Why I exposed missing oil revenue — SANUSI

C M Y K

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 62074

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ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Don't sleep until peace Nigerian Olympian, returns to Borno, Jonathan Ambrose Monye bags tells service chiefs 8 life jail in S-Africa P.64 ....NAF bombards Sambisa Forest for Boko Haram

Why I exposed missing oil revenue — SANUSI •Insists it will make public officers accountable •I'm not afraid to step on toes, he boasts •CNPP, Gbajabiamila, other Reps react

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE, OKEY NDIRIBE, EMMA OVUAKPORE, JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU, JOSEPH ERUNKE & CHRIS OCHAYI

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AGOS—THE Gov ernor of the Central. Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, yesterday, explained that he exposed the opaque management of oil revenue in the country so that it could lead to people being asked to explain

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COLUMNISTS: Is'haq Modibbo Kawu•P.17

Josef•P.19

Omorotionmwan

Mr & Mrs VISIT—From left: National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu'azu; Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State and elder statesman, Chief E.K. Clark, during a visit of the Delta State PDP to the party's National Chairman in Abuja, yesterday.

First Bank, GT Bank, DEFECTION: Senate P.8 Zenith make global adjourns to avoid crisis 500 brands •Set to grill IG Abubakar over Rivers P.9

2 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

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POCKET CARTOON

NYAKO REGISTERS—Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa (R), registering for All Progressives Congress (APC) membership at his Ward in Mayo-Belwa Local Government of Adamawa, yesterday. Photo: NAN.

Why I exposed missing oil revenue — Sanusi Continues from page 1 what they had done with the money. He also said that he "loves controversy".

According to the CBN Governor, the controversy surrounding the the missing oil revenue was also good for the country.

Sanusi spoke Tuesday night, while addressing the Standard Bank’s West Africa Investors Conference.

His words: "A lot of the noise that is happening in the country today around me and the oil sector is good for the country because at the end of the day, if it leads to improved governance of oil revenue; if it leads

to increased transparency or people having to be called to explain what they have done with the money- that is good for the system.

“People must not see controversy and noise as necessarily bad. I love controversy. If you think there has to be change and if you think a system needs to be improved; and if you get too comfortable in a system, you should ask yourself what has happened to you. You need to step on a few toes, annoy a few people, have your own toes stepped on. You will be annoyed once in a while, of course they will slap you once in a

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

Never test the depth of a river with both feet.

Take life one step at a time.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

S

UCCESS is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome —Booker T. Washington And from Alain Botton from his TED presentation about a kinder gentler philosophy of success, he says that one of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. A lot of the time our ideas about what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They’re sucked in from other people. And we also suck in messages from everything from the television to advertising to marketing, etcetera. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own.

We should focus on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along. And remember that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

while.”

Sanusi however, assured the gathering of the commitment of the CBN to the stability of the exchange rate, saying the apex bank would continue to defend the Naira as long as there was stable crude oil prices.

“We have tried to build a stable environment and for us at the CBN, we have been very lucky to have had a very good partner in the finance ministry. If you look at government spending in 2013, it really wasn’t much higher in 2012 and fiscal policy is not in itself loose on the basis of government spending.

“The real challenge is that there are things that we can do to block some of the revenue shortfalls that are causing the problem — oil theft and bunkering because we have good oil price; we have got the output and if you fix that, the issue of reserves; currency stability, fiscal deficit would simply disappear.

But government spending itself has not been the problem. It is largely because of the fiscal discipline in the last few years that our tight monetary policy has been able to work.

“We have been able to bring down inflation to single digit and it has been below 10 per cent since January 2012. It would remain below 10 per cent throughout 2014. I know there is speculation about how much money will come into the economy during elections, but how much money is there anyway?

It's $2.5 billion in the Excess Crude Account.

So even if people want to spend money, the

money won’t be available. So the risk from that end is not as high as people might think.

“The greater risk is if we continue to have deterioration in the revenue profile and that can be addressed because it is really a factor within our control. So we have low inflation and the CBN has a stable exchange rate as the cornerstone of its price stability policy and that has been communicated very clearly to the market.

"We have always had our eyes on stability. We are willing to tighten money; we are willing to use reserves within reasonable limits to give you the investors, an anchor for your expectations.

“We don’t want people to come to the market worrying about whether the Naira is going to be on a free fall. Now we do not guarantee that if oil prices fall, there will be no exchange rate movement. But so long as we have stable oil prices, stable output, stable macro conditions, we are committed to exchange rate stability and we will support the currency and that stability is what I think will continue in the future,” he said.

Reactions trail allegation

Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the allegation by the CBN governor that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has failed to remit $20 billion into the coffers of the Federal Government, in a public hearing at the Senate, Tuesday.

Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, in his reaction told Vanguard that it’s a shame that such a huge amount could not be accounted for. “It simply brings home the position our caucus took at the budget debate, yesterday, (Tuesday). The reason such colossal sums can disappear is because of the non-compliance with Section 21 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and refusal of the Minister of Finance to submit the detailed estimates of agencies such as NNPC to the National Assembly as prescribed by law. It is a crying shame and an indictment on the NASS that it has taken the Governor of CBN to discover what we should have,

had we properly discharged our oversight functions by insisting on compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act,” he said.

In the same vein, Rep Pally Iriase (APC, Edo State), said Nigerians should show concern on the issues of accountability in government agencies.

His words: “Nigerians should be concerned about the lack of accountability by NNPC and even other revenue agencies. The latest revelation vindicates the House of Representatives’ insistence that the current budget must comply fully with the Fiscal Responsibility Act”.

On his part, Rep Abiodun Faleke (PDP, Lagos) said CBN would be invited to give further explanations on the unremitted fund. “It is shocking. We will write him to request for the details for our investigation,” he said.

Chairman, House committee on e-Parliament, Rep Razaq Bello-Osagie said: “This ugly development is unfortunate and a show of shame.

Nigeria is now a laughing stock in the comity of nations. This has vindicated our position at the National Assembly for insisting that the 2014 budget estimates forwarded to the National Assembly by the Executive must be accompanied by details of budget estimates of Agencies and corporations under the Federal Government.”

Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, Ekiti State, called for vigilance so that the allegation is not swept under the carpet, noting that issues of public finance, transparency and accountability should be taken seriously.

Adetumbi who is the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior, said: “It is only when all unremitted funds are accounted for that Nigerians will be assured that

they have not been short-changed. The time has come for all Nigerians to show more interest and pay serious attention to issues of public finance, transparency and accountability. I have been watching with keen interest the ongoing investigations on the alleged unremitted $49.9bn funds, now reviewed downwards to $20bn by the CBN Governor from oil exports into the Federation Account.

Also reacting in a telephone interview with Vanguard, former Governor of Ekiti State, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, said: “No matter the figure Sanusi mentioned, it is obvious that money is missing. Whether it is $10 billion, $12 billion or $20 billion, it is obvious that money is missing and it should be investigated.”

Senator Emma Anosike from Anambra State, however, flayed the CBN governor, accusing him of playing to the gallery. "I feel so disappointed in the sense that the Central Bank Governor should stop playing to the gallery.

The last time he spoke to this country, he came out, first of all made an allegation and the second time, he came and apologized that he had reconciled with them.

This time around, he has said that $20 billion is missing. Who do we believe? How do we have confidence in this kind of person?"

Sanusi, however, found strong support from the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP saying the body entirely agreed with Sanusi. Mr. Okechukwu told Vanguard that, “one entirely agrees with the Governor of the CBN that money is missing from revenue accruing to Nigeria between January 2012 to July 2013; the only missing link is the exact amount, but the truth remains that some money was stolen.

6—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Man, 22, docked for defiling 14-year-old girl

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AGOS— An Ebute Meta Chief Magistrate Court in Lagos, yesterday, remanded a 22-year-old man, Kamoru Lawal, who allegedly defiled a 14-yearold girl.

Lawal, who also assaulted an 11-year-old-girl, is facing a five-count charge of conspiracy, stealing, assault, defiling and threat to life.

The Chief Magistrate, Miss S.O. Solebo, who did not take the plea of the accused, ordered that he should be remanded in prison custody, pending legal advice from the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions.

The Prosecutor, Inspecdor Richard Odigie, told the court that the victims were on their way home from church after a vigil when the accused attacked them and took them to an uncompleted building.

He said: “The accused and three others, still at large, unlawfully had sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old victim and assaulted the 11-year-old by beating her up with bottles, sticks and knives.

“The victims screamed for help until an eyewitness came to their rescue and rushed them to the hospital.

Killer policeman dismissed, arraigned in Benin

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

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ENIN— THE Police of ficer, Mr Valentine Ofuamaka, 39, who allegedly shot and killed one Osagie Aisagbonbuomwan, a truck driver, last Saturday, has been remanded in prison by an Ogbeson Chief Magistrate Court sitting at Ikpoba Hill, Benin, Edo State.

The policeman and another now at large, according to the prosecution, allegedly committed the offence punishable under sections 324 and 316 of the criminal code.

The presiding Chief Magistrate, Mr Jonathan Ogbeide, declined jurisdiction to hear the matter due to its nature.

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AGOS — A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere, yesterday, remanded three men in prison custody for allegedly conspiring with others at large to steal N18.8 million from Total Plc account in Access Bank, Ikorodu Branch, Lagos.

The three men, Christopher Clement, Victor Akusode and Obinna Sunday Timothy, were arraigned by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. In a seven-count charge preferred against the defendants, EFCC accused Clement of facilitating the execution of the offence after having unauthorised access to the computer and software programme of the bank.

Clement was also said to have modified the computer programme of the bank to enable the alleged fraud on August 23, 2013 take place.

According to the charge, the defendants later split the sto-

The killer cop, former Corporal Valentine Ofuamaka, being led by a prison official into the Black Maria after arraignment in Benin City, yesterday.

Security guard arrested over kidnap of his employer's 9-year-old son

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

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SABA — THE Police in Delta State have arrested a security guard attached to the director of a plastic company in Oleh, over his alleged complicity in the kidnap of his master’s

3 remanded in prison for robbing oil firm of N18.8m

BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

The court ordered that the case file be duplicated and forwarded to Edo State Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice.

However, the accused's plea was not taken by the court and the case was adjourned till March 7, 2014 for mention.

Meanwhile, Edo State Commissioner of Police, Mr Funsho Adebanjo, in a statement in Benin, yesterday, announced the dismissal of the killer policeman from the Nigeria Police Force after an Orderly Room Trial in accordance with relevant police regulations.

He assured the public of his determination to wipe out all acts of overzealousness and high-handedness in the conduct of members of the force in his command.

len sum and transferred it into different accounts domiciled with Access Bank.

However, when the charge was read to them, they pleaded not guilty and the prosecutor, Mrs. F. Giwa, urged the court to remand them in prison custody pending their trial.

Counsel to the defendants, Mr. Jide Olasite, however, urged the court to remand the defendants in EFCC custody on the grounds that the first and second defendants had already began plea bargain talks with the prosecution.

Olasite also informed the court that the third defendant (Timothy), who was arrested in Kaduna and brought to Lagos for trial, has nobody around to cater for him in prison.

Ruling on the application, the trial judge, Justice Aishat Opesanwo, ordered that the defendants be remanded in prison custody till February 13.

nine-year-old son.

Police preliminary investigation, it was gathered, showed that the security guard was allegedly fingered in the kidnap plot despite the fact that when the kidnappers stormed the residence of his master, they tied him up to give the impression that he was a stumbling block while the boy was taken away.

State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Celestina Kalu, gave an account on how the incident took place.

He said: “On 30/1/2014, one Raphael Oweh ‘m,’ the Director of Aston Plastic Company

Oleh, reported the kidnap of his nine-year-old son, Richard Owhe ‘m.’

"The victim was kidnapped on the same date at 0230 hours by four unknown gunmen, who broke into his residence after tying the company’s staff/security men.

“Sequel to the report, operatives of the special antikidnapping squad, Asaba commenced investigation which yielded positive result on 3/2/2014 when the operatives, in collaboration with Government House tracking team, acting on a tip off, stormed a criminal hideout at

Ogbulu-Koso quarters, by DSC Road, Warri and rescued the victim unhurt, without payment of ransom, and arrested one Samuel Williams ‘m’ who is a watchman to the complainant (master).

“The suspect confessed to the crime and volunteered to lead operatives to another criminal hideout in the area to arrest his accomplices.

"However, the team ran into an ambush apparently laid by other members of the suspect’s gang, and at the end of the ensuing gun battle, the hoodlums fled with bullet wounds.”

A car engulfed by fire at the Central Business District area near Bolingo junction, in Abuja, yesterday. INSET: The driver of the car. PHOTOS: NAN.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 —7

Man in court for attempting to dupe minister

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Traders salvaging their wares as Kara market in Sokoto is engulfed by fire, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN.

5 killed, 13 injured in Anambra road crash

BY NWABUEZE OKONKWO

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NITSHA — NO fewer than five persons, including a commercial bus driver were feared dead, while about 13 others sustained injuries when their commuter bus had a head-on collision with a truck along the everbusy Enugu/Onitsha Expressway.

The incident, involving the commuter bus with an inscription, Psalm 121 Express, occured between the former toll gate at Ogbunike and NkwelleEzunaka junction, along the expressway.

According to an eye-witness, the bus was heading towards Enugu from the Onitsha end of the dual carriage way, while the truck was from Awka to Onitsha when they collided.

The major cause of the incident, according the officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, was that a construction company is currently working on one lane of the dual carriageway and as a result, only one lane of the road was being used.

In a telephone chat with news-

men yesterday, the Nteje Unit Commander of the FRSC, Mr. Sunday Joseph, however, confirmed that only one person (a man) was found dead at the scene of the incident, while others sustained injuries and were rushed

to Iyi-Enu Hospital in Ogidi.

Joseph who attributed incidents to over-speeding by commercial drivers along the highways and cautioned road users to avoid over-speeding in this place where only one lane is being used.

89-yr-old woman kidnapped by grandsons dies one week after release

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

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WKA — AN 89–year-old Adafor Madueke, kidnapped by her two grand children at Adazi Ani in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State, has died one week after her rescue from the kidnappers’ den.

Madam Madueke was kidnapped by Kingsley Madueke, 24, with the connivance of his younger brother, Matthew Madueke, 22, and two others and was rescued at Oyeagu, Abagana in Njikoka Local Government Area after N3 million ransom was paid. She, however, died one week after.

Anambra State Director of DSS, Mr. Alex Okeiyi, who pa-

raded the kidnap suspects, yesterday, in Awka said the N3 million ransom was paid on December 23, 2013 at Obollo Afor in Enugu State, adding that her death was apparently due to her ordeal in the custody of the kidnappers.

Okeiyi said: “Investigation showed that the kidnap was hatched by the victim’s grandson, Kingsley, on December 14, 2013 and executed on December 17, 2013 with the assistance of his younger brother, Matthew.”

According to him, other suspects involved were Chukwunonso Onuzulike from Enugu State and a 23year-old fresh graduate of

Ojikutu's arraignment adjourned till today

BY INNOCENT ANABA

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AGOS — A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, adjourned the arraignment of the former deputy governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu till today at the instance of the prosecution.

Ojikutu is to be docked on a three count charge by the Police alongside his son, Sampson, who is now at large, for conspiring among themselves to obtain N130

One of the eyewitnesses who simply identified himself as Mocha, told newsmen on phone that he was not sure if there was any survivor in the fully loaded commercial bus as the bus was damaged beyond repair.

million from one Cajetan Okekearu.

At the hearing in the matter, yesterday, before Justice Mohammed Yunusa, the prosecution informed the court that the accused could not be produced in court due to some logistic challenges and prayed the court to adjourn the arraignment till today.

Defence counsel did not oppose the application for adjournment, consequently, the trial judge ad-

journed till today for the accused proper arraignment.

Ojikutu was alleged to have committed the offence by pretending to have a plot of land at Lekki Phase 1, to sell to Okekearu.

The offence, the police said, is punishable under section 8 (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other related offences Act, Cap. A6, laws of the federation, 2004.

Political Science from Odumegwu Ojukwu University, who is the leader of Black Axe Confreternity in the campus and Gabriel Nnaji, a 400level student of public administration from the same university, also from Enugu State.

Kingsley Madueke told Vanguard at the headquarters of DSS that he planned to kidnap his grandmother because he and his brother were finding things difficult financially in school because their father was having family problems with their uncle who has stopped assisting them in school.

“I felt that the only way to get money from my uncle was by kidnapping our grandmother,” he said, adding that it never mattered to him that the woman was too old to bear the trauma of kidnapping.

Also paraded, yesterday, were four other kidnap suspects who abducted Mr. Leo Ilozumba, the Special Assistant to the Anambra State Commissioner for Works.

The suspects, Nnamdi Emelife, Emmanuel Nweke, Peter Obiorah and Samuel Akpu, who returned from South Africa recently where he was a barber, confessed collecting N1 million as ransom for the release of Ilozumba.

BUJA — The Po lice, yesterday, arraigned a 27-year-old man in Wuse Zone 2 Senior Magistrate Court, Abuja, for attempting to dupe the Minister of Power and Steel, Prof. Chinedu Nebo.

The man, Henry Uzoma of Julius Berger Quarry, Mpape, Abuja, had allegedly called the minister on phone, demanding for money.

The police prosecutor, Cpl. David Udeh, informed the court that on January 31, at about 3 p.m, one Dr Chris Anyanwu of Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, came to Wuse police station to report the matter.

Udeh told the court that on January 28, at about 7 a.m, Uzoma used a mobile phone to call the minister and inform him that his (Uzoma’s) mother, was dead.

The prosecutor said the accused then requested Nebo to send him some money, but that upon enquiry, it was discovered that the information was false as Uzoma was only trying to dupe the minister.

Udeh said that the offence contravened Sections 95 and 178 of the provisions of the Penal Code Law, as such he was charging him with “attempt to commit cheating”.

However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Counsel to the accused, Mr Azubuike Moneke, urged the court to grant the accused bail in accordance with Section 36 of 1999 constitution, as Uzoma was a first time offender.

Senior Magistrate Mimi Katsina-Ala admitted the accused to bail in the sum of N50,000, and a surety in like sum, who has a reasonable means of livelihood and resident within the jurisdiction of the court.

She then adjourned the matter to March 3 for hearing.

8—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

BY BEN AGANDE; KINGSLEY OMONOBI & NDAHI MARAMA

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BUJA — PRESI-DENT Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, decorated the new heads of the armed forces as well as the Chief of Defence Staff, with a charge not to sleep until the war on terror in the North-Eastern part of the country was won and Nigerians in Borno State were also able to sleep.

This came as the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, yesterday said that it had begun air strikes at the Sambisa Forest in Borno State where the Boko Haram insurgents have their cells.

Meantime, security agencies are being hampered by their inability to curtail the upsurge in ethnic and religious killings in some parts of the Middle Belt states of Plateau, Benue and Nasarawa states as well as Southern Kaduna, in Kaduna State.

The President, who was assisted by the Vice President and spouses of the security chiefs, told them that they could not afford to disappoint Nigerians at this critical time of the country’s history.

He said: “Whenever I am decorating military officers, I commend their wives because it is not easy to be barrack-based and for you to rise to this limelight.

But for the service chiefs, I don’t know whether I should congratulate you or sympathise with you because of the circumstances of the moment. ”When I was in secondary school, I read one article written by late Dr. Tai Solarin and there is one clause where he said ‘I wish you what I wish myself every year. May your road be rough.’

So I think I will wish you what I wish myself every year and I say may we have enough hard time this period because none of us will sleep until Nigerians in Borno State can sleep. ”That is why I say, today is not a moment for major statements.

We will be having frank talks from time to time, but definitely Nigerians will tell you what they expect from us, we must not fail this country. I believe this team will work together to be assisted by other intelligence services because the war against terror must be won in this country.

“I congratulate you all and your wives. I have worked with some of you in one way or the other and I am convinced that we selected the right team.”

Responding on behalf of the service chiefs, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, while thanking the President for considering them worthy of appointment and giving them the opportunity to be the first to be confirmed by Nigerians via the National Assembly, assured that the service chiefs would not fail him and the good people of Nigeria.

According to him, they will work in harmony to fight the scourge of terrorism, kidnapping and oil bunkering, adding that the military would continue to de-

President Goodluck Jonathan (right) and Vice President Namadi Sambo (left) decorating Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Usman Jibrin with his new rank. With them is his wife. State House Photo.

Don't sleep until peace returns to Borno, Jonathan tells Service Chiefs zAs NAF bombards Sambisa forest for Boko Haram zWhy security agencies can't curtail insurgents' upsurge fend the nation’s territorial integrity and ensure security in the country.

NAF bombards Sambisa forest

The 79 Composite Group, NAF, in Maiduguri, Borno State has intensified its efforts in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists as its air operations have reportedly led to heavy casualties on the side of the insurgents living in their cells around the Sambisa forest.

The Group’s Public Relations Officer, Squadron Leader Chris Erondu said in a statement yesterday that “unperturbed by the incessant threats by the Boko Haram terrorists in the NorthEast, especially the insurgents' recent attacks and sacking of many communities in Borno State, the NAF is increasingly committed in the current fight against terrorism not only in the state, but the country in general.

“Accordingly, in line with NAF’s task to restore normalcy in the city of Maiduguri, the 79 Composite Group had in the couple of weeks been providing air support to other sister security operatives of the ‘Operation Zaman Lafiya’ in the state. ”Based on intelligence reports on the excesses of the Boko Haram insurgents, our group in conjunction with the 75 Strike Group, NAF, Yola deployed air platforms which carry out air surveillance, interdiction and raid operations on identified Boko Haram hideouts located at Bullabulin, Yujiwa, Alagarno, Damboa axis of the state. ’’As a results of these air opera-

tions, we have made remarkable achievement as the insurgents, who are retreating to neighbouring countries, such as Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic, have suffered heavy casualties, after destroying their camps in the Sambisa forest.”

Why security agencies can't curtail insurgents' upsurge

Vanguard investigations showed that apart from the inability of security agencies to deploy personnel to the various communities so far attacked, lack of or non availability of equipment to assist in the tracking, monitoring and containment of the hoodlums, who carry out the attacks and disappear, was making efforts of the agencies herculean tasks.

The Boko Haram insurgents had been operating from the various porous borders of the North-East, especially in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States, killing scores of innocent Christians and Muslims, and fleeing the country without arrest, even as the military which was implementing the emergency laws had continued to take out those that strayed into their areas of operation.

Middle Belt states challenges

In the Middle Belt states of Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa and Southern Kaduna, Fulani herdsmen had also continued to attack, kill and main citizens while revenge attacks by citizens on ‘settlers’ have continued despite efforts of security personnel.

At the weekend, an Islamic

cleric, Sheik Mohammed Albani was assassinated in Zaria for daring to question the wisdom in the attacks being carried out by the Boko Haram adherents, pointing out that there was nowhere in the Quran where their actions were justified by Islamic injunctions.

Some security agents who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Vanguard: “The hoodlums under whatever guise, when they want to carry out sinister acts, go to communities far off from the areas where troops and other security agencies were stationed.

"Another thing is that because of the remoteness of some of the communities, it is not possible to deploy our men to all the communities.”

Explaining that the way out was for government to acquire more equipment for the NAF and the army because of the terrain involved, the source said: "If the air force had enough aircraft, for instance, they would be carrying out air patrols, and then would be able to inform the ground troops to move in and checkmate the attacks.

Obsolete equipment

"But even when the air patrols are carried out, sometimes, the movement of troops to the scene of attack have been hampered by obsolete equipment that were available to the army.

"There have been instances where tyres’ of military vehicles like armoured tanks and other equipment had failed in times of urgent need because most of them were worn out and had not been replaced.”

The source noted that but for the determination and dexterity of officers of the armed services who, out of necessity carried out local rehabilitation and refitting of some of the equipment in use currently, the story of terrorism activities and other cross border crimes, would have been unpalatable.

Disclosing that the budgetary process and the reluctance by relevant stakeholders in the release of resources for equipment acquisition especially modern military hardware which would have made the fight better handled was also a major setback, the source added: “Buying military equipment is not something you get off the shelf.

"The weaponry has to be built to specification and involve huge amount because they are denominated in foreign currencies. I bet you, if the equipment are available, even the Boko Haram insurgency people are talking about would have been drastically curtailed.”

Recalling that the last time the military were properly equipped was in the 1980’s during civil administrations, the top shot said: “It is now that it is dawning on the country what the past military administrations did to the military.

They virtually demobilized the armed forces. If not for the rebuilding under this democracy, these hoodlums would have thoroughly embarrassed the armed forces and the country.

“If the armed forces and the police are properly equipped and insulated from politics, issues of procurement and acquisition of weaponry, terrorism and other attacks on communities would be checkmated.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—9

Those leaving PDP are nomads —MAKU

BY BENAGANDE

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BUJA—MINISTER of Information and Supervising Minister of Defence, Labaran Maku yesterday described those who have defected from the r uling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, as nomads who were always engaged in decamping from one party to the other.

In an interview in Abuja yesterday, Mr. Maku said though no party would like to lose its members, sometimes it was better to lose weight to gain strength which was what was happening in the PDP now.

According to him, those who have left the PDP for the APC were already causing problems in their new parties because of their inability to subject themselves to democratic practices.

He said: “I have always said that, no party would be happy to lose their members to any other party because every political party would wish that it is able to retain all its members. No organisation would want to lose its member so it is not something you will beat your chest and say you are happy when your members leave. ‘’But I have also, always made a point that sometimes you need to lose weight to gain strength and that is exactly what has happened in PDP. “When a number of these people were leaving PDP I said the party would be healthier in the long run.

First of all, if you look at all the people that have left PDP, some of them are the people that have caused all the headaches in the party. They have been the ones attacking their party; they are very quarrelsome. ‘’Some of them cannot stay under the same roof with anybody for one week without the top being blown off. A number of these people who left, if you take a look at the history of our party and look at their antecedents, you will see that they are migrants, they keep migrating from one place to another."

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BY OMOHGABRIEL

AGOS—THREE Nigerian banks out of the 24 banks in the country made the Banker 500 global bank brand ranking 2014.

The three banks are First Bank Plc, GTbank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc. However, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated was ranked the most valuable brand in Africa – outside South Africa - in the annual ranking of the global banking and financial magazine ‘The Banker’ in its special edition Brand Finance Banking 500 of February 2014.

First Bank of Nigeria Limited, for the third consecutive year was ranked as Nigeria’s number one banking brand in the 2014 Top 500 Banking Brands Ranking of the world just released by The Banker Magazine a publication of Financial Times Group in its February edition and Brand Finance in the United Kingdom.

According to a release by the Country Representative– Nigeria, The Banker, Mr. Kunle Ogedengbe, First Bank came top among the Nigerian banks and was joined in the ranking in second and third place by Guaranty Trust Bank and Zenith Bank respectively.

Nigerian banks

According to the ranking First Bank is ranked 382 in the world out of the best 500 brands from its position of 414 last year. The brand value of the bank also increased to $228 million from $201 million from the preceding year. Guaranty Trust Bank on its part was ranked 422 among the 500 global best brands from its previous ranking of 415, while Zenith Bank moved a notch higher as it was ranked 453 from its previous position of 454 last year.

Apart from the three banks, no other Nigerian bank made the ranking. Brand Finance is the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy which advises branded organisations on how to maximise their value through the effective management of their brands and intangible assets.

According to The Top 500 Banking Brands report, though there are numerous ways of calculating brand value, Brand Finance which compiled the ranking used royalty relief method that values the brand based on what would be paid to use the brand if it were owned by a third party. The method is recognised by courts and tax authorities.

The valuations of the brand take into account brand-specific financial and revenue data, model the market to identify market demand and the position of individual banks in the context of all other market competitors, establish the royalty rate for each bank, calculate the discount rate specific to each bank (taking account of its size, geographical presence, reputation, gearing and brand rating) and discount future royalty stream to a net present value, that is, the brand

DECORATION: Vice President Namadi Sambo (left), Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, embracing his wife, after his decoration in Abuja, yesterday. Photo: State House.

3 Nigerian banks make global 500 brands zWells Fargo, US lead the pack zFirst Bank, 382; Guaranty Trust Bank, 422 and Zenith Bank, 453 value.

According to the Africa Editor of the magazine, Mr. Paul Wallace, brand value of Nigerian banks increased by three per cent to $593 million. This made Nigeria to be among the Top 50 countries of the world by total brand value.

Top 10 ranking

The top 10 banking brands in the world remain in America, Europe and Asia. The 2014 number one banking brand in the world is Wells Fargo (USA) which was second last year. It is followed by HSBC (UK) Bank of America, Citi, JP Morgan Chase (all from USA), ICBC (China), BNP Paribas (France), Santander (Spain), China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China.

Ecobank declared most valuable in Africa

Meanwhile Ecobank Transnational Incorporated was ranked the most valuable brand in Africa – outside South Africa in the annual ranking of the global banking and financial magazine ‘The Banker.’

Present in more African countries than any other bank in the world, Ecobank has successfully taken advantage of its unparalleled footprint to increase its brand value of 15 per cent in one year. The ranking which was recently made public estimates the value of the brand to USD $ 243 million and boosts the Group to the 367th place in the top 500 most valuable brands in the global banking industry, a jump of 32 places from last year.

According to The Banker/

Brand Finance ® Banking 500, if such performance is sustained, Ecobank could soon start to challenge the South African banks in the ranking of the top five brands with strong value on the African continent. The Banker is part of the London based ‘Financial Times.”

Thierry Tanoh, Group Chief Executive Officer said: “Our understanding of Africa’s cultural diversity, our deep attachment to the values of pan-Africanism, and our ability to contribute to our alignment on topical market issues and to respond satisfactorily to the aspirations of the African peoples regarding banking products and services.

This award confirms that we remain a landmark for African businesses and individuals alike."

Poly teachers vow to continue strike after NEC meeting release of the White paper on

BY LAJU ARENYEKA &

AHMED IBRAHIM

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BUJA—AFTER 110 days of strike, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, has said that polytechnic lecturers will not return to their classrooms until the union’s demands are met by the Federal Government.

ASUP made this declaration yesterday after a National Executive Council meeting of the union in Abuja.

In an interview with Vanguard after the meeting, the ASUP President, Dr. Chibuzor Asomugha said:

“The entire country is worried about the situation. But the Government does not seem to care. The ASUP-NEC has rejected the government’s offer to pay the arrears owed us since 2009, if we call off the strike.

"There is no seriousness on the part of the Government to negotiate any of the issues.

Before we suspended the strike in July 2013, Government picked four of the 13 issues from our 2009 agreement and said those issues would be handled in two weeks.

"These four issues include;

Visitation to Federal Polytechnics, the completion of the constitution of the governing councils for federal polytechnics, the migration of the lower cadre on CONTISS 15 salary scale, and the commencement of the Needs Assessment of Nigerian polytechnics.

"Union suspended the strike, and gave Government a one month time frame to resolve these issues. It was not until ASUP resumed its strike in January that the Federal Government commenced Needs Assessment and completed the constitution of the governing councils for federal polytechnics."

10—Vanguard , THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Lagos House warns communities over boundary disputes

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BY EBUN SESSOU

AGOS—LAGOS State House of Assembly, has warned residents of Egbin and Ijede in Ijede Local Council Development Area, LCDA, not to cause breach of peace and destruction of lives and property over boundary issues.

Chairman of the five-man ad-hoc committee set up to look at the petition forwarded to it by Egbin Joint Community Development Association, Mrs. Lola Akande gave the warning at a meeting with the traditional ruler of the two communities in Alausa.

According to him, parties involved should not cause trouble pending the release of white paper by the government.

Akande said all law suit in respect of the disputed boundaries between the communities should be put on hold forthwith, pending the report of the House on the matter.

She warned the communities to check the activities of traditional festival, which is coming soon to the domain of their territory without causing trouble.

Registration: 200 dump PDP for APC in Lagos

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BY BOSEADELAJA

AGOS—AS All Progressives Congress APC, kicks off its registration exercise in Lagos State, no fewer than 200 members of Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, have defected to APC in Odi-Olowo Local Council Development Area of the state.

Among the defectors were former PDP executive members such as Haruna Adeosun, Kolawole Kareem, Sulaimon Fasasi and Lawal Wahab who were former members of Alliance for Democracy, AD, before their defection to the ruling party PDP. At a colorful ceremony which held at the party secretariat in Odiolowo yesterday, the interim chairman of the party in the area Alhaji Moshood Lawal, welcomed the defectors into the ruling party in the state.

Defection: Atiku has right to change his party —TINUBU L

BY OLASUNKANMIAKONI

A G O S — N AT I O N A L leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday, described the defection of former Vice President, Atiku Abubaker from Peoples Democratic party, PDP to APC as normal and right, saying those who defected from APC or joined it had rights to do so.

It will be recalled that Malam Ibrahim Shekarau a former governor of Kano and Attahiru Bafarawa, former governor of Sokoto among others defected to the PDP, while Atiku also left the PDP for APC. Speaking on the defections, after formally registering yesterday, as APC member at ward F, Alausa, Ikeja, Tinubu said: “I respect Bafarawa and Shekarau and they have their right to join any party.

“We cannot shackle them. We lost some members and we have also gained many.”

On Atiku’s defection, Tinubu declared that APC was an all embracing party and cannot stop anyone from joining its fold.

He said: “Let me start by defining a clear view of our party, it is all embracing; the fundamental right of people; you cannot stop people from joining the party. Atiku has a right to change his party.

“And I must speak now; everyone knows that Atiku is my friend. We are brothers. Though, we had disagreement. He was in the PDP and I remained in my party.

“No one should allow any personal disagreement to becloud his sense of judgment.

“If you see that you have taken a wrong step you can reverse it.

If he sees that he has taken a wrong step, there is no prejudice.

He has learnt from history and he is back.

“We should also remember that

when we were together in the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP, he was part of the crusade.

Everyone expected him to be Moshood Kashimawo Olawale, MKO, Abiola’s running mate but he was not picked, but he accepted it and worked to make sure that Abiola was elected. We cannot erase that. As you evaluate the present, you cannot

APC MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION: Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and his wife, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola, displaying their All Progressives Congress, APC, membership cards during the APC registration exercise, at State Senior Grammar School, Itolo, Surulere in Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Bunmi Azeez

How Lagos cleric fraudulently sold land for N54m —EFCC

BY BARTHOLOMEW

MADUKWE AGOS—AN official of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Nurudeen Bello, yesterday told a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere, how a popular Lagos cleric, Archbishop John Obi Okeke of God’s Pentecostal Mission, GPM, allegedly forged the letterhead paper of Immortal Impex (Nig.) Limited to facilitate the sale of the company’s land for N54 million.

Giving evidence before Justice Aishat Opesanwo, Bello said investigation into a petition by Moses Okafor, a director of Immortal Impex (Nig.) Ltd, that Okeke fraudulently sold the company’s land revealed that the cleric was the author of an allegedly forged letter requesting the Federal Housing Authority, FHA, to change the ownership of Plot H1, Festac Town, Lagos to the Motorcycle Spare Parts Dealers Association.

Bello told the court that the

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forget the past “How many of them are leaving. I know my mathematics.

My philosophy is freedom of movement. There are bound to be disagreements. They are allowed to remain or leave based on their acceptance of the philosophy. He has joined the crusade to rescue Nigeria."

defendant claimed that he had an understanding with the complainant to write the letter and also claimed he had a verbal agreement with Okafor to use the name of Immortal Impex Limited to get the land allocation from the FHA. The EFCC witness explained

that an official of the FHA that was invited by the commission over the allegation he presented a land allocation letter, a request for change of ownership and a deed of assignment, with the defendant allegedly admitting authoring, both the request for change of ownership signed by

Okafor and another director of Immortal Impex Limited and the deed of assigment between the company and the Motorcycle and Spare Parts Dealers Association.

Bello said: “While EFCC investigation revealed that Okafor was the one who received the letter of land allocation from FHA, Okafor claimed that he authorised the cleric to get the document on his behalf as he was traveling out of the country.”

Lagos secures conviction against 2,324 offenders

BY ABDULWAHABABDULAH

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AGOS—LAGOS State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, has said the state prosecuted about 1,373 criminal cases, noting that his ministry handled about 8,000 cases free of charge between January and December 2013.

Ipaye added that a total of 2,324 offenders were sentenced to various terms of community service, rather than sending them to prisons between January and December 2013, in line with the state government’s effort to decongest the prisons in the state without compromising the

criminal justice system.

He said that the Office of the Public Defender, OPD, handled about 7,186 court cases, while the Directorate for Citizens Rights, DCR, handled over 674 human rights cases in defense of the masses in Lagos in the same period.

According to him, these cases emanated in the high courts, magistrate, National Industrial Court, Naval Court, Family Court, Customary Court as well as the KAI court.

He said that the Office of the Public Defender treated 3,141 petitions in respect of various matters and was able to recover

N51. 26 million.

He said: “OPD was instrumental in rescuing 25 children from a home used as venue for child trafficking, but which was disguised as an orphanage and also handled the fundamental rights application filed on behalf of Chizoba Odoh, Egbujor Samuel, Alimi Abubakar and Joy Monday, who were injured by bullets fired by officers of the Nigerian Police Force attached to the Pen Cinema Police Station led by the then Divisional Police Officer, Mr. Segun Fabunmi during the January 9, 2012 fuel crises.”

Vanguard , THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 —11

Tension as masquerades storm troubled Osun school z24 students suspended indefinely over indiscipline

BY GBENGAOLARINOYE

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SOGBO—FOR two days running, tension continues to mount in Iwo, Osun state as situation at Baptist High School, Iwo yesterday took a new dimension when some students of the school mobilized masquerades to the school .

The students of the school, it was gathered also appeared in masquerade attire and prevented academic activities in the school for several hours.

The masquerades, it was gathered were mobilized to the school by some students with the collaboration of some traditionalists in the town as various religious organizations have taken interest in the crisis rocking the education sector in he state.

locking up teachers within the school premises for hours.

NUT chairman backs suspension

The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, in the state who also doubles as the State Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Alhaji Saka Adesiyan while speaking on the matter said the suspension order served on the affected students would serve as deterrent to others.

Adesiyan who described the

incident as unfortunate said different groups and clubs now spring up in secondary schools thereby having negative effect on others and denting secondary school image in the state.

He explained that the suspension order came after the state government set up a disciplinary committee to look into causes of crises in public schools, stressing the need for teachers, parents and guadians to join hands with government in instilling discipline in the students.

According to him, the crisis being witnessed in the school recently has religious and political undertone which should be nipped in the bud without delay in the interest of the country’s future.

Teachers tasked

Adesiyan called on tecahers especially NUT chairmen in all the local government councils of the state to be up and doing by reporting happenings in their schools to the appropriate authorities.

Confusion over different school uniforms

The students of the school on Tuesday caused confusion in the school as they appeared in different clothes that correlate with their religious beliefs.

While the Christian students who wore white garments sown into choir gowns sang Christian songs, the Muslim students who appeared in veil on the other hand sang Islamic songs.

The state government last year introduced same uniform for all the secondary school students in the state and also legalised the use of veil (hijab) in public schools.

The Christian Community, especially the Osun Baptist Conference protested against the decision then but the protest was ineffective as the government failed to reverse the policy.

Pockets of crises had been recorded at the Baptist High School, Iwo over the use of veil (hijab) by female Muslim students.

It was gathered that security personnel stormed the school yesterday to prevent breakdown of law and order, even as officials of the state Ministry of Education were seen in the school taking measures to prevent further crisis.

24 students suspended

Meantime, authorities of the school have suspended 24 of the students indefinitely for alleged immoral, cult activities and disruption of academic programme in the school.

The suspension of the affected students followed the investigation conducted by the institution’s authority where it was discovered that the students actullay belong to cult group.

Though, teachers in the school declined to comment on the matter, it was gathered that the students comprising both sexes were said to have committeed several atrocities including

INAUGURATION: From left: Prelate of the Methodist Church Nigeria, His Eminence, Dr. Samuel Uche, Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, new Archbishop of Igbobini, Most Rev. Amos Akindeko, and the new Archdiocesan Lay President, Dr. Ibukun Omotehinse, at the inauguration of the newly created Archdiocese of Igbobini, and enthronement of the new Archbishop and Lay President, at the Methodist Cathedral, Okitipupa, Ondo State.

Alleged rape: Osun to seal off private hostel

BY FUNMI AJUMOBI &

BOSE ADELAJA SOGBO—OGUN State Commissioner for Education, Mr. Segun Odubela, has called a meeting of parents, whose wards are in a private hostel where its proprietor is presently facing interrogation over the defilement of a 12-yearold girl.

Meantime, the hostel in question, is at the verge of being sealed off by the ministry to avoid a reoccurrence as parents have been advised to relocate their wards before the building is put under lock and key.

Also, a meeting has been fixed between the commissioner and the victim’s parents in order to relocate her to another school because of stigmatisation.

Confirming the development to Vanguard in a t e l e p h o n e

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conversation, Odubela said that the case would be well handled to serve as a deterrent to others, adding ‘’We have visited the hostel and will soon seal it off. We are only waiting for parents of other children to relocate them so that their education will not be threatened. Also, a meeting has been scheduled for tomorrow to map the way forward for the victim.”

It will be recalled that on the fateful day, the suspect, Mr. Akinduro, was said to have lured the victim to his bed, asking her to remove her clothes, an idea that

was vehemently refused by the victim until a force was applied and out of fear, the victim ran to a relative at Ikenne to report the mater.

Mr. Akinduro, 60, proprietor of a private hostel at Ita-Oyila village, Ikenne, was said to have allegedly raped the victim a student of May Flower School, Ikenne who was put in his custody and the matter was reported to Ogun Police where Police Public Relations Officer Muyiwa Adejobi promised to unravel the situation.

Scores injured as NURTW clash in Ile-Ife

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

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S O G B O — S E V E R A L people were yesterday seriously injured while commercial activities were paralysed for several hours during violent clashes involving two rival groups of National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, in IleIfe. Though the immediate cause of the clash could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report, reliable sources close to the union of commercial transporters in Ife said the groups involved in the mayhem are NURTW Ife intra-city unit and NURTW Lagos/ Ibadan unit.

A resident of Oduduwa roundabout area in Ife, who preferred anonymity, while explaining what could have led to the clash, said mini-buses drivers operating within Ife metropolis and their colleagues plying Lagos/ Ibadan have for long harboured ill-feelings against each other.

According to him, the Ibadan/Lagos drivers were said to have been complaining about the manner the mini-buses drivers operate, which they said was having negative effects on their business.

While the casualties on both sides of the crisis could not be confirmed, top security sources told our correspondent that members of Inter city unit were regrouping for a reprisal attack.

12—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

2015: Group wants Nwaoboshi to resign over comment on zoning

BY FESTUS AHON

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GHELLI- DELTA State people, under the auspices of Delta Network for Qualitative Governance, DNQG, have advised the state Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Peter Nwaoboshi, to resign, describing his recent comment against the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Mr. Ovuozorie Macaulay, over his purported position on zoning, as provocative and unexpected of a leader.

In a chat with newsmen, National Chairman of the group, Mr. Ovokeraye Akpomedaye, said that Nwaoboshi's recent outburst over Macaulay's position has exposed his (Nwaoboshi) inefficiency to preside over the 2015 gubernatorial primaries of the party in the state.

He said: “It is obvious that Nwaoboshi, as a party chairman, may not provide a level playing ground for all the aspirants and thereby, not give Deltans of PDP stock the opportunity to elect who should fly the party’s flag in the 2015 gubernatorial election.

“We have been following the politics of the state from 1998 till date with keen interest and there has never been a time the state governorship was zoned. The three senatorial districts have always contested the governorship.

“In 1999, people from Delta North and South contested the

governorship with our former governor, Chief James Ibori.

In 2003 they also contested with him. Coming to 2007, the three senatorial districts all contested for the position with our incumbent governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan. It is on record that Uduaghan ran neck to neck with Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa in the party primaries.

“In the 2011 rerun, the three

senatorial districts also fielded candidates. Even in the 2011 main elections, people from Delta North also fielded candidates.

Come to think of it, I think even Nwaoboshi's local government did not give bloc vote to PDP let alone the entire Delta North. So, what zoning is he (Nwaoboshi) talking about?

“We call on Chief Nawaoshi to resign honourably as chairman of PDP in the state.

The issue of who becomes governor in 2015 should be left for Deltans to decide. We need a credible person irrespective of his senatorial district to emerge governor in 2015, somebody with a good pedigree and who is detribalised.”

VISIT: From right: Spiritual Mother Superior Mary Ositelu;Most Rev. Dr. Rufus Okikiola Ositelu; HRM Obi Chike Edozien, Asagba of Asaba; Chief Patrick Onyobi, the Iyase of Asaba and Rev. Mrs. Omatsola Williams, during a courtesy visit to the Asagba of Asaba. Photo: Nath Onojake.

DSC Township residents kick against N180m electricity bill

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

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ARRI—RESIDENTS of Delta Steel Company, DSC, township, Oruhworun, Udu Local Government Area of Delta State, Delta State, have asked the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Agency, NERA, to resolve the controversy over alleged N180 million power consumption debt slammed on consumers by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC. Over 12,000 affected households in the DSC Township had earlier accused the BEDC, the company which acquired the privatised Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, in the zone of defrauding them to the tune of over N700 million.

They alleged that between 2011 and 2013, officials of PHCN, in collaboration with the Steel Town instituted a committee empowered to collect and remit the electricity bills, while the said committee did not pay all the funds collected to the company.

The concerned residents expressed loss of faith in the electricity company before Ademola Adebayo, Divisional Police Officer, in OwianAladja, during a failed truce meeting with the distribution company’s boss from Benin.

Relations between parties further degenerated this week when BEDC sent a demand notice, asking the

community to pay about N180 million as accumulated bills, a development rejected by the community leaders, who insisted they had paid their bills up until October last year when the company disconnected the entire town.

They implored NERC to wade

into the matter to ascertain the claimed accumulated bills and save them from prolong darkness they have been plunged in the past three months.

Chairman, Finance and Technical, Steel Town, Mr Solomon Mamudu, who

decried the alleged indebtedness, said: “We paid up until October before the privatisation and we are surprised that BEDC brought an unrealistic bill. On behalf of the people of DSC, I am calling on NERC to investigate this anomaly and tell us where the money went.”

Wike commissions N150m facilities at King’s College yearning for because we can’t

BY AMAKA ABAYOMI

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HE Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, has commissioned seven projects worth N150 million at the King’s College, Lagos.

The projects include twin lecture hall, assembly hall and a 30kva generator undertaken by Total Upstream; a senior staff quarters built by the Federal Government; and college bakery, dining hall extension, junior staff quarters and new JSS1 classroom constructed by the school.

Commending Total Upstream for living up to its corporate social responsibility, the Supervising Minister of Education, Wike, who was

represented by his Special Assistant, Mr. Lambert Oparah, said that the gesture was in tandem with government’s avowed policy of exploring partnerships and collaborations in the promotion of the transformation agenda of this administration.

“This is what Nigeria is

continue to keep sending our kids to the United States, Ghana or Togo for quality education. It is impressive to note that the quality of job undertaken by the donor partner is world class and makes it the first state-of-theart auditorium in the entire Federal Unity College system.”

2015 Presidency: Forces against Jonathan'll be shocked —IMAGWE

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

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ENIN—AHEAD of the 2015 presidential election, a political pressure group, comprising youths from the Niger Delta region, yesterday, kicked off campaign for President Goodluck Jonathan's reelection.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youths and Students Matters, Mr Jude Imagwe, who inaugurated the body, Consolidation Movement, said that President Jonathan’s achievements so far in government will guarantee him success despite the opposition in some quarters.

He boasted that President Jonathan’s achievement in the economy and other sectors, have surpassed those of previous presidents, adding that those fighting Jonathan's re-election were “fighting for their selfish interests and not those of other Nigerians.”

Urging Nigerians to disregard what he described as the “antics of mischief makers,” he said that the mandate of the group was to work earnestly towards the re-election of President Jonathan in 2015."

Madam Eweye for burial MADAM Victoria Eweye, (Nee Chokor), mother of the Majority Whip of Delta State House of Assembly, Chief John Obukohwo Nany is dead, aged 82.

A devout Christian, the late Victoria hailed from Boboroku village in Idjere clan in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State.

She is survived by six children, many grandchildren and others relations.

She will be buried on March 14, at her home town, Boboroku.

Burial rites for Benin monarch's late wife begin Feb 10

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BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

ENIN—FINAL traditional burial rites for the late senior wife of the Oba of Benin, Oloi Esther Erediauwa, begin on February 10, 2014, a statement from the Palace of the Oba

of Benin, said yesterday.

The statement by the Secretary to the Benin Traditional Council, Frank Irabor, said that the 13-day burial rites will begin with Iwaorinmwin Day (family rites), followed by the Iduhun/maternal family day.

Late Madam Eweye

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—13

PHN to launch Health Innovation Marketplace

Stop maligning Macaulay, Isoko group tells Delta PDP Chair

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RIVATE Health Alliance of Nigeria, PHN, a public-private institution aimed at leveraging private sector capabilities to improve Nigeria’s health outcomes, is leading a coalition of partners to launch the Nigeria Health Innovation Marketplace, NHIM, an intervention aimed at identifying and developing innovative products, approaches, processes and technologies that will impact on the nation’s effort in meeting Millennium Development Goals, MDG 4, 5 and 6.

The launch, set for February 7, is positioned towards discovering innovators that will utilise existing technological advances to reposition healthcare delivery as is the case with some African countries.

Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, Executive Director/CEO, PHN, said that a number of African countries such as Ethiopia and Malawi, have recently ridden a wave of locally appropriate health technologies and innovations to accelerate progress in the health related MDGs. He said: “NHIM focuses on four inter-related core objectives; Identify promising innovations, provide market linkages and incubation support to enable health innovation to achieve scale, make targeted investments in selected innovations that make it through the incubator and build a sustainable convergence platform around health innovation."

Commissioner flays host contractors over project abandonment

BY EMMA AMAIZE

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ARRI—COMMISSIONER, Special Duties, Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, Mr. Timi Tonye, has expressed displeasure over the attitude of host contractors in oil producing communities, who abandon projects awarded to them or execute them half way.

Tonye, while inspecting DESOPADEC projects in Ugbolokposo community, charged the contractors to perform.

He said government projects were designed to fast-track development and meet the needs of the people.

C M Y K

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

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MEETING: The Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Lady Valerie Ebe (middle), flanked from right by the Deputy Governor of Abia State, Sir Emmanuel Ananaba, and the Ini Local Government Council Chairman, Mr. Etetim Anwatim, during a meeting between the two states and the National Boundary Commission at Bende Local Government Area of Abia State.

Delta has adopted Jonathan —UDUAGHAN ...says no other party in Delta

BY HENRY UMORU

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BUJA—GOVERNOR Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, yesterday, visited the Abuja national secretariat of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, saying that the people of his state have adopted President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2015 presidential election, slated for February 14, 2015.

He said that there was no other party in Delta State and promised that the state was prepared to give the party's leadership total support, adding that there was need for other troubled states in PDP to borrow a leaf from Delta on how it resolved its political problem.

Uduaghan added that the state was ready to give the PDP national chairman some persons that would help him nip in the bud, crises in some PDP states, as the state boasts of personalities who command respect across the country.

He noted that PDP in Delta State was united, in charge and on ground because the people of the state have seen a reason to embrace the party, adding that though the party had challenges in the past but that the emergence of Alhaji Ahmed Mu‘azu as its national chairman had made great impact on the rebuilding of the party.

He assured the PDP national chairman of the loyalty and support of Deltans to him and the leadership of the party, adding that Delta State was

solidly behind President Jonathan and called on all Nigerians to continue to support him in spite of the challenges.

Uduaghan was at PDP national secretariat, yesterday with Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark; PDP national Vice Chairman, SouthSouth, Dr. Steve Oruh; Delta State PDP chairman, Chief Peter Nwaboshi; Senators, members of House of Representatives, members of state Houses of Assembly; Special Adviser to the President on Project Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof.

Sylvester Monye; Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, Brigadier General Dominic Oneya, party leaders, elders, stakeholders, among others, on a solidarity visit to PDP national Chairman and members of the National Working Committee, NWC.

Mu'azu calls for prayers

Meanwhile, Mu'azu, who urged party members, leaders, elders to pray for order to enable him achieve his set goals for the party, however, insisted that the party would not anoint any aspirant for elective positions ahead of primaries, even as he urged all aspirants to go to the grassroots and campaign to the people, adding that no one will get the party’s ticket from Abuja or Asaba.

He said: “I have always told aspirants, as one of

them, told me that he is so happy, that his friend is the chairman. He said to me I have my ticket. I am wondering what ticket he wants, am not so sure. Ben Bruce is my friend, I will call him and tell him to reserve two tickets- one for that my friend in your state and the other for me for the next movie on Saturday.

“PDP ticket belongs to God and to the people. If you want to be governor, there is nothing wrong with that. Even a dead man has ambition of going to heaven. So, an unambitious person is not worth living. So, aspire, but be fair in your aspiration. Since power belongs to God and since God gave power to the people on earth, you must go and see them. I hate to hear when somebody says to me ‘oh, am on ground,” Which ground?

“Under my leadership, by the grace of God and the National Working Committee, those of you who just sit down without going to the people, will never be there.

If you want to be a governor, you should go and campaign, ensure that the party is strengthened, that the people know and love our party.

Tell them who we are and tell them where they were and where we have brought them and tell them where we are going. Surely, this is the party to beat. Our party is the biggest, the largest, the strongest and the largest family."

ENIN—A non-partisan Isoko Thin-Tank association, Ekiroro Awho Isoko, yesterday, vowed to resist any attempt to malign the Secretary to the Delta State Government, Mr Ovuozorie Macaulay, who is an Isoko son, under the guise of politics.

The Benin, Edo Statebased group, in a reaction to media attacks on Macaulay, over his advise that Anioma people should seek the support of others in their quest for governorship, in a statement by its President, Professor Adogbeji Umebese and three others, said Macaulay’s honest opinion was more advisory than inflammatory.

“Ekiroro having reviewed the barrage of reactions and in some cases over reactions following the response by our illustrious son, Macaulay, we think his honest opinion was more advisory than inflammatory.”

It said that the chairman of Delta State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Peter Nwaoboshi’s outburst on the matter “overshot the mark with his remarks which we think clearly has a different undertone and misunderstanding."

Delta budget set for passage next week — MAYUKU

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

A

SABA—CHAIRMAN, Finance and Appropriations Committee of Delta State House of Assembly, Mr. Daniel Mayuku, has hinted that efforts were on to ensure speedy passage of the state budget, when the House reconvenes next week.

He told Vanguard in Asaba, yesterday, that his committee has been working around the clock “to ensure that the budget was passed speedily because this administration is determined to finish strong.”

The committee, he said, was perfecting its report for onward presentation on the floor of the House when it resumes next week.

14—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Shipping: Nigeria loses N136bn to cargo diversion

BY MARIAM EKO

S

TRONG INDICATIONS have emerged that Nigeria lost about N136 billion to cargo diversion to other neighbouring ports in West Africa last year President of Shippers Association Lagos State, SALS, Rev. Jonathan Nicole made this known shortly after the inauguration of new council executives that about N136 billion was lost to cargo diversion in 2013.

He said that Nigeria loses N24billion yearly due to vessels' clearance delays at the ports.

This, according to him, could be clarified with the Union of African Shippers Council.

2015: Forget about PDP, APC Chair tells Ebonyi people

BY PETER OKUTU

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BAKALIKI — EBONYI STATE chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Emerike Orji, yesterday called on the people of the state to forget about the mouth-watery promises of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, insisting that the ruling party had nothing to offer them in terms of governance.

Orji made the call at the party ’s secretariat in Abakaliki during the ongoing registration of APC members across the 13 local government areas of the state.

Chime reconstitutes parastatals, corporations

E

NUGU—Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State has reconstituted the boards of nineteen parastatals, corporations, companies and boards in the state.

A statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Patrick Okolo, said the action followed the dissolution of the existing boards of the affected parastatals with effect from February 3, 2014.

Police impound fake military, police, NSCDC uniforms in Imo

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI — THE outgo-ing Imo State Commissioner of Police, CP, Mr. Mohammed

Katsina, has cautioned the citizenry to be wary of people they see wearing any of the prescribed uniforms for security personnel.

Mr. Katsina gave the warn-

Group applauds FG for airports' infrastructure upgrade

BY DANIEL ETEGHE

T

HE NATIONAL Coordinator, Rights Monitoring Group and Country Director, Centre for Convention On Democratic Integrity, RMG/CCDI, Mr. Olufemi Aduwo, has applauded the government for the upgrading of facilities and remodelling of airports across the country.

Speaking at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, Mr. Aduwo pointed out that the aviation industry had been moved to the next level in conformity to international standard, adding that where the aviation sector was before Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah, came on board and "where it is today and what had been achieved since she began, had been tremendous. ”A blind person will notice and feel the changes in most of the airports in recent years. The planned five new airport terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt between now and 2015 and also the designation of 13 airports as cargo terminals will transform the aviation sector into major revenue earner for the country and accelerate domestic tourism,” Aduwo said.

He noted that the Minister had

shown that “where there is a will, there is a way and that is how l see her performance.”

Aduwo said the aviation minister was in the group of ministers the civil society always applaud for the good job they were doing.

ing, yesterday, while displaying fake uniforms of the Nigerian military, police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in the state Police Headquarters, Owerri.

Other items displayed included a fake police badges, belts, ranks, boots, caps, as well as some pump action rifles, AK 47 and several rounds of live ammunitions.

“All that glitters is not gold.

Members of the public should, therefore beware of some uniformed men they see

on the road. This is why we have paraded them before you today,” the CP explained.

According to him, the fake uniforms were intercepted from suspected hoodlums ferrying the contraband from Lagos to Owerri.

Katsina warned members of the public that police uniforms were nobody ’s wear and should not be sold in the open market.

Katsina then urged Nigerians who come across such commodity in the market to report to the nearest police station.

VISIT: Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Ike Ekweremadu (left), and Interim President of Guinea Bissau, Manuel Nhamadjo, during the latter's visit to Abuja, yesterday.

No rift between Obi, Obiano — Anambra govt

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

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WKA — ANAMBRA State government, yesterday, debunked insinuations that there was a rift between Governor Peter Obi and the governor-elect, Chief Willie Obiano, over certain policies.

Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Chief Joe Uzodike said in an interview that the two personalities had remained the best of friends, adding that the speculation was the figment of imagination of those peddling it.

He said: “Those behind such speculations were the enemies of the state who do not want the progress of Anambra State.

“There is no rift between Obi and Obiano. As somebody who is very close to the two, I can tell you that Obiano has consistently been requesting Obi to award as many contracts as possible, including the proposed Anambra Airport in line with his continuity

programme.

“Obiano did not travel abroad because of any disagreement.

Rather he travelled to have a deserved rest after the strenuous electioneering campaigns as it is the norm abroad.”

Uzodike advised Obiano not to be distracted by the speculations if he wanted to perform as Obi’s administration did, adding that what the people of the state

needed from him was good governance.

He also appealed to those who felt injured during Obi adminis-

APGA suspends chairman, 6 others

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

A

WKA — THE Maxi Okwuled Anambra State factional chairman of All Progressives

Traders petition Jonathan/IGP over GTB’s matter with Innoson

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OUTH-EAST AMALGAMATED Traders Association has petioned President Goodluck Jonathan and the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar to urgently intervene in the unlawful arrest, intimidation and harassment of one of Nigeria’s leading industrialists and owner of the first Made In Nigeria vehicles, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, by Guarantee Trust

tration and who might have started the speculation to know that as human beings, people were bound to make mistakes.

Bank, using some policemen.

In a press statement by the association, an umbrella body of South East traders across the country, the traders wondered why a bank would use strong arm tactics to harass a big company chief as the Innoson Group boss on account of his questioning the excess charges noticed in his account with the bank.

Grand Alliance, APGA, Mr. Shedrack Anakwue, has been suspended by his Awka North Local Government Area chapter, along with six others.

Other suspended members are: Messrs. Casmir Ilonwa, Godson Amebo, Raphael Enweluzo, Mr. Nicholas Ibe, Ajeke Igboemeke and Basil Onwuzulume.

Their suspension followed a resolution reached after the stakeholders’ meeting of the party at Achalla, the local government headquarters of Awka North.

The meeting, which was attended by a large number of the party members, including some elected council members, said the suspended members engaged in anti-party activities.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—15

APC: Huge turnout, hitches trail members’ registration .Tinubu, Atiku, Fashola, Nyako, others register, vow to rescue Nigeria

BY FUNMI KOMOLAFE, CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, SIMON EBEGBULEM, OLASUNKANMI AKONI, DAPO AKINREFON, SAMUEL OYADONGHA, UMAR YUSUF & MONSUR OLOWOPEJO

LEADERS of the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday, trooped to their various wards and polling units, across the country, to register and pick up membership cards, and they declared that the journey to rescue Nigeria from the stranglehold of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had begun.

Among APC leaders, who got registered, yesterday, were Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Governors Babatunde Fashola (Lagos) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa).

The exercise, which witnessed huge turnout of would-be members across the country, however, faced a number of hitches such as late arrival of materials and training of personnel was still going on as of press time in some states.

What could largely be described as a peaceful exercise in Edo State was marred by violence and

snatching of registration materials.

There was serious shooting at Urhonigbe in Orhionmwon Local Government Area where suspected thugs hijacked registration materials after shooting sporadically. As of press time, politicians were at Abudu Police station to make complaints.

This came as a chieftain of the party in Oyo State, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, asked the court to halt the exercise in the state over his exclusion from the harmonisation committee. The case will come up at the state High Court in Ibadan tomorrow.

APC Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who was in Kwara for the registration, said the hitches were minor and assured that before the end of registration on February 10, all party members would have been registered.

October 1 bomb blast: Charles Okah’s trial resumes April 2

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

A

BUJA — A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, fixed April 2 to resume trial of Charles Okah.

Okah was accused of masterminding the Independence Day bomb blasts that killed about 12 persons and left several others wounded at Eagle Square in Abuja on October 1, 2010.

Trial Justice Gabriel Kolawole had on December 4, 2013, ordered that a psychiatric test be conducted on the accused person, following

his deteriorating health and seemingly unbalanced mental state.

Okah, who is facing terrorism charge alongside one Obi Nwabueze, could no longer walk and had always been brought to court in a wheel-chair.

The Federal Government had on January 15, tendered a medical report with a view to proving that Charles, who is a younger brother to ex-leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Mr. Henry Okah, was medically fit to face trial.

DNA screening centre for commissioning in LUTH today

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

N

IGERIANS CAN now carry out DNA testing in the country following the establishment of an ultra-modern Deoxyribonucleic, DNA, biotechnology screening centre (genome screening centre) at

the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH. The genome screening/ molecular biology research centre for commissioning today by the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu was donated by Chevron Unlimited.

In Kano State, the registration did not commence as scheduled as people were awaiting materials and personnel as at midday, yesterday.

Sources at Gwagwarwa, Gawuna and Kaura Goje polling units said that prospective members started arriving since 8 a.m., but they were dispersed when it was clear nothing was going on.

A Special Assistant to Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso said that the party executives were holding a meeting to map out ways for the smooth take-off of the registration.

APGA adopts Jonathan as 2015 candidate

BY HENRY UMORU & BEN AGANDE

ABUJA — AHEAD of February 14, 2015 Presidential election, the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, said yesterday, that it has adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as its Presidential candidate for the election.

This was even as the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, yesterday, lamented that the APC members of the National Assembly who were blocking the passage of the 2014 budget were actually denying Nigerians their oxygen of life.

According to him, it was unpatriotic for APC members to oppose the passage of the budget.

However, declaring the position of APGA, yesterday, as a panelist during Nigeria Political Party Discussion Series, NPPDS organised by Centre for Democracy and Democracy, CDD, in Abuja, APGA National Secretary, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi noted that the action was taken after the party studied both the constitutions and manifestoes of both the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressives Congress, APC and decided to form an alliance with PDP. Shinkafi, who added that APGA did not, however, have any alliance with PDP, stressed that the party was only interested in Jonathan’s reelection in 2015.

16—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Defection: Senate adjourns abruptly .Explains why 11 senators’ letter can’t be read

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

A

BUJA — AFTER about two hours of close door session, the Senate, yesterday, adjourned abruptly to avoid crisis, following alleged refusal by the Senate President, David Mark, to read notice letter from aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, sena-

tors intending to defect to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC. As early as 10a.m., yesterday, the arrow-head of 11 senators that had written the Senate leadership last week over their defection, Senator Bukola Saraki, had arrived for the plenary, even as other senators were yet to come.

Sensing that there would be

Court to hear APC lawmakers' suit Tuesday

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

A

BUJA — Justice A.R. Mohammed of Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, adjourned till next Tuesday to begin definite hearing on the suit instituted against the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, by 51 lawmakers who defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC. The lawmakers, who were elected on the platform of the PDP but decamped to the APC, are praying the court to invoke its original jurisdiction and stop their former party from declaring their

seats vacant.

Specifically, the lawmakers in their originating summons, asked the court to go ahead and determine whether considering the circumstances in the national and various state chapters of the PDP, there actually existed a faction or division within the party.

Listed as 1st to 5th defendants in the suit were erstwhile chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Reps, PDP, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, respectively.

crisis if the plenary was allowed to commence without first reading the letter of the 11 defecting senators, Mark, ordered non-lawmakers to leave the chamber for senators in attendance to go into a closed door session.

Emerging from the session,the Senate President directed the Senate Leader, Ndoma-Egba, to formally adjourned plenary till next Tuesday.

Senator Ndoma-Egba, who carried out the directive promptly, explained that the reason was for the APC senators to go for their on-going membership registration.

The development infuriated the 11 senators and their sympathisers, especially those originally in the APC fold, thus making them to dump the Senate standing rule where senators usually allowed the Senate President to lead them out of the chamber after every plenary.

All the affected senators, except Saraki, stormed out ahead of others and started holding secret meeting outside the chamber.

Approached to comment on

the decision reached regarding their defection during the closed door session, all of them kept mute, saying they would address the media when appropriate.

But briefing journalists later, Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Enyinaya Abaribe, explained that the day’s plenary was suspended besides adjournment of sittings

to next Tuesday, because the Senate wanted senators handing budget issues to commence further legislative work on it immediately, after its passage into second reading.

He also explained that the Senate suspended every other activity till Tuesday to give room for senators under the APC platform to participate in their party’s on-going membership registration.

SEC shuts down New Nation finance house nation-wide

BY PETER EGWUATU, with Agency Report

T

HE SECURITIES and Exchange Commission, SEC, has disclosed that it has shut-down the premises of a wonder bank, New Nation in seven states, including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. Vanguard gathered that the commission closed down the entity because it was operating illegally without being registered.

Mrs. Pamela Obioru, SEC’s Assistant Director and leader of the enforcement team, said in Lagos that New Nation finance house

was an illegally entity.

It was also gathered that the closure affected the company’s offices in Lagos, Akure, Bauchi, Birnin Kebbi, Calabar, Kano and Makurdi. The offices are to stop operations by February 7. Obioru said that 14 of the company’s officials had also been arrested by the police.

She said that the action was part of SEC’s statutory responsibilities of regulating the capital market and protecting investors. Obioru said that the enforcement exercise was necessary to protect innocent investors from falling into wrong investment schemes.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 — 17

O

NE of the most illconcealed intensions in Nigerian politics, the decamping of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, finally took place early this week. The cream of the opposition faction of the Nigerian neo-colonial ruling class, collected in the All Progressive Congress, APC, made its way to Yola, to receive the Adamawa ‘big fish’, into their midst. Back slapping, speeches and the trademark display of teeth by interim APC chairman, Chief Bisi Akande apart, it was a very significant statement of intention. Like the proverbial pied piper collecting rats, the symbolic oppositional broom is gathering (or more appropriately, sweeping) into the APC the ‘who-is-who’ of the most aggrieved elements of the nation’s political elite, into the omnibus vehicle of assault on the privileges long monopolised by the PDP since 1999. Never mind that a significant section of the eclectic collection within the APC had been central to Nigeria’s under development since the return to civil rule; but in the Southwest Nigerian political manner of describing itself and its actions, those who joined the APC have become

Politics without principles: Our politicians ‘port and de-port' disgruntled PDP governors have joined the party. We are not against anybody joining the party but what we want is fairness”. Fairness is obviously not the name of the game and Shekarau should know that better than most. The central issue is cold calculations about access to the funds to prosecute the electoral challenge.

Shekarau is no longer in power, but his old adversary, Kwankwaso is sitting pretty.

As the politicians “port and deport” between the PDP and APC, the economically and militarily empowered lumpen elements in the Niger Delta creeks are putting them on notice. The months ahead will be most interesting indeed

,

politically ‘beatified’ and are now born again, as “progressives”! Nigeria’s ruling class politics has become a notch more interesting and its outlines have become even more absurd!

But it was not only the APC that has been welcoming new arrivals. On January 29th, former Kano state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, defected from the APC to join the PDP. A founding member of the APC, in the words of DAILY TRUST newspaper, “had been sulking since the national headquarters proclaimed governors as party leaders in their state”. In Kano, as the paper further added: “this gave his long-standing political rival, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, a chance to upstage him in the party’s affairs”. It was clear that the long-predicted political indigestion in the APC was going to eventually lead to a rumbling inside its distended political belly! Shekarau’s riposte was swift and predictable: “We are moving en masse, collectively and one-inall to the PDP. With this development, we are calling on all our supporters, admirers and well-wishers to dissociate themselves from APC and join our brothers and sisters in PDP to move our country forward (as the Hausa would have exclaimed ‘TABDIJAN’!)”.

Shekarau did not only ‘DEPORT’ from APC to the PDP, he reminded of the lingering injustice at the heart of grievances within the APC: “The case is the same in Sokoto, Kwara and Adamawa where

,

The same process played out in Sokoto. Attahiru Bafarawa faced the troubling reality of becoming a political “nonperson”, completely overrun by his old foe, Governor Wammako. To save face, he also jumped the APC ship and “PORTED” into the PDP. There is an old Fullo proverb that a

cripple might not be able to milk a cow, but with the stump passing for his hand, he surely can pour away the milk in the calabash! Nigeria’s political calabash now has many political cripples all over the place with a deep sense of injury and each potentially willing and able to pour the political power milk into the nation’s political sands!

Power shift

I

t looked like the Adamawa segment of the APC crowd sufficiently papered over the cracks, with each of the gladiators, from Buba Marwa to the governor, BABA MAI MANGORO, Murtala Nyako through to Marcus Gundiri, coming together to welcome Atiku Abubakar. The wily, street-wise political brawler that he is, Atiku chose the right words for the occasion. In 2015, he said, power must shift from “retrogressives” elements to the “progressives” (that nonexistent archetype again!), who were determined to change the course of the nation. Atiku emphasized the political line appropriately: “Change is coming to Nigeria and it is a must. The ouster of the PDP from power is imminent and only a matter of time. Nigerians are fed up and will send them packing in 2015”. A new gravy train is being constructed and

Atiku Abubakar no one wants to miss the trip into the new Eldorado of creaming off Nigeria by a new set of overlords, if the APC somehow wins power in 2015.

That is the nature of the game; politics WITHOUT principles.

This is the politics that beatified notorious reactionaries like Bukola Saraki as the new “progressives” of the APC! For the patriots who are setting great store by the victory of the APC, maybe it is time to scale down hopes. At the heart of Nigerian ruling class politics is a fundamental inability to serve the genuine interests of the Nigerian people. The APC’s emergence represents a major gain for the historically fractious oppositional segment of the Nigerian ruling class and in

truth, they must be commended for coming so far to the point where they are increasingly becoming a serious alternative to the PDP. Such a possibility can only sex up the political process, even if in the long run, we might not find much difference between the six of the PDP and the half-a-dozen of the APC. Because in the most fundamental issues of underdevelopment; the brazen heist central to the state process in the country today; in the surrender to neoliberal orthodoxy; the demographic crisis and the deepening crisis of the neocolonial system, there has not been a radical paradigm difference between the two platforms. The APC has spent the better part of its existence collecting the most despicable political characters from around the country into its midst and one of its emblematic representations of what they call “progressive” politics, Bola Tinubu, was in the team that went to Abeokuta not too long ago, to plead to his erstwhile political foe, Olusegun Obasanjo, the same one he once advised to retire into political disgrace, to become the “navigator” for the “progress” they are seeking for Nigeria!

Can anything be more “progressive” than that? In the meantime, Asari Dokubo, the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency’s most unrelenting Rottweiler has warned that he will NEVER allow Jonathan to be defeated in 2015. To hell with free and fair elections or the right to democratic choice! He also “ordered” APC to choose a candidate from the SouthSouth. Otherwise, he warned, he will give Nigeria, but especially the North, WAR! So as the politicians “port and deport” between the PDP and APC, the economically and militarily empowered lumpen elements in the Niger Delta creeks are putting them on notice. The months ahead will be most interesting indeed!

With bourgeois politics, the more things change, the more they remain absolutely the same!

My annual February 1 ritual of rememberance

I

WAS 16 years and five months old, when I was employed by Radio Nigeria on February 1, 1977. With hindsight, it seemed inevitable that I ended up in broadcasting and journalism! It was during FESTAC 77 that I went to resume work as one of the youngest ever employees of Radio Nigeria.

Twenty years later in 1997, as pioneer GM of KWTV, Mrs. Hannatu Ibrahim, former Head of Programmes, Kaduna, was in Ilorin for a conference, and she recalled vividly that a clearance was sought from Director-General, Christopher Kolade, for the “precocious young man” to be employed. I am lucky that I did what I always loved to.

Three years ago, I met an old classmate from secondary school, Augustine Bade Bakare, now a retired policeman, on a flight from Abuja to Ilorin. He told me that he first heard from my mouth in secondary school form one, in 1972, that I wanted to become a journalist! He had

never heard of such a profession before then, and he wondered over the years, that a twelve year old, as I then was, could have made up his mind so early in life as to what he wanted to do in life and was able to stay true with the vow!

I couldn’t recall the episode, but as an eight year old in 1968, I was farmed out to live with my great uncle, who was fascinated with the Hausa Service of the BBC. The ritual of daily listening to the news, during the tragic days of Nigeria’s Civil War, must have sown the seeds of my love of broadcasting. I recall the pleasure of looking for the missing gaps, as my great uncle translated the news from the Hausa to his Yorubaspeaking friends.

That became a kind of game between the two of us. And then there was my late uncle, the judge, Daibu, who made me read lines from DAILY TIMES and NEW NIGERIAN newspapers, as an eight year old. He used to be so proud of me! The final piece in that jigsaw was the fact that my

mother was the first presenter of a women’s programme on Radio Nigeria, Ilorin, during the 1970s!

Wired for broadcasting

M

ine was like a life wired for broadcasting and journalism! I started out as a studio manager, and a few months later, I became an announcer. The late Kola Shomoye was Head of Presentation and the ambience was thoroughly professional and with Kola Olota as a “no nonsense” Manager Programmes, we just had to endeavour to meet the exacting standards of Radio Nigeria. At twenty, in 1980, I was a newsreader on the National Network Service of Radio Nigeria.

Those were some of the best years of our lives: as professionals and as young men growing up in a country full of limitless possibilities! I became a very popular deejay; a newsreader; sports and ceremonials commentator; current affairs news analysis writer; presenter and producer of many programmes,

such as BREAKFAST FIESTA; OUTLOOK; FROM THE CAMPUSES; LATE NIGHT JAZZ; and FAR AND NEAR! Radio was my ultimate medium of expression and before long I reported for Radio France International and the BBC World Service before becoming pioneer GM, KWTV. I wrote a column for THE HERALD newspaper, when the late Doyin Mahmoud was Editor. Those crowded years in broadcasting didn’t take from my activism in the underground Nigerian Marxist-Leninist Movement and the Nigerian Trade Union movement, where I was union chairman and Vice Chairman of the NLC in Kwara State.

Much later in life, I became Editor, Chairman, Editorial Board and Columnist in the newspaper industry! Nigeria gave me tremendous opportunities to flower in different areas of broadcasting and journalism, and it is that which has driven my dedication to Nigeria’s liberation and development! The journey commenced thirty-seven years ago, on February 1, 1977.

18 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 THE surprise would have been if Nigerians did not debate the time table the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, released for the 2015 elections. We are in an era of mounting oppositions against anything that points to any semblance of orderliness, it is called the new politics.

INEC is being accused of fueling the fortunes of particular individuals while setting out the time frames for the elections.

Specifically, with the presidential and the national legislative elections billed for 14 February 2015, the Action Peoples Congress says the elections have been skewed to favour the President. The governorship and state legislative elections would hold two weeks later.

The explanations of INEC Chairman Prof Attahiru Jega for the schedule have not settled the matter. “We felt that instead of having three elections, let us have two. In 2011, we had three - we did the National Assembly elections first; then the presidential and then the governorship, as well as state assembly elections. But we felt that (in 2015), let us have two elections rather than three. Then we said what is the best

BY MICHAEL EGBEJUMI-DAVID

Continued viewpoints

I

from

Wednesday

N 2008, following a huge outcry over his constant jetting out for treatment, the government announced that some $20 million would be spent to upgrade Aso Rock Clinic. $20 million! That clinic is for the exclusive use of the President. But there is something called the National Hospital in Abuja which I understand was founded by Maryam Abacha. This is, supposedly, Nigeria’s premier hospital, but still our big people will not patronise the place.

The National Hospital started off as a women & children’s facility to reduce morbidity and mortality rates amongst that population and was formally opened in 1999 by Abdulsalami. By May 2000, the place had been designated a national hospital and it began to take on male patients. Its operating cost in 2008 was nearly N4.3 billion but it is only known for its IVF focus.

Apart from the National hospital, there are other public healthcare institutions dotted across the country but these places are largely underfunded, mismanaged and near desolate. There are plenty of private hospitals as well, but Nigerian big men and women only spend, at best, the first day of their illness in these places before they are flown abroad.

The National hospital was initially C M Y K

Challenging INEC’s 2015 Schedule combination in line with global best practice? The global best practice is that you do national elections separate from state elections, if you cannot do all together,” Jega said.

The combination of the elections seems to be the issue. More importantly, INEC did not consult the political parties before its decisions. It is where they are rooting their belief that Jega had ulterior motives.

Younger voters are bashing INEC for fixing elections on 14 February, Valentine Day. Their complaints centre more on the restrictions costing them social engagements that Saturday. They too were not consulted.

Nigeria,

Others suggest, without considering INEC’s serial poor performances in standalone elections in Adamawa, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Kogi, Ondo, and Plateau States are that INEC should conduct all the elections on the same day. Some of the elections INEC mismanaged were for smaller constituencies like the senate in Delta and Plateau States and a few wards in a local government in Imo State.

Desirable as one day elections are, INEC with its performance so far cannot manage them. It would be great to deal with the current schedule, which would cost the voter fatigue.

Were Prof Jega to listen to all the arguments, the debates would be on beyond 29 May 2015, the handover date. There are more important things INEC should do to ensure free and fair elections.

Outside its oft-mouthed determination, it should educate voters, update the voters’ register, dismantle obstacles to early arrival of electoral materials and be bolder in prosecuting electoral offenders, right from the campaigns, which thugs dominate with decisiveness.

OPINION great country (2)

managed by the International Health Group brought in from the UK to manage the hospital for 10 years.

However, in 2003, Obasanjo sacked the management board for incompetence and installed his Special Assistant and Lawyer, Musa Elayo as head of the interim board.

Obasanjo also appointed his personal physician, Dr. Olusegun Ajuwon the Chief Medical Director.

But when Yar ’Adua took over, nothing at all happened in our healthcare sector. Even the funny and kickback laden contract that Obasanjo awarded (again, to another one of his former aides!) for the building of one health clinic in each of the 774 Local Government Areas of the country was revoked by Yar ’Adua’s government, but the government never suggested an alternative policy nor did anything itself.

During Obasanjo’s second term, I sent in a detailed proposal to his last Health Minister on ways to revamp and run a functional primary care health service, but nothing came out of that effort. All I got back in response was a standard email reply and that was that. But healthcare in Nigeria is still largely neglected. I don’t know how many Nigerians go to Ger many, Saudi Arabia, USA, Portugal, etc for medical attention, but I do know that the traffic into London alone is very heavy indeed.

The Jonathans, Atiku, Turaki, Buhari, Babangida (his own preferred destination is France), Emirs, Obas, Military chiefs, all the Ministers, all State governors and nearly all other government officials all flock abroad for medical care, annual medical check-ups and eye tests. All these people are ferried abroad and are treated at public expense. Quite a few of them die abroad because it is sometimes too late to do much for them by the time they arrive and because acute emergency medical response back in Nigeria is under-funded and inadequate. Others sometimes die whilst waiting to be flown abroad.

There was even the pathetic case of Gen. Abdulkarim Adisa, a former Works Minister who died in a London hospital following a road accident in Nigeria.

Yet, throughout that whole period, President Yar’Adua continued to lead the way with unending trips out for treatment. He was constantly under sedation and what not. I often wondered whether anyone in the government inner circle ever thought about the possible national security implication. Entrusting the elective medical care (as different from emergency intervention) of a country’s leader continually in the hands of foreigners and in foreign countries is fraught with risks and danger, is it not?

But I know that our leaders and their

cohorts think that they cannot entrust their lives to the inadequate healthcare provision in Nigeria. They continue to flounce to foreign lands and foreign hospitals that are, in any case, suffused with Nigerian doctors and nurses. So why don’t they do something about the dysfunctional healthcare system at home? Why not make it adequate? Why not invest in it – try public/private finance initiatives? Make it functional. Make it effectual and Nigerians will come home. Lay a credible foundation or, minimally, start to show some believable effort and others will be more than happy to come and join-in and help build a sustainable healthcare system.

Not picking on President Yar ’Adua here. Please remember, he is just a case study. But when the late President was campaigning, before he got caught out and landed in a familiar German hospital with sinus problems, he famously declared that he was a regular squash player. Throughout his eight years in Katsina, as he preoccupied himself with playing squash and laying on foreign sick beds, Katsina State consistently came dead last in the National Examinations Council (NECO) exams. Our healthcare system should no longer be so treated for obvious reasons, but I know that our leaders often play with Nigeria; the problem is that it is not funny anymore.

Concluded

*Dr. Egbejumi-David wrote from London.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014— 19

, S

ENATE President, David Mark and Speaker of the House of Reps, Aminu Tambuwal, are riding fierce storms to keep their seats and defend the interests of their political parties. On the surface of it, Mark and Tambuwal belong to the same People’s Democratic Party (PDP). But below the surface where the real action is, Tambuwal has his heart fully in the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

For a long time, Tambuwal has openly frolicked with the opposition party, which is a generous beneficiary of the rift in the ruling party. In fact, his position as Speaker is the handiwork of the opposition, particularly the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which used him to torpedo the zoning formula of the PDP in the House of Representatives. The Sokoto State-born parliamentarian is also being touted as the favourite of Chief Bola Tinubu (the main leader of the APC) for the presidential slot of the party. He continues to attend

events organised by the APC and its acolytes.

It will be recalled that when the 37 members of the PDP brought their letter of defection to the APC, Tambuwal read it, without hesitation or question, on the floor of the House. When the eleven PDP senators also defected to the APC and brought their letter to the President of the Senate, David Mark, they did not meet the same enthusiastic reception. They were rebuffed. One of them, Senator Danjuma Goje, complained that since the same constitution drives activities in the two chambers, why would the Reps have it so smooth while the Senators were met with a brick wall?

The answer to that question is not necessarily in the constitution. It should be, but Mark and Tambuwal are putting their respective political interests first, especially as the court cases surrounding the issue permit them the loophole to do so.

Between the two heads of the

,

bicameral National Assembly, Tambuwal is walking a more slippery terrain. His state governor, Magatakarda Wamakko, had defected to the APC with most of the state’s legislators. But only last week, the Speaker came out to announce that he was still very much in the PDP. My understanding of his situation is that if Tambuwal defects to the APC, he risks losing his coveted seat. He would have lost his seat had he gone with the 37 members since it came out a few days later that PDP still maintains a slim majority, apart from its allies in the Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Accord Party (AP).

T

he defection game is an ongoing one, and no one can be sure what will happen in the next couple of months. The only time the matter will be settled once and for all is when the courts decide

As we approach the 2015 war

I

T was in the spring of 1974. My letter of admission to Mercy College, DobbsFerry, New York, to study Criminal Justice arrived our Bronx residence, in the presence of an American friend, Meredith. This letter produced an open ambivalence: while I was obviously elated, my friend was totally pensive. Her feeling emanated from the fact that the Jehovah’s Witnesses, to which she belonged, had predicted that Armageddon – the apocalypse that would consume the world – was coming in the winter of that year. She rued the prospect of anyone wasting money and time, entering into a venture at the edge of a precipice.

At that time, I was a neo-convert to Christianity. You can trust a Jehovah’s Witness. She produced superior argument, siting relevant Bible verses, to support the calculation that Armageddon was really coming that year. She did everything to persuade me from going to college.

I wished she knew that education was the only thing that brought me into their harsh weather. I bowed to her superior argument but quickly informed her that to God, nothing good is impossible. I then placed a demand on her – to ask the church to intercede on my behalf that God should tarry a little. I also prayed fervently. All those who doubt the efficacy of prayers should see how God, for my sake, has kept the world out of destruction. Forty years after, Armageddon has not still come!

All elections in Nigeria, including even those local government fixtures, have become major wars. In our courts today, if you took away the caseloads coming from inconclusive elections in our professional associations, our judiciary could be perpetually on recess.

We once referred to our general elections as undeclared wars but we now know that they are declared hostilities. The only difference with other wars is that these ones C M Y K

start raging many years before the declared dates and the casualties are not necessarily concentrated in the battlefields. For instance, the 2015 hostilities started years ago, ever since the trickery of President Goodluck Jonathan’s suitability to contest took centre-stage.

It is not a prediction that matters but our attitude to the prediction. A few years back, the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, pronounced an Armageddon of sorts on Nigeria by 2015. This is where the country should have taken a cue from some of us.

Rather than remain calm and find out the basis of their prediction with a view to averting the impending doom, Nigerians preferred to procure all available razor blades to cut off the lips and tongues of the predictors.

The moral equivalence of our national approach in my 1974 experience would have been for me to slap Sister Meredith. If I did that, I would have ended up in the hands of those rookies at the New York Police Department who, after dealing with me, would have handed me over to the US Department of Immigration for immediate deportation to Nigeria. Most importantly, this world would probably have ended ever since.

Double standards are major causes of failure in war. As we speak, Mallam El-Rufai, a former Minister in the Obasanjo years, might still be in the hands of the State Security Service, SSS, for purportedly insinuating that there would be mayhem if the 2015 elections were not free and fair.

But this is the same thing that Muhammadu Buhari, a former Head of State, who apparently commands greater audience than El-Rufai, has always said before every major election, without being arrested.

Come to think of it, if your motives are not clandestine, why arrest a man for asking you to conduct free and fair elections? We

have said, perhaps with monotonous regularity, that bad elections are the very albatross of this country and things cannot continue this way. Those who abhor bloodshed should better begin to work hard on producing free, fair and

,

Mark, Tambuwal in survival footwork

The truth of the matter is that once a politician’s mind is made up to move to another platform, it is best to let the person go. But the constitutional hurdles must be surmounted

whether to invoke Section 68(1) (g) of the constitution, which says defecting legislators must lose their seats unless there are factions within their parties. Until that case is decided, Tambuwal will hang on with the PDP. If he loses his position he may lose ground in the race to 2015 either as presidential or governorship candidate or even legislator.

Mark, on the other hand, is staying put in the PDP. Not only that, he is protecting both hs is party and his defecting colleagues from the consequences of a detrimental legal backlash.

Mark’s position is, on the face of it, not under threat. Out of the 22 senators who were billed to defect, only eleven have gone, and the ruling party still has a commanding hold of 59 senators.

His refusal to read the letter of the defectors is understandable. His hands are tied by a number of legal limitations.

Ordinarily, defectors ought to forfeit their seats in line with Section 68(1) (g) of the Constitution. But, to protect themselves, the defectors had on November 28th 2013 gone to an Abuja High Court presided over by Justice AR Abubakar to obtain an interlocutory injunction preventing their seats from being declared vacant until the Motion on Notice is decided. The court also ordered all the parties, especially the Speaker and President of the Senate, to maintain the status quo on declaration of seats vacant. There is also a separate court injunction preventing the change of principal officers until another issue related thereto is decided. In addition, the October 18th, 2013 verdict by an Abuja High Court presided over by

Jaw-jaw is better than war-war. Although the drum-beats are not encouraging, we believe that a viable Nigeria is still possible. Let us march into 2015 with an iron determination to win based on superior programmes, not the do-or-die approach

,

credible elections because if you lock up all the El-Rufais of this world and throw the key into the Atlantic, you will achieve nothing if your elections are still bad.

W

ho says the war has not started in Rivers State since the past one and a half years with Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu’s reign of impunity? And we seem to be enjoying the situation where somebody who is supposed to be on professional calling has become a bully, thus dragging the names of his profession and his nation into the mud.

We are laughing in a situation where a

Justice Elvis Chukwu, that there is no division in PDP strengthens Mark’s hands in refusing to let the defectors go free.

The truth of the matter is that once a politician’s mind is made up to move to another platform, it is best to let the person go. But the constitutional hurdles must be surmounted. Many of these defectors know they are on solid ground in their respective political theatres. This applies to many of them from the far northern zones whose governors have equally defected. Even if you call for new elections, people in this category will have little trouble coming back. But Tambuwal cannot afford to play cards with his seat. His road to the presidential ticket of the APC or its gubernatorial ticket depends to a large extent on his ability to stay in office till the appropriate time. So, for now, he has to continue to play the double agent’s game.

But for some of those parliamentarians who come from unsure grounds such as Rivers, a court verdict declaring seats vacant might prove politically fatal to their 2015 ambitions. This is why many who would have liked to go with the defected senators and HOR members are hanging back and possibly reshuffling their options.

While we wait for the courts to show us the way to go, the defectors will sleep with only one eye open.

The way the courts deal with this matter will determine, in very large measure, the true position of political parties in our democracy.

It will either concur the Supreme Court verdict that said the political parties are the holders of the mandates given to political contestants, or render it irrelevant.

Police Commissioner who should take instructions from the State Governor has become the alternate Governor, in utter defiance of our so-called Constitution. The situation in Rivers State is by far already worse than what they had in Mushin and the Wild-Wild West of 1965-66. Those enjoying the imbroglio in Rivers State today should be reminded of the law of nature, which translated in its elemental form, means that the cane reserved for “Iyale” (the first wife) will one day be used on “Iyawo” (the new wife).

The new phase of the 2015 war is this amorphous National Conference that hopes to achieve in three months what its forerunners couldn’t achieve in one year; a Conference in which President Jonathan is nominating about one-third of the members. Can’t we see this benevolent democrat nominating those delegates from the ranks of the APC? Ha, ha!

At first, the President promised that there would not be “No-go” areas but last week, he reversed himself when he said that the unity of the country is not negotiable. That’s the first “No-go” area. Will that be all? No matter the method of selection, let the President wait till they begin to consider thorny areas like the Sharia and resource control. This is yet another N7 billion flushed down the drains. That’s a major war expense!

Jaw-jaw is better than war-war. Although the drum-beats are not encouraging, we believe that a viable Nigeria is still possible.

Let us march into 2015 with an iron determination to win based on superior programmes, not the do-or-die approach.

20— Vanguard, THURSDAY,

FEBRUARY 6 , 2014

Stranded

Lagos developers on the run, defraud 100 tenants of N50m •Victims petition IGP, EFCC

By CHARLES MGBOLU HAT began as a mutual transaction between unsuspecting tenants and two sweet talking ‘property developers’ in Lagos, has ended in a monumental fraud which is currently being investigated by the police.

The developers identified as Messrs Samuel Adeniyi Ogundana Aka Prince and Adetayo Olatunbosin were alleged to have defrauded about 100 prospective tenants of about N50 million being monies paid to rent the apartment located at No. 8, Igbesa Street, off Ashimowu Bakare Street, Itire, Lagos.

The apparently dazed victims who are yet to come to terms with what has befallen them, have cried out for help to track down the suspects who have disappeared into thin air.

Vanguard Metro, VM learnt that the controversial property has residential apartments which include mini-flats and self-contained rooms.

The victims who came at different times to inspect the apartments and pay the rents, realised too late that the developers had given the apartments to over 100 persons.

After the initial battle over rights of possession to the apartments by the now conned victims, the case was immediately reported to the Itire police station.

C M Y K

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working hand-in-hand in the plot.

“We, the undersigned, wish to draw your attention to a lingering case of fraud being perpetrated against us after exploring all legitimate means by way of involving the police officers which we are afraid may have been compromised and are handling this case with levity. It is out of frustration and disappointment that we have decided to cry out for justice by writing officially to you,” the petition read in parts.

The apparently dazed victims who are yet to come to terms with what had befallen them, have cried out for help to track down the suspects who have disappeared into thin air

office and the Special Fraud Unit, Ikoyi.

In the petition signed by Uche Arinze, Innocent Odenga and John Odiete on behalf of the other victims, they accused Mr. Samuel Adeniyi Ogundana Aka Prince, his brother Adetayo Olatunbosin and Alhaji A.K Salami (landlord of the property) of duping them under the pretense of giving them rented accommodation on No. 8, Igbesa Street, off Ashimowu Bakare Street, Itire, Lagos. The petitioners accused the developer and landlord of

‘

W

The victims are however unhappy with the way the case is being handled by the Itire Police Division, Area D Mushin Command and S-Squard Lagos State Police Headquarters. They have therefore written a petition to the Inspector General of Police, M.D. Abubakar, seeking his immediate intervention.

Copies of the petition were also sent to the Commissioner of Police, Lagos, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos

They alleged that their ordeal in the hands of Ogundana, Olatunbosun and A.K Salami began in July last year.

According to them, “Mr. Samuel Adeniyi Ogundana Aka Prince, alongside Mr. Adetayo Olatunbosun who are developers contracted by Alhaji Salami, the owner of a property on No. 8, Igbesa Street, off Ashimowu Bakare Street, less than five minutes walk from the Itire Police Division, put up ten apartments in a property up for rent whilst still undergoing renovations

supervised by their company as they claimed to be developers.

We, the undersigned saw the property at different times and without knowledge of each other, paid monies into bank

accounts provided by Mr. Samuel Adeniyi. Some of us also paid cash and were issued receipts by Mr Olatunbosun”.

One of the victims Uche Arinze made available copies of receipts issued by Ogundana to all the victims which bears the company name, Alpha Enterprise, as well as a bank account and GSM numbers of the developers.

Lagos task force arrests Baale for alleged land racketeering

By OLASUNKANMI AKONI

T

HE Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit, has arrested a traditional high chief (Baale) for alleged land grabbing.

The arrest which followed a tip-off, is part of on- going clampdown on land grabbers, popularly called Omoniles.

The task force which stormed Ojodu, arrested the Baale of Alagbole, Chief Kabiru Noah Akiolu 47, Olajide Salami, 71 and Jubril Olaore, 65. They suspects were immediately taken to the headquarters of the task force in Alausa, Ikeja for prosecution.

A source told Vanguard Metro, VM that the arrest was sequel to a complaint by a dealer with Nigeria Bottling Company, NBC. They woman alleged she bought a half plot of land for N4 million at Sule Abore area of Ojodu in 2007.

After allegedly paying N250,000 to the Omoniles, she went to sleep, thinking that she could come in any time to commence building. But what

she saw on Monday, January 27, 2014 when she came start work on the land shocked her. She was allegedly beaten up by some some miscreants who invaded the piece of land, demanding N1.4 million before work could start on the land. The workers she hired were also beaten up and their working tools carted away.

The woman who said she took a loan to purchase the land in 2007, explained that she is still servicing the loan.

The Task force Chairman, Bayo Sulaiman, said on receiving the petition from the woman, his men moved to the land grabbers’ hideout and arrested Salami and Olaore and recovered the equipment they had previously seized.

On why the Baale was arrested, Sulaimon explained that the suspects alleged that he was the one who sent them to invade the land and beat up the workers.

We invited him, (Baale) to come to our office to sign a bail bond for his men and he came. That was how we arrested him,” he stated.

The Baale, Kabiru told VM that the woman refused to settle with the family who owns the land.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 —

Power sector needs fresh $50bn investment — Aganga

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

A

further $50 billion investment is expected to go into the Nigeria’s power sector in the next few years following successful completion of privatisation of the sector, says Dr. Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment.

Speaking at the 2014 Standard Bank West Africa Investors’ Conference in Lagos, Aganga said that for the first time in Nigeria’s 53 year history, the country successfully privatised the power industry and is bringing in capital, technology and operational excellence into the sector.

He noted that the theme of the conference, “Nigeria: Time to Deliver’, is a call to action, a statement of great expectations, an acknowledgement of the great potential across the length and breadth of our country, even as he said that power has been the bane of businesses in Nigeria, and was left unaddressed for many years.

He however, said, “This administration has tackled power supply head on. For the first time in Nigeria’s 53 year history, Nigeria successfully privatised the electric power industry, and is bringing in capital, technology and operational excellence into the sector.”

He added, “As a result, 11 distribution companies and four generation companies have been privatised, for over US$3 billion; other generating plants in the National Integrated Power Projects Programme will also be privatised soon. These electric-

ity assets were physically handed over to private owners on November 1, 2013.

“But privatisation is just the beginning in Nigeria’s power sector, as we now have a pipeline of approximately $50 billion of investments lined up to go into the Nigerian power

industry in the next few years.”

Aganga noted that, given the abundant investment opportunities in Nigeria, the country would remain one of the leading high growth and high returns countries globally.

He said in order to achieve

From left: Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr. Oscar Onyema; Minister for Industry, Trade & Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, and Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Mrs. Sola David-Borha, at the 2014 Standard Bank West Africa Investors Conference, in Lagos.

21

sustainable inclusive economic growth and diversification; the Federal Government has already embarked on farreaching sector-specific reforms to address the challenges inhibiting competitiveness of local businesses across all sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Speaking earlier while delivering his welcome remarks, Mr. Atedo Peterside, Chairman, Stanbic IBTC Bank, said with the theme of the conference, Stanbic IBTC has demonstrated its believe that various efforts to reform both the public and private sectors in recent years have ushered Nigeria to a point where execution has become critical for economic transformation the country desires.

He stated that conclusion of the GDP rebasing exercise would likely increase the possibility of Nigeria becoming the largest economy on the continent in the short to medium term.

He further stated that despite the frustrating pace of some of the reform programmes, sufficient enabling environment has been created over time for private sector investment to thrive, citing revolution in the telecommunication sector as an example.

“Nigeria, which we know has terrestrial infrastructure deficit, also became self- sufficient in cement production in 2013, thanks to measures that were undertaken to encourage domestic production.

“All these have occurred against the backdrop of various policy measures that have sought to position Nigeria for diversification of its economy and unlocking of Nigeria’s vast economic potential,” he affirmed.

‘Service delivery, key to SMEs growth’

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

F

OCUSING on delivering excel lent service by potential entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium scale business has been identified as one of the key success factors in any start-up.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, SLOT Systems Limited, Nnamdi Ezeigbo, made this remark at the Fidelity SME Forum, a weekly radio programme sponsored by Fidelity Bank Plc. Speaking on the topic, “Managing and Growing a Retail Business in a Fast-Growing Market”, Ezeigbo said that rather than running around looking for capital to set up a business, potential entrepreneurs should focus more on how to render quality service to the customers.

“The most important thing when it comes to business is the question of how do you start? Most people always run

around looking for start-up capital and how they would raise money to start business. I think the best way to start is by rendering services and that is what I did”.

He explained that he invested in social capital when he found out that he could not raise the needed fund to start his business. “I could not have afforded to raise money to start a store as at that time, so what I did was to invest in myself, train myself and acquire the technical know- how and then with that, I was able to build what is called social capital and not financial capital.”

Ezeigbo, whose company is one of the leading brands in the mobile phone sales and distribution segment of the telecommunications industry, advised entrepreneurs to invest in the capacity development of their workforce. He acknowledged the fact that organiations are made up of people, processes and systems/infra-

structure but insisted that employees are the central pillar upon which any business stands.

He advised entrepreneurs, especially those in retail business to set aside some funds for staff training. “If you have the right staff and they have the right training, this will help you manage your retail store properly”, he said, adding that “there is a lot to do with retail management. If someone does not have the technical know –how, he cannot do it well. It is not just buying and selling.”

Fidelity SME Forum is a deliberate attempt by the bank to resuscitate the Small and Medium – scale Enterprises (SMEs) and create a new generation of entrepreneurs with the “I can do” spirit in Nigeria. This is not only seen as the bank’s believe in SMEs as a growth catalyst but also a clear commitment to efforts aimed at revamping the Nigerian economy.

134.7

-1.55

2,886.00

+9.00

16.11

0.05

105.90 97.68 CURRENCY DOLLAR POUNDS EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYA KRONA SDR

BUYING CENTRAL 154.75 252.8615 208.8351 170.8435 1.516 0.2999 236.6553 25.5274 41.2612 27.9822 236.9842

155.25 253.6785 209.5099 171.3955 1.5209 0.3099 237.42 25.6103 41.3945 28.0726 237.7499

+0.12 +0.49 SELLING 155.75 254.4955 210.1846 171.9474 1.5258 0.3199 238.1846 25.6933 41.5278 28.163 238.5156

CBN Exchange rate as at 05/02/2014

22 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Importation of food and petroleum products gulps $10.6bn

By BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

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IGERIA spent $10.64 bil lion on importation of food and petroleum products from January to September 2013. This amount represented almost half foreign exchange spent on visible goods into the country within this period.

This was revealed by the Central Bank of Nigeria in its quarter report on Development in the External Sector for the first three quarters of 2013. According to the apex bank, $22.2 billion was used to import visible

goods into the country from January to September last year out of which $6.52 billion or 29.3 per cent was spent on importation of petroleum product, while food importation gulped $4.12 billion or 18.6 per cent.

In the first quarter $$2.05 was spent on importation of petroleum products, while $1.16 was spent on food imports. In the second quarter, petroleum products importation gulped $2.37 billion, while food import gulped $1.566 billion. In the third quarter, $2.1 billion was spent on importation of petroleum products, while $1.39 billion was spent on food import.

In its first quarter report, the CBN said, foreign exchange utilization by sectors revealed that US$6.6 billion, representing 63.7 per cent of the total was spent on the importation of visible goods into the country. This represented an increase of 3.2 per cent and a decline of 18.6 per cent when compared with the levels recorded in the preceding and corresponding quarters, of 2012, respectively. The importation of oil, industrial, food and manufactured products utilized 31.0, 27.9, 17.6 and 16.7 per cent of the total, respectively.

“Analysis of foreign exchange utilized by sectors revealed that US$7.83 billion was expended on the importation of visible goods into the country in Q2 2013. The importation of oil, industrial, food and manufactured products accounted for 30.3, 28.0, 20.4 and 13.3 per cent of the total, respectively.

Analysis of foreign exchange utilized by sectors in the review period revealed that US$7.73 billion was spent on the importation of various items into the country compared with US$7.83 billion utilized in Q2 2013. The importation of industrial, oil, food and manufactured products utilized 31.4, 27.2, 18.1 and 14.7 per cent of the total amount utilized, respectively.”

From right: Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Enterprise Bank Limited, Mallam Ahmed Kuru; the bank’s Board Chairman, Sir. Ogala Osoka; directors of the bank, Dr. Asmau Sani Maikudi, Mrs. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe and Alhaji Lamis Dikko at a meeting of the bank, in Lagos.

Sterling Bank introduces new business initiatives

S

TERLING Bank Plc has commenced plans to invest in new business initiatives and nurture them to become viable Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as part of efforts to facilitate real growth in the Nigerian economy.

The bank said small businesses remain the catalyst for real economic development anywhere in the world.

The Bank’s Group Head, Strategy & Communications, Mr. Shina Atilola in a statement explained that national economic development prospects in any country was hinged on the entrepreneurial energy of vibrant SMEs as most big business concerns grew from small scale to become big icons.

Atilola declared: “Many economies, developed and

developing have come to realize the value of small businesses. They are seen to be characterized by dynamism, witty innovations and efficiency;as their small size allows for faster decision making process. Small businesses are believed to be the engine room for the development of any economy because they form the bulk of business activities in a growing economy like that of Nigeria.”

He noted that a team of seasoned consultants were engaged by the bank to carefully scrutinize proposals received from members of the public.

The head, strategy and communication said the bank decided to launch the project in order to support those who have come up with business plans as part of their new year

engagement’.

Already 50 contestants have qualified for the second round of the on-going “Meet the Executive” Project sponsored

by Sterling Bank Plc. Atilola noted that over 1,000 business plans were received from Small Business Owners (SBO)aspiring to become Big entrepreneurs.

He said: “The “Meet the Executive” project is designed to support new and aspiring entrepreneurs.This is in line with the bank’s purpose of enriching lives and also positionsit as a prime supporter of small and medium sized businesses in the country.

“The 50 best entries were selected from the pool; based on originality of the plans, their viability and provision of detailed information such as the required capital, cash flow and

revenue projections.

“Owners of the 50 proposed business plans selected will be engaged in a training programme in Enterprise Development programming Centre (EDC)organized by the bank to further enrich their knowledge in the management of small businesses and writing of business plans. Upon completion of the trainme, participants would be required to fine-tune their business plans and present same to the bank.”

Atilola said this would be followed by reviews of the business plans by the select project consultants, noting that the best 20 plans would be selected for formal presentation by their owners to the Executive Management of the bank

Nigerian interbank rate spikes ahead of CBN’s action

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IGERIAN interbank lending rate spiked 7.75 percentage points on Wednesday to 18 percent for overnight placement ahead of the Central Bank of Nigeria , CBN withdrawal of around 750 billion naira ($5 billion) to enforce a new cash reserves rules on public sector deposits.

The CBN two weeks ago raised cash reserve requirements for banks to hold government sector deposits to 75 percent, from 50 percent, in a bid to tighten liquidity and support the weakening naira currency.

Fund providers were quoting higher rates on short tenor placements on Wednesday, dealers said as they were expecting the central bank to tighten liquidity before the close of market. Overnight placement was 10.25 percent the previous day.

“Rates have suddenly jumped because of the signal ... to debit banks’ accounts, though the money is yet to be debited,” one dealer said. ($1 = 162.7 naira) .

In another development, Arqaam Capital Ltd., the Dubai-based investment bank expanding across the Middle East and Africa, said it plans to open in Saudi Arabia within the next year to take advantage of rising demand for assets in the region.

“Saudi Arabia is the region’s biggest market and no one can ignore that,” Chief Executive Officer Riad Meliti said in an interview yesterday in Dubai. “It’s something we’ve been looking at for a while and now ’s the right time to do it.”

The bank is applying for a license to operate in the kingdom and hopes to start operations within 12 months, he said. Arqaam will start by offering brokerage services before expanding to a “full range of investment banking,” he said.

Arqaam is among regional and international banks seeking to expand or establish a presence in the country on expectation the Arab world’s largest bourse may open up to foreign investors. Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG shifted regional equities bases to Riyadh from Dubai, while VTB Capital Plc may also set up an equities business in the Saudi capital.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—23

No country can industrialise without machine tools industry — Chukwuma

BY FRANKLIN ALLI IN this interview, Mr. Norbert Chukwumah, the Managing Director of Nigeria Machine Tools Limited (NMT) Oshogbo, said the core investor who took over the moribund company from the Federal Government in 2007 has upgraded the facility at enormous cost; it has commenced full production and is ready to play its part in industrialising Nigeria. Excerpt:

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hat is the company’s profile?

NMTL was founded in 1980 in Osogbo, Nigeria as a joint venture between the Federal Government of Nigeria (“FGN”) and the Indian governmentowned Hindustan Machine Tools (International) Limited (“HMT”). The Company commenced operations in January 1983 with the primary objective of machine tools production and assembly. In 2007, a Private Group acquired 70 percent of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s shares under the privatisation programme thus bringing the company under private ownership and control.

As at the time we took over the company from the Federal Government in 2007, we paid N1 billion being the value of the 70 percent federal government’s share in the company. The federal government still retains 15 percent, Hindustan Machine Tools India 15 percent and the new investor 70 percent.

With the upgrade, what is the company’s present capacity utilisation?

I want you to understand that the facility has been down for sometimes. It has taken us a long road to get to where we are: to rehabilitate, to expand and to retrain people we hired.

We did all the turnaround within a very difficult industrial environment.

Nevertheless, our capacity

utilisation has risen from a very low point to almost 80 percent.

Our foundry is now operating at 70-80 percent while our training institution is operating at the same level of capacity. On the machine tools side, we have achieved 60 percent of our production capacity. We are now at the point of reintroducing the company to the industrial community in Nigeria. We are telling everybody “Nigeria Machine Tools is back in business.

Six years down the lane, what can you say about your balance sheet?

It is bad; in fact, very bad because of the investment that have gone in and when you expect to get returns in relation to investment. Manufacturing is a long-term investment.

You can’t invest in manufacturing and expects to get your returns on investment tomorrow. A machine can serve you for 50 years; if you have one why do you expect the return in one year? It is not possible.

So in terms of our balance sheet, it is bad but from my perspective it is healthy because when I look at the future, it is a long term investment. Also, if you borrow funds at 25 percent interest rate it is a drain on the investment.

Locally, I don’t know how many banks that can lend manufacturers for five years. It takes a committed investor to put his money in manufacturing; it has to be somebody who understands the nitty-gritty of manufacturing processes. No country can industrialise without a proper machine tools. I see Nigeria industrialising; right now, we are positioning ourselves not only to act as a catalyst for industrialisation but to take advantage of the opportunities when it eventually comes.

What are your ranges of products, your clientele base and how do you move your goods from Oshogbo?

NMTL now produces flanges

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he leadership of Aguiyi Ironsi International Market in Lagos State, popularly known as Ladipo Auto spare Market have been called upon to promote discipline and orderliness in the market.

The Chairman of Mushin Local Government Area of the state, Hon. Olatunde Adepitan, who made the call, said: “It is not to the delight of the local government to see Ladipo market shut regularly; there are traders who depend largely on their daily income to survive in that market. Those who promote indiscipline in the market are fat cats, who can afford to survive for months, if the market is closed. My C M Y K

Lafarge Retailers’ Day attracts 400 distributors

By AKINLEYE OGUNBIYI

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Mr. Norbert Chukwumah, Managing Director Nigeria Machine Tools Limited (NMT). and stud bolts for the oil and gas industry, assembles and manufactures machine tools, possesses extensive machining capability (utilising its numerous advanced CNC and conventional machines), assembles tractors for the agricultural sector and manufactures ancillary tractor implements. The foundry produces municipal castings, gratings and manhole covers, brake blocks for the railways, machine spares, ball crushers for the cement industry and quarry operators and a range of other foundry products as determined by the needs of the client.

There is also a newly installed state of the art PTFE coating plant and hot dip galvanising shop to ensure products are finished to client specification. The company also has a flourishing fully equipped training school which is open to the public as well as for industries that require training for their technical manpower in a wide range of technical skill sets.

Locally, the construction

industry buys from us.

That is in relation to our foundry products; also oil and gas industry patronises us for our flanges and boats. Of course, governments and farming cooperatives buy our tractor and equipment; the cement companies and quarries use our flanges. Our break plugs are used by the railway corporation and they attest to the quality of the products.

As at now we are getting enquiries from Europe for our products. We have entered into partnership with the Nigeria Railway Corporation to move our products across the country. That solves my problem of trucks on the road that are never cheap.

Union tasked on Ladipo auto parts market

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

BRIEFS:

appeal to the traders is to take the bull by the horn and make Ladipo auto spare market a model.”

According to him, people find it difficult to walk or drive through the market due to indiscriminate parking by customers who throng the market in large number. ’’As the chairman of Mushin Local Government, it is a thing of pride to me if Ladipo market is adjudged the most orderly and clean market in Lagos State. As much as we try to instill discipline in that market, we come across obstacles from the union leaders who had a mind set to work for their personal interest rather than the interest of the larger society.

I am not personally happy that

visitors to Mushin go through herculean tasks driving through Ladipo auto spare part market due to indiscriminate parking by customers who throng the market in large number.”

“After the MOU signed between the Lagos State Government, Mushin Local Government and the traders in 2013, I facilitated our traffic officials to enforce the one side parking in the market. We stopped the collection of tolls on the other side of the market and concentrated actions on only the side allowed by all the stakeholders. I am surprised that somebody said the Local Government should be blamed for the rot in the market. Council does not give permission for street trading in Ladipo market neither do we collect money from Hawkers.

ORE than four hundred distributors and retailers participated in “Lafarge Retailers’ Day out” organised by Lafarge Cement WAPCO Plc. Participants were engaged in various indoor and outdoor sporting activities like lawn tennis, table tennis, weight lifting, golf, soccer and many other health activities. The General Manager, Sales and Customers Service, Sam Ndioyenma, appreciated the huge turn-out, which he said demonstrates the excellent relationship between the company and its customers.

He urged the customers to savor Lafarge’s efforts at facilitating healthy living amongst its stakeholders.

The General Manager, Innovation and Technical Development, Geoffrey Ndugwa explained that the event is designed to reinforce Lafarge’s commitment to the safety and good health of its stakeholders , particularly the customers and promote networking and comradeship in a relaxed environment.

An elated distributor, Mr. Kunle Adeniyi of Samad Kunle Investment, described the event as “A wonderful programme that Lafarge has initiated. Lafarge has shown that there is more to business than making money. The company’s concern is also about its customers’ well-being. I feel on top of the world.”

In his word, Prince Babatunde said “I have not done sports in a long time. Today, I played lawn tennis and did weight lifting and I feel okay. I can only urge Lafarge to continue its good deeds to its customers.”

Kaduna International trade fair coming

BY NAOMI UZOR

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he 35 th edition of Kaduna International Trade Fair will hold in two weeks time in the state.

Alhaji Awwalu Makarfi, 1st Deputy President of Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA), disclosed this, saying “ this year’s fair with the theme ‘ Agricultural Transformation for Industrial Development: Public, Private Partnership (PPP) Approach’ will hold from 21st February to 2nd March of 2014.”

According to him, the theme for this year’s segment was chosen by the council of the chamber to reflect on the country’s over dependence on oil as more or less the only source of revenue sustaining our economy despite enormous potentials available in other areas particularly agriculture. ”We try as much as possible to always choose a theme that relates to the current realities. It would be recalled that the theme of last year’s fair (34th) was on combating security challenges.

In arriving at a choice of this year’s theme, we considered the expressed concerns and discussions on the country’s over dependence on oil as more or less the only source of revenue sustaining our economy despite enormous potentials available in other areas, particularly agriculture. It is therefore the position of the chamber that focus should shift to agriculture and industrialisation,” he said.

24 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

CONFAB: Maritime stakeholders to present development position

BY GODWIN ORITSE

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HEAD of the forth coming National Conference, stakeholders in the maritime sector are currently working round the clock to present a common position on the development of the industry.

Already, several meetings have been slated for Lagos and other lithoral states to get the views of other operators from outside Lagos.

Speaking to Vanguard on the development, a marine surveyor, Engr Akin Olaniyan, said that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) should take the lead and provide leadership in this regard.

He said “ I think we should have a well debated position for the maritime industry and this position should be presented in the confab by the appointed representative(s) of the stakeholders and of course, NIMASA. I am not sure there is still time for such now. “ I expect NIMASA being the custodian of the industry to have factored this into their agenda. In any event, the authorities - and here I mean NIMASA, should be seen to carry everybody along in its agenda for developing and reorientating the industry, we certainly need a new re-orientation in our industry and NIMASA must lead the way.

“It is then we can follow because there is a disconnect somewhere and we all must take the blame. ”In our frustrations many times, it seems as if

NIMASA is flagging administration for foreign vessels and foreigners rather than for Nigerians; it does not augur well for our cabotage.

A

frontline freight forwarder and Chieftain of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Alhaji Mikky Okunola, has said that the newly introduced Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) has helped to facilitate cargo clearance at both the seaports and border posts.

Speaking to Vanguard in Lagos recently, Okunola said that genuine freight forwarders now clear their cargoes within stipulated time at a lesser cost.

According to Okunola, the new cargo clearance policy is working very effectively, adding that the guideline for effec-

ment is looking towards privatisation and encouraging private entrepreneur growth, NIMASA should be seen more to support and motivate the private sector and not to

DECORATION: Newly promoted Superintendent of Customs, Mr Ernest Olottah, being decorated by Comptroller of the Seme border Command, Mr. Willy Egbudin; on the right, he is being assisted by Deputy. Compt. Joseph Ochelebe.

Trailer Park: Shippers’ Council, ICRC in take-off talks

BY GODFREY BIVBERE

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HE Nigerian Ship pers’ Council. NSC, is in talks with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC, to work out modalities for the commencement of the Trailer Transit Park, TTP, intended to be devel-

oped across the six geopolitical zones on a Public, Private Partnership, PPP, basis.

The meeting, according to the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the NSC, Hassan Bello, is expecting to finalise the modalities for bidding of about three of the projects for which dis-

PAAR helping to facilitate quick cargo clearance — Okunola

BY GODWIN ORITSE

“Yes, I hear a lot of efforts and finances have been directed to building of training infrastructures and facilities, good, but in this day and age when even the Federal Govern-

compete against it.

Again, we, the stakeholders have our obligations too to meet which we have not.

As a class surveyor and maritime consultant, he explained that he has seen a lot of bad practices being perpetrated by the so called stakeholders in an effort to meet up.

He noted that some unwholesome practices even border on reckless criminality, from forgery and falsification to negligence and lack of competence.

“NIMASA must redirect the industry; they must support Nigerians.

They must encourage business in the industry, they must provide cargo security for ship owners, they must motivate and propel commercial activities in the industry”. he added. Speaking to Vanguard, President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, said his group has been meeting with other likeminded groups for the same purpose.

tive use of PAAR is there for everybody to see and apply.

He explained that what the Nigeria Customs Service has done is the opposite of the Risk Assessment Report regime where the scanning service providers take time to calculate ones assessment.

His words “When you get your Bill of Lading, your perfect your documentation for the clearance of your goods and you submit to the bank and the bank will submit the same document to Customs almost immediately for your local assessment for the duty to be paid will be done within a few hours.

cussion has almost been completed with the respective state governments.

Bello gave the names of the three states where the project is expected to commence as Kogi, Kaduna and one other state.

According to him, “We are holding high level discussion with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission ICRC. In fact, in few weeks from now, we will be having an enlarged meeting or retreat with the ICRC so that we can streamline all the necessary areas to make the PPP project operational.

“The council is also responsible to bring the Trailer Transit Park which we hope one or two will become operational this year. Also, we have already started talking with Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, the Kogi State govern-

NPA achieves recommended water depth at ports out surveying, dredging

BY GODWIN ORITSE with agency report

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senior official of Nige rian Ports Authority, Mr Olumide Omotoso, an Assistant General Manager, Hydro and Dredging, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA),has said that conser-

vancy functions have been carried out to achieve the recommended water depth at the ports.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the achieved depth for the Lagos channel made it possible for larger vessels to call at the ports.

He said the NPA carried

and aids navigation to meet the Federal Government’s promises to the private sector that is driving the port activities.

“In the Lagos channel, we have depths drawing up to 13 metres and above and we have almost reached the peak of what the designed depths of the terminals are.”

ment and many more state governments. We are also in talks with the Kaduna State government and we hope that these things which will be done on Public, Private Partnership, PPP, will commence opera-

tion soon.”

Speaking further, the NSC boss pointed out that the above, coupled with the Inland Container Depots, ICDs, also across the six geopolitical zones of the nation, will help to decongest the seaports.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—25

C M Y K

26— Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—27

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28— Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 — 29

•From left: Head of National Office HNO, WAEC, Mr Charles Eguridu; Commissioner for Education, Lagos State, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye and Wahab Wale Alawiye-King at a three-day training organised for teachers in secondary schools, in Lagos.

Photo: Dayo Adesulu.

WAEC tackles failures, trains teachers nationwide B

OTHERED by the yearly failures of our secondary school students in their Senior School Certificate Examinations, SSCE, the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, has swung into action to tackle the downward trends by organising national trainings for secondary school teachers, beginning with Lagos State.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of a three-day teachers’ training, Head of National Office (HNO), WAEC Nigeria, Mr. Charles Eguridu, said the training has become imperative so as to monitor and evaluate teaching and learning outcomes by managing performance indicators, develop and write test items of comparable standard with those of external/international examination bodies and to inculcate in the students, the confidence and right approaches in tackling examination questions.

“We are very worried about C M Y K

the drop in students’ performance in public examinations and from our analysis, we discovered that there is a general decline in the quality of teaching and learning, and even those assigned with the responsibility of teaching are not properly equipped to do so”, Eguridu said.

Continuing, he said: “This is because if teachers don’t have the competencies to teach the students, there is no way students can perform

development of Nigeria.”

On what necessitated the training programme, the HNO said that WAEC management and the Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye, were worried by the declining performance of students due to low qualities of teachers, and so they put heads together to tackle the problem.

“We thought of what to do to move Nigerian education forward and save the future.

,

By DAYO ADESULU & AMAKA ABAYOMI

The council believes that a better informed and equipped teaching force would greatly improve the quality of teaching and learning which will have positive impact on the educational development of Nigeria

well.

“The Council believes that a better informed and equipped teaching force would greatly improve the quality of teaching and learning which will have positive impact on the educational

,

We asked ourselves, why are students not performing? We concluded that one way to address this problem is to address it from the root which is training the teachers that teach the students.”

The general decline in the

quality of teaching and learning in schools can be attributed to the fact that most of the teachers are not well equipped for the job, especially as teachers are supposed to be change agents, tackling failures in our secondary students.”

Commending WAEC for organising the training programme, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye, said career development is important as it puts emphasis on broader skills which are applicable in a wide range of situations such as decision-making, creative thinking and managing people.

“To this end, the importance of this training can’t be overemphasized because well trained teachers will no doubt, help in the education and development of future leaders that would be academically sound, financially literate, committed to service and be role models with enterprising spirits needed for a sustainable and competitive national economy.

“I am particularly happy that the training is holding at a Continues on page 30

N300bn for tertiary institutions lying idle in CBN Pg. 31

SSANU seeks comprehensive bailout for universities Pg. 35

When you unlock reading for children, you unlock the world Pg. 37

30 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

We are professionalising teaching in Osun — Oyeduntan Chief Lai Oyeduntan is the Chairman, Osun Schools Infrastructure Development Committee (O’ SCHOOL). He spoke with Vanguard’s GBENGA OLARINOYE on the Osun School infrastructure development embarked upon by the Rauf Aregbesola administration among other isues. Excerpts:

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hat informed the decision to embark on infrastructure development in the education sector?

The education sector was in a very deplorable, unacceptable and embarrassing condition and we still have left overs of the dilapidated, embarrassingly, dysfunctional, infrastructural elements in our schools. It would be irresponsible of any government not to have done something about the situation, but what to do became the issue.

When we came in, less than three per cent of Osun students sitting external examinations were considered matricable. By any yardstick or standard, this sector was dead. Look at the consequence of that particular sector-- the pupils, the system, the environment. The teachers refused to teach and to impact knowledge. And for them to be effective, many things must come to play. Teachers must be interested and be encouraged to teach.

Also, the pupil that finds himself in an unacceptable learning environment is unable to learn.

What was the state of the infrastructure before Aregbesola’s government intervention?

The environment in which pupils and students found themselves was horrible. The school blocks were dilapidated- no windows, leaking roofs, ceilings blown off, floors marked by potholes, schools that were not secure. When schools closed at 2pm, goats and undesirable elements took over and schools became den of hemp smokers and vagabonds.

This was the situation we met.

The education conference was called within 100 days of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s coming to the saddle because he had a plan for education sector and the recommendations from the summit were policy options that the government could adopt to revamp the sector.

We must recognise the im-

•Chief Lai Oyeduntan

portance of education, for without it, the society is doomed.

And we are not talking about learning to read and write alone but the totality of the development of man - the mind and body.

So, what were the options that the government selected?

Government adopted to remotivate and enhance the capacity of the teachers to teach and to encourage the pupils and students to learn because once the teaching and learning

processes are enhanced, the sector will become more vibrant.

Government has recruited more teachers and is focused on the development and redevelopment of teachers in terms of capacity, training and retraining; government is boosting the morale of the teachers by ensuring that every teacher that is due for promotion is promoted and almost 7,000 primary school teachers were promoted in the last one year.

In fact, teaching job is being professionalized in Osun as the administration of the teachers, schools and basic education has been decentralized from one office to six, headed by the Permanent Secretary or TutorsGeneral who up until a few months ago, were school principals.

For pupils, government has been encouraged to rejuvenate learning as enrolment in elementary schools was dwindling because of poverty.

What is the cost implication to the government of these strides in the education sector?

Apart from the physical structure, it takes over N4bn every year to feed pupils ; N4bn that goes to the streets of Osun. We now have farmers doing poultry and beef and 3,300 Osun women are now engaged as official food vendors, it’s a booster to the economy.

Also, because of the large number of uniforms required, a garment industry came into being in Osun which is a booster to the economy, the students in the higher classes are being encouraged to take their destiny in their hands with the distribution of Opon Imo, a monumental innovation that has won accolades all over the world.

What are the major constraints your committee encountered?

Money. If we have money, it would have been a lot easier.

Capacity to build is another.

Our state is very poor and it would be irresponsible of any government to think that it can’t do much or there wasn’t much to do and people of Osun must be grateful to God for giving us a governor like this at this point in time. If the IGR alone can be boosted from N300m in a month to N1.6bn, it’s like miracle that has opened up the fund we have been able to use.

As we speak, virtually every incoming support into government is diverted to education.

MDG is building four elementary schools and a middle school and we are looking at the possibility of another six immediately. I must commend our National Assembly members. They have pulled up their so called constituency projects together and they have put together N1.6bn and they are putting all that in education, building and renovating schools.

One of the renovated elementary schools in Osun.

WAEC tackles failures, trains teachers nationwide Continues from page 29 time when all hands are on deck to ensure that the results of our students at both internal and external examinations are impressive. We are charging teachers in the state to redouble their efforts with a view to improving the performance of their students in WAEC exams and also justify

government’s huge investment in the education sector, especially in the training and re-training of teachers and provision of facilities.”

In the same vein, Lagos State House of Assembly Chairman, House Committee on Education and Technology, Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King, appreciated the efforts of the

leadership of WAEC for partnering with the state government to sharpen the skills of its teachers.

Alawiye-King urged the teachers in the state to reciprocate the huge resources invested in human capital development by impacting positively on the students in their care so as to make them

compete favourably with their peers around the world. The training programme will feature topics like Curriculum Implementation, Relevance of Chief Examiner’s Report, Standardization of Assessment, Teachers’ Self Development and Item Writing Procedure among others, in addition to practical sessions.

CVED 13th session begins tomorrow

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HE Centre for Vocational Empowerment and Development, CVED, an arm of the Dominion Faith International Church, Ipaja, will begin its 13th session tomorrow, February 7, 2014.

According to a release signed by the Coordinator of the centre, Pastor Jide Esan, all students are to resume by 11am while two new courses, Adire and Batik, Make up and gele, have been added to the existing ones to bring the number to 10.

The other courses are household chemicals, hairdressing, decoration, printing, catering, computer appreciation, beadmaking and adult education.

“Participants will undergo series of vocational training to acquire essential skills and business initiatives that will make them fully equipped and financially independent.

School spends N30m on renovation

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

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HE management of Greater Tomorrow Group of Schools, Benin-City, Edo State, has disclosed that it has spent over N30 million on the rehabilitation of infrastructure under its phase one programme.

Conducting journalists and parents around the renovated projects, the Administrator of the school, Mr. Patrick Ikponmwen said under the phase one rehabilitation programme, louvers, windows and doors have been replaced with aluminium casements so as to meet modern demands and expectations of the parents.

“The phase one rehabilitation programme also covers the hostels, the science blocks, the administrative building, laying of tiles in the classrooms and upgrading of staff offices as our focus is to ensure conducive learning environment for both teachers and students."

While disclosing that the school has been excelling in its external examinations, Ikponmwen insisted that the school is known for the provision of basic infrastructure for effective learning and creating competitive edge all round in academic performances.

The second phase of the rehabilitation exercise will involve the renovation of the kitchen and upgrading of the dinning hall to serve the students, while the final phase will be the interlocking of all the pathways in the school.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—31

Prof. Adebisi Balogun, left; Prof. Mabogunje and Dr. Christopher Kolade (third and fifth left), with principal officers of the Elizade University.

N300bn for tertiary institutions lying idle in CBN — TETFund chairman

By DAYO ADESULU

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HE Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Dr. Musa Babayo, has disclosed that N300 billion meant for tertiary institutions, was lying idle in TETFund’s Project Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Babayo who lamented the dearth in building institutional capacity pointed out that the release of the second phase of the N200 billion for universities’ infratructure development was in progress. However, for the N100 billion released in August last year, only nine universites had submitted their proposals to TETFund for Approval in Principle

(AIP).

Babayo who spoke at the 11th Governing Board meeting of the National Universities Commission (NUC), which held for two days at the Commission’s Secretariat, Abuja, informed the NUC Board that since the Commission became a member of the TETFund Board, the two agencies had been collaborating on a number of initiatives. And this had helped immensely in completion of university projects.

The chairman pledged the Fund’s continued support to the NUC in its quest to sustain the growth of the Nigerian University System (NUS).

He also sought the Board’s

help to engage universities to take full advantage of TETFund interventions, stressing that the problem of the NUS was not lack of funds, but the capacity for utilisation.

Babayo, however, gave a run down of other unaccessed funds under the Book Development Programme (where only five PhD theses were found publishable into textbooks out of the hundreds that were submitted), the National Research Fund Programme, with a seed money of N10 billion, much of which was yet to be accessed, Academic Staff Training and Development Programme (the monitoring of which NUC now participates in) as well as the High Impact Fund targeted at selected institutions in each

geo-political zone.

The Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Julius A. Okojie, explained that the Commission became a member of the TETFund Board about a year ago, adding that the NYSC National Awardees’ Scholarship and the Presidential Scholarship Scheme for Innovation and Development (PRESSID) were about the best looked after in the system, based on the relationship between the two agencies. He also disclosed that proposals from universities, which did not win a slot in the African Centres of Excellence (ACE) project, would be sent to TETFund for consideration.

The Chairman and members of the NUC Board thanked Dr.

4

Choose the British English word/spelling in each of the following sentences: 1. The (fender/bumper) of the car was badly damaged in the accident.

2. The (windscreen/windshield) of the car was broken.

3. There is a Career and (Counselling/Counseling) Unit in Lagos State University.

4. We admire a leader who has a good sense of (humour/humor).

5. He is to pay for the car in two (instalments/installments).

6. He is going for a football (practice/practise) at 4.00p.m.

Exercise (2) 12. (Pyjamas/Pajamas) is a night dress.

7. (Traveling/travelling) long distance on Nigerian roads can be wearisome.

8. One day, we shall all appear at the (judgement/judgment) seat of Christ.

9. He has just bought a station (waggon/wagon) car.

10. I (advise/advice) him to stop going to night parties.

11. Tell the man and his wife to stop (quarreling/quarrelling) over money matters.

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Babayo for the information and urged TETFund to create more public awareness on its activities, especially with respect to unaccessed funds. Dr. Ali noted that a lack of executive capacity by university administrators was a problem that needed to be tackled. He therefore charged TETFund and NUC to consider a training programme on enhancing executive capacity for vicechancellors or engaging consultants to help them break the vicious cycle of universities' inability to access the much needed TETFund interventions.

The Board also made a case for the introduction of sanctions, a strategy for monitoring projects and the education of members of university communities to monitor the funds coming into their institutions.

CORRECTION 1 2 3

The bumper of the car was badly damaged in the accident.

The windscreen of the car was broken.

There is a Career and Counselling Unit in Lagos State University.

We admire a leader who has a good sense of humour 5 He is to pay for the car in two instalments.

6 He is going for a football practice at 4.00p.m.

7 Travelling long distance on Nigerian roads can be wearisome.

8 One day, we shall all appear at the judgement seat of Christ.

9 He has just bought a station waggon car.

10 I advise him to stop going to night parties.

11 Tell the man and his wife to stop quarrelling over money matters.

12 Pyjamas is a night dress.

32— Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

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34—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

NUC, Wolverhampton varsity partner on entrepreneurship

By DAYO ADESULU

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delegation from the Wolverhampton University, United Kingdom (UK), led by its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Geoff Layer, has paid a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, to explore collaboration with the Commission in the area of entrepreneurship studies.

Briefing the Executive Secre-

tary on the background of the university, the Vice-Chancellor said that Wolverhampton was founded in 1827 in the industrial heartlands of England and presently has a student population of 23,000 and operates four campuses in the UK, while it runs its programmes in 12 different countries.

Professor Layer said that the university traced its roots to the Wolverhampton Mechanics Institute (founded in 1835), which provided vocational and general education for working

men. In 1851, he said, a Municipal School for Art was established, noting that these institutions became the basis for Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Technical College and ultimately the present-day university. He remarked that providing an excellent student experience was one of the main priorities of the university, both in the UK and other parts of the world, with a view to providing outstanding teaching and thereby producing highly employable graduates. The ViceChancellor stated that at present, Wolverhampton has four faculties which offer cours-

es in over 70 subject areas and with about 4,000 graduate students each year. He disclosed that the university has a community of 2,500 international students from over 150 countries, adding that the institution is proud of how it has developed its educational network, which, he said is on the rise to ensure the success of its graduates in a global economy.

Over the last few years, he said, nearly 1,000 Nigerians studied in the university, saying that this has been invaluable, not only for the Nigerian economy, but also in creating strong relationships and partnerships.

UBA Foundation mentors students on reading

By DAYO ADESULU

UBA Foundation has spurred education career of Nigerian youths as it organised a mentoring and reading session with the students of the Sacred Heart Girls International School - Marian Calabar.

Speaking during the mentoring session, UBA Regional Bank Head, Cross River Bank, Uduak Afangide who led the UBA delegation, said that the bank has come to encourage students to read while noting that reading defines each student's career path and success in life.

Ijeoma Aso, MD/CEO, UBA Foundation urged the students to inculcate the reading habit. According to her, knowledge gained from reading can never be taken away. “Reading broadens knowledge and gives you exposure. It is a good foundation for success and greatness in life,” she explained.

Expert warns students against eating moringa bark

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LL doubts and myths sur-rounding the use of Moringa leaf and tree were dealt with at a lecture recently held at the Federal University of Technology, Akure. The lecture organised by the university’s Centre for Research and Development (CERAD) with the topic Uses and Potentials of Moringa Products for Health Improvement and Wealth Creation, was delivered by a former staff of the university and the National Secretary, Moringa Development Association of Nigeria (MDAN), John Tolani.

Tolani who spoke extensively on the many benefits of moringa also touched on some of the possible side effects of the wonder tree. Said he: “The unusual endowment of the moringa tree places it at an exceptionally vantage position to help the human body in fighting and neutralizing the causes of disease, thereby restoring the body to good health.

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Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—35

SSANU seeks comprehensive bailout for universities

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

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ENIOR Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, has called on the Federal Government to comprehensively bailout universities by paying up the arrears of the Earned Allowances from 2009 up to 2013.

Acknowledging government’s intervention in releasing N30 billion and its proposed release of another N10 billion for the part-payment of the arrears of earned allowances arising from the 2009 Federal Government-based Unions’ Agreements, SSANU argued that it fell short of expectation to settle the earned allowances since 2009.

A communiqué issued at the end of its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting in Bauchi State, said: “NEC-insession notes with delight FG’s intervention in releasing N30bn and its proposed release of another N10bn for the part-payment of the arrears of earned allowances arising from the 2009 FGN/ University-based Unions’ Agreements. It, however, notes that the intervention fell abysmally short of the expected amount required for the full payment of the arrears accrued from July 2009 to 2013.

“The NEC-in-session calls on government to do a com-

prehensive bail-out for varsities by paying up all the arrears of the Earned Allowances up to 2013, while the varsities should take up the implementation with effect from 2014.

“NEC-in-session frowns at the haphazard payment of the arrears

across federal varsities and calls on all varsities (including the state-owned ones) to ensure that SSANU members are not short-changed in the process of payment and implementation of the earned allowanc-

es as any attempt to shortchange its members would be met with maximum resistance.”

On the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, “NEC-insession notes that going by the terms of the 2009 FGN/SSANU Agreement, the agreement fell due for review with effect from August, 2012. Council laments the culture of the FG signing agreements with unions with little or no commitment to implement the terms in the agreements, which is at the root of frequent industrial crises in the country.”

*The commissioning of the Morgan Smart Women and Youths Empowerment Resource Centre, Warri took place recently. (Inset): Mrs. S. A. Anifowoshe, representing the Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Zainab Maina, cutting the tape to commission the centre, while Mr. Tunji Idowu of Chevron (left), Chief Mark Erewa-Meggison, Morgan Smart Development Foundation (MSDF) Board member and Dr. Evelyn Omawumi Urhobo, President/ CEO MSDF look on.

Rivers partners Alliance Francaise to host SSS French contest

By DAYO ADESULU

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HE Rivers State Government says it will host the 2014 National French Competition for secondary school students in the country later this year. The Commissioner for Education, Dame Alice Lawrence-Nemi stated this while welcoming the Director of Alliance Française, Port Harcourt, Mrs Helene Okutue and the executive members of Nigerian Association of French Teachers (NAFT) in her office in Port Harcourt.

The Commissioner hinted that the state will partner with Alliance Française and the National Association of French Teachers, NAFT, to ensure smooth hosting of the competition in Rivers State.

Lawrence-Nemi said that the world is becoming a global village and the need to embrace another foreign language was necessary.

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‘’French is very important because we cannot live with only one language. With what is going on now globally, every child deserves to learn a second language. Rivers State is very traditional in the sense that French has been a language our teachers teach in our schools, and on behalf of Rivers State, we will partner with you to enable us host the National French Competition in the state,’’ she said.

Mrs Okutue stated that Rivers State won the bid because of its two previous victories in the drama competition.

Port Harcourt, said Lawrence-Nemi, is the hub of oil and gas business in West Africa, stressing that the study of the language will boost trade among our Frenchspeaking neighbours. The Education boss noted that French multinationals like Total E&P and Air France have partnered with the ministry in

the development of education in the state. She said that the state is not only building infrastructure but is laying emphasis on the study of French Language. She pointed out that the state government is not relegating indigenous languages to the background and hinted that her ministry has drafted the curriculum for the study of indigenous languages in the state. Governor Rotimi Amaechi ensured that not only foreign languages are being taught in our schools but local languages too and we have done a curriculum for that and we are teaching our children so that we do not lose our mother tongue,’’ she said.

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he Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Barr. Michael West said the French Language is very im-

portant to the state "because we have to give our children the competitive edge in a globalized world."

Mrs Helene Okutue commended Lawrence-Nemi for organising the French Teachers’ workshop in September 2013, noting that the training was fruitful because the teachers are more confident in the teaching of the language. She pleaded with the Commissioner to make this training a yearly training for French teachers in the state adding that the Ministry can even increase the training to two times in a year.

On its part, the President of NAFT, Rivers State Chapter, Mrs Sarah Blackduke commended the Rivers State Government for their investment in the education sector.

Foundation pays NECO/ WAEC fees for 550 students in Edo State

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

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HE Sergius Oseasochie Ogun Foundation has offset the 2014 NECO/ WAEC enrolment fees for 550 students drawn from Esan North and Esan South East local government areas of Edo State.

According to the founder of the Foundation, Deacon Sergius Ogun, each of the students will receive N12,000 just as the Foundation will also award university scholarships to six of the best students who would receive N100,000 each per annum.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Deacon Ogun said that he had difficulties in paying his way through secondary education and he is motivated to pay the enrolment fees of the students, adding that “ we should not toy with the educational future of our students who are our future.

“You will agree with me that many youths, more often than not, drop out of school when they are due for Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations. Seriously disturbed by this ugly development, my foundation (SOOF) initiated the free NECO/ SSCE enrollment for intelligent but indigent students in our secondary schools on annual basis.

“Last year, over 250 candidates benefited from the scheme after rigorous examinations conducted for over 1,000 SSS III students in Esan North-East and Esan South-East local government areas. I am glad to inform you that a tremendous improvement has been recorded over and above the figure for the previous year as we gathered here today to present enrollment fees to over 550 candidates to enable them enrol for the 2014 NECO/SSCE.” Chairman of the occasion, Professor Patrick Onolememen, while commending Deacon Ogun for his kind gesture, appealed to students to take the studying of mathematics and the sciences very seriously as most of the students that took part in the rigorous examination failed woefully in mathematics and science subjects.

36—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Old students’ association urges Osun govt to renovate school

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

Be careful, private universities can fold up (2) Fortunately for the C&S churches, Mose Ori-molade died before the arrival of private universities. The same can be said of the Celestial Church of Christ under Oshoffa and the Aladura Church under Ositelu. But virtually all these churches broke up into splinter groups after the founder died. At least, none went beyond the immediate successor before breaking into factions.

Winners is still led by the founder. So, it has not yet experienced the problems of succession which have characterized such huge financial empires. It has a university.

The most troubling question is: what happens after the founder passes on? After all, everybody must die – whether man of God or not.

And, anywhere there is enormous wealth to fight about, people will fight over its control. Nothing in the Holy Books argues against that. Since division is inevitable, the next question is: what happens to the university jointly established by the “faithful” and will the successor to the original founder inherit the visions and the zeal which got it established in the first instance or will they go off in a different direction? Furthermore, in the case of a break-up of the church, who will inherit the university and will the support provided by the whole church still be available?

There are literally thou-

sands of questions which one can ask with respect to the future of faith-based universities which have been established by one man. It is clear enough what happens when the battle for control of bank accounts starts and when management of key assets are being disputed. But a university is not a building you can lock up for three years while the issue of leadership and control is being sorted out in the courts of law. It must function everyday or die within months.

To a great extent, what is true of the Christian faith-based universities is also true of the Muslim universities. The best example, (there are few to chose from) so for convenience, let us start from Crescent University in Abeokuta, Ogun State. The Prime mover is Prince (Alhaji) Bola Ajibola, former President of the Nigerian

,

Continues from last week

The most troubling question is: what happens after the founder passes on? After all, everybody must die

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Bar Association, former Federal Minister for Justice and Attorney-General; former World Court Justice, etc, etc..

He belongs to one of the three original Muslim sects in Nigeria – Ahmaddiya, Ansar-UDeen, and Zumratul (forgive me if the spellings are incorrect on any of those). But as with Christians, other Islamic sects have risen to challenge the mainline sects mentioned above. Irrespective of which of the sects establishes a university now, banking on the financial prowess of the

founding fathers and mothers, the question of sustainability for 10,20, 50, or 100 years must be answered.

Otherwise, we are only establishing universities which might not outlast their founders. Then what? Neither the Federal Ministry of Education, nor the NUC, had, to the best of my knowledge, addressed this problem.

NEXT: PRIVATE ONEMAN UNIVERSITIES CAN ALSO FOLD UP Visit: www.delesobowale.com

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LD Students’ Association of Ife-Oluwa Grammar School, (IOGS) Osogbo, Osun State, has urged the state governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola to quickly renovate dilapidated structures in the school which his administration recently classified as a middle school in its on going reforms in the education sector.

Speaking with newsmen in Osogbo during the activities marking the 50th anniversary of the school, the President of the old students association of the school, Pastor Adesoji Ajibade lamented that the school had deteriorated terribly over the years as a result of total neglect by successive governments after the school was taken over by government in 1975.

He recalled that in the past, the school was one of the best in academic excellence and that the school environment was very beautiful and attractive as the buildings and the lawns were well laid out as a result of which the school attracted students from all parts of the country.

He noted that over the years, the buildings had dilapidated, with roofs cracked, blown off totally or half way and wondered how the students could successfully settle down to study in most of the dilapidated school buildings.

Ajibade commended the education policy of Aregbesola’s administration and disclosed that the association has plans to contribute to the development in the school. ”We are grateful to the state governor for his intention to renovate the school which we eagerly look forward to. Of course, we are not oblivious of the fact that government cannot do it alone. We have plans for the school but we don’t want our own intervention to clash with that of the state government.

The association condemned the level of indiscipline in some secondary schools in the state and thanked

Obasanjo, Jega, Tambuwal to grace AANI lecture

By BASHIR ADEFAKA he inaugural Public Policy lecture series titled, Building Credible Electoral Process for Democratic Sustainability being put together by the alumni association of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, AANI, will hold on March 11, 2014 at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos.

According to a release by the association, the lecture, which will have the renowned constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay, SAN, as lead speaker, is expected to be graced by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who will be chairman of the occasion. Other eminent Nigerians like Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mallam Aminu Tambuwal; Chief Justice of the Federation, Hon. Justice

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Aloma Mukhtar; Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Godswill Akpabio; INEC Chairman, Prof.

Attahiru Jega; Central Bank Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and a former Vicepresidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria and renowned banker, Mr. Fola Adeola will be among the discussants at the lecture.

AANI was formed in response to the need for government and the Nigerian society to constantly tap from the rich mix of highlevel manpower nurtured at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru. The institute was established in 1979 as Nigeria’s foremost policy think-tank with the primary objective of developing a crop of top-class technocrats of high intellectual capacity, who will conceptualise and anchor the implementation of innova-

tive and dynamic policy initiatives and strategies critical for national development.

According to the Chairman of AANI, Lagos, Mr. Victor Banjo, “Due to the general public concern AANI feels duty bound to work with other Nigerians to draw attention to the issues and create a forum for public discourse which should lead to solutions borne out of our collective experience and desire.” The Chairman of the Planning Committee, Mr. Muyiwa Odejayi, disclosed that the event will be attended by a cross-section of top functionaries from various tiers of Government, diplomatic corps, political groupings, academia, organised private sector, labour, armed forces and para-military institutions, corporate Nigeria as well as the media.

the state government for making efforts to arrest the situation through a committee led by Dr. Isiaka Owoade. ”It is our hope that the committee will assist the government in finding solution to this worrisome menace. Fortunately, no student of Ife-Oluwa Middle School has been reported to be involved in any form of indiscipline or gangsterism. ”We thank God for this and it is significant to note that the current students in the schools have succeeded in sustaining the legacy of good behaviour. And this is the reason why we are appealing to the state government and its Dr. Owoade-led committee to arrest the situation now before other decent students are infected. ”While we commend the education policies of Aregbesola’s administration, it is imperative for us to use this opportunity to appeal to the state government to quickly carry out repairs on the infrastructure of this schools as this is the only way the school can be able to impart knowledge on the students and produce competent future leaders. ”We wish to appeal to the state government to kindly deploy more teachers to the school. We also urge all the teachers who are currently working in the school to be committed and rededicate themselves to the work”, Ajibade said.

He called on former students of the school who have not been partaking in the activities of the old students association of Ife-Oluwa Grammar School to show interest and join hands with others to assist the school.

Twenty-two persons, including the founder of the school, Chief Fadeyi and the former principals of the school were honoured with various awards for their contributions to the school.

Covenant varsity holds 4th inaugural lecture

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HE 4th in the series of Covenant University’s Inaugural Lecture comes up on Friday, February 14, 2014 at the University Chapel.

The lecture entitled: Microbial Life in The Presence of Carbon and Oxygen: Consequences for Man, will be delivered by an astute scholar and Professor of Medical Microbiology, Professor Louis Osayenum Egwari.

Professor Egwari is the Director of Covenant University Centre for Research and Development (CUCERD). He is also the immediate past Deputy Dean, School of Natural and Applied Sciences in the College of Science and Technology of the university.

He joined Covenant Univer-

sity as Associate Professor of Microbiology in June 2008.

He was appointed Professor of Microbiology on December 1, 2008 and later became the first substantive Head of Department, Biological Sciences in February, 2009.

A dogged researcher, his research efforts in 2010 brought three Patent Rights to the university as approved by National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) for the production of Beverage Drink from Pawpaw Fruits; Production of Fermented Rice Products and Culture Media Formulation from Whole Fauna of Sun-dried Crayfish and Exoskeleton of Crab and Shrimps.

Vanguard, THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 6, 2014—37

When you unlock reading for children, you unlock the world —Krista McKee

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By EBELE ORAKPO

rederick Douglass, the African-American social reformer, writer and statesman said that “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free,” while Kofi Atta Annan, seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, opined that “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.” These hard truths perhaps propelled the American University of Nigeria (AUN), a development university, to organise two programmes to achieve these goals. In this chat with Vanguard Learning, Krista McKee, Vice-President of AUN Schools and Educational Programming, and Karon K. Harden, the university’s Academic Liaison for Community Engagement and Service Learning, speak on the two programmes and what they hope to achieve.

Excerpts: What we do: Said McKee: “We are doing beautiful work in literacy. Right now, we have two programmes, one is called STELLAR (Students *Karon K. Harden

*An AUN student teaching children in a local primary school to read.

trained to work with young children. We give them materials, we train them and then we go into the community schools and do after-school tutoring in reading. It’s making such a difference,” said McKee. Observations: “I have been observing in each of the classes (I try to see them once a week) and they are just blooming and beginning to understand the basics of reading and on that foundation, we can build their entire reading cradle. When you unlock reading for children, you unlock the world. So we are so excited.

The children are excited; they really come back after school.

Their parents come and watch their children learn to read and the teachers are dying for our materials; they love it. It is changing the face of literacy and education because the children are truly excited. The parents are so supportive and the teachers are also learning new techniques. So we are making a huge difference in the reading level here in Yola and hopefully, through out Adamawa State. If I am given the opportunity, I will try to take the Jolly Phonics nationwide,” said McKee.

Harden noted that the students also write children’s books because the children do not have enough reading

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Empowered through Language, Literacy and Arithmetic), the other one is Jolly Phonics.

“Jolly Phonics is a wonderful way to help children understand the basics of reading. We are teaching letter sounds and letter names and teaching them how to blend those sounds together until they form a strong baseline for reading. Right now, we are doing a pilot study in six primary schools out in the community and they are doing so wonder fully,” she enthused.

Explaining the involvement of AUN students in the programmes, the Academic Liaison for Community Engagement and Service Learning at AUN, Karon K. Harden, who teaches Introduction to Applied Community Development (CDV 101) with a focus on literacy, "STELL AR was founded in 2012 at the AUN and most of the project activities are carried out by AUN students enrolled in CDV 101, a service-learning course, under the close supervision of an AUN faculty member who serves as the project director. The students not only learn academically but are also actively engaged in community projects in the field. So when they sign up for CDV 101, they study the role of education in national development, the challenges, advances and progress that Nigeria has made and what still needs to be done. They run an after-school tutoring programme twice a week in 203 primary schools in Yola, teaching primary two, three and sometimes four pupils the basic skills especially reading, because reading is the foundation for all the other learning. If they cannot read, it is going to affect their science and other subjects so we are trying to reinforce their basic reading skills."

“The university students are

*Krista McKee

materials. "So we are studying to produce our own. So far, the reading has been in the English Language although about half of our tutors speak Hausa or Fulfulde so they can use some Hausa or Fulfulde in the tutoring session. We do have plans to make some materials in Hausa and Fulfulde because from a linguistic point of view, if you learn to read in a language that you understand first, then it will strengthen your English literacy later.

"Over 95 per cent of our kids do not speak English at home and they never hear English outside the school so they don’t have the comprehension. They can decode the word, you can make them repeat it for you but they don’t comprehend.

From a linguistic point of view, if you learn to read in a language that you understand first, then it will strengthen your English literacy later

,

Obviously they have some isolated words and some vocabulary but as far as full understanding of stories is concerned, they are unable to pick up a story, read it and understand it because they don’t have the English. So they need to acquire the reading skills and the English language, the vocabulary, the sentences and how you put the words together in a sentence and what they mean when you put them together. These are actually two separate skills fused into one because they are trying to learn to read and to understand the language at the same time."

Moving forward: “If this pilot is successful, then this wonderful programme will be implemented throughout Adamawa State and there is even discussion that it will be implemented throughout Nigeria so we are on the cutting edge; we are leaders in literacy and literacy training for children from five to eight years and we feel that it will make a difference. It’s a game changer in reading. In 2010, there was a study done in Adamawa State and children aged five to 15 were tested in reading. The illiteracy rate at that point was 77 per cent; we can change that percentage, we can make a huge difference," stated McKee. Montessori Vs Jolly Phonics: n the difference be tween Jolly Phonics and Montessori method, McKee said: “I am Montessori-trained. Montessori is an overall method; yes it teaches children to read phonetically so that is one of the components of Montessori and the AUN Academy (elementary section) uses a lot of Montessori materials so Montessori is this huge overriding philosophy and method while the Jolly Phonics really just hones in on the reading process."

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Nigeria’s Hubert Humphrey Fellow named Distinguished Educator in Nigeria

BY LAJU ARENYEKA

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ubert H. Humphrey Fellow for 20012002, Dr. Benedicta Chiwokwu Agusiobo, recently received the Distinguished Educator in Nigeria award from the Education Times, a monthly education magazine.

“We highly commend Dr. Agusiobo’s great efforts in educational development and wish her more success in her educational endeavors,” Education Times said in a tribute at the award ceremony. Dr. Agusiobo was Deputy Director and Head of Department of Early Childhood Education and Development at Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council for 10 years.

Earlier in the year, she was elected into the coveted position of Vice-President of the

World Council for Curriculum and Instruction International (WCCI), an international nongovernmental organisation with consultative status in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. She is the first African to be elected into the office.

Dr. Benedicta Chiwokwu Agusiobo studied curriculum and science education at bachelors, masters, and doctorate levels, and was the focal person for Basic Education in the ENHANSE Project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) 2004 – 2009.

The award ceremony was attended by over 300 education stakeholders including students and eminent Nigerians such as former governor of Lagos State, Ahaji Lateef Jakande and Executive Secretary of NERDC, Prof. Godswill Obioma.

38—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Aregbesola is noise, propaganda and billboards — Omisore ERSTWHILE deputy governor of Osun State and subsequently, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Iyiola Omisore is in the front of the campaign by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to unseat the incumbent All Progressives Congress, APC administration in Osun State. In this interview, Senator Omisore reviews the situation in the state and gives reasons why the PDP would do better in the state.

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

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RE you satisfied with the election time-table rolled out by INEC for the gubernatorial election?

INEC is an independent body, so the issue of satisfaction does not arise at all. There is no provision in the Electoral Act that says that every party must be satisfied. What is required is that INEC must do a good job for Nigerians to show neutrality, to exhibit independence and confidence in the populace. So, it is for us as political parties or aspirants to comply and find a way of working within the tenets of the INEC time-table.

Are you satisfied with the independence of INEC in Osun State?

We have a peculiar problem of the REC in Osun State, one Ambassador Akeju. His issue has been on the burner for quite a while now. Before the 2011 elections, PDP went to court to stop him from conducting the elections, we got a court order restraining him from conducting and parading himself as the REC for Osun State, but they went ahead and rigged the election massively for ACN at that time.

INEC in their own wisdom went to the Court of Appeal to challenge that order.

Challenging the order They lost at that instance and we went back to court to enforce our rights because the Supreme Court had said that anybody that has a judgment must have the right to benefit from it, and in our attempt to do so, between INEC, Akeju and ACN, they decided to frustrate that.

At a point, the REC went on air challenging whoever linked him with Bola Tinubu and in the second week, we came out with his direct links with Bola Tinubu as his former employee.

Where?

In one of Bola Tinubu's companies and particularly where he went to represent Tinubu at public functions. We attached it to court papers and it was on that strength that the court said that he cannot conduct the election. Till today, headily, he

•Omisore: I will focus on gainful employment is still there. So, we believe that our main problem in Osun State now is Akeju. With Akeju we cannot have a free and fair election. With Akeju, we wont operate with INEC. With Akeju, PDP will not submit to any form of screening. The saving grace for free and fair election in Osun State is to remove Akeju.

If he is not removed, what would you do?

The option we have is to stop him. There must be a level playing ground. You cannot have a supposed umpire to be a partisan person. It is against the Electoral Act. Even by the laws that set up INEC, he is unqualified to be an umpire.

What is your assessment of affairs in the State of Osun?

As we are in Osun State today, it is very unfortunate that we have the kind of leadership we have under Gov Rauf Aregbesola. Ordinarily, one would have thought that because he came through the courts and on the mercy of the judgment of Justice Salami, and with Aregbesola's antecedents and with his profile and with what he has done before, I wouldn•ft have

expected anything better from him.

Because at the time he got the first judgment, he was standing trial for a criminal offence in an Abuja Federal High Court for forging a police report to the

court. You see, his case was to be heard on a Monday, but with the connivance of Justice (name withheld) he was inaugurated and sworn in on Saturday. So, by the time the case came up on Monday, he already had immunity.

So, we didn•ft expect much from him anyway.

When you go and see what is happening on ground, there is so much of noise. I think the only thing he adopted is propaganda. He wants to build schools, he wants to build roads, but up till today, he has been able to build only five schools.

But your PDP administration didn't build any?

They built many, many schools! Today, you have a class of 70 to 90 pupils in a class. You have students studying under trees, carrying their blackboards, carrying their chairs to schools.

Distance between homes and schools are now farther, so you are now increasing the number of dropouts, number of touts and all that.

The next thing for him is the issue of noise making on road construction. Today, the only roads that he is doing are federal

roads where he would be refunded and at very ridiculous and embarrassing rates. For instance, the Osogbo – Ijabe road was originally awarded by the Federal Ministry of Works in 2010 for N9.78 billion. The same road, the same design, the same specifications has now been jacked to N19.8 billion.

The idea of Aregbesola is not to develop, but where to get bulk money.

But the feeling out there is that you are bad losers, that the PDP administration didn•ft do anything?

Like what?

Roads!

All the roads that they are doing today were started by Oyinlola. Oyinlola did the maximum in Osun State, he wasn•ft inflicting pains on the people, no houses were demolished and done without noisemaking.

The Sapara – Oshogbo road was done by the Oyinlola government and several road networks within the cities were done by Oyinlola.

What are your thoughts on the school re-classification programme?

Very, very embarrassing. It issuicidal. He has made us to losedignity and all because he wanted to have common uniform for them.

Common uniform?

Of course. They are making mney on uniform per child. The uiform is supplied at N2,400 per uniform which is being sold in the market at N400. So, on that alone someone must have stolen about N12 billion. That was what led to the school reclassification programme so that there will be enough money to steal. It is very unfortunate. I have never seen a government of this nature that is being driven by what you want Continues on page 35

Aregbesola's footprints are there for all to see

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BY IDOWU AJANAKU

E, who comes to governance in Nigeria and wishes to be on the good side of history, must do so with a good dose of creative ingenuity mixed with the power of vision. He must come with candour laced with uncommon courage to dare where angels feared to tread. And to leave impressionable imprints on the sands of time one must be propelled by policies and programmes that are people-oriented, pragmatic and purposeful as Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has done since November, 2010.

The factors that fuel such feats come from an inner nudge to do one’s best and let history be the ultimate judge.

Driven by the will to win against seemingly insurmountable odds, staked high against his frail figure, Ogbeni Rauf Argebesola came into office as Osun State governor eminently qualified with a wealth of experience and determination to make the desired change.

For instance, as commissioner for Works in Lagos State, the roads and bridges constructed during his tenure remain enduring legacies till this day.

These as well as the solid infrastructure the admirable administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu laid formed the foundation built upon by the current Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola-led administration.

Mounting the saddle as a critical thinker, Aregbesola saw the need to reposition Osun within the constitutional framework of fiscal federalism. So came: ‘The State of Osun,’ complete with its anthem and logo and the Omoluabi as the driving mantra for morality and responsibility in governance as well as a means for the citizens to have a sense of self-identity.

Though back then lesser minds tried, vainly to rouse a rabble, they were soon reminded that before him Alhaji Lateef Jakande did the same in Lagos State. If Shehu Shagari as the then president did not bath an eyelid why should anyone now? And come to think of it-if we truly

Continues on page 39

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 —39

Aregbesola: He is an embarrassment to us — Omisore Continued from page 34

•Omisore: Aregbesola is a refrigeration technician ought to be done. As it is today, there has not been addition of one pint of water in my state and the basis of life is water.

What will be the focus of your administration if successful at the polls?

My focus would be gainful employment, dignified jobs, not O-YES or O-No, not impoverishing or degrading student graduates under the guise of employment. Of course, education would be restored to dignity, give missions their schools back if they are interested and we will encourage the private sector to come and invest in the

state too.

We will improve the health sector. As we speak now, there has not been any improvement in primary or secondary health institutions.

As a PDP government, Osun State came fourth respectively in both UME and WAEC. Now, we are between 32 and 34 as we speak today and the number of school enrolment has dropped drastically because of the long distance to trek.

Religion is becoming an issue in Osun State today. How would you as governor calm frayed nerves?

Aregbesola created issue out of religion. So by the time he is leaving, he will just leave with his issue. Osun State people are matured, they are tolerant with one another. So, the problem of religion being an issue is a temporary thing, it came with Aregbesola and it will go with him.

How prepared are you to win the PDP ticket?

I am by God•fs grace prepared.

Some of your rivals have claimed better qualification than you?

That is a matter of opinion. I was deputy governor of the state for four years, I was a senator for eight years, so what credentials can anybody have again?

I don'ft want to condemn any aspirant, you can only say what you are now, you cant say what you don't have. Basically, there are some parameters you have to look for people to judge on

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to eat. That has been the focus of development. Anywhere they cannot locate money to steal, they remove their eyes from that area.

Will you uphold the renaming of the state as the State of Osun?

I wont because it is not necessary. What is important to Osun is what will benefit the people of Osun State. How are you going to alleviate their poverty? How are you going to create wealth? All those are unnecessary issues.

But when someone is half baked, half educated, it is always a problem.

Why do you say so? He is an engineer I don•ft know, maybe he is an engineer with Vanguard. We have asked him to know his registration number. Every engineer in Nigeria has a number and that number goes with each person to the grave.

We have challenged him a couple of times to show his certificate of COREN, his name is not there. I am a member, I am a fellow, I am a council member, his name does not show anywhere in our register. He is a technician. He is what we call Refrigeration Technician. At that level of lack of education, he wants to play to the gallery, he wants to cover up his ills. There is nothing bad in State of Osun because every state is federated, but it doesn•ft have to get to that semantic level, condemning letter headed papers, bringing out new logo instead of doing things that

My focus would be gainful employment, dignified jobs, not O-YES or O-No, not impoverishing or degrading student graduates under the guise of employment

who is better. You cannot be more catholic than the pope.

Engr. Rauf Aregbesola was able to outsmart a sitting PDP government. With him now having the advantage of incumbency, the feeling is that he is unmovable?

Only God is unmovable and power belongs to God totally. You cannot say that you are God, more

Aregbesola‘s footprints are there for all to see Continues from page 38 want to imbibe the doctrines of presidential democracy as the United States which we claim to emulate then every state needs such a distinct identity.

Not just for its name sake but also to imbue in the citizens self pride in what rightly belongs to them, rather than being seen as a mere appendage to an overlord of a federal government.

That singular re-branding of Osun State was a right signal for the ground-breaking and epoch-making achievements soon to be unfolded from the fecund mind of the man fondly called Ogbeni Aregbesola. He knew from the outset that he needed to assemble a team of top technocrats to drive his vision which took some thorough thinking. It was that team that came up with the now hailed Six-Point Integral Action Plan.

And aware that no

•Aregbesola meaningful progress could be made in the absence of peace, communal tranquility and progress have reigned supreme in the state since he came on board in line with the sixth item on the Six-Point Integral Action Plan. At the inception of the administration, one major step taken in the line of enhancing justice and facilitating the

judicial process was the institution of the Peace and Reconciliation Panel. That formed the platform for victims of “various acts of oppressive threats, intimidation and tyranny” to table their plights.

The intent of this, as defined and demonstrated by the administration, was not to punish, witch-hunt or black-list anyone, but to reconcile all opposing parties in every dispute and entrench peace in the true spirit of Omoluabi.”

Before then there were series of communal conflicts arising from chieftaincy disputes and/ or land boundary disagreements. It would be recalled that the erstwhile PDPled administration in the state put in place forceful enthronement of royal/ traditional fathers in many communities where such stools should ordinarily be declared vacant. But these have since been amicably resolved. The Aregbesola-led administration

so, Aregbesola has never won election before. He came through the controversial Salami judgment where Salami cancelled 11 local governments and gave judgment to Aregbesola against the provisions of the Electoral Act, which says substantial compliance. He cancelled about half of the votes and declared him winner. So, Aregbesola does not know the terrain, he does not know how to win elections, he keeps on struggling and struggling and struggling and causing confusion here and there, carrying people from Lagos and trying to forge electoral register.

You can imagine what is happening in Osun State today, we are under billboard siege.

Last count was 2,940 bill boards in my state. It has become an embarrassment to us. The state is being defaced by billboards.

pacified the aggrieved parties; letting them see the need for peaceful resolution rather than taking the laws into their hands.

One other area that deserves commendation is that of reducing to the barest minimum the culture of wanton waste that characterized local government administration in the state. It was the practice during the years of immediate past regime for party chieftains at the community level to grace the premises of local government council secretariats all over the state. That was especially on pay-days to collect unmerited salaries. The consequences were grave as the councils were unable to achieve or execute impactmaking solid infrastructure or put in place capital projects for the benefit of their people.

*Mr Ajanaku, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, wrote from Lagos.

,

That is a sitting government, panicking. Of course, he will leave because he is a stranger in the land. He will leave that seat by the grace of God. He is going to be removed peacefully because the indigenes of Osun State are fed up with Aregbesola.

He is only relying on imported people from Lagos.

Seeking power wrongly Everything about him is imported from Lagos. We want a governor of our own, we don't want Ajele not somebody who has to report to somebody else.

God will give us Senator Omisore as governor of Osun State, he will not fight with muslims, he will not fight with Christians, he will not fight with anybody.

This is a governor that will be walking on the street in the afternoon distributing corn meals, doing rituals in broad daylight in Osun State. He sought power wrongly and that is why he is messing up everywhere.

He is trying to provoke us, he is trying to provoke PDP, doing all sorts of billboards, but we have ignored him because he is a drowning man who wants to cling to anything to survive. We will not fight anybody and we are going to change government in Osun State peacefully. I have told my party members and supporters that they should be peaceful that Aregbesola is on his way out.

40— Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—41

Customs, PAAR and its ignorant critics (2)

BY OKEY IBEKE

The first part of this piece was published in our Tuesday edition S the customs prepared to take full control of destination inspection in Nigeria, it put in place the following as the pillars that will hold the NCS destination inspection: NIGERIAN CUSTOMS SERVICE RULING CENTRE – A WORLD CLASS ICT PLATFORM In preparation for the eventual take over of destination inspection, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) trained its personnel at the facility of Smith Detection in France, makers of the scanner machine in use in Nigeria by the service providers. The agency also put in place world-class ICT infrastructure which developed a software that would be generating Pre-Arrival Assessment Reports (PAAR) six hours before the arrival of the cargo if documents filed by importers confirm with all fiscal policies and guidelines, as against the six days it was taking the service providers to generate the RAR that was in use for the processing cargo clearance in the country.

The beauty of all these according to Customs management is that all are being done with all Nigeria manpower.

According to the NCS, PAAR was developed in 2012 as part of measures to respond adequately to the increasing vol-

A

Comptroller General of Customs, Inde Dikko Abdullahi

ume of trade with limited human and financial resources.

Under the arrangement, the PAAR application system will be complimented by a Ruling Centre located at the NCS Headquarters, Abuja with trained officers and operators-assuming the following roles: • administrators of NCS-PAAR application scrutiny-officers; • final document verification officers; • valuation and classification officers, and; • risk profile officers.

Besides, commercial banks are scheduled to work with their own system based rules.

To demonstrate its readiness for full takeover from the Service Providers the Service also unveiled its gigantic information

technology (ICT) platform, named Nigerian Trade Portal, which will make completion of processing of imported cargoes documents six hours before arrival seamless for importers provided they make genuine declaration and they had resolved all issues they may have with other agencies of government involved one way or the other in the cargoes clearance (NAFDAC, SON etc).

The infrastructure is located at the ‘Customs Ruling Centre’ (at headquarters of the agency in Abuja), and it is a multimillion dollar ICT infrastructure whose software according the Comptroller – General Customs Dikko Inde Abdullahi, was developed by indigenous ICT experts drawn from over 900 ICT graduates employed by the agency from Nigerian universities and abroad.

The single window system In trade facilitation, the single window concept is a facility that wants parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardized information and documents with a single entry point to fulfill all import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements. This pre-supposes that if information is electronic, individual data elements should be submitted only once.

The benefits of a single window system include, allowing traders to fulfill all import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements through one interface, simplifying and facilitating to a large extent, the process of providing and sharing nec-

essary information to traders and the authorities.

The system will also ensure rapid and accurate payment of required duty and other charges to government authorities and agencies, provide up-to-date information on tariff rate/classification and other related procedural requirements, make service providers to be accurate, faster and accountable, drastically reduce cost of trade and services and boost economy.

Nigeria Trade Hub and Customs Modernization As part of the efforts of the customs administration towards facilitating trade, the Service also launched its brainchild, the Nigeria Trade Hub and the Nigeria Import, Export and Transit Process Manual.

The portal which was developed with the cooperation of other government regulatory agencies and some private sector players seeks to provide invaluable guide and reliable reference tools to the global trading community that wish to do business in or with Nigeria.

At the launching ceremony in Abuja, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Abdullahi Dikko, acknowledged that all over the world, Customs administrations are coming under intense pressure to facilitate legitimate cross-border trade.

According to the CGC, the portal boasts of the following features: classification tool, currency converter, tax simulator, web link to other government agencies, 24/7 online accessibility, availability on mobile apps and interactive and intuitive features.

Shortly before the take over, the Service also embarked on enlightenment campaigns to educate stakeholders on the new dispensation. It also organized workshops and trainings for Customs agents in order to fit into the system.

To be concluded

42— Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—43

L-R; Financial Director, Shoprite Retail Supermarkets, Nigeria, Mr. Mubanga Muche; Sales and Distribution Executive, Mr. 'Tsola Barrow and General Manager, Sales and Distribution, Richard Iweanoge at the launch of MTN-Shoprite Partnership at Shoprite supermarket, The Palms, Victoria Island, Lagos, today.

L-R: Demola Aladekomo, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Chams PLC, Funke AlomoOluwa, Managing Director, ChamsAccess Limited, Femi Williams, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Chams PLC and Babatunde Ajiboye, Deputy Manager, Shared Services Office, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the DataCard-ChamsAccess instant issuance seminar for banks in Lagos yesterday.

APC govt shutdown: It’s unpatriotic and capable of truncating democracy—Gbagi

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

F

ORMER Minister of State for Education, Chief Kenneth Gbagi, has criticized the handling of the 2014 budget by the House of Representative and the directive of All Progressives Congress, APC, leaders to their federal legislators to shut down, saying that the moves were unpatriotic and can hurt the coun-

try’s fledgling democracy.

While the 2014 budget passed second reading in the Senate, it was stalled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday on account of the APC’s government shut down directive.

Gbagi said, "The directive to shut down government is very offensive and capable of truncating our nascent democracy. While the

APC has right as a party to participate in the affairs of government, the call to shut down government is regrettable, undemocratic and unacceptable. From any point of view - business, education, health, etc, the call to shut down government has a negative effect that has a bandwagon effect against the country.”

Advising the APC federal law-

makers to ignore the directive in the interest of the country, Gbagi, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said, “The directive is not well-thought out and as such must be rescinded.

The entire purpose of voting for legislators across the country is to go and speedily pass bills to allow the wheel of governance to continuously roll, which un-

fortunately is being truncated. I believe the lawmakers will discountenance such unpatriotic statement in this young age of our democracy. Nobody should do anything to heat up the polity.

“The refusal to pass the budget will set the country back in provision of services and security of lives and property. It amounts to no budget for the military, no budget for education, no budget for healthcare, no budget for infrastructure and no salary for civil servants as well."

44—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Delta SSG, NASS member empower indigent Isoko people with N100m

BY FESTUS AHON

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GHELLI—SECRETARY to the Delta State Government, SSG, Mr. Ovuozorie Macaulay, and the member representing Isoko federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Mr. Leo Ogor, have donated empowerment items worth over N100 million to indigent youths and women in Isoko North and South Local Government Areas, Delta State.

The items include motor cycles, sewing machines, grinding machines, motorised tri-cycles, hair dryers, generating sets and cash.

Making the presentation, Macaulay said that the items were provided by the elected and appointed representatives of the people at the National Assembly and the state.

He said: “This is what we have been able to get from our savings and contributions from friends, who we are able to influence and tell that we need to empower our people.

We feel that this is the best way to give back to the Isoko people, who voted for us, who voted for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, government, who voted for Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and by the grace of God and his benevolence, some of us were given appointments.

“Apart from what you see lined up for distribution, we are making cash donation to the tune of N10 million to 403 market women."

Attack on Karriot Hotel: Handover naval personnel for prosecution — Police

BY EMMA AMAIZE & AUSTIN OGWUDA

W

ARRI—THE Police in Delta State have asked the Navy authorities in the state to surrender the naval personnel, who allegedly disarmed, battered and abducted two police officers and officials of Kayriott Hotel and Suites, Effurun, in the state on January 30, for investigation and prosecution.

Meanwhile, Urhobo Political Forum, UPF, has called on the National Assembly Committee on Navy to take over investigation into the alleged attack by naval officers on Karriot Hotel, noting that it amounts to double tragedy to allow the Navy to continue the investigation of the incident.

National Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr Ejaife Odebala, in a statement in Asaba, yesterday, said: “We express dismay and sadness over the

brutalisation, unlawful imprisonment and breach of the fundamental human rights of Mr. Efe Afe, staff and security attaché to Karriot hotel by the Nigerian Navy personnel.

“From the unfolding scenario, it is clear that the Nigerian Navy is being a judge in its own cause by interrogating and punishing the people its personnel assaulted and later setting up a committee to investigate its own action, where clearly they are the aggressors.”

The police on their part, while reacting to what they described as a “feeble attempt” by the Navy, Monday, to deny the “show of shame” exhibited by its personnel, Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, said: “We want to state clearly that the actions of the naval officer hinges on the realm of criminality and the only option left to the Naval authorities is to hand over the erring naval officer to the Po-

lice for investigation and prosecution.”

He said that the defence put up by the Navy for the blundering personnel was the “height of falsehood.”

Efforts to get the Commanding Officer, Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Delta, Commodore Mohammed Garba, for comments, yesterday, proved abortive, but responding to the demand of the Police to surrender their men for investigation and prosecution, Public Relations Officer, NNS, Delta, Lt. C.I.D. Yohana, said surrendering naval personnel to the police was out of the question because it was the police that battered the naval officer.

Yohana had, Monday, denied that his men were responsible for alleged battery and destruction of property at Kayriott Hotel and Suites, saying, “The incident that happened at Kayriott is still under investigation and was

Rep charges PEF, PPPRA to make petroleum products available

BY GBENGA OKE

C

HAIRMAN, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources, (Downstream), Mr Dakuku Peterside, has urged the Petroleum Equalisation Fund, PEF and Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, to re-double their efforts towards ensuring that petroleum products were available to Nigerians.

He made the plea in Abuja during an oversight visit to the premises of PEF and PPPRA. Peterside, accompanied on the visit by members of the committee, pleaded with the agen-

cies to do everything possible to mitigate any problem that may further lead to the suffering of Nigerians.

According to him, anybody who is entrusted with public trust must exhibit dedication and seriousness because Nigerians are watching.

“We have observed tremendous improvement in the management board and I and my colleagues are concerned about developments in the downstream sector because anything that happens here affects everybody in this country,” he said.

Vincentians begin Novena today

V

INCENTIAN Retreat Centre, 1, De Paul Close, Yakoyo, Ojodu, Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos will commence its 2014 Novena to open the year today. The nineday event with the theme,

2014, My Year of Possibilities, will end with a vigil on February 14. It will feature confession, stations of the cross, adoration and mass and will be hosted by the Vincentian Fathers.

PEOPLE SPEAK

08102479985

a case of assault of a commissioned naval officer which necessitated his admission in the hospital.”

He explained on phone that NNS Delta was not shielding its men from investigation and that the assaulted navy officer, whose ear is dripping blood, was back to the hospital after his appearance at the press briefing.

PTI matriculates 600 part-time students

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HE Principal/CEO, Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun, Delta State, Mrs. Nnenna Dennar, has charged students of the institution to ensure academic excellence through diligence, doggedness and devotion to God. Addressing the matriculating part-time studentsat the PTI Conference Centre, she said: "A total of 600 candidates qualified and were admitted to pursues various programmes in the 2013/14 academic session. The time tested selection process which made it possible for you to be admitted was vigorous and transparent; this is to ensure that the best candidates were admitted. And in pursuit of our value to ensure that only the best students are admitted, prospective students must have five O,level credit passes including Mathematics and English Language with effect from 2014/15 academic session. We are proud of your success. I congratulate you on your successful admission into the Institute. I also advise you to be focused and work hard in order to justify the confidence reposed in you."

By Bartholomew Madukwe (nwamad@yahoo.com)

Removal of subsidy on kerosene

It is a known fact that the subsidy on kerosene was long removed. One of the reasons given was that it fostered the adulteration of petrol. Sanusi is correct on this. If subsidy on kerosene was removed a long time ago, why kerosene is government still subsidising?

Ms. Alice Udoyoh- Student.

The deep seated corruption that stares at us all is something we cannot and should not keep quiet about. Let NNPC tell us when kerosene subsidy was reintroduced. I was surprised to read about it. Mr. Ajadi Razaq- Photographer.

When president Goodluck Jonathan removed the subsidy, many Nigerians were against it.

Well, I use gas, so I may not really have much to say because it has no direct effect on me. Ms. Ebereke Kelechi- Student.

No one can tell Nigerians that the government has not generated at least N500 billion from the partial subsidy removal on petrol. Yet, they are trying to be funny with the $20 billion by using kerosene subsidy that has long been removed as a decoy. Mrs Azeez Olaifa- Businesswoman.

Sanusi is a very patriotic Nigerian who has courage to speak without fear or favour. He was magnanimous to apologise for a previous discrepancy. But that does not mean that his allegations should be swept under the carpet. Mr. Saraba Oladejo- Baker.

What any serious nation should do is to investigate and prosecute those found to be involved and recover our losses, better tomorrow than business as usual. Well done Sanusi and we await replies and proper punishment for the culprits regardless of who they are. Mr. Ajibola Omoyeni- Businessman.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—45

JTF confirm rescue of three abducted Indians

N-Delta youths laud NPDC

BY CHINENYE ABAIZIEM

N

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

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ENAGOA—THE Joint Task Force code named Operation Pulo Shield, has confirmed the rescue of three kidnapped Indians from a hideout in fishing settlement of Abissa in Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.

According to the JTF, the three Indians were rescued from a gang of nine kidnappers after 30 days in captivity.

Spokesman of JTF, Col Onyema Nwachukwu, in a statement in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, said the Indian nationals were abducted by gunmen a month ago aboard a fishing trawler in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea and moved to Nigeria by the kidnappers.

The Indians are Kanishk Johrar, Mohinder Saini and Balwinder Singh.

Nwachukwu said: “A combined crack squad of the 130 Battalion of the JTF, the Nigerian Navy and the Department of State Service, DSS, in Rivers State, have rescued three Indians abducted by a gang of nine kidnappers in Rivers State.

“The combined security squad swung into action after tracking the abductors to their hideout. They also arrested five suspects, while others are on the run.”

Lord’s Chosen holds annual crusade

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HE Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries has completed arrangements to hold its annual two-day powerpacked international crusade entitled, From Sorrow to Joy, from Saturday to Sunday at the Chosen Revival Ground, on OshodiApapa Expressway, by Ijesha Bus Stop, Lagos at 8 a.m. daily.

The programme which will be presided over by Pastor Lazarus Muoka, will witness salvation, sanctification, Holy Ghost baptism, deliverances from spiritual limitation, demonic possession, barrenness of the womb, intellectual and financial barrenness. It will also address physical challenges such as paralyses of all kinds, diseases, sicknesses, economics and political problems.

LAUNCH OF THE VILLAGE HEALTH WORKERS SCHEME: First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, (2nd left); Dr. Precious Gbeneol, Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs (2nd right); Mr. Alhassan Doguwa, Chairman, House Committee on MDGs (left), and Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, during the launch of the village health workers scheme, in Abuja.

CONFAB: Nigeria’s unity, negotiable —Ozekhome

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN—HUMAN rights activist and lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has said that the proposed national conference would be postponing the evil day, if it failed to discuss the issue of unity of the country, which the Federal Government declared a no go area.

Ozekhome, who commended President Goodluck Jonathan for initiating the conference, insisted, however, that the conference would end up as a jamboree, if the issue of the unity of the country, fiscal federalism, resource control, devolution of powers, ethnic nationalities autonomy, corruption, the type of government we need, were not discussed, and whether we are satisfied with the presidential sys-

tem of government, which according to him, “has been shown to be very expensive and money guzzling.”

Reacting to the modalities for the conference, Ozekhome said: “I disagree that the Federal Government said there is no go area. We have passed the stage where we can say we cannot discuss Nigeria in all its ramifications, we even discussed God and how he created the world. It is in Genesis. Why are we afraid of discussing ourselves?

“Why are we scared of discussing where we are coming from, where we want to go to? Who said we cannot discuss the problems of Nigeria? We have never agreed to live together as a country.

There was a time when the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, described Nigeria as a piece of historical mistake. Chief Obafemi Awolowo once described Nigeria as a piece of geographical expression.

“We were coupled together by the British. Even the name Nigeria was a name given to us by Flora Shore, the daughter of a British General. That lady was later married to Captain Lord Lugard, the man who, in 1914, forcibly amalgamated the Northern and Southern protectorates and the Lagos colony to found an amorphous contraption called the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We were never united."

Edo govt sued over acquisition of land for shopping mall

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—THE Edo State Government has been dragged before a state High Court sitting in Benin by a business man, Prince Musa Braimoh, over the acquisition of a parcel of land situated in Idunmwunivbitor village, off Sapele Road, in the state capital for the building of a shopping mall by a South African Company, Shoprite Holdings Limited.

Also joined as defendants in the suit are the state Attorney- General and Commissioner for Justice, state Ministry of Land and Surveys, Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited and Mr. Anton Wagenaar.

The claimant is asking the court

for a perpetual injunction, restraining the defendants from trespassing or committing any further acts of nuisance on the said parcel of land.

He is also seeking N34. 622 million as damages.

The claimant further contended that he is the owner and in lawful possession of the parcel of the land in question, which he acquired by a virtue of a Deed of Transfer dated 7, February 2001 from one Isaac Layinka Garrick and in exercise of his right of ownership over the land, he placed tenants on the land, who erected temporary structures and he has been collecting rent from the said tenants without hindrance.

According to him in September, 2013, he was informed that certain persons, who identified themselves as agents of Edo State Government, started making a fence with wood and corrugated sheets to encompass the said land and the Ivbiotor primary School also known as Salvation Army School, adding that upon his intervention, the encirclement process was stopped.

“Two weeks later, several persons armed with military escorts, who identified themselves of the 1st Defendant came onto the land in dispute with earth moving equipments and machinery including bulldozers and low graders."

IGER Delta youths, under the aegis of Niger Delta Youths for Transformation Agenda, NDYTA, have commended the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as a major player in the petroleum and gas industry in the country, saying that the company has shown commitment in the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan in the petroleum sector.

The youths also passed a vote of confidence on the Managing Director of NPDC, Mr Iyowuna Briggs for his efforts and managerial skills that has shaped the company into a global brand in the highly competitive oil industry with a daily output of 130 000 barrels of crude oil production per day, saying that “he is a pride and role model in the Niger Delta region.”

Lawmaker assures on more democracy dividends

BY FESTUS AHON GHELLI-A member of Delta State House of Assembly, Mr Benjamin Okiemute-Essien, has presented his stewardship to his constituents with a promise to provide the people with more dividends of democracy.

The Chairman, House Committee on Peace and Security, addressing his constituents, who gathered in Irri, Isoko South Local Government Area of the state, said he was very about the education, security of lives and property as well as improving the standard of living of the people and overall socio-economic development of Isoko nation and the state in general.

The gathering, to brief his constituents of his stewardship was the third in two and half years as a member of the state legislature.

He said he had ensured that the voice of the people was heard on the floor of the House, adding that he had sponsored two bills and contributed to debates on several other bills and motions, noting that his 2012 and 2013 constituency projects which include school infrastructures, had been completed.

U

46—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Airlines’ refusal to interline, not good for the economy — DG, NCAA

BY DANIEL ETEGHE

D

IRECTOR-GEN ERAL OF the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Mr. Fola Akinkuotu, has decried the refusal of domestic airlines to interline in the country, stressing that it was not good for the economy.

Mr. Akinkuotu, who urged the airlines to see the benefit of coming together, said that not interlining amongst themselves could hinder passengers' facilitation at airports and growth of the economy.

USA-based show promoter, Unegbu murdered in hotel room

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI — A United States of America, USA, based show promoter, Prince Noel Unegbu, was last Tuesday, murdered by unknown persons in his hotel room (name withheld) in Owerri.

Although the account of the murder was very sketchy at press time, some residents of Owerri have started expressing apprehension that crime wave in the state may escalate again, especially as the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Katsina, has been moved from the command.

Vanguard investigations re-

vealed that Unegbu returned to his native land last January to conclude arrangements for a planned show in Owerri before he was assassinated.

It was also gathered that the late show promoter, who was resident in Houston, Texas, USA, was the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Prince Noel Productions Inc. Late Unegbu was equally the brain behind “Imo Got Talent Competition,” an event that was scheduled to hold its second outing in April or May this year.

Efforts made by Vanguard to reach members of Unegbu family in the Ideato North Local Council Area country home failed, but a villager, who spoke

on grounds of anonymity, revealed the late show promoter was not married.

However, the Police Public Re-

Poly strike: NASU insists on 6-point demand

BY NWABUEZE OKONKWO

O

NITSHA — THE NonAcademic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, in polytechnics has insisted that unless the Federal Government met its sixpoint demands, normalcy would never be restored in system na-

Fed Poly, Nekede gives wheel-chairs to physically challenged

O

WERRI — SOME physically challenged persons studying in Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, have been given wheel-chairs by the management of the institution.

Speaking through Pastor Ndubuisi Kanu, the Dean of Students' Affairs, the Rector, Dr. Cele Njoku, said the gesture was one way of encouraging this set of Nigerian citizens in their educational pursuits.

Funeral

M

RS. JANET Agbroko (Nee Okpa) is dead, aged 79.

Until her death on December 10, 2013, she was a community leader, dedicated Christian and philantropist.

She will be buried on February 7 at her father's compound at OviriOkpe, Delta State, after a service of songs at her residence, 46, Abeke Road, Sapele on February 6, She is survived by four children, grand children, uncles, nephews and sisters.

Late Mrs. Agbroko

lations Officer, PPRO, Mrs. Joy Elemoko, a deputy superintendent of police, DSP, confirmed the incident in a telephone chat.

VISIT: From left, Deputy Governor of Enugu State, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi; Chairman of National Steering Committee on Second Peer Review of Nigeria, Senator Ken Nnamani, and Chief of Staff Enugu Government House, Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo, during a courtesy visit by the committee to Government House, Enugu.

tionwide, particularly as it concerned the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP strike.

NASU and ASUP had embarked on an indefinite strike for the past three months now, since November 4, 2013.

But in a two-page statement issued, yesterday, at the end of their one-day crucial meeting at the main campus of Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, NASU maintained that the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Education should ensure the liquidation of the arrears of the CONTISS 15 Migration to NASU members which had had an accrued arrears from January 2009 till date.

In the statement jointly signed by Chief Ikechukwu Ezenwankwo and Mr. Godfrey Nwankwo, chairman and secretary respectively, NASU also urged the government to ensure that there was adequate budgetary provision in the 2014 budget for the continued implementation of the CONTISS 15 Migration to its members.

According to the statement, the current implementation of CONTISS 15 through the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of polytechnics is no longer acceptable by the union.

Abia governor, Orji tackles Ufomba over claim of stolen mandate

BY ANAYO OKOLI

U

MUAHIA — ABIA State governor, Chief Theodore Orji, has lashed out at APGA candidate in the 2011 governorship election, Chief Reagan Ufomba, over the latter’s claim that he actually won at the poll, describing him as a drowning man whose claim was laughable.

Orji also accused Ufomba of distorting facts and records which were still available at INEC for verification.

Orji, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Charles Ajunwa, said Ufomba’s claim that he (Governor Theodore Orji) stole his mandate actually showed that he was a confused man.

Ajunwa said it was laughable for the APGA candidate to claim that Orji stole his mandate when he came a distant third in the election with abysmal figures as shown by INEC results.

According to him, “the gap between the PDP and APGA in the 2011 election was glaringly wide and did not give room for accusations.”

Ajunwa stated that the PDP and its governorship candidate, Chief T. A. Orji, had always enjoyed the support of the people of the state, in comparison with APGA, its can-

didates and activities in the state.

He maintained that “the PDPled government, headed by Chief T.A. Orji, has endeared itself to Abians and through well thought out people-oriented governance which has touched every strata of the state and for which the people are extremely grateful.”

According to Ajunwa, the Chief T. A. Orji’s mandate in Abia State is divine and responsible.

He urged Ufomba to concentrate on how to rebuild his crisisridden party, rather than find faults where there was none.

Security expert raises alarm over use of convoys by terrorists

BY EVELYN USMAN

R

ENOWNED SECURITY expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, yesterday, raised an alarm over the use of convoys by terrorists who were being mistaken for politicians in some northern states of the country.

Consequently, he called for a ban on political campaign convoys in the affected states until the terrorists were rooted out.

Ekhomu also urged the military to invent new strategies, such as deploying ‘force multipliers,’ including specialised security tips hotlines, customised intelligence operations, perception management, and aerial rapid response in the war against terrorist attacks, if the April deadline set by the Chief of Defence Staff must be met.

Ekhomu, who spoke in Lagos, described the recent terrorist attacks in a Catholic Church in

Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State, and four other local government areas of Borno State, as brazen and deadly.

According to him, the terrorists have shown adaptive capacity by choosing to carry out stealth attacks in communities, villages and towns in these areas, while avoiding military patrols that tended to concentrate on the highways.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 — 47

CONDOLENCE VISIT: Minister of Works, Arch. Mike Onolememen, fielding questions from newsmen after a condolence CLOSING: From left: Vice President, Ibadan Polo Tournament, Adeoye Ajibade,Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, his Oyo State counterpart, Abiola Ajimobi, and visit to the Oba of Benin over the death of his wife in Benin City.

President, Ibadan Polo Tournament, Dr. Tomi Auni, at the closing of 2014 Ibadan Polo With him is HRH, Greg Akenzua. Photo: Barnabas Uzosike.

Tournament in Ibadan. Photo: Dare Fasube.

VISIT: Acting Chairman, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, FRC, Mr. Victor Mumako, (left), Director, Multimedia, News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Mr. Joe Bankole (right) and Acting Managing-Director, NAN, Otunba Jide Adebayo, during the visit by FRC team to NAN in Abuja.

ANNIVERSARY: From left: Lead Pastor, The Empowerment Assembly Church, Oregun, Pastor Charles Abu, a beneficiary and police officer, Micheal Olaleye, and Dr. Serah Eke of the Maxi Specialist Eye Clinic, during the church’s free medical outreach programme in Lagos.

PRESENTATION: Zonal Head, Edo/Delta of First City Monument Bank, FCMB, Mr. Chinedu Ogosi, presenting a cheque of N1 million to the winner of the second edition of the South-East/South-South regional draw of the FCMB 30th anniversary promo, Mr. Kelvin Osekemen Ataman, and Regional Retail Co-ordinator, SouthEast/South-South, Mrs. Christiana Ibeh, at the presentation in Asaba.

PRESENTATION: From left: Chief Olubunmi Olaopa, GMD, Evans Medicals Plc/ Foundation President, Ultimate Circle of Nigeria, Mr. Adelaja Adeleye, President, and Professor Wole Atoyebi, past President, during the presentation of 60th birthday commemorative plaque to Prof. Atoyebi at the association's AGM in Abeokuta.

CENTENARY PARTY: From left: Mr. Femi Odekunle, Principal, Ibadan Grammar School, Professor Charles Aworh, National President, Mr. Babatunde Ayo-Vaughan, Chairman, Lagos branch, 65/71 Set, and Oloye Gbola Raji, Chairman, Ibadan branch, during the school's centenary party hosted

by Class 65/71, in Lagos. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye.

All Progressives Party, APC, members at Ward 10, Obio Akpor, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the party's nationwide membership registration whick kicked off yesterday. Photo: Nwankpa Chijioke.

PEACE MEETING: From left: Commissioner of Police, Plateau State, Mr. Chris Olakpe, Assistant Commissioner of Police, CID, Jos, Mr. Haruna Garba and Police Area Commander, Metro Jos, Mr. Charles Ezeala, at the peace building meeting with stakeholders in Jos. Photo: NAN. C M Y K

48—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 —49

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50 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

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Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—51

What you should know about cancer and diets W HETHER you have a history of cancer in your family, or are currently battling the disease, lifestyle factors, including your diet, can make a huge difference in helping you fight off cancer. Nutritionists say some foods actually increase your risk of cancer, while others support your body and strengthen your immune system. By making smart food choices, you can protect your health, feel better, and boost your ability fight off cancer and other disease Not all health problems are avoidable, but you have more control over your health than you may think. Research shows that a large percentage of cancerrelated deaths—maybe even the majority—are directly linked to lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking, a lack of exercise, and an unhealthy diet.

Avoiding cigarettes, limiting alcohol, and getting regular exercise are a great start to an anti-cancer lifestyle. But to best support your health, you also need to look at your eating habits.

What you eat—and don’t eat—has a powerful effect on your health, including your risk of cancer. Without knowing it, you may be eating many foods that fuel cancer, while neglecting the powerful foods and nutrients that can protect you.

If you change your diet and behaviors, you can minimize your risk of disease and possibly even stop cancer in its tracks.

Cancer prevention diet: Focus on plant-based foods. Plants

have less fat, more fiber, and more cancer-fighting nutrients. These three elements work together to support your immune system and help your body fight off cancer. The best diet for preventing or fighting cancer is a predominantly plant-based diet that includes a variety of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. A plant-based diet means eating mostly foods that come from plants: vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, and beans. The less processed these foods are—the less they’ve been cooked, peeled, mixed with other ingredients, stripped of their nutrients, or otherwise altered from the way they came out of the ground—the better.

• L-R: Mr Ibiye Ekong, Executive Director, South South, Skye Bank Plc, Mr Ebun Anozie, Managing Partner, Cope, Foundation, and Dr Anthonia Showunmi, Consultant Oncologist, Lagos Teaching Hospital [LUTH], at a press briefing on World Cancer Day in Lagos . PHOTO; Kehinde Gbadamosi

COPE, Skye Bank combat cancer through awareness

I

N an effort to ensure accurate information on cancer, Skye Bank Plc and COPE Foundation has dedicated three mobile telephone lines through which members of the public can learn more about the causes of cancer, its prevention, control and treatment from a team of consultant oncologists and clinical radiologists spread across University Teaching Hospitals from February 4 through February 7, 2014.

Speaking in Lagos, the Bank’s Executive Director, South-South, Mrs. Ibiye Ekong, on behalf of the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Kehinde Durosinmi-Etti, urged members of the public to call 08137109164, 0018000004 and

08094442223 to speak with the medical experts.

“These lines will thereafter be in the custody of COPE Foundation and members of the public who can relate with the foundation on their subsequent information needs on the issue”, she said. Describing cancer as one of the leading causes of death world wide, especially in the developing countries where inadequate medical care and lack of awareness about the disease have combined to make it very deadly, Ekong said there was a need for a concerted effort by both the government and the private sector to collaborate to fight the scourge of cancer in our society where incidence of the disease is on the

increase. The Skye Bank director pledged that the Bank would continue to support worthy social causes in the health sector to improve the wellbeing and healthcare of Nigerians, saying a healthy nation is a wealthy nation.

On her part, the Managing Partner of COPE Foundation, Mrs. Ebun Anozie, called for the establishment of Cancer Care Centres in the country where specialists would be stationed to provide care and treatment to patients and survivors. The Consultant Oncologist, who was part of the briefing Dr. Anthonia Showunmi, advised members of the public to live a healthy life style, avoid risky behaviours, and to go for general medical check up once in a year.

COMMON SEXUAL PROBLEMS AND THEIR NOVELTY BASED SOLUTIONS (ADVERTORIAL)

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OMETIMES when I have an erection, my testicles start to really pain me. After some hours it will gradually stop. Please what is wrong with me and how do I get it treated? Did I contact some kind of sexually transmitted disease? I always use a condom during intercourse and I don’t sleep around. I have a steady girlfriend – Uwem Dear Uwem, what you are experiencing is what is commonly known as Blue Balls or Epididymal Hypertension according to some urologists. It is not a disease. It is caused by unsatisfied sexual arousal and some men experience it. Blue Balls is characterized by temporary fluid congestion (vasocongestion) in the testicles which leads to swelling and pain. When aroused, the body expects sexual release. When that doesn’t happen, this pain and swelling of the testicles occurs in some males. The only way to stop it is to give the body sexual release. So if you are anticipating sex and it doesn’t happen, masturbate until you climax to avoid this Epididymal Hypertension occurring. That is all really.

You don’t have a disease and you don’t need drugs – Uche I am 62 years old and can no longer get an erection. I still desire sex and so does my wife. Is there hope?

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Of course there is hope. You are experiencing age induced erectile dysfunction and an erection supplement will get you performing again. Get Exploding Thunder supplement. It is natural, gives great erections, performance energy and staying power and one dose works for up to three days – Uche I don’t enjoy sex and I have never had an orgasm – Lillian Dear Lillian, for you to climax during intercourse, there has to be sustained clitoral stimulation for at least twenty minutes. Most men ejaculate quickly so they never have the opportunity to stimulate their women for that long.

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Arousal gel and use both during intercourse. They will help you. Also get the movie Maximizing G Spot Pleasures and learn more about orgasmic intercourse – Uche I am 70 years old and I have not had an erection in ten years. I have tried all kinds of drugs including Viagra but nothing worked. Some friends said you can help – Moses Dear Moses, in cases when aphrodisiacs don’t work, then there are bigger medical problems involved. I suggest wearing an artificial penis during intercourse. They are called Penile Extensions or Male Strap-Ons. They are quite realistic and will help you to at least satisfy your wife.

They also come in sizes of 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 inches so you can choose what fits you best. Penile Extensions can also be worn by men who desire continuous intercourse after ejaculation – Uche Hello Zee, somebody is in a good mood today. I used Exploding Thunder and Love Stuff All Night Delay Cream like you advised and I had strong erections and lasted for long. I feel like a new man. Thanks You are welcome - Uche I am 47 years old and I recently got married to a 37 year old woman who is also a virgin. So sex has been difficult. She always complains of pain when we are about to have sex no matter how gentle I am - Ofo It is normal for sexual intercourse to be painful for a woman who is a virgin, especially if her hymen is still in place. The hymen is a soft body tissue that partially covers the vaginal opening. During intercourse, the hymen will eventually give way, leading to a little bleeding. Afterwards, intercourse becomes smoother and painless. Use a lubricant during intercourse and continue to be gentle. Soon, the hymen will give way – Uche The names of the people featured here have been changed for their privacy. Adults in need of these treatments/novelties can call 07086754515 or 08051924159 or any other number here to order or they can order online at www.zeevirtualmedia.com. Zee Virtual Media delivers to you wherever you are in Nigeria. For enquiries, send your emails to custserv@zeevirtualmedia.com.

C M Y K

52 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

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Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—53

Your legal rights and responsibilities:

Pr oblems and solutions (2) Problems

Page 55

Cyber crime bill infringes on privacy right – Lawyers

By DAYO BENSON, WAHAB ABDULLAHI & BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

F

EDERAL Government decision to get the National Assembly to pass into law a bill seeking to empower security agents to intercept and record electronic communications between individuals and seize usage data from internet service providers and mobile networks has raised concerns in legal circles.

President Goodluck had last week submitted the controversial bill to the National Assembly preparatory to its being passed into law.

According to section 22 of the bill titled ‘Interception of electronic communications,’ “Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the content of 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

Computer system “(b) authorise a law enforcement officer to collect or record such data through application of technical means.”

The bill defines “electronic communication” that could be intercepted to include “communication in electronic format, instant messages, short message service (SMS), e-mail, 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.

Based on the bill, “interception” includes “listening to or recording of communication data of a computer or acquiring the substance, meaning or purport of such and any acts capable of blocking or preventing any of these functions.”

Section 21 of the bill also states that security agencies can order internet service providers or telecom companies to “preserve, hold or retain any traffic data, subscriber information or related content.”

Where a service provider refuses to release its subscriber data requested by

Prof. Sagay (SAN)

Tani Molajo(SAN)

the security agencies, the firm is liable to N10million fine, while each of its directors, managers or officers shall be liable for three years jail term, N7 million fine or both.

Also the bill covers transmitting false electronic messages, child pornography, paedophilia and cyber-terrorism.

Section 15 (1) provides for jail term of not less than one year or a fine of N2 million for “any person who, by means of a public electronic communications network persistently sends a message or other matter that (a) is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or causes any such message or matter to be so sent; or (b) he knows to be false, the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another or cause.”

In the same vein, the bill prescribes death sentence to a person who commits

crime against Critical National Information Infrastructure, which is defined as “certain computer systems, networks and information infrastructure vital to the national security of Nigeria or the economy and social wellbeing of its citizens.”

However, if the offence does not result in death but leads to “grievous bodily injury,” the offender shall be liable to imprisonment for a minimum term of 15 years. A life imprisonment also awaits “any person that accesses or causes to be accessed any computer or computer system or network for purposes of terrorism.” The bill says “terrorism” shall have the same meaning under Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011, as amended.

It imposes at least a 10-year jail term or N20 million fine for any person convicted for producing and distributing child pornography. It also specifies 10 years in

Prof. Odita (SAN) jail, N15million fine or both for paedophiles.

However, the bill violates the provision of Section 37 of the 1999 constitution as amended which guarantees rights to

Continues on page 54

EDITORIAL TEAM Dayo Benson (Editor) Innocent Anaba Wahab Abdulah Ikechukwu Nnochiri

54—Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Cyber crime bill infringes on privacy right – Lawyers Continues from page 53

Security threats According to Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, “It depends on the motives behind the whole thing.

If the government indeed intends to use such law to restrain security threats, there is nothing too much to sacrifice to guarantee our security. So, that will be a price to be paid to guarantee our security. However, it must be regulated.”

Another senior advocate, Tani Molajo, sees it differently. He describes it as a dangerous law.

In his words: “This is an alarming development. It is direct assault on some of the most important of our individual freedoms. Section 37 of our constitution guarantees and protects the privacy of our homes, correspondence, telephone and electronic communications. I have not seen the bill itself but if allowed to stand as reported in the press rather than repealed its provisions must be closely supervised by the courts. Government must not be left with free hand to implement such a potentially dangerous legislation. A monster has been unleashed. Can you imagine the opportunities for abuse by those who are driven by mischievous political motives? This thing can backfire against government itself. Look at the current Edward Snowdon affair in the United States” Mrs. Funke Adekoya SAN, expresses a similar view on violation of individual’s rights to privacy. According to her: “ While it is necessary that the government should be able to monitor internet traffic in line with its mandate to protect citizens of Nigeria, we must take that the right privacy in not carelessly and wantonly infringed.

“The protection granted by way of requiring an ex parte order issued by a Magistrate before electronic wiretapping etc takes place is commendable; I would however have preferred a situation where the agency seeking authority to intercept or listen in to electronic conversations obtains the order from a Judge of the High Court and the request must be supported by documentation

•Mrs. Adekoya, SAN evidencing the need / basis for the request. Mere suspicion of criminal activity should not be sufficient. Hopefully a Judge would be in a better position than a possibly inexperienced Magistrate to determine whether the request should be granted.

Invasion of privacy “Of further concern is the waiver of the requirement that an ex parte order be obtained where there is ‘verifiable’ urgency. Who

,

privacy of individuals.

The section provides that “ The privacy of citizens , their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected.”

Lawyers who spoke on the issue are of the opinion that much as such a bill is desirable to fight cybercrime and terrorism as it is being done globally, there is a need to balance national interest with citizen’s rights especially as there is a tendency for such a law to be abused by security agents.

attracting global attention, each country approaches it from perspective of its national interest.

In some parts of Europe and America, books on cyber crime are being churned out in geometrical proportion, so also are legislations. There is nothing wrong if we look at it from our own direction as long as national interest is balanced with the rights of the citizen,” he says.

On his part, Austine Alegeh, SAN says there is need for caution whenever such law is going to be implemented. “Given the

Government must not be left with free hand to implement such a potentially dangerous legislation. A monster has been unleashed

verifies this urgency? If the verifier is the agency seeking the order, then the protection against unnecessary invasion of privacy provided by the ex parte order requirement is taken away by this exception. Why should anyone seek an external court order when he/ she can obtain an internal waiver on the basis of ‘verifiable urgency’?”: The position of Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN, also borders on the need to respect citizens’ rights.

“Cyber crime has lately be

•Alegeh, SAN

•Akintola, SAN

,

technological development and the fact that cyber crimes are real treat to security, there is a justifiable need for the examination of those who use it.

However, there must be well defined guidelines to monitor what people are doing. It should not be a blanket legislation.

“There must be procedures to go about it and an approval must be given before this is done, even by the court. Anybody who understands and appreciates the way telephone and internet are

used by terrorists and those involved in cyber crimes will not expect security agents to turn blind eyes to the treats.” He opines.

Prof Fidelis Oditah SAN is also particular about respect for citizens’ privacy, saying, “It is a violation to people’s right to freedom. In a civilized society efforts should be made to secure the society.

“But at the same time, the privacy of individuals who inhabit in that society should be respected. I do not think that it is in line with modern democracy that the government should be coming out with intrusion. And we almost saw the fall out from the intrusion in USA security agents.”

The view of Mr Femi Falana, SAN is not different from others, as it puts it, “ The bill is illegal as it is inconsistent with the fundamental rights of the Nigerian people to privacy and freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Act. The National Assembly members are advised to prevent any infringement of the rights which Nigerians fought for and won over the years.

“In Nwankwo vs The State (1984) 5 NCLR, the Court of Appeal Nigerians to resist any attempt by the government to abrogate or derogate from the freedom of expression guaranteed them by the Constitution. Even under military dictators, we won the legal battle

against arrest without a warrant, detention without a court order, seizure of passport without a court order, illegal confiscation of newspapers etc. it ought to be made clear to the Federal Government that under the current democratic dispensation the security agencies cannot intercept a citizen’s mail without a court order unless there is a state of emergency. If the bill is erroneously passed into law, the human rights community will certainly challenge its constitutional validity in court.”

However, Mr. Norrison Quarkers SAN, points out that, “For me I won’t quarrel with it, except that it amounts to constitutional breaches, in the sense that it is an infraction on confidentiality, it is an infraction of privacy and because of the security situation in the country, I believe that is why that Bill has been forwarded to be passed into law so that certain confidential discussions can be monitored. It will also help in monitoring certain information that flies around and curtail same.

“The Bill is with a view to arresting the Boko Haram menace and other security issues.

Security issues If you ask, what is the mischief that the law is set out to cure? It is on the basis of the mischief that one will be for it or against it. By and large, it is for the common good. However, you and I know the way security agents also work. It might be abused, but we cannot say that because it might be abused then we will now throw away the baby and the bad water.

Look at America for instance, there is also such law there in that regard and everybody is quarreling. We must ensure safety of lives and properties and address the tide of Boko Haram here. Such a law is a welcomed development, if only it will not be abused.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014—55

Your legal rights and responsibilities:

Problems and solutions (2) 4. Presumption of innocence. See section 36(5) of the constitution. This is also generally violated as exemplified in Aluu killing of students without a preceding trial in court, the Ezumezu River discovery of dead bodies, the earlier killing of Gideon Akaluka whose blood still cry for justice as well as the Apo Six killing of Igbo traders in Abuja. There are many

By PATRICK ANYADUBALU

Continued from last week.

,

(viii) Right to freedom of assembly and association. (ix) Right to freedom of movement. (x) Right to freedom from discrimination as a result of sex, place of origin, religion or political opinion. (xi) Right to acquire and own immoveable property anywhere in Nigeria.

These rights that are mostly observed in breach are the rights relating to liberty and criminal trials of the citizens.

See sections 35 – 36 of the constitution.

Few examples will suffice as follows: 1.

Section 35(2) of the constitution which provides that a person who is arrested and detained has a right to remain silent or avoid answering any question until after consultation with a legal practitioner or any other person of his choice.

Can we say in Nigeria especially at our local areas that law enforcement agents do strictly observe this section 35 (2) or do we have a hostile law enforcement agents towards a legal practitioner who has come to represent his client. “ Lawyer, go and wait for us in court” has become a common response from law enforcement agents on the appearance of a legal practitioner in respect of his client.

2.

Section 35(4) that prohibits detention beyond 24hours or Two days as the case may be without being charged to court is also regularly breached.

It is common knowledge that citizens are detained beyond 24 hours or two days in the custody of security agencies without being charged to courts contrary to the provisions of the constitution.

It is regrettable to note that some of those who are charged to court are not based upon reasonable suspicion or establishment of a prima facie evidence of their commission of the offence but based on the insistence of the complainants who are often propelled by malice and not the quest for justice.

It is equally regrettable that some of our law enforcement agents fall to this anomaly because of the attendant material gratification.

This no doubt informed the avalanche of awaiting trial cases or abandoned cases at our criminal court that are eventually struck out because of lack of diligent prosecution.

tered voters including one of the contestants were disenfranchised or where a contestant’s stronghold had the eligible voters disenfranchised.

INEC no doubt impugned on the right of the citizens to vote for candidates of their choice. The situation is more worrisome when the same INEC that disenfranchised voters on November 16 2013

Today, instead of some law enforcement agents advising a complainant to explore civil court, cases that are civil are clothed with unimaginable criminal elements

recorded and unrecorded extra judicial murders or violations of presumption of innocence.

It is contrary to the provisions of the fundamental rights to prosecute a person on matters that are not criminal but civil. Today, instead of some law enforcement agents advising a complainant to explore civil court, cases that are civil are clothed with unimaginable criminal elements, all in a bid to prosecute the suspect and restrain his liberty. In some cases,

land and tenancy matter end up in our criminal court as threat to life of the landlord, break and entry against the tenant, recovery of debt becomes obtaining under false pretences, land matter becomes threat to life etc, The issue becomes interesting especially in Lagos State where it is almost impossible for a person who is charged with commission of

a criminal offence, granted bail to regain his freedom that day. The reason is the requirement of verification of Tax clearance certificate of the sureties by the relevant Tax Authority of the State.

3. In some cases brutality by law enforcement agents to extract admission from the suspect still hold sway. This is contrary to right to dignity of person.

CIVIL RIGHTS There are rights guaranteed by the constitution or other allied laws, like the right to vote and be voted for. See, section 77 (2) of the 1999 constitution as Amended.

It is also controversial whether this right is indeed being observed. Good illustration will be the recent Anambra State gubernatorial election where some regis-

,

in some areas quickly organised a supplementary election the next day being Sunday in a predominantly Christian area knowing full well that the Christians will be in the church during the period of purported election.

What INEC did in Anambra State in the name of conduct of gubernatorial election is a charade and should be condemned. It is the right of the citizens to choose who will lead them; one therefore will condemn the activity of

To be continued

ICC Court of Arbitration marks 90th anniversary The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Court of Arbitration recently celebrated its 90th anniversary world-wide. In Nigeria, the occasion was marked with dinner and dance. Below are some of the personalities at the event.

(L-R) The Keynote Speaker, Hon. Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, and Mr. Babatunde Savage, Chairman ICC Nigeria (ICCN).

(L-R) Mrs. Dorothy Ufot,SAN, Vice Chairman, ICC Nigeria Arbitration and ADR Commission and Mr. Tunde Ogunseitan, Senior Counsel, ICC Court of Arbitration, Paris.

(L-R) Mr. Ogunseitan and Mr. Babatunde Savage.

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(R-L) Mrs. Olubunmi Osuntuyi, Secretary of ICCN, Chief Raymond Ihyembe, Vice Chairman, ICCN and Mr. Tunde Ogunseitan.

(L-R) Mr. Dele Belgore,SAN, Vice Chairman, ICC Nigeria Arbitration and ADR Commission and Mr. Ogunseitan.

(L-R) Chief Segun Osunkeye, OFR, Chairman Emeritus, ICC Nigeria and Chief Richard Akinjide, Former Attorney General of the Federation.

56 — V anguard, THURSD AY, FEBRU ARY 6, 2014 Vanguard, THURSDA FEBRUARY

Open Studio 1 creates alternative space for artists STORIES By JAPHET ALAKAM

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ENOWNED painter and printmaker, Kunle Adeyemi has been working seriously towards the growth of the visual art in Nigeria.

The art teacher who is reputed to be Nigeria’s first Ph.D artist in studio practice has trained many artists and only recently in response to some of the many challenges facing the visual arts as a profession especially the rigours faced by artists’ inability to show their works as at when desired in the public place (galleries, museums, exhibition centres, etc) mounted the Open Studio 1 show in his studio at Mushin, Lagos.

The exhibition which was another way of promoting young artists was attended by

tablished and upcoming artists. It was special indeed as it afforded the artists especially those who do not have space exhibit their works for long, the opportunity to exhibit with their colleagues and display their works. And from the entrance of the studio to the various rooms were displayed all kind of art works done in different medium by the exhibiting artists. The exhibiting artists include Tunde Oguntuyo, Biodun Okemakinde, Adetola Adenuga, Lekan Okeshola, Aremu Monsuru, Femi Awoderu. Others were Dayo

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One of the most important and obvious considerations for any visual artist is to get his or her work exhibited

many art patrons, lovers, students and collectors was declared open by Alhaji Lateef Jakande, first civilian governor of Lagos State.

It featured the works of Kunle Adeyemi and 12 other es-

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Adeyemi, Lukman Jimoh, Olushegun Oduyele, Bashir Kalejaiye and Abiola Adeyemi.

Taking the visitors round the studio, the artists took out time to explain the works to the ad-

•One of the works by Kunle Adeyemi miration of the visitors.The open studio which is a 17th century tradition of salon like show, though it has taken many dimensions from one country to the other also afforded the people living within the environs and other art lovers another opportunity to come to the studio to appreciate the works displayed.

According to Adeyemi, who observed that one of the most important and obvious considerations for any visual artist is to get his or her work exhibited said that apart from

providing opportunity for the artists to display their works, the move was also a deliberate attempt to draw the attention of art promoters to provide such for upcoming artists.

“Non-availability of exhibition display spaces create room for only well established artists, masters and commercial art apologists to have regular showings of their work as against the budding or emerging artists who face rejection from galleries,” he added.

POEM

Boko Haram Robed in white Jalamia of cleanliness Disguised Lawani in holiness With beelzebub’s?weaponsdestruction Fulfillment, callous political ambition In sacred name of religiosity Hearts filled with amorality Fighting the scroll of development Rain fires on innocent Canker sucking soul of the nation Thought cleansing he ocean The burden of proof and faith Holy war militate against filth When they’re’pigs in the dung Hypocrisy and lobotomy song Written by Seun Akala.

Creative Art Department University of Lagos.

Liz Ameye, Nollywood veteran makes a comeback with Living Funeral T daughter ’s illness. To help her family deal with their anguish, Yvette holds a mock funeral while still alive.

Since Living Funeral in Lagos and later Asaba in 2013, it has since received tremendous reviews from entertainment and public service critics. Its success has also garnered the movie impressive recognition and accolade,

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he battle against breast cancer was taking to another level as Pink Pearl Foundation put together a movie tagged Living Funeral. The movie which was produced by Mrs Orode Ryan-Okpu and directed by Udoka Oyeka also featured Liz Ameye, Nollywood veteran and renowned actress who is making a come back to the screen after several years of absence.

Living Funeral is a family movie aimed at creating awareness about Breast Cancer and to sensitise the public to embrace early detection as the only veritable solution to overcoming the disease.

The film tells the inspirational story of Yvette, a young woman coming to terms with the reality of her battle with breast cancer. It portrays the unbelievable journey of hope, valour and despair told through the eyes of the lead character ’s sister (played by same actress – Stephanie Wilson) and her hard-hearted mother (Ameye) who struggled to come to terms with her

Best Movie-Drama(Orode Ryan- Okpu and Udoka Oyeka); Best Movie Director(Udoka Oyeka); Best Actress in a Drama(Stephanie Wilson); Best Supporting Actress in a Drama(Liz Ameye). Others include: Best WriterDrama(Akpor Kagho); Best Cinematographer(Idhebor Kagho); and Best Lighting

Living Funeral is a family movie aimed at creating awareness about breast cancer and to sensitize the public to embrace early detection as the only veritable solution

one of which is its nomination in the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards – AMVCAs 2014.

With 27 categories in total, Living Funeral has been nominated in eight(8) categories including; Best Movie 2013(Orode RyanOkpu and Udoka Oyeka);

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Designer(Godwin Daniel).

According to the organizers, viewers can select the winner by voting via SMS or online. The winners in the other technically focused categories will be selected by an expert panel of judges.

You can vote for Liz Benson (Ameye) as the Best Support-

•The family,Liz Ameye, Nobert Young and children ing Actress in a Drama or others.

The grand award ceremony will hold on Saturday, March 8, 2014 to celebrate all who have contributed to Africa’s film-making industry over the last 12 months. This is the second edition of Africa Magic Viewer ’s Choice Awards organised in con-

junction with MultiChoice with the aim of recognizing and rewarding excellence in African film and Television.

Pink Pearl Foundation was founded in October 2007, it is a public service charity organization designed to empower women against Breast and Cervical Cancer.

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 — 57 when he read the riot act to leaders in Delta hotspots of illegal bunkering to discourage the crime in their domains or face sanctions. That placed a huge responsibility on the Eriyitomi lead Ugborodo Trust to call anyone involved in the act to and order, specifically to stop it forthwith or face severe consequences.

These boys from that point declared Eriyitomi persona non grata, warning that he never visits Ugborodo again for daring to move against what they consider their only means of livelihood.

They equally chased away leaders and other residents in the community who and everyone in favour of the new order. They have never been allowed into their communities recently until the Government saw the window to intervene through the Navy.

To come straight on the violence, since late last year, some persons loyal to the opposition have used force of arms to chase out perceived enemies from the community. And they have been having their way because Ugborodo is so porous security wise.

There is no police post anywhere.

In the closest place you can find semblance of police presence, Madagho, they are so illequipped.

UGBORODO CRISIS:

It's time for military intervention —Eyengho Alex Eyengho is an indigene of Ugborodo, the Delta community that is currently embroiled in oil related crisis. He is a filmmaker and supporter of the Thomas Eriyitomi faction of the crisis. In this interview, Eyengho seeks to correct misconceptions about the crisis. Excerpts:

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GBORODO has been known to be volatile. How did it get so bad as it is currently?

I will speak as a member of the 28 man Ogidigben Export Processing Zone, EPZ, Committee now dissolved and to be reconstituted. Then I will speak as an indigene. Of course I cannot be member of the EPZ Committee without being an indigene. As a background it will also necessary I start by explaining that five federating communities make up Ugborodo.

They include Ajudaibo,Ogidigben, Madagho, Ijalla and Ode-Ugborodo also known as Erunton. A segment of the press has misinformed the public with the impression that Ugborodo is a single communal settlement. There are five autonomous but close knit communities as I have mentioned with Ode-Ugborodo (Aruton) as the clan head.

Binding instrument While each community has its local leadership structure, the binding instrument of authority or governance is the Ugborodo Community Trust sometimes referred to as Governing Council constituted by representation from all five federating units. By the Ugborodo constitutional provisions, Ode-Ugborodo is accorded five representations on the Trust. Ogidigben has four, Ajudaibo, three, and Madangho and Ijaghalla two each.

Shall we dwell on how the leadership got divided to a point of violence in the land?

A number of issues have been raised, but I would like to deliberate on the perspectives advanced by Pa J.O.S Ayomike in his recent briefing. Incidentally, the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has dealt convincingly with the allegation of missing $6million. The point to add is that it smacks of mischief for anyone, least of all Pa Ayomike at 87 to insinuate that the money has been embezzled

because they know the money is intact.

But events following the governor’s clarification in the last few days have shown that their real annoyance is that the money is not within their reach.

Police If that money was not presence kept in such stringent conditions and was So the recent violence accomwithin their reach, it plished was the long displaced would have develand barred natives to return to oped wings and distheir homes. And that was vehe•Alex Eyengho ...Govt should apply Kokori treatment in Ugborodo appeared. This other mently resisted by the violent elfaction that has been ements. Not even the alleged milship. another misinformation. addressing press conferences The real anger by Pa Ayomike itary invasion has deterred them In my background statement I held a meeting at Pa Ayomike’s house, January 27, where our gave you the laid down represen- was that the process didn’t per- from barring their fellow commufears were confirmed that if that tation for picking the Community mit his son to be secretary in the nity members. As I speak to you money was within their reach, Trust. At every transition year, current dispensation. He would those holding arms against their each community elects and pre- not make that public. For that, he fellow men in Ugborodo are still they would have shared it.

I have the document here where sents its representatives to a Con- chose to support Tonwe in con- there with impunity.

What in your view is the way they resolved to give Femi Fala- gress of the clan making up 16 ducting a parallel election and inout of the crisis? auguration in Warri on the basis representatives in total.

The Conna and Festus Keyamo power of We have a Federal Government attorney to force the money out gress is publicized in at least a of which he is claiming to be chairintervention committee with a for them. Such a mandate is even major national daily about a week man of Ugborodo. Which would peace process in place. So far, we you rather believe, a congress illegal. They don’t have the right before. The representatives are abide by and are ready to comply held in Ugborodo, or the election screened and if each and everybecause these counsel represent with the directive given. But in their faction but they stated it like one is ascertained eligible by the held in Warri, a different local the light of how the opposition is they are acting on behalf of Ug- screening authority, they are then government entirely? moving to breach the process, we How did it degenerate to vioborodo. It is signed by Olajori, given room on the spot of the Congress to elect their principal Eghare-Aja and others. officers, about six in all or so The best option is for Government is to chairman, vice, secretary, PRO, fiOutstanding militarise Ugborodo and chase those holding nancial secretary, treasurer - the monies key executive positions if I am not arms against their fellow human beings mistaken.

From what we hear, those beaway The hard truth Ayomike delibing granted the right to act have even written the Governor on the erately failed to emphasise on the lence, Navy’s arrest of some per- are afraid how much longer it will matter. Part of the mandate they leadership issue is that he was the sons including community’s take for peace to reign. are giving the lawyers in the doc- chief supporter and mentor to highly regarded Olaja-Orori But if you ask me, on the immeument I just gave you is request- Eyiritomi when he came in to and the charges of illegal bun- diate, the best option is for Goving them to facilitate the collec- power in 2008. kering and all that? ernment is to militarise Ugborotion of the $6m and other perTo quickly deal with the place of do and chase those holding arms ceived outstanding monies be- Chief supporter the Olaja-Orori (Spiritual Lead- against their fellow human beings longing to Ugborodo. Clearly they and mentor er) of Ugborodo, I think he was away. The Government should do recognize that the money is there. simply caught in the web of the to Ugborodo what it did to Kokori He was so close to Eriyitomi that conflict in the community.

But they went further to pledge in Delta Central. That is the im50 per cent of all monies so suc- the inauguration upon his elecBut it is not debatable that there mediate solution pending amicacessfully collected as commission tion was done in the Warri resi- has been long running illegal bun- ble resolution of the crisis. to the lawyers. How petty can dence of Pa Ayomike with the El- kering going in that locality. EvAs it stands, the Federal Govit get? A faction pledges five per ders Council and several persons ery stakeholder -government, ernment Peace Committee has cent of Ugborodo’s money to their coming from Ugborodo to Warri. community leaders, and even oil made it clear that should parties Let me also add that David Ton- companies is aware. Quote me on fail to allow it resolve the issue lawyers.

Let’s get on the issue of leader- we also vehemently challenged that. It just got the point where amicably, Federal Government ship tussle. The Tonwe faction is that election. You can call him a government decided that it must may be forced to elect the EPZ emphatic that Eriyitomi’s led Com- serial opposer of constituted au- end. I am aware, Federal Gov- Committee from people who are munity Trust is imposed against thority. And I should also add that ernment at a time set up an anti- not natives of the area. That is not the constitutional provisions. Dav- the same laid down procedure and bunkering committee headed by what Ugborodo want. There is also id Tonwe maintains that his led legal instrument on which Eriyit- Governor Uduaghan. the risk of losing such a hugely Trust is the duly elected. Like the omi emerged Trust Chairman in The Governor, to make the in- beneficial project to another area. sentiment over missing $6m with 2008 was the same on which he tervention effective in Delta, de- But time will tell though. due respect to Pa Ayomike, this is retained his current chairman- cided to localize the committee

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BY GAB EJUWA, EGUFE YAFUGBORHI, Warri

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58 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

BITS Bits Lagos SURE-P trains 117 CSWYE supervisors

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NPA assures retirees of comfortable retirement

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ANAGEMENT of Ni gerian Ports Authority, NPA, has assured its retirees of a comfortable retirement life.

NPA Managing Director, Mr Habibu Abdullahi, who spoke in Lagos said that the problem of pensioners were paramount to the management of NPA and promised that his administration would make efforts to provide soft landing for all NPA pensioners.

According to him, “I personally believe that if I work in an organization for so long, it is only right and fair for those retirees to be well treated and well taken care off. Afterall, if they didn’t take care of the organization before us, the organisation won’t be there for us to be sitting and working now. So the issue of retirees is in the front burner of issues this management plans to resolve. A number of them are issues that are ten years old or more but we are taking them one after the other and by the grace of God, we would resolve them.”

Women at work in a factory... sexual harassment a daily occurence

Sexual harassment: NIC awards costs against employer IT is usually spoken of in low tones, yet it is one of the major issues in the workplace: sexual harassment. An attempt by the three social partners — Government (Ministry of Labour), private employers under the auspices of the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association ( NECA), and organized labour represented by the Nigeria Labour Congress with assistance of the International Labour Organisation ( ILO) after series of meetings to get the legislature to pass a law on sexual harassment and five other bills was frustrated by the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Executive Council.

Two female legislators sponsored similar bills but NONE has seen the light of day yet'; female employees have to contend with this issue on a daily basis.

Recently, the National Industrial Court set a precedent with the award of almost N40 million against an employer for condoning sexual harassment.

Here is the first part of the story:

BY INNOCENT ANABA

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OLLOWING complaints of sexual harrassment and eventual sack by her management, a former Enterprise Marketing Manager of Microsoft Nigeria Limited, Mrs Ejieke Maduka, headed for the National Industrial Court (NIC) for justice. She had alleged that she had been sexually harassed by her immediate boss.

Defendants in the suit were Microsoft Nigeria Limited, Microsoft Corporation, Mr Emmanuel Onyeje, former Country Manager of Microsoft Nigeria and Mr Adefolu Majekodunmi.

The claimant, who was also the Diversity Champion for Women Rights in West, East and Central Africa, WECA, for Microsoft Worldwide, had in the suit, claimed that she was sacked for refusing to succumb to the sexual advances of her immediate boss, Mr Onyeje and for being against an insider dealing involving Mr Majekodunmi.

Right to hire Microsoft Nigeria Limited in its defence, asked the court to dismiss the suit, contending that it has a right to hire and fire the claimant, adding that her sack has nothing to do with her alleged refusal to succumb to the sexual advances of her immediate boss. It also denied that

Onyeje sexually harassed the claimant.

Microsoft Corporation, on its part, prayed the court to strike its name out from the suit, as it neither employed nor sacked the claimant, adding that it owed her no duty of care.

Onyeje on his part, denied ever sexually harassing the claimant. During trial, Onyeje’s only witness, Awawu Olumide Sojinrin, who testiThere is no evidence of downsizing fied that she never saw him sexually harass any or restructuring at the material time female staff, however, during cross examination, ad- before the court; neither are the mitted that while on an of- names of the other employees who ficial trip to Atlanta, the United States, he did not were also affected by the exercise tickle her, but he touched before the court and poked her. She also admitted that she saw him touch and that it investigated the allegations and poke some of her colleagues.

Majekodunmi also asked the court to discovered that they could not be substanstrike off his name from the suit, as all tiated.

“The Investigatory Report has not been he did was to carry out a lawful order of his employer, by issuing the termina- placed before the court, neither has it been seen by its Legal Manager who gave evtion letter on the claimant.

The court struck off his name from the idence. I therefore, do not believe that the suit, holding that he is not a proper party first respondent conducted any investigation after it became aware of the allegain the suit.

Trial judge, Justice O. Obaseki-Os- tions, moreso with the third respondent aghae, in the judgment, on Awawu still functioning as Country Manager.

“The 2nd respondent on becoming Sojinri, witness to the third defendant, said “I found this witness to be very eva- aware launched an investigation in the sive in her answers. She had to be re- United States of America. This is conminded that she was under oath. Her firmed by the 3rd respondent’s witness. name was mentioned in the application’s Continues next week affidavit as having been touched and

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ONSCIOUS of the value of the Community Service Women and Youth Employment (CSWYE) project in bringing the dividends of SURE-P to the citizens at the grassroot, the State Coordination and Implementation Committee Lagos State, has commenced a training programme in Monitoring and Evaluation for the one hundred and seventeen (117) supervisors in Lagos State.

The supervisors were drawn from all the wards within the twenty (20) LGAs in the state.

During the week-long training programme, all the 117 supervisors were trained in the monitoring of projects in the various wards and the filling of evaluation forms towards a better report delivery of the CSWYE project.

The training was organized by the SURE-P head office at the office of the Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity, Abuja and it is replicated in all the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (F.C.T.) Abuja respectively.

tickled by the third respondent, yet she denied it. She gave false information to counsel who swore to the affidavit and she was not truthful in her witness deposition. She gave inconsistent material evidence on oath. By her own testimony, Fatumata Soukouna, the applicant’s witness and herself could from their seats see things going on in the office. Fatumata Soukouna the third respondent touched and tickled the applicants several times in the office and other female staff. It follows that this witness saw it as well but denied it in her deposition. I find that she is not a witness of truth. I therefore, reject her evidence that she did not see the third respondent touch the applicant.”

On the sack of the applicant, the court said: “The first respondent has stated that it was not only the applicant’s employment that was terminated, that others were also affected as it was restructuring and down-sizing at the time.

“There is no evidence of downsizing or restructuring at the material time before the court; neither are the names of the other employees who were also affected by the exercise before the court. The evidence before the court is that it was only the applicant who was affected. I do not find any evidence that the sudden replacement of the applicant with Peter Evbota is a breach of the first defendant’s recruitment policies or in furtherance of gender discrimination.

“The applicant has given evidence that she notified the Human Resources Manager and her immediate boss Mr Majekodunrnmi of sexual harassment by the third respondent, but they did nothing about it. The first respondent has told the court that it only became aware that the applicant had made allegations of sexual harassment against the third respondent after her employment was terminated and

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Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 — 59

Osaze learns from past experience N

IGERIAN striker, Peter Odemwingie insists he’s learnt his lessons after hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons just over a year ago.

The Super Eagles striker will always be remembered as the player who turned up at QPR to complete a transfer from West Brom, unaware talks between the two clubs had already broken down.

To general amusement and bewilderment, Odemwingie had to go back to The Hawthorns in a bid to repair his relationship with the Baggies.

The former Bendel Insurance man did go on to make another seven appearances but it was clear Odemwingie had no future at the Midlands club prompting a summer move to Cardiff City.

He was on the move again in January as he sealed a move to Stoke City but the 32-year-old said he never wanted to repeat the same mistakes he made a year earlier.

“Absolutely it was different. This time I made sure everything was right.

Everyone had spoken, including the managers, but I said I would be the last to confirm."

“It wasn’t until the last piece of paperwork was done, just before I got on the plane to Sunderland, that I put up the picture of me with my Stoke shirt.

You can’t blame me for that,” he told SkySports.

He also discussed his ill fated decision to unsuccessfully push a move to QPR while insisting that the reports following the incident were “exaggerated.”

Xavi: I will retire at Barcelona B ARCELONA playmaker Xavi Hernandez says he wants to end his esteemed career at the club he joined as an 11year-old.

The Spain international, who played his 700th official match for the Catalan club last month, says he would love to finish his football career at the “best club in the world”. ”I’d love to hang up my boots at Barcelona and stay involved with the club, which I think is the best in the world, for many years,” the 34year-old told Fifa.com.

“I’ve felt that way since I was a boy and still feel the same today. I’d like to still be at Barcelona

• O s a z e Odemwingie

•Xavi when I retire, but I know how demanding it is.”

The seven-time La Liga winner says he is still enjoying playing for both club and country, and hopes to continue for as long as possible. ”I’m genuinely enjoying myself, both with Barcelona and the national team,” added Xavi.

Ronaldo gets three-match ban

Pa Ojidoh prepared for his death R – Widow

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA, ASABA

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ENOWNED Sports Administrator, Pa John Ojidoh, had premonition about his death and took time to prepare for it, his widow, Mrs. Mary Ojidoh, has said.

Throughout Monday this week before he died, according to Mrs Ojidoh, her late husband did not leave his room to come to the sitting room to either chat with people or watch football matches he usually did.

Speaking to Sports Vanguard at Illah, yesterday on how and when Pa Ojidoh died, the widow said: “That was on Monday evening. He just called me to his room and when I entered, he raised his head and that was the end”.

Asked whether he was previously sick, she said, “yes, in October 2012 the legs started paining him, you know because of football and he went to hospitals. He was at St Joseph’s hospital and from there he went to the federal (Federal Medical Centre), FMC Asaba) and from there

they asked him to return home and he was going for check up. However, last week, he was feeling quite well. He didn’t look like somebody who was sick any longer.

“He actually prepared for his death. He was in the room and refused to come to the parlour where he usually sit to watch football. He was busy arranging all his things. He sent for fuel. I told him there was fuel, he said no, he needed more that he would send them to the bank to get some money.

That he would do this, he would do that. Later, he ate. He did everything and he was looking quite well that day even his voice was so nice. But between 6 and 7 o’clock he said ‘come,’ he was talking to me. He told the boy, ‘go and call her’ (me). I entered, he just saw me and raised his head, that was all”, she narrated with heavy heart.

Condolence register Already, a condolence register has been opened at his residence. As of yesterday morning when Sports Vanguard visited about 50 callers, who had

signed the register described Pa Ojidoh him as lover of football, amiable, sports administrator and so on.

Mumonwu, 80-year friend weeps Pa Ojidoh’s 80 year old close friend whom he watched football matches everyday, Ogbuenyi Justus Mumonwu, wept bitterly, saying: “He is our diokpa (head) of this quarter known as OgbeOgede. He is also a relation. When the person he was following died he assumed the diokpa-ship of the quarter. I come here everyday to watch football matches, two times a day both local and international matches. He left a very good legacy. He was a father to us, as a good adviser and father. When he was alive, he was always there to advise us.”

A senior journalist with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, Mr. Olise Ifejika, a native of Illah said: “Ojidoh bestrode sports in Nigeria for more than four decades as an athlete, teacher, referee and administrator. As administrator, he was consummate; gave professional direction to sports,

football and athletics in particular in the old Bendel . He also took that wealth to national football arena, where his contributions were phenomenal.

In retirement, he remained relevant. Ojidoh , a legendary sports administrator per excellence participated, served and died a legend”.

Also, Sam Ijeh, former Group Sports Editor of the Pointer newspaper, now Editor, Sunday Pointer said: “Nigeria has lost an astute football administrator. His contributions to the development of the game is partly responsible for the current high level performance of the game in the country. It is big loss to Nigeria especially Delta State and a replacement will be difficult”.

Mood in the community Although people were going about their normal businesses, there was gloom in the community as people were seen discussing Pa Ojidoh’s demise. Mourners, both men and women were trooping in and out of the modest bungalow of the deceased in droves.

E C E N T LY crowned Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo will miss Real Madrid’s next three league games after being sent-off in his side’s 1-1 draw against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

The score was already tied at 1-1 when Ronaldo was shown the eighth red card of his career after clashing with Athletic midfielder Ander Iturraspe 15 minutes from time.

The Spanish Football Federation handed the

•Ronaldo Portuguese the normal one game ban for a straight red card, but also added an extra two games for a gesture of dissent Ronaldo made as he left the field.

Hazard sure Chelsea can win title

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DEN Hazard is confident Chelsea have the qualities to win the Premier League title following the 1-0 victory at Manchester City.

Chelsea ended City’s 100 per cent home record in the league this season on Monday after Branislav Ivanovic’s first-half goal moved Jose Mourinho’s side level on points with their opponents.

Though Mourinho has played down Chelsea’s title chances in his first season back in charge at Stamford Bridge, the Blues sit just two points behind leaders Arsenal.

Hazard, who has been Chelsea’s star performer in recent weeks, praised

•Hazard the performance at the Etihad Stadium and is determined to keep his team in the fight for the title.

“Lots of people thought that we would just set out to defend,” Hazard is quoted in The Sun. “But it was the opposite.

“We analysed City ’s style of play very well before the game and we came along to win.

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Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 — 63

Announce World Cup team now, Peterside tells Keshi

BY ONOCHIE ANIBEZE

Former international Idah Peterside has advised Stephen Keshi to pick his World Cup team now and begin to concentrate on them while allowing room for few changes.

Peterside said his position was based on the past experiences with the national team when players did not know their fate until the last minute. Peterside defended his call this way: “Keshi has worked with many players from the World Cup and Nations Cup qualifying rounds to the CHAN competition.

There’s no way he would not know the bulk of his team now. He knows the cream of players who will be in Brazil. He could release about 18 names now or even 20 and leave be-

tween three to five places for people to fight for.

He should also say that any of the announced names can be dropped in the final selection. This will achieve two things.

It will make those not selected to continue to fight for places in the team and those already listed to fight to retain their places. The second benefit is that players will begin early to prepare their minds and get ready for the battles in Brazil. They will begin to play the games in their minds and this will make for great mental alertness. Psychologically, many of them will be ready. I, therefore, think that it will pay Nigeria for Keshi, the head coach, to announce the bulk of his team now while allowing room for some changes for those

SHIELD......Zimbabwe’s Simba Sithole shields the ball away from Eagles’ Umar Zango, during the third place match of CHAN on February 1. Eagles won 1-0. PHOTO:AFP who will impress from now to be included and those who may lose form to be dropped. We have had situations when players who were included in the team

at the last moment and the atmosphere overwhelmed them. We have even had situations when players did not know who would play until they got to the stadium and when their names were announced they panicked. World Cup

is no piece of cake and our preparation will matter a lot. Announcing the team early is part of the preparation. Good is training and competitive atmosphere is another. Let’s begin now.”

NFF mourns Pa Ojidoh

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HE Nigeria Foot ball Federation on Wednesday expressed sadness over the death of renowned sports administrator, Pa John Ojidoh, who passed on Monday night at the age

of 87.

NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, was shocked when told that the foremost referee, administrator and club owner had departed this world.

Nigerian Olympian bags life jail Continued from back page best friend, Gouws told the court that Henning offered him a million Rands to have his wife killed. Gouws also told the court that he offered Monye R 50,000 to find killers who would do the job.

The killers, Gerhardus (Doepie) du Please and Willem (Tattoo or Pike) Pieterse are already serving 18year jail terms, following their guilty pleas to the murder charge.

The Nigerian Olympian said he was ashamed of his actions.

Back in 2011, Monye who represented Nigeria at the Seoul ’88 Olympics was acquitted of murder after he allegedly beat a

man to death. The former athlete ran a security outfit, “Big Dog Security” but that was not enough to keep him off police radar for drug dealing. His lifestyle also drew attention.

Though well built himself, the former athlete hardly ever went anywhere without his hefty bodyguards.

Authorities tried to investigate how he got his South African citizenship and if it was done legally. His ID number gives his age as 40, indicating that he represented Nigeria at the age of 14.

Words used to describe him by South African investigators include “strong and dangerous” as well as the “kingpin of Pretoria’s underworld”

Uduaghan condoles Ojidoh family

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ELTA State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has expressed shock over the death of veteran sports administrator John Ojidoh who passed on Monday night at the age of 88.

Uduaghan, several times, made a Ojidoh a reference point in sports and even considered citing a football academy in his Illah Town in Delta.

Illah has produced the likes of Tony Igwe, Mathew Onyeama and Stephen Keshi who all captained the national team.

“It is with a great sense of loss that we are now talking about this great man in the past,” Udughan said, adding, “he was into track and field, football both as a coach and later as an officiating official. He ended up a great sports administrator and even when he, for age reasons, left sports administration, he made valuable commentaries in the media. His place in Nigerian sports will be difficult to fill.

We will sorely miss him.

My condolences are to the family and the entire Nigerian sports family.”

Uzoenyi

Continues from BP that Uzoenyi has demanded he be set free with a top management staff supporting this move.

The fleet-footed left winger has through his lawyers written to Rangers for his release as a free player from the ‘Flying Antelopes’ fold in the third week of January.

But pressures from some quarters did not make this achievable which has now forced the player to write a second letter to the management of the club for his release on the condition that Rangers keep 20 percent of his last season’ sign-on fees and issue him with an I.T.C for him to proceed to Sundowns as a free agent.

Uzoenyi joined Rangers from Enyimba in the 2009/2010 season in exchange for Bishop Onyeudo and has risen steadily to be the highest paid player of ‘The Flying Antelopes’.

V anguard anguard,, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Announce World Cup team now, Peterside tells Keshi — Pg 63

Nigerian Olympian bags life jail A

former Nigerian Olympic athlete, Ambrose Monye has been sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa. Monye was sentenced alongside Andre Gouws for the murder of Channelle Henning.

They were sentenced at the North Guateng High Court in Pretoria.

After having denied for months, both of them confessed to being involved in the murder of the 26-year-

old Henning.

She was shot in Faerie Glen, in the east of Pretoria on November 8, 2011 just after she dropped her son at a creche. At that time, Channelle and her estranged husband, Nick Henning had been locked in a custody battle.

Mr Henning was picked up by law enforcement agents in December after his

Continues on pg 63

Uzoenyi demands free transfer to Sundowns

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CONVICTS . . . Andre Gouws (L) and his co-accused, former Nigerian Olympic athlete Ambrose Monye in the North Gauteng High Court, South Africa on Monday when their judgment was handed down to them

HAN MVP Ejike Uzoenyi has demanded for a free transfer from Enugu Rangers to join South African club Mamelodi Sundowns.Uzoenyi, who shone at the 2014 CHAN to be named the tournament’s best player, has stayed back in South Africa and he is presentlyintalkswithseveral clubs including Sundowns and Orlando Pirates.

MTNFootball.com has reliably been informed

Continues on pg 63

QUICK CROSSWORD

Sudoku TODAY'S

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

ACROSS 2 Vestibule (5) 7 Blaze (4) 8 Ace (6) 9 Irrigate (5) 11 Tear (3) 13 Chart (3) 15 Deserve (4) 16 Fixed (3) 18 Shroud (4) 19 Threatened (7) 20 Too (4) 22 Soon (4) 23 Mollify (7) 25 Flat (4) 27 Wand (3) 28 Island (4) 30 Performed (3) 31 Sorrowful (3) 33 Drain (5) 36 Fierce (6) 37 Friend (4) 38 Intelligent (5)

DOWN 1 Shinbone (5) 2 Seat (3) 3 Rodent (3) 4 Girl’s (3) 5 Imitate (3) 6 Test (5) 10 Paradise (4) 11 Told (7) 12 Ironed (7) 13 Insanity (7) 14 Plotted (7) 16 Cut (5) 17 Domesticated (5) 18 Vegetable (3) 21 Possess (3) 24 Volume (4) 26 Essential (5) 29 Spoon (5) 32 Lump (3) 33 Stitch (3) 34 Damp (3) 35 Beam (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Lasso 9, Gadget 8, Enrol 10, Settee 11, Anon 14, Damage 15, Mallard 18, Gem 19, Air 21, Dean 23, Miner 24, Ewer 27, Net 29, Rep 31, Dismiss 32, Groped 34, Sear 35, Eleven 38, Olden 39, Fillip 40, Adore.

DOWN: 2, Ape 3, Settle 4, One 5, Glad 6, Doomed 7, Tavern 9, Refrain 12, Nag 13, Name 16, Anew 17, Dined 7, 20 Retired 22, Axis 24, Engulf 25, Eros 26, Repeal 28, Impend 30, Pea 33, Drop 36, Lea 37, Err.

How to Play Sudoku

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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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