Rumoured pardon for Alams,others sparks outrage

...towards a better life for the people

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VOL. 25: NO. 61837

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State (left) and Mr Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Atlantic Airlines during the Commonwealth Observance Day at Westminister Abbey, London, Monday.

2015: No zone can intimidate Jonathan •Pg. 14 — Clark

Rumoured pardon for Alams, others sparks outrage

BY UDUMA KALU, ABDULWAHAB ABDULLAH, DAPO AKINREFON & GBENGA OKE

Our morals have gone to the dogs — Afenifere Dead robbers should be granted state pardon — CPC L It's in order — Sagay We didn’t discuss issue of state pardon — Nyako

AGOS — OUTRAGE, yesterday, greeted the rumoured state pardon granted former Bayelsa State Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and former head, Bank of the North, Shettima Bulama, by President Goodluck Jonathan as Nigerians described it as a shame and a set back to the fight against corruption in the country.

This came as Governor Continues on Page 5

COLUMNISTS:

•P.17

DEAR BUNMI •P.32

ROTIMI FASAN •P.19

Mr & Mrs PAPAL ELECTION: Cardinals during a mass at the St Peter's Basilica before the start of papal election conclave at the

Vatican, yesterday. Cardinals moved into the Vatican, yesterday, as suspense mounted ahead of a secret papal election with no clear frontrunner to steer the Catholic world through troubled waters after Benedict XVI's historic resignation. The 115 cardinal electors who pick the next leader of 1.2 billion Catholics in a conclave in the Sistine Chapel will live inside the Vatican walls completely cut off from the outside world until they have made their choice. (INSET): The doors of the Sistine chapel being closed

by Guido Marini at the start of a papal election. PHOTOS: AFP. SEE STORY ON PAGE 9.

Oshiomhole accuses Adoke of ACN, CPC, ANPP battle INEC over merger's name trivialising Oyerinde's murder •Pg.9

prosecution

•Pg.15

C M Y K

2— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 3

4— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013—5

POCKET CARTOON

MEETING: From right: Senate President, Senator David Mark; Kogi State State Deputy Governor, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi; Justice Minister, Mr. Bello Adoke; Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State; and Special Adviser to the President on Documentation and Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas, during the opening of the National Council of State meeting at the State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

Rumoured pardon for Alams, others sparks outrage Continues from Page 1

Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State who spoke in Hausa to some journalists at the end of the closed door meeting of the Council of State said the Council did not discuss the issue of amnesty to adherents of Jama’atul Ahlus Sunnah Lid da’awati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, and other convicts, saying such would have raised political tension in the country.

Others who were rumoured to have also been granted state pardon include late former Chief of Staff, Supreme Military Council, and brother of the late President, Major -

General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua; former Chief of General Staff, General Oladipo Diya; Major Bello Magaji (rtd); Mohammed Lima Biu; Major-General Abdulkareem Adisa (post humous) and Major Segun Fadipe (rtd).

The anger began early, yesterday, when rumour started in the morning on the social media that the Council of State, headed by President Goodluck Jonathan, had granted state pardon to his former boss and Bayelsa State exGovernor, Alamieyeisegha.

Alamieyeseigha was detained in London on charges of money laundering while he was

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

YOU can lead at any level. Leadership is about performance, not position. If you take people to where they would not have gone by themselves…. you are leading.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

’VE begun to realise that you can listen to silence Idimension and learn from it. It has a quality and a all its own —Chaim Potok.

There is a saying that words are valuable but silence is more precious. This saying will always prove true. The more we understand the meaning of it, the more we realise its truth.

How many times we find during the day that we have said something which would have been better left unsaid! How many times we disturb the peace of our surroundings, without meaning it, by lack of silence!

How often we make our limitations, our narrowness, our smallness come out, which we would rather have concealed, because we did not keep silent! How very often, though desiring to respect others, we cannot manage to do so because we do not keep silent! And a great danger lies in wait for a man in the life of this world, the danger of confiding in a person in whom he did not wish to confide.

We run that danger by not keeping silent. That great interpreter of pearls of wisdom, the Persian poet Sa’di, said: "What value is sense, if it does not come to my rescue before I utter a word?"

This shows us that in spite of whatever wisdom we may have, we can make a mistake if we have no control over our words.

governor in September 2005. He escaped from the UK in December 2005. He, however, pleaded guilty in court to a six-count charge in July 2007, and was sentenced to two years in prison on each count charge.

Bulama was investigated and later prosecuted for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Presidential pardon, official jailbreak —Aturu In his reaction, Lagos lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, in a statement entitled: “Presidential Pardon is official Jailbreak: So don’t Dare!" said if the government succeeds in pardoning the former governor, “the government and its members will certainly live to regret the irresponsible decision. That is a promise.

"Civil society groups will do all in its power to show the whole world that those who claim to govern us are not fit. In my view, it is better to fling open the gates of all our prisons and ask all the inmates to walk out into the warm embrace of their relatives than pardon those who force otherwise decent Nigerians to take to crime as a way of life. A word is enough for the wise.”

It's shocking, confusing and disheartening —Keyamo Condemning the alleged pardon, another Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, in a statement said the rumoured pardon “teaches no bitter lesson to thieving and corrupt public officers.

It encourages corruption at the highest and the lowest levels of public office and the decision itself is corruption par excellence.”

Keyamo described the rumoured pardon as “shocking, confusing and disheartening” at a time

when the general mood of the country indicates that the war against corruption is insincere, slow and a sham.”

Keyamo went on to say that the alleged President’s effort rubbishes “the very little work that has been done by the anti-corruption agencies in securing the conviction of these individuals. It is also disturbing that at a time when Nigeria is still ranking very low in the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International the President has further damaged the image of the country by this singular act.”

Another commentator, Comrade Akinloye Olusegun Oyeniyi, asked: “If an Alams can get a state pardon, why not for a Saro Wiwa?”

In Yenagoa, President Goodluck Jonathan on December 12 described Alamieyeseigha, as his political benefactor and that his former boss brought him into political limelight.

Pardon in order —Sagay Constitutional lawyer, Professor Itse Sagay, said the rumoured pardon was in order. Speaking with Vanguard on telephone, Sagay said: "Let us start from Abdulkarem Adisa who tried to overthrow the late Sani Abacha. What he tried to do was salutary for the country.

In other words, what he did was something very positive and very welcome. So, the pardon is a good gesture.

"In the case of Alamieyeseigha, he was convicted, he spent time in prison. As far as I know, quite a number of his assets were confiscated because there was plea bargaining.

He has paid the price for what he did. Time has passed and maybe in recognition of the role he played as a stalwart of the South-South, trying to promote their struggle to what I call national enslavement, in a way, he deserves it.

"Dipo Diya comes under

the same umbrella as Adisa and so I support it. I think all together, the position taken today was benevolent and very positive. I have nothing against it at all.”

Our morals have gone to the dogs —Afenifere Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, described the pardon as one done in bad light.

In a telephone chat with Vanguard, National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin, said: “We are back in the days of Babangida. In the Babangida days, when they wanted to pardon some crooks and criminals, he would tie it to the time he wants to release Beko, Gani Fawehinmi and the rest of them. Only, this time around, a similar thing is being done.

We should grant some dead robbers state pardon — CPC National Publicity Secretary of Congress for Progressive Change, Mr Rotimi Fashakin, in his reaction said: “From the look of things, I think it is time for Nigeria to grant a post humous state pardon to some people like Isola Oyenusi, Anini and others who were robbers in the 1970s. I also think we should apologise to those robbers that are dead now and accord them same constitutional pardon. This rumoured pardon on Alamieyeseigha, Diya and others is laughable and it shows the kind of leaders we have in this country.”

We didn’t discuss issue of state pardon —Nyako “We didn’t discuss the issue of amnesty to Boko Haram adherents. It could be controversial to raise such issues. What needs to be done is for the matter to be extensively deliberated before a universal decision is brought into public domain,” Governor Nyako said.

He refuted stories making the round that the former Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was granted state pardon by the

Council. Instead, he said the Council deliberated on the possibility of granting state clemency to certain category of offenders both at state and federal levels.

According to him, “no such issue (pardon for erring governors) was discussed. I didn’t see the name of any governor. But we considered the issue of state pardon for people who committed certain offences.

"We observed that in cases of manslaughter, pardon for such should be handled by state governors if they are committed in such states.

But if it is the case of armed robbery the Council may decide to grant pardon or the matter could be referred to the President for his consideration.”

What the constitution says Section 175 (1) says: The President may (a) grant any person concerned with or convicted of any offence created by an Act of the National Assembly a pardon either free or subject to lawful conditions; (b)grant to any person a respite, either for an indefinite or for a specified period, of the execution of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence; or (c) substitute a less severe form of punishment for any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence; or (d) remit the whole or any part of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence or of any penalty or forfeiture otherwise due to the state on account of such an offence (2) The powers of the President under subsection (1) of this section shall be exercised by him after consultation with the Council of State (3) The President acting in accordance with the advice of the Council of State, may exercise his powers under subsection (1) of this section in relation to persons concerned with offences against the army, naval or air force law or convicted or sentenced by a court-martial.

6—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Ex-prison boss in police net over alleged murder

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

O

SOGBO—A retired In spector of Prison, Isaac Olakunle, is now in police net following his arrest over the alleged murder of one Femi, a resident of Idasa area of the state capital.

The intervention of the Osun State Police Command, B Division, Ilesa, prevented what could have led to pandemonium in Oke-Opo area of Ilesa.

Dust was raised as hundreds of youths majority of who were commercial motorcyclists popularly called okada riders took to the street to protest the killing of the deceased.

Femi whose surname was yet to be ascertained at press time was said to have been butchered by the suspect, who it was gathered, became a native psychiatric doctor after his retirement.

One dead as NURTW members clash in Ekiti

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

A

DO EKITI—FOR two consecutive days, commercial drivers operating under the umbrella of National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, plying Ikere-Akure route engaged themselves in fierce battle of wits which led to the death of one of them.

Trouble was said to have started last Friday when a commercial driver from Akure, Ondo State was confronted at Ikere Ekiti to pay certain amount of due by an official of the union and an argument ensued which later degenerated into a fisticuff.

During the scuffle, one commercial driver, Mr Sunday Ajisafe who was said to have been beaten by one of the officials of the union in Ikere slumped. He was subsequently rushed to the Specialist Hospital, Ikere Ekiti and died before reaching the hospital.

The unfortunate development prompted his colleagues from Akure to mobilize to Ikere on Monday under the pretext that they had come to remove the remains of the deceased from the morgue in Akure.

Cult war claims 3 lives in Ilorin as police arrest 2 suspects I

BY DEMOLAAKINYEMI

LORIN—CULTISTS went on rampage in different parts of Ilorin, capital of Kwara State, yesterday killing at least three persons while five others sustained injuries.

Meantime, the police command has arrested two persons in connection with the development, while investigations are still ongoing.

The incidents, Vanguard gathered occurred around Adewole, Gambari, Aduralere and Mubo areas of the city.

The incident was said to have started last Friday at an unnamed drinking joint in Mubo street with the killing of a middle-age man working in a barbing saloon at Lajoorin street. He was reportedly killed with a machete.

This incident led to reprisal attack with another killing between Gambari and Adewole areas.

Also a five-man gang believed to be cultists reportedly chased a rival gang member to Ipata area of Ilorin South Local Government Area of the state.

The incident created panic within the densely crowded Ipa-

ta market as the cultists shot sporadically into the air while chasing their target who was eventually captured and shot to death.

Vanguard gathered that the

confusion continued around 8: 00 am yesterday, prompting many residents to run for their lives.

The last victim, simply called Gani, was a 30-year-old, accord-

ing to sources.

He was shot in the neck around 9: 00 am by his attackers who were said to be fully armed with dangerous weapons.

From left: Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State; Mrs. Hilda Adefarasin, wife of Late Chief Judge Lagos State, Justice Adetunji Adefarasin; Mr. Kunle Uthman, Commissioner, Lagos State Judicial Service Commission; Justice Ayoola Phillips, Chief judge of Lagos State and Mrs. Bukola Balogun, Secretary, Lagos State Judicial Service Commission, during the commissioning of Lagos State Judicial Service Commission office complex and dedication of building to Late Chief Judge Lagos State, Justice Adetunji Adefarasin, in Ikeja, Lagos. Photo: Bunmi Azeez.

Reps probe alleged deportation of Israeli's construction worker

BY OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

A

BUJA—THE House of Rep resentatives was yesterday told how an Israeli construction worker in Edo State was hurriedly deported to his country following his alleged revelation that the popular five junctions in Benin City was being reconstructed by the Edo State government contrary to claims that it was the Federal Government.

The construction worker with the Reynolds Construction Company, RCC, Mr Yaniv Dabah, was said to have clarified to members of the Good Governance Team led by the Information Minister, Laraban Maku in Benin City that the contract was awarded by the Adams Oshiomholeled administration contrary to the claims by the Federal Government that it was executing it.

However, the House ordered the investigations following a motion brought by Razaq Bello-Osagie from Edo State.

Bello-Osagie had through his report tagged: "Motion about the deportation of an Israeli, Mr Yaniv Dabah working for RCC, handling the popular Five Junction in Benin City,’’ noted the unfair treatment meted to the Israeli.

Leading the debate, he noted: “during the recent good governance tour led by the Minister of

Information, the erroneous impression was created that the

popular five junctions reconstructed by the Governor Adams

Oshiomhole-led administration was a federal project.

2 health workers arrested over alleged baby swap

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

O

SOGBO—TWO health workers attached to a private clinic in Osogbo, Osun State capital, are now in police net following the role they played in an ugly baby swap game.

The two suspects, (names withheld), now in the custody of the State Criminal Investigations Department, SCID, were arrested for allegedly exchanging a new born baby belonging to one Nurudeen Semia.

Vanguard reliably gathered that the said Semia gave birth to a set of twins prematurely in a private hospital located along old Ikirun road in the Osun State capital.

While one of the babies, who were confirmed by the doctors to be boys died, the other baby was referred to the Intensive Care Unit clinic where these two suspects were employees.

The father of the swapped babies while giving the account of the scenario said, “my wife was rushed to the hospital at Testing Ground area and she gave birth to a set of twins prematurely, both

boys.

“One of the babies, died immediately and the other baby, because of his situation was re-

ferred to Intensive Care Unit of the hospital located at Agowande Street, Igbona, Osogbo for medical.”

Ebonyi police nab Fulani herdsman for alleged killing of youth

A

BY PETER OKUTU

BAKALIKI—EBONYI State police command yesterday said it had arrested a middle-aged Fulani man identified as Musa of Amasari in Afikpo North Local government area for allegedly killing one Chibueze Nkwagu, 23, of Ishiokpa village in Sharon, Izzi LGA of the state over issues relating to stolen money.

Vanguard learnt that the deceased was stabbed in the stomach with a dagger by the suspect when he allegedly attempted to steal money belonging to the Fulani man in the community Speaking with newsmen, the Ebonyi State Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP Sylvester Igbo said that the death of Chibueze pro-

voked youths in the area who went berserk and started destroying huts and property of the Fulani herdsmen in the area.

Igbo who disclosed that the peace meeting by the Command and elders of Sharon community in Izzi Local government area had led to the return of peace in the area, stressed that there was no need for the youths to have engaged in such act since the suspect had been arrested and would soon be charged to court According to him: “At about 10:30 hours, a report was received from one Nnamdi Nkwagu of Ishiokpa village in Sharon that one Fulani man by name Musa of Amasari in Afikpo North Local government area of the state killed his brother, Chibueze Nkwagu aged 23 years".

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013—7

Attack on police station: 4 gunmen killed, 5 policemen injured in Borno

NSCDC officer shot dead in Benue

BY PETER DURU

BY NDAHI MARAMA

M

AIDUGURI—GUNMEN suspected to be terrorists have launched an attack on Gamboru Ngala Police Station in Borno State, but the heavily armed policemen on duty repelled the attack by killing four of the suspects while five policemen were reportedly injured.

This was the second time that the Police Station was being attacked.

The incident according to a reliable source who confirmed it to Vanguard said it occurred on Monday at 5:33pm, when the gunmen who came in three salon cars attempted to burn the station, using explosives and gun shots, but luck ran out on them as they were repelled.

Gamboru is more than 100 kilometres away from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital which had witnessed series of attacks, killings, bombings and kidnappings, as it shares boundary with Chad and Cameroon Republics.

Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Gideon Jubrin told Vanguard that the gunmen launched an attack on Gamboru Police station, insisting that it was a failed attack.

He said: “Yes we received a distress call that suspected Boko Har-

am terrorists on Monday, around 5pm to 6pm attempted an attack on Gamboru Police Station, but our men repelled the attack by killing four of the suspected terrorists”.

Jubrin also stated that during the gun duel, five policemen were injured and are currently responding to treatment.

He said normalcy have since been restored in the troubled area, as people are going about their normal businesses.

In a related development, some gunmen also shot and killed one person yesterday in Biu Local Government Area of Borno State.

Biu is about 187 kilometres from Maiduguri, the state capital. It

will be noted that since the state government imposed a curfew and ban the use of motorcylces popularly known as Okada, the area has been enjoying relative peace in the last eight months.

When contacted, DSP Jubrin said he was not aware of the attack, but will investigate and get back to Vanguard.

Vehicles seized by Nigeria Customs Service, Edo State command, in Benin City, yesterday.

Electrocution: Ogun warns against scavenging

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

A

BEOKUTA – FOLLOWING death of a father and his adopted son who were electrocuted in Abeokuta, Monday, he Ogun State Government, yesterday, warned residents to desist from scavenging on construction sites in areas where road expansion projects are ongoing across the state.

The government stated this in a statement by the State Commissioner for Information, Yusuph Olaniyonu.

It would be recalled that a policeman, Sunday Joseph and his 17-year-old adopted son, Moses got electrocuted after the boy reportedly scavenged some iron rods and suddenly touched a high tension cable with the iron rod leading to his death.

Reacting to the incident, the government said “the warning became necessary to avert the danger posed by naked electric wires and half demolished structures which may have become weak as a result of the rains.

“The government noted that to prevent unfortunate incidents of electrocution and injury resulting from collapse of structures which had been partly demolished, it is

important to warn our people to stop scavenging from or rummaging through debris at construc-

tion sites.

“There is also the need to warn our people to always be careful

while driving or walking around the various construction sites because of the usual danger that may

Many injured as women, soldiers clash in Plateau

BY TAYE OBATERU

J

OS – SOME women in Riy om Local Government Area of Plateau State have clashed with men of the Special Task Force, STF, maintaining security in the state, injuring six of them in the process.

Several of the villagers also sustained injuries in the clash with the soldiers.

However, while the STF alleged that the women were hostile towards its men, the women have also protested what they called maltreatment and arbitrariness by the soldiers, calling for their withdrawal from the communities.

Vanguard gathered that women at Rim resisted the soldiers, who were on a house-to-house search for arms and ammunition allegedly pelting them with stones and other missiles.

Media Officer of the STF, Captain Salisu Mustapha in a statement yesterday, confirmed the

clash between the villagers and soldiers but denied any maltreatment of the women as alleged.

According to him, the STF personnel had embarked on a routine search for arms in some villages, including Rim following intelligence information. He,

however noted that the women resisted and turned violent, hurling missiles at the soldiers.

He added that the search was conducted successfully in three other neighbouring villages but that the women at Rim resisted any search of their houses.

Woman dramatises release after 4 months in Kirikiri prison

BY EVELYN USMAN

L

AGOS—A mild drama un folded yesterday at the Female Security Prisons, Kirikiri, Lagos, after a female banker who was released from prison, went wild in jubilation immediately the gates of the prison were flung open for her to go home.

The woman (names withheld) was slammed with a four-month imprisonment, over a two count charge of conniving with some persons to fraudulently withdraw

millions of naira from the Okokomaiko branch of a first generation bank, last year.

Immediately she stepped out of the walls that had incarcerated her for months, she looked up to the sky, then to her left and right, apparently to ascertain which direction leads to her home.

She thereafter, pulled her slippers and dropped her ‘ghana must go bag’ in which were her personal effects used during her stay in prison, before kissing the floor.

M

AKURDI —AN officer of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, Mr. James Nathaniel serving at Apa local government area of Benue State was yesterday shot dead by yet to be identified persons at Kaduna K’Olijamu, Edikwu ward in Otukpo local government area of Benue state.

Vanguard gathered from sources that the officer met his untimely death when he went to his farm alone on the fateful day. He was said to have been attacked and overpowered by some unknown persons who shot and killed him.

According to our source, “his remains were discovered in the farm when his family members who had become worried over his long stay went to look for him, only to discover his remains.

“They removed his corpse and deposited it at the General Hospital mortuary in Ugbokpo, headquarters of the local government pending further investigations to the cause of death and burial arrangements.”

Alleged killing of student: NANS gives 72hrs ultimatum to Ekiti CP

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

A

DO EKITI—FOR the in ability of the police to apprehend the killer of Seyi Fasere, a 400 level student of Ekiti State University who was shot last week at Oye Ekiti, the National Association of Nigerian Students, yesterday, issued 72 hours ultimatum to Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, Mr Sotonye Wakama to fish out the perpetrators.

Seyi was allegedly killed while on his way to school in Ado Ekiti by a cop attached to Oye Ekiti Divisional Police Station after a robbery operation that took place at the United Bank for Africa.

The student body urged the police to take drastic actions against the trigger-happy policeman, failure of which they vowed to storm the Abuja headquarters of the police to embark on protest.

NANS Chairman, Ekiti axis, Comrade Damilare Bewaji, who read the petition addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan at a briefing described the killing as a ‘summary execution’ of the innocent student.

8—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Customs make N850bn

BY HENRY UMORU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

A

B U J A — C O M PTROLLER-General of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Dikko Abdullahi, yesterday, told the Senate that the service made N850 billion in 2012 as against N779 billion collected in 2011.

Speaking when the Senate Committee on Finance visited the Service as part of the oversight function of the lawmakers, Abdullahi noted that the Destination Inspection service providers almost caused N90 billion revenue leakage last year due to underpayments.

He said the increase in revenue represents 10 percent of the total collection for the year, even as he promised that NCS was poised to maintain the current momentum of revenue collection.

He said: “In 2011 for instance, total revenue collected was N779 billion. Total collections increased to N850 billion in 2012, out of which N90 billion came from underpayments.

“This represents 10 percent of our total collection for the year. We can then imagine the situation if Customs were to be fully in charge.”

In his remarks, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, yesterday, disclosed that plans were underway to accelerate the passage of the Customs Excise Management Act, CEMA. According to him, when passed, the Bill would address the funding challenges that were presently being experienced by the Service.

He explained that the 48 objections raised against the Bill have been resolved through dialogue, adding, “ we have been speaking on that under-funding. We have always been saying that they (NCS) are not being properly funded.

“Very soon the Senate will consider the CEMA Bill. We believe that before long this Bill should be with the President for assent and it should not be a problem."

VISIT: From left— Justice Abel Stronge, Speaker, Sierra Leone Parliament; Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives; Hon. Lindiwe Maseko, Chairperson, Commomwealth Parliamentary Association (Africa Region), and Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker, House of Representatives, during a courtesy visit on the leadership of House Representatives by executive committe of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (Africa Region) in Abuja, yesterday.

2013 budget under scrutiny— Senate

BY HENRY UMORU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

A

BUJA—SENATE said, yesterday, it was presently scrutinising the 2013 budget, which was signed last week by President Goodluck Jona-than, saying it had distributed copies of the signed bill to all senators to go through and ensure there were no alteration by the executive.

However, the upper legislative chamber said it was yet to receive formal communication from the executive on the proposed amendment of some portions of the budget.

This came just as it distanced itself from the proposed immunity being sought by the House of Representatives for legislators, saying the legislators can only have immunity within

the premises of the National Assembly.

Senate, which spoke to newsmen yesterday through its Chairman, Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinaya Abaribe, said it was ready to address every contending issue in the 2013 national budget once it received the budget under supplementary or appropriation.

He said: “Every budget is

Army, DHQ in dark over Ansaru 7 We don't act on rumour— Foreign Ministry

BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI & VICTORIA OJEME

A

BUJA—JOINT Task Force, the lead security agency in Boko Haram troubled states of Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Kano and Adamawa, code-named Operation Restore Order, and the Defence Headquarters, yesterday, expressed helplessness on the whereabouts of the abducted seven foreign hostages, who were said to have been killed by their abductors.

Spokesman of the task force, Brigadier General Ibrahim Attahiru, said the Army cannot comment on the whereabouts of the hostages, noting that the Defence Headquarters, which was the agency coordinating JTF operations bothering on internal security, should be the one to explain the true situation about the seven hostages.

Briefing the media on ac-

tivities of the Nigerian Army in the last one month, General Attahiru said: “I have nothing to say about it. But I know the Defence Headquarters has said something about it.”

When contacted, Director of Defence Information, Colonel Mohammed Yerima, said he had no comment to make on the issue pointing out that the military authorities were not in the picture of the whereabouts of the foreign hostages.

Vanguard, however, gathered that intense security searches are being conducted by all security agencies, including the military, Police, SSS, Para-military organisations.

Particular focus is on the North-East zone of the country with a view to getting to the root of the issue of the hostages and nothing was being said to avoid endangering their lives if indeed they may be alive as suspected in some quarters.

Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, has condemned reports on You-Tube over the alleged killing of the seven foreign hostages kidnapped by the Ansaru group.

“I don’t go by report on You-tube but by reality and concrete evidence,” the minister told African Heads of Diplomatic Mission in Abuja, yesterday.

The Ansaru group had on Saturday announced the death of all the expatriates abducted from a construction site of Lebanese company, Setraco, on February 16 in Bauchi.

He said: “Before you announce that hostages are either dead or alive, you must have evidence.

“I believe our security agencies are working around the clock to ensure that we either find the bodies or we release them alive.”

“So for now, there is no conclusive evidence as to the status of the hostages."

an organic system, which means that there will be corrections and those corrections can be done through another appropriation that will be sent as supplementary. That is the only way that I know that such amendments can be done.

“For the moment, each senator is just getting a copy of the signed bill and I’m sure in the next few days, all of us are going to be frantically looking at all the things that are there to make sure that what we see there is what we also passed and then each committee as they go on oversight, will be basing their oversight on that document as it is.”

Immunity for legislators

Speaking on immunity for legislators, which had just passed second reading in the House of Representatives, Senator Abaribe said there was no basis for that. He said the Senate would neither support nor pass such bill.

According to him, legislators’ immunity was only applicable within the premises of the assembly. He added that under the Legislative Powers and Privileges Acts, they were already enjoying it.

He said: “I think the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act already gives every legislator immunity for whatever you said on the floor of the chamber. So that is already a settled law and fact.

“The immunity bill has not been brought to the floor of the Senate yet. I will be very surprised if somebody is asking for immunity outside of the chambers of the Assembly.

“Why will anybody ask for such because we do not want to grant anybody such immunity. I do not think that it will pass the floor of the Senate.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013—9

Black smoke: No new Pope, as 3 Nigerian cardinals join conclave

BY SAM EYOBOKA, HUGO ODIOGOR & UDUMA KALU, with Agency Reports

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LACK smoke, signifying no new pope had been elected on the first day of ballot, oozed out of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, yesterday, where a total of 115 cardinals gathered to elect the 266th pontiff for the Catholic Church.

Three Nigerians, Cardinals Francis Arinze, Anthony Okogie and John Onaiyekan, were among the 115 red-hatted and red-caped Cardinals who began, yesterday, the procedures of electing the new pontiff for the Catholic Church in its over 2,000year history.

They chanted and prayed for divine guidance in the Sistine Chapel as they prepared for a conclave to choose a pontiff, who will face one of the most difficult periods in the Church’s history.

Before moving into the Sistine Chapel, the Cardinals sang and prayed for divine guidance and took oath of secrecy as they filed into the conclave to perform their solemn assignment.

Contrary to earlier reports that Cardinal Arinze will not be eligible to vote on grounds that the Anambra-born Cardinal will be

80 by November this year, he participated in the balloting.

As they filed into the Sistine Chapel, the Cardinals chanted what is known as the Litany of saints, asking more than 150 saints by name for help in making their choice of who should succeed Benedict XVI, who resigned last month to devote his life to prayers.

One of the Cardinals said: “The entire Church, united with us in prayer, asks for the grace of the Holy Spirit at this moment so that we elect a worthy shepherd for the entire flock of Christ.”

Once inside the Sistine the Cardinals were expected to take their places along the walls of the frescoed chapel and sing a hymn to the Holy Spirit, asking it to “visit our minds” during the election process.

Oath

They then read an oath in Latin, promising to abide by all the rules of the conclave, including not to reveal anything that goes on during the conclave.

The Cardinals cast a first ballot last night. Most observers believed that the outcome of

the first vote would be likely inconclusive because there was no frontrunner to succeed Benedict, who became the first pope in centuries to step down. It turned out so.

A new Pope is expected to garner two-thirds majority or 77 votes to be declared. There were speculations that the new pope will be known by Thursday.

Smoke, white for a new pontiff, black after an inconclusive vote, emerge from the chimney on the Sistine’s roof if a ballot were held.

The balloting for the next pontiff will take place under the gaze of the divine presence represented through Michelangelo’s fresco of the Last Judgment on the wall behind the altar.

The solemn afternoon procession into the Sistine followed a morning Mass in St. Peter ’s Basilica, where Angelo Sodano, an Italian who is dean of the cardinals, called for unity in the Church, which has been rife with intrigue and scandal, and urged everyone to work with the next pope.

“My brothers, let us pray that the Lord will grant us a

pontiff who will embrace this noble mission with a generous heart,” Sodano said in his homily, receiving warm applause when he thanked “the beloved and venerable” Benedict.

Front runners

Among the name being thrown up are Italy’s Angelo Scola and Brazil’s Odilo Scherer; Ghana’s Peter Tucson; U.S. cardinals Timothy Dolan and Sean O’Malley; Canada’s Marc Ouellet and Argentina’s Leonardo Sandri.

Scola would return the papacy to Italy after 35 years in the hands of Poland’s John Paul II and the German Benedict; Scherer would be the first non-European pope since Syrian-born Gregory III in the 8th century.

Vatican insiders say Scola, who has managed two big Italian dioceses, might be bestplaced to understand the Byzantine politics of the Vatican administration of which he has not been a part and be able to introduce swift reform.

All the prelates in the Sistine Chapel were appointed by either Benedict XVI or John Paul II, and the next pontiff will almost certainly pursue their fierce defense of traditional moral teachings.

PDP GOVERNORS: From left— Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and Chairman, Peoples' Democratic Party, PDP, Governors' Forum, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State and Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, at the meeting of the Forum in Abuja, Monday.

Road crash kills 3 in Abuja, as gunmen raid Kano school

BY VICTORIA OJEME

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BUJA—DESPITE a ban on heavy duty vehicle within the Federal Capital Territory between 4pm and 10pm, no fewer than three people were confirmed dead in a road crash along Nyanya-Maraba road, Abuja, involving a tipper and 16 vehicles.

The accident, which occurred yesterday by 3.45 pm, according to eyewitnesses, caused the usual evening traffic jam to com-

pletely come to a halt.

Eyewitness account informed Vanguard that the accident occurred when a tipper trailer, carrying sand, rammed into several vehicles, apparently due to break failure.

The driver of the tipper, reportedly lost control of the steering, veered off the road, taking 16 vehicles with it.

Three died instantly.

Meanwhile, suspected Islamist gunmen on motorbikes stormed a primary school, yes-

terday, and opened fire on teachers, wounding four of them, police said.

The attackers made teachers at Dan Maliki Primary School lie on the ground before shots rang out, a witness said. No one claimed responsibility for the assault.

The gunmen hit the head teacher and three other teachers, leaving them severely wounded, said police spokesman Magaji Musa Majiya.

Boko Haram was the main suspect, he added. None of the pupils were harmed.

ACN, CPC, ANPP battle INEC over merger's name

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EADERS of political parties driving the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday, talked tough, boasting that neither Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, nor Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, could stop them from using the acronym ‘APC’.

This is against the backdrop of INEC’s confirmation of receiving an application from a political association, African People’s Congress, APC, for registration as a political party to contest the 2015 general elections.

All Progressives Congress, APC, is yet to apply to the electoral umpire for registration.

Promoters of African People’s Congress had, in a letter dated February 28, and signed by Mr. Nwokorie Chinedu of Legal World Chambers, Abuja, applied to INEC “for approval to register African People’s Congress."

10—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

NHRC begins assessment of demolished Ijora-Badiya

BY ABDULWAHAB

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ABDULAH

AGOS—OFFICIALS of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, have commenced a one-week assessment of the extent of demolition exercise carried out by the Lagos State government in Ijora-Badiya, with a promise to redress any form of human rights violation.

Speaking during a visit to the demolished site, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Professor Bem Angwe, said his commission was ready to carry out its duties as empowered by the constitution to protect the rights of every Nigerian.

Prof. Angwe said: “We have come to listen to your cries, because you are human beings and you are Nigerians who alleged that your rights have been violated. As such it is our responsibilities and our mandate to investigate such allegations.”

Fashola appeals to Judiciary workers to shelve strike

BY MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO & ONOZORE DANIA DAYO JOHNSON AGOS—GOVER NOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, appealed to the striking Federal Judicial workers under the aegis of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, sheath sword and return to work.

This appeal came barely 24 hours after the judicial workers embarked on an indefinite strike over non-implementation of consolidated judicial salary structure, CONJUSS, by the Federal Government.

Fashola who spoke at the commissioning of the Lagos State Judicial Service Commission office complex in honour of late Justice Joseph Adefarasin, at the old secretariat, Ikeja, said they could only achieve their demands through negotiation and not industrial action.

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Residents protest siting of tank farms at Satelite town L

BY KUNLE KALEJAYE

AGOS—RESIDENTS of Satellite Town, under the umbrella of Satellite Town Central Residents Association, STCRA, are protesting plans to site no fewer than nine tank farms in the area with one already in operation, saying they pose danger to their lives.

This came as they lamented the erratic power supply to the town by Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, claiming the town does not receive up to 40 hours of power supply in a month.

STCRA said the town with no fewer than 150,000 inhabitants and 44 companies; stood the risk of possible extinction should the tank farms be allowed to be sited.

Raising alarm over the sitting of tank farm in the residential area between Satellite Town and Ijegun, President of STCRA, Mr. Felix Egbamuno, agued that nine tank farms said to have been licensed for operation in the area with three currently under construction and one already in operation were harmful to residents.

He said: “We are aware of the environmental pollution that tank farms can generate.

We do not have the facilities

or infrastructure to support petroleum tank farms where they are sited. Most importantly, siting tank farms in a residential community is a threat to life and property as one accidental fire outbreak can completely eliminate the

community.”

On the erratic power supply, STCRA petitioned the Minister of Power to intervene in their plight.

Equally, the residents petitioned the Chief Executive Officer, Eko Electricity Dis-

tribution Zone, requesting for meeting to discuss electricity supply; while in a similar petition to the Chairman, Eko Forum, lamented the abysmal and deteriorating power supply to the area.

VISIT: BBC Business Development Associate, Muhammed Abba ; BBC Editor, Hausa Service, Nigeria, Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi; BBC Business Development Manager, West Africa, Mr. Stive Martins, and Vice President Namadi Sambo, during a courtesy call on the Vice President by the BBC’s team.

Obasanjo decries excessive ports charges

BY GODWIN ORITSE

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AGOS—FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, decried the excessive local shipping charges and cumbersome clearing of goods at the nation’s ports despite the concessioning of the ports, saying this development has militated against trade facilitation.

Speaking at the 3rd edition of the Nigerian Maritime Exhibition and Conference tagged NIMAREX 2013, Obasanjo noted that stakeholders must institute measures that would bring about trade facilitation with a view to reducing time and cost.

He contended that no nation could afford non-performing maritime industry if it wanted its economy to experience growth.

Obasanjo, who recounted the events that led to the liquidation of the Nigerian National Shipping Line, NNSL, explained that the recognition of the importance of the maritime industry to the development of the economy led to the establishment of the shipping line.

According to him, his government at that time recognized the essential role of shipping in the development and operation of a maritime

industry capable of conserving foreign exchange and a major foreign exchange earner for the country.

He however commended local shipping operators who remained and continued to invest in the local shipping

FG appoints Acting DG for NCAA

BY DANIEL ETEGHE

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AGOS—THE Federal Government, yesterday, appointed the Director of Aerodrome Services, Mr. Joyce Nkemakolam, as the acting Director General of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA. Nkemakonam is the most senior officer of the agency, following the removal of the former Director General of the agency, Dr. Harold Demuren, by the government.

This was even as stakeholders in the aviation industry yesterday flayed the Federal Government for sacking Dr Demuren, saying the excuses provided for sacking him were ‘’flimsy.’’

The stakeholders further said the Federal Government was wrong to have sacked Dr. Demuren, describing the action as being politically motivated.

Most of the stakeholders who spoke with Vanguard on the issue, were not happy over the decision to sack Demuren, as they contended that he deserved better treatment instead of being humiliated.

industry despite the long gesticulation period on investment.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 —11

Ondo: Akeredolu, tribunal chair in war of words over record of proceedings A

BY DAYO JOHNSON

KURE—THE candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the October 20 governorship election in Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, yesterday traded words with the Chairman of the Election Petition Tribunal, Justice Andovar Kaka’an, over alleged inaccurate recording of the tribunal’s proceedings.

The altercation lasted for about 20 minutes as the first respondent to Akeredolu’s petition before the tribunal Governor Olusegun Mimiko, opened his defence yesterday.

Irked by Akeredolu’s exchange of words with him, Justice Kaka’an said the tribunal members were not afraid of being disqualified if counsels were not satisfied with the manner they conducted the proceedings.

The altercation between them was as a result of the recording of the evidence given by one of the witnesses called by Dr. Mimiko to prove that the election was peaceful.

The witness, Benson Aluta, from ward 10, unit 1, Ondo East Local Government Area of the state, was led in evidence by counsel to the governor, Abayomi Akanmode.

After about 20 minutes, Aluta was later cross examined by counsel to the ACN candidate, Lasun Sanusi, SAN, and the witness insisted that election went on perfectly in his unit without any malpractices or violence.

However, an argument ensured after the witness gave his evidence on what he said earlier on the number of those registered and the total number of votes recorded, while he was been led by Dr

Mimiko’s counsel.

In an attempt to clarify Aluta’s statements, the tribunal chairman decided to read what were recorded for the witness as his evidence before the court.

But after the tribunal chairman read his record of the evidence given by the witness, some of the people in the court, particularly the counsels murmured in disapproval of what was read.

This was followed by further murmuring and side talks especially from the counsels to the petitioners.

Uncomfortable with the side talks, the Chairman said: “This tribunal will not entertain any

side talk, we are here for a serious business and we need to conduct ourselves properly before this tribunal as honourable members of our noble profession.”

But Akeredolu stood up and fired at the Chairman, saying, “I was the one that made the statement. What I said was that the tribunal chairman did not record correctly, the statements of the witness. What was recorded was different from what the witness said.

We are prepared to challenge this proceeding at a higher court because this is not the final court on this matter.”

The Chairman of the tribunal fired back saying that the tribunal

members took exemption to Akeredolu’s outburst.

Kaka’an, alleged that the statement of the ACN candidate was like questioning the integrity of the panel, saying, “as a senior member of the bar, you are free to petition the National Judicial Commission and ask for the dissolution of this tribunal. It will not be the first time that tribunals are dissolved. We will even be happy to go to our homes if we are sacked.”

Sensing that the altercation was getting messier, one of the senior counsels in the petition, Mr. John Baiyeshea, SAN, apologized to the tribunal on behalf of the bar.

AGOS—FAITH Re vival Apostolic Church, FRAC, in Lagos, has condemned the manner in which a female corps member, Ms. Tolu Ekundayo, was expelled by the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Ogun State, for wearing skirt at the

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BY OLAAJAYI

BADAN—SENATOR Olufemi Lanlehin, representing Oyo South in the Senate, has kicked against the endorsement of Governor Abiola Ajimobi for a second term, saying “the call was unnecessary and hasty.”

This came as Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in Oyo State, yesterday, began registration of its members to know their numerical strength ahead of its merger with other opposition political parties.

In some wards , some chieftains of the party were seen registering.

While speaking with newsmen after registering in his ward, at Inalende, Ibadan, Lanlehin, contended that those behind the call did not mean well for the governor.

Ogun PDP faults Ondo party chair on NWC ATTACK ON EMBASSY: From left: Nigerian Ambassador to Senegal, Mrs. Katyen Jackden; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Martin Ihomoibhi, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olugbenga Ashiru, addressing House Committee on Foreign Affairs over attacks on Nigerian Embassy in Senegal, at the National Assembly, Abuja. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

Church condenms sack of corps member over refusal to wear trousers the Federal GovernAdenuga who is also a the Service did not exment, to look into the Pastor at Ekundayo’s pel anybody.

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Senator kicks against Ajimobi’s 2nd term plan

Shagamu orientation camp.

Pastor of FRAC, Apostle Paul Adenuga, said the way Ekundayo was expelled from the camp in the dead of the night without considering her safety was condemnable and called on the Director-General of NYSC and

matter before it got out of hand.

At a briefing by the church, the victim said she was asked to leave the camp at about 11.00pm on March 8, 2013 by the Ogun State NYSC Co-coordinator, for her refusal to wear trousers.

She explained that her refusal to wear trousers was not in disobedience to NYSC authorities but in line with her belief and faith.

church, said: “I call on Nigerians mostly Christians that stand for the truth not only to jointly condemn this babaric act but to engage in constructive dialogue with the concerned authorities for the change of such policy if it is official.”

NYSC reacts

When contacted, the Ogun State NYSC Coordinator, Mrs T.I Anosike, maintained that

According to her, Ms. Ekundayo opted to go instead of abiding by the rules and regulations of the scheme.

She said: “Nobody asked her to leave.

She was asked to comply with the NYSC directives or leave. So she decided to leave. When she said that she won’t comply, we asked her to put it in writing which she did. So we didn’t expel her, she left on her own.”

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BEOKUTA—OGUN State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has faulted reports credited to the Chairman of the party in Ondo State, Olu Alabi, that the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party would soon review its decision on the executive committee in the South-West zone.

In a statement, yesterday, the Publicity Secretary, Waliu Oladipupo, said Alabi’s comments were “misconceived and misleading.”

He said: “With his utterances, Alabi gave out himself as being oblivious of the history and facts of the events preceding the action of the national leadership of the party.”

Oladipupo said the NWC’s decision was taken after a careful consideration of the legal advice it got from senior lawyers on the various judgments against the party in Ogun State in particular and the SouthWest in general.

According to him, “this much was clearly stated in the statements announcing the NWC’s decision. We trust that no individual or group, no matter how powerful, can sit in appeal against the decisions of the courts.”

12—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

DESOPADEC renders free medicare in Ndokwa West

Amaechi didn't shun PDP Govs Forum — Rivers govt

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BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

HE Commissioner representing Ndokwa nation on the board of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, Sir Kenny Okolugbo, has commended the people of Ukwuani and Ndokwa West for turning out in large numbers in the first phase of the free medical intervention programme of the commission in the area.

Speaking at Emu-unor in Ndokwa West, he said close to 10,000 people had been attended to in the two weeks programme.

He enjoined the people to also take advantage of the surgical intervention commencing today at the General Hospital, Obiaruku, in Ukwuani Local Government Area.

Abraka Progress Union gets new exco

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SABA branch of Abraka Progress Union, has elected new executives to run the affairs of the union for the next two years.

Mr. Agajivwie Godspower, emerged President. He thanked the members and assured that the union would attain greater heights with their support.

Others elected included Mr. Ekure Francis, Vice President and Mr. Egoba Robinson, Secretary.

Madam Onianwa passes on

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ADAM Cecilia Onianwa of Umuonyia, Asaba, Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State is dead, aged 80.

She is survived by children, grand children, sons-in-law, brother, sister and many relations.

A statement by the family said details of the funeral rites will be announced later.

Late Madam Onianwa

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ORT HARCOURT— RIVERS State Government has dismissed speculations in some quarters that Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum and governor of the state, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, shunned the first meeting of the newly formed Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governors Forum, in Abuja.

State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, in a statement, said the governor was absent because of a prior engagement in London, where he was billed to address the Commonwealth Observance Day. She said the governor was among three high profile personalities slated to address the gathering.

She said: “Governor Amaechi was one of the three high profile speakers at the event, which had as its theme: Opportunity through Enterprise. Governor Amaechi was in the United Kingdom to

make Nigeria proud at the historic event.”

She said that the Commonwealth Observance Day had always held on the second Monday in March since 1973, adding that there was no way the governor could have been absent from the PDP Governors

Forum, if he hadn't the engagement outside the country.

“This year, Governor Amaechi was invited several months ago to speak alongside Virgin Atlantic’s Richard Branson and Rickel Patel, Executive Director of Avaaz, the

FREE HEALTH CARE PROGRAMME: Mr. Timi Tonye, Commissioner, DESOPADEC, representing Delta State governor (middle); Chief Amudo, Onotu-Uku of Obiaruku (3rd right) and Sir Kenny Okolugbo, Commissioner representing Ndokwa Nation on DESOPADEC Board (2nd left), during the free health care programme organised by DESOPADEC for Ndokwa nation.

Uduaghan to DESOPADEC Board: You must deliver on your mandate

BY EMMA ARUBI

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ARRI—GOVERNOR Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State has charged board members of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, to ensure that people of oil bearing communities felt their positive impact.

He said global climatic changes had now made it difficult to know when it is dry or rainy season, noting that they should take advantage of the weather whenev-

er there is sunshine to execute their projects.

Governor Uduaghan gave the charge when he visited the Corporate Headquarters of the Commission in Warri, adding that board was not an office job as they must deliver on their mandate.

He said: “Let our people feel your impact. Let them know what you are doing. Being a board member is not an office work. You must actively monitor your projects and ensure that you seriously warn contractors who are failing, so that we can achieve our desired goals.”

Responding, Chairman of DESOPADEC board, Mr. Oritsuwa Kpogho, said they had already started the process of awarding contracts and will soon be going to the fields to ensure project compliance.

He assured that the Commission had keyed into the three-point agenda of the state government and its programmes aimed at preparing the state beyond oil, adding that the governor would shortly be invited to commission some of their legacy projects across the state.

Bayelsa community threatens legal action against Shell

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA ENAGOAS—THE people of the coastal settlement of Imbasi-kiri in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, have threatened to drag Shell Petroleum Development Company, to court over alleged wrongful denial of their rights and privileges as an oil producing community.

In a petition to the General Manager, Production, Swamp 1 and 2, Shell East,

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largest online activist community.

“Governor Amaechi remains committed to the building of our nation and the democratic ideals of the PDP and no amount of blackmail can change this incontrovertible fact,” she added.

by the Imbasi-kiri community Head, Imbasi Alfred, and Engr.

Imbasi Harold, they accused some Shell staff of conniving with some persons to change the name of their community to Walter-kiri, so as to deny them their due as a host community.

They warned that they might be forced to use constitutional means to seek redress in a court of law, if the company refuses to correct the anomalies within 30 days.

Shell, the community alleged, fraudulently named its location

9 located in Imbasi-kiri after Walter-kiri, a neighbouring community about 10 kilometres away from it.

The community urged the company to verify the truth of their claims and recognise them as the host community of location 9.

It urged the company to change the name of the location from Walter-kiri to Imbasi-kiri Location 9 and refer to the map before the siting of the oil location in the Nembe Creek oil field.

Jonathan urged to extend tenure of NDDC Board

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

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ORT HARCOURT—AN umbrella body of youth leaders in the Niger Delta, South-South Youth Leaders Forum, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to extend the life-span of the current board of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, due to expire in few months.

In a statement, yesterday, Chairman of the group, Mr. Amachree Odiedim, said people of the region were satisfied with the peaceful way the board had been going about its operations in the region.

According to him, unlike the previous board that was dogged in personality clashes, the current board had remained focused on how to tackle the challenges of underdevelopment in the region.

He noted that several youths who were trained in welding and fabrication by the commission graduated recently, adding that the development was a reflection of the commitment of the board towards addressing issues in the region.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 13

C M Y K

14—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

No zone can intimidate Jonathan — Clark

BY HENRY UMORU

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BUJA — ELDER statesman and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, yesterday, boasted that no amount of intimidation or suppression can stop President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2015 Presidential election, just as he said that speculations were rife that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, may have adopted him as the candidate.

Addressing journalists in his Asokoro residence, the former Federal Information Commissioner described as malicious, insincere and dishonest, remarks by the governor of Niger State and Chairman, Northern Governors’ Forum, Muazu Babaginda Aliyu, that Jonathan signed an agreement with the governors not to seek re-election.

Clark, who noted that there was no such agreement, said even if there was such agreement between the governors and the President, the northern governors were the first to break the bond against the backdrop that they voted massively against the President at the PDP Presidential primaries in 2011.

According to him, the only qualification which the Niger State governor has ahead of Jonathan, was where he comes from which is the north, stressing that people should stop thinking that only a particular zone was qualified to rule the country, thereby pushing other zones to the background.

On amnesty for Boko Haram members Also backing President Jonathan on his refusal to grant amnesty to members of Boko Haram sect, Clark argued that the President should not grant amnesty on

sentiment, just as he said President Jonathan, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, has the right to deploy soldiers to any where in the country where there was security challenge.

In a speech he entitled: "An open letter to Dr. Babaginda Aliyu, Executive Governor of Niger State," the elder statesman said: "My Dear Chief Servant of Niger State, your statement on the tenureship agreement with Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, is not only mischevious but also insincere and dishonest.

"I read with disappointment and embarrassment your interview which was published in various national dailies that the governors of the 19 northern states signed an agreement with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to contest the 2011 elections on the condition that he will serve only a single tenure in office. You went ahead to state that it is only Chief E. K. Clark and those who will benefit from Dr. Jonathan that are campaigning and urging him to contest again come 2015.

I must say that your attack against me is most unfortunate and ridiculous.

"My Dear Chief Servant, I have always had a very high regard for you.

As one of the oldest governors with very rich experience who attained the pinnacle position in the civil service, having worked as a Permanent Secretary in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja before retiring into politics, you should view issues with a broad mind.

"It is, however, unfortunate and disappointing that you could engage in such bare-faced lies and false propaganda simply because of your inordinate ambition to seek election as President of Nigeria come 2015, and the only qualification you think you have over the incumbent is that you are a northerner who must rule at all time.

Jonathan signed no single

Jonathan to host centenary dinner Thursday

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R E S I D E N T GOODLUCK

Ebele Jonathan will on Thursday, March 14, 2013, in Abuja, host a special dinner for select Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of major companies in Nigeria.

Also expected to attend the strictly by invitation dinner are State

Governors, members of the Federal Executive Council and members of the diplomatic corps.

The event tagged: “A Centenary Dinner With Top Nigerian CEOs,” is part of the year-long ceremonies marking Nigeria’s centenary and the grand finale is slated

for January 1, 2014.

Among the notable Nigerian CEOs expected to attend the dinner are Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Dr. Mike Adenuga, Chief Cletus Ibeto, Mr. Hakeem Bello-Osagie, Mrs. Stella Okoli, Mrs. Sola David-Borha and Ms. Evelyn Oputu.

FG probes attack on Nigerian embassy

BY OKEY NDIRIBE

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BUJA — THE Federal Government has set up a board of inquiry to investigate the attack on Nigeria’s Embassy in Dakar, Senegal.

Olugbenga Ashiru, Minister of Foreign Affairs, gave this hint, yesterday, at an investigative hearing held by the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Said Ashiru: “ We have constituted a board of inquiry to find out the causes

of the problem and proffer solutions.”

He stated that in order to prevent such incidents in the future, a team of inspectors, officials of the ministry, office of Nigeria Security Adviser, NSA and Nigeria Intelligene Agency, NIA, had been set up to visit all Nigerian embassies in the sub-region.

In her submission, Mrs. Katyen Jackden, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Senegal, said a distress call was made to the nearest police station some few meters away from the Chancery, but they responded 30 minutes later.

term agreement "As a rebuttal to your statement, I wish to repeat that there was no agreement between the governors of the 19 northern states and President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. You are a very well educated person, but it appears you do not understand the correct meaning of agreement. For the records, according to the online edition of the Legal Dictionary, the word ‘agreement’ simply means: ‘A mutual understanding between

two or more legally competent individuals or entities about their rights and duties regarding their past and future performances and a consideration that they must perform their own obligations in order to be bonded by the agreement. Thus agreement is the art of agreeing or coming to a mutual agreement.’

"Now, according to your story, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan wanted to contest and win both the PDP Presidential primaries and the 2011 Presi-

Continued on Page 44

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo (left) and Sen. Idris Umar, Minister of Transport, representing President Goodluck Jonathan, at the opening ceremony of Nigerian Maritime Expo, NIMAREX, in Lagos, yesterday.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013—15

Oshiomhole accuses Adoke of trivialising Oyerinde's murder prosecution

BY BEN AGANDE

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BUJA — Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State yesterday accused the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, of trivialising the death of his Principal Private Secretary, Olaitan Oyerinde, by failing to prosecute those alleged to have murdered him.

But the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, denied trivialising the prosecution of those alleged to have killed Oyerinde, saying Oshiomhole was at liberty to say anything.

Speaking with state House correspondents at the end of the National Council of State meeting where the governor and Attorney General had an open altercation over the matter, Governor Oshiomhole From left: Udochi Nwaodu, Chief Inspector, UBA; Abiodun Aderoju, Chief Inspector, Sterling Bank; said government officials had a responsibility to Ayo Ogunsakin, Commissioner of Police, Special Fraud Unit, SFU; Boye Ogunmolade, Chief Inspecensure that they took their duties very seriously, tor, Fidelity Bank; Tosin Obadimu of Fidelity Bank, during a courtesy call on the Police Commissioner, SFU, Milverton, Ikoyi, Lagos. especially when it involved life and death.

But for the intervention of the governors of Delta and Gombe states; Emmanuel Uduaghan and Ibrahim Dankwambo and an aide to the President, the argument between the duo would have resorted to fisticuffs.

Although the altercation happened in full glare of journalists at the council chambers where the Council of State meeting took place, it was

BY OKEY NDIRIBE & not clear what the Attorney EMMAN OVUAKPORIE General said to the governor that enraged him.

Speaking with state House BUJA — THE correspondents after the House of

BY HENRY UMORU information, geared towards Nnamani and former Council of State meeting, Representatives, addressing the security governor of old Anambra Governor Oshiomhole said the yesterday, mandated the challenges in the country.

State, Senator Jim Nwobodo.

BUJA — CHAIRMAN, Attorney General messed up the Committee on Police Anenih declared that Board of Trustees, BoT, prosecution of those accused of Affairs to investigate the those who constituted of Peoples Democratic Party, killing his Principal Private PDP Security Advisory arrest and detention of security threats in the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, yesSecretary. former governor of Committee set up country lived among the terday, reminded governors Zamfara State, Senator Meanwhile, Chairman, people, adding that with elected on the platform of the Ahmed Sani, by the 'Edo ought to try this case' PDP Governors’ Forum and proper intelligence party that there was the urpolice.

According to Oshiomhole, governor of Akwa Ibom gathering, their activities gent need to expedite action It would be recalled rather than advise the Deputy State, Godswill Akpabio, at would be nipped in the bud. on development as Nigerithat Sani was on March Inspector General of Police who the end of the meeting He added that the ans were anxiously waiting 9 arrested, detained and referred the case for announced the setting up of responsibility of providing to be taken to the promised questioned by the police prosecution to the AGF that the a five-member PDP Security security should not be left in land by them. for alleged incitement. case ought to have been tried Advisory Committee to assist the hands of the Federal He also called for complete Sani had said during an

by Edo State, the Attorney governors collaborate with Government alone, but loyalty, sincerity from memHausa radio phone-inGeneral chose to play the the Federal Government in stressed that governors, bers of the party as well enprogramme on FRCN ostrich. minimising security political office holders and sure that there was an atmosKaduna that members of He said: “I don’t think it is problems in Nigeria. even traders and every phere of peace, if developthe yet-to-be registered an issue I want to talk about.

The Committee has Nigerian had a key role to ment and growth must be All Progressive The issue is that he (Attorney Governor Murtala Nyako of play. guaranteed in all ramificaCongress, APC, would General Adoke) was saying my Adamawa State as “All of you are the chief tions. protest the nonAttorney General should have Chairman, with Governor security officers of your According to Anenih, the registration of the party known what to do, that he Emmanuel Uduaghan of states, the national challenges ahead are enorby the Independent (Adoke) has nothing to do Delta State, Theodore Orji of government, the Federal mous and it has become imNational Electoral with the matter and I simply Abia State; Mukhtar Government alone cannot perative for all governCommission, INEC. asked him who referred the Ramallan Yero of Kaduna give all Nigerians security, ments at national, state and The resolution followed matter to him?

State and Rabiu everybody, every Nigerian local levels to rise and a motion moved by “Was it my Attorney General?

Kwankwanso of Kano as must be involved. achieve success in their enIbrahim Gusau ( ANPPThe matter was referred to him members.

“Again I wish you all well deavours Zamfara), which was by the deputy Inspector He also disclosed that the and I came to congratulate Speaking yesterday at the adopted.

General of police and I asked PDP governors were my son (Gov. Akpabio)here meeting of PDP Governors’ He said “if a serving him who should know better? proposing a constitution for and I have no doubt that Forum which started on senator could be treated But speaking with state the main Nigeria Governors with the formation of the Monday and ended in the this way by the police, House Correspondents, the Forum, NGF, with a view to PDP Governors Forum we early hours of yesterday at what would be the fate of Attorney General of the having what he termed a would be able to discuss Akwa Ibom State Governor’s the ordinary Nigerian.”

Federation, Mohammed true body. issues freely in the interest Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, Gusau explained that Adoke, said he did not trivialise Secretary, BoT, Senator of the Nigerians.

Chief Anenih also called on he was merely the prosecution of the accused.

Walid Jubrin, announced at Chief Anenih was the state governors to expressing his According to him, “Edo State the meeting that Governor accompanied to the meeting effectively and efficiently fundamental human governor can say what he wants Godswill Akpabio had been by the Secretary, BoT, utilise their security votes rights as enshrined in to say but I will not join issues appointed a member of the Senator Walid Jubrin; former towards gathering the 1999 constitution as with him; he is the governor party’s BoT. Senate President Ken intelligence reports and amended. and I respect his office.”

Nigerians waiting for govt to take them to promised land —Anenih to PDP govs

'Fight security challenges with security votes' Akpabio admitted into BoT

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Alleged Sani’s arrest: Reps move to investigate cause

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16— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

— 17 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013— “Your brother’s pocket cannot keep your wealth”- African Proverb

is also a huge chunk of the resources that could be shared among all Nigerians to address poverty. The host community fund does not address the issue of equity: It complicates it.

1.What is the PIB?

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2. Why is the bill so controversial?

There are many provisions in it many interests dislike. Foreign oil companies and even foreign nations see it as an unwelcome intrusion into their traditional monopoly over the industry and an assault on their stranglehold over production and profits. The NNPC see it as an effort to force it to be more open and transparent, a virtual death sentence for an institution which thrives on lack of openness and accountability.

Northern legislators see it as further enriching a zone which already takes more than it is entitled to, and impoverishing their region. South– South legislators think it makes too little provision for more. Government thinks the legislation is poorly understood by Nigerians, and has become unduly politicised.

3. Are there provisions in it anyone likes?

The Jonathan administration will want the bill passed as it is. In particular, it does not want provisions for the 10 percent host community fund reduced or removed, and it wants the huge powers conferred on the office of the Minister of Petroleum Resources to remain. South-South legislators want the provision for host community fund retained, and if possible, increased.

They want the bill to be passed as presented, unless changes in it give the region more of the proceeds from oil and gas. Northern legislators like the

PIB: A basic guide provision for exploration funds, but want it to be radically improved.

4.Are these issues non-negotiable?

Nothing is non-negotiable in politics, but many positions have hardened over time. A lot of regional and parochial interests have been whipped up in support of various positions. Basically, the battle lines appear to be drawn around Northern and South-South legislators. Other legislators are intensely interested as well, but there are less resources at stake for their own interests than those from these two regions.

5. Why would the North fight if its people have majority of oil blocs?

Ownership of oil blocs by citizens broken down by regions is one of the weapons thrown into the fray. Nigerians from all parts of the country own oil blocs, as they should, and it has been proved that Northerners own anything near the 83 percent mentioned on the floor of the Senate. In any case, ownership of oil blocs by Northerners does not deprive its citizens of their rights to equity in the sharing of revenues which accrue from oil and gas.

6 . Why would anyone fight against the 10 percent provision for host communities?

Ordinarily, there should be no reason

President Goodluck Jonathan

to resist allocating more funds to areas where petroleum resources are extracted from. Common sense, good politics and equity demand that areas from where resources emanate from should benefit from God’s bounties, which means they get more than communities further away.

There are also environmental and other consequences which additional funds should mitigate. The grouse with the host community fund is that it is an addition to 13 percent derivation, funding of NDDC, Ministry for Niger Delta, cost of the amnesty programme, statutory allocations and other benefits derived from the operations of the

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HE Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, is a piece of legislation initially intended to address endemic structural, policy and managerial issues in the Nigerian oil and gas sector. Its goals were to enhance the value of the asset for the Nigerian people by plugging loopholes in policies and management and improving transparency and efficiency of the sector. It was an attempt to redress observed weaknesses and abuses by operators and stakeholders, eliminate corruption and restructure the industry to make it more responsive to social and economic needs of Nigerians and foreign investors with basic key concerns such as equity, responsibility and sustainability targets.

The PIB as originally drafted has gone through massive tampering, alterations, amendments, duplications, disputes over authenticity, delays and damaging debates. It is now singularly the most divisive legislation, pitching mostly Northern legislators who feel it represents a declaration of economic war on their poorer region, and their colleagues from mostly the South-South who feel it represents a fairly packaged deal which is non-negotiable.

The bill has to be passed in one form or the other, because it is important to provide a new, comprehensive framework for managing and sharing the nation’s petroleum resources

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industry which go to oil producing states. The combined effect of all these funds should make the region the most affluent, and Nigerians from the Niger Delta among the most well-off. This is not the case. Funds are grossly abused and diverted by governments, and majority of citizens in the region are as poor as the poorest peasant from Jigawa state. “Communities” tend to become a small circle of elites who retain huge resources using strong arm tactics of all types, and there is no guarantee that more funding for “host communities” will translate into better living conditions for the poor in the region. Ten percent

7.Can the resistance against host community fund be sustained?

It is doubtful. In the end, it may be negotiated against raising the funds for frontier exploration, but the debate over it would have caused much damage. Its supporters see any resistance against it as arrogant posturing from a parasitic part of the nation which has no moral or any other right to deprive the community from enjoying the full benefits of “its” resources. Its opponents see it as increasing evidence of structural inequity which characterises the Nigerian federal system. Along with the removal of the onshore-offshore dichotomy, some of the provisions of the PIB are seen by other parts of the country, particularly the North, as a short-sighted and ultimately damaging scramble for the nation’s resources by one section.

8.Why is the frontier exploration fund important?

Northern legislators believe that with sufficient funding, oil and gas which they believe abound in the North will soon be exploited. This will reduce the region’s dependence on petroleum revenue from the South-South, and improve the nation’s overall economic assets. They think the current provisions are inadequate, but they may negotiate improvements of the fund by making concessions in other areas of the PIB. They will continue to insist that oil exploration in the South-South was historically funded from resources from other parts of the nation; and the rest of Nigeria is entitled to explore and exploit “their ” own resources using revenue from petroleum.

9. Does the North need petroleum?

Everyone needs petroleum resources if they can get it, but it does not come without huge a price. The North has immeasurable assets in solid mineral resources, huge population and very rich agricultural land. This is what it should try to develop. In the meantime, it has a right to demand that proceeds from petroleum resources be used to exploit oil and gas in the region.

10.What will be the fate of the PIB? Everyone will get something out of it. The bill has to be passed in one form or the other, because it is important to provide a new, comprehensive framework for managing and sharing the nation’s petroleum resources. The debates and quarrels around it, however, expose the weaknesses of a Nigerian state which is yet to come to terms with the basics around the nature of its federal arrangement.

OPINION

BY BISI OLAWUNMI

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F you are observant enough, you will notice him in markets - an ageing, cosmopolitan gentleman haggling with the market woman pricing pepper, fish, okro and vegetable oil. His age, generally 50 and above. At other times, you see him in the high brow areas of major cities doing his shopping at the mall. If he is no longer in paid employment, he spends much of his time at the Club house. There is a club patronised by such elderly live-alone men in old Bodija in Ibadan. He lives a relatively quiet life at home – no chattering or running around of children. Except, perhaps for the occasional female visitor, that is for those still with libido, the house environment has an unnerving serenity. The above scenario typifies the changing times for the family set up, especially for fathers in middle and upper class families in Nigeria. The ageing Nigerian husband and father is facing a silent revolt - a gangup against him by wives and children who have chosen to remain abroad. The irony of it all is that it is the successful husbands and fathers who are mostly in this bind. Men took different routes to this common destination of loneliness in their C M Y K

As wives relocate abroad, husbands turn 'bachelors' twilight years. Many had travelled abroad, often to Europe, the U.S. and Canada in their youth in search of the golden fleece, got married either to fellow Nigerians or ladies in their countries’ of residence, acquired higher education, raised families and look forward to a life of bliss thereafter.

While some returned home immediately after their education, others stayed back to also get their children educated before returning home. Some went abroad as staff of government agencies or international organisations with their families or raised families at their duty posts and either returned after their tenure or stayed back. Some men returned while the wives stayed back – different strokes. We have a large number of stay-back wives in Maryland, New York and Atlanta, among others.

There is a third category of those who went abroad under the U.S. Visa lottery. In all, going abroad were happy moments, then, and in some cases, all the children of many couples ended up going abroad.

Many fathers of such children are no longer smiling.

Yet, the rush to America and Europe continues.

With Nigeria’s worsening economic problems, those who never came back stayed put while the problems forced the children of many returnees back to Europe and America where many are citizens.

Meanwhile, the returnee parents are getting older as well as those who never went abroad but had children there. The returnees and the locals are now in the same boat. In their active, younger days, many parents travelled abroad on vacations to see their children. Now retired or approaching retirement age, many parents are either financially or physically not able to make the journeys again, while some refused to visit to protest the children’s nonreciprocation.

Then the music changed, bringing about current woes of many men, in spite of some putting a bright face to it. This time wives started travelling abroad, ostensibly to help take care of their grand-children abroad.

Continues on pg 18 *Dr. Olawunmi, a lecturer, and a former resident in Washington DC ,wrote from Bowen varsity, Iwo.

18 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 MANY may be wondering what governments do. They have every right to do so following various failings of governments, including basics like paying salaries they prescribed for their own workers. The role of governments is more fundamental and our Constitution states it so lucidly and succinctly that it remains a wonder that our governments do not aspire to implement the provision.

According to Section 14 2b, “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. Where governments abdicate these responsibilities, they question their very existence, since they would not realise they are in power for the benefit of the people.

Nigeria is passing through one of its most challenging phases, hardly any government seems to prime its programmes to the constitutional provision, which clearly underlines the importance of security and the well being of the people. Could things have been different if governments cared for the people? We think so.

Concerns about governments alienating themselves from the people are not new, and they are not related to governments in

BY BISI OLAWUNMI Continued from pg 17

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HAT was when husbands’ problems began. You would think there was a National Conference for Diasporabound grandmothers at which a roadmap was distributed. This is because experiences of many marooned husbands are similar: Initially when the first grandchild is born, the wife travels abroad and spends about three months.

She returns home, spends about nine months to a year and when the second grandchild is born, she either spends six months or stay back permanently.

For those who come back after the second trip, the third is for permanent stay.

Welcome to the phenomenon of the husband ‘bachelor’. What I have found amazing about this category of men living alone, following their wives relocation abroad, is that many are not contemplating taking a second wife.

Even those in their early 50s who are still randy avoid serious relationships while those who contract temporary marriages soon abandon the venture. I was to learn that the decision against taking a second wife, for many, is generally financially based, given the

What Do Governments Do? Nigeria alone.

John Caldwell Calhoun, former US Vice President, former Senator in a May 26, 1836 address expressed worries about government. “A power has arisen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.” The “Cohesive power of public plunder,” as the speech was later known, became a common reference for governments abandoning the people while pursuing the good of a few.

Could this explain why governments are more focussed on the next elections, though they are more than two years away,

than in fulfilling promises their promises to make Nigeria safe and more prosperous?

Nigerians want to see governments do more with the billions of Naira voted annually for the benefit of the people. Key areas of concern remain security and basic infrastructure. When governments fail in their responsibilities to the people breach the Constitution.

What does sanctity of lives mean where governments cannot prevent illegal taking of lives? What is welfare when people are not being paid for work they have done? What is the importance of life when diseases are mauling our people to submission and nobody cares?

Ronald Reagan, former US President in his first Inaugural address (1981), said, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem”.

Prescient as this may seem, Nigerians want to see their governments solving their problems. When this starts, governments will get more support from the people whose votes got them into office.

Democratic governance is a contract with the people.

OPINION As wives relocate abroad, husbands turn 'bachelors' (2) rising cost of education. “How do you expect me to start training a child from kindergarten at this age,” noted a 60year-old Ibadan resident whose wife and children are in the U.S. He says he draws inspiration from more elderly people who are in their 70s and in similar situation. He, however, concedes that he feels the absence of his family most during festive seasons when the loneliness hits him. Some not so solvent again take consolation in the dollars and pound sterling from their Diaspora children. Even then, not all are so lucky.

It’s a matter of different strokes. There are those who take in house helps, often with unpleasant experiences. An oil company retiree with a big house in upscale Lekki area of Lagos said house helps can be so unappreciative of your assistance and can walk out on you anytime. He narrated an episode where the driver threw the car key at him in the middle of nowhere, knowing that he had not driven for a long time. A common concern among elderly

husbands living alone is the health hazard, the dread of falling ill in the middle of the night with no one to assist.

There was the story of a man in the Alagbole area of Lagos who had died three days before the door was forced open when he did not attend a Tuesday church meeting. Many ‘single’ husbands say their wives are always persuading them to come over, that the wives wonder why the husbands choose to stay in the hell-hole called Nigeria.

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lthough a few claim they enjoy cooking, many of the live-alone husbands say they don’t find it funny going to the market. Some husbands follow their wives abroad. According to a Festac Town, Lagos resident: ”When the second invitation came for my wife to come to London, I told my son he has to send tickets for two, that I can’t stay back again”. After six months, they returned home, but when the wife was to go for the third and extended stay,

he declined following. “I find it very boring,” he lamented. There are some husbands who refused to allow their wives travel abroad to help take care of their grandchildren. One such husband insists : Why should they take my wife away, I raised them, they too must raise their own children.

The problem of absentee wives and lonely husbands is part an overall trend of separation in the family. Economic factor, especially employment, has also contributed to the dispersal of the family, even at local level where, for example, a husband works in Lagos and the wife in Abuja, with dire consequences for family cohesion. Prof. Adelani Ogunrinde, Vice-Chancellor, National University of Lesotho, while delivering the Second Commencement Lecture of Bowen University, Iwo on October 16, 2008 highlighted, almost in lamentation, this phenomenon of the dispersed family using his family as an example: He lives in Lesotho, the wife in Abuja and the children in North America. He died about two years later, with the family still dispersed.

Concluded *Dr. Olawunmi, a lecturer, and former resident in Washington DC, wrote from Bowen varsity, Iwo.

—19 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013—

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AD he remained in office Joseph Aloisius Ratsinger would have clocked eight full years on the throne of St. Peter as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church in April. But on February 11, 2013 just as the West and the rest of the world that has caught the bug was getting feverish with last minute plans for Valentines Day in came the news that the Pope would resign effective from February 28. The news had earth-shifting effect and millions were left nonplussed at the Pope's decision. As I write this, it’s just been five hours since Benedict XVI’s resignation came into effect and he began life, in his own words, as a "pilgrim on his last journey on earth". Now to bear the official title of Pope Emeritus, Pope Benedict was the first Pope to give up the papacy voluntarily since 1415. April is an important month in the life of Pope Benedict. It was in April, on the 16th day to be precise, that he was born in the German city of Bavaria in 1927.

He was on April 19, 2005 elected Pope by the conclave of cardinals when John Paul II passed on and

at 78 he was the oldest person to become pope since Clement XII who reigned between 1730 and 1740. Right from the beginning he was something of an unwilling pope. Not, as the records show, for lack of qualification. If anything he was by most accounts first among equals by the time he was elected. There was probably nobody more qualified for the position of pope than the effacing Ratsinger. His reluctance, it seems now, was informed by his sensitive awareness of his role as a priest whose duty was to illuminate the teachings of Christ to an ignorant world. What better way to do this than as a teacher, a theologian of the Catholic Church?

For most of his life before becoming pope, Joseph Ratsinger was an academic of no mean repute becoming a full professor by his thirty first birthday. He taught from one university to another until the late 1970s when he was first appointed archbishop and shortly after cardinal by Pope Pius VI. Thus he was not a career church man in the traditional sense

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of it. The newly-appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is in the same mould.

Perhaps the apparent rise of academics as influential leaders of the church, a phenomenon that can be observed even in Nigeria in the careers of the likes of Pastor E.A. Adeboye, W.F. Kumuyi and Daniel Olukoya, among others, testifies to the pedagogical foundation of Christianity. This observation may look surprising now only because of the many generations of charlatans that have emerged as founders/leaders throughout the history of Christianity as well as other religions. Otherwise, religions right from time had been founded and led by teachers, people of knowledge from Jesus Christ and Mohammed through Buddha to Orunmila.

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ut Ratsinger’s reputation as an academic was solidly earned and at the last count he has to his name nothing less than 65 books. His rise through the Church was meteoric and his intellectual

Aregbesola's American visit

BY ADEWALE MORGAN

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S someone who very well knows that exaggeration diminishes credibility, I give it a wide berth in claiming that the vocal governor of the State of Osun in South West Nigeria, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, is doubtlessly a focused, clear-headed, and innovative political leader. It is doubtful whether I could so describe him prior to my encounter with him at Cambridge when he visited a few weeks back. To be sure, before that day I had heard and read many things about him, particularly the avalanche of controversies which defined his person and administration since he became governor.

When on Tuesday February 19, I heard that he was in Cambridge, close by Boston where I am resident, to attend the town hall meeting with Harvard African Caucus made up of Black students, I did not hang fire – actually more out of curiosity – in getting myself there. The taste of the pudding is in the eating. And there he was in his charming unassuming disposition, beaming with the trademark smile I am accustomed to through still pictures. The centrepiece of his address to the august audience was the innovations he has brought to governance since he came into office as governor.

He spoke eloquently about the unprecedented reforms that his state’s educational, agricultural, and health sectors had successfully undergone under his watch. He zestfully primed his audience of how his administration through its carefully designed policies – he actually said SixPoints-Integral-Action Plan – has made a huge dent on the monster of youth unemployment, cured the state of its financial ailment, and impacted the lives of

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the citizens who are mostly farmers. All of these and more he said, exuding affecting confidence, coruscating brilliance, and unpretentious calmness. But his most impactful presentation was the computer tablet he called Opon Imo, which indeed is an innovation. According to him, the tablet which will be distributed to all the senior students in the state’s public secondary schools, contains all recommended textbooks, past questions on certificate and matriculation examinations and moral instructions. This, I am sure, is going to help parents who cannot afford to buy books for their wards and also help the students to focus on reading. More importantly, it will introduce them to computer at an early age.

I must admit that even in the United States, this is a novel thinking. This idea has never occurred to anyone to the best of my knowledge.

I was really impressed by his clinical deployment of non-convoluted details. By creditably giving a good report of himself in his smooth delivery, this springy politician unequivocally made it manifest that he is a political leader of uncommon dedication, discipline and character.

Deservedly, the attentive audience expressed their appreciation of his memorable delivery through thunderous ovation lasting for a while. Of course, I needed no prodding to attend the lecture he delivered the next day at the Weatherhead Center. He whetted my appetite for his depth and insights.

As I listened to his lecture, it dawned on me that, as the Americans would say, I ain’t seen nothing yet. Governor Aregbesola’s lecture at the monthly seminar of the Weatherhead Centre for International Studies, Harvard University, centred on the

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Benedict XVI: The Pope Emeritus

Whether you agree with him or not, you cannot but admire the life and career of Benedict XVI, a leader and teacher of the Word whose life is a lesson in Christian humility

input prodigious. To be pope is to combine spiritual reverence with earthly power. The Pope is the Bishop of Rome. More than this, he is the head of the Catholic Church worldwide, a position that sometimes frames whoever is pope as the leader of Christendom. He is also, as pope, the sovereign head of the Vatican, that is the leader or head of the government of the Vatican. This puts him in the same class as the president of any country, from the US, Russia to Britain and France. It was all of this that Pope Benedict turned his back on to live a life of prayer and contemplation in a monastery.

This is one man that has come to full awareness of the vainness of worldly recognition, power and material acquisition. All indeed is vanity Ratsinger says without for once alluding to it.

Nobody expected a papacy could carry a retirement caveat. Once elected, a pope dies in office. At least so it’s been in the last 600 years. But none of those who expected a pope to die in office thought of a Ratsinger. None reckoned with the leadership of a quiet revolutionary in priestly frock and nothing but the firmness of his belief that leadership is service and once such responsibility could no longer be effectively met there leadership ends. As he put it in his last public audience at St. Peters Church on Wednesday February 27, "one receives life when one gives it up" and "loving the Church means being brave enough to make difficult decisions". He made no show of his retirement plans; gave no indications that he was about to make a momentous decision, nor did he leave room for any pretentious avenues for him to be talked out of what he thought was the right thing to do. Having prayed and reflected deeply on it,

Governor Aregbesola’s report on the achievements of his administration revealed to me a leader who knows what is amiss and works squarely to fix it

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multifarious and overwhelming development challenges assailing Nigeria.

Though the challenges are ubiquitous and form the subject of public discourse, both at national and international forums, the Governor ’s analysis was thorough and seminal. I must admit that his analytical exposition added depth to my perspective on the socio-economic and political setbacks the most populous Black nation is inured in. Nigeria’s development calamities are of Byzantine complexity, he enlightened.

For him, blinding ethnicity, defective federalism, rapine military system, adulterated religious practices, clueless leadership, among many other horrifying human-inspired debacles, are the foxes pitilessly destroying the rich vineyard of the Nigerian state.

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courageous leader, he warmed the cockles of my heart when he flintily noted that it would amount to weak reasoning to carp that “outsiders” are responsible for the present condition of the country. The wisdom in this is that when the nation continues to bellyache that the foundation of its underdevelopment can be located in its colonial experience, it will lose

he made his move and announced his retirement. The conclave of cardinals got the news the same way as the rest of the world.

Nothing rehearsed, nothing scripted. Failing spiritual and physical strength, both reasons that could be overlooked in an 86 years old man, were his reasons.

He gave enough room for a successor to be elected by Easter nor did he stay back to influence the choice of a successor.

He chose his pontifical name, Benedict, in honour of St. Benedict and the Italian Pope Benedict XV who was pope in the period of the First World War. Well did he choose, for whereas Pope Benedict had the onerous task of uniting a world devastated by the First World War, Benedict XVI’s reign had a lot to contend with by way of sex scandals. Aside his mission to forge unity and peace between Christianity and Islam among other religions, his was a pontificate nearly marred by serious allegations of sexual misdemeanour against senior leaders of the Catholic Church.

This was very ironical for a pontiff who probably more than any other leader of the catholic Church fought to stamp out sexual misconduct among Catholic priests. One of such cases involved Keith O’Brien, the Archbishop of Scotland, who had to step down just three days before Pope Benedict left office and has now admitted to sexual misconduct. In his time as the pope, Benedict XVI tried to hold the Catholic Church together in the face of contending forces pulling it at the seams. Whether you agree with him or not, you cannot but admire the life and career of such as Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus, a leader and teacher of the Word whose life is a lesson in Christian humility.

the sense to think of the way out of the woods. Yet, colonialism is not exclusive to Nigeria. Other peoples who were even more ruthlessly colonised have since pulled off the burden and are today havens of unexampled human and material developments. The right leadership that can champion this cause and make things happen, he reasoned knowledgeably, is what the country must inexorably find.

Governor Aregbesola’s report on the achievements of his administration revealed to me a leader who knows what is amiss and works squarely to fix it. The kind of leadership he longs to see his country possess is exactly what he selflessly provides in Osun.

Within two years, he has achieved notable reforms in the educational and agricultural sectors of his state. Government is closer, more than ever before, to the people. Youth employment is aggressively pursued and public infrastructure is springing up – all in a state that could barely breathe owing to the suffocating debt it was burdened with by past selfish administration. With the zeal of an empathic leader, he is effectively rescuing majority of the citizens who had been hitherto suspended on the scaffold of penury, hunger, joblessness and insecurity.

Indeed, the “elephant” of Aregbesola merits more description than “I catch a glimpse of something”. When we see a performing and responsible political leader, we must be honest enough to admit that we have seen Governor Abdulrauf Adesoji Aregbesola! Much more, with that revealing lecture, Aregbesola has demonstrated the fact that, warts and all, the story of Nigeria is not all about a jinxed country, nay, a land held in the throes of avoidable misfortunes.

It is a relief to know that Nigeria has some thinking and responsible political leaders.

I encourage the Governor and those in his circle to hold the fort; they must not give up until a Nigeria of our desire is founded. *Mr. Morgan, wrote from Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

20—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Resolving theface-off between Obi and Victor Umeh

2013 budget and NASS magic IT beats the imagination of every Nigerian that the 2013 budget that was sent since October 2012 is yet to be signed into law. It’s most ridiculous and the much egotistic NASS doctored the budget as alleged therefore causing delay.

Why should the NASS pad the 2013 budget with N63billion to bring the final figure to N4.98trillion? This is unaccepatable; those involved should be prosecuted. Delay in implementation should not trigger another impeachment plot against Mr. President for financial inducement.

Nigerians and Nigeria Bar Association should be focused to shun NASS magic game on total implementation of the budget that has been sent to NASS for approval since October 2012.

Otugo 08067557715

Division in PDP

The problem with the PDP is that some members believe they are bigger than the party.

It will continue to be rocked

Gov. Peter Obi was very fond of Chief Victor Umeh during his first tenure and was much m o r e appreciative of his fine service to APGA

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refinements which come natural from good family background and a good education. Why the rift in APGA should linger for so long is what I cannot fathom.

Some traditional rulers from Anaocha Local Government, the home base of Gov. Obi and Chief Victor Umeh who sought to mediate between the governor and the APGA Chairman were told by Obi to wait until the fog clears. At Uga, during the burial of Senator Andy Uba’s

by crisis. It is a shame that the party which prides itself as being democratic lacks fairness and justice.

Johnson 08039220749

Division in PDP

The new generation of gladiators within the PDP

mother, both the governor and Chief Victor Umeh met and openly exchanged pleasantries to the surprise of every one around.

People have been speculating on who would succeed Governor Obi. Would APGA nominee have a chance without the rift being resolved? The occasional annoyance showed publicly on his face when the governor condemned the loose talking by some party men.

I do not accept the accusation of the governor’s critics that it was a long standing intention, planned and plotted in sinister fashion and cruel political disregard for the ambition of other political candidates. If he insists that his successor would come from Onitsha North Federal Constituency, I see nothing wrong with the idea because this policy is APGA’s alone. Other contesting political parties are free to choose from other constituencies who to contest on their party platforms.

Gov. Peter Obi was very fond of Chief Victor Umeh during his first tenure and was much more appreciative of his fine service

to the All Progressive Grand Alliance during these days than his detractors allege. Even during the yuletide season when Gov. Obi paid unscheduled visit to Chief Victor Umeh’s house at

Dear Sir, ERMIT me to use your me dium to comment on an interview Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, former Governor of Anambra State granted to a national daily in which he claimed that he has registered with the PDP. It is a big shame that people forget easily and pretend that Nigerians have incurable amnesia.

OUK by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is free to join any party of his choice but where such effort draws outcries from the people, it should be verified properly.

One of the reasons allegedly given by Abia PDP is that OUK is known for his high handedness and deafness to suggestions and so may lead the party astray.

In truth, Abia PDP can do

without OUK. They won elections in April 2011 and the party chieftains and stakeholders now speak with one voice under a solid umbrella. So what has OUK to offer?

Orji should have been acting like a statesman having governed Abia for eight years but he is not doing that. It is odd for him to sneak into a party through the back door, Abia needs peace and tranquility.

As somebody born and brought up in Aba, I can say without the fear of contradiction that the difference is clear.

Let Abia be. The collective interest of Abia people is far greater than Orji Uzor Kalu. A word is enough for the wise.

•Thompson Nwaogwugwu 28 St. Anthony Road Umungasi Aba

who opposed them lost out heavily. If sanity must return to the party, Aklhaji Bamanga Tukur should gird his loins for a long fight with these governors.

Joy 08077986629

without achieving anything.

Kunle writes in from Lagos

tion whenever elections approach. Why would they be in a hurry to have power return to their region? No matter their treat or schism, Jonathan should be bold enough to confront whatever battle is waged against him by these feudalists.

Solomon writes in via email

Ezekweseli and OBJ’s government

When a former minister in the alleged most corrupt administration in the history of democracy in this country comes out to sing praises of that government is worrisome and a cause for concern. The regime claimed to have for-

,

T

speeches, they did not occur frequently. The popular impression fostered by the media was that Chief Victor Umeh has been a good national party Chairman who has worked hard for his political party.

Gov. Peter Obi possesses the

,

Dear Sir, HE bitter disagreements between Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State and the Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, if unresolved, will adversely affect the fortunes of the party. Chief Victor Umeh’s efforts to lead personally and publicly has started turning sour while all his efforts to woo the media and project himself on television may have backfired.

The director of Gov. Peter Obi’s campaign organisation Chief Sylvia Nwobialor made open the disagreement when he listed the chairman’s flaws to the press without highlighting his virtues. The disagreement between the two allegedly arose from sharing political appointments soon after Gov. Obi won re-election.

Chief Victor Umeh’s list for political appointees was rejected and this did not go down well with him. Some newsmen used various ruses in an effort to get inside information from the party as to what really caused the disagreement but all to no avail.

Even radio broadcasters tried to get advance disclosures of what the government was or was not going to do. Though there were occasional leaks in advance of the governor ’s

The Northern governors are acting a script already written by those who actually wield political power in the region; their confrontational attitude towards Jonathan is not strange; they are doing everything possible to unsettle Jonathan so that he is not able to concentrate and do his job effectively

,

have one thing in common, their quest to control the machinery of government.

Electing people into the party’s Board of Trustees or into national office, the governors have always tried to be the bosses.

Party Chairmen such as Ali Ahmadu, Vincent Ogbulafor

Agulu Uzoigbo, after the governor attended a function in the town, Chief Umeh’s spirit picked up.

He Chief Umeh now controls his media, churning out press releases and allowing only carefully selected journalists to do interviews.. He is so selective about what questions he will answer unlike Gov. Obi who interacts with the media on nonstop basis.

•Mr. Cletus Okereke Political Analyst

eign reserve of N10 trillion.

Was OBJ elected to save money or to provide infrastructure? No wonder all infrastructure were abandoned.

No good road, no power supply, no petroleum among others. The list is endless, it is only a government without vision that accumulates money

OUK is not needed in PDP

P

Northerners battle Jonathan over 2015

If President Jonathan wishes to retain his position as the President of Nigeria in 2015, he must assert authority over his party members, including the governors.

He simply does not posses the charisma to effectively steer the affairs of the party.

He should learn from former President, Olusegun Obasanjo in this regard. If he fails to do so, he should just wave goodbye to the presidency.

Gbenga 08021584902

Still on the north's battle against Jonathan

It is so annoying that these Northern politicians would never allow a peaceful transi-

Still on northerners vs Jonathan over 2015 The Northern governors are acting a script already written by those who actually wield political power in the region. Their confrontational attitude towards Jonathan is not strange. They are doing everything possible to unsettle Jonathan so that he is not able to concentrate and do his job effectively.

Nike writes in from Kaduna

SAYINGS OF OUR ELDERS 1.The feathers on a fowl do not let one know that the fowl sometimes sweats.

Amarachi (08162271104), Ebonyi State.

Send us your Sayings of Our Elders. They must be African sayings or proverbs. Biblical or English proverbs are unacceptable. You will be paid N100.00 for every saying published. Address your sayings to: The Co-ordinator, Sayings of Our Elders,Vanguard Media Ltd., PMB 1007, Apapa,

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 21

Opposition mounts over Bill on establishment of CISI

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

O

PPOSITION against the proposed establishment of Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment, CISI, to replace the current Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, CIS, has continued to increase as more trade groups in the capital market are calling for quashing of the Bill.

The Bill, which seeks to replace the law that set up the CIS as well as bring other capital market operators under the supervision of CISI, is being sponsored by the former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Capital Market, Mr. Solomon Ganiyu, and would be up for hearing today.

The CFA Society Nigeria (CSN) had faulted the bill and asked the Senate Committee on Capital Market to reject it as drafted.

In a letter to the Senate Committee on Capital Market, the Association of Asset Custodians of Nigeria (AACN), said that the Bill was a violation of the constitutional freedom of association for all practitioners in the market to be forced to belong to an institute that is being sponsored by stockbrokers when they have nothing in common.

“The Bill if passed will make it an offence to operate in the market unless we belong to this institute being spon-

142.4

sored by a rival trade group.

No major stakeholder was consulted by the CIS in lobbying for this Bill that has significant implications for our survival and well being of the market. It violates the principle of fairness and fair play for a sub-set of the market to go behind everyone else and lobby for a Bill that would force everybody in the market to come under its own umbrella without any discussion or consultation with those it seeks to protect “Stockbrokers do not understand the market intricacies and challenges faced by the other trade groups who are specialists in their various

-0.25

0.15

110.41

+0.01

90.49

-0.19

CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL DOLLAR 154.75 POUNDS 232.4345 EURO 201.4226 FRANC 162.7234 YEN 1.6643 CFA 0.2907 WAUA 233.6674 RENMINBI 24.8677 RIYA 41.2645 KRONA 27.0103 SDR 234.4153

155.25 233.1855 202.0734 163.2492 1.6697 0.3007 234.4224 24.9485 41.3978 27.0976 235.1727

The group declared that with the criminal abuses that happened within the stockbroking community in 2008 and 2009, which led to some CIS members being bailed out by Federal Government, it was not aware of the institute investigating or delisting any of its members.

“We are therefore not convinced that the CIS has any moral or technical right to play the role of a model or super self-regulating organisation over other organisations operating in the capital market. On the basis of the above, we hereby wish to reiterate our opposition to this law”, the group declared.

•FROM RIGHT: Mr. Walter Drenth, Marketing Director, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Olu Jacobs, winner of Industry Merit Award, Mrs. Biola Alabi, Managing Director, M-NET Africa and Mr. John Ugbe, Managing Director, Multichoice Nigeria at the post event press conference of the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA) held in Lagos.

2,141.00 -3.00 18.06

fields. CIS will therefore not bring any value to these other bodies except to extract value by extorting compelled monopoly membership fees from them,” the group said.

AACN argued that in their general market interface, they often have opposing views, activities and motivations.

AACN added that they do not know of any country in the world where a chartered institute is the same as institute that licenses stockbrokers, trustees, investment bankers, fund managers, custodians, registrars, among others, noting that if we must pioneer that in Nigeria, it must be by consensus.

SELLING 155.75 233.9365 202.7242 163.775 1.6751 0.3107 235.1774 25.0293 41.5311 27.1848 235.9301

CBN Exchange rate as at 12/03/2013

Lagos targets N22bn monthly IGR …to prosecute tax defaulters soon

L

AGOS State Internal Revenue Serv ice, LIRS, has said it planned to rake in N22 billion per month as internally generated revenue, IGR, even as it said it would start prosecuting tax defaulters any moment now. Chairman of LIRS, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, spoke during the presentation of awards to artisans in the informal sector and Abibatu Mogaji.

According to Fowler, the IGR on the average, two years ago, when audited, was N17.5 billion per month while the target was at least N22 billion per month in line with the budget passed by the state House of Assembly.

According to him “In line with the budget passed by the House of Assembly, the target is to generate at least N22 billion per month. The IGR on the average, two years

ago, when they audited the account, was N17.5 billion per month. We are here today because the compliance rate in the market is close to 100 per cent.

“In the newspaper, we had published that we will prosecute the people who do not pay tax. That is a law that has been on but we have not enforced that law. But from this year, anyone who does not pay tax will be charged to court.

“The challenges that we face is that nobody wants to pay tax, not only in Nigeria but in the world all over. That is the major problem. But you can see what is happening to Lagos State, the governor is carrying out his vision and things are working.

We have good roads, good schools, we have good security and others. All these come from tax payers’ money.”

Be hard on s, bank fraudster s NDIC urge judges

T

HE Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has urged judges of the Federal High Court to be ‘hard on bank fraudsters’, so as to restore depositors’ confidence. Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, the Managing Director of the Corporation, made the call at a sensitisation seminar on “The Challenges to Deposit Insurance Law and Practice”, for judges.

Ibrahim said that the judges’ understanding was needed to abate the fraud in the banking system. He said that deliberate efforts should be geared towards quick dispensation of all pending liquidation-related cases.

Ibrahim said the corporation was faced with difficulties in the execution of court judgments. He said the corporation had a vulnerable funding base, as well as difficulties in recovering debt owed to failed banks by debtors.

According to Ibrahim, most of the problems stem from poor public awareness and inadequate legal framework.

“The Nigerian judiciary, legal practitioners and other esteemed stakeholders have important roles to play in ensuring that the mandate of the Corporation is realised.

As our partners and stakeholders, I urge you to use your good offices and privileged positions to ensure that the corporation is empowered to safeguard the Nigeria banking system.

In his opening address, Justice Ibrahim Auta, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, said the seminar was necessary to keep judges abreast of the operations of the NDIC, and the sustenance of the country’s economy.

“Acquiring such technical capacity will certainly enable us to make efficient, effective and informed decisions based on law for the interest of the nation’s economy,” Auta said. The court, which has exclusive jurisdiction over NDIC cases, handles the prosecution of directors and officers of banks suspected of banking malpractices.

22 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Standard Chartered grows income

by N3.1trn in 10 yrs

By PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU & NKIRUKA NNOROM

From Left: Director of Finance and Administration, Lagos State Ministry for Commerce and Industry, Mr Adisa Balogun, representing the Commissioner, (right) presenting certificate and award to the National Highest Volume buyer, Engr. Bashiru Abidemi Atinsola and his wife at the Lafarge WAPCO 2012 Customers’ Award Ceremony in Lagos. that 2012 was our tenth consecutive year of income and profit growth. Standard Chartered remains a growth story and we are sticking to our strategy, focusing on the basics of good banking, in markets we know well, with clients and customers with whom

we have deep relationships.

We are entering the new year with strong momentum in both of our businesses and the Board remains confident for the year ahead.”

Our strong momentum comes from a range of markets, across both Wholesale

Sterling Bank gives SUV to star prize winner

S

Enterprise Bank unveils Master Card prepaid

E

S

TANDARD Chartered Plc said its total group income has recorded 8 percent growth in its income which is N3.11trillion (US$19.07 billion) in 10 years of its operation .

The bank stated that the amount includes profit and dividend growth, while wholesale banking generated 8 per cent income growth which is US$11.78bn.

The company which has 26 markets delivering over US$100 million of income said the bank is increasingly generating income through more effective use of its network as trade grows strongly across its markets.

In 2012 over 50 per cent of client income in wholesale banking was generated outside of the home market country of our clients. At the same time, consumer banking is benefiting from a fast-growing middle class as these economies expand, said Chairman of Standard Chartered Sir. John Peace.

Peace went on to say, “the company is pleased to report

BRIEF:

TERLING Bank Plc at the weekend, gave out a brand new Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) to Miss Homa Amadi–Nna (Trans-Amadi Branch, Port Harcourt), the star prize winner in the lender’s just concluded Savers’ promo.

Speaking after taking possession of the SUV, she said that the bank has “by this gesture, delivered on its promises to its customers.” Winning the car according to Miss Amadi–Nna, came to her as a surprise. She advised customers of the bank and prospective ones to continue to bank with the lender “because there is reward for such loyalty.”

She said: “I am happy and overjoyed by this gesture. The bank has kept its promises. I market the bank to my friends, co-workers and family members. I will tell them that if they are loyal, they will receive good rewards from Sterling Bank.”

Sterling Bank’s Group Head, Retail Products, Gbenga Adegoke said Amadi– Nna was one of the nine outstanding winners that won special prizes in the course of the promo. Four customers won N500, 000 each while four other won N1 million. Also, 84 other customers won Home theatres and refrigerators as consolation prizes in the promo that started in May last year.

He said that as a retail bank, the lender

is committed to touching the lives and businesses of its customers in special ways as well as bringing the unbanked into the financial system.

Chief Finance Officer (CFO) of the bank, Abubakar Suleiman, said Sterling Bank is taking a long-term view of its customers, to ensure that they get the best out of every single transaction. He said the bank will continue to take steps that guarantee its service to its customers.

Suleiman said that the promo presents an opportunity for prospective customers to come and subscribe to the bank’s services by opening new accounts. He said that those customers that have been with the lender will always be remembered through quality services and tangible benefits such as the cash and gifts won during the promo.

Group Head, Bancassurance, John Akingbade said the promo has enhanced Sterling Bank balance sheet and substantially raised awareness on the need to bring the unbanked into the financial system. Head, Regulation and Monitoring, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Jude Ogaga said the body wants banks’ customers to have faith in savings promo. He said the process of conducting the promo is well regulated and is transparent.

and Consumer Banking. Africa and China performed particularly strongly. Our China business and Wholesale Banking in Africa have both reached US$1 billion of income for the first time. Income growth rates were also at least ten per cent in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the ‘Americas, UK and Europe’ region.

O

ur costs grew by 10 per cent, with normalised costs up 2 per cent. The number of employees has increased by around 2,200 over the course of the year and now have over 89,000 people worldwide. While maintaining a tight grip on costs, we continue to invest, increasing investment in infrastructure, in new branches and in technology to underpin our future growth.

Normalised earnings per share increased 14 per cent and dividend per share was up 10.5 per cent, with return on equity at 12.8 per cent, as the Group continues to deliver long-term value for shareholders.

We continue to focus on the basics of banking, growing clients’ businesses while maintaining our balance sheet strength. Customer deposits were up 10 per cent while customer assets grew by 6 per cent. The Group’s balance sheet is in excellent shape and we continue to be highly liquid, well capitalised and remain deposit funded. We continue to meet Basel III requirements with a Core Tier 1 capital ratio of 11.7 per cent.

NTERPRISE Bank cus tomers now enjoy additional convenience with the introduction of the dual purpose Enterprise Bank MasterCard Prepaid Card that is used locally and internationally. The new addition is a multi-purpose chip and pin debit card that can be pre-funded with cash. The card can then be used to effect cashless payments (like a bank debit card) on the internet, Point of Sale (POS) terminals and cash from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

A statement from the bank said that the unique benefits of the card, which is open to both customers and non-customers of the bank alike is that the individual would have no need to open or have a bank account in order to have the prepaid card.

The card, which can be pre-funded in Naira or USD denominations, is ideal for students, corporate accounts (expense cards, estacode, and corporate travel) and travel cards among others.

The card, the bank added, also eliminates the burden of carrying large sums of money around just as it allows its holders to spend more than their approved daily spend limits since both the Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA) are loadable on the prepaid card. With the product, the statement further affirmed that holders of the Mastercard prepaid do not need to carry huge amounts in foreign currencies for foreign trips because money loaded in the card is already available, secure, safe and can be used anywhere in the world.

The bank said that the process of acquiring the card is simple. Customers can collect e-Business Application forms from any branch of Enterprise Bank nationwide and submit completed ones with required documents.

Once this is perfected, the individual will collect the card on the spot and in addition, receive a welcome letter and a user manual, which guides effective usage of the card.

With this development, Enterprise Bank continues to play a key role in advancing the implementation of the cash-lite policy as part of the effort to be the bank of choice to all Nigerians.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 23

DIARY Select ICT events

EDITED by Adekunle Adekoya

lFESPA Brasil 2013. Holds 13-16 Mar 2013 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

,

lEnterprise Connect 2013. Holds 1821 Mar 2013 in Orlando, USA. lGDC 2013. Holds 25-29 Mar 2013 in San Francisco, USA. lconhIT 2013. Holds 9-11 Apr 2013 in Berlin, Germany. lProlight + Sound 2013. Holds 10-13 FORUM: The Nigerian Communications Commission last wek convened a stakeholders' forum on auction of the 30 MHz band on the 2.3GHz spectrum. Above at the occasion, from left are Deputy MD of Apr 2013 in Frankfurt, Huawei Nigeria, Adam Jiang, COO of Spectranet, Atul Ojha, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder ManGermany. agement of NCC, Mr Okechukwu Itanyi, Qualcomm's Govt Affairs Director, Dr. Bienvenu Agbokponto

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Preview

New inventions shaping life and living

Airwriting glove tranforms gestures into text

Mode of planned auction of 2.3GHz slots unfair —

Spectranet, Mobitel, DoPC

A

I N S I D E C M Y K

Siglo, and Head, Spectrum Administration of NCC, Mr Austin Nwaulune. Photo: Emeka Aginam.

BY EMEKA AGINAM

Write your text messages in the air with the “airwriting” glove—a system able to decipher letters drawn in the air and covert them to digital text.

Integrated accelerometers and gyroscopes detect hand movement, transmitting the data wirelessly to a computer’s pattern recognition software. The software determines if the user is actually air-writing (instead of cooking of playing air guitar) and then identifies the individual letters using statistical models. The system has an error rate of 11 percent, but that rate will drop as it recognizes an individual’s unique airwriting style.

Insecurity and the telecoms sector

NCC should allocate the 30MHz of the remaining slot to the three existing operators. Our regulator should not multiply the misery in the segment of the IT industry. We cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong

T the just con cluded stake holders’ forum on the best option for licensing the remaining slot on the 2.3GHz band held last week in Lagos, major internet service providers in the country including Mobitel, Spectranet and Multi-Links who rejected the plan by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to auction the 2.3GHz frequency band most commonly used for broadband wireless commercial service delivery said it was unfair competition.

The regulatory authority, NCC had invited operators to express their views on auctioning of 30 MHz Bandwidth in 2.3 GHz spectrum and allocating total guard band of 10 MHz for inter-operator and inter-band separation. Meanwhile, NCC had in advertisement categor-

ically announced to auction 1x30 MHz to one new operator.

However, the operators pointed out that licensing another operator on 2.3GHz will not be in the interest of the country.

Although Mobitel, Spectranet and DoPC are already sitting on 20MHz each of the 2.3GHz band, leaving 40MHz open for licensing, majority of the operators further argued that technical and operational problems which are inherent in the Nigerian market would not justify any plan to auction the available 40MHz to a fourth operator. Accordingly, Qalcomm and Huawei in their input noted

that there are alternative frequency planning schemes that may help service providers to optimize the available frequency resources.

In his presentation on behalf of Mobitel, Spectratnet and DoPC, Atul Ojiha, chief operating officer, Spectranet without mincing words told NCC to allot 10MHz extra each to the three existing operators that had expressed willingness to negotiate and pay for the additional spectrum frequency. He told the gathering that using 10 MHz to provide for 5 Guard bands has no meaning as each Guard band will be 2 MHz. According to him, end of 2.3

GHz band would require larger guard band due to uncontrolled emissions in 2.4 GHz.

Unfair competition He further argued that the proposed sale of 30 MHz to one prospective bidder compared to 20 MHz to the existing operators was totally unfair and lessens the competition, adding that the communication regulations do not allow undue advantage and lessening of competition.

“One operator has extra infrastructure like International Carrier’s license, as well as metro & national long distance fiber owner

Uneven frequency allocation between GSM & CDMA played a vital role for CDMA operators' failure, though there are other additional reasons

‘Many African nations have challenges of connecting the unconnected’

CPN okays accreditation of UNILAG, others

ship leading to cross subsidy on ISP business creating unfair competitive advantages. Uneven frequency allocation between GSM & CDMA played a vital role for CDMA operator’s failure, though there are other additional reasons. It is safe to assume that all future spectrum allocations shall provide the adequate guard band.This will lead to uneven playing field in data access network,” he said.

Operators' suggestion While additional spectrum allocations is immediate requirement to cope with interference & throughput, the operators according to Ojiha suggested that 2.3GHz Spectrum should be increased from 20 MHz to 30 MHz for existing three operators, adding that guard band of 10 MHz between 2.3GHz

Continues on page 25

MTN releases 2012 operating results, says 2012 was challenging in Nigeria

24 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Insecurity and the telecoms sector

T

O say that Nigeria attendant loss of foreign has a security co- exchange revenue, and nundrum might be beg- divestment by the oil ging the issue; the point majors. That seems to is that since the civil war have abated now with was fought and won more the amnesty deal of late than 40 years ago, Nige- president, Alhaji Umar rians have never been Musa Yar ’Adua.

Now, what is glaring is under threat as much as that entire sections of the now.

Daily, the media is re- country are getting cut plete with reports of kill- off daily as armed groups ings and bombings in unleash mayhem on virtually all parts of the communities. In many of country; it’s just that such, telecommunicathere are more of one tions facilities were first kind of person-on-per- vandalized, ostensibly to son, group-on-group vi- prevent victims from olence in one part of the calling for help while their atcountry tackers than in Some Nigeriperpetrate others. ans are fully a bloodIf the sitst bath unuation in in the 21 hindered.

Mali is century, while What is factored worrisome in, it is others, as a about the fearsome result of inseentire unwhat the curity, remain savoury situation scenario is in the Sulocked in the that telcos dan and analog portals can no S a h e l longer get parts of of the midreturns on Nigeria is 20th century their inturning vestments into, with in the afdire implications for the Guinea fected areas, as it has belt and the tropical for- become too life-threatening to attempt to restore est areas.

When the civil war end- vandalized facilities. ed, Nigerians came face Besides, telcos are payto face with the spectre ing rentals on lines that of armed robbery, and cannot be used.

Worse than this is the over the years, it has come to be accepted as plight of the peoples of part of normal life here. Nigeria so cut As bad governance also off,probably countable in became accepted, vari- millions. It also means a ous forms of person-to- lot of people can not acperson, person-to- cess the internet, meangroup, and group-to- ing that these peoples group violence equally are shut out to lifebecame the norm. This changing opportunities over the years led to the available on the web. In rise of ethnic militias that one breath, some Nigeoperated above the law- rians are effectively on enforcement agencies in the information supermany instances. highway, fully in the 21st Now, we seem to have century, while others, as arrived at that crucial a result of insecurity, renexus where we must main locked in the anatake a stand between the log portals of the midwave of insecurity and 20th century. the survivalist need to Very few Nigerians sleep with two eyes know what is going on in closed, something that the oil industry; but we is becoming very risky can access the benefits of here. the telecoms sector, One equally risky de- which has lifted Nigeria velopment is the threat several notches upwards posed to the telecoms in just one decade. sector by the insecurity This is a clarion call on wave. When militants all Nigerians, in and out held the oil sector to ran- of government to do all som by unleashing a that is humanly possible wave of bombings and to arrest this fearsome kidnappings, the result situation; it has the cawas decline in national pability of sending all of crude oil production with us back to the stone age.

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C M Y K

3D printing pioneer MakerBot is on a mission to make it easier and more affordable to create all sorts of objects, one extruded layer at a time. But being able to print in three dimensions isn't worth too much right now if you don't have some pretty serious CAD skills or access to the printable data you need to render the object you want.

MakerBot founder Bre Pettis kicked off the first day of the South By Southwest Interactive festival (SXSW) running from March 8-17 in Austin, Texas, by introducing one possible solution to this chicken or the egg dilemma – a desktop 3D scanner dubbed the MakerBot Digitizer.

“It’s a natural progression for us to create a product that makes 3D printing even easier.

With the MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner, now everyone will be able to scan a physical item, digitize it, and print it in 3D – with little or no design experience," said Pettis.

At this point the Digitizer is just a prototype that uses lasers and cameras to scan the physical form of an object and convert it

3-D printing: Makerbot out with scanner for consumers

into a printable digital file.

There's few other details regarding specs, pricing or release date for the Digitizer, but Pettis said it would allow "everyone" to be able to scan a physical object,

seemingly implying that it would be much more inexpensive than currently available commercial 3D printers, which cost much more than the companion MakerBot 3D printer, the Replicator, which

costs less than US$2,000.

MakerBot has setup a sign up page for 3D scanning early adopters to get in line for when the Digitizer becomes available. Source: MakerBot

CPN okays accreditation of UNILAG, others

BY EMEKA AGINAM

A

FTER accreditation visits to private and public Computer Training institutions across the nation in order to ensure quality control assurance in IT education , the Computer Professionals (Registration Council of Nigeria) (CPN) at the end of its 65th regular Council meeting held recently in Lagos approved the results of accreditation teams to three Universities as well as two private computer training schools.

The Head, Media, Communication and Brand Management of the Council Amoo Taofeek Akanni in a statement disclosed that the accredited Universities will include, University of Lagos, Lagos State University and Obafemi Awolowo University while the private Computer Training Schools will also include Software Technology Park Limited, Abuja and Meridian Technologies Limited, Maryland, Lagos, both franchisee of APTECH. The CPN accreditation of academic programmes, he said was a detailed appraisal of public and private computer training institutions in Nigeria for a level of performance, integrity and quality which entitles them to the

confidence of the educational community, employers of labour and the general public. He said that the accreditation panels were made up of seasoned academics and top industry practitioners, among who were Prof. J. O. A. Ayeni who headed the accreditation panel to Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof Enoch O. Nwachukwu headed the team that visited the University of Lagos while Professor Rotimi Adagunodo led the team to the Lagos State University.

He said that Dr. Peter Olayiwola led the team that visited Software Technology Park Limited,

Abuja while Professor Sylvanus Anigbogu headed the team that went to Meridian Technologies Limited, Maryland, Lagos. “The panels examined thoroughly the academic programmes, facilities, faculties, among available in all the institutions visited and thereafter submitted their reports to Council based on their findings therein. Accordingly, the Council thereafter examined the reports, deliberated on it and thereafter approved it at its meeting of Thursday 13th of December, 2013” he explained.

The Obafemi Awolowo University and Universi-

ty of Lagos, he said got full accreditation while Lagos State University was awarded an interim accreditation.

Software Technology Park Limited, Abuja and the Meridian Technologies Limited, Maryland, Lagos he said were awarded an interim accreditation.

For schools given interim accreditation; he said that the minor deficiencies noticed by the accreditation team are expected to be corrected within the next two years when another team will be sent to inspect the level of compliance with Council’s standards.

DRAW: From left, Mr Seyi Olowookere, Deputy Head Credit, Rosabon Financial Services, Star Prize winner, Awoniyi Olanrewaju and Head, Credit RFS, Mr Anikwue Isikwe during the presentation of prizes to winners in the Rosabon Win-BigMonthly Investment Note raffle draw in Lagos.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 25

Mode of planned 2.3GHz auction unfair

MTN releases 2012 operating results, says 2012 was challenging in Nigeria

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

er revenue streams. With Group weighted mobile penetration just over 70%, and people penetration below 60%, we still expect to see continued growth in voice revenue over the medium term.

M

Challenges

Reacting to the negative impact of Nigeria operations, MTN Nigeria’s Corporate Services Executive, Mr Akinwale Goodluck, admitted that the Nigerian operation experienced a challenging first half of 2012 mainly due to aggressive price competition driven by bonuses on recharge, freebies and other promotional activities. He also admitted that following significant capital expenditure, the network quality improved during the second half of 2012, adding that together with new value propositions, this enabled MTN Nigeria to regain some market share.

The total subscriber base increased by 13.9% to 47,4 million even though market share was down 2,5% to 47,5% for the year.

The report indicated that total revenue in Naira in 2012 was flat compared to the prior year notwithstanding the increase in subscribers. Reported revenue in rand was positively impacted by the relatively weak rand rate against the naira, with the average naira/rand exchange rate 10.66% stronger over the year.

Revenue in rand grew by 10.9% to R38,7 billion compared to R34,8 billion in 2011.

The EBITDA margin however dropped by 3,4 percentage points to 58,3%, mainly because of flat revenue and higher operating costs. The operating environment was characterised by the decline in the effective tariff, the increase in promotional free minutes and an increase in interconnect costs, driven by an inC M Y K

Data and related services

 Akinwale Goodluck

,

TN Group at the weekend released the results for its year ended 31 December 2012 business activities, saying that Nigeria operations will account for more than forty per cent of group capital expenditure (CAPEX) in 2013.

The company however said that notwithstanding significant challenges, the result reflected solid progress in growing subscribers, revenue and EBITDA. It noted that the year was characterised by the continued global economic slowdown, increasingly competitive mobile markets as well as regulatory and political challenges.

MTN Mobile Money has also started to gain traction and we expect to see a much improved contribution in 2013 crease in off-network traffic.

Data revenue (excluding SMS) increased by 111,6% (247,8%) in naira supported by the availability of affordable dataenabled devices (both GPRS and 3G). During the year a total of 3,8 million smartphones and 201k dongles were active on the network. This was achieved through partnerships with independent device resellers, free SIM cards, and data bundle offers, as well as the refitting of service centres to make them device oriented.

MTN Nigeria also saw strong growth in Blackberry subscriber revenues.

During 2012, capital expenditure of R13 733 million was capitalised.

MTN Nigeria rolled out 1 414 2G sites and 1 175 3G co-located sites and

successfully implemented a large network swap and modernisation programme.

It could be recalled that the regulator imposed fines during the year on the four GSM operators for poor quality of service.

These fines were subsequently paid and more realistic key performance indicators were negotiated with the regulator. But Goodluck noted that the fine paid by MTN Nigeria was not part of the reason the operation’s earnings dropped.

Prospects

In outlining its prospects, the Group said that after a challenging 2012, it was well positioned for 2013. “We expect to deliver continued organic growth in both revenue and EBITDA and anticipate reaching the milestone of 200 million subscribers by mid-year. The recovery in the performance of our key Nigerian operation is expected to continue throughout 2013.

This together with a lower tax rate and the benefits of the substantial network investment made in 2012 across all operations, which is to be continued in 2013, is likely to support growth in reported earnings in 2013. We continue to explore value accretive M&A activities.

Voice

Over the past year, billed traffic volumes increased 24,6% while voice revenue grew 4,0% on a constant currency basis as tariffs continued to decline.

Voice revenues now account for 63,0% of total revenue, down from 65,2% in the prior year due to the relative growth of oth-

Growth in our data and related service revenue remains a key focus for the Group, with this expected to be an important revenue driver as the rate of increase in voice penetration slows and competition intensifies.

In 2012, data was a strong performer, with data revenues *58,5% (80,0%) higher and data traffic on MTN’s network 65,9% higher at 30 521 TB. While South Africa remains the main driver of data revenue, contributing 43,9% of the total, the *111,6% (247,8%) local currency (“LC”) growth in Nigeria highlights the growing contribution from data across operations. MTN Mobile Money has also started to gain traction and we expect to see a much improved contribution in 2013.

ICT evolution

Towards the end of 2012, we concluded the integration of the South African MTN Business function into MTN South Africa. This will allow for a more holistic solution offering to our clients, designed to improve efficiencies and deliver consistent quality. We continue to focus on integrating our broader ICT business across all markets and our ongoing infrastructure investment will allow us to leverage our key products and services across the MTN footprint.

Revenue

Groupnoted that revenues increased 10,9% to R135 112 million, supported by solid organic growth in South Africa (+7,1%) and although Nigeria had a difficult year **(-0,8%) a number of operations continue to outperform with strong** organic revenue growth: Iran (+26,1%), Ghana (+21,3%), Uganda (+16,2%), Sudan (+28,3%) and Ivory Coast (+17,0%). Group data revenue increased *58,5% and was an important driver of total revenue growth.

Continues from Page 23 and 2.4GHz should be provided.

“Existing operators should adjust TDD ratio synchronization, provided the allocation is increases from 20 MHz to 30 MHz to manage throughput degradation and interference,” he said.

Agreeing with Ojiha, the Managing Director of Swift Networks, Charles Anudu, said that rather than complicating the challenges among ISPs by licensing a fourth operator on the 2.3GHz, the NCC should allocate the 30MHz of the remaining slot to the three existing operators.

“Our regulator should not multiply the misery in the segment of the IT ind u s t r y.

We cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

The more we continue to fragment the segment, the more miserable we will become,” he said.

Similarly, Mobitel CEO, Mr. Johnson Salako while warning on the implication of auctioning additional slot on the band to a new operator, noted that it would compound the problems of the current operators.

“The 2.3GHz spectrum is not the only spectrum that can be used for

broadband service. The NCC has said it will be licensing the 2.5GHz spectrum, which means that there are huge opportunities for anybody who requires spectrum, ” he explained.

Participatory regulation The EVC of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah had in his opening remarks said that the forum was in line with the commission’s policy of participatory regulation. Juwah who was represented by Okechukwu Itanyi , NCC’s Executive Commissioner , Stakeholder Management said that with global development centred on availability of broadband services, the Commission on a regular basis inundated with several requests for frequencies to deliver the services. This has posed severe challenges as the frequencies sought for are scarce.

“In no distant future, the industry predicts the development and indeed deployment of more spectral efficient technologies that would be able to deliver more with less Frequency Spectrum and also improve on interference mitigation techniques available for a harmonious and interference free coexistence” he said.

Eventsrail launches mobile site for e-registration, ticketing via API

BY EMEKA AGINAM

O

NE of the pioneers of online registration and ticketing services in Nigeria and the first to directly integrate Mastercard, Verve and Visa card payment solutions, Evenstrail Limited, has launched mobile website that enable events organizers to sell tickets on their own website via Application Programming Interface., (API) This solution, according to the Nnamdi Anyanwu, co-founder and CTO of Eventsrail makes events registration and ticketing available on all Mobile Phones.

The solution also enable events organizers to sell tickets on their own website via Application Programming Interface.

“Event goers and attendees can easily purchase tickets to events using their mobile phones in a user-friendly manner. Using Eventsrail API, event organizers can create events and sell tickets directly on

their own websites and blogs which helps to drive traffic to their own websites, blogs and also adds to their brand equity” he said.

According to him, some of the advantages of using the product will include , one-time easy Signup via Facebook & Gmail, the ability to accept Mastercard, Verve & Visa Debit cards directly instead of going through third party, Barcoded Tickets for easy Verification & Admittance, easy Promotion on Facebook, Twitter and G+, ability to Embed Youtube Movie on your event page, Increase brand awareness and drive more traffic to your website, Send and receive automated Event Reminders, Scanning and Entry Management , Rich Reporting & Analytics among others.

On security of the platform, he said that eventsrail.com is one of the most secure platforms to perform transactions on; adding “ we take security very serious and customer experience even more serious”.

26 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

MTech launches Vibe Chat

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‘Many African nations have challenges of connecting the unconnected’ C

ISCO Systems, a transnational player in the ICT sector last week in Sun City, North-West Province of South Africa held its 2013 Expo, at which ICT journalists from the company's Africa operations were present. After a presentation, David Meads, Managing Director of Cisco Africa granted an interview to select journalists, in the course of which he said many African nations have challenges of connecting the unconnected. ADEKUNLE ADEKOYA was there. Excerpts:

,

ELL us more about Cisco's "Internet of things, internet of everything," in the context of infrastructural challenges in the emerging markets you operate in.

That is a very good question. The internet is something I would want to talk about. Let my say that my job, as MD Cisco Africa, is to appoint a country manager for Nigeria. Fundamentally there are arguably many countries in Africa where they have more challenges in terms of connecting the unconnected before they start talking about the internet of things and everything. I think it has a way in Africa, but it is probably some years away before it becomes more relevant. When you take somewhere like Nigeria, which is the greatest country in Africa, I think you have a very innovative and emerging ICT sector in Africa we talked about in in the conference. You have a number of national and multinational ICT operators who are harvesting in infrastructure in Africa. I met with Mrs Johnson, your Communications & Technology minister. I think she is a fantastic entrepreneur who has done and is doing a great job with her organization . I met with her, I think in the latter part of last year.

The biggest challenge she' s got, and many other operators like her is connectivity. This is the biggest challenge they are facing now.

Cisco now more relevant to GSM firms

Candidly, two years ago CISCO was not particularly too relevant to a mobile operating customer; they were into radio technology. When you look now, we are much more relevant to mobile companies than we ever were before and that is because IP is moving out to the edge of the network. One of the places we are seeing a lot of C M Y K

attraction in Africa is in the space of SPYY. Lots of operators got 3G networks in populated areas; they have a challenge to manage the traffic going on in the network .

3G offloads using SPYY technology .we have develop a world leading SPYY technology .you can be roaming into an area with the SPY file and seamlessly transfer, you don’t have to log in.

The use of SPY is much more affordable technology for mobile operators to be deploying because you can reach a wider population, it being cheaper.

More out of the customer

There is a lot more intelligence you can get to the consumer and then out of the consumer. The biggest challenges operators get is how to monetize the network. You can invest huge amounts of money into it but you need to increase the ARPU. The ability to do that over an IP network using some of the soft-

,

T

mands, ability to connect to anyone in and around Africa regardless of network operator, location or handset model and its SMS based mode of communication which does not require internet enabled phones or internet charges.

For now, the service is available in Nigeria on the Etisalat network. Subscribers in Nigeria can also connect to subscribers in other East and West African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Tanzania. To connect, all a user has to do is text VIBECHAT from his/her mobile phone to register, and he/she is linked up with several other users around Africa.

NigComSat seals deal with was launched on DecemNewtec ber 19, 2011 in Xichang,

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

David Meads, Managing Director, Cisco Africa customers adjusting there challenges A lot more spectrum will be available in 2015 when ITU switches off analog signals. What challenges and opportunities do you see for Cisco Systems?

I see more opportunities than challenges. If I am sitting here as an operator which I am not, I see lots of opportunity. if I am sitting here as a government minister or governor then I would have lots of challenges because the operators won't have access to the new spectrum so that they can start to roll out high speed services. The governments obviously want to do two things: they want to balance the revenue generating op-

The biggest challenge is neither Lagos, Johannesburg nor Cairo. The biggest challenge is the area that has more connectivity

ware we recently developed and acquired into our portfolio technologies. I was in Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week and I have never seen CISCO stand so busy as it was then. Two years ago we were not as relevant as we are now. The question now is where is the biggest challenge? The biggest challenge is neither Lagos, Johannesburg , or Cairo. The biggest challenge is the area that has more connectivity and I think we are much more relevant and able to help our

Tech Communica tions, pioneers of the Nigerian mobile value added services market in telecoms, has come out with another product, a Pan African SMS-based chat service called Vibe Chat.

Vibe Chat enables mobile subscribers across Africa to connect, using its low cost SMS model. The service, available in most parts of Africa, enables users to make new friends outside of Nigeria regardless of network, handset or location just by texting on their mobile phones.

Its many advantages include but are not limited to; low charging rate per SMS, user friendly and easy to remember com-

portunity to them in auctioning, they also want make sure they are not selling to all of the operators to the same market which is the heavily populated market which actually have got money to spend. The biggest challenge of the ICT is that of how do you accelerate those new services faster? With new technologies how do you make sure your operators invest in the rural areas? So it is a challenge for government to negotiate with the operators what they would do with the spectrum. My plan starts with appoint-

ing a country manager for Nigeria; I don’t have a country manager for now.

We use to have somebody who is non-Nigerian.

Country manager for Nigeria

My number one priority is to employ a country manager for Nigeria. We have top ten talents inside the company and I am looking at the CISCO staff based in Lagos and I am also looking at a better opportunity of doing an external search and bringing somebody new into CISCO. I hope by next two to three months I will have that position appointed and filed any or whether they may not be on board for two to three months. Once we have a country manager in place we will then invest our money and time and marketing on it to help raise the visibility profile around that individual, we will also balance the investment in terms of what the market opportunity and to what degree can we justify investment ahead of the market. We have great facilities in Victoria Island- Lagos, we also have a great team, we intend to bring in one or two people to help on the engineering side. But my number one priority is to employ a country general manager and I will be delighted in two or three months to share it with you at the moment I must say is 50/50 whether we will take some great talent we have within the business helping them grow but I have high expectation in the market in Nigeria. I expect us to grow very well in the next two to five years.

A

PPARENTLY trying to contribute its own quota to the quest of boosting broadband service penetration in the country, the Nigerian Communications Satellite, NigComSat Limited has sealed a partnership deal with Newtec of Belgium for Ka-broadband services.

Hi-Tech gathered that the Newtec deal with NIGCOMSAT LTD was sealed after series of meetings between Newtec Chief Executive, Serge Van Herck and his NigComSat counterpart, Engr.

Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai.

A joint statement by both CEOs said Newtech would provide a Ka broadband platform including terminals to offer Business-to-Business, B2B and B2C broadband services. The broadband platform will enable optimal and cost effect voice, data, video, Internet service solution over Nigeria via the NigComSat-1R satellite. The services will ride on NigComSat 1R, which

China. NigComSat 1R has quad bands of C, Ka, Ku and L. Excited Ahmed-Rufai said that the deal will enable “High speed and reliable Internet which will transform the economy and lead to more and better opportunities for many individuals. In 2011 we successfully put our high throughput satellite in the sky and l am pleased to welcome now our new technology partner Newtec. We decided to teamup with Newtec because of its track record of delivering reliable, fast and easy to use solutions at an affordable cost”.

For the Newtech CEO, “l am delighted to say that our new Ka-band technology will help to close the digital divide in Nigeria by using the latest broadband technologies to achieve the highest broadband experience and availability. The selfinstallation capability and the optimized packaging of our complete Ka-band terminals will allow NIGCOMSAT LTD to minimize the logistic and installation costs”.

LASG, BlackBerry to build apps lab in Lagos

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

B

LACKBERRY and the Lagos State Innovation Advisory Council have teamed up, and last week signed a Letter of Intent outlining their intention to build a BlackBerry Apps Lab in Lagos.

According to Blackberry’s Managing Director West, East and Central Africa, Waldi Wepener “With over 250 Nigerian developed applications already available on the next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform, Nigeria’s software development community is clearly demonstrating impressive

growth and innovation.

Following a series of BlackBerry developer events and local partnerships in Nigeria, our commitment to build an apps lab in Lagos is a clear demonstration of our long term approach to support the development of a sustainable ecosystem in Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, Gov Babatunde Raji Fashola, of Lagos State said that “innovation is at the heart of our approach to developing Lagos into a Mega City. We are very pleased BlackBerry has chosen Lagos State as a partner.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 27

C M Y K

28—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13,, 2013

Okemiri sure of Nigeria’s FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification

N

ational Beach Soccer team player, Ogbonnaya Okemiri, has expressed confidence that the team would qualify for the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Tahiti.

Okemiri said in Lagos that the African regional qualifiers for the championship would hold from April 10 to April 14 in Casablanca, Morocco.

He added that the World Cup would hold between Sept. 18 and Sept. 28 in Tahiti, a French island colony in the southern Pacific Ocean.

The player said he was confident because the country had formidable players that could qualify the nation for the World Cup. “I strongly believe my team mates and we will qualify from the African regional qualifiers to represent the country at the World Cup,” he said.

According to him, the team would build on its success at the last Copa Lagos competition to ensure its qualification for the World Cup from the African qualifiers.

“Our performance at the last Copa Lagos tournament will spur us to ensure qualification for the World Cup,” Okemiri said.

He added that after its qualification, the team would embark on a series of friendlies, overseas training and matches, ahead of the World Cup tournament.

Okemiri, however, urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to give all necessary support to the team to ensure its qualification.

•Super Eagles

Fly over Kenya Taribo tells Eagles .Says it’s tougher to win a shirt

•Keshi

under the ‘Big Boss’

•Taribo

•Okemiri

F

BY SOLOMON NWOKE

ormer Super Eagles defender, Taribo West has hailed the combination of home and foreign based players invited by coach Stephen Keshi ahead of 2014 World Cup qualifier against Harambee Stars of Kenya on March 23rd in Calabar.

The former Inter Milan FC defence ace said in a telephone chat with Sports Vanguard Midweek Sports Xtra that Eagles, as African champions need to prove their mettle against Kenya.

West said the Harambee Stars are not going to be an easy pie for the Eagles, given the fact that we were in the same group in the last World Cup qualification series. We are not going to be strangers to them, adding they (Kenyans) are coming here to give us a ‘fight’.

“The truth is that the combination of home and foreign based professionals invited by coach Stephen Keshi is very nice. It C M Y K

is good because it has engendered tough for shirts among the players. Right now wins a shirt, he knows that he won it o will make the team very solid and f represent the country and continent as Africa. I am very happy with that kind o camping”, he said.

The Atlanta ’96 Olympic soccer winn said, just like the Eagles, the Kenyans ambition to feature at the World Cup in “Kenya for the past three to four yea rebuilding and I think they almost qu last African Cup of Nations. So they wa World Cup and they are not going to b for Eagles the way they were last time. Th here to make sure they cause trouble for why Eagles need to fly over them here.

“We have to beat them convincingly Cup qualifier even with all their ar becoming the African Champions, Eagle team to beat and as African Champion have a solid team worthy of standing ta World Cup qualifier and I hope Keshi is Our players need to show more commitm is ensuring that they do just that and by come that day March 23rd, Nigeria wil Keshi knows what to do, a man that ha Cup of Nations what else will anyone t than maintaining a winning team that wil and always do their best for Nigeria and

a...

er competition when a player on merit. That formidable to champions of of competitive

ning defender also have the Brazil 2014. ars have been alified for the nt to be at the e an easy ride hey are coming r us and that is

in this World rsenals. After es are now the ns we need to all in the 2014 aware of that. ment and Keshi y God’s grace ll beat Kenya. as won African tell him rather ll be consistent d Africa”.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, MARCH 13,, 2013— 29

Malaga ready to host Porto

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alaga are ready to welcome FC Porto in the second leg of the Champions League tonight at the Estadio La Rosaleda .

The first match ended 1-0 in favour of the 2004 winners after a controversial goal by Joao Moutinho.

The Champions League debutants will be hoping to turn around the deficit at home as they feel they were hard done at the Estádio do Dragão.

Despite strong appeals from Malaga players after television replays showed Moutinho was offside when the goal was given.

In an attempt to seek for inspiration, the Andalusian club they have used medieval imagery in a promotional video for their Champions League last-16 second leg at home to Porto.

Goalkeeper Willy Caballero carries a shield, defender Jesus Gamez the club colours, and forward Julio Baptista hammers out a Malaga crest in a fiery forge, while the strapline

•Moutinho •Arsenal players celebrating a goal

Wenger reveals how Arsenal will stun Bayern challenges fans: “We are ready.

Are you?”

There is a sense of optimism at the club ahead of the Porto clash.

“We are at home, in front of our own fans and we have to make the most of it,” Malaga’s Porto -born midfielder Duda said. ”The players, the staff and everyone else knows this is the most important game in Malaga’s history.”

Unlike their opponents who were victorious in their domestic league, Malaga played to a 1-1 draw away to Real Valladolid on Saturday.

Beckenbauer wants Rooney at Bayern F

ranz Beckenbauer says he would love Bayern Munich to sign Wayne Rooney.

Speculation surrounding the Manchester United forward’s future has been rife ever since he was left out of the starting line-up by Sir Alex Ferguson for the Red Devils’ Champions League quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid and, as exclusively revealed by Goal.com, the •Rooney striker has told team-mates that he could leave in the summer. The Bundesliga outfit’s honorary president has been a long-term admirer of Rooney, once describing him as ‘one of the world’s greatest players’. ”I would be very happy for Wayne Rooney to come to Bayern,” the German World Cup-winning captain told reporters. Pep Guardiola is set to take over the reins at the Allianz Arena next season and is likely to be given a substantial transfer budget to improve his already formidable squad.

A

rsenal manager Arsene Wenger has issued a rallying call to his players as they prepare for the daunting task of overturning a 3-1 deficit against Bayern Munich tonight.

The Gunners will need to score at least three goals in Munich to have any hope of going through to the quarter-finals, but Wenger insists it is not impossible.

The Frenchman believes that with the right attitude and a strong start, Arsenal could unsettle the Bundesliga giants and cause them problems.

“It is not mission impossible,” he told Arsenal’s official website. “It can be done, but first of all you need 100 per cent commitment, attitude and things to go your way.

“But usually football goes your way when you have the right attitude.

“There is a kind of [feeling of] ‘let’s really play with freedom’. Let’s start strong. We have to create doubt in their mind and you only do that if you have a real go.

“The chance you have is to [make] insecure the certainty Bayern have at the moment. That you can only do if you perform at your best.

“We can have a real go without being silly. We can’t think that the game lasts 30 minutes and throw everything forward •Wenger from the first minute on.

We want to be positive but also intelligent.”

Wilshere ruled out until April

J

ack Wilshere has been ruled out until at least April with an inflamed ankle, meaning that he will miss England’s World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Montenegro, as well as Arsenal’s Champions League tie against Bayern Munich today.

Wilshere was previously sidelined for 17 months following a stress fracture to his ankle that eventually required surgery but this most recent injury is to the other ankle and Arsenal are hopeful that he will recover with three weeks’ rest.

“Jack Wilshere is out of the Munich game,” said Arsène Wenger, •Wilshere the Arsenal manager. “He has an inflamed ankle, the other ankle to the one he injured. He will be out for three weeks and will not be available for Munich, Swansea and not for England. Hopefully for the Premier League he will miss only one game. After is an international break. We can slowly prepare him.”

Wenger said that he had noticed Wilshere having difficulty in the recent matches against Aston Villa and Tottenham.

From left, Uzoma Dozie, Executive Director of Diamond Bank Plc; Yinka Aruwajoye, Jide Aborishade and Dr. Adenike Marinho during the Daniel Ogecchi Akujobi Memorial (DOAM) Foundation Charity Golf Tournament in Lagos at the weekend.

C M Y K

30 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Getting the best from comprehensive vehicle insurance

By ROSEMARY ONUOHA

V

ehicle insurance (also known as auto insurance, car insurance, or motor insurance) is insurance purchased for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage and/or bodily injury resulting from traffic collisions and against liability that could also arise therefrom. Vehicle insurance may additionally offer financial protection against theft of the vehicle and possible damage to the vehicle, sustained from things other than traffic collisions.

Types of vehicle insurance being operated in Nigeria are third party cover; third party, fire and theft cover; as well as comprehensive cover. How third party insurance works was extensively treated last week. So now, we shall dwell on comprehensive insurance.

Comprehensive Insurance coverage is insurance coverage that helps pay for losses to an insured car due to fire, theft, or other losses that are not as a result of a collision as stated in the insured’s policy.

Comprehensive insurance cover is the highest level of cover a person can have if they take out motor insurance and by so doing, people are not only covered for third party claims after an incident, they are also covered for damage caused to their own vehicle.

What

does

Getting the best

•Comprehensive insurance covers more risks

comprehensive insurance cover?

There are different levels of coverage for all types of insurance, and it is important to know what they are and what they cover before you make a policy decision. Having the right insurance means that your vehicle is properly covered in the event of an accident or other event.

However, comprehensive insurance can be a bit expensive, especially if you are paying for more coverage than

Perspectives on insurance

you really need. In essence, a comprehensive insurance covers all events not typically covered by third party insurance; covers personal items that are inside of the car at the time of a loss, including clothing or other items; covers for fire, theft, flood or vandalism; covers for damages to the glass and may cover for damages to the finish; in some cases, the policy covers for damages incurred when you hit an animal.

C M Y K

Way to go

If you wish to insure your car for most eventualities, then it’s recommended that you take out comprehensive motor insurance. This will protect you in the event of damaging a vehicle belonging to another party, damage to property, or injury to a person and, crucially, with comprehensive insurance, you will be covered for damage to your own vehicle, even if the incident is considered to be your fault.

When weighing what level of motor cover to opt for, there are a few factors to consider and the first is the value of your car.

Experts say that it is not wise to take out anything less than comprehensive cover for a car that is over one million naira in value.

According to expert, it is prudent to take out comprehensive insurance for any car that you couldn’t afford to replace were it to be written off.

There are extra benefits which a motorist may get with comprehensive cover. For example, the insurer may provide you with a courtesy car in the event that your own has to be repaired due to an incident. This is not provided by all insurance companies however, be sure to read the policy small print. Insurance policies do not cover absolutely everything that can go wrong with your car. For example, regular maintenance and wear and tear to your car in the course of its general use will not be covered. So car insurance is not there to protect you from costs incurred in its upkeep.

by CYNTHIA MGBEOKWERE

What type of vehicle insurance do you have?

Mr. Paul Maduagwu, Businessman I have my car insured with a third party insurance which covers the next person. I insured it at the local government council where I gave out the details of my car particulars. But I know that with a third party policy, I cannot claim for the car regardless that it is brand new tear rubber. You need a comprehensive cover. The insurance of the car can be renewed when the date on the certificate expires. Why I choose third party for my car

This is one of the key differences between comprehensive and other covers. It is worth noting, however, that you will be covered for most circumstances but not all. To this end, it is always advisable to familiarise yourself with terms, conditions and exclusions in your policy.

It is important not to fall into the trap of saying it is the most expensive cover, as it is potentially considerably more expensive to find yourself involved in an incident which is considered to be your fault and the level of cover you’ve chosen does not cover the repairs to your vehicle.

Note that in the event of a claim, you may have to pay a certain amount of compulsory excess set by the insurer if you are considered to be at fault.

is because I want to get cleared from law enforcement agents on the road. That is all and I know it is beneficial.

Mr. Sylvester osale, Businessman I don’t have an insurance policy for my car because my car is a used car by another and I don’t know the value of my car. I am a business man and self-employed. Meeting up with the terms of insurance companies is very difficult for me. That does not mean that getting your car or vehicle

insured is not meaningful, it is essential and has its benefits.

Mrs. Nimi Sampson, Civil Servant I have insured my car and we all know that insurance is a pool of risk. I insured my car with a comprehensive policy where the individual has a wide coverage when the car is stolen or vandalized. My car is a brand new one and I have never been accidented before.

I have a friend who had an accident with his car and immediately notified his insurance company about it.

He had a genuine motor insurance certificate, so he took the picture of the car. I think, the insurance company was able to compensate him at the end of the day.

Mr. Kinsley Kenneth, Banker My car is not insured but I think the insurance of one’s car is good and beneficial. It is just that sometimes the company makes it difficult with the terms and renewal of the car. The insurance of one’s car is very necessary and I will love to insure mine.

Miss Joy Madukwe, Trader

The insurance of your car is beneficial but I think that in most cases when one have an accident with the car, the insurance company takes time and never repairs. So that’s the reason why some individuals do not insure their vehicles.

Mr. Paul Obijenu, Businessman I have my car insured and the type of insurance policy is the third party only and I think the third party is better for me because of the road safety. My car has not been damaged before, but I know that there are benefits in insuring one’s car.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013, — 31

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lot of times, people move from one employment to another due to various reasons. Some of these people who have Retirement Savings Account, RSAs, with Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, continue to maintain their accounts with their PFAs. However, sometimes, some people see the new employment as an opportunity to change their PFA. Consequently, they will just abandon their former PFA and go ahead to open a RSA with another PFA. And most times, such people don’t even inform their new employer that they had a pension account with a previous PFA. At the end of the day, situations whereby employees have two RSAs come into play.

Accordingly, Pension Fund Operators, PenOp, are of the opinion that it is an aberration for a contributor to the CPS to have two RSAs. Hence if you have two RSAs, then something went wrong somewhere because it shouldn’t have been. But in general, PenCom recognises the first pin that was registered. They have a record of which pin was registered when, so if you are the holder of two RSAs then write a letter to PenCom to say ‘I have two RSAs but please resolve it’. You can pass the information through your PFA, so PenCom will now determine which PFA registered you first and that will be the valid pin and PenCom will cancel the other pin and ask the other PFA to transfer your balance from that PFA to the first PFA. However, if you feel that you are tired of your PFA and wants to change, you have to exercise a little patience as PenOp, is working hard to ensure that the transfer window mechanism that will make it possible for a

Do you have two retirement savings account?

•You only need one Retirement Savings Account

contributor to transfer his/her pension savings from one PFA to another becomes realistic.

It is worthy of note that PenOp is doing a lot of work to ensure that the transfer window takes off because it is quite a complex exercise.

People always say, “I want to change my PFA and move from A to B,” but PenOp made it clear thta its complex from the perspective that when you are moving an account from one PFA to another certain processes need to take place and the major one is the identification process.

PenOp wants to make sure that when they are transferring

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By ROSEMARY ONUOHA

But in general, PenCom recognises the first pin that was registered. They have a record of which pin was registered when, so if you are the holder of two RSAs then write a letter to PenCom to say ‘I have two RSAs but please resolve it’.

someone’s account from one entity to the other; they are transferring correctly and not transferring somebody else’s account simply because they have common names. So the

Why employers of labour should submit insurance certificates

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mployers of labour covered by the Pension Reform Act, PRA, 2004 have been reminded that they are required to submit copies of the insurance certificates with the schedule of benefits to the National Pension Commission, PenCom, and the Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, where the employees maintain their Retirement Savings Accounts, RSAs. This is in accordance with the provisions of Section 9(3) of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004 and Section 5.5 of the Guidelines for Life Insurance Policy for Employees which C M Y K

states that employers of labour covered by the PRA 2004 are required to submit copies of the insurance certificates with the schedule of benefits to the National Pension Commission (PenCom) and the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) where the employees maintain their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs).

According to PenCom, the insurance certificates should state that all employees are covered up to an amount not

less than 3 times their respective annual total emoluments, ATE. Employers that have not yet submitted copies of Insurance Certificates for the current year to the Commission and Employees’ PFAs are therefore advised to do so.

Failure to do this, the National Pension Commission would consider such employers as defaulters of Section 9(3) of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004.

SEND YOUR QUESTIONS AND ENQUIRIES TO insuranceandyou@yahoo.com

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identification process to ensure that the transfer is secure and correct has to take place. In Nigeria, we really haven’t sorted out identification, but in more developed parts of the

world, identification is quite simple and straightforward. So a major criterion for PenOp is to get the biometrics right.

At the end of the day, the pension sector wants to come out with a biometric process that is comprehensive effective and cost effective as well. So it’s a large exercise in terms of getting the biometrics right, but that is even a part of it. There is also the software and the data bank process from PenCom’s perspective. So there are still a lot of issues to be sorted out.

DO YOU KNOW? RETIREMENT SAVINGS ACCOUNT, RSA, A Retirement Savings Account is a requirement under the Pensions Reform Act 2004. It is the account used to capture information of the contributor as well as the monthly pension contributions of the contributors from all sources- employee, employer, and/or AVCs. It also shows the return on investments over time. Contributors can access this account via Internet, SMS, telephone etc to check their balances, view last few transactions, request a statement and amend or change details.

ADDITIONAL VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION The Pension Reform Act 2004 allows contributors to save funds in excess of their mandatory 7.5 % contributions (2.5% military employees), thereby maximizing his/her resources for retirement. It should also be known that such contributions can be withdrawn after 5 years tax free.

PenCom promise The National Pension Commission, PenCom, assured pensioners of timely payment of their pension as well as security of pension assets. While it also assured contributors of security of assets; will ensure compliance of employers as well as ensure effective service delivery by operators.

32—VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Sleeping with a client’s husband Dear Bunmi, HAVE been married for 14 years, have three children and I’m a trained masseur. I used to work in a gym but I have since set up my business doing massages at private homes. My husband is happy with this as my working is flexible and I make lots more money than the salary I was earning.

Sometime ago, I got an appointment with a client only to find out she had gone out. Her husband wanted to know if I could give him a massage and I agreed after he agreed to the charges.

By the time I was through with him, he was so much aroused that I was turned on too and we made passionate love on his matrimonial bed. The tip he gave afterwards was fantastic. Since then, I’ve been over a lot of times to give him a massage and have sex in the process. The sex is good and the money comes in

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My husband is a drug addict Dear Bunmi, I'M in my late thirties and the mother of three. I’m married to my childhood sweetheart and we’ve been together for 18 years and I love him very much. But for the past nine years he’s been using heroine— a habit he picked up when he was managing a reputable hotel.

He once went into rehab at one of these spiritual churches and came home a better man.

But a few months later, he went back to heroin. He’s still using it.

I’m currently at my wits’ end.

I don’t want to leave him then regret what I’ve done.

Should I admit to myself that my husband has chosen heroine over me and our children? I’m feeling confused and angry. I don’t think that it’s enough to stay with someone just for the sake of the children.

I can’t understand what my

husband gets out of all this.

Annettee Bye-mail

Dear Annettee, Your anger and frustration is quite understandable. It feels as if your husband has withdrawn his affection, intimacy and protection from you and your kids in order to pursue heroine. Yet that’s not the case. Like anyone addicted to drugs and drinks, your husband is a slave to a chemical that ensnares him.

He uses heroine to avoid physical and emotional distress. He knows heroine is bad for him but he’s helpless and can’t live without it. Only when he’s high on heroine does his life seem bearable.

To restore the happiness of the husband you love, you need to help him break heroine’s grip. Forget your

resentment and accept that your husband is a victim.

He needs to gain admission to a clinic for detoxification in any of the teaching hospitals or specialist ones. He’s had treatment before and he can do it again. Getting the heroine out of his body is the easier part of the task.

The challenge that overwhelmed your husband before — but that he can overcome with your help — is rebuilding a life that often seems hopeless, meaningless and destroyed. In the end, he’ll emerge from his addiction with hope —and guilt, confusion and regret. This is when you try to become his guide on his road to gaining his confidence back. If, however, your husband again fails to stay free of drugs, you will— having done your best to save the man you love — need to move on.

Does he still want to stay married?

Dear Nifemi, Your husband has enjoyed the attention and lovemaking of two women for a few years now. Although it causes confusion, indecision and distress to you both, he has no incentive to choose between the two of you so he’ll continue this triangular relationship. You continue to offer your husband sex on a platter because you’re afraid that otherwise you’ll lose him forever. Well, you could. This current arrangement is intolerable.

The longer you share your husband with another woman, the greater the damage to you— and her C M Y K

self-esteem. Do not continue to degrade yourself in this way. Ask him either to ditch his lover and resume your marriage or to consent to divorce and put you out of your misery. Do not have sex

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Dear Bunmi, After 14 years of marriage, my husband left his family to set up a home with his mistress. We are not divorced yet and his mistress still keeps her flat. One night, I stayed at his flat and found his mistress’ number. I rang her up to tell her my husband and I were still sleeping together.

He was so furious he didn’t get in touch for months.

Inevitably, we had to meet to discuss our two kids and since then I stay at his place most weekend and prepare meals for him during the week. He still sees his mistress, yet even after all these years with him, she won’t commit herself to him.

Do you think he’s using me?

Nifemi By e-mail

with him while he decides. Be ready to accept that he may no longer want your marriage. If that’s the case, welcome the freedom and certainty that separation will bring.

Don’t crawl around feeling sorry for yourself, thank your lucky stars you found out the type of girl she is. Tell your colleagues how lucky you are to have got rid of the cheat

Dear Milton, What can you do? Well,

Dear Franka, You are definitely playing with fire here. For one thing, your husband might find out about your cheap thrill and blow his tops.

For another, this man’s wife, who’s really your client, could walk into her matrimonial home to find you bonking her husband.

What would you do then? Jump out of the window? You’d better quit now that your selfesteem is still intact. Masseurs have been known to be exposed to a lot of sexual temptations. After all these years, you should know how to run when you find the heat too hot! Remember you are seemingly happily married now.

She thinks I’m sleeping with her husband Dear Bunmi, I used to have a good relationship with my elders sister until my marriage of only two years broke up and I became very depressed. At first my sister was supportive but she later became irritated with me while her husband understands what I have been going through. He’s been very supportive and caring.

But my sister accused me of having an affair with him. She’s refused to speak to me, and I can’t seem to convince her there was never anything going on.

Should I write to her?

Ifi, By e-mail

Deaf Ifi, It sounds as if your sister is not just suspicious of your feelings for her husband, she is suspicious of her husband’s feelings for you.

She doesn’t trust him — perhaps she’s jealous, or may be he’s let her down in the past. They need to sort this out. My advice is to steer well clear. Resist the temptation to have anything to do with him, however much you need his sympathy.

After a reasonable period, see if you can patch things up with your sister.

My girl sleeps around

’

She chose my rival over me!

Dear Bunmi, I am a civil servant and until recently, I had a girlfriend in a different department. We’d been lovers for close to a year until I was told that she was going out with one of the new members of staff. In a rage, I phoned this man who was trying to snatch my girl and warned him to leave her alone if he doesn’t want any trouble.

The man later complained to my girl and she’s now chosen him over me. I feel so frustrated and unhappy. What should I do?

Milton, Bye-mail

handy too. His wife, who is still my client, has no clue what is going on and my husband would have a fit if he knew I was touching another male body. He thought all my clients are female.

Franka Bye-mail

first, you must learn a lesson from this fiasco. If you want to hang on to a girlfriend, you don’t lash out in a rage at a perceived rival as you did.

Instead, you talk through the issue and resolve it. Having said that, do you really want to hang on to this girl? Yes, you acted badly. But she’s behaved atrociously by not only dating two men from the same office, but throwing you over when her secret was out.

So don’t crawl around feeling sorry for yourself, thank your lucky stars you found out the type of girl she is. Tell your colleagues how lucky you are to have got rid of the cheat.

Dear Bunmi, My girlfriend assured me that my going to the university in another state wouldn’t affect the way she felt about me. But I’ve heard rumours during my visits to home that she was sleeping around. She didn’t deny it.

She said it happened only once because she was lonely and drunk, but I’ve since found out she’s involved with another undergraduate in her university and she’d slept with him a few times.

I love this girl and don’t want us to break up, but I’m not sure if I could trust her again as she’d cheated before.

She is 22 and I am 24. I feel so

depressed and confused. Should I give her another chance?

Chima, Bye-mail

Dear Chima, Your girl is obviously savouring the freedom university life gives her and is not mature enough to cope with staying faithful when you’re away. She’s strayed once and she will stray again. Since there’s no hope that she’ll stay faithful, you need to find a more stable partner if you want to save yourself further pain.

Your girl has had her chance and blown it— and she doesn’t seem to care one way or the other about how you feel.

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 13, 2013 — 33

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34—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, MARCH 13 , 2013

•A displaced nursing mother with her three weeks old baby

A mixed tale of the good, the bad and the ugly

BY BOSE ADELAJA

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HUNGRY man, they say, is an angry man. But Vanguard Metro, VM, is in a position to declare that a homeless man could be a venomously angry man as a recent visit to the shanty Iganmu Alawo Community in Apapa Iganmu Local Council Development Area, otherwise known as Badia East, which was recently demolished by the Lagos State government, has revealed. And this is aptly captured in this scenario:

*...Rage of distressed residents “Madam, who you be and wetin you dey find here? Abi you be government person? Even though una wan kill us, God no forget us,” a stern-looking young man quipped as he accosted this reporter, even threatening to deal with her for taking pictures of the demolished community. The reporter came under the guise of a representative of a non-govern-

mental organisation working to bring succour to the distressed residents who are still smarting from the demolition of their shanty residences. While the reporter tried to explain her mission, three other young men also emerged from a corner and aggressively confronted her with these words: “We dey sure say she be government person; make you no try us here O, our eye dey chuk.

“As una pursue us from here, una no go pursue us from the world O. Wetin we go miss pass na enjoyment with our paros as we no go fit do as we like again.

Anyway, we no know wetin you dey find O but if you pass your boundary, we go deal with you and Fashola no go fit save you...”

Our reporter was only rescued by the timely intervention of a passer-by who stopped and pleaded on her behalf. The young men soon disappeared from the scene, except one who demanded thus: “You go drop something O as hunger dey

waya person. You no say Fashola don spoil business for us. Na daily money I dey chop...”

Before it went down under the destructive fury of bulldozers, Badia, in spite of its shanty or ghetto outlook, was always a beehive of all types of business activities, presumably because it was bordered by a railway line.

Order of the day But lawlessness was also known to be the order of the day, for which it was said that it consisted of the good, the bad and the very ugly before it was sacked.

During VM’s visit, one of the notable figures there, who was simply identified as Mama “Mopo”, caught our reporter’s attention with her melodramatic posturing and striking, if not funny, fashion sense. Apart from the fact that both ears were festooned with multiple ear rings, her dental make-up consisted of her natural teeth and some silver

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BADIA:

artificials. On noticing this reporter, she lit a stick of cigarette and opened a sachet of local gin which she gladly offered. “Alaye mi, se you sabi? How you dey, I dey happy to see you O; by the way, our pikin never chop today.

We parents fit hold belle with paraga but the children go peme if dem no chop...,’’ she submitted.

Before she finished speaking, another displaced resident, an expectant mother, Madam Ngozi Omoabor, joined in the discussion. “Ha, life in this camp is expensive o. Madam, what do you have for us, we are hungry...’’ she pleaded.

Soon, some other victims also joined in the discussion, re-

traders who have started displaying their personal effects for sale. One of them who easily caught most visitors’ attention was a young woman, Mama Chinonso, who was cuddling a three weeks old baby. Following accommodation challenges, her family relocated to Badia a year ago and occupied one of the shanties there.

They are presently homeless following the demolition. According to Mama Chinonso, necessity brought her family to Badia because her husband’s partner in menial job business was based there. The couple paid the sum of N4,500 as rent for a shanty without water, electricity and toilet facilities.

Before the demolition, the community was characterised by high crime rate; sex hawkers and hoodlums usually had a field day and residents lived in fear on daily basis; the place was a haven for hoodlums

counting their experiences. Although some of them have been able to put up makeshift structures beside the canal, they also have a lot to worry about. “I pray it does not rain because the aftermath will be disastrous for us,” said Mrs Modinat Oriyomi. “Is it rain you are talking about? The breeze in this place does not allow us to cook; our children are starving,” complained another victim who simply gave her name as Adimeru.

Some of the women are petty

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Indeed, at Badia, life was lived at great denial and privation as the community lacked basic infrastructural facilities like pipe borne water, health facilities, electricity, good road, toilet facilities and schools, to mention but a few. What unites the residents is the fact that the rents for accommodation there are relatively cheap and affordable, ranging between N3,500 and N6,000 for a room unlike what obtains in other parts of Lagos.

Continues on page 35

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, MARCH 13 , 2013— 35

A makeshift bridge linking Oke ilu-Eri with Ajeromi

A mixed tale of the good, the bad and the ugly History of the dispute

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HE dispute over ownership of Badia has a long history.

It is said that the land actually belonged to the Ojora family who leased same at affordable prices to those interested in acquiring portions of it. That was before the demolition exercise. The obvious lack of infrastructural facilities there created room for the emergence of business operators willing to provide relevant services at profitable prices.

At Badia East, for instance, residents paid at least N30 to make Baale of Iganmu-Alawo, Ojora of Ijora, Oba Fatai use of a private bathroom or toilet, Chief Lukas Owoseni Oyeyinka while potable water and health facilities were hard to come by. Badia is a suburb of land. of Lagos which has been adjudged as the numThe feasibility report on this community which ber one slum in the state. It covers a total area of was submitted to the Federal Government in No158 hectares out of which 25 hectares was in 1988 vember 2007 by a consultant revealed the study earmarked for urban renewal demonstration area has been neglected for long and the only atproject. The project known as Badia Olojowo was tention it got was demolition of parts at various financed by the World bank, while a consultant occasions, the last of which took place in 2002. The was nominated to carry out a feasibility study of northern portion, often referred to as Oke-Eri, was the area. demolished.

Out of the 36.78 hectares of land, a little over 24 hectares is just about one metre above sea level Community and, therefore, considered low lying. development associations The entire environmental condition is poor and The community is under the control of three needed to be developed. The case is, however, communitydevelopmentassociations, namely: Ba- different in an area of 12.45 hectares with its readia East, Badia West and Apapa-Oro under the sonably decent fair buildings and accessibility for traditional rulership of the Ojora of Lagos, a de- which it was recommended as “preservable and scendant of the Aworis who exercise traditional left on its own.”

Although the recent demolition exercise has genauthority over the area.

Talking about the structures, about 53.1 per cent erated mixed reactions of condemnation and comwere made of blocks and cement, while 46.81 per mendation from Nigerians, including human right cent were made of wood, and only five per cent of activists and non-governmental agencies, many the buildings were certified okay by experts. Also of the residents claimed the place was not allocatBadia-East is an area covered by 1929 Federal ed to them by the government. “Truth is bitter, many Government acquisition for the Nigeria Railway of us knew we shall quit this place whenever govCorporation; it is bounded by the railway to Apa- ernment is ready,” chorused Mr. Adams Enire and pa on the East and extended by 200 metres to the Jerry Olumide. At Badia, 90 per cent of the occuwestern boundary. The western boundary is at pants are non-indigenes who hail from Ondo and the intersect of Badagry road with Western Ave- Kwara states and whose major occupation was nue and the southern boundary as well as Gaskiya fishing. They were later joined by people of othCollege road, all covering a total of 36.78 hectares er tribes.

Who owns the land?: Royal fathers speak

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IGRATION from Olu wole: During VM’s visit, this reporter met the community leader of Iganmu-Alawo Community, a native doctor, Chief Lukas Medunoye Owoseni, who said the residents migrated from Ijora-IlajeOluwole in 1973 after a quit notice from the Federal Government prior to the building of the National Theatre. “That was after the civil war.

Many of us were non-indigenes and the government did not provide an alternative.

So, we had no choice but to look for vast hectares of land for ourselves and we settled down in this place which we acquired on Truth is bitter, many of us our own without knew we shall quit this place paying a whenever government is ready dime. As we later found out, the place is an acquisition land ernment demolished some structures meant for the Railway Corporation,” here during the Asiwaju Bola Tinuhe said. bu’s regime but the people still reThe community head who traced mained defiant. the residents sojourn to the commu“The community is an eyesore nity, said: “Our forefathers settled which is not in line with the megaat Ijora-Ilaje (Oluwole) on govern- city plan of the government. When ment order following the decision I was informed of the recent demoto build the cultural centre. lition exercise, I asked them to dis“But we got a quit notice in 1973 cuss with the residents which was and we relocated to this place after done on February 20, 2013. I also the civil war. In 1977/78 during the told them to provide a shelter for the Shagari-Awolowo era, Oke-Eri was victims. A meeting was held recentdemolished for political reasons; ly and government set up a commitalso, another demolition took place tee to wade into the matter. “Before in 1986 which affected Oke-Eri; it the demolition exercise, the commuwas meant for expansion. In 2003, nitywas characterised by high crime Oke-Eri also suffered another dem- rate; sex hawkers and hoodlums olition due to insubordination; the usually had a field day and residents government did not give us this lived in fear on daily basis. In fact, place but we chose it by ourselves. the place was a haven for hoodlums.

But following the constant demoli- For security, I engaged the services tion of Oke-Eri, we cried to former of Mobile Police and OPC because Minister for Housing, Mrs. Mobo- many of us cannot sleep with our laji Osomo, who promised to inter- eyes closed.” vene in the matter and she started

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Continues frompage 34

the process for settlement.

“Her effort paved way for a feasibility report which was handled by the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development through Molaj Consultants. The report was submitted in November 2007 which proposed that government should site a low cost housing estate at OkeEri. As soon as the report was submitted, the government sent some representatives to inform us about this and we all consented to it. From then, we knew that the government could come at any time to take possession of this place.

February 20 visit: “On Wednesday February 20, 2013, I was taking my lunch when some people told me that some government representatives were around who needed my attention and I rushed there. To my surprise, they gave me a copy of the feasibility report which they asked me to sign for and hand over to Ojora. Ojora immediately slated a meeting for Tuesday February 26.

Unfortunately, the demolition exercise took place on Saturday February 23 and the residents pointed accusing fingers at me, saying I was instrumental to it. We knew that the plan for the demolition exercise has been on ground but we appealed to government for succour,” he said.

Ojora speaks: The traditional ruler of Ijora, Oba Fatai Oyeyinka, who spoke exclusively to VM, lamented the rot in the community before the demolition exercise. “The community used to be a place where lawlessness was the rule rather than the exception. Many of the residents are foreigners who usually take the law into their hands. They claimed the government has allocated the place to them and they erected all manners of structures which were taken over by hoodlums.

Some of them paid their rents daily, weekly or monthly. The state gov-

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36—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Oshiomhole tasks new Commissioners

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM ENIN CITY—GOV ERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has tasked the newly sworn-in members of the state Executive Council to make history by driving home the aspirations and policies of the state government with utmost sincerity and dedication.

The governor had last Friday sworn-in 18 commissioners including his former Chief of Staff, Osarodion Ogie, whom he described as the ‘Captain.’

Oshiomhole told newsmen, yesterday, that “this administration wants to consolidate on our achievements in the first tenure and that is the task before the new commissioners. I believe that we still have much to do but I am glad that we have started, Edo is working. So, it is our belief that the present crop of the state Executive Council will help ensure that we have Edo of our dream.

“This administration will not relent on its electoral promises to the people of our dear state and I have the confidence that we have the men capable of making our promises to the people a reality.”

B

Group lauds Akpabio over development

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GROUP, the Ikot Ekpene/Essien Udim/Obot Akara Development Union, IKEODA, Lagos has commended Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State for his “uncommon transformation” of the state, saying his “programmes have taken us out of the depth we were since the creation of the state.”

President General of the union, Mr Samuel Usoro, spoke during the launch of its N750 million civic centre and the conferment of Ufuk-EyoAkwa Ibom, (umbrella body of Akwa Ibom), on Governor Akpabio while his wife, Ekaette, bagged Ndoko-Iban Akwa Ibom, (Prestigious Woman of Akwa Ibom).

Usoro said: “We wish to appreciate you for your uncommon transformation, rapid development and the light you had brought to Akwa Ibom State. We do not need to chronicle all the good works done in the state that we have heard and seen. We thank God."

Edo State plans increased employment generation

BY WILLIAM JIMOH

E

DO State governor, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, has reiterated the commitment of his administration to create more jobs in the state in a bid to justify the second term mandate given to him by people of the state.

Speaking at the Estako Club 81 reception in his honour and conferment of an award of excellence on Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President, Dangote Group of Companies in Lagos, Oshiomhole noted that the state had entered into collaboration with entrepreneurs such as Dangote, hoping it will help develop the state and Nigeria in general.

Oshiomhole said: “We will create many jobs in Edo State and Nigeria. Our people will not need to go abroad to work as cleaners and do menial jobs. However, government alone cannot create the entire job that we need, we can attain this together and that is what Aliko Dangote has demonstrated.

“I will do my best, because I am always conscious of the fact that the only thing that I brought into this job is my dignity and my name which I will always protect. We will do our

very best to justify all you have done to make our second term possible.”

Oshiomhole, who maintained that Dangote has demonstrated so much commitment to the development of Edo State, added that “the leadership of the club has displayed that anyone who

shows commitment and is ready to contribute to the development of Edo State that such a person deserves special recognition and award.

“We have a Nigerian, who worries not so much about himself but to keep Nigeria going, to create employment opportu-

R -l: Akwa Ibom State Deputy Governor, Lady Valerie Ebe; Wife of the State Governor, Mrs. Ekaette Unoma Akpabio; Senator representing Eket Senatorial District, Senator Helen Esuene; and the Member representing Mkpat Enin State Constituency in the State House of Assembly, Barr. Ekong Sampson, during a thanksgiving mass in honour of the deputy governor at St. Francis’ Catholic Church, Ikot Edeghe, Mkpat Enin L.G.A on Sunday.

FG urged to take harder stance against corruption

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

P

ORT HARCOURT— FEDERAL Government has been urged to take harder stance against corruption in the country, as it was the only way the nation could record appreciable success in its anti graft war.

President South East/ South South professionals, Mr. Emeka Ugwu-Oju, who made the appeal, said corruption had become a major impediment to national growth.

Inaugurating a committee

for the South East/South South Development forum in Port Harcourt, Ugwu-Oju, urged the government to address challenges of epileptic power supply in the country.

He opined that state police and fiscal federalism would speed up the development drive of the country, when put in place.

Charging the new committee headed by Mr. Albert Okumagba to work out a 10 year development plan for the two regions, Ugwu-Oju said the body will partner govern-

ments at various level in the regions to drive developmental projects.

He noted that there was urgent need for government at all levels and people of the country to engage in productive economic activities.

“Our effort is to look at the potentials and comparative advantages of the zone, appraise what the governors are doing or want to do and set out a road map for greater efficiency, relevance and cost effectiveness of programmes and projects for the region,” he said.

Forum hails Uduaghan over revocation of road contract

By FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—FORUM of Ex-Local Government Vice Chairmen, FELOGOVIC, Delta State Chapter, (2008), has commended the State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan for revoking section ‘A’ of the Ughelli/Asaba road dualization project, describing the former contractor, Wokson Nigeria Limited as a failure.

FELOGOVIC in a statement by its chairman, Mr Elijah Ologe, said the re-award of

nities for different kinds of people and showing presence virtually in every geo-political zone. These are the type of Nigerians we want, they know there is a country to work for, and not mainly concerned with what they will get from their country.”

the road dualization project to a more competent contractor, CCC Construction Company was a welcome development and a display of Governor Uduaghan’s ingenuity in the development of the state.

Ologe said: “The Asaba International Airport and the ongoing building and renovation of schools and granting of scholarships to students are part of effort towards keeping faith with the infrastructure and human capital development promise of the Uduaghan’s administration. We

congratulate our governor and his wife on the Silver Jubilee of their marriage. We also commend Governor Uduaghan for placing ban on motorcycles popularly known as ‘Okada’ which was largely being used for criminal activities and for providing mass transit buses to keep transport fares cheap and stable in the state.

“We also thank the state legislature for its cordial relationship with the executive arm as this has created the enabling environment for progress in Delta State.”

Ihonvbere explains Edo govt's plans

BY VICTOR AHIUMA YOUNG

E

DO State Government has said that it was committed to the development of the state supersedes every other thing, noting that the people of the state deserve the best from government.

Secretary to the State Government, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, spoke during an inspection tour of two newly acquired 30 kilowatt dual purpose transmitters at the Edo Broadcasting Service, EBS, in Benin City.

Ihonvbere said: “This is unbelievable. It’s a major step forward and I am personally impressed with the result of a high level digital equipment to begin broadcast to the viewers. When I leave here, we will begin the process of the installation and I can assure you that by the end of this week, action will be taken on the installation. Governor Adams Oshiomhole is one governor who does things well and with emphasis on quality. Posterity will remember him because, he recognises that Edo people deserve the best and he is very much committed to that; be it in terms of information and communication technology, media, roads, drainages, education and health among others."

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 37

Bayelsa institutes health insurance policy

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

E N A G O A — B AY E L S A State gvernor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, has inaugurated the state's Health Insurance Policy Development Committee, with a charge to articulate a comprehensive health insurance scheme for its citizens.

Inaugurating the committee in Yenagoa, Dickson urged it to determine the scope of health services to be covered by the scheme as well as terms and conditions for subscription by prospective subscribers.

It will be recalled that N500 million had earlier been earmarked by the state government to kick-start the insurance policy.

The governor, who said that the health insurance scheme was mainly targeted at public servants, noted that the decision was taken in their interest.

He said: “Let me assure you, the civil servants of Bayelsa State, that from the decisions we have taken, you will soon find out that they are ultimately in your best interest. We are coming up with robust policies that will cater for most of your needs and make life and living easier and better for you.

“What we have done here to-

‘No unrest in Araromi-Ale Kingdom'

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ITH the recent landmark judgment vesting the ownership of vast hectares of land at Araromi-Ale Kingdom, in Badagry Local Government area of Lagos State, in Oshukwu-Iyombo family, the head of the family, Chief Ibikunle Oshukwu, has urged the Lagos State Government and the general public to ignore recent publications and announcements in the media that there was unrest in the land.

Justice Adeniyi Adebajo, had on January 30, 2013, dismissed the claim of registered trustees of Lagos Flying Club and upheld the traditional evidence of the history of the land that: “The Araromi-Ale Kingdom was originally founded around 1830 (183 years ago) by Oshuku, a fetish priest by name Akinosi Iyonbu Ale, who originally migrated from Ile-Ife, stopped at Ojo via Ibuku, Ilogbo and finally settled at Ale.” Oshuku said: “Following the judgment, which ordered our opponents to vacate the land immediately and equally ordered us to take possession forthwith, we took immediate possession peacefully without any violence and the place has remained peaceful ever since."

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day by instituting this health insurance policy is just one of the many policies of our administration. We had talked about investing more in public housing and transportation for the public serv-

ice.”

Civil Servants, he noted, stand to benefit as they are to pay minimal subscription and solicited their understanding and support for the scheme.

According to the governor, the Health Insurance Policy will be extended to non-government workers, who will be at liberty to subscribe to it, and are expected to pay higher premium.

VISIT: From left: Chief Faith Gbagi, Chairman, Anniversary Planning Committee; Chief Benjamin Omuvwie; Maj-Gen. Patrick Aziza (rtd), Life Member, Sapele Athletic Club; HRM Orhue I, Orodje of Okpe Kingdom; Justice Uwerhiavwe, Otota of Okpe; Chief Rex Eju, Club Trustee and Mr. Mike Eboh, Club President, during a courtesy visit by officials of Sapele Athletic Club Anniversary Planning Committee on the monarch, in Orerokpe, Delta State.

CITN urged to ensure devt with tax proceeds

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

P

ORT HARCOURT— CHARTERED Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN, has been charged to desist from acting as a mouthpiece for Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and its state counterparts in their campaign to promote taxpaying compliance culture among Nigerians.

Chairman, Legal Directorate of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry,

Mines and Agriculture, PHCCIMA, Mr. Anthony Ezenwoko, gave the advice, yesterday, when the organising committee for the upcoming CITN Annual Tax Conference paid a sensitisation visit to the Port Harcourt Chambers.

Ezenwoko, noted that the taxation profession's umbrella body, CITN, was excessively involved in blowing the trumpet for FIRS, without corresponding commitment in charging the agency and government to adequately utilise the taxes col-

lected to make life more meaningful for the taxpayers.

He said: “Government is hardly responsive to the plight of the people. The taxpayer has become a government in himself. He provides his own electricity, water, shelter, school and all the basic necessities because government is doing little.

So, rather than blow the trumpet for FIRS, CITN should be more concerned in charging government to use the taxes collected to provide meaningful development for the people.”

Sapele Athletic Club marks centenary anniversary

BY GODWIN OGHRE

S

APELE—ACTIVITIES marking the centenary celebration of Sapele Athletic Club, Sapele, Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State, have kicked off with the formal briefing of HRM Orodje of Okpe Kingdom, Orue 1, as part of activities lined up for the celebration.

Briefing the royal father during a courtesy visit at his palace in Orerokpe, Chair-

man of the Centenary Planning Committee, Chief Faith Gbagi, told the Orodje that the club was well over 100 years old, but available facts and figures regarding the age of the club dates back to a century ago.

Chief Gbagi noted that the equipment and facilities of the club were now obsolete and required modification that will cost millions of naira, calling on members, well meaning Nigerians, corporate bodies and organisa-

tions to help in the rehabilitation of the club.

Responding, the royal father pledged his support for the celebration, adding that the registered name of the club should be maintained even if the current activities and facilities of the club were rebranded.

A historian, Chief Rex Eju, traced the origin of the club to some colonial white setters, at the Pontoon area of Sapele, which metamorphosed to a drinking spot.

Akpojene resigns as IDU President General

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—THE social cultural organisation of the Isoko people, Isoko Development Union, IDU, yesterday, suffered a major setback, following the resignation of its President General, Chief Gregory Akpojene, from office.

Akpojene, in his resignation letter, said: “I have taken this very painful decision to enable me continue with my avowed service to the Isoko nation in other fields of life. I assure my Isoko people that I am prepared to serve the Isoko nation in any capacity in future.

“On December 31, 2011, the people of Isoko elected me as two-time President General of IDU. This wise action drew applause from all parts of the world.

“Consequently, I swung into action in order to justify the confidence reposed in me. Little did I know that this good intention of Isoko people was misplaced. Within the first year of my stewardship, I discovered that my well intended Isoko people gave me a very thick forest to clear without a cutlass.

"However, I summoned courage to see whether I could manipulate the situation for good. Unfortunately, all my efforts to make something out of nothing failed. In view of the prevailing circumstances , I have no alternative than to resign my position.”

Madam Owivri passes on @ 96

M

ADAM Alice Owivri has passed on, aged 96.

She is survived by several children, including Patience Owivri-Oburoh, Emmanuel Owivri, Judy Jessa, Vivian Owivri, Abraham Owivri, Revel Onoseme, and nine grand children.

Late Madam Owivri

38 —Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Flood: FCTA distributes grains to 642 farmers

BY LAIDE AKINBOADE

A

BUJA — TO cushion suffering of the 642 farmer affected by last year’s flood disaster at Tunga Maje, Gwagwalada area council, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, yesterday, flagged off distribution of assorted grains.

The flood disaster, it would be recalled, affected over 19 communities in Abaji and four communities in Kwali area councils.

Minister of State for FCT, Olajumoke Akinjide, who sympathised with the farmers, described flood as one of the risks in agriculture that could not be predicted.

According to her, “the Federal Government deemed it necessary to package a programme such as this to encourage people who were affected by the flood to keep them in their farming activities, thereby boosting agricultural production and ensuring national food security.”

Japan okays three community-based projects for Nigeria

BY VICTORIA OJEME

A

BUJA — THE Japanese government has approved three communitybased projects worth $317,919 for Nigeria, under the Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project, GGP. Japanese ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Ryuichi Shoji, said at the signing of agreement for the projects that his government had since 1998 implemented development projects to support communities all over the country through Grant Assistance for the Grassroots Human Security Projects.

The three projects approved by the Japanese government include construction of Local Education Authority Primary School, Kontagora Estate in Gwagwalada Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory at $93,257, with Centre for Development and partnership as the implementing partner; procurement of medical equipment for Abaji General Hospital at $122,306, with Nigeria Women Empowerment Network as the implementing partner The last project is construction of rural clinics in Karu Local Government Area in Nasarawa State, at $102,356, with Christian Broadcasting Network as implementing partner.

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Gov Ahmed, IG, Olubolade console Chime over Asadu's death ...As Enugu procures 100 vans to fight crime E

NUGU — THE Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, has described the death of Kwara State Police Commissioner, Mr Chinweike Asadu, in the hands of assassins in Enugu as a great loss to the Police Force and nation in general.

The IG, who stated this during a courtesy call on Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, described the late police commissioner as a gentleman who was committed to his duties.

He said: “To the police, he was a brother, a friend and a colleague.”

Abubakar said he had been on routine tour of state police commands in the country, and used the opportunity to thank God for the safe return and recovery of Governor Chime and prayed that he would complete his tenure in good health.

Also speaking, Minister for Police Affairs, Caleb Olubolade, who accompanied the IG, disclosed that they were also in Enugu to open a Police Intelligence school in the city.

He said the Police was committed to showing concern for its officers to boost their morale and let them know that their efforts in serving the police were not in vain.

In his response, Chime

reiterated the commitment of the state to partner with the police to ensure a crime-free society, adding that his government had already procured 100 patrol vehicles that would soon be delivered to the police as soon as they were fitted with gadgets.

He said: “Enugu is reputed to be the safest in the southern zone and we want it to remain so, we

are not joking with security.”

Meanwhile, Governor Abudlfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, has expressed his condolence to his Enugu State counterpart, Chime, and the people of Enugu State over the death Asadu.

In a letter to Governor Chime, Ahmed said he shared the shock and grief of the government and

From left: Chief Executive Officer, BestMan Games Limited, Mrs Nimi Akinkugbe; wife of British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mrs Julie Pocock and Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Ms Arunma Oteh, during SEC's International Women’s Day seminar, in Abuja.

PDP distances self from plot to impeach Imo dep gov

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI— THE leadership of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Imo State has distanced itself from the current travails of the Deputy Governor, Sir Jude Agbaso.

The state PDP Chairman, Chief Eze Duruiheoma, made this known in Owerri, while reacting to the accusations on the party for allegedly

masterminding the planned impeachment of the deputy governor.

He said: “There is no iota of truth in the story making the rounds that the PDP either initiated or enmeshed in the imbroglio rocking Imo State Government and its functionaries” Noting that the show of shame was a self-inflicted wound, which had left more questions

than answers for Imo people, the Imo PDP boss also explained that recent trip to Abuja by PDP lawmakers was for a meeting and nothing else.

Duruiheoma said: “Neither the state PDP nor the Presidency has any hand or interest in what is happening in Imo State, whether for or against any person or group.

Therefore, the PDP should be kept out of the mess.”

CNPP berates INEC over move to register African Peoples Congress

BY TONY EDIKE

E

NUGU— THE Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, yesterday, described as a bad omen for Nigeria’s fledgling democracy alleged move by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to register African Peoples Congress, APC, in a bid to deny All Progressives Alliance, APC, the chance of being registered as a political party.

In a statement in Enugu and signed by its National

people of Enugu State over the unfortunate incident and condemned what he called reckless disrespect for the sanctity of human lives.

He said the late Asadu served the people of Kwara State diligently, adding that his commitment to peace and security in the state would not be forgotten.

Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, the CNPP urged the INEC “to resist the temptation of PDP’s covert move to register the APC, saying prior to February 6, 2013 when the All Progressives Congress, APC, was formed, there was no such application in INEC.” It noted that the PDP’s intention to register African Peoples Congress was “ignoble, subversive and meant to forestall the registration of the authentic APC, based on the flimsy argument that both possess the same acronym.”

The statement said: “CNPP needs to remind INEC that PDP’s intendment is to foist one party state in Nigeria and rule uninterrupted for 60 years, with or without performance.

“Consequently, we challenge INEC to publish the names of the promoters of African Peoples Congress to proof that it is not, as alleged, in merger with PDP. The INEC should also go further to investigate the allegation that the proposed APC is being floated by the PDP as a way of foisting one party system in the country."

The Pope we expect, by Archbishop Obinna

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERR I— AS Cardinals all parts of the world enter the conclave to elect another Catholic Pontiff, the Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, Dr. Anthony Obinna, has said he expected the Cardinals to elect somebody that would continue to deal frontally with relativism, secularism, atheism and nihilism of this day and age.

Archbishop Obinna, who bared his mind while speaking with newsmen in Owerri, also reminded all that the church was not a political or social organisation.

He said: “The Catholic Church is not a political or social organisation. It is essentially a spiritual, moral organism and organisation. We don’t pander into what the secular world is thinking or doing.”

The cleric further reasoned that as far as the secularists and nihilists were concerned, they would want to rubbish not only God, but also anything about holiness and virtue.

He noted: “They would wish a Pope that will support abortion, contraceptives, the culture of death, women ordination and gay marriages."

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013—39

From left: Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman B. Dambazau (Ph.D),Visiting Fellow of the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs, Harvard University; Mrs. Arese Carrington, wife of former US Ambassador to Nigeria; Ambassador Walter Carrington, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti State Governor; Prof. Jacob Olupona of the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs, Harvard University, Mrs. Olupona and Dr. Wale Adebanwi of the University of California, at a reception, in honour of Governor Fayemi in Boston, Massachusets.

From left: Sesan Sobowale, Corporate Relations Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc; Jide Kosoko, Ace Actor; Dolapo Fasawe, Coordinator, Eko Free Health Mission and Femi Olugbile, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Lagos State, during a ‘Drink IQ’ workshop for health journalists and Nollywood stars, in Lagos.

From left: Dr. Adeyemi Onabowale, CEO, Reddington Hospital; Dr. Olasimbo Davidson, Head, Quality Assurance, Reddington Hospital and Prof.

Stuart Whittaker, CEO, Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa, COHSASA, presenting an award for healthcare quality, in Cape Town.

Hon. Dakuku Peterside, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) (middle), receiving the Crans Montana Forum’s Medal, at Egmont Palace, Brussels, Belgium, during the forum’s conference on Africa entitled, 'Africa in 2013: Upheavals & Changes.'

From left: Clement Iloba, Public Affairs Manager, Julius Berger Nigeria, JBN, (left); Maimunah Zakari, winner, Short Story Writing Competition and Chinyere Obi-Obasi, author of the book 'The Great Fall,' during the prize presentation to the winner of Julius Berger's 'Short Story Competition, at Jiwa Government Secondary School, Abuja.

Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan

From left: Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State; Mr. Tajudeen Aremu, Head of Service and Deputy Gov. Otunba Adeyemo of Oyo State, at the inauguration of the state workers' free buses, in Ibadan.

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From left: Chief Ezekiel Fatoye of Spectranet; Mrs. Lolia Emakpore, Director, Policy and Competition of Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC; and Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management of NCC, during NCC's stakeholders' forum on options for licensing slots on the 2.3GHz Spectrum, at Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos.

From left: Prince Buruji Kashamu, Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain; Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Ltd and his wife, Uchenna, during the coronation and 80th birthday celebration of Kashamu's mother, Alhaja Wulemotu Kashamu, in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, weekend.

From left: Bishop Mike Okonkwo of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission, TREM; Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly, Dr. Iruofagha James, Founding Pastor of Glory Christian Ministries and Bishop John Osa-Oni, during the formal dedication of the Gloryland Dome.

40—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, MARCH 13, 2013

Kogi varsity commences programme in medicine

BY BOLUWAJI

L

OBAHOPO

OKOJA—KOGI State University, Anyigba, has commenced programme in medicine, with 32 pioneer students, the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Hassan Isah has said.

Isah who spoke during the 14th matriculation ceremony of the university, pointed out that the state government had also, approved the upgrading of the Reference and Diagnostic Hospital, Anyigba to a Teaching Hospital.

About 4, 765 students matriculated during the ceremony.

The Vice Chancellor said that the approval was aimed at ensuring that the medical students do not stagnate after completing their pre-clinical courses in Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology.

Jigawa employs 400 health workers

BY ALIYU DANGIDA

D

UTSE—JIGAWA State Government has said it employed 400 health workers in the last five years in a bid to improve health care delivery in the existing health institutions across the state.

The Head of Service, Alhaji Mustapha Aminu, made this known at the 14th Annual Convention of the Association of Muslim Health Students at Birnin-Kudu, yesterday.

Aminu said the government had also, constructed a multi-billion College of Nursing and Midwifery, adding that it was providing free medical care to pregnant women, students and children below the age of five.

He further explained that since the inception of the Sule Lamido-led administration, the government had accorded priority to the sector through various incentives such as free medication for children, pregnant women and accident victims.

Teachers protest detention of members in Bauchi

BY SUZAN EDEH AUCHI—HUNDREDS of secondary, school teachers yesterday, protested in Bauchi, Bauchi State, over the continued unlawful detention of 11 of their members.

The teachers under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Secondary School Teachers, ASUSS, had embarked on strike to protest the forceful deduction of their allowances by the state government to fund orphans and beggars in the state.

However, the state government which was apparently miffed by the effrontery of the teachers to protest the deductions reportedly referred some of the striking teachers to the police, leading to their detention in prison custody on trumped up charges for over 10 days now.

Vanguard gathered that the ASUSS members led a procession to the Emir of Bauchi’s palace, while chanting solidarity songs, demanding the release of their detained colleagues.

They also carried placards with inscriptions like,“No payment of N18,000 minimum wage; No WAEC, NECO and JAMB;” and “No 18,000 minimum wage in Bauchi.”

Some of the teachers who

B

condemned the alleged dictatorial tendencies of Governor Isa Yuguda, also, asked the Emir to intercede on their behalf to ensure the release of the detained teachers.

Addressing newsmen later on their predicaments, the teachers expressed their dismay over the alleged illegal detention of their colleagues, saying they needed justice over the matter.

Chairman of ASUSS,

Abdullahi Ningi, said the union was not happy with the illegal detention of their members through the connivance of the state police command, the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and his counterpart in the Ministry of Education.

Ningi said: “Members of the union are in the Emir ’s palace to seek for justice over the detention of our members. Last week, over 200 teachers con-

verged here in the Emir’s palace to seek for the release of our members, but the Emir pleaded with us to exercise some patience. So we came back again to remind him of his promise and he has assured us that he was doing everything possible to see that our detained members are released.

Since we respect him as a royal father, we are giving him the benefit of doubt.”

FLAG OFF: From left: Mr. Mike Olagunju, Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Kaduna; Mr Innocent Ahemen and Zonal Commander, FRSC, Zone 1, Mr. Charles Theophilus, at the flag off of Operation Zero Tolerance in Kaduna. Photo: Olu Ajayi.

Kebbi records 2,500 cases of measles outbreak

BY SAAWUATERZUNGWE

B

IRNIN KEBBI— ABOUT 2,500 cases of measles have been recorded in some communities across 14 local government areas of the state in the last two months in Kebbi State, the state Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Shehu Sambawa has said.

Sambawa spoke in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital, yesterday, while receiving some drugs worth N5 million from an international organization, “Save the Children.”

The organisation said the drugs and other consumables would enable the state government carter for about 1000 in the affected communities.

Sambawa said the cases were recorded in the last two months in 14 out of the 21 local government areas in the state.

According to Sambawa, the government anticipated that more cases of measles and meningitis would be recorded in the state in the coming months.

He said the frequency and magnitude of these out-

breaks constituted a draw back to the efforts of the state government in controlling the morbidity and mortality of the disease.

He said: ”However, the state government has approved N2 million for each local government as an emergency respponse to contain the epidemic. The donation of these

drugs by Save the Children internationa is therefore very timely as it will go a long way to ease the sufferrings of the victims.

The Commissioner called on the public to ensure that they live in clean environment and report any suspected cases of epidemic to the nearest health facility for prompt action.

Presenting the drugs and other consumables earlier, the state Field Manager of the organisation, Ahmed Saidu, said: “We conducted an assessment of the disease and we hereby support the government and people of Kebbi State with these essential drugs and consumables to assist in the management of the cases.”

Kogi approves N400m for construction of roads ment House, yesterday, the

BY BOLUWAJI OBAHOPO

L

OKOJA—KOGI State Gov ernment has approved N400 million for the reconstruction of roads that were affected by last year’s flooding in the state.

This was even as the government has commenced the distribution of free text books, writing materials, school bags and exercise books to pupils in the 2,000 public primary schools in the state.

State Governor, Captain Idris Wada, who flagged off the ceremony in Lokoja said, 1,100,240 text books in Math-

ematics, English Language, Science and Technology would be distributed to pupils in various public primary schools in the state during the exercise.

The roads are ShintakunOdogbo in Bassa Local Government Area, Ida-Oyedega road that links Ida and Ibaji Local Government areas, Ganaja Junction to Ganaja Village and Pata-Old Market road in Lokoja Local Government Area of the state.

Addressing news men shortly after Executive Council, EXCO, meeting at Govern-

state Commissioner of Information, Alhaji Yabaji Bologi, said the road contracts had been awarded, adding that work was expected to commence immediately.

Bologi also said that the state government has also awarded contract for the construction of work shops for the Power Tiller at the cost of N133 million.

He further said that N22 million was approved by the state government for additional works on Civil Service Commission offices, while another N42 million was also approved for the renovation of the Presidential Lodge in Lokoja.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 41

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42—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

exploration of oil around the Lake Chad Basin.

According to him, the move would enhance return of peace to the North-East and lead to improved unity of the nation.

The elders traced the Boko Haram insurgency to poverty and lack of employment opportunities. Said Alkali: “The Boko Haram crisis festered because of poor education and vocational skills and the abandonment of agriculture, the traditional means of livelihood made the youths of the area to be willing targets for recruitment.”

Targets for recruitment

*President Goodluck Jonathan (second right) cutting a tape to commission the new Library Complex at the Yobe State University named after him. With him is Governor Ibrahim Gaidam (third right), Education Minister Ruqayyatu Ahmad Rufai (first right) and the Vice Chancellor Professor Musa Alabe in Damaturu.

How Borno, Yobe received Jonathan

BY NDAHI MARAMA

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to the epicenters of the Boko Haram insurgency – Borno and Yobe states last week, the first he was visiting the areas since the insurgency assumed a more deadly dimension is still raising dusts in the polity.

It came after a series of criticisms from the opposition that the President had neglected the area in spite of the challenges that section of the country was facing. It was therefore not surprising that the governments, elders and people of the two states were ready with a long list of requests for the president.

Accompanied by the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamaga Tukur, service chiefs and ministers among others, Mr. President and his entourage arrived at Maiduguri International Airport in a Presidential Jet at about 10:33am on Thursday.

He was then received by both federal and state government officials including Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State and some traditional rulers before departing for Damaturu, the Yobe State capital via a Chopper at exactly 10:40am.

He flew into Damaturu at 11:00am, paid a courtesy call on Governor Ibrahim Gaidam at the council chambers of the C M Y K

Government House, after which he briefly met with the traditional rulers and solicited their support in the fight against terrorism.

Insurgency has retarded peace, devt – Gaidam: During the courtesy call, Gaidam lamented that the Boko Haram insurgency had retarded development and service delivery across the state. He told Mr. President that prior to the insecurity challenge, the state used to be adjudged as one of the most peaceful states in the country, the people were known for their hospitality and affection towards strangers and co-existed peacefully irrespective of ethnic, religious or political inclinations.

Assistance to security operatives Gaidam said it was unfortunate that during the last one year or so, the state government had continuously provided assistance to the security operatives.

This according to him includes financial package to the families of the operatives in the event of death or injury and relief to affected people like compensation for victims, especially innocent civilians, pointing out that the money should have been channeled towards developmental projects in the state.

He said the accumulated

expenditure for the state government is about N4.8 billion since the beginning of the insurgency to date.

President Jonathan, who dismissed as untrue accusations that he had abandoned the area, had an interactive session with stakeholders which include Governor Gaidam, his Deputy, Engineer Abubakar Aliyu, former governor now Senator, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, Senators Alkali Jajere and Ahmed Lawan, House of Representative Members, former minister of Finance Adamu Ciroma among others at Wawa Hall.

Elders call for amnesty, Marshall Plan: Elders at the session called on President Jonathan to immediately grant amnesty for Boko Haram members and initiate a Marshall plan for the reconstruction of the areas destroyed as a result of the Boko Haram crisis and rehabilitation of the people, particularly widows and orphans who have lost their bread winners in the attacks.

Convene stakeholders meeting – Senator Ahmed Lawal: The first speaker, Senator Ahmed Lawal urged the President to immediately convene a meeting of stakeholders in order to resuscitate the Lake Chad Development Commission which offers job opportunity to the people of the North- East sub region as a way of helping to

combat the crisis via poverty alleviation Let’s address agric, health and educ issues – Adamu Ciroma Former Minister of Finance and elder statesman, Alhaji Adamu Chiroma said though it was difficult five years ago for him and others in the state to envisage a crisis of this magnitude in the hitherto peaceful state, urged that the crisis should be tackled squarely.

He said the Federal Government need to face the issues of agriculture, education and health with more purpose to ensure economic emancipation of the North and resolution of the security crisis.

,

BOKO HARAM:

According to him, since the creation of Yobe in 1991, the people had been living peacefully with one another irrespective of tribal or religious affiliations but due to the neglect of agricultural development, health care delivery and poor education, the state started witnessing violence from 2002 which had now aggravated to Boko Haram and terrorism perpetrated by jobless youths.

Long years of North-East marginalization cause of insecurity – Bukar Abba Ibrhaim In his own contribution, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim old the President that the continuous marginalization of the NorthEast since 1960 to date was responsible for the security crisis in Borno and Yobe. He appealed to the Federal Government to redress the neglect by providing dividends of democracy to the people of the region.

My govt has been fair to

The Boko Haram crisis festered because of poor education and vocational skills and the abandonment of agriculture, the traditional means of livelihood made the youths of the area to be willing targets for recruitment Ciroma urged the Federal Government to create an Emergency Intervention Fund of N100 billion for the next five years to Yobe state alone, whereby N20 billion would be given to the state each year. He also said the Almajiri Model School system should be enhanced, noting that if implemented these policies would go a long way in nipping the problem of Boko Haram insurgency affecting the Northern region.

Start oil exploration in Lake Chad – Ibrahim Alkali: Another elder statesman, Air Commodore Ibrahim Alkali (rtd), who read out the position of the elders of the state, called on the Federal Government to start urgently the

,

North-East – Jonathan: Reacting to the requests, Jonathan said he could grant amnesty to members of Boko Haram because it would amount to granting amnesty to ghosts.

On marginalization of the North East, the President said, his administration has not marginalized the region, as he took an oath of office to serve all Nigerians irrespective of where they reside. He specifically recalled that when he took over the mantle of leadership, his administration approved the construction and rehabilitation of federal roads in the NorthEast, in which, the zone benefited more than any other Continues on page 43

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 —43

I can't be paranoid of Bamidele — Sen Ojudu He should stop seeing me as the obstacle to his ambition

other progressives of Nigeria politics. I know where I belong and I will never shift.

Did you also work closely with Engineer Segun Oni before he was ousted by the Court of Appeal?

How could I? Ask Fayemi. Ask Asiwaju. Ask Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. Ask Falana. Do textual analysis of my publications. Take a look at my public engagements and you will know which side I was and I am now. That is not to say that Oni is not my friend. He is and will continue to be. We belong to the same group as Fayemi in Ekiti.

I was with Fayemi from day one to the day he won and those who know me unlike Opeyemi who showed appearance only when he thought things were going Fayemi’s way, will tell you my house in Ekiti was the centre of activities from day one of our bid for the governorship of Ekiti.

When we lost we gathered there and cried, when we won we celebrated there.

What do you think is responsible for the rift between you and Bamidele?

It is about ambition and the presumption that he must win at all cost.

Are you not disturbed that the altercation between you and Bamidele might affect the chances of your party in 2014?

Certainly not! The party and the governor are doing well in Ekiti.

I would not have responded to this but to set the record straight as requested by you. This is not important for our work in Ekiti.

What is important is providing good roads, good hospitals, decent schools, clean environment, reducing unemployment, fighting poverty, empowering our women, building the next generation of leaders and building a good image for Ekiti and the governor is doing a pretty job of that.

Bamidele has his right to aim to become whatever he wants to become. Let him go there and do his work and leave the rest to the people. He should stop seeing me as the obstacle to his ambition.

How far do you think the newly formed All Progressive Congress, APC, can go in gaining control of power at the centre?

It may just be the best thing to happen to this country in the circumstance we find ourselves.

The PDP has found its match in APC and it’s just a matter of time for us to tear the umbrella and sweep off the dirt.

The Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, has already passed second reading, how optimistic are you that the bill will become an act?

It will be after it has gone through all the processes. No bill comes perfect. One or two things must be added and subtracted and this for me is what will happen in the case of PIB. There are things that are unacceptable that will have to be taken out.

elders who were agitating for the withdrawal of the Joint Task Force (JTF) and granting amnesty to Boko Haram.

The forum had in attendance top politicians, traditional/ religious leaders, academicians and diplomats from Borno, including elder statesman, Dr. Ali Monguno, former Governors Mohammed Goni, Ashiekh Jarma and Ali Modu Sheriff.

Those who spoke on the security challenges of the state include Professor Nur Alkali, former ViceChancellor University of Maiduguri, Alhaji Baba Basharu, Borno state Chairman of the ruling PDP, Barrister

Mohammed Tahir Monguno, Chairman Borno House of Representative Caucus, Dr. Shettima Ali Monguno Conditions for withdrawing JTF On demand for withdrawal of the JTF, Jonathan challenged the elders to fulfill a tough condition, which no one was ready to meet.

His words: “If anyone of you wants the Federal Government to withdraw JTF troops from the state, you should come and sign an agreement that if anybody was killed after signing the document, I will hold you responsible according to law of the land.”

SENATOR Babafemi Ojudu, who represents Ekiti Central Senatorial District in the Senate on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigerian, ACN, in this interview speaks on the politics of Ekiti State ahead the 2014 governorship election and debunks claims that he is paranoid of Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele as alleged by the latter. Excerpts:

C

OULD you react to claims that in 2011 the ACN directed Mr Opeyemi to hand over the senatorial ticket to you?

Isn’t that laughable? How could somebody who is so popular be asked to drop a ticket for someone who is unpopular? Is there any logic in that? Opeyemi is deluded. Let us leave him to wallow in his delusion.

Is it also true that you are paranoid about Bamidele because you feel he is scheming to go after your seat in 2015?

Paranoid? I have done political work in Ekiti State for more than 15 years before he discovered Ekiti. Is he alleging that now?

Yesterday it was Otunba Adebayo he alleged was trying to take his chance of running for Senate from him and not me. If you know the battle Otunba fought on his behalf and the way he goes about condemning Otunba now you will know the kind of person Opeyemi is. And he is doing that because the man said he could not support him against Governor Kayode Fayemi.

You have been accused of fueling a crisis between Governor Fayemi and Bamidele?

I don’t have to do that and those who know me and my antecedent will know I am not given to such.

Ask Opeyemi if I am the one who goes about saying that he expended N1Billion on Governor Fayemi’s campaign. Ask him if I am the author of the several tape recordings of his meetings with the opposition in Abuja and

Akure that are flying around all over Ekiti. Ask him why he is not in good terms with Otunba Niyi Adebayo, his major supporter in Ekiti during the course of our primary elections.

Ask him if I was the one who set up campaign structures for him in all the wards of Ekiti in preparation for his so called bid for governorship. Ask him if I am the one responsible for his touted ambition.

Ask him if I am the pastors who have pushed him out to aim at what he could not get. I do not know what is between him and Fayemi and I have never discussed Opeyemi with anyone. In fact, it was Opeyemi who has tried to discuss Fayemi with me. When he tried to discuss his ambition and Fayemi with me at the launch of Emeka Nwosu’s book I refused to pay him attention and I will not no matter what he says about me.

,

BY DAPO AKINREFON

•Ojudu:I have never discussed Opeyemi with anyone Fayose before joining the ACN? Never! You know me. You know my antecedent. You know my politics. I have never departed from who I am since I was in the university. This is a matter of public knowledge. I fought

Isn’t that laughable? How could somebody who is so popular be asked to drop a ticket for someone who is unpopular? Is there any logic in that?

This is typical of Opeyemi, go and ask everyone who has had any dealing with him, either at the student union level, Oodua Self Determination Groups level in Lagos State or in exile in America, they will tell you who he is Were you at any time a member of the PDP? Were you at anytime a close ally of former governor of the state, Mr Ayo

,

Fayose from the moment he was sworn in as governor of Ekiti State and I didn’t let go until I got him out of there. You know how long I have been an ally of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr. Femi Falana, late Beko Ransome Kuti, Alao Aka Bashorun, Rauf Aregbesola, Campaign for Democracy, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Afenifere Renewal Group, and

How Borno, Yobe received Jonathan Continues from page 42 zone across the country.

He also told the stakeholders that the Federal Government was giving oil exploration in the Lake Chad Basin appropriate attention, adding that last year alone, a total of N10 billion was expended and for this year, government has earmarked N16 billion to encourage Inland Sedimentary Basins, as according to him, Seismic Data on oil exploration is the responsibility of oil companies and not the Federal Government.

Although the President was silent on the N100 billion requests for emergency intervention funds,

he said the Federal Government has already earmarked billions of naira as ecological funds, in addition to the setting up of agency for its management for the good people of the country.

On the resuscitation of the Lake Chad Development Commission, the President said it required a huge amount of money, as according to him to transfer water from Central Africa to the Lake is expensive as government needs about $14 billion to embark on such projects. He noted that Nigeria needs the assistance of from foreign countries adding that countries around the basin

including Nigeria cannot raise the huge amount.

Jonathan commissions projects: While in Damaturu, the president commissioned some projects including the newly constructed library complex at the Yobe State University which was named after him, Red Bricks Housing estate along Gujuba Road and the Ring Road dual carriage way in the state capital.

He therefore donated the sum of N200 million to the State University Library.

The Maiduguri forum: In Maiduguri, the Borno state capital where Jonathan spent a night, he also met with Borno

C M Y K

44—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, MARCH 13 , 2013

No zone can intimidate Jonathan — Clark Continued from Page 14 dential election successfully and you were ready to help him achieve his ambition by voting for him provided he remains in office for only one tenure, from 2011-2015. In your permutation, that was the agreement.

"Having emphasized that there was no such agreement, but in defence of the concept of agreement and for the sake of argument, if there was such an agreement, did you keep to your own side of the said agreement? Was that why you directed your state delegates at the PDP Presidential primaries to vote for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the primaries and when he lost the ticket, you and your state went ahead to vote for a rival political party, the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, in the presidential election as shown in the results outlined below?

"You will recall that in the PDP Presidential primaries held at the Eagle Square, you directed your state delegates to give Alhaji Atiku Abubakar 94 votes and a paltry 16 votes to President Jonathan. Again with the defeat of your candidate in the primaries, your state voted overwhelmingly for Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) of the CPC who scored a total vote of 652,574 against President Jonathan’s 321,429 votes in the Presidential election. ‘’Paradoxically, in the gubernatorial election that followed, you defeated the CPC governorship candidate. This clearly shows your insincerity and dishonesty to the purported agreement which to my mind existed only in the figment of your own imagination and by extension a product of your obsession with the Northern agenda in Nigeria. In fact, President Jonathan won convincingly in the North-Central states except your own Niger State.

"I should not have bothered myself to reply to your fabricated lies and attempts to confuse Nigerians and blackmail, cajole and intimidate Mr. President into submission as it relates to the 2015 election which you are interested in contesting. This is because I am already very impressed with the various comments on your current schemes particularly the reply by one of my daughters, Annkio Briggs.

On provision of water to the citizenry

"Just because you are interested in contesting the 2015 Presidential election, you have been trying to impress

the audience by blindly criticizing the Federal Government and attempting to give the false impression that you will do better if given the opportunity. Remember how at the recent Presidential Summit on Water held on Monday, February 18, 2013 at the Presidential Villa, you goofed when you tried one of your tricks by saying that any government that fails to supply water for its people is liable to be sued by them.

"You will also recall that His Excellency, Senator David Mark, GCON, true to type, succinctly replied by correcting the misrepresentation of facts by you when he said that the provision of water for the citizens of the states and local government councils is the responsibility of the various states and local government councils and, therefore, if the pumps and the pipes in Niger State do not produce water, the people of Niger State have the right to sue the governor of the state. I am sure that you understood that, that was the reason for the thunderous ovation which applauded Senator David Mark’s response because it dwarfed your insinuation that it is the sole responsibility of the Federal Government to provide water for the citizenry all over the country.

On Jonathan's second term

"Back to the issue at hand, I wonder what makes the issue of President Jonathan contesting the 2015 Presidency a mere speculation, according to you. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides for two tenure of four years each after two democratically conducted elections. Apart from the illegality of the purported agreement with the northern state governors, such a mindset violates the letter and spirit of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. There is no speculation that the PDP is planning to impose President Jonathan as the sole candidate of the party in the upcoming convention.

"The practice in democratic Presidential system of Government is that an incumbent President remains the sole candidate of a political party at the party’s convention, if he or she is willing to contest for a second term in office.

This is the practice in the United States of America from where Nigeria copied her own model of Presidential System of Government.

"My dear Governor, you may wish to find out whether any

candidate in the Democratic Party in the United States of America contested the Primaries with President Bill Clinton when he decided to stand for a second tenure.

Again find out whether any Republican Party faithful contested the Presidential Primaries with George W. Bush when he desired for a second tenure and recently whether any Democratic Party member contested with President Barack Obama when he offered for a second tenure in 2012.

"Similarly, when the American type of Presidential system was adopted in Nigeria in 1978/1979, former President Shehu Shagari was the sole candidate of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, when he chose to run for a second tenure in the 1983 Presidential election. Or do you think there was dearth of qualified candidates in that era? Note that in the words of Dr. K. O. Mbadiwe, 'the NPN had many men of timber and caliber who were ready to contest the Presidential Primaries if Alhaji Shehu Shagari had not indicated his intention to contest.' ‘’The list is endless. In 2003, it was only through the instigation of some governors led

by Chief James Onanefe Ibori who were disappointed that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar stepped down for his boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that Dr. Alex Ekwueme was persuaded to contest the Presidential Primaries against the party’s decision.

However, he was defeated by President Obasanjo who had the party’s blessings. Many Nigerians will recall the reverberating rendition of 'Obasanjo, Obasanjo, Obasanjo, …, E-k-w-u-e-m-e“ from Chief Tom Ikimi’s voice at the Eagle Square during the vote counting at the primaries.

A sitting President is entitled to a second term

‘’To lend credence to the fact that a sitting President is entitled to a second term, the ambitious and unpatriotic governors and some Northern conservative politicians confirmed this constitutional provision by saying that it was the second term of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua that the North wanted to complete in 2011. In other words, late President Yar’Adua was entitled to eight years in office but Dr. Jonathan is entitled to only a single term contrary to the 1999 Constitution. Is that not double standard? What a shame!

Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians

"For the umpteenth time, it must be emphasized that Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians as enshrined in the nation’s Constitution. All Nigerian citizens are equal and can all aspire to the highest office in this country and should remain in office in accordance with the Constitution of Nigeria.

"We can no longer tolerate a situation where some people believe that they are superior to others and others are inferior citizens who must not enjoy the same privileges they enjoy. Our centenary celebration is based on the equality of all citizens and we must be tolerant of ourselves now more than ever before. In all civilised democracies where the minority and majority ethnic groups exist, it has never been the prerogative of the majority ethnic group to lord it over the minorities.

"For instance, in Great Britain from whom we got our Independence, there are the English, the Welsh and the Scottish. The English are the majority, followed by the Scottish and then the Welsh. Each of these ethnic groups has produced the Prime Minister of Great Britain based on the quality of the candidate. In fact, in recent times the Scottish has come to produce more Prime Ministers than the English who are the majority.

"Suffice it to mention that in the United States of America, President Barack Obama is a clear example that any intelligent and qualified person can be the President. Who would have ever thought that an African-American with more blood relations in Kenya than in America, will become the President of the United States of America in 2008 and re-elected as President for a second term in 2012?

North has ruled for over 38 years "In the 52 years of our Independence as a nation, the North has ruled for over 38 years while all other Nigerians remained patient and loyal; the Yorubas have ruled for over 12 years, and the Ibos for only six months. The minority ethnic groups, now known as the South-South, has never ruled this country until the unfortunate death of President Yar’Adua after an unnecessary constitutional crisis.

"In 2011, Nigerians voluntarily voted massively for President Jonathan and are ready to vote for him again in 2015 if he performs to the satisfaction of Nigerians, and he has two more years of his first tenure to con-

tinue his works. It is, therefore, unacceptable for any group of people to gang up to intimidate and frustrate him out of office by engaging in series of despicable crisis where people are killed, houses and property destroyed.

We are being harassed by politically motivated Boko Haram

"Youth Corp members maimed and killed as demonstrated in the post-election violence in Bauchi State after the 2011 Presidential Election in which my nephew Mr. Elliot Adowe whom I educated at the University of Calabar was brutally murdered along with nine other Corp members.

"Today we are being harassed by politically motivated Boko Haram. Yet, I still believe in a united Nigeria based on equality of her citizens where the words of our National Anthem are obeyed and practised. And to the chagrin of his political opponents and detractors, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan did not only visit the Boko Haram infested zones recently, but went further to spend the night in Maiduguri, the headquarters of Boko Haram, where he had a direct and frank interaction with the people and the Emirs. He freely toured the states inspecting and commissioning projects.

"Yet the verdict of these unpatriotic detractors was that the tour was meaningless. Where do we go from here Mr. Governor, the Chief Servant of the People? Have you as the chairman of the powerful 19 Northern States Governors Forum ever visited Yobe and Borno States?

We must remain united andwait for our turn

"My Dear Governor Aliyu, to my mind, a man of your calibre should know the implication and consequential result of the inflammatory and provocative statements you are making. The point I must stress as I end this Open Letter to you, is that as a people, we must remain united and be patient to wait for our turn and not to harass and intimidate an incumbent President to abandon his constitutional right to seek a second term in office as provided for in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, just because he is from the minority. Enough is enough, my dear Governor.

"Let us celebrate the centenary of our coming together as one indivisible country in peace, unity and equality of all citizens. We need one another to survive as a nation."

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 45

46—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, MARCH 13, 2013

When Rivers TIMARIV: goes to war against traffic offenders •Kicks off operation restore sanity on Port Harcourt roads

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI, PORT HARCOURT

W

HEN Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi assumed office as governor of Rivers State, one of the indices that defined the critical insecurity in the state was road users’ unreserved disrespect for traffic codes. From government officials, commercial drivers, criminals on the wheel, cyclists (before they were banned), banks dispatch vans to security patrols, hardly anyone respected decorum on the roads, especially in the capital city of Port Harcourt. Added to the impunity with which vendors and shop owners overlapped trading into major motorways, traffic jams were such a constant feature and made driving on Port Harcourt roads a daily nightmare for motorists and commuters.

success of the government by taking this appointment,” he explained.

Settling down to the mandate: With a structure in place in May 2010, the Nelson Jaja-led team has leaped from a foundation of 300 to a current figure of 756 personnel comprising essentially traffic marshals trained as paramilitary to carry out the authority’s mandate.

With a head office at Sani Abacha Road, Port Harcourt, the authority has six zonal offices and several annexes all interacting for enforcement of traffic law in the state.

TIMARIV is empowered to prevent people from committing traffic offences. But when offences are committed, the authority ensures offenders are apprehended and punished within the provision of the law.

TIMARIV works round the clock as it patrols, clears all road obstructions, ensures lawful use of bus-stops and terminals as well as safeguards highways from encroachment by hawkers

•Kicks off operation restore sanity on Port Harcourt roads

To remedy the situation, the state enacted the law establishing TIMARIV, acronym for Rivers State Road Traffic Management Authority. Signed into law by the Governor in December 2009, the authority first evolved with a governing board.

Later, he thought it wise to dissolve the board in preference for a team to first set up and run the agency before bringing it on board. The responsibility to set the foundation team rested on the shoulders of Mr. Nelson Jaja, Executive Director of Monier Construction Company, MCC, who out of his tight business schedule, took on the assignment as Controller General, CG, of TIMARIV. Mr. Jaja told Vanguard Features, VF, that his steering the ship of an interventionist outfit to ease traffic in Rivers is purely voluntary. “I have been impressed with the way Governor Amaechi came in to serve his people with a lot of guts. I felt anything I can do to identify with the government was worthwhile. So I was not hesitant to contribute my quota to the

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Tight business schedule

•Nelson Jaja...contending with traffic issues in Rivers

all road users to imbibe a culture of decency on the road. In the fines served on impounded vehicles, arrest and prosecution of offenders and regular enlightenment, we are making steady progress but disobedience is far from being eradicated.”

Speaking about the effectiveness of the authority, Emmanuel Aruya, a protocol officer with an oil firm and regular traveller on the Port Harcourt intra-city roads said: “TIMARIV’s duty on the roads has significantly improved travel time from point A to point B. Anyone who has been around long enough can attest to this improvement. People use to

,

Death threats, attacks, petitions and abuses are the rewards we get for easing traffic in Port Harcourt

and other petty traders.

Speaking on its operations, the CG said: “We are further empowered to organise enlightenment campaigns, workshops and symposium to educate the public on traffic matters. We are expected to be the first to arrive to give prompt attention to victims in the event of accidents. We ensure that roadside intersections constituting gridlocks are controlled and kept free. Our main target is to ensure that the traffic system in the state is such that commuters get to their destinations on time.”

A no nonsense change agent and its perils: “So far, TIMARIV has impounded over 10,000 vehicles for various offences.

Added to improved road infrastructure, we are gradually changing hearts and minds of

break all traffic rules - drive against traffic, do dangerous overtaking; traders taking over major motorways, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, illegal parking which usually lead to gridlocks that last for several hours. Today, there is far more sanity on the roads as the fear of TIMARIV is the beginning of wisdom for motorists.”

However, the acknowledged progress the authority has achieved for traffic management in Port Harcourt is in jeopardy as its personnel have been accused of under hand practices. TIMARIV marshals are often in the news for all the wrong reasons , if not for alleged use of force on offenders, then its for extortion on the roads.

Controller General, Nelson Jaja’s first reaction to these

allegations is that TIMARIV officials are the ones who actually suffer attacks.

“Everyone acknowledges that it would be near-impossible to drive in Port Harcourt in absence of the authority, but every traffic offender sees TIMARIV officials as enemies. Death threats, attacks, petitions and abuses are the rewards we get for easing traffic in Port Harcourt.

“Our marshals have been killed. They are attacked by individuals, sometimes law enforcement agencies and communities. In one such instance, a man bit off a TIMARIV Marshall’s finger, chewed and swallowed it right to his face. It is such a thankless public service,” Jaja lamented.

The CG noted that all manner of persons who think they are above the law react with unpredictable aggression against men of the authority when found wanting.

Security personnel “Personally as the authority’s head, I have been shot at by security personnel at Garrison area in Port Harcourt, and threatened several times, at other times by self identified militants.” And those who shout extortion, he explained, are no less sincere, terming them as mainly offenders who try to bribe TIMARIV officials to evade payment of fines.

“The policy guiding payment of fines does not encourage extortion. I have repeatedly enlightened the public. When your car is impounded for traffic offence you are served a charge sheet specifying the rate for the offense and a designated bank

account where you are expected to pay that fine. Under no condition should cash be paid to any marshal. The charge sheet further gives the road user the right to refuse fine for option to go to court if he thinks his right is being violated in which case the court determines whether he is guilty and liable to pay the fine or not.

There is no room for extortion or aggression as long as people comply with the law.”

Within the limits of human frailty, Jaja noted of the public complaints that “In every 12 there is a Judas, but TIMARIV marshals are highly trained to be disciplined and civil on duty.

I can tell you that majority of those who have issues with the authority are traffic offenders who resist punishment apart from some charlatans who pose as TIMARIV officials. However, we take cognisance of the public concerns with intent to improving the quality of our service and performance.”

On the immediate, the authority now captures video evidence of offenders at the point of violating the law to prove beyond doubt that the offence was committed.

Traffic activities On the long term, plans are underway to install sophisticated devices in the city with central portal server fitted to monitor traffic activities. This will make it easy to track violators without recourse to confrontation. The authority also looks forward to a TIMARIV that could track and serve a violator a charge sheet, apprehend or prosecute him days after committing a traffic offence based on the technology installed. Some of these improvements would not be achieved without revisiting the state traffic law.

Jaja also pointed to the challenge of funding. The law provides for funding through grants as may be appropriated by government or well-meaning corporate bodies or individuals.

This, he noted, places “the authority begging cap in hand for appropriations that do not come all the time and hardly adequate. The authority has zero allocation in the current budget, yet we are bound by the law to remit all fines collected into government coffers. We have had the benefit of patronage from some corporate bodies, but the bottom line is fund is never enough.

The implication is management has had to contract critical aspects of our operations including biometric, towing, psychiatrics, and vehicles as paying salaries and keeping up with duty becomes a major limitation”.

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, MARCH 13, 2013— 47

Implementing Spanish citizenship rights

BY VERA SAMUEL ANYAGAFU

W

After years of neglect, Oloibiri, Odi, celebrate govt’s presence

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

Y

OU could feel the excitement in the air when the people of Oloibiri and Odi turned out at different occasions to witness the commissioning of some projects in their area by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. Managing Director of the NDDC, Dr. Chris Oboh, assured in his address that the Commission would continue to take steps to redress challenges of neglect in Oloibiri and Odi in the region.

The story of neglect is not strange to the two communities.

It would be recalled that oil was first struck in commercial quantity in Nigeria at Oloibiri in 1958.

But sadly, this discovery did not in any way translate into development for the community locat-

Chairman of Oloibiri Council of Chiefs, Chief Foster Inengeti Ikpesu, expressed gratitude to the interventionist agency set up by the Federal Government to cushion the pains of the region, adding that the Commission had given them a sense of belonging. He recaptured the long years of neglect of the area when he said that the story of Oloibiri had been that of rejection, environmental degradation which arose from total abandonment of the area before and after oil exploration in the area.

Ikpesu said: “The story of Oloibiri has been that of exploitation, rape of our natural wealth, destruction of aquatic life, environmental degradation, neglect and total abandonment. Our case is both peculiar and pathetic be-

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The story of Oloibiri has been that of exploitation, rape of our natural wealth, destruction of aquatic life, environmental degradation, neglect and total abandonment

ed in Ogbia local government area of Bayelsa State. The area suffered ruins and devastation from oil exploration. Matters became worse for the community when the oil wells dried up and they were completely abandoned.

Odi also shares a similar pain of neglect after the military invaded the area in 1999, destroying the economy of the people. The sad situation apparently explained why the communities turned out in their rich attire to welcome the NDDC team when it commissioned projects in the areas. At Oloibiri, the NDDC commissioned a link bridge, landing jetty, potable water and electrification projects.

Speaking during the event,

,

cause exploration activities have ceased in Oloibiri for some years now, which prompted the oil companies and development agencies set up by the Federal Government to completely forget the first goose that laid the golden egg,” adding that they were happy with what the Commission was doing in their area. The people also commended the Bayelsa representatives on the board of the Commission, Edi Orubo, who led the NDDC team to the community.

It was a similar story at Odi when the NDDC commissioned the 18-kilometre Odi/Trofani road which connects Odi, Aduku and Trofani communities. Chief Asherifa Torru, of the Trofani tradition-

al institution conveyed the gratitude of the community to the Commission for the project. He said it would further open the area to development, adding: “Our hearts are filled with profound joy on the commissioning and handing over of the Odi-Trofani road. The entire Trofani community is highly appreciative of the efforts of the NDDC in opening our town”.

Some youths who also spoke said the road would connect them with economic opportunities outside their community.

NDDC also installed a 33Kv transmission line and carried out rehabilitation work on some lines in Odi town. These have made it possible for the area to enjoy power from the Kolo Creek gas turbine in Kaima.

Orubo said the commissioned projects were part of efforts to make Odi community recover from the ruins of the 1999 military invasion of the area. It would be recalled that the Nigerian Army invaded Odi community in 1999 reportedly in search of militants allegedly behind the brutal murder of some senior security personnel. They completely destroyed Odi. According to Mr. Michael Apia, it would take Odi several years to recover from the destruction that attended the invasion by the Nigerian Army. Meantime, like several others, he was excited with the projects commissioned by the NDDC. He described the projects as another leap for the community, adding that as youths, they would ensure that the projects were protected from any form of attack.

On his part, the traditional ruler of Odi, the Amananowei of Odi kingdom, Chief Shine Andrew Apre, said the projects had created fresh windows of development opportunities for the area.

,

*Eddy Orubo cuts the tape to commission the Odi-Trofani Road

HEN it comes to is sues relating to implementing regulations governing the rights, social integration and freedom of foreign nationals in Spain, Spanish government leaves no room for compromise. In this regard, therefore, Nigerian nationals are promptly advised to abide by all instructions to avoid being caught in any kind of scandal.

Citizenship: You are deemed Spanish citizens of origin, when you are born of a Spanish mother or father or born in Spain by alien parents, and if at least one of them was also born in Spain, except in the case of children born of a diplomatic or consular officers. Citizenship right is also applicable to those born in Spain of alien parents if both of them are stateless or if the legislation of neither grants the child citizenship. In that case, a procedure may be carried out at the Civil Registry of domicile to declare Spanish citizenship

Citizenship by virtue of residence: Acquisition of citizenship by virtue of residence requires the individual to be legally resident in Spain for a continuous period of ten years immediately prior to the application. In some cases the required period of residence can be reduced depending on the status of the individual in question, but in all you must prove good civic conduct and sufficient degree of integration in Spanish society.

It is important to note that all stipulated/required documentations must be submitted at the Civil Registry of the place of applicants domicile.

Discretional naturalization: In the case herein, acquisition of naturalization, which is discretional and not subject to the general rules of administrative procedure shall be granted or not, discretionally, by the Government, by means of a Royal Decree, after evaluating the concurrence of exceptional circumstances.

In some cases the required period of residence can be reduced depending on the status of the individual in question, but in all, you must prove good civic conduct and sufficient degree of integration in Spanish society

as a mere presumption.

You also have the Spanish citizenship right when born in Spain of uncertain parentage. In this case, therefore, minors whose first known place of stay is in Spain shall be presumed born in Spain and attain citizenship right.

An alien, younger than eighteen years of age, adopted by a Spaniard shall acquire Spanish citizenship of origin as of the adoption. If the adoptee should be older than eighteen, he may opt for Spanish citizenship of origin within two years following the adoption.

Naturalization by option The Spanish law allows option as benefit to certain aliens who have met with certain laid down conditions, in order for them to acquire Spanish citizenship and in this care herein, same as stated above is added up with that of an individual who is a minor or incapacitated, and in this case therefore, a legal representative of the individual opting shall carry out the declaration of option, and must be authorized by the Officer in Charge of the Civil Registry of residence.

,

Beware that in the event of having acquired Spanish citizenship by residence, naturalization or option, you are mandated, if older than fourteen years of age and capable of issuing a statement yourself to swear or promise loyalty to the King and obedience to the Constitution and the laws. You shall also declare that you renounce prior citizenship, except if you fall within any of the cases of entitlement to double citizenship.

It is important also to note that an individual who has held and used Spanish citizenship continuously over ten years, in good faith, on the basis of a title registered at the Civil Registry shall be entitled to that citizenship.

Spanish citizenship shall not be lost even though the title registered at the Civil Registry is annulled. The individual concerned must have maintained an active attitude regarding that possession and use of Spanish citizenship, which means he must have behaved and considered himself to be a Spaniard, both in the enjoyment of such rights as well as in fulfillment of duties in relation to the bodies of the Spanish State.

48 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY,

MARCH 13 , 2013

Malian media protest editor’s arrest president, but there has been no official word from the authorities about the case.

The letter also complained that the military top brass were living in comfort in Bamako while their

M

ALI’s private media have launched a news blackout after an editor was arrested for publishing a letter about poor conditions from soldiers fighting Islamist militants in the north.

Le Republicain editor Boukary Daou was arrested last Wednesday and has yet to be charged.

The soldiers said they lacked equipment and rations - the same complaints made by those behind last year’s March coup. Mali’s interim government has not commented on the arrest or strike.

‘Unpatriotic’ The BBC’s Alex Duval Smith in the capital, Bamako, says about 40 newspaper titles are published each week - and none have appeared on news stands

Recall troop from Mali — Chadian opposition

T

Malian journalists protesting arrest of Editor in Bamako yesterday in the city on Tuesday morning.

The northern offensive against Islamist insurgents began in January 2013 with the

help of French forces The 16 local private FM radio stations are either silent or only playing music, she says.

Communications

Minister Manga Dembele has said Mr Daou acted irresponsibly and unpatriotically by publishing the soldiers’ open letter to the

Venezuela to probe allegations of cancer poisoning

V

ENEZUELA will set up a formal inquiry into suspicions that the late President Hugo Chavez’s cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad, the government said.

The accusation has been derided by critics of the government, who view it as a typical Chavez-style conspiracy theory intended to feed fears of “imperialist” threats to Venezuela’s socialist system and distract people from daily problems.

Still, acting President Nicolas Maduro vowed to push through a serious investigation into the claim, which was first raised by Chavez himself after he was diagnosed with the disease in 2011.

“We will seek the truth,” Maduro told regional TV network Telesur late on Monday. “We have the intuition that our commander Chavez was poisoned by dark forces that wanted him out of the way.”

Foreign scientists will be

invited to join a government commission, the OPEC nation’s acting leader said.

Maduro, 50, is Chavez’s handpicked successor and

is running as the government’s candidate in a snap presidential election on April 14 that was triggered by his boss’s death last week.

ESIDENTS of the Falkland Islands started voting yesterday in a sovereignty referendum that seeks to counter Argentina’s increasingly assertive claim over the Britishruled territory.

Diplomatic tension between Britain and Argentina has flared up after more than three decades since they went to war over the South Atlantic archipelago, and that has unsettled some of the roughly 2,500 islanders.

With patriotic feelings running high, Falklands-born and

long-term residents will cast ballots in the twoday referendum in which they will be asked whether they want to stay a British Overseas Territory. Officials are expected to announce the result at about 2300 GMT after polls close tomorrow.

An overwhelming “ yes” vote is likely, prompting Argentina to dismiss the referendum as a meaningless publicity stunt. A high turnout is expected, however, as islanders embrace it as a chance to make their voices heard.

HE Chadian National People’s Peace Organisation, CNPPO, has urged the country’s government to withdraw its troops from Mali and Central African Republic forthwith.

Speaking on the involvement of Chadian soldiers in the two countries, CNPPO said the continuous stay of the soldiers is wasteful, and will be counter productive in the war torn countries.

In a statement made available to Vanguard yesterday, the Executive Chairman of the organisation, Mr. Yousuf Ambar Adam said that the Chadian

government the main priority of the Chadian government is to focus on achieving peace, national unity and Socioeconoic development.

Ambar also said that CNPPO stands against any Injustice that would jeopardise the interest of the nation’sr founding fathers that strived hard for its national Independence.

CNPPO was formed with a vision to help Chad Republic and the world at large to reduce or if possible eradicate the scourge of unethical systems such as bribery and corruption, breach of oath of office and trust in the leadership of Chad Republic.

Sudans strike oil deal

S

Falklands’ referendum endorses sovereignty

R

colleagues suffered on the frontline.

Capt Amadou Sanogo led the March 2012 coup saying the army was illequipped to fight a rebellion led by Tuareg separatist fighters in the north.

Clone photograph of purported mother of late Hugo Chavez being consoled by the Iranian President Mahoud Ahmedinajed

UDAN and South Sudan have agreed to resume the flow of southern oil exports through pipelines in Sudan within two weeks, more than a year after Juba shut down its entire output.

An African Union mediator announced the deal yesterday which resumes trade between the two countries after South Sudan shut down its 350,000 barrel-perday output in January last year in a dispute with Khartoum over fees.

The armies of the two

countries have also agreed to withdraw troops from contested border areas, in the latest attempt to set up a buffer zone after fighting last year.

Idris Mohammed Abdel Gadir, Sudan’s chief negotiator, signed a deal with his South Sudanese counterpart Pagan Amum setting out a timeline for resumption of oil pumping after four days of African Unionbrokered talks in Addis Ababa.

EU sanctions target Iranian judges, media

T

HE European Union yesterday imposed sanctions on an Iranian police unit monitoring the Internet, as well on several judges and media bosses the bloc blames for human rights violations in the Islamic Republic.

The sanctions reflect mounting concerns about

human rights in Iran and are separate from measures against Tehran over its nuclear program, which governments in the European Union and elsewhere suspect has a covert military dimension.

The move brings to nearly 90 the number of

people targeted by EU asset freezes and visa bans over concerns about human rights in Iran.

Among those newly listed is a judge, Morteza Kiasati, who imposed death sentences on four Iranian Arab political prisoners.

“They were arrested,

tortured and hanged without due process,” the European Union said in its official journal.

“These cases and the lack of due process were referenced in a report ... by the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran.”

Iran accused the U.N. special rapporteur of bias.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 49

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50 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Slain Cp Asadu: Police making serious progress

By EMMA NNADOZIE, Crime Editor

P

OLICE detectives investigating the gruesome murder of Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Chinwike Asadu, may soon come out with startling revelations that will shock the nation over the circumstances that surrounded his death.

Unconfirmed police sources in Abuja and Enugu told Crime Alert that, “We are making progress seriously.

We are just keeping everything to our chest because we do not want to alert our suspects. You should know that the IGP is personally on top of the issue and nobody, repeat, nobody can sweep the matter under the carpet. It cannot be classified as an unresolved murder case because so far, we are on top of the situation and, God willing, positive results will soon be announced to the nation.”

Crime Alert investigation revealed that detectives from both Force Headquarters, Abuja and Enugu Police Command have jointly been neck deep in carrying out investigations into the killing of the police boss and have virtually succeeded in exhausting all the available clues that will help in unraveling the case.

Perhaps, according to police sources, one of the clues has given us veritable answer to the puzzle surrounding his death.

What they are doing now is just to round up the suspects and evidence before opening up to the nation. And of course, a situation where the IGP is highly interested in such a case and had given matching orders for the killers to be fished out, nobody should expect anything less than positive results.

•Chinwike Asadu C M Y K

It was also learnt that their counterparts in Ilorin are not leaving any stone unturned either as they swung into action immediately after the incident and have also made recognizable impact in fishing out suspected killers of the Police Commissionmer.

Already, both the Minister of Police Affairs, Captain Caleb Olubolade and the InspectorGeneral of Police, Mohammed Abubakar paid a joint condolence visit to the family of the slain police Commissioner and assured that all hands were on deck with a view to fishing out his killers. So far, it was not possible to ascertain where the pendulum would be tilting towards in efforts to round up the suspects.

Crime Alert could not obtain reliable information on whether his killers came from his base in Kwara State or Enugu, his home state. Efforts made also to get some clarifications from police authorities in Enugu failed as their officers could not be reached on phone.

Meanwhile, youths from the slain Commissioner’s village, Amukwa in Nsukka Local government Area of the state have vowed to take to the streets if killers of their son were not exposed within a reasonable time. Speaking with Crime Alert over the phone, a spokesman for the youths, Thaddeus Ezugwu lamented the manner their son was killed in his hometown and stated that they will go to any extent to assist police detectives in their investigations. He commended the concern shown by the InspectorGeneral of Police over the case and urged him to ensure that his boys did not relent in getting positive results without delay.

•MD Abubakar, IGP

•L-R: Ejike, ring leader, Samuel and Dada

How we broke out of gang — Suspects

••reveals how plan was hatched with arrested cultists

By IFEANYI OKOLIE & UJU MBANUSI

A

30-year-old robbery suspect, Ejike Nkennachor shocked police detectives recently in Lagos when he boldly narrated how he masterminded a prison break at the Maximum Prisons, Shagamu, Ogun State, to form a notorious robbery gang that specializes in snatching exotic cars. The stocky-black suspect from Asaba, Delta State went further to state that he was frustrated with the slow nature of justice in the judiciary and that was why he encouraged other inmates to join him in breaking out of the prison.

Ejike, as he is popularly called, who spoke with Crime Alert after he was arrested with two others in Laqgos and Oyo states by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad,SARS, Ikeja, Lagos State, said they capitalized on the arrest of cult members in the area to plan the jail break.

The State Commissioner of Police Umar Manko, while Parading the suspects before newsmen said, the officer incharge of SARS, Abba Kyari arrested the suspects after he got information that the gang snatched a Toyota Camry saloon car from a woman in Ilorin, Kwara State and took it to Ibadan where they hope to sell the car to a ready buyer.

According to the Police boss, Kyari and his men proceeded to Ibadan and apprehended one of the suspects called Samuel in a popular hotel.

They then used him in apprehending the leader of the gang, Ejike and one other member called, Dada. Cp Manko disclosed that two locally- made single barrel pistols, twenty live cartridges, an unregistered Toyota Camry Saloon Car, Toyota Carina with registration number, KWL 753 AJ and one Land Rover Free Lander Jeep with Reg No AGL 672 AP, were recovered from the suspects.

The leader of the gang, Ejike Nkennachor told Crime Alert that he led his cell mates to

breakout of the Maximum Prison due to the slow nature of Ogun State judiciary. The suspect explained that he had spent a long time at the prison and does not want to spend the whole of 2013 in the prison.

According to him; “When I was arrested in 2008 at the state Criminal Investigations Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos for car snatching, I was charged to court but members of my family paid money to a lawyer that secured my release. I spent only four months at the Ikoyi prison and my case was discharged for want of evidence. After my release, I went back to car snatching because I know my family will

Puzzle over death of

By EVELYN USMAN THE Homicide section of the Lagos State Criminal Investigations Department, SCID, Panti, Yaba, yesterday, said it had begun investigation into the murder of one Mrs Onyinyechi Gift Ihazi, whose lifeless body was reportedly found last Thursday, in her Ijaye apartment.

Investigation, according to

Police sources, revealed that the deceased could have been battered, following marks on parts of her body. The operatives’ findings also reportedly ruled out suicide attempt as there was no clue to that, revealing that the deceased had a deep cut on her head.

The late Onyinyechi, as gathered, was last seen on March 7, 2013 at noon around Adams Street, where she lived with her husband. However,

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 51

Court remands man in prison over alleged murder of secret lover

By BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE & MICHAEL NWOPOKE

A

•Ammunition and charms recovered from the suspects

prison to form robbery

We dug a big hole on the prison wall and we escaped from there. Some of us were killed while trying to escape but I succeeded and ran to Ikorodu

,

,

always come for me. I did it for some time and I snatched several exotic cars including a Mercedes Benz car that was valued around N12 million but I sold it for N800,000 to my receiver at Asaba, Delta State.

Then, I avoided Lagos State and I and members of my gang, were operating in Ogun State. Unfortunately for me, I was arrested by Ogun State special anti-robbery

squad,SARS, after I stole a car. They caught me driving the stolen car at Shagamu and they intercepted it and later sent me to prison.

M

y stay at the prison was quite very long and the judiciary in the state did not help matters. Luckily, there was this fight between members of Black Axe confraternity and the Eye confraternity and a lot of them were arrested and remanded in the same cell with me at Shagamu Prison.

At that time, I was terribly frustrated. The cult boys told me that they don’t want to spend the new year in the prison. I told them not to worry that I had a plan. On the eve of the new year, members of my cell and those from another cell started a protest and we fought the warders on duty at the prison. We dug a big hole on the prison wall and we escaped from there. Some of us were killed while trying to es-

housewife in Lagos apprehension later set in the following day, after her husband reportedly alerted neighbors to assist him force the door open. To the bewilderment of all, Onyinyechi was reportedly found on the floor, stone dead, with blood all over her body.

In his statement to policemen at Ojokoro Division where the case was reported, Mr Ihazi was said to have explained that he came home that fateful day only to discover that the door of his

apartment was under lock and key. “ I called her on her phone but there was no response. I later went to her friend’s house, only to be told they both went to church earlier but had returned. Out of annoyance, I went to spend the night in a hotel. The following day, I came back home , I still met the door under lock and when it was forced open, I found her remains on the ground,” Ihazi said.

cape but I succeeded and ran to Ikorodu. I contacted my family members and informed them about my escape. They begged me to come back to my home town at Asaba and I refused. I contacted Samuel and informed him that I was out of prison and he was very happy.

I then informed him that I will be relocating to Kwara State where I will form a new gang, he accepted. I contacted Emmanuel Dada and one of our police friends and we robbed some cars. But the one that got me into real trouble was the one we robbed at Tanke- Ilorin, Kwara State. We instructed Samuel to look for a buyer for us in Ibadan and we were called to come to Lagos to collect the money for the car. That was how we were arrested. I wish I had listened to my family not to return to this crime. I wish I will be given a second chance.” he pleaded.

N Ebute-Meta Magistrate’s court in Lagos, has remanded a 54- year-old man, Mr. Nojeem Aderibigbe, in prison custody over alleged murder of his 41-year-old secret lover. The deceased, Mrs. Idowu Olatunji, a contract staff (cleaner) with the Ministry of Justice, Lagos, was reportedly murdered on 30 July, 2012, at Aderibigbe’s residence situated at 12, Kibishile Street, Papa Ashafa area of Agege, Lagos.

Aderibigbe was accused of hiding the corpse of his secret lover for more than five months by embalming her corpse in his apartment while he also joined the search team in looking for the woman who was declared missing by her relatives.

The accused, said to be an auxiliary staff of the Bailiff department of a Lagos High Court, was arraigned on a onecount charge of murder, but his plea was not taken by the presiding magistrate, Miss Y.O. Badejo-Okunsanya.

Magistrate Okunsanya ordered that the accused be remanded in prisons custody pending the outcome of report from the Director of Public

Prosecution, DPP, on the matter, and also ordered the State Criminal Investigations Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos to duplicate the case file and forward it to DPP for advice.

According to the charge: “that you Nojeem Aderibigbe, on 30 July, 2012, at about 002 hours, at 12, Kibishile Street, Papa Ashafa, Agege, Lagos, in the Lagos magisterial district, did unlawfully kill one Idowu Olatunji, and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 221 of the criminal laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.”

I

t was gathered that the alleged heinous act of the accused was revealed when some of his neighbors perceived some offensive odor oozing out from the accused apartment and also noticed that the accused had started selling some of his personal belongings. They reported the matter to the police which led to his arrest.

Police prosecutor, Corporal Cyriacus Osuji, informed the court that the said offence is punishable under section 221 of the criminal laws of Lagos state of Nigeria, 2011.

Meanwhile the matter was adjourned till 8 April, 2013.

Man (26),others charged for wandering at UNILAG

By ONOZURE DANI

A

26-year old man, Durojaye Adeleke, was yesterday arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court for allegedly wandering near Lagos State University Akoka.

Adeleke and others, now at large, were arraigned before Magistrate Oshodi Makanju,

PROMOTION

CSP Ben Osuji being decorated with his new CSP rank by the AIG Zone 2 Police Hqtrs, Mamman Tsafe and the DCP Operations Isijaku Barau in the AIG’s office.

on a one-count charge of wandering. The police prosecutor, Inspector Samson Ekikere, told the court that the defendant and others now at large committed the offense between February 28 2013, around 8pm. He said the suspects were found wandering in or near the premises of Unilag Campus Akoka, in such a circumstance which lead to the conclusion that they were there for an illegal and dishonest purpose.

According to him, the offense committed is punishable under section 166 (1) (h) (2) of the criminal laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011.

Meanwhile, when the charge was read to him, he pleaded not guilty. However, Magistrate Makanju, granted him bail in the sum of N50,000, with two sureties in like sum. She adjourned the matter to May 4, 2013, for mention.

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52— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 53

Confed Cup: Heartland's opponents hit Owerri tomorrow G

ABONESE side, Union Sportif (US) Bitam will send a 38-man contingent to Owerri, Imo State capital ahead of this weekend’s CAF Confederations Cup firstleg, second round clash with Heartland FC of Owerri.

Information available from the Heartland FC media department on Tuesday indicated that US Bitam would come in

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two batches with the main contingent made up of players, coaches and some officials expected to arrive at the Murtala M u h a m m e d International Airport in Lagos by 11.00hrs on Thursday morning by Askia Air. The contingent will then be air-lifted from Lagos to Owerri where they will be accommodated in one of

the five star hotels in the city.

However, the remainder of the contingent which will include the club president and some other top officials will arrive on a later date before the kick off.

Owerri has a reputation for hospitality and the Nigerian flag-bearers, Heartland FC are believed to have

marshaled out strategies to give their visitors a memorable experience.

The match is billed for the newly renovated Dan

Anyiam stadium on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Heartland FC on Tuesday morning moved into a closed

camping exercise to enable players and coaches focus properly on the coming assignment.

Jung wins DOAMF golf’s grand prize

W

INNERS have emerged at the 2013 Daniel Ogechi Akujobi Memorial

Foundation (DOAMF) Annual Charity Golf Tournament held at the Ikoyi Club 1938, with

Jung G.S, taking home the grand prize of the Oba & Queen of Benin plaque, a 32 inch Samsung Television and a trophy with a total of 70 Net, and Marinho Nike emerging as the overall winner of the ladies category with 72 Net. The tourney, which held at the Golf section of Ikoyi Club 1938 in Lagos at the behest of DOAMF, was in remembrance of Master Daniel Ogechi Akujobi, who lost his life in a ghastly motor accident along Mowe in Ogun State while on his way back to school. The event featured over 150 Golfers, including Company Executives, who strove to outdo one another in order to finish tops.

Speaking at the cocktail held at the end of the tourney, the Chairman, DOAM Foundation, Mr. Sam Ayininuola represented by Prof Obinnaya L. Chukwu thanked the guests for attending the event despite their tight schedules. He stated that the Foundation is a platform to assist trauma victims and avert a good number of deaths on Nigerian roads. He also called for support from the public to ensure that the Foundation’s health and educational projects are sustained.

Funds raised from the event would be channeled to the Foundation’s Accident and Emergency (A&E) Centre located close to the accident site in Mowe, among several other health and educational projects.

Speaking on the event, the DOAMF Program Officer, Sorochi Ugorji, said the choice of Golf was because of its capacity to allow over a 100 players of various ages and social class, among other things, to actively compete, adding that it has the ability to improve the health condition of the players.

54 —

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

African Junior Athletics Championships: AFN secures visa waiver for visiting contingents

T

HE Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, has moved to make participation in the forth-coming African Junior Athletics Championships easier for visiting contingents.

In a swift move to boost participation, the AFN yesterday dispatched letters to all participating countries giving them visa waivers.

According to the secretary general of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Maria Wophil who doubles as secretary of the Local Organising Committee for the continental Athletics championships, “the letters conveyed information on visa procedure to the 34 participating countries.

We have made it possible

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for them to collect their visas at point of entry.”

She said that the visa waiver was part of incentives to visiting countries in order to avoid any hitches as they plan to enter the country.

Meanwhile, the Delta State government has again reiterated its determination to stage a world class championships.

Government sources said Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan has not only made adequate financial

provision for the weeklong meet, he has taken personal interest in seeing that everything had been put in place for the event.

“Governor Uduaghan’s decision to host the African Junior Championships is an eloquent demonstration of his determination to execute decisions reached at the Delta Sports Summit which the government hosted late last year,” our source said.

PRESENTATION: L-R: MTN Directors, Tunde Folawiyo and Gbenga Oyebode, with Toto Collardin, the Lagos Polo Tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP), being awarded his prize by the MTN bigwigs.

West Brom net N363m profit EST Bromich profit of about N363m Osaze Odemwigie plies W Albion are getting (£1.5million) for the his trade have thus cut their net debt to N121m it right on the pitch and not doing so badly off it as the club on Tuesday announced a pre-tax

financial year ending June 30, 2012.

West Brom, where Nigerian international,

(£500,000) In the first full set of accounts released by West Bromwich Albion Group Ltd since its formation in August 2010, the club also reported a record turnover of N16.1bn (£66.7million).

But Albion’s total salaries topped the £50million mark and represented 74% of the club’s turnover.

West Brom paid out N1.4bn (£6million) during the summer of 2011 to sign striker Shane Long from Reading.

Continued from BP

Mba

Federation (NFF) asked the two clubs to reach an agreement on the player within a week.

And now Keshi has warned that he may axe the player if his club future is not sorted out soon. ”I may be forced to drop Mba from the team if his transfer issues are not sorted out. If by our next game, they have not resolved the problem I may not invite him,” Keshi said .

The Eagles handler also

explained that he was forced to call up as many as 15 foreign-based pros for the Kenya match because the local league has just kicked off. ”I invited 15 foreign-based players because the Nigeria league is just starting,” he disclosed. ”The foreign-based players have been regular at their clubs and as such their fitness level is very high. Most of our local boys are rusty but we see how it goes in our training camp.”

Keshi

Martins

Continued from BP

Continued from BP did not want nor did he deserve to wear this shirt.

“When you plan for a season, the hope is that all those you begin with run through to the end. I always say that things happen for good and what has happened is what has had to happen.

“Levante are limited by economic aspects, but the operation is wellrounded, in sporting aspects it is pretty interesting and at an institutional level it has made us great, allowing us to grow and has allowed us to be the club we aspire to be, a serious club, with ambition, and neither Martins nor anyone else will change the history of this club.”

Martins changed his clup profile on twitter from ‘Levante’ to ‘Sounders’ just moments after making the deposit, even with the transfer not official yet, as the papers were not fully filed.

at the Nations Cup and concentrate on picking a ticket for the World Cup, coming up next year in Brazil. To the new players he said if they show enough readiness to break into the team they will be given the chance.”

All 23 invited home based professionals save for injured Kano Pillars central defender, Zango Umar opened training Tuesday morning at the Practice Pitch of the Abuja National Stadium in preparation for the March 23 World Cup qualifier against Harambee Stars of Kenya.

The training itself was intense, spartan and very physical, with emphasis on quick and simple play.

It lasted for about two hours with all the five coaches of the team playing their assigned roles.

Meanwhile, the coaching crew have decided to replace injured Umar with First Bank of Lagos central

defender, Festus Ajah.

Ajah is said to have impressed national team scouts in some of his club’s games and now has an opportunity to make an impression at the national team level.

He was expected in camp by Tuesday evening on time for Wednesday’s morning training session.

Achebe Continued from BP as he was a man of integrity and class. May his soul rest in Peace.”

On his part, former Super Eagles coach and one time national team captain, Christian Chukwu was lost in words. “You don’t say that!” he exclaimed when asked for his reaction.

“Achebe was one of the best secretary-generals we ever had. Indeed, he was a good man. Oh my God, what a sad news,” Chukwu who said he was driving managed to say.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 — 55

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

Levante blast Martins A

very angry Levante sporting director Quico Catalan has criticised Obafemi Martins, insisting that his departure for Seattle Sounders on Monday was ‘the best that could happen’.

The Super Eagles striker went public last week with the desire to leave Los Granotes, just six months after signing for the club, amid interest from and initial talks with MLS outfit Seattle Sounders.

This is your chance, seize it — Keshi tells new Eagles •As 23 Eagles battle for shirts against Harambee Stars

P.O.C. Achebe passes on

D

ESPITE their surprise triumph at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, Super Eagles head coach, Stephen Keshi has not stop saying his team is still work in progress. This much he impressed on the new call ups to the team’s Abuja camp Tuesday before the commencement of training.

The ‘Big Boss’ as Keshi is fondly called addressed the players and told them that every position in the team was still open for contest According to Super Eagles media officer, Ben Alaya, “before training commenced, Head Coach Stephen Keshi, told the players to forget about the triumph of the team Continues on Page 54

Continues on Page 54

•Bassey, Chukwu mourn

BY JACOB AJOM

T

H R E E -T I M E former Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Association, P. O. C. Achebe is dead. The former scribe died last

•Keshi

...May axe Mba over transfer saga

S

UPER Eagles coach Stephen Keshi has said he may be forced to drop AFCON star Sunday Mba if his transfer saga rages on.

Top Nigeria league clubs Warri Wolves and

Rangers are at tug of war over the ownership of one of the biggest revelations of the recent Nations Cup in South Africa.

Last week, a committee of the Nigeria Football Continues on Page 54

PUZZLE

Saturday in Atlanta, USA where he was residing temporarily..

Achebe was one of only two Nigerians to have headed the secretariat of the former Nigeria

Continues on Page 54

•Martins

•Taribo urges Eagles to fly over Kenya — P.28 Today's Matches

•Mba

Malaga Bayern Munich

vs vs

FC Porto 8.45 pm Arsenal 8.45 pm

QUICK CROSSWORD

Sudoku TODAY'S

Whilst Levante refused to negotiate below his N606m (Euro 3m) buyout clause, the player late on Monday, activated that at the Spanish Football League offices, freeing him up to join Seattle the same day.

“When a player does not want to wear the shirt of Levante then he will not be selected,” Catalan reflected to the media in reaction.

“We had decided not to accept an offer, but he has deposited the money for the clause. We have seen the best that could have occurred, because the player has shown that he

MON DAY'S MONDAY'S

ANSWERS

Across 1 Boast (4) 4 Child (3) 6 Reed (4) 8 Earth (6) 9 Mend (6) 10 Longing (3) 12 Orb (5) 14 Brusque (5) 15 Tag (5) 18 Erase (6) 20 Offend (6) 24 Welcome (5) 26 Perhaps (5) 28 Forego (5) 30 Spurt (3) 32 Quell (6) 33 Incite (6) 34 Gala (4) 35 Plaything (3) 36 Blemish (4)

Down 2 Pastoral (5) 3 Moan (7) 4 Neat (4) 5 Spin (4) 6 Repulse (5) 7 Adroit (7) 11 Observe (3) 12 Deity (3) 13 Consume (3) 16 Entreat (3) 17 Untruth (3) 19 Deletion (7) 21 Novel (3) 22 Fame (7) 23 Fasten (3) 25 Cereal (3) 27 Move (5) 29 Clergyman (5) 30 Joke (4) 31 Minute (4)

MONDAY'S SOLUTIONS Across: 2, Scare 7, Scope 8, Occur Amble 12, Ran 13, Wrote 15, Enlarge Intend 19, Tip 20, Tighten 23, Deep Daze 26, Repulse 30, Nil 31, Expire Derange 37, Cared 38, Fun 39, Ennui Piece 41, Snout 42, Sweet

How to Play Sudoku

THE VIGILANTE

10, 17, 25, 34, 40,

Down: 1, Scorn 2, Spate 3, Cement 4, Rile 5, Scraped 6, Lunge 9, Car 11, Enthuse 13, Windy 14, Other 16, Lit 18, Divulge 21, Nadir 22, Vexed 24, Penance 27, Pin 28, Excuse 29, Refit 32, Paint 33, Rebut 35, Rue 36, Enow

e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

Place a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

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