CHIBOK GIRLS: We didn't ban rallies in Abuja - IG

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VOL. 25: NO. 62158

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

President Goodluck Jonathan, flanked by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State (2nd left); President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, and Chancellor, Eagle Heights University, Omadino, Warri, Delta State, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and wife, Helen, at the GroundBreaking Ceremony of the university, yesterday in Omadino, Warri, Delta State. More on Page 13.

Why we killed ex-Anambra deputy governor — Suspects •Say his wife proved difficult 7

CHIBOK GIRLS:

We didn't ban rallies in Abuja — IG ,

C M Y K

...towards a better life for the people

The Police High Command wishes to inform the general public that the Force has not issued any order banning peaceful assemblies/protests anywhere in Nigeria

,

•Coalition sues Mbu, demands N200m damages

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI, EMMANUEL ELEBEKE &

ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH

A

BUJA — BARELY 24 hours after the FCT Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu announced a ban on protests connected with efforts to secure the release of the more than 200 abducted girls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State, Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday, clarified the statement of the Abuja Police Commissioner. The IGP in-

Continues on page 5

COLUMNIST:

Jonathan knows Shekau's informants •P.19

Derivation: How North bullied South... •P.19

Mr & Mrs

RALLY—Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (on top of a car) acknowledging cheers from the crowd during the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2014 Governorship Campaign in Ikire, Osun State, yesterday.

Adoke has failed Nigerians 1 — Clark 4

DOCTORS' STRIKE: Chibok, the

Patients groan, discharge 8 selves

coalition and the Federal Govt — Maryam Uwais 37

2 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Oil dichotomy, derivation:

How Attah saved confab from collapse

BY SONI DANIEL, NORTHERN REGION EDITOR, HENRY UMORU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

I

NDICATIONS emerged last night that the National Conference might have ended abruptly because of a sharp disagreement between Northern and Southern delegates over fresh agitation to re-introduce oil dichotomy and adopt a new derivation formula for oil-bearing states in the country.

Vanguard gathered from top conference sources that it was the timely intervention of former Akwa Ibom State Governor, Obong Victor Attah, who chairs the Power Devolution Committee that saved the situation from getting out of control.

Irreconcilable differences between delegates from the two regions in the committee forced the committee to postpone the submission of its report to the Conference Secretariat when others did so.

The crisis was said to have started when northern delegates, who wanted a reduction of the 13 percent derivation being enjoyed by oilbearing states to five percent and the re-introduction of onshore/ offshore oil dichotomy, insisted on voting on the two controversial issues in the absence of the chairman.

Controversial issues It was learnt that the northern delegates in the committee were emboldened to demand for voting on the two delicate issues having secured the support of some South-West delegates in the committee to press for their demands.

The northern delegates on the other hand, were to support the demand by some South-West delegates for regional autonomy.

The South-South delegates, who had come with a mindset to raise derivation on oil from 13 percent to 50 percent, suddenly discovered that they did not have the number to push for such astronomical jerk and were forced to enter into compromise with the North.

Vanguard learnt that the delegates in the power devolution committee were about to vote on the matter in Attah’s absence when the former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, stood down the motion

insisting that the submission of the report would expire by midnight of that day and not that morning, all in an attempt to allow Attah to return to the country.

Upon his return, the former governor reportedly threatened to walk out a South-West delegate in the committee, who made desperate moves to bring back the controversial onshore/offshore dichotomy, which had been laid to rest by the Obasanjo administration.

Similarly, Attah was said to have kicked against any attempt by the North to further reduce the 13 percent derivation being enjoyed by oil-bearing states, saying that it was better to retain it than cause any further slash that might lead to new problems in the polity.

•From left, Engr. Maduka, former Minister of FCT Arc. Ibrahim Bunu, Chief Olu Falaye and former Senate President Adolphus Wabara discussing at the National Conference in Photo:Gbemiga Olamikan Abuja.

Competent sources said that it was Attah’s maturity in handling the matter that forced the northern delegates to accept the retention of the 13 percent derivation, a development that has not, however, gone down well with some Niger Delta delegates, who wanted between 50 percent and 100 percent derivation on oil.

A top source at the conference pointed out last night that most delegates had wanted to use the Attah’s absence to cause confusion and possibly bring down the deliberations.

“Let me tell you that but for the ingenuity, maturity and exemplary leadership acumen of the former governor, this conference would have been

scattered,” one source close to the conference said.

“There are people who were just waiting to see what would come out of the power devolution committee and use it to ignite fire to bring the confab to an abrupt end but they have been disappointed by the way the matter was handled,” the source added.

Stay away from VAT collection, Nyiam tells FG

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ATIONAL Conference Delegate, Col. Tony Nyiam, (rtd), yesterday asked the Federal Government to hands off the collection of Value Added Tax, VAT, saying the government was reaping from where it did not sow.

The delegate, who deplored continued dependence on non-renewable resource like petroleum, said the government should make the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, the main sources of revenue for the country.

Contributing to the debate on the report of the Committee on Public Finance, Nyiam said that Federal Government’s collection of VAT amounted to “hijacking revenue” which it played no part in creating.

He noted that since VAT is consumption tax on goods, it should be collected by the states where the value was obtained or the consumption made because they bear the cost of infrastructure and other burdens arising from consumption of such goods.

He said: “The Federal Government needs to discontinue the bad example of not putting to practice, the virtues of the principles of fairness. The government needs also to discontinue its encouragement of sharing rather than baking as it were, the national cake.”

The delegate argued that some goods such as alcohol from which VAT was derived from had been banned in some states of the federation while the VAT collected on them were brought into the general pool to be distributed across board.

He said it would only be fair for those states where VAT was derived to collect and utilise such a tax.

He decried what he called “the overdependence of the Nigerian economy on petroleum resources and advised that a

deliberate attempt be made to diversify the economy to open up other sources of wealth.

Nyiam attributed the high level of corruption in the oil sector to conflict of interest, arguing that the Federal Government remained an “interested partner ” in a strategic National business in which it was supposed to be a regulator.

He said one of the causes of corruption

in the public service was the presence of incentives for public officers to steal public funds in their custody.

“One of the root causes of corruption in our public finance management system has been the incentive for embezzlement, which is being induced by our reliance on the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as the major means through which we source our revenue."

Let’s remove fuel subsidy — Mimiko •No, women lawyers kick

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ICE Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko and Ondo State delegate to the National Conference, Professor Femi Mimiko, yesterday, canvassed for the removal of fuel subsidy to stem mind-boggling graft in the scheme.

Contributing to the report of the National Conference Committee on Public Finance, he described the subsidy scheme as “a huge infrastructure of corruption in the country.”

He also suggested that ownership and development of sea ports should be put on the Concurrent List to enable both the Federal and state governments develop and own seaports just as he tasked government to resist external borrowing.

But in her contribution, the leader of Women Lawyers in Nigeria under the aegis of International Federation of Women Lawyer, Mrs. Hauwa Shekarau, said “no to oil subsidy removal.”

She supported the recommendation for budget mix of 60 per cent for capital expenses and 40 per cent for recurrent expenses.

“This will help to address the huge infrastructural gap that we are experiencing in the country”, the FIDA president stated.

While admitting that the committee did a comprehensive job, Mimiko said there were a number of issues.

“I support removal of fuel subsidy. On this, I find it difficult to understand the argument of those who want subsidy to be sustained.

It is evident that fuel subsidy in this country is a huge infrastructure of corruption. I then wonder why those who in one breadth decry corruption would at another, defend or argue for the retention of a clear infrastructure of corruption.

“As things are now, it is evident that the fuel subsidy regime has failed. It does not favour the poor; constraints development of our oil refining capacity; and promotes corruption. It should be removed and the savings put on the proposed social security regime that one of the committees has recommended. Such can also be deployed to support free education at both primary and secondary levels; and a scholarship fund for students of tertiary educational institutions who cannot afford to pay their way through school,” he said.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 3

C M Y K

4—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

FG to invest $3bn in power transmission network

BY SEBASTINE OBASI & NAOMI UZOR

T

HE Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Power, Mr. Beks Dagogo-Jack, yesterday, said the Federal Government had sourced $3 billion to invest between now and 2018 for transmission capacity expansion.

Dagogo-Jack stated this at the policy dialogue on power organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI. He said: “Government is doing a lot to furnish the energy sector with long term financing. Government has been very proactive in the sector. It has also put in enough money for the bulk trader to secure transactions for power.

“If the bulk trader does not have capital, it cannot sign a contract or a PPA with anybody to develop power.”

He explained that the size of the funding required to reach the 20,000MW goal suggests that current investment capabilities may prove another bottleneck to power supply growth.

Dagogo-Jack said presently, funding is provided through domestic banking institutions and are limited by balance sheet and sector credit limits that will be tapped out by both the 2013 Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, privatisation and the expected 2014 Niger Delta Power Holding Company, NDPHC, privatisation.

Factors for expansion

He said: “To expand the current capacity to finance the sector reform, any of the following might be considered: domestic and public-sector financing solutions.

“The Federal Government would support financing efforts by any of the following: directly through debt or equity investments; or indirectly through special purpose vehicles or financial insurance to recycle domestic and private-sector banking balance sheets.”

As regards foreign and private-sector financing, he said that international banking and capital market participation would be dependent on improved and sustainable market commercial performance and Federal Government investment insurance.

On developing a proper market culture, he said the decades of having a verticallyintegrated, government-run C M Y K

power company has impacted on the psyche of many, both within and outside of the sector— from customers to contractors.

He also said new patterns of behaviour need to be established if the market would be developed and grown, adding that the

concept of contractuallydefined behaviour with its associated incentive structure will take time to establish its roots.

Emefiele, CBN governor unveils agenda tomorrow

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

T

NEW CBN GOVERNOR: From left, former Acting Governor, Mrs. Sarah Alade; new Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele; Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Alhaji Suleiman Barau and Deputy Governor, Operations, Dr. Kingsley Moghalu, all of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, during the hand over to Emefiele in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: Gbemiga Olamikan.

NJC directs most senior judge to act as Rivers CJ

BY INNOCENT ANABA

T

HE stalemate in Rivers State judiciary over the appointment of a substantive Chief Judge for the state degenerated yesterday with the National Judicial Council, NJC, directing the most senior judges in the state high court and customary court of appeal to oversee assigning of cases to judges.

Acting Director of Information, NJC’s office, in Abuja, Mr. Soji Oye, in a statement said that the two senior judges would also perform other related administrative duties.

It said the NJC took the decision at its 67th meeting held on May 27 during which it deliberated on the nonappointment of a substantive or acting Chief Judge for the state.

The statement noted with concern the attendant consequences of this development on the administration of justice.

It stated that NJC took the decision to correct the impression created on NJC’s

decision on the appointment of the Rivers chief judge.

It said: “Suffice it to say that the law abhors a vacuum. Therefore, where there is a vacuum, the law must fill it.”

It will be recalled that the Rivers State Government had, Monday, raised alarm over the plot by the NJC to appoint an administrative judge for the state judiciary, which it argued was purely the constitutional duty of the state government.

Rivers State AttorneyGeneral and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Wogu Boms, Monday, urged members of the public to disregard the ‘rumours’ of NJC appointing a Chief Judge or Administrative Judge, however described.

He said: “The only authority recognised by the constitution to appoint a judge or a chief judge is the governor of the state and not any other body or commission, and that such body will be acting absolutely illegal to do so, and cannot do so, if they are

led by anybody to do so.

“Pursuant to the issues at stake, the Rivers State Judicial Service Commission, at its Monday meeting, had passed a resolution directing the Chief Registrar to inform all staff of the judiciary that disciplinary measures, including dismissal, awaits any staff that deals with any judge as Chief Judge, acting Chief Judge or Administrative Judge not duly appointed by the governor of Rivers State.”

It will be recalled that NJC had on March 27 suspended Justice Peter Agumagu as the Chief Judge of Rivers, who was sworn in by Governor Rotimi Amaechi on March 18.

Agumagu, until his appointment as Chief Judge, which NJC said breached Section 271 of the 1999 Constitution, was a former President, Rivers Customary Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, Agumagu has challenged his suspension and the suit is before an Abuja Federal High Court.

HE new Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, will tomorrow unveil his agenda for the apex bank and the economy, following his assumption of duty yesterday as the bank’s 10th indigenous governor.

The bank, in a statement by Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, Assistant Director, Corporate Communications Department, said: “The new Governor arrived at the CBN headquarters at 7.30a.m. yesterday and was received by the four Deputy Governors at the bank and expectant staff, led by Dr. Sarah Alade, whose tenure as Acting Governor ended on Monday.

“At the brief handing over ceremony, the new governor thanked Dr. Alade, the other Deputy Governors and the media for gracing his formal assumption of office.

The new Governor is expected to have a maiden world press conference tomorrow, where he will unveil his “agenda for the Central Bank of Nigeria and the people of Nigeria.”

Education, experience

Emefiele, the immediate-past Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc, brings along to his new role over 20 years of banking m a n a g e m e n t experience.

He is a 1984 graduate of finance and has an MBA in finance (1986), both from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

He is also an alumnus of Executive Education at Stanford University, Harvard University (2004) and Wharton Graduate School of Business (2005).”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014—5

POCKET CARTOON

VISIT—From right: Secretary General of OIC, Iyad Bin Amin Madani; Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State and Dr Ahmad Abdul'Alim Mohammed of International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia after a visit by the OIC scribe over insurgency issues, at the Government House in Maiduguri, yesterday.

We didn't ban rallies in Abuja — IG Continues from page 1 sisted that the Police did not ban peaceful rallies.

The IGP's intervention came on a day the #BringBackOurGirls group, that is behind the protest, filed a N200m suit at the Abuja High Court, challenging the powers of the Nigerian Police Force to ban any form of protest within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. Announcing the ban on protests, Monday, Mbu had said: “The trend is now posing a serious se-

curity threat to those living around, and as the FCT police boss, I cannot fold my hands and watch this lawlessness.

Information reaching us is that too soon, dangerous elements will join the groups under the guise of protest and detonate explosives aimed at embarrassing the government. Accordingly, protests on the Chibok Girls are hereby banned with immediate effect”.

The announcement attracted immediate condemnations from across the country.

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

Try as you may, you will never fulfil a dream that is not your own. Stop and think about your personal history. How have your plans, goals and desires been influenced by others?

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do — Pope John XXIII

Y

OUR subconscious mind has been programmed to believe that you’re ordinary, that there are limitations, that there are things that you can’t accomplish. These are called “memes,” and you’ve been hearing these memes from the time that you were a little boy or a little girl about what is possible, about what women can do, about what men can do, about how much money you can make.

Wayne Dyer has written almost 50 books and his first, sold over a hundred million copies.

He wrote about his life: “I went into the profession of teaching. It was something I just adored and wanted to do, and I had an uncle who’s just so good at it. And often many people tell me, “well, you can’t go into teaching – there’s no money in teaching.

You can’t make any money doing those kinds of things.” And I’m still teaching. I’ve just got a bigger classroom and a bigger audience and so on.

Indeed! Wayne Dyer is a very successful individual.

The Inspector-General of Police, however, issued a clarification yesterday, saying that following a recent intelligence report of a likely infiltration and hijack of otherwise peaceful protests by some criminal elements having links with insurgents, the Police only issued ‘an advisory notice’ enjoining citizens to apply caution in the said rallies, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory and its environs.

Police did not ban peaceful rallies — IGP

Addressing the media through the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Frank Mba, the IG said: “The Police High Command wishes to inform the general public that the Force has not issued any order banning peaceful assemblies/protests anywhere in Nigeria.

“Against the backdrop of current security challenges in the country, coupled with a recent intelligence report of a likely infiltration and hijack of otherwise innocuous and peaceful protests by some criminal elements having links with insurgents, the Police only issued advisory notice, enjoining citizens to apply caution in the said rallies, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory and its environs.

“The IGP calls on the general public to see the present position of the Force as a necessary sacrifice for the peace our nation needs, as security is a collective responsibility. Consequently, citizens are strongly advised to reconsider their positions on the issues of

rallies and protests in FCT until the existing threats are appropriately neutralized and removed from our midst by relevant security agencies,” he added.

Elaborating more on the threats, CSP Mba said: “The threat is currently being investigated. Once we are able to clearly and comprehensively neutralize them, we will say the coast is clear.

“You all will agree that under the leadership of the present Police High Command, we have demonstrated a very strong sense of democratic policing. Police have been escorting demonstrators, but this time around, there is over-riding need to advise against these protests”, Mba said.

Ezekwesili, Aturu react When her reaction was sought, yesterday, on the clarification made by the Inspector General of Police, former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili said: “We have already gone to court; therefore I have nothing else to add.”

In his reaction, Lagos lawyer, Mr Bamidele Aturu said: “The reaction of the Inspector General of Police to the directive of the FCT police boss, Mr. Joseph Mbu, to the extent that protesters should stay away from Abuja shows that Mbu always acts on his own without instruction. He has demonstrated that he is bigger than the authority. Now having violated the law and our rights to freely protest against injustice, what will the authority do to him to prevent future occurrence?"

#BringBackOurGirls group drag Police to court Meanwhile, erstwhile Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili; wife of former Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Mrs. Maryam Uwais and 15 others, yesterday, went to court to challenge the powers of the Nigerian Police Force to ban any form of protest within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, aimed at securing the release of the abducted schoolgirls.

In an application for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights to peaceful assembly and association which they filed before an Abuja High Court at Maitama, the plaintiffs, through their lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, they insisted that the FCT Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu, does

not have the constitutional powers to stop the #BringBackOurGirls protests.

They maintained that such action by the police would amount to a gross violation of their statutory rights and privileges as guaranteed by Sections 38, 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and Articles 8, 10 and 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

Others behind the suit, yesterday, were Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman, Samuel Yaga, Mrs. Rebecca Samuel Yaga, Mrs. Sarah Ishaya, Mallam Dunama Mfur, Lawan Abana, Dr. Fogu Bitrus, Dauda Iliya, Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), Bashir Ibrahim Yusuf, Jibrin Ibrahim, Saudatu Mahdi, Bukky Shonibare, Rotimi Olawale and Florence Ozor.

The Commissioner of Police, FCT, Mr. Mbu was listed as the sole respondent in the suit.

What they want Specifically, the plaintiffs are praying the court for: “An order for the enforcement of the fundamental human rights of the applicants to freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association guaranteed by Section 38, 39 and 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and Articles 8, 10, 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, LFN, 2004 in terms of the reliefs sought in the statement accompanying the affidavit in support of this application.

“A declaration that the decision of the respondent to ban protests and rallies in the Federal Capital Territory with effect from Monday, June 2, 2014, is illegal, unconstitutional, null and void as it violates the fundamental rights of the applicant to freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of

assembly and association guaranteed by Section 38, 39 and 40 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and Articles 8, 10, 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, LFN, 2004.

“A declaration that the respondent is not competent to ban protests and rallies in the Federal Capital Territory in any manner whatsoever and however without an order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction.

“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondent, his agents and privies from further preventing the applicants or aggrieved Nigerians from taking part in protests and rallies in exercise of their freedom of conscience, expression, assembly and association as guaranteed by Sections 38, 39 and 40 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and Articles 8, 10, 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, LFN, 2004.

“An order directing the respondent to pay to the applicant the sum of N200m only as damages for the said act of violation of applicants' fundamental rights to freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association as guaranteed

by Sections 38, 39 and 40 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and Articles 8, 10, 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, LFN, 2004.

In a 25-paragraph affidavit deposed to by the 1st plaintiff, Hadiza Bala Usman, the protesters told the court that they had in the past 31 days, engaged in daily advocacy and campaign on the plight of over 200 school girls abducted from Chibok Secondary School in Borno State, under the aegis of ‘Women for Peace and J u s t i c e #BringBackOurGirls.

6 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Banker docked for stealing customers' N989,200

BY ONOZURE DANIA

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AGOS — THE Police in Lagos, yesterday, charged a banker, Binutiri Sodiq, before an Igbosere magistrate's court for defrauding and forging signature of Skye Bank Plc customers with which he stole N989,200, from the bank.

Sodiq, 26, who resides at 3, Binutiri Crescent, off Ilogbo Road, in Ajangbadi area of the state, is standing trial before Magistrate Mulikat Ali-Balogun.

The defendant is facing a 13count charge bordering on conspiracy, fraud and forgery, preferred against him by the Police.

The prosecutor, Corporal Raphael Danny, told the court that the defendant and others at large, committed the offence between November 8, 2013 and March 27, 2014.

He said the incident took place at the Alaba branch of Skye Bank Plc. The prosecutor also said Sodiq forged the signature of the customers, claiming that he was authorised by them to withdraw the said sum.

Earlier, the defendant had pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

The magistrate granted him bail in the sum of N3 million with responsible sureties in like sum. She adjourned the case till July 15.

Ritualists pluck out 12-yr-old boy's eyes in Bauchi

Stranded commuters at Oshodi, Lagos following a clash between Police and students of Lagos State University, LASU, who protested against hike in school fees among other issues, in Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN.

11 die in Niger boat mishap

BY WOLE MOSADOMI

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INNA— ELEVEN people have been reported dead in a boat mishap in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State.

Eighteen people were said to be in the boat when the incident occurred.

However, seven of the passengers were said to have reached the shores safely.

A competent source at the scene of the incident told Vanguard that the accident occurred around 6 p.m, yesterday.

Vanguard gathered that the passengers were return-

AUCHI — PERSONS suspected to be ritualists, yesterday, attacked a 12-yearold boy in Zaki Local Government Area of Bauchi State and plucked out his eyes.

It was gathered that the victim, Abdu Garba, a native of Miga Local Government Area of Jigawa State is a student to one Islamic teacher, Mallam Haruna Abdullahi of Sakwa town in Zaki Local Government Area.

It was learnt that the ritualists trailed Abdu to an isolated area, where they abducted him and took him to an unknown destination and plucked his eyes.

The state Police spokesman, Deputy Superintendent of Police Haruna Mohammed, confirmed the incident, saying investigation had commenced.

dark moment for us here in Niger State. These were people who were hale and hearty pursuing different legitimate causes until they met their untimely death.

"I see this as a personal loss not just in my capacity as governor, but first as a human being who attaches much premium to human life and dignity."

The governor urged the communities in the riverine areas to avoid travelling in overcrowded boats, advising them to also ensure that they adhere strictly to laid-down safety measures.

Girl, 16, remanded for masterminding friend's rape •Two mortuary attendants docked for stealing dead woman's jewellery

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

BY SUZAN EDEH

B

ing from Garafini Kodo to Garafini village after market transactions.

Meantime, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has condoled with the Emirate and people of Borgu Local Government Area of the state over the mishap.

A statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Israel Ebije, described the incident as unfortunate and that government would investigate the cause and would put an end to the rising cases of boat mishaps within the riverine communities in the state.

He said: "This is no doubt a

B

ENIN — A chief magis trate' s court in Egor, Benin, Edo State, presided over by Mrs. Igho Braimoh, has ordered the remand of a 16-yearold student, Deborah Enoma, for allegedly masterminding the rape of her 14-year-old friend.

The accused, a student of Aunty-Maria Group of Schools, Benin-City allegedly committed the offence on April 16, 2014 at Uwelu Maternity Road, Benin.

She pleaded not guilty to the one-count charge of conspiracy to commit felony preferred against her.

According to Police prosecutor, Inspector Omoruyi Osayomwnbor, the accused conspired with her lover, now at large, to commit the offence just as he told the court that she took her friend to the address where the offence was committed on

the pretext of taking her to a family friend.

He further told the court that when they got to the place, the accused opened the door of the room and made a phone call and two men, Destiny Idehen, 24 and the accused's lover entered the room.

The prosecutor added that after introducing her lover to her friend (the victim), the accused went out with her lover while Idehen suddenly locked the door behind and raped the young girl and stabbed her with a kitchen knife on her forehead.

Two mortuary attendants docked In a related development, the Police in Benin have arraigned two mortuary attendants before an Evboriaria chief magistrate's court, also in Benin, for stealing jewellery in the casket of a deceased

woman, Esther Akora, whose remains were deposited at the hospital.

The accused persons, Osaro Benjamin, 50, and Idowu Eriemator, 26, of no fixed addresses, are employees of the state government-owned Stella Obasanjo Hospital, Benin.

Police prosecutor, Emmanuel Obakpolor (ASP) told the court that the two men conspired and committed the offence on May 12, 2014 at the hospital mortuary located along Country Home Road, off Sapele Road in the state capital.

He listed the stolen jewellery as gold ear-rings, gold necklace and gold wedding ring, all valued at N4 million.

However, the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges just as the chief magistrate, Frank Idiake, granted them bail in the sum of N500,000 each with a surety each in like sum.

25-yr old man jailed five years for robbery

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

A

BEOKUTA — An Ogun State High Court siting in Isabo, Abeokuta, yesterday, sentenced a 25-year-old man, Abubakar Ibrahim, to five years imprisonment for robbery.

The accused, who was arraigned before an Abeokuta magistrate's court on October 20, 2008 for conspiracy and robbery was later transferred to the state high court in Isabo, following advice by the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP. The state counsel, Banji Adebayo, told the court that the offence was contrary to Section 6 (b) and punishable under Section 1(2)(a) of the Robbery and firearms (Special Provisons) Act (Cap.R.II), Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

He said the accused and others at large robbed one Ayinla Adedeji of a mobile handset, ZTE A61 and a cash sum of N5,000; one Obelle Joy of N6,000 cash, and one Toyin Ewetan of a Nokia mobile phone and a cash sum of N7,500 on October 12, 2008 around Oyan Dam, Imala, Abeokuta.

The counsel, however, presented six witnesses before the court, who all identified the accused as among the robbers that robbed them.

Counsel to the accused, Rasheed Salau, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy.

The presiding judge, Olanrewaju Mabekoje, found the accused guilty of receiving property obtained through robbery.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 7

We killed ex-Anambra dep gov ’cos his wife proved difficult — SUSPECTS

and Rufus discovered it was N5 million, he drove all of them away. He, thereafter, charged into the bedroom where the deputy governor was and told him that his wife was daring us.

"He called the victim's wife on the phone and asked why the money was slashed. She told him that was all they were able to gather. Out of anger, he shot the former deputy governor four times and called his wife again on the phone and told her to use the balance to organise his burial."

BY ESTHER ONYEGBULA & KINGSLEY NDIMELE

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AGOS — THE Lagos State Police Command, yesterday, paraded three suspected members of a notorious kidnap gang that killed former Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chudi Nwike.

They were picked up in their den last year.

Nwike was kidnapped on March 19, 2013 and a N30 million ransom was demanded by his abductors who reportedly murdered him after taking N5 million as ransom.

Parading the suspects alongside four others, among whom were three Ibadan-based alleged hired assassins, who confessed to have been given N140,000 as advance payment to eliminate a businessman in Lagos, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, said the arrest of the kidnap suspects followed the arrest of one Monday Odieto in Benin, Edo State, by the Divisional Police Officer in-charge of Ikoyi, Aisha Haruna.

How they were nabbed

Manko explained that during interrogation, Odieto confessed to belong to a 30-man kidnap gang operating in the South-South and South-East axis of the country and further confessed to have been involved in the kidnap of a Supreme Court judge's wife, Justice RhodesVivour, last year along the Lagos/ Benin expressway.

His confessional statement, according to Manko, led to a manhunt for those indicted. He said the pursuit led to the arrest of Godspower Ovwigho, 31, and Stanley Efetobor, 29. He said they were arrested by operatives of the Special Anti- Robbery Sqaud.

Manko said: “After a long manhunt, one Godspower Ovwigho, was tracked and arrested at Ikorodu, Lagos State on April 23.

He was identified by Monday Odieto as being a top ranking member of the gang. On April 24, one Stanley Efetobor, who is also a gang member, was also arrested

by SARS."

How suspects ambushed prisons officials , freed leader

During interrogation, the suspects, according to Manko, confessed to be among those who ambushed some prison officials in Okere, Warri, Delta State while their leader, simply identified as Rufus was being taken to court in March last year. Some prison officials were reportedly killed in the attack.

According to him, "Efetobor confessed to be a member of the gang that rescued one of their former gang leaders, one Rufus, at Okere raid in Warri, Delta State.

"He confessed that the raid was carried out when some prisons of-

I got N40,000 out of the N5m

From left: Monday Odieto, Godspower Ovwigho and Stanley Efetobor who allegedly killed ex-Anambra State deputy governor. Photos: ESTHER ONYEGBULA.

ficials were taking him to court from prison yard in March, last year. The suspects confessed that several prisons officers lost their lives in that operation.

"He also confessed that their gang kidnapped the wife and daughter of Justice RhodesVivour. The same gang kidnapped former Anambra deputy governor and demanded N30 million as ransom. Although they got N5 million from the family, they still killed the man and told the wife to use the remaining N25 million to bury her husband. But we are still continuing with our investigations."

Why we killed former dep gov— Suspect

Godspower Ovwigho, 27, told a bewildered crowd that his gang killed the former deputy governor because his wife was heady.

According to him, "we killed the deputy governor because his wife tried to prove difficult. We de-

From left: Ibrahim Lawal, Emmanuel Adewale and Yomi Olarewaju who plotted to assassinate a businessman in Lagos. manded N30 million but they gave us only N5 million. After the payment, they promised to give us more but did not. It was Rufus that shot him dead when

the wife refused to pay more.

Rufus is our leader.

"We held him hostage in a three-bedroom flat in Kokori town, in Delta State. When the negotiators brought the money

His alleged partner in crime, Stanley Efetobor, 29, lamented that his share of the N5 million was only N40,000.

Meanwhile, the three suspected hired assassins who left Ibadan for Lagos, to snuff life out of a businessman, one Victor Adelakun, disclosed that they were promised N140,000 after executing the job.

The suspects, according to Manko, were arrested in a night club on Allen Avenue by operatives of SARS on May 10, 2014 while strategising on how to get their target.

But the trio of Ibrahim Lawal (27), Emmanuel Adewale (25 ) and Yomi Olarewaju (25) claimed they intended kidnapping their victim.

Although in an earlier interrogation, they reportedly told the operatives that their mission was to assassinate their victim. But Ibrahim stated yesterday: "We wanted to kidnap him. That was the instruction given to us.

We were promised N300,000 if the deal succeeded. We were given N100,000 as advance fee "We were just at the club waiting for the victim because we were told he usually drinkthere.

While we were discussing how to get him, we did not know how the Police got wind of our mission and apprehended us."

FEES HIKE PROTEST: 10 arrested as protesting LASU students clash with Police

BY SIMEON NDAJI, IKENNA ASOMBA & TARE YOUDEOWEI

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AGOS — FOR the umpteenth time, students of the Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo, yesterday, barricaded the LagosAbeokuta expressway by Ikeja Along Bus-stop, causing a traffic gridlock.

Vanguard gathered that when scores of the protesting students moved towards the popular Oshodi market, they met stiff resistance from policemen at the The Arena, Nigerian Army Shopping Complex owned by the Nigerian Army, 9 Brigade Military Cantonment by Bolade Bus-stop, Oshodi.

The students said their action was in protest against the failure of the Lagos State Government to accede to their appeal for a reduction in their school fees from N348,750 to N56,500 for freshmen and N46,500 for old students.

A journey of less than five minutes to Ikeja under the bridge from the Ikeja main road took over four hours as the students thronged the road chanting solidarity songs.

According to the Students’ Union President, Comrade Nurudeen Yusuf, the Police stopped their peaceful protest aimed at sensitising traders at the Oshodi market on the need to support their agitation for a re-

The protesting LASU students, yesterday. duction in their tuition fees.

"Our protest today was very peaceful. There was no rampage, as we coordinated ourselves and never went on vandalizing property of innocent Lagosians. But we were sur-

prised that the Police ambushed us in front of the Nigerian Army Shopping Complex, Oshodi.

"The Police shot (tear gas) canisters and bullets at us and they arrested about 10 of us. As I speak, we don’t know where they have taken them to."

8—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

DOCTORS' STRIKE: Patients groan, discharge selves

BY TONY EDIKE, CHIOMA OBINNA, VICTORIA OJEME & GABRIEL OLAWALE

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HOUGH the nationwide warning strike called by the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, is expected to end today, there may be no end in sight to the action embarked upon by the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, chapter of the association as activities there were completely grounded yesterday.

The situation is the same in all public health institution across the country. From National Hospital, Abuja, to LUTH, LASUTH, the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, and National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, NOHE, patients are complaining of ineffective services.

These developments came as Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, blamed incessant strikes in public hospitals in Nigeria on government policies.

The usual beehive of activities at LUTH was not in evidence as the Accident and Emergency ward of the hospital remained under lock.

WhenVanguard visited the hospital, the atmosphere was that of abandonment, especially as there was no electricity.

All the entrance gates were manned by overzealous security men who confronted reporters that entered the premises.

Further investigation by Vanguard showed that while the hospital discharged some patients whose cases were critical to seek help elsewhere, families on their own took their relatives away for fear of their ailments degenerating.

Abandoned children

At the Paediatrics Ward, Vanguard gathered that while some children have been discharged, those who are still there are not being attended to.

A woman, whose child was on admission and spoke on condition of anonymity, told Vanguard that the hospital management had been discharging children since Monday.

She said: “Before, nurses used to bath our children but today they just managed to give us warm water. We took care of our children ourselves; the only thing they did was to clean children in incubators.”

Asked if the nurses were also on strike, the woman said: “They even refused to attend to my son that has injection to take; not even to clean his wound.”

At the medical emergency, relatives of patients were seen moving their loved ones out.

Asked why, an aged man said: “You want to know? Can’t you see that doctors are on strike and you are asking me

zLUTH-NARD demands review of hospital fees z Enugu doctors join strike nonsense questions? Do you want me to leave my brother here to die? I beg you, look for another person to answer your question.”

Strike continues — LUTH-NARD

President, LUTH-NARD, Dr. Omojowolo Olubumi, yesterday raised fresh demands stating that due to lack of appreciable progress made regarding their demands, the strike at LUTH would continue.

He said the doctors were demanding that LUTH

z Nurses, consultants overwhelmed

“This has led to reduction in the numbers of patients in the hospital, thus negatively impacting on training of specialist doctors, especially those in the surgical subspecialties of dentistry, obstetrics and gynaecology and surgery.”

He alleged also that there were no facilities, such as water, to wash hand after seeing a patient at LUTH. He alleged: “No case note anymore in LUTH. We write with any paper, even with our phones; and these are confidential issues.”

National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, NOHE, has fully joined the ongoing strike to press home their demand for improved welfare of their members.

The members of the association took the decision to join the nationwide strike at an emergency meeting held Monday evening, where they directed their members to participate fully in the industrial action.

The officials were said to have gone round the hospitals yesterday to enforce the directive, a development that

‘Blame govt policies’

Reacting to the situation in Abuja, President of Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, Dr. Steve Oluwole, blamed incessant strikes in public hospitals on government policies.

Oluwole said: “Strike actions by the resident doctors often provoke emotions and spontaneous reactions, which prevent in-depth analysis of the underlying problems and issues.

“We called on the Federal Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Labour and

ABANDONED: Patients at the female surgical ward of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi.

INSET: The General Out Patient Department, GOPD, of the teaching hospital. NAN PHOTOS. management issue a letter to individual resident doctors, stating when clearly the tenure of their training based on the 2013 circular.

He said: “The duration of residency training in LUTH has remained a subject of controversy as the management has deliberately shrouded it in secrecy so as to be able to continue to perpetuate the policy of premature termination of employment and abrupt stoppage of salaries of senior registrars.”

Olubumi, who also demanded an immediate review of hospital fees, which had greatly affected their training, said: “As doctors, we are gravely concerned. There is increase in the number of avoidable deaths and morbidity due to inability of patients to afford these fees.

“For instance the price of minor surgery such as incision and drainage and suturing of laceration has jumped from N8,000 to N50,000.

LUTH threatens

At the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, the striking doctors said if their demands, which bothered on improved budgetary allocation to the specialist training programme, was not met by July I, they would embark on an indefinite industrial action.

According to one of the resident doctors in LASUTH, the present structure of funding the programme, which is supposed to expose them to both international and local training, is faulty and can affect the quality of their training.

At the National Hospital, Abuja, patients are complaining of ineffective services rendered at the hospital in the past two days.

One of the patients at the hospital, Olaoluwa Abraham, said it had weakened services in the hospital.

Meanwhile, members of the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, and the

forced all NARD members to abandon their duty posts.

Consultants, nurses overwhelmed

Consequently, patients in various wards at UNTH were left in the hands of few consultants and nurses who, sources said, were finding it difficult to cope.

The few consultants available were unable to go round all the wards, leaving most of the patients unattended to. Officials of NARD in the hospital could not be reached as they did not report for duty throughout yesterday.

The major drawback at the orthopaedic hospital is the shutting down of the Accident and Emergency unit which has prevented the admission of new patients.

Sources said that some accident victims taken to the hospital yesterday morning were turned back by security men at the gate because doctors in charge of the department were absent.

Productivity to avoid political decisions, agreements or memoranda that are designed just to make a striking group suspend its strike, when it is obvious such agreements are not implementable or will conflict with previous agreement with other groups.

“The two ministries should harmonise to put an end to the cycles of strikes over the same issues.”

Asked if consultant doctors could work effectively without the resident doctors, Oluwole said: “The teaching hospitals and many tertiary medical centres are designed to function with resident doctors working with their consultants.

“Any expectation that it will be business as usual without them attending to their duties is deceptive.”

He pledged MDCAN’s commitment to uninterrupted services in the hospitals, stressing that the confidence of patients in health care delivery could not be sustained by industrial actions.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 9

C M Y K

10— Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Dana crash: Delayed AIB report stalls specific verdict – CORONER BYABDULWAHAB ABDULAH, LAWANI MIKAIRU, MONSURU OLOWOOPEJO & JONAH NWOKPOKU

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AGOS—EXACTLY two years after 153 passengers and crew of the ill-fated Dana Aircraft perished in Lagos, Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe of the Lagos Coroner Court, yesterday held that the court could not arrive at a specific verdict on the cause of the crash owing to inconclusive investigation by the Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB. This came as relatives of the victims thronged the Cenotaph in Iju-Ishaga, Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government to mark the second anniversary of the crash, urging the Federal Government to intervene in the payment of compensation by Dana Airline.

The Dana air flight 992 left the Nnamdi Azikwe Airport, Abuja on Sunday, June 3rd, 2012 for Lagos, with 147 passengers and 10 crew members on-board but crash landed and exploded, killing everyone on-board and 10 on the ground; increasing the total casualties to 167.

...As victims’ relatives seek FG intervention over compensation However, the presiding coroner only made recommendations on steps to be taken by authorities to avoid future mistakes as well as improving rescue operations whenever such incident occured.

In his one-hour judgment, Coroner Komolafe x-rayed the circumstances leading to the inquest as well as the number of people and government agencies that testified before him and concluded that no verdict could be arrived at due to failure of the AIB, the body responsible for investigating air crash, to present a formal report of its investigations.

Though, according to him the composition of the coroner court by the Chief Coroner, Justice Lateefa Okunnu, was in line with the Coroner Law of Lagos State, however, he only achieved little due to unavailability of the report of the investigation of the AIB. The chambers of Falana and Falana had filed a petition asking the state Chief Coroner to compose a coroner for an inquest to among others,

find out the cause(s) of the air crash.

Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, a principal partner at the law firm, in the request made to the state Chief Coroner, alleged that the aircraft was granted permission to fly, in spite of being defective.

According to Komolafe, 17 witnesses, including security and emergency agencies, state Chief Pathologist, Professor John Obafunwa, representatives of the airline and other governmental agencies gave evidences.

At the end of his findings, Komolafe made a nine-point recommendation to the authorities on respond to such emergency.

These include “establishment of national body for logistics and supply for the body handlers and retrievals and that they should be meeting at intervals”; urgent need for the forensic science laboratory in each geopolitical zones and any state that can have such.''

He also called for an enactment of a national Coroner system; the provision of fire services in each local government of the federation.

Other recommendations by the Coroner include provision of equipment for all emergency agencies; establishment of radio unit service in all emergency units that will be linked to each other.

Apart from these, he suggested the establishment of national and state corps and inter-agency cooperation among all

emergency agencies.

On June 18, 2012, an inquest into the cause of the accident began in Lagos, the inquest was however, halted for three months, after a group challenged the jurisdiction of the coroner at the Federal High Court.

LASG officials, victims' relatives visit crash site, lay wreath Meanwhile, officials of Lagos Government led by Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr. Wale Ahmed and relatives of victims, thronged the crash site in IjuIshaga, to lay wreath in remembrance of their beloved ones, who died in the crash.

The relatives lamented that since the crash, they had not received any compensation from the management of Dana Airline for the loss they suffered, saying “Till date, we are yet to receive fund to cushion the effect of the loss suffered.”

They, however, complained over misrepresentation of some victims of the crash on the tomb constructed by the Lagos State government last year, saying “In spite of our effort to make the required correction, through letters is yet to correct it on the tomb.”

Speaking to Vanguard, Mr. James Okafor, whose younger brother, Mr. Nwabuwa Okafor died in the crash, said the fund is required to cater for the two children left by the deceased, adding “the children were bore to him by his late wife. So, you can see that the children are orphans.”

James lamented that the unpaid compensation had further worsened issues in the family, saying “the father of the deceased, died due to high blood pressure in January, 2013 because he heard that his son was among the victims of the Dana plane crash.”

Mr. Sunday Abuyeri, whose

mother, Mrs. Mariam Abuyeri, died in the crash, said the help of the Federal Government was required to address the issues surrounding the crash since June 2012, complained that government had left them to their plight rather than ensure that the compensation was paid quickly.

Pastor Fredrick Akingbe, who spoke on behalf of the ground victims, explained “For instance, the compensation for the ground victims falls into different category- tenants, landlord and others.

We are yet to receive any compensation from Dana Airline for the loss we suffered two years ago.”

AIB releases second interim report Also, Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, yesterday released a second updated interim report on the Dana Airline plane According to the agency “In accordance with Annex 13 to the convention on International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Aircraft Accident Investigation Regulations 2006, this is an updated interim statement being issued for the 2nd anniversary of the accident. The purpose of this investigation is the prevention of aviation Accidents and incidents; it is not to apportion blame or liability.”

In another development, Nigeria Leadership Initiative, NLI, has unveiled a web portal www.saferskyng.org dedicated to the victims and promote air safety in Nigeria.

At a briefing to unveil the website in Lagos, Chief Executive Officer of NLI, Yinka Oyinlola said the main objective of the web portal was to make air travels in Nigeria safer and forestall future occurrence of air disaster through an alert mechanism.

NAFDAC labs certify 50,000 food products in 2013

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

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AGOS—NATIONAL Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC yesterday said no fewer than 50,000 regulated food products were certified by the Agency in 2013.

Director-General of NAFDAC, Dr Paul Orhii who spoke at the capacity building workshop by Merck Millipore on Biomonitoring and laboratory water technologies in Lagos, promised training the agency’s laboratory staff to meet world regulatory standards.

He said boosting the pool of competent personnel as well as providing state-of-the-art equipment towards meeting global regulatory

standards and trends would see the certification of more products in the country.

Orhii said NAFDAC attached great importance to the quality of regulation and training of staff, saying “NAFDAC is committed to carrying out its mandate to the fullest and will welcome any institution or stakeholder that is ready to partner with her in this regard.”

He said the training was a partnership between the agency and the company for laboratory staff.

Deputy Director, Laboratory Services, NAFDAC, Mrs. Abiodun Falana, said the aim of laboratories was to generate and certify quality products for the country.

She said trainees selected from seven laboratories across the country, would make certification of products a lot easier.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 11

Why our elections are not credible — AREGBESOLA

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

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SOGBO—GOVERNOR Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State yesterday said nonadherence to the provisions of the electoral laws was one of the major problems militating against free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria.

The Governor spoke in Osogbo while declaring open the 2014 Law Week of the Osogbo branch of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA. Represented by Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Wale Afolabi, the governor said “if elections are conducted in line with the letters and spirit of the Electoral laws, succession will be fairly smooth and devoid of the reprehensible shenanigans that defined elections of recent past.

Elections in Nigeria have been

tainted with bizarre, irregularities and perplexing riggings, all because the laws guiding their conducts are being undermined.

“As states and the entire country get ready for another round of elections, I encourage lawyers to mount serious campaigns for observance of the Electoral Laws.

I call on lawyers not to be tired of

preaching the gospel of the rule of law. You must challenge any contravention of the scared dictates of the rule of law, for it poses serious danger to constitutional governance.

"As people tasked with defending the cause of justice, you must not leave Nigeria in the lurch. Necessity is laid upon you to intervene from time to time in ensuring that the managers of the country conform

adequately to the enunciated positions of the law.

"As a major bloc in the camp of watchdogs of democracy and good governance, Lawyers must, with all the influence they can command, be a vanguard of this campaign for the observance of the rule of law. The Nigerian electorates too have a role to play in ensuring that constitutional governance not only becomes stable but also sustainable.”

SERAP condemns ban on protest over Chibok girls

BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH

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EACTIONS have continued to trail the directive by the Police Commissioner of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr. Joseph Mbu banning the 'bring back our girls' protest in the FCT. In a statement by SocioEconomic Rights and Accountability Project’s, SERAP, Tokunbo Mumuni, it described the move by the police boss as a “substantial blow to the rights to peaceful protest, freedom of expression and assembly, which are guaranteed by the constitution and international treaties to which Nigeria is a state party.”

SERAP stated that any leaders genuinely concerned with the well-being of democracy in Nigeria and its people should not allow such development that would silence Nigerians from lawful protest to express their grievance.

It urged President Goodluck Jonathan “to urgently instruct Mr Mbu to rescind the ban imposed on the bring backourgirls protest and to allow the organisers to exercise their constitutional and internationally recognised human rights to freedom of expression, and assembly.”

It stated that international law allowed only narrow restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly and protest, which it said would be narrowly defined.

AREGBESOLA'S REELECTION CAMPAIGN: Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State addressing the crowd at Ikire for his reelection campaign yesterday.

NUPENG accuses govt of destabilisation plot

BY VICTORAHIUMA-YOUNG

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AGOS—NIGERIA Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, yesterday in Lagos, claimed it had uncovered plans by some agents using the name of a Federal Government agency to destabilize the union and render it powerless.

NUPENG in a statement alleged that besides using some

disgruntled former members, some of its branches were also being induced with huge sums of money, to break away and form a parallel NUPENG. The statement by its President and General Secretary, Igwe Achese and Isaac Aberare, respectively, said the union reliably gathered that clandestine meetings were held in Abuja by these government

Bribery allegation rocks Ogun LP

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

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BEOKUTA—THE crisis rocking the Labour Party, LP, in Ogun State took a messier dimension, yesterday, as a faction led by Olabode Simeon accused the other faction loyal to former governor of the state Gbenga Daniel of offering it a bribe of N16.3 million to take over the state party structure.

But in a swift reaction, state publicity secretary loyal to Daniel’s faction, Deji Kalejaiye, described the allegation of bribery as “alien, baseless and illogical to the ideals of the Labour Party.”

He said the trio of Bode Simeon,

Oginni Olaposi and Arabambi Abayomi, could not be higher than the national leadership of the party “ which severally affirmed the leadership of OGD at the inauguration of the party secretariat on May 17.”

Addressing party loyalists at the State Secretariat in Adatan, Abeokuta, a factional Chairman, Bode Simeon, alleged that the other faction had made several attempts to hijack the party from them.

He claimed the other faction had offered his camp juicy offers such as a trip to Canada and Dubai, a bribe of N16.3 m illionwhich came in foreign currency and naira.

agents with these fifth columnists with a view to sponsoring these elements to divide the rank and file of the Union for their selfish ends.

These elements, the union, gathered were being sponsored because of the 14-day ultimatum issued by the union over alleged miscarriage of justice on the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN crisis affecting NUPENG members in the downstream sector.

According to the statement “We therefore warn these individuals and their paid agents not to take the union, for a ride, as we are only fighting for justice, fair play and the right of our members. The union calls on its members to be watchful, vigilant and alert as these fifth columnists are out to cause confusion and the spirit of discord in the union, which will be forcefully resisted as they are attempting to form a parallel NUPENG. "The union warns that the Federal Government agents should stop inciting and instigating these disgruntled and frustrated elements against the decisions of the National Executive Council of NUPENG."

OAU mgt remains adamant over high fees

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

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SOGBO – MANAGEMENT of Obafemi Awolowo University OAU, Ile-Ife yesterday said it would not reverse the contentious new tuition that have pitched it against the students, saying the increase was for the school to maintain its position as the best in the country.

This came as the students insisted that most of them would not be able to pay the new fees.

Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Bamitale Omole, who spoke at a briefing, said the fees formerly paid by the students were in line with the economic realities of that time, stressing that the new fees were necessitated due to the current economic realities.

According to the new tuition, fresh students in the faculty of Law, Arts, Social Sciences, Administration and Education are to pay N61, 700 as against N5, 300 while faculties of Science, Environment Design and M a n a g e m e n t , Educational Science, Technology and Agriculture are to pay N72, 700 as against N10, 300.

Fresh students in the faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health Sciences are now to pay N75, 700 against N12, 800 paid by the students before the upward review.

Ogun moves to de-congest prisons

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

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BEOKUTA—THE Ogun State government, yesterday, said it had put in place modalities that would ensure speedy dispensation of justice towards decongesting prisons in the state.

Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Abimbola Akeredolu, who stated this in Abeokuta, noted that the state government also aimed at reducing the large number of inmates awaiting trial.

12—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

APC backs Edo Assembly’s call for reinstatement of 923 teachers

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

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ENIN—ALL Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State has supported the resolution passed by the state House of Assembly, appealing to Governor Adams Oshiomhole to pardon and reinstate the 923 teachers who were alleged to have falsified their ages among other offences.

The House had, in its resolution, urged the governor to liaise with the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, to identify those who are due for retirement so that they would be retired with their full benefits, to make room for the employment of young and qualified graduates into the teaching profession.

The House also appealed to the governor to pardon those who reduced their ages with two or three years while they are ordered to rectify their ages with a warning.

Commending the governor for his bold steps in sanitizing the state public school system, the party at its inaugural meeting headed by the state Chairman of the party, Mr. Anslem Ojezua, prayed the governor to

temper justice with mercy in the case of teachers allegedly involved in the falsification of their age declarations in their records of service.

The party, however, advised

those who “have attained retirement age to retire to create opportunities for younger qualified teachers in the service."

The party executive also

called for the training and retraining of state traffic orderlies to enable them operate with decorum and respect road users without compromising their obligations.

VISIT: Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State (left), and the Commander, Joint Task Force, J T F, Operation Pulo Shield, Maj. General Emmanuel Atewe, during a courtesy visit at Government House, Yenagoa.

Edo PDP demands panel report on infrastructures for schools

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

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ENIN—PEOPLES Democratic Party, PDP, Edo State chapter, has called on the state government to make public the findings of a panel that was set up to look into the award of contracts for supply of school desks to secondary schools in the state a few years ago.

State chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, made the appeal in Benin, yesterday, when he donated notebooks and textbooks worth millions of naira to students of Ihongbe College, in the state capital.

Orbih, who was conferred with the Nigeria Academic and Authors Award, NAAA, award in March by the association, had on the occasion promised to regularly support NAAA in providing students in Edo public schools with relevant exercise books and textbooks.

Lamenting the dearth of infrastructures in public schools in the state, he said a contract for the supply of 75,000 school desks was awarded to a furniture company by the state government at a contract sum of about N1.5 billion but the

desks have not been sighted in any school since then.

“One is forced to ask what happened to that contract. Why are the desks not in the schools?

I understand a panel was set up to find out if the contractor actually supplied the materials.

In the interest of the Edo people, government should make public the panel report on that contract.

“Government should put pol-

itics aside and address the problem facing the education sector in Edo State. Go round the secondary schools, you will see that the students don’t have chairs, desks and teachers.

“Even the schools that were renovated don’t have the necessary facilities to deliver content. Government should reduce expenses on frivolous traveling and

entertainment of guests and concentrate on the business of governance,” Orbih said.

In her remark, Principal of Ihongbe Junior Secondary School, Mrs Helen Oronsaye, praised the philanthropic gesture of Chief Orbih, noting that many students in the school were from poor families and could not afford to buy notebooks and textbooks on their own.

Rivers PDP faults Amaechi on LG caretaker c'ttees

BY GBENGA OKE

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IVERS State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has faulted Governor Rotimi Amaechi for setting up caretaker committees to man the local governments in the state.

The party also called for a probe into the activities of the former chairmen, accusing them of financial recklessness.

In a statement by the Special Adviser on Media to the state Chairman, Mr. Jerry Needam, the party described the actions of Governor Amaechi as unconstitutional.

He said: "The only rationale behind the choice of caretaker committee chairmen by Governor Amaechi is the fear of losing to the PDP if local government elections are held because the state remains dominantly a PDP state.”

He queried the essence of setting up an electoral body for the state when it cannot be allowed to perform its statutory functions, explaining that “the out-gone council chairmen ran their councils aground, but it is not enough to sack them as they

should be made to give account of how they spent the huge resources allocated to them in the last three years without any visible evidence of the investment in any of the councils.

"To prove his persistent claim of running a transparent government, the PDP therefore, wants Governor Amaechi to, as a matter of urgent public interest, initiate a probe into these allegations of misappropriation of council funds against the former council chairmen.”

Oshiomhole lauds military for defending democracy

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has commended officers and men of the Nigerian Army for defending the country's democracy as well as its territorial integrity.

He made the commendation when he received students of the Nigerian Army College of Logistics, Lagos, who visited him in Benin, Edo State.

He said: “We are happy and proud of the role of the Nigerian Armed Forces in protecting, not only the territorial integrity of the country and defending democracy, but also for playing an increasing role in terms of local security, which ordinarily is not part of the mandate of the Army.

“For this and many more, we cannot but convey through you to the military authorities, appreciation not only of the government but indeed, the people of Edo State."

Delta community assures oil firm of cordial working environment

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HE people of Ovade-Oghara in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State, have assured Pan Ocean Oil Company of cordial working environment for the company to achieve its full production capacity devoid of external interference.

Chairman of Ovade Community 19-Man Committee, Mr. Hitler Igbakpa, after a meeting with the Operations Manager of Pan Ocean Oil Corporation (Nigeria Limited) in Benin City, Edo State, applauded him for the manner in which he addressed the issues presented before him by its host community, Ovade – Oghara.

Igbakpa explained that for the first time, the meeting ended on a cordial note, adding that the committee members were particularly happy with the outcome of the meeting.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 13

GROUND BREAKING: President Goodluck Jonathan being received by Christian Association of Nigeria president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and his wife Helen, to the ground breaking ceremony of Eagle Heights Universty, Omadino, Warri, Delta State, yesterday.

From left: Executive Secretary, Christian Pilgrims Board, Mr. John Kennedy; The Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse II; CAN President, Pastor Oritsejafor; Chancellor, Eagle Heights University, Omidano, Warri Delta State and wife of CAN president, Pastor Helen Oritsejafor, at the occasion.

Photos: Abayomi Adeshida

Jonathan urges investment on youths

BY SAM EYOBOKA

W

ARRI— PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, urged Nigerians to join hands with his government and invest on the youths of the nation, saying that it was the only progressive way the country could grow.

Jonathan, in Omadino, Warri South Local Government Area, Delta State, during the ground-breaking ceremony of Eagle Heights University, promoted by the Word of Life Bible Church, said there was need to plan for the youths and impact on them knowledge-driven technology which, he noted, was vital for the progress and development of any society.

According to Jonathan, when a society cares only for the present generation without making adequate provision for the future generation, such a country was planning to fail.

Impressed by the motto of

the institution, Building and Equipping the People Who Build the Nation, the president said: “Without building people, you cannot build a nation, you cannot give what you don’t have. If we don’t put something into our children, they will have nothing to develop the country.

“If we only think about today and don’t plan for the young ones that are coming, we won’t make any headway as a nation.

The quality and welfare of the younger ones coming are what we should all invest in. We should all invest in our children and grandchildren if we really love this country. When we travel out, we admire what we see there. It was done by people who invested in their children, who have in turn developed their societies.”

The president who said his administration had recognised the need to develop Nigerian youths by establishing 14 universities across the country, commended the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN president,

Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, for his vision in building the young ones, noting that he was sharing the vision of the Federal Government, which they have been doing by assisting the states in ensuring that their citizens have basic education.

Delta State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, commended President Jonathan for his unwavering commitment to the development of the country through a well designed transformation agenda.

Thanking Pastor Oritsejafor and his wife for helping to develop the environment with

not only infrastructural development, but building men and women morally and assisting to eradicate poverty, he promised to assist the proposed institution and called on Omadino people, the host community, to keep the peace.

Earlier in his opening remarks, Pastor Oritsejafor explained that Eagle Heights University was established to be at the forefront of the academic transformation of Africa and Nigeria in particular.

Uduaghan replaces sacked him.

Burutu LG boss from Swearing in Takeme at

W

A R R I — B A R E LY one week after sacking Navy Captain Deinne Buckman as Transition Committee Chairman for Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan has sworn in Chief Julius Takeme to take over

Government House Annex, in Warri, yesterday, Governor Uduagahn, represented by his deputy, Prof.

Amos Utuama, charged him to eschew corruption and ensure that the entire Burutu area was kept clean at all times.

NDDC to launch youth empowerment initiative

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—NIGER Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is to launch the Niger Delta version of the Presidential Youth Empowerment Initiative, YOUWILL, as part of its wealth creation agenda for youths of the region.

Special Assistant to the Managing Director of NDDC on Youths, Sports, Culture and Women Affairs, Mr. George Turnah, who disclosed this at an interactive session with youth leaders in Delta State, said that under the programme, an average of 1,000 youths from the region are to benefit from direct grant to

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enable them to develop their businesses.

The interaction, according to Turnah, was part of his state-to state consultation with youth leaders in the region to set agenda for the governing board of the commission, adding that

the youths leader were drawn from Ijaw, Itsekiri, Urhobo and Ndokwa, Niger Delta Youth Movement, National Council of Women Society, student bodies and other interest groups.

Turnah told the youth leaders that top on the agenda of the governing board, led by Sir Bassey Dan-Abia, is the issue of youth development and empowerment.

Mama Teshoma, A unique mother —Ogeah

D

ELTA State Information Commissioner, Mr. Chike Ogeah, has condoled with Mr. Sam Amuka, publisher of Vanguard Newspapers, on the death of his mother, Mama Teshoma Amuka-Pemu.

Ogeah, in a statement in Asaba, yesterday, said: “On behalf of the media community in Delta State, we commiserate with Un-

cle Sam Amuka, publisher of Vanguard Newspapers, on the passing on to eternal glory of his mother, Mama Teshoma Amuka-Pemu, who answered God’s call at the ripe age of 109.

“In Uncle Sam, Mama Teshoma gave Nigeria an icon in journalism and newspaper publishing, displaying her quality as a unique mother with the

passion for raising disciplined children and nation builders.

“Mama Teshoma’s life and accomplishments are testimony to what the Nigerian society can achieve when families are built on the virtues of hard work and love for God and patriotism."

Dickson assures on human capacity index

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

ENAGOA—GOVERNOR Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, yesterday, said that his administration will continue to give attention to the educational sector, insisting that it remains the surest means of improving the human capacity development index of the state.

Dickson at a public lecture and awards ceremony to mark the birthday of a former Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Steve Azaiki in Yenagoa, said he will further promote learning and the development of the educational sector in the state.

The governor, who was full of gratitude to the celebrant for supporting the state government, especially in the area of education, commended the establishment of the Azaiki Institute of Science and Technology and pledged government’s willingness to partner and support the institute in achieving its set objectives.

Dickson, who was taken on a guided tour of the Azaiki Public Library on Imgbi Road in Yenagoa, praised the former SSG for pioneering a new dawn and setting the pace for others to follow, describing the edifice and the occasion as a lesson in service.

14—Vanguard, WEDNEESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

'APC leaders'll soon join the PDP'

BY HENRY UMORU

A

BUJA — NATION AL leadership of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, boasted, yesterday, that with former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani- Kayode, dumping the All Progressives Congress, APC, and returning to its fold, it has been vindicated of its allegation that the opposition party remained bloodthirsty, religious and ethnic bigots averse to the country's unity.

PDP in a statement by National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said a lot of reasonable and respectable Nigerians still in APC would soon join its fold, contending that they had now discovered that the agenda of the APC was to promote violence and personal agenda of a few.

The party said it remained committed to national interest as its doors were wide open to all wellmeaning Nigerians, irrespective of religious, tribal, ethnic or regional affilia

Clark writes Adoke, says he's misadvising Jonathan on state of emergency, corruption

BY HENRY UMORU

A

BUJA — FORMER Fed eral Commissioner for Information and South South Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, said, yesterday, that after a thorough X-ray of the activities and actions of Attorney- General and Minister of Justice, Alhaji Mohammed Bello Adoke since he came on board, he has come to a conclusion that the Minister has failed President Goodluck Jonathan and Nigerians in all ramifications.

Addressing journalists, yesterday, at his Asokoro residence, Abuja, the South South leader accused Adoke of misadvising President Jonathan, especially on the declaration of state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

He stressed that the Minister also failed to advise the President correctly in his fight against corruption, adding that he had not done well in cases of corruption pending before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission where people are charged for corruption and cas-

es linger for a period of five to six years with no result.

Chief Clark in his 16-page letter to the Minister of Justice, entitled, “An open letter by Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark OFR, CON to the Federal Attorney- General and Minister of Justice, Alhaji Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, for misadvising Mr. President on the declaration of a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states,” reiterated his call for suspension of all democratic structures in these states.

He added that the President had the right to impose a full state of emergency in these states as it were in the past when former President Olusegun Obasanjo declared full state of emergency in Plateau State, 18th May, 2004 and in Ekiti State, 19th October, 2006, but failure on the part of the President to repeat same in these volatile states, shows that "the Minister is misadvising the President and has disappointed Nigerians."

According to him, the first state of emergency in Nigeria

was in 1962 when the Premier of the Western region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola was suspended from office and Chief Adegbenro was appointed to take over and with this, the then Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa called for a special session of the Federal Parliament in Lagos on 29th May, 1962 where a motion for a state of emergency was tabled.

The elder statesman said: “I affirm that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides for democratic structures.

It is based on this law as enshrined in the Constitution that individuals hold their offices.

This Constitution equally gives the President of the country undefined spectrum of inherent powers which he can exercise if and when such action is in public interest.

"However, in order to forestal any arbitrary use of such powers, the National Assembly is empowered to act as a check.

“For emphasis, a state of emergency is a governmental declaration that announces that the

Anambra awards N2bn road contract in Ogbunike

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

A

WKA — ANAMBRA State government has awarded contracts worth about N2 billion on roads in Ogbunike community in Oyi local government area that hosts the famous Ogbunike Cave, one of the largest tourist centres in the country.

The government also said there were plans to transform the cave into a world class tourist attraction, adding that feasibility studies for the proposed project were under way.

Governor Willie Obiano gave the cheering news at a thanksgiving service organised by Ogbunike Catholic community in honour of the governor and his wife, Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano, at St. Vincent’s Catholic Church, Ogbunike.

Obiano said the state government had already advertised for competent professionals to handle the feasibility study and explained that the tourist centre would have all the necessary facilities that would promote the cave and its environs as a tourist centre.

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CONFERENCE: From left, Branch Manager, FCMB, Lekki-Chevron, Mr. Anthony Nwobodo; Zonal Head, FCMB, Lekki, Mrs. Violet Odu, and Dean, Lagos Business School, LBS, Dr. Enase Okonedo, at the Second LBS Africa Business Conference, organised by the school in partnership with FCMB, in Lagos.

FCDA begins demolition of 260 houses for golf course

BY CALEB AYANSINA

A

BUJA — THE Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, has commenced demolition of about 260 houses in an estate in Abuja, saying they encroached on green area.

Vanguard gathered that the demolition began yesterday morning when the occupants of the estate known as Saraha Homes Estate, Life Camp Extension, Kafe District, Abuja, had all left home for work and school.

The demolition, it was gathered, came despite a court order secured by the Incorporated Trustees of Saraha Homes Landlords Association Life Camp Extension

Abuja, from the High Court in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, restraining FCTA from carrying out the demolition.

Speaking to newsmen during the demolition, Chairman of the Association, Fred Ohwahwa, said the place was allocated during El-Rufai’s administration before it was reallocated to another person to build a golf course in 2012 by the present administration.

Describing the demolition as evil, Ohwahwa said the action of the FCT Authority negated the principle of continuity in government policy, adding that public interest was not considered in the process.

“They are not doing it (demolition) because of national or public interests, but because it is allocated to somebody,” he said.

The chairman said when they enquired from the leader of the team the reason for the demolition, despite a court injunction against government, “he said it is the order from the above.”

Counsel to the association, Chris Uche, SAN, told newsmen that the demolition was carried out against a court order, explained that Justice Y. Halilu of the FCT High Court had ordered the parties involved to maintain the statusquo, pending the hearing and determination of the matter.

country is in a state of emergency. It allows the suspension of and/ or change to some functions of the executive, the legislative and or the judiciary during this period of time.

"It alerts citizens to change their normal behaviour and orders government agencies to implement emergency plans.

“A government can declare a state of emergency during a period of civil unrest, or following a declaration of war or situation of international/internal armed conflict, among others.

"A state of emergency is invoked in an extra-ordinary situation which requires extra-ordinary measures. The extra-ordinary measures arising as a result of the state of emergency declared can also affect those rights and freedoms which are guaranteed under the Constitution.

“There is no doubt that my call for a full emergency rule has become necessary considering the present situation. It is sad to note that some public officers appointed by Mr. President have negated their duties and are not interested in replying or confronting the insults and abuses poured on Mr. President because most of them regard themselves as technocrats and not ready to offend any of his political opponents.

"The foul and seditious language used by the Governor of Adamawa State, Admiral Nyako, are most unfortunate, perfidious and as such ought to be addressed appropriately.

“Emergency rule is legal, constitutional and procedural, and remains the panacea to peace, development and national rebirth, not adhering to it, is courting anarchy. The President needs to suspend the affected states’ political structures because the roles of these governors have revealed them as conspirators who are hiding under the guise of opposition, to foster their political nests and display their politics of bitterness, hatred, ethnicity and religion to disparage him and scuttle Jonathan's constitutional right to seek a second term as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution. “ Mr. Attorney General even if you believe that your interpretation of section 305 (3) is the correct interpretation, you know full well that Mr. President in exercise of his inherent powers, can use other extra-ordinary measures to bring the insurgency to an end, and the doctrine of necessity is definitely one of the extra-ordinary measures and you may wish to read my submission.

"These facts as Attorney General and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria are well known to you as alternative measures available to Mr. President to crush the insurgents, but for reasons best known to you, you failed to advise him to take the bull by the horn."

“DOCTRINE OF NECESSITY:

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY,JUNE 4, 2014—15

Minority leadership: PDP Reps' plot to change composition thickens ... As House demands further extension of voters’ registration the Minority Whip, while the position of Deputy Minority Whip may be zoned to the East.

The whole drama started when Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Leo Ogor, PDP, Delta, apparently on a revenge mission, in a motion, moved under matters of privilege, argued that it was not in order for the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, to take all the slots in the minority leadership of the House.

Rule 31 of the House simply states that ”minority leadership: Members of the minority parties in the House shall nominate from among them, the minority leader, minority whip, deputy minority

Ogor explained that “it is the minority parties that is indicated, not only APC, please note the word BUJA — INDICATIONS parties.” that the present Minority This development did not go leadership of the House of Repredown well with some APC memsentatives may not survive the next bers who tried to stop Ogor, but he one month emerged, yesterday, as continued driving his point to a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, logical conclusion. lawmakers moved to change the When given the floor, members present composition of the House of other minority parties agreed This came as the House, yesterwith Ogor’s submissions, though day, mandated its Committee on Femi Gbajabiamila’s attempt to Independent National Electoral puncture Ogor’s position fell like Commission, INEC, to interface a pack of cards as PDP members with the commission on extension shouted him down. of current voters’ registration.

On her part, Abiola Ajaja of AcVanguard also reliably gathered cord Party, said it was only fair for that the position of Minority Leadother minority parties to have a er may go to the north or that of share in the leadership of the House.

She explained that “the minority leadership has not been carrying us along, so we want a fair share of the leadership within the camp of the minority.

Uche Ekwunife (APGA, Anambra) insisted that the minority parties, which includes her own party; the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, had not met to nominate anybody into any of its leadership positions.

“All the positions have been occupied by only APC members without representation from APGA, AcCEREMONY: From left, Mr. Babatunde Osho,Chief Enterprise Solution Officer, MTN; Mrs. Risikat cord and Labour parties Akiyode,Permannet Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation; Mrs. Amina Oyagbola,Human which all make the oppoResources Executive, MTN, and Engr. Olawumi Gasper, Executive Secretary, Lagos State Technical and Vocational sition parties that the House Education Board, during the opening ceremony of MTN 21 days of Yello Care entitled, 'Education In The Digital rules require to nominate members to fill the posiWorld,' in Lagos.Photo: Akeem Salau tions,” she said.

Vanguard investigations, however, revealed that there was a grand design to change the entire minorBY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

A

whip and deputy minority leader.

Besides the APC, other opposition parties that still have members in the House are the Accord Party, All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA and the Labour Party.

According to Ogor, item 31 of the House’s rules provided that members of the minority parties nominate among themselves; the Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip, but that since the defunct of ACN, ANPP and the CPC had merged to form the APC, it was expected that the minority parties act in line with the rules of the House.

Senate votes on proposed constitution amendments today

...Confirms CBN Monetary Policy, NPC members

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU

A

BUJA — THE Senate will today con clude voting on remaining aspects of the proposed amendments of the 1999 constitution, which includes the controversial conduct of elections in one day.

Voting on some aspects of the proposed constitution amendment which started

about two months ago, was suspended, following the controversy generated by some aspects of the proposed amendments during debate at plenary.

One of the controversial issues was the inclusion of the President in initiating constitution amendment which was later withdrawn by the Constitution Amendment Review Committee, led by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

Specifically, the proposed amendment, which was expunged, had sought to amend Section 3 (b) of Clause 2 of the constitution which deals with how a new constitution can be processed.

In what was described as a somersault over the proposed inclusion of the President in initiating the process of constitution amendment, after the proposal received public bashing, Senator Ekweremadu, in his bid to justify the inclusion,

had stated: “You will recall that Section 9 of the first Alteration Bill provided for how a new constitution can come into being through the National Assembly.

“The aim of this insertion is to make provision for the President in addition to the National Assembly to initiate the process of a new constitution.”

But at the Senate sitting yesterday, Ekweremadu, who presided over the later aspect of the plenary, announced to the senators that the Senate would today vote on the other constitution amendments proposals yet to be considered.

He advised the senators to endeavor to attend the plenary, so they could form the required numbers to consider and vote for the remaining aspect of the proposed amendment.

ity leadership of the House as it was currently tilted towards only APC lawmakers.

Of the four leadership positions only APC members occupy them all.

A source close to the House leadership told Vanguard that “before now, what was obtainable was that ACN produced the minority leader, while ANPP produced the deputy minority leader.

Asked whether the House leadership will not back pedal,he simply said, ”we’ve gone beyond that level of back pedaling."

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to interface with the apex electoral body on the possibility of extending the on-going voters registration in the country.

This was sequel to a motion brought to the floor of the House under matters of national importance by Hassan Saleh, PDP, Benue.

Saleh in his submission had argued that INEC recently requested that all registered voters go to their registration units to collect their permanent cards during the exercise, adding that a lot of eligible voters came out en-mass to fulfill their civil responsibility, whereas enough funds were not appropriated to carry out a comprehensive registration of all eligible voters by the commission.

My rift with Obasanjo's over – Atiku

BY HENRY UMORU

A

BUJA — FORMER Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, said yesterday that the rift between him and his ex-boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, was over, stressing that he harboured no hatred or enmity against him.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja when he hosted leaders of the Northern Youth Leaders Forum, led

by Comrade Eliot Afiyo, a group that recently embarked on a mission to heal the wounds between the former President and his deputy, Atiku said he had forgiven his former boss.

Abubakar said: “I don’t harbor any grudge against

my former boss. Yes, we had disagreements in office.

“These were mere disagreements. I harbor no hatred or enmity against him or anybody. I never had anything against him and I will never have.”

The former Vice President, who explained that in politics he had opponents and not enemies, said “politics is not war.”

Atiku thanked the group for successfully brokering peace between him and President Obasanjo, adding that this single effort had marked the leaders of the youth organisation as serious-minded people who were fully prepared to take over the leadership of the country from their seniors.

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014— 16

Sultan mediates Kano Gov, Ado Bayero's rift

BY ABDULSALAM

MUHAMMAD

K

ANO—THE Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III has intervened in the crisis between the Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso and the octogenarian emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero over the installation of a radical Islamic cleric as Wazirin Kano by the latter.

Bayero had last Friday in a brief but colourful ceremony turbaned the Chief Imam of Waje Central Mosque, Dr. Mohammad Nasir Mohammad as the new Wazirin Kano following the vacuum created by the death of the Alhaji Isa Waziri last year.

Vanguard investigations revealed that Kwankwaso had kicked against the appointment in response to a notice by the Emirate Council of the intended action following allegations of “impropriety against the new occupant.”

The sources claimed that,

“despite serious opposition by the government to the appointment of the cleric, the Emirate Council went ahead with the turbaning ceremony as planned. The state Deputy Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje who was at the palace during the brief ceremony held a meeting with a senior councillor in the emirate and Wamban Kano in his official car for 20 minutes.

Ganduje was said to have used the opportunity of the meeting to register government’s opposition to Mohammad’s appointment.’’

Government House sources also confirmed that, “a strongly worded letter where the government sought clarification for the emir’s action as well as the reversal of the appointment was delivered to the emirate council same day.’’

However, the heat generated by the controversial installation of Dr. Mohammad attracted the intervention of the

Sokoto Caliphate whose political head, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III dispatched his emissary to Kano.

Vanguard leant that the grand son of the late Sardauna of Sokoto and the Magajin Garin Sokoto, Alhaji Hassan Dan’Baba, was dispatched by the Sultan to mediate between both parties and come up with acceptable position to them.

Dan'Baba was said to have cut a deal between the feuding leaders which led to the emergency meeting of Kano Emirate Council on Monday and the unanimous decision to reverse the controversial appointment.

The Emirate Council was said to have appointed the late son of Waziri Gidado , Alhaji Sa’ad Magatakarda as the substitutive Wazirin Kano in place of the sacked Waziri.

But in a swift reaction, Dr. Mohammad said that he would rather die than leave the position.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 17

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18— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 LIBYA has a more dangerous transition phase that is easily overlooked. Muammar Gaddafi’s death 30 months ago has left a country in more turmoil than most opponents of Gaddafi expected.

Investments in ending Gaddafi’s 42 years in power, left little thought about how to run a country where less than five per cent of the population knew King Idris, the man Gaddafi overthrew in 1969.

Which country runs with more than 1,700 armed groups? The 1,700 armed militias, all claim entitlement, having fought to end Gaddafi’s regime? Attempts to disarm them have failed. They are the law; they are the ones offering protection to everyone, at a price.

The more powerful ones insist their role in the eight-month war that wrestled power from Gaddafi entitles them to direct participation in decisions about Libya.

Libya’s Guns For All Criminal gangs have spawned.

The power of the gun is a threat to democratic rule everywhere. It is worse in places like Libya, where they have faint assumptions about democracy. Politicians are drawing support from militias, ironically Libya’s only effective police force.

Libyan and United States authorities cannot find killers of US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, who was finished off last year inside the US embassy. The risks of annoying the militias are too high. In April last year, about 200 militias heavily armed with anti-aircraft weapons, surrounded the Foreign Ministry building.

They wanted officials who served under Gaddafi out of leadership positions. Another group surrounded the Ministry of Justice making the same demand. The siege lasted two weeks and the militias won.

Libya’s fledging parliament passed the law banning officials who served under Gaddafi from leadership. The law is not only discriminatory, one of the major charges against the Gaddafi regime, but it gave no thought to its impact on Libya.

Only the few who were in exile under Gaddafi did not serve in his government. Where else would Libyans in Libya have worked in

Gaddafi’s 42 years? Where would the militias find experienced Libyans to manage the affairs of their country?

Libya presents a fuller picture of the evils dictators deposit on departure. Yet the likes of Robert Gabriel Mugabe, at 90, and 34 years in power, are destroying their countries with unbridled enthusiasm.

Multiple conflicts almost in every country in our northern flank – Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Niger – mostly consequences of bad governments, are fertile grounds for arms trades that hurt Nigeria. As some groups are defeated, they dissolve into mercenaries willing to fight any war for cash. Dangers Libyan militias pose spread beyond Libya.

Terrorists in Nigeria’s North East, use arms that have been traced to Libya. The peace we seek is outside our borders.

OPINION

BY JOSEPH OKON

O

RDINARILY, the recent Bill on Amendment of Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law passed by Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly which received Governor Godswill Akpabio’s assent ought not to have hugged the headlines or even attract the media umbrage if the action was taken in another state other than Akwa Ibom. We say this taking into cognisance that similar laws have been passed by other states’ legislatures in the country, yet they did not attract media hysteria and opprobrium that the one done in Akwa Ibom is currently eliciting.

It is worth pointing out that those criticising the amended law should do so from a position of knowledge and not from the point of ignorance of the facts as contained in the law.

For the avoidance of doubts, the law is not meant to enrich any former governor or deputy governor as being insinuated by a section of the media. It is common knowledge that the media hoopla that greeted the amended pension law stemmed from misunderstanding of the facts on ground and further amplified by the virulent opposition in the state that does not see anything good in Akpabio’s administration. In fact, the drama over the pension law cannot be divorced from the 2015 politics in the state.

It will be recalled that since his assumption of office as the executive governor seven years ago, Chief Godswill Akpabio has run a highly focused and people-oriented administration. No doubt, Akwa Ibom under the able leadership of Akpabio has witnessed uncommon infrastructural transformation never seen before in the state and even in the country. For instance, Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital and other C M Y K

Before Akpabio is crucified towns in the state have been transformed with modern well-paved roads. The education and health sectors have been revolutionised with state-of-the-art equipment and infrastructure.

Health and education are virtually free in Akwa Ibom. Even non-indigenes also enjoy these facilities without discrimination. Many Akwa Ibom citizens are doing their postgraduate studies in Ivy League universities in Europe and America under the state scholarship scheme.

Under Akpabio’s exemplary leadership, the state has become a major tourist destination. Uyo is now host to most local and international events by both private and public agencies and institutions. The Uyo Airport has witnessed much traffic as a result of influx of visitors to the state.

In acknowledgement of Akpabio’s achievements in office, he has been decorated with several awards both in Nigeria and outside the country. Prominent Nigerians and the media have individually and collectively concurred that Akpabio is a great achiever. These awards are already in the public domain that there is no need here to start naming them. Moreover space constraint will not even permit itemisation of such numerous awards.

It is, therefore, unfortunate that the amended pension law in the state has been largely misunderstood and even misinterpreted. The law as explained by the Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Sam Ikon, is not a new law. The law was first enacted in 2000 by former governor, Obong Victor Attah, and was later amended by the same administration in 2006. Ikon also explained that the latest

amendment to the law was due to a lacuna in the old law which was open-ended on several provisions particularly medical expenses for former governors and deputy governors. As a result of this lacuna, Ikon continues, the House decided to put a ceiling to the medical expenses of the affected political office holders. The Speaker further observed that experience showed that former governors and deputy governors could expend several hundreds of millions of naira on medical bills without infringing on the provisions of the law hence the amendment.

With the latest amendment, an expenditure ceiling of N100 million for medical treatment for former governors and N50 million for former deputy governors has been put in place. Ikon explained that the money can only be paid directly to the health institutions involved in the medicare of the respective persons and are not accessed by or paid to former governors or former deputy governors directly as being bandied in the media. If a governor or a deputy governor is not ill, this law cannot be activated and the money cannot be spent. In order words, the medical allowance cannot be paid to the governors or the deputy governors. The allotted medicalexpenditure is like a health insurance cover that only the healthcare provider can be paid from.

The only innovation in the new law, according to the Speaker, is that N1 million is provided in the law as monthly medical allowance for surviving spouses of former governors. Besides, the law provides that a former governor should be entitled to at least

one unit of a five-bedroom house in Uyo or Abuja and 300 percent annual basic salary as rent for former deputy governor in addition to salaries and allowances for their personal aides. The law also states that former governors can get 300 percent of the basic salary of incumbent governor for yearly maintenance and fuel allowance as stipulated by the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Commission, RMFAC. With these explanations from the Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, it is obvious that Akwa Ibom State has not done what other states in the federation have not done in respect of pension for ex-governors and deputy governors and stipulated aides.

The only difference is that Akwa Ibom was ab initio very much misunderstood, misinterpreted and sensationalised.

Indeed, what the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has done is not different from what Rivers State House of Assembly did in 2012 under the watch of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. The new pension law which intends to streamline existing one and close the gap for siphoning of state funds should be commended and not vilified. This amendment does not call for the bashing and pillorying of the governor or members of the State House of Assembly for doing what is right by putting a ceiling to what has been a drain pipe for public funds. Before Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio is crucified for no just cause, let the pension law of all states in the country as relates to the governors and deputy governors be made public for a detailed comparative analysis.

As members of the fourth estate of the realm, journalists should always verify their facts before publishing. *Mr. Okon, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014— —19

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What are these individuals doing about the knowledge or the intelligence in their possession; why have they not gone to claim the multimillion naira promised anyone with information on the insurgents?

Jonathan knows Shekau’s informants HE Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, only days ago told the world, including the insurgents that have made life impossible for his Commander-in-Chief, Goodluck Jonathan, that the military now knows where the school girls abducted from Chibok about 50 days ago are being held.

And I say in response to that, that President Jonathan now knows the informants of Abubakar Shekau and his infernal armies. At least he can no longer claim to be totally in the dark about the real identity of these individuals or groups without looking foolishly casual about the safety of Nigerians. It is indeed up to him if he chooses to pass up the opportunity to act for once as far as this issue of insurgency is concerned in the manner appropriate for a responsible Commander-in-Chief.

In closing my piece here last week, I had asked what President Jonathan was doing about the enemies in his own government and others who through overt and covert activities have been working to ensure the insurgent beasts in the Northern part of this country keep at least one step ahead of the security agents and

the military on their trail. It didn’t look like the security agencies, much less the President, were doing anything about them. But any right thinking person could see from the increased activities of the insurgents; tell from the precision of their attacks for which the government has no meaningful answer that the killer groups have many people working for them. Who these people are is the simple mystery the Jonathan government is yet to solve. In light of Badeh’s astounding remark my exact words from last week deserve to be quoted at some length: ‘’President Jonathan may be averse to going to Chibok, he may be wary of coming face to face with poorly resourced, mutinous soldiers that take arm at their commander- he may not see any reason in his going to Sambisa forest. But what has he done with those directly under his nose in Abuja or in Borno and environs?

Has he taken his eyes off these people believing they are not capable of the mischief they’ve been linked with? With bombs going off in built-up areas under curfew and emergency rule, is it not reasonable to imagine that the

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insurgents or their supporters are right in our midst, living in our neighbourhoods, worshipping in the same places and going to the same markets as the rest of us? Are we to accept that those who killed hundreds of Nigerians, now turned mere statistics, in the market in Jos came straight from Sambisa forest; that the killers that operated in Sabon-Gari, Kano, rode on a bike from Chad or Cameroon? What is Jonathan doing about these people right in our midst? Or is he waiting for his foreign supporters to look for them or leave before he starts asking these questions, in case he remembers at all?

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hile our military complain of inadequate resources, their commanders draw up a list of unattended grievances, the insurgents increase in strength.

What is Jonathan doing about the enemies within?’’

There you have it. The President had once claimed in helpless resignation that his government had been infiltrated by sympathisers of the insurgents

Deriv ation: Ho w Nor th bullied Derivation: How North South tto o submission Y

OU have to hand it to the North.

Knowing the extent of the Niger Delta's sense of injustice through the unconscionable expropriation of its nature-given oil and gas wealth, and knowing that just nine years ago the South-South delegates to General Obasanjo's constitutional conference walked out of proceedings rather than accept a derivation formula of less than 25%, the Northern delegates to President Jonathan's National Conference insisted on not only reducing the laughable 13% already entrenched in the 1999 military constitution to 5% (that's right, FIVE percent) but also on wiping out any other grudging concession.

Mounted atop the high horse of power they know how to ride so well, they presented their Southern counterparts a choice: accept 5 % or accept a reinstatement of the onshore-offshore dichotomy in the calibration of oil output,give up the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, and the amnesty programme.

It was yet another brazen act of political arrogance writ large. So when I saw the headline: "Why we agreed to retain 13% derivation," attributed to Obong Victor Attah, a resource control stalwart and cochairman of the devolution of powers committee at the conference, I read it attentively. Only to be deeply disappointed.

The great capitulationwas done, says Attah,in order "to ensure that certain things were protected within the entity called Nigeria and to guard against what may lead to secession or further inflict wounds against the backdrop that the country was, at the moment, facing security challenges."Attah tries to make us believe that the South's delegates won a tremendous victory in the face of the North's deliberate provocation. All it could do "was C M Y K

more or less . . . to accept 13%." For, you see, they had to "Look at it from the angle of destabilizing the polity."

Who knew that a proper derivation formula can lead to insecurity, or inflict wounds of any sort? Let's face it: What the North did, and has consistently done ever since it discovered that it was easier to wait for federal allocations from the proceeds of oil and gas than develop a local productive economy was to dare the South. It is as if a tenant were to threaten to withhold part of her rent, or to unilaterally reduce the sum payable, unless the landlord gave up the renovations, new building under construction, or even, damn it, his lavish lifestyle.

By a wide margin, only three issues were seen to constitute the agenda of the National Conference: fiscal federalism, devolution of powers, and the geo-political restructuring of Nigeria: their resolution would lead to the proper determination of the myriad of other problems that plague the nation and constitute the so-called "national question."

They form the blueprint of afederal system of government. And I think the time has come to return the North's stare and demand a clear answer to the question whether or not it wants one Nigeria, a free and fair federal republic (and we must emphasise the republican character given the Shari'a and MaitatsineBoko Haram debacle). The "North," it must be remembered, was dragged into Nigeria screaming and kicking. Its disdain for Nigeria has been evident right from when Sir Ahmadu Bello would not deign to come down south to Lagos, the capital of the newly independent nation.It seems Bello's political children now see what he famously called "the mistake of 1914" as not merelyLugard's amalgamation but also their failure to stay

out of Nigeria.

This is how Bello explains the feeling, just before independence,in h i s autobiography: "Lord Lugard and h i s Amalgamation were far from popular amongst us at the time. There were agitations in favour of secession; we should set up on our own; we

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fighting his administration. It didn’t look then like he had any concrete idea of who these moles might be or if he did, what his own response should be. The President should now be experiencing his own satori for in a clear case of Freudian slip or, even, chutzpah people are of their own will saying things to show on whose side they are in the fight against mindless terror. They might be daring the President to act if he can. But will he?

Or should we be charitable and put Badeh’s statement as were others in similar vein by highly placed persons in government down to inexperience in security matters? Are we to conclude that the topmost military man in the government of President Jonathan has no idea of what should or should not be said on security issues? Before him Kashim Shettima, governor of the insurgent-ravaged Borno State had made exactly the same claim as Badeh about knowing where the school girls are being held.

The question then to ask is: What are these individuals doing about the knowledge or the intelligence in their possession; why have they not gone to claim the foolishly irresponsible multimillion naira prize the Nigeria Police promised anyone with information on the insurgents?

If the insurgents have many informants, who are those gathering intelligence for government? What’s their role in this fight? If Shettima’s blather could be excused on ground of inexperience on military or security issues (a clear failing for a so-called chief security officer of a state as our governors are proclaimed here!), should we also ascribe Badeh’s comment to inexperience? What about Chris Olukolade’s repeat and support of Badeh’s claim?

When Jonathan goes weak at the knees on the idea of visiting Chibok and we put it down to his

We must ask the South what price it is prepared to pay for the perpetuation of a false and manifestly oppressive federation for its continued emasculation?

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should cease to have anything more to do with the Southern people; we should take our own way." If I'm right, then that makes two mistakes for which the North insists on exacting the price of fiscal unitarism. Through its manipulation and control of political power, its deep understanding of the psychology of power, and mastery of the power game dating back to the Sokoto caliphate, the North will take one Nigeria only on its own terms.

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hus, with every effort at renegotiating Nigeria, we move farther and farther from the goal of fiscal autonomy. In the period of regional government from 19571960, there was never a doubt that the regions owned what was produced or "derived" from their land. With independence came the

inexperience in military matters as if he was being called upon to join our ground troops in their operations, what should one make of his attempt to be compared to Barack Obama as government adverts try to do?

Obama made his fourth trip to see US troops in Afghanistan days ago.

Was that because he trained as a soldier?

It has never ceased to astound me how highly placed government officials and their spokespersons would go on air providing blow by blow accounts of sensitive military or police operations in an obvious bid to impress ordinary Nigerians.

They provide forensic evidence on media, including details of phone logs from telecom companies in explaining how criminal gangs or kidnappers were busted! Is it any surprise that some of these companies have been soft targets of these outlaw elements? Does a professional military or constabulary behave like this?

Just hours before he retired into the secret location where he with others monitored American seals’ operation that killed Osama Bin Ladin, Barack Obama was at a dinner with the press. He didn’t give the slightest hint of the operation in the offing. The world only knew of it but after Bin Ladin had been killed and buried at an undisclosed location at sea. To this day and in spite of claims and counter-claims by one or two persons claiming to have fired the shot that took out Osama, there has not been a single official statement

by Pentagon or any state official on the controversy beyond Obama’s initial broadcast to the world. Some reports even have it that Obama himself does not know who fired the killer shot. That was how secret the operation was.

need to cede substantial rights to the centre in a bid to nurture the infant nation, however conceived, into a functional political entity.

Unfortunately, by this time oil had been discovered, leading to the death of fiscal reason.

Yet even then the framers of the Independence Constitution had not completely lost their heads and reserved for each region 50% of the proceeds of royalties for any minerals "extracted in that Region" or for any mining rents "derived . . . from within that Region." But they betrayed the dubiousness that had crept into our political thinking in the definition subsection: "In this section, 'minerals' include mineral oil." Dubious because no other mineral is mentioned in the entire section, making it odd to define a plural term as including only one thing. But it is to their credit that they made it clear "the continental shelf of aRegion shall be deemed to be part of that Region."

And we must ask the South what price it is prepared to pay for the perpetuation of a false and manifestly oppressive federation, for its continued emasculation. By present indication, 87% of revenue derived from its region, any region-never mind that washwater of secession and national security. A hater of hats, I would borrow President Jonathan's whose National Conference has unveiled yet again the South's susceptibility to blackmail and doff it to the Northern ruling class!

20 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Is #BringBackOurGirls being politicised?

Even refugee children say: #BRINGBACKOURGIRLS

BY SAM

EYOBOKA

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HEY are currently living in forced exile as displaced victims of war and other violent crises. But this has not stopped about 80 children of refugees from different African countries from identifying with the global outrage over the abduction of over 270 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State. In fact, they had *The refugee children displaying placards in support of the #BRINGBACKOURused the last GIRLS campaign Children Day celebration to call for the immediate release of sented by Ms Ngozi Ukaegbu, said ing, metal fabrication, welding the kidnapped school girls who the commission was aware of the and carpentry. According to have been in captivity since April plight of migrants and would enher, graduates, school certifi14. deavour to assist them. cate holders or even those The children made their Nikki Laoye, a humanitarian who who are not educated are al#BRINGBACKOURGIRLS plea works with the physically challenged lowed to learn the trade which in a drama presentation at a get children, explained that it was a deis free of charge. together organised by the South lightful “opportunity for me to add “We use any language to West Zone of the National Commy quota to improving the life of learn. If you fail to occupy your mission for Refugees, Migrants people. The people need emotional self with self employment, it and Internally-Displaced Percounselling because they left their leads to insecurity in the counsons, NCFRMI, in Lagos to comcountries. You want to ensure that try such as kidnapping, Boko memorate this year ’s Children’s they are in the right frame of mind Haram, robbery. That is the Day celebration. because they are in another councause because people are not The children also rendered try.” doing anything. People have songs, carrying placards of variAccording to her, the major chalto learn a trade to keep themous inscriptions: “No retreat, No lenge is to deepen her understandselves gainfully employed.

Surrender until we get our girls ing and know how to deal with their With that you make money for back to school”; “United we problems. “I have to do a research yourself, family, employ your colleagues and contribute to No retreat, no surrender until we get our national economy.

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girls back to school; united we stand, divided we fall; they prayed and called for the immediate release of the Chibok schoolgirls

stand, Divided we fall”, denouncing the abduction of the children. They prayed and called for the immediate release of the Chibok schoolgirls.

Parents of the children who are refugees from several African countries reiterated their appeal to the Federal Government to assist them integrate into the Nigerian society. Speaking at a town hall meeting organised by the South West Zone of NCFRMI, Mrs. Hadiza Sani-Kangiwa, the Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of NCFRMI, advised refugees in Nigeria to be law abiding.

Sani-Kangiwa, who was repreC M Y K

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on dealing with the plight of refugees in Nigeria, especially those in the South West. The parents need job, school for children. Language education because some of them do not understand English, culture and value. Also we also need to train them on skill acquisition,” Laoye stated.

On the security challenge in the country, Laoye called on all Nigerians to join hands to fight against insecurity to save the lives of citizens.

Director of Job Creation at the Ministry of Special Duties, Mrs. Bisi Onayemi, said the ministry has established skill acquisition centres where people can learn various trades like, fashion designing, cater-

National economy “With such efforts, the country would develop both socially and economically and the level of insecurity will reduce.

This will prevent robbery in the country. The initiation started about 10 years ago.

There is the Women Affair Department which has 18 skill acquisition centres in Lagos.

From each acquisition centre, we have been training over 1,000 persons yearly,” she enumerated.

She therefore appealed to the refugees to avail themselves of such opportunities to learn trades that will better their lives and to establish

BY EBELE ORAKPO "IT's going to two months and the government has not found the abducted Chibok girls. In saner climes, President Jonathan would have resigned.

He simply cannot do the job of governing us," said Lucky, a commuter in the CMS-bound bus.

"Resign in Africa? If you were the one would you resign? In fact, even if you are willing to resign, your family and relations will curse you and many will see you as a big fool," said Gbenga.

"Jonathan's supporters just support him blindly.

It's pitiable! For crying out loud, there is no leader on the surface of the earth that is not criticised, so why must GEJ's be different? Let him just bring back our girls," said Lucky.

"I am getting tired of the whole thing. There's so much politics surrounding the abduction of the girls," said Angela.

Asked Lucky: "What do you mean? So you don't believe that the girls are missing? That's so sad!"

"Please get me right. I did not say they are not missing. I am simply saying that it has been politicised. Politicians are using it to score cheap political points which I think no rational human being should do. For God's sake, lives are involved here," said Angela, exasperated.

"Then bring them back. That is all we are asking," insisted Lucky.

"You know what annoys me? We are all talks and no action. If we mean business, why can't we mobilise and march to Sambisa forest and chase those idiots out? We will not try it because we no get liver," said Gbenga.

"So what are the soldiers and Police paid to do?

It's their job," retorted Lucky.

"Then we should shut up and allow them do their job. If you feel they are not doing it well, suggest alternatives please," said Angela.

"Senator Babafemi Ojodu says he is going to lead senators to back the protesters because the police banned protests in Abuja. That is a good move but they are needed in Borno and not in Abuja; so he should lead them to Borno State," said Mercy.

"But why would the Police ban legitimate protests? The government needs to be pushed to sit up," said Lucky.

Replied Gbenga: "Because it's dangerous. Even a goat will see that small gatherings are targets of the Boko guys now. We are not just securityconscious. What if they are bombed? What if Boko Haram guys hijack the protests? They should take all these into consideration.

"When 9/11 happened in the US, did the Democrats blame the Republicans? Didn't all Americans rally round and fought a common enemy?

What are we talking about? Let's come together and proffer solutions," said Angela.

Said Mercy: "Come to think of it, isn't it funny that some people are crying more than the bereaved? Is it not expected that women in the North-East and North-Central should have been leading these protests but it's like they have accepted it as their fate. At least if a woman is accused of killing her husband and she is seen going about her normal business, people will believe that she killed the man. So, to be on the safe side, even if she did not feel like crying, she should endeavour to shed some tears, even if it's crocodile tears, so that people will begin to doubt her detractors. You know some people find it difficult to shed tears even though they are grieving."

"But these are poor helpless women who cannot reach those in authority," argued Lucky.

"Don't they have village heads, local government chairmen and co? They can protest at that level while the big guys protest in the cities. That's my opinion anyway," said Mercy.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 21

Financial experts advise new CBN gov on economic stability

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ome financial experts have urged the new Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, to work out strategies, aimed at promoting lending to the real sector. Some of the financial experts told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the new CBN governor should pursue and consolidate friendly policies that would create employment and stablise the economy.

Dr David Ogogo, the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Capital Market Registrars, said that Emefiele should be careful in accepting subsisting policies. Ogogo said that the governor should work on strategies that would stabilise the nation’s currency against other currencies at the foreign exchange market.

He said that the CBN chief should streamline money market policies to ensure economic stability and growth.

According to him, if Emefiele is able to streamline money market policies, the effect on the capital market will be positive because banks constitute 70 per cent of market activities.

Alhaji Rasheed Yussuf, the immediate past President of the Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria, said that the governor should concentrate on macroeconomic policies, essential for economic growth. Yussuf said that Emefiele should also ensure strong management of money supply in the system and concentrate on how to boost the nation’s dwindling reserve to boost investors’ confidence in the economy.

“We are not expecting a major policy shift but consolidation of existing policies for the betterment of the economy,” Yussuf said.

172.25

-5.25

3,065.00

-6.00

17.16

-0.22

108.77

-0.64

102.26

-0.45

CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL SELLING DOLLAR 154.73 STERLING 259.0954 EURO 210.6185 FRANC 172.4203 YEN 1.5156 CFA 0.302 WAUA 237.5917 RENMINBI 24.7611 RIYAL 41.2547 KRONA 28.2148 SDR 238.3306

155.23 259.9326 211.2991 172.9775 1.5205 0.312 238.3594 24.8415 41.388 28.306 239.1008

155.73 260.7699 211.9797 173.5347 1.5254 0.322 239.1272 24.922 41.5214 28.3972 239.8709

CBN Exchange rate as at 03/06/2014

From left: Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina; Chairman of 151 Products Ltd, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa and Chairman, Venus Processing and Packaging Ltd, Otunba Christopher Tugbobo at Sympli Products stand at the 3rd AgrikExpo held in Lagos.

N59.7trn required to bridge housing gap — Johnson

By EMMANUEL ELEBEKE

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HE Minister of Communication Technology and Supervising Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Mrs. Omobola Johnson says Nigeria requires about N59.7 trillion to bridge the yawning gap of some 17 million units of housing deficit in the country.

The Minister stated this, at the official opening of the 2014 National Building and Road Research Institute, NIBRI Housing summit in Abuja.

Dr. Johnson, noted that the said amount was needed to provide affordable housing in the country, given that Nigeria with a population of 170 million requires at least additional 820,000 housing units per annum, based on an estimation of nine dwelling units a year per 1000 population to meet the rising demands and replenishing decaying stock.

She lamented the high influx of rural dwellers into urban and semi-urban cities from the rural areas, which she said had given rise to a heightened urbanisation growth rate in Nigeria, currently put at 5.8 per cent per annum and adjudged as one of the highest globally.

“The quest for greener pasture has constituted a major problem or cause of escalating deficits in the housing sub-sector. This is because our urban centres are inundated by an influx of job seeking rural-dwellers who end up living in squalor sjust to make ends meet,” said the Minister.

For this reason, she pointed out that the urban and semi-urban infrastructure has been overstretched, turning some of the settlements into squalors and unkempt neighbourhoods. “ We must explore avenues of alleviating this acute housing shortage in addition to the fact that housing is another integral component of the critical infrastructure to accelerate economic development and forms of a substantial part of the GDP of most developed countries.

The theme of the summit is: Achieving Affordable Housing in Nigeria.

The Minister said the topic was appropriate and timely, since housing the Nigerian population is increasingly becoming a challenge.

She said the need for affordable and equitable housing, much as it can never be overemphasised, has become difficult to meet for various reasons ranging from: economic to social; cultural among others, adding that the need for housing is a general and global human needs for shelter.

According to her, meeting housing needs in Nigeria is bedevilled by economic constraints in the sense that building and construction is a financially intensive endeavour with most Nigerians lacking the capacity to embark on building

construction and finish within their basic means of income.

“This is the primary reason why most housing schemes hitherto embarked upon by government failed to see the light of the day. It is essentially because most Nigerians did not qualify for various financial and mortgage options available in the system,” she added.

She also pointed out that the sourcing and deploying of materials for buildings, where the land to build is available, acquiring tenure is often a challenge for individuals.

She tasked NIBRI to explore measures to alleviate what she termed acute housing shortage, describing housing as an integral component of the critical infrastructure to accelerate economic development.

In her own remarks, the Minister of lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Ayakenyi, said the theme of the summit was apt and in line with the Transformation Agenda of the present administration, geared towards achieving the objectives of the national vision 20:2020, which seeks to place Nigeria among the top 20 economies of the world in terms of growth in much GDP by the year 2020.

She said inadequate infrastructure has continued to militate against the realisation of the federal government’s objective.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Unless you act with purpose and vigor, your retirement options may well range between moving in with your kids and sleeping under a bridge in the rain.

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How young people can get rich slowly

By William Bernstein

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he real reason why you’re going to have a crummy retirement is that the conventional “defined benefit” pension plan of your parents’ generation, which provided a steady and reliable stream of income for as long as they lived, has gone the way of disco. There’s only one person who can repair the gap left by the disappearance of these plans, and you know who that is. Unless you act with purpose and vigour, your retirement options may well range between moving in with your kids and sleeping under a bridge in the rain.

Further, the most important word is the IF in the above “if you can follow this simple recipe,” because, you see, it’s a very, very big if.

At first blush, consistently saving 15% of your income into three index funds seems easy, but saying that you can become comfortably wellto-do and retire successfully by doing so is the same as saying that you’ll get trim and fit by eating less and exercising more.

People get fat because they like pizza more than fresh fruit and vegetables and would rather watch Monday night football than go to the gym or jog a few miles. Dieting and investing are both simple, but neither is easy In your parents’ day, the traditional pension plan took care of all the hard work and discipline of saving and investing, but in its absence, this responsibility falls on your shoulders. In effect, the traditional pension plan was an investing fat farm that involuntarily limited calorie intake and made participants run five miles per day.

Too bad that, except for the luckiest workers, such as corporate executives and military personnel, these plans are disappearing.

Bad things almost inevitably happen to people who try to save and invest for retirement on their own, and if you’re going to succeed, you’re going to need to avoid them.

To be precise, five bad things — hurdles, if you will — must be overcome if you are to succeed and retire successfully: Hurdle number one People spend too much money.

They decide that they need the newest iPhone, the most fashionable clothes, the fanciest car, or a Cancun vacation. Say you’re earning $50,000 per year, 15% of which is $7,500, or $625 per month.

In this day and age, that’s a painfully thin margin of saving, and it can be wiped out simply by stringing together several seemingly innocent expenditures, each of which might nick your savings by $100 or so per month: a latte per day, a too-rich cable package, an apartment that’s a little too tony, a dress or pair of brandname sneakers you really don’t need, a few unnecessary restaurant C M Y K

meals and, yes, an excessive smart phone plan you could, if you had to, not only live without, but also function better without.

Life without these may seem spartan, but it doesn’t compare to being old and poor, which is where you’re headed if you can’t save. You might even save the whole $625 in one fell swoop just by living with a roommate for a while longer, instead of renting your very own place.

Again, as bad as having a roomie may be, it’s not nearly as awful as living on cat food at age 70.

Let’s assume you can save enough.

You’re not home free, not by a long shot. You’ve got four more barriers to get by.

Hurdle number two You’ll need an adequate understanding of what finance is all about. Trying to save and invest without a working knowledge of the theory and practice of finance is like learning to fly without grasping the basics of aerodynamics, engine systems, meteorology, and aeronautical risk management. It’s possible, but I don’t recommend it.

I’m not suggesting that you need to get an MBA or even read a big, dull finance textbook. The essence of scientific finance, in fact, is remarkably simple and can be acquired, if you know where to look, pretty easily. (And rest assured, I’ll tell you exactly where to find it.)

Hurdle number three Learning the basics of financial and market history. This is not quite the same as the above hurdle; if learning about the theory and practice of finance is akin to studying aeronautics, then studying investing history is akin to reading aircraft accident reports — something every conscientious pilot does.

The new investor is usually disoriented and confused by market turbulence and the economic crises that often cause it; this is because he or she does not realize that there’s nothing really new under the investment sun.

A quote often misattributed to Mark Twain has it that “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” This fits finance to a tee. If you don’t recognize the landscape, you will get lost. Contrariwise, there’s nothing more reassuring than being able to say to yourself, “I’ve seen this movie before (or at least I’ve read the script), and I know how it ends.”

Hurdle number four Overcoming your biggest enemy — the face in the mirror — is a daunting task. Know thyself. Human beings are simply not designed to manage long-term risks. Over hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution, and over hundreds of millions of years of animal development, we’ve evolved to think about risk as a short-term phenomenon: the hiss of the snake, the flash of black and yellow stripes in the peripheral vision.

•Culled from Business Insider

INSURAN CE & YOU Stories by ROSEMARY ONUOHA

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Trying to save and invest without a working knowledge of the theory and practice of finance is like learning to fly without grasping the basics of aerodynamics, engine systems

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Rebased GDP: capturing the true contribution of the insurance sector to the economy zones of the country.

“From 2008 to the end of 2012, the volume of premium written by the industry on the classes of compulsory insurance business increased by 92 per cent from N14 billion in 2009 to N28.68 billion in 2012,’ he stated.

Daniel equally noted that, the number of insurance policies written under the compulsory insurance by underwriting firms in the last three years also appreciated sharply by 111 per cent from 72,180 in 2009 to 152,181 at the end of 2012.

He maintained that the industry in the last three years has had some geometric projections, adding that, the market will achieve well over 100 per cent at the time the performance of 2013 is added to the figures available.

Though the Commission was unable to attain the N1trillion mark it planned to achieve through the MDRI in 2009, he said the performance so far shows

that industry players are voluntarily meeting up to their obligation without the Commission getting involved, adding that they are also meeting up to their responsibility of claims payment.

He noted that the various state governments have continued to show interest in insurance business, adding that a group of underwriters have come together to enforce the motor vehicle third party liability insurance in Imo state in collaboration with the state government and the scheme is working very well.

He said that another group of 19 underwriters are enforcing the Occupiers Liability Insurance in Enugu State, in partnership with the State Government. “The Commission is working to get more states to embrace these models,” Daniel said.

Aligning with the Commissioner for Insurance, some operators have stressed the need to go back to the drawing board to correct all abnormality by doing the needful. They called for proper documentation of the industry’s data, which will bring about proper valuation of the progress made in the sector.

Goldlink boss named insurance man of the year hief Executive Officer, Goldlink Insurance Plc, Mr. Gbolahan Olutayo has been named the “2013 Insurance Man of the Year ” at the maiden edition of BusinessToday Online Award.

Gbolahan emerged the Insurance Man of the Year amidst strong industr y contenders.

According to the Publisher/Editor of BusinessToday, Ms. Nkechi Naeche, the

— 23

PenCom focuses on improving service delivery in pension industry

T

he Nigerian insurance sector has always been considered as the weaker sibling of the banking sector in the financial industry unlike in advanced climes where insurance companies own banks. With the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, recently, the position of the insurance sector in the economy dipped further as the sector ’s contribution to GDP dropped to 0.6 per cent from 0.7 per cent.

Where some operators believe that the true position of the insurance sector was not well captured, others are of the view that it is a challenge for the sector to up its ante.

Invariable, in the light of the disheartening ranking, a challenge has been thrown to insurance operators to realign their operations and services in order to achieve better performance, which will ultimately enhance the sector ’s position in the financial scene going forward.

Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel said that the recently rebased economy has challenged insurance companies to perform better, in term of claims settlement and products deliveries.

According to Daniel, to live up to expectation, there was the need for more dynamic strategies to enable insurance industry make meaningful contribution to the GDP. Daniel said “The rebased economy should challenge underwriting companies to be on their toes going forward.”

However, operators on the other side of the divide are of the opinion that insurers’ inability to articulate and provide adequate data of their operations may be responsible for the drop in the sector ’s contributions to the GDP. The operators noted that the industry’s contributions were underestimated, adding that the industry has in recent times made significant progress.

Meanwhile, Daniel said that the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, will consolidate on the gains made so far and ensure proper implementation of the compulsory insurance products to enhance the industry contribution to the GDP. NAICOM, he said, incepted the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) in 2009, to enforce compulsory insurances and eradicate fake insurances in the country. The initiative, he added, has been vigorously pursued by the Commission across the six geo-political

,

22 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

organisers of the Award, Olutayo won the Award in recognition of his outstanding efforts and leadership qualities in stabilizing the company as well as expanding its portfolio since assuming office in September 2012.

She stated further that the Goldlink boss deserve the award not just because he got the highest number of votes

among the nominees for the insurance man of the year category, but also because of the doggedness by which the company scaled through the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, regulations and is still standing strong till date.

Olutayo stated that he is “ really honoured to win the award and that the company will not fail in delivering its core reason for existence to the Nigerian populace.”

he National Pension every pensioner receives pension as March 2014. Nigerian CPS has Commission, PenCom, and when due; stems further growth become a model for other African said a number of of pension liabilities; fully funded countries: Study visitations from measures have been adopted in towards future pension obligations as Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania,” the pension industry to improve well as curtailment of the burgeoning she said.

On the outlook and next steps for pension liabilities of federal and state service delivery. the pension industry, Anohu-Amazu Acting Director General of governments.

She said that the Contributory said that to enhance supervisory PenCom, Chinelo AnohuAmazu, made the assertion at Pension Scheme, CPS, supports powers of the Commission; expand th the 8 annual business law economic development; is an efficient coverage of the CPS; create enabling conference in Lagos while avenue for infrastructure and environment for investment in the delivering a paper titled economic development; as well as real sector are the focus of the “Contributory pension scheme provides availability of investible PenCom. “Repositioning the Nigerian as a catalyst for economic funds to support the development of Pension industry for the next decade, development,” in Lagos last the real sector.

According to her, the CPS building capacity in the industry and week.

Anohu-Amazu, who was stimulates job creation through engaging the services of skilled and represented by the Secretary/ employment generation both directly experienced financial advisers for Legal Adviser, PenCom, Mr. and through third party service deal structuring, sustained support for initiatives to provide affordable Muhammad Sanni Muhammad providers to the pension industry.

She said that the number of housing and infrastructure said that part of the measures development, deploying strategies registered contributors is over on the part of PenCom is the establishment of zonal offices in 5,980,415 as at February 2014 even for increased compliance by employers, participation by the the six geopolitical zones of the as there are 95,840 retirees currently informal sector and adoption of the country to among others attend receiving pensions as and when due CPS by states & local governments, under the CPS as at March 2014. to complaints, enquiries and the “Total pension fund assets had are also the focus of PenCom,” she provision of other customer grown to over N4.13 trillion as at said. services to all stakeholders as well as the establishment of contact centre to centralize, track and resolve stakeholder complaints.

On the part of Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), Anohu-Amazu said that the measures adopted include Know Your Customer (KYC) techniques for proper monitoring of client needs and client feedback mechanism.

The PFAs also adopted From left: Secretary/Legal Adviser, National Pension Commission (PenCom) Muhamthe development of follow- mad Sanni Muhammad; Chairman Pension Operators Association of Nigeria, (PenOp) up models for settlement and Managing Director Legacy Pension Managers Limited, Misbahu Yola; Managing of outstanding client Director, First Pension Custodian Limited, Kunle Jinadu, at the 8th annual Business Law Conference in Lagos. issues as well as establishment of contact centres, she said.

According to the Acting DG, pension assets have grown to N4.13 trillion

BY MICHAEL EBOH executive who co-founded Helios in while the proportion of the with Agency Report 2004 said. Bank of America Merrill assets to Nigeria’s GDP Lynch analysts, including Wesley grew from 1.4% in 2006 to elios Investment Partners LLP, Fogel, had stated that Nigeria’s 9.5% in 2013, which a private-equity firm that mandatory defined-contribution represents an average focuses on Africa, has invested about pension plan should double yearly growth of 30%. $50 million (N8 billion) in the registrations to 13 million by 2020.

She said that the most “This is a new industry which has significant proportion, acquisition of a minority stake in a Nigeria firm, ARM Pension Managers grown from nothing in 2004 when the about 63% of the assets PFA Limited. pension legislation was approved,” Mr. (equivalent to N2.64 Mr. Tope Lawani, co-founder of Fogel told The Wall Street Journal. trillion) was invested in Helios’s previous investments include FGN securities and the Helios Investment, who disclosed this asset invested in in an interview, said the acquisition Nigerian payment processing company authorized markets with is targeted at aimed at tapping into Interswitch and Kenya’s Flamingo the opportunities in Nigeria pension Holdings, which grows cut flowers and portfolio limits.

On the role of pensions market. fresh vegetables.

“We believe, conservatively, that in an emerging economy, Nigeria’s pension market has grown Anohu-Amazu said that it aggregate defined contribution by 30 per cent a year since 2006, when provides social security by pension assets in Nigeria will exceed a pension law requiring mandatory alleviating old age $150 billion within the next 10 years, contributions was implemented, poverty; ensures that representing a sevenfold increase,” according to Helios. ARM manages Tope Lawani, the former TPG Capital about $2.1 billion.

Helios invests N8bn to acquire stake in ARM Pension

H

C M Y K

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Unless you act with purpose and vigor, your retirement options may well range between moving in with your kids and sleeping under a bridge in the rain.

,

,

How young people can get rich slowly

By William Bernstein

T

he real reason why you’re going to have a crummy retirement is that the conventional “defined benefit” pension plan of your parents’ generation, which provided a steady and reliable stream of income for as long as they lived, has gone the way of disco. There’s only one person who can repair the gap left by the disappearance of these plans, and you know who that is. Unless you act with purpose and vigour, your retirement options may well range between moving in with your kids and sleeping under a bridge in the rain.

Further, the most important word is the IF in the above “if you can follow this simple recipe,” because, you see, it’s a very, very big if.

At first blush, consistently saving 15% of your income into three index funds seems easy, but saying that you can become comfortably wellto-do and retire successfully by doing so is the same as saying that you’ll get trim and fit by eating less and exercising more.

People get fat because they like pizza more than fresh fruit and vegetables and would rather watch Monday night football than go to the gym or jog a few miles. Dieting and investing are both simple, but neither is easy In your parents’ day, the traditional pension plan took care of all the hard work and discipline of saving and investing, but in its absence, this responsibility falls on your shoulders. In effect, the traditional pension plan was an investing fat farm that involuntarily limited calorie intake and made participants run five miles per day.

Too bad that, except for the luckiest workers, such as corporate executives and military personnel, these plans are disappearing.

Bad things almost inevitably happen to people who try to save and invest for retirement on their own, and if you’re going to succeed, you’re going to need to avoid them.

To be precise, five bad things — hurdles, if you will — must be overcome if you are to succeed and retire successfully: Hurdle number one People spend too much money.

They decide that they need the newest iPhone, the most fashionable clothes, the fanciest car, or a Cancun vacation. Say you’re earning $50,000 per year, 15% of which is $7,500, or $625 per month.

In this day and age, that’s a painfully thin margin of saving, and it can be wiped out simply by stringing together several seemingly innocent expenditures, each of which might nick your savings by $100 or so per month: a latte per day, a too-rich cable package, an apartment that’s a little too tony, a dress or pair of brandname sneakers you really don’t need, a few unnecessary restaurant C M Y K

meals and, yes, an excessive smart phone plan you could, if you had to, not only live without, but also function better without.

Life without these may seem spartan, but it doesn’t compare to being old and poor, which is where you’re headed if you can’t save. You might even save the whole $625 in one fell swoop just by living with a roommate for a while longer, instead of renting your very own place.

Again, as bad as having a roomie may be, it’s not nearly as awful as living on cat food at age 70.

Let’s assume you can save enough.

You’re not home free, not by a long shot. You’ve got four more barriers to get by.

Hurdle number two You’ll need an adequate understanding of what finance is all about. Trying to save and invest without a working knowledge of the theory and practice of finance is like learning to fly without grasping the basics of aerodynamics, engine systems, meteorology, and aeronautical risk management. It’s possible, but I don’t recommend it.

I’m not suggesting that you need to get an MBA or even read a big, dull finance textbook. The essence of scientific finance, in fact, is remarkably simple and can be acquired, if you know where to look, pretty easily. (And rest assured, I’ll tell you exactly where to find it.)

Hurdle number three Learning the basics of financial and market history. This is not quite the same as the above hurdle; if learning about the theory and practice of finance is akin to studying aeronautics, then studying investing history is akin to reading aircraft accident reports — something every conscientious pilot does.

The new investor is usually disoriented and confused by market turbulence and the economic crises that often cause it; this is because he or she does not realize that there’s nothing really new under the investment sun.

A quote often misattributed to Mark Twain has it that “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” This fits finance to a tee. If you don’t recognize the landscape, you will get lost. Contrariwise, there’s nothing more reassuring than being able to say to yourself, “I’ve seen this movie before (or at least I’ve read the script), and I know how it ends.”

Hurdle number four Overcoming your biggest enemy — the face in the mirror — is a daunting task. Know thyself. Human beings are simply not designed to manage long-term risks. Over hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution, and over hundreds of millions of years of animal development, we’ve evolved to think about risk as a short-term phenomenon: the hiss of the snake, the flash of black and yellow stripes in the peripheral vision.

•Culled from Business Insider

INSURAN CE & YOU Stories by ROSEMARY ONUOHA

C

Trying to save and invest without a working knowledge of the theory and practice of finance is like learning to fly without grasping the basics of aerodynamics, engine systems

,

T

Rebased GDP: capturing the true contribution of the insurance sector to the economy zones of the country.

“From 2008 to the end of 2012, the volume of premium written by the industry on the classes of compulsory insurance business increased by 92 per cent from N14 billion in 2009 to N28.68 billion in 2012,’ he stated.

Daniel equally noted that, the number of insurance policies written under the compulsory insurance by underwriting firms in the last three years also appreciated sharply by 111 per cent from 72,180 in 2009 to 152,181 at the end of 2012.

He maintained that the industry in the last three years has had some geometric projections, adding that, the market will achieve well over 100 per cent at the time the performance of 2013 is added to the figures available.

Though the Commission was unable to attain the N1trillion mark it planned to achieve through the MDRI in 2009, he said the performance so far shows

that industry players are voluntarily meeting up to their obligation without the Commission getting involved, adding that they are also meeting up to their responsibility of claims payment.

He noted that the various state governments have continued to show interest in insurance business, adding that a group of underwriters have come together to enforce the motor vehicle third party liability insurance in Imo state in collaboration with the state government and the scheme is working very well.

He said that another group of 19 underwriters are enforcing the Occupiers Liability Insurance in Enugu State, in partnership with the State Government. “The Commission is working to get more states to embrace these models,” Daniel said.

Aligning with the Commissioner for Insurance, some operators have stressed the need to go back to the drawing board to correct all abnormality by doing the needful. They called for proper documentation of the industry’s data, which will bring about proper valuation of the progress made in the sector.

Goldlink boss named insurance man of the year hief Executive Officer, Goldlink Insurance Plc, Mr. Gbolahan Olutayo has been named the “2013 Insurance Man of the Year ” at the maiden edition of BusinessToday Online Award.

Gbolahan emerged the Insurance Man of the Year amidst strong industr y contenders.

According to the Publisher/Editor of BusinessToday, Ms. Nkechi Naeche, the

— 23

PenCom focuses on improving service delivery in pension industry

T

he Nigerian insurance sector has always been considered as the weaker sibling of the banking sector in the financial industry unlike in advanced climes where insurance companies own banks. With the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, recently, the position of the insurance sector in the economy dipped further as the sector ’s contribution to GDP dropped to 0.6 per cent from 0.7 per cent.

Where some operators believe that the true position of the insurance sector was not well captured, others are of the view that it is a challenge for the sector to up its ante.

Invariable, in the light of the disheartening ranking, a challenge has been thrown to insurance operators to realign their operations and services in order to achieve better performance, which will ultimately enhance the sector ’s position in the financial scene going forward.

Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel said that the recently rebased economy has challenged insurance companies to perform better, in term of claims settlement and products deliveries.

According to Daniel, to live up to expectation, there was the need for more dynamic strategies to enable insurance industry make meaningful contribution to the GDP. Daniel said “The rebased economy should challenge underwriting companies to be on their toes going forward.”

However, operators on the other side of the divide are of the opinion that insurers’ inability to articulate and provide adequate data of their operations may be responsible for the drop in the sector ’s contributions to the GDP. The operators noted that the industry’s contributions were underestimated, adding that the industry has in recent times made significant progress.

Meanwhile, Daniel said that the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, will consolidate on the gains made so far and ensure proper implementation of the compulsory insurance products to enhance the industry contribution to the GDP. NAICOM, he said, incepted the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) in 2009, to enforce compulsory insurances and eradicate fake insurances in the country. The initiative, he added, has been vigorously pursued by the Commission across the six geo-political

,

22 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

organisers of the Award, Olutayo won the Award in recognition of his outstanding efforts and leadership qualities in stabilizing the company as well as expanding its portfolio since assuming office in September 2012.

She stated further that the Goldlink boss deserve the award not just because he got the highest number of votes

among the nominees for the insurance man of the year category, but also because of the doggedness by which the company scaled through the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, regulations and is still standing strong till date.

Olutayo stated that he is “ really honoured to win the award and that the company will not fail in delivering its core reason for existence to the Nigerian populace.”

he National Pension every pensioner receives pension as March 2014. Nigerian CPS has Commission, PenCom, and when due; stems further growth become a model for other African said a number of of pension liabilities; fully funded countries: Study visitations from measures have been adopted in towards future pension obligations as Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania,” the pension industry to improve well as curtailment of the burgeoning she said.

On the outlook and next steps for pension liabilities of federal and state service delivery. the pension industry, Anohu-Amazu Acting Director General of governments.

She said that the Contributory said that to enhance supervisory PenCom, Chinelo AnohuAmazu, made the assertion at Pension Scheme, CPS, supports powers of the Commission; expand th the 8 annual business law economic development; is an efficient coverage of the CPS; create enabling conference in Lagos while avenue for infrastructure and environment for investment in the delivering a paper titled economic development; as well as real sector are the focus of the “Contributory pension scheme provides availability of investible PenCom. “Repositioning the Nigerian as a catalyst for economic funds to support the development of Pension industry for the next decade, development,” in Lagos last the real sector.

According to her, the CPS building capacity in the industry and week.

Anohu-Amazu, who was stimulates job creation through engaging the services of skilled and represented by the Secretary/ employment generation both directly experienced financial advisers for Legal Adviser, PenCom, Mr. and through third party service deal structuring, sustained support for initiatives to provide affordable Muhammad Sanni Muhammad providers to the pension industry.

She said that the number of housing and infrastructure said that part of the measures development, deploying strategies registered contributors is over on the part of PenCom is the establishment of zonal offices in 5,980,415 as at February 2014 even for increased compliance by employers, participation by the the six geopolitical zones of the as there are 95,840 retirees currently informal sector and adoption of the country to among others attend receiving pensions as and when due CPS by states & local governments, under the CPS as at March 2014. to complaints, enquiries and the “Total pension fund assets had are also the focus of PenCom,” she provision of other customer grown to over N4.13 trillion as at said. services to all stakeholders as well as the establishment of contact centre to centralize, track and resolve stakeholder complaints.

On the part of Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), Anohu-Amazu said that the measures adopted include Know Your Customer (KYC) techniques for proper monitoring of client needs and client feedback mechanism.

The PFAs also adopted From left: Secretary/Legal Adviser, National Pension Commission (PenCom) Muhamthe development of follow- mad Sanni Muhammad; Chairman Pension Operators Association of Nigeria, (PenOp) up models for settlement and Managing Director Legacy Pension Managers Limited, Misbahu Yola; Managing of outstanding client Director, First Pension Custodian Limited, Kunle Jinadu, at the 8th annual Business Law Conference in Lagos. issues as well as establishment of contact centres, she said.

According to the Acting DG, pension assets have grown to N4.13 trillion

BY MICHAEL EBOH executive who co-founded Helios in while the proportion of the with Agency Report 2004 said. Bank of America Merrill assets to Nigeria’s GDP Lynch analysts, including Wesley grew from 1.4% in 2006 to elios Investment Partners LLP, Fogel, had stated that Nigeria’s 9.5% in 2013, which a private-equity firm that mandatory defined-contribution represents an average focuses on Africa, has invested about pension plan should double yearly growth of 30%. $50 million (N8 billion) in the registrations to 13 million by 2020.

She said that the most “This is a new industry which has significant proportion, acquisition of a minority stake in a Nigeria firm, ARM Pension Managers grown from nothing in 2004 when the about 63% of the assets PFA Limited. pension legislation was approved,” Mr. (equivalent to N2.64 Mr. Tope Lawani, co-founder of Fogel told The Wall Street Journal. trillion) was invested in Helios’s previous investments include FGN securities and the Helios Investment, who disclosed this asset invested in in an interview, said the acquisition Nigerian payment processing company authorized markets with is targeted at aimed at tapping into Interswitch and Kenya’s Flamingo the opportunities in Nigeria pension Holdings, which grows cut flowers and portfolio limits.

On the role of pensions market. fresh vegetables.

“We believe, conservatively, that in an emerging economy, Nigeria’s pension market has grown Anohu-Amazu said that it aggregate defined contribution by 30 per cent a year since 2006, when provides social security by pension assets in Nigeria will exceed a pension law requiring mandatory alleviating old age $150 billion within the next 10 years, contributions was implemented, poverty; ensures that representing a sevenfold increase,” according to Helios. ARM manages Tope Lawani, the former TPG Capital about $2.1 billion.

Helios invests N8bn to acquire stake in ARM Pension

H

C M Y K

24—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

NSE imposes N19.6m fine on Ikeja Hotel, 6 others T

HE Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, has imposed N19.6 million fine on Ikeja Hotels Plc, Aso Savings and Loans Plc, and five other quoted companies for late submission of their respective audited financial statements for years ended 2011 and 2012.

Others are International Energy Insurance Plc, Abbey Building Society Plc, Interlinked Technologies Plc, National Salt Company of Nig. Plc and Austin Laz & Co. Plc. According to the NSE in its latest XCompliance report for the week ended May 30, 2014, the companies did not submit their results after the regulatory due date. Ikeja Hotels Plc was fined N5.5 million for late filling of December 2012 financial result, while Aso Savings was fined N5 million for late filling of its financials for the same year.

For failing to file its 2012 result as at when due, International Energy was fined N5.4 million, while Abbey Building, National Salt Company and Austin Laz paid N200,000 (Two hundred thousand naira only), and N300,000

(Three hundred thousand naira only) respectively for late filing of 2013 results.

On the other hand, Interlinked Technology was fined N2.9 million for late filing of interim result for period ended June, 2013.

The Exchange noted that it applied the sanctions in accordance with the provisions of Section 14 of Appendix 111 of its Listing Rules.

“Companies that are listed on the Exchange are required to adhere to high disclosure standards which are prescribed in Appendix 111 of the Listing Rules.

Financial information which is periodic disclosure and on-going material events disclosure should be released to the Exchange in a timely manner to enable it efficiently perform its function of maintaining an orderly market,” the NSE said.

It will be recalled that quoted companies are required to submit their year end financial statement to the Exchange three months after, while interim results are required to reach the NSE 45 days after to enable the Exchange feed the investing public with the same information.

From left: Lagos State Commissioner for Sports, Mr. Waheed Enitan Oshodi; Managing Director, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Mr. Lanre Jaiyeola; Consultant to Honeywell, Dr Ganluigi Negroni; Lagos Sports Ministry official, Prince Wale Oladunjoye and Executive Director, Marketing, Honeywell Flour Mills, Mr. Benson Evbuomwan, during Honeywell-sponsored Youth Alive Community Basketball.

Winners emerge in Standard Chartered promo M

rs. Teniade Macaulay and Engr.

Erefaa Emine Tom-Jack, of Port Harcourt, Rivers state have emerged winners in the ongoing Standard Chartered Bank mega promotions.

Both Macaulay and Tom-Jack won one million Naira (N1, 000, 000:00) each.

Other prize winners include Ajayi Oluyinka Timothy and Kess & Rilwan Momoh, who both won iPads.

Also, Eyitemi Mojuetan and Margaret O. Kitchener both won Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

Engr. Tom-Jack, one of the lucky winners of N1 million cash expressed surprise at the prize when he was contacted.

Likewise, Mrs. Macaulay expressed cautious joy when she was called for her prize.

Present at the draws include Messrs Mayowa Okuyiwa, Senior Executive Officer, Lagos State Lotteries Board C M Y K

(LSLB), Ozobialu Olisa, Head of ICT at LSLB and Ita U. Calix, Deputy Manager, National Lottery Regulatory Commission.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Diran Olojo, Head, Corporate Affairs, Standard Chartered, assured customers and the public that the bank has a history of “transparency, integrity and an uncompromising stand in corporate governance, saying, “ What we promise, we deliver.”

The Mega Promo will climax in August 2014 with a Cayenne Porsche SUV car up for grabs. Before the grand draws, there will also be another mini draw in June where two other persons will also win N1 million each. Ipads will also be available for grabs.

To qualify for the grand draw, a customer needs to deposit and maintain a minimum daily balance of N50, 000:00 for three months. Olojo stated that the more a customer deposits the eligible amount, the better his or her chances of getting rewarded.

Planning towards the next 100 years (2) T

HREE weeks ago, in the first part on this subject, we indicated that we should look at the sort of life that would be possible for residents of our communities over the next 100 years. We mentioned three towns in Osun State, namely, Ipetu-Ijesha, Ilesha and Osogbo, which towns would provide a starting point for our look into what needs to be done now for the residents of these communities.

Before the 1970s, our major roads for travel across Nigeria passed through the centres of our towns.

From the 1970s onwards, our trunk roads were built on new alignments which were some distance away from the built-up areas of our towns. For example, the road from Ibadan to Ile-Ife, Ilesha and Akure is on an alignment that passes south of Gbongan, Ipetu-modu and Ilesha and north of Ikire, Ipetu-Ijesha on its initial construction as a two-lane road. The road was subsequently dualised between Ibadan and Ile-Ife after which the road was re-aligned to pass north of Ile-Ife and was also dualised to some distance east of Ilesha.

At Ile-Ife, part of the new road passes through land belonging to the Obafemi Awolowo University and hence there have not been new

,

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

that area. Land owners would be required to submit their layout plans in conformity with the zoning plans. Osogbo is in a good position to take advantage of this new approach as the state government is building new roads that would take traffic approaching Osogbo on major highways, namely, Gbongan-Osogbo road, IleshaOsogbo road, Ikirun-Osogbo road, past Osogbo without passing through the built-up areas of Osogbo. Plans for urban development should also make provisions for adequate road widths which include a space through which municipal services would pass thereby avoiding the current situation in which cold water supply pipes pass through drainage channels.

The tall structures that one observes in our major cities and towns are mainly metal structures used for the provision of telecommunications services. These structures are becoming a blight on the landscape while telecommunications services are not improving.

Standards for the provision of telecommunications services should be reviewed such that these masts are substantially eliminated. If telecommunications services are to improve, there has to be less reliance on microwave signal trans-

If telecommunications services are to improve, there has to be less reliance on microwave signal transmissions and fibre optic cables should be laid across our cities and towns to link the telecommunications services equipment

developments along this portion of the new road. However, in the other towns, developments of new residential areas have moved towards the new road from the older parts of the towns. The new developments have not been carried out in a manner that enhances overall movement across different parts of the towns. Rather, the developments have followed old patterns in which the footpaths for pedestrian access, which also form the boundaries between different land owners, were expanded into the main roads through the new areas.

We must from now on adopt a new approach to planning urban and regional land use. Government must introduce zoning plans and support the zoning plans by acquiring land corridors to be used for major roads in an area long before any development starts in

,

missions and fibre optic cables should be laid across our cities and towns to link the telecommunications services equipment. One justification for the relatively high cost of telecommunications services is that when people are able to contact others by telephone, there is a reduction in road journeys that people have to make. Hence, people could put their time to better use besides the reduction in traffic congestion. There is therefore a compelling need for better telecommunications services.

Our communities have acquired increasing competence in solid waste management. Refuse is placed in bags which are collected, compacted and transported to landfill sites in truck-compactors.

Our communities should identify locations that are suitable for landfill and develop such sites for use into the future.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014—25

/ ³ Ž°°¨²  ¨¹³¨

DIARY z z Critical Communications World 27-29 May 2014 BITEC, Bangkok, Thailand

zCisco Connect Sun City, South Africa Nov. 2 - 4, 2014

Preview

INSECURITY:

New inventions shaping life and living

‘FG should think national biometric database now’

Gear4’s new alarm clock monitors your sleep patterns throughout the night and knowing whether you’re in a light or deep snooze, can calculate when the best time is to wake you up so you feel more alert in the morning.

Doubling up as a charge dock for the Iphone, Ipad or Ipod, the Renew SleepClock’s dashboard is managed through an app built especially for Apple’s IOS. It tracks your sleep history and allows you to calculate and compare how good or bad your slumbers have been over a period of time.

Š! ¹ ¨ ¨ Ž²¨¹

I N S I D E C M Y K

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Gear4’s new alarm clock monitors your sleep patterns

T

he Information and Commu nications Technology, ICT, sector recently came under heavy criticism from the senate over alleged inability to use technology to solve the insecurity ravaging the country.

But in apparent reaction, the Nigerian Computer Society, NCS, has advised the government on what it takes to waken ICT into solving the insecurity issue. From all indications, NCS seemed to be throwing the blame back to the door post of government, saying that ICT can only do its job if it is rightly deployed.

From the NCS point of view, the first thing to do is for government to urgently establish a

national biometric database programme to tackle insecurity in the country.

President of the society, Prof.

David Adewumi said that appropriate use of ICT tools will effectively tackle insecurity across the nation.

The sophistication of the Boko Haram operations suggests the outfit benefits from the collaboration of experienced international terrorist group making their operation transcend normal military combative approach

,

He said there was need to address and extract functional utility from the present databases maintained by Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Police, National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Banks among others.

According to him, other ICT devices including surveillance cameras, Social Network analysis, Biometry surveillance Data mining, Satellite Imagery, IP devices should be deployed professionally to checkmate insecurity in the country.

ELECTRONIC DATA: Microsoft unveils Lumia 360 after Nokia acquisition

Data centre, live wire of 21st century companies

We don’t want to see data in hard copies, FMST charges agencies

Assuring that NCS was ready and willing to partner with the Federal Government to actualize this, he said that the abduction of over 200 Chibok girls was barbaric, uncivilized and against all norms of humanity. “If the reason for abduction of these girls by Boko Haram is their hatred for western education, one wonders why they use the products of western education such as internet, video and other gadgets to terrorise the whole country.

Such callous actions should be condemned by all without reservation.

NCS stands with all well meaning individuals and organisations to condemn this gross violation of human rights. “In this regard we consider as apt the Government’s stand to negotiate with the devilish sect to safely reunite the girls with their families.

However, we do not support the swapping of the girls with Boko Haram prisoners. Our girls are not criminals.What would Boko Haram use as replacement for innocent souls they have killed by their murderous action? “The sophistication of the Boko Haram operations suggests the outfit benefits from the collaboration of experienced international terrorist group making their operation transcend normal military combative approach. “With the highest professional regards, Nigeria Computer Society therefore recommends the immediate and appropriate use of ICT tools to tackle the insecurity in the land� he explained.

26 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Improved internet access critical to Africa’s growth ---Jegede EMEKA AGINAM

Microsoft releases Lumia 630 in Nigeria

T

he provision of infrastructure that provides stable and reliable internet access is a very important element that must be addressed if Africa is to quicken the pace of economic development and ensure that citizens are enabled to compete with the rest of the world, Chief Executive Officer of Phase3 Telecom, Mr. Stanley Jegede has said.

Jegede, while speaking about his firm’s participation at Cyber Nigeria Forum and Innovation Awards recently said that the investment of millions of dollars in network development across Nigeria and other African countries is based on the belief that Africa had a lot of untapped potential “At Phase3 Telecom, we have, for long, believed that developing the right communications infrastructure in Africa is what will open up the continent’s economic potential and make its citizens globally competitive. That is what informed our decision to build a regional optic fibre network using the best technologies available in the industry.

“Today, we are ready to take our network to other regions not yet reached by high-capacity transmission network to provide the best communications experience to people in the continent,” he said.

Jegede said further that Nigeria already has a good foundation for effective communications and promised that Phase3 Telecommunications will continue to offer solutions that meet the needs of businesses, organisations and individuals.

Main one shows off metro fibre

BY RICHARD UDOFIA

M

ainOne last week hosted business stakeholders in Lagos to a Breakfast Forum aimed at showcasing its metro fiber connectivity solutions for increased productivity and improved business profitability.

The session tagged “Powering business with Reliable connectivity: The MainOne Advantage”, was aimed at major Enterprises to showcase the metro connectivity services and network solutions engineered by MainOne. Speaking at the forum, the Head, Enterprise Sales, Mr. Kelechukwu Nsofor, stated that “it is necessary to have premium broadband internet available to business concerns and this requires the capacity that MainOne brings to Nigeria, and West African enterprises." He added that the Breakfast session is in line with MainOne’s commitment to assisting businesses in their stride for growth and profitability, expediting broadband penetration across Nigeria.

Speaking further, Kelechukwu stated that by connecting to MainOne’s new expanded metro fiber network, customers have access to improved business networking, efficiency, reliability and scalability across various business locations.

He also noted that MainOne will continuously expand its reach and bring innovative services to more customers, especially with the completion of its Tier 3 Data Centre, the largest commercial data centre in West Africa, with 600rack capacity expected to be commissioned in third quarter, 2014. The Data Centre sod-turning ceremony was done in October 2013.

MainOne has continued to break new grounds with its open access broadband connectivity since it was launched in July, 2010.

The Company offers unmatched connectivity, managed media and data center services, connecting Nigeria and West Africa with the rest of the world.

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

M

icrosoft’s first outing on mobile devices after completing acquisition of Nokia Devices and Services business, last month, has resulted in the release of Lumia 630 smartphone in Nigeria.

The device is the first smart dual SIM Windows smartphone, from Microsoft devices.

Unveiling the device last week at Protea Hotel, Ikeja, the technology giant stated that the Lumia 630 Dual SIM with Windows Phone 8.1 delivers an unrivaled smartphone experience.

Head of Marketing, Nokia West and Central Africa, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobile, Debbie Shepard noted that all across the world, millions of people are switching to Lumia Windows Phones because of its innovation and affordability.

She said: “We are thrilled to extend this innovation to Nigeria and super excited that the Lumia 630 Dual SIM is now available in Nigeria. We are extending our high-end technologies and apps to more custom-

ers across our various markets, with a seamless Windows Phone 8.1 experience and the first ever Dual SIM technology on a Lumia Windows Phone, enabling people to seamlessly switch between their SIMs without switching off their devices."

The Lumia 630 Dual SIM is built with a 1.2 GHz Quad Core Snapdragon Processor which makes the device s u p e r fast and delivers fast, uncompromised social experiences. It also boasts of a bold 4.5" clear black screen.

It also comes with the new Notification Centre called the Action Centre that allows users simply swipe from the top to the bottom that gives a user quick access to Calls, e-Mails, App Updates as well as the Word Flow keyboard which is regarded as the fastest and most personal

shape writi n g k e y board.

Fielding questions from the media, Managing Director, Nick Imudia said “the Lumia 630 Dual SIM provides the perfect value smartphone experience with Windows Phone 8.1. We believe the smart Dual SIM capability and signature Lumia design and experiences make it unbeatable in its range. With the Nokia Lumia 630 Dual SIM, you get MORE of everything you want from a smartphone..”

NCC unveils FG-mandated service charter

BY EMMANUEL ELEBEKE

T

he Nigerian Communica tions Commission, NCC last week launched a Service Charter to drive home the federal government’s excellence service delivery objective.

The Charter, when implemented, according to NCC, will ensure effective and efficient delivery of the commission’s mandates and programmes with the Nigerian populace.

The Charter is a public document that specifies the commission’s standards of service delivery, informs customers of their rights and helps them determine whether they were served right or otherwise by the commission.

Speaking at the event in Abuja, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah said, the launch of the Charter has become imperative as the commission is driven by the desire to ensure that service delivery is optimized and people’s expectations met on a timely basis.

He explained that the

Service Charter is in compliance with the directives of the federal government.

T h e EVC o b served t h a t t h e vario u s Service improvement initiatives like the telecom consumer parliament, establishment of contact centres where consumers can seek redress when service fails among others, would be reviewed regularly to enable their users implement improvement plans that are based on citizens’ priorities.

Also speaking at the event, the SERVICOM National Coordinator and Senior Special Adviser to the President, Mr. Sybriks Obriki said that the introduction of the Service Charter programme into pub-

*Dr. Eugene Juwah

lic institutions would not only enhance effective service delivery but also boost public confidence in government establishments.

He urged NCC to put in more effort at ensuring that the programme succeeds, especially as it regards the mandate upon which it was established.

He said that federal government was determined at ensuring that the goal of excellence service delivery in all its agencies was achieved.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 27

By EMMANUEL ELEBEKE

T

he newly deployed Perma nent Secretary to the Federal Ministry of Science and Technol-

ogy, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, has underscored the importance of electronic data and urged all the parastatals in the ministry to leverage the opportunity provided by modern technology to convert all their relevant records into electronic form.

Mrs. Oyo-Ita made the call during an official facility tour at the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, NOTAP office in Abuja at the weekend.

She said it is unacceptable to see a government agency still keeping data in hard copies, which places such organization at the risk of losing all their relevant and valuable data and information.

For her, any serious agency cannot afford to ignore the electronic data management st system in the 21 century, which makes information retrieval easy and less cumbersome.

She declared the Ministry’s readiness to ensuring that

ELECTRONIC DATA:

We don’t want to see data in hard copies, FMST charges agencies NOTAP was digitized to be able to pursue its mandate with more vigour and reliable data.

“I want to see more development in terms of electronic data management system here because it has been piles and piles of valuable records here that are still in hard copi e s ,

which they cannot continue keeping this records in st the 21 Century, we have to get digital information system, that will be easy to be retrievable. Apart from that, when data are converted into electronic form, they will be safe from fire outbreak, lost and all that.

So, I will like to see more effort done as regards that in all the federal

.Elelectronic filing system

Skye Bank deepens cashless with SkyPlus banking solutions

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

I

t appears no bank wants to be left behind as the Central Bank of Nig era, CBN, piles pressure for a cashless Nigeria. Almost every bank in the country comes out weekly with different types of solutions and applications that would give leeway to the cashless project.

Last week, it was Skye Bank, that dragged the who is who in the banking and financial sector to Oriental Hotels, Lagos, to introduce its latest offering ‘SkyePLus’ in the quest to go fully cashless.

The bank said it has underscored the importance of deploying innovative technology to provide secured and more convenient direct banking solution to its customers.

Deliberately, the bank chose the day of its 8th Annual General Meeting, AGM, to unveil the direct banking solution The banking platform offers the bank

existing and prospective customers a myriad of services for convenient, easier and more secure and faster transactions. It allows customers to check their balance and manage their account; set up standing order instructions and Direct Debits; transfer money, pay bills to people instantly; request for a new checkbook, Automated Teller machine card or bank draft; stop lost or stolen cheque and hotlist Debit Cards; as well as switching on text alerts to keep track of their accounts on the move.

Speaking at the unveiling of the product, the Chairman, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Olatunde Ayeni, said the bank had remained ahead in the area of deploying the right technology to engender seamless and flexible banking transactions for Nigeria.

According to him, “We deploy technology as best as we can, because we believe that banking today and tomorrow will continue to be dependent on technology. It is our belief that we need to deploy technology to be able to grow our

economy as part of member of Information and Communication Technology-driven global economy.”

Ayeni added that the process leading to the launch of SkeyPlus took more than 18 months to ensure a robust and secure platform.

“We will continue to make our customers enjoy the best and innovative technology means and applications that make them enjoy banking services in a more convenient and efficient way,” he said.

Corroborating Ayeni, Chief Executive Officer designate, Skye Bank, Mr. Thymothy Oguntayo, said the deployment of the new platforms was informed by the need to ensure a flexible and convenient banking solution for the bank customers using SMS, the Internet and mobile applications.

He explained that in terms of security, the bank has deployed top security measure tagged ‘SkyeSecure’ to enhance the security of the platform.

government parastatals.” she said.

She urged NOTAP to work more closely with other agencies in the ministry on technology transfer and to guide them, especially in the areas of relevance industrial based research.

She equally urged the agency to monitor how all research products are being used and protected in the country by way of patent and licensing.

“What I want more now, is for NOTAP to work more closely with other agencies of Science and Technology, to guide the agencies, especially in the areas of relevance, industrial based research and also monitor how these research products are being used and protected in the country by way of patent and licensing,”.

While warni n g N O TAP to avoid huge capital outflow from technology transfer, she however, charged the agency to adopt an acceptable standards in controlling how technology is moving in and out of the country, and stressed the need for inter agency corporation on technology transfer between all the operating agencies in the country and the regulator.

Earlier in his remarks, the Director General of NOTAP, Dr. Umar Bindir said NOTAP was ready for the digitization project, adding that discussions were already ongoing with the Galaxy Backbone for the actualisation of the plan.

When completed, he said the digitised library, would aid the agency in actualising its mandate of monitoring technology transfer within and out of Nigeria and the technological development of the country.

Bindir, said the main focus of the agency in recent times has been on transferring technology into commercialization.

He decried the low output of telecommunications technology, manufacturing and financial sectors from the university and research institution and promised to address the lapses through proper regulation.

28 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014— 29

C M Y K

30 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014— 31

C M Y K

32 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Keshi: Mba showed no hunger

T

HE Super Eagles boss opted to withdraw the 25-year-old from his preliminary squad for the competition, along with six other players.

Alongside Victor Obinna, Mba was perhaps the most high-profile casualty with the midfielder occupying a place in Nigerian football history due to his winning goal in the Africa Cup of Nations final last year.

Mba had been late to Nigeria’s training camp due to a visa hitch but Keshi also revealed his disappointment at a lack of hunger from the CA Bastia man.

“His lateness to camp contributed (to his missing out) but outside that he did not show the hunger, the fight, we expected for him,” he said.

“We have only two and half weeks to prepare for the World Cup and he was not giving us what we wanted.

“He was very relaxed and it was unlike him.”

Nigeria open their World Cup campaign against Group G rivals Iran on June 16.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 33

BRAZIL 2014 COUNTDOWN

BRAZIL 2014 COUNTDOWN

Keshi: No sentiments in team selection S

UPER Eagles co ach Stephen Keshi has revealed that picking his final 23-man squad was very tough, but there were no sentiments involved.

Keshi cut Afric an Nations Cu p he ro Su nd CHAN MVP Eji ay M ba , ke Uzoenyi, lo ng -s er vi ng fo rw ar d Obinna Nsofo r, as well as midfielders Nosa Igiebor and Joel Obi, forwa rd Nnamdi Oduamadi and goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi.

“T hi s wa s a ve decision to ma ry tou gh ke could have tak . I wish I en th em to th e Wo all 30 of rld Cu p,” Keshi said.

“They have been this time and come with us all thi I think it’s unfortun s far and everyone can ma ate that not ke it.

“But we had to do what we had to do, and we had to do it without any sentiment. I have told them to be strong and to work ha rder.

The seven cut pla ” be remain with the yers will after tonight’s ga team until me against Greece.

Brazilian sex workers learn English ahead of the World Cup

W

• Mba C M Y K

Ayew insists pressure’s on Germany, Portugal not Ghana

ITH growing fears over crime and reports of unfinished stadiums, many think Brazil isn’t prepared to host the world’s biggest football tournament.

But try telling that to the country’s sex workers, who are prepping for the influx of foreigners by brushing up on the international language of love. Which in this case happens to be English.

In a classroom in Belo Horizonte, Igor Fuchs teaches prostitutes basic words, like days of the week, as well as phrases that would make a soldier in

Saigon blush.

With over 600,000 foreigners expected to visit the country when the event kicks off June 12, some are

expected to take advantage of the country ’s oldest profession – especially if they crash out on penalties in the last 16.

Although punters shouldn’t worry about turning their World Cup ticket into a court case, as prostitution is legal in Brazil.

• Ayew

A

• Falcao

Falcao’s World Cup dream ends M ONACO superstar Rad amel Falcao has been forced to forfeit his place in Colombia’s World Cup squad after failing to recover from a cruciate knee ligament injury in time for the finals in Brazil this summer.

Falcao - and all of Colombia - have been hoping against

Messi feels sore over criticism by countrymen

A

RGENTINA and Barcelona star Lionel Messi admits he was hurt by past criticism that he lacked commitment when playing for his country.

The four-time Ballon d’Or winner, who is set to compete in his third World Cup, has earned 83 caps for the Albiceleste.

However, he has previously had to defend himself against claims that he lacks enthusiasm in the national team jersey - an accusation he resents.

Messi told Marca: “I took all the comments: that I showed no desire to play for the national team, that I didn’t sing the anthem, that I’ve no feeling for the shirt. It hurt to come from my country and many unfairly attacked me.

C M Y K

• Messi

hope that the star striker, who played a key role in his country’s second-placed finish in the CONMEBOL qualification campaign - would be fit in time for the showpiece finals in Brazil, but yesterday Colombia coach José Pekerman announced that Falcao would not be retained in the squad to go to Brazil.

“It is with immense sadness that I announce Falcao will not be going to the World Cup,” said Pekerman, who had included the Monaco man in his provisional 30-man squad, as he announced his final list of 23 to take on the world.

Falcao had a blistering start to his career in Ligue 1 with nine goals in the first half of the season, but his campaign was cut short after he ruptured a cruciate knee ligament in a Coupe de France tie in January. After surgery, Falcao worked hard to curtail the habitual nine-month lay-off associated with such injuries, and although he managed to train with the squad in the last week, it wasn’t enough to convince Pekerman to take a gamble and

NDRE Ayew says Ghana is not under pressure and insists the burden of expectation will fall on their group opponents Germany and Portugal ahead of the World Cup. The Africans have drawn the two European heavyweights as well as ‘old friends’ USA in a crunch group G games.

The Black Stars have

managed wins over the Americans in the last two editions of the tournament and lost narrowly to the Germans in 2010 in South Africa and will be playing Portugal for the first time.

The chances of the Ghanaians to progress from the group have been hugely highlighted with Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho ruling out the chances of the Africans to advance to the next stage.

Don’t take Iran for granted, Akanni warns Eagles

• Iranian team

E

X-INTERNATIONAL Waidi Akanni has warned the Super Eagles not to take the Iranian national team for granted at the World Cup following the resignation of their Assistant Coach, Majid Salih.

Akanni gave the warning yesterday in Lagos.

Salih was forced to resign because of infighting over who should be the direct

assistant to the Chief Coach of the Iranian national team, Carlos Queiroz, a former coach of the Portuguese national football team.

Queiroz prefers Tony Simoez, another Portuguese, to be his assistant, while the football authorities in Iran prefer an Iranian for the post.

He said: “When an assistant coach or whoever resigns less than 10 days to a tournament, it means things are not well with the team.

32 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Keshi: Mba showed no hunger

T

HE Super Eagles boss opted to withdraw the 25-year-old from his preliminary squad for the competition, along with six other players.

Alongside Victor Obinna, Mba was perhaps the most high-profile casualty with the midfielder occupying a place in Nigerian football history due to his winning goal in the Africa Cup of Nations final last year.

Mba had been late to Nigeria’s training camp due to a visa hitch but Keshi also revealed his disappointment at a lack of hunger from the CA Bastia man.

“His lateness to camp contributed (to his missing out) but outside that he did not show the hunger, the fight, we expected for him,” he said.

“We have only two and half weeks to prepare for the World Cup and he was not giving us what we wanted.

“He was very relaxed and it was unlike him.”

Nigeria open their World Cup campaign against Group G rivals Iran on June 16.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 33

BRAZIL 2014 COUNTDOWN

BRAZIL 2014 COUNTDOWN

Keshi: No sentiments in team selection S

UPER Eagles co ach Stephen Keshi has revealed that picking his final 23-man squad was very tough, but there were no sentiments involved.

Keshi cut Afric an Nations Cu p he ro Su nd CHAN MVP Eji ay M ba , ke Uzoenyi, lo ng -s er vi ng fo rw ar d Obinna Nsofo r, as well as midfielders Nosa Igiebor and Joel Obi, forwa rd Nnamdi Oduamadi and goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi.

“T hi s wa s a ve decision to ma ry tou gh ke could have tak . I wish I en th em to th e Wo all 30 of rld Cu p,” Keshi said.

“They have been this time and come with us all thi I think it’s unfortun s far and everyone can ma ate that not ke it.

“But we had to do what we had to do, and we had to do it without any sentiment. I have told them to be strong and to work ha rder.

The seven cut pla ” be remain with the yers will after tonight’s ga team until me against Greece.

Brazilian sex workers learn English ahead of the World Cup

W

• Mba C M Y K

Ayew insists pressure’s on Germany, Portugal not Ghana

ITH growing fears over crime and reports of unfinished stadiums, many think Brazil isn’t prepared to host the world’s biggest football tournament.

But try telling that to the country’s sex workers, who are prepping for the influx of foreigners by brushing up on the international language of love. Which in this case happens to be English.

In a classroom in Belo Horizonte, Igor Fuchs teaches prostitutes basic words, like days of the week, as well as phrases that would make a soldier in

Saigon blush.

With over 600,000 foreigners expected to visit the country when the event kicks off June 12, some are

expected to take advantage of the country ’s oldest profession – especially if they crash out on penalties in the last 16.

Although punters shouldn’t worry about turning their World Cup ticket into a court case, as prostitution is legal in Brazil.

• Ayew

A

• Falcao

Falcao’s World Cup dream ends M ONACO superstar Rad amel Falcao has been forced to forfeit his place in Colombia’s World Cup squad after failing to recover from a cruciate knee ligament injury in time for the finals in Brazil this summer.

Falcao - and all of Colombia - have been hoping against

Messi feels sore over criticism by countrymen

A

RGENTINA and Barcelona star Lionel Messi admits he was hurt by past criticism that he lacked commitment when playing for his country.

The four-time Ballon d’Or winner, who is set to compete in his third World Cup, has earned 83 caps for the Albiceleste.

However, he has previously had to defend himself against claims that he lacks enthusiasm in the national team jersey - an accusation he resents.

Messi told Marca: “I took all the comments: that I showed no desire to play for the national team, that I didn’t sing the anthem, that I’ve no feeling for the shirt. It hurt to come from my country and many unfairly attacked me.

C M Y K

• Messi

hope that the star striker, who played a key role in his country’s second-placed finish in the CONMEBOL qualification campaign - would be fit in time for the showpiece finals in Brazil, but yesterday Colombia coach José Pekerman announced that Falcao would not be retained in the squad to go to Brazil.

“It is with immense sadness that I announce Falcao will not be going to the World Cup,” said Pekerman, who had included the Monaco man in his provisional 30-man squad, as he announced his final list of 23 to take on the world.

Falcao had a blistering start to his career in Ligue 1 with nine goals in the first half of the season, but his campaign was cut short after he ruptured a cruciate knee ligament in a Coupe de France tie in January. After surgery, Falcao worked hard to curtail the habitual nine-month lay-off associated with such injuries, and although he managed to train with the squad in the last week, it wasn’t enough to convince Pekerman to take a gamble and

NDRE Ayew says Ghana is not under pressure and insists the burden of expectation will fall on their group opponents Germany and Portugal ahead of the World Cup. The Africans have drawn the two European heavyweights as well as ‘old friends’ USA in a crunch group G games.

The Black Stars have

managed wins over the Americans in the last two editions of the tournament and lost narrowly to the Germans in 2010 in South Africa and will be playing Portugal for the first time.

The chances of the Ghanaians to progress from the group have been hugely highlighted with Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho ruling out the chances of the Africans to advance to the next stage.

Don’t take Iran for granted, Akanni warns Eagles

• Iranian team

E

X-INTERNATIONAL Waidi Akanni has warned the Super Eagles not to take the Iranian national team for granted at the World Cup following the resignation of their Assistant Coach, Majid Salih.

Akanni gave the warning yesterday in Lagos.

Salih was forced to resign because of infighting over who should be the direct

assistant to the Chief Coach of the Iranian national team, Carlos Queiroz, a former coach of the Portuguese national football team.

Queiroz prefers Tony Simoez, another Portuguese, to be his assistant, while the football authorities in Iran prefer an Iranian for the post.

He said: “When an assistant coach or whoever resigns less than 10 days to a tournament, it means things are not well with the team.

34 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014— 35

– Bridget Momodu, CEO, Unique Weavers

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention and development. This maxim has played out in the life of this graduate of Business Administration who, years ago, redefined her hobby to escape Nigeria’s teeming list of job-seekers. Through decades of resilience, that hobby has today grown into a money-spinner, making Mrs.Bridget Momodu, now the CEO of Deltabased Unique Weavers, not just her own boss but also a popular employer of labour. She has trained many; most of whom are presently on her pay roll. In this chat, Bridget says the weaving business is a silent goldmine crying for government’s intervention.

BY JOSEPHINE IGBINOVIA

W

hat’s Akwa Ocha and why are you into it?

Akwa Ocha is a white, woven cloth regarded as the pride of the Anioma people of Delta State. It is the traditional cloth worn and used by these people otherwise referred to as ‘Delta-Igbo’. This hand-woven fabric is worn mostly during important occasions and it can last for as long as a 100 years. Weaving is my hobby though I studied Business Administration, and developing this hobby was actually to satisfy two needs: to help provide a means of livelihood for teeming unemployed youths by training them and to revive the weav-

ing of Akwa Ocha. I have been doing this for over two decades and to the glory of God, I’ve trained and provided employment for many What inspired the brand name Unique Weavers? Is there actually anything unique about your weaving?

While others use vertical looms that weave small pieces, I use modernised looms and introduce different background colours.

Background colours The uniqueness of this product is that it's an identity for a given geographical area of Aniocha, Ndokwa, Ika, and Oshimili people. Though, it has now transcended to other local government areas in

Delta State. Anywhere you see Akwa Ocha, people know the value, they appreciate it and it is symbolic.

How many are in your pay roll presently?

Presently, I have over 15 paid-staff. I actually trained them all before they began working for me. That’s why I’m advocating people acquire skills. My going into this business really changed my perception in many ways.

I was already weaving on a small scale before I went into studying Business Administration. So, when I graduated and couldn’t find a job, I decided to redefine and develop my business. Now, I’ve not only employed myself but many others. This craft is a real goldmine and if support-

ed by government, it will generate revenue for the nation and further reduce unemployment.

Challenges?

I’ve encountered a lot of challenges in the course of running this business, finance being the most disturbing. We need a bigger place that can accommodate our machines so that we can increase production.

Apart from Akwa Ocha, we also produce rugs and bedsheets of all kinds. We need a lot of materials to work with and the machines need to be

,

I’m weaving to preserve culture and provide jobs

eral, state governments and corporate organisations to come to our aid.

Why solicit government support when you’re running a private business?

Self-employment is what is needed in this country right now. This business, if well funded, will help alleviate the sufferings of many as they will become their own boss after being trained.

All we need do is teach people to establish their own business and before you know it, they’ll become employers of labour. The idea of people

The idea of people coming here to acquire knowledge is what government should look into and that can be realised if we are given the incentives to do so upgraded to make production faster. If you look around our factory, you’ll find there are no finished products and this is because all the products are already booked and therefore cannot be displayed. Once we finish, they are immediately delivered to their owners and that shows there’s a high demand for Akwa Ocha.

We cannot meet even this demand. So there is need for expansion and increase of the looms and shafts so that we can produce more. On that, we are appealing to the fed-

,

coming here to acquire knowledge is what government should look into and that can be realised if we are given the incentives to do so.

Giving loans to the unemployed to buy Okada will not solve the unemployment crisis in Nigeria. But if such loans are channeled into businesses like this, it will make a lot of difference in the society. We are talking of not being able to meet demands; that means there is a huge market for Akwa Ocha.

36 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 YOUR LUCK TODAY

LEISURE

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139 VIRGO: You sincerely believe in intelligent argument or discussion. And if you allow your ability to be diplomatic come to play today, you’ll be better for it. Enjoy your love life.

LIBRA: You’ll tend to become both creative and persuasive to the administration of others. Then those who’ve been resisting secret love may slip suddenly and become excited.

SCORPIO: Even if opposition persists, supports you are getting from the influential people will be enough to see you through. Yet, the more cooperative you are the better.

SAGITTARIUS: Your creativity quotient within your working arena will today be enhanced. You’ll be blamed if you keep official issues secrets from your challenges at work.

CAPRICORN: After a few tension soaked days, you’ll have the needed opportunity to look through windows of the world and have your way as well. Magnetic and/or magic days is predicted for lovers today.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

By Richard Eromosele

I

have a feeling that you are wondering – how can everybody need help?

Does the big man need help? The billionaire that is not a pauper does he also need help? What kind of help can you

Everybody Needs A Helper offer a billionaire?

My simple answer to this is: the billionaire, the millionaire are all human beings. They also have blood running in

TERROR MUDA

their veins. They have two legs, two hands, one head, one mouth, one nose, two eyes, they go to the toilet like common folks and

in “Never say goodbye”

like you and I. They also try to grapple with the challenges of life. The rich also cry.

Everybody needs a helper – whether rich or poor, educated or illiterate, we all need some form of help.

Think about it!

By Lanre Kehinde

AQUARIUS: Even if you continue to work under pressure via increased workload, you will have good results to show for your efforts today. Be steadfast.

PISCES: Better than yesterday. And the more co-operative you are today the better for you. Those of you travelling for love are in for an exciting day.

ARIES: Those of you willing to let go hard feelings at work are for a progressive day to the betterment of your finances.

Let go yesterday, move ahead.

TAURUS: Once again, you’ll have the needed opportunity to assert yourself to the administration of others. Both love and financial success can be yours with efforts. Reason with your tried and trusted friends.

GEMINI: You can make it a successful day with positive approach on your part. You will be in a better position to defuse tension within your working arena. Try to be more ambitious.

CANCER Yes! You’re not scared a bit even, when opposition and/or competition come your way but, if you give in to diplomatic approach, you’ll fare better today.

KAPTAIN AFRIKA

in

“Pretty Lunatic’

By Andy Akman

LEO: Pressure that came your way suddenly will give way unexpectedly, today, to the betterment of your course. The more financially ambitious you are today, the better for you.

Be steadfast.

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING Send yyour our dat th ttoo the As tr ological datee and place of bir birth Astr trological Counselling, PP.M.B .M.B 1100 00 7, Apapa, Lagos 007,

About day I was born?

Dear Joshua, Kindly tell me how the planets lined up when I was born and the day of the week I was born but don’t publish my date of birth.

Nelson-Ughelli.

Dear Nelson, With the Moon in Libra when you were born influence of Libra be pronounced in your characteristics build up but, you are mainly a Scorpio born person YOUR HOROSCOPE DATA Day of Birth = Sunday Sun Sign = Scorpio. Sun in Zero Degree of Scorpio Moon Sign = Libra: Moon in 5th Degree of Libra Mercury in 12th Degree of Scorpio Venus in Zero Degree of Sagittarius Mars in 1st Degree of Aquarius Jupiter in 29th Degree of Cancer Saturn in 10th Degree of Scorpio Uranus in 27th Degree of Cancer Neptune in 25th Degree of Libra Pluto in 26th Degree of Leo North Node in 8th Degree of Capricorn South Node in 8th Degree of Cancer No planet in earth spar sign, one in available, two in fire, three in air, four in cardinal, fixed and water star signs hosted five planets each.

PHYSICAL INFLUENCE = 50% NON-PHYSICAL INFLUENCE =50% PLANET AT HOME = NONE ANALYSIS OF THE HOROSCOPE DATA You are both an intelligent and emotional person. And as there was planet at home when you were born, too many ideas will always struggle for prominent place in your mind, thus decision making is difficult but most times, your intelligence comes to the rescue.

Certainly, you appear to other as a gentle person who can be mistaken for soft fellow but your inner-self is the personality with a steel like will power.

You are the consistent type who may find it difficult to change once you have made up your mind as indicated by distribution of the planets as written out in paragraph two of this exercise.

One major challenge you have been battling for a very long time is constant worries, some times, necessarily and the other time, uncalled for, as indicated by conjunction Mercury and Saturn formed when you were born.

Placement of your natal Sun (basic self head) and Moon (your sub-conscious self) in Scorpio and Libra respectively are indications of your being mainly Scorpio born person and partly in Libran.

VIRGINIA

HOME & ABROAD

dadadekola@yahoo.com

By Lawrence Akapa

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014—37

BRIEFS

DAY 51

Chibok, the Coalition and the Federal Govt

By MARYAM UWAIS

and that community must feel; the suspense and the anguish they must be going through.

I resolve again and again that I must do all that I can to keep the issue on the front burner of the Nigerian discourse.

I cannot sit at Chibiok Girls : Mrs. Maryam Uwais addressing newsmen and Abuja Family members of #Bringbackourgirls home and lament shortly after filing a suit against FCT Commissioner of Police who banned rallies in Abuja. Photo: Gbemiga Olamiabout the situa- kan. tion so helplessly; I must remain against politicizing the Chibok political party and have striven, come that is reassuring to us, as engaged and involved. I must incident, the message from the all my working life, to assist, citizens? Yesterday evening, in find creative ways of collectively Executive continues to attribute wherever I can, to making my an inexplicable admission of his and constructively engaging our politics to the discourse, in a country a better place. Our 1999 incapacity (or unwillingness) to citizens on security concerns, and matter that is so plainly about Constitution guarantees me the ‘protect citizens from terror’ (his our leaders on how we can sup- safeguarding the lives of vulner- freedom to assemble, associate ostensible justification) within port them, to make our country a able Nigerian citizens. and express myself. I ask myself the FCT jurisdiction, the FCT safer and more peaceful place to The narrative that has since why Government should be so Commissioner of Police ‘banned’ live in. We cannot allow that the emerged from our engagement nervous and react so negatively the BringBackOurGirls Coalition girls be forgotten or sidelined by with the President’s representa- to the demand that it lives up to from holding protests in public other ‘breaking news’, for that tives suggests that Nigerians its responsibilities; why should places. In a democratic dispenwould amount to abandoning should direct their message to they insist that I direct my ques- sation! them(and their families) to a fate Boko Haram, to ‘release the tions to Boko Haram? I do not worse than death. girls’, as the message, ‘bring back know what the membership of Democratic So I have committed to the our girls’, appears to place the Boko Haram consists of, where dispensation BringBackOurGirls campaign. blame on government for the in- they are or how they operate. But The BringBackOurGirls Coali- cident.

I do know my leaders and firmly We, as law-abiding citizens, tion has become, for me, a place believe they are in office to serve have decided to challenge this of solace and hope; where Nige- Custody of Nigerians and Nigeria. A re- violation of our constitutionally rians from all walks of life and the girls sponsible leadership should take guaranteed rights, in a court of irrespective of religion and ethsteps to assuage and allay its cit- law. Perhaps we have been unnicity, come together as one, comAs far as the Federal Govern- izen’s fears by being receptive der Military rule for too long, and pletely shutting out the divisive ment is concerned, since it is not and approachable. This is what this is why the leadership should cacophony of voices in our pub- in custody of the girls, the de- we see obtains all over the world; feel a sense of outrage, that citimand should be directed at Boko should I not remind our own zens should dare to remind them Perhaps we have been under Military rule Haram. Ever since then, our leaders that they are in office for that they have responsibilities peaceful protests (as a Coalition) the purpose of service? Most towards them. for too long, and this is why the leadership have been characterized by in- importantly, Government should I had hoped and prayed that should feel a sense of outrage timidation. Government buses, not alienate its own people by when the girls are finally rescued, nicity or faith, are united on this lic sphere, whocontinue to use loaded with women, have been intimidating and labeling us en- all Nigerians, including our Pressingular effort and message. Our these superficial dissimilarities to brought to the precise location emies of State, especially when ident and members of the Coalicitizens have risen in an unprec- garner selective advantage. We, where we meet, to sing and all we seek to do is to peacefully tion would be able to stand toedented show of unity, to de- as a Coalition, have tried to en- dance around the Coalition, in exercise our constitutionally gether, on the same platform, to mand that the girls be rescued, gage our leaders, elected and ap- an effort to drown out our voices. guaranteed rights and free- welcome them, rejoicing joyfully. Sadly, members of the Execuwhile the international commu- pointed, who swore on the Con- Thugs have been unleashed on doms. tive in our Government, by their nity has been galvanized, in an stitution of the Federal Republic one of our meetings, to disrupt recent tactics,demonstrate a paraawesome demonstration of hu- of Nigeria, to protect and secure our peaceful discussions, snatch Demand for noia that renders this scenario man solidarity, to join Nigerians our lives and our welfare. These bags, phones and break chairs, answers mere wishful thinking, on my in this quest. include the leadership of the Na- without provocation. A GovernMoreover, every Nigerian has part.

For me, as each day passes, tional Assembly, the Office of the ment Minister has accused us of All we want and continue to and especially when the sun be- National Security Advisor, the being partisan, inferring that we the right to demand for answers gins to fade, sobriety overwhelms Minister of Defence, the Chief are opposition. We are locked out from their leadership, even if demand for is that our girls to be me. I try to imagine what it must of Defence Staff, the Governor of of parks when we relocate to other politics is ourparticular vocation brought back, safe and alive. This be like for those little girls in the Borno State and finally, the Pres- public spaces. Determined to re- in life. Indeed, as Nigerians, we singular message has been conSambisa forest. I think of the de- ident and Commander in Chief main focused on our singular are each, individually bigger sistent, loud and clear and cancampaign to bring back our girls, than the components (of the iden- not be different from what the scending dark enveloping of the Nigerian Armed Forces. however, we have not reacted or tities) of the faiths we profess; Government would want to hapthem;slithering poisonous allowed ourselves to be provoked greater than our vocations (as pen. Government just needs to snakes;wonder how they can Constructive and into violence. We have continued politicians), roles or professions; accept that not everyone is the keep clean, eat and drink clean reassuring to meet wherever we can, not- larger than our sundry ethnic enemy. Not everyone is interestwater. I imagine them holding onto each other, crying and strugOur meetings with the Nation- withstanding these distractions. groups. We are human beings. ed in politics or holding public gling earnestly to give each oth- al Assembly and the Office of the Precisely because our girls are Is it so difficult to comprehend office. Not everyone is out to diser courage.

National Security Adviser were still out there, somewhere un- that when we confront our lead- parage, blame or denigrate the Then I remember those evil constructive and reassuring, but known and in danger, and our ers with our security concerns, we other. On the contrary, most Nimen, and my mind draws a the response from the President, purpose for meeting remains do not recall what ethnic group gerians are more interested in or culture they belong to, what living in peace and harmony. We blank. I cannot think any further. as read out by the Minister of unfinished.

We are accused of being oppo- language they speak or faith they yearn to be assured of security This must be every mother’s State of the Federal Capital Terworst nightmare; that her child ritory, was disappointing, as it sition, merely because we have subscribe to? We do not remem- and protection. We crave a leadis kidnapped by armed men, to displayed a defensiveness that dared to ask our elected leaders ber what party platform they uti- ership that is responsive, aca place beyond her reach, for was unfounded and totally un- to be accountable to the people lized to attain office. Can our countable, empathetic and resultdays unending. I shudder with necessary. Paradoxically, though that voted them in. I, personally, leaders just please trust that all oriented. the thoughts of how the parents the content of his letter warned have never subscribed to any we want are results and an out-

W

HEN, on the morning of April 15, 2014, an obviously very distressed guard from Chibok approached me to inform of the abduction of almost 300 girls from the Government Secondary School in his hometown.

I looked at him in disbelief. How do almost 300 girls get carted into trucks and taken away, in one fell swoop?

Over the next few days, however, my dread and apprehension slowly manifested into inescapable reality. To this date, our girls still remain in captivity, almost two months after that awful morning. In the period, the BringBackOurGirls Coalition, beginning with one tweet and several protest marches in many State capitals of Nigeria, has succeeded in drawing the attention of the entire world to the plight of these 273 Nigerian girls, who were driven away into the Sambisa forest, without a trace. As a consequence, several countries have offered to support Nigeria in its efforts at rescuing them, while protests continue and prayers are being offered, all over the world, for their safety and swift return.

Terror knows no boundaries; everyone is affected by the bombings and killings, without exception. For once, Nigerians from all walks of life, irrespective of eth-

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38—V anguard 38—Vanguard anguard,, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 , 2014

Northern agenda: A backbone without coccyx? (2) In yesterday's edition of Vanguard, we published the first part of the South South's reaction to the "Key Issues before the Northern delegates to the 2014 National Conference," issued by the North. In the presentation, by AYAKEME WHISKY, the South South held that since the amalgamation, the North has been dependent on the fortunes of the South to service their recurring annual deficits. In this second instalment, he argues that the North has never contributed a dime to the exploration, discovery and exploitation of oil in the Niger Delta.

B

environmental hazards the Niger Delta area has to bear to provide the financial resources with which Nigeria’s development has been funded to its grosteque exclusion.

To develop and feed the North and other regions, the Niger Delta people are exposed to the crude effects of 1.4 billion standard cubic feet (scf) per day of gas flared, which generates 45.8 billion kilowatts of heat. This is outside a toA oil rig tally degraded ecology and terrain that has completely destroyed the traditional trade revenue without spending any and occupation of the peo- dime. It was not until 1973 that ple. Being denied the luxury of the First Participation Agreement pipe-borne water for over 50 (FPA) which witnessed the Fedyears the peoples of the Niger eral Government’s acquisition of Delta only source of drinking wa- 35 per cent shares in the oil comter remains polluted. Giving all panies was entered into. By 1974, these sacrifices for according Ni- the Second Participation Agreegeria the reputation of a region- ment saw the Federal Governal power, it is rude, insensitive ment increase her equity to 55 and callous for our Northern per cent. The so called intellecbrothers to make unfounded ut- tual barons from the North should terances. That is repaying a good tell us how the North funded oil prospecting operations with their heart with wickedness.

The truth about funding oil ex- groundnut proceeds/revenues.

Thirdly, the claim of the North ploration activities is that it was entirely a private sector driven being solely responsible for the prosecution of the Nigeria civil The North did not and has never contributwar in both financial and human content is brazenly repugnant, ed a dime to the exploration, discovery and insolent and demeaning. Can exploitation of oil in the Niger Delta the so called assertion of messianic role, assuming it is true, coneconomy every facet of the coun- initiative without contributions fer on the North a right to pertry has been feeding from could from even the colonial govern- petual dependence on the rehave precipitated fear-induced ment. It is on record that the ini- sources of the South even if for reaction in the face of current tial unsuccessful exploration at- the heck of argument we concede agitations for resource control to tempt by Nigeria Bitumen Co. & that no Southerner fought the make such unfounded claims. British Colonial Petroleum in war? Is it a form of reparation in But is insulting the collective 1908 around Okitipupa was suc- perpetuity?

According to the apostles of the psyche of the oil bearing people ceeded by Shell D’Arcy in 1938, of Nigeria the solution to allay after it was granted exploration Northern agenda, the funding of fears? The simple question is licence. In 1955, Mobil Oil Cor- the civil war was entirely done why were these arguments of poration also joined and started by the North at great sacrifice to providential geographical loca- exploration operations in Nige- its wellbeing, at the expense of tion not factored during the era ria. Shell-BP (formerly Shell investment in human and ecoof true federalism in 1963 when D’Arcy), at the time the sole con- nomic development of the entire agriculture was the mainstay of cessionaire could only find oil region. the economy? in commercial quantity in 1956 At the risk of repetition since at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta af- Form of the unblemished historical facts ter half a century of exploration. reparation are continuously being denied, So at what point did the people we wish to state that the North or government of Northern NiThe North sold forward all its did not and has never contribut- geria invest in the business of oil groundnut and cotton for a numed a dime to the exploration, dis- exploration? ber of years, risking forward decovery and exploitation of oil in Was it as direct oil prospecting livery contract of three years for the Niger Delta. Rather for near- companies or shareholders in all its agricultural produce to ly forty years now resources from these strictly private investment prosecute the civil war. The the oil rich Niger Delta is being companies? What we do know as North supplied more than 80 to used to prospect for oil in the a matter of incontrovertible his- 90 per cent of the arms and men Lake Chad Basin, the Benue torical fact, no matter how much that executed the civil war. trough and elsewhere in the truth is being attempted to be Emerging as a young nation, North. The claim of funding oil bent for petty myopic interest, the it was in the strategic interest for exploration in the Niger Delta is Nigerian state has been tremen- everybody to fight to unite the the height of ingratitude to God dously benefitting from royalties, country as one indissoluble entifirst and man, given the scale of rents and taxes received from oil ty. As replete as the various acIOMETRICS must be vol untarily given without inhibitions. Second, the national identity card project must be allowed to succeed at all cost.

It must be freed from the perennial deliberate bureaucratic frustration it has suffered over the years. We want to be magnanimous in saying that the product of the proposed exercises shall not form the basis for resource allocation or revenue sharing.

And that we are no longer willing to permit the continuous reliance on disputed census figures for that purpose since the bane of accurate census in this country is the politics of resource allocation and distribution.

The second contextual issue that needs quick re-education to bury permanently is the vodoo claim that “the North funded the exploration for oil in the Niger Delta, using Northern resources, etc.” As demented as this claim is, nothing can be further from the truth.

This negative orientation informed on spurious reasoning is an assault on nature, the sensibilities of business enterprise and a curse on collective progress and accommodation. Yes, the oil

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counts of bravery and prowess about the war are, we are inclined to recommending the detail of the war by Col. Alabi to know where bravery and courage lie during the war. Nevertheless, it would be apposite to mention the courageous contributions of Southern officers like Col. Benjamin Adekunle, Col. Alabi, Col. Olusegun Obasanjo, Col. Alani Akirinade, Col. David Ejoor, Admiral Soroh, Admiral Wey, Navy Commanders Okujagu and O.P. Fingesi. Cdr. Diete-Spiff who as Military Governor still undertook critical and strategic military expeditions at the frontal lines.

There were still officers like Brig. Gen. Kurubo, Nigeria’s civil war time Ambassador to Russia, who negotiated and shipped in the long range weapons that altered the course of the war in favour of Nigeria as well as the irrepressible Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro and many others who played major role on the Nigerian side. It is therefore inconceivable for a section of people to arrogate to themselves the singular role of the master hands that ended the war.

Expeditions at the frontal lines Before delving into the funding of the war, we wish to state without equivocation that the purpose of the war was not about oil but centred on the repressive tendencies of Hausa-Fulani oligarchy. It was the failure by the Northern leadership to regard and respect the fundamental principles of human relationships arising from disrespect for covenants and agreement that precipitated the war.

As earlier mentioned, the Hausa-Fulani hegemony had always seen the Southerners as conquered people and it was this affront that Col. Ojukwu resisted as one of the intellectuals in

the Nigerian Army then. Unfortunately that is the arrogance being exhibited by the authors of the Northern agenda today.

Before the war, the Nigerian federation had started receiving royalties from oil mining rents particularly that the first oil field at Oloibiri came on stream producing 5,100 bpd in 1958,.

There was a quantum leap as more companies began operation and discovered oil in commercial quantity in fields in the Niger Delta. Gen. Gowon who had become the Head of State following the assassination of Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi, for purposes of prosecuting the war, jettisoned the provision of Section 140 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1963 which states inter alia: (1) There shall be paid by the Federation to each Region a sum equal to fifty percent of •the proceeds of any royalty received by the Federation in respect of any minerals extracted in that Region; and, •any mining rents derived by the Federation from within that Region.

(2) The Federation shall credit to the Distributable Pool Account a sum equal to thirty percent of•the proceeds of any royalty received by the Federation in respect of any minerals extracted in any Region; and, •any mining rents derived by the Federation from within any Region.

Triple objectives Since the Constitution was suspended following the military rule, Gen. Gowon appropriated the entire oil induced royalties to the exclusion of producing states. Hence from 1966 to 1981 when the Nigerian state was ruled by Military men from the North, derivation received zero per cent allocation. First it was alleged to be for the prosecution of the war and later for the triple objectives of reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement.

We are not in hurry to forget the ‘misguided’ public statement that the “problem with Nigeria was how to spend our money”, portraying the country as a wealthy nation in 1973 when total production level had risen to two million bpd in the face of global oil crisis. At what point were the “groundnut proceeds” used to finance the war? We challenge the authors of the Northern agenda to give a detailed and comprehensive value of the ‘three years forward delivery contract’ for all its agricultural produce to prosecute the war.

Areas of critical interventions: Having dealt with the preliminaries, we would now proceed to tackle assertions we consider grave and contentious to hoodwink and bias unsuspecting conferees. In thinking that the ‘path to achieving equity and justice Continues on page 39

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V anguard anguard,, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 , 2014—39

A backbone without coccyx? (2) Continues from page 38 and a commitment to a balanced development of every part of Nigeria as expected in a federal system’ is realisable only in exhuming the onshore/offshore dichotomy, the authors stated that: The North also recommends the rejection of claims to oil resources by oil producing areas that led to the cancellation of the onshore/ offshore oil dichotomy which action gave away a national resource to littoral state, seriously eroding revenue available for distribution to all parts of the country.

The North demands a reversal to status quo ante. All mineral resources should remain under the exclusive rights of the Federal Government as provided for by the international law (1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea UNCLOS, Article 76) on territorial waters/ boundaries which stipulated that 200 nautical miles off the continental shelves belongs to the central government exclusively.

The above reechoes the very familiar agitation that derivation under section 162(2) of the 1999 Constitution should be paid only for onshore mineral resources, as offshore resources belong to the Federal Government. We wish to state that this pre-occupation with on-shore/off-shore dichotomy is

vests on coastal states the sovereign and exclusive rights to explore and exploit the mineral resources on and in the Continental Shelf (Article 77). The central question is, which of the federating units in Nigeria is entitled to exploit the resources on and in the Continental Shelf? Is it the State Government or the Federal Government?

On April 5, 2002, the Supreme Court delivered a judgment in a suit instituted by the Federal Government against the 36 States.

The Federal Government alleged that the seaward boundary of a coastal state is the low water mark of the land surface of the State, but the Federal Government did not adduce evidence either orally or by affidavit to indicate the actual location of the alleged low water mark. It was claimed that it was not necessary to adduce such evidence because the case is one of the interpretation of the constitution.

The Court held that the seaward boundaries of the littoral states, for purposes of calculating the revenue derived from the natural resources of these states, are the low water-mark of the land surface. The Court, in effect, excluded the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf of Nigeria as forming part of the boundaries of coastal

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We wish to state that this pre-occupation with on-shore/off-shore dichotomy is not based on law, but on politics and greed

not based on law, but on politics and greed. The authors should deservingly know that Nigeria ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) on August 14, 1986. The UNCLOS demarcates certain maritime zones and vests certain rights on its State parties.

One of these zones is the Continental Shelf.

Continental shelf Article 76(1) of UNCLOS defines the Continental Shelf as follows: The continental shelf of a coastal State comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance.

This simply means that the Continental Shelf comprises the submerged prolongation (extension) of the land territory of the coastal state. The UNCLOS

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states. However, the Supreme Court was not called upon to interpret the provisions of Section 162(2) of Constitution but to precisely ascertain and fix the seaward boundary of a coastal state.

That raised an issue of fact which required evidence. The Federal Government did not adduce that evidence, so the Supreme Court should have dismissed the case.

Realizing the security implications of that unjust and biased decision on extractive activities off the shores of the Niger Delta, the Obasanjo Administration submitted an executive bill to the National Assembly for the abrogation of the on-shore/off-shore dichotomy. This led to the passage of the Allocation of Revenue (Abolition of Dichotomy in the Application of the Principle of Derivation) Act, 2004 [See Cap. C23 LFN 2004].

Section 1(1) of the Act provides: “As from the commencement of this Act, the two hundred meter water depth Isobaths contiguous to a State of the Federation shall be deemed to be a part of that State for the purposes of computing the revenue accruing to the Federation Account from the State pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Re-

public of Nigeria, 1999 or any other enactment”.

Section 1(2) provides: “Accordingly, for the purposes of the application of the Principle of Derivation, it shall be immaterial whether the revenue accruing to the Federation Account from a State is derived from natural resources located onshore or offshore”. The 2004 Act effectively upturned the 2002 Supreme Court Decision earlier considered. There is no unconstitutionality in the 2004 Act to warrant the call for its repeal. In law, legislation can upturn judicial decisions. The Act does not violate any international law.

That the Federal Government negotiates, signs and ratifies international agreements on behalf of Nigeria or protects the territorial integrity of the country on land, air, or sea does not confer on it the right to acquire what belongs to the federating units.

Such contentions amount to legal absurdity. A state has constitutional and legal internal sovereignty, particularly to own property; it cannot be otherwise simply because the Federal Government acts in its behalf in international conventions and agreements.

All over the world, countries enter into treaties some of which confer direct rights on citizens or segments of their populations.

Some treaties of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) confer benefits on individual farmers or other economic groupings though negotiated and ratified by their central governments.

Coordinate relationship States under municipal law, particularly in a federal system of government are sovereign, independent and autonomous and maintains coordinate relationship with the central government. They are not in any way subordinate. The relationship between the central and state governments is based on mutual respect. These attributes are exercised in spheres of authority allocated to the State by the Constitution of the country.

None of these two levels of government surrenders its sovereignty to the other and same extends to the state government’s inviolable right to property under its territory. It has internal sovereignty over, without hindrance and interference from the

central or federal government.

That is the essence of federalism. Perhaps the hegemonic proponents are still persuaded by the mentality of militarism being primary beneficiaries. The right of a state to own property is further established in Section 1 of the Land Use Act 1978 which vests on the Governor all lands in the state.

It provides: “Subject to the provisions of this Act, all land comprised in the territory of each State in the Federation are hereby vested in the Governor of that State and such land shall be held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of all Nigerians in accordance with the provisions of this Act”.

Furthermore, the Law of the Sea at page 79 states that: Coastal states would have sovereign right in a 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone (EEZ) with respect to natural resources and certain economic activities, and would exercise jurisdiction over marine science research, and environmental protection, all other states would have freedom from navigation and over flight in the zone.

Exclusive economic zone The concept of the exclusive economic zone and its import for the Niger Delta states brings to the fore the Quadripartite Sea Front theorem which states that: No Community, no country, No riparian inhabitants, No EEZ for a Coastal State (Harold DappaBiriye). An application of this theorem holds that no government, region nor group of people indeed have the moral and legal justification to continue to contemplate the appropriation for itself the mining rents and royalties from offshore production of crude oil to the exclusion of the riparian owners of the continental shelf.

It means invariably the Exclusive Economic Zone is owned by the riparian owners, the coastal states. It is fundamental to note that Section 8, Chapter 26 of Agenda 21 (World Earth Summit on Sustainable Development, 1993) recognized the right of indigenous people to coastal resources.

It provides that: National governments should incorporate, in collaboration with indigenous people affected, the rights and responsibilities of indigenous

people, and their communities in national legal frameworks, including recognition of the need to protect their lands from unsustainable and inequitable development and secure their access to and control over both their lands and their natural resources.

In Section 2, Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 which dwelt on safeguarding the Ocean’s Resources, provision was made for the participation of indigenous people in the planning process of EEZ. Nigeria, as a signatory of the above UN laws and resolutions is under obligation to respect and implement them.

It is, therefore, a complete absurdity, an assault on the peace loving and magnanimous people of the South for the protagonists of the Northern agenda to call for the reintroduction of the onshore/offshore dichotomy. As earlier pointed out whereas International law vests certain rights on Nigeria, but Nigeria is not synonymous with the Federal Government. The Federal Government is a central unit in the Federal Republic of Nigeria which has 36 other federating units.

The Federal Government has no land of its own. All parcels of land in Nigeria belong to the constituent states which make up Nigeria. Similarly, it is the seaward boundaries of the littoral (coastal) states that make up the seaward boundary of Nigeria.

Take out the coastal states and Nigeria automatically becomes a land-locked country! It should therefore be known that we shall resist to the last ounce of our energy any attempt to reintroduce the offshore/onshore dichotomy.

The way forward Our simple solution to all these development challenges is a recourse to true federalism with each state controlling its own natural resources and paying tax to the federal government. God has blessed each state with abundant natural resources either in form of hydrocarbon, solid minerals and a rich agricultural land mass and a yet to be explored value chain to cater for its development.

Wisdom profits those who desire it and in this context the timeless words in a popular aphorism may be instructive, to wit: “Conscience is an open wound and only truth can heal it.” It is paradoxical for the North to claim to be the backbone of Nigeria when every available statistics show that they have indeed been grossly dependent on the South since the two protectorates came together in 1914.

Like the spine of the human anatomy, could the spinal cord (backbone) have stood on its own without the support of the coccyx that provide a landing? In other words, could it have been possible for the North to survive and make all these giant strides as people and a geographical enclave without the economic base provided by the South which some of their past leaders pillaged? Time will tell!

Concluded

40—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Alleged missing $49.8 billion:

How Senate c'ttee came up with its findings

BY JOSEPH ERUNKE

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HEN the letter he had earlier secretly written to President Goodluck Jonathan in December 2013, intimating the president of the sum of $49.8 billion allegedly missing from Nigeria’s oil proceeds, leaked to the public, the then Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was hailed by many even as others immediately dismissed his allegation, saying he was playing the script of certain elements to derail the federal administration.

In the letter, Sanusi alleged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, failed to remit more than two-thirds of the oil money earned by the country between January 2012 and July 2013, insisting that out of the sum of $67 billion, only about $18 billion had so far been accounted for, while the sum of $49.8 billion was unaccounted for.

Those who dismissed Sanusi’s claims, believed that the then CBN boss had come up with the claim as a strategy to divert public attention from then ongoing investigation into his alleged shady deals by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, FRCN, among which was his financial recklessness coupled with his perceived imbalance in donations to states and

institutions.

The Senate was drawn into the issue during one of its plenary by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, APC, Ekiti North, who raised a Point of Order on Matter of Urgent Importance under the Senate Order 42 that the Red Chamber look into the allegation he considered grave to be overlooked.

Adetunmbi drew the Senate’s attention to newspaper reports alleging that the money was proceed from the sale of crude by the NNPC.

Proceeds from sale of crude He said the laws stipulated that proceeds from the sale of crude should be lodged in the CBN and requested that the Senate should institute a probe into the alleged missing funds.

According to him, the apex bank has written that the funds are accruals that are not remitted from January 2012 to July 2013 by the NNPC. Adetunmbi said: “There has been a raging debate on the issue of missing money from the coffers of the Federal Government of Nigeria. Today, all newspapers carried the report on 49.8 billion dollars that has not been remitted to the federation account. As a parliament, this is a very grave

issue.”

The lawmaker noted that the parliament owed it a duty to the public to ensure that “we get to the bottom of this issue”.

Senate President, David Mark, who presided over the day’s affairs, said since the details of the matter were not before the Senate, it would be difficult for senators to consider it instantly as a matter of urgent importance.

He said the matter would be referred to the Senate Committee on Finance for further investigations to enable it to avail the Senate details of the matter, rather than relying on newspaper reports.

Mark therefore referred the matter to the committee and directed it to report back to the plenary in less than seven days.

Minutes after Senator Mark made this remark, in what seemed unsatisfactory to them, the All Progressives Congress, APC, senators assembled journalists for a press conference, where they urged the Senate leadership to get to the root of the matter.

Led by Senate Minority Leader, George Akume, the senators said the CBN source on the alleged missing funds was authentic and should not be doubted.

Akume who read a prepared speech at the conference, said the APC senators were determined

,

•Senate in session

to ensure that the matter was given the urgent attention it deserved because ''We have been told and we have every cause to believe that this money is missing, this document is coming from the CBN. It is an authentic source.

“We are determined to follow it to the fullest and we want you to join us in doing so. One of our responsibilities is to identify with the people by ensuring that those of us who are charged with higher responsibility conform to very high standard expected of people in public office,” he insisted.

Shortly after the committee was inaugurated, it held a number of public hearings where all the parties connected in the issues raised by Sanusi appeared to either submit memorandum or testify orally . The committee was not done with the public hearings it held on Thursdays in February, March and April, as it sought the services of forensic experts to examine the financial records of the NNPC and the one earlier submitted by the then CBN Governor.

There was anxiety over the expected report of the committee, especially given that over six months after holding a public hearing, the committee was yet to release its report. But the committee, headed by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, PDP, Kaduna North, at last tabled the report last Wednesday.

Before appearing before the Makarfi –led committee, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the

illegal kerosene subsidy, saying contrary to the president’ letter directing stoppage of the subsidy.

He said that while some funds had been accounted for, the sum of $20 billion remained outstanding. The Senate committee asked him to submit his written presentations, which he did. But he was promptly tackled by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, who insisted that contrary to claims that the subsidy on kerosene was illegal, the Federal Government never asked the corporation to terminate kerosene subsidy.

Allegations by Sanusi But in its reports submitted last week before the Senate, the Makarfi-led committee denied that the alleged sum of $49.8 billion or $20 billion were missing just as it said the allegations by Sanusi had no roots. The 73-page report said: “There was never any unremitted $49.8 billion. The total crude oil liftings from January 2012 to July 2013 was $67 billion and not $65 billion as the CBN Governor had presented.

“The committee could not see how the figure of $49.8 billion was arrived at by the CBN Governor in the first instance.

That the CBN Governor at the first hearing had put forward the figure of $12 billion as money to be reconciled and changed his position to $20 billion at subsequent hearing. At the

We have been told and we have every cause to believe that this money is missing, this document is coming from the CBN. It is an authentic source

CBN, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, the NNPC, the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, as well as the Department of Petroleum Resources ,DPR, met at various times to reconcile the differences.

Reconciliatory meeting The reconciliatory meeting, according to Sanusi arrived $12 billion as the missing funds. But the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who still disagreed, saying the amount reached stood at $10.8 billion even as she said the reconciliation was an ongoing thing and not basically because of Sanusi.

But when he appeared before the Senate committee in February, Sanusi, who was then still at the helm of affairs at the apex bank, gave a new figure of $20 billion.

He introduced a new issue by accusing the NNPC of operating

,

conclusion of his written submission, he (Sanusi) posited that it could be $20 billion, $12 billion, $10.8 billion or anything in between.

“The CBN Governor orally or in writing never outrightly submitted that monies were missing but that monies were not remitted to Federation Account by the NNPC.” Even as it said it had not rounded off its assignment due to the pending forensic examination,the committee however, said there was the need for the NNPC to incorporate its spending on kerosene subsidy in the national budget, noting that while the subsidy on petrol was budgeted for, that of kerosene, though spent by the NNPC with evidence, was not budgeted for in the nation’s yearly plan.

The Makarfi-led committee report equally found that gross liftings under the Third Party Financing was $2,430,750, 973 Continues on page 41

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014—41

Insecurity:

We’re toying with Nigeria’s

unity — Ifowodo FORMER Executive Director of Nigeria’s foremost human rights group, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), and Poetry and Literature Teacher at Texas State University-San Marcos, the United States of America, Dr Ogaga Ifowodo, in this interview speaks on why he is gunning for Isoko Federal Constituency seat on the banner of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the rising wave of insecurity in the country and way forward for Nigeria.

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

W

HY did you leave the Olympian height of civil society and academia for a plunge into the murky waters of Nigerian politics?

No area of human endeavor can be higher than the very society that constitutes it. If there is any Olympian height in society, it is in my view reserved for politics which I consider the peak of human activity.

Politics may be a dirty game, to use another cliché, but if its waters are murky they bathe all of us; or, put another way, we must all bathe in them. What happens in politics affects every member of society without exception, even the unborn and the dead.

If politics is murky or dirty, it is humans who make it so, stir up the mud at the bottom of the river, piss and shit into the public well.

And it is humans who must clean up the mess they make of politics which ordinarily is the arena of civilized discourse.

I’m entering politics in order to participate directly in the process of bringing positive change to our shockingly misgoverned country, this time not just as a human rights and democracy activist. As an aside, I also wish to use myself as a guinea-pig in a personal experiment: I wish to find out if the magic spell that turns otherwise humble and decent men and women into brainless and spineless

individuals, into kleptomaniacs whose sole mission in government tends to treasurylooting, will work its sorcery on me too. And if it does, then I will apologise to the Nigerian people and all the government officials, military and civilian, that I have ever pilloried since I was a student leader!

What position are you going for?

I’m running for the House of Representatives in the Isoko federal constituency. The Isoko, as you know, are one of the many exploited and marginalized people of the Niger Delta whose oil and gas wealth funds the profligacy of Nigeria’s thieving and visionless ruling class.

The peculiar marginalization of the Isokos has reached the point of their near ostracisation from the Nigerian nation. Yet, they have been so poorly served by those who claim to represent them at the federal level that the Isokos are crying out for a credible and trustworthy agent of change to champion their cause. I intend to take that on with my commitment to good governance and positive change in the nation as a whole.

On what political platform are you aspiring?

The All Progressives Congress (APC), I chose APC because it is the party of change.

Why not PDP, the dominant party in your state, Delta?

Every society needs a credible

•Ifowodo: We must clean up our polittics opposition, an alternative social vision otherwise it stagnates or even degenerates into something worse. After more than a decade of the PDP’s stranglehold on governance, mostly through its unabashed rigging of elections, it is clear to the world that PDP is a vast and intricate electionrigging machine that boasts of not one but numerous Mr. FixIts. APC is the party of that change.

Moreover, I have been a consistent critic of the PDP and the role it has played in destroying the hope of our return to democracy in 1999 after the long, brutish years of military dictatorship that I couldn’t be entering politics now and join them! The APC offers Nigeria a better vision than the PDP whose 15-year strangle-hold on power has only led us further down the

Senate c'ttee's findings Continues frompage 40 out of which share for Federation Account was $1,588,242,004. It indicated that the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) confirmed and gave documentary evidence showing the sum of $1,370,172,650.36 was remitted to the Federation Account. It therefore asked the NNPC to remit the balance of $218,069,354.32 to the Federation Account.

The Senate Committee on Finance therefore tasked the NNPC to refund and remit to the Federation Account, the sum of $262 million being expenses it could not satisfactorily defend of Holding Strategic Stock Reserve; Pipeline Maintenance and Management Cost and Capital

Expenditure.

“Royalties and taxes amounting to $447,817,884 being outstanding Federation Account share from the US $6.815 billion listings by NNPC on behalf of NPDC remains unremitted.

It further states: “NNPC should not pay for their operational expenditures direct from Federation fund without appropriation by the National Assembly; NNPC should strictly adhere to international best practices in keeping records, “it noted. “NNPC should not control the revenue account of NPDC in order not to undermine its separate legal status and make accountability more difficult,”it added.

It suggested that further

legislative action by the Senate should be taken after the receipt of the forensic audit report being undertaken by foreign auditors.

The committee, in its wisdom, given the outcry over the existing fuel subsidy, and the complaint from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, recommended the removal of petroleum subsidy, saying it is contrary to reasons adduced during its formation, it was draining the nation’s economy.

The Senate committee’s report surprised a number of people, especially opponents of the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani-Alison Madueke, and the management of the NNPC as it neither indicted the minister nor the corporation.

road of poverty, joblessness, disunity and disintegration.

As for the claim that Delta State is a PDP fortress, that is a myth. It is a matter of public record that elections in Delta State, especially the governorship and federal constituency elections, have always been very competitive, with a re-run even being ordered for the governorship election the last time.

Governorship election The Democratic People’s Party (DPP) produced a senator, the late Pius Ewherido, and my representative in the state House of Assembly, Hon. Okiemute Essien. The Isoko people don’t feel empowered and they are ready to vote for change as they have always done.

Do you think you have a chance against battle-tested politicians of the PDP? I do! The Isoko people want a committed, visionary and trustworthy agent of change.

If elected, what should the people of Isoko Federal Constituency expect from you?

The same passion that define my political engagement as a rights activist, writer and scholar; they should expect the same forthrightness and commitment that earned me six-months of preventive detention by General Abacha in the peak of the prodemocracy struggles.

I am uncompromisingly committed to the project of saving and changing Nigeria for the better. More specifically, I have a seven-point agenda that ranges from what I will do with constituency projects through which I can make a direct impact on the lives of my constituents,

to proposed legislation in the crucial areas of corruption, electoral reform along the lines of the Justice Uwais’ report, Nigeria’s poisoned religious climate and the mortal threat it poses to our corporate existence, environmental protection etc., down to the traditional roles of oversight and advocacy.

Given the extremely divisive and dangerous role religion is currently playing to aggravate our national life, I shall propose an amendment to Section 10 of the Constitution (or whatever new section in the operative constitution) to strengthen the secular status of Nigeria by removing politics from it.

The amendment will be as follows: “In the performance of his or her duties, a public officer shall not expend funds, act or conduct him- or herself in a manner that may be reasonably construed as promoting or favouring a religion, religious belief, faith or practice.”

Political manipulation I think that ought to be a starting point in our effort to sanitise our badly infested religious climate of political manipulation of faith.

I made a conscious decision to leave academia for politics in order to be a direct agent of change and I intend to do everything I can to be true to the highest ideals of a sane and equitable society How do you see the worsening state of insecurity in Nigeria, especially the Boko Haram insurgency?

It makes palpable the fears of disintegration which before now were already worrisome enough!

Nothing has given the nation greater cause for fear and anxiety since the Civil War than the terror campaign of Boko Haram, which grew from the unaddressed Maitatsine phenomenon of the 80s and 90s.

Rather than insist on the nonnegotiability of the secularity of the nation, which our founding fathers very wisely entrenched in the independence constitution and which no one, not even the military in its countless coups and suspensions and modifications of the constitution, has dared to remove, we chose instead to placate a monster.

And now the monster threatens our very lives, including the lives of its creators.

Our decision to placate rather than isolate and prosecute those who manipulate religion and poverty for political gain to goad Maitatsine/Boko Haram into alliance with the worldwide patron of monsters of the Islamic terrorism variety, Al Qaeda. The sociological explanation of contributing factors aside, I am convinced that the root cause of the problem is our failure, borne of false piety and political brinkmanship.

VANGU ARD, WEDNESD AY, JUNE 4, 2014—42 ANGUARD, WEDNESDA

Why won’t my daughter leave this thug?

Dear Laraba, You might be cute with a hot body but it’s not cool to be one of the boys! If your male friends really think any man would go for a hot chick like you who drinks them under the table, why aren’t any of them going for you?

The fact is that most men prefer women who are coy.

They like being teased about their sports obsession and not their excessive beer consumption, and they secretly like the fact that girls enjoy more feminine pursuits like shopping or cooking!

Common interests are great, and men are impressed when a girl knows what a banana kick is, but that doesn’t mean they want to high-five you every time their favourite team scores!

I’m not asking you to change. You sound like a cool lady, and there are definitely men out there who are into girls who love sports.

Besides, it is far better to be yourself and find a sports

freak who digs you than to pretend to be a girlie girl for someone who wouldn’t be able to handle who you really are.

Just know that, contrary to

what your male friends tell you, it might take a little longer to find that special someone while you’re roughening it with them on the sports field.

,

Dear Bunmi, For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been very comfortable in male company. Whenever we get together, they tell me they can’t believe that I’m still single.

I’m 29, cute, I work out a lot and would rather hang out with the guys than go shopping or to silly parties with the girls.

So, with all these good stuffs going for me, what’s stopping me from getting hitched?

Laraba, by e-mail.

The best way to suss out a player is to make him prove himself first. If love making isn’t immediately on the menu, most players leave the table

,

I’m embarrassed by my big bum!

Dear Bunmi, I know the average girl should feel happy with a well-rounded jiggly bum— but my bum is too round and sticks out too far. As a result, I find it hard to wear tight jeans and feel sure men are staring at my bum.

I’m really self-conscious to wear shorts any more because my bum wobbles.

Please, help me to feel better about myself.

Lape, by e-mail.

Dear Lape, My advice to you is the same as my advice to any woman who feels bad about

any part of her body— from the size of her breasts to the shape of her lips. Remember that the way other people see you is down to how you see yourself.

So if you feel selfconscious, you will give off vibes that others will pick up on and react to. But if you just let your personality shine through, then other people will respond to that.

If you feel good about yourself, you’ll find other people will feel good about you too.

So, forget about your bum and flaunt other parts of your body you liked.

Is he ready to reform?

Dear Bunmi, I’m currently dating a guy who knows some of my friends. They all describe him as a total player who never stays too committed to a girl.

But whenever we went out, he seemed sweet and said things that made it sound like he was really interested in the relationship.

How can I tell if he’s just feeding me lies only to add me to the list of his ‘conquests’? Or is it that he is now a reformed man?

Dora, by e-mail.

Dear Dora, The reason men like your

new beau are called players is because they fancy themselves as having great moves, otherwise they’d be called moo-moos. At least that’s their belief.

This guy of yours obviously knows how to say all the right things and making it sound like he wants a relationship without actually asking you to be in one. Did you expect him to say “Let’s have a one-night stand”?

I could be wrong though.

Maybe you are different.

Maybe he met you and became a one-woman man.

But the fact that not one of, but all your friends warned

you about this guy means you can’t take anything he says at face value—yet.

The best way to suss out a player is to make him prove himself first. If love making isn’t immediately on the menu, most players leave the table. However, if he hangs in there and gets to know you— and not just the inside of your pants— then you might actually have a reformed player on your hands.

So don’t give up on him, but don’t have high expectations either. That way, you’ll figure him out without getting hurt.

Dear Kate, Normally, parents shouldn’t really interfere in their children’s lives but your

,

Why am I not getting the men?

Dear Bunmi, I have a lovely 19-year-old daughter in the university and she is doing well.

Unfortunately, she fell in love with a man in the neighbourhood. He is 24, lives and works with his parents and a drug addict.

He used to have a girlfriend on the same street as ours who he beat up from time to time. Now he’s threatening my daughter with violence and his ex-girlfriend has also threatened to beat her up!

I’ve warned her against continuing with this dangerous relationship but I just learnt she sees him behind our back. She’s so young to be facing this kind of responsibility. What can I do to stop her?

Kate, by e-mail.

daughter ’s case is really heavy and you should wade right in there! At 19, she may think she loves this guy, but he’s obviously not good for her— and neither are the people he mixes up with.

Don’t tell your daughter off— that’ll only make it more likely she’ll rebel. As any parent will tell you, teenage kids are really horrible, are rebellious at times and you need to help your daughter come to terms with the reality of the situation she’s in. It is bad enough that the guy is an addict— but to be threatened by him and his ex is a bit frightening.

To help her develop her sense of self pride, encourage and help her make relationship choices that are better for her so she could get back the confidence to live a normal life.

Sometimes, parents just have to be strong and stand firm.

If you feel good about yourself, you’ll find other people will feel good about you too

,

He finds it difficult to rev up his engine Dear Bunmi, When I met my current boyfriend two years ago, we had a very active love life.

These days, his libido has totally tapered off and I can’t figure out why. I know I haven’t changed, but he’s now seldom able to rev his engine.

He’s currently having some financial issues, so I can’t really suggest a romantic gateway to reignite his flame.

Do you have an idea of what the problem could be?

Angelica, by e-mail.

Dear Angelica, It could be a number of things: a medical issue, depression or stress. But I think you actually provided a much more specific answer to your question than I ever could. That’s because money— or lack of it—has a tremendous effect on his

manhood. So your guy is probably depressed and stressed out by his current lack of funds.

Unfortunately, there’s not enough hot and sexy undies to solve his problems. So, instead of concentrating on seduction, focus on lifting his spirit while avoiding the subject of money as much as possible.

Whatever you do, don’t offer to pay for everything— it’ll just make him feel worse.

Instead, suggest low-key dates: renting movies, visiting mutual friends or even going for walks. It’ll prove to him that you don’t care about fancy things— at least for now— and love him enough to see him through his rough patch.

Eventually, he’ll regain his mojo and demonstrate his appreciation in the sack!

Share your problems and release your burden. Write now to Dear Bunmi, Vanguard Newspapers, P.M.B 1007, Apapa, Lagos. or bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 —43

Don’t politicise Justice Oputa’s burial, Imo govt tells Charly Boy

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI—GOVERNOR Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, has expressed reservations at the manner the family of the late quintessential jurist, Hon. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, has turned the man’s burial into a family affair, even after government had advanced them N20 million.

Okorocha, who made his feelings known through a press statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant, SSA, on Media, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, also said he was reacting to the obituary notice signed by Justice Oputa's son, Charly Boy. “Already the state government has given N20 million to the family for preliminary arrangements, waiting to meet with the family to come up with a comprehensive burial programme that would demonstrate what the hero of the bench had stood for, but surprisingly, the family drew a pro-

gramme of events for the burial and to us, that was not what Nigerians expected from us,” Okorocha fumed.

The governor said he expected that the family would liaise with him to come up with a burial arrangement or programme that would suit what the late Justice represented in Nigeria and Imo State in particular.

“Reducing the burial arrangement of the late statesman totally

to Oputa family affair is unacceptable to Imo State government,” Okorocha said.

“Imo State government had had at the back of its mind that a man of Justice Chukwudifu Oputa’s standard should be accorded a heroic burial because he conquered his world in all spheres, but it is regrettable that the Oputa family does not seem to appreciate what their son or father represented in the Nigeria context,”

Okorocha said.

He recalled that he was at the Oguta country home of the late Oputa barely 24 hours after the death became public and promised that he would meet with the family to plan a befitting burial for the great jurist.

He advised the family not to politicise the burial of the exemplary jurist as he was not a politician or reduce the burial of a man as Justice Oputa to Oputa family affair. According to him, that will be most uncharitable to such a great man.

Clerics decry growing insecurity in Nigeria

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI—THE Deputy National Secretary of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Dr. Cosmas Ilechukwu, and the Bishop of Okigwe South Diocese, Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. David Onuoha, have cried out that Nigeria was fast becoming a land that devoured its inhabitants.

While Onuoha made his feelings known in his 86-page Presidential Address during the third session of the seventh synod held at St. Mark’s Church, Umunachi, Obowo local council area of Imo State, Ilechukwu regretted the growing insecurity yesterday, while addressing a press conference in Owerri.

“We have had people who were legitimately practising their religious beliefs bombed, maimed and killed aimlessly in different cities in the Northern part of Nigeria,” Dr. Ilechukwu said.

He also recalled that innocent people had been bombed in motor parks and markets, while school girls were kidnapped and carried to unknown destination.

He said: “In spite of the national and international uproar this has raised, the kidnappers remained adamant and still held these girls against their will.”

Speaking also in the same vein, Bishop Onuoha noted that insurgency, which had the capacity of completely grinding the nation to a halt, had become the latest face of insecurity in Nigeria.

PRESENTATION: Chief Jugde of Enugu State, Justice Innocent Umezuluike (left) presenting the certificate of office to Magistrate Ifeanyi Mamah shortly after (Mamah) took oath of office at the State high court, Enugu, on Monday.

Boko Haram: Group raps North for sabotaging Jonathan’s effort

BY PETER OKUTU

A

BAKALIKI—YOUTH lead er of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ebonyi State, Chinedu Ogah, has called on Northern leaders and politicians to stop sabotaging President Goodluck Jonathan’s efforts at ending Boko Haram insurgency in the country.

The youth leader made the call yesterday while fielding questions from journalists in Abakaliki.

He stated that the Boko Haram sect was killing innocent Nigerians because of an existing conspiracy against President Jonathan's presidential ambition in 2015.

According to him, nobody can stop Jonathan from contesting the forthcoming general election.

Ogah argued that if the Boko Haram insurgency remained in existence till next year’s election, the constitution of Nigeria would empower the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, not to conduct election in the affected states in the country, which would favour Jonathan’s return to power.

He called for a more effective collaboration between all the Northern leaders and security agencies deployed in their area to forestall the brutal killing of innocent lives and de-

struction of properties by the deadly Islamic sect.

“The more the Boko Haram insurgency remains, the more the constitution of Nigeria will not allow election to hold in that place and President Jonathan will continue to be the President of this country. ”What are the governors of the North doing to end the

insurgency? "'For example, in Chibok, where these girls were kidnapped, what has the security agents, the state governor, the school principal, northern leaders done? Who opened the gate for Boko Haram to kidnap the school girls?, the group a s k e d .

Nigeria, 60 others ratify MLC, as NIMASA trains vessel inspectors

BY GODWIN ORITSE

T

HE Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and 60 other countries have signed the Maritime Labour Convention, MLC. The agency has also commenced the training of ship inspectors ahead of the enforcement of the convention.

Speaking at the opening ceremony to flag off the training of Maritime Labour Inspectors training, NIMASA’s Director General, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi, said the aim of the programme was to achieve a uniform implementation of Flag State Inspection and

ensure the on-going compliance at ports.

He said the training was also aimed at adequately preparing officers who will eventually carry out on board Port and Flag State Inspection.

Akpobolokemi said: “It also involves the training of staff of the relevant departments who need the basic knowledge and understanding of the convention to successfully carry out their duties.

“Although at the National level, some of the provisions provided in the MLC, 2006 already existed in the NIMASA Act and the Merchant Shipping Act, 2007.

IMSG, Concorde Hotel staff on warpath over sack

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI—IMO State government and staff of Concorde Hotel may soon be on collision course as a result of plans by the former to sack the latter.

Vanguard investigations revealed that a woman, simply identified as Betty, and sent by Government House, dropped the bombshell when she addressed the workers.

“Just last Friday, they paid three out of our four months arrears of unpaid salary, which they have been owing us and asked us to vacate our offices,” a staff who spoke on strict grounds of anonymity told Vanguard.

It was also gathered that the electric generating set serving the hotel had been forcibly shut down to ensure that the atmosphere in the hotel remained hopeless for workers to operate.

Continuing, the aggrieved staff said: “The woman did not mince words when she said that government wants to shut down Concorde Hotel for two weeks.

“We were told to go and pray for two weeks and that we should thereafter reapply for our jobs.”

Transition

M

RS Josephine Iwuajoku is dead.

She died on May 5, 2014, after a brief illness.

She is survived by children, grand children, nephews, nieces, daughters and sons in law.

According to the family, the burial arrangement includes; Service of Songs at her Compound in Umuohii-Atta, Imo State on June 5, while the funeral service will take place at St Mathew’s Anglican Cathedral, Atta on June 6 and interment at her family compound at 1: 00pm same day.

.Late Madam Iwuajoku

44—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Edo PDP leadership intellectually lazy, says Oshiomhole

War veterans restate support for Jonathan

BY TOMMY ANADUAKA

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN—GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has accused the leadership of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state of intellectual laziness, saying that the party only offers comic relief.

Speaking yesterday when he received the new leadership of All Progressives Congress, APC, led by Mr. Anselm Ojezua, in his office, Oshiomhole said that the state government remains accountable, transparent and will not be deterred by flimsy accusations from the opposition party.

He said: “I have read some comments in the newspapers which reveal the quality of leadership of the opposition.

For example, when we took the N25 billion bond in 2010, I did explain and I repeated it at several fora that we are servicing the bond.

“We spend about N520 million every month to

E

X-SOLDIERS of the Civil War, under the aegis of Care First for the Aged Welfare Development Association, CFAWDA, have expressed their continued support for the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and his transformation agenda.

National Chairman of the body, Vet. Ubi Ikoi, after a meeting of the association, described President Jonathan as God-sent leader, adding that despite the challenges faced by his administration, he remains the best President the country has ever had.

The veterans warned that they will resist any attempt to lure them into discrediting the government.

Revival Assembly partner Regent Varsity

service the bond. Only an illiterate will wonder that we took a bond and we are servicing it.

“I think what will make news is if we became so insolvent that we are not capable of servicing the bond. It is somebody who is so illiterate,

who is so uninformed that will see the issue of debt servicing as news.”

The governor, who also spoke on the allegations by PDP that he spends about N40 million on trips, said maybe they were speaking from the experience of

Jonathan lauded over CBN gov's appointment

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

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S the new Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, resumed duty yesterday, members of a socio-cultural association in Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, Otu Mmunne of Agbor, have applauded President Goodluck Jonathan for the appointment.

The group in a statement by its President, Mr. Augustine Emeye, also commended the Senate for confirming Emefiele’s nomination as

CBN governor.

It noted that Emefiele’s appointment was a square peg in a square hole, adding that he has the administrative competence, managerial skills and pedigree needed to strengthen the country ’s economy.

The association described Emefiele's appointment as historic and monumental to the people of Agbor in particular and Delta State in general and urged him to bring his vast wealth of experience to bear in the discharge of his duties.

former PDP governors, who misruled the state or that of other PDP governors in other states.

He added that “if there should be any complaint, it should be by the security agents, because when I am travelling out of the country, I travel alone.”

Oshiomhole advised the new executive of APC in the state on the need to ensure that internal democracy thrives and not to commercialise the process of choosing members for elective positions.

We must respect our diversity—CLARK

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BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

HE Revival Christian Academy, RCA, School of Business has finalised plans to partner Regent University, in America, on online business and entrepreneur programmes.

Speaking about the launch, which will hold on June 7 in Lagos, Apostle Anselm Madubuko of Revival Assembly Church, said: “Our goal is to create a more enterprising individual that will make an impact in the global business market.”

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ENAGOA— ELDER statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, has called on Nigerians to respect the country ’s diversity and heterogeneity.

Chief Clark spoke in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, during the re-burial of the exhumed remains of late Major Isaac Boro, who was killed during the Nigerian Civil War in Okrika, Rivers State, while fighting on the

side of the Federal Government on May 16, 1968.

The Ijaw leader said: “Today, our son, Goodluck Jonathan, is being assaulted because he is from the minority. Lugard never said any part of Nigeria is superior to others.

“The unfair attitude of some section has been responsible for the convening of national conference by Jonathan to address the injustices in the Nigerian system.

“Those who do not see the benefits of living together are

being recalcitrant and intransigent in their positions at the confab. We must respect our diversity and heterogeneity.”

Also speaking, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State warned unpatriotic Nigerians, who are playing politics with the current security challenges rocking the country, to turn a new leaf.

The governor, who stressed the need for peace, noted that every crisis situation has its attendant cost.

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member representing Ndokwa/Ukwuani federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Ossai Ossai has pleaded with Boko Haram to release the Chibok schoolgirls unconditionally.

Making the plea when he paid a visit to Ukwuani Foundation Union, UFU, Lagos, the lawmaker said the abduction was barbaric and projected the image of the country in a bad light.

He used the occasion of the visit to present his scorecard to UFU and urged Ndokwa sons and daughters to support the union on the Ukwuani House project.

UFU President, Chief Joseph Olise, than-ked Ossai for keeping to his campaign promises.

By Bartholomew Madukwe

PEOPLE SPEAK

08102479985

Rep makes case for Chibok schoolgirls

(nwamad@yahoo.com)

On amnesty for Boko Haram insurgents

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NCONDITIONAL amnesty to Boko Haram will be unfortunate. Nowhere in the world is amnesty granted to faceless terrorists. It is clear that those behind Boko Haram are stronger than we had imagined?— Mr. Ollorwi Osaro, Businessman.

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lot of people fear to speak up. But there are procedures in giving amnesty. You do not give amnesty to all types of insurgents or groups that do not even have a cause.

And they have not come out for recognition.— Mr. Michael Ihindan, Worker.

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RANTING amnesty to Boko Haram will throw this country into chaos. Federal Government should arrest, detain and prosecute any member of the sect, including those calling for amnesty to be granted to such a group.— Mr. Chika Eze, Businessman.

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F Boko Haram members are actually Nigerians and they have the love of this country at heart, they should come out, surrender their arms and accept the amnesty that was offered them by the President.— Mr. Samuel Blessing, Worker.

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F amnesty is granted, government should be ready to continue to grant same to agitators and factions that will emerge from various zones after they would have killed and maimed innocent Nigerians.— Mr. Dennis Omatala, Businessman.

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OSTERITY will not forgive Nigeria for putting the man that stole goat or yam behind bars for years or even execute him, while Boko Haram members walk free on the street after wreaking grievous damage on Nigeria.— Ms. Nkiruka Ikwunne, Student.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 45

Poly teachers give Delta govt 21-day ultimatum over ICE

Chinese flooding Nigeria with substandard goods —SON

BY EMMA AMAIZE

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SABA—THE Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic – Institute of Continuing Education, ASUPICE, Asaba chapter, has given the Delta State Government a 21-day ultimatum to investigate alleged maladministration by the institute's leadership.

Chairperson of the chapter, F. C. Obiuwevbi, in a letter addressed to the Commissioner, Higher Education, Asaba, said: “If these issues are not resolved within 21 days, the union may be compelled to seek other legal redress to achieve its goals.”

It alleged that funds allocated to the institute had not been accounted for and urged the government to investigate all the funds received by the institute through subventions, development levies, tuition, matriculation fees, WAEC fees, extension, identity card and other levies, which were not used for the purpose since 2010.

Maritime Varsity, Tompolo’s contribution to N-Delta —Oluba

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YOUTH leader in Okerenkoko, Gbaramatu Kingdom, Delta State, Mr. Timi Oluba, has said that the Maritime University, Okerenkoko, is the contribution of Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo to the development of the Niger Delta region.

Oluba, yesterday at Okerenkoko, noted that the Maritime University and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA shipyard/dockyard would boost social and economic activities in the area.

He said: “The people of Gbaramatu Kingdom shall remain grateful to Tompolo for attracting these viable projects to the kingdom, and Tompolo being our leader, it is our collective desire to ensure that these projects are executed unhindered.”

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BY IFEYINWA OBI

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NAF OPERATIONS SEMINAR: From right: Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu and Air Marshal Nsikak Eduok (rtd.), during a dinner in honour of participants of the Nigerian Air Force Operations Seminar in Uyo.

Ripples over Uduaghan’s promise of car gifts to opposition parties

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

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SABA—OPPOSITION political parties in Delta State are sharply divided over the recent promise by the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, to buy them cars and dole out cash grants to them.

Some described it as a good gesture while others were skeptical about the gift, with one of them saying they might be Greek gifts. But the Senior Political Adviser to the governor, Chief Ighoyota Amori, said it was a right step, aimed at ensuring the growth of other political parties to enhance credible opposition in the state.

Reacting, Executive Director of Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged, Mr. Oghenejabor Ikimi, told Vanguard that “it is wrong to spend public funds this way.

Giving car gifts and cash running into millions of naira to politicians and friends while many Deltans live in penury and abject poverty is unacceptable to me. I cannot comprehend same. As I speak, many pensioners in the state are yet to receive their gratuities since their retirement two or more years ago.”

Also reacting, Chairman of Democratic Peoples Party, DPP in the state, Chief Tony Ezeagwu, said: “DPP has been vindicated. It is a question of who is fooling who. You will recall that Governor Uduaghan sometime this year told PDP National Chairman Alhaji Ahmed Mu’azu, that Delta State is a one party state.

Where did the governor find those he is about to give cars and cash gifts to?”

On his part, the state Chair-

man of the Labour Party, Mr. Emeka Nkwoala, said that although “it is still a promissory note, we trust the governor will fulfill his promised.

We commend the governor for the kind gesture. We are stakeholders and a veritable tool in a democratic dispensation.”

Senior Political Adviser to the governor, Chief Amori, said “it is a step in the right direction. By this action, the governor is deepening democracy. The opposition parties need to be supported to enhance credible opposition and provide platform for electoral competition. If only PDP survives to contest and win, the victory will not be sweet.

Other parties are supported by the governor to grow in order to provide credible opposition.”

2015: I'll build Delta of our dream —Omo-Agege

BY FESTUS AHON & GODWIN OGHRE

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GHELLI—FORMER Secretary to the Delta State Government, SSG, Obarisi Ovie Omo-Agege, has said he will focus on building a Delta State where there are jobs and better opportunities for all Deltans, if elected as governor of the state in 2015.

Speaking during a consultation meeting with former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Local Government Chairmen's Forum, Omo-Agege, said: “I envision a more dynamic and brighter future for Delta State and believe that through collaborative and inclusive efforts, all of us,

irrespective of where we come from or the language we speak, can make this possible.

“Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan has achieved a lot for our state in the last seven years in the areas of infrastructural, human capital development and security which have been the policy thrust of his administration.

“I am proud of Governor Uduaghans’ record and his desire to even do more and finish stronger in the remaining period of his tenure. But there is still much to be done to realise the Delta State of our collective dream. The challenges we face going forward are enormous.

We all know these challenges

because we face them every day in our lives. Unemployment, general insecurity, corruption, rising food prices, housing shortage and broken marriages are some the challenges we must overcome.

“My earned experience in government as Executive Assistant to the governor, Commissioner for Special Duties, Government House and Secretary to State Government and the years out of government since 2007 gives me a unique understanding of these critical issues of our time and I intend to implement a pan-Delta agenda that offers viable solutions that reflect the collective views and wishes of all Deltans rather than those of special interests."

IRECTOR-GENERAL of Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, has said that the Chinese were allegedly flooding Nigeria with substandard goods.

“We have paraded a number of people, especially Chinese, over substandard and fake products,” the SON boss said in a programme monitored in Lagos.

He added: “If you don’t know, we now pay people for information on substandard and fake products.”

He also hinted that the requirement of the certificate of Standards Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme, SONCAP, for Nigeria-bound goods may inadvertently be causing diversion of the country’s shipments to the seaports of neighbouring countries, including Cotonou Port, Benin; Lome Port, Togo; Accra Port, Ghana and Abidjan Port, Cote d’Ivoire.

Delta PMAN condemns Boko Haram's acts of terror

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GHELLI—DELTA State chapter of Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria, PMAN, has condemned the spate of bombings by the Boko Haram insurgents and the abduction over 200 girls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State.

PMAN, in a statement by its governor, Quincy Tebite, said it was painful that the girls, who are “harmless, innocent and future Nigerian leaders, who went to learn for a better tomorrow could be abducted.”

Calling for the unconditional release of the girls, Tebite said “For how long will these obnoxious act continue? What manner of people are these? Must you kill all Nigerians in the name of religion?"

46 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

INSECURITY: NLC asks Jonathan to probe security agencies

BY VICTORAHIUMA-YOUNG

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BUJA—NIGERIA Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to carry out full investigations into the activities of security operatives including military personnel in the North eastern part of the country, decrying the worsening security situation in the region despite huge human and financial resources committed to fight the insurgency.

In a statement by its President, Abdulwaheed Omar, NLC equally implored the National Assembly to investigate how the monetary allocations to the military in recent times were being spent.

The statement read: “We are disturbed that despite huge resource allocations to security, it remains a serious challenge in Nigeria with the recent ambush and assassination of the Emir of Gwoza, Idrisa Timta who was in company of two other emirs on their way to Gombe for the funeral rites of their late colleague, the Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Usman Shehu Abubakar who died earlier at a London hospital.

"It is worrisome that these attacks are increasing even as the Minister of Finance recently announced that N130 billion had been spent on security, especially on the military that have been saddled with the responsibility of confronting the prevailing armed insurgency in the North East led by the Boko Haram elements.

“The ease and precision with which these attacks are carried out, despite numerous security check points and the number of security personnel deployed in the zone is worrisome and unjustifiable.

"If high profile traditional rulers could be attacked so casually just as villages and towns are being razed even in broad daylight, what would be the fate of ordinary citizens? For us, we believe the authorities need to demonstrate a high level of commitment to safety of lives and property in the country generally but especially in the

North East, by carrying out deep investigations into the activities of security operatives including military personnel while we reiterate our consistent call for proper equipping and moraleboosting measures of our personnel.

“It is already a national embarrassment that the school children who were abducted from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State more than six weeks ago are yet to be located and rescued even as multinational interests in the rescue operations increases. That

these children are yet to be rescued and delivered unharmed to their parents questions the commitment and credibility of those saddled with the search and rescue operation.

"We are confident that our security agencies, including the military can effectively rout out the insurgents if well equipped and motivated. After all, these same personnel not only rendered a good account of themselves in foreign operations, they played a decisive role in ending conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali."

SEMINAR: From left: Director, Institutional Development, Africa Tax Administration Forum, ATAF, Mr. Kennedy Onyony, representative of the Acting Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Mr. Osy Chuke and Coordinating Director, FIRS, Hajiya Queensley Seghosime, at the ATAF, seminar on VAT in financial services in Abuja.

KILLINGS: Tambuwal sues for peace in Taraba

BY JOHN MKOM ALINGO—THE Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal yesterday sued for peaceful coexistence among the people of Taraba State irrespective of tribal, ethnic and religious differences.

Tambuwal spoke at Bali Local Government Area of the state while commissioning a number of motorcycles, sewing and grinding machines donated by the member representing Bali/ Gasol federal constituency in the National Assembly, Mallam Aminu Manu to his constituents.

Bali area had been engulfed with communal crisis between Fulani herdsmen and Tiv farmers resulting to the killing of scores of people with many others displaced with property worth millions

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of Naira destroyed.

He, however, expressed happiness that the items purchased by the member for distribution to the constituents would go a long way in engaging youths and women to reduce poverty in the area.

The speaker said: ‘’No meaningful development can be achieved in a crisis prone area, only peace can give us such development that we are seen today to enjoy. Please my people let us bear with one another to leave in peace. ‘’Today, I received a

chieftaincy title from the Chief of Bali and that makes me a son of the soil, anything that happens to Bali will affect me.

Therefore, I am calling on all the people of this area to live in peace to allow development to take place.”

Neighbour to Neighbour donates food items to brought. millet, maize, sugar, diplaced persons in Kaduna beans, maggie cubes, cooking oil

BY LUKA BINNIYAT ADUNA—NEIGHBOUR to Neighbour, N2N, the political machine that championed the election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, yesterday, donated a truck load of assorted grains and other food items to displaced persons following recent skirmishes in three local government areas in Kaduna State.

N2N explained that its

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involvement in politics, was a big deviation from its mandate as a Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, involved in humanitarian issues only.

Presenting the items at the Government House, Kaduna, the coordinator of the group, Aisha Lemu said they were meant for the displaced persons in Bondom in Kaura, Kachia and Birnin Gwari Local Governments.

The group said: “We have

among others. This is an NGO determined to contribute its quota for the development of Nigeria and empowerment of the youth, including giving succour to traumatised persons.

“The people in the three local governments we have made this donations to need the items and it will go along way to assuage their sufferings. We are determined to support any administration that is willing to serve the people of Nigeria."

Borno APC inaugurates ward excos

BY NDAHI MARAMA AIDUGURI—THE Borno State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji Bukar Dalori yesterday, inaugurated the newly elected ward executives of the party in the 27 local government areas of the state, with a strong warning that antiparty activities would not be condoned.

Dalori said, the ruling APC in the state was determined to take Borno to the ‘’promised land’’ after winning all elective positions in 2015, pointing out that anybody or leader who had retrogressive agenda or motive towards the party would not only be shown the way out, but punished accordingly in line with the laid down rules and regulations as enshrined in the party’s constitution.

While congratulating the newly inaugurated party executives, Governor Kashim Shettima, represented by his Deputy, Zanna Mustapha assured all members of the party that the state government will do everything possible to transform all the sectors of the state's economy.

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DPP members decamp to PDP in Sapele

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A P E L E — HUNDREDS of Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, members led by Jackson Utuedor in Wards 7 and 8, Gana areas, Sapele Local Government Area in Delta State, weekend, decamped to the PDP. Receiving the decamped members in Sapele, the chairman, Sapele local government, Mr. David Ogenekewwe and Gana ward 8 chairman, Mr. John Kpokpoyibo assured that PDP will guarantee both old and new members equal opportunity to actualise their aspirations at both local and state level.

In his remarks, Utuedor thanked the leadership of the party for the reception and promised to work for the party’s victory at all times.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 47

Bauchi educates investors on solid minerals potentials

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AUCHI — THE Bauchi State Government has embarked on aggressive enlightenment of investors, including youths, on the huge potential in the solid minerals deposit in the state, an official has said.

Managing Director, Bauchi Mining Synergy and Exploration Ltd, BSMSEL, Malam Isa Mohammed, made the disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, yesterday in Bauchi.

Mohammed said the state was endowed with a variety of solid minerals in commercial quantity, second only to Kaduna State.

He said: “Nature has endowed Bauchi State with an abundance of untapped solid minerals resources which can be broadly categorised into three — metallic ores, nonmetallic and gem stones.”

Among the minerals he listed are kaolin, tin, gemstones, granite, talc, quartz, iron ore, gypsum, zircon, calcite, tantalite, chalcopyrite, mica, copper ore, limestone, tourmaline, beryl and garnet.

Others are aquamarine pyrite, rutile, talc, cassiterite, migmatite, columbite, orthoclase, muscovite, aquamarine, topaz, marble, silver, fluorite, zircon, graphite, dolomite, wolfromite, bismuth and others.

70-yr-old monarch, 18 others remanded over ex-FRCN director murder

By BOLUWAJI OBAHOPO

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OKOJA — A 70-year- old tra ditional ruler and 18 other suspects were, yesterday remanded in prison custody by a Chief Magistrate Court in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital for allegedly killing Chief Isa Edimeh, and one Muhammed Wada, all of Ojikpadala Egume village in Dekina Local Government of the state.

The suspects, Alhaji Etila Ajeka, the Onu of Egume, Muhammed Abdul, Ibrahim Salifu, Hassan Ocheni, Ocheni Salifu, Samson Achem, among others, were alleged to have conspired among themselves and killed Chief Edimeh and Muhammed Bawa on May 27, 2014.

Late Edime retired from the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, as an Executive Director and was appointed the traditional ruler of his area by the Kogi State government.

The accused persons were charged with criminal conspiracy, tresspass and culpable homicide contrary to Sections 97(1), 348 and 221 of the Penal Code Law. Police prosecutor, Samuel Ikutanwa, told the court that on

May 27, one Mrs Mary Edime of Ojikpadala Egume village reported at the Divisional Police office at Egume and Department of Criminal Investigation, Lokoja that at 8:10 pm on the same date, while she and her husband were watching television in their sitting room, the accused persons and others at large stormed the room with dangerous weapons. ”Mrs Edimeh said the accused persons armed themselves with AK-47 rifle, cutlasses and axes loaded themselves inside Toyota Seina bus and invaded their compound, entered the sitting room and pointed the guns at her husband and forcefully dragged him into the bus and drove him to an unknown destination,” the prosecutor said.

Ikutanwa further said while Mrs Edimeh was going to the police to lodge a complaint, she got information that her husband’s corpse was lying at Abadigba village along Egume Anyingba road, adding that investigation led to the arrest of the suspects while two cell phones and 31 expended empty shells of AK-47 rifle were recovered from them.

He said that apart from Edime, the accused persons also killed the community vigilante head, Muhammed Bawa.

Though all the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charge, the prosecutor urged the court to remand them in prison, considering the nature of the offence which carry death penalty and that they will commit further offence if granted bail.

Counsel to the accused persons, Alfred Akpala however, asked the court to grant his clients bail because an accused person is presumed innocent until proven otherwise, arguing that 19 persons cannot kill the deceased persons at same time.

In his ruling, the Chief Magistarte, Levi Animoku, said under Section 341 (1) Criminal Procedudre Code, a court is precluded from granting bail to an accused person of a crime punishable with death and then ordered that all the accused be remanded at the Federal Prison, Dekina.

He then transferred the case to Chief Magistrate Court, Dekina, and adjourned the case till June 9.

BY DEMOLA AKINYEMI

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LORIN—GOVERNOR Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, yesterday, commended the people of Offa over their pivotal roles in the development of their ancient community in the state and the whole country at large and asked them to continue their support for his administration.

Ahmed spoke at the commissioning ceremony of the newly renovated general hospitals in Offa and Omu Aran.

He said his administration’s determination to provide qualitative health care necessitated the renovation and equipping of five general hospitals, including the two at Offa and Omu Aran as well as the distribution of drugs and equipment to 13 general hospitals and 43 primary health care centres.

According to him, the effort was also in line with the government’s policy thrust of providing accessible health care within 500 meters radius to the residents.

He said that the remodelled hospitals would complement the provision of health care services by other hospitals in the area.

Landlord jailed 3 months for injuring tenant

Youths laud Mutu over projects

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OUTHS from Akugbene community in Lagos, weekend, praised Hon. N. E. Mutu representing Bomadi/ Patani federal constituency in Rivers State over the numerous projects and democracy dividends he attracted to the constituency.

They said his efforts had led to the empowerment of youths and women groups in different categories in the local government.

In a statement signed by their spokesman, Mr Abraham Ajaka, the youths said."We salute him for his total commitment to ensuring that the Bomadi-Ojobo-Akugbene– Ayakoromo road project is completed within the shortest time to open up that part of the state.

"We advise him to be courageous in his efforts so long as he commands as he commands the respect of the people of his constituency."

Gov Ahmed commends Offa indigenes over devt of community

From left: Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Mr. Abdulrazak Atunwa; Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State and Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi, the Olofa of Offa, during the commissioning of Offa General Hospital, in Offa, Kwara State.

2015: Moro urges youths to shun violence

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BY PETER DURU

AKURDI — THE Minis ter of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, has urged youths to shun acts that could trigger violence in any part of the country in the build up to the 2015 elections.

Moro who spoke at a sensitisation rally organised by the Idoma Youth Vanguard, IYV, and door-to-door campaign for the Senate President, David Mark, in Otukpo, said the nation could not afford any act that could heat up the polity, given the security challenges facing the country.

His words: “As we gradually

move towards the 2015 general elections, we will be witnessing heightened political activities across the country, I would advise our youths to desist from any act that could create violence in our country. ”We cannot afford to endanger our democracy, that is why we must resist those politicians who would want to use our youths to perpetrate violence in any part of the country. ”This is the time for us to rally round our leaders in the face of the challenges confronting our nation. I urged the people of Benue South zone to continue to

support Senator Mark who has provided the zone so much democratic dividends and also availed us a rallying point.

In his speech, Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Chief Samuel Ortom, who was represented by Mr. Samuel Orbunde, urged the people of the state to sustain their support for the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP. He said:”We must all continue to support the PDP, President Goodluck Jonathan and the Senate President and all leaders of our country so that together we can move our country forward.”

BUJA — A Senior magis trate's court in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, yesterday, sentenced a landlord, Ahmed Yusuf, to three months in prison for injuring his tenant with a pestle.

Yusuf, 35, who resides in Zhidu Village, Airport Road, Abuja, is charged with one count of causing grievous hurt.

Senior Magistrate, Chinyere Nwacheonwu, who sentenced Yusuf after he pleaded guilty, gave him an option of N2,000 fine.

Nwacheonwu warned Yusuf to desist from committing similar offence in future, saying: “The court has shown leniency because you are a first time offender and you have shown remorse" Earlier, the prosecutor, Cpl. Paul Anigbo, had informed the court that on April 28, at about 6.50 a.m., Mr Taiwo Bolarinwa of Zhidu village, Airport Road, Abuja, lodged a report at a police station.

The prosecutor told the court that Yusuf hit the complainant with a pestle on his head, inflicting grievous injury on him during an argument over rent.

48—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

CELEBRATION: From left, Alhaji Garba Kankarfi, Registrar, APCON; the celebrant, Mrs Bunmi Oke, President, AAAN/Delegate, National Conference 2014 and Chief Operating Officer, 141 Worldwide; and Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi, Chairman, APCON, at the dinner party in honour of Mrs. Oke's 50th birthday celebration, in Lagos.

VISIT: From left, member, LSHA, Hon. Sultan Adeniji-Adele; President, Festival Town Residents Association, FTRA; Mr. Ola Ogunlusi, Chief Whip, LSHA, Hon. Balogun Razaq; Deputy Majority Leader, LSHA, Hon. Rotimi Abiru; Commandant, Signal Barracks, Mile 2, Col. Onalaja, exchanging views with honourable members, and Executive Chairman, Amuwo Adofin LG, Mr. Ayodele Adewale, during the legislators' courtesy visit to the local government boss.

SERVICE: From left, Philip Nwabuoku (Coordinator); Mrs. Joy Ugwu (Nigeria's rep to UN); Amb.Umunna Orjiako, during the church service of late Amb. Ralph Uwechue, in New York, USA.

MATRIMONY: From left, Dr. Clement Illoh and Mrs. Rose Illoh, bride's parents, during the solemnisation of the holy matrimony between Adaeze Illoh and Justice Orage, at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Asaba, Delta State.

DRAW: From Left, Ore Odusanya,Head of General Mechandise, Konga; Gabriel Gab-Umoden,Head, Marketing; Mark Russell, Cheif Commercial Officer, Konga; Shobanjo Adebayo,Trade Sales Manager, Operation Infinix, and Sim Shagaya, Chief Executive Officer, Konga, during the draw for Konga Infinix JOY PAD 8s, in Lagos.

Photo: Akeem Salau

SIGNING: Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, former President, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA; Captain Akin Oni, Managing Director, Bristow Helicopter Aviation, and Mr. Femi Collins, General Manager, Human Resources, during the signing of bond on pilot training, at its headquarters, Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

FORUM: From left, Mr. Fela Durotoye, Founder, Gemstone Nation Builders Foundation; Mr. Samson Olatunde, CEO, Business Impact Limited; Mrs. Bimpe Bamigbose- Martins, Founder, Strategy for Mentoring Initiative, and Leadership Empowerment, SMILE; Ms Envera Selimovic, Senior Public Information Officer, United Nations Information Centre, Lagos; Mrs. Asiwaju Aderonke, Head of Counseling Unit, UNILAG, and Mrs. Maureen Iyasele, Founder, The Jobmag, during Youth Connect Forum, at the University of Lagos.

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CONFERENCE: From left, Head, Business Development and Training Unit, Deloitte Corporate Service Ltd; Olu Oluwole, MD, DCSL; Mrs. Bisi Adeyemi, and Manager, DCSL, Mr. Tade Owodunni, during press conference on DCSL Corporate Governance Academy, scheduled to commence in June 2014, in Lagos. Photo: Diran Oshe

ANNIVERSARY: From left, Chukwuemeka Agbata Jnr., ICT columnist; Mr. Tunde Makun, MD, PPLD; Michael Onuoha, Head of Public Policy, Guinness Nigeria Plc, and Kola Badiru, at the celebration of the first anniversary of Purpose, Power & Lifestyle Design, PPLD, company, in Lagos.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 49

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50—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Akpabio bows to pressure, to repeal Govs pension law

BY DAPO AKINREFON

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OVERNOR of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio, promised, yesterday, to send a proposal to the state House of Assembly to expunge aspects of the amendment to the Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law which put a N100m ceiling and a N50m ceiling on the medical treatment of former governors and former deputy governors.

In a statement yesterday entitled: ‘The siege of truth’, Governor Akpabio frowned at the condemnation of the amendment as well as the vilification of members of the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly for what he described as gross misunderstanding of the intention of the amendment of the law.

The governor berated critics of the amendment who he said have resorted to misinforming the public for political reasons. He said “in the last few weeks, truth has come under siege by agents of falsehood in Akwa Ibom State. The good people of Akwa Ibom State have been unfortunately subjected to the cruelest and most unkind political gimmickry in the history of our state over the amendment of a sixteen-year-old law. This tidal wave of propaganda, misinformation, lies, falsehood, mischief and cynicism, we fear, may already have sucked in some unsuspecting members of the public who lack the ability to appreciate the salient points of this law and its ennobling attributes.”

According to him, “regrettably, one of the best-kept secrets in the political scene in Nigeria is that in Akwa Ibom State some politicians do not circumscribe their activities within the limits of morality and decorum. Some of them can abase the most hallowed and sacred things for their selfish advantages. The present matter is a case in point.”

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kpabio explained that the Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law was “first enacted in 1998 as the Special Grant (Former Chief Executives) Edict. It was amended in 1999 by the Special Grant (Former Chief Executives (Amendment) Edict of 1999) and was retained in Cap. 122 Laws of Akwa Ibom State 2000. It was amended in 2002 by the Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law 2002, which was later repealed by the Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law 2006 assented to by my predecessor in office on 26th April 2007.”

Setting the records straight, he said in the course of its implementation, “we noticed a lacuna in the 2007 law, particularly on account of its open-endedness in the provisions relating to the medical expenses and provision of funds for the employment of domestic staff for the former Governors and Deputy Governors.”

In addition, he said “working with the House of Assembly, we sought to protect the law from abuse by putting a ceiling on the medical expenses for the treatment of these senior citizens of Akwa Ibom State.

The ceiling, which was pegged at N100 million per annum for former Governors and N50 million per annum for former Deputy Governors, was never meant to be given either in part or in whole to anybody at any time for any reason. It was meant to be paid to health institutions involved in the treatment of the former Governors or former Deputy Governors and their spouses. It was, therefore, deliberate falsehood and organized misinformation to claim that the said money will be paid C M Y K

to former Governors or Deputy Governors every year. This has never been the practice and the amendment has added nothing to give credence to this obviously politicized orchestration.”

Continuing, he pointed out that “former governors, deputy governors and their spouses, who were not sick were not to receive a dime from the fund. These sums, which were for the Governors and the Deputy Governor’s medical treatment, suffered the most bashing from a mischievous vocal minority who sought to reap political capital out of it. In their frenzied desperation, they even claimed that the law was made for my personal benefit.

They lost sight of the fact that I am not among the beneficiaries as I am not on pension.”

“The other sickening claim was that we excluded some categories of eligible former

Akwa Ibom State gov, Godswill Akpabio

Deputy Governors and Governors. This is absolutely incorrect. Since the Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law 2006 referred to above, a new eligibility provision beyond just being a former Governor or Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State origin was introduced by the last administration whereby certain persons who served in these two offices and who would otherwise have benefited from the pension, were excluded on account of resignation otherwise than on health grounds, impeachment or holding office for a period less than three years. Section 3 of the 2006 version of the Law attests to this, and this provision, retained in section 3 of the 2014 version of the Law has attracted unsavory comments as though it was a new provision just inserted,” he stated.

Expressing disappointment over the public outcry that greeted the law, he said opponents of the law were out to blackmail his administration. He said“it is distressing to all patriots in our state that this well reasoned and thought-out solution to an open-ended law, which common-sense indicates can be subject to abuse, has been cast rather as a problem by fifth columnists in our state. I share the sense of revulsion of all decent Akwa Ibom people in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly in particular and the entire State in general at these politics of blackmail.”

He, however stated that “I believe in the Akwa Ibom project as evidenced in my work in the state. I am under oath to protect the constitution of this great country, and this I have done to the best of my abilities. I am obligated by the mandate given to me by the good people of my state to do good to all manner of people and I have not been found wanting in this responsibility. This amendment was undertaken, with the patriotic understanding of the House of Assembly, in fulfilment of these articles of faith.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 —51

APC intends to implicate me in murder case, Fayose cries out

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

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HE Ayodele Fayose Campaign Organization has raised an alarm over alleged plan by All Progressives Congress, APC, to implicate the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in a murder charge.

Speaking at a press conference in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, the Director-General of the campaign organisation, Chief Dipo Anisulowo, alleged that the plan was hatched and executed at a meeting in Osogbo, Osun State on Monday.

According to Anisulowo, the

party got wind of the plan through its security network where they allegedly concluded arrangement to kill an innocent person and dump the corpse along Afao Road or Ise Road.

Anisulowo said: “They deliberately want to kill the innocent person and clean the blood with customized vests or T-Shirts of Ayo Fayose and dump the vests or T-Shirts and the weapon used in a conspicuous area, few kilometers away from the scene of the crime to justify their nefarious plans.”

He said the motive was to create the impression that the PDP is responsible, he further alleged.

Court of law over the AFCO’s statement that the body had defrauded the state in the management of the stateowned Fountain Hotels.

Anisulowo further disclosed that the party was working with some police officers and some journalists based in Lagos to prosecute the PDP leader and give the story a wide publicity.

“The APC have also concluded arrangements

•Fayose He equally expressed his determination to confront a group called E-eleven in any

•••It’s Fayose who wants to cause mayhem — KFCO

BY DAPO AKINREFON

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HE Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation, KFCO, has accused the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Governorship Candidate, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, of alleged plots to reenact “imprints of bloodletting and murder ”, days preceding the June 21 gubernatorial election in Ekiti State.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Mr. Dimeji Daniels claimed that “Mr Fayose plans to shift the campaign from the realm of ideas to the ring of violence, killings and murder. The PDP and its candidate have lost out in the culture of debate and tradition of decent politics that

•Fayemi are the hallmark of the APC. Mr. Fayose has been visiting brothels and red lights across

the state where he hopes to recruit the dregs of the society for his planned attacks on the people of the State.”

He further stated that “we can see that Mr. Fayose is being hunted by his past. He is raising alarm so that when he perpetrates his evil deeds, no one will suspect him.”

Also, he said: “We have had our peace in this important and historic state. There was no violence. Freedom, justice and peaceful coexistence remain our companion until Mr. Fayose came into the scene when he emerged as the PDP gubernatorial candidate.”

The KFCO said Mr. Fayose will be held responsible for any violence or killings that takes place in the state.

Rigging: We’re not conspiring with any

party

— Ekiti Police Command

BY DAPO AKINREFON

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HE Ekiti State Police Command has distanced itself from allegations levelled against it by the All Progressives Congress, APC, that it is conspiring with some political parties to rig the election.

Speaking with Vanguard, its Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Victor Babayemi described the allegations as untrue and unfortunate.

Babayemi said “the report credited to the party is untrue.

It is very unfortunate that this C M Y K

is coming from a party that has enjoyed the benefits of Police services in the state. We are not unmindful of the fact that the party is trying to make the police a scapegoat and that is a situation that we are not going to tolerate.”

Speaking further, he said “let me put it on record that we have been fair to all the parties in the state in the build up to the electioneering campaigns and it is unfortunate that politicians are not living up to expectations. Rather than the party blaming the police, they

should look inward. We are not going to condone their recklessness but we are going to be fair to all parties as I have earlier stated.”

•Abubakar: IGP

with some already compromised and corrupt police officers who have agreed to collect money and help them with spurious investigations thereafter.

“Some journalists, who are sympathetic to APC in Lagos have also been enlisted and paid to help them publicize the contrived heinous crime and label the PDP and its candidate, Ayo Fayose, as being responsible”, he said.

Debate: Fayemi engaging in intellectual arrogance — Bamidele

BY DAPO AKINREFON

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HE Labour Party Governorship candidate, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele has said that he is not afraid to face Governor Kayode Fayemi in any debate to argue any issue bordering on governance and the development of the state.

Bamidele described the impression by Fayemi that his opponents are timid to face him in a debate as baseless and unfounded, saying he is more politically exposed and experienced to be threatened by anybody.

In a statement by his media aide, Ahmed Salami, the lawmaker advised Governor Fayemi against engaging in intellectual arrogance.

Governorship contest He said: “I can’t be intimidated by Fayemi in any form. I think I am vast in terms of education, brilliance, eloquence and general knowledge of the economic situation of the state to confront Governor Fayemi in any debate. My participation in Ekiti governorship contest is not by accident or spontaneity. I have prepared for it over the years and I have what it takes to govern a highly educated state like Ekiti. So, if any contestant is afraid of debate, count me out of that.”

He said “I have been commissioner in various ministries in Lagos State. I had partaken in many debates and I am still expecting such to happen before the June 21 election.

Just like Governor Fayemi stated that he is challenging his opponents to a debate, I also state that I am ready to

•Bamidele face him in any forum to discuss issue affecting our people”.

He insisted that an average Ekiti man does not require any debate to conclude that the populace have not fared better under Fayemi-led Government On the claim by All Progressives Congress that over 1,000 LP members, led by one Ademola had defected into its fold, Bamidele described the decampees as impostors, who were not registered members of his party.

According to him,”If the APC is so sure that the so –called defectors were members of LP, it should produce their registration numbers in our register. It should state their wards and the previous roles they had played in our party.

We know that it was a stagemanaged defection meant to embarrass us.”

Besides, he said “the National Chairman of our Party, Barr Dan Nwanyanwu, who has the authority to pronounce or determine the status of a member had declared these people as impostors.

I want to believe that the APC was only applying this tactics to create a lazy impression that the battle is not lost yet when it is obvious that Governor Kayode Fayemi days are numbered.”

52 — V anguard Vanguard anguard,, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 , 2014

US boosts military presence in Europe U

S President Barack Obama has announced a $1bn effort to boost US military presence across Europe to ease anxiety among NATO allies wary of Russia.

He has also said more sanctions are being prepared against Russia if

the West continues to see it destabilising Ukraine.

Obama announced the initiative on Tuesday during a visit to Polish capital of Warsaw, his first stop on a three-country tour through Europe, calling for the US Congress’ backing on the issue.

Tension remains high in

eastern Ukraine, a day after hundreds of proRussian separatists attacked a border guard base in Luhansk city following reports of air raids by Ukraine’s army on rebel positions.

Speaking in an aircraft hangar at Warsaw airport where he met US airmen

taking part in a joint programme with the Polish air force, Obama said US commitments to Poland and the region were a cornerstone of the US’ own security. Obama also

said that more sanctions were being prepared against Russia if West continued to see it destabilising Ukraine.

The White House said in

a statement that the funding would be used to increase military exercises and training missions, as well as rotations of air and ground forces, on the continent.

Syria commends big turnout in presidential poll Tuesday, said:

S

TATE television said on Tuesday that voting had been extended for five hours “because of the massive influx of voters”.

Polls will now close at 9pm GMT. Voting is only taking place in governmentcontrolled territories, meaning those displaced by fighting or living in rebel-held areas will not be able to take part.

The opposition has

dismissed the vote as a “farce” that will prolong the country ’s three-year conflict. The vote excludes regime opponents from running.

The election is Syria’s first in nearly 50 years. Assad and his father Hafez have renewed their mandates in referendums.

Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from the Al Masnaa border crossing in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley on

“The displaced Syrians who are in Lebanon, if they go in today [to Syria] they will risk losing their status as refugees in Lebanon.

“The opposition says this is a farce, they don’t recognise these elections.

They say there is no way it could be legitimate while civil war is raging in the country, while it’s being organised by the same president they want to overthrow.

USAID insists on leadership excellence in Nigeria summit in the US and said limited number can be

BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

D

EPUTY Mission Director, United States Agency for I n t e r n a t i o n a l Development, USAID, Julie Koenen, has said that the agency will partner with Nigeria Leadership Initiative, NLI, through its centre for leadership excellence, to complement NLI’s effort in driving leadership excellence in Nigeria.

She stated this while making a remark at the induction of new associates of NLI in Lagos.

Koenen while congratulating the new associates disclosed that 46 Nigerian youths have been selected to attend this year ’s Young African Leadership Initiative

there is a need to collaborate with an organisation like NLI to drive leadership excellence, since only

accommodated for the YALI summit, to help improve leadership in Nigeria and Africa.

Israeli Envoy, becomes “Indigene” of Bayelsa State

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SRAELI Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Uriel Palti was at weekend in Yenagoa conferred with the indigeneship of Bayelsa State by Governor Henry Seriake Dickson.

He was also named Oyintari, which means God’s Love in Ijaw language.

The Ambassador who was invited to the state by the government to explore its investments opportunities and tourism potentials, was also the special guest of honor on the occasion of

“Celebrating Israel in Bayelsa” organized by an NGO, Israel Today.

Presenting the certificate of indigeneship to Ambassador Palti at the Government House, Yenagoa, the governor commended the envoy for the wonderful work he has been doing to deepen the diplomatic relations between the two countries since his assumption of office in Nigeria, even as he disclosed that some Israelis were already involved in the physical development of the state.

Sisi declared as Egypt’s next president

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BDEL Fattah el-Sisi has won Egypt’s presidential elections by huge majority, the country ’s election commission has said.

The former military chief, who last July overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, won 96.91 of the

vote in last week’s election. Turnout was recorded at 47 percent.

Sisi’s only rival in the election, Hamdeen Sabahi, won 3.9 percent of the vote.

Warsaw is the first stop in Obama’s tour meant to reassure East European allies of the US

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 53

C M Y K

54 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

By CHARLES KUMOLU

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F they were not used to be ing killed and seeing people murdered, the fear of death would have been the least thing in their teenage minds when they set out for school from their various homes on April 17, 2011.

But residing in a society described as the most dangerous to live on earth, left their minds enveloped by the fear of the unknown despite the fragile smiles on their faces, as they headed for school that fateful day.

Hardly had these little girls arrived their school which is located in the Afghanistan province of Takhar than they were rushed to the hospital by the school authorities. Reason: Over 150 of them had fainted and were vomiting. A month after that incident, no fewer than 100 other girls in the same province suffered a similar fate.

Global terrorism Although the Taliban, which had been against the eduction of girls and women, denied being behind the incident, the Afghanistan government officially accused the group of culpability.

The two incidents did not happen in isolation as women have increasingly become pawns in armed conflict globally. The rise of global terrorism has made more women victims of such conflicts.

Vanguard Features VF learnt that in most of these cases, women are forcefully displaced and are made to suffer rights violations as well as sexual and gender-based violence.

The recent abduction of about 250 secondary school girls in Chibok, Borno State exemplifies the plight of women in the face of the spread of socioreligious conflicts. This position was buttressed by an American

,

*Women protesting the abduction of Chibok girls

Women as pawns of armed conflicts despite not being the principal causes of such hostilities.

The most worrisome aspect of

The kidnapping of about 200 girls is a wrong move and a miscalculation because the whole world is against it; this was a tactical error and so the whole world is going to get the girls back

,

journalist, Jan Goodwin in her book: Price of Honor. Goodwin who has covered wars in Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East, brought to the fore, the plight of women in terrorised nations and concluded that they have ‘’become pawns in a bitter power game.’’

Many stakeholders who spoke to VF are worried that women are always at the receiving end of global conflicts

it is that these violations are taking place in the midst of numerous international conventions on violence against women. For instance, the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 48/104, frowned against all forms of violence against women.

With organised violence on the increase, so have women become easy preys.

Responding to a question bordering on this, a psycholo-

gist, Mr. Lanre Olusola highlighted the multiplier effects of female-related violence. “Psychologically, if you touch one woman’s life, you touch the children and the husbands.

But, if you touch one man’s life, it does not create much impact. Secondly, when you touch a woman or a child, you whip up the emotional sense in it and that is a tool that people use most times,” he said.

Tactical error Speaking specifically on the abducted Chibok girls, he said: “The kidnapping of about 200 girls is a wrong move and a miscalculation. I said that because the whole world is against it. This was a tactical error and so the whole world is

*Abducted Chibok girls

going to get the girls back. I have no doubt that we are going to get the girls back because all hands are on deck through prayers and other actions. Everybody is singing the same song ‘bring the girls back’. So, the girls are coming back without a shadow of doubt.”

He called for the creation of institutions that prevent such incidents from occurring. “It’s about creating an environment of pain and pleasure. That is what the rule of law is all about.

That is what the law courts, police and other security agencies are there to make it known that the guilty ones cannot get away with their actions. If the guilty feels maximum pain for his actions, you will see that after this, someone else will not be en-

couraged to do the same thing.

Why crime keeps re-occurring is because these people know that nothing will happen, and that must stop,” he canvassed.

He explained that there is a leverage in psychology called the principle of pain and pleasure. “When you know that you are going to suffer pain, an enormous kind of pain and you cannot get away with what you are doing, psychologically you restrain yourself from doing it.

But when you know that there is an alternative and you know that you can achieve an enormous pleasure from that positive alternative, you will gravitate towards it. For those doing the harm, when the environment creates serious consequences and maximum pain, they will reduce the occurContinues on page 55

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY,JUNE 4, 2014

Continues from page 54 rences of it. When you create institutions that ensure that those people that are behind it are brought to book, then you will find out that a lot of people will commit their energies, efforts and resources to ensuring that it stops and people doing it will restrain themselves from doing it,” he opined.

According to Olusola: “Boko Haram’s influence is collapsing and the world is zeroing in on them. We need to give Nigerians and Africans a sense of security through the media.

We need to insist that they stop projecting these bad pictures about Nigeria.

Those pictures that are being shown is not doing us any good. The sense of security that we perceive is a reflection of what we see and hear. If we keep projecting these pictures, we are constantly eroding our own sense of security,” he said.

President of Gender Alternative Action, JAA, Prince Funke Martins, called for the enforcement of all known laws against violence on women and girls. She believes that such enforcement will curtail or completely eliminate such abuses. “I will not say that much has not been done to protect women in conflict times. But more needs to be done. It saddens the mind that women have become dogs of war globally,” she lamented.

Protection of women She was irked that conventions on the protection of women from oppression rarely work. The Gender Alternative Action boss enjoined world leaders to stop relegating gender issues to the background.

“We had the Berlin Conference where we thought that the resolutions will be adhered to. There were also others before it. But the situation has gone hay wire. What justifies abduction of girls? These girls, we all know, are innocent and were not part of the issues that led to the conflict, yet they are paying the price. This campaign should not stop with the ‘bring back the girls’ campaign. It must be sustained for the sake of motherhood,” she advocated.

Funke noted that apart from the Chibok abductions, women suffer so much organised violence in Nigeria, hence she wants the relevant authorities to severely punish those who orchestrate violence against women.

Collaborating Funke’s argument, the Executive Director of Equity Coalition, Mrs Ethel Udofia, regretted that: “People do what they want to do irrespective of whether it is against the law or not; they are doing it because they know nobody will charge them to court or do anything to them. ”We should make sure that laws are obeyed. When people are not brought to book or punished according to the dictates of the law, they will take things casually knowing that they can go unpunished,’’she posited.

Chibok abduction: Exposure to toxic stress has serious implications — Expert *Dr Steven Oluwole

By VICTORIA OJEME

an interview with Vanguard Features, VF enumerated some health chalHE cheery news of the release of lenges the abducted students and US prisoner of war, Sergeant Bowe their parents may be grappling with.

Bergdahl, 28, who was for five years in “The immediate effects include captivity in Afghanistan, was partially severe anxiety, intense fear, hyperpunctured when his father announced vigilance, exaggerated startle rethat Bowe has trouble speaking English. sponse, restlessness, headaches, The older Bergdahl attributed his son’s sleep impairment, nightmares, palpiinability to speak coherent English to tation, elevation of blood pressure, the long period of incarceration in the muscle aches, gastrointestinal hands of the Taliban warlords. complaints, chest pain and several “The former captive was like a diver others. ascending from the ocean depths,” he Long term effects include tensionsaid. “Bowe has been gone so long that type headaches, migraines, hypertenit’s going to be very difficult to come back sion, myocardial infractions, asthma, … if he comes up too fast, it could kill peptic ulcers, skin lesions, diabetes, him. The family had not yet spoken to depression, arthritis, accelerated him to give time to adjust to his current aging, memory failure, infections, surroundings at the US base in Gerpoor sleep, and depression,” he said. many, and to become re-acquainted with Dr Oluwole also said it would be English,” he said. wrong to limit the sphere of influence Fears are rife that the over 250 girls of the acts of terror of Boko Haram to North Eastern Nigeria. “Parents Beside the emotional trauma these around Abuja live in fear of girls are grappling with, doctors fear their children that they may contact some life-threatbeing abducted, while no one ening ailments truly feels safe anywhere in abducted from Government Girls’ Sec- Nigeria,” he noted. ondary School, Chibok in Borno State, Speaking generally on the abducmay suffer a similar fate whenever they tion, Dr Oluwole said: “We have a are released by their Boko Haram situation created by a sect that has its abductors. objectives clearly stated: To overthrow A video released last month by the in- the government and impose its surgents showed the girls dressed in religious values on the populace.

Islamic regalia which invariably meant They have stated very clearly that that they have been forcibly ‘converted’ those who disagree with them, that is to the Islamic faith. They would have those who hold other faiths, should brainwashed the little girls to denounce leave their domain. their Christian faith or risk losing their This sect started by burning lives. churches and attacking worshippers.

Beside the emotional trauma these The attack on schools is in line with girls are grappling with, doctors fear that its vision that education of children they may contact some life-threatening should be subsumed within its creed. ailments. The President of Medical and So the abduction of the girls is just Dental Consultants Association of another tactic in its abhorrent arsenal Nigeria MDCAN, Dr Steven Oluwole in that is consistent with its name that translates to ‘Western education is

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Women as pawns of armed conflicts

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forbidden’. The sect is not anti-education, but against education that will not advance its anachronistic ideology.

The hideous act of forceful conversion of Christian girls to Islamic faith demonstrates the intolerance and perfidy of a sect that has no respect for modern values.

While Nigeria is the target of Boko Haram, its philosophy can be put in global context. It shares values and goals with the Taliban, Al Shabaab, Jemaah Islamiah, and Al Qaeda,” he alleged.

He disagreed with views that Boko Haram is a product of poverty, lack of education, or poor governance.

“Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, leaders of Al Qaeda were not only highly educated, but from wealthy backgrounds.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who attempted to detonate underwear explosives, had the best of education in West Africa and Europe, and also from a wealthy background,” he said.

According to him, while abduction of the girls is appalling, it should not detract the focus on the larger picture. “The sect is closing in on the Federal Capital to achieve its primary objective. A city that appeared fortified after the initial wave of attacks appears so vulnerable in the past few weeks.

More threats have been issued by the sect. It is certainly foolhardy to ignore or assume it lacks the will or capability to make good its threats.

Handling of abduction In other words a devastating attack on Abuja could change the course of Nigerian history,” he warned.

He was not impressed with government’s the handling of the abduction. “It is anything but close to what is witnessed in other countries during disasters. The news that the military had rescued the girls turned out to be false. The claim that the military was misled to issue its claim to have rescued the girls defies logic. There was no coherent flow of information from government, if they had or had sought any.

Information gleaned from foreign media interviews of the parents of abducted girls suggest very little coordinated efforts had been made to salvage the situation. Foreign media reported little, if any meaningful, security presence in the affected area.

The fear and scare on the faces of girls that escaped was painful to watch. They now dread going back to school”.

56 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

How Police arrested inter-state robbery, kidnap kingpins Manhunt on for others, including police officer

By ESTHER ONYEGBULA

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ETECTIVES attached to the Federal Anti-Robbery Squad, FEDSARS, AdenijiAdele, Lagos, recently, arrested two members of a notorious six-man armed robbery and kidnap gang. Four members of the gang are said to be at large while detectives have spread their dragnets to round them up.

The arrested suspects were identified as Andrew Ekwenuya,30 and Samuel Idoko,35, while the fleeing members of the gang are: Focus, Awilo, Igwebuike and a security operative identified as Kenneth Godwin.

Reports said they were arrested after one Francis Onwuegbuzu, a Customs officer who had earlier on been kidnapped by the suspects and others at large, wrote a petition against his driver, one Okonkwo Ifeanyi and others.

The case was then referred to the anti-robbery squad for thorough investigation.

Police sources said the Customs officer and his personal driver,Okonkwo Ifeanyi, were kidnapped while on Christmas holidays at his home town,

state CID, Asaba who handled the matter at the preliminary stages till the victim regained freedom and sent a petition to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Criminal Investigations Department, Force Headquarters in Abuja, praying that the matter be transferred to Federal SARS for effective handling of the investigation.

Acting on directives to take up the investigation, a team of FEDSARS detectives led by ASP Emmanuel Onovough, swung into action, focusing attention on intelligence gathering while also monitoring the time any user would activate the victim’s mobile telephone hardware.

Tracking and eventual arrest The latter paid off as the hardware soon popped up, leading to the tracking and eventual arrest of one Andrew Ekenuya at Kwara bus-top, Ikotun-Igando Lagos.

Investigations revealed that the suspect admitted partial involvement in the kidnap but disclosed that he was aware that one Focus, Awilo, Igwebuike and a security operative identified as Kenneth Godwin,

,

On December 29, the kidnappers established contact with the victim’s family, demanding a ransom of N70 million which was later reduced to N10 million

Ogwashi-Ukwu, in Delta State by six unknown gunmen. They were held captive till December 31, 2013, when his family and friends paid N5m ransom.

After the kidnap suspects were paid the the ransom, they released the victims but made away with his Toyota 4-Runner SUV bearing Lagos state license plate number LSR-11-CE valued at N7 million and also his Nokia mobile telephone.

It was gathered that investigations were carried out by police officers in Ogwashi-Ukwu police station as well as the

,

abducted the victims. Detectives reportedly resorted to electronic scanning of the social media network, Facebook, and were able to discover that Kenneth Godwin posed in different photographs in police uniform, slinging an AK-47 rifle including his conspicuous postures at the rear of the victim’s Toyota 4-Runner in sports attire.

Crime Alert gathered that his wife, Ebere Mercy Godwin, who was consequently invited for questioning to properly identify her husband and his associates, confirmed that her

•The suspects husband is a policeman serving at Special Investigations Bureau, SIB,in Kogi State Command, having been recently transferred from FIB Annex, Lagos and that he arrived home sometime before her arrest with a Toyota 4-Runner which matched the description of the victim’s car. She further led detectives to arrest one Samuel Idoko and Musa and they confirmed coming in contact with Kenneth Godwin and the said vehicle.

The confession of the duo, Samuel Idoko and Musa Itodo, led to the arrest of Red Lawani, an NNPC staff at Abuja from whom the detectives recovered the victim’s stolen Toyota 4-Runner SUV. Investigations also revealed that Corporal Kenneth Godwin, F/No 412269 CPL,was transferred to SIB Kogi on October 2, 2013 via a daily order.

However,when contacted, the Police in Kogi said they do not have trace of the subject on the command’s nominal roll.

Items recovered from the suspects includes a Toyota 4-Runner SUV with registration number Lagos EKY-865-CJ, one unregistered Golf 3 car, one Honda generator set, one LG table fridge, one LG flat screen TV, one old model 16 inches LG TV, one LG disc player and two speakers and one rechargeable fluorescent light.

How the victims were kidnapped Crime Alert gathered that when Mr. Francis Onwuegbuzu traveled with his driver, Okonkwo Ifeanyi, to celebrate Yuletide with his family, he did not know that a close relation, Andrew Ekwenuya, was monitoring him. The relation there-

after, tipped his gang members of the victim’s social status. On December 27, 2013, while visiting his friends and relatives in his community, he was waylaid and kidnapped along with his driver by a group of six heavily armed men who fired sporadically to ward off any challenges and drove away together with the 4-Runner SUV to an unknown hideout.

On December 29, the kidnappers established contact with the victim’s family, demanding a ransom of N70 million which was later reduced to N10 million. Finally, they ended up getting N5 million from the victims’ relatives. The victims were later freed by the kidnappers on 31st December after receiving the ransom but disappeared with his Toyota 4-Runner SUV and his sophisticated Nokia GSM mobile telephone hand-

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 57

•The stolen SUV set.

How the suspects were apprehended When detectives pried on the telephone hardware of the victims, it was activated, paving way for effective scientific tracking that led to the arrest of An-

drew Ekwenuya . His arrest revealed light at the end of the tunnel as he disclosed names of the kidnapers which include Focus, Awilo, Igwebuike and Kenneth Godwin. When Kenneth Godwin, the non-commissioned officer (NCO) got wind

of his wife’s arrest, he called her on telephone, while she was in Police custody and informed her to use Police to lure one Samuel Idoko, to await delivery of another vehicle, a Toyota Highlander SUV from a fellow who would be accompanying his wife to his location.

Unknown to Samuel Idoko that it was a setup, he came to the agreed destination and was immediately arrested.

Suspect’s accounts According to one of the suspects, Andrew Ekwenuya, a driver and a native of Ogwashi-Ukwu, “I was in Lagos when I was informed that the victim, Francis Onwuegbuzu, was kidnapped. On December 28, 2013, at about 4am, I received a call from one Focus, inviting me to a club at Ikotun where I met him with a Toyota 4-Runner SUV. I accompanied Focus to hand over the SUV to Kenneth Godwin at Iyana Ipaja roundabout for safe keeping.

It was Focus, Awilo and Igwebuike that kidnapped the vic-

tims.

Samuel Idoko: Samuel Idoko, 25, from Ogbadibo revealed that during the Yuletide period in December 2013, he met Kenneth Godwin who introduced himself as a policeman.

“Early in January, Kenneth called me on phone that he has a Toyota 4-Runner SUV brought by his friend who came from overseas but wanted to dispose of it to raise money to enable him secure a piece of land he bought in Lagos State before traveling back overseas.

Security operative Since I knew Godwin Kenneth as a security operative, I never bothered to confirm the authentic source of the vehicle.

To be able to sell the SUV, I detached the original number plate and falsified Customs and Excise documents and altered same to the licensing authority after which I obtained a fresh Lagos number, EKY-

865-CJ. I contacted Ted Lawani who paid N2.7 million after being assured of the genuineness of the vehicle.

It was learnt that, unknown to Ted Lawani that the vehicle was stolen, he initially transferred N2 million to Godwin Kenneth’s Diamond Bank account and subsequently transferred N700, 000 into Godwin Kenneth’s Fidelity Bank Plc, Makurdi branch, totaling N2.7 million.

Later, Samuel Idoko delivered the vehicle through one of his relatives from where he took delivery at Abuja. He claimed he did not suspect the car to be stolen property.

Meanwhile, Police sources said effots are being made to round up all the fleeing suspects.

Efforts made to reach the Deputy Commissioner of Police in-charge of the squad, Chris Ezike, failed as he was said to have traveled to Abuja on official assignment.

A

CRES of Indian hemp farm lands have been discovered at Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area, Enugu State by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, in the area.

Crime Alert gathered that the large killer-weed farmlands are being managed by one Samson Oshomi who hails from Umuonoja family in Umuopu, Enugu Ezike, for several years in the community before his arrest last April, 2014.

A competent source who pleaded anonymity revealed that the entire community knew that the culprit has been engaged in the cultivation of the illicit weed for several years but they could not expose him because of his alleged criminal exploits. “Oshomi has been involved in various criminal activities in the community ranging from cassava to cocoyam theft and even dares policemen each time he commits any crime. That was why nobody from the community could dare to confront him for fear of being killed or maimed,” he disclosed.

Sources at NDLEA revealed that bags of the dried weed ready for evacuation to his selling points were discovered at his compound and he proudly owned up to the illegal business.

Illegal business The culprit’s wife, Ngozi Oshomi, said she thought the arrest of her husband was business as usual as he has been arrested before now only for him to find his way out of detention. “When it became clear to me that the music has changed was when I went to NDLEA office where they transferred my husband to in Enugu. Their boss told me that he was being held for running acres of Indian hemp farm and nothing can be done about it but to prosecute him

Acres of Indian hemp farm discovered in Enugu Community •Cultivator in NDLEA custody

By CHINENYEH OZOR, Nsukka accordingly,” she explained.

It could be recalled that Oshomi was arraigned in 2002 and 2007 respectively in case number MIE/74C/2002 for illegal possession of firearms.

In 2003, he was arraigned for

stealing cassava valued N1000.00 in case number MIE/15C/2003), while in 2006, he was tried at EnuguEzike magisterial district for assaulting two Police officers escorting him to prison custody on two month’s conviction. In 2012, the suspect and three others; Tobechukwu Oshomi, Jude Oshomi and

Ayoguja Amedu, all from the same Umuopu community, allegedly stole bags of cocoyam.

Crime Alert sources also said that the exposure of the Indian hemp farm was a big relief to the community that has been thrown into nightmare and security risk due to the nocturnal activities of the

NDLEA boss, Giade suspect in the community.

Confirming the arrest of the suspect, NDLEA prosecutor in Enugu, Mr. J.O. Odudu said, “the suspect will be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded into the matter because Indian hemp farming cannot be lightly treated by the agency.”

58 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

DAY 51

A

By UDUMA KALU

BUJA—THE Defence Headquarters, yesterday, said no general in the Nigerian Army was under court-martial.

This information is contained in a statement issued in Abuja

by Maj-Gen Chris Olukolade, Director of Defence Information.

The statement said DHQ wishes to state categorically that there is no truth whatsoever in a report in a section of the media.

It said that the report claimed that an army courtmartial had tried 15 senior officers including 10 generals for aiding terrorists.

The story published in some dailies and propagated by some online media is very unfortunate and meant to do maximum damage to the image of Nigerian Army and its personnel.

The statement read: “This falsehood had previously been refuted when it first reared its head but those concocting it appear hell bent on misleading Nigerians and the international community.

“It has become inevitable to reassure the general public that any ongoing disciplinary process or trial will be made public when necessary. ‘’After all, court martial issues in the Nigerian army are not known to be secret undertakings as it is on record that previous proceedings and outcome had been made public.”

The statement cautioned those who have decided to make past time out of sensationalising and fabricating sensitive security issues to desist from it.

It said it was bad enough for the army to try and convict a single general for such a

Members of #Bringbackourgirls protesting on the street after filing a suit against FCT Commissioner of Police who banned the group from holding rallies in Abuja. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

No general under court-martial over Boko Haram —DHQTRS grievous offence as alleged in the reports let alone 10 generals.

According to the statement, the army remains a serious professional and responsible

A

the handiwork of those who do not mean well for the country and her armed forces.

“Disciplinary processes being undertaken in any formation of the army are at best routines and definitely

not at the level that has been so willfully exaggerated for clearly sinister motives. “ For emphasis, there is no general of the Nigerian Army under any form of trial,” it stated.

OIC to partner Borno Govt in fight against Boko Haram

M

AIDUGURI—THE Organisation of Islamic Conference, OIC, yesterday, said it was willing to collaborate with the Borno

Australian Govt offers to rescue Chibok girls We’ve made a specific offer to U S T R A L I A N GOVERNMENT said, yesterday, it was offering to deploy its Special Forces to help Nigeria rescue more than 200 school girls abducted more than a month ago by extremist Boko Haram.

Australia said the Special Air Service, SAS, regiment are on standby to deploy for the rescue if the Nigerian Government accepts the offer.

Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, told Sky News Tuesday that Nigeria is yet to respond.

“Australian troops, the SAS are always on standby for contingencies,” Ms. Bishop said.

“We have made an offer to the Nigerian Government to provide whatever support they need to release the girls.

institution that cannot be associated with such incredulous report.

“The general public is, therefore, implored to discountenance the report as

our UK and US allies … that we are ready to assist in whatever way we can.

“We have not had a response from the Nigerian Government.

“They’ve thanked us for our willingness to be involved in trying to rescue the girls but we haven’t had any specific acceptance of the offers that we’ve made.”

The schoolgirls were seized by the insurgent group, Boko Haram, April 14.

They have remained in captivity despite a throng of support from the United States, United Kingdom, France and Israel- all providing surveillance and intelligence support, and specialist teams.

The Nigerian military recently said it knows the location of the girls but would not use force to free them so as not to jeopardise their safety.

government to find a lasting solution to the Boko Haram insurgency in the state.

The Secretary-General of the group, Mr. Iyad AminMadani, made the pledge during a courtesy visit to Governor Kashim Shettima in Maiduguri.

Amin-Madani said the visit was to commiserate with the the government and people of the state over the numerous

destruction of lives and property due to the insurgency.

He added that the fight against terrorism required multi-dimensional approach “and the OIC is here on a solidarity visit.

“We are ready and available to prove this solidarity beyond words and emotions.

“We have officially described the Boko Haram as a terrorists

group and we believe that conflict of this nature needs to have a wide range of solutions.

“We must find out what keeps them going and what attracts youths to them.”

Responding, Governor Shettima commended the organisation“for clearly condemning Boko Haram and their activities.

Cameroon sends 3,000 troops against sect

By UDUMA KALU WITH AGENCY REPORT

A

S PART of a regional plan in Paris to tackle the menace of Boko Haram following the kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls in Borno State, Cameroon has decided to send 3,000 troops to help fight the insurgency in its North West region with Nigeria, AFP has said. It has also unfolded its war plan against the Islamic sect.

In the past few days, Cameroonian authorities say they have deployed an impressive military force to the

far North region in the wake of bloody raids and series of kidnappings of foreigners.

In addition, Cameroonian authorities plan to deploy almost 3,000 troops in the coming weeks, the report said. Already, small units of soldiers riding armoured personnel carriers patrol the main roads and smaller secondary routes, while fighter planes and combat helicopters keep watch from the skies.

“The idea is to set up fixed bases with strong numbers ready to respond in the event of an attack,” said an official involved in operations on the ground near

Lake Chad.

The aim is to “close the road to the terrorists and secure the border so that Boko Haram fighters cornered (by the army) in Nigeria can’t seek shelter here,” the official said.

Last Thursday, about 30 Nigerians suspected of belonging to Boko Haram were picked up by the Cameroonian authorities and handed over to Nigerian authorities, AFP reported. Last weekend, Cameroon freed two Italian priests and a Canadian nun, kidnapped on April 4 in the small parish of Tchere, near Maroua.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 59

I put my money on Nigeria — Odegbami Keshi’s list raises STORIES

BY JACOB AJOM

F

ORMER Super Eagles captain, Chief Segun Odegbami has insisted that the Super Eagles will perform brilliantly and progress far in the World Cup even as he declined comment on Keshi’s

8 days to go

final squad released Monday night.

Odegbami who spoke with Sports Vanguard on telephone said he was yet to sight the complete list. “I cannot react to the list because I am yet to see the full squad,” he said. When this reporter insisted on reading it out to him, the former international said, “it would be unfair to others who had asked for my opinion on this. I am sorry, I can’t comment on Keshi’s list.”

When reminded about his expressed belief in the current Super Eagles squad and how far he hoped the team would go at the World Cup, Odegbami retorted, “of course, I put my money on Nigeria. It is where you put your money that your heart is. It is Nigeria all the way.”

Don’t give up, Rufai advises dropped players

F

ORMER Nigeria captain and first choice goalkeeper, Peter Rufai has advised players who could not make Coach Stephen Keshi’s cut for the 23man World Cup squad not to see it as a set back in their careers.

Speaking in a chat with Sports Vanguard in Lagos yesterday, Rufai said, “those who could not make the final squad should be proud that they were among those who aided Keshi to select his best. Among millions of Nigerians, they were privileged to have been in the training camp and participated in the process of giving the country its squad for the 2014 World Cup.

•Igiebor

“They should be proud of their achievement and learn from there how to relaunch themselves into the heart of the team.

They must draw all the positives and see to it that they make it when next the opportunity comes knocking.”

He said as the man who calls the shots, Keshi must have had sleepless nights before arriving at the final list.

“He must have had a tough time evaluating players’ performances and aligning that with the expectations of the technical crew. A player ’s character and attitude count in this case.”

Recalling his personal experience in the national team, Rufai said he was not too disappointed when he was left out of Senegal ’92 Africa Cup of Nations. “I was doing my Masters and combining that with football. When the Senegal ’92 squad was named and I was not included, I went to do my final exams. If I had been selected, I would have sacrificed my studies to serve my country.”

eyebrows

S

TEPHEN Keshi has finally unveiled the eagerly anticipated 23 man roster for the World Cup, and he has included some names which must raise eyebrows.

An analysis of the roster has shown that four players linked to controversial players investor, Tony Harris, will be on the plane to Brazil.

They are Ahmed Musa (CSKA Moscow), Michael Uchebo( Cercle Brugge), Uche Nwofor (SC Heerenveen) and Wa a s l a n d - B e v e r e n midfielder, Reuben Gabriel.

•Nsofor

For the past two seasons, Reuben Gabriel made only five starts for Kilmarnock and his present Belgian team while Uche Nwofor had only 49 minutes of game time under his belt throughout last season for his Dutch club.

On the other hand, Michael Uchebo did not feature in the last three matches in the Jupiler League, with his coach claiming that he has lost interest in the the team and was focusing on the World Cup, and this contributed in their decision not to extend his deal.

‘Chronic knee injury’ knocks out Nsofor I

T has been revealed that Obinna Nsofor was left out of Nigeria World Cup final squad on account of what an official termed “chronic knee injury”.

The 27-year-old winger or striker featured for Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and was on the provisional list for Brazil 2014.

H o w e v e r , AfricanFootball.com has learnt the player’s knee problems resurfaced in the build-up to the recent warm-up against Scotland in London.

Scans were later done on his problematic knee to determine how serious his injury is.

He would return to

training with the rest of the Eagles in Philadelphia, United States of America, but it

was too little, too late then.

In November, Nsofor netted a superb free kick

goal against Ethiopia in Calabar to wrap up Nigeria’s qualification for Brazil 2014.

Agent blasts Keshi over Uzoenyi

F

•Ejike

RENCH agent Letrocquer Xavier, who brokered the deal that took Ejike Uzoenyi to Rennes, says he is surprised his client, whom he still represents, was omitted by Stephen Keshi when he announced his World Cup roster.

The petite winger is in the form of his life and was widely acknowledged to be the best player for the Super Eagles at their last exhibition match against Scotland at Craven

Cottage.

“Sportively, I don’t why Ejike did not make the list.

He had an excellent CHAN, was named best player. Has always been good for the national team.

“He has been part of the project since Stephen Keshi took over and started working with local players.

“For me, we both know how it works in Nigeria but reasons are extra sportive, it is business and friendly agreement,” Xavier told allnigeriasoccer.com in a telephone conversation.

Keshi has done a good job — Chukwu F ORMER Super Eagles coach, Christian Chukwu has expressed confidence in the Super Eagles squad announced by chief coach, Stephen Keshi Monday night.

Speaking with Sports Vanguard yesterday, Chukwu who captained the Super Eagles to the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations triumph in Lagos said, “Keshi has done a good job. He has selected the best from the group of players he had in camp.

Unfortunately, not everybody can go

because FIFA has a seal and nobody can add to that number.”

Chukwu said that those who could not make the squad have nothing to worry about.

“That they did not make the World Cup team does not make them outcasts.

It does not men that they are not good. They are all still very young players who can break into the team any day as there are a lot of opportunities ahead of them.

“After the World Cup, the Nations Cup and World Cup qualifiers are

coming, so they have a lot to prove and the platform is there,” the former national team handler said.

Looking ahead, Chukwu said he believes the Coach Stephen Keshi-tutored squad can go all the way to the quarter finals of the World Cup. “Every country that goes to the World Cup wants to win the trophy.

But all things being equal, I see the Super Eagles getting to the quarter finals,” Chukwu said with a lot of conviction.

•Keshi

60— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

National Stadium is ‘’dead’’ — Danagogo S

PORTS Minister and chairman of the National Sports Commission, Dr Tammy Danagogo wept over the deplorable state of the Nation’s first national stadium in Surulere yesterday.

Speaking after conducting a tour of the former edifice that hosted the 1973 All Africa Games and the African Cup of Nations in 1980, Danagogo covered his face to the rot that the stadium has been reduced to. ‘’The state of dilapidation of the national stadium is terrible. Infact, the National Stadium is dead’’, Danagogo said while speaking in Lagos yesterday. He however said that his Ministry was looking at ways of bringing out the best from the stadium.

The Minister expressed

shame at the appalling state of both the main bowl and the NIS, stressing that he had prior knowledge

about their pitiable states but had no inkling they were far worse than he had imagined

S/Africans

Bakare bows out as NBBF technical director •Hails kid basketball players

L

ONG serving technical director of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Ayo Bakare has voluntarily relinquished his position and subsequently withdrawn his active participation in matters relating to the administration of the sport in the country.

In a crowded press conference in Lagos yesterday, the coach who took Nigeria to the London Olympics said, “after due consideration of my personal commitments at this time, I have decided

to withdraw my role as the technical director of the NBBF.” Meanwhile, the former Nigeria Basketball team national coach re said a bright future awaits basketball in Nigeria going by the performance of kid players in the just concluded Youth Alive Community Basketball competition.

Bakare, a former D’Tigers Basketball boss spoke at the closing ceremony of the Honeywell-sponsored competition.

•Danagogo Continues from B/P We are going to a month-long tournament and so we need the highest commitment in the team. If we sent you out for two minutes, you give us two minutes of everything.

Character plays more and of course the ability to play. If it were possible, I would have taken all 30 players because they are all fighting and the atmosphere in the camp is good.

The bulk of your squad will be playing at their very first World Cup. Will your team not suffer from inexperience?

We have that in many other teams who have qualified for the World Cup. If we don’t give room to others to grow, how will they grow? We have to guide them and be there at all times for them.

Who were the players who were dropped because of injury concerns?

Yes, a little bit. Nsofor with knee problem, but he was pushing. Joel (Obi) a little bit of ankle injury.

But I did not want to take the risks.

If he were 100% fit, of course he would have been in my team. He is still trying to get to be 100% fit. It was good I spent time with him for us

Continues from B/P Bafana, after the World Cup. The national executive committee (NEC) of South Africa informed last week that former coach Gordon Igesund’s contract won’t be renewed when it expires on August 31, 2014", thereby paving way for a national coach who would breathe life into the Bafana Bafana.

The coach who has been penciled down to handle the South African team and turn them into a formidable squad in Africa and the world is current Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi.

Sports Vanguard

Keshi to know each other well.

Was Sunday Mba’s late arrival in camp responsible for his being dropped?

That was one, the other one was that he has not being a professional. We have less than two and a half weeks to the World Cup, but he’s not showing me he wants to be at the World Cup. He’s too relaxed, there was no bite, no hunger, that he wants to be at the World Cup. We have more players who are hungrier and who want to give everything.

This will also be your debut at the World Cup as coach and you have kept faith with some rookies like Babatunde Michael, Uchebo, Nwofor, Kunle Odunlami.

They are good players, they are fighters, they want to prove something, they are hungry. I like to have players who are hungry, who want to prove themselves.

Kunle is a good player, he is a utility player, who can play anywhere in the defence, he is very, very committed, his work ethics very high. I like players like that.

You have insisted on the big man Azubuike Egwuekwe. Why? He’s working hard, just

gathered that Keshi is enjoying a pole position in a field that includes local boy and current South African U-20 and U-23 coach Shakes Mashaba. ‘’Keshi is heads and shoulders above any other coach for the Bafana Bafana job’’, an excited board member of South African Football Association, SAFA, said yesterday. SAFA would not however make the choice of Keshi public because they would not want to disrespect Keshi’s running contract with Nigeria until after the World Cup.

like any other player. He plays in the central defence and he has done well there. He does exactly what we want him to do, so he’s good to go.

How difficult was it to announce your final selection to the team?

Well these things happen, this is part of life. I can use myself as an example, I coached two nations to qualify for the World Cup, but I was never there. That did not stop me from coaching, I had to put in more effort.

Same goes to them. They still have time to make it to the next World Cup. They should work hard and continue to believe and they will be there.

Now, how far can your team go at the World Cup? We want to go match by match. What I know is that we will give our 120 percent, the rest will be God. You take on fellow World Cup finalists Greece later on Wednesday. Should your team be judged on this game?

If you wish to judge the team from this game, so be it. It will be your own opinion. We will do what we are capable of.

What will be your final word for Nigerians?

They should pray for the team, good health for the players and that’s it.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 61

C M Y K

62 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014 — 63

C M Y K

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014

Also Inside No sentiment in team selection — Keshi • P.32 Brazilians pros learn English for W/Cup • P. 32

I have 23 hungry fighters —Keshi C

OACH Stephen Keshi said yesterday that he is going to the World Cup with 23 fighters who are hungry for glory in Brazil. Keshi spoke after unveiling his 23-man squad in Philadelphia, USA. Keshi spoke to Africanfootball.com Coach, what were the yardsticks you used to pick your final 23-man squad for the World Cup? KESHI: It’s all about character, who wants it the most. The shape, the conditioning of every player (was considered).

Continues on Page 60

•Keshi

•Emenike •Nwofor

S/Africans celebrate Keshi as Bafana Bafana coach

BY TONY UBANI

•Yobo

J

UST as Nigerians are coming to terms

with the 23 players chosen by Stephen Okechukwu Keshi to do battle at the 2014 World

Cup in Brazil, South Africans were also celebrating that they would soon have one of

the best African coaches to tinker their national team – Bafana Continues on Page 60

QUICK CROSSWORD

TODAY'S

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

ACROSS 3 Allude (5) 9 Brainy (6) 10 Sight (6) 11 Stupefied (5) 12 Elderly (4) 15 Idol (4) 17 Delighted (7) 20 Lair (3) 21 Spree (5) 23 Mild (4) 25 Reign (4) 26 Number (5) 28 Beaker (5) 30 Biggest (7) 33 Parched (4) 35 Always (4) 36 Boring-tool (5) 38 Charge (6) 39 Bowed (6) 40 Condition (5)

DOWN 1 Fragment (5) 2 Skirmish (5) 3 Colour (3) 4 Rubber (6) 5 Flat (4) 6 Free (3) 7 Enjoyed (5) 8 Alliance (5) 13 Enchantment (7) 14 Old-fashioned (5) 16 Liberate (7) 18 Satan (5) 19 Girl’s (3) 22 Thrust (5) 24 Equipment (3) 27 Gift (6) 28 Waterway (5) 29 Throw (5) 31 Avoid (5) 32 Deal (5) 34 Twosome (4) 36 Donkey (3) 37 Fish-eggs (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Grease 5, Heroin 9, Cared 10, Ragout 11, Advise 12, Merry 14, Step 17, Nod 18, Mute 20, Hatred 22, Mused 23, Dossier 24, Began 26, Tamed 29, Oval 30, Wed 32, Late 33, Harem 35, Banned 36, Ticket 37, Rebel 38, Rotted 39, Rested.

DOWN: 1, Garish 2, Eaglet 3, Scum 4, Eaten 5, Hearted 6, Eddy 7, Odious 8, Needed 13, Roister 15, Taper 16, Pedal 18, Mural 19, Tenet 21, Don 22, Met 24, Bomber 25, Garnet 27, Market 28, Dented 30, Waded 31, Deter 31, Here 34, Mile.

How to Play Sudoku

P

lace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

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