Why Jonathan can't reinstate Salami - AGF

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 61628

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ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

N150

CBN raises alarm: Nigeria's economic growth at risk •P.7

DEAR BUNMI:

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

—The 4th Annual National Conference of Academy For Entrepreneurial Studies, Nigeria (AES) with theme: "Strong Systems: Necessity for Building A Virile Nation", took place at the NIIA in Lagos, yesterday. From left: Former Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon (rtd.); Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo; Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State; Chief Ernest Shonekan and Dr Ausbeth Ajagu, President AES at the occasion. Photo: Bunmi Azeez.

How do I tell my mum I’m pregnant?

•P. 38

Why Jonathan can't —AGF reinstate Salami •Says FG paid N100m to family of slain Boko Haram leader

The problem with Nigeria

Pg.7

— Gowon, Obasanjo, Shonekan C M Y K

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

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B U J A — CONTRARY to the recommendation of the National Judicial Council, NJC, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke Bello, SAN, yesterday, adduced reasons why President Goodluck Jonathan will not reinstate the suspended President of the Court of Appeal(PCA), Justice Isa Ayo Salami, to office.

The AGF who admitted that the NJC had on May 11, served President

Jonathan with a letter requesting that the PCA who was ousted from office nine months ago be recalled, insisted that

Continues on Page 5

Mr & Mrs

2— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

C M Y K

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012—3

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, Deputy Political Editor

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IQUED by recurring acous tic remarks, especially from pro-South and southern leaders that northerners were lazy and the North had been sustained over the years by the South, northern leaders penultimate week said they could stand on their own if Nigeria broke up.

For close to two decades, there has been an intense clamour, predominantly by southerners, for restructuring of the polity into true federalism and devolution of more powers to the federating units. Protagonists of this clamour have argued that convening a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) for the ethnic nationalities of the country to dialogue and reach agreements on burning national issues was the surest way to restructure the country and halt Nigeria’s worsening socio-economic and political decay.

However, antagonists of SNC said it was a recipe for breaking up Nigeria and countered that with democracy in place, the National Assembly could and has the power to amend the nation’s code-book to spur the much needed development in the country.

Of late, the clamour assumed a higher gear following agitation by some northern leaders that the 13 per cent derivation accruing to oil producing areas should be reviewed to free more funds for the development of the North.

Fire of controversy

A host of northern groups and leaders including Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Malam Lamido Sanusi; Niger State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu; the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and Dr. Junaid Mohammed decried the huge revenues going to the oil producing states located in the three zones of Southern Nigeria, especially South-South. Some of them attributed the Boko Haram insurgency ravaging many northern cities, particularly North-East geo-political zone, to poverty arising from disproportionate revenue allocation to the North.

The northern demand drew the ire of some Niger Deltans, who demanded true federalism and 50 per derivation as was practiced in the First Republic.

The government extended the 13 per cent derivation to cover other minerals as all states of the country have mineral resources that could be explored and exploited.

Remarkably, northern states have more mineral deposits than their southern counterparts (see table) but these resources have been grossly under-exploited or totally unexplored. Non-exploration of these resources have been partly attributed to easy and bulk money from Niger Delta oil resources (see table of revenue generation since 1970).

By projection, Nigeria currently has a proven crude oil reserves of about 37.2 billion barrels which at the current rate of exploitation (2.5mbpd) may be C M Y K

exhausted in the next 40 years unless new deposits are discovered. And 54 years of extensive oil exploitation has devastated the environment of the oil producing areas and hampered primary socio-economic and cultural activities of the inhabitants. In the last 20 years, about 2,000 persons have been killed in pipeline-related explosions and accidents in the region.

Indeed, a World Bank report warns that 40 per cent of habitable terrain in the Niger Delta area would disappear in 20 years if strong-willed re-mediation was not carried out. And the Federal Government admitted that 40,000 oil spills had occurred in the past 54 years of oil exploration.

A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, last August, criticised how the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) deals with the environmental damage it has caused in the Niger Delta, especially in Ogoniland. UNEP said Ogoniland needed the world’s largest ever oil clean-up, which would cost an initial $1billion or N160 billion and could take 30 years. The scenario has left a touchy question on the lips of many observers: If now that oil revenue is available the devastated areas cannot be cleaned, is it when the revenues cease that the task will be embarked upon?

A chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Management Consultant, Chief Cliff Mbagwu, has described the 13 per cent derivation as meager and urged a raise to address the

We have resolved that we are not going to be the cause of Nigeria breaking up; but if others decided that the country should be divided, and they insisted that Nigeria should break up, we won’t say no because we realised there is nothing we are getting from the current arrangement that other sections of the country are not getting environmental challenges and needs of the oil-bearing areas.

“Derivation should be looked into. Much as I don’t believe in 50 per cent derivation, 13 per cent is too small. I think 25 per cent is ideal to enable all parts of the country to have funds to develop and the oil producing states to have enough funds to take care of the environ-

Oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region

Nigeria: Can North survive without the South? zHow South has been subsidising North for 98 years zSouth benefits more than the North—Northern leaders mental problems of oil production. This is a federation; we need to be our brother ’s keeper. Those who are saying that 13 percent is too high are not being realistic. They are entitled to their opinion but I think such comments are essentially driven by empathy deficit and warped thinking,” he said.

North: Parasitic arm of the country

The North has been at the receiving end of nauseating attacks from the South, especially the Niger Delta as the nation’s weakest economic link and parasitic arm. The region is accused of harbouring huge unproductive population and large track of landmass that is adding little or nothing to the distributable revenue pool of the country. Aside being the least productive part of the country (revenue wise), critics said the region had managed to control political power for close to 40 years of the nation’s 52 years existence as an independent country to the detriment of the areas sustaining the country economically. Some southern groups at various times have dared the North to allow restructuring of the country to devolve more political and economical power to the federating units as was practiced at

independence before the military unitarised Nigeria.

We are not gaining anything from Nigeria — Northern leaders

Countering, Northern leaders, penultimate Wednesday, berated their southern counterparts, saying they were not gaining anything special from the present arrangement of the country and could therefore stand on their own if the country eventually breaks up.

The Northern leaders, who met under the auspices of the Arewa Elders Forum, said that even though they could afford to survive in a divided Nigeria, they had resolved not to be the cause of the breakup of the country.

One of the leaders of the new group and former Special Adviser to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on Food Security, Prof .Ango Abdullahi, told the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation that the North had always been on its own and would continue to survive without oil resources from the South.

Abdullahi, who was reacting to calls from southern leaders for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference, said that some people were hiding under the agitation to show to the world that they were tired

of staying in a united Nigeria.

“We have resolved that we are not going to be the cause of Nigeria breaking up; but if others decided that the country should be divided, and they insisted that Nigeria should break up, we won’t say no because we realized there is nothing we are getting from the current arrangement that other sections of the country are not getting,” he said.

Asked if the North could stand on its own if the country breaks up, the former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria said that the North had always been on its own because “the poor in the North has always been on his own. He feeds himself from what he cultivates in the farms and feeds Nigeria up till tomorrow. It is possible if all Northerners would return to what their forefathers did through agriculture with which proceeds they built the North and Nigeria as a whole,” Abdullahi said.

Indeed, some northerners had always insisted that in the late 50s and early 60s, Nigeria’s oil industry was developed with funds provided by the North via proceeds from agriculture, especially groundnuts.

To be continued.

4 —

Vanguard,

WEDNESDAY ,

MAY 23, 2012

Guinea-Bissau military agrees to handover power S

IX weeks after it toppled the government and derailed elections, Guinea-Bissau’s military junta said yesterday that it was handing power back to the West African state’s civilian leaders. This follows a deal between the selfstyled Military Command and the regional bloc ECOWAS that put in place transitional president Manuel Sherifo Nhamadjo, installed a 600-strong ECOWAS force and promised new elections in 12 months.

“Starting today, the Military Command will hand power to civilians,” spokesman Daha Bana Na Walna told reporters, adding that this would be the junta’s last news conference. GuineaBissau has suffered several coups and army uprisings since indepen-

Raimundo Pereira and former Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, the front-runner in

Renewed clashes in Eastern DR Congo claim 100 lives

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Guinea-Bissau military ready to handover power to civilians dence from Portugal in 1974, but the latest one has set back western efforts to combat drugs cartels using the country as a transshipment point to

Europe.

Coming shortly after the March 22 coup by mutinous soldiers in democratic Mali, it also further undermined West

Africa’s fragile gains in democracy. Bissau soldiers took power in an overnight putsch on April 12, detaining interim president

Tunisia to extradite former Libyan PM

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UNISIA will extra dite former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s prime minister to Libya and the handover could take place in “days or weeks”, Justice Minister Noureddine Bouheiri said yestersday. Should he be handed over, Al Baghdadi Ali alMahmoudi would be the first senior official to be sent back for trial under

Libya’s transitional leadership and his extradition could establish a precedent for other countries who have given refuge to or arrested members of Gaddafi’s old entourage.

Mahmoudi served as the Libyan dictator’s prime minister from 2006 until he fled to neighboring Tunisia around the time that rebel fighters took the capital Tripoli in August. A Tunisian court

•Al Baghdadi Ali alMahmoudi ruled as far back as November that Mahmoudi

should be extradited. But President Moncef alMarzouki later said the handover would not happen until the situation in Libya had stabilized and Mahmoudi could be guaranteed a fair trial after Gaddafi himself was killed by rebels and his rotting corpse left on display. Bouheiri said on Tuesday that decision had been made.

Egypt's PM appeals for calm as voting starts today

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GYPT’s premier Kamal al-Ganzuri on Tuesday urged for calm during the country’s first presidential election since a popular uprising, calling on political forces to accept the results of the historic vote. Ganzuri called on Egyptians to “stand together to ensure the success of the electoral process and to accept the decision of the majority of Egyptians who will express their will through the ballot boxes.” In a statement, he expressed hope that “the elections proceed with calm” and called on “candidates, political forces, parties to urge their supporters to respect the will of others and accept the results of the election.” Around 50 million eligible voters C M Y K

presidential elections.

Both were later released and fled the country.

•Kamal al-Ganzuri

are being called to choose ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s successor on Wednesday and Thursday, with a run-off scheduled next month should there be no outright winner. The main contenders are former foreign minister and Arab League chief

Amr Mussa; Ahmed Shafiq, the last premier to serve under Mubarak; the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi; independent Islamist Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh and Nasserist candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi.

feud between Rwandan Hutu rebels and the Mai Mai militia in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last week left more than 100 people dead, including civilians, a local activist said Tuesday.

“A week ago, the Mai Mai attacked the FLDR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), who retaliated by targeting everybody they could find, accusing them of collaborating with the Mai Mai,” Nord-Kivu province civil society coordinator Omar Kavota told AFP. “The Mai Mai who were hunting the FDLR also targeted anybody who stood in their path,

ECOWAS to probe mob attack on Malian leader

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EST Africa’s re gional bloc said yesterday it will impose sanctions on those it finds responsible for allowing an attack on Mali’s president at his office. Interim President Dioncounda Traore suffered a head wound after Monday’s attack by protesters and was taken to a hospital. Traore was released from the hospital a few hours later. The Economic Community of West African States, or

RESIDENT Barack Obama has defended his criticism of presumptive Republican presidential Mitt Romney’s ties to the private equity firm Bain Capital, saying it was rightly part of the campaign debate because Romney himself was emphasizing his business background. Obama said

he has no problems with private equity firms in general. “There are folks who do good work in that area,” he said. “There are times when they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs for new industries.”

Obama’s re-election campaign and the Democratic National Commit-

television ads portraying the former Massachusetts governor as a corporate raider. The spots emphasize layoffs and bankruptcies at some of the companies bought by Bain, which Romney cofounded. Still, at a news conference closing a NATO summit in Chi-

•Interim President Dioncounda Traore ECOWAS, in a statement said it was launching an investigation, and that protests leading to the attack must have been organized by forces wanting to disrupt a return to constitutional rule in Mali.

Obama lauds private space shuttle

U

S president Barack Obama has congratulated the launch of the first-of-its-kind com-

Romney faces attacks over private equity business cago, Obama said the tee are running political

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claiming they were working with the FDLR,” said Kavota, whose umbrella organisation includes rights groups and workers’ unions. “We’re talking about more than 100 dead, mostly with knives and machetes.”

The tit-for-tat killing is only one of several ongoing conflicts between the myriad armed groups based in the remote regions of eastern DR Congo. Deadly fighting is also raging in Nord-Kivu province between the regular army (FARDC) and former rebels who were integrated into the military as part of a 2009 peace deal but recently started to defect en masse, complaining of poor treatment.

main mission of private equity companies is to “maximize profits” for themselves and their investors. Romney and his aides have struggled to respond consistently to intensifying criticism about his tenure at Bain Capital and how it would be reflected in his presidency.

mercial supply ship rocketed toward the International Space Station following a successful liftoff yesterday , opening a new era of dollar-driven spaceflight.

The White House said”Every launch into space is a thrilling event, but this one is especially exciting,” said John Holdren, President Barack Obama’s chief science adviser. “This expanded role for the private sector will free up more of NASA’s resources to do what NASA does best — tackle the most demanding technological challenges in space, including those of human space flight beyond low Earth orbit.”

Vanguard, WEDNESD AY, MA Y 23, 2012 — 5 WEDNESDA MAY

Why Jonathan can't reinstate Salami — AGF Continues from Page 1 honouring such recommendation would expressly put the presidency in danger of “sub-judice.”

Noting that Justice Salami had earlier gone to court to query the legality of the suspension that was slammed on him by the NJC on August 18, 2011, the AGF, who reacted to questions that were thrown at him at the 2012 Ministerial Platform in Abuja yesterday, said it would be in the best interest of justice to allow the judiciary to conclude hearing on all the pending litigations trailing the matter.

According to him, “No responsible government will act on a case that is pending before the court.

As it is today, the matter is subjudice. This government is prepared to do the right thing; it is a government that is anchored on the rule of law, therefore we will leave issues concerning the reinstatement of Justice Salami to the judiciary, hoping that

the matter will be resolved expeditiously.”

Adoke further maintained that it was also sequel to the recommendation of the NJC that President Jonathan, on August 20, 2011, invoked his statutory powers under section 238(4) of the 1999 Constitution, and appointed Justice Dalhatu Adamu to take over from Salami as the Acting President of the Court of Appeal, saying the decision was aimed at ensuring that there was no vacuum in leadership, at the appellate court.

He contended that though the NJC had in its suspension letter, urged the presidency to persuade the National Assembly to okay the retirement of Salami, he said it was due to the respect President Jonathan had for the sanctity of the judiciary that he refrained from taking such action, having been notified about the pendency of the legal action that was instituted by the embattled PCA with a view to quashing his

LIFEWORDS

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BY PASTOR ITUAH

HE challenge in life is not about falling but about rising again. To bounce back in life we need to follow these steps: Learn the lessons of the failure; what did you do wrong? Admit your faults; admit the wrong things that you did. Seek advice and counsel. Ask for God's position on the matter. A good bounce back also needs strength, depth and determination. Find out the steps you need to take to get you back to where you want to get to. Finally take the first little step.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

So how do we proceed in our quest for happiness? Very often, we look outside. We think that if we could gather this and that, and have everything, that will make us happy. We know, by experience, that we can be in a place like “a little paradise,” and yet, be completely unhappy within —Matthieu Ricard.

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HE Dalai Lama was once in Portugal, and there was a lot of construction going on everywhere. So one evening, he said, “look, you are doing all these things, but isn’t it nice, also, to build something within?” And he said: “Unless you do that, even though you live on a high-tech flat on the 100th floor of a super-modern and comfortable building, if you are deeply unhappy within, all you are going to look for is a window from which to jump.” Yet, we know a lot of people who are dealing with difficult circumstances, but still manage to keep serenity, inner strength, inner freedom and confidence. This is because the inner conditions are stronger - of course, the outer conditions do influence, and it’s wonderful to live longer, healthier, to have access to information, education, to be able to travel, to have freedom. It’s highly desirable. However, this is not enough. Those are just auxiliary help conditions.

The experience that translates happiness and well being is nurtured from within.

ouster from office.

Meanwhile, the AGF disclosed that barely 24hours after the NJC asked for the recall of Salami, the presidency was served with fresh originating processes challenging the recommendation vis-àvis the legal propriety of President Jonathan, acting on an issue still pending before a court of competent jurisdiction.

He said until all the pending cases are determined, the president would not reinstate the suspended PCA. It would be recalled that the NJC suspended Justice Salami from office on allegation that he was found guilty of judicial misconduct contrary to Rule 1(1) of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Council said the decision was taken after it established that the allegation Salami levelled against the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, regarding the Sokoto Gubernatorial Election Appeal, was false.

Specifically, Salami had in an affidavit he deposed before a Federal High Court in Abuja, revealed how the

erstwhile CJN, pressurized him to pervert justice to favour the governorship candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Sokoto State, saying it was the grand reason why Katsina-Alu allegedly hatched plots to “push” him to the apex court bench, an offer the PCA dismissed as a “Greek Gift.”

It's sad omen, dangerous — Sagay, Ngige, others

BY DAYO BENSON, INNOCENT ANABA, ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH & BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

It’s a sad omen for the rule of law - Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN)

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HEY have made up their mind that he (Justice Salami) will not be recalled, so it is easy to organize people to bring out actions to restrain his recall. And then, having done that, they say the case is in court so it is subjudice. It is all very easy, anybody can do that.

It is just a way of ensuring that he is not recalled, that

N100m for family of slain Boko Haram leader

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ESIDES issues bothering on Salami’s reinstatement, the AGF, equally revealed, yesterday, that a “White Paper ”, chronicling all the factors behind the Boko Haram insurgency in Northern parts of the country had been gazetted by the Federal Government.

The AGF noted that despite ensuring that all the police officers that were accused of complicity in the extrajudicial murder of the leader of the Boko Haram Islamic sect, Yusuf Mohammed, in 2009, are prosecuted, the government equally paid N100million to his family “as part of the reconciliation process.”

Besides, Adoke, said the Federal Government has submitted the fuel subsidy probe report to the Economic and Financial Crimes

POCKET CARTOON

Commission, EFCC, for the prompt prosecution of those indicted by the report, saying “Nigerians should be assured that there will be no sacred cows.”

Emphasizing need for the anti-graft agencies to conduct thorough investigations before charging cases to court, the AGF, said even if the government concedes to establish a special court for the prosecution of corruption cases, such courts would always dismiss graft cases whenever the prosecuting agencies fail to generate enough evidence against an accused person, stressing that the case upon which a London Court convicted the former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, was different from the trial he hitherto faced in Nigeria.

is all.

The implication is that they will not recall him.

They have made up their mind and they have cooked up a spurious reason and they will stick to it.

Obviously, because the NJC is the professional body on whose recommendation, and without whose recommendation, the President acts. The reason for that is that it is the NJC that knows that they have the capacity from its legal profession and training to know. The spirit of the law requires that the President should act automatically on anything recommended by NJC. So what they are doing now is that they are violating the spirit of the law and it is not good for the rule of law. It is a sad omen for the rule of law.

It’s a very dangerous precedent — Emeka Ngige (SAN) The reason given by the Hon Attorney General of the Federation for Government’s failure to act on the recommendation of National Judicial Council reinstating the President of the Court of Appeal to his office is most unfortunate.

The reasoning that there are pending suits in the High Court has exposed the perfidy of the Federal Government on the imbroglio. When Justice Salami was illegally suspended in August last year the same Attorney General did not advise the President that there was a pending suit

instituted by Justice Salami against NJC. Now it suits the Government to hide under the cloak of lis pendens to reject the recommendation of NJC. Who are those who instituted actions to make the matter subjudice?

Busy bodies who were apparently sponsored by the Government to file the action. It is interesting that the Government waited till after the commencement of the suits before it made its stand known. What the Federal Government has unwittingly done to itself is that it has laid a very dangerous precedent.

Tomorrow any other person can file an action in court to stop the Government from carrying out its functions or duties on account of a matter being subjudice.

Not a surprise — Niyi Akintola (SAN) "The position of the AGF did not come as a surprise. Quite a lot of macabre dance has been going on of recent.

I wish him the best of luck. There have been people before him. I am not surprised at his posture. I saw it coming.

An injustice against one is an injustice against all.

It is nothing but playing t h e ostrich."

Chief Felix Fagbohungbe, SAN, “The President must have been mis-advised.

Most of these cases were pending when the NJC sent its initial recommendation on Justice Salami to the President. He (the President) did not give this excuse then.

“It implies that there is more that what we know."

6—VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

Four killed in Maiduguri fresh bomb blast

BY NDAHI MARAMA

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AIDUGURI — AN Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted by suspected terrorists along Lawan Bukar Street of Mafoni ward of Maiduguri metropolis exploded yester-

day, leaving four people dead while several others sustained various degrees of injuries.

The incident which occurred at about 1pm forced many residents to vacate the area for safety.

It was gathered that immediately the device exploded, men of the

Joint Task Force (JTF) who are in the state to restore law and order cordoned off the area which gave rise to the clash between the terrorists and the JTF which later led to the burning of some houses around the troubled area.

Confirming the inci-

dent to newsmen in Maiduguri, a member of the Red Cross who visited the scene said, four people died in the blast and their remains had been evacuated to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital mortuary.

In a telephone interview with newsmen on

the incident, JTF spokesman, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, said he was aware that a bomb blast occurred in Lawan Bukar/Mafoni ward of the metropolis, but could not give further details on the number of casualties.

"Yes, there was an ex-

plosion in Maiduguri suspected to have been masterminded by some terrorists. Already, our men have cordoned off the whole area, but information is still sketchy on my table, if I get the details I will furnish you appropriately," Sagir said.

Jonathan restates commitment to upgrade all airports

BY BEN AGANDE

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From left: Gbong Gwom Jos, Jacob Buba Gyan; Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar; Primate of Anglican Church, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh; Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin and Coordinator of Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede; Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) President, Ayo Oritsejafor and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar during a meeting of President Goodluck Jonathan with executive of NIREC,in Abuja, yesterday. Photo: State House.

Subsidy probe: Those indicted 'll be prosecuted —Adoke

BY BEN AGANDE

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BUJA — THE Attor ney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, yesterday said those indicted by the House of Representatives committee on the management of the subsidy regime would be prosecuted.

He spoke with State House correspondents in Abuja after receiving the report of the committee.

According to him, “we will prosecute all those that are found culpable. There will be no sacred cows, I am with the copy of the report.

We are not going to witchhunt anybody, we are going to do this without sentiments and whoever is found guilty, we are going to arraign him before court of law and prosecute and if there are no enough evidence to prosecute anybody, we are not going to persecute anybody.

“So get it clear, we are going to do our job without intimidation and we are going to carry that out in the best interest of the nation.

“We have to ask the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to do a thorough job as they have been doing and this report will help them tremendously. I have just got the report and I am acting on it immediately. I

am forwarding it to the EFCC. When this whole process started, the President assured he nation that this report will be implemented to the letter.

“However, in my statement to the nation I did say we are going to investigate

properly to ensure that all loose ends are covered to ensure that there is proper prosecution. We don’t want a situation where we are stampeded to initiate prosecution and we are unable to prosecute due to lack of or paucity of evidence.”

BUJA — PRESI DENT Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, reiterated the commitment of his administration to upgrade all airports in the country to meet minimum acceptable international standards, saying the ongoing rehabilitation being carried out in airports across the country is part of this commitment.

He stated this while receiving the report of the Federal Government’s delegation to the 2011 Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia which was presented to him by the leader of the delegation and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to the President, besides upgrading the airports, the Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah, has also been directed to ensure that roads and other facilities around the airports were also upgraded.

The president explained that “our aim is to upgrade our airports in such a way that they will meet minimum acceptable international standards. The exercise will continue.

"Airports are the first contacts foreigners have with a country. We must present our country from the airport and through the roads they will ply into the town as a responsible country.

“We shall upgrade roads and other facilities around our airports.”

On the report on Muslim pilgrimage, President Jonathan said his administration would look at all the recommendations and ensure its implementation, adding that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, would be persuaded on the need to sustain the concessionary foreign exchange rate being extended to pilgrims as suggested by the delegation.

Bombings: JNI, CAN in war of words zThanks to Allah, bombers are Christians—JNI zJNI too desperate to cover up terrorists—CAN

BY LUKA BINNIYAT

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ADUNA — THE Jamma’tu Nasril Islam, JNI, and the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, yesterday traded words over the identity of bombers in the country.

JNI said it had heaved a sigh of relief following reports that some Christians were also involved in the various bomb attacks in the country, while CAN accused the Islamic body of playing to the gallary in its claim that it was against bombers in the country, pointing out that Muslims

were re-baptising their members involved in bombings with Christian name to hoodwink Nigerians on the true position of things in the country.

The JNI Secretary General, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, had said in a statement in Kaduna that it was glad that the alleged bomber arrested in Abuja for allegedly carrying three hand grenades and ammunition and another who was said to have confessed to being the brain behind the Bayero University Kano, BUK, bombings all bore

Christian names.

“All thanks are due to Allah, the Most High for vindicating the JNI,” on the issue, Dr Aliyu stated.

But, spokesman for the President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oristejiafor, Mr Kenny Ashaka, reacted to the JNI claims, saying the association was too desperate and hasty in covering up their members who are, "unremorseful, proud Islamic terrorists."

Ashaka asked: “Is the JNI now saying that bombers arrested in Borno, Yobe, Kano, Jos, Kaduna are all

Christians? JNI should stop deceiving itself and its followers, because we the Christians of Nigeria know that no Christian would do what Islamic terrorists are doing and posting gleefully on the internet.”

The JNI’s statement had stated: “JNI once again notes with bewilderment the usual ways serious security issues are treated at the expense of the state.

“All thanks are due to Allah, the Most High for vindicating the JNI, because sometimes in February

2012, we issued a statement, demanding explanations from the CAN President on why some Christians are arrested in Muslims attires/dresses, while attempting to bomb or commit act of terrorism. Few of such were the cases of one Lydia Joseph, the failed bomber of St. John Catholic Cathedral, Bauchi. The man arrested in Bayelsa State was also in turban, like the Gombe case."

“Again we were astonished to hear of one Augustine Effiong in connection with the BUK bomb attack."

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012 — 7

Nigeria's economic growth at risk, CBN warns zRetains MPR at 12%

BY OMOH GABRIEL, BUSINESS EDITOR

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From left: Governor Henry Dickson of Bayelsa State; South African President, Jacob Zuma and HRH A. J. Turner in Pretoria, South Africa, yesterday, moments after the governor led a Bayelsa State delegation on a courtesy call after wooing investors to the state.

The problem with Nigeria —Gowon, Obasanjo, Shonekan

BY UDUMA KALU, PROVIDENCE OBUH & MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

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AGOS — THREE former Nigerian Heads of State, yesterday, led the way as eminent citizens took critical assessment of the state of the nation and the ills plaguing the country.

Notable among them were Gen Yakubu Gowon, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the Chairman of the Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan, who were among the group of eminent Nigerians that looked at the state of affairs in the country, 13 years after the restoration of democracy in Nigeria.

The leaders expressed concern over the corruption in the country, especially in the judiciary and concluded that the problems facing Nigeria today were due to the failure of institutions and systems.

They asked younger Nigerians to build on the labours of the generations of past Nigerian leaders.

Specifically, the former military head of state, General Yakubu Gowon urged younger generation of Nigerians not “to break Nigeria.”

Other eminent Nigerians at the 4th AES Annual National Conference 2012, with the theme, "Strong Systems: Necessity for Building a Virile Nation," included former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Uwais; Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola; legal luminary,

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Prof. Itse Sagay; former Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe; President of Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies, Nigeria (AES), Dr. Ausbeth Ajagu and chairman of the AES Excellence Club, Dr. Nike Akande. The event was organised by Dr. Ausbeth Ajagu and was chaired by Gowon at the NIIA, Lagos.

Don’t break Nigeria—Gowon Gowon, who was decorated as a fellow of the Academy refused to accept the appellation, ‘Father of United Nigeria’, saying that “Nigeria was united before him and that his generation never thought of breaking the country.”

He said he fought to reunite Nigeria in a gentleman’s way. He eulogised his generations and those before him for making their children believe in Nigeria. He told the younger generations never to stop criticising the leaders for the right thing to be done in Nigeria.

“Never think of breaking this country. This country is good for all of us,” Gowon said.

What went wrong with Nigeria —Obasanjo Obasanjo in his reactions to comments earlier made at the conference went down memory lane to explore how the rot crept into the Nigerian polity.

“We are concerned for Nigeria. Justice Uwais, I share your concern for the

judiciary.”

Saying much comments about Nigeria are in the negative, Obasanjo asked: “Is there hope for Nigeria?”

For him, there are also good things to celebrate in the country. He chided Nigerians for identifying with the wrong things about Nigeria and not what is right.

He said Nigeria should identify what is right in the country and condemn the wrong ones.

“Why are we not identifying and saying those things that are right with Nigeria and at the same time condemn those things that are wrong with Nigeria?”, he said, adding; “You don’t see and you don’t hear as much as I hear, mainly bad things and some good ones, because what you hear is what is wrong with Nigeria. But the question I often ask myself is what is right with Nigeria? Is there nothing right with Nigeria?”

Let’s build on institutions, governance —Shonekan In his remarks, former Interim Head of State, Shonekan, said for Nigeria to become a great country, it must get its political and economic environment right.

“In a population of over 150 million, one out of every six black in the world is a Nigerian, and the fact that when added to oil, agriculture, others, these things put together make us a natural leader in the continent. There is no reason why this country should not

be a leader in the continent.

“Ninety per cent of Nigeria’s income still comes from oil and gas. To become a strong economy, the government must diversify the economy so that it can actually be the natural leader in the continent.

“Going forward, I believe the future of Nigeria is bright, if we can all build on the various institutions put in place by government and build on governance.

Nigeria wants to be one of the 20 leading countries in 2020. For that to be achieved, each and everyone of us must strive to do our own little bit.”

Democracy is built on strong judiciary —Fashola However, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State said democracy is built on strong judiciary and that judiciary does not belong to the government, but is part of the government.

Fashola said: “If we do not have efficient police, well remunerated police, well equipped policemen and have moral right to sanction, then judiciary will find its work very difficult.

“When institutions succeed, great people have succeeded and when institutions fail, it is also men and women that have failed. So whether the men should come first or the institutions, it is proverbial.

Institutions are determined by men with character and compassion that can build.

We have chosen a form of government that is next to none, there is no alternative to it,” he said.

AGOS — THE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Monetary Policy Committee, yesterday, raised alarm over the deteriorating national economic growth, stating that “the growth and development of the Nigerian economy will continue to be at risk so long as progress is not made in structural reforms.”

The committee also warned that “the proposed upward review of electricity and import tariffs on wheat and rice as well as the rising global food and energy prices could further put upward pressure on prices in the near-term.”

The committee in a statement signed by the CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi noted: “Indications are that the robust output growth recorded in 2010/ 2011 might not be replicated in 2012."

He cited provisional data from the National Bureau of Statistics which indicates that real GDP in the first quarter of 2012 grew by 6.17 per cent down from 7.68 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 7.13 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

Sanusi said: “Overall, real GDP growth for fiscal 2012 is projected at 6.5 per cent down from 7.45 per cent in 2011. This confirms a disturbing and uninterrupted trend of decline going back to Q1 2010.

According to the CBN, “crude oil production was estimated to have declined by 2.32 per cent in quarter one 2012 compared with the decline of 2.41 per cent in the corresponding period of 2011. Non oil real GDP growth estimated at 7.93 per cent in Q1 of 2012 was much lower than 8.73 per cent recorded in Q1 of 2011.”

The CBN governor said that growth in agriculture in the first quarter of 2012 also declined to 4.15 per cent compared with 5.54 per cent in Q1 of 2011 and 5.74 in fourth quarter 2011.

"In general, the paradox of rising poverty incidence in the face of impressive economic growth further reinforces the committee’s call for the implementation of appropriate structural reforms in the key sectors notably agriculture, power and

the petroleum sector to stimulate productivity."

MPR at 12 % The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), also known as lending rate at 12 per cent.

This was made known by theCBN Governor at the end of the MPC meeting.

The committee meets every month to review and take monetary decisions.

Sanusi said Nigeria’s external reserves had increased to $38.72 billion as at May 17 from $36.66 billion in April, representing an 18.63 per cent increase over the level in December 2011.

"The increase reflected generally favourable commodity prices and inflows of capitals in response to the removal of restrictions on repatriations and high domestic interest rate as well as stable exchange rates. The committee noted the assurances of the bank that the total hot money in the system is under strict surveillance and that the bank is satisfied that the figure of $5 billion does not pose a significant threat to the financial stability of the country in view of the current level of reserves."

On the decision to retain the MPR, Sanusi said the apex bank was concerned about a slowdown in global economic activity and lower crude oil prices.

MPR is the rate at which the apex bank lends money to commercial banks for on lending to customers- this rate influences interest rates at any point in time He said the bank was equally concerned about the sharp decline in domestic oil production due to massive oil theft in Niger Delta and a drop in the agricultural output because of insecurity in some Northern states of the country.

It was the committee’s view that at this point in time the trajectory of prices and output is more dependent on fiscal and structural policy than on monetary policy. The sluggish growth in credit, the stable exchange rate, the healthy reserve position and the benign month-by-month inflation do not suggest a need for further tightening at this point.

8— VANGUARD,

WEDNES DAY, WEDNESDAY,

MAY

23,

2012

AES TALK SHOP ON BUILDING A VIRILE NATION HOLDS IN LAGOS Top Nigerians including former Heads of State, ex-President, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, governors, exministers, captains of industry and legal experts and administrators were at the Fourth Annual National Conference 2012 of Academy For Entrepreneurial Studies, Nigeria, AES, with the theme, ''Strong Systems: Necessity for Building A Virile Nation'' at the Nigerian Institute for International Affairs, NIIA, in Lagos, yesterday. Our men, Biodun Ogunleye and Bunmi Azeez, captured the event.

ARISE O COMPATRIOTS: From right, J u s t i c e Mohammed Uwais, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Guest of Honour; ExPresident O l u s e g u n Obasanjo, Keynote Speaker; Dr. Ausbeth Ajagu, President, AES; General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), Chairman of the occasion; Mr Babatunde Fashola, Lagos State Governor, Host Governor; ex-Head of State, Chief Ernest Shonekan, Special Guest of Honour and Chief (Dr) Nike Akande, AES Excellence Club Chairman, at the event.

Professor Green Nwankwo and Chief (Mrs) Opral Benson, Yeye Oge of Lagos.

WELCOME SIRS: From left, Gen. Yakubu Gowon; Chief Ernest Shonekan, Olorogun O'tega Emerhor, Group Executive Director, Standard Alliance Group and Chief Kingsley Ozobia, Chairman, T3 Communications Ltd.

From left, Dr Ausbeth Ajagu,President AES, Pius Sinebe,ex-Chairman DJEMPARS, Dr Austin Izagbo, MD Caniz Ltd and Chief Ikem Ozobia at the occasion.

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Dr.Danburan Nuhu, Kano State Commissioner, Commerce,Industry &Tourism (left) and Mr. Godwin Omene, Chairman, Organisinfg Committee, AES.

Prof.

I t s e Sagay (SAN) and Dr (Mrs) N i k e Akande.

From l e f t Olorogun Otega Emerhor, Chairman, Sagroup a n d Chief D e b e OdumegwuOjukwu.

M r Gbenga S o b o , representative of First B a n k Chairman.

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012—9

Briefly

Fraud charge: PDP asks Ikuforiji to step aside

BY DAPO AKINREFON

I

KEJA—LAGOS State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called on the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, to step aside pending the final conclusion of the criminal charge against him before a Federal High Court, Lagos, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. The party also said it was in the process of restructuring to make sure the party works ahead of the 2015 general elections.

At a briefing, in Lagos, yesterday, state chairman of PDP, Captain Tunji Shelle (rtd), queried why the Assembly should be shut down anytime the Speaker was appearing in court for the criminal trial, describing same as “unacceptable.”

He called on him (Ikuforiji) to step down pending the end of his trial.

Lawyer docked for alleged theft of N36m

BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH, ONOZURE DANIA & MICHAEL OLADIPO

I

KEJA—FOR allegedly stealing N36 million belonging to one Emeka Nwajiuba, a lawyer, Mr. Odi Ajike, was, yesterday, arraigned before an Ikeja High Court, Lagos.

Ajike was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before Justice Lateefa Okunnu. He was said to have swindled a fellow lawyer, Nwajiuba, by issuing a dud cheque for the money entrusted into his care and his company.

Ajike pleaded not guilty to the charges and was ordered to be remanded in prison custody by Justice Okunnu.

The lawyer, arraigned on a three-count charge of stealing, fraud and fraudulent conversion, was alleged to have “issued a dud cheque valued N4 million on January 21, with intent to defraud Nwajiuba.”

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Court to rule on Lagos govt objection to striking doctors' suit

BY INNOCENT ANABA

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AGOS—THE National Industrial Court, Lagos, will, tomorrow, rule on the preliminary objection by the Lagos State Government, challenging the suit by the 788 doctors whose appointments were

terminated by the state government.

The doctors, in the suit by Chairman and General Secretary of Medical Guild, Dr. Olumuyiwa Odusote and Dr. Idris Durojaiye, respectively, for themselves and on behalf of other members of the guild, are praying the court to void the identical dismissal

letters purportedly issued to them by the government.

Attorney-General of Lagos State, Mr. Ade Ipaye, who argued the preliminary objection, contended that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit and thus should sstrike out same in its entirety.

On the dismissal of the

matter, he contended that the suit cannot be sustained by the claimants, as the first and second claimants sued for themselves and on behalf of the guild, which is not a registered trade union.

He argued: “It is, in fact, not a person known to law.

Yet, the claimants’ suit is predicated on an

PRESENTATION: Chairperson, Central Working Committee of Marketmen and Women Association of Ogun State, Chief Adesola Kessington Adebutu, presents a gift to the representative of Globacom, Globacom Business Director, Lagos 1, Mr. Akeem Kazeem, at the launch of Glo Infinity for Olojas. With them is Chief Mercy Owolana, Iyaloja of Remoland.

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

I

KEJA—LAGOS State Government, yesterday, said no fewer than 383 cases of rape were recorded while 11 suspects were prosecuted and convicted in the last one year.

The government added that it rescued 497 abandoned babies from the streets.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Youth and Social Development, Dr. Dolapo Badru, at a briefing in Lagos, said the

383 raped in Lagos ...497 abandoned babies rescued cases included one where a father, who impregnated his daughter was prosecuted and later convicted. He added that 4,387 new family welfare cases were also treated.

Badru, who expressed the government’s readiness to check the trend, urged anyone with complaints or for rescue mission to call relevant state agencies.

“We are also concerned with the issue of abandoned babies, child abuse/sexual abuse and lack of care for people living with disabilities.”

On the rescued babies, Badru said they were rescued after their mothers abandoned them somewhere as they did not want the children, adding that the babies were taken to government

Witness says FinBank's purchase of own shares wrong

BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH, ONOZURE DANIA & MICHAEL OLADIPO

I

KEJA—AN Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, witness in the on-going trial of former managing director of FinBank Plc, Mr. Okey Nwosu and three other directors of the bank, Mr. Ifeanyi Obiekwe, yesterday, told an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, that it was abnormal for a bank to buy its own shares.

Obiekwe, Head of Financial Control Unit of the bank, said the bank’s management under

Nwosu, contrary to laiddown principles, bought shares of the bank from the stock market.

Nwosu, alongside Dayo Famoroti, Danjuma Ocholi and Agnes Ebubedike were alleged to have stolen and illegal converted N16.2 billion belonging to FinBank.

The case is before Justice Lateefa Okunnu.

During crossexamination, he admitted that none of the directors or management members benefited from the transactions, as all the proceeds were still in the bank's coffers.

Led in evidence by EFCC lawyer, Obiekwe

said the shares trading transactions was done for the bank by Spring Board Trust Limited, a company that holds a current account with the bank.

He said the bank did not use its subsidiary, Fin Securities Capital Limited, to procure the shares because it was still trying to find its feet then.

Obiekwe added that the shares were bought in the name of some companies, called Special Purpose Vehicles, SPVs, owned by the bank, adding that at the time of transaction, the SPVs were not registered with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

homes and private orphanages.

“With this, the rate at which mothers dumped their new-born babies has increased in Lagos State.”

agreement purportedly entered into between the said Medical Guild and the government. The guild does not have locus standi either to maintain this action or to enter into a contract as alleged.”

On the suit disclosing a reasonable cause of action thereby allowing the court with the jurisdiction to entertain same , he argued that no action can be retain by any entity except where a statute or common law confers legal personality on that entity.

He argued that even if there was a breach of any agreement, the procedure for resolving it is provided for in the Trade Dispute Act and none of the legal procedure had been followed.

Bank chief tasks transporters

L

A G O S — MANAGING Director of Infrastructure Bank Plc, Mr. Adekunle Oyinloye, has stressed that buses acquired under the Federal Government’s Public Mass Transit Fund scheme are to be used strictly for mass transit purposes.

Speaking at the launch of 150 mass transit buses of the Trade Union Congress,TUC, in Lagos, Oyinloye said that the N25 billion fund for the scheme was revolving “as repayments from beneficiaries are reinvested to ensure that the fund is self-regenerating without subventions from the Federal Government.”

FG moves to ban use of foreign computers

BY EBELE ONUORAH

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AGOS—THE Federal Government has vowed to ensure compliance by ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, to patronise made-in-Nigeria computers.

Director, Standards and Regulation, National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Mr. Inye Kemabonta, who represented the DirectorGeneral, said this at a twoday retreat organised by the agency in Lagos, on draft guidelines for home-grown IT hardware products.

He said the agency will launch a monitoring scheme to ensure compliance by all public institutions across the nation to the Act. NITDA, under its enabling law, has three key sections, which are offences punishable by prison terms, fines or both, if flouted in

the emerging dispensation.

Stressing the importance of benchmarking, Professor C. Angaye, a guest speaker, said: “At the end of the retreat, there will be issuance of new guidelines that will protect local IT products, and it will be regarded as economic sabotage if MDAs do not patronise Nigerian IT products.”

He added that the procurement by public institutions, of non-madein-Nigeria computers, where certified local brands exist, is an offence punishable by a prison term and fine, under NITDA Act. President, Computer Allied Products Dealers Association, CAPDA, Mr Tunji Balogun said: “Computer Village is the largest concentration of people doing the same business other than any other business in the whole of Africa, so it is high time we got recognised.”

10—VANGUARD , WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

Daniel storms PDP Abuja office for reconciliation z Obasanjo, others absent zTukur refuses ex-gov's plea zOgun PDP congress holds today

BY HENRY UMORU

A

MEETING: From left, Women Leader, Oyo State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Princess (Mrs) Christiana Babalola; wife of former governor of Oyo State, Chief (Mrs) Oluwakemi Alao-Akala and another leader, during PDP Women leaders wards,local goverment and state meeting at Alao Akala residence, Bodija,Ibadan, yesterday.

Osun Poly student dies in cult war

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

O

SOGBO—ONE student was confirmed dead while another is on danger list following a bloody clash between two cult groups at Osun State Polytechnic, Iree.

Though detail of the clash was still sketchy at press time, it was, however, gathered that the two groups, in a show of supremacy, engaged one another in a free-forall where the two victims, who sustained serious injuries, were rushed to hospitals, where one of them was confirmed dead shortly on admission.

It was gathered that despite that the institution was on mid-semester break for the past 10 days, many students stayed back in their residences off campus.

Investigation revealed

that the cultists used the opportunity of the break to launch attack on one another.

When contacted, the State Police Commissioner, Mrs. Kalafite Adeyemi, confirmed the incident, explaining that one of the suspected cult members was still unconscious in the hospital where he was admitted while the police had taken over the corpse for autopsy.

I

BADAN—TO prevent another flood disaster in Oyo State, Governor Abiola Ajimobi has embarked on dredging of no fewer than 43 rivers and streams in Ibadan metropolis and other parts of the state.

Already, about 58 houses blocking the waterways have been demolished to prevent flood disaster which led to the death of hundreds of people last August.

Though, some residents of the state are alleging political consid-

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fracas to the police.

In a statement, the Media Relations Officer of the school, Mr. Tope Abiola, said the suspected cultists inflicted severe injuries on some students outside the campus specifically at Eyinade area, Ikirun Road.

The authorities, while condemning the act, urged the police to intensify their investigation to bring the culprits to justice.

Woman, 8 others docked over kidnap, murder of Ife prince

BY DAYO JOHNSON

A

KURE—A woman and eight others have been docked for alleged kidnap and killing of the former managing director of Ore-Irele Oil Palm Plc, Prince Richard Awofisayo.

The accused persons are Mrs. Funmi Afolabi,

Oyo takes precaution against flooding

BY OLA AJAYI

Adeyemi added that: “The police have since intervened in the matter and five persons have been arrested by the security operatives in connection with the matter and they have given the police useful information on the matter.”

Meanwhile, the authorities of the institution declared that it had handed over two students of the institution allegedly involved in the

eration in the demolition, the government explained that it decided to reduce the number of structures earlier marked for demolition so as not to further impoverish the people of the state.

Speaking at the bank of Ijokodo River where work was going on, the Commissioner for Environment and Habitat, Alhaji Wasiu Dauda, explained that the government would be the first that dredged the rivers since the flood disaster of 1980.

Oluwatobi Omobamijo, Afolabi Oladipupo, Victor Okoro, Adesulimo Sesan, Alonge Kayode, Kehinde Olasanoye, Akinola Ojoele and Ismaila Bakare.

They, however, pleaded not guilty to the offence preferred against them.

The accused persons were also charged with murder, contrary to Section 316 of the Criminal Code and punishable under Section 319 of the Criminal Code Cap 30 Vol. 11 laws of the state.

The prosecution team led by the Attorney- General and Commissioner of Justice, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, lined up nine witnesses including five policemen that investigated the matter.

They included Ephraim Lome, Adebowale Williams, Ajimisogbe Samuel, Godwin Owoicho and Sunday Samuel.

Others include Mr. Abisoye Aworeni, a driver to the late Awofisayo, Adebola Yaya, legal adviser to the company, Bayode

Omokolajo, personal assistant to the late Awofisayo and Prince Albert Awofisayo, the brother of the deceased.

Omobamijo, one of the accused, in his statement, admitted that four of them agreed to kill Awofisayo and burnt his corpse to cover any evidence that could link them to the crime.

One of the prosecution witnesses, Prince Albert Awofisayo, told the court how he heard about the abduction of his brother, how the demand for ransom was made and how they were able to raise the N5 million initially demanded by the kidnappers.

Awofisayo said he was informed about the abduction of his brother and his personal assistant and they were taken to an unknown place.

He said despite payment of N12.4 million by the family to secure his freedom he was killed. The Judge, Segun Olusola, fixed June 4 for the continued hearing of the matter.

BUJA—FORMER governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, yesterday, stormed the National Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as part of moves for reconciliation of members of the party following long irreconcilable political tiff.

At the Wadata Plaza of the party, Daniel's plea to PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to shift the date of today’s congresses, failed after almost six hours meeting.

It was also gathered that though the former governor had sought for total reconciliation of aggrieved members with other stakeholders of the party in the state, but the PDP National Chairman was said to have told him that he must follow due process of reconciliation from the state, just as he was advised to start the reconciliation from the state, then to the SouthWest zone before coming to the National Secretariat.

Before they entered a closed-door meeting, Tukur had said in his opening speech that the party operated as a family and would ensure reconciliation at all levels, adding, “We are all PDP family. What brought you here is one of the reasons why we all told Nigerians when I took over the reins of PDP through election that I will work on triple R, reconciliation, reformation and rebuilding the party based on equity and justice.

“You came here so that we can be able to get peace to reign because once you have that the next is security and what next is investment.”

Prior to the National Chairman’s response, former Minister of Mines and Steel Development,

Sharafa Ishola, who was part of the visit that was made up of some Elders and leaders from the state, debunked speculations that Daniel dumped PDP for a rival political party over the crisis that engulfed the state chapter of PDP before the last governorship elections.

The former minister also declared that the Ogun PDP Elders were at the party national secretariat on a mission to find lasting peace in the state chapter of the party, just as he stressed that the group was not in Abuja to represent any particular faction, adding, “this is not a meeting of a faction.”

At the meeting, total reconciliation became elusive because Tukur needed a larger house like the presence of other stakeholders that should include former President Olusegun Obasanjo, General Tunji Olurin, who was the party ’s governorship candidate at the 2011 general election, Doyin Okupe and former Minister of Commerce and Industry, Jubril Martins-Kuye.

It will be recalled that though, Daniel did not officially leave PDP, he was said to have been the brain behind the formation of Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN, which produced Gboyega Isiaka as its governorship candidate when he lost out to Gen. Olurin (rtd), who was the candidate of the PDP as well as that of former Chairman of Board of Trustees, BoT, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

At the meeting, Tukur was said to have insisted that to ensure total reconciliation with all member that the Daniel and his group should take part in today ’s state’s congress election.

PDP National secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, was not at the meeting.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012—11

Tankers'll return to Lagos highway if…—NUPENG

BY KUNLE KALEJAYE

N

IGERIA Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Lagos branch, has threatened that tankers would return to the highways if stiffer measures were not taken against other truck users.

President, South-West branch of NUPENG, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, disclosed this to Vanguard in a telephone chat.

He said the Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD, a branch of NUPENG, has complied with the ultimatum by Lagos State Government to truck drivers along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, to vacate CONDOLENCE: Prof. Hope Eghagha delivering a condolence letter on behalf of the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan to Ag VC of the University of Lagos, Prof. Rahamon Bello (right) and DVC Academics, Prof. Jide Alo (middle).

Reps condemn poor management of oil assets

E-West road tragedy: Man killed as vehicle plunges into river H

BY CLARA NWACHUKWU

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

ENAGOA—TRAG EDY struck in the early hours of yesterday, on the Bayelsa State stretch of East-West Road, in Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area of the state, when a Mitsubishi Gallant car plunged into the Okoso River, following a collision with another vehicle, a Honda car, travelling in the opposite direction.

It was gathered that the poor state of the road might have been partly responsible for the tragic accident coupled with likely fatigue on the part of the drivers, poor visibility and lack of road signs to warn drivers of the deplorable state of the road.

The Federal Road Safe-

ty Commission, FRSC, meanwhile, confirmed one dead in the Okoso Bridge accident.

The victim was identified as Mr. Steven Kemepadou, a staff of an indigenous oil servicing company in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

He was reportedly driving a Mitsubishi Gallant that collided with a Honda car on the bridge before plunging into the river early in the morning from the Okoso Bridge on the Bayelsa stretch of the road.

The Sagbama Unit

Oshiomhole to Edo PDP: Abuja cannot save you

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN—AHEAD of the July 14 governorship election in Edo State, Governor Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday, admonished leaders of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state to campaign to the people of the state and stop seeking the help of President Goodluck Jonath-

an.

He reminded them that President Jonathan was an apostle of one-man, one-vote, and hence will not be “involved in oiling PDP's rigging machinery which had been dismantled by Edo people.”

He added: “Abuja cannot vote in Edo State. I heard they went to Abuja, they can go to Cameroon, they can go to

Upgrade Abraka police station the Abraka police station —DELSU Alumni as well as providing the

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—DELTA State University Alumni Association has called on the Police authorities in the state to upgrade the Abraka police station to a Police Division.

NATIONAL President of the association, Mr. Oriogbe Emoemu, at the founders’ day celebration

Commander of the FRSC, Mr. Samson Eniyemo, confirmed that the Mitsubishi Gallant car that plunged into the Okoso River had been recovered by local divers in the community with the corpse deposited in a morgue in Odi.

of the institution and launching of Alumni Legacy Hall in Abraka, weekend, said the call became necessary, following the high rate of crime in the state. He insisted that its upgrade would lead to increase of security surveillance in the community.

He said: “It has become pertinent for security to be provided by upgrading

needed vehicles for patrol to stem the tide of kidnapping and violent criminal acts being perpetrated in the university town.”

Enjoining the state government to establish an independent power project to provide public supply to the university community, he said stable power supply would stimulate researchers, better teaching and learning condition in the institution.

Bakassi. Only Edo people will decide who their leader will be and not Abuja.”

Oshiomhole spoke, yesterday, during rallies in Egor and Oredo Local Government Areas of the state, where the former governor of the state, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and over 1,000 others were received into Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. Addressing the people, Oshiomhole read out projects cited in Egor and Oredo councils to include the N30 billion Benin Water Storm Project, and regretted that rather than campaigning, PDP leaders, including “their governorship candidate are running up and down seeking for help from Abuja. We have never seen the god father campaign. And it is because he knows it will be worse for PDP, when the people of the state see his face."

the area .

He said: “We are watching the Lagos State Government closely to see if they will fully enforce the evacuation of trucks on the OshodiApapa Expressway because we have observed that there are other trucks on the highway.

“We have complied, but others are not complying and if nothing is done to evict these defaulters on the highway, then tankers will return to the highway.”

He stressed that NUPENG will not accept a situation where the Lagos State Government treats drivers of trucks carrying containers with kid gloves.

OUSE of Repre sentatives Committee on Downstream Petroleum, has condemned what it described as the poor management and maintenance of Federal Government’s petroleum assets in the country.

The committee expressed worry that while private depots and jetties are running efficiently and effectively, judging from their inspection of some petroleum assets lin Lagos, governmentowned assets are riddled with tales of woes.

Expressing the committee’s dismay after an inspection of the Nigeri-

an National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC’s Ejigbo Satellite Depot and other private depots in Lagos on Tuesday, the committee's chairman, Mr. Dakuku Peterside, said a whole lot of issues are begging for a change in the downstream petroleum sector.

He said: “In the course of our oversight function, we noticed, to our chagrin, that most of the government's downstream assets are either not well managed or not well maintained, or both.

“But on the other hand, private assets are better maintained and well managed, which means that the business of downstream operations is better managed by private hands.”

Pay 13% derivation to oil, gas communities—HOSCOM

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

P

ORT HAR COURT—HOST Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, HOSCOM, has enjoined the Federal Government to pay the 13 percent derivation directly to the oil and gas producing communities.

HOSCOM in a statement in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, by the media aide to the state chapter of the body, Mr Joe Kalu, said the communities would be in a better position to use the funds to drive developmental

projects in their areas.

Calling for formation of Rivers State Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, RISOPADEC, the group said they had submitted a memorandum on the issue to Revenue Mobilization and Physical Commission, Abuja.

The group enjoined members of the body to be on ground to receive the Revenue Mobilization and Physical Commission, whenever, the officials come to the South-South region for public hearing on the issue and other related matters.

12—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

DESTRUCTION OF 1,500 ILLEGAL REFINERIES

Army destroys 1,500 illegal refineries in Warri South-West ....Three persons arrested

BY EMMA ARUBI & AKPOKONA OMAFUAIRE

W

Lt. Col. Ifeanyi Otu, Commandfing Officer, 3 Battallion, Effurun, leading his men in the operation at Isaba Community, Delta State, yesterday.

From right: Mr. Ebi Lucky, Gideon Obuko and Joseph Omubare, arrested suspects .

Panoramic view of area.

Drums used for illegal operations. Photos: Akpokona Omafuaire.

ARRI—MEN of 3 Battallion, Effurun and Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger Delta, yesterday, in Isaba, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, destroyed over 1,500 illegal oil refineries and arrested three persons.

The raid, which is coming barely two weeks after the Army destroyed over 600 illegal refineries, also led to the discovery of illegal refineries at Esaba community in Ughelli-South Local Government Area of the state.

The operation, which lasted over five hours, saw the army destroying over 3,000 drums of refined diesel, 700 surface tanks filled with diesel, over ten pumping machines, three generating sets, 600 hoses, five Contonou boats,

three speed boats and numerous huts.

Lt. Col. Ifeanyi Otu, Commanding Officer, 3 Battallion, who led the operation, said: “Honestly, today (yesterday) was tremendous, you saw the high scale of illegal bunkering.

“Today’s operation is far more than the previous one, where we destroyed over 600 illegal refineries.

Definitely, from the scale, you will understand that the Federal Government is loosing a lot.

“This exercise will be continuous and sustained.

People should engage in legitimate businesses.

The only pre-emptive measure being taken is to frustrate their businesses by continuing to destroy the illegal refineries.

“The exercise is aimed at stopping illegal bunkering and reduce loss of national revenue. We will not record casualties but we will not stop until they stop. Those arrested will be handed over for prosecution.”

Odele passes on

G

RANT Odele of the Oguaja Cottage fame is dead.

A statement by the family said service of songs will hold on May 24, while interment comes up on May 25 at Koko. Burial ceremony follows immediately at 72, Ogodo Road Extension, Sapele.

He is survived by a wid-

ow, children, brothers, and sisters.

Late Grant Odele

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012—13

CPC accuses PDP of sponsoring internal division

Attempted kidnap of monarch: Police denies recovering AK-47 rifles

•They don't know where their problems are — PDP

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

BY PETER OKUTU

L

A

BAKALIKI— EBONYI State Police Command has debunked reports that AK47 rifles were recovered from the hoodlums that attacked the palace of Eze Moses Ngele of Ishiagu Kingdom in Ivo local government area of the s t a t e .

According to the State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, ASP John Eluu, none of the suspects arrested in connection with the invasion of the king’s palace was seen with AK 4 7 rifles. He said only a single pistol was recovered from them.

Eluu, who also confirmed the arrest of three suspects, stressed that investigations were on to ascertain the motive behind the attack and if the hoodlums were actually sent by any stakeholder in the area to cause commotion in the king’s palace on the fateful day.

FORUM—Wale Tinubu, Group Chief Executive, Oando PLC (left) and Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, during a plenary session at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Addis Abba, Ethiopia.

COMMENDATION—From left: Mr. Fred Ijewere, Managing Director/CEO, Learn Africa Plc; Mrs Debola Osibogun, 2nd Vice President, CIBN and Mr. Joseph Laoye Jaiyeola, President, CIBN, and other guests at the commendation service organised by CIBN in honour of Late Chief Francis Ijewere, 1st President of the Institute, held at the Bankers House, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Nigeria's oil, gas suffer brain drain

BY CLARA NWACHUKWU

P

ART of Nigerian oil and gas industry’s problem is not just lack of capacity, but also rapid brain drain, as a result of increasing discovery of hydrocarbon resources in other African countries. This was part of the major challenges identified by the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, hindering its effective monitoring and policing of the industry.

The Director, DPR, Mr. Osten Olorunsola, who disclosed this to House of Representatives Committee on Downstream Petroleum, said other African countries were poaching their manpower from Nigeria.

He said, “20 years ago, it was just Nigeria, and probably Gabon that were producing oil, but today, there is rapid oil and gas discoveries being made by practically every African country, even those that we thought did not have these resources have all made their own finds. “ Angola and some others

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joined about 10 years ago, five years down the line, Ghana and the rest came on board, and it is Nigerians they are using as their technical experts because Nigeria being the oldest country with the industry experience is now experiencing brain drain as other countries continue to pull out our experienced hands. And you can't blame them for going because with fat salaries in dollars and long term contracts, Nigerians are leaving for these countries in droves.

In fact, in Angola, in one of the departments in their national oil company, are only Nigerians. So, we have facing serious problems keeping our experienced hands.”

Olorunsola also identified an aging workforce as another major setback for the petroleum industry regulator.

He decried that, “quite a number of our experienced people are going to retire very soon, and this is a big challenge. Even me, I will not be here for too long.”

As a result, he said the DPR has embarked on intensive training of the younger workforce that will take over the running of the agency, as well as fast tracking their industrial development to bridge the gap that will be created.

He said the DPR has about 1,081 staff, which keeps depleting on daily basis on account of the brain drain and aging work force, and as such, lacked the requisite skilled capacity to effectively police the industry.

AGOS — THE Con gress for Progressive Change, CPC, yesterday claimed to have uncovered what it described as a devious plot by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to further distabilise the party.

Speaking through its National Publicity Secretary, Engr. Rotimi Fashikin, the CPC said the PDP had arranged a meeting of CPC dissidents where a vote of no confidence would be passed on the leadership of the party.

The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a sharp rebuttal described the CPC as an inconsequential body ignorant of the sources of its repeated failure to win election. He charged the CPC to search among its prospective alliance partners in the opposition for the source of its problem.

“The PDP plans to use the renegade group led by

Senator Rufa’I Hanga to goad unsuspecting party men into a meeting on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 where a noxious vote-ofno-confidence decision shall be passed on the substantive National Executive Committee (NEC) of the CPC,” the CPC claimed, yesterday.

“Having failed to cater for the security and welfare of Nigerians, being the basic constitutional requirements for responsible governance, the PDP seeks to languidly lay hold of straw of hope by deliberately sponsoring confusion within the polity.”

Reacting, Metuh said: “It is too irrelevant and too consequential for the PDP to disturb itself, it is a one man party. They don’t know where their problems are and that is why they keep losing elections. They should look at their alliance partners who want to have an upper hand in their alliance arrangement and so they should leave the PDP alone.”

14—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

Minister laments inadequate mobile penetration in Nigeria

BY LAIDE AKINBOADE

A

SOLIDARITY—Nze Dennis Eze, Enugu State Head of Service Enugu (2nd left) leading Enugu State workers and students on a solidarity rally for Governor Sullivan Chime over his victory at Federal High Court, Abuja in Enugu. Photo: Hill Ezeugwu.

Capital market probe: We 'll not witch hunt anybody — C'ttee chairman

BY OKEY NDIRIBE EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

A

BUJA—CHAIRMAN of the Capital Market probe, Ibrahim El-Sudi, yesterday said participants at the probe would be given a fair hearing, saying the committee was not out to witch hunt anybody.

Also a sacked staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Mr Samuel Isimbabi has revealed that the sack of professionals in the capital market was one of the major causes of the crash of Nigerian Capital Market.

Speaking at the on-going probe of the near collapse of the capital market, Isimbabi said the sack of professionals by Mallam Musa El-Faki in 2007 immensely affected the capital market as mediocres were now elevated into sensitive positions and could not meet up with the challenges associated with their positions.

Mr Isimbabi further alleged before the era of the consolidation of banks, there was a policy that quoted companies should only issue their public offer once a year but said this was violated during the consolidation era.

He said: “Some banks were allowed to issue public offer twice in one year. This resulted in the capital market being over flooded with public offers.

There was over valuation of some stocks quoted on the stock exchange.”

He cited the case of a certain stock which was over valued at N89 per unit

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which later crashed to N9, adding this was the true value of that particular stock.

Isimbabi further explained that another reason the market failed was that

marginal loans were not given to stock brokers to buy s h a r e s .

Okorocha's sister, family escape death as robbers open fire on convoy

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI—ELDER sister of Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, her family and police escort narrowly escaped death weekend as armed robbers opened fire on the vehicle in which they were travelling at Egbeada, Mbaitoli local government area of Imo State.

It was gathered that the woman and her household were in a convoy of three

vehicles when the hoodlums struck.

A close family source told Vangauard that the three vehicles were riddled with bullets but that none of the occupants sustained any injury during the attack.

Consequently, the family home of Okorocha’s elder sister had been a Mecca of sort, as political office holders, friends, relations and other concerned citizens continued going to sympathize with the family.

Imo gov appeals to traditional rulers over insecurity

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

W E R R I — GOVERNOR Rochas Okorocha of Imo State has appealed to traditional rulers to assist law enforcement agencies in checking the increasing spate of violent crimes in the state.

Okorocha, who made the appeal while flagging off the training for royal fathers on how to carry out legislative business, also said there was no going back on the proposed fourth-tier government in the state.

“I must state that there is

no going back in my resolve to institute the community government council in the state,” Okorocha said.

He warned civil servants yet to present themselves for the verification in their communities to do so now as “anybody who failed to complete the form would no longer be paid salaries.”

Addressing the traditional rulers, the facilitator of the programme and immediate past representative of Imo West in the Senate, Chief Osita Izunaso, called for collaboration between the government and the governed.

Vanguard recalls that Imo State has been under serious siege while several people, including traditional rulers, business men, politicians, public office holders had at various times and places been kidnapped for ransom.

While some captives survived to narrate their sordid ordeal in the hands of their captors, some others did not and the consensus opinion among Imo people is that “these serious crimes are attaining a feverish pitch”.

BUJA—MINISTER of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, yesterday expressed frustration that only 58 percent of Nigerians had mobile penetration.

She also said Information Communication Technology, ICT, in 2011 contributed over five percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, G D P .

The minister, who spoke at the Ministerial Platform, said Nigeria’s mobile penetration level was a far cry from the 93 percent penetration in Algeria;

South Africa, 92%; Gabon, 89 % and Tunisia, 83%.

The minister also said only 3% of Nigeria’s population of over 160 million subscribed to the internet, while only 33% had internet penetration; 6% of broadband penetration, with an average internet download speed of 1.38Mbps.

According to her, ”most Nigerians are excluded from the growth and development that can be aided by information and communication technology. ”We hope to extend the benefits of ICTs to Nigerians regardless of geo-graphical or socioeconomic status".

Cleric raises alarm over increasing rate of crimes in Imo

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI—BISHOP of the Diocese of Okigwe South, Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. David O.C. Onuoha, yesterday raised alarm over the increasing level of kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes in Imo State, despite efforts to curb the menace.

Onuoha, who spoke in an address to the first session of the seventh synod of the diocese at Saint Paul’s Anglican Church,

Avutu, Obowo, also called for the declaration of a state of emergency on unemployment.

He advised that efforts should be made to explore the option of fighting insecurity through job creation.

“A state of emergency should be declared on unemployment in this state to ensure rehabilitation of collapsed establishments like Avutu Modern Poultry Far, Nsu Modern Ceramics, Abadaba Lake Resort and others".

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012—15

Minister advocates family courts to protect children's rights

FG vows to implement panel's report on 41 institutions

BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU

zTasks parents, stakeholders on child protection A

BY VICTORIA OJEME & REGINA OTOKPA

A

BUJA—MINISTER of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, yesterday, canvassed the establishment of family courts across states of the federation to protect the rights of children in the country.

She spoke in Abuja during a media parley, as part of activities to flag off the National Children Day celebration, scheduled to hold on May 27 with the theme, Lets Build a Culture of Peace and Security for the Nigerian Child.

Maina said: “I also wish to call for the establishment of family courts, not only in the 23 states that passed the child rights law, but throughout the country to serve as a practical domestication of our collective resolve to ensure the future of our country.”

Speaking on the imperative of protecting the rights of the Nigerian child against abuse and violence, Hajia Maina urged state governments to take steps to ensure the domestication of the Child Rights Act, in order to save children from further exploitation and abuse in generations to come.

She decried the effect of the rising incidences of terror on children and the violent environment they were confronted with, noting that the effect on the child was adverse.

He said: “It is very disturbing to note that of recent children are very often victims of the ugliest and most shameful human activities. No child can realise his or her potential in the midst of violence yet some children are growing up surrounded by insecurity brought about by unpatriotic Nigerians who want to destabilise the country.

“In Nigeria today, many children are silently suffering the effect and consequences of crisis which takes many forms; either on the streets, in schools, families and in communities. We know that violence is not started by children, but at the end of the day, they experience the

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negative consequences as their lives are disrupted, shattered or even lost.”

She stressed the need for full implementation of the child rights laws, especially in the 23 states where the bill had been passed into law.

She said: “While commending the 23 states that so far passed the child

rights law in their respective states, let me, however, call on them to ensure its full implementation so as to save our future generation from exploitation, abuse, violence and even death.”

She disclosed that the ministry was finalising talks to establish a new national plan of action on Orphans and Vulnerable Children, OVC, and develop a pro-

posal to enable the ministry key into Almajiri education with a focus on vocational skills.

The minister also called on families and stakeholders to respect the rights of children in any decision taken in the country to move the nation forward, saying such could forestall further conflicts in the country.

BUJA—FEDERAL Government, yesterday, vowed to implement all the recommendations of reports submitted to it by the visitation panels to 41 institutions of higher learning.

Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayat Rufa’i, who said this during the submission of reports on Federal colleges of education and polytechnics in Abuja, stated that no indicted institution or person would be spared.

She said: “Ministry of

Education will work assiduously to ensure that the recommendations of those reports are used to add value to tertiary education.

“Let me also assure all stakeholders that the ministry will deal decisively with any person found culpable in those reports as there will be no sacred cows.”

It would be recalled that the Federal Government, on March 29, constituted panels to investigate activities of the 41 federal polytechnics and colleges of education nationwide in the past eight years.

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16—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

Lovers die inside car in Kano

BY ABDULSALAM MUHAMMAD

K

ANO—TWO adults believed to be in their thirties, suspected to be lovers, were found dead in a car at the premises of

Malam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano State, Monday night. The two lovers were identified by relations as Najeeb Yunusa, General Manger, Azman Filling Station, Abuja, and Nadiya Abdu

of Gwamamja quarters, Kano.

Nadiya’s half brother, Jamilu who was in the hospital to collect the corpse for burial told Vanguard: “Nadiya left home on Friday evening by

Niger House elects 3rd Speaker within one month

BY WOLE MOSADOMI

M

INNA—THE drama which has engulfed the Niger State House of Assembly continued yesterday with the impeachment of Isa Kawu, who was elected Speaker of the House a week ago. Kawu was impeached after a vote of no confidence was passed on him with 21 members in support of the motion and three against.

He was replaced with Mr. Adamu Usman, a first-timer and immediate past Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, representing Mokwa Constituency. He was immediately sworn in by the Clerk of the House.

Last Tuesday, Mohammed Gammunu, was im-

peached for incompetence after a motion moved by Bashir Goma, representing Wushishi Constituency, under matters of urgent public importance was adopted.

At a reconvened session, yesterday, Andrew Doma, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, representing Shiroro Constituency, moved for the impeachment of Kawu, over his alleged inability to move the House forward just a week after his election.

The motion was seconded by Abbas Waziri, PDP, Magama Constituency. However, the motion was quickly countered by Muhammad Umar, representing Kontagora 1 Constituency (CPC) and sec-

onded by Farouk Bala Bida 11 (CPC).

After a hot debate, the motion was put to vote and 21 members out of 25 voted for the impeachment, while 3 voted against.

Immediately after the drama, Comfort Zakari (PDP), representing Tafa Constituency, then moved for the nomination of Adamu Usman as the new Speaker, which was unanimously adopted.

In his acceptance speech, the new Speaker described the recent political scenarios in the House as “democracy in action” and assured his colleagues that he will not let them down as they will be carried along in the running of affairs of the House.

4.00pm on a visit to relations within the city.”

Jamilu said Nadiya, mother of a seven-yearold girl was due to pay a condolence visit to her former husband who lost his father recently. He added that other younger ones, who made the visit reported that she was picked up by her acquaintance at her sister’s house.

He said: “Nadiya got missing last Friday and we understood some one we knew as her acquaintance picked her up at a relation’s residence inside the city and could not make it to her former husband's residence on a condolence visit.”

Kano Police spokesman, Deputy Superintendent Tanimu Dutse, while confirming the incident, said that investigation has commenced to unravel the mystery surrounding their death.

Dutse said the result of the autopsy conducted on the deceased lovers was being awaited at the time of this report, adding that the report would assist the investigative team in arriving at their conclusions.

Fulani herdsmen kill village head in Jos

BY TAYE OBATERU

J

OS—A village head was, Monday night, shot dead by unknown gunmen at Nangam, Sop District of Riyom Local Government Area, Plateau State. The gunmen reportedly stormed the village at about 8pm.

Other people were said to have been injured.

Member representing Riyom in the House of Assembly, Mr. Daniel Dem, confirmed the killing describing it as unfortunate.

He lamented that selective killings targeted at his people had continued for months despite heavy se-

curity presence in the area.

The killing came as the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Dipo Ayeni intensified efforts to get the Fulani and Berom in the troubled area to sign a peace deal to end persistent killings in the area.

The peace agreement was supposed to have been concluded early last week, but both sides sought more time for further consultations.

Monday night’s killing, suspected to have been carried by Fulani herdsmen, is being interpreted as a sign that all is not yet well despite the peace talks.

Gombe denies alleged Boko Haram attack

BY JOHN BULUS

G

ment House yesterday, Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Youth Leader in the state, Alhaji Kabiru Jauro, said the attack was aimed at sabotaging the efforts of Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo in making the jobless youths productive.

He said: “Actually, what happened today (Monday); I will call it sabotage, because I see no reason why the children we want to train and make productive in the society would be attacked.

There is nothing like Boko Haram in this issue.”

Insurgency: Talk to us, Arewa youths urge bring about peace in then troubled Niger Delta ing solution to the povJonathan could the troubled northern Ni- region when the youths erty, illiteracy and dearth

OMBE—GOMBE State Government has denied news making the rounds that the attack on some youths currently undergoing rehabilitation training at the permanent orientation camp of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, at Malam Sidi, Kwami Local Government Area of the state, Monday night, was carried out by members of Boko Haram.

At a briefing at Govern-

L

RoyalHelm magazine hits newsstand

BY ALBERT AKPOR

AGOS—AS the spate of violence in the Northern region of the country continues unabated, Arewa Youths Forum, AYF, has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to engage youths in meaningful dialogue with a view to proffering lasting solution to the menace.

AYF said the only tool that

geria is dialogue. The pannorthern group attributed the immediate cause of the insurgence to poverty, illiteracy and neglect by successive governments.

The group, headed by Alhaji Ibrahim Gunjujgu, rose from an emergency meeting, yesterday, in Abuja, calling on President Jonathan to emulate the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua who introduced amnesty in

were agitating.

AYF said: “The cost of maintaining security in the north is quite alarming as it is to the detriment of core development that we are lacking.

“It is only when the President listens to the aggrieved youths in the north that he will be able to know their pains and therefore, take practical steps to proffering last-

of social amenities that resulted in the seemingly unending violence.

“We refer to the case of the Niger Delta youth militancy, which posed a serious threat and challenge to our nation where the late President Yar ’Adua, in his wisdom, took a giant stride by introducing amnesty programme for the restive youths.”

A

bi-monthly maga zine, RoyalHelm, will hit the newsstand soon, its Editor-in-Chief, Prince Olu Aladesuru, has assured.

He said the general-interest magazine has bias for the royal class, tradi-

PEOPLE SPEAK

08081686931

tional institutions, tourism, culture, economy and governance.

He said the magazine, to be packaged by Helm and Company, a Lagosbased communication outfit, will give fillip to news reporting and analysis.

By Bartholomew Madukwe

On Lagos doctors' strike, sack

D

OCTORS in general hospitals are the best. If it is true that their salaries are small, then they should dialogue with Lagos State Government. Government must recall them because they are more experienced than the newly-employed doctors. —Mrs. Kehinde Ayola, Secretary.

I

appeal to Lagos State doctors to go back to their duty posts because people are dying. There is no alternative for patients who can only afford treatment in government hospitals. Even if new doctors have been employed, how fast can a patient adjust to a new doctor?—Mr. Joseph Oguntosi, Civil Servant.

I

T was wrong for the government to sack the doctors. When I was in the army, any paper signed by a doctor cannot be questioned. So I am surprised that Lagos State Government sacked 788 doctors. Just like that. They are fighting for their rights.—Mr. Sunday Omowole, Retired Soldier.

S

ACKING is not the best. Many leaders of tomorrow are lying in various general hospitals in the state. Dying. I pray the government recalls the sacked doctors and settle the matter. Fighting is unavoidable. What makes us human is arriving at a compromise.—Ms. Omisesan Surat, Judiciary Staff.

T

HE strike has some political undertones.

No doctor should leave his/her duty post or abandon patients over of money. The government is justified in sacking them.

However, there should be a round-table so we can move the state forward.— Mr. Adeboye Adesanwo, Legal Practitioner.

L

AGOS State doctors should not have embarked on strike because of the many patients that need attention. The nature of their job does not give room for this kind of extreme action. However, their sack is uncalled for. It is a miscalculation by the government.—Rev (Dr.) Esupofo Lawrence, Cleric.

— 17 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012— “I discovered that being a president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or be swallowed” Harry S. Truman.

OU would be forgiven if you think we are already in 2015, or thereabouts, and the election campaigns are in full swing. We are watching a drama unfold, which has many parts that are chilling in their effects. In a few days, President Jonathan will be celebrating his first year in office as a President sworn-in after an election he contested as a candidate. The quarrels over the comment made by General Muhammadu Buhari regarding the 2015 elections are unlikely to have died down by then. This will be unfortunate for a presidency eager to roll out the drums and reel out items of achievement in the transformation agenda. Just one year into a Presidency that was born of frightening rancour and deep damage to the polity, we are being reminded that we are still deep in the woods.

General Buhari had said that if the 2015 elections do not substantially improve on the quality of the elections of 2011, there will be much bloodshed, and everyone will be the loser. He had chosen the Hausa adage of a fight between a dog and a monkey, in which both are substantially bloodied, and it is difficult to tell a winner. The allusion to blood has drawn the heaviest salvos, not surprisingly, from an administration and a party which are grappling with serious issues of escalating violence, and are yet to recover from the bitter and destructive reactions to the outcome of the 2011 presidential elections in parts of the north. The smell of blood in General Buhari’s comment brought out all the sharks: the President’s corner reminded the nation that the General is not a democrat; is un-electable; is a prophet of doom and gloom who is unfit to lead; and that he should be held solely responsible for any violence he is predicting. The PDP rolled out the big guns it reserves for big occasions, and lambasted the General in its traditional and new language.

conversely, why should the electoral process be so comprehensively condemned (and by implication, thoroughly reformed), because politicians who serially lose elections say they are rigged? What, or who will motivate a genuine review of the 2011 elections, and an informed and dispassionate improvement on its manifest weaknesses? INEC will say it has a routinised review mechanism, and will study all the elements of the 2011 elections, plug loopholes, and address weaknesses subject to financial and other support from government. Will that satisfy General Buhari and his supporters and the opposition? The administration will say what INEC and the democratic process need is constructive and genuine critique of our elections, and not wholesale condemnations by politicians who lose elections. It will say it is ready to work with INEC, civil society and the international community to improve upon the 2011 elections, which were, in any case, good. Will this satisfy Buhari and his supports and the opposition?

Y

T

he General’s party and its allies rallied around him, firing back in language and with passion fit for real war. The dust is still much in the air and the meaning of “bloodied dog, bloodied monkey ” is being very carefully scrutinised, and General Buhari is basking in a limelight he has not enjoyed since the aftermath of the 2011 elections. Even northern governors are being affected by this awesome quarrel, and they recently resolved, after their recent meeting in Kaduna, that they will facilitate the emergence of a northern candidate, presumably after they succeed in collapsing all partisan boundaries.

It is important to seek for deeper reasons behind this latest outbreak of squabbles over elections. The outward manifestations of the issues are not difficult to discern. The comments he made and the reactions to them have reminded the nation that General Buhari is very much a factor in Nigeria politics. They are also strong signals that the recent talks over political and electoral alliance between the CPC and ACN represent a real threat to the PDP. Then there is the evidence that the our democratic system does not distinguish periods between governance and partisan, or electoral

Quality of politicians and electoral process

T President Goodluck Jonathan campaign. 2015 is upon us, whether we realise it or not.

But a worrying question is one which should ask why all this heat will be generated by remarks about the linkages between elections and violence. This is certainly not the first time General Buhari will warn over the dangers of rigged elections, and it will not be his last. Nor is he the only Nigerian who believes that unless our elections successively improve the manner they reflect popular will, they will alienate more and more Nigerians, and many voters and other citizens will take up violence as a means of protesting perceived abuses of the electoral process. Who would believe that it will be all tranquility and peace if the elections of 2015 do not radically

,

Bloodied dog, bloodied monkey

2015, or something like it

new benchmark for credible elections in Nigeria. Another significant proportion of the citizenry says they were substantially rigged, and do not reflect the popular will.

Civil society is overwhelmingly critical of the elections, although it says they were better than previous ones.

The international c o m m u n i t y, which has since become a major player in our

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari take their cues from the reactions of politicians who win or lose elections.

On the one hand, in situations where stakes are raised to extremely high levels by politicians and supporters, suggestions of rigged elections resonate with profound consequences.

On the other hand, such is the manner politicians manipulate divisive and parochial values among Nigerian voters, that few voters will question results if they satisfy narrow political goals.

The way things stand now, if General Buhari changes his mind and decides to re-contest as a candidate in the 2015 presidential elections, either on his party ’s platform or as a coalition candidate, it is very likely that President Jonathan’s yet-to-bedeclared but active interest in running again win be given substance by an electoral process, says it was alliance between the south south and acceptable, and certainly more the south east. As if the dangerous acceptable than prolonged strife over slide we now see into parochialism is results. not enough, this will polarise the Now, if you do not accept that the 2011 nation even further. To add a massive elections were substantially flawed, dispute over elections whose why should you go out of your way to credibility is already being questioned fix them? Because Buhari says you may be too much for this nation to must do it, or else blood will flow? And, process.

The way things stand now, if General Buhari changes his mind and decides to recontest as a candidate in the 2015 presidential elections, either on his party’s platform or as a coalition candidate, it is very likely that President Jonathan’s yetto-be-declared but active interest in running again, will be given substance by an alliance between the South-South and the South-East. As if the dangerous slide we now see into parochialism is not enough, this will polarise the nation even further

improve on 2011, and do so in a manner ordinary voters will recognise and accept?

There is a basic issue about the 2011 elections which represents a serious problem. The presidency and INEC, and a substantial percentage of Nigerian citizenry says the elections were generally good, and represent a

he most worrying dimension of these quarrels is that they expose the links between the quality of our politicians and of our electoral process. If elections are only free and fair when we win them, and winners will emerge irrespective of the quality of the elections, and then defend the elections they may have rigged as free and fair, then we will never conduct credible and acceptable elections in Nigeria. Ordinary voters who are far from the intricate but damaging manipulations of the electoral process

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18 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012 JOINT Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, is on the long queue of organisations waiting for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to help them do their work.

JAMB wants EFCC to assist it in stopping examination malpractices.

Professor Dibu Ojerinde, JAMB’s Registrar, on a visit to the agency sought its help. It is doubtful if Professor Ojerinde remembers what the EFCC does. If his visit was in search of solutions to examination malpractices, the challenge could have overwhelmed him to the point that he was seeking solutions everywhere, excluding the police.

He is not the only one. Everyone invites EFCC to solve all criminal puzzles. These requests do not consider the mandate of EFCC, its limited resources and more limited success in discharging its primary mandate of fighting financial crimes.

The banks keep perfecting their under-hand businesses. Government allocations are stolen with the thieves confident they would face no harm. Financial transactions are stymied in breaches, some of which are mysteries to EFCC because of the sophistication of criminals.

JAMB In vit es EFCC Invit vites Where will EFCC have the time to add examination malpractices to its brief?

How many operatives does the EFCC have to dedicate some to JAMB, possibly posting them to hundreds of examination centres nationwide? Did Professor Ojerinde want to be seen to be “on top of the problem” or was he interested in solutions?

EFCC is gradually becoming a reason for not getting anything done. When organisations are not ready to re-assess their internal processes to ensure they support their work, they run to EFCC, aware the agency has so much to do, that their case would not get immediate attention.

Pension scams, electoral frauds, bribe-seeking legislators, are among cases EFCC noses into with engaging eagerness that whittles as its resources dwindle or another major headline breaks. Where will EFCC fit JAMB in its busy schedule?

JAMB is in the best position to commission security experts, vast in examination organisation, to guide its operations. Without the collaboration of JAMB invigilators and its officials, malpractices would not be possible.

It does not need EFCC to do this.

Except for the current practice of organisations announcing every intention, a JAMB visit to EFCC to seek possible collaboration should not be a matter for publicity as it gives opportunity to criminals to be ahead of JAMB. On its part, EFCC should have the modesty to admit it cannot do everything. It appears consumed by its over-promoted importance that it has no qualms delving into cases including marital dispute as long as anyone can hint at a possible link to a financial transaction and there are headlines to make.

EFCC needs more focus in its rather daunting operations.

OPINION

BY OTEI OHAM

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HE recent re-appointment of Mr Patrick Ugbe as Commissioner and his deployment to Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has further confirmed the sincerity of the administration of Senator Liyel Imoke, Governor of Cross River State in building up reforms in the sector. To the Governor, Ugbe is the right man to drive the transformation process following the dynamism the former Commissioner for Information and Orientation demonstrated ahead of Imoke’s re-election of February 25, 2012 and subsequent victory of the Governor and his Deputy, Efiok Cobham. In Ugbe’s reigns, the astute media practitioner varied techniques of disseminating government’s information through the strengthening of the State broadcast and print media, and the Ministry’s publications.

He is characteristic of Dame Wedgwood’s maxim: An educated man should know something about everything, and everything about something. Ugbe has revealed this, and will have no complicatedness in driving reforms in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development. Upon assumption of office at the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Ugbe informed staff of the administration’s vision for the Ministry, but assured them of his readiness to partner with them in actualising the vision.

Typical of him, he told the workers that he would not be daunted by the avalanche of challenges in the Ministry, such as inadequate office space, furniture, vehicles and computers, but would seek ways of complementing government’s revenue drive to attain set targets. These targets are already being arrived at with the strides the State has been making in the last few years.

For instance, at the National School Sports Festival, NSSF, held in 2009, the State was placed on 10th position, having bagged eight gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals. That year, the state won only one bronze medal in athletics. In 2010,

Changing face of youth and sports development in Cross River the Comprehensive Sports Development Programme resulted in a modest reversal of fortune at the National School Sports Festival, NSSF, held in Kano, when Cross River State moved up to 6th place overall with 16 gold, 18 silver and 12 bronze medals.

In 2010, athletics alone (a key sport in the sports programme) won seven gold, eight silver and five bronze medals while chess and wrestling produced the bulk of the remaining medals.

Work continued intensively in 2011 with the addition of swimming and weightlifting to the programme at the insistence of the Deputy Governor, Cobham. By the NSSF held in Calabar from November 14 to 24, last year, it became obvious that indeed Governor Imoke’s sports programme is a revolution and the right model for state and national sports development. At the end of the Festival, Cross River State emerged overall winner and national youth sports champions for the first time in the history of the state, with 114 gold, 104 silver and 100 bronze medals. No athletes were bought from any other state and all the State athletes were bonafide students within the age limits of the National School Sports Federation.

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nother interesting feature of the Festival was that the State track and field team dominated the rest of the participating states in all age categories by winning 42 gold, 28 silver and 15 bronze medals, while the rest of the 35 states shared 24 gold, 38 silver and 51 bronze. The state also dominated swimming by winning 26 gold, 17 silver and 13 bronze medals. Chess and wrestling contributed most of the remaining medals. In two years, Imoke’s Comprehensive Sports Development Programme took the State from near bottom to the top in national youth sports development. And within the two years, several talented boys and girls were discovered at the various age categories and

they are being groomed to represent and bring honour to Nigeria in the coming years. The sports programme is also being implemented in all the 18 local government areas of the State and it is being actively supported by their chairmen.

Major advantage of this initiative is that besides propping up sports talents among young ones and helping to develop human capital, sports takes the minds of restive youths off criminal tendencies and channels them into activities that build selfesteem and develop them into great citizens of tomorrow.

Since Imoke came into office as governor, Calabar has become the favorite destination for major sports competitions in Nigeria. The city was one of the host cities for the 2009 U-17 World Cup. It hosted the Mobil All Nigeria Athletics Championship in 2010 and subsequently won the five-year hosting right from 2011 to 2015, at the sum of N250 million.

Calabar hosted the 2011 National School Sports Festival, and has won the hosting rights for the 2014 National Sports Festival.

The Governor has designated six schools (two in each senatorial district) as centres for sports excellence in the State.

State- of- the art sports equipment have been procured by the Governor for grooming talent in various sports and will be delivered to these schools before the end of this year. The Commissioner for Youth and Sports is aiming at achieving this.

In a recent interview, he said there was still much to be accomplished despite government’s achievements in sports in the past five years, assuring, however, that the Ministry under his leadership would continue building on the successes. *Mr. Oham, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Calabar, Cross River State.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012— —19

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OUR EXCELLENCY:

I have found it necessary to address this letter to you in view of certain developments at your Lagos Consulate with regard to visa requirements which have very adverse implications for academic practice in Nigeria. I am scheduled to attend a conference at the Cologne African Studies Centre, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Cologne at the end of the month, precisely from May 30 to June 2, 2012. This is a sponsored conference organised by the African Studies Association of Germany (VAD.e). There are several such associations across Europe and North America. On Monday May 7, I was at your Consular office in Lagos to submit my visa application and be interviewed. As a ‘business visitor’, specifically one going for a conference, I’m not required to book an appointment before appearance at the Consulate for interview. Other visa applicants in this category are visitors billed for medical check, frequent visitors

and others who have visited some designated countries in Europe and America in the recent past. My attendance at this conference has been voided, no thanks to the demand by officials of your Consulate that I book an appointment for the submission of my visa application. The processes involved in booking an appointment, submission and retrieval of passport, take between four to six weeks which, as I have said, effectively put paid to all my travel plans. Of course, that waiting period could be considerably shortened if one would go through some of the syndicates operated by touts with connections right inside the Consulate. This is no wild allegation: it’s a fact well known to people in and around your Embassy. When people get tossed around as is often the case by your Embassy staff, it seems it’s an indirect way of referring them to the touts-operated networks around the Embassy. But while your consulate now insists on prior appointment for visa applications like mine, contrary to the widely-

publicised claim on your Embassy website, it makes no attempt to bring this apparent change in policy to the notice of the Nigerian public, especially the academic community and others directly affected by it.

The failure of your Embassy to do this is in conformity with the general disregard with which officials of the German Embassy in Lagos treat their Nigerian clients. There is no doubt that your Nigerian Embassy must rank among the most profitable around the world, with applicants paying between N12,000 to N13,000 nonrefundable visa processing fee every working day of the week whether a visa application is granted or not. In situation where there is evidence that your Embassy staff make no verification whatsoever before granting or rejecting visa applications (my last application, if it had gone ahead, would have been the second in two yearswhich is to say I’m sure of my claims), the non-refundable visa fee amounts to a rip-off. There are yet other instances of gross abuse and disrespect of Nigerians by your Embassy staff even though a number of these officials are Nigerians, employed more or less like running dogs, to do the bidding

Concern over Oshiomhole’s protest marches in Edo

BY MIKE EGUADASE

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T was Professor Wole Soyinka who once suggested that Nigerian politicians seeking elective or appointive positions should first be subjected to psychiatric examination. The Nobel Laureate was right, although the margin between normal and abnormal behaviour is very thin. I get very disturbed each time I watch Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Governor of Edo State, on television, leading a protest and sweating profusely on the major streets of Benin City.

That should not be the normal role of a Governor elected by the people to provide services.

For a number of reasons, Oshiomhole’s departure from the normal should have been expected. First, those familiar with this man’s background as a trade unionist know very well that his orientation has always been closer to touting than to normal agitation and negotiation for the welfare of workers.

Given this background, protests and demonstrations have remained his staple.

So one should not be surprised to see the Comrade on the streets doing what he is accustomed to? What it means, sadly, is that Oshiomhole has not been able to transform himself from the status of a trade union leader to that of a state governor.

A more fundamental reason for Comrade Oshiomhole’s inability to adjust to his new status is that he was really never elected by the people of Edo State. He was thrust on them by the decision of the State Governorship Election Tribunal which annulled the election of Professor

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Oserheimen Osunbor on March 20, 2008 and confirmed by the Court of Appeal verdict of November 14, 2008.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong about participation in street protests, even by a state governor, insofar as such protests are peacefully conducted and motivated by noble goals. What was not clear about the recent Oshiomhole-led series of street protests in Benin City, is the authority to which their demands were directed.

According to the Governor, one of the protests was against the rising insecurity in Edo State. But, curiously, he is the Governor and Chief Security Officer of the State. Was Oshiomhole then protesting against his own failure in providing security in Edo State?

More appalling, Comrade Oshiomhole’s protests were violent rather than peaceful.

It is novel, if not abnormal, for a governor to lead a violent protest. The actions of a governor should lead to protection and peace, not insecurity and violence, safety of lives and not death and injuries. It reminds us, again, of Prof. Soyinka’s suggestion and prompts the question: Is Edo State normal under Governor Oshiomhole?

These days, Comrade Oshiomhole spends more time on propaganda and abuse of members of the opposition party or the socalled godfathers than providing services for the people of Edo State. More often than not, he loses control, decorum and every sense of proportion; speaks flippantly and without discretion, as if he is permanently inebriated or under the influence of whatever. Again, is this conduct of our Governor normal and would you

,

Open letter to the German Ambassador: How Germany underdevelops Nigerian academia

Your Embassy staff are discourteous, arrogant and insensitive; they act with caprice and need special training in human relations and diplomatic niceties

of their German bosses who look askance when these Nigerian officials pour some of the most horrible scorn on their Nigerian compatriots- there are, I insist, yet other instances of abuse of Nigerians by your Embassy I would call attention to shortly. But let us first understand this: To the extent these officials are members of your staff and act apparently under instruction, you bear responsibility for their action. The Nigerian-born official, a bald, aging figure, who is the first point of contact and receives visa applicants every morning at your Lagos Consulate, is a particularly horrible species of these abusers of human dignity at your Embassy. It is inconceivable, except within the context of the dirty job he was hired for, that such a person, including others like him, could be employed at any institution with any iota of claim to diplomatic training as should be expected of embassy staff. It would be gross understatement to describe Nigerian-born officials at your Embassy in Lagos as rude. They appear specially hired to carry out the ignoble jobs their German employers demand but would rather not be caught doing.

Generally, however, your Embassy staff, German or Nigerian, are discourteous, arrogant and insensitive. They act with caprice and their ways are dour and are evidently subject to how the mood takes them. In a word, they need special training in human relations and diplomatic niceties.

However little the German Embassy may think of Nigeria and Nigerians, there are Nigerian universities that run programmes in these basic aspects of diplomacy and diplomatic engagements and they will be willing, I can assure Your Excellency, to train your embassy officials for fees less than these officials collect each day to process each visa application that comes their way.

There is no doubt that the reflexes

The actions of a governor should lead to protection and peace, not insecurity and violence, safety of lives and not death and injuries

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recommend him to others as a role model?

Conduct that departs from the normal may be permissible under certain circumstance, especially when such conduct is harmless. So, Comrade Oshiomhole is free to shout and dance through the streets of Benin City on a daily basis and with as many hooligans as he wishes. He can shout his own self-praises and the achievements of his administration from the rooftops.

What he is not free to do is to malign other citizens of the State in the name of electioneering.

I

n the past few weeks, Oshiomhole has been peddling falsehood and making accusations, some frivolous, other serious and libelous, against eminent politicians and elder statesmen in Edo State. In every such case, Oshiomhole’s knack for fabrication is displayed at the highest order.

For instance, at a recent public function, Oshiomhole described his unusual behaviour as due to a kind of “rascality” which according to him, his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, accommodates.

Then Oshiomhole went into hallucination: “My fight against the godfather started from

and mentality of Western embassy officials have been conditioned to believe that every visa applicant is a potential migrant to the assumedly greener pastures of the West. Theirs is therefore a knee-jerk response to reject all visa applications at first sight, view visa applicants with suspicion or treat them with disrespect. Yet nothing could be farther from the truth.

While it is very true that there are Nigerians who still live under the illusion that life is only bearable when lived in the West, there are many more who think there are far better options to destitution, which is what any extended sojourn outside Nigeria means for increasingly many Nigerians.

Indeed, many Nigerians these days need not have gone beyond the forbidding barricades of gates of many foreign, especially, Western embassies to know what joy it is to live in an environment of love and care in which people still recognise them as human beings. Many life times in Europe and Europe-like climes cannot equate that. If Nigerian academics must become economic migrants to Europe, it certainly won’t and shouldn’t be in these times when most countries in the Eurozone, from Greece to Spain, are groaning under German-driven austerity, the same bitter pill that has been administered on many countries of the Global South and from which they are yet to recover. The irony of the present situation in which the West, particularly countries like Germany, closes its doors to migrants from the South shouldn’t be lost on us. This same West, it was, first began the process of looking far beyond its geographical borders for greener pastures. It is trite history that the whole historiography of capitalism and its manifestation in European imperialism and colonialism rested on its gunpoint invasion and devastation of Africa and other regions of the South.

Continues next week.

his decision to veto what an elected governor had promised to the people of the State … As governor, I was compelled to go to Abuja and was invited to a private living room of a man … and he had to interrogate me on why I wanted to build more schools … and he deleted the votes for mass transit, for education and other capital projects, including security votes …” (Vanguard, of Friday, May 18, 2012).

First, it is absurd to imagine that a governor would take the budget of his state for vetting by an individual outside the state.

What circumstances would have created this unusual scenario? Secondly, it is obvious from the list of items vetoed by this “superman” of Oshiomhole’s imagination, that his mission was to continue his propaganda campaign and demonization of his political opponents.

The same mindless propaganda has been deployed in the insinuation of criminal involvement of certain elders of the PDP in the unfortunate accident near Auchi in which three journalists were killed on April 28, 2012, and in the murder of Oshiomhole’s Principal Private Security, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde on Friday, May 4, 2012. Clearly, this has moved from the level of rascality to that of desperation, mischief, if not psychosis.

A social commentator suggested the other day that the persons accused of criminal involvement in the accident and assassination should seek redress in the court of law. The question is: When a mad man is pursuing you, would your first reaction be to go and report to the police or to seek refuge anywhere safe?

*Mr. Eguadase, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Benin City, Edo State.

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Vanguard , WEDNESD AY, MA Y 23, 2012 WEDNESDA MAY

School where pupils learn under mango trees and makeshift house •Community cries for government’s intervention

BY PETER DURU, MAKURDI

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T

*The trees under which the pupils sometimes take their lessons. (Inset) The thatch roof classroom Though at the time of our visit, its pupils were said to be on holiday, some members of the community who spoke to Vanguard Metro,VM, regretted that repeated pleas to the state government for intervention had gone unheeded.

For Mr. Benedict Aboh, who claimed he has lived all his life

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HE OgbogbaIga Otukpa Primary School reminds one of what probably obtained during the stone age or better still the colonial era when formal education was more of a luxury. The primary school is situated at Otukpa in Ogbadibo Local Government Area and less than 20 minutes drive from the Otukpa country home of the Benue State Deputy Governor, Chief Steven Lawani.

The ramshackle structure located on the Otukpa-Lokoja highway, a major road that connects Benue to the Federal Capital Territory via Kogi State is an eyesore that could be mistaken for a makeshift shade.

The school’s structure is made up of “two blocks of classrooms” represented by a round thatch roofed structure supported by three wooden pillars without seats and desks for pupils. The second structure which is an improvement on the first, has an aged corrugated iron roof and supported by wooden pillars on both sides. It could actually be mistaken for a local chicken house by a first time visitor to the vicinity of the school.

But for the football field that is located adjacent the “classrooms” and wooden blackboards under the sheds provided by mango trees and a big car wheel that was hung on one of the mango trees that serves as school bell, one wouldn’t have had an inkling that teaching and learning actually take place within the ‘complex’.

But it provides covering for no less than 50 pupils who have taken their fate in their own hands by dedicating their early years on earth to learning, irrespective of their obvious challenge and the insensitivity of those entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning in the state.

What beats the imagination of many is the fact that the school is located just a stone throw from a major highway and it has never attracted the attention of the authorities despite the despicable picture it paints. he fact the Ogbogba-Iga Otukpa primary school and its embarrassing structure is situated just a few minutes drive from where the Benue State Deputy Governor hails from raises more questions than answers.

in a bid to cross the ever-busy Otukpa-Lokoja road on their way from or to the schools outside the community. boh claimed that on sev eral occasions the villagers had sent emissaries to the Benue State Universal Basic Education Board,SUBEB, for intervention without fruitful results.

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That school is an embarrassment to the state government and a shame that should not be allowed to linger; it could actually be mistaken for a local chicken house by a first time visitor

in the village, the dehumanising condition the pupils of the community are forced to acquire their early formal education leaves a sour taste in the mouth of every parent in the village.

He said the situation has forced many parents to send their wards to primary schools located at Olamaboro village, in nearby Kogi State.

He said most of the children who got enrolled in other primary schools outside their community are forced to trek distances to and from the schools on daily basis.

According to him, some of the kids have also met their untimely deaths on the highway

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He said: “On several occasions we sent emissaries to SUBEB in Makurdi, pleading that they come and take a look at the school with a view to intervening in whatever way possible in order to erect better structures for pupils to learn and acquire knowledge but till date nothing has happened.

When we discovered that SUBEB was not willing to come to the aid of the school we decided to embark on self-help projects in the school.

“I am sure you must have seen the burnt brick structure that we started within the school some years back? We started the building which is still at its foundation level, but

*The structure that passes for a classroom block at the school for lack of resources we could not make much progress. And unfortunately what we have so far erected has come under severe weather condition and they are already collapsing”.

Aboh urged the state government to come to the rescue of the community and pupils whom he said were being subjected to untold hardship all in a bid to acquire knowledge.

According to him: “That school is an embarrassment to the state government and a shame that should not be allowed to linger”.

Another member of the community who craved anonymity, claimed that he has a child in the school. He stressed that it is an irony that a state government that anchored its development agenda on providing the future generation of the state a veritable platform for better life has completely negated its commitment to the future leaders of the community.

“The question I keep asking myself whenever I look at that school is, what does the future hold for the little ones who crowd that ramshackle structure to acquire education? The fact is that no one can adduce any excuse or reason for leaving the school in its present condition. After all we all sup-

ported and voted the ruling party and they have no excuse to treat us this way”.

He added: “All we are asking is just for the intervention of the state government in order to save us the appalling condition our wards and children learn everyday”.

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the State Universal Education Board SUBEB, Mr. Lemon Atero, said the school would be listed in the Board’s next work plan for the reconstruction of primary schools in the state.

Atero who acknowledged the constraints the board is currently faced with, said: “We have over 3,000 public primary schools in the 23 local government areas of the state on the list of the board, and it is herculean to meet the challeges confronting all the schools at the same time”.

He, however, explained that eight schools in Ogbadibo Local Government Area have been slated for reconstructed under the UBE Invention Fund. He said in the interim, the community where the school is located could key into the board’s Self-Help Scheme, which entails that the community embarks on minor works at the premises and then apply to the Board for assistance.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012 — 21

Nigeria moves to resuscitate bilateral relationship with Brazil

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

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HE Nigerian-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NBCCI) said that plans have been initiated to revive bilateral relationship that had existed between Nigeria and Brazil as far back as 1991 so as to forge close ties with people and government of the country.

To this effect, the Chamber said that it has already sent out letters to the Brazilian Embassy here in Nigeria, and a formal relationship has commenced between them. Speaking to newsmen at the end of the inaugural summit to mark the relaunch of the Chamber in Lagos, Hon. Agnes Shobanjo, a Director of the Chamber, said that the body wants to use the occasion to awaken the interest of Brazilian business people resident in Nigeria that this country is interested in having bilateral relationship with them.

She said, “We want to let them know that we are interested in having bilateral relationship with their country such that we will be able to exchange trade mission; we will be able to exchange culture. You know

the Brazilian culture is very rich, so is Nigerian culture; we have a lot to exchange there. We want to be able to relate with that country through the Embassy in Abuja and through all the existing industrial improvement that we have in Nigeria.

You know so much is being done by the Ministry of Trade and Investment concerning improvement in commercial activities in the country.

So, we want to try to see as much as possible that we key into the thinking of government as to the expansion of the borders-the trade border, the economic border, cultural border and

socio-political borders between the two countries, so that a big corridor can be opened where investment can improve between the two countries.”

She noted that despite the initial hitches that nearly crippled activities of the body when it started in 1991, she was optimistic of success.

“If others are doing it, our sister countries in Africa, they are working well with Nigeria. You know that Ghana is doing well with us. We have all other African countries that are doing well. You know that G-8 is doing well. We want to be able to do a lot through our own effort to gear

up government so that Nigerians who want to do business with Brazilians will have the opportunity. We want to open up the corridor,” she stated.

Addressing the audience earlier, the Secretary General, His Royal Majesty Leo Ezebuiro, who spoke on behalf of the president, Amb. Olusegn Olusola, stated that a new economic, political, cultural, diplomatic and technological chapter was being charted in the relationship between both countries, saying that it will bring about accelerated development between the two emerging economies.

Dealers advise FG to address N300bn debt overhang in capital market

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OME operators in the capital market have appealed to the Federal Government to address the N300 billion debt overhang in the market. The debts arose from the “margin loans” taken from banks by some dealers and shareholders to buy shares and position themselves before the crisis in the market. The crisis is now affecting the repayment of those loans.

The operators said in Lagos that the debt overhang was constraining the recovery of the market.

According to them, concerns of dealers and investors are on settling the debts and this is impacting negatively on activities in the market.

Alhaji Rasheed Yussuf, the Managing Director of Trust Yield Securities Ltd., said that the poor daily transactions were due to illiquidity and activities of foreign investors who were only “profit takers”.

He said that the inability of the government to bailout the capital market showed that government was not thinking in the direction of the growth of portfolio investment in the country. Yussuf urged the Ministry of Finance to come up with a bailout package for the affected investors, instead of politicising the issue of margin loans. Mr Sehinde Adenagbe, the Managing Director of Standard Union Securities Ltd., said that the delay in releasing companies’ audited results was contributing the to the lull in the capital market.

Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah (right) accompanied by the Perm Sec of the Ministry and other officilals of the minisry on inspection tour of newly remodelled Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano.

FG modernising existing airports to meet global standard — Minister M

INISTER of Aviation Ms. Stella Oduah, in Abuja said that the Federal Government was modernising existing airports in the country to meet global aviation standard. Oduah said this at the ongoing Ministerial Platform in commemoration of the 2012 Democracy Day and the first anniversary of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

She said the modernisation project was also meant to ensure safe, secured and comfortable air transport.

According to her, plans are also on to make the airports self sustaining by 2015. “At the inception of this administration in May, 2011, a comprehensive system audit revealed that there were gross infrastructural deficiencies within the aviation sector.

The airport were in a state that could neither sustain rapid economic development nor take advantage of the

market potentials within Nigeria and the West Africa sub-region. We have evolved a new vision and mission to reposition the aviation sector to play a pivotal role in the economic development of Nigeria.’’

She said that the sector was capable of promoting critical sectors in the development and transformation of any nation. Oduah listed such areas of concentration to include transportation, tourism, agriculture, rural development, trade and commerce, manufacturing and other non-oil sectors. The minister added that the ministry was designing a road map to tackle the numerous challenges facing the sector to make it profitable and a self sustaining world class enterprise. “The ministry of aviation remains committed to making air transportation the preferred and safest mode of transportation, creating a self –sustaining business model and driving socio-economic growth.’

174.45

-4.70

2,236.00

-37.00

20.30

-0.17

109.31

+2.17

92.89

+1.41

CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL SELLING CFA 0.2801 KRONER 26.4408 EURO 196.6237 POUNDS 244.6426 RIYAL 41.2489 SDR 235.8402 FRANC 163.5825 DOLLAR 154.7 WAUA 234.9579 YEN 1.9496 RENMINBI 24.4441

0.2901 26.5263 197.2592 245.4333 41.3823 236.6025 164.1112 155.2 235.7173 1.9559 24.5236

0.3001 26.6117 197.8947 246.224 41.5156 237.3647 164.6399 155.7 236.4767 1.9622 24.603

CBN Exchange rate as at 22/05/2012

22 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

CSCS set to go public

BY MICHAEL EBOH & OLAYEMI FOFAH

T

HE Central Securi ties Clearing System, CSCS, is set to transform to a Public Limited Company, PLC, as shareholders of the company gave it the approval to amend its memorandum and articles of association preparatory to the adoption of the new status.

The company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, in a statement on its 18th

Annual General Meeting, yesterday, said the conversion will help reposition it, ensuring that it becomes more competitive.

Speaking at the AGM, Chairman of CSCS, Mr. Oscar Onyema, said the new status would strengthen its corp o r a t e governance structure and expand the ownership, adding that with the new status, CSCS has opportunities to innovate more in so many areas.

He disclosed that the company is considering bringing in independent directors to strengthen the composition of its Board and its governance structure.

He said, “We also want to have an audit and risk management committee to make sure that we carry everybody along.”

Onyema disclosed that the company in 2011, generally toed the path of reformation, explaining that in the quest to strategically

reposition CSCS, the Board of Directors made the decision to engage individuals with proven expertise to enhance the vision and goals of the company as the board strives to attenuate its commitment to shareholders.

“This singular decision spawned a rigorous recruitment process that culminated in the appointment of a new managing director, Mr. Kyari Bukar in September 2011,” he said.

Commenting on the

performance of the company in the 2011 financial year, Onyema said the value of trades cleared and settled stood at N634.92 billion while volume of trades cleared and settled was 89.6 billion shares.

He added that the number of lien transactions stood at 343, certificate requests were 20 and the value and number of dematerialised shares were 61.23 billion and 528,994 respectively.

“In 2011, your company actively participated in actualising the extensive work-in plan geared towards buoying the Nigerian capital market. We particularly take pride in stating that CSCS played a fundamental role in the listing process of the first ETF with

its appointment as subregistrars to the issue.

Our staff have also been involved in making contributions towards the legal reform process of Capital Market Laws and actively involved in various sub-committees of the capital market committee (CMC),” Onyema said.

Also speaking, Managing Director of the CSCS, Mr. \Kyari Bukar said the company was seeking ways of diversifying its businesses to ensure sustained revenue.

“We are exploring new initiatives and basically enhancing our income potential. We have identified several areas where we could actually bring income to the company.

US to assist NSE in capacity building

BY NKIRUKA NNOROM

T From left: Mr. Donald Duke, former Governor of Cross River State; Bola Adesola, MD/CEO Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria; Mr. Julian Hardy, General Manager, Porsche Centre, Lagos and Carol Oyedeji, Regional Head, Consumer Banking, West Africa, Standard Chartered Bank, during a wealth & leisure lifestyle event, organised by the bank for its priority customers in Lagos. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.

FCMB shareholders okay holding company structure

BY PETER EGWUATU

S

HAREHOLDERS of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Plc have endorsed a holding company structure proposed by its Board of Directors.

The shareholders equally approved a bonus issue proposed by its Board of Directors at the 29th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Monday in Lagos.

The bonus proposed is three shares for every 20 shares held by shareholders whose name appeared in the Register of Members at the close of business on Friday, April 27, 2012.

At the meeting the shareholders authorized

the Board to establish a holding company in compliance with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) Regulation on the Scope of Banking Activities and Ancillary Matters 2010.

The Board had instead of a cash dividend, recommended for approval by shareholders the creation of an additional 2,440,678,830 units of ordinary shares, by means of the capitalisation of N1,220,339,415 from the share premium account, in order to pay for the bonus shares.

Speaking at the AGM, Sir, Sunny Nwosu, National Coordinator, I n d e p e n d e n t Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), said, “We the shareholders are

happy that we are getting something, though not enough but we thank the Board for the bonus that we have approved now.

It is a wide margin bonus. We would just take it instead of going home without something. We have been short changed so I urge the Board to make up for it in the future.”

Mr. Nonah Awoh, a shareholder also expressed worry over the Bank’s registrar arm in the ongoing reorganization plans.

According to him, “ The CSL Registrar is one outfit that makes profit for the Group so the Board should tell us the plans it has for our Registrar.

Also, our bank should find means of avoiding the contravention of the

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s rules so that we don’t pay unnecessary fine.”

Meanwhile, while addressing the shareholders at the meeting, Chairman of the bank, Dr. Jonathan Long said , “The recommendation of bonus issue was made in order to demonstrate the appreciation of the board and management to the bank’s shareholders for their continued confidence, commitment and support.

“The Board believes that shareholders have every reason to look forward to better returns on their investment after this year’s substantive provisioning, as the Bank continues on a path of sustainable profitability.”

HE outgoing Consular General of the United State Embassy, Mr. Joseph Stafford, has pledged to assist the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in its quest of achieving a world class status by providing capacity building for its staff.

Stafford who spoke during a courtesy visit to the NSE on Monday, said his country is more than ready for an enhanced bilateral relationship with Nigeria.

He said he was

optimistic that with improved relationship between both countries, the third biggest bourse in Africa would be greatly boosted.

He stated that the NSE has attained a place of recognition in the world of stock exchanges and commended the management operating a free market.

Speaking earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of the Exchange, Mr. Oscar Onyema, charged the Embassy on foreign investors’ confidence building, saying that it would drive the market forward.

Unity Bank to reward loyal customers in 5 zones

BY PROVIDENCE OBUH

I

N line with its ongoing “Aim, Save & Win Savings promotion” Unity Bank Plc has announced plans to reward its loyal customers in five zones across the Federation.

The 5 states which the zonal draws would be held include Lagos, Abuja, Benin, Kaduna and Bauchi, In a statement from the Bank, “ The promo initiative is targeted towards businessmen and women, civil and public servants, the armed forces, medical practitioners,

employees of corporate organizations, associations, artisans, unions and societies, lecturers, students, among others.”

Buoyed by the belief in encouraging its customers and prospects to save, the Bank stated that it has weaved the promo around its most outstanding saving account: Unity Kids Account and also on the generic savings account.

“All these innovative products are tailored to meet target savings, encourage a savings culture and build stable funds for investment,” the bank said.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012—23

EDITED by Adekunle Adekoya

Select ICT events z IP 6 World Congress. Holds 12-13 June in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. zGlobal Messaging and VAS 2012. Holds 12 - 13 June in London, UK. zWest & Central Africa Com. Holds 19 - 20 June at Le Meridien President, Senegal. z Next Generation Core Networks Summit. Holds 19 - 20 June in Berlin, Germany.

,

z Telecom World Congress 2012 Conference. Holds 19 – 21 June at Amsterdam Marriott Hotel,The Netherlands

Preview

New inventions shaping life and living

Bodysuit repels mosquitoes FASHION just got a bit more functional with the stylish Malaria repellant bodysuit.

Created by a Gambian designer and a Cornell University scientist from Kenya, the structure of the fabric's molecules allows the repellent to bind directly to the fibers, which means it can carry up to three times more insecticide than conventional fabrics. The team plans to next develop a fabric that reacts to changes in temperature and light, providing increased protection during active mosquito times.

I N S I D E C M Y K

ICT: NITDA moves to enforce ‘buy-Nigeria’ directive zSets up IXPs nationwide

BY EMEKA AGINAM & EMMA ELEBEKE

H

ENCEFORTH, it may not be business as usual for government agencies patronizing foreign computer brands as the Federal Government has said that non-patronage of approved local original equipment manufacturersby its ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) will be an offence, even as new guidelines will soon be issued.

Director General of National IT Development Agency, NITDA, Prof.

Cleopas Angaye, stated this at a two-day retreat for the National Technical Committee (NTC) on Development of Standards for Information Technology Hardware in Lagos. It was also disclosed that after the retreat and issuance of the guidelines it would be regarded as economic sabotage if MDAs do not patronize Nigeria IT products, and that violators of this directive are liable to imprisonment and fine or both.

“Indeed,it will be an offence punishable by a prison term and fine under the NITDA Act,” said Prof. Angaye.

Accredited OEMs

It would be recalled that between 2002 and 2007 several OEMs including Beta Computers, Brian Integrated Systems, Zinox and Omateck.were accredited to operate in the Nigerian IT manufac-

The fresh controversy on SIM card registration

turing spectrum but owing to the expediency of the time, no strict guidelines or standards were prescribed. Recall also that shortly after the 2011 general elections, President Goodluck Jonathan directed that made in Nigeria goods should have priority whenver MFAs are making procurements.

New guidelines

Accordingly, by the time the new guidelines are issued, according to NITDA, the use of non made-inNigeria computers in public schools nationwide, would be seen as anti-local OEMs, adding that accreditation of schools and renewal would depend partly on the establishment of IT labs equipped with locally manufactured IT products.

The National Technical Committee (NTC) on Development of Standards for Information Technology through the office of Director-General, National IT Development Agency (NITDA), Prof. Cleopas Angaye, at the just concluded IT Hardware Standards Development Retreat held in Lagos disclosed new guidelines on patronage of Nigerian IT products and services local OEMs were coming soon.

Sanctions loom

Without mincing words, Angaye who was represented by the Director, Standards, Inye Kemabonta, warned that any MDAs who violate the di-

zProf. CleopasAngaye, D-G, NITDA

,

DIARY

Indeed,it will be an offence punishable by a prison term and fine under the NITDA Act....The transformation of Nigeria into a developed economy cannot be achieved by being a consumer nation

rective are liable to imprisonment and fine respectively.

“A monitoring unit has been created within NITDA to undertake regular checks to ensure that this regulation is complied with throughout the Federal Public Service” he added.

According to Angaye under NITDA Act, public procurement of non made-in-Nigeria computers and IT products where certified local brands exist is against the law. Public funds should only be expended on locally manufactured products. To benefit from this policy,

the NITDA boss stated clearly that multinational companies were invited to set up production or assembly plants in Nigeria.

“With more than half the population of West Africa Nigeria has a large enough market to justify foreign direct investment in Information Technology. Instead, one finds that all the multinational firms operate only marketing and sales promotion offices. The transformation of Nigeria into a developed economy cannot be achieved by being a consumer nation” NTC is a broad-based, stakeholder organ in IT

‘Technology World of free has simplified BlackBerry apps anti-piracy war’

governance established

by NITDA, which was inaugurated last November by the Hon. Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson.

NITDA sets up IXPs

In a related development, as part of its plan to fast-track the speed of internet penetration in the country, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said it has com-

Continues on Page 30

Facebook grabs 845m of 1.43b social media users

24 —VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

World of free BlackBerry apps The fresh controversy on SIM card registration

A

little over a week ago, fresh contro versy erupted in the public domain about an exercise whose outcome the nation is awaiting — SIM card registration. The controversy centred around delays in the outcome of the exercise, especially as some networks keep sending messages to their subscribers (who had registered) that their SIM cards had not been registered.

Actually recipients of such messages who had registered their lines would be astounded, leading them to wonder what had happened to the information given while the exercise was on.

H o w e v e r, the interesting aspect of the controversy is the announcement by the House of Representatives Communications Committee chairman, Hon. Oyetunde Ojo that his committee will probe the SIM Card Registration Exercise, for which a princely N6.2 billion was appropriated last year. Of course, the lawmakers have every right to do what they wish to do in exercise of their oversight mandate, but it would be better if the regulator is allowed to announce completion of the exercise, and then, we take things up.

It will be recalled that the need for the exercise was driven principally by security issues and the desire of the nation to bring the national economy into the 21st century.

Secure identity management is a sine qua non for these.

However, let it be borne in mind that things which are taken for granted in other climes, such as census, voters’ registration and others become big, controversial issues here chiefly because of our nature as a group of peoples with interests that serially conflict with the overriding national purpose.

For instance, the National Population Commission conducted a head count in 2006; provisional re-

sults were released in Jan 2007, while final results were released later. In all, it took about 18 months to get the results of the census, and the figures are still in dispute; some states, like Lagos, have petitions at the census tribunal. As far as censuses go, controversy might remain the name of the exercise, again, because of our diversity and the interests spawned by such diversity.

No less different is the voters’ registration exercise, another kind of head count which has always had its own controversies as well. As far as that goes, what the whole of Nigeria slept on between 2010 and 2011 in the run-up to the general elections was the fact that nearly N70 billion was appropriated for INEC to register voters, at the end of w h i c h some 66 million voters were captured.

There was no call ( at least none loud enough) to probe voters’ registration, perhaps because that exercise was firmly domiciled in the political arena.

It should be noted that the SIM card and voters registration are nearly the same thing; the difference is that INEC printed out a voters’ card. In both cases both bodies procured DDC machines and captured biometrics. While INEC used ad-hoc staff to do its own, NCC outsourced the exercise to consultants in the six geopolitical zones.

The issue here is that as yet, the SIM card registration exercise has not been completed, as outcome of harmonisation of captured data is still being awaited. All that talk about incompatible format and the rest are technical details being used to gull people into believing what those with the motive want them to believe.

Until the exercise is completed, the grounds for a probe would be as firm as quicksand.

All that talk about incompatible format are technical details being used to gull people into believing what those with the motive want them to believe

C M Y K

,

F

OR the US market and even the emerging market of Africa, BlackBerry seems to be the number-one smartphone and the craze for it increases as Research In Motion, RIM, makers of the product, keeps producing newer models.

Unknown to many, BlackBerry phones had apps years before the iPhone was a twinkle in Steve Jobs's eye. Some of them are available on BlackBerry App World, which can be downloaded onto any BB by sending the mobile browser to www.blackberry.com/appworld. Some of them are available through the independent store GetJar, at getjar.com. Some are only downloadable from developers' web sites, so the user needs to do a bit more digging to find great BlackBerry apps than users of iPhone or Android apps. Having said that, there are also some very good, free apps for almost every recent BlackBerry which

help the user in every day life. Some of them include: AP Mobile News 2.5.5 — This is the Associated Press app on BB that gives complete, flexible access to local, national and international news. In addition, the latest version of this app lets you send stories to Facebook or friends, read stories off-line, or watch news videos. This app can be downloaded via bb.apnews.com BBNotePad 1.1.2 — BBNotePad is a big step up from the built-in BlackBerry notepad. It features

three different font sizes, allows you to save a file as .txt so you can open it directly on your computer, and lets you send memos or notes using Bluetooth to other handheld devices. Download BBNotePad from http:// krzysztow.com/BBNotePad/#download.

Bloomberg Mobile 1.9.11.5 — Bloomberg is one the best free business apps that provides news, stock quotes, company descriptions, and market trends. It's also easy to use, considering the

amount of data it throws up. Bloomberg Mobile is available from BlackBerry App World and can also be downloaded at m.bloomberg.com BOLT 1.5 — BOLT is a fast, high-quality browser that downloads pages which look like desktop Web pages, and comes with all the browser usuals. To download BOLT, go t o www.boltbrowser.com.

Facebook 1.7.0.18 — The latest Facebook app transforms the BlackBerry into a miniature version of the Facebook desktop site. The Highlights feature works like the news feed, photo uploads, comments, and wall posts without having to dive into the app's various menu icons. You can upload or tag photos, and add comments to photos or news items. Facebook is available in BlackBerry App World.

— Prince Osuagwu

BuyRight Africa rewards website visitors with laptops

BY EMMA ELEBEKE

B

UYRIGHT Africa Dotcom, a new Tech savvy conglomerate, has redeemed its promise to give mini laptops to the first 50 visitors to its website at 7am on its launch date the 7th of May, 2012.

The lucky winners received the laptops from the Buyright Africa Dotcom offices in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Owerri, and Kano.

Speaking at the presentation in Lagos, the Managing Director of Buyright Africa, Mr. Emomine Mukoro said that the innovative launch was the first of its kind in Africa and came with a strong promise of providing partnership platform to existing and future ICT companies in resolving funding issues for ICT projects, ICT equipment ownership scheme and reduction of total cost of ownership (Computers/ Printers/Scanners/Projectors/Consumables), ICT equipment leasing and more.

Mr. Mukoro said that Buyright Africa has a partnership with strong International Finance group to assist Africans realize their technology dream and enjoy the benefits of emerging technologies.

He noted that Buyright Africa is designed to create technology capacities that would allow our citizens, governments and businesses compete favorably with other strong economies of the world.

According to him, it comes with a strong mandate to partner with international and local ICT companies to fund and deliver major ICT projects in the public and private sectors. Buyright Africa, he said, would focus on the educational sector with the intention of pro-

viding world class facilities for teaching and learning at flexible payment plans spread up to 3 years. Mr. Mukoro listed the following international and local partnering OEMs – HP, DELL, Samsung, Toshiba, CISCO, Zinox, APC, Mercury, Microsoft among others.

The site, he said, recorded over 2,000 hits before 7.30am. Presenting the mini laptops, the Zinox Smart, Mr. Mukoro explained to the winners that they won more than

just laptops because the systems were mini libraries containing hundreds of thousands of simulated questions for SSCE, WASCE, NECO, JAMB, and post UME. In addition, the systems had online access to over 2,000,000 e books from the Zinox World e-Library affiliation.

Speaking on behalf of other recipients, one of the winners, Dr. Popoola Tomorin of Momoh Memorial Hospital, Oyo, thanked Buyright Africa Dotcom for the integrity of the entire exercise.

REWARD: Dr. Popoola Tomorin of Momoh Mem Hospital, Oyo recieving his prize from MD Buyright Africa, Mr Emomine Mukoro.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012 — 25

26—VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY,MAY 23, 2012

‘Technology has simplified anti-piracy war’

BY EMMA ELEBEKE

T

HE sales and use of adulterated technology devices, especially desktops, laptop and notebooks, have become source of worry to concerned citizens in Nigeria. This development has caused loss of income to makers, users, the industry and government. In this interview, Managing Director of Blueshield Technologies, Mr. Chidiebere Ugwu bared his mind on the technology behind HP's efforts that has brought the market volume of pirated products to an insignificant level. Excerpts: With the increasing concern for piracy in the market, how do you go about sourcing your products?

Well, we make sure that we source our products from the right sources and genuine manufacturers.

The essence of that is to make sure that whenever a customer buys a products from us, he buys the original so that they can get the desired value for their money, not just value for money but for other accrued benefits derivable in using original products.

What are your major constraints in the fight against piracy?

One thing I know is that it pays more doing the right thing because we want customers to get value for their money. This makes us talk more, go extra miles in enlightenment campaign which

of any products. cost more, all in a Also, from time to bid to convince time, it sends surcustomers to buy veillance team to genuine brands our shops to monand to warn them itor compliance on the dangers with standards. involved in buyThis to a great ing pirated prodextent discourage ucts. people who ordiWhat would narily would you say has been have want o enthe impact of gage in adulteratyour partnership ed products rewith HP in the frain from doing campaign? so.

With HP inHow do you get volvement, I can all these message tell you that the across to your fortunes of picustomers? rates has noseWe use different dived. With HP kinds of commuinvolvement, nication channels dealers on these to send the mestechnology prodsage across to our ucts have undercustomers includstood better and ing twitter, facewhy we must inzMr. Chidiebere Ugwu, MD, book, google, sist on goods diBlueshield Computers newspaper, radio, rectly from manroadshow and ufacturers or their data centre for confirmahand bills among others. accredited distributors. tion of the authenticity of What are the likely imNow, we know better that instead of traveling a particular product. We plications of buying adulalso have learnt other se- terated product? abroad and transferring The idea of buying bad money to order goods, we cret codes like the expiry date of a cartridge in a products should be concan now buy the same goods locally here from printer. With this technol- demned. Counterfeiting ogy, I can say that the vol- itself is wrong both morthe same companies. The partnership has reduced ume of sales has in- ally and economically. It creased from 30% to 70% does not pay when you customers fear of piracy and boosted the confi- and both dealers and cus- use your money to buy tomers are now happy something and you can't dence level. I'm happy that HP has not rested in using with authentic get value in return. It is a products. Again, another painful experience. Anthis campaign. Every day, they try to come up with a strategy initiated by HP is other disaster about pathe identification of prod- tronizing pirated products new strategy to fight piracy. We now have what ucts' batch number on the is that anything printed content and the packag- with them does not last. is called Hologram. The technology was designed ing. This is one easy way It wears out over time. At of discovering whether a the end, the buyer will not in such a way that no fraudster has been able to product is fake or original. get quality output and The important thing is value for money. On our break into it. It is a kind of technology where a se- that HP has a website, side, pirated products afwhere people can go and fect us economically. cret code is sent to HP enquire the genuineness

I

T seems as if there’s little standing in Facebook’s path to world domination. The latest figures show it boasts more than 845 million “active” users. And a report by analytics firm Comscore shows it’s the most popular network in all but seven countries.

It’s managed to edge out local competitors in many markets. Brazil used to be an exception to the rule, with Google’s Orkut its most popular network. But data suggests that Facebook has overtaken Orkut in the last few months. There’s even a Facebook-themed nightclub in a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest, showing its global reach!

One reason for Facebook’s success is it manages to be “globally local”. It's available in numerous languages, and people can interact with friends regardless of national borders. But much of its content is locally created, giving users the impression of belonging to both a global and a local community.

So what does this map mean for other networks?

C M Y K

Facebook grabs 845m of 1.43b social media users

A new report from eMarketer it predicts there will be 1.43 billion social network users this year, an increase of 19.2 per cent on 2011. But will local competitiors, such as Japan’s Mixi or the Netherlands’ Hyves manage to hold their own against Facebook?

The world of social media is more varied than it suggests. For one thing, it doesn’t tell you the importance of the "runnersup" in each of these countries.

Twitter is catching up with Facebook in the United States, with predictions it will grow four times as fast this year. It’s used crowdsourcing to add new languages at a rapid rate.

It's just introduced support for right-to-left languages, and will no doubt increase its appeal among the fast-growing numbers of Arabic-speaking users.

As mentioned, China is an obvious gap on the Facebook’s map. But even if it is allowed to gain a foothold in the world’s most popular nation, there are already two hugely popular networks, Qzone and Renren.

Would it persuade enough users to make the switch?

Russia, another major market, is dominated by Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki, pushing Facebook into third place.

These aren’t just local phenomena. They've re-

cently been gaining members to other Eastern European countries.

And the statistics on Japan can be misleading.

Mixi is still the leader when the number of users accessing it via a mobile phone are taken into account.

It's also interesting to look at different uses for social network. For example, LinkedIn is widely used among professionals as a tool for business networking. A similar network, Zing, has a large number of followers among users in Northern Europe. And of course, it’s hard to ignore the extraordinary growth of Pinterest in a short space of time.

Sofoluwe: IT community condoles with UNILAG

BY EMEKA AGINAM

T

HE National Execu tive Council (NEC) and the entire members of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), have condoled the University of Lagos and the IT Industry on the demise of Professor Adetokunbo Babatunde Sofoluwe FNCS, who until his death was the Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos.

The President of the Nigerian Computer Society, Sir Demola Oladomokola who led the delegation to the UNILAG last week described Sofoluwe as an apostle of human capacity building in the areas of ICT having pioneered standardization in the Nigerian ICT sector.

“NCS shares with the IT Industry the great pain of

his departure. May the good Lord grant his gentle soul eternal rest” the NCS said.

Prof. Sofoluwe was the first Computer Scientist to be appointed Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos, and was a distinguished Fellow of the Nigeria Computer Society, who worked assiduously towards the growth of Information Technology in the country.

Clearly, the history of Computer Science as a discipline (and profession) in Nigeria can never be complete without making reference to Professor Adetokunbo B. Sofoluwe’s pioneering efforts in setting high standards for the profession.

Indeed, he was a doyen of the IT Industry.

Engage women, girls in ICT careers, Johnson urges

BY EMEKA AGINAM

T

O be globally com petitive, the Minister of Communication and Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson at the just concluded 2012 World Telecommunication and Information Society day held simultaneously last week globally has said governments and private sectors must engage women and girls in ICT careers.

The Minister who is passionate about women participation in ICT developments said that such engagements can be through scholarship schemes, special competitions in ICT amongst girls and women and employment opportunities to help empower them to live better live and reduce poverty.

The Minister believes that the theme of this year’s event “Women and

Girls in ICT’ should be a wake up call to all government ministries, departments and agencies, private sector, civil society and other stakeholders as the demand for a range of ICT skills around the globe presents a unique window of opportunity to properly position girls and women in the industry and provide them with the tools necessary to succeed.

While calling on relevant government ministries and agencies should prioritise the implementation of policies that develop human talent and the rigid skill set for the building of a vibrant and diversified ICT sector, she said that women and girls shoud be engaged at all levels in order to fully utilize and promote the full breadth of talent in the country”.

‘Nigeria needs to key into security solutions’

BY DOTUN IBIWOYE

B

USINESS Develop ment Manager, Kits Technology, Mr.Taofeek Okoya has affirmed that for Nigeria to be ranked amongst top Information Technology, IT countries in the world, it must key into the unified threat management security solution which would protect its data from the ubiquitous spyware and viruses.

Speaking at an IT training in Lagos, Mr. Okoya affirmed that the most salient point of keeping data in the 21st century economy was by implementing the unified threat management security solution on any net-

work environment which guarantees complete security.

He however recommended that the eGUI technology which was the only technology in next Generation Firewalls was the only solution that could help the administration to adhere to security policies in companies network in an effective and secured way.

“We commit absolutely to excellence. We maintain the integration of excellence into our system through the power of innovation, technology, effective team communication and life-long learning; we deliver outstandingly and the best possible all the time," he said.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012 — 27

Chelsea confirm Drogba’s exit C

HELSEA says striker Didier Drogba is leaving the European champions after eight years.

The Ivory Coast international secured Chelsea’s first Champions League title on Saturday by scoring the winning penalty in the shootout against Bayern Munich.

Chelsea says the 34-year-old Drogba will leave the club when his contract expires next month.

Drogba says “it has been a very difficult decision for me to make and I am very proud of what we have achieved but the time is right for a new challenge for me.”

C M Y K

28 —Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

Schweinsteiger sorry for snub B

•Schweinsteiger

AYERN Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger says his apparent snub of German president Joachim Gauck “is a misunderstanding”.

Schweinsteiger was understandably distraught after his missed spot-kick saw Chelsea crowned European champions following a 4-3 penalty shootout victory in the Champions League final at the Allianz Arena on Saturday.

Photographs of the postmatch presentation appear to show the Germany international rejecting the advances of Gauck, but even though Schweinsteiger has apologised for his actions, he claims he was unaware of what was going on around him, so great was his disappointment.

“This is a misunderstanding,’’ the 27-year-old said in a statement on his club’s official website.

“After this great disappointment, I perceived nothing around me. I was desperately disappointed, paralysed.

“I did not see the hand of the federal president. I’m sorry that this moment gave a different impression. I want to apologise to the president.’’

Bayern offer • 5m plus Rafinha for Howedes T

HE Bavarian giants are keen to add new quality to their squad, and remain intent on signing the Germany international having prepared a player-plus-cash offer Bayern Munich are preparing a bid for Schalke defender Benedikt Howedes , Bild report. The German giants are willing to offer • 5 million plus right-back Rafinha in exchange for the defensive all-rounder.

The 24-year-old Howedes has long been linked with Bayern, with the club having had an offer rejected last season due to Schalke’s unwillingness to part ways with a second key figure after selling Manuel Neuer.

However, as Goal.com revealed in January, the Gelsenkirchen side promised to listen to offers in the summer of 2012.

Publicly, Schalke have vowed not to sell their captain, with sporting director Horst Heldt having claimed in April that his side are not interested in selling the Germany international, nor does the player wish for a transfer. ”Benedikt is a Schalke man and has no intention of leaving us - we are not thinking of selling him,” he told der Westen.

Schalke have considerable debt, however, and as Goal.com revealed in January, are prepared to listen to bids in the region of • 15m. Bayern’s reported offer would see Rafinha reunited with his former club, which he left for Genoa in 2010. However, with the Brazilian having been relegated to a role as a bench-warmer over the course of the recent season, it is uncertain that Schalke will value him as highly as Bayern.

C M Y K

Abramovich to appoint

C

HELSEA insist they will not be rushed into naming Roberto Di Matteo as boss by a tidal wave of Champions League emotion.

Blues owner Roman Abramovich is under pressure to make RDM a permanent fixture following Saturday ’s miracle shootout win in Munich.

But chief executive Ron Gourlay said: “I know the fans are pushing for Robbie, but we’re not jumping into anything rash.

“Robbie has done fantastically well. But from the day he was given the job, we have always said we will discuss things when the seasons ends.

Bayern still best German team — Klopp

B •Howedes

ORUSSIA Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp has hailed Bayern Munich ’s ‘near-perfect’ season, insisting that FCB are still the best Bundesliga outfit around.

The 44-year-old trainer, who led BVB to their second consecutive title this term and a DFB Pokal triumph, labelled his team no ordinary double winners, but stressed that despite beating the Bavarians to silverware, BVB remain inferior to Jupp Heynckes’ men. “Bayern’s status [as the number one team in Germany] is not going to falter after two years,” the former Mainz coach told Kicker. “With 73 points, the DFB Pokal and Champions League finals, they actually nearly played a perfect season.

“We are no normal double winners, though.”

Klopp then went on to explain how the club is planning to replace outgoing midfielder Shinji Kagawa, who appears to be heading to the exit door at the Signal Iduna Park.

•Klopp

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012 — 29

Top five: Champions League goals 2011-12

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•Abramovich

HELSEA’S triumphant Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena last Saturday brings to an end another encapsulating campaign in Europe’s elite club competition.

There were no shortage of shocks as last season’s finalists Manchester United were dumped out at the group stages, as were leading clubs from Germany, Holland and Portugal, with Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and Porto all falling at the first hurdle.

Manchester City, in their debut campaign in the competition in its current format, also failed to progress beyond stage one, as they finished 3rd in Group A behind Munich and Napoli.

Ronaldo gives himself a ‘10’ C

not in a rush t new boss And we are sticking with that.

“So now we have to sit down over the next week or two, or however long it takes, because we’ve got to do what is right for the football club.”

Gourlay also refused to condemn Fernando Torres’ outburst which overshadowed the Blues’ triumph.

The £50million Spaniard complained about his treatment and criticised interim chief Di Matteo’s tactics in the final.

But Gourlay said: “Everyone wants to play and I’d be very surprised if Fernando didn’t.

“It must have been very difficult for all the guys who were left out for such a big occasion.”

RISTIANO Ronaldo has given his Real Madrid team a nine out of 10 for the season just gone - and himself a 10.

Madrid ended Barcelona’s three-year reign as Spanish champion with a stunning campaign that saw it become the first Primera Division side to reach 100 points while its tally of 121 goals was also a record.

However, Jose Mourinho’s men fell short in its bid to win the UEFA Champions League after being knocked out by Bayern Munich in the semifinal, while the defence of its Copa del Rey title was ended

by Barcelona at the quarterfinal stage, and those disappointments are the reason why Ronaldo cannot rate it as the perfect season for Madrid.

The Portugal international does not feel he could have done much more on an individual level, though, during a remarkable season which saw him score 46 goals in just

Fabregas: Luck was on Chelsea’s side

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ARCELONA midfield er Cesc Fabregas says luck was on Chelsea ’s side during their Champions League final victory against Bayern Munich last Saturday. The former Arsenal midfielder suggested that all good sides need an element of good fortune to be successful, but insisted the Blues were more than worthy winners of Europe’s leading club competition.

The 25-year old Spaniard’s side were edged out by Roberto Di Matteo’s men in

the semi-final, losing 3-2 on aggregate in a two-legged tie.

And, speaking in the build-up to Barcelona’s Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao on Friday, Fabregas claims destiny played a leading role in Chelsea’s triumph.

“People say they did not deserve it but when it’s your year, it’s your year,” Fabregas told The Independent.

“It’s like when Andres Iniesta scored the goal against Chelsea in the last seconds at Stamford Bridge the year we won the treble.”

•Fabregas

38 league matches, and 62 in all competitions for Madrid.

He said in AS: “I would give my season a 10 on an individual level and collectively a nine, because we wanted to win more titles, the Champions League for example.”

Madrid’s bid for a record 10th European Cup has been at the very top of the club’s wish-list for a number of years now, but Ronaldo believes the wait will soon be over.

“We’ve been close this year, but we need to stay calm. The 10th will arrive in the next season or two. We know that everyone is focused on winning the Champions League. You notice it in the street, but we need to stay calm.”

Ronaldo’s season means he is once again likely to be battling Barcelona star Lionel Messi to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or later this year.

Messi, who pipped Ronaldo to the European Golden Shoe and the Pichichi award as the Primera Division’s leading goalscorer with an astonishing 50 league goals this season, is the two-time reigning Ballon d’Or winner having beaten his Portuguese counterpart to the award last year.

Asked if he felt he deserved the crown this

year, as has been suggested by his coach Mourinho, Ronaldo said: “I’m not the one who judges who deserves to win the Ballon d’Or, but I think I’ve had a fantastic season.

“I’ve won the most difficult league in the world. I agree with what Mourinho said, but what I want now is have a great European Championships, because that could also help me in the Ballon d’Or, although honestly it’s not a matter that concerns me much.

“I’m happy with the season that I’ve had, but I’m already only thinking of helping my country now.”

In the 2010/11 campaign Ronaldo won the European Golden Shoe with 40 goals and, remarkably, he managed to top that tally last term.

•Ronaldo C M Y K

30—VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

NATCOMS seeks compensation for subscribers

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ICT: NITDA moves to enforce ‘buy-Nigeria’ directive Continues from 23 menced the establishment of various Internet Exchange Points across the country. According to the agency, work is ongoing on the Lagos Internet Exchange Point with the University of Lagos to have the Lagos Higher Education Connectivity Project (LHECP). This followed the establishment of the first of such points which was commissioned in Abuja and the second commissioned in Port Harcourt recently. The LHECP consists of about five educational institutions already connected to the exchange point as well as the Google University Access Program (GUAP), which comprises of five Universities, is also active at the exchange point.

NITDA said it is its resolve to establish IXPs in all the six geopolitical zones of the country. The series of Internet Exchange Points according to NITDA is being put in place by the agency in collaboration with the private sector and is in a bid to enhance internet penetration in Nigeria at a cheap and affordable rate to all.

While commissioning the Port Harcourt Internet Exchange Point, the NITDA Director-General, Professor, Cleopas Angaye said the Internet Exchange Points will leveraged on to promote educational related ICT initiatives such as the National Research and Educational Network (NREN) cluster within Port Harcourt and its environs. He said the success of NITDA’s bid will be dependent on the adequate partnership and collaboration amongst all stakeholders in addressing some challenges that may inhibit the modest progress already made.

High broadband costs

Angaye listed one of the major challenge facing successful deployment of IXPs in the country as that of the cost of fiber transmission lines between the exchanges as well as inadequate connectivity by Internet Service Providers. The creation of the IXPs he said is part of the fulfilment of multistakeholder collaboration in terms of creating National Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) as recognised by the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) of the World Summit on InC M Y K

formation Society (WSIS).

He said despite the obvious fact of the enormous benefits in the use of the Internet, the poor state of local Internet traffic routing in Nigeria constitutes a very significant problem of competitiveness for the nation’s economy within the globalized world.

“The major factors inhibiting a more rapid adoption and use of the internet in Nigeria are the high cost of access and low quality of service.

Therefore to speed up the spread of the Internet in Nigeria, the cost of Inter-

net connectivity and bandwidth must be reduced and the quality of service improved. One of the most effective mechanisms of achieving these is the Internet Exchange Point (IXP),'' said Angaye. ''An IXP interconnects Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in a region or country, Angaye said allows them to exchange domestic Internet traffic locally without having to send those messages across multiple international hops to reach their destination.

IXPs are crucial for the

development of the internet in any country, as not only do they reduce the cost of internet traffic by keeping local traffic local, but more importantly, they enable additional applications, which have a considerable multiplier effect on the economy,'' he further noted.

According to him a major focus of NITDA is the development of ICT local content in Nigeria in order to enable consumers of ICT services and products and also for the country to earn foreign exchange.

HE National Associ ation of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has commended the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for imposing fine on Telecoms Operators over poor quality service.

The association which made the position known in a statement gave kudos to NCC for the regular monitoring of service quality.

National President of the group, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo said that subscribers are demanding that the N1.17Billion fine should not be paid to the federal government, but to Subscribers as they are not the direct sufferers of the poor quality service,

questioning why NCC should raise money in form of fine for the federal government at the expense of Subscribers who actually suffered monumental loss as a result of poor quality service rendered by the operators. ''We agree with the Nigerian Communications Commission’s Standards and Key Performance Indicators (K.P.I’s) as the industry regulator that there was need to fine the operators for poor service delivery, but the fine should not be used to enrich the Federal Government, it should be shared among subscribers who have actually paid for services not rendered or haphazardly rendered,'' he posited.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY,MAY 23, 2012—31

Airtel boosts network with new Green data centre

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

Nigeria's software piracy rates stagnant — BSA

BY EMEKA AGINAM

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HILE the value of PC software theft in the region totals more than $251 million in 2011, the commercial value of unlicensed software installed on personal computers in Nigeria reached $251 million in 2011 as 82 percent of software deployed on PCs during the year was pirated, a new report from the Business Software Alliance, leading global advocate for the software industry has indicated.

This rate , according to BSA, remained unchanged from 2010, and stands at almost double the global piracy rate for PC software, which is 42 percent.

These were among the findings of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) 2011 BSA Global Software Piracy Study, which evaluates the state of software piracy around the world.

According to report, current efforts to address the significant negative impact of piracy in the Nigerian economy need to

C M Y K

be continued and maximised.

However, in the last eight years, since 2003, the piracy rates in the country have dropped a total of 2 percent, down from 84 percent in 2004.

Globally, the study finds that piracy rates in emerging markets tower over those in mature markets — 68 percent to 24 percent, on average, and emerging markets account for an overwhelming majority of the global increase in the commercial value of software theft.

This, according to the study, helps explain the market dynamics behind the global software piracy rate, which hovered at 42 percent in 2011 while a steadily expanding marketplace in the developing world drove the commercial value of software theft to $63.4 billion.

Meanwhile, other findings from this year’s BSA Global Software Piracy Study include: *Globally, the most frequent software pirates are disproportionately young

and male — and they are more than twice as likely to live in an emerging economy as they are to live in a mature one (38 to 15 percent). *Business decision makers admit to pirating software more frequently than other users — and they are more than twice as likely as others to say they buy software for one computer and then install it on additional machines in their offices. *Globally, there is strong support for IP rights and protections in principle, but a troubling lack of incentive for pirates to change their behavior in practice. Just 20 percent of frequent pirates in mature markets, and 15 percent in emerging markets — say the risk of getting caught is a reason not to pirate software.

“If 82 percent of consumers admitted they shoplift — even rarely — authorities would react by increasing police patrols and penalties. Software piracy demands a similar response: concerted public education and vigorous

law enforcement,” Dale Waterman, Corporate Attorney for Anti-Piracy for the Middle East and Africa region at Microsoft, a member of the BSA, said, adding that, “Our experience around the world suggests that when the Government becomes actively involved in driving long-term educational and awareness initiatives and taking appropriate enforcement action to ensure that those that pirate face real penalties, then significant reductions in software piracy rates become a reality for a country.

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IRTEL Nigeria, at the weekend launched a new green data centre in Lagos, taking advantage of the green site technology it introduced in Nigeria about five months ago.

The green site technology is an initiative that prevents network outages associated with inconsistent power supply. Airtel said the new data centre was a significant step to improving its quality of service as well as enhance its network and billing services.

Describing the centre as the “next generation Data Centre”, Chairman of Airtel Networks Limited Dr.

Oba Otudeko, said that the centre was the biggest Data Centre in Airtel Africa with 20, 000 square feet of equipment space and goes live with green technology, multiple back-ups in terms of power and redundancy for delivering seamless service to the millions of Airtel subscribers in Nigeria.

Otudeko cut the tape to declare the Data Centre open in the presence of Bharti Airtel CEO, International, Mr. Manoj Kohli and Airtel Nigeria CEO, Mr. Rajan Swaroop. Also present were top executives of implementation partners including Ericcson and Astra Engineering.

MTN empowers SMEs with modems, iPads

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

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TN Nigeria, has announced measures to operations of SMEs as its business arm, MTN Business, is offering SMEs, an array of work tools including the new iPad 3, 3G Wireless Modems and a range of phones to boost their productivity.

SMEs who sign up for MTN MyOffice and make purchases will get the

tools as listed. MTN MyOffice is MTN’s comprehensive ICT package specifically designed to meet peculiar needs of the Nigerian SMEs, start-ups and growing businesses.

These tools according to MTN would help them do their businesses in a smarter but cost efficient manner. Technologies like the mobile services, the internet, smarter devices and now the Cloud serv-

ices are now making for a much more empowered growing business.

Chief Enterprise Solutions Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Babatunde Osho, said that “MTN MyOffice combines all the necessary ICT solutions an SME requires to facilitate communication, collaboration and optimal business operations. This is a limited time offer SMEs need to take advantage of.” he added.

32—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012—33

Enterprise Bank launches stressfree salary ‘plus’

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NTERPRISE Bank has launched a product, Enterprise Salary ‘Plus’, which puts additional value on the corporate electronic pay element of the cashlite initiative.

The product, which is one of the latest additions to the bank’s bouquet of electronic based products, provides an opportunity for employees of subscribing organizations to have access to cheaper loans.

According to a statement from the bank, the Enterprise Salary ‘Plus’ is a salary account domiciled with Enterprise Bank in which the subscribing company pays the workers through the bank, using the easy electronic corporate pay system. This mode of payment ensures that the employer can authorize the payment of his workers’ salaries through the bank from anywhere in the world.

The value addition for the employee of such an organization, on one hand, is that he or she can have access to a wide range of banking facilities to finance the purchase of a car, household items, school fees, holiday travels and salary advance among others.

Deutsche Bank tables plan for parallel Greek euro

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ERMANY’S financial giant Deutsche Bank has floated the idea of a “geuro” - a parallel currency allowing Greece to devaluate while staying in the eurozone if an anti-bail-out government takes over in Athens.

If left-wing radicals win the 17 June elections in Greece and stick to their promise of scrapping the €130 billion bail-out and its austerity requirements, Greece could still stay in the eurozone without financial aid if it introduced a parallel currency, says a Deutsche Bank study published on Monday, May 21st.

The “geuro” would consist of promissory notes, a form of government debt that can be sold on. It would devaluate sharply against the euro but would allow the government to buy itself some more time to carry out reforms and pass budget cuts.

“I think such a parallel circuit alongside the euro is the most probable development,” Deutsche Bank chief economist Thomas Mayer said on Monday during a press conference in Berlin. He said the “geuro” would allow Greece to lower its wages and boost exports: “This way they would be back C M Y K

From left: Jay Alabraba, Co-founder, paga; Ayo Bajomo, ED/COO, Ertholeum; Modupe Ladipo, MD/CEO, EFInA; Charles Ogunmola, MD/CEO, AFRI-PAY Ltd. and Prateek Shrivastava, MD, Africa, Monitise during the EFInA Mobile Payments Innovation Forum,in Lagos. Photo: Joe Akintola, Photo Editor.

AfDB boosts African agribusiness with $100m

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

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HE Africa Development Bank (AfDB) has invested $100 million to establish Agvance Fund to boost investment in agriculture business across the continent.

In a statement issued yesterday to announce the investment, the Bank group

said that Agvance is the first agribusiness-focused Fund of Funds on the African continent.

The Bank said, “The strategic objective of Agvance Africa is to increase private investment flows into the agribusiness sector on the continent to address growing food security concerns and unleash the largely unex-

ploited potential of African agriculture and agribusiness sectors.

“Agvance will be managed

by Credit Suisse Customized Fund Investment Group (CFIG) and will target total capital commitments of USD 500 million. It is anticipated to invest in 12 to 15 best-inclass private equity funds targeting portfolio companies

New CIBN President unveils ‘Barometer’ agenda

BY ELIZABETH AMIHOR

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EWLY elected President of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Mr. Olusegun Aina has unveiled the ‘BAROMETER’ agenda designed to position the institute for the evolving future of the banking industry.

In his acceptance speech he explained that the ‘BAROMETER’ is an acronym, which stands for Best practice, Alliances, Relevance, Opportunities, Membership, Education, Technology, Ethics and Research.

He said the aim of the agenda is to blend the wisdom of the older generation members with the dynamism, enterprise and creativity of the younger generation in the quest to reposition banking practices in Nigeria.

The agenda, he said, would

guide his presidency and would be measured and reviewed regularly to ensure sustained focus on the end goals, while periodic updates on progress and milestones attainments will be communicated.

Elaborating on the various aspect of the agenda, he said the institute would pursue best banking practices by fostering and nurturing world class professional banking education and practice.

He said the Institute would pursue collaboration and partnership initiatives that would ensure that fresh ideas are constantly channelled into the system.

He said under his tenure the Institute will play more policy advocacy role and ensure it positively influences the decision making machinery of sector regulators and governments especially at the national level. “The Institute would also contribute more

significantly to the financial system and the overall economy.

Various initiatives aimed at promoting a more inclusive participation of members in the activities of the institution have been identified and pursued.

In the area of education, he said that his administration will establish a CIBN banking school to facilitate the implementation of the banking competency framework with the buy-in of regulators and all corporate members, while new examination structure and new certification programmes will be introduced.

The Institute will leverage on information technology to create e-learning platforms, e-library, online testing/ examination, a more functional website and improved automated and robust members database management platform.

along the agribusiness value chain and across the continent.

“In addition to being Agvance’s anchor investor, AfDB has played a key role in developing the Agvance concept, with support from the Fund for Private Sector Assistance (FAPA), and will work closely with the CFIG to design a state-of-the-art environmental and social management system in cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

“Founded in 1999, CFIG currently has one of the largest dedicated alternative investment teams in the world and is uniquely qualified to manage Agvance Africa given its substantial assets under management, dedicated team and demonstrated private equity investment expertise.

“Agvance Africa is in line with AfDB strategy to support private sector development on the continent.

Fundraising efforts will be conducted in close cooperation with partner DFIs, generating a multiplier effect on resources available for the development of the agriculture and agribusiness sectors. The initiative is also complementary to current efforts undertaken by the AfDB’s public sector window in cooperation with FAO and UNIDO in the context of African Agribusiness and Agro-industries Development Initiative (3ADI).

“As the first initiative of this nature on the continent, Agvance Africa, will catalyze investment into the agribusiness sector, channelling capital to labourintensive activities, leading to inclusive job creation and promoting innovative, environmentally sustainable approaches to agribusiness.”

34—V ANGU ARD, WEDNESD AY, MA Y 23, 2012 34—VANGU ANGUARD, WEDNESDA MAY

My husband gets on my nerves

How do I tell my mum I’m pregnant?

Dear Bunmi, I’M 18 and a few weeks ago, I found out I’m pregnant. I’m an undergraduate and live with my mum and a younger brother. I’ve been seeing my boyfriend for three years and my mum said she’d like me to go on the Pill. But the Pill I tried didn’t suit me so I came off it after a few months. I was going to try a different type after waiting a month or so but then discovered I was pregnant. I’m 12 weeks gone and don’t like keeping something like this from my mum.

I’m not particularly close to her and this makes telling her harder. I’m afraid of disappointing her. I had a bad past when our dad left to be with another woman.

Since I went to the university, we’ve become a bit closer. I just don’t want this pregnancy to push us apart again.

My mum had me when she was young but she’s made a success of her merchandising business. She’s always warned me not to get pregnant. I know I’m too young to be a mother, but I don’t believe in abortion without a good reason and rather like the

idea of being a mother.

It’s my fault that I fell pregnant and I have to live with that for the rest of my life. The man responsible is only two years older and I was one of a few of his girlfriends. He’s told me flatly to get an abortion. I really want to tell my mum, but how do I bring it up? I don’t want her to find out from someone else.

Jibike, By e-mail.

Dear Jibike, Your mum’s first reac-

tion will be of disappointment, even anger.

She’s a single parent, you’re going to be one and the financial responsibilities would be hers, on top of her paying for you to finish at the university. However, when your mum accepts you’ve thought things through - and that there’s no turning back - she might become your closest ally and confidante as you grapple with motherhood.

Take your courage in both hands and tell her.

You need her on your

Is my marriage doomed?

Dear Bunmi, MY husband and I seemed to be drifting apart since we had our son 16 months ago. I know that caring for a child takes up a lot of time but we don’t even seem to talk to each other. There’s a lack of affection and we also argue. We both want our marriage to work and we’ve tried counselling by our pastor but it doesn’t seem to help.

My friend thinks I might have a slight postnatal depression, though when I have a

good day, I dismiss the idea. I’m tired most of the time, my libido has gone and our sex life has more or less disappeared. I find it hard to switch off from the demands of being a mum.

I know we need more quality time together but we don’t have a househelp for now. My husband’s quiet when he’s at home - he wants to switch off after a hard day’s work. I don’t know what to do next. Is our relationship doomed?

Isabella, By e-mail.

I want to have a fling with my boss

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Grace, By e-mail

Dear Grace, It’s always been a pleasure to try and solve readers’ problems but in your case, I’m not keen on responding to the question you asked.

You want me to tell you how to deliberately se-

,

Dear Bunmi, I’VE worked with the same company for five years and a few months ago, we got a new branch manager from head office. He is smashing and quite a friendly man but he seems to single me out to chat with.

He’s also started giving me sexy looks. He is married with three children all under 15. A few of us are going away soon for the office’s marketing seminar. Since his wife won’t be around, I see this as the perfect opportunity to make my move to take our relationship further.

I’ve decided on things to wear but do you have pointers on anything more I can do to make him mine?

side to support your decision to be a single parent. It might even improve the current relationship you have with your mum if you show her you’re ready to face the implications of being a mum. But have you discussed this with the father of your unborn child? It takes two to make a baby and with time, he might come round to the idea of being a father.

You need to go for some sort of counselling too as your combining university and motherhood is not going to be an easy task. I wish you all the best.

duce your boss when you know he’s married? To tell you how to mess up his family life - and probably get both of you into trouble at work? No way!

I’m happy to give you lots of advice on how to get your own man, but I’m certainly not prepared to give you any help on how to steal someone else’s.

You want me to tell you how to deliberately seduce your boss when you know he’s married?

To tell you how to mess up his family life - and probably get both of you into trouble at work? No way!

,

Dear Isabella, It’s obvious that you and your husband miss your former relationship as a couple, unencumbered by parenthood.

The carefree days seem to have disappeared and sex is pushed to the back burner. A woman more easily accepts her role as a new mum - the demands of a baby leave her little choice.

Your husband is like many men in feeling disgruntled by the changes in his marriage that having a baby brings.

Of course you feel tired and your interest in sex has weakened. Coping with the needs of a small child is using up all your energy. You will certainly feel distressed sometimes. Being a new mother is an emotional and all-consuming experience. Be rest assured that, in time, your love and marriage will survive your becoming parents and be enriched by this life changing experience.

Increasingly involve your husband in caring for his son too and making decisions about his welfare. He needs to realise he can be very useful as a father. You’ll both discover more energy and enthusiasm as you adjust to family life.

Your sex life will also be renewed and in time you may even try for another child!

Dear Bunmi, I’VE been married to my husband for over 30 years and we have two grownup children.

I have now reached a stage where I feel my life has ended. My husband has become so grumpy and lazy and won’t lift a finger to help around the house. If anything has to be done, I always have to do it myself. He won’t even have a decent conversation with me - all he does is watch TV, even if there is nothing of interest to watch. He’s retired but I have a thriving business I run away from home, yet he won’t help me at home, even when I’m ill.

I want to leave him and have discussed the possibility with my eldest child. Both my children know how unhappy I am with their father and have agreed to support whatever decision I arrive at.

I want to be happy again as there’s absolutely no love or affection between us anymore.

Any advice for me?

Lucy, By e-mail

Dear Lucy, You’ve arrived at a point

where you’re very lonely and you have my sympathy. Yet this isn’t only about you. Your husband also feels alone and frightened after retiring.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t plan for life after retirement and as a result, sink into depression.

You need to start by getting rid of the television set and make your husband realise that to live in the lonely and unhappy way you now do was not why the two of you got together years ago when you got married. Don’t sidetrack the conversation by complaining about his selfish and lazy behaviour - that will only put him on the defensive.

Instead, express your needs and encourage your bewildered husband to discover his.

What do both of you want from the rest of your lives now and how are you going to achieve these things?

Relationships exist because people share dreams and you need to discover the needs both of you have in common.

If there are none, agree the way forward. If he’s all for packing in the marriage, then help each other to part amicably.

I no longer want her as a lover Dear Bunmi, I have a girlfriend I’ve been seeing for close to one year and I really like her more as a friend than a lover. We’ve had sex a few times and that’s all.

We’re both in our early 20s and my problem started when I met this gorgeous girl at a concert and fell instantly in love with her. She says she loves me too and sex between us is amazing.

I want to have a proper relationship with her and I can’t do that with my oId girl believing we’re still an item.

How can I drop her so we can still be friends?

She’s really a sweet girl.

Segun, By e-mail

Dear Segun, I agree with you it’s only fair you split with

your old girlfriend instead of leading her on.

You’re not in love with her and splitting will give both of you the chance to get a better deal elsewhere. Tell her nicely that your relationship is not working due to no fault of hers, but that you still like her and want to stay friends.

Don’t automatically expect her to feel the way you do. She will be hurt and that might mean she would want a complete break.

In other words, she might not want to stay friends if you dump her and start being lovely dovey with someone new immediately. So have a decent time-gap for things with your ex to settle down before you move on, otherwise, friendship just won’t be possible.

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, MAY 23, 2012 — 35

36 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY,

MAY 23, 2012

Prominent NSUKKA businessman kidnapped, wife escapes

By CHINENYEH OZOR

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HE University town of Nsukka in Enugu State was thrown into fear last week following the kidnap of a prominent business man by unknown gunmen along St. Therese’s Road while his wife narrowly escaped from the abductors.

Crime Alert gathered that the abductors of the businessman whose name was given simply as Okey Ike trailed him and his wife from their shop along slaughter road, in Nsukka to a point close to their residence when they halted their victim’s car, forced him out of the steering while his wife opened the door and ran away.

The kidnappers of Okey Ike, a prominent building materials businessman, took him away with his car to an unknown place only to abandon the car at a distance from the point he was kidnapped. Mrs. Ike, wife of the kidnapped businessman told Crime Alert that she was with her husband when the kidnappers struck and abducted him. She said they were going home after the days’ business from their shop and at a certain point close to their residence, they heard ‘stop, come down’ and she opened the other door and ran away. “They did not chase or shoot me, they were after my husband,” she noted.

She explained further that from the time her husband was abducted till the time of this report, the abductors have not communicated her nor any of his relatives “I pray God that they should not kill him, if their intention was for ransom”.

Contacted for comment, a senior police officer at Nsukka Urban police division who pleaded anonymity confirmed the kidnap incident. The police officer noted that the car of the kidnapped businessman was recovered at a point his kidnappers abandoned it and made away with their victim, stressing that all hands are on deck at the division to track the kidnappers of the businessman.

Meanwhile, reports reaching Crime Alert, Monday evening said the kidnappers have contacted the wife of the businessman and was demanding a ransom of N50 million.

Police sources also hinted that undercover agents specially selected by the Area Commander in Nsukka, Mohammed Lawal, are working round the clock and may soon round up the kidnappers. It was gathered that the Commander gave matching orders to the team of crack detectives to fish out perpetrators of the criminal act without delay and on record time.

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• Esther and other members of the gang

How prostitute organized

By IFEANYI OKOLIE

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STHER Felix was a regular call girl at Pekas, a popular night club at the highbrow Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos, until recently when she ran into trouble for organizing the abduction of one of her customers, who happens to a been a citizen of the United States of America and the son of a Lagos-based business man (names withheld). The deal made her richer by N5m which was the ransom placed on the head of their victim. On the D-day, Sunday May 6, 2012, the 26-year-old victim identified simply as Ayo reportedly received an urgent call from Esther for a meeting that evening. Formerly, the duo usually meet at Pekas, their first meeting point and from there, they will proceed to other night clubs within Ikeja, before ending up in a hotel where they will pass the night.

Sinister motive

But this night, there was a change of plan. Esther wanted Ayo to meet a friend schooling at Lagos State University, who she had boasted could be very good on bed as she does.

Unknown to him, she was up to something more sinister than he could ever image. She later led him into the hands of three heavily-built men, armed with dangerous weapons, waiting to kidnap him. After they picked Esther’s friend identified as Part Nnana some where around LASU, and were driving through Lasu-Igando Road, Esther told Ayo who was driving a Murano Jeep that she was pressed and needed

…..I needed money to start a new life… suspect to urinate and they stopped the car at Iyano School axis of the road.

Unfortunately, the spot turned out to be where they positioned the heavily set men for the kidnap. Before Ayo could fathom what was happening, the men took over the wheels of his jeep and tucked him into the rear seat, preventing him from raising an alarm.

He was then taken to the home of one of the men where he was kept for three days until communication was established between them and his father and the sum of N5m was paid as ransom before he was released.

How suspects were rounded up

However, Crime Alert gathered that Ayo’s father felt insulted with the manner at which his son was kidnapped and he vowed that he must see the end of the case by bringing the culprits to book. He therefore sent a petition to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr.Umaru Manko and the Police boss mandated officer in-charge of the command

Special anti-robbery squad, SARS, SP Abba Kyari, to track down the suspects and apprehend them. Sources at SARS hinted that the moment the

Father arrested

By EVELYN USMAN

S

HOCK and disbelieve could best describe the expression on the faces of residents of Alagbado area in Lagos State last week, following the arrest and startling discovery that one of their neighbors, Mr Abraham Olaniyan, sold his day-old baby to an Anambra state business woman for N3,50,000.

Before the arrest, sympathizers and close relatives of the Olaniyans had thronged their apartment to console them on the death of their baby.

Report said the suspect’s wife , Mrs Nkechi Olaniyan was pregnant for the fifth child. But the family, as gathered, had been going through financial difficulty which led to the suspect’s inability to care for his immediate

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012 — 37

, •CP Lagos, Mr. Umaru Manko

kidnap of customer officer got the directive, he took his men to work and they started tracking the suspects.

T

he source added that the leader of the gang whose phone was used while negotiating the ransom was the first to be arrested. “Through him, we were able to track others involved, including the two prostitutes who delivered Ayo to them. During the cause of our investigations, we discovered that the kidnappers hid the number of their phone while

negotiating for ransom. But we were able to unravel the phone number and we got the identity of the owner and went after him,” he stated.

Her story

When Crime Alert met with Esther at the Command headquarter, Ikeja, she opened up by saying that she was led into prostitution because of financial problems. “It was financial problem that pushed me into prostitution. I started going to clubs, especially night clubs, to look for men who were seek-

He knew that I had planned the kidnap, so he asked why I was risking his life because of common N200, 000, which he said he would have given me without any stress if I had asked him

ing fun. I used to charge N2000 for short time sex. But for full time, I used to charge between N3,000 and N4,000.

I stayed in a hotel in Sango-Ota, Ogun State, where I met with men on short time and full time bases. Because I was finding it difficult to pay for the hotel room, I relocated to an uncompleted building in the town. I used to pay N1,000 for the room every day, whether I met with men or not. I also used to give the hotel manager N500 any day there was good business.

When I started going to night clubs, some men used to beat me and, at times, if they were three or four, all of them would like to sleep with me. My father is from Ondo but I grew up in Imo State. My mother is from Ugwu Aba village in Orlu town, Imo State. I was a student of Lagos State Polytechnic, where I was studying Mass Communication before I dropped out at 200 levels due to financial problems. I am even the breadwinner of my family. I stabilized and made some money from prostitution.

I used to send money to my mother in Imo State and take care of my younger ones because our father was not helping the family in anyway. This made it difficult for me to save enough money. When I had managed to rise up to N800, 000, I started thinking of how to procure a ticket and a visa to travel abroad. It was during that time that I met one Wale and Bayo at Ikeja to help me travel out of the country.

But they gave me fake passport and visa. When I got to the airport, it was God who saved me from being arrested. I then went to Ikeja police station and reported Wale and Bayo for duping me. The case dragged for long and became boring, as nothing concrete was done to recover my money, while the people I borrowed money from were on my neck. I became frustrated and confused. I was in this state of frus-

for selling day-old baby for N350,000 family. On the day of delivery, the suspect, a bricklayer, reportedly took his wife to a private hospital around Alagbado where she was delivered of a baby boy.

Crime Alert learnt that trouble started Mrs. Olaniyanfor regained consciousness, an hour after the delivery, and she was informed that her baby had died. She reportedly demanded severally to see the remains of her baby, only to be told that he had been buried already. Suspecting a foul play, she reportedly contacted the police and expressed fears that the purported story of her dead child was shrouded in unfathomable circumstance. The Police immediately arrested the husband, a development that initially sparked up reactions from

different quarters.

But preliminary investigation, according to Police sources, revealed that the 26-year-old father allegedly connived with some medical staff to sell the baby, following his inability to cater for him and his siblings.

According to the sources,“ we arrested the man based on his wife’s disclosure that he had one time threatened to sell one of their children. She said when she was pregnant, her husband asked her to terminate the pregnancy because of their financial state but claimed she refused. So, after she regained consciousness and was told the baby had died, she insisted on seeing the corpse and when they did not, she concluded her husband could have made do his treat.

“ At first , her husband denied . But he later confessed that he sold the baby for N350,000 to a woman in Anambra State who had been been looking for the fruit of the womb for fifteen years.

His confessional statement led to the arrest of the doctor of the hospital and two nurses, who during interrogation, told us the man gave them his consent and that the woman was aware of the whole plan” Investigation, as gathered, further revealed that the woman was anesthetized immediately she put to bed, apparently to prevent her from knowing when the illicit transaction would take place.

On how the business woman was arrested in far away Anambra, police sources said, “ she was called on the

,

tration when I met Ayo who was so nice and caring. All I needed to pull out of prostitution was just N200,000.

I

started thinking that if I could kidnap this Ayo, his father, a stinking billionaire would give any amount to get his only child back. I contacted my friend Patricia, and told her about it. We discussed it and she said it was a good shortcut to big money. I told her that I had nobody with whom I could do the job and she said she knew somebody called Kingsley Okenwa aka Dragon.

How kidnappers were contacted

She contacted Dragon and he said he could do it perfectly. We then fixed an appointment. On the day we were supposed to meet, I told Dragon that Ayo would be driving a jeep by himself from Opebi and that I would go there to meet him, as he had told me that he wanted to sleep with Patricia and I together. I told Dragon and his men to wait for us at Iyana School Bus Stop along Lasu-Isheri Road. We got to Iyana School Bus Stop that evening.

I pretended that I wanted to ease myself. Ayo pulled over and came down.

Before I could bend down, Dragon and his men appeared with daggers and entered the Murano Jeep. They forced Ayo to the back seat and Osi took over the steering. We drove to a room in Iyana and the five of us stayed there.

Ayo was not chained. He knew that I had planned the kidnap, so he asked why I was risking his life because of common N200, 000, which he said he would have given me without any stress if I had asked him. We demanded N10m from his father, but Dragon later collected only N5 million and five of us shared it.”

phone by Abraham who said he wanted to see her. A place was booked for the meeting and when she showed up, we arrested her.”

Meanwhile , back in Onitsha , the apartment of the business woman simply identified as Rachael was agog with celebration. One of her relatives was already in her house to help her massage her body and also bath the child. The joy between her and her husband over the arrival of their baby knew no bounds , owing to the several years of waiting for a child of their own. It could however not be ascertained whether she revealed the source of the baby’s arrival to her husband.

But their joy was short lived following her arrest two weeks after the purported arrival of their long awaited baby .

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38— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

Low participation delays NIID take off STORIES BY ROSEMARY ONUOHA

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HE Nigerian Insurance Industry Database, NIID, is yet to take off because many Nigerians are yet to be captured into it, the Nigerian Insurers Association, NIA, has said.

Chairman of NIA, Mr. Olusola Ladipo-Ajayi, who said this in Lagos, noted that insurers under the auspices of the NIA want every vehicle owner in the country to be captured in the data base, saying that was the reason for delay in the take off of the project.

Ladipo-Ajayi said “The

NIID has not taken off because we want to be sure that everybody is there.

Not only that everybody is there but that everybody in every nook and cranny of Nigeria will be able to be uploaded or downloaded in the data base within a specified period of time.”

According to LadipoAjayi, it is easy for the people in the city centres to be uploaded into the NIID but not easy to get everybody from every nook and cranny of the country and that is what the NIA is trying to fine tune. Apart from uploading the existing data, Ladipo-Ajayi noted that the NIA has to

add new ones and make it verifiable within a specified time.

He said that if the NIA don’t get the NIID right it will be counter productive, stating “Everybody has to be there no matter where they are and that is the challenge we are facing.

So it is a huge challenge that will not go overnight, but we are getting there and we will get there.

The NIA Chairman said that the public is facing the problem of fake plate licenses, fake vehicle licenses and fake drivers’ licenses and that all these things are going to be linked in the database in

the process of trying to change the vehicle plate number.

He said “When you want to get a new plate number you are supposed to apply online. When you go to an

insurance company and you buy your insurance, you can even start the process of getting a number plate from an insurance company because you are supposed

to fill your form online but most people don’t know that they can do that, as such they still go to the licensing office and they help them to fill the form there.”

RIMSON to train key decision makers on risk management

R

ISK and Insurance Managers Society of Nigeria (RIMSON), in association with Conrad Clark (CCN Ltd) is set to organise a 2-day Advanced Risk Management course for Directors, Executives, Senior Managers and key

decision makers of companies in the country.

In a statement to Vanguard, the course is to give them practical tools to assist in the process of embedding an effective measurable risk management culture.

According to the statement, the two days will cover at least key risk management standards, principles, requirements and global trends; framework for managing risk; strategy, policies, procedures, competences & tools; key regulatory requirements in Nigeria; analysis of risk categories; credit, market, liquidity, Insurance, operational and group risks. Also, each delegate will be taught how to identify, accurately describe, analyse and evaluate a risk; application of both quantitative & qualitative risk assessment tools and techniques; risk modeling techniques and the uses/importance of Risk Appetite Statements, limits/ tolerances.

RIMSON stated that risk management is recognised as an essential contributor to business and project success, since it focuses on addressing uncertainties in a proactive manner in order to minimise threats, maximise opportunities, and optimise achievement of objectives. Despite several attempts at implementing effective risk management processes, in practice managements often fail to meet expectations, as demonstrated by the continued history of business and project failures.

Expert urges insurers to embrace bancassurance

I

NSURANCE companies have been charged to enter into collaboration with banks in order to deepen the concept of bancassurance in the country.

Managing Director of FBN Life Assurance Ltd, Mr. Val Ojumah, who made the assertion, noted that what bancassurance simply means is that beyond using their physical branches in distributing products, insurance companies can also embed their products in a banking product.

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Vanguard Vanguard,,

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139 TAURUS: THE Moon fluctuates as it moves out of your star . That is why you will need to guard against confusion likely to be caused by others.

GEMINI: THE Moon position INFLUECES YOU TO BE COME AGGRESSIVE which is capable of bringing unnecessary argument and avoidable confusion. To before warned is to be fore armed.

CANCER: EARLY morning blues will affect many people today (yourself inclusive) but luckily for you, things will go according to your plans. And you will need to be more careful with money.

LEO: THE Moon fluctuates early in the morning. And if care is not taken you would promise more than you can actually deliver to the resentment of others. Yet, you’ll win.

VIRGO: BEHIND-the-scene-activities are sources of avoidable trouble especially before mid-morning period when influence of the moon’s fluctuation will last. Avoid inordinate ambition.

WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, MAY 23, 2012

LEISURE

YOUR LUCK TODAY

— 39

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

By Richard Eromosele

Who has the final say...?

T

HIS piece title is coined from a hymn with the same title. I do not know your response to the question - Who has the final say in your life? Who has the final say in your marriage?

Who has the final say in your business? Who has

the final say...?

I belive there is only one God, who is the Supreme Being and everything answereth to His authority. He can bring a turn-around to

TERROR MUDA

your life, to your marriage, to your business, to your situation, to your circumstance and to your challenges. Experts will have their say, but God will have His

in “Never say goodbye”

way, doctors will say it’s impossible, but He who has the final say will bring His possibility to bear on your situation.

He will make a way for you when and where there seems to be no way. Believe Him.

By Kola Fayemi

LIBRA: IT’S important you don’t allow your thought for and/or about the future derail your plans for the present so that success will not elude you. Romantic attractions along your career/business lines may become stronger sooner than you think.

SCORPIO: EARLY morning blues will affect many people around you meaning that not everybody-morning period especially along your career/business lines.

SAGITTARIUS: MAKE sure you perfectly understand what you are doing within your working arena before midmorning period or else costly mistakes would be made. Be tolerant.

CAPRICORN: TOMORROW is your day. Therefore you are advised to leave some important decisions and/or action till tomorrow when the heaven will smile at you. Your love life is favoured.

AQUARIUS: TOMORROW will prove more challenging. Thus, if there are things you should do now, you better don’t contemplate procrastination as you are likely to be stretched full lenght tomorrow. Watch with you tell others early in the morning.

KAPTAIN AFRIKA

in

“Princess Shii’

By Andy Akman

PISCES: AS the moon fluctuates early in the morning some people may promise more than they can actually deliver. And if you take them for granted, you would be disappointed.

ARIES: CERTAINLY some people will get on your nerves yet you must not over-react at least because of the immediate future. Truly thus is the wrong time to gamble with love.

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING Send yyour our dat th ttoo the As tr ological datee and place of bir birth Astr trological Counselling, PP.M.B .M.B 1100 00 7, Apapa, Lagos 007,

What are my chances?

VIRGINIA

dadadekola@yahoo.com

Dear Joshua, KINDLY analyse my star and tell me about myself especially my luck.

I want to know about my love life, social life and how to become successful in life. I have seen people who are close to me became big success without much struggle from them. Would my own be like them too?

Tunji, Ibadan.

Dear Tunji, You are different to those you said came by success: in your own case you will need to work hard and earn success.

It is important you watch and take practical precaution about inability to hold on to your gains for long.

Some times unexpected assistance use to come your way at 11th hour.

Your being friendly with the influential personalities especially WOMEN will help your finance greatly speculative (and) venture is not the best for you.

Your magnetic personality makes it difficult for members of your opposite sex to the betterment of your love life.

Luckily for you, you know how not to allow your rugged/rigid personality to harm your love life; you are a sweet lover, although can be argumentative some times. Love happiness indicated for you.

If you can analyse both your environment and social situation, you will have more to gain from social activities more than it’s attendant pressure.

You will need to drop unnecessary rebellious approach when dealing with your social life; although what looks like radical approach can earn you a few number of friends who may not be in position to assist you.

Many people love your gentle approach and will be willing to assist you especially the more influential personalities. Once again women can be helpful here.

Commen3

by Lawrence Akapa

40—VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

VISIT: Global Sales Director, Travelex Group, Mr. Mark S m i t h , V i c e Chair man, Travelex

Representative Office Nigeria, Chief Godson Evulukwu; Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonji- Iweala; CEO; Peter Jackson and GM, Mr .Tony Enwereji, during a visit of the Travelex Group to the Finance Minister in Abuja.

Islamic group tasks Jonathan on bombings

BY FESTUS AHON

U

G H E L L I — NATIONAL President of Islamic Community in the Niger Delta, Malam Yusuf Eregbene, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to take a drastic step towards tackling the security challenges in the country.

The group also enjoined the President to take a critical look at the comments of the National Security

Adviser, General Owoye Azazi (rtd) on the security challenges, during the second South-South Summit in Asaba, blaming the upsurge of bombings on the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP. Eregbene, in a statement, yesterday, said rather than criticising Azazi’s comment, Jonathan and the PDP leadership should work out ways to address the issues raised, describing Azazi as a bold and courageous man.

Association condoles with Chime

E

NUGU—THE Class of 76, College of Immaculate Conception, Enugu, has condoled with Enugu State Governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime, over the death of his mother, Mrs. Theresa Chime.

A statement by Dr. Richard Ojiako, President of the association,yesterday, described Mrs. Chime as a

woman of virtue who is celebrated in Ndi Ugbo Chime community in Enugu. The late Chime held many leadership positions in the Catholic Church in Enugu and Udi dioceses which led to her being recognised with the title of Ezinne Ora by St. Mary’s Catholic Church Udi in 2008.

Zamfara begins sale of fertiliser

BY SAMINU

DONATION: From left, Mr. Chikaodi Nnadim, Financial Secretary, 1990 set of St. Peter Claver Seminary, Okpala, Imo State, Lagos Chapter; Anthony Obi, President; Mrs. Omolaja Adedoyin, Founder, Hearts of Gold Children's Hospice, Surulere, Lagos and Mr. Gogo Anyanwu, Treasurer, during a visit and donation of food items to the hospice, in Lagos, weekend. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.

Tension in Minna over alleged plot to sack Speaker

BY WOLE MOSADOMI

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INNA—PEOPLE of Niger South Senatorial District of Niger state have warned the executive arm of government to drop any plan to impeach the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Isah Kawu, to avoid social disorder in the state.

At a briefing, a group, styled “Servant Leadership Group” in Minna, yesterday, and led by Alhaji Shafii Bello, described the latest development at the Assembly in the past few days as democracy at its best which was commendable.

He said: ’’We, in Niger South Senatorial District felt we should rise to our obligation to appeal to the executive arm of government to drop any plan to influence the impeachment of the dulyelected Speaker because what the legislators have done is worthy of commendation and as such they should be allowed to exercise their

civic responsibility as peoples’ representatives.”

Bello said it was the right of all individuals elected into the Assembly to ascend to any position as may be desired by his colleagues adding that Kawu had done just that and should, therefore, be supporte.”

He said there should be

no preferential selection on who pilots the affairs of the Assembly and, therefore, advised that, external forces should not be allowed to interfere with the internal affairs of the House.

The former speaker, Mohammed Gamunu, from the same zone, was impeached last week.

He was the third to have been impeached in the past five years in the state.

Meanwhile, there is tension in the Assembly as armed policemen were stationed within and outside its premises and subject workers and visitors to proper search before being allowed in.

Kwarans assured of better life

BY DEMOLA

AKINYEMI

I

LORIN—THE Kwara State Government has assured it will continue to

provide the necessary infrastructural facilities for the economic prosperity of Kwarans, Commissioner for Works, Dr. Amuda Kannike, said this,

Benue pays N1.4bn to sacked councillors

BY PETER DURU

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AKURDI—BENUE State Government has paid N1.4 billion to sacked local government councillors as judgment debt to the lawmakers whose tenure was wrongfully terminated in 2003 by the then George A k u m e - l e d administration.

Special Adviser to the

Governor on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Solomon Wombo, said this in Makurdi.

He said the administration undertook to off-set the debt because of its belief in the rule of law and respect for the judiciary; “more especially, since we all know that government is a continuum.”

yesterday, at a briefing with his counterparts in the Ministry of Education, Alhaji Mohammed Raji, among others, at Government House, Ilorin.

Kannike, who noted that the administration, right from inception, had organised a retreat which produced a blue print for the development of the state, aded that it was based on such that a performance contracting policy was put in place to ensure that the civil service was put on a solid foundation to drive the activities of government without problems. He said all the ongoing old projects of the last administration were being completed for commissioning.

IBRAHIM

G

USAU—ZAMFARA State Governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, yesterday, launched the sale of fertiliser for this year ’s farming season for N1,000 per bag.

Declaring the sale in Kaura-Namoda, Gov. Yari warned those in the habit

of diverting the commodity meant for farmers to desist from doing so or face the wrath of the law.

Yari lamented that despite the subsidy on fertiliser during the last season, government faced serious problem of loan recovery from farmers; as substantial part of the consignments were diverted to the market and sold at cut- throat prices.

Anambra Anglicans set up agric projects

BY VINCENT

UJUMADU

A

WKA—THE Oyi Archdeaconry of the Anglican Church in Anambra State has set up a multi-purpose agricultural project as part of its efforts to improve food production and generate funds for the church.

Known as Oyi Farms Multi–purpose Cooperative Society Limited, the project comprises poultry, fishery,

snail and rice farming and it is expected to employ a large number of people in the area.

A major stakeholder in the project, Dr. Chike Obidigbo, said at Ogbunike in Oyi Local Government Area, that the Archdeaconry has acquired a large expanse of land at the lower Anambra Irrigation Project for the purpose of cultivating rice at Ayamelum which is an area noted for the cultivation of rice.

Rochas Rural Market Scheme launched

BY IME BASSEY

L

AGOS—HUNDREDS of Lagosians, weekend, converged on Alimoso for the launch of Rochas Rural Market Scheme, an initiative of Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, to bring food closer to the poor.

At the launch, the

coordinator of the scheme, Prince Ebunola Martins, said the scheme was an idea of Gov. Okororocha to further alleviate poverty in the rural areas by selling food items cheaper.

He said Lagos was chosen as the pioneer state in the South- West to kickstart the scheme and that the gesture would be extended to other states.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012—41

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42—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

Football coach remanded in prison zOver alleged murder of girlfriend

BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

A

Yaba Magistrate Court, Lagos, has remanded a football coach, Emmanuel Temuru, in prison custody, following his arraignment for allegedly killing his girlfriend, Miss Margaret Usen, who he had allegedly impregnated.

Magistrate Olalekan Bashorun, adjourned the case for advice of the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions, noting that

the DPP’s advice would be ready in three weeks and ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody, pending the DPP’s advice.

Temuru’s plea could not be taken by the court, since the DPP’s advice was not ready. However, the prosecutor, Mr Philip Ugbodu, told the court that Usen died after drinking and bathing with herbal concoction given to her at a clinic where Temuru took her.

According to the

prosecutor, the alleged offence contravened

Section 319 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State.

A-Ibom House okays N50bn loan

BY TONY NYONG

U

YO—AKWA IBOM State House of Assembly, yesterday, passed a resolution, empowering the state executive to obtain a N50 billion loan from financial institution.

Speaker of the House, Mr Samuel Ikon, said based on the explanation

given by the Commissioner of Finance, Mr Bassey Albert, that the loan would be used with probity by the executive, the House had no option other than to approval the request.

Ikon directed the Clerk of the House, Mrs Mandu Umoren, to communicate the resolution to the governor within 24 hours.

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ESPITE has come the way of four convicts, sentenced for various offences in Anambra State, with the Senator representing Anambra South, Senator Andy Uba bailing them out by paying various sums to get them freed.

Senator Uba said he decided to pay the fines of N20,000 and N30,000 imposed on Maduabuchi John, Ifeanyi Arona, Innocent Onuorah and Ugozor Nwoba to make them better citizens in line with his social responsibility to his constituency.

The four were charged and convicted of various offences such as felony, store breaking, assault, and attempt to set building

Uba bails 4 convicts ablaze, which carried a fine of N20,000 and N30,000 respectively, or an imprisonment of six months.

They were charged before a Magistrate Court sitting in Akwa, Anambra State in April.

Since they could not pay the fine, they were committed to six months in prison before Uba came to their rescue.

Senator Uba said apart from getting them out of jail, they would be empowered through his community help project, so that they can become better citizens and useful to their families.

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

I

T was different strokes on Monday in Enugu as the judgment of the Federal High Court on the preelection candidature of Governor Sullivan Chime distilled in the Coal City State.

While the camp of the governor was ecstatic in their celebration of what they saw as the confirmation of Chime's election, nonplussed traducers of the governor claimed the judgment had turned justice on its head.

“We view today’s landmark judgment as a victory for democracy and all those, who believe strongly in the good work of our dynamic Governor, His Excellency Sullivan Iheanacho Chime in Enugu State,” Engr. Vita Abba, the chairman of the mainstream Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said in his immediate reaction to the judgment of Justice Adamu Bello of an Abuja Federal High Court that Monday.

Abba, a close associate of the governor was to add that the judgment was another sign of blessing arising from last weekend’s interment of the governor’s mother.

“It is also another set of blessing from the late Mother of our Governor, Chief Mrs. Theresa Ekpeluchi Chime, whom we cherished so much and accorded a well-deserved last respect few days ago,” Abba added.

However, Chief Okey Ogbonna, factional chairman of the PDP in Enugu State, sang a different tune. He said: "I am surprised that a candidate who bought a form, was screened and cleared and was even awarded marks in their so-called primaries, and you say he had no locus.”

Ogbonna told Vanguard in a telephone interview that the faction of the party he leads would pursue the case as a long distance race.

In his judgment, Justice Bello had declined jurisdiction in the case filed by a gubernatorial aspirant in the 2011 party primaries, Chief Alexander Obiechina as he pronounced that the sponsorship of a candidate in any election was wholly the domestic affair of the party.

At the centre of the dispute within the PDP was the different gubernatorial primaries organized by the different camps of the party in the state just before the deadline for the submission of the party's candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The conflict in the state chapter had been exacerbated by the split between

Enugu: Different chimes from court judgment Last Monday’s court victory of Governor Sullivan Chime is received with different appendages by the contending political forces in the State

*Nwodo: Another setback for former PDP chairman

*Chime : Court confirms victory supporters of the governor and those of the erstwhile National Chairman of the party, Dr. Okwesileze Nwodo.

It was alleged that as PDP national chairman, that Nwodo who was at that time feuding with Chime wanted to put his supporters at an advantage over members of the Chime group during the nominaiton exercise.

A

s Chime triumphed over Nwodo in the battle of wits forcing Nwodo to resign as party chairman, the Chime group seemed to have consolidated themselves. But lingering behind was the perceived lack of commitment of INEC to the interest of the PDP and the cause of the Chime group.

While the case lasted, INEC had in its submission through its counsel seemed to weaken the case of the governor with its inference that the primary that produced the governor was not in satisfactory compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.

The judge in his ruling on Monday, however, disagreed with the INEC and pronounced that the plaintiff being not recognized by the national PDP lacked the locus to challenge what was done by the party.

Besides, INEC had also alleged that the primaries organized by the mainstream section of the party did not

,

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Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012—43

It was alleged that as PDP national chairman, that Nwodo who was at that time feuding with Chime wanted to put his supporters at an advantage over members of the Chime group during the nominaiton exercise

give sufficient notice as expected by the Electoral Act. “Certainly no one should be left in doubt that the envisaged notice of 21 days was not complied with in obvious violation of section 85(1]). Added to the foregoing is the fact that the resident Electoral Commissioner cannot be regarded as the Commission, which presents a further violation,” INEC added in its submission.

And given that the PDP was wholly behind Chime in the dispute, the presiding judge did not find it difficult using that prop as a kernel to uphold the governor's defence.

In deciding the case in favour of Chime, the court had also taken into consideration a recent judgment concerning the immediate past governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipire Sylva and the PDP in which it was decided that the party had a right to bar a member from participating in

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its nomination primaries.

Besides Abba, Chime’s victory was also welcomed by the State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chuks Ugwoke.

“We thank God for His mercies and express our gratitude to the good people of Enugu State and our numerous well-wishers for their faith and solidarity. It’s the triumph of justice over what was, abi nitio, a needless distraction. This victory belongs to all lovers of peace.

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is Excellency, Governor Sullivan Ihenacho Chime is committed, as ever, to continue to deliver solid democracy dividends as he enthrones good governance in our dear state.”

Ogbona, the factional chairman was, however, unwavering in his determination to pursue the case which he said would now

turn into a long distance race.

“The Judge has given his own opinion but we are moving ahead and that is why we have Appeal Court and even the Supreme Court. In the next few hours, we will get the notice of appeal and we all know that it is going to be a long distance race and whatever the Supreme Court gives us we will take.

“There is no way that anybody will go to bed on this issue, we will seek for justice for our people. If you make a call across to Enugu now, you will see that all the market people are mourning,” he declared in clear contrast to the vivaciousness that was in the Chime camp after the judgment.

Askedthe likelihood of pursing a political solution given the clear inclination of the national secretariat towards the governor, Ogbona was unwavering as he alleged that the governor had shut the door to internal opposition.

The case has, inevitably, drawn the party in the state back to the trenches. It is a clear return to the schism that has characterized the Enugu chapter of the party since 2000 when the second civilian governor of the state and apostle of the Ebeano phenomenon, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani, broke away from the tentacles of his one-time godfather, Chief Jim Nwobodo.

Challenging Sylva was a suicide mission — Dickson It is barely 100 days that erstwhile member of the House of Representatives, former Commissioner for Justice and former policeman turned lawyer, Serikae Dickson, was inaugurated as governor of Bayelsa State. Dickson’s path to the Government House was laced with intrigues, physical and mental combats among other challenges. Passing through Lagos last weekend, Dickson took out time to share his experiences in the political fray with a group of newsmen. Excerpts:

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

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IR, what was it like aspiring to be governor?

I fought using legitimate political means, I fought using the law all time. I am (now) even contemplating a bill on political violence because I want people to continue to maintain the peace and stability of Bayelsa.

We had a system where a terror squad was put together and funded by government over the years. You may recall that the day preceding my declaration, five persons were gunned down just to scare me and my supporters from coming. But we dared them.

In fact, what we did was a suicide mission, the effort we made to take out that rotten decadent system, it was terrible. It was that time that they were receiving in some months, N30 plus billion, N20 plus billion and they were deploying it fully just to fight for survival. No development, not even one gravel would land Bayelsa. As they get allocation they would stay in Abuja and distribute it and be funding propaganda and violence. Instead of giving the boys and girls education, instead of building infrastructure and investment.

They were giving young people drugs, AK-47, they were giving them dynamite to explode and kill people so that there will be an impression any attempt to take anybody out will be resisted.

On being favoured by the system against Sylva?

There were a lot of misconceptions about a lot of things. In this country it is only when a governor fails to get ticket from his party that people talk about fairness, but when governors use their advantage to scheme out others and return less than 5% to the National Assembly or State House of Assembly or scheme out every other person from their party, nobody talks. It is normal. It is like a dog biting a man, it doesn’t make news. But when

it is the other way round it will be front page news. When we were working very hard to serve our people and rescue our people from a system that was corrupt and decadent and evil, a lot of Nigerians didn’t know what we were dealing with. But from snippets of reports that are now out it is now public knowledge that about N660 billion went into that state for about five years and what they did with it is common mystery.

We are now spending a lot of money building human capacity. In the next couple of days we are going to see massive construction. The whole of Bayelsa is going to be a massive construction yard. Construction of schools, primary, secondary, tertiary.

We are establishing a sports academy it will take off in September or October, we are setting up a vocational skills acquisition training centre.

We are building model schools which will mould up all these boys and train them, compulsory boarding facilities for all of them and give them knowledge they need to survive in an increasingly competitive economy.

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e have a challenge of low IGR which again is one of the products of the contradictions of the Nigerian state. We have a situation where a state with the majority of oil production activities but not one oil company has its headquarters there, they don’t have presence, so they are not there to pay tax, they are not there to contribute their quota as responsible corporate citizens. They stay in other places and pay even PAYE tax and other forms of levy to those states and leaving us only with the ruins of the devastated environment. That is the story, that is the reality we are dealing with.

Every month I declare earnings of the state. I have also pushed through a compulsory savings law and so every month Bayelsa State saves money. We have got to learn to save. We have got to treat the business of

governance with even more care than we treat our own personal endeavours. In this country the reverse has been the case, people treat government matters far less than they treat their own personal affairs. But we want to reverse that in Bayelsa and very soon the fruits of prudence will be very clear.

In the next one year, Bayelsa will be the leading investment destination in this country, it will be the leading tourism hub, not just in Nigeria but in the sub-region.

On building unity in Bayelsa I have been a consensus builder and that started from the moment I became flag bearer and I don’t think that there has been any gubernatorial candidate that had the kind of support as my candidature engendered.

Outsiders out of Bayelsa State didn’t know what we went through. You saw from the

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*Dickson have been more all encompassing. You talked about immunity.

Unfortunately and in spite of my liberal political views and by the way I was liberal icon in the House, I believe that as long as the control of the coercive forces rest in the federation, as long as you do not have a decentralisation of the enforcement of law and order, a removal of the immunity clause portends far more evil than it is intended to solve. I do not want a governor who is doing well

Unknown to most of you, Bayelsans were crying in silence, we were just waiting for somebody to come as they say, come and bell the cat

time I became flag bearer you saw how people who had been pushed to the fringes of our party, Chief Alamaighesiya, and even Alaibe was almost out but had to come back and played a critical role. We built consensus first within the party.

I am an issue politician, I am not a politician of convenience or comfort. If there have been any wounds, there are a lot of healing going on.

Amendment of the Constitution I think that the amendment of the constitution should have been more robust, it should

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but is not liked by the centre to be at the mercy of any federal law enforcement officer. I am unable in spite of my liberal inclinations to support the removal of the immunity clause because it would mean that a governor would be at the mercy of a DPO or any Police constable from time to time and a governor who disagrees with the federal would not be able to do any work.

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n insinuations that the Alaibe Committee was constituted to indict Sylva?

It is not true. The committee was made up of the best

accounting and banking professionals that Bayelsa has. Alaibe was chairman and maybe you don’t know the other members who are chief accountants, and indeed fellows of many years experience who have seen it all. Unknown to most of you, Bayelsans were crying in silence, we were just waiting for somebody to come as they say, come and bell the cat.

They knew what was coming in but they were not seeing corresponding output.

For example, look at this clear case of the N50 billion bond. A state that was getting so much money went to the capital market against the protest of almost every stakeholder, got it through and in one week it was gone.

For the past five years despite the huge allocations, after one week the Bayelsa State government would be broke, they will now run to the banks for temporary overdraft facilities.

But the last two months are the only months that Bayelsa State has not gone to any bank for any overdraft facility, rather we are saving money almost N24 billion. It is there, saved. I can give you the account numbers, I am not in this business to steal people’s money. So, we wanted to know what happened to the N50 billion because we are paying. Every month, we spend about close to N3 billion servicing all those 419 transactions. 419, because the bonds were tied to specific projects, but none of those projects was even started.

Every month after allocation they would go to Abuja, not even Yenogoa, fly to Abuja and share the money.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012—45

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23, 2012

Gaddafi’s fund and Sarkozy Politics: The murky tales of France and corrupt African despots

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HEN will African leaders stop being pawns in global chess game if by 21st century they are still behaving like their great grand fathers who enslaved their people and allowed massive plunder of their continent? Put differently, when will African leaders stop being the bush fowl that is not gifted to improving on its environment.

The French Presidential election may have ended in a victory for the Socialist Party led by Francois Hollande but the revelations of slush fund scandals in French politics that have become legendary in Franco-African relations demand further exposition. The Hollande campaign team had alleged that Nicholas Sarkozy, had received funds from the deposed Libyan leader, Col .Muammar Gaddafi, in 2007 but turned round to champion NATO-led military campaign that ended the regime and the life of the stormy petrel of African politics. In this report, HUGO ODIOGOR examines Franco-Africa relations.

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longest serving ruler - has plundered the coffers of one of Africa’s wealthiest oil economies. France is a haven for corrupt African leaders and its diplomacy in Africa is fraught with dubiety.

It is a chess game of selfish idiosyncrasies between Paris and its fawning cronies on the continent of Africa, a paternalism that keeps the former colonies as perpetual minions of the metropole.

Majority of them, especially those from the Francophone countries, have choice mansions in Paris, just as Nigerian leaders have made Dubai their first home.

The Francois Hollande allegations have further complicated the impending trial of Saif Al Islam Gaddafi whom the International Criminal Court has found it difficult to arraign because of the widely held view that his trial will expose some of the dirty deals that the former Libya leader had transacted with many European leaders.

Europe is one continent that has parasitically lived off Africa yet when it suits European racial bigots, they play the immigration card

and treat Africans living on the fringes as scum.

Former Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Prof.

George Obiozor told Vanguard Features, VF, that the

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POETIC JUSTICE here is a sense of poetic justice among some watchers of international politics, especially who believe that Sarkozy has gone the way of other French leaders who are friends by the day and foes at night. While there are those who may argue that Sarkozy could not have done better in the circumstances of an incumbent facing a backlash from an austerity weary electorate than his acts of perfidy against an African despot.

The allegation that Sarkozy received funds from Gaddafi was one of the dominant themes of the election campaign but this may not be a new song as former French Presidents like Valerie D’ Estiang and later Francois Mitterrand were at various times accused of receiving gifts of diamond from African despots like Emperor Jean Bedel Bokassa, Mobutu Sese Seko of Congo DR, the late Omar Bongo of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang who ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in a bloody coup in 1979 - becoming Africa’s

•Nguesso and Sarkozy

the moment. The emergence of Francois Hollande as France’s president, or the victory of the Socialist party after 17 years may not change this policy of fleecing Africa

The structure and nuances of French foreign policy on Africa will remain the same regardless of whether it is the Socialists or the Center Right party is in government; its policy of use and dump, has been used to perpetuate cronies of Paris in office only to dump them when the game is over

structure and nuances of French foreign policy on Africa will remain the same, regardless of whether it is the Socialists or the Center Right party is in government. Its policy of "use and dump" has perpetuated cronies of Paris in office only to be dumped when the game is over. This means in international politics and diplomatic practice, new political leaders do not invent new national strategies, rather, they adapt enduring national strategies of

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through corrupt leaders taking austerity, but the underlying issue remains constant: France’s struggle for a dominant role in European affairs and at the same time maintain a dominant influence on its colonies in Africa, the source of raw material for its sagging industries, remain an issue.

The genesis of Franco-African corruption tango

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t must be said that two events that shaped the modern French policy and strategy to European and African affairs are the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. That is, three years before the balkanization of Africa, and the emergence of Britain as the world’s dominant naval power and Europe’s leading imperial power. According to Dr. Casmir Ani, an international Affairs analysts: "While this did not eliminate French’s naval power or diminish its imperial status, it profoundly constrained it, at least, given the influence of Britain and Germany before the First World War." He said: "France could not afford to challenge Britain any more but had to find a basis for accommodation, thereby, ending several centuries of hostility and distrust". In Africa where France, Germany and Britain were in contest for the soul of Africa, it had to adopt a less aggressive policy of assimilation and association as the cardinal thrusts of its colonial policy in Africa. Under these policies, it tried to clone

Continues on page 47

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The murky tales of France and corrupt African despots Continues from page 46

Black Frenchmen or minions whom it would use to perpetuate its dominion of the continent.

For all the thesis and arguments that have been generated by the Walter Rodney’s seminal work entitled How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, the continent has not stopped producing leaders whose pre-occupation with power is to further impoverish their citizens. It is also interesting to question the role of Sarkozy in ordering French paratroopers to take out Mr. Laurent Gbagbo in Cote D’Ivoire where the former Ivorian president had refused to relinquish power after he was voted out by his countrymen.

Gbagbo felt he had the support of the Ivorian troops and the support of some ECOWAS leaders who had no better credentials on democratic norms than him and resisted global pleadings to hand over power to Alhassan Outarra.

The situation in Cote D’Ivoire was dangerous as the country which has been involved in political crisis inspired by power struggle was heading towards another phase of the conflict that would have worsened the fragile security in the ECOWAS sub-region. Even as the West African sub-region braced up for the scourge of terrorism and growing spate of insecurity, from Cote d’Ivoire to Mali, Chad to Niger, Senegal to Mauritania, Hollande and his countrymen must take a second look at French-Africa policy, especially its eternal capacity to produce puppets who continue to prosper Paris at the expense of their own people.

The crisis rocking the E u r o zone countries will be the main pre-occupation of Hollande as he has to chart a path fundamentally different from Sarkozy. This means placing less emphasis on cuts in government spending and pushing for recreating the industrial competitiveness of France in the global market.

Hollande would want to reposition French auto industries,

focus on areas of the economy that will reverse the neo-liberal policies that the country has gone through since 1995. The fate of African migrants will be crucial as the stress of these changes will unleash on Africa and its people.

France, like other industrialised countries, continues to deal with African countries as peons rather than treat them as partners. The renaissance Africa that we have long expected will come from African leaders and that will be when they wake up from there Rip Van Winkle slumber. Some serving African leaders and their families are facing investigation in Paris over cases of embezzlement, money laundering and acquisition of vast assets in France, including bank accounts.

The rot in French politics

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he French public is becoming embarrassed by the presence of stolen African wealth in their country. Paris, the French capital, was always popular with high-spending dictators from Africa. From the likes of Paul Biya of Cameroon, the clan of Gabon’s late leader, Omar Bongo and its current leader, his son Ali Bongo, and the President of the Republic of the Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso and his family are accused of having assets in France worth $195 million. Sassou Nguesso, at 68, is famous for his dress sense and is accused of having spent more than €652,000 on clothes in 2010. The Sassou Nguesso clan is alleged to have 24 properties in France in their own name. This includes 112 bank accounts and various luxury cars.

In Paris, a mansion on Rue de la Baume has come to symbolise the wealth of Gabon’s late leader Omar Bongo. A French police preliminary report claimed that the late Gabonese president and his close relatives owned 39 properties in France. It also said they had 70 French bank accounts and at least nine luxury cars in France. Bongo’s son, Ali Bongo, was elected President in 2009 after

his father ’s death. The list is endless. Cases of embezzlement, moneylaundering and misuse of public funds by African leaders have been ignored by French leaders. Public funds are directly siphoned from the coffers of African states to France, to the detriment of millions of African populations who are left to live in poverty. The complicity of the French establishment in corruption in Africa is legendary. Under a system known as ‘’francafrique’’, kickbacks, receipt of prized gifts from despots from its former colonies in Africa have been an integral part of Paris’s foreign policy towards its former colonies.

The scandal of the ill-gotten gains

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he allegations of corruption and the collusion of the French political elite is the central theme of a new book

by Thomas Hofnung and Xavier Harel, entitled: The Scandal of the Ill-Gotten Gains. The investigative journalists have sent shockwaves across the French establishment as they revealed how African leaders have regularly been giving briefcases of cash to French politicians to gain protection. The ongoing enquiry in France on the origins of the Obiang, Bongo and Sassou-Nguesso clans’ fortunes led to a police raid on the Obiang properties and the seizure of possessions.

According to Dr. Kolawole Aina: "The investigation of the corruption of African leaders and the complicity of the French political class is the handiwork of anticorruption non-government organisations which will be a long legal battle and illustrates the extent the Western powers could go to impoverish Africa".

In the case of Gabon, Bongo junior and close relatives in France are said to own 39 properties, at least nine luxury cars and operate 70 bank accounts, states one French police report.

French police say jointly the Obiang, Bongo and Sassou-Nguesso clans have assets worth •160million in France.

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AWC: Dede, Nkwocha make Falcons squad S

UPER Falcons’ first choice goalkeeper and captain, Precious Dede leads the 20 other players named by manager, Kadiri Ikhana for the 2012 AWC qualifying first leg fixture against Zimbabwe in Harare on May 27.

Others who made the cut are the Europe-based trio of reigning African Footballer of the Year, Perpetua Nkwocha, Rita Chikwelu and defender, Onome Ebi.

GTBank Heritage champs aim high

BY SOLOMON NWOKE

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NWAR-Ul-Islam College Agege are talking tough ahead of the Guaranty Trust Bank newly introduced Super Cup Championship for Secondary Schools in Lagos after beating King College in the final of the GTBank Heritage Cup season one lheld at Campos Square, Lagos.

In the final game which went into extra time, it

Full List

Precious Dede (capt), Tochukwu Oluchi, Gloria Ofoegbu, Ngozi Ebere, Chidinma Okoro, Onyinyechi Ohadugha, Evelyn Nwabuiku, Onome Ebi, Joy Jegede, Gladys Akpa, Regina Macfancy, Stella Mbachu (asst capt), Akudo Iwuagwu, Perpetua Nkwocha, Amenze Aighewi, Abosede Olukayode, Desire Oparanozie, Shola Oyewusi, Rita Chikwelu, Gloria Iroka, Esther Sunday

JUBILATION... Super Falcons celebrating a goal.

Nigeria upset Switzerland at Wheelchair Tennis World Cup

BY JOHN EGBOKHAN

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FTER the opening day 1-2 loss to Germany at the ngoing Wheelchair Tennis World Cup in South Korea, Nigeria yesterday pulled

off the biggest upset of the day when it defeated fourth seeds Switzerland 2-1 in World Group 2.

The Group D tie, began with Nigeria’s Wasiu Yusuf defeating Yann Avanthey in quick sets of

Lagos FA backs Greensprings Camp

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HE first annual Greensprings Kanu Football Camp has received the official support of the Lagos State Football Association.

Speaking during the official launch of the camp recently, the FA ViceChairman, Tade Azeez lauded the school for initiating such laudable project, saying this would go a long way in complimenting their efforts at unearthing talents from schools.

Azeez, who represent-

ed the State Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Wahid Oshodi, believes the involvement of Super Eagles former captain, Nwankwo Kanu would help to drive the project.

“I want to commend Greensprings for helping us to do our job. This kind of initiative is a laudable especially coming from a school like Greensprings.

"For us at the FA, we will support the camp with some of our coach-

Nku to hit Calabar for Athletics Championships

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ORMER Nigeria sprints champion and reigning All Africa Games 100m record holder at 11.03 seconds, Mercy Nku has hailed the giant strides Cross River state governor,senator Liyel Imoke has taken in the area of sports development in the state.

Nku,unarguably the greatest track and field athlete Cross River state has ever produced is thrilled that senator Imoke has not only made Cross River state the destination of sort for sports in Nigeria but also by his sports development programme which is hinged on the return to school sports where education and sports can be com-

bined to produce truly great and responsible champions. ’’There is no denying the fact that my governor (Senator Imoke) has reawakened interest in sports in Cross River state and the impact his visionary intervention will have on the society and the economy will be ernormous.He is making use of sport and pyhsical activity opportunities for the development of the state in particular and Nigeria in general’’,says Nku who is on record as the second Nigerian nay African woman to run in the finals of the 100m event at the prestigious IAAF World Championships.

es, while we are also looking into future partnership with the school,” he said.

Cross River schools athletics meet begins

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HE 3rd Cross River State Primary/Secondary Schools Track and Field Championship began yesterday at the U.J Esuene Stadium Calabar with over 1000 kids from all the local governments in the State participating.

The five-day event was started in 2009 with the aim of producing quality athletes that will represent Cross River State and Nigerian in local and international meets. Some of the athletes discovered in previous meets represented Cross River at the last National Sports Festival in Port Harcourt.

“This year we are hoping to see more talents discovered. Already some of the athletes are making impact in the local scene.

“For instance at the last National Sports Festival in Port Harcourt our athletes made a good showing in the sprints and relays. And they are just under-17. We are continuously discovering and training young athletes with this programme,” stated former 400m world record holder Lee Evans.

6-4, 6-1.

Nigeria began the competition with the lowest combined ranking of the 12 teams in World Group 2, but came close to securing both singles rubbers before Daniel Pellegrina edged out Alex Adewale, the only mem-

ber of the Nigerian team with a world ranking, in straight sets of 6-4, 7-5.

But Nigeria would not be denied a famous victory against the seeded Swiss as the duo of Adewale and Yusuf won the crucial doubles rubber in two sets of 7-5, 6-2.

took the beautiful strike from Anwar Ul Islam’s Abdulazeez Azeez to dislodge Kings College in the dying minutes.

Their win fetched them a trophy, cash prize of N750,000 and the ticket to play the winner of the Principals’ Cup in the Super Cup Competition at a yet to be named venue on June 2.

Kings College went home with the sum of N400,000 for their efforts, while Saint Gregory College were consoled with the sum of N200,000 for the third place after beating Answar U-Deen College Surulere 3-1.

Speaking after the win, Captain of Anwar Ul Islam, Francis Ifeanyi Ofoegbu was so ecstatic for the sweet revenge against Kings College, who stopped them in one of their meetings through a penalty shootout.

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Drogba: Torres is my successor D

IDIER Drogba has described Fernando Torres as “the future” of Chelsea after the Ivorian striker announced he will be leaving the club next month.

Drogba, who confirmed his exit from Stamford Bridge just four days after slotting home the winning penalty to seal the Blues’ first Champions League crown in Munich, says he “didn’t understand” why he and Torres were not partnered up front together more often.

Torres, signed for £50m from Liverpool in January 2011, has failed to hold down a regular starting spot in his first full season in west Lon-

don and earlier this week said he wants reassurances over his role at the club from Chelsea’s owners.

But Drogba, 34, is convinced the Spain striker will stay at Stamford Bridge and has backed him to shine next season. “It’s been a difficult season for him but he showed in a few games that he’s the man and next season is going to be his season,” Drogba told the BBC. “We have a very good relationship and we didn’t understand why we didn’t play together more, but that’s the past.

“Torres is the future here at Stamford Bridge.”

Governor’s Cup Continued from BP Government College Ughelli with the Principals of all public schools in Delta State yesterday.

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan had appointed Professor Muoboghare chairman of a committee to revive soccer in secondary schools in Delta State and in his brief response during the inauguration the commissioner assured the Governor that “there would be no mercenary players in this competition.”

Professor Muoboghare warned the principals with these words: “During the inauguration, I promised the governor that we will never have mercenary players in this competition. By so doing, I put my job on the line.

I, therefore, today, put your jobs on the line. Any principal who fields a mercenary player in the competition will go. His or her job will go. We must not fail. Reviving sports in secondary schools is something dear to the governor and I charge you all to see this as a great challenge that we must all accomplish.

If this succeeds we would be building a great future for our children. We have to make it succeed. Today, we hear of the Drogbas and Adebayos.

Before,we heard about the Kanus and Okoachas.

They all started somewhere, from schools. We can revive sports in schools and do it well without cheating. And you must learn to win or lose without cheating.

The bad thing about cheating is that it denies athletes the chance to be identified.”

He said that fixtures will soon be made and that schools should start practicing for the competition. Private Schools, will also register for the competition that will be compulsory to secondary schools in Delta State.

The commissioner said further: “Another important point is that Principals and Games Masters will have a lot of explanation to make if their students fight. We must compete with the spirit of sportsmanship and abhor violence. If we have to engage the students in sports to develop them and create opportunities for those who have talent in sports, violence must not be a barrier.”

P r o f e s s o r Muoboghare’s speech received an ovation but that did not stop some principals from raising issues that would enable them to compete well in the Governor’s Cup. The schools will need funds or buses to convey their soccer teams to match venues and back. They will need funds to buy kits like jerseys and boots. There will also be medicals.

The commissioner assured them that the issues will be addressed in due course.

The Governor ’s Cup will kick off from next academic season and the exact date will be announced by Professor Muoboghare later.

Arsenal axe Almunia, six others

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RSENAL are to release seven players from their contracts this summer, including goalkeeper Manuel Almunia.

Almunia, 35, signed for Arsenal from Celta Vigo in 2004 but has struggled for a consistent first-team role at the club since the switch, a cause not helped by a number of high-profile errors which led to criticism from some fans.

During the 2011-12 campaign he was loaned out to West Ham for a

•Torres

Mourinho is the best — Benzema

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OSE Mourinho’s decision to commit his future to Real Madrid for another four years has been welcomed by for-

ward Karim Benzema, who has followed teammate Cristiano Ronaldo in praising the coach and describing the record-

breaking Portuguese as the “best coach in the world.

“He is the best coach in the world. He’s given us things that we didn’t have. I’m happy that he’s continuing. We are making progress thanks to him, we’ve won the league.”

•Almunia month, making four Championship appearances for the Hammers, before returning to Emirates Stadium.

Almunia failed to be called upon by manager Arsene Wenger following his comeback and will subsequently leave the club on June 30, when his current contract expires. The shot-stopper, who made a total of 175 appearances for the Gunners, is joined by George Brislen-Hall, Gavin Hoyte, Sean McDermott, Rhys Murphy, James Campbell and Jeffrey Monakana in leaving Arsenal.

FIFA lists Edibe for 2014 World Cup

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HERE was joy in Nigerian referees circles last week when world football governing body, FIFA, listed Nigerian referee Peter Edibe on the provisional list for the FIFA world cup 2014 matches in Brazil.

•Benzema

Eagles play Peru Continued from BP qualifier for the 2013 Nations Cup on June 17 in Calabar.

Keshi said that he hoped to perfect his plans for the aforementioned games with the game against Peru.

Speaking before their trip to Lima at the weekend, the former Eagles captain, said that the shape of things to come in June will be known when the mostly homebased players step on the field to play the Peruvian national team, who are using the game to shape up for the South America qualifying series for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“This match is very important because we are going to know our strength as we head into next month’s World Cup

qualification series. This game will enable me to know how well these players have learnt and are ready for the tasks ahead”, added Keshi.

And despite the rigorous experience that the team suffered to get to their destination, Keshi, speaking yesterday, was still confident that the team would acquit themselves well against their hosts.

“We will do well against Peru, that is why I have told them to take enough rest and tune their minds to the game at hand and forget the rigours of the trip”, he said.

Keshi said that the country’s absence at the last Africa Cup of Nations jointly hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon has added an extra pressure on the team to qualify for the 2013 Nations Cup and 2014 World

Cup. “Nigerians are still sad that we did not qualify for last Nations Cup. We owe them tickets to the next Nations Cup and World Cup. The journey begins in June and we are almost set”, said Keshi.

Chairman Referees Committee of the NFF Mr Suleiman Muazu said the inclusion of Edibe in the list is good news for Nigeria. Also speaking, Mr Linus Mba, FIFA referees instructor saw the listing of Edibe as the culmination of hard work adding that he will have to work hard to sustain the current rating.

FIFA has listed 52 referees and 104 assistant referees in the provisional list from all over the world. 14 countries supply the 21 referees from Africa made up of seven world cup groups of three referees each.

Eagles tackle Peru Continued from BP

picked the time that suits them and he expects one of NFF broadcast partners; African Independent Television (AIT), to transmit the game live.

There already seem to be a frenzy about the friendly by Lima residents as quite a sizeable number of them came out to catch a glimpse of the Nigerian side when they arrived the airport, on arrival at the hotel and during their meals. That has

expectedly put some burden on Stephen Keshi and his crew.

The coach however, takes consolation in the fact that the players know themselves well and it won’t be difficult adjusting to play as a team after just one training session. “We will do well against Peru, that is why I have told them to take enough rest and tune their minds to the game at hand and forget the rigours of the trip”, he said.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012

— Details inside

Eagles play Peru with World Cup in mind

BY JOHN EGBOKHAN

C

OACH Stephen Keshi has said that tomorrow’s international friendly match between the Super Eagles and the La Blanquiroja of Peru at the Lima National Stadium would serve as an appetizer of what to expect from the team in next

•Keshi TODAY'S

0

month’s 2014 World Cup and 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

With the clock counting down quickly to the busy month of June, which sees the Eagles play two World Cup qualification

matches against Namibia on June 3 in Calabar, before they travel to Malawi the following week. They also host Rwanda to a second leg

Continues on page 55

Governor’s Cup: Delta to sack Principals if...

A

NY school Princi pal whose school hires a player for the Governor’s Cup will be fired.

This blunt message was communicated to over 450 secondary school principals by the commis-

Mourinho pens new Real deal J

OSE MOURINHO has signed a new contract at Real Madrid that runs to 2016. The Special One, who had been linked with a summer return to Chelsea, penned an initial fouryear deal when he took over at Madrid in May 2010. But the 49-year-old has agreed fresh terms with a two-year extension.

Mourinho led Madrid to the Copa del Rey crown in his first season in charge and has just guided the club to their first La Liga title since 2008. The Portugese coach is also one of only three men to have won the Champions League with separate teams having led Porto to the crown in 2004 and Inter in 2010.

PUZZLES

sioner of Basic Education in Delta State, Professor Patrick Muobohgare in an interactive meeting in

Continues on page 55

Eagles tackle Peru tomorrow (2a.m)

N

IGERIANS itching to know when their darling national team will play the international friendly against Peru on Wednesday, can now heave a sigh of relief and probably plan ahead for the game which has been scheduled for 8pm Peru time, which is about 2:00a.m Nigerian time (Thursday) morning.

Eagles Secretary Dayo Enebi, who was in the advance party for the friendly said the host

Continues on page 55

STAYING PUT ... Jose Mourinho YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

Across 2 Fragment (5) 7 Shout (4) 8 Take (6) 9 Cede (5) 11 Through (3) 13 Owns (3) 18 Dregs (4) 16 Antelope (3) 18 Admonish (4) 19 Slim (7) 20 Employer (4) 22 Haul (4) 23 Walker (7) 25 Detail (4) 27 Spike (3) 28 Genuine (4) 30 Fasten (3) 31 Owing (3) 33 Go in (5) 36 Part (6) 37 Fever (4) 38 Fair (5)

QUICK CROSSWORD

Down 1 Skirmish (3) 2 Cunning (3) 3 Fish-eggs (3) 4 Cushion (3) 5 Expert (3) 6 Javelin (3) 10 Thoroughfare (4) 11 Applause (7) 12 Harassed (7) 14 Nestle (7) 16 Sphere (5) 17 Beneath (3) 18 Married (3) 21 Butt (3) 24 Grass (4) 26 Shy (5) 29 Presage (5) 32 Smack (3) 33 Fish (3) 34 Label (3) 35 Rodent (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS

How to Play Sudoku

Across: 1, Treat 5, Severe 8, Mason 10, Down: 2, Run 3, Amazed 4, Tan 5, Snub 6, Infant 11, Used 14, Berate 15, Revered 18, Veered 7, Extend 9, Steeped 12, Sew 13, Date Wet 19, Per 21, Dead 23, Rebel 24, Road 16, Echo 17, Debit 20, Reduced 22, Also 24, 27, Did 29, Met 31, Tuition 32, Priced 34, Rapier 25, Amid 26, Decide 28, String 30, Dine 35, Elicit 38, Laden 39, Repeal 40, Ten 33, Dell 36, Lea 37, Ice Agree e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

THE VIGILANTE

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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