SANUSI ATTACKS NNPC AGAIN: You haven't accounted for $20bn

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 62073

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N150

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

82 killed in fresh Plateau, Kaduna, Yobe attacks

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SANUSI ATTACKS NNPC AGAIN:

You haven't accounted •Says kerosene for $20bn subsidy is a scam •The CBN Governor is ignorant — NNPC •Senate cautions him over unsubstantiated allegations

BY EMMA UJAH, CLARA NWACHUKWU, JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU, JOSEPH ERUNKE & CHRIS OCHAYI

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BUJA—CEN TRAL Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday, told the Senate Committee on Finance that of the $67 billion crude oil sales that was supposed to be remitted to the Federation Account, only $47 billion had been reconciled between the Ni-

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COLUMNISTS:

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Mr & Mrs COUNCIL OF STATE—From left, President Goodluck Jonathan; former Head of Interim National Government, Ernest Shonekan; former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida; former President Shehu Shagari, and former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, after the National Council of State meeting in Abuja,yesterday. Photo: NAN.

Ex-Lagos deputy gov, Ojikutu arrested for alleged N130m fraud

2014 budget passes second 10 reading in Senate as APC Reps stall debate 9

2 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 — 3

C M Y K

4—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

POCKET CARTOON

IBM—From left: Bruno Di Leo, Senior Vice President, Sales & Distribution, IBM; Victor Hammond, Managing Director, Bankers Warehouse Plc and Taiwo Otiti, Country General Manager, IBM West Africa at the opening of IBM’s Innovation Centre in Lagos, yesterday.

CRUDE OIL SALES: Sanusi attacks NNPC again Continues from Page 1 geria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and CBN. But the Committee’s Chairman, Ahmed Makarfi, cautioned the CBN Governor over making wild and unsubstantiated allegations without concrete and specific figures to back them up.

The NNPC, in a swift reaction, however, dis-

missed the allegation of another unremitted $20 billion oil revenue raised against it by the CBN. It is uncertain how Sanusi came up with the fresh $20 billion unremitted funds against the initial $10.8 billion. The latter figure was arrived at during the account reconciliation with the Ministry of Finance, NNPC and

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.

TAKE HEART

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BY ELLA RANDLE

OUR work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.

So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle — Steve Jobs “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” Steve Jobs says that this quote made an impression on him. “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, he knows that something needs changing.

Remembering that our lives on earth is not permanent is most important tool in helping to make big choices in life. Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of this truth, leaving only what is truly important. This knowing helps to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already open in acceptance of this reality. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

CBN during a public hearing on alleged unremitted $49.8 billion oil revenue organised by the Senate.

CBN’s arguments But the CBN Governor, while making the new allegation, stated: “All we have said as CBN to which there is no disagreement is that NNPC shipped $67bn worth of crude. They have repatriated or we have established that $47bn has come back to the Federation Account.

There is a $20billion that has not come back to us.

The burden of proof is on NNPC. “We have made suggestions that can help to answer some of the questions and we believe that even some of that which they (NNPC) claimed were shipped

by NPDC do not belong to the NPDC but to the Federation.”

He said some of the issues were subject to investigation which, according to him, had to do with whether NNPC was repatriating money due to the Federation Account or not, adding that it was necessary to investigate the issue because the NNPC had given a number of explanations on why the money had not been remitted.

Sanusi said: “May I say, Mr. Chairman, that some of those issues raised are subject to in-

vestigations. They have to do with whether NNPC is repatriating money due to the federation account or not and because NNPC had given a number of explanations for why money has not come.

“If NNPC, for instance, says we have sold $6billion worth of crude belonging to NPDC, and if the CBN believes that part of that money should come to the Federation Account, it is related to this matter and it had been captured in our presentation.

“We are here because they are related to the question of whether NNPC is returning to the Federation Account, all the amount it is constitutionally and legally required to return.

“I have a 20-page presentation with 30 appendages, but we have to first of all agree on what has been paid into the CBN. NNPC did a presentation. We have all agreed earlier that $14billion out of the $67billion they shipped came in to the dollar account of the federation.

“That is agreed. We have looked at Federal Inland Revenue Service,FIRS, numbers and we have confirmed that $16billion paid by international oil companies to the FIRS account was not paid by the NNPC but paid by IOCs. “It was the proceeds of crude lifted in the name of NNPC but sold on behalf of FIRS. That $16billion had been confirmed by FIRS and had been accepted. There is $1.6bn that DPR also received from IOCs which was part of that crude and which CBN had accepted.

“We have provided evidence in the naira crude account out of the $28billion domestic crude shipped by the NNPC, it had repatriated $16billion.

“Out of the $67billion that has accrued to the NNPC account we have accounted for $47billion. Out of the $67billion that the NNPC shipped, $47billion had been repatriated to the CBN. What we are talking about is the balance of the $20billion and what explanations had been given.

“NNPC had said some of it do not belong to the Federation Account so, $6billion NPDC we have held the position that some of the crude shipped by the NPDC is

shipped from oil wells that belonged to the federation. Joint Ventures that Shell went out of, which NNPC took over and handed over to NPDC, which then handed over to two Nigerian companies and transferred revenues that should come to the Federation Account for remittance.

“I have given free legal opinion to this committee, on the unconstitutionality and illegality of that transaction.

“Secondly, NNPC had explained that 80 per cent of that money yet to be repatriated was on kerosene and fuel subsidy. I have submitted to this committee written evidence of a presidential directive eliminating subsidy since 2009, and NNPC needs to provide its authority for buying kerosene at N150 from the Federation Account and selling at N40 and inflicting that loss on the federation.

“NNPC had also said that it is DPR but for us in the CBN, every month NNPC sends report to the Federal Allocation Account Committee. And every month NNPC indicates how much it has deducted as PMS subsidy.

“From April 2012 to date, NNPC had submitted reports to the FAAC consistently showing it is deducting nothing from PMS, so we are surprised that having submitted nil returns since April 2012, we are now being told that deductions were being made.

“I don’t know whether they were made and whether the DPR had approved them. We are waiting for the reconciliation with the PPPRA. The other part of the third party financing which were not appropriated had no documentation or proof.”

Sanusi is ignorant — Yakubu But taking up Sanusi on his presentations, the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, expressed surprise over the CBN governor ’s outburst. More so, as efforts were being made to reconcile all the differences, even with the assistance of an audit firm of high repute, saying the CBN governor was speaking from a point of ignorance.

Yakubu said: “We have made submissions but this meeting was not of detailed discussion of the submission. We came here for the Chairman to brief us on the programme and agenda on the detailed reconciliation that we are doing.

“As you were told in the meeting we are reconciling and are at the point of conclusion on the reconciliation process with the various agencies. It is at the end of this that we will submit our detailed reconciled position which the committee will study and then commence detailed review. What is reported is exactly the true position of things.

“As you are aware, the major chunk of the amount in question over 80 per cent of it is on subsidy for both PMS and kerosene.

“The issues that were raised are not new at all.

You see we came out in details because we don’t have anything to hide and we gave a detailed breakdown of the so called $49billion and we came out clearly to state the various streams that are associated with what he was talking about.

“Now, we also made it clear that NPDC, if we had anything to hide, we would not have made it clear that NPDC was part of the stream, because NPDC which is NNPC’s upstream op

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Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014—5

Mandela, Obasanjo, wa Thiongo, Tutu, others for AFRIMA patrons

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SWEARING-IN—Governor Kashim Shettima presiding over the swearing-in of caretaker chairmen for the 27 local government areas of Borno State for a tenure of six months at the council chambers of the Government House in Maiduguri, yesterday.

CRUDE OIL SALES: Sanusi attacks NNPC again Continues from Page 4 eration, is a limited liability company registered by the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) to do upstream business just like any other independent company.

“Now, if you are in your business, will you take your gross revenue and pass it on? What we simply said was to account for the streams that the CBN governor erroneously captured.

“Now let me make this point very clearly: CBN is a banking outfit, so I really, really understand why they will not understand some petroleum engineering issues and they are not also an auditing outfit.

“Now what they try to do is to audit and I heard some statements made here that they do not have this document, they don’t have that document. They are not the auditors. We have certified bodies and arms of agencies that are charged with the responsibility of auditing.

“They are banking right? So what he said was not really new. We said clearly that we stated an amount that went to NPDC and that amount was the gross lifting.

“But there are other streams that go back to government in terms of taxes just like any other business player. So we have royalties, we have Petroleum Profit Tax and so on and so forth.

“Now these are subject of other detailed discussions and investigations and they are open. We give access to the Auditor General of the Federa-

tion, we give access to Accountant-General, and we give access to agencies that have business to do with auditing of our own business.

“At the Federation Account too, we render this report as you are told on monthly basis and these are issues that are subject of reconciliation on monthly basis.

“So really for issues like this to come to the public glare again becomes worrisome that we throw away numbers, we throw away allegations that at the end of the day we clarify but then the damage would have been done.”

It will be recalled, that at a press briefing held by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala; the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani AllisonMadueke; the Governor of Central Bank and heads of DPR and FIRS,the initial figure of $49.8B was reconciled to $10.8B. On the same day, at the Senate hearing the CBN gave a figure of $12B which was corrected by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy to $10.8B. While NNPC and other relevant Government Agencies are in the process of reconciling the $10.8B as accepted by all parties, we are surprised by the new $20B figure introduced by the CBN. According to CBN the $20B is made up of $12B subsidy claim, $6B NPDC gross revenue and $2B third party rev-

enue. It is worthy to note that the CBN accepted NNPC submission with respect to $16B royalty and PPT payments into the federation Account through the FIRS. This indicates that the CBN cherry picks the figures.

For example in taking the entire $6B gross revenue accruable to NPDC and allocating same to the federation account, CBN simply multiplied the gross production by the crude oil price; thereby failing to account for the operating costs (opex) and amortized capital expenditure that underpin the production.

In other words, the CBN failed to take into account the cost of production.

We reiterate that NPDC has been remitting the royalty and petroleum Profit Tax, PPT to the Federation Account.

NPDC as a subsidiary of NNPC operates a business model similar to other international companies in Nigeria and abroad and will continue to be governed by these global best practices in the execution of these assets.

Regarding the subsidy claim on kerosene, it is important to note that NNPC as the supplier of last resort is the only company supplying this product in Nigeria for the benefit of the citizenry. If kerosene has been deregulated why are the independent marketers not supplying this product in line with what is applicable to diesel (AGO). NNPC owes a

duty to Nigerians to ensurethat there are adequate products in the country. This mandate has without question been accomplished in the past four years.

NNPC deserve to be commended rather than battered, for ensuring adequate supply of kerosene at regulated price of N50.00k.NNPC cannot be held responsible for any differential pricing from non NNPC retailers. This is the basis for NNPC’s claim on kerosene subsidy.

At the end of the session, the Committee’s chairman, however, granted one week’s grace requested by the parties to reconcile all the differences and then bring all the necessary documents to back up their claims.

AGOS—AHEAD of the maiden edition of the All African Music Awards, AFRIMA, a continental showpiece to celebrate the rich musical heritage of Africa and her talented artistes for the economic growth of the continent, the International Committee of AFRIMA has thrown open the process by which members of the Board of Patrons for AFRIMA, will emerge.

The six patrons to make up the board would be selected by popular votes from the long list of illustrious Africans who have distinguished themselves in various spheres of human endeavour and social-economic life such as governance, arts and entertainment, philanthropy, business, academia and social advocacy.

African citizens living on the continent or abroad, who are 50 years and above, qualify for nominations. However, incumbent public office holders are ineligible for consideration.

According to a press statement signed by a member of the International Committee and Chairman, Media Committee for AFRIMA, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, “the entire process to select the six patrons must be devoid of politics, prejudice or personal interest. Anything short of meritorious appointment can taint the awards project and rob it of its vaunted integrity and independence.

“We want Africa to make this decision of choosing ‘their patrons’ for ‘their award’, rather than have patrons rammed down their throats”.

Another member of the International Committee

and AFRIMA’s Director of Brand Communications and Sponsorship, Ms. Matlou Tsotetsi, said further that the African public would play a vital role in selecting the six patrons in consonance with the core values of AFRIMA –FACE IT which stands for Fairness, Authenticity, Creativity, Excellence, Integrity and Transparency.

“It is essential that persons nominated as AFRIMA patrons embody FACE IT in their personal and professional life, as well as also bringing it to bear in their advisory capacity for the ennobling awards project”, Tsotetsi stated.

After strategic meetings, consultations with key stakeholders and suggestions from African music lovers, a long list of 15 nominees has been unveiled by the International Committee. “This first list of nominees is just a guide to streamline the process and give direction so people are not nominating from an uninformed perspective”, explained Ayorinde.

The first list of nominees for the AFRIMA Board of Patrons are: Desmond Tutu (South Africa), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria), Winnie Madikizela–Mandela (South Africa), Kofi Annan (Ghana), Ngig) wa Thiong’o (Kenya), Mohammed ‘Mo’ Ibrahim (Sudan), Emeka Anyaoku (Nigeria), Patrice Motsepe (South Africa), Alpha Oumar Konare (Mali), Dame Patience Jonathan (Nigeria), Martha NamundjeboTilahun (Namibia), Mohammed Ibn-Chambas (Ghana), Joaquim Alberto Chissano (Mozambique), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia) and Bola Tinubu (Nigeria).

US commends Nigerian media A

BUJA—THE United States Government, yesterday in Abuja acknowledged the independence of the media in Nigeria, noting that it was free.

The US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle, spoke when he paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku.

He said that unlike in other countries he had visited, the media in Nigeria was open for robust debates and news reports.

“I have served in countries where the media is very restricted and there is tight government control of the media and so on,” he said.

Entwistle described the country’s media environment as conducive adding that it was gratifying for government to remain open.

Entwistle, who said that it was a pleasure for him to have come to Nigeria, added that the media scene seemed “completely wide open.”

He also commended the sharing of informa-

tion between government and citizens, saying that the development would enhance public confidence and transparency in government activities.

“If they want to know where their taxes go and how they were used, they have the right to request for that information.

“I know in my own background, it’s difficult for government to go down that road; I am very impressed by the progress you have made in that direction."

BY IF

6—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

40-yr-old woman docked over N2.5m theft

BY ONOZURE DANIA

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AGOS — A 40-year-old woman, Eunice Olagbende, was, yesterday, arraigned before an Ikeja magistrate's court, over alleged theft of clothes worth N2.5 million.

The defendant, who is facing a count charge, bordering on conspiracy, obtaining and stealing, preferred against her by the police, was docked before Magistrate Abimbola Komolafe.

The police prosecutor, Inspector Iranus Nnamonu, told the court that the defendant and others at large, committed the offence between March 2011 and September 2012, at about 10am at Mafoluku, Oshodi.

He said the defendant stole the said clothes, under false pretence, to sell them and remit the money to one Ijeoma Kogwu, which she knew was false.

According to the prosecutor, the offence committed is contrary to section 312 and punishable under section 285 (1) of the criminal law of Lagos state of Nigeria 2011.

If found guilty, the defendant is liable to three years imprisonment.

Magistrate Komolafe granted the defendant bail in the sum of N500,000, with two sureties in like sum.

She adjourned the matter to February 18, 2014, for mention.

Ojikutu, ex-Lagos dep gov arrested over alleged N130m fraud

BY EMMA NNADOZIE, CRIME EDITOR & EVELYN USMAN

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AGOS — THE Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police has arrested former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, who was declared wanted by the unit in June last year in connection with the case of obtaining N130 million from a complainant, one Cajethan Okekearu.

According to the Public Relations Officer of the unit, Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, Ngozi Isintume-Agu, she was arrested yesterday at her Lagos Island residence.

According to IsintumeAgu,"Alhaja Sinatu Aderoju Ojikutu, a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State is a 67year-old retiree from Lagos Island.

"She allegedly connived with her son, one Samson Adebisi Ojikutu, Jnr, who is currently in USA to commit the fraud.

The suspect and her son were alleged to be parties to the sale of the land and both signed the agreement given to the complainant and obtained N130 million from him.

"She admitted to the crime but claimed that it was a genuine mistake of plot identification.

She refunded N50 million to the complainant and promised to refund the balance as soon as she disposed her two property she put up for sale.

"She also confessed that she had injected the complainant's money in her business. She equally made an undertaking and payment plan which was drawn from September 2012 and was to terminate by November 2012, but she defaulted due to lack of funds.

"The whole illicit deal got blown open when the complainant commenced development on the land and was on the verge of completion when the bona-fide owner of the land surfaced and indeed it was discovered that the land that the

Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu suspect sold does not belong to her. She actually sold Plot 23 Block 4 while Plot 24 Block 4 already has a property on it.

"Investigation revealed that the land she sold did not belong to her, the land belonged to one Mr. Afolabi. It was also discovered that Plot 24 Block 4, which actually belonged to late Samson Adebisi Ojikutu, Snr, the sus-

Religious crisis looms in Osun school zUniforms, assembly songs rendered along religious lines

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

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SOGBO — TENSION, yesterday, enveloped a popular school in Osun State, the Baptist High School, Iwo, as the students wore different dresses that suited their religious inclination to school.

The students, thereby, defied the state government uniform specification recently introduced in all public secondary schools in the state as part of the schools reclassification

Man, 38, remanded pending bail perfection

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BY ONOZURE DANIA

AGOS — A 38-year-old man, Olusekola Oti, was yesterday remanded in prison custody, by an Ikeja Magistrate Court, over alleged robbery, pending when he is able to perfect his bail.

The defendant, who was docked before Magistrate Abimbola Komolafe, is facing a two-count charge bordering on conspiracy, robbery and stealing, preferred against him by the Police.

The Police prosecutor, Inspector Iranus Nnamonu, said the de-

fendant and others at large committed the alleged offence on July 11, 2013, at Agidingbi area of Ikeja.

He said the defendant, between March 2010 and July 2013 at Adeniji Adele Street on Lagos Island unlawfully received two Toyota 4-Runner SUVs valued at N7 million.

Nnamonu also told the court that the defendant also unlawfully received one Honda Civic saloon car, worth N1.5 million, from one Wale, knowing fully well that the vehicles were sto-

pect's husband who died in 2008 was sold by him in 1995 and the suspect was a life witness and appended her signature to the sale of the land.

"A financial institution (name withheld) which was in possession of the C of O after payment was fully made also tendered the original C of O which the former Deputy Governor of Lagos State

had earlier declared missing and even sworn an affidavit to."

The suspect, Alhaja Sinatu Aderoju Ojikutu sued the Inspector-General of Police, the Commissioner of Police, SFU and the complainants in the state High Court holden at Igbosere, Lagos with Suit No. M/581/2013 praying the court to restrain the Police from further investigation into the matter and violation of fundamental human rights.

The ruling by Justice Obadina on December 17, 2013, dismissed the suit for lack of merit, that the Nigeria Police have the power to prosecute the Applicants, Alhaja Sinatu Aderoju Ojikutu and her son, Sampson Adebisi Ojikutu (Jnr) since the Police investigation revealed that there is prima facie case of obtaining by false pretences against them and added that the court will neither interfere nor restrain the Police in carrying out their statutory function.

The Nigeria Police, Special Fraud Unit had made concerted effort to arrest her after Justice Obadina (Mrs) gave the ruling during the suit filed by Alhaja Sinatu Aderoju Ojikutu to restrain the Police from further investigation into the matter.

She will be arraigned at the Federal High Court, Lagos, today.

len.

According to the prosecutor, the offence committed is contrary to section 298 and punishable under section 326 of the criminal law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011.

If found guilty, the convict is liable to 21 years imprisonment.

However, when the charge was read to the defendant, he pleaded not guilty.

The magistrate granted the defendant bail in the sum of N500,000, with two responsible sureties in like sum.

Students in the school, yesterday. programme.

Apart from the riotous outfits, the students also sang different religious songs while on the assembly for the morning devotion.

While the Christian students who wore white garments sang Christian songs, the Muslim students who appeared in veils sang Muslim songs.

Worried by the development, the school authorities hurriedly sent the students to their various classrooms and

informed the state Ministry of Education of the development.

Reacting, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Sunday Akere said government was aware of the development and was making efforts to bring sanity back to the system.

He said officials of the state Ministry of Education have been drafted to the school to prevent further breakdown of law and order.

FEANYI OKOLIE

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 —7

Cobbler arraigned for fondling 6-yr-old twins

BY CHINYERE ABIAZIEM

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Mile One market traders protesting planned demolition of make-shift kiosks in the market in Port Harcourt, yesterday.

Photo: Nwankpa Chijiioke.

Father, 2 daughters die as vehicle plunges into Lagos river

BY KENNETH EHIGIATOR

LAGOS — THREE members of the same family died early yesterday, in Lagos as the vehicle in which they were travelling plunged into Ikota river on LekkiEpe expressway.

The accident, which occurred at about 1.00 am, less than 50 metres from the second toll gate, claimed the lives of father and two daughters, while the wife, who sustained serious injuries, is currently receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.

Vanguard gathered that driver of the vehicle, a Toyota 4-Runner Sports Utility Vehicle, SUV, with registration LAGOS DN 866 JJJ, was trying to avoid an articulated vehicle when he veered off the road and plunged into the river.

A source said the man and his two daughters died instantly, while the wife was rescued with serious injuries.

It was learnt that the victims were flung into the river as soon as the vehicle hit the waters and

this reportedly created a challenge for the rescue team in recovering their bodies.

Officials of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, Lekki Concession Company, LCC, and Lagos State Ambulance Services, LASAMBUS, were seen at the accident scene at about 9:00 am

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DO EKITI — AN Ado Ekiti High Court, yesterday, sentenced a 30-year-old man, Mr. Mayowa Omolaye, to death by hanging for killing one Tayo Oluwabusuyi.

Omolaye, who had in 2009 convicted to jail for stealing in the deceased farm, renewed his onslaught to his victim after gaining his freedom but this time around, Omolaye decided to take the life of

and, thereafter, plunged into the river.

One of the front tyres of the SUV pulled off as a result of impact of the crash.

Though the accident occurred very early in the morning, the scene attracted a huge crowd of onlookers, with accompanying traffic gridlock.

Agbakoba sues FG over disparity in cutoff marks for unity schools

BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

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AGOS — LEADING human rights crusader and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, has dragged the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Education before a Federal High Court in Lagos, over admission inequity in Federal Government Colleges, also known as Unity Schools.

30-yr-old to die by hanging for murder

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

recovering the vehicle from the river, after the victims had been taken to the mortuary.

An official of LASEMA, who craved anonymity, confirmed three deaths and one survivor, explaining that the accident occurred because the driver of the SUV tried to avoid an articulated vehicle close to Ikota river bridge

Oluwabusuyi The accused person was charged with the murder of Oluwabusuyi at Igbooroke farm in Igede-Ekiti, headquarters of Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state on May 30, 2009.

The prosecution noted that the offence had contravened Section 316 of the Criminal Code Act, Cap 38, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004.

In suit No. FHC/L/CS/1358/ 2013, Agbakoba is asking the court to declare that application by government of different cut-off marks for unity schools, based on gender, ethnicity and states of origin is discriminatory and violates fundamental guarantees to freedom from discrimination of his grandchildren candidates as guaranteed by the constitution.

The suit was brought pursuant to Section 42 of the Constitution which prohibits administrative or executive actions by government that discriminates between Nigerians on grounds of ethnicity, gender, religion and place of origin.

In the originating application for the enforcement of fundamental rights, filed on September 30, 2013, the senior advocate is seeking the following orders: A declaration that the administrative acts of the respondents, particularly the 2nd respondent which prescribes and applies different requirements including cut-off marks for candidates seeking admission into Federal Government Colleges, based on

gender, ethnicity, states of origin etc is discriminatory against Applicant's grandchildren and the group/class they represent, on grounds of ethnicity, states of origin, gender etc. and therefore violates Section 42(1) of 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Also, an order directing the respondents, particularly the 2nd respondent, to apply uniform admission requirements, especially cut-off marks to all candidates seeking admission into Federal Government Colleges, notwithstanding their gender, states of origin, ethnicity etc.

Including, an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents, particularly the 2nd respondent, whether by itself, its agents, servants, privies or otherwise howsoever from further acts of discrimination in admission to Federal Government Colleges.

The application is supported by a statement and an affidavit of 19 paragraphs deposed by Agbakoba and also a written address containing the arguments.

Meanwhile, the suit which came up on December 4, 2013 was adjourned to March 6, 2014 for hearing.

AGOS — ONE Yusuf Ojuolape, a cobbler, was arraigned at an Ebute Metta Magistrate's court for allegedly fondling six-yrold twins (names withheld) severally, thereby causing them injuries.

Yusuf, alongside his friend, Akibu, a bouncer who happened to be neighbours with the girls’ parents at 23, Oke-Arin Street, Lagos Island, were in the habit of calling the twins to their room to assault them by inserting their fingers in their private parts, according to reports.

In addition, it was learnt that their mother, simply called Mrs Akeem said she came to know about the assault when she discovered swelling around her daughters' private parts, while she was bathing them. She asked them what happened and they told her it was Bro Yusuf that has been assaulting them.

On hearing her daughters’ report, she left for Yusuf’s room to confront them but the man was not in the house.

On another occasion when she sent the kids on an errand, they were stopped by Yusuf and his friend who succeded in taking one of them in while the other ran off to alert her mother. Akibu took to his heels when the police arrived the scene while the police succeded in arresting Yusuf.

The prosecutor, Inspector R. Odigie, who said he could not see clearly or understand the medical test report, when the magistrate asked for it, noted that Yusuf committed an offence punishable under section 135 of the criminal law of Lagos state of Nigeria 2003 and demanded that he be remanded in police custody.

The charge sheet reads thus: “That you Yusuf Ojuolape ‘m’ between June 18 and 22, 2013 at 23, Okearin Street, Lagos Island, Lagos in the Magisterial District, did indecently assaulted 6-year-old twins, Taiwo and Kehinde Akeem, by inserting your finger into their vargina and causing them injuries and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 135 of the criminal law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2003.”

8—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2014

BY TAYE OBATERU, LUKA BINNIYAT, NDAHI MARAMA & BALA AJIYA

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OS — NO fewer than 82 per sons were yesterday killed in Plateau, Kaduna and Yobe states following separate attacks by some unidentified gunmen.

At least 32 people, including two members of the Special Task Force, STF, maintaining security in the state, were killed in the bloodbath in two communities of Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State early yesterday when gunmen attacked the villages.

The communities, Atakar and Rajat, which are boundary villages between Plateau and Kaduna states were attacked at about 3a.m. by gunmen said to have come in large numbers.

An eyewitness said 19 people were killed at Rajat, 11 at Atakar while about 60 houses were burnt. ”The gunmen started shooting sporadically and setting homes on fire. They then shot anyone that ran out of the houses to escape,” a survivor, Joel Mana said.

30 killed in Kaduna

Also, in Kaduna State, gunmen suspected to be Fulani, killed no fewer than 30 people in Kirim, Zagan and Zandyen villages and razed hundreds of houses in the three communities between the two states, according to anguished villagers who spoke to Vanguard in Kaduna.

Kaduna State Police Commissioner, Olufemi Adenaike, confirmed the attack.

In Yobe State, some unidentified gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram adherents also reportedly killed 20 people, bringing the total number in the three states to 82.

However, in Plateau State, the member representing Riyom Constituency in the state House of Assembly, Daniel Dem, confirmed the attack, lamenting that scores of his constituents had again been killed barely a month after 40 people were killed in a similar attack at Shonong.

Dem, Majority Leader of the House, said with the latest attack, over 70 people from his constituency had been killed in less than one month.

He said: “The police confirmed to me that 32 members of my constituency were killed by the gunmen. Initially we thought the casualty was 28, but it is actually 32 people and among those killed were two soldiers of the STF.” He described the ease with which the attackers come and escape as a slap on the security agencies and appealed to the Federal Government to approve the commencement of aerial surveillance of the area and deploy more troops for a more effective security.

The STF was yet to react to the development and the killing of two of its members at press time.

The telephone number of the spokesman, Captain Salisu

From left: Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State; former Borno Governor Ali-Modu Sheriff and Hon. Aliyu Gebi during the meeting of All Progressives Congress, APC, leaders with APC House members at National Assembly, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

82 killed in fresh Plateau, Kaduna, Yobe attacks Mustapha was unavailable when journalists tried to reach him.

CEDRA wants emergency rule in Kaduna

Meanwhile, the Centre for Development and Rights Advocacy, CEDRA, has asked the Federal Government to impose a state of emergency on Kaduna State as the only means of securing Southern Kaduna from such attacks.

An army of Fulani herdsmen reportedly invaded some communities sharing boundary with the western part of Plateau State and Kaura Local Government Area in Kaduna State.

Speaking on the issue, Bulus

Gwaza, a resident of Zankan, said the gunmen numbering about 100 invaded the three communities and started shooting indiscriminately in the night.

“Right now, we have buried over 30 dead bodies and still looking for more. Not a single house is standing now as I am speaking to you. They killed one policeman and one soldier. In fact, other soldiers had to run because of the sophisticated guns that the invaders were carrying."

Gunmen kill 20 traders in Yobe

Unknown gunmen, Monday night, killed 20 in a local market in Yobe State.

A lecturer with the College of Agriculture, Gujba who was said to have been returning from Ashaka town in Gombe State was also shot dead by the fleeing gunmen at Buni Gari.

The state Police Commissioner, Alhaji Sanusi Rufai, however, confirmed that 18 traders were killed by armed bandits in two villages in Gulani Local Government Area.

Rufai who spoke with Vanguard said: “The traders were ambushed by the bandits while travelling back from Ngalda local market. ”The bandits, masked and dressed in military uniform, attacked and killed 18 traders, 10 from Kukuwa and eight from

Dokshi villages and took away their money estimated at millions of Naira.

Rufai further explained that the attackers also ran into a quarry plant in the area, killing a policeman attached to it.

The police boss further said that no arrests had been made but noted that the “Joint Task force, JTF, and police are now combing the bushes across the state to arrest the culprits. Bandits are now parading themselves as Boko Haram to wreak havoc on innocent people and instil fear in them. As I speak, security forces are searching for the attackers and hopefully we will succeed.’’

Global branding: Long way to go for Nigerian banks — The Banker magazine

BY OMOH GABRIEL, BUSINESS EDITOR

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AGOS— THE Banker Maga zine, yesterday, released its top 500 global banking brands for 2014 with Nigerian banks ranking very low despite rising profits and assets.

The report said that Nigerian banks still have a long way to go to build their brands.

According to the report, “African banks made little headway.

South Africa saw their total brand valuation dip by 4 per cent to $5.7 billion, while Nigeria, despite experiencing a big rise in profits and assets in the past few years, only managed to increase their brand values by three per cent to $593 million, suggesting they still have a long way to go in terms of building their brands.

The brands which ranked banks

according to how they manage to enhance shareholders value ranked United States and European banks high for appreciating in shareholders value.

According to The Banker, “Brand valuations for US and European banks once again rose sharply. For emerging market lenders, the ranking looks less encouraging. Brand values in this year’s Top 500 Banking Brands ranking have increased 14 per cent from 2013, reflecting the continuing recovery of global banks from the financial crisis. Among the top 10 banks, eight saw their brand values rise by nine per cent or more.

“Wells Fargo had another strong showing, topping the ranking for the second year in succession. Its brand value went from $26 billion in 2013 to $30 billion in 2014. HSBC moved up from

third to second.

Bank of America and Citi also jumped one place from last year to third and fourth, respectively.

The bank brand to lose out to HSBC, Bank of America and Citi was Chase, which slipped from second to fifth spot, a result of its brand value declining one per cent to $23.2 billion.

“Overall, developed world lenders had a good year. European institutions fared particularly well, reflecting the fact that their earnings projections and the perception of their riskiness – both important elements of their brand valuation – have improved as the eurozone crisis has abated and with many of them having increased their capital levels and cleansed their balance sheets of bad assets.

“The brand values very much mirror banks’ share prices and

market capitalisations,” says Bryn Anderson, chief operating officer of Brand Finance, the consultancy that did the research for the ranking.

Peripheral eurozone countries such as Ireland, Portugal and Greece stood out for positive reasons. The aggregate brand valuation of Greek banks rose a huge 101 per cent between 2013 and 2014 to $2.1 billion. Irish and Portuguese lenders increased by 68 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively. Cyprus, however, is yet to put its financial problems behind it. Its banks saw their collective valuation fall 3 per cent to $231m.

US banks managed to increase their valuations from $174 billion to $194 billion, ensuring that once again the country remained way ahead of any other in the ranking China, in second place, has a total brand value of $113billion.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 — 9

Kerosene subsidy a scam —SANUSI

BY OMOH GABRIEL

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BUJA—THE Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi yesterday described the kerosene subsidy claim by NNPC as a scam saying that claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, of spending money on kerosene subsidy are not credible.

Sanusi made the declaration at the resumed Senate Investigative Public Hearing on unremitted oil revenue in Abuja stressing that the sum of $20 billion was unremitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC, between January 2012 and July 2013.

He said the burden of proof was now on the NNPC to substantiate that the $20 billion unremitted either did not belong to the Federation or was legally and constitutionally spent.

According to the CBN Governor, the NNPC, by paying kerosene subsidy, confessed to a number of serious infractions.

Referring to the data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, he stressed that kerosene was not a subsidisd product, adding that the so-called subsidy was rent generated for the benefit of those in the kerosene business.

Producing evidence that former President Yar’Adua had issued a presidential directive eliminating subsidy payment on kerosene as from July 2009, Sanusi said the huge losses inflicted on the Federation Account have not been appropriated.

Speaking further, the CBN Governor said the burden of proof was on the NNPC to show where it obtained authorisation to purchase kerosene at N150/litre from Federation funds and sell at about N40/litre, knowing full well that the product sells in the market at N170-N220/ litre.

Citing records of the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, Sanusi said the records suggest that the NNPC imports about four to six vessels of kerosene a month.

Similarly, he said based on industry sources, the Federation Account loses $100 million monthly due to racketeering in the industry.

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

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BUJA—AGAINST the directive of the All P r o g r e s s i v e s Congress,APC,that its members in the National Assembly should block the progress of the 2014 Appropriation Bill, the budget yesterday scaled second reading in the Senate.

The situation was, however, different in the House of Representatives as APC lawmakers in the Green Chamber for the second time in two weeks, stalled debate on the budget, forcing the House to adjourn till next Tuesday.

It has, therefore, been committed to the Senate Committees on Finance and Appropriation, with a mandate to treat some areas of controversy and submit a report within three weeks.

This followed the conclusion of debate on the budget by all senators across party lines.

Senators at the plenary, including those in the opposition, the All Progressives Congress, APC, gave resounding consents to the passage of the budget to the next stage.

The development came as a surprise to many who were at the Senate gallery to witness the continuation of the debate, given earlier directive by the national leadership of APC that all lawmakers in its platform should block passage of the budget.

Ekweremadu presiding

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu,who presided over the plenary that saw conclusion of debate on the budget, had earlier thrown two questions to senators to approve or reject the passage of the budget from second reading stage.

Senators were to respond by either shouting “ai”,meaning approval of passage or “nay”, meaning otherwise.

But the intimidating shout of “ai” from PDP senators, supported by some others from the opposition parties saw the budget pass the second reading.

Only a noticeable few members from the opposition APC shouted “nay” to its passage.

Senator Ekweremadu, therefore, charged chairmen of the committees to liaise with their counterparts in the House of Representatives to resolve some areas of differences and submit report within the given period.

He thanked senators for what he called their useful contributions, leading to a successful debate, even as he admitted that the budget stirred some controversies, especially on issues ranging from waste, overbloated funds to slow or poor budget implementation.

He charged the committees to do a thorough job on the budget, saying the action of the Senate was the reflection of separation of power as enshrined in the constitution.

MEETING: From right: All Progressives Congress, APC, House Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, APC National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, APC leaders, Ogbonaya Onu, Bola Tinubu, Osun State governor, Raufu Aregbesola and Deputy Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar, at the meeting of APC leaders with APC House members, at National Assembly, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

2014 budget passes 2nd reading in Senate zAs APC Reps stall debate for a second time Earlier, during contributions on the budget, Senator Ehigie Uzamere, APC, Edo, canvassed that the National Assembly should after appropriation, mandate ministries to appear every quarter to explain how they utilised funds appropriated to them.

He also called on the executive to expedite action on the construction of second Niger Bridge, stating with concern that people passing through the bridge during second week of every December went through hell.

Also speaking to Vanguard, Chairman, Senate Committee on Special Duties,Clever Ikisikpo, PDP, Bayelsa, said the budget was meant for all Nigerians, saying any attempt by any chamber of the National Assembly to stall its passage would cause harm to the common man.

According to him, within the period, there was disagreement over what should be the oil benchmark, Nigerians were not happy with the delay.

He added that the call by the leadership of the APC for the budget to be blocked nearly pitched the party against the generality of Nigerians because of its consequences.

He said: “Blocking the budget means a lot because they want to bring hardship upon the common man.

“In the Senate,we behave maturely and that is the reason we are able to pass the budget against all odds and till tomorrow, I don’t think we will have problems even with the clause to clause debate.”

Speaking on the increase in recurrent expenditure, Ikisikpo said Nigerians would continue to witness such increase as long as government continue to create jobs for the people.

“We should rather look at the issue of fictitious spending and forget about recurrent being 74 per cent and capital having 26 per cent because we need jobs to be created for the yearning youths.”

APC Reps stall debate

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives legislative debate on the budget was again stalled by All Progressives Congress, APC, legislators yesterday.

The House of Representatives out of fear that APC lawmakers may carry out its leadership’s directive to stall all executive bills deliberately omitted the 2014 budget from all proceedings last week.

Raising a point of order

Hardly had the leader of the House, Mulikat Adeola-Akande, introduced the Bill and asked for it to be seconded than a newly defected member of the House from PDP to APC, from Benue State, Emmanuel Jime, raised a point of order.

At that point, the chamber appeared cold, an apparent sign that something ominous was in the offing.

Granted permission to speak by the speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, who presided over plenary, Jime stood up and meticulously read Section 21 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, arguing that the executive arm

of the government had breached the provision of the Act by hurriedly preparing the budget.

He submitted that what was submitted to the House was the abridged summary of the budget, saying the budget of most agencies of government were not represented in the budget and later prayed the House to suspend discussion on the matter.

He said: “What we have is the abridged version of this estimate.

We cannot accept the Minister’s summary of the budget. We must never accept the breach of our law.

“This particular budget presentation was a breach of our law and we cannot continue to have the Executive Arm of government to continue to breach our laws. History is going to judge this parliament for standing on what is just.

“An account of the missing $10.8 billion has not been given to Nigerians and you want us to discuss the 2014 budget.“

Tambuwal sets up six-man panel

Apparently on a rescue mission, presiding officer of the House, Tambuwal, quickly set up a six man-panel to look into questions raised by Jime after Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, John Enoh, PDP, Cross Rivers State, tried to puncture Jime’s submission on the budget.

Jime in his eight minutes submission, had argued that the 2014 budget was not accompanied by estimates as required by Section 21 sub section 1,2 and 3 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.

10—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

FG to issue additional N100bn bond for completion of Lagos/ Ibadan highway

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BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU

BUJA—THE Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen yesterday said that the Federal Government would soon issue N100 billion additional bond to complete the reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

Onolememen, spoke when members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Project Reload visited his ministry in Abuja, adding that the government had already spent N50 billion on the project.

He further said that government had mobilised both Messrs Julius Berger Plc., and RCC, pointing out that both contractors handling the road project would be paid a total of N25 billion as budgeted for the road in the 2014 budget, just as additional provision for N25 billion would be made for the job next year.

However, the minister explained that the only thing that could guarantee speedy completion of the road was for the Federal Government to issue both road and infrastructure bonds from where it would raise additional N100 billion to to finance the project.

He said: ‘’It is a new way of funding infrastructure projects across the world and that is what can guarantee the quick delivery of that road.”

Apparently reacting to the various criticisms trailing the government’s handling of the road, Onolememen said: “Government can decide how it funds its road projects, and government has made commitment up to N50 billion to that construction.

“In 2014 alone we budgeted N25 billion for that road, and this was after mobilising the contractors last year. In 2015, we will receive another N25 billion on the road. We also have government institutions that are also putting about N17 billion on the road project.

MEETING: From left: Senator Gbenga Obadara, Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon Suraj Adekunbi, Ogun State deputy governor, Prince Segun Adesegun, Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Chairman, All Progressives Congress, APC, Membership Registration Committee in Ogun State, Mr. Adeniyi Fabikun, Senator Adegbenga Kaka, and Senator Akin Odunsi, at the APC stakeholders' meeting on the membership registration exercise in the state in Abeokuta.

Intrigue as APC begins membership registration in Lagos

BY OLASUNKANMIAKONI

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AGOS—AS membership registration of All Progressives Congress, APC, commences nationwide, strong indication emerged yesterday that the exercise may experience some hitches in Lagos.

According to impeccable party sources, there were some hitches in many council areas, including Ikeja and Ejigbo council areas, following allegations that the interim Chairman of the party, Chief Oladele Ajomale, manipulated the list to favour his loyalists.

The source said: “In Ikeja, there were allegations that 85 per cent of the registration officers list was manipulated by loyalists of Chief Ajomale and this led to rumpus among members who expressed their rejection of the act.

“Also in Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, LCDA, the party chairman was accused of choosing a loyalist who drew the party list alone and this led to the rejection of the registration officers list by party members.”

Meantime, National leader of the party and former Governor of the state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, while urging members of the party to conduct themselves peacefully during the membership registration, declared that only registered members would get the party’s Identity Card and be recognised as authentic member.

He also warned against using the registration to create division among members.

Tinubu said: “There is discipline in APC. If you are caught promoting division, you will be suspended pending trial.

APC is my party. I do not have a group. We cannot encourage grouping or caucuses in APC. If you want to contest for any office,

the procedure is in the party constitution.

“You cannot claim to be an APC member until you register. I appeal to you all to formalise your membership of our great party.

The registration starts on February 5 and will last six days. It starts from 10am to 6pm daily.”

Also, Ajomale, speaking on the

preparation for the exercise at a stakeholders’ meeting earlier, urged members and intending members not to take the exercise as a joke, stressing that “to be a genuine and card carrying member of APC, you must properly be registered personally, there is no arrangement for proxy.

"I want to urge our members and intending members to avail themselves of the opportunity and go and register as a

progressive APC member because we are set for victory. The best party for all the well meaning Nigerians.”

It was learnt that as part of moves to ensure a successful exercise, most chairmen of 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs, have started the mobolisation and sensitisation of members in the grassroots on the need to participate in the exercise.

Protest: It's not yet over, AOCOED students insist

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BY BOSEADELAJA

AGOS—STUDENTS of Adeniran Okusanya College of Education AOCOED, have said they will not relent in pursuit of their goals until their matter was drawn to a logical conclusion with the school management.

The students, who embarked on a peaceful demonstration and grounded the entire Mile 2/ Badagry expressway last Monday, said it’s high time the school management looked into their welfare and remove

unnecessary burden the hike in the school fees have placed on the entire students.

Speaking with Vanguard yesterday, AOCOED Student Union President, Saka Gbenayon, said although the school management have given the students one month within which it will look into their plight but the students have said it is not yet uhuru until their matter is brought to a logical conclusion.

According to Gbenayon, the school authority has promised to

reverse the school fees from N45,000 and above to N25,000 and N30,000 respectively, but the students want this to be put in print before they rest their case.

The students embarked on a peaceful protest last Monday grounding the expressway for hours such that road users experienced a terrible gridlock on that day. They want an improved welfare condition, part of which is renovation of toilet facilities and affordable school fees among others.

Fashola condoles with Newswatch over slain editor contributed substantially to the prime when his budding

BY MONSURU OLOWOOPEJO

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AGOS—GOVERNOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State yesterday commiserated with the management and staff of Newswatch Newspapers Limited over the killing of its Deputy Editor Saturday, Mr. Toyin Obadina, by some yet to be identified gunmen.

Fashola in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Hakeem Bello, expressed shock and grief at the untimely death of the Deputy Editor.

The governor noted that the deceased was an articulate and brilliant journalist who has

development of journalism in the country.

Fashola was particularly pained by the fact that the deceased was cut down in his

professionalism was about to blossom for the benefit of the Journalism profession in particular and the country in general.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 —11

Osun govt slams Omisore over criticism zSays Tablets of Knowledge, new schools are ubiquitous

BY GBENGAOLARINOYE

O

SOGBO—THE Osun state government yesterday responded to comments by one of the governorship aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Senator Iyiola Omisore, during his media chat in Oshogbo, saying he could only be suffering from Attention Deficiency Syndrome, ADS. In the chat, Omisore alleged that only 900 Tablets of Knowledge, Opon Imo, had been distributed to students throughout the state, especially on the distribution of Opon Imo and other aspects of the education reforms going on in the state in general .

In its response, the government through the Director, Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, said at least, 1,473 tablets had been distributed to students in Ile Ife, where Omisore hails from.

He said Omisore’s position showed the tragedy of an aspirant who does not even have basic information about what affects the people in his immediate constituency.

Okanlawon said: “If 1,473 students have received their copies of Opon Imo in Ile Ife alone, that better explains how many tablets have been distributed in the entire state which has 30 local government

Ekiti: Ex-PDP lawmakers declare support for Adeyeye

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BY DAUD OLATUNJI

DO EKITI—Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, members in the Ekiti State House of Assembly between 2003 and 2007 have declared their support for one of the party ’s governorship aspirant, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, saying; “With Adeyeye as PDP candidate, victory is sure.”

Speaking on behalf of the former lawmakers, the first PDP Speaker and Deputy Speaker in the State House of Assembly, Hon. Sola Ajigbolamu and Hon. Taiwo Olatunbosun respectively, said: “From his character, antecedents and academic qualifications, Adeyeye fits into the kind of governor Ekiti State desire at this time.”

Ajigbolamu and Olatunbosun, who were the Speaker and Deputy Speaker under the Ayodele Fayose regime, urged the national leaders of the PDP, especially President Goodluck Jonathan to support the agitation for the South Senatorial District to produce the next governor by presenting Adeyeye to the Ekiti PDP as its governorship candidate.

areas and an area office.

“We advise Omisore to visit schools such as Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife, Community High School Olugbode, Moremi High School, Ile-Ife, Aderemi Memorial College, Aye-Oba, Ifesowapo Community Grammar Sch. Egbejoda, Olode Grammar School, Irepodun Grammar School, Aye-Arode, Community Secondary Grammar School Ajebandele Fadehan,

Community High School, Alabameta, St. David’s Grammar School, Ile-Ife and others to see and tell the world how many tablets are in those schools and how far removed, he is to the people of his constituency.”

The statement reminded the people that the government had explained long time that only 50,000 units of the 150,000 tablets required by our students would be brought into the country, while

the remaining 100,000 units would be assembled at a plant being constructed in the state.

“Just as the school uniform has been used as strategy to bring in an industry as the Omoluabi Garment Factory, the assemblage of Opon Imo is being used to further the industrialization agenda of the present government. This is another way of creating employment opportunities for the people," he said.

MINI CONFAB: From right: Dr. Kunle Olajide, former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Alani Akinrinade (rtd), former NADECO chieftain, Dr Amos Akingba, Rt. Rev Bolanle Gbonigi, Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, the Olowo of Owo, Oba Folagbade Olateru-Olagbegi, and others, during the opening of the Ondo State Mini National Conference, at Akungba, Ondo State, yesterday.

....Osun former HOS faults Aregbesola over pension arrears

BY GBENGAOLARINOYE

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SOGBE—FORMER Head of Service, HOS, in Osun State, Mr. Segun Akinwusi, has berated Osun State government under governor Rauf Aregbesola for blaming him for its inability to pay pensions and gratuities of the retired civil servants in the state.

Pensioners in the state on Monday staged a peaceful protest in major streets of Osogbo, halting commercial activities partially in the state

capital over the failure of the state government to pay their emoluments.

However, the state Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Dr Wale Bolorunduro blamed Akinwusi for forcing the state workers to go on massive retirement in 2012, thereby making it difficult for government to pay their accumulated pensions and gratuities.

But Akinwusi while reacting

Ogun Police worry over APC

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BY DAUD OLATUNJI

BEOKUTA—THE Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun state, yesterday, expressed concern over what it described as worrisome development in the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.

The state Secretary of the party, Semiu Sodipo stated this in Abeokuta at a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the state police command for leaders of political parties in the state.

According to Sodipo , the internal wrangling in APC had

led to use of dangerous weapons among members in some parts of the state.

Citing examples of violence that broke out in Ewekoro and Ota where some people including policemen were shot by political thugs during the APC’s intra party crisis , the PDP scribe said the opposition lives were not safe.

He therefore called on the Police Commissioner, Ikemefuna Okoye to ensure that such development was checked before it escalated into serious challenge.

to the allegation, said it is laughable for the state government to blame him for its failures.

He said in a statement issued in Osogbo yesterday that; “I retired six months before the retirements. The Contributory Pensions Scheme Law was enacted by the state House of Assembly in 2009. I am not the one who made the law. So, I cannot be the one who forced civil servants to retire."

Amosun condoles with Newswatch over editor's death

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BEOKUTA—OGUN State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has expressed deep shock and heartfelt condolences to the management and staff of Newswatch Newspapers Limited, as well as the family of late Mr. Toyin Obadina, who was killed by suspected armed robbers recently.

In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mrs. Funmi Wakama, Senator Amosun described the killing of Mr. Obadina, who until his untimely death was the deputy editor, Sunday of the Newswatch Newspapers as “gruesome and most regrettable.

“It is more painful that the deceased was killed while returning home from work as a journalist,” he added.

Senator Amosun urged security agencies to do everything possible to bring the perpetrators to justice, lamenting that “it is most unfortunate that a hardworking young man like Toyin Obadina could be cut down in cold blood in the prime of his life.

“Our heartfelt sympathy goes to his family, friends and associates as well as the management of Newswatch Newspapers Limited as we pray God to grant them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss,” the governor stated.

12—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Oshiomhole faults INEC’s election time-table

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has faulted the 2015 general elections time-table recently released

by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, insisting that it leaves loopholes for election rigging.

The governor, who spoke in Asaba, Delta State, after a stakeholders’ meeting of All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday, said: “Nigerians cannot afford to continue to be a laughing stock even by West African standard.

“I don’t understand why INEC wants to climb the tree from the top.

They recognise that they have some explanations to make. Common sense demands that you climb a tree from the bottom for good reason. In any case, we have been in this particular phase of democracy for 15 years, since 1999. What makes the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the collection of the federating states.

“When you want to conduct the presidential election first, and thereby deviate from an old pattern, then you have some explanations to make. It is more so when, under this particular leadership of INEC, they conducted National Assembly election first last time, people complained that they ought to have begun with the House of Assembly election.

“If you know that you still have to do some test-running, you rath-

er try some test-running with smaller units because the governorship election will not be taking place in the 36 states.

The election into the state Houses of Assembly can’t be as problematic as the presidential election.

“INEC has to convince us that their policies have been

formed by strategy they can speak to. They need to speak to it by the commitment to deliver on free and fair election. All the noise that have heated up the polity points to the fact that the political class still takes the people for granted.” he maintained.

Urging the leadership of INEC to have a retrospective view of the already released time table, Oshiomhole said that conducting the election from House of Assembly to governorship and National Assembly before presidential election would pay-off for the 2015 elections.

AWARD: From left: Engr. Charles Ambaowei, acting President, Ijaw National Congress; Chief Ephraim Faloughi Spiff, Chairman, Sovereign Trust Assurance and Mr. Denzil Kentebe, President, Ijaw Professionals Association, IPA, during the IPA dinner and awards night in Lagos. Photo by Oscar Ochiogu.

Delta education colleges' staff join nationwide strike S

TAFF of three Colleges of Education in Delta State, under the aegis of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU, have notified the state government of their intention to join in the on-going nationwide strike.

The union’s intention was contained in a letter addressed to the state Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Hope Eghagha, by chairmen of the three chapters of COEASU, Dr. A. Ossai of College of Education, Agbor; E. Isitoah of College of Eduaction, Warri and C. Itedjere of College of Physical Education, Mosogar.

They said that they were embarking on the strike due to the inability of the state government to settle the nine-point demand, which they had earlier presented.

According to them, the demands of the union presented to the state government include non-remittance of accrued pensions made up of state government 15 percent counter-

part contribution and members contributed pension to the Pension Administrator; nonimplementation of 65 years retirement age for academic staff and haphazard implementation of migration to CONTISS 15.

Other demands include forceful migration of their colleagues

into the e-payment system; over-taxation and non-refund of over-deducted taxes; forceful inclusion of state Colleges of Education in the National Housing Fund Scheme and non-release of funds to accommodate sabbatical leave.

They added that they were on strike due to lack of office accommodation

for lecturers and nonconstitution of the colleges' Governing Councils. The labour leaders lamented that it was worrisome that the state government had not meaningfully addressed the issues, which principally border on the welfare of academic staff of Colleges of Education in the state

Delta communities raise alarm over oil spill

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

W

ARRI—ODIDI communities in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, have raised alarm over an oil spill that has ravaged the communities in the past 10 days.

National Chairman, Odidi Federated Communities, Chief Samson Mamamu, who spoke in Warri, yesterday, said they believe that the spill involves

crude oil, which is currently gushing out from a pipeline, whose owner we have not been able to determine."

He said that the spill at the point where it occurred in the neighborhood of Warri Refinery, was sighted in flames for days by villagers, who feared that the fire could spread to their homes and waterways.

He said: “The spill is voluminous as crude oil has been spreading freely without stop for the past 10 days. We cannot

tell who owns the pipeline yet until final investigation is carried out.

The Odidi people, who depend mainly on fishing are having a hard time surviving the impact of the spillage, which has destroyed vegetation, aquatic lives and polluted the river, the only source of livelihood for members of the communities.”

He lamented that there had been series of oil spillages in Niger Delta without adequate compensation.

2015: Sapele youths endorse Jonathan, others

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HE Save Sapele Youth Group, in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State, has endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate; Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan as the senatorial candidate for Delta South senatorial district and Mr. Austin Ayemidejor, as the representative for Sapele in Delta State House of Assembly, in the 2015 general elections.

Speaking with newsmen in Sapele, when no fewer than 5,000 members of the group marched to Ayemidejor’s country home, calling on the trio to contest for the positions they are canvassing, spokesman of the group, Mr. Omasan Mabiaku, noted that they decided to call on them to contest the various positions, because they are credible leaders that have touched the lives of the people at the grassroots in many ways.

The rally also to pass a vote of confidence on President Jonathan and Governor Uduaghan.

Omasan said: “The people of Sapele are tired of bad representation at the state House of Assembly, which is why we want Ayemidejor to contest.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014—13

2015: Oritsejolomi Uduaghan backs Olejeme for Delta guber

Police arrest killer-cop of petrol tanker driver in Edo

D

B

IRECTOR-General of U&I Foundation, Mr. Oritsejolomi Uduaghan, has praised the Chairman, Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, Dr. Ngozi Olejeme, for her consistent leadership and pivotal role in the social and economic development of the country.

“Her leadership style gives us confidence that the poor will find protection and dignity,” he said.

Uduaghan, in a lecture titled Leadership and the Future of Delta State, in Warri, urged Deltans at home and abroad to assess Olejeme based on her antecedents and track record.

Commending Olejeme for her accomplishments in the area of industrial relations, particularly her contributions to labour administration process in the country, Uduaghan said Olejeme would uphold the values of communal harmony that make Delta State a unique model for us all.

“She will drive productivity and growth, raise the standard of living in the state and improve the lot of everyone. I am sure that with her impeccable credentials, she will lead the state to the next level.”

Ijaw youths uphold Eradiri's election as IYC President

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

ENAGOA—REPRIEVE appears to have come the way of the crisis torn Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, worldwide, following an emergency convention of the council, which unanimously upheld last October’s election of the President, Mr Udengs Eradiri.

The meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, had in attendance all structures of IYC, comprising the three zones of Ijaw East, Central and West parliaments, all clans, organisation of Ogbo leaders, chapters students’ representatives, women groups and elders.

In a seven-point communique, the convention dismissed “the purported dissolution of all structures of council by some elders of the Ijaw nation.”

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

INSPECTION: From left: Mr. George Uriesi, Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN; Princess Stella Oduah, Minister of Aviation and Mallam Mahmud Sani, Airport Manager, Magaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar, during the inspection tour of the Magaret Ekpo International, Airport, weekend.

DELTA 2015: Gbagi, a pathological liar —UTUAMA D ELTA State deputy governor, Professor Amos Utuama, SAN, has denied discussing his age, political ambition and where he hails from with former Minister of State, Education, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, whom he described as a pathological liar.

Gbagi, on Monday, told newsmen that he had nothing against Utuama other than protecting the interest of Urhobos and Deltans, and made statements that cast doubts on the state of origin of the deputy governor.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Augustine Avwode, Utuama said: “It is increasingly becoming clear, that Gbagi has a hidden agenda, not only against the person and office of the deputy governor of Delta State,

but also against the Urhobo nation, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state.

“There is hardly any other way to interpret his unprovoked and relentless attack on the person of the deputy governor as far as 2015 is concerned, than to see it in the light of an execution of a grand design to divide the Urhobo nation and create unnecessary disaffection within the party in the state.

“Gbagi is a pathological liar driven by hallucination and illusion. First, at no time did Prof. Utuama tell Gbagi that he is from Udu; at no time did he tell Gbagi that he is from Bayelsa State; at no time did he discuss his age

with Gbagi and at no time did he discuss his future with Gbagi.

“Secondly, Gbagi must be told that all the ancestors of Prof Utuama, his grand parents - paternal and maternal and his immediate parents were all buried in Otu Jeremi. His grand father was the Okpako Orere, of the town in his days. Besides, Prof.

Utuama is a proud scion of the Okperon family, one of the 12 families that founded Otu Jeremi.

“Thirdly, it is true that Prof Utuama taught Gbagi Land Law at the University of Lagos, but wish to say that Gbagi was not one of such students one would cherish or remember on account of his brilliance. He was on the contrary a very dull student."

Mbu’s ban on rally, usurpation of gov's

function —RIVERS COS

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

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ORT HARCOURT— CHIEF of Staff to Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Mr. Tony Okocha, has described the ban on political rallies by the state Police Commissioner, Mr Joseph Mbu, as a usurpation of the constitutional powers of the governor.

Okocha said the that Police Commissioner acted outside the bounds of his responsibilities, stressing that the Police boss should be checked before

he declares a state of emergency in the state.

Condemning the ban, Okocha wondered why the Police boss should arrogate to himself powers he does not possess, stressing that the action was a violation of the law.

His words: “I condemn it in its entirety. I do not want to give to the Police the powers that they do not have. The issue of ban on rallies is within the purview of the governor of the state and such things are also within our inalienable

rights; our freedom of association and others that ordinarily, every citizen of Nigeria must live with.

“Now, even when the governor has the power to so do, he has to do it within the law and that, of course, means that except the governor is satisfied that there are threats to the peace and security of the state, he can't he do so, otherwise no other condition will warrant the governor to do that, not to talk of the Commissioner of Police. What powers is he arrogating to himself? "

ENIN—THE Police Corporal, Valentine Fumaka, who allegedly shot and killed a petrol tanker driver, Odion Egbon in Benin, Edo State, weekend, for driving against traffic, has been arrested by the Police in Benin.

The trigger-happy Mobile Police officer is attached to MOPOL 5, Benin, with Forces No: 364780.

His arrest was confirmed

by Mr. Folusho Adebanjo, the state Commissioner of Police, who spoke in an interview with newsmen on telephone. He said that the killer cop would be charged to court today.

Meanwhile, residents and traders on Lagos Street in Benin metropolis have fled their houses and shops following the discovery of two headless bodies on the street. Vanguard gathered that some residents of the street, who discovered the headless bodies reported the incident to the Oba Market Police Station, who have removed the bodies.

FG urged to probe alleged injustice in Christian Pilgrims Commission

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HE federal commissioner representing the South- South geopolitical zone in the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, Rev. Robinson Oritsuwa, has asked the Federal Government to probe the commission for what he termed crass injustice on the board.

Orisuwa, who spoke at an interaction with newsmen in Lagos, said though his zone produces the highest number of pilgrims in the country, he was being sidelined by the secretary to the commission because he was the only member who could speak against his prevailing one-man administration.

He said: “After President Goodluck Jonathan approved our return for second term, the secretary went behind to bring in another name outside the President’s approval. This has been the attitude of the commission’s secretary, using the President to threaten the people."

14—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Anambra guber poll: 16 SANs storm Awka

Igbo women leaders vow to resist exclusion from confab

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

A

WKA — ANAMBRA State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal got under-way, yesterday, in Awka with 16 Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, representing the various parties in the petitions.

Four petitions are before the three-member tribunal headed by Justice Ishaq Bello and the counsel, whose number ran above 100, yesterday, spent the time harmonising their petitions.

The petitions before the tribunal are: Dr. Chike Obidigbo vs the governor – elect, Chief Willie Obiano and two others; Sen. Chris Ngige vs INEC, Obiano, APGA and ACD; PDP vs INEC and 25 others; as well as Tony Nwoye vs INEC and 25 others.

The SANs, who had stormed Awka for the legal fireworks, included Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, Patrick Ikwueto, Osita Nnadi, Adegboyega Awomolo, among others.

BY TONY EDIKE

E

NUGU — CRISIS is brewing in the apex Igbo sociocultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, over its stance on the proposed national conference as the women wing of the organisation, yesterday, vowed to resist imposition of delegates that would represent Ndigbo Leader of Igbo Women Assembly and former President of National Council of Women Societies in Enugu State, Chief Maria Okwor, who briefed

newsmen in Enugu, alleged that the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, led by Chief Garry Igariwey, as President-General and Dr. Joe Nwaorgu as Secretary-General, had planned to plant stooges as delegates that would represent Igbo women at the conference.

She substantiated her allegation by citing a women’s meeting convened by the duo of Igarawey and Nwaorgu at the Ohanaeze secretariat in Enugu, yesterday, where prominent women members of Imeobi Ohanaeze including herself were excluded.

Mrs. Okwor therefore vowed

that Igbo women would mobilise for a protest against the selection by the Ohanaeze chieftains if their conspiracy came to fruition.

Okwor alleged that Ohanaeze women group had already elected their leaders which she said the Ohanaeze leaders had refused to recognise.

She noted that it was because of the leadership crisis in Ohanaeze Ndigbo that made the Professor Ben Nwabueze-led Igbo Leaders of Thought comprising of eminent persons in Igbo land to articulate issues for discussion at the proposed conference, adding that Igbo women

Stop dragging APGA to court, Okwu appeals to Umeh

BY PETER OKUTU

A

BAKALIKI — NATIONAL chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Maxi Okwu, has appealed to Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State to restrain Chief Victor Umeh from continuing his legal battle against the leadership

of the party.

Okwu, who made the appeal, yesterday, when he visited Senator Offia Nwali in his country home at Ameka, Ezza South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, observed that protracted legal battle was part of the instruments destroying the stability of the party.

He stated that the party was undergoing serious re-branding and restructuring to bring back its lost glory.

He said: “There is still legal battle by Chief Victor Umeh, we extended our hands of cooperation and reconciliation but he turned it down, we have to move on.

supports the position of the Nwabueze group.

Okwor suggested that the Governors of the South East should be involved in appointing delegates for the conference The Women leader also suggested that Nigeria go back tp parliamentary system of government, noting that the present presidential system is not only costly but filled with corruption. ”There is also so much power concentrated at the centre. Power should be devolved to regions or zones,” she suggested.

The woman activist said: “We did not agree with the PAC report because what we need in Nigeria today is a new constitution and not a military constitution that we are currently operating. We have agreed to be at the conference despite the modalities but we don’t want another jamboree in the name of national conference. ”Now that Ohanaeze has problem, we asked Nwabueze to call everybody together to harmonize views to be presented at the conference. After articulating the Igbo positions, Igariwey was invited to sign the document but he refused.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014—15

Shell faults NIMASA, NOSDRA on N1.84trn fines ...Says compensation not merited by any community

BY MICHAEL EBOH

S

HELL NIGERIA Explora tion and Production Company, SNEPCO, yesterday, faulted the $6.5 billion fines, about N1.84 trillion, imposed on it by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, over the Bonga oil spill.

It said that there was no evidence to support the allegation that any community was impacted by the Bonga oil spill to merit compensation.

This was even as a non-government organisation, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), yesterday, commended the Federal Government of Nigeria for the N1.84 trillion fines imposed on SNEPCo for the December 2011 Bonga oil spill, saying that the oil company’s days of impunity were over.

Mr. Chike Onyejekwe, Managing Director of SNEPCo, denied allegations that its officials frustrated government agencies from accessing spill sites in the aftermath of the Bonga spill.

According to him, “We deeply regret that this incident took place, but as a responsible operator and corporate citizen we responded to it professionally and effectively and everything we did was with the active support of the regulatory authorities and in compliance with the applicable regu-

lations.

He said: “On December 20, 2011 SNEPCo shut down production from the Bonga field after a leak occurred on one of three export loading lines as oil was being transferred from the floating production storage and offloading, FPSO, vessel to a loading tanker.

“A well-coordinated clean up operation was successfully completed on January 1, 2012 and production resumed, following

the reinforcement of asset integrity and safety programmes.

“Satellite and aerial images confirmed that the Bonga oil spill could not have reached coastlines in the eastern Niger Delta, as has been claimed.

"Oil from the Bonga spill had largely dispersed by Sunday, December 25, 2011 due to the integrated efforts of SNEPCo, the Nigerian government and our industry partners in the application of approved dispersant, and

natural processes of dispersal and evaporation.

“The Bonga facility is 120km from shore and we were surprised to see images of a third party spill, which appeared to be from a vessel, at approximately 100 km from the Bonga facility in areas close to Forcados shore.

"SNEPCo, as a responsible corporate citizen, voluntarily took action to clean up this spill as well, despite it having nothing to do with its operations."

ADDRESS: Missing $49.8 billion revenue: CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi (right), addressing Senate Committee on Finance on alleged unremitted or missing $49.8 billion oil revenue

by NNPC, and others, at National Assembly, Abuja. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan

PEF plans to pay marketers within one week …AS NASS sets to pass PIB before end of year

BY CHRIS OCHAYI

A

BUJA — The Management Board of Petroleum Equalisation Fund, PEF, said it has put in place adequate measures to pay oil marketers one week after submission of their claims.

Executive Secretary of Petroleum Equalisation, Management, Board, Mrs. Adefunke Kasali, said the board paid marketers within four weeks Kasali, who spoke while receiving members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Downstream, who were in PEF for oversight function in Abuja, said the introduction of ‘Project Aquila 2’ was intended to fast-track payment to marketers within one week.

This came as Chairman of the Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Peterside Dakuku, revealed that the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, had passed first and second readings in the House of Representatives, adding that it was now with the ad hoc commit-

tee on PIB and assured that the bill would be passed by the National Assembly before the end of the year.

She said: “We are confident that one week payment of verified claims is achievable. By the time we roll out ‘Project Aquila 2’, which is intended to monitor movement of products from the

depots to retail outlets which will enable us have the required information within a very short period of time, we should be able to make that happen.

“This is to extend the charge to my staff to get ready to make that happen and I am sure within a short period of time we will achieve that feat.”

In his address earlier, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Peterside Dakuku, explained that prompt payment of marketers within a very short period would ensure continued availability of petrol eum products in most parts of the country at the approved prices.

GTBank acquires Fina Bank Group

BY PETER EGWUATU

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UARANTY TRUST Bank (GTBank) Plc has concluded the acquisition of a 70 per cent stake in Fina Bank Group, after securing the required regulatory approvals in the three East African countries - Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda as well as in Nigeria.

A statement from the bank stated that GTBank acquired a 70 per cent stake in Fina Bank Group through a combination of capital injection as well as acquisition of shares from its current shareholders for a total

cash consideration of 8.6 billion Kenya Shillings.

The acquisition, according to the statement, brought together two highly successful organisations with expertise across all banking segments and a new entity in each country called Guaranty Trust Bank Kenya, Guaranty Trust Bank Rwanda and Guaranty Trust Bank Uganda.

Speaking on the acquisition, the Group Managing Director of GTBank, Segun Agbaje, said: “This acquisition makes strategic sense for our combined

customers and shareholders.

"Fina Bank has over the years built an enviable banking institution in East Africa, our combined strengths will help us build an attractive portfolio of leading products, services and marketing capabilities.

“We can now deepen existing and future customer relationships with differentiated capabilities to exceed customer expectations and grow market share. This merger also provides us with an attractive foothold in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.”

Electricity: Senate kicks against estimated billing

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

A

BUJA — THE Sen ate, yesterday, called on the managers of electricity in the country to discard what it described as ‘’estimated billing’’ in charging consumers, saying the method was not in the best interest of Nigeria and its people.

It said they should instead provide pre-paid metres to meet up with modern day challenges in electricity sector.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Mines and Metallurgy, Philip Aduda, made this known, yesterday, when the management team of Electricity Management Service Limited, EMSL, paid his committee a courtesy visit in Abuja.

Speaking earlier, Managing Director of the EMSL, Mr. Peter Ewesor, had commended the committee for its contribution to the successes so far recorded, in the on-going privatisation of the power sector.

He said they would do everything within its powers to ensure accountability in its dealings with the privatised companies.

FG set to address challenges in polytechnics

BY LAIDE AKINBOADE

A

BUJA — THE Federal Government, yesterday, reiterated its commitment to address all the challenges faced by public polytechnics in the country.

This is in view of the seven months old strike embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, to press home their demands for improved pay.

Chairperson, Presidential Committee on NEEDS Assessment of Nigeria Public Polytechnics, Hajiya Fatimah Ahmad, who spoke at a one-day training for the purpose of the verification of public polytechnics in Nigeria, said the committee would also address the issue of dichotomy between degree and Higher National Diploma, HND, holders.

16—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Soyinka centre petitions EFCC over fuel subsidy prosecution T

HE WOLE Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, WSCIJ, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over the alleged non-implementation of some recommen-

dations of the Technical Committee on Payment of Fuel Subsidy in the country.

The centre stated that the Federal Government had carried out what it described as selective implementation of

the technical committee’s report leaving the aspect that dealt with prosecution of corrupt officials or those that were indicted by the report.

Those who signed the petition include Mr. Femi Falana,

SAN, Olarenwaju Sraj, Tokunbo Mumuni and Motunrayo Alaka.

They said that, "you investigate all companies in the report that breached the various rules governing fuel subsidy

Nigeria/US-based journalist, Ekerete Udoh to launch newspapers

N

OTABLE NIGERIA/USBASED journalist, Mr. Ekerete Udoh is set to launch the News of the World newspapers.

Udoh was a weekly columnist in Saturday's THISDAY Newspaper entitled 'Diaspora.'

Udoh, who is also a publisher of the most popular newspaper

by an African Diaspora in the United States, said he decided to come back home because he believed the News of the World would help deepen and extend the frontiers of media content and appeal.

According to him, ‘’I believe that we will make a definite state-

ment that politics, business and other consequential discourses vital to our national development and cohesion can be represented and merged in a single publication that carries with it depth, flair and intellectual flourishes.’’

Udoh holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and jour-

nalism from Queens College of the City University of New York, CUNY, and a master’s degree in international relations and comparative politics from Brooklyn College and also City University of New York where he was the best graduating student.

administration; investigate further all companies mentioned in the report and their directors and officers,’’ that committed offences. ‘’That you prosecute all companies and their relevant directors and officers in the report whose participation in the fuel subsidy regime allegedly violated Nigerian criminal laws; including but not limited to the EFCC Act. ’’That you recover the excess payment of N422,542,937,668.59 in subsidy payments obtained under false pretence by petroleum marketers that the report details; as well as excess payment of N14.021 billion from defaulting marketing and trading companies. ‘’That you take steps towards recovering excess payment of N17.037billion based on the inclusion of the $10 trader ’s margin. ‘’That you prosecute the relevant PPPRA officials responsible for the lapses in the subsidy administration process. ‘’That you investigate the reported N331,547,318,063 worth of kerosene subsidy payments made between June and December 2011,’’ among others.

WAEC’s 39 new subjects lack teachers — Students

BY AMAKA ABAYOMI

S

ECONDARY SCHOOL students have decried the introduction of the 39 new subjects in this year’s May/ June examinations, saying most of the subjects still lack teachers.

Speaking with Vanguard, the students said not having qualified teachers to handle the subjects would defeat the aim of introducing these subjects.

According to the students, “The initiative is a brilliant one, especially when you consider the fact that some students leave school without any hope of knowing what next to do.

English Language, General Mathematics, Civic Education and Trade/Entrepreneurial Studies are compulsory for student who would also choose three or four subjects from Humanities, Science, Technology and Business Studies depending on their potential and interest.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014— —17

18 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 NIGERIANS are too happy over the performance of the home-based Eagles at the just concluded CHAN contest in South Africa that they did not notice one of its blights - Nigeria paid bonus to the Eagles for losing to Ghana.

When it happened at the 1998 World Cup, it was criticised. The players had insisted on their winning bonus before a game they eventually lost. The practice continued surreptitiously. We thought that it would have stopped with all the noise about government’s transformation agenda.

The Minister of Sports Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi paid the Eagles a bonus of $100,000 for losing the semi-final game to Ghana. He paid another bonus of $100,000 for the much-hailed quarter-final victory over Morocco. Doubtlessly, the Eagles made a good impression about Nigeria’s domestic league.

As has become the practice of government officials, Mr. Abdullahi dragged President Goodluck Jonathan into justifying the waste of public funds.

He said the President appreciated the team’s performance. Did the President instruct Mr. Abdullahi to reward the team

BY BISI ADEWALE

A

RECENT post on the Facebook revealed that, apart from the office of the President and the Secretary to Government, other key appointments are held by the North. These include: The President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Office of the Head of service, the Chief Justice of the Federaltion and President of the Appeal Court, the Governor of the Central Bank, the Chairman of EFCC, the Inspector General of Police, the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Comptroller Generals of Custom Service, Immigration Service, and Prison Service.

Others are the Chairman National Population Commission and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the richest man in Africa is from the North,just as 85 percent of Nigerians who have oil blocks are from that region. 80 percent of Nigerians in oil marketing businesses are from that region. So, what does the North want from Jonathan? Where are the army of violence mongers and ethnic chauvinists who are hounding Dr. Jonathan? What has happened to the principles of Federal Character?

Before going further, it is imperative to draw a parallel between what happened in 2008 in the United States of America and the election of Barack Hussein Obama, as the 45th president of that country.

The outgoing administration of George Bush had plunged US into two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Americans were dying in their thousands. The media went after the Republican Party and George Bush. The US and global economy went down as the global economic went into a recession. The

We P ay Losing Bonus Pa for losing to Ghana?

We find the minister’s conduct abhorrent.

A bonus is a reward for a great performance. Bonus is the Latin word for “good”. It can never be associated with an odious practice of rewarding someone for missing an expected target.

Had Mr. Abdullahi been spending his personal money, he would have been free to do whatever pleases him. Even at that, we would have warned him against infecting the national team with low expectations. How could he spend public money so whimsically? The Nigeria Football Association pays bonuses to the players. As a parastatal, NFA has its allocations from government, coupled with

funds from sponsors, FIFA and CAF. It can survive without the effusive injection of funds from government, in the manner Mr. Abdullahi did.

How has Mr. Abdullahi rewarded other sports? Is he Minister of Football? Was he even committed to the preparation of the Eagles for CHAN? How does he explain a reward that makes victory unimportant?

Under what vote did he obtain the wasted $100,000?

Since he was acting in the President’s name, we hold the President equally responsible for the wasted funds. We would have asked the National Assembly to upbraid Mr. Abdullahi, but as usual, National Assembly sports committees were present when Mr. Abdullahi gave the money, they applauded in acquiescence.

Mr. Abdullahi appears to have more funds at his disposal than he can manage.

We suggest that he disburses some to the various teams preparing for the Commonwealth Games billed for Scotland.

The Games are less than six months away.

Mr. Abdullahi has no funds for athletes’ preparations, yet he pays bonus to a team that lost.

OPINION The minority factor in Jonathan’s presidency presidential election was a tough call for Obama but he won.

As stated earllier, the Niger Delta region had become embroiled in militant agitation for resource control and some elected politicialns and elders in the region had become so emboldened as to challenge the Federal Government in court. The youths in the region had taken up arms. At the height of the agitation.

Obasanjo went after Chief James Ibori and Chief D.S.P. in brutal fashion. Chief Ibori was slammed with ex-convict charges while Chief D.S.P. Alameyesiagha was lured from his tummy tuck treatment in Germany to be arrested in UK. He was finally allowed to return to Nigeria where only seven members of the State House of Assembly were locked up in a hotel room to impeach their Governor on corruption charges.

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was seen by Gen. Obasanjo as a dove, weakling who would never raise a voice on resource control.

It was part of Obasanjo’s plan that no Niger Delta person who would be bold enough to raise a voice that made him play the card of Yar Adua/ Jonathan ticket. As far as Chief Obasanjo was concerned, the South South would be happy with a symbolic presence of one of their own close to the seat of power. Even when death struck and Alhaji Umar Yar 'Adua died on May 5, 2010, the north was not keen on having a South South person step into the presidential shoes.

It is now seen as an aberration for President Jonathan to have the audacity to think of a second term in office. The political gladiators in South West and the North are incensed that a native son from a politically

inconsequential South South, has the audacity to ask for a second term in office.

This is not different from what played out during Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

The right wing element in Republican Party, the Tea Party members went berserk. They attacked Obama viciously and made him look like an imp. His accomplishments in the first four years were treated as none event.

In fact, the racists openly screamed that:“it was time to return the white man to the white house”.

Obama was so racially abused and tormented, but just a few days to the election, Hurricane Sandy struck and silenced all the bad people.

Obama went ahead to thrash Mitt Romney with more popular and Electoral College votes than he did to Senator John McCain, even when the election was predicted to be a dead heat.

Today what the Republican Party is doing is to frustrate Obama in every inch of the way to deny him of any legacy as two term president.

Obama’s crime, just like Jonathan’s is the minority factor. The APC have learnt from the Republican Party, how to destroy what they could not get through the ballot system.

Behind the veneer of the alliance between dominant regional parties in the South West and the far north, is a battle to remove a minority person in power. Gen. Obasanjo’s claims that Jonathan over populated his adminstration with Ijaw people was effectively debunked by Chief E.K. Clark.

The charge of marginalisation which the Yorubas drummed up against Jonathan was recently exposed by Vanguard columnist, Femi Aribisala on January 28, 2014, in his article entitled: “What Does Tinubu Want”.

According to Aribisala, Alhaji Bola Tinubu used ACN members in the House to

sabbotage the nomination of their own daughter as a Speaker of House of Representatives beause he did not want and nobody from Obasanjo’s camp to wittle down his dictatorial hold on politics in South West.

The analysis of Aribisala clearly exposed the “APC as a coalition of ethnic and religious bigots who are masquerading as progressives, on a mission to rescue Nigeria”. It is obvious that their main agenda to wrestle power from a minority man, whom they think should be eternally grateful that he had the opportunity to get to that office in the first place.

But the truth remains that if Jonathan is bullied out of power, Nigeria’s Petroluem and power sectors will die. Those who think that the man from whose land oil is drilled to run Nigeria is not fit to rule Nigeria, then you must be kidding. This should be clear to those behind this parochial stop Jonathan gang up. It is better to give him a second term than threatening hell and violence, which no section of the country has monopoly of. It goes without saying that nobody should think of the minorities as second class citizens or subjects of a conquered territory.

The presumed incompetence and poor public perception of the Jonathan admistration is a fallout of the failure of his media managers and the ministers who have failed to deliever, the presidency is not a one man show, but ultimately the President takes the rap. Period.

*Mr. Adewale, a legal practitioneer, wrote from Lagos.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014— —19

, T

HE decision, a couple of weeks ago, by the APC to block passage of bills proposed by the PDP has naturally drawn diverse reactions from Nigerians. The reactions have been mostly as partisan as are reactions to the issue that led to the unprecedented decision of the APC in the first place, namely, the crisis in Rivers State that has been exacerbated by the involvement of the Commissioner of Police in the State, Mbu Joseph Mbu. Which is not to say that all the reactions have been motivated by partisan considerations. But it is hardly possible to appear impartial in a matter of this nature and utterances made in the context of the overt partisanship of the Rivers State impasse is bound to be viewed with suspicion. Yet in what looks like an exasperated response to the complicity of the Jonathan administration in the crisis between the President, his wife and the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, the APC had instructed its legislators to block bills brought before the National Assembly by the Jonathan administration.

Their position is based on the

clear evidence of the involvement of Jonathan in the muddied waters of Rivers politics.

The APC decision is both blunt and uncompromising. It also looks like an extremely partisan position that was informed by blind politics which makes it all look so odious to Nigerians familiar with the opportunism of Nigerian politicians. Others see it as an excuse by the fast growing opposition party to cripple the Jonathan administration in any way it finds expedient. This, who knows, may be so.

There might be politicians driven by the sole desire of making things difficult for President Jonathan.

Some Nigerians might simply not see any reason why a Goodluck Jonathan with very obvious political shortcomings and skills should be president while they remain far from the warm embrace of power. There is no doubt that there are Nigerians like this. This should not be seen as a given though. It’s not every criticism of President Jonathan that should be viewed as sour grape proposition by people opposed to his presidency or, even worse, his

,

person.

It is trite observation that no human being has all it takes to meet the expectations of all. We are all full of human errors in spite of our best intentions. But it helps if we come to our job or the various responsibilities with which we are saddled with some sense of preparedness. This is the very score on which President Jonathan is lacking. Not only did he come to the presidency at a dizzying speed that left him relatively inexperienced. But he doesn’t seem to be climbing fast on the experience ladder in spite of the years he has spent now in Abuja as Vice President, Acting President and finally President. All of these ought to have given him some leverage.

B

ut he seems stuck at the kindergarten stage of governance. He relies on subordinates who feel a pressing need to exercise power they think he does not know how to use. These subordinates are in the same class as those who believe they are better qualified to lead Nigeria than the man who hired them. And the President appears perennially tentative in his ways and leans too

Nigeria, great countr countryy

BY MICHAEL EGBEJUMI-DAVID

I

N my job in the UK, every now and again, I get called-in to see private patients. A few years ago, I saw a patient who had been flown-in from Nigeria. He was definitely a Nigerian big man. He had suffered some kind of acquired brain injury.

After initial assessment, I began to leave.

As I made my way out, I was stopped in the posh waiting area by a lady who introduced herself to me as the wife of my patient. She thanked me for my input and asked if I was Nigerian. I responded that indeed I was.

Amazement lit up her face. I was curious and wanted to know why she had that look but I wasn’t going to ask as I had to rush off to my next appointment.

As I made to leave, the lady stopped me again and asked if I was the leader of the team that attended to her husband as I appeared to have been to her own observation. I replied again in the affirmative. She smiled and looked at the rest of her small entourage with open pride.

She grabbed my hand and announced to the room that she was very proud. Then she became agitated. Whilst still holding on to my hand, she said something like, “Ah, our children are trying o! Our people are really trying o! Imagine what we are losing in Nigeria. If people like this can come home and help us…”

I wanted to, but I did not have the heart (given her husband’s situation then, and the pressure on my time that day) to give her a small lecture about how people like me would love to be home, but that it was precisely people like her and her husband who had made millions of Nigerians like me economic exiles and refugees the world

over, wasting the most productive years of our lives outside our fatherland.

Another reason I did not deliver that short lecture was because, deep down, I believed that the lady would not get it. I have come to understand that the very rich, the elite, the political establishmentarians in Nigeria (and perhaps elsewhere) live in their own very insular world. They do not relate to you and me, and are therefore, in general, unable to truly relate to matters that concern or bother us. Their A to Z resides only in that little rich cocoon of theirs with its own peculiar rules where wealth-based rivalry and profligacy are the norm. They all possess a highly fine-tuned sense of entitlement and never understand why regular people challenge or question this.

In fact, quite a lot of them think that the ordinary Nigerian is the problem. They believe that the average Nigerian is an ungrateful and a difficult to manage being.

But let me now attempt to put together what I could have said to that lady and her clique using late Yar’Adua as a case study: Late summer of 2009, President Yar’Adua spent about a week in Saudi Arabia getting stabilised by steroids. He availed himself of the opportunity having invited himself to the opening of a university in that far away land. At that time, all the government universities in his own country were shut down. Shortly before that, he was at the same Saudi clinic for “treatment and the lesser hajj.” Before that, he was again at the same clinic, via Brazil, right in the heat of a Boko Haram crisis. That was the pattern.

His medical trips out of the country were incessant. But before the man became president, Yar’Adua was the governor of a State for eight long years. For a majority of

heavily on the shoulders of misguided lieutenants. These people choose his battles for him and compound his self-inflicted wounds. Because they appear to be working for him, supporting him in the face of clear failures, the President imagines he has found his kindred spirits.

Such people including his wife initiated the Rivers crisis, fuelled and have continued to sustain it.

They seem to have found an able lackey in the Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph, who is fully protected and prodded by Abuja.

He has the State under his belt and without doubt enjoys the fact he shares unearned electoral power with an elected politician. He grants interviews like a film star and talks about his personal beliefs and politics- an appointed state official who ought to be seen performing his duties without the distractions of political comments.

But Mbu makes comments directly aimed at the Rivers State governor fully apprised of the protective powers of Abuja politicians.

Like other members of his cabinet whom he imagines sections of the Nigerian public or, even, ethnic components hate, President Jonathan seems bent on sticking with Mbu right or wrong. He may pretend that Mbu’s fate lies in the hands of the Police Service Commission whose spokesperson has found a convenient alibi for not redeploying Mbu in a civil proceeding initiated by his critics but nobody is deceived. The Rivers crisis bears all the imprint of presidential instigation. It is one matter in which Jonathan doesn’t ‘give damn’ what Nigerians who he now sees as part of the opposition APC think.

He is highly driven in his attempt to continue digging the troubled

,

As the APC fights the PDP fire with fire

What it does essentially is to tell the PDP it does not possess the sole patent to dirty politics especially on the Rivers State stalemate

Because of his poor health, Yar’Adua’s government in Katsina was more or less, a government on paper. Also, because of poor health, Yar’Adua was unable to do things or spend money to the extent that he otherwise would have done

,

those eight years, he was a regular dialysis patient. His dialysis centre was in far away Germany which he visited, at one period, every fortnight. He had other concomitant ailments as well.

Because of his poor health, Yar’Adua’s government in Katsina was more or less, a government on paper. The State’s Executive Council met and sat far less than a third of the times available to it. Also, because of poor health, Yar’Adua was unable to do things or spend money to the extent that he otherwise would have done. Most of what was spent went to his German doctors. The rest of the money just sat there in the treasury; hence Obasanjo was going around in early 2007 telling the whole country that Yar’Adua was not corrupt; that he was the only governor who left some money in his State coffers. (OBJ was wrong: Abubakar Audu left a whole five hundred thousand Naira in Kogi in 2003!)

B

ut in all of that time, and with his health problems and personal experiences, Yar’Adua never thought it

hole in which he is stuck in Rivers State in order to convince himself he is right than beat a dignified retreat. This is not the act of a courageous or wise person. It is much less so the conduct of somebody concerned about public perception. It is no wonder then that the opposition APC can blatantly instruct its legislators to block bills brought to the National Assembly by the Administration and their supporters without consideration for the merit of the bills. The quality of legislative propositions by our national legislators or their executive counterparts may be generally poor but it does not justify indiscriminate blockage of bills putatively meant for the good of the Nigerian people.

It is a question of responsibility to Nigerians. But where the President and his supporters have resolved to fight dirty and without a sense of the larger good then they forfeit the moral right to accuse the opposition. What the PDP/APC proposition puts before Nigerians is the devil-may-care-politics-isall-that-matters attitude of Nigerian politicians. Nothing counts but their own purpose. The PDP and the President felt they have the might to operate without regard for an elected governor in Rivers State. Now the APC feels it has what it takes to challenge the PDP might- and thank goodness it is not resorting to extra-legal options. Neither party is right here.

The APC does the same thing, muscle opposition, where it thinks it is strong. What both parties should now do is to find a point of agreement. This is a simple case of tit-for-tat, tarka-and-daboh battle. What it does essentially is to tell the PDP it does not possess the sole patent to dirty politics especially on the Rivers State stalemate.

expedient, necessary or desirable to spend a fraction of all that money to establish a specialist renal and related diseases hospital in Katsina that would treat him and others in his State. If he had done that, the facility would, without doubt, would today serve as a centre for clinical excellence and, possibly, a national and West African regional referral centre. Such a centre would not only have met his and others’ medical needs, it would also have provided a good standard employment for specialist clinicians and allied professionals in Renal Medicine, Nephrology and Urology. It would have attracted expert Nigerians and other medical personnel from elsewhere. Post graduate medical training would have flourished there. The facility would also have been an easy cash cow; a nice little earner for Katsina State. Late Yar’Adua wouldn’t even have had to build one from scratch; he could just have developed an existing facility.

However for Yar ’Adua, flying out to German private clinics to take care of himself was the only logical thing to do.

Others would and should take care of themselves anyway they could. That all the money he was spending on his own personal healthcare was depriving others in Katsina of even basic healthcare amenities just never occurred to him. If it did, he probably thought the State owed it to him as governor - even if it consumed all of the State’s resources.

Two years into his tenure in Aso Rock, President Yar’Adua continued where he left off in Katsina. As his health worsened, he never thought it necessary at all to do anything about healthcare in Nigeria. He continued flying directly into Germany for treatment and management of his condition.

Continues tomorrow on pg 18 *Dr. Egbejumi-David, a medical practitioneer, wrote from London.

20 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY,

FEBRUARY 5 , 2014

Same-sex marriage:

Police detention of 5 children sparks off angry reactions in Anambra community

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

T

C M Y K

• Children being detained by the Police in Anambra State. away our father and for a long time, we have not seen him. We do not know where they are keeping him and we do not know why they are holding him,”he narrated.

It was gathered that members of the family of Ambrose Anyakora were arrested for allegedly assaulting one Andrew Obimma and his brother, Charles

,

HE detention of five under aged children of a community leader and Chairman of Uruebo village, Nkwelle Ezunaka in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State by authorities of the 33 Police Station in the area almost caused a riot in the station, forcing the police to release them immediately.

The children, Chigozie Anyakora (three), Chidumebi Anyakora (six), Ifechukwu Anyakora (eight), Mmelichukwu Anyakora (10), Chidera Anyakora (14) and Somtochukwu Anyakora (15), were arrested along with their mother, Mrs. Joy Anyakora, 40 and grandmother, Mrs. Cecilia Anyakora, 65 and taken to the Police station where they were kept behind the counter until people raised eyebrows and questioned the rationale in bringing such children to the Police station.

Their father, Mr. Ambrose Anyakora, who is is also Chairman of a vigilante outfit, is being detained elsewhere for allegedly possessing a gun. He was also accused of being a kidnap suspect.

As people sighted the children at the Police Station, there were sighs and murmurs, with many asking why such juveniles should be exposed to police brutality.

Some of the people who had followed the family to the police station almost caused a stir as they cursed and threatened to cause riot in the area if the children were not released.

Sensing what was likely to happen, the Divisional Police Officer, Mr. John Mark, a Superintendent of Police, CSP directed another Police officer, Sergeant Stella Osadebe who was said to be the person that arrested the children and their mothers, to allow them to go, while their mother and grandmother and their eldest brother, Somtochukwu, were detained.

One of the children, Ifechukwu said they were in their house when the policemen came and put them in a vehicle and brought them to the station. He said: “We did not do anything. I don’t know why they brought us here. We were afraid because of the guns we were seeing.

“The Police had earlier taken

Their father, Mr. Ambrose Anyakora, who is is also the chairman of a vigilante outfit, is being detained elsewhere for allegedly possessing a gun

,

Obimma and stealing their Samsung Galaxy handset valued at N60,000 and an LG handset valued at N40,000. They were also alleged to have damaged one safari suit valued at N25,000, a shirt valued at N8, 000 and light pointer of a jeep valued at N25,000. The detainees were also accused of assaulting Charles Obimma by hitting him

with a stick and dragging him about. They were later charged to court on a six count charge of stealing and assault.

The Anyakora family’s ordeal was said to have started when, as the Uruebo village chairman, their father, Ambose refused to give out the community’s land for the setting up of an adoration center in the area. He hinged his refusal on the claim that the land is a communal land.

Besides, one of the Obimmas was alleged to be interested in becoming the Chairman of the community because the chairman, Anyakora, was becoming very stubborn.

At the time members of Anyakora family were being detained by the police, their breadwinner, Ambrose, was not aware of what they were passing through as he is still being detained outside the State.

Counsel to the Anyakoras, Mr. Emmanuel Ezemenari described what was happening to his clients as man’s inhumanity to man.

“It is unheard of that at this level of our development, the police could take under aged children to the Station and keep them behind bars and then list trumped up charges against their parents,” he said.

The presiding Chief Magistrate, Mrs. S.N. Emejulu has however granted the Anyakoras bail and fixed further hearing to March 19, 2014.

Double ssttandar d bbyy andard the W es Wes estt

BY EBELE ORAKPO

“

NIGERIANS don’t know a thing about nationhood,” said Mike this Monday afternoon as the debate on the new law against same-sex marriage raged.

“We are talking about a serious issue and you are talking about nationhood,” replied Iyke. “What has nationhood got to do with the present situation?” he asked.

“Why do you say that Mike,” asked Moses.

Said Mike: “Same-sex marriage is the least of your problems. This state of origin nonsense should stop if Nigeria really wants to progress. In developed countries, no one cares about that. Every Nigerian should be a Nigerian first and foremost before he is Hausa, Igbo, Kanuri, Yoruba or any other tribe. That is my point. In the US today, you are free to reside in any part of the country you so wish; no one bats an eyelid and no one calls you a settler or an indigene.

After all, this is God’s earth. We brought nothing into it and definitely, we will take nothing out of it.”

“I agree with you Mike but we also need to tackle this same-sex issue or else, we become Sodom and Gomorrah. Haba! These guys have been doing their thing without harassment. But they brought the trouble on themselves. As the Hausas say: ‘Karambanin akuya, gai da kura (It was pure meddlesomeness of the goat that made him think he could greet the hyena without disaster ’). Trouble started when they went to the National Assembly to demand for laws to back them up and most Nigerians said no,” stated Iyke.

“My gripe is the western world trying to dictate to us. Is Nigeria no longer a sovereign nation? Because of their stupid aid, they want to tell us how to live?

It’s not done. Left to me, we should shove their aid down their throat,” said Iyke angrily.

“A word of caution here; we need them oo,” noted Moses.

Replied Iyke: “Nonsense! We need them as much as they need us. No man is an island. We all need one another so they should not behave as if we are nothing.

Mercy visibly infuriated said: “Is it not hypocrisy?

If they are talking about human rights, why do they not allow men and women to marry as many wives and as many husbands as they wish? They frown at bigamy yet allow same-sex marriage. Tell me, which is a lesser evil? Why are they against drug barons, traffickers and addicts? Don’t they have a right to do what they do? They take this right thing too far. People have a right to drink; they have a right to drive so why are drunk drivers punished when they kill while driving or when caught driving under the influence of alcohol? It is said that ‘the right to swing your fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.’ Why must we turn nature upside down to suit some people?”

“Homosexuality is a disease and they should be helped instead of hounded,” said Francis.

“Likita Francis, when did it become a disease? It is just a bad habit formed mostly in girls- or boys-only schools and most practitioners outgrow it when they leave such environment. So we should not encourage them, it is an aberration,” said Nike.

“Homosexuals can do whatever they wish in private but not come out in the public to assault our sensibilities. Is it allowed for a man and a woman to come out publicly to have sex? There will be a public outcry. I read sometime ago in one of these western countries where a couple decided to get married in their birthday suit because they feel very comfortable in it. Were they allowed? No. Security agents were all over them in no time. They were covered with cloths and taken away from the venue of the ceremony.

Why? Because it was not good for public consumption so why are they playing double standard? Anyway, if they say our leaders should not visit their countries, fine. We should look within. What will make us great is within us.

They should mind their business. Is it every state in Europe and America that has legalised same-sex marriage? They should first remove the log in their eyes so they can see clearly to remove the speck from other people’s eyes,” concluded Nike.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 — 21

124.85

4.85

2,896.00

-16.00

15.63 0.64 107.16 106.52 98.22 CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL DOLLAR POUNDS EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYA KRONA SDR

From left: Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Mrs. Sola David-Borha; Chief Executive Officer, GE Nigeria, Mr. Lazarus Angbazo; Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo; Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, GE Global, Mr. Jeff Immelt; at the $350m financing MOU signing ceremony between GE and Standard Bank in Abuja.

Nigeria, Turkey trade volume increases to N368bn

BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

A

ssociation of Business Men and Investors of Nigeria (ABMIN) and Turkey has said that it has facilitated the increase in volume of trade between Nigeria and Turkey to $3.2bn ( about N368 billion) in 2013.

The association which disclosed this in a statement said that within the period under review, Nigeria exported gas, sesame seeds, charcoal and cocoa to Turkey while Turkey in return exported construction, building materials and textile products to Nigeria. The statement noted that ABMIN has been active in improving business relationship with Turkey including human capital development through the establishment of seventeen Turkish international schools within the six geopolitical zones of the country, training over five 5000 Nigerians.

The association further disclosed that it has a strong partnership in Turkey with about 140 corporate members within the 218 branches of the association in Turkey. It also has partners in 140 countries with four branches in Lagos, Kaduna and Kano.

T

he association also announced its annual trade fair which it says would hold in March in Lagos with 81 companies for participation. The trade fair would also hold in Abuja by September. The statement noted that as a result of the cordial relationship between the two countries, there are 25 Turkish companies established in Nigeria and about 17 new investors were attracted into the construction

industry. It also disclosed that there are plans to textile industry in Nigeria including iron and steel factories. It could be recalled that in 2013, the

Eximbank in Turkey earmarked about N435.9 billion loan for Nigerian businessmen and women with viable business proposals.

World Bank completes 102 micro-projects in 60 communities

T

he Community and Social Development Project (CSDP), a World Bank-assisted programme, has completed 102 micro-projects in Bayelsa State, the project manager has said. Ms Oyintonyo Oboro, the General Manager, Bayelsa State CSDP Agency, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. She said the projects had been achieved within a five year period from 2009 to 2013 with the World Bank’s credit of five million dollars (or N800 million). “We’ve been able to fund 60 communities translating to 60 community development plans. “Out of these 60 communities the request we had was for 122 micro projects. “Out of these, 102 are being completed and are functional; these are microprojects in different sectors education, health, transport, environment, and so on.“ The Federal Government had obtained a 200 million dollar credit (N32 billion) from the World Bank on loan to 26 participating states which are mandated to establish agencies by law and pay 100 million naira as counterpart

funding annually. Participating states are given five million dollars each for onward disbursement to interested communities which meet the criteria for the funds.

Interested communities are encouraged to apply for projects and are mandated to pay 10 per cent counterpart funds either in cash or kind, to establish ownership of whatever projects they choose to do. While commenting on the need for governments to remit their N100 million counterpart funds for the programme, Oboro urged governments’ increased political will towards the programme. She said, “The most important thing is that all the state governments should be able to pay their counterpart contribution.

“Mine still has some outstanding but I know that we made a request and I’m sure that our request will be granted by the governor.“ Names of other states to benefit from additional funding from the two-year extension programme are yet to be announced by the World Bank.

154.75 254.8114 209.6553 171.5252 1.513 0.3013 236.9715 25.5274 41.2623 28.0904 237.7424

155.25 255.6347 210.3327 172.0794 1.5179 0.3113 237.7371 25.6103 41.3956 28.1812 238.5106

-0.79 -0.01 SELLING 155.75 256.458 211.0101 172.6336 1.5228 0.3213 238.5028 25.6933 41.5289 28.2719 239.2787

CBN Exchange rate as at 04/02/2014

BPP saves N5 7bn ffor or N57bn FG — Report T

he Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) said it saved N57.9 billion13 through the implementation of the provisions of the 2007 Public Procurement Act. This is contained in a document obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from the BPP in Abuja. The document quoted Mr. Emeka Ezeh, the BPP DirectorGeneral as saying “as a result of the Bureau’s prior review interventions, a total savings of N57, 957 billion was achieved in the financial year 2013.”

Ezeh stated that the bureau received about 308 projects valued at N1, 687 trillion, but only considered 184 requests valued at N1, 176 trillion.

According to him, it also granted Certificates of “ no Objections” valued at N1, 118 trillion.

Ezeh said that the bureau received several complaints which included; the delay in processing and forwarding projects which the bureau had already issued certificates of ‘No Objection’ among others to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for consideration. He called on the Federal Government to strengthen the newly established procurement units in the civil service to enable the country reap the benefits of the ongoing procurement reforms Ezeh also stressed the need for procurement units to be created where they did not exist to ensure uniformed implementation of the BPP Act.

22 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

BY MARIAM EKO

I

ndigenous maritime industry ,SIFAX Group Nigeria Limited has rewarded eleven of its staff for years of service they rendered to the organization.

Speaking at the event held in lagos, the Executive Vice Chairman of Sifax group barrister Taiwo Afolabi who was represented by Dr Folake Rogers , stated that the award was a platform for Sifax group to celebrate hardwork, commitment, productivity and as well acknowledge the spirit to serve among staff.

Afolabi commended the awardees for their dedication to work and also challenged other staff to put in their best for the growth of the group.

Similarly, the executive director human resources, Sifax Group, Dr Phil Ofulue, said that the aim of the award is to motivate and recognize workers for their outstanding contribution to the company.

Unity Bank to divest stake in UnityKapital Assurance

U

nity Bank Plc said that it has concluded plans to sell its stake in UnityKapital Assurance Plc. This is contained in a statement to The Nigerian Stock Exchange of the plan by Unity Bank Plc, its major shareholder, to divest the bank’s holdings in UnityKapital Assurance Plc. The divestment of the holdings of the bank is in compliance with the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that all banks in Nigeria should divest from nonbanking subsidiaries or adopt a holding company structure in the new licensing regime.

The statement added that Unity Bank Plc has appointed Capital Assets Limited as Financial Advisers in the divestment of the holdings of the Bank in UnityKapital Assurance Plc. C M Y K

M

The future of retail insurance Retail insurance is the way to go for any insurance company that knows what it is doing. Local content on oil and gas risk will only grow the premium income but will not expand the market.

Any society where retail insurance does not take prominence; then insurance in that system has not really developed. Retail insurance enables stable financial account, against volatile wholesale market; cost effective business; as well as direct impact and relationship with your customers.

Retail is not only about direct underwriting alone. There are about 14 avenues of distributing insurance at the same time and all these have to be implemented by insurers. Just like I recommended in the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative, MDRI, in 2009, the issue of agents to brokers is a development which many other countries have embraced. There is nothing stopping an insurance broker from having about 200/300 agents. Brokers traditionally pursue the wholesale market but, imagine a broker on Opebi street who goes to Abuja to pursue the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, or Head of Service insurance, whereas the people residing at Opebi have need for insurance, so agents can take care of them.

So looking at the 14 avenues of marketing retail insurance, you will know that as an industry, we are not utilizing the opportunities available to us and unless we do that, the system cannot grow.

S

o when insurers talk about oil and gas, the interest of all of them is to grow their premium. You hear them say ‘our premium last year was N10 billion, this year it is N15 billion.’ But the N15 billion is from the same traditional classes and route that we are all used to. All I am saying is that if you expand your business to e.g bancassurance, which means using banks to sell insurance to the retail banking public, or you appoint franchise marketers which mean entering into strategic alliances with organisations like Shoprite to sell insurance,

‘Oil and gas insurance will only grow premium not deepen market’ So when insurers talk about oil and gas, the interest of all of them is to grow their premium

,

Foreign players coming into the market

•Mr. Yemi Soladoye

then you are developing the market.

The management and board of any insurance company that is not deep into retail business should go and restrategise because in the next three years any insurance company that is not in retail will find itself far behind.

Some avenues of distributing retail insurance Some of the avenues are the captive agents which is what is being used now, such as insurance companies using

,

Sifax Group rewards staff with long service award

r. Yemi Soladoye, M a n a g i n g Director of RiskGurad Africa, is an insurance expert and consultant. In this interview with ROSEMARY ONUOHA, he states that retail insurance is the way to go for insurance operators

,

BRIEF

There is nothing stopping an insurance broker from having about 200/ 300 agents

marketing; as well as the utilities such as using the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, or Water Corporation to market insurance. In using the utilities, as the bills are being distributed, insurance is already built into it. If ordinarily, my PHCN bill in a month is N10,000 and I have insurance, the electricity company will give me a bill of N15,000 knowing full well that N5,000 goes into my insurance. These are just to mention a few.

Challenge on the part of insurers

T

,

their own trained agents.

Another one is independent agents, who on their own sell insurance and collect commission. There is also agents-to-brokers; as well as collaborating with network providers. Also we have mall

he major challenge on the part of insurers is that they are all busy focusing on short term business orientation. Retail insurance requires the board and management sitting down to strategize about the long term. They should ask such questions like “When oil and gas content must have reached its saturation point; when the regulator will continue to be more and more stringent in its regulation, what are we to do?” It is only companies that are strategic and visionary that can toe this line. Everybody is looking at ‘how can I outsmart the other person on head of service account?, on oil and gas?’ An insurance company that is working to succeed today should also think of tomorrow.

Insurance is a universal business; hence there is nothing foreign or local about it. The insurance I am talking about in Lagos is the same they are talking about in Johannesburg, Malawi, and even in USA. The level of success you record in insurance business is a function of the dynamism of the management team, level of customer service you are able to provide, your spread, and then how you are able to use the competing and complementing benefits of insurance to create strategic alliances with numerous segments of the economy.

So if Sanlam or Old Mutual is doing better than any insurance company in Nigeria, it is not because they are foreign companies, it is because we refuse to do the right thing. So if they come with better customer service approach, better products, widespread branch networks, strategic alliances in areas that matter in the system, provide mortgage finance which we are not doing, then they will do better. That takes me to the fact that we have the largest population in Africa, we are the sixth largest country in the world, still when I analyse the 15 largest insurance companies in Africa, no Nigerian company is there. Of a fact, the premium income of the largest insurance company in Nigeria is 50 per cent of the premium of the no 15 in Africa. With countries like Morocco, Algeria, predominantly Muslim countries doing better than Nigeria, then we are to blame for the low level of insurance development in this country.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, , FEBRUARY 5, 2014 — 23

Recommendation to increase employer, employee contribution is for retiree benefit Stories by ROSEMARY ONUOHA

T

he recommendation in the Pension Reform Bill that employer and employee contributions in the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, be raised from a total of 15 per cent to 20 per cent is aimed at making workers even better off on retirement.

Chief Executive Officer of Premium Pension Limited, Mr. Wilson Ideva who made this assertion, noted that there is no doubt that the Contributory Pension Scheme has already proved to be the way out of the gridlock the old system ran into more than ten years ago.

Ideva also said that the Pension Reform Bill already in advanced stages of legislative processing seeks among other things to enhance the enforcement responsibilities of the regulatory institution, ensure further airtight protection of pension funds and unpack the possibilities of creatively and professionally applying pension funds for national development.

According to him, the bill also seeks to expand the dragnet of the scheme to include the informal sector, adding “It also seeks the establishment of Pension Transition Arrangement Departments (PTADs) charged with the responsibility of ensuring the seamless remittance of benefits under the Defined Benefits Scheme. It should be noted that it is under the

management of defined benefits that reports of corrupt and untoward practices have emanated from in recent times.

The point being made here is that these reports have nothing to do with the contributory pension scheme.

The law establishing the industry makes pension funds tamperproof and mechanisms are firmly in place to exorcise the specter of unethical temperament in all its ramifications and guise in the industry.”

Ideva said that what is required now is total support for the scheme, fine-tuning of the establishing statutory foundations of the industry

and consolidation of the gains.

He said that the contributory pension industry today in the country has scheme assets of more than N3.7 trillion by the end of last year and a membership of almost six million, adding that the numbers and figures are still growing by leaps and bounds.

The current pension regime in the country, according to Ideva, is such that the workers take ownership of their contributions while the relevant government institution superintends.

“It is now a system in which the responsibility of

contribution lies with both the employer and the employee. It is now a system in which the retiree decides within the ambit of the law establishing the industry when and how he/she should be paid. The contributory pension scheme has no doubt eroded the numerous bottlenecks associated with the previous pension system in the country and rekindled the hope and confidence of workers and retirees alike in the Nigerian System,” Ideva said.

he board and management of Premium Pension Limited said it has strategised to consolidate on gains that would move the company forward in line with the anticipated growth in the pension industry in the next five years.

Malam. Aliyu Dikko, the company’s board Chairman said the company has set out on the journey of pension fund management in July 2005 with a determination to establish and nurture a company with a vision to be the leading PFA in Nigeria and a global player.

“Our mission is to achieve superior customer satisfaction

I

t’s the time of the year in which millions of Americans sharpen their pencils, dig out their calculators and rifle their files for W2 forms, bank statements and receipts.

It’s also the time in which identity thieves try to intercept the personal information in documents taxpayers use to file their returns, with the aim of filing false tax forms and collecting bogus refunds from the Internal Revenue Service.

An IRS fact sheet on the issue indicates that as a result of the agency’s “aggressive efforts to combat identity theft from 2011 through November 2013, the IRS has stopped 14.6 million suspicious returns, and protected over $50 billion in fraudulent refunds.”

The IRS also says it started 1,492 criminal investigations of identity theft in fiscal 2013, a 66 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.

I

Miss Insurance 2013/2014, Sefiyat Sadik, during a visit to Kuramo College, Victoria Island, Lagos on her Pet-Project campaign: Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS.

Premium pension strategises for growth T

BRIEF Identity thieves can strike during tax season

in active and retirement life through best practices defined and driven by our core values of care, integrity, transparency, ethics and professionalism”, he stated.

He noted that the company’s performances to date when placed in juxtaposition with the strategy it has developed in 2008 reveals a mixed bag of areas where the benchmark were not attained and areas where targets were exceeded.

“This strategy defining exercise has the principal objective of leading us to our set vision and mission through defining ways of developing a strong investment management

policy with state of the arts investment management tools that will produce superior returns for our clients.”

He spoke on the need to consolidate on the company’s zero tolerance for noncompliance and further sharpen the risk management policy and best practices in internal control processes and procedures.

According to the company’s managing Director Mr. Wilson Ideva, Premium Pension Limited is already occupying an enviable position in the industry and has the potential to become unassailable with the right strategies.

He noted that the

competition in the industry is becoming stiffer and the environment throwing up tasking challenges adding that the company ’s actual performance grew from N52.3 billion in 2008 to N325.7 billion in 2013.

He also noted that the actual assets under management surpassed the 2008 strategic plan projections for four of the five years while performance over budget ranged from a low of N276 million to a high of N19.7 billion.

n a presentation to the University of Florida Accounting Conference last year, Valrie Chambers, an accounting professor at Texas A&M UniversityCorpus Christi, told conference attendees the Treasury Department reported more than 1.2 million cases of tax identity theft in 2012, up from 48,000 in 2008.

Chambers added that Florida is among the U.S. states most heavily hit by the practice — particularly in Miami and Tampa — partly because of the state’s large population of senior citizens, whom fraudsters have traditionally targeted.

Gary Fracassi, a certified public accountant in Orlando, said all taxpayers, regardless of age, need to be aware of their vulnerabilities at taxfiling season. “What (identity thieves) have done is just made up fake W-2 forms to create fake income to get fake refunds,” Fracassi said.

“The whole idea is that once they have the Social Security number, it’s pretty easy for them to file a tax return.”

24—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Ecobank probe shows Pan-African regulatory risks, says Fitch

T

From left: Chief of Staff to Osun State Governor, Mr Gboyega Oyetola; Managing Director, Osun State Investment Company, Mr Bola Oyebamiji; Secretary to the State Government, Mr Moshood Adeoti; Olufon of Ifon land, Oba Maruf Magbagbeola and Deputy Governor of Osun State, Chief Grace Laoye-Tomori, during the inauguration and presentation of NIS 306:2008 Certificate to OSICOL Waters by Standards Organisation of Nigeria, in Osogbo, Osun State.

he Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s investigation last month into Ecobank Transnational Inc. (ETI) highlights the regulatory risks facing pan-African companies, Fitch Ratings said.

“Insufficient cross-border supervision and lower regulatory standards in some frontier markets are constraints on the ratings of pan-African banking groups,” Fitch said in a report on Jan. 31.

SEC investigated Ecobank concerning a plan to sell assets below market value and asked Ecobank to develop a one-year plan to

CRR: ASHON cautions against redirection of funds from equities market

T

he Association of Stock broking Houses of Nigeria has urged investors not to redirect funds from equities market due to increase in Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) for public sector deposits.

The President of the association, Mr. Emeka Madubuike, made the appeal during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, saying that investors should rather increase their stakes in the equities. He said that the current downturn in the equities due to increment in the CRR for public sector deposits was not a sign of crash of the capital market.

He said that the trend resulted from internal and external factors being experienced by the capital market. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had on Jan. 21 raised the CRR on public sector deposits, including deposits from the three tiers of government, from 50 per cent to 75 per cent.

The CBN maintained the Monetary Policy Rate at 12 per cent; liquidity ratio at 30 per cent and CRR on private sector deposits at 12 per cent. The monetary policy instruments are used to control the liquidity in the financial system.

Madubuike said that the equities were merely responding to the new CRR, which would take effect on Feb. 4. “This does not mean that the capital market has crashed.

“The new trend will only impact more on the cost of loans to various sectors of the economy, especially the real

sector,” he said.

Madubuike said that the U.S. quantitative easing also affected equities worldwide.

He noted that investment in the capital market was for a long-term. “The lull is a temporary thing and there is no need for investors to panic because there is no fundamental problem in the

capital market,” Madubuike said. Meanwhile, the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for last week dropped by N427 billion to close at N13.005 trillion from N13.432 trillion achieved in the preceding week. Also, the NSE All-Share Index lost 1,345.95 basis points or 3.21 per cent to close at 40,571when

compared with 41,917.55 posted in the corresponding week due to price losses.

Oando topped the losers’ chart in percentage terms, shedding 25.74 per cent or N6.64 to close at N19.16 per share. It was trailed by Evans Medical with a loss of 14.14 per cent or 57k to close at N3.46.

Mutual Benefits shareholders endorse N5bn increase in capital base

By WILLIAM JIMOH

S

hareholders of Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc have approved the proposal by the Boards of Directors of the company to increase its share capital base from N5 billion to N10 billion by creating additional ten billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each.

The increase in capital base will enable the company to expand its operations while complying with the industry act that insurance cover is provided strictly on ‘NO Premium No Cover’ base.

Addressing the shareholders at the company’s 2012 Annual General Meeting held in Lagos, last week, Chief Chamberlain Oyibo, Chairman Board of Directors of the company stated that the company was unable to declare dividend this year, following its full adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standard, IFRS. He said that, “The Board of Directors is conscious about the value to which annual retune on your investment is worth but

full adoption of International Financial Reporting Standard, IFRS in our account this year, has made dividend declaration to be impossible this year.”

Speaking on the operational result of the company, Oyibo, said in spite of all unanticipated

challenges that the company experienced during the year under review, they were able to strategize round the challenges and provide a quick win short term goal which they hope will enable long term business growth.

address the governance issues. Ecobank has commissioned the Lausanne, Switzerlandbased International Institute for Management Development to review its corporate governance and expected a report by the end of last month, the lender said Jan. 13.

Pan-African banks are growing rapidly, but diversification may not benefit their credit ratings, constrained by the lack of collaboration among national regulators, Fitch said.

In another development, the largest banks in Europe will have to show their capital won’t dip below 5.5 percent of their assets in an economic crisis, the European Union’s top banking regulator said The exercise, which will examine a sample of 124 banks that cover more than half of each EU member state’s banking industry, is scheduled to begin around the end of May, the European Banking Authority said in a statement Jan. 31.

Results will be published at the end of October.

The EBA’s so-called core-equity Tier 1 requirement is less than the 6 percent proposed by the European Central Bank, according to two euro-area officials with knowledge of the discussions last month.

The lenders will be tested on resilience to credit, market and sovereign risk, securitization and cost of funding. Both trading and banking book assets will be tested, according to the authority.

Oando completes acquisition of ConocoPhilips, awaits government approval

O

ando Plc, listed on both the Nigerian and Johannesburg Stock Exchange has announced that financial close has been met on its acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian assets.

Commenting, Mr. Wale Tinubu, Group Chief Executive, Oando Plc said: “We are immensely pleased to have secured all funding to complete our acquisition of ConocoPhilips Nigerian assets. We are tremendously excited about the future of our organisation as this acquisition will not only provide significant growth in size and scale; but will substantially strengthen our position in the Upstream sector.”

In December 2012, Oando Plc through its subsidiary Oando Energy Resources, entered into an agreement with ConocoPhillips to acquire ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian businesses for a total cash consideration of US$1.55 billion.

An initial deposit of US$450 million was paid and a combination of equity and debt was raised to secure financing towards the acquisition including US$200 million from a special placement of two billion shares, US$100 million through the sale of its subsidiary East Horizon Gas Company and debt from financial institutions totalling US$800 million.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBUARY 5, 2014 — 25

DIARY

Select ICT events zTelecom CEM World Congress 2014 April 2014, Venue TBC, London zhong Kong ICT Expo 13 – 16 April 2014 Hong Kong. z Cards & payment Asia holds in Singapore 23-24 April 2014. zTransport Networks for Mobile Operators 2014 13 – 14 May 2014 London.

Preview

Airgun Cordless Compressor he Airgun inflates bicycle tires, rafts and other items quickly and easily, without the need for a manual pump or a large compressor.

Offered by Airman, the battery-powered Airgun compressor looks a great deal like a cordless drill.

Easy to hold in the hand, the device is equipped with a 5-inch flexible hose and an LED to help users see as they attach the hose. The Airgun can be used as is to inflate bike tires, and also comes with a selection of adapters to allow it to inflate balls and inflatable toys.

I N S I D E C M Y K

2015:

New inventions shaping life and living

Airtel out of 2.3GHz spectrum bid

Wiretap law may enhance electoral process •Checks rigging, exposes dubious communication

By EMEKA AGINAM

A

S politician heighten pol iticking in preparation for the 2015 General elections, stakeholders in the ICT industry have challenged the National Assembly to quicken the passage of the wiretap bill into law, if only to strenghten the process of the elections.

The draft wiretap bill empowers security agents to intercept and record electronic communications between individuals.

The bill has been described as having the bility to phone related crimes as well as run cyber criminals, kidnappers and corrupt government officials

out of the system, if passed into law.

The flip side, however is that non- criminal private conversations will be unduly exposed.

,

,

zCritical Communications World 27-29 May 2014 BITEC, Bangkok, Thailand

those perpetrated through the mobile phone.

The bill seeks to give security agents right to Lawful Interception of Communications with the aim of nipping in the

Listening to other people’s conversations was, therefore, not only objectionable but a crime in common law jurisdictions like Nigeria

The Nigerian telecoms regulatory authority, NCC, came up with the Draft bill at the height of various nefarious activities, particularly

Nokia puts ICE on Asha devices

bud, communications inimical to the safety of the country and her citizens .

But a telecom lawyer Mr

Our local tech innovations need to be globally competitive

Kenneth Odinma, who spoke to Vanguard at the weekend, expressed dissatisfaction that such bills which have the tendency to sanitize the system are left to gather dust in the National assembly.

According to him," what people dont know about that is its ability to expose. For instance, , as the election draw nearer, politicians are perfecting their acts. But if this law is passed, every corrupt communications that would lead to rigging would reduce because people know that they are under surveillance. so even if it is for the sanity it could bring to the electoral process, National assembly should see reason to pass it urgently" Bill submitted: Already, the presidency has submitted to the National Assembly the draft bill which if fully implemented empowers authorities to intercept and record personal emails, text messages, instant messages, voice mails and multimedia messages, in order to facilitate a criminal investigation.

Continues on page 27

26 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBUARY 5, 2014

Uwaje preaches fight against malaria with mobile apps

By EMEKA AGINAM

Nokia puts ICE on Asha devices

W

HILE malaria remains a subject for interna tional worry and concern as a result of millions of deaths it causes, there appears to be end in sight in the fight against the disease in the country as Mobile Software Solutions Limited, a Nigerian IT Start-up has designed “Malaria Destroyer Game (MDG) application capable of reaching over 50 million people in Nigeria and 500 million in Africa.

The technology and education based Mobile Apps Psycho-Game designed to save future generations from the malaria pandemic in Nigeria and across the African sub-region by eradicating mosquitoes and by extension, the destruction of Malaria was designed by Chris Uwaje , a veteran of Nigeria ICT Professional and the pioneer of National IT Policy for Nigeria.

Addressing IT Journalists at the weekend ahead of the product launch tomorrow in in Lagos, the Oracle of the Nigerian IT industry, Chris Uwaje explained that the central objective of MDG was to deploy and apply technology capability to reach millions of people world-wide and destroy Malaria more than any other solution that has ventured to date.

The solution, Uwaje explained aims to bring more to intuition the awareness on how to fight mosquitoes from the environment thereby preventing malaria and early death of African children.

To amplify this concern and critical message, Mobile Software Solution, he said will unveil Professor Pat Utomi of Centre for Values and leadership (CVL) as the MDGTM Face of Africa at the Institute of International Affairs tomorrow.

The product, a full graphics animated mobile game which runs across all mobile platforms (Apple IOS, Andriod, Blackberry, Symbian e.t.c); was developed locally by Mobile Software Solutions Limited.

Datacard, ChamsAccess host instant card issuance seminar for banks

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

L

eading experts in the banking and secure cards sectors are billed to gather in Lagos today to discuss the benefits of instant issuance and how financial card issuers can increase profitability while enhancing customer service levels Specially packaged by frontline secure ID and card personalization solutions provider, Datacard Group, the initiative is said to be in furtherance of the commitment to helping issuers optimize their card programs throughout the globe through instant issuance.

The company along with ChamsAccess Limited – a subsidiary of Chams PLC who are also one of Nigeria’s technology providers for identity management and e-payment solution and systems, are joint hosts of the event.

The seminar is specifically focused on educating financial organizations on the benefits of instant issuance and how to better serve cardholders in the region. Chams PLC is the Datacard Group partner for Nigeria.

The seminar which holds at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Lagos, Nigeria, is touted to be Ideal for financial institutions wanting to learn more about how card issuance is evolving to match customers’ expectations, the event will discuss how instant issuance helps enhance security for issuers, enables them to expedite the card delivery process, as well as exceed customer expectations with more card choices – including various card images – that are printed and personalized on-demand in branch locations.

Regional financial instant issuance account manager, EMEA, from Datacard Group, Mr Paul Ballington noted that “currently, Datacard Group has thousands of financial branches and retail locations utilizing our flagship instant issuance software and hardware for in-branch card issuance and personalization, and that number continues to grow as issuers realize the benefits it provides to not only them, but to their cardholders as well.

N

OKIA puts ‘Ice’ on its Asha devices expanding the portfolio with additional three new ranges, the Nokia Asha ICE range; Asha 500, Asha 502 and

Asha 503 which come encased in a glamorous and beautiful crystal layer.

The devices launched in Lagos, Abuja, Benin and Port Harcourt features a new unique innovation known as layered design, achieved using the ‘dual shot’ technique Nokia said was unique to It. The technique combines an inner layer of bold, bright colour surrounded by crystal-clear transparency.

The combination adds a distinctive look to the phone’s monobody design, as well as durability.

Head of Marketing, Nokia West and Central Africa, Deborah Shepard said the new devices will be available for Nigerian customers in Easy Swap dual SIM and single SIM variants. She noted that the Easy Swap Dual SIM technology which is unique-to-Nokia allows people to switch between

SIM cards on the go, to get better tariffs or alternate between SIM cards for SMS, voice and data, without having to turn off the device.

“In addition to the stunning new look, the Asha ICE range boast of new features and apps that will impress our customers such as the amazing swipe feature that enables people take pictures with a single swipe and share instantly on their social network with a simple tap, its colourful variants and most importantly, its affordability.

For the first time, WhatsApp will also be available to Asha Platform devices along with other popular chat and messaging apps already available for Asha Platform devices, such as WeChat, Line, eBuddy and Nimbuzz” Shepard added.

While the Asha 503 will be available as single SIM device, the Asha 500 and 502 will also be available in single SIM and

Airtel out of 2.3GHz spectrum bid • Spends $1.5bn on network in 3 years •Allays fears of imminent job loss in telecom sector

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

T

ELECOM operator, Airtel, may have become the first Nigerian operator to count itself out of the tussle to clinch the remaining 2.3GHz spectrum which the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has put out for sale.

The spectrum is significant for its capability to help an operator roll out data services which the International Telecommunications Union, ITU has declared as the new business destination in the telecommunications sector.

However, Airtel is upbeat that besides having what it regarded as one of the most robust data services in the Nigerian telecom sector today, it also has sufficient platforms to deliver even more robust services on that genre of telecom business.

Although the company said it has not really taken a final decision on whether to bid or not, its Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Mr Segun Ogunsanya, has given the hint that it was unlikely that the operator will bid.

Ogunsanya while addressing a select ICT journalists on his industry experiences, in one year as Airtel CEO, noted that his company ’s platform for both voice and data services was solid considering that a whopping $1.5 billion have been pumped into it in the past three years of operation.

The amount becomes a distant increase to the N600 million the management had announced to spend for three years when it ac-

•GIVE US AWARDS NOT SANCTIONS! File photo of Airtel CEO, Mr. Ogunsanya receving award from NCC EVC, Dr. Eugene Juwah during the 2013 Nigeria telecom awards. quired the company in 2010.

However, he provided a defence for his management, saying that world over, investment plans follow industry trends and can also change when industry prospects change.

Meanwhile, Ogunsanya also spoke on several other issues including the rumour that if operators embark on massive network and base station outsourcing, it will usher massive job loss in the industry There has been several reports alleging that outsourcing telecom facilities may lead to massive job loss in the sector.

But Ogunsanya said the reports were based on unfounded fears.

He argued that outsourcing

creates more jobs and ushers in efficiency in any sector it is practiced and not otherwise.

No imminent job loss in the sector questions, Ogunsanya said that “fears of retrenchment are not founded. They are all fictions. Outsourcing doesn’t lead to job loss, rather, it increases.

We in Airtel have had more people come in now, than three ago when we were managing most of our facilities ourselves.

“Again, selling towers to those who are trained in managing it brings more efficiency than job loss. If we have a third party who has the core competency to manage whatever part of our business, we allow them to do it beContinues from page 25

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBUARY 5, 2014—27

Our local tech innovations need to be globally competitive — Omobola Johnson

BY EMMANUEL ELEBEKE

M

INISTER of Communica tion Technology and the Supervising Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, says bringing innovation from science and technology

into industrial and commercial space, is the only way to make them globally competitive.

The Minister stated this while inaugurating the governing boards of National Office for Technology Acquisition, NOTAP and that of National Institute of Science Laboratory Technology, NISLT in Abuja.

The Minster said that contrary to some assumptions, that Nigeria was just only a dumping ground for foreign technologies, the country has made tremendous in-roads on technology innovation, communications and information technology.

She noted that most of the innovations accom-

plished by Nigerians, are also being used to address peculiar needs of the Nigerian people.

For her, what was just needed for everybody to see and understand this was to showcase the innovators and their innovations and challenge to global competition.

She challenged relevant regulators in the

communications, science and Technology and other sectors churning out innovations, to bring them out into industrial and commercial space to give them popular recognition and global acceptance.

“What we need to do, is to bring out those innovation into industrial and commercial space,

and we are working with the ministry of Trade and Investment to do that and we will begin to see the impact. NOTAP has been doing tremendous job to ensuring that what Nigerians can do will be done by Nigerians, we do not need to bring foreigners to come and do jobs that can be done by Nigerians. We may need the service foreigner for sure, but we also need to ensure that more of those that are been filled up and are being participating in the new economy we are building are Nigerians,” she stated.

Continuing, the Minister said, “the history of Nigeria is replete with great scientific and technology innovations that are yet to be recognised in modern history. We take pride in our historic strides in arts and culture, traditional medicine, meteorology, agriculture, industry, machinery to modern but a few.

“These accomplishments by our people were based on science and technology.

Wiretap law may enhance...

Continued from page 25

Although the bill has attracted mixed reactions from the stakeholders in the Nigerian IT industry, one thing is certain. The law if well implemented would go a long way in reduce criminals activities to the barest minimum.

How the bill works: Accordingly, the bill empowers security agencies to ask telecommunication companies to conduct surveillance on individuals, and release user data to authorities.

By this time, a warrant would not be required in cases of “verifiable urgency” to intercept and record electronic communications under the new bill.

Enabling law: However, under a subheading titled ‘Interception of electronic communications,’ section 22 of the bill says that , “Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the content of Continues on page 30

28 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Agbim pays tribute to Mali S

UPER Eagles goal keeper, Chigozie Agbim, has owned up that the Eagles of Mali were their toughest opponents at the 2014 African Nations Championship (Chan).

Agbim explained that the Malians combined good technique and physical strength which helped them defeat Nigeria 2-1 in their opening game of the Chan.

But Agbim was quick to point out that the Super Eagles were unlucky to have lost against Mali. “For me, Mali were the toughest team we played at the competition. They didn’t make our first game (at the Chan) any easy as they were good on the ball and strong too. But we were not lucky enough that’s why we lost that game,” he said.

However, the Enugu Rang-

ers custodian reflected on his personal performance and admitted that he still remains pained by conceding from Dario Khan’s long range free kick when Nigeria played Mozambique.

He also said Khan’s free kick from close to the halfway line was capable of catching any goalkeeper off guard.

Mouri remar transf

•Agbim

MARTINO: Barca will not stumble again

G

ERARDO Martino does not think Barcelona will slip up again following their 3-2 home defeat to Valencia on Saturday. The defeat saw them fall three points behind new leaders Atletico Madrid in the race for the Liga title, and level on points with Real Madrid in second.

But Martino insists it was just a minor blip.

“I don’t think we’ll stumble again,” he said. “Even though we’re second in the league it’s in our hands.

“We always talk with the players and certainly after a game as unusual as Saturday’s.

“We discussed our mistakes. They get harder to recover as we play more games. “But whenever there is a loss, the next game in an opportunity to put things right.”

Ronaldo lauds Ancelotti, Zidane partnership R

eal Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo says he is enjoying working with Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane and hopes to have a good 2014.

The pair took over the reins at the Santiago Bernabeu at the start of the season following the departure of Jose Mourinho and his assistant Aitor Karanka.

“Carlo Ancelotti is a great coach, I am very happy to be with him and Zidane is doing a great job too,” Ronaldo told reporters.

“It’s incredible to be able to work with him because he has such a wealth of experience and he

knows how to talk to the players. “I am very happy here at Madrid and I’m dreaming about winning something this year like the Champions League.

“Working with Carlo and Zidane improves our chances of being able to reach our objectives.”

•Zidan with Ancelotti

•Mourinho

Lamouchi: Elephants can trouble big team T

HE former midfielder led his side to Brazil 2014 with an unbeaten qualifying record but has stressed the Elephants cannot go all the way in this summer’s tournament Cote d’Ivoire coach Sabri Lamouchi does not believe his team has the ability to win the World Cup but he insists they can cause trouble for the major players at Brazil 2014.

The Elephants, qualifying for this summer’s tournament after an impressive 4-2 aggregate

win over Senegal in the playoff round, have been drawn in Group C where they will face Colombia, Greece and Japan.

Brazil 2014 is likely to be the last chance for a golden Ivorian generation led by Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure to challenge for the title, but while Lamouchi is confident his side can unsettle some of the tournament favourites, he believes talk of lifting the trophy is too far. ”Cote d’Ivoire can’t win the

World Cup,” Lamouchi told Fifa.com. “We have a generation of players who are coming to the end of their careers and for some of them it will be their last World Cup. ”There’s no denying that, but we have players who are capable not of springing a surprise but of playing at the level they’re known for around the whole world. ”They’ve always been the favourites in the African Cup of Nations, but they’ve never won the trophy.

•Sabri La

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 — 29

Newcastle won’t replace Kinnear N

EWCASTLE owner Mike Ashley has no immediate plans to replace former director of football Joe Kinnear. It’s understood the sportswear tycoon will not make an appointment in the short term amid speculation that Derek Llambias could once again have a part to play.

Kinnear resigned on Monday night after little more than seven months in his role, having failed to make a permanent signing during two transfer windows. His departure was confirmed in a brief club statement on

Monday night.

The statement said: “Newcastle United can confirm that Joe Kinnear has this evening resigned from his position as director of football with immediate effect. The club will be making no further comment.”

Llambias left the club within days of Kinnear’s arrival in June last year - virtually his last act was to formally welcome the then 66-yearold to Tyneside - although it is understood he and Ashley are back on good terms.

P

•Kinnear

inho and Chelsea’s rkable tactical formation

ms

amouchi

I

T is one of football’s great beauties that it can be played in such a variety of ways. There may be a consensus at the moment among the elite that favours pressing and possession, exploring modern interpretations of total football and proactivity and nudging up goals per game ratios across the major leagues, but there is also an alternative strand of thought, one that does not engage high up the pitch but prefers to sit deep and thwart the opposition, looking to play reactively, and at that José Mourinho remains a master.

A slight gloss, perhaps, is needed. To say a team plays reactively is not a criticism. It is not to say that they are negative or defensive or that they park the bus – not that there is any shame in that, whatever Mourinho himself may have suggested after last week’s draw against West Ham. Reactive teams – Germany at the last World Cup, for instance – can still play thrilling and aesthetically pleasing football. Bayern Munich, in their Champions League semi-final victory over Barcelona last season, were reactive, allowing their opponents long spells with the ball before picking them off.

And Chelsea were reactive in beating Manchester City on Monday night.

Again and again a City attack broke down and Chelsea stormed forward on the break, awesome in their pace and muscularity. Watching Willian and, particularly, Eden Hazard, surging into space, creating angles for each other, always driving, it was easy to see why Mourinho felt Juan Mata had no place in his side: wonderful talent that he is, this is not Mata’s type of football. What

Radcliffe wants London swansong

was striking as well was how bad City were at countering the counter: when was the last time, at Premier League level, other than in the final minutes as one team gave in to desperation in chasing the game, that you saw a team have a four-on-two break as Chelsea did after 27 minutes?

John Terry suggested that his side’s victory was significant not merely for the three points it brought, drawing Chelsea within two points of the top of the table and preventing City moving six points clear of them, but also for the encouragement it might offer other sides going to the Etihad, “showing they can be beaten”.

AULA Radcliffe would love to compete in one last Lon don Marathon before calling time on her career.

The 40-year-old marathon world record holder has been dogged by a foot problem in recent years which forced her to pull out of the 2012 Olympics shortly before the Games.

Radcliffe last competed in a 26.2-mile race in 2011 but she is hoping to have a swansong in the event, with the 2015 London Marathon a possible goal.

The former world champion knows a fourth London title is unlikely but she is still determined to try and compete in the race one last time. “I would love to come back and run a marathon or even a half-marathon and just be able to finish my racing career on my terms,” she told reporters yesterday.

“Very few people get to do that.

I’d just like the chance.

“I will never say ‘retire’ but if I run one more marathon, I’d love it to be New York or London. This year is too soon but I’d probably only ask my foot to do one more •Paula Radcliffe marathon.

Wawrink a withdra ws wrinka withdraws from Rotterdam tournament Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka has pulled out of next week’s ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam due to a leg injury. The 28-yearold was part of the Swiss team that defeated Serbia last weekend to reach the Davis Cup quarter-finals. ”Unfortunately I’m not in the form to compete in Rotterdam,” Wawrinka is quoted as saying by Sky Sports News. “I hope to be back on court very quickly.”

Wawrinka claimed his first Grand Slam title last month by beating Rafael Nadal in Melbourne.

Bale fit, ready for Madrid derby G

ARETH Bale has recov ered from a calf problem and is back in Real Madrid’s squad for the first leg of their Copa del rey semi-final against holders Atletico Madrid tonight.

The Wales winger ’s debut season in Spain has been disrupted by a series of minor injuries after joining from Tottenham Hotspur for a world record fee and he has missed Real’s last two matches after picking up the injury in a La Liga game against Granada.

“Gareth Bale is available,” coach Carlo Ancelotti told a news conference on the eve of the game at the Bernabeu where Atletico beat Real 2-1 to win last season’s final.

“He has recovered well and has trained well these last two days with the rest of the team,”

added the Italian, in his first season in charge after taking over from Jose Mourinho.

“He is in good shape.”

Bale’s Real career has been something of a disappointment so far, prompting mutterings about the club’s decision to pay €100 million for the 24-year-old.

•Bale

Klitschko brothers lead the fight in turbulent Ukraine

U

KRAINIAN heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko says his trip to New York was not just about enjoying his first Super Bowl. Foremost on his mind these days is bringing attention to the political crisis in the former Soviet republic.

Klitschko, 37, follows in the footsteps of his older brother, Vitaly Klitschko, a former heavyweight champion who recently retired from boxing to concentrate on his duties as head of Ukraine’s opposition pro-Western Udar party and on his 2015 presidential bid.

“I just want to spread the word and say what is going on in the Ukraine and point out that we do have an issue that unfortunately could become a civil war, and much more people could die,” Wladimir Klitschko told The Associated Press in an interview on Monday.

•Klitschkos

30 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

EMC to bail Nigeria out of cloud, big data challenges •Opens office in Nigeria

From left: Rasheed Jimoh, Regional Manager for EMC in English Speaking West Africa; Adrian McDonald, President of EMC Europe, Middle East and Africa and Nazim Fraijat, Managing Director for EMC in Levant and Emerging Africa at a press conference to announce EMC's new training centre and office expansion to Nigeria, in Lagos.

By Prince Osuagwu

A

FTER discovering that a host of Nigerian businesses are looking for the tools and support to help them manage the challenge of redefining the delivery of IT necessary to usher competitive advantage, Cloud services providers, EMC has announced intention to open office in Nigeria to proffer solution.

The company said that the expansion of its operations in Nigeria was imperative to sustain the consistent growth of the Nigerian local economy, particularly as 2014 sets to see unprecedented change in the technology industry from computing to mobile applications, social networking, cloud services and Big Data analytics.

The company, however, is not just coming to open office but will also move in, its new training center to Lagos, to be able to deliver a comprehensive range of leadingedge IT courses to businesses, channel partners and service providers, as well as EMC employees in Nigeria.

The courses, according to the company’s President Europe, Middle East and Africa, Adrian McDonald, will cover a range of systems and solutions such as EMC VNX Series high-performing unified storage; Data Domain protection storage for back-up and archive; NetWorker back up and recovery software; VMAX enterprise storage systems; VMware; Big Data analytics; and cloud computing.

The training center will host up to eight courses each

quarter, catering for approximately 200 attendees from Nigeria and West Africa throughout its first year of operation.

McDonald said that globally, there was a fast-growing knowledge gap in the area of information storage and analytics, due in part to the rapid adoption of virtualization technologies and the emergence of cloud computing infrastructure at a rate much higher than that of the available skills in the market.

This according to him, has caused organizations and IT professionals across the world to face the challenge of meeting evolving business and strategic requirements, while controlling explosive data growth.

“EMC values its customers and partners in Nigeria who are contributing to our growth in the country and across the region. Our new office in Lagos reiterates our commitment to helping enterprises across Nigeria achieve their business objectives as they transform their IT infrastructure “ he added.

Corroborating him, Regional Manager for English Speaking West Africa, EMC, Mr. Rasheed Jimoh, said that “the Nigerian market is growing fast and technology needs are evolving as business leaders increasingly look to IT to help enable, drive and lead their strategic initiatives. Many organizations have recognized the need to invest in cloud computing, Big Data analytics and information security solutions. EMC is keen to bring the knowledge trans-

fer closer to Nigeria’s and West Africa professionals through our Educational Services Programs and to help our customers to effectively lead their IT and business transformation.”

Wiretap law may enhance...

Continues from page 27

any electronic communication is reasonably required for the purposes of a criminal investigation or proceedings, a judge may on the basis of information on oath: “(a) order a service provider, through the application of technical means to collect, record, permit or assist competent authorities with the collection or recording of content data associated with specified communications transmitted by means of a computer system; or “(b) authorise a law enforcement officer to collect or record such data through application of technical means.”

Define of communications: The bill defines “electronic communication” that could be intercepted to include “communication in electronic format, instant messages, short message service (SMS), email, video, voice mails, multimedia message service (MMS), fax and pager.”

Instant messaging is a type of chat which offers real-time text, video and audio transmission over the Internet. It includes Blackberry Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, Google Hangout, Yahoo Messenger, Facebook Messenger,

2go and others.

Stakeholders react: Although most countries of the world have bill on lawful interception, the former FCT minister, Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai who had earlier faulted the draft policy told the a gathering at a recent forum organized by the Joint Action Committee on Information Communication Awareness Development, JACITAD, that lawful interception of communications regulations should go through legislative process.

“Listening to other people’s conversations was therefore not only objectionable but a crime in common law jurisdictions like Nigeria. So why does our government want to listen to our telephone conversations? Why has the Federal Government committed between $40-$61 million offbudget to monitor our emails, instant messaging and social media activities?”

It is unlawful: For him, it is not only unlawful for the government to invade the privacy of citizens by intercepting letters, phone conversations or emails, but a constitutional violation and therefore an impeachable offense.

Airtel out of 2.3GHz spectrum bid Continues from page 26

cause it gives us the space to do our own functions very well and open avenue for more people to come in. So the fear of joss loss should be dismissed” he added.

No bidding for 2.3 GHz may not bid for the 2.3 GHz spectrum because we feel we have several options to deliver robust data and broadband services. However, we have not concluded decisions on the issue. But I think we may not bid.

Voice, still King is also rumors about dwindling Average revenue Per User, ARPU, but I also think that is unnecessary fears. For instance, our revenues are driven 70 percent by voice and less than 30 on Data. This is irrespective of the fact that the new business space is favoring data, but voice is still king for now.

The implication of Ogunsanya’s illustration was that ARPU can not be said to be dropping when it is still accounting for 70 percent of operators’ revenue.

Quality of service For him, “ we need to build more base stations to get better services across to the subscribers. We are also committed to making that investment but the problem is that getting the approval to erect one, takes over one year and that, kind of, stifles the process.

“The issue of quality of service, is like a chain. If one segment of the chain is broken, the wheel will not roll faster. What we are saying is that all the parties to the investment, including the federal, state and

local municipals must be in sync to have the investment in QoS more meaningful.

We have already spend about 1.5 billion dollars in three years in Nigeria alone and are ready to do more if the government could help us remove bottlenecks militating against more investments in telecom infrastructures.

The government should solve the issue of unsteady power supply, address the issue of every tear of government, including the federal, state and local governments regulating the telecom industry and making process of infrastructure deployment cumbersome. It should also solve the problem of double taxation on operators among other bottlenecks” Sanctions against operators “People have been advocating for sanctions but I don’t think sanctions are the right measures for the poor quality of service. No matter how much sanction you give, it is not going to improve the service. What will improve the service is looking at ways to solve all the problems militating against it. That is where we are expecting the government to focus on instead of sanctions. The best option is to create a one stop clearing house on the issues to achieve the purpose. The Lagos state government has set the pace in the agreement they signed with operators recently” he added.

He however, advocated a collective effort between government and the operators to make investment in infrastructure building easier for the telecom operators, saying this way, the industry will experience faster growth and more employment.

VANGUARD,WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY 5,2014—31

Could she really love me as she claims?

Dear Bunmi, ’M 18 and I’m troubled by a girl who’s the same age. We’re both waiting to go to the university. Two years ago, when we went on a school trip to a neighbouring country, she told me she fancied me. A few months later, she again repeated it. She began to spank my bottom, then laugh with her friends.

I felt so embarrassed that I told her I didn’t fancy her.

She finally gave up and said she’d never really fancied me either.

A few months ago, my dad gave me my own mobile phone and I gave her the number. She started sending messages, saying, “I can’t stop thinking about you, and I love you.” Now I’m beginning to feel the same way about her. 1 want to kiss this girl and hold her in my arms.

When I come close to telling her how I feel, I’ll back away.

But whenever I see her again, the feeling comes flooding back. I think she must be having me on. I wear glasses, though people say I look like a popular home movie star. But this girl

I

He doesn’t know I fancy him Dear Bunmi, ’M 24 years old and up un til about a year ago, I had strong views about getting

I

married. I promised myself I wouldn’t settle down until I was at least 28. But now my attitudes have changed dramati-

She’s always making bad choices Dear Bunmi, HAVE this best friend who believes she’s unlucky in love. The problem is, she’s always falling for the wrong type of men.1 always see through all these opportunistic boyfriends she introduces to me, but whenever I warn her off them, she goes off in a huff and tries to sever relationships with me. When they eventually let her down, she comes running to me and pretends we’re still the best of friends. I like her a lot and I feel bad whenever she belittles herself with these men. What can I do to make her ‘see’ through men that are bad for her?

Tomi by e-mail

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Dear Tomi, Is it possible to ever try to talk anyone out of love? Even out of an ill-considered, ill-fated love?

I used to try pretty regularly to discourage unwise lovers, and believe me, it can’t be done.

Once the head-strong heart is up and running, the best a friend can do for a friend is be there when she falls out of love, so she can lean on you - but only until such time as she can stand on her own two feet. I get the impression your friend could be so dependent on your help that she will keep getting into romantic scrapes in order to bind you to her!

I long to make love with a girl DearBunmi, ’M 28 and I’ve never had a girlfriend. I haven’t even kissed a woman, and now I feel that I never will. Everybody I know seems to be talking about love-making, love and relationships. It makes me feel so inadequate and depressed.

Recently, I toyed with the idea of visiting prostitutes just to know what it is like to be close to a woman. I wish I could meet a girl and fell in love but hope seems to have been lost, Kingsley, by e-maiL

I

Dear Kingsley, It’s true that most men need the comfort and intimacy of female companionship and it’s this feeling of yours that you’re inadequate that’s preventing you reaching out for a woman’s love. There are tons of lonely

women who want love-making and a caring relationship just as much as you do. You need to accept that you are as loveable as the rest of us, and that your desire for love-making is nothing to be ashamed of. This will make you feel able to respond to the interest of the women you meet You’re not alone as a lot of people have wondered if they would ever find romance only to find it when they least expected. Instead of secretly aching for love, show some of the women you meet that you’re interested in them. Men who flirt and express their romantic needs have girlfriends. So go out there and find the love you deserve. Don’t let one or two rejections put you off.

More women are bound to say yes.

cally and I think I have met the perfect man for me. We have been very good friends for about three years and we live next door to each other.

He is in his 20's and he is good looking, caring and very considerate. In fact, he’s what you’ll call a perfect gentleman.

Keeping my hands off him is agonising. I get jealous if he talks about other women and miss him terribly when he goes away. He doesn’t have a girlfriend and I just can’t stop thinking about him. I‘m afraid that if I tell him how I feel it will jeopardise our close friendship. On the other hand, if I don’t say anything how will I ever know if he feels any affection for me? Should I open up or keep these feelings to myself?

Ufuoma by e-mail Dear Ufuoma, You really don’t have to throw this man to the ground and swear your undying love for him, you know. Feelings can be displayed without great declaration. Add a new element to the friendship you already have - buy him a lovely decoration for his room, for instance, or a book on one of his interests, or offer him a small personal courtesy that will make him look at you in a slightly different way.

Ask his advice about one of your ‘problems’ or about a new hairstyle. Ask him if he’d like to go to a movie, or somewhere off your usual beaten path. Make a gesture that will place the ball in his court and give him a chance to respond in his own way. Remember, most people do not lead their lives by taking big leaps but simply by going gently with the flow.

I want us to be more than friends Dear Bunmi, HERE IS this male col league at work with whom I’m very friendly. We see and chat with each other every day. We’re both single and so far, the relationship has been purely platonic, except for once or twice that we have kissed when slightly tipsy. Lately, I’ve been having sexual fantasies about him. I’m not sure he feels the same way and I’m worried an affair might ruin our relationship. How do I make the first move without making a fool of myself?

Doyin, by e-mail.

T

Dear Doyin, Friendship is believed to be the best possible soil in which love can take root, grow and flour-

ish. By contrast an affair, which begins like a bolt from the blues, is often a danger of burning out fairly quickly when passion dies and the couple suddenly realize that they have very little to offer each other beyond sex. j^ It is a good thing you bonded well with your male friend and tfee probably depends as much on your support as you do so on his. Someone who knows you at work know the real you; the way you behave on bad days, the way you look when you’re tired and the way you react under pressure. And you know him just as well. You are therefore lucky to have found someone who is suchAsoul mate and whom you also find attractive.

When it comes to love, women often call the shots through body

language and subtle come-ons.

As many men are terrified of rejection, you must be the one to make a move. If you don’t you’ll always regret it wondering what might have been. And you keep him at arm’s length if he may one day turn up with a girlfriend.

I’m sure you’ll find this devastating judging by how you now feel about him.

So when next you go out together in the evening stay alert for any signals that his interest in you is not really platonic and make sure booze is not high on the menu. Try flirting a little to see if he’s willing to follow your lead. At the end of the evening, you may invite him for a proper drink. If he doesn’t respond as you would like, you won’t have harmed your friendship.

spends most of her time with me now. She says she’s fallen out with some of her friends.

What should be my next move?

Abu by e-mail Dear Abu, I give this girl of yours full marks for persistence in the face of your apparent unwillingness to become her boyfriend. Girls are often more confident about their romantic feelings than boys of the same age. You are gripped by shyness and fear of rejection which is very common during adolescence. Well, here is a tip - boys who dare to kiss the girls have more fun! The star you see in your home movies are very attractive to girls and have a huge number of female fans. If a girl tells you she fancies you, don’t question why. As you grow older, you’ll soon discover that girls want kisses, cuddles and love just as boys do. Dillydally no longer! Ask this girl to become your girlfriend, then seal the deal with the kisses that you’ve long been aching for.

If a girl tells you she fancies you, don’t question why. As you grow older, you’ll soon discover that girls want kisses, cuddles and love just as boys do. Dillydally no longer! Ask this girl to become your girlfriend, then seal the deal with the kisses that you’ve long been aching for.

I’m a virgin but can’t make love Dear Bunmi, “; ’VE BEEN with my boy friend for six months and we really want to make love.

I’m a virgin and he has some experience but every time we’ve tried to make love, he can’t get erection. I feel so embarrassed that we’ve never actually managed to have proper intercourse. Is there anything I can do to help?

Debbie by e-mail

to make love for the first time, stress can make it even more difficult. So forget about intercourse for now.

Instead, play together, caress each other, touch, have fun exploring each other’s bodies - this will make you feel more in control, more able to relax.

Eventually, when you feel comfortable with him physically, you could give it a little try. Over the course of a Dear Debbie, few weeks, you should be Fitting a manhood into a much more confident with woman can be awkward at your man enough to really times. But when you’re trying go all the way.

I

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

32—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Cat and dog: APC’s foxy battles THE directive by the nation’s leading opposition party to stifle executive bills is part of an underlying game of intrigues between the party and the ruling party to carve territory in the political landscape

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

W

E are dealing with a very desperate government but we are anxious to be with you.”

With these words, Chief Bisi Akande, the interim national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC may have in the opinion of some, spoken in the extreme when he addressed APC legislators on Monday night.

His words of assurance to the battle-ready legislators were, however, clear. “What you have done is commendable in the face of a barbaric government.” The late night meeting with the APC legislators followed the increasing confidence of the party in its continuing mobilisation to outwit the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP-led government in the forthcoming general elections.

Akande and other chieftains of the party met with the party legislators, just hours after the party strengthened its forces in the North-East with the welcome of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar into the party at a rally in Yola earlier that Monday.

Akande was accompanied to the strategic closed door meeting by party leaders including Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and six governors from all sections of the country.

The meeting with the legislators followed the decision of the APC hierarchy, two weeks

•Akande: We are dealing with a desperate government

•Tinubu: APC national leader

seen the once peaceful state turn into a state of anarchy. The State House of Assembly is unable to sit on account of a siege on its premises by the police.

The party had severally lamented what it alleged to be strong partisanship exhibited by the police in Rivers State under the leadership of the controversial Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu. “The National Executive

had since 1999 maintained an undisputed control of the House was seriously bruised when 37 members of the party defected to the APC giving the opposition party a plurality in the chamber.

With its newly won recognition, the APC for once, was able to shake the fabrics of governance in the country. Though symbolically under a PDP leadership, no one in the country was in doubt of the APC’s larger than life influence in the affairs of the House of Representatives.

PDP and presidency officials would, however, be living in denial if they claim that the APC resolution of non-cooperation was the beginning of the conflict.

,

Even before it issued the no-cooperation order, the APC through its legislators in the House of Representatives stirred the hornet’s nest when the House issued 50 questions on the state of the economy to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala

ago, to take the battle against the PDP administration to the National Assembly.

The party in an unprecedented reaction to what it claimed as the reign of impunity in Rivers State, had at the end of a National Executive Committee, NEC meeting penultimate Thursday, called on its legislators in the National Assembly to stall the passage of all executive bills.

Besides bills, the legislators were expected to stall the confirmation of appointments made by the president.

The opposition party ’s resolution was upon what it claimed to be the reign of impunity in Rivers State that has

,

Committee of the APC has now resolved that if these acts of impunity and lawlessness continue unabated and the Police persist in being an enforcement arm of the PDP to the detriment of our members, it will have no alternative than to ask our teeming members all over the country and especially in Rivers State to take whatever steps that are necessary to protect their lives and property.”

“Following on the forgoing and in view of the joint resolutions of the National Assembly on Rivers State, and other constitutional breaches by the Presidency, the APC hereby directs its members in the National Assembly to block

all legislative proposals including the 2014 Budget and confirmation of all nominees to military and civilian positions to public office until the rule of law and constitutionalism is restored in Rivers State in particular and Nigeria in general.”

The PDP and presidential aides were swift in responding, condemning the directive which according to them, would cripple the economy and sustain insecurity in the land.

The party described it as a prescription for anarchy.PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh said it was a confirmation of its long held assertion that the APC does not mean well for the nation.

“In asking that service chiefs should not be confirmed by the Senate, the APC has revealed its devilish plot to undermine the nation’s security system, create a state of anarchy and pave way to unleash mayhem on the people”.“In trying to frustrate the passage of the 2014 budget, the APC has also exposed its plot to cripple the nation’s economy and plunge the people into untold hardship” Besides the PDP, chief spokesmen of the presidency and aligned groups were trenchant in mobilising democracy stakeholders against the APC. The APC’s resolution was in the shadows of the contest for superiority between it and the PDP in the House of Representatives. The PDP which

Beginning of the conflict Even before it issued the nocooperation order, the APC through its legislators in the House of Representatives stirred the hornet’s nest when the House issued 50 questions on the state of the economy to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for her response last December.

After it issued the 50 questions, the House threatened that it would not touch the 2014 budget proposal of the Federal Government until Mrs. OkonjoIweala gave answers to the questions.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala to the acclaim of PDP officials and the presidency in early January,

despatched her answers to the questions, but not to the satisfaction of the House officials who have invited her for a re-sit.

Many administration officials never believed that the APC would go to the extent of blocking the passage of the budget until the party gave out the directive.

Even some within the APC also did not believe the opposition party would go to that extent. A number of senators in the APC were quick to distance themselves from the directive, but not many oppositionists are bothered, given the fact that the Senate remains for now in the safe hands of the PDP. But not the House where both sides are in a contest for leadership.

Vanguard gathered that the situation in Rivers State which saw the police increasingly take sides with the PDP against the Rivers State government at the end of last year, actually inspired the resolution of the APC national executive.

The decision to issue the order, Vanguard learnt, was taken by some party insiders who were also sensitive to the fact that the situation in Rivers State if not checked, could spiral to Ekiti State which is holding its own general election this June.

By putting the presidency and the PDP on the spot in Rivers State, the APC has unwittingly put the PDP on the defensive in Ekiti.

It was not surprising that in the

Continues on page 33

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014—33

•Odubu: How long will his loyalty stretch out?

•Oshiomhole: All eyes on him

Oshiomhole succession: Shadow boxing in Edo State THOUGH with over two years to serve out his second term, associates of Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State are engaged in deep intrigues to position themselves in the line of favour. Comrade Oshiomhole does not want to be regarded as a lame duck and is now whipping them into line

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

T

HE commencement of the registration of members of the All Progressive Congress, APC could well be the commencement of the interesting battle to find a successor for the incumbent governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

The battle is especially keen in Edo South senatorial district, the most populated region of the state which almost everyone expects to provide the APC candidate for the 2016 battle.

So while it is agreed where, but the question of who, remains the dominating issue among political pundits. Among those in contention are the two most dominant persons from Edo South in the APC presently, the Deputy Governor, Dr Pius Odubu and the former South South Vice Chairman of the former Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

Others also being mentioned are the former Minister of State for Works, Chief Chris Ogienwonyi, whom Vanguard learnt may have concluded plans to dump the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP for the APC. Another name being mentioned is Chief Solomon Edebiri, who flew the ticket of the former All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP in the 2012

contest. There are others Vanguard learnt may also join the race but who are still monitoring the battle between Odubu and Ize-Iyamu.

At least, many are also expecting Oshiomhole who is shrewdly setting up an independent political structure to throw his own man as a way of protecting him in the ensuing battle of wits between his deputy and Pastor Ize-Iyamu.

The open threats of the pastor’s supporters in their pursuit of their objective have frayed the nerves of the governor who is believed to see their actions as blackmail.

Protecting Oshiomhole's legacy Handy for Oshiomhole in asserting his wish against pastor and Odubu is the new group, Edo Solidarity Movement led by his Political Adviser and veteran political fighter, Charles Idahosa.

Another pro-Oshiomhole group that would also prove helpful to him is Edo in Safe Hands anchored by his former Chief of Staff and current Commissioner for Works, Barr.Osarodion Ogie and the Majority Leader of the state House of Assembly, Comrade Philip Shaibu.

Just penultimate week, these two groups reached an agreement to work together to protect the Oshiomhole legacy.

Remarkably, Odubu was one of those who founded the Edo in Safe Hands before the 2012 election, but quixotically donated his input to the benefit of the governor as a demonstration of loyalty.

In the midst of the developments entered yet another group, the Edo South Consultative Forum led by first civilian governor of the state, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

Penultimate Saturday, the group summoned a meeting of all leaders of the South at the former governor’s residence in Benin but the invitation was shunned

by Odubu, the incumbent representative in the Senate, Senator Ehigie Uzamere and many in the Idahosa led Edo Solidarity Movement (ESM).

•Ize-Iyamu: Is he set for another battle?

However, a couple of the governor’s loyalists including Ogie, Elder Sunny Uyigue, APC interim chairman, Chief Osaro Idah, Comrade Godwin Erhahon, Chief of Staff to the governor, Patrick Obahiagbon were all at the meeting.

Prior to the meeting, Oyegun, Chief Sam Iredia and Prince Eweka had visited APC Bini leaders, and also Governor Oshiomhole, during which they stressed the need for the Binis to speak with one voice, due to the bickering in the party ahead the 2016 governorship election.

Oshiomhole was said to have agreed with them and encouraged his men to attend the meeting.

Odubu’s loyalists, however, alleged that the meeting was a trap to hoodwink Edo South leaders to adopt Ize-Iyamu and therefore decided to abstain themselves.

Not surprisingly for them, those fears came to reality when some speakers at the meeting expressed their support for IzeIyamu.

But that move was said to have been punctured by Uyigue and Chief Idah, who are Oshiomhole’s men. The duo reminded the meeting that a section of leaders from the South was not at the meeting, therefore, it was best for all to be present before adoption of common positions.

Debunking the insinuation that the group was fronting for a particular candidate, the group in a communiqué signed by Oyegun and Isaiah Osifo, Secretary, asserted that “the forum is not designed to support or sponsor a particular candidate for any elective office at any level. The platform will be available to all aspirants to political offices to exercise their rights within the rules and regulations of our great party”.

However, Oyegun’s moves to reconcile his people has hit a brick wall, as Vanguard was reliably informed that the Odubu camp and even loyalists of the governor are not comfortable with the names pencilled as members of the reconciliation committee.

Meanwhile, Oshiomhole is pressing home his advantage as party leader in holding tight to the structure of the party by not giving the two dominant groups as represented by Ize-Iyamu and Odubu much room for manouvere in the APC membership registration exercise kicking off today. At a leadership meeting held last week at Government House, the governor informed the leaders of the names he selected from the three senatorial districts to join the two persons delegated by the national secretariat to form the five man committee to supervise the registration exercise.

The three are Godwin Adenomo, Edo South; Momodu Andrew, Edo North and Dan Enebi, Edo Central.

Increasing intrigues It was gathered that one of the governorship aspirants opposed the governor on the nomination of Adenomo, but Oshiomhole stood his ground and he was backed by other leaders from the South. Vanguard learnt that all three men selected from the three senatorial districts are leg-men of the governor.

Worried by the increasing intrigues of those aiming to succeed him, Oshiomhole broke his silence last week during the swearing in of the Commissioner for Sports, Chris Okaeben, when he warned them that they were distracting him. “Only God knows among all of us standing here who will be where because life is in the hand of God. For now, we must use the current mandate and that is why I want to renew my appeal to everyone, that this party is not about gubernatorial candidate, and anyone who wants to devote his time to gubernatorial campaign, can easily be excused.”

With a legacy to protect, and a still promising political future in view, Oshiomhole it seems would not mind using the power of incumbency to whip the contending forces around him into line. Ize-Iyamu who once fought Chief Tony Anenih to standstill may have a younger, more intimidating force to contend with. He sure knows it.

Cat and dog: APC’s foxy battles Continues from page 32 days following the directive that the APC for the first time had some liberty as rallies and meetings were held freely for the first time. But that fresh air, it seemed, was again sullied by the

directive on Monday by Mr. Mbu against political gatherings and meetings in Rivers State.

The APC claimed that the order

by Mr. Mbu was directed to frustrate the party in Rivers State from participating in the

nationwide membership registration exercise of the party which commences today.

Indeed, nothing reflects the cat and dog fight more than the developments around Mr. Mbu controlled garrison in Rivers State.

34 —

Vanguard, WEDNESD AY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 WEDNESDA

New aviation policy throws up fresh investment opportunities

BY LAWANI MIKAIRU

T

HE Federal Ministry of Aviation organized an investment forum to highlight the investment opportunities in the aviation sector last weekin Lagos. This is a follow up to the new Nigerian Civil Aviation Policy. The forum showcased the alternative investment opportunities in the sector.

Stakeholders analysed the prospects of making the aviation sector self sustaining and how to make Nigeria aviation hub in Africa.

The Federal Ministry of Aviation released the new Nigerian Civil Aviation Policy,NCAP, in April 2013. Since the 2001 National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) review, there have been numerous changes in the economic, political, safety, security and technological climates at global and national levels.

An example is the Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government which was introduced in 2011, ten years after the last review of the NCAP. Since the Aviation industry is recognized as an integral part of the socio-economic system of the country and plays a critical role in national economic development, its policies must be tailored to address the contemporary socio-economic development programme of

drive the attainment of the new vision and mission. The NCAP 2013 is “ designed to provide a platform for the way forward and future prospects of the aviation industry, set new paradigms in air travel standards which will provide consumers with appropriate protections without affecting the ability of airlines to set service levels in a competitive market.”

Part of the objectives of the Aviation Sector Master Plan is to “ Develop Abuja and Lagos as hubs in-line with international standards and best practices. It is also to develop requisite capacity and manpower to meet the needs in the aviation industry for the 21st Century. Change the business model of the industry into a self-sustaining model through increased private sector participation , that is, reduce financial burden on government.”

Financial burden Maximize the contribution to the socio-economic development of the Nigerian Economy through increased trade and in-flow of Federal Direct Investment, FDI , focusing and growing of agroallied and improved economic processing zones at designated airports and resultant job creation. It is believed that the Nigerian Aviation sector will have

,

The repositioning of the aviation sector will increase Nigeria’s exports to foreign markets ,lower transport cost, particularly long distances, help to increase competition because suppliers can service a wider area and potentially reduce average costs, through increased economies of scale

Government.

Also, since 2001 security and safety issues that were unknown have emerged at global and national levels. These challenges were not contemplated at the time the 2001 NCAP was reviewed and was not designed to be responsive to these emerging challenges.

This explains why the Federal Ministry of Aviation in 2012, evolved a new aviation policy which is targeted at the provision of safe, secure, comfortable and self-sustaining air transport industry that is pivotal to the socio-economic development of Nigeria.

The Ministry also drew up an Aviation Sector Master Plan to

*Cargoes being discharged at MMIA, Lagos.

,

huge social-economic impact on Nigerian economy.

Analysts have predicted that Nigeria’s passenger traffic will exceed that of the global aviation sector, as such, Aviation remains pivotal to the socio-economic growth of Nigeria. “Nigeria's passenger traffic is expected to grow at 7% over the next 10 years, while the global industry remains at 5.3%.”

“Nigeria’s GDP continues to be on the increase with the 2013 GDP outlook at 7.6%, this is also expected to have a positive impact on the growth of the aviation sector. “In 2010 Aviation contributed 0.6% to Nigeria’s GDP. In 2010 an oxford economics report published the following. N59

*Aerotropolis — Airport City

billion directly contributed through the output of the aviation sector (airlines, airports and ground services).”

“N34 billion indirectly contributed through the aviation sector’s supply chain; and N27 billion contributed through the spending by the employees of the aviation sector and its supply chain.

In addition there are N78 billion in catalytic benefits through tourism, which raises the overall contribution to N198 billion or 0.6% of GDP.” “The aviation sector supported 159,000 jobs in Nigeria comprising. 44,000 jobs directly supported by the aviation sector.

64,000 jobs indirectly supported through the aviation sector’s supply chain; and 51,000 jobs supported through the spending by the employees of the aviation sector and its supply chain.”

“In addition there were further 130,000 people employed through the catalytic (tourism) effects of aviation.

Income generation The income generation from passengers amounted to NGN 866 billion (inclusive of tax), with Nigerian 4.2 million local passengers contributing NGN 438 billion of the total sum.”

The report also estimated value

of the benefit to travelers from flying, in excess of their expenditure, was worth NGN 785 billion a year (NGN 397 billion for Nigerian residents).These employment levels are expected to increase significantly with the level of activities in the Aviation sector mostly driven by. Private Sector Participation and the demand for developing the Aerotropolis (Airport Cities).

Increase in the number of routes and frequencies flown by domestic and international airlines in and out of Nigeria.

Level of activities The review and re-designation of domestic and international airports will also increase the level of activities in several states across the country, thus driving economic growth in smaller cities and reducing urban migration (i.e. Hajj/Pilgrim Terminals, Fresh Produce Cargo, Aerotropolis).

Several airports, which had limited activities or flights have now been designated for alternative use which will enable them to take advantage of the local environment . “The plans of the Federal Ministry of Aviation to establish Lagos and Abuja as hubs is also expected to drive the hub and spoke model,

which will drive the use of smaller and more efficient aircraft that will be used to transport passengers to the centre. Facilitating the establishment of an equipment leasing company with focus on Africa.”

The repositioning of the aviation sector will increase Nigeria’s exports to foreign markets. Lower transport cost, particularly long distances, helping to increase competition because suppliers can service a wider area and potentially reduce average costs, through increased economies of scale. Increase the flexibility of labour supply which should enhance allocative efficiency and bring down the natural rate of unemployment.

Encouraging Nigerian businesses to invest and specialise in areas that play to their areas of economy’s strengths,will in the final analysis facilitate the growth of Nigeria economy.

Facilitating the adoption of new business practices, such as just-in-time-inventory management that relies on quick and reliable delivery of essential supplies. Raising productivity and hence the economy’s long-run supply capacity. It is estimated that a 10% improvement in connectivity relative to GDP would see a NGN 20 billion per annum increase in long-run GDP for the Nigerian economy.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014—35

UK TB TEST:

Policy meant to suppress Nigeria visa applicants—Eddie TO many Nigerians, the bi-national visa agreement, which Nigeria shares with several foreign countries should be seen by the countries as an honourable tool to achieving progression, given the fact that Nigerians tend to be deeply committed in growing these countries’ economies. Indeed, many are of the view that foreign missions in the country should endeavour to reciprocate the favorable support they are receiving in immense measures from Nigerians in the Diaspora, by way of granting intending Nigerian visa applicants most favourable visa procedures.

The recent request by United Kingdom embassy, requiring nonimmigrant UK visa applicants to produce authenticated Tuberculosis certificate as part of requirements needed to procure a UK visa is causing ripples, as many concerned Nigerians have thought it a most unusual way to relate with a country it once colonised. In this interview, Nigerian Senior Immigration Solicitor, Barr. Eddie Onyeka, expresses worry over the seemingly endless predicaments of Nigerian visa seekers. Excerpts:

BY VERA ANYAGAFU

W

HY the endless fleecing?

The endless fleecing of Nigerian visa applicants by the British Government will continue until Nigerian Government indicates it has the capability to rise in defence of Nigerians.

Unfortunately, Nigerians are targeted for raw treatment around the world largely because of our government’s unresponsive disposition.

The tuberculosis test is the latest in the rounds of what seems a systematic and calculated policy to exert the heaviest toll from Nigerian visa applicants. It expects Nigerian UK visa applicants, • Barr. Eddie Onyeka including pregnant women and children who intend to stay in the UK for a period longer than applicants are left with the incidental six months to undergo tuberculosis test burden of travel cost, hotel at the cost of $130 US Dollars (N20, 850), accommodation and loss of income to and may also be requested to pay bear. additional fees, in certain situations.

UK Border Agency’s position?

Although, children under age11 may It is very curious that in going through be exempted from the test, unless the UK Border Agency website on TB otherwise the child is recommended for testing in Nigeria, there was nothing to testing, and in this case, the child must explain why this test has become pay full fees as an adult. If the clinician necessary at this time or any effort made decides not to test the child, the child to justify it. It is equally curious that this will none the less be required to pay programme is foisted upon Nigerians by US$52, which is the cost of paper given stealth and in a manner that to the child by the clinician to confirm dishonoured the proper conduct of that the child was not tested! international relations.

Disregarding Nigerian medical It does not seem that the Nigerian institutions?

Government was given a prior notice nor The TB test, which could be carried the issue debated at the House of out at any average laboratory in Nigeria Commons nor discussed at any at a cost as low as N3,000, is mandated stakeholders fora. A lot of student visa to be conducted by a foreign entity, applicants will be unable to apply for known as Migration Health Assessment visa because presently, appointment for Centre, MHAC, licenced by the British the TB test takes about three weeks.

Government to undertake the process.

My research and contacts have not This shows the extent to which the UK shown any rise in TB rate either in undermines and dishonours all medical Nigeria or in the United Kingdom. I institutions in Nigeria, in addition to have not seen any evidence linking any collecting N20, 850 each from Nigerian Nigerian migrant with TB outbreak in UK visa against a service that is locally the UK. It seems to me that this policy is available for N3, 000. politically motivated and the British It is expected that an applicant must Government must convince Nigerians book for appointment with MHAC and that this is not a sanction against Nigeria must travel either to Lagos or Abuja for for its position on same-sex marriage. the exercise, since the testing centres are only in the two locations. And

36—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Dikko urges greater communication in Customs

BY IFEYINWA OBI

T

HE Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, has urged all Customs Zonal coordinators, Area Controllers and unit heads to ensure that all channels of communication for internal and external matters are fully explored and effectively utilised for greater mutual understanding.

He also called on men and officers of the service as well as maritime stakeholders to actively utilise all available communication channels to build trust and compliance.

Speaking at the International Customs Day in Abuja, he said that globalisation has made the strategic role of communication inevitable for any organisation willing to excel in the 21st century.

According to him, “Our core functions of revenue collection, suppression of smuggling and facilitation of trade can only be achieved through collaboration and support from all stakeholders, business community and sister government agencies. “The paradigm shift from manual ways of doing business to electronic with increasing need for transparency has continued to raise the quest for smooth communication.

Since the coming on board of the current customs management, communication was recognised as an important function of the management. It was accorded a place in the six-point agenda of this administration for greater activities that would foster mutual understanding between the service and stakeholders."

2015 governorship: No decision on which zone yet — DELTA DPP CHAIR

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

A

SABA—WHILE stakeholders within the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, are fretting over power shift in the coming governorship race in Delta State, a faction of Democratic People’s Party, DPP, in the state, led by Chief Great Ogboru, said yesterday, that it was yet to decide from which senatorial district its governorship candidate would emerge.

State Chairman of the party, Chief Tony Ezeagwu, in an interview with Vanguard, also dismissed claims that the party had gone into oblivion in

the state following the defection of some of its members in the state House of Assembly to the ruling PDP as well as the faction of the party that moved to All Progressives Congress, APC. He said: “Yes, our members have defected to PDP. We are not at all worried because before the last election, we did not have any member in the House. That we produced nine of them is a sign that we are progressing. We are not perturbed at all that they decamped after climbing there with our mandate, but it has taught us a lesson that we have to be very careful next time

when we are fielding candidates as we demand absolute loyalty and nothing else.”

On the governorship race, the DPP chairman, said “just watch and see, we are going to field a credible candidate when the time comes, but to answer your question, we don’t know from which place he will emerge.”

At the inauguration of the Delta State Fifth Assembly, the 29-member House had, for the first time, 11 members, who are not members of PDP. Nine were from DPP, one from ACN and one from UAD. But at present, six of the DPP members have decamped to

OUTH leader of Okhuoromi community in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, Mr. Ewuare Erese, has faulted the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Foluso Adebanjo for failing to comply with a directive from the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, of the state Ministry of Justice, to prosecute some members of the community for criminal offences.

Erese, who presented a copy of the DPP advice, noted that the legal advice CR:988/2013 dated 8/1/14 addressed to the Commissioner of Police advised the command to arrest and interrogate one Joshua Okhuere, Irowere Emevbose a.k.a “Eboh”, Osamuyi, Rufus Igbinovia a.k.a “Dogo” and other fleeing suspects.

But this, he claimed, “the police declined to enforce as these individuals still roam about freely in broad daylight in Okhuoromi community and its environs.”

Mr Moses Eguavoen, Edo police spokesperson, in a tele-

phone chat, said: “I cannot give you a categorical answer, because I don’t know if such order was given. I may not want to confirm such claim, since the said order is not in my possession.”

The document reference No. 01/S.7061/17 signed by G.A Egbemhonkhaye, for the DPP in charge Nos. MOR /623C/2013 and MOR/634C/2013 said “I am directed to refer to a letter

dated November 22, 2013 from the Oredo Magistrate Court with Ref. No: MOR/21/348 with which the duplicate case file on the above subject matter was forwarded to this office and to inform you that after a careful study of the facts contained in the duplicate case file, this office is of the opinion that a prima facie case of conspiracy to murder, murder and arson is made out against the suspect: Ovbokhan Iginovia."

Law School Class of ’88 to fund ICT centre for alma mater

A

S part of efforts to give back to an institution that nurtured them for their legal profession, the 1988 alumni of the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, has initiated the building of an Information and Communication Technology centre for the institution.

The building and equipping of the centre is expected to cost about N150 million on completion.

Among the over 300 Class of 1988 graduates are three serving governors, Senator Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN of Lagos State and Akwa Ibom State governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Ayim Pius Ayim, former Deputy Speaker, Chibudom Nwuche, and Senator Joy Emodi.

PEOPLE SPEAK

08102479985

Group backs Uduaghan for Delta South senatorial seat

A

Edo youth leader tasks Police on prosecution order

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PDP remaining only three, namely, the Minority Leader, Mr. Julius Okpoko representing Okpe constituency, Benjamin Essien (Isoko South 1) and Joseph Oshevire, representing Ethiope East constituency, the home base of Chief Great Ogboru, the father of DPP.

GROUP under the aegis of Eligible Voters Assembly, EVA, has passed a vote of confidence on Delta State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, on his developmental strides in the state.

Rising from its general meeting in Koko, Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, the group appealed to Uduaghan to contest the 2015 senatorial seat for Delta South senatorial district, maintaining that, the tempo of his threepoint agenda must be sustained at the federal level.

The group, while describing the governor as a visionary leader and a man of the people, also called on the legislator representing Warri North in the state House of Assembly to re-contest the position in the coming election.

The leader of the group, Olu Ekpen, while fielding questions from newsmen explained that the duo of Dr. Uduaghan and Mr. Imilar have done a lot in terms of delivery of dividends of democracy to the people and should, therefore, contest the senatorial and state Assembly seats.

By Bartholomew Madukwe (nwamad@yahoo.com)

On Super Eagles winning a bronze in CHAN

CONGRATULATIONS to our home-based Eagles for winning a bronze in CHAN. Although the boys were expected to return home as 1st place winners in the competition, I do not think they did badly by returning with bronze. Mr. Nweze Ejima- Researcher.

C O N G R AT U L A TIONS boys! That was a great match and a good representation.

Better luck next time. I believe that as the boys continue to play together, the lapses in CHAN will disappear in future tournament. Mr. Gil Eigbobo- Businessman.

SUPER Eagles put up an encouraging performance in their first outing at CHAN. The home-based boys did very well. It was their first outing and coming back with bronze is not easy. It was not a bad outing at all. Ms. Kubura Aremu- Model

SOME adjustments are needed, and it is not to say that the players we took to CHAN were not good. Our home-based players really tried. But I think we have some good players in the league who should have been in that team. Ms. Mgbemena Nnenna-Student.

NIGERIANS should be happy with that bronze because it was not an easy tournament. In my view, the players Eagles Coach, Stephen Keshi, took to CHAN were not the best in the Nigerian league. Mr. Abraham Alexander- Cameraman.

KUNLE Odunlami, Ejike Uzoenyi and Azubuike Egwueke came up big. Therefore, Keshi may be looking out for them at the senior team.

Congratulations to Keshi and the CHAN Eagles.

Ms. Akinyokun ComfortBusinesswoman.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014—37

Delta guber: Olejeme, choice of Ndokwa people, says ex-House Majority Leader

Ugborodo Community Trust not dissolved —BOTOSAN

W

A

FORMER Majority Leader of Delta State House of Assembly, Mr. Aneke Ifemeni, has urged Ndokwa leaders to support the Chairperson, Board of Directors, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, Dr. Ngozi Olejeme, to be the governor of the state in 2015.

Addressing politicians, businessmen and professionals from Ndokwa East, Ndokwa West and Ukwuani Local Government Areas of the state in OnichaUkwuani, Ifemeni outlined the qualities the people should look out for in the next governor of the state.

He said: “I have been following the activities of Dr. Olejeme. She is forthright, honest and meek. She also understands issues of both economics and socio-political weight and has the capacity to drive the state in the direction that we want. So, she is just the natural choice of any Ndokwa person."

Rep begs FG to assist victims of Ogbejoh fire disaster

BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

A

BUJA—THE House of Representatives, yesterday, mandated its Committee on National Emergency Management Agency ,NEMA, to urgently commence palliative measures by sending relief materials to cushion the effect of the fire incident in Ogbejoh, in Warri, Delta State that affected no fewer than 300 shops recently.

This was sequel to a motion on the floor of the House by Mr Daniel Reyenieju, (PDP, Delta). He had appealed on behalf of his constituents saying: "At 3:20 a.m. on January 11, 2014, Ogbejoh main market in Warri South Local Government Area was gutted by fire, leading to the loss of about 300 shops filled with goods and other valuable property, including physical cash.”

C M Y K

MDGs VILLAGE HEALTH WORKERS SCHEME: First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan; Governor Seidu Dakingari of Kebbi State (3rd left); while Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State (2nd left); Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan (4th left); Health Minister, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu (left); wife of Deputy Senate President, Mrs. Ike Ekeweremadu (right) and the SSA to the President on MDGs, Dr. Precious Gbeneol (3rd right) during the First Lady's arrival for the official launch of the MDGs Village Health Workers Scheme, at the Banquet Hall, State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida.

Edo PDP picks hole in Oshiomhole’s 2014 budget

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—EDO State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has faulted the 2014 Appropriation Act recently signed into law by the state governor, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, describing same as motley of uncoordinated numbers and lacking reality.

State chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, who addressed newsmen in Benin, said that after an in-depth analysis of the 2014 Edo State budget, the party arrived at the conclusion that the budget was “not more than the paper on which it was written.”

Insisting that the budget has an inbuilt deficit spending of 30 per cent, he said that “if the state governor had sought the views of economists, he would have

known that such spending gap is an invitation to a chaotic financial arrangement.”

He noted that N49 billion of the total budget of N160 billion was expected to be sourced through loan, saying, “with this development, the state government has further mortgaged the future of the state with a huge debt burden that may collapse future governments in the state.

“Bendel Brewery is dead, Nigerian Observer is in comatose, Edo Line is bedridden, Edo Transport is being buried, the long proposed Ehor Fruit Juice factory is rotting away, and the planned Uromi Cassava Plant is moribund. Where else can jobs

come from? The state government is lost and is only investing in roads that cost five times their true value.

“It is inconceivable that the state government plans to build three model schools in each of the three senatorial zones of the state, when facts on ground show that existing ones are ill-equipped in terms of content and facilities. The so-called educational transformation programme is haphazard.

“The tragedy of this budget is that there is no indication that the state economic infrastructure will receive attention. Also, there is no plan for industrial estates that may attract small and medium sized companies to any part of the state."

N-Delta group, Edo youths task Jonathan on appointment of NDDC Rep

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM ENIN—WORRIED by the stalemate in the confirmation of the Edo State representative on the newly constituted board of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, a socio-political organisation in the Niger Delta, the Edo/Delta Movement for Equity and Progress, has appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan not to destroy the laudable projects being carried out by NDDC in Edo and Delta states, by delaying the confirmation of Mr Henry Okhuarobo as Edo State representative.

The group in a statement by its National Coordinator, Mr. Victor Aigbe, commended the Presi-

B

dent’s reforms in power, education and aviation sectors, noting that the development of the Niger Delta region must not be sacrificed on the altar of politics “as we are observing in Edo State with regard to the appointment of the NDDC Commissioner.”

This came as youths from the oil rich Orhiomnwon Local Government Area, Edo State, protested yesterday, admonishing President Jonathan to follow the footsteps of late President Umaru Yar ’Adua, who jettisoned politics and allowed governors who are not members of PDP to nominate NDDC rep-

resentatives in their states.

However, Edo/Delta Movement for Equity, commended the President “for the confirmation of the Delta State governor ’s nominees, Mr. Tom Amioku and Engr. Tuoyo Omatsuli, as Delta State Representative and the Executive Director Projects, respectively on the Board of NDDC. “Their robust qualification for the position is undoubtedly impeccable. In the same vein, we urge Mr. President to equally confirm Okhuarobo, having regards to his ebullient performance and landmark achievements in his short time on the last board,” it stated.

ARRI—VICEChairman of the Chief Thomas-led Ugborodo Community Trust, Mr. Isaac Botosan, has said that their executive body was still in office as they were duly reelected by the entire community at Ode-Ugborodo as required by the community's constitution.

He said that the Dr. Alex Ideh/David Tonwe faction executive that was handpicked at a private residence at No.12, Mission Road, Warri, their operational headquarters can be dissolved at their instance because they were illegally constituted in the first place.

Botosan made these clarifications following alleged dissolution of the two contending factions by a group in the name of Ugborodo assembly, noting that for a congress of Ugborodo to hold at Ode-Ugborodo, a two weeks public notice in at least one national newspaper must be made as required by the community's constitution which, in this case, was not followed.

2015: Group urges former Delta commissioner to join guber race

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—AHEAD of the2015 general elections, a group, Delta Grassroots Mobilisation Forum, DGMF, has urged former Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning in Delta State, Chief David Edevbie, to contest the governorship position in the state.

The group also passed a vote of confidence on the state governor Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, whom it said was piloting the affairs of the state well. It said that Uduaghan has been able to spread developmental projects across the state.

Speaking at an enlarged meeting of DGMF in Ughelli, Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state, Chairman of the group, Mr. Francis Onobruchere, said that they had carried out a search across the three senatorial districts in the state and singled out Edevbie to vie for the gubernatorial seat.

38—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Policeman sustains spinal cord injury in clash with MASSOB

BY PETER OKUTU

A

BAKALIKI — Week end’s bloody clash between men of Ebonyi State Police Command and members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, last left one of the policeman (names withheld) with a spinal cord injury.

Confirming the development, state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Chris Anyanwu, asserted that it was members of MASSOB who attacked the police officers at Iboko in Izzi Local Government Area while they (police) were carrying out their legitimate duty. ”They were the ones who attacked the police. Two of our men were wounded and are being treated at state police clinic, while one who sustained spinal cord injury was taken to either University Teaching Hospital, Enugu or Orthopaedic hospital in Enugu. Two suspects were arrested and are still in detention,” the PPRO said.

Vanguard gathered that the youths, who were allegedly accused by the police of training criminals in the area, attacked the policemen and beat them mercilessly as both parties sustained various degrees of injuries.

It was learnt that a policeman was left with a bloodied mouth, while another one in mufti had his leg broken during the fracas with the youths.

A father of one of the youths simply identified as Nwofoke, told Vanguard that his son was not a criminal but a member of MASSOB. ”My son is not a criminal, all I know is that my son is always involved in MASSOB activities and is a serious member of the group.

“I gave him money to go and deposit for me in the bank on the day of the clash and he told me he was going to hospital to see his friend who was ill. It was on the way to the hospital that police accosted him,” he said.

It should be recalled that the police at Iboko had been trailing the youths in the area over alleged activities of training criminals.

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Okorocha posters for 2015 presidency flood Owerri

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI — IMO State governor, Rochas Okorocha’s posters indicating his interest to run for the presidency in the 2015 general elections

have flooded Owerri and other major cities in the state.

Our correspondent, who moved round Owerri, yesterday, noticed the posters at strategic points, including Government House.

At the time of going to press,

no campaign organisation or agency of the state government claimed responsibility for the posters in the state.

When contacted for comment, the governor’s Senior Special Assistant, SSA, on Media, Mr.

I won't run for the 4th time — Ihedioha

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI — Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, has said he would not run for Ngor Okpala/Aboh Mbaise federal constituency for the fourth time during the 2015 general elections.

Chief Ihedioha made his position known in his Mbutu, Aboh Mbaise country home while addressing Peoples Democratic

Party, PDP, loyalists from Ngor Okpala Local Council Area of Imo State.

Debunking the rumour that he was secretly plotting to go back to the lower legislative chambers of the National Assembly, Ihedioha said he would support any credible candidate from Ngor Okpala.

“I have already pleaded with my kinsmen from Aboh Mbaise Local Council Area to allow Ngor Okpala people to produce my

successor,” Ihedioha said.

While appealing to the people to look for a capable and qualified candidate to continue from where he will stop, Chief Ihedioha appealed to them to go about it peacefully.

“Please look for a capable and qualified candidate that will continue from where I will stop. You must do this peacefully, so as not to create bad blood among party loyalists,” the deputy speaker pleaded.

Samuel Onwuemeodo, confirmed that Okorocha was interested in running for the presidency but had not declared his intentions openly.

“It is not a secret that Governor Rochas Okorocha is interested in running for the presidency. It is, however, true that he has not openly declared this intention to run for the top national job in next year ’s general elections,” Onwuemeodo said.

According to the SSA, Governor Okorocha has not commissioned anybody or group to print and paste posters.

He added that there had been series of meetings about the matter in some parts of the federation.

“The governor has not commissioned anybody or group to act as its campaign outfit. I, however, know that a lot of people have been clamouring for this and meetings have been going on in many states of the federation over this matter,” the SSA said.

Vanguard recalls that only last week, Okorocha took a swipe at the President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo for daring to decree that no Igbo man should vie for the presidency against the incumbent, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

Bizman docked over alleged impersonation

BY ONOZURE DANIA

A

32- YEAR- OLD business man, Musa Isah, has been arraigned, before an Ikeja Magistrate's Court, for allegedly imLAUNCH: From left, Mr. Modestus Igbosofulu, team leader, Nokia Field Force, South- personating a police officer.

South Nigeria, presenting the prize of N100,000 to Mr. Promise Elemah, winner of the The defendant, who resides at 'Whatsintheice' competition; his wife, Mercy, and Mr. Nicholas Akwuewembhor, Unit Lead, 16, Ajilosu in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, EXP Marketing Nigeria Limited, at the launch of Nokia Ashaice series, in Port Harcourt, was yesterday, docked before weekend. Photo: Nwankpa Chijioke Magistrate Margaret Dan-Oni. The defendant is facing a count charge bordering on impersonation preferred against him by the police.

Police prosecutor, Inspector Edet Okoi, told the court after, on my birthday incidentally.

BY KENNETH EHIGIATOR sity, University of St. Thomas, in Houston, Texas, USA, spoke at the When it happened (this was in that the defendant commitMemorial/Symposium and Pres- 2006), I was catapulted back to my ted the alleged offence on NE OF the two survivors of entation for the “60 Angels Me- own memories of all the pain, the January 29, 2014, at about Sosoliso Airlines crash at Port morial Staff Residence” in Abuja sorrow, the tears, the loss, and I 3:25p.m., at Otedola under Harcourt airport on December 10, in honour of the 60 students of the thought about all the families and Bridge, Alausa, in Ikeja 2005, Kechi Okwuchi, has decried friends of the 107 victims from my area of the state. school who died in the crash. poor rescue and emergency system Okoi said the suspect, According to her, if the airport accident who are still grieving toin Nigeria. was parading himself as a day. had good rescue and emergency She also made a case for high “With each plane crash I hear police officer. systems, many of the victims of the standards to be set for pilots flying However, when the about, a new pain is born. As my crash may not have died. in the country as it was in the charge was read to the deown memories replay in my mind, She also lamented that since the United States, since they (pilots) fendant, he pleaded not I know that somewhere back home crash in 2005, there had been other were responsible for the lives of preventable crashes due to lack of a new set of families are grieving guilty. many on board their aircraft.

The Magistrate granted air worthiness of aircraft and poor because they have lost loved According to her, poor rescue and the defendant bail in the ones.” decisions by pilots. emergency system contributed sum of N100,000, with two Then another accident and still Okwuchi said: “I want to menlargely to the death of passengers responsible sureties in like tion that while here, I have heard more families in pain.” on board the ill-fated flight 1145, Okwuchi, who had been on long- sum. about every single plane crash which claimed 107 lives.

She further adjourned the term treatment since the crash, said that has occurred in Nigeria since Okwuchi, a student of Loyola matter to March 10, 2014, the aviation industry has improved 2005.

Jesuit College, Abuja, but now a stu“In fact, there was the ADC plane the overall efficiency of the lives of for mention. dent of a private Catholic univercrash that happened exactly a year many Nigerians.

Sosoliso air crash survivor decries poor emergency system in Nigeria

O

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 -39

WORLD CANCER DAY: From left: Mrs. Ibiye Ekong, ED, South South, Skye Bank Plc, Mrs. Ebun Anozie, Managing Partner, Care, Organisation and Public Enlightenment, COPE, Foundation and Dr. Anthonia Showunmi, Consultant Oncologist, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, during a joint briefing by the bank and COPE Foundation to commemorate the 2014 World Cancer Day in Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

CAREER FAIR: From left: Njideka Onwuasor, Amy Okosun, Mrs. Biyi TunjiOlugbodi, MD, Proven Ability Nigeria Ltd/special guest of honour, Mrs. Olufunke Amba, Director, Vivian Fowler Memorial College and Funlola Rhodes, at the annual counselling and career fair of Vivian Fowler College in Lagos. Photo: Akeem Salau.

SIGNING: Mr. Obafemi Ojo, MD, Extended Global System Ltd., Contract awardee for Birch Freeman High School’s N120m Multipurpose Hall (left) and Mr. Feyi Dinyo, Global President, BIFOBA, at the contract award/signing ceremony.

FORUM: From left: Sales Manager, Unilever Nigeria Plc, Mr. Raphael Abadom, Distributor, Mr. Ikechukwu Igwediebube, MD/CEO, Unilever Nigeria, Mr. Yaw Nsarkoh, and Mr. Ben Igwe, at the Unilever 2014 customers forum in Lagos. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye.

BRIEFING: From Right Dr. Sabiu Adeokin, Lagos State Chairman, Nigeria Union of Medical Herbal Practitioners, NUMHP, Dr. Ayok a Oguntokun, Iyalode-General, NUMHP, Dr. Fumilayo Salami, state Secretary, and Dr. Idowu Oloko, at NUMHP's briefing in Lagos.

NIGERIAN IDOL: From left: Specialist Sponsorship, Etisalat Nigeria, Okanu Ibeanu, Nigerian Idol Season 4 Judges, Dare Art Alade, Nneka Lucia Egbuna, Dede Mabiaku and Nigerian Idol host, Ill Rhymz, at the Etisalat Nigerian Idol Judges Day, in Port Harcourt.

C M Y K

VISIT: From left: Chief Nike Oshinowo, Creative Director, AOE Events and Entertainment Ltd., Miss Queen Ubah, new Centenary Queen and Mr. Chris Ndulue, MD, Arik Air, during the visit of the new Centenary Queen to Arik headquarters in Lagos. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.

MEETING: From left: Member, Egbe-Idimu BCPG Cell, Mr. Ebenezer Ologuntoye, Ms. Yemi Ajidahun, member, Mushin BCPG Cell, and immediate past chairperson, Women Association of Quantity Surveyors, Mrs. Adekemi Okusaga, at the General Meeting of Building Collapse Prevention Guild, BCPG, in Lagos.

PRESENTATION: From right: Elder Orefidipe Moses, Alhaji Oseni, chairman of the community, Mr. Omosanjo Olayemi, a beneficary, Akinbode Nosiru, Alfa Ganiyu and others, during the presentation of JAMB forms to some youths of Ayanre Community, Olorunda LCDA, Lagos State. Photo: Adewale Simon.

40—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

DEMOLITION:

Tell us where to go, Apo traders tell FCT Minister

Nigerians in diaspora warn trouble makers

A

BUJA—APO Trad ers Association, ATA, yesterday lamented the ongoing demolition in the market and appealed to the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Sen. Bala Mohammed to offer them alternative site to trade their goods.

The traders, who expressed worry over the incessant destruction of their goods by successive governments in the country, said a reasonable government ought to make proper planning before embarking on such action by relocating them to an alternative site rather than going all the way to demolish their shops and disrupt their businesses.

According to the traders, the minister had promised to give them the Right of Ownership which is not yet released. They said that they are waiting to be given Right of Occupancy, R of O of the Wasa site.

Also speaking, the counsel to the traders, Mr. Ezeh Ejeh Hycent said: “The only complain we have is that we needed time. Because of the ongoing meeting, we hope to make progress and move from there.”

Kano Speaker resigns

K

ANO—THE Speaker of Kano State House of Assembly, Alhaji Gambo Sallau, yesterday, announced his resignation from the position.

NAN reports that this is coming barely 24 hours after 26 out of the 31 legislators defected from the PDP to APC. Sallau said in a broadcast on Freedom Radio, Kano, that his decision to resign as speaker, was based on political reasons.

“I, Gambo Sallau, the Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly, hereby announce my resignation as the speaker.

“Now that the PDP has become an opposition party, I will not continue to be the Speaker of the House”, he said.

BY TAYE OBATERU

J

UNVEILING—From left: The Deputy Governor, Arc. Yomi Awoniyi and the Governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada during the unveiling of the new Jersey for Kogi United Football Club for the 2014 season.

Nigerians serving in UK prisons kick against Prisoner Transfer Agreement L

ONDON—SOME Nigeri ans serving various jail terms in the UK have kicked against the recently signed Prisoner Transfer Agreement between Nigeria and British governments.

Dr Dalhatu Tafida, Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the UK, on Tuesday in London confirmed this in an interview with the Europe Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN. Tafida said that some of the prisoners have expressed concern over returning to the country to complete their terms, citing poor prison facilities and stigma as main reasons.

While explaining the frame-

work of the agreement, the envoy said that the prisoner transfer was not an automatic exercise whereby those in jail would return home immediately.

According to him, transfer will not be voluntarily but decided by both governments.

It would be recalled that Nigeria and UK in December 2013 signed the agreement which will make it possible for prisoners to return home and complete their terms.

The agreement is yet to be ratified by parliaments of the two countries.

Also, Tafida said that there had been a decline in the

number of Nigerians in jail across the UK. “In 2008 when I assumed office, there were 800 Nigerians serving various terms; but today, the figure had dropped to about 390.”

He attributed the development to less crime, adding that “those who finished their term were released”.

“Similarly, those without papers are returning home voluntarily as life is tough here,” he stressed.

Tafida further said that as many as 40 people were usually repatriated monthly under the UK-Nigeria repatriation programme.

Niger APC factions in free-for-all fight

BY WOLE MOSADOMI & ABEL DANIEL

M

INNA—THE crisis rock ing the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Niger State has deepened, as there was free for all fight among the three factions of the party in less than four months of its official inauguration.

This was even as the Nasarawa State chapter of the APC, also announced the suspension of the state Deputy Governor, Damishi Luka-Barau from the party. His suspension followed alleged reports that Barau faulted the directive by the APC high command to its members in the National Assembly, NASS, to block all government bills following the crises in Rivers State which the government

was reportedly fuelling.

However, one of the factions of APC in Niger State, led by the former Congress for Progressive Changes, CPC’s, gubernatorial candidate in the 2011 election and now the interim state chairman, Alhaji Bako Shettima has fingered the ruling PDP in the state for allegedly fuelling the crisis in the party.

The divisions in the party became glaring at the Haske Hotel in Minna, yesterday, where the training of personnel, including supervisors and registration officers who would conduct registration of members of the party in the state was aborted due to sharp disagreements between the officials from the national headquarters of the

party led by Zakari Dobi and members f the party in the state.

Vanguard gathered that Dobi allegedly disagreed with the state officials over the guidelines for the exercise.

Dobi was reported to have said that though the guidelines for the exercise were given to him by national secretary of the party, the Niger State chapter was not affected by the guidelines as he already had a list of members to train for the registration but his position was rejected by the members in the state.

A hot argument that ensued later led to a free for all fight at the venue before the situation was brought under control by anti-riot police men.

OS— THE Network of Nigerians in Internal Diaspora has expressed worry over threats of crisis from some quarters over next year’s election calling for those making such inflammable utterances to be brought to book.

In a statement in Jos signed by the group’s National Coordinator, Chief Chidi Ndu, it said the prosecution of those concerned would serve as a deterrent to those fanning the embers of disunity.

“We condemn in strong terms the drums of war being beaten by desperate,egocentric and selfish individuals who do not mean well for Nigeria and cannot even lay claim to any constituency while hiding under the guise of politics to threaten fire and brimstone, thereby whiping up sentiments and inflaming passion over the forthcoming 2015 general election.

“It was the same thing they did in the run up to 2011 general election that resulted in the killing of lots of people following the Presidential election. We make bold to state that Nigeria belongs to all of us and the President should forthwith uphold the constitution he swore to protect by ensuring that these merchants of war are prosecuted accordingly without delay ”, the group stressed.

It added that “the culture of impunity and careless remarks that characterize the polity, threaten the unity and corporate existence of this country must no longer be condoned.”

It welcomed the planned National Dialogue as a good initiative which would strengthen the bond of unity in the country by affording people the opportunity to discuss issues bordering on oneness.

The group said its members constitute “a segment of the Nigerian society whose role in national integration and unity cannot be overlooked. These are the categories of Nigerians, who by virtue of choice of place of domicile, find themselves in locations different from their places of origin within the Nigerian polity.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 — 41

42—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

SWEARING-IN: From left, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, the new Delta State Head of Service, Mr. Paul Evuareherhe (middle) and his wife, Benedicta, shortly after taking the oath of office at the Unity Hall, Government House, Asaba

Cancer infects 25m annually — IARC HE International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC, has expressed concern over the increase in new cases of cancer, predicting that about 25 million individuals will be infected annually with the disease within the next 20 years.

The IARC, in a new global report, said that the figure showed a 75 per cent increase from the current rate of 14 million new cases per year. In the report, IARC urged governments

to recognise the growing cancer burden, stating that the incidence of cancer globally will continue to grow unless nations recognised the threat and act on it now.

It noted that the number of deaths due to the disease amongst the world’s poor is growing at a faster rate than previously expected, adding that it has been discovered that currently, 4.2 million people die premature yearly, due to the disease across the world.

The IARC also enjoined governments around the world to move to stop the millions of predicted need-

Herbalists seek land to build hospitals

Jonathan assures students of support

BY CHIOMA OBINNA & ESTHER ONYEGBULA

T

N

IGERIA Union of Medical Herbal Practitioners, Lagos State Chapter, yesterday, called on the Lagos State government to allocate land to the union to build general hospitals and maternity centres across the state for the practice of traditional medicine.

The more than two million members-strong union, passionately appealed to Governor Babatunde Fashola to accede to their request as a parting gift and lasting legacy for the promotion of herbal medicine practice which has been and will continue to compliment orthodox medical practice in Lagos State and in Nigeria at large.

Addressing a press conference in Lagos, the Iyalode General of the Union, Dr. Ayoka OgunpejuOguntokun flanked by Dr. Sabiu Adeokin, State Chairman of the Union stated that having their separate general hospital and maternity centres will create a forum for government to properly monitor their practice, confirm the efficacy of their medicine and be able to regulate them more effectively.

BY ONOZURE DANIA

L

AGOS—President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, said he was ready to support Nigerian students and youths in programmes that will enhance the quality of their lives.

He gave the assurance at the home of late students union leader, Akogun Segun Okeowo, at Simawa Ogun State during a condolence visit by the presidency to the family of the deceased.

Jonathan, who was represented by his senior special assistant on youths and students, Comrade Jude Imagwe, described the students and youth as the pillars on which the hope of any nation hoping to develop is rested.

Imagwe who is a past president of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, described late Okeowo as a man whose name will forever remain in the minds of Nigerians irrespective of the generation they belonged.

He said, "Chief Segun Okeowo was a face of struggle for the Nigerian students and Nigerians in general. He stood for the

less and premature deaths caused by cancer by developing and implementing a national plan which includes proven preventive and early detection measures.

According to the report, in 2012, the global burden of cancer rose to an estimated 14 million new cases per year, a figure expected to rise to 22 million annually within the next two decades, adding that over the same period, cancer deaths are predicted to rise from an estimated 8.2 million annually to 13 million per year.

truth when he could have compromised for material gains. He stood firm in spite of the myriad of challenges that characterised the struggle he led."

The SSA, further stated that chief Okeowo led the way and charted a course that future student leaders had to follow. Okeowo, in his words, redefined students unionism and proved through his action that all hope was not lost for the Nigerian students even hostile ambience, noting, "The late Senior Comrade Okeowo proved by his actions that no situation is hopeless. He gave hope to all of us in this generation and the generation yet unborn that we should stand up to be counted for noble ideal.”

Imagwe added that it was as a result of the recognition of fearless leadership of the late Okeowo that President Jonathan sent a delegation to commiserate with the family on this our irreparable loss, saying Mr President was also a student during the 1978 ‘Ali Must Go’ struggle and as a result he had great admiration for the courage of Okeowo.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 — 43

44—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Foreign Direct Investment drops

by N97.6bn inQ3 2013— CBN

BY PETER EGWUATU

T

HE Central Bank of Nige ria, CBN, yesterday, said that the nation’s Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, dropped by $0.61billion (about N97.6 billion) from $1.47billion (N235.2 billion) in the second quarter of 2013 to $0.86 billion (about N137.6) in the third quarter (Q3) of 2013.

The apex bank stated that at US$4.91 billion in Q3, 2013, aggregate foreign capital inflow declined by 42.8 per cent from US$8.58 billion in Q2, 2013 due to the decline in both direct investment and portfolio investment inflows. Similarly, portfolio investment inflow declined by 52.3 per cent from US$6.52 billion in Q2, 2013 to US$3.11 billion in the review period.

CBN’s External Report stated, “other investment inflows increased by 59.5 per cent from $0.58 billion in Q2, 2013 to $0.93 in Q3, 2013. Portfolio investment inflow remained dominant and accounted for 63.4 per cent of total foreign inflows while direct investment inflows accounted for 17.6 per cent of

total. Other investment inflows accounted for the balance.”

The CBN’s report stated that provisional data revealed that Nigeria’s trade balance declined from US$10.60 billion in Q2, 2013 to US$9.86 billion in Q3, 2013. It said, “Trade balance as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, GDP, declined from 19.07 per cent in Q3, 2012 to 16.20 per cent in Q2, 2013 and 13.79 per cent in Q3, 2013. This development could be attributed to the decline in aggregate export proceeds induced by the fall in oil exports and reflected the country’s over-dependence on oil exports and the need for the diversification of the Nigerian economy.

The apex bank further revealed that share of total trade, exports, imports, total foreign exchange flows and net flow as percentage of GDP declined in the review period to 57.7, 33.7, 18.1, 72.5 and 35.2 per cent, respectively, compared with their levels in Q2, 2013. This implies that the Nigerian economy is well integrated into the global economy.

L-r: Graham Clark, group managing director, Dangote Sugar Refinery; Andrew Scott, chairman, Panafrican Equipment (Nigeria) Ltd; Engr. Abdullahi Sule, managing director, Dangote Sugar Refinery plc and Scott Mccaw, group managing director, Panafrican Equipment group during the equipment handover ceremony of 118 new machines at Josepdam port facility in Lagos

OBJ, Buhari, Rotimi absent as Council of State meets •Council endorses national confab, warns politicians against inflammatory statements

BY BEN AGANDE

F

ORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo and another former head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, as well as Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State were, yesterday, conspicuously absent from the National Council of State, NCS, meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

No reasons was given for the absence of Obasanjo but Buhari had earlier vowed that he would not attend the NCS until the injustice allegedly done to him during the 2011 presidential election was redressed.

Amaechi was, however, said to be out of the country.

Those who attended, however, endorsed the proposed national conference by President Goodluck Jonathan saying anything that would strengthen the unity of the country should be encouraged. The council also advised politicians to desist from making inflammatory statements that are capable of threatening the peace and security of the country.

Among those present were former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, ex- President Shehu Shagari, General Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest Shonekan and General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

Former Chief Justices of the Federation, Mohammed Lawal Uwais, Idris Kutigi, Alpha Belgore and Dahiru Musdapher as well as the Senate President, David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, also attended the meeting which has not been held for more than a year now.

Before the commencement of the meeting, yesterday, a mild drama played out between the

Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako and his Abia State counterpart, Theodore Orji, when the former protested that he would not sit close to the later because he was no longer in the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. Though there was no official briefing at the end of the meeting, the governors of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam and Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, told State House correspondents that the council discussed the issue of national security, the appointment of the chairman of the National Population Commission as well as endorsed the proposed national conference.

Okorocha said, the meeting “deliberated on how to move the nation forward; we also discussed other national issues including the centenary celebrations and other security matters.

We have to adopt some new strategies on how to move the nation forward. Politicians have also been warned against unguarded utterances so as not to heat up the polity.

The meeting has helped to resolve a lot of issues ”We have to adopt some new strategies for tackling security issues in the country. We discussed national conference which we saw as a welcome development. Conference is a good development and discussions were not along party lines.”

National conference On his part,Governor Suswam said, “The president briefed us about a lot of things including the national conference that is coming up. There were a lot of contributions and the council approved it. We were also presented with a list of the new chairman for the population commission and some new members to be reappointed.

That too was approved and then the National Security Adviser, NSA, briefed us on the general security situation in the country which all members of the council contributed as to the way forward and the decisions that will be taken to address some of them. ”The NSA briefed us that some of the unguarded statements by some prominent Nigerians were capable of inciting people; that we should be careful as major actors in the polity to avoid making some unguarded utterances that could unwittingly incite the generality of Nigerians. The council took note of that and agreed that people should be more careful about what they say as public office holders.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014—45

Interfaith confab: Only truth can heal our nation —Christians, Muslims

By SAM EYOBOKA

W

ORRIED by the spate of unguarded inciting statements from eminent politicians ahead of the 2015 general elections and the unabating violent attacks on innocent Nigerians in the North, 50 concerned Christians and Muslim leaders gathered at the TRANSCORP Hilton Hotel, Abuja for a one-day Christian/Muslim Inter-active Conference on peace, unity and justice last week. Theme was, 'Think Nigeria'.

The clerics stressed the need to urgently address tensions in the polity, the lingering Boko Haram crisis in the North, insecurity, ethno-religious mistrust and conflicts, implosion within the political clime and controversies surrounding the proposed National Conference.

The convener and president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and the facilitator, Alhaji Abdul Ahmed Isiaq left no one in doubt as to the direction of the gathering of egg heads drawn on equal representation from the two dominant religions in the country maintained that the conference was convened to discuss issues that threathen

INTERFAITH CONFERENCE: L-R: Prof. Mohammed Al-Amin, CAN president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and Rev. S. O. A Ayokunle at the conference. iencing serious security challenges and other social vices culminating, in most cases, into wanton destruction of lives and property, disregard and infringements of other people's rights and sometimes with impunity, corruption, misguided inflammatory and provocative utterances that more often than not occasion negative and unpalatable consequences.

"My love for the Nigerian

Despite his religious background, Jonathan had established schools for the Almajiris what the previous Muslim leaders from the region failed to do the corporate existence of Nigeria. The CAN president, Pastor Oritsejafor, in his welcome address, said the issues include those which make "us live as if we are aliens in the land that God had given us, with a view to appreciating and upholding national interest above any other."

He hoped that at the end of the gathering, "we would have been able to articulate, harmon-ise and pursue an agenda that will be at all times make us see ourselves as stakeholders of equal rights and opportunities in the Nigerian state."

According to him, the leaders/stakeholders, must share and articulate views, convictions, concerns and our love for the corporate existence of this nation with a view to providing a road msp, as honest religious leaders and scholars towards the attainment and sustenance of peace, religious understanding and respect for human dignity.

"Let me emphasise how timely this conference is. It is timely because this country is exper-

State, and humanity which includes Muslims and Christians and even nonadherent of these two great religions, is the reason for today's gathering. It is my firm belief that Nigeria can be great if the over 160 million of us resolve to be one another's keeper, and ready at all times to tell each other the truth in love under any circumstance," he stated, not-ing that this is the single ingredient mostly lacking in our national life.

He stressed that everyone in the nation wants to be politically correct and as a result "we constantly sacrifice truth," hoping that the fruits of the peaceful deliberation have the capacity to set an agenda for achieving the desired unity, peaceful and mutual respect for one another as we "Think Nigeria."

In his submission, the facilitator of the one-day interfaith conference, Alhaji Abdul Ahmed Isiaq described the meeting as a religious complementarities for unity, peace and social harmony which has featured very

prominent at our national discourse at all levels. "We are gathered today to intellectually discuss and make analysis on how these subjects in a democratic setting can also find ways of nurturing peaceful coexist-ence, religious tolerance and social harmony."

According to him, the year 2015 is very critical in the Nigerian journey to unity, peace and development, the need to start discussion on unity, peace and development early cannot be over emphasized. This, he said, is especially so when viewed in relation to the unfortunate and unguarded utterances by some unpatriotic elements among us and happenings in the political and socioeconomic fronts that characterized 2013.

Social unrest "Hundreds of lives and property worth billions of Naira were lost as a result of social unrest related to religious disharmony, social intolerance and political machinations.

Therefore there is an urgent need to halt this drift to social anarchy: which is achievable through intensive dialogue and constructive engagement forum with religious leaders across the board.

"A careful study of the root causes of religious disharmony shows that it is tied to the inability of direct and frank interactions between all societal strata (especially the religious leaders) therefore in order to unveil and address the early warning signs of crisis, some of which are agitation that lead to violence protest and ugly destructions affecting many innocent Nigerians. We strongly believe that the solution to this

will be through wider and continuous frank consultations that will be followed by concrete steps of implementing resolutions and findings of such consultations. (This can be done and its achievable)," he added.

"The nation's founding fathers have challenged us to replace honesty with transparency, to replace pessimism with hope, to replace mistrust with friendship, to replace division with reconciliation and to replace selfishness with love. We should heed their call to work for the betterment of our people," he appealed.

In a communiqué, jointly signed by Prof. Mohammed AlAmin and Prof. Peter Agogo, the one-day interfaith interactive conference expressed the need to: Reinvent the ideals of Nigeria’s founding fathers such as patriotism, commitment and sincerity for Nigeria; use of religion to promote the unity of Nigeria; and it noted that the 2015 general elections are crucial to the unity of Nigeria and Nigerians should strengthen the process through supporting qualitative candidatures, irrespective of religion or regional inclinations.

At a closed door session, the Primate, Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion) Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, appealed to all stakeholders in the country to be careful in whatever “we do” before their actions destroyed all Godly endowments to the nation. He maintained that the political and religious leaders have a serious role to play, as the country is moving towards a crucial election year.

The Vice President of CAN, Dr. S. O. A Ayokunle said; "we

must appreciate our religious and ethnic plurality, because God did not make a mistake in creating us different. No one should be hindered from preaching his religion according to his faith."

A Chief Imam, Mallam Nurudeen Ashafa, opined that what Nigeria needed was “frank talk” without minding whose ox is gored, adding “until we set religious and ethnic sentiments aside and confront ourselves with the truth, the reason for which we are gathered here today, the country may find it difficult to achieve its desired purpose.

“Religious leaders remain the saving grace for Nigeria, if only we would from now endeavour to tell the politicians the truth whenever they come to us,” he said, noting “Nigeria is very important among the black nations and we cannot there-fore allow it to disintegrate based on our selfish and relig-ious sentiments.”

To Prof. Mohammed Al-Amin: “The tangible aspect of development relates to infrastructural development, which is the responsibility of politicians but the intangible area of development, which bothers on love, peace, unity, truth and social justice is the responsibility of religious leaders. "If we agree that politicians have failed in providing the tangible development, we should also look back and ask if religious leaders have not also failed in playing their statutory roles?” he noted.

Statutory roles Another Islamic cleric stunned the gathering when he declared that the conference had provided him an opportunity to understand the person of the CAN president. He said he had always been angry with him, but now he knows better that Pastor Oritse-jafor does not hate Muslims as many Muslim leaders would want Muslims to believe, promising to educate his followers that he is a man of peace who in his statement mentioned Muslims before Christians.

Another Muslim leader outlined the virtues of President Goodluck Jonathan, who had done several things for the Muslim North than most north-ern leaders had done in several years of their leadership of the country.

His words: “Despite his religious background, Jonathan had established schools for the Almajiris, what previous Muslim leaders from the region failed to do.

He recognised them and even went ahead to build schools for them.

"He is also tackling desertification as a response to the plight of Fulani herdsmen, whom the political class from the region have failed to consider,” stressing that the only way to foster unity, love and harmony in Nigeria was to encourage a paradigm shift by shunning the inducement of politicians on religious or ethnic sentiments. “Let us use the 2015 elections to tell the entire world there is no religious discrimi-nation in Nigeria,” he said.

46— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5 , 2014

How robbers invaded Nsukka Catholic Cathedral •Bishop’s secretary narrates ordeal •Begs for diocesan laptop

By CHINENYEH OZOR

T

HE arrow of God is no longer at ease and things have fallen apart in the house of God. This aptly describes how four armed robbers invaded the house of God at St. Theresa’s Catholic Cathedral, Nsukka, Enugu State for gold and millions of Naira.

Crime Alert gathered that the hoodlums allegedly armed with a long gun and three shot pistols sneaked into the cathedral in the wee hours and made straight to the Bishop’s residence, chopped off window burglary proofs after tying up three security men’s hands and legs and locked them up at the Bishop’s kitchen, ransacked the Bishop’s residence in search of over N100million and gold ornaments together with other valuables.

What could armed robbers be looking for in God’s house? The robbers after cutting the windows and doors in the Bishop’s

asleep as he worked late into the night when the robbers entered the house.

“When the four armed robbers met me and requested me to give them money, I only pointed to the paltry amount available at the moment but they were not satisfied and ransacked the entire place without finding any other cash. They took the diocesan laptop, my two handsets, I pad, palm top, wrist watches, digital camera and video camera.

“What pained me most was my computer solar bag which serves as a generator. I bought the solar bag in Italy at the cost of 200 euros. I pleaded with the robbers not to take the diocesan laptop but they questioned whether I was aware that they were armed robbers? I said I know but at least for the sake of God, they should drop the diocesan laptop, a plea the robbers never obliged me.

After much harassment, the robbers ordered me to lead them to the residence of the Principal

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It was at this juncture they asked me to say my last prayer while one of them pulled his trigger to fire me but the leader of the four men gang asked him not to shoot

residence met Rev.Fr. Eugene Odo, secretary to the Bishop of Nsukka Diocese and requested him to bring out all the cash in the diocese that had not been lodged in the bank.

The priest gently brought out the week’s collection and gave to them and the robbers said it was not the kind of money they were looking for. The priest allegedly swore that the paltry sum was the only available cash at that moment.

The unsatisfied bandits ransacked all the rooms at the Bishop’s Court but could not find any other cash beyond what was given to them.. Angered by the poor cash they found, the robbers took the diocesan laptop where all activities, programmes and history of the dioceses were stored,. They also collected Rev. Fr. Eugene Odo’s private laptop, one Ipad, palm top and his two hand sets and ordered the priest to take them to the residence of the principal of St. Theresa’s College (STC) Nsukka Rv. Fr. I g w e b u e z e .

Narrating his ordeal to the robbers, Rev. Odo said it was his most horrifying experience as a priest, explaining that he was fast

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of STC, an order I equally turned down as they would lead me out and kill me. It was at this juncture tat they asked me to say my last prayers while one of them pulled his trigger to shoot me but the leader of the four man- gang asked him not to shoot

Renovation works They questioned whether I made any phone call to the police? I replied that I did not know when they entered the compound, talk less of reaching out to the police as I was alone in the Bishop’s residence. Bishop Emeritus Rt. Rv. Dr. Francis Okobo has moved to his retirement home and the new Bishop Rt. Rev. Prof. Godfrey Onah has not packed into the Bishop’s Court due to some renovation works on- going at the residence.”

It could be recalled that the Cathedral Administrator on Sunday preceding Tuesday the robbers invaded the Cathedral had presented a balance sheet of the total income and expenditure of the Cathedral for 2013 fiscal year ending December 31,2013 to

the Cathedral congregation and announced the balance.

The robbers may have, acting on information or may be at the church when the statement of account for 2013 was announced, invaded the house of God to cart away the amount announced in the church.

The Bishop’s secretary, Rv. Fr. Odo, explained that he would not say whether the robbers were actually looking for the money announced in the church that Sunday when they struck on Tuesday but said that the highest collection contained in the statement of account for 2013 was during the Episcopal Ordination of the new Bishop of the diocese, others were from the laity councils, CYON, CMO, CWO MOD among other groups.

Unlocking the kitchen “After several hours when the robbers found out that there was no other cash, they called me idiot and took me to the Bishop’s kitchen, unlocked the kitchen and brought the three security men attached to St. Theresa’s College (STC) Nsukka and forced them to lead them to the principal’s residence and left me alone to my own fate.

Crime Alert gathered that the dare devils allegedly collected the principal’s laptop and an undisclosed amount of money with other valuables despite the ill health of Rev.Fr. Igwebueze, principal of the college was in.

According to the earlier statement of Fr. Odo, the robbers had asked him to bring out the women they heard their voices at the point of entry into the residence.

But he swiftly replied, “What could a woman be doing in a priest’s residence at that wee hour of their entry”, explaining that he was all alone in the Bishop’s Court. He then asked them to go round again to see if any woman was kept in any of the rooms. “I do not know what you want again”, he told them.

Fr. Odo noted that both he and Fr Igwebueze next morning then lodged the incident at both Nsukka Police Area Command and the urban police division, Nsukka, add-ing that both the Area Commander, Ros-Armson Haladu (ACD) and his team stormed the scene of the incident and took inventory of damages and items stolen.

Right Rev.Prof.Godfrey Onah Bishop Godfrey Onah The Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, Rt Rev. Prof. Godfrey Onah had in a homily at the cathedral asked the bandits that invaded the Bishop’s Court to quietly return all the items they collected or face the option of the wrath of God within few days. The bishop noted that the robbers should come to him if they want him and should leave his priests

alone, he warned. Meanwhile, the Area Commander, RosArmson Haladu (ACP) has assured to track down the robbers that invaded the Bishop’s residence, adding he moved into action by drafting fierce detectives to unveil the circumstances surrounding the incident.

We are prepared to dislodg MR. Addulmajid Ali, the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Police Anti-Bomb Unit of the Nigeria Police Force, in his interview with Crime Alert, talks about the preparedness of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit the Force in responding and curtailing bomb attacks in the country. Excerpts:

BY IFEANYI OKOLIE WHAT would you say is behind the success of the commands’ anti bomb squad?

First of all, we need to thank the Inspector General of Police, MD Abubakar, he has been our back bone, we are lucky to have him as an IGP, he has given a lot of support, in equipment and man power. In fact his support has been phenomenal which cannot be quantified. You know without his support things wouldn’t have gone smoothly the way it did last year. Last year we made a lot of success, it was so marvelous. We enjoyed throughout; everything was fine and the credit goes to the IGP. Last year we observed that you had series of trainings, both locally and abroad, I want to know how efficient and swift your men can be in arresting a bomb situation all over the country.

Our men are highly professional and technical as you

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5 , 2014—47

•Sodipo, CRS Police Commissioner

Miltants Firearms 2

Teenage robbery gang operating in army uniforms nabbed

Daniel Sunday and Prophet Friday who planned to attack Calabar Carnival.

BY EMMA UNA

C

ALABAR — A Three-man teenage robbery gang that has been terrorizing residents of Ikot Omin, 8 Miles and Basin Development Authority in Calabar, the Cross River State capital has been nabbed.

The trio, Edem Basey Effiong, 18; Emmanuel,19 and Aliyu Umaru, 21, who

usually adorn themselves in army camouflage terrorised the residents of these areas for several months before they were arrested through sustained intelligence and undercover efforts during the Christmas period last year.

Parading them alongside other suspects, the Cross River State Police Commissioner Mr Kola Sodipo said the sum of 350,000.00 and 250,000 naira worth of recharge cards were recovered after they robbed one Ime Stephen who sell recharge cards at Basin Development Authority, Calabar at gun point. ”They robbed Imeh Stephen of Basin Authority at gun point of recharge cards valued at N250,000.00, and cash of 350,000.00 naira; in their possession during the arrest were a pistol, 7 live ammunition, Army Uniform, recharge cards and handsets”.

Mr Kola Sodipo also paraded the duo of Daniel Sunday, 25, and Prophet Friday, 19 , who were arrested on the 24th of December 2013, at Ikang, Bakassi with

ge Boko Haram—CP Anti-Bomb, Addulmajid Ali said they have been trained extensively. And their response are very quick and prompt. If you observe during one of the blasts in Port Harcourt, our men were the first on ground who conducted a sweep in the area and I even saw them on television telling people of the result of the investigation conducted. If there is any blast we go there for post blast assessment and we come up with technical report and professional report on what really happened. If there is any use of IED we will tell them and if it is not a bomb we will tell. How is the synergy between the bomb squad and various commands across the country?

All commands work close with the bomb units in their command and the bomb units work operationally under the CP of their command.

But we control them departmentally but when it comes to operation, they are under the CP of any command they are posted to because the CP is more closer to them than us.

How are you going to ensure that our airports are safe from IED attacks?

The IGP has approved the deployment of sniffer dogs to our airports and we intend to use them maximally particularly not only on departure hall but also on the arrival because we need to check

800 live AK-47 ammunition, 7.62mm and 634v rounds of general purpose machine gu , GPMG, ammunition, 56 mm and 632 live assault rifle ammunition at Ikang while planning to cause havoc in Calabar during the carnival.

“Their arrest aborted their plans to unleash havoc in the city during the annual Calabar Festival.”

Mr Kola Sodipo said explosive devices mounted by another set of militants, Eyo Okokon Nsa and Peter Ibe during the period at Atan, at Odukpani in the outskirts of Calabar would have caused severe havoc and disruption to the festivities had the police not uncovered the nefarious plans and carried out immediate detonation of the devices.

Dynamite fuses “110 pieces of dynamite fuses, nine bags of ammonium nitrate used to prepare the explosive devices were recovered and the suspects arrested and they confessed to the crime,” Sodipo said.

During the period, according to the Police Commissioner, a total of 11 robbery

what are coming in and going out of our country. We consider more on the people going out but we must concentrate on people coming in too.As in the case of Abdulmutalab, he brought in the IED from Ghana and also left the country with it. So we have to concentrate more on the arrival hall this time. Dogs are very effective in detection of explosive and are very accurate as well.

Aside defusing of bomb and investigating bomb situations, do you run an intelligence unit that can as well curtail terror? How effective is the squad’s intelligence unit?

We have our own surveillance unit and our men go on patrol to look around how things are happening.

Bomb squad But remember that we must be there before any gathering, even when the president is visiting a place, bomb squad must be the first to arrive at that venue to sweep the place and ensure that the whole place is safe and we will be the last to leave that place to ensure that there is safety and everybody has left the place to their various destinations.

How is 2014 going to look like, are we going to have a bomb free society?

With the hi-tech equipments given to the

suspects were arrested by the police in various parts of the state. The suspects include David Nse Abasi, Colins Okoh and Aka Jerome who blocked Mkpani/ Ekori road in the Central Senatorial, District and robbed several persons including one David Onovo of N79,000,00.

Other suspects arrested include Simon Michael Agba, Samson Kalu, Abosi Whop robbed Iheme Tochukwu, the manager of Tolik Filling Station in Ikom of N57,000.

Sodipo said N278,000 00 was recovered from one robbery suspect, Godwin Samuel, who robbed Chijoke Samuel of 2, Oti Ansa. He said a total of 48 locally made pistols were recovered from criminals while 3,893 arrests were made with 955 prosecutions made in 2013.

He said:“With increased visibility, intensive foot and vehicular patrols, sustained raiding of black spots, and collaboration with residents of the state the police would not relent in bringing crime to its barest minimum. Training and retraining were being intensified by the command to sharpen the ability of his men adopting proactive community measures in carrying out surveillance and community initiatives.

bomb squad we are fully prepared and I want to assure you that the days of the insurgents are numbered because we will be fishing them out one by one.

How would you ensure the successful deployment of Detective Canine at the arrival hall of the airport?

We are going to work in consonance with the FAAN security unit and we are going to work out the modalities. The responsibility of security at the airport is soly the police responsibility because if anything happens there they will ask the police first not the FAAN officials and if they say they should investigate it is we that will investigate not them but you know we just have to be on ground. If its not the Nigeria Police Bomb Unit, then it is not a bomb unit.

Those other people coming up learnt from us . We trained them before they opened their own, even the military call the police. FAAN also calls the police the moment they discover any suspicious bag in the airport they will start looking for bomb unit to come and identify. Nigeria should stop the proliferation of agencies, it does not help. It duplicates functions as every body is trying to do the same thing.

People who are specialized in it should be allowed to do it.

48 —

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Arrested pregnant teenagers at a baby farm in Ondo State recently

BABY FARMS: How weak justice system fuels boom L

OCATED on a dusty Uwani street in Enugu State, the two storey building was not spectacular in architectural design nor grandiose. It was just like any other conventional high rise in that part of Nigeria, so there was nothing to stand it out or that could suggest that it would become a centre of global attention someday.

But people in that neighbourhood smelt a rat about it because night or day, the building would pass for a cementry in the making for lack of activity. Yet, it was called a hospital. Operated by a gynaecologist, the hospital hardly attracted patients, yet it had a lot of patients resident there.

This added to the mysteries surrounding it.

But the lid was blown off in this clinic in May 2008 following the arrest of a woman by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps(NSCDC) while trying to smuggle a child to Lagos.

Upon interrogation, the lady said the day-old infant was sold to her by an Enugu based doctor.

When the Enugu State Police command raided the premises, no fewer than 20 girls were arrested, making it one of the largest infant trafficking rings in

the country. The doctor, whose training is to save lives, reportedly lured teenagers with unwanted pregnancies, even as he allegedly got men to pregnant those, who were not pregnant.

According to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) which stormed the building, the pregnant girls were locked up until they gave birth, there after, they were forced to give up their babies for N20,000.

The babies would then be sold to buyers for between N300,000 and N450,000. Shortly after this incidence, Enugu residents were confronted with yet another incidence. A medical doctor,( name withheld) went on a spree, impregnating teenage girls and selling their babies.

Thriving commercial pregnancy The doctor, who was arrested by the police, was said to have been arraigned three times before then, for child trafficking and defiling teenage girls. He was also accused of selling off the babies he fathered.

The medical doctor, was said to have had several brushes with the law before his last arrest.

Narrating how Akunne met his

waterloo, the police said residents in the neighbourhood alerted them when a 12 year-old Joyce Solomon escaped from the home.

Joyce who had been confined and allegedly raped by Akunne in a bid to get her pregnant, climbed the fence and raised alarm that attracted neighbours.

The Public Relations Officer of the Enugu State Police Command, Mr. Ebere Amarizu, who confirmed the arrest explained that Akunne had confessed to sleeping with the girls and selling their babies. When these happened more than five years ago, the attention of the nation was attracted to it, but not a few had expected that it would become a trend today. There is hardly any quarter that cases of baby trafficking are not reported in the country, as there have been continuous raids across places, like Aba, Onistsha, Lagos, Umuahia, Port Harcourt, among other cities. And countless pregnant young girls have been rescued in the process.

Vanguard Features,VF, findings confirm that commercial pregnancy thrives unrestricted in the country.

In line with VF’s findings, many are disturbed that the law appears handicapped in the face of the menace, which has become a

booming business. This public anger was informed by the believe that none of the perpetrators of the act has been brought to book from 2008 to date.

Dealing with a monster Proprietor of Care Givers Home, Alagbado Lagos, Mrs. Udeme Akpandu told VF that the focus

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CHARLES KUMOLU writes that there is bottled up anger in the land following the seeming ineffectiveness of the law in tackling the increase in baby factories.

The nation needs to be strong on these people who have made life to be one for a penny.’’

A human rights activist, Barrister Eriatte Odiema also questioned the role of security agencies in the upsurge of the crime. For him, the successes recorded in apprehending those behind the menace, as manifested in the frequent raids, should not overwhelm the need to bring culprits to book. Eriatte who said he has several unanswered questions wanted to: “what happened to those caught for the same crime in the past. Have they been charged to court, prosecuted or acquitted?

Has there been any sanction against their facilities? If the answers are no, then the law is encouraging the illegality. There is a boom because of the non prosecution of those found wanting,’’ he added.

Continuing, he said, ‘’this is the time for the criminal justice system to be effective so as to dissuade aspiring offenders. It is so sad that our criminal justice system is lenient to offenders. As we speak now, some who were arrested before are walking the streets free. So, trafficking in human person and in human organs in Nigeria cannot be combated without the effective reform of the country’s criminal justice system. ’’Many crimes plaguing Nigeria today started gradually.

Commercial pregnancy is a new form of slavery whereby new-born babies are turned into commodity for sale. While some childless couples buy the babies in illegal adoption to satisfy their craving for children, unscrupulous elements buy them for ritual money making in which case the innocent baby is

Many crimes plaguing Nigeria today started gradually; commercial pregnancy is a new form of slavery whereby new-born babies are turned into commodities for sale

now should not be about the number of arrests being made, noting that the searchlight should be beamed on what the law has done with those arrested in the past and present. ’’We are dealing with a monster.

People are so used to it now, so they are no longer surprised any time there is any arrest in that direction. I am yet to see where it was reported that someone was found guilty for operating a baby factory. Does that imply that the law is comfortable with that. There must be an aggressive transition from raiding of baby farms to prosecution of culprits,’’ she note.d In addition, she said, ‘’I am sick and tired of reading about the Nigeria police busting or smashing baby factory syndicates.

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savagely murdered in cold blood and used for sacrifice. This is simply odious and barbaric.’’

Stiffer penalties for offenders: Madam Mary Oguguo,operator of Little Angels Orphanage, also expressed a similar view.

According her, baby farms are on the rise because the government appears indifferent about dealing with it. I understand that some crimes can only be curbed instead of being eradicated. But this one can be arrested and confined to the dustbin of history.

It requires effective punitive measures to deal with those merchants,’’she noted. Adding that: ‘’I run this home and I know what is expected of me. Why would I now debase humanity by

Continues on page 49

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

— 49

PERISHABLE CARGO TERMINALS:

Where farm and market initiative kiss M

INISTER of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, says agriculture is a viable business, which more people should engage in not just to make food available, but to boost the economy. Speaking during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the minister said his ministry had plans to double agriculture’s share of banks’ credit to 10 percent in two years with the aim of cutting food imports.

He said: “We were not looking at agriculture through the right lens. We were looking at agriculture as a developmental activity, like a social sector in which you manage poor people in rural areas. But agriculture is not a social sector, it is a business. Seed is a business, fertiliser is a business, storage, value added, logistics and transport are all about business.

“We made a fundamental shift that agriculture is not a developmental activity, agriculture is a business. And so, it shifted the mind-set of the banks.”

He added that loans to agriculture as a share of total credit rose to N320bn, amounting to five per cent at the end of 2013 from less than one per cent in 2011, adding that efforts to boost agriculture had yielded a drop in food import bill by more than half in the past two years. He said against this backdrop, different agricultural programmes on food production and security had been developed.

But what is all these worth if farm products cannot get to the end users that is consumers. What is the use of increase

in agricultural yields if mangoes get rotten on the farms or thrown into gutters for lack of transportation. Perhaps, the case of Mr. Chukwu Emeka tells the story better.

Chukwu Emeka, a Taraba based farmer was not excited as he told his tale of woe recently. “This Boko Haram harassment has taken its toll on me. You know, whole baskets of tomatoes were dumped into the gutters because we had no vehicles to transport them to town”, he lamented.

Continuing almost in tears, he said: “farmers have lost a lot and don’t know when all of these would come to an end”.

While farmers in the north sang the dire, down south, consumers bemoan the ‘inefficiency’ of government to make true its word on agriculture as most traders had to cross the border to import tomatoes from neighouring Cotonu.

Transportation difficulties For Mr. Emeka and other farmers like him who have suffered losses as a result of transportation difficulties and southern consumers,who have had to depend on imported tomatoes, all hope is not lost because just as the minister of agriculture sees agriculture as business so does the minister of aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah.

According to the aviation minister, the construction of 13 designated perishable cargo terminals across the country to facilitate the farm to market initiative is an idea whose time has come. According to her, the perishable cargo terminals project has become so important that they would be operational in the 13 designated states

BABY FARMS: How weak justice system fuels boom Continues from page 48 selling babies. That is cruelty at its peak. The government should seat up this year.’’

Also alarmed by the increasing rate of sale of babies, Executive Secretary of National Agency for the Prohibition in Traffic in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP), Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba said that perpetrators of child trafficking exploit the lacuna in Nigerian laws. For this reason, she called for stiffer penalty for traffickers.

But, is the law truly weak on this score? VF checks reveal that Nigeria has enabling legislation against human/child trafficking.

Contrary to claims that some arrested traffickers were not prosecuted, Mrs. Jedy-Agba disclosed that the agency recorded a total of 220 convictions of which 46 convictions were secured in 2013. According to her, 442 cases were reported to NAPTIP with 272 cases successfully investigated while 101 other cases are still pending in various courts in the country.

Instructively, the 2003 Trafficking

in Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act, amended in 2005, increased the penalties for trafficking offenders and prohibited all forms of human trafficking.

Specifically, the law prescribed a five-year imprisonment or a fine not to exceed the equivalent of approximately $645 or both for labour trafficking offences. It also allows convicted offenders to pay a fine in lieu of prison time for labour trafficking or attempted trafficking offences, resulting in penalties not proportionate to the crimes committed.

Additionally, the law stipulated penalties of 10 to 15 years’ imprisonment for sex trafficking offences and a fine of the equivalent of approximately $1,250, or both. For sentences that include only a fine, penalties are not sufficiently stringent. In 2011, NAPTIP introduced amendments to the anti-trafficking law, which would give prosecutors more authority and restrict the ability of judges to offer fines in lieu of prison time during sentencing; this amendment is awaiting approval by the National Assembly.

Tomatoes market

across the country this year.

Cargo Terminal project embarked upon Explaining further, she said the cargo by the Federal Government is necessitated terminal project will be of immense benefit by the huge revenue generated by the to farmers and rural dwellers who sector which currently stood at $1.53 constitute 80 per cent of Nigeria’s work billion (about N245 billion). She added force. “We understand how farmers feel that although the Federal Government is when their products can’t get to the the promoter of the programme, the market. We know how it hurts when you various states and local governments have invest and there is no return on keyed into it as it would benefit the rural investment; we know that colleagues in dwellers who today toil hard in their farms the Agriculture sector are striving to return but earn very little from their produce. the country to the path of sustainable According to her, “Various private agriculture and we on this part are investors, local and state governments working to ensure those mangoes, have expressed readiness to take oranges and even fish do not rotten advantage of the programme and contact somewhere inside the farm. We are the relevant authorities for permissions to creating cargo airports and encouraging establish Export Processing Zones or Free farm to market idea, where farmers can Economic Zones at the terminals”. Adding freight their produce without trouble and that the terminals are at various stages of get reward for their efforts,” said the completion and should deliver fresh Minister. produce to local supermarkets and With the perishable cargo airports, rural international markets by 2014. farmers would have access to high end The terminals according to Dati have been markets because the aviation sector would selected in line with their regional provide the requisite facilities that serve agricultural comparative advantage. as aggregation points and export The perishable export cargo programme hubs for their would utilise open field cultivation for the produce. fresh produce, as farmers would be able Revenue loss: From statistics, total to transport their products to collection perishable air centres in the states freight export out of Africa in 2010 was approximately $1.6bn. “They will enhance the farm-to-market Nigeria did not earn a dime from this value chain, consequently improving the service because she does have the food security network, rural transformation wherewithal. Sadly, this is in spite of the by creating rural employment fact that, Nigeria is the largest Sub- opportunities in storage, warehousing and Saharan African country producing air/road transportation logistics.” perishables but doesn’t export. Kenya, Noting that the perishable export cargo South Africa, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, programme would utilise open field Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Egypt cultivation for the fresh produce, as are the current major players. “By making farmers would be able to transport their distribution easier for farmers who usually products to collection centres in the states, have to compete with the challenge of while refrigerated trucks would deliver the moving their perishable goods, we are also products to the primary airport hubs. pumping money back into the local “Things are indeed looking up for the economy.

Nigerian farmer if the Federal government And beyond the direct economic benefits, makes good its word,” was how George connecting eaters with local growers helps Jumbo an agric extension worker cultivate a sense of national pride and described this initiative. solidarity. We have a real attachment to According to him, the success of the making sure our country continues to have project would go a long way to nib in the its rural, agricultural heritage by bud rural -urban migration and make supporting and creating this channel agriculture attractive again. “I can assure called perishable cargo airports,” was how you that most young graduates who are General manager, Corporate now riding Keke Napep in the cities would communication,Mr. Yakubu Dati spoke prefer to return to the farm if government about this initiative. can make this project work as well as Explaining further, Dati said the provide electricity,” abundance of and varieties of fresh Mr. Jumbo said. The following cities produce in Nigeria and the growing have been prioritised to host perishable economic importance of the sector, cargo terminals. They are Abuja, Akure, necessitated the development of 13 Calabar, Ilorin, Jalingo, Jos, Kano, Lagos, Perishable Cargo Terminals in Nigeria. Makurdi, Minna, Owerri, Port Harcourt This was also buttressed by the Minister and Uyo. when she disclosed that, the Perishable

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BY JUDITH UFFORD

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50—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Healthy lifestyle prevents cancer by 30% – experts A

BY CHIOMA OBINNA & VICTORIA OJEME

S Nigerians join the rest of the World to mark World Cancer Day today, medical experts have said that 30 percent of cancers can be prevented through healthy life style. This is even as they blamed superstitious belief as major factor fueling cancer treatment abandonment in the country.

Making the assertion in Lagos and Abuja, the experts in separate interviews, also explained that prevention and early detection are keys to cancer control.

In the views of the Executive Secretary, Sebeccly Cancer Care and Support Centre, Dr. Omolola Salako, “30 percent of cancers could be prevented, by not using tobacco, having a healthy diet, being physically active and moderating the use of alcohol.”

She further stressed that in developing countries up to 20 percent of cancer deaths could be prevented by immunization against the infection of hepatitis B virus and human Papilloma virus.

Salako, who identified awareness as the first step to early detection and improving cancer outcomes, regretted that in Nigeria, 85 percent of patients present in advance stages, with attendant poor outcome. To this end, Sebeccly Cancer Care is commemorating this year’s World Cancer Day by launching the “Sexy Virus Campaign”. The campaign will focus on viruses that cause cancer, called oncoviruses. Such viruses include; Hepatitis B virus, HBV, and hepatitis C virus, HCV, both associated with cancer of the liver, human Papilloma viruses, HPV, associated with cervical, oral and anal cancer.

Corroborating her views in an inter-

•Professor Clement Adebamowo

• Dr.Omolola Salako

view in Abuja, the Principal Investigator of the National System of Cancer Registries, NSCR, Professor Clement Adebamowo stated that smoking, obesity and HIV increases the risk of acquiring certain cancers.

Adebamowo, advised that Nigerians can reduce their risk of acquiring cancer by living healthy lifestyles. “Smoking is associated with lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer. There are also infections like hepatitis, HIV and human papilloma virus that increase the risk of certain cancers.” he said.

He also added that the lack of physical activity among Nigerians, especially the working class increases the risk of obesity and therefore breast cancer, prostate, and colon cancer.” Adebamowo,

LASUTH performs Nigeria’s 1st cochlear implantation

S

UCCOUR weekend came on the way of Nigerians with hearing loss as a team of medical experts at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital LASUTH performed first-ever Cochlear implantation in the country.

The medical breakthrough which was performed in collaboration with Cochlear Foundation in Germany is meant to improve hearing in cases of severe deaf people.

At a media briefing on the success of the surgical procedure, which two people benefited, the Chief Medical Director of the Hospital, Professor Adewale Oke explained that lot of occurrences like generic effects and infections could account for hearing defects and could happen in children and adult.

Oke who boasted that the break-

through was first in the history of the country said the feat would, to a large extent improve self- esteem and build social confidence in patients who as a result of loss of hearing isolated themselves from societal engagements.

The Chief Medical Director also explained that the surgery session which was projected offered opportunity to over 20 Nigerian Residents doctors to observe the procedure.

He said in the next few weeks or within a year, the two beneficiaries’ speech and hearing would have improved tremendously.

Speaking, the Board Chairman, LASUTH, Dr. Olatunde Williams described the breakthrough as a good solution to a long standing problem, impressively to the advantaged people with

hearing loss.

The team leader, Professor Roland Laszing who is also Chairman, and Head, ENT Department of the University of Medical Center, Germany, advocated that screening of hearing loss be included in the intensive care of children in Nigeria with a view to ensure cost effective treatment.

Laszing who explained that the procedure has about 1 to 2 percent technical failure rate said it improves the quality of life of the patient.

The beneficiaries paid for the cost of implants which is about 23,000 Euro (N5m). The two beneficiaries include a five year old child and adult of about 55 years of age. The implants will be switch on within four to six weeks.

‘We can use electricity to treat your pain!’

W HEN I told the elderly dia betic woman that her ischemic leg pain may require treatment with electrical stimulation, she grabbed her bag, leapt up and mumbled:“Na NEPA you go take treat me?” “It’s not NEPA Ma,” I smiled. “It is actually a pulse generator.” She was having none of it and headed for the door. “Electricity, NEPA, generator.....all na same family. I de come.”

It dawned on me that this very educated patient was not joking...she was truly concerned.

“You de go?” I asked.

“I de come,” she repeated.

I’ve always found it interesting how we say we are “coming” when we are, in reality, “going”.

“Please take this with you,” I handed her a pamphlet on electrical stimulation for the treatment of pain. I had planned to discuss this educational document with her, but, that was not to be. She had vacated her seat faster than the speed of political defections!

Electricity has indeed been

used to treat pain since ancient times. The Ancient Egyptians and later the Greeks and Romans recognized that electrical fishes are capable of generating electric shocks for relief of pain. In 2500BC, during the Egyptian Fifth Dynasty, stone carvings show electric fish, Malapterurus electricus, used to treat painful conditions.

And in 400 BC Hippocrates used electric fish to treat headache and arthritis.

I won’t be surprised to find that our ancient Babalawos and witchdoctors, had they kept any records, were doing the same along our Atlantic coastline at that time too!

In the 18th and 19th centuries these natural producers of electricity were replaced by manmade electrical devices.

In 1759, Dr John Wesley’s documents described treatment of sciatica, headache, gout and kidney stone using electrical currents.

The 19th century, seen as the “golden age” of electrotherapy

saw its use for dental, neurological, psychiatric and gynecological disturbances.

However, at the start of the 20th century electrotherapy fell from grace. It was dismissed as unscientific and used by quacks and charlatans for ignoble objectives.

I will not be surprised if unexpected electrocutions and mishaps went unreported.

Coincidentally, the development of effective analgesic drugs decreased the interest in electricity. In the second half of the 20th century electrotherapy underwent a revival. Based on animal experiments and clinical investigations, its neurophysiological mechanisms were elucidated in more details.

In 1965, two very clever scientists, Melzack and Wall proposed what they called the “Gate Control Theory of Pain”. This was a landmark paper. Ron Melzack, a Canadian, and Patrick Wall from the UCH London, postulated that the spinal cord, in carrying painful stimuli to the brain, has certain “gates” along the way. These

gates can open and close, naturally and pharmacologically, and this ability varies between individuals. I was fortunate, though I never met Dr Wall, one of the Consultants under whom I was a Pain Management trainee at the UCH, had worked with him as a junior.

Dr Wall went on, in 1967, with a W. Sweet, to report the use of high frequency percutaneous (through the skin) electrical nerve stimulation for the relief of chronic neuropathic pain. Also in 1967, CN Shealy, et al described the use of Dorsal Column Stimulation (DCS) of the spinal cord (also called SCS)....the same, now much modernised, procedure that I had planned for my patient!

The pain relieving action of electricity is explained by two mechanisms: first, segmental inhibition of pain signals to the

brain in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord and, second, activation of the descending inhibitory pathway with increased release of endogenous (body made) opioids and other neurochemical compounds.

Today’s electrotherapy for neuropathic and musculo-skeletal pain is based in on the following types: transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (PENS or electro-acupuncture) and spinal cord stimulation (SCS).

In mild to moderate pain, TENS and PENS are effective methods, whereas SCS is very useful for therapy of refractory neuropathic or ischemic pain.

As for my patient, she called me some days later, and said she was willing to try my “generator” since NEPA had failed her at home.

V anguard Vanguard anguard,, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 — 51

Visa: Nigerians decry poor treatment by UK's visa agent

BY VERA SAM ANYAGAFU

N

•British High Commissioner Andrew Pocock telecom service providers but at the end of the day, they would send you email instead of what you have been made to pay for.

Odiogor said the most

,

IGERIANS have decried the poor treatment meted out to visa applicants by the British High Commission and its processing agency, VFS Global which have developed a culture of subjecting visa applicants to untold hardship.

V a n g u a r d investigations revealed that Nigerians are made to go through series of dehumanising procedures before being granted entry visas to the United Kingdom.

A UK visa applicant, Mr. Kehinde Ibonye told Vanguard that the VFS Global which the United Kingdom contracted of its visa processing services to has been treating Nigerians with all manners indignities and covering up their act with excuses that they are acting under the instructions of the British High Commission.

Mr. Ibonye who was applying for entry visa to the UK was embittered by the newly introduced online payment, which was aimed at advancing the cashless policy of business transactions in Nigeria, but he said he was made to pay extra N10,000 because VFS did not provide applicants with account numbers that could be used, instead they asked him to get their own designated chip based card to make the payment. The cards are only available to some agents who charge extra fee.

VFS Global Services has been discovered to be fleecing Nigerians who are made to pay N400 for text messages that costs only N4.00. According to Mr. Hugo Odiogor, the text message was meant to inform applicant of when to come their passports after issuance of visa to the applicant. Mr. Hugo Odiogor told Vanguard that many Nigerians are ripped off by VFS Global who collect N400 instead of the statutory N4.00 which is charged by the

publisher of a national Newspaper whose passport with approved visa which he has authorised the collection on his behalf by his staff

High Commission and VFS Global, both organisations have refused to release the passport, insisting that Mr. Sam Amuka Pemu must

The most harrowing experience has been the refusal of VFS Global to release the document of a renowned publisher of a national Newspaper whose passport with approved visa which he has authorised the collection on his behalf by his staff was refused.

harrowing experience has been the refusal of VFS Global to release the document of a renowned

was refused.. Mr. Odiogor who is the Foreign Affairs Editor of Vanguard said even with a letter of authority to the British

,

personally present himself to collect his passport even with the harrowing experiences and humilation that people are

subjected to. Expartriate official of VFS Global told Vanguard "that they have been having integrity issues with Nigerians who come under different giles to defraud intending travellers". But a staff of VHS Global who sought protection, told Vanguard that the nationals in charge of VFS Global "are not more honest than Nigerians whom they accuse of all manners of malfeasance".

According to the staff, who was visible perplexed, said "Nigerians are made to

pay exorbitant visa fees because the British High Commission because they use part of the visa fees to pay for the services of VFS Global". Such services include processing of the forms, giving Nigerians comfortable and conducive places to seat and while they wait to be attended to. But you can see that if you have laptops or ipads, tablets or any other equipment which are not allowed, into the premises, you wont have a place to keep them.

So many Nigerians have lost valuable items because VFS Global has refused to provide safe lockers while their own security would not keep such items. The guards complained that VFSGlobal "make so much money from Nigeria and pay us pittance. We rely on tips from Nigerians to survive, but above all, they suspect every move that we make and treat us like slaves". Efforts to reach the British Deputy High Commission in Lagos proved futile as the entire premises was secured like a garrison. Nigerians are made to look as sub humans for seeking entry visas to the UK.

US, UK clarify positions on Same Sex Law

BY HUGO ODIOGOR AND VICTORIA OJEME

T

HE Envoys of the United States and United Kingdom have given more insight into what prompt their initial hostile reactions to the signing of the same sex prohibition Act 013 by President Good Luck Jonathan, which was equally met with stronger rebuff from aggrieved Nigerians.

Presidency officials told Vanguard that “President Jonathan was seriously prevailed upon by Western nation not to sign the Same Sex Prohibition Act 2014, as presented by the

National Assembly because they considered it to be “too draconian”, But President Jonathan “defied them and quietly signed the act without funfair until it became public knowledge one week after”.

US ambassador Mr. James Entwistle and his UK counterpart who spoke at separate events in Lagos and Abuja said “their concerns about the Same Sex prohibition Act stems from the fact that it has potential to encourage abuses of human rights by law enforcement agencies and religious zealots”.

Both envoys agreed that “the law would not

affect the cordial relations between Nigeria and their countries and dismissed as incorrect , the perception of Western antagonism to the law”.

Speaking at the Media Media Roundtable in Lagos Ambassador Entwistle said: “Quite frankly, the issue of what defines a marriage in Nigeria should be left to the Nigerian people. I think even before this bill was passed the Marriage Act specified that a marriage is between a man and a woman. He said:” I understand the issue of homosexuality is a hot topic here, but if you can no longer talk about it, if

you can even meet to talk about it, it means to me it is a slippery slope.

According to the Ambassador: “When I read this law it looks to me that it puts restriction on freedom of assembly and the freedom of expression, which, we are particularly concerned about.”

In Abuja, the British High Commissioner Andrew Pocock described the law as unnecessarily “draconian and likely to conflict with provisions of the Nigerian constitution that guarantees the rights of the citizenry”.

According to Pococck: “ we think it is unnecessarily draconian, it seems to us to be at

least potential in conflict in terms of its penalties with parts of the Nigerian constitution that defends individual rights and with parts of international instruments that Nigeria is a party to.

He said”We have expressed our disappointments as well as many other Nigeria’s international friends.

Because we look very much at our relationship with Nigeria as a partnership we feel we can speak plainly to each other without threatening the bases of the relationship, so we have done that in this case we hope now to be able to move on”.

52— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 YOUR LUCK TODAY

­ ­ ³ ª¨!

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139 TAURUS: THE Moon fluctuates as it moves out of your star . That is why you will need to guard against confusion likely to be caused by others.

GEMINI: THE Moon makes an ingress into your star sign and INFLUECES YOU TO BE COME AGGRESSIVE which is capable of bringing unnecessary argument and avoidable confusion. To before warned is to be fore armed.

CANCER: EARLY morning blues will affect many people today (yourself inclusive) but luckily for you, things will go according to your plans. And you will need to be more careful with money.

LEO: THE moon fluctuates early in the morning. And if care is not taken you would promise more than you can actually deliver to the resentment of others. Yet, you’ll win.

VIRGO: BEHIND-the-scene-activities are sources of avoidable trouble especially before mid-morning period when influence of the moon’s fluctuation will last. Avoid inordinate ambition.

By Richard Eromosele

O

NE of the favourite cliches people bandy around is that there is no money in certain profession, job, business etc. This is not correct.

The truth is that no profession is

No Money absolutely imbued with producing money. No profession is a money tree. If you have passion for the job, money will eventually follow. If you are patient to

invest enough time and effort in what you do, you will make sufficient money from it at the fullness of time. If your only purpose is to make money, you will end

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye”

up a huge disappointment.

There are rich bicycle repairers, just as there are poor ones. There are rich doctors, just as there are poor ones. There are rich practising lawyers, just as there are poor ones etc.

The choice is yours.

By Lanre Kehinde

LIBRA: IT’S important you don’t allow your thought for and/or about the future derail your plans for the present so that success will not elude you. Romantic attractions along your career/business lines may become stronger sooner than you think.

SCORPIO: EARLY morning blues will affect many people around you meaning that not everybody-morning period especially along your career/business lines.

SAGITTARIUS: MAKE sure you perfectly understand what you are doing within your working arena before midmorning period or else costly mistakes would be made. Be tolerant.

CAPRICORN: TOMORROW is your day. Therefore you are advised to leave some important decisions and/or action till tomorrow when the heaven will smile at you. Your love life is favoured.

AQUARIUS: TOMORROW will prove more challenging.

Thus, if there are things you should do now, you better don’t contemplate procrastination as you are likely to be fully stretched tomorrow. Watch with you tell others early in the morning.

KAPTAIN AFRIKA

in

“Princess Shii’

By Andy Akman

PISCES: AS the moon fluctuates early in the morning some people may promise more than they can actually deliver. And if you take them for granted, you would be disappointed.

ARIES: CERTAINLY some people will get on your nerves yet you must not over-react at least because of the immediate future. Truly thus is the wrong time to gamble with love.

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,

How do I succeed?

Dear Joshua, KINDLY analyse my star and tell me about myself especially my luck. I want to know about my love life, social life and how to become successful in life. I have seen people who are close to me became big success without much struggle from them. Would my own be like them too?

Ruth, Epe. Dear Ruth, You are different to those you said came by success: in your own case you will need to work hard and earn success. It is important you watch and take practical precaution about inability to hold on to your gains for long. Some times unexpected assistance use to come your way at 11th hour.

Your being friendly with the influential personalities especially WOMEN will help your finance greatly speculative (and) venture is not the best for you.

Your magnetic personality makes it difficult for members of your opposite sex to the betterment of your love life.

Luckily for you, you know how not to allow your rugged/rigid personality to harm your love life; you are a sweet lover, although can be argumentative some times. Love happiness indicated for you.

If you can analyse both your environment and social situation, you will have more to gain from social activities more than it’s attendant pressure.

You will need to drop unnecessary rebellious approach when dealing with your social life; although what looks like radical approach can earn you a few number of friends who may not be in position to assist you.

Many people love your gentle approach and will be willing to assist you especially the more influential personalities. Once again women can be helpful here If you expect easy success, you would be frustrated because Saturn-the planet of delay, frustration but greater reward after much struggles, was with the sun (basic-self-hood) when you were born. Thus it will not allow easy success. And at the same time will not deny you whatever you deserve.

VIRGINIA

HOME & ABROAD

dadadekola@yahoo.com

By Lawrence Akapa

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 — 53

Odunlami eyes World Cup D

EFENDER Kunle Odunlami hopes he has done enough at the African Nations Championship to win a place in Stephen Keshi’s World Cup squad.

Odunlami, one of the standout players at the competition as the Super Eagles claimed bronze, has been tipped to join the main squad, but he admits that it is not up to him.

“I did my best, and I am happy that people appreciated what I did, especially the coaches,” he said.

“I don’t know what will happen with the team list. That is up to the coaches. But I am happy with my performance and I thank God that I did well.”

Keshi himself was full of praise for the Sunshine Stars defender.

“He was great. A lot of people didn’t know him before now, but I think everyone can see with his performance that we have a lot of talent in the Nigerian league back home. People just need to support them.”

Arsenal Continues from BP club has grown in speculation as it is seemingly unlikely that the Rossoneri will qualify for European football next season, with talk suggesting his relationship with club management has become strained.

Tuttosport reports that Balotelli will consider future options, with his agent Mino Raiola constantly refusing to close the door on a possible transfer somewhere.

The report further suggests that the former Inter Milan striker could be prepared to link up with former manager Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, while Arsenal are also said to be in the hunt.

The 23-year-old has been one of the Rossoneri’s better players during a difficult campaign, finding the net nine times so far in Serie A this season.

LMC Chairman pays glowing tribute to Late Pa Ojidoh

C

*L-R: Ms. Caroline Oghuma, Public Relations Manager, MultiChoice Nigeria, presenting a Samsung Tablet to Mr. Wale Lawal during the presentation of DStv Samba 2014 “Let”s go to Brazil” promo held at MultiChoice Abuja Office.

Brazil World Cup: Baywood believes in Eagles

A

S Nigerians come to terms with the bronze medal outing of the Super Eagles at the just concluded African Nations Championship, CHAN, in South Africa, a sports enthusiast and President of BCL, Chris Baywood has predicted a good run for the Eagles in the World Cup in Brazil.

Baywood’s optimism stems from his belief on coach Stephen Keshi whom he said has brought back the right rhythms for Nigerian football.

“It’s amazing when you think of the massive results that Keshi has achieved since being appointed chief coach of the national team. He has not only done absolutely well in terms of results, he has also changed and brought

*Baywood

*Keshi

competition to the Eagles which hitherto was a team reserved for some foreign-based teams. Today, there is competition in the team and the home-based players have also justified their inclusion in the team. We were thrilled with the performance of the Eagles in CHAN and the emergence of Ejike Uzoenyi as the Most Valuable Player, MVP, of the championship. It speaks volumes of the

talents that are in the country that many have not bothered to discover ’’, he said.

The Oil and Gas magnate also believed that Brazil would be a veritable ground for the Eagles. “Brazil will be a good hunting ground for the team. We should all support the team and pray for them”, the Philanthropist added.

Nigeria would be battling with Argentina, Iran and Bosnia and Hezogovina in group

CHAN 2018 Continues from BP Cape Town with CAF president Dr Issa Hayatou, second vice president Al Mamy Camara and secretary general Hicham El Amrani.

“CAF advised that having been late in securing the government guarantees for the 2019 and 2021 editions of the senior African Cup of Nations,” Nyamweya

said in a statement.

“Kenya therefore becomes a candidate to host the 2018 edition of the African Nations Championships which is Africa’s second biggest tournament but with the same magnitude in terms of hosting logistics because it features the same number of teams as the AFCON. “This is great news to our country and it gives us an opportunity to

host Africa’s finest home players before our initial projection.

“This makes us favourites to host CHAN 2018 and CAF has assured us of their support because this will make Kenya the first country from the eastern region of Africa to host a CAF tournament since 1976,” he added.

Rwanda will host the next CHAN tournament in 2016.

HAIRMAN of the L e a g u e Management Company (LMC), Hon. Nduka Irabor has paid tribute to late Pa John Chukwuma Ojidoh and enjoined football administrators to emulate his virtues of selfless service and dedication in public service.

Pa JC Ojidoh, a Justice of Peace and most revered traditional chief in Illah, Delta State died Monday night at the age of 87 and Irabor recalled his last encounter with the late former Chairman of the Nigeria Football Federation Disciplinary Committee saying, “Pa JC Ojidoh was only 15

Eagles Continues from BP Greece.

Bolivia and El Salvador who did not qualify for the World Cup will also feature in the competition.

Organisers said last night they hope the tourney will help teams going to Brazil prepare adequately for the biggest soccer competition in the world.

Eagles only at the weekend, won bronze at the African Nations

Pa Ojidoh Continues from BP Iwere.

In a quick reaction the President of the Sports Veterans Association of Nigeria Chief Jonathan Ogufere described it as a colossal loss to Nigerian Sports. Chief Ogufere who described Pa Ojidoh as a “….thoroughbred, disciplined and knowledgeable administrator “ lamented that his kind will be rare to find.

Tributes also poured out from Linus Mba, General Mike Okaro, Kwame Arthur and Mr Martins Osaile for a man fondly called “ Old Bobo” by contemporaries.

Timi Ebikagboro, Board member of the Delta State FA said his chairman Pinnick Amaju

days ago offering prayers of leapfrogging to the peak of noble aspirations in all human endeavours in 2014” Pa Ojidoh, a former Chairman of the Old Bendel State Football Association, retired School Principal, FIFAbadged Referee and football development advocate during his life time also held several other key positions in sports including heading investigative panels that made insightful recommendations on developmental issues and also headed the very popular Pepsi League Awards panel from 1996 to 2001.

Championship in South Africa, with Coach Stephen Keshi stating that he plans to take some of the outstanding players from CHAN to the World Cup. Eagles next match is a friendly against Mexico in Atalanta on March 5 before the team proceed to Houston for a preWorld Cup camping.

Eagles are in the same Group with Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iran, who they kickoff their campaign against on June 16 in Curitibia. will be devastated. “….he was a fountain of knowledge.

He consulted him often…..”

Chief Ojidoh, foremost referee in his days will be best remembered as the game-master who stunned the Nigerian Soccer scene with Abudu Rovers a team he raised from scratch.

He rose to become chairman of the Midwest football Association and can lay claim to the emergence of top clubs Bendel Insurance and New Nigerian Bank.

Until his death he was a regular commentator on current happenings in our sports. According to veteran journalist Mitchell Obi “………We spoke last Saturday.

How sad.”

He was also a Vanguard columnist, whose write-ups stirred up lots of debates in the sporting press.

54 —

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Eto’o eyes EPL title S

AMUEL Eto’o has told French newspaper Le Monde that his career will be ‘complete’ if he wins the Premier League title with Chelsea this season.

“I had the chance to play in Spain, we won,” Eto’o told Le Monde. “I had the chance to play in Italy, we won. And I hope that, thanks to God, I will also win a title in England. And I think my career will be complete.

“I have nothing to show. I’m Samuel Eto’o.

And I do not think I have to show anything to anyone.

“I should rather try to take pleasure. Those who analyse football know that my performances are there.

“From the sidelines, I cannot show what I’m capable of. Jose knows what I can do on the pitch.”

The forward continued: “Maybe I would not have joined Chelsea, however at the time of (Anzhi’s billionaire owner M. Suleyman) Kerimov’s problems we had to look at the possibilities that could be on the market.

“The Chelsea opportunity ended up presenting itself. Every great player who had a career like I had would have gone to a club like Chelsea".

*Eto’o

Madrid boils for Real, Atletico clash

*Costa

R

EAL Madrid can expect a stern test of their Copa del Rey credentials when Atletico Madrid visit the Bernabeu in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals on Wednesday.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men have already faced their cross-town rivals twice this season, losing on both occasions, and will

undoubtedly be doubly determined to silence their critics with a strong showing in mid-week.

This match presents the hosts with the perfect opportunity to lay down a marker ahead of two more repeat clashes between these two sides later this month.

Ancelotti is expected to name Iker Casillas in the starting line-up, with the Spain international having featured sparingly in the Primera Division this term.

Rojiblancos boss Diego Simeone, meanwhile, will be aiming to make a hat-trick of victories over Los Blancos as he looks to steer his side to their second cup final of the season.

We won’t sack Igesund —Jordaan

S

*Mata

Giggs backs Mata to be Man U legend

M

ANCHESTER United veteran Ryan Giggs has backed Juan Mata to become a club legend.

Giggs insists Mata has what it takes to make the grade at United and when asked if he could become a United great, the Welshman told

MUTV: “I think he could be.

“He’s obviously got the talent. I don’t want to put too much pressure on him but I don’t see why not.”

“We’ve played against him for the last three years and know the quality he has got.”

OUTH African F o o t b a l l Association (SAFA) president Danny Jordaan said Gordon Igesund’s job with the national team was safe for now.

“I am aware that there is speculation surrounding Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund.

“I read in the news that this coach or that coach is coming to take over from Gordon. Well, I want to say that, at the moment, there is no vacancy.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 — 55

C M Y K

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Pa Ojidoh, dies at 88

T

HE death has been announced of a veteran sports administrator, Pa John Ojidoh. He would have clocked 88 on July 19.

A terse phone call from his Ilah country home in Oshimili North Local Government Area by his son Edward yesterday

Road to Brazil:

Eagles, Spain, Bosnia to headline 8-team tourney A

HEAD of the summer World Cup in Brazil, the Super Eagles are scheduled to take part in a pre-World Cup eight-team tournament alongside Spain and Ivory Coast.

The competition tagged ‘Road to Brazil’ which is being organized by the Major League Soccer (MLS) will take place in the United States between May 27 to June 10.

Other countries scheduled to take part in the competition are; Nigeria’s Group F opponents in the World Cup, BosniaHerzegovania alongside Honduras and Continues on Page 53

Arsenal, Chelsea in Balotelli battle

M

POINT BLANK.......Super Eagles’ Chinoso Obiozor (C) scores against Zimbabwe’s goalie George Chigova during the third place match of CHAN on February 1. PHOTO: AFP

ARIO Balotelli could be making a return to the Premier League with rumours of Arsenal and Chelsea being interested in the striker.

The volatile 23-yearold has been at Milan for little over a year after he made the switch to the San Siro following three-years spent at Manchester City.

Balotelli’s future at the

Continues on Page 53

confirmed the death “ last night by 6pm” (Monday). The sad story ,, corroborated by his was Lagos based daughter Mrs Ngozi Iwere, wife of renowned journalist Ted

Continues on Page 53

Kenya to get CHAN 2018

K

ENYA could become the default hosts of the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) after no official bids were collected by CAF for the tournament.

According to The Star, the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) were informed that they could be in line to host the tournament, after missing out on the 2019 and 2021 African Nations Cup (AFCON) tournaments.

The news was confirmed by FKF president Sam Nyamweya, who revealed details of a meeting.

The Kenyan delegation, which included vice president Robert Asembo, secretary general Michael Esakwa and marketing manager Gerald Chege, met in

Continues on Page 53

QUICK CROSSWORD

Sudoku TODAY'S

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

Across 1 Lariat (5) 5 Appliance (6) 8 Enlist (5) 10 Sofa (6) 11 Soon (4) 14 Harm (6) 15 Duck (7) 18 Jewel (3) 19 Tune (3) 21 Clergyman (4) 23 Collier (5) 24 Pitcher (4) 27 Entrap (3) 29 Material (3) 31 Discharge (7) 32 Felt (6) 34 Scorch (4) 35 Team (6) 38 Of old (5) 39 Stimulus (6) 40 Worship (5)

Down 2 Imitate (3) 3 Subside (6) 4 Individual (3) 5 Pleased (4) 6 Fated (6) 7 Inn (6) 9 Chorus (7) 12 Horse (3) 13 Title (4) 16 Afresh (4) 17 Ate (5) 20 Withdrew (7) 22 Turning-point (4) 24 Swallow (6) 25 Cupid (4) 26 Rescind (6) 28 Threaten (6) 30 Vegetable (3) 33 Fall (4) 36 Meadow (3) 37 Stray (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS Across: 1, Sparse 5, Head 8, Ahead 9, Rum 10, Rota 11, Till 12, Erect 13, Behead 16, Mere 18, Emit 20, Fir 22, Don 23, Tap 24, Hire 25, Idea 28, Dreamt 30, Scrap 32, Spit 33, Tuna 34, Ire 35, Reset 36, Deed 37, Talent.

Down: 1, Scribe 2, Armchair 3, Stream 4, Sharpened 5, Hatchet 6, Edit 7, Dull 8, Ate 14, Dedicated 15, Zip 17, Rod 19, Magazine 20, Fit 21, Reacted 26, Armada 27, Street 29, Used 30, Sire 31, Put.

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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