February 13, 2015 by The Nation

THE NATION FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015

NEWS Grand Oak hosts Valentine Party

S lovers brace up to celebrate another St. Valentine Day, Grand Oak Limited a leading marketer of alcoholic and non-alcoholic brands in Nigeria is inviting all and sundry to enjoy a romantic evening at Kingsize Bar and Restaurant, 75b Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun tomorrow by 6pm. The event, which is sponsored by Swagga Bitters, Apperito and Calypso Slim Coco all brands of Grand Oak Ltd is sure to be a thrilling evening. Couples stand a chance to be rewarded with special baskets of love filled with chocolates, cakes, rose flowers, Swagga bitters, Apperito and Calypso Slim Coco. The celebration which is in the spirit of the season is the company’s way of identify-

ing with the passion of its teaming target audience by sharing with them while adding glamour and grandeur to their celebration during this season of affection. The brand has relaunched Calypso Slim Coco Pack and Swagga Bitter Variant into the market. Grand Oak Limited is a marketing and distribution company of Lexcel Group. Its flagship brand, Seaman’s Schnapps firmly connects with Nigeria’s numerous cultures and values. Some of its other brands include Calypso Coconut Liqueur, Dark Sailor Rum, Regal Dry Gin, Lord Dry Gin, Bacchus Tonic Wine, St Lauren and the Swagga variant which has steadily enjoyed patronage from consumers and trade alike.

Odu’a Investment to make 250% turnover

HE Group Managing Director of Odu’a Investment Company Ltd (OICL), Mr. Adewale Raji, has reiterated the firm’s vision to make a target of 250 per cent turnover in the next five years. He spoke on Wednesday when opening a retreat organised for the management of one of its subsidiaries, WEMABOD Estates Ltd, at Premier Hotel, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. Raji said: “I will say the company at its inception has been maintained solely for the heritage of the Yoruba. What is important is that when you have a change of leadership, the company should move to the next level. “Our focus is that we should go to the next level and we are at that level by bringing out new things that the Yoru-

From Tayo Johnson, Ibadan

ba will be proud of and also for the benefit of our people. We are making the turnover move to 250 per cent in the next five years. This is our target. “With the kind of ambition we have, with the 250 per cent turnover increase, we realise we have to do new things to achieve our target.” He said to achieve its target, OICL ventured into a partnership with a Spanish construction company, TODO Construction. Added he: “This is to form a joint venture of 50-50 per cent ownership by both parties to sell, import and market in Nigeria ceramic, tiles, bathroom finishes as well as bath, shower, cubicles, Jacuzzi, doors, frames, among others.”

Will Jonathan postpone Nigeria? •Continued

from Back Page

And he would even postpone our lives, if it required that to hang on to power - not minding the huge costs, individual and corporate, to the nation. If only he could adjourn Nigeria sans his presidency, what a great magical world it would be. This distortion, this abrupt dis-alignment of our very lives brings up pictures of Babangida calling off the June 12, 1993 election mid-victory; it reminds me of Abacha’s tanks on the streets of Lagos chasing and killing protesting Nigerians; it brings back the picture of Obasanjo bribing lawmakers with tens of millions of naira to twist the constitution in his favour. I am reminded once again of those bleary days when Nigeria was a pariah state and all the countries of the world condemned her leaders and kept them at arm’s length; away from the conclave of decent people. It was the foolish, heady days of Abacha when he thought he could do whatsoever he wanted with Nigeria and the citizenry and get away with it. But the world ostracised him and it was only a question of time. So, so sad that Jonathan contemplated that road to perdition in today’s world. Defying the will of the people and the world community, he has forced the abrupt adjournment of a poll that had been on the card for four years. Who would tell him that it is a failure of his government that this election is deferred; it is an injury to his office as commander-in-chief that his service chiefs had the temerity to declare that they could not guarantee security after a year of a scheduled election and he did not or could not summarily dismiss them all if truly that excuse was not his contrivance Elders with new-found virility This presidency needs no advice anymore; this presidency seems far gone, lost and irredeemable. But the greater tragedy is that most of the elders have gone too. Having acquired a new-found virility, when they are not taking young new wives, they are drumming the drums of war. Elders who are at the departure lounges of their lives are drinking the strong wine of perdition and seeking to leave the country in a ruble. How could elders like EK Clark, Alex Ekwueme, Ayo Ladigbolu, Chukwuemeka Ezeife and Walter Ofonagoro ask that INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, should resign this late in the day? When he conducted the elections in 2011 and it favoured Jonathan, it was okay. Today he is not good enough and each day a man on such a serious national assignment is ridiculed and blackmailed? Now who will tell Jonathan that losing an election is not the end of life? Who will admonish him that it is better to lose an election than to lose your honour, your soul and your country? Who will call him back from the road to Golgotha? What more to say than to inform our dear President that all the fellows before him who trod this path never ‘returned’: at least not in one piece. He must ask Babangida, Abacha, Shonekan and Obasanjo; if only he could learn from their folly.

•His Excellency, Prince Eze Madumere (MFR), Deputy Governor of Imo State exchanging pleasantries with Prince Tony Momoh, BoT member of All progressives Congress during BoT meeting earlier in the afternoon at APC headquarters, Abuja.

Impeachment plot against Elechi thickens

HERE was tension in Ebonyi State yesterday, following moves by prominent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders to instigate the House of Assembly to impeach Governor Martin Elechi. The leaders accused the governor of anti-party activities, adding that he has encouraged his supporters to defect from the PDP to the Labour Party (LP). The PDP chieftains, led by Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Pius Ayim, on Wednesday secured the approval of the national PDP caucus to sanction the governor for the decimation of the Ebonyi chapter. A party source said the former Senate President complained to President Goodluck Jonathan that Elechi will be an obstacle to the PDP’s victory at the general elections because he has turned his back against the party. The SGF has been having sleepless nights, following the mass defection to the LP, a move that is believed may jeopardise the chance of the party at the polls. There has been a running battle between Elechi and Ayim over the control of the chapter. On January 16, the governor was booed at the Abakaliki Township Stadium during the presidential campaign, to the embarrassment of the President and other dignitaries. According to the source, the disgrace was orchestrated to give the impression that the governor is not popular in the state. He added: “PDP leaders, who are against Governor Elechi, are pushing for his impeachment because they see it as the ultimate guarantor of the PDP victory in the elections. The Abuja-based anti-Elechi forces are working on the members of the House of Assembly to ensure the non-passage of the 2015 Appropriation Bill. Other actions against the governor are in the pipeline. They want to cut the governor’s influence, especially the incumbency power.” The governor was not present at the Abuja caucus meeting where Ayim pressed for sanctions against him. However, mixed reactions trailed the SGF’s proposals. The impeachment slot was opposed by the President,

By Emmanuel Oladesu

who noted that the time was not auspicious. A source said despite the President’s objection, Ayim has intensified his lobby to remove Elechi in the belief that by the time the plan is executed close to the elections, the President would be too engrossed in his re-election battle. The source added: “The SGF’s confidence may have been buoyed by what happened on November 27, last year during which the President took a decision with some high ranking officials of the government and the party to postpone primaries in Ebonyi, Taraba, Adamawa and Ondo states, pending the resolution of the problems in those states. Some vested interests flouted the order and conducted the primaries in Ebonyi State and the outcome was accepted and the President did nothing. Ayim is apprehensive that it will be difficult for PDP to win the election in Ebonyi while Elechi remains the governor”. Party sources said the declaration of the seats of four members of the Assembly loyal to Elechi vacant on the same day the caucus meeting was holding in Abuja was to set the stage for the impeachment. Another chieftain, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “The whole essence of the action is to whittle the number of proElechi and to get the constitutionally-stipulated number of anti-Elechi members to successfully initiate impeachment proceedings” The Speaker, Mr. Chukwuma Nwazunku, on Wednesday declared the seats of the four members vacant, following their defection to the LP. Nwazunku said in a statement that he has the consti-

tutional right to declare their seats vacant. The affected legislators are Eni Uduma Chima, (Afikpo South West); Helen Nwaobashi (Abakaliki South); Sam Nwali (Ikwo North) and Mabel Aleke (Ohaukwu South). However, many stakeholders have risen in defence of the governor, saying he was being blackmailed and witch-hunted by the SGF. A group, the Ebonyi Patriotic Coalition (EPC) alleged that Ayim was instigating the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Ebonyi State government. At a news conference in Abuja on Monday, Ebonyi government officials complained about the freezing of the accounts of the local governments by the anti-graft body on the grounds that its funds are used to fund the LP. The Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Dr. Ben Igwenyi, and the Commissioner for Commerce, Dr. Ifeanyi Ikeh, said: “There is a spate of frivolous petitions against state government officials in charge of finance. In the last three weeks, the Accountant-General, Mr. Edwin Igbele; the Commissioner for Finance, Timothy Odaah and the Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Celestine Nwali; have been guests of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). “The allegations against them being that some local government funds, which were legitimately spent in 2012 and 2013, were unlawfully spent. These are all lies because the documents are there to speak for themselves. Even without hearing from the above three officers, the joint accounts of the 13 local governments were frozen by EFCC, contrary to Section 34(1) of EFCC Act 2004.

“The joint accounts of local governments were frozen when there was no evidence of the money being proceeds of corruption. We have it from grapevine that the Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, was instructed to do what he did by the Secretary to Government of the Federation who is from Ebonyi State. “As we address you now, there is another petition from the same group pending at the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offence Commission (ICPC) over the same frivolous allegations. We will not be surprised if there is another one pending at the IGP’s office against state officials, all aimed at destabilising the state government”. The political crisis in Ebonyi State stemmed from the conflicts, which followed the PDP primaries in November last year between those loyal to Elechi, who backed the former Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu and those loyal to the Deputy Governor, Dave Umahi, who is being supported by the SGF. This led to the defection of the majority of Elechi’s supporters from the PDP to the Labour Party. Since then, Elechi has been campaigning for President Jonathan’s reelection without extending similar support to other candidates of the PDP in the state. The move to remove Elechi has polarised the state along ethnic lines. Those from Abakaliki bloc where Elechi hails from and, who are in the majority, are spoiling for war against party chieftains from a section of Afikpo zone, the birth place of Umahi. Many are of the view that the governor deserves respect because of his age and popularity among the people.

UN names Edo monarch Peace Ambassador

HE United Nations (UN)-POLAC has appointed the Okumagbe of Weppa-Wanno Kingdom, Edo State, His Royal Majesty, Dr. George O Egabor, as an Ambassador of Peace. The honour is in recognition of the monarch’s leading role in ensuring lasting peace in Nigeria and globally, His Excellency, Dr. Egabor, who is the Pro –Chancellor of Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, and also the Chair-

man of Pharchem Industries Limited, Lagos, is a recipient of the Order of the Niger (OON) and Justice of Peace(JP)for over two decades. Speaking on the UN honour, the monarch said “The UN award is a huge challenge given the rising cases of insurgency and insecurity in Nigeria which is threatening peace in the country. “I will work more conscientiously with individuals and corporate organisations charged

with the duties of ensuring enduring peace in Nigeria, which is necessary for unity and progress’’ In a statement by Mr. Michael Martin Nkemakolam the General Manager / Chief Operating Officer of Pharchem Industries Limited Ilupeju who is also a senior aide to Dr. Egabor, said the appointment was made pursuant to the declaration of the United Nations Resolution 53/15 of November 20, 1997.