THE NATION THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2012
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NEWS
Students’ leader dies in Ondo By Damisi Ojo, Akure
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• Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun (second right); Deputy Governor Segun Adesegun (second left); House of Assembly Speaker Suraj Ishola Adekunbi (left); and chairman of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Alhaji Tajudeen Bello, at a meeting of ACN leadership with the party’s chairmanship and councillorship candidates in Abeokuta...yesterday
Why we set up Security Trust Fund, by Ajimobi O YO State Governor Abiola Ajimobi has said his administration set up a security trust fund to assist the police and other security agencies to maintain peace, order and security. The fund will be launched today at the Ibadan Civic Centre at 11am. The governor said though the state has been comparatively peaceful, the security challenge confronting other states made it imperative for his administration to take proactive steps to avert likely breaches. In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Festus Adedayo, the governor noted that daily security challenges, including incessant armed robbery, burglary, rape and clashes of miscreants in adjoining states, prompted the administration to prepare for a secured environment that would make security breaches impossible. He said: “The …Security Trust Fund is targeted at leveraging on the symbiotic relationship between the public and private sector in combating a common menace of increasing security challenge. “Overtime, the public and private sectors and their runners have come to find out that violence, in whatever disguise - whether in the form of armed robbery or a general state of disorder - combines to shut down public peace and thus stifles business, if it doesn’t totally grinds it to a halt.” The governor described security as a joint enterprise
Dangote, Tinubu, others for fund’s launch today
USINESS mogul and President of Dangote Group of Industries, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; the Chairman of Honeywell Group, Mr. Oba Otudeko; and the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji AbdulAzeez Arisekola Alao, are among the dignitaries expected at the launch of the Oyo State Security Trust Fund today. Others are: the National Leader of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; ACN National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, traditional rulers, captains of industry, bank chiefs and leaders of organisations. The Nigerian Army, the Navy, Air Force, the police, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency
(NDLEA), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), the State Security Service (SSS), as well as the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) are also expected to be represented at the occasion. A statement yesterday in Ibadan, the state capital, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Dr. Festus Adedayo, said the fund is the brainchild of the Abiola Ajimobi administration. The statement reads: “Although Oyo State has not witnessed any major security challenge since the advent of this administration, the cases of security challenges being faced by many of the adjoining states, as recorded in the media, gave birth to this proactive inclination of the government...”
By Emmanuel Oladesu,
combating crimes. More essentially, because of this poor funding from the Federal Government and the neglect of policing over the years, provision of modern equipment has proven terse or unavailable. “Though the task of securing the environment is at the core of police duties, equally fundamental problems beg for its attention. Chief among this is the implosion in the Nigerian
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Deputy Political Editor
involving the government and other stakeholders. He assured that the initiative would bear good fruits. Ajimobi said: “What further makes the idea of a Security Trust Fund imperative is the apparent paucity of funds accruable to the police and other security apparatuses from the Federal Government in
population, which calls for more sophisticated equipment and greater funding of the security of the citizens. These make the need for government and organisations of like minds to come together as a group to fund crime-combat appealing, necessary and urgent. “The challenges of policing in society thus conspire to make the police seemingly incapable or unable to address the problem of constant security challenges that are witnessed in the society. A security trust fund will thus go a long way in safeguarding our society and putting the security apparatus in good stead to fight crimes. “From the security survey done by the Oyo State Government, it was discovered that the challenge of the security agencies in the state is not that of incapability to deal with the menace of security challenges, but essentially paucity of equipment, as it relates to logistics, mobility, communications, kitting and allied needs. “On the part of the state government, the fund budgeted for or available for the provision of security is also not limitless. As a government that is committed to uplift the people and has sworn to restore the lost glory of the state, and considering the meager resources at its disposal, the task of securing the environment is quite daunting, even though not surmountable.”
Pupils sing for Mandela at 94 Continued from page 1 opened a new library for the NoMoscow Primary School in Qunu, ahead of his meeting with Mr Mandela. He told the children - believed in the future and not the past. “When I think about Mandela I always think about someone committed to the future,” Clinton said. US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, also paid tributes to Mr Mandela. The US first couple hailed Mr Mandela’s “extraordinary life and steadfast commitment to the principles of democracy and reconciliation”. Mandela’s birthday is traditionally celebrated with the poor communities receiving help from those who are more fortunate.
To celebrate the number of years Mr Mandela spent in public life, people are encouraged to spend at least 67 minutes of their time helping those who are less fortunate. The guest list for a private lunch with Mr Mandela was kept a closely guarded secret. South Africans celebrated with giant cakes, mass renditions of “Happy Birthday” But beyond the mawkish tributes to South Africa’s first black president, the day revealed the unseemly scramble among companies, politicians and charities for a slice of the reflected glory of “Madiba”. The ANC released a 1,450 word eulogy to its totemic former leader, exhorting the country’s 50 million people to “continue to
build the South Africa of Madiba’s dreams”. Yet only last week, anti-apartheid heroine and Mandela ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was accusing the ANC in a leaked letter of “shabby treatment” of the family and wanting to wheel them out only “when we have to be used for some agenda”. The “67 minutes” Mandela Day charity push has also re-opened old wounds amid criticism it is merely a vehicle for whites and the newly rich black elite to assuage the guilt of living at the top of what remains one of the most unequal societies, even 18 years after the end of apartheid. Leading the charge was Luther Lebelo, head of an ANC branch in Johannesburg, who wrote an article in the Sowetan newspaper suggesting the day was about “little
cosmetic charity activities” that only served to perpetuate class divisions. The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, as the official guardians of his image are known, hit back in the same paper, taking particular exception to Lebelo’s reference to the “so-called Mandela Foundation”. The jibe reflects a view widely held among South Africa’s overwhelming black majority that whites have managed to co-opt Mandela and his image since the first all-race elections in 1994. The Mandela centre has also become embroiled in a commercial battle with members of his family over the selling of Mandelabranded clothing via its ‘46664’ fashion range, named after the number he was given during his 27 years in prison.
HE Vice-President of the Ondo State chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Aremo Gbenga Oyebode (aka Ibile), is dead. He was a student of the Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), Owo, Owo Local Government of Ondo State. The late Oyebode reportedly died at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owo. He was among the students who were injured in last weekend’s accident on the Emure-Ile/Owo Road when they were returning from Abuja after giving Governor Olusegun Mimiko the association’s award as Best Governor. Three of the students’ leaders died instantly. They are: Awopegba Oluwaseun, President of Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA); Akintola Abiodun, President, Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), Ondo; and Oyinkan Olotu of Ondo State School of Midwifery, Akure. The Nation learnt that the late Oyebode, a native of Idepe in Okitipupa Local Government Area, died of alleged neglect. The late students’ leader, it was learnt, lost too much blood and there was not enough fund to give him blood transfusion. Some hours before his death, one of Oyebode’s friends, Soji Akodu Asiwaju wrote on his facebook wall: “Gbenga Oyebode (Ibile) NANS Vice President (External Affairs) needs blood urgently at FMC, Owo. “He is “O” Positive (universal donor) I am told. If you are in Owo or anywhere near, please save his life by donating blood to him. God will reward you as you do this. Please, broadcast until it gets to people that can help! Please, call 08109949294 for details.” However, the late 400-Level English Language student reportedly died few hours later. The FMC Public Relations Officer (PRO) Olu Yusuf said he could not give details on the death because he was not aware of the latest development. He said: “Please, give me time to check from the ward. I will get back to you thereafter for confirmation.”
Amosun hailed for redeploying Youth Corps members From Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta
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HE National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS) yesterday hailed the Ibikunle Amosun administration for redeploying National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members from the state from serving in volatile parts of the North. The students also hailed the state’s lawmakers for advising the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice to seek a court order that would compel the NYSC authorities to pull Ogun indigenes from Jos, the Plateau State capital, and other trouble spots in the North. Addressing reporters in Abeokuta, the state capital, NAOSS President Nurain Olatunbosun said the carnage in the North, amid Federal Government’s seemingly ineffectiveness in arresting it, is frightening. He noted that the governor’s steps to save the young graduates should be commended. Olatunbosun said: “The state government is being sensitive to the plight of brothers and sisters up there in the North. We, Ogun State students in tertiary institutions across the country, are worried about the violence and waste of lives in the North. “It is in this perspective we commend the Ogun State Government for showing concern for our NYSC members in some parts of the country. No one has the right to take the life of other, especially the lives of innocent people.” The students’ leader urged youths in the state, particularly students, to remain law-abiding and avoid being used by “selfserving politicians” to perpetrate “violence or act capable of subverting the electoral process” during the Saturday Local Government elections in Ogun State.
‘Our members still in ACN’ By Damisi Ojo, Akure
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GROUP in Ondo State, Ilaje Democratic Forum (IDF), yesterday said none of its members has defected to either the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the ruling Labour Party (LP). In a statement by its leaders - Nimbe Tawose, Arowolo Ebiwano, Oluyide Mekuleyi and Segun Enikanologbon – the group said its members are intact. It described the rumour as a deliberate attempt by some disgruntled elements to cause disaffection between its members and the leadership of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The statement said it was the unanimous decision of IDF members in the state to work for the success of ACN governorship candidate, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), in the October 20 governorship election. It explained that some ACN members, who defected to the PDP last week, were not members of IDF. The group said it would soon begin house-to-house education of voters on why they should vote for ACN. Reaffirming its commitment to the party’s victory at the poll, the group leaders urged the residents to see ACN as the only party with genuine programmes that would liberate the state from the shackles of economic hardship. “We have not lost any of our members in the state to either the PDP or LP. Those behind the rumour are doing so deliberately to cause a crisis between us and ACN,” the statement added.