulers are replete with suicide as voluntary action or imposed/ induced. Kingdoms were ruled by warriors due to its functionality, a need for defence against external aggression. With such responsibility to protect their people, a conquered kingdom becomes a slave to the conqueror while the head of the ruler of the defeated kingdom is cut off as a means to humiliate and shame a supposed powerful entity. In the face of imminent capturing of self and defeat of his armies, a king may act ‘manly’ (se bi okunrin) to demonstrate responsibility and bravery. This story is better told that he was met dead than he was captured, shamed around the kingdom and had his head severed. This is why the Yoruba saying iku ya jesin lo (better to die than being shamed) aptly captures such suicide which is both altruistic and egoistic in character. The king may also be pressured to ‘open the calabash’ in other situations. The king could also save his community from impending danger by sacrificing his life for the community and thereby preserve his name and his people. Thus, suicide can be committed as a sign of bravery/sacrifice; an expression of guilt; acceptance of failure in responsibility and above all, to avoid shame. Voluntary killing does not end there; its unintended consequences are borne

by the significant others who have to live with the stigma of having a suicide instinct in their family blood. For instance, people may prevent association of marriage between their children and family of a debtor who committed suicide unlike a warrior who sacrificed his life for his people to live. This however happened in relatively homogenous communities where collective conscience subsisted. Fast-forward to contemporary forms and dimensions of suicide. Different approaches had been adopted to achieve termination of their lives: from jumping into well/river, hanging self to the ceiling, poisoning, stabbing, electrocution and gunning. Suicide cases reported are also planned and well executed: people want to die covertly and spring surprises to attract sympathy or overtly such as those who went to the scene of suicide with their driver and kids. At the University of Ibadan, an undergraduate lady reportedly drank ‘Hypo’ because of a botched relationship. That phenomenon is now called “Hypo-love”. Why should we bother? That people attempted to and resorted to taking their own lives should trouble us. They point our attention to reasons underlying their decision; mostly the narratives of those who committed suicide and left notes (it is instructive that leaving note is a conscious state of feeling of responsibility by the person who committed suicide to those who will ask questions about the incident), narratives of the relatives and the narratives of those rescued from dying are vital data which must be used in designing interventions both by state and non-state actors. No human being can be happy unless his/her needs are sufficiently met including being accepted as a member of a group. In other words, if the needs fall short of expectations, human beings will only painfully function and respond to social reality. Human needs are insatiable and we compete on a social stage where all men are born equal but

some are more equal than others. How will people with normative responsibilities not give up when governments owe salaries of eight months! How shall people not give up when they have borrowed to get involved in MMM and the handlers decided to halt money circulation? Why will people not die in a country where the reality being experienced by the ruled is different from that which is experienced by the rulers? Why will people not die when society expects so much from them yet they are seen as less human or failures when unable to fulfil societal expectations? What is the worth of the life of ordinary Nigerians? What is their standard of living? How many thousands have been put out of jobs due to the ongoing recession? Who supports the vulnerable in Nigeria? We even steal from the internally displaced persons (IDPs) yet we wonder what endeared people to the Boko Haram insurgents! A run-through of those who voluntarily killed themselves shows that a majority died of unmet aspirations, alienation (lacking love), economic brouhaha and the fear of disintegrative shaming. Economic tensions and crises increase the curve of suicide and relocate people into lower position than their previous status forcing them to reduce their requirements, retrain their needs and learn greater self-control. But people can’t take this ‘new imposed identity’ hence suicide. Only a person with revised aspirations values and needs survive social changes in their lives. We cannot continue to live as if we are not in recession; recession is not an evil spirit that we can kill with ‘die-by-fire’ type prayers in our churches. The government must heal the economy and formulate consistent policies that people can plan with. Inconsistent policies kill businesses and frustrate plans. The people need to see hope when their leaders speak and act and not otherwise. Dr. Tade wrote from the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ°Ë&#x153; Í°ÍŽÍŻÍľ

EDITORIAL CURBING CYBERCRIMES IN NIGERIA Cybercrimes create image problem for the country

nformation and Communication Technology (ICT) systems are now as basic to our lives as water and electricity. Many individuals, corporate organisations and government agencies depend on ICT and computer networks to perform simple as well as complex tasks - from social networking and research to business and commerce. However, the cyberspace is vulnerable while many businesses, agencies and individuals are being increasingly threatened by cyber criminals not only within the country but around the world. Indeed, a recent report said North Korean hackers were targeting financial institutions in Nigeria and 17 other countries. Cybercrimes refer to those criminal acts such as identity theft and bank frauds facilitated through the use of the Internet. But as most Nigerians also know, to our collective shame, our country is often cited as a breeding ground for most of these nefarious practices because of the activities of a few citizens. In the last few years, many criminal elements in Nigeria have been using these modern telecommunication networks such as the internet NIGERIA CURRENTLY and mobile phones to LOSES ABOUT N78 BILLION commit all manner of YEARLY TO ACTIVITIES OF crimes that give us a CYBER CRIMINALS WHOSE bad image globally. MAJOR TARGETS ARE THE The country is FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, ranked third in global Internet crime after AND THE GOVERNMENT the United States of MINISTRIES, America and United DEPARTMENTS AND Kingdom while 7.5 AGENCIES per cent of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hackers are said to be Nigerians. Committed mostly by the young and mostly unemployed, often called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yahooâ&#x20AC;? boys, a precursor of the infamous â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;419â&#x20AC;&#x2122; email scammers, the fraudsters are increasingly taking advantage of the rise in online transactions, electronic shopping, e-commerce and the electronic messaging systems to engage in all manner of crimes. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reported last year that 70 per cent of attempted or successful fraud/

Letters to the Editor

forgery cases in the Nigerian banking system were perpetrated via the electronic channels. Between 2000 and 2013, banks in the country lost N159 billion to electronic frauds and cybercrime. In 2014, bank customers lost about N6 billion in Nigeria while in South Africa, the loss amounted to about N8 billion. In addition, the damage to business from the theft of intellectual property is exceedingly high.

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TO OUR READERS Letters in response to speci c publications in THISDAY should be brief (150â&#x2030; 200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are wellâ&#x2030; written and should also not be longer than (950â&#x2030; 1000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

BBN: NOW THAT THE SCALES ARE OFF

onâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be scared of what will come out next. I am not a killjoy. I am not going to criticise anything or anybody. As a matter of fact, I want to begin by congratulating Efe Ejeba, the Warri-born artiste whose life has taken a drastic positive turn like the Biblical Jabez. He is now healthier and richer by N25 million, the exact amount that can fund 200 clean cookstove small cottage industries. Like I said, I am here to share in your joy; both the budding artiste and the sponsors of the reality TV show. I am here to shake hands and clink glasses with Efe, his runners-up, and the organisers of the event. Efe, for rising by stroke of a mixture of luck and personality to be the owner of a luxury sport utlity vehicle he would not have dreamed of owning at least until the next 15 to 20 years, supposing he had a job before the show, with the current rate of progress in Nigeria at the moment, and to the sponsors, for their ability to detect our impulsive irrationality and squirrel away the lion share of our resources. Cheers, everyone. Now, the show is over. Now, the craze has ebbed. Now, our senses ought to have returned. Now, the scales must have fallen off our eyes. Efe, congratulations. You tried. God has picked your call, as they say. You can quietly go make a decent life out of that money, and be sure your generation never experiences the squalor that moulded you. PayPorte, GoTV and the rest, to the conference room. We need to talk. Its gentleman talk, a roundtable tete-a-tete between civilised individuals. I have no problem with the idea of gathering unmarried men and women in a house for three months to expose their nakedness and have unlicensed sex and lie and brag and demean what Africa

ast week, Mr.Adebayo Shittu, Minister of Communications, bemoaned the threat from the cyber criminals. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is noteworthy to mention that Nigeria currently loses about N78 billion yearly to activities of cyber criminals whose major targets are the financial institutions, and the government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as well as their affiliates,â&#x20AC;? he said. In 2015, the Cybercrimes Act was passed into law to address the challenges. The law criminalises a variety of offences â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from ATM card skimming and identity theft to possession of child pornography. It imposes, for instance, seven years imprisonment for offenders of all kinds and additional seven years for online crimes that result in physical harm, and life imprisonment for those that lead to death. But like almost every law in the country, there is the problem of enforcement. The â&#x20AC;&#x153;yahoo boysâ&#x20AC;? still daily throng cybercafĂŠ premises to â&#x20AC;&#x153;transactâ&#x20AC;? their business with the owners looking away. Yet the law criminalises internet cafĂŠ owners who knowingly allow their premises to be used to commit crimes. In response to the apparent failure of the law to address the growing challenge, the minister is canvassing the need for a robust network security, including appropriate network architecture and software, use of encryption, data protection legislation, and information security standards and â&#x20AC;&#x153;other tools of threat protection and detection.â&#x20AC;? These are in addition to building the capacity of local law enforcement. Indeed, any measured step taken to curb the widespread activities of the criminals is welcome. They do not only threaten our financial institutions, they create image problem for our country.

and her values hold sacrosanct. I have no problem with the idea of making celebrities of people who do next to nothing but being themselves, as you put it. Its business to you, for all intents and purposes. It has been a jolly good ride, and the raking has been more than worth the investment. There were a record 26 million votes for the various contestants in the final week alone, approximately one-tenth of the population of our dear country, apart from the rapt and frenzied viewership your channels enjoyed, and the money made from the shortcode messaging. But this is neither love, nor war, and there are a number of things we can do, to make all fair. In physics we were taught that equilibrium is maintained when two forces acting in opposing directions, equal in magnitude, balance out. Now that the hue and cry about the show is over, and as you are preparing your balance sheets and smacking lips over this delicious lick, remember that the system isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t in equilibrium yet. There are thousands of writers, of which I am one, who could do a lot with the platform that bodies like yours could provide in shaping the world intellectually. The only competition I know currently running in Nigeria for writers (I stand to be corrected) is the NLNG Prize for Literature. You would do well to look into ways of providing the same platform for intellectuals. Intellectuals are human beings too; they have swagger too, a swagger made of what legacy they can leave for the next generation; a swagger made of something other than a cute painted face and eye-popping body parts peeking out of scandalous dresses. Intellectuals can also represent brands; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a sin. Ogbonna Nnaemeka Henry, ogbonnaemekahenry@gmail.com

ALI MODU SHERIFF AND PDP

he crisis that engulfed the Peoples Democratic Party can be best described as the creation of the party or the leaders of the party who invited Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to be its National Chairman.

How can Sheriff be made the national chairman of the PDP? Did they bend the partyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s constitution for him? Today, the same man who bestrode the landscape when the PDP and former President Goodluck Jonathan was in the saddle is walking out on the former leader and other stakeholders because he was not given the chance to speak. Those that brought Modu Sheriff as the national chairman of the PDP have not done any good for the once flourishing party. It is so sad that Senator Ali Modu Sheriff was made the chairman of the party. But because he had the backing of the then President Jonathan,

the whole governors elected under the platform of the party rallied around him and today, he is paying them in their own coins. A chameleon does not easily change its spot. As such, Senator Modu Sheriff may not cave in and make peace for the overall benefit of the PDP. Senator Ali Modu Sheriff wants to use his cronies to actualise his ambition to fly the flag of the party in 2019. But no matter what, it is incumbent on all the stakeholders to see that the party remains a strong and active in order to forestall any unforeseen circumtances, that may thwart the gains recorded so far by the PDP. Therefore, it is necessary for the PDP to reorganise itself for the challenges ahead in 2019. Right now, the struggle is beginning to take shape, geared towards capturing the soul of the nation. It is also imperative for the party to strengthen its fold and for the stakeholders to bury their differences. Usman Santuraki, Jimeta,Yola

T H I S D AY WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2017

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T H I S D AY WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2017

T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017

MIDWEEKPOLITICS

Group Politics Editor Tobi Soniyi Email tobi.soniyi@thisdaylive.com 08033146139 SMS ONLY

THE NEWSMAKER

Ekweremadu: A Stabilising Force in Senate It is not by accident that Ike Ekweremadu has become Nigeria’s longest serving Deputy Senate President. He does not only possess the skills needed to survive the political land mines in the upper legislative chamber, he also has experience on his side, writes Segun James

n a country full of both ambition and frustration, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu is a role model. Without doubts, he has expanded the frontiers of legislative activities at a time when Nigerians are most disenchanted with that arm of government. He embodies the best in political engineering in the country. Following the loss by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general election, the leadership of the party in the National Assembly suddenly found itself in the opposition. A position it never envisaged, but the reality was that the party was no longer in power. So it was within this period that Ike Ekweremadu was made the Deputy President of the Senate. Ekweremadu is a name that has featured prominently in the Nigerian political stage for over a decade. He is a patriot who says he is more concerned about fixing the country’s biting economic and security than saving his job as deputy president when he was charged along with Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki for forging the Senate Rules. Besides, when the allegation was rife that he was dumping the PDP for the All Progressives Congress (APC), he debunked the report, saying that such reports were not only false, but baseless. Such was the stuff that Ekweremadu is made of. Ike Ekweremadu is a Nigerian politician and lawyer from Enugu State who has served in the Senate of Nigeria since May 2003 and he has been Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate for the third consecutive time. Born in 1962 at Amachara Mpu in Aninri local government area of Enugu State, he is of Igbo origin. He holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Law from the University of Nigeria, Nigeria and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1987. He also holds Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Law from the University of Abuja, Nigeria. In 2002, Ekweremadu was appointed Secretary to the Enugu State Government, before then he was Chairman of Aninri LGA in 1997 and won the Best Local Government Chairman Award in Enugu State at the time. He was appointed the Chief of Staff of the Enugu State Government House. On April 12, 2003 he was elected to the Nigerian Senate. In 2005, Ike Ekweremadu was beaten in the race for President of the Senate of Nigeria by Senator Kenechukwu Nnamani. He was returned in the April 29, 2007 Nigerian National Assembly election, and retained his position as Deputy Senate President. The lawmaker was reelected as Senator for Enugu West in the April 2011 elections, receiving 112,806 votes. The closest runner-up was the candidate of the party, Jackson Ezeoffor, who got 7,522 votes. A grassroots politician, Ekweremadu started off as the President of his age grade association in his rural Mpu community, Aninri local government, Enugu State. He went on to become the President of his town’s development union for many years. Then he mounted the saddle as the Secretary of the body agitating for the creation of Aninri LGA out of Awgu and he later, at the request of the Aninri leaders of thought, after it was created by the administration of late General Sani Abacha, became the first elected chairman of the local government in 2007. Record also has it that he was voted the best council chairman in that era. He was, however, appointed the Chief of Staff to former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani in 1999, an office that was to be replicated by other States and endures till date. Ekweremadu was elevated to the position of Secretary to the Government of Enugu State in 2002 and held the office until

Ekweremadu......politically savvy

he was elected Senator representing Enugu West senatorial district in 2003. He has been re-elected for additional three straight terms in 2007, 2011, and 2015. He has seen presiding officers rise and fall, he has seen legislative coups and counter coups, and like the old broom, he certainly knows every corner of the house. Ekweremadu had first baptism of fire into the intrigues and power play at the National Assembly when he ran for the senate presidency against his kinsman, Senator Ken Nnamani, who eventually had the upper hand, largely through a massive vote by northern Senators Forum. But, with equanimity, he shrugged off the setback, played his card well, and returned to the Senate in 2007. It was in the sixth senate that Ekweremadu’s beauty as a stabilising force in the Senate, an intellectual lawmaker, a levelheaded politi-

It was in the 6th Senate that Ekweremadu’s beauty as a stabilising force in the Senate, an intellectual lawmaker, a levelheaded politician, and jinxbreaker came to visible national reckoning. Often described as a partnership that worked, one thing that the Senator David Mark and Ekweremadu Senate Presidency will be remembered for is stability. Their eight years reign was the only period there were no attempt at impeachment of presiding officer

cian, and jinx-breaker came to visible national reckoning. Often described as a partnership that worked, one thing that the Senator David Mark and Ekweremadu Senate Presidency will be remembered for is stability. Their eight years reign was the only period there was no attempt at impeachment of presiding officers. Before them, the senate presidency was a musical chair, rocking and virtually throwing away most of its occupants. For instance, the 4th Senate (1999-2003) produced three senate presidents. in a period of four years, namely, Senators Evan Enwerem, Chuba Okadigbo, and Pius Anyim, while the fifth Senate (2003-2007) produced two. They were Senators Adophus Wabara and Ken Nnamani, amid other botched legislative coups and imbroglios in-between. They were all brought down by the proverbial banana pill, no thanks to executive interference and willing allies in the Senate. Although Mark showed unprecedented maturity and statesmanship in the handling of the Senate affairs, there is no doubt that the unalloyed loyalty and support of his deputy made his tenure rancor-free. Unlike in the first eight years when there was much backstabbing as even deputies traded off their principals, Ekweremadu had the back of Mark well covered. Senators who served between 2007 and 2011 also attest to Ekweremadu’s ability to calm frayed nerves and to broker truce. Even when there appeared to be executive-legislature disagreement, he knew how to do the leg walk and get things back on track. While Ekweremadu’s unforeseen reemergence as the Deputy President of the Senate in 2015, despite PDP’s loss of majority in the Senate took Nigerians by surprise, there were also those who insisted they were not taken aback. A veteran in the business, Ekweremadu always knew that politics of the legislature is a game of number and he is playing it right. Although members of the Senate Unity Forum backed by the APC leadership attributed their loss to the conduct of the election while they were attending a meeting purportedly called by the party leadership at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, keen political observers insist their presence would not have made any difference since the APC ranks were already

divided, while the PDP were already decided on block votes for Saraki and Ekweremadu in Senate, and Hon. Yakubu Dogara in the House of Representatives during that meting that lasted into the wee hours of the June 9, 2015. The Saraki and Ekweremadu leadership has been through crucibles as the then APC spokesperson declared that the election of both the Senate and the House presiding officers were unacceptable to the party. Although President Muhammadu Buhari had issued a statement to the effect that though he would have preferred the emergence of those anointed by the party, he would nevertheless work with those elected by the lawmakers. The events that followed left political observers in no doubt that elements within the APC government were hell-bent on dislodging the Saraki and his deputy. This was particularly after Saraki failed to follow the dictates of the party in the emergence of principal officers of the party like Dogara. He instead followed the existing tradition of allowing geo-political Senate caucuses to elect occupants of offices zoned to them. The duo of Saraki and Ekweremadu had also been victims of political persecutions. Saraki and his deputy were arraigned before an Abuja High Court for alleged forgery of Senate Standing Rule, a crime both denied. It was at this point that Ekweremadu, who has also had an international stint as the Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, raised the alarm before the international community. He told the world that the nation’s democracy was endangered because of what he described as “trumped up charges preferred against himself, Senator Bukola Saraki, and two others.” He wrote: “You may, thereafter, judge for yourself whether the federal government, acting through the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), has any justification whatsoever to generate our names for trial. The list of the accused persons appear to have been politically generated because you cannot by the documents attached, relate any of our names to the offence for which we are now being charged. “You may also wish to judge for yourself whether this trial orchestrated against me is not a political trial, calculated witch-hunt, barefaced intimidation, and a clear attempt to emasculate the parliament and silence me as the leader and highest ranking member of the opposition in Nigeria”. Prior to their arraignment, many had questioned the constitutional powers of the executive to investigate the conduct of the business of another arm of government. Senator Gilbert Nnaji (PDP, Enugu East), had also instituted a civil suit before the Federal High Court, Abuja, challenging the powers of the police, an executive agency, to pry into the internal affairs of the Senate. Also counting for Ekweremadu is his politics without bitterness and placing national interest above personal or partisan interest. On the day the PDP Senate caucus staged a walkout over the insistence of the Senate President and APC caucus to go ahead with the screening of the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amechi, Ekweremadu remained on his seat. He recognised that by virtue of the provisions of Section 50 of the Constitution, which allows any Senator-elect, whether of the majority or minority stock, to run for the Office of the Senate President or Deputy President of the Senate, he became Deputy President of the entire Senate, not just that of the PDP. Again, he has left no one in doubt that good governance of Nigeria is beyond party sentiments. He has repeatedly said that if the party in power fails, that it is Nigerians masses that would suffer. He said his idea of opposition was not to run a government down or wish it to fail.

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T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017

PERSPECTIVE

MIDWEEKPOLITICS

A Misunderstood Legislature

No other institution has been the subject of attacks and ridicule as the National Assembly. Chidi Nwachukwu argues that much of the criticism is borne out of a misunderstanding of the constitutional role of the Legislature

Saraki

he Senate has come under intense criticisms lately for what it was perceived to have done rightly or wrongly depending on the side of the divide one belongs. Although there is no need over-flogging the constitutional mandate of the Senate visa vis the National Assembly, because it is already in the public domain. There is however a need to explain some of the activities of the Senate from an insider perspectives. Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution as amended clearly states the role of the Legislature as law making for the good governance of the country. This is the only understanding of the National Assembly many Nigerians have. However, the Senate has much more responsibilities than what goes on in the plenary which is often beamed through a live television. Suffice to state that Section 5 gives powers to the executive to implement or execute policies, while section 6 confers powers on the Judiciary to interpret the law. It can be reasonably argued that the nature of the constitutional provisions and the checks and balances among the three arms of government is to make it difficult for either the legislature or the executive especially to unilaterally manipulate policies. I recall recently a story of someone who walked into a Senator’s office and met a woman shedding tears over the loss of her undergraduate daughter in a mysterious circumstance. The woman had come with a petition to have the murder investigated by the Senate saying that she had lost faith in the police investigation. When the woman left eventually, the man who had visited expressed surprise that such a matter could come before the Senate, but the truth is that such cases do come to the Senate.

The Senate hears petitions from members of the public ranging from unlawful dismissal, murder, non-payment of pensions, demolition of properties, abdication of responsibility by the government and many other issues. Like a judge of any superior court, the Senate has an average 50 items to consider every week in its order paper including reports, bills, motions , petitions, executive communications, committee meetings among others. It becomes more intense during budget periods as every item in the budget proposals presented by the government and its agencies must be looked into and considered accordingly. I dare say that the lawmaker has more constitutionally designated responsibilities than the members of the executive put together. If you look closely at sections 80-81 of the constitution, one may be tempted to think that the constitution put the country in care of the National Assembly. For instance,

Many Nigerians including well respected lawyers have criticized the Senate’s resolution to stand down the screening of the 23 Resident Electoral Commissioners. The critics believed that the Senate was out to blackmail the president. But is that really the case?

the National Assembly regulates disbursement of funds. The lawmaker is at the centre of governance in a democracy, and little wonder that during any military interregnum, the National Assembly is the first casualty, always dissolved immediately, which is a pointer to the fact when there is no legislature, there will be a dictatorship. However an executive not properly checked in a democracy can equally becomes a dictatorship. At this point, let me broach on the disagreement between the current Bukola Saraki-led legislature and the executive. For me, it is just a mere disagreement and not a rift or faceoff as has been promoted in the media. And I think it is healthy for our democracy, because any day the National Assembly becomes a mere rubber stamp for executive policies, the country is doomed. It has very little to do with rosy personal relationship between President Muhammadu Buhari and Saraki, rather it is about protecting Institutions. Many Nigerians including well respected lawyers have criticized the Senate’s resolution to stand down the screening of the 23 Resident Electoral Commissioners. The critics believed that the Senate was out to blackmail the president. But is that really the case? The Senate simply accused the president of not acknowledging its authority after rejecting Ibrahim Magu as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).The Senate’s argument is that when someone has been rejected by the Senate as in the case of Magu, the president ought to relieve him of that position immediately and send another person to the Senate for consideration. The thinking in the Senate is that in a situation where the president insists on keeping someone who has been rejected by

the Senate, he is only saying in unequivocal terms that he does not recognize the authority of the Senate to reject his nominees which would be contrary to the provisions of the constitution . The Senate is a very vital institution of any democratic governance because not only that it keeps dictatorial tendencies in check, but also ensures that justice is done to all concerned. A typical day for a senator is a very hectic one. Apart from legislative duties, he has his constituents always coming every now and then for personal and collective favours. The Senate should be seen from a larger picture visa vis politicians who are unavoidably at the center of our lives. There is hardly any institution in Nigeria that was not created by law, which is made by the National Assembly. If we are going to amend the constitution or restructure the country as being canvassed by prominent Nigerians for the benefits of all, it is still the responsibility of the law makers. Why not accord this Institution all the respects it deserves. The work of a Legislature is a serious business and very demanding unknown to many. It is a sacred institution devoid of propagandist machinery unlike the executive. When the legislature is attacked, as it is often the case, it has no one to defend it, but that is not the case with the executive which has a retinue of spokespersons always deployed to face the publ ic in the event of any attack The president’s swift intervention on the faceoff between the two arms must be commended, for where two elephants fight, the grass always suffers and in this case the already pauperized masses of this great country. Nwachkwu, a Special Adviser to Senator Ben Murray-Bruce wrote in from Abuja

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FEATURES

Acting Features Editor Charles Ajunwa Email charles.ajunwa@thisdaylive.com

Edo Police Goes Wild

Despite the campaign of the Inspector General of Police on decent policing in Nigeria, a rogue police squad in Edo State is thwarting the efforts. Martins Ifijeh chronicles how the squad serially brutalised a Professor of Law in Ambrose Alli University with cutlasses, hammers and teargas for daring to ask questions

Injuries in icted with matchets and hammers on Prof. Edeko

hen the Dean, Department of Law, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Professor Sunday Edeko woke up in the morning of March 13, he did not envisage he would be serially brutalised for over six hours like a common criminal and would end up in hospital bed to treat the wounds and pain that came with such brutality. He had left the house that morning like every other civil servant, when he saw a young boy he identified as a relation of the former Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Thomas Okosun, in a parked police van, which made him slow down and asked the boy what he was doing in the van. Little did the Professor of Law know that his decision to ask the boy question at all, would be all that the rogue police squad, needed to use cutlasses, hammers, teargas, their boots, blows and slaps on him, claiming they were directly from the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Haliru Ugwanduâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office and acting on his command. Narrating his ordeal to THISDAY, Edeko said on that particular day, when he slowed down to ask the boy what was the issue that he was put in the van, before the boy could reply, an armed man who was not

on police uniform told him to get away. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Without even giving me time to move or offer an explanation, he used a hammer to hit my right hand. That was their first assault

I clearly introduced myself as Prof. Sunday Edeko, the Dean of Faculty of Law, AAU, Ekpoma. All my attempts to explain that I am a law-abiding community leader fell on deaf ears. They started the second stage of their assault on me. They descended on me with hammers, cutlasses, tear gas, hand and foot.They brutalised me and inflicted injuries on my back, hand and leg

Dean of Law, AAU, Prof. Edeko

against me. I was surprised why a trained police officer would descend to such level of brutality against an unarmed and peaceful individual. I managed to park the car some metres away and alighted from the car. At that point, about five armed men who were not in police uniform advanced towards me. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I clearly introduced myself as Prof. Sunday Edeko, the Dean of Faculty of Law, AAU, Ekpoma. All my attempts to explain that I am a law-abiding community leader fell on deaf ears. They started the second stage of their assault on me. They descended on me with hammers, cutlasses, tear gas, hand and foot. They brutalised me and inflicted injuries on my back, hand and leg.â&#x20AC;? He said as soon as he left the scene of the unprovoked attack, he drove straight to the police station to report the matter, where a police officer was released to accompany him to the scene. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When we arrived there, the attackers had gone. We went back to the police station and I sighted the men who brutalised me in the special anti-cult unit office. I then drew the attention of my police companion to them. They chased the police officer away and descended on me with a higher level of brutality. They said they were different from the â&#x20AC;&#x153;useless police officers in Ekpoma, and were only

answerable to the Commissioner of Police, Edo State, Mr. Haliru Ugwandu. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They fell me, kicked me around the floor in an atmosphere in which they used tear gas on my eyes, slapped me with cutlasses very many times that I could not count. That was the third stage of their assault. When my wife came, they threatened to arrest and charge her with armed robbery, kidnapping and cultism, the crimes they accused me of,â&#x20AC;? he said. According to him, their fourth stage of brutality started when they gave him a pen and paper to write a statement. He said they compelled him to write even though he was in pains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They tore my first two statements because they said I should not write my name as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Professor Sunday Edeko. They equally seized the third and fourth statements because they were not written in the exact way they wanted.â&#x20AC;? He said when the men could not lay hold on a crime against him, they then started accusing him of cultism, which him personally has always been against. Adding that throughout the period they detained and tortured him, which was between 9:30a.m. to 3p.m., he made uncountable number of appeals to them that he was a responsible Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law.

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FEATURES

Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris...should ensure the culprits are s hed out and prosecuted

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The more I introduced myself, the more they got infuriated. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They then later accused me of an attempt to go and buy Indian hemp from a woman they also arrested. It was even in the police station that I met the woman for the first time as I never knew her before then. I have never smoked Indian hemp and I hope they will agree for all of us to do examination to know who will test positive of Indian hemp consumption. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I never obstructed them since all I asked one of the boys after they were already arrested was a simple â&#x20AC;&#x153;what happened?â&#x20AC;? I have never insulted the police. In fact, I collaborated with them in the past to play a better role in law enforcement. Even after they brutalised me in town, I went to the police station because of the confidence I have in the police. Only a fool will obstruct and insult the police and still go to the police station to seek their protection. I am not a fool. Moreover, an unarmed civilian of my status has no capacity whatsoever to obstruct close to a dozen police officers who were fully armed and who effected arrest already. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whenever I failed to write the exact thing they told me to write so as to incriminate myself, the more they slapped me with hand and cutlasses and sprayed teargas on my face. They only stopped beating me after they used their torture cutlass to cut the shoulder of one of the suspects. I have been able to identify the boy they cut on the shoulder through the same hospital we went for treatment. About 12 of us were in their torture office. They detained me behind the counter for about two hours before I was released with the intervention of the Onoje of Ekpoma and

the Divisional Police Officer. I immediately proceeded to the General Hospital Ekpoma for medical attention.â&#x20AC;? The highly respected professor in the academic community said as though their brutality was not enough, they compelled him to write an apology letter over an incident in which they brutalised and dehumanised him, hoping they could use that to cover their tracks when in fact it only aggravates their degree of impunity. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They are the people who owe me apology and compensation. I never broke the law. They broke the law with the highest level of impunity and recklessness. I need to add that I am not the only person they have so

This is the right time to stop these men now. It is not just about me but about the people of Ekpoma. I just happen to be the first to openly complain. So many people have been brutalised. The day they arrested me there was no space in the cell to detain some of us because it was filled up.Those arrested hardly get charged to court

Edo State Commissioner of Police, Haliru Ugwandu...denied any involvement with the rogue police squad

brutalised as others are willing to step forward for their testimonies. "Ekpoma is now in a state of fear. They attack people with impunity. They have broken up birthday parties in hotels. They raided Hisbanah Hotel near No 17 Eromon Street and arrested more than 50 boys and girls who were in a birthday party. The owner of the hotel, a former local government Head of Service called Mr. Cyril Abhulimen informed me. They equally used cutlasses and hammer to torture them.â&#x20AC;? He said in a society where they arrest innocent people, it cannot be said that they are combating crimes at all, adding that Ekpoma has become a town under siege. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;This is the right time to stop these men now. It is not just about me but about the people of Ekpoma. I just happen to be the first to openly complain. So many people have been brutalised. The day they arrested me there was no space in the cell to detain some of us because it was filled up. Those arrested hardly get charged to court. The woman they accused of selling Indian hemp was released without charge. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Their leader in the anti-cult office who joined other police officers to brutalise me is ASP Ojo. One of the attackers is Mr. Harrison whom I later learnt to be a native of Illeh. I was released when the Divisional Police Office (DPO) came and appealed to them. I was not taken on bail but simply released.â&#x20AC;? He said while the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Nigerian Bar Association have taken some steps over the matter, he has petitioned Zone 5 Police Headquarters and feels ashamed over what a section of the police has turned into in a society where stakeholders and respected citizens like him

were advocating for a better society. Edeko called on President Muhammadu Buhari, the Inspector General of Police, the Police Service Commission, and well meaning Nigerians to help him fight for justice and stop police brutality and the bad image of the police which the new Inspector General was trying to do. Meanwhile, when THISDAY contacted the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Ugwandu, which the rogue police squad claimed were acting on his instruction, he said he was just hearing of the incident for the first time, and that such persons who carried out the brutality would not have been said to be policemen. He outrightly denied that they are not police men. Recently, the IG, Ibrahim Idris said the force was determined to rid the country of policemen who continue to soil the name of the police force, adding that all heads of various police commands, including Assistant Inspector Generals of police and commissioners have been advised not to entertain indecency in their various commands. A recent investigation showed that hundreds of thousands of innocent Nigerians are being brutalised yearly, with over 1000 innocent persons killed recklessly by police officers. What therefore comes to mind is, if police men can serially brutalise a Professor in the 21st century, what hope has the common man without a voice has? How many have such rogue police squad assaulted and tortured for simply daring to look them in the face.? If truly the IG is serious with the much talked about image salvaging, the Edo rogue squad should be identified and disciplined accordingly by the force.

T H I S D AY WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2017

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017, ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD ‘HOW NIGERIA CAN BOOST GROSS NATIONAL SAVINGS’ careful planning at the central and state levels. In the last few years, the operators in the Nigerian financial industry have created a number of products to stimulate personal savings. Some of these products are mutual funds and other wealth management products. The regulatory authorities in the financial market have also strengthened their regulatory and supervisory roles in order to protect savers and investors in the financial market. Indeed the Nigerian financial market is in a safer and stronger position than before to attract savings to investments that provide attractive/higher returns, than the inflation rate,” they said. While FSDH hailed the introduction of Federal Government of Nigeria Savings Bond (FGNSB) as part of the efforts of the government to increase the GNS, it said the current high unemployment level in the country, coupled with a drop in disposable income and the erosion of the purchasing power of Nigerians, have all contributed to low personal savings. EXPERT PREDICTS EXPANSION FOR REAL ESTATE MARKET output. According to him, the repairs to Forcados and pipelines should guarantee gas supply. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervened vigorously in the forex market, increasing quantity of supply by 73 per cent in March relative to sales in February. Also, the CBN last month depreciated the rate for invisibles initially to N375/$, then revalued by 4.17 per cent to N360/$. “Effective weighted average exchange rate at N325/$. No change in market structure from price discriminating monopoly. Multiple exchange rates persist “The federal government has banned the importation of tomato paste and raised tariff on concentrates from five per cent to 50 per cent to revive the tomato sector. The Kano-Lagos rail transportation of tomatoes has been reactivated after 58 years.

Group Business Editor

Chika Amanze≠ Nwachuku AgriBusiness/Industry Editor

Crusoe Osagie

Comms/e≠ Business Editor

Emma Okonji

Capital Market Editor

Goddy Egene

Senior Correspondent

Raheem Akingbolu (Advertising) Correspondents

Chinedu Eze (Aviation) Linda Eroke (Labour) Eromosele Abiodun (Cap Mkt) Ejiofor Alike (Energy) James Emejo (Nationí s Capital) Obinna Chima (Money Mkt) Reporters

Nume Ekeghe (Money Market) Nosa Alekhuogie (Maritime)

NEWS

NCDMB Lauds INTELS World Class Facility at Onne Nosa Alekhuogie The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, has commended INTELS Nigeria Limited for developing the Onne Free Zone into what he described as “a world class facility”. Speaking shortly after touring the expansive Onne Free Zone in Rivers State on Friday, Wabote also commended the various companies that have invested and are operating at the facility. The NCDMB boss said: “First I want to thank the management of INTELS for organising this visit. We came here not just to visit INTELS but also to visit most of the companies operating within this facility. “We have seen FMC, Pipe Coaters; we also saw GE, One Subsea, AOL Orwell and a couple of others. I can tell you that it is a very impressive facility: you have a lot of clients here. He added: “What I see from discussion and interaction with them, I see this facility as world class. I believe they all want to remain within this facility to continue their business. Because I don’t think there is any other facility in this country that can match what you have here. “Which for me is mind blowing, a lot of us do not know what is here; we hear about Onne, we hear about INTELS, our perspective of Onne and INTELS is completely different. We didn’t think it could even measure up to NPA in Apapa port and the other ports in Lagos. This is quite significant; given the number of companies you have here, given the marine activities that are ongoing here. “I am sure 95% of your

clients are in the oil and gas industry, which is very important because you are also operating within the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone. So it is a no-brainer to know that most oil and gas companies want to be here.” General Manager Legal of INTELS Nigeria Limited, Mr. Mike Epelle, who led the team of top management staff that received the NCDMB boss, said INTELS remains fully committed to maximising, in a sustainable manner, the use of Nigerian human resources, materials, equipment and services in its operations without compromising the company’s values, quality, health, safety and environmental standards. He said: “INTELS is resolute and committed to maximizing the participation of Nigerian

businesses and local contractors in its operations in compliance with the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry Content Development Act, 2010.” Epelle also said that the leading oil and gas logistics giant takes all reasonable measures to meet requisite Nigerian Content levels in its operations. “INTELS implements the job owners approved Nigerian Content Plan without compromising the intent of achieving the best overall value for the project in terms of price, quality, efficiency, delivery and operating parameters,” he said. Also speaking, Head of Administration and General Services of INTELS Nigeria Limited, Mr. Chibuisi Onyebueke, said the Onne Free Zone is a Federal Government facility developed and positioned

by INTELS to play a major role in the development of the West African oil and gas industry, with a unique package of incentives and strategic advantages unrivalled throughout the rest of the sub-region. He said the Oil and Gas Free Zones Act provides a wide range of incentives and other strategic benefits to investors operating within the Onne Free Zone, similar to those offered by other successful Free Zones throughout the world. He listed some of the incentives to companies operating at the zone to include free port incentives, Customs incentives, immigration incentives, tax incentives and other benefits contained in Section 18 of the Oil and Gas Free Zone Act. According to Onyebueke,

INTELS Nigeria Ltd operates in government-owned port facilities and Free Zones to provide comprehensive integrated logistics services to the oil and gas industry He said INTELS is leading the Nigerian oil and gas logistics support industry as a core logistics service provider through its skills, efficiency, integrity and quality of service. Wabote and his team also visited INTELS’ Women Empowerment Programme Synergy Scheme (WEPSS) where more than 100 women are being trained on fashion design and tailoring; and the newly developed ultra-modern Onne Port Multi-Centre (OPMC), which can conveniently seat 1,500 people for conferences, workshops and other events.

BUSINESS ACQUISITION

L≠ R: Managing Director, Oando Gas and Power Ltd, Mr. Bolaji Osusanya; Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Mrs. Fiyinfoluwa Ogunbanke; General Manager, Lagos State Electricity Board, Engr. (Mrs.) Ibilola Kasunmu; Managing Director, Elektron Energy Ltd, Mr. Tola Talabi; Special Assistant to the Lagos State Governor on Energy, Mr. Deji Williams; Executive Director, Elektron Energy Ltd, Mr. Segun Demuren and General Manager, Elektron Energy Ltd, Engr Gbenga Ajumo at the formal handover of the Alausa Power Limited acquired by Elektron Energy Ltd from Oando Plc in Lagos... recently

Nasarawa Moves to Fix Border Tax Breaches

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James Emejo in Abuja

The Nasarawa State government has finalised plans to address years of border tax breaches by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in a historic initiative that could significantly boost its monthly revenue from a mere N100 million to over N1billion. In partnership with FourCore

Technology Solutions Limited, a foremost technology and tax audit firm, the state said it hopes to reclaim arrears of taxes paid by border residents within Abuja particularly the Mararraba/Karu axis by putting the residency tax law into effect. Speaking during the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between

the state government and the tax consultant in Lafia, the state capital, Nasarawa State Deputy Governor, Mr. Silas Ali Agara described the initiative as “great and historic” for the state. He said the administration of Governor Tanko Almakura had been resolute and passionate about seeking alternative sources of funding for the

state whereby its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) could sustain it for up to four months without resource to the Federation Account. He decried a situation whereby the state, which shares the largest corridor with the FCT has 50 percent of the people who work in Abuja residing in the state and yet pay taxes to the former.

He said the partnership with FourCore Technology will help address decades of breach of the residency law by the FCT and provide enormous resources for the state to meet its developmental obligations. He said: “We are all conversant with the residency law, which stipulates that all workers are supposed to be remitting their tax to their

NCCIdentifiesConsumerEducationasEffectiveMechanismforConsumerProtection Amby Uneze in Owerri The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has intensified efforts to protect telecom consumers and other stakeholders from undue exploitation and fraud from the operators of the telecommunication companies, through regular sensitisation and consumer education programmes. Addressing consumers and other stakeholders at the Commission’s 83rd Edition of

Consumer Outreach Programme (COP) in Owerri, Imo State, the Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, Mr. Abdullahi Maikano said that beside serving as a pro-active way of protecting consumers from making wrong choices, the Commission also serves as a preventive measure that protect consumers from being exploited and against fraud. He maintained that at NCC, the telecom consumers are the target beneficiary of

all the activities which make them enjoy primary focus in terms of ensuring that they get good quality of service, value for money spent, timely and fair redress of complaints and protection from unwholesome practices of some Service Providers. Maikano said that the theme of the discussion “Information and Education as a Catalyst for Consumer Protection” was carefully chosen to reflect one of the cardinal objectives of the NCC of ensuring the

protection of telecom consumers from market exploitation and empowering them to make rational and informed decision when making their choices of services. According to him, to ensure that the telecoms consumer is well protected, informed and educated (PIE mandate) the Commission has developed services of initiatives with the main goal of empowering consumers with appropriate information that will ensure that their rights are not

only protected but their choices provide them with value for money. He added: “In the same direction, the NCC the regulator with the mandate of regulating the telecommunication industry and the protection of the telecom consumers; also recognize that the rights of every telecoms consumer must be protected; one of the fundamental rights of the telecom consumer is the right to be informed and educated.”

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017, ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

ANALYSIS

As CBN’s Interventions Target Sustainable Growth Chika Amanze-Nwachuku writes that beyond striving to ensure exchange rate stability, the Central Bank of Nigeria, through various interventions, is poised to return the Nigerian economy on the path of sustainable growth and development The Central Bank of Nigeria, apex financial regulator in February, released a new foreign exchange policy to ease the difficulties encountered by Nigerians in obtaining funds for foreign exchange transactions. Unveiling the new initiatives, the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele said the apex bank would “henceforth be providing direct additional funding to banks to meet the needs of Nigerians for personal and business travel, medical needs, and school fees”. The CBN said such retail transactions would be settled at a rate not exceeding 20 per cent above the interbank market rate. Also, as part of efforts to boost the availability of FX to all end-users, the CBN directed all banks to open FX retail outlets at major airports as soon as logistics permit. It also reduced the tenor of its forward sales from the hitherto maximum cycle of 180 days, to no more than 60 days from the date of transaction. Prior to the CBN’s latest FX measures, the volatility in the Nigerian FX market, following the collapse of oil prices two years ago, was a source of worry as the gap between the interbank foreign exchange and parallel market rates, continued to widen at an alarming rate. In fact, the naira at some point, fell to as low as N525/$1 at the black market segment. Deeply concerned about the very ugly trend and its attendant consequences on the ailing economy, the CBN, under the supervision of Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele unfolded the new measures to strengthen the value of naira against the US dollar in the overall interest of the economy and Nigerians as a whole. To live up to its promise, the apex regulator has since February, been pumping money into the forex market, a development that has significantly strengthened naira to close at N380/$1 at the parallel market last month. It is estimated that the CBN has injected more than US$2 billion in cash and currency forwards since inception of its latest policy in February and last week. This was aside its daily intervention of $1.5 million on the interbank market. In fact, between February 21, 2017 and last week, the apex bank had made over 11 offers, ranging from $100 million to $500 million per auction in the interbank wholesale market. Low exchange rate for invisibles The highpoint of the of interventions was the lower naira exchange rate for invisibles such as personal travel allowance (PTA), basic travel allowances (BTAs) and medical fees abroad to N360/$1 from N375/$1 previously. Under the arrangement, the CBN would sell to banks at N357/$1 and banks would in turn sell to buyers at $360 per dollar. Last week, the CBN sold the sum of US$350 million as wholesale auction, Business Travel Allowance/Personal Travel Allowance (BTA/ PTA), and school fees. The bank had also offered $150 million wholesale forwards to banks and $90 million for invisible transactions, in line with its avowed determination to ensure adequate liquidity in the forex market to ease the difficulties faced by Nigerians in accessing forex for these purposes. Besides, the development has eased the foreign currency liquidity pressure faced by banks. Fuel Importers, Airlines, Manufacturers, Agriculture Sub-Sectors Benefitted The CBN also last Friday auctioned the sum of US$418 million through retail-Special Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS), at a marginal rate of N310/$. Okorafor, who revealed this in a statement weekend, stated that the airlines, agriculture, petroleum and raw materials/machineries sub-sectors benefitted from the auction. Okorafor emphatically stated that the Banker of Last resort, will sustain its intervention through the sale of foreign exchange to all segments of the market. The CBN spokesman said: “In the weeks ahead

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the CBN will sustain its intervention through the sale of foreign exchange to all segments of the market - PTA/BTA, Wholesale SMIS, Retail SMIS and the BDC. The Bank will sell short tenured forwards of -30-day maturity to meet demand of manufacturers and all other foreign exchange users. He added: “These significant injections of foreign exchange into the market should reassure all foreign exchange users of our determination to continue to meet all legitimate FX demand in the market while striving to achieve exchange rate stability in the market.” Dollar Supply to BDCs As part of measures to sustain liquidity in the FX market, the CBN also recently increased the amount of dollars to be sold to the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the market to $10,000 weekly, from the $8,000 weekly it was previously. Okorafor said the special intervention of $10,000 for BDCs was meant to meet the increasing requests of low-end customers in the forex. The CBN also lowered the rate at which dollar inflows from International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) are sold to BDC operators to N360/$1, from the N381/$1 it was previously.

The Bank was concerned about the huge foreign exchange spent by Nigeria importing food items that could be produced locally. The allocation of foreign exchange to the importation of items such as rice, wheat, milk and fish, among others, had contributed greatly to the depletion of Nigeria’s foreign reserves, especially in the face of low oil revenue occasioned by plummeting oil prices

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun

With this directive, the BDCs were expected to sell the greenback to retail end-users at not more than N362/$1. On Monday, the CBN had announced special intervention for SMEs. The CBN spokesman, said the Bank has opened a special FX window for SMEs to enable the business operators import eligible finished and semi-finished items not exceeding $20,000 for an enterprise per quarter. According to him, the special intervention was necessitated by findings that a large number of SMEs were being crowded out of the FX space by large firms. He said, under the special arrangement, enterprises with employee strength of between 10 to 199 and asset base of between N5million to less than N500 million will be offered the opportunity to import eligible items within the approved threshold. Other Inventions CBN’s massive interventions in the real sector projects centred around agriculture, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and Infrastructure. These included the N300 billion Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF); the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF); the N213 billion Nigeria Electricity Market Stabilisation Fund; N500 billion Non-Oil Export Stimulation Facility; and the N75 billion Nigeria Incentive Based Risk Sharing for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL). The apex regulator, also in September 2015, announced N300billion bailout for some states. The CBN lifeline was one of the three-pronged reliefs designed by the federal government to help financially troubled states meet up their obligations, particularly payment of the backlog of workers’ salaries. The CBN- initiated Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) was also part of its efforts to scale down the huge foreign exchange spent by Nigeria on importing food items. The pilot phase of the programme commenced in Kebbi state and has extended to more states including Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Zamfara, Admawa, Plateau, Lagos, Ogun, Cross-Rivers and Ebonyi and Imo. Under the programme, the funds set aside are given to farmers at single digit interest rate of maximum nine per cent per annum, in line with government’s aspiration to achieve food security. The Bank was concerned about the huge foreign exchange spent by Nigeria importing food items that could be produced locally. The allocation of foreign exchange to the importation of items such as rice, wheat, milk and fish, among others, had contributed greatly to the

depletion of Nigeria’s foreign reserves, especially in the face of low oil revenue occasioned by plummeting oil prices. Light at the End of the Tunnel So far things have really started to take positive turn though many are still skeptical about whether these interventions are sustainable and whether they will work miracles of restoring investor confidence and stimulating productive activities, needed to reset the economy. There are noticeable signs that Nigeria’s economy will soon exit the recession. For instance, the latest NBS report showed that inflationary figure for the month of February indicated a moderation to 17.8 per cent year-on-year, from 18.7 per cent in January 2017. Also, the increased foreign exchange supply by the CBN has resulted in a significant appreciation in the value of the naira against the US dollar. The central bank’s data also showed that the reserves have been experiencing a steady increase despite the sustained intervention by the CBN. The reserves, derived majorly from the proceeds of crude oil earnings climbed by $59 million to $30.366 billion as at April 7. Following the CBN’s continued intervention in the FX market and its resolve to continue to flood commercial banks with dollars, the banks that hitherto had no FX to meet their obligations have cleared the backlog of legitimate requests for foreign currencies such as basic travel allowances, school fees and medicals. In fact, the banks are reported to be holding excess FX and are now seeking buyers. Sustainability Okorafor has expressed optimism that the CBN’s interventions would be sustained, pointing out that with $50 per barrel oil, the reserve will be above $30 billion. He said the CBN will continue with its interventions to substantially ease the FX pressure on visible and invisible needs of customers. Also, the Chief Executive Officer, Economic Associates, Mr. Ayo Teriba has expressed optimism that the CBN’s interventions on the FX market would be sustained, as the increase in oil production and high oil prices, had boosted the country’s foreign reserve base. “We are back to a situation where the forex at the disposal of the CBN is likely to go up. The CBN could not intervene in the forex market in 2016 because of low oil production, prices and because foreign reserves were also low. “Today, oil price is up, reserves have also gone up, the outlook of the oil prices is stable and production in Nigeria is going back to capacity; so it has the capacity to intervene” Teriba said.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017, ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

ANALYSIS

The Cold War between APCON and LASAA The once chummy relationship between the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria and Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA), may have turned sour over the control and regulation of advertising in Lagos. Raheem Akingbolu reports The Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA) is not new to controversy. Since the year 2006, when the then Lagos State Governor, Mr. Bola Tinubu, established the agency in the twilight of his administration, to regulate and control outdoor advertising and signage displays in the state, it has always moved from one controversy to the other. Meanwhile, many states in Nigeria have since toed the line of Lagos and established local agencies to jack up internal revenue generation. Unfortunately, the situation has created more problems for practitioners who now contend with the challenge of multiple taxations. All these notwithstanding, the regulatory agencies, especially LASAA, have contributed positively to aesthetic look of many states in Nigeria. In Lagos, aside from regulating cluster ads, LASAA has introduced some innovations to create a better environment from the old regime but not without some excesses. Following the outcome of the 2015 election, which reunited Lagos State with Federal Government, practitioners heaved a sigh of relief. With the victory of the All Progressive Congress at both Lagos State and the center, they thought it would be a better regime but they got it all wrong. LASAA remains a common enemy to stakeholders in the out-of-home industry. At the beginning, the war was between members of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) then headed by Mr. KoleAdemulegun. As a result of what was considered unfriendly policies and rates of the Lagos agency, Ademulegun and his members had on many occasions, confronted the pioneer Managing Director of the agency, Mr. MakanjuolaAlabi, a Lawyer, to give the agency a human face. To the operators, the establishment of LASAA was meant to cripple the outdoor sub sector of the advertising industry. Despite the intervention from stakeholders, including APCON, the association and the state agency have since continued to maintain a cat and mouse relationship. APCON, LASAA Bicker Few weeks ago, the agency did the unthinkable; it stepped on the toes of APCON, the sole regulatory agency for advertising content in the country. For years, APCON was believed to have been enduring the excesses of the Lagos agency but with the latest development, the council is said to be battle ready to deploy its full regulatory and enforcement powers on the state signage outfit. Officials of the two agencies recently clashed in some parts of Lagos, including Oyingbo market, where LASAA is believed to be arrogating to itself albeit illegally statutory APCON roles of regulating communication contents in outdoor advertisement structures and signages. While LASAA laws were said to be crystal clear on the issues pertaining to regulation and control of signages and outdoor structures with a view to modernise, standardise and regulate streetscape so as to benefit the state citizens and visitors alike, there is no aspect of the state’s agency laws where it is conferred with the absolute powers to regulate or control communication contents and messages on signages, structures or streetscape. Rather, the powers to regulate and control advertising and advertisement businesses are conferred on APCON, the regulatory agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria. Reaction of LASAA In a swift reaction to the allegation, the head of Corporate Communications at LASAA, TemitopeAkande, said the agency was shocked with what was credited to APCON as both government bodies have co-existed for years. “This is strange because both LASAA and APCON have always maintained a good working relationship. LASAA is aware of the fact that APCON has the statutory power to regulate contents and we have not for a day contested it. It is sad that this is coming up now after many years of co-existence for the total good of the industry. It is also strange that APCON has suddenly decided to show interest in what goes into signposts of small businesses.

These are mere identifiers that the owners of the businesses use to direct customers. To me, this is sharply different from contents that go into campaigns. At a time like this, when the economy is undergoing a critical moment, it will not do the nation any good, if the SMEs are suffocated with unfriendly policies,’’ In a related development, an Abuja based practitioner, one Hakim Hadhza, had last weekend bombarded the media space with an article title; ‘Understanding the role of LASAA’, where he identified various contribution of the agency to the modern Lagos. The writer didn’t only dismiss the current face-off between LASAA and APCON as unnecessary ember of discord; he stated that there was need for better understanding of the roles of the agencies. ‘’ The jurisdiction of LASAA is clearly entrenched in its enabling law to control and regulate structures for advertisement in Lagos State, which it is doing diligently without acting ultra vires its powers in the performance of these functions. The operative words here are advertising structures and their impact on the environment, not the contents which in large advertising make-ups remain within the purview of APCON. Further to the above is the need to restate that the jurisdiction of the authority of APCON is not ambiguous to warrant the distasteful avoidable empty noise being championed by some people. Permit me to state that this, in relation to APCON powers does not include encroaching into the terrain of business signage because clients deploying such signage are not advertising practitioners and are not involved in the practice of advertising,’’ the writer stated. APCON’s Position On why it has taken APCON this long to beam its searchlight on the SMEs, the council explained that it has over the years been kept busy by the challenges posed by advertising agencies and multinational businesses. The council further stated that it is unaware that owners of small scale businesses often inscribe deceitful and unwholesome messages on their signages and outdoor structures in Lagos metropolis to deceive consumers. Since the day one when Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos appointed Mr. Mobolaji Sanusi as MD, a lawyer like the pioneer helmsman of the state agency, some industry players had kicked that Sanusi’s lack of understanding of the industry could be a setback for advertising growth. Last week, APCON registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Alhaji Bello GarbaKankarofi also concluded that the belligerent and aggressive posturing by the new headship of LASAA, Mr. MobolajiSanusi was informed by his poor understanding and knowledge of APCON laws and regulations.

The APCON registrar, a veteran adman lamented the latest outbursts and impunity by LASAA boss whom he said has been holding his present position in deliberate contravention and abeyance of the Nigerian constitution setting up APCON. Specifically, Kankarofi disclosed that under Part IV privileges of Registered persons and Offences by Unregistered Persons (Advertising Practitioners (Registration etc) Act C Cap 7 LFN 1990 (Act Cap A7 LFN 2004 states that: sub-titled (Appointment not to be held by unregistered person:- “subject to the provisions of this Act, no person, not being registered in accordance with this act, shall be entitled to hold any appointment in the public service of the federation or of a state in any public or private establishment, body or institution, if the holding of such appointment involves the performance by him in Nigeria of any act pertaining to the profession for gain”. In other words, the managing Director of LASAA, being an unregistered advertising professional as stated by this Act is unqualified to head the agency as he occupies the public office for gain by virtue of being a public servant with salaries and emoluments. The registrar pointed out in Lagos during a media chat with select journalists that previous helmsmen at LASAA had always registered and complied with APCON rules upon assumption of office but wondered why the current chief executive officer of LASAA has remained adamant and recalcitrant in obeying the laws of the land despite claiming to be a lawyer and a journalist. He stated that APCON has written several letters to Sanusi to register with the council as the constitution dictates but that he has ignored this advice. His words: “APCON never had issues with past chief executive officers of LASAA. From the inception of the agency by MakanjuolaAlabi, to Hon. Tunji Bello and George Noah, the immediate predecessor of the current managing director, they have always complied with APCON laws by being registered upon assumption of office. We have written several letters to Mr. MobolajiSanusi to register but he has refused”. “In the case of Tunji Bello, he was LASAA boss for a brief period, even at that, he co-operated and complied very well with APCON, we have all chief executive officers of outdoor signage agencies across the different states of the Nigerian federation as registered members”. Kankarofi stated that the current myopia by LASAA boss is due to his being a non-registered member of APCON as the regulatory body is in no way encroaching on his boundaries. He stated that what the council has just initiated in Lagos State has long being in operation in other states of the federation and yet none of the agencies in charge of outdoor advertising

businesses in the states have objected nor resisted. He however counseled MobolajiSanusi to go and study the APCON laws and desist from his hallucinatory postures. Besides, he enjoined LASAA boss to heed APCON letters requesting that he perfects his membership registration with APCON before the long arm of the law catches up with him as APCON may be forced to evoke its powers over his position. LASAA vs UAC, XL Billboards, Before now, LASAA had on several occasions, been in the news for wrong reasons over its clashes with companies and operators. On few occasions, the agency has also been criticized by the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party that it was being used to frustrate politicians outside the ruling party in Lagos. While some cases were interpreted in the court, some were settled out of court. For instance, shortly after UAC, a multinational company dragged the agency to court few years ago, another crisis surfaced in 2008 when XL Billboards and the Lagos agency disagreed over control of the Naval Jetty at Outer Marina, Lagos. The problem started when XL Billboards was given a franchise by the Ministry of Defence to beautify and maintain the surroundings of the Naval Jetty at Outer Marina and advertise on its walls in 2008 as a private-public sector partnership. According to THISDAY findings, the company signed a lease agreement with the Ministry in 2009 and wrote LASAA for approval to advertise on the said walls in 2009. LASAA was however said to have withheld its approval while the company proceeded to adorn the walls. The agency thereafter wrote XL Billboards on September 10, 2010 to remove the boundary wall signs noting that the structure contravene section 27 (3) of the Lagos State Structures for Signage and Advertisement Law 2006 (as amended). After meetings between XL, the Ministry of Defence, the Navy and LASAA over the agency’s insistence that XL Billboard remove its adverts, LASAA eventually agreed to give XL a provisional approval if it re-applies for the structures. But the approval came with a caveat; “Structures to be positioned along the Outer Marina must complement the scenic view associated with the ocean front and should not pose a threat to motorist or pedestrian,” noted LASAA fully aware of its plan for the Outer Marina. The agency was later forced to revoke its approval, advancing proliferation of structures on military formations as its reason. Sources at LASAA revealed that former Governor Fashola had earlier written the Chief of Army Staff on clutter across military formations. The Army in a letter made available to THISDAY, assured the State of its cooperation.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017, ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

PERSPECTIVE

Kachikwu: Those Who Keep the Peace Will Be Rewarded In his latest podcast to Niger Delta stakeholders and the Nigerian public, Minister of State, Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu speaks on the rationale and details of the Buhari administration’s 20 point plan for resolving the challenges of militancy in the Niger Delta Militancy in the Niger Delta is the biggest challenge facing the oil sector. At the highest point of the disruptions in 2016, we were producing about 1.2million barrels. That means we were losing literally one million barrels of oil per day. Jobs were out, pipelines were strewn all over the place, refineries couldn’t work to capacity, environment was degraded, we couldn’t even meet our contractual international obligations and the economy basically suffered. The Niger Delta issue is an old problem which has defied attempts by successive administrations to resolve. But the Buhari administration is taking steps headlong to resolve it once and for all. We have defined and outlined 20 strategic actions to help us to realize that objective. Engagement Town Hall Meetings The first strategic action is engagement, engagement, engagement. Beginning soon, we will be facilitating Town Hall Meetings once every two months. In these meetings, we will have the state government, the military, the oil companies, and the stakeholders. The objective will be to drill down on issues that affect the particular state, isolate the issues that are causing problems, and identify practical ways to deal with them. Ring Fenced State Approach Part of the problem with resolving the militancy problem in the Niger Delta is that it has been dealt with more as a broad national issue without drilling it down to the specifics. We intend to change that. Those who have kept the peace should also be given incentives. To achieve this, each state must develop a fit for measure solution. I will be working with state Governors to identify the peculiarities of every state and what we need to do to bring a solution to that state. Once we do that, the opportunities in contracting, securing the pipelines and other business opportunities within that particular state coming from the oil sector would go to that community substantially. The result is that indigenes of the state can protect themselves from incursions by criminal elements coming in from other states to cause confusion. Peace and Investment on State Basis If you have peace you have investment. If you don’t have peace you cannot have investment. The federal government would collaborate with states to propel investments to come into those areas that can guarantee peace. If they don’t provide the peace, they lose the jobs, the contracting that will enable the state to grow. So we are going to be launching a Peace & Investment Initiative on a State Basis so we can incentivize those states, who are able to maintain the peace. Core Business Focus (Modular Refineries, Plants, Refineries) At the heart of militancy is economics. That is why over time people have hijacked it from what was a real concern movement to crisis entrepreneurship. So we need to focus on bringing businesses into the region to create employment. To this end, we are going to focus on modular refineries. Our plan is to target one modular refinery per each of the oil producing state working with respective oil producing states and private investors. We are also going to look at gas processing plants and floating filling stations to address from a core business analysis the needs of a particular state. If you create the business you will create the jobs, you create an appreciation of the environment and take people away from core militancy. Jobs: 100,000 Target across Each State over The Next 5 Years This will be done using a public and private sector approach. I will be working with state governments to try and drive this initiative working

Kachikwu:

with consultants and prospective investors. Incentive for Peace Scheme Under this scheme, the federal will drive international investment focus to states who are able to create peace. We’ll be looking at different structures to realize this objective. One of them is creating gas clusters and industrial parks export gas or oil parks which will enable them set up of investment areas that investors can come in on the basis that peace would be guaranteed. The peace will not only be guaranteed by the government of those states but by the youths and stakeholders who are really the major beneficiaries of such a scheme. Massive Civil Infrastructure Revamp – Schools, Hospitals, Skill Centers Etc This is not only for the states. The reality is that all our pipelines are old. Most of our gas transmission and distribution systems are old. Our depots are hardly functioning. We will work with NNPC to source third party funds to massively carry out an infrastructural revamp of the assets that are required in the industry. The collateral effect of this is that lots of jobs would be created in the region. But in addition, we want to target specific investments in these areas. One specialist school per state. One Specialist hospital per state. One Specialist Skill Center per state. We need to pull people away from militancy, put them back into schools, and put them back into areas where they can have the kind of facilities that will make them proud of their areas. Clean Up Our Mess The President started strong with the launch

of the Ogoni Clean Up Campaign. The process has begun. But there are a lot more clean ups like he said that needs to be done. We will continue to closely work with the federal ministry of environment to begin the work on cleaning the environment. It will be structured such that every state has a program for clean up working with the oil companies that operate in the communities. Clean up means work in the hands of people who are involved, it means better environment, it means they can begin to focus on agriculture. Domesticate Oil Business Activities Nothing is as sad as for people who produce resources as not having access to those resource opportunities. So as we begin to look at the marginal fields grants, refinery revamps, we are going to be creating opportunities for indigenes of those areas to participate but not to the exclusion of other Nigerians. Niger Delta Devt Fund Initiative Previously, some of these areas pay a big price for producing oil for the country. We need to find a way to attract foreign investors working with foreign investors, state and federal governments to create a fund initiative to address long term cross border, cross state type of investment. Militancy to Education Initiative The key focus will be to move children from militancy to education. We will provide incentives in school. The federal government’s school feeding program will be introduced. We will create additional scholarship opportunities. Parastatals such as PTDF will be expanding scholarship schemes to some of these communities alongside oil companies so people will have an incentive to

go back to school instead of engaging in criminal activities. State Amnesty Programme Amnesty has been a successful federal program in terms of what it has done to suck out people. A lot of the people who today work with us are ex militants. But the federal government cannot continue to fund amnesty on its own given the present financial condition. So I will be working with the Amnesty program Director, General Boroh to look at possibilities of instituting state amnesty programs. Youths involved in militancy will be pulled out, put in the amnesty program which will help them find work and train them under the support of the federal amnesty program. Policing for Peace – The Security Apparatus The first obligation of any government is to maintain the peace. We cannot continue a consistent pattern in which militants hold the federal government to ransom. It will not happen. The President we have is very focused, very direct and very experienced in this. We are going to try in our way to help equip the security apparatus to help them monitor and do their work better. Conclusion To be able to roll out this 20 initiatives, I have appointed a Special Adviser who will work in my office to make sure that we are keeping an eye on the ball, delivering on these results that are very critical. The time is very critical. We cannot continue to bleed. This country needs all the money that it can get. It needs all the stability that it can get in a period where we are going through a recessive environment.

T H I S D AY Ëž Ë&#x153; ÍŻÍ°Ë&#x153; Í°ÍŽÍŻÍľ

EDUCATION

MOUAU Cries Foul as FG Restores Delisted Programmes in Agric Varsities Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia It has emerged that the federal government may have yielded to criticisms of its new policy of scrapping courses it considered as noncore agriculture programmes in universities of agriculture as it has restored all the delisted programmes at Federal Universities of Agriculture, Abeokuta and Makurdi. However, one of the three agric universities affected by the policy, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) was surprisingly left out in the change of policy thereby leaving the fate of students and staff of its College of Management

Sciences (COLMAS) hanging in the balance. The apparent discrimination by the government has led to protest by students of the institution, who condemned the rationale for shutting down COLMAS at the institution, while retaining it in Abeokuta and Makurdi. The protesters who were mainly from the endangered college, chanted solidarity songs and carried placards as they marched on the campus demanding explanation on why their future is being compromised through policy somersaults of the federal government. Some of the placards read: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Restore our Programmes in

CodeLagos: Govt Trains Master Trainers Peace Obi In a bid to make available the necessary resources for the smooth take off of the CodeLagos initiative, which will be launched later this month, the Lagos State Government recently commenced a three-day training for 100 master trainers who will in turn train over 1,000 facilitators needed for the project. Briefing journalists in Lagos recently, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said the trainees who were selected after a rigorous process that started in March would serve as master trainers for CodeLagos facilitators. â&#x20AC;&#x153;These master trainers will go on to train over 1,000 facilitators who will eventually be deployed to different coding centres across the state. In this way, CodeLagos will create employment and business opportunities for Lagosians in the technology sector.â&#x20AC;? Acknowledging the contributions of the private sector in the project, Bank-Olemoh, who thanked ARM that has committed to setting up 15 centres, also announced the coming on

board of some new partners like PricewaterhouseCoopers, SystemSpecs, Etisalat, Oando Foundation and Oracle Academy, among others. He said they will be setting up clusters of coding centres, adding, â&#x20AC;&#x153;CodeLagos will be officially launched this April with a roll out of coding centers across 350 public and private schools, as well as public libraries across the state.â&#x20AC;? In his remarks, the Executive Director of SystemSpecs Limited, Mr. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Deremi Atanda, expressed the continued commitment of the organisation to support the initiative. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The greatest asset of a state like Lagos is the growing youth population. The choice to empower them is the wisest decision the state has made, thus laying a good foundation for the emerging knowledge economy. We are convinced that CodeLagos will do just that.â&#x20AC;? The Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Femi Odubiyi, also reiterated the state governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to developing a tech-driven economy.

JAMB Brochure; â&#x20AC;&#x153;All we are saying give us COLMASâ&#x20AC;?; â&#x20AC;&#x153;Please Secure our Future in the Labour Marketâ&#x20AC;?; â&#x20AC;&#x153;My COLMAS, my College, our Future, let it be.â&#x20AC;? The federal government had through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in a directive last November asked the three universities of agriculture to close down non-core agriculture programmes. However just before the commencement of registration for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), it lifted the lid off Makurdi and Abeokuta, leaving out MOUAU. This means that the two agric universities would take in new students for their

the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s corporate social responsibility initiative tailored towards education and community development. He said the CSR gesture of the company was to complement the effort of the government in providing the necessary educational tools to enhance learning especially in the area of science and technical education. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our joy will be to see the teachers fully utilise the laboratory equipment to impart knowledge that will improve the performance of the students in science subjects especially in the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASCE) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) exams.â&#x20AC;? Ashiwaju revealed that the company has instituted a schol-

removed some programmes of the college in compliance with a directive from the ministry of agriculture and rural development, adding that he was sure the issue would be resolved since the delisted programmes have been restored in Makurdi and Abeokuta. Speaking with journalists, the dean said the seven programmes of the college, accounting, banking and finance, economics, business administration, marketing and entrepreneurial studies are under threat. He regretted that this year, JAMB has already delisted MOUAU from the administrative courses that COLMAS offers hence the future of the students is being compromised. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What is more painful is that JAMB pretended to have

kept three of our programmes, putting them as options under agribusiness,â&#x20AC;? he said, adding that the professional image of the courses would have been diminished by putting them as options. With student population of 10,931, which is over 50 per cent of MOUAUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total student population, there are fears that scrapping COLMAS would diminish the university, which is the only federal tertiary institution in Abia. Moreover the entire southeast is shortchanged in the distribution of conventional federal universities as it has only three; hence scrapping the allied (conventional) courses from MOUAU would affect the chances of Abia indigenes gaining admission into federal universities.

SUPPORTING EDUCATION

Lâ&#x2030; R:TheHead,PublicPolicyandGovernmentAffairs,EtisalatNigeria,MohammedSulehâ&#x2030; Yusuf;astudentoftheDepartmentofStatistics,Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Ibrahim Abdulhamid; Viceâ&#x2030; Chancellor of the university, Prof. Ibrahim Garba; and Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, Etisalat Nigeria, Oyetola Oduyemi, at the Etisalat merit award scheme scholarship presentation at the universityĂ&#x2013; recently

Dufil Equips Science Lab of Lagos School As part of efforts to develop education in the country, especially science education, Dufil Prima Foods Plc, makers of Indomie Noodles has donated science laboratory equipment worth over N1 million to Mainland Senior High School, Jibowu, Lagos State. The donation of the complete set of laboratory equipment which held at the school premises recently was witnessed by the Onisabe of Igbobi Sabe, Oba Owolabi Adeniyi, students, parents, teachers, among others. While presenting the equipment on behalf of the company, the Group Public Relations and Events Manager, Mr. Tope Ashiwaju, explained that the donation was part of

restored programmes, while the door is shut against prospective candidates who desire to apply for any of the seven delisted courses run by COLMAS in MOUAU. The President of the Association of Management Science Students (AMSS), Mr. Onuoha Uzoma told the Dean, Prof. Ihendinihu that they marched to him to demand an explanation on their fate following what they heard about the scrapping of their programmes. He promised that the students of COLMAS would not go violent to express their feelings over the action, but appealed to the dean to do his best to ensure that the college is not shut. Ihendinihu told the students that it was true that JAMB had

arship scheme for exceptional students from secondary school certificate up to the masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s level and advised them to take advantage of the opportunity. â&#x20AC;&#x153;All I want is for the teachers to take full advantage of the opportunity by making extra effort to teach the students and the students to learn, stay focused and continue to dish out outstanding results and the scholarship will be yours.â&#x20AC;? Reacting on behalf of the Igbobi Community, Oba Owolabi Adeniyi thanked the company for the donation, while urging students to make good use of the equipment for their advancement and to ensure that the community produces more successful personalities in the field of science in future.

ExxonMobil, Kaduna Partner to Improve Secondary Education Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited (EEPNL), an ExxonMobil affiliate company in Nigeria recently donated 5,000 personal tablet computers to public secondary school students in Kaduna State, under the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Smart Education Initiative, as part of efforts to improve studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; access to education. The tablets are equipped with school curriculum, e-textbooks, as well as past questions and solutions for national examinations, which will assist students by providing them with instant access to multiple sources of knowledge. According to the General Manager, Public and Government Affairs for ExxonMobil

affiliates in Nigeria, Paul Arinze, â&#x20AC;&#x153;this initiative fits into our social investment strategy, which supports improvement and capacity enhancement of institutions at all levels in Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s education sector. It also mirrors similar educational programmes supported by ExxonMobil affiliates across Nigeria. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the past two decades, ExxonMobil affiliates in Nigeria have invested over N8 billion in Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s education system. We hope this investment in smart education systems for high school students will have a carry-over effect, leading to improved performance of the students at further levels of education, and an improved quality of working class Nigerians in Kaduna State,â&#x20AC;?

Arinze said. In his remarks, the Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), represented by the Manager Public Affairs, Ahmed Aminu, described the project as a worthy initiative and urged the students to make the most of the opportunity to embrace digital education. The state Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai commended NAPIMS, Esso and other co-venturers on USAN Deep Water Field for their contribution to the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smart education initiative, emphasising the value of the project in overcoming some of the current challenges to education in the state.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12 2017, ˾ T H I S D AY

CITYSTRINGS

Acting Features Editor: Charles Ajunwa Email charles.ajunwa@thisdaylive.com

Tarkwa Bay: Forgotten by Lagos Government? Tarkwa Bay Island, a slum community in Iru/Victoria Island Local Council Development Area of Lagos, is lacking in virtually everything due to government neglect. Peter Uzoho who visited the community, reports

Tarkwa Bay community...lacking government presence

arkwa Bay is among the communities under Iru/Victoria Island Local Council Development Area of Lagos State. Tarkwa Bay Island, is one of the many voiceless, underserved and neglected riverine communities in Lagos State. With over 100 years of existence, it is an ancient community made up of six villages, namely Tarkwa Bay, Okun Ayo, Agbagbo, Ebute-oko, Store, and Ogogoro, generally referred to as Atlas Cove communities. The community is made up of people from different tribes in Nigeria and foreigners, and the common language of communication among the people is Yoruba, Pidgin and English. Most of the dwellers in the community are predominantly fishermen, coconut farmers, petty traders, boat drivers, chandlers and tour guides. However, there are few, who work or do their businesses at the uptown of the state. Over time, Tarkwa Bay has transformed into a shanty town due to rural-urban migration and lack of government presence. Tarkwa Bay, a community of hundreds of thousands of people is faced with plethora of challenges. There is no road for movement of the residents and visitors in and out of the community. Access to the community is only done through the water ways, starting

from Mekwe jetty, near Bony Camp, on Lagos Island, using boats and ferries. Ninety per cent of the inhabitants live in shacks made of woods and fairly-used zincs. Only a minute

Tarkwa Bay, a community of hundreds of thousands of people is faced with plethora of challenges.There is no road for movement of the residents and visitors in and out of the community. Access to the community is only done through the water ways, starting from Mekwe jetty, near Bony Camp, on Lagos Island, using boats and ferries. Ninety per cent of the inhabitants live in shacks made of woods and fairly-used zincs

per cent live in old block houses built by ancient European sailors and slave merchants who sojourned there in the early days. There is no market in Tarkwa Bay. To buy anything, they have to pay between N200 and N300 as fare to transport them to the upland. Although, there are small shops in the community where some essential household items are sold and bought, the cost of these items are so expensive for them, thus making the cost of living in the community very high. Ironically, Tarkwa Bay is surrounded by water but there is no good water to drink. There is no single borehole to give water to the people. Large number of the community depend on water from the river for their consumption, while few that can afford it go for sachet or table water. There are no teachers in the primary and secondary schools in the community. The senior secondary school section in the community can only boast of six teachers against over 16 subjects offered in the school. The health of the people is on a daily basis threatened by inadequate and lack of prompt healthcare delivery. The Primary Health Centre in the community only stands as mere structure- there is no doctor and no nurse to attend to the health needs of the residents, thus forcing sick members to resort to seeking medical assistance at chemist shops in the community.

Throughout the history of Tarkwa Bay, there has never been a flash of light from electric power source. There is no sign of electric pole anywhere around the community. Even when the community plays host to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that has its jetty very close to the community, the body has never deemed it necessary to assist in connecting them to the power grid. This further makes life in the community more difficult. They have to buy petrol to fill their generators before they can use power. The case of the community is a true reflection of the ‘use and dump’ practice of politicians in the country who only remember such communities during elections. As election comes, they defile all odds just to get in touch with them. They will strip themselves of their ego, smartly lower themselves to the level of these communities and gain their votes, and the rest becomes history. “During election they will remember us,” Chief Olatunji Maxwell, Baale of the community told THISDAY. According to him, politicians would take boats to the community to campaign and make promises which they would not fulfill in the end. “After election nobody will see them again. Nobody will hear from them again. Even to send somebody on their behalf they will not do it. All the promises they made were never fulfiled at

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12 2017, ˾ T H I S D AY

CITYSTRINGS

Children playing at the waterside in Tarkwa Bay

Some residents spotted in their shacks

Residents of Tarkwa Bay waiting patiently for boats at the jetty to convey them to their various destinations

The NNPC depot close to Tarkwa Bay community

the end of the day,” he lamented. “We made them to be where they are today. If any of them had 50 votes during election I can say that 45 is from this community,” he added. According to him, the standard of education in the schools in his community is far below standard, saying “that is not what we want for our children.” Maxwell pointed out that efforts made by the community to let government come to their aid could not yield any result. “Transportation from our community to the city is also a problem for us. We’ve been begging the government to help us in this regard but we’ve not seen anything.” For Mr. Bernie Boco, the Community Development Chairman of Tarkwa Bay, it is highly unbelievable that government can be so insensitive to their plight even when they claim to be servants of the common man. He wondered why the community that is “just a stone throw away from the Lagos megacity” don’t seem to have any impact from the

state government. Lamenting on the state of things at the Primary Health Centre in the community, Boco said “When you go there you won’t see any doctor. You won’t see any nurse. People get ill and there will be no one to attend to them,” he said.

During election they will remember us. After election nobody will see them again. Nobody will hear from them again. Even to send somebody on their behalf they will not do it. All the promises they made were never fulfilled at the end of the day

One other challenge faced by the community is lack of drainage system which results to flood whenever it rains heavily. “When it rains everywhere will be flooded and the whole community will go on rampage,” he noted. The CDA chairman revealed that the beach which the community was using as a source of revenue which was helping them to do some developmental budgets in the community has been take away from them by the state government. “Since they took it from us we have not seen any impact from them on our community,” he said. “They know us during election and after election they forget about us. We see them every four years. So as usual, we’re waiting for them again in 2019,” said the Chairman of Boat Owners and Drivers Association in Tarkwa Bay Mr. Egapi Godwin; who has resigned to fate. According to Godwin, high rate of youth unemployment also adds to their woes. “We have a lot of graduates from this community that are unemployed. We have many gradu-

ates here that have been frustrated into boat driving. So for our youths, unemployment has been the major challenge. “You go out there, study and graduate and you return here jobless. It should not be so. We’re the host community of the NNPC but they don’t employ our people in the organisation. We have youths that have one hand work or the other like welders and the likes, but they’re not working in NNPC that is in our land. Why should they blame the youths for indulging in pipeline vandalism when they’re not engaged in any way. “There are even many youths here who do not have any form of skill. So I believe government can create skills acquisition programme for them so that they can have a reliable source of livelihood,” he said. Also commenting on the high cost of living in the community occasioned by transportation challenge, Godwin noted “In fact, life here is hell. Everything here is sold at an exorbitant rate.”

T H I S D AY Ëž , APRIL 12, 2017

MARKET NEWS

Fidelity Bank to Pay N3.9bn Dividend as Profit Slides to N9.7bn Goddy Egene and Nosa Alekhuogie Shareholders of Fidelity Bank Plc are to receive a dividend of N3.9 billion for the year ended December 31, 2016. The dividend, which translates to 14 kobo per 50 kobo share, will be paid from profit of N9.734 billion recorded for the year, down 29 per cent from N13.904 billion in 2015. The full year audited results

for the Nigerian lender, released at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), showed a 3.5 per cent growth in gross earning to N152 billion compared with N146 billion achieved in 2015. Net interest income grew by 1.7 per cent from N60.9 billion to N61.9 billion in 2015, while fee and commission income rose from N17.23 billion to N20.557 billion. Impairment charges rose from N5.764 billion in 2015 to N8.671 billion in 2016.

T H E MAIN BOARD

DEALS

MARKET PRICE

Profit before tax and after tax fell from N14.024 billion to N11.061 billion and N13.904 billion to N9.734 billion in 2015 to 2016 respectively due to the one-off staff cost incurred during the year. But total deposits, a measure of customer confidence, grew by three per cent from N769.6 billion in 2015 to N793.0 billion. Similarly total assets increased by 5.4 per cent to N1.298 trillion from N1.232 trillion in the

N I G E R I A N QUANTITY TRADED

STO C K

VALUE TRADED ( N)

Daily Summary as of 22/02/2016 Printed 22/02/2016 14:36:10.010

Daily Summary (Bonds) No Debt Trading Activity Daily Summary (Equities) Activity Summary on Board EQTY AGRICULTURE Crop Production OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. PRESCO PLC Crop Production Totals Livestock/Animal Specialties LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. Livestock/Animal Specialties Totals AGRICULTURE Totals CONGLOMERATES Diversied Industries A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC U A C N PLC. Diversied Industries Totals CONGLOMERATES Totals CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Infrastructure/Heavy Construction JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. Infrastructure/Heavy Construction Totals Real Estate Development UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT CO. LIMITED Real Estate Development Totals CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Totals CONSUMER GOODS Beveragesâ&#x2030; â&#x2030; B rewers/Distillers CHAMPION BREW. PLC. GUINNESS NIG PLC INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. Beveragesâ&#x2030; â&#x2030; B rewers/Distillers Totals Beveragesâ&#x2030; â&#x2030; N onâ&#x2030; A lcoholic 7â&#x2030; UP B OTTLING COMP. PLC. Beveragesâ&#x2030; â&#x2030; N onâ&#x2030; A lcoholic Totals Food Products DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. TIGER BRANDED CONSUMER GOODS PLC Food Products Totals Food Productsâ&#x2030; â&#x2030; Di versied CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. Food Productsâ&#x2030; â&#x2030; Di versied Totals Household Durables VITAFOAM NIG PLC. Household Durables Totals Personal/Household Products P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. Personal/Household Products Totals CONSUMER GOODS Totals FINANCIAL SERVICES Banking ACCESS BANK PLC. DIAMOND BANK PLC ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED FIDELITY BANK PLC GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. SKYE BANK PLC STERLING BANK PLC. UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC UNION BANK NIG.PLC. UNITY BANK PLC WEMA BANK PLC. Banking Totals Insurance Carriers, Brokers and Services AIICO INSURANCE PLC. CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC N.E.M INSURANCE CO (NIG) PLC. UNITY KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC WAPIC INSURANCE PLC Insurance Carriers, Brokers and Services Totals Microâ&#x2030; F inance Banks NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC Microâ&#x2030; F inance Banks Totals Other Financial Institutions AFRICA PRUDENTIAL REGISTRARS PLC CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED PLC FCMB GROUP PLC. STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC UNITED CAPITAL PLC Other Financial Institutions Totals FINANCIAL SERVICES Totals HEALTHCARE Pharmaceuticals FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC

corresponding year. Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our financial performance in 2016 reflects the sound fundamentals of our evolving business model as we continued with the disciplined execution of our medium-term strategy which positions the business for improved and sustainable profitability.â&#x20AC;? He explained that profits

6 6 12

30.00 34.00

12,629 11,640 24,269

374,530.15 421,345.20 795,875.35

19 19 31

1.25

1,078,511 1,078,511 1,102,780

1,358,964.30 1,358,964.30 2,154,839.65

5 68 13 86 86

0.77 1.13 20.47

33,500 6,740,423 65,995 6,839,918 6,839,918

25,070.00 7,635,453.96 1,344,425.15 9,004,949.11 9,004,949.11

13 13

41.50

31,970 31,970

1,409,214.78 1,409,214.78

5 5 18

5.20

28,901 28,901 60,871

154,716.48 154,716.48 1,563,931.26

6 24 7 98 135

2.85 118.85 20.00 99.00

190,900 53,000 15,200 429,541 688,641

528,079.00 6,201,924.95 293,757.00 42,728,789.84 49,752,550.79

9 9

168.50

166,476 166,476

28,285,937.95 28,285,937.95

54 38 6 12 1 29 140

5.61 19.00 1.37 6.86 6.65 1.27

2,120,306 314,421 40,000 119,863 433 3,285,739,119 3,288,334,142

11,610,520.13 5,953,792.96 55,716.00 842,442.48 2,736.56 4,074,348,894.07 4,092,814,102.20

11 54 65

17.86 700.00

18,825 98,360 117,185

329,518.50 68,567,962.00 68,897,480.50

11 11

4.46

99,050 99,050

420,455.00 420,455.00

13 21 34 394

21.90 28.00

36,887 133,117 170,004 3,289,575,498

820,034.75 3,737,067.92 4,557,102.67 4,244,727,629.11

82 51 21 25 200 41 16 147 11 15 67 676

4.10 1.49 15.60 1.21 16.70 1.07 1.76 2.95 5.30 0.63 0.98

3,962,506 2,163,396 278,470 790,900 4,847,312 1,969,858 1,204,932 8,586,418 39,752 501,617 5,920,564 30,265,725

16,210,255.82 3,314,106.88 4,136,459.40 958,864.34 80,963,793.44 2,115,552.11 2,087,767.85 25,302,954.71 205,645.40 316,018.71 5,813,502.17 141,424,920.83

14 8 2 3 7 10 1 1 46

0.80 0.90 0.50 0.50 2.06 0.76 0.50 0.50

200,107 276,500 5,004,000 1,000,000 351,540 327,285 37,708,135 10 44,867,577

160,838.67 251,350.00 2,502,000.00 500,000.00 720,728.80 245,325.31 18,854,067.50 5.00 23,234,315.28

1 1

1.08

4,760 4,760

4,950.40 4,950.40

31 7 105 7 20 170 893

2.46 4.00 0.85 14.15 1.31

1,149,464 27,041 31,257,120 38,035 708,255 33,179,915 108,317,977

2,830,722.84 104,002.06 26,613,309.20 537,985.34 931,556.31 31,017,575.75 195,681,762.26

2.69

614,065

1,572,223.05

dipped due to the cost of N4.8 billion incurred as Fidelity Bank discontinued its legacy gratuity and retirement scheme. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Excluding this one-off charge, PBT for the year would have been at N15.8 billionâ&#x20AC;? he stated. Nnamdi said, however, that Fidelity Bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s retail and electronic banking strategy has continued to deliver impressive results with savings deposits growing by 30.1 per cent to N155.0 billion while customer

enrollments on its flagship Instant Banking (*770#) and Online Banking products grew by over 200 per cent leading to a 44.6 per cent growth in net e-banking revenues to N7.5 billion. This performance he said was â&#x20AC;&#x153;driven by the upgrade of our core banking system which provides a superior architecture that enhanced our operational efficiency and deepened our electronic banking capabilities.â&#x20AC;?

E XC H A N G E

MAIN BOARD GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC Pharmaceuticals Totals HEALTHCARE Totals ICT IT Services TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. IT Services Totals ICT Totals INDUSTRIAL GOODS Building Materials ASHAKA CEM PLC BERGER PAINTS PLC CAP PLC CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. Building Materials Totals Electronic and Electrical Products CUTIX PLC. Electronic and Electrical Products Totals Packaging/Containers BETA GLASS CO PLC. Packaging/Containers Totals INDUSTRIAL GOODS Totals OIL AND GAS Energy Equipment and Services JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC Energy Equipment and Services Totals Integrated Oil and Gas Services OANDO PLC Integrated Oil and Gas Services Totals Petroleum and Petroleum Products Distributors CONOIL PLC ETERNA PLC. FORTE OIL PLC. MOBIL OIL NIG PLC. TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. Petroleum and Petroleum Products Distributors Totals Exploration and Production SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LTD Exploration and Production Totals OIL AND GAS Totals SERVICES Automobile/Auto Part Retailers R T BRISCOE PLC. Automobile/Auto Part Retailers Totals Courier/Freight/Delivery RED STAR EXPRESS PLC Courier/Freight/Delivery Totals Printing/Publishing LEARN AFRICA PLC Printing/Publishing Totals Transportâ&#x2030; R elated Services AIRLINE SERVICES AND LOGISTICS PLC NIGERIAN AVIATION HANDLING COMPANY PLC Transportâ&#x2030; R elated Services Totals Support and Logistics CAVERTON OFFSHORE SUPPORT GRP PLC Support and Logistics Totals SERVICES Totals EQTY Board Totals Daily Summary (Equities) Activity Summary on Board ASeM CONSUMER GOODS Food Products MCNICHOLS PLC Food Products Totals CONSUMER GOODS Totals ASeM Board Totals Daily Summary (Equities) Activity Summary on Board PREMIUM FINANCIAL SERVICES Banking ZENITH INTERNATIONAL BANK PLC Banking Totals Other Financial Institutions FBN HOLDINGS PLC Other Financial Institutions Totals FINANCIAL SERVICES Totals INDUSTRIAL GOODS Building Materials DANGOTE CEMENT PLC Building Materials Totals INDUSTRIAL GOODS Totals PREMIUM Board Totals Equity Activity Totals

DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

32 4 6 69 69

25.33 0.94 0.69

551,998 16,020 597,000 1,779,083 1,779,083

13,903,164.18 15,299.40 412,110.00 15,902,796.63 15,902,796.63

1 1 1

1.69

500 500 500

805.00 805.00 805.00

16 9 4 6 10 31 76

24.00 9.30 35.78 8.62 3.36 80.50

110,727 40,229 26,700 142,300 299,900 14,373,223 14,993,079

2,707,053.97 362,501.29 992,680.00 1,227,076.00 966,480.00 1,157,057,077.16 1,163,312,868.42

6 6

1.51

134,500 134,500

204,240.00 204,240.00

5 5 87

50.00

24,529 24,529 15,152,108

1,165,135.50 1,165,135.50 1,164,682,243.92

2 2

0.50

24,262 24,262

12,131.00 12,131.00

90 90

3.47

3,827,573 3,827,573

13,288,632.05 13,288,632.05

21 7 8 21 7 64

18.34 1.84 342.00 150.00 145.00

81,125 100,300 20,300 16,295 13,699 231,719

1,505,034.50 182,832.00 6,595,470.00 2,396,080.60 1,959,692.96 12,639,110.06

33 33 189

318.00

389,934 389,934 4,473,488

124,037,602.56 124,037,602.56 149,977,475.67

1 1

0.50

941 941

470.50 470.50

5 5

3.80

32,870 32,870

127,756.40 127,756.40

13 13

0.89

624,500 624,500

538,430.00 538,430.00

1 22 23

2.29 4.00

4,588 251,094 255,682

10,001.84 1,001,583.80 1,011,585.64

1 1 43 1,811

1.68

10,000 10,000 923,993 3,428,226,216

16,000.00 16,000.00 1,694,242.54 5,785,390,675.15

2 2 2 2

1.21

270,464 270,464 270,464 270,464

327,261.44 327,261.44 327,261.44 327,261.44

306 306

11.45

13,929,679 13,929,679

159,605,439.23 159,605,439.23

278 278 584

3.74

10,438,552 10,438,552 24,368,231

39,515,087.18 39,515,087.18 199,120,526.41

35 35 35 619 2,432

139.83

38,770 38,770 38,770 24,407,001 3,452,903,681

5,304,666.00 5,304,666.00 5,304,666.00 204,425,192.41 5,990,143,129.00

2 2 2 2 2 10 10 10

2,330.00 2.33 6.02 11.09 18.07

3,000 20 20 20 15 3,075 3,075 3,075

6,986,000.00 46.70 120.20 221.80 270.65 6,986,659.35 6,986,659.35 6,986,659.35

Daily Summary (ETP) Exchange Traded Fund Name NEWGOLD EXCHANGE TRADED FUND (ETF) VETIVA BANKING ETF VETIVA CONSUMER GOODS ETF VETIVA GRIFFIN 30 ETF VETIVA INDUSTRIAL ETF Exchange Traded Fund Totals ETF Board Totals ETP Activity Totals

T H I S D AY WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2017

WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2017 ˾ T H I S D AY

INTERNATIONAL

email:foreigndesk@thisdaylive.com

Syria War: G7 Fails to Agree Sanctions on Russia after ‘Chemical Attack’

G7 nations have failed to agree on a proposal by Britain for sanctions

against Russia in the wake of a deadly chemical attack they say was carried out by

Moscow’s ally, Syria. Italy’s foreign minister said the group did not want to back Russia into a corner and preferred dialogue. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has moved

on from the G7 meeting in Italy and has arrived in Moscow for talks. He insisted Syria’s president could not play a part in the country’s future. The G7 meeting in the

Italian city of Lucca followed last week’s chemical attack on the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun that left 89 people dead. The Turkish health ministry on Tuesday confirmed

that the nerve agent, sarin, had been used. Syria denied the attack but the US then carried out a retaliatory strike, firing 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase.

North Korea has sharply criticised the US after the US Pacific Command moved a set of warships to the Korean Peninsula over the weekend. The North’s foreign ministry, in a statement carried by its KCNA news agency on Tuesday, said the US navy strike group’s deployment showed America’s “reckless moves for invading had reached a serious phase”. “We never beg for peace but we will take the toughest counteraction against the provocateurs in order to defend ourselves by powerful force of arms and keep to the road chosen by ourselves,” a spokesman for

the country’s foreign affairs ministry said. “The DPRK [North Korea] is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US.” Later in the day, North Korea’s military chief said his country was ready to “mount a pre-emptive nuclear attack” on South Korea and the US. Hwang Pyong-so, the North’s effective number two behind leader Kim Jong-un, made the threat during a live broadcast on state television. He insisted North Korea will “wipe them out without a trace if they attempt to launch a war of aggression”. On Saturday, the US

warships - including the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, two guided-missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser - cancelled a trip to Australia and headed from Singapore to the waters off Korea, as part of the US response to North Korea’s recent missile launches. On Wednesday North Korea launched a missile into the Sea of Japan from near Sinpo in South Hamgyong province, according to South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff. Tensions rising Speaking to Al Jazeera from Seoul, B J Kim, adjunct professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said the level of tension has many

South Koreans worried. “The overall situation here, the way the South Koreans perceive it, is very unusual. They have not seen this level of heightened tensions for about a quarter of a century,” Kim said. “In 1994 we had a similar situation in which the United States possibly wanted to strike. But since then this has been the highest point of tensions here, so people feel quite uneasy about it.” North Korea has ratcheted up its nuclear programme under its relatively new leader Kim Jong-un, carrying out two nuclear tests and launching around 20 ballistic missiles last year alone.

United CEO Says Removed Passenger Was ‘Disruptive North Korea Vows to Respond to and Belligerent’ ‘Reckless’ US Moves

The CEO of United Airlines has said that employees “followed established procedures” in an incident which saw a passenger dragged off an overbooked US domestic flight. In an email to employees, Oscar Munoz said he was “upset to see and hear about what happened”. But he said that the passenger had been “disruptive and belligerent”. The airline earlier said that it was investigating what happened after videos provoked a social media outcry. The footage taken inside the airliner shows a man being pulled out of his seat and dragged down the aisle. He is later seen with blood on his face. Shares in United Continental

Holdings, which owns United Airlines, dropped by more than 3% on Tuesday, the day after the incident. The man has not been officially identified but a passenger who sat next to him told BBC Radio 5 Live that he said he was originally from Vietnam and had been living in Louisville, Kentucky, for about 20 years. He said he and his wife were both doctors. The flight from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday evening had been overbooked. The airline wanted to get four passengers to leave the flight to make room for four staff members. Mr Munoz has faced criticism on social media for his response to the incident.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017Ëž T H I S D AY

NEWSXTRA

INEC Places 205 Staff on Suspension over N23bn Election Bribe Blacklists fraudulent NGO, WANEO Commission drags six commissioners to presidency

Onyebuchi Ezigbo Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x;Ă&#x201D;Ă&#x2039; The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended 205 of its staff over alleged involvement in bribery, corruption and money laundering during the 2015 general election. Similarly, the commission blacklisted a non-governmental organisation, the West African Network of Election Observers (WANEO), indicted by its panel for allegedÂ attempt to bribe staff of the commission to influence the outcome of the 2015 general election. It said cases of one former national commissioner, five former Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) have been referred to the Presidency and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for further necessary action. In the same vein, the commission said 70 of its staff with insufficient information regarding their involvement in the election scam will be

referred back to the EFCCÂ for further investigation and possible prosecution. These decisions, according to INEC, were reached by its management after due consideration of the report of its expanded Appointment, Promotion and Disciplinary Committee on the EFCC interim report on the bribery and money laundering charges during the 2015 general election. Giving more details on the decisions reached by the INEC management at its meeting yesterday, one of the National Commissioners, Mohammed Haruna, said out of the over N23 billion which the EFCC reportedly said was used to influence the elections, the disciplinary committee established that N3,046,829,000 was received by the INEC in 16 states. Haruna said the INEC panel, during its interrogation of the affected staff, found out that WANEO was involved in a systematic attempt to undermine

the 2015 general election by acting as a link to bribe the staff. â&#x20AC;&#x153;WANEO and its principal promoters are immediately blacklisted. The network shall no longer be involved in election observation and any other activities organised by INEC,â&#x20AC;? he said. Speaking further on the investigations conducted by the internal disciplinary committee, Haruna said additional 80 staff of the commission whose names were not among those indicted by the EFCC probe report, were

invited for questioning by the INEC panel thereby bringing the total number of staff to 182. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Based of the their level of involvement in the crime, 205 of the affected staff will be placed on interdiction or suspension and placed on half salary pending the outcome of the prosecution in court. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The commission today considered the report of its expanded appointment, promotion and disciplinary committee on the EFCC interim report on the bribery and money

laundering charges during the 2015 general election.Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;You may recall that late last year, the commission received an interim report from the EFCC detailing allegations against 202 serving and retired INEC officials and staff in 16 states of the federation.Â Haruna who was flanked by other national commissioners, including May Agbamuche-Mbu and Prof. Okechukwu Ibeanu, said the committeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work was thorough and painstaking, adding that it involved the

â&#x20AC;&#x153;issuance of queries to the 202 staff mentioned in the report and interviewing them individually in accordance with the principle of fair hearing and in consonance with INEC staff conditions of service. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As a result of the initial findings of the committee, an additional 80 serving officials of the commission, who were not named in the EFCC report but whose names came up in the course of the investigation were also queried and interviewed.â&#x20AC;?

Fowler: Nigeria is Improving Tax Revenue Generation Shola Oyeyipo Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D; Segun James

The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler, has reassured Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s international partners, particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that the country is gradually improving its tax collection system. Fowler, who was a guest on the ARISE Television, a THISDAY Newspaper sister television network, yesterday noted that the impact of the current administrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s readiness to improve on its tax system as part of its diversification drive brought about 40 per cent increment in taxes collected in the first quarter of 2017 compared to 2016. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One thing you can use to judge a tax agency is the revenue generated and I can say from the first quarter of this year, our generation is 40 per cent higher than the same period last year. We have been working with other state revenue generation agencies and last year, we are happy to have included over four million individuals to the tax net,â&#x20AC;? he said. Noting that with about 20 million persons captured into the tax net out of an expected 60 million taxable individuals and corporate organisations both in the formal and informal sectors, Fowler said Nigeria currently has a shortfall of about 40 million taxable incomes. Asked how the government intends to bridge the gap and ensure tax compliance among defaulters, he said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;For instance, we

have arrangement with immigration services; those who would want passport or visa renewal; every service you want from government, they would ask for your tax information. We also listened to the business sector where they have complains. We have to do some tax reforms. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So, basically, we are trying to meet the tax payersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; aspirations and make sure that we change our tax laws and policies as required.â&#x20AC;? According to him, for market women and others in villages who may not be easily captured, they would easily make the habit of paying tax when government puts tax income into judicious uses. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is a matter of engagement. It is a matter of state and federal government showing people that this is not oil revenue. That it is tax revenue.â&#x20AC;? On the issue of Value Added Tax (VAT), where Nigeria is regarded as one of the lowest collectors with five per cent as compared to countries like South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique and Rwanda where they collect 14, 15 and 16 and 20 per cent respectively, Fowler also said Nigeria is making frantic efforts to improve VAT collection. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have engaged a few major stakeholders; the telecoms, aviation to ensure first of all that when people pay their VAT, it is remitted to government. We have also signed MoU with states to ensure that everyone who should pay VAT pays. Then we issue certificates that you put in your office,â&#x20AC;? he added.

WE ARE COMMITTED TO FIGHTING CORRUPTION

Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Ononghen, responding to questions from journalists after a closedâ&#x2030; door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja....yesterday

NDDC Pays over N30bn to Contractors Ernest Chinwo Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17E; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17E; The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) said it has paid over N30 billion to its contractors since the new board and management assumed duties on November 4, 2016. The Managing Director, Mr Nsima Ekere, stated this during a meeting with executive members of the NDDC Contractorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Association at the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s headquarters in Port Harcourt. He stated that he has also given directives that all interim payment certificates below N20 million be processed for immediate payment. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The process of documentation,â&#x20AC;? he said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;has started, because we believe that things should be done right.â&#x20AC;? Ekere disclosed that the new board met over 8,000 projects, among which were numerous abandoned projects spread across the region, as well as and a contingent liability of N1.3 trillion. The NDDC Chief Executive however stressed the need for the commission to get its full funding, as provided for in the NDDC Act, to enable it carry out its mandate. Ekere outlined the efforts being made to tackle the funding

challenge, noting that the commission was already meeting with the Senate Committee on the Niger Delta to ascertain the exact outstanding being owed the commission. He said the new Governing Board and management of the NDDC came prepared for the task of developing the Niger Delta, having used the four months before inauguration to work out new strategies for development, anchored on the 4-R initiatives. Ekere said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were nominated in July and then resumed on November 4, 2016. So, the four months of waiting gave us one advantage that this board and management have over any other board. Those four months gave us the opportunity to sit down and properly go through what the challenges and issues were, and then went ahead and instituted the reforms that we have been trying to implement. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We enunciated the 4-Rs strategy; to restore the core mandate of the commission, to restructure the balance sheet, to reform the governance systems and to reaffirm a commitment to doing what is right and proper at all times.â&#x20AC;? The NDDC boss said that

part of the reforms involved the introduction of technology to enhance the service delivery systems of the commission. He observed, however, that this may take some time to be fully operational and as such required some measure of understanding from the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stakeholders. He added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are reforming the governance systems in NDDC. By the time we are done, we will institute the governance system that we know is proper and run NDDC according to best international standards, so that when we leave, it will be impossible for any board that comes after us to reverse them. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For the first time also, this board approached the oil companies working in the Niger Delta to involve them in the budgeting process for them to also make input, since they are working in the communities and these host communities also have needs.â&#x20AC;? Ekere stated that management recently set up a committee on investigative hearing to review allegations of corruption levelled against some of its staff, as part of the commitment to institute transparency and probity within the commission. He, however, expressed

regrets that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the hearing was disrupted following some security breaches,â&#x20AC;? adding: â&#x20AC;&#x153;In spite of this, a lot of petitions and memoranda have been received by the committee and they are working on them to get to the end of these allegations.â&#x20AC;?Â Â Â He declared that the commission was ready to work with partners who would add value to regional development, as well as help the commission to deliver on its mandate. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I believe in constructive engagement, thus we are engaging with various stakeholders to confront the challenges facing the Niger Delta,â&#x20AC;? he said. Earlier in his speech, Mr. Joe Adia, President of the NDDC Contractorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Association, recalled their contributions in advocating for the release of the outstanding funds owed the NDDC by federal government and pledged to work with the NDDC. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We must work together to improve the service delivery of the commission,â&#x20AC;? he assured. He called on the NDDC boss to recognise the contractorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s association as a partner in progress, noting that the commission had a lot to gain from working closely with the contractors.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017˾ T H I S D AY

NEWSXTRA

EFCC Apologises to Dasuki’s Aide, Ashinze At resumed trial, witness speaks on how Ex-NSA’s aide, others received N5.6bn

After being lambasted by Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court Abuja on March 21, 2017, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday issued a statement to clear the air over its misleading information on alleged funds misappropriated in Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and for wrongly referring to Colonel Nicholas Ashinze as retired army colonel. The last two paragraphs of the statement was a response to the court’s order of March 21, 2017 directing EFCC to retract its previous statement. Ashinze, a colonel, is standing trial alongside an Austrian, Wolfgang Reinl, Edidiong Idiong and Sagir Mohammed, on a 13-count charge of corruption and money laundering to the tune of N5.6billion. The last two paragraphs of the EFCC statement stated: “At the resumed hearing on March 21, the defence brought to the notice of court, the press release of March 8 by the EFCC where the amount involved in the case was given as N38.6billion and the first defendant, Ashinze addressed as retired colonel. Upon this

observation the court ordered the commission to publish a retraction and adjourned to April 13. “The commission states that the error in figure was a mix-up in the body of the statement as the headline reflected the correct information. The reference to Ashinze as retired is regretted. We have since discovered that he is a serving colonel in the Nigerian Army.” However, Hassan Seidu, an EFCC witness in the ongoing trial of Ashinze, a former aide to ex-National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, on March 7, 2017 told Justice Gabrial Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja how Ashinze and others got N5.6billion from the. ONSA. Seidu, who testified as the first witness said he was part of the team that conducted search in Ashinze’s house, located at No. 67 Vision Court Estate, Apo, Abuja. Apart from Ashinze, others standing trial with him are an Austrian, Wolfgang Reinl, Edidiong Idiong and Sagir Mohammed. Other defendants in the case are five companies – Geonel Integrated Services Limited,

Bill Seeking to Equate HNDs with Varsity Degrees Scales Second Reading James Emejo ÓØ ÌßÔË The House of Representatives yesterday passed for second reading, a bill for an Act to end the discrimination between Higher National Diploma (HND) and university degrees. The bill, sponsored by Hon. Ali Isa and Hon. Edward Pwajok is seeking to create equal employment and promotion opportunities for graduates from universities and polytechnics across the country. Isa had contended that the discrimination was illegal as there is no law backing it. He said: “There have been circulars issued by the HoS at different times, either to direct that both university graduates and HND holders be treated equally or otherwise. The policy of government has been very consistent, but when it becomes a law, everybody will have to comply.” According to him, HND holders in the country over the years have suffered serious discrimination, which in turn has affected their career progression. He said while a first degree holder in the country is employed at Grade level 8 and could get to Grade 17, the HND holder is employed at Grade level 7 and cannot exceed Grade level 14. The lawmaker argued that the dichotomy apart from affecting the career progression of HND, also affects the technological development of the country, as most students now shy

away from polytechnic education. Also yesterday, the House urged the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to immediately disperse traders who convert pedestrian bridges trading stalls in order to encourage users and guarantee their security. It further mandated the House committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to liaise with the Department of Outdoor Advertising and Signage to devise ways of repositioning billboards mounted on pedestrian bridges in order not to endanger the lives of users. It followed a motion by Hon. Sergius One Ogun which sought to investigate alleged abuse of the bridges. According to him, the motion was necessitated by media reports early this year, where a student of University of Abuja, “was knocked down and killed while trying to flee from robbers, who attacked her on the pedestrian bridge close to the university gate.” He said there was need to decongest the bridges to allow pedestrians move freely on them and use them at all times, especially those established around busy roads. Meanwhile, the National Assembly yesterday embarked on a two-week break for the Easter celebration . I t i s e x p e c t e d t o re c o n v e n e on April 25.

Unity Continental Nigeria Limited, Helpline Organisation, Vibrant Resource Limited and Sologic Integrated Service Limited. The PW1 said on December 23, 2015, Ashinze was brought to their office for interview which he was asked if he would be able to respond to allegations of money laundering leveled against him. Seidu said after accepting, Ashinze’s statement was

recorded, but it was his colleague, Mohammed Goje, who administered the cautionary word to him where he signed and voluntarily wrote his statement. He further said a search was conducted at his (Ashinze) house at Apo where some items were recovered. The admissibility of the search warrant which Ofem Uket, counsel to EFCC, sought to tender as evidence was objected

to by Ashinze’s counsel, L. S. Nwoye, who argued that it had no date. Nwoye cited Section 147 of Administrative of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), which stated that a document must have date on it for identification. Justice Kolawale, in a bench ruling, held that the issues raised were omissions of details. He overruled the objection and admitted the search warrant in evidence as Exhibit 2.

He also admitted items recovered which are one black diary, one blue notebook and one page of unsigned document, written in red ink dated April 17, 2014 in evidence as Exhibits 2a, b and c respectively. Seidu also said the one page of unsigned document written in red ink (Exhibit 2c) contained list of five companies, their banks and account numbers of each of the company with amount that has been transferred to them.

HONOURING A GREAT SCHOLAR

Former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu (left), receiving the honorary doctoral degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) Honoris Causa from Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University at the universityí s eighth Convocation ceremony in Igbariam, Anambra State....recently

S’Kaduna Crises: Senate Rejects Own C’ttee Report for Faulty Recommendations Wants increased security surveillance in Lagos East Damilola Oyedele ÓØ ÌßÔË˿ The Senate yesterday rejected the interim report of its ad hoc Committee on the Southern Kaduna Crises and other parts of the country, for making faulty recommendations which do not reflect the seriousness of its mandate, or address the salient issues raised. It directed the Senator Kabiru Gaya (Kano South)-led committee to redo its work, following observations that the recommendations of the 60-page report was not thorough, and did not address the issues which the committee was set up to address. The eight-member committee had been constituted in January 2017, to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the crises in Southern Kaduna, and other parts of the country. Its mandate was predicated on the reported deaths and destruction of communities through consistent attacks by herdsmen in Kaduna South, Zamfara, Benue, Enugu, Abia, Taraba, Kano, Nasarawa, Delta, Edo states and others. The Committee Chairman, Senator Kabiru Gaya (Kano South) presented the summary of the report, which urged the Kaduna State government to review, implement and enforce the recommendations of the various white papers and reports

on the crises. Some of the said reports include the Kafanchan Peace Declaration by representatives of 29 communities in the affected areas, under the coordination and mediation of Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Report of the Reconciliation Committee on Ninte Crisis, the 2011 Election Violence and Civil Disturbances; and Report of the Committee to stamp out attacks on Southern Kaduna Communities. The committee also recommended that the Kaduna State Government in collaboration with the security agencies and relevant bodies, should embrace everybody irrespective of ethnic, political and religious leaning or affiliation and set up a committee to encourage dialogue for peace to reign within Southern Kaduna and Kaduna State as a whole. “The people of Southern Kaduna, irrespective of their differences should equally embrace, support and cooperate with the state government in its efforts to restore peace and normalcy in the areas. The religious leaders should advocate for peace and abstain from incitement of the people against one another. The politicians should not capitalise on religious and ethnic differences of the people for their personal political gains. The state government should strengthen government owned

institutions/establishments in Southern Kaduna,” the recommendations read. The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, however, said some of the recommendations do not reflect the seriousness of the Southern Kaduna crises and urged his colleagues to reject the report, so the committee can re-do its recommendations. He observed that the issue of arms proliferation, which has at various times been linked to herdsmen, was not addressed by the committee. Faulting the report, the deputy senate president said the recommendation that the Service Wide Votes be used to tackle the crises, shows a lack of understanding for the relevance of the fund. Senator Barnabas Gemade (Benue North East), echoing Ekweremadu, said even though it was an interim report, it did not address all the issues. He queried how the committee would recommend that special grazing routes be created for herdsmen, and not address the plight of the farmers also affected by the crises. Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in his ruling, said the committee should note the observations made by Ekweremadu and Gemade, and accommodate all salient issues.

He also directed the committee to be conscious of time while working on the report. In the general recommendations for all affected states, urged that the government of the affected states should collaborate with traditional rulers, political and religious leaders to initiate, monitor and implement holistic reconciliation strategies through regular and inclusive town hall meetings, in order to restore permanent peace on the affected communities. In another development, the Senate yesterday advised the federal government to direct the Inspector General of Police to immediately instruct the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, to beef up the strength of the task force on ground, to effectively secure the creeks on Epe, Ikorodu and Ibeju Lekki local government areas of Lagos State. It also called for the immediate deployment of sufficient helicopters for aerial surveillance and provision of gunboats to the Marine Police department of Lagos state police command. The resolution was sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos East) who expressed concern at the increased activities of criminal syndicates who specialise in kidnapping and militant activities in and around the communities in Epe, Ikorodu and Ibeji Lekki.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017Ëž T H I S D AY

NEWSXTRA

FG Prohibits Importation of Tomato through Land BordersÂ Imposes 50% tariff on tomato pasteÂ

Olawale Ajimotokan Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x;Ă&#x201D;Ă&#x2039;Ëż The federal government has embargoed the importation of raw tomato through the neighbouring countries into Nigeria.Â The Minister of Industry, Trade and Instrument, Â Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, announced the policy which was ratified by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on March 15. Â He said FEC, which also approved theÂ establishment of the Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council (The Industrial

Council),Â ratified the policy and the implementation of some extraordinary price-based measures to safeguard the balance of payments, under the condition of recession. At a briefing he jointly held with the Minister of State forÂ Industry, Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar, Â yesterday, EnelamahÂ said the policy was aimed atÂ improving the value chain and attracting investment.Â It would also encourageÂ local production by cutting dumping and reducing post-harvest losses estimated at 40 per cent due

FAAN Sets up Panel to Investigate Fire Incident at Hqrts Chinedu Eze

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has set up investigation panel to find out the remote and immediate causes of the fire that engulfed the headquarters of the agency yesterday. According to eyewitness account, the fire, which affected the audit and commercial sections of the headquarters started at about 9a.m. but was later put out by the Lagos State fire service and that of FAAN, The witness said the inferno destroyed many things in the affected area of the building. The Managing Director of the agency, Saleh Dunoma, said in addition to the investigation panel, the Nigerian Police would carry out their own investigation and would interview officials of the agency. According to him, members of the investigative panel include the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA),

the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Department of State Service (DSS), Aviation Security (AVSEC), Safety Department and Fire Department in addition to the legal department, which would also serve as secretary to the panel. The panel is expected to find out the remote and immediate cause of the fire and the extent of the damage; the contribution of various departments and proffer solutions and suggestions to stop similar incident from happening again in future. The panel is also expected to look at other issues that may come up during the investigation and it was given two weeks to submit its report. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The intention is for us to look into the incident and proffer solutions to prevent future occurrence. The police are also doing their own investigation and any action that will be taken will be based on the report of the investigation panel,â&#x20AC;? Dunoma said.

to inadequate storage facilities.Â He said henceforth, the importation of tomato pasteÂ can only beÂ allowed through the seaports. Â In addition, the federal government has also prohibited the importation of tomato paste, powder and concentrate in retail form or in other packages that can be conveniently produced locally.Â He said the only form in which tomatoes can be brought into the country is as industrial paste that importers can repackage and then sell. But he warned that imported tomato concentrates would attract 50 per cent tariff and a special industrial levies of $1,500 per metric tonne, to be used as a backward integration plan to develop the local industry.

The 50 per cent tariff imposition is very similar to the policy adopted by government in relation to imported sugar, cement and other things that can be produced in Nigeria. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This policy will stop the dumping of tomato paste through our land border. People bring these things through neighbouring countries and smuggle them in. If they are not produced in those countries, they must be imported through sea port,â&#x20AC;? Enelamah insisted.Â The minister said the restriction of the importation of tomato concentrate to the seaports was to address the abuse of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS). He said government focus on the tomato industry is consistent with Nigeria Industrial

Revolution Plan (NIRP) where government intends to work with stakeholders to launch world class industries that will make it easier to export and lower the cost of doing business. Nigeria imports an average of 150,000 metric tons of tomato concentrate per annum valued at $170million mostly due to inadequacy in capacity to produce tomato concentrate. Â The current demand for fresh tomato fruits is estimated at about 2.45million metric tons per annum (MTPA) while the country produces only about 1.8million MTPA. The tomato policy will facilitate the increase in production of tomato and local consumption. The policy will reduce dumping, directly create 60,000Â jobs in

fresh fruit production and processingÂ and increase annual production to 2.5 million tonnes.Â In addition, government will also Include tomato production and processing in the list of industries eligible for investment incentives administered by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC). â&#x20AC;&#x153;This new policy is at the core of NIRP which prioritizes agro-allied businesses, an area that we have comparative advantage. These measures ultimately, accelerates the growth of the manufacturing industry and deepens diversification,â&#x20AC;? Enelamah said. Â These measures will become effective 30days after April 7 2017, when the ECOWAS Secretariat was notified.

LUCKY MILLIONAIRE

Lâ&#x2030; R: Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria, John Ugbe; winner of BBNaija Season 2, Michael Efe Ejeba; and Regional Director, Mâ&#x2030; net West Africa, Wangi Mbaâ&#x2030; Uzokwu, during the presentation of a cheque of N25m and a car to Ejeba in Lagos...yesterday

Coca Cola: CPC Recommends Regulatory Review to Protect Consumers Raheem Akingbolu Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D; Senator Iroegbu Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x;Ă&#x201D;Ă&#x2039; The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) yesterday made public the outcome of its investigation into possible safety issues in Fanta, Sprite and other select soft drinks, strongly canvassing for regulatory review and actions for safer drinks in Nigeria. Â However, the CPC investigation revealed that the Benzoic Acid used in Nigerian soft drinks is generally low and inconsistent across the states of the federation with regional variations. The council investigation came on the heels of public outcry and consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; apprehension following the action at the Lagos State High Court in suit between Fijabi Adebo Holdings Limited, Dr. Emmanuel Fijabi Adebo and Nigerian Bottling Company Limited, and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), which alleged that Fanta Orange and Sprite may potentially be hazardous due

to its incompatibility with the Benzoic Acid Standards in the United Kingdom. According to a statement issued by the council, the CPC Director General, Mrs. Dupe Atoki, told journalists at the organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s headquarters in Abuja that the levels of two additives, Benzoic Acid and Sunset Yellow, which raised public apprehension in the consumption of soft drinks because of the action at the Lagos High Court have been confirmed through laboratory analysis to be within the Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) limits. Atoki said though the additives were within the NIS limits, issues of the significantly low and inconsistencies in the levels of the Benzoic Acid in the samples of Fanta Orange, Sprite, Mirinda, a product of the 7UP Bottling Company, and Lucozade, formerly manufactured by the Glaxo Smithkline tested during the course of the investigation, have thrown up the need for further investigative analysis and action. The director general, who disclosed that NAFDAC and

SON have been informed about the outcome of the investigation, stated that the council has also recommended regulatory action and review of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Benzoic Acid limits in soft drinks as the current standard, which has been in existence since 2008 is overdue for review,â&#x20AC;? particularly with the requirement for reviews pegged for every five years. Also, in the light of the high level of Benzoic Acid found in isolated cases of Mirinda and Lucozade tested, she said the council has called for further regulatory investigative analysis, action and review in the levels of the additive in the products. On Sunset Yellow, she pointed out that the council has also recommended â&#x20AC;&#x153;regulatory action for a review of the standard as some countries have reduced the approved limit, some have labeling requirements for its use, while some others have adopted its outright ban.â&#x20AC;? The director general disclosed that CPC, in commencing its investigation, obtained from the open market in eight locations within the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, 65 samples of soft drinks,

made up of Fanta Orange, Sprite, Mirinda and Lucozade, and that these samples were sent to Sheda Science and Technology Complex (SHESTCO), a laboratory under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, for the analysis of the levels of Benzoic Acid and Sunset Yellow in the products. According to her, the approved NIS limit for Benzoic Acid is 250mg/kg when combined with Ascorbic Acid, also known as Vitamin C and 300mg/Kg without Ascorbic Acid, while that of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sunset Yellow, as specified by Codex Alimentarius Commission and NAFDAC, is 100mg/Kg, which is similar to standards in China, South Africa and Middle East.â&#x20AC;? Â She pointed out that the results of the tests, which were done by SHESTCO revealed â&#x20AC;&#x153;Benzoic Acid levels in Fanta Orange as ranging from 5.09mg/L â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 197.0mg/L; Sprite 2.82mg/L â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 239.0mg/L; Mirinda, a product of 7UP Bottling Company 0.56mg/L â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 330.9mg/L; and Lucozade formerly produced by Glaxo SmithKline 2.26mg/L â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 323.53mg/Lâ&#x20AC;?.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017˾ T H I S D AY

NEWSXTRA

Adamawa APC: Bindow, Chief of Staff are Free to Leave the Party Daji Sani ÓØ ÙÖË

The Adamawa State Working Committee (SWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has responded to Governor Muhammad Jibrilla Bindow, his Chief of Staff and his supporters, saying they are free to leave the party if they so wanted. The SWC was responding to an allegation raised by Alhaji Abdulrahman Abba Jimeta, the Chief Of Staff to Bindow, accusing the APC-led federal government of marginalising the state in federal appointments. They described Jimeta as

a man with mouth diarrhea and can say anything without control. While responding, the state Chairman of the party, Alhaji Abubakar Biali, who spoke at the party secretariat in Yola, insisted that they would be ever grateful to Buhari’s government, adding that the SWC of the party is in total support of the representative of the state so far in the federal cabinet. He commended President Buhari over the appointment of indigenes of the state into key positions. Also responding, the Central Zonal Vice Chairman of the party, Comrade Dimas Ezra

FG Finally Signs Indemnity Agreements for Two Large Scale Solar Power Firms Chineme Okafor ÓØ ÌßÔË The federal government yesterday signed two put and call option agreements (PCOAs) with two of the 14 large scale solar power firms that have indicated interests to build and generate up to 1125 megawatts (MW) of solar power for Nigeria’s national grid. The government had through the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the 14 solar independent power plants (IPPs) in July 2016. It was however supposed to sign the PCOAs with the firms a month after the initialing of the PPAs but could not because of long periods of negotiations on the Partial Risk Guarantees (PRG) for the projects with the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB). The PCOAs serve as indemnity for the project promoters to go ahead with their constructions and ultimately bring their power to the grid. Also, the 14 solar projects are reportedly worth $2.5 billion, and domiciled more in the northern parts of the country where solar radiation is mostly high. However, at a ceremony in Abuja, the NBET signed the first two PCOAs with Afrinergia which would be constructing a 50MW solar farm in Nasarawa State and CT Cosmos which has a 70MW solar power project in Plateau State. The ceremony was superintended by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who reiterated the government’s commitment to diversify the country’s energy source, as well as create an enabling environment for investors to grow the sector. Fashola said the PCOA signing was in furtherance of the plan to generate at least 30 per cent of Nigeria’s

electricity from renewable energy sources. He said government would go on to support others to conclude their PCOAs and deploy to site. Also speaking, the Managing Director of Afrinergia, Mr. Bestman Uwadia, stated that the signing of the PCOA would now give his company the confidence to conclude and commission the solar plant located in Onyi, Kokona Local Government Area of Nasarawa. Uwadia noted that the company could transmit the first ever solar power into Nigeria’s national grid in the next six months. “In a lay man’s term, the power sector has been privatised over the years and the government is not really acting in the production of power, but they have said they will guarantee the payment on behalf of Nigerians and what you have seen today is that they are guaranteeing that if we generate power, they will pay in case Nigerians don’t pay for power. So, the government is standing in the gap and saying, they will pay but go and produce power,” said Uwadia. He further stated: “Our project was nominated to the AfDB PRG, we are with the AfDB. We have been on site in the last two and parts of the reasons why we do not have power today is because the documentation processes were not concluded. The PPA was signed last year, the PCOA was supposed to be signed a month after the PPA was signed, and now it has taken over eight months because some of the delays are from documentations. “In terms of our calender in power generation, as a company, we are still within our projections and soon in the next six months hopefully, you will begin to see power in the grid.”

Lebana, used the forum to clear the air on the threat by the Chief Of staff to Governor Jibrila Bindow that APC is a party overwhelmed by impunity and that his boss and his kitchen cabinet may decamp to another platform. He insisted that Jimeta lacked the right to speak for the teaming members of the party, stressing that as an individual he is free to leave the party if he so wished since the nation’s constitution guarantees freedom of association. “We are in a democratic dispensation where everyone has right to his own opinion, therefore, any member of the party’s personal opinion cannot be translated to the position of everybody in the party. “You are at the secretariat of the party. Now I can tell you that there is no organ of the party that has met and arrived

at such a decision. We have no reason to leave the party because the government of Adamawa State and government at the national level are all working inline with the party manifesto. “ So far so good we can say we have a good structure as a political party so if anybody feels aggrieved and wants to pull out of the party, He has every right to pull out of the party but it is not the decision of any organ of the party. “ In fact, the governor wrote recently that it’s the personal opinion of his Chief Of Staff and he is loyal to the party in the state and at the national level. Whoever is saying they will pull out is on his own. The party is intact, we are forging ahead to ensure that come 2019, we maintain and even win more states than what we have on ground now. So far so good we have delivered on

the campaign promises of the party we are working in line with the party’s constitution,” Lebana stated. The Southern zonal party Vice Chairman, Muh’d Baba Oga, said the SWC will take a decisive action against Bindow’s Chief Of Staff as they will no longer tolerate unguarded utterances capable of causing division among the party faithful. “We frowned when we heard the statement coming out from the mouth of Chief Of Staff to Governor Jibrila Bindow. In fact, we were at a meeting venue when he made the barbaric statement. “We are going to make sure that such an ugly situation does not repeat itself. We are tired of the atrocities of the chief of staff to the governor. As a serious political party, we will not allow party

indiscipline from any of our members again, “Alh. Muh’d Baba Oga Reacting to the statement, a party chieftain in the state, Uba Dan Arewa, called on governor Bindow to come out openly and tell the party faithful that he did not authorise his Chief of Staff’s statement. However, Arewa insisted that the Chief of Staff should not be crucified, stressing that he believed he acted the governor’s script, “this is the reason the governor cannot take any action against him. “The statement by Bindow’s Chief Of Staff is not coming to us as a surprise because we have information from our party secretariat that the governor and his aide have visited the party secretariat for time without number pressing for dissolution of the state working Committee.

YOUR MAJESTY

Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (left), with Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Saí ad Abubakar at a meeting with political leaders and traditional rulers in Sokoto...yesterday

Meningitis Outbreak: Adewole Tasks Yari on Poor State of PHC,Vaccine Racketeers Says Zamfara govt can handle any outbreak if PHC system is in place Senator Iroegbu ÓØ ÌßÔË˿ The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has called on the Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, to improve the state of the Primary Health Care in his state as a long-term solution and effective measures of tackling the Cerospinal Meningitis (CSM) outbreak in the country. Adewole in a statement signed yesterday by the Director, Media /Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Health, Mrs. Boade Akinola, urged Yari to focus on strengthening the PHC system in the state. According to him, this is the only way to prevent outbreaks and most of the common cases affecting the people. The minister said any single case could have been easily reported at the PHC level and a response would have been activated and this scale of outbreak would have been

avoided. He said: “Once the PHC system is in place we can tackle not just this outbreak but 70-80 per cent of the cases of our people. “Next year dry season is coming again. We need to make sure that we are prepared to tackle the next outbreak. “We need to educate our people that this infection is so easy to treat and diagnose. We must put a lot of effort into active case finding. We are recommending a house to house search,” he added. Adewole further called on the state government to clampdown on booming black market for the CSM vaccines thereby creating scarcity in the system He urged the government to “deal decisively with people selling vaccines and life saving commodities provided by the federal government for free. “There are people selling these drugs. We must apprehend

them.” The minister also called on Nigerians to remain confident in the response of the federal government coordinated by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) saying that the agency is equipped to tame the epidemic. Earlier, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shauib, called on the state government and traditional rulers to continue to educate and mobilise the people on social distancing and to intensify case finding efforts. He said the NPHCDA is willing to work with the state government to revitalise one PHC in each of the 147 wards in line with the vision of the honourable minister. Responding, Yari commended the federal government for their timely intervention. He acknowledged that the outbreak is being effectively

controlled by the FG team and admitted the state was taken by surprise. The governor also assured to provide leadership by doing all he can to ensure the protection of the lives and property of his people and pledged to get on board with the PHC agenda of Professor Adewole. “For the past 72 hours we have been seeing fewer cases and positive response. On behalf of Zamfara State government and people, we thank you and we are willing to work with you on PHC,” he said. Yari also said the state would revisit the structure of the polio programme, boasting that the state has not witnessed any outbreak since 2012. He said he would take the issues of the PHC agenda to the Nigerian Governors Forum which he chairs and promised to invite the minister to make a presentation before the members.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017Ëž T H I S D AY

CRIME&PUNISHMENT

Ishawo Killings: Lagos Police Intensify Efforts to Arrest PerpetratorsÂ Chiemelie Ezeobi Three days after bandits suspected to be dislodged pipeline vandals and

militants stormed the Ishawo area of Ikorodu, Lagos State, killing five policemen, two soldiers and scores of civilians, the state police

Kaluâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Trial Continues Today as Witness Maintains Not Paying Money to Ex-gov Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday adjourned further hearing in the trial of a former Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, and two others over alleged fraud owing to the failure of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to produce its third witness.Â EFCCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had sought an adjournment of the matter following the conclusion of the cross-examination of the second prosecution witness, Christiana Ohiri, by the defence.Â He told the court that all his efforts to ensure that another witness was brought to court yesterday could not sail through.Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;My lord, I will asking for an adjournment of this matter till tomorrow. I have no other witness to call at the moment.Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;Besides, I was thinking the defence will spend more time cross-examining the second prosecution witness. The defence had even threatened me at a point in the course of proceedings that the witness will spend weeks inside the witness box.Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;So, I will be pleading with my lord for an adjournment. This is the first time we will be seeking for an adjournment in this matter,â&#x20AC;? Jacobs said.Â However, the defence was opposed to the request for an adjournment.Â In his submissions, Kaluâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lawyer, Goddy Uche (SAN), expressed his displeasure over the inability of the prosecution to produce its third witness in the matter.Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;My lord, with due respect to my brother silk, I am opposed to the request for adjournment. My client flew in from abroad because of

this matter. In the alternative, I want to suggest that the matter be stand down for about one hour to allow the prosecution produce its witnesses,â&#x20AC;? he said.Â Other defence lawyers, Solo Akuma (SAN) and K. C. Nwofo (SAN) also expressed their objections to the request for adjournment.Â After listening to the arguments of parties in the matter, Justice Idris adjourned further hearing in the matter till today.Â Earlier at yesterdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proceedings, the witness, Christiana Ohiri, while being re-examined by EFCCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lawyer, Jacobs, emphasised that she did not personally meet all the people who carried out transactions with the 36 bank drafts issued by her bank.Â She had while corroborating the evidence of the first prosecution witness, Onovah Ogonevoh, told the court that no payment was made to Kalu from government house account between 2002 and 2005.Â While being crossexamined by Kaluâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lawyer, Uche, over a document containing information about 36 bank drafts issued by the Umuahia branch of the bank, Ohiri said no draft was either paid by Kalu or issued in his name. Responding to a question from the silk, the witness said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the first defendant, Kalu did not personally come to me to purchase any draft and his name was not included on any of the drafts. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The first defendantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name or photograph also does not feature in the mandate cards of the signatories to the Government House Account.â&#x20AC;?

Whistle Blowing: EFCC Uncovers Another N4bn A tip-off by a whistle blower yesterday, April 11, 2017 led to another discovery by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of the staggering sum of N4billion suspected to be proceeds of crime. Investigations as to the owner of the funds revealed that the money belongs to a former deputy governorship candidate of Niger State.

The suspect used the names of two companiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; Katah Property & Investment Limited and Sadiq Air Travel Agency - in laundering the funds. Each of the companies has N2 billion fixed in its deposit account domiciled in Guaranty Trust Bank. The suspected owner of the account and the account officer are currently on the run.

command yesterday said its men are on their trail. The police, who vowed to fish out and deal with the killers, said there would be no hiding place for them. The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, stated this while addressing journalists at the state command headquarters in Ikeja. He said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is no way you can kill security agents on national duty and go scot free. Wherever they

are, we are going to hunt them down. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At the moment, we are working assiduously and we are assuring Nigerians that whoever and wherever those criminal elements are, we will hunt for them and make them face the wrath of the law.Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whatever itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going to take us, we will get them, and that will be the last barbaric act they are going to commit. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are working with

sister agencies, particularly the military, and with their cooperation and synergy, the militants will not escape.â&#x20AC;? The state police boss said plain cloth operatives had been dispatched to the area, adding: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Considering the circumstances of the incidence, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to see policemen in uniform. It is part of our operational strategy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;However, there is a police division at Ishawo, which buttresses police visibility

in the area. The Nigerian soldiers are also physically present there. For people to say that there is no police there is false. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have policemen but not in uniform. What more sacrifice will the police give than the lives that have been laid for the safety of the people?â&#x20AC;? He also said the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Owutu suffered minor injury, but has since resumed duty.

FACING THE LAW

Suspected Boko Haram members during their arraignment by the Department of State Services (DSS) at the Federal High Court in Abuja .....yesterday

Court Grants Protection for Witnesses in Trial of Seven Boko Haram Suspects Alex Enumah Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x;Ă&#x201D;Ă&#x2039; Justice John Tsoho of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday granted an application seeking the protection of witnesses who will testify in the case against seven suspected members of the Boko Haram sect. The judge who held that the submissions of the defendantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; counsel did not affect the substance of prosecutionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s application, however, struck out paragraph 4A of the affidavit. Earlier, the prosecution team led by Shaibu Labaran, had prayed the court that identity of prosecution witnesses should not be disclosed and barred the public from covering the trial on the grounds that theÂ suspects are on trial for allegedly belonging to a proscribed group. Â Labaran also sought leave of the court for prosecution

witnesses to be protected, forbid the proceedings to be reported and make the report inaccessible to the public. He also sought in the application for witnesses to be addressed with pseudo names. However, counsel to the third and sixth defendants, Elijah Oloruntoba and K.Â Abdulkarim respectively said part of the grounds on which the prosecution sought the application were offensive to the provisions of the Evidence Act. They argued that some of the paragraphs were incompetent and thus should be struck out. Â According to Oloruntoba, an operative of the DSS who sworn to the affidavit, said he got information from Labaran, an external fact. He said this was not acceptable as the person who sworn to the affidavit did not carry out the

investigation. Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is our humble submission that some of the grounds of the application are incompetent, especially ground one, which is against the Evidence Act and should be struck out,â&#x20AC;? he said. Similarly, Abdulkarim, who stated that he was not opposed to trying the suspects in secret said he was however against some of the grounds on which the application was made. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ordinarily, we are not opposed to secret trial, but we pray the court to expunge paragraph 4A of the affidavit that offends provisions of the Evidence Act. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Section 150 of the Evidence Act of 2011 and Section 36 of the Constitution as amended said affidavit shall not contain extraneous facts,â&#x20AC;? he submitted. He added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;An accused is presumed to be innocent until the court says so. But ground

one of the application sworn to by the prosecution assumed my client to be guilty even before he is tried.â&#x20AC;? Â The suspects, who were yesterday arraigned before Justice John Tsoho are Mohammed Usman (aka Khalid Albarnawi), described as the leader of a Boko Haram splinter group, Jamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan (a.k.a ANSARU); Mohammed Bashir Saleh, Umar Bello (aka Abu Azzan); Mohammed Salisu (Datti); Yakubu Nuhu (aka Bello Maishayi); Usman Abubakar (Mugiratu) and a lady, Halima Haliru. Â They are been tried forÂ conspiracy, hostage taking, supporting a terrorist group, membership of a terrorist group, illegal possession of firearms and concealing information on terrorism.

Police Arrest Two for Strangling Uber Driver Chiemelie Ezeobi For strangling an Uber driver and dumping his corpse at a church premises after stealing his car, the Lagos State Police Command has arrested the perpetrators, Emmanuel Osas and Michael Iriekpen. The suspects were arrested by a special team constituted by the Lagos State Commissioner of

Police, Fatai Owoseni, after the deceasedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s car, a red KIA Rio, was tracked to Edo State. The suspects, alongside one Destiny (who is presently at large), were said to have contacted the deceased simply identified as Alex, for a trip, pretending to be passengers. It was gathered that they lured him to an eatery at Obawole Street in Ogba, around 9pm, where they

killed him with a military belt after beating and stabbing him. In his confession, Osas said he tied the victimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s neck with the belt while he was driving before they dragged him off the wheel. He said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was arrested in my village in Edo State, after my first operation and it was Michael that introduced me to it when I told him I wanted to go back to my village.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;He discouraged me and told me about the deal. He said his boss wanted to buy a car and that we should work towards stealing a car. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Around 8pm, we used the Uber app and I called Alex. When he came, I and Destiny entered the car first. Michael didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enter. I was holding the belt and tied the belt on his neck and passed it to Destiny.

WEDNESDAY, ͹ͺ˜ ͺ͸͹Ϳ ˾ T H I S D AY

WEDNESDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

LMC Hammers Pillars, Katsina Utd, Remo Stars with Hefty Fines Duro Ikhazuagbe The League Management Company (LMC) descended heavily with varying sanction on Kano Pillars, Remo Stars, Katsina United, two players of the Kano club and a goalkeeper of Enyimba International. While reacting to the pockets of fans’ restiveness at some topflight weekend games in Kano and Katsina, LMC insisted yesterday that the sanctions were aimed at reassuring fans, players and coaches of their safety at league venues on match days. It said it will continue to enforce safety regulations and sanction every acts of violation to deter unruliness at match venues. Kano Pillars was cited for violations of Rules B13.18 and C1 and fined a total of N7.25m as well as other consequential fines and closure of stadium to fans until further notice. The clubs has also been directed to identify and hand over to the Police for prosecution, its match security stewards who led the attack on match officials during the Match Day 18 fixture against Akwa United. The fine against Kano Pillars includes N250, 000 as compensation to Dr. Tunde Akinbinu, an associate member of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) in addition to any certified medical bills arising from the attack on him by the club supporters after the Match-day 18 fixture against Akwa United. It also includes N1m compensation to Akwa United for assault on members of the team in addition to any other certified medical bills, a fine of N3million for conduct capable of bringing the game into disrepute and deduction of three points, the execution of which shall be suspended for a probationary period of the remainder of the season “For incidents on Match Day 15 in Shagamu including breaches of Rules C.1.1, B13.18 and B13.52 including harassment of match officials, access to restricted area by unauthorised persons and assault on Journalists by Remo Stars supporters, the LMC imposed a cumulative fine of N2.5m on Remo Stars

and restriction of fans from attending three home matches of Remo Stars with the last two suspended. “For harassment of match officials in their hotel rooms by supporters of the club, Remo Stars was fined N500, 000, N1m for throwing of objects towards the field of play leading to delay of the match, N750, 000 for failing to ensure restriction of access to unauthorised persons to restricted area and compensation of N250, 000 for assault to sports journalists, Kelvin Ekerete,” observed the statement. A suspended three points deduction was also imposed on Remo Stars and which shall be enforced should similar incidents occur during their match for the remaining matches of the season. The club was also directed to organise an enlightenment program for their supporters and which shall be attended by an official of the LMC. For violations of Rule B13.23, C18.6, C18.14 and B13.21, Katsina United was fined a total of N2.5m which included N500, 000 as compensation to Enyimba International and a cost to be determined for repair of their damaged vehicle. The club is also to play the next three home matches behind closed doors two of which is suspended for a probationary period lasting the remainder of the season. Katsina United was also placed on a suspended sanction of three points’ deduction for probationary period lasting the rest of the season. The sanction against Katsina United arose from incidents at the end of Match Day 17 fixture against Enyimba International. Enyimba’s goalkeeper, Fatau Dauda was suspended for one match and fined N50, 000 for aggression towards a ball boy during their match against Katsina United. Dauda was charged for breaches of Rules C11 and C1 which included assault on a ball boy and acts capable of inciting others to commit violence during their match day 18 fixture against Katsina United. Rabiu Ali and Murtala Adamu of Kano Pillars were

Neymar Barred from Clasico Barcelona star Neymar will miss the Clasico after receiving a three-match ban following his red card against Malaga, dealing a big blow to the Catalans who lie three points behind Real Madrid having played a game more than their rivals. The Brazilian forward was dismissed for two yellow cards against the Andalusians on Saturday, earning an automatic one match suspension, but his punishment was increased because he sarcastically applauded the fourth official as he walked down the tunnel.

Referee Jesus Gil Manzano noted the incident in his report. The three-match suspension rules him out of the game against Real Sociedad on April 15, the Clasico against Real Madrid on April 23 and Barcelona’s home game against Osasuna on April 26. Neymar saw his first yellow card when he obstructed a Malaga free kick by tying his laces in front of the ball. The second came for a foul on Roberto Rosales. It was the first red card of Neymar’s career at Barcelona and the team’s first dismissal of the season in any competition.

also sanctioned for threatening of the Referee and conducted themselves in a manner that was capable of inciting others to

commit violence or misconduct which constituted a breach of Rule C1 and consequently suspended for one match.

The clubs and players were given 48 hours to submit in writing to the decisions of the LMC or elect to appear before

a commission and for which further sanctions would be imposed should their appeals not be upheld.

The Executive Director of Zenith Bank, Ahmed Umar Shuaib (left) meeting with the players of Dolphins Basketball Club of Lagos shortly before the start of the Zenith Basketball League in AbujaÖ on Monday

Special Olympic Nigeria Athletes Back from Winter Games, Hosted in Lagos Nigeria’s 31-man delegation to the 2017 Special Olympics Winter World Games in Austria was hosted to a rousing reception in Lagos yesterday for doing the country proud, winning a total of 20 medals. The special athletes won gold in Unified Floor Ball and a silver in Floor Hockey, two novel sports they participated in for the first time at the games in Austria. In all, Special Olympics Nigeria returned to Lagos with 12 gold and eight silver medals. Speaking at the reception, Chairman of the Board of Special Olympics Nigeria, Victor Osibodu, was full of praises for the athletes. “We sent a 3-man delegation to Austria to compete at the Special Olympics Winter World Games. We participated in two novel sports – Unified Floor Ball and Floor Hockey. “Our athletes had an amazing time but didn’t forget to bring home the prize. They won the gold medal in Floor Hockey and Silver Medal in Unified Floor Ball a total of 20medals (12 gold and 8 silver),” stressed Osibodu. He was full of appreciation for all the family members of the athletes, the coaches, volunteers who dedicated their time and supported their children. “Special Olympics is special to us and we will always give our best

L≠ R: Member Board of Directors, Special Olympics Nigeria, Mr. Misan Eresanara; Mr. Udeme Ufot; Chairman, Board of Directors, (SONigeria), Mr. Victor Osibodu;, Dr. Dolapo Ogunbanwo; Mr. Foluso Philips, Clinical Director, (SONigeria), Dr. Remi Durojaiye and Member, Hetty Bakare. BACK ROW: Athletes and oﬃcials during the welcome reception in Lagos for the Special Olympics Nigeria contingent from the World Winter Games in AustriaÖ yesterday to the athletes to ensure that they are always celebrated,” pledged the SONigeria board chairman. The Head of the Nigerian Delegation to the Games, Misan Eresanara, revealed that the trip to Austria was a special experience for the special athletes. “It was two weeks of fun. We had our high moments and low moments when two of our athletes were injured. Thank God the injuries were not so serious as to create panic for our team,” recalled the leader of delegation. He said that the athletes were Nigeria’s good ambassadors at the Games. “Our athletes were

well behaved. They were always together and showed great promise during competition. For athletes coming from temperate rejoin, the winter weather in Austria was however challenging to them. “Even the food was also a culture shock so to say.” Despite not having the right equipment to train, the National Director of Special Olympic Nigeria, Naomi Saliu, promised that the athletes are going to do better at the next games slated to hold in Abu Dhabi next year. One of the athletes, Olatunji Daniel who celebrated his 18th birthday at the Games, told

THISDAY that the experience in Austria would remain in his memory for life. “If anyone had told me before the Games that I will celebrate my birthday in a foreign land, I would have doubted it. But came back with medals to further make me happy. “We competed against athletes from India, USA, Indonesia, Morocco, etc “We didn’t have the equipment. We had only two weeks to train with the equipment before we traveled yet were better than athletes from other countries,” concludes the athlete.

Taekwondo Grandmaster Storms Nigeria Almost all the Grandmasters of Taekwondo in Nigeria converged at the National Stadium, Lagos from today to welcome and officially receive the originator of Taekwondo in Nigeria Great Grandmaster Aikpa Aime from Côte d’ Ivoire. They include, Grandmaster Dominic Bassey, GM Koffi

Anam, GM Nasiru Bello, GM Tony Alakija, GM George Ope GM Akinola GM Tayo Popoola (the only prominent woman Taekwondo Grandmaster in Nigeria), Dr. Fergusan Oluigbo, Tayo Max Adewolure, Uzoama Onwuchekwa, the President of the Nigeria Taekwondo Black Belt College, Yemi Adeyemi and Pastor

Collins among others. Among the athletes brought up by the Great Grandmaster in the last 40 years are Dominic Bassey, Koffi Anani and Nasiru Bello, the 72 years old Great, Grandmaster of Taekwondo who introduced Taekwondo sports in Nigeria in 1974 with only 12 athletes, said he was indeed excited coming

back to Nigeria. The great athlete in an interview last week sees the visit as an opportunity to re-engineer the sport in the country. A bigger reception is being planned for the Great Grandmaster by the Nigeria Taekwondo family that invited him on Saturday April, 15th 2017.