Peoples Daily, Friday, August 5, 2016. Edition.

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Friday, August 5, 2016/ Zul-Qaadah 2, 1437 AH

5 killed in soldiers, community clash in Niger

. . . putting the people first

@pmlonline

Ganduje approves N677.

5m for students’ scholarship

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peoplesdailyng

UK jails Nigerian lady 22 years for child trafficking >> pg 3

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Vol. 23 No. 60 N150

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Military dismisses new Boko Haram leadership lSays it’s inconsequential

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Members of the conference of Speakers of state assemblies on a solidarity visit to the Zamfara state Governor, Abdulaziz Yari yesterday

Jonathan moves to resolve Sheriff, Makarfi feud

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843 Days after:

Budget padding: APC bans Jibrin from further pAGE Comments << pAGE 2 >>3

Will the abducted Chibok schoolgirls ever be rescued?

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

News

CONTENTS News 2-10 Editorial 11 Op.Ed 12 Letters 13 Politics 15-18 Business

19-22

Stockwatch

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S/Report 24-25 Islam

Budget padding: APC bars Jibrin from further remarks

By Umar Muhammad Puma

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he All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged former chairman House Committee on Appropriation, Rep Abdulmumuni Jibrin, to henceforth desist from talking to press or issuing public statements in regards to the lingering budget scandal at the Green Chamber.

In a letter addressed to Jibrin and signed BY the APC Deputy National Chairman, North, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, yesterday ordered Jibrin, to henceforth avoid issuing public

statements on the matter.

Jibrin had accused Speaker Yakubu Dogara and three others of alleged involved in the padding of the 2016 budget.

“As you are aware, the party and indeed the government have not been happy over recent developments in the House of Representatives over the issue of the 2016 budget. We found it embarrassing to have to deal with another new phenomenon you tagged ‘budget padding’.

“However, I write to thank you for your cooperation in honouring our intervention and

your readiness to afford the party the chance to handle the House of Representatives budget padding crisis.

“Arising from the series of meetings we held with you over the subject matter, the National Working Committee had decided to request you to henceforth avoid issuing public statement on this matter. This however includes statements through the social media or other means of transmitting an opinion on the matter to the public, as the party is now looking into it towards finding possible solution.”

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I’ll win again -Gov. Bello Page 15

Int’l 27-29 Metro

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S/World

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Digest 36 Sports 41 Columnist 48

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•Mrs Agnes Uloko, widow of the former Chief Commissioner, Public Complaints Commission, Justice George Uloko (2nd l); first son, Mr Linus (1st l); former Chief Justice of Nasarawa state, Justice Ubangari Ahmed (3rd r); other former Chief Justices of the state, Justice Badamasi Maina (2nd r) and Justice James Ataku, during the visit by the North-central Judges to the deceased’s famil, yesterday in Abuja.

Saraki lauds UNICEF’s decision to resume aid work in Northeast

By Ali Abare Abubakar

S

enate President, Bukola Saraki, has commended the pledge of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to continue providing relief assistance to millions in the Northeast, despite last Thursday’s attack on a Its relief convoy that left two aid workers, one contractor and two soldiers injured.

In a statement by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Yusuph Olaniyonu, the Senate President also called on the Security agencies and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami to investigate the allegations that some aid deliverables meant for the internally displaced persons are being diverted by officials in charge of distributing to the people.

The Senate President applauded UNICEF for not turning its back on the troubled zone, which has witnessed increased cases of malnutrition - primarily amongst women and children - since the Boko Haram insurgency in the region led to suspension of agricultural activities, destroyed markets, and hindered access to clean water.

“UNICEF’s decision to press on in the North East despite Thursday’s attack is truly commendable. On our part, the Nigerian government must

back the resolve of our international partners with greater coordination platforms in terms of security for aid workers and thorough mandate mapping exercises to ensure that we are meeting the needs of those in crisis areas”, he said.

Saraki further reiterated his call for an immediate review of the security situation in the North East by the relevant authorities, and urged domestic and international partners to step up humanitarian intervention projects in the region to save more lives.

“It is a difficult situation, whichever way we look at it,” he said, “however, its situations like these that should prompt aid agencies on the ground to scale up their activities and coordination in order to save thousands of lives.”

With recent reports of aid relief deliverables being diverted by some officials in charge of ensuring the distribution of materials to the IDPs, Saraki urged the Security agencies to immediately set up a team of crack detectives to investigate the allegations while the Attorney General should ensure the prosecution of individuals found culpable in the misappropriation of relief items.

“Such reports are totally unacceptable. The IGP must immediately take action and bring

all those that have carted away relief materials meant for the people of the North East to book.”

Late last week, unidentified assailants attacked a humanitarian convoy that was on its way to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital from Bama. The convoy included staff from UNICEF, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Following this attack, UNICEF announced that it would be temporarily suspending “humanitarian assistance missions pending review of the security situation” in the North East.

In recent months, the organisation has repeatedly issued warnings that of the 244,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition in Borno State alone, one in five would die if they do not receive the appropriate treatment.

Last month, Saraki led a delegation to IDP camps in Maiduguri, Borno State where he pledged that the Senate would work on expediting the passage of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) Bill as well as look into the issue of malnutrition and shortage of medical supplies in the North East.

The NEDC Bill aims to create a multi-state platform for the coordination of relief and donations to the zone.

VC MAUTECH seeks pact with NSE on devt From Umar Dankano, Yola

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he Nigerian society of Engineers,Adamawa state chapter has been urged to partner with the school of Engineering and Engineering Technology of the Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola (Mautech) with a view to enriching the technical aspect of the profession.

Deputy Vice Chancellor,DVC(Acadamics) of Mautech Yola,Professor Shehu Iya made the call Thursday at his office when the Executives of the Society(NSE) in the state paid him a courtesy call over his election as the new Deputy Vice Chancellor Acadamics of the university Engineering is a family of development by good thinking or good work.

Professor Iya who expressed appreciations for the show of concern and solidarity by the society maintained that the development of Engineering is central to all practitioners noting that it has become eminent for all hands to be on deck in contributing to move our societies forward in all aspects so that the people can appreciate the profession the more.

He told his visitors the underlining of any technology university globally is vibrate Engineers thereby advising the society to patronize the university’s yearly hatching of fresh engineers so that they can be register as members of the society after organizing an induction program for them while after they become members automatically.

Iya also called on the media to assist in publicizing the activities of the society in the state so that both the members and public will know what is happening in the society.

Earlier in his address, the state chairman of the society(NSE),Engineer Abdullahi Faruq Tarfa described the appointment of professor Iya as putting a round peg in to a round hole saying is a plus to Engineering family in the state and country at large.

Engineer Tarfa said the Society is proudly acknowledging the election of one of it’s own to this university exalted position pledging to do all it takes for professor Iya to succeed .

He prayed to the Almighty God to guide and protect the DVC to a favorable destination at the end of his tenure so as to be a change agent for development to humanity.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

News Ag News Editor Ese Awhotu FG revokes NDCC licence for Ganduje approves diverting explosives N677. 5m

By Ese Awhotu with agency report

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he Federal Government yesterday said it has blacklisted the Nigerian Development and Construction Company (NDCC), an importer and seller of explosives in Koko, Delta State, for allegedly diverting explosives.

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, who gave the blacklisting order said the company’s business premises should immediately be sealed off,

in addition to the withdrawal of its explosive distribution licences.

A statement from the minister’s office yesterday, said that the action by the government followed the outcome of investigations by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), which revealed that the company was involved in illegal diversion of about 9,000 kilogramme of Nitro-glycerine explosives and 16,420 pieces of electrical detonators from its magazines between 2015 and 2016.

The statement warned manufacturers, importers, sellers and end users of explosives in the country to desist from unprofessional activities, including the sale, procurement, storage and use of explosives in line with the provisions of the Explosives Act of 1964 , the Explosives Regulations of 1967 and other extant policy directives.

The Nigerian government has in recent years tightened its control on the distribution of explosives, as

it fights a brutal insurgency by Boko Haram.

The group has killed thousands of people using suicide and car bombs since 2009.

Experts also believe that explosives, used legally by construction firms, are easily sourced by militants in the Niger Delta where oil and gas installations are frequently attacked.

It is however unclear whether the decision to blacklist NDCC had to do with such security threat.

Gov. Kashim shettima of borno consoling an orphan, during governor’s visit to bama internally displaced persons (idps) camp, yesterday in borno. Photo: nan

UK Court jails Nigerian trafficker 22

T

he United Kingdom’s Isleworth Crown Court on Thursday sentenced a Nigerian woman, Franca Asemota, to 22 years in jail after she was found guilty of attempting to traffic Nigerian girls through Heathrow Airport to work as sex workers in brothels across Europe.

Ms. Asemota, 38, was found guilty on Wednesday of a 12-count charge that includes conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual exploitation, trafficking persons outside of the UK for sexual exploitation, and assisting unlawful immigration.

She was part of a criminal network that trafficked girls, boys and women from Nigeria to Europe using threats to guarantee their compliance.

Ms. Asemota, who was identified as a trafficking suspect in 2012, fled from Italy to Nigeria when some of her co-conspirators were arrested by Immigration Enforcement investigators.

She spent time in Europe before the National Crime Agency (NCA) tracked her down to Nigeria.

In an operation co-ordinated by the NCA, she was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Benin City in March 2015.

Once her identity was confirmed, Ms. Asemota was extradited back to the UK in January this year.

After a four-week trial, the Isleworth Crown Court found her guilty of conspiracy to traffic for sexual exploitation and assisting unlawful immigration.

The head of the Immigration Enforcement crime team, David Fairclough, described Ms. Asemota as the “lynchpin of a trafficking ring which targeted vulnerable young women in Nigeria, promising them a brighter future working in Europe”.

Mr. Fairclough said it however became clear soon that what she claimed to be doing was far different, as the victims, some who were as young as 13, were told they would be sold into prostitution.

“Asemota travelled with the girls in order to threaten them and keep them in line. Trafficking is a despicable crime, as this case shows. We work closely with our law enforcement colleagues internationally to identify the criminal gangs responsible and put them before the courts,” Mr. Fairclough said.

The head of the NCA’s UK Human Trafficking Centre, Martin French, said: “Franca Asemota and her criminal network took advantage

of these vulnerable young women in some of the worst ways possible. They promised them a better life but in reality treated them as nothing more than a commodity to be sold into slavery.

“Asemota thought she could evade arrest by fleeing Europe and hiding in Nigeria. But the NCA’s partnerships give us global reach and mean international borders are no barrier to justice.

“This conviction is the result of many years of dogged investigation and co-operation between the NCA, Immigration Enforcement and our law enforcement colleagues both at home and overseas.”

Ms. Asemota’s gang targeted teenage girls in remote Nigerian villages, some of whom had never left their home area before, deceiving them that educational work awaited them in Europe.

“The girls would stay with her before leaving, and in interviews with specialist officers from the NCA’s Vulnerable Persons Team many of the girls told how they referred to her as Auntie Franca.

“Asemota travelled with the girls on flights from Lagos, Nigeria, to Heathrow, between August 2011 and May 2012, with the intention

of reaching France. They remained airside during the transit at Heathrow so were not subject to Border Force passport checks.

“However, the trafficking attempts were prevented when French Authorities identified the girl’s false documents on arrival in France.

When they were then returned to the UK, Border Force officers carried out further investigations and the case was quickly referred to Immigration Enforcement criminal investigations.”

Five of Asemota’s victims gave evidence against her during the trial. One of them was rescued from prostitution in Montpellier, France, during a joint operation by Immigration Enforcement and the NCA. The cases were part of Operation Hudson, an Immigration Enforcement-led investigation targeting a number organised crime groups suspected of trafficking young women, via London, for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Two other persons were convicted in 2013 as part of Operation Hudson.

Odosa Usiobaifu, of Enfield, London, and David Osawaru, of Benin City, were sentenced to 14 years and nine years respectively.

for students’ scholarship From Edwin Olofu, Kano

K

ano state government has approved payment of N677, 589, 092 as scholarship allowances to 54, 862 of its sponsored students in various universities across the country, for 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 academic sessions.

The amount accrued as a result of non-payment of scholarships to internal students by the immediate past administration in the state.

The State Commissioner for Information, Comrade Muhammad Garba, made this known while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the state weekly Executive Council meeting presided over

by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.

He said the council took the decision because of the gravity of the matter and its potential on impacting negatively on the education sector of the state.

It could be recalled that last week, the council approved for payment of N136, 558,100 being outstanding balance in respect of Kano students studying at American University,Yola Adamawa state, with an assurance to parents and students that the Ganduje administration would not allow their studies to be stopped midstream.

Prior to this development, the Council approved N115, 400, 477. 6 for payment of upkeep and other allowances, for three months, in respect of 459 students on the state government scholarship, pursuing various degree programmes in China, India, Cyprus, Egypt, Uganda and Sudan.

In the same vein, Ganduje adminstration consented to release N138 million for settlement of outstanding school fees in respect of 89 students sponsored by the immediate past administration in the state, at Mideast Aviation Academy, Jordan.

Also approved is the sum of N389. 3 million, for 377 Kano sponsored students at Bells University of Technology Otta, Ogun state for 2014 -2015 and 2015 – 2016 academic sessions, which were hitherto unpaid.

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Villascope

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

with Lawrence Olaoye e-mail: lawrenceolaoye8@gmail.com Text: 08036236703 (SMS only)

Ogoni clean-up and Buhari’s determination to right the wrongs in N/Delta P resident Muhammadu Buhari yesterday inaugurated the Board of Trustees and Governing Council of the Council of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, otherwise known as Ogoni CleanUp. With the inauguration, the process of revamping the degraded environment in the oil rich community has begun.

The hitherto dejected people of the community, who had cried hoarse for recognition after the devastation done their land by the activities of the oil majors, particularly Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), will now have a sigh of relief.

The final resolve of the government to implement the report of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) submitted in 2011 only goes to indicate that those years of struggle for attention by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni (MOSOP), in which that Niger Delta legend, Sir Ken Saro Wiwa, lost his life, was never in vain.

The exercise, which is going to be in two phases of five years apiece, would require about $1 billion but it was learnt that some stakeholders in the oil and gas industry operating in the community, have made available certain amount of dollars as take off grant.

Though the fund made available may be inadequate, it is advisable for the board to be as prudent and transparent in their activities so that some other donors may be encouraged to invest in the rehabilitation program.

With this development, the community would now have been convinced beyond reasonable doubt that its people are indeed part of the Nigerian society.

The resolve of the Buhari’s administration to engage in the Ogoni clean-up exercise has become instructive in the struggle for development in the troubled Niger Delta.

Admittedly, successive administrations in the country have succeeded in neglecting the region which produces over 70 percent of the nation’s resources, but gestures from the incumbent administration is demonstrative of a government willing to address the injustice of the past.

Senator Magnus Abe, who accompanied those members of the Board for the inauguration succinctly put the issue in the right perspective when asked on the guarantee for security for those who would work in

the hitherto hostile Ogoniland during the clean up exercise when he said “We saw that the Ogoni representation in the board and governing council was quite extensive. We have a lot to do in terms of not only making the place conducive for this work to go on; educating our people on why we have to make the place conducive for experts of all shades and countries to be able to

come in and work there.

“But I think the whole of Nigeria also has something to learn from what has happened.

The oil industry itself must reform its ways so that they don’t continue to behave in the way they were behaving that led us to where we are today.

“Our own regulators too must also up their game because if our regulators were actually

regulators, I don’t think they would allow the oil companies to take this country to where it is now in terms of environmental impact of oil exploration and we as a country too, we need to also up our game. We can’t have disputes about politics and then blow up pipelines in our own communities,destroying the environment,destroying our future because of politics.

“We must find alternative ways of communicating our displeasure to the country and to the powers that be.

We should actually be the fairer country so that people don’t even need to get so angry that they need to start blowing everything up. So, I think everybody in the country has something to take out of this.” A word for everyone, you may say.

President Muhammadu Buhari with members and Elders of the Ogoniland after the inauguration of the Governing Council and Board of Trustees for the Ogoni Clean-up at the State House, yesterday in Abuja. PHOTO: STATE HOUSE

Understanding Jonathan’s peace overtures

I

mmediate past President Goodluck Jonathan visited his successor within the week. His visit has succeeded in putting to rest several speculations around the supposed sour relationship between him and his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari.

Prior to this visit, the media was awash with insinuations that the ex-President was under watch and had been so tainted and indicted in the ongoing probe into some financial malfeasances under his administration.

Jonathan did not only have secret discussions with the President, he told bewildered newsmen that he had been paying the President nocturnal visits to discuss state matters.

He said that he was ready and willing to keep the tradition of consultation with the President on national and international issues as he similarly opened his doors to his predecessors while in office.

This declaration laid to rest the fears that there may have been lack of communication between Buhari and Jonathan with its consequential effects of discontinuity in government policies.

The volcanic eruptions of violence in the Niger Delta spearheaded by the dreaded Niger Delta Avengers with avowed determination to ground the nation’s economy would be doused with the open rapport between Jonathan and Buhari.

Those boys in the creeks, who were deceived into their nefarious activities against the state on the strength of reacting to Jonathan’s loss at the poll in the 2015 Presidential election, would have seen through the lies as the former President, on whose side they thought they were fighting by causing those havocs, has openly endorsed Buhari’s leadership.

Jonathan in his interaction with newsmen called for the unity

of the country saying the agitation for fragmentation would not only be dangerous but will succeed in sinking the recognition accorded the largest black nation in the world.

Asked about his efforts in resolution of the Niger Delta crisis, Jonathan said “it’s not just about me but about all the traditional rulers, elders and opinion leaders that are of the Ijaw ethnic nationality. We have been in touch to see that peace reigns in the country.

“Those of who that have followed my talks when I was here, my emphasis is that we need a United Nigeria and I always emphasise that Nigeria is great not just about the oil,so many countries produce more oil than Nigeria nobody notices them.

“We are great because of our size; the human resources we have; the diversity we have. If we fragmentize the country into small components we will be forgotten by the World.

That has been my focal position and without peace there cannot be development anywhere in the world.

We are all working collectively to see that issues are resolved.”

Jonathan’s commitment to peace, beginning from the epochal call to Buhari even when the electoral umpire had yet to announce the final figure of the 2015 Presidential poll, has continued to earn local and international respect.

His latest visit has helped in no small measure in cementing the unity of this country just as the peace declaration is expected to be an elixir in the ongoing efforts to douse the tension in the Niger Delta.

Those militants in the trenches, fighting against the nation’s socioeconomic progress in the name of avenging Jonathan’s defeat, should take a cue from Jonathan’s patriotic disposition to national unity and growth.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

News

Military dismisses Boko Haram new leadership

By Ese Awhotu with agency report

T

he Nigerian military yesterday dismissed the appointment of a new leader for the Boko Haram in the West Africa region by the ISIS, saying it was inconsequential.

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), said the announcement of a new Boko Haram leader is irrelevant and inconsequential to the military’s operation in the north east.

The Director of Defence Information, DHQ, Rabe Abubakar, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday that the military remained focused on its operation in the north east.

He said the announcement of a new leader for the group was only aimed at seeking attention and relevance.

“As far as we are concerned, what Boko Haram or their cohorts are doing is of no relevance to our operations against them.

“We are just focused on clearing the remnants of the insurgents that are scattered around.

“What they are doing is to seek relevance and to tell the world that they are still around whereas they have been decimated.

“Their latest move is the antics of a fading group and I believe that in the shortest time they will be history,” Mr. Abubakar, a Brig. Gen., said.

In a related development, the

…Says it’s inconsequential Commandant, National Defence College, Samuel Alade, a Rear General, has expressed optimism that the country has developed the requisite manpower to address Nigeria’s contemporary security challenges.

Mr. Alade, who spoke at the 2016 graduation dinner of the college,

said the participants’ conduct at the college had been satisfactory and encouraging hence his confidence on the participants.

“In view of the outcome of the individual performances of course 24 participants I am confident that we have among them a crop of strategic leaders that can be relied

• L-R: Director Human Resources Tetfund, Malam Aminu Anas, Former Acting Executive Secretary, Tetfund, Malam Aliyu Na’iya, welcoming the newly appointed Executive Secretary of TETFUND, Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, during his resumption and handing over Ceremony, at the Tetfund corporate Headquarters on Wednesday in Abuja. Photo: Mahmud Isa

Maximize opportunities that abound in Nigeria’ – UK trade envoy urges business leaders

By Ali Abare Abubakar

A

upon to address challenging issues in the nation.

“Despite this optimism, I want to say that it is also a moment of reflection for the graduands as much is expected of them to impact positively on society’s challenges.”

Mr. Alade noted that past fellows of the college had distinguished

s manufacturing businesses in Nigeria contend with various economic, political and social uncertainties, the British Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria, Hon. John Howell, has urged them to stay the course and maximize the scale of the opportunities that abound in the country.

Howell made this call during a courtesy visit to Guinness Nigeria Plc’s Ogba brewery, Ikeja, Lagos over the week.

The visit, according to a statement issued to journalists yesterday, which bolsters Guinness Nigeria’s position as a preeminent Nigerian company with roots in the United Kingdom, demonstrates a firm belief in the Nigerian business by the British government.

Speaking after his 4-day tour of the country, Howell, filled with admiration, noted that, “I have been very impressed with the energy that I have seen in this country, particularly in and around Lagos. The way forward is to channel these creative energies in a positive way for the benefit of the country.

“I have also been impressed by the size of the opportunities and the scale of the ambitions here, they are very absolutely fantastic.”

The British trade envoy commended Guinness Nigeria for being an exemplar of possibilities and driving an innovative culture in the Nigerian business environment.

“The experience that I have had during my tour of the facilities at Guinness Nigeria and listening to the presentation by its key

management has shown me how things can be done efficiently.

“Guinness is a thriving business that is responding to the market with lots of innovation and I think that is the secret to winning in the Nigerian market,” Howell enthused.

In his remarks, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Guinness Nigeria Plc, Peter Ndegwa, expressed the company’s delight at the visit which he said had afforded the company a platform to showcase its strategic commitment to the economic development of Nigeria.

Ndegwa noted that in the course of the company’s sixty –six years as an incorporated company in Nigeria, it has developed a strong reputation for supporting Nigeria’s developmental aspiration, maintained a strong focus on impactful projects across its host communities, be it in the area of health, water provision, environmental protection and road safety and profiled as the largest British company listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

“Our commitment to quality is visible via our people, products and processes. We remain strongly committed to strengthening the country’s manufacturing base, employment creation, manpower development and fuelling overall economic growth by strengthening our business through significant investments in manufacturing processes, driving local content development via our target to source over 80% of our raw materials locally in the coming years, and continued product innovation and cuttingedge technology,” Ndegwa said.

themselves in various fields of endeavour.

He said the NDC had and would continue to contribute to development of strategic policies that would help address security challenges affecting the country.

ISIS had announced Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the new leader of Boko Haram after Abubakar Shekau’s exit.

Mr. Al-Barnawi was the spokesperson of the group under Shekau.

ISIS did not say what happened to Shekau who has been out of the picture since 2015.

Boko Haram had earlier in 2015 pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group.

Meanwhile, The AFP reported yesterday that Abubakar Shekau, who was replaced by Islamic State as Boko Haram’s leader has spoken out about the news, claiming that he was betrayed and denouncing his purported new leader as an infidel.

He said this in an audio message, his first in over one year, after IS on Tuesday published an interview with Sheikh Abu Musab al-Barnawi in its Al-Naba online weekly magazine in which he was introduced as Boko Haram’s new leader.

In the interview, Barnawi talks about the history of jihad in this region but makes no clear reference to Shekau.

According to AFP, since March 2015, Barnawi has appeared in several videos distributed by Boko Haram, claiming responsibility for successive attacks, earning him the reputation of group spokesman, experts say.

Jonathan moves to resolve Sheriff, Makarfi feud

By Ahmed Abubakar

F

ormer President Goodluck Jonathan has finally waded into the lingering leadership tussle within the ranks of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that has been on since the party’s loss at the polls in 2014 general elections.

The former president’s attention was formerly drawn after a delegation of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) paid him a visit at his Maitama residence Wednesday night.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has described the lingering crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as part of the challenges that affect human groups and organisations.

According to him, rather than being discouraged, stakeholders in the party should be ready to face the challenges collectively, with the view to resolving them.

Addressing leaders of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), the former President said he had been having private discussions with some principal actors in the party’s lingering crisis.

Jonathan said, “Unfortunately, we have been challenged, but I don’t think you should be discouraged.

Challenges are part of life, even in families there are challenges.

“There are challenges even in the Church more than what may be happening at political level. So you

should not be discouraged, and I believe, collectively, we can solve it.

“This should not be beyond us but I believe that collectively, we can resolve it. Any sincere PDP member should know that the party is bigger than an individual. And many members have sacrificed their interests for the party.

“I have been talking to individuals but not in a way that is exposed to the media. But I believe I should do more.”

The former President who explained to the party leaders that he is in touch of developments in the PDP, since the crisis erupted, noting that conflicting court injunctions have complicated the situation.

Stressing the need for the PDP to be strong enough to play the role of opposition, Jonathan noted that even Nigerians need strong opposition party, and urged stakeholders to unite for quick resolution of the crisis.

He expressed appreciation to the delegation of the BoT, led by the chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, for paying him a courtesy call at his Abuja residence.

He commended the party chiefs for their role in ensuring the stability of the PDP and positioning it for the task of proving credible opposition.

Jibrin had earlier said the visit was in recognition of the former President’s position and to interact with him on the way forward for the PDP.

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

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News

California prof wants Guosa language developed in Nigeria

By Usman Shuaibu

A

professor from California State University, Hayward CA. USA, Alex G. Igbineweka, has called on Nigerian government as well as West Regional Council of Africa to deem it necessary to develop Guosa language as lingua franca in order to promote national unity internationally.

Igbineweka made the call in an interview with newsmen after the presentation of a public lecture titled “Guosa language as proposed lingua

franca for ECOWAS” on Wednesday at the University of Abuja, said that if Gusao language was developed as lingua franca in West African Regional Countries, it would facilitate businesses and commerce, tourism, culture and identity among other things.

He pleaded with the Nigerian government to set-up the “train the trainer” programme that would continue to develop the Guosa in Nigeria after his lifetime in the interest of the generation yet unborn.

His words: “Guosa is language

that will bring everybody together in one unity. So, you can talk of National Identity, national orientation and national culture without national language”.

He therefore, noted that Guosa language would strengthen the Economic Communities of West African States (ECOWAS) ability to enable the people to understand one another as well build successful industrial and technological revolution.

Also speaking, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prof.

Adamawa constructs drains to curtail floods -ADSEMA

Michael Adikwu, who was represented by the Director in charge of the Centre for Corruption Studies, Prof.

Emmanuel Danladi at the occasion, charged Nigerians to always use the language for economic growth and development for the promotion of their cultural heritages.

On his part, the Dean Faculty of Arts at the University of Abuja, Prof. Effiok Bassey Uwatt, said the Guosa language is a combination of vocabularies from different Nigerians and West African languages to form a language of unity.

L-R: Former Governor of Ogun/Chairman of the 12th all Nigerian Editors Conference, Chief Segun Osoba; Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Gov. Nyesom Wike of rivers, and Former Delta Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, during the 12th all Nigerian Editors conference, yesterday in port Harcourt

From Umar Dankano,Yola

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damawa Government has embarked on the construction of roads and drains in major towns of the state to curtail the incident of flooding.

The Executive Secretary of the Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency (ADSEMA), Mr Haruna Furo, made this known while speaking at a three-day meeting of stakeholders in Yola.

The stakeholders were discussing on the contingency plans ahead of 2016 flooding season organised by UNICEF “D” Field Office in charge of North East.

Furo said the government was also involved in awareness campaigns to encourage the public to imbibe the culture of proper waste disposal.

“Gov. Muhammadu Jibrilla has embarked on massive construction of roads and drains across the state particularly around flood prone areas as well as engaged in various awareness campaigns on proper waste disposal.

“This will in no small measure help address some of the challenges associated with flooding,” he said.

Furo lauded the UNICEF zone “D” office for organising the meeting which he described as timely.

He urged participants to make good use of the opportunity in coming up with “modalities to have comprehensive plan to nib in the bud current emergencies bedeviling the North East which flood is one.

In his presentation, the representative of UNICEF, Mr Olusoji Adeniyi, identified inadequate funding as one of the major problems affecting the effectiveness of State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMA).

The three-day meeting involved stakeholders from Adamawa, Gombe, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and Jigawa states.

Buhari inaugurates Ogoni Clean-up Board ...charges members on accountability, transparency

By Lawrence Olaoye

P

resident Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated the Board of Trustees and Governing Council of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, otherwise known as Ogoni Clean-Up. This came as the President charged members of the Council and Board on accountability and transparency in the administration of the funds earmarked for the project.

He said “This is a very important endeavour that has direct impact on the lives and livelihoods of our brothers and sisters whose environments have been severely degraded by years of unchecked pollution from oil exploration activities.

“It is exactly five years today, on the 4th of August 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) submitted an extensive Report on its environmental assessment of Ogoniland. That report, which was commissioned by the Administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, did not only document the problems that existed, but also contained

recommendations on how they can be addressed, both in the short term and in the long term.”

“Since the time of flag-off, considerable effort has been expended to create a robust mechanism for implementing the Project in the long term.

The Governing Council and Board of Trustees, which are being inaugurated today jointly form an essential part of the governance framework. “In addition to the management and administration structure, other systems and controls are being put in place to ensure that the funds devoted for this Project are used only for the intended purpose.

“Indeed, a project of this magnitude requires extensive planning, scientific analysis, community involvement, and genuine partnerships. As a result, it will require patience and understanding of the key stakeholders as we move forward.

“It is our collective responsibility to ensure that the Project remains on course, as we face the challenges of high expectations and the current conflict in the Niger Delta.

“The clean-up exercise is expected to go on for two decades. The first five years will address emergency response measures and

remediation while the subsequent years will look to restore the ecosystems in the Delta. The governance framework we lay today, following extensive consultations, will form the bedrock for sustainability for years to come.

“In appointing each and every one of you, I expect that you will give your utmost commitment to ensuring the highest standard of transparency and accountability in this important task.”

While the BoT is to be chaired by Wale Edun, the Governing council is to be presided over by the Minister of environment, Hajia Amina Muhammed.

Other members of the BoT include Members of the BoT include the Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun, Minister of state for environment Ibrahim Jibril, Minister of State Petroleum.

Representatives of IOCs include Osagie Okunbor, Insula Massim, and Alexis Bobk. The Ogoni stakeholders, other communities in the Niger Delta, NGOs as well as the UNEP are also represented on the board. A legal adviser would be appointed by the governing council in due course.

Members of the Governing Council include

Minister of National Planning, Udoma Udoma, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Pastor Usani Usani, Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Nsima Ekere, Managing Director SPDC, Osagie Okunbor amongst others.

Representatives of Ogoni Stakeholders on the Council include Pyagbara Legborsi, Ben Naneen, and two alternatives.

The Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed,who is also the Chairperson of the Governing Council of the HYPREP,assured that members of the council would be guided by the principles of accountability, transparency and true representation.

Edun in a briefing with newsmen after the inauguration of his board said ``By the inauguration of this board of trustees, we have the singular opportunity, working as a team, working in conjunction with others to intervene decisively within the context of the UNEP 2011 Report on Environmental Assessment in Ogoniland.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

News

Navy optimistic of political solution to reemergence of militancy in N/ Delta

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he Nigerian Navy says it is optimistic that dialogue and political intervention will address the re-emergence of militancy in the Niger Delta region.

It, however, said that where both processes failed to yield the desired result, it is ``more than ready to take the military option’’.

Commodore Christian Ezekobe, the Director of Information, Nigerian Navy headquarters, made this position known when he featured at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.

• Cue in audio ``What has posed some level of challenge is the re-emergence of militancy in the Niger Delta - the blowing up of oil and gas infrastructure, which is crucial to the nation’s survival ``This we are grappling with right now. ``Over the news you would have heard of various levels of arrest being made and handover of suspects to DSS also being made and so on. ``But we are praying for a political solution a way of dialogue and political intervention ``However, where that fails, we are more than ready to take the military option.’’

• Cue out audio He said that between June 2015 and Dec. 2015, the rate of maritimerelated crimes at the sea such as robbery, kidnapping and piracy dropped sharply.

Ezekobe, however, said a surge in the rate of such crimes was recorded in Feb. 2016 and continued up to April, when the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas initiated Operation `Tsare Teku’. ``Since April, when `Operation Tsare Teku’ was initiated, we have had only two cases (of maritime-related crimes). ``When it was initiated, the operation was to last 90 days.`` He said although the operation ended two weeks ago, the second phase was recently inaugurated by the chief of naval staff in Port Harcourt.

Ezekobe noted that before Tsare Teku was initiated, 47 attacks by pirates, were recorded.

He said since then, the Navy had clamped down on illegal bunkerers and crude oil thieves, who were moving stolen products from the hinterland to the sea.

Ezekobe said the Navy had acquired boats from an indigenous firm for use to patrol the creeks, rivers and rives in the region. ``So, overtime, we are going to see that our partnership with Epenal leads to the mass production of patrol boats within the creeks and rivers of the Niger Delta,`` he said.

He, therefore, urged all relevant government agencies and other stakeholders to join the crusade against piracy in the country. ``But the solution to that problem is land-based and like I said, all the agencies of government need to intensify their efforts so that we can all solve the problem,`` he said.

New Bauchi CP charges officers on good conduct

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

T

he Commissioner of Police Bauchi State Command, Haliru Gwandu has charged police officers in the state to be more civil while discharging their responsibilities within the communities, just as he also charged them to focus on strategic oriented policing to fight and rid the state of violent crime.

Gwandu gave the charge yesterday at his maiden inaugural press briefing at Police Officers Mess, in Bauchi,

saying that all officers and men should be civil and relate well with the people.

“I have already spoken with my officers on my mission here in Bauchi State and we have quite a number of strategies to put in place to counter criminals” “I told them a number of strategies which require them to go back to the drawing board. First, they have to know the topography of the area they are policing” “Secondly, they should know the right strategy to put and we have a number of them which include

constant raiding of criminal hideouts, black spots, Indian Hemp joints, kidnapping and armed robbery den.

The police should equally monitor the activities of night marauders,” the commissioner said The police boss also hampered on the importance of community policing and intelligence gathering to get information on activities of criminals in the society, pointing out that the police will continue to sustain a strong partnership with stakeholders within the community.

The CP said during his tenure, nobody will pay money to obtain bail because it is free, adding that if any member of the public has any issue to report, they should feel free to call his number and the case will be addressed.

Gwabdu who vowed to flush out any corrupt police officer in the state if found guilty, charged the officers to champion the change mantra of the federal government by being an advocate of corruption crusade in the country.

Beji community where a military operation consisting of military soldiers and air force who were mistaken for Fulani herdsmen dressed in army uniform.

When contacted the Police Command Public Relations Officer PPRO, DSP Bala Elkana confirmed the incident, said that “Actually we received a distress call at around 1:00am that armed Fulani herdsmen

have invaded their village” Elkana added that, “the command immediately mobilized mobile Policemen and other combatants to the village and Police discovered it was soldiers in operation” saying that calm has been restored in the area.

Also when further contacted, the Assistant Director Army Public Relations, Major Njideka Agwu said “we heard there are

arms and ammunitions in that village and we want for cordon and search after soldiers were briefed yesterday”.

“Unfortunately, villagers opened fire on us and we don’t know the number of casualty for now because the information is scratchy, but fielders and troops are still at the location and investigation is still going on,” he added.

5 killed as soldiers, community clash in Niger

From Yakubu Mustapha,Minna.

N

o fewer than five persons were reported to have been killed while two were injured in a clash between the military and civilians at Kpaidna village in the Bosso local government of Niger State.

The incident which occurred yesterday at around 1:00am in

A Dentist from the Nigerian Army Medical Corps attending to an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) during an outreach for at the IDP camp, yesterday in Dikwa, Borno State. Photo: NAN

Army arrest high profile Boko Haram terrorist

T

he Nigerian Army on Wednesday said it had arrested a high profile suspected Boko Haram terrorist, Mohammed Zauro, at Sabon Gari, Damboa Local Government Area of Borno.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, and

made available to newsmen in Abuja.

He said troops of ``Operation Lafia Dole’’ with assistance of Vigilantes on routine checks, identified and arrested Mr Mohammed Zauro, at Sabon Gari, Damboa Local Government Area, Borno. ``On Tuesday,Aug. 2, at about 8.30 a.m., Preliminary investigation

shows that the suspected terrorist kingpin was arrested as he was trying to flee to Birnin Kebbi, from Sambisa forest. ``The troops recovered a Gionee cell phone and a fake SAIE/JIBWIS identification card to perfect his escape and the sum of N7, 900,’’ it said.

In a related development, troops

also intercepted another suspected Boko Haram terrorist, Mr Lawal Aboi, along Damboa-Bale road.

He said Aboi was on his way to voluntarily surrender to the troops in Damboa because he was tired of fighting for no just cause.

Usman said both suspects were under further interrogation. (NAN)

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

News UK-based organisation trains 4230 primary school teachers in Zamfara

From Ibrahim Sidi Muh’d, Gusau

A

UK-based organisation in charge of training Jolly Phonics, a new method of teaching English with emphasis on reading and writing has trained a number of 4230 primary school teachers in Zamfara state aimed at improving English language among the teeming pupils in the state.

Speaking with newsmen shortly after a master training workshop of Teacher Leader (TL) in Gusau the state capital, the representative of Universal Learning Solution, Mr. Victor Poluektoff said, apart from the 3700 primary school teachers earlier trained, 530 more teachers including Teacher Leaders would be trained this year.

Mr. Victor further informed that the programme which was initiated by Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar, will continue to ensure confidence and boost moral in teachers towards the adequate delivery in the Curriculum content.

He expressed appreciation for Zamfara state government for providing all required structures in ensuring the success of the programme, and for facilitating the training of over two hundred Teacher Leaders (TL) who would in turn, train other primary school teachers across the country.

His words, “I am appealing to you entire participants of the master trainers workshop, to abide by the ethic of the ULS regulations and to be good ambassadors as you are going out to train the teachers in another states across the country.”

Earlier, the state Executive Chairman of the Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Alhaji Murtala Adamu Jangebe assured further support, adding that, the board will provide necessary mechanism in ensuring proper teaching and learning materials for Jolly Phonics to succeed.

R-L: President Muhammadu Buhari, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr. Paola Gentiloni Silveri and Minister of State Interior, Mr Dott. D. Manzione, during an audience at the State house, yesterday in Abuja. PHOTO STATE HOUSE

N4.6b fraud: Court grants Gov. Fayose’s aide N500 million bail

T

he Federal High Court, Abuja, has granted bail to Abiodun Agbele, an aide to Gov. Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State.

Mr. Agbele was given a N500 million bail for alleged money laundering.

The judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, who granted the bail on Thursday, ordered the applicant to produce two sureties in the sum of N250 million each.

Mr. Dimgba said the prosecution could not substantiate its claim that the

defendant would jump bail.

“I note that the offence the defendant is charged with carries a sentence of three years imprisonment.

“Under Section 162 of the Administration of Criminal Justice

Buhari felicitates with Christian Faith Mission at 60

By Lawrence Olaoye

P

resident Muhammadu Buhari has felicitated with the leadership of the Gospel Faith Mission International (GOFAMINT) as they celebrate its 60 years anniversary.

According to his Special Adviser

on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, the President in a letter to the church, declared: “Sixty years is a significant milestone in the life of any individual or organization. As the Gospel Faith Mission International turns 60, it is my pleasure to rejoice with the leadership, the teeming members and

adherents of the Christian faith, who worship in the church.

“Six decades of labour in the Lord’s vineyard must have produced innumerable fruits, with great impact from now to eternity. I wish GOFAMINT many more successful decades of fruitful service to the

nation.

“As you celebrate, accept my best wishes. And kindly tell your members that a new dawn beckons in the country. We see it ahead, and we shall step into that land of unity and prosperity. God will take us there by His Grace,”Buhari added

Woman kills neighbour in Lagos with boiling water A

n Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos on Thursday remanded a university student, Mabel Bassey, in prison for attacking her neighbour with hot water and killing him.

Ms. Bassey is to be remanded at Ikoyi Prisons pending advice from the State Director of Public

Prosecutions (DPP), according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Ms. Bassey, a student of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and resident of Surulere Street, Ojo, Lagos, was arraigned before Magistrate Bola Folarin-Williams on a charge of murder.

She was alleged to have poured

hot water on Efe Okotie, 38, on July 2 at their residence which resulted in his death.

According to the prosecutor, Olatunde Kehinde, the deceased had advised Bassey to desist from her promiscuous lifestyle which did not go down well with her.

“Out of anger, she bathed the late Okotie with hot water.

“The deceased died six days after the incident due to the severe burns he suffered from the hot water,’’ he told the court.

The offence contravened Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011 which prescribes death sentence for offenders. The case has been adjourned to Nov. 4.

(NAN

Act (ACJA), I am required to release a person charged within the threshold of the penalties referenced above to bail.

“This is, however, except in circumstances where there is reasonable ground to believe that the defendant when released on bail will commit another offence.

“Taking a holistic appraisal of all the materials before me, I am not convinced that the prosecution has provided sufficient evidence as to stop the court from exercising its jurisdiction to grant bail.

“I hold, therefore, that I am inclined to admit the defendant to bail and I so admit him,” Mr. Dimgba declared.

He said every citizen charged with an offence was entitled to a conducive environment devoid of fear to prepare his defence.

The judge held that Mr. Agbele would forfeit the N500 million to the Federal Government if he jumps bail.

He said that the sureties could be private businessmen, professionals or civil servants, adding that if in the civil service, he must not be less than the rank of a director.

Mr. Dimgba said the sureties must also be owners of property within the Federal Capital Territory and in Ikeja or Victoria Island, Lagos.

The judge also ordered the defendant to deposit his international passports with the registrar of the court and must not travel abroad without the permission of the court.

He further said that the trial shall be accorded accelerated hearing and the defendant would remain in prison custody until he perfected his bail conditions.

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

News

Pharmacist petitions Delta Assembly over alleged injustice, demotion From Osakare Erese, Asaba

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principal pharmacist, Pharm Aghwadoma Igbunu of the Delta State Hospitals Management Board has petitioned the State House of Assembly following alleged injustice and unlawful demotion meted out on him by the State Hospitals Management Board.

The petition addressed to the House and was referred to the House committee on public petitions and complaints, a copy made available to our reporter, accused the Hospitals Management Board of unlawfully demoting him for no reasons adduced.

While the petitioner appealed to the committee to consider allegations against him as frivolous, part of the petition reads: “On the 23rd of May, 2014, an inspection team by the board on an inspection tour found some drugs in my office, a query was issued sequel to the discovery, which I answered to, they were not directly drugs, but drugs meant for indigent patients, while the Medical Director approved that the drugs be kept in my office, some of the drugs were the personal belonging of the Head of Department, I didn’t plead guilty”.

But in a swift reaction, the House Committee Chairman, Barr. (Mrs.) Orezi Esievo who confirmed the receipt of the petition, said there was need for Deltans to uphold the sanctity of law and not to see it as an arbiter for injustice.

Mrs. Esievo explained that the committee members include: Hon. Alphonsus Ojo, Hon. Anthony Elekeokwuri and Hon. Efe Ofoburuku assuring that it will be subjected to investigation.

Page 9

NGO to empower youths across Nigeria

By Paul Efiong Non-Government Organisation(NGO) called the Grassroots Empowerment Initiative for Positive Change and Development has promised to empower over 70 youths in the various states of the country.

Speaking while receiving an award of excellence from the Miss Nigeria House Beauty Pageant, Queen Isaac Zoey, the national cordinator of the organisation, Feyisola George stated that the NGO was set to empower youths in rural area of the country.

“We have worked tirelessly to bring about change. We support the government. Now that the change has come, we want to see how we can empower the grass

A

root. We are planing on giving out scholarship to indigent students.

We want to bring electricity to the poorest village that hasn’t seen light in the country.

“It will start soon because right now. We are trying to put things in place. We already have coordinators in 36 states of the federation, including FCT,” he said.

George expressed gratitude over the award given to him and his organisation and promised that it will ginger them to do more for the less privileged in the society.

Director of diapora in the NGO, Hon Adebisi Abraham also added that the organisation was aimed at sponsoring people in the grass root to international event

which was what they had done with the Miss Nigeria House, who it has sponsored to Brazil to witness the Olympics game.

While handing out the award, the CEO of Mackus Consultancy Services, organiser of the Miss Nigeria House, Comrade Moses Ebahor,stated that the award was given to the NGO because it has helped a great deal in the empowering the youths in the grassroots.

He explained that Miss Nigeria House was aimed at promoting a good image of Nigeria during the Olympics in Brazil adding that the Olympic games should not be known only for athletes as beauty pageants should also be there to present a good image of Nigeria, which is

what the Miss Nigeria House will be doing in Brazil.

“Sport is a unifying factor that can bring a lot of people together.

It gives love, unity and happiness to the people. We brought about this pageant to compliment the effort of the athletes that are going to compete. We are doing this so as bring about the talent of beautiful girls. We want the young girls to be given the enabling environment to strive with their God-given talent.

“We will do the pageant show annually. We want them to bring about value change to young girls who look up to them. She is promoting the image of the country. She is going to be an ambassador to Nigeria Olympic game,” he said.

…As Eastern Mediterranean Varsity meets Ganduje over scholarship- Aide From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

A

bdulrahman Bala, the Senior Special Assistant on Student Unions to Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has revealed that the officials of Eastern Mediterranean University would be in the state to meet the governor on scholarship matters.

A statement issued by the SSA, pointed out that the university had identified Kano as one of the states that committed immensely to the development of education.

According to him, the university, which was the only state university in Cyprus, had great potentials needed by the state government to exploit in its scholarship programmes, adding that the university has been in existence since 1979.

Bala added that the EMU officials have embarked on courtesy calls to ten states across Nigeria in which Kano was selected, adding that they were in Kano and would proceed to Kano in order to meet the governor.

He further said that the

university invited the general public to exploit its academic potentials and enjoy its scholarship schemes. “ They are also going to give seminars to agents and prospective students on the new developments in EMU. I am the one facilitating the visit and I hope the governor would give them a warm reception as he supports education development.

Eventhough the state faces economic crunch as a result of dwindling oil revenue, I believe the visit would benefit both

parties involved.” Bala said. “ My effort was to compliment the state governments commitment and support to education.” He added He also said that the institution had sent its delegation under the leadership of Professor Mustafa Tumo to come to Nigeria to showcase its services, adding “we welcome the services and the benefit to be enjoyed as student union. We also deemed it fit to intimate the governor on the development for the benefit of our indigenous students.”

USAID donates N7m equipment, consumables to Kano

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

F

istula Care Plus and Gender Health Organisation, under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded programme has donated medical equipment and consumables worth seven billion naira to Kano State government.

Receiving the donation on behalf of the state government at the Ministry of Health yesterday, the commissioner for Health Dr. Kabir Ibrahim Getso, expressed appreciation for the kind gesture, saying it would go along for the purpose it was given.

Getso said the present administration of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has placed high priority to health care of its teeming populace especially those with fistula cases, adding that the equipment would assist in alleviating their suffering.

In his remarks, the Regional Manager, Fistula Plus and Gender Health Organisation, Dr. Habibu Sadauki pledged to continue supporting the state government in the area of health especially the fistula disease, adding that the organisation would as well be supporting the state for patients suffering from BVF.

His Royal Highness, Eze Ibo Gburuburu Karu LG, Ambassador, Ezeudo Longinius Udeogwu beingturbaning Mr. Ephraim E. Aluku with new Title as Eze Igwe of Anguwan Tofa Karshi Development Area in Nasarawa state, (left) while the Sarkin of Anguwan Tofa Karshi Development Area Nasarawa State, Alhji Ayuba Danbaki (right) Watch with interest during the coronation ceremony at the Sarkin Tofa Place in Nasarawa yesterday Photo: BASHIR BELLO

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

News Delta women eulogize lawmaker, Erhiatake over performance From Osakare Erese, Asaba

D

elta women on Wednesday released praises on the member representing Ethiope West Constituency in the House of Assembly, Hon Erhiatake Ibori, describing her as an articulate lawmaker.

“Hon. Erhiatake Ibori is articulate and adept at explaining complex issues in a simple way. She is an astute legislator.

She participates actively in the legislative processes of the House. Her contributions on legislative matters have helped in creating a new template on budgetary management in the state” they said.

Responding to a news report in an online news media on Hon Ibori, the women said the legislator rose effectively to the occasion during the valedictory ceremony held in honour of Late Felix Ibru.

“There was no murmur.

And with the cream of the state’s social and political elite, who gathered to pay tribute to Olorogun Felix Ibru in Government House Asaba, Erhiatake Ibori delivered her father’s tribute with a voice capable of putting several world class broadcasters to shame.

Amidst intermittent applause from the audience, she delivered her speech. Her presentation held everybody spell bound and got them up in standing ovation, moments after she was back on her seat” Spokesperson of the Delta Women for Good Governance Forum (DWFGGF) said.

The women, who extolled the charming qualities of Hon Ibori, described her as a pride to Delta State.

“Hon Ibori’s conduct, mannerism, diction, wits and total command of the environment depicted her training, family background and exposure” they said.

In a statement in Asaba

by Mrs. Omamoke Omene, the women attributed Ibori’s victory in the 2015 House of Assembly election in Ethiope West constituency to natural campaigning style coupled with her projects.

“Chief James Ibori is a household name in Delta State.

Erhiatake Ibori participated in the Primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), emerged as the party’s flag bearer and won the House of Assembly election on merit

Newly Appointed Chief Executives of Parastartals and Agencies under the Federal Ministry of Education , in a group photographs with the Minister and Minister of state for Education (middle)after receiving their Appointment Letters on Tuesday in Abuja. Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

Laboratory scientists get Zamfara NUJ support

From Ibrahim Gusau

Sidi

Muh’d,

T

he Nigeria Union of Journalists Zamfara State chapter has pledged most needed support for the state wing of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists

of Nigeria (AMLSN) to succeed it’s primary aims and objectives towards the delivery of its constitutional duties in the state.

The Chairman of the NUJ Zamfara state chapter, Comrade Muhammad Mainasara Ruwandoruwa gave this assurance while receiving the team

of the newly elected leaders of the association who paid a courtesy visit to the NUJ yesterday at the state secretariat Gusau, the state capital.

Ruwandoruwa, who reminded the visiting leaders of the state association of the laboratory scientists of the constitutional duty of the working

journalists to give adequate coverage to their activities emphasized that, no stone would be left unturned in terms of educating the general public of the importance of patronising the services rendered in the science laboratories before final judge by medical doctors in hospitals.

Insecurity: Kano launches new community policing strategy From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

K

ano State Police command has lunched a new community policing strategy called Eminent People Forum (EPF) to address security challenges in the state.

Speaking during inauguration of the 32-member forum, the state’s Commissioner of Police, Rabi’u Yusuf, said that the forum was mandated to

tackle ethno-religious upheaval and other matters of security concern so as to proffer proactive measures of handling them.

According to Yusuf, the establishment of the EPF was in accordance with the directive given by the Acting Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim K. Idris across Nigeria, adding that Kano was not left behind as the IGP has a special reservation for the

safety of the country and the state in particular.

He said that members of the forum were nominated from various spheres of life in order to synergize and contribute to the general peace and stability of the state and the nation at large, adding that the members would be meeting once in a month and communicate report to the office of the IGP.

NES host maiden int’l environmental students’ summit in Lagos

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

T

he Nigeria Environmental Society (NES), said the society is set to host its first ever International Environmental Student Summit (IESS)in Nigeria which would strategically position the youth to promote green exercise for Nigeria and the future of Africa as a whole.

The summit which would bring together students from across Africa and beyond has the theme “ Green the Economy”.

The programme is schedule to take place on the 18th -20th of August 2016 at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs(NIIA) in Lagos .

A statement issued yesterday by the management added

that the summit will provide platforms where opportunities are developed and also creating awareness on life style consequences of current unattainable consumption and stimulate capacity building for emerging green economy”.

According to the statement, the society is geared towards promoting “Green Economy” where the vital linkages between the economy, society and environment are taken together to transform production and consumption that would lead to efficiency use of resource.

“The Nigeria Environmental Society is the premier environmental organisation that is advocating and enhancing the leadership role in helping Nigeria

and Africa transit to a sustainable development path”.

The Environmental Management stated that the highlight at the summit includes: examination of Green Economy Framework, Green Consumption, the launching of the Institute of Environmental Management (IEMA) certifies course, NES Young Environmentalist Scheme (YES) and excursion to the green park initiative.

Meanwhile, during the summit there will be undergraduate Easy Competition with a take home price of (#75,000).

NES is also collaborating with four international institutions in ensuring the green economy come to stay in the Nigeria environment.

“ It is with great plesure and sense of responsibility that I welcome each and every one of the dignitary here present to this historic inauguration of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim K. Idris, NPM,mni new Policing Initiative titled Eminent People Forum. The forum is mandated to tackle ethnoreligious upheaval and any othe matter of security concern, so as to proffer proactive measures of handling them.”

He said Yusuf added that “Kano state is not left behind as we keenly looked and nominated you from various spheres of life in order to synergize and contribute to the general peace and stability of the state and the nation at large.”

The CP also advised the forum to constitute its leadership and suggest a convenient venue, time and date for the monthly meeting either at the command or any other place that suits them.

In his remarks, the emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, welcomed the idea, noting that it had come at the time the state was facing serious kidnapping and abduction cases.

The emir who was represented by the District Head of Doguwa Local Government, Aliyu Harazimi, also lamented the incessant abduction of young children in the state, calling on the Police and general public to stand up against the dastardly act.

The forum constituted clergy and religious group, ethnic groups, academic group, traders and transport unions, women and student groups as well as other eminent personalities among others.

Page 11

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

TRIBUTE

The bell tolls for Alice and Ede

By Usman Adams

F

our(4) days to his death on July 8 2016, I had discussed on telephone with Hyacinth Ede how both of us would go to the residence of late Mrs. Alice Akale for her wake-keeping ceremony I had told him where we would meet on July 6, 2016 to enable both of us go for the wake-keeping ceremony on the appointed day. when I had not heard from him I thought he had changed his mind whether he would make it or not.

On July 7, after returning from the church service and the interment of Mrs. Akale, I was contemplating on whether I should put down a few things about the parting enterprising radio journalist in order for those who might not have had the opportunity of meeting the decent lady to know her modest achievements before her demise.

On Saturday July 8, I had sat down and had hardly written more than two(2) paragraphs on the sudden and shocking death of the lady I have known for over three(3) decades when Mrs. Maria Ode a former Director General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria(FRCN) at the other end of the line rhetorically asked whether I had heard the news that Mr. Hyacinth Ede had slumped a few moments ago and added that his body had been taken to National Hospital, Abuja Mortuary.

I immediately put a call to a mutual friend of ours,Mr. Ochapa Ogenyi who confirmed my worst fears and further told me how they were making arrangements to deposit the body in the mortuary.

That was how the news of the death of my late friend and confidant, Mr. Hyacinth Ede was broken to me.

Now as expected I could not immediately go ahead with the story of late Mrs. Alice Akale as I had to do the needful of racing down to the residence of late Mr. Ede where a crowd had already gathered.

Before I continue with the story of my over forty(40) years of relationship with Late Ede I would like to mention a few things about late Mrs. Alice Akale who I met in Makurdi in 1986 when I was transferred from Kano to Makurdi as Head of Federal Information Centre in Benue State. AS an avid listener of radio I had heard the beautiful and sweet voice of the lady and decided to find out the voice behind the Micro-phone. As her

experience lengthened in the broadcast media her mastery of cadence and color made her news broadcast so fluent on the ear thatall listeners loved to hear her voice on the radio.

This was my major attraction to her. Incidentally,Mrs. Akale had been auditioned by the master of the art herself, Mrs. Maria Ode who later became her boss at the FRCN headquarters at Abuja.

In addition, as fate would have it when I was transferred to the ministry’s Headquarters at Radio House Abuja I started hearing the same voice again and I had to go to her office to physically meet her to remind her how we had met several years before that time.

By this time, however, she had been married to a cousin of my classmate, A General in the Army and her knowledge of this fact made her to call me ‘’UNCLE’’ each time we met.

About seven (7) years ago, I met Alice walking in a condition which did not impress me and as a lady I regarded as a family friend, she told me that she had an accident but then she seemed okay and each time I heard her voice on the radio I would tell my daughters to star to become like her. One last thing I would like to say about Mrs. Alice Akale is the fact that unaware of whether she has been suffering of any organic or in organic sickness I would call her line early in the mornings about 6AM to inquire how far the job I had given her to do was going. I hope in retrospect I had not unduly put unnecessary pressure on her if she had had some hidden health conditions.

I give my condolence to her husband, Mr. Abraham Akale and all those who knew and loved her.

That done I now come to the issue of Mr. Hyacinth Edewho I met in 1975 when he was a reporter with Benue-Plateau Radio and I was also a reporter with theStandard

Newspaper in Jos. In 1986, we started from where we met in 1975 and continued an Un-broken relationshipuntil death. When both of us again moved to Abuja, the relationship was further cemented with both families visiting each others homes and it is not an exaggeration to say that for the past ten(10) years no single day past without any of us calling each other or meeting physically. I regarded Ede not only as a friend but like a brother and I had intense love and feeling for him. I was convinced that he was a decent, good and

Ede

honorable man. Fortunately both of us we agreed on so many areas including politics and I can sincerely state that Late Ede and myself never had any disagreement on a lot of issues. Ede tasted the bitter pills of politics as Chairman of the Benue state chapter of the NUJ when he was unceremoniously

Mrs Alice Akale

removed by the tiv members of the union one (1) year to the end of his four (4) year tenure. Ede was livid with him for several years. until his death.

Consequently, even though he supported the All progressive congress (APC) he was unequivocal in his belief in the candidature of Senator David

Mark and strongly suspected that the APC candidate, Mr. Onje would be a willing tool and stooge in the hands of the Tivs to the detriment of the Idoma Nation.

I happily watched him grew in knowledge, in stature, in maturity, in wisdom and in comfort as his days lengthened on Earth. Ede struggled and worked very hard to achieve what he did.

He was a friend of almost everybody and to my knowledge, i never heard anybody speak ill of him either secretly in gossip or openly at any time.

Ede demonstrated his love for a friend in need when he mobilized some friends who brought some money to support my medical treatment when I was taken ill and hospitalized.

He demonstrated that those who may after all come to one’s assistance may not be those from one’s immediate neighborhood.

The story of the Good Samaritan is apt here.

When he moved to Abuja to join the Federal Civil Service, he encouraged some of his friends who were suffocating in Makurdi to follow him to Abuja and most of these friends have remained grateful to him for the assistance and encouragement.

Finally, I have always stated in the write-up of this nature that there is no amount of words that can pacify those who have lost a dear one, even not that of a priest who would quote many biblical verses at the funeral ceremony. On August 5, 2016.

But the priest must do his Job. However the truth of the matter is that he would sorely missed by his many friends, admirers, not least his Ten (10) year old Son, Angel who still needs the care, the comfort and the love of his late father One last issue I would try to remind our wives and husbands is the fact that they should not bank on uncles, brothers and other relations to take care of our children should we leave them behind in death. Ede’s sudden death frightened me to the extent that sleep has not be my good companion for these past few days as I kept on asking whether Ede is truly dead. All we know is that ‘’This world is not our own’’ and that is why human beings should be cautious of how they treat their fellow human beings because the bell mayhave tolled for Alice and Ede today.

But tomorrow who knows who would be next. May GOD grant Mr.Hyacinth Edeeternal rest in the bossom of our lord Amen!!!.

Adams is a veteran journalist

PAGE 12

Opinion

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

One year and Buratai shines even more

By Okanga Agila

I

t has been one year since Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai quoted from world renowned war treatise, the Art of War by Chinese Warrior –Sun Tzu, also General Sun Wu. As someone who had done multiple passes of the book – reading cover to cover – my expectation was that we would be saddled with a cold calculating war machine. Forming that impression was not based on the portion of the book he quoted of course, it was based on the very fact that he quoted a book that is seen as propounding some of the most ruthless concepts ever put forward in military history. He quoted the book just the day after he was appointed.

Few weeks after this, because of the much I saw of General Buratai’s leadership as reported in the media I was compelled to research the Art of War, but my interest was not in the book but the personality of the writer. Incidentally, the Kung Fu Channel on Startimes showed a series, “Sun Wu”, which chronicled the life of the warrior author. I learned that Sun Tzu was, beyond being an accomplished general, he was equally a statesman. His intention for writing the book was not to promote wars but to minimise the need for them. He placed loyalty to the state above his own interest and he truly treated his troops as his blood as far as permissible under the cultural context in which he operated.

For General Buratai, even the culturally and socially permissible was no barrier to him bonding with the troops on the front. Not a few

pessimists dismissed images of him working out with troops as cheap publicity stunt but one year down the line they were hushed when the same General broke his Ramadan fast in the trenches with the other soldiers. If he was after publicity stunt he definitely had no further need for it during the breaking of fast so it became clear that what he displayed from his first weeks in office was his true identity.

His real strength as a warrior, the kind of General Sun Tzu has in mind, was with the lightning speed with which Boko Haram terrorists were routed and territories recovered from them. This was a task that the average analyst had expected would require significant hardware donation by western powers. With the right strategy in place, it was a matter of weeks before the insurgents were forced to change tactics and the warrior in Buratai was prepared for them even ahead of when they started implementing their new mode of attacks.

The cowards that were once prancing around in armoured personnel carriers soon became vermin that were carrying out hit and run attacks on soft targets before scampering for the desert. The COAS’ quick thinking resulted in the creation of a motorcycle brigade that is able to deploy rapidly to counter the fighters wherever they are carrying out attacks.

This creative thinking would explain why troops are willing to “venture into deep river valleys with him,” and the Nigerian Army of today takes care of its own. The unit that was ambushed last week was a good example of this as the service wasted no time in deploying and mounting the operation that led to the

rescue of the unit commander and some soldiers of the unit. In the past, they could have been forgotten or the incident could have been explained as another “tactical manoeuvre” but under a COAS who sees them as his ‘children’ and not just mere statistics we have seen the difference.

The troops did “venture into deep river valleys” with Buratai in the theatre of war in the northeast and the result today is that sanity has returned to where Boko Haram once held sway. The efforts of the Nigerian Army in the area is such that Borno state Governor, Kashim Shettima has now directed civil servants to immediately resume work at Mafa, Magumeri, Dikwa, Konduga, Benisheikh, Askira Uba, Kala/Balge and Kaga, Gwoza local government area councils that have been reclaimed from the Boko Haram Islamic sect.

According to the Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Usman Zannah, who briefed the media on behalf of the governor, noted that the directive followed the return of peace to the affected liberated communities, which are now “habitable and normal life has resumed for the last two or three months now.” That some people delay returning to the liberated places is not from lack of security of the areas but for the high level of destruction of basic structures.

When Sun Tzu talked about “safeguard of the state” it goes beyond fighting to ensure territorial and corporate integrity of a country as an entity; his approach involves sometimes refraining from fighting while exploring dialogues. Some of the contemporary security

breaches in the country have been handled on this basis and President Muhammadu Buhari as Commander in Chief must have had inputs from his military aides, which included the COAS. Long term, being slow to unleash military might on some troublemakers would definitely pay off.

Something else General Buratai said on the day he made the famous Sun Tzu quote, was his declaration that “We must keep the promise to our nation. We must make a difference.” So far, he has kept to this promise and appears to be well committed to keeping it for the rest of his life. Even the tone with which he made the declaration was profound to the point of galvanising the rest of us to begin renewing our faith in the country coming from a time when there had been a total loss in nationalistic spirit among citizen.

So in one year, General Buratai, right from the day he was appointed has proven the positive difference he set out to make in commanding the Nigerian Army. He approached the task with this deliberate disposition that has resulted in the gradual actualization of his vision and the road map for a better Nigerian Army. In this period, he has remained committed to his vision for the Nigerian Army, which is “To have a professionally responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its constitutional roles”.

The vision has been the pivot around which everything he does revolves.

Okanga contributed this piece from Agila Ad’Oba, Benue State.

Gender violence and abuse of Human Rights of migrants in Libya

By Olawale Rotimi Opeyemi

M

igrating from home countries to others in search of better “economic pastures” has been the reality in many African countries, largely due to huge infrastructural deficits, instability in governments, slowing down economies, increased youth unemployment and sometimes violence. Several Africans are forced to leave their countries in search of “greener pastures.” Sub-Saharan African immigrants living in or traveling through Libya to Europe by sea consistently face attacks from Libyan coast guards, militia group, and smugglers, etc.

The intensity of the global advocacy of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among other international organisations, has gone a long way in exposing the horrific and inhuman treatments of migrants in Libya prior to and after the fall of former Libyan leader, Ghaddafi. Reports and press statements from the groups show that women constitute a significant number of the victims of violence against migrants in Libya; they are subjected to incessant rape, coercion into performing oral sexual acts, torture, etc.

According to the United Nations, 2.44 million people in Libya need protection and some form of humanitarian support, and as of June 2016 the International Organisation for Migrants also reported that roughly 425,000 people have been displaced in Libya. In a similar development, a report of the Human Rights Watch in December 2015 documented arbitrary detentions, torture and other forms of ill-treatment in four non-immigration prisons in Tripoli and Misrata. Exposing the experiences of migrants in Libya, it narrates a few

accounts, including this: “Nourah, a 26-year-old Ivorian, said she was detained in June and July 2015 at a facility in Tajoura, on the eastern edge of Tripoli, because she did not have residence papers. A guard called Ibrahim repeatedly abused her sexually, she said: ‘He didn’t have a thumb or index finger on his left hand, I remember very well.

He would come to the room and roll his cigarette and smoke among us. It was a strange smell. He chose me. He took me, he had the condom in his hand. He made me give him oral sex. He came every night.

Only Fridays he didn’t come.’

Nourah said other guards took women away and abused them sexually.

‘There was a man who covered his face, he was the meanest,’ she said. ‘He would come into our room, with three or four other men. They would come to choose the girls. One girl, an Eritrean named Amira, they chose her every time. Every time they came for her she would cry.

‘One day we tried to escape, going through a hole in the wall,’ Nourah said.

‘Seven girls got away but they caught the rest of us. The guards stripped one of us, a Nigerian girl, and raped her in front of us in the courtyard.’”

In another account in the Human Rights Watch release, “Jabril from Gambia said that in 2015 Libyan forces twice intercepted boats he was on, and sent him back to Libya, where he was detained and abused. He spent six months detained in Subratha, and then another six months in Tripoli. In both places, Jabril said the guards routinely beat him and the other detainees: ‘If you are talking, they ask, “What are you saying? What are you saying? Stop.” Then they beat you. Or they beat you when you’re sleeping.’”

Similarly in the same report, a

31-year-old Gambian man recounted how criminals had raped his wife, ‘In Libya, they do whatever they like because there’s no law, no nothing.’ The records of these abuses are unending.

Since human rights are inherent to everyone as a consequence of being human, and also considering the fact that seven international conventions serve as strong instruments protecting the rights of all persons, infringing on the rights of undocumented migrants, particularly within an intra-continental context is improper and must be strongly condemned. These relevant international legislation include: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966); and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965). Also, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979); Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984); Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989); and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (1990).

Undoubtedly, all of these seven human rights conventions, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), contain a number of rights that are applicable to undocumented migrants, as clearly spelled out in their consistent and respective non-discrimination clauses.

For example, the UDHR’s preamble and thirty articles convey human rights and fundamental freedoms to which all men and women across the world are entitled,

without any form of discrimination.

Specifically, article 2 of the UDHR states that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

Similarly, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) outlines rights, which are applicable to all, including undocumented migrants.

Recognising that the human rights of undocumented migrants are articulated and protected within many conventions and treaties at regional and international levels, these rights must be respected by all nations and governments, even under conditions of illegal migration. The severity of the abuse of human rights in Libya is overdue for sustained global intervention.

At the continental level, the African Union should make advocacy on these rights and freedoms a priority issue in its activities; and the United Nations, European Union, the American government and other key players on the global scene must hold strong talks with Libyan authorities to end abuse of and violation of the human rights of migrants in Libya.

Consistent attacks and abuse of other nationals (migrants) in Libya does not only threaten Africa’s unity, but the world at large. Urgent global attention must be channelled to this issue to ensure the preservation of the rights of migrants, and promotion of peace and stability in the region.

Olawale Rotimi Opeyemi, a journalist, currently he serves as the Special Assistant, Media and Communication to the Chairman of House Committee on Justice.

PAGE 13

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Comment

UN convoy attack and humanitarian work in Borno

By Bayo Olupohunda new but dangerous dimension has been added to the spate of terrorist attacks in the North-East – targeting of aid workers by the Boko Haram terror group. Last week, suspected Islamist Boko Haram militants ambushed a UN humanitarian aid convoy in the North-East. The military said three civilians, including a UN worker, and two soldiers were said to have been wounded in the attack.

According to a UNICEF’s report, “The convoy was travelling from Bama to Maiduguri in Borno State returning from delivering desperately needed assistance” at the time of the ambush. It further revealed, “This was not only an attack on humanitarian workers. It is an attack on the people who most need the assistance and aid that these workers were bringing.”

The attack has now prompted the UN to temporarily suspend aid deliveries in Borno State, where more than two million people have been displaced by the insurgency. This should be a source of grave concern to the Buhari-led administration which needs all the help it can get to rebuild the North-East and provide relief to thousands of internally displaced Nigerians currently suffering in camps across the zone.

While this attack might be the first of its kind by a terror group whose aim is to establish a caliphate and frustrate every effort to achieve a lasting peace in a zone laid waste by terror, it may however be a new shift in focus by Boko Haram.

After having been significantly decimated and weakened to carry out combat by the Nigerian military and multinational task force, the group had begun taking on soft targets. An attack on aid workers will frustrate all efforts to reach the victims of terror. The effect of this will be profound.

There is every reason to worry about Boko

Haram’s recent onslaught. A report by UNICEF had painted the state of misery of a zone where Boko Haram has killed more than 20, 000 people.

The picture painted by UNICEF is the reason why badly needed aid must be allowed to reach the victims of the terror war.

According to UNICEF, an estimated quarter of a million children in Borno State face severe malnourishment and risk death, as the scale of the humanitarian crisis caused by the Boko Haram emergency continues to unfold. As more areas in the North-East become accessible to humanitarian assistance, the extent of the nutrition crisis affecting children is becoming even more apparent.

The UN children’s agency had urged all partners to join the humanitarian response and donors to urgently provide resources. The report had further said that out of the 244,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno this year, an estimated 49,000 children – almost one in five – will die if they are not reached with treatment. “Some 134 children on average will die every day from causes linked to acute malnutrition if the response is not scaled up quickly. We need all partners and donors to step forward to prevent any more children from dying. No one can take on a crisis of this scale alone.” The report had also further revealed how displaced people, families with little access to adequate sanitation, water or food, and thousands of frail children are in desperate need of help. There are two million people that are still not able to reach in Borno State, which means that the true scope of this crisis has yet to be revealed to the world. There are organisations on the ground doing great work.

Before the recent attack and the suspension of aid by the UN, UNICEF had been working with partners to screen and treat children for

malnutrition and improve access to water and sanitation. Humanitarian response had also included providing medical care, immunisation, education and psychological support to the children affected by the violence. Yet, there are more frightening reasons why the Federal Government must provide security and a safe environment for local and international humanitarian coalition working to rebuild the North-East and alleviate the pains of those in displaced people’s camps.

Another report by the UN that the zone is on the verge of famine should spur a more decisive action by the government and its international partners to end the terror war and rebuild the North-East.

A starting point will be to provide access to aid workers to reach displaced people’s camps without the fear of attack by militants.

The Nigerian government cannot allow the humanitarian catastrophe that the North-East has become to worsen. A report in June by Medecins Sans Frontier had also revealed that a catastrophic humanitarian emergency was unfolding in a camp for Internally Displaced Persons. According to an on the spot assessment by the organisation, for several hours on June 21, an MSF medical team was able to access the town of Bama, where 24,000 people, including 15,000 children (among them 4,500 under-five years of age) were sheltered in a camp located on a hospital compound.

During those few hours, the MSF medical team discovered a health crisis – referring 16 severely malnourished children at immediate risk of death to the MSF in-patient therapeutic feeding centre in Maiduguri. A rapid nutritional screening of more than 800 children found that 19 per cent were suffering from severe acute malnutrition – the deadliest form of malnutrition. During its assessment, the MSF team counted 1,233 graves

located near the camp which had been dug in the past year.

Of those graves, 480 were for children. The MSF further revealed that since May 23, at least, 188 people have died in the camp – almost six people per day – mainly from diarrhoea and malnutrition. As the UN has suspended aid work in the zone, organisations like the MSF, UNICEF, USAID and others have stopped working because of concern for the safety of aid workers.

There are compelling reasons why the government must take urgent steps to address this new menace. Humanitarian aid workers have traditionally enjoyed both international legal protection, and de facto immunity from attack by belligerent parties. However, attacks on humanitarian workers have occasionally occurred, and become more frequent across the world in 2012 with 167 incidents of major violence against aid workers. This is attributed to a number of factors, including the increasing number of humanitarian workers deployed, the increasingly unstable environments in which they work, and the erosion of the perception of neutrality and independence.

The legal basis for protection of humanitarian workers in armed conflicts is contained in the Geneva Convention of 1949 and the related Protocols I and II of 1977 all of which Nigeria is a signatory. These treaties describe the category of civilians and outline the rights and obligations of non-combatants during armed conflicts. It thus behoves our government to protect and guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers who risk their lives in the frontlines to bring relief to the victims of terror.

Bayo Olupohunda is a Public Affairs Analyst.

How would interest rate hike affect Nigeria’s economy?

By Simon Irtwange

E

conomists and manufacturers react to the increase in the benchmark interest rate by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 12 to 14 per cent My view is that the hike in interest rate is not appropriate at this time. Business and the economy are grappling with too many shocks already, which are increasingly becoming impossible to bear.

I am referring to the shock from exchange rate depreciation, which has had a profound effect on operating costs across sectors, translating into high energy cost and acute shortage of gas affecting the operations of many industries. High interest rate has become a major burden for many investors and high non-performing loans are posing a serious risk to the stability of the financial system.

These challenges underscore the need for policies that would stimulate the economy. I appreciate the concern about inflation, which informed the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria. But the bigger worry is how to stimulate growth and rebuild confidence in the economy. I believe the private sector capital, both local and foreign, would respond positively if confidence is restored and investment opportunities are created. Positive expectations about returns on investment could offset short-term worries about interest rate rise. Eventually, an increase in productivity would ultimately improve output and moderate inflationary pressure.

As the CBN said, current inflationary pressure did not result from monetary factor; it is, therefore, unlikely that it could be fixed by monetary policy. It is largely driven by the fall of the naira, high energy cost and high transportation cost/import restrictions.

Tackling inflation could only be effectively done within the context of these factors.

It should also be acknowledged that monetary policy instruments cannot solve all the problems. It would be overambitious of the monetary authorities to aim at doing this.

What the CBN did was actually the right thing

to do, especially with the inflation rate hitting 16.5 per cent. If it failed to do that, attracting investment would not be possible. But for manufacturers, the implication is that interest rate would go up, and the cost of borrowing would increase.

Manufacturers would have to borrow money at a higher rate, which is against the clamour for a singledigit interest rate. The cost of doing business would increase. This should be a thing of concern to us.

We would continue to talk to government to see how it could establish a special window for manufacturers to access funds at a single-digit interest rate. This is the only way out of the current challenge. We should set up more development banks in addition to the Bank of Industry so that there could be cheap loanable funds for manufacturers.

The CBN has several programmes that are aimed at assisting industrialists. But they have not taken off. It is our hope that the CBN would implement the programmes.

Personally, I think it is too early to predict how the decision would affect the economy. It has to be tested first. But I don’t think it would do the economy much good. Some public policies appear good on their face value while their implementation may turn out to be counterproductive.

Increasing interest rate means increasing the cost of borrowing. If the cost of funds goes up, local production would suffer. Increasing interest rate is not consistent with the plan to increase local production. So, I think it is a wrong move, which the CBN needs to revisit.

One of the constraints to small-scale enterprises is high interest rate. Big companies may survive it but it would pose a serious challenge to small enterprises.

The government seems to look outside, not within, for economic growth. That is bad. Every country should assess its economic performance based on local production and not what outsiders would contribute.

It sounds funny whenever government says it wants to mop up excess liquidity. Commercial banks

would warehouse funds that are not accessible, yet government complains of excess liquidity.

I think Nigeria has a serious systematic problem that needs to be looked at holistically.

The Federal Government is planning to increase the Value Added Tax while commercial loans are unaffordable. We are merely squeezing the industrial sector.

What would happen is that Chinese products would continue to flood the market while local manufacturers suffer. That is bad for the labour market.

Government and public agencies should know that protectionism is becoming a popular model because countries want to boost employment and help their people to create wealth. We cannot continue to please foreign investors at the expense of local investment opportunities that would create more jobs for the citizens.

What value do the so-called foreign investors add to local industries and citizens? What proportion of their services or raw materials do they source from the local market?

It is time Nigeria looked inward for economic growth. Some Asian countries, at a point, closed their borders against foreigners. Today, they are better. This is what Nigeria needs to do. Why should the CBN increase interest rate in a country that is struggling to grow its productive capacity?

Before the monetary policy committee’s meeting, most analysts anticipated that, given the current economic challenges, the old rate would be maintained. Unemployment rate is going up while the economy went into recession in the second quarter of the year.

Inflation is not necessarily caused by excess money supply. In Nigeria’s case, the current inflation is imported. It is a response to scarce foreign exchange. One would have thought that the Central Bank of Nigeria would consider the growth option, which implies that it would have cut interest rate in order to move the economy out of recession. But in its wisdom, the apex bank

considered that increasing interest rate would attract foreign capital and help to douse the forex challenge. In this light, the CBN thinks that the imported inflationary pressure would ease, thus enabling local manufacturers and other end-users of forex to have access.

But the thinking of foreign portfolio investors may be different. The money market may be attractive to the international market. But what about the foreign reserve? What happens when they want to repatriate their funds? The risks are still very high.

The expectation is that the fiscal authority would rejig the economy. There must be complementary efforts by both fiscal and monetary authorities. If they are able to attract foreign investors, the tension in the forex market would ease.

Theoretically, when interest rate rises, the cost of borrowing goes up. In the short run, business finds it difficult to cope. That means companies would begin to lay off workers. Under a highinterest rate environment, the stock market may also suffer. So, we expect the market to be bearish because investors would move their assets to the money market.

Now, treasury bills have gone up to about 16 per cent; bond yields are also expected to rise.

What that means is that banks may not want to lend; they may want to play in the treasury and bond markets. That means the real sector would not have access to credit. Also, current debtors may not be able to repay their loans because of the high interest rate. This is because they would need to reprice their loans. Given this scenario, nonperforming loans would increase.

Prof Simon Irtwange is of the Dept of Agric & Environmental Engineering University of Agric. Makurdi & visiting lecturer Dept of Agric & Bioresources Engineering Ghana.

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

PAGE 14

News Don proffers solution to poor electricity supply

Wife of the President of the Senate and Founder, Welbeing Foundation Africa, Dr. Tosin Bukola Saraki (middle); Chairman, Civil Society Scaling-up Nutrition in Nigeria, CS-SUNN, Prof.

Ngozi Nnam (right) and Dr. Olayinka Adekugbe of Save the Children, during a one day Sensitisation meeting for stakeholders to scale-up nutrition at national level on Wednesday in Abuja . Photo: Justrin Imo-Owo

From Yakubu Mustapha,Minna

T

he Federal government has been charged to declare state of emergency in the power sector by making it its crucial agenda in the next few years so as to enhance the desired national economic development.

The Vice Chancellor, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Professor Muhammad Nasir Maiturare made the pledge while addressing the 2nd National Conference on effective Information Management and Social Security for Sustainable Development organized by the Department of Business Administration of the Institution.

Prof. Maiturare further said that sustainable development can not be achieved without adequate and reliable power supply, hence the need for government to declare total war against blackout in the country.

He noted that the present poor electricity supply experienced in the country was posing major impediment to the operation and growth of all the sectors of the economy especially in Niger State.

The VC therefore appealed to the Niger State government to prevail on the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company AEDC and other relevant stakeholders in the power sector to consider the peculiar position of Niger State.

He called on the AEDC management to consider IBBU Lapai among its valuable consumers by making available regular power supply to the Institution as soon as possible.

Fashola

Breastfeeding cornerstone for child health-UNICEF From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

U

NICEF has described breast feeding as the cornerstone of healthy children that saves the life of children and develops strong immunity for their bodies.

The Chief of Field Officer, UNICEF Nigeria, Bauchi field office, Dr. Abdulai Kaikai stated this during the flag-off ceremony of Bauchi state world breastfeeding week at Miri PHC Bauchi yesterday.

Dr. Kaikai represented by UNICEF Education Specialist, Dr. Mairama

Bukar Dikwa said that breastfeeding is one of the most effective and cost effective ways to save and improve the lives of children everywhere and also yielding lifelong health benefits for infants and their mothers.

According to him, “it is clear that breastfeeding is not only the cornerstone of a child’s healthy development, it is also the foundation of a state development.

In fact supporting breastfeeding is one of the smartest investment states for well-being of their children and thus securing the

lives of the children for better future and good of society”.

In his remarks, the chairman, Bauchi state Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Adamu Gamawa said that Bauchi state government has committed twenty seven million (N27mn) for the procurement of nutritional food therapy in the state.

He said that, newborn nutrition is critical component of maternal newborn and child health.

Dr. Gamawa also called on

mothers, husbands and other family members to allow mothers to breastfeed their children at any time of the day saying it would help the children to grow to their full potentials.

According to him, “breastfeeding up to the age of two years it would save about eight hundred children lives yearly”.

He said other benefits of breastfeeding include bonding of mother and baby, affordable and prevent mothers from finger our cancers.

Niger library gets supplementary budget after decades of neglect From Yakubu Mustapha,Minna.

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he Niger state government has approved a supplementary budget to resuscitate its state library that has been neglected in the last sixteen years of Peoples Democratic Party led administration in the state.

The State Commissioner of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Jonathan Tsado Vatsa made the disclosure at an annual conference/ AGM of Nigerian Library Association NLA, Niger State Chapter held at College Of Education COE Minna.

Vatsa lamented over the level

of decayed the present government inherited in the state library that called for urgent attention but there was no budget provision hence the need for supplementary budget to revived the state library to standard.

He charged Nigerians especially the youths and students to imbibed the culture of reading adding that it’s when one reads that he or she discovered their potentials not only through teachers or lecturers but through hard work.

The Commissioner who appreciated the organizers saying that education is the only basic rock of every civilization calling for stakeholders

encouragement in supporting maximally education sector in Nigeria.

The Provost of College of Education, Prof. Faruk Rasheed Haruna decried the non reading culture amongst the students called for urgent reversal.

Prof Haruna noted that already the institution has set up committee through various programs to encouraged the reading culture among the students.

He charged stakeholders not to leave the business of education in the hands of government alone but should come to the aid financially, logistically

and otherwise so as to safeguard the future leaders.

The Chairman of the event and former National chairman of NLA Abuja, Alhaji Wali Muazu Halidu who appreciated the concerns of the association said that its a constitutional right to annually organized such event with the view to cross fertilized ideas, strategize.

He told the gathering to seized the opportunity of the national body to harness the services available to include training and retraining of their staff to the development of library industry in the country.

Nigeria Army engineers urged to uphold professionalism From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

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he Nigerian Army Engineers (NAE) have been challenged to continue to uphold excellence in actualization of the Chief of Army Staff’s COAS, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai’s policy.

Commander Corps of Engineers (CCE) Maj. Gen. Edmond Obi gave this charge yesterday in Makurdi at the commencement of a 3 - day Commander of Engineers’ Conference held at the Nigeria Army School of Military Engineering (NASME).

He stated that the COAS has shown great commitment in improving professionalism as well as moral of officers in the country and as such, his effort should be complimented by them through display of professional manners.

Maj. Gen Obi intimated that

the aim of the conference with the theme, ‘Toward a professionally Competent NAE’, is aimed at appraising the implementation of the CCE program for 2016 and their performance in the ongoing operation in the North eastern part of Nigeria.

The CCE averred that NAE

also, engaged in construction of bridges and camps in the north east operation, adding that they carried research development.

The Commandant, NASME Maj. Gen. Adekunle Shodunke said the conference is meant to share ideas on development of the Nigeria Army Engineers

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

We only make adjustments to budget not padding, says ex-Rep

By Umar Muhammad Puma

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former lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Hon. Eseme Eyibo, yesterday said that there is nothing like budget padding hence, adjustments must be made before it is passed into law.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Eyibo explained that based on section 80 (4) of the constitution, the budget proposals sent by the executive to the national assembly gives room for adjustments by the latter.

“I have read from traditional and new media one language which is strange in the context of our understanding our legislature which is the word padding.

“I know padding is associated with tailoring, fashion but I am not conversant with the word padding as it is associated to appropriation process.

“It becomes difficult for an average man in the street to understand that in the course of budget preparation and the input of the legislature, there would definitely be the issue of adjustment, the adjustment could be deleted or added and something could be allowed to serve as it were.

“There are bound to be indiscretion and how can this indiscretion be taken care of, the essence for the public procurement act was to enforce the principle of accountability and thin out possibility of corruption but the challenge has there been the enforcement or compliance, the full principles of the public procurement act.

“In our own understanding, the budget proposals as presented by the executive was intended to come through the legislature so that the issue of checks and balances, separation of powers would be strengthened and when that is done, that does not take away the input and contribution of the legislature into that proposal and if that were so they wouldn’t have been a pre budget meeting or oversight.”

He stated that the integrity of the institution of the legislature must be protected despite the issues it may have.

Eyibo further appealed to the Nigerian public to give a chance to the legislature.

I’ll win again-Gov Bello From Ahmad Ibrahim, Lokoja

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overnor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has expressed confidence that he would emerge victorious again, as the final onslaught on the post election tussle shifts to the apex court.

He however called on his predecessor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Captain Idris Wada and Hon. James Faleke, the running mate to late Prince Abubakar Audu in the November

21, 2015 governorship election in the state, to sheath their swords and join hands with him to move the state forward.

In a brief ceremony to mark the victory with his kitchen cabinet, governor Bello urged Captain Wada and Faleke to change their course of struggle and come over in order to pull ideas together so as to pull the state out of the woods.

He further posited that the soul of late Abubakar Audu, the APC leader in the state could only be at

peace if he (Faleke) could shift his ground and reconcile issues with his administration.

While disclosing that the state is currently confronted with challenges of heinous crimes like Kidnapping, armed robbery, youth restiveness and insecurity, governor Bello emphasized the need for support of all in order to nip these problems in the bud.

Governor Bello dedicated his victory to God and to the people of the state saying, “victory is in the

hands of God, stressing that God doesn’t do things half way, as He always completes it”.

According to him, “this victory is not our making, but God Almighty”, promising to strive to uplift the living condition of the people, most of whom are living in abject poverty.

He assured he would not betray the confidence reposed in him, even as he solicited for the cooperation of the people in his determined efforts to put the state on sound economic pedestal.

Delta Speaker dismisses critics, says Ibori performed well From Osakare Erese, Asaba

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he Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Hon Monday Igbuya has paid

glowing tribute to the former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, saying the exgovernor worked to improve the economic well-being and

deserves more credit in this respect.

“Chief James Onanefe Ibori occupies a special place in the hearts of the people. He is a true

L-R: Director of organisation, All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abubakar Karri; APC Ondo state governorship aspirant Mr. Moyosola Niran and Party’s National organizing Secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso, when the aspirant collected his nomination forms at the APC national secretariat, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Mahmud Isa

Deltan and will always be noted in history as such.”

In a message to the exgovernor on his 58th birthday, Igbuya described Ibori as a distinguished Nigerian.

“Chief James Ibori is an outstanding Nigerian.

He epitomizes many good things” he said.

Igbuya who recalled Ibori’s achievements, services to community, to the state and the country in general said the ex-governor; apart from performing the task of governance well, guided the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to victory in 2007.

“Chief James Ibori is a good political leader” He praised the former governor for creating so much impact in the country, particularly Delta State.

Specifically, he commended the ex-governor for improving the state’s education system, providing better roads, building bridges, facilitating the training of Deltans in local and foreign universities and providing selfless service to mankind.

Alleged budget padding: Nigerians in Diaspora ask Jibri to stop embarrassing actions

By Stanley Onyekwere

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he United Kingdom chapter of the Nigerians in the Diaspora Monitoring Group has lampooned the embattled former chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, over his actions and utterances, in the wake of the alleged padding of the 2016 national budget.

The group also lashed out at Jibrin, saying his actions since his ouster as the Chairman of House committee on Appropriation, has become an embarrassment to the country in the comity of nations.

In an electronic message to journalists, UK Representative of the group, Adeka Onyila said

it is sad that at a time when parliaments of other nations are exploring ways to protect their economies from the global slowdown, our lawmakers are robbing the populace in the name of working on the budget.

He accused Jibrin of attacking the leadership of the House as a form of defence, warning that such antics has failed as Nigerians are now wiser.

“Instead of showing remorse as one would expect in 2016 Nigeria he went on denial – first he claimed he resigned and not sacked only for him to turn around and start making spurious accusations against others.

“We hereby call on members of the House of Representatives,

the disgruntled ones, to stop giving Nigeria a bad name abroad. We say this because we have observed with alarm that some of them are lining up behind Jibrin to back him against the house leadership when he should be censured.

“We rather demand that the Speaker of the House, Honorable Yakubu Dogara should be commended for triggering the anti-corruption fight in the National Assembly and having the political will to challenge the status quo by relieving the former Appropriation Chairman of his post,” the group stressed.

The group urged the people of Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano State to immediately commence the recall of Jibrin

in the spirit of joining the fight against corruption.

The group wondered why Jibrin will be the one petitioning the anti-corruption agencies, adding that Jibrin must withdraw his so called petitions to the EFCC and the DSS so that neutral NGOs or lawmakers without vested interests should be the one to initiate the demand for investigation.

“All his gimmick of claiming he resigned as opposed to being sacked, his inglorious petitions to anticorruption agencies and the barrage of media propaganda are merely his own idea of acting fast to gain the sympathy of constituents and to avoid possible arrest with the consequent prosecution.”

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Politics APC chieftain cautions Buhari on appointments

By Ali Abare Abubakar

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Chieftain of APC in Cross River State, who is also the leader of “Family 2 Family” campaign group of the Buhari Support Organizations, Prince Paul Obi, has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari to beware of shady characters whose appointment to public office will be counterproductive for the administration.

Having lauded President Buhari on the appointment of

Barrister Okoi Ofem Obono Obla into the Board of the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), Obi however condemned the choice Senator Victor Ndoma Egba for the chairmanship position of Niger Delta Development Commission (DDC).

“I am calling on the President to withdraw his nomination of Victor Ndoma Egba. I believe that the President was misled in this appointment.

“I want to draw the attention

of the president to the facts: Senator Ndoma Egba played very sensitive roles in the past regime.

He never saw anything wrong with his party (the PDP) and president Jonathan. He protected all the recklessness and evil done by that Government in the 7th Senate.

“He never came up one day to tell Nigerians that something was wrong. What is the integrity and Statesmanship in him?

“The roles he played in PDP is being likened to the roles played

by Generals that fought with Hitler in the World War. Worse still, Senator Egba sponsored destructive campaigns against President Buhari and APC. His supporters beat up APC agents in his community (Akparabong, in Ikom LGA) and fines were paid.

“Ndoma Egba’s camp circulated bulk SMS describing President Buhari as old and wicked and told the people of Cross River State that Buhari was an extremist. I am very sure the president in his wisdom did

not check the person of Senator Ndoma Egba’s background or was misled.

“This appointment is greeted in the APC Cross River with a lot of anger and capable of causing serious trouble in the state. We have party leaders who believed in Buhari since 2003 such as Mr Wabilly Nyiam, Hon. Dr Mike Ogar, we have Dr Ntete Duke who served as DG campaigns,” he stated.

He said “we will not endure the humiliation we got from Senator Ndoma Egba and his style of PDP during elections and come back to pay loyalty to him. Almighty Allah will never allow it happen.”

Business tycoon, Jimoh Ibrahim, to run for Ondo guber

By Ahmed Abubakar

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• Ministers duringthe Federal Executive Council meeting at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday in Abuja

Kaduna govt nominates Balaraba as Commissioner for Rural Development From Mohammad Kaduna

K

Ibrahim,

aduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has nominated Mrs. Balaraba Aliyu-Inuwa, as the Commissioner for the newly created Ministry of Rural and Community Development.

Her nomination is subject to confirmation by the Kaduna State House of Assembly.

The Governor has also signed the legal notice creating the new ministry, bringing to 14 the number of ministries of the state

government.

Balaraba Aliyu-Inuwa is the current Special Adviser to the Governor on Rural and Community Development.

In that role, she has been the principal official driving the governments rural and community development agenda.

She has been coordinating the design and delivery of the Kaduna Rural Development Program (KRDP), along with efforts to identify and develop the poorest and most marginalized communities in Kaduna State.

She has also been advising the

state government on localizing the Sustainable Development Goals and developing strategies and approaches to combating poverty at community level Mrs. Aliyu-Inuwa has worked as the Education Specialist and Deputy Programme Director for the Earth Institute, Columbia University on the Nigeria MDG Scale-up Programme based in Abuja.

She is a development practitioner specializing in education, and has worked in the public and private sectors as well as civil society. For four years, she

was the Technical Advisor to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs in Nigeria.

She has also worked as the International Education Programme and Shared Learning Coordinator for Actionaid International, and was a consultant for the Federal Ministry of Education on the Education for All Initiative.

A graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, she is a trustee of the Centre for Policy Research and Development Solutions and serves as an advisor to numerous NGOs.

business tycoon, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim has indicated interest to run for the forth coming Ondo state governorship race under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Making the declaration yesterday shortly after the international business tycoon received the Ondo state expression of interest and nomination form said he is contesting to turn around the state of things in the state.

Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim assured the supporters that accompanied him to the factional secretariat under Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff that he will upset all the outstanding salaries owed workers in the state within his first 100 days in office.

He argued that as successful businessman he has what it takes to transform the state from its present neglected situation adding that, “Ondo has in abundance resources that if properly harnessed could provide options for the development of the state”.

He said among his major priorities are to create job opportunities for graduates in the state through revamping of the entrepreneurial sector.

Earlier, the embattled PDP former National Chairman, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff said he knows Jimo Ibrahim way back and is confident that the Ondo state people would not have any course to regret their action.

PAGE 17

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Interview

Buhari: Lone ranger in fight moral decadence -Mallam Abdulkarim Mallam Abdulkarim Abdullahi Muhammad is a social commentator and former principal of the NTA Television College Jos. In this interview with Ali Abare Abubakar, Abdulkarim spoke on the ongoing anti-graft war by the President Buhari administration among other issues.

Recently, there are allegations of budget padding in the 2016 Appropriation by the leadership of the House of Representatives, with principals officers said to have conspired and to shortchange the country with money running into billions. What is your take on this unfolding drama?

For a very long time, on the pages of your newspaper as well as others, I have always raised fundamental issues regarding the level of moral bankruptcy in our country. I have, even during the PDP years of impunity, raised fundamental issues which relates to the conduct and behavior of our elites. The elites have always been the major destabilizing forces in the country, because there are political, economic or social elites.

What has taken place is an obvious display of that impunity in whatever form.

I’m however sad to note that President Buhari has become a lone ranger in the fight against moral decay, moral bankruptcy. In fact, the war Buhari is waging is similar to the stories in the Old Testaments, about the fall of morality in the society. It has become, I’m happy with the way you put it, a conspiracy, they have conspired. This has been the war Buhari has been facing. As he tries to correct our misdemeanor, the same forces that are supposed to assist him, will conspire and gang up against his

efforts.

That has come out, we’ve seen series of attempts to undermine the effort of this dogged moral crusader. It’s sad. Unfortunately, the manifestation displayed by the elites seems to have been accepted by the society as normal behavior. It’s the strangest thing I have seen in this world. Abnormalities by the powerful have come to be taken as the order of the day.

You described the President as a lone ranger, how do you foresee the success of his moral campaign when he’s apparently surrounded by wolves in sheep clothing?

Of course, it’s a grand design, a grand conspiracy just like you said. For a long time, Buhari has become the only hero, of course, with the ordinary people. Let me not say only Buhari but he’s the arrowhead of the struggle to liberate Nigeria from the grip of the wanton moral decay the PDP had unleashed during the 16 years the party held sway. This resistance being shown is only a tip of the iceberg because most people inside have been colonized.

There have been a cancerous colonization of the Nigerian mindset, government’s property have become individuals right for those in authority. The lavish ornamental code that people display is to use ill gotten wealth. Buhari has been able to, from unfolding events, excavated

the tunnels. We can now see money meant for the building of hospitals that has led to the deaths of innocent peasants, was siphoned. Money meant for the education of the poor, just like it happened during the Sardauna era, was diverted.

The height of cynicism in Nigeria now is similar to that contained in the gospels and how the prophets fought to legitimize the ordinance of God over the ordinance of greed and men. The strong force of romantic malfeasance and moral decadence in our society have reached frightening proportions, to the extent, that, most Nigerians have become immune, as virtual hostage to these perversions.

The average Nigerian has become a heedless purveyor of criminality and is enamored of the qualities of his intrinsic human values! It is not an exaggeration, to posit, that, all is not well with Nigeria and Nigerians.

Contemporary events in Nigeria seem to echo some of the testimonies in the holy books, which several preachers have identified and anchored, as the manifestations of ugly signs that portend the coming of end times! Whether this description and prescription tie-up to our current reality or not, there is no denying the facts, that, the challenges paused by the increasing wave of moral decay in our country, which President Muhammad Buhari has vowed to eradicate, deserves our unified and collective support; which is totally at variance with the gross display of

• Mallam Abdulkarim Abdullahi Muhammad mockery and cynicism in the media, daily exhibited by the PDP and its partisan agents, who, after all, are the harbingers of these evil pestilence, in our country.

You have always advocated for a role for the youths, particularly those at the grass root. With the call by the Buhari administration to go back to agriculture, there are fears that the elites, who are mostly portfolio farmers,

may eventually hijack policies meant to revive agriculture in the country. What is your take on this?

Actually, the country is under the mandate of the moral hijackers, the portfolio farmers, they have been the reason why Nigerian agriculture failed beyond primitive level. They have been enjoying the luxury of exclusive subsidy. You have given the correct perspective about what’s happening in our country. In spite of Buhari’s effort, in spite of the great design he has to emancipate the rural farmers, for whom his new agricultural vision has been unfolded but who have been excluded.

I have been holding sessions, the Fulani group who have been treated with some form of hostility all over, even when they have their own rights, most of the crises was not as a result of their making, but systematic flaws.

Even during colonial times, there were identified ways to mitigate crisis between the Fulani and farming communities which have been negated. The problem in agriculture is that unless the gangsters that hold the sector to ransom, civil servants that have become the undertakers of agricultural revolution for years because of the greed factor. Unless they are done away with or completely insulated from any direct role in the implementation of the Buhari agricultural scheme, we will never reach our destination.

Reducing MPR is key to fighting recession Cont. from page 48 That explains why to help our economy not to allow the hovering recession to finally land, we need to pump trillions of naira into infrastructure projects and trillions of naira into social intervention policies so as to make more money made available to our poor citizens could boost their purchasing power, which if happens will make these cash strapped citizens starting consuming, not imported goods and services but mostly locally made goods. And by so consuming locally made goods more money will get into the hands of the local makers and as a result kick-start the once excluded grassroots economy.

But to kick-start local economic activities, government should discourage the present floods of imports, including systematically imposing tariffs to deny importers not only access to official forex, but possibly also deny them access to our huge consumer market through goods confiscation should be praised and supported by all Nigerians. This way, imported goods dumpers should either relocate their factories to Nigeria or they lose access to our consumer market. While we welcome this new

policy measure, we should insist that government should expand the current local content policy by insisting that henceforth 80% of the goods displayed and sold in supermarkets and other sellers should be locally sourced from indigenous producers. Our local content policy should go further to insist on all contracts paid for with taxpayers’ money should only be awarded to companies that are not only 100% indigenously owned, but also 100% Nigerian management. No doubt, local content policy accompanied with focused economic patriotism that insists on buying made in Nigeria goods, in no distant time, the current import pressure on our scarce forex and the accompanying imported inflation would eventually disappear.

But to ensure that the recession that has been hovering around our economy never lands, like what Roosevelt did in 1930s to bring to an end America’s great depression, averting recession in Nigeria requires President Buhari injecting a minimum of N3tn annually into the country’s grassroots economy. Just like Roosevelt’s social welfare policies, Buhari’s social interventionist policies too should besides making the school feeding program a priority, monthly stipends of

not less than N10,000 (instead of N5,000) given to millions of our poor families, widows, elderly, mentally and physically challenged Nigerians should be promoted with the rigor it requires. Injecting huge liquidity into the economy, besides being the secret magic wand, flooding the economy with new money undoubtedly is what is needed to kick-start economic recovery, especially when driven by grassroots-led economic growth.

Should the country’s huge informal economy be made to lead the economic recovery and growth, besides reversing the current import pressures on the economy, empowering local farmers, food sellers, craftsmen, small manufacturers, small shop-owners, small transporters, etc. it will generate unprecedented trickle-down effect along with high multiplier effect with the overall result rather than being recessionary pressures is a sustainable economic boom.

This economic empowerment of majority of our citizens by increasing the purchasing power of the economically excluded is the magic wand which increasing their consumer power should increase production and new jobs.

In other words, if by empowering the marginalised and excluded millions of Americans by signing into law on August

14, 1935, an act that replaced laissez-faire capitalism with social welfare capitalism, America’s deep-seated economic malaise was finally resolved, why shouldn’t we adopt this method?

If government should boldly spend trillions of naira in increasing the purchasing power of millions of Nigeria’s poorest of the poor, rather than increasing consumption that increase imported goods, will grow demand for locally made goods and definitely encourage local producers of locally made goods to produce and sell more.

And by empowering local producers and sellers, it will trigger the expansion and modernization of local production along local hiring of new hands to help them out. The good news is that unlike inflation caused by imported goods, the inflation caused by increasing liquidity that empowers grassroots economy is that the inflation it generates is, in fact, a healthy inflation which is inevitable in growing and diversifying such an emerging economy.

Enwegbara, a development economist and Chairman/CEO at PADCC can be reached at:basil_ enwegbara@yahoo.com or 07038501486

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Politics

State govt not responsible for LG wages —Oshiomhole From Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

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overnor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has said the state government is not responsible for the failure of local government authorities to pay their workers, explaining that he meets the monthly wage obligation to the state workers and that council workers must be paid by their respective Local Governments and not by the state government.

He stated this when he received the National leadership of the National Union of Local Government Workers (NULGE), led by its National President, Khaleel Ibrahim.

“I want to say it clearly that Edo State Government does not have the responsibility of paying the salaries of Local governments.

“I am not, and I will not collect taxes from people to pay Local Government workers. I don’t know what they do in other states, but in Edo State, we respect the full autonomy of Local Governments and this autonomy goes with responsibility. I

challenge your union leaders to show any evidence to the contrary.

“Under the previous administration, the revenue of Local Governments was being spent on their behalf by the state government. They even bought second-hand tractors at an inflated price and distributed to Local Governments and deducted the money from Local Government funds that is what the PDP was doing.

The union in Edo State did not raise a voice.

“Just last week, the traditional rulers in Esanland said the best the then government did for them was to give them a loan of five hundred thousand to buy cars at that time and they deducted the money from Local Governments, the union leaders did not raise a voice.

“What have I done since I came in, first I discovered that during the tenure of my predecessors, Local Governments in Edo State had a tradition of collecting a percentage of their money and paying to the previous government before they

got their allocation, I said no, this government will not touch Local Government money.

“Local government money will be managed by LG for the benefit of the people in your localities. So I challenge your union to prove anything to the contrary. I have not done any procurement for Local Governments; “I have not done employment for Local Government, I have sat down to make any transfers for Local Governments, I have not in any way interfered in the funds of Local Governments. Therefore, if Local Governments cannot manage their money they only have themselves to blame.

“Number two, and I speak with every sense of responsibility and I challenge NULGE (National Union of Local Government Employees), Edo State to prove to the contrary.

When they had this kind of situation in 2010 or 2011 when the tenure of the Local Governments expired, they asked their own fellow members who

are Heads of Service — and next time you don’t call a meeting like this without inviting those responsible for managing the Local Government, I am not going to take Panadol for another man’s headache — on that occasion we appointed Heads of Personnel in the respective Local Governments, not appointed by us, we met them on the job, and we asked them to manage those Local Governments instead of appointing politicians.

“And I stopped them from awarding any contract, I stopped them paying any money, I even stopped them from paying the Police, Traditional rulers and so on. Mr President, I am proud to say that we saved over N6 billion for the LGs because I directed the Heads of Personnel not to spend the money, and as a result, the arrears of salaries that were being owed the LGs were paid in full.

“This last Local Government that their tenure expired over two months ago inherited over N6 billion. I don’t know any state government that will

• L-R: Gov. Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state; Chairman, Board of Kaduna state Development and Property Company, Alhaji Lawa Yakawada, and Chairman, Board of Kaduna state Market Development Company, Alhaji Shuaibu Idris, during the inauguration of Kaduna state Board of Parastatals on Tuesdya in Kaduna

PDP leaders rally Igbinedion’s kinsmen to vote Ize-Iyamu From Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

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eaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, Edo state chapter have reached a deal with the kinsmen of the Esama of Benin, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, to vote Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu in the September 10th 2016 governorship election in the state.

They also berated the state Governor, Adams Oshiomhole for

arrogating to himself the roles of the spokesman to the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate, Godwin Obaseki, during campaign rallies.

State chairman of the party disclosed this at the PDP mass rally for the September 10, governorship election in Okada, headquarters of Ovia North-East local government.

According g to him, the rally brings to 58, the party’s visit to

towns across the state and “our destination is Edo Government House in Benin City.”

Addressing the cheering crowd at the rally, yesterday, the PDP candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu assured the people of agriculture, jobs, electricity and infrastructures if voted to power.

“We have document showing our agenda, I challenged the APC to present theirs”, he said.

On her part, the member representing the area at the lower chamber, Lady Omosede Igbinedion, said Governor Oshiomhole has under-developed the constituency.

“When I wanted to light up Ohen community as part of my constituency project, they asked me to stop. They also came three times to stop the construction of Ohu road,” Omosede stated.

save money for Local Governments.

As we speak today, the amount that is allocated to each Local Government is stated right from Abuja.

“It is not repartitioned in Edo State. I insist that no matter the situation, Local Governments must at least perform one of their most basic responsibilities, namely the payment of teachers’ salaries. If Local Governments cannot pay teachers’ salaries then we should abolish them.

“They were not created because they wanted to pay Local Government employees, if they are not involved in cleaning market and they are not; they are not involved in grading roads and they are not; they are not involved in sanitation work which they are supposed to be doing and all they want is meeting once every month and sharing money, that is unacceptable to Edo State government.

“I cannot carry my headache and carry their headache, I am not here to pay salaries, I am here to work for Edo people.”

On the salaries of Egor Local Government, Oshiomhole said “due to the incompetence of the Local Government workers themselves, the treasurer, the Head of Personnel, etcetera, they did not make their claim when others were making their own.

Earlier, National President of NULGE, Khaleel Ibrahim said they were in the state because of their members in Edo State.

“The national leadership is sincerely not very happy and we find it very difficult to remain in Abuja while our members do not get their salaries some up to 18 months.

“The truth of the matter is that we are here to support the unpaid, hungry local government workers of Edo state and we know that something is going to be done about it.”

Edo 2016: CPP swaps candidate From Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

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itizens Popular Party has swapped its candidate for the September 10th 2016 governorship election in Edo state.

Pastor David Okoror, emerged when Roy Oribhabor, who was formerly the party’s standard bearer, yielded the position, becoming the state chairman of the party.

The resolution which has the mandate of the hierarchy of the party was reached at a meeting to review the winning strategy for the party in Benin City, the state capital.

In a remark, Oribhabor, attributed the reason to urgent “political arrangement” to secure a winning streak for CPP in the forth coming poll.

The chairman tasked members of the party to remain committed to electioneering and put away all forms of grievances for the overall interest of the party.

Page 19

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

President, Town planners Registration Council of Nigeria (TOPREC), TPL. Prof. Layi Egunjobi (Middle), Member House of Representatives, Hon. Mohammed Sani Abdu,(R) and Registrar of TOPREC,TPL. Ibrahim Yunuss, at the 29th Induction ceremony of Newly Members of TOPREC, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Justin Imo-owo

Nigeria, spain to strengthen trade ties around oil, gas ...as NNPC moves to boost domestic gas consumption

By Etuka Sunday

N

igeria and Spain yesterday pledged to strengthen their existing bilateral trade relationship around Oil and Gas Industry for the benefit of the two countries.

Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Kachalla Baru stated this while receiving the Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Alfonso Barnuevo to the NNPC Towers in Abuja.

According to the GMD, NNPC as an integrated Oil and Gas Company is currently undergoing transformation which includes increasing the Corporation’s refining capacity.

He added that the Corporation would work closely with the Spanish National Oil Company, REPSOL to improve the technical capacities of the refineries.

“As you know, we have challenges with our refineries and with REPSOL refining about 900,000 barrels of crude oil per day, we can collaborate on that, going forward,”

Dr. Baru noted.

“While we are fixing our refineries, we also have the opportunity to bring in more petroleum products into the country to meet our domestic needs,” he added.

He stated that the Corporation was partnering well with some Spanish companies in the area of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) also known as cooking gas.

A statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mal. Garba Deen Muhammad said, the GMD also expressed NNPC’s desire to

boost safer energy utilisation in the country through promoting LPG consumption.

He stated that the NNPC was also working on the Trans Sahara Gas Pipeline Project and would rely on the technical support of some Spanish companies towards addressing the challenges of gas supply.

Earlier, Ambassador Barnuevo said Nigeria and Spain have an established cordial relationship dating back to over three decades.

“This visit is to further strengthen these good ties between our nations and in particular, between NNPC and REPSOL,” Ambassador Barvueno stated.

According to him, Spain is Nigeria’s 2nd best client in the area of oil and gas. The country currently buys about 4.6billion Euros worth of oil and gas from Nigeria.

He explained that in the first Quarter of 2015, Spain represents 9 per cent of the total export from Nigeria.

“Therefore, NNPC and REPSOL will benefit tremendously from sustaining this collaboration,’ the Ambassador added.

CSO chides FG over importation of substandard products

By Ahmed Abubakar

A

Civil Society Organisation (CSO), the Center for Policy Advocacy and Leadership Development (CPALD) has urged the Federal Government to help tackle high rate of importantion of substandard products into Nigeria.

This is contained in the CPALD letter to President Mohammadu Buhari, which was signed by the centre National Coordinator, Mr Richard Leke, and made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.

Leke said, in addressing importation of substandard products into the country, the federal government should ensure that certain organisations such the Standard Organization of Nigeria

(SON) were trusted in the hands of competent persons.

He said that the activities of the centre has exposed it to alarming rate of substandard products being consumed in Nigeria, “which a larger percentage are imported. “ These we all know is critical to the health and safety of Nigerians.

“Hence,sensitive agency as SON requires an assertive leadership with administrative capacity, professionalism and the will to actualize the mandate of such agencies,” Leke said.

He said that this had prompted the CSO to engage in an independent background investigation of some sensitive government agencies.

“It is our desire and belief to see this admin-

istration succeed and the need of a professional hand and assertive leadership to address the alarming rate of importation of substandard products.

“Our action is also to protect local initiatives and industries as well as enhancing employment generation in Nigeria,” he said.

The CSO who expressed confidence in the capacity of Dr Paul Angya, the acting Director General of SON, in leading the agency to carry out the mandate urged President Buhari to confirm him as substantive head of the agency.

“The appraisal forum of our organization in collaboration with UNESCO Centre Abuja and coalition of Civil Society Organizations unanimously resolved to appeal to your excellency to confirm

Angya.

“Angya who has been part of the organization since the year 2000, a lawyer by profession, holds a Ph.D. in Law, specializing in standardization and quality regulation.

“He has demonstrated zero tolerance for substandard products most especially life-endangering ones. “ He is a foremost expert in the area of standardization and consumer protection law.

“Dr. Angya propounds the theory that “consumer safety and protection as well as industrial development and national economic prosperity begin with the work of standardization and quality regulation of systems, processes, services, materials and products,” he added.

Page 20

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Business From Ibrahim Sidi Muh’d, Gusau

T

he Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Sokoto (CCNNS) had sponsored ten students from Zamfara state to science related courses in Universities across the country in its efforts to alleviate burden placed on parents and the government at large.

Speaking during the presentation ceremony of One hundred thousand naira cheque to each of the benefiting students at the company’s branch in Gusau the state capital, the Managing Director of the CCNNS, Alhaji Aminu Ibrahim who was represented by one of the company’s Director, Yawale Ladan Issa announced that,

Sokoto cement offers scholarship to 10 Zamfara students

the same gesture has recently been offered in Kebbi state.

Alhaji Yawale further informed that over the years, the company has executed similar project in the hosting Sokoto state being part of its corporate social responsibilities alongside immediate communities in Wamakko local government.

“Our intervention in education is not limited to scholarship alone, we sponsored the training of 200

women in skills acquisitions also in Wamakko local government area in the recent past.

“In addition to this, youth were sponsored to learn trades and obtained the nationally recognized Trade Test Certificate (TTC) from Sokoto Works School”, Yawale heralded.

Also speaking, the Zamfara state Commissioner of Education, Alhaji Mukhtar Lugga, commended the

gesture, urging the CCNNS to make it recurrent as the state government alone can not absorb the shock of challenges that eventually bedevilled the education sector in the state and the nation at large.

Mukhtar Lugga also warned the benefiting students to make the best use of the golden opportunity they were granted especially as over 500,000 other students were in a position to seek for the same

gesture.

“You should not redirect the spendings of the granted monies to another issues parallel to the aims of the assisting company, but you should adhere to the initial project embarked upon by the CCNNS with a view to ensure further offers of same gesture to other indeginuos students”, Lugga stressed.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

L-R: Deputy Director, International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Mr Lanre Adekanye; head of Un-System, International Corporation, Department, Dr Sanjo Faniran, and the representative of the country representative of Unfpa, Mr Dashe Dasgot, during the partnership meeting among MBNP, UNFPA and Federal Implementing Partners on Wednesday in Abuja

MTN introduces 4G LTE internet services in Nigeria MTN Nigeria’s subsidiary, Visafone, has commenced the test-run of its fourth generation long term evolution (4G LTE) internet technology service for smartphone users.

MTN said in a statement on

Thursday that the roll-out of the 4G LTE services would help provide superior high-speed internet services in major cities to empower Nigerians with the latest mobile broadband technology.

MTN executive, Amina Oyagbola, said the company was determined to deepen broadband penetration in the country.

“Our recent license acquisition further demonstrates our faith in the future of Nigeria,” Mrs. Oyagbola said. “We believe in supporting the positive transformation of Nigeria and we have demonstrated this belief through the level of our investment since 2001, which currently stands at approximately $16 billion.”

General Manager,

Consumer Marketing, MTN Nigeria, Richard Iweanoge, said the specifics of the testrun and subsequent launch of the 4G LTE technology would be launched with the sole objective of providing Nigerians with “the best, fastest and most competitive ICT services for all stakeholders”.

He said MTN Nigeria was pleased to set the pace and breaking new boundaries with the test run, which would be available for now for only Visafone customers, currently provisioned on the 800 MHz band.

“When we roll-out fully, especially with our 2.6 GHz spectrum, the launch will help to enhance customer experience for our over 60 million subscribers, while ensuring greater coverage, access, affordability and ultimately a smart lifestyle for everyone,” he said.

He said the 4G LTE rollout was a demonstration of the company’s commitment to accelerate the achievement of the country’s targeted broadband penetration by 2018.

Page 21

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Business

US banks step up credit card push in search of hefty returns

I

ncrease in lending has raised questions about the risks groups are taking on Fancy 5 per cent off all Amazon purchases? How about a free ride on Uber for every 10 you take?

Perhaps you would prefer cash — $100 after you spend $500?

All this could be yours if you sign up for a US credit card. Banks are bombarding Americans with increasingly lavish offers as they battle to provide the piece of plastic in their wallets.

“There are several folks with some very high headline rewards rates that are out there,” Mark Graf, chief financial officer of Discover Financial Services, the $23bn market cap lender, told Wall Street analysts recently. “It doesn’t seem to make economic sense to us in a lot of cases.”

Within the past year US banks have piled on about $54bn worth of loans to consumers through credit cards and overdrafts, according to Federal Reserve data.

They are also lending more in other sectors, from industry to commercial property, as they try to combat a historic squeeze on profit margins caused byrock-bottom interest rates.

It is far from a deluge overall — residential mortgage lending remains particularly weak — but the cash taps

are flowing steadily. Banks have added $643bn in loans and leases in the past year.

The industry stepped up lending to American business in 2011 and began a surge in commercial real estate about two years later. During the past year banks have accelerated lending to consumers. Loans through overdrafts and credit cards are expanding at the fastest rate since 2007, although it comes after a significant post-crisis contraction.

While credit card lending is unsecured, banks are attracted by the prospect of hefty returns. Financially savvy consumers who pay their balances down each month avoid interest charges but those who do not, known as “revolvers”, pay average rates of between 12 and 14 per cent, and significantly more if they are considered higher risk.

For now, at least, borrower default rates are near historic lows. “The riskadjusted margins are off the charts relative to everything else,” says Michael Taiano, financial institutions director at Fitch Ratings.

Seven years since the recession ended, consumers who were hit hard during the financial crisis have found their credit scores improving. Bankers point to rising house prices and low unemployment as evidence that things,

across the board, are looking up.

“They’re trying to meet the demand that exists out there,” says James Chessen, chief economist at the American Bankers Association.

Paul Siegfried, credit card business leader at TransUnion, says some of the recent expansion is down to banks becoming more comfortable with postcrisis regulations that constrained card lending.

Banks are lending more as one of the most important drivers of their profits — net interest margins, the difference between returns on assets and the cost of funds — remain near their lowest levels in decades.

Between April and June the median margin among 352 US banks tracked

by Raymond James, the financial services group, ticked down again, from 3.49 per cent in the first quarter to 3.45 per cent.

Yet the increase in loans — and the accompanying myriad of fees — nudged revenues 3.4 per cent higher.

The lending push has, however, raised questions about the risks banks are taking on, not least because of indications that the economy is becoming more fragile ahead of the US presidential election.

Regulators, industry analysts and some executives have been

raising concerns for months about the risks of a ramp-up in car loans.

Encouraged by low interest rates, falling unemployment and cheap petrol prices, banks have added $43bn worth of auto loans since the start of last year, according to Federal Reserve data.

As competition intensifies, underwriting standards have fallen.

Americans are borrowing more to buy bigger and better vehicles: the average loan has topped $30,000, according to Experian. They are also taking longer to pay off the debt — the average term has reached almost six years.

Subprime loans have been the fastest-growing part of the market, and delinquency levels are rising. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, warned earlier this summer that the market for lower-quality car loans was “clearly a little stretched”.

Similar questions are starting to be asked about credit cards.

During the recent second-quarter results season top bankers were peppered with questions from analysts about whether they were being tempted to do riskier lending.

Several executives demurred. Paul Donofrio, chief financial officer of Bank of America, said the bank’s retail arm remained focused on the most creditworthy consumers. “That strategy

works for our shareholders and our customers — and we’re sticking to it,” he said.

Still, second-quarter results showed several lenders set aside additional provisions for soured loans. Capital Oneadded $375m to its loan loss reserve for its domestic card business, according to Barclays, while JPMorgan added a $250m loss allowance for its credit card portfolio.

Executives said this was largely because they were issuing more cards and did not reflect an across-the-board deterioration in credit quality, although some acknowledged that they were going up the risk spectrum.

Previously, about 40 per cent of JPMorgan’s new credit card customers had FICO scores — a widely used metric of creditworthiness — of above 760. Now, says Marianne Lake, chief financial officer, between about a fifth and a third had scores of lower than 700. “At the end of the day, [this is] still pristine credit, relatively speaking,” she says.

Across the credit card industry, charge-offs are rising. According to TransUnion, the credit reporting specialist, payments that are at least 90 days late reached 1.47 per cent in the first quarter, up 10 basis points from a year ago.

President, Lagos chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr Mrs Nike Akande (Middle), presenting a plaque to Executive Secretary, Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC), Mr Hassan Lawal, during the visit of a delegation of the NSC to LCCI, at the commerce house on Tuesday in Lagos with them is the Director-General of LCCI, Mr. Muda Yusuf

Designers come out for Apple in patent fight with Samsung

A

pple Inc deserved the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) paid for infringing patented designs of the iPhone, because the product’s distinctive look drives people to purchase it, a group of design industry professionals told the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.

Setting up a clash with a number of Silicon Valley companies that have come out on the side of Samsung, more than 100 designers and educators signed on to a new court brief supporting Apple.

They include famous fashion

names Calvin Klein, Paul Smith and Alexander Wang, the industrial design director at Parsons School of Design, the design director for Bentley Motors, and Tony Chambers, the editor-inchief of Wallpaper magazine.

Samsung has appealed to the Supreme Court part of the $548 million it paid Apple last December related to a jury verdict from 2012.

Samsung says the $399 million of that amount, awarded for copying the designs of the iPhone’s roundedcorner front face, bezel and grid of icons, is excessive, adding that they contributed only marginally to a

complex product.

Apple sued in 2011, claiming the South Korean electronics company stole its technology and the look of the iPhone.

Last May, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington upheld the 2012 patent infringement verdict but overturned Samsung’s liability for trademark infringement.

Samsung asked the Supreme Court to review the case, and in March, the justices agreed to examine whether the total profits from a product that infringes a design patent

should be awarded if the patent applies only to a component of the product.

The designers on Thursday said that in the minds of consumers, the “look of the product comes to represent the underlying features, functions, and total user experience.”

Stealing a design can lead to a lost sale, and Apple deserves to be compensated for that with the infringer’s entire profits, they said.

Samsung has had a number of trade groups come out on its side, including The Internet Association as well as Silicon Valley heavyweights

Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc unit Google, which makes the Android operating system used in Samsung’s phones.

If not reversed, the Federal Circuit decision “could lead to diminished innovation, pave the way for design troll patent litigation and negatively impact the economy and consumers,” Samsung spokeswoman Danielle Meister Cohen said in an email on Thursday.

The case is Samsung Electronics Co Ltd v. Apple Inc, in the Supreme Court of the United States, No. 15-777.

(Reuters)

Page 22

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Business

L-R: Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma; Director-General of the Budget Office, Mr Ben Akabueze, and representative of the Minister of Finance, Mr. Seye Senfuye, at a stakeholders forum on the 2017-2019 medium expenditure framework on Tuesday in Lagos.

What economists didn’t know before Brexit – and still don’t

T

here is some angst in the economics community about a perceived failure to persuade UK voters of what some see as the overwhelming consensus that Brexit would bring major economic costs. In a thoughtful letter to The Times (28 June 2016), Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said: “... it is clear that economists’ warnings were not understood or believed by many. So we economists need to be asking ourselves why that was the case, why our near-unanimity did not cut through.”

The latest survey of academic economistís views conducted by the Centre for Macroeconomics in the wake of the Brexit referendum, asks: -”Do you agree that the economics profession needs an institutional change that promotes the ability to communicate more effectively with policymakers and the public at large and to make clear when economists have a united view?”

-”Do you agree that we need to introduce leadership to help achieve this improvement through coordinated efforts?”

Was there a consensus?

But is there really a consensus about the costs of the UK leaving the EU? Even if there is some sort of consensus around central estimates, is there an agreement about how uncertain such estimates are and how large that uncertainty is? Is it so clear that,

even if there was a united view from economists, it was ignored?

The IFS Report, Brexit and the UK’s Public Finances, published on the eve of the referendum, provided a comprehensive summary of estimates of the long-run impact on GDP of Brexit (Emmerson et al. 2016). Table 3.1 of that report (reproduced below as Table 1) shows estimates of the impact on 2030 GDP, ranging from a cost of a few percentage points to up to nearly 10%. There is a consensus here only in the sense that nearly all estimates are for a negative impact. But the differences in estimates are so large that it is surely a stretch to see this as a ‘united view’.

We don’t understand the key economic determinant productivity growth One factor here is that the mechanisms that could create a long-run hit to GDP are not very well understood. A critical factor indeed almost certainly the critical factor - is how productivity will change as a result of the UK being outside the EU. One element of that link is that between Brexit and FDI, and then between FDI and productivity - neither of which is at all easy to predict.

More generally, economists’ understanding of what has driven UK labour productivity in recent years is very low. In the period since the financial crash of 20072008, labour productivity in the UK has reached a level that is probably around 15% or more

below that which seemed likely on the eve of the financial disruption.

The Bank of England has applied thousands of economist-hours to trying to account for this fall.

It still remains largely a mystery why productivity has been so poor eight years after the crash and when many other economic indicators (e.g. unemployment, stresses in bank funding and credit availability) have returned to something that looks normal.

The single biggest determinant of the long-run costs of Brexit - its impact on productivity is something which the postfinancial crash evolution of UK output per head should make us very unconfident about predicting.

Trade-linked impacts are easier to estimate The purely trade-related aspect of a hit to GDP from Brexit may be more reliably estimated.

And the economic mechanism at work here is more intuitive: if less trade means less specialisation, then a country ends up devoting more resources to areas where it does not have comparative advantage. There is a good deal of empirical evidence that openness is inked to productivity. And some of that evidence is very stark - look at North Korea and South Korea.

It is indeed overwhelmingly likely that a retreat to become a much less open economy would be very bad for incomes. But the relevance of that observation to how a UK outside the EU will fare is very far

from clear.

In any case, the trade-only effects of Brexit (i.e. setting to one side the potential knock on effects on productivity growth over time) are often estimated to be rather small. A Centre for Economic Performance study puts the trade effects on 2030 GDP at between 1.3% and 2.6% of GDP (Dhingra et al. 2016). No one should think that 1-3% of GDP is trivial. But that number should be seen in context - UK GDP is now nearly 20% lower than a continuation of the trend the economy seemed to be on before the financial crisis of 2008.

Do we know voters ignore economic estimates?

But suppose we put to one side the rather wide range of central estimates of the long-run effect of Brexit on GDP, and also ignore the enormous uncertainty about any one such central estimate, and stick to the view that there was a consensus amongst economists about the effects and that this was that Brexit is significantly bad for incomes. What is the evidence that such a consensus (to the extent that it existed) was ignored by those that voted to Leave? I think we should be realistic as economists about how little we really know here.

One point is obvious. A rational voter could accept that there would be an economic cost to leaving the EU but think this is an acceptable price to pay for not having to accept some EU

decisions over which the UK has limited say. There clearly are decisions of this sort - from judgements by the European Court of Justice, to rules on financial regulations (e.g. the strange decision to make capital requirements on banks maximum harmonisation, or EU rules on bonuses), to accepting the right of entry of people to whom other EU countries have decided to grant citizenship.

Economics has little to say about whether someone who values avoiding being tied by such decisions, and accepts in return the likelihood of a lower income by a few percentage points, is ignorant, irrational, or economically illiterate. For many years the mantra of many from the European Commission has been the desirability, even the necessity, of “ever closer union”.

What does economics tell you is the right answer to the question, “How much should I pay to avoid that?”

As it happens, I did not think it worth paying the price to avoid the risk that the fuzzy concept of “an ever closer union” could create damage down the road. I do not, however, believe those who took a different view were ignorant or befuddled. It is not right to think that if only they understood the economics of it they would surely have voted differently.‎ (By David Miles, Monetary Policy Committee Member, Bank of England)

PAGE 23

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Stock Watch: Thursday, August 4, 2016 Company

7UP

Previous Closing Price

185.06

184.5

Opening Price

184.5

High

Low

184.5

Close

184.5

Change

Trades

-0.56 25

Volume

Value

Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

Low

Close

Change

Trades

Volume

Value

233,796

43,137,315.02 MAYBAKER 1.26 - - - 1.26 5 26,078 32,955.18

ABBEYBDS 1.25 - - - 1.25 0 - -

MBENEFIT 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

ABCTRANS 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 4 505,000 252,500.00

MCNICHOLS 1.2 - - - 1.2 5 154,383 176,896.62

ACADEMY 0.59 - - - 0.59 0 - ACCESS

4.46

4.46

4.64

4.46

4.5

0.04 321

28,060,764

126,589,999.78

ADSWITCH 1.63 - - - 1.63 0 - AFRIK 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - AFRINSURE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

MOBIL 138.99 - - - 138.99 20 6,378 854,115.18 MORISON 1.73 - - - 1.73 0 - MRS 49.66 - - - 49.66 1 500 23,590.00 MTECH 0.91 - - - 0.91 0 - MTI 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - MULTITREX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

AFRIPRUD 2.65 2.7 2.7 2.61 2.61 -0.04 35 553,581 1,479,349.55 MULTIVERSE 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00 AFROMEDIA 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 1 550,000 275,000.00

NAHCO 4.38 4.17 4.17 4.17 4.17 -0.21 19 203,175 850,145.97

AFRPAINTS 2.59 - - - 2.59 0 - -

NASCON 7.18 7.5 7.3 7.16 7.3 0.12 26 1,031,170 7,479,398.60

AGLEVENT 1.02 0.97 -

-

1.02

8 48,971 46,330.44

AIICO 0.9 0.91 0.91 0.91 0.91 0.01 18 983,972 898,207.23 AIRSERVICE 1.91 - - - 1.91 3 1,505 2,918.35 ALEX 9.84 - - - 9.84 0 - ALUMACO 7.75 - - - 7.75 1 200 1,474.00 ANINO 0.25 - - - 0.25 0 - ARBICO 5.04 - - - 5.04 0 - -

NB 135 135.2 135.2 129.51 129.51 -5.49 105 1,220,085 161,842,702.19 NCR 11.02 - - - 11.02 0 - NEIMETH 1.03 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 -0.05 6

126,800 124,264.00

NEM 0.69 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.01 16 1,774,600 1,241,859.00 NESF 552.2 - - - 552.2 0 - NESTLE 814

822.99 822.99 822.99 822.99 8.99 73

115,282 94,401,035.72

NIG-GERMAN 4.91 - - - 4.91 0 - NIGERINS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

ASHAKACEM 22.5 - - - 22.5 16 55,698 1,233,876.58 NIGROPES 7.46 - - - 7.46 0 - ASOSAVINGS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

NNFM 8.99 - - - 8.99 0 - -

AUSTINLAZ 2.09 - - - 2.09 0 - -

NPFMCRFBK

AVONCROWN 1.52 - - - 1.52 0 - BECOPETRO 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - BERGER 9.6 9.61 9.61 9.61 9.61 0.01 9 379,696 3,674,398.56 BETAGLAS 48.51 - - - 48.51 0 - -

0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0

6

174,000 170,510.00

NSLTECH 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - OANDO 8.5 8.92 8.92 8.48 8.48 -0.02 364 7,671,197 65,761,034.51 OKOMUOIL 28.82 - - - 28.82 21 108,772 3,056,214.60 OMATEK 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - OMOSAVBNK 0.92 - - - 0.92 0 - -

BOCGAS 4.18 - - - 4.18 0 - PAINTCOM 1.14 - - - 1.14 0 - CADBURY 20.1 - - - 20.1 15 82,240 1,655,764.64 PHARMDEKO 2.14 - - - 2.14 1 5,000 10,850.00 CAP 38 39 39 39 39 1 16 166,666 6,492,031.87 PORTPAINT 3.53 - - - 3.53 0 - CAPHOTEL 4.07 - - - 4.07 0 - -

PREMBREW 2.95 - - - 2.95 0 - -

CAPOIL 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

PREMPAINTS 10.93 - - - 10.93 0 - -

CAVERTON 2.63 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 -0.13 7 145,913 366,122.50 CCNN 8.73 9.16 -

-

8.73

7 51,560 458,087.60

CHAMPION 4.17 4.17 -

-

4.17

11 146,282 587,170.36

CHAMS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - CHELLARAM 3.76 - - - 3.76 0 - -

PRESCO 30.5 - - - 30.5 6 32,910 1,045,950.40 PRESTIGE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - PZ 25.5 25 25 25 25 -0.5 33 567,539 14,195,538.05 RAKUNITY 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - REDSTAREX 4.2 - - - 4.2 2 19,785 83,097.00 REGALINS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

CILEASING 0.5 - - - 0.5 2 4,000 2,000.00

RESORTSAL 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 1 100,000 50,000.00

CONOIL 27.41 26.04 -

ROADS 6.6 - - - 6.6 0 - -

-

27.41

8

13,350 330,799.00

0.6 - - - 0.6 0 - 1.06 1.01 1.06 1.01 1.06 0 11 3,520,635 3,661,166.09 ROKANA ROYALEX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - CORNERST 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - RTBRISCOE 0.5 - - - 0.5 3 78,164 39,082.00 COSTAIN 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 5,000 2,500.00 CONTINSURE

COURTVILLE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - CUSTODYINS 4.1 - - - 4.1 6 16,101 64,845.03 CUTIX 1.45 - - - 1.45 1 26,666 38,665.70 CWG 2.67 - - - 2.67 0 - DAARCOMM 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 4,000 2,000.00

SCOA 4.16 - - - 4.16 0 - -

SEPLAT 230.04 225 225 225 225 -5.04 20 77,862 17,490,790.00 SIMCAPVAL 103.24 - - - 103.24 0 - SKYEBANK 1.9 1.9 1.99 1.9 1.99 0.09 75 2,020,105 3,920,083.45 SKYESHELT 100 - - - 100 0 - SMURFIT 0.98 - - - 0.98 0 - -MAY-

DANGCEM 162 163 163 163 163 1 33 156,759 25,532,904.96

BAKER 1.26 - - - 1.26 5 26,078 32,955.18

DANGFLOUR 2.31 - - - 2.31 16 31,484 75,328.68

MBENEFIT 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

DANGSUGAR

- - - 1.2 5 154,383 176,896.62 6.52 6.32 6.51 6.32 6.51 -0.01 26 343,221 2,210,542.55 MCNICHOLS 1.2 MOBIL 138.99 - - - 138.99 20 6,378 854,115.18

DEAPCAP 0.58 - - - 0.58 0 - -

DIAMONDBNK 2.87 2.8 2.8 2.74 2.74 -0.13 43 1,315,800 3,645,250.00 IPWA 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - JAPAULOIL 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00 JBERGER 39.5 - - - 39.5 4 1,180 44,879.00 JOHNHOLT 0.96 - - - 0.96 0 - -

MORISON 1.73 - - - 1.73 0 - MRS 49.66 - - - 49.66 1 500 23,590.00 MTECH 0.91 - - - 0.91 0 - MTI 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - MULTITREX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - MULTIVERSE 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00

JOSBREW 1.51 - - - 1.51 0 - -

NAHCO 4.38 4.17 4.17 4.17 4.17 -0.21 19 203,175 850,145.97

JULI 1.75 - - - 1.75 0 - -

NASCON 7.18 7.5 7.3 7.16 7.3 0.12 26 1,031,170 7,479,398.60

LASACO 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 1 300,000 150,000.00

NB 135 135.2 135.2 129.51 129.51 -5.49 105 1,220,085 161,842,702.19

LAWUNION 0.54 0.53 0.53 0.52 0.52 -0.02 14 910,610 481,548.30

NCR 11.02 - - - 11.02 0 - -

LEARNAFRCA

0.68 0.65 0.65 0.65 0.65 -0.03 10 1,074,871 699,416.15

LENNARDS 3.15 - - - 3.15 0 - LINKASSURE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - LIVESTOCK 1.4 1.41 1.41 1.41 1.41 0.01 9 134,400 192,410.51 MANDRID 5.35 - - - 5.35 0 - MANSARD 2.62 2.55 -

-

2.62

8 37,850 99,859.50

Top Gainers Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

NEIMETH 1.03 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 -0.05 6

126,800 124,264.00

NEM 0.69 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.01 16 1,774,600 1,241,859.00 NESF 552.2 - - - 552.2 0 - NESTLE 814

822.99 822.99 822.99 822.99 8.99 73

115,282 94,401,035.72

NIG-GERMAN 4.91 - - - 4.91 0 - NIGERINS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - NIGROPES 7.46 - - - 7.46 0 - -

Top Losers Low

Close

Change

Trades

Volume

Value

Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

Low

Close

Change

Trades

Volume

Value

ALUMACO 7.75 - - - 7.75 1 200 1,474.00

MULTITREX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

FORTISMFB 5.42 - - - 5.42 0 - -

NNFM 8.99 - - - 8.99 0 - -

UNHOMES 5.23 - - - 5.23 1 3,750 18,637.50

MCNICHOLS 1.2 - - - 1.2 5 154,383 176,896.62

INFINITY 1.42 - - - 1.42 0 - -

UTC 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

OMOSAVBNK 0.92 - - - 0.92 0 - -

UNIONDICON 11.84 - - - 11.84 0 - -

MULTIVERSE 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00

MANDRID 5.35 - - - 5.35 0 - -

ASOSAVINGS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

CADBURY 20.1 - - - 20.1 15 82,240 1,655,764.64

ABBEYBDS 1.25 - - - 1.25 0 - -

JULI 1.75 - - - 1.75 0 - -

Special Report

Diving into the world of the dead

Twice a month two Japanese men put on scuba gear and go diving. One is looking for his wife, the other for his daughter, both of whom were swept away by the devastating tsunami that struck Japan four years ago. They know they are no longer alive, but the hope of finding something - anything - gives them a much-needed sense of purpose.

U

nderneath the glittering waters of Onagawa Bay, in Japan’s north-eastern Miyagi Prefecture, fridges, TVs, cars, trucks and fishing gear lie scattered on the sea floor, under a layer of mud.

“Imagine a big city, put it in a grinder and throw it all into the ocean,” is how one oceanographer described the effect of the Japanese tsunami.

Under water, things are still mostly where they were left by the violence of the waves.

In the sunlight up above, on the other hand, everything has changed.

Fishing boats are again going about their business - the Japanese diet is built around seafood and it’s a key part of the local economy.

The wreckage of a thriving port has been cleaned away.

In its place there is now a vast expanse of concrete - empty except for, in one corner, a modest shrine made up of some laminated pages of A4, a pink plastic chrysanthemum, and, rather incongruously, a Christmas tree.

This is where the Onagawa branch of the Shichijushichi (77) Bank used to stand and the shrine is there to commemorate it.

When the tsunami warning sounded at 14:50 on the afternoon of 11 March 2011, the bank’s employees were busy tidying up the damage

Onagawa was devastated

PAGE 25

Peoples Daily, friday August 5, 2016

PAGE 24

caused by the earthquake that had shaken the building a few minutes earlier.

Their manager was out seeing clients. Driving back along the coast he could see the sea sharply withdrawing - a sure sign of an imminent tsunami. As soon as he walked in he told everyone to stop and to climb on to the roof of the two-storey building as quickly as possible.

Sure enough, as soon as they got there, they heard the siren and the municipal broadcast warning people to evacuate to high ground - just a few hundred metres away were the steep slopes of Mount Horikiri, where some people were already seeking shelter.

One employee asked if she could go home because she was worried about her children. The manager said he couldn’t stop her, so she ran to her car, which was parked 300m away, and drove home.

The manager told those remaining to watch the sea, just 100m away in normal conditions, and to listen out for further news. The radio warned that a 6m-high tsunami would hit at 15:10.

Among the 13 bank employees up on the roof that day was 47-year-old Yuko Takamatsu. Her husband Yasuo had dropped her off by car that morning, though they only lived a few minutes’ drive away. During the short journey

The bank employees became trapped on the roof by the rising water

they had talked about what to have for dinner. “Don’t say: ‘Anything is fine!’” she had said.

With Yuko on the roof was her colleague, 26-year-old Emi Narita, from the neighbouring town of Ishinomaki, where her father Masaaki ran a fishprocessing plant. She had seen him just the night before, when she went over to pick up her dinner - her grandmother still liked to cook for her.

As the workers stood nervously on the roof they debated whether there was time to flee to the nearby hospital - a much taller and stronger building, but they decided to stay. After all, a 6m-high tsunami would only reach the first floor. Some went down to get their coats - it was cold, there was still snow on the ground.

Yuko sent her husband a text message: “Are you safe? I want to go home.”

The tsunami swept into Onagawa moments later.

Footage filmed by a survivor shows how the dark water moved swiftly and relentlessly into town, pushing over everything in its path.

Buildings gave way and cars and trucks were picked up like toys, and acted like floating battering rams adding to the wave’s destructive power.

Within minutes the sea had engulfed areas that were once considered safe.

The bank flooded quickly it took just five minutes for the water to fill half the building.

The workers decided to climb up even higher on top of an electrical room standing on the roof of the two-storey building. As they climbed the 3m vertical ladder the strong wind almost blew them off.

Many people witnessed their desperate bid to escape to safety. A Facebook post reads: “We get a lump in a throat every time we think about the female bankers who, wearing skirts, had to climb the ladder with unimaginable fear, and male bankers who threw off their coats at the last minute regardless of the cold weather, their fear, despair and regret.”

The tsunami turned out to be far, far bigger than anyone expected.

The town’s defences had largely been based on the worst tsunami in living memory - a 6m-high tsunami in Chile in 1960. But this one reached more than three times higher.

As a consequence many designated shelters were inundated - even the hospital was flooded, killing four people in the building itself and an estimated 16 in the car park.

“Onagawa was one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami,” says Tsutomu

Yamanaka, a relief coordinator who arrived a week after the disaster for the aid organisation Japan Platform.

The coastline of the region is a series of submerged river valleys shaped “like the teeth of a saw”, he says, and tsunamis reach great heights as the water funnels into the crevices.

A town has little chance in this battle between ocean and mountain.

Satellite pictures show how the sea reached in and clawed the town away. More than 5,000 buildings were washed away or damaged beyond repair.

“Buildings had been torn from their foundations,” says Yanamaka, describing the scene he witnessed when he arrived in Onagawa. “A train had been swept to the hill far from the station.”

The morning after the tsunami Yasuo Takamatsu made his way to the municipal hospital to find Yuko. He soon had to abandon the car and push a path through the wreckage.

He was stunned to find she wasn’t there.

“There were lots of people taking refuge there, but I was told she’d been taken away by the tsunami,” he says. “After that I just couldn’t stand up.

I’d lost all my strength like it had been washed away.”

It took Emi Narita’s father, Masaaki, longer to find out about his daughter’s fate in the chaotic days after the disaster.

He himself had only just driven to safety with his mother-in-law, the tsunami “coming over a few cars behind us”.

For four days he was unable to contact his wife, who was working as a nurse away from home. It was she who told him Emi was missing. “I couldn’t believe it.

I can’t believe it even now,” he says. “Until that moment,

I had no doubt that she would be safe.”

Local authorities were overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster, the staff reeling from their own personal losses, on top of massive practical and logistical problems.

Almost one in 10 of the town’s residents was dead or missing. The majority of survivors were staying in special accommodation for evacuees. They spent their days searching for loved ones, picking through the chaos and walking for miles along the breakwaters on the shoreline.

Takamatsu was there too, looking for his wife, Yuko. “I searched everywhere for her, but she was nowhere to be found,” he says.

The only thing that was eventually recovered was Yuko’s mobile phone, found in the parking lot behind the 77 Bank building. At first, Takamatsu thought it wouldn’t work because it had been soaked with water, but months later, he took the phone out and tried it.

Miraculously, it came to life. Then he saw she’d tried to send another message that never reached him. It said: “The tsunami is disastrous.”

The 77 Bank building, just over 10m tall, was knocked over by the force of the tsunami.

Of the 13 people on the roof, one, amazingly, survived - he held on to floating debris and was swept out to sea, almost losing consciousness in the icy water before he was rescued by a fishing boat hours later.

The bodies of four bank staff were found, but eight are still

missing, Emi and Yuko among them. The worker who left the building by car survived.

“I couldn’t understand why they escaped to the rooftop,” says Narita. “There’s no more escape there. If they had escaped to the mountain, they could have climbed to a higher place. I thought evacuation to the mountain was a matter of course.”

The toppled building itself was cleared away along with all the other buildings in the port area, bar one, which was left as a memorial. Although the town began to rebuild, for the bereaved families it was hard to move on.

“We are still stuck in 2011,” says Narita.

Takamatsu is haunted by the message Yuko sent. “I have this feeling that she still wants to come home,” he says.

I felt like I could meet her one day, as long as I kept divingYasuo Takamatsu, Tsunami widower “I wish I had gone to pick her up at the bank after the earthquake struck, but I’m still not sure what would have been the right decision. The tsunami warning told us to stay away from the shoreline, and if I’d gone down to pick her up, chances are I would have been taken out by the tsunami as well.

“But at the same time, I wish I’d gone and saved her.”

Two years ago, when he saw divers from the Japanese Coast Guard out searching for the remains of the missing, it gave him an idea: he could do the same, and perhaps bring Yuko home.

“So I learned to dive. I felt like I could meet her one day as

Getting around was almost impossible, bridges and roads were blocked

“

Yasuo Takamatsu preparing to dive

long as I kept diving,” he says.

Takamatsu needed to qualify for a diving licence, and he began taking lessons at a diving school. When he talked to Narita about it, and offered to look for Emi too, Narita decided to join him.

Learning to dive was a challenge for these men, both in their mid-50s. Takamatsu was terrified by the thought of his oxygen failing, and having to come up for air. “At 5m below, I could swim up without much trouble, but at 20m deep it gets dangerous - thinking about those things always scared me,” he says.

Narita had other problems.

“I didn’t get scared, but I couldn’t control my body under the sea at all,” he says.

He found it hard even to regulate his breathing. “I never considered quitting, but I struggled.”

After months of training, the two men qualified last summer, and have since completed more than 80 dives.

The search has given them purpose and lifted their spirits.

“I couldn’t do anything before I started diving, but after I decided to find my daughter by myself, I could become positive about it - a bit.

I get encouraged by searching for her,” says Narita.

“It was depressing not doing anything,” says Takamatsu.

“At first I just wanted to find my wife, but now I hope I can find others too.”

It’s hard work. The bay is very deep and most objects are buried under a thick layer of mud, which, when disturbed, also makes it hard to see.

They have good days.

On one they found a child’s calligraphy box with his name on it, and a wedding album.

Anything with a name goes back to the owners. Wallets, bank books, and stamps are handed to the police.

Photographs can often be restored.

An estimated five million tonnes of debris was dragged into the sea by the tsunami.

Two-thirds sank just off the coast, covering the sea floor and damaging the marine environment. About a third floated away, in giant patches that could be tracked on satellite images.

Boats, buoys, propane tanks and refrigerator doors are still washing up on the shores of North America and Hawaii.

But much of the tsunami debris has joined the “plastic smog” that collects in oceanic gyres. Marcus Eriksen, from the 5 Gyres Institute, led an expedition to the debris field in June 2012 - 3,800 km east of Tokyo they spotted buckets, laundry detergent bottles, half a boat, and a still-inflated truck tyre. “One day a shoe drifted by,” says Eriksen. “What was eerie was that the laces were still laced at the top - it left us thinking.”

The bodies of more than 2,000 people, of the 16,000 estimated to have died, have never been recovered.

So what about those missing from Onagawa - how

The tsunami swept into Onagawa moments later.

Footage filmed by a survivor shows how the dark water moved swiftly and relentlessly into town, pushing over everything in its path. Buildings gave way and cars and trucks were picked up like toys, and acted like floating battering rams adding to the wave’s destructive power.

Within minutes the sea had engulfed areas that were once considered safe.

far could they have travelled?

Not far, says Hiroshi Kitazato from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. “I think they sank immediately in the bay. I talked to fishermen in Onagawa town, they said that in the past couple of years they’ve found no bodies in their fishing nets. This means that in the first two or three years they dredged up dead bodies.”

Kitazato points out that, coming from a small community, those fishermen would probably have known who they had fished up. “They would have felt very bad,” he says.

Four years on, this is less likely to happen - organic matter will have mostly “returned to nature”, says Kitazato. “Now, we seldom find bodies or their belongings during research activities.”

Kitazato’s work is aimed at helping ecosystems recover, but after the tsunami many people “felt awful about the sea” he says, and part of his remit is to explain to them how the ocean works. His team goes into schools to show its positive side - “how ocean organisms are beautiful and how the oceanic system is useful for human life.”

Many of Onagawa’s citizens moved away to escape their memories of the disaster - and to find work. Takamatsu stayed, and, through diving, has a newfound appreciation of the sea.

“I found creatures which I had never seen, beautiful fish such as lumpfish,” he says.

“You cannot see such worlds usually.”

Despite the seeming hopelessness of their task, Takamatsu and Narita have no intention of giving up. “I still have a hope we can find something - maybe a human body, regardless of whether it’s my daughter’s or not,” says Narita.

His only memento of Emi is a painting he commissioned after her death, which has pride of place in the living room - all of his own photographs were lost, along with the family home.

“I want to search for my daughter as long as my body allows me to. If I just give up, there’s zero chance. If I keep searching, I might have a chance at least.”

Takamatsu feels the same way. “I want to continue my search as long as my strength lasts, even though the chances of finding her are slim. I know that she has already passed away, but I don’t want her to be left alone under the sea.

“Honestly, I still want to find her and bring her home.”

Source: BBC

These migrants agreed to be sent back home to The Gambia

PAGE 26

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Islam

The First of the Four Sacred Months – Dhul Qa’dah

By Shaykh Abdalla Idris Ali Bismillah.

In my previous articles on the Islamic calendar months, I mentioned two things: 1) The Islamic calendar months are based on the movement of the moon (i.e., the lunar calendar) so it’s referred to as the Qamari months, or moon-oriented months. Nevertheless, the calendar starts with the Hijra of the Prophet (SAW), which took place from Mecca to Medina as the Hijra was the turning point in the history of Islam.

This is why it’s called the Hijri Calendar. It was formally adopted two-and-a-half years after Umar ibn Al-Khattab became caliph.

2) I also mentioned that Dhul Qa’dah is the first of the four sacred months (Al-Ashur Al-Hurum). The other three are Dhul-Hijjah, Muharram and Rajab, all of which are mentioned in Sura Tawba of the Holy Qu’ran (Chapter 9, Verse 36) specifically, Allah (SWT) warned us from doing injustice to ourselves during these months. The name Dhul

Qa’dah could be translated loosely as the month of sitting, or settlement, as it is the month when people cease fighting each other in wars.

Shaykh Mohammad Zahid, in his very valuable series about the Islamic calendar, relates that one of the major events of Dhul Qa’dah was the birth of Imam Al-Hafiz Abu Al-Hassan Ad-Dar Qutni, who was born in Baghdad on the 5th of Dhul Qa’dah in the year 306 Hijri. He was one of the most distinguished hadith narrators, particularly in the ‘Ilm Al-Rijal (The Knowledge of Men) and the isnad (chain of narrators).

Unlike most hadith scholars, he was also a poet and became famous for his own writings of Arabic literature. Among his most famous students is Imam ul-Hadith, Al-Hakim, who wrote the famous AlMustadrak. Another student of his was the famed Shafi’i Imam, Abu Hamid Al-Asfarayeeni. In fact, Imam Al-Hafiz became famous for grooming young scholars. His own work, the famous Kitab As-Sunan, was compiled along the lines of fiqh and contained 4,898 hadith on fiqh issues.

On the 3rd of Dhul Hijjah in the year 748 Hijri, the famous

“

After his father’s death in the year 687 Hijri, he went on to perform Hajj and met with all the scholars of the Hijaz and of Medina, with whom he spent a great deal of time. He eventually became known as one of the most intelligent, eloquent, open minded, and tolerant of scholars

Imam Shamsuddin AdhDhahabi died in Damascus.

He was considered to be the greatest historian of Islam, as well as a famous faqih (jurist) of Shariah. He was born in the year 673 Hijri by a tribe in Turkey known as the Turkman.

Most of his family members were prominent scholars of hadith, in particular his aunt Sit Al-Ahl, who breastfed him and by virtue of that, she became his mother. She was a prominent narrator of hadith and was the one who gave him ijaza, which allowed him to narrate her ahadeeth on her behalf.

Among his teachers was the famous Imam Al-‘Asqalani, to whom he had traveled a long journey to gather knowledge. It

was reported that Adh-Dhahabi was known to travel long journeys to seek knowledge, and to be in the company of scholars. After his father’s death in the year 687 Hijri, he went on to perform Hajj and met with all the scholars of the Hijaz and of Medina, with whom he spent a great deal of time. He eventually became known as one of the most intelligent, eloquent, open minded, and tolerant of scholars.

Despite his differences with Shaykh Al-Islam, Ibn Taymiyyah (especially in the issue of Sufism or Tasawwuf), Adh-Dhahabi was very impressed by him and used to support and defend Ibn Taymiyyah to the extent that

it cost him to loose a position of prominence in the circles of hadith scholarship. He was also famous in writing book reviews and summaries, which adds up to about 50 major reviews of hadith. His own works totaled about 200 major books. The most famous of them is The History of Islam and Siyar Al-A’laam wal Nubala (The History of the Noble People).

Each one of these books is an encyclopedia by itself and a major work of reference even to this day. While he lived a life of luxury, Adh-Dhahabi was also known to be a very pious and humble man who was steadfast in doing good.

Source: http://isnalanterns. com

world news The mirage of the meek P A G E

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

international_peoplesdailyng@yahoo.com

ANALYSIS

By Khaled Diab

G

eorge Washington once opined that “offensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only … means of defence”.

In his campaign to become president of the United States, Donald Trump seems to have been inspired by Washington’s idea - common in modern warfare - but, with his questionable command of the English language, has misinterpreted the word “offensive”.

Ever since he began his bid for the presidency, the Republican nominee has managed to offend an untold number of individuals, not to mention groups as diverse as women, Muslims and Mexicans - and yet, somehow, stay ahead.

Trump’s polemics Khizr Khan to Trump: Have you read the US constitution?

The latest victims of his outrageously offensive campaign are Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the bereaved parents of Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed while serving in Iraq.

In response to Khizr Khan’s criticism of Trump’s politics of hatred and division at the Democratic National Convention, all the Republican candidate could rouse himself to say was “I’d like to hear his wife say something.

“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say,” he elaborated in a later interview. “She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.”

Unsurprisingly, such a callous attack against a grieving “gold star” mother, in a country where the military is regarded as sacrosanct, sparked outrage, even among conservatives.

Trump was recycling one of the most common stereotypes about Islam in Western Islamophobic circles: the notion that Muslim women are silent, submissive, subservient creatures living under the thumb of their menfolk.

In a moving article, Ghazala Khan explained that her silence was not because she was some kind of downtrodden Muslim woman, but was down to grief because “every day I feel the pain of his loss … The place that emptied will always be empty.”

Offensive and insensitive as Trump’s comments were, he was bringing nothing new to the table.

Tapping into what seems to be his family’s knack for “borrowing”, Trump was recycling one of the most common stereotypes about Islam in Western Islamophobic circles: the notion that Muslim women are silent, submissive, subservient creatures living under the thumb of their menfolk.

Picking up the wrong fight

Muslim women

Trump’s remarks are an insult not just to Ghazala Khan but also to the millions of Muslim women around the world bravely fighting for their rights every day, writes Diab [EPA]

Earlier in the campaign, Republican hopeful Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon who was out to prove, but failed, that running for president wasn’t brain surgery, made a similar point: “[Muslim] women must be subservient,” he insisted.

I wondered if Carson would have the guts to tell Hind Wajih Egypt’s first female bodyguard - to her face that she is subservient to men. I should warn him that she is a champion martial artist and a bodybuilder.

While Islam, like all major world religions, is patriarchal, Muslim women - who come in all shades of conformity and rebelliousness - are far from silent and submissive.

Were my maternal grandmother around today, she would have shown Trump and

Carson just how coy and obedient Muslim women are with a few deft, well-targeted lashes of her tongue.

teach him a lesson. The terrified man leaped to a neighbouring rooftop and ran as if his life depended on it.

The killing of Qandeel Baloch - Honour meets technology Although my grandmother was raised in a traditional Egyptian milieu, she was a formidable character who was queen of her castle, and woe betide anyone who trespassed on her turf.

My gran raised birds on her rooftop. One time, a burglar had the audacity - and misfortune - to land on my grandmother’s roof.

Sensing that her precious birds were in mortal danger, she grabbed a knife from the kitchen and a stick.

Looking out of the window, she ordered the burglar to stay where he was because she was coming to

Strong Muslim women Her daughter, my mother, perhaps partly inspired by this role model of strong womanhood at home, and how it belied the idea that men were superior, grew up to become a firm believer in gender equality.

A promising young writer and activist, my mother, in the 1960s, was inspired by the leftist, pan-Arabist dream of female emancipation.

My mother’s was the first generation of Egyptian women to gain equal access to higher education, employment, the right to vote - meaningless as that was in Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt

“

Trump was recycling one of the most common stereotypes about Islam in Western Islamophobic circles: the notion that Muslim women are silent, submissive, subservient creatures living under the thumb of their menfolk.

- and the right to run for public office.

While many Western critics of Islam are convinced that Muslim women must either choose between Islam and feminism, for my mother, this was a false choice.

Mum was convinced that the essence of Islam was one of egalitarianism and equality between the sexes, and that women should be involved in its reinterpretation.

Women have long been fighting hard for their rights. In recent years they have regained the lost momentum and are pressing for complete equality - in every walk of life and profession, even if it occasionally costs them their lives, as it did the Pakistani blogger and activist Qandeel Baloch.

Trump’s snarky, ignorant, bigoted remarks are an insult not just to Ghazala Khan but also to the millions of Muslim women around the world bravely fighting for their rights every day.

Khaled Diab is an awardwinning Egyptian-Belgian journalist, writer and blogger.

He is the author of Intimate Enemies: Living with Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land. He blogs at www.chronikler.com.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera

PAGE 28

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

News From Africa Briton charged with trafficking 100kg of cocaine into Kenya

Opposition Scores Gains in South Africa’s Local Polls

A

British man has appeared in court accused of trafficking nearly 100kg (220lbs) of cocaine into Kenya.

Jack Alexander Wolf Marrian, a sugar trader who lives and works in the country, denied the charge at a court in Kenya and was remanded in custody pending a bail hearing on Monday.

A Kenyan national, Roy Francis Mwanthi, also denies the charges.

The pair were charged after drugs said to be worth about £4m were found in a container at the port of Mombasa.

The shipment had come from Brazil and was on its way to Uganda when it was found by Kenyan authorities and US Drug Enforcement Agency officials, the court heard.

Details of Mr Marrian’s age, where he comes from in the UK, or how long he has lived in Kenya are not known.

Cocaine seizures are rare in Kenya, but the United Nations says it has become a hub for smugglers over the past few years on the route from South America to Europe and Asia.

There was uncertainty over a third suspect, another Kenyan, who was initially questioned by police when the drugs were found, BBC News Africa correspondent Alastair Leithead said.

M

A woman casts her vote at a polling station in Soweto, South Africa, Aug. 3, 2016. South Africans were voting in municipal elections in which the ruling African National Congress seeks to retain control of key metropolitan areas despite a vigorous challen

R

esults from South Africa’s local polls show opposition parties scoring major gains against the ruling ANC party.

With more than half the votes counted, the ANC held a majority of the national vote count but with its lowest level of support since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Analysts had predicted the ANC would lose support in this year’s polls, in the wake of

corruption scandals and rising public resentment over a lack of basic services.

The party is certain to win the bulk of municipal council seats nationwide. But, the opposition Democratic Alliance was on track to maintain its hold on the city of Cape Town and was running neck-and-neck with the ANC in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

The ANC won 62 percent of

the vote in the last municipal elections in 2011, and matched that percentage in the last general election in 2014.

Some 26 million South Africans were registered to vote in Wednesday’s elections.

Voting went smoothly, electoral commission and police officials said, with more than 75,000 police patrolling at polling stations around the country.

Zambia’s Lungu Issues Warning on Election-linked Violence

Z

ambian President Edgar Lungu says he is ready to use draconian means to ensure the country remains peaceful after next week’s presidential, parliamentary, local and referendum elections.

Lungu from the ruling Patriotic Party says he has intelligence that members of the main opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) plan to cause havoc if the party is unable to win the polls.

But in an interview with VOA, Canisius Banda, deputy leader of the UPND, says Lungu’s statement is unfortunate and regrettable. He says the president has the backing of the constitution to ensure the unity of Zambia.

Banda, however, says the president would rather plunge the country into tension, violence and chaos if he uses draconian means to enforce peace.

“President Lungu is speaking out of turn. Going the draconian way by its very definition is breaching peace. There is relative peace in this country at the moment and the president just has to uphold

South Sudan humanitarian situation could worsen: UN

Supporters of incumbent Zambian President Edgar Lungu cheer on May 21, 2016, at the Heroes Stadium in Lusaka during the launch of his re-election campaign ahead of polling day on August 11.

the constitution that he swore to uphold on his inauguration,” he said. “There is no provision in the republican constitution for him to begin to be illegal and to go the draconian way as he says. That is illegal…It’s repugnant [and] we do

not expect a sitting head of state to behave in such a manner.”

“All we are calling for are free and fair elections…If they are free and fair, even if President Lungu won, we would hold our peace.

We would say ‘look democracy has

prevailed.’ But there is perversion of democracy here….,” he added.

Banda says supporters of the governing PF party are to blame for the escalating violence in the ongoing campaigns in the runup to next week’s elections and referendum. He says the UPND has evidence of PF cadres attacking members of the opposition party and tearing down its campaign posters in various parts of the country.

Supporters of incumbent Zambian President Edgar Lungu cheer on May 21, 2016, at the Heroes Stadium in Lusaka during the launch of his re-election campaign ahead of polling day on August 11.

Supporters of incumbent Zambian President Edgar Lungu cheer on May 21, 2016, at the Heroes Stadium in Lusaka during the launch of his re-election campaign ahead of polling day on August 11.

The PF supporters deny the accusation. They said it is the UPND that is to blame for the violence, and that the opposition party wants to use violence as a means to win the presidential vote.

illions of South Sudanese made homeless, hungry or both from a fresh eruption of violence are in desperate need of more assistance, the United Nation’s humanitarian chief has said.

Stephen O’Brien, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on a three-day visit to South Sudan that he feared the situation in the world’s newest country - where renewed fighting in July killed more than 300 people - could worsen.

South Sudan was founded with optimistic celebrations in the capital on July 9, 2011, after it gained independence from Sudan in a referendum that passed with nearly 100 percent of the vote.

The country descended into conflict in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused First Vice President Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

Civil war broke out when soldiers from Kiir’s Dinka ethnic group disarmed and targeted troops of Machar’s Nuer ethnic group.

Machar and commanders loyal to him fled to the countryside, and tens of thousands of people died in the conflict that followed. Many civilians also starved.

The rivals signed a peace agreement late last year, under which Machar was once again made vice president.

But renewed fighting has seen Machar go into hiding, and a member of his opposition - Taban Deng Gai - take his place as First Vice President. Machar rejects the appointment, while Kiir has no objection.

The latest setbacks are putting the fragile peace plan at risk.

The UN says that close to five million people are hungry, and South Sudan’s high inflation rate makes steep food prices unaffordable to many.

Up to 60,000 people have fled to neighbouring Uganda, the UN says. Some 1.6 million are internally displaced.

“The humanitarian situation here, as elsewhere in South Sudan, has the danger of getting worse before it can get better,” O’Brien said at a medical centre in Aweil.

“It is up to us now to partner with the people of South Sudan to have a future and to have hope.”

He said that the country’s transport links were challenging and that “feeder roads”, which are essential to infrastructure, “aren’t there”.

Fighting between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those loyal to his rival, the former Vice President Riek Machar, is ongoing.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

The Chennai woman who runs a Hindu crematorium

Asia&Middle-east

Afghanistan’s Taliban attack foreign tourist convoy

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raditionally, Hindu women do not visit a crematorium for the final rituals of their loved ones. But in the southern Indian city of Chennai, a 34-year-old woman has been managing one of the city’s oldest and busiest cremation grounds. Praveena Soloman discusses her unusual career choice with the BBC’s Geeta Pandey.

It’s mid morning and the Valankadu crematorium in the Anna Nagar district is a hive of activity. Ms Soloman, the administrator, is a picture of efficiency as she checks the arrangements one last time before the next body arrives.

Minutes before noon, a sombre funeral procession reaches the crematorium. A man of 88 from a nearby area has died and his family has brought his body to perform his last rites.

At the gates, the procession is met by N Manikandan who ushers the mourners in, hitting a brass plate with a gong and blowing a conch shell to announce their arrival.

Ms Soloman steps out of her office to meet them, the procession is led up a flight of steps to a hall where the wooden pyre is laid on the floor.

As a priest chants mantras, a male relative of the deceased performs the last rites before the body is taken up to be burned in a gas-fired furnace.

It will take nearly two hours for the body to completely burn, Ms Soloman tells the family, and goes back to her office to complete the paperwork for them.

“Tamil Nadu has a high literacy rate, 90% women here are literate, but still there are lots of limitations and barriers on them,” she tells me.

As the body is consigned to flames and we sit talking, Mr Manikandan begins to sing the Shivapuranam, a haunting melody invoking the Hindu god Shiva, “informing him that this mortal will be arriving at his feet soon”.

A crematorium is not really a happy place and although women are not expressly banned from attending, they have always been discouraged from being present.

The explanation often has been that it is for their own wellbeing - since women are “softer and weaker” and may be traumatised by the death rituals.

So when Ms Soloman, a mother of two and English literature graduate from Madras University, took up the job two-and-a-half years ago, it didn’t go down well with many.

Zhou Shifeng: Chinese law firm founder jailed for subversion

T The group of tourists was being escorted by Afghan army personnel who repelled the attack

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ilitants have attacked a convoy of foreign tourists in west Afghanistan, injuring six and their Afghan driver.

The group of a dozen travellers was being escorted by Afghan army personnel to Herat city when it was ambushed, Afghan officials told the BBC. The tourists comprised eight Britons, three US citizens and one German. Some reportedly had light injuries and were being treated in hospital.

A spokesman for the Taliban said it had carried out the attack.

Afghanistan’s main roads are notoriously dangerous, with militant

attacks and kidnappings frequent, many of them carried out by the Taliban.

Do tourists really go to Afghanistan?

Jailani Farhad, a spokesman for Herat’s governor, said the attackers had used small arms fire and an improvised explosives device.

He said it was not yet clear who had been injured, although the German foreign ministry said its citizen was unharmed.

The tourists are being held at an Italian military hospital in Herat city and are set to be evacuated to Kabul.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told Afghanistan’s Tolo news channel the

tourists had been on their way from Bamiyan to Herat, via Ghor.

The ambush took place in the Chesht-e-Sharif district. Security reinforcements have been sent to the area.

Despite the ongoing insurgency, Afghanistan does see a small number of tourists every year, organised by several foreign adventure tourism companies.

Bamiyan province is especially popular with adventure tourists, attracted by its ancient culture and natural beauty.

Many Western nations advise against all but essential travel to the country.

Beijing banks on fractured ASEAN

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ast week marked the first time senior officials from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) met after the landmark ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague on the South China Sea. The ruling awarded to the Philippines earlier this month, has been roundly viewed as a rebuke on China’s expansionist claims in the South China Sea and upends any legal standing to its ambiguous reference to the so-called “nine-dash line”, which encompasses most of the critical waterway.

Despite this, ASEAN lacks consensus on a way forward following the PCA decision due to divisions within the group and fear that a signalling of support to the Court’s ruling would undermine Beijing’s significant financial ties to the region.

The result was a hung jury during the drafting of a communique regarding tensions in the South China Sea, with Beijing’s domineering influence

There are geopolitical dynamics impacting the weakening of a united ASEAN approach towards mitigating conflict in the South China Sea, writes Miller [EPA]

looming over the decision-making of poorer states in ASEAN, such as Cambodia and Laos.

At last week’s summit in Laos, Phnom Penh effectively blocked any reference to PCA ruling in the communique released by ASEAN foreign ministers, claiming it did not want to interfere in a territorial dispute between foreign powers.

Cambodia also refused to allow

and reference to the militarisation of many of the reclaimed maritime features in the South China Sea, a process already being undertaken

by China.

The decision was neither surprising nor genuine - as Cambodia has played the role of spoiler before on South China Sea issues due to its strong dependence on Chinese financial aid.

he founder of a Chinese law firm known for representing cases against the government has been sentenced to seven years in prison for subversion.

Zhou Shifeng’s conviction in Tianjin is the latest development in a government crackdown on legal activism.

His Fengrui law firm was involved in several high profile cases, including the 2008 tainted baby milk scandal.

The crackdown has been widely seen as an attempt to silence outspoken government critics.

Around 300 lawyers and activists have been arrested since last year. About 20 are still detained.

How seriously do the Chinese take ‘confession’ videos?

Two other activists - Hu Shigen and Zhai Yanmin - were convicted in Tianjin this week under the same charge. Gou Hongguo is also expected to go on trial.

Amnesty International has accused the Chinese government of “relentless suppression of human rights lawyers and activists”.

“This wave of trials against lawyers and activists are a political charade. Their fate was sealed before they stepped into the courtroom,” said Roseann Rife, East Asia Research Director at Amnesty International.

Mr Zhou pleaded guilty in court and will not appeal against the ruling, reported state media outlet Xinhua.

Prosecutors said he had worked “to encourage lawyers to highlight sensitive cases and hired protesters to disturb the judicial system”.

He also “played a major role in a group of activists who attempted to manipulate public opinion and damage national security by spreading subversive thoughts,” state media quoted the verdict as saying.

The 52-year-old has also been deprived of his political rights for five years.

Zhou Shifeng has been involved in some of China’s most sensitive cases, from taking on a powerful company involved in selling tainted baby milk formula to representing those persecuted for their religious or political beliefs.

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Page 30

Europe & Americas US food safety Canada unveils inquiry into campaigners murdered indigenous women outraged over GMO label law

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ood safety organisations in the US have condemned a new law they say will allow food producers to obscure the labeling of genetically modified ingredients in their products, despite widespread health concerns over the effects of GMOs and the pesticides associated with them.

Signed into law on Friday by President Barack Obama, the legislation permits manufacturers to inform consumers of GMO content through the use of Quick Response or QR codes, which require a device - such as a smartphone - to read.

The law was passed despite opposition from environmental and food safety groups, as well as national polls which show that some 90 percent of Americans surveyed favoured clear labeling.

Davin Hutchins, a senior campaigner for Greenpeace International’s Food For Life Campaign, said that many people, particularly low-income households and the elderly, don’t have the necessary technology or possess the know-how to easily read QR codes.

That makes the “new law discriminatory in nature,” Hutchins told Al Jazeera.

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anada has announced the details of a long-awaited federal inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

Canadian Minister of Indigenous Affairs Carolyn Bennett said a national, independent commission would begin working on what has been described as a “national human rights crisis” on September 1.

Bennett said the commission would have the “historic” ability to gather information across Canada and she thanked the indigenous families that have already shared their experiences.

“It’s because of these courageous women and families, who knew something was very wrong, that we are here today,” Bennett said during a press conference at the Canadian Museum of History near Ottawa.

“They knew an inquiry was needed to achieve justice and healing and to put an end to this ongoing terrible tragedy.”

For over a decade, indigenous community leaders and human rights advocates across Canada have urged Ottawa to formulate a national strategy to address high rates of violence against indigenous women and girls.

In 2014, Canada’s federal police force, the RCMP, reported that 1,017

Hurricane Earl hits Belize

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The commissioners will have the power to compel individuals to give evidence [Chris Wattie/Reuters]

Aboriginal women were murdered across the country between 1980 and 2012 and another 164 women were still missing. More cases have been reported since then.

Marion Buller, the first female First Nations judge in British Columbia, will head up the fiveperson commission, which is tasked with examining the root causes of the violence, including racism, sexism and Canadian colonialism.

The commissioners will have the power to compel individuals to give evidence, including police officers,

and gather documents, Bennett said. The inquiry will be able to issue recommendations that are non-binding.

“Our goal is to make concrete recommendations that will ensure the safety of our women and our girls in our communities,” said Buller, the chief commissioner.

The first part of the inquiry will run from September 1 to December 31, 2018, at a cost of $53.8m (CAD).

Another $16.17m will fund liaison units to help families get information on specific cases.

urricane Earl has made landfall on the coast of Belize, bringing destructive winds and flooding rain.

With sustained winds of 120 kilometres per hour, Earl barely attained Category 1 status on the five point Saffir-Simpson scale. Gusts were around 150km/h.

Earl passed just to the north of Belize City at around 03:00 GMT on Thursday. A two-metre storm surge was expected.

Residents of Belize City and other coastal communities were advised to stay away from the coast and to seek refuge in storm shelters.

The international airport, archeological attractions and national parks were closed.

As much as 200mm of rain was expected to fall across the country with a few isolated totals of 400mm.

This compares with an average rainfall total for the entire month of August of 170mm.

Large rainfall totals were also expected to affect northern Guatemala and Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.

Earl is already weakening into a tropical storm and the weakening trend will continue as it tracks northwestwards towards the Bay of Campeche.

Two Men London Police: No Signs of Jailed in Norway for Radicalization in London Attacker Joining IS L

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orway has jailed two men for joining Islamic State in August 2014, shortly after IS declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

A court Oslo Wednesday sentenced Hasan Ahmed, a 46-yearold Norwegian of Pakistani origin, to six years in prison and Adam Idrisovich Magomadov, a 23-yearold Russian of Chechen origin, to seven-and-a-half, in line with the requests by the prosecution.

The court said that they had “a clear and determined plan’’ to “contribute to the organization’s terrorist activities.’’

Magomadov was handed a heavier sentence because he stayed in Syria longer and had maintained ties with IS even after his return to Norway.

The two men were convicted of belonging to IS and of “terror conspiracy.” They travelled together to Syria and participated in IS training programs, pledged allegiance to the terrorist group and carried weapons in its name, the court said in its documents. Both had planned to go back to Syria.

Ahmed and Magomadov were arrested last year in Oslo.

ondon police said Thursday that they found no evidence of radicalization to suggest terrorism after a Somali man stabbed a woman to death and wounded five other people in central London. Instead, they say the attack was likely triggered by mental health issues.

Police arrested the 19-yearold man in Russell Square, near the University of London, after incapacitating him with a Taser. The man – who has yet to be publicly named – is in police custody at a nearby hospital.

“In some of our big iconic locations, we’ve already got armed patrols – if you look at Parliament, Downing Street – so it’s not entirely new,” Metropolitan Police chief Bernard Hogan-Howe said Thursday. “I think people understand that where you are going to have people as enemies who’ve got guns, we’ve got to have guns.”

The decision to put armed police on the streets in London is significant because the vast majority of officers in Britain do not carry firearms -- a standard that will remain intact for most of London’s 31,000 police officers.

A police forensic officer works

A police forensic officer works in Russell Square in London early on August 4, 2016, after a knife attack in which a woman in her 60s was killed. in Russell Square in London early woman who was stabbed to death on August 4, 2016, after a knife as an American citizen. She was attack in which a woman in her 60s treated at the scene by paramedics, but pronounced dead shortly was killed.

A police forensic officer works after. Three victims were released in Russell Square in London early from the hospital early Thursday on August 4, 2016, after a knife morning. The condition of two attack in which a woman in her 60s others was unknown.

Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan was killed.

Police identified the 60-year-old P o l i c e S e r v i c e ’ s A s s i s t a n t

Commissioner for Specialist Operations, said police believe the mental health of the suspect to be a “significant factor” in the case, but cautioned that it is just one of several lines of inquiry.

“But of course at this stage we should keep an open mind regarding motive and consequently terrorism as a motivation remains but one line of inquiry for us to explore,” he added.

Police received a call about the attack in progress around 10:30 p.m. local time, and within about 10 minutes had arrived on the scene and subdued the attacker.

Rowley said that, as a precautionary measure, there would be an increased presence of armed police on the streets of London Thursday morning to provide Londoners “reassurance and safety.”

The knife attack came the same day London officials announced an increase in armed police patrolling the city in an effort to prevent terror attacks.

Dubbed “Operation Hercules,” the boost in officers carrying guns is a response to the stepped up terror attacks in Europe recently, according to police officials.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Relief as AMAC doles out food, cash to indigent widows I

By Stanley Onyekwere

n demonstration of steadfastness on fulfilling campaign promises, the Chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hon. AbdullahiAdamuCandido, yesterday doled out bags of rice and cash gift to less privileged widows in the council.

PeoplesDaily reports that a selectnumber of widows,two each drawn from the various political wards of the council received a bag of rice and token of cash each, to help them have some sought of respite.

Presenting the relief package to the beneficiaries, during a brief ceremony in the council’s conference hall, the AMAC chairman, said the gesture was part of social welfare scheme,solely financed with 50% salaries of his vice and himself.

He added that therelief package to the widows is the first batch, as it will be on monthly basis, saying the idea behind it is simply to touch the lives of those who are less privileged in the society.

Candido assured that on monthly basis, they will look for the orphans, unfortunate prison inmates, children

of low income families, so as to be able to touch their lives positively, “even if it is for one or two days. This is the idea behind the social welfare scheme.”

His words: “My self and the Vice Chairman had agreed that for the duration of our three-year tenure at helms of affairs of the council, every month our salaries will be divided into two- half of which will be used as social welfare scheme while half will be our take-home pay package.

“Although the reality on ground in terms of finance is not as we had envisaged, but we have made a

commitment between ourselves and almighty God, we still kept faith with this initiative, and by the grace of God, we will continue.

“So, for the number of the months that we are going to be receiving salaries from the council, we have agreed to assemble like this, to dole out relief items from the 50% of our salaries to less privileged people.

“We are doing it because; we know that while we can afford three square meals, there a lot of people in the society that cannot afford even one square meal a day.

“And because we cannot be

• An accident scene at Kagini Junction along Dei-Dei /Kubwa Expressway, recently in Abuja

everywhere, we decided to have coordinators to help fish would-be beneficiaries for this social welfare scheme, who decided to start with widows.”

Candido however advised coordinators of the scheme that “in identifying the beneficiaries, we don’t want to know where they are; who is connected to whomever?

“So don’t identify them because they (beneficiaries) know or are related to us, but identify them because they are in needy situation.”

Responding, one of the beneficiaries from Mogadishu Cantonment (otherwise known as AbachaBarracks), SalamatuYahaya, thanked the chairman for remembering the widows and other poor people in AMAC, and prayed for God’s protection on the council leadership.

“Most of us that are here today, couldn’t afford to buy a single bag of rice, since when price of the commodity had gone, we have not eaten rice, or any other essential food.

And we have been crying.

“We don’t have any food, we are sleeping and crying to God to intervene; and we thank God, who has touched the heart of the council under the leadership of Hon. Candido, to help us today,” she expressed.

Meanwhile, in a related event, Candido received a committee report on the verification of the AMAC workforce, aimed at sanitizing the system, for effective service delivery to the people.

Presenting the Report to the AMAC boss, the Committee Chairman, Lawrence Onuchukwu, who doubles as the Council’s vicechairman, said the committee had looked into the records made available to it, with all sincerity, and fear of God, as reflected in the recommendations of the committee.

Association harps on training for Abuja entertainers

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o ensure proficiency and best practices as professional entertainers, the Abuja Body of Comedians (ABC) has stressed the imperativeness of capacity building for stand-up comedians in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to the ABC’s President, Mr. SosthenesAyuba, who made this point known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, stand-up comedy as a genre of entertainment is already very popular and competitive; therefore, there is the need for comedians to uphold best practices.

According to him, “Training is very important in any profession, and this is what we are set to do for comedians in Abuja to make them more competent as professionals.

“Besides being a talent, there is the need for periodic selfdevelopment to ensure one does well wherever he or she goes.

“Comedy is a business that deals with people of different age and class, there is need to know how to handle people well while you remain relevant as an artiste.”

“There are common moral and ethical values that a comedian should observe both on and off the stage while relating with people.

“The trainings will address issues on how the artiste can balance both his public and private life and remain relevant within and beyond his environment.”

He said that since the comedian goes to perform in places with diverse and peculiar cultural orientation and lifestyles, there was the need to know what to say and what not to say during shows.

“A comedian who is from the south should be able to understand the orientation of the people in the North, to guide him on what not to joke about.

“A Christian comedian for example, who is performing

in a Moslem-dominated environment, should show need to be cautious in making religious remarks.

“These are some of the dynamics that the 21st century comedian should know, and that is why we want to start this periodic capacity building.

“We are set to develop anyone with the interest and passion, so that the entertainment industry in Abuja will be better than it is now,’’ he said.

He, however, noted that only comedians who had identified with the body would benefit from such training.

Ayuba, whose popular stage name is Dr. Ayuba, said that many

young talents were leaving the FCT to other places because they felt there were no opportunities for growth.

He said that the trend could only be stopped if upcoming comedians and other entertainers were motivated.

According to him, young artistes with exceptional performances are then recommended by the body for events within and outside the FCT. Ayuba also urged event organisers and other entertainment stakeholders in the FCT to always encourage artistes in the territory by hiring them for events. (NAN)

PAGE 32

Photo Splash

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Two women coming from farm, recently at Jikwai, in Abuja

Teenage girl hawking shoes, on Saturday at Karu, in Abuja

Scene of an accident along Beger round about, recently in Abuja

Young man drinking sachet water, yesterday at Unity Fountain, in Abuja

Young boy hawking Gala, at Wuse II, in Abuja

Photos: Mahmud Isa

PAGE 33

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Metro

World Breastfeeding Week: Parents tasked on exclusive breast milk for children Stories by Stanley Onyekwere

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athers and mothers in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been urged to ensure they breastfeed their babies with only breast milk from birth to six months, as it is critical for the sustainable development of the baby.

The Executive Secretary of the FCT Primary Health Care Development Board (FCT-PHCDB), Dr. Rilwan Mohammed, gave the advice yesterday while flagging off the 2016 FCT Baby Show, one of the activities organized for the celebration of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week in the

Territory.

PeoplesDaily reports that first week of August every year is observed globally as International Breastfeeding week, to encourage and create awareness on importance of exclusive breastfeeding by nursing mothers. And the theme for this year’s celebration is “Breastfeeding: A Key to Sustainable Development”.

According to the PHCDB boss, promoting and supporting breastfeeding is a key intervention strategy for achieving all sustainable developmental goals; and the only way to achieve this is to ensure that all FCT women

breastfeed their babies with only breast milk from birth to six months.

He added that complementary food is introduced at six months, using locally available foods with continued breastfeeding for up to two years and beyond.

Mohammed said: “Our fathers and mothers must ensure that their children are exclusively breastfeed, as it is not only the cornerstone of a child’s healthy development; it is also the foundation of a country’s development.

“And of all activities that will bring about sustainable development of the FCT child, the cost effective strategy is

proper breastfeeding culture, as it is the most important child survival intervention.”

He however noted that globally, inappropriate breastfeeding and complementary feeding practice coupled with high rates of infectious diseases are the major causes of malnutrition during the first two years of life.

He also explained that the Baby Show is a strategy aimed at creating awareness on promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding, and also to help government appreciate the full economic value of breastfeeding as a valuable part of national budget.

“There has been a lot of progress in the ongoing collective effort to ensure a healthy FCT, but to compliment this stride, I would appeal to all stakeholders as a matter of urgency to improve on our commitments, to scale up the 17% exclusive breastfeeding rate in the country,” Mohammed stressed.

In the same vein, representative of the Society for Family Health, Nigeria, described the theme of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week in FCT as apt, because timely health awareness remain key to achieving improved breastfeeding rate in the FCT and country at large.

• Man taking a ride behind articulated vehicle, yesterday along Gwarimpa Road, in Abuja

Bwari chairman unveils 24-member cabinet

By Stanley Onyekwere

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he Chairman Bwari Area Council, Hon. Musa Diko has inaugurated twentyfour-member cabinet, consisting of eight supervisorycouncilors, ten special advisers and six personal assistants respectively, justfew daysshort of three months in office.

Inaugurating the cabinet, Diko described the development as yet another historic moment

in the life of Bwari area council and her entire residents; as“we are witnessing a period that is desirous of all of us. This period is change in attitude, a period of sacrifice”.

Accord to him,members of his cabinet, must make sure they share what they have with one another as ambassadors of change, and the change manifest itself in change of attitude and a time of sacrifice from them.

He noted that the

appointments are in sizes but distributed across all the geopolitical zones and wards of the area council and the selection process is not based on ones struggles, contributions or educational qualification but rather a privilege to serve.

“You are not appointed because of your struggle put in. It is not because of your qualification or self-righteousness but it is a privilege for you to bring change to bwari area council.”

Responding on behalf of the appointees, Hon. DikoMakama thanked the chairman for finding them worthy to be part of this epoch making cabinet and promised to be loyal, dedicated, humble and hard working to deliver the dividends of democracy and called on the people of Bwari to return to farm.

Our correspondent reports that, the appointees took oath of office before a judicial panel led by Mrs. Martina Dajo, and

promised to uphold the law and work in the interest of the council and not to serve self.

Not left out,chairman,All Progressives Congress (APC),in Bwari, Hon. AliuTanko, thanked the chairman for finding time to form his cabinet and charged the appointees to champion the fight against corruption in their respective departments as promised by the party’s manifestoes.

PAGE 34

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Money Sense

What next for mortgage rates: Record low deals on offer to homeowners but will Brexit mean rates start to go up?

By SIMON LAMBERT

rate.

That is particularly relevant in light of recent events. Post-referendum experts are predicting that lenders will leave standard variable rates on hold but are likely to cut longer term fixed rates in the coming weeks.

A five-year fix gives the opportunity to lock into a low rate for a longer period and avoid extra fees and higher rates in a relatively short time.

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arkets went into turmoil following the momentous decision by the British people to leave the European Union on 24 June 2016.

Investors panicked, sending share prices spiralling downwards, gilt yields collapsed and the Bank of England said it will consider extraordinary measures to protect the finances of British citizens.

But what does all of this mean for mortgage rates, which have been steadily falling over the past month to record lows?

In reality, fairly little - for the moment.

Some are predicting that rates will remain at rock bottom for the foreseeable future while others caution that lenders may start to hike rates if market volatility sticks around.

Fundamentally, competition among lenders continues to drive down mortgage rates at all deposit levels, but borrowers will find a potential big difference in the size of the loan that banks or building societies will offer them.

This makes shopping around and speaking to a good mortgage broker a wise move. You can check best buy tables and the best mortgage rates for your circumstances with our calculator powered by London & Country. What are the best deals?

It is currently possible for those with the biggest deposits to fix for five years below 2 per cent, while those with 10 per cent to

put down can fix for five years at just under 3 per cent.

For two-year fixes, the lowest rates are now less than 1 per cent if you have a big deposit and 2 per cent if you have just 10 per cent.

Until fairly recently economists and markets were pricing in the first interest rate rise in the UK in late 2017 but following Britain’s decision to leave the EU, many are now predicting that the Bank of England could now cut the base rate below 0.5 per cent where it has been since March 2009.

Those looking to buy a home or remortgage will find that now is a good time to look for a home loan, with record low mortgage rates on offer.

Many are still being nudged by brokers into taking out two-year fixed rate mortgages, yet it is wise to question if this is the best move.

The attraction of a two-year fix may be lower rates now and extra flexibility, but that comes at the expense of needing to remortgage in two years to avoid slipping onto a more expensive standard variable

What is happening with rates?

Poll How long would you fix your mortgage for?

Two years Five years Ten years Don’t take a tracker Prospective rate rises have been pushed into the distance by overwhelming uncertainty following the shock result of the EU referendum.

This is on top of already low inflation, slowing world growth, the oil price slump, the eurozone’s continuing woes and lots of other things that keep central bankers awake at night.

On the flipside, the US raised interest rates in December last year, and the Bank of England’s deputy governor Ben Broadbent has warned people not to rely on market forecasts that have pushed a first base rate rise way into the future.

ADAMAWA STATE POLYTECHNIC, YOLA (OFFICE OF THE REGISTRAR)

INVITATION FOR PREQUALIFICATION FOR 2014 TETFUND SPECIAL INTERVENTION PROJECTS

ADDENDUM

Further to our earlier advertisement on the above subject matter which appeared in Blueprint newspaper of 24th June, 2016 and Peoples Daily newspaper of 27th June, 2016 as well as the Federal Tenders Journal Volume 12 No 13 (Monday June 27 - Sunday July 10, 2016), bidders are to note the following amendments/ additional requirements: 1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

That paragraph C (item 6) should read “evidence of current certificate of compliance with National Pension Commission provisions 2004”.

That paragraph C ( item 7) should read “evidence of certificate of compliance with relevant Industrial Training Fund ( ITF ) Act 2011 provisions “.

Evidence of registration on the National Database of Contractors, Consultants and Service Providers of the Bureau for Public Procurement by inclusion of Interim Registration Report (IRR).

Evidence of certificate of compliance with National Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) in line with section 16 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.

Contractors that have already submitted their document can send the additional requirements to the Registrar, if not included in the earlier submission, on or before the closing date.

All submissions should reach the Registrar on or before 24thAugust , 2016 ( 10 am ). The opening date of bid documents will hold Wednesday 24th August, 2016 by 10am.

Signed: Registrar

Page 35

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

Kadage Peace And Stability Initiative

Christian Literature & Help Service. IT/ No.16919

THE SENT ONES DELIVERANCE OUTREACH MINISTRY

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ministry HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

This is to inform the general public that the above Named has applied to the corporate affairs commission for loss Of certificate of incorporation (CTC) under part ‘C’ of the company and allied matters act of 1990.

The general public is hereby notified that the above named Ministry has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVES: 1. To preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ all over the World

SIGNED : Muhammad Ahmad Giragi Esq.

Any objection to this application should be forwarded to RegistrarGeneral corporate affairs commission, plot 420, Tigris crescent, off Aguiyi Ironsi street, maitama Abuja within 28 days from the date of this publication.

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

BENELO-IKEGULU WIDOWS’ CARE FOUNDATION

CYNTHIA MORGAN FOUNDATION

The general public is hereby notified that the above named Foundation has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

The general public is hereby notified that the above named Foundation has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

Centre for Awareness, Reorientation and Empowerment

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Aliyu Gabi Mohammed Chairman.

2. Aliyu Yakubu -Secretary.

3. Abdulra’uf Sa’idu.

4. Muhammad Lawal.

5. Ibrahim Umar Bello.

6. Ibrahim Sale.

THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: To assist in peace initiative and growth advancement within the kadage community.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. DR. (MRS) BENEDICTA OKWUDILICHUKWU OBI-IKEGULU 2. DR. (MS) CHIDIMMA OGOCHUKWU IKEGULU 3. MR. HERBERT IKECHUKWU IKEGULU 4. MRS. STELLA OBIOMA NWANKWO 5. PASTOR OLIVER ELIJAH ANIH 6. PRINCE CHINWE ANIEKWE

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. CYNTHIA MORGAN - CHAIRMAN 2. CHRISTIAN LOVE - SECRETARY

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE 1. TO TAKE CARE OF THE WELFARE OF MEMBERS.

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVES: 1. Evaluate the needs and challenges of every child especially young girls and women of all ages, faces and races and also to profer a lasting solution 2. Take steps towards checkmating abuse and violence

Any objection to this registration must reach the RegistrarGeneral of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Any objection to this registration must reach the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED: BARR IGNATIUS O AGBAPULU SOLICITOR

Signed: Secretary

PUBLIC NOTICE LIFE FULFILMENT MINISTRY INTERNATIONAL

The general public is hereby notified that the above named Ministry has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. PST DANIEL EHINOMEN EGBODION 2. PST (MRS) FAITH TAIWOTEIN DANIEL 3. BRO. BENJAMIN JACOB OPEYEMI 4. PST EZEKIEL OSAS OKHUELEIGBE THE AIM AND OBJECTIVES: 1. To preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ all over the World Any objection to this registration must reach the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED: IGNATIUS O. AGBAPULU, ESQ. SOLICITOR.

PUBLIC NOTICE Obi Francis Nwaoboshi Foundation

This is to inform the general public that the above Named has applied to the corporate affairs commission for Certified true copy (CTC) under part 'C' of the company and allied matters act of 1990.

The trustees are : 1. Isaac Anwuzia.

2. Nkem Okwuofu.

3. Godwill Obielum.

4. Fidelis Tilije.

5. Felix Nwabueze.

6. Adizue Eluaka.

7. Isioma Okafor.

8. Moses Idu. 9. Chief Chukwunweke Lawrence Osiegbu Aims and objectives 1.To deepen and expand charity and empowerment programme. 2.

Establishment of pilot youth empowerment programme in Delta nort Any objection to the proposed registration should be forwarded to the registrar general, corporate affairs commission, abuja within 28days of the application Signed: secretary

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Sylvia Onyekwere.

2. Stephen Ogieva

Any objection to this registration must reach the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED: Barr. Elizabeth Ishola

The general public is hereby notified that the above named Centre has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Auwalu Salisu - Chairman 2. Dauda Muhammad – Secretary 3. Mustapha Bello 4. Sanusi Adamu Ngaski 5. Yusha’u Sani Yankuzo 6. Barr. Abubakar Abdullahi 7. Ahmad Abubakar 8. Masduk Abdulkarim 9. Sulaiman Muriana 10. Jamilu Mika’ilu THE AIM AND OBJECTIVES: 1. To initiate, support, participate and promote developmental projects for rural communities Any objection to this registration must reach the RegistrarGeneral of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED: SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

KANDAKES WOMEN FOUNDATION

SOCIETY FOR CONFLICT, GENDER, YOUTH AND MARGINAL RIGHTS PROMOTION

The general public is hereby notified that the above named center has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under part ‘C’ of the companies and allied matters Act 1990.

NAMES OF TRUSTEES 1. HAJIA BINTA AHMED EL-RUFAI - CHAIRMAN 2. MUSA MUSA ABDULRAHMAN - SECRETARY 3. AMINA HARUNA 4. EMMANUEL MUSA OBJECTIVES 1. TO EDUCATE WOMEN IN TERMS OF KEEPING THEIR ENVIRONMENT CLEAN. 2. TO ENABLE THE LESS PRIVILEGE WOMEN REALIZE THEIR POSITIVE AMBITION IN LIFE. 3. TO PROMOTE THE IMAGE AND INTEGRITY OF THE ASSOCIATION, STATE AND NATION IN GENERAL. 4. TO BRING HARMONIOUS CO-EXISTENCE AMONG WOMEN. 5. TO PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES TO OUTSTANDING LESS PRIVILEGE WOMEN, BY GIVEN THEM TRAINING IN DIFFERENT ASPECT OF HANDWORK. 6. TO HELP WOMEN ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS AND ASSIST WOMEN IN FINANCIAL CRISES. 7. TO ASSIST THE LESS PRIVILEGE WOMEN IN THE SOCIETY. 8. TO ENCOURAGE WOMEN WITH LAUDABLE OBJECTIVE AND TO ACHIEVE SET GOAL.

The general public is hereby notified that the above named organisation has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja for registration under Part C of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, No. 1, 1990.

The Trustees are 1. Alhaji Isa Muhammadu 2. Mohammed Inuwa Aminu 3. Aisha Manjalo 4. Maimuna Ahmed Hassan 5. Abdulhakeem Mustapha The Aims and Objectives are 1. To run programmes of social, humanitarian and legal activities for the relief of people caught or likely to be caught in human conflicts or whose issues by reason of gender, age, location or ethnology are marginalised and left out of the mainstream of current programmes or priorities of government, the international community or civil societies.

2. To engage in advocacy, awareness building and community work on the problems of conflicts, deprivation and marginalisation and on the remedial instruments, institutions, resources and facilities toward their mitigation and eradication.

3. To conduct researches and organise workshops, symposia, seminars, colloquia and such other means of dissemination of knowledge as would be helpful to the pursuit of the objects of the Society.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the RegistrarGeneral, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent Maitama, Abuja, within 28 days of this publication.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, 420 Tigris Crescent, off Aguiyi Ironsi Street PMB 198, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Signed: Secretary

Signed: John Mudiaga Omughele, Esq.,CC.8 Ibrahim Taiwo Road, Kaduna, Nigeria,

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

IGBUEBEN COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

GREY HAIR AND THE LESS PRIVILEGED FOUNDATION

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE 1. COLUMBUS AHOIDA. 2. NANCY ABIODUN ADEJI. 3 BENJAMIN IBADIN. 4. DOLAPO OJIE. 5.PAUL PETERS EBHOHIMHEN. 6.ENIMIEN AYELA. 7.KELVINEHIWARIO. 8. KENNETH IGHALO. 9.MARY OGBEE. 10.BIBIAN ODION OKOKHERE-EDEGHONGHON. AIMS AND OBJECJIVES. 1. TO DEVELOP A GLOBAL STANDARD ALUMNI RESOURCE NETWORK FOR IGUEBEN COLLEGE, IGUEBEN STUDENTS AND ALUMNI,PROVIDING CAREER COUNSELLING,PLACEMENT OPPORTUNTIES,REFERRALS, INTERNSHIP AND SHARING SUPPORTIVE EXPERIENCES. 2. INSTITUTIONALISING POSITIVE STANDARD. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION SIGNED: BARR. NEFISHETU PRECIOUS USMAN

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED FOUNDATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Dr David Olasunkanmi Olalekan (President) 2. Madike Chinonye Yvonne (Secretary) 3. Elder Mrs Hyengi Madike 4.Frankca Young Adaeze 5. Pastor Omotayo Franklin Omoniyi 6. Prince Emelue Henry Uche THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1. To provide free health care services in the rural areas.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Page 36

Mohammed

I, formerly known as Mohammed, Ahmed Ndaceko now wish to be known and addressed as Mohammed Ahmed. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

GIFT

I, Formerly known as HAUWA ELEOJO SANI now wish tobe known as. GIFT ELEOJO JERRY. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

LAITU

I, formerly known as LAITU YERIMA now wish to be known and addressed as LAITU KASIMU LUKA. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

DORATHY

I, formerly known as DORATHY OKOYE now wish to be known and addressed as DORATHY ABIANUJU UMEH. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

Abubakar

I, formerly known as Abubakar, Yunusa, Ohiare now wish to be known and addressed as Abubakar Yunus Onsachi. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

Mrs Anoh,

I formerly known as Miss Nyiam,Janet Menku Now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs Anoh, Janet Menku. all former documents remain valid. general public should please take note.

chinyere

i formerly known as chinyere n bala-ibrahim now wish to be known and addressed as chinyere ngozi ezenwa all former documents remain valid. nspcl shiroro coren nse apwen and the general public should please take note.

MUSA

I FORMERLY KNOWN AS MUSA ABDULLAHI. NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS MUSA ABULLAHI KOBI. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS SHOULD REMAIN VALID. AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD TAKE NOTE.

GAMBARI

I, Formerly known as GAMBARI MARIAM FUNMILAYO now wish to be known as. GAMBARI MARIAM MAITUTA FUNMILAYO. All former documents remain valid.

All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note

dasibel

I, Formerly known as philemon kabir now wish to be known and henceforth called as dasibel philemon george. former documents remain valid. first bank and the genaral pubilic should please take note

Muhammed

I, formerly known as Muhammadu ismaila kambaza. Now wish to be known and henceforth called Musa Sani Kambaza. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

alheri

I FORMERLY KNOWN AS alheri musa NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS alheri musa alhassan.

ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS SHOULD REMAIN VALID. first bank plc and AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD TAKE NOTE.

ronke

I FORMERLY KNOWN AS ronke obanaiye NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS ronke obanaiye audu. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS SHOULD REMAIN VALID. AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD TAKE NOTE

al-amin

I FORMERLY KNOWN AS al-amin abdulmalik husseyn NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS al-amin zakari abdulmalik. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS SHOULD REMAIN VALID. AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD TAKE NOTE

KABIRU

I, Formerly known as SABIU SANI ABUBAKAR now wish to be known as. KABIRU YUSIF. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

MRS AGNES

I, formerly known as Miss Agnes Oko now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs Agnes Iyaya. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

MRS AFOLABI

I formerly known as miss MBAH Mercy Uzor-Amaka now wish to be known and henceforth called MRS AFOLABI MERCY UZOR-AMAKA. All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

ADAMU

I, formerly known as ADAMU MUHAMMED TARBUTU now wish to be known and addressed as ADAMU MUHAMMED. All former documents remain valid.

All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

Abejeshi

I, formerly known as Ali Veronica Omojo now wish to be known and addressed as Abejeshi Veronica Daniel Omojo. All former documents remain valid.

All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

IBRAHIM

I FORMERLY KNOWN AS IBRAHIM ASUKU NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS IBRAHIM ASUKU SIYAKA ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

SAUDATU

I formerly Known as SAUDATU SHAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;AYIBU JIBO now wish to be known and henceforth called SAUDATU AHMED . All former Documents remain valid. FIRST Bank and the general Public should take note.

HASSAN

I formerly Known as IBRAHIM HASSAN and HASSAN YARO now wish to be known and henceforth called HASSAN IBRAHIM YARO. All former Documents remain valid. First Bank,INEC and the general Public should take note.

Mr. Irimiya

I formerly known as mr. Jerry Bakut Now Wish To Be Known And Addressed As Mr. Irimiya Bakut. All Documents Remain Valid.

U.B.A, zytot Security and the General Public should please take note

Muhammed

I, formerly known as Lawan Gohe Magaji now wish to be known and addressed as Muhammed Gohe Magaji. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

YUSUF

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AS OMOJO KINGDOM. NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AS YUSUF REUBEN ACHILE. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. ALL AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

PUBLIC NOTICE

This space is for sale

KASIMU

I FORMERLY KNOWN AS KASIM SAIDU NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS KASIMU GARBA ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

ALHERI

I FORMERLY KNOWN AS GRACE JOHN NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS ALHERI SHAYABU. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS SHOULD REMAIN VALID.FCMB NIG PLC, OTHER AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD TAKE NOTE.

HASSAN

I FORMERLY KNOWN AS ISMAEL GAMBO MAHMOOD NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS HASSAN MADAKI. All former documents remain valid. STERLING BANK PLC. AND GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD TAKE NOTE.

Maryam

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AS Grace Markus .

NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AS Maryam Yahaya.

ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. ALL AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

SHUABU

I FORMERLY KNOWN AS SHUABU IDRIS ADAM NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS SHUABU IDRIS ABDULMUMIN. All former documents remain valid. FIRST BANK PLC. AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD TAKE NOTE.

Abdulrasheed

I, formerly known as Ibrahim Abdulrasheed Muh now wish to be known and addressed as Ibrahim Abdulrasheed Mohammed. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

maraki

I, Formerly known as maraki asanni now wish to be known and addressed as maraki magani asanni. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

mr. irimiya

I, Formerly known as mr. jeery bakut now wish to be known and addressed as mr. irimiya bakut.

All former documents remain valid. u.b.a, zytot security and All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

YOHANNA

I, Formerly known as THANKGOD YOHANNA now wish to be known and addressed as YOHANNA EPHRAIM. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

ANAELE

I, formerly known as UGWU Felicia Chisomnow wish to be known and addressed as ANAELE Felicia Chisom.. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

JOY

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AS JOY LUKA DANTONG. NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AS JOY GWONG DADU. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. ALL AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

RUKAYAT

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AS RUKAYAT ABIMBOLA FALANA. NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AS RUKAYAT ABIMBOLA GOODLUCK. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. ALL AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

JOHN

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AS IDABAWA UMAR. NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AS JOHN IMAJI KERIM. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. ALL AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

Page 37

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Feature

Bluetooth to bribery: Five ingenious ways Indians cheat A

massive medical school admissions examination scandal in Madhya Pradesh and a Supreme Court ruling that ordered 600,000 students to re-appear for a pre-medical exam have brought largescale cheating into the public spotlight.

Cheating during exams is not new in India and despite being illegal has flourished in most parts of the country for so long that it has almost become endemic.

The increasingly inventive methods of cheating have evolved over the years to take advantage of modern technology and even social media.

This has prompted the examinations board to issue a strict set of guidelines, including a dress code for the students re-appearing for the pre-medical exam.

Here are five ingenious ways in which Indians cheat during examinations: James Bond style with gadgets It was discovered that many who were caught cheating during the recently-cancelled examination had come wearing micro-Bluetooth devices and mobile SIM cards that had been stitched to their shirts.

Over the past few years, a number of candidates have also been caught using micro earphones, stitched button-hole cameras and micro earplugs.

The devices are used to transmit questions outside the examination hall to professionals who then relay back the answers.

Pens that can scan question papers and transmit the images outside using micro-Bluetooth devices are also becoming must-have gadgets for ambitious exam-takers.

And they are easily available online. One website, in fact, advertises the products as “Spy exam cheating devices particularly made for clearing tough exams”.

The increasing pace of technological development and easy availability of such devices has meant

Cheating during exams is becoming prominent in India

that authorities are struggling to keep up with - and crack down - on the latest methods of cheating.

Strength of numbers Only recently, shocking images of mass copying emerged from the northern state of Bihar.

Hundreds of students are caught cheating in groups across the country every year, but a proper law to deal with this phenomenon is yet to be enacted.

The problem is believed to be the worst in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Many students smuggle in textbooks and notes into the

Mass copying is probably the most rampant form of cheating in India.

Matteo Gatti set up his kitesurfing club in 2012

examination centres despite tight security - and parents and friends have been photographed scaling the walls of test centres to pass on answers during secondary school examinations.

Going pro with official ‘solvers’ It is not uncommon in India to find newspaper headlines saying “3 solvers for bank exam arrested”.

In a country where limited government jobs cannot accommodate the hundreds and thousands of students who graduate every year, clearing competitive examinations becomes extremely crucial.

This has driven a lot of aspiring students into the arms of professionals who have either coached students, or

cleared the examination themselves.

These services are, however, both expensive and elaborate.

The process begins at the point of submitting the application.

was such an accepted practice that “there’s even a whole subset of the youth population who are brokers between desperate students and avaricious administrators”.

Most students cheat with their cell phone

The solver generally applies along with the candidate and ensures that they are not seated very far apart.

The answer sheets are secretly exchanged before the end of the exam.

Another method used by professional solvers is to forge identity cards and appear in place of their clients.

Old-fashioned bribery The practice of bribing examiners and members of evaluation panels has gained more traction in recent years thanks to the increasing number of candidates and the rise of greater purchasing power.

In a scam involving the Madhya Pradesh professional examination, at least eight senior officials were arrested last year on charges of accepting bribes.

Investigation in Uttar Pradesh state noted that bribery in universities

Social networking Mobile phone cameras and social networks are among the latest tools used by examination takers to cheat.

How it works is pretty simple someone breaks into the examination centre lockers, takes pictures of the question paper and circulates it on social media.

In fact, an examination in Uttar Pradesh involving more than 450,000 examinees was cancelled after a leaked question paper went viral on the WhatsApp messenger service.

Similar leaks have been reported from the prestigious Delhi University as well as in some south Indian colleges.

Instances of email hacking to get university entrance question papers have also prompted authorities to invest more on data protection.

Source: BBC

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Page 38

Interview P

rince Afoke Okporua (Aluta Karl Mark) is a former security Adviser to National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) Senators Forum, Vice President, Niger Delta Students and an aspirant to the position of the National Youth Leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview with Mashe Umaru Gwamna, the Niger Delta born activist bared his mind on his plans to retool the youth wing of party if elected. Excerpts.

Why I am contesting for PDP National Youth Leader –Prince Okporua

Why are you contesting for the position of National Youth Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?

I am in the race for three fundamental reasons, one is to be able to galvanize the youth and give them a platform that will enable them develop and express themselves politically.

Because we have come to discover overtime that one of the fundamental problems of Nigerian state is the fact there is disconnect between the political actors, leaders, elders, stakeholders and the Nigerian youth. This has created a leadership lacuna. That is why many people will say that Nigeria keep on recycling old generation of leaders. It is not actually so, the fact remains that the youth have not been able to create that avenue to get into leadership positions. For you to get into leadership position you need a platform, access and you need somebody to create an avenue for you.

So, I am coming to serve as a springboard to build a platform and a rostrum for Nigerian youth to able to fill the missing gap. Whether we like it or not, a time is coming when issues will no longer revolve around crude oil anymore. Not even technology, but on the innate potentials of Nigerian youth. If there is nobody to bridge the gap and prepare a way ahead of time, we will continue to suffer this leadership gap. That is the primary reason I am running.

Again, I am in the race due to the existing reality in contemporary Nigeria. There is a failure of leadership on the part of the APC. They have failed Nigerians woefully. The Prince Afoke Okporua change they promised is yet to be seen. There is need for a viable opposition to the ruling party to mobilize Nigerian youth and sell the party ideas to the youth. that will give Nigerians the alternative platform. And for you to I am talking about a new PDP, a rebranded PDP, reformed PDP, achieve this, you need somebody who has ability and capability PDP that will be able to have the interest, yarning and aspiration

of Nigerians at heart. To achieve this, you need somebody with a handshake across board as far as youth affairs are concerned.

I have a link, touch, relationship with all the youth architectures and structures. So, collectively we can move Nigeria forward.

About four of you have indicated interest in the race, what do you have above other three?

What I have above all over them is what I can call unction to function. I believe that I have the hand and calling of God in this assignment. God has told me in a vision that i must go and deliver the people. He told me categorically that he is going to do something new through a democratic platform. Don’t forget that PDP is the only party that is democratic oriented. Another thing that is giving me edge, is my experience as a unionist. I have no political baggage, no corruption charge to be scared of. My character is beyond reproach and integrity is above board. I have always done any assignment given to me satisfactorily. I am of no blemish, both in private and public life. I have all it takes to deliver the goods.

What are you bringing differently to this position if elected?

As a youth leader of a leading political party, I must operate an open door policy. I must be accessible as a youth leader. I will ensure that anybody who wants to see the youth leader must not be subjected to questions or other things that will not give him access to the youth leader. I will run an all inclusive administration. I will engage the youth economically and will not wait for handouts from our party to move forward. I will set up a PDP youth farm in collaboration with governors and other investors to empower our youth. It is not going to be politics and rally alone, the youth must think outside the box to better their lot.

How youthful are you given the fact the youth would want one of their own to occupy this position?

Very youthful, both in outlook and intellect to move our youth forward.

Fuel subsidy removal good for economy–RTEAN President

T

he Road Transport Employers Association of Road Nigeria(RTEAN) has given its reasons on why it backed Government’s decision against the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the ongoing face off between the duo, in an exclusive interview with Paul Efiong in Abuja, the National President of the association, High Chief, Alhaji Shehu Musa Isiwele said Nigeria unity surpasses group and personal interest imploring Nigerians to support the government. Excerpt:

Most Nigerians are complaining against the timing, now the country is facing several problem such as epileptic power supply, insecurity, lack of fund because the budget was just signed, would you say the time for subsidy removal is proper?

What time is the best? There is no time to check time, what time should be the best and which one is better? It is better we do it now than never. We have to do it once and for all and forget about this fuel and petroleum problems in this country, that is why we have made our stand known to the government on this matter; We have documented it as well as sent letters on the issue to the government through several ministries such as Ministry of Transport, Director of State Security Services etc. We shall give you a copy of this document. We equally wrote the Inspector General of Police (IGP).As I said earlier, we have written to several agents of government to let them know of our stand on this national issue. The fuel cliques and cabals are just siphoning our money because of the subsidy on petroleum prices. Nigeria shall save about N65billion naira daily which is enough to sponsor capital projects in this country as well as create millions of job opportunities for our young graduates

who roam the streets in search of jobs.

If you look around our neighboring countries, our fuel is the cheapest that is why you see many rushing for different oil related investments here in Nigeria.

I have call for uniformity of fuel prices in the whole of African countries, which might mitigate against sharp practices in the system because some people, station owners and marketers always operate in the night, buy from here and rush to sell them in and around other neighboring countries to make much huge money.

The last administration had the same intention, but was totally rejected when the whole nation was agog with one protest after the other, would you react to this sir?

No; Let us not go down the history, because everybody has its own style of leadership, let us not go back to ‘eating our vomits’. Jonathan was a leader with no respect from anybody, he had no charisma as a leader, for instance when (he) Jonathan instructed the former FCT minister, Senator Mohammed Balla to give us a plot of land for the construction of our national Headquarters here, in Abuja he refused to obey that instruction, we had the letter with us then and now, but that directive was not

honored by the minister just because the president was weak. Can anybody try that with President Buhari, No;, who ever that refused to honour the president is fired less than 24 hours. So, President Mohammed Buhari meant well for Nigeria that is why we in RTEAN have call on all Nigerians at home and abroad to support him in his bid to lead Nigeria to its desired destinations.

What would you say about the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) the union has been calling on the government to revert to the former pump price, could you react to this sir?

The current president of NLC sat beside me during the last national conference here in Abuja, the labour movement has been questioned by many Nigerians, they have no muscle now, the era of calling them for negotiation after which they are hand twisted have come and gone in Nigeria. Where are they coming from? Who know about them and of what advantage have they been to Nigerians, I mean ordinary Nigerians.

Are the NLC fighting for themselves or to Nigerians? What result have they achieved so far in the name of the so call strike and protest?

High Chief Musa Isiwele Shehu

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

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Weekend Revue

Diamond hitz top 5

With Tobias Lengnan Dapam lovelengz@yahoo.com 07036990957

The world of music is buzzing again with different artists showing up to their talents, trying to outclass each other in order to make it to the Diamond Music Entertainment (DME) top 5. However, Weekend Revue screened several entries and picked the best 5 for this week’s feature.

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opping the chart is Crazy G, with ‘Invisible’. She is one of DME’s fastest rising stars. The dance hall tune is making huge waves in some parts of the country; like Plateau, Nassarawa , Lagos and the FCT . Crazy G who took a little vacation from the industry is doing well as she makes her comeback to the music scene.

A

t no 3 is ‘My air’ by one of the top Nigerian Female artiste, Papa. The artiste was a former member of the female group ‘Desperate Chicks’. The song is a beautiful slow rock reggae tune with a Jamaican feel. The song is getting a lot of airplay and also getting lots of downloads.

A

t number 4 is Lil Jessica with the song ‘MY MUMMY’ which she features Lil Micky. The song celebrates all mothers all over the world and is making waves in the FCT.

A

t number 5 is an up and coming artiste, Lee with his new single, ‘FEELING MY FLOW”. The Afro Pop Rapper who resides in Abuja is a regular visitor at the studio, working on more singles

A

t no 2 is Shuga Khrizz, with the song ‘Wireless money’. The dancing tune was meant to promote the cashless policy initiated by the central bank of Nigeria. It further explained how one could spend money without carrying cash using wireless means like the POS.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Weekend Revue Funny Bone urges Nigerians to embrace patience

We all know that Nigeria’s economy has been very challenging since the change in power as things seem to be getting more difficult.

While many are still anticipating the change, promised by the president and all others sworn into power in this new government, many have already lost hope.

Comedian, Funny Bone, seems to be among the few who we confident that the storm Nigeria is facing right now would soon be over.

In a recent interview, he urged Nigerians to be calm and not to be quick in judging the government.

In his words: “I want to assess the government after four years, I think it’s too early to comment or judge the government. We need to be patient with the present government. If after four years things remain the way they are, then we can all comment.”

‘Harry Potter and the ‘Cursed Child’ extends through end of 2017

T

he two-part play that has drawn rapturous reviews was originally scheduled to close next year on May 27 at the Palace Theatre on London’s West End. But demand for tickets has prompted producers Sonia Friedman, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions to extend the run by seven months.

A new block of 250,000 tickets for performances through Dec. 10, 2017, will be released for sale Aug. 4, including 300 tickets per performance, priced at £20 or less in a bid to make the play accessible to fans in all income brackets.

Designed to be seen over two nights or at consecutive performances on matinee days, the play is written by Jack Thorne and directed by John Tiffany, based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Thorne and Tiffany. It picks up on a new generation, focusing on the offspring of Harry, Hermione, Ron and Draco Malfoy as those core characters face the challenges of parenting.

Critics have been effusive in their praise for the play as both a fluid continuation of the Potter saga and a unique theatrical experience in its own right. In a clever marketing ploy, the production is distributing free badges

after each performance that read #keepthesecrets — an attempt to keep plot developments under wraps that has largely paid off, beginning with tight-lipped reviewers.

While no plans have yet been announced for a Broadway production of the play, the strong track record of both Friedman and Callender with New York stage ventures makes an eventual trans-Atlantic transfer seem a given.

The stellar London launch and the massive global following for Rowling’s stories are clear signs that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is shaping up to be the next international stage blockbuster.

Hillary Clinton’s stop at Leonardo DiCaprio’s house highlights two-day, big-bucks Hollywood fundraising tour

L

eonardo DiCaprio will host Hillary Clinton when the Democratic presidential nominee visits Hollywood later this month during a two-day fundraising blitz featuring four big-ticket events in Los Angeles.

Taking place at DiCaprio’s Los Angeles home, guests must shell out $33,400 for a ticket to the lunchtime event on Tuesday, Aug. 23, called a “Conversation with Hillary Rodham Clinton.” The star-studded gathering

is also being hosted by Jennifer and Tobey Maguire, Jennifer Aniston, Yael and Scooter Braun, Shonda Rhimes, and ICM Partners’ Chris Silbermann.

According to the Clinton campaign website, the first $2,700 will go to the campaign, while the remaining amount will be allocated to the Democratic National Committee and state parties.

The actor previously lent his star power to the Clinton campaign when he attended a Harvey Weinsteinhosted event for Clinton in June.

Terrence Howard sued by talent manager over ‘Empire’ money

T

errence Howard is being hauled to court by a talent management firm that claims the actor has breached an oral contract by failing to pay over posttermination commissions.

In a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Authentic Talent and Literary Management says Howard now owes several hundreds of thousands of dollars with the payment allegedly due likely to rise.

Authentic Talent was hired by the actor in 2013, and according to the lawsuit, it helped play “a key role in the resurgence of Howard’s career. In addition to defending Howard and providing professional, personal, and other advice and career guidance to him, along with Howard’s talent agents at the preeminent talent agency CAA, Plaintiff was an integral part of many discussions with Howard that led to his acceptance of the starring role of ‘Lucious Lyon’ on EMPIRE that had previously been procured for him by CAA.” Howard fired Authentic, but the firm now asserts entitlement to 10 percent of all gross revenue he received from entertainment industry employment obtained during the time of representation.

Most notably, that covers Fox’s hit drama Empire.

According to the complaint, Howard has a contract to star on the show for seven seasons. Authentic wants a cut for the full term of this deal pursuant to promises as well as “custom, usage, and practice in the entertainment industry.”

Howard’s rep couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The lawsuit states that the actor confirmed multiple times, including in a September 2014 email, that he would be paying post-termination commissions.

Howard and his loan-out company are said to now dispute that they owe any further commissions in connection with Empire.

Authentic retained Mathew Rosengart, who also could not be reached for comment.

The attorney previously represented Sean Penn in a defamation lawsuit against Empire co-creator Lee Daniels over comments comparing Penn to Howard. In that case, Penn took issue with the fact that he was being likened to a reported domestic abuser.

Rosengart also previously represented Julianna Margulies’ ex-manager in a since-settled lawsuit over The Good Wife commissions.

PEOPLES DAILY

Sports

FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Page

41

sports@peoplesdailyng.com, SMS- 08142929046

Nigeria took pregnant wrestler to Olympics- Minister says

Nigeria’s wrestler in action

F

ormer Minister of Youth and Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, has revealed that one of Nigeria’s wrestlers to the last Olympic Games in London was pregnant.

The minister said he bowed to pressure to allow the athlete competes even after the shocking discovery, and that he was lucky nothing went wrong.

He did not disclose the identity of the wrestler.

“And listen to this, another one discovered that she was pregnant after we had arrived London. We had to call a meeting of the medical team and the relevant Federation to take a decision,”

Mr. Abdullahi said.

“In the end we decided to allow her to co compete since she insisted that she would be able to. It was a difficult decision for me because I knew if anything happened to her, I would take responsibility. It was my call.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, the girl, a wrestler saved me the anxiety. She just entered the ring and rolled over! Can you believe that! But this is to tell you that managing athletes is a serious business.

Things would always happen,” the former minister was quoted as saying by online portal.

Chikatara delights after Wydad debut

>>Pg 42

Interestingly, one of Nigeria’s biggest chances of getting any shade of medal in Rio is from wrestling which it has seven competitors.

The disappointing outing of Nigeria at the London Games is still in the front burner even as there are fears of a “more disastrous”’ show in Rio. Looking in retrospect at what happened in London and how things have panned out in the run up to the Rio Olympics, Mr. Abdullahi said Nigeria has failed to build on the lessons for her past mistakes.

“The minister of sports in south Africa, Fikile Mbalula, has been there since 2010.

In sports, you do not get results overnight.

It takes years of consistent planning, monitoring and execution.

Unfortunately, in our country the institutions are not robust enough to withstand change in leadership. So, once you remove the minister, all his ideas and work go down with him,” the ex-minister lamented.

He added: “Olympics are the highest sporting competition in the world. There is no next level. You should not expect to get world class results when you have not developed world class systems and institutions.”

Zidane urges patience with Ronaldo >>Pg 43

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Sport

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Faith Football Fan competition kick-off on Saturday in Abuja

By Albert Akota

T

he second edition of the Faith Football Fan (FFF) competition in Bwari Area council of the FCT will commences on the 6TH -13TH of August.

The annual football competition is for Football fans representing various club including domestic clubs and foreign clubs.

Conveyer of the FFF, Rev. Father John Oluoma Chineye says the idea of the football tournament is to bring stronger relationships and bonding among football fans representing various club, stressing that the competition will

ensure the spirit sportsmanship among fans of football.

“My dream of coming out with this unique idea is to bring stronger relationship devour of bitterness among fans of various clubs. At FFF we preach sportsmanship that is the idea about sports.

This year’s edition commences on the 6TH -13TH of August with final taking place at Papa’s ground in Kubwa, Abuja.

Last year edition was won by fans of Real Madrid defeating Manchester United fans, while Fans of Enyimba clichéd the third position by defeating fans of Arsenal.

Chikatara delights after Wydad debut

N

igerian forward Chisom Chikatara is delighted to have finally made his debut for Moroccan side Wydad Casablanca.

The former Abia Warriors striker played his first official game for Wydad in Wednesday’s 4-3 penalty shootout win against Al Nassr in the Tabuk International Tournament in Saudi Arabia.

The 21-year-old was in action for 62 minutes in the game before making way for Ondama.

“It’s great to have finally played my

first official game for Wydad,” the player who came into limelight after scoring four goals for Nigeria at the African Nations Championship early in the year in Rwanda.

“I was eager to make it a memorable debut by scoring on the night but the most important thing is that we won.

“I look forward to playing in the final.

Hopefully we will go back home with the trophy.”

John Toshack’s men will take on Entag El Harbi in the final of the competition today.

Chisom Chikatara

Faith Football Fan officials with Father John Oluoma Chineye unveiling banner

Why I move to Trabzonspor, Onazi explains

Afelokhai brace for double duties at LaLiga Tour

T

heophilus Afelokhai is in dilemma over two very important assignments which he has a key role to play in.

His club, Enyimba International has an important CAF Champions League tie in Egypt against Zamalek, a match they must win to remain in the run for the semi-finals and then the Ramon de Carranza Trophy for which he is one of the three goalkeepers selected for the trip.

Afelokhai was one of the players Enyimba International FC brought in at the start of the season for their league title defence and CAF Champions League campaign.

Before arriving at the Aba side, Afelokhai had spent eight seasons at Kano Pillars where he helped them to four league titles and now the experienced goalkeeper, who is among the 23 NPFL All-Star team bound for Spain to play in the Trofeo Carranza LaLiga World Club Tournament believes that while his inclusion in the team are the reward of consistency and hard work, there is also the responsibility to be in between the sticks for Enyimba’s crucial continental fixture.

“I am thinking of the two important competitions, which is playing for my team against Zamalek and making the Spanish tourney as well. But whatever the trips will look like, I am very ready to make the

movements and ensure I achieve successes,” said Afelokhai.

The shot-stopper alongside Ikechukwu Ezenwa of FC Ifeanyiubah and Chukwuemeka Nwabulu of Wikki Tourists are goalkeepers shortlisted by head coach, Salisu Yusuf, for the tourney, which is one of the outcomes of the recent technical and commercial partnership signed by the League Management Company (LMC), managers of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and LaLiga of Spain.

He believes that this maiden tournament is a good initiative that will expose the qualities in the NPFL players to international scouts and also show that the NPFL is very competitive.

“First, I praise the LMC for securing this partnership with their La Liga counterpart.

You can see that this is a partnership for greener future.

“Second, the technical bench has selected the best legs based on current club performances. Our preparation is geared towards delivering the best results and not going to Spain to make up the numbers. We see the task as a national assignment; hence we are determined to play for the nation,” he said.

Onazi

N

igeria midfielder Ogenyi Onazi joined Trabzonspor from Lazio for personal reasons, saying he moved to ‘clear my head.’

The 23-year-old moved to Turkey from Lazio for a reported fee of 5 million Euros after spending five years at the Italian capital club.

“I needed to make this move to clear my head and be happy playing football again,” Onazi said.

The deal was reportedly completed weeks ago, according to Italian tabloid La Repubblica, but the political uncertainty in Turkey after an aborted coup attempt meant the deal couldn’t go through immediately.

Onazi, who was hampered last season due to a lack of form and injuries, was offered a deal at Lazio to extend the two years left on his contract, but the midfield enforcer chose to leave for ‘personal reasons.’

“I left Lazio for personal reasons,” said Onazi who played 20 times last term.

It might be difficult for some people to understand my decision but this is a step forward in my career.

“The Lazio coach spoke to the management about keeping me. I was even offered a contract extension to stay but Trabzonspor provides a new lease of life.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Sport

Wolves offer Ronaldinho one-match platform

R

onaldinho has received an offer to play a guest match for Wollongong Wolves as he bids to win an A-League contract, according to a director for the Australian side.

The former Brazil star, 36, last played for Fluminense in 2015 but is reportedly keen to continue his career when the new A-League season gets under way in October.

The Wolves – who play in the second-tier National Premier League - are not in a position to hand

Ronaldinho a permanent deal, but director Dean Merola confirmed they have submitted an offer for the playmaker to play in their FFA Cup match against Sydney on August 10.

That would give Ronaldinho the opportunity to prove he still has the required quality as A-League clubs ponder signing him.

Ronaldinho, who formerly played for Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona and Milan, won the last of his 97 Brazil caps in 2013.

Ronaldinho

Can eyes leading role at Anfield

L

iverpool midfielder Emre Can is ready to become one of the squad’s leaders after the German international enjoyed a breakthrough season at Anfield under manager Jurgen Klopp.

The 22-year-old won the young player of the season award after showing rapid improvement following the arrival of Klopp in October, going on to earn a spot in Germany’s European Championship squad in France.

Having started in the 2-0 Euro 2016 semifinal defeat to the hosts last month, Can believes he has all

the attributes to become a key member of the Liverpool squad.

Can has revealed that his strong relationship with compatriot Klopp had been a key factor in his improvement after an unconvincing start to his career on Merseyside.

Despite his confident expectations for the season ahead, Can downplayed comparisons with Liverpool’s former talismanic captain Steven Gerrard.

Villarreal make Espinoza latest signing

V

R

eal Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane says he will not rush Cristiano Ronaldo back into action as he continues to recover from a knee injury he suffered playing for Portugal in the final of Euro 2016.

Ronaldo sprained his left knee during Portugal’s 1-0 extra-time win over hosts France in Paris last month and Real have not set a date for his comeback.

The 31-year-old forward, who scored 51 goals in 48 games in all competitions for Real last season, is on holiday in the United States and will miss the European Super Cup final against Sevilla on August 9.

He is also doubtful for Real’s

Cristiano Ronaldo

Emre Can

illarreal have signed attacker Cristian Espinoza from Huracan on a five-year contract.

The Yellow Submarine – fourthplaced finishers in La Liga last season confirmed on Thursday they have landed the 21-year-old, who is set to represent Argentina at the Olympic Games in Rio. Reports in Spain suggest Villarreal

Zidane urges patience with Ronaldo

have met the €7.2million release clause in Espinoza’s contract.

Villarreal have had a busy time in the transfer market ahead of the 201617 season having also signed Roberto Soriano, Alfred N’Diaye, Denis Cheryshev and Alexandre Pato, along with securing loan deals for Jose Angel and Andres Fernandez.

Espinoza

La Liga opener at Real Sociedad on August 21.

Zidane has also been without Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos and Pepe throughout Real’s pre-season with the trio due to join up with the squad on August 6.

All three were granted an extended holiday following their participation at Euro 2016.

Despite not being at full strength, Zidane has been impressed by what he has seen in his team’s preparations so far.

Real, who finished runnersup to Barcelona in La Liga last season, beat Atletico Madrid to lift the Champions League trophy in Zidane’s first season in charge.

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

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THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.IBIKUNLE ISLAMIYAT OLUWADAMILOLA - CHAIRPERSON 2.YUSUF ABDULQUADRI TOPE GENERAL SECRETARY 3.SAMBO ABDULLAHI ALABI - FINANCIAL SECRETARY 4.SHEHU ARAZIM OLORUNDARE - MEMBER 5.IBIKUNLE TAOFIK OLANREWAJU - MEMBER THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.TO LEND HELPING HANDS AND EMPOWERMENT TO THE LESS PRIVILEGED DOWNTRODDEN AND WOMEN THROUGH SKILL ACQUISITION TOWARDS THEIR SELF SUSTENANCE. 2.TO SUPPORT, AND GIVE EDUCATION TO THE LESS PRIVILEGED CHILDREN IN THE SOCIETY ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: YUSUF ABDULQUADRI TOPE GENERAL SECRETARY

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.DR. IKONGSHUL GODWIN ASHIMA 2.MR. ABUA STEPHEN JOHN 3.ENGR. PHILIP IDU AKPA 4.MR. NZAN AGBOR 5.MR. UFONDU TOCHUKWU THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ALL NATION OF THE WORLD. 2.TO PROMOTE EVANGELISATION THROUGH ESTABLISHMENT OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 3.TO PREACH GOD’S WORD IN ORDER TO CURB THE DECAY IN OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND THE SOCIETY. 4.TO PROMOTE MORALITY AND WELL BOOSTING THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: ELIZABETH IDU AKPA ESQ

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED MINISTRY HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. REV. ATIM EMMANUEL AZIBENI - PRESIDENT 2.EVANG MRS ALICE SILAS 3.Talent Frankiyel THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.To save, restored empower end in and souls to God, 2.To establish straining in institutions.

3. Propagation the whole bible and teachings the principles of Jesus Christ.

4. Ester blush Church/ministered within and outside Nigeria.

5. Organized crusades, revivals seminars, evangelism. 6.Render services to her church, via health serves cooperatives , transport service.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

HOLY GHOST REVIVAL MINISTRY -DELIVERANCE ARENA.

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST INTERNATIONAL ASSEMBLY

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED MINISTRY HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.ANAYO ANUSI - FOUNDER 2.GODWIN AMAGBA - TRUSTEES 3.EMMANUEL NWACHUKWU. 4.CHINYERE ANUSI. 5.IFEANYI ANIGBOGU

THE TRUSTEES ARE: (1) PASTOR CHRIS EGBUNU (2) EVANG.ESE EGBUNU (3) OGWU OCHEJE

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

SERENE VALUE ADDING MINISTRY OF GRACE

This is to inform the General Public that the above named Ministry has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2004.

THE TRUSTEES ARE : 1. ABIOYE STELLA KUSAMOTU 2. AYODELE MUSIBAU KUSAMOTU 3. REV. JACOB ALABI AREMU 4. OMOLADE ANU AFOLABI (MRS ) AIMS AND OBJECTIVES : 1. To provide and promote an outreach for helping the aged and the young people in order to improve and better their lives, also Children who are motherless, abandoned uncared for, deprived, less privileged, homeless and victims of Child labour.

2. To minister in love and grace of God, and thereby provide pastoral counseling for the youths, Elderly people having health emotional, psychological and physical Challenges, including youth women facing crisis in their matrimonial homes.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, P.M.B. 198, Garki, Abuja within Twenty-Eight (28) days of this publication.

Signed: AYODELE MUSIBAU KUSAMOTU

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

PUBLIC NOTICE RIGHTWAY EYE FOUNDATION

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED FOUNDATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

PUBLIC NOTICE LATTER DAY GLORY EVANGELICAL MINISTRY

PUBLIC NOTICE OCHUDO EMPOWERMENT FOUNDATION

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED MINISTRY HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.Pastor Israel Oluwafemi Abiodun - Chairman 2.Ibebuike Frank Ikoku - Secretary 3.Israel Eunice Joke 4.Ezekwe Chinyere 5.Obamila John Behonest 6.Roland Julianah Olufunke 7.Kunav John Fanan THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.To preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ through Evangelization, Missionary outreaches and Church planting to all the ends of the earth.

2.To provide Godly training that is all inclusive to the populace world over.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED FOUNDATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

OGBOMOSO ANGLICAN DIOCESES

PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION FOR GENDER DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.DR ADENIYI, MOSHOOD ABIOLA 2.DR CHARLES, UGOCHUKWU OKOLI 3.DR UWAWIKEZEALA, CHIJIOKE THADDEUS 4.MR AJABA, JOSEPH AJABA THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.Eradication of Blindness ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: DAVID ILIFU AJABA - Secretary:

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED INITIATIVE HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED INITIATIVE HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. MBAH CHUKWUEMEKA. 2. NWAMBA CHINEDU CHRISTIAN. 3.ODO IBEAMAKA. 4.DR AMUJIRI BENJAMIN. 5.UGWU CHRISTIAN. 6.CHIEF ONUH FESTUS. 7.MRS NWAMBA CHIOMA. THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE : 1.TO EMPOWER THE YOUTHS AND LESS PRIVILEDGED IN THE SOCIETY. 2.TO ORGANIZE TRAINING AND SEMINARS THAT WILL HELP MANKIND. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: AGBO MALACHY ONYEKA ESQ. 08038818722

CELEBRATION APOSTOLIC POWER CHURCH

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: PROFEZIA ATTORNEYS ABUJA. 08112418402.

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.TO STRENGTHEN THE TIES BETWEEN NIGERIA MEDIA AND CITIZENS BY FOSTING PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.BABALOLA EBENEZER OLU - GENERAL OVERSEER 2.BABALOLA JULIANA MODUPE - SECRETARY 3.SMART ADAJEKAWHE GEORGE 4. ADINEBO GIBSON ODAGWA - TREASURER 5.ODJENI SUNDAY THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SHAIBU ATADOGA JUNIOR ESQ 08068306882

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.RT RECD DR TITUS BABATUNDE OLAYINKA-CHAIRMAN. 2.SIR PROF AKINTUNDE EMIOLA. 3.VERY REVD DAVID OLUYINKA-SECRETARY.

THE COMMUNITY MUSIC FOUNDATION WEST AFRICA

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.DR. ISAH ABBAS 2.IISE VAN LAMOEN ISOUN 3.BUKAR MARYAM UMMI

REJOICE SOLUTION FRIENDS’ ASSOCIATION

MANGROVE PEOPLE LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.IBEKWE CLEMENTINE OGBOKO 2.IBEKWE VICTOR UWAEBUKA 3.IBORO SAMUEL THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.TO DEVELOP TALENTS AND IMPROVE THEIR SINGING SKILLS. 2.TO HELP PEOPLE DISCOVER THEIR TALENTS AND ENCOURAGE THEM FINANCIALLY AND OTHERWISE ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: OJEMEN PEACE O. 08038684338

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.PROPHET IKECHUKWU EMEKA LINUS 2.DR. KALEJAIYE OLUWASEGUN OLUWASEUN 3.MR. OBURO OKEDIACHI JOSEPH 4.CHIEF OKOLI KELVIN EMEKA 5.MR. ANIEROBI IKECHUKWU DONAT 6.REV. AROMASODU MOSES BAMIDELE 7.PASTOR STEPHEN ONOJETA THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.TO IMPROVE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE COMMUNITY THROUGH VARIOUS PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF THE YOUTH AND ADULT. 2.TO CREATE AWARENESS ON THE NEED TO DEVELOP AND UPHOLD MORAL, ETHICAL, AND PROFESSIONAL VALUES IN THE SOCIETY. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED INITIATIVE HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

Hope Dimension ministry international

Centre for advocacy and gender in social inclusion

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED MINISTRY HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.mrs. Anne Fidel-Ugbo 2.Barr. Fidel Ugbo 3.Pastor Ben Ushuakpe 4.Sir Emma Ukobere 5.Rev. Sam Oye. THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.To preach the gosple of our lord Jesus Christ.

2.To give hope to the hopeless in d society.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.Musa Balarabe Musa - Chairman.

2.Maryam Garba Usman - Secretary.

3.Rabi Adamu - member.

4.Dr Rabiu Sulaiman - member 5.Hafsat Mustapha - Member.

6.Rabiu Shamma, member.

THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1. To ensure gender balance in access to health care and other service deliver.

2. To empower women and other marginalised group to stand and fight for their right.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. HIS EMINENCE, EDIDEM EKPO OKON ABASI-OTU .V 2. HIS MAJESTY, J.W OKURUKET 3. CHIEF DICK K.L HARRY 4. ALEX AKPOEBI BUFUNOL THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1. TO PROMOTE UNITY, PROGRESS AMONG THE MANGROVE (SOUTH - SOUTH) .

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

CITY OF PLENTY CHAPEL

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Evang. Bob ujong Ndoni -Chairman .

2.Evang. Okon-Enoh Effiong -Secretary 3.Elder Godwin Amaja -Member.

4.Pastor Meg-Favour Ujong -Member 5. Deaconess Josephine Agbo Akpo -Member.

6.Deaconess Josephine Ubua -Member THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.To embark on and promote rural evangelism.

2.To advance educational welfare of the rural populace in the Niger Delta.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

Page 46

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

MUSLIM UNITY FOR COMMUNAL WORKS FUNDATION

ROYAL PRIESTHOOD CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF GOD

ROYAL PRIESTHOOD CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF GOD

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED INITIATIVE HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THIS IS TO NOTIFY THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED CHURCH HAS APPLIED TO CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT 1990 AS AMENDED IN 2014.

THIS IS TO NOTIFY THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED CHURCH HAS APPLIED TO CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT 1990 AS AMENDED IN 2014.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. PST. ADASA VINCENT - CHAIRMAN 2. EVANG. MRS. ADASA HOPE - SECRETARY 3. APOSTLE SUNDAY ONYEAMECHI IYERE - MEMBER

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. PST. ADASA VINCENT - 2. EVANG. MRS. ADASA HOPE - 3. APOSTLE SUNDAY ONYEAMECHI IYERE-

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: (1) TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN OUR TIME. (2) TO TRAIN UP PASTORS, EVANGELISTS AND TEACHERS THAT WILL TEACH THE WORD. (3) TO TRAIN THE FLOCK OF CHRIST.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: (1) TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN OUR TIME. (2) TO TRAIN UP PASTORS, EVANGELISTS AND TEACHERS THAT WILL TEACH THE WORD. (3) TO TRAIN THE FLOCK OF CHRIST.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION ABOVE SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL, CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION ABOVE SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL, CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

SIGNED: Chairman For: Muslim Unity for Communal Works Foundation

SIGNED: PST. ADASA VINCENT - CHAIRMAN

SIGNED: PST. ADASA VINCENT - CHAIRMAN

PUBLIC NOTICE Ever Increasing Word Ministries International ( AKA Rhema Chapel) RC No. 8973 This is to inform the general public that the above Named has applied to the corporate affairs commission for loss Of certificate of incorporation (CTC) under part ‘C’ of the company and allied matters act of 1990.

PUBLIC NOTICE Prudent Social Club Of Ekuoma

PUBLIC NOTICE MOHAMMAD BOLAJI SOLIHU FOUNDATION,

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES • • • •

ARE: Chairman : Aliyu Abdullahi Goro Trusty : Sheik Dr Ahmah Abubakar Gumi Trusty : Mallam Aminu Kuwait Secretary : Mallam Jamilu Sabo

THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.

Maintenance of Grave Yards 2.

Maintenance of Jumma’at Mosques 3.

Reconciliation of Communities 4.

Create of project that is beneficial to Communities.

5.

Creation of sustainable means of assisting Orphans and less Privilege.

6.

Visitation to various places.

7.

Job creation.

8.

Organization seminars conferences

Any objection to this application should be forwarded to RegistrarGeneral corporate affairs commission, plot 420, Tigris crescent, off Aguiyi Ironsi street, maitama Abuja within 28 days from the date of this publication.

PUBLIC NOTICE Pastors’ Support Center THE GENERALprivilege S HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED FOUNDATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Pastor Tuoyo Edun.

2. Pastor Lanre Alabi.

3. Pastor Peter Aisida.

Aims To help and assist pastors and Christian ministers in their spiritual development ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. signed.

Adebisi A. Sogunle Esq. A.A Sogunle & Associates. Legal Practitioners. 9, Idowu lane, off kodesho street. Ikeja, lagos. 08035989233. Bimack2006@yahoo.com

PUBLIC NOTICE Jesus Christ Of Nazareth Deliverance Ministry

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Gabriel Ezico Ugbah.

2. Nwokolo James.

3. Iyamah Efeanyi Kent.

4. Nwanne Onyeka Nelson.

5. Aghaunor Joseph Ndubuisi.

6. Isibor Moses.

THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1. To promote love, peace and progress among the members.

2. To promote the welfare of its members through the spirit of love and selfless services with one another.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: Secretary

PUBLIC NOTICE Christ’s Power Evangelical Church

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED FOUNDATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

Old Trustees.

1. Pastor Joshua Titilayo Oniyire- Retained.

2. Mrs Comfort Titilayo Oniyire- Reta - Registrar - Resigned.

New trustees.

1. Prof Ndowa Ekoate Sunday Lale - Vice Chancellor Newly appointed.

2. Mrs Dorcas Dappasika Otto - Registrar - Newly appointed.

Aims and objectives remain the same.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: Inko-Tariah S.N. Secretary, University of port harcourt foundation.

PUBLIC NOTICE Association Of Traders And Industrial Enterprises Owners

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED MINISTRY HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. PASTOR VINCENT ANIBUEZE. 2. MRS CAROLINE ANIBUEZE. 3. JULIUS ANAELE. 4. MRS FELICIA ANAELE. 5. MRS COMFORT JACOB.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Utibe Abasi Roberts.

2. Mahmoud Kamaluddeen Isyaku Umar.

3. Murtala Mamman Ali. 4. Bahtiyar Nalbant.

5. Hasan Ince.

THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1. To represnt the interest and values of its members.

2. To contribute the capacity building of its members.

3. To contribute protecting and developing the economis efficiency and competitivenwss of its members.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: Barr Osawe M. Aikpitanyi. Legal practitioner, abuja. 08033826418

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: Abubakar Aliyu Esq.

CHAIRMAN SECRETARY MEMBER

THE TRUSTEES ARE: (1) DR. SALIHU BOLAKALE ABDULKADIR ( 2) MR. JIMOH OLALEKAN ABDULAZEEZ (3) ABDULKADIR BIODUN BARAJE (4) MRS. SHITTA MEMUNAT MUHAMMED (5) MRS. MUSTAPHA HALIMA MOTUNRAYO (6) MAHMUD BOLAJI SULAIMAN THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TO ASSIST THE LESS PRIVILEDGE, ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: Secretary

PUBLIC NOTICE New Testament Ministers Forum THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED FOUNDATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Daddy-ken Bitere (Chairman) 2. Banks Oyinkuro Anthony 3. Sunny Siyaidon(Secretary) 4. Philip Kosuowei.

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: (1) To Propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ all over the world.

(2) To win souls for the lord Jesus Christ.

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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIday, AUGUST 5, 2016

THURSDAY Column WITH

Page 47

Mohammed Adamu

(08035892325 sms only)

dankande2@gmail.com

The Trump-Hilary conundrum

Hilary

Tump ‘Vote for insanity, you know it makes sense’ –Lord Sutch BETWEEN THE ROCK AND THE HARD PLACE he expression ‘between Scylla and Charybdis’ came from the personification of two phenomenal hazards of navigation, both occurring off Italy’s narrow straits of Messina: one hazard named ‘Scylla’ was a ‘rock’ dangerously positioned against the ease of marine movement; the other named ‘Charybdis’ was a freak of perilous ‘whirlpool’ on the opposite side of Scylla and equally as threatening to sea-going vessels. Thus the expression ‘caught between Scylla and Charybdis’ is to face a ‘choice’ between two equally-threatening perils; -or as we say today, to be between the ‘devil’ and the ‘deep blue sea’.

And this is exactly what a ‘TrumpHilary’ contest for the American Presidency offers the American electorates –a tough ‘choice’ between a hazardous ‘Scylla’ capable of smashing the ‘Mayflower’ and a tempestuous ‘Charybdis’ rearing to sink it even into deeper waters. There is more to ‘fear’ than ‘cheer’ in the dangerous ‘choice’ between a Trump or a Hilary; or should we say between a barefaced-lying, rabidly bigoted xenophobic out to bite the world, and a stealthily hawkish, two-faced, shedevil waiting to mount chivalry charge on the world.

For the Americans, there is not the luxury even of settling even for that proverbial ‘lesser evil’ -because in reality each of the two ‘evils’ is equally as fiendish. In fact there is no better example of the universal un-redeeming power of ‘democracy’ than the ‘no-choice’ TrumpHilary contest which has now poignantly exposed the ‘venomous beauty’ of the democratic process -which manifests ironically not in the practical solution it provides to the problems of society, but in the mere fact that it offers society the ‘freedom’ to decide who governs its affairs.

But of what value is the democratic

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‘right’ to choose who governs the affairs of man when that ‘choice’ is strictly between the ‘rock’ and the typical ‘hard place’? It amounts to a Hobson’s choice if the electorate must choose between two equally ‘bad’ candidates. ‘Hobson’s choice’ originated from Thomas Hobson, a 15th century English horse lender who insisted his clients must take the horse nearest the stable door or none at all.

Thus the phrase Hobson’s choice came to be known as no option at all. And which virtually is what the Americans face today: settling for a bitchy candidate high on the hormones of war, or an insane grandstanding son-of-a-bitch waiting to lay his hands on America’s nukes!

The Americans are not having to chose between a ‘republican’ and a ‘democrat’, because between Trump and Hilary what we have competing for votes are not the personifications of ‘republican’ or ‘democratic’ ideals. Nor are Americans having to choose between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ candidate, because no matter how America and the world are divided over Trump and Hilary, at least they are unanimous on one thing, namely that both of them are debouched –morally and otherwise.

Besides having called each other ‘devil’, both of them can also be said to agree on their fiendish reputation. And between the he-said-she-said, the one thing left un-said is that Trump and Hilary cannot wait to get their hands on America’s instruments of offense to harm the world.

The world has known Hilary through and through. Because she had been both senator and Secretary of State before now.

And her roles in those positions were less than savory –to say the least. She had supported the illegal war in Iraq which had given birth to Isis; and she had a hand in both the destruction of Libya and now Syria. The world knows Trump too. Not because there is a democratic credential to his less than savory, capitalistic past, but because Trump himself has said it, he will hurt the world no less than Hilary has, or could.

And so the Trump-Hilary conundrum is not a case of the ‘devil’ we know –Hilarybeing better than the ‘angel’ we do not – Trump; rather it is a case of the ‘she-devil’ we know who already has the blood of innocents on her hand, and the ‘he-devil’ we are getting to know –Trump, who is itching to have the blood of innocents on his hands! The ship of the American state is between the ‘devil’ and the ‘deep blue’ sea. something has to give. Soon!

Simply voting ‘freely and fairly’ is merely a non-tangible dividend of democracy. It only confirms the ‘democratic credentials’ of a nation. It does not prove the ‘justness’ or the ‘providence’ inherent in the system.

The voice of the majority they say is not necessarily a proof of justice.

Nor does voting ‘freely and fairly’ alone necessarily take a nation out of harm’s way. In fact sometimes it is voting ‘freely’ and ‘fairly’ that puts a nation right in the way of harm! Often people have either voted ‘freely’ and ‘fairly’ to elect the ‘wrong’ candidates or the ‘democratic process’ itself offers them no alternative to choosing between fiercely competing evils.

POSTSCRIPT HEAD OR TAIL, IT MATTERS NOT! ut let’s face it, whether Trump or Hilary wins the next presidential election, one thing is certain: that America will continue to be ruled not by elected politicians, as the impression is falsely given, but by covert nondemocratic security institutions who – behind Washington’s Closed Doors- will continue to determine how America makes her living: by might not by right; and by the promotion of a defective merchandize, democracy as a decoy to entrench an unjust economic system.

Whether Trump or Hilary wins the next presidential election, democracy especially in the rest of the back countries of the world, will continue to be not really about ‘good governance’, but about continued devotion to ‘democracy’ and

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the ‘democratic process’. It will not matter whether poor nations feed or starve as long as they remain democratic.

Notwithstanding who wins between Trump and Hilary, the ‘right’ of ‘might’ in international politics will continue to take precedence over both ‘legal’ and ‘moral’ imperatives. America, in all her dealings with the rest of the world, will continue to keep no ‘permanent friends’ or ‘permanent enemies’; but she will be more determined even to assert the ‘permanence’ only of her ‘interests’.

Whoever emerges President of the United States of America, will continue to ride roughshod over both the written and the unwritten rules of international law.

The veritable feature of America’s foreign policy will continue to be ‘global war’. America will continue to use her military might to perpetrate and to perpetuate injustice around the world. Injustice around the world will continue to breed terrorism; and terrorism by making the world insecure will continue to legitimize the need to curtail the freedom and liberty of the people –in their movements, in their transaction, in their contacts and in their communications; until the ultimate ‘Security State’ is created, leading to the ‘jackbooted, Policed State’ of George Orwell’s fictional book ‘1984’, in which we all will be walking ‘electronic chips’ watched wherever we are by ‘Big Brother’.

Notwithstanding who wins the American Presidency between Trump and Hilary, the agenda for a ‘Pax-America’ will not suffer delay!

RE-OBJ: THE NASS HE KNOWS +2347010584426 od bless you brother, your writeup on ‘Obj: The NASS he knows’ is a classic. You people who have the power of the pen should not relent until these roguish fellows with the hearts of Judas Iscariot repent and carry out their legislative duties for the good of all. –Peter Nwabuze

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www.peoplesdailyng.com

. . . putting the people first

friday, august 5, 2016

QUOTABLE QUOTE High ranking public officers who use safe havens and secrecy jurisdictions to breach the fundamental requirements of asset declaration must be sanctioned, named and shamed - SERAP

SPORTS Reducing MPR is key to fighting recession latest

Leicester City rules out Mahrez sale

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he Algeria international has been strongly linked with a switch to the Gunners throughout the summer, but Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha has since taken to Instagram to pour cold water on the Srivaddhanaprabha has jokingly uploaded a picture of him holding Mahrez by the ear with his supposed words to the winger saying: “You not for sale!!”

West Brom backs out on Sakho deal

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est Brom’s £15m move for West Ham striker Diafra Sakho is off because the player has a back problem.

It is understood the Senegalese did not fail his medical but he would not have been fit for the start of the season.

Sakho, 26, scored 15 league goals in 44 appearances for West Ham, although he has suffered several injury problems.

His likely arrival had added to speculation that the club would sell striker Saido Berahino, 23, who is a target for Crystal Palace and Stoke.

The Potters have offered £17m with £3m in add-ons for the England Under-21 international - a fee which is close to West Brom’s valuation of the striker.

However, with the Sakho deal now off, Berahino will be remaining at the club.

Diafra Sakho

Advert: business: news: lagos:

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am of the opinion that increasing the MPR from 12% to 14% during MPC meeting on July 26, 2016, rather than being pro-growth was prorecession. It was so wrong that it is the kind monetary policy one expected when a country wants slowdown its overheated economy. In fact, someone could be tempted to call it a kind domestic economic sabotage.

It was like someone suffering from low blood pressure, and instead of taking a drug to boost his blood pressure, decided to take a drug that, in fact, further lowers the same blood pressure.

What the blood pressure patient has done his life unknowingly is trying to quicken sending him to his earlier grave. Another is like a patient notwithstanding being in dire need of blood infusion, was asked by the doctor to donate blood.

That is how bad the MPR was by increasing MPR rather than reducing it; by mopping liquidity rather than pumping more liquidity into the already a highly illiquid economy. It is bizarre this is happening at a time the country’s economy is hovering around recession.

The implausible argument being made by the country’s chief banker in an effort to justify the unjustifiable restrictive monetary policy was that his monetary policy team was pursuing price stability. But should they be pursuing price stability when the causes of the so-called price instability is externally determined? In other words, how should be trying to stabilise what is beyond the MPC’s control?

We all know that no reasonable chief banker of a nation should be bold to be blindly fighting inflation with such a monetary policy that by increasing MPR goes further to increase the same inflation since the high cost of money by increasing the cost of doing business in the country further raises inflation.

That is why MPR at 14% rather than improve economic development at a time of recession, will end up worsening it because further increasing already doing business in Nigeria will further increase import-dependency. With this, putting more demand pressure on our scarce forex, further plunging the value of the naira, leading to growth in imported inflation. The consequence is that by next two months the country’s inflation rate should be expected to be not less than 20%, which will force MPR to

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FRIDAY Column WITH Odilim Enwegbara

be further increased from 14% to 16%. That will further plunge the country into serious recession in an economy that is currently witnessing stagflation, meaning that our economy rather than growing is stagnant while price inflation continues to rise.

The argument that the MPR was increased also to attract foreign investors could be justified because the so-called foreign investors, being mostly foreign portfolio investors are only banking on the kind of arbitrage such economic financialization could quickly offer those who are ready to exit the economy without any notice.

So, taking advantage of arbitrage in the system while it lasts is what speculators like foreign portfolio investors are best at.

By raising the MPR that goes further to deny the economy the badly needed cheap liquidity to kick-start growth, rather than pushing for us to exit recession, the makers of our monetary policy are gradually dragging our economy into potential deep recession to the extent that if care is not taken before we know it, most of our small businesses will be priced out of market not only by foreign dumpers of better and cheaper goods but also as a result of the high cost of money which makes it impossible for competitive producers. Corporate failures and bankruptcies will soon become a commonplace as high cost of money pushes the cost of doing business to the roof. That will mean nonperforming loans turning into banks’ toxic assets, requiring government bailout of the banks across the country or else their unhealthy state and loss of consumer confidence could trigger a run on the banking sector followed by imminent collapse of the country’s capital market.

The solution, which is not new to a situation like ours, is for the CBN to lower MPR notwithstanding the high inflation rate. It should do that by injecting huge liquidity into the system so that by so doing not only lower the cost of money but makes sure that real sector firms

readily accesses these cheap funds. Using quantitative easing to increase system liquidity will mean a pro-investment, pro-growth, pro-jobs and proeconomic diversification money policy. Expansionary monetary policy stance which will lead to increased liquidity in the economy is what we need right now, not tight monetary policy which mops liquidity in system in the blind and false name of fighting price inflation.

Policy of mopping is neither pro-investment, nor pro-growth, but rather prorecession. Given that our real sector firms always have little accumulation internally, making borrowing more expensive and more inaccessible means these firms are denied funds to invest in their businesses. The result of low investment is low growth and job layoffs. As a result, it increases inflation and recessionary tendencies. That the CBN has been getting away with this restrictive monetary policy that encourages recession rather than encouraging growth, is because of the level of independence our apex bank enjoys which is unsuitable for developing countries like ours. It is this independence that allows the CBN to pursue monetary policy that benefits their own natural constituencies without appearing to be doing the bidding of the commercial banks, as CBN right now does with impunity.

The consequence has been our present economic situation which is increasingly becoming hopeless and out of hand, especially given our firm belief in following neo-liberal tight monetary policy rather than expansionary monetary policy.

Had we followed lax monetary policy stance, no doubt, injection of lots of liquidity into our overly illiquid economy, using quantitative easing by printing and injecting trillions of naira would have helped our real sector firms, easy access to cheaper funds to invest in their business expansion and modernization. Little wonder, while they insist on developing countries like Nigeria pursuing

tight monetary policy, the same IMF that forces monetarism on us, turns around to encourage developed western economies to pursue Keynesianism.

In other words, while western countries when in recession are advised to pursue lax monetary policy adopting quantitative easing along with increasing budget deficit spending, when countries like ours get into recession, western neoliberals insist on raising interest rates in the false name of fighting inflation and promoting price stability. This imposition of tight monetary policy along with contractionary fiscal policies is done to seriously hamper developing countries from investing and growing their economies with jobs. Why Emefiele doing the IMF bidding will never be questioned not to mention being sacked is because those who he is doing their bidding have enormous political cloud to protect him.

At a time of recession, what Keynesian expansionary fiscal stimulus policy has since proved beyond doubt which has since become part of economic convention, is that unlike individuals, families and companies that have to tighten their spending once their incomes and revenues are low, government finances being different, government should spend its way out of the recession. That has being what developed economies have been doing that once they are they run huge budget deficit not by borrowing, since doing that would crowd out the real sector of the already illiquid system, but using quantitative easing to print new money and inject it into the economy.

Continue on 17

DAN GAYE

Rep members solidly behind Dogara – Hon. Kurfi

Hope they have nothing to hide!

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