PLATEAU MASSACRE: We did it — Boko Haram, It's a lie — Police

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 61663

**

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

N150

HOW TO MAKE OUR AIRSPACE SAFE: The Air Vice Marshall Paul Dike Report IN 2006, after the Sosoliso air crash in Port Harcourt which claimed the lives of 61 secondary school children on holidays from Abuja, the Obasanjo government instituted the high powered Air Vice Marshall Paul Dike (rtd) inquiry. Many of its recommendations were implemented. This brought temporary sanity to our air space. Then came the horrible Dana Air crash of June 3.

The Dike task force recommended that “NCAA should ensure stringent airworthiness certification procedures for ageing aircraft. They should also reorientate airworthiness inspectors on the necessary steps and checks and ensure that the most experienced staff are assigned to inspect aircraft." The task force also recommended that “government should enforce the registration of foreign airlines operat-

ing in Nigeria to enable them pay appropriate taxes to Government in line with extant regulations.

“All aviation agencies should develop in-house maintenance manuals. This will serve as a standard against which maintenance performance levels could be measured at any given time.”

•Report serial begins on Pgs.36-38

PLATEAU MASSACRE

We did it — Boko Haram It's a lie — Police

By Taye Obateru, with Agency report

•STF confirms 86 killed in violence J •Two more villages attacked, razed

OS—THE police au thorities, yesterday, disputed claims by Islamic sect, Boko Haram which

claimed responsibility for weekend's massacre in some villages in Plateau State. More than 86 people including two lawmakers were killed in the mayhem, even as there were fresh attacks on two villages yesterday.

The Islamic sect in a statement purportedly issued by its spokesman, Abu Qaqa claiming responsibility for the killings said: “Jama'atu

Continues on page 5

Edo guber: Anenih, Igbinedion, others rally support for Airhiavbere •As RMS poll favours Oshiomhole •P.8

Mr & Mrs

President Goodluck Jonathan (l) receiving reports of the Presidential Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs from Chief Emeka Anyaoku, while Vice President Namadi Sambo (r) and others watch during a breakfast meeting the President held with the Council at the State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

76 oil wells: Akwa Ibom wins at •P.12 Supreme Court

Guber poll: Don't deploy military men to Edo, Clark warns FG —P.12

2 — VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 3

4 — VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 5

POCKET CARTOON

Plateau massacre: Police, Boko Haram disagree Continues from Page 1 Ahlissunnah Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad wants to inform the world of its delight over the success of the attacks we launched on Barkin Ladi and Riyom in Plateau State on Christians and security operatives, including members of the National Assembly. We will continue to hunt government officials wherever they are; they will have no peace again.”

Disputing Boko Haram’s claim, however, a police source in Plateau who requested anonymity told AFP that if Boko Haram were involved, it would be because the Fulani invited them to take part. Suspected Fulani were the ones that carried out that attack. That is the opinion of the police”.

The source specified that the Fulani herdsmen were responsible for both the Saturday and Sunday violence.

A member of the House of Representatives representing Jos South and Jos East Federal Constituency, Bitrus Kaze said that foreign mercenaries were responsible for the attacks in some

communities last weekend. The federal lawmaker who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme said that these mercenaries some of who are from Chad have stayed in the Fulani community in Plateau State for about two years.

Two more villages attacked Meanwhile, two more villages in Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area have been attacked by gunmen who reduced them to rubble. The attack was confirmed yesterday by member representing Riyom Constituency in the Plateau State House of Assembly, Mr. Daniel Dem who gave the names of the villages as Tse and Shong.

“I can authoritatively confirm to you that as I am talking to you now, the same gunmen from top of the mountains have attacked two more villages. The two villages, Tse and Shong have been reduced to ruin with no house standing. The gunmen came in their usual style with sporadic shooting.

“The villagers were scared and they ran out

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

G

IVING is a universal law. What you give is what you get, always look for opportunity to give; the more you give the more you get. The good book says Give and it shall be given unto you good measure, shaken together and pressed down shall men give unto your bosom. Giving is one of the mysteries of life, to get what you need you need to give what you have. What do you need more of? Love?

Friendship? Money? Affection? Whatever you need give what you have and watch it multiply and return to you several folds. Remember what you have in your hand is always sufficient for what you need in your life.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others...By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves — G B Hinckley

C

. JOY bell sums it aptly: ‘’You can be the most beautiful person in the world and everybody sees light and rainbows when they look at you, but if you yourself don’t know it, all of that doesn’t even matter. Every second that you spend on doubting your worth, every moment that you use to criticize yourself; is a second of your life wasted, is a moment of your life thrown away. It’s not like you have forever, so don’t waste any of your seconds, don’t throw even one of your moments away.”

Your beauty and light are the strongest when you’ re filled with laughter and joy. Only when our awareness turns to light can we attract more of life’s blessings and manifest our heart desires beautifully.

of their houses and the gunmen set the houses ablaze rendering them homeless and increasing the number of displaced people”, he said.

He said about 140 corpses were strewn all over the area now because people are afraid to go and pick them up for burial since Sunday’s attack on the burial procession.

The Plateau State Government has, however, relaxed the curfew imposed in four local government areas of the state by five hours. It announced after a State Security Council meeting on Tuesday that the curfew would now be from 6pm to 7am.

Lawmaker flays emergency rule in four LGAs Still smarting from his miraculous escape in an attack that took away two other law makers, member representing BarkinLadi/Riyom Constituency in the House of Representatives, Mr. Simon Mwadkon has said that there had been more killings and destruction since President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on four local government areas of the state, saying it is time to review the declaration.

“It is time to review the security situation, especially the state of emergency because it has achieved nothing. If anything, there has been more killings, more destruction of farmlands during this period than any other. Everybody has been pushed to the wall and I am tired of telling the people to be calm. People must defend themselves”, he said.

He told journalists yesterday that the attacks on his constituents by the Fulani is a continuation of the ‘jihad’ which started since 1804 to forcefully Islamize minority tribes in the Northern part of the country, adding that his people were regretting their hospitality to the Fulani.

He also expressed the desire of the Fulani to acquire more land for grazing as another reason adding that they are always seeking ways of gaining more grounds.

Reacting to statements credited to an official of

the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Mallam Saleh Bayari that the Fulani were retaliating attacks on them in past crises in the state during which they lost several lives and property, Mwadkon said there was no truth in the claim.

“It had been the agenda of the Fulani since the jihad of Usman Dan Fodio, who proclaimed that for the whole North to be Islamized, all the Northern minorities must be conquered. It has been the agenda since 1804 when the jihadists failed to capture the Middle belt region, which they want to use as a launching pad to capture the south. It is their belief that once the Northern minorities were captured, they will be willing tools for the capture of the South.

“Another reason is the quest for grazing reserves and that was why the House of Representatives killed the bill on grazing reserves because it has caused a lot of havoc in the country.

I don’t know why they are saying that they lost property in 2001 because the 2001 crisis only ended in Riyom. It never got to Gashish (the area attacked last Saturday).

“And talking about their destroyed villages, I don’t know how many villages they have because you know these people are not indigenes. They don’t have any village. All the places they settled, they bought from the natives and paid royalties. It’s just that after a time, we felt that they have integrated enough and allowed them and this we regret till today ”, he said.

Mwadkon had on Monday accused some men of the Special Task Force maintaining security in the state of complicity in the attacks on his people, adding that there was an Al-Queda base within some farmlands in Riyom Local Government Area which needed to be uprooted.

STF confirms 86 killed Meantime, the Special Task Force (STF) in charge of security in Plateau State has given the number of those killed in last weekend’s violence in the state as 86

made up of the two lawmakers, 63 villagers and 21 of the attackers.

STF’s spokesman, Captain Salisu Mustapha confirmed to journalists yesterday that two anti-riot policemen were also killed in the attack but said no other person died in the attack on the funeral procession on Sunday apart from the two lawmakers.

He denied reports that soldiers ran away from the scene following the attack on the funeral procession at Matse, adding that what happened was that the commanding officer ordered those present to lie down flat when the shooting started but rather than heed his instruction, the people started running leading to a stampede.

His clarification has, however, not doused allegations of complicity of some military men in the attacks on the villages as both Governor Jonah Jang and member representing Barkin-Ladi/ Riyom federal constituency, Mr. Simon Mwadkon re-echoed this at different fora, yesterday.

Jang while receiving Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State who led a delegation on sympathy visit to his Plateau State counterpart said it was clear that there were “enemies within”.

According to him, “something must definitely be wrong. I have seen it and some of you have seen it that there is a lot of collusion even within the security forces. A lot of the members of Boko Haram and others are also part of the security men that are wearing uniforms today.

“Even when you plan operations, before you carry out the operations, the enemies have already known. Having been part of the military forces, it is a very dangerous thing to have

enemy within, it is the most dangerous enemy you can ever have.”

Mwadkon had levelled similar allegation, noting that the manner of attack on the funeral precession at Matse on Sunday was suspicious.

“Before the attack, a member of the STF asked us to relocate the ambulance we brought to the village on the premise that he wants to bring in an armoured tank. We complied without wasting time, only for him to bring in a Hilux vehicle to block the only access road leading to the village.

“The next thing we heard was a signal shot which was later followed by the appearance of gunmen from the nearby hills. The entire military men within the vicinity took to their heels leaving behind a police man who piloted us. We could not escape because the only narrow road to the area had been blocked by the Hi-lux vehicle.

“While we were running, there was a gunshot that disorganized us and many of us fell down. The Majority Leader, Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon. Gyang Fulani and Senator Dantong were unconscious and put in separate vans. But to my surprise one hour after I got to the hospital, the two vans which left before me had not arrived.

When Hon. Fulani was brought he died in my presence while Dantong was brought dead to the hospital. So something is wrong somewhere,” he said.

Suswam had during the condolence visit to Jang described the death of a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the manner Dantong died as a national disgrace advising that it should not be seen as a Plateau problem but one which every patriotic Nigerian must come together to find a solution.

6—VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11 2012

Otedola, Lawan should not walk the streets as free people—Nnamani

An accident involving three vehicles on Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja, Lagos State, yesterday.

T h e accident involving a PHCN Toyota Hilux van loaded with p r - p a i d meters and cable lost control of the vehicle while making a ut u r n .

However, no life was lost as the victims were rushed to the hospital.

zSays corruption 'll sink Nigeria

BY HENRY UMORU

A

I invited Met Police, FBI to probe Obasanjo, Atiku — Ribadu zBlames fuel subsidy scandal on failure of regulators

BY OSCARLINE ONWUEMENYI

A

BUJA —FORMER chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has asserted that he investigated former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his vice, Atiku Abubakar, during his tenure as head of the nation’s most visible anticorruption agency.

Ribadu, who spoke, yesterday, at a special Visitors’ Forum, organised by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, in Abuja, also countered insinuations that he was selective in his pursuit of notable politicians for economic and financial crimes.

He said his commission demonstrated fairness and courage in the face of monumental pressure, even going as far as investigating the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his vice, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for corruption.

According to him, “I invited the Metropolitan Police and the FBI to investigate former President Obasanjo and his vice. We needed to show our transparency and objectivity in pursuing investigations against public officials, and you cannot fool these international agencies.

“They needed to see that we were forthright and committed in our avowed fight against corruption in the country, and they were satisfied with our commitment. They were very confident in us and

gave us a lot of support.”

We were not selective He said there was no basis to accusations that he was selective, adding that a lot of the governors and politicians they charged to court were members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and many of them were rather close to the President.

He also said it was during his tenure as head of the commission that a former PDP Board of Trustee chairman, Chief Bode George, was investigated, but that he escaped the country before they could arrest him.

He said: “We did the investigation and would have arrested him but he escaped the country. He only returned a few weeks after I was removed and was arrested by my predecessor and charged to court. Everyone who was involved in the case knew we did all the hard investigative work, and it is nonsensical when people say that we were selective about who we arrest and prosecute.”

We went through challenges Ribadu stressed that in his capacity as the pioneer head of the EFCC, he faced similar challenges as the leadership of NERC to bring about a change in the way Nigerians do things.

He noted: “Although, ours was a strictly law enforcement environment with its peculiar challenges, we still faced similar issue which the

management of NERC is presently battling with in its effort to reform the sector and ensure justice and fairness to all Nigerians."

Fuel subsidy scandal, failure of regulators Ribadu, who currently chairs the Special Petroleum Revenue Task Force of the Federal Government, also stressed that failure of the regulatory agencies in the energy industry to perform their tasks is to blame for the fuel subsidy mess the country is currently embroiled in.

According to him, “the regulatory agencies in the sector are directly responsible, because it is government money. When such money goes out, it has to go through somebody, who is a government employee that has responsibility to protect it and make sure that we get value for every dime spent. It must be with his own conspiracy that money goes out for products or services not provided.

“Therefore, one can easily come to the conclusion that it is a failure of the regulators and those with that responsibility, and we would like to see justice done for those who allowed the nation’s money to go out in that manner.”

Fingers PPPRA The former anticorruption czar pointed out that “if the PPPRA (Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency) had done its job, the whole subsidy mess would not have happened. If I were to handle this subsidy thing, I will just go after the

PPPRA, especially those who were at the helm of affairs when all these mess took place. In one week, I will bring out every single person who took one penny. I will not bother myself with anybody else, I will just get them (PPPRA) because nobody would make a penny out of the subsidy regime without the direct complicity of the PPPRA.” He asserted that the report from his Task Force does not have anything to do with the fuel subsidy management but with the revenue profile of the energy industry, and ways the country could maximize revenue potentials from its vast hydro-carbon resources.

No reliable, effective electricity The former Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, presidential candidate further said it was shame that after so many years, Nigeria could not boast of reliable and effective electricity, adding: “It is a failure and a shame that something as simple as electricity we cannot provide for Nigerians, in spite of billions of dollars earned from oil every year.”

Ribadu asserted: "Today, NERC is at the forefront of the march to reform the power sector, and a lot of Nigerians are looking up to them to deliver, and with the calibre of people I see here and the structures they have put in place, I have every confidence that we are finally on the path to true electricity sector reform.”

BUJA — FORMER Senate President, Ken Nnamani, warned yesterday that if urgent action was not taken at all levels of government, corruption will sink the country.

Nnamani also called for a holistic solution to the current security challenges in the Nigeria, just as he stressed that there was the need for collective resolve of all Nigerians to tackle corruption, adding that those behind the almost everyday massacre of persons are Nigerians living among Nigerians.

Speaking in Abuja at the book launch of former presidential liaison officer in the Second Republic, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, entitled, "The story of a humble life," Nnamani also described as a total shame that Femi Otedola and Faruk Lawan were still walking the streets of the country free persons because the law of the land stipulates that both the giver and taker of bribes should be prosecuted.

According to him, “corruption is becoming peculiar to Nigeria with the frequency of their occurrence. The examples are too many. The Femi Otedola and Faruk Lawan example is shameful. There

is no reason why two of them should be walking the streets of the country free persons with their Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) accompanying them and giving them shields. The law says that both the giver and the taker are culpable. But what is happening now is an aberration."

On the present security challenges, he said: “The continued unity of Nigeria is not negotiable. People have shed blood for the unity of this country and these people will not keep quiet and see to the disintegration of the country that some of them paid the maximum risk."

IBB pours encomiums on Yakasai

In his remarks, chairman of the occasion, former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), who poured encomiums on the author, Alhaji Yakasai, however, described him as great politician, political philosopher in the clothes of late Mallam Aminu Kano and a man who has seen it all.

According to him, “Yakasai is eminently qualified to comment on the political history of Nigeria because, he has seen both the good, bad of the political development of Nigeria.”

Jagaba at Force Hqtrs, grilled for 2 hours, granted bail

A

BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI

BUJA — CHAIRMAN of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes, Narcotics and Drugs, Mr. Jagaba Adams Jagaba, yesterday, visited the Special Task Force investigating the $620,000 bribe money given to Hon. Farouk Lawan, erstwhile chairman of the Subsidy Probe Committee to investigate wide scale fraud against oil marketers and insisted that he did not collect any money claimed to have been given him by Lawan.

Jagaba who arrived Force Headquarters at about 11 a.m., made straight for the Special Task Force where detectives investigating the scam grilled him for over two hours, after which he was granted bail on self recognition at about 1. 30 p.m.

Vanguard investigation

revealed that Jagaba who had earlier written the Police investigators stating that he never received the said $620,000 collected by Farouk from oil magnate, Mr. Femi Otedola, was unruffled through out the duration of the interrogation, saying if Lawan is sure he gave him the money, he should show evidence to the Police.

Asked if there were other revelations that came out of Jagaba interrogation, considering the fact that Police have petitions on other bribery collections from other oil marketers, a source said Jagaba has promised to open up on what he knew when investigations into other such allegations commence.

On whether that was the end of the investigation with regards to the Jagaba angle, the source said as investigations go on, if there is need, Jagaba would be invited again.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012—7

have made just like Lagos has done, but the catch is that the distribution of resources from the federation account would no longer be tied to the number of local governments,” one source further revealed.

Strengthening of fundamental rights The committee, it was learnt, also made proposals to entrench fundamental rights of all citizens and especially children, women and the physically challenged. That is besides the recommendations for speedier dispensation of justice at all levels.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim (right), going through Sunmi Smart-Cole's latest book, "Sunmi's Lens - A Medium Between Man And Nature," after Sunmi (left) presented the publication to him, in Abuja.

SINGLE TENURE:

Belgore c'ttee pushes proposal back to Jonathan zProposes sweeping LG reforms zRemoval of Land Use Act zStrengthening of fundamental rights zAs Mitee writes minority report

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR, EMMA AMAZIE & CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

A

BUJA — THE Justice Alfa Belgore-led Presidential Committee on Constitution Review has pushed back proposals for a single tenure for the president and governors to President Goodluck Jonathan.

The committee which submitted its report to the President, yesterday, has n e v e r t h e l e s s recommended reforms of the local government system, redefinition of states among other proposals to give the states a measure of autonomy in the administration of the local governments.

The committee also recommended the removal of the Land Use Act from the constitution for the purpose of easing land administration.

President Jonathan, who received the report, immediately welcomed the recommendation on the removal of the Land Use Act from the constitution, saying it would give the executive flexibility in policy making.

Mitee writes minority report

Controversy was, however, dogging the report as it emerged that Niger Delta activist, Dr. Ledum Mitee, was himself working on a minority report to be submitted to the president expressing divergence on the majority report which threw away the proposal for a single tenure for executive office holders.

But another committee member told Vanguard yesterday: “It was a worthwhile experience. I looked at all the issues in our terms of reference and made recommendations that will help to un-bundle the problems and look at them one after the other. I hope the recommendations will help to resolve Nigeria’s problems.”

The Belgore-led panel officially styled as the “Committee to Review Outstanding Issues from Recent Constitutional Conferences” was inaugurated on November 17, 2011 with a mandate to identify gaps in the present constitution and propose amendments as adopted by previous constitutional conferences.

The committee was, however, limited to making suggestions on issues adopted by consensus by the previous constitutional gatherings.

On single tenure A member of the committee told Vanguard, yesterday, that the decision not to forward the proposal on single tenure arose from the mandate of the committee which limited it from adopting issues that were divisive in past constitutional conferences.

“It was for this that we did not identify the issue of single tenure. You know that the issue of single tenure was never adopted by consensus in previous gatherings, so we could not pick on it as we did not have a mandate from the people,” a member said on the basis of confidentiality because he was not authorised to speak to the media on it.

“What we have done with this and other related contentious issues is to take it back to the President who will now constitute a larger body to ponder on them or maybe even the National Assembly.”

Removal of Land Use Act The committee, it was learnt, however, agreed that the Land Use Act should be removed from the constitution but remain as one of the national laws of

the federation.

“It was quite easy for us to agree on the issue of the removal of the Land Use Act, given that there has almost been a consensus on it and indeed there have already been moves to remove it,” one committee member said.

The proposals of the committee were accompanied by bills to support the constitution amendments as proposed, it was learnt. The preparation of the bills, it was also learnt, was one of the reasons for the delay in the work of the committee.

Removal of LGs from constitution The committee, Vanguard learnt, also proposed the removal of the local governments from the constitution. The removal, it was learnt, would be followed up with the redefinition of the states according to geographical coordinates instead of the present system that identifies states according to the local government boundaries.

While giving the states greater latitude in local government administration and the creation of local governments, the committee, nevertheless, proposed strong clauses as deterrents to the poor application of the democratic system in local g o v e r n m e n t administration.

“States can create local governments the way they like under the proposals we

I'm with you on these issues—Jonathan Receiving the report yesterday, President Jonathan said:“I am one with you on these issues, as I believe that fundamental rights, security of life and property, the protection of the law, and equitable dispensation of justice must be made real as they greatly influence the average citizen’s sense of obligation and patriotic disposition towards the nation.

“I am equally pleased that the committee has paid justified attention to local g o v e r n m e n t administration. I am convinced, given my personal experience at national and sub-national levels of governance in Nigeria, that the greatest asset of our democracy is the commitment of people at the grassroots to the ideals of transparency, accountability and good governance.

“Considering that local governments have the greatest potential for

maximum impact on the lives of all citizens, the extent of their efficient development is the true measure of our democracy’s claim to being a government of the people by the people and for the people.

“Similarly, the committee has made robust proposals on the public accountability imperative for officials in the executive and the legislature. As the most visible arms of government, their integrity and functional capacities determine the quality of trust and reality of the social contract in any society. Their success and mutual reinforcement define the hope of our nation, while their excesses and shortcomings subvert the dreams of democratic transformation.

“I welcome the chairman’s assertion that the committee has made profound recommendations to strengthen the legislature at all levels and also to demand conformity with extant national regulations in the conduct of their affairs.”

Members of the panel include Senator Udoma Udo Udoma (Vicechairman), Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Mr. Ledum Mitee, Dr. Abubakar Saddique, Ms. Comfort Obi, Mr. Peter Esele, Prof.

Oladipo Afolabi, Prof. Jerry Gana and Tessy Ikimi.

Others are Mr. G.O.S. Miri, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, Ambassador Jibrin Chinade, Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha, Prof. Anya O. Anya, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Alhaja Salimot Badru, Hajia Najatu Mohammed, Mr. Ferdinand Agu, Alhaji Wakil Mohammed and Halima Alfa.

$3m bribery scandal: Reps c'ttee meets today on public hearing

BY OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

A

BUJA — THE House of Representatives Committee on Ethics and Privileges would hold an executive session today to decide on whether it would eventually hold an open hearing on the $3 million bribery scandal involving Hon. Farouk Lawan, former chairman of the lower chamber ’s ad-hoc Committee on Petroleum Subsidy.

It was learnt that following Femi Otedola’s refusal to speak in camera when he appeared before the committee last week, the committee had been

directed by the leadership of the House to consider the option of holding an open hearing in order to demonstrate transparency over the matter to members of the public.

Sources close to the leadership of the House indicated that the committee would also consider other witnesses to invite in its investigative hearing.

It would be recalled that at the committee’s last sitting, Otedola who had alleged that Lawan extorted $620,000 from him as part of the $3 million bribe he demanded to delist Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, insisted he would only speak if the committee holds an open hearing.

8—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Edo guber: RMS poll favours Oshiomhole

N

Mr. Aminu WaziriTambowal, Speaker, House of Representatives(right), and Justice Dahiru Musdapher, Chief Justice of Nigeria, during a courtesy call on the Speaker at the National Assembly in Abuja. PHOTO: Gbemiga Olamikan.

Jonathan's assets: Go to CCB, SERAP told zProposes 52 amendments

CJN presents bill on judicial reforms to Speaker

T

HE Presidency has advised a civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, to seek information about President Goodluck Jonathan’s assets declaration from the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, since the bureau “has the powers and responsibility for addressing the issues such as the one you are pursuing.”

This response followed a request by the group made under the Freedom of Information Act asking President Jonathan to “provide information on your assets declaration details between May 2007 and May 2012, and to publish widely the information on a dedicated website.”

However, in a letter with reference number SH/SHC/ 9/Vol.6/128, dated 5 July 2012 and signed by Jalal A. Arabi, State House Counsel on behalf of the Chief of Staff to the President, the presidency said: “I am to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 26 June 2012 in which you request Mr. President to urgently provide information on his assets declaration details between May 2007 and May 2012, hinging your request on the provisions of both the 1999 Constitution as amended, and the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.

“I take the liberty in advising that you explore the possibility of invoking Section 3(1) Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, referred to in your write-up.”

BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

A

BUJA—CHIEF Jus tice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, yesterday, submitted a bill containing 52 constitutional amendment proposals to the House of Representatives on reforms in the Nigerian judiciary.

The out-going CJN, who made the presentation at a working visit to the House leadership said: “This Bill is an important step in our comprehensive plan to reposition and reform the judiciary to meet the expectations of Nigerians.”

On the proposals, Musdapher said: “The appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court has been altered by providing that appeals from the Court of Appeal on interlocutory decisions and other matters shall only be by leave of the Supreme Court; “The composition of the National Judicial Council and the Federal Judicial Service Commission has also been altered to ensure greater balance; the process of removal of judicial officers has also been streamlined to ensure a greater degree of fairness; the old Section 295, regarding reference on questions of law has been deleted as it has been identified as a means to stall the swiftness of the trial process; “The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was also expanded to include an

Advisory Jurisdiction on application by the President or a governor on questions of law or fact that are of such importance that it is expedient to obtain an opinion of the Supreme Court on it.”

Musdapher added that “Procedural Rules are also being looked into with a view to achieving some uniformity in the applicable rules of the Federal High Courts and states High Courts as well as appellate courts to en-

sure speedy dispensation of justice. These rules are designed initially to aid litigants in ensuring justice and fair play.

“However, over the years, the Procedural Laws have been found to be inhibitive rather than assisting in the attainment of justice. It is anticipated that consequential amendments will also be subsequently made to the Practice and Procedural Rules by the various Heads of Court,

as empowered by the relevant provisions of the constitution and the applicable statutes.”

Receiving the proposals, Tambuwal commended the CJN for presenting them personally to the House, saying it was the first time a CJN was making this kind of move.

Promising swift consideration of the proposed amendments, the Speaker said the Bill would serve very useful purposes in sanitising the Nigerian justice system.

Edo guber: Anenih, Igbinedion, Orbih woo voters for Airhiavbere

T

HREE days to the Edo State governorship election scheduled for Saturday, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, intensified its campaign with a grand rally at Okada, the headquarters of Ovia NorthEast Local Government Area of the state, to woo more supporters for the party ’s governorship flag-bearer, General Charles Airhiavbere (rtd).

Present at the rally were the former Board of Trustees Chairman of the party, Chief Tony Anenih; Chief Gabriel Igbinedion; Vice Chairman of PDP, South-South, Dr. Steve Oru; Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Liyel Imoke, former Chief Whip of Senate, Senator Rowland Owie,

among others.

Addressing the crowd, Igbinedion, who described the rally as “important and crucial” thanked the supporters for their commitments and support for PDP. He said: “I have come here to appeal to you that come Saturday, vote en masse for Airhiavbere, our candidate, who would perform when voted as governor of the state. We need total vote, not half. This is where I was born.

Please, don’t disgrace me.”

Anenih said they had adopted Airhiavbere in Esanland as their son, adding “three days ago, I was at Akoko Edo. The Governor of Kogi State, Capt. Idris Wada, was also at Akoko Edo to talk

with his people, who reside in Edo State to support and vote Airhiavbere. I want to say that the people of Kogi, the people of Akoko-Edo, Owan and Etsako had adopted Charles.”

Anenih said: “It is true that when you have children, there are the ones you give certain responsibilities. There are children who cannot carry certain responsibilities; then you give them fewer responsibilities. Unfortunately, Oshiomhole is one of those who cannot carry responsibilities.

“We have a candidate, who will deliver; a candidate who will give you qualitative health care, pipe borne water and look after our children.”

IGERIA’s leading research group, RMS, has placed Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, candidate, Governor Adams Oshiomhole, ahead of other candidates in Saturday’s governorship poll in Edo State.

An opinion and polling survey report released in Lagos, yesterday, said: “As things stand, the chances of Adams Oshiomhole retaining his job as Governor of Edo State are as high as 93 percent. This means that he has further widened the gap between him and his closest rival by 89 percent.”

According to the report, “the chances of the incumbent is both high in total and across all the councils.

Even in Esan West, where he had the least chance, he still will likely clinch 74 percent of the votes cast here.”

In apparent comparison with the polls it conducted earlier in the year, the report says: “Across the councils, the incumbent retains a high chance still. Three months ago, he had a very narrow chance of winning in Esan West and Esan Central local government areas, which were the two areas where he had the least chances then.

“His chances have since grown in these two councils with the possibility of almost eight in 10 votes cast there in his favour.”

The poll survey also revealed a sustained robust relationship between the current government and the people of Edo State, stating that “the relationship between the Edo State people and their government is very positive and this has remained so over the last three months. The indicator of the healthiness of this relationship is the result of the application of our TNS branded tool TRIM.” It added: “Some improvement in engagement level has been recorded in a number of council with low index in February.

Some like Ovia SouthWest, Esan West and Esan Central have seen an increase in their index figures, while others like Ovia South-West and Orhionmwon have reduced index figures.

“These losses, notwithstanding, the overall index has been sustained on a positive note because the gains have been more than the losses.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012—9

Briefly

Fashola accuses FG of N16bn illegal deduction

BY MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

I

KEJA—GOVERNOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, said the Federal Government illegally deducted N16 billion from allocations accrued to the state during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Fashola also decried the refusal of the Federal Government and Power Holding Company of Nigeria,PHCN, to honour court orders, which he said, directed them to return the money and rejected the manner the state government was punished for making initiatives in developing the power plant for the state’s use.

The governor made the remarks when he received the Senate Committee on Privatisation led by its Chairman, Senator Gbenga Obadara and other members of the committee.

While describing the deduction of N16 billion as illegal and unjust, Fashola said: “There is an outstanding liabilities to us by PHCN, illegal deduction of N16 billion for power that we did not use.

These powers were used by other states.”

Obadara pointed out that Bureau of Public Enterprises “has 11 distributions and six generating companies to privatise.''

Lucky escape

BY EVELYN USMAN

I

KEJA—A 65-year-old man and 10 others escaped death, yesterday, after a van belonging to Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, skidded off its lane and landed on two vehicles in Ikeja area of Lagos. Time was 10am.

The incident caused a stampede as some motorists abandoned their vehicles and fled for their lives.

Eye-witnesses said driver of the PHCN van, with number-plate FG 343 N41, was about making a U-turn at the Balogun end of Obafemi Awolowo Way when he suddenly noticed a pot hole. In his attempt to avoid it, the vehicle reportedly lost control as he was said to be on top speed.

BY ALBERT AKPOR

L

AGOS—ASSISTANT Inspector-General of Police, AIG, in charge of Zone 2, Onikan Lagos, Mr. Mamman Tsafe, said, yesterday, that a joint police patrol of Lagos/ Ibadan Expressway, by men from Lagos and Ogun state commands would soon start.

The police boss said this following the brutal killing of Brigadier-General

EX-GENERAL'S MURDER

Lagos, Ogun police joint patrol for Lagos/Ibadan road 5 suspects arrested Sylvester Iruh (rtd), by persons suspected to be Fulani herdsman atop the long bridge near Berger Bus-stop, Lagos, last Friday.

The ex-army general

was on his way from Ilorin where he attended a burial of a church member before he met his untimely death.

Sources said when he got to the long bridge that

OWAMBE, GET DOWN ON IT: From left, Deputy Governor of Osun State, Mrs. Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor Rauf Aregbesola and Speaker, State House of Assembly, Mr. Najeem Salam, at an interactive programme with the public, tagged: ''Ogbeni Till Day Break'', at Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, Osogbo, yesterday.

leads to Lagos, his attention was drawn by other motorists that he had a flat tyre.

He promptly pulled over with a view to attending to his vehicle when some armed men emerged from the bush and attacked him. He was stabbed several times by his assailants who were also said to have dispossessed him of valuables including cash.

The retired general, who hailed from Boji-Boji, Agbor, Delta State, was rescued by Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, officials patrolling the road, to a nearby hospital where he later died.

Others with him at the time of attack were also said to have sustained injuries.

The AIG, who assured that the incident would not recur, stressed that arrangement had been concluded by the Commissioners of Police of Ogun and Lagos states to commence a 24-hour patrol of

the expressway, especially the black spots.

Tsafe said: “Yes, we are aware of the attack, but I can assure you that we are making effort to commence a joint patrol of the entire area; that I can assure you.”

Sources hinted that the spot is noted for its notoriety as the accused Fulani herdsmen were reputed to have terrorised motorists plying the way at one point or another.

Meanwhile, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, who confirmed the attack, said the attackers were hoodlums, adding that five suspects had been arrested.

He said the arrested suspects were helping the police in their investigations and were undergoing interrogation.

According to him, the arrest followed a midnight raid on the scene where the attack took place.

Court admits bank's letter of offer as exhibit in Atuche's trial

BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH, ONOZURE DANIA & MICHAEL OLADEPO

I Mrs. Damilola Ogunbiyi (daughter); Mr. Tokunbo Ogunbiyi (in-law) and Mr. Bosun Akerele (widower) at the wake-keep of the late Mrs. Margaret Ayodele Francis-Akerele, at Church of the Assumption, Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos. Photo: Diran Oshe.

KEJA—JUSTICE Adeniyi Onigbanjo of an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, yesterday, admitted controversial bank documents being contested by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, during the on-going trial of the former managing director of Bank PHB, Francis Atuche, as

Court dismisses 5 acquired banks shareholders' suit

BY INNOCENT ANABA

L

AGOS—A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, has dismissed the suit by some aggrieved shareholders of Afribank, Spring Bank and Bank PHP, challenging the forceful take-over of their banks by Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON. Justice Charles Archibong dismissed the suit though there was an application pending before the court, asking the judge to disqualify himself from hearing the case on the basis of an alleged

bias.

The shareholders, Boniface Okezie, Adeyemi Kehinde, Adebowale Bolanle and Cole Alexander, who brought the suit on behalf of themselves and other shareholders of the three defunct banks, had challenged the action of CBN in purporting to transfer the assets, businesses and operations of their banks to Mainstreet, Keystone and Enterprise banks respectively to AMCOM. The shareholders had petitioned the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, asking him to investigate the

conduct of Justice Archibong in the matter, claiming that the judge had conducted himself in a manner that threatens the integrity of the administration of justice.

The shareholders in the petition, also copied the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of National Judicial Council, NJC, Justice Dahiru Musdpher, said same was informed by the decision of trial judge in another matter by the directors of Bank PHP, challenging the liquidation of the bank by the CBN without recourse to them.

Justice Archibong was said to have touched on the

suit involving the shareholders while ruling on the directors’ suit.

He was quoted to have said: “The promoters of the plaintiff (Bank PHB) and its shareholders may have issues, but they are best directed to the National Assembly, who may well decided to fine-tune and/or codify in greater detail the process by which CBN exercise its powers. That is not the business of the court.”

The shareholders faulted Justice Achibong, saying it was a shock that the judge made far-reaching decisions while ruling on the preliminary objection in the Bank PHB’s directors case.

exhibit.

The document, an offer letter dated August 11, 2006, issued by Bank PHB to Caverton Helicopters Limited over purchase of shares was tendered by Chief Anthony Idigbe,SAN, counsel to the former bank chief, while cross-examining the EFCC witness.

Atuche and Funmi Ademosun, a former director of Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank) were answering criminal charge of alleged stealing of N4.2 billion belonging to Caverton Helicopters Limited.

Meanwhile, N2 million damages was, yesterday, awarded against the Federal Government by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos in favour of Mrs Elizabeth Atuche, the wife of the former managing director of the Bank PHB, (Francis Atuche).

The award which was granted against the government by Justice Binta Nyako was based on what the court termed a wrongful arrest and detention of the woman by EFCC in violation of her fundamental human rights to freedom of movement and fair hearing.

10—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Why ACN must win Ondo, by Aregbesola

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

O

SOGBO—OSUN State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has declared that his differences with his Ondo State counterpart, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, was not personal, but political.

Gov. Aregbesola said he was misunderstood by people who described him as a violent person.

He argued that his

physical appearance, his action and thoughts did not in any way portend him as a politician who cherishes violence.

The governor, who spoke, yesterday, at an interactive programme, tagged, “Ogbeni till Day break” gave reasons why his party, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, was resolute at taking over Ondo State from the ruling Labour Party, LP, in the October 20 gubernatorial

election in the state.

He said Ondo State was the only one out of the six states in the South-West zone that was not in control by ACN “and we are not comfortable with the arrangement.”

Aregbesola, who said ACN’s determination to rule Ondo State was borne out of the desire to ensure and promote regional integration in the zone, argued that it would be impossible to realise the vision of the party if Ondo State was under the control of another party and not ACN.

Group flays Fayemi over rights' abuse

A

BUJA—AN Abujabased non-government organisation, Society for Rule of Law in Nigeria, SRLN, has raised the alarmed over incessant abuse of fundamental rights of the people by agents of Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

It said: “It is becoming worrisome the rate at which law-abiding residents of Ekiti State are now being assaulted and brutalised by Fayemi’s Special Assistant on Internal Security, Mr. Deji

Adesokan (Jaruu).”

The group described the attack on Mrs Olatawura, a Customary Court judge, as a direct assault on the judiciary.

SRLN, in a statement by its Coordinator, Mr. Chuma Ubeku, said: “We were shocked when we read in the newspaper today that Mrs Modupe Olatawura, widow of late Supreme Court Judge, Justice Olajide Olatawura, was brutalised

by Fayemi’s aides.”

Assault and

brutalisation of Mrs Olatawura came seven days after the same Deji Adesokan led armed policemen to the homes of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, AdoEkiti Business Unit’s Makerting Manager, Mr Julius Ige and Public Relations Manager, Mr Ilori Kayode Brown, to assault and brutalise them because PHCN disconnected power supply to the Government House over a N15 million debt.

3,000 workers' sack splits Oyo Assembly

BY OLA AJAYI

I

BADAN—THE sack of 3,000 workers in Oyo State, yesterday, generated controversy in Oyo State House of Assembly with some lawmakers describing the government action ill-timed.

The argument arose when the 32-member legislative arm summoned Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr. Adeolu Akande; Head of Service, Alhaji Tajudeen Aremu and Chairman of the state Teaching Service Commission, TESCOM, Alhaji Abu Gbadamosi, to explain the controversy that greeted the action.

While some of the workers supported the action of Governor Abiola Ajimobi, others felt there was no need for it at that time.

Dr. Akande explained that the audit which identi-

fied the workers with questionable records of service was initiated by the Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala administration and executed by a consultancy firm, Captain Consulting.

He said the affected workers were found to have falsified academic certificates, age and personal data, and others having outstanding disciplinary cases.

To ensure fairness, he told the legislators that Ajimobi went a step further by sending the report to the Civil Service Commission and the Ministry of Establishment and Training for review.

“When the commission and the ministry submitted their reports, the government set up another panel comprising the Head of Service, Ministry of Establishment and Training, Civil Service Commission, Ministry of Justice and

5 held for killing 2 cops, robbing priest

BY DAYO JOHNSON

A

KURE—FIVE notori ous armed robbery suspects have been apprehended by the police in Ondo State for killing two police officers in Kogi State and robbing Reverend Father Geoffrey Ogbuene of St. Mary Catholic Church, Trans Ekulu, Enugu, Police image maker in the state, Mr. Adeniran Aremu, said in Akure that the three suspects that robbed the clergyman were arrested in Lagos following a tip-off.

They were identified as Kalu Ben, Nesta Ucheghara and Efe Best.

Items recovered from

the suspects included two laptops, three wrist watches, two identity cards, Olympus camera, five handsets and N73, 000 and one black beret.

Aremu said the two others identified as Kazeem Kolawole and Audu Rabiu, who killed two police officers in Kogi State were arrested in Owo, Ondo State and Ehinme in Kogi State with the officers' two assault rifles.

According to the state Command image maker, Kazeem was arrested in Owo by members of National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, while planning to board a vehicle with a view to rob in Akure.

Teaching Service Commission to further review the report.

“It was after this third review that the government executed the report of the staff audit.”

The Chief of Staff noted that the claims of wrongful dismissals by some of the affected workers prompted the governor to set up an 11-man panel to review such claims.

Also speaking, the Head of Service, Alhaji Aremu also told the lawmakers that former Governor AlaoAkala, who commissioned the audit, failed to implement it because election was fast approaching then.

After their submissions, there was heated debate with some lawmakers condemning the timing of government’s action while others hailed the exercise as necessary to rid the civil service of corrupt elements.

Those who supported the sack said it was a shame that the House could have any of its members saying those who falsified their documents should be retained in the system.

Those against the action justified their claims that the timing of the sack was not ripe as students in various schools in the state were on the verge of writing examinations.

When it was apparent that the lawmakers were divided over the issue, the Speaker, Monsurat Sunmonu, cited House Rule Page 44 and set up a committee headed by Ajanaku, House Committee Chairman on Education; Minority Leader, Ibrahim Bolomope, Fatai Salam and Kehinde Subair to work on the issue and report to the House before adjourning the meeting.

...Policewoman disarms alleged rapist

BY OLA AJAYI

I

BADAN—AN uncom mon bravery displayed by a policewoman from Oyo State Police Command paid off as she prevented a robbery suspect from raping her after robbing her and a colleague of money and jewelry.

According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. Clement Adoda, who paraded some suspects in Ibadan, yesterday, the suspect, Saheed Abdulahi, was in the habit of raping his female victims after robbing them.

He said the suspect “stormed a house in Yemetu area of Ibadan about 1:15 a.m. with a cut-

lass and broken bottle and robbed a woman and her two daughters of LG phone, Golden Necklace, earrings and N13,500.

He said, the hoodlum, not satisfied with his loot attempted to rape the ladies, one of whom was a

policewoman. She was said to have resisted the suspect.

When the suspect was about being overpowered, he reportedly fled the house leaving his handset behind which they used to arrest him later.

Ekiti monarch sacks chiefs

A

DO-EKITI—FOR claiming to be a traditional ruler, the monarch of Efon, Ekiti State, Alaaye of Efon, Oba Emmanuel Aladejare, has removed Chief Jacob Adelowo as Alahun of Obalu Quarters, Efon-Alaaye. The monarch is also demanding written apologies and letters of allegiance from eight other

chiefs in the town for joining Adelowo to revolt against him.

The eight chiefs are Ojo Segun (Oisawe), Joshua Omoniyi (Ejemu), Matthew Oke (Oloro), Kola Johnson (Okunato),Tope Obere (Eleejofi), Folorunso Omole (Osolo), James Adekanle (Saloro) and Abiodun Olajubu (Olukotun).

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 —11

We 're ready for Edo guber poll —Jega

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN CITY— CHAIRMAN of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, yesterday, arrived Benin City, Edo State, for a stakeholders' meeting ahead of Saturday’sgovernorshipelection in the state and assured Nigerians of the resolve of the commission to conduct a free, fair and credible election.

JegawhoarrivedBeninAirport at3:15pm,alsogavereasonswhy some civil society organisations werenotaccreditedtomonitorthe poll, saying that those complaining that they were not accredited either did not meet the requirements of the commission or they failed to apply within the stipulated time.

sure peaceful election. I am here to make sure that things were done as planned before the election on Saturday.

Meeting stakeholders

with

“We are also to meet with the stakeholders because we normally do so. Before elections, we meet with stakeholders, brief them on our last minute preparations and if they have any last minute questions or complaints, we address them.”

Civil society groups

On why some civil society organisations in the state were not

accredited, the INEC boss explained, “we had used the same procedures to accredit observers in all the elections we held in INEC since the April 2011 elections. We applied that criteria rigorously, we normally advertise and people are given time within which to apply.

“Any body who did not apply within the time allocated will not be considered and that was what happened in this regard. We did not deliberately exclude any body,anybodywhohadnotbeen accredited to observe the Edo election or indeed all other elections, it was because they had not satisfied the requirements for

accreditationfortheelections.We heard stories being bandied about, that we did not accredit any Edo civil society organisation, that is false, we have accredited many Edo civil society organisations.

“But some did not meet the requirements, it is either they did not meet on time, or the criteria we set out, they did not meet it.

Any body who did not comply with that criteria, we did not accredit. It is not the first time we are doing so. we have done it in allpreviouselections.Weonlyaccredit people who met the criteria we set for the elections,” he said.

B

ENIN CITY—THE Enunuedo socio-cultural organisation led by former governor of old Bendel State, Dr Samuel Ogbemudia, said, yesterday, that the group had decided not to endorse any of the candidates for weekend’s governorship election.

In a statement, its Secretary, Dr Okunzuwa Osawaru, said the group took the decision since it was non-political.

It will be recalled that the group had invited governorship candidates of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Governor Adams Oshiomhole; General Charles Airhiavbere of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Solomon Edebiri of All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, with a view to knowing their programmes for Bini people.

The general belief then was that after the interaction with the candidates, the group will back one.

The group said: "During

P

ORT HARCOURT— The Federal Government has been urged to urgently tackle crude oil diversion at the Port Harcourt refinery.

National President, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Mr Achese Igwe, who made the call in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said it was worrisome that products allocated to the refinery were illegally di-

could provoke the union to embark on strike, if not addressed.

He said" “This may be ploy to tell Nigerians that the refineries are epileptic, it is not functional, petroleum products cannot be refined locally and the best thing is to take these products off-shore and refine them.

“The refineries in the country arecapableandtheworkersthere are committed to ensure that these products allocated to them are refined and the products also made available to consumers.”

He noted that the diver-

Delta govt donates relief materials to Sapele flood victims

A

S A B A — D E LT A State Commissioner for Bureau for Special Duties, Dr. Tony Nwaka, has presented relief materials to victims of last month's flood disaster in Sapele.

He also consoled the victims, adding that the donation was a palliative measure aimed at helping them cope.

Presenting the items to the victims at Sapele council secretariat, Nwaka said the immediate responsefromtheStateEmergency Management Agency, SEMA, was a clear demonstration that the state government was mindful of what happened to them.

He said: “We came to sympathise with our brothers and sisters, who are victims of the flood disaster in Sapele and to let them know that the Delta State Government is with them in their moment of grief."

PDP chieftain advises politicians

BY FESTUS AHON

Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State (middle); Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji (left) and Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, Ms Bola Onagoruwa during a facility tour of power sub-stations the Rivers State Government is building to ensure steady power supply from December, Monday.

We won't back any candidate until after election —Ogbemudia group

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

Readiness of the Commission

On the readiness of the Commission to conduct a free and fair election in the state, Jega said “weareinEdoStateinfulfillment to the promise we made to Nigerians in general and the people of Edo State in particular to ensure free, fair and credible election.

He said: “We have been working day and night and we have beendoingourbesttoensurethat therewasindeed,afree,faircredible and peaceful election in Edo State. We have done everything possible based on the rules and regulations to promptly accredit observers for the election in the state. Our mission here is to en-

NUPENG threatens strike over verted, a situation he said crude oil

the sessions, the candidates freely committed themselves to the implementation of the core expectations bordering on the comprehensive development of

Benin community. As a non-partisan organisation, it was, therefore, resolved that our next step is to prepare an arrangement for the speedy execution of

these expectations after the election."

“We are all enjoined to vote wisely in an atmosphere free of violence,” it stated.

LASE ENIN—ALL Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, candidate in Saturday’s election, Chief Solomon Edebiri, yesterday, denied rumours that he had withdrawn from the contest.

Edebiri, flanked by the leadership of Coalition of Progressive Parties, CPP, in Edo State, told newsmen, that, “we are aware of insinuations and text messages flying in the state, that we are now working for either Peoples Democratic Party, PDP or Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. I call on well-meaning Edo people to disregard the rumour. It is all lies.

“I remain in ANPP as my party and I, Edebiri remain the candidate to beat in this

B

election. Therefore, I cannot be working for any other party. Our coming into politics is for Edo people and to clear the

Lawmaker reconciles community warring factions

T

HE CRISIS which rocked Okpai community in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State, following a clash between two factions, has been resolved.

The resolve of the factions to bury the hatchet was reached at a peace meeting initiated by member representing Ndokwa East Constituency in the state House of Assembly, Mr Friday Osanebi.

need for the Urhobo people to close ranks to attain greater political relevance.

National Chairman of UPC, Chief Ighoyota Amori, in his remarks, reiterated the determinationofthegrouptopromoteunity, peace and harmony among Urhobo.

Amori noted that unity among the Urhobo political class was what was needed to move the Urhobonationtogreaterheights.

2015: Group pushes for Manager as Delta guber aspirant

A

NIGER Delta rights group, Niger Delta Democrats, NDD, is to commence door-to-door campaign to prevail on the Senator mess the state had found itself.” representing Delta South SenaThe governorship candidate torial District in the National Aspromised not to disappoint Edo sembly to contest the 2015 governorship election of Delta State. people if elected into office.

In a resolution reached at the meetingofNDD,NationalLeader of the group, Mr Tom Willy; National President, Mr Gbaboyo Wurusandothers,saidhavingreviewed the activities of Senator Manager, they observed that he Addressing a delegation had distinguished himself in the of the two factions at a meet- political arena in the state and ing in his Assembly quarters, Osanebi, a youth ambassador of peace, stressed the need for peace in the community so as to attract more developmental projects to the area.

The peace meeting had in attendance, Chief P. Dumbi, Mr. K.N. Ashibogwu, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chairman, Ndokwa East Local Government Area among others.

....As Edebiri denies quitting Edo guber race

BY GABRIEL ENOGHO-

U

GHELLI—NA TIONAL ViceChairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, South-South, Dr Steve Oru, has charged politicians across the country to shun politics of bitterness and acrimony.

Oru, who was chairman at the inauguration of the Ward Executives Committees of Urhobo PoliticalCongress,UPC,stressedthe

the nation and was fit to be governor in 2015.

ThemeetingheldinOgulahga, Burutu Local Government Area, of the state was to brainstorm on the state of the nation. They noted that Senator Manager had the requisite political and academic qualifications, being the pioneer chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and having served as Commissioner for Youth and Sports during the Governor Felix Ibru administration and Works Commissioner duringtheChiefJamesIbori’stenure and currently a Senator for

12—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Police arrest 8 suspected robbers in C-River zRecover N2m

BY JOHNBOSCO

C

Governor Godswill Akpabio, his legal team and some members of Akwa Ibom State Executive Council, after the Supreme Court judgment in favour of the state in the contentious 76 oil wells matter between the state and Cross River State, at the Governor's Lodge, Abuja, yesterday.

AGBAKWURU

ALABAR—THE Cross River State Police Command, has, arrested aneight-manrobbery gang, that trailed a 55-year-old woman to a bank in Calabar and recovered the N2 million the suspectedrobberscollectedfromthe woman.

Mrs. Ekpo-Bassey Toyo, was, yesterday,dispossessedofN2million, which she had withdrawn from a bank on Calabar Road for burial.

Briefing newsmen, yesterday, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Osita Ezechukwu, who was marking his 100 days in office in the state, said the woman had just left the old generation bank and was waiting at a bus stop on Calabar Road, when the robbers,

C-River loses bid to reclaim 76 oil wells zImoke flays judgment

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI & JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU

A

BUJA—CROSS River State, yesterday, lost its bid to reclaim ownership of the 76 oil wells that had been subject of controversy between it and Akwa Ibom State.

The Supreme Court, in its judgment on the matter, said that Cross River became a non-littoral state since 2002, when Bakassi Pennisula was handed over to Cameroun by the International Court of Justice, ICJ. The apex court, also struck out the suit by Rivers State Government, praying it to declare that Soku oil, which it argued was wrongfully ceded to Bayelsa State, is legally located within its territory.

Imoke condemns judgment

Meanwhile, Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, has condemned the apex court decision, saying that the judgment lacked justice and equity.

Imoke in a state broadcast after the apex court judgment, described the judgment as miscarriage of justice.

Justice Olufunlola Adekeye, who read the lead judgment, which was unanimous by, dismissed the appeal by Cross River State as lacking in substance and merit.

The court said, “the facts before the court do not support the claim of the plaintiff to being a littoral state.

zAkpabio sues for peace

A non-littoral state cannot claim oil wells offshore as she has no maritime territory. The plaintiff has no maritime territory since the cessation of Bakassi Peninsula and the Cross River estuary which used to be part of the state prior to August 2008. The present position of the plaintiff cannot be blamed on any government agency particularly the National Boundary Commission and the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC. “This court cannot because of the influx of refugees from Bakassi into Cross River State, give a legislative judgment. The government of Nigeria has a means of providing for the social needsofthepeopleofCrossRiver State faced with the social prob-

lems thrust on the state due to the cessation of the Bakassi Peninsula to the Cameroun,” the court said Reaction,GovernorImokesaid, “As a wronged but law-abiding people, we had hoped for justice.

We had hoped for a dispensation of justice that would restore our belief in the timeless saying by the iconic American civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior that “the arm of the moral universe still bends towards justice."

He said that the judgment differed from the opinion of the people but noted that justice could only be delayed and not denied.

“Wemaintainedourpeaceand dignity even in the face of what could easily have provoked unprecedented violence and reprisals. We hoped for justice from the

highest court in the land. But our hopewasdashed. Mydearbrothersandsisters,ourspiritwillnever be broken,” he added.

Akpabio speaks

Governor Godwill Akpabio, who also spoke to journalists after the judgment, said had the apex court ceded the 76 oil wells toCrossRiverState,itwouldhave automaticallytransferredtoCameroun.

He said: “we are happy that the Supreme Court did justice today, but we hereby extend hands of fellowship to our sister state, we have always lived amicably with one another, and we are committed towards ensuring that the relationship that had always existed between the two states is not jeopardized in any way.”

driving in a Mercedes Benz 190, forcefullytookthemoneyfromher.

Ezechukwu said that luck ran out of the two suspects, whose names were given as Robson Uwem and Godwin Udo, when they drove against traffic in a bid to escape from the heavy traffic on Calabar Road.

He said: “The gang robbed a womanofN2millionasshecame outfromthebankafterwithdrawing the money. Luck ran out on them as they got entrapped in the traffic. Their frantic efforts to leave the traffic hold-up aroused the suspicion of undercover policemen, who got them arrested."

Widow of slain community worker sends SOS to FG

BY GODWIN OGHRE

S

APELE—THE widow of the late community worker, Mr. Ogbotor Usieme, who was shot dead last Friday at OkirighwreinSapele,SapeleLocal Government Area, Delta State, Mrs, Doris Usieme, has cried out to the Federal and State Governments to come to her aid, as she was finding it difficulttofeedandclothherselfand her children, since the killing of her husband, who was allegedly shot dead by men of Joint Military Task Force, JTF.

The JTF has its base in Koko, Warri Local Government Area of the state. The late Mr. Usieme, had allegedly gone out to check on his friends, and was shot on his way home. His murder sparked off protest by over 500 youths of the community, which crippledeconomicactivitiesinthe area on Saturday.

Mrs. Usieme in insisting that her husband was a responsible gentleman with a responsible family, owns a personal house in Okirighwre and car, in which, he drove at the time he met his untimely death.

BNC reaffirms support for Oshiomhole norship election in the

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN CITY—THE Benin National Congress, BNC, a socio cultural organisation in Edo State, has urged its members in the 192 wards of the state, to increase their tempo of mobilization and grassroot sensitization with a view to ensure that Governor Adams Oshiomhole emerged victorious during Saturday’s gover-

state.

Addressing newsmen in Benin City, yesterday, President of BNC, Chief Aiyamenkhue Edokpolo, also described as misleading, claims by the governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Gen.Charles Airhiavbere, that he (Edokpolo) received jeep as gratification from Oshiomhole with a view to stop him from decamping to PDP.

NLC lauds Delta govt on tax bour Congress, NLC, has regime commended the Delta State

BY VICTORAHIUMA-

Government for implementing the new tax regime as approved SABA—DELTA State by the Federal GovernChapter of Nigeria La- ment.

Speaking in Asaba, NLC Chairman, Mr Williams Akporeba, said it was gratifying sary and unfair for the army to be to note that the state governinvolved in the Edo gubernato- ment had begun the implementation of the new tax regime, rial election.

“I appeal to Independent Na- which came into effect April 1, tional Electoral Commission, 2012.

Akporeba said the organised INECtoconductfree,fairandcredibleelectionsinEdoStateonJuly labour in the state had learnt that 14, 2012 so as to justify the con- the state government in addition fidencereposedinthembyNige- to the implementation also comrians despite the disturbing news menced the refund of the excess tax as it paid one arrears together about the Edo State election." with the June salary.

A

YOUNG

Guber poll: Don't deploy Military men to Edo, Clark warns FG

BY HENRY UMORU

A

BUJA—AHEAD of Saturday ’s Edo State gubernatorial election, elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark has warned the Federal Government against deploying military personnel in the state.

Chief Clark, said the presence ofmilitarypersonnelinEdoState for the poll will negate the principle of free and fair poll.

In a statement, yesterday in Abuja, he said: “I seriously condemn the use military personnel forEdogubernatorialelection,because it is not only unnecessary but may create bias and fraud in the entire process. I strongly support the position of the civil rights group that condemned the use of military personnel in the Edo gu-

bernatorial poll. I also support the reasons given for their decision.

“An advocate of an egalitarian society where peace, equity, justice prevail, and also as a politician, who participated in the political development of this country fromindependencetilldate,including witnessing the various elections till date, I wish to clarify as it concerns Edo State, so as to prevent a wrong precedent in future elections.

“First, Edo State is not a volatile state, it is crisis free. Edo is not known as a political thuggery state. Apart from the few schemishesduringthe campaign, which the police was able to contain, the state had been peaceful.

Itwillbeunnecessaryandthismay create bias, if the military was allowed to provide security, considering the fact that one of the con-

testants was a former military officer and one cannot therefore ruleoutthespiritofespritdecorps, if military personal are posted to monitor the election.

“I have seen a situation whereby only the police were deployed by the Inspector General of Police to conduct elections in other parts of the country, even in volatile cases. It is unneces-

Community head tasked on new exco list

BY EMMAARUBI

W

ARRI—INDI GENES of Ugbuwangue community in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State have called on the community head, Dr. Preston Egbe to hold consultation with them in order to come out with an acceptable list of new executive to run the af-

fairs of the town as directed

by His Majesty, Ogiame Atuwatse 11, the Olu of Warri The people led by Emily Okoromadu protested to the residence of the Warri monarch saying that one of the sons of the community head has being preventing them from having discussion with his father by refusing them entering into

his residence.

They admonished their community head to enlist only those persons that are on ground and can feel the pulse of the people instead of nominating persons in the diaspora into the new executive, adding that such situation always give room for power hungry people to seize control in the community

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012—13

Okorocha orders investigation over death of 9 family members ...commiserates with Plateau State over terror attack

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

AWARD—Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha (middle); Dr. Okey Aguwa, President General, Ezureze Mbaise, and Mrs Ada Okwunonu, former deputy governor of Imo State during the 2012 Mbaise USA recognition award at the Marriot Hotel, Dallas, USA, weekend.

Ebonyi NLC election: Police tear gas officials

BY VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG

E

BONYI State Police Command yesterday tear gassed and assaulted workers and National officials of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, led by Comrade Marcus Omokhuale who were in the state to conduct the state council election.

It was alleged that agents of the state government

had earlier brought what the workers considered as a “black market injunction” to stop the election for reasons best known to the state government.

According to sources, the NLC officials and the workers had maintained that since it was a labour matter, and if the government was aggrieved, it ought to have gone to industrial court to seek redress.

However, it was gathered that a detachment of police-

men came to the venue of the election and allegedly fired tear gas indiscriminately to disrupt the election. It claiming it got orders from the Commissioner of police.

The angry labour leaders and workers were said to have gone to see the Police Commissioner who allegedly refused to grant them audience until the Assistant Inspector-General, AIG, of Police in the Zone intervened.

WERRI—GOVER NOR Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, has ordered full investigation to unravel the circumstances behind the mysterious death of a family of nine in Emekuku, Owerri North local council area.

Okorocha gave the order when he visited the family compound of the Nnadis who died in their sleep on S a t u r d a y .

He expressed shock and sadness over the incident and commiserated with the community and members of Nnadi family, saying “My visit to the family compound is to demonstrate the concern of government and good people of the state over the tragedy.”

Similarly, Okorocha commiserated with government and people of Plateau State over Sunday attack in the state which claimed several lives, including a serving Senator Gyau Daylop

Dantong and Majority Leader of the state House

o f Assembly, Gyau Fulani.

Okadigbo: S-Court verdict raises dust in Anambra

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

F

OLLOWING Supreme Court’s verdict affirming Mrs Margery ChubaOkadigbo as the authentic Anambra North Senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the April 2011 polls, there are fears within political circles in the state that many legislators may lose their seats. The PDP had two lists of candidates for the elections.

The name of Mrs. Okadigbo was on the list sent by the party headquarters after the primaries conducted and supervised by the Senator Joseph Waku panel.

Speaking on the issue,

Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, who is on the same list with Okadigbo having won the primaries in the South zone, congratulated Lady Okadigbo on her victory and averred that the Senate had been mandated to swear in the wife of its late former president.

Ukachukwu noted that the judgment of the apex court had put to rest the argument over which of the two opposing lists of candidates forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the April 2011 National and State Assemblies elections in the state, was authentic and hoped to reclaim his senatorial mandate soon from Senator Andy Uba.

14—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Reconstruction of OnitshaEnugu expressway: FG gives approval to Anambra

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

A

From left: Mr. Laurent Philippe, P&G Group President, CEEMEA, Chief Host, Otunba Bimbola Ashiru, Commissioner for Commerce and Industry Ogun State, Representing Ogun State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment, representing President Jonathan, Prof. Adebowale Adefuye, Nigeria Ambassador to the United State of America, Amb. Terence McCulley, United States of America Ambassador to Nigeria and Mr. Manoj Kumar, Managing Director P&G Nigeria, Host, during the Procter & Gamble, P&G, Agbara plant ground breaking at Agbara Industrial Estate, Ogun State,yesterday. Photo: Bunmi Azeez.

PDP appeals sack of Anambra exco zSays court lacks jurisdiction

BY HENRY UMORU

A

BUJA—THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has appealed against the judgement of the Abuja High Court which last week sacked the Anambra State executive chapter of the party, just as the PDP stressed that the Abuja High Court does not have the jurisdiction to entertain such suit.

In the notice of appeal filed by PDP through its lawyer, Tawio Abe, the party stressed that it was wrong to reject the request for the party to be admitted as an interested party, contending that the Abuja High Court ought not to have entertained it since the issue emanated from Awka, the Anambra State capital.

It will be recalled that Justice U.K. Kekemeke of the Abuja High Court had last Thursday last declared that the election of Anambra State PDP Chairman, Ejike Oguebego and other members of the state executive was unconstitutional, illegal, null and void and ordered the PDP to liaise with the plaintiff, Emma Mbamalu and his executive to organise and conduct fresh wards, local governments and state congresses in the state.

According to the notice of Appeal, the PDP noted that since it happened in Awka, it could only be entertained as the case may be by Federal High Court.

It also argued that the plaintiff, Emma Mbamalu, had no locus standi as he was not a candidate or stakeholder to the March

C M Y K

17, 2012 State Congresses of PDP in Anambra State and requested to know what injury he may suffer.

Mbamalu was not elected or appointed by the National Working Committee, NWC, as state chairman or state acting chairman of the party that would confer him with the status of locus standi.

Citing sections 138 of the Evidence Act Cap 112, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, Counsel to PDP said the respondent had no locus standi in the case.

In the affidavit in support of the appeal by PDP deposed by Olorunsogo Olusoji John, the party described the judgement of

the Abuja High Court as alien and strange, adding that as at March 17, 2012, when the state congresses were held there were no subsisting legal action against the party, wondering how the court came to the conclusion to declare the duly constituted congresses as illegal, null and void.

Insecurity: Nigeria 'll lose respect amongst nations — Anyaoku

BY BEN AGANDE

A

BUJA—FORMER Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku has warned that the present security challenge in the country would diminish Nigeria’s ability to command international respect.

Chief Anyaoku who spoke while leading a delegation of the Presidential Advisory Council on Foreign Relations to present two books to President Goodluck Jonathan noted that the conditions in the country played a vital role on how the country is assessed internationally.

He, however, commended government’s effort at bring the situation under control.

According to Anyaoku, “the insecurity in the land is a drag on our foreign policy no doubt, because our standing abroad depends on our domestic conditions. So to the extent that we have insecurity at home it is a draw back to our for-

eign policy. But I believe that government is determined to address insecurity and my hope their efforts will succeed.”

“Nigeria’s standing in the world has improved tremendously since the return of democracy to this country in 1999. Before then, Nigeria standing in the world was very poor. Since 1999 we have progressive increase in Nigeria standing in the world and at this moment I believe that Nigeria is doing very well externally.”

In his remark after receiving the two books presented to him, President Jonathan said the books will assist government functionaries in preparing for their responsibilities, describing the books as modern day student companion. He said it would be of help to Nigerian professionals, as well as the country’s ambassadors.

“These handbooks will be very helpful to prepare all of them (Ambassadors) to do what they are supposed

to do and even for the professionals to constantly remind them about Nigeria’s interest.

Let me sincerely thank the chairman and members of this very noble committee, for the work they have been doing, especially this morning, these two books that are being presented.

Jonathan said, “these documents are very relevant, because most people coming in as Presidents, Vice Presidents and sometimes even those who we appoint as Foreign Affairs Ministers and Ambassadors may not be too conversant with Nigeria’s foreign relations'.

WKA—THE Federal Government yesterday granted approval to Anambra State government to reconstruct the controversial Anambra end of the Onitsha-Enugu expressway.

Anambra State would receive reimbursement from the Federal Government later.

The approval was seen as a great relief to Governor Peter Obi, who had been pleading with the Federal

Government to allow the state government reconstruct the road and get the money later in the interest of the users.

Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, who announced the approval during a visit to Governor Obi in Awka, said President Goodluck Jonathan’s approval was due to the gove r n o r ’ s consistent pleading and several representations to the Federal Government on the need for speedy completion of the project.

Orji proposes death sentence for pipeline vandalisation

BY ANAYO OKOLI

U

MUAHIA—GOVER NOR Theodore Orji of Abia State has sent a bill to the State House of Assembly, proposing death penalty for pipelines vandalisation as a way of arresting the rate of pipeline vandalism in the state.

This came as Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu said NNPC lost N7.6 billion to vandals between 2007 and now.

Governor Orji who disclosed this yesterday while

addressing traditional rulers and some leaders from Ukwa West, the state’s main oil community and Osisisioma-Ngwa, the community where the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, depot is located, said information reaching him was that the bill had passed first reading.

He said “We have sent a bill to the House of Assembly making oil pipelines vandalization punishable by death, just like we did for kidnapping. The Speaker hinted me on Monday that it has passed first reading.”

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 15

16—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

IoD flays public officers over security votes

BY MICHAEL EBOH & RITA OBODOECHINA

T

HE Institute of Direc tors, IoD, Nigeria, yesterday, expressed concern over the high level of corruption perpetuated by political office holders in the country under the guise of utilising security votes.

“It has been alleged that the malaise has become one of the easiest ways some elected public officials misappropriate funds in their respective positions,” IoD said in a statement announcing its forthcoming Advocacy Roundtable Forum on Security Vote.

The statement, on the forum that is scheduled to hold in Lagos, tomorrow, at the Protea Hotel, Ikoyi, was jointly signed by Mr. Akin Ajayi and Prince Ben Onuora, DirectorGeneral/Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Research & Advocacy, respectively.

IoD said it was aware that billions of naira were squandered every year in Nigeria under the guise of security votes, adding that the funds that are supposed to be used to provide security for public officers and the society end up being transferred into personal bank accounts.

IoD said: “It is also worthy of note that in spite of these huge sums of money on security, there has been a yearly increase in the rate of killings, kidnappings, cultism and other security threats across the length and breadth of the country.

“Questions are also raised that such funds should have been strictly dedicated to fighting the menace of the Boko Haram, Niger

Delta militancy and a host of other issues threatening the peaceful existence of our nation to its very fabric.”

They, however, questioned the legality of the fund, saying no part of the country’s constitution allows for any pool of funds to be maintained as security vote.

It said: “Although in some

countries such funds are appropriated, but in Nigeria such funds are not included in the appropriation whether at the Federal, state or local government levels.

“Moreover, these funds are unaudited and unaccounted for. The exact value of the vote is practically unknown to ordinary citizens.”

SEMINAR: From left— Mr. Olugbenga Adelanwa, Solution Manager, Resourcery Communication Plc; Mr. Bola Adugbonmire, Director, Collaboration Cisco Systems; Mrs. Angela Chike-Dike, Senior Manager, Business Development; Mr. Andrew Ejoh, Executive Director, both of Resourcery Communication Plc, and Mr. Morakinyo Salami, Consulting Systems Engineer, Cisco Systems Inc., at a seminar on Video As a Tool for Corporate Communication and Productivity, organised by Resourcery Communication in Lagos. PHOTO: Joe Akintola, Photo Editor.

Plateau lawmakers' killing: Benue Speaker blasts FG over insecurity

BY PETER DURU

M

AKURDI— SPEAKER, Benue State House of Assembly, Mr. David Iorhemba, yesterday, took the Federal Government to task for failing in its responsibilities to arrest the lingering Jos crisis despite the mayhem in the last few years.

Iorhemba, who spoke on the gruesome murder of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Gyang Dantong and Majority Leader of the Plateau State Assembly, Mr. Gyang Fulani, by suspected Fulani gunmen, urged the Federal Government to take decisive action to bring the Jos crisis to an end.

He lamented the state of insecurity in Plateau and other northern states, warning that the crises in the state and the country in general had taken an alarming dimension, which calls for urgent government intervention.

Iorhemba said the killing of the two lawmak-

ers should serve as a turning point in the onslaught against violent crimes and terrorism in the country.

He said: “It is regret-

table that the Federal Government had not been able to address the perennial crises in Jos and other states in the north in recent times.

My appeal is that the death of these illustrious Nigerians should compel a decisive measure to nip these crises in the bud once and for all.”

Arewa lawyers deny rumour of division over presidential candidate

BY INNOCENT ANABA

A

REWA Lawyers Fo rum, ALF, yesterday, denied media reports that two Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, presidential candidates, Chief Emeka Ngige(SAN) and Chief Okey Wali(SAN), divided the forum’s meeting in Nasarawa State, weekend.

It was reported that Ngige and Wali divided the meeting over their bid to clinch the NBA presidency.

Publicity Secretary of ALF, Mr. J. Okutepa(SAN), in a statement, said the report was not only false, malicious, unfounded and misleading, but was a calculated attempt to deceive members of the public, who were not present at the

meeting.

Okutepa said: “It is absolutely false and untrue to insinuate that Ngige and Wali divided Arewa lawyers. At the general meeting of ALF in Lafia, Nasarawa State on July 7, all candidates aspiring for various positions in the forthcoming NBA elections, who came from other fora, including Ngige and Wali, addressed the forum, and they all took their leave after their address.

“Members expressed their views on the suitability and abilities of the various candidates based on their programmes and presentations, particularly the presentations of the presidential candidates, Mr. Blessing Ukiri, Chief Ngige and Chief Wali.

“Without any dissenting voice, members expressed their views and resolved that the leadership of ALF will make contact with other fora on the issue of adoption of other nonArewa candidates.

“It was also resolved that since the presidency had been zoned to the Eastern Bar Forum, EBF, which had formally communicated their preference and adoption of Wali to ALF, members without dissenting voice agreed to support and adopt Wali as the most suitable presidential candidate to be voted for by all members of ALF in the forthcoming NBA elections.

“No petition by Ngige was brought to the attention of the general house.”

BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU

T

EACHERS, under the auspices of Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, have threatened to go on strike over the 14 states that are yet to implement the 27.5 percent enhance pay.

NUT said, yesterday, that teachers would not hesitate to go on strike in any of the 14 states that had failed to pay their teachers the 27.5 percent before July 23.

NUT President, Mr. Michael Olukoya, at the opening ceremony of the 81st Founders’ Day celebration and the 2nd annual memorial lecture of Rev Israel Ransome-Kuti, said the strike action was inevitable, following the agreement reached between the teachers and state governors in 2008, which took effect from 2009 and was yet to be implemented in some states.

Some of the affected states are Lagos, Delta, Enugu, Cross Rivers, Abia, Katsina, Benue, Niger, Zamfara, Katsina, Ekiti, Kebbi and Kogi.

By Bartholomew Madukwe

PEOPLE SPEAK

08102479985

NUT gives 2-week ultimatum over enhance pay

(nwamad@yahoo.com)

What's your take on NYSC posting to the North?

I

T is unreasonable for one to allow his or her child to go and die in the name of NYSC. Imagine after training a child to that level, only for one fundamentalist to kill that child. God forbids! They should serve in their area.—Mrs. Ifeoma Ayambuba, Student.

L

AST week, some Mallams from the North told me there was no single part of the North that was functioning. They said the North was not peaceful.

Though I cannot confirm it, there is no wisdom in sending NYSC members there.—Mr. Yomi Olaleye, Interior Decorator.

W

E need to look into our educa tional system, so that when posting NYSC members, they won’t have to go to the North and die.

The government should post them to a safe place and not where killings seems to be the order of the day.— Ms. Ewuife Evelyn, Student.

E

VERYBODY knows that the North is not safe for now.

Our youths should be made to serve where they graduated from. If you schooled in the East, then serve there. At least, for now, NYSC members should not be posted to those crisis-prone states.—Mr. Wale Rufus, Travel Agent.

I

T is good for NYSC members to refuse serving in troubled states, because even an Army man that is not well equipped will refuse to go there. What reaction do you then expect from students who have spent most part of their time reading?—Mr. Kunle Olanrewaju, Lawyer.

T

HE issue of secu rity in parts of the North that have recorded high rates of bombings and killings should first be dealt with by the government before sending youths there to serve their fatherland.—Ms. Ijeoma Ihemegbulem, Businesswoman.

“Democracy is too good to share with just anybody." - H. L. Mencken F you are voter in Edo State who believes that your vote should and must count, you must be wondering whether it is safe to exercise your right to decide who becomes Governor of the State this coming Saturday. Certainly, it will take the bravest of citizens to venture out either on campaign trails or to vote, given the intimidating mobilisation of security personnel, particularly soldiers, reportedly in their thousands for the Saturday elections. It will be safe to say that the bullet will be as important as the ballot in determining who is announced as winner in the elections.

All the indices that the elections of a Governor on the 14th of July in Edo State will be a bitterly-fought affair have been evident for quite some time. Edo State has historically been a major battleground. If forms the core of the Midwest region, carved out with muscle and clout of the northern influence in the first republic. Subsequently, it remained the barometer for judging the balance of power between the West, and political parties with a heavy dose of northern and minority influences such as the NPN and PDP. The loss to either has been seen as a major setback, and the stakes have never been higher than they are. The Action Congress of Nigeria of Governor Adams Oshiomhole and the People’s Democratic Party which straddles the nation’s political horizon like a colossus are locked in a bitter battle to show who is the dominant influence in a key state and region. A win by Oshiomhole will weaken the PDP’s stranglehold on the south-south, and may very well signal the political end of some of the most powerful fixers of the PDP. A loss by the ACN will represent a major setback for a party which wants to claim that quality governance can take it beyond narrow ethnic boundaries in Nigeria.

— 17 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012—

consequences of voting one way or the other; and the whole community arms itself to the teeth using money from politicians. Arms used to intimidate the public will be retained after the elections.

They will be turned against the same politicians who bought them, or against the community later.

I

Compromised electoral process

T

Edo guber election: Ballots and bullets

President Goodluck Jonathan

Governor Adams Oshiomhole

,

Deployment of security personnel

T

he most visible and obvious indicator that the voting is unlikely to reflect the popular will is the massive deployment of thousands of soldiers and other security personnel days before the elections. In the absence of clear signs

INEC should demand a freer and less intimidating environment, openly and specifically, because it cannot claim to conduct a free and fair election in an environment where voters are having to choose between ballots and bullets

,

that voters and election officials are likely to face serious threats which a deployment on this scale alone can mitigate, the question has to be asked what all this militarisation of the voting

Charles Airhiavbre, PDP candidate process seeks to achieve. On the basis of experience, Nigerians know that the visible presence of heavily-armed soldiers scares voters from venturing out to vote. Low turn-outs create opportunities to manipulate ballots and result sheets. Soldiers intimidate voters and observers who want to exercise their rights to keep the entire process in sight.

The militarisation of the voting process tends to generate its own image.

Interests that cannot mobilise the military in their favour resort to their own use of violence as a political tool. Long before elections, campaigns become violent and dangerous affairs; communities are torn by rival armed gangs; simple folk are warned in advance of the

he electoral process will be severely compromised in this type of atmosphere. Allegations of intimidation, ballot stuffing, results without voting or use of violence at polling stations will be made. Agents will allegedly be chased away, and whole communities or voters will complain that they were prevented from going to polling units or collation centers.

These may very well be the reasons why this type of mobilisation of armed security personnel is being made.

Whoever is declared winner after the Saturday elections, there will be another loser: the citizens of Edo State who will never be sure that the results genuinely reflect their will, or the will of a few fixers and professional election riggers.

For the rest of Nigeria, the elections in Edo State this weekend are also very important. What happens in this particular election will indicate whether the government and INEC have learnt any lessons from previous elections. It may give a hint on whether President Jonathan and his party, the PDP are willing to test their popularity in open, free and fair elections; or they will continue with the tradition of muscling results out of the system.

Even at this stage, Nigerians should demand that the Edo gubernatorial elections coming up on Saturday must be demilitarised. If there is evidence that some people intend to use violence or some other illegal means to influence the outcome of the elections, the police and other security agents should deal with this threat, not thousands of soldiers. INEC should demand a freer and less intimidating environment, openly and specifically, because it cannot claim to conduct a free and fair election in an environment where voters are having to choose between ballots and bullets.

OPINION

BY UCHENNA NWANKWO

Zik-Eyo Ita face-off: Aladinma's misrepresentations (2)

Continues from page 18

O

NLY DrEndeley (Cameroun) was supportive of the tactics.Eyo Ita, the Head of Government Business in Eastern Nigeria and some of his ministers kicked against the policy and were flabbergasted when the central ministers were dismissed by the party. Of course, when the party asked them to resign, they equally rebelled against the party and refused to comply. They became known as ‘sit-tight ministers’.

Amongst them wereEyoIta (Ibibio),E.I.Oli (Igbo), S.J.Una (Ogoja), R.I.Uzoma (Igbo), S.W.Ubani-Ukoma (Igbo) and S.J.Koripoma (Ijaw). Those who complied with party directive and resigned were Dr.M.I.Okpara (Igbo), M.C.Awgu (Igbo) and S.T.Muna (Bamenda, Cameroun).

With the above ‘sit-tight’ attitude of some of the ministers, it behoved the legislature to orchestrate the requisite action to paralyse government business, which was practically in the hands of the British Lt. Governor. In the Eastern House of Assembly, the NCNC majority subsequently succeeded in paralysing the constitutional system by voting to defeat or defer every bill before the House. As a last resort, the Lt. Governor was obliged to use his reserve power of legislation, the ultimate proof of colonial rule and subjugation in a politically advanced dependency, to pass the Regional Appropriation Bill into law. On adjournment day, the expelled ministers (Central and Regional) joined with a few other legislators and supporters who had resigned from the NCNC to form a new party, the National Independence Party, with EyoIta as president. Some 10 weeks later, the Eastern parliamentary crisis was resolved by dissolution of the

Eastern House of Assembly following the enactment of an amendment to the Constitution permitting the dissolution of the legislature of a single region.

During this period, according to Sklar, the strain on the Constitution was not confined to the Eastern Region, as events of a less dramatic but nonetheless fateful character transpired in the West. Action Group’s hostility to the Constitution was scarcely less than that of the NCNC. Ultimately, the Macpherson Constitution proved unworkable and collapsed as Zik had planned after 15 months of its operation and was replaced with a new Constitution (the Lyttleton Constitution of 1954) that granted residual powers to the regions and provided that apart from the Regional Governor, colonial officials of the administration would be excluded from the Executive Council of the Eastern and Western Regions, amongst other favourable provisions.

M

eanwhile, with the collapse of EyoIta’s government in May 1953, a new election was conducted to elect new members to the Eastern House of Assembly. Azikiwe was elected from Onitsha; NCNC dominated the House and its leader, Azikiwe, assumed the office of premier or head of government. Eyo Ita as leader of the minor party in the House became leader of Opposition.For details of these historical facts, see Richard L. Sklar, Nigerian Political Parties (1963), pages 115 – 140. Amplifications of particular points can also be gleaned from James S. Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (1958).

Given the above prognosis, would it be wise and correct

for anybody to claim thatZik or the Igbo conspired to oust Eyo Ita from power? Or that the constitutional crisis that terminated EyoIta’s government was tribally motivated? But this is the verdict or notion that has been transmitted from generation to generation in the SouthSouth.

Finally, let me recap that in October 1959, Professor EyoIta, Head of Government Business and Minister of Natural Resources of Eastern Nigeria from 1952 to May 1953, resigned his leadership and membership of the United National Independence Party, UNIP and re-joined the NCNC. He had formed the National Independence Party which later merged with Alvan Ikoku’s United National Party to become UNIP. EyoIta proclaimed that he was re-joining the NCNC in accordance with the dictates of his conscience and in obedience to the chiefs and members of his Calabar constituency. These events indicate that the problem between Azikiwe and his compeer, EyoIta, was somehow resolved in their lifetime.

Or that Eyo Ita personally resolved that what happened in 1953 did not warrant his taking steps that tore the party and the people apart. Hence, he talked about the “dictates of his conscience” as he returned to the NCNC. So what is the basis for Aladinma’s actions or utterances in this matter?

Concluded *Mr. Nwankwo is chairman, Ndigbo Council for National Coordination (NCNC).

18 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY JULY 11, 2012 MOST of the pains that people will go through in Lagos as the Third Mainland Bridge is being fixed are avoidable. They are part of the larger lessons about the consequences of poor planning. It is a great idea to maintain the bridge, but more thoughts should have been invested in minimising disruption of life.

Obviously, the loss to the economy makes no meaning to those who took the decision without adequate plans about movements while the repairs lasted. They tell people to use public transport, board the ferry or stay at home. Our rights to movement and safety are important.

The fixing of the bolts and cracks on the Third Mainland Bridge is not the cause of these pains. We are suffering from years of failed plans. The suffering would continue since governments think only in terms of “fixing eroded bolts and cracks”.

For starts, two bridges are not enough for a Lagos that is bursting at its seams. When the bridges were built, they were barely adequate for the population and economic activities the city supports. It is almost a

Pains Of Progress miracle the bridges have survived the heavy trucks that move goods daily from the ports.

The heavy traffic in Lagos and the heavier containers that are a feature of its roads have worsened over the years without the rails to bear part of the burden.

Plans for a fourth bridge have withered under other considerations.

Maintenance of public facilities is commendable, but they could be done without benumbing consequences we are facing. The welfare of the people is important. It is insulting to tell people “to stay at home if they cannot bear the traffic snarl”.

Commuters – many of who are on their

way to work – are expected to be productive after going through the stress.

Security on the routes thieves normally rob motorists remains an issue. We have to go through these to repair a bridge?

The alternative routes we are offered are no alternatives. What the authorities are doing is simply divert traffic away from the construction. Ordinarily, Third Mainland Bridge has its traffic jams, same for Ikorodu Road, which now bears most of the diversions. Commercial buses are exploiting the situation, charging fares to match the wastes in time and fuel.

How will people make the extra money to see them through the next five months of this agony?

Government should note that ferry services were used in Lagos more than 30 years ago. Lateef Jakande’s Baba Kekere served Lagos well then. If government had built on that effort, Lagos would have had a viable alternative means of transportation. Hopefully, by the next repair we would not witness these pains.

OPINION

BY UCHENNA NWANKWO

A

LADINMA'S proclamation,Daily Sun, Thursday, June 21, 2012 made interesting reading. We note and appreciate Aladinma’s burning desire to establish or nurture cordial relationships between Ndigbo and the South-South peoples of Nigeria. But we do think that such cordiality should not be founded on falsehood, outright misrepresentation and misinterpretation of history. In this regard, we frown at Aladinma’s conjecture that “having been ousted by Awolowo from becoming the first Premier of the Western Region in the famous carpet-crossing saga (of 1952), Azikiwe went to the East and ousted Eyo Ita …

The bitterness generated by that single stroke of political injustice was at the root of the attitude of the Eastern minorities in the bloody disputes of 1966- … the first blame must rest squarely on Azikiwe …”. Aladinma went further to apologise “on behalf of our fathers to the people of the Niger-Delta for that wrongdoing that ruined the brotherly relationship we had from time immemorial”. We abhor Aladinma’s mindless castigation of our venerable Dr NnamdiAzikiwe and other implied misrepresentations.

Consequently, we will proceed hereunder to set the record aright.

In the first place,Zik never wanted to assume the position of Head of Government Business in the Western Region in 1952 as alleged. Evidence abound that all that Zik wanted was to install an NCNC government in the Western Region and then proceed to the central (national) Legislature in Lagos as decided by the NCNC national executive committee. Secondly, the“famous carpetcrossing saga” is usually somewhat over-stretched and has been used to foist inter-ethnic misunderstanding between the Igbo and the Yoruba. It is not true that Yoruba

Zik/Eyo Ita face-off: Aladinma's misrepresentations NCNC parliamentarians abandoned Zik on the floor of the Western House of Assembly and crossed over to Awolowo’s side as often painted. The truth is that five members of the six elected parliamentarians from the Ibadan Peoples Party, IPP, led by AdisaAkinloye (and some other fringe groups)tilted the balance in Awolowo’s favour by teaming up with the Action Group, AG; the sixth member, AdegokeAdelabu, joined forces with the NCNC to form the NCNC-Mobalaji Grand Alliance. For too long, many Igbos have been deceived into believing that the Western NCNC abandoned Zik and that the Yoruba are therefore a bunch of shifty, non-trustworthy people that are unworthy of strategic (political) alliance. Far from this, the Western NCNC stood solidly behind Zik to the bitter end. Even after the AG had taken the reins of power in Ibadan, the Western NCNC insisted that Zik and PrinceAdelekeAdedoyin were to proceed to the central legislature. Dr Olorun-Nimbe, who disobeyed party directive to step down for Zik earned the wrath of the party and was eventually expelled from the NCNC and soon sank into political oblivion.

N

ow to the matter of Zik-Eyo Ita face-off:On the eve of the 1951 elections in which Azikiwe contested for a seat in the Western House of Assembly from his Lagos base, Zik declared that he was not going to accept a ministerial post in “an inferior legislature of the colonial

type”. In other words, he was not prepared to serve as minister (premier or prime-minister) at regional or national level in the then premature Nigerian political system. His object, he said, was to achieve an NCNC majority in the regional and central legislatures that would act to “paralyse the machinery of government” and lead to a reformation of the Constitution.The Macpherson Constitution had provided for “semi-responsible government” at the centre and in the regions. The official phrase was “responsible government within defined limits”. Zik did not accept this. He wanted total independence. This was what informed his declaration above. It was a grand tactics for national independence that the Action Group later imbibed.

After the upheavals in the Western House of Assembly,Zik began to rally his partymen to the achievement of the above-stated objectives. This took some time. Eventually, however, the NCNC resolved and called its central ministers to resign in order to actualise the above independence strategy. But these ministers were now enjoying their new stations in life, the perquisites of ministerial office. Some of them did not, therefore, want to give up the positions. In so doing, they were undoubtedly sabotaging and delaying the independence struggle that had already got them to where they were.

Three NCNC central (national) ministers were the first culprits and were summarily dismissed from the party.

They were A.C.Nwapa (Igbo), EniNjoku (Igbo) and Okoi Arikpo(Ogoja).

Continues on Hakeem Ahmed's pg *Mr. Nwankwo is chairman, Ndigbo Council for National Coordination, NCNC.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012— —19

, A

LOOK at how world leaders conduct themselves today leads one to ask what role government should play in the lives of citizens; how much of government involvement should be allowed in the affairs of a people? The American society presents an interesting picture of how this question is handled. The two dominant parties, the Democrats and the Republicans are distinguished to a large extent by how much power they believe any American government should exercise over their own people. While the American society was founded on the principle of personal and collective liberty of the people to take control over their own affairs, they nevertheless submit some aspects of these affairs to the control of their elected representatives. The extent of such submission of personal liberty to the control of elected representatives is what distinguishes the Republicans from the Democrats.

While the Republicans believe in limited government control, the Democrats are inclined to ceding more power to government than the Republicans consider justifiable. On certain issues, say gun control or

abortion rights, for example, this difference in position could be as contentious as it could be extremely polarising, often raising fundamental questions about the principles on which the American society was founded. This much was evident in the Supreme Court pronouncement supporting the Obama administration initiative to extend health cover to the vast majority of Americans, a move which the Republicans believe will not only worsen the deplorable health care bill of the government but, ultimately, the overall bill of government, thereby steeping future generations of Americans in governmentinduced debt. For others, their opposition to Obamacare is a matter of personal rights/concern in which they cannot imagine any interference from government.

This is just a very rough and simple way to describe the ideological difference between America’s two leading parties and their supporters.

But the sense in which I use the word government here goes beyond politics. It extends into the world of business. This point needs to be stressed in an increasingly globalised

world in which economic and political power go hand in hand. Perhaps more than at any other time in the past, our world has witnessed a dilution of both economic and political power to the extent that even the economic side of global power is shaping the political or the political is made to serve the economic in a way that underlines the equal if not greater significance of the latter. One proof of this is the haste with which governments around the world, especially the American government, came to the rescue of many business organisations in the wake of the global meltdown of 2008. In spite of the fact that many of the affected businesses which ran aground following the greed of private executives ceded much of their powers to government in the wake of the meltdown, the bailout given them underlines their importance in the overall scheme of things. But as I have mentioned above, the sense in which I talk about government here extends into the world of corporations and other businesses managed by private individuals. Like their political counterparts, many of these business leaders are no better than common

Place of private initiatives in educational development in Nigeria (2) Continues from yesterday.

BY P. S. ASIODU

T

HE secondary schools which were mainly mission, community and private were now denied the great capital and recurrent funds and the very significant unpaid man-power inputs which used to flow into the system from the missions and voluntary agencies.

The severe decline in quality of education began. The problems multiplied : underfunding, inadequate production of qualified teachers, decline in the status and relative remuneration of teachers which impacted negatively on their commitment and productivity, the post-Civil War erosion of values.

The destruction of the Civil Service following the coup of 1975 severely reduced the ability of the Federal and state ministries of education to manage the educational system. Things have continued to deteriorate in direct variation with the decline in the quality of governance and rapid increase in corruption.

The so-called elite schools suffered a great deal.

For example, premises and facilities used by no more than 250 students in Colonial and immediate post-Independence years in my school, King’s College, were made to accommodate over 2,000 students. A Minister of State in one year gave admission to 400 students in Form 1.

The situation has become intolerable and cannot be sustained. I shall return a bit later to what Old Boys and Girls of the older “elite” schools are trying to do. The position today is that all our primary and secondary schools are in very poor condition and delivering poor quality education except for a very small number of very expensive private institutions to which only the very rich parents can send their children.

,

Let us consider a few figures. Our population today is about 170 million.Children and youth between six and 22 years old account for over 30 per cent of our population. Over 80percent of this sector are under 18 years old. The Constitution promises them education as of right, education to prepare them for a decent productive life. By 2035, it is estimated that the population would be around 250 million.

Ideally, the country should be providing now good adequate facilities for international standard education and skills acquisition for 40 million children and youth every year projected over the next 20 years to say 50 million. Using normal ratios of teachers and instructors to students, we should be talking of 1.6 million to 2 million properly trained and motivated teachers / instructors. In today’s condition, an average salary per person of N720,000 per annum is not much. That would cost for two million teachers, N1.44 trillion per annum. We have not factored in yet capital cost of class rooms, laboratories, theatres, etc.

So ideally, we should be considering the figure of N2 trillion a year for the whole country. What is the provision this year by all our governments in the three tiers for education?

We all recall the UNESCO recommendation of at least 20percent of the total budget to be for education. This is most necessary for a developing country like Nigeria. However, you will all recall that even for an advanced country like the UK when Tony Blair as Prime Minister was asked about his priorities, he replied – “Education, Education, Education”.

There is therefore an urgent need for our governments to re-order their priorities.

Nigeria has enormous resources from our oil income. Better governance, less corruption, less bloating of public procurement - in some cases over 200% - more friendly and prompt processing of enquiries from intending investors will accelerate development and give

thieves. They cannot be trusted to do right by those they claim to represent. As always, what comes first and last is their own interest.

T

his point was brought forcefully home to me again when the Barclays Bank rate-fixing scandal broke out in the UK last week. Bob Diamond, the Chief Executive of the bank had to step down with immediate effect and faced parliamentary scrutiny when it emerged that the bank he led was involved in rigging interbank interest rate in order to increase the profit going to the bankers to the detriment of ordinary people.

Diamond, an American academicturned investment banker was a wellknown supporter of huge bonuses to bankers which he saw as reward for their hard work. But now he is quick to wash his hands off the excesses of those who worked right under him to cheat the British people. Already Barclays, the UK’s second most profitable bank and the fifteenth largest in the world, has been fined to the tune of $453 million, but that does nothing to the huge bonuses that have gone to Diamond and his cohort who continued to milk the ordinary people until regulators came up with their discovery of the fraud. As it is, the world is yet to move beyond the greed of bankers that led to the economic meltdown that started five years ago. If anything, it is becoming clear that governance in the world of private organisations, as in politics, is weak and that many corporate leaders need to be under the constant watch of the people, not just some gate keepers, acting in their own capacity or doing so in the name of the people.

As we cannot avoid ceding part of our liberty to authorities, many times unelected and unaccountable in our part of the world, people must show interest in how their leaders go about

,

Govt, power and the people

As we cannot avoid ceding part of our liberty to authorities, people must show interest in how their leaders go about their affairs despite the crass disregard of public opinion that many of these leaders show

Ideally, the country should be providing now good adequate facilities for international standard education and skills acquisition for 40 million children and youth every year

,

us access to greater revenues. Meanwhile, there is great scope for reducing the cost of our government institutions, drastically reducing the perquisites and numbers of political office holders so as to change the allocations in our budgets and enable the government to spend what they should to guarantee every child access to good education.

T

here will not be uniformity but the state must guarantee to the poor child that he will be given the opportunity for good quality education which provides the route to upward mobility in society and a better life.

In terms of private sector initiatives, as we are already doing, we have to increase our contributions to restoring our old “elite” schools to becoming again centres of excellence. Such schools, perhaps 50 or so in number should be empowered with special charters to become quasi independent and be run by independently chosen Boards of Governors. There will be minority government representation on such Boards. The schools may receive some subventions from the government but the bulk of their revenues should be mobilized from private sources. I understand you have spent over N100 million helping your school. We in King’s have spent N1 billion. However, these are very small sums compared with the volume of funding which we need to mobilize over the next few years.

their affairs despite the crass disregard of public opinion that many of these leaders show. This was the case with President Jonathan who claims not to give a damn what Nigerians thought of his refusal to declare his assets publicly. Vigilance we’ve been told is the eternal price of liberty. People the world over, especially in African countries like Nigeria where leaders literally throw dust in the face of the people and call their bluff- people must not take the words of their political and economic leaders for it. Crime and mass poverty many times are traceable to the activities of these categories of individuals who are specialist at turning the commonwealth into personal estates for themselves and their unborn generations. In Nigeria, the ongoing trial of bank chiefs who ran their organisations into bankruptcy, business men who collect so-called oil subsidy and promptly kept them away in private banks only to be probed by legislators who saw such probe as opportunity for corrupt enrichment- to say nothing of capital market players who routinely create schemes, running into hundreds of millions of naira from businesses and people they are supposed to regulate and through which they raise funds that are turned into their private accounts in the guise of celebrating some ghost achievements- all of these point to the need to put government, economic or political, under close and constant watch because the interest of these leaders are often at odds with the interest of the vast majority of the people. Such leaders are no sooner in position than they become laws unto themselves subject to nobody but their personal greed and sometimes the fear of discovery.

Which is why ours must be constant vigilance- trust no government.

The schools will as in the past throw open their doors to students from every part of the country and there should be funding for scholarships for capable students from poorer families – perhaps up to at least 25percent of each class.

The Federal Government may also upgrade six schools in each of the six zones to fulfill the intentions of the unity school, ensuring that they, like the old elite schools, are of the best international standards.

There will be room for the very expensive private schools such as already exist but like in the past all schools must be subject to monitoring by re-organised and re-equipped competent educational inspectorates.

I am sure that private sector resources will be quite stretched playing the role assigned to them in the two categories of institutions which I have just described. Even then, it can only be a limited supporting role where trillions of naira will be required annually.

There are many other areas in vocational education and in the tertiary institutions in which private sector, especially business corporate organisations should intervene. In partnership with the governments, they should develop institutions and apprenticeship arrangements to enable the country develop the millions of skilled workers required if the Nigerian economy is to grow and develop rapidly and be numbered by 2040 amongst the largest 15 economies in the world. This is possible if the country is properly led.

The thrust of my remarks this evening is that developing philosophies and articulating areas of need in which we must all be active, our governments have the primary responsibility to establish and maintain the world class educational system that will enable our citizens achieve and surpass the goals of Vision 2020. The country is so far behind, 30 years or more, behind the Asian Tigers with whom we were at par in the middle 1970s. The country has no more time to lose.

Concluded

*Being a speech delivered by Chief Asiodu at the Association Dinner Party of National Government College Ughelli Old Boys recently.

20—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11,,2012

Sadness, joy of alternative routes as Third Mainland Bridge undergoes repair

Nigeria and the culture of waste

BY BOSE ADELAJA

A

LTHOUGH this is not the first time repairs will be carried out on Africa’s longest b r i d g e , t h e Thir d Mainland Bridge, road users in Lagos have expressed worries over the use of the alternative routes as spelt out by the state government.

Some of them who spoke with Vanguard Metro described their experiences so far as traumatic, especially while using the altern a t i v e r o u t e s . They also complained that p r o p e r sensitization was not given to them before the repair work commenced last Sunday.

BY EBELE ORAKPO

“J

I was completely lost

*Heavy traffic on one of the selected alternative routes after the Third Mainland Bridge was closed for repairs. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

A car owner, Abraham Adewole, said he was completely lost at the middle of the road and had to terminate his journey from Oworonsoki to Lagos Island.

“Before I bought my car some weeks ago, I usually m a de u s e o f p u b l i c transport from Bariga to Victoria Island. I was not used to the Yaba- Oyingbo route in a private car which was the only alternative on Monday and I was completely lost on the road. As a result, I parked the car near my brother ’s shop who later took it home, while I rode on an Okada ( c o m m e r c i a l motorcycle) back home,” he said.

our intention to arrive the venue on time to avoid stress but the gridlock on the bridge has now frustrated our plan and o n l y G o d knows when we shall get there,” they

,

queried.

According to the Lagos State Commissioner for Transport Mr. Ibrahim Opeifa, the alternative routes for road users are Ikorodu Road-Yaba- Oyingbo -

Some of them described their experiences so far as traumatic, especially while using the alternative routes; they also complained that proper sensitisation was not given to them before the repair work commenced

,

Two hours gridlock Mr and Mrs Abiodun Onilude who were to attend their daughter ’s naming ceremony a t O n i r u expressed frustration as they were trapped in the gridlock b e t w e e n 8 am a n d 10am while trying to connect the Carter Bridge from Ikorodu Road. “The naming starts by 4pm and it’s

Debate of the masses

chorused helplessly.

Meanwhile, another road user, Mrs Gladys Chukwu, said the agony is for a while.

“Good things do not c o m e without some pains and inconveniences. Th e r e p a i r work is for the betterment of all; why can’t we endure the suffering for a while?” she

Iddo-Lagos Island; Ikorodu Road-Western Avenue-Lagos Island; Agege Motor RoadOshodi-Apapa-Lagos Island-Victoria Island; and Apapa-Oshodi Expressway-Mile 2Orile-Lagos IslandVictoria Island.

However, Minister of State for Works, Bashir Yuguda, has said the

first phase of the replacement of the expansion joints would start on the Lagos Islandbound carriageway between the Ebute-Meta interchange and Adeniji Adele end of the bridge while the second phase would involve the Oworonshoki-bound carriageway between Adeniji Adele and Ebute-Meta interchange.

A

S a result, move ment on the bridge from Oworonshoki to Lagos Island will only be permitted from 11pm to 12pm every day, while movement out of Lagos Island to Oworonshoki and Yaba will be from 12pm to 11pm.

Opeifa advised motorists to park their cars at home and make use of water transport or the Bus Rapid Transit and LAGBUS buses to reduce traffic on the roads.

He said 700 officials of the state Traffic Management Authority would be deployed in the area and strategic routes to control traffic.

UST look at the vast land wasting away and we are here crying over unemployment, poverty, food insufficiency and the rest of them,” noted Joe, a passenger in the Onitsha-bound commuter bus. The bus was moving slowly on the LagosBenin Expressway as traffic was beginning to build up due to bad road worsened by the heavy rains being experienced in the country. “What else do we want God to do for us? He has given us vast fertile land, clement weather, natural and human resources, everything we need to excel. Are we all right?” he asked rhetorically.

“May be we need to be spoon-fed. We don’t seem to be able to put our act together,” said Phil to which Martin replied thus: “Then we may have to wait forever because God will not do that for us. He gave us thinking faculty to be able to use what He has given us to improve our lives and the lives of others.”

“So all this talk about climate change and the need to preserve our forests to mitigate the effects of climate change means nothing to you?

Are you saying we should destroy these forests? We should be talking about reforestation.

Don’t you know that the torrential rains we are experiencing this year is a result of climate change?” asked Abu. Joe, visibly angered by Abu’s assertion retorted: “So food crops are not plants ehn? Do you listen to yourself at all?”

Replied Abu: “They are different from these huge trees in the forests.

Moreover, you will end up destroying all these plant species some of which are not found anywhere else but Nigeria and could be miracle

plants waiting to be discovered.”

“That is not an issue.

Preserve forests and die of hunger? Besides, I think the food crops can do the work of these forests,” replied Joe. “I think Abu has a point,” said Ben, adding: “We don’t need to destroy the forests. We must have forest reserves and that is where our scientists come in. We should have a biodiversity data for Nigeria. A friend of mine once said we should stop destroying our vegetation because one of the plants we destroy may be the answer to HIV/AIDS.” “Exactly!” exclaimed Abu. “We are made to understand that these forests save us from toxic chemicals released by the industries which can impair our health by absorbing them. They also serve as carbon zinc by taking up the carbon dioxide from industries and from our breathing.

They take it up and use it for photosynthesis. So you see, we really need the forests.”

Said Joe: “I agree. If you followed my argument, I did not say we should just cut down trees. I said we should use most of the land for agriculture. Abi maize, sorghum, rice, mango, oil palm trees, coconut trees, rubber, vegetables, yam, potatoes, etc, don’t need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis? We are saying the same thing. Instead of these trees that are not economically useful, we should plant those that are useful to us. But like Ben pointed out, we should have forest reserves in all the six geo-political zones.”

“Point of correction!

They are all useful,” stated Jimoh.

“Yes, but some are more useful to us now than others,” noted Joe.

CONTACT: mykeboh@yahoo.co.uk

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 21

MAN projects 15-18% GDP contribution by manufacturing sector in 2017

BY NKIRUKA NNOROM

T

HE manufacturing sector ’s contribution to Gross Domestic Products, GDP, growth in the country is expected to be within the region of 15-18 per cent in the next five years, says the President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Chief Kola Jamodu.

This is even as he said that there is an urgent need for concessions on imported raw materials that are inputs for the production of basic necessities, arguing that initiating concessions for such goods would have a direct positive impact on the welfare of the larger society.

Speaking recently while presenting a Blueprint for accelerated development of the manufacturing sector at the MAN’s 40 th annual general meeting in Lagos, Jamodu stated achieving the figure (15-18% GDP contribution) would be a walk over if the recommendations in the blueprint were considered and approved.

He explained that the document was based on an integrated approach that addresses the important role of manufacturing, particularly SMEs in the generation of substantial employment.

He said, “This document reviews the status of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria and identifies the extent of the burden that manufacturers have carried over the years. It sets out an action plan would accelerate the development of the manufacturing sector in the context of vision 20:2020, provides a framework and formulates a vision for the sector in the short medium to long term.

“The document also provides general sector-specific action plans and addresses critical questions relating to

the manufacturing sector as well as proposes a bold set of reforms which if embraced, are capable of unleashing the full potentials of manufacturing in the economy.”

He noted that there is an urgent need for the restructuring of government spending in favour of capital expenditure in view of huge infrastructural deficit confronting the nation, as part of recommendations contained in the blueprint.

“The relatively low performance in capital budget which hovered around 67 per cent as at mid-November, 2011,

when compared with almost 100 per cent implementation of 0f recurrent expenditure is not developmental friendly.

“The trend of unspent capital allocations which are usually returned to the treasury is blamed on delayed budget approval processes. There is need to revisit this issue for the good of the economy,” he said.

The association also recommended, “To facilitate free flow of goods and persons, government should rehabilitate the existing road network, construction of new ones should be

given priority and the railway system should be completely overhauled and privatized. “the federal government should put in place a revolving intervention fund to meet the long-term funding needs of the manufacturing sector which Deposit Money Banks are unwilling to provide.”

Other recommendations made the association include further push for patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products, channeling more efforts to tackle security challenges, and pursuing of power sector road map with greater vigour.

Mr. Alfred Okoigun, CEO and Group Managing Director, Arco Petrochemical Engineering Company Limited (second left), Mr. Yomi Jemibewon, MD, Arco Marine & Oilfield Services (3rd left) with guests at the unveiling of Fast Crew Boat 3 in Lagos.

Arco unveils new boat in Lagos

BY EBELE ORAKPO

A

RCO Marine & Oilfield Services, a subsidiary of Arco Petrochemical Engineering Company Limited, has unveiled its latest Fast Crew Boat (FCB 3), the third in four high speed personnel carriers to be delivered to Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (TEPNL).

Fielding questions from journalists after a two-hour cruise in the 70-seater boat, the Chief Executive Officer and Group Managing Director of Arco Petrochemical Engineering Company Limited, Mr. Alfred Okoigun thanked the Federal Government for enacting the Local Content Law. “Enacting that law alone is something. What the Nigerian Government is doing today is to encourage local companies to take responsibility for boats like this and bigger ones, but that can only happen if we are doing it right, if we develop the capability right, not just

talking about it, not because I know the minister or the president. The question is: What can you do? Are you doing it right? If you are doing it right, the connection is there, if you are not, connection can get you somewhere but in no time, it disappears but truly, there are a lot of possibilities in the oil and gas industry so that more Nigerians can benefit.

He said the Local Content Act “has given us hope that government believes that Nigerians can own and operate facilities like this. That belief is the strength which we are leveraging on. Some 10 years ago, I could not dream of something like this because foreigners will not allow it to pass through.”

Asked how he has been able to survive in the difficult business terrain in Nigeria, Okoigun said: “In life you need to have faith and hope. When you have the two, you can do a lot of things.”

Also speaking, Mr. Yomi Jemibewon, the Managing Director, Arco Marine & Oilfield Services noted that the contract was for four boats “but we have already started building five.

Beyond that, we are working very aggressively for new projects and new contracts and to build more of this but more importantly, we started last month to make plans to build our own operation and maintenance base because we recognise that boats like this need to go in for maintenance every two or three years. Why should I go and pay someone tons of money to dock my boat to maintain it when I know I have 5, 10 or 15 of these boats that need that maintenance and I can be providing same service to other people? So, we are investing in infrastructure and people. We have technical partnerships but one of the things we are proudest of is that we are a 100 per cent Nigeria-owned, Nigeriamanaged, Nigeria-operated business.

181.65

+5.20

2,322.00

+70.00

22.63

+0.38

100.34 86.26

+2.15 +1.81

CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL SELLING CFA KRONER EURO POUNDS RIYAL SDR FRANC DOLLAR WAUA YEN RENMINBI

0.2732 25.5945 190.4282 239.9246 41.2954 233.0174 158.5159 154.87 232.7718 1.9466 24.3039

0.2832 25.6772 191.043 240.6992 41.4287 233.7697 159.0277 155.37 233.5233 1.9529 24.3828

0.2932 25.7598 191.6578 241.4738 41.562 234.522 159.5394 155.87 234.2748 1.9592 24.4617

CBN Exchange rate as at 10/07/2012

22—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Account rendition: Chellerams, Honeywell, 10 others meet NSE deadline …Wema Bank, Conoil, 47 others yet to submit 2011 results STORIES BY MICHAEL EBOH

W

ITH the expiration of the deadline for companies having January to March 2012 as their financial year end, only 12 companies, led by C& I Leasing Plc, Chellerams Plc and Aso Savings and Loans Plc, have submitted their results to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

At the expiration of the deadline, June 30, 2012, Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc, Red Star Express Plc, Cappa &

D’Alberto Plc, Costain (West Africa) Plc and nine other companies having between January and March 2012 as the financial year end, are yet to submit their financial statements to the NSE. Other companies that have submitted their year end financial statements for the period are: Roads Nigeria Plc, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills Plc, Avon Crowncaps & Container Plc, Nigerian Bags Manufacturing

Company Plc, Red Star Express Plc, Academy Press Plc and University Press Plc. Conversely, other companies that are yet to submit their financial statement for the period are: Pinnacle Point Group, G.Cappa Plc, Golden Guinea Breweries Plc, Premier Breweries Plc, Seven-up Bottling Company Plc, Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc, Nigerian German Chemicals Plc, Tripple Gee and Company Plc, Poly Products (Nigeria) Plc and Thomas Wyatt

Nigeria Plc. Further analysis shows that of the 25 companies having January to March 2012 as their financial year end, 48 per cent have submitted their results while 52 per cent are yet to submit.

Meanwhile, despite several warnings by authorities in the Nigerian capital market, Conoil Plc, Wema Bank Plc, Capital Oil Plc, Union Homes Real Estate Plc, Skye Shelter Fund Plc and 44 other companies are yet to submit their 2011

financial statements.

The deadline for companies with December 31, 2011 as their financial year end to submit their results expired March 31, 2012.

The NSE has launched a number of campaigns to ensure that quoted companies submit their financial statements timely, stating that this will help promote transparency and boost investors’ confidence in the Nigerian capital market Among the measures introduced by the NSE to discourage delay in the submission of financial statements, is the continued publication and flagging of defaulting companies.

The NSE has also resorted to sanction of defaulting companies, suspending trading on their shares through technical suspension and full suspension in

extreme cases.

Other companies that are yet to submit their 2011 results include: Union Dicon Salt Plc, Unic Insurance Plc, Stokvis Nigeria Plc, Standard Alliance Insurance Plc, Staco Plc, Sim Capital Alliance Plc, Resort Savings and Loans Plc, Rokana Industries Plc, Nigerian Wire Industries Plc and Nigerian Wire and Cable Plc. Others are: Equity Assurance Plc, Daar Communications Plc, C o r n e r s t o n e Insurance Plc, Unity Kapital Assurance Plc, Big Tr e a t Plc, A l u m i n i u m Manufacturing Company of Nigeria Plc, Aluminium Extrusion Nigeria Plc, Afroil Plc, Afrik Pharmaceuticals Plc, African Alliance Insurance Plc among others.

Stanbic IBTC seeks shareholders’ approval over HoldCo structure

S

From left: Mr. Isah Omagu, Deputy General Manager, GTBank Plc; Mrs Omolara Erogbogbo, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Lagos State; Mr. Stephen Keshi, Super Eagles Coach and Guest Speaker and Mr. Fela Bank-Olemoh, MD, Media Vision during the GT Bank Tournament Ambassadors Programme (TAP) 2012 in Lagos. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.

AFC, AfDB finance N53bn Côte d’Ivoire bridge project

A

FRICA Finance Corporation, AFC, is partnering with the African Development Bank, AfDB, and the government of Côte d’Ivoire to invest N52.65 billion (270 million euro) in the financing of a bridge project in Côte d’Ivoire.

The AFC, in a statement yesterday, said the project involves the design, construction, f i n a n c i n g , commissioning and operation of a third bridge with three lanes in each direction, across the Ebrié lagoon, connecting Abidjan’s residential Riviera district directly with the commercial district of Marcory.

Once completed, according to the AFC, the

new toll bridge will connect residential and industrial areas, and provide easier access to the city of Abidjan.

President & Chief Executive Officer, AFC, Mr. Andrew Alli, said AFC and the AfDB acted as Mandated Lead Arrangers to the subordinated and senior facilities, respectively, to a syndicate of seven international lenders.

He disclosed that the AFC provided an aggregate commitment of N7.8 billion (40 million euro), comprising senior and junior loan facilities, and an equity investment.

According to Alli, the bridge is expected to reduce transportation costs by easing congestion over the existing two (non-tolled)

bridges crossing the lagoon within the city.

He added that the bridge will be constructed by the key sponsor of the project – Bouygues Group, under a turnkey fixed price arrangement, while the Government of Côte D’Ivoire will provide a 30-year concession with strong Government support.

Continuing, Alli said, “Given the scale of Africa’s infrastructure requirement and investment deficit, the public and private sectors have to come together to develop innovative ways to provide much needed infrastructure on the continent. “The true partnership between

the government and the private sector on the Konan Bedie Bridge project is a good example of how this can be done.

“A F C ’ s 4 0 m i l l i o n euro commitment to this project, together with its recent US$100 million financing of Société Ivoirienne de R a f f i n a g e , demonstrates the Corporation’s strong commitment to support Cote d’Ivoire’s development. The Corporation will continue to work with the Government of Cote d’Ivoire and other African governments as well as other institutions to deliver projects that will have a positive impact on economic development.”

TANBIC IBTC Bank Plc, yesterday, said it will be seeking its shareholders’ approval concerning its planned adoption of a holding company structure According to a statement by the bank, it would be holding a court ordered meeting of its shareholders with the aim of adopting a holding company (HoldCo) structure which has already been registered as Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc. This new structure, according to the bank, will be proposed to shareholders in compliance with the revised regulatory framework by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, which requires banks to divest from non-core banking businesses or adopt a holding structure. The new structure comes into effect in September 2012.

The operating subsidiaries of the new holding company, according to Mrs. Sola David-Borha, Chief Executive Officer of the bank, will be Stanbic IBTC Bank (including Stanbic Nominees Nigeria Ltd), Stanbic IBTC Asset

Management Limited, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited, Stanbic IBTC Trustees Limited, Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited, and Stanbic IBTC Investments Limited.

“A major reason for adopting the new structure is to consolidate our goal of building Nigeria’s leading end-to-end financial services organization, leveraging on our competitive advantages in the various business segments, including banking, pensions, stockbroking, custody and asset management,” she stated D a v i d - B o r h a emphasized that the new structure will impact positively on shareholders and customers, as the group will leverage the capacities resident in each business to further improve the entire group’s ability to maintain sustainable growth and further supported by the financial resources and global network of the Standard Bank Group, to which Stanbic IBTC belongs.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 23

EDITED by Adekunle Adekoya

,

DIARY Select ICT events z Broadcast & Film Africa. Holds 10-11 July 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya. zInternational Conference on Computing and Information Technology. Holds 13 - 14 July 2012 in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. z 2012 International Conference on Engineering and Applied Science. Holds 24 - 27 July 2012 in Beijing, China. z eduWeb Conference. Holds 30 July-1 August 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA .

,

z SIGGRAPH 2012.

Holds 5 -9 Aug 2012 in Los Angeles, USA

Preview

New inventions shaping life and living

IMAGINE CUP: From left, Okoya Timileyin; Shina Oyetosho, Developer & Platform Evangelism Lead, Microsoft Anglophone West Africa and Oludayo Alli getting ready for their presentation on sSaturday at the just concluded Microsoft Imagine Cup software competition in Sydney, Australia.

Photo: Emeka Aginam.

I expect these solutions to be in the market soon. They are really good. The quality of participation has been really good.

There is no industry in the world that gives the kind of opportunity software gives

Imagine Cup 2012: Healthcare solutions dominate Microsoft's software contest z106 teams from 75 countries on parade; $175,000 up for grabs

BY EMEKA AGINAM, Sydney, Australia

Double-sided solar cells The double-sided solar cells from bSolar use a boron "back surface field" to produce up to 50 percent more electricity than standard cells with aluminum backing.

The cells were designed to collect light from both sides, and the boron back surface field allows the cells to capture reflected light, such as that from clouds or rooftops. The new design has an efficiency boost of up to 30 percent on flat surfaces and between 30 and 50 percent on vertical installations.

Although double-sided solar cells are not new, bSolar states that their cells are more powerful, efficient, and cheaper to produce.

I N S I D E

T

HIS year's edition of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Competition — the football World Cup equivalent in software design — saw no fewer than 350,000 budding software experts from 75 countries worldwide gathering at the convention centre in Sydney, Australia to compete in different categories like software design, game design, IT challenge, Windows Azure challenge, Kinnect fun Labs challenge, Windows Azure challenge and Windows phone challenge, with health care solutions dominating entries.

Such health solutions, according to Vanguard Hi-Tech findings will include diagnosis of diseases via mobile applications and proactive acces-

Of telecoms service provision and fines

sibility of medical information. However, software design category had the largest proportion of presentations addressing health issues. Of 106 entries on parade, 72 solutions were in the software design category.

For a healthier future

With no fewer than 106 teams participating, available data from Microsoft showed that 65% of all projects addressed healthcare related issues, emphasising that efforts are on course to realise health targets in the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, (MDGs) in developing countries. Further, health products showcased by participants including Nigeria's representatives from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-

Word lens translator app now on Android

Ife, Osun State, Nigeria are already close to the market for deployment. In addition, about forty per cent of all healthcare-related finalist projects used Windows phone, providing healthcare tools and resources for people in remote areas across the globe.

For the physically challenged

Also, 23 per cent of projects were designed to improve lives of individuals with disabilities such as visual and hearing impairments and diseases that limit human physical mobility. Accordingly, of the 24 projects designed to increase accessibility for the disabled, such as those suffering from blindness or paralysis, Microsoft data disclosed that two-thirds — 66% utilize Kinect for Xbox 360

technology.

Window Azure employed

However, nearly half of all finalists’ projects (45%) employed Windows Azure, taking advantage of the cloud to help solve the world’s toughest problems from tackling pollutions levels in the environment to diagnosing diseases, with strong support from Nokia in relation to digital tools for the competing students.

Health solutions on parade

Among health solutions that excited the judges are Swift Emergency Response (SwiftER) developed by Team Nigeria from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife to improve the response of medical, security, fire and

other services to emergency situations.

Although the team did not make it to the second round, their solution will be helpful to people who find themselves in critical emergency situations; especially countries with no unified helpline/emergency hotlines. It is believed that their solution if deployed by the Nigerian government including those in the private sector will definitely address health challenges in emergency situations. For Team Vivid from Egypt, their solution was also on health; a mobile application that physicians can use to access patient’s emedical records and a cloud-based storage system that is not expensive.

Another finalist team, BoddyMusic from Argentina created a classroom

Continues on Page 30

Summit on e-payment for govt 'll create Males, youths use more awareness on Facebook more than cashless policy others in Nigeria

24 —Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Of telecoms service provision and fines

BY KEN DIKE GUESTCOLUMNIST

T

HE NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission), in response to the falling quality of GSM network service in Nigeria recently imposed a fine on the various network service providers for their culpability and lackadaisical attitude in the provision of quality telecoms services in Nigeria. The Nigerian Communications Act of 2003 clearly gives the NCC the responsibility of regulating the telecoms industry and ensuring that laid down rules and regulations are followed by the telecoms service providers and that an open market that promotes healthy competition is created in the industry in order to ensure a higher quality of service in the telecoms industry of Nigeria.

It is in keeping with this function that the NCC recently brought out the whip and imposed a fine totaling about $7.3 million on the four major mobile telephone service providers over the poor service in a nation that depends majorly on cellular phones for communication. The penalties hit Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom, and MTN. Etisalat and MTN are to pay $2.25 million apiece, while Airtel pays $1.68 million and Globacom faces a $1.125 million fine.

Seeing as it will be difficult to give the money back to subscribers who have been short-changed by these network service providers as it will be difficult to determine how badly each subscriber has been wronged, and in order for the money to be properly utilized, it should be kept and expended on the provision of telecoms service and in furthering the cause of proper telecoms and ICT infrastructure, facilities and equipment. The money, in the opinion of this writer, should be used in ensur-

ing that a favorable environment is created for the growth and development of the telecoms and ICT industry in order for facilities to be put in place to ensure the availability of telecoms and ICT products and services to the Nigerian populace at reasonable and affordable costs.

The money should also be used to encourage availability of telecommunication and ICT services to yet unreached and undeserved areas of the country. This money should be used to ensure that these yet to be covered areas are covered and that telecommunication and ICT services are m a d e available and affordable to all citizens of the country. Measures are also expected to be put in place to ensure that youths are encouraged to contribute to national developm e n t through innovat i o n s backed by access to quality telecoms and ICT facilities. With this money, facilities should be provided in primary and secondary schools to ensure that ICT knowledge is instilled in the youth and in the upcoming generation in order to help in building a knowledge based economy.

Also, part of the money can be used by the NCC to maintain a balanced market, promote healthy competition amongst the players, and expand network coverage so as to ensure that unreached places are connected to the grid. The money can also be spent on advertising campaigns and sensitization of the general public on the need for them to be alert and report any network service provider that has been observed to have cut corners in the provision of acceptable service to them. z Dike wrote in from Onitsha

The money should also be used to encourage availability of telecommunication and ICT services to yet unreached and undeserved areas of the country

,

W

HEN the world lens real-time translator app for iOS devices debuted back in 2010, there were a number of hopes for an Android version. Now, Quest Visual, developer of the app, has finally answered the prayers with the app now available on Google play.

Like its iOS counterpart, Word Lens translates printed words captured on an Android device’s video camera from one language to another. Because the app employs optical character recognition technology in combination with an included dictionary, it works without the need for an Internet connection.

Initially launching on iOS with only English/ Spanish languages, Quest Visual has now added Italian/English and French/English language pairs, all of which are now available on both iOS or Android platforms.

While the iOS app is a free download with users forced to buy any language packs as an in-app purchase for about US$4.99 each, the Android version costs $4.99 off the bat with one language pack included and additional packs available as in-app purchases.

Word lens translator app now on Android Word Lens translates printed words in real time on your iPhone and now a n d r o i d phones. Developed by Quest Visual, Word Lens is an augmented-reality translation app that uses your phone's camera to view printed words and translate them into another language as you watch. If you’re traveling for business or on vacation and need to read a street sign or a menu, point your phone and Word Lens instantly translates it, maintaining the color and font as it goes.

Quest Visual says the app is as easy to use as taking a picture with your phone. The app offers a zoom feature so you can crop out extraneous details, and a flashlight fea-

ture to light up the text if necessary. In addition, you can translate words by typing them in. Word Lens works best on clearly printed text, and does not work with decorative fonts or handwriting.

The app uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to analyze the image and translate the words it finds. You can test out the Word Lens OCR capability in the free app using two cute features that will

spell all words in the image backwards, or digitally erase all the words in the image. Like most translators and translation software, Word Lens is not perfect, but Visual Quest promises that you can at least get the general meaning of the text.

Word Lens works with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch with camera, and requires iOS 4.0 . But now the Android phones have been added.

— Prince Osuagwu

N300m up for grabs as Glo rolls out Season 3 of Text4Millions promo

BY EMMA ELEBEKE

T

OP national telco, Globacom has launched Season 3 of its promo, Glo “text4millions” aimed at rewarding loyal customers on its network.

Speaking at a media event to unveil the promo at the Civic Centre in Lagos , Globacom’s Acting Head of Marketing, Adeniyi Olukoya said that Season 3 of the promo has been made more exciting and rewarding for subscribers who choose to participate in the promo.

Olukoya said that Globacom is committed to evolving unique initiatives that will give superior benefits, hope and prosperity to its loyal subscribers and indeed all Nigerians irrespective of the communities in which they live.

“With a payout of up to N300m in cash and prizes, Season 3 of the Glo “text4millions promo is bound to transform the lives of many more of our subscribers across the country, and by extension, positively touch the lives of their family members”, he stated.

Olukoya explained that Globacom decided to introduce the third season of the promo due to its massive popularity among subscribers, adding that the new season will see a significant in-

crease of cash payout as well as remarkable improvement in other prizes to be given out while retaining its transparency and credibility.

Elaborating on the promo, Globacom’s Head of Value Added Services, Samson Isa said that Season 3 of the promo is being organized in order to reach out to the company’s large subscriber base and reward them for their patronage over the years.

He said that each lucky winner in the promo can win from N30,000 up to N3 million daily or N6

million weekly based on the number of sms sent by the winner. There will also be two monthly prizes of N12 million cash and a grand prize of N24 million for lucky subscribers during the 100 days duration of the promo.

Consolation prizes of Ipods, Samsung Galaxy tabs, HP laptops and N500 airtime for 100 winners will also be given out to lucky winners on a daily basis.

Isa enjoined all existing and potential Glo subscribers to participate in the promo as anyone could be

a winner by just texting the word “WIN” to the short code 2012.

Also speaking at the occasion, the Assistant Director, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Obi Iregbu commended Globacom for rewarding its subscribers once again through the Glo “text4millions” promo. He urged subscribers to join the network and participate in the promo, assuring that the Commission will perform its oversight functions to ensure that Glo keeps to its promise.

POLICE CUG: The Nigeria Police Force, last Thursday, at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, launched a 110,000-line Close User Group facility powered

by Globacom, for officers and men of the Force. In this photo, from left: Deputy Inspector General (C Department), Mr. Kachi Udoji; Globacom's Head of Public Sector, Mr. Tunde Amunikoro and the Commissioner of Police in charge of Police Cooperative Society, Mr. A. Oshodi Glover after the inauguration.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012—25

13-yr-old Hadiza Adeleke wins sponsorship to Microsoft contest

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

A

13year student of Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Miss Hadiza Adeleke has emerged the only Nigerian representative at this year’s worldwide competition on Microsoft Office for secondary students, in Las Vegas, USA. The competition runs from July 29 to August 1, 2012.

Top IT training institution in the country, New Horizons Computer Systems Limited has promised to bankroll the trip.

Adeleke came tops in the final examination involving 22 students from several schools conducted online, real-time by Certiport on behalf of Microsoft Corporation.

She emerged winner with 967 /1000 points to become Microsoft Office Specialist. The competition tests students’ skills on Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

z 13-yr-old Hadiza Adeleke, Microsoft Office expert.

New Horizons School Business Manager, Mr. Dayo Talabi, said that 300

students participated in the entire Nigerian edition and students with the highest exam scores and lowest exam-taking times are invited to represent their respective countries at the world championships.

This year, Certiport added a new component to the global competition on Microsoft Office. Each Word 2010 and Excel 2010 contestant was required to take the standard MOS exam, and was also asked to recreate an existing Word 2010 Document or Excel 2010 Workbook from a provided, printed example.

According to Talabi the 2011 competition which held in San Diego, USA had Miss Chidera Nwadike from Nigeria who emerged fourth globally out of 288,000 participants. He noted that participation in the competition among secondary schools in Nigeria has tri-

pled since New Horizons introduced the Microsoft courses and competition to schools.

He said that the company has already recorded about 75 secondary schools and was determined to have a Nigerian emerge the first Microsoft world champion.

“We want to produce the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional, Youngest Adobe Certified Associate and Youngest ECCouncil Security 5 Professional. We are determined to make technology available to students in Nigeria and make parents embrace standard IT education for their wards” he added.

Meanwhile little Adeleke was full of confidence that she would come out in flying colours in US, adding that all Nigerians should join hands in prayers for her to make the country proud The little girl said “I want all Nigerians to join me and my parents in prayers pray for me. I know that my victory in the USA would be Nigeria’s victory as well.

Visa unfolds risk management measures

BY EMMA ELEBEKE

A

S part of measures to build strong security and risk management practices in Financial Institutions, payments technology company, Visa Inc. on Monday inaugurated a new award for financial institutions that recognizes shares and promotes best practices in risk.

The programme aims to advance the risk management standards across all financial institutions by honoring those that have successfully implemented a secure and reliable infrastructure that counters fraud across all channels.

Head of Risk, Visa subSaharan Africa., Bryce Thorrold, said “Societies are increasingly moving from cash to electronic payments because they offer greater security, reliability and convenience than cash. As the pay-

ment ecosystem evolves and payments become smarter and better, fraud attacks are increasing in sophistication.”

“Visa recognizes that combating fraud is not an individual effort, but one that requires collaboration within the whole industry. Financial institutions have been advancing their risk management infrastructure by enhancing their technology, protocols and tools to effectively mitigate emerging threats and trends. Visa clients across APCEMEA have been proactively countering fraud across all channels, and we want to applaud and recognize those that have stood out in their risk management measures, strategies and success rates. We hope this award will encourage others to emulate their success in advancing the security of the industry.”

26—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Summit on e-payment for govt 'll create more awareness on cashless policy

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

B

UILDING up to the Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria, EPPAN organized ePayment for Government Summit in Abuja next week, Interswitch’s Director for Payment and Solutions, Mr Charles Ifedi, in this interview has tipped the summit as last stroke to break awareness barrier of the CBN cashless society initiative.

Excerpts: What is your view on cashless society?

Cashless society has been on for few months now, and CBN has declared focus to reduce the amount of cash in the economy as well as reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria. This policy has started now in Lagos and the main focus has been how to roll out point of Sale terminals, POS. There are many POS terminals that can help people do their transactions. Again, cashless policy will also see various players introduce mobile payment solutions, internet payment solution and other payment solutions that will make it more efficient for people to transact business. In fact the entire objective is to create efficiency around electronic payment and to make sure that all the investment made by the various stakeholders in the industry bring significant value to entire Nigerians.

Don't you think the cart was put before the horse, as far as awareness is

— IFEDI, INTERSWITCH DIRECTOR concerned?

Much as I cannot say that sufficient awareness has been created, I would want to say that the involvement of stakeholders like the Electronic Payment Providers Association, EPPAN has given the cashless society initiative a real boost. You know that the CBN has mapped out plans which it has given to stakeholders and trade groups to meet various people and to educate them about the cashless policy. These stakeholders are still on the assignments and awareness is a continuous thing. However, if we do not set a target before any initiative, we may not achieve anything. So, I it see more that a target has been set; the Central bank has been listening to what people have been saying.

Whether sufficient information has been dished out or not, it can never be denied that a lot of communication has been done. Also, considering that the cashless thing is made to begin with Lagos, the success rate is high.

You know if we can succeed in Lagos, we are likely going to succeed in other parts of the country.

Isn't security a big issue in this thing?

Card issuance started around 1998 in Nigeria and debit card between 2003 and 2004 and now a lot of information have been done to inform people how to protect their PIN. Secondly, CBN en-

zMr Charles Ifedi,Interswitch’s Director for Payment and Solutions. sures that certain channels are certified fit before any card can be used on those channels. So, when you get your card to any POS, you will know if your card is allowed to transact on such POS. In 2009, card transaction migrated from magnetic card to verve card which is chip and PIN. To this extent, there are no more fears of compromise. It’s just that people should guide their PIN numbers jealously.

Now, what is the contribution of Interswitch to the cashless scheme?

Let me make bold to say that Interswitch started electronic payment in Nigeria and everybody that came in have benefited from what Interswitch started. Again, when the POS terminals were deployed for electronic serv-

ices, they were deployed

by Interswitch and that was in 2005. Now that the market has opened up, Interswitch focuses on providing more POS terminals so that the entire industry can continue to flourish. At our ATMs we have made it possible now for people to pay their bills, buy recharge cards rather than just to withdraw cash alone.

Other areas we have worked on is the internet base solutions. Today, we have over 1,000 providers on internet that people can make payments through. Courtesy of our innovations, it is now easy for people outside Nigeria to interact with their banks here. I think these are good backgrounds for cashless society

F

ACEBOOK moni toring helps to improve your business and social media marketing strategy in every country. Currently, there are 5049700 Facebook users in the Nigeria, which makes it #32 in the ranking of all Facebook statistics by Country.

Our social networking statistics show that Facebook penetration in Nigeria is 3.32% compared to the country's population and 11.48% in relation to number of Internet users. The total number of FB users in Nigeria is reaching 5049700 and grew by more than 679960 in the last 6 months.

Comparing these nearest countries by penetration of Facebook users shows that

C M Y K

Kasuwa.com widens online shopping with 20,000 books

BY EMMA ELEBEKE

T

O widen the reach of local and international players in the growing Nigerian market through safe, easy, affordable shopping and connective technology, Nigerian based online shop, Kasuwa.com has announced plans to invest on over 20,000 book titles across the board to its customers.

The online store offers other products like electronics, games, mobile phones and home appliances but said that the online bookstore is its biggest investment so far.

The company said the country-wide literacy growth, and a renewed appreciation of culture and literature brought by new millennium, informed the company ’s decision to invest in providing over thousands of

book titles from children’s books and business management to religious texts and lifestyle titles.

Speaking on the rational behind the investment, the firm’s public relations manager, Buki Animashaun, said “This, without a doubt, eliminates the limitations on access to titles and an absence of choice that has constrained a lot of the Nigerian reading audience.

“That appetite for reading has guided our strategy in this area, to expand the options beyond internal supplies and small book shops to providing access to a huge resource of thousands of titles.”

That investment has already begun with the availability of an impressive 20,000 plus book titles.

Etisalat to give out a phone every 5 mins in new promo

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

E

TISALAT Nigeria, last week announced the revamp of its popular promo, the 9ja free credit promo, in which it will give customers the opportunity to win a phone every five minutes throughout the months of July and August.

Etisalat said that customers who recharge within 5 minutes of every hour, everyday in the months of July and August will qualify for the draw to win Dual SIM phones, Blackberry Curve 4, Etisalat Gaga smartphones, Acer,

Samsung GIO and ZTE V9 tablet, every five minutes, 24-7. In total, Etisalat would give out 288 phones every day.

Announcing the commencement of the new promo, Chief Commercial Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Wael Ammar said, added that “at Etisalat Nigeria, our rewards never stop and we are known to give our customers the best deals. This latest offer clearly signifies how valuable our customers are to us and we work tirelessly to find different ways to give them real value for their money”.

Engineers urged to focus technology-based planning

BY BOSE ADELAJA

T

Males, youths use Facebook more than others in Nigeria

Nigeria has 0.00% higher FB penetration than Angola and 0.24% lower FB penetration than Kenya.

Nigeria Facebook demographics is other social media statistics

we monitor. The largest age group is currently 18 - 24 with total of 1 817 892 users, followed by the users in the age of 25 - 34.

There are 68% male

users and 32% female users in Nigeria, compared to 69% and 31% in Saudi Arabia and 49% and 51% in South Africa.

— Socialbakers.com

HE Nigerian Acad emy of Engineering has said there is little or no hope in the nation's economy until the technology-based planning is given adequate attention just as it called on practitioners to put in place policies capable to promote, direct and control technology in Nigeria.

In his welcome address during its President's technology evening which took place recently at Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Lagos, President of the association Engineer Edet Amana, said it's high time the nation shifted her attention from the economic-based planning to technologybased which is being used by countries like China and India to build themselves into super

powers.

He also lamented the fact that the internet which has turned the world into a global village with great beneficial effect on the world economy has also expanded the scope for global criminal intentions and said solution to this, lies on the need to promote, direct and control technology.

He called on practitioners to sharpen their competitive edge and move from economic growth to economic development, “decision makers at federal, state and local governments, industry, academia and the press on need to make fundamental shift in their thinking. It is imperative that we drop our focus on “economic based” planning and move to “technology based” planning,” he noted.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 —27

NIMC test-runs national identification number process

BY EMMA ELEBEKE

T

HE National Identi ty Management Commission, NIMC, last week demonstrated its proposed national identity number process at the Card, ATM and Mobile Payment exhibition, in Lagos.

The step according to NIMC was to demonstrate and enlighten peo-

ple on the enrolment process and what the commission would offer Nigerians.

The NIMC, is the commission saddled with the responsibility of establishing a national identity database, allocating national identity number and the harmonization and integration among others.

The Deputy Director,

Corporate Communications, at the commission, Mr. Abdul-hamid Umar, said the commission came in liaison with its project partners including Chams Consortium, to showcase what they have and are making available to Nigerians and legal residents.

The enrolment would actually be for Nigerians above the age of sixteen and legal residents.

“These are non-Nigerians who are legally residing in Nigeria. They would also be captured in our data base. The reason why we are here is to demonstrate our state of preparedness and what we have. In fact, deployment of equipment for the Lagos enrolment has actually reached advanced stage. We have achieved like 95 per cent. There are just some I’s to dot and T’s to cross.

“We have also commenced enrolment in Abuja in February. So we are bringing that to Lagos and when we saw an opportunity here we decided to make the best use of it, since this is a great

event that has to do with cards and the technologytwo very important ingredients for our business we therefore had to be physically present here” he said.

Also speaking, Deputy Project Manager, Project Management Office, ,Simon Ishaku, said “ responses at the event have been positive; expectations are high, people are eager for the project to kick off in full swing most people complain about the present ID cards we have, like the voters’ card and so on, not being acceptable in some banks, so it’s not all about the enrolment, a lot of people are actually interested in

getting the card. What we have been doing here is a Demo. We take them through the process and then work on it, to see that everything is in place.”

“Since this particular outlet is not certified, the enrolment done here are for enlightenment and demonstration. We have done a certification of the Lagos Office which includes checking for the quality of images, very soon, we should be able to register the Lagos office at the back end. This means, depending on how fast we get the authorization, we can actually commence upper week,” he added.

28 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

*Demba Ba

Pardew desperate to keep Ba O ne of the

battles that will occupy A l a n Pardew throughout t h i s summer will be to keep the squad that fired Newcastle to a fifth place finish in last season’s superb campaign and one of the prey that could be targeted by circling vultures is Senegalese striker Demba Ba. Ba proved to be a revelation after Pardew took a gamble on his dodgy-knee related fitness, hitting 16 goals in a scintillating start to the season before he backed off

and let January signing Papiss Cisse have a go at finding the net on a regular basis.

There was a possibility Ba could be prized away from the North East after news emerged over a £10 million release clause in his contract, with which he has two years remaining at St James Various prices have been quoted for the 27 year old hitman, with Liverpool and Spurs being linked over the summer, whilst Galatasaray also launched an enquiry according to Sky Italia, but Alan Pardew has made no secret of his desire to keep the striker and held emergency talks with Ba amidst rumours of his potential departure from the Magpies.

Ba has himself played down the rumours whereas influential midfielder Yohann Cabaye has urged the club not to be lured into selling their

Real plan Car vinho, Modric sw ap Carvinho, swap

R

EAL MADRID are ready to offer Ricardo Carvalho in a bid to land Luka Modric.

Croatian playmaker Modric, 26, wants to leave Tottenham and has made it clear playing for Jose Mourinho is his only choice of destination.

Spurs are resigned to losing the player but want £35million after rejecting massive bids from Chelsea a year ago.

Luis Martins has been appointed first-team coach at Spurs but AVB is yet to appoint his assistant.

Toure sees future with City

K

ey Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has followed boss Roberto Mancini in pledging his future to the Blues. Mancini signed a new five-year deal with the Blues on Monday, and one of the manager ’s main men Toure is keen to stay at City with his manager and bring more silverware to the club. Yaya told the club’s website: “Now the manager can continue to build this club and plan for the future – let’s not forget Sir Alex Ferguson has been at Manchester United for 25 years and they haven’t done too badly over the years.

Redknapp on R ussia shor tlist Russia shortlist

F

ormer Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp is on the shortlist to become the new Russia manager. The country’s football federation has taken the unusual step of making public the list of people they will approach about the post vacated by Dick Advocaat following Euro 2012.And Redknapp joins ex-England head coach Fabio Capello and former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez on a 13-man list that also includes Pep Guardiola and several homegrown managers.

Bolt ‘ready’ for Olympic Games

U

A m

sain Bolt’s agent has reassured fans that the world’s fastest man will be fully fit for London 2012.

With 17 days to go until the start of the Olympics in London, the Jamaican’s agent Ricky Simms has tried to dismiss fears that the record-breaking sprinter would not be fit to defend his titles.

Bolt has been struggling with muscle injuries for a while, but according to Simms it was just “muscle tightness in his hamstring” and his body is now “back to normal”.

Bolt recently visited sports doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt in Germany to treat the problem, and it seems to have worked as he is now back in full training.

best players as they embark on an exciting new season and their Europa League campaign.

The Daily Mail have said that Newcastle are indeed well prepared should Ba be tempted to order a one-way ticket out of the North East, with a move for FC Twente’s £10 millionrated Luuk De Jong on the cards, but Pardew would much rather keep his attack line proven and familiar, and most of all, keep it Senegalese.

Milan ready to discuss a potential move for Dzeko

A

ccording to Goal.com, AC Milan are in talks with English champions Manchester City about Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko.

Milan were one of the most persistent clubs in trying to acquire Dzeko when he emerged on the scene at Wolfsburg and were desperate to land him, but no deal went through.

Dzeko was linked with just about every big club in Europe before completing a move to City in January 2011. The 26year-old has been a top performer for the club, scoring 28 goals in 62 matches.

His most important goal by far for City came in his last competitive match, when he headed in a corner kick in the 92nd minute to equalize against Queens Park Rangers. Two minutes later, teammate Sergio Aguero scored the goal to complete a miraculous victory to win the Premier League.

City are now looking to clean up in attack where they are overstocked and Milan are looking for another striker with Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s future in doubt. The club failed to get Carlos Tevez from City in the winter and they have also been linked with another Eastlands striker, Mario Balotelli. But the Italian Euro 2012 hero, who has been linked with Milan for a while, doesn’t seem likely to move and would be too expensive for Milan.

Despite financial strains, Milan may be able to afford Dzeko as City are believed to be asking for Milan to simply pay them £19 million over the next four years.

*Edin Dzeko

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 29

Anelka rules out move to Europe

F

RENCH striker Nicolas Anelka has dismissed talks of a move back to England or elsewhere, insisting that he plans to retire in Shanghai, a local sports daily reported yesterday.

“I won’t go back to the Premier League,” Anelka told the Oriental Sports Daily. “If one day I leave Shenhua, it will be the day I retire.”

Rumors had been rife that many Premier League clubs, including West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers, were trying to lure Anelka back to England, but the former French international made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere.

“I will never go back, although I had a good time there. But now I’m in Shenhua and this is my own decision,”

Anelka said. “If one day I leave, I won’t go to any other clubs but will call it a day.”

The 33-year-old again failed to score as Shanghai Shenhua was held to a 2-2 by Jiangsu Sainty in Nanjing on Sunday.

It dropped to 13th place in the 16-team CSL standings. Sergio Batista’s team has now not won in his last four games in charge.

Anelka is hoping that the arrival of former Chelsea teammate Didier Drogba will bring in results. The Ivory Coast striker is expected to arrive on Saturday and may start in the friendly against Manchester United.

“I am waiting for him. There were a lot of games when I was alone in front, I would think if Didier was here the situation would be better. I could pass him the ball,” Anelka said.

Chelsea’s £16m transfer bid rejected

Mourinho eyes Liverpool defender Agger

T

L

iverpool manager Brendan Rogers may be on the verge of making his first signing at Anfield but the Northern Irishman faces a battle to hold on to centre-back Daniel Agger.

Real Madrid are interested in the Danish stopper and the Spanish giants’ boss Jose Mourinho could use his good relationship with Rogers to help seal a deal, reports the Daily Mail.

Agger enjoyed a fine campaign last season and continued his good form for Denmark at Euro 2012.

The 27-year-old has been with Liverpool since 2006 and is no hurry to leave but it is understood that he would jump at the chance to join Real should the two clubs agree a fee.

*Daniel Agger

he coach of English soccer club Liverpool says he is relishing the opportunity to take his squad to Fenway Park later this month, when it plays Italy’s Roma on July 25 as part of the 100-year celebrations of the iconic Boston stadium.

Liverpool is due to embark on an offseason tour of North America and Canada for a trio of exhibition matches.

Coach Brendan Rogers says, “Fenway Park is one of the most prestigious venues in American sport” and adds, “I’m just really looking forward to the experience but there is no pressure in a preseason game.”

Liverpool will also travel to Canada to play MLS club Toronto FC on July 21 before facing Premier League rival Tottenham Hotspur on July 28 in Baltimore.

The £37m Man : Mancini’s bestpaid boss

B

ayer Leverkusen have revealed that they have rejected an offer of over £16 million from Chelsea for star attacker Andre Schurrle.

The skilful forward was named in the Germany squad for Euro 2012, but only started one game for Joachim Low’s men during the tournament in Ukraine and Poland.

The Blues are on something of an attacking overhaul of their squad this summer, and have already signed another Germany offensive player in the form of Marko Marin.

Leverkusen chief executive Wolfgang Holzhauser has confessed that there has been an offer from the Stamford Bridge outfit, but that the Bundesliga side are not keen to sell.

We were presented with a very concrete offer from Chelsea for Andre of beyond the €20million mark,” Holzhauser is quoted by German news agency SID, translated to English by Sky Sports.

“The sum was pushed back and forth between the two clubs. We ultimately chose Andre.

“Andre is very valuable for us. He has also made it clear he would like to stay with us,” the BayArena supremo concluded.

Liverpool relishing Fenway Park experience

R

*Andre Schurrle

OBERTO MANCINI’S new £37.5million contract makes him British football’s highest-paid boss.

The Manchester City chief ended speculation about his future last night, despite a £6.5m-a-year approach from the Russian FA. He said: “I’m very much looking forward to the challenges and excitement ahead. The opportunity that exists to build on our recent success is huge.”

The Russians wanted the 47-year-old Italian to take over from Dick Advocaat and steer their national team towards the 2018 World Cup, which they will host.

But SunSport revealed on Sunday that Mancini was ready to pledge his future to the Premier League champions.

And his mega £7.5m-a-year deal, which ties him to City until 2017, takes him way above

Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson in the pay league.

Fergie earns around £4m a year at Old Trafford.

But Mancini’s new contract recognises his achievement of guiding City to their first title in 44 years l a s t season.

30—VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 31

Education of professional bankers must also change — CIBN President zInstitute to introduce new syllabus in 2013

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

T

HE education of professional bankers in the country must change to meet the changing needs of the customers and stakeholders, said Mr. Segun Aina, President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).

“The economic and financial landscape and indeed the Banking industry has changed and must continuously change to meet changing customers and stake-

holders requirements.

Therefore, the education of professional Bankers must also change to reflect these requirements.

This awareness is global and not peculiar to the Nigerian environment alone”, he said at the 2012 Graduates’ Induction and prize awards day of the Institute held on Saturday.

He said that is why the governing council of the institute recently approved the framework for a comprehensive review of the Syllabus and examination regulations

which will take effect in 2013 He said, “In addition to new subject offerings, Council has approved creation of different paths and routes to the flagship qualification, “ACIB” as well as a 3 – level structure comprising of Diploma Level, Intermediate Professional Level and Chartered Banker.

Certification programmes in specialised areas and job family in the banking, finance and other relevant areas have been approved in-

cluding certification in such areas as Risk Management, Wealth and Money Management, Corporate Banking, Project Finance, Banking Regulation and Supervision, Electronic Banking, etc. These certifications are also linked to specific levels of the new syllabus structure.

“Other aspects of the new structure includes: Introduction of core and elective subjects which afford candidates the opportunity to select and strengthen their career pursuit in their preferred

function or job family; Determination of skill, knowledge and entry point/level certification for any person who desires to be gainfully employed in the banking profession.

“Inclusion of Competency requirement and enhancement of career progression at all levels for existing and new entrants in the banking industry.

“New eligibility criteria and exemption modalities for experienced Graduate Bank Employees and Honorary Senior

Members with respect to the Professional Examinations leading to ACIB. To support the delivery of these programs and other initiatives, arrangements have been concluded for the establishment of the CIBN Banking School and the introduction of various E-learning platforms.

Fidelity Bank supports NYSC member

F

IDELITY Bank Plc yesterday, donated the sum of N850,000 to a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) -Miss Omonike Akinselure, under the commercial bank’s ‘Helping Hands’ scheme.

The amount which was given to her at an event held in Lagos yesterday was for her to undergo a reconstructive surgery on her jaw.

The General Manager, Operations of the bank, Mr. Sam Obijiaku who spoke at the presentation of the cheque to Akinselure, said the move was in line with the bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of lending support to the needy.

According to Obijiaku, “Fidelity bank strives to impact on the lives of its customers and other people around it, by putting smiles on their faces.”

While commending the bank’s staff for their commitment towards the CSR project, he noted that it would go a long way to actually impact on many lives.

“I commend the bank’s staff for what they have come up with. It is a reflection of what Fidelity Bank represents. It is not just about business and profit making. It is about lending hands to the needy.

“The passion of the staff toward the lending hand project is commendable.

We hope other organisations can tap into this in order to make our society a better place,” he added.

Group Head,Marketing Communications, Fidelity Bank, Mr. Emma Esinnah, explained that Fidelity’s ‘Helping Hand’ programme was conceived to make workers of the bank give back to the community as well as to help the less-privileged in the society.

32—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Repercussion of ocean raid Photos: Akpokona Omafuaire

Community threatened by ocean surge

People make sacrifices to calm the gods—Newuwumi •Over 100 riverside towns endangered in Delta, Bayelsa •More than 500 houses, graves washed away •Government, oil companies not showing enough concern

By EMMA AMAIZE, Regional Editor, South-South

The first part of this special report was published yesterday.

P

UPILS, church sacked: Vanguard gathered that pupils of the community’s primary school sacked from their classrooms by ocean surge, long ago, are using the town hall as makeshift classroom. The former location of the primary school is now an ocean.

The pupils, who were apparently oblivious of the colossal catastrophe their parents were passing through were receiving tutorial from their teachers when we visited. The reporter sighted the pastor and members of a new generation church pulled down by ocean raid, working on a new structure with planks at a section of the community.

People make sacrifices to calm the gods – Newuwumi Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chair aspirant in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State and Niger-Delta activist, Comrade Omolubi Newuwumi, hails from Ogheye, one of the riverine oil communities that are seriously under threat by ocean surge. He spoke to Vanguard in Ogheye on the looming disaster.

What is the name of your community and is it oil-bearing?

I am an indigene of Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State. Both my paternal and maternal parents are from Warri North local government area. The names of my communities are Otonila, Tebu, Jakpa and Usor.

These are all oil producing communities in Warri North Local Government Area.

Mr. Fregene explaining a point to Vanguard at Ogheye

When did the problem of ocean surge start in your community and what has it been like?

The ocean surge started as early as the day I was born and till date, the surge is still sweeping away our communities. It is not a story told me by my elders or fathers. You are here and even see things for yourself. Every six months, a house in the community shifts from its original ancestral home or is lost to the surging Atlantic Ocean.

Sometimes we do not experience the surge for one or two years but at other times, you wake up to discover that your house is under water and you have to relocate to a place where there is no water. That is how we keep relocating from one place to another.

This problem of sea surge is not common to my community alone.

All the neighbouring communities in the area suffer the same fate.

Ogheye community

How big was your community before and how is life there now?

Ogheye is a large community that accommodates very large number of people from different areas. Besides, Ogheye as a community has the largest market and business spot in Warri North Local Government Area. People from far and near come there to trade and do business. The place is populated mainly by Itsekiris, Ilajes and other tribes and there used to be abundant life, but you cannot compare it to yesteryears because of the fear of ocean surge.

What are the important things the community has lost to the sea surge?

Many uncountable and unquantifiable things. The community is always losing houses, property, money and in most cases, lives are lost to the sea surge.

The sea surge is a natural disaster that comes up unawares.

High and low sea tides You can wake up in the morning to discover that your house has been swept away by water.

The problem is caused by sea tide, which could be very high sometimes, while at other times, the torrent reduces.

Omolubi Newuwumi...calls for shore protection

Are you saying that people die because of this disaster?

People die sometimes, although not in every case. Deaths caused by the sea surge are not new. At other times, however, people only lose their property.

What is the cause of the sea surge?

It is caused by high rising tide and by natural sea encroachment, which occur almost every time.

Is it possible to stop it?

Yes, it can, by way of reclaiming the land and by providing shore protection.

Are the ancestors disturbing the present generation for relocating from their homelands?

The communities are still located around the seashores and even with the migration of people and their houses, they are still there. Ancestral problem is common with all the communities.

They are the result of movement from one place to another. The people always engage in sacrifices with the belief that the sacrifices will help calm the situation.

That is how they have been managing their day-to-day affairs.

How are indigenes of the community surviving presently?

What about their traditional ruler, where is he currently?

Continues on page 33

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012—33

Repercussion of ocean raid Continues frompage 32 Indigenes of the community survive by engaging in fishing business, as fishing is the major trade in the area. It is an area where you see all kinds of seafoods, including fish, shrimps, periwinkles, crabs, etc. As you know, we have just one king, who is His Highness, Ogiame Atuwatse 11, the Olu of Warri. He is highly represented by his chiefs from the various communities in their areas, which form a link between the community leadership and the king. Moreover, tackling the problem of sea encroachment has been the heart cry of the Olu of Warri who also has been demanding absolute protection for his people.

Do your people plan to return home someday to their erstwhile homeland or it is gone forever?

The issue of going back home to the land is impossible because the sea occupies wherever it claims at any given time. For instance, where I was given birth is currently severalmiles into the sea. The same scenario applies to my family compound in Ogheye. The lands are completely gone forever.

How does the problem occur?

It happens exactly the same way the others have been happening. Whenever the sea waves rise, virtually all the communities around the riverbanks are severely affected. It is very common around communities around the coastlines in all parts of Niger Delta.

So how do the people of the communities live in the face of this threat from the sea?

They will always live because they are used to the environment.

It is their ancestral home.

Peculiar problems This goes a long way to tell you that every community has its peculiar problem, and as far as communities located around the seashore are concerned, these are their peculiar problems.

How has the government (whether local, state or federal government) helped the riverine communities in tackling these problems?

Actually, the federal, state, local government and oil companies have not helped to solve this

Temporary classroom for affected pupils

problem in any way. Solving this problem requires reclamation and shore protection, which none of the Itsekiri communities have currently. These have always been our demands through the local government to the state and federal government because the people of the communities live in abject poverty, rejection and fear of death every day. In most cases, the people hardly sleep because of fear of high sea tide that may come at any time.

What about Niger-Delta Development Commission and Ministry of Niger Delta, are they not making impact?

These are all government agencies and as I said, the government has not done anything to help. If you can recall, I led a protest in Warri, some time ago, to make demands for shore protection and reclamation, including other amenities for the people from the Niger Delta Ministry's budget, but the agencies and government still did not provide the required shore protection and reclamation. The onshore communities are not left out of the underdevelopment problems either.

How do you relate this to the claim by the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum that oil wells 200 isobaths belong to the entire nation and should be shared as a common patrimony?

You see, it cannot be shared in that way because they are not suffering the deprivation, loss of lives, houses and property that we are suffering. However, the sole responsibility of government is to protect the lives and property of

Emma Amaize setting out for the creek

all its citizens. We need assistance from the federal, state and local governments to enable us live as one Nigeria. The northern governors must know that such land and oil wells now claimed to belong to the federal government are owned by communities and people, who had lived there before. Maybe, some of them need to be educated on these things because they have not travelled here before to see things for themselves. I will personally want the Niger State governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu to visit Ogheye and I would take him round to see and understand what is happening.

Worsening security situation The demand of the northern governors for a review of the derivation formula was in bad faith and is capable of worsening the current security situation in the country. His argument that the northern states were being shortchanged was irrational and irresponsible.

Who should own oil wells 200 isobaths, the oil producing states or the entire country?

That is where the principle of derivation comes in. It all starts from the people to the communities; from the communities to the wards; from the wards to the local governments; from the local governments to the states and from the state governments to the federal government. So, oil wells should be owned by the people who live where such oil wells are found because they bear the suffering, the deprivations and lack of development.

Laughing contention:In the Niger Delta today, we do not have many local governments like the Northerners and the present arrangement is advantageous to the north as they have so many local governments, owing to their geography terrain.

The argument put forward by the Forum that the old oil wells that are 200 nauti-

cal miles away belong to the federal government is not tenable, it is frivolous and wicked. They should know these oil wells they say are 200 miles away from the shore are where communities and people inhabited before they were driven out by ocean surge.

For somebody like me who came from the coastline, I cannot attempt to go by canoe or even flying boat to where my grandfather’s house used to be again because the community there had been swept away by the surging Atlantic Ocean, which claims one community after the other yearly.

The oil wells in these communities are what are now being claimed as belonging to the federal government because they are 200 nautical miles from the present community. What happens to their ancestral homes? I do not think anyone can come today and claim the ancestral homes of the people of the north. Why do they think they can do same to us here. They are just being mischievous.

the discovery of oil in the region.

Moreover, besides the devastating effects on ecology of the communities, there is also an economic effect. In the North, someone can trace the house of his father and great grandfather, but in the coast line, in the Niger Delta, the people have to build new houses every other year because of the ocean surge and that is the amount of deprivation we suffer.

The 13 percent derivation fund is not even enough for the revenue.

Think of the cost of building every other day and the cost of moving from place to place, not to mention the loss of fishing lines, farm settlements and many other commercial activities, which are what the people live on.

The northern governors should remember the way the allocation was shared during the groundnut era, the cocoa era and so on and so forth: it was fifty-fifty and now that it is oil in the South-South, we get a mere 13 per cent and they are shouting. The 13 per cent is not enough.

D

o you not think northern governors are right in their argument since Nigeria is a federation?

No, oil derivation cannot be shared equally because local governments are not shared equally. Besides, House of Representatives seats were not shared equally as well. In fact, oil-producing states are even been cheated by the recent sharing formula, the 13 per cent derivation funds accruable to them are not enough, compared to the amount of deprivation and neglect the region has undergone since

The demand of the northern governors for a review of the derivation formula was in bad faith and is capable of worsening the current security situation in the country

Some communities relocate every six months

Ocean surge is more frequent because of oil exploration and exploitation going on in both the creeks and sea. Some communities have to relocate every six months because of the threatening sea surge and you can imagine the amount of money and materials that are being spent by these communities. Our creeks are now blocked because oil spill through exploration had made the water there to be still and stagnant and so fishing activities, which used to be our source of livelihood is no longer possible, and so also, is farming, as the only dried land has been polluted.

34 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 35

36—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Aircraft maintenance...necessary for air safety

Why our planes crash The summary of the final report of the Presidential Task Force on Aviation Industry submitted by the Task Force team headed by Air Vice Marshal Paul Dike (rtd) on March 2006 SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS SHORT TERM (WITHIN 6 MONTHS) HE Task Force recom mends that: 1. Government should consider aviation security as a national security issue in view of the strategic and economic importance of the industry.

The aviation industry is closely tied to the territorial integrity of the nation and its economic growth, and is, therefore, of strategic national importance .The absence of effective surveillance could unnecessarily expose the national airspace to terrorism and other attacks. Breach of aviation security has international repercussions as it tends to discourage international travel, tourism and investment. However, the facilities and training needed to counter the threats to aviation go beyond the capability of the industry alone. The Task Force is, therefore, of the view that Government should take aviation security as national security, and assist with the necessary funding.

2. Government should grant autonomy to the Nigerian,Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). The

T

,

Maximum age of airplane to be imported for use in Nigeria should not exceed 21 years of 60,000 cycles at the time of entry

,

Task Force observed that the existing legal framework governing aviation in Nigeria does not give NCAA the necessary operational and financial autonomy to effectively regulate the industry.

It is noteworthy, however, that the new Civil Aviation Bill contains all the necessary provisions that will make the agency autonomous. Government should, therefore, expedite passage of the bill.

3. The new Aviation Bill should be passed before October 2006.

This is a pre-requisite for the Nigerian aviation industry to pass the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) scheduled for November 2005, as it among other things, provides for the autonomy of NCAA. The bill’s passage before October 2006 is early enough for the forthcoming ICAO audit.

4. Government should urgently set up a committee comprising representatives from the Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, SGF; Federal Ministry of Aviation, FMA; Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE; Nigerian Air Force, NAF; Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON; a

legal practitioner with considerable experience in aviation matters, and a representative of aviation professional bodies, to review and harmonize the BPE/ FMA versions of the bill.

Fundamental differences There are fundamental differences between the two versions of the new Civil Aviation Bill.

While the BPE version is predicated on a need to position the industry for privatization and greater private sector participation; the FMA version is focused mainly on meeting ICAO requirements. Both versions of the Bill could, therefore, be harmonized into a holistic framework which accommodates emerging realities without compromising the desired ICAO standards.

5. The NCAA Act should be amended to give the Authority the powers to develop, issue and raise operating regulations. This would free NCAA from interference in developing and implementing regulations geared at improving safety and security of aviation without referring to the Board or the Ministry. The existing provision is for the board of NCAA to

perform this function. It brings undue bureaucracy and delay and is not in conformity with ICAO standards.

6. Government should, disengage all unqualified employees in NCAA and ensure that only core professionals of high integrity with requisite skill levels are employed.

The Task Force observed that the manning level at the technical departments of NCAA was very poor and professionally deficient. In the Flight Operations Department, the pilots employed were few compared to the number of airplanes in the register. Due to poor remuneration, the Department could not attract high quality pilots.

The competence of some of the pilots was doubtful, so they could not command the respect of their peers. In the Airworthiness Department, most of the inspectors do not have the depth of practical experience necessary for the inspection of aircraft, and for conducting licensing examinations for maintenance engineers. The TaskForcenoticedthatrecentMinisterial moves have swept out most of these categories of personnel, but it has not gone far enough.

Respected pilots in the industry or outside Nigeria should be brought in and in the correct numbers to man the Flight Operations and Licensing Division. Respected maintenance engineers withrelevantpracticalbackground should be brought in, trained in inspection functions and injected into NCAA. 7 In addition to the existing requirements for the issuance of an Continues on page 37

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012—37

Why our planes crash Continues frompage 36 AirTransportLicence(ATL),NCAA shouldensurecompliancewiththe following: (a) Operators wishing to be issued an ATL/Air Operator Permit (AOP) should specify the particular tier of operation they are applying for and show evidence of correspondingcapitalizationasfollows: (i) Tier I: Domestic Airlines (within Nigeria) - Minimum capital requirement of N250 million. (ii) Tier II: Regional Airlines (within Africa) - Minimum capital requirement of N500 million, and (iii) Tier III: International Airlines - Minimum capital requirement of N1 billion. (b) Operators currently holding an ATL should have up to March 31, 2007 to attain the new capita base. (c)Operators who hold an ATL but are yet to commence operations should meet the new capital base before commencing operation. If they are unable to start operation before March 31, 2007, their ATL should automatically be revoked. (d) An ATL holder wishing to

commence scheduled service should have at least two aircraft. (f) Maximum age of airplane to be imported for use in Nigeria should not exceed 21 years or 60,000 cycles at the time of entry.

Fairly good financial base

These requirements would ensure that airlines commence operations with a fairly good financial base and safety margin. The re-capitalised airlines will also have necessary fund for the maintenance of aircraft, recruitment and re-currency training of their •Air Vice Marshal Paul Dike (rtd), chairman, presidential Task staff.

Force on Aviation Industry 8.Government should approve a short-term Aviation Bridge Finance of N32.86 billion for imme- Technology (NCAT) as verified by cialisedfunding scheme targetdiate rehabilitation, upgrading the Task Force.

The thirty-two billion, eight hun- ed at providing and/or provision of airport facilities, equipment, and associated dred and sixty million naira infrastructure infrastructure at four internation- (N32.86 billion) Aviation Bridge funding for the al airports namely, Abuja, Lagos, Finance would be used to fund aviation indusKano and Port Harcourt; and for specific projects to upgrade the try in Nigeria. the priority projects of NCAA, Ni- four major international airports The focal point gerian Airspace Management to ICAO standards. Details are of the NADF is Agency (NAMA), Nigerian Me- given in Apendix 1 to this report. to facilitate the teorological Agency (NIMET) This would enable the country to rapid developand Nigeria College of Aviation pass the ICAO USOAP mission to ment of our airNigeria scheduled for November ports to meet in2006. The fund would be syndi- t e r n a t i o n a l PLANE CRASHES IN NIGERIA catedbyleadingcommercialbanks standards. It THE first plane crash in the country occurred on November and guaranteed by the Federal should be fund20, 1969. All the 87 passengers on board Nigeria Airways BAC Government. The fund would be ed by 50 per VC10 perished. taken out by a long-term funding cent of the ADL, •In January 22, 1973: Royal Jordanian Airlines flight 707 structure through the proposed and would be carrying 171 Nigerian Muslims returning from Mecca and five Nigeria Aviation Development managed by a crewmen crashed in Kano, killing all passengers.

Board of DirecFund.

•March 1, 1978, Nigerian Airways F28-1000 crashed in Kano 9. Government should approve tors. killing 16 passengers on board.

12. Governthe removal of the five per cent •Another Nigeria Airways F28-1000 crashed on November Value Added Tax (VAT) on ticket ment should Aviation minister, Stella Oduah 28, 1983, in Enugu killing 53 on board. sales and cargo charges. This is dedicate the Bi• February 24, 1991: British Helicopter crashed in Eket, Akwa informed by the fact that VAT is lateral Air SerIbom State, killing all nine people on board. never charged on ticket sales in vice Agreement (BASA) Fund for •June 26, 1991: An Okada Air Bac-11 crashed in Sokoto, three any part of the world. The five per infrastructural development regpeople died. cent VAT could be ploughed back ulation of the aviation industry •July 11, 1991: Nigeria Airways DC-8-61 crashed in Jeddah, into the aviation industry to pro- through the NADF. Nigeria has Bilateral Air Service Agreement Saudi Arabia, from system failure, killing 261 on board. vide term funding.

•June 26, 1991; Okada Air BAC-111; Sokoto, Nigeria: Fuel 10. Government should approve with several countries from which starvation during holding pattern over Sokoto due to heavy the introduction of five per cent it derives approximately US$15.4 rain.

Aviation Development Levy (ADL) million annually. The Task Force Flight from Benin City diverted from Kano due to heavy rain. on ticket sales and cargo charges. has confirmed that this money is held in a dedicated account at the None of the three-crew members and three of the 52 passengers Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sustained fatal injuries.

Consumers of and has a balance of about US$36 •September 26, 1992: Nigerian Air Force A C-130 plane aviation services million. Considering the poor state crashed minutes after take-off from Lagos. All 200 on board killed.

The aviation industry in Nige- of infrastructure at all the nation’s •June 24, 1995: Harka Air Services Tupolev 34 crashed on ria needs a sustainable source of airports, the Task Force believes landing in Lagos killing 16. fund for its growth. The Task Force that it should be ploughed back to •November 13, 1995: Nigeria Airways Boeing 737-2F9 crashes believes that such funding should the aviation sector through the on landing in Kaduna killing 9. not come from Government, but NADF. 13. Government should approve •January 17, 1996: Ibrahim Abacha, son of Sani Abacha, was from the consumers of aviation serthe creation of a Nigerian Airline killed in a plane crash. vices - passengers. By removing •November 7, 1996: A Nigerian ADC (Aviation Development the five per cent VAT and intro- Support Fund (NASF) and take Corporation) Airline Boeing 727-231 flying from Port Harcourt ducing five per cent ADL, Gov- steps to include it in the Aviation to Lagos with 142 passengers and nine crew members crashed ernment would be laying a solid Bill. The NASF is a funding on landing, plunging into a lagoon with all on board killed. base for aviation development in scheme, which is structured to •January 31, 1997: SkyPower Express Airways Embraer Nigeria without imposing any assist domestic airline operators 110PIA crashes on landing in Yola killing five. new tax on the public. The Devel- in Nigeria acquire and renew their • September 12, 1997: A NAF Dornier 228-212 in Nguru, Bornu opment Levy should be reflected aircraft fleet. A known advantage of the NASF is that it provides a State ran into a ditch during the take off, none of the 10 people in the new Aviation Bill. died.

11. Government should approve single point of negotiation for air•January 5, 2000: SkyPower Express Airways Bandeirante the creation of a Nigeria Aviation craft manufacturers to enter into 110P1A crashed on landing in Abuja killing 17.

Development Fund (NADL) and agreement with Nigerian airlines •May 4, 2002: EAS Airlines’ BAC 1-11-500 with 105 people take steps to include it in the which should be funded by 50 per on board crashed and burst into flames in a poor, densely Aviation Bill. The NADF is a speContinues on page 38 Continues on page 38

,

NCAA should be re-organised in line with ICAO document nine procedures for an airworthiness organisation

,

38—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Crashed plane...was it properly maintained?

Why our planes crash

,

Despite existing legislation and establishment acts, there is seeming blurred delineation of responsibilities amongst the organisations chain of the National Search and Rescue system. This leads to delay in responding to air accidents

,

Continues frompage 37 cent of the ADL. 14.Governmentshouldcomplement the technical staff strength of the Aviation Agencies by engaging qualified and experienced local professionals on advisory/consultancy basis, from the list compiled by the Task Force (Appendix II), or from the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) or United States of America, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Britain, ICAO, International Air Transport Association (IATA) from experienced foreign based Nigerians.

The Task Force observed the dearth of core aviators in the Agencyoccasionedbyforcedretirement and premature disengagements.

Technical staff would therefore need to be improved. This would strengthen capabilities of the Agencies to discharge their duties efficiently and effectively, and invariably reposition the industry.

15.NCAA should be re-organised in line with ICAO document nine procedures for an airworthiness organisation; the restructured NCAA should in addition have: a. Flight Strategy Overview Department, to be manned by highly skilled professionals of high integrity and charged with personnel licensing and training, aircraft operation worthiness. b. Aero-Medical Unit which can either be attached to Personnel Licensing and Training Department, as is done in many developed countries, as with the Flight Safety Department. The DG NCAA should be free to choose from the alternatives. c.Aero Medical Review Board established in accordance with ICAO Annex 1.2.4.7 d. Operations Inspection Unit established and operated as an independent entity, directly responsible to the DG. The size of the Operations Inspection Unit

should be a function of the scale of the flight operations conducted in Nigeria by both commercial and general aviation.

The present structure of NCAA overburdens some departments, hence some key functions have not been thoroughly performed.

The reorganisation would therefore ensure that the authority is adequately and professionally equipped to discharge its inspectorate functions.

16. NCAA should commence a full audit of the airlines and publicise its findings and actions.

There have been allegations that airline operators skip mandatory inspections and engage in all kinds of unethical conducts.

I

t would, therefore, be neces sary to correct this negative image by conducting a full audit - finance, operations, and airworthiness.

This would help to build pub lic confidence in the aviation industry.

17. NCAA should ensure that all deficiencies identified in previous ICAO audit reports as they relate to FAAN, NAMA, and NIMET are rectified before the next audit. To effectively prepare for this, monthly progress reports on measures being implemented should be made to the FMA and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). ICAO audited the Nigerian aviation agencies in 2003 and raised a number of issues where the agencies needed improvement. It is, thus, necessary to properly address the deficiencies, before the next audit in November 2006.

NCAA would need to provide effective oversight of all the activities preparatory to the ICAO audit.

18. FAAN should develop and implement a bird and wildlife reduction programme based on local threats assessments at airports.

Birds and other animals constitute hazards to aircraft. The dangerheightenedduringtakeoffand landing. A wildlife programme organised by an ornithologist would help divert the birds away from the airports.

19. FAAN should develop and publish an obstacle clear limita-

tion plan for every airport. A survey, based on the published limitations, should be carried out for all airports. Tall trees, high rise buildings and communication masts constitue some danger to air operations especially near the airports.

To be continued

PLANE CRASHES IN NIGERIA populated suburb of Kano. 76 on board killed, including 72 on the ground bringing it to a total 148 dead.

•July 26, 2004: Pan African Airlines’ helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in Escravos, Delta State, four people on board died.

•February 25, 2005: ADC’s B737 aircraft had its tyre burnt while landing at Yola airport.

•March 27, 2005: A Boeing 737 of Bellview crashlanded with one of its engines catching fire.

•June 11/12, 2005: Lagos: a Boeing 727-200 aircraft belonging to Chanchangi Airlines overshot the runway at Murtala Muhammed airport, while yet another overshot the runway at the airport in Jos in central Nigeria a day earlier •July 23, 2005, a Lufthansa aircraft crash-landed at Lagos airport and was badly damaged, but no life was lost.

•October 22, 2005: A Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 airl iner with 117 people on board crashed shortly after take-off fromLagos. All on board were killed.

•December 10, 2005: A Sosoliso Airlines DC-9 crashes in Port Harcourt, killing all 103 on board. Most on board were for schoolchildren going home for Christmas.

•September 17, 2006: A 18-seater Dornier 228 Air Force transport plane, carrying 15 senior army officers and three crew members crashed in Vandeikya, Benue State.

•October 26, 2000: Dornier aircraft plunged into a thick bush near the Niger Delta, 6 occupants injured.

•October 29, 2006: Aviation Development Corporation Airline Boeing 737 with 104 on board crashed minutes after take-off from Abuja’s airport during a rain storm. All but six perished in the disaster. Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido was among the dead.

•November 10, 2006: OAS Service Helicopter crashed in Warri, Delta state killing four on board.

•August 2, 2007: Bristow-owned helicopter crashed inside ExxonMobil facility in Port Harcourt.

•March 15, 2008: Beechcraft 1900D plane marked 5N-JAH, belonging to Wing Aviation crashed in the mountainous forest of Busi in Cross River State on its way to Obudu airstrip. The wreakage was not found until 6 months after the disappearance of the aircraft. All 4 man crew on board died.

•March 14, 2012: A Helicopter belonging to the Joint Task Force (JTF) crashes in Kabong, Jos, killing all members onboard including foursenior Police officers.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012—39

She’s jealous of my new man

My husband’s death was a relief Dear Bunmi, I was married to my husband for 40 years, but he died a year ago. He was a good man and made sure our three sons had the best education. He didn’t encourage me to work full time but I ran a clothes designers' shop from the house— when I had the time.

The problem was, things had to be done his way— the right meals at the right time and an impeccable environment. Sex on demand, whether I liked it or not and he didn’t encourage me to mingle with most of my friends. So now he’s dead, I feel like I’ve got my life back.

I’m in my early 60s and my sons think I’m devastated by their father ’s death. They’re making me feel somehow guilty for feeling I should move on and live life as I want— my own way.

Karen, by e-mail.

Dear Karen, You may not realise it, but the fact that you even feel guilty means you’re grieving in your own way. The fact r emains, however, that you’re enjoying your newfound freedom, and why shouldn’t you?

You married fairly young and, for the first time, you’re making decisions and spending your own money without anyone’s permission.

If your husband was still alive, you’d still have been the good wife he knew, creating a happy home for him.

Sadly, he died and you have to make a new life— no one

could begrudge you that.

Leave your sons to their opin-

ion. They’re all grown and now is your ‘me’ time.

My cousin tried to rape me Dear Bunmi, About once a year, my family visit my aunt in another state. Her son and I have always got on really well. I am 15 and he’s 17. Last Easter, my cousin and I went to a party. It was within a walking distance from the house.

On our way back, he started to touch me and wanted to kiss me. When I refused, he pinned me against a wall and wouldn’t let go, but I managed to get away. He made me feel really dirty and uncomfortable.

I didn’t tell anyone at first but during the night, I got really upset and told my mum what happened. She told her sister and both of them gave my cousin a stern warning.

The problem is, I still get very upset thinking about what he did. I’m too scared to tell any of my friends about it and I’m afraid to go anywhere on my own.

Amaka, by e-mail.

One day, I hope you and he will feel able to talk about this incident again and become friends. You felt comfortable with him and he breached that trust. This has made you feel you’re no longer safe. Your insecurity will ease with time as you meet other boys who treat you with greater respect.

Meanwhile, not talking about what happened is only bottling u p

Dear Emily, You need to help your friend

Dear Amaka, It’s unfortunate that you had this scary experience. Your cousin got carried away, thinking you might become sexually intimate. Although he upset you, he didn’t want to cause you harm. For a moment his behaviour was selfish, rude and bullying.

your fear. These are strong emotions and you need to share them. If you confide in your friends you’ll find they have similar stories to tell about the crude conduct of adolescent boys.

In time you’ll no longer feel your experience is shameful and somehow your fault or that you should conceal it. You were a victim of this boy’s impetuous behaviour.

You did nothing dirty or wrong.

When you accept that this is true, you’ll feel a lot happier.

instant success to help from his gay partners. I feel so confused and embarrassed.

How do I handle this problem?

Hariat, by e-mail.

Dear Hariat, For a woman unwittingly married to a man who is gay or bisexual, there are usually indications of his sexuality which may include lack of, or infrequent sex, a penchant for porn movies and magazines featuring gay sex.

Some women marry men knowing that they are gay but convinced they can ‘change’ them, while some gay and bi-

sexual men marry women for exactly the same reason— they think that marriage and children will somehow make them respectable in the society. But as both sexes invariably discover to their chagrin, it doesn’t work.

You are now at a crossroads. If you decide to stay in the marriage, with your gay husband, you’ll be sentencing yourself to a loveless marriage with a husband who would rather be with men.

If you decide to cut your losses, you’ll get over your disappointment in time and hopefully, meet another man who loves you because you are a woman.

realise that you don’t have to choose between her and your man. Agree that you’re spending lots of time with him now, but reassure her that things will settle down later on. Explain that the two of them give you different things, and that you can have great relationships with them both.

Finally, warn her you’re more worried by the very fact that she wants you to choose.

Tell her that if she isn’t concerned about your happiness, then your friendship might not survive in the end— you are not her personal entertainer.

My ex wants me to lie to his new girl Dear Bunmi, I lived for three years with a man who was very abusive and a drunk. He was always violent towards me and when I saw him hitting our twoyear-old son, in the guise of disciplining him, I left. I’m now into a new relationship, but my first lover visits his son from time to time.

He told me he’d recently met someone and was thinking of getting married to her.

H e ’ s brought her with him once and she seems a nice person. My ex-partner now wants me to say good things about him when next he brings her.

Apparently, the poor girl had been in an abusive rela-

If you decide to stay in the marriage, with your gay husband, you’ll be sentencing yourself to a loveless marriage with a husband who would rather be with men

Could my husband be gay?

Dear Bunmi, I have been married to my husband for over five years and we have two lovely children.

He has a good job and so do I. Before we got married, there had been talks that he had some gay traits but I couldn’t believe this. He was outraged when I told him of my fears.

After my second child though, sex has been virtually non-existent. Thinking he was having affairs, I went through his briefcase and was shocked to find some pornographic materials featuring gay sex.

He has since left paid employment to go into business and friends are alluding his

Dear Bunmi, After almost a year of being in-between boyfriends, I finally met someone at the beginning of this year and we get on very well.

Now my best friend believes I give all my quality time to my boyfriend and is threatening to cut me off if I see as much of my man as I now do.

What do I do to keep everyone happy as I don’t want to choose between the two most fun people in my life?

Emily, by e-mail.

tionship before and my ex wants me to assure her that he is a good person who would never hurt a fly. Should he be putting me under this sort of pressure?

Ekaete, by e-mail.

Dear Ekaete, Your man needs to be honest with his girlfriend about who he really is and the violence which destroyed his relationship with you instead of looking for a fake characterreference from you.

No one has a right to spoil the happiness their ex is trying to find with a new partner by dumping on them the bitterness they still feel; but this is not what you would be doing by warning this girl of what she would be letting herself in for, especially since she’s been hurt once by a violent partner.

Refuse to cover up the man’s past with lies. Instead, encourage him to change for the better if this new relationship means that much to him.

His friend hit on me Dear Bunmi, I’m 26 and have been with my boyfriend for four years. We live together and for some time, our relationship has been rocky. A few weeks ago, one of his friends came to stay with us pending when he got the accommodation promised him by his new office.

We got chatting from time to time until things turned flirty.

We found ourselves kissing and petting heavily and I told him I didn’t want to take things further.

Now he is acting oddly and sometimes ignores me.

Should I tell my partner what’s been going on, or should I try to act normal until this friend of his leaves?

Stella, by e-mail.

Dear Stella, You lit a fire in your partner’s friend then ran away.

Are you subconsciously trying to find ways to provoke, shock and confront your man who has become distant? Your behaviour is unthinkable and reckless.

Don’t play games with your boyfriend’s friend. If you wish to repair your long relationship with your man, sit down with him and discuss the needs and fears that each of you have. Be honest.

Throwing a tale of heavy petting with his friend into the poor man’s face is likely to lead only to your quick exit through the door, followed swiftly by your man’s bewildered friend!

Share your problems and release your burden.

Write now to Dear Bunmi, Vanguard Newspapers, P.M.B 1007, Apapa, Lagos. or bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

40 — VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 41

42—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

bounty for each ward where the PDP candidate is defeated this Saturday.

Ihonvbere declared that “after this weekend election, Chief Anenih and his boys will know that no man is God. Abulagba lost his election to the House of Representatives because he never contributed

anything at the floor of the House.”

Ihonvbere like many former PDP members and even those still within the party are vexed that Abulagba was picked as the running mate simply based on his fanatical loyalty to Anenih. He has also complained about Anenih's hold on the party in the state.

Ihonvbere was a major financier of the PDP in the state until he dumped the party for the ACN last month, and was given a rousing welcome by the ACN last week.

In his denial through text messages yesterday, Senator Uzamere said: “This is to inform the general public that the text message authored by one EDOBOR UZAMERE directing people to vote General Charles Ehigie Airhiavbere on July 14, has no link whatsoever with Senator Ehigie Uzamere. Edobor Uzamere, who was my father, has since died in 1966. Pls vote ACN for Adams Oshiomhole/ Odubu. Remember the oracle has spoken. Pls send to 10 other voters. Senator Ehigie Uzamere KSC.” In a statement made available to Vanguard, the senator said: “Yes Edo PDP has given the

Edo electorate promissory voucher without cash backing...not even the Zimbabwe dollars which cannot buy ‘pure water’. Our ancestors will agree that what we need today, is even development of Edo State. We know our sons who have our interest at heart. We know the Party we can trust. Come July 14, vote Oshiomhole/Odubu. Vote ACN, the party that cares.

Remember THE ORACLE HAS SPOKEN!” Remarkably, Senator Uzamere was in the forefront of denouncing the decision of the PDP hierarchy to cede the gubernatorial position to the Binis as he faulted the alleged zoning as a promissory voucher

Ihonvbere sets aside N1m bounty per ward

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

S

OME say it will be a grudge contest in Owan West Local Government Area of the State. The PDP candidate Charles Ahiavbere and his running mate, Johnson Abulagba could fall

victim to the bitter determination of erstwhile Presidential Adviser, Prof.

Julius Ihonvbere to rubbish the political lordship of Chief Tony Anenih during this election.

Ihonvbere who comes from the same Ward 6 as Abulagba, has laid out a N1 million

*Ihonvbere

SMS war in Benin

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR & GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

S

ENATOR Ehigie Edobor Uzamere has denied tilting

*Uzamere

support from Adams Oshiomhole to his nephew, Charles Ahiavbere, the PDP candidate saying that text messages being passed around to that effect did not emanate from him.

Uzamere was elected on the platform of the ACN and has been a leading light in canvassing support for Oshiomhole even against his nephew, Ahiavbere whose mother is his sister.

The text message being passed round read thus: “The promissory voucher without cash backing. Payment‘ ve been made.

The ancestors have agreed! With our son General Charles, the Binis interest is in safe hands.

Vote General Charles comes July 14th.”

without cash backing. His angst was that the PDP hierarchy ceded the governorship to the Binis after other achievable positions such as Ambassador, Minister and Chief of Staff had been taken by the other among others had been zoned to the other senatorial districts.

Senator Uzamere who is the highest elected political office holder from Bini in faulting the PDP zoning arrangement told Vanguard last November: “What they have given to Edo South is a promissory voucher that does not have cash backing, which has no value. By July 14 you will come to terms with me with what we are saying.”

Oshiomhole’s threat to kill shows his selfish interest — PDP

I

N a swift riposte to the threat

by Governor Adams Oshiomhole that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) would kill people in Edo State if the party was defeated in Saturday ’s governorship election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said the governor had shown that he was not motivated by genuine service to the people but by some deepseated selfish interest.

The Director of Publicity of the PDP in Edo State, Mr. Okharedia Ihimekpen said in a statement that “Governor Oshiomhole’s threat as captured in the National Mirror interview of Tuesday, July 10, 2012, wherein he said: ’Rig us out, we‘ll rig you out of life’ is an expression of desperation and frustration from a drowning man who is propelled in office by some profound self-serving ideals.

“Otherwise, the governor would not have been frantic and acting as if the governorship seat were his birthright which perceived enemies are coming to wrest from him. Governance of a state is made possible by the people’s mandate and it is the people of Edo State that will decide who govern them, not the shenanigans of the governor.”

Ihimekpen stated that the antics of Governor Oshiomhole

have become “too pedestrian and this is indicative of the state of mind of a man who has reached the end of his tether because of

the current political realities in Edo that point to his imminent defeat in the election.”

According to him, “He is thus shouting now and creating the

impression that he is the owner of the state and therefore people outside the state should take it for granted that he would win the election; otherwise, the

opposition party must have rigged him out; whereas he has a sophisticated rigging machine on ground for the election.

Edo people must vote wisely I

BY MUSTAPHA OSIKHEKHA

HAVE been following the campaigns of both the ACN and the PDP with keen interest for obvious reasons. Curiously, the PDP has not said Adams Oshiomhole didn’t perform in his first term. What the party leaders said instead was that the current governor concentrated his developmental projects in the capital , Benin City and Etsako area, where he hails from.

However, I have a question for the PDP. Where did PDP governors develop in the almost ten years they were in charge of Edo state? Let the truth be told, the PDP systematically transformed Benin CITY to Benin VILLAGE to the extent that some people from that state were ashamed to refer to that historic city as the capital of their state. Prior

to 2008, Benin was devoid of the allure of a capital despite serving that purpose since the creation of the Midwest region in 1963. Today, Benin City is wearing a new look. Standard roads have been constructed and the streets are lit up at night. The governor has been delivering the dividends of democracy.

The opinion of the ordinary people often times reflect the true level of performance of a governor. When they say he has done well, it means he is working for them. However, when the godfathers say a governor is performing, it means that governor is awarding them inflated contracts or sharing the state’s monthly allocation to them.

In Edo central, the people were made to believe that they were not destined to enjoy pipe borne water because of their

terrain even when a wellknown godfather in that area was able to sink bore holes in his private home and hotel. The governor in his belief that God couldn’t have been so wicked to deny Esan people clean water imported special drilling machines . Today, clean water is flowing in that area.

The comrade Governor has also touched the education and health sectors. New schools and hospitals have been built while old ones have been renovated. Students now learn in a conducive environment.

The governor has also touched the transportation sector . He has equipped the security agencies even though they are controlled by the federal government.

When Oshiomhole came to power, the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, was a little above N300 million

monthly. That figure has jumped to more N2 billion monthly even without introducing new taxes. All he did was a block the leakages of the past.

In all honesty, Governor Oshiomhole has given a good account of himself. I must confess that I was apprehensive when he was sworn in as governor because of my belief then that he won’t be able to carry out his vision because of the financial status of Edo. But today, he has proved me wrong. Even his political opponents can’t deny the fact Governor Oshiomhole has moved Edo state to the next level. On this note, I ask my fellow Edo people to put the interest of the state above other considerations when casting their votes on Saturday.

*Mustapha Osikhekha is a Lagos-based media professional

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012—43

POL SNIPES

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

C

HIEF Anthony Anenih is not on the ballot in this weekend’s gubernatorial election but he would be the top issue in the mind of many voters.

The shadow of the man variously known as ‘Mr. Fix It’ by his many detractors, or ‘The Leader ’ by fazed political associates or, ‘The Godfather’ by die hard political enthusiasts, would loom large in the decision of many voters.

It is interesting that a man variously vilified and hailed for his political wizardry has himself never been the subject of a popular election. He has, however, consistently fixed, arranged or stimulated many electoral conquests since his political advent in the early eighties.

The taciturn Anenih rarely talks to the press beyond yes or no. So even after more than thirty years on the political scene, he has not divulged how he underwent his political discipleship.

He may well have understudied Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who he served as Police Orderly when the Great Zik was Governor-General of the country.

Anenih remarkably did not start on the side of negative controversy as his critics like to assert today. Rather, Anenih’s political emergence in the second republic was shadowed with an unusual altruism that is so lacking among the political class of today.

Emergence on political scene When he emerged on the political scene after his retirement from the Police in the late seventies, Anenih masterminded the defeat of Governor Ambrose Alli who was of the same Esan tribe as him in the 1983 gubernatorial election in the old Bendel State.

As state chairman of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, Anenih did not brook ethnic sentiments in seeing to the exit of Prof. Alli, his tribesman, and the re-emergence of Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia who is of the Bini ethnic stock.

Other positive shades of Anenih’s politics often overlooked include his initial resistance to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election and his reluctance to the third term agenda of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. But in both cases, Anenih’s switch from opposing unpopular political maneuvers to supporting same cast on him unsavory political epithets.

As chairman of the victorious

*Chief Tony Anenih and Gov. Adams Oshiomhole

Who holds the ace in Edo? Social Democratic Party, SDP, how he managed after stoically opposing the annulment of Moshood Abiola’s mandate to supporting the usurper mystified many. Anenih was also believed to have been unenthusiastic about the third term agenda of President Obasanjo and was left out in the initial plans. However, as the scheme unraveled towards implosion, the master strategist who had won the appellation of Mr. Fix It, was brought in to fix it.

Whether he came in, too late, or he deliberately sabotaged it, remains an issue between him and President Obasanjo. But Anenih and his associates suffered greatly in the vengeful retribution that followed the collapse of the third term agenda.

He was stripped of his position of Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP. Even worse, the political plans of some of his closest associates were derailed.

When shortly before the 2007 general elections President Obasanjo went to Owerri, Imo State and declared that the PDP did not have a candidate in the gubernatorial election, many saw it as part of the then President’s vengeance against Anenih.

Obasanjo’s declaration was despite the fact that Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, a close disciple of Anenih had been confirmed by the courts as the PDP candidate.

In Edo State, it was also alleged that Senator Odion Ugbesia’s

withdrawal from the gubernatorial contest was also forced by the determination of the former President to deny Anenih’s godson the governorship of the State.

But then Anenih’s seeming inconsistence in good works has been a problem for many of his watchers. His canny capacity to rediscover himself and position himself in the correct political framework has also mystified observers.

It is remembered that Anenih stood solidly behind former Governor Timipire Sylva of Bayelsa State in the beginning of the tricky political battle between Sylva and the Goodluck Jonathan crowd.

Beginning of the Yar'Adua crisis When the tribunal axed Sylva from office in 2008 and the Jonathan people in Bayelsa moved in for the kill to deny Sylva the ticket in the re-run election, Anenih stood with Sylva against the forces of the then Vice-President. Many also recall that in the beginning of the Yar‘Adua crisis when the cabal moved to fence out Jonathan that Anenih was not the then VicePresident’s standby friend. But today, there is no doubt that as with almost administrations since the days of that usurper, Sanni Abacha, that Anenih has almost

remained in the corridors of power, fixing the political problems of the nation’s rulers.

However, in his twilight years what may now define Anenih’s legacy would not be his political adventures at the federal level but the election of July 14 in his home state.

Adams Oshiomhole, the incumbent governor of Edo State like all the other civilian governors that emerged since the creation of Edo State did so with Anenih’s support. Oshiomhole emerged through the courts but the general belief is that he could not have succeeded without being propped up by Anenih who had earlier fixed Osherienmen Osunbor into that office.

Ogbemudia in 1983, John Odigie-Oyegun (1992); Lucky Igbenedion (1999), Osehrienmen Osunbor (2007) and Oshiomhole were all beholden to Anenih’s political patronage in coming to power.

Supporting Oshiomhole was a tough decision for the Anenih crowd, but backing him in his court battles was a decision taken to punish Osunbor who committed the unpardonable sin of rebelling against the Leader.

Not many will forget how in the thick of the battle between Anenih and Osunbor that Oshiomhole became besotted with the leader as the former labour leader progressed in his court battle to retrieve his

mandate. When Anenih daughter wedded in Benin 2008 his one time godson, Osunbor was absent but Oshiomhole was all about showing his loyalty to the leader.

But what happened after the judgment is something that may have shocked Anenih. It may also have been the watershed that set out the infrastructural development that Edo State ached for under previous governors.

Explaining why he rose up against the leader, when receiving former members of the PDP into the ACN few months ago, Oshiomhole said he experienced “godfatherism in its most brutal form” under Anenih.

“Anenih was a man who was not elected, but approved my first budget. He deleted money meant for the purchase of buses, building of schools and other infrastructural development from the budget.”

Noting the progress he has made in rocking Anenih’s political empire that was once thought impregnable, the Comrade Governor said: “It is the hand of God that is working in the state!”

This Saturday if Anenih is fixed it would not only be by the rebellion of Oshiomhole. The hand of God would truly have been involved in caging the Leader.

44— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

pregnancy. The contraceptive awareness and experts say service provision. The global assessment of the slogan now is that women should S Nigeria joins the rest levels and patterns of be enabled and empowered to of the world at the London unmet contraceptive decide, freely and for Summit on Family Planning, need and to some themselves, whether, when and being put together by the UK extent, the demand how many children they have.

Government and the Bill & for contraception, Just to give insight into the Melinda Gates Foundation with remains of significance of the essence of UNFPA and other partners, to importance to choice where matters of mobilize global consensus in population and contraception are concerned, support of the contraceptive rights health policy makers today, the Government of the of women, Nigerians back home and programmers for United Kingdom in collaboration are still coming to terms with the purpose of with the Bill & Melinda Gates President Goodluck Jonathan’s defining targets.

Foundation – in partnership with assent to a family planning With a 20 percent UNFPA, national governments, legislation in Nigeria. unmet need for donors,civil society and faithHow many children do you family planning based organisations, including have? How many are you services, Nigeria the private sector, research planning to have? If you haven’t was recently urged to community, and others – are thought about family planning, invest in country- launching a groundbreaking now is probably as a good a time specific family initiative that will bring as any to begin to realise there is planning supplies affordable, lifesaving a world of difference between the and programmes. contraceptives, information, number of children you want to President of the services, and supplies to the have, and the number you need Women Deliver doorstep of an additional 120 to have.

Organisation, Ms. million women and girls in the President Jonathan certainly Jill Sheffield, who world’s poorest countries. stirred the hornet’s nest last gave the advice month when he openly declared stated specifically World's poorest that Nigerians are having too that: “Nigeria should countries many children. He pointed invest in family accusing fingers at persons he planning supplies described as unable to properly This time, the magic year is and programmes, 2020, by what time 380 million cater for the needs of their children which would women and girls of reproductive as those guilty of giving birth too drastically reduce the age in the world’s poorest many times and too often. number of countries would have voluntary “Uneducated people are having u n i n t e n d e d access to modern methods of too many children. *Contraceptives are one of the best investments Nigeria can make in p r e g n a n c i e s , contraception. By that time, every its future. maternal deaths, government of every country on Legislation on newborn deaths, planet Earth, supported by the family planning and unsafe global community, would have abortions”.

Sheffield, committed to sustaining People should only have as who spoke in a coverage for the estimated 260 many children as they can afford,” follow-up interview million women currently using he remarked. to the Regional modern contraceptives.

The President’s declaration was Consultative Contraceptives are one of the that it is high time Nigerians conference on best investments a country can learned to limit the number of women’s health that make in its future. That is why, children they brought into the took place in today, it is worrisome that more world. His call for new policies Kampala, Uganda, than 200 million women and girls and legislation on family planning listed specific areas in developing countries who do in the country towards controlling in which Nigeria and not want to get pregnant lack number of births was greeted with other African access to contraceptives, mixed reactions. countries required information, and services – But even as incisive debate trails more capacity which, for many, will cost them the President’s commentary on the building, skills sensitive issue of procreation, or For numerous reasons, there women of reproductive age who empowerment, and technical their lives.

Family planning saves lives, better, childbirth, the implications are different attitudes towards do not want to become pregnant support for improved maternal of unchecked population increase family planning and but are not using contraception health. She observed that latest this is proven. Family planning also improves health, strengthens and fertility rate remain contraception or “birth control” as has been primal. For instance, paramount. There is even it is better known. Disagreements Nigeria’s unmet need for data released by Countdown to communities, and stimulates 2015, showed that 1 in 23 women contraception usage or access in Nigeria will die of economic growth. The message the London Summit is that Today, it is worrisome that more than 200 among women of reproductive complications during pregnancy from the time is now for governments age (15-49) is significant. and childbirth. million women and girls in developing of developing countries, donors, Today, millions of women, in Perhaps the most pressing international agencies, the countries who do not want to get pregnant Nigeria, who don’t want to get issue about contraception in pregnant, do not use any form of Nigeria is the question of choice. private sector, and civil society to lack access to contraceptives, information, modern contraceptive. An Choice is often the common come together to help the world’s and services – which, for many, will cost indeterminate number of women denominator in arguments for poorest women. of reproductive age have little or them their lives absolutely no access to modern evidence that unchecked regularly spark off in different contraceptives, either because population growth is a major circles as to whether or not the there is lack of adequate trigger of violence in the country. country is appropriately information, or the services are So, having planned families is populated. Although awareness unavailable. According to the rule and not the option. creation about family planning experts, unmet need for Currently, Nigeria is Africa’s most and service delivery began about contraception points to the populous country, with an two and a half decades ago in apparent gap between estimated population of 160 Nigeria, not much appears to reproductive intentions and million, according to the National have been achieved by way of contraceptive behaviour.

Population Commission. the Total Fertility Rate and The excitement is that the Estimates by the United Nations Contraceptive Prevalence Rate. unmet need for contraception show that the population of For decades, the challenges of usage, is a veritable tool for Nigeria could grow from 160 meeting the contraceptive identifying and targeting women million to 400 million by 2050. requirements of Nigerian at high risk of unintended *Some expectant mothers undergoing check-up at a maternity clinic

By SOLA OGUNDIPE

A

Family planning:

Contraception, not controversial conception

,

,

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 45

Agents grumble over delay at Onne seaport •Urges FG to hand over job to customs

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

I

T was grumbling galore over delay of scanning of containers at the Seaport Onne when Vanguard Features visited last week. Most of the containers were on queue waiting for whenever they would be cleared.

Some owners of the containers enjoined the firm handling clearance of containers at the port, SGS, to improve on its service delivery.

According to Chief Obi Chima, when the firm first resumed operations at the port agents were satisfied with the service.

Continuing, he said the Nigeria Customs should be made to take over scanning of the containers, stressing that this would enhance efficiency at the Port.

Chief Chima said the delay at the port at the moment was causing port users a huge loss.

He said productive man hours were being wasted at the

queue. Sadly enough, he said, this was happening at a time the Federal Government was promising 24-hour port operations.

“We don’t know how to describe them now because they are not doing what they used to do; time is money. We want to emphasise on the in activities of SGS, the scanning company operating in Onne seaport; their inefficiency in facilitating the trade is causing lots of delay in the facilitation of clearance of goods at Onne seaports chapter. When they started everybody saw them as an easy place to make clearance but they have become inefficient, “ he lamented.

Chief Obi who was former Chairman, Port Harcourt Seaport One Association of Nigeria Licence Customs Agent, ANALCA, said agents had become frustrated with the situation at the port, adding that the earlier the Federal Government acted the better it

*Some trucks on queue waiting to be attended to at the port would be for the industry “The earlier the Federal Government hands over to the Customs to do this job the better for the nation. We are frustrated with the way SGS operates.

They don’t come to work early, yet they will go on break by noon. So at break time you don’t see anybody to attend to you. All these contribute to why containers are delayed at the terminal. And this delay is not helping the industry. “ Continuing, he said there

was urgent need for the government to take decisive steps to save the port from witnessing another round of congestion. “Government is talking of 24-hour clearing system at the ports in the country to avoid congestion yet we are experiencing this problem of delay. We fear that if urgent steps are not taken to arrest the ugly trend there will be another problem of congestion here”, he added.

Some other agents who spoke

said in the meantime the firm in charge of clearance of containers should extend its working hours to meet up demand at the port. They said it was disturbing that containers could be on queue for so long.

When Vanguard Features visited the seaport several trucks were on queue waiting to be attended to. No staff of the firm was willing to speak on the complaints by port users.

46 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

War Crimes: ICC jails Congolese leader D

ELIVERING its first sentence, the International Criminal Court jailed Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for 14 years yesterday for recruiting child soldiers.

The Hague-based court was set up a decade ago to punish and discourage the world’s worst crimes through a new system of international justice, but its critics say it has moved too slowly and failed to put its most important suspects on trial.

Lubanga was found guilty in March of abducting boys and girls under the age of 15 and forcing them to fight in a war in the east of

Woudenberg of Human Rights Watch.

But taking into account the six years Lubanga spent in detention during the trial, Lubanga’s sentence has only eight years to run. He could get parole earlier. Critics of the International Criminal Court questioned how big an achievement it could claim from sentencing Lubanga.

UN troops for DRC

U

N and Democratic Republic of Congo troops are reinforcing a key city in the east of the country to guard against attack by rebels who have seized ground in recent days.

DR Congo authorities and the United Nations fear that the M23 movement, which took one town on the Uganda border last week and forced 600 government troops to flee, may target the provincial capital of Goma, UN officials said.

•Jailed Thomas Lubanga Dyilo

Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002 and 2003.

At least 60,000 people are thought to have been killed in that chapter of a wider Congolese war.

“The trial and sentence handed down today sends a strong message to those who recruit and use children during times of war,” said Anneke van

Report reveals U.S. role in Mali

BY UDUMA KALU

T

HE death of three U.S. Army commandos in the deserts of Mali in mysterious circumstances may have revealed the involvement of Washington in the Tuareg uprising in the West African nation. The three dead men were found with three women in a pre-dawn rescue operation for a Toyota Land Cruiser which skidded off a bridge and plunged into the River Nige. This came a month after the United States suspended military relations Mali and was kept secret for 10 weeks, The Washington Post, revealed. Two of the

soldiers were identified as Capt. Daniel H. Utley, 33, and Sgt. 1st Class Marciano E. Myrthil, 39, were members of the 91st Civil Affairs Battalion, 95th Civil Affairs Brigade, which is based at Fort Bragg, N.C. Two months after the crash, the U.S. military has withheld the identity of the third soldier killed who was later named as Master Sgt. Trevor J. Bast, 39, a communications technician with the Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir.

The paper said the April 20 accident exposed a team of Special Operations forces that had been working for months in Mali, a country

racked by civil war and a rising Islamist insurgency. The crash also provided a rare glimpse of elite U.S. commando units in North Africa, where they have been secretly engaged in counterterrorism actions against al-Qaeda affiliates.

•Suffering Congolese women and children.

Malian rebels destroy more tombs

F

IGHTERS from the al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar

GYPT’S Supreme Constitutional Court has frozen the decree issued

by President Mohamed Morsi reinstating the Islamist-led parliament.

“The court ruled to halt the president’s decision to recall the parliament,” Judge Maher el-Beheiry said in

court on Tuesday. Morsi, a former member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, ordered on Sunday for the lower house to reconvene, just eight days after taking office.

Tuesday’s ruling came hours after the 508-seat chamber held a brief

Putin sends warship to Assad R

USSIA may have dispatched a destroyer-class warship to Syria yesterday, Moscow tries to boost its position in defending its embattled ally as President Bashar alAssad continues to battle an armed uprising. But Russian military sources said the ships were carrying marines on a training mission as well as food, water and fuel for Russia’s naval maintenance and repair base in Syria’s Mediterranean port of Tartous. It is Moscow’s only naval base outside of the former Soviet Union and its navy regularly sends supplies there. The destroyer

Smetlivy, which patrolled the waters off the coast of Syria in April and May, was seen leaving the Black Sea port of Sevastopol on yesterday morning.

“Smetlivy is leaving for Syria today... The vessel is expected to reach the Turkish straits tomorrow morning,” the navy source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A Russian Black Sea Fleet spokesman said the ship had been dispatched, but declined to confirm its destination. “The vessel has gone to sea, I cannot tell you anything else,” spokesman Vyacheslav Trukhachyov said. The military source told

Dine, controlling northern Mali, have destroyed two tombs at

Egypt’s Court freezes Morsi’s decrees

E

attempts to have the U.N. Security Council impose harsh sanctions on Assad’s government, has been a major arms supplier to Damascus.

But a Russian official was reported on Monday as saying that

•Putin Interfax that three landing ships and an anti-submarine destroyer from Russia’s Northern fleet had left the port of Severomorsk and were headed for Tartous.

Russia, which has blocked Western-led

“It would be disastrous if Goma was taken,” said a UN official who gave details of the reinforcements yesterday. The UN Security Council is to discuss the new strife on Tuesday while international leaders will use an African Union summit in Addis Ababa this week to try to defuse tensions between DR Congo and Rwanda over the fighting. M23, a group of mutineers led by accused war criminal Bosco Ntaganda, has already briefly taken other towns near its new stronghold in Bunagana.

The DR Congo government is moving a US-trained battalion from the north of the country to eastern Goma, the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The battalion, previously used in the hunt for Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters, will join about 7,000 troops already in Nord Kivu province, of which Goma is the capital.

session, following the president’s request for the legislators to convene.

They voted to seek further judicial opinions on the court’s decision that had invalidated onethird of the lawmakers because of voting irregularities.

P r e s i d e n t Morsi’s move highlighted the power struggle between the presidency and the Supreme Constitutional Court, which last month said certain articles in the law governing the parliament elections were invalid, annulling the lower house.

American charged for plotting attack on Pentagon

A

Massachusetts man charged with plotting to attack the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol with large, remote-controlled model airplanes packed with explosives has agreed to plead guilty, authorities said yeste-rday .

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have agreed to request a 17-year sentence for Rezwan Ferdaus on charges that he attempted to damage and destroy a federal building, and attempted to provide material support to terrorists.

the ancient Djingareyber mud mosque in Timbuktu, an endangered World Heritage site, witnesses say.

About a dozen men arrived in an armoured four-wheel drive truck, armed with pickaxes and hoes. They fired in the air. to intimidate people and started smashing the tombs, according to Ibrahim Cisse, who witnessed the incident. “They blocked the two main roads leading to the mausoleums. When they saw people gathering for a ceremony nearby, they began firing shots in the air,” another resident, Mahamad ould Ibrahim, said. The new destruction comes after attacks last week on other historic and religious landmarks in Timbuktu that UNESCO called “ wanton destruction”. Ansar Dine has declared the ancient Muslim shrines “haram”, or forbidden in Islam, The Djingareyber mosque is one of the most important in Timbuktu and was one of the fabled city’s main attractions before the region became a no-go area for tourists.

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012— 47

MIDWEEK SERMON

with SAM EYOBOKA sameyoboka@yahoo.com

Ademowo joins in Abo Abo dance ••as St. Andrew’s (Urhobo) Church comes alive

By SAM EYOBOKA

T

HE high pitched vicelike hand clapping coupled with the energetic rhythmic dance from obviously elated Urhobo choristers of Saint Andrew’s Anglican Church all of which fused so effectively with very noisy instrumentation were so captivating that the gentleman Dean of the Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion), Arch- *Archbishop Ephraim Ademowo (c) leading other minisbishop Ephraim Adebola ters to the dance floor during the thanksgiving service.

Ademowo, was forced to join the live performance.

The occasion was the official dedication of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Olodi, Apapa, a suburb of Lagos which also coincided with the confirmation. It was indeed a moment of great rejoicing by the faithful who had patiently waited for this moment. The foundation laying ceremony of the church was laid in 1999 in what used to be a den of fishes and very dan- *Former NDDC helmsman and one time PDP gubernatorial aspirant for Delta State, Hon. Emmanuel Agwariavwodo gerous reptiles. and Editor of Vanguard Newspapers, Mr. Mideno BayagThe faithful including bon at the occasion. men, women, boys and girls dressed in various colourful attires, ex- glican Church, Ajegunle. The archbishop, pressed their joy through their songs most who was accompanied by his wife, Mrs. of which were in their native dialect, clapped Oluranti Ademowo, expressed happiness (Abo Abo), and danced - sometimes jump- that the church is growing by leaps and ing high up and bending backward to the bounds. He said: “sometime ago, we startfloor, to mark the unique occasion. ed this building project, and it was a thing High point of the ceremony was the of delight to come here today for its dedicathanksgiving service after the dual service tion. as the young men and women in the choir “It’s an indication that the hand of God mesmerized the congregation which includ- has really worked in this place. And the ed former NDDC chairman, Hon. Emman- vicar deserves our commendation. The paruel Agwariavwodo; Archdeacon of Archdea- ish church council; the wardens and the conry, the provost, Rev. B.C.A Johnson, Ven- entire church congregation have worked erable Sam Ujie, the vicar of Good Shep- very very hard towards the realization of herd Church and the archdeacon of Ma- what we are seeing today.” rine Beach, Venerable Obada Ovie, Rt. Rev. Ademowo promised to dole out a cheque Cyril Odutemu, the bishop of Ughelli Dio- of N500,000 to the church to provide some cese, Sir Gabriel Orororo, Sir Ighomereyo, other essential things like more chairs and Mr. Daniel Orode, Mr. Ese Idikrere and fans for the comfort of worshippers, adding lots more that came to grace the occasion. “we do that in the diocese. It’s not just that the diocese will be taking money all the Leadership of time, we try to assist churches.” the church He, therefore, thanked God for what He is doing, noting that it is the responsibility At a point the Anglican Archbishop of of the Church to pray for divine intervenLagos, Most Rev. Ademowo who could not tion, so that the boat of this country will not hide his delight with the leadership of the capsize, adding that he thoroughly enjoyed church was motivated to join the dancing the music and the drums. “to encourage my members. And we need Also speaking, the church vicar, Ven. to contemporalise everything. I’m not an John Oghenekevwe Agboro, said the event Oyibo man. I’m Nigerian, and Nigerians as the handwork of God because the Bible are incurably religious; they worship God says except the Lord builds a house, they in a very lively manner.” labour in vain that build it, adding the founThe archbishop had moved to the various dation was laid in 1999. Saying that the places in the church with extempore prayer journey had been tortuous he commended of dedication at every point as the congre- efforts of the members for their steadfast gation was led by the choir in singing A&M love, noting that the land where the church 239: “O Most Glorious God, whom the now stands was a river where fishes were heaven of heavens cannot contain; gracious- being killed and a habitation of various ly accept the dedication of this place to Your types of reptiles. glory; and grant that all who shall use these Feeling delighted for everything, he said facilities may so order their lives that they but “I want to say that there’s no man that will in future, be a blessing to this nation can be anything or do anything aside from and Your church and may in their lives, show God. So we give all the glory to God who is forth Your praise; through Jesus Christ our the Alpha and Omega while thanking evLord,” he declared and everybody cho- erybody for their support, their encouragerused; AMEN! ment and for their perseverance because He, thereafter, administered confirmation it’s not easy for people to stand by you in a on nine young persons from the church, 46 project like this." others from St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Olodi; and 33 others from Holy Trinity An-

48—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

FG grants scholarship to maths competition winners

BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU & AMAKA ABAYOMI

F

EDERAL Government has granted scholarships to winners of the Cowbell National Secondary School Mathematics Competition, who emerged last week.

Chief Executive of National Mathematics Centre, NMC, Prof Adewale Solarin, who disclosed this at the prize giving organised

by Promasidor Nigeria Limited, in Abuja, said the centre had granted scholarship to winners of the competition, who desired to study Mathematics to Bachelors degree and Post graduate levels.

“NMC will give scholarship to winners in junior and senior secondary categories, who want to study Mathematics at BSc level.

Mathematics is part of our everyday life, which knowledge is employed in solving some of the deepest puzzles in life. Unfortunately, students still have the phobia for mathematics as a subject, and this had brought about their dismal performance in examination.”

The three best winners in junior secondary schools were a JSS 3 student, aged 11, Akintokun Samuel from Ota Total Academy in Ogun State, who scored 96 points, and went home with the gold trophy, a laptop and N300,000.

Second was Omole Ayobami, a 13-year old JSS 3 student from Bibo Oluwa Academy in Ilesa, Osun State, with 93 points, the only female in the top 20 winners, who went home with the silver trophy and N200,000 cash.

Delta flags-off dualization of Okumagba avenue

D

LAUNCH—Minister of Agric, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina (middle); Taraba State Governor, Mr Danbaba Suntai (2nd left); MD, UTC, Mrs Folusho Olaniyan, (left); and Taraba State traditional rulers during the launch of growth enhancement scheme for farmers in Damaturu, Taraba State.

PAC backs IG on community policing

T

HE Police Assistance Committee, PAC, has reiterated the importance of community policing in confronting the escalating security challenges in the country, in line with the new strategy being employed by the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Muhammed Abubakar.

Speaking at a seminar in Lagos for its members, Di-

rector General of PAC, Dr. Martins Oni, stated that the best way to address the security problems in the country was to ensure that every member of the community was well mobilized to be part of the solution by volunteering information to our security agencies on suspicious actions and occurrences around them.

Okoroafor emerges president of Rotary Club, Amuwo

R

OTARY Club of Amu wo, has installed Rotn Toby Okoroafor as president for the 2012-2013 Rotary Year. Toby who is the 26th president of the Rotary Club of Amuwo, takes over from the immediate past President, Rotn Chris Okpala.

Toby joined the Rotary Club of Amuwo in Febru-

ary 2001 during the “Create Awareness and Take Action” Rotary year. He had served the Club in various capacities such as director of vocational services 2001/ 02, secretary 2002/03, director of club services 2003/04, vice president and president-elect 2004/05, before becoming the president 2005/06.

Agu Ugwu, 103, passes on

A

community leader, Agu Jerome Ohagwu Ugwu, 103, is dead. Ugwu died at his palace, Olido Enugu Ezike, Igboeze North Local Government Area of Enugu State.

A statement by his son, Chief Lawrence, said Agu Ugwu who was born in 1909, left his wife, seven children, several grand children and great grand children among whom are Simeon, Lawrence, Roseline, Beatrice, Juliana, Ame-

lus and Rosemary to mourn him. Burial arrangements are yet to be announced.

zLate Agu Ugwu

VISIT—Mr Okugboye Olushola, Lithographer, Vanguard Newspaper (middle), making an illustration to students of ABI Computer Institute, Apapa, during their visit to Vangaurd's Corporate Headquarters in Lagos, yesterday.

Photo: Folake Odebiyi.

UALIZATION of Okumagba Avenue road in Warri metropolis has been flagged off by the Delta State Government.

The project, according to Engr. Maurice Yared will be completed in 18 months, adding that excavation work had begun from Estate roundabout.

Yared, who is the project Manager of the contracting firm, Niger Construction Company, in a statement said the road dualization would terminate at Deco junction from the Warri/ Sapele Road.

He said: “This road will bring development to the area and it will help alleviate the traffic pains commuters and motorists go through before getting to their respective destinations.”

He added that the project will be in phases, “the first phase has started from Estate roundabout junction and terminates at Cinema junction,” pointing out that; “the segmentation of the road was to ease traffic during the period of the construction work".

Restoration of constituency: Groups ask Benue Speaker to resign zI'm not affected by judgment — Speaker

BY PETER DURU

M

AKURDI—FOL LOWING the restoration of the two hitherto delisted Agasha and Daudu state constituencies in Benue State by a Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi, a coalition of groups under the aegis of G-10, yesterday called on the Speaker of the state Assembly, Mr. Dave Iorhemba to vacate his seat to allow for the conduct of election in the constituency.

Addressing newsmen, leader of the group, Mr Philip Agbese, said the call became necessary in view of the fact that after the restoration of Agasha and Daudu state constituencies and the desolation of the current Guma constituency, which the Speaker represents his seat ought to be vacant.

Agbese said, “we want to put it on record after due consultations with our legal team, we state that the continuous stay in office of Mr. Iorhemba, who is also occupying the seat of the Speaker of the state House

of Assembly would remain an usurpation, if we in the civil society do allow any grievous injury to our new democracy.

“Since it had been clearly stated that Guma State

House of Assembly Constituency was not known in law, we expect that Mr. Iorhemba will honorably resign from office But in his reaction, the Speaker, who described the

group as suffering from poverty of legal jurisprudence, explained that his mandate was not affected by the court order as he did not come from the restored constituency.

Expert urges Nigerians to help accident victims

BY LAJA THOMAS IGERIANS have been called upon to exhibit attitudinal and behavioural change towards helping people in distress, especially accident victims, who are in need of emergency treatment. This was stated by Dr Nnamdi Nwauwa, Chairman, Emergency Response International, at the inauguration of the Basic Life Support, BLS, training for Nurses and Nursing/Midwifery Schools, South-West zone, in Lagos, yesterday.

According to Nwauwa, “the recent events in the country, including the Dana air crash, have further made calls for emergency response training imperative in our country. Many accidents and plane crashes

N

had occurred in the past, especially the Sosoliso plane crash in December 10, 2010, had revealed the unpreparedness of our health care providers for medical emergencies.

He said, "out of hospital emergency situations constitute about 90 per cent of life threatening emergencies. Consequently, there is no basic life support programme for the non-healthcare providers who are likely bystanders at the scene of incidence. Regrettably the bystanders, who we refer to as the 'Good Samaritan' is not protected by the law should he assist without good result'.

He lamented that government-owned health institutions are yet to key into

this programme, adding that “since inception of the emergency response initiative in 2004, we have trained over 4,000 nurses, mainly from the industrial and private sector. He advised government to collaborate with the private sector, especially in the basic life support training for health care providers in government institutions.

“It is therefore our wish to partner with government, corporate bodies, individuals and tertiary health institutions to train our health care providers in various emergency/resuscitation skills" and raise the in-hospital and out of hospital emergency preparedness in our society,” Nwauwa added

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 49

Ondo State targets 75% reduction in maternal, child mortality by 2015

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

F

OLLOWING the adoption of key intervention strategies such as the revolutionary Abiye Safe Motherhood Project and the Mother & Child Hospital initiatives aimed at improving maternal and child health at the grassroots, the Ondo State government is set to achieve a 75 percent reduction in maternal and child mortality and morbidity so as to meet the targets of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Disclosing this to Good Health Weekly in Akure, weekend, following a tour of major health facilities in the state, Ondo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju said the state had successfully achieved a 30 percent reduction in maternal mortality in the last two years as well as 26 per cent reduction in child mortality within one year.

Adeyanju, who was optimistic, said various grassroots programmes initiated by the current administration have brought the state's maternal mortality ratio to 100 per 100,000 live births.

Health indices Although the Governor Olusegun Mimiko-led administration met a poorly motivated and ill managed health sector with the worst health indices in the country, a total health budget of over N8 billion that was immediately approved, ensured that pregnancy- related deaths were drastically reduced.

In confirmation of the longterm commitment of Dr. Mimiko to providing qualitative and affordable healthcare services in the state, the Health Commissioner remarked: "We are scaling up now because within one year of Abiye Safe Motherhood and Mother and Child, we succeeded in reducing maternal mortality by 15 per cent. To date, we have achieved 30 percent reduction, and then by 2015 we would have reduced by 75 per cent. We have delivered 1,217 babies in one year with one mortality. This is 1 in 100,000 live births. If we extrapolate, that will

• Governor Mimiko

•A baby being attended to by doctors at the Mother and Child Centre in Akure.

give 100 per 100,000 live births and for Nigeria as we speak, the average maternal mortality ratio is 545 by 100,000 live births. So we have crashed from 545 to 100 in one year."

Assuring that MDGs 4 & 5 will be achieved in the state, Adeyanju opined that Ondo will

be the saving grace for Nigeria which as a country is not expected to achieve the MDG goals before 2095."

Further, he said after a baseline study revealed that of all the women that attend the basic health centres, only 16 went back to deliver at the facilities, the state

government through Abiye safe motherhood project and the mother and child hospital projects decided to track the women by distributing mobile phones to every registered pregnant women in the state as a way of attracting them back to the facilities.

"Under the Abiye, we give mobile phones to the women free of charge because that is the only way they can be connected to their health rangers, policy makers and get connected to the commissioner even the Governor when any doctor is misbehaving and the rangers since they have established rapour with them, they can always track them when they are having contraction to come back to the health facilities and that is the essence of the phone.

"In the course of the year, there was a patient that died who didn't register with us but came in during labour. But we will consider that as part of statistics because mandatorily in Ondo State, there is what we call confidential inquiry into maternal deaths, which means, you must report all cases of maternal deaths, to help us in tracking, better planning and policy formulation. So if we know in zone A there are a lot of deaths, we can then track it and see what is responsible for the deaths, "he added.

Other strategies he highlighted include procurement of a tricycle ambulance in each basic health centre for navigation of hard- toreach areas as well as provision of comprehensive health centres for the entire senatorial districts of the state.

Pfizer presents customised vans for drug distribution

BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

S

EVEN custom-built tem perature controlled vans were recently presented to distributors of Pfizer Nigeria and East Africa Region, NEAR, as part of the company ’s sustained drive to raise the safety and efficacy profile of pharmaceuticals in the country.

Presenting the brand new vans at Pfizer Specialities Ltd., Ikoyi, Lagos, the Managing Director, Pfizer NEAR, Mr Enrico Liggeri said the whole point is to start a trend and show the way medicines should be transported in Nigeria.

“In Nigeria, the problem of counterfeits is bad, substandard products even worse, and the icing is that even medicines that are original but are not well stored or transported ultimately become substandard. In the open market you see drugs piled in rooms without airconditioning and these dealers move the bulk of the medicines which are exposed to high temperatures during transportion to places of consumption and are also exposed for long periods,” he remarked.

According to Liggeri, the Na-

tional Agency for Food and Drug Administration & Control, NAFDAC, requires stability data obtained at temperatures higher than 25 degrees centigrade, yet many of these medicines are carried around at temperatures above what the stability data will produce. “Pfizer is obsessed with security and we decided to do something in line with our pledge to increase the standards for the distribution.

“Our intention is to see these vans are used to distribute drugs properly. The vans are meant to transport medicines below room temperature about 16-24 degrees centigrade. It is to become an industry standard, but may probably take two decades to catch on.

“NAFDAC would need to mandate and enforce this trend in drug distribution because if it (NAFDAC) requires stability data to approve the drugs and this stability data so it would be logical that at the same time NAFDAC would require whoever is handling the drugs to allow the drugs to be stored at the right temperature before the approval was granted, because

• L-R:Country Manager, Pfizer Nigeria and East Africa Region, Enrico Liggeri, with Managing Director, Rock of Ages Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Charles Udeh and General Manager, World Wide Commercial Ventures Limited/Head of Pfizer Distribution, Mr. Sridhar Swaminathan, during the presentation of temperature regulated vans at Pfizer Specialities, Ikoyi, Lagos, recently.

if we allow the drugs to be transported above temperatures in the stability data, how do we know that the medicine is good? “ Nigeria is a growing economy and would be a country that would no longer be de-

pending on cheap drugs. It would be a country where people would age, have more money, require and demand more sophisticated medicines which are increasingly dependent on temperature controlled technology,” he asserted

50—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

3RD MAINLAND BRIDGE: Ferry patronage booms as chaos persist on roads

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

F

ERRY services across Lagos, yesterday, witnessed high patronage as passengers besieged Ipakodo in Ikorodu and CMS jetties as alternative means of transportation. This is following the on-going repairs of the Third Mainland Bridge and the attendant traffic gridlock in almost every part of the city.

This came even as Dr. Dayo Mobereola, Managing Director, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA, operator of the Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, yesterday, said the authority has increased its operational fleet by 15 percent. He said that BRT has introduced additional 30 high capacity buses to the existing 500 with plans to inject more in the coming weeks to ease road transportation in the metropolis.

Meantime, the chaotic traffic gridlock continued, yesterday, as motorists and commuters were held up and several man-hours lost along the diversion routes.

When Vanguard visited the Ipakodo Jetty in Ikorodu area of the state to assess the situation and infrastructure available, some passengers were seen waiting for ferries to take them to their destinations. The ferries ran on schedule.

Vanguard gathered that the number of passengers had increased significantly compared to what was recorded before last Sunday. Some of the ferry services that were fully operational include MF/Olayinka, Metro, and Tarzan, among others. Each ferry has 20 seats.

Passengers’ experience One of the passengers, Mrs. Taiwo Idowu described her experience as worth the while. She called on government to prevail on operators to make the fare affordable as such would attract more passengers.

Idowu who lives in Igbogbo, Ikorodu said: “Since the commencement of the repair work on Third Mainland Bridge, I have decided to leave my car at home and take the option of ferry service to the Island. I started traveling with the ferry since Monday, and I can tell you it has really saved me a lot of stress, financial and psychological stress and a lot of time. It is faster than vehicles but I expect the operators to provide more standard life jackets for the passengers.”

Mr. Sunny King and Mr. Wale Adedeji, a lawyer, described their experiences as wonderful, saying even after the completion of the repair of the bridge, they would continue to use the waterways.

Mr. King said: “What I want the government to do now is to bring in more serious operators. One of the reasons the patronage is still low is the phobia people have for water. Once they are able to overcome this by coming to enjoy the beautiful experience, the demand will definitely increase.

“It will open up healthy competition

among the operators. Also, the fare should be reduced from N600 to about N300 or N400 to and from the Island.

So far the safety measure in place is not in doubt. There are marine patrol along the waterways to ensure safety, because it is safety first.”

Govt reassures on waterways

State Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa and Managing Director, Lagos State Waterways Authority, L ASWA, Mr. Yinka Morinho, who earlier took an inspection tour of the ferry operation, urged residents and motorists to patronise the ferry service as there was adequate infrastructure to ensure comfort and safety.

Opeifa said: “You can see there is an upgrade all over the place. We are operating from smaller rural jetty to major jetty and that is the reason LASWA was established to handle all issues that have to do with water transportation safety. It is not just that we are interested in moving five million people, we are cleaning up gradually.

“There is nothing wrong with the boats. They are okay. Our target is to have bigger ferries that are more comfortable. But as for this moment, what we have on the waterways is safe, reliable and efficient. As they have been certified by LASWA, the more important alternative for Ikorodu residents is to take the ferry. There are so many of them plying from Ikorodu, Ijede Bayeku and the rest.

“They can take advantage of this means of travelling. We all cannot continue to crowd the Third Mainland Bridge, Ikorodu Road or Agege Motor Road. For those who live around Agege, Abule-Egba and Iyana-Ipaja, Apapa Oshodi, is the best option to get to Lagos Island. It may be a longer journey, but is free and moving.”

Morinho said: “Some operators used to do three trips in the morning, but now they are doing five trips in the morning and five trips again in the evening. Because of the Third Mainland Bridge issue, there have seen an increase in the number of people that we carry now.”

...woos motorists, commuters

Mobereola enjoined vehicle owners and other commuters to embrace the use of the BRT and the waterways to travel to Lagos Island from the Mainland and vice versa to avoid delays.

He said as the regulator of BRT, LAMATA, working with the operator, has put in place a number of measures to increase BRT capacity and effectiveness along the Mile 12 to CMS route in anticipation of increased patronage should car users choose to use the BRT. He said the number of tickets had been increased in anticipation of increased traffic, adding also that traffic control and enforcement officers have been mobilised to maintain a higher presence along the BRT corridor to ensure smooth operations and discourage unauthorised use of BRT lanes.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 51

Rob’s the £37m Man R

OBERTO MANCI NI’S new £37.5million contract makes him British football’s highestpaid boss.

The Manchester City chief ended speculation about his future last night, despite a £6.5m-ayear approach from the Russian FA. He said: “I’m very much looking forward to the challenges and excitement ahead. The opportunity that exists to build on our recent success is huge.”

The Russians wanted the 47-year-old Italian to take over from Dick Advocaat and steer their national team towards the 2018 World Cup, which they will host.

But SunSport revealed on Sunday that Mancini was ready to pledge his future to the Premier League champions.

And his mega £7.5m-ayear deal, which ties him to City until 2017, takes

•Mancini him way above Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson in the pay league.

D’Tigers feat excites Gaiya C HAIRMAN of the House committee on sports, Hon Godfrey Gaiya has expressed joy over the qualification of Nigeria’s D’Tigers for the basketball event of the London 2012 Olympics.

Gaiya who spoke yes-

Amaju loses mother

M

ADAM Rebecca Ayonmike, the mother of the Chairman of Delta State Sports Commission, Pinnick Amaju has passed on.

She’s also the mother of the First Lady of Delta State, Mrs Roli Uduaghan.

According to a message from Amaju, who is also the Chairman of the Delta State Football Association, the deceased, who turned 80 on November 10, 2011, died yesterday.

Her death has thrown the sports community in Delta State into deep mourning because of the great role she played in the society.

In fact, it was gathered that athletes, administrators and other relatives were seen mourning the passage of Madam Ayonmike, who was paid glowing tributes by those who signed the condolence register opened in various government offices when word of her death was

Fergie earns around £4m a year at Old Trafford.

But Mancini’s new contract recognises his achievement of guiding City to their first title in 44 years last season.

Mancini added: “I’m delighted to be able to give my all to City for a further five years.

“This is a fantastic club from the owner, chairman, board and executive team through to the players, staff and fans.”

He ended the club’s 35year wait for silverware with last year’s FA Cup triumph — and followed it up by winning the Premier League on the final day 12 months later.

confirmed by family members. Amaju yesterday described his mother as “priceless, inestimable, hardworking, extremely caring and deeply religious”.He said the burial plans for his mother would be announced soon by the family.

•Hon. Gaiya terday said Tigers’ qualification was a pointer to what the country is set to do at the world’s biggest sporting fiesta which kicks off July 27.

“Nobody gave the Nigerian basketball team a

chance, but they rubbished the prediction of pundits to qualify in grand style. I expect more of such upsets from our athletes in the Games proper,” Gaiya said.

The Kaduna state lawmaker was equally full of praise for the National Sports Commission (NSC), declaring that the commission has prepared well for the London Games.

“I think the NSC and the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) have worked hard ahead of the Olympics. I am confident the country will do well in London,” he said.

Edebiri vows to return Insurance to Premier League

BY JOHN EGBOKHAN

T

HE All Nigeria People’s Party Gubernatorial candidate in the Edo 2012 Elections, Solomon Edebiri has spoken of his plans to ensure that Bendel Insurance Football Club of Benin return to the Nigeria Premier League if elected in Saturday’s highly anticipated governorship polls.

Having contributed to the development of sports in Edo State in the last decade, Edebiri, said he

was saddened with the way the sports sector was being administered by successive governments in the state, particularly the present government under incumbent Adams Oshiomhole of the Action Congress of Nigeria.

He said that with the rich history attached to the old Bendel State, it was curious to see that Edo was making backward drifts while her sister, Delta, was making giant strides on a daily basis. He laid the blame

on the door-step of the political leadership, which he said had not shown any sign that it knows the dynamics of sports administration.

“My mission when elected Governor is to return Bendel Insurance to their glorious days within the first two years of my swearing-in. It is achievable by recruiting the best players and coaches to take them out of the pro-league to the Premier League."

Nigerians welcome Team Nigeria in London IGERIANS last ria from all walk of life TV and four Mayors in- Charles Khiram, the soN night came out in including Nollywood ac- cluding Charity Fibresi- cial secretary and also their thousands to honour tors and actresses, com- ma of Newham, Charles MC of the night, Sola the athletes who would represent Nigerians at the London Olympic Games, starting on July 27.

The welcome dinner, organised by CANUK for the Nigerian Olympians was attended by Nigerians and friends of Nige-

prising Olu Jacobs, Joke Silva, Segun Arinze, Justus Esiri, Keppy Ekpeyoung, Okechukwu Ukefe, Tosan Ugbeye, Ifeoma Fafunwa.

Entrepreneurs such as Alexander Amosu, Sunny Atonsi, Allstair Soyode who is the CEO of Ben

Adje of Hanney and the mayor of Enfield, were in attendance.

The Deputy High Commissioner, Ambassador Oluwatoyin Kayode Lawal was not left out of the occasion. Also present were the Chairman of CANUK, Bimbo Folayan,

Ogunsetan, the publicity secretary, Jude Douglas, Ronke Adeagbo, Chima Olugh, Ronke Udofia, Ike Onourah of Strictly Entertainment and all the executive members of Canuk. My Dayo Olumo and wife were also present.

Keshi Continued from BP wards.

Keshi whose young, wholly home based squad defeated their Liberian counterparts 2– 0 in Monrovia in an international friendly early in the year, said the AFCON qualifier poses a much more bigger task than the friendly as the Liberians who also have a decent team would be out to prove that they too could be in South Africa.

Speaking in Lagos yesterday, the sweat merchant said, “we must not underrate the Liberians.

We have to prepare hard for them as the September encounter will present a different setting altogether. The situation will be different and the circumstances will also be different.”

He fears that the Eagles

will be meeting a different team from the one they defeated earlier in the year and promised that the Nigerian team cannot afford to go to Liberia with the best players available.

“We know we went there and beat them, but this time, it is going to be a different scenario because they will present their best against us. We cannot afford to underplay their strength,” Keshi said.

He recalled the exploits of some Liberian greats like legendary George Weah, and said he would always be a source of inspiration for the younger players.

Nigeria’s senior team comprising home-based players inflicted Liberian’s first home loss to Super Eagles in 27 years through Sunday Ubah’s brace in Monrovia in February.

Pitch Awards Continued from BP will honour stakeholders on and off the pitch.”

Philips further stated that having witnessed similar awards elsewhere, he was convinced that “the Nigeria Pitch Awards might not just be the tonic we need to motivate our players but would provide a competitive environment that will enhance better productivity.”

He disclosed that the awards would be preceded by an international seminar on human trafficking in football and a charity match tagged “kick Human Trafficking out of Footbaall.”

The Nigeria Football

Fed ration was represented at the event by the first vice President, Chief Mike Umeh, Secretary General, Musa Amadu, chairman, technical Committee Barrister Chris Green, NNL Chairman, High Chief Emeka Inyama, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, Victor Ikpeba, Barrister Chris Green, Paul Bassey, Deji Tinubu amongst others.

NFF scribe Musa Amadu said the football house “opted to endorse the awards based on the confidence we have on the promoters, which did well in organising a twoday NFF Players’ agent workshop in Lagos in May.”

Festival to next level Continued from BP were in Sydney”, Dr Tandoh said.

Also, part of raising the bar for the festival according to Chairman of the Publicity Committee of the Festival, Mr Olawale Edun is an uncommon display of fair play for the altheltes by providing descent accommodation which hitherto had been one of the banes of the festival.

“For the first time in the festival, all the state will know where they are going to stay before hitting Lagos. We have accommodation in UNILAG, YABATECH and College of Education, Technical with each accommodating 9,000, 2,600 and 1,200 athletes respectively. Before now, athletes were

made to sleep in bare floors thereby limiting their strengths before events. “Our priority is on the athletes. They are the reason for the Festival. They deserve good accommodation and the authorities of the Universities have agreed to amend their calendars to allow the athletes the comfort of their places”, the soft-spoken former financial guru of Lagos State, Edun said.

As Nigerians tune to the TV for the London 2012 Olympics, Lagos State are preparing for a national Olympics that would blow the minds of Nigerians and make mince meat of what Rivers State did when they hosted the last sports Festival.

52 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 53

54 — VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012 — 55

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

— Page 55

We’ll not underrate Liberia — Keshi

BY JACOB AJOM

N

TUSSLE: Super Eagles' player fights for possession against a Liberian opponent in an international friendly match in Monrovia early this year. The Eagles won 2-0. The Super Eagles have been pitched against the Lone Star of Liberia in an AFCON 2013 qualifier in September.

IGERIA chief coach, Stephen Keshi has dismissed insinuations that Super Eagles opponents in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations final qualifier, the Lone Star of Liberia would come cheap for his Continues on Page 51

Lagos promises to take Festival to next level

L

AGOS State, has promised to take the 18th National Spors Festival, Eko 2012 to another level that would be difficult to be matched in the annals of the Games.

The State of aquactic splendour and centre of excelllence has promised to leave legacies and make profits from the TODAY'S

Games, a way that has not been followed by past hosts of the Festival.

Secretary of the Local Organising Committee, LOC, of the Festival, Dr Kweku Tandoh who addressed senior Sports Editors yesterday said that were going to host the Games in line with Governor Babatunde Ra-

PUZZLES

ji’s involvement of the Private Sector.

“We want to emulate Sydney Olympics by calling on professionals to be part of Volunteers for the Games. These Volunteers will be useful to us not only for the Games but for emergency cases as it

Continues on Page 51 YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

•Tandoh

All set for Nigerian Pitch Awards F

OR the first time in the history of Nigerian football, players, administrators, sponsors and other stake holders will have something to look up to as an annual Nigerian Pitch Awards has been slated to debut on December 15th 2012 in Lagos.

The award being put together by a private concern, Matchmakers will be reminiscent of the annual Ballon d’or awards or the CAF annual awards.

Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos, the Managing Director/chief executive officer of

•Inyama Matchmakers Consult International, Shina Philips said, apart from motivating the players to higher levels of performances, the Nigerian Pitch Awards “will restore the glory of not only our individual players but Continues on Page 51

QUICK CROSSWORD Across 2 Hazardous (5) 7 Object (5) 8 Prepared (5) 10 Reluctant (5) 12 Sick (3) 13 Temptress (5) 15 Bargained (7) 17 Ogled (6) 19 Bar (3) 20 Contrived (7) 23 Appear (4) 25 Fail (4) 26 Fundamental (7) 30 Free (3) 31 Fruit (6) 34 Show-case (7) 37 Song (5) 38 Weight (3) 39 Prevent (5) 40 Deceived (5) 41 Step (5) 42 Passage (5)

Down 1 Weird (5) 2 Governor (5) 3 Pressed (6) 4 Kindred (4) 5 Ruled (7) 6 Drone (5) 9 Every (3) 11 Home (7) 13 Cult (5) 14 Allude (5) 16 Fuel(3) 18 Scoffed (7) 21 Dismal (5) 22 Reel (5) 24 Sailor (7) 27 Row (3) 28 Fix (8) 29 Stick (5) 32 Wed (5) 33 Sum (5) 35 Spar (3) 36 Inform (4)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS Across: 1, Unfair 5, Afresh 9, Copse 10, Review 11, Hasten 12, Deter 14, Plum 17, Ran 18, Pier 20, Eerie 22, Folly 23, Swallow 24, Paste 26, Perch 29, Ally 30, Met 32, Rota 33, Radar 35, Pedlar 36, Sequel 37, Irate 38, Steady 39, Edited

How to Play Sudoku

THE VIGILANTE

Down: 1, Unripe 2, Favour 3, Iced 4, Rower 5, Ashen 6, Fear 7, Entail 8, Hungry 13, Tallied 15, Legal 16, Misty 18, Power 19, Elect 21, Ewe 22, Fop 24, Pampas 25, Sludge 27, Robust 28, Hailed 3D, Marry 31, Taste 33, Raid 34, Reed

e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

Place 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.

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Phone: Newsroom: 018773962. Deputy Editor: 01-8944295. Advert Dept: 01-7924470; Hotline: 01-8737028; Abuja: 09-2341102, 09-2342704. E-mail: editor@vanguardngr.com, news@vanguardngr.com, letters@vanguardngr.com. Advert:advertproduction@yahoo.com Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: MIDENO BAYAGBON. Phone: 01-7742861, All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.