Peoples Daily, Friday, September 09, 2016. Edition. by Peoples Media Limited

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Friday, September 9, 2016/ Zul-Hajj 7, 1437 AH

World Bank gives $500m education grant to 5 northern states

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Vol. 23 No. 94 N150

Kano: Why Pensioners demand 53% increase prices of in entitlements foodstuff are up, returned by traders

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Be the change you want to see, Buhari urges Nigerians page 5

L-R: President Buhari presenting the handover of the “CHANGE” to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, during the launch of the National Re-Orientation Campaign “Change Begins with Me” at the State House Conference Centre (SHCC), yesterday in Abuja. Photo: State House

Police charge Audu’s son with robbery lCount me out, says Kogi gov

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885 Days after:

INEC shifts Edo guber by 2 weeks

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Will the abducted Chibok schoolgirls ever be rescued?

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

News

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

19-22 23

S/Report 24-25 Feature 26 Defence 27 Agric 29

Kano: Why prices of food stuff are high, by Traders From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

t is no longer news that prices of food stuffs such as rice, maize, groundnut, beans, millet, guinea corn, wheat, soya beans, among other farm produced locally are on the increase inching gradually beyond the reach of the common man. Our correspondent who visited the Dawanau popular food stuff market in Kano State observed that prices of locally produced food items skyrocketed not because of the forex scarcity but other reasons which many Nigerians have not come to realize. In the popular Dawanau market, the Hub of food stuff in West Africa, Peoples Daily spoke to the Public Relation Officer of the Dawanau International Grains Market in Kano, Ibrahim Muhammad Mota who said that foreign currencies do not play any role in their business, dispelling the rumour that the present hike in prices of food stuff was as a result of the forex crisis.

He hinted that their activities in the market is seasonal as the production of the food stuff, meaning that there are certain periods where the products sells much when they are abundantly produced, while there is scarcity, because the production is periodical, making the market activities less busy and causes the rise in their prices. “ As everybody know, this is the market that deals with local farm produce, but let me categorically tell you that we are not dealing with foreign currencies in our business. What I believe is that activities in this market is seasonal, just as the production of the food stuff is seasonal or periodical.” Mota pointed out that there were three major problems that caused the current local food crisis, heightening insecurity, insufficient rainfall last year as well as inadequate farming activities this year. According to him, the problem of insecurity occasioned by the activities of insurgents in

Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States in the northeast region had barred farming in the area, thereby causing a great setback in food production in the whole country as the three states were major food producers that feed the country. “If you are talking about the states that give huge contribution in food production in Nigeria, you must mention Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States in the northeast region. They produce the food that the country depends on. But as a result of security challenges in the area, they cannot go to farm and this created a major setback in food production,” Said Mota. The PRO added that most farmers in other areas of the north last season had inadequate farm produce as a result of insufficient rainfall, adding that the season was short-lived that the plants did not get sufficient water to yield. This, according to him, made many farmers to harvest less than half of what they used to get in a season and that caused scarcity of the products in the market. He

Reawakening the spirit of patriotism, core values in Nigeria 4

Metro 31-33 Money Sense 34 Strange World 35 Digest 36 Vogue 39-40 Sports 41 Columnist 48

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• Wife of the governor of Bauchi state, Hajia Hadizah Abubukar (left) assisted by Director of Literacy in Bauchi state, Hajia Yelwa Tafawa-Balewa to sew a dress during an event to mark the 2016 international literacy day, yesterday in Bauchi. Photo: nan

added that the current situation was as a result of the farmers, fear of the calamity that befell on them last season, might resurfaced, thus, resorted not to plant much “These compounding problems are the cause of this food crisis. Let’s take maize for instance, it was sold at N5,000- N6,000 per bag before the farmers faced that problem. But as they harvested their produce at a loss as a result of insufficient rainfall, they deemed it wise not to farm much this year for fear of recurrence. These three problems are the cause of this lingering food crisis in this year that is about to end.” He added Mato noted that Nigerians have witnessed the worst period of food crisis in forty years ago, saying “ this problems is as a result of the federal government’s directive to ban rice importation through the border as well as President Buhari’s plans to encourage local food production in a bid to make us economically self-dependent.” But an anonymous source in the market told Peoples Daily that the current food crisis is as a result of government’s failure to provide adequate fertiliser to the farmers. According to the source, the government this year did not provide or rather subsidise fertiliser to farmers so as to help them produce sufficient food for the populace. “ This problem is caused by the federal government. The fertiliser that used to be adequately provided to farmers has not been provided this time around. This forced the farmers to increase the price of the farm produce because they were left to buy the fertiliser on their own. Let me tell you that the government this year did provide meagre quantity of fertiliser compared to previous years. This is the cause of this food crisis,” he said. Meanwhile, the market’s image maker assured the people that the price of the food stuff has began to crash as the new produce are coming to the market. He maintained that as the peace is being restored in the crisis ravaged areas, farmers have commenced farming in some safer areas.

Extradition: Court declines Kashamu’s fresh application

he Federal High Court, Abuja, has directed, Sen. Buruji Kashamu, to execute the two previous court judgments he obtained stopping the Federal Government from extraditing him to the U.S. Kashamu, had in a fresh application, urged the court to prohibit the police and the Department of State Services from arresting and extraditing him to the U.S to answer charges on drug-related offences. The judge, Justice Okon Abang, declined the request, saying that the serving senator, representing Ogun West in the Senate did not need the order. Abang held that if Kashamu was sure that police and the DSS were taking steps to arrest

and extradite him, he should execute the two earlier judgments obtained against the Federal Government. He said that it was not necessary for the court to issue a fresh order against the defendants in the matter since the same court had delivered two judgments in his favour on the subject matter. The judge said, “On this issue of the alleged plan by the respondent to abduct the applicant, I am aware that the applicant has various court judgments in his favour. “If he is apprehensive, and is so sure of himself and his facts, he is at liberty to execute the various judgments. “The two judgments are still subsisting and therefore the

applicant requires no court order against the respondents. “If he is complaining that persons who were not parties in the previous judgments are threatening to take steps to extradite him to U.S by force, he can seek leave of the court to execute the judgements in his favour. “He can do so in line with provisions of Section 133 of the Criminal Code and he does not need a fresh order or fresh suit to achieve that.’’ On the petition against him by Adebutu that he, Kashamu was threatening his life, the judge ordered that status quo be maintained pending the determination of the motion on notice filed by the senator.

Abang said that his decision was based on the agreement reached by the parties to maintain status quo. He, however, referred the case filed to the chief judge of the court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, for reassignment to another judge after vacation. Kashamu had premised his case on the grounds that he had information that operatives of the police and the DSS were taking steps to abduct him and extradite him to the U.S. In his motion on notice filed by his counsel, Mr Godswill Mrakpor, the senator claimed that unless the court granted him the order, his liberty would be put in jeopardy by the security operatives.(NAN)

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

News Ag News Editor Ese Awhotu Pensioners want 53.4% increase in entitlements reinstated

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

ensioners, otherwise referred to as Senior Citizens of Nigeria (SCN) have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to help pensioners return the pension increase to 53.4% and pay the total outstanding arrears of the increase, as well as arrears of pensions and gratuities. The National President of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Dr. Abel Afolayan made the appealed at a northeast zonal conference of the union held in Bauchi yesterday, said that pensioners are eagerly waiting for the implementation of the 5 yearly

pension reviews in compliance with the constitutional provisions which, he said, should be automatic without any delay. Afolayan, represented by the North East Zonal Chairman of the Union, Muhammadu Inuwa Ahmed, also requested the federal government for the immediate harmonization of old and new pension rates which exercises carried in the past have not been properly done. According to him, that the 7 last pension review was in July 2010 whereas the next increase in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended was due in July 2015.

He also spoke of outstanding 33% arrears of pension resulting from increase in workers’ wages but which rightful entitlement of pensioners is 53.4%, saying “Even as at now, 33% approved for our members are in arrears of 30 months”. Afolayan who hailed the determination, commitment and courage of President Buhari on the frontal attack on corruption in the country, said however that pensioners are those who suffered tremendous effects of corruption, thus becoming endangered species. He expressed delight that stopping fraudulent practices in pension fund by the Buhari administration has

made funds available for genuine pensioners, saying the press briefing is the only option left for the union leadership when several efforts to meet and dialogue with President Buhari over members multifarious problems became fruitless. The president expressed worrisome over the non-compliance with Constitutional stipulations of 5 yearly pension review in line with sections 173 (3) and 210 (3) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution. The pensioners drew the attention of the Federal Government to those provisions in the Constitution which stipulates that “Pensions shall be reviewed every 5 years or together

with any Federal Civil Service salary reviews, whichever is earlier”. The Union President therefore requested that necessary machinery and fool-proof methodology be put in place to avoid some retired officers being short-changed during subsequent harmonization exercises.

El-Rufai launches Kaduna TSA operational manual From Mohammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

• R-L: President Muhammadu Buhari with Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State, at the State House, yesterday in Abuja.

Chibok girls’ swap:

Ex FCT CP doubts Boko Haram’s sincerity

By Ochiaka Ugwu

Security Expert and one time Commissioner of Police of the FCT, Mr. Lawrence Alobi has advised the Federal Government to exercise caution in the dealing with Boko Haram insurgents in the proposed negotiation to swap members of the Boko Haram insurgents currently in its custody with girls of the Chibok Secondary School kidnapped by the sect since2014. The Cross River born former Police chief gave the advice yesterday at the bi-monthly meeting of the Peace and Security Forum being organized by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) in collaboration with Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC) in Abuja. The forum which comprises representatives from all security agencies in the country, as well

as civil society organizations and other critical stakeholders in crisis management met to analyzetrending peace and security issues such as the proposed FG negotiation to swap prisoners with Chibok girls, prison breaks, economic recession, and other security challenges confronting the nation. Speaking to newsmen, following mounting pressure by campaigners of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG), on the government to go ahead with the negotiation, Aloba expressed fears that the government may likely fall into the hands of fraudsters if care is not taken. The former CP who questioned the certainty of the availability of the girls wondered whether going into such negotiation would not suggest that the government is helpless over the situation. “Are we really sure these girls are there intact, are we doing so

because we feel there is nothing we can do? Are we doing so as a result of weakness on our part or for the fact that the Boko Haram has overwhelmed us and we cannot do anything”, he asked. While admitting that it is good to swap, he suggested that the government should be wise and endeavour to be in control of negotiations and not allow the Boko Haram to dictate for it. He said, “We need to apply wisdom, we know it is good to swap but we need to be sure so that we don’t fall into the hands of fraudsters. This negotiation has been on and on. We have to actually identify the right people, because right now, the Boko Haram would want to dictate to us whom they want to swap with the Chibok girls, maybe their principal leaders whom have been arrested, they would say these are the people that are to be released to us. They would now dictate to us”.

Speaking further on the recent clash between the BBOG campaigners and the police in Abuja, Alobi, advised the group to operate within the confines of the law, arguing that the same constitution that provides the right on which they operate also demand some responsibility from that such as helping to maintain the peace and security in the land.He berated the group for being confrontational with the police, adding that the security of the country overrides every other interest. “It is unfortunate we have not learnt from past experience, we are no longer under the military. The police should have looked for a better way of confronting the leadership of the group, that kind of face off is something they could have easily addressed in a more mature and professional manner. To the outsider they will see it as one of the repressive order of the FG,” he said.

alam Nasir El-Rufai has launched the Kaduna State Treasury Single Account, TSA, operations manual. The presentation of the manual, which records the experience of Kaduna State in implementing the Treasury Single Account, took place in Lagos during the International Monetary Fund’s West Africa workshop on TSA implementation. Speaking at the event, Malam El-Rufai, expressed gratitude to the IMF team for considering the implementation of TSA in Kaduna State a model. He acknowledged the efforts of the Kaduna State team and the support of partners like the IMF in the TSA effort. The governor said that, Kaduna state is delighted to share information on how the state executed the TSA within six weeks last year. The TSA is regarded as a policy tool that helps reduce waste and leakages. Kaduna State announced early in August 2015 its intention to adopt TSA by 1 September 2015. It requested its bankers to close all government accounts and to remit the balances to the state’s TSA at the Central Bank. Having conducted a prior census of government accounts, Kaduna was given a baseline figure of 324 accounts belonging to ministries, departments and agencies. When the banks submitted evidence of closure of government accounts, the government was surprised that there were actually 470 accounts from whichN24.5bn were remitted to the state’s TSA. .The was contained in a statement signed by Senior Assistant on Media and Publicity to the governor, Samuel Aruwan made available in the state. Explaining the motivation for the TSA, he disclosed that the reality of sliding revenues compelled close attention to plug leakage and wastage.

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Villascope

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

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

Reawakening the spirit of patriotism, core values in Nigeria T he spirit of patriotism and core values of hard-working, honesty, discipline, Godliness, dedication and merit have since taken flight from the country. Vices of corruption, laziness, unconscionable greed, selfishness and selfcentredness have replaced virtues which actually constitute our humanity. Only a few citizens actually think of what they could do to contribute to the development of the country with majority waiting in the wings to benefit, most times undeservedly, from the resources of the nation. It is this lack of patriotism that breeds corruption which has continued to be the bane of the development in Nigeria. Even though an average Nigerian knows the right thing to do at any given time, he prefers to cut corners believing that the end will justify the means. The society has so degenerated that things don’t work normally indicating a total breakdown of the people’s traditional African core values over the years. The concomitant effects of degradation of moral values and social mores are evident across the nation where most people now believe that honesty and forthrightness no longer pay. Successive administration have attempted to re-inculcate core moral values into the people with limited success. Past attempts failed partly because the leaders would say something and do another. They failed to live by example. For instance, corruption has penetrated the society and many citizens of this generation have come to take it as a normal way of life. President Muhammad Buhari in his first coming as a military Head of State, some 31 years ago, launched the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) aimed at taming the societal vice. Although people were forcefully beaten back into line with orderliness restored, the high-handedness employed by the soldiers made critics tag the programme an instrument of oppression and suppression. Laudable as the programme was, it’s implementation was suspended by Buhari’s successor, General Ibrahim

Babangida (rtd). Efforts were made variously to regenerate the spirit of patriotism and responsibility into the citizenry after Buhari’s initial attempt but with limited success. Irked by the slide in the nation’s moral values, Buhari yesterday launched the National Re-orientation Campaigns tagged ‘Change begins with me’ at the Presidential Villa. The campaign aimed at ensuring attitudinal change among the citizenry was also to correct the ways the people engage their neighbours and friends in a manner that promotes the common good. Buhari succinctly painted the Nigerian society when he said “There is no doubt that our value system has been badly eroded over years. The long cherished and time honoured, time tested virtues of honesty, integrity, hard work, punctuality, food neighbourliness, abhorrence of indolence, unbridled corruption and widespread impunity.” “The resultant effect of this derailment in our value system is being felt in the social political and economic sphere. It is the reason that some youths will take to cultism and brigandage instead of studying hard or engaging in decent living; it is the reason that some elements will break pipelines and other oil facilities thus robbing the nation of much needed resources; it is the reason that money belonging to our commonwealth will be brazenly stolen by the same public officials to whom they were entrusted; it is the

“

• Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed

reason why motorists will drive through res lights, it is the reason why many will engage in thuggery and vote stealing during elections; it is part of what has driven our economy into deep problem out of which we are now trying to extricate ourselves.” There is no arguing that moral values have collapsed in this country owing to several years of corners-cutting and impunity. To demonstrate seriousness, this administration must lead in moral rectitude by living modestly and showing examples. Efforts at re-orientation of social values in the past failed because those leaders say something and do exactly the opposite. Corruption has always been the reason for military

intervention in the past but successive administrations have always outpaced their predecessors in volume of looted funds. Civilian administration’s of former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, late Umaru Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan purportedly fought corruption in their own ways but there are indications that several trillions of naira were misappropriated under them. For the latest campaign to succeed, the government must be seen to be responsive to the yearnings the people by making available necessary infrastructures. The issue of unemployment must be addressed frontally while a robust reward system must be put in place for excellence, honesty and diligence. The government itself must

Those with unexplained sources of income should not be allowed enjoy their loots. Such persons, no matter how highly placed, should be probed, and if found culpable, be punished. Since the President has indicated his resolve to bring sanity back into the society, he must be prepared to go the whole hog.

work harder on the people not to celebrate illicit wealth. The society must be made to prioritise and celebrate integrity, especially at the grassroot. The campaign must encourage innovations and enforce patronage of local products. Again, Nigerian culture, especially her food and clothing should be promoted while importation of ostentatious items must be controlled. Doing these, apart from bringing back national pride, would also help in conserving the much needed foreign reserves for better use. Again, for the campaign to be successful, those who have crossed the Rubicon, especially those kleptomaniac public officials who dipped their hands into the common till and made away with public funds must not only be prosecuted but must be made to face the consequences of their actions. This, of course, would serve as deterrent to others of like minds waiting for an opportunity to steal in public service. Those with unexplained sources of income should not be allowed enjoy their loots. Such persons, no matter how highly placed, should be probed, and if found culpable, be punished. Since the President has indicated his resolve to bring sanity back into the society, he must be prepared to go the whole hog.

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

News

Be the change you want to see, Buhari urges Nigerians By Lawrence Olaoye

resident Muhammad Buhari has advocated change of attitude among Nigerians for there to be development in the country. Buhari, in a speech at the official launch of the National Re-orientation Campaign, called ‘Change Begins With Me’, yesterday lamented the erosion of social values among the citizenry. According to him, the country is currently passing through a phase where things hardly work in a normal manner. This, he said, has been attributed to a total breakdown of societal core values over the years. He said “It is safe to say today that honesty, hard work, Godliness have given way to all kinds of manifestations of lawlessness and degeneration in our national life.” The President noted that though his administration’s fight against corruption has gained some mileage, there was a need to put in place necessary sustainable framework for action and measures that will help to

entrench and consolidate the progress achieved so far. He said “The campaign we are about to launch today is all about the need for us to see change not

merely in terms of our economic, social progress but in terms of our personal behaviour on how we conduct ourselves, engage our neigbhours, friends and generally

how we relate with the larger society in a positive and definitive way and manner that promotes our common good and common destiny, change at home, change

l-r: Executive chairman Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Tunde Fowler making a presentation to the governor of Niger state, Alhabubakar Sani Bello, during a courtesy visit to revenue house, yesterday Abuja. Photo: Mahmud Isa

Police charge Audu’s son for robbery From Ahmad Ibrahim, Lokoja

here was mild drama and disbelief at the Chief Magistrate Court 11 Lokoja yesterday when the eldest son of the former governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Mohammed Audu, was charged for armed robbery. Mohammed was arrested on Wednesday night when he honoured the invitation of the men of the Special Anti Robbery Squad at the “A”Division Office in Lokoja when he was subsequently detained and charged to court the following day. Other charges proffered against Mohammed according to Police First Information Report includes; criminal conspiracy, causing mischief and grievous hurt as well as attempted culpable homicide, all contrary to section 97 (1), 248, 327, 298 and 229 of the Penal Code. Also in the FIR, the uncle of Mohammed, Alhaji Yahaya Audu had alleged that prior to his attack on the 30th of last month, the accused threatened to deal with him, adding that it was by sheer miracle that he escaped, when some hoodlums stormed his home at Ogbonicha, in the eastern flank of the state, firing sporadically at him. The prosecutor of the case, Mr. Otowu Gabriel had told the court at the session that Mohammed and others still at large were behind the

•Count me out, says Kogi gov

acts, even as investigation into the matter is still on-going. In his submission, the lead counsel to the accused, Mr. Okechukwu Ajunwa urged the court to grant his client bail based on 36 (5) of the constitution as amended as well as sections 141 provisions of section 341 (2 and 3) of the Criminal Procedure Code. He posited that having gone through the charge there is nothing linking his client with the offences, even as he added that investigation into the matter was still on-going. While stressing that if his client is granted bail, he would not jeopardize the on-going investigation, more so that the accused was not arrested but voluntarily honoured the invitation of the men of the anti robbery squad when he was invited to their office in Lokoja. He further maintained that his client has no reason to escape justice as a prominent citizen of the state, and considering the fact that based on the provision of sub section (3) of section 341 of the Criminal procedure Code, an accused can be granted bail where there is on-going inquiry into a case. In his response, the prosecution,

Mr. Otowu Gabriel did not object to the bail application, leavung the matter at the discretion of the court. The presiding judge, Chief Magistrate Alhassan Husain while granting bail to the accused in the sum of N100, 000 with a surety in like sum, urged him to always make himself available during court sessions and subsequently fixed 29th of this month for the continuation of the matter. Speaking to newsmen shortly, the lead counsel to the accused, Mr. Okechukwu Ajunwa said the case was politically motivated, putting the entire matter on the door steps of political opponents. However, in a sift reaction yesterday, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has denied ordering the arrest of the eldest son and members of the late Audu’s family. Reacting to online reports that he ordered the arrest of Mohammed, running mate to an aggrieved All Progressives Congress, APC, aspirant, Hon. James Faleke, who is currently challenging the declaration of Bello as winner of the controversial governorship elections of Kogi State, the governor said he did not order the arrest of anybody.

He, however, said law enforcement agents are at liberty to effect arrest when anyone, no matter how highly placed, infringes the law. “If members of Audu family run foul of the Law, they would not be spared just because they are members of Audu’s family. Nobody is above the law. Even if members of the Governor’s family break the law, they will be arrested”, Mr. Bello said in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Fanwo Kingsley. “It is therefore unwise to link politics and criminality. Law enforcement agents should be left to do their work. Government is focused on governance. Politics is over. It is not the responsibility of Governor Yahaya Bello to arrest suspected criminals.” “The Governor will never stop security agencies from carrying out their lawful responsibilities of safeguarding lives and property. Anyone who breaks the Law must be prepared for the consequences of doing so”, the statement added. Mr. Kingsley reiterated the governor’s warning that criminality will not be tolerated in Kogi State, stressing that citizens must act right in the quest to build a society of true equality.

in the work place, change at traffic junction, change at traffic lights etc. This campaign is part of the determination of our party to seek to carry all Nigerians along on the journey to a better and greater society that we all can be proud of.” He continued “There is no doubt that our value system has been badly eroded over the years. The long-cherished and time honoured, time-tested virtues of honesty, integrity, hard work, punctuality, good neighbourliness, abhorrence of corruption and patriotism, have given way in the main to dishonesty, indolence, unbridled corruption and widespread impunity.” On the effects of loss of moral values, the President said “The resultant effect of this derailment in our value system is being felt in the social, political and economic sphere. It is the reason that some youths will take to cultism and brigandage instead of studying hard or engaging in decent living; it is the reason that some elements will break pipelines and other oil facilities, thus robbing the nation of much-needed resources; it is the reason that money belonging to our commonwealth will be brazenly stolen by the same public officials to whom they were entrusted; it is the reason why motorist drive through red traffic lights, it is the reason that many will engage in thuggery and vote-stealing during elections; it is part of what has driven our economy into deep problem out of which we are now working hard to extricate ourselves,” he lamented. “Rather than sit back and complain endlessly, we have decided to act pragmatically, with the launch of this National Re-orientation Campaign. The campaign will not be a sprint but a marathon that will run the course of our tenure. We are under no illusion that the changes we seek will happen overnight, but we have no doubt that the campaign will help restore our value system and rekindle our nationalistic fervor,” he said. Information and culture minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, when asked why the government chose to launch the programme in an era of economic hardship said there was no better time than now. He said “It is precisely because people failed to imbibe the principles we are now preaching that we are in this mess we are today.”

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

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News

Wife of Oyo State Governor, Mrs Florence Ajimobi (Right) distributing items to beneficiaries during the distribution of Ajumose Food Bank at Ona Ara Local Government Area, yesterday in Oyo State. Photo: Nan

2016 hajj: NAHCON, Saudi to transport ill Nigerian pilgrim to Arafat From Maryam Garba Hassan in Makkah

igeria’s National Medical Committee and the Saudi authority have completed all arrangements to transport the only Nigerian pilgrim on admission at a hospital in Madinah to perform the hajj. The female pilgrim who is from Ogun state fell in on arrival in the

holy city of Madinah and has been on admission at Al-Nasir hospital where she is receiving medical treatment. Dr. Ibrahim Kana, head Nigeria’s national medical team to Saudi disclosed this to Peoples Daily in Makkah. He said the Commissioner representing Federal Ministry of Health and Chairman of medical committee in Madina, said the pilgrim would be transported to Makkah

in an air ambulance in company of qualified and competent medical personnel to ensure that nothing go wrong. In another development, the national medical team said so far, it has treated 20,000 pilgrims in all its clinics in Madinah and Makkah. The head of medical team said the development is a sharp increase from the 5000 patients treated in similar period last year adding that the

increase is as a result of the reforms introduced by the leadership of the Commission with the harmonization of all the medical team into one team. In an interview with some of the beneficiaries of the free medical services provided by the Commission, a number of the pilgrims expressed satisfaction with the new arrangement and prompt response by the Nigeria’s medical team.

Plateau to start rice export by 2017, says Gov Lalong By Lawrence Olaoye

lateau state governor, Simon Lalong, has said that his state would start exportation of rice by next year. Lalong, who briefed newsmen after having a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday, said his state is currently competing with Kebbi in rice production. Asked his plans on the proposed food processing plant in the state, he said “They are already there. The Chinese are already there. Right now some months ago you saw me in a rice farm and you will wonder. Plateau

and Kebbi now competing for rice production and by next year we will start exporting rice from Plateau.” Commenting on the security situation in his state, Lalong said”I think the attitude of leadership itself will encourage Change. You will recall that when I came into office, I inherited crisis, killings everyday and the moment I was sworn in after a month, we never heard of any Killing in Plateau. So, there was confidence restored and we encouraged people to interact, gave everybody a sense of belonging and there is now have peace in the state. Those who are running away from Plateau as no go areas, in the past you have places where Christians

don’t go and places where Muslims don’t go but right now in Jos they have forgotten there was something like that. So now it’s a free place for everybody.” Asked what he had done to ensure that those who murdered a traditional ruler in the state recently are brought to book, the governor said “We just celebrated our one year of peace on the plateau and everybody was celebrating because we wanted to maintain the peaceful atmosphere. When I travelled out for just two days and a prominent traditional ruler was brutally murdered and I rushed back and investigation is still ongoing. I am hopeful very soon we

will unveil those behind the killing of the traditional ruler. I have not slept on it and those are the things I have briefed the President; we are very vigilant and pursuing those who are behind this. Because after a year of peace, someone will come and start executing this kind of thing. It’s someone that does not wish not only Plateau but Nigeria well because if that happens, and crisis starts again, you will see a lot of spillover crisis in many parts of the country. But, thank God, we are able to control that and to avoid future occurrence we are protecting the state very well and ensure that the culprits will be soon be fished out.”

National Theatre in total darkness over unpaid N9m debt

he Eko Electricity Distribution Company Plc (EKEDC) on Sunday said electricity supply to the National Arts Theatre in Lagos was disconnected because its management failed to pay over N9 million debt. Idemudia Godwin, General Manger, Media Communications of EKEDC, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the complex was disconnected after several appeals and demand notices went unheeded. According to him, the debt is an accumulation of unpaid bills over time. “We don’t disconnect without serving notice. “Besides, we recently ran a newspaper advertisement informing all ministries, departments and parastatal agencies (MDAs)of government that were indebted to EKEDC of our intention to disconnect them. “We have commenced disconnection of all historic debtors that include: residential, commercial, industrial and government establishments within our network,’’ he said. The EKEDC spokesman said that the astronomical indebtedness by some customers was taking its toll on the company. This had seriously been impacting negatively on the entire value chain in the power sector equation, he said. According to him, only 25 per cent of this debt actually belongs to DISCOs, the rest are for other companies in the value chaingenerating companies, bulk traders, gas suppliers, among others. “So if you do not pay and you accumulate debt, what you are looking at is a possible total collapse of the entire power sector. “That is what we seek to avert by this action. We need this fund to energies the power sector; to ensure electricity supply and to grow the sector,’’ Idemudia said. He stated that the operations of all distribution companies were hampered by huge indebtedness by the “historic debtors.’’ An official of the National Arts Theatre who did not want his name mentioned confirmed to NAN on Sunday that electricity supply to the complex had been disconnected for close to a week. The source said that the ongoing programme in one of the theatre’s halls was been powered by generator. However, efforts to speak with the management of the theatre failed

Sallah: Osun government announces free train ride

s sallah holiday makers get ready for the 2016 eid-il-kabir festival, the government of Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has announced free train ride for those wishing to travel home. A statement by the Ministry of Industries, Commerce, Cooperatives and Empowerment, said the free train will convey people coming for the festival from Lagos to Osogbo on Saturday and

Sunday September by 10 am each day. The train will return to Lagos on Saturday, September 17. The takeoff time is 11 am. A statement from the government said Aregbesola’s administration had been doing this in the last six years to facilitate easy movement during festivities. The ministry admonished the people to make the best use of the opportunities the free train offers

them because government wants them to come home and enjoy the celebration with relations. The statement said, “This tradition of free train ride introduced by Aregbesola’s government is aimed at facilitating very convenient movement of people and goods. “This welfare package from Governor Aregbesola has taken care of both Islamic and Christian festivities in the last six years and this is

with a view to boosting the economy of the state. “It is this ease of movement during festival periods that informed the introduction of the scheme by the people-centred administration of Aregbesola. “Therefore, it is the wish of government that our people from Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States trail corridors would seize this opportunity to visit home and celebrate with their relatives.”

PAGE 7

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

News

Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Aisha Alhassan (Middle) arriving at the Maiduguri International Airport for the opening Ceremony of Women Empowerment Programme, yesterday in Maiduguri

Police arrest 6-man human trafficking syndicate, rescue 12 Kids in Delta From Asaba

Osakhare

Erese,

he police detectives attached to the Delta State Police Command, Asaba yesterday arrested six human trafficking syndicate who have been operating in Asaba and Okpanam communities, and rescued twelve out of the fifteen children unhurt. Police image maker in the state, Mrs. Celestina Kalu who confirmed the arrest of the suspects, said three others were on the run, adding that the suspects detained at the Police State CID were currently helping the police for further investigation. She said that the leader of the syndicates, “Madam Cash” had been operation under cover up in a restaurant around Umuaji “Stop abortion” Quarters in Asaba where often she allegedly hoodwink unsuspecting parents of the kids to do business with her, before she ferry them out of the state. Her words: “We have arrested human traffickers, and their leader identified as “Madam Cash” from Imo State, she has been operating in Asaba under the guise of operator of a restaurant, and we rescued twelve kids in her custody. She is currently helping the police for further investigation while three of her gang members are on the run”. It was reliably gathered that

“Madam Cash” sometimes two months ago was arrested around the River-Niger head bridge by the Police while allegedly tried to ferry two kids to the eastern parts’, and she was released after she had allegedly “greased the palm of the police”. Investigation revealed that irate youths of Umuaji Quarters who smelt a rat of the illicit business of the identified madam cash, stormed the hideout where over twelve children were kept and demolished the place in anger before calling the police who immediately swung into action to arrest the syndicate. As at the time of filing this report, parents of the rescued kids were seen at the police headquarters in Asaba, brandishing photographs of their missing children in the last six months. But the police image maker Mrs. Celestina Kalu, in swift reaction, said the kids will be released to their parents upon completion of investigation, adding that “We will release the kids after completion of investigation”. Expectedly, there have been hue and cry of nursing babies in Okpanam and Asaba communities in the last two months with police efforts to uncover the syndicate but hit the rock before the bubble burst. Unconfirmed sources said the traffickers had allegedly sold three kids out of fifteen

that were abducted and put in their custody, a situation some residents of Asaba who did

not want their names in print urged the police to intensify investigation.

As court grants bail to Adamawa Govs Chief of Staff’s son From Umar Dankano, Yola.

he upper Area Court 1 Yola has granted bail to Suleiman Abba Jimeta,son to chief of staff to Governor Muhammadu Umaru Jibrilla of Adamawa state who was arraigned with four others for alleged car theft and house burglary not robbery as reported in the media recently. Court granted bail following an application filed by Abba’s legal counsel denying any involvement in crime. Another accused in the suit was also granted bail while the remaining three were remanded in the prison based on their voluntary admittance to have committed the offence. Abba Jimeta explained that,h e was implicated by one among the accused person whose intention according to him was to calculated attempt to blackmail his father who happen to be a seasoned politician in the state for political reason. Jimeta who spoke through his lawyer,Barrister Abubakar Babayola in Yola Thursday insisted that even the police investigation has not found him wanting as nothing incriminating to that regard was attached to him if

not the statement by one of the accused person which rejected as a fabrication to nail him. Recall that five accused persons were arraigned for criminal conspiracy, theft and house breaking after they allegedly stole $10,000 (ten thousand dollars), a luxury car and other valuables at the residence of an Hotelier, the owner of Hometel Hotel in Yola, Umar Fali. Barrister Babayola said his client is innocent but was implicated by only one of the three suspects who were initially arrested by the police after they had disagreed over sharing of their loot stolen “One of the accused persons implicated Sulaiman, the son of the Chief of Staff by alleging that Sulaiman drove them to the scene of the crime, then left and returned to pick them up after they committed the crime. Sulaiman knew the person who implicated him long before his father was appointed Chief of Staff in Rumde Area where the Chief of Staff had lived before. May be the man implicated him to get soft landing, thinking that his father will help free them if his son was involved”, he stated.

Bauchi police arrest 96 suspected terrorists From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

he Bauchi State Police Commissioner Haliru Gwandu has warned miscreants against fermenting trouble during the Sallah festival in the state, saying that his men are ready to deal decisively with anybody found wanting. This is just as the command said it has arrested 96 suspects terrorizing the state. Addressing a press conference at the state command on Wednesday, the police Commissioner said that the command is fully prepared and battle ready to deal decisively with all manner of trouble and mischief makers adding that anyone caught will be dealt with according to the law of the land. Gwandu also gave the breakdown of the suspects arrested to include 56 kidnappers, 15 armed robbers, 5 cult related homicide, 5 cattle rustlers, 14 Indian hemp dealers and 1 rape suspect. The CP disclosed that 81 suspects were charged to court while 15 others are under investigation. Among arms and ammunition recovered from the suspects, the police boss further said include 1 AK 47 rifle with breach no 1985PD7242, 3 fabricated guns, 1 single barreled gun, 1 locally made pistol. Also recovered from the suspects are 1 empty AK 47 magazine, 1 7.62mm long ammunition, 4 cartridges, 11 cutlasses and 3 bows and arrows in quiver.

PAGE 8

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

News

Buhari mourns Isidore Okpewho By Lawrence Olaoye

Dance performance as President Buhari launches the National Re-orientation Campaign “ChangeBegins with Me”, at theState House Conference Centre (SHCC) in Abuja. Photo: State House

Journalists key to nation building- Army chief From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

he Commandant 3rd Brigade, Brigadier-General Stevenson Olabanji

has described journalists as indispensable in nation building. He said that it would be ridiculous to ignore and underestimate the importance of members of the fourth estate of

the realm in the society. Speaking when he paid a courtesy visit to the Executive Council Members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Kano State Council at its secretariat

N20bn needed to reconstruct B/Haram ravaged areas in Yobe- Gov By Lawrence Olaoye

obe State Governor, Ibrahim Geidam, has said that the Federal Government would need to spend up to N20 billion on the reconstruction of communities and infrastructure destroyed by Boko Haram terrorists in the state. The governor made the disclosure while fielding questions from State House Correspondents after having a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday. Gaidam said he briefed Buhari on measures undertaken by his government towards resettling the 3,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state. The governor said “as I am talking to you now we have about

3000 IDPs in our camp. All of them, except these 3,000, have returned to their homes. “That is why I am here to advise Mr. President on how best these people should be resettled because they need a kind of rehabilitation of their destroyed homes. “Some need outright reconstruction of their homes especially those which were completely destroyed by the Boko Haram terrorists. So, I came here to give him first hand information of things on ground there. “I briefed him on how much we were able to do to resettle those who have gone back home, and then what the Federal Government wants the remaining ones to do so that they will go back

and settle fully in their homes, so that they will resume their normal business activities. “By our estimates, actually if the Federal Government spends anything from N10 to N20 billion, the whole areas which were destroyed by Boko Haram will be reconstructed and people will go back to their homes and resume their normal lives.” The governor, who declared there is no more Boko Haram threat to security of lives and property in any part of Yobe, said the President received his recommendations favourably. According to Geidam: “His responses were very positive. He appreciated my coming and he promised that he would look into all those issues I raised”.

Wednesday, Olabanji said he was there to register his presence and solicit the support and cooperation of working journalists given their role as major catalyst in nation building. He however, stated that he was acquainting himself with the journalists to foster the synergy needed in projecting a good image of the nation, stressing that journalists were his good friends in every place he was posted to. In his remarks, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Kano State Council, Comrade Abduljalal Haruna said working journalists were ever ready to prove their worth as indispensable partners in contributing to the development of the nation. He stressed that the visit had offered both parties the opportunity to chart a new course. While commending the new Brigade Commander as a good friend of the press as epitomized by his amiable disposition, Haruna further revealed that working journalists would never relent in working in tandem with other security agencies in the state for peace and stability to flourish.

Niger govt applauds IGP confirmation by Council From Yakubu Minna

Mustapha,

he Niger state government has applauded the confirmation of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris Kpotun by

the Council of state. This was contained in a press statement issued by the Commissioner of Information, Culture and Tourism Mr Jonathan Tsado Vatsa who appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari for finding one of the sons of the

state worthy of leading a new regime of policing in the country. Vatsa stated that the experience of the Inspector General Kpotun, as a super operation cop will be very invaluable to help the nation to overcome its security challenges

with prayers and support. According to him, the force needed a police officer like kpotun who has the exposure of policing outside the shore of Nigeria to confront frontally the security challenges with all honesty and dexterity it deserves.

resident Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the family and friends of literary icon, Prof. Isidore Okpewho, who passed on at the age of 74. In a statement made available to newsmen yesterday by his Special Adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, e President joined the people and Government of Delta State, the academia and the literary world in mourning the loss of the multiple award winning and exceptionally brilliant scholar who lived a simple, dignified and exemplary life. He wrote “As one of the winners of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) in 2010, President Buhari affirms that the late Okpewho brought pride and glory to his country through inspiring novels, teaching skills and mentoring of young writers.” The President believed the legacies of discipline, hard work and honesty which shaped the life and times of the scholar, and were interpreted in his works, will continue to inspire younger writers in Nigeria and across the world. President Buhari prayed that the almighty God will grant him eternal rest, and also comfort his family.

Save our industry from collapse, Bakers urge FG From Mohammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

rewa Bakers and Caterers Association President Alhaji Tahir Bashir Adamu has called on Federal Government to save the industry from extinction in the country.According to him, the industry is facing lot of challenges and lingering problems that the government and other stakeholders can help in tackling so as to save the industry. The President who spoke recently in Kaduna said the association was born out of passion and collective aspiration to see the northern bakers and the industry growing up to its full exponential growth. “It is indeed a fitting thing to do in view of the increase call and need for the diversification of the nation’s economy and sole dependence on oil by government where bakery has its own value chain to maximize as means of alternative to revenue generation. “ Today bakery industry has become the biggest employer of Labour and major staple food provider while enhancing other sector to the development of the country. So, many foreigners are dominating various components of the bakery industry and expending Nigeria market for healthy growth of job creation,” he said.

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Page 9

News

L-R: Senior Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment, Mrs. Mariam Uwais; Country Director, ActionAid, Mrs. Ojobo Ode Atuluku and Country Director, Christian aid, Mr. Charles Usie, during civil society information dissemination on monitory federal government social protection programme on Wednesday in Abuja. Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

Gov Ambode vows to make Lagos 2016 hajj: NAHCON uncomfortable for criminals tasks state agencies L on white From Suleiman Idris Lagos

agos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday led an All Male Walk against Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), vowing that his administration would leave no stone unturned to ensure that all perpetrators of such crimes are made to face the wrath of the law. The walk, which proceeded from Ikeja under Bridge through Awolowo Way to Lagos House in Alausa, witnessed the participation of dignitaries from all walks of life, including members of the State Executive Council, members of the State House of Assembly, key government functionaries, entertainers, youths, artisans, workers, among others. Addressing participants at the Lagos House, Ikeja, Governor Ambode, decked in a black T-shirt and armed with a placard with the inscription ‘Stop Rape, Domestic Violence, Child Abuse’, said it was time for men to stand up and take the bull by the horn in tackling the menace of SGBV in the society, as recent research has shown that women are more prone to being victims of these crimes. “There is also an evident trend of suppressing the voice of these victims due to the fact that these acts are perpetrated largely by men. We should not take for granted the potential exponential effect of having emotionally and psychologically damaged women in a society as the effect could transcend to their children who grow up in an environment, thinking this is the norm,” the Governor said. While alluding to the fact that the State Government had initiated several programs ranging from the provision

of legal aid, shelter and psychological counseling services to assist these women, he said it was also pertinent to address the violent behavior of men as it concerns Rape, Domestic Violence and Child Abuse. He said, “The scale of men’s violence against women is enormous and its effect, demoralizing. Men as grandfathers, fathers, brothers, sons, husbands and public advocates have a pivotal role to play in condemning all forms of violence against women, girls and boys. “We firmly believe that the way forward is to continuously engage the male folk as well as the community as a whole. Community engagement is an essential part of working to prevent and respond to all forms of Gender Based Violence. “As men, we must stand up and speak in one voice, condemning these acts. No more would we condone or tolerate peadophiles, women beaters and rapists. It is inhumane and totally unacceptable to protect or even ignore such behaviour when we see it manifesting in our environment”. Governor Ambode, while commending participants of the Walk, urged them to remain ambassadors and flag bearers in the fight against domestic and sexual violence, adding “the conversation must be sustained in our workplaces, religious institutions, residential areas, social media etc. If we all join hands and speak against this, we can truly make Lagos uncomfortable for perpetrators of these heinous crimes.” The Governor also commended the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), organizers of the Walk, which simultaneously took place in Festac, just as he assured that his administration would continue to do

more to ensure the rights and welfare of the most vulnerable in the State are adequately protected. “I will like you to join hands with me to say no to rapists, say no to women beaters and wherever they are, we know that the Task Force that

we have set up will swing into action once it receives any petition from any member of the society. We are looking for the first 11 scapegoats whether highly or lowly placed in the society. We say no to domestic violence and sexual abuse,” Governor Ambode said.

Use of military in N/Delta will be counterproductive –Monarch cautions Buhari From Osakhare Erese, Asaba

issatisfied by the strident measures of the military operations, the paramount ruler of Siembiri Kingdom in Delta State, HRM Pere Charles AyemiBotu, yesterday appealed to President Mohammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency withdraw military presence in the Niger-Delta region. The monarch who spoke to a group of journalists in the area, said attacking the region with “military might” when the militants are still indecisive, will be counterproductive. While hoping that the ceasefire decision by the militants would put an end to the bombings, the Pere of Siembiri kingdom in Burutu local government area of the state said: “Sequel to the acceptance of cease fire, courtesy of monarchs and the leaders of the Niger-Delta, few days ago by the Niger-Delta Avengers and other militant groups, one would have expected President Buhari to announce his dialogue team as he did in early June, 2016, when he declared two weeks ceasefire, proceeding his medical trip to the United Kingdom. The Ijaw monarch wondered why President Buhari, instead of

announcing his dialogue team, ordered the mobilization of troops to the Niger Delta region under the pretext of military exercise, code named “Operation Crocodile Smile”. He stressed that by this action, he is thus sending negative to all Nigerians, the international community and the whole world that the stage is now set to crush the militants at a time they have accepted cease fire. “We have been making frantic and passionate appeals in conjunction with the United State Consul-General, Mr. John Braye calling on both the Federal Government and the militants to sheathe their sword and embrace dialogue in other to proffer lasting solutions to the Niger Delta quagmire. “Both the United State and the European Union have exp0ressed their determination to partner with the Federal Government in this onerous task now that the situation has availed itself. Meanwhile, coastal communities in Bomadi-Patani Federal Constituency, have warned rampaging militant groups involved in violence and criminality in the coastal communities to steer clear of their area or face severe penalties.

wrist band By Maryam Garba Hassan in Makkah

s part of measures put in place to ensure Nigeria’s pilgrims safety during this year’s hajj exercise, the national hajj commission of Nigeria NAHCON has urged all States Pilgrims Welfare Boards to ensure that pilgrims wear the white wrist band during before the Muna outing. The commission made the call in Makkah, through its Mu’assasah Liaison officer, Dr. Aliyu Tanko. He said the comission observed that many Nigeria’s pilgrims are not wearing the white wrist bands it printed and distributed to all States Pilgrims Welfare Boards on arrival in the holy city of Madinah. The white wrist bands which contains important information on each pilgrim, was designed to avoid the reoccurence of last year’s stampede where about 300 Nigeria’s pilgrims who had no any means of identification lost their lives. He said the Ministry has made provision for a replacement in the event pilgrims misplace the wristband

PAGE 10

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

News

L-R: Force Public Relations Officer (NPF), Mr. Don Awunah with Alhaji Garba Abdullahi of Department of State Service (DSS), during a joint press briefing between Nigeria Police/ DSS on the Security situation for the Edo state Election/Sallah Holiday on Wednesday in Abuja. Photo: Mahmud Isa

Gwagwalada chairman appoints sec., supervisors, SAs By Usman Shuaibu

he Executive Chairman of Gwagwalada Area council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Hon. Adamu Mustapha Danze, has appointed Hajiya Halima Elemi as the council scribe as well as some supervisory councilors and Special Advisers (SA) to help him in piloting the affairs of the Area Council. Danze charged the newly appointed secretary as well as supervisory Councillors/Special Advisers to always contribute their quota towards the development of the Council. The chairman assured the political aides that his administration would take them along in all ramifications, pointing out that every member of APGA is important to him. Some of the APGA members interviewed over the appointment of the Council Secretary, said that the chairman had chosen the right person for the position. Meanwhile, among the Special Advisers being appointed by the chairman, Mr. Abdullahi Danladi occupied the position of the Special Adviser on chieftaincy matters.

Group laments high rate of illiteracy in Nigeria By Paul Efiong

he Non Governmental Association for Literacy Support Services (NOGALSS), an umbrella body of all Nongovernmental Organizations and individuals involved in mass literacy delivery, has warned that with a large illiterate population, the country is sitting on a time bomb and call for a collective efforts to reverse the ugly trend. The National President of NOGAL,SS Noah Emmanuel who made this assertion in Abuja during a courtesy call to the Executive Secretary of National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non Formal Education, Prof Abba Haladu described the situation as alarming calling for a national emergency. He further explained that the high illiteracy rate is having a negative effect on national productivity, poverty eradication and the overall wellbeing of the citizens. “We see fighting illiteracy as an investment and our collective responsibility considering the positive impact it would have for the future of young Nigerians,” he said. He appealed to well meaning Nigerians and corporate bodies to support government’s current efforts in fighting illiteracy in the country.

Peace Corps reiterate commitment to employment generation By Paul Efiong

eace Corps of Nigeria (PCN) has again reiterated its readiness to create job opportunities in the country for young Nigerians with requisite academic qualification, calling on the law makers in the country to expedite action on their Bill before it. The National Public Relations Officer of the Corps, Jackson Akano who made the plea in an interview with Peoples Daily in his office further disclosed that the

most fundamental ideology behind formation of his corps was not to combat crime and criminalities in the country but to enhance learning capacities of Nigerian youths. While commanding his national Commanadant, Ambassador Dickson Akoh, the image maker of PCN stated that his organization came into existence some 18 years ago when it was registered in the country under the companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990, parts C. The National Commandant ,Ambassaodor Akoh, according to

the spokes persons of PCN is one among many Nigerians that strongly believe in the unity and indivisibility of the country stressing that upon inception, the Corps has always contributed it quota to ensuring that youths training, capacity building as well as re-orientation of the people in the country. Responding to questions PCN image maker also disclosed that his Corps was recently accorded a Special Consultative Status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council(ECOSOC) adding that with

such global status and recognitions his organization has contributed positively to Nigeria socio-economic development within and outside the country. Although our source did not give a specific numbers of youths to be employed by the Corps, however, it is heartwarming to know that PCN is making arrangement to engage many Nigerian youths in a meaningful enjoyment under the present circumstance where white collar job is given to only selected few.

Scrap dealers urge council chair to fence market By Usman Shuaibu

he chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of Scrap Dealers Association Zuba in Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Mohmmed Aminu Musa, has called on the chairman of the Area Council, Hon. Adamu Mustapha Danze to fence the Zuba scraps market in order to generate more revenue there.

Musa, who made the call in an interview with Peoples Daily in his office in Zuba, also charged the chairman to construct culverts or gutters, so as to prevent erosion in the market. He further urged the chairman to drill boreholes in the market to boost potable drinking water, noting that the leadership of the association has no single borehole being constructed by the previous government of

Gwagwalada Area Council. He explained that the Zuba scraps market land was allocated to the scrap dealers by the former sole administrator of Gwagwalada Area Council, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who is now the Governor of Kano state, while pleading with the current chairman of the Area Council to make the place a permanent site for the scrap dealers. He therefore, appealed to the

administration of the Area Council to carry the members as well as the officials of the Zuba scrap market along in the scheme of things, pointing out that the association was formed in 1994. He said that the management of association would continue to support and co-operate with the authorities of Gwagwalada Area Council for the overall development of the market.

W/ Bank approves $500m for education dev’t in 5 northern states T he World Bank has set aside $500 million as grant to fund basic education in five states for five years, Mrs Helen Okoro, the Information Officer, Universal Basic Education Commission, has said. Okoro, in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, credited Dr Olatunde Adekola, Head, World Bank International Reconstruction and Development team, as giving the

information. She said Adekola explained that the fund was for the Global Partnership for Education established to improve access to quality education at the basic level in Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Sokoto and Katsina states. She said, “Five hundred million dollars has been set aside as Global Partnership for Education/ Nigerian Partnership

for Education Project to fund education in the five beneficiary states of Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Sokoto.” Okoro said Adekola commended the Federal Government for the NIPEP project, adding that it was the first time government was focusing on strategies aimed at moving the basic education sub-sector forward.

She said the $2.5 billion dollars that the Federal Government requested from the World Bank to finance the 2016 budget could only be released after fulfilling certain conditions. Okoro also said Dr Hamid Bobboyi, Executive Secretary of UBEC, assured the team of the agency’s commitment to reposition basic education delivery in Nigeria.(NAN)

Page 11

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

PUBLIC NOTICE

Ipole - Adoka Farmers Association

Anointed God is Able deliverance Ministry

ASSOCIATION OF ENUGU BROTHERS AWKA BRANCH

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) Christopher Ochijele - Secretay (2) Edache Oloche (3) Elaigwu Hyacinth Adaji - Financial Secretary (4) Gabriel Adiji - Treasurer (5) Godwin Adanu, chairman THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.To foster unity and work towards improving their farm yields.

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. Daniel chinazom chibuogwu. 2, Emmanuel chukwunonso chibuogwu. 3, Prophetess uchenna Jacinta Chibuogwu 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

LOSS OF DOCUMENT

This is to inform the general public of the loss of original grant and right of ownership to a piece of land plot No.108,Cadastral Zone Co2, Abuja with file No. MISC 53398 dated 29th October, 1996 registered as No. FCT 13 Page 13 in volume 80 in land Registry office Abuja belonging to CHIEF ADELEKE ADEBAYO OSHINOWO 'M'. All effort made to recover the said missing document proved abortive. If found please contact the nearest police station. General public please take note.

This is to inform the general public of loss of a original Offer of terms of grant/Conveyance of approval with file No: MFCT/LA/92/MISC 10,308 and plot No: 988B measuring 1500m2 within Katampe District dated August 1992 and bearing FADEEN Interprises. All effort made to trace the said documents proved abortive, if found please contact the nearest police station or AGIS. General public please take note.

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) OGBONNA PETER (CHAIRMAN) (2) ANYIM JOHNSON MBAKA (SEC) (3) NWANKWO DONATUS (4) ONWE JOSEPH (5) IGBO EMMANUEL (6) CHUKWU JUDE (7) CHUKWU PATRICK IVOR THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1. To bring the sons of Enugu state living in Awka and its environ together 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 : CHAIRMAN

mrs Faith-Rita

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AS miss samuel Faith Jajay. NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AS mrs Faith-Rita Emmanuel Njoka. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. ALL AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

Mrs Linda

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AS Linda Ijeoma Bekee. NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AS Mrs Linda Ijeoma Ndubueze. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. ALL AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND GENERAL PUBLIC PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

PAGE 12

Opinion

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Buhari and burden of true leadership By Philip Agbese

resident Muhammadu Buhari is unfortunately facing tough times in leadership of Nigeria. Afflicted by a mirage of national problems, Nigerians expected quick-fixes to the miseries of the nation as payback for the “change” canvassed and they massively supported on the banner of opposition APC. Nigerians have held strongly to this covenant pact of “change” with the President. In the past months, President Buhari has taken steps to solve these national maladies, known to Nigerians and the entire world. Already, some measure of attestable success have been recorded in areas like insecurity, anti-corruption war, and fiscal discipline in government business, (Treasury Single Account), bailout funds to salary indebted states, rail and roads projects among others, despite dwindling national resources. But recent commentaries from some Nigerians in the media on the Buhari presidency have been quite unimpressive. Others have gone to the extent of passing a verdict of incompetence on him, icing it with calls for his resignation. These pungent anti-government feelings, as even confessed by Buhari are understandable. However, in the haste to crucify Buhari by these dissatisfied Nigerians, on the dais of urgent expectations of accomplishments within time frames, (set out by these same critics), there is an obvious, anxious over-pricing of the cake that strips it of any fancy. This clique of Nigerians forget easily the democratic bottlenecks inherent in the system. They also prefer not to understand that some supportive organs of government are peopled by renegade personalities who do not necessarily

share in the spirit and vision of Buhari’s “change agenda.” More to it, the convenience to overlook their own lapses in the small places they head, the sum total of which is the silent pulling of the strings of anti-change against the center, is hardly measured. At market places, in bus stops, private homes, public or private offices and everywhere, Nigerians reaffirm the oath in infamy. They blissfully ignore the exhibition of positive virtues of patriotism to one’s country, but expect that Buhari shadows should loom everywhere in the land to reprimand them. Differently put, Nigerians erroneously thought Buhari is the man to do everything for them, while they slumber and wake up to wine because the President rode unto power on the highest puritan pedestal. To say the least, they expect to see in Buhari a Zombie, standing erect before a dry cleaner, with a horse whip to cane him for dubious acts. They think, he must be present in every church or mosque on Sundays and Fridays to stop the clergy in indulging in acts that are suspect and injurious to national image and progress. Buhari in the estimation of these critics must be the Senate President or Speaker of the House of Reps to preside over plenary sessions and, so the country should not be told such nauseating tales of budget padding or delay in its passage by the legislature. The president by the reckoning of some Nigerians should split himself in a dozen images to head all the MDAs in the country. By this fantasy, they feel chief executives would not engage in nepotism or other corrupt acts. That they still find Buhari the upright and incorruptible man in public office today, as he was 30 years ago is not commendable. And it’s

a vow that it must not be appreciated. Recently, Buhari almost tearfully lamented why fate never made his second coming as Nigeria’s leader on a dictatorship platform. His message was decoded as only that platform would have ensured the speedy actions of government. But no nation drives a successful change simply on account of the puritanism and solo trip of the leader. Everyone in his remote corner of the country must believe and contribute his little energy and integrity to it before it works. Criticisms of a government are good, but imbibing the tenets the critics expect of the leader is better. Having assessed the Nigerian temperament, which often tilt towards the bad and the ugly, President Buhari has come to the inevitable conclusion that Nigerians need a fundamental reorientation. This has become imperative because from ordinary Nigerians to the elite, the mentality and perception of life in negativity is similar. But it stuns how citizens expect progress from a country they have blatantly denied the essentials of this progress. Therefore, the enactment of the concept of “Change With Me,” (CWI) by President Buhari a few days ago is apt and timely. Many would say, it’s the reincarnation of the War against Indiscipline (WAI). Yes, it is and Nigerians need it. WAI subscribed to brute military force and fiat, CWI is its civilian equivalent, but rather mild, persuasive and prone more to pricking the conscience of sane and progressive minds in the democratic leadership engagement. Nigerians must comprehend that they may lament from now to eternity, but nothing would change, unless, the school boy believes that stealing the text books of his classmates is a sin against God,

humanity and the nation. The lecturer must know that it is wrong to demand un-receipted monies from students before he endorses their courses or compelling them to mandatorily buy textbooks authored by him as condition for passing his test is frustrating the “change.” Youths must begin to respect the sanctity of human life, by denouncing cultism as antiprogress. The clergy would stop collecting proceeds of stolen public funds as tithes or as donations for church development in the guise of religion. Parents would not hire professionals to write basic school certificate exams for their children. The transporter would not unconscionably hike fares under the pretext of rising FOREX. Nigerians would step on the same podium with Buhari for “change” when medical doctors stop crippling public hospitals in favour of their private clinics. Judges would restrain themselves from passing pervasive judgments; much as lawyers would stop demanding frivolous injunctions for palpably guilty clients. That is the national obligation. It is the change Buhari is sermonizing. It is the tonic the President needs to deliver. Only the collective observance of these virtues can truly save Nigeria. And the only luck and perhaps, opportunity the country can grip is the Buhari presidency. It explains the launch of the concept, “Change With Me,” and failure to heed to this appeal and a call to patriotism, Nigeria might never even sight the gates of the promised land. This is the bottom-line and the call on Nigerians for self-re-examination as embedded in the philosophy of “Change With Me. Agbese is a UK based human rights activist and contributed this piece from the Middlesex

Niger Delta and challenge of PMB’s diplomacy By Louis Okoroma

he tension and uncertainty in the Niger Delta caused by recent violent attacks against oil installations and facilities in the area by resurgent militancy has created doubts about the diplomacy and peacemaking ability of President Muhammadu Buhari. In the minds of some people mostly detractors of the President and even ordinary Nigerians whose views are colored by the prevailing and excruciating hardship in the country, the President is seen as something of a war- monger. This however, is far from the truth. President Buhari’s attitude, posturing and utterances about the Niger Delta situation is affected by the fact that as a lover of Nigeria, who is pained by the sorry state of the nation, the anti- corruption crusader finds it difficult to make the link between any form of agitation for restitution for wrongs done any group, with the destruction and damage of national infrastructure especially those that benefit everyone let alone, infrastructure and national property cited in those parts of the country from where the agitations are coming. Yet another reason why PMB is perhaps angry with the militants and for which reason, he loses his temper, is because as a young man, he was a participant in a brutal civil war that led to the death of several thousands of Nigerians and many years after, some people are taken steps that could lead to a repeat of that experience. Happily, there are several voices of caution coming from Nigerians of all walks of life prescribing and urging restraint on all sides to the Niger Delta problem and demanding for dialogue. This writer would like to appeal to our fellow country people in the creeks of the Niger Delta, to give peace a chance and not further compound the present World

economic downturn that has hit Nigeria hard with a recession. No doubt, the Niger Delta and indeed other parts of Nigeria has not been fairly treated over the years by successive governments but the way to go is not to make prosperity and governance impossible through violence and confrontation with the government. It should be noted that the problems of neglect affecting the Niger Delta today strictly speaking is not PMB’s doing, but the summation of poor and irresponsible governance over the years. PMB is now at the receiving end of demands for restitution because governance and government is a continuum, the onus is on the government of the moment to be held responsible. Nonetheless, restitution and justice in our society cannot come overnight and there is not so much a government, any government can do in the short space of a year and a few months of a four- year mandate! Thus the best approach is peace and dialogue and the willingness to allow a spirit of give and take. On the side of the government however, it is important that the latter eschews sending uncertain and ambiguous signals as well as make utterances that do not promote trust, confidence and the foundation for fruitful dialogue. One expects the body language of PMB on the Niger Delta issue and the agitation by separatists in the South east to be one that shows that the President believes in the unity of Nigeria and is prepared as Leader of the nation, to deploy his best endeavors to build consensus and defeat the pull of centrifugalism in the polity. This writer challenges the President who clearly is a passionate nationalist to employ and deploy the body language that is changing the ethics and values of Nigerians in the fight against corruption and in his diplomatic endeavors to apply to domestic issues so that the unity of the country will be embedded in the hearts and minds of

Nigerians and not something that depends on threats and the ability of the Nigerian Army to enforce. Such unity cannot stand and would be tenuous at best. Being an elderly and wise man, the President can do this and score excellent results the way he has been able to charm the international community to buy into his anti- corruption campaign and desire to elevate and diversify the nation’s economy away from oil. The Niger Delta problem cannot be resolved by military action. Recently, retired Colonel Abubakar Umar was on point on this. Of course it is right for the President to say that if the militants currently engaged in economic sabotage fail to embrace peace, the government would have no option but to use violence. The government however should be wary of sending signals that it prefers a showdown by goading the militants into confrontation. The point is that in a real military encounter, the nations’ army would surely overwhelm any group of armed persons no matter how well armed, they are. In the process of engaging them militarily, two things would happen; one, the option of dialogue would have been foreclosed given the impression that the channels of conflict resolution in the polity is weak or non-existent and that the partiesare now implacable enemies and second, in seeking to teach the militants a lesson, the nation’s army would inflict more damage and destruction on the economic infrastructure of the nation through aerial bombardment thus committing a similar crime like the militants. In this connection, the militants would have succeeded in provoking the government to cause more devastation with its own hands. Bearing in mind that the militants are not the government, the present administration would still be saddled with the unpleasant task of embarking on reconstruction of these facilities, or a successor government would

be tasked with the unpleasant and expensive assignment. On a balance this would extend and deepen the woes of the nation which military force was intended to deal with. It should be noted that since after the civil war, more than 40 years ago, the South east which suffered most from that war in terms of destruction of lives, properties and infrastructure is still yearning and waiting for reconstruction, rehabilitation and restitution. The country cannot successfully tread the same part again on the Niger Delta issue. Many Nigerians who watched proceedings and read reports of the outing of the country at the recent Tokyo International Conference on African Development which took place in Nairobi, Kenya last week, were full of pride at the performance and conduct of President Buhari. As the leading salesperson of the country, PMB did very well and won Nigeria not only admiration but many friends. The Nairobi conference sponsored by the Japanese government showed the Nigerian leader as a confident diplomat and crowd puller and has reinforced the successes and expectations of his earlier foreign trips in quest of foreign help in the area of investments, capital inflow, repatriation of stolen assets and monies of the country, and the fight against terrorism. Following the above, it cannot be said that such a magnet in international circles, PMB cannot apply the same charm that has yielded pledges of cooperation and assistance from World leaders to the domestic arena in dealing with manifestations of discontent to give the nation the peace, unity and harmony it desperately needs to overcome its present challenges. Louis Okoroma is a Public Affairs Analyst based in Abuja. He is at iheokoroma@yahoo.co.uk

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Comment

Science and Technology: Lessons from the private sector By Rahmat Muhammad It is widely known that Nigeria has major issues to tackle in the coming years. Search for any article on Nigeria, or any African country for that matter, and you are bound to find a long list of problems phrased as either deficiencies or opportunities, depending on the author’s orientation. Without rehashing the list here, it is sufficient to state that Nigeria has issues. The lists of issues will, sometimes come with proposed solutions ranging from “divide the country!” to “privatise everything!”. To entertain these possibilities, even in theory, is to admit defeat, on the one hand of forming a national identity or on the other hand of inspiring human cooperation. Defeat is not an option in this author’s mind so neither of these proposals will be entertained at this juncture. Instead, let us entertain another proposed solution to Nigeria’s many challenges: science and technology. Several ministers, most recently and not surprisingly the Minister for the Ministry of Science and Technology, have lauded the potential for science and technology to raise Nigeria to new unimagined heights. What a lofty goal to put on the shoulders of science and technology! Science and technology to the rescue? The Minister is not alone in his thinking that science and technology can elevate

Nigeria. Around the world, science and technology have been applied to solve all types of problems; and time after time they have delivered results that have propelled humanity forward. From the combustible engine to vaccines, from electricity to the internet – science and technology have a proven track record for delivering the previously unimaginable. And while we can debate the long-term impacts of these innovations to human evolution and the environment, one thing is certain: science and technology are part of the human arsenal to be used for better or for worse. As such, science and technology are not conscientious saviours of humanity but rather agnostic tools that, like any other tool, need a purpose or mission driven by committed and thoughtful leaders through transparent processes. The makings of a technologically advanced Nigeria, therefore, are similar to the principles that drive progress in the private sector: clear organisational mission, sound strategies, committed people, and transparent processes. Organisations that do not set and adhere to a clear mission often find themselves spending millions of dollars, not to mention thousands of hours of employee time, on technologies that are implemented with great zeal only to be thrown out with disgust before realising the full return on investment. More often than not, failed technologies introduce process complexities or require specialised skills that organisations do not

have. A clear organisational mission defines the goal or goals to which all activities and technologies are subservient. Having this clarity at the outset will help organisations to determine whether they need technology to achieve the goal and if so, to identify requirements for that technology. A clear mission on agriculture, for example, may lead an organisation to explore genetically modified crops as a supporting technology. Will genetically modified technology work with the current agricultural process? Are there specialised skills required to work with genetically modified crops? Will the technology yield crops that will be acceptable to the consuming public? These and several other important questions about this technology will help an organisation determine if the technology will, in the end, support the organisation’s goal. A clear mission also helps organisations identify opportunities for economies of scale. A mission on counterterrorism, for example, is shared across a nation and can be best served with a common surveillance technology. Not only does this translate into cost savings but more integrated information can mean easier identification of rogue elements. An organisation’s technology strategy should align with the organisation’s mission. Misalignment of technology strategy and mission often means that stakeholders are not committed to the mission and may be acting out of self-interest. When this happens, investments are made in

silos with little to no economies of scale and the broader mission is exchanged for more narrow achievements at the local or personal level. A sound technology strategy should, whenever possible, leverage existing data on the technology’s efficacy; it should also identify key dependencies for the technology’s success and a plan to encourage adoption. A mission to reduce the child mortality rate, for example, may identify a strategy for technologies that boost maternal health. This strategy should consider historic data on similar technologies and identify necessary conditions for success. Engaging in this exercise will reveal if a proposed strategy is poised to advance the mission or simply a red herring. The importance of organisation-wide commitment to the success of a technology strategy cannot be overstated. Nothing will stall or inhibit technological progress faster than lack of commitment to the strategy and overall mission. Widespread commitment requires the suspension of disbelief – while remaining critical – and trust that everyone throughout the ranks is striving, first and foremost, to achieve the agreed-upon goal. A sure sign that an organisation is not committed to the mission or strategy is its willingness to jump from one technology to another as a distraction from facing and tackling the real issues. Rahmat Muhammad (Phd) is a Public Affairs Analyst.

FCT Minister: A man greatly misunderstood By Rogers Edor Ochela

or the umpteenth time, it is necessary for me to state from the onset that as a media practitioner, I believe wholeheartedly in the platform which the media offers as a veritable market place of ideas. That explains why I have elected to take the advantage to engage the public on a sensitive issue that touches on the raw nerves of the nation’s unity. Since President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him the minister in charge of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in November 2015, Muhammad Musa Bello, who inherited a city that was virtually down on all fours in terms of poor infrastructural facilities, hasconsistently become the butt of ribald criticisms, ostensibly for his ‘’inability to live up to public expectation.’’ As a matter of fact, Bello met facilities that were grossly over-stretched because of the geometric population explosion in the city. Though, Abuja was conceived as the administrative capital city of Nigeria, along the line, it became a Mecca of sorts for those escaping the harsh religious, socio-political cum economic realities in various parts of the country because most of the federating units seem not to working, thereby putting undue pressure on the limited facilities in the city. From all intents and purposes, the minister met a city where the concept envisaged by the founding fathers was gradually being abused and bypassed; a city where a number of the contractors had not only stopped work, but laid off their staff; thereby turning the city into one huge cemetery of abandoned projects. To underscore the fact that FCT under Bello is indeed working, a princely sum of N1.5bn has been put in the 2016 budget to complete the 14km Apo--Karshi road project that was scheduled to be completed in December of 2011 but was abandoned. This road will provide alternative route to motorists coming into the city from the

Nyanya-Mararaba axis. Similarly, the deliberate refusal of previous FCT Administrations to relocate indigenous settlements like GarkiVillage, Utako, Jabi and Mabushi away from the city center, which has hindered the completion of critical infrastructure within the city center, is being gradually addressed with the Minister encouraging contractors to return to site. Now, construction works on the roads and other critical infrastructureare on-going. Agreed, all stakeholders are on the same page in their desire for the Federal Capital Territory to regain its rightful position in the comity of capital cities of the world. So, it is normal for some of them who are not comfortable with the slow pace of development of the city to voice out their concerns through informed criticisms, but when such criticisms are tinged with vendetta, it becomes utterly reprehensible. Considering the enormity of the rot that Bello met on ground when he assumed office and the furious nay aggressive pace that he has been working to address the ugly situation, it will be uncharitable for anyone, especially pseudo-analysts, to assert that the minister and his Team have simply abdicated their responsibilities. Those that accuse the Minister of running a one-man show miss the point as he has consistently told Nigerians that the running of the FCT Administration would always be done in accordance with the extant rules. It would interest the public to know that one of the encumbrances the current FCT Administration inherited was the over 1,300 court cases—a function of impunity or executive rascality of the previous administrations. This is what informed the Bello led FCT Administration’s decision to thread with caution, gingerly avoiding numerous banana peels being carelessly thrown along its path by those with evil agenda. If not mischievousness, why would anyone not see the great redeeming features

embedded in the redemptive work that the Minister is currently doing with a view to leaving FCT better than he met it. As at the time of writing this article, there is a massive rehabilitation of roads currently in progress, especially in the city center. For instance, the interchange along the Airport Road and Bill Clinton Drive previously abandoned are being completed and that applies to several others. Apparently concerned with the filthiness that was gradually taking over the FCT, Bello, early this year, launched the Household and Community sanitation exercise, which is gradually helping in the sanitization of the Territory. Apart from assisting the Area Councils with bailout funds to clear their workers unpaid salary arrears few weeks after assuming office, the minister has also offset the over N2 billion owed cleaning and maintenance contractors by the previous Administrations, to enable them resume work on the evacuation of solid waste in the city center and satellite towns. Equally, contractors owed various sums below N20 million have been settled amounting to over N6 billion; over N19 billion has been paid to multinational contractors to enable them return to sites. In the first quarter of 2016, the FCTA also released the sum of N5,744,835,928.38 to various development partners being counterpart funds for the projects that they are executing in the Federal Capital Territory. The Minister equally paid over N1.787 billion to the Universal Basic Education Board, which included arrears that have not been paid since 2013. He has further released the sum of N2,939,681,413.96 and N808,075,585.62 as counterpart funds for the Abuja Rail project as well as its Consultancy Services respectively. All these obligations ought to have been carried out by the previous FCT Administrations but were contumaciously ignored in the name of lack of funds.

Bello has been able to achieve all these feats through frugality and admirable husbandry of fiscal and material resources. Furthermore, the Minister has resuscitated the hitherto moribund Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and replaced its leadership with capable hands that are already delivering on its mandate. It is worthy of note that Malam Bello also followed this up by establishing the FCT Task Team on Environmental Protection to work alongside 200 officers/men of the Nigeria Police Force and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps for enforcement purposes. Equally worthy of mention is the cleaning up of all the Land related Departments (Departments of Land Administration, Development Control, Urban & Regional Planning as well as AGIS), which has tremendously improved the ease of doing business in the FCT. Today, prospective developers can be rest assured that they can get building approvals within a record threeweek period. The FCT Administration under Bello has also rehabilitated some of the roads in the city center like the M20 road leading to the popular Utako Motor Park, the road shoulders along the ShehuShagari Way in Maitama District, Ring Road 1 (NnamdiAzikiweExpressway) in addition to the complete rehabilitation of the road between the National Assembly Complex and office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), complete with storm water drainages and ornamental trees on both sides. The most annoying aspect of the misguided vilification of the minister is that such criticisms are often done without offering viable alternatives, a situation that has made these armchair critics take refuge in the cold passivity of grandstanding and unhelpful pontification. Dcn Ochela, fmr Newspaper Editor and Media Consultant is based in Abuja

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

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News Executive Secretary, Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission, Rev. Tor Uja (R), Congratulating Pilgrims on Youth /Family Package on their arrival at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Nan

10 Delta communities battle NNPC over alleged oil spill T

en Ijaw communities along the Escravos river in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State have petitioned the Delta State government alleging that a massive crude oil spill is ravaging their environment from a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, facility. Representatives of the communities in a save-our soul letter to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State on Wednesday accused the state oil firm of negligence over the incident. The representatives told journalists in Warri that the spill, which occurred on August 17, 2016, was traced to a crude oil trunk line from the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), the products marketing and distribution subsidiary of the NNPC. They said the pipeline passes through the affected communities, namely Tebujor/Okpele-Ama, Ikpokpo, Okerenkoko-Gbene, Opuedebubor, Opuede, Opuendezion, Atanba, Oto-Gbene, Meke-Ama Communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom, along the Escravos river in Warri South West Local Government Area of the state. The communities accused the PPMC of not carrying out a proper joint investigation of the incident by a

properly constituted team comprising representatives of the community, NNPC, Department of Petroleum Resources and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA. “Instead, PPMC brought in military men to chase away villagers without carrying out a proper joint investigation of the incident to identify and stop the source of the spill as well as carry out effective remediation and compensate to the affected communities and people,” the communities said in a letter to Mr. Akowa. The letter dated September 6, 2016, was signed by Yebrade Moses, Godwin Akori, Ebilowei Tortor and Braye Fredrick on behalf of the affected communities. The communities lamented the NNPC and PPMC’s failure to take steps to stop the spillage and the damage to fishing nets, properties of the people and the environment. “Villagers who rely on fishing along the river for survival can longer do so as a result of the effects of the oil spillage which has polluted the entire area,” they said. Similar incidents, they said, have occurred on the same PPMC trunkline on three occasions this year: in January, April and May, due to

equipment failure. They appealed to the state governor to prevail on the PPMC to carry-out a proper investigation of the

incident, stop further spill, take steps to remediate the environment and pay compensation to the affected people and communities.

NHIS urges schemes sustainability in Niger From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna

he Niger State Coordinator of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi has charged the Niger state government to set up its State Social Health Insurance Program on a legal framework for purpose of sustainability and continuity. Abdullahi made the appeal while speaking with our reporter in his office yesterday in Minna, saying that the program was designed for the States government to take advantage of providing adequate and affordable health care for its workforce. He said that the new Executive Secretary/CEO of NHIS, Prof. Usman Yusuf was determined to achieve Universal Health Coverage

for all Nigerians within the possible time with the current drive to change the face of the scheme to the benefit of nation. The Coordinator emphasized that the scheme has begun many activities in the state which includes; the Voluntary Contributory Social Health Insurance Program (VCSHIP), where individuals pay a premium by purchasing of voucher card at N15,000 per annum and will enjoy all the benefits like in a formal sector. He explained that the membership cut across family members, self employed, retirees not under NHIS, organizations with less than 10 workers and foreigners who can obtain their cards from the state or zonal office to cover such individuals for a duration of one year.

visitors and dwellers. It said the award, tagged “Bridge Builders Awards” and organized in collaboration with Love to the World Initiative, a non-governmental organization, aims at encouraging Nigerians across tribal, religious and

political affiliations to contribute meaningfully to the progress of Nigeria. It further aimed at appealing to the conscience of Nigerians to embrace peace and brotherliness, by emulating individuals who have been exemplary in that regard.

NOA plans to award peace loving Nigerians By Hauwa Yusuf Musa

he National Orientation Agency (NOA) has perfected plans for awards to recognize and celebrate exemplary Nigerians who distinguish themselves in promoting peaceful coexistence,

brotherliness and religious tolerance in the nation. NOA in a statement issued yesterday by its Deputy Director, Press, Fidel Agu, said six states out of the 36 States of the Federation have also been identified to receive awards for their friendliness to

Edo communities protest govt neglect By Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

ome agrarian Communities in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo state have protested absence of basic infrastructure occasioned by alleged government neglect after several years of existence. They said the only existing government primary school primary school was in a pitiable situation, while the the other government Secondary school which currently has nine teachers and a Principal. Their position was contained in a protest letter Perry Agbon and dated September 6th 2016 on behalf of Ekaladerhan zone, which was made available to Journalists in Benin. The zone is comprising four Wards and 30 Communities and Hamlets including Iguosodin, Utoka, Oghede, Oduna. Agbon, the President of the zone, stated that the nine Secondary school teachers were being paid through donations from spirited individuals in the Communities, while the school Principal is the only staff that was being paid by the state government. He revealed that the Secondary school which was facilitated by Senator Ehigie Uzamere, was completed and staffed by Ekaladerhan Community. “In our Community, there is no government presence, no red roof, the primary school is built by the government and managed by the Community. In the Secondary school, the government only pays the Principal, while the Community pays nine teachers.

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Lagos PDP accuses Ambode of spending N7bn On Obaseki’s campaign

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State has accused the State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode of “squandering” over N7billion of the state’s funds on the governorship campaign of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State. The party made the allegation ahead of this Saturday’s governorship election in Edo. The Lagos PDP, which also

Edo Election: “Stop intimidating PDP members” – Ekweremadu warns

accused the governor of prodigality and neglect, and of exhibiting what it called “busy-body” in his style of governance, vowed to demand for his probe at the appropriate time. The opposition party specifically carpeted Ambode for “sacrificing the welfare, security and concerns of Lagosians for the interest of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).”

“Gov. Ambode accepted the needless burden to be the national coordinator of the APC Edo governorship campaign committee and has literally moved Lagos governance to Edo State, squandering an amount believed to be over N7 billion and also pledging further human, logistic and financial support to the APC candidate for the election day,” the

governor’s recent visit to Osun State as nonchalance to the plight of Lagos people, who were affected by flood. “At the expense of Lagosians, he took the government, executive and legislature to Osun State to commission just a school building constructed by the Osun State governor, Aregbesola”, the PDP said.

Ize-Iyamu urges supporters to keep vigil ahead Edo governorship poll By Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

andidate of the Peoples Democratic Party governorship election in Edo State, Pastor

Osagie Ize-Iyamu, yesterday urged members of his kinsmen to keep vigil, when the polls is being conducted until results are announced. Ize-Iyamu disclosed his while

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) PDP in Edo State had accused the Nigeria Police of “unwarranted arrests and harassment” of its members and supporters. In a statement by the Special Adviser to Deputy President of the Senate on Media, Mr. Uche Anichukwu on Wednesday, Ekweremadu called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently intervene in the matter and ensure a free, fair and credible electoral process. He said, “I am deeply distressed by the development, not just because I am a member of the PDP but, more importantly, because the PDP had taken our electoral process beyond where it is being dragged back to today. “The greatest gift of democracy, which makes other blessings of democracy feasible, is the inalienable right of the people to elect their leaders of their own freewill in a free, fair and credible electoral process that must be devoid of all forms of intimidation. “As a beneficiary of the electoral reforms and policy of non-interference in the electoral process exemplified by the immediate past PDP administration led by former President Goodluck Jonathan, I expect the APC-led Federal Government to immediately call the security agencies to order. “If the APC-led FG cannot improve on the electoral process, I expect them to at least maintain the standards set by the PDP.” Ekweremadu also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, political parties, political elite and the entire people of Edo to work for the progress of the country and the state by ensuring a “credible, violence-free and conclusive poll.”

PDP said yesterday in a statement by its publicity secretary, Taofiq Gani. Mr. Gani who lamented the “inexpedient commitment of Lagos funds into partisan activities that are not beneficial to the state,” added that “We are keeping tabs on him and we shall demand his probe at the appropriate time.” He also described the

addressing members of PDP and the Media in Benin City the Edo State Capital. He described attempts by some highly placed government officials to

• L-R: Alternate Chairman, Peace and Security Forum (PSF), Jaiye Gaskia, Secretary PSF, Salaudeen Hashiru and Manager, Security and Governance, Mr,.Bashiru Olasupo, during the Bi Monthly meeting of the PSF, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

prevail on the Independent National Electoral Commission to postpone Saturday election, as “attempts to postpone the day of reckoning.” According to him, “It is time to work from today. Nobody should go to sleep from today, until the results are announced. I want to assure you that every arrangement is in place to ensure that we win this election. But some Cabal wants to postpone the day of reckoning.” he said. Also speaking, state chairman of PDP, Dan Orbih, raised alarm that Security agencies have invited some members of his party for interrogation. He described the move as a calculated attempt to intimidate PDP supporters and members to yield the stage for the state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, whom he described as the “masquerade behind the calls for postponement of the election.” He also stated that if the PDP bid to disqualify the Candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the election, Godwin Obaseki on grounds of alleged lying on oath, sails through, the victory would mark the end of an era.

TMG to deploy observers for Edo governorship election By Umar Muhammad Puma

n preparation for this Saturday’s Edo State governoeship election, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), said it is deploying observers in the 18 Local Government Areas of the state. TMG Chairperson, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi said the observers will closely watch the electoral process to ensure it substantially complies with the relevant national laws, as well as international conventions governing free, fair and credible polls. The TMG helmswoman however stressed the need for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the security agencies, as well as the political parties to learn from the experiences of previous elections. Specifically, Dr. Akiyode-Afolabi called on all stakeholders in Edo to ensure that the ugly incidents, which tainted the legitimacy of the electoral process in the in the Kogi State

governorship election of November 21 and December 5, 2015, as well as the Bayelsa governorship election of December 5, 2015 and January 9, 2016, do not occur again. Dr Akiyode-Afolabi observed that with two governorship and several legislative rerun polls conducted on the watch of the current INEC and the security agencies, they are now experienced enough to anticipate and mitigate most of the threats that could undermine conclusive and credible polls in Nigeria. She said: “TMG robustly observed the last two governorship elections conducted by INEC, and policed by the security agencies. That is why we want all stakeholders to pause and think of the observation findings from those polls, so that we can proactively find ways to prevent the kinds of problems we saw in the previous elections, and ensure the votes in Edo State count on Saturday. In the Bayelsa governorship election of December 5,

2015 for instance, TMG observed how the two leading political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), mobilized militants to do their bidding. This resulted in violence, harassment and intimidation of poll officials, voters and observers. In Edo State, the security agencies must be alive to their responsibilities to ensure that the kind of fierce and undemocratic political environment, does not undermine the vote or lead to an inconclusive process as it was in Bayelsa.” “With regards to the electoral process itself, the TMG chairperson equally noted that there are lessons to be learnt in how the simultaneous accreditation and voting process fared in the last governorship election conducted by INEC. She said in Bayelsa, while INEC’s decision to merge the accreditation and voting processes was, in itself, a step towards international best practice, the timing of the decision, which resulted in a

change of the electoral procedures 48 hours before the opening of the polls, did not allow enough time for officials to get acquainted with the new procedure. “At TMG, we are convinced that stakeholders in the electoral process must take steps to ensure these kinds of lapses do not happen in Edo. If these issues are not addressed and the voting rights of citizens protected on election day, what we risk is apathy and an erosion of citizens’ trust in the electoral process,” she said. According to Akiyode-Afolabi, all stakeholders must work to prevent the various infractions, which have marred previous elections, including the most serious critical incidents like ballot box snatching/stuffing, intimidation and harassment of voters, poll officials, observers and political party poll agents, stealing of ballot papers, vote buying/bribery, observers not permitted to observe, not posting results and partisan poll officials.

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Politics

Buhari’s economic policies revolutionary, Nigerians impatient, says IPAC chairman You have just been elected the new IPAC chairman in Nigeria, what agenda do you have towards moving the council forward? The most important thing one should look at is the objective of setting up this organization called IPAC, and that is exactly what I am going to do. To make sure that we bring peace into the polity, and also bring together all the political parties to be working on the same purpose, which is to bring progress to our dear nation Nigeria. You know that majority of us are opposition parties, because it is only one party among all the parties that is the ruling party; the remaining twenty nine are opposition. So for this reason, we want to make sure that we bring together, all the opposition parties to see how we can assist the government because it is APC today, and it can be another party among us tomorrow, so we are not going to become enemy, or we just want to fight or condemn whatever action the government of the day takes. No. We are here to correct them, they have made promises before they got elected into offices, and we want to make sure they fulfill the promises they made to the people because if they do that, it will bring onboard one of the elements that IPAC is built on. We want to have trust and we want to have peace and progress,

Muhammad Lawal Nalado is the newly elected chairman of Nigeria’s Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), in this interview with Ikechukwu Okaforadi, he says the economic policies of President Mohammadu Buhari are aimed at revolutionizing the country by placing her on the track of greatness, urging Nigerians to be patient with the administration. Excerpts: but these can never be attained if we don’t have unity. So definitely we are going unite ourselves to achieve these goals. Nigeria is in recession, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of running the economy aground through his bad economic policies. Are you confident with the policies of this government? On the economy, I can tell you that this government is doing very well. When they called for “Change”, it should be change in attitudes. It is unfortunate that this government came in and met almost empty treasury, and unfortunately for them, our single resource, which is oil, the price has gone down to almost twenty per cent. That is the only source of income for Nigeria now, but we have other sources of income but we decided, for our laziness, to just live on only one out of over hundred other sources of resources that God has given to us. So,

unfortunately, the price of that only commodity we live on, which is oil, has fallen down far below expectation. Apart from that one, the little we can make had also been reduced further by the activities of the Avengers militants in the Niger Delta region. So, you see, the activities of the Avengers have reduced our production capacity, and when we even produce, whatever little we are able to produce; it cannot meet the price when you go to the international market. So with this double jeopardy, how do you expect government to finance its day to day activities, unless we want government to go on borrowing. At the personal levels, if you do not have money to meet your responsibilities, if your income has dropped, what do you do?, you have to cut your expenditures, and that is what is exactly happening today. I always appreciate one area where government has given concern, which is by diversifying our economy. You can see how the Ministry of Solid Minerals have been up and doing now, trying to discover how many mineral resources we have in this country, and how many of them we have in

commercial quantity. You know that the most important factor we have forgotten is agriculture. Nigeria has a fertile land that we can feed Africa, but unfortunately, most of our foreign reserves go into importation of food items. If we can produce this rice that we are talking about, Nigeria will be great again. Look at the one that Anambra State governor launched recently, it is even better than the ones we import every day. So, why don’t we give them more encouragement let them produce more so that we stop spending our foreign exchange on the importation of rice. Most of the things we import, including furniture, we have the woods. I remember when I went on street tour; when I was in the House of Representatives as a member, we went to Ondo Plywood Company, which does not exist any longer, I saw that all the furniture we import from Dubai, we have the woods here. If we bring in investors to come and invest in this country, surely we can produce all these things here. Machine tools, we have Oshogbo machine tools, we have Ajaokuta steel rolling company, and many others.

• R-L: Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Kpotun Idris being congratulated by the Taraba State Governor, Mr. Darius Dickson Ishaku and National Security Adviser to the President Major General Babagana Mongonu, after his confirmation by the Council of State as full Inspector General of Police at the State House on Wednesday in Abuja.Photo: State House

PDP Crisis: Step aside from our case, Makarfi, others tell Justice Abang By Ali Alkali

enator Ahmad Makarfi leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had at the resumed hearing on the legal tussle between two factions of the party asked Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja to step aside and hands off the case. Markafi and six other members of the party, through their lawyer, Mr. Emmanuel Ukala, SAN, challenged the jurisdiction of Justice Abang to further preside over the matter. They asked Justice Abang to hands-off the

suit and await judgment of the Court of Appeal on three separate appeals that were entered against his previous decisions on the PDP leadership crisis. Judge Abang had on August 15, issued an order of interlocutory injunction that barred the party from conducting its national convention. The order, which came barely 48 hours to a convention the party scheduled to take place in Port Harcourt on August 17, equally stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from monitoring the exercise. He said the party must not sponsor

any candidate or conduct election into any of its national offices, pending the determination of a suit which Sheriff and seven others lodged before the court. Ukala, Makarfi’s lawyer, notified the court that the appeals were filed on July 28, August 15 and 16, respectively, said there was need for Justice Abang to “step aside” from the case. He said, “Once an appeal has been entered, the court bellow ought to stand aside and allow the Court of Appeal to have the opportunity to exercise its jurisdiction on the matter.” However, counsel to the plaintiffs,

Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN, urged the court to ignore the appellants and go ahead with the substantive suit. Akintola noted that there was nothing stopping the simultaneous hearing of the three appeals and the suit before the high court. After listening to both sides, Justice Abang adjourned to rule on the issue. He fixed September 29 to decide whether or not he should hands-off the legal tussle between two factions of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, led by Senators Ahmed Makarfi and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.

All these dependence on import is unnecessary, so what the government is trying to do is to make people understand that it is better we use the little we have, let us depend on what we have. It is time we harness the resources and make good use of them, by the time we have developed them, then we can start to export, so that we can begin to earn foreign exchange instead of spending foreign exchange, and from there, dollar will come down and naira will go up. So I think the government policy on importation is a good policy. But you know it is normal that when you are used to a good life and somebody comes with a new policy to remove you from that good life, you feel very uncomfortable, so that is what we are suffering now. I am really impressed on the way the government is handling the economy, but in Nigeria we are too eager, these people came in just two years ago; allow them, just help them with ideas on how to improve. They are not angels and therefore they do not have monopoly of knowledge, and cannot do everything alone. And that is why IPAC is here. We are going to look at issues where the government is derailing from the campaign promises, then we will call government’s attention to it, if they refuse, then we can now go to the public and start uproar that the government is not ready to fulfill its campaign promises, but we will try as much as possible to persuade them to make sure they fulfill their campaign promises, and this we will do to any party that is in power. There are many political parties in your membership, a lot of them do not contest elections at any level, which is why INEC had threatened to deregister some of them. Will you advocate reducing proliferation of parties to have a manageable number in IPAC? I do not support deregistering of political parties, in developed countries where this democracy originated, they have a multiparty system, but they have few that are prominent that always contest in national elections. So this is the kind of thing I want to see in Nigeria, let all the political parties be allowed to exist, even if they are going to reach one thousand in number, but the only problem we have is lack of level playing ground for the parties. You can see from experience that in all the local government elections being held in this country, it is always the political party that is ruling the state involved that wins all the positions, so that shows you that there is not checks and balances, there is no reality in these elections as being free and fair. What we want is that State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIEC) should be scrapped and INEC should be allowed to conduct elections at all levels. If INEC should conduct elections at wards and local government levels, I can assure you that most political parties will be ready to contest at local levels, some can even be contesting for wards councillorship, and they can survive on that.

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Politics

Delta PDP stakeholders unite to face APC By Osakhare Erese, Asaba

n a desperate move to face the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), members of the legislature; senators, representatives and assembly men and women as well as party leaders, commissioners and other big wigs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have taken giant steps toward uniting the party. At a meeting of Delta Central Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders in Sapele, speaker after speaker identified unity as the basis for progress in the area. Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Hon Monday Igbuya urged the leaders not to encourage or create parallel forces in the party.

“If we must make progress, it is imperative that we unite.” Igbuya who decried the hardship Nigerians are going through courtesy of the government at the federal level appealed to party faithful to hasten the demise of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State by working together. “APC has nothing to offer. This is not the change Nigerians are looking for. The task ahead is great. It is my view and the view of party faithful that the Delta Central PDP must remain united. We need unity to defeat our enemies” he said. In a lengthy but poetic presentation, Igbuya rejected grotesque posturing as ways of solving the country’s problems. Igbuya while dismissing

insinuations that Governor Okowa was killing DESOPADEC, urged the party at the national level to think of solutions that would solve the economic problems of the country. “We have moved beyond the realms of rhetoric. They should focus on concrete action” he advised. Senator Ighoyota Amori, Chief Emmanuel Aguariavwodo and other PDP leaders vowed to work together with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and Chief Monday Igbuya to develop the state. They praised Okowa and Igbuya for changing the content and direction of government. They also praised the governor and the speaker for their responsiveness to the aspiration of the common man, effort towards a greater Delta State and their

concept of democracy demonstrated through good governance. Specifically, the PDP stalwarts commended Okowa for focusing on meaningful development projects. In another development ,the Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Hon Monday Igbuya paid tribute to late Olorogun Michael Onajirevbe Ibru, describing him as a modest and strong businessman. In a statement issued in Lagos by his chief press secretary, Mr. Henry Ebireri, Igbuya consoled family and friends of the late Ibru, saying they should be glad because he had lived a worthy and fulfilled life. He also urged members of his family to stand strong and united as they mourn Olorogun Ibru.

• L-R: High commissioner of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Retired Lt.Gen. Agha Umeh Farooq; former Nigeria’s high commissioner to Pakistan, Mr Adamu Daura; and Chief of Air staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar during the celebration of the Defence Day of Pakistan, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: nan

Benin High Chief, and the Esogban of Benin, Chief David Edebiri, yesterday begged the people of Edo State to elect Godwin Obaseki, Candidate of the All Progressives Congress for Saturday

governorship election to sustain the legacies of the incumbent governor of the state, Adams Oshiomhole. Esogban, fondly called “Oracle” by his admirers, stated this while speaking on the occasion of the 3rd edition of John Mayaki Round Table with Friends with the theme

“Continuity for Consolidation.” He said in the history of Edo State, no elected Governor has performed exceptionally as Oshiomhole whom he said adding cake to salvage restored the mayoralty of the state. Speaking on the theme: “Oshiomhole came to Edo State to

save us”, he said “he took us from Egypt to the promise land”. Professors Julius Ihonvbere, Eddy Eragbe and Dr. Festus Imuentinyan, agreed that there was need to build on the level of development started by Governor Oshiomhole.

Adamawa: Rep Calls for probe on grain disappearance From Umar Dankano,Yola

he donation of 70 trucks of grains by Federal Government in June 2016 for onward distribution to the people with a view to cushion the effect of non availability of food due to Boko Haram insurgency in the North East Zone is generating controversy in Adamawa state. Some stakeholders are expressing dissatisfaction on the way and manner the sharing was conducted alleging that the targeted people were not reached in the distribution, as most of the Local Government Areas are still asking questions about it. They have called for thorough

1.9 million voters to participate in Edo gubernatorial election

Benin high Chief begs electorate to sustain Oshiomhole’s legacies By Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

“Olorogun Micheal Ibru was a shrewd businessman with a good heart” he said. Igbuya lauded Ibru’s great concern for the unity of Urhobo. “Olorogun Michael Ibru as an international businessman, philanthropist, educator, a lover of children, grassroots organizer and community leader gained the respect, trust and love of the entire country and he will be greatly missed,” the statement said. Igbuya prayed Almighty God to grant the soul of the late businessman eternal rest and grant members of the family the strength to bear the loss.

investigations to unravel the misery behind the disappearance accusing those saddle with the responsibility of distributing the grains to explain the whereabouts of the remaining 30 trucks insisting that only 40 trucks were received in the state. During the ceremony, the representative of SGF at the occasion Senior Special Assistant to the President on Policy Development and Analysis, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Bapetel, announced that 40 trucks were on ground for distribution at that time, promising that the remaining would arrive later. Stakeholders and beneficiaries who spoke to journalists in Yola frowned at the way the distribution of the commodities was carried

out, regretted that the commodities were distributed to relatives of distributors, instead of the generality of the people that the commodities were meant for. A member of the House of Representatives, representing Madagali and Michika Federal constituency, Adama Kamale, expressed worry on conduct of the exercise alleging that it went into wrong hands. Kamale revealed that Madagali and Michika local governments being his constituency and most affected local government by the insurgency did not receive a single grain. He said as the representative of the people, he is authoritatively

telling the nation, the world and the state that the people of Michika and Madagali did not benefit from the so called distribution. He promise that if the house resumes from recess he is going to sponsor a motion calling for full investigation in to the matter. Amos John a resident of Mubi says, ‘’as far as we are concerned the issue of the grain was a farce, because we never receive single grain talk less of bags of grains. We are calling on federal government to probe the matter.” Asked to comment on whether some of his people collected the grains, he says, “as far as they are concerned, if anybody collected they would have been aware of it.’’

he Resident Electoral Commissioner Edo State, Mr Sam Olumekun, has said that no fewer than 1.9 million registered voters were expected to participate in the governorship poll. Olumekun said that Edo has 1,925,105 registered voters, adding that accreditation and voting would be done simultaneously during the election. He attributed the decision to the paradigm shift in the evolving electoral system, saying “the polling procedure in this governorship election requires a prospective voter to cast his or her vote immediately after being accredited’’. He added, “This procedure is less consuming and less wearisome for the voter.” The REC expressed the commission’s readiness to conduct a free, fair and credible governorship election on Saturday, saying that INEC had complied with all electoral Acts on the election. He, however, urged the people to stop seeing election as a do-ordie affair, but as a healthy process on a level-playing field. Olumekun said that as was the case in the 2015 General Election, the commission would retain the use of permanent voter card and smart card reader for conduct of the election. In his contribution, acting Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, assured the people of the state of adequate security, saying that the police had earlier deployed 25,000 personnel to complement those in Edo command. Idris, who was represented by Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Joshak Habila, said that with the collaboration of other security agencies, effective policing logistics had been mobilized for adequate protection of voters, INEC staff and materials. Candidates of the 19 political parties participating in the election attended the forum.

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Politics INEC postpones Edo election by two weeks T

he Independent National Electoral Commission has agreed to shift the Edo State governorship election by two weeks. The decision to postpone the election was reached at a security meeting held in Benin, the Edo State capital this evening. A National Commissioner at the Commission was reported yesterday afternoon to have said that, the

Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, and other national officials of the commission were planning to address a press conference on the postponement and consequently fix a new date. The Department of State Security and the Police had on Wednesday asked for a shift in the date of the election for security reasons.

After many comments and criticism by politicians and public commentators, the Commission announced yesterday evening that it postponed the upcoming governorship election. The commission had earlier on Thursday announced that it was going ahead with the exercise, despite pressure from security agencies to postpone it.

According to Premium Times, INEC reversed the decision after police and the SSS said they could not guarantee security during the polls. One source suggested that INEC was pressured to change its decision. “The SSS and the police clearly said they can’t guarantee the security of INEC’s personnel and materials,” the source said.

•R-L: Minister of water resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu inaugurating the central Ogbia Regional Water Supply Project in Otuoke, yesterday Bayelsa, with him are: Minister of state for Agriculture and Rural Development, Sen. Heineken Lokpobili and representative of the governor of Bayelsa, Mr. Serina-Doukubo Adaspiff. About 130,000 people from 13 communities are expected to benefit from the N5.9billion water project.

Oshiomhole Condemns Postponement of Edo Election

do State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has expressed surprise at the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the state’s governorship election earlier slated for Saturday, September 10, 2016. Speaking on Channels TV’s ‘Politics Today’,Governor Oshiomhole described the decision as “a setback for the state.” Oshiomhole frowned at the time it took the electoral body to make the decision, which he said affects the parties’ programmes. He said that if INEC had given the hint earlier that the election would be postponed, the All Progressives Congress (APC) would have also postponed its final rally to suit the new election date. The Governor also reacted to allegations that his party was behind the postponement of the election by stating that none of the other parties was as ready as the APC for Saturday’s election. He argued that the large turnout of supporters at the party’s final campaign rally on Tuesday was an indication that Edo State was indeed an APC state. He maintained that the only issue that involved him as the Governor of the state was INEC’s decision to fix the election to coincide with the West African Examination Council (WAEC), GCE examination, which led to protests by students of the state. “INEC ought to have known that the West African Examination calendar was out there. It is not something they fix two or three weeks to the time,” he said.

CAN President, Ayokunle, denies accusing America of backing APC during 2015 elections

he President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Olasupo Ayokunle, has denied ever accusing the United States of supporting the governing All Progressives Congress in the 2015 elections. In a statement published by Premium Times yesterday, signed by his media assistant, Adebayo Oladeji, the CAN leader said he had never been a politician and would remain apolitical. He also said his doors remained open to all Christians irrespective of political affiliations. Mr. Ayokunle said all through his service years, up till the time he emerged CAN President, he never associated himself with any political party in the country and would not do so now that he had been elected divinely to serve. Mr. Oladeji quoted the cleric as making the clarification “to correct some misrepresentations of facts in an interview he granted some newsmen recently on the visit of the American Secretary of State, John Kerry to Nigeria.” He said his comment about the visit of the U.S. Secretary of State,

John Kerry’s visit to the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council For Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Sa’ad Abubakar, was quoted out of context. He claimed that a reporter he spoke with distorted part of his remarks, and that, out of mischief, he syndicated the distorted report and misled his colleagues to publish falsehood about him. Part of the report the CAN President said he found offensive reads, “The CAN President noted that the attitude and disposition of Kerry and the discrimination he adopted during the visit supports accusations that the President Barack Obama’s administration, Kerry and other strategic US politicians in the Obama’s government openly supported the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 general elections, which produced the current leadership of the country”. The cleric said, “There was never a time I referred to the 2015 presidential poll and the so-called American support given to the APC by the Obama administration in the interview.” He added, “I was outside the

country when the reporter called me to speak on the visit of Mr John Kerry, but from what I read in the media, I was misquoted and misrepresented. I never linked Mr Kerry’s visit to Nigeria with the last presidential election and the possible support of the United States for the APC. And my office

immediately set the record straight. “There was never a time I referred to the 2015 presidential poll and the so-called American support given to the APC by the Obama administration in the interview.” Mr. Ayokunle said he later found that the reporter who falsified his

position on Kerry’s visit to Nigeria had no proof to back up his report, after he spoke with him. The cleric said, “I stand by everything I said in the interview except where I was misquoted and I urge our media practitioners to be more professional in their reportage.”

Tinubu’s Candidate, Abraham, Makes U-Turn, Rejects Outcome Of Ondo APC Primary

unner-up in the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary in Ondo State, Segun Abraham, has rejected the result of the primary election. Mr. Abraham, the perceived candidate of the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had earlier congratulated the “surprise” winner of the primary election, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and pledged to work for his victory at the November 26 polls. But in a sudden turn of events, the aspirant challenged Mr. Akeredolu’s victory and submitted a petition with the APC Governorship Primary Appeal Committee. Mr. Abraham polled 635 votes

to come second behind Akeredolu, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, who garnered 669 votes. A statement signed by the DirectorGeneral of Abraham’s campaign organization Mr. Olu Adegboro, reads: “It is no longer news that as a true democrat, imbued with the best spirit of sportsmanship, I congratulated Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, who purportedly emerged as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the September 3rd gubernatorial primary election in Ondo State in the face of palpable disbelief and surprise on the outcome of the primary election by my numerous supporters.

“The news however is that, sordid and staggering facts have since emerged on how the process leading to the primary election was manipulated and compromised. It is now beyond doubt that the delegate list used on the day of the primary election was doctored and strangely injected with a mind blowing number of delegates who are neither executive members of our party nor statutory delegates. “To say the least, the manipulation of the delegate list, highly skewed accreditation process and the entire processes leading to the conduct of the primary election have cast the darkest stain on the result of the primary election held on the 3rd September, 2016.

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

R-L: Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, welcoming the Managing Director/ CEO of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Engr. Ernest Mupwaya, during his visit to Minister on Wednesday in Abuja. Photo: Mahmud Isa

Fashola receives AEDC new MD ...urges electricity customers not to buy transformers

By Etuka Sunday

he Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola in Abuja received the new Managing Director of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Mr. Ernest Mupwaya. Mr. Mupwaya was appointed as the Managing Director, AEDC, following the retirement of Neil Croucher after his three year tenure. During the visit, Fashola told AEDC and other electricity Distribution companies (Discos) to stop customers from buying transformers as it is the Discos’

responsibilities. “Private purchase of transformers must stop because that is the responsibility of the Disco and that is what will bring confidence that the system is working,” he said. Highlighting liquidity challenges, Mr. Mupwaya said the Disco could not post a Letter of Credit (LC) with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and so could not benefit from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) power fund to boost its investments. “We seek the minister’s ‘No Objection’ to use a portion of the MDAs debts as collateral for the LC,” Mupwaya told Fashola noting that the LC will boost the Disco’s credit

worthiness and help it to be eligible for the CBN fund. In his response on the MDAs debt, Fashola said, “We need to verify some of the debts and stratify who owes what and who is owed what.” He urged AEDC to provide helpful information to speed up this process. AEDC said it has spent over N2billion on infrastructure including replacing 348 faulty transformers. It also spent N218million on clearing faulty high tension lines of about 4,420kilometres, and spent another N400million to modernizing its billing and vending systems. On metering, Mr. Mupwaya said 359,969

customers have been metered among its 876,820 customer strength. For the large user customers that constitute 50 per cent of the revenue base, he said, “Our projection is to meet your deadline to meter the maximum demand users this year including the MDAs.” AEDC said over 50,000 meters have been installed for the other customer users and plans to install another 80,000 this year, with a 100,000 installation annually estimated at $150million. While urging Fashola to fast track the MDAs debt payment, Mupwaya said the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mallam Mohammed has assured of paying N500million from its debts saying the electricity market will feel the impact when the money is paid. “For the past six months, we have reduced our Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses from 60 per cent to 39 per cent,” Mupwaya added.

Manufacturers demand special Forex allocation By Etuka Sunday

he Chairman , board of directors of Cement Company of Northern Nigeria( CCNN), Alh. Abdulsamad Rabiu has endorsed government’s proposal seeking to give 60% preference foreign exchange allocation to the manufacturing sector , describing forex scarcity number one threat to manufacturing sector. Addressing the company’s shareholders in Abuja at 37th Annual General Meeting ( AGM) ,Rabiu lamented that, the subsisting harsh business environment has taken negative toll on all aspects of company business and hinged it on number of issues which included, scarcity of forex to import raw mate-

rials, dearth of power supply and poor infrastructure. “ Going forward, with the way things are the government is trying to encourage the manufacturing sector to get special forex allocation. The Central Bank, the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria( MAN) and federal government are meeting to see what could be done to prorate forex allocation by allocating 60% to the manufacturing sector. It’s a welcome development. Our second line has not come up because we don’t have the needed forex to complete it”, he said. Reflecting on the performance of Sokoto based cement in 2015, he said: “ The year 2015 was filled with tough economic challenges for the country and manufactures in general, and

the cement industry in particular. The board of CCNN is working hard and would continue to strive for better performance and enhanced shareholders value despite the massive challenges which ranged from shortage of energy, shortage of foreign exchange for spare parts, and low sales volumes from the second half of 2015. LPO which is the main energy used by the company has not been supplied by the Kaduna refinery since August 2014 , hence it has to rely on another sources, mostly importers as supply from other refineries was also epileptic. The company had to at intermittent periods during the last quarter of 2015,shut down the plant due to scarcity and cost of energy”, he said. The harsh operating economic environ-

ment affected the profit of the firm in all ramifications. In 2015 , the company’s turnover tumbled to N13,037,847,294 as against N15,119,950,874 recorded in 2014. The profit after tax also reduced to N1,201,108,049 compared to figure of N1,918,361,854 recorded in 2014. The poor financial performance impacted negatively on dividend pay out to shareholders from 35 kobo declared in2014 to 10 kobo in 2015. The Chairman explained that, “ weak demand for cement, particularly in the second half of the year, mainly contributed to the low turnover and lower profits compared to 2014”.

Page 20

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Business Why concession remains the best option for Nigerian airports- FG From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

he Federal government has again reiterated its stand on the planned concessioning of four major airports in the country affirming that private investment remains the best option to stimulate the growth of the aviation sector. Government has listed the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) in Lagos, the Nnamdi Azikwe Airport (NAA) in Abuja, the Port Harcourt Airport (PHA) and the Mallam Aminu Kano Airport

(MAKA) in Kano. Minister of State for Aviation, Capt. Hadi Sirika told journalists at an interactive session in Lagos that the decision in the best interest of safety for Nigeria and explained that at the end the industry will be rejuvenated and begins to flourish. He said “We no longer have money to put in public property but we will not sell or privatize as social democrats all we can do is to concession them so as to grow them. And that we will do.” “You see government has

no plans whatsoever to sell national assets but it was sheer misconception to see the unions on the street demonstrating what they thought were sales of the airport. The airports will be concessioned, the big four and then later six of the cargo designated airports and this will help us not just grow and expand the sector but put us in the right path to again be established as a hub.” Sirika cited examples of privatized facilities in the Middle East have attracted world shopping malls

and non-aeronautical investment to places like Dubai and Doha. “You see airports like Dubai, Doha people go there just to see the airport or shop, the magnificence of that airport is attractive on its own. People go there to use their amazing duty frees where you get spars, malls and the like but what do we have in our duty-free? Cigarettes and alcohol with concessioning we can change that and make our airports the cynosure of all eyes.” “And concession will not only achieve aesthetics, right now our

airports are in so sorry a state that they cannot handle aircraft like the Airbus A380 or the Boeing 787 dreamliner but if we get this right which we will, today we are doing 15million annually, in the next five years we will be doing 70 to 100million annually and you will see the impact once we do things right.” He said reports had shown that 40 per cent of passengers prefer to pass through airport terminals with excellent facilities, adding that dutyfree in Dubai is about $1.2 billion, a situation not obtainable in Nigeria.

OAGF warns Nigerians on fraudsters impersonating AGF By Etuka Sunday

L-R: Representative of Ogun State Governor; Dr Olumide Ayeni; Chairman, Board of Directors, Institute for Policy and Economic Development, Dr Kalu Idika Kalu; Managing Director, Bank of Industry, Waheed Olagunju and Chief Executive Officer, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (Nse), Oscar Onyema at Business Hallmark Public Policy Forum, Yesterday in Lagos

he Office of Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) has warned Nigerians to beware of fraudsters impersonating Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) using the social media platforms. The Office in a statement said, “It has come to the knowledge of the Office of the AccountantGeneral of the Federation that some unscrupulous elements have created social media accounts and parading themselves in the platforms as the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF). “By their acts, they are and may be defrauding unsuspecting members of the public. “The OAGF has reported the nefarious activities of the scammers to the Department of State Services (DSS). It is gratifying to note that the action has started yielding results, as one IZUAGIE MOHAMMED, one

of the scammers has been arrested by security operatives in Benin City, Edo State on August 24th, 2016 for impersonating the AGF.” The statement further revealed that “Mohammed, using a bogus face book account where he poses as the Accountant-General of Nigeria, had already defrauded some unwary members of the public, by promising to help them facilitate access to the Central Bank Empowerment Loans, among other dubious claims. “The general public is hereby notified that the AccountantGeneral of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris, as a thorough-breed professional, DOES NOT transact businesses on Facebook or any other social media platform nor facilitates access to loans for anyone. “The office hereby advises the general public to be wary of the activities of fraudsters, as they go about their businesses, especially, while using the social media.”

Senate canvasses more funding for PTDF By Etuka Sunday

he Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream, Sen. Tayo Alasoadura has said that the upper chamber may make a law to ask respective oil companies in the country, to contribute the percentage of their training budgets as statutory to PTDF so as build more capacity for the Oil and Gas industry. “We may have to pass a law to ask respective oil companies, to contribute the percentage of their training budgets as statutory to PTDF. What we have now is voluntary, but we want to make it compulsory,” he said. Speaking at the 1st Oil Exploration and Production Companies Summit organised by PTDF, Sen. Toya said, it was in a bid to secure collaboration and scholarship from identified foreign and indigenous companies through their training budget provisions that prompted the summit. Also speaking, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said, ”This summit is a strategic approach to collaborate with industry players in the oil and gas on the need for a more sustainable approach to funding and other activities as contemporary developments in the global

oil and gas market have substantially affected exploration and investments and Nigeria is no exception. “The negative impact on Nigeria’s recipts from the activities of the sector necessitated Government’s advise to PTDF Management to develop a sustainable strategy for achieving the Fund’s mandate. You are all aware that signature bonuses from Bidding Rounds which is the major source of PTDF’s Revenue have not been forthcoming since 2007. The recent developments in the global economy, especially in the hydrocarbon industry gives developing nations like Nigeria, a lot of lessons as it challenges nations to new technologies and initiatives that would ehance the outcome of relevant research and development activities.” The Minister who was representated by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Jamila Shu’ra said, “over the last decades PTDF invested in building capacities and the statistics of achievements are staggering. However, moving forward, the Fund would need to build strategic partnerships to enable industry players find a platform to address new Challenges, challenges, expectations and prospects in the use of Hydrocarbons and the utilisation of other renewable sources of Energy which impacts the support systems that fund capacity development.

“The Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, is fully supportive of forward-thinking initiatives that would provide long-term solutions in achieving the strategic objectives of a key organisation such as the PTDF. What we are witnessing today is an evidence of the PTDF Management’s initiative to expand its frontiers through strategic partnerships with key operators of the Upstream Sector, towards the efficient implementation of its mandate. “I therefore wish to use this opportunity to commend the Management of the PTDF and assure you of my continued support and guidance in the discharge of the responsibilities conferred on us all,” he said. On his part, the Acting Executive Secretary, PTDF, Ahmed Galadima Aminu said, the summit was apt since there was need for effective and efficient collaboration between PTDF and oil exploration and production companies. Galadima said that the out of the summit would foster a better relationship between PTDF and the companies for the overall benefit of the industry. He however, pointed out that the Fund has performed excellently in the last 16 years in the Oil and Gas industry therefore, thanked the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and NNPC for the support PTDF has received over the years.

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Business

Kano Disco loses N108m to vandalism in six weeks

By Etuka Sunday

ano Electricity Distribution Company Plc (KEDCO) has said the company had lost transformer oil, aluminium conductors, upriser cables and other valuable materials worth N108, 831, 550 to activities vandals in its franchise area from August to date. The company’s spokesperson, Mohammed Kandi said in a state issued to newsmen in Kano, that the spate of vandalism, energy theft

NSE opens 2016 essay competition to promote financial literacy From Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

he Nigerian has announced the commencement of its 2016 edition of the NSE Essay Competition for students in Senior Secondary Schools in all states of the federation. According a statement from Exchange, the topic for this year’s edition is “What is the biggest obstacle to saving and investing money and how can the Nigerian Stock Exchange help”. To enter the competition which opened on Thursday, September 1, 2016 and closes on Friday, October 14, 2016, participants are required to email their typewritten entries, which should not be more than 1,000 words to essay@nse.com.ng. An online submission form is also available on www.nse.com.ng and the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s Facebook page. This year’s competition which is sponsored by Access Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, and Dangote Foundation, will see the top three winners presented with equity investments, University scholarship funds and personal Laptops/tablets at the Awards ceremony in November 2016. They will also be honoured with a Closing Gong ceremony. The schools of the top three winners will also be presented with trophies, Desktop Computers and Printers, it stated. According to Mr. Bola Adeeko, Head, Corporate Services Division, NSE, improving financial literacy is important to the future of Nigeria. “Through the NSE Essay Competition, we are promoting financial literacy among young Nigerians, by encouraging them to learn how good financial decisions can better their lives now and in the future, and ultimately grow the economy. The competition serves as an essential platform to get the perspectives of our young ones on key challenges relating to financial literacy and inclusion in Nigeria”. Since it began in year 2000, The NSE Essay Competition has inspired over 20,000 young people in over 2,500 secondary schools across Nigeria to showcase what they have learnt about the financial and capital markets. It provides an important opportunity for youths to engage in issues of importance to The Nigerian economy.

and meter bypass which had recently risen extremely in KEDCO’s areas of operation was becoming unbearable. Kandi also informed that the appalling development had caused the company huge losses and setbacks within a period of six weeks, calling on the customers, who bears the brunt to watch over the installations in their areas. He quoted KEDCO’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO), Engr. David Omoloye as saying “the quantity of vandalised materials from August to

date include: 46.5 drums of transformer oil, 2, 130 aluminium conductors (150mm2), 4, 500 aluminium conductors (100mm2), 535 and 15 (150mm2&70mm2).” Other materials, the CTO said, “825 XLPE Cable (35mm2), 529 (500mm2) &161 (300mm2) Incomer Cables and 40 Busbar.” Engr. Omoloye, disclosed that the nefarious acts had taken place in Sabo Gari, Sharada, Tudun Wada, Dala, Dakata, Dutse, Funtua, Hadejia, Kabuga, Katsina, Kumbotso,

Malunfashi, Mariri and Nasarawa. According to him, “I am appealing to all our esteemed customers in Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states watch over our installations as their own because when the damage is done they suffers weeks of blackout.” network as emergency, one that require collective and urgent effort to surmount He stressed the need for collective and urgent effort to surmount the increasing spate of vandalism in KEDCO’s coverage areas.

L-R: Representative of Sterling Bank Plc., Mrs Temiwumi Tope-Banjoko; Oyo State Commissioner for Environment, Chief Isaac Ishola; Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Chief Moses Adeyemo; and Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Lekan Alli, at The Presentation of 1,400 Environmental Uniforms to Oyo State Government by the Sterling Bank recently in Ibadan.

World stocks hit one-year high

orld stocks hit their highest in more than a year and the dollar fell against the yen on Wednesday as expectations of a rise in Federal Reserve interest rates receded after weak U.S. economic data. Wall Street looked set to open flat to slightly lower, according to index futures. ESc1 1YMc1 Emerging market shares led the charge, touching their strongest levels since July 2015 as investors sought returns with interest rates likely to stay low for a prolonged period. European shares reversed early losses. The Stoxx 600 index edged up 0.1 percent towards eightmonth highs hit on Monday, led by a rise of almost 1 percent in oil and gas shares . SXEP.Oil prices rose even though many market participants remained doubtful producers would reach a deal to freeze output. Banks .SX7P, for whom rockbottom interest rates promise tough times, initially fell before turning slightly positive.

Euro zone government bond yields fell as some investors bet the weak U.S. data, which followed weaker-than-expected jobs numbers on Friday, would pressure the European Central Bank to ease monetary policy further. The ECB meets on Thursday. “With a September rate hike looking less likely to happen, the ECB might be more pressured to come up with a decision this week on further measures,” said Benjamin Schroeder, senior rates strategist at ING. In Asia, MSCI’s main AsiaPacific stock index, excluding Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.2 percent, having earlier touched its highest since July last year. This helped lift MSCI’s all-country world index .MIWD00000PUS to its highest since August 2015. “When people think there’s no immediate rate hike from the Fed, then Asia and emerging markets are the place to go to, as investors seek yields,” said Toru Nishihama, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research.

Japan’s Nikkei index .N225, however, retreated 0.4 percent as a strong yen hurt exporters.‎ The dollar was last down 0.4 percent at 101.56 yen JPY=, having fallen as low as 101.18, its weakest since Aug. 16. The dollar fell 1 percent against several major currencies on Tuesday after Institute for Supply Management data showing activity in the U.S. service sector slowed to a 6-1/2-year low in August and diminished the already slim prospects for a Fed rate hike this month. The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies was flat. The euro was down 0.1 percent at $1.1242. Sterling GBP=, which topped $1.34 for the first time in seven weeks on Tuesday after the ISM data, pulled back 0.5 percent to $1.3376 after British manufacturing output fell 0.9 percent in July, its biggest drop in a year. The data was the first to cover output solely for the period after

the June 23 vote to leave the European Union. “Sterling has been lifted in recent weeks by very strong data, but this output data shows it’s been a pretty mixed bag following the referendum,” said Societe Generale currency strategist Alvin Tan. The Swedish crown EURSEK= rose around 0.2 percent to 9.52 per euro after the Swedish central bank kept interest rates unchanged as expected. Oil prices, which have been on a rollercoaster in recent days as expectations of whether a deal to curb a global glut can be reached have waxed and waned, edged up. Brent crude LCOc1, the international benchmark, gained 52 cents to $47.78 a barrel. It rose as high as $49.40 on Monday, having fallen to $45.32 on Sept. 1. The reduced expectations of a Fed hike also lifted other commodities. Copper CMCU3 hit a two-week high at $4,688 a ton, while gold XAU= touched a 2 1/2week peak above $1,352 an ounce before pulling back. (Reuters)

Page 22

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Business

US carbon permits price falls as shale gas replaces coal

he price of carbon dioxide in fledgling US emissions markets has been softening even as officials try to encourage investment in projects that spew fewer heat-trapping gases. Futures contracts on carbon credits in the US north-east were this week trading for $4.64 per short tonne on the ICE Futures US exchange, down from a peak above $8 in January. An auction for allowances scheduled Wednesday was also expected to draw bids in the $4 range, brokers said. In California’s carbon market,

launched in 2013, only a third of the permits offered at auction last month were sold, trading at a price floor of $12.73 per tonne. The tepid interest reflects legal uncertainty and the effect of shale energy boom on the electricity market. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, spanning nine north-east states including Massachusetts and New York, has since 2009 required power plants to purchase a permit for each tonne of carbon dioxide produced. But as natural gas became

plentiful and cheap it pushed out coal at power stations, helping cut carbon emissions irrespective of the cap-and-trade programme. Prices dropped further last month after New York state gave a financial lifeline to nuclear plants — which don’t emit carbon — cutting demand for permits. Selling pressure also came in February after the US Supreme Court ordered the Obama administration to stop working on rules to cut carbon emissions from the power sector. Now, the RGGI market contains a

“massive oversupply” of allowances, said Ali Shajrawi, director of research at Karbone, an energy and environmental markets broker. Emissions from power plants under the RGGI programme have fallen 37 per cent since 2008. Last year they totalled 83.2m short tonnes of CO2, 6.3 per cent below the annual emissions cap, according to Acadia Center, an environmental group. “The major driver behind these reductions, however, was mainly the transition to natural gas fired plants given the historic low natural gas prices,” Mr Shajrawi said.

Amid the price volatility, volumes in RGGI futures contracts have doubled year on year in the first eight months of 2016, according to ICE. Even after earlier efforts to address the glut, traders banked surplus credits worth 25.3m tonnes in 2014-2015, according to Acadia Center. “In fact, current trends suggest that a substantial additional surplus will be amassed by the end of the decade,” it said. RGGI is reviewing its emissions cap for the years beyond 2020. (Financial Times)

L-R: Senior Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly matters and Chairman of the Occasion, Senator Ita Enang; Founder, Youth Reformation and Awareness Center (author of the books), Mrs. Margaret Udoh; her husband Mr. Jackson Udoh; and Director Medical Service, National Hospital (book reviewer), Dr. Oluseyi Oniyangi at formal inauguration of Youth Reformation Centre and public presentation of a books “Parenting Bedrock”and “Beyond Sojourner” in Abuja yesterday/ Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

Energy and education drive Swiss economy in Q2

witzerland’s economy grew more than expected in the second quarter, driven by growth in energy and education. Gross domestic product grew 0.6 per cent quarter-onquarter in the three months to June, compared to economists’ estimates for growth of 0.4 per cent. That was the fastest quarterly pace of growth since the final three months of 2014. The Swiss economy had expanded 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs – a revision upwards from the first estimate of 0.1 per cent growth. Year-on-year GDP grew 2 per cent in the three months to the end of June, compared to estimates of 0.8 per cent. It had grown 1.1 per cent in the first quarter, up from an originally stated 0.7 per cent.

Exports of watches and jewellery fell, however, SECO said. The Swiss watch industry has come under heavy pressure as sales from China and Hong Kong slow, and as smartwatches gain market share. Exports in the seven months to July were down 11 per cent year-on-year, according to recent data from the Swiss watch federation. From the SECO statement: Consumption expenditure of households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) remained unchanged in the 2nd quarter. The healthcare sector provided the most substantial contribution to growth. The highest rates of growth appeared in the energy sector (5.8%), the education sector (2.0%) and, after a few negative quarters, the hotel and catering industry (2.5%). (Financial Times)

Britain faces long road to post -Brexit trade deals Prime Minister Theresa May wants to make Britain a global leader in trade after Brexit, but former negotiators say the country faces a long slog despite warm words from some world leaders over forging new relationships. With other countries reluctant to get involved in detailed discussions until Britain’s future ties with the European Union are clear, and a lack of negotiators in London ready to begin talks, any firm deals could be years away. While the government says it can do the groundwork, Britain cannot formally sign trade agreements until it leaves the EU, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said EU member states should not even negotiate deals while still part of the bloc. “Nobody with any sense from China, the U.S., Brazil or wherever is going to engage with the UK other than a friendly drink in the bar until the UK has a regime with the EU,”

retired British trade negotiator Roderick Abbott told Reuters. “That gives them the yardstick against which you negotiate,” said Abbott, who during his more than 40-year career worked on trade for the British government, the European Commission and the World Trade Organization (WTO). May and her team strike an optimistic tone, highlighting nations which have said they are keen to do deals. But behind the scenes, countries are pragmatic. A senior diplomat from a developed country with which Britain has suggested negotiating a deal said the EU was a more important partner, so any deal with Britain would depend on how it affected his country’s trade with the EU. “They want to talk to us. We’re always happy to talk trade. But frankly there isn’t much we can seriously talk about in detail, which is really what trade deals are all

about, until we know what their relationship will be with the EU,” he said, on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. Japan has expressed concern over uncertainty surrounding Britain’s future EU relationship, including its access to the bloc’s single market, while U.S. President Barack Obama quashed the prospect of a fast-track deal. Australia said on Tuesday that it would focus on pursuing a free trade agreement with the EU while it waited for Britain to be able to negotiate formally. According to government figures, Britain’s total trade exports for June were worth 24.9 billion pounds ($33.3 billion), with the U.S. its biggest export market by value. The government has said 3 million British jobs are linked to trade with the EU, while the EU estimates a further 3.9 million in Britain are supported by EU exports to the rest of the world.

PAGE 23

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Stock Watch: Thursday, September 8, 2016 Company

7UP

Previous Closing Price

185.06

184.5

Opening Price

184.5

High

Low

184.5

Change

Trades

-0.56 25

Volume

Value

Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

Low

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

4.64

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

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

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

Change

Trades

Volume

Value

Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

Low

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 - -

PAGE 25

Peoples Daily, Friday September 9, 2016

PAGE 24

Special Report

When Africa discovers the power of crowdfunding

Budding South African film producer Meg Rickards was struggling to raise the money for her new feature film, Whiplash, when she came across the idea of crowdfunding.

Power of many: Crowdfunding could help provide vital funding for Africa’s SMEs and start-ups “

e had about 70% of the budget and were battling to raise the rest,” she remembers. Meg decided to try local South African crowdfunding site Thundafund, and launched a campaign to raise the rest of the cash for her feature film project. Three months later, she had raised 106,800 rand (£5460; $8665). “The crowdfunding indeed gave us vital cash flow during the development phase, and also helped to build an engaged fan base,” she says. C r o w d f u n d i n g innovation Launched in 2013,

Thundafund co-founder and chief executive Patrick Schofield says the platform was created with the intention of driving innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa, by encouraging the public to back individuals with great ideas. “Crowdfunding has been a phenomenal driving force of creative development in the US and Europe, we believe that it can become an equally powerful force in Africa,” he says. “Hence, Thundafund was launched to be lead and be part of that wave of positive development and change that crowdfunding will bring.”

“My world has been destroyed” says Bely, Anjun Bista’s wife.

In the 18 months since launching, Thundafund has seen 4.3 million rand (£227,480; $348,785) raised on the platform, successfully funding 116 of 150 projects listed on the site - a success rate of over 70%. Mr Schofield believes South Africa is an ideal breeding ground for crowdfunding, as the country has a long history of group-based fundraising. With the shift to using online channels to raise funds, Mr Schofield says crowdfunding allows project creators and entrepreneurs to reach thousands of people to talk about what they are looking to do.

Meg Rickards agrees that her crowdfunding campaign had huge benefits in terms of reaching out to a wider audience, and building excitement and encouragement for her project. However, she says she does not think crowdfunding is viable as a sole source of money, and warns that the experience of crowdfunding is very hard work. “I don’t think it’s the most effective way to raise a lot of money - or at least not a film budget,” she says. “We raised about 2% of our final budget through crowdfunding. But it was very useful in building support for the process and the end product.” “It’s a huge amount of work, and you have to be quite brazen, shameless, in a way - but it’s really heartening to see how much goodwill is out there and to engage with supporters.” Invest in the crowd Over in France, a new crowdfunding website raising funds for African projects is about to launch its pilot phase. However, there is a twist. LelapaFund targets Africans living abroad, who want to invest in and support projects “back home”. The platform is essentially crowdinvesting - rather than receiving goods or gifts in return. “The idea behind LelapaFund is simple: the

best investors in Africa are Africans themselves. We wanted the African diaspora to be able to invest their capital and skills back home,” says Elizabeth Howard, co-founder of LelapaFund. According to Ms Howard, there are an increasing number of investors interested in African opportunities, and crowdinvesting is viewed by these investors as a cost-efficient and less risky way of getting involved in African projects. She says members of the African diaspora perceive fewer barriers to involving themselves with African projects than foreign investors, and as such they have a vital role to play in encouraging international investments in Africa. “Investing in projects in another country does require a greater leap of faith than investing at home,” Ms Howard says. “There is also the risk perception associated with African investments that plays out in the valuations of companies or the amount one is willing to invest,” she says. “For African diaspora investors, these barriers are less significant, and I believe this group of investors has an important role to play in “normalising” risk perception vis-à-vis Africa.” The team at LelapaFund believe crowdfunding can become a key method for startups and small businesses in Africa to raise money to launch their companies. “Crowdfunding has already proven itself in the US and Europe as a viable fundraising mechanism for startups and small businesses, and will continue to benefit from better-adapted regulations and tax incentives,” says Ms Howard. “LelapaFund is working

The majority of people who contribute to an M-Changa campaign know the recipients

An entrepreneur at a Lelapa meetup in Nairobi

hard on using crowdfunding to make a dent in the $140$160 billion gap in access to finance for African SMEs. With the calibre of individual we’re seeing join our investor community, we’re confident we will make it happen.” Crowdfunding for social impact Tapping into Kenya’s famous love of mobile technology, entrepreneur Kyai Mullei has created a crowdfunding platform for mobiles called M-Changa. M-Changa allows users to create a crowdfunding campaigns and collect donations via SMS or online, with the platform mostly dedicated to social impact and personal fundraising. According to Mr Mullei, crowdfunding is not a new phenomenon at all, and the culture of crowdfunding - or “harambee” - already exists in Kenya. The difference, he says, is that in Kenya funds are raised within a personal network, not the general public. “We are not creating new behaviour, there is an existing culture of giving and that is “harambee”, which runs into billions of dollars a year,” Mr Mullei says. “ C r o w d - b a s e d fundraising has been practised for hundreds of years, but with one clear distinction, the crowd. “The crowd in harambee is known to the fundraiser it is mainly family, extended family and friends, not an anonymous crowd in the Western sense.” Mr Mullei believes personal connections will remain key, with a very small minority of M-Changa

Thundafund chief executive Patrick Schofield pledges coming from external donors. “Charity starts at home, fundraising should start with your personal networks. It is possible to tap the crowd, fundraisers have received donations on M-Changa from people outside of Kenya who they do not know, however these are a minority,” he says. According to Dennis Mogere, who is successfully raising funds via M-Changa for his non-profit organisation Operation Hope Africa, crowdfunding is particularly relevant to Africa as it allows many donors to commit small amounts of money, and as such no one is overburdened. “Most people are turning

to crowdfunding since it’s the easiest way of reaching more people within the shortest period possible. Since contributors put their energy and funds together, they won’t feel overburdened by being asked to donate a lot,” Mr Mogere says. Like others who have raised funds this way, Mr Mogere says the community spirit and support for a project is the most special aspect of the phenomenon. “It’s an amazing experience to share your story out there and see how people are passionate about it and ready to be part of it.” Source: BBC

The M-Changa team

“

Launched in 2013, Thundafund co-founder and chief executive Patrick Schofield says the platform was created with the intention of driving innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa, by encouraging the public to back individuals with great ideas. “Crowdfunding has been a phenomenal driving force of creative development in the US and Europe, we believe that it can become an equally powerful force in Africa,” he says.

Elizabeth Howard, co-founder of LelapaFund (7th from the right, centre) says African startups can struggle to find investment

PAGE 26

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Islam

The first ten days of Zul Hijjah: Why they matter

By Samana Siddiqui

ven for those not performing the pilgrimage, Hajj, the first ten days of this month are considered very sacred and a time for increased reflection, seeking Allah’s forgiveness, doing good and various other forms of worship. Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings be upon him) has said about the first ten days of Zul Hijjah: There are no days in which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than these ten days.” The people asked, “Not even Jihad for the sake of Allah?” He said, “Not even Jihad for the sake of Allah, except in the case of a man who went out to fight giving himself and his wealth up for the cause, and came back with nothing (Bukhari). So sacred are the first ten days of Zul Hijjah that Allah swears an oath by them when He says in the Quran: “By the dawn; by the ten nights” [al-Fajr 89:1-2]. Swearing an oath by something indicates its importance and great benefit. What kinds of worship should be performed? While any good deed done for the sake of Allah according to the way He approves will be rewarded immensely during the first ten days, Insha Allah, some of the more specific actions mentioned in the Traditions of the Prophet are fasting and verbal Zikr (remembrance) of Allah. In terms of fasting, it is particularly encouraged to fast on the ninth day of Zul-Hijjah, known in Arabic as Yawm Arafa. The Prophet used to fast on this day (al Nisai and Abu Dawud). Fasting on this day will expiate a Muslim’s sins for two years. The verbal remembrance of Allah is another meritorious act during these first ten days of Zul Hijjah. The Prophet upon him) encouraged Muslims to recite a lot of Tasbeeh (“Subhan-Allaah”), Tahmeed (“Al-hamdu Lillaah”) and Takbeer (“Allahu akbar”) during this time. The Takbeer may include the words “Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, la ilaha ill-Allah; wa Allahu akbar wa Lillahi’l-hamd (Allah is Most Great, Allah is Most Great, there is no god but Allah; Allah is Most Great and to Allah be praise),” as well as other phrases. Men are encouraged to recite these phrases out loud and women quietly. Ibn ‘Umar and Abu Hurayrah, two of the Prophet’s Companions, used to go out in the marketplace during the first ten days of ZulHijjah, reciting Takbeer, and

the people would recite Takbeer individually when they heard them. Generally, all good deeds are rewarded highly at this blessed

time. These actions include praying, reading Quran, making Dua (supplication), giving in charity and being good to our families.

In addition, seeking Allah’s forgiveness at this time is also encouraged. This means more than just a verbal expression of sorrow for past misdeeds. It also

requires a firm resolution to avoid making the same mistakes in the future by giving up bad habits and behavior while sincerely turning to Allah.

One Hajji’s apprehension (then acceptance) of the animal sacrifice By Abdul Wahid Hamid

Sacrificing certain types of animals during Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha are part of Islamic rites. Islam is not the only religion which prescribes animal sacrifice. In recent times, due to influence of the animal rights movement, the sacrifice of animals has come under attack. Below is Muslim American Michel Jansen’s experience of apprehension towards Islamic animal sacrifice during Hajj and how she reconciled herself to the rite. Acceptance of Islam “I have deep roots in America. Some of my father’s forbears migrated to the Virginia Colony in 1609, and on my mother’s side are ancestors who fought with Washington and Lincoln and a great grandfather who was a Pony Express rider. Until I was sixteen, I myself had had an upbringing generally regarded as typically American, Midwestern,

middle class and Protestant. I grew up in Bay City, Michigan, belonged to the Episcopal Church, went to Sunday School and sang in the church choir. At sixteen however, I discovered the Quran. These words (of the first chapter), simple, and direct, so impressed me that I immediately set out to memorize them. Indeed they drew me into Islam, an example perhaps of Prophet Mohammed’s (peace and blessings be upon him) assertion that everyone is born a Muslim and made a Jew or a Christian by his parents. From that time forward I charted my life in the direction of Mecca....

Hajj’s rituals: the sacrifice and how I reconciled myself to it Before I had embarked on the Pilgrimage, its rituals seemed to me just so many curious exercises. But as I participated in the event of the Pilgrimage, the meaning of these rites unfolded, my understanding of

Islam was deepened and I learned more fully what it meant to be a Muslim. Indeed, this is why God had commanded Mohammed to issue the call for the pilgrimage: “That they (the pilgrims) may witness things that are of benefit to them...” (Quran 22:28). (For example, towards the end of the Hajj when the time of making the [animal] Sacrifice came), I began to feel uneasy. Since I have not completely outgrown the tenderheartedness I had known as a child, I had balked at the idea of the Sacrifice long before being confronted with it and now the time had come to do it. What was I to do? As a girl I had cared for lost dogs or stray cats, adopting any fledgling that had fallen from its nest, splinting a bird’s broken leg with match stick and feeding injured butterflies on sugar syrup. But a companion had been adamant. “You must do the Sacrifice.” Back at our building in Mina I turned to the Quran. I found that

the Sacrifice has many meanings: it commemorates Abraham’s (peace be upon him) offering of his son’s life and God’s rejection of this sacrifice in exchange for Abraham’s submission to God’s will; it marks the end of idolatry among Arabs; it is an offering of thanksgiving to the God of Creation Who has been so benevolent to mankind; and it teaches the wellto-do to share their blessings to “eat thereof (the Sacrifice) and feed the beggar and the suppliant” (Quran 22:36). As I pondered what I had read, a great weight was lifted from my conscience. I suddenly saw that the Sacrifice upholds the sacredness of life, that it, in fact, constitutes a pledge by the pilgrim that he will slay for sustenance only. And where I had felt reluctance before, I now felt eagerness to fulfill all the requirements of my pilgrimage. Taken from Islam The Natural Way by Abdul Wahid Hamid pages 127-128.

world news

P A G E

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

international_peoplesdailyng@yahoo.com

Hope Rising from G20 Summit in China ANALYSIS

By Qin Jian

Mr. Qin Jian, Chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria

uring the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Marco Polo, a famous European traveller and explorer from Venice, visited Hangzhou. He was overwhelmed and referred to the city as “the City of Heaven” “beyond dispute the finest and the most splendid in the world.” As centuries have passed, today’s Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province on China’s southeastern coastline ,has turned into a city that “embraces a unique style, a combination of history and modernity” according to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Several days ago, this vibrant city attracted wide attention from the global society once again only because it hosted the highly expected 11th G20 Summit. There is no need to hide the fact that the global economy, while still on the road to recovery, faces multiple risks and challenges such as weak growth momentum, sluggish demand, volatility in the financial market and low growth in international trade and investment since the outbreak of the financial crises, eight years ago. Against the background, the foremost task of the Hangzhou Summit of the G20 which represents over 85% of the world economy and two-thirds of the global population is to drive a process that would give the needed boost to the global growth. According President Xi Jinping, the Summit, with a theme of “Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive world economy” ,aimed to provide a solution that addresses both the symptoms and root causes of the global economic problems and propel the global economy onto a path of robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. During the two-day summit, China, the world’s second largest economy and host of the summit, clearly articulated a solution to the lack luster

global economy, which among others, called for an end to unsustainable growth, and canvassed for structural reform and encouraged innovation and entrepreneurship. Given China’s own experience, the world considerably reposed much hope in China’s perspective and experience in steering the G20 toward a more balanced power-sharing model and constructive path for the global economy and was not disappointed at the successful host of the Summit. leaders of the global leading economies discussed other prominent issues affecting world economy such as climate change, refugees, antiterrorism financing and global public health, reaching broad consensus and adopted the G20 leaders’ communiqué Hangzhou Summit which charted a roadmap that specified directions, targets and measures. As in related global and regional roundtables, which China has played leading roles, there were no platitudes or ambiguities but concrete measures designed to facilitate world economic recovery through long-term, comprehensive, open, innovative and inclusive measures. Record number of developing countries attended the G20 summit .It is important that China, through the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), is at the forefront of supporting Africa’s development agenda. At the Johannesburg Summit of FOCAC last year, President Xi pledged $60 billion support for Africa. In order to show its unremitting commitment to her sincere friends, China has invited more African countries to Hangzhou. We are delighted to see many African faces showing up during the Summit. Besides South Africa, some other African Countries including Chad, chair of the African Union; Senegal, chair of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) were also invited and made their voices heard. I believe that Africa can no longer remain on the margins where global leaders are making decisions on various issues of far-reaching

Mr. Xi-Jinping

significance. The Hangzhou Summit, I’d like to say, should be appreciated for“having a heart for Africa”. First the G20 Hangzhou Summit will help accelerate Africa’s industrialization process. In a closing speech, President Xi declared that G20 would be determined to promote inclusive and interconnected development so that G20 cooperation would deliver benefits to the whole world. For the first time, G20 Summit gives priority to development in the global

macro-policy framework. Given Africa’s rich raw materials, labor, and huge markets, G20’s focus on the world economy cannot go without Africa. Africa has since adopted its Agenda 2063, an ambitious program to have all the 54countries on the continent enjoying some form of industrialization by then. The biggest obstacle to Africa’s economic development, as far as I am concerned, is its single economic structure, which mostly relies on primary product exports. This will change. The summit has

“

The anti-corruption stance of the G20, accorded with the aspirations of many developing countries, including Nigeria to which the canker-worm of corruption is a heavy burden on their economies.

proposed the G20 Initiative on Supporting Industrialization in Africa and Least Developed Countries and the Global Infrastructure Connectivity Alliance Initiative, which will deliver tangible benefits to people of the developing world and contribute to the common development of mankind. China will promote G20 member states to conduct cooperation and help these countries to accelerate industrialization and through capacity building, increasing investment, improving infrastructure and other measures, so as to achieve their poverty alleviation. Second the G20 Hangzhou Summit will help Africa to enjoy sustainable development. We should acknowledge that energy, climate, and development are closely interrelated. For the first time, it drew up and mandated an action plan to facilitate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. It also agreed to encourage the early entry into effect of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and formulated an action plan on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Africa, which will pay high price for potential climate catastrophes, has been taken into serious consideration. Third, the G20 summit will help African countries to fight corruption and avoid pumping money out of Africa. One of the Key issues which were taken up at the summit was the advancement of anti-corruption campaign. According to president Xi, the consensus reached on this issue, included the establishment of a research center on fugitive repatriation and asset recovery to be set up in China. President Xi further said this measure “will leave corrupt officials no place to hide in the G20 member’s territories and in the world at large.” The anti-corruption stance of the G20, accorded with the aspirations of many developing countries, including Nigeria to which the canker-worm of corruption is a heavy burden on their economies. Mr. Qin Jian, Chargé d’affaires of the Chinese

PAGE 28

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

News From Africa

Mugabe’s Zanu-PF ‘blocking food aid’ amid Zimbabwe drought

imbabwe’s ruling party has been accused of deliberately withholding aid from opposition supporters in areas facing starvation because of drought. The country’s human rights commission said opponents of President Robert Mugabe’s ZanuPF party had been told they would never get any food aid. The government has not yet commented. Mr Mugabe declared a state of disaster in February, with the government estimating that four million people would need food aid by January 2017. Africa Live: More on this and other stories “Ruling party members were the major perpetrators in violations linked to distribution of food,” Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) chairman Elasto Mugwadi told media in the capital, Harare, detailing the findings of the investigation. Mr Mugwadi said huge numbers of people had been affected by the alleged tactic, without giving exact figures. The government says half the

Many parts of rural Zimbabwe have been ravaged by drought

rural population faces starvation. The allegations, coming from a constitutionally established body, are especially significant given the role food distribution

plays in election campaigns in the country, says BBC Zimbabwe analyst Stanley Kwenda. Elections can be won and lost on the basis of how food aid is

distributed, he adds. Zimbabwe has endured two years of failed rains, with this year’s problems linked to the El Nino weather pattern.

Gabon’s Ali Bongo hits back at EU over poll ‘anomalies’

Ping supporters cheer outside his headquarters in Libreville on August 28 [Gerauds Wilfried Obangome/ Reuters]

abonese President Ali Bongo has denied EU observers’ calls for a recount of last week’s disputed presidential vote, saying it was a matter for the country’s top court to decide. On Tuesday, an EU mission observing the August 27 polls reported a “clear anomaly” in voting in Haut-Ogooue province, Bongo’s heartland. Official results gave turnout in the province at more than 99

South Sudan fighters get emergency UN aid in DR Congo

percent, with 95 percent backing the incumbent against rival Jean Ping. “I would also have liked them to have noted some anomalies in the fiefdom of Mr Ping. If we are raising anomalies, we have to be clear, balanced and raise all the anomalies that have been noted,” Bongo told France’s RTL radio, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday. “What people should be asking

me to do is apply the law. I cannot violate the law. As far as a recount is concerned ... that’s done at the level of the Constitutional Court.” Bongo, whose family has ruled Gabon for nearly half a century, won a second term by a slender margin of fewer than 6,000 votes over Ping. The opposition leader, however, says that the election was a sham and has demanded a recount - a call echoed by Manuel Valls, prime

minister of Gabon’s former colonial power, France. Post-election clashes between his supporters and security forces have resulted in the deaths of between 50 and 100 people, Ping said on Tuesday. The government’s official casualty count stands at just three dead. The parliament in the capital, Libreville, was also torched in protests over the result. Ping, a 72-year-old former African Union Commission chairman, has yet to announce whether he will challenge the election result in the Constitutional Court. The deadline for doing so is 15:00 GMT on Thursday. In their analysis, the EU election monitors said the number of nonvoters and of blank and disqualified votes revealed a “clear anomaly in the final results in Haut-Ogooue”. In an interview with Europe 1 radio, Bongo accused the EU observers of “overstepping their mandate” and said he too was preparing to challenge some of the results. “Ping committed fraud” in his home constituency and others with the help of “cyber-criminals”, he told Europe 1.

ore than 100 fighters loyal to South Sudan’s sacked vice-president have been found “in extremely bad shape” by the UN in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were discovered near the border and have been evacuated by helicopter to receive medical treatment. Fighting between rival forces in July left hundreds of people dead less than a year after a peace deal was signed. Mr Machar, who had joined a unity government, fled - and was also aided by the UN in DR Congo a few weeks ago. South Sudan has suffered more than two years of civil war since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011. Political differences between Mr Machar and President Salva Kiir ignited a civil war in December 2013 - and they only agreed to settle their differences under intense international pressure, signing a peace deal in August 2015. Mr Machar returned to Juba in April but battles then broke out between his bodyguards and presidential guards in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in July. Mr Machar fled Juba in the wake of the July clashes and was later dismissed as vice-president. After receiving medical treatment in DR Congo in August, he was flown to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, where he remains after being discharged from hospital. His soldiers, who had crossed into DR Congo, were found in an area around the Garamba National Park by UN peacekeepers, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. He said they had suffered mostly from walking in difficult terrain and having no access to food. Many were in critical condition and were helped “on purely humanitarian grounds so that they can receive urgent medical assistance”, Mr Dujarric said. An internal Congolese army report, seen by the Reuters news agency on Wednesday, said 500 fighters were evacuated to Goma in the middle of August - a mission that involved three flights a day over three days. Following UN pressure last week, President Kiir has now agreed to the deployment of a 4,000-strong regional protection force for Juba which would have a more robust mandate than the 12,000 UN soldiers already in the country, however the mandate and size of the force still have to be agreed. This was a key request of Mr Machar, who said he wanted a neutral force to guarantee his safety. But US officials are now saying that they do not believe Mr Machar should return to his post.

Page 29

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

That ‘awkward moment’ when Obama met Duterte after ‘whore’ spat

Asia&Middle-east

Preeti Rathi case: Death for India acid attack convict

S President Barack Obama and Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte had a brief face-to-face encounter, days after a very public spat. On Tuesday Mr Obama cancelled planned talks after the firebrand Mr Duterte called him the “son of a whore”. Wednesday’s informal meeting took place before an Asean summit gala dinner. While a Philippine spokesman said he was “very happy” it happened, the US side said they had a “brief discussion” in a pre-meal “hold space” for leaders. Mr Obama and Mr Duterte are said to have entered the dinner venue separately at the summit in Laos and did not interact with each other during the event, which lasted one hour and 20 minutes. “They were the last people to leave the holding room. I can’t say how long they met,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, travelling with Mr Duterte, told reporters shortly afterwards. “I’m very happy that it happened.”

Saudi-Iran war of words escalates over Hajj row

ran has urged the Muslim world to unite and punish Saudi Arabia as the bitter war of words between the two countries escalates ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. On Monday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticised Saudi Arabia over how it runs Hajj after a stampede last year killed more than 750 people. He said Saudi authorities had “murdered” some of them, describing Saudi rulers as godless and irreligious. “This incident proves once again that this cursed, evil family does not deserve to manage the holy sites,” Khamenei said. In response, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh said he was not surprised at Khamenei’s comments. “We have to understand that they [Iran’s leaders] are not Muslims,” he told the Makkah daily. “They are children of the Magi and their hostility towards Muslims is ancient.”

Rights group: Nepal failing to stop child marriage

There has been growing anger in India against acid attacks

court in the Indian city of Mumbai has given the death penalty to a man for throwing acid at a woman at a busy railway station three years ago in what is being hailed as a landmark ruling. Preeti Rathi, who was 23 when she was attacked, had just arrived from Delhi to join the Indian navy as a nurse. Her neighbour, Ankur Panwar, had said he attacked her because she had rejected his proposal to marry him.

The verdict is significant as most attackers receive minor sentences. Panwar, 25, was convicted of murder and other offences on Tuesday. He is likely to appeal the verdict in a higher court. On Thursday, the court said that the crime fell within the “rarest of rare” category which justified the death penalty. Ms Rathi, who suffered severe injuries to her lungs and eyes in the attack on 2 May 2013, died a month later.

A month after her death, India’s Supreme Court ordered federal and state governments to regulate the sale of acid. The court ruled that acid could only be sold to people who showed a valid identity card. However, critics say that it is still widely and easily available. According to government figures, there are hundreds of such attacks a year; but campaigners say the real figures are much higher.

raditional practices, poverty, last year’s massive earthquake and Nepal’s ongoing political instability mean child marriages remain a serious problem in the country, where 10 percent of the girls marry before they are 15, even though the government says it is making progress to combat the problem, rights groups say. New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said government indifference means it has not taken the concrete steps needed to achieve the goal of completely stopping the practice in Nepal, which has the third-highest rate of such marriages in Asia after Bangladesh and India. Nepalese government officials, however, said the Himalayan nation has made significant progress in stopping child marriage and has new policies and laws to address the issue, including a new law that says both men and women have to be 20 before they can legally marry. But child-rights groups say the earthquake that killed thousands and made millions homeless, plus the country’s ongoing political instability, is making the situation worse in one of the poorest nations in the world.

Afghanistan: Taliban pushes into Uruzgan’s Tarin Kot

he Taliban has pushed into the capital of Afghanistan’s southern Uruzgan province, touching off fierce clashes and sending all government officials fleeing from the city, according to an Afghan government official. Fighters fought their way to within a few hundred metres of the governor’s compound and police headquarters on Thursday while gun battles spread in Tarin Kot, a city of about 70,000 people, said Wais Samim, the provincial police chief. Officials in Uruzgan have fled to the airport, which houses an Afghan military base, police officials told Al Jazeera. However, within hours the Afghan Ministry of Defence said the Taliban had been repelled from Tarin Kot. Mohammad Radmanish, the ministry’s deputy spokesman, said the army, police and intelligence service headquarters in the city had been secured. He said all strategic locations in Tirin Kot were under government control and reinforcements were being sent to the Uruzgan provincial

Roughly 80 percent of Helmand province is under Taliban control, according to officials [EPA/Watan Yar] capital. Air support has been called in and Afghan airstrikes have killed several Taliban fighters in Tarin Kot, said Radmanish. The Taliban, for its part, said Afghan security forces had

sustained losses and that its fighters were advancing on Tarin Kot. “Mujahidin enter Uruzgan capital Tarin Kowt city,” Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, said in a statement. Tarin Kot is the third Afghan provincial capital to come

under Taliban threat in recent months, along with the city of Kunduz in the north and Lashkar Gah in Helmand province. The surge in Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces has prompted the US to send additional troops to Helmand, whose capital

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Page 30

Europe & Americas Brexit: Donald Tusk tells Theresa May ‘ball’s in UK’s court’

Hungary indicts camerawoman who kicked refugees

uropean Council president Donald Tusk told Theresa May “the ball is now in your court” as the pair discussed the next steps on Brexit. Meeting the prime minister at Downing Street, Mr Tusk said the other 27 member states were waiting to see when the UK would formally trigger its departure from the EU. It is “in everyone’s interest” for this to start as soon as possible, he added. Mrs May said she wanted a “smooth” Brexit process. It comes as EU leaders, excluding the UK, prepare to meet next week in Bratislava to sketch out the bloc’s future after Brexit. Mr Tusk - who oversaw the UK’s EU renegotiation attempts prior to the in/out referendum - told Mrs May: “It doesn’t mean that we are going to discuss our future relations with the UK in Bratislava, because for this - and especially for the start of the negotiations - we need the formal notification, I mean triggering Article 50. “This is the position shared by all 27 member states. To put it simply, the ball is now in your court. “I’m aware that it is not easy but I still hope you will be ready to start the process as soon as possible. “I have no doubt that at the end of the day our common strategic goal is to establish the closest possible relations.” The PM has said the government will “not reveal its hand”, amid pressure to set out what it wants to achieve from the negotiations. The meeting between Mrs May and Mr Tusk - over salmon and scrambled eggs - was billed as an attempt for the two leaders to get to know each other ahead of those talks. They were also expected to discuss trade, migration, Russian sanctions and the Ukraine. Donald Tusk is a businesslike pragmatist - hence his talk of turning the potentially fractious and intractable process of Brexit into a “velvet divorce”. His visit to London is part of the process of preparing for the Bratislava gathering where the UK won’t be a voice around the conference table but will be very much an elephant in the room. Neither he nor Theresa May is anywhere near deciding where their bottom lines will eventually settle on the issues of immigration and access to the single market - nor would either be ready to reveal their hand to the other if decisions had been taken. But these talks could be important because they could help to set the tone for the opening phase of the more serious negotiations on Brexit whenever they might begin and when they do it’s worth noting Mr Tusk will be representing the interests of the 27 states remaining in the EU, rather than the one that’s leaving.

The incident caused international outrage after footage of her actions went viral on social media [Reuters]

ungarian prosecutors have filed charges against a camerawoman who was filmed kicking and tripping refugees fleeing police near the country’s southern border with Serbia last year. Petra Laszlo was charged on Wednesday for disorderly conduct after “she kicked a young man in the shin with a swift kick of the sole of her right foot, and also kicked young girl around the knee with her right foot”, prosecutors said in a statement, according to Reuters news agency. Prosecutors also said Laszlo had “kicked toward a man carrying a child in his hands, but the kick did not reach

the man”, in one of the accusations she had faced during last year’s online furore. “The man carrying the child still fell, because... one of the policemen tried to catch and restrain him, and he lost his balance as he broke free.” According to prosecutors, there was no evidence of a racially motivated hate crime. The incident, which occurred in September 2015, caused international outrage after footage of her actions went viral on social media. Laszlo, who later apologised, was fired from her job at N1TV, a private right-wing television station

in Hungary. Laszlo was not immediately available for comment. In a letter last year to Magyar Nemzet, a Hungarian daily, she had said she was acting out of panic and felt under attack. “I am practically in shock from what I did, and what was done to me,” Laszlo said. “I am not heartless (or) racist ... I am a woman, a mother of small children, who has since lost her job, and who made a bad decision in panic.” Laszlo’s trial will be held in the southern city of Szeged.

Trump says Putin ‘a leader far more than our president’

onald Trump has showered Vladimir Putin with praise as he and rival Hillary Clinton took pointed questions from military veterans. The Republican presidential nominee told the forum the Russian president “has been a leader far more than our president [Obama] has been”. It came on the same day the chief of the Pentagon accused Russia of sowing the seeds of global instability. Mrs Clinton, meanwhile, defended her judgment despite her email scandal. The White House candidates appeared back to back on stage in half-hour segments at the Intrepid Air and Sea Museum in New York on Wednesday night. Quizzed by NBC host Matt Lauer on his previous complimentary remarks about Mr Putin, Mr Trump responded: “He does have an 82% approval rating.” “I think when he calls me brilliant I’ll take the compliment, ok?” added the businessman. He said Mr Putin had “great control over his country”. Mr Trump also predicted that if elected in November, “I think that I’ll be able to get along with him.” The property magnate recently drew sharp criticism when he urged Russia to dig up the emails that Mrs Clinton deleted from her email server.

Catalonia: DNA tests to identify Spain’s civil war dead

pain’s Catalonia region has launched the country’s first public DNA profiling project in a bid to identify some of the 114,000 people who disappeared during the nation’s civil war and subsequent dictatorship. The issue is hugely sensitive in Spain, where rights abuses during the 1936-1939 conflict and the ensuing 36-year rule of dictator Francisco Franco remain uninvestigated for fear of reviving divisions. Raul Romeva, who handles transparency matters in Catalonia’s regional government, described the initiative as “a decisive step towards restoring” historical memory. “It is a democratic duty that was long pending,” he told AFP news agency on Wednesday. “This should have started 40 years ago,” added Romeva, referring to Franco’s death in 1975 and the subsequent transition to democracy. Under the programme, scientists will create a database for the DNA profiles of those related to people who disappeared. For this, they will collect samples from remains found in mass graves, and try and find matches with the help of the Barcelona-based Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences.

The project will have access to DNA data collected from mass graves of the civil war [File: EPA]

A similar project has already been set up in Barcelona on a smallerscale, but it is privately funded by two descendants of people who disappeared. In the space of five years, they have collected 125 genetic samples from relatives, but have not been able to cross-check the data with any

remains as they do not have access to mass graves. Relatives of those who were killed or disappeared during the time in question have long asked the government to start exhuming and recovering victims’ remains. In 2007, under growing pressure, the then Socialist government passed

a law calling for public funds to be provided to help cover the costs of exhuming remains, and the UN later urged Spain to do more. However, little has been done since then, and Spain’s acting conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has even boasted of not having spent one euro to put the law into effect.

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

AMAC-IPDC got strong corporate presence - Adamu assures residents By Stanley Onyekwere

he Chief Executive Officer of Abuja Municipal Area Council Investment and Property Development Company (AMAC-IPDC), Alhaji Yakubu Mohammed Adamu, has assured that the corporate presence of AMAC-IPDC will be felt in all the nooks and crannies of the council and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and beyond. Adamu gave the assurance while playing host to the Executive

Chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hon. Abdullahi Adamu Candido, who paid a familiarization visit to the corporate office of AMAC-IPDC in Abuja. While commending the political will of Hon. Candido for establishing the company, which he said is first of its kind in Nigeria, Alhaji Yakubu Adamu said the company is fully prepared and has commenced the process of harnessing the investment potentials of the area council. He further solicited the

continued support of the AMAC chairman towards the activities of the company. “I want to commend the political will which you deployed to establish this Company which is the first of its kind in Nigeria. We want you to know that we are fully prepared and have what it takes to ensure that the presence of AMACIPDC is felt in all the nooks and crannies of Abuja Municipal Area Council,” Alhaji Adamu said. Earlier in his address, Hon. Candido expressed appreciation

to the management and staff of AMAC-IPDC for accepting to serve in the new company in spite of the challenging times under which the organisation was established. He noted that though the initiative is coming at a very difficult time when the country is passing through a recession and when the environment is not too favourable for investment, he was confident that the company will thrive and come out stronger. He said the members of staff of AMAC-IPDC had much to

• Kerosene buyers struggling to scale NNPC mega station pence to buy the product, recently in Abuja

do to ensure that the company succeeded, and urged them to always project a good image of the company, adding that the image of AMAC-IPDC must be positive enough to encourage investors to invest in the company. According to the AMAC chairman, he envisioned an AMAC-IPDC that would outlive his administration, “AMAC-IPDC is not my company; it belongs to all of us. So, hold it in trust bearing in mind that if this company outlives us, posterity will not forget us.” The AMAC chairman also enjoined the staff of AMAC-IPDC to collaborate with the council officials, in order to form a positive synergy between the two organisations.

Candido unveils AMAC markets mgt c’ttees By Stanley Onyekwere

Get 50% pass in WAEC, NECO or get sacked, Ajakaiye warns principals By Stanley Onyekwere

ermanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Dr. Babatope Ajakaiye has challenged school principals to ensure that from next academic session, all students of secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory attain 50 percent success in the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO), or face immediate sack. Ajakaiye, who gave this charge during a meeting with school principals in the Territory, expressed the Administration’s displeasure over the falling standard of Education in public schools, saying the 30 percent success recorded in 2016 WAEC and NECO in FCT schools is no longer acceptable. He said principals must henceforth intensify their efforts to complement the Administration efforts in ensuring things are done in the right way which will then translate to all round

academic success and producing worthy character students. “We are giving you a mandate with sanctions, any principals that doesn’t achieve 50% pass in 2017 WAEC/ NECO Examinations will no longer be principal; you must work towards achieving that mandate”. “The mandate I will give you that goes with sanction; for this new session, every principal must be determined that for WAEC and NECO in 2017, any principal that does not achieve 50 percent success should just quietly leave that school because the principal is going to be removed. “If you don’t achieve 50 percent success in WAEC and NECO 2017, you are no longer fit to be a principal in FCT and I mean it. That is the minimum that we want for every school and you must work towards it,” he stressed. He continued: “We cannot be gathering students and at the end of their final year, all they will have is three credits. I don’t know whether

you are proud as a principal that in your school, the success rate is five percent. I want principals that will be determined to say in my school, things must change. “Infrastructure or no infrastructure, resources or no resources, I want to put myself as a sacrifice and change things. That is what I want to do before I leave the service. I want to be known to have done something good for Nigeria. “My mission is not to come and make you sad; but the situation is bad and you know it and we are ready to tackle it. But you must be up and doing too and that is why I said I must call all the principals and talk to you to do the right things. “That is what this Administration is about. We are ready to put the right things in place. We are ready to work for Nigeria. But we want people that will join us to do this. That is why when you come to FCT today, it is not business as usual and we want to send that message down to our

institutions.” According to him, FCT should be seen as a role model, setting the pace for other states of the Federation to follow but the various situations met on ground called for urgent remedy. He therefore enjoined the principals to bring to bear their wealth of experience, map out new approaches and be innovative in the Administration of the Schools under their purview to move the system forward. Responding, the FCT President of the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Alhaji Mohammed Sani Ladan assured that the principals will not relent in their efforts to lay a good Education foundation for students in FCT schools to attain best academic performance. The ANCOPSS president therefore appealed to the Administration’s for improved support in solving various challenges bedeviling the FCT schools system.

he Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hon Abdullahi Adamu Candido, has inaugurated fourteen (14) committees to oversee various markets owned by the area council. While inaugurating the committees, comprising fivemembers each, Candido directed them to monitor revenue streams of the council and to ensure that shop owners pay revenue to government. Candido, in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Dayo Lawal, added that the committees are also to help in managing the area council markets in such a manner that will be guided by their terms of reference. The committees are also expected to put in modalities to block leakages in the markets revenue base, and fashion out ways to tackle untapped revenue sources and as well eliminate hoodlums in the markets. He further explained that the essence of setting up the markets’ committees was to add value to the running of the markets, urging members to avoid shady deals in the course of their duty.

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Photo Splash

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Man displays his wares for sale, yesterday at Central Area, in Abuja

Hawkers besiege a commercial bus, yesterday at Nyanya Bus Stop, in Abuja

Good Samaritans pushing broken-down car, recently at Federal Secretariat, in Abuja

Scavengers searching for valuables in a refuse dump, yesterday in Mararaba

Farmers working in a farm, yesterday at Jikwai, in Abuja

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Metro

Building collapse: FEMA boss commends Gwagwalada chairman residents, emergency stakeholders Stories by Stanley Onyekwere

he Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has showered encomiums on residents, security agencies, Non-Governmental organizations and all emergency stakeholders, who worked tirelessly, to rescue and evacuate victims of the recent incident of building collapse that occurred at

road 444/441, Okpanachi Crescent, Gwarimpa District of the Territory. FEMA Director, Alh. Idriss Abbas, who made this known, following the conclusion of rescue and evacuation exercise of victims from the collapsed building site, expressed satisfaction with the level of synergy and expertize demonstrated by the security agencies and rescue workers involved in the operation.

He emphasized the importance of collaboration among rescue workers, security agencies and Non-Governmental Organization in achieving one goal, which is ‘to save lives’ He further stressed that the gear should move form disaster rescue to disaster prevention and mitigation. Idriss therefore advised residents to desist from building on flood plains and green areas; even as

he appealed to relevant authorities to always monitor building projects at early stages of development to avoid further occurrences. He noted the need to sensitize residents to follow lay down rules and regulations and to obtain building plan approvals form regulatory authorities prior to erecting any structure in order not to endanger lives and properties on innocent citizens.

• People buying second hand clothes, at Nyanya Wednesday market, yesterday in Abuja

appoints new cabinet members By Usman Shuaibu

he Chairman of Gwagwalada Area council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Hon. Adamu Mustapha Danze, has appointed Hajiya Halima Elemi as the council scribe as well as some supervisory councilors and Special Advisers (SA) to help him in piloting the affairs of the Area Council. Danze charged the newly appointed secretary as well as supervisory Councillors/Special Advisers to always contribute their quota towards the development of the Council. The chairman assured the political aides that his administration would take them along in all ramifications, pointing out that every member of APGA is important to him. Some of the APGA members interviewed over the appointment of the Council Secretary said that the chairman had chosen the right person for the position. Meanwhile, among the Special Advisers being appointed by the chairman includes Mr. Abdullahi Danladi as the Special Adviser on chieftaincy matters.

SEB partners NGOs to enhance training for 52 female students A

s part of efforts of the FCT Administration to promote Science and Technology Education, the FCT Secondary Education Board its partnering with two NonGovernmental OrganizationsAfrica Information Technology Exhibition and Empowerment Initiative (AFRITEX), and Working to Advance African Women Foundation (WAAW) for the training of about 52 selected female students for Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) camp during the holidays. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the one – week intensive STEM camp training in Abuja, the founder of WAAW, Dr. Unoma Okorafor said female education along with technology innovation is key components to engage young girls early against

all economic odds. She stated that, in the STEM camp training, the girls are motivated to innovate with technology using locally available materials, engage in hands activities, lectures, experiments, mentoring, career counseling and field trips led by female role models in STEM fields. Dr. Okorafor said the Foundation is established to build a pay-it- forward system that inspires and empowers girls to become leaders in their communities for economic development and poverty alleviation. The WAAW founder explained that, the foundation provides an annual scholarship of $500 to need based African College girls and recipients are female students of African origin enrolled in undergraduate

full time STEM based degree programme. She therefore called on parents to encourage their girl child in Science oriented courses for all round development. Speaking in the same vein, the project coordinator of AFRITEX, Sandra Gold said the STEM programme is to increase girls’ interest and confidence while providing digital literacy training and improve their technology skills. Gold stated that, the various training received during the STEM camp will further bridge the existing digital gender gap in Science and Technology as well as help the girls early to take up careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and ICT courses adding that, female participation and contribution in technology

builds human capacity and increased innovation and entrepreneurship. In her keynote address, the Director, FCT-SEB, Hajia Rakiat Daniya described the STEM programme as a laudable initiative that required the support of every stakeholder. She said the world is advancing at a high speed through Science and Technology and Nigeria cannot be left behind hence the need to continue to encourage female students to pursue career in STEM) and the total involvement of the womenfolk without discrimination. The Director, who was represented by the Head of Division (PRS), Mr. Charles Arowolo, stated further that, the SEB has been in the forefront of promoting STEM education in its fifty-six (56) Senior Secondary

Schools in FCT through the active participation of the female students in Science oriented activities within and outside the academic environment. She commended the NGOs for their focus on the girl child, as it will enhance productivity and showcase their potentials as leaders of tomorrow. She urged the students to explore this life time opportunity to add technology value to improve their academic performance and share their experiences with fellow students when they return back to their various schools. The Education boss expressed the FCT Administration readiness to continue to support and partner with organizations with genuine programmes aimed at improving education standard in the FCT.

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Money Sense

Pensioners in danger of missing out on guaranteed income of around 6 per cent for life - simply because they don’t know about it By Sylvia Morris

undreds of thousands of pensioners are in danger of missing out on a guaranteed income of around 6 per cent for life — simply because they don’t know about it, experts say. The chance to lock into a government scheme by paying national insurance class 3A voluntary contributions is only open for the next few months. With rates plummeting on bank savings deals and annuities from insurance companies, which provide guaranteed income for life, the State Pension Top Up offers a much better deal. But so far fewer than 4,000 out of an expected 265,000 have taken advantage of it. The scheme is a sweetener for the 12 million who missed out on the new ‘flat rate’ £155.65-a-week state pension which came in last April. And it’s a huge boost for the selfemployed, because until now, many have been unable to build up so-called additional state pension, which can be worth as much as £164 a week extra. HOW This Is Money Can Help How long will your pension pot last? Tools, calculators and guides for a richer retirement Instead they’ve only been able to rely on the £119.30-a-week basic part of the old state pension. Thousands of older working women who paid the married woman’s stamp — a reduced national insurance rate phased out in the late Seventies which saved them money — could also benefit. The top-up is open to men who were born before April 6, 1951 and women before April 6, 1953, who already receive a state pension or are entitled to one no matter where they live in the world. It works like an annuity where you hand over a lump sum in exchange for a guaranteed income for life — but it is only available until April 5 next year. The income is inflation-proofed, so your income will rise in line with the consumer prices index each year. For married couples, the surviving partner receives at least half of the additional pension on death. You can get between £1 and £25 extra pension a week by paying Class 3A voluntary national insurance contributions to HM Revenue & Customs. You pay £890 for each £1 of extra pension a week if you are age 65. To gain the full £25 a week would cost £22,250 which works out as a return of 5.84 per cent. A similar deal from an annuity with an insurance company pays less than half this amount at nearer 2 per cent, figures from Retirement Intelligence show. These rates have plummeted by a fifth in the last year. Meanwhile, the best easy-access savings accounts pay no more than 1.2 per cent. Yet despite the attractiveness of the state pension top-up scheme, a freedom of information request by financial company Old Mutual Wealth reveals only

3,848 signed up in the first six months. The benefits are even more generous if you buy the top-up at age 70. The cost drops to £779 for each £1 of weekly pension — or £19,475 for the full £25 — a return of 6.67 per cent. It’s cheaper because the older you are, based on average life span, you won’t benefit for as many years as a younger person. The price is the same for men and women even though the average life expectancy for men is 86.6 years and women a longer 89.3 years. The scheme will appeal particularly to pensioners whose spouses are of a younger age and can expect to claim the income for years after their husband or wife dies. But the deal will not suit everyone. The key is how long you live because you won’t get anything back when you die. If you are single or in poor health, the chances are it will be a poor deal. You would shell out the lump sum and die without reaping the benefits. The extra income is taxable if it pushes your income above your personal allowance of £11,000 for this tax year. If you take money out of your pension pot

(under the new pension freedoms) to buy the top-up, you could face an extra tax bill which would reduce your return. And if you receive other benefits or pension credit you also need to do your sums. You could also be better off by filling in gaps in your national insurance record by using Class 3 voluntary contributions if you are eligible to make them. Jon Greer, pension technical expert at Old Mutual Wealth says: ‘In the first three months of this year, 21,200 people bought annuities from insurance companies. ‘Many will have been eligible for this state pension top-up at a better rate. Unfortunately, few people seem to have been aware of the option.’ A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions, says: ‘Many people stand to benefit from the scheme. We have extensively publicised its value.’ To apply for the top-up you need proof of your identity, such as your P60 or the last four digits of your bank account, and your National Insurance number. Call 0345 600 4270 or go to gov.uk/ statepensiontopup. To check your National Insurance contribution record and whether you’ll

“

This two-tier system has now been changed for anyone retiring from April 2016 onwards, and replaced with a ‘flat rate’ pension of £155.65 a week.

be better off filling in gaps, call 0800 731 7898 (option 3). How Much Is The State Pension? The basic state pension is currently £119.30 a week. It is topped up by additional state pension entitlements S2P and Serps - accrued during working years. This two-tier system has now been changed for anyone retiring from April 2016 onwards, and replaced with a ‘flat rate’ pension of £155.65 a week. However, people who have contracted out of S2P and Serps over the years will get less than this. Workers needed to have 30 years of qualifying National Insurance contributions to get the old state pension, but require 35 years to get the full flat rate state pension now. However, even if you paid in full for a whole 35 years, if you contracted out for some years on top of that it might still reduce what you get. People are allowed to top up their state pension to receive higher payouts. They also have the option of deferring it to get bigger sums, although the system is less generous than it used to be. Rises in the state pension are presently calculated on the basis of something called the ‘Triple Lock’. This means that payouts always increase by whatever is the the highest of inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent. Critics have pointed out that the Triple Lock could prove an unsustainable financial commitment in the longer term, but the current Conservative Government has pledged to maintain it. s.morris@dailymail.co.uk Tanya Jefferies

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Strange

world

The tree that has been chained up in Pakistan since 1898 when a drunk British officer had it arrested because he thought it was moving By Gareth Davies

• Tree was shackled because officer thought it was running away from him • Officer James Squid’s detainee is still chained after more than 100 years • A plaque nailed to the tree in Peshawar, Pakistan, explains the weird story • Some locals are not so keen on the tree, claiming it’s a sign of oppression A tree that was arrested by a drunk British officer more than 100 years ago has become a star attraction in Pakistan. The banyan tree is still tied down by chains in Peshawar having been arrested back in 1898 by James Squid, who was so inebriated he thought it was trying to run away from him. Despite it being mistaken for a symbol of slavery or oppression, a plaque nailed to the tree reveals its hilarious back story. The plaque reads: ‘I AM UNDER ARREST.

‘One evening a British officer, heavily drunk, thought that I was moving from my original location and ordered Mess Sergeant to arrest me. ‘Since then I am under arrest’ The tree has not been released, and remains at the Khyber Rifles Officers Mess at Landi Kotal Way. The tree under arrest for allegedly moving from its place in Khyber Rifles Mess at Landi Kotal #FATA Pakistan pic.twitter.com/TQAbphS3R5 — Zahid Naseem (@znakbar) March 14, 2015 The bizarre attraction has become a hotspot for tourists to the disdain of some locals. One resident blasted it, and told the Express Tribune: ‘Through this act, the British basically implied to the tribesmen that if they dared act against the Raj, they too would be punished in a similar fashion.’ But Dr Mukhtiyar Durrani, an assistant professor in the archeology department at the University of Peshawar, insisted it was a special part of the area’s history. DailyMail on Facebook

Please release tree, let tree go: The banyan tree is still tied down by chains in Peshawar having been arrested back in 1898 by James Squid, who was so inebriated he thought it was trying to run away from him

Indian man has 366 flags tattooed on his body and has all of his TEETH removed so he can fit 50 candles in his mouth... By Imogen Calderwood

n Indian man has had 366 flags tattooed on his body and all his teeth removed in a bid to add yet more Guinness world records to his collection. Har Parkash Rishi made the drastic modifications to his body so he could put nearly 500 drinking straws and more than 50 burning candles in his mouth. The 74-year-old is obsessed with setting world records and claims to have more than 20 to his name, even now calling himself Guinness Rishi. ’I am the world record holder of 496 straws in my mouth,’ Rishi told Reuters Television before re-enacting the feat on camera. ‘For that record, I needed space, I had to remove every tooth so that I could put the maximum number of straws in my mouth.’ Born in a cinema hall in the capital city of New Delhi, Rishi first got into the Guinness Book of World Records in 1990 when, with two friends, he rode a scooter for 1,001 hours. Throughout his career as a recordbreaker, he has also hand-delivered a pizza from New Delhi to Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum in San Francisco and gulped down a bottle of tomato ketchup in 39 seconds - although he was later beaten by a German man who drank the bottle in 32 seconds. People consider me an extraordinary person, not an ordinary person.

Guinness Rishi He has even gotten his family involved. His wife Bimla holds a 1991 record for writing the world’s shortest will, which reads just: ‘All to son.’ Meanwhile Rishi and his brother-in-law also hold the record for the world’s oldest adopted person, after Rishi adopted his 61-year-old brother-inlaw Ravinder Kumar Vig. He has also built the tallest sugar cube tower in the world, which stands at 64 inches. ‘People consider me an extraordinary person, not an ordinary person,’ he has previously said, after one of his many record attempts. Har Parkash Rishi, from New Delhi, has had ‘People who have no 366 flags tattooed on his body and all his money wish to do something in their lives, so the teeth removed in a bid to add yet more poor people try to break Guinness world records to his collection records by their strength turer by profession, says the toughest or their will. ‘I hope to make my family one was stuffing the drinking straws in proud. My children feel they are more his mouth. important in the field of business and He is now getting images of global money-making. leaders tattooed on his body to add ‘I have to show the family and the to images of Indian Prime Minister community that I am a professional Narendra Modi, U.S. President Barack person.’ Obama, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and While it is the tattoos on his body Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s more than 500 in all - that brought him independence movement. fame, Rishi, an auto parts manufacDailymail.com

PEACE CAPITAL MARKET LTD (Member of the Nigerian Stock Exchange)

CLOSURE OF OUR LAGOS BRANCH OFFICE

Notice is hereby given to the general investing public that Peace Capital Market Ltd has closed her Lagos Branch office hitherto located at No. 93 Broad Street, Lagos with effect from 1st August, 2016. Pending the outcome of her application for re-classification from Broker Dealer to Dealer status, presently with Securities and Exchange Commission, our highly esteemed clients are advised to transfer their stocks with Peace Capital Ltd to any other stock-broking firm of their choice. Peace Capital Market Ltd highly regrets all inconveniences caused our long standing customers by this closure. Our Head Office remains at No. 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako District, Abuja, FCT. Please be guided. Signed Management

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Page 36

Digest Three rashers of bacon a day ‘raises the risk of dying from heart disease by 25%’

Eating three rashers of bacon a day raises makes death from cancer eight per cent more likely and raises the chance of diabetes by a third, a study has found By Kate Pickles

• Just 50g of bacon or ham makes death from cancer 8 per cent more likely • Scientists also found it raises the risk of being diabetic by 32 per cent • Even unprocessed red meat was found to increase risk of several diseases Eating three rashers of bacon a day raises the risk of dying from heart disease by almost a quarter, a new study shows. Only a small amount of red meat can cause cancer, heart disease and diabetes with processed meat the most dangerous, say scientists. Just 50g a day - about two slices of ham or three rashers of bacon - raises the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 24 percent. It also makes death from cancer eight per cent more likely - increasing the risk of pancreatic, bowel, breast and prostate tumours by 19 per cent, 18 per cent, nine per cent and four per cent respectively. It also raises the risk of diabetes by 32 per cent,

according to the findings published in the Journal of Internal Medicine. Meanwhile twice as much unprocessed red meat - 100 g a day raised the risk of advanced prostate cancer and bowel cancer by 19 per cent and 17 per cent respectively, death from cardiovascular disease by 15 per cent and stroke and breast cancer by 11 per cent each. The review of previous research provides a comprehensive summary of the dangers of eating red meat which includes beef, veal, pork, lamb and mutton and processed varieties such as ham, sausages, bacon, frankfurters and salami. Professor Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm said: ‘Overall it’s plausible to conclude - taking into account the available scientific evidence - that high consumption of red meat and especially processed meat is associated with the increased risk of several major chronic diseases and preterm mortality. ‘Moreover the production of red meat also involves an environmental burden.

‘Therefore some European countries have already integrated these two issues, human health and the ‘health of the planet’, into new national dietary guidelines and recommended limiting the consumption of red meat.’ Processed meat undergoes treatment including curing, smoking, salting or the use of chemical preservatives and additives to improve its shelf life or taste which could be behind its increased risk. Professor Wolk said: ‘During recent decades, consumption of red meat has been increasing globally, especially in developing countries. ‘At the same time, there has been growing evidence that high consumption of red meat, especially of processed meat, may be associated with an increased risk of several major chronic diseases. ‘Here, a comprehensive summary is provided of the accumulated evidence based on prospective cohort studies regarding the potential adverse health effects of red meat consumption on major chronic diseases, such as diabetes, coronary heart

disease, heart failure, stroke and cancer at several sites, and mortality. ‘Risk estimates from pooled analyses and metaanalyses are presented together with recently published findings.’ ‘The evidence-based

integrated message is that it is plausible to conclude that high consumption of red meat, and especially processed meat, is associated with an increased risk of several major chronic diseases and preterm mortality.’ Source: Dailymail.com

Just 50g of red meat a dayraises the risk of dying from disease by 24 per cent

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Feature

Can Hamas hold back Islamic State in Gaza? The Gaza Strip is still reeling from last year’s devastating war with Israel, but now there are troubling signs that it faces an internal threat from ultra-conservative militants, some inspired by the Islamic State (IS) group.

n January, protesters carrying the black flags of IS burnt the French Tricolore at a rally against the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad published by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Gaza’s Hamas authorities allowed that to go ahead, wanting to show their own Islamist credentials. But in the last few months, there has been a series of confrontations. Hamas has taken a tougher stance against IS since it killed about 100 Palestinian in April, beheading two leaders of a Hamaslinked group, in Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus. At the same time, extremists appear to have been encouraged by IS gains elsewhere in the region. “We have the Salafist groups here in Gaza pledging their support to Islamic State,” says Mukhaimer Abu Saada, politics professor at Gaza’s al-Azhar University. “They very much identify with Islamic State in terms of their ideology and their radical interpretations of Islam and the Koran.” “They are unhappy with Hamas because they believe it has not implemented Islamic law and because Hamas has reached an understanding with Israel, which put an end to the war in the summer of 2014.” ‘We will never forget’ Hamas blames radical Salafist groups for several small explosions targeting its security forces. Dozens of activists and religious leaders have been arrested and a Salafist mosque destroyed. Last week, an IS-supporting militant, 27-year-old Younis Hunnar, was killed in a raid by Hamas Gaza City. Three rockets have since been fired at Israel and a group calling itself the Omar Brigades said via social media that it was responsible. On Thursday, a fourth rocket was launched but fell short inside Gaza. While the missiles have not caused injuries, they have drawn Israeli air strikes in response - some targeting Hamas military sites - and endangered a 10-month-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. At the entrance to Mr Hunnar’s apartment, bloodstains and bullet holes are still visible. His brother tells me the family no longer want to speak about what happened. However, on the walls outside, an IS flag has been drawn and there are slogans against Hamas alongside pledges of revenge. Some graffiti reads: “We will never forget your blood while we live.” Salafists appeared in Gaza about a decade ago. They adhere to a strict lifestyle based on that of the earliest followers of Islam. So far, Hamas, which has its ideological roots in the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood, has been largely able to contain them.

Islamic State flags were allowed to fly at a protest rally in Gaza earlier this year There were tensions in 2009, after a Salafist leader, Abdul Latif Moussa, declared an Islamic emirate in the southern town of Rafah. He was among more than 20 people killed the next day when Hamas forces stormed his mosque and house. ‘Ignorant people’ In 2011, after the abduction and murder by Salafists of a proPalestinian Italian activist, Vittorio

Arrigoni, Hamas also took action to crush the groups. The number of militant Salafists is estimated to be relatively small amounting to hundreds or perhaps a few thousand at most. By contrast, Hamas has some 35,000 security personnel under its military command. However the latest developments come at a time when the Islamist movement is weaker.

Last year’s 50-day conflict killed some 2,200 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to the UN, and 73 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers. Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed and key

infrastructure was badly damaged. There is rising frustration over the failure of Hamas to lift the blockade of Gaza, which Israel and Egypt say they impose for security reasons but which has severely hampered the pace of reconstruction. Hamas Deputy Foreign Minister Ghazi Hamad insists there is no organisation formally associated with IS in Gaza and that “ignorant people” will be dealt with. “You’ll find some individuals who support their thoughts but I can confirm and assure [you] there is no organisation affiliated to Daesh [Islamic State] or alQaeda in Gaza,” he says. “We will not allow such radical groups to survive.” “We won’t allow anyone to break the ceasefire because it’s in the national interests,” he adds, in reference to the recent missile fire. ‘Clear policy’ At a security conference in the Israeli city of Herzliya this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the situation in Gaza “could ignite the region”. He sent a warning to Hamas: “I have a very clear policy - you fire at us, we fire back. Hamas is responsible for non-Hamas rocket

There is still massive damage in Gaza nearly one year after the war

Hamas often displays shows of support to assert its position as the dominant force in Gaza

Hamas has taken a tougher stance against IS since it killed about 100 Palestinian in April, beheading two leaders of a Hamas-linked group, in Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus. At the same time, extremists appear to have been encouraged by IS gains elsewhere in the region.

fire too.” But some observers see Israel’s approach as potentially playing into the Salafists’ hands. “They’re trying to challenge Israel and Hamas,” Eran Zinger, Israel Radio correspondent, says. “They know that once we see missile attacks coming from Gaza, Israel will have no other choice but to retaliate and this is exactly what they want. They know this will have an effect on Hamas.” For now the Salafists appear to be doing little more than riling and putting pressure on Hamas. Their fighters are said to lack clear leadership and organisation and have few resources. However there are fears they could attract disenfranchised militants from inside Hamas’s ranks and obtain funds and arms from IS organisations outside, particularly from Egypt’s Sinai. That could cause a dangerous escalation. Source: BBC

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Feature

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Can Africa lead the way on renewable energy?

There are a lot of sources of renewable energy like strong winds in many parts of Africa

here is a popular joke doing the rounds in Cape Town at the moment. Question: What did South Africa use before candles? Answer: Electricity. For people living here, it is not that funny. The country is undergoing its worst power crisis since 2008, with a rolling schedule of power cuts reintroduced in November as Eskom, the national electricity provider, struggles to meet demand. In a report published on World Environment Day, the Africa Progress Panel makes the case for Africa to emerge as a “global renewable energy superpower”. So could this be the solution to Africa’s power trouble? Energy poverty Policy-makers have big decisions to make ahead of another round of United Nations climate change talks in December. They are faced with the challenge of juggling the competing demands of meeting energy demands now, while supporting low carbon development for the future. South Africa has one of the largest and most developed economies on the continent, but it risks being held back by insufficient energy provision. Other major economies grappling with power crises include Nigeria - which produces more than 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, yet many of its citizens live without electricity. Big cities like Lagos are a whir of generators; the country boasts the highest concentration of small-scale generators in the world. Across Africa as a whole, 600 million people - two-thirds of the population - do not have access to electricity. One of the draft Sustainable Development Goals, which will replace the Millennium Development Goals this year, is for universal access to electricity by 2030. Experts say that on current trends it will take Africa until 2080 to achieve this goal. Whilst this so-called “energy poverty” is an issue in countries across Africa, so too is climate change and its impacts. As the chairperson of the Africa Progress Panel Kofi Annan points out: “No region has done less to contribute to the climate crisis, but no region will pay a higher price for failure to tackle it.” ‘Leap frog’ effect But it is not all bad news. “African governments have an

opportunity to seize the climate challenge to rethink their energy policies,” according to APP executive director Caroline KendeRobb. As the APP report argues: “No region has more abundant or less utilized renewable energy potential. Decentralized power generation and distribution systems are opening up new possibilities for reaching populations currently bypassed by national grids.” An analogy can be made with the spread of mobile telephones. Greg Austin, managing director of juwi Renewable Energies, says: “Mobile phones are more efficient and better geared towards a modern economy [than fixed lines]. The same is true of power - the consumption of electricity can be more closely linked with generation.” That means that the role of a national grid may be reduced, with more power produced and consumed on local systems using solar or wind energy, which may be cheaper and easier to manage. Faster progress The APP report is measured,

Large solar farms are being built, but small-scaled ones can also go into the energy mix

South Africa still relies on coal to supply most of its energy needs advocating renewable forms of energy such as wind, solar and hydro-power as part of the mix, but not overlooking the necessity of the continued use of fossil fuels in Africa in the short to medium

Small, portable units like this solar-powered street light in Mali can make major changes to a community

Other major economies grappling with power crises include Nigeria - which produces more than 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, yet many of its citizens live without electricity. Big cities like Lagos are a whir of generators; the country boasts the highest concentration of small-scale generators in the world.

term. “Every government has to determine what constitutes a judicious mix of energy sources... But no government can afford to ignore the emerging opportunities associated with low-carbon technologies.” But some green energy campaigners say Africa has been too slow in embracing new technologies. Muna Lakhani is the Cape Town coordinator of Earthlife Africa, one of the oldest environmental justice organisations on the continent. He dismisses some of the arguments against renewable energy, including the cost, as outdated. “These are the kind of myths propagated in the media by people with vested interests in the power industry,” he says. The cost of wind energy in South Africa is going down as technologies improve, whilst the cost of coal is increasing as supplies dwindle. He also dismisses the idea that renewable energy sources are less predictable than fossil fuels: “We don’t advocate a single technology, but rather a mix of solar, wind and ocean current energy in South Africa. “With this mix, renewable energy can be highly predictable; if you know what is happening, you can balance supply.” He sees a future where renewable energy sources can provide most of the power supply for Africa, and insists that that future need not be that far away. Source: BBC

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 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 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 5 best for this week’s feature.

opping the chart is Gully Rider, Ft. Frankie Water and Jahbwai, with an inspirational RXB tune , the song is about unity. peace and love. Gully Rider has been in the industry for some3time now. The song is a banger owing to the caliber of people involved.

t number 3 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.

t number 4 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

t number 5 is Prodigee with his new single ‘ONYENKEM’. The Igbo Afro/R&B singer is making waves with the song all over the FCT.

t no 2 is DIamond Music Family and Friends with the song “Stand up for Nigeria’. The song is the voice of various artistes. The classic RXB was dictated for the sustenance of democracy in

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Weekend Revue Japan Box Office: ‘Godzilla Resurgence’ becomes biggest live-action film of year with $60m

odzilla Resurgence (Shin Gojira) climbed one spot back up the box office charts in Japan to No. 2 this weekend during its sixth weekend of release, taking another $3.2 million to bring its total in the country to more than $60 million from 4.1 million admissions. The revival of the iconic monster franchise by Toho is now the biggest live-action hit of the year in Japan and has already surpassed the studio’s initial forecasts. The 29th installment of the franchise has also taken total admissions over the 100 million mark, the highest for any live-action series in Japan. Your Name (Kimi no Na wa), the manga-to-anime adaptation by Makoto Shinkai, held on to the top spot after its big opening last weekend, pulling in another $11.6 million to take its total to $38 million. The Secret Life of Pets dropped one slot to No. 3, taking its total to $36 million from 3 million admissions after 25 days on release. Now You See Me 2 opened at No. 6 with $1.2 million on Saturday and Sunday, giving it a total of $1.9 million including Thursday and Friday in its last major market. And Finding Dory dropped four spots to No. 10, adding another $700,000 on Saturday and Sunday to take its total past $64 million. Suicide Squad opens in Japan this weekend.

Marriage is forever, marry your own wife - Mr Ibu warns

here is just one of Nollywood’s finest comic actors that will just make one’s day a fruitful one after watching his movie and that is John Okafor better known as Mr Ibu. While waiting for some of his movies to be released as he attends shows outside the country, he has not allowed fame to take the better part of him away as he has been able to stay without scandals trialing his career. The actor has not stopped showing the world how much he loves his wife Stella and he has been able to build that trust that they can both go to sleep without being scared of each others activities. Mr Ibu, while showing off his wife in his regular way, was proud of himself that he made the right choice of marrying her and decided to advice single guys to look well before picking any lady to become their wife because any mistake made will cost them for life. In his words, “I buy better market please look well before you buy o, wife na for ever, make you no buy somebody own if you try am, you are finished.”

How Tuface Idibia’s first baby mama sacrificed her happiness for Annie Idibia Many really wondered why Tuface’s baby mama, Sunbo Adeoye didn’t end up as Mrs Idibia after having two beautiful kids for him. They practically lived together as couple for some years and was allegedly welcomed by Tuface’s mother and other family members. She disclosed she couldn’t stay in the relationship anymore when after having her second child, she discovered that there were other women who were pregnant for him. Unable to deal with it, she decided to move on with him her life and she packed out of Tuface’s house with her kids. In a recent interview, she spilled it all. In her words: “I met Tuface when I was a student of Yaba College of Technology. “I had just lost my dad and my mum was living in America. For someone who was a daddy’s girl, I needed love. This was the only person that was showing me love at that time. I feel I had that experience so that other young girls would not make the same mistake. I was 24 when I fell pregnant the first time; I approached the pastor of the church I was attending then and he brought me out before the church and judged me. I was asked to go and bring the father of my unborn child so we could be joined together. I brought a different person and we got married at the registry. Everything fell apart when I had a child who looked nothing like him and my mum came back from America to ask who gave my hand out in marriage because she was not a part of it. I had to walk out of the marriage which I arranged by myself. I moved back home and by age 25 I was already a single mum and a divorcee. Speaking more: “There was so much shame and reproach. It got to a point in my life that I felt that the Devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know, so I went back to my baby daddy and his mum talked me into living with him so he won’t have more women and babies. We lived together for three years and that was how the second pregnancy happened. It was not a bed of roses while I was there because I was trying to put together what was not supposed to be. I think we broke up in 2009 after I had the second baby. There were other women who were also going to have babies for him around that time. I came to my senses like the prodigal son and I was so broken. I think my baby daddy was out of the country that fateful day when I returned from work and I packed all my things plus that of my children, and I went back to my parents’ home.” This only means if Sunbo Adeoye hadn’t left Tuface Idibia there wouldn’t have been any Annie Idibia Today at all. Yet both women don’t really have a smooth relationship.

With ‘Blonde,’ Frank Ocean’s real revolution was in his business moves

ust five years into his solo career, Frank Ocean has established himself as one of the great outliers of the modern music business. The 28-year-old singer set off a tsunami of media attention last week by releasing two albums in three days — the streaming-only Endless, followed by Blonde — with virtually none of the traditional marketing moves that accompany most album releases today. Powered by a decidedly un-traditional marketing campaign — both albums are exclusively available on Apple Music, but Blonde was also made available in pop-up stores along with an ambitious 360-page limited edition magazine called Boys Don’t Cry — Ocean has continued the powerful personal narratives of independence, artistic integrity and refusal to compromise that he began with 2012’s landmark Channel Orange. “He’s speaking from his heart,” says music marketing company Cornerstone co-CEO and Fader co-founder Jon Cohen, speaking of Ocean’s messages. “He is a rare breed. So many artists today are so contrived, paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong move and everything is based on industry [considerations] like, ‘Is radio going to like this? Is my label going to like this?’ The best artists in the world have one thing in common: they go with their instincts.” In Ocean’s case, those instincts helped chip away at long-entrenched barriers — both in a business sense with Blonde,and in the case of Channel Orange, societal. “Four summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too,” Ocean wrote in a July 4, 2012 (not coincidentally Independence Day) Tumblr post a week before his major-label debut Channel Orange dropped. “We spent that summer, and the summer after, together.... Most of the day I’d see him, and his smile. I’d hear his conversation and his silence until it was time to sleep. Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping, no negotiation with the feeling. No choice. It was my first love, it changed my life.” Ocean’s poetic posting was radical — no mainstream male artist so closely associated with hip-hop had ever come out. “For a young African-American artist to say they were gay and associated with rap music was a big deal,” says Steve Stoute, CEO of brand development and marketing firm Translation and author of The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy. “Doing that and saying that was an outlier, and it played a role in a lot of music that came afterward.” For Ocean to cut through circumscribed demographics and reach beyond hardcore fans, as marketers will tell you, depends entirely on that most hackneyed of marketing-speak terms liberally used but rarely quantified: “authenticity.” That Channel Orange went to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold 686,000 copies to date according to Nielsen Music, however, speaks volumes about the “authentic” connection Ocean was able to establish with fans, despite what some considered his controversial message.

PEOPLES DAILY

Sports

FRIday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

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sports@peoplesdailyng.com, SMS- 08142929046

Trouble looms in Lobi Stars as members allege chairman’s arrogance, secrecy

Lobi Stars By Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

ith barely three (3) matches to the end of the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL, trouble is brewing in football club of Makurdi, Benue State. A source who pleaded anonymity told Peoples daily Sports that members of the club board as well as players are dissatisfied with the manner the Vice chairman Mike Idoko is handling affairs of the club. He accused Idoko of high handedness, secrecy, authoritarian attitude and mismanagement of the team’s resources to the utter chagrin and disappointment of the entire team. According to him, there is conflict between the technical crew and Idoko. This is just as, it was also discovered that the players are owed salaries and match bonuses for more

than 4 months. “The players are just enduring the hardship inflicted on them now because they want to finish the league and then, if the entitlements are not settled, there could be an uproar”,, the source confided. Furthermore, it was discovered that Idoko who has been staying in a porch hotel for over a year now that is costing the State government millions of naira, is usually given over N3 million naira for every home match and he gives N150,000,00 as allowance to the Deputy governor Engr. Benson Abounu who doubles as vice chairman of the team. Abounu has never been to the Aper Aku Stadium to watch any game of the team as a way of motivating the players. Only recently General Manager of the team and exSuper Eagles player Barnabas Imenger was on NTA, lamenting over the manner the team is been run, frowning

Dikko, Salisu risk jail as court slams contempt charge on LMC

>>Pg 42

at the way the team line up, substitution and the funds of club is expended. Hear him, “I do not understand the way they are handling the team. I have complained but nobody listens to me. The state is spending so much resources yet they are managing the club as if it is their private business”. It should be recalled that last month (August), players of the feeder team protested to Government House over unpaid 8 months allowances amounting to over N2million. Failure by the deputy governor and Idoko to resolve the issue, prompted the players to stage a second protest that caused Governor Samuel Ortom to intervene and promised to offset the players allowances. Lobi Stars’ is currently placed 5th position on the NPFL log and is gunning for a continental ticket even as there are palpable fears that many players may leave at the end of the season.

Give Rohr, assistants free hand, Laloko tells NFF

>>Pg 43

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Sport

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

CAF shame Pinnick over FIFA seat N igeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick will not contest for a FIFA council seat later this month after CAF did not endorse his nomination. The elections into the FIFA Council are slated for on September 29 with seven possible candidates have already been announced by CAF - Almamy Kabele Camara (Guinea); Suketu Patel (Sychelles); Kwesi Nyantakyi (Ghana); Ahmad (Madagascar); Augustin Senghor (Senegal); Hamidou Djibrilla (Niger) and Chabur Goc Alei (South Sudan). The seven shortlisted candidates will undergo the FIFA integrity test, before their names are finally ratified for the ballot. Investigation had revealed that Pinnick’s invitation of Infantino and 17 other African football

federation presidents in July was only a cover-up to seek for support for his bid to contest for one of the FIFA seats, and this much has been confirmed by the man himself. “As big as Nigeria, we don’t have a representative in CAF or in FIFA, so if I am ambitious to go to CAF or FIFA, yes because I am the president of the NFF, not because I’m just a member,” Pinnick told Lagos-based radio station, Lagos Talks FM on Tuesday. “I am praying about it and if God wills it, why not? But the truth is Nigeria needs a presence globally and this is exactly what we are doing.” Pinnick’s interest in securing one of the two vacant African seats at the FIFA Council (formerly executive committee).

Amaju Pinnick

Dikko, Salisu risk jail as court slams Akwa Ibom Stadium Pitch contempt charge on LMC remain good,

he league management company officials, the chairman, Shehu Dikko and the chief operating officer, Salisu Abubakar have been served with a contempt of court charge for deliberately disobeying the order of a court of a competent jurisdiction ordering the stoppage of the Nigeria Premier league until Giwa FC is reinstated. It could be recalled that a High Court in Jos had last week ordered the LMC to either reinstate Giwa FC in the ongoing Nigeria Premier League and continue with the appeal or suspend the league and wait for the outcome of their appeal, which they flaunted. Receiving the Order, the League Management company had issued a statement declaring that they would not obey the Order, and went ahead with the league on the premise that they had filed for a ‘Stay of Execution’ and had appealed the matter. The contempt letter served to LMC on the 6th of September, 2016, read; “In the High court of Justice of Plateau state holding at Jos, in the matter of an application by Mustafa Abubaka for himself and on behalf of Giwa Football Club limited, the applicant had sued the League management company limited, the Nigeria Football Federation and or the Nigeria football Association, through the Plateau football club limited for himself and on behalf of all the other nineteen football club in the Nigeria professional football league except Giwa football club, Jos “To Shehu Dikko, Chairman league management company limited, Salihu Abubakar, chief operating officer, league Management Company limited, Form 48 Notice of consequences of disobedience to order of court in pursuant to order 1s rule 13 of the judgement, enforcement rules. Take notice that unless you obey the directions contained in this orders (hereto) you will be guilty of contempt of court and will be liable to be committed to prison,”

The plaintiff, Mustafa Abubakar who felt undone by the action of LMC, seeing it as a total violation of the order of the court went back to report. And, the court in response to his complain issued a contempt charge on the LMC officials.

Shehu Dikko

NFF says

FF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi has heaped encomiums on the Akwa Ibom State Government, and particularly Governor Udom Emmanuel, for hosting the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match between Nigeria and Tanzania. A wonder strike by Kelechi Iheanacho at the magnificent Godswill Akpabio Stadium gave the Eagles a winning conclusion to the series at the arena styled Nest of Champions. Sanusi declared that the NFF was enamored by the arrangements made by the Akwa Ibom State government for the two teams, match officials and the NFF’s organizing team. “The NFF can only commend the efforts of the Government and people of Akwa Ibom State for the wonderful role they played. Even for such a match that had no effect on the qualification race, we had a full house at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium. That underscores the level of work done by the Government in the area of mobilization. “The NFF values its relationship with the Akwa Ibom State government and will always advise directly on what areas need to be improved upon. We have spoken directly to those who matter with regards to the concern raised about the pitch, and we are happy that work has already started in that area.

Fans mob centre referee, assistant in Abia state

ngry fans of Abia Warriors FC went berserk on Wednesday at the Umuahia Township Stadium and attacked Centre Referee, Abubakar Ago, from Yobe and Assistant Referee, Azeez Orowole, from Osun. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the incident took place at the end of a midweek encounter between the Umuahia-based club and visiting Ifeanyi Uba FC. The match, which many fans considered a must win for relegation-bound Abia Warriors, ended in a 1-1 draw. The referees were attacked on the pitch shortly after the blast of the final whistle to signal the end of the match. The fans, who alleged biased officiating, overwhelmed the few police officers on duty. Even the intervention of the Chairman of Abia Warriors, Emeka Inyama, could not save the situation. It took the perseverance and frantic efforts of the police to rescue the referees from the mob. A detachment of anti-riot police from the Central Police Station, Umuahia, was later deployed to the stadium to restore normalcy.

Abia Warriors FC

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

PUBLIC NOTICE EDO OKPA UNITY FORUM

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THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. EVANG. GOD’STIME IGORU - FOUNDER/GENERAL OVERSEER 2. EVANG. EVELYN IGORU 3. VENERABLE EMMANUEL ENYONANOVWE AZUGO 4. REV. EMMANUEL DJEBA 5. ELDER FRIDAY EYERUKUGBE 6. BRO. GOODLUCK IGORU - SECRETARY 7. BRO. TEGA OKEOGHENE

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PUBLIC NOTICE HEARTS AFLAME MINISTRY

The Aims and Objectives: 1. TO TEACH AND PREACH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST JESUS ALL OVER THE WORLD. 2. TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE FROM THE BONDAGE OF DARKNESS 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 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. Yakubu Saleh Bawa. 2. Hanatu Sa’idu Ibrahim. 3. Ibrahim Buba Ahmed. 4. Annointed Paul-Hills. 5. Benjamin Victor Davou - Secretary.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. UDEZUE EKENE THEOPHILUS- chairman 2. ONUOHA UCHECHUKWU B. 3. OMEJE CHUKWUEMEKA J. 4. OKONKWO FERDINAND. 5. NWANOCHIE MOSES. Aims: 1) to inculcate and enhance the spirit of oneness and progress of all club members . 2) To assit members both morally and financially.

SIGNED : Secretary.

SIGNED : SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE ZOKAM OKOYE MOTIVATION FOR YOUTHS FOUNDATION

PUBLIC NOTICE Leather footwear technologists association of Nigeria

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. CHIAZOKAM OKOYE-OMALE (Chairman/founder) 2. Mrs Gloria Peter Ogba (secretary) 3.OSINAKACHUKWU OKOYE-AKINBAMIDELE 4.ENGR. UZOMA OKOYE

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Joseph selaboy. 2. Suleman aliyu. 3. Mustapha bashir. 4. Yakubu s. Rogo. 5. Balo gana abubakar. 6. Salisu Tahir. Aims.

SIGNED : Catherine Ijeoma Nwosu Esq (08035445225)

SIGNED : Barr. Hassan Ajibade.

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.

Aims: 1. To promote the fundamental rights if every citizen as enshirined in the constitution, 2. to serve as voice to every nigerian whose fundamental right lively to be violated.

SIGNED : Secretary.

Any objection to the proposed registration should be forwarded to the Registrar General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Abuja within 28 days of the application

PUBLIC NOTICE DE RISING SUN BROTHERS INTERNATIONAL CLUB

Aims. To foster unity among members.

Aims and Objectives a) To Uphold and maintain the ethics and integrity in the Profession b) To promote further professional training for its members c) To ensure cordial relationship amongst members d) To set standards for members

PUBLIC NOTICE Justice And Advocacy Advancement Foundation

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.Alhaji Lateef Basapa, (chairman) 2.Alhaji Ismail Adebayo. 3. Alhaji Ganiyu Adeleke Asiwaju. 4. Alhaji Tijani Oseni Taye . 5. PA. Adetoro John One. 6. Mr Towobola Samuel Alao. 7. Alhaji Najeem Olanrewaju. 8. Pastor Olaomi Festus Babatunde. (Secretary) 9. Alhaji Ashiru Alliu Adebayo. 10. Mr Salahudeen Raheem Adetunji.

PRESIDENT MEMBER MEMBER MEMBER

SIGNED : EVANG. EDWIN EMOJEVU

Aims and Objectives: 1. To empower youths,children and women in society 2.To provide vocational training and skills acquisition centres for youths,children and women in society

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) MRS OLUWATOYIN SANNI 2)MR. AKINYELE ADENIYI 3)MRS. OLUFUNKE OLUSEYI AIYEPOLA 4) MR. LEO OKAFOR

Signed Casmir C. Igwe Esq IGWE & IGWE ATTORNEYS Legal Practitioners, Consultants & Notary Public. Abuja 08034536861, 07057995253

Aim: To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

PUBLIC NOTICE Association of Saki Carpenters of Nigeria

This is to notify the general public that the above mentioned Association is in the process of applying for registration under PART C of the Companies and Allied matters Act 1990

PUBLIC NOTICE CHRIST EMBASSY HEALING SCHOOL MINISTRY

This is to inform the general public that the above named MINISTRY has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for the appointment of a new Chairman of the board of trustees of the ministry and for amendment of the constitution of the ministry under the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2004 (as amended) as follows: 1. That Evangelist Eddy Owase has been appointed as the chairman board of trustees of the Ministry. (2) That Article 10 (b) of the constitution which states as follows: “such trustees (hereinafter referred to as “ the trustees”) shall be four (4) in number which shall be known as the incorporated trustees of chrisy embassy healing school ministry” is hereby amended to read as follows: “such trustees ( hereinafter referred to as “the trustees”) shall not be less than 2 (two) and more than 10 (ten) in number which shall be known as the incorporated trustees of christ embassy healing school ministry. Any objection to this notice above should be forwarded to the Registrar-General of 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. 08035989233.

AIM: To promote unity peace justice and equity among it’s 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 : SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE AGRIC COKER BUILDING AND PLUMBING MATERIAL DEALERS ASSOCIATION

The general public is hereby notified that the above named Association has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Change Of Trustees and amendmemt of the entire constitution under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990. OLD TRUSTEES . 1. Abel Obi- Removed. 2. Godwin Dim- Removed. 3. Linus Okpagu- Removed. 4. Martins Oyiogu- Removed. 5. Ifeanyi Udoanagor- Removed.

NEW TRUSTEES . 1. Christopher Okpala- Newly appointed. 2. Obi Ogbuagu- Newly appointed. 3. Ugochukwu Umeh- Newly appointed. 4. Martins Anya- Newly appointed. 5. Christian Akaforonye- Newly appointed.

REASON : the reason for the change is due to the fact that the removed trustees are old and can no longer participate actively in the association’s activities. AMENDMENT OF CONSTITUTION . To amend and alter the entire constitution i order to make room for effective administration of the association. Aims and objectives remain the same. Any objection to this registration must reach the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication. Signed: Secretary.

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

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PUBLIC NOTICE THE REDEEMED FLOCKS OF CHRIST MINISTRY INT’L

PUBLIC NOTICE JADA DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE

PUBLIC NOTICE THE FRUIT OF LOVE BIBLE CHURCH

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. OSAGIE OSAGUNMWENWAN 2.EVANG. OSARUGUE OSAGIE 3.MR. MALATY STEPHEN 4.BAR MRS MBAGWU OZIOMA 5.MRS BURUBOYEFE ISOKEN 6.DR KRIGBODE DARE STEPHEN 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.

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. MOHAMMED YAHYA - CHAIRMAN 2. USMAN KAWUYO - MEMBER 3. ISHAQA ABDULLAHI JADA - MEMBER 4. MOHAMMED ADAMU UMAR - MEMBER 5. MAHMUD MUHAMMED - MEMBER 6. SAIDU MOHAMMAD JADA - MEMBER 7. AHMED ALHAJI MUSA - MEMBER 8. SULEIMAN USMAN - MEMBER 9. HAMZA DAHIRU ALKALI - MEMBER 10. HASSAN IBRAHIM - SECRETARY THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.For unity and development for the people of Jada 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 GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED CHURCH HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

SIGNED :SECRETARY

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.EVANGELIST UTIBEABASI IMMANUEL JEREMIAH 2.PASTOR MFON U. UNANG 3.MR. ISAAC JAMES OKON 4.MR. ISRAEL JAMES OKON 5.MRS. ENOBONG EFFIONG EDET 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.

PUBLIC NOTICE

ASSOCIATION OF VILLAGE YOUTHS PRESIDENTS, ABUJA

CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCHANGE DEVELOPMENT

KARAKATAKA CHARITY FOUNDATION CAC/IT/RC: 47006

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.PRINCE EPHRAIM OBOT - PRESIDENT 2.ISAAC OMOTAYO 3.PATIENCE MARCUS THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.TO PROMOTE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AMONG RURAL DWELLERS.

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERALPUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED FOUNDATION HAVING LOST ITS ORIGINAL CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION (THE “CERTIFICATE”) ISSUED TO IT AT INCORPORATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR THE ISSUANCE OF A CERTIFIED TRUE COPY (CTC) OF THE CERTIFICATE UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

SIGNED : SIMEON EMMANUEL 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.UCHECHUKWU CHUKWUMA OGBONNA - CHAIRMAN 2.AMINU BELLO YAKASAI 3.ANIETIE IYOHO 4.MRS NWABUEZE ADAEZE - SECRETARY 5.CHISOM FAVOUR UCHECHUKWU THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.TO EMBARK ON ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMMES THAT WILL ENHANCE THE CAPACITY OF THE YOUTH. 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

PRAISEVILLE INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY

NEW MAME: GRACE COMMUNION CHURCH NIGERIA OLD NAME: WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD

EDU LAGOON ESTATE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION,OGUDU LAGOS

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.OLUDOLAPO BENJAMIN - CHAIRMAN 2.ABIMBOLA ODUSOTE 3.ADESUWA FAITH OLU-BENJAMIN - SECRETARY 4.PROF. OSARETIN ALBERT TAIWO EBUEHI 5.DR. ABIOLA FALILAT AMOKEODO THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.TO SHOW MANKIND THE TANGIBILITY OF THE LOVE OF GOD IRRESPECTIVE OF RACE, RELIGION OR CREED. 2.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 : BARR. GLORIA E. PHILIP 08033252542

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED CHURCH HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR CHANGE OF NAME AND AMENDMENT OF THEIR CONSTITUTION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990. THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.JOESEF FORSON - RETAINED 2.MICHEAL OGUNLASE - RETAINED 3.WILSON OTIGEDE - RETAINED 4.ONYEBAMJI OLADELE - RETAINED 5.EKE UDEAGHA - RETAINED 6.BONIFACE CHIMEZIE - RETAINED THAT THE AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH BE REFLECTED TO THE NEW NAME. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS CHANGES 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

THE TRUSTEES ARE REMAIN THE SAME. THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES REMAIN THE SAME. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS APPLICATION 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 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.CAPT OLUGBOYEGA BONOJO - CHAIRMAN 2.MR. ERIC OMOZEJELE 3.SIR. EMEKA ANYAEJI 4.MR ERNEST OMOREGIE 5.MR. STEVEN AYUBA 6.MR. TOYIN AKIGBOGUN THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.TO PROMOTE PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE AMONGST RESIDENTS OF THE ESTATE. 2.TO PROVIDE AND MAINTAIN BASIC INFRASTRUCTURES WITHIN THE ESTATE AND OTHER FACILITIES FOR PURPOSES OF OVERALL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ESTATE. 3.TO PROMOTE AND MAINTAIN WELFARE OF RESIDENTS OF THE ESTATE INCLUDING GENERAL SECURITY AWARENESS. 4.TO ESTABLISH AND RAISE DEVELOPMENT FUNDS FOR PURPOSES OF DEVELOPMENT OF COMMON AREAS IN THE ETSATE. 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 : BAR. EMEKA ANYAEJI 2, AJOSE ADEOGUN STREET VICTORIA ISLAND, LAGOS.

PUBLIC NOTICE

ARZIEL INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION

SHELTER OF GRACE MINISTRY INT’L

UKWUABA HEALTH CARE 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. THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.PRINCEWILL ORUKPE - CHAIRMAN 2.OGBETA CHRISTOPHER - SECRETARY 3.OMOSUN SUNDAY - MEMBER THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1. To promote the unity, progress and welfare of members. 2. To render assistance to the less privileged in the society.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.Kennedy osas ugboh - president and founder 2.Mrs Sharon o . Ugboh (Secretary) 3.Celine okoebor.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Engr. SAMUEL IFEANYI UKWUABA (chairman) 2 MR YAHAYA MOSES (secretary) 3 DR EZE PETER OKECHUKWU.

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.to provide health care services to the society.

SIGNED : SECRETARY

SIGNED : BARR NJOKU OKORO

Page 45

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

PUBLIC NOTICE

NEW LIFE LANDLORD ASSOCIATION OBA, ANAMBRA

PHILIPS MAJEKODUNMI ESTATE RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION

EXCELLENT LOVE COMMUNITY CHILDREN & OLD PEOPLE’S HOME NKWELLE OGIDI.

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. COMRADE IKECHUKWU ONYEKWERE - CHAIRMAN 2. MR EZECHUKWU ONYEKAOZURU - SECRETARY 3. MR CHINEMELUM OKWGBU 4. MR PETER AWAJI 5. MR NWOYE SAMUEL EKEOMA 6. MR ONYEDIBE OSITA EMMANUEL 7. MR AZUBUIKE NWITE 8. MR TOCHUKWU EZEJI 9. MR IKEMEFUNA UKE 10. NWOYE ANAYO FELIX AIMS AND OBJECTIVES : 1. TO BRING THE LANDLORDS TOGETHER AND TO ENSURE PEACE 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 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.REV. OLUSEGUN CALEB MAJEKODUNMI - CHAIRMAN 2.MR. MICHAEL OLUSEGUN AJIBODUN - SECRETARY 3.DR. BANJI OYEGBAMI - MEMBER THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.TO PROMOTE AND PROTECT THE INTEREST OF MEMBERS.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. NWALUSI IFEOMA MONICA - CHAIRLADY. 2. ONWUKA OGECHUKWU JAMES - SECRETARY 3. EZE ANGELA NGOZI - TREASURY. THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES : 1. TO HELP THE LESS PRIVILEGED ONES. TO PROVIDE FOR THE MOTHERLESS CHILDREN.

SIGNED : CHAIRMAN

SIGNED : BARR. BONIFACE C. UMEH 08034177826

PUBLIC NOTICE

INFANT JESUS COMMUNITY CHILDREN HOME 33 ONITSHA, ANAMBRA

MASON EDREMODA BOLOBOLO 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.

This is to inform the general public that the above named FOUNDATION has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja for Registration under Part “C” of the Company and Allied Matter Act No. 1 of 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. NWOKEDI NNEKA VERONICA - CHAIRLADY 2. NWOKEDI QUEEN - SECRETARY 3.NDIDI VERA SQRENSEN - TREASURE

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.EDREMODA NICHOLAS OGBARAENO 2.EDREMODA MASON ORITSEGHELELA 3.EDREMODA ORITSEBEMIGHO .O

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1.TO HELP THE LESS PRIVILEGED ONES. TO PROVIDE FOR THE MOTHERLESS CHILDREN .

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1.To care for the needy in the communities. 2.To provide social amenities in the communities.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED :SECRETARY

Signed : Bright Egualeona

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Page 46

I, formerly known as Ngozika victor nwankwo now wish to be known and addressed as ngozika benedith nwachukwu. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

I, Formerly known as ISMAIL UMAR now wish to be known and addressed as ISMAIL MOHAMMED UMAR. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

ISMAIL

LOSS OF DOCUMENT

FATIMA

JOHN

This is to inform the general public of a loss of a customary certificate of occupancy with file NoFCT/BZTP/LA/KT 2001 Dutse Alhaji. And plot No. 436, Cadastral Zone 07-05. With sales agreement , power of attorney between Babangida Jino and Muhammad Kudu Usman of block 18 FT Setraco gwarimpa abuja. All efforts made to find the said document proved abortive. If found report to the nearest police station. Signed. Baba Shehu Ahmed of Baba Shehu & co.

ngozika

I, formerly known as DORCAS ZIRA now wish to be known and addressed as FATIMA ADAMU. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

Hafsatu

I, formerly known as Aishatu Sahabi, now wish to be called Hafsatu Sahabi. All former documents remain valid. Sokoto State Government, GTBank PLC, Zenith Bank PLC and the General Public to take note please.

Isabella

I, formerly known as Genevy Augustine Etuki now wish to be known and addressed as Isabella Patrick Egbobor. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned, Diamond Bank, otherbanks and the general public should please take note.

HALIMA

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AS MALIMA USMAN NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS HALIMA USMAN. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. ALL AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

AUWALU

I, formerly known as AUWALU YUSIF SALIHU now wish to be known and addressed as AUWALU YUSIF. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

murtala fIlm, formerly known as murtala lsah Now wish to be known and called murtala lsah yusif all fomer documents remain valid. general public to take note please. MOHAMMED

I, Formerly known as MUHAMMED RABIU HARUNA1986 now wish to be known and addressed as MOHAMMED RABIU.1990 All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

EZE-AKU

Formerly known as EZE-AKU JOEL now wish to be known and addressed as EZE-AKU JOEL IKE CHUKWU. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

Oladayo

I, formerly known as OLADEYO SUNDAY. Now wish to be known and addressed as OLADAYO SUNDAY SOREMEKUN. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

ITOHAN

I, FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS JOY OMORODION NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS ITOHAN EMMANUEL. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID, GENERAL PUBLIC PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

CORRECTION OF NAME

I ADDRESSED AS OBA HERRIETTA ONYENONACHI, OBA ONYENONACHI HERRIETT AT DIFFERENT TIME AND BY DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS WISH TO STATE THAT MY CORRECT NAME IS OBA HENRIETA ONYENONACHI. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. INEC, NIMC, THE GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

I, Formerly known as GLORY UDUAK UFOT JOHNnow wish to be known as JOHN GLORY UFOT. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

LUKMAN

aboki

I, Formerly knownas LUKUMAN YUSUF GOJE 3-3-1984 now wish to be known and addressed as LUKMAN YUSUF.19-1-1987. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

I, formerly known as aboki zainab now wish to be known and addressed as aboki adabakpa zainab All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned, and the general public should please take note.

Mrs. Yongo

PUBLIC NOTICE

I, formerly known as miss Alaekwe chiaku Josephine now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Yongo Chiaku Josephine. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned, First Bank and the general public should please take note.

shehu

I, formerly known as Nuru Sani matori now wish to be known and addressed as shehu usman ilelah All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned, and the general public should please take note.

babangida

Foundation for delivery of integrated health and Development

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 1990. THE TRUSTEES ARE 1. Iliya Ajeye. 2. Elias Manza. 3. Oladipo Akande. 4. Hassan Atana The aim and objective: 1. To render assistance to communities in enhancing health living

I, formerly known as babangida lanbo tukur now wish to be known and addressed as babangida tukur All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned, and the general public should please take note.

Any objection to this registration must reach the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

PUBLIC NOTICE

GREATER GRACE MINISTRY INTERNATIONAL

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE MANED HAS APPLIED FOR REGISTRATION AT THE CORPORATE AFFAIR COMMISSION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTER ACT 1990. THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. PASTOR ADE OLUSHOLA JOHNSON EMMANUEL 2. PASTOR CHIOMA EMMANUEL 3. PASTOR NICHOLAS ANYANWU AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. To spread the gospel to all nations of the world in accordance with the word of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. To help the less privileged in the society. 3. To establish Bible school for ministers. 4. To establish TV/Radio ministry for the purpose of the gospel. 5. To conduct Deliverance, healing and breakthrough crusades and seminars in order to win souls for Christ and to establish schools. 6. To publish Christian magazines, periodicals, circulars, books, stickers, or to make any such publications, publicities and expressions as may be conducive to and compatible with its aims and objectives.

SIGNED: SECRETARY

IN THEIR SHOES CHILDREN 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 1990. THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. MR.OLALEKAN OLUSEGUN AKINLEYE 2. MRS.JOYCE OLUWATOYIN AKINLEYE THE AIM AND OBJECTIVES: 1. TO SPONSOR CHILDREN LIVING IN POVERTY. 2. TO JOIN IN THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION’S PURSUIT OF ELIMINATION CHILD POVERTY 3. To GIVE POOR CHILDREN OPPORTUNITY TO LIVE AND FULFIL THEIR PURPOSE.

Any objection to this registration must reach the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Signed: Secretary

PUBLIC NOTICE MADRASATU ANSARULLAH WATAHFIZUL QUR’AN FOUNDATION

CHAIRMAN SECRETARY TREASURER MEMBER MEMBER

AIM AND OBJECTIVES 1 TO ESTABLISH QUR’AN SCHOOL 2. TO ASSIST THE LESS PRIVILEGE IN THE SOCIETY 3. TO TEACH HANDWORK SUCH AS SOAP MAKING, POULTRY, KNITTING ETC. 4. THE REHABILITATION OF ORPHANS AND THEIR TRAINING. Any objection to this registration must reach the RegistrarGeneral of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication. Signed: ISRAEL ASHIOMA

PUBLIC NOTICE CHRIST SPRING OF WATER HEALING AND DELIVERANCE MINISTRY WORLDWIDE

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 1990. THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. PROPHET EMEKA ANENE - PRESIDENT 2. EVANGELIST CHIAMAKA ANENE - SECETARY 3. DEACON MARY GRACE ANENE 4. PROPHETESS STELLA NWANKWO AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST TO THE WORLD. 2. TO BREAK THE BAND OF THE WICKED & DELIVER THE OPPRESS. Any objection to this registration must reach the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication. Signed: Secretary

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Page 47

Leisure

Some Interesting Facts . The human tongue tastes bitter things with the taste buds toward the back. Salty and pungent flavors are tasted in the middle of the tongue, sweet flavors at the tip! 60. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum. 61. When you sneeze, air and particles travel through the nostrils at speeds over100 mph. During this time, all bodily functions stop, including your heart, contributing to the impossibility of keeping one’s eyes open during a sneeze. 62. Annual growth of WWW traffic is 314,000% 63. %60 of all people using the Internet, use it for pornography. 64. In 1778, fashionable women of Paris never went out in blustery weather without a lightning rod attached to their hats. 65. Sex burns 360 calories per hour. 66. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.

67. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it. 68. The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words. More than 2 billion pencils are manufactured each year in the United States. If these were laid end to end they would circle the world nine times. 69. The pop you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually a bubble of gas burning. 70. A literal translation of a standard traffic sign in China: “Give large space to the festive dog that makes sport in the roadway.” 71. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV. 72. Larry Lewis ran the 100-yard dash in 17.8 seconds in 1969, thereby setting a new world’s record for runners in the 100-years-or-older class. He was 101. 73. In a lifetime the average human produces enough quarts of spit to fill 2 swimming pools. 74. It’s against the law to doze off under a hair dryer in Florida/against the law to slap an old friend on the back in Georgia/against the law to Play hopscotch on a Sunday in Missouri. 75. Barbie’s measurements, if she were life-size, would be 39-29-33.

Continued from page 48

Still on the sick economy

was the one who compared saving New York City from bankruptcy to making love to a gangling gorilla, saying that “you don’t stop when you are tired; you stop when he is tired.” We must gather all our energies in one hub of action. We are about to make love to a gorilla. AND THIS FOR IBB Better late they say, than never. He has recently celebrated his 75th birthday. And for me really, being a brother virtually from the same homestead, it has always been ‘damn you if you land a blow on IBB’ and ‘damn you if you don’t! What can I do? Sometimes I land a blow on IBB, and sometimes I don’t. When he clocked 69, I wrote for the first time about him, a tribute. And now at 75, I am doing virtually the same thing; I am quoting three paragraphs from that tribute to do the duty of a brother, to a brother –paying my respect as he clocks 75. Read on: “Reminiscing my reportorial days of the IBB era, is at once evocative of his last Second-In-Command, the mercurial, irascible Admiral Augustus Aikhomu. A surge of multi-hued nostalgia, ranging from the seriously comic, the comically serious and – with a maverick like this Admiral- nostalgia for the unpredictably bombastic. Just one press conference by Aikhomu would spawn enough materials to keep press, people and polity busy for quite some time. And to think that this was not just a one-off; it was a weekly media interactive of the Babangida administration. Earlier than Babangida, a genteel, intellectually bent predecessor of his, Ebitu Ukiwe had engaged some of the nation’s Ivory Towers’ best on an NTA Weekly ‘One On One’ providing a veritable on-air public account in a non-democratic environment. The prime-time nightly policy intercourse on the administration was, to say the least, stimulating; and in the context of the libido for the goings-on in the IBB government, politically gripping! Occasionally if memory serves right, not ever later than at least a quarter, the self-styled Military President himself, would take on especially editors or publishers from Lagos on a no-holds-barred inquisition of his administration. In comparison now with fullblown democracies, nothing could have been more courageous – that a military dictatorship, averagely on a weekly basis, stripping itself bare, exposition its biceps and its tendons and seeming to challenge both the critical and the cynical members of the public to take their best shots! Whatever it took for the bayonet to develop such nerve before the inquisition of the pen, it would not exclude at least some measure of regime sincerity and an uncanny ability for the actors to be right on top of their rudder. And a rudder at that: in superintendence over a multiplicity of policy ferments, engaged actively in the steering of numerous steamy pots of ideas; some cooking, some frying, others stewing and yet many caking; from DFFRI, to NDE; NDLEA to FRSC; Peoples to Community banks etc. What the (IBB regime) literally did with us weekly was to provide an official garnishing avenue, where to prove that although as they say, ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’, yet when chefs appeared effectively on top of their earthen wares and fully conversant with the vents of their kitchens’ chimneys, sometimes ‘many cooks’ rather than ‘spoil the broth’, can actually only ‘make work light’! Happy birthday, Sir”. Right there in the opening paragraphs of a supposedly neutral legal opinion written by a ‘lawyer’ who claimed to have no motive other than helping to enrich the jurisprudence of our law, is the use of the derogatory phrase “unnamed Mallam” even when ‘an unnamed resident’ would have been more professionally appropriate. Not to add to the fact that in quite un-lawyer-like fashion, Effiong had also relied on mere ‘hearsay’ to conclude that the person whose complaint led to the arrest and detention of Chinakwe was “an alien from Niger

Republic” as if –assuming this was true- an ECOWAS citizen duly resident with us will, by reason merely of that, lose the right to lodge a complaint to the Police in his country of residence. And not being a lawyer myself, NaAllah still wanted my ‘lay’ opinion concerning this issue. And why not? The ‘law’ by the way is not so much about ‘knowing the law’ as it is about ‘knowing where and how to find the law’. Or so said one of Britain’s most celebrated judicial minds, Lord Denning; -that God should “forbid the day that a lawyer should know all the know”, because it is sufficient merely that a lawyer knows “where to find the law”. THE LAW In truth people do -and have the right to- give their pet dogs any names including those usually borne by humans –like Jegede, Adamu, Okoro or Ekaite. The test of whether they do so in contempt or in reverence of any who bears the same name, will be a strictly a subjective one in the eyes of the law. As Shakespeare would say, “there is no art to find the mind’s construction on the face”. And as with the right to give pet dogs human names, so is the right for humans too – if they wish- to bear any names including those commonly borne by dogs, -like ‘Jack’, ‘Bobby’, ‘Mark’ or even the more fashionably –even if restrictively- doggy one ‘Bingo’. Nothing spoil. But what people are not known to do –even though they may have the right to, under the law- is to inscribe the ‘human names’ they have given their pet dogs on both sides of the animal’s body so that whenever they walk the dog around, or conversely in the case of the aged, whenever ‘it’ has the doggy duty to walk them around, people can easily tell by name who the dog is even if they do not know the name of its Master. Nor do people, even if with malice aforethought –and especially in a deeply polarized society like ours- walk their ‘dog’ engraved with the name of the President, through a community of people by whom obviously that ‘name’ (obviously because that President bears it), is revered possibly to a point of apotheosized liturgy. The writer cited a “definitive position” of the Supreme Court of Canada in Frey v. Fedoruk where it held that: “Conduct, not otherwise criminal and not falling within any category of offences defined by the criminal law, does not become criminal because a natural and probable result thereof will be to provoke others to violent retributive action” adding that “acts likely to cause a breach of the peace are not in themselves criminal merely because they have this tendency”. The Court, he said further stated that “It is for Parliament and not for the Courts to decide if any course of conduct, which has not up to the present been regarded as criminal, is now to be so regarded.” But in truth the law is what the courts –or judges- say it is and not necessarily what the legislator or the statute says it is. And judges do not pronounce what the law is drawing only from the letter –to the exclusion of the spirit- of the law. But truth is the law in statute may states what ‘general conduct’ will be criminal and thus subject to the Criminal Code; but it is judges really who determine what ‘specific’ elements will conduce to bring any specific ‘conducts’ within the contemplation of the written law. It is the reason that allied to the apparent power of judges to ‘INTERPRET’ the law, is also the power to ‘constRUE’ the law –which is to say that besides gleaning meaning from the wordings of the law, judges have an even tougher duty to assemble the disparate elements and spirit of the law in order to ‘constRUCT’ meaning or to discover the intention of the legislature where such is doubtful or where, -by reason of conflicting provision or the absence of provision-, such is not there. I thought that it is not first to ask whether the Constitution PREScribes or PROScribes a particular conduct but maybe better first to ask ‘what in the circumstance is likely or most probably to happen as a result of that conduct’! If –advertently or inadvertently- there is

no written law prohibiting the lighting and smoking of cigarette in gas station, should it then be a right doggedly to be defended in spite of the potentially dangerous consequences doing so is most probably to cause? To hide under a nebulae of constitutional rights and guarantees as justification to deliberately and premeditatedly –even if needlessly- conduct oneself in a manner capable of inciting people to violence or causing a breach of the public peace cannot be one of the intendments of any legal system anywhere in the world! Nor does it matter that those likely to be moved to anger or violence by such provocative conduct have no justification too under the law to be so moved. It is sufficient merely that the provocative conduct is needless in the first place –even if it is lawful- and that it is very likely to incite to violence. And maybe it is the reason that ‘provocation’ is one of the many defenses available in law to a person accused even of murder. Many say that former President Jonathan was equally so derogatorily treated by some APC supporters. Morally-speaking –or arguably legally-speaking too- it was as wrong for any to have done that even then, as it is wrong even now to do so to the incumbent. Nonetheless it would have been operationally absurd if the Police had gone about arresting everyone who had named his dog ‘Jonathan’ as it will also be today, to arrest all who name theirs ‘Buhari’. But if any previously had named his dog ‘Jonathan’ and had engraved that name on both sides of the body of his dog, and if he had deliberately and premeditatedly walked that dog through a community of people he knew predominantly to be either of Jonathan’s ethnic or political extraction, then it would have been incumbent on the Police to have arrested and prosecuted that person. Not necessarily because he merely named his dog ‘Jonathan’ but because in his choice of how to celebrate his pet dog’s ‘naming event’ he had fallen into a conduct within the contemplation of Section 249(1)(d) of the Criminal Code which states that: “every person who, in any public place, conducts himself in a manner LIKELY to cause a breach of the peace, shall be deemed idle and disorderly person, and may be arrested without warrant, and shall be guilty of a simple offence, and shall be liable to imprisonment for one month”. It is thus preposterous citing as the writer did Section 36(12) of the Constitution which states that:“Subject as otherwise provided by this Constitution, a person shall not be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty therefore is prescribed in a written law”, because indeed the offence allegedly committed by Chinakwe does not fall under the category of offences not known to our corpus juris. The writer also cited the case of Nelson Ohanyere v IGP (in which the Supreme Court espoused the test for determining whether a conduct is likely to cause a breach of the peace) and in which Justice Jibowu said “The test to be applied is whether the conduct of the accused was such that a breach of the peace MIGHT REASONABLY have ensued”, adding that “the fact that no breach of the peace, in fact, took place is irrelevant.” It is rather mischievous in the instant case of Chinakwe to suggest that the judgment of ‘reasonable likelihood’ of breach of public peace in the conduct of the alleged offender is hinged merely upon naming his pet dog ‘Buhari’ (which they insist is not known to our laws), and not that he conducted himself in a provocative and inciting manner likely to cause a breach of the public peace. Chinakwe is not being prosecuted for an offence that is not known to law. The offence (not of naming a dog ‘Buhari’) but of ‘conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace is duly ‘defined’ in a ‘written law’, the Criminal Code, and the ‘penalty’ therein expressly prescribed’. To suggest –as the write did- that what Chinakwe did walking a dog he named and tagged ‘Buhari’ in

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FRIDAY September 9, 2016

SPORTS latest

Wikki Tourists still in title race, says Obaje

ikki Tourists forward Godwin Obaje says the club will not give up their chase for a first Nigeria Professional Football League title despite the defeat against Enyimba in Wednesday’s rescheduled matchday 31 fixture. The Bauchi-based side is without a win in their last three games and is three points adrift of leaders Enugu Rangers. They now have four games to actualise their dreams and Obaje insisted the task is achievable. “We are disappointed with the result of the game against Enyimba but we have to move on and regroup ahead of the remaining games this season,” the league top scorer with 18 goals said. “We know it is going to be difficult now but it is a task that is achievable. We must now win our remaining games to achieve our objective.”

Fury rematch fight against Klitschko confirmed

yson Fury’s world boxing heavyweight title rematch with Wladimir Klitschko will take place in Manchester on Oct. 29, the British fighter’s camp confirmed yesterday. Fury ended Klitschko’s 11year unbeaten run on points in Dusseldorf last November to claim the WBO, WBA and IBF belts. “I’m delighted that we can finally get the fight back on. We can now focus on giving the fans what they deserve,’’ Fury’s uncle and manager Peter said on Twitter. Ukrainian Klitschko, who had held the belts since 2006, also confirmed the fight, saying on Twitter that he would avenge his surprise defeat. Fury was stripped of the IBF belt after he failed to face the mandatory challenger.

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QUOTABLE QUOTE “Who is advising the government” I have asked that question before. I want to know so I can talk to the adver... You can’t be in recession because a sector that is 15% of your GDP has declined. What happened to agriculture, trade, services and health? - Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II

Still on the sick economy

have not been able to resist the temptation to serve readers this week an abridged version of a piece I wrote sometime ago titled ‘Of Trust and Economic Growth’. With the recession firmly around now, it appears the priority of every columnist should be the economy, the economy and the economy. But can the economy be in a recession and still be doing well?: Magnus Kpakol, Obasanjo’s Chief Economic Adviser, seemed to have pre-empted this question light years ago. He was the one who explained ‘economic growth’ in terms of ‘any gain -no matter how minuscule- that rolls back on a ‘loss’ situation; some kind of reversal, no matter how infinitesimal, of a decaying economic condition, or an onset of ‘increase’ –however littleeven in a massively declining resource situation. These jargons used to be the preserve of ‘development economists. Not anymore. Matters of economic ‘growth’ and ‘development’ are now so perverse we have all become economists pointing the way to growth or warning about stagnation. Kpakol had argued that even in the most obviously morose situation, a little effort to remedy an economic malady, is counted as ‘growth’ because it is a journey towards ‘healing’. He illustrated this using the fate of a long distance runner who falls off track, into a ditch, but whose every little effort at climbing out is a positive ‘gain’ in the direction of returning back unto winning ways. And so as ‘development’ is a product of ‘plan’ and ‘organization’, so is ‘growth’ a function of ‘progressive exertion’ in the direction that reverses rot. This is without prejudice to the fact that not all ‘change’ is ‘growth’, and not all ‘movement’ is necessarily ‘forward. But sometimes it makes sense to ‘move back’ in order to effectively ‘move forward’. Often it has to get damn bad before it gets better. Things are either in a degenerate (regressive) state, stagnant (dormant) or they are moving forward (growth). It is the difference between drowning, floating or swimming! And it takes a lot of paddling today even to stay ‘afloat’ (stagnant). The situation of Kpakol’s ‘runner’ will be different if as he fell into the ditch he had broken his back and therefore cannot muster any effort towards climbing out. In which case he stagnates and may soon begin to degenerate even into a worse condition. Thus even ‘stagnation’ is still more desirable than ‘retrogression’. A ‘no-growth’ situation is better than a state of decay. We managed to ‘swim’ under Obasanjo. We paddled hard to stay ‘afloat’ under Yaradua. But under Jonathan, the ship of State had gathered so much moss, it was already ‘drowning’. We had slipped off the cliff already and could not have landed in one piece without a shattered carapace. And now is the time to put our broken pieces together and move on. But even that cannot be done without some pain!

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FRIDAY Column WITH Mohammed Adamu (08035892325 sms only)

dankande2@gmail.com There will be pain when the doctors apply the methylated spirit. There will be more pain in fact when the surgeons put their knives and pincers to work. Growth for us is that we have transited from a profligate Jonathan regime -even if- to a frugally prudent Buhari administration. Growth for us is that we have virtually put a stop to humongous theft, mismanagement, waste and leakages in the administration of the Commonwealth. Growth for us is that we are on the path of ‘regeneration’ –no matter how slowly so- and no longer in the throes of rot or decay. In fact ‘growth’ for us is that our pain today pleasantly comes from the healing hands of a physician we can trust, namely Buhari and not from the cursed fangs of a rabid canine that had afflicted us all, namely Jonathan.. American Economist, Arthur Burns once on a visit to Israel in the 70s said he asked that country’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion how Israel was able to ‘grow’ and ‘develop’ her economy in the absence of basic natural resources and on the bare backs of a barren desert. And Arthur Burns said that Ben Gurion said: “We did it first by dreaming, then by doing what the economists said was impossible” –which is a euphemism for saying ‘we jettisoned established theories of macro and micro economics and we tried previously untried ideas’. It is like saying we rebelled against the grain of economic norms and we created for ourselves new norms. And Singapore’s late President, Lee Kuan Yew, when he was asked about the economic and technological ‘miracle’ that he brought about in his country, denied that there was actually any miracle. Simply he said: “We did a few things right and we kept doing them right” –which is also another way of saying simply ‘we gambled, but we were sincere enough in our ‘gamble’ to jettison what was wrong and to hold on to that which was right. The Israelis have proved Arthur Burns right in his treatise on ‘national economies’ where he wrote: “the human element” is a basic ingredient in the creation of virile, vibrant and stable economies. And the ‘human element’ which he said consists mostly of the dreams, fears, and hopes of a people, is often capable of upsetting even “the most expert calculations”. It took sincere ‘trial and error’ not the ‘expert calculations’ of sophistic, hair splitting, doctrinaire economists for Israel and Singapore to get it right.

NOW THAT RECESSION IS HERE There is no debate about the definition of ‘recession’. Economists say that it is a ‘persistent combination of high inflation, severe unemployment, and sluggish economic growth’. When the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, (or the total value of goods and services produced in a country over a period of time), declined for two consecutive quarters, the economy is said to be in a recession. But away from textbook definitions, there are varying ways by which many have explained what it means to be in a ‘recession’. Someone said that the Nigerian economy –like an accident victim- is in a ‘knocked down’ situation, bleeding profusely from all conceivable openings. First you have to stop the bleeding, and then –if the victim has lost so much blood- give him some more. Another economist used an engineering metaphor of ‘engine failure’. He said that all the engines that drive the Nigerian economy have shut down – and are in need of urgent re-ring or outright replacement. A sudden slump in the economy’s cash cow –namely oil, has occasioned poor revenues; and a persistent energy crisis has resulted in businesses hemorrhaging and beginning to shut down! But there is another metaphor which conveys a more poignant picture of ‘recession’ in an economy -the metaphor of the ‘benevolent burglar’. I conceived it from a paraphrase of Jennifer Patterson’s jive about ‘every house in town being so miserably broke these days even burglars fear they might be persuaded instead to leave a tip’. And so if the bigger masquerade ‘depression’, is an advanced stage of ‘recession’, one can only pray that we may never experience a ‘depression’ besides what the textbooks have said it is –namely ‘a period characterized by low production, low sales and a high rate of business failures and unemployment’. By the way if houses get so broke in a ‘recession’ burglars might be persuaded to turn ‘benevolent givers’, it is left to the imagination what they will do in a ‘depression’. I have not seen yet any economic literature anywhere titled ‘How to get out of a recession without pain’; -without ‘weeping and wailing and mourning and gnashing of teeth’. Nor have I seen yet any economic combat kit on ‘How to avoid a ‘depression’ without lifting a finger’. There is one thing economists say

that money CANNOT buy, and that is ‘poverty’. But this theory has been clinically debunked by us because we have at last successfully used our petrodollars to buy us a most biting ‘poverty’ -called ‘recession’. We have always taken everything for granted. We had it going so very well in the sixties that Gowon was said to have boasted ‘the problem of Nigeria was not money but how to spend the money’. And we were so bigotedly self-harming only recently we cheered Jonathan as he loaded a jet with our petro-dollars crisscrossing the length and breadth of this country bribing to get reelected. And now even as we harangue a conservatively puritan –or should we say spartanly punitive- Buhari, to right the economic wrongs of his forbears, we still cheer and defend those whose acts and omissions brought us at death’s door! We are all guilty one way or another; those who destroyed the economy and those who supported those who destroyed the economy; those who watched the economy being destroyed and those who are vehemently opposed –even now- to every effort at rebuilding the economy. We cannot eat our cake and then have it. We have all played a part in the ruination of the economy. And we must all be ready to pay for it! If stupidity got us here, we must decide what should take us out: ‘stupidity’ or ‘common sense’? People ask ‘how soon can we get out of the ‘recession’?’. I think as soon as we rise up to avert a ‘depression’. Rohatyn, one of the men credited with saving New York City’s economy from its fiscal crisis of the mid seventies –a crisis deeper than America’s recession of the 80s-, said “We did it by being ruthlessly realistic about the mess we were dealing with and (in fact) by assuming, quite correctly, that when things look very bad, they usually turn out to be worse than they look”. Weighing the menace more serious than it seems. Rohatyn Continue on page 47

DAN GAYE Again military warns Niger Delta Militants - News

A word is enough for the wise

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