Benue gov, Fulani herdsmen in gun battle,•Rained gunfire on him for nearly one hour

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 62098

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N150

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

APC, container of toxins —Jonathan P.8

MILE 2-APAPA SHUTDOWN:

Lagos govt, tanker drivers set up task force to manage traffic P.8

Benue gov, Fulani herdsmen in gun battle

BY PETER DURU & JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU

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•Rained gunfire on him for nearly one hour

•Sack 64 Benue villages in fresh invasion •Invasion is plot to destabilize Nigeria — Gemade

AKURDI — GOVERNOR Gabriel Suswam of Benue State, Monday, afternoon escaped death by the whiskers when his convoy was ambushed by Fulani herdsmen who engaged his security aides in exchange of gunfire at Tee-Akanyi village in Guma local government area of the

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Mr & Mrs

CONFERENCE: From left, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State; former Irish Prime Minister, John Bruton; former British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, Prof. Steve Chan of the University of London, and Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora during the International Conference on Democracy and Good Governance organised by Rivers State Government in Port Harcourt, yesterday. Photo: Nwankpa Chijioke.

Boko Haram: 57,000 Nigerians now refugees— UN National Conference must succeed — Atedo Peterside C M Y K

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POCKET CARTOON

MEETING: From left: Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State; Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State; Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State during the meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and South-West Governors at the State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

Benue gov, Fulani herdsmen in gun battle Continues from page 1 state.

This was just after the rampaging invaders had sacked about 64 villages on the Daudu-Gbajimba axis of the council, killing no fewer than 37 persons whose corpses still littered the invaded communities.

In his reaction, former PDP chairman, Senator Barnabas Gemade, representing Benue North East Senatorial District alleged that those behind the invasion and killing of the people of Tiv and Idoma of Benue State were mercenaries from neighbouring African countries of Chad, Mali and Cameroon that had been contracted to destabilize the country.

Governor Suswam had alongside journalists, speaker of the state House of Assembly, Terhile Ayua, the Benue State Commissioner of Police, Adams Audu and his team, soldiers, and other security personnel embarked on an assessment tour of communities recently invaded by the herdsmen on Daudu-Gbajimba road.

At Uikpam-Mbabai, the governor and his team discovered that the marauders had attacked and pulled out of the community that morning, after razing houses and barns and beheading about 30 persons whose remains were left behind in several houses and huts.

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. Know what your values are.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up —John Holme I try to see the loveliness and light that radiate from within each person and this practice is very uplifting for me. When you look closely enough, you’ll see the stories in the eyes reflecting forth, even feel the quiet, endless joy of laughter, and sometimes life’s inevitable moments too, but even these things are transient because we are made for more, to feel God’s love unconditionally.

For divine love is the one constant that brings enlightenment to soul and gratitude opens a floodgate of boundless love in our hearts These two indications are signs of coming into more awareness. The first sign is that you stop worrying. Things don’t bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second sign is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicity. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous.

Soldiers pull out of Suswam's convoy The governor and his team were, however, taken aback when the military personnel on the tour decided to pull out of the tour on the grounds that they were not detailed to travel with the team to Gbajimba.

The decision of the soldiers did not deter the governor who insisted on making the trip to Gbajimba without the military personnel.

It was while the governor’s convoy was heading to Umenger village, a distance of about 20km from Daudu, that the team discovered that the herdsmen had completely taken over all the villages on that axis, razing and looting property of the locals who had deserted their homes.

Convoy runs into fresh attack The convoy, however, ran into a fresh attack at Tse-Akenyi village where fire was still burning in several houses in the community, while the attackers continued with the looting of property of their victims.

The entourage did not realise that the marauders had taken cover in some of the abandoned houses. While Governor Suswam alighted from his car and was busy inspecting the level of destruction in the community, heavy gunfire started raining from nearby bushes.

The gunfire sparked a

battle between the security personnel on the governor's entourage and the invaders who took cover in nearby bushes.

The exchange of gunfire lasted almost one hour. Governor Suswam was, however, safely spirited into his official vehicle by his security detail when the shooting subsided and was driven to Gbajimba, the local government headquarters, where he addressed some of the fleeing locals and displaced persons.

Speaking to the aggrieved people, Suswam lamented the spate of attacks on the people of the state by Fulani herdsmen, assuring the displaced persons that government would not abandon them in their time of grief.

Meantime, on his way back from the assessment tour, Governor Suswam picked and conveyed the remains of some of the beheaded victims to the mortuary in Makurdi, the state capital.

Invasion is plot to destabilise Nigeria — Gemade Speaking on the invasion of Tiv/Idoma lands of Benue yesterday, Senator Gemade, a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in an interview in Abuja alleged that most of the attackers were not herdsmen but miscreants that had the motive of causing internal crisis in the country, especially in the Middle Belt region.

He said: “I think they really want to see some

war fought in the Middle Belt part of the country which is a very big shame. Otherwise, how can you see an insurgence taking place in the middle of the country and the people who are doing this are coming from neighbouring countries such as Chad, Mali, Cameroon, Congo and many others?

"How did they pass through all the land that they passed through before getting to Benue which is right in the middle of the country? I think it is a matter which has to be looked at very critically. The law enforcement agencies have to take it upon themselves to look into this matter."

Immediate federal attention needed Gemade said the development was worrisome and required immediate attention from the Federal Government.

He asked the government to investigate and bring those behind the killings to book, stressing that it was not only in Benue State that there was fertile lands.

He said: "Well, it is a matter that needs very urgent action by a combination of all the security agencies in this country to fish out the people behind this. The Tiv and Idoma people are not the only people who have fertile lands in this country.

"There are many other tribes living in the Benue region where the land is very fertile and full of grasses for animals. But why are they not fighting those tribes? Why are they insisting on fighting the people who are in Benue State?

"That tells you clearly that there is a motive behind it and this motive is not just addressed to the people living on fertile land but against a system

and that system is against the peaceful existence of Nigeria and the peaceful performance of the government of the nation at this time.

"And I think the law enforcement agencies should take this serious."

Gemade said he, alongside other political leaders in the state, had been preaching for peaceful co-existence of Nigerians even as they were aware that any community could rise and pick arms against another.

"As political leaders, we are talking about it. We are calling on people in this country not to allow our people take laws into their hands. You know that every community in Nigeria can raise an army if it wants to do so and it is not right for us to begin to raise an army for ourselves and that is why the national defence forces have to do their jobs," he stated.

The lawmaker further stated that what was curious in the whole issue was that "sometimes when you check these invasions by these Fulani herdsmen, though we all know they are not all herdsmen, it is a mixture of miscreants from various parts of Africa who are coming to cause this disturbance.

"We are telling the government that they must raise a defence force that will come in and raid these areas and get rid of these people.

"We are also calling on people in these affected areas to be vigilant and not aid and abet those coming into their lands to go and attack the people.

"We are not the only ones living on fertile lands, so why are they not attacking the other people? Let them not push us to a point where we will have to raise an army."

6—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

CJ frees lunatic, 6 others to decongest Kogi prisons

BY BOLUWAJI OBAHOPO

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OKOJA— CHIEF Judge of Kogi State, Justice Nasir Ajanah, has granted unconditional release to seven awaiting trial inmates, including a mentally-deranged man, Mallam Dantalla Adamu.

Ajanah, who was on de-congestion visit to prisons in the state, released the inmates while reviewing the warrants of 132 awaiting trial inmates in the prison and also granted bail to four others.

He also frowned at indiscriminate arrest and shoddy prosecution of suspects by the police as he granted the unconditional release of Adamu, who was arrested by a vigilance group in Adavi Local Government.

The mad man, who was charged with criminal conspiracy and armed robbery alongside one Umoru Isiaka had spent five months in detention without being taken to court.

According to Isiaka, who was also granted unconditional release, the vigilance group arrested him while on a visit to his wife’s family house and handed him over to soldiers on the allegation that they arrested him with some people.

When the soldiers asked them the whereabouts of the others, the vigilance group brought the mad man to the soldiers the following morning from where they were taken to SIIB. Ajanah who decried the congestion of the prisons said the Koto prison, constructed in 1934 to accommodate 50 inmates had 157 inmates, with 25 convicts and 132 awaiting trial at the time of visit.

FLOODED: Agege-Iju Road after a downpour in Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: AKEEM SALAU.

Commissioner's sister kidnapped in Bayelsa

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

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E N A G O A — NINETEEN days after Chief Inengite Nitabai, cousin to President Goodluck Jonathan was seized by armed men at Otuoke in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, gunmen struck Monday at Oloibiri and abducted Joyce Ebua, a sister to the state Commissioner for Sports, Chief Mitema Obordor.

Oloibiri, also in Ogbia Local Government Area, is the community where oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in 1956.

The latest kidnap occurred at a time the security agencies in the state were working to locate the whereabouts of President Jonathan’s cousin, Chief Nitabai.

Vanguard learnt that five armed men stormed the residence of Ebua at 8.55pm on Monday and whisked her away through the creek behind her house.

The gunmen were said to have shot sporadically into the air as they escaped with their victim to an unknown destination in the mangrove. One of the kidnappers was reportedly dressed in a mobile police

uniform.

A source said: “They were five in number and one of them was wearing MOPOL uniform. They forcefully abducted the victim and put her in a waiting speedboat at the waterfront behind her house to an unknown location.”

JTF responds

The development, it was learnt, angered the newlyposted Commander of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield, Major General Emmanuel Atewe.

He was said to have summoned all the officers and men of the outfit to the headquarters of the JTF in Yenagoa at 2.30am.

“The commander ensured that nobody in the command

slept after the incident,” a security source said. Atewe, it was further learnt, led troops to the scene of the crime yesterday morning.

JTF Media Coordinator, Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, confirmed the incident.

He said: “The Command has activated the security network on both land and waterways in conjunction with other security agencies to locate and track down the kidnappers.”

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hilary Opara, also confirmed the kidnap incident and said that the police had begun investigations.

... as police nab 6 kidnappers

Meanwhile, police in Bayelsa State have arrested six suspected kidnappers, who after robbing a house

in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area abducted a woman.

However, the woman was freed by the marine police, who intercepted the bandits along the waterways. A police source said the suspects robbed a home at Diebu community, escaped with some valuables and a woman.

The source said: “They were armed with AK-47 rifles. They stormed a home, stole many valuables.

Curiously, they took a woman along with them maybe to demand for ransom later.

“But luck ran out on them when some marine policemen intercepted them along the Southern Ijaw waterways and arrested them. They are currently being detained at the headquarters of the command in Yenagoa.”

... as police kill 3 robbers in Rivers

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

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ORT HARCOURT— RIVERS State Police Command has gunned down three armed robbers in the state.

The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin, who spoke yesterday on the operations of the Command within the

last three weeks, said the robbers were shot dead during an exchange of fire with policemen, adding that one AK-47, two magazines, 22 rounds of 7.66mm ammunition were among items recovered from the robbers.

He said: “One AK-47, two magazine, 22 rounds of 7.66mm ammunition, one

locally-made pistol with four rounds of 9mm ammunition, one black golf car with plate number AA 941 UGU, were recovered.”

He said his men also smashed a kidnap syndicate in the state and rescued a kidnapped Mrs Ibiso Orinari Atiegoba, who was abducted by four men on Ada George Road, Port Harcourt.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 —7

Marketer docked over N1.15m theft

‘Pastor' in N3.1m fraud case

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

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BEOKUTA— THE Ogun State Police Command, yesterday, paraded a fake pastor, Ndubuisi Ignatius, and 38 other suspects for allegedly engaging in various criminal activities across the state.

Ignatius was accused of disguising as a spiritual father, held one James Nwosu, living at Agbara in Ado Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, hostage and robbed him of N3,190,000.

The Commissioner of Police, Ikemefuna Okoye, while parading the 39 suspected criminals in Abeokuta, disclosed that the fake pastor, who had been a spiritual father to Nwosu’s family for over six months, was arrested February 25 after he allegedly defrauded his client.

Okoye further said that the fake man of God had confessed to the crime he was accused, adding that he would be charged to court after the completion of investigation on the matter.

BY ONOZURE DANIA

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AGOS— A 41-year old marketer, Kassim Olawale, has been arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court, over alleged theft of hair care products worth N1.150 million.

The defendant is facing a three-count charge of conspiracy, stealing and obtaining.

The police prosecutor, ASP Iranus Nnamonu, told the court that the defendant and others at large, conspired to commit the alleged offence.

He said that the defendant, as an independent marketer to Edmark Health Products, sometimes in May, 2013, at 47, Opebi Road, obtained N1.150 million from one Seun Akingbehim.

The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Magistrate Abimbola Komolafe granted him bail in the sum of N500,000, with two responsible sureties in like sum and adjourned the matter to April 24 for mention.

... another saws off 2-yr-old girl's fingers

BY CHINYERE ABIAZIEM

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AGOS— ONE Mayo Martins, who claims to be a pastor, was arraigned in a Yaba court for allegedly cutting the fingers of Saidat

How I was robbed, raped — 14-YR-OLD GIRL

BY EVELYN USMAN

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MOTIONS ran high yesterday in Lagos, following a 14-year-old girl's startling account of how she was robbed and raped in Oko Oba area of Agege, last Sunday, by an unidentified man.

The Osun State-born victim said she left her home town for Badagry, to assist a relative who had just been delivered of a baby.

However, on arriving in Lagos, it was late and she reportedly decided to pass the night at Agege.

She said: “As I was sleeping in front of a shopping complex, a man came and started rough handling me.

He tied his belt round my neck and used his shirt to cover my face and mouth.

“After raping me, he collected my transport fare and my phone. He later came back and beat me when I shouted for help. He had his way thrice, saying if I attempt to escape, other boys elsewhere would have me in turn.

“I passed out the fourth time, only to open my eyes and found some people around me.”

It was gathered that sympathisers gave her water to wash her blood-stained body before contacting policemen at Elere Division,

who referred her to OrileAgege General Hospital for treatment.

When contacted, the Deputy spokesman for Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Damasus Ozoani said no arrest had been made but

assured that the culprit would soon be brought to book.

“Investigation is ongoing, while the teenager is responding to treatment at the Orile-Agege General Hospital,” Ozoani said.

Faleya, a two year old-girl with a saw.

The girl’s mother said the incident happened when her daughter went to a neighbour’s room when she went to have her bath, and then was alerted about her daughter ’s bleeding and dangling fingers.

In the court, Martins said he did not intentionally cut the girl’s fingers, though the police said he initially denied the allegation.

However, he was granted bail in the sum of N100,000 with a surety and was instructed to be in court for the next hearing on April 24.

Also, a teenager, one Avoseh Abraham, was docked in a Yaba Magistrate’s Court for allegedly raping an 80 year old woman, Mrs Martha Swotan.

Man arraigned for abducting, raping cousin

BY CHINYERE ABIAZIEM

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AGOS— ONE Gbenga Asaje, a commercial bus driver, has been arraigned over the abduction and rape

of one Opeyemi Adesina, a student of Ekiti State University.

Asaje, who lives at Eminature Street off Oyemekun, Agege,

abducted Adesina for 20 days, from January 21 to February 10, 2014, the charge stated.

According to the prosecutor, Corporal C. Osuji, the 28-yearold offered the victim a lift on

FOR DEMOCRACY: Members of Network for the Defence of Democracy and Good Governance, NDDGG, on a peaceful march at the Mile One area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday. PHOTO: Nwankpa Chijioke.

her way back to school. He promised to help her financially and lured her to his house, where he held her hostage.

He added that the parties are distant cousins, which was why Adesina accepted the lift and agreed to go to Asaje’s house.

The accused, who pleaded not guilty, said he neither kept Adesina in his house contrary to her wish nor used any diabolic means to hold her.

He said: “I was always giving her money and taking care of her during the period she stayed in my house.”

Meanwhile, Asaje’s counsel, Mr. Gbolahan Samuel, said although the matter appears to be abduction on the face of the charge, it is a case of lovers contrary to the prosecutor ’s claim of them being distant cousins.

Magistrate B. Okunsanya granted him bail in the sum of N50,000 with two sureties and fixed March 31 for hearing.

8 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

2015: APC, a container of toxins — Jonathan

BY LUKA BINNIYAT

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ADUNA – IN an apparent reference to the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday described the party as a container of toxic substances that was disaster bound, saying it posed no challenge to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP ahead the forthcoming general polls.

The President made this allusion yesterday at the PDP North West Unity and Reconciliation Rally which took place at the Murtala Square, Kaduna attended by Vice President, Arc. Namadi Sambo, the National Chairman of the PDP, Alh. Adamu Muazu, seven PDP governors among others in a sea of unruly party supporters.

Former governor of Sokoto State, Alh. Attahiru Bafarwa who joined other converts to the PDP in assuring the party of their loyalty, called on General Moahamadu Buhari (rtd), leader of the APC to come and join the PDP if he truly wished to serve Nigeria.

The Speaker, House of Representatives, Alh. Aminu Tambuwal, from Sokoto State, was conspicuously absent from the rally and sent no representative.

As thousands of unkempt looking lads in PDP T-shirts and caps, knocked over each other amidst drumming, trumpeting and singing, President Goodluck Jonathan was ushered to the podium by the National Chairman of the PDP, Alh. Adamu Mua’azu .

After acknowledging everyone and praising the efforts of the organisers, the President launched into a frontal attack of the main opposition.

Said the President: “PDP is the only party that you can say ‘is for the people, by the people and of the people’. We have been told that some people are ganging up in some different names. I can assure you that this is not the first time that there has been a gang up.

“From 1999 there was a gang up. Two, three political parties came together. They brought a Presidential candidate from one, Secretary to the Federal government from one and so forth. The gang up will fail.

“And I used to tell people that, if you put oil in a container, then pour kerosene in that container, then pour sulfuric acid in that container, you bring petrol and pour in that container and then hydrochloric acid, what do you think will happen to that container? - Disaster!

Reps in special session, mourn massacred Yobe students

BY EMMAN OVUAKPORE & LEVINUS NWABUGHIOGU

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BUJA—EMOTION overwhelmed the House of Representatives yesterday as members were brought to the point of tears on a day the House declared a day of mourning for the 59 slain students of the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State.

Speaker Aminu Tambuwal declared it as a day of infamy as he took members on an imaginary journey on what happened to the students on that fateful night of February 25.

“My dear colleagues, please travel with me on an imaginary journey to Federal Government College, Buni Yadi.

“Picture the scene as the terrorists creep into the hostels and the children begin to wake up one after the other, with their eyes heavy with sleep, each of them convinced that this is some nightmare.

“Picture the chaos in the rooms and the terror on the faces of the children as they watch the murderers attack the first set of students, the ones nearest to the entrance, and the students begin to realise that what is happening is not a nightmare but a reality far harsher than any nightmare the mind of a child can construct.”

Yesterday’s session began when the Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola moved that “this House do hold a Special Session to deliberate on the incessant killings and

BUDGET DEFENCE: Minister of State for Power, Hon. Wakili Mohammed (right) defending Ministry of Power’s budget, while Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Godknows Igali looks on before the Senate Committee on Power at the National Assembly, Abuja. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan. maiming of people and residents of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States by the Boko Haram insurgents.”

The motion, which was seconded by Hon. Friday Itulah (Edo, PDP) then paved way for the speaker.

In a moving speech, the speaker, while commending the various Committees which have been working assiduously on the budget, said that welcoming back members was rather on a sad note to him. He condemned the brutish killing of the “ innocent” students and other victims, saying that it was on that note that the House had to

dedicate the day to mourn the departed.

He said: “I welcome you back to the Plenary Session of the House of Representatives. In the last two weeks, various Committees of the House had been working assiduously on the 2014 Appropriation Bill. The House is grateful to the Committees for their hard work and dedication. Our reunion at times like this has always been one of joy for accomplishment of a civic responsibility. However on this day it is with the greatest sense of anguish that I welcome you back.

“On February 25, 2014, the very

day the House adjourned Plenary, Nigeria suffered a horrendous terrorist attack that struck a fatal blow at the heart and soul of the Nigerian nation and desecrated values that decent peoples of all nations hold dear. ''On that night, about 59 students of Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State were killed in the most heinous manner. Some of our future national leaders were mowed down in gruesome circumstances in their sleep. Some were shot dead while many were burnt beyond recognition. That day was a day that will live in infamy in the history of this nation.''

Mile 2 shut-down: Lagos, tanker drivers create special task force to manage traffic ...As PTD blames NNPC for failing to build parking lot

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

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AGOS—PIQUED by the gruelling traffic gridlock that had shut down businesses in Apapa axis of Lagos for almost a week, the state government and Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD, have resolved to create a special taskforce to manage traffic in the area.

Tanker drivers also blamed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, for refusing to build a loading park for their vehicles, saying the state government had been stretched to the limit in providing such facility.

Motorists and other road users have been subjected to harrowing experiences traversing the expressway, compelling workers in companies along the axis to pass the night in their offices, while those who summoned the courage to wade through the gridlock are attacked by hoodlums.

Comrade Tayo Aboyeji, South-

West, Public Relations Officer of PTD, who disclosed news of the taskforce during an inspection tour of the affected area yesterday, assured that the measure would make traffic flow in the interim, pending the disappearance of all the tankers.

He explained that the union had met with the state Transport Ministry to fashion out fresh ways of easing the gridlock through the special taskforce which would commence work immediately.

Aboyeji, while absolving his members of intentionally causing the gridlock, blamed Berger Julius, the contractor constructing the road, for compounding the situation.

He said: “The gridlock in Apapa is not caused by tanker drivers; it is as a result of ongoing construction of the road and the bad portion of the road and the major factor is the large concentration of depots in Apapa.

“If you look from Mile 2 down to Coconut, Julius Berger is

constructing and prior to that time, tanker drivers are consigned to service lane but when the construction started, Julius Berger blocked the main express road, meaning that tanker drivers and other motorists and road users will make use of the only service lane.

“That has caused a lot of delays and gridlock. We have met with Julius Berger to fast track the construction of that road; they promised to do it but they said they have their own challenges.

“But because of this, the petroleum tanker drivers union set up a taskforce, in conjunction with Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA. “The taskforce does operate as early as 4.30 am, especially at Coconut, to make sure there is free flow of vehicle and LASTMA will get there as early as 5 am to patrol together. But not until the contractor finishes the construction of the road, there will still be congestion.

“Another factor for the large concentration of tankers in Apapa are the depots, we have over 36 oil depots along that axis and let’s assume all the depots have products. As am talking to you now, all the depots have product to dispense.

“Ordinarily, the only minimum they suppose to bring to the state is hundred trucks per day but because of the current problem, we only release 10 to 15 trucks, if we multiply the 15 trucks to 25 depots that is about 375 tankers and that is the tankers that lined up from Coconut to Mile- 2.

“We said there is queue at the filling stations and we want this product to get to the public.

Those at the headquarters are working 24 hours just because we want the queue to disappear and we do not want to be seen as sabotaging the economy or the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Most of the stations in the north don’t have product, they come to Lagos State.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014—9

57, 000 Nigerians now refugees — UN

BY MICHAEL EBOH & EDIRI EJOH

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BUJA — DESPITE the fact that Nigeria is not at war, Nigerians are now refugees in neighbouring countries as more than 57,000 people have fled to Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic as a result of insurgency by Boko Haram, according to the United Nations.

The world body also disclosed that about half a million people have been internally displaced in the country which it described as a very alarming situation.

Spokesperson of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, Mr Adrian Edwards, who spoke with reporters in Geneva said of 57,000 people who fled Nigeria, 17,000 are registered as Nigerians while the rest are nationals from neighbouring countries who have been living in Nigeria for ages.

He disclosed that Niger received the majority — some 40,000 concentrated in the Diffa region, a desert in the country's eastern edge.

According to him, many of those fleeing North-Eastern Nigeria are traumatized and left with very few possessions, adding that besides the Lake Chad area, some of the new arrivals are from the Borno State capital, Maiduguri.

57,000 flee to Cameroon, Chad, Niger He said: "Since Nigeria declared a state of emergency in the three states in May 2013, more than 57,000 people have fled to Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Some 17,000 of these are registered Nigerian refugees. The rest are nationals of the surrounding countries who had been living in Nigeria for decades."

Edwards noted that newly arrived refugees interviewed by the

staff of the UNHCR in Niger have spoken of atrocities on the shores of Lake Chad in Borno State.

According to him, "One woman described corpses strewn through houses and floating in the water. She said people feared staying even to bury their dead or find missing relatives. Others recounted fleeing a village shooting incident and said women and children were being kidnapped and taken away by unidentified assailants.

"We've had some other accounts of shooting in villages there with women and children being kidnapped and taken away. So, it's really a spreading of this horrible conflict we're seeing outside of the towns and into some of the rural

areas of North-East Nigeria.

"It's hard for us to get full visibility of the situation inside North-East Nigeria, simply because we don't have the access.

And you have to remember that in addition to people fleeing Nigeria, you have got close to half a million people internally displaced inside the country. And that's according to the government's figures. So, these are really very high numbers and reflects what seems to be a very alarming situation.

2,000 people cross to Niger "The latest attacks are reported to have begun in mid-February and were continuing five days ago. In all, some 2,000 people have crossed into south-east

Niger's Diffa region over the past four weeks.

"In addition to the attacks on Lake Chad, some of the new arrivals have come from areas near Borno's state capital, Maiduguri, that have been affected by fighting."

He maintained that the UNHCR reiterates to all parties to the conflict in north-eastern Nigeria, the vital importance of protecting civilians from harm.

He said the UNHCR was working with partners, including the International Rescue Committee, the governments of the neighbouring countries, to try and ensure that countries keep their borders open and also ensure that they help people on arrival.

RALLY: President Goodluck Jonathan (right) presenting former Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau at the PDP North-West zonal rally in Kaduna, yesterday. Photo: Olu Ajayi.

...as FG plans to monetise perks ...Ogboru, Eferakeya speak on agenda

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S delegates to the National Conference get set to begin deliberations on Monday, the Federal Government has ruled out the possibility of providing the members with official cars and other perks of office.

In place of official vehicles, Vanguard learnt from a Presidency source that the government had decided to convert such pecks to cash and pay to the delegates and confab secretariat officials.

Findings by Vanguard indicated that each delegate may get as much as N30,000 for transportation, refreshments and meals per day of sitting. Other incentives for participating in the conference such as medicals may

BY JOSEPH ERUNKE

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BUJA—THE Labour Party, LP, has denied report that it removed its Deputy National Chairman, Joseph Akinlaja, and National Vice-Chairman, South West, Ganiyu Dauda, as members of its National Working Committee.

The party, which was reacting to a newspaper statement credited to its National Publicity Secretary, Ikpe Etokudo, that the two officers had been relieved of their positions by its National Working Committee, due to their membership of the National Assembly, insisted that at no time did its NWC took such a decision.

But the National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Abdulkadir Salami, who spoke at the national secretariat, in Abuja, said Mr Etokudo’s statement was not only false but also a misrepresentation of facts about the National Working Committee of the party.

Fuel scarcity: FG owing us 9 months subsidy — IPMAN

Confab: No official cars, aides for delegates

BY SONI DANIEL, CLIFFORD NJUDIHE, GAB EJUWA & GODWIN ORITSE

LP denies removal of 2 national officers

also be monetised.

An inside source said the Federal Government had decided to apply the monetisation policy to safe cost and reduce waste associated with using government facilities to run programmes.

The source explained that the government had learnt lessons from the mismanagement of the cars and other facilities acquired by the government for hosting COJA in 2003.

“We don’t want to drag the administration into endless expenditure and repairs of cars and facilities, which could be misused once they are being paid for by the government,” the source said.

It also emerged that the renovation work at the International Conference Centre, ICC, might force the government to hold the confab at the National

Judicial Institute, NJI, along Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Way. The government has already decided to pay cash in respect of accommodation to the delegates instead of keeping them in hotels.

This came as mixed views continued to trail the necessity or otherwise of holding the conference now and whether it could address the country’s numerous challenges.

Confab too close to 2015 polls –Eferakeya Sharing his thoughts on the confab, Senator Adego Eferakeya said: “The timing of the national conference is too close to the 2015 general election. People should think ahead in the way they plan.

Are they going to arrive at decisions and hang them somewhere? Will INEC not be affected in some of the decisions

they will take at the national conference? The North and South dichotomy is there. The North has its agenda, the South also has its agenda. Recently the South had its meeting in Calabar; the North is also having its meetings, all with different agenda. I do not want to be pessimistic. I just hope that something good will come out of it. You know that the underlining factor in the conference is resource control.”

We must jettison no-go-area – Ogboru Also speaking, former Delta State governorship candidate and leader of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Chief Great Ogboru, said the exercise must not be made another mere talk shop because the mood of the country today would not permit a talk shop for the sake of it.”

BY CHRIS OCHAYI

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BUJA—THE Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, yesterday blamed the lingering nationwide fuel scarcity on the failure of the Federal Government to pay marketers for petrol imported into the country in the third and fourth quarters of last year.

President of IPMAN, Abdulkadir Aminu who disclosed while addressing members at the expanded meeting of national executive and zonal coordinators in Abuja, said also that the current contraction in the supply of the products is a result of none payment of marketers subsidy.

Aminu warned that the current fuel scarcity will not decline because there was a supply gap due to the fact that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, which is now the sole importer of fuel can only supply 50 percent of the country needs.

10 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Funsho Williams: Court stops fresh blood samples from suspects

BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE & OSAYEMI IBUKUNOLUWA

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AGOS—JUSTICE Ebenezer Adebajo of a Lagos High Court in Igbosere yesterday refused an application by the prosecution, following request to allow fresh blood samples to be collected from the suspected killers of Engineer Funsho Williams, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, 2003 gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State.

The suspects, Musa Maina, Bulama Kolo, David Cassidy, Tunani Sonani, Mustapha Kayode and Okponwasa Imariabie have been in prison custody since 2006.

In a ruling, Justice Adebajo held that all the legal authorities cited by the prosecution have no relevance to the case, adding that to allow the prosecution go on another voyage of carrying out another forensic investigation would further delay the trial.

The judge said: “There must be an end to litigation. In view of the foregoing, the application in my own opinion lacks merit and it is hereby dismissed,” and adjourned till April 15 and 16 for continuation of trial.

Consequentially, the court ordered the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Lagos State to file and serve on the defendants, the report of the earlier blood samples taken on the order of a Magistrate’s Court.

It will be recalled that sometime in April, 2013 the prosecution (Lagos State government) told the court that the exhibits for forensic evidence collected from the defendants at the commencement of the case including Funsho Williams’ eyes have been damaged due to epileptic power supply.

Consequently, the prosecution brought an application dated October 28, 2013, praying the court to allow it collect fresh blood samples from the defendants for the purpose of forensic examination.

Objecting, the defence lawyer Okezie Agbara argued that the court should not allow the prosecution to reopen investigation at this stage of the trial.

“Since the prosecution said the

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AGOS—LAGOS State government will start maintenance work on both Dopemu and Iyana-Ipaja bridges from Saturday March 15, to April 5, 2014, so they will be closed.

The state Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, who announced the planned closure, said the maintenance work was awarded to China Civil Engineering Construction Company, CCECC. According to Opeifa, the contractor will work on the Dopemu bridge for the first 10 days, starting from this

justice is not only for the state but for the defendants as well and urged the court to disregard the prosecution’s prayer on grounds that an attached exhibit marked A, which is a ruling from a Magistrates’ Court was not signed by the Magistrate.

Agbara submitted that the ruling only contained the stamp and endorsement of the court’s registrar, as such cannot be relied on.

BY INNOCENT ANABA

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AGOS—A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, adjourned till April 16, 2014 to hear a suit by the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics, LADOL, against Samsung Heavy Nig. Ltd, over breach of contract.

LADOL in the suit, is praying the court to restrain Samsung Heavy Industries Nig. Ltd, from breaching its contract with the plaintiff.

The plaintiffs are contending in the suit that Total Nig. Ltd had awarded a $3.8 billion contract to Samsung, for the integration of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading, FPSO, platform otherwise known as Egina project, adding that Samsung presented LADOL to the defendants as a Local Content Partner, LCP, in a bid to secure the contract, since an LCP was a pre-requisite for the award of such contract.

Fellowship SIGNING: From left: Hon. Bisi Yusuf, Chairman, House Committee on Commerce and Industry, Lagos State House of Assembly, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, and Mr. Ade Ipaye, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, during the signing of the law to establish the Lagos State consumer protection agency, at Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos. Photo: Bunmi Azeez.

Poisonous fumes: Why we can’t reopen school now — LASEPA

BY BOSE ADELAJA & MONSURU OLOWOOPEJO

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AGOS—FOUR days after 13 students of Ogba Junior Grammar School, Ogba, Ojodu Local Council Development Area,

Dopemu, Iyana-Ipaja bridges to be shut for 4 wks

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

initial samples have been destroyed by lack of electricity, which samples will they match it with?” he argued.

According to him, an accused person should be prosecuted within reasonable time, saying that the matter has dragged since 2007 which was enough for the prosecution to gather fresh samples.

He further argued that allowing the prosecution will be a delay in justice, since

Breach of contract: Court adjourns LADOL, Samsung's suit till April 16

Saturday March 15, to Monday March 24, then move to the Iyana-Ipaja bridge from Tuesday, March 25 to Saturday April 5.

Consequently, vehicles approaching Dopemu bridge from Ile- Zik inward Iyana Ipaja could make a u-turn back to Dopemu bridge via the opened median along the LagosAbeokuta expressway15th or take a left turn into Alimoso road and use the following link roads back to Akowonjo or IyanaIpaja road. The link roads are: Irepodun street, Alaguntan, Vincent street, Akiwowo road and Cash street, all off Alimoso road.

LCDA, were hospitalised after inhaling poisonous fumes, the school is still shut.

When Vanguard visited the school, there was no student in sight. Sources said that students who resumed earlier in the day were sent home by the school authourity.

However, the 13 students affected by the deadly fumes are said to have been discharged from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH. Ikeja and Ogba Shopping Arcade which was last Thursday shut for being the source of the poisonous fumes has since been reopened.

General Manager of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, Mr. Ademola Shabi who spoke to our correspondent in an interview, said that the school would be reopened when the agency completes its investigation and certifies that the school is conducive for the students.

Shabi said: “We are yet to complete our investigation on the school. We will come out with the result before the end of this week.”

According to him: “At present, we discovered huge quantity of carbide behind the school and will be evacuating it tomorrow (today). Until we complete the evacuation of the carbides in the school, and by the time we certify that the school is conducive for the students, and then we will reopen the school.”

Nigerian Turkish international colleges hold 5th language festival

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BUJA—PUPILS from Nigerian Turkish International Colleges, around the nation will be converging in Abuja for a three-day language festival.

The festival will begin today till Friday March 14, while the award ceremony and grand finale will be held on Saturday, March 15.

The venue for the festival is National Universities Commission conference hall located at Aja Nwachukwu House, No. 26, Aguiyi Ironsi Street Maitama, Abuja.

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HE MAIDEN March, 2014 edition of the Lunch-Hour Fellowship, hosting The Turner Ogboru Ministries holds at The Chapel of Christ The Light, beside the Lagos State Government Secretariat, Central Mosque, Chartered Institute of Personnel, Secretariat Road, CBD Alausa, Ikeja today at 3.00 p.m.

Burial

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HE BURIAL rites of late Mrs. Comfort Oregbeyiwa, 86, begins with service of songs at her residence on Ogorode Road, Sapele, Delta State, tomorrow, at 4pm.

The body will leave Sapele Central Hospital’s mortuary for her hometown, Okpara Waterside, followed by interment and entertainment of guest on Saturday. Sunday is outing serviceatChurchofGodMission, Ogorode,by11am.

Late Comfort Oregbeyiwa

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 — 11

Ekiti guber: PDP postpones primary election by one week

BY HENRY UMORU

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BUJA—NATIONAL leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, shifted by one week, its earlier scheduled primary election to get its standard bearer for the June 21, 2014, Ekiti State gubernatorial election.

In a statement by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the party also postponed by one week, the ward congresses for the governorship primary in Ekiti State earlier slated for today.

Metuh said: “This is to allow party members participate in the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.” Meanwhile, Vanguard gathered yesterday that Senator Bode Olowoporoku who was on Monday disqualified by the Screening Committee headed by Senate leader, Senator Victor NdomaEgba was further asked to forget his gubernatorial ambition as he was not cleared by the Senator Mohammed Magoro-led Appeal Committee, just as Obafemi Peter who was earlier disqualified was yesterday cleared by the Committee to join others.

Burial

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RS. BEATRICE Oyeyemi Oginni, nee Atibioke is dead, aged 86.

Burial will take place on Saturday, March 22, at her residence, No. I89, Ifofin Street, Ilesa in Ilesa East Local Government Area of Osun State.

She was a food merchant.

She is survived by a daughter, sister, grand children and great grand children, among whom is Mr. Alex Folorunso, a Vanguard staff.

Late Beatrice Oginni

U.S envoy warns over Ekiti, Osun guber polls

BY GBENGAARIYIBI DO EKITI—THE United States Consular General in Nigeria, Mr. Jeffrey Hawkins has told the Professor Attahiru Jegaled Independent National Electoral Commission to be thorough with Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections, saying the two polls are critical to the success of the 2015 general elections.

According to the consul, the United States is more than determined to help Nigeria overcome all challenges to ensure the success of the 2015 polls.

Hawkins reminded INEC to put its house in order and tighten all loose ends to ensure that the best elections are witnessed in the two sister states.

Speaking at an interactive session with the newsmen in Ado Ekiti, yesterday, the US Consular General, lauded the Federal Government’s efforts, particularly the deployment of military to engage the sects, saying the war against terrorism is a must-win for the country for security of lives and property.

He expressed his dismay over the senseless killings of innocent children in Yobe State by Boko Haram, saying the activities of the Islamic sect may mar the conduct of the 2015 general elections in

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Nigeria if not put at its abeyance.

He said the US has given a staggering sum of 15 million dollars to Nigerian government to strengthen the electoral process, expressing hope that the 2015 elections will mark the watershed of credible election in Nigeria.

He warned politicians against fomenting violence in the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State.

According to him; “Nigeria is a great country and it is strategic in African continent. We are not only providing fund to help the country, but we are going to help in the technical aspects for the 2015 elections to be a success.

“We have strong relationship with the Prof. Jega-led INEC. We are not only having diplomatic relationship with the Nigerian government, we are also partnering in the areas of good

governance and good electoral system.”

On the poor INEC outings in Anambra governorship poll, Mr. Hawkins, said: “Prof. Jega had come out openly to own up that the commission had made mistakes. But with what he said when we met with him on the 2015 election, he seems determined to give Nigerians credible elections.”

VISIT: From left: Mrs. Oye Atilade, Executive Director, Freedom Foundation, Jacklyn Arigbe,Executive Assistant to the Executive Director and Sanya Olufemi during the visit of the Freedom Foundation team to Vanguard Newspapers in Apapa, Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Akeem Salau.

Confab: Protest in Ilaro over monarch’s exclusion

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BY DAUD OLATUNJI

B E O K U T A — HUNDREDS of indigenes of Yewa, in Ogun West Senatorial District of Ogun State, yesterday, protested the dropping of the paramount ruler and Olu of Yewa, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle from the delegates list recently released by the Federal Government.

The protesters under the aegis of Ogun West Consultative Forum, described as utmost shock and disbelieve the exclusion of their revered Oba’s name from the conference list.

Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun last week announced the name of Oba Olugbenle as one of the state’s delegates to the National Conference due for inauguration

on Monday.

But, when the final list of the delegates for the confab was released by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation,, Chief Pius Ayim, the Olu of Ilaro’s name was conspicuously missing.

Reacting to the development, Chief Kayode Odunaro and

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Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF Chief Pius Ayim.

“Indeed it was thought to be a grave error until we confirmed that indeed his name was dropped without any justifiable reason,” the statement said in part.

Customs intercepts 30,000 live cartridges in Oyo “The arms were concealed

BY OLAAJAYI & UDEME CLEMENT BADAN—TEN months after the Oyo/Osun state area command seized 56,750 arms and ammunition from smugglers at Saki area, the command, has again,

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We’ve left Ige’s killers to God Muyiwa Ige, the surviving — SON

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE SOGBO—TWELVE years after the assassination of the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, by yet to be identified gunmen, the family of the late politician declared yesterday that though they had left his killers to God for divine judgment, it would be difficult to forget the memories.

Tokunbo Fakeye in a press release condemned the action describing the development as a grave error.

“It is thus with utmost shock and disbelieve that we received the report of the royal father’s name exclusion from the list of delegates as released by the

son of the late politician who is the current Commissioner for Lands and Physical Planning in Osun State said the killers of his late father could not escape from the wrath of God at an appropriate time.

Speaking in Osogbo, yesterday, Muyiwa noted that the killers of Ige still move round the streets up till date, a situation which he said frustrate the family members.

intercepted another 30,000 live cartridges in the same area.

The contraband which were concealed in white sacs were hidden under some tubers of yam. Before handing over the items to the state police command, the Controller, Mr. Richard Oteri said: “It was to showcase the strategic and remarkable seizure of 30,000 pieces of ammunition packed in twenty cartons of 6/250 rounds of cartridges seized by one of the anti-smuggling teams of the command.”

He hinted further that the team that caught the driver of the bus with number plate KW 286 SHH was led by SC Okoi Arikpo arrested a white coloured Toyota Hiace bus along Saki-Ago Are axis of Oyo State in the early hours of Monday, March 10, 2014.

with tubers of yams and bags of dried cassava tubers. The driver of the bus who is the main suspect by name Abdulraheem Adegoke is under our custody and will be handed over to the police for further investigation,” he said.

Collecting the items on behalf of the police, Mr. Musa Kimo commended the customs area command for a job well done.

He said: “The police are happy with the command. We are going to be professional in our investigation and would surely get to the root of the matter. This command is very alert.”

The suspect who drove the bus identified himself as Abdulraheem Adegoke, claimed ignorance of the contents in the sacs.

12—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

E-West Road: Dec 2014 completion date not feasible —Minister

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI & AKPOKONA OMAFUAIRE

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ARRI—SUPERVISING Minister, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Ishaku Darius, has said that 50 percent of the 2014 appropriation for the ministry would be dedicated to the completion of the East-West Road.

He said that the December 2014 completion date by the erstwhile minister, Elder Godsday Orubebe, was not feasible owing to insufficient funds.

The minister, while inspecting the Warri - PortHarcourt Section of the East-West Road, responded, when asked how much was budgeted for the road in the 2014 budget, “We don’t have the budget yet, we only have appropriation as the budget has not been passed. But 50 percent of the appropriation will be dedicated to the East-West Road.

“The contractors are doing

their best from what I have seen, they have filled all the places that flood washed away, if they continue like this by December they would have done

appreciable work.”

Commending Setraco for doing a good job on sections of the road, Darius said: “I cannot project a completion

date when I don’t have the funds. We will ensure that the stretches that are highly congested like Eleme and others are done quickly to ease traffic.”

TOWN HALL MEETING: From left: A chieftain of Etinan federal constituency, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga; Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and his wife, Ekaette, at a town hall meeting in Uyo.

Embrace cashless policy to curb corruption —Acting CBN Gov

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

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ENIN—ACTINGgovernor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mrs. Sarah Alade, yesterday, urged stakeholders to sincerely embrace the cashless policy of the bank, so as to curb corruption in Nigeria and meet the vision 2020 requirement, which according to her, will modernise the country’s payment system.

She spoke in Benin City, Edo State, during a sensitisation meeting on the bank's cashless policy with stakeholders.

The CBN boss, who was represented by Mr. Victor Omoyibo, recalled that the cashless policy of the apex bank was introduced to improve effective monetary policy, reduce high security and safety risk, foster transparency and curb corruption, noting that while CBN was doing its best to implement the policy, cooperation among stakeholders was required to ensure its success.

Disclosing that the business community was gradually adapting to the policy, she said: “ We are also enlarging the financial contact points to include such places as post offices, motor parks and corner shops. The legal frame work needed to support this policy is also before the National Assembly and we will

fortify the implementation once ascent is received.”

On efforts to check electronic fraud, Mrs Alade said that “the country's electronic fraud forum has been inaugurated to ensure that the level of awareness and

vulnerability that exist on the e-channels is raised.

“Exchange of fraud information among institutions has also been encouraged with the view that the system is only as strong as our

weakest link. Today, we embark on a journey to reposition our financial system to address current challenges faced and transform Nigeria into a first world economy,” she added.

Blame FG officials for omission of Itsekiri from confab list —Group

BY EMMA AMAIZE

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SABA—ITSEKIRI Progress Club in Delta State, yesterday, cautioned the Federal Government against sending wrong signals between the Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta region with the exclusion of the Itsekiri as delegates to the national conference.

It, meanwhile, absolved President Goodluck Jonathan of any blame in the exclusion of Itsekiri nation from the list of delegates to the confab. Publicity Secretary of the club, Mr Lawrence Ukubeyinje, said officials of the Federal Government who prepared the list should be blamed.

He said: “Against the backdrop of the unprecedented peace that now exists between the Itsekiri and Ijaw in the Niger Delta, Federal Government officials should avoid mistakes that send wrong signals. It is one mistake too many to have

left out the Itsekiri nation from the list of delegates.”

The club called on President Jonathan, Delta State Government and all author-

ities concerned “to correct the omission and bring Itsekiri delegates to the conference.”

Delta community dismisses ex-militants’ 7-day ultimatum

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KERENKOKO community, in Warri SouthWest Local Government Area, Delta State, has dismissed the seven-day ultimatum given to the state government and the judiciary to release Chief Michael Johnny, Chief Mosco Johnny and six other leaders of the community from detention.

The ultimatum was issued on Monday by one Johnson Ebierede, claiming to be among former freedom fighters from Okerenkoko community.

But Apostle Ebierede Ger-

man, a leader in Okerenkoko, who dismissed the ultimatum, yesterday, on behalf of the community, said the publication was concocted to mislead the Delta State Government, the judiciary and the general public, including security agencies.

Ebierede said that there was no person in the entire Okerenkoko bearing Johnson Ebierede, adding “the publication was another plot to indict the detainees and malign the people of Okerenkoko. I urge the state government and security agencies to be on alert."

Ex-Edo SSG takes ill after remand in prison

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

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ENIN—LESS than 24 hours after an Edo State High Court sitting in Benin ordered his remand at Oko Prison in Benin, former Secretary to Edo State Government, Dr. Simon Imuekemhe, has reportedly taken ill.

It will be recalled that Imuekemhe and three former officials of the state Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, David Igbinoba, Joseph Emoabino and Aghator Efe, were on Monday, remanded in prison custody, pending the determination of their bail applications slated for this Friday.

The accused persons are standing trial on an eight-count charge of alleged diversion of N113 million SUBEB fund.

Public Relations Officer of Nigerian Prisons Service, NPS, Mr. Aminu Suleiman, who confirmed the report, said Imuekemhe was received by prisons officials on Monday afternoon.

Ex-British Foreign Minister lauds Nigeria

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

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ORT HARC O U R T — FORMER British Foreign Minister, Mr. Jack Straw, has described the absence of rule of law as an impediment to the development of a healthy democracy in any system.

Speaking yesterday at an international conference on democracy and good governance, organised by the Rivers State Government in Port Harcourt, Straw also condoled with the families of those murdered by Boko Haram, an Islamic sect in the country.

Straw, who lauded the resolve by Nigerians to remain united despite some critical challenges the country had gone through, said the welfare of a people and the security of lives should top the agenda of any good government.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014—13

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14—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Obasanjo, worst leader since 1999 — Orji Kalu

We were not responsible for attack on Enugu Govt House — MASSOB

BY TONY EDIKE

BY CHINENYEH OZOR

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SUKKA — FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has been described as the worst leader ever produced in the country since the advent of democracy in 1999.

The former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzo Kalu made this known at a lecture on youths empowerment and good governance at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, UNN, yesterday, adding that there was no transparency in government through out the eight years of Obasanjo’s regime.

Kalu noted that his problem with Obasanjo started in 1999 when he single- handedly financed the People Democratic Party, PDP, lending the party N500 million which he borrowed from the defunct Hallmark Bank, but which the former President asked the then PDP National Chairman, Chief Barnabas Gemade not repay. ’’As if that was not enough, the former president closed Slok Airlines (owned by me) as it landed at the Akanu Ibiam International (then Enugu) Airport without explanation, and shut down Hallmark Bank. It was then that I knew the problem had begun,’’ he said.

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NUGU — THE Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, yesterday, dismissed as baseless the claim by Enugu State police command that it (MASSOB) was responsible for last Satur-

day attack on Enugu Government House. ”The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra wishes to inform Ndigbo and Biafrans in general that last week violent attack in Enugu Government House was not carried out by our members,” the group said in a release by its National

Director of Information, Comrade Uchenna Madu, yesterday.

The group said the Police allegations “ were baseless; it is an act of cowardice, and their intention is to tarnish our good, respected and acceptable image in Igbo land. ”The people, Enugu State Commissioner of police gave

Igbo nation's not working — Okorocha

BY TONY EDIKE

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MEETING: From left, Professor Nwose Chukuma, Secretary General; Eze Hyacent Ohazulike (OON), Eze Ndigbo of Lagos State (centre), during a meeting of non-indigenes residing in the old Western Nigeria, at Eze Ndigbo's Palace, Lagos.

Ndigbo not marginalised by Jonathan — Gov Orji

BY ANAYO OKOLI

who harboured such views were enemies of the Igbo.

MUAHIA — ABIA State gov The governor noted that of the all ernor, Chief Theodore Orji, the presidents who had ruled the has dismissed insinuations that country in recent past, none had President Goodluck Jonathan was touched the lives of the people of marginalising Ndigbo, saying those the South East as President Jonathan.

Orji, who was, last week, elected new chairman of South East Governors’ Forum, noted Bright Okogwu to appear ed in the bank, how much that the zone had benebefore it and offer explana- was disbursed and come fited immensely from the tion on the missing fund. up with the bank detail of present administration.

The committee, however, the transaction.

“For a zone that has asked the DG, Budget OfWhile addressing the been marginalised, will fice to come before the com- committee, Mrs. Mayshak the President lay the mittee with a memo show- said that, she just assumed foundation stone for aning the request for miss- newly to manage the office other bridge when there ing N24 billion. adding that the money was is an existing one, set It also asked the First received and expended the money aside and also Bank to provide evidence before her appointment. set a deadline for the on how much was depositdelivery of the project;

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No account for N24bn police pension fund, says PTAD boss

BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

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BUJA — THE House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts was baffled on Tuesday when the Director General of Pension Transitional Arrangement Department, PTAD, Mrs. Nellie Mayshak told the committee that there was no evidence to show how N24 billion released from service wide vote in 2010 for Police Pension Fund was expended.

The committee had therefore summoned the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla, Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura and the Director General, Budget Office, Dr.

their names, are not our members; the whole drama is an arrangement of Enugu State Police Command thinking that MASSOB name should be brought to mud. ”The Hausa CP wants to create a negative impression that MASSOB is at war with government. He wants the Federal Government and the international communities to see MASSOB as a dissident group, so as to equate MASSOB with Boko Haram.

NUGU — GOVERNOR Roch-as Okorocha of Imo State, yesterday, lashed out at the present Igbo leaders for failing to work for the collective good of the people.

Okorocha, who spoke at the International Colloquium on the Igbo Question in Nigeria, in Enugu, said despite huge human and material potentials, the Igbo nation was not working, owing to disunity.

He said: “The Igbo nation is not working, but the Igbo na-

no we have never had it so good, my people,” Orji said.

According to him, the second Niger Bridge is very important because the old one is becoming weak and overused.

The new bridge, the governor explained, would help to reduce the stress the people from both the zone and parts of South-South go through during festive periods.

He also enumerated other projects Jonathan’s administration had done for Ndigbo to include the reconstruction of EnuguOnitsha express way, Onitsha-Owerri Road,

Obi not interested in SGF job, says aide

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

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WKA — SENIOR Special Assistant to Governor Peter Obi on Media and Publicity, Mr. Valentine Obienyem, has described as a figment of imagination, report in some newspapers that the outgoing governor of Anambra State was being considered for either the post

of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, a minister or an ambassador.

In a statement in Awka, yesterday, Obienyem said the epidemic of speculations surrounding Governor Obi’s next move after handing over to his successor on March 17, 2014, was understandable, but insisted, however, that his boss’ only wish was to hand over successfully, having taken

Anambra from grass to glory and from a state that witnessed many bank robberies to one that had not witnessed any bank robbery in four years.

Obieyem said: “As you are aware, Obi is still the governor of Anambra State.

His major concern is to finish strong.

"Associating any federal appointment with him is speculation and rumourmongering and should be

treated as such.”

According to him, whatever would "happen to the governor after his exit from Awka Government House is God’s wish."

The governor’s aide said what should be the people’s concern was how the governor would end successfully and support the incoming governor for the good of the state and not planting seeds of discord through baseless rumours.

tion can work and it will take my generation to make it work. ”The problem is not that we don’t have abundant natural and human resources; the problem is not that we don’t have enough educated people, enough businessmen, enough professors, enough religious leaders; our problem is lack of unity, any day Ndigbo became one, something would happen in Nigeria.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 —15

Fuel scarcity: Petroleum Minister insists on privatisation of refineries .Assures fuel scarcity’ll be over next week ....As APC accuses FG of plot to increase fuel price

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU, EMMAN OVUAKPORIE & LEVINUS NWABUGHIOGU

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BUJA — MINISTER of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, has said that the only solution to the problems in the petroleum industry, especially the scarcity of petroleum products, was the privatisation of refineries in the country.

She assured that the fuel scarcity that had rocked major cities in the country in the last two weeks would come to an end within the next one week.

Her assurances came as the All Progressives Congress, APC, accused the Federal Government of acting out a clandestine script to increase fuel prices through the back door, saying the ongoing nationwide fuel scarcity might have been induced to make higher fuel prices a fait accompli for Nigerians.

The Minister spoke, yesterday, when she appeared before the Joint Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream, Downstream and Gas) to defend her ministry’s 2014 budget, in company of senior officials of the ministry and heads of agencies under her supervision.

Allison-Madueke, who said the process of privatisation would have been concluded if the various trade unions within the petroleum industry had not protested the action, however, said the Federal Government was continuing with the rehabilitation of the refineries.

She said: “The way forward is the privatisation of the refineries because government should not be involved in the business of fuel sales. I wouldn’t call the current fuel shortage, a recurring development because there has been no shortage in the last three years until two weeks ago.

“The shortage has a lot to do with a number of issues. First, there seems to have some scare or rumour that the Federal Government wanted to increase the pump price of petroleum products and I have said it categorically that the Nigerian government had no intention of increasing the pump price of petroleum products, anytime in the near future. That is for certain.

“Second, whether it is as a result of rumour or supply issue, there was a certain level of burden and we found out too that there was a certain level of diversion of petroleum products.

“All of these we are trying to ensure that they are brought to an end very shortly and as a result I have been going out to monitor the fuel distribution and talk to petrol station owners in Lagos and to consumers as well just to get an understanding of where they had the worse shortages over the last couple of weeks.

“But it is coming under control now, we will be flooding the market with petrol over the next few weeks and beyond to ensure that whatever it is that is causing the shortage, whether it is

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fuel diversion or rumours of pump price increment, it will be stopped by force and we will ensure that those found to be actually diverting fuel or hoarding even after all that we had done, during the period, will undergo punitive measures.

“If we have found a filling station on our list to be diverting or hoarding, no matter who owns the station, whether it is owned by the NNPC, they would face the same punishment.”

She said that her ministry had implemented 87 per cent of its N60 billion budgetary allocation in 2013.

She said: “We gave implementation figures based on what was released to us. In terms of what was released to us, we performed based on that fairly well to the tune of about 87 per cent implementation based on the actual releases. The portion of the funds that was not released to us cannot be used as basis for performance.

“In terms of 2014, we have a budget figure of about N60billion for the entire ministry both recurrent and capital expenditure. Unfortunately recurrent takes a lot out of every budget in the system. The capital is much less but we intend to move forward as much as we can by ensuring that all the ongoing projects are completed while new projects like LPG framework are carried forward.”

The Minister said the ministry was faced with the challenge of funding, inadequate facilities, sabotage and vandalism, oil theft and oil spill, adding that all these affected the nation’s resources.

“In 2013, of the N60.9 billion appropriated, N50.4 billion was personnel cost, N1.8 billion overhead cost, while N8.1 billion capital cost,” she said On the N512 million PIB enlightenment campaigns, she said the amount was spent on jingles, publicity and other related issues.

But the Committee Chairman, Senator Emmanuel Paulker who was not satisfied with the explanation on how the N512 million was spent, told the minister to put details of the expenditure in writing.

But the All Progressives Congress, APC, would not have any of the minister ’s assurances on increase in the pump price of petrol, accusing the Federal Government of acting out a clandestine script to increase prices through the back door.

According to the party, the ongoing nation-wide scarcity may have been induced to make higher fuel prices a fait accompli for Nigerians.

In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the fact that the scarcity had persisted, despite the claims and counter-claims by the government and the oil marketers, and the measures purportedly taken by the government to ameliorate the situation, was the clearest indication of official deception.

16 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Alakio killings: Ewuga, Kigbu, others for prosecution

BY ABEL DANIEL & JOSEPH ERUNKE

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AFIA — TWO federal law makers from Nasarawa State, Senator Solomon Ewuga and Hon. Joseph Kigbu have been indicted by the Justice Joseph

Gbadeyan- led Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the activities of Ombatse Militia group in Alakyo, area of Nasarawa State, which reportedly killed 534 people in the area last year.

Among those killed

PRESENTATION: Publisher, City People Magazine, Mr. Seye Kehinde (left), presenting Best Governor Award, Youth Empowerment, to Kwara State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, at Government House, Ilorin.

'....It’s attempt to tarnish Eggon leaders' Ombatse killings: Commission’s report premeditated —Ewuga were about 148 security officers, including mainly policemen and officials of the Department of State Services, DSS. They were killed in an ambush allegedly mounted by the Ombatse group while on their way to quell the crisis in Alakyo.

According to a government White Paper in Lafia, the state capital yesterday, others indicted along with the two legislators for allegedly financing and promoting Ombatse include Hon. Nathaniel Agyo Mesa, the Village Head of Agyaragu, Alhaji Sale Angulu; and an Eggon Thlocal musician (chara), Mr Yohana Laraban.

The panel further blamed the Federal Government for its alleged indifference to the killing even when its agents were the victims.

It said that the Federal Government did not help in the containment of the violence, pointing out that its action had given ‘’room for tendentious interpretations (that were) largely political in nature.

The panel then recommended further investigation and prosecution of Ewuga and other indicted Eggon leaders over the killings. But in their swift reactions to the development, the National President of the Eggon Cultural Association Mr. Chris Mamman, described ‘’the report as a calculated political attempt to tarnish the image of both political leaders and the Eggon people in the eyes of the world,’’ adding even as it ‘’was the confirmation to what I told the commission when I was called upon to state my position at the

commission.”

“The governor and his clicks have set out to perpetuate mischief against the Eggon nation. The state government hired the commission to rob a chicken tongue on the political and traditional leadership, the cultural association, the youth movement and virtually the entire Eggon nation,” he said.

In his own reaction, Senator Ewuga also described the report of the Commission of Enquiry as premeditated.

Ewuga, who said he was yet to get a copy of the report, alleged that the Nasarawa State government, headed by Governor Umaru Al-makura, was on a mission to tarnish his reputation, vowing that he would challenge the white-paper that linked him with wrongdoings through constitutional means, adding that already, he had asked his lawyers to get a copy of the report to enable him to go through before taking the next line of action.

The White Paper noted with deep regret the unfortunate roles played by the Eggon Traditional Council and its elders through their alleged tacit support for the activities of the Ombatse group and recommended the formal admonition and reprimand of the council and its elders in the interim over their failure to call the Ombatse and other affiliated Eggon groups to order The government then directed the Ministry of Local Government Affairs and the Office of the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, to take appropriate action as recommended by the

commission.

Meanwhile, addressing newsmen in Abuja, yesterday on the matter, Senator Ewuga, who represents Nasarawa North Senatorial District, said he would make a categorical statement when he sees the report.

He accused the state government of allegedly embarking on a mission to tarnish his reputation due to his political influence in Nasarawa, His words, “I have not seen the white paper on the panel’s recommendation. But whatever my response is today is based on what I saw in the media, first on AIT yesterday and on the pages of newspapers today (yesterday).

“The report was handed in on Friday, but by Sunday I was not in doubt as to the content of what would be. For the fact that a whitepaper is already out indicates a pre-disposition because it is an ingenious thing to have read those volumes and deciphered the appropriateness of punishment or otherwise within two days. That was the first thing that came to my mind.”

Ewuga further accused the panel of inquiry of not cross-examining him when he was invited to appear, saying that by doing that, the panel failed to give him fair hearing.

“I was invited as a witness to the panel and not as an accused person and I was not availed of any cross-examination of purported accusations against me which by virtue of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, breaches my fundamental rights to fair hearing and to the understanding of the issues."

President Jonathan meets with APC govs

BY BEN AGANDE

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BUJA — President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, met behind closed doors with governors of the All Progressives Party, APC, from the South West zone at the presidential villa, Abuja.

The meeting which lasted for over an hour was attended by governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State. Although none of the four governors spoke to state house correspon-

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dents after the meeting, it was learnt that the forth-coming National Conference and some development projects in the zone may have been issues discussed.

Governor Fashola told state House Correspondents that “It was a private meeting, if there is need for you to know, the Presidential media aide will brief ”.

It was gathered that the forth coming elections in Osun and Ekiti state also came up and the governors allegedly gave their commitment to the conduct of a free and fair election.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014— —17

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18 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 HERODOTUS, the father of history, would be astounded about Nigeria’s decision to remove history from its school curriculum. Bourbons, who disappeared because they did not learn from history, are the best example of the perils of ignoring history, especially dedication to studying it.

Every human endeavour is accompanied by events, which are recorded, stored and retrieved when needed. These advance preservation of knowledge through research, references, securing information, and sustenance of cultures through generations.These, in turn, facilitate discovery of fresh facts, interpretation of old facts, reconstruction of events, resolution of conflicts through emergence of facts, advancing the process of negotiations between individuals, groups and nations. History helps us to preserve our culture and civilisation. Life without history is incomplete since sizeable parts of knowledge, information, artifacts, records, totems among others, could be lost.

Jews survived the Holocaust with history. For Africans taken into slavery, their captors deliberately wiped out their knowledge, purged them of any attachment to their culture, destroyed filial relations and created double consciousness in them.

Hist or Histor oryy Ends In Nigeria Later study and knowledge of history enabled Africans and those in the Diaspora to reconcile with their past and rise against slavery, racism, colonialism and injustice.

Official reasons Nigeria advances for expunging history as a course of study are that students are shunning it, as there were few jobs for history graduates, and there is dearth of history teachers. These are excuses.

Nigeria’s abhorrence of history is not new.

There is no official account of the Civil War. When we obliterate history, we should also destroy our artifacts, burn our museums and monuments, heritage sites and archaeological

activities. A generation of Nigerians without knowledge of history would not appreciate these treasures.

How does a country proceed without a knowledge of it heroes and heroines? History is not just a study of events and dates, it provides analytical insights into social formations, anthropological developments, inventions and innovations that shape humanity.

The roles of history in governance, conflict resolutions, diplomacy and international relations, science and medical studies, technological developments, advancement of civilisations and human relations are vital.

People in knowledge enterprise struggle to eke out a living for themselves and their families because we have substituted knowledge, as embodied in history, for insatiable quest for material gains. Those who succeed in the crass race for material acquisition are society’s heroes and heroines because the sense of the past with its values of honesty, intellectual achievements, and hard work have been lost .If we do not want to go the way of the Bourbons, we must restore the study of history in our education curriculum and make it compulsory to rescue generations of our society who cultural dilution is making rootless.

OPINION

BY FATIMA GONI

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ITHIN a week many develop ments occurred in a jiffy. From the arrest of the suspected killers of Islamic Cleric, Sheik Adam Albani, to attacks in North-Eastern states and now to the recent warning signals from the Defence Headquarters on alleged sympathisers and backers of terrorist groups.

It is not funny, especially for some of us who have relatives, including spouses serving in the security agencies in the country. When members of the security forces are deployed to the dangerous zones, we wonder if they would return alive and whole. On the other hand if they are in safer zones, the fear of anticipated redeployment can send shivers down our spines.

Going through some social media, one could easily read doubting Thomases in every action of the security personnel on the ground. Reports quoting eye-witnesses are more regarded than statements from official spokespersons.

When the Department of States Security Service, SSS, in Abuja paraded seven arrested members of Boko Haram over the killing of popular Zaria-based Islamic cleric, Sheik Adam Albani, some postings in social media expressed strong doubt.

It could be recalled that Sheik Albani, along with his wife and son, were killed in Zaria, Kaduna State, while returning from a preaching session at Markaz Salafiya Centre, Tudun Wada Zaria.

The spokesperson of the SSS, Marilyn Oga, not only announced the arrest, she gave permission to journalists at

The Albani’s case and the doubting Thomases the head office of the service to ask the suspects questions. From the countenances of some of the suspects, one could easily read lack of remorse, apart from the fact that most of them confessed to planning and killing their victims.

Among the suspects was a graduate of English literature and a sub-regional commander of the sect in Kaduna/Niger states axis.

Meanwhile, in another story, the Chief of Air Staff was reported to have led assaults against Boko Haram in NorthEast. It was reported that incensed by the rising number of deaths and galvanised by the barbaric acts of the insurgents and the need to lead by example, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu personally entered the battle zone when he flew one of the Alpha jets of the 75 Strike Group of the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, to conduct air strikes against enemy positions along BornoAdamawa axis. As refreshing as the report was, surprisingly some still doubted the veracity of the courageous efforts of Air Marshal Adesola Amosu by claiming that his aide must have flown the fighter jet.

Despite the air and ground assault by the military, the sect’s onslaught on North-Eastern Nigeria continued unabated, while politicians and unknown eye-witnesses were busy dishing out gory tales about the inability of security forces to do anything to curtail the excesses of the insurgents.

Concerned about the rising verbal attacks on the security personnel on the operation and some sensational angle from various credible and not-credible sources, the Director, Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, issued a statement to caution those causing disaffection by their utterance on the security situation.

General Olukolade disclosed that the Defence Headquarters has noted with grave concern the inflammatory pronouncements by some highly placed persons in government and some apparently sponsored commentators in and outside the country who have consistently given false and misleading remarks to describe the disposition of troops in the ongoing operations. He therefore pointed out that it has become clear that the sustained campaign is intended to demoralize the troops and give impression that the military is overwhelmed by the terrorist group.

“This tendency,” he echoed, “is unfortunate to say the least.”

So far the Defence Headquarters has restated that the Nigerian military cannot by any standard be overwhelmed by the insurgents, neither will the devious antics of their sympathisers and sponsors demoralise the fighting spirit of troops.

Before the arrest of the suspected killers of Sheik Albani, some of the students of the late cleric were skeptical about the ability and sincerity of secu-

rity agencies to unmask and arrest the culprits. It is heartwarming that the students are now singing new tunes over the arrest. Dr. Abdulganiyu Abdulrafi’u, one of the frontline students of late Sheikh Adam Albani, commended the security agencies for the speedy investigation and operation in apprehending the suspects. He added that since the suspects claimed to be Muslims and that they allegedly carried out the act in the name of Islam, the SSS should take them to the Shari’ah Court where they could receive what they deserve.

While we should encourage our security personnel to abide by the rules of engagement where necessary, they should also be transparent and sincere in relaying information to the public.

We should be receptive and responsive to official positions, especially from the designated and professional spokespersons who don’t play propaganda.

We should discountenance the propaganda messages of the terrorists and their conscious and unconscious backers alleging the inability of Nigerian troops to handle the insurgency.

By the way, I always ask this question: Are our security personnel not like everyone of us who are human and deserves and support to put in their best?

*Ms. Goni, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Abuja.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014— —19

, Celebrating infamy; honouring thieves

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CTIVITIES marking Nigeria’s centenary climaxed a fortnight ago with an elaborate award ceremony in the country’s capital, Abuja. This was to honour Nigerians from diverse fields for what we were made to understand was their contribution to the development of the country. The long list of honourees, parading a crowd of past office holders, politicians and a sprinkling of iconic names from the different ethnic groups, was as undistinguished as it could possibly be. This is not in any way surprising. Nigerian national awards have over the years consistently lost both emotional and sentimental capital. They are worth less than the dull-looking, counterfeit-like medals that are thrown round the necks of winners.

The easiest route for winning any of the awards is through politics.

The quality of contribution does not matter. What counts is the simple distinction that a winner should have held public office, appointed or elected. Thus, we see so many Nigerian politicians and retired military officers today with all kinds of initials after their

names indicative of their membership of the league of national award winners. The situation has become so obscene that current office holders don’t wait to leave office before conferring national awards on themselves or their cronies.

Nigerian national awards are now two for a kobo and any one who desperately wants it can get it.

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t is therefore understandable when some Nigerians, usually those who have truly distinguished themselves, feel slighted when lumped in the same award boat with persons of no meaningful achievement, corporate or personal. Others chafe at being honoured in one of the lower categories when a confirmed upstart goes home with one of the most prestigious. To be an award winner, you need do no more than make the acquaintanceship of someone in government. Of course, it may seem arrogant for a person to reject their award on the logic that they deserve better than another. But modesty does not necessarily dull a person’s sense of relative accomplishment and self-

Current office holders don’t wait to leave office before conferring national awards on themselves or their cronies; Nigerian national awards are now two for a kobo

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worth. In local parlance, man know him level. But this is not the case for those who draw up the list of our national award winners. It is, for them, an all-comers affair in which the race, of necessity, doesn’t go to the fastest. The important thing is to be a politician (in agbada or camouflage) or a friend or relation of one.

In announcing winners of our socalled centenary award, one would have expected more careful and painstaking effort in selection.

This was not to be, however. Rather what Nigerians were confronted by was a list that looked so equally routine and repetitive that it could have been a copy from a previous year. Truly this was a centenary award, and it should cover or tell the history of the country in terms of the individuals that epitomized it in the last hundred years. In other words, it should be both retrospective and prospective in its mode of recognition. It should, on the one hand recall, in the words of our national anthem, the labours of ‘our heroes past’ while casting a look in the direction of those who would shape the history of the country’s future. But in the thinking of Abuja, the centenary award was one way to proclaim a version of the ‘no winner, no

vanquished’ philosophy of a bygone era. It was an opportunity to open the door to all, especially past office holders, in spite of their contribution to the destruction of the country and what should be our cherished value system.

One could take issues with more than a few of the names on the list of awardees. But the case of Sani Abacha should make my point clear. And this is not because it is the worst. It simply serves to explain what joke we make of ourselves in the eyes of the world.

Both for his human rights record and plunder of the national treasury, Abacha was one ruler many Nigerians would not be eager to remember. As a person, Abacha might have been very good to some people, not the least his family who most benefitted from his despotic rule. His kleptomania has yet no name in our national lexicon and, perhaps, no comparison. It was too crude to bear description. But it was also for the benefit, mostly, of his family and close friends and others who saw in the opening, the overall boss’s corruption created for them an opportunity to feather their own nests. Abacha could have been a great husband, father and family man I repeat. But as a Nigerian ruler he was simply bad news, a nightmare hundred of millions of Nigerians would be happy not to remember. Fifteen years since he died, the Nigerian state is still at war with his family trying, through legal means, to recover billions of dollars he had stashed away in foreign accounts. He simply had no place in the class of Nigerians that should be honoured for their contribution to the motherland.

Except we understand that contribution in the same sense in which media houses honour, as ‘man of the year’, the person who for ‘good or ill’ most impacted on the polity.

The shameful aspect of Abacha’s inclusion in that list of national awardees and which is an indictment of President Jonathan and his so-called fight against corruption is that Abacha’s butchery of the treasury is still being exposed around the world by foreign governments at a time when Abuja under Jonathan is busy handing him a posthumous award of honour. If the likes of Wole Soyinka and the Fawehinmi and Fela families rejected their awards, finding the company of some awardees too embarrassing to keep or simply couldn’t see what there is to celebrate at a time when terrorists have all but taken over control of a large part of the country- whatever are the reservations of these and other Nigerians about the honour done known destroyers of the Nigerian state, they should hold nobody responsible but Goodluck Jonathan. He it is who sees the centenary celebration as an avenue to play 2015 politics by seeking to rehabilitate outcasts of the Nigerian story.

In his bid to see no evil or hear any, Goodluck Jonathan does not mind dining with the devil. His ambition to continue in office is driving him in dangerous directions at a time when his hold on power appears more tenuous than ever. While terrorists make Nigeria ungovernable, destroying young lives and decimating towns and villages, the President responds with rhetoric of future victory. The oil-producing country he rules over was grounded by scarcity of fuel, a tale of corruption, that is diverting attention from ongoing investigations of kerosene and petroleum scams by the NNPC. But Jonathan must get his second term!

Against dialogue with Boko Haram HE pattern is clear. The more bloodcurdling the atrocities of Boko Haram the louder the calls for dialogue with the band of murderous psychopaths whose official name is Jama’atuAhlissunnahLidda’awatiWalJihad.True, there is no deranged act of murder and arson more blood-curdling than another in the unending orgy of crimes against humanity that this criminal gang has been committing since it began its quest to establish an Islamic kingdom in Nigeria.

Yet some stand out by their sheer senselessness, serving as an even more brutal reminder of the total severing of ties to humanity by a group that purports to found a caliphate of superior moral character to any secular order. Among countless other evils is the slaughter in their midnight sleep two weeks ago of “sixty” students of Federal Government College, BuniYadi, Yobe State.

That is not the exact number of the pupils shot dead at point blank range or burnt to death when their hostels were set ablaze.

Not content with murder and arson, God’s warriors took a yet to be ascertained number of students as hostages.

Defeat and desperation Predictably, the slaughter of the sleeping students has raised the volume of the calls for dialogue but this seems to me a cry of fear, defeat and desperation. The taking of a life without provocation savages the essence of our humanity. It awakens our primordial anxiety over the continuity of life, the perpetuation of the species—especially when so abrupt and clinical that it leaves no room for self-defence or for coming to terms with the inevitability of death. And then there C M Y K

is the rightly unappeasable feeling of guilt when the victims, as in the BuniYadi case, are innocent children who, to compound intolerable grief, were asleep in a place of learning to which we had sent them. We are mortified, then, by a collective feeling of betrayal, of an unpardonable abdication of the duty of protection we owe the young and vulnerable. I am tortured by both feelings.

Although it is all of 30 years ago now, I couldn’t help thinking on hearing the traumatic news, “I could have been one of them had I happened to be born two decades later and been sent to BuniYadi instead of the Federal Government College in Warri!”

So, then, what do I make of the cries for dialogue with the butchers of Boko Haram, masquerading and marauding as anointed founders of Allah’s kingdom on a patch of the earth it pleased same Allah to populate with people of sundry beliefs and tongues?

To my mind, there can be no dialogue with conscious, unrepentant and sneering evildoers.In any case, we have tried that with outrageous results. Or have we forgotten so soon the stinging scorn with which Boko Haram dismissed President Jonathan’s offer of dialogue and amnesty? That it is they, arms deep in blood, and not the President, who have the prerogative of mercy? Thus, while chary of speaking in any simplistic terms of good and evil, it seems to me crucial, nevertheless, that a society must retain a clear sense of the fundamental distinction between the two. Lest, by blurring the line we sacrifice all to the dubious altar of peace. Indeed, that blurring has begun now that we have reached the point of giving national honours to congenital coupplotters who presided over the murder, maiming and jailing of thousands, serial traitors to the nation, by bedecking Generals

Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha with statesman medals. By that precedent alone, we should be honouring Abubakar Shekau

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The restructuring of the nation we all agree is a primary issue at the impending national conference must be understood to include a radical change in our religious consciousness and attitudes

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for his outstanding services to the fatherland at the 50th or 60th anniversary of our flag independence!

So, what is to be done? The answer, I think, is two-fold: an all-out war to either wipe out the vicious sect or degrade it to the point of combat ineffectiveness, and the reinstatement of the foundational idea of Nigeria as a secular state. We have been so swept up by the dangerous tide of rabid religiosity that we no longer know the

meaning of constitutional secularity, nor why it is a non-negotiable guarantee of our peaceful co-existence. This means that the restructuring of the nation we all agree is a primary issue at the impending national conference must be understood to include a radical change in our religious consciousness and attitudes. The conference must ensure not to repeat the costly dereliction of duty by the 1978 Constituent Assembly which bequeathed to us the hydraheaded monster of sanctimonious politicians and religious politics. The question of Shari’a law, I say, must be settled once and for all!The core North, as a political entity, must be told that it can no longer toy with the peace of the nation in the name of God; that its endorsement of ajuridical jihad is the strongest impetus for Boko Haram’s political version.

Anything less, whether or not by the seductive name of dialogue, would be futile and fatal. After all, with Boko Haram’s criminal-in-chief, Shekau, claiming to be obeying Allah’s will, how are the rest of us who do not purport to be in direct conversation with the Almighty to know the divine will? As the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’adAbubakar III, told President Jonathan, Boko Haram’s senseless killings is “the height of madness.” And whoever dialogued with a madman and managed to look sane?

20 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12 , 2014

Tension as Onitsha land owners move to recover leased school land from govt •Insist on expiration of 60-year lease agreement

BY NWABUEZE OKONKWO, Onitsha

Continued from last week

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HE metropolitan city of Onitsha, Anambra State was thrown into frenzy last week as owners of a vast expanse of land known as Ogbo family land and located at Woliwo Layout, Onitsha, measuring about 14.69 acres, served a notice of their intention to reclaim the land from the Anambra State government, as a result of the expiration of a 60year old lease agreement.

The land owners numbering over 100 stormed the premises of Our Lady’s High School, Onitsha in what appeared to be a peaceful procession and asked the school authorities to vacate the premises with immediate effect. This was to enable them take over their land now that the 60-year-old lease agreement expired since 10 years ago.

Addressing the school authorities with placards in their hands, the head (Diokpa) of Ogbo family of Umuasele Village, Onitsha, Omodi Obiora Nzekwu, explained that they leased the land to one Mr. Peter Ejikeme Chukwura on August 8, 1944 for an initial term of 30 years, for the purpose of running a school.

Some of their placards read in part: “Gov. Peter Obi, release our land to us”, “We want our land not our Lady ’s High

BY EBELE ORAKPO

‘R

EPORTS said that the soldiers who could have helped those innocent children at Federal Government College Buni Yadi, were called off a day before the attack. The question is: why and who gave the orders?” asked Tim. “The whole thing is so complicated. We all agree that the armed forces have been infiltrated by these evil people, so it is possible that one of their high ranking members in the army could have given the order…,” suggested Ade. Interjected Iyke: “Or could it be that the soldiers heard they were going to attack the area and fled because apparently, these guys are more equipped as suggested by the Borno governor? They fight only in the night, in convoys of brand new Hilux vehicles, so what do you think?”

“If you are familiar with that area, you will know that even if the victims had the opportunity of calling in soldiers, it will take at least two hours for them to drive from the barracks to the school, which would have given the rascals adequate time to do maximum damage,” explained Abu. Continuing, he said: “The army barracks is very far from the place. What happens in that part of the country is that local government areas are created from farm settlements because they have huge landmass. So you may have a local government with just a handful of people and few buildings occupying a very large expanse of land… such places are very easy targets for criminals.

TOP: Placard-carrying members of Ogbo family in front of Our Lady’s High School.

BOTTOM: Notice of ownership by the family. would have been stated in the lease agreement dated August 8, 1944. Also in their petition

,

Based on no renewal of the lease agreement after the expiration, their reversionary interest has remained untouched and unassailable

School”, “ANSG, give us back our land”, “Gov. Obi, we want our land not compensation”.

Nzekwu further explained that along the line, Chukwura established a school initially known as Africa College which was renamed Chukwura High School and finally had its name changed to Our Lady’s High School.

He added that when the initial 30-year lease agreement expired in 1974, the lease agreement was renewed for a second term of another 30 years which expired on July 31, 2004.

Contending that they did not grant the lease to the school, but to Mr. Chukwura in his personal capacity, the family head insisted that it was also the intendment of the parties that there shall be no further renewal of the lease after the expiration of the total term of 60 years on July 31, 2004, adding that if there was to be a renewal, it C M Y K

Boko Haram: GEJ should act decisively now! (3)

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to Governor Peter Obi of Anambra state, signed on their behalf by their legal counsel, F. O. Balonwu Esq, the land owners stated that based on the fact that there shall be no renewal of the lease agreement after the expiration, their reversionary interest has remained untouched and unassailable.

Balonwu maintained that since Chukwura was a school proprietor and government took over his interest, it follows that the government could only acquire whatever interest the proprietor had in the land, which is the term of years which ended in 2004. He added that by operation of their reversionary rights, they are entitled to repossess their land on which Our Lady’s High School stands.

Describing the state government as an adverse occupier of their land since 2004, Balonwu advised the government to

conveniently relocate the school elsewhere, even if it means outside Onitsha urban.

He cited a similar instance in 1986 when Rear Admiral Allison Madueke (retd), former Military Administrator of Old Anambra State, relocated the Primary school wing known as African Primary School from the subject site to an eight plots of land at Tagbo Isima Street, Woliwo Layout now known as Woliwo Primary School which was magnanimously provided by them.

An estate valuer, I. K. Iwenofu, therefore, prayed Governor Peter to direct the state Commissioner of Education to respect their reversionary rights and dismantle, vacate, relocate and handover the school site to them in the interest of justice, equity and fairness.

Responding, the Vice Principal (Administration,JSS), Mr. Martin Asoegwu and the Vice Principal (Administration) (SSS), Mrs. Ifeoma Izundu who stood in for the Principal who was not around during the visit, commended the demonstrators for their peaceful method of protest and promised to convey their message to the authorities concerned.

Federation account “All this just to collect allocations from the federation account? You know, in Nigeria, the more local government areas you have, the more money your state gets from the Federal Government. The officials collect the money at the end of every month, share amongst themselves and wait for the next allocation,” said Tim. “President Jonathan should order the army to go all out against these beasts,” stated Julia to which Florence responded: “The truth is that he cannot.”

Asked Julia: “What do you mean he cannot? Is he not the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces?”

“He hasn’t got it in him to shed blood. He is a civilian remember? Obasanjo was able to level Odi and Zaki Biam because of his military background,” replied Florence.

“Oh really? Then why is he the C-in C? George W. Bush is a civilian, yet, he sent troops out to fight the Taliban. In fact, I remember what he said when he sent troops to Afghanistan: ‘On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against Al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan,’” said Julia.

“Bush had military training. They are all given military training one way or the other unlike African leaders.

Heard that he was at the Vietnam War in 1968,” replied Florence.

“Someone had said that some of these Boko Haram guys are soldiers from Chad and Niger Republic. If you’ve noticed, there is relative peace in those two countries now because the guys are actively engaged in Nigeria. So I think our government should employ the late Col. Ghaddafi’s tactics... cause some confusion in the two countries and they will run back home to fight,” submitted Tim. “I will say it again, our government should get outside forces involved in this battle if they are serious.

The US did not fight the Taliban alone,” said Ade. Concluded

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 — 21

Ecobank sets up committee to search for new board members

NIWA berates FG’s poor road construction linking Baro Port

By GODWIN ORITSE

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HE management of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has expressed concern over the poor access road connected to the N4.2billion nearly completed Baro port in Niger State.

Speaking at the flag off of the safety awareness campaign at Nupeko in Niger State, NIWA’s Managing Director, Hajia Inna Ciroma, said the port is about 95 percent completed, adding

that the inability to access the port by road may bring government’s investment to naught.

Ciroma, who disclosed this during a courtesy visit to the Niger State Government House, appealed to governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, to intervene by encouraging the Ministry of Transport to list the access road on its agenda.

The NIWA boss noted that without good roads, the port will not be as effective and efficient as planned. She said “My second prayer has to do

with the deplorable road networks leading to Baro River port as the port is nearing completion.

“In fact, the Baro River port has literally been completed, but unfortunately, there are no good access road leading to the port. We plead with his Excellency to use his good office to encourage the Honourable Minister of works to list this very important road in the 2014/2015 appropriation because without a good access road to the port, there will be

no way the port will be effective and in its operation. Finally, we have just commissioned the Onitsha River port in Anambra State and Baro port in Niger State is next in line and it will be the very first River port to be completed in northern Nigeria and may end up being the flagship port for the whole of northern part of Nigeria”.

From left : Chioma Nwabuoku, Divisional Head, Corporate Resources, Enterprise Bank Limited; Mallam Ahmed Kuru, the bank’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Uju Ogubunka, Registrar, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and Mrs. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, an Executive Director of the bank when the CIBN Registrar paid a courtesy visit to the management of Enterprise Bank in Lagos.

Tokunbo imports: Freight forwarders threaten to go to N/A, court

BY GODFREY BIVBERE

F

ORMER Chairman of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN, and member of the Board of Trustees, BOT, of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Tony Iju Nwabunike, has said that freight forwarders would head for the law court and the National Assembly to challenge the planned commencement of 70 percent increase on duties of imported vehicles.

Nwabunike, who spoke with Vanguard in his office weekend, explained that the new law is antipeople. He explained that claims by government that the new policy is intended to encourage local manufacturing of vehicles do not hold water as there is no real vehicle

manufacturing company in the country presently. He pointed out that what is available in the country presently are vehicle assembling plants and in some cases, importers who pretend to be manufacturers.

According to him, “This morning, I heard that government is withdrawing the new tariff on Tokunbo car till July; we will take them to the National Assembly and we will take them to court.

We will take it to the National Assembly and we will argue it. We are not against local manufacturing but what we are against is people maneuvering government to get the things they want to sell and manipulate the market and monopolise it. I do not want it that way. I want a situation where there is a healthy competition.

“I challenge anybody that will come here to tell me that he is a manufacturer of automobile in Nigeria. All we have

here in Nigeria are assembling plants.

Assembling Semi-Knock Down, SKDs, products or Completely Knock Down, CKDs, of products is not total manufacturing of vehicles and cars. So I wonder why federal government will think of putting that 70 percent back. I agree with those who are actually agitating not to pay it and I stand by them by all means to see that it is not done.

“The Toyota will bring their manufacturing plant here, sort local materials here and manufacture cars. The Mercedes Benz, BMW and the rest of them can come to Nigeria. The federal government will help them by giving land and other infrastructure, but to import cars and remove the head lamp, remove the parts and then claim to be a manufacturer should be discouraged.

BY PETER EGWUATU

E

cobank Transnational Incorporated has disclosed that it has set up a new committee to search for new Board members. The seven member search Committee consists of two former chairmen of the bank, Mr. Gervais Djondo and Chief Philip Asiodu, two representatives of the current board and three shareholder representatives.

In a statement made available to Vanguard, the bank said the Committee was established as part of the detailed 51 point Governance Action Plan agreed by shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting held at Ecobank’s pan African Centre in Lomé on Monday 3 March 2014.

It further noted that the Committee would be assisted by an external search firm. According to the bank “The move to reconstitute the Board at Ecobank Transnational Incorporated follows recommendations made by West African regulators of the stock exchanges where Ecobank is listed as well as from a report by the Global Board Center of the renowned Swiss business school, the International Institute for Management Development (IMD). The IMD report by their Global Board Center followed a review of ETI’s corporate governance, including the size and constitution of the Board, its procedures for managing related party transactions, as well as its committee structures and incentive policies.”

The search Committee will recommend potential Board members to the shareholders of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated at their Annual General Meeting, to be held in June.

202.0

5.95

2,968.00

+2.00

18.19

0.18

107.92 100.96

-1.08 1.62

CURRENCY BUYING

CENTRAL SELLING

DOLLAR STERLING EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYAL KRONA SDR

155.25 258.3515 215.5025 176.8022 1.5022 0.3188 240.1373 25.2895 41.3945 28.8708 240.4046

154.75 257.5195 214.8085 176.2328 1.4973 0.3088 239.3639 25.2076 41.2612 28.7778 239.6304

155.75 259.1836 216.1966 177.3716 1.507 0.3288 240.9107 25.3714 41.5278 28.9638 241.1789

CBN Exchange rate as at 11/03/2014

-

22 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Fraud reporting in Pa. at all-time high

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he Pennsylvania Insurance Fraud Prevention Authority (IFPA) announced that the reporting of insurance fraud in Pennsylvania increased to an all-time record-high in 2013.

Reporting jumped by nine per cent over the previous year, as the combined efforts of the insurance industry, state agencies and consumers pinned Pennsylvania’s insurance fraudsters to the mats.

Of the 3,582 fraud referrals received in 2013 by the 11 state and local law enforcement agencies funded by the IFPA (IFPA grantees), 2,495 referrals came from insurers, 208 from other state agencies and 879 from consumers.

“Our public outreach via television and internet advertising has educated Pennsylvanians so that they know insurance fraud when they see it,” said Ralph Burnham, executive director of the IFPA.”

ICAN holds members’ forum, investiture

T

HE Amuwo & District Society of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), is set to host distinguished Nigerians in politics, academics and business world in its 1 st members forum, investiture of grand patron, life patron, patrons and executive committee members and award ceremony.

Mr. Chidi Otumba, Chairman, Organizing Committee of the event, scheduled to hold March 15, in Lagos, said the awards for excellence at the event would be the District Society’s full endorsement of good governance, entrepreneurship and corporate responsibility.

According to him, the lecture of the day, which is entitled: ‘The Entrepreneur and Economic Development,’ will be delivered by former ICAN President, Chief Richard Uche.

He said ICAN promotes integrity, fiscal responsibility and self discipline, and the Amuwo District Society of ICAN has chosen to affirm those virtues and help instil them in the psyche of the Nigerian populace by honouring those who have imbibed and exhibited such lofty ideals.

C M Y K

When insurance consumers begin to demand for their rights

By ROSEMARY ONUOHA

A

ll through the years, the general public has had the belief that insurance companies only exist to reap off the people.

The refusal by insurance operators to be transparent in their operations led to increased negative public perception of them.

For a long time, underwriters were advised to improve on their products and service delivery, to build credibility.

As this seems not to be forthcoming, insurance consumers have decided to come out and fight for their rights. To this end, the Insurance Consumers Association of Nigeria, INSCAN, has put forward their demands of how they must be treated by insurers going forward.

Number one on the list of demands which were recently released by the association states was - Give Us Transparent Reader- Friendly Contract wordings.

INSCAN said, “Your policy documents, being the evidence of the contact with us is full of discouraging and frustrating technical jargons that hardly would anybody read more than one page of the “hand out” which at times goes up to 30 pages before dropping same. We therefore make it categorically clear that we are tired of these intimidating words and expect all insurance companies in Nigeria to adapt their policy documents to the modern trends where the policy document starts with “meaning of words”, followed by “ what is covered”, what is not covered and then the conditions guiding the contract with a claim form tucked into the folder at the back of the policy jacket. We expected this from you like yesterday.”

Number two demand is, “We Demand Truly Comprehensive Motor Insurance Cover -The 10% premium agreed by the market for comprehensive motor insurance is for about 15 benefits that are enjoyed by the insurance consumers in other parts of the world.

Prominent among these are own damage, 3rd party liability, replacement car, loss of personal effect, personal accident cover etc. In Nigeria, we are given 2 ½ benefits – own damage, 3rd party liability and usually N10, 000 towing expenses and N20, 000 medical expenses. Our

From left: President of Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) and Managing Director of Sterling Insurance plc, Mr. Fatai Kayode Lawal presenting an award of recognition to the Group Managing Director, Anchor Insurance plc, Mr. Ademayowa Adeduro at the First Business Journal Insurance Summit and Exhibition in Lagos. position as consumers of insurance in Nigeria to your members who are undercutting the rates is that even when you charge 2.5% for the benefits granted us, you are still reaping us off. Another problem that we have with your comprehensive motor policy is that it is always depressing for our members to realize only at the time of claim that their

,

BRIEF

Your policy documents, being the evidence of the contact with us is full of discouraging and frustrating technical jargons that hardly would anybody read more than one page of the “hand out” which at times goes up to 30 pages before dropping same

,

comprehensive motor policy does not cover losses arising from riot, strike, civil commotion and flood unless they had specifically requested and paid for them before the loss. We hereby request the governing council of the NIA to give us the full benefits of a truly comprehensive motor insurance policy on “a la carte” basis as from Jan 2014 and in the minimum, benefits like car replacement, vehicle tracker should be automatic as from 2014. Medical benefits should be increased to minimum of N100, 000 while the underwriters should bear the cost of towing an accidented vehicle to the repairer’s garage in full.”

Demand number three states, “We Also Demand Truly Comprehensive Householders Insurance. Where an occupied building is destroyed by fire or any of the extraneous perils, the insurer usually provides for loss of rent/ rent of alternative accommodation/ loss of use as the case may be pending the completion of renovation or for specified period of time. Accident and Life cover for domestic servants is also normally endorsed on a comprehensive householder ’s insurance cover. We demand that this be provided for us as from 2014.

Demand number four is, “Stop Selling Ordinary Paper To Us As Insurance, while

demand number five is “See Claims Payment As Our Right And Not A Favour.”

Demand number six states thus “Minimize the Claim Documentation and Investigation Process and Time,” while demand number seven is “Issue Your Discharge Voucher with Cheque.”

“Stop Using Us For Advert, Respect ‘Privity Of Contract,” is demand number eight, while number nine states thus “Your Business Only Reward Bad Customers, Do something To Reward The Good Customers Also.”

INSCAN concluded by asking insurance operators to “Do something for the Larger Society.” According to INSCAN, “In some other countries, the fire brigade of the insurance industry normally gets to the scenes of incidents even before that of the state. We see ambulances and towing vehicles that belong to the insurance industry in other countries.

Apart from being of service to the larger society, these facilities also help in loss reduction to the insurance industry itself. We expect the governing councils of the Nigerian Insurers Association, NIA, and Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, NCRIB, to show Nigerians how they want to contribute to safety of lives and properties in general as the insurance industry in Nigeria.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 — 23

Micro insurance: Mutual Benefits generates N1b monthly Stories by ROSEMARY ONUOHA

G

roup Managing Director of Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, Mr. Akin Ogunbiyi, has said that the company generates a monthly income of N1 billion since July 2013 through microinsurance business.

Ogunbiyi disclosed this while presenting a paper titled: “The prospect and challenges of Micro Insurance in Nigeria” at the First Business Journal Insurance Summit and Exhibition held in Lagos.

According to him, since the introduction of microinsurance, the company has 7,000 marketers/agents, 60 offices and 109 products to deepen insurance penetration at the grassroots in the country.

He said that by April this year, it will be unveiling 35 new micro insurance products to boost the insurance penetration in the country. He noted that the company has sold over 70,000 new policies through microinsurance in the last one year, adding that microinsurance through

T

From left: Head, Corporate Affairs of Mutual Benefits Assurance, Mrs. Ellen Offo receiving an award of recognition from Mr. Yemi Soladoye of Insurance Consumers Association of Nigeria at the First Business Journal Insurance Summit and Exhibition in Lagos agents is the cheapest way of selling insurance.

He said that the conventional insurance is strictly focusing on the high income earners rather than the grass root, adding that micro insurance is one of the ways that is required in closing the insurance cap in the Nigerian.

He noted that in Mutual

attraction is the change in the format of the event to a dinner setting which conforms with the current trend in events planning.

The Institute is maintaining the tradition of the star prize of a brand new car and this has been donated by Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc. Obah added that no fewer than ten contestants are coming from the insurance industry nationwide to participate in the competition for the crown. A live band and

Good yyear ear ffor or lif e mar ket life mark owth with 1 1.4% gr 11 gro

I

Kari becomes deputy commissioner of N AICOM NAICOM

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Benefits it has learnt to develop products and policies that is people oriented rather than introduce products that are not people friendly.

Meanwhile, President of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) and Managing Director of Sterling Insurance, Mr. Fatai Kayode Lawal, said that the

propagation of insurance education would be the bedrock for growing insurance business.

He commended the organizers of the summit for a well taught out programme, adding that if properly utilized by participants it will help to close the gap in the insurance industry.

CIIN to hold 2014 Miss Insurance dance he Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, CIIN, said it has concluded plans to hold its 2014/2015 Miss Insurance Dance this Friday in Lagos.

Head, Corporate Communications of the CIIN, Mr. Joseph Obah, who disclosed this noted that the 2014 Miss Insurance Dance has a lot in stock for members of the institute to justify its status as a major event in the CIIN calendar.

He said that a major

BRIEF

n Australia, Life insurance premium inflows were up 11.4% to $12.8 billion for 2013, according to the latest figures from financial researcher Plan For life. This compares to $11.5 billion in 2012. The lump sum market grew by 9% to $5.9 million compared to the previous year’s result of $5.5 million.

Again most growth came from the smaller life insurers, which recorded inflow growth of 16.2% for 2013 on premium income of $1.9 billion. OnePath and TAL led the larger insurers with premium growth of 9.8% and 8.5% respectively.

Income protection premium inflows for 2013 were up 8.5% to $2.2 billion with TAL recording the strongest growth among the big insurers. It saw premium growth of 16.3% during the year to record inflows of $224.5 million. The group life market saw inflows up 16.3% to $4.5 billion due to movement in fund mandates, Plan For Life says. MetLife recorded premium growth of 110% with inflows of $466.8 million while MLC also saw strong inflows.

DJ will be on hand to livenup the event for the teeming dance enthusiasts.

Speaking further on the event, the Director General of the Institute, Mr. Kola Ahmed, said preparations are in top gear to make the dance a memorable one for all.

Miss Sefiyat Sadik, Miss Insurance 2013/2014 is spending the last days of a rewarding reign as she prepares to hand over to a new Queen in a few days time.

Miss Sadik has justified the crown by excelling in her roles during the one-year reign which terminates on Friday March 14, 2014.

Her pet project; Youth Empowerment against HIV/ AIDS was meticulously executed during her interfaces with youths drawn from secondary schools in Lagos and Abuja. According to Miss Sadik, her visits to the selected schools gave her the opportunity to deliver inspiring talks and share her thoughts with the students.

The Grand Finale of the pet project which was held on the 20th of February, 2014 was a huge success. It featured awards to winners of the

Students’ Essay Competition and a lecture by a medical practitioner. The event also gave the Queen an opportunity to appreciate the pet project.

The Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) is the body of insurance professionals in Nigeria, charged with the duties of determining the standard of skills and knowledge required for ethical and professional practice of insurance business in the country.

Aside from this responsibility, the Institute, which has been in existence for over 50 years, owes its teeming members the duty of providing avenues for social intercourse, with events such as the annual Miss Insurance Pageant, the Annual Picnic and the Fitness Walk to mention but a few of such events. The Miss Insurance Dance started in the early days of the Institute as one of the social activities which the founding fathers considered to be worthwhile for social engineering and for relaxation outside the busy underwriting business schedules.

he National Insurance C o m m i s s i o n , NAICOM, has announced the appointment of Alhaji Mohammed Uba Kari

by His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as Deputy Commissioner (Technical) of the Commission.

Kari was until 2012, the Managing Director/ CEO of UnityKapital Assurance Plc. Kari is an Insurance Graduate (Diploma in Insurance, 1979) of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute London, from Caledonian University, Glasgow, U.K (1984).

He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration ( I n f o r m a t i o n Technology) from University of Central England Birmingham, UK (2002) and IT Management Certified Professional from learning Tree Management Institute, London UK 2004).

He started his working career with Royal Exchange Assurance Plc in 1979.

Between 1984 and 1989, he worked in Yankari Insurance Company Ltd as Assistant General Manager (Technical).

Alhaji Mohammed Kari joined Niger Insurance Plc in 1989 as Executive Director (Technical) and worked for about three years.

He became the Managing Director/ CEO in January 1992, a position he held up to March 1993. As a result of his sterling qualities he was appointed Managing Director/ CEO of National Insurance Corporation (NICON) in March 1993 where he served up to January 2000.

He brings to his new assignment sufficient wealth of experience in insurance underwriting and hands-on administration.

24—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 — 25

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

Preview

New inventions shaping life and living

Airgun Cordless Compressor

T

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

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

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

*Dr. Eugene Juwah

*Engr. Gbenga Adebayo

N647M QOS PENALTY:

,

So our position is that the principles behind it, is wrong.

Administration of sanction is a last resort. The way it is issued arbitrarily here, will scare the investors away.

The operators, regulators and the subscribers sides should be explored before sanctions are imposed. But NCC has not been seen to have these three tiers of the business in consideration” he added.

We'll go to court: Also, the President of National Association one of their meetings, the affected of Telecom subscribers in Nigeria, operators did not object to paying NATCOMS, Chief Deolu Ogubanjo who had earlier the fine.

He however added that “I will not challenged the commission on the be surprised if the operators have fine, says his association would paid because when we discussed it go to court again. This time in one of our meetings, the operators around, Ogubanjo said that he would challenge both the operators and the The NCC is fighting the commission on why the payment should be industry it is regulating made or received. He said: “Our case with did not object to pay. However, it NCC has been on since 2012 on does not remove from the fact that why the commission should the fine is in bad taste. The operators impose a fine on behalf of are paying in agony. The NCC is subscribers and the subscribers fighting the industry it is regulating. would not benefit from it. That has They know what we are going not been determined, we are through. The fine is more punitive saying that operators must not than corrective when it should be pay and the NCC must not the other way round, if it wants receive the current fine, pending growth of industry. the determination of the suit. But “Who are the beneficiaries of the if actually, the operators have penalty? Is it not supposed to be the paid this current fine, we are subscribers? Are they getting the going to challenge both the benefit? If the beneficiaries of a fine operators why they must pay and don’t get it, there is something the NCC why it must receive. wrong with the penalty.

They will surely hear from us pretty soon” he added.

The NCC had in a semblance of the biblical Ten Commandments, penultimate week, handed three Nigeria operators, MTN Nigeria, Globacom and Airtel Nigeria, seven strict instructions that must not be violated following their detoriating network quality in January 2014. The seven laws

We paid in agony, operators cry out

By PRINCE OSUAGWU

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HE three operators, MTN, Airtel and Globacom affected by the Nigerian Communications Commission's hammer penultimate week, over poor quality of services, may have paid the penalty in agony.

The operators believed that payment of the penalty was just a likelihood of a student obeying the teacher rather than a sound evaluation of what and who went wrong. The operators still believe that the principle behind the fine was faulty but had no better option at the moment than to comply.

Information from NCC at the weekend indicated that the three operators paid the fine before the close of work last Friday. The commission had imposed on Airtel Nigeria and MTN Nigeria, a fine of N185 Million each while Globacom was liable to the tune of N277, 500.

I N FG moves S I postal services D online E

Smartphone makers battle for market supremacy at GSMA MWC

The Head media and Public Relations of NCC, Mr Reuben Muoka who spoke to Vanguard on telephone, Saturday, confirmed that the operators had actually paid their respective fines before close of work on Friday, adding that they (the operators) have done the honorable thing, knowing that the NCC was not out to hound anybody.

He however, said that other conditions, including the ban on sales promotions and sales of SIM cards, still stand till the end of March. He gave the indication that there may still be an extension of these bans if it was discovered that their services did not improve by March ending.

Payment in agony: Meanwhile, Chairman of the operators’ umbrella body, the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, ALTON, Engr Gbenga Adebayo, told Hi-Tech that even though he was not in a position to confirm whether the three operators have paid or not, he was aware that when the issue came up for discussion in

,

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

*Deolu Ogunbanjo

Africa’s economy growth encourages innovations — MasterCards

Continues on page 30 C M Y K

26 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

New ATM tech as Inlaks brings Hyosung Windows 7 ATMs

F

rom April this year, many software and hardware vendors will no longer be able to support their products that run on Windows XP. In fact, it was Microsoft itself that publicly announced that support for Windows XP would cease in April 2014.

That has given the impetus for scrambles for alternative measures, in Windows 7. In personal computers, the upgrade or total switch over May not be a difficult task but for products like the Automated Teller machines, it takes only foresight to make alternative available on time.

This foresight is apparently what Inlaks computers may have exhibited recently when it launched Hyosung Windows 7 ATMs for banks in Nigeria.

Inlaks said that being a foremost ICT and infrastructure solutions provider, this initiative, falls within its core vision of delivering greater values and benefits to banks in the country.

Windows 7 technology, according to Microsoft, improves consumer experience as it comes with new features such as object selection, rotation, zoom out, scrolling and gesture functions on the ATMs. The deployment of this latest technology, may have also put Inlaks ahead of the companies delivering ATMs in Nigeria’s ATM market Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Inlaks Computers, Mr Femi Adeoti, said that his company decided to prepare its customers ahead of time by acting well ahead of Microsoft announcement of support stoppage for Windows XP in April 2014.

“The deployment began early this year and some banks have already taken advantage of Hyosung Windows 7 ATMs. The company still has large stocks of the products available to meet customers demands”, he said.

Also, Executive Director of Inlaks, , Mr. Rajiv Bhatnagar, described Hyosung Windows 7 ATMs as having the capacity to deliver expanded security solutions with tighter control of process to transmit communication using a technique known as Session Zero Isolation which makes it harder for malware to exploit process and session boundaries.

There are other capabilities, including enhancing operational and maintenance efficiencies through its installation technology known as ImageX . This is in addition to simplifying connectivity using the new Direct Access utility which gives the choice to connect via low cost bandwidth for off premise installation without the need for an extra VPN utility.

SMILE Com launches broadband services in Lagos

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mile Communications Nigeria Limited will tomorrow hold a special Press Conference at The Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos to announce the formal launch of its services in Lagos.

A statement from the company indicated that the Group Chief Operating Officer, Tom Allen will address the press on the exciting data packages specially designed for all classes of internet users in the country. Allen is expected to underscore the fact that Smile Communications is at the forefront of harnessing technologies to create innovative solutions that enable the cost-effective deployment of advanced communication services.

Smile Communications Nigeria Limited is a subsidiary of Smile Telecoms Holdings which has operations in Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Its parent company pioneered Africa’s first 4G LTE broadband internet service in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 2012.

Smartphone makers battle for market supremacy at GSMA MWC A

BY EMEKA AGINAM

LTHOUGH consumers are relying more on their smartphones to engage with brands, consume content, and make purchases, debates have been raging on which smart phone is popular in different markets of the world.

However, one thing that caught the attention of majority of visitors at the just concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain was the launch of new mobile phones by smart phone makers.

Each of these of this Original Equipment Manufacturers, OEMs including Nokia, Samsung, Huawei Sony LG , BlackBerry while unveiling new products at the MWC claimed market supremacy.

While growth in the smartphone market has now shifted to emerging markets that are more price sensitive and value conscious, market share has come down to a two horse race between android, Apple’s iphone and windows each battling for supremacy. As technology evolves,

cheaper smart phones are also part of the connecting-the-unconnected equation that Mark Zuckerberg spoke about in his keynote address at the Mobile World Congress. It is obvious that in the near future, all phones will be smart. Despite new flagship phones announced by Sony (the Z2) Samsung (the S5), Huawei, (the Ascend G6 4G) Nokia X series, BlackBerry Z3, among others, one clear was that smartphones are only developing by increment. Some of the flagships launched at the GSMA MWC are not limited to the following: Samsung S5: At the event where the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, had a rare privilege of addressing the cream of the global telecom stakeholders at the Ministerial Programme, Korean smart phone maker, Samsung at their exhibition stand tickled visitors with Galaxy S5,

giving customers technology that will improve their lives. One of the unique features of the new product is water and dust resistance capability.

The product which will be available globally through Samsung retailers, ecommerce shops and operator channel in April 2014 is powered by a 2.5GHz quadcore processor with the quickest auto focus camera function.

Huawei unveils Ascend G6 4G: The new 4G LTE-enabled smartphone brings ease of use back to smartphone ownership and opens up a world of fun and colorful new ways to stay connected without boundaries. With a 4.5-inch qHD display, 5-megapixel front-facing camera and Emotion UI 2.0 , the product is an ideal companion for those who want to share better.

NCS, ISPON fault FG's 2% tax on mobile phones, PCs, software...

By EMEKA AGINAM

Stakeholders in the Nigerian IT industry have faulted the planned Federal Government imposition of 2% tax on the values of mobile phones, computers, software, cameras, photocopiers, printing machines and CD players manufactured in the country or imported.

The current posture of imposition of tax on IT products, IT experts noted without mincing words negates local content policy of the government and by implication, a direct reduction of already low youth employment in the country.

It would be recalled that mindful of the need to promote local PC assembly, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration issued a directive that all MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) must patronize local PC makers and consider foreign brands only if the local brands could not meet up with their requirements.

Government policy was designed to help generate employment in the PC sub-sector and grow local capacity in computer assembly.

However, the order for the tax to be known as the Copyright Levy, Vanguard Hi-Tech gathered has already been gazetted by the office

*Omobola Johnson of the Attorney General of the Federation as the modalities for its implementation were being negotiated with the Nigeria Customs Service.

The Director-General, Nigeria Copyright Commission, Mr. Afam Ezekude, was quoted in a media report as saying that the new levy would be on a broad range of products capable of being used to infringe on the copyright of products and services, including computers, mobile phones and printing machines.

Ezekude, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs,

Mr. Aderemi Adewusi, said further that the levy will generally apply to such products whether they are imported into the country or they are manufactured within the shores of the nation.

“The Copyright Levy on Materials Order 2012 received the necessary approval from the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, SAN. The levy order is applicable to all imported materials used or capable of being used to infringe copyright in a work, both imported and Continues on page 27

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014—27

competition with the country’s 250 registered courier companies and reduce the conflicting roles NIPOST had as both a regulator and service provider in the short and long term period.

Also, by establishing an independent and more singularly focused regulator, the report believes that the new body would be capable enough to effectively clamp down on the proliferation of grey market operators that have emerged in recent years.

The reform is said to be a fall out of a study conducted in 2008 that analysed the future options of NIPOST, which ultimately recommended corporatisation rather than privatisation based on the level of common good the agency provides and the need to maintain equitable access to basic postal services.

DIGITAL INCLUSION

FG moves postal services online

By EMMANUEL ELEBEKE

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EDERAL government is taking steps to move the Nigerian Postal Services, NIPOST from the traditional personal delivery system to online platform to facilitate the nation’s digital inclusion plan.

A report from the Ministry of Communication Technology identified NIPOST as a critical facilitator in the nation’s digital inclusion plan. The NIPOST was originally set up by the British government in the 19th century, and is about undergoing the baptism of digital revolution as mandated by the ministry.

The Ministry is of the view that despite the daunting challenges being faced by federal government to digitise the nation’s moribund postal services,

it has the capacity and potentials to open a new vista for robust economic gains if fully digitised with the deployment of it’s over 516 branches across the country.

The Nigerian Postal Services has a presence in around twothird of the country’s 774 local government agencies, with plan to establish more branches in the remaining one-third in the future.

Federal government had in 1987, split the postal and telecommunications interests into two separate entities, forming NIPOST along with Nigerian Telecommunications, NITEL. NITEL was then, accorded priority attention, while NIPOST and the postal sector as a whole were subject to neglect, despite the huge potentials lying in the sub-sector.

In realization of these potentials,

the MCT resolved to capitalise on the NIPOST’s large branch network, increasing its role as a platform for inclusion, as well as to clarify the company’s mandate and reduce regulatory bottle necks militating against a better and efficient performance of the agency.

Reform steps: As part of efforts to realise the digitization of the agency, federal government through the supervising ministry has crafted a bill that will strengthen it and increase the role of the postal operator as a logistics agent and a communications provider and break up NIPOST’s current regulatory function by removing it from the body’s remit and transforming the agency into a wholly commercial operator.

According to the report, the idea is that the change will improve

Equitable access The Postmaster General, NIPOST, Mallam Ibrahim Mori Baba, was quoted as saying that corporatisation of the agency is preferable to privatisation for a postal organisation like NIPOST to effectively deliver on its social and universal service obligations, as well as offer public interest services.

When completed, the initiative will allow NIPOST to seek financing from the capital markets, which may be critical for achieving its ambitious agenda.

A reformed NIPOST has also been identified by the ministry as an essential distribution channel to expand the take up of IT services, including egovernment, e-commerce and epayment activities, adding that the new role for NIPOST is important, given the low level of penetration of IT access in Nigeria currently.

NCS, ISPON fault imposition of 2% tax on mobile phones ...

Continues from page 26

manufactured in the country and it is designed to compensate the right owners for the envisaged infringement.

“It is one of the commission’s ways of generating income for the government, stakeholders and the commission. This was done after due consultation with stakeholders who have expressed satisfaction and appreciation over the levy order.”, the NCC boss explained.

Reacting to the new development, the President of the Nigerian Computer Society, NCS, Prof. David Adewumi said that it negates local content agenda of the Federal Government.

“To start with, before the proposed tax regime the ongoing prices on the items under reference were high. If the proposed regime is enforced, it will not encourage the patronage of locally assembled items under

reference thereby being a hindrance to the current clamor for local content and by implication a direct reduction of already low youth employment in the country” he explained.

For the President of Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, ISPON, Chris Uwaje, the Copyright Levy” was grossly misleading.

According to Uwaje who pioneered the IT Policy Document years back, the imposition of 2% tax was strange, even as he asked, what is the purpose?

However, the new policy was coming at a time when both indigenous software and Original Equipment Manufacturers OEMs are clamoring for local patronage.

Before now, more than seven PC makers, UNITEC, Pragmatic, Brian Integrated Systems, Zinox, Omatek and the more recent Geniac and Veda have arrived on the scene. Many of

them have completely disappeared from the landscape because of lack of preference of foreign brands to local ones.

Currently, the surviving players Beta Computers, Omatek, Zinox , Brian Integrated Systems are only managing to keep afloat for a mix of factors.

The four players, Beta Computers, Zinox and Omatek and Brian Integrated Systems lead the league. They dominate the share of the PC market controlled by the local PC assembly companies.

Although the market has expanded in terms of patronage and reach that transcends private and public sectors, one thing is clear. It has remained largely a domain of foreign players leaving a fraction of the margin for the local PC makers to contend with. For every one PC that Omatek, Zinox or Beta Computers sell, HP, Samsung, Toshiba , Acer, Dell among other foreign

brands sell more.

Even though the government had adopted different strategies like computer ownership scheme, students PC ownership scheme, Computer for All initiative, among others promote computer ownership while broadband infrastructure was being developed, foreign brands still control large percentage of the market giving them a strong edge over the local players.

The last one initiative was student PCs ownership scheme in partnership with five banks and local computer makers including Beta Computers, Brian Integrated Systems, Zinox and Omatek “If we build broadband infrastructure and people don’t have computers, tablets, and whatever to access it, it is going to be a waste of time. The next thing we are trying to drive is that as we build the infrastructure, we need to make sure we all have the devices."

OAU hosts EduNet confab Stories By RICHARD UDOFIA

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HE 4th Edition of Education Network Conference -EduNet 2014 will be hosted by the ICT Centre of Obafemi Awolowo University and the Institute for Entrepreneurship Development Studies of Obafemi Awolowo University Nigeria, in Partnership with Tel Aviv University Entrepreneurship Centre (StarTAU), Israel.

The theme of the three-day event which begins May 20 is: Fostering Technology Entrepreneurship in Nigerian Universities.

The three day event will look at issues around building Technology Entrepreneurship Ecosystem within the Nigerian University Community with key examples from the Israel Technology and Innovation Ecosystem.

According to the Director ICT centre, Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof Adeshola Aderounmu, “we are happy to host this year ’s EduNet Conference at the ICT Centre of the University, the idea of fostering Technology Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is key to economic development of the country. That is why our centre will be playing key roles in the conference”

Buyam.com adds more merchants, glamour in online shopping

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N a bid to make online shopping more affordable, desirable and accessible to a wider range of people; Buyam.com.ng have added more merchants to their growing repertoire of online stores.

Speaking on the latest addition of merchants to the site, Emeka Mordi, Managing Director of Buyam.com says: “We are committed to ensuring that our customers have a diverse and varied range of products and services to choose from. In the last couple of months, we have worked closely with our partners to understand the things they want, and most importantly, the things that they do not want. We have come to realize that majority of our customers want to be able to shop for different products, in different places, but at the same time; and this is the unique platform that Buyam offers them.”

“With the cost of getting onto the internet dropping every day, it seems, e-commerce is fast becoming the way to do business, especially as you marry the online experience with the growing, aspirational middle class and a growing variety of payment options.

28— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

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Hart: We bank on Munich inspiration

anchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart believes the club can win at Camp Nou today - just as they did at the Allianz Arena in December.

Manuel Pellegrini’s men came away from Bayern Munich with a 3-2 win in the Champions League group stages earlier this season and Hart believes Man City can repeat their heroics in Spain tonight.

City are 2-0 down to Barcelona on aggregate after losing to the Spanish champions at the Etihad Stadium, meaning they would need to win by the same scoreline to force extra time - or a two-goal win with a higher scoreline to progress.

But 26-year-old shot stopper Hart feels his side’s win in Germany back in December gives them all the confidence they need to repeat the feat at Camp Nou. “We’ve shown what we can do when we beat Bayern Munich away in December and while it’s going to

be tough, it’s not impossible,” Hart told reporters ahead of the game.

“I felt we were there in the first leg, had sized them up and were ready to go, but stuff happens in big games and if you give a predator like Barcelona a sniff of blood and unfortunately that’s what happens.”

“Martin [Demichelis] was unfortunate and missed the ball by inches, but that can be the difference in games of this magnitude.”

However, the England goalkeeper also warned that Barcelona’s recent league form - Gerardo Martino’s side have lost two of their last three in La Liga - may not have a direct bearing on tomorrow’s second-leg clash.

Barcelona fearful of Aguero B

arcelona defender Javier Mascherano expects Argentine international teammate Sergio Aguero to pose the biggest threat to his side as Manchester City try to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the second leg of their Champions League last 16 tie today.

Aguero scored six times against Barcelona in his five seasons with Atletico Madrid before joining City in 2011, but missed the first meeting between the sides at the Etihad three weeks ago through injury. The 25-yearold will lead the line as the English side try to become the

first ever team in the Champions League era to comeback from a 2-0 defeat at home in the first leg and Mascherano is anticipating Manuel Pellegrini's attack minded side will go for it from the off. "I think we are going to see Man City go all out to attack. That is the way they normally play and with the result they'll need to do that more than ever," he told a press conference on yesterday. "Sergio is someone I know well and for me is one of the five best strikers in the world. Given space he is the type of player who can

destroy you so we have to ensure he doesn't get that space and doesn't feel comfortable." Despite having one foot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and booked their place in the Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid next month, Barca have received fierce criticism in recent weeks after suffering three La Liga defeats in six games.

Nasri ur ges City ttoo att ac ca urges attac ackk Bar Barca fr om ssttar from artt is that it is twice now that Wigan have

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amir Nasri says City are taking their defeat to Wigan as a ‘lesson’ and extra motivation for the task of overturning Barcelona.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side have little time to refocus following the 2-1 FA Cup defeat which ends their bid for a domestic treble, but now face a huge challenge to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the second leg of the Champions League last-16 tie at the Nou Camp today.

Asked how he felt about the Wigan result, Nasri said: “Hungover. It was a bad performance, we didn’t play well. ”The big disappointment

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beaten us in the FA Cup. It is really difficult to accept. ”It is like - the FA Cup, they gave it us on a plate and we refused to take it. ”I really don’t know. I cannot find the words because I am really disappointed. Thank God we play a big game on Wednesday. It is the best way to forget this game and be focused on the next one. ”At training we are going to think Barcelona and try to think positive and get a result there.” Asked what the approach should be, the France international said: “Exactly the same way we finished the (Wigan) game.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 — 29

No guarantees over Messi-Neymar partnership — Martino

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arcelona coach Gerardo Martino has admitted that it is not necessarily a given that the partnership between Lionel Messi and Neymar works out just because they are two great individuals.

The Argentina international and his Brazilian counterpart impressed earlier this campaign, but they have been unable to make much of an impact together recently partially due to a string of fitness problems. ”Messi and Neymar haven’t played much together this season because of injuries. The times they have played together, they have linked up well, but recently they haven’t had much connection on the pitch,” Martino said at a press conference. ”You can’t guarantee they will always be synchronised just because it’s the best player in the world and the next best player in the world.”

The Barca coach then turned to the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 tie against Manchester City and warned his men not to take things lightly after their 2-0 away win in the first leg. ”Tomorrow (today) I think Manchester City will make changes to the team. Sergio Aguero is very dangerous but they have many other players who are just as worrying. ”We have to think that 10 or 12 days ago, we played a very good match against Manchester City. I don’t see why we can’t do the same tomorrow (today) and I am sure we will play well. ”We have to separate the league from the Champions League and we are at an advantage for tomorrow (today).”

Barca come into the clash at Camp Nou on the back of a 1-0 defeat at Valladolid on Saturday.

Blanc: PSG have nothing to fear G ermain coach Laurent Blanc has admitted his side have little to fear going into the second leg of their last-16 tie with Bayer Leverkusen. Blanc, 48, saw his team tear apart their German opponents 4-0 in the first leg at the BayArena, leaving today's return fixture at the Parc des Princes seemingly a mere formality. "We're not necessarily afraid of very much," Blanc said. "Tomorrow we'll play to win as we have done since the start of the season. We have to confirm what we did very well in the first game.Tomorrow (today), there is a match to win and we have

to prepare ourselves for that.

We've been preparing well since Monday and I hope that tomorrow we'll give the best of answers. We're at home so it's up to us to play, create the chances to win the game. We don't have to fear anything." Blanc has taken precautions, however, by leaving out both Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi with the midfield duo given a breather, allowing Yohan Cabaye and Adrien Rabiot to feature. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is also likely to play, despite a recurring back problem that has hampered the Swede in recent weeks.

Leverkusen face mission impossible at PSG W

ith Paris Saint-Germain in rampant scoring form and Zlatan Ibrahimovic hungrier than ever for goals, Bayer Leverkusen is facing a tough task in the Champions League.

Leverkusen needs to score five goals and keep a clean sheet against one of Europe's most prolific attacks in order to qualify outright for the quarterfinals. Here are five things to know before today's game: IRREPRESIBLE IBRA Zlatan Ibrahimovic is in the best form of his career, and will be confident of adding to his 45 goals for club and country this season against Bayer Leverkusen. Added to the spectacular strikes have been some incredible passes, such as the one that released winger Ezequiel Lavezzi for his goal against Bastia on Saturday. As an innocuouslooking ball bounced high near the center circle, normally there would be no danger, but Ibrahimovic

showed incredible dexterity to twist his leg up to near shoulder height and volley the ball with his heel into Lavezzi's path. It was a pass of such precision and timing that, even given Ibrahimovic's considerable repertoire, it was something special.

FIRING BLANKS With Ibrahimovic scoring freely, there seems little pressure on the others to get goals.

But that might happen one day, and PSG coach Laurent Blanc has urged other players to chip in more.

Brazilian winger Lucas has scored only three goals this season, while Italy midfielder Marco Verratti has yet to find the net in a total of 73 club appearances.

"The lad's full of talent but he needs to be more disciplined," Blanc said, speaking about Verratti. "He can do a bit more than what he's doing now because he strikes the ball well.

UEFA Matches today Barcelona v Man City8:45pm PSG v B/Leverkusen 8:45pm

Cisse: Ibrahimovic should show more respect

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ormer Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse has hit out at Paris SaintGermain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic for the lack of respect he shows fellow professionals. Ibrahimovic scored against Cisse’s club Bastia on Saturday when the two sides met in a Ligue 1 clash and, although the 32-year-old thinks the Sweden international is a talented player, he believes he needs to stop underestimating opposition players. ”I’m not a fan of Ibra,” Cisse told Le Parisien. “He goes over the top. He lacks humility. ”Just because he’s a player who’s extraordinary, it doesn’t mean he has to look down on people and show a lack of respect for players who perhaps don’t have his talent.

30— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Africa’s economy growth encourages innovations — MasterCards

SWIFT brings Nomad wireless hotspot modem

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•Adds seven new African markets to footprint Stories By PRINCE OSUAGWU

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ASTERCARD, has announced that it is now in 48 of Africa’s 55 markets.

This was following the addition of seven new markets from the continent last week.

MasterCard said that besides the expansion, it was also securing a number of strategic agreements.

The new additions included Chad, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and The Gambia.

These markets are now in the MasterCard network, helping it to extend presence to 48 of

the 55 markets that make up the continent.

Meanwhile, the company revealed that Africa’s ongoing economic development, steady population growth and encouraging political outlook means that there is an increasing need for innovative and secure payment solutions that address market needs.

According to Middle East and Africa President at MasterCard, Mr Michael Miebach,”the continent has immense strategic importance to MasterCard and we will continue to invest in infrastructure, people and know-how in this part of the

world. This has been the fastest growing area for MasterCard for the past few years, and we expect it to continue to register high growth.”

MasterCard is collaborating with governments, central banks, financial institutions, mobile network operators, large retailers and other stakeholders across Africa to understand the economic outlooks of these countries, their unique demographics, infrastructure challenges and opportunities.

In so doing, MasterCard is directly contributing to the building of robust electronic payments ecosystems that support Africa’s potential for

economic transformation.

MasterCard’s acceptance footprint, its network of ATMs and Point of Sale (POS) terminals, increased significantly to reach more than 58,000 ATM locations and 438,000 POS terminals across Africa. MasterCard is also introducing new technologies that are rapidly closing the gap between the banked and unbanked on the African continent. Alternative delivery channels pioneered by MasterCard such as mcommerce, e-commerce, contactless technology and digital wallet services, are helping financiallyunderserved consumers gain access to formal financial services.

NIGCOMSAT bemoans proliferation of foreign ICT vendors in Nigeria

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hairman of the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) limited board, Prof. Turner Isoun last week bemoaned the continued proliferation and domination of foreign Information and Communications Technology (ICT) vendors in Nigeria.

Isoun described the situation as dangerous and

capable of undermining efforts against security challenges, if not corrected.

Isoun, in a statement after the board meeting last week, frowned at this ugly trend saying this proliferation of foreign ICT vendors proposing and supplying security solutions to Nigerian security, Para-military and critical infrastructure bodies

We paid in agony, operators cry out

portend serious threats.

According to Isoun the danger is that the nation is exposed “to a myriad of potential security threats from otherwise restricted data being exposed to numerous vendors”.

The former Science and Technology Minister explained that “this predicament is particularly worrisome not only because of the present state of national insecurity but also because NIGCOMSAT limited is the only government agency

Continues from page 25

followed a sledge hammer of N647 million sanctions which must be met before March 7, 2014. The fine according to Muoka was specifically for failing to meet the Key Performance Indicators, KPIs, for quality of service in the month of January 2014.

For that, the commission also demanded that the affected operators must not roll out sales promotions or sell SIM cards, in the whole of March 2014, pending when their services will improve. Conveying its disappointment over the operators’ service quality, the commission issued seven strict instructions with a stern warning that they will be implemented to the least option. Instruction one says that “payment of the fines shall be on or before March 7, 2014”. The second commandment warns about defiance to the first law: “Failure to settle the said amount within the stipulated period, the operators shall continue to be liable to pay the sum of N2, 500,000 (Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira Only) per day for as long as the contravention persist”.

The third commandment mandates the operators “to stop the sale of new SIM Cards throughout the month of March 2014, with effect from March 1 to 31, 2014” However, the commission did not rule out the possibility of the operators trying to adopt quick measures which may not favour the operators and so ruled in the fourth commandment that “the Service Providers shall not churn or delete inactive or none revenue generating SIMs from their networks during the period of March 1 to 31, 2014”

mandated to act as a clearing house and solution provider for security related ICT solutions to Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs)and institutions”.

Indeed, NIGCOMSAT limited currently manages the National Public Safety Communications Systems (NPSCS), a national safety network.

He cautions all government agencies to direct their ICT needs to through the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology within the next four weeks.

Firstmonie secures $12m from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

By EMMANUEL ELEBEKE

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n apparent move to boost the nation’s financial inclusion drive, the mobile payment solution from First Bank of Nigeria Ltd, Firstmonie has secured a grant of $12million US dollars from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to execute the project.

The grant, according to Firstmonie is to help deepen the penetration of its mobile financial services in Nigeria to the underbanked and low income communities, with the aim of driving financial inclusion in Nigeria.

The funds are expected to be disbursed in tranches attached to performance milestones.

The platform also expected to support wealth creation by providing opportunities for thousands of entrepreneurs across the nation and encourage financial inclusion through the availability of banking services for the unbanked and under-banked.

The Head, Mobile Financial Services,

for FirstBank, Mr. Mike Ogbalu, said ‘‘the rigorous process of securing the foundation grant included a review of our business strategy, target market outreach plans, agent site visits and interviews.

igh speed broadband internet and data services provider, SWIFT Networks, has launched its portable, nomadic and personal wireless hotspot modem tagged ‘The Nomad’.

The company said it was in continuation of its 4G LTE technology which has tripled its capacity and speed.

According to the Chief Operating Officer ,COO, SWIFT Networks Limited, Mr. Chuma Okoye, the new portable, nomadic and personal wireless hotspot modem is designed to offer existing and potential SWIFT 4G LTE customers the convenience to take their high speed SWIFT 4G LTE broadband connectivity on the go, as they move around the city because the Nomad fits perfectly in a pocket, briefcase, handbag or in the car. ‘’We have introduced the SWIFT ‘Nomad‘ to enable our teeming esteemed customers in Lagos, in the first instance, to continue access the fast and reliable SWIFT 4G LTE broadband service not only at home or in the office, but also on the go. ‘The Nomad’ will only be available through our 4G LTE network, being the fastest wireless broadband technology available today, to ensure that only the best broadband speed is provided to our discerning customers” he said.

The ‘Nomad’ comes in two variants; one with up to 6 hours of battery life, while the other provides up to 10 hours battery life. As such, once fully charged, customers can continue to enjoy 4G LTE services from “The Nomad” for up to 10 hours without being tethered to mains power. Each of these variants is also rechargeable on the go, using the cigarette lighter plug adapter in a car.

From left:Mrs. Fatumata Soukouna, Managing Director of Soft Solutions Limited and Chris Uwaje, President of Institute of Software Parctitioners of Nigeria, ISPON, at the 2014 ISPON President Dinner held recently in Lagos

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013‘ — 31

Our power sector reforms lack policy guidelines

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HAT is the energy map of Nigeria today?

Comrade Joe Ajearo: Before now, we as unionists have tried to make presentations on how to diversify our source of energy. As you know, we have wind, hydro, thermal, as well as bio energy sources, but it appears that government is only interested in gas as the main source of energy supply for electricity generation in the country .

We visited the then military head of state, Ibrahim Babangida, to advise him to work on Mambilla Plateau Hydropower and you know fully well that Mambilla alone has the capacity to give us between 3,600megawatts or more which is higher than the whole power generated as at today. We equally talked about Zungeru, another hydro station, that has the capacity to generate between 900 to 1,000 megawatts. That two C M Y K

plants would have given us between 4,000 Mr. Michael Faloseyi: to 5,000 (Representative of NERC Chairman, Dr. megawatts. The Sam Amadi), t h e n Mr. George Etomi, Director, Eko Disco, government of Comrade Joe Ajearo, Secretary General, IBB took National Union of Electricity Workers, feasibility Engineer Kola Balogun, CEO Momas, studies and it Mr. Charles Ilofulunwa, Managing Director, ended there.

Paktim Nigeria Limited, We equally m a d e Hugo Odiogor, Moderator/ Co-ordinator, presentations in Mr. Victor Omoregie, Manager, Corporate Enugu, Benue Affairs, Vanguard Media, and Kogi axis Mrs. Nkiru Nnorom, Rapporteur, where we have Kunle Kalejayi, Secretary, large deposit of Kehinde Gbadamosi, Photographer coal. All over the world, Coal power plant stations contribute about 40 the new investors have the percent of power generated for licence to explore or mine coal electricity. Though we should in those places.

So, if you ask me, the explore that, but as we discuss concentration on gas energy now, I don’t think anything has source alone is part of the happened. I am not sure that even

PARTICIPANTS

problem we have in the country because we have close to 80 percent of the power plants that are dependent on gas. Under any normal circumstances, gas should be an emergency power source. Our national security will be in jeopardy once gas lines are damaged.

The new policy, if there is any, is not even looking in that direction. We are only managing the gas and hydro stations .

These are what contributed to what we are experiencing now.

The power sector and electricity generation in Nigeria is in shambles. From the time Prof.

Bath Nnaji was in office, they fired both the gas So, if we have a policy, how and hydro stations at the come it has not acted as a same time, just guide and since it has not, can for us to create the impression we review the policy? Those that electricity are the issues power supply in Nigeria has improved to But it is better that we start now 4,000megawatts. There was no than to keep quiet and lament time to save enough water for the about the power situation.

Moderator: Sir, you mentioned dry season and when the supply of the gas plants was breached, something about policy that I will the system went down drastically; like to take as a follow up, the issue of new policy driving our there is no magic about it.

Now, if somebody is bringing energy sector if any. Where we in the theory of vandalism, I don’t are now ? We started with having think it is new because it has been the energy power sector reforms there and the way we police the and up till now, nobody knows oil pipelines, I think we should the policy framework that guides

,

Since November 1, 2013 when the Federal Government partially privatised the successor companies that emerged from the former Power Holding Company (PHCN), Nigerians have been going through mixed experiences in their ability to access electricity power supply. The common trend that runs through the entire story chain is that Nigerians have not seen the promise. Succour has not come and the new companies have not changed from what the consumers used to get in the hands of PHCN. Vanguard Conference Hall is focusing on the power sector as part of a comprehensive special report on this sector.

as well police the gas pipeline.

However, the issue of vandalism becomes difficult when you now establish political power stations. Now, if the source of gas is in Bayelsa State for instance, why must you build a gas plant in Lagos or Sokoto State. After this, you build network of pipelines that will carry the gas to hundreds of kilometers where the power plants are located. It does not make economic sense.

What you don’t understand is that even if you build it in the state where the source of power is, the same moment the person from my state is getting supply is when the person from the other state is getting his own supply.

Some of these things are caused by political considerations; it is not as if we don’t have all these other sources of energy. But if we start today, we can still go far, but I think an average period to build a power plant is about four years and we should be ready for it.

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32— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013

Our power sector reforms lack policy guidelines

Mrs. Nkiru Nnorom, Mr. George Etomi (c) and Engr. Kola Balogun

•Mr. Charles Ilofulunwa

•Comrade Joe Ajaero

Prepaid meters We introduced the prepaid meter and we have been sustaining it for quite some time now, but you will discover that the meter is still having problems in terms of distribution to consumers. If you take a closer look, you will notice that the collection platform in which consumers pay all their bills is not robust enough. We don’t have an easy way for electricity consumers to pay their bills; an easy way for consumers to recharge their meter and that is enough to actually put some of them into thinking of by-passing payment of bills.

If I have the money but I don’t have an easy means of paying electricity bill and somebody in the neighborhood has been having little electricity supply, then ask yourself, why will I not by-pass payment of bill? So, we need a very healthy downstream platform. We need revenue efficiency collection platform to ensure a seamless way of recharging the meters or payment for electricity bill using postpaid system. I believe that every consumer must be metered, it is not proper for any distribution company to give C M Y K

•Mr. Michael Faloseyi

Mr. Victor Omoregie consumers estimated electricity bills. With this new changes on the power sector, it is now possible for consumers to sue power distribution companies for giving them estimated bills. That is why it is mandatory for all the new DISCOs to ensure that all electricity consumers are metered, be it pre-paid or postpaid and also create a very seamless platform for them to pay their electricity bills or to recharge their meter.

I don’t see any reason why any

consumers cannot go to an ATM machine and recharge cards for their meters. The inefficiency in revenue collection method makes it difficult for the investors to recoup their investment in the upstream.

We also have problem of collecting data, which will create consumer data base in the power sector. We need these infrastructures so that whatever investment that is made in the upstream will guarantee its return in profit. But in a situation where we have leakages everywhere in terms of payment of electricity bills, in terms of recharging electricity, there will be loss of revenue.

If the little electricity we are generating is well articulated and well channeled, some people will still have electricity. The little electricity we have is not well channeled and accounted for.

These are the major challenges facing the electricity sector.

Right direction The new owners need to come together because somebody has to be the driver. Either the ministry of power or the regulator, (Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, needs to come up and drive the sector in the right direction and create a template of executing the reform act. Somebody needs to drive it, somebody needs to process it and decide that this thing needs to be successful. If we can’t get it right, then everybody’s work will be in vain.

Michael Faloseyi: (Representative of NERC Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi), I will like to talk on the issue raised earlier concerning energy policy.

With every sense of modesty, it is not proper to say that we don’t have energy policy.

May be, before 2005, that will be right and it will be reflective of what was on ground then. The perspective to it will be whether we are implementing that policy the way it should be or not. May

be there is a counter perspective appliances, it will take the whole to what we have on ground and megawatts, it will not even be it will be unfortunate if out 170 enough for the entire Lagos. million people, there is a policy Joe Ajearo: I raised the issue on ground, but there are no of electricity power policy and I counter perspectives. will like to respond to what he The issue is whether what we has said. have on ground is addressing From what he said, what is the our problem or not. There could policy because what we are be a perspective and that will doing in this Conference Hall is enrich the ability of our people to help Nigeria. It is not an issue to criticise that policy, to of whether it is counter view or punctuate it, and come out with alternative one which he agreed a better idea that will be a better is needed for us to get to our way to move forward. destination.

In 2005, during president From what he said now, we can Obasanjo’s administration, there see that from 2005 till now, Nigeria was a committee set up Changing ownership is not a through which policy that will make us arrive the Power Sector Reform Act at our desired destination was produced.

President Goodluck Jonathan came up has not had any electricity or with an Power road map. All these energy policy? were built up from 2005 to the It is important that we ask that stage that we are today. Just as I question too. If it is the Power said earlier, if there are no coun- Sector Reform Act that we call ter perspectives, it is unfortunate policy, I will tell you that it is a for us. This means that there will World Bank’s Privatisation Policy be no better idea with which to which is going round the whole arrive at a good or desirable des- world and I will say here that the tination for us.

Nigeria Power Sector Reform Act was not a home grown product Private of what the stakeholders sat investors down to look at.

I am saying on good authority So, the issue is ‘what do we that the same document that was have? It is proper for labour given to Lesotho on electricity unions to have another reform was what was brought to perspective on what we have on us and wherever you see ground. It is proper for the private Lesotho, they changed it to investors to have another Nigeria. perspective, even the I want to know whether that is government too can have its own the policy. And if that is the the perspective. So, it is a crossbred policy that say that every six of ideas that will take us to where months, you have one power we should be because it is station completed and our power obvious that we are in a parlous station moves from one to two or situation concerning our power whatever. That was the reason I sector. raised this issue. It is not as if Whatever we have now, if you somebody wants to cast throw it to Bayelsa State, which aspersions or so. has the least population in the So, if we have a policy, how country, it will take it. Let’s say if come it has not acted as a guide the whole of Apapa takes the us and since it has not, can we 4,000megawatts that we review the policy? Those are the celebrating now, by the time all issues. If our national policy on the companies there put on their Continues on page 33

,

Continues frompage 31 the process of electricity generation, energy use and energy conservation. Because if you take out a country’s energy supply, it will disrupt the national security.

What is our frequency in this direction?

Engineer Kola Balogun: I belong to the downstream in the power sector and I will like to lay emphasis on my jurisdiction.

Today if you are considering enormous capital that is required in building a power plant, the end result is to be able to collect revenue. That is substantially to pay back what have been invested in the upstream.

It has been an issue ever since that we are not generating enough electricity, neither do we distribute enough electricity to the entire downstream. Equally, we are not collecting enough revenue to negate what has been invested in the upstream of the power sector. This is the main reason why we introduced the issue of prepaid meters. We felt that if we introduce the prepaid meters to the consumers, we would be able to have sufficient funds to plan because there will be more money for generation.

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Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013‘ — 33

Privatisation of power sector hightens darkness nationwide

Engr. Kola Balogun

Mr. George Etomi

Continues frompage 32 electricity is available, is there room for us to make input from time to time? The Power Sector Reform Act was the framework for privatising electricity generation and supply, just as they have privatised water, education, telecommunication and others. So, that is not a concrete policy on electricity power sector.

Even if you look at privatisation itself, you have to consider the objectives of the policy and ask the questions: where are we supposed to be by the end of 2014? Are we supposed to go down from 3,000 megawatts or move higher than that? Those are the areas I looked at when I mentioned the issue of policy on the electricity power sector.

There used to be 10 years development plan. Within that 10 years, you look at moving from XX megawatts to XX megawatts.

That is what I meant. Even under the privatisation policy, you still have a policy that every month or year, there will be an installment increase in the electricity power supply in the country, until we get to a desired level. That is what I mean, not

•Mr. Michael Faloseyi

debating about generating between 3,000 and 4,000 megawatts. This cannot even be mentioned within the Comity of Nations.

That is why I laugh whenever we call ourselves ‘The giant of Africa’ because we are only deceiving ourselves. That is the simple truth and that is why I said government is realising their mistakes and the way to go now is to delve into renewable energy.

They should be able to make a policy that will enable people in the rural areas to have electricity, constant power without necessarily depending on our normal power supply through the national grid. Once they introduce the renewable energy, it means that Ajegunle area of Lagos State will have sufficient power using renewable energy without waiting for their normal electricity that comes from the national grid.

This issue of disruption of power supply as a result of damage on gas pipeline will not be there. So, those people using renewable energy will not have disruption in their power supply because take it or leave, we have a long term planning for this to

,

This privatisation that has taken place is the best thing that has happened to the power sector. Not everybody will agree with me, but I will tell people to point at the telecoms sector. What we now need to do is to have a clear policy direction because we have changed ownership in power sector.

Changing ownership is not a policy that will make us arrive at our desired destination.

Mr. Charles Ilofulunwa: In addition to the Power Sector Reform Act, government is repeating the mistake of the past and that is why they are trying to introduce what is called renewable energy, which should be able to add to what we have in respect of increment of megawatts.

It is quite sad that a country like South Africa with a population of not up to 70 million generates up to 50,000 megawatts of electricity. So, you can imagine the huge gap; 50,0000 megawatts and we are talking about 3,000MWs. It is ridiculous that as big as we are, Nigeria is still

,

work.

Moderator: If we have an energy policy in place, we can have energy coming from gas, renewable energy and energy from coal. What capacity do those investing in power sector have?

What technology do they have?

Because I will not just put money there but I will put things in place that will help me recoup my investment. South Africa has left us behind and I don’t think there is anything we can do now to catch up with them in the next 10 years. If you don’t have a foundation to build a house, I don’t know how you can just get up and say that you have a house. Sir please take it from there.

George Etomi: My view is that we must empower Nigerians by making them more

Comrade Joe Ajaero

knowledgeable about how our power sector works because it is too mysterious for many of them today. Some of them go home, switch on their bulb and if there is no light, they turn on the generator if they can.

Nobody asks questions and if consumers don’t get empowered, the reforms that we are talking about will never come because the pressure to do something really comes from these consumers.

Look at the telecom sector that we are celebrating today; look at how empowered most Nigerians are now with the telecoms sector.

The variety of options that we have and the ability to use sophisticated phones by an average Nigerian has has brought about empowerment.

Dealing with problems I don’t want us to be too hard on ourselves because we are dealing with problems that predated us. Clearly, the planning was poor and it is not just in the power sector.

When I finished my Masters degree in 1979 and I came back from London, I flew into the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, I was walking 10 feet tall. I mean I felt so proud as a Nigerian. That edifice was way beyond anything you can find in South Africa at the time, even in Dubai that we all go and waste money today, not to talk of the rest of Africa. But for how many years now, apart from what we see going on today in the aviation rehabilitation work, not a cement block was added to the MMA, even passengers traffic has probably gone up considerably.

There has been no investment in the power sector power sector we are talking about in the last 30 years. We have one of the most healthy power systems when it started. How many of you here today know that when Lagos was planned, it was actually planned for an underground power cabling at the time.

If we had just kept up with that, we would have had a cleaner Lagos that is very well powered.

But what happened? No investment, total neglect, surface cables started coming out with

•Mr. Hugo Odiogor, Moderator what have you now. So, it has been years of negligence on our part as Nigerians. I am not absolving myself; am not absolving the government, we are all in it, but I am optimistic that things will change.

“This privatisation that has taken place is the best thing that has happened to the power sector. Not everybody will agree with me, but I will tell people to point at the telecoms sector.

What we now need to do is to have a clear policy direction.”

In any privatisation, what you must have in mind is that powers of the minister to do anything should be curtailed and transferred to the regulator because they are the professionals that can drive the sector. The role of the minister should be limited to policy. That is what is going on in the telecoms sector. That is why if I ask anyone of you who the minister of communication is, everyone will be cracking his/her head. Unlike before where everybody needed to know the minister to do one or two things, but now his role is policy making and monitoring.

Power sector I am assuming that it is what will happen in the electricity power sector. So, let us not just lose hope. Let’s make sure that policies in the power sector are properly implemented. Let’s get to the issue of implementation.

We damn ourselves so much in this country when we are struggling over 3,000 megawatts when countries that are less endowed are giving themselves more reason to smile.

I went to Ghana sometime ago and for a week, there was no outage. Go to Kenya, it is the same thing. In the next five years, a lot of these companies will go public so that the public will have the opportunity to become coowners. It is a matter we taking our destiny into our hands in the power sector.

So as many ideas forum like this can help articulate will do a lot of good. The little time we have

had with Eko DISCO has been very revealing with as much obstacles as we see. Our determination is even more to succeed. We are dealing with a mixture of policy neglect, delinquency, corruption and a whole lot of obstacles, that pulls us back, but our singular determination is to crack it.

I have lived in a generation that saw banking in Nigeria as tough; it will never change. You will go to the bank and collect tally number, go and do whatever business you want do for the day, then come back in the afternoon.

If you are lucky, it might be your turn. Some even bribe to have their turn but today, Nigerian banking is in the forefront of any banking anywhere in the world.

Subsidising bad people We have revolutionised the entire west coast and it was done

by Nigerian bankers, young Nigerian men and women, so it is in our hands now. We must make power sector reform work!

Thank God for people like you in Vanguard; this is the beginning of empowering Nigerians to understand that a consumer who refuses to pay for the electricity he consumes, or the one who connives with someone in PHCN to do a wrong thing is short changing the person who is doing the right thing. The good people always subsidise bad people.

Today, we are talking about oil theft, but there is electricity theft, but who is doing it? Each time it happens, you and I who wake up in the morning and want to do things the right way, because the law says we should do them are the ones subsidising those bad people who disobey the law.

That electricity that is sabotaged for you not to get cheap electricity, you pay for it through diesel.

Nigerians don’t calculate that. To put it in perspective, anytime you burn diesel, you are spending the equivalent of N90 per kilowatt of electricity; that is the charge.

To be continued C M Y K

34—

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

TIN programme is not overly ambitious.

“Corporate bodies captured in the database are at least 500,000, which cover most of the active businesses in Nigeria. The Customs Service have made it mandatory for businesses to process all transactions at the Ports with a TIN which has motivated active participation by companies in the new tax identification system.

Integration and compliance: Already, organisations such as the Nigerian Customs Service have fully integrated the TIN administrative system into their operation. Moves are on by the Agency to ensure compliance by other agencies to integrate the TIN into their operations.

“If you take a good look at the new Driver’s License, you will observe it has a space for the TIN. We are also collaborating with the National Identity Management Centre, NIMC.

Active participation Every Nigerian that is old enough to pay tax, irrespective of social status or income, is required to obtain a Taxpayer’s Identification Number.

SOLA OGUNDIPE writes that the new national tax policy and Taxpayer ’s Identification Number ,TIN, is gradually gathering momentum

H

AVE you obtained your Taxpayer’s Identification Number, TIN? If not, now is a good time to get one because henceforth, you would be required to show it.

The TIN is now a prerequisite to the transaction of certain social services such as enrolling your child in school, carrying out bank transactions, obtaining government loans, registration of businesses, motor vehicles, certificates of occupancy and many other public transactions.

In 2013, when President Goodluck Jonathan launched the new National tax policy and the TIN initiative, there was a lot of skepticism.

Doubts were expressed in several circles about the ultimate success and effectiveness of the initiative towards ensuring that all Nigerian citizens of working age pay tax.

Nevertheless, the newly introduced taxation process

Mr Oduba Oduba

has come to stay.

Partnership: From hindsight, tax payment is not a favourite pastime of many Nigerians. For most, tax payment is regarded more of an option than the rule. But the President noted emphatically that in the new dispensation, the issue of taxation would be a partnership. He said Nigerians should consider them-

selves custodians of the tax system in partnership with the government.

In this respect, the newly introduced taxation process is designed to bring on board a host of innovations to erase inadequacies of the past and build confidence for the future. It sets parameters for taxation and auxiliary matters while providing clear principles governing tax administration and revenue collection. In a nutshell, the whole essence of the TIN is to create a self-sufficient economy that would lead to increased revenue from taxation in line with global best practices.

The Taxpayer’s Identification Number, TIN, is an electronic register of all taxable entities in Nigeria. It is a nationwide electronic database system for the registration and

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This year, be prepared to show your TIN — ODUBA

storage of data of taxpayers in the country. The main purpose is to uniquely identify tax payers. In the previous system, a company with multiple locations would require multiple numbers. In the new system, the entire process is centralised.

Awareness Project Manager of the TIN, Mr. Oduba Oduba, explains that the system of old is set to change for good with the coming of the new tax system. “A

Primarily, the TIN system has encountered resistance from individuals unwilling to register. The scheme has not witnessed active participation from individuals.

“For the ordinary trader who feels he has no business with government to warrant him paying tax and thereby having a TIN, we’re going to make the TIN a prerequisite for the use of social services.

For example, as a parent, you may soon be required to present your TIN so as to take advantage of free education for your children,” Oduba cautioned.

In a nutshell, the whole essence of the TIN is to create a self-sufficient economy that would lead to increased revenue from taxation in line with global best practices.

tax payer is a person who should pay tax. The TIN is the way to go.

We are working on creating more awareness for the TIN system in 2014, using the approach of taking the initiative directly to the tax payers. The plan we are working on involves attaching social services to the TIN system, e.g.

Driver’s License, International Passport, and other ancillary services would all soon require TIN registration.”

Outlook for 2014: Oduba, who says the overall level of acceptance of the programme is still low for individuals but much better for organisations, described the Agency’s outlook for 2014 concerning the

,

Security and efficiency: But as commendable as the TIN initiative is, does it possess adequate infrastructure to ensure smooth operation? In this respect, Oduba is optimistic. “We have infrastructure in all the states of the Federation. We have also trained personnel in all the states. However, unless a state contributes a counterpart fund, it cannot take part in the project.

Worse still, concerns have been raised about the protection of data as well as the privacy of individuals and corporations.

Access By implication, through the TIN, government will have Continues on page 35

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

— 35

How Ife indigenes plan to develop community into business hub I

LE-IFE is an ancient Yoruba town in S o u t h -We s t e r n N i g e r i a which has been in existence since 600 BC. The town is located in the present day Osun State, about 218 kilometres northeast of Lagos State.

“Ile-Ife is an agrarian community whose inhabitants are largely peasant farmers athough most of its indigenes are playing important roles in the government of the state.“ To b r i n g d e v e l o p m e n t nearer to the people, the Ife Development Board headed by Professor Muibi Opeloye says it is working in partnership with the government to ensure that the community is given a facelift. “So far, the board has been able to make the Ife Day Celebration an household name since its inception in the 1990s,“ Prof Opeloye said. A p a r t from developing the town, the board is also responsible for taking care of the indigenes by ensuring that they are well educated through an existing scholarship

scheme, assisting them to be gainfully employed and embarking on urban renewal projects.

Professor Opeloye said the board has done a lot to bring development to the people of Ile-Ife. He pointed to the Ife City Hall as one of the laudable achievements of the board.

Apart from feasible projects, the board, he said, also assists Ife indigenes to improve their lives.

The Ife Day Celebration for 2014 will come up between March 13 and 15.

The theme: "Industrialisation for Youth Empowerment" was borne out of the need to create employment for thousands of youths in the c o m m u n i t y, Vanguard Features was told.

Industrial park project According to Prof Opeloye, the board plans to build a N500 million industrial park project in Ile-Ife. The park is part of efforts to turn the town into an industrial estate or business hub. According to the Board president, when completed, the park will

L-r: Prof Muibi Opeloye, President Ile-Ife Development Board; Chief Kola Adetunmbi, Secretery General and Mr Gbenga Adefaye, Board member and General Manager, Editor-in-Chief, Vanguard. PHOTO: Kehinde Gbadamosi

attract a lot of investors who will create employment opportunities for the people of Ile-Ife. "Our focus of creating an industrial park is borne out of the fact that there is unemployment in the country. Our youths are roaming the streets riding Okada and this is unfortunate. What we will be doing through establishing the industrial park, is creating an enabling environment for would -be -investors since we have raw materials, cassava, maize, banana, palm produce, etc.

Interested investors will come with processing plants; so we will not be investing directly but provide enabling environment for the

Be prepared to show your TIN Continues from page 34 access to a large database of private and sometimes very sensitive personal information. But even though there are different categories of users who can access the system, not every user will have access to all the information in the system.

The level of authority will determine the information a personnel will have access to.

“We need to acknowledge that no system is completely foolproof. But the TIN system has no incentive to motivate fraudulent behaviour. There is no monetary benefit attached, hence there may be no benefit to steal and use another person’s TIN for personal gains.

Benefits: Although the TIN system has been around for some time, in concrete terms, the electronic identification of tax payers has streamlined tax administration. While the previous system was cumber-

some, for example, a company needed different tax numbers whenever it relocated, there are at least 29 states of the Federation already participating in the project and counting.

Joint Tax Board: “In consideration of the Joint Tax Board, JTB, as a policy board for creating uniformity in tax administration, the TIN will help eliminate double taxation.

Nationwide database system States will be able to share information within the nationwide database system. In states such as Lagos and Ogun where there is confusion concerning where residents should pay their tax, under the TIN system, taxpayers will be identified by their Local Government Council.

Obtaining your TIN: The process of obtaining the is quite straightforward. Simply

visit any of tax offices located in the country and obtain the relevant application forms. Fill and submit the completed form with a valid proof of identity in the form of your drivers license, international passport, national identity card, utility bills or any similar documents.

Complete the biometric verification at the point of submission.

Corporate organisations can simply write to the tax comptroller, and submit the letter with photocopies of the company’s certificate. Upon verification of the details, the TIN will be issued, free of charge.

Benefits: The benefits of getting the TIN are many. As a taxpayer, there is ease of access to information about your tax status anywhere around the world, avoiding incidence of double or multiple taxation. Because the TIN is unique to each taxpayer, it may be quoted for all tax purposes nationwide.

investors,” Professor Opeloye said.

General Manager/Editori n - C h i e f o f Va n g u a r d Newspaper, Mr. Gbenga Adefaye who is also a member of the board, said the essence of creating the board is to assist the Osun State government in fast tracking developmental projects across the state.

Adefaye said it will be a welcome development if

,

BY DANIEL ETEGHE

he said.

The Vanguard Editor-inChief stressed that as an agrarian community, Ile-Ife has the largest of forest reserve in West Africa. He noted that about 30 square miles of the reserve has been ceded to the community to develop farming but people can hardly access the farms because there are no good roads leading to the farms.

Also speaking, Secretary

Our focus of creating an industrial park is borne out of the fact that there is unemployment in the country

IIe-Ife is transformed into an enviable business hub which is the main reason for organising the forth-coming Ife Day Celebration.

“Every Ife Day, we try to bring up a project but there are some that we have achieved so far like offering scholarship to several of our kids who have been assisted by the board to get good education, some of them went abroad and that is an on-going thing and not only that we make sure that these people after studying get engaged and build their careers.

Executive search Having acquired education which is a leveller, they should be able to aspire to the highest position in life. There are so many other things. I know that the board is doing a kind of data capturing of Ife people anywhere in the world so that we can do executive search, we can do placement and so on, with the aim of helping the c o m m u n i t y. T h e r e i s nothing wrong in turning Ife to another business hub,"

,

Planning Committee of the Ife Development Board, IDB, Mr. Kola Adetunmbi said that the board was working in tandem with the government of the state to bring meaningful development to the area.

He said: "In terms of creating local government areas, we ensure that we get closer to the people and help them in passing across their demands to the government so that no section of the community is left unrepresented and undeveloped.

"Let me also add that the Ifes who are in government and those who are holding political positions are members of the board and this is deliberate. You know that you can hardly get any thing done without the government. The Senator is there, the House of Rep man, the Auditor General is there, the commissioner, special adviser and those that are members of the state executive council of Osun State are all part of the board.

“This is strategic as it will help in ensuring that the presence of the government is felt by all Ife people”.

36—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Competency test: Teachers sue Edo govt

Confab delegates: Itsekiri youths spit fire

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—TEACHERS in Edo State, under the aegis of Secondary School Tutors, have dragged the state government before the National Industrial Court sitting in Akure, Ondo State, contending that the state government was not competent to conduct competency test for them.

The teachers are further contending that it was only the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria that can determine the standard of knowledge and skill to be attained by teachers in the country.

Plaintiffs in the suit are Okoekpen Emmanuel, Ebare Sunday, Bola Sunday and Osayande Samuel for themselves and on behalf of all Secondary School tutors in Edo State.

Other defendants in the suit are the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof. Dennis Agbonlahor (Head of Committee set up by Edo State Government to conduct the assessment test), Mrs. Yemi Keri (Head of Information Technology Agency), Head of Service, Edo State, Ministry of Basic Education and Ministry of High Education.

Counsel to the teachers, Olayiwola Afolabi in the suit is praying the court to restrain the

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

W

ARRI—ALARMED by the exclusion of the Itsekiris in the delegates selection for the national conference, the Itsekiri National Youth Council, INYC, has said failure by the relevant authorities to correct the perceived anomaly was a call for unrest.

In a chat with Vanguard in War ri, Delta State, yesterday, Shola Jakpa, President INYC, said the call for calm among Itsekiris over their exclusion in the confab cannot assuage widespread anger among the people in the light of the impunity with which government took the action.

“We have been told to be calm about being made not to have a say at a conference to determine who gets what, when and how in a renegotiated Nigeria. How does anybody expect us to be calm? This is the only national conference in the annals of Nigeria that we are being alienated.''

Megadegs holds Cultural Day Megadegs Model TSchools, Ota, Ogun State HE

held its first cultural day with pomp and pageantry and lots of cultural attractions on display in their school premises weekend.

The programme, which involved both primary and secondary students aimed to promote culture at the grassroots, and also to showcase Nigerian rich cultural potentials in Yoruba, Igbo and other tribes both in dancing and drama.

It also included presentation of rich varieties of foods by the student groups.

Speaking at the occasion the proprietor of the schools, Dr. John Adewoyin and his wife, Janet, stressed the importance of culture in nation building, adding that the teaching culture in schools will allow pupils to know their background and to be able to dress well from tender age.

They advised government at all levels to encourage and promote culture from primary school level in order to inculcate sound discipline and respect among the youths, adding that the school will continue to make the culture display as annual event.

defendants, excluding the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, whether by themselves or their agents from conducting the competency test or any other pending the and determination of the substantive suit.

The teachersalso want an order of court restraining the defendants from taking any step or doing anything inconsistent with their employment by withholding their salaries and or any of their entitlements,

terminating their appointments as a result of the test, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

The plaintiffs want the court to declare that by virtue of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria Act Cap T3, it was only the body that can determine the standard of knowledge and skill to be attained by teachers in the country including Edo State.

They also want the court to declare “that the Teachers

Uduaghan never ordered demolition of anybody’s property

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

W

ARRI—PROMINENT community leader and chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Warri, Delta State, Prince Agindotan Yonwuren has said that Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan did not order the demolition of anybody’s property close to the yet-to-be commissioned structure built by Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC in Ugbuwangue, Warri.

Prince Yonwuren, reacting to the protest by some women, who displayed their wares on his property, which was demolished, said that the governor only ordered that areas close to the DESOPADEC structure be cleaned-up to allow the commission complete work on the ultra-modern shopping complex for commissioning and handingover in three weeks.

According to him, those who organised the women to protest against the demolition are “some elements in Ugbuwangue, who collected huge sums of money in the guise of sanitising the environment around the shopping complex only for them to demolish same and paint a saintly figure.”

He attributed the demolition of his property, which is few metres away from the road and the structure “on jealousy and strategic plan to establish their

new political agenda, which is against the ruling PDP,” stressing that those behind the demolition deliberately misconstrued

Uduaghan’s directive in a bid to “get at me after I detained them in January 2013 for destroying my property on the same land.”

Ex-Daily Times editor sues INEC over non-payment of contract fees

BY INNOCENT ANABA

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ORMER Editor of the Daily Times Nigeria Plc and media consultant, Mr. Ken Ugbechie, has dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, before an Abuja High Court over alleged refusal of the commission to pay him for contract executed.

Ugbechie, publisher of the Political Economist, Plc., through his firm, Godson & Godman in the suit, is demanding the sum of N7.5 million being the contract sum as well as 10 percent interest on the judgment debt starting from the date judgment is entered until same was liquidated.

Ugbechie in his statement of claim said that his company Godson & Godman was on January 19, 2010, awarded contract by INEC to inspire and generate expository articles, commentaries, news analysis, editorial and comments amongst other to sufficiently enlighten the electorate on all that the commission was doing to ensure hitch-free election of the 2011 general elections.

He averred in an affidavit in

support of the suit that said the contract was thoroughly verified by the officers of INEC after c o m p l e t i o n .

According to him, despite repeated demands, the defendant has refused to pay the N7.5 million due to his company, since the contract was executed.

According to him, the refusal by the defendant to fulfill its financial obligations in the contract, had adversely affected the business of the plaintiff.

He averred further that he had written several letters for payment of the contract sum to no avail, adding his lawyer also wrote INEC demanding the payment of the money without success.

He added that after the receipt of the plaintiff ’s solicitors’ demand letter, the defendant referred the matter to its department on Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR, adding that his lawyer also had a meeting with the director of the defendant’s ADR, wherein it was decided that the matter be referred to the Public Affairs Department for confirmation.

By Bartholomew Madukwe

PEOPLE SPEAK

08102479985

Registration Council of Nigeria is the only statutory body empowered by law to conduct any test for teachers, which is the 3rd defendant an determine who are qualified to be in teaching profession in Nigeria including Edo State. *A declaration that Prof.

Agbonlahor-led committee was not constituted by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria and so lacks the legal competence to conduct the said test.”

(nwamad@yahoo.com)

On tanker drivers take-over of Mile 2/Apapa Road

Over 60% of Nigeria’s imported fuel come through Lagos alone and the FG is doing nothing to salvage the situation. Today, we have a large number of tankers from different parts of the country in Lagos, putting more pressure on the roads. Ms. Regina Osakwe - Worker

If you spend some time on Mile 2-Apapa/Oshodi Expressway and monitor these tanker drivers, you'll be amazed at what you will see. I don’t blame the tanker drivers because Lastma officials are supposed to control them. Mr. Stanley Okorie - Worker

I think NNPC should lay more pipelines, so that some of these fuel tankers will move away from Lagos roads to elsewhere to load their commodity. Lagos State is really trying but there is just nothing one can do in this case. Mr. Kareem Ahmed - Businessman

The Apapa-Oshodi Expressway has been an headache from time immemorial. What stops the government from getting more land because of the future at Ibafo/environs and bury underground pipelines for Lagos fuel stations? Mr. Enyinna Okpani - Student

Let us try and understand what the problem is first. Is the problem caused by these fuel tankers or Lagos State Government’s failure to make better provision for them to come and lift commodity? Mr. Timothy Gbenga- Worker

A tanker driver with his right senses cannot just barricade the road, depriving other road users.

So, it is totally unacceptable and such should not be encouraged by any government. Mr. Oluwabunmi OmatayoStudent

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014—37

Customs strengthens ties with Police to enhance security

Edo CP reads riot act to officers over distress calls

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

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BY IFEYINWA OBI

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N a bid to enhance security at the country's borders, the Seme Area Command of Nigeria Customs has moved to strengthen its inter-agency operational ties with the Nigeria Police.

The Customs Area Controller of the command, Mr. Willy Egbudin, described the cordial relationship between customs officers and their counterparts in the police as a necessary collaboration for intelligence sharing and possible joint operation where and when necessary.

He spoke during a visit to Assistant Inspector General of police, Zone 2, Mr. Mamman Tsafe and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Manko, adding that collaboration between security agencies need to be strengthened to tackle the current insurgency in the country.

Stakeholders back Azuya for Reps seat

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RADITIONAL rulers, community leaders and political stakeholders in Aniocha/ Oshimili federal constituency of Delta State, have called on Chief Tony Azuya to contest the House of Representatives election in 2015.

Speaking through Chief Michael Adimabua, the people said if Chief Azuya accepts to join the House of Representatives race, there was no doubt that he would be massively voted for to show appreciation for his numerous contributions to the socio-economic development of the area over the years.

Chief Adimabua said that the response from recent consultation visits had shown that Azuya has an overwhelming credential and landmark achievement which place him above other contestants.

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CONFERENCE: From right: Mr. John Bruton, former Prime Minister of Ireland; Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Tele Ikuru, during the International Conference on Democracy and Good Governance, organised by Rivers State Government in Port Harcourt, yesterday. Photo: Nwankpa Chijioke.

Why railway's yet to decongest roads —NRC

BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

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HE Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, has said that its haulage system launched recently has not started having significant impact on road congestion because of its limitations on market share and technical capacity.

Director of Operations, NRC, Mr. Niyi Alli, stated this in a chat with Vanguard on the state of the corporation’s recently launched container traffic.

It will be recalled that the Nigeria Railway Corporation in-

troduced the container traffic in partnership with APMT Inland Container Nigeria Limited in August, 2013. It also added 20 oil tank wagons to its fleet, all in an attempt to improve efficiency in the haulage system and ease congestion at the port, besides helping to reduce the number of trucks and the clogging on the OshodiApapa Expressway in Lagos.

He said: “You have to think about it from a very logical perspective. At the moment, we have been able to carry less than two percent of the total volume required. This will take

a gradual process where we will start to integrate, increase capacity and customer confidence and over a period of time, you will start to see an increease in the number of containers that are being carried by rail. But that will take some time.

“This will not only affect the container traffic but also other traffic like wheat and cement. It’s a gradual process and we will definitely increase our market share. But we have to understand that the trailers will not just disappear automatically from the road, it will take awhile.”

INEC urged to conduct re-run poll to fill vacant the group, the court judgment seat in Rivers Assembly that brought in Mr. Felix

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

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ORT HARCOURT—A GROUP, Third Force Movement, has expressed worry over the delay in conducting a re-run election to fill the vacant seat of late Mr Tonye Harry who represented Degema constituency in Rivers State House of Assembly before he passed on in October last year.

A statement by Secretary of the group, Mr. Oprite Amachree, said it was disturbing that several months after the untimely death of the former lawmaker, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was yet to conduct a re-run election for the constituency, noting that the action was robbing the area of representation in the state House of Assembly.

According to the group, the late Harry, who was also a former Speaker of the House of Assembly, died in October last year, adding that the delay in holding a re-run election violated the Electoral Act. Meantime, the body also called

on the national leadership of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to overhaul the executive structure of the party from the state to the ward level. According to

Obuah and Mr. Walter Idibia as Chairman and Secretary respectively, left other executive structures of the party in the state non-functional.

Delta 2015: Elect God-fearing candidate —Oyibode

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—DELTA State governorship aspirant, Ambassador Gabriel Oyibode, has urged people of the state to elect a God-fearing person as governor in 2015, saying that his aspiration was anchored on the principles of God. Speaking during a consultative visit to the palace of the Asagba of Asaba, HRM Chike Edozien, yesterday, he assured of even development of all parts of the state if elected.

Oyibode, who is running on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said: “The man who is to take over the mantle of governorship in 2015 should build on the solid foundation

already laid by the incumbent governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.

“We do not need a man who wants to enrich himself or serve one sector of the state.

As you all can see, our amiable governor has done well.

So, whoever is succeeding him must deliberately build and improve on his achievements.”

He called on Deltans to be wary of self-seeking politicians and “those who want to buy your votes and mortgage the future of the state as Delta State is not for sale.”

In his remarks, the Asagba of Asaba expressed hope that there would be a level playing ground for all aspirants.

E N I N — B A R E LY 48 hours after Edo State Police Command paraded 50 suspected armed robbers in the state, the Police Commissioner, Mr. Folunso Adebanjo, yesterday, threatened disciplinary actions against Area Commanders and Divisional Police Officers, DPOs, who failed to answer distress calls from members of the public.

Adebanjo, during the decoration of 13 newly promoted officers of the force at the state Police Command, lamented that some Area Commanders and DPOs pretended not to see distress calls from members of the public, warning that any officer found wanting may be dismissed from the force.

“I have received reports that some Area Commanders and DPOs don’t pick their calls. That is unacceptable because you are now endangering the lives of citizens. The police must be proactive and that is what the Inspecting General of Police is saying every day. As CP Edo, I stay with my phone 24 hours because the IG or members of the public can call me at any time, so if I as CP answer all calls, who are you not to do the same?”

Confab: It's immoral to exclude minority —Activist

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ARRI—AS reactions continue to trail the exclusion of Itsekiri from delegates to the forth-coming national conference, a Niger Delta activist and former spokesperson of Itsekiri National Youth Council, INYC, Mr. Matthew Itsekure, has said in Warri, Delta State, that the ancestors, youths, women groups, including the disabled, were angry with the organisers of the confab.

He said with Itsekiriland producing over 33 percent of the country’s oil and gas resources, it was criminally immoral to exclude the minority, but oil rich-people from such an important conference, where salient issues concerning their well being and welfare would be discussed using the finances derived from their soil.

38—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Groups flay media's under reportage of poverty issues

BY Chinyere Abiaziem

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AGOS — THE Inter national Press Centre, IPC, and World Association for Christian Communication, WACC, have flayed the seven per cent accorded reportage of rural poverty issues, which they described as abysmally low.

Speaking at a workshop for media practitioners in Lagos, Professor Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika of WACC, urged media organisations across the country to pay more attention to poverty issues to help reduce the phenomenon.

Ogwezzy-Ndisika, who is also of the Department of Mass Communication,University of Lagos, made a presentation on “A Report of onemonth survey of six newspapers reportage of rural poverty issues in Nigeria.”

Two weeks after, Specialist Hospital remains shut

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

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WERRI — IMO State Specialist Hospital, Owerri, has remained closed for nearly three weeks after staff of the medical facility began an indefinite industrial action.

Vanguard investigations revealed that the aggrieved health workers downed tools on February 24 to demand payment of eight months of unpaid salaries, allowances and other labour issues.

Apart from the Specialist Hospital, other health facilities, it was learnt, were affected by the strike.

FG warns envoys against dealing directly with office of President

BY VICTORIA OJEME

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BUJA — NEWLY appoint ed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali, has warned members of the diplomatic corps serving in Nigeria to desist from acts inimical to diplomatic practice and protocol, dealing directly with office of the

President without recourse to his ministry.

Ambassador Aminu Wali, who gave the warning at his inaugural meeting with the envoys in Abuja, said the ministry must be accorded its appropriate respect and place as official channel of communication with the government.

Wali, however, charged them to conduct diplomacy on the basis of universal practice of mutual respect, candour and sovereign equality. ”In line with diplomatic practice and protocol however, I shall take a dim view of abuse of access as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must be accorded its proper rec-

CONGRESS: From left, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, Managing Director, Airtel, Nigeria; Mr. Manoj Kohli, CEO, Airtel International Strategy, and Executive Vice Chairman, EVC, of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, at the just-ended Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona.

Group urges IGP to name sponsors of attack on Enugu Govt House

BY CHINENYEH OZOR

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SUKKA — A rights or ganisation, Justice for All Nigerians, JAN, has asked the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Dikko Abubakar, to compel the Enugu State Command of the force to name the sponsors of last Saturday’s attack by armed men on Government House, Enugu.

JAN also expressed concern over what it described as the “sudden rise of strange cases of violence” in Enugu, and urged the police to expedite

action on the exhumation and autopsy on the body of former Chairman of the Mpu Ward of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State late Benjamin Ani. In a statement signed by its President, Dr Johnson Udekwe, JAN said the attack on Enugu Government House should be treated as an assassination attempt on Governor Sullivan Chime, adding that the prompt release of the names of its sponsors would forestall any move to sabotage the evidence against them.

Udekwe said it was baffling to know why Enugu State Police Commissioner refused to name the sponsors of the attack, even after admitting ‘’that those arrested over the attack had made confessional statements mentioning their names.’’

The group also flayed what it called the “devious attempt” to rope in the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, into the crime, saying the use of the organization’s insignia was a smokescreen to divert attention from the real

Sen Okonkwo urges Igbo to support Ohanaeze’s position on confab

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S THE national confer ence becomes a reality amidst high hopes, expectations and skepticisms, a front line Igbo nationalist campaigner for equality, equity and fair access to national resources and opportunities, Sen Annie Okonkwo has urged Igbos to support Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s position on the confab.

Sen. Okonkwo, who is the president of Committee 21, an Igbo socio-political group, drew from C M Y K

experiential insights and historical reflections to assert that ‘any opportunity for a national jaw jaw of this dimension is better than war war.

He maintained that the potency to correct structural and social injustices was best served through dialogue than the violence of warfare, adding that people must appreciate that its better late than never.

The senator in a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr Collins

Ugwu, said: “Its on this premise he stated, that I call on Ndigbo of all persuasions to strategically stand behind Ohanaeze Ndigbo as our delegates go to the conference to canvass our position and interests, because the Igbos must make a statement that on this very issue of national dialogue, we are one, since the consequences of our collective deprivations as a people is neither discriminatory nor selective.”

“It will be a lamentable self in-

flicted disaster, difficult to forgive, much less forget if the policies and protocols of governance that will shape the future of this country is negotiated without the best of our deepest inputs from our cerebral fountain of knowledge, wisdom and prized attributes”.

Sen. Okonkwo, however, that sacrifices and concessions might be necessary here and there, but only on the platform of transparent beneficial concensus.

ognition and place as the official channel of communication with government.

“A situation where diplomatic missions show disrespect to the exalted office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and our sovereignty by addressing themselves direct to that office will not be condoned,” he warned.

He pledged to operate an open-door policy to facilitate direct and faster communications between the federal government and their respective countries.

He said: “I will like to assure you of the cooperation and support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, indeed, the Nigerian government to make a huge success of your respective missions in Nigeria.

“I am, therefore, confidant that together we can achieve concrete foreign policy outcome that will serve our collective aspirations.”

The minister explained that it was not his intention to change the direction of content of Nigerian foreign policy which, he noted, had stood the test of time. ”Rather, I intend to recreate a new era of Nigerian foreign policy by sharpening our focus on what will serve the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians by our engagements with the outside world.

2015: Igbo in Lagos'll vote to protect interest in commerce, transport

BY ONOZURE DANIA

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AGOS — THE Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo, has said that Igbo in Lagos State will only vote for a political party that would protect their interest in the commerce and transport sector, during the 2015 general elections.

This was disclosed yesterday during a press briefing by the president of the group, Chief Fabian Onwughalu Agumecheigbo.

Agumecheigbo, who said the Igbo were more in Lagos than in any other part of the country, said they were willing to vote for any political party that would allow them to produce a deputy governor, and also protect their interest in commerce, transport and also give five of their people commissionership positions.

Agumecheigbo said: “We want two slots in the State Assembly, we want our man to be given the Commissioner for Transport come 2015, because of what our people go through, in the hands of the LASTMA officials.”

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 - 39

PEACE CONCERT: From left: Prelate of the Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, Chief Imam of National Mosque, Abuja, Malam Musa Mohammed, Imam of Ansaruldeen Society of Nigeria, Malam Musa Olaofe, and President, Africa First Ladies Peace Mission, Dame Patience Jonathan, during the National Youth Peace Concert in Abuja.

VISIT: From left: Chairman, Trust Yields Securities Ltd, Alhaji Rasheed Yusuf, GMD, GTI Securities Ltd, Mr. Abubakar Lawal, Chairman, Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria, ASHON, Mr. Emeka Madubuike and MD, GTI Securities Ltd, Mr. Tunde Oyewole, during the visit of ASHON executives to GTI Securities Trading Floor, the first private stock trading floor in Nigeria, built by GTI in Lagos.

From left: Oscar Onyema, CEO, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Oluwole Abegunde, MD, Meristem Securities Ltd, and Sulaiman Adedokun,MD, Meristem Wealth Management Ltd, at the launch of Meritrade Online Stock Trading platform in Lagos.

BRIEFING: Oloja of Epeland, Oba Kamorudeen Ishola Animashaun (middle), Olisa of Epeland, Chief Alaolu Korede (right), and Community Secretary, Epeland, Chief Olayinka Tobun, during the briefing on the commencement of the annual Eebi Festival at Epe in Lagos.

From left: VP, Nigerian Association of Computer Science Students, NACOSS, University of Ibadan chapter, Adewale Balogun, Head, Computer Science Department, represented by Mr. T. Ogundele, Cofounder, Websoft, Omoniyi Owete and Co-founder Twinpine Network, Oduntan Odubanjo, at the NACOSS departmental week career talk at UI, Ibadan.

BRIEFING: From left: Assistant Chief Secretary, Major Friday Ayanam, Salvation Army Nigeria, Chief Secretary, Lt-Col. Godfrey Payne, Territorial Commander, Commissioner Mfon Akpan, his wife and Territorial President for Women Ministries, Commissioner Imeh Akpan' Territorial Secretary for Women Ministries, Col. Diane Payne and Major Glory Ayanam, during a briefing to announce the visit of the Salvation Army's World leaders, General Andre Cox and Commissioner Silva Cox to Nigeria scheduled for March 20 to 24, in Lagos, yesterday.

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CELEBRATION: From left: Ekiti State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Social Development and Gender Empowerment, Mrs. Fola Richie-Adewusi, wife of Ekiti State Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, her husband, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, and a cross section of women, during the International Women's Day celebration in Ado-Ekiti.

From left: Mr. Chuks Iku, Group Head , E-Channel, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Didier Coeln, GM, Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos, and Mrs. Ibiye Ekong, ED, South South, Skye Bank Plc, during the launch of Rewards Club by the hotel, in Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

GOLDEN JUBILEE: From left: Provincial Superior, Our Lady of Apostles Convent, Rev. Sister Assumpta Mordi, Archbishop of Abuja Catholic Archdiocese, His Eminence, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, celebrant, Rev. Sister Carmelita Emuze, Archbishop of Lagos, His Grace, Right Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins and Emeritus Archbishop of Ibadan Archdiocese, His Grace, Right Rev. Felix Alaba Job, during the Golden Jubilee celebration of Religious Profession of Rev. Sister Carmelita Emuze as a Nun, at St. Agnes Catholic Church, Maryland, Lagos.

40—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

ALSCON moves to minimise losses

Zamfara PDP okays Hamid for 2015 guber race

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BY SALISU MARADUN

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USAU — THE Zamfara State Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has endorsed a retired civil servant, Alhaji Sagir Hamid, as its governorship candidate for the 2015 election in the state.

This was made known by Chairman of the Care-Taker Committee, Alhaji Ibrahim Adamu, while speaking in an interview with Vanguard in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital.

Adamu spoke shortly after flagging off a threemonth skill acquisition programme for 100 youths sponsored by the governorship aspirant.

The youths would undergo the training which was a joint programme between the Sagir Foundation and the PDP in Kano State.

According to Adamu, Hamid’s programme for the youths was in line with the party’s aim of youth empowerment, hence the need to recognise him as the best man that could bring the desired change, especially in the area youth development in the state.

Adamu expressed optimism that Hamid, if elected, would continue with the good works he had started, and asked all the party’s political office holders to emulate the good example.

He said: ”The PDP wants people of his kind who have the people and the state at heart and whose intention is to, among other things, the needed change and an end to idleness on the part of youths who now roam the streets."

From left: Mr Ademola Sanya, Trade Sales Manager, Nigeria-British Airways; Mr Kola Olayinka, General Manager, West Africa British Airways and Afolake St. Matthew-Daniel, Legal Adviser, Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, Zaria at the British Airways Leaders of Tomorrow press conference, in Lagos. Photo: Akeem Salau.

3 Policemen, 2 civilians killed in Borno ...as Boko Haram ambushes council boss' convoy

BY NDAHI MARAMA

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AIDUGURI — THE Care taker Chairman of Gwoza Local Government Council in Borno State, Dr Hamma Jumba, narrowly escaped being killed by suspected Boko Haram terrorists who ambushed his convoy, Monday.

However, three police escorts and two other civilians in the convoy were not lucky as they were killed by the insurgents.

The incident occurred along the troubled Firgi-Gwoza highway, which had been under series of attack for sometime now.

Vanguard gathered that the chairman had travelled to his council to distribute relief materials to victims of previous attack by the insurgents with some security operatives and ran into an ambush of the terrorists on their way back to Maiduguri, the state capital at about 4.30 pm.

Some government functionaries, who were on the entourage, were said to have managed to reverse their vehicles and ran back to the local government council while the

policemen and the two civilians were not lucky as they were allegedly caught in the crossfire.

One of the survivors (name withheld), who is a driver attached to the Government House, told Vanguard that it was by the grace of Almighty God that he found himself at the Government House yesterday morning.

He said: ”I have cause to thank God for sparing my life. It happened around 4:30pm when we were going to Maiduguri from Gwoza. "On reaching the bridge, after returning from Gwoza township and Barawa village, the convoy was ambushed by the gunmen at the damaged Firgi Bridge who started firing indiscriminately from all the directions.

"Some of our drivers reversed and escaped, while two other vehicles were abandoned by their occupants who crawled for 300 metres to escape from the insurgents that destroyed the bridge last week. In deed, we fell under a a deadly ambush of Boko Haram terrorists. The attackers were over 100 and armed with

Jonathan’s wife honours women-friendly leaders

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BEOKUTA — As part of the events marking this year’s International Women’s Day, the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has honoured some “women-friendly leaders” of the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Presenting the awards on behalf of the First Lady, the State Coordinator of the Women for Change and Development Initiative, Mrs Abosede Ogunleye, said the awardees were chosen after a careful appraisal of their support for women, the youth and the less-privileged in the society, in line with the objective of the Non-Governmental Or-

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ganisation, NGO. Among the award recipients were former Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Alhaji Rafiu Ogunleye; Chairman, Organisation and Mobilisation Committee, PDP, South-West, Prince Buruji Kashamu; Chairman, Elders Council, PDP, Ogun State, Alhaji Agboola Alausa; State PDP Chairman, Engr. Adebayo Dayo; former acting Zonal Secretary, Chief ‘Pegba Otemolu; PDP chieftain, Chief Tunde Olowu; State PDP Secretary, Alhaji Semiu Sodipo; party stalwart, Chief Zacchaeus Oyekunle and governorship aspirant, Hon. Kayode Amusan.

Others were former Attorney-

General and Commissioner for Justice in Ogun State, Chief Tola Odulaja; former Commissioner for Forestry, Dr. Adedoyin Adeleke; another gubernatorial aspirant and Chief Sikirulai Ogundele and party chieftains, among others.

Speaking on behalf of the other award recipients, Kashamu thanked the organisers of the event for the honour, just as he announced a donation of N1 million and three cars to the organisation.

He also announced the donation of office space to the organisation within the premises of the Goodluck Jonathan Political Centre, Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State.

sophisticated weapons.

The driver, who was later rescued by some military operatives, who were deployed to the scene, was conveyed to Government House yesterday morning before being reunited with his family at about 10 am.

He said though he could not tell the whereabouts of the Caretaker Chairman, he hoped the council boss survived the attack because the SUVconveying him managed to make a U-turn back to Gwoza, stressing that from the information at his disposal, the chairman reached Gwoza safely and was hale and hearty.

The state Police Commissioner, Lawal Tanko, confirmed the incident, but declined further comments. Also, confirming the incident in Maiduguri, the spokesman of 7 Division of Nigerian Army, Col. Mohammed Dole said as the operations in Konduga-Bama-Gwoza axis continued, there was an attempted attack on a civilians in a convoy at one of the bridges in the area.

KOT ABASI— Alu minium Smelter Company of Nigeria, AC RusalALSCON, Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State, yesterday, said it was taking steps to minimise losses while the aluminium production at the smelter was suspended.

The company’s Managing Director, Stanislav Kruglyashov, in a statement at the company’s corporate headquarters in Ikot Abasi, listed some of the measures to include further optimization of payroll which translates to further layoff of part of the staff currently in its employ.

Kruglyashov, who blamed ongoing crisis on global aluminium industry, further disruptions in gas supply for ALSCON and non-completion of ALSCON’s connection to the national power grid for the action, said affected employees would be offered commensurate compensations.

The managing director said RUSAL was facing exceptionally tough market conditions and executing production cuts programme approved by the board of directors in 2013 aimed at reduction of costs and minimization of losses.

He added that so far, the company had reduced aluminium production at its less efficient smelters across its territories of operations, including mothballing of smelting operations at five smelters in Russia and at ALSCON in Nigeria.

Kruglyashov said ALSCON, which is part of United Company RUSAL, and has been working in Nigeria for the past seven years has invested actively into the development of ALSCON.

Immigration deports 77 foreigners in Bauchi

BY SUZAN EDEH

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AUCHI — THE Bauchi State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, has repatriated 77 foreigners residing in the state without valid documents.

Speaking to newsmen while parading the affected persons, preparatory for repatriation, the state Comptroller of NIS, Ejukwule Usman, said the foreigners were apprehended in various locations in Bauchi metropolis.

According to him, “the af-

fected persons who are from Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic were arrested while conducting illegitimate businesses in the state.

"In view of the security situation in the country, particularly the North-East region, it has become imperative for the NIS to take measures that will ensure the protection of lives and property of Nigerians."

He further said the exercise was meant to rid the state of criminal elements to pave the way for the smooth conduct of the 2015 general elections.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014—41

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TERRORISM: PFN urges multilateral approach

By SAM EYOBOKA

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HE Pentecostal Fellow ship of Nigeria (PFN) strongly condemns the recent spate of vile and barbaric acts of terrorism that have defined the last few weeks in the NorthEastern part of Nigeria.

In a statement signed by the National President, Rev. Felix Omobude, the Fellowship said: "We are appalled at the effrontery and callousness of this murderous gang, in unleashing their venom on innocent young Nigerians, whose only crime was opting to better their lives and the future of the country by embracing education.

"It is inexplicable that such an egregious crime against humanity will take place, with a group of men invading a boarding facility for students, kill many, maim others and burn down a school owned and managed by the Federal Government of Nigeria," the

statement added.

Continuing, PFN mourned the loss of these courageous Nigerians, felled in their prime, praying for comfort and solace for the grieving families,

friends of the departed and the generality of Nigerians.

"It is a huge shame that at a time when the nation is celebrating a hundred years of her coming together as an entity, some

elements can so cavalierly descend on helpless children and kill them," it stated, adding "that the carnage at Buni Yadi has been followed, in rapid succession, with other killings in Borno and Adamawa states speak of the network and audacity of the terrorists.

"We contend that what Nigeria is faced with is a gang of internationally-trained and regionally-supported religious fundamentalists whose overriding objective is to force their extremist brand of religious idiosyncracies on the country," it noted.

"The PFN therefore called on the government to take on this

STOP THE KILLINGS: Placard-carrying Women matching through the streets of Benin City, Edo State protesting the killing of 42 students of Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe, the abduction of 25 girls from the school and the incessant killings in the North East. Photos: BARNABAS UZOSIKE.

Yomeres celebrate deliverance from car crash

A

RRANGEMENTS were in top gear for her 55th birthday on December 26, but on November 19, 2013 the devil struck as the vehicle they were travelling in from Lagos to Warri failed break and rammed into a truck at the Adesuwa Junction in Benin City leaving all seven passengers in the car seriously injured.

Giving her testimony at the Word of Life Bible Church, Warri, Mrs. Uruneyonjueyi Yomere, a socialite and trader in baby materials, narrated how she was returning from Dubai few months after bury-

ing her late mother when the accident happened.

There was plenty to drink and munch at the family compound, where gorgeously dressed church members, relations, friends and fellow traders had retired to after the church service. A DJ was stationed at a strategic corner of the compound, making sure that participants sang along, danced and praised God for sparing the life of their precious colleague.

According to the wife of Prof.

Gabriel Yomere, she was rushed to different hospitals with excrutiating pain where they

Oritsejafor opens Trade Fair

*HAPPY COUPLE: Prof. Gabriel Yomere and Mrs. Uruneyonjueyi Yomere. eventually confirmed that she had two broken ribs in a place too delicate to operate upon.

By divine providence, what medical personnel said was

PFN women hail Jonathan, NASS on anti-gay law

By GAB ENOGHOLASE

W

OMEN wing of the P e n t e c o s tal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, has thrown its weight behind President Goodluck Jonathan for signing into law the Same Sex Prohibition Act in Nigeria.

President of PFN Women Wing, Pastor (Mrs.) Abiola Omobude who addressed journalists in Benin ahead of its national convention expected to take place in the Edo State capital from March 1921, gave kudos to President Jonathan for appending his signature to the bill, irrespective of opposition to it by West-

ern powers.

She said: "On same sex marriage, already the president has spoken and he has spoken the mind of God. Number two, PFN president (Dr Felix Omobude) has spoken and he has said the right thing.

"That US president or other Western countries are not happy about it is not the issue here; the Word of God is what we believe in. We will rather obey God than obey man. Any nation that disobeys God always brings the wrath of God to its own people," she noted.

While admonishing parents over the decline in moral values among younger Nigerians, she called on women to

monstrous sore festering by the day, with a region of the country now effectively a war zone.

The time has come to go beyond routine verbal condemnation, and activate forthwith the necessary international legal and diplomatic protocols that will lead the perpetrators of this crime to be appropriately designated as war criminals.

"The need to engage other countries in the region to be able to cut off supply and support for the terrorists has become absolutely necessary.

Where needed support is not forthcoming from across the borders, Nigeria must begin to engage multilateral platforms that will assist in this regard, with the caveat that a unilateral action to take out terrorists is an option on the table.

"While appealing to the government to be mindful of its primary responsibility of securing the lives and property of all Nigerians, while guaranteeing their freedom to practise their religion and live in peace, the PFN restated the urgency of this moment.

"We believe that the reign of terror being witnessed takes away from the duty and responsibilities of the state and it must not be allowed to continue. We also call on all men of goodwill to intervene in this crisis and ensure that this waste of lives and resources come to a halt," PFN president stated.

rise up to the challenge insisting that “except the Christian woman rises up to these problems, there will be a lot of trouble. When women make their position known, the situation will get better for the society.

impossible was healed after the application of a handkerchief from her pastor, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor. "I have every reason to praise God for this divine intervention. You know my sister was with me in the car?

My husband had to be summoned from Auchi, Edo State, where he was attending to some issues," she noted.

A TRADE Fair organ ised by the Women Fellowship of the Word of Life Bible Church, Warri will be declared open tomorrow, by the National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor in the premises of the church along Ajamimogha Road, Warri, Delta State.

The fair, an annual event attached to the church's annual women convention tagged Daughters of Sarah International Convention, is an opportunity for corporate organisations as well as individual exhibitors to showcase and demonstrate their latest products, services, study activities of rivals as well as examine recent trends and opportunities in the market.

46—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

constitute half of our country's population, as either terrorists or terror sympathizers/sponsors, or to label the APC as an Islamic party just to hang it? Couldn't the PDP have criticized our Road Map without resorting to its wellworn, dangerous game of religious blackmail?" APC queried.

Perhaps the PDP has mistaken our decision to take the high road and avoid religious and ethnic politics as a sign that it is succeeding in its religious blackmail. Therefore, we have decided to let Nigerians know that the sooner they repudiate this dangerous tactics by the PDP, the safer for our country the party said as it pledged not to allow the PDP to distract it from its focus.

Roadmap to perdition •Metuh: APC is championing anarchy

The APC/PDP battle of ideas:

Is God in it?

THE two major political parties in the country are at the threshold of dragging God into their contest of ideas.

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

T

HE National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was unusually reticent when confronted with allegations that his party was tilted towards Islam during a recent interaction with newsmen in Lagos.

We know the impact of religion on our people and we do not want to use it as an issue despite the provocations by the PDP," he told Vanguard.

Officials of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had in recent times sought to portray the leading opposition party as a party that was bent towards Muslims. The PDP had in particular taken shots at the constitution of the APC national executive which the PDP said was dominated by Muslims.

The APC in line with its own pledge not to trigger the religion issue for most of the time kept away from responding except when some officials explained that the national executive was made up of almost an equal proportion of Muslims and

Christians. PDP officials, however, pressed that the principal offices were kept for Muslims while Christians were put up as deputies.

The APC, irrespective of the pokes waived away the issue as it kept focus on its plans for the constitution of new executives at all levels following the largely successful membership registration exercise that ended a fortnight ago.

However, the issue of religion took another dimension at the weekend after the APC unveiled its manifesto at a well attended ceremony in the federal capital.

Prints of the manifesto Even before the fine prints of the manifesto could reach the general public and even the media, the newly reinvented PDP publicity machine had dissected it and slammed it as lacking in character and content and is the product of a janjaweed.

"The ruling party described the APC manifesto as a product of a Janjaweed ideology and the roadmap to anarchy. ''The manifesto lacks character, depth and completely addressed

no issue,” Chief Olisa Metuh, the party's national publicity secretary said in a press statement, last Thursday.

The PDP noted that the manifesto put security low in the priority of the APC was a confirmation of what it described as the inclination of the party's leaders to riotous behaviour.

“When last year in its first official outing, the leaders of the APC said terrorism in Nigeria would disappear within 100 days of APC leadership, Nigerians did ask if they knew the characters in the crime and their sponsors.

APC gave silence as an answer while Nigerians kept wondering. Today, the party has released its manifesto with loud silence on the matter so that Nigerians would not raise further questions on the face behind the terrorism mask.”

The PDP reaction to the APC manifesto was a deconstruction of the roadmap convyed in a way to show the emptiness of the opposition party's programmes.

What was particularly new in the attack from the PDP was the claim that the roadmap was framed from Janjaweed ideology.

The ideology obviously referred to the scorch earth policy

of the Janjaweed militia in Sudan which had terrorised the population of Western Sudan.

It was an allegation that finally brought out the APC to battle the PDP on the matter of religion.

The party last Sunday described the allegation as an act of religious blackmail and in furtherance of what it claimed as the ongoing campaign to portray the APC as an Islamic party.

APC's spokesman, Mohammed, in his reaction said the PDP's assertion was a deliberate attempt to put Nigerian Muslims in bad light and described the PDP as taking the road of religious escapism.

The only reason that the PDP

,

•Mohammed: Promised not to dignify PDP's allegations

The PDP was unrepentant on Sunday as it reiterated that the APC was pursuing a Janjaweed ideology that is otherwise roadmap to perdition.

Metuh in the statement took a tactical reappraisal this time saying that the APC was not an Islamic party as he claimed the party's ideas fell short of the tenets of the religion.

But he maintained his ground that the ideology of APC is the same as the Janjaweed of the Sudan just as he compared the APC to the pro-Christian AntiBalaka movement in the Central African Republic which last year took up arms against the proMuslim leadership of the country.

Charging the APC to stop the heinous attempt at hiding under

The PDP noted that the manifesto put security low in the priority of the APC was a confirmation of what it described as the inclination of the party's leaders to riotous behaviour

used the word •'Janjaweed' is because the militia that goes by that name comprises mostly, if not exclusively, of people of Arab/ Muslim stock in Sudan.

This has further confirmed our fears that there is a clear attempt by the PDP, led by President Goodluck Jonathan, to divide Nigerians along religious lines as never before in the history of our country and to use religion as a political tool – a very dangerous move that can only result in religious warfare, from which no country that engages in it has ever survived intact.

Or how else can one explain the continuous attempt by the PDP, despite warnings from right thinking people and groups, to cast people of a certain faith, who

,

Islam to curry public sympathy, the PDP said the APC has since shown that it is a party that has no respect for Islam adding that no true Muslim would identify with a party made up of anarchists bound together by the lust for power and desperation to rule by any means including shedding of blood.

As if claiming that the Muslim elements in the APC were not faithful adherents, the PDP went ahead to claim that it had faithful Muslims in its leadership starting from its national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu‘azu.

In a note reflective of religious

Continues on page 47

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014—47

2015:

Jonathan is eligible to run—Tapgun

AMBASSADOR Fidelis Tapgun was the second civilian governor of old Plateau State which then included the present Nasarawa State. He spent less than two years as governor before the military again dismantled the democratic structures in 1993. He was appointed Nigeria's ambassador to Kenya by President Olusegun Obasanjo and later as Minister of Industries. He spoke on various issues including the appropriateness of the national dialogue. Excerpts:

BY TAYE OBATERU

What do you make of the argument in some quarters that President Goodluck Jonathan should not contest next year's presidential election? Some say he is ineligible to contest having completed late President Yar'Adua't tenure.

When I hear things like that, I just laugh. I don't know why they are saying Jonathan should not contest or that he cannot contest.

Yes, he completed late President Yar'Ardua's tenure, but the truth is that he has just completed his own first tenure of four years and the law allows him to contest. It is for him to decide if he wants to contest for a second term or not.

People have gone to court and it was ruled that he is eligible to contest, so the decision is for him to make. The man (Jonathan) has not said he is contesting but people are saying his body language indicates so. I don't know how to read body language, but I know time will come for it and he will tell us if he is contesting or not.

People point to his recent crisscrossing of the country and the rallies as evidence of his interest to contest.

Whatever he is doing is, to my

G

Shortchange by military By virtue of what happened under the military, if I wanted to contest at that time (1999), I would have done so and gone ahead to serve eight years because the military took it that our period in office was not counted at all. This was proved when some of my colleagues wanted to contest at that time and they went to court which cleared them. That was why Segun Osoba contested, Abba Ibrahim of Yobe State contested, Jolly Nyame of Taraba State contested and they all served their terms.

So, coming back to your question, virtually nothing has gone to the Southern Zone yet as far as we are concerned.

Dariye served eight years, then it moved to the Northern Zone and the incumbent, Jonah Jang

,

IVEN that the three Senatorial districts including the Southern District have produced governors for Plateau State, do you think rotation is still applicable and if so, from where?

When people talk about the Southern Zone having taken a turn, I don't understand. We are talking about a new Plateau State and under the new Plateau State, the Southern Zone is yet to produce a governor.

Even if we, for the sake of argument, refer to late Solomon Lar and myself who are both from that zone and had been governors in the old Plateau State which included the present Nasarawa State, the fact is that our combined periods in office never amounted to two terms of eight years as the Central Zone has had and as the Northern Zone is about to complete.

Lar was governor for four years and even though he was reelected for a second term, he spent only three months before they were overthrown by the military. So he did not complete his tenure.

When the military were trying to hand over and we came in, I was in office for just one year and eight months and the military seized power again. Following the split of the state into two with the carving out of Nasarawa State and the subsequent hand over to a democratically elected government, the governorship moved to the Central Zone from where Joshua Dariye contested and won.

•Tapgun: Jonathan has not said he is contesting is almost going into his eighth year now.

For anybody to say the Southern Zone has had their turn, I think the person in not thinking properly. It is just fair, it is just equitable and natural that the position now should move to the Southern Zone so that the people there can have their turn.

That apart, the whole idea behind the rotation of positions from place to place, is for equity, fairness and justice.

So even if we imagine that the Southern Zone has had its turn and the same zone has waited for 16 years will it be fair to take it to any of the two other zones?

That is why I said those putting up that argument are out for mischief; they are trying to create unnecessary problems and I don't think we need it in this state.

We should be rational and honest in what we are doing. So in the spirit of fairness, justice and equity, the governorship should go to the Southern Zone this time around.

Some of the arguments that

have been advanced is that there is no concrete agreement on the zoning thing and people cite the fact that aspirants from other zones also participated in the contest when those who got it were fighting for it.

Federal character Yes, there was no formal agreement on rotation and anybody is free to contest in exercise of his or her rights. But natural justice demands that there should be rotation to ensure that there is fairness to every zone in the state. That was the spirit behind the federal character principle in the constitution.

Speculations are rife that you are interested in contesting the governorship again. Would you want to clear the air?

I cannot tell you yes or no, but we are talking and consulting.

At the appropriate time, we will speak on the matter. There is no need to rush.

for someone else to run. For me, I think the man is well qualified to contest and nothing stops him.

So far we've seen the work of his hands and if anyone is sincere to himself, I think we should praise him for what he has done thus far.

Another argument is that the Presidency has stayed long enough in the South and should return to the North.

This thing about coming to the North, I don't know where they are referring to. But what I know is that the office does not belong to any particular group or section of the country.

Eligibility for contest I think the agreement was that it would rotate between the North and the South. But Jonathan is an incumbent who is eligible in law to contest, but if he says he is not going to contest, then that is a different matter. It can shift to the North then.

The suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as CBN governor has drawn different reactions especially on its implication for the economy.

What is your take on the matter?

This is the problem with us in Nigeria. Every little thing, people turn it into politics. People just want to gain undue advantage in everything. Sanusi is a public

The man (Jonathan) has not said he is contesting but people are saying his body language indicates so; I don't know how to read body language, but I know time will come for it and he will tell us if he is contesting or not

,

mind, in his capacity as the leader of the party. He must galvanize the party, set the party in motion as we move along because there are elections around the corner – local government, governorship and other elections here and there. He must keep the party alive as the leader; he must keep his soldiers alert for what is coming. If he eventually decides to run, he will be there and if he doesn't want to run, he would have prepared the ground

servant appointed by the president and there are rules governing the operations of that place as an institution.

Certain bodies were reported to have discovered some anomalies during an audit which they want to clear. If the president says, ok, step aside for investigations to take place, I don't see anything wrong in that.

This is the practice in the public service, I don't know why they are trying to turn it into politics.

The APC/PDP battle of ideas: Is God in it?

Continues from page 46 fervour for which it had slammed the APC in the past, the PDP accused the opposition party of launching a manifesto replete with seven prominent sins.

APC actually launched 7(seven) cardinal SINS against the national interest namely; 1.

Deceit and propaganda, 2.

Violence and destruction. 3. Lust for power. 4. Greed for money and insatiable acquisition of wealth.

5. Multiple and over-taxation. 6.

Promotion of religious/tribal divisions and 7. Lack of respect for democratic tenets and principles.

48— V anguard ,WEDNESD AY, anguard,WEDNESD ,WEDNESDA

MARCH 12,2014

He said all we were having was fun!

Dear Bunmi, AM in my mid-forties and run a clinic in the heart of Lagos. 1 have been in love with the MD of one of the companies that use my services for years. 1 am a seemingly happily married woman but I fell out of love with my husband ages ago. He was very nasty to me in the first few years of our marriage. He had a couple of affairs and has two illegitimate children to show for it.

My lover is married too. I worked late at the clinic one day when one of the nurses confided in me that she was pregnant and that my lover was responsible. Unfortunately, she didn’t know about our relationship and wanted me to have a word with him against the termination of the pregnancy.

When I confronted him on the nurse’s allegations, he didn’t deny it. He was actually surprised 1 took it as a betrayal. He said we never promised each other anything besides the good times we were having as we were both married.

I have since ended the relationship but was unpre-

I

Dear Bunmi, GET on well with my boy friend’s brother, but I hate his girlfriend. Everything about her annoys me. She talks non-stop about herself and has him wrapped around her finger. I have reason to believe she’s even cheated on him a few times.

I

We are all going to their home town for a whole week for a wedding soon, but what chance do I stand in enjoying all that time in her company?

My boyfriend and I are starting to fall out over my attitude, but I’m never rude.

Julie, Bye-mail.

His demands embarrass me!

Dear Bunmi, Y EX-HUSBAND was the only man I ever knew but the marriage broke up after eight years. I was in shock but I’ve moved on with the only child of the marriage. I’m now going out with another man but there is a problem. My ex-husband and I always made love the missionary way, but this new man is demanding all sorts of wild stuff, porn movies and oral one.

He once even tried to have anal sex with me and I told him I found it disgusting to say the least. Is he some sort of pervert or am I behaving like a prude?

Ajoke, Bye-mail.

M

Dear Ajoke, I don’t think you’re a prude, you’re being sensibly cautious.

These sorts of things are not activities you should be jumping into with a totally new partner. It takes time to build up enough trust and respect. By the sound of things, this man is not giving you the time or space to do so. Instead, he’s made you feel hassled and pressured and that’s different from the natural nervousness you may experience when you enter a new relationship after ending an old, long-term one.

So stick to your guns and if your new man doesn’t like it, tell him to move on.

Dear Julie, Being unable to change your mind is a problem and the cure is within yourself, not the other person. Examine your true emotions: is there a trace of jealousy there? She draws attention to herself (away from you) and she has her boyfriend wrapped around her finger (you are falling out with yours). Try and eliminate your jealousy and look at her again. Does her boastfulness stem from insecurity, particularly when you’re around?

If you have real courage, arrange an outing just for the two of you. She might be nervous, so give her time to calm down without judging her; then do your best to get to know her and see what everyone else sees in her.

If you want to live in a family that includes her, you’d better learn to like her. Otherwise, she’ll win this pointless contest that you’ve started.

And as for your suspicion of her infidelity - that’s her business, nobody else’s.

I love my ex and we still make love Dear Bunmi, ’M IN my early 20's and I split up with my boyfriend a few months ago after a year together because he didn’t want a steady relationship.

He said he loved me and would always be there for me, but he broke my heart. We still

I

make love and last month he said he wanted us to get back together. But when I texted him the next day, he said he had a girlfriend and had changed his mind.

His mum says he cares for me but needs to sort out his head. I’ve got a new boyfriend

He’s sleeping with our daughter-in-law Dear Bunmi, Y HUSBAND had a son in his teens before we got married and we had been married for over 20 years now. His first son too is married with an adorable child and they live in one of my husband’s flats. He visits them from time to time. I just learnt that my husband sleeps with his daughter-inlaw when he visits. He goes visiting when his son is at work as the girl works from home. Then they spend the morning in bed.

I haven’t told my husband about my discovery because I found the tell-tale evidence in his briefcase which combination lock he’s not aware I can open. I love my husband and he is a very generous man and I don’t want to em-

M

barrass him. How do I go about breaking this repulsive affair.

Tanmo Bye-mail Dear Tanmo, I guess knowing that his son’s wife finds him erotically desirable helps ease your husband’s fears of getting old and unattractive, but he should graze further away from home. No matter how generous and nice your husband is to you, you must let him be aware of the fact that sleeping with his daughterin-law is incestuous.

You can tell him you heard from the grapevine, but for your peace of mind, discuss it you must. I’m sure once he discovers you know, he’ll change his ways.

now and I’ve told my ex I have no feelings for him - but deep down) I do still love him. He’s the only one who understands me. What should I do?

Ireti Bye-mail.

Dear Ireti, If he understands you, you should try to understand him.

His mum still freely expresses her opinion of him to his friends, which means he hasn’t been away from home for long and isn’t much older than you. He’s not ready to tie himself down to one partner, no matter how much he cares for her.

There’s a world of achievement and freedom out there that women currently enjoy you must explore it and test your strength in it before you choose your direction and settle down. Perhaps you will rediscover each other - at least as friends - but for now, stop seeing your not-quite-ex, especially if it leaves you in turmoil whenever you do.

Remember that as long as you still make love with a man, he’s not an ‘ex’ but someone you have to get over again and again when he leaves.

Dear Ann, What sort of love are you looking for when you obviously have a husband who cares enough for you to want to make you happy? He has hurt you in the past but the hurt was obviously not deep enough to make you leave.

Since you have decided to stay with him, you should find it in your heart to forget the past and move on.

Infidelity seldom works and brings a lot of heartache in its wake. In an attempt to pay back the hurt your husband caused you, you’ve brought nothing but misery on yourself.

Forget this man as soon as you can and look inwards into your marriage for a happiness that lasts.

,

My boyfriend’s brother’s girl is a pain!

pared for the depth of the heartache I felt and still feel.

I snap at my husband and children at the slightest provocation. My husband has asked me what was wrong and how he could help but 1 can’t tell him anything of course. How could I get over this betrayal and will I find love again?

Ann, By e-mail

Infidelity seldom works and brings a lot of heartache in its wake. In an attempt to pay back the hurt your husband caused you, you’ve brought nothing but misery on yourself

,

My friends resent my toy boy Dear Bunmi, ’M IN my late 50's, but my lover of four years, is 13 years younger. He’s not after my money as I haven’t got any. Instead, he’s been the nicest man I’ve ever met.

You can’t really call me goodlooking and my friends have wondered what he saw in me.

I know I shouldn’t let them get to me, but I do and it’s upsetting me. My friends said I should give him his marching orders before he breaks my heart. Do you agree?

I

Dear Justina,

In whose eyes are you unattractive? This insecurity of yours is bound to cause problems within your relationship and this may result in your losing the person who is most important to you. So discourage other people from judging you. Beauty comes from within and is in the eyes of the beholder!

Continue having fun with your man because he obviously cares for you, otherwise he wouldn’t still be with you after four years. Your friends might be wishing they were in your shoes, so laugh in their face and continue feeling happy.

Share your problems and release your burden. Write now to Dear Bunmi, Vanguard Newspapers, P.M.B 1007, Apapa, Lagos. or bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 — 49 YOUR LUCK TODAY

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139

AQUARIUS; Early part of the day may bring you good opportunity along your business/business lines.

Work and your health must be taken very seriously PISCES; Like yesterday the Moon will operate from your Star sign again to the betterment of your cause.

Think of both your immediate and far future now.

ARIES You can still count on the supports of your tried and trusted friends. But it’s imperative you keep secrets as much as you can positively do.

TAURUS; The more receptive and willing you are to give and take co-operation the better for you today. It’s wrong of you to neglect your friends in need now.

GEMINI; You’ll have the needed opportunity to consolidate on progress you have recorded yesterday along your career/business lines. Try to work harder.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

By Richard Eromosele

I may ask you IbestF which is the way to

advertise yourself today, I guess many people will be mentioning the different media through which

The Best Advertisement you do this.

Some will even go beyond naming them to talking about their exorbitant prices.

However, I want

to let you know that you do not need to pay money in order to get the kind of advert that can promote you.

How? Fine! Let me

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye”

ask you a question: Who does Tiger Wood pay to get publicity? What of Ali Baba? Want to be advertised?

Just do something newsworthy no matter how little.

By Lanre Kehinde

CANCER; Element of luck will work favourably for you. Therefore you’re advised to expand the scope of your tentacle for better results. It’s another fairly favourable day for lovers who are more enterprising today.

LEO; Joining forces with other people is not a sin but it’s important everybody knows the clear term of the venture , be it of short or longer duration. Be very practical.

VIRGO; Many of you’ll travel either physically or within your mind; whichever one you’re involved with the out come will be favourable. Be more receptive, especially if your priority is commercial success. Take your new ideas more seriously today LIBRA; Similar to yesterday but, today more emphasis’ll be on money. Thus those of you who are more financially ambitious’ll have better and rewarding day than others. However that is not to say you should neglect your health.

KAPTAIN AFRIKA

in

“Princess Shii’

By Andy Akman

SCORPIO; Positive things are happening from (and around) you. The more enterprising you are the better for you today. And some of you will be mixing business & pleasure without harm. Lovers can have their way moderately.

SAGITTARIUS; This is your day when things’ll go according to your plans. And you’re advised to hit very hard not minding minor pressure from your base.

CAPRICORN; Once again success would come if you experiment with good ideas rightly at the right time. Those of you travelling are in for an exciting day.

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING Send yyour our dat th ttoo the As tr ological datee and place of bir birth Astr trological Counselling, PP.M.B .M.B 1100 00 7, Apapa, Lagos 007,

Basic characteristics of Aquarius Aquarius is ruled by freedom loving Uranus-the planet of unpredictability, eccentricity and genius.

Aquarius is friendly, loving, hopeful and very altruistic in nature. That is why they are nice persons who truly care for others, especially the less fortunate ones. They are loyal friend willing to belong to powerful social clubs or reasonable community.

The quality of Aquarius is fixed. That means it is important for them to watch the way they change their minds on important issues; Uranus factor makes all Aquarius natives freedom loving and whoever tries to impose any idea on you will be resented The element of Aquarius is the air. That makes you an intelligent person with fair share of sense of humour. Aquarius is the star sign that rules considerable social influence, and the natives of this star have better chances to have at least some influential friends. Then, Aquarians are truly good friends and bad enemies; it is not in the best interest of anybody to frustrate an Aquarian..

Aquarius being a scientific sign. Aquarians can be inventive. Any Aquarian who falls to take his sudden flashes of ideas seriously is doom (to fail eventually) because, Uranus the ruler of Aquarius, usually bring success to Aquarians unexpectedly through ideas that come suddenly, and unexpected luck usually accompany their sudden inspiration and/or ideas.

The most dangerous weak points of Aquarian are the tendencies to procrastinate things and willingness to take opponents or enemies for granted I mean you must not believe that some body you might have had heated argument with will not try to undermine your progress after what will look like intervention of peace makers.

VIRGINIA

HOME & ABROAD

dadadekola@yahoo.com

By Lawrence Akapa

50— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 Edited by: Emma Nnadozie emmadozie@hotmail.com 08023145281, 08111813021

•Burnt caterpillar

Battle for oil

•Burnt truck with equipment

•Youths on rampage at Anambra — Kogi border •6 injured, property worth millions of naira destroyed

O

PERATIONS at the Orient Petroleum Resources Ltd located at Aguleri Otu in Anambra East local government area of Anambra State are being threatened as about 150 youths suspected to be from the neighboring Odeke in Ibaji local government area of Kogi State invaded the area, destroying property worth millions of naira belonging to Nigercat Ltd, the major construction company working at the petroleum refinery.

The attack took place on Monday night and six people who were seriously injured during the

attack are still lying critically ill at Otuocha General Hospital in Anambra State. The attackers were said to be fully armed to the teeth as the intensity of their fire power scared security operatives guarding the oil facility who allegedly took to their heels on sighting the large number of armed youths.

Crime Alert gathered that the attack took place on a day the joint field team working on the Anambra /Kogi border was to meet to continue with efforts aimed at resolving the dispute between the two communities laying claim to the oil rich expanse of land in the area. Though the two border communities have been laying claims to the owner-

ship of the land where the oil deposits in the area were located over the years, the problem got to a head shortly after President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned the Anambra oil facility last year.

•Burnt equipment A prominent chief from the area told Crime Alert that his people be bought for the ceremony which and officials of governments of amounted to N200,000. He said: Anambra and Kogi states were “The mediators set up by the two surprised at the renewed attack, communities gave them the monadding that both Aguleri and ey in August last year to buy the Odeke communities have been necessary items and surprisingmeeting at Nsukka in Enugu ly, when we went to Nsukka last State to resolve the matter amica- week for a scheduled meeting, bly before the latest attack. He they failed to attend, even though said: “The police and the army they were in the same hotel with have created a buffer zone in the us.

“Eventually, they said that the area and we were surprised that money was not enough and we the Kogi youths succeeded in atgave them another N30000 just tacking Aguleri Otu despite the to ensure that we live in peace in presence of security operatives.” the area and eventually the cereHe said that following mony was carried out on Sunday the recent attack and the consisto enable us continue with our tent refusal of Odeke community meeting on Monday.

T o our greatto attend scheduled meetings to resolve the dispute, there was a est surprise, it was that Monday that the attack took place.”

,

By VINCENT UJUMADU, Awka

It was gathered that the people of Odeke in Kogi State decided to back out of the peace meeting because of alleged unfair treatment meted out to their people by Aguleri people in Anambra State in 1991

decision at the weekend to adjourn the peace committee meeting indefinitely until normalcy returned to the area. It was gathered that the people of Odeke in Kogi State decided to back out of the peace meeting because of alleged unfair treatment meted out to their people by Aguleri people in Anambra State in 1991.

Though details of the said ill treatment was not known, the Aguleri chief who spoke with Crime Alert said that following the complaint by Odeke people, they were asked to decide what should be done to appease them, adding that they listed items to

,

Meanwhile, the Anambra State government said it was seriously concerned about the latest attack on the Orient Petroleum facilities in the Aguleri Otu area. In a statement made available to Crime Alert, the secretary to the state government, Mr. Oseloka Obaze said: “The Anambra Executive Council has been briefed on the incident and Anambra authorities are in direct contact with the highest authorities in Kogi State on the matter, with a view to identifying those behind this nefarious act.

“While the investigations are ongoing, security agencies and

local government authorities on both sides of the Anambra-Kogi boundary are cooperating to determine the perpetrators of this violence.

This development is most unfortunate as it comes at a time when inter-communal dialogue and other confidence-building measures within the boundary localities, including boundary demarcation are vigorously being pursued. Anambra State authorities will continue to sue for calm and peace, but must warn that those who breach public peace and security and resort to violence must be made to face the full consequences of the law.”

P-H-O-T-OThe Police also smile

*L-R; AIG Zone 2, Mamman Tsafe, D Umaru Manko and CP Ogun, Ikemef

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 —51 Edited by: Emma Nnadozie emmadozie@hotmail.com 08023145281, 08111813021

PIPELINES AND OIL THEFT IN NIGERIA Corrupt policemen, NNPC security are threatening us — Security expert T

HE President of Chukan Security Solutions Ltd, Abuja, Mazi Ukachukwu Kanu who operates the antivandalization group protecting pipelines against vandalism along Lagos, Ibadan axis recently spoke on the problems confronting the group, prospects and the way forward. Excerpts: “One proverb says that if you want to know what happens in the kingdom of the dead, you should ask Mr. Rabbit because Mr. Rabbit made holes in the ground and lives with the dead under the earth.

In other words, any bird that flies over the NNPC oil pipelines has colours which must be traced before we can know its colours.

We have 120 members throughout the federation including some retired security personnel and we move about in our cars apart from keeping watch on pipelines using foot patrol and speed boats.

We cover popular areas in the Lagos Island where the pipelines passing through coastal areas including the SBM areas, sea-port, the Nigeria coastal water areas and the land territories in Lagos where pipelines were buried. Since the NNPC engaged us, vandals have

-S-P-E-A-K

DCP FSARS, Chris Ezike, CP Lagos, una Okoye.

attacked our members on the sea several times and destroyed our fishing boats (50 of them were destroyed).

Many of our members sustained several injuries and were hospitalized at different periods. Moreover, some corrupt policemen are threatening our lives and helping the vandals. We sent letters for our monetary demands and request for compensation to the NNPC but we are yet to receive any positive response.

Before our engagement, vandalism was very rampant.

Vandals were siphoning oil products worth billions of naira everyday. The NNPC Senior Staff invited our group at their Area Office in Mosimi Shagamu for top secret security meetings, alongside the Sector Commander in charge of the monitoring team set-up by the Inspector General of Police on pipelines

,

By ESTHER ONYEGBULA

•Mazi Ukachukwu

•M.D. Abubakar

Depot Chief Manager in Apapa and the Sector Commander in-charge of Inspector- General of Police Monitoring Team on pipelines vandalism. Whenever they receive the alerts, they take

It is wrong for some police men to be threatening and discouraging other security groups from engaging or participating in the war against vandalism

vandalism.

During our meetings, the seven (7) senior staff of NNPC complained that they are losing 2.5 million litres of fuel and AGO every week at the area while the government security agents posted to the place are helpless. On that note, the NNPC senior staff introduced our group to the Sector Commander and further told him that we would work with him to assist him fight vandalism.

Fighting vandalism As we came on board, we introduced a system which exposed everyone involved in the act. The action discouraged government security agents found aiding and abetting vandalism as a result of which vandalism was reduced and it became less rampant like it used to be at the mentioned areas.

Vandals operate only at midnight and each time we see them moving for operation, we contact the Area Manager, PPMC, Mosimi Shagamu, the

,

necessary actions to scare the vandals.

Furthermore, whenever the vandals succeed in their operation, we usually contact the NNPC Head of Maintenance at Mosimi Shagamu to go and see the valves which they used for the operation, remove and repair the pipelines burst by the vandals.

Starting from 2010 till date, we have evidence for 184 alerts sent to NNPC officials and the police by text messages and letters. They received and reacted on time to scare vandals during each operation.

Also, we have evidence of the cordial cooperation we enjoy with the Sector Commander in- charge of the IGP Monitoring Team on pipelines vandalism.

However, I would advise both men of the Civil Defence and the Police involved in pipeline protection to be patriotic.

Secondly, the police authorities should know that only one security organization cannot successfully secure NNPC oil pipelines. It is

wrong for some police men to be threatening and discouraging other security groups from engaging or participating in the war against vandalism. In the year 2007 – 2010, only the police, the NNPC local security, including the mobile police were deployed to protect pipelines but they could not properly secure NNPC oil pipelines and that is the main reason why the NNPC invited our group to assist.

Immediately we came on board, the vandalism reduced.

We cannot fail to state that the NNPC has the worst local security men at the Western part of the country. Many of them are foreign nationals from Niger, Chad, Ghana, Benin etc and have been implicated in vandalism and siphoning the oil products worth millions of naira.

Securing the oil pipelines Although in the Nigerian Police, there are many fine officers who are God- fearing, who can help secure the oil pipelines very well, yet we discovered that the majority of those sent to protect the pipelines, engage in sharp practices to enrich themselves as soon as possible. Recent changes made by NNPC reduced vandalism only for one year.

Starting from March 2012 to December, 2013, the officers posted to guard pipelines worked hard. Each time we

sent alerts to them, they responded and scared the vandals away by shooting in the air to prevent their operation. Vandals are like other gangsters and thieves.

Whenever they see lapses, they embark on operations and sometimes they siphon so much oil product worth billions of naira within one month.

On the vexed issue of the involvement of security men and NNPC Officials in pipelines vandalism,I want you to know that an elderly man does not say everything he sees in the garden, just as the palmwine tapper does not say all he sees from the top of the palm tree.

I think the important thing to know is there are solutions if we can summon the courage as a nation to fight vandalism.

We know how and when to catch the vandals during their operations. If the NNPC management can see reason to hear us out, we would further take the war against vandalism to another level by introducing the real fight against vandals who are human beings like us.

We acted according to the request of the Managing Director of PPMC. They should compensate and recognize our security organization. The country is too large; there is need for NNPC management to recognize us and let us join hands to fight vandalism.

We demand for compensation of one billion Naira to cover our expenses and the losses we incurred in working for the NNPC protecting the pipelines along the coastal areas so far.

52—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Franklin, kidney patient needs N3.5m for transplant

By FLORENCE AMAGIYA

F

RANKLIN Uche Onuoha, a patient with End Stage Kidney Failure, ESKF, to remain alive, he ugently needs N3.5 million to undergo kidney transplant in India.

Franklin, a graduate of International Relations from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and his family are appealing to well meaning Nigerians to save his life.

The 35 year old unemployed graduate who resides at N0. 7, Nise Street, Olodi Apapa, Lagos went into a coma on November 8, 2013 and was rushed to a nearby hospital for medical attention.

Ever since, his condition has worsened. even though he has gone for dialysis in different hospitals, his condtion has not improved.

His family has gone from hosptal to hospital searching or permanent solution but doctors say his only hope for survival is to undergo kidney transplant. Now, he is

completely bed ridden and unable to fend for himself. Even though, he is ready to undergo this surgery, the main problem now is that he or his family cannot raise the required sum which is estimated at N3.5 million. He appealled to Nigerians to help him get back to his feet.

His Septuagenarian father, Vincent Onuoha also said that while most families were celebrating last Christmas with fun fare, his family was running from one person to another for assistance. “We got some assistance from St. Vincent De Paul Society of St. Vincent’s Catholic Church, Olodi.

With this we were able to do this dialysis.”

The doctors actually advised that the transplant should be done as soon as possible.

If you are touched by Franklin’s plight, please send your donations to Fidelity Bank, account number: 4020096826, with name Vincent Onuoha or First Bank, ACT N0. 3000033515, Roseline Onuoha

•Franklin Uche Onuoha on dialysis machine.

‘Incessant strikes, bane of residency training of doctors in Nigeria’

E

XPERT has said that incessant strikes which has dominated the landscape of medical practice in public health service is the bane of residency training among Nigerian doctors.

The 18th College President of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, NPMCN, Professor Rasheed Ajani Arogundade believes that incessant strike was the cause of frequent incomplete training syndrome among doctors.

To this end, NPMCN has declared that ,certification for institutional training and faculty vetting by admissions into college examinations will be guided by records of inactivity occasioned by strike actions in any accredited training institution.

Speaking in Lagos during his investiture ceremony as the College's 18th President, Arogundade decried that such ugly situation has encroached on the length and quality of residency training of doctors.

Arogundade also regretted that unfortunately the strikes are embarked by the same resident doctors whose trainings stand to benefit from uninterrupted hospital services.

His words, "This unwholesome 'incomplete training syndrome' situation has compromised the ideal medical specialist training envisioned by our college. The college cannot turn away from the negative factors considered dangerous to the integrity of its oversight functions on training institutions accredited for the production of specialists of international standard for the nation.

"The quality of future medical care in the country is critically dependent on the quality of the current postgraduate medical training. This is so because the products of postgraduate medical training form the bulk of teachers and researchers in our

medical colleges."

The College President stressed that those affected by the syndrome are unable to pass the college's final examinations after wasting a lot of Nigeria's resources.

Arogundade however, declared that henceforth, certification for institutional training and faculty vetting by admissions into college examinations will be guided by records of inactivity occasioned by strike actions in any accredited training institution.

In his goodwill message,the President,Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Dr Osahon Enabulele described the college as a major key player in the healthcare sector, urging the college to use the office for advocacy that would better the sector and Nigerians health status in general.

Enabulele charged the new College President to quickly settle to office and do that which is expected as prescribed by the Acts of 2004.

"He is to concern himself very aggressively more than what has been, with the issue of medical education and training, especially to ensure that we have seamless transition of trainees and consultants, in terms of infrastructural upgrading and mentorship. That will enable them to get used to modern infrastructure so that Nigerians can have the benefit of high skilled manpower.

"Also, it calls for the need to aggressively increase the production of quality specialists. If we can only have 4258 fellows so far produced by the college after 35 years, that tells you that we are having just 1 specialist to about 40, 000 Nigerians which certainly is not acceptable to us by all standards.

Pain in Muscles P

AIN in muscles can be very worri some and are extremely difficult to treat. Our body is covered with layers of muscles. Our bones have muscles attached.

And, yes, we all have muscles…even the thinnest, most feeble looking "featherite" amongst us.

Muscle pain will often start insidiously, a minor ache here; a little strain there.

Very soon sleep will become disturbed as the affected area cannot withstand the persistent pressure of the bed. The pain may be worse in the morning and progressively improves as the day goes on.

It can also start mild but worsens by the evening. Acute muscle pain starts suddenly and may be due to trauma such as a fall, an infection with a virus or bacteria, or an infestation with a parasite like that of malaria. Acute muscle pain may also be part of an allergic reaction or an immunecompromised state. When acute, the pain may be associated with anxiety, tachycardia and hypertension.

In the acute phase, up to 3 months, such muscle pain needs to be treated adequately so as to prevent the development of chronicity. Poorly treated over 3 months, muscle pain becomes chronic and is then

linked to depression, insomnia and social withdrawal.

Initially, treatment is directed at the cause of the muscle pain. Routine simple oral analgesics and "nsaids" (like diclofenac) and menthol ointments can be massaged into the muscle. Depending on the cause rest or physiotherapy may be needed.

Other simple measures include hot or cold compresses.

While these are still useful in chronic muscle pain, emphasis is placed on other therapies like TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation), biofeedback and muscle relaxants. Other specialized medications may also become necessary and, in the chronic state, physiotherapy plays an even greater role.

The commonest types of chronic muscle pain that we see in the Pain Clinic are : Myofascial Pain Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.

I have chose this subject today because of the surprising number of such cases I have seen in practice in Nigeria.

Fibromyalgia (FMA) is a chronic, debilitating condition characterized by muscle pain in consistent areas called "tender points". The slightest touch or pressure will

fogfem@yahoo.com result in pain. FMA is more prevalent in women. It is often associated with depression and has disrupted many families and marriages. We are learning more about this condition and its associated morbidity, but suffice to say, it is here in Nigeria and it is difficult to treat.

Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS) is more common and, in most cases, easier to treat. Typical of its clinical features are defined areas called "trigger points". These are very different from what obtains in FMA. They represent specific spots which, when compressed, can "trigger" pain which can then radiate to nearby areas.

One of the distinct skills of a Pain Specialist is the ability to inject medicines in the most intricate areas of the body. We inject steroids and neurolytics (nerve destroying) medications in central, spinal and peripheral nerves directly or with fluoroscopic visualization.

The good thing about these "points" is

that they can treated with "trigger point injections" .

Relief usually obtains when these "points" are repeatedly injected (or sometimes dry-needled) with water, saline, local anaesthetic and steroid mixtures.

It is hard to give preventative advice about muscle pain. General precautions about posture, load bearing on your spine, sleep habits and mattress support are all useful. If you develop muscle pain, try to remember if it was associated with an incident like a fall, or a change in medications. And don't forget to inform your Physician about all your other symptoms; some of which may seem innocuous to you.

Perhaps the best recommendation remains that muscle pain should be treated aggressively in its early stages. When it becomes "chronic" it can be quite challenging.

V anguard Vanguard anguard,, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 — 53

NEWS BRIEF

Libyan parliament sacks PM

L

Malaysian Airplane went off course — Investigation T

HE Malaysian Air Force has traced the last known location of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 to a spot above Pulau Perak, a very small island in the Straits of Malacca and hundreds of miles from the usual Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight path, according to a senior Malaysian Air Force official.

The official declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

If the Malaysian Air Force data cited by the source is correct, the aircraft was flying the opposite direction from its scheduled destination and on the opposite side of the Malay Peninsula from its scheduled route.

The development injects more mystery into the investigation of the disappearance of Saturday’s flight, and raises questions about why the aircraft was not transmitting signals detectable by civilian radar.

Local newspaper Berita Harian quoted Malaysian air force chief Gen. Rodzali Daud as saying radar at a military base had detected the airliner at 2:40 a.m. near Pulau Perak at the northern approach to the strait, a busy

Israeli Parliament passes contentious bill Frustrated relatives of Malaysian flight 370 besieged by journalists yesterday waterway that separates the western coast of Malaysia and Indonesia’s Sumatra island.

“After that, the signal from the plane was lost,” he was quoted as saying.

A high-ranking military official involved in the investigation confirmed the report and also said the plane was believed to be flying low. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of

the information.

Authorities had earlier said the plane, which took off at 12:20 a.m. and was headed to Beijing, may have attempted to turn back to Kuala Lumpur, but they expressed surprise that it would do so without informing ground control.

The search for the plane was initially focused on waters between the eastern coast of Malaysia and Vietnam, the position where aviation authorities last

tracked it. No trace of the plane, which was carrying 239 people, has been found by over 40 planes and ships from at least 10 nations searching the area.

Meanwhile, the possible debris area is 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of the Vietnamese coastal city of Vung Tau, said Lai Xuan Thanh, chief of the country’s civil aviation agency.

Vietnam is also sending ships to investigate what appears to be metal pieces.

Ukraine forms new defense force, seeks Western help

U

KRAINE’s interim leaders established a new National Guard on Tuesday and appealed to the United States and Britain for assistance against what they called Russian aggression in Crimea under a post-Cold War treaty.

Blaming their ousted predecessors for the weakness of their own armed forces, acting ministers told parliament that Ukraine had as few as 6,000 combat-ready infantry and that the air force was outnumbered nearly 100 to 1 by Moscow’s superpower forces.

There was no let-up in the war of words, with the pro-Russian regional parliament in Crimea approving a declaration of independence that will take effect if people on the Black Sea peninsula vote to unite with Russia in a

IBYA’s parliament ousted the prime minister in a Tuesday vote of confidence, a move prompted by a crisis this week when a militia controlling an eastern port defied Tripoli’s authority by trying to sell oil.

The chamber named the defense minister as an interim prime minister until a replacement for Ali Zidan is found.

The vote of confidence followed the standoff between the central government in Tripoli and powerful militias in the eastern region of the North African nation.

A militia holding the key port of al-Sidra sparked a three-day crisis when it attempted to load oil into a North Korean-flagged tanker that docked there without government permission.

The government said Monday that its forces had taken control of the tanker, but the militia denied this.

There was no word immediately available from Zidan on his ouster, which raises anew the potential for armed conflict. Most politicians in Libya are backed by militias with regional or ideological allegiances, and many are not likely to accept his

referendum on Sunday.

The national parliament in Kiev said it would dissolve the Crimean assembly if it did not

cancel the plebiscite.

Viktor Yanukovich, whose overthrow last month after protests triggered the gravest crisis in Europe since the Cold War,

insisted from his refuge in Russia that he was still Ukraine’s legitimate president and commander of its armed forces.

Yanukovych restates claims to Presidency, plans return to Kiev

O

USTED Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych yesterday said that he was still the country ’s legitimate president and commander-in-chief, predicting he would be able to return to Kiev soon.

In contrast to his lengthy press conference on February 28 when he re-emerged in Russia, Yanukovych gave only a seven minute statement in a conference hall in Rostov-on-Don, standing in front of

•Yanukovych several Ukrainian flags.

He then left the stage alone without taking questions.

He reaffirmed his belief that power in Kiev had been taken by a “band of ultra-nationalists and neo-fascists” who he

said wanted to start a “civil war”.

He said that presidential elections planned in May would be “absolutely illegitimate and illegal” and he would not recognise the results. It is not clear what influence, if any, Yanukovych has on Russian policy on Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin said last week he was in theory still Ukrainian president but recognised he had no political future.

I

SRAEL’s parliament passed a contentious bill yesterday that will raise the threshold needed for parties to enter parliament, a move boycotted by the opposition who derided it as undemocratic and aimed at sidelining representatives of Israel’s Arab minority.

The bill passed unanimously 67-0 after the opposition sat out the vote, calling it one of several strong-arm tactics by the ruling coalition. Backers of the bill say it is necessary for government stability.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the new law will increase governability by doing away with the current multitude of tiny parties.

N. Korean leader enjoys 100% ‘poll’ win

N

ORTH Korea’s state media confirmed what was never in doubt — a 100 percent, no-abstention poll victory for leader Kim Jong-Un in the country’s stage-managed parliamentary election.

Every single vote cast on Sunday in Kim’s constituency was for the man who can now add MP to his many titles that include Supreme Commander of the armed forces and chairman of the powerful National Defence Commission.

“All the voters of the constituency took part in voting and 100 percent of them voted for Kim Jong-Un,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said.

“This is an expression of ... people’s absolute support and profound trust in supreme leader Kim Jong-Un as they single-mindedly remain loyal to him, holding him in high esteem,” it said.

South Africa expels Burundi diplomat

S

OUTH Africa has expelled a Burundi diplomat in connection with a raid on an exiled Rwandan general’s Johannesburg home, according to a Burundian official.

The announcement came on Monday and is viewed as part of an ongoing diplomatic spat between South Africa and Rwanda that was sparked by a raid on former Rwandan army chief General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa’s home on March 4.

“The Burundi diplomat is accused of collaborating with suspects,” Gervais Abayeho, a senior media adviser for Burundi’s presidency, told Reuters news agency.

“Burundi is reviewing information about South Africa’s decision before it can react,” Abayeho added.

South Africa expelled three Rwandan diplomats last week and Rwanda, which borders Burundi, retaliated by ordering out six South African diplomats.

54 —

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Emenike scores, escapes rioting hooligans in Turkey I

T was very hot at Hu seyin Avni Aker Stadyumu yesterday as rioting hooligans interrupted the Trabzonspor – Fenerbahce fixture.

Super Eagles forward Emmanuel Emenike was on song as he scored a goal that gave Fenerbahce the lead in 23rd minute.

The referee Bulent Yildirim stopped the game shortly after halftime whistle due to rioting hooligans. The situation went out of hand and the most endangered player was Volkan Demirel, who was thrown flares at during preparations to deal with a dangerous free kick from the side of the field.

The scenes that led to the suspension of the match could not be established but further decisions on the matter will be made by the FA in the following days.

Meanwhile, latest reports on the match have it that Emenike’s goal may be cancelled by the FA. Despite referee Bulent Yildirim awarding the goal to the Nigeria international in his match report, the Turkish Football Federation

(TFF) is likely to overrule the decision of the official in the coming days.

Since the match was abandoned after supporters of Trabzonspor threw objects to the field, the Disciplinary Committee of the Federation is expected to cancel the scoreline and hand a 3 0 win to Fenerbache.

•Emenike

NFF demands more cash T

HE Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have appealed to the government to increase its allocation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup to help avert financial problems that could arise as a result of a budget deficit.

•Maigari

Musa Amadu, the NFF’s General Secretary made the appeal on Monday when he led a delegation of the Federation to defend their budget to the House of Representatives Committee on Sports.

The government are reported to have approved a sum of just over N1.2-billion for release for the Super Eagles’ participation in this summer ’s World Cup, which is a far cry from the N2-billion budgeted by the NFF, leaving the Federation with a budget deficit of N800million.

Amadu therefore appealed to the House Committee to assist the Federation by approving

the amount needed to ensure Nigeria have a successful outing at the World Cup. “For the World Cup, the budget we have is N2,084,053,765 and from what we are envisaging, government may likely give us N1,254,160,329.

So there will be a shortfall in this World Cup budget to the tune of N829,839,436 and the way we look at it, this amount the government is bringing [N1.2-billion] will only take the Super Eagles to the round of 16 match in terms of the bonuses to be paid, air tickets, estacodes, preparation and the rest of it,” Amadu explained.

Anichebe fires relegation warning to his West Brom team-mates United] because we’re not about last Saturday [the 3-

N

IGERIA and West Brom striker Victor Anichebe has told his team-mates they need to pull their socks up if they are to escape relegation.

The Baggies are precariously placed in 17th and are only above the dotted line because of goal difference.

And the former Everton striker says manager Pepe Mel can’t take all the blame.

Mel has now gone seven games in charge at the Hawthorns without a win and Anichebe knows they have to improve - and soon.

Anichebe said: “We’re in a serious position and we need to pull our socks up and get some points.

“The next game [Saturday’s trip to Swansea] we need to improve and all of us know that. “It’s down to C M Y K

us as players to go out there and play as well as we can.

“It’s not all down to the head coach. We, as players, need to go out and do well for the team and the supporters.

“Whatever team the head coach puts out, we’re the ones who step over the line and we need to work hard and fight.”

“We can’t be too down

•Anichebe

0 defeat to Manchester

going to play United every week."

U-17 World Cup-Kwara Assembly to name street after Awoniyi

K

WARA State House of Assembly has disclosed that, it has concluded plans to name a major street in Ilorin, Kwara state capital after a Nigeria player,and kwara indigene, Mr. Taiwo Awoniyi who was part of the Nigerian players that did the country proud during the last year world cup Under-17 competition held in United Arab Emirate(UAE).

The Speaker of the house, Hon. Abdulrazak Atunwa said this in Ilorin on Tuesday while receiving the player, Mr. Taiwo Awoniyi and his parents, Chief and Mrs. Awoniyi in his office, Ilor-

in.

The speaker said,” there is no doubt that, the player performed very well during the competition and even placed the name of Kwara state on the world map being an indigene of the state,nothing is too much to do to encourage people like him to serve as a shining examples to others’.

Atunwa noted that, the exemplary outing of the footballer where he scored four goals for Nigeria during the competition needed to be encouraged so as to ginger him to do more in the nearest future for the country.

City go for Onazi

E

NGLISH Premier League team Manchester City are on the trail of Nigerian midfielder Eddy Onazi, footballdirectnews.com.has revealed.

This is not the first time the Super Eagle youngster has been linked with a move to the EPL, having being chased by Everton , Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool in the past Manchester City are in the market for midfield reinforcement to provide cover for Yaya Toure and Fernandinho.

There is also speculation linking Javi Garcia plus Gareth Barry out of the Etihad Stadium, meaning the club will be short in that department if both transfers materialize.

Eddy Onazi , who is under contract with Lazio

•Onazi until June 30, 2016, is valued in the region of eight million euros.

Eaglets star Success heads to Granada

N

IGERIA U17 striker Isaac Success will this week join up with La Liga side Granada on loan from Udinese.

MTNFootball.com gathered that Success got his visa to enter Spain on Monday and so will join up with his new club this week.

The big striker has already clocked 18 years and so he is eligible to play professionally in Europe.

Former Nigeria U20 midfielder Uche Agbo will also join Granada also on

loan from Udinese.

Agbo was part of the Flying Eagles squad to the FIFA U20 World Cup in Turkey. Success was goal king at the 2013 Africa U17 Championship in Morocco, but a hamstring injury cut short his FIFA U17 campaign in Abu Dhabi.

Another Nigerian, Odion Jude Ighalo, has been on loan to Granada for the past three seasons from Udinese. Granada are 12th on the La Liga table with 30 points from 27 matches.

Road to Anfield tournament underway

A

5-a-side football tour nament has been put together by Standard Chartered Bank as part of the bank’s drive for grassroots sports development. The tournament which is holding in Lagos March 15 and 16 at the Astroturf ground has an attractive prize for the impending winners.

Organisers say winners of the 5-a-side football tournament will travel to the United Kingdom to represent Nigeria at the Standard Chartered Trophy Finals, which will be played at Anfield, the home ground of Liverpool FC, on 13th May 2013.

Forty teams drawn from the bank’s clients across both wholesale and Consumer banking segments to participate in the Road to Anfield 2014 qualifying tournament Standard Chartered Bank Managing Director, Bola Adesola said that “As part of the sponsorship deal between Standard Chartered and Liverpool Football Club, the Bank is entitled to leverage on the sponsorship not only to promote its brand but also give back to the community and reward the institution’s partners and clients.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014 — 55

Ghana ready for World Cup G

HANA Sports Minister Elvis Ankrah is confident the team will prepare in the right way for a successful World Cup. The Black Stars reached the quarterfinals in 2010, where they lost in penalties to Uruguay, and are tipped to do well in Brazil this summer.

Ankrah told BBC Sport: “Preparation determines everything and the players know what is at stake -they are ready to bring honour to the country.

“The team is unified and I believe they will make Ghana and Africa proud.”

Kwesi Appiah’s side were emphatic 7-3 aggregate winners over Egypt in the African play-offs to reach Brazil and many are expecting the team to make a big impact at the finals.

But they face a difficult task to emerge from Group G, having been drawn against Germany, Portugal and United States.

Ankrah, though, believes Ghana’s fate lies in their own hands and insists the determining factor in whether they are successful will be the the work they put in before the tournament begins.

“We are doing

HE 2014 Lagos State Sports Festival will hold from Wednesday, April 30 to Saturday, May.10 The championship, tagged IBILE Games, will be competed for this year in two categories: Open Category for Local Government Areas (LGAs), and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) and Junior/School Category for Senior Secondary School (SSS) students in the public, private, federal and military schools.

In the Open Category, 17 sports will be competed for. These are Individual Sports (Darts, Athletics/Para and Deaf Athletics,

•Gyan everything possible to ensure that the team is in good shape,” he said.

“We will camp in Holland and the USA, play four friendlies and then proceed to Brazil.

Everything is on course, the spirit of the team is very high.

“Input determines output and I have been saying this right from the beginning. Success is not automatic, you don’t just achieve because you wish to. You must put in the effort, you must pay the price and I have been drumming this home right from the time we qualified.

Brazil to strive to reach the last four.

PANA reports that no African team has ever gone beyond the quarter-finals stage of the global football extravaganza.

But Hayatou said a last-four berth at the June 12 to July 13 event by any of Africa’s flagbearers in Brazil would be an icing on the cake.

He said this would be for the successes African football has recorded, especially in the past 26 years of CAF. “What will make me happy now, after all these achievements, will be to get even more successes for African football,” CAF’s media outlet quoted Hayatou to have said.

“We continue with

C M Y K

massive strides on all fronts of football development and, going into the 2014 FIFA World Cup, I do not see why Africa cannot have one or two of our representatives reach the semi-finals or indeed even the final of the World Cup during my time as President.”

Africa’s five representatives at the tournament are the Desert Foxes of Algeria, Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions, the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana’s Black Stars and Nigeria’s Super Eagles.

Only three African teams — Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal — have ever reached the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup. This was since Africa’s first representation by Egypt at the 1934 World Cup in Italy

•Oshodi Gymnastics, Swimming and Weightlifting/ Powerlifting. Combat Sports (Boxing, Judo, Karate, Wrestling, KungFu and Taekwondo).

Racket Sports (Table Tennis/Para and Deaf

Nigeria ranked 33rd in Sopot N

IGERIA have been ranked joint 33rd best with Portugal, Switzerland, Romania and Turkey on the IAAF

Hayatou Continued from BP

2014 Lagos Sports Festival holds April 30 T

•Regina

placing table following another dismal showing at the 15th IAAF World Indoor Championships held last weekend in Sopot, Poland.

Nigeria garnered a total of five points courtesy of the women’s 4x400m relay team who placed sixth in the final and Gloria Asumnu’s seventh placing in the 60m final.

The IAAF Placing Table assigns eight points to the first placed athlete in an event, seven for second,six for third, five for fourth, four for fifth, three for sixth, two for seventh and one for the eighth placed athlete.

The Sopot event was one of Nigeria’s worst outings in the history of the championships.

The worst outing was however recorded in Birmingham in 2003 when Nigeria placed last with

Pardew Continued from BP midfielder David Meyler. The first three matches imposed are a stadium ban with the remaining four a touchline ban. Pardew was also fined £60,000 and warned as to his future conduct.

The manager had a personal hearing in front of a three-man independent regulatory commission who pronounced on the sanction.

The Football Association had charged Pardew with improper conduct described as “serious violent” and

“non-standard” by the governing body.

There were no precedents for a Premier League manager headbutting a player although Paul Ince was handed a five-match stadium ban in October when he was manager of Blackpool for a “ violent push” on a match official.

Two years ago Steve Evans, then the Crawley Town manager, was given a six-game ground expulsion and a £3,000 fine for using “abusive and insulting words” that “included a reference to gender”.

only one point while the best placing was achieved in Paris, France in 1997 with 40 points which ensured a sixth placed finish.

Table Tennis). Team Sports (Basketball, Football and Cricket).

Traditional Sports (Ayo and Kokowa).

In the Junior Category, the following events will be competed for.

Individual Sports (Chess, Athletics/Deaf Athletics, Scrabble, Swimming and Weightlifting). Combat Sports (Boxing, Judo, Karate, Wrestling and Taekwondo). Racket Sports (Badminton, Squash, Table Tennis/ Deaf Table Tennis and Tennis). Team Sports (Basketball, Handball, Volleyball and Cricket).

According to a statement from Technical Committee headed by Babatunde FatayiWilliams, the events will hold at the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Complex, Rowe Park, Yaba, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Sports Bar of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, among others venues in Lagos.

Adepoju Continued from BP After watching the international friendly match between the Super Eagles and Mexico that ended goalless, Adepoju concluded that the Big Boss needs the duo to have a complete squad.

While Uche last played for the Super Eagles in the final match of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, Odemwingie has not been called up to the national team since he had an open falling out with former coach Samson Siasia and the Nigeria Football Federation in 2012.

“My dear friend Stephen Keshi needs to forgive the boy, Ike Uche and bring him back into the team for the 2014 World Cup preparations,” Adepoju who played alongside Keshi in the Golden Team of 1994 told Goal.

“Ike Uche has really done well in his club to deserve a call up. Keshi can re-assess him in the other friendly matches the Eagles will play.

“I will be happy if he can extend invitations to Osaze Odemwingie too now that he is also doing well with his club in England.

“I want Keshi to temper justice with

mercy in the interest of Nigerian football. We must go to the World Cup with our best legs,” he declared.

The former General Manager of Shooting Stars also scored the performance of the four new players invited by Keshi for the Mexico friendly high in the match.

“The newly invited players - Michael Uchebo, Ramon Azeez, Isaac Imoh and defender Leon Balogun - are good players but they still need to play more friendly matches with the team to be able to blend with the team on ground.

“To the best of my knowledge I think has a team on ground and he is just looking for a few to beef up the grey areas in the team. So it depends on which areas or positions in the team Keshi wants to beef up.

“But to me it’s the forward and the midfield that need to be worked on. So I think the inclusion of Ike Uche would definitely solidify the team while Osaze’s return to the team will add quality to the team.

These players are in rich form for their respective clubs,” Adepoju said.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014

Keshi needs Ike Uche, Odemwingie — Adepoju

F

ORMER Nigeria midfielder Mutiu Adepoju says coach Stephen Keshi needs to include experienced forwards Ikechukwu Uche and Peter Odemwingie in his squad in order to have a balanced team at the World Cup. •Continues on Page 55

Brazil 2014 World Cup:

Hayatou sets semi-final target for Eagles P

RESIDENT of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Issa Hayatou, has nudged African teams heading to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in •Continues on Page 55

•Uche

•Osaze

Pardew handed sevengame ban •Fined £60,000

T

HE Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has been handed a seven-game ban at a disciplinary hearing after admitting a misconduct charge for head-butting the Hull

•Continues on Page 55 •Pardew

NFF demands more cash — Pg 54 •CELEBRATION .... Hayatou has set a semi-final target for the five African teams to the World Cup in Brazil.

Sudoku TODAY'S

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

•Hayatou

UEFA matches today Barcelona v Man City 8:45pm PSG v B/Leverkusen 8:45pm

QUICK CROSSWORD Across 1 Emphasise (6) 5 Filter (6) 9 Supple (5) 10 Mend (6) 11 Whole (6) 12 Principle (5) 14 Sea-eagle (4) 17 Fruit (3) 18 Unusual (4) 20 Giant (5) 22 Sickened (5) 23 Marketing (7) 24 Swift (5) 26 Weary (5) 29 Tear (4) 30 Posed (3) 32 Dreadful (4) 33 Shoot (5) 35 Pure (6) 36 Company (6) 37 Relative (5) 38 Quiet (6) 37 Lacehole (6)

Down 1 Thoroughfare (6) 2 Regret (6) 3 Aperture (4) 4 Temptress 95) 5 Pane (5) 6 Marquee (4) 7 Beast (6) 8 Required (6) 13 Atomic (7) 15 Firearm (5) 16 Relaxed (5) 18 Inflexible (5) 19 Allude (5) 21 Entrap (3) 22 Insect (3) 24 Brawl (6) 25 Involve (6) 27 Ceremony (6) 28 Fraud (6) 30 Passed (5) 31 Name (5) 33 Stupefy (4) 34 Colour (4)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS Across: 1 Start 7, Absorb 9, Par 10, Bed 12, Fault 13, Iron 15, Aimed 17, Refuse 19, Edge 20, Hotel 22, Tap 24, Deleted 27, Din 28, Rated 31, Grow 33, Oddity 35, Inner 37, Eros 38, Stone 39, Dad 41, Cab 42, Bronze 43, Greet

Down: 1, Banish 2, Escort 3, Orb 4, Safe 5, Trade 6, Relegate 8, Beau 11, Distended 14, Need 16, Meat 18, Fled 21, Operator 23, Peri 25, Lion 26, Date 29, Tyrant 30, Dispel 32, Wince 34, Drab 36, Neat 40, Dry

How to Play Sudoku

P

lace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

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