Arms probe: Dasuki set to name more beneficiaries

...towards a better life for the people

**

VOL. 25: NO. 62649

Lagos-Ibadan Road: Court sets aside fresh agreement

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

Harder times here next year, ministers warn, as fuel subsidy goes in 2016 8 10

Arms probe: Dasuki set to

name more beneficiaries

•Pleads not guilty to fresh charges •Ex-Head of State, ex-president demanded, got 2 exotic SUVs •Dokpesi gets N400 million bail

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North, & Ikechukwu Nnochiri

A

BUJA — AS details of huge funds disbursed by the Office of the National Security Adviser under Col. Sambo Dasuki continue to surface, indications emerged last night that the embattled security czar is set to expose more top Nigerian leaders who benefited from the funds.

A source close to the former NSA, who was

Continues on Page 5

Olu of Warri assures subjects, neighbours of peaceful reign ARMS PROBE—Former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), leaving the Federal High Court in Abuja, after being arraigned on fresh charges, yesterday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

Biafra: Rights group drags Justice Army/Shiites clash: I escaped by Ademola to NJC over Kanu's 14 the will of God — BURATAI detention 15 El-Zakzaky, wife in our custody — ARMY How I was drugged, raped, persecuted, fired from Air Force,

by Igbobi Uzezi, Air Police See Inside C M Y K

P.17

P.20

FEMI ARIBISALA

YINKA ODUMAKIN

Goodluck Jonathan was an exceptional president

Nigeria: This inconclusive country!

COLUMNISTS:

NIGER DELTA VOICE

FG to scrap stalled oil projects to cut costs 9

12

Mr & Mrs

2 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 — 3

C M Y K

4 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—5

POCKET CARTOON duties and calling for his head actually benefitted immensely from the security vote, which was domiciled in his office.

The truth of the matter is that all over the world security votes are used for various reasons to bring about national peace and stability and Dasuki could not have done otherwise,” his aide said.

Dasuki, others plead not guilty to fresh charges FACILITY TOUR—From left, Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika; Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and Acting DirectorGeneral of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Haruna Baba Jauro, during the facility tour by the Ministerial delegation to NIMASA Resource Centre at Kirikiri, Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye.

Arms probe: Dasuki set to name more beneficiaries Vehicles by the ONSA Continues from Page 1

docked yesterday, told Vanguard that Dasuki who was arraigned yesterday alongside others on a fresh 19count charge was ready to speak up on how the funds earmarked for his office was disbursed with details of top serving and retired Nigerian leaders who benefitted immensely from the money, which is now a subject of litigation.

Meanwhile, former Minister of State, Finance, Bashir Yuguda ,former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, former Director of Finance in the Office of the NSA, Mr. Salisu, Sagir Attahiru and a

company the EFCC insisted was used to divert huge sums of money from the office of the NSA prior to the 2015 general elections, Dahaltu Investment Limited will be arraigned today even as Chairman Emeritus of Daar Communications was admitted to bail yesterday.

Dasuki to expose more

According to the source close to the former NSA, it had become necessary for Dasuki to expose the first in the series of the top beneficiaries, which include former heads of state and presidents, who were bought bulletproof Sports Utility

IT'S UP TO YOU

BY AYO ADIO HERE is a tremendous difference between doing the right thing and doing the bright thing. Achieving good success is about doing the bright thing. It's up to you.

T

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible —Francis of Assisi

I

F YOU want to experience more love, start giving more love. if you want to feel like you’re worth something, start treating yourself as a worthy being, because you most certainly are.

When you change your thoughts, you change your life, you heal the erroneous belief that runs wild in one’s mind about life’s limitations. You become more confident in your abilities to do better and live happier and fulfilled life. You are not controlled by the external things anymore. After all, there is always a step further in life, and even if the circumstances require changes, your joy remains. You can always do better.

SAYINGS OF OUR PEOPLE When a handshake goes beyond the elbow, it may turn to a fight.

with funds approved by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Although Dasuki is keeping the names of the beneficiaries of the car gifts to himself, the source told Vanguard that he was ready to spill the beans at the appropriate time, saying that the list will shock Nigerians.

According to the Dasuki aide, all the former presidents and heads of state got one exotic car from the embattled NSA and they did not find out the source of the funding.

The officer explained that of all the former presidents, one of them who has been very vociferous demanded two of the SUVs from the ONSA, who grudgingly obliged him.

The former head of state, it was gathered, had explained to Dasuki that he needed one of the vehicles to be kept for him in Abuja and another to be stationed in Lagos to ease his movement to the two main Nigerian cities. The officer however refused to give the cost of the exotic cars bought for the former heads of state and president, saying that the details could be obtained from the ONSA. “What is coming will shock Nigerians and many of them will get to know if indeed Dasuki used the money to enrich himself as being bandied in many quarters. As a law-abiding NSA, he had to carry out the instructions handed over to him by the Presidency and nothing more,” the aide said.

“It is also instructive to note that those who are now blaming Dasuki for carrying out his assigned

Meanwhile, Dasuki was arraigned before an Abuja High Court sitting in Maitama yesterday alongside his former Finance Director, Shuaibu Salisu and others on a fresh 19count charge. Dasuki who was accused of allegedly diverting over N13.6 billion from the national treasury had stated clearly that all the funds spent by him were duly approved by former President Jonathan and that he acted at all times in the overall national interest of Nigeria and its peoples.

Others arraigned with them were, former Executive Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Commission, NNPC, Aminu BabaKusa, as well as his companies, Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referal Hospital Limited. The accused persons were alleged to have illegally diverted over N13.6billion from the national treasury.

EFCC told the court that it was the accused persons that supervised the unlawful disbursement of billions of Naira from different bank accounts belonging to the office of the NSA. Bulk of the funds were allegedly withdrawn from an account the office of the NSA operated with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

According to the antigraft agency, the funds were distributed to delegates that attended the presidential primary election the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, held in Abuja in 2014, a process that saw the emergence of exPresident Jonathan as sole presidential candidate of the party.

Part of the allegedly looted funds were said to have been shared to members of the House of Representatives in the PDP to facilitate their reelection bid. The EFCC, among other things, alleged that the sum of N13.570 billion, being money for an “agreement”, between Dasuki and the exDirector of Finance in the office of the NSA, Salisu,

was looted from the national treasury.

They were said to have transferred a total sum of N1.45b to Acacia Holdings Limited’s account for special prayers; N2.1b given to DAAR Investment and Holding Company Limited for publicity; N170m for a fourbedroom duplex; N380m to support reelection of members of the House of Representatives; and N750m paid into Reliance Referral Hospital Limited’s account for special prayers.

Besides, EFCC said its investigations revealed that N670m was paid to an unnamed publisher, N260m transferred to Tony Anenih and N345million traced to a former President of the Senate, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu. The Commission said it has not been able to trace the ex-Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Hon. Waripamowei Dudafa, who it said was “on the run”.

Accused plead not guilty

Nevertheless, all the accused persons, yesterday, pleaded not guilty to the charge, even as Justice Hussein Baba Yusuf fixed today to hear their separate applications for bail.

Prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, had shortly after the accused persons entered their plea yesterday, urged the court to set a date for their trial to commence.

He told the court that he would need time to respond to some of the bail applications he said were just served on him.

On his part, Dasuki’s lawyer, Mr. Ahmed Raji, SAN, said he filed a summon for his client to be released on bail.

“My brother silk just served me a counteraffidavit this morning.

We had discussions with him, subject to my lords' convenience, we shall be asking to return

tomorrow so we can respond to the counteraffidavit. It will also enable the prosecution to respond to bail applications from the other accused persons”, Raji submitted.

By consent of all the lawyers, Justice Yusuf adjourned the matter till today. The accused persons were thereafter returned to the detention facility of the EFCC.

Yuguda, Bafarawa to be arraigned today

In another development, the EFCC, will today arraign former Minister of State, Finance, Bashir Yuguda and former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, before Justice Peter Affen of the same high court.

The duo will be arraigned alongside exNSA, Dasuki, former Director of Finance in the Office of the NSA, Mr. Salisu, Sagir Attahiru and a company the EFCC insisted was used to divert huge sums of money from the office of the NSA prior to the 2015 general elections, Dahaltu Investment Limited.

While granting EFCC leave to dock the accused persons on a 22-count criminal charge, Justice Affen said he was satisfied that there is a prima facie case that established a nexus between the accused persons and the charge before the court, dated December 8.

Earlier, prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, told the court that the accused persons diverted funds budgeted for the fight against terrorism and insurgency in Nigeria. He said the funds were sequentially withdrawn from an account of the office of the NSA with CBN and other financial institutions.

“The funds were diverted for political campaign and shared to third parties who have nothing to do with the NSA”.

Continues on Page 38

6 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—7

ROBBERY: Police arrest soldier, fake naval personnel in Lagos

L

By Faith Ake

AGOS—FOUR fake naval personnel and a soldier were weekend arrested by the Lagos State Police command for alleged armed robbery.

The suspects who were all in military attire were arrested by youths at Ilado area of Lagos State while they were fleeing in a canoe after escaping from police detention and handed over to Ilado Police post, near the Ajakoyi Beach.

said.

Susupect speaks

One of the suspects simply identified as Oche, said: “Well, there is no job in the country. My friend who is an Army Sergeant brought the idea of going to collect money from those doing illegal oil businesses. The sergeant provided me with the uniform

that I am putting on now. I don’t know about others.

Sergeant is the one sharing our loot. I got N50,000 three times but I could not believe it when we were arrested.

“It is true, we escaped from Police cell. We broke through the window protectors. It was while we were escaping through the waterside that we were re-arrested and handed over to SARS.”

Commissioner of Police, Lagos State command, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, said the suspects were rescued from the hands of the mob that attempted to lynch them.

“They were robbing people of their belongings. The people were attempting to lynch them when the Police stormed the place and rescued them. The sum of N380,000 was recovered from the suspect.”

Handed over to SARS

They were later handed over to the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, of the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja.

A resident, Wasiu Omojola, who narrated the incident to Vanguard said: “We are predominantly fishermen but some of us do oil business.

The military personnel used to come around to extort money from us daily. We didn’t even know that they were fake officers. They would come in military uniform. Their leader whom we later realized is an Army Sergeant would dress as an Army Commander. He would gather us and warn that the Army High Command had sent him on a special duty.

“He told us that his group was on joint military operation. He then instructed us to contribute N2 millon for his boss. We were able to raise N500,000. The following day, they prevented us from doing our job, so we had to contribute another N300,000.They still said it was not yet okay with them."

Wasiu Omojola added: “I don’t know how one of us reported the development to Army authorities who said that they didn’t send any team for joint military patrol to our area. When we got the information, we then mobilized against the selfacclaimed joint military patrol.

Extortion and arrest

“When they arrived the following day to resume their extortion, we arrested them.

They did not believe it when we took them to the Police.

We were later informed by the same Police that the suspects escaped from their cell, so we mobilized again and gave them a hot chase. We later arrested them and brought them to SARS.” Police sources said the Nigerian Army has confirmed that the man who claimed to be a Lieutenant is a Sergeant.

“The Army has taken him for court-martial but we have written to the Army that after the trial, that the man should be brought back to the Police for proper prosecution,” he

NABBED: The suspects.

Visa agent in court over N502,000 fraud

O

SOGBO—A 41year-old visa agent, Okotie Alfred, on Monday appeared before an Osogbo Magistrate's Court in Osun for allegedly defrauding Mr Alex Adedunwon of N502,000.

The suspect, whose address was not disclosed in court, is facing a three-count charge of conspiracy, theft and fraud.

The prosecutor, Inspector Abiodun Fagboyinbo, told the court that the accused committed the offences on Feb. 14 at about 3.p.m. in Ota Efun, Osogbo.

The magistrate, Mrs Fatima Sodamade, granted the accused bail in the sum of N500,000 with one surety in like sum.

The magistrate adjourned the case till January 25, 2016 for mention.

Final year student mudered in Ondo varsity

By Dayo Johnson

A

KURE—A part four Psychology student of the Ondo State owned Adekunle Ajasin University, AkungbaAkoko, Olumuyiwa Ewarawon, has been allegedly murdered by a suspected paramilitary organization operating in the University.

While the University authorities responded by proscribing all para-military organizations in the institution, it was reported late yesterday that two of the suspects had been arrested.

The deceased according to report was the only son of his aged mother.

It was gathered that the deceased, who lived in a private hostel outside the school campus, was reportedly attacked by suspected cadet officers.

However, the family of the deceased is insisting that the culprits who allegedly killed their son should be made to face the wrath of the law.

The family in a petition to the Ondo State Commissioner of Police, Mike Ogbodu, filed by the counsel to the deceased’s

father, Chief Goodluck Ibitoye Ewarawon, alleged that Olumuyiwa was attacked in his room at Shanghai Hostel in Akungba by the armed gang of seven boys under the guise of being student cadet officers.

The counsel to the family, Olufemi Meduoye, said: “The armed assailants broke into Olumuyiwa’s room while he was asleep and attacked him, thereafter, brutalized, bruised

Late Olumuyiwa Ewarawon.

and inflicted on him fatal injuries from which he fell into coma.

“The gang dumped Olumuyiwa’s body at the General Hospital, Iwarooka Akoko before good samaritans brought the incident to the attention of the family three days later.”

They said they took the comatose body of Olumuyiwa from the hospital to Trauma

Centre Ondo which instantly referred the case to Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife. The family said the boy never came out of coma and died later in the hospital.

They urged the Commissioner of Police to use his good office to ensure a full investigation of the murder of Olumuyiwa by the suspected Cadet Officers.

Also, they asked the authorities of the institution to look at the activities of some armed gang who operated under the guise of paramilitary to attack members of the public.

The family also asked the security forces and the state government to be alert to the activities of such organizations with a view to protecting the lives of innocent citizens.

The Police Image Maker, Femi Joseph, who confirmed the incident said that the suspect is on the run and that detectives are on his trail.

He, however, assured that the suspect would soon be apprehended and made to face the law court.

8—Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

to effect a further cut on expenditure.

Already, recurrent expenditure is projected to fall from 84 per cent in 2015 to 70 per cent in 2016 while capital expenditure is expected to increase from 16 per cent in 2015 to 30 per cent in 2016.

Harder times ahead, FG alerts Nigerians

LAUNCHING: From left, Noel Tata, Managing Director, TATA International Limited; Naresh Leekha, Regional Director, West Africa, Tata Africa Holdings; Ruchi Ghanshyam,India High Commissioner to South Africa and Amb Ajjampur Ghanshyam, India High Commissioner to Nigeria at the launch of TATA Motors showroom at Tata Africa Service Nigeria Limited, in Lagos yesterday. Photo: Akeem Salau.

Fuel subsidy to go next year As petrol 'll sell for N97 per litre Harder times ahead, FG alerts Nigerians Personnel cost to drop by N100bn FG to fund 2016 N6trn budget with IGR To strictly monitor expenditure of MDAs

By Emeka Anaeto, Economy Editor, Henry Umoru & Joseph Erunke

L

AGOS — FOLLOWING increased pressure on revenue and the expenditure profile, the Federal Government has finally yielded to domestic and international pressures to remove fuel subsidy.

This is coming as crude oil prices hit a seven-year low with global reference crude, West Texas Intermediate and Brent trading yesterday at $34.7 and $36.7 per barrel respectively, effectively disrupting Nigeria’s $38 per barrel benchmark for 2016 budget.

The crash has resulted into about N1.45 trillion shortfall in the value of the projected oil output in the international market based on production target increased in the 2016 plan to 2.2 million barrel per day (mbpd), up from actual 1.9 mbpd in 2015.

On official exchange rate of N198/ $1 upon which the revenue projection was based, the value of the total budgeted oil output is $35.14 billion or N6.95 trillion but with the latest price development, the output would now yield $27.8 billion or N5.5 trillion.

The latest price shock is coming less than a week after the Federal Executive Council, FEC, approved the 2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, which outlined government’s revenue as well as a deficit budget to be funded largely by the oil income.The 2016 budget is

derived from the MTEF which is a three-year fiscal plan.

FG to introduce tougher economic measures Also, the oil price crash was coming at the backdrop of a warning from ministers in charge of the economic ministries and chief executives of federal parastatals in the economy sector that Nigerians should prepare ahead for what it called more austere conditions in view of the strict economic policies being put in place by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The federal executives, who gave the warnings when they appeared before the joint committees of the National Assembly on Finance to defend the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF & FSP, documents presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari are Ministers for Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma; Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and State for Petroleum Resource,Ibe Kachikwu; Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele and Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Babatunde Fowler.

To make the warning real, they disclosed that Federal

Government would move fuel price from N87 to N97 per litre in 2016 while removing fuel subsidy, lamenting that excess of N1 trillion has been paid for fuel subsidy in 2015 alone.

2016 budget deficit to increase With the latest crude oil price development, 2016 budget deficit would increase to about N2.7 trillion from N2.22 trillion, assuming government is able to meet its target of 2.2 mbpd, otherwise the deficit would be much higher.

Also, the development, according to economy analysts, would put more pressure on the external reserves and the exchange rate while forcing the government to resort to more borrowing, thereby increasing both its deficit-to-GDP ratio and debt-to-GDP ratio.

In the 2016 fiscal plan, deficit/ GDP ratio was more than doubled to 2.2 per cent, from actual one per cent as at September 2015.

According to the 2016 fiscal plan, Federal Government would only have a marginally increased contribution from value added tax, VAT, at N67.7 billion in 2016, from N67.5 billion in 2015 while additional inflow of N350 billion is expected to come from misappropriated funds recoveries.

The deficit will necessitate borrowings worth N1.8 trillion of which domestic borrowing is fixed at N1.2 trillion while foreign borrowing is about N600 billion. If the oil price remains gloomy in the coming year borrowings would increase or the government would be forced

The Federal Government had yesterday alerted Nigerians to prepare ahead for the tough economic conditions and policy responses it intends to roll out from next year just as it vowed to strictly monitor expenditure of all Ministries, Department and Agencies, MDAs to avoid wastes.

The Federal Government has also planned to reduce the personnel cost from N1.8 trillion to N100 billion as part of moves to reduce expenditure and save cost.

According to the minister, who appeared at the National Assembly, yesterday, attention would be given to Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, to fund the N6.1 trillion 2016 budget, adding that in 2016, it would remove fuel subsidy and reverse the earlier N10 per litre reduction effected by exPresident Goodluck Jonathan this year.

Speaking at the meeting, Udo Udoma, who noted that it was important that substantial reductions were made on the spending pattern if the expected change must come in, said: “In preparing the MTEF, we seek a dramatic shift from spending on recurrent to spending on capital aspect of the budget. It is going to be tighter for everybody. All non essential expenditure would be cut out. We will reduce the overheads by seven per cent.

“We are beginning a journey of change and change has to start with the clarity of purpose of where we are going.”

On the issue of N500 billion for Social Welfare Programme, Udoma said: “As at the time we were preparing the MTEF, we didn’t have the number and we didn’t want to put in anything that we are not 100 percent sure of. We are still going to relate with relevant agencies on the issue. We are making this arrangement because the NNPC and other stakeholders had advised against subsidy in 2016 although consultations are still ongoing in this regard.”

On sources of funding for the N6.1 trillion 2016 budget, the Budget and National Planning Minister, who disclosed that priority would be given to Internally Generated Revenue ,IGR, said: “We will also look at the accounts of agencies and sweep those surpluses that might not be on essential things that we want to focus on.”

Udoma, however, told the

lawmakers that “ultimately we must borrow N1.8 trillion to fund this budget apart from all those adjustments we are trying to make.”

Strict monitoring of all MDAs Also, Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, who told the joint committee of the National Assembly that expenditure of all MDAs would be strictly monitored to avoid wastes, said government would take steps to ensure that whatever money was being taken from the account of any MDA was done electronically.

The Finance minister, who noted that measures had been put in place to compel revenue generating MDAs to remit all funds they generated to the treasury, said: “The era when an agency generates money and spends 99 per cent of it is over.”

On strategy to reduce costs of governance, the minister said: “The country paid N1.8 trillion in 2015 as personnel cost but there is a strategy in place in the 2016 budget to reduce it by N100 billion. For instance, we are already working with banks so that we can go cashless, so that we could give debit cards to MDAs to procure items.

N1trn spent on subsidy in 2015 Also speaking, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, who disclosed that with NNPC inclusive, Excess of N1 trillion was paid for fuel subsidy in 2015, with plans to move fuel price from N87 to N97 per litre in 2016 as well as total removal of fuel subsidy next year.

On the issue of daily oil production target, Kachikwu said, “From August this year, we have been exceeding two million daily production through stringent monitoring of our production by getting quick fixes to instances of pipelines breaking. The internal projection for our system next year is in excess of 2.4 million which is coming from enhanced and increased production from NPDC field.

"A lot of efficiency had really been applied in this regard. NPDC will for instance be producing 300, 000 barrels on its own while other partners would process at least 2.2m barrels. We would address issues of security and other impediments to the realization of our target. We are looking at a collective and holistic handling of security issues between the NNPC and the oil majors with us taking the lead.

On the oil price benchmark of $38, he said: “The projection at OPEC was along the line of the fact that once we do not interfere in term of production cost will lead to a southward movement in terms of pricing. We expect an increase as from early January when we expect it to go up by $45 to $50 per barrel in spite of OPEC projection.

We expect it to hit $70 per barrel in 2017."

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—9

FG to jettison stalled oil projects to cut costs To mobilise African oil producers to drive price

By Michael Eboh

A

BUJA — The Federal Government, yesterday, said that it would jettison some planned and ongoing oil and gas projects in the country if the unit price of crude oil for such projects fails to hit a set threshold. The Federal Government put the threshold at $20 per barrel.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, made this disclosure at a briefing in Abuja to announce the forthcoming African Petroleum Producers Association’s, APPA, 6th Africa Petroleum Congress and Exhibition (CAPE VI) to be hosted

by Nigeria between March 15 and 17, 2016.

Some of the oil and gas projects that had been stalled include the $20 billion Brass Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project, Olokola LNG, Train 7 of the Nigeria LNG; the $3 billion Funiwa gas project, the multi-billion dollar Nsikko project, Satellite field II, Bonga South West and various pipeline projects among others.

According to Kachikwu, who is also the President of APPA, the Federal Government is engaging with oil majors and other stakeholders and it is being very astute in terms of asset management to trim down costs, adding that it is becoming a bit more preferential in terms of cost, driving the investments that it makes going forward.

He said: “Not all projects that are on the table would see the light of day. If the unit price of oil for such project does not come below a certain threshold, and the sort of threshold we try to set is that below the $20 per barrel mark.

“Quite a lot of production is within the $14 - $15 mark, and those naturally, Joint Venture acreages, but as you go into the Production Sharing Contracts, PSC, they sort of climb and the challenge would be how do you continue those projects, if, ultimately, the price of oil does not justify that?”

Speaking with a common voice

He emphasised the need for oil producing African countries to collaborate and speak with a common voice in pushing forward their interests and agenda and also make significant impact in the quest to ensure stability in the global oil industry.

According to Kachikwu, APPA needs to meet more often, strategise more often and speak with one voice and needs to stop being self-competitive among themselves, adding that effective competition would help bring down costs and help enhance technology.

He said: “You don’t go to OPEC

meetings and get yourselves all depleted into different factions.

We haven’t done that as much as we should. If we continue to do that, we are going to see a lot more respect. The general consensus is that Africa has always been seen like a nonaligned group. You have two main warring factions or positions at OPEC meetings and Africa is always a middle layer that everybody cuts. I think

we need to do more than just sitting aside that hope for people to cut us; we need to enforce our own position.

“We are probably the poorer members of the group; we are the least developed members of the group, we are probably the ones with the least efficiency in terms of the management of our resources. And so, we need to ask to be able to get more. When prices are tumbling, we hurt

probably more than anybody else does, so we need to begin to take that into cognizance in propelling positions for our member countries.”

He further stressed that for oil companies and oil producing countries in Africa to survive the period of instability in the industry, prominence should be given to lean and cost-cutting initiatives.

SWEARINGIN: From left.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Mr Olawale Edun and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu during the swearing in of President Alpha Conde of Republic of Guinea, in Conakry.

MDAs probe: Reps walk out NDDC, NCC teams As MD, Executive Chairmen fail to appear before c'ttee Say diversification of economy, panacea to economic woes

By Emman Ovuakporie & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

A

BUJA—THE House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating alleged fraudulent practice in the collection and management of non-oil revenue remittance by Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, yesterday, walked out the management team of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the National Communications Commission, NCC, for failure of their Managing Director and Executive Chairmen, respectively, to appear in person to give revenue account of their establishments.

The committee has also said that with the present economic situation in the country, the only option to save the economy was to diversify in the non-oil sector.

Speaking at the public hearing attended by the DirectorsGeneral of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, Shola Omale and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, Ladan Saleh, Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Rep Chike Okafor, said with the present

economic reality and the global fall in price of the oil, which produces about 85 percent of the nation’s revenue, there was the need to look at the direction of the non oil sector for revenue generation.

Chike frowned at the absence of the NDDC MD and Executive Chairman of the NCC, stressing that it was not always good for the heads of parastatals to stay away during serious national assignments that could help the country, instead, they preferred to send their subordinates.

He said the committee was interested in strengthening the accounts of the non-oil generating parastatals and organisation to know how much they generate annually, the position of the account balance, and where the revenue generated was domiciled.

He said: “Presently, we are in jeopardy of not being able to fund the 2015 budget largely because we realised too late to prepare for the worst possible outcome.

“When the 2015 budget was being prepared in 2014, it was based on a $65 a barrel of crude oil benchmark in anticipation that come 2015 prices of oil will still hover around $65 to $70. It also based production level at 2.27

million barrels per day in order to effectively execute the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

“The grim reality today is that the above predictions did not stand as prices of crude oil experienced a season of free fall and production levels ranked below two million barrels per day which ultimately resulted in a significant shortfall in revenue generation which has led to a lack of capacity by government to implement budget.”

How to remedy the economy

Explaining that the probe into the revenues of the MDAs would be between 2011 to 2015, Chike said the only remedy to salvage the economy presently in chaotic position was diversification in the non oil sector.

He said: “We note that diversification is the only key to stem the tide of possible economic woes; we need to avoid plunging this nation into serious crisis hence, the need to take a dignified path to getting things in their proper perspective and generating a balance in our revenue drive.”

EFCC re-arrests Akpobolokemi over fresh N12.9bn fraud allegation

By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor

A

BUJA— THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday, re-arrested the former Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, over fresh allegations of fraud to the tune of N12, 905, 485.

The former DG was arrested shortly after his trial was adjourned by Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos, where, alongside five other individuals, he is facing criminal charges to the tune of N2.3 billion.

Akpobolokemi’s arrest was on the strength of fresh evidence that he allegedly converted N11, 737,854,485 and another N816,000,000, meant for the development of the temporary site of the proposed Nigeria Maritime University, Kurutie, Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, for his personal use.

The suspect was said to have obtained a presidential approval of N13, 000,000,000 through the office of the then National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Colonel Sambo Dasuki( retd) for the acquisition and development of a temporary site for the Nigerian Maritime University.

Of the total approved amount, N11,737,854,485 was allegedly paid into a company suspected to be owned by Chief Government Oweize Ekpemupolo, a.k.a Tompolo.

A source in EFCC said that after the said money was paid, the DG caused the sum of N6, 000,000,000 to be moved into another account belonging to one of the associates of the indicted DG. Also, the sum of N816, 000,000, allegedly obtained through a presidential approval for the Voluntary International Maritime Organisation Members State Audit (VIMSAS) implementation in Nigeria, was diverted to Akpobolokemi’s personal use.

From the courtroom, the operatives moved the former DG to their detention centre where he is being quizzed.

10 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15 , 2015

I did'nt get N100m from Dasuki — NWOBODO

2012 SUBSIDY PROTEST: Court jails dismissed DPO 10yrs

By Onozure Dania

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

S

ECOND Republic governor of the Old Anambra State, Senator Jim Nwobodo has denied ever receiving any money from the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA. Nwobodo in a statement made available to Vanguard yesterday nevertheless admitted knowledge of a N500 million campaign package from the immediate past national chairman of the Peoples Democratic, PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu‘azu given to the five Southeast states ahead of the last elections.

Nwobodo who is currently abroad on a medical spoke in response to reported claims by former minister of state for finance, Bashir Yuguda that Nwobodo received N100 million from the funds he, Yuguda got from the ONSA. Besides Nwobodo, Yuguda had reportedly claimed to have given N100 million to the five other chairmen of the Contact and Mobilisation Committee of the PDP for the 2015 general election.

The others mentioned were Amb. Yerima Abdullahi (North-East); Dr. Peter Odili (South-South); Chief Bode George, Southwest, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa (North-West); and Dr. Ahmadu Ali (North-Central).

George has, however, denied the claim.

Nwobodo denied ever meeting the erstwhile National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) and of having met Yuguda only once.

Nwobodo who was chairman of the Southeast zonal PDP presidential campaign committee said that the only money he was aware of was the N500 million received from Mu‘azu as national chairman which he said was explicitly given for campaign in the five Southeast states. The money he said was distributed in equal batches of N100 million to the five states and said he was ready to disclose the channels through who the money was disbursed should it be necessary.

L

AGOS—JUSTICE Olabisi Akinlade of a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere yesterday sentenced a dismissed Divisional Police Officer, DPO, Mr. Segun Fabunmi to 10 years in prison for manslaughter after he shot one Ademola Aderintola Daramola to death during the January 9, 2012 fuel subsidy protest in Lagos.

Justice Akinlade also found Fabunmi, a former Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP, guilty of shooting three other people, Alimi Abubakar, Egbujor Samuel and Chizorba Odoh, during the protest, which caused them grievous bodily harm. She sentenced him to five years on this count, but both sentences

are to run concurrently.

Fabunmi, who resides at 12 Oyewole Street, Ogudu, Lagos, was arraigned on May 5, 2013 by the Lagos State government on a seven-count charge bordering on murder, attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm.

At the time of the incident, the convict was the DPO attached to Pen Cinema Police Station, Agege suburb area of Lagos state.

The convict had led seven other police officers to Yaya-Abatan area of Ogba after he received a distress call that hoodlums at YayaAbatan Junction, Ogba Agege were breaking people’s windscreens and holding innocent people hostage.

The Judge said that though there was indeed a mob at the scene of

the incident, but concluded that he gave conflicting testimonies on whether or how an attempt was made to snatch his AK47 rifle and who fired the weapon.

She also rejected the defence counsel’s argument that the shooting was as a result of an accident when the convict was struggling with the mob to retain possession of his rifle.

Justice Akinlade said that based on the evidence before her Court the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the convict recklessly shot his rifle and in the process the bullet hit the deceased. He definitely knew that shooting an AK47 can cause grievous bodily harm to anyone the bullet hits.

“The fact that he was on a

lawful duty did not mean that he should have shot his gun sporadically.” the Judge said.

The judge further held that the prosecutors Lagos Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Mrs. Idowu Alakija and Assistant Director Mrs. Abiola Adeyinka, satisfactorily proved the offence of murder beyond reasonable doubt but that the evidence provided by the defence team led by Mr. George Oguntade SAN, availed the convict of the defence of provocation, resulting in the lesser charge of manslaughter.

She said: “The defence of provocation will avail the defendant. It is evident that there was no time for his passion to cool before the gun was fired.”

Ambode urges residents to protect govt projects

L

BRIEFING: From left; Mr Olawale Jimoh, Marketing Manager, Dana Motors Ltd; Mrs Nkoli Okoli, Head, Retail Banking group, Skye Bank Plc; Mr Sandeep Malhotra, Chief Commercial Officer, Dana Motors Ltd and Mr Suresh Mordani, Senior Manager, Sales, Dana Motors Ltd during the media briefing of Skye Bank Plc/KIA Motors Super Deal Promo in Lagos. Photo by Kehinde Gbadamosi.

LAGOS-IBADAN EXPRESSWAY: Court sets aside fresh agreement court. The court deprecated the

L

AGOS—A Federal High Court in Lagos has set aside a fresh Concession Agreement on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway reconstruction project. The court stopped the concession until the determination of the main suit.

While delivering his ruling in a suit filed by Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited against the Attorney General of the Federation, the Federal Ministry of Works, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the Infrastructure Bank Plc and Motorway Assets Limited (MAL) on Friday, the Court granted a Mandatory Injunction on the fresh concession agreement, purportedly signed by the defendants on January 16, 2015, as prayed by the Plaintiff/ Applicant.

Among the prayers sought by Bi-Courtney in Suit No. FHC/L/ CS/727/2015 was an Order of Mandatory Injunction setting aside the Concession Agreement granted MAL, over the LagosIbadan Expressway in the form of a Finance, Operate and Trans-

fer arrangement involving the Federal Authorities. The Court held that the grant of the Concession to MAL in the circumstances of the case was a flagrant disregard of the established principles of law.

Bi-Courtney also sought in its application an “Interlocutory Injunction restraining all the Defendants/Respondents, particularly the 1st, 2nd and 5th Defendants/Respondents, from implementing, giving effect to, actualizing, operating or, howsoever, taking any steps or actions whatsoever in furtherance of, or pursuant to, the Concession Agreement dated 16th January 2015, between the 1st, 2nd and the 5th Defendants/Respondents, which purports to grant a concession over the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the form of a Finance, Operate and Transfer arrangement to the 5th Defendant, pending the hearing and d determination of the substantive suit herein.”

Just before delivering the ruling, the defendants sought to prevent the Court from delivering the said ruling by filing an application in

attempt to arrest its ruling and proceeded to deliver the said ruling and granted “an order of mandatory injunction…setting aside the Concession Agreement dated 16th January 2015 between the 1st, 2nd and the 5th Defendants/ Respondents, which purports to grant a concession over the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in n the form of a Finance, Operate and Transfer arrangement to the 5th Defendant.”

AGOS—GOVERNOR Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State yesterday, charged residents to take ownership of every government projects located in their communities and ensure a conducive environment for businesses to thrive.

The Governor, who stated this while handing over 33KV electrical sub-station at the Gberigbe Piggery Farm and a Community Hall in Gberigbe, Ikorodu Local Government Area of the State, said the change mantra of the present administration must be carried beyond rhetoric as it starts with the people who are the real agent of change.

While reiterating that his administration is that of continuity with improvement and better performance, Ambode assured residents of improved inclusive and community-driven projects so as to take advantage of the synergy and complimentary role of the grassroots for viable and sustainable development in the state.

Gani Adams to Nigerians: Embrace your culture hundreds of the members of the

By Iyabo Aina

L

AGOS—THE coordinator of Oodua People’s Congress, Gani Adams, has urged Nigerians to embrace their cultural values and heritage.

He said this during the celebration of Elegbara festival, in Shasha area of Lagos State, where members of the Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, celebrated the festival with

community.

Speaking on reasons for the celebration, the elated Adams said. “With what we are doing here today, we are correcting the erroneous belief that Elegbara is competing with God, while he was in heaven, but he was remorseful and sought for forgiveness from God and was forgiven and later sent down to the earth and given a great task.”

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 — 11

Aregbesola presents N150.7bn 2016 budget

By Gbenga Olarinoye, with Agency report

O

SOGBO—THE Governor of Osun State, Mr Rauf Aregbesola yesterday presented the 2016 draft budget of N150.7 billion to the State House of Assembly for consideration and approval.

The budget was presented on behalf of the Governor by the Permanent Secretary, Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Segun Olorunsogo at the plenary session.

The proposed budget size is reduced by 25.3 per cent of the 2015 budget, which stood at N201.7 billion.

The draft had the recurrent expenditure of N82,744,396,580.00, representing 54.9 per cent and capital expenditure of N67,983,848,960.00, representing 45.1 per cent, while it has the recurrent revenue of N113,185,677,170.00 and capital receipt of N37,542,568,370.00.

In a letter read by the Deputy Speaker, Akintunde Adegboye who presided over the plenary notifying the Assembly on his

By Joseph Erunke

A

AWARD: From left; Marketing Manager, Kasapreko Company Nigeria Limited, Mr. Peter Adegor; Wholesale Manager, Kasapreko Company Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Jennifer Nwodo; a winning wholesaler, Uche Osy, Mr Uchenna Oyibo; and Key Distributor, Mr. Paschal Chiegboka, during the prize award ceremony for Kasapreko Trade Promotion, in Lagos. approval for the presentation of the budget, the governor said the proposed budget reflected the economic realities of the state and Nigeria in general.

He said the economic situation prevented the state from effective implementation of

the 2015 budget, saying this would compel the state to be more pragmatic in its revenue drive as the present situation could not cater for the revenue plan of the state.

The governor then pleaded with the Assembly not to give

consideration to any Ministry, Department and Agencies of government towards increasing the proposed budget figure due to dwindling revenue available to the state, noting that the budget has already been over stretched.

Federal staff decry three months unpaid salaries, others

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

L

AGOS—STAFF of Federal Ministries of Education, Information, Trade and Investment, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation,

among other Ministries, Departments and Parastatals, MDAs, have raised alarm over unpaid salaries and other benefits since October, and called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to

TRANSPARENCY AWARD: APC accuses Afe Babalola of misinformation

T

HE All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State, has accused legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola of misleading the public on the budget transparency award honour given to Ekiti State by the Civil Resource Documentation Centre, CIRDDOC, a civil society group that conducted budget appraisal and transparency tests among all the 36 states of the federation on 2014 budget implementation.

The party said the Senior Advocate of Nigeria was wrong to have continued to praise Governor Ayodele Fayose in the media for winning the award even though CIRDDOC’s award was on the basis of 2014 budget appraisal, noting that it was former Governor Kayode Fayemi that drafted and implemented 2014 budget up to October of 2014.

The party said it was therefore “a height of mischief to take honour from whom it is due and hang it around the neck of another fellow who holds honour in contempt as could be seen in all Fayose’s official engagements”.

In a statement by the Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the C M Y K

There are obnoxious sections in social media bill, says Saraki

party said that it would not have responded to the lawyer’s claim in the media praising Fayose for the honour, on December 10, where the senior lawyer was making reference to 2015 budget”, but it decided to make a public declaration “because the lies told so often are always misconstrued to be the truth.

“Let us thank God that CIRDDOC stated clearly in its report that it obtained its data between July and December 2014. The result was the outcome of budget planning and implementation for 2014 by Governor Fayemi. Fayose did not prepare that budget, neither did he implement it, but regrettably Chief Babalola has seized the media to mislead and misinform the public on the honour won by Fayemi in his 2014 budget implementation.

“The budget for the period between July and December 2014 was prepared by Fayemi towards the end of 2013 and he ran that budget from January till October 2014 before Fayose took over as the governor,” Olatunbosun explained.

intervene for them to meet their obligations to their dependants ahead of the Yuletide.

The workers who have taken their plight to their the umbrella body, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, for immediate action, alleged that some fifth columnists could be out to to dent the image of government.

Relating to the development yesterday ASCSN SecretaryGeneral, Alade Bashir Lawal, called on the president to be wary of people determined to frustrate his good intention, contending that that the advice became necessary because certain pitfalls that characterised governance in the last

administration were still subsisting.

According to him, “It is surprising that thousands of Public Servants in some Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, have not been paid their salaries since October.

This is the same ugly situation that prevailed last year until this union was compelled to threaten a nation-wide strike before salaries of workers could be paid. The MDAs that are owing workers their salaries include the Federal Ministries of Education, Information, Trade and Investment, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, etc.”

Court clears Ekiti SIEC, dismisses APC’s suits on LG polls

By Rotimi Ojomoyela

A

N Ado Ekiti High Court yesterday struck out the application filed by All Progressives Congress, APC, against the composition of the State Independent Electoral Commission, saying members were duly appointed to conduct the local government elections.

The local government polls is coming up on Saturday.

Governor Ayodele Fayose, after the judgement described the imposition of Caretaker Committees on Local Government Areas as an aberration and undemocratic.

He also urged other governors

to move away from antidemocratic tendencies by putting democratically elected structures at the third tier of government, He said,”I want to assure you that we will not do inconclusive election. We will not change our candidate midway. We will not kill out candidate.”

Commenting on the Federal government’s fight against corruption, Fayose urged President Muhammadu Buhari to make the war total by being bold enough to probe the administrations of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida and other past leaders about how they spent their security votes.

B U JA — S E N AT E President,Bukola Saraki, yesterday, admitted that there were obnoxious sections against the social media in the the Frivolous Petition Bill, which is generating controversies in the country.

He however assured that the obnoxious portions would not see the light of the day when the Senate finally concludes work on the controversial bill.

He spoke in Abuja, while declaring open a two-day sensitization meeting on implementation of the guidelines on gender based violence and young persons in Nigeria, organised by Women Arise, a Non Governmental Organisation, NGO. Saraki said: “”It is not our intention to gag the social media at all. We want to run an open Senate so that you all can be part of it and by being part of it,we can get a better country.

“I want to reassure you that there is no bill in the Senate that is called Anti Media Bill.

I want to assure you that what we have before us is a bill on frivolous petitions,it has to do with petitions generally.

“Generally, when we debate bills at the second reading,we only debate the principles. We do not debate the details of the bill.

“Unfortunately,in the bill of frivolous petitions,there are some sections which I will call obnoxious sections there and I am sure,as you all know,those obnoxious sections would not see the light of the day by the time the bill is finished,because they have no relevance to the bill at hand which is all about frivolous petitions.”

Retraction IN our Online newspaper publication of 30th day of November 2015 at: http://www.vangaurdngr.com/ 20 15/11 Ifraud-suspect-dies-inefcc-custody/ titled’ Fraud Suspect Dies In EFCC custody’,We inadvertently published the picture of one Mr. Olumide Babalola surrounded by EFCC Operatives, who is not in any way connected to the fraud report.

We hereby retract the portion of the picture as it affects Mr. Babalola and apologise to him profoundly for the embarrassment the said publication may have caused him. Once again accept our apology.

— Editor.

12—Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

Olu of Warri assures subjects, neighbours on peaceful reign

By Egufe Yafugborhi

W

ARRI—THE Itsekiri monarch, His Majesty, Ogiame Ikenwoli, the Olu of Warri, has vowed not to betray the confidence and trust of his subjects, promising to provide true and transparent reign.

The Olu, in his first post coronation media briefing, yesterday, at the Aghofen Palace, Warri, Delta State, highlighted peace building and good neighbourliness as priorities in his reign agenda.

“I will not engage in any matter that will embarrass our people. We must maintain and even improve on the fragile peace Warri now enjoys,” he said.

To the media, which he thanked for “ wide media coverage” over his ascension to the throne, Ogiame Ikenwoli urged them to, “Focus on issues that unite us and our neighbours, and avoid sensational negative stories that could polarise us and promote bitterness and rancour.”

He expressed concern over

the misrepresentation of his title following his enthronement, warning that the development may not be pardoned by the palace if it

was repeated.

Ojomo of Warri, Chief Yaya Pessu who expressed the concern on behalf of the monarch said, “From the

moment he wore the crown, our king henceforth is to be addressed as His Majesty, Ogiame Ikenwoli, the Olu of Warri.”

RECEPTION: L-R: Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman, EVC, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); Alhaji Mukhtar Adnan, Sarkin Ban Kano, District Head of Danbatta community, during the reception ceremony in honour of the EVC in Kano.

Alleged N13bn land deal: Tompolo’s real transaction with Jonathan's govt

By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South

A

SABA—THE Federal Government, under former President Goodluck Jonathan, actually approved the payment of N11 billion to ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, out of which he collected 90 per cent of the money, but it was not for land deal as claimed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. A reliable source told Vanguard, yesterday, that the money paid to Tompolo was for purchase of the buildings and other facilities at the International Diving School he built at Kurutie, Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government, Delta State, allegedly valued at N15 billion, which the Federal Government acquired for the Maritime University, Okerenkoko.

The buildings include lecture halls, multi-purpose pavilion, administrative block, vice chancellor’s lodge, lecturers’ lodge and hostels for male and female students.

He said: “Tompolo has no problem with President Muhammadu Buhari but some people are trying to use the EFCC against him. He (Tompolo) met with President Buhari after his swearing in and assured him that he accepted amnesty under the

late President Umaru Yar’Adua and would work with his government. It was a very good meeting.”

The source added, “It is a known fact that he started building a diving school in Warri South-West, Delta State some years ago, to fulfil his vision of creating educational opportunity for youths interested in the maritime sector and to meet the work force requirement in the field. The buildings were completed.

“Last year, some officials of Delta State Government, I do not want to mention names because everything is now politics, visited Gbaramatu Kingdom and Tompolo took them round the diving school. It was well reported by the media. So the diving school was there but yet to commence. The officials who came commended him for his vision.

“However, when the Federal Government wanted to set up the Maritime University at Okerenkoko, government officials found out that he had built structures for a diving institute at Kurutie and felt that government should acquire and use them for the take off of the university.

“They approached Tompolo, I think it was NIMASA people that raised the matter. He was not interested in jettisoning the

project because the diving school was a long-term dream for him, but because of the way they spoke to him, insisting that it was also for the development of the area, he accepted and invited estate valuers to value the project, which was put at N15 billion.

“Officials from the Ministry of Lands later came to value the projects and put the value at N13 billion, which is contained in the letter to the Federal Executive Council to approve the purchase.

“Let me tell you, it was not Tompolo that wanted to sell the buildings, it was government that indicated interest and informed him. The transaction was never for land as the EFCC is claiming, but for the buildings.

“The FEC met on the matter and the N13 billion came down to N11 billion after removing VAT and other things. So far, government has paid him 90 per cent of the money. What is illegal in this and why is the EFCC talking as if he was involved in a fraudulent deal?

They should check their facts well.

“They should go and find out what it takes to reclaim a swampy location and put structure on it.

“Tompolo did not really see anything that should trouble him in the matter even when sometime in August, the EFCC

froze his business account. He indeed, took it as a joke but all the same, contacted some top persons to find out what was wrong. They told him that he should not worry, that it was political and he should wait for some time.

“He waited and when there was no result, he took the commission to court in October to explain why it froze his account. EFCC refused to come to court, but invited him on November 24 to appear before it on November 25. He told them through his lawyer that he took them to court and they should wait for the court to determine his case.

“The commission then came to court November 30 without filing any paper and requested that the matter be adjourned to December 17, same date that they wrote a reminder, dated December 9, report at the commission, failing which they would declare him wanted.

“Tompolo still does not think that there is any big deal about the matter because government underpaid him for the property bought from him.

“He, however, got suspicious when the EFCC renewed its aggressionafter he refused a request by a top government security official to join the All Progressives Congress, APC and help its candidate in Bayelsa State to win the governorship poll in the state."

Okowa moves to revamp DSC ...Appoints threeman revival c'ttee

W

ARRI—DELTA State Government has instituted a three-man committee on Delta Steel Company, DSC, OvwianAladja, Udu Local Government Area, with a mandate to rally stakeholders in revamping the moribund plant.

The Committee on DSC has former Delta State commissioner, Elegbete Moses Odibo, as Chairman while Sir Emmanuel Okafor, former Permanent Secretary, will serve as Secretary, with Mrs. Lynda Onovughe as member.

Secretary to Delta State Government, Mr. Festus Agas, who inaugurated the committee in Asaba on behalf of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, charged members to be productive and dedicated in the assigned task.

He listed the team's terms of reference to include liaising with the Federal and Delta State Governments, the company and host communities to resuscitate the company, submit an interim report to the state governor within 45 days on the best measures to ensure resumption of production within the shortest possible time.

Oshiomhole goes spiritual over alleged attempt to disrupt ongoing projects

By Simon Ebegbulem

B

ENIN—GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, weekend, invoked the “precious Blood of Jesus” to destroy any attempt to disrupt ongoing projects in the state by persons he described as enemies of progress, vowing not to abandon any project before his exit in 2016.

Oshiomhole, while inspecting the on-going Upper Siluko, Igbineduwa, off Siluko, 2nd East Circular Roads, said: “We will fight those we need to fight in order to execute the projects we need to execute.

But that fight is informed by public interest and there is no going back. As you can see what is going on around the country, all my enemies are falling one after the other and we are standing.

“By the grace of God, we will stand because God sees our heart and He covers us with the Blood of Jesus."

Vanguard,TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—13

Oshiomhole presents N111.5bn 2016 budget

By Simon Ebegbulem

B

ENIN—GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has presented the state’s 2016 budget of N111.5 billion to the state House of Assembly for consideration and approval.

Tagged “Budget of Finishing Well” the 2016 budget is 12.6 percent lower than the 2015 budget which was revised downward to N127.01 billion due to economic realities.

Presenting the budget, the governor said: "The reduction is in line with current economic realities, especially developments in the international oil market and the dwindling inflows from the Federation Account.”

He said that the policy focus of the Year 2016 Budget was the completion or near completion of on-going road construction/ rehabilitation projects across the state, noting that roads at various stages of completion would be accorded priority.

Capital expenditure will take N58.9 billion representing 52.84 percent of the total budget, while the proposed recurrent expenditure is N52.6 billion, representing 47.16 percent of the

budget.

A breakdown of the budget shows that education and health sub-sectors took the lion share with N14 billion each followed by roads infrastructure at N9.24 billion and flood and erosion control at N8 billion.

The governor assured people of the state that “In the 2016 fiscal year, efforts would be

geared towards substantial completion of all the outstanding storm water projects across the state, the completion of the Auchi, Queen Ede and Ekekhuan gully erosion remediation projects, substantial completion of all current streetlight projects and institutionalization of the process of maintenance of all

BUDGET: Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State (right), presenting the state's 2016 Budget proposal to the Clerk of the state House of Assembly, yesterday.

Bayelsa poll: Dickson inaugurates panel to probe violence

By Samuel Oyadongha

Y

E N A G O A — GOVERNOR Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, yesterday, inaugurated a sixmember judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the violence and breach of the peace before and during the governorship election in the state.

The inauguration, which was performed at the Executive Council chamber of Government House, Yenagoa, had in attendance the state deputy governor, Gboribiogha JohnJonah, the senator representing Bayelsa West, Senator Foster Ogola, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Kombowei Benson, Secretary to the State Government, Prof.

Edmund Allison-Oguru and members of the State Executive Council.

The governor said the inauguration was by virtue of the powers conferred on him by Section 2 (1) of the Commission of Inquiry Law, Cap 8 Laws of Bayelsa State of Nigeria 2006 and in exercise of all other powers enabling him in that behalf.

He said: "By virtue of that power, I hereby constitute and appoint a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the violence, mayhem and grave breach of the peace that occurred in parts of the state on or about the 3rd to 6th of

December, 2015.

"This inauguration is the first commission of inquiry my government is setting up and that tells everyone the seriousness of the issues that the commission has been enpannelled to deal with.”

Amaechi orders financlal, staff audit of NIMASA

T

built infrastructure, streetlights, drains, among others.

“This administration is currently working on the designs for the following seven gully erosion sites approved: Ibore, Ewu, Emu, Ogiso/ Osunde, Ambrose Alli University, AAU, and Auchi Agenebode Road gully erosion sites," the governor said.

HE Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has directed immediate financial and staff audit of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA. The minister gave the directive, yesterday, during his maiden tour of Lagos ports and a stopover at NIMASA Resource Centre, Kirikiri, Lagos.

Amaechi also directed the Acting DirectorGeneral of NIMASA, Mr Haruna Jauro, to forward details of contracts awarded by the agency for verification.

The former Rivers State governor demanded a detailed financial report of the agency since its inception “Over N100 billion is given to this agency yearly and I am yet to see how it has been spent. I

am yet to see some of the projects being executed by this agency,” Amaechi said.

The minister also requested for the staff nominal roll and details of staff employed by the agency and their qualifications.

He instructed the acting Director-General to forward the staff nominal roll of the agency to the Federal Ministry of Transport to know if there were vacancies to be filled.

Amaechi expressed dissatisfaction with the illequipped clinic laboratory at the NIMASA Resource Centre.

“From my inspection so far, I discovered that the Search and Rescue clinic is not equipped; the canteen is in deteriorated condition; the chairs are not okay and the place is leaking,” the minster said.

CLASFON lecture postponed

T

HE public lecture organized by the Christian Law Students’ Fellowship of Nigeria, CLASFON, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife chapter, in honour of Professor Margaret Okorodudu-Fubara, scheduled to today, December 15, 2015, at the Oduduwa Hall, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has been postponed to January 21, 2016.

The lecture, to be delivered

by Professor Ademola Popoola, Dean, Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo Univesity, Ile-Ife, is titled: The Legal Profession in Nigeria today: Issues, challenges, opportunities and strategic options, under the distinguished chairmanship of Chief (Mrs) Folake Solanke (SAN, CON).

The organizers apologized for any inconvenience caused by the change of date.

14 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15 , 2015

ARMY/SHIITE CLASH: I escaped by the will of God — BURATAI •Death toll hits 1,000, says sect spokesman •El-Zakzaky, wife in our custody

By Henry Umoru, Luka Binniyat, Joseph Erunke & Mayen Etim

A

BUJA—CHIEF of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, said yesterday it was by divine intervention that he escaped being assassinated on Saturday, by members of the Shiites Muslim sect. The sect on its part claimed that at least one thousand of its members had been killed and that soldiers had evacuated their bodies following the weekend clash between its members and the military The Nigerian Army also said “the leader of the Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem ElZakzaky and his wife are in the custody of the Nigerian Army, “safe and sound” in a secured and protective custody”.

The army boss said contrary to claim that members of the Shiites group were not armed, they were not only heavily armed but also violently confronted him and his convoy on his way to Zaria.

The Army chief spoke to newsmen at the National Assembly complex, shortly after attending an interactive meeting called by the Senate Committee on Defence, for service chiefs.

“You want to know how I escaped? It was by the will of God that I was able to escape from the place,”he said, while advising citizens to be law abiding wherever they are.

Insisting that the group was violent, Buratai stressed: “ I think NTA was there and they aired the clip, it was very clear . They were violent and the clip is there.”

Meanwhile, the sect spokesman, Ibrahim Musa said. “We have reports that bodies of our members killed outside the house of our leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky are being evacuated in trucks by soldiers and our leader was arrested this morning (yesterday) in his demolished home by soldiers where he had been holed up in a room that was spared from the fire that gutted the house from grenades,” Ibrahim Musa,, in a statement he issued in Kaduna alleged that the army was not only selectively killing its members yesterday, but it had instigated the public to join in the killings.

The Nigeria Police, and Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) were mute yesterday over the claims.

El-Zakzaky, wife in our custody — ARMY The Nigerian Army said yesterday that the leader of the Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife are in its custody “safe and sound” in a secured and protective custody, Addressing a late evening press conference yesterday, the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 1 Division of Nigerian Army, Major General Adeniyi Oyebade said the order given to the troops was to ensure that the sect leader was taken into a safe custody and as at 09:15am he was brought into the

custody the Army with his wife and some family members.

The GOC further said that the sect leader would soon be allowed access to his members.

General Oyebade added that in the course of operation there were casualties on both sides, but did not mention the number of casualties.

He said: “On December 12, 2015, myself and the Commissioner of Police were with President Muhammadu Buhari who was in the state for an assignment when I received a distress call that the life of the Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai was threatened by some hoodlums who blocked his way on Sokoto road in Zaria city.

“After much persuasions from senior officers on the entourage, the hoodlums who were later identified as Shi’ites members remain adamant and in line with our rules of engagement, we have no option but to clear the road for the COAS and in the course of doing that, the hoodlums started throwing missiles on us; and our men responded which resulted to minimum casualties.

“From there we received information that they have started mobilizing in one of their temples at Husainiyya, the resident of the leader at Gyellesu and on Dambo road. That was on Saturday night, this lead to a long night of battle.

“We have nothing against the Shi’ites because they’re all Nigerians and our duty is also to protect them. But we cannot tolerate them forming a government within a government. I call on all shi’ites members to be law abiding and go about their religious activities without tampering with the freedom of others,” he said.

In its own statement, Shiite said: “Following the brutal attack on the Islamic Movement in Nigeria by the Nigerian Army in Zaria where scores have been extrajudicially killed, we wish to state as follows: “A source has confirmed that the Army has taken the revered leader of the Movement, Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) from his house this morning and is receiving treatment for injuries he sustained during the attack.

“About a thousand of members of the Movement have been massacred at the moment as counting continues, but the soldiers are now busy evacuating the dead bodies to unknown destination.

“There are hundreds of others that have received various degrees of injuries that are in need of assistance that have currently been denied access by the soldiers on ground who are in a killing spree, shooting anyone identified as a member of the Movement.

“The army is deliberately exploiting religious sectarian sentiment to instigate uninformed public, some of whom are now busy killing innocent and unarmed members of the Movement at sight using local weapons. ''The Army is at present dressing corpses of members of the Movement with their military attire and snapping still pictures to probably display them as soldiers killed by the Movement during the attack as a means of propaganda, whereas it was solely an attack by the army on armless citizens.''

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—15

By Tony Nwankwo & Nwabueze Okonkwo

O

NITSHA—THE leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, has dragged Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja before the National Judicial Council, NJC, over what it termed as his unsatisfactory and unconstitutional role in consideration and issuance of a highly controversial and unconstitutional order for perpetual detention of Citizen Nnamdi Kanu, leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and Director of Radio Biafra, London, in the guise of “investigating him for offenses of terrorism and terrorism financing.”

Meanwhile, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, adjourned till December 17 to rule on the bail application for the detained leader of the “Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.

Kanu has been in detention for 90 days.

Mr Vincent Obeta, counsel to Kanu had approached the court to grant his client bail.

Obeta said the Department of Security Service, DSS, had abused court process by refusing to honour the bail order of a Magistrates’ Court in Abuja.

Obeta, who filed a fundamental rights suit against the DSS, argued that Kanu’s liberty was being trampled upon when an earlier Magistrates’ Court bail condition was perfected.

90 days in detention today “My lord, Kanu has spent exactly 90 days in detention today.

This action contravenes the Constitution and the African Charter on Human Rights. We have indeed perfected the bail condition as directed by the Magistrate Court but to no avail.

“The lower court has also ordered that Kanu be transferred to the Kuje Prisons but the authority refused to heed the order of the court. That is why we have approached this superior court for justice,” Obeta said.

The prosecutor, Mr Moses Idakwo, asked the court to disregard the bail application by Kanu’s counsel.

Idakwo argued that Kanu should not be granted bail as the allegations against him were terrorism-related.

He said the DSS had evidence of bank accounts owned by Kanu, where monies (in dollars and pound sterling) were used for financing terrorism against Nigeria.

Idakwo also said the applicant had dual citizenship of Britain and Nigeria and therefore could flee justice if granted bail.

He further said the bail conditions issued by a Magistrate Court were yet to be perfected by the applicant.

The judge, Adeniyi Ademola, said “having listened to both parties, I shall be ruling on the application on December 17.’

Enemies of progress Meantime, the South-South Ijaw have described the proBiafra protests, which turned bloody recently, resulting in the

BIAFRA: Rights group drags Justice

Ademola to NJC over Kanu’s detention ...wants NASS to repeal Terrorism Prevention Act of 2011 •Court to rule on Kanu’s bail application Dec. 17 “We complained bitterly that •Ijaws flay Biafra agitators

what surprised and still surprises us was (is) how the Department of State Security, DSS came about its allegation of terrorism and terrorism financing against a group and individual(s) expressing political thoughts peacefully and non-violently, even when the same Terrorism Prevention Act of 2011 as amended clearly stated that activities of political parties and expression of political thoughts do not amount to acts of terrorism.

PRESENTATION: Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu (middle), flanked from left, by Hon. Obinna Oriaku, Commissioner for Finance;, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metu; Chief Charles Ogbonna, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy affairs, and Chief Ginja Onwusoibe, Chairman of ALGON, and TC Chairman of Isiala-Ngwa North LGA, during the presentation of official vehicles to the TC Chairmen by the governor, in Umuahia. killing of several persons and destruction of property across the South-East and part of SouthSouth, as an attempt by enemies of progress to set Nigeria on fire.

Joseph Evah in a statement, said that the activities of the brains behind the various protests clearly showed that the organisers “have hidden agenda because of Mr. Kanu.

“We are aware that the apex body in Igbo land (Ohanaeze) has stated that Biafra is dead and buried.

“We are also aware that when the former President of the defunct Biafra, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu died, he was given full military honour by the Federal Government, and when Ojukwu was alive, he also contested the presidency of Nigeria to show his faith in the country.

“We are also aware that Kanu and Ojukwu are peaceful people.

Therefore, the current threat to peace through killing and maiming of innocent persons is gradually leading to ethnic and religious crises that can destabilize the country.”

Meanwhile, Intersociety said its decision to drag Justice Ademola to the NJC, through its Chairman and Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, which was supported by 10 other civil society groups, under the aegis of South East based Coalition of Human Rights Organisations, SBCHROs, was as a result of ongoing rampage in unconstitutional law and court orders as it concerned the arrest, detention and extra-judicial detention of Kanu.

In a statement, yesterday in Onitsha, Anambra State, the rights group said it had also written to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, AGF, Mallam Abubakar Malami, SAN, drawing his immediate attention to the gross inconsistency of Section 27 (1) of the Terrorism Prevention Act of 2011 as amended; with Section

35 (4) (a) (b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, under right to personal liberty; for the purpose of sending an executive bill to the National Assembly for immediate repealing or expunging of the unconstitutional provision in the said Terror Act of 2011 as amended.

Terrorism Prevention Act The statement by Emeka Umeagbalasi said: “Our writing the duo of the NJC and the AGF is in recognition of powers and functions accorded them by the 1999 Constitution. We had in the letter, dated December 13, 2015, drawn their attention to relevant Sections of the 1999 Constitution; upon which the gross inconsistency of Section 27 (1) of the Terrorism Prevention Act and the controversial court detention order were found brazenly and rapaciously unconstitutional or grossly incoherent with the 1999 Constitution.”

The statement added: “Some of the Constitutional provisions under reference are Section 1 (1) that states “this Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria”; Section 1 (3): “if any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, the Constitution shall prevail and that other law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void.”

“Others are Section 4 (5) of the same Constitution that directs: “if any law enacted by the House of Assembly of a State is inconsistent with any law validly made by the National Assembly, the law made by the National Assembly shall prevail and that other law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void.”

Three bibles of fundamental legal knowledge “We reminded the NJC and the AGF that every judge in Nigeria is mandatorily kitted with three bibles of fundamental legal

knowledge of: (a) rule of law and its two cardinal pillars of audi altarem partem (listen to or hear the other side) and nemo judex in causa sua (refrain from being a judge in your own case); (b) the 1999 Constitution; and (c) the Fundamental Human Rights Chapter in the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. That these three bibles of fundamental legal knowledge or three weapons of a Bencher also defy mental senility; and that the three weapons of a Bencher also serve as his or her daily chewing stick or tooth brush; to be used and applied at all times and in all adjudicative circumstances. They were reminded as well that a judge of the Federal or State High Court is also mandatorily under the judicial oath and the oath of constitutional allegiance; as contained in the Seventh Schedule of the 1999 Constitution.

“On the issue of accusation leveled against citizen Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB of their involvement in acts of terrorism and terrorism financing, we frowned at such bogus criminal accusation against political citizens expressing their political thoughts peacefully and non violently. We further reminded the NJC and the AGF of dangers of frivolously labelling citizens as terrorists and terrorism financiers; outside the spirit and letters of the Terrorism Prevention Act of 2011 as amended; which is punishable upon judicial conviction with death penalty and life imprisonment; as well as life imprisonment for offenses of conspiracy, aiding and abetting terrorism.

Phantom allegation “We also observed that unconstitutional laws and court orders are on rampage in Nigeria and condemned strongly the order ex-parte issued on November 10, 2015 by Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja for 90 days and above detention of Citizen Nnamdi Kanu on phantom allegation and investigation of his involvement in terrorism and terrorism financing; which we saw as not only a height of miscarriage of justice and brazen affront to the sanctity of the judiciary, but also threats to rule of law and the fundamental human rights of the detained citizen. We also saw it as a coup against the supremacy of the 1999 Constitution and grave disrespect to the Fundamental Human Rights Chapter of the 1999 Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

“We therefore, hold that the judge had no excuse over his failure to identify or take the judicial notice of the brazen inconsistency of Section 27 (1) of the Terrorism Prevention Act of 2011 as amended with Section 35 (4) (a) (b) of the 1999 Constitution.

We asked: where lies the judge’s sense of judgment and discretionary powers in the instant case?

“We call on the AGF: to as a matter of uttermost immediacy and; inexcusably prepare and send an executive bill to the National Assembly for repealing of the unconstitutional Section 27 (1) of the Terrorism Prevention Act of 2011 as amended in 2013; highlighted above, owing to its grave inconsistency with Section 35 (4) (a) (b) of the 1999 Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

"The AGF also urged to critically study other provisions of the Terrorism Prevention Act of 2011 as amended and ensure that all of such provisions are brought in tandem or made to be consistent with the 1999 Constitution."

Book presentation

A

TWIN book, entitled, LOOMING DANGER – STOP AN IMPENDING WAR & AT THE DROP OF A HAT,’ by Oge Nwabueze, a budding novelist, will be publicly presented on

December 19, 2015, at SNUG, 30, Commercial Area, in Lagos.

The occasion will be chaired by Mrs. Shirley Onyeoguzoro, Director, Rex Roberts Consult Ltd.

16 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 — 17

I

WALKED into the east wing of The Palms shopping mall in Lekki, Lagos (popularly referred to as Shoprite); only to be buttoned-holed by a man trying to sell me a Honda Civic parked inside the hall. His sales pitch was that it was the first totally assembled Honda in Nigeria; built completely to Nigerian specifications. For example, unlike the classical Honda, the Nigeria model has a high clearance, being mindful of the potholes in Nigerian roads.

I had no intention of buying a new car, least of all a Honda Accord. Nevertheless, I could not fail to recognise that what he was touting is one of the many achievements of the Jonathan administration. In spite of the Buhari administration’s daily vilification of Jonathan, the achievements of his government continue to speak for themselves.

Jonathan put in place a policy that provided zero import-duty for completely knocked down vehicles; while discouraging the importation of already assembled cars; old or brand new, by the imposition of heavy importduties. This propelled car manufacturers to set up assembly-plants in Nigeria that provide jobs for craftsmen, technicians, technologists, engineers, and other professionals across the value chain. The government also made it a policy to patronize locally-made and assembled cars.

The outcome is that local carassembly is back in Nigeria; literally risen from the dead.

Big auto giants, including Peugeot, Nissan, Volkswagen, Kia, Hyundai and apparently Honda, now either assemble, or entirely manufacture, their cars, SUVs, trucks and buses at various locations in Nigeria. In addition, Nigeria now has an indigenous car-manufacturing company, Innoson, which is not only selling locally but already dabbling in exports.

Limits of denigration These days, the most discernible policy of the new APC government is to attack everything Jonathan. However, propaganda can only mask the truth in the short-term. It cannot destroy the truth in the medium to long-term.

No matter what APC traducers say, the fact remains that Goodluck Jonathan was an exceptional president by Nigerian standards.

Now is the time to re-affirm this and to invite a more dispassionate reappraisal of the facts, away from the lies and fabrications of the election campaign. It can no longer be argued today that anyone defending Jonathan is a PDP contractor; a favourite line of defence of Buharimaniacs.

Neither can Jonathan defenders be accused any longer of wanting to replace Reuben Abati as the president’s spokesman. “You can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.” No matter what the APC continues to broadcast about the Jonathan administration, the C M Y K

Goodluck Jonathan was an exceptional president truth cannot be silenced.

Fashola’s gaffe: After six months of stasis, Buhari finally unfurled his ministers in the most anti-climatic fashion. These longawaited saints and angels turned out to be mostly Santa Claus.

Babatunde Fashola, former governor of Lagos State, is now the minister of Power, Works and Housing. At his maiden news conference, tagged grandiloquently: “Setting the Agenda for Delivering Change,” the same Fashola who spent the election campaign running down the Jonathan administration shocked his audience by revealing that, rather than embark on new road construction projects in 2016, he would only endeavour to build on Jonathan’s achievements.

Wittingly or unwittingly, Fashola gave the lie to APC propaganda that Jonathan’s years were wasted years? If Jonathan was as incompetent as the APC would have us believe, why could the party not launch its own superior nationwide roadbuilding plan, as Buhari had promised in the heady days of the 2015 election campaign? Why rely on allegedly sub-standard PDP foundations?

Similarly, rather than jettison Jonathan’s power-sector reforms that APC derided volubly during the campaign, Fashola revealed that the government will be continuing with them. Jonathan completed 10 power-plants in Nigeria within three years; the first and highest of such record by any Nigerian president living or dead. The APC had accused Jonathan of awarding the power projects to PDP cronies and financiers who are incompetent and deficient. But rather than revoke those contracts, Fashola preached continuity. He also admitted that Jonathan‘s

To date, there is little evidence that the government’s anti-corruption intentions go beyond the witchhunting of the Jonathan administration

transformation in the power sector is above 50%, and that his job would be to build on this achievement.

Jonathan’s transformation agenda Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, also had the same assessment of Jonathan’s achievements with regard to rail transportation. He pledged to complete all ongoing railrestoration projects around the country started by Jonathan; as well as extend them to all parts of the country.

Jonathan inaugurated the Lagos-Kano rail line and the Port Harcourt-Enugu mass transit train. He also embarked on the rehabilitation of the Port HarcourtMaiduguri rail line.

Furthermore, Jonathan’s projects include the Abuja-Kaduna fast train line; the 322km Lagos-Benin City line, 500km BeninAbakiliki line, 673km BeninObudu Cattle Ranch line, 615km Lagos-Abuja high speed line, 520km Zaria-Birnin- Koni line, 533km Ega nyi-Otukpo and the Ega nyi-Abuja line.

Thanks to Jonathan, five million Nigerians are now carried by rail, relative to the one million before he came. An estimated 700,000 passengers are projected to ride the Abuja Light Rail (ALR) on a daily basis. Only recently, KPMG listed Nigeria's high speed rail project proposed by the Jonathan administration as one of the global top 100 world-class infrastructures.

The rail is expected to connect Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Warri, Bauchi, Abuja and Port Harcourt; at a cost of $13 billion.

For his part, Audu Ogbeh, the new Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, did not even pretend to have an alternative to Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda.

Speaking at the launching of the Anchor Borrowers Programme in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, Ogbe commended Jonathan’s achievements in agriculture, while also praising his ministerial predecessor for the innovations he introduced.

Thanks to Jonathan, agriculture now accounts for 22 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP, more than oil and gas which only account for 15.9 per cent.

Under Jonathan, Nigeria recorded a more than 50 per cent reduction in food imports; from an import bill of N1.4

trillion to less than N700 billion. With the innovation of dry season rice-farming, Nigeria reached 60% self-sufficiency in rice production and became, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the largest producer of cassava in the world.

Anti-corruption hypocrisy Rather than hit the ground running, the in-coming Buhari administration has spent the last six months on a campaign against Jonathan and his men, as if it is still shopping for Nigerian votes. This campaign has become a substitute for policy, leading to the conclusion that the APC never really expected to win the election and therefore does not know what to do now it has been declared the winner.

What the party did during the election campaign was present pie-in-the-sky policies that were never intended to be implemented but were primarily designed to harvest votes.

This accounts for the government’s current embarrassment with its own party manifesto and the denial of its campaign promises. It has even led to APC legislators being constrained to vote against their own policy; the payment of N5000 monthly to the 25 million poorest Nigerians. In six months, the much-touted change of the APC has turned out to be counterfeit. What we have instead is a constant barrage of media trials pertaining to the alleged corruption of the Jonathan administration.

This anti-corruption crusade is clearly not addressed at curtailing corruption. Its primary objective is to kill and bury the PDP. Not even the most ardent supporters of Jonathan would insist that there was not rampant corruption under the PDP. What is unacceptable is the present government’s pretence that corruption in Nigeria is restricted to the PDP when, as a matter of fact, the APC is just as corrupt, if not even more because of its blatant hypocrisy.

The government’s anticorruption crusade is already without legitimacy because it is unashamedly partial and selective. Allegations made against APC office-holders are procedurally ignored by the

government’s anti-corruption watchdogs. Some of the APC chieftains accused of corruption have even been rewarded with major ministerial portfolios. Others have been nominated as APC candidates in governorship elections.

PDP members are labelled corrupt until they declare for the APC; then they automatically become saints.

We are meant to believe that while the PDP used government funds to buy favours and votes during the election campaign, APC managed to spend massively to dislodge the PDP from power without doing the same. The truth of the matter is that corruption is not the exclusive preserve of any party or persons.

Corruption is endemic to the Nigerian political system.

Selective maligning of the members of the former government will not rid Nigeria of corruption. Neither will allegations of corruption hurriedly put together for the sake of public consumption, which are then thrown out by the courts. Corruption has to be addressed systemically and structurally. But to date, there is little evidence that the government’s anti-corruption intentions go beyond the witchhunting of the Jonathan administration.

Jonathan’s legacies To the extent that the present administration can be said to have any policies after six months in office, they are all legacies of the Jonathan administration. The TSA is from Jonathan. The turnaround maintenance of our refineries is from Jonathan.

The re-equipping of our military is from Jonathan. The improvement in electricity is a Jonathan legacy. On the other hand, the major policies enunciated in the APC election manifesto remain essentially pipe-dreams.

In spite of APC propaganda, Jonathan’s men keep matching on. Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, Jonathan’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development is now President of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB). Ngozi OkonjoIweala, Jonathan’s Minister of Finance, and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, is now a Senior Adviser at Lazzard; a prestigious 167 year-old global investment firm.

Arunma Otteh, Jonathan’s Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is now a Vice-President of the World Bank.

To paraphrase Marc Antony of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interrèd with their bones. So let it be with Jonathan. The noble APC hath told you Jonathan was clueless.

If it were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath Jonathan answered it.”

18 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 December 10th 2015 was the tenth year anniversary of one of the most heart-rending air tragedies in Nigeria’s history. On that fateful day, one of the airlines in the country at that time, Sosoliso Airlines travelling from Abuja to Port Harcourt, crashed while attempting to land, claiming the lives of 109 passengers on board.

Only two lucky passengers eventually sur vived after sustained medical attention.

What added to the pain and grief of that ugly event was that 60 students of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, including three children of the Port Harcourt-based Ilabor family that lost their lives in the crash.

In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the tragedy, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo sent a representative, Captain Samuel Akindele, the Chief Executive of the College of Aviation Technology, to participate in a

Remembering the Sosoliso air tragedy candle light procession organised in Port Harcourt by the bereaved families in honour of the students.

He consoled them and assured that “lessons have been learnt”, adding that the Federal Government is taking steps to ensure that such tragedies do not occur again in Nigeria.

The period between 2005 and 2006 was the darkest in our aviation history, as four air crashes involving ADC, Bellview and Sosoliso claimed about 400 lives.Unfortunately, no one was made to pay a price. The then Minister of Aviation, Professor

Babalola Borishade, never even contemplated resigning. He was kept in office despite a public outcry until November 2006 because of his connections to the political authority of that time.

However, it is worthy of note that since then, strenuous efforts were made by the successive regimes to give the aviation sector massive facelifts, including the total remodelling of fourteen airports and the conferment of Category One certification by the United States Federal Aviation Authority (US FAA)in 2010, which enhanced the industry’s global recognition.

Meanwhile, the road to the achievement of Vice President Osinbajo’s “never again” safety level is still a distance away, as the same Port Harcourt Airport, which is still undergoing renovation, was rated as one of the “deadliest” airports in the world by a recent CNN news report.

It is heartwarming that part of the positive fallouts of that tragedy was the establishment of the Jesuit Memorial College in Port Harcourt, which brings its premium educational benefits to the doorsteps of the city and its environs.

We still hope that more will be done to immortalise the memories of these young tendrils whose promising future was wasted in one fell swoop. We pray for the repose of their gentle souls and urge their parents to endeavour to move on with their lives, as difficult as this must be. We must never again allow the industry to descend to the lows of 2005/2006

OPINION

E-UNIT: Adeosun’s strategy against waste in FG expenditure

By Marshall Gundu

M

RS. Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance, has taken in her stride the job of managing the nation’s finances at a time of great financial strain. While national revenues have more than halved due to the steep decline in global oil prices with basically not much savings to fall back on, recurrent expenditure is pretty much same and the need for increased capital expenditure is ever present. It is largely up to her to drive efforts at making up for the shortfall and providing the funds required to keep government running, fund a huge infrastructure deficit and finance the electoral promises of the Buhari administration amongst which is the N5000 cash handouts to about 25 million jobless Nigerians.

The spirited plans of the heads of top revenue generating agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Services, FIRS, the Nigerian Customs and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, to expand the revenue base and explore smart ways of generating more revenues are commendable and if aggressively followed through will make appreciable difference and give boost to revenues. From the surveys done by several analysts and professional bodies, there is sufficient evidence and statistics to show that by simply strengthening tax administration, getting more people and companies to pay taxes as at when due, the

government can successfully double its revenues from taxes.

However, even if the efforts succeed in ramping up revenues to pre-crisis levels or even outstripping earlier revenue thresholds, that is not necessarily a guarantee that things would in practical terms, get any better in terms of real value for money. Simply increasing revenues is not enough if the revenues are not judiciously applied to areas with the most capacity to impact public life. There is always an opportunity cost to money, an area where it is most needed.

It is against this pressing need for prudent allocation of scarce resources that the establishment of an Efficiency Unit (E-Unit) by the Finance Minister is significant. Nigeria at such a time as this seriously needs to maximise the value it can get from every single amount of revenue it gets. We simply cannot continue in the culture of waste and inefficiency. That is a recipe for exacerbating an already bad situation. The E-Unit is one strategic way to make

Nigeria at such a time as this seriously needs to maximise the value it can get from every single amount of revenue it gets

strong impact at a time of serious financial challenges and dwindling revenues. It is a brilliant, strategic and logical first move. Without first strengthening the system and closing out instances of waste, even if more money is brought in, not much will be achieved in the end. In fact, we are where we are not really for the lack of money, but largely because of the inefficient, wasteful application of our resources. Building a culture of cost consciousness, removing duplicate expenditure items, completely cutting out irrelevant expenses and refocusing money towards areas of high impact is the best possible way to deploy public sector funds. And it is a good thing that the Adeosun is leading the charge in this direction as a first major step as Finance Minister.

According to a statement from the Minister, the E-Unit will be established within the Ministry of Finance to “ensure that every single naira that government spends is necessary and that all expenditure represents the best possible value for money. To do this it will work across all MDAs to identify and eliminate wasteful spending, duplication and other inefficiencies in the system so as to enhance general efficiency and to promote a culture of cost consciousness across all areas of government”.

Bottom-line, the aim of the E-Unit is to reduce cost of governance by ensuring that wasteful expenditure is cut out and more money is freed and deployed towards financing strategic, growth enhancing projects that will create jobs and impact on Nigerians. According to the Minister “we must deliver more, but spend less”.

The E-Unit is designed to use the scientific methods of analysis to review overhead expenditure with a view to benchmarking costs, iden-

tifying wastage and curbing inefficiency. Considering the high skill set that will be involved to align the project with international best practices, implement the change program, and train civil servants to keep it going, the project will draw upon the knowledge of private sector players to complement.

The key focus areas of the E-Unit is the Personnel and Overhead Cost Segments which constitutes a large chunk of the burgeoning recurrent that takes over 70% of annual budgets.

According to the 2015 budget total, overhead estimate was N360 billion, representing 8% of the total budget, while personnel costs together with pensions amounted to N2.172 trillion, representing 48% of the total expenditure budget.

This is clearly unsustainable and there is no way government can make real progress in the area of infrastructure development if this figure is not pruned down.

In the area of personnel costs, the E-Unit will include continuation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, rollout which uses technology to confirm the authenticity of pensioners and salary earners. The IPPIS system has been deployed in over 100 MDAs and has led to the discovery and elimination of over 60,000 ghost workers from the federal payroll saving the government an estimated N140billion. The E-Unit is to aggressively push through a full compliance by all MDAs within the shortest possible time so as to totally eliminate ghost workers from the payroll and any cases of sharp practices.

*Gundu is Director (Press), Federal Ministry of Finance Abuja.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015— —19

A new king, a new dawn for Iwere nation

By Sunny Ikhioya

T

HE city of Warri, Ode-Itsekiri and other towns and villages occupied by the Itsekiri people of Delta State are in festive moods.

A new Olu has just been enthroned; the old one joined his ancestors about three months ago. There must be no vacuum, the King is gone, and a new one is crowned: all hail the King!

The Olu of Warri is an institution, He is revered and the custodian of all of Itsekiri customs and tradition. He is the unifying force for all Itsekiris; after God is the Olu. His word is law and ineluctable. As soon as a person is crowned King, he becomes a deity, he no longer operates in human realm as his word is assumed to be from the gods. That is why the occupant of the throne is carefully chosen and groomed, for if the deity is compromised by human sentiments, the result can be catastrophic. An Olu must be unbiased, selfless and transparent to all of his subjects; this way the deity is kept alive.

And so, when Omoba Godfrey Ikenwoli Emiko was chosen by the oracle to become the next Olu, there was much excitement in the air both from the high and lowly placed individuals. He had been earmarked for the stool at an early age. A graduate of business administration and the third

Itsekiri Olu that is a university graduate and also the 20th monarch. In addition to all of these, he has a charismatic disposition and open to all and sundry. Also, he is properly grounded in the Itsekiri customs and traditions.

So, it is a new dawn for the Itsekiri nation, a people with very rich traditions, culture, elegance and swagger. When you hear ‘Warri no dey carry last’, the Itsekiris are a very integral part of the show. They are also a very hospitable people with great traditional delicacies – ‘Igba gba fo fo’ and the rest. They are also enlightened, wise and smart in the affairs of the world. Although their population is small compared to their fellow Niger Delta neighbouring ethnic groups, they have always found ways to maintain their relevance and at most times, to be on top of situations.

They have formed alliances and partnership with bigger nations like the Yorubas and this has helped them under different circumstances. Their women are known for their industry and diplomacy. The Itsekiris were one of the foremost tribes to get in touch with the Whiteman and his civilization and they have pressed on this advantage till date. But, the times have changed, competing neighbors are catching up and the challenges of change are hitting home: of environmental

pollution, of youth restiveness, of demanding corporate social responsibility from big businesses and government institutions operating in the region, of resource control, of the total unity of the Itsekiri race, of the peaceful coexistence with neighboring ethnic groups and many more. The task is herculean. The Olus of the old generations did not experience it this way but the immediate past Olu had serious challenges in these areas. How will Olu Godfrey Ikenwoli Emiko fare?

The greatness of a leader is manifested in the manner he or she handles the complexity and inevitability of change. Pope Francis was recently in a Muslim mosque inside the Central African Republic preaching peace and unity amongst religions. Nelson Mandela had to reach out to Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a Zulu tribal lord, for peace to reign in the South African election that brought Mandela to power. Great

His crowning has been met with little or no opposition; let his reign usher in peace and tranquility to the Itsekiri nation and their Niger Delta neighbours

leaders understand the peculiar nature of man, his individual, cultural and spiritual differences and must be able to accommodate this in the scheme of things. The ability to extend a hand shake across borders is a key issue in leadership. Understanding the position of the opponent is not a sign of weakness, it is a great strength when every party reaches out for compromise to the benefit of all.

That is the challenge the Olu faces with in his relationship with his Ijaw, Urhobo and other Niger Delta brothers. His ability to achieve peace for the region will place him on very high esteem.

The Olu must also work to reclaim the pride and unity of the Itsekiri people which has been affected by internal wrangling caused by resource control fights and other factors. He must discourage situations where a few prebendalists take control of the wealth that belong to the whole community and appropriate it to themselves. This has been a big cause of conflicts in the land. A recent example is the endless communal crises in Ugborodo between brothers. Let the resources be for the common wealth and let the people benefit from such in a just and equitable manner.

In this regard, he will need the support of his Chiefs. Like him, the Chiefs must be credible, enlightened and be adaptable to modern trends. This is the time for high level intelligence; of credible people, not sycophants and necromancers. People who have achieved their wealth and substances through transparent and

The Igbo Question: A response to JIbrin Ibrahim

By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

DENTITY politics in Nigeria is very much alive, well and thriving. It’s an I elite preoccupation. Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim is

one of Nigeria’s most astute and reputable political scientists. He is a very able thought leader, civic activist and intellectual and an unlikely convert to the visceral world of Nigeria’s rent politics of identities and “tribes”. That is why his recent article on the “Igbo Question” merits attention and deserves a response.

In the article, Dr. Ibrahim organises his argument around the assertion that “the Igbo elite has a strong empirical basis to read Nigerian political history as one of failure and frustration for them.” In support of this, he asserts that “after the civil war, there was a co-ordinated policy of pauperising the Igbo middle class” and “this was followed by routing the Igbos from the commanding heights of the economy”. According to Dr. Ibrahim, the “Igbo elite…. refused to change their narrative about the Nigerian state and today the initiative is out of their hands.” He does not necessarily say what this constant narrative is or when it began. However, the article laments that “the biggest failure of the Igbo elite is the incapacity to play the political game” and, switching from analysis to clairvoyance, concludes that “teaming up with Goodluck Jonathan produced petty rewards for a few but it rolled back the schedule for an Igbo Presidency.”

Some people will read the article as somewhat favourable even if patronisingly so, to the “Igbo”. The declared goal of Dr. Ibrahim’s column is “Deepening Democracy”. Far from deepening democracy, however, the article stunts it. From a longstanding advocate of inclusive civics, this article corrodes coexistence and disappoints on many fronts.

There are many flaws with both the methodology and argumentation in the article. Let me begin with the methodology.

Clearly, ethnicism remains an effective organisational tool of Nigerian politics C M Y K

and many would argue that it is the province of political scientists to observe and analyse it. How this is done, however, matters. The historic methodological flaw of ethnicism is to racialise the politics of opinions and association and then homogenise them based on genes or tribal identity. That is manifestly unsustainable.

Whoever the Igbo are, they are not a horde of undifferentiated morons. They’re capable of and have always had political difference. In a democracy, tribes don’t vote; citizens do. To imprison political analysis in the mindset of homogenised tribalisations, therefore, is to deny the possibility of an evolved civic capability in Nigeria generally and in the Igbo in particular.

A related point is the convenient adaptability of deployments to which tribe and ethnicity are put in such analysis, with the effect of denying the considerable progress that Nigerians have made towards mutual co-existence. Take the case of former Kano State Governor, Sabo Bakin Zuwo.

Governor Bakin Zuwo was Nupe. That would place his origins somewhere in present Niger State. But he was elected first as a Senator and then as Governor by the people of Kano. Yet, to most in Southern Nigeria, he was “Hausa” or just “Northerner”. Similarly, Kogi and Kwara states are part of the historic Northern Nigeria. So, persons from these states would be “Northerners” but, if they are of Yoruba stock, then many would rather

Nigeria deserves to be freed from the tragic consciousness in which enlightened people think that politics is about capturing power with no real benefits to the human beings who make power worth exercising

prefer to exclude them from “the North” by referring to them as “Yorubas” because the Yoruba are supposedly not of the North even if millions of them are in it. However, when it comes to “flexing” (to use a contemporary Nigerian slang) with demographic politics, the Yoruba of Kogi and Kwara are conveniently counted as “We North...” . By the way, Kaduna Nzeogwu was from the Mid-West (and until 1963 of the Western Region) but it was convenient in the narrative of the 1966 coup to re-create him exclusively as “Igbo”.

Dr. Ibrahim’s article didn’t just indulge in staple homogenisations and mutabilities of Nigerian ethnic politics, it also conflated race and geo-politics in its analysis. Its focus was probably on the SouthEast of Nigeria but his framing was Igbo.

Just as the North and Hausa or SouthWest and Yoruba are not the same thing, Igbo and the South East aren’t the same.

One is a geo-political invention; the other is an immutable racial identity. One can be reinvented; the other can’t. As with all things incapable of being changed, generalisations about tribe and race risk and invite credible accusations of bigotry.

In reality, though, the underlying generalisation that is evident from the article arguably reflects its author ’s personal views about “the Igbo”. If that is so, then this is quite troubling because it could suggest his cupboards of tribalisation in Nigeria are in gross arrears of his professed ideals.

This leads to the more substantive problem with the article: its banalisation of politics and its commitment to the Bantustanisation of Nigeria. Dr. Ibrahim’s article speaks about the “political game” and, somewhat hubristically, determines losers (and therefore winners). But, surely the question must be what winning means in Nigeria’s politics. In an earlier article, Dr. Ibrahim had recently written about Barewa College, the legendary High School in Katsina State that appears to hold a patent on producing Presidents and powerful people in Nigerian politics. But

honest means, the ones who will be able to say the truth as it is without minding whose ox is gored. Such are the type he should surround himself with. It is observed that there are still a couple of vacancies to be filled in the Chieftaincy chambers; he must use the criteria set above if he is to succeed.

The Olu should play the part of a servant-leader, uniting various competing interests both within and outside the region. He can do this by encouraging inter-youth games inter-cultural competitions.

This could help to create job opportunities for the teeming youths, so that the issue of youth restiveness can be reduced to the barest minimum. He must demand for corporate social responsibility from private and government concerns operating within the region and ensure that his people benefit maximally from these gestures. He must also influence the provision of infrastructures to Warri and neighboring towns. Presently, the roads are in a bad state due to lack of maintenance. Also he must ensure that qualified indigenes enjoy good positions in their work places.

He is a well grounded man, therefore must rule with minimal force.

The era of autocracy is gone. His crowning has been met with little or no opposition. Let his reign usher in peace and tranquility to the Itsekiri nation and their Niger Delta neighbours. *Mr. Ikhioya, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.

what have these people accomplished for Barewa, for their people or for Nigeria?

All the Presidents he pointed to are from “the North”. But what have the peoples of this region had to show for their political musical chairs? Despite this lock on power, all the three zones and 19 States of Northern Nigeria put together have less Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, than the six states of South-South Nigeria; the seven states of North West Nigeria (a zone that is a net importer of human resources from other parts and with nearly 30% of Nigeria’s population) together have just a little over half of the IGR of the five states of South East Nigeria which is a net exporter of human resources to the rest of Nigeria. How can that be progress and what does that mean for politics and our notions of winning and losing?

Speaking about political game and how it has been banalised, the Niger Delta produced President Jonathan for five years and three months and yet the East-West Road which leads to his village remains for the most part a crater. The road to President Obasanjo’s house in Otta (the Abeokuta-Lagos Express Way) was, similarly, one of the worst in Nigeria under his Presidency. In this Nigerian political game, the people seem to be the football that the elites use for their kick-abouts. I can honestly understand a claim that any people have lost out in the political game if Dr. Ibrahim or anyone could point to any verifiable legacies left by the supposed tribes of winners except the supposed Brownie Points that come from producing elites with an equal opportunity commitment to the pauperisation of all of the country. The most far reaching of such legacies have come from people who didn’t exercise federal power: Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo and Michael Okpara.

Nigeria deserves to be freed from the tragic consciousness in which enlightened people think that politics is about capturing power with no real benefits to the human beings who make power worth exercising. If we cannot elevate the tone of our politics or its analysis, we can at least decide not to continue to trivialise it. *Mr Odinkalu, a human rights lawyer, wrote from Lagos

20—Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 15 2015

Nigeria: This Inconclusive country!

"Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, and farewells him with hooting, only to welcome another with trumpeting again."

Khalil Gibran,The Garden of The Prophet, 1934.

J

UST remove "nation' in every line substitute with Nigeria, and the muse would be inspiring Khalil on the problematic project called Nigeria, an unsettled polity 55 years after flag independence.

When I received a call from Comrade Dan Nwanyanwu a few weeks ago that some of our friends at the 2014 National Conference had deemed it fit that we send a congratulatory message to Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu upon his appointment as the chairman of the Independent(?) National Electoral Commission (INEC), I told him it was a good idea before I expressed my reservations. As a person, Prof. Yakubu as one of the Assistant Secretaries at the conference was a jolly good fellow. He was very jovial with listening ears. He had this infectious smile that make you happy even when he could not immediately address your concern.

But my reservation was whether it was a

C M Y K

congratulatory message that he needed most from us or forming ourselves into a band of prayer warriors so he may have our thumbs up after the completion of one of the most dangerous jobs in a country like Nigeria.

His baptism of fire was to soon come in the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship polls.

It was Kogi first on November 21. In spite of hiccups here and there,voting was over by Saturday and the results were being announced. The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Audu with James Faleke as running mate was leading the closest contender, Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) with 41,000 when the returning officer declared the elections "inconclusive".

His reason was that there were 49,000 registered voters in some 91 polling units where there were issues which outnumbered the gap between the two leading candidates which would require supplementary polls at a later date.

No one had the time to look at the data before news filtered in that the APC candidate had concluded his race of life.

There were conflicting reports about the time of Audu's death fueling suspicion that the

And until we conclude the nationhood project,our progress will continue to be backward in nearly all spheres with "inconclusive" being the mantra

inconclusiveness could have been contrived to thwart the possibility of a Faleke who is also a James as well as Jagaban protege becoming the governor-elect as envisaged by the law in case of a governor-elect dying before inauguration.

Punctured lines That line was however punctured with the declaration by Audu's brother that he died after the election was declared inconclusive.

But the audacious impunity and brazenness that followed would not erase the conspiracy theory totally.

First, it came to the fore that all the collected PVCs in the 91 units were 25,000 which makes a supplementary poll a mere academic exercise.

Then the Attorney General of the Federation pronounced that APC should pick another candidate to continue the supplementary polls, a position not backed by any

known law in the land. The only scenario that could have fitted the "doctrine of necessity" in the instance was to have allowed Faleke to conclude the process started by him and Audu.

The electoral body however accepted Yaya Bello as a second candidate for APC in one election. He ran the supplementary election without a running mate as Faleke declined to be deputy to Bello insisting that he should be declared governorelect. The law is clear that no governorship candidate would be deemed to have been validly nominated for an election without a running mate. The supplementary poll itself was an anti-climax as the votes garnered by all candidates were less than 12,000.The theatre of the absurd has moved to another low as the chairman of the APC, Chief John OdigieOyegun has brazenly announced that the party is at liberty to pick another running mate for Bello after he has received certificate of returns. Yet,these are men waxing lyrical about rule of law seven months ago!

While the conundrum in the confluence state was entangling, the festival of impunity shifted to Bayelsa on December 5 where the governorship election held.

Results came from seven out of eight Local Government areas, LGAs, with the incumbent Governor, Seriake Dickson was leading in six out of the seven. The seeming attempt to do "Ido Osi" from Southern Ijaw Local Government led to the hanging of the result which was again declared "inconclusive".

When election in a state of eight LGAs is now holding across weeks, one can begin to wonder what would happen when we conduct general elections under this neo- do-or-die atmosphere.

But I'm not that superficial to hold INEC responsible for this inconclusive syndrome.

What is happening to our elections is a slice of the inconclusive nature of the Nigerian project.

Foundational project Lawyers are fond of saying that you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. We have a foundational problem but we continue to adjust the roofs of our collapsing structure.

The very reason we can't hold conclusive election is why we have not been able to conduct a credible census in 55 years of independence.

Our inability to do a conclusive census has nothing to do with our size but majorly with our unsettled polity. A country of 1.2b people like India updates its census on a daily basis. The National Television every night displays "Indian population as at 9pm is......"

Every area of our national life is dotted with one inconclusiveness or the other. What should be routine is usually complicated because we have yet to build consensus while we continue to pretend that some issues are settled.

And until we conclude the nationhood project,our progress will continue to be backward in nearly all spheres with "inconclusive" being the mantra.

Feedback

Re: Na wetin MTN do sef?

H

OWEVER, to my surprise on the 11th of November 2013, I was summoned to the vendor manager's office, who directed me to a pregnant lady at the reception who served me with a brown envelope. On opening the letter I was informed that I had been placed on suspension indefinitely. The letter was even emphatic that I should ensure I stayed away from offices and sites of MTN and CNSSLCCL. The full details of the letter is with me and some of my confidants.

Sincerely, I did not want it to get to this, as always I have adhered to the directive of the said letter. I took initiative to intimate my plight to some people who showed interest.

Some said I should forget the job, some said I should look for another and better job.

That I should forget it. I am very aware that MTN is a global brand with a very strong ideal and internal culture. But I am amazed I have not heard from them at least to hear my side of the story. And see this to a logical

conclusion. I did not want it to get to this. It has been five months now.

Often times I wonder if I am being rational or not, but for an employee who has worked over three years in an organisation, you are told all of a sudden that you have not been paying your tax. Is it fair? After over three years in an organisation you are referred to as a third party staff not entitled to benefits and entitlement in your own country.

Who really is to blame here ?

Claims and allegations Many people who identify and associate me with the MTN brand have often accused the company of being a charade and fraudulent. I have often defended and opposed such claims and allegations. I guess I have been fooled big time.

In conclusion, I feel like a heavy load has been lifted from my shoulders as I share this with you. Many will say, why don't I just let things be and

leave them to God. Well you do know that I am very much a human being, I have blood in my veins not acid. Some will say, why don't you sue the company. Don't think I did not consider the option. Lawyers will also have to be pay. I did take some steps legally. A law firm was kind enough to assist me on a ‘Pro bono’ basis and the company was magnanimous enough to let me know formally that I am and never was an employee of either of the companies.

Hence if you ask me ‘Wetin MTN do sef´ I will answer you that ‘ dey offend me well well’.

I know there are others too. Is it at this stage that I will now register for 5000 naira for the unemployed. The truth is this, our government should ensure that multinationals abide by the rules and regulations of the land. I have moved on and getting by, by God’s grace.

Things should be done appropriately in this country for the sake of the younger generation.

Olusola Kayode Babatunde

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

By Babajide Komolafe

T

HE Bankers Committee has decided to increase lending to the agricultural sector by N300 billion in 2016.

The Committee comprise top management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and chief executives of banks in the country.

CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele disclosed this while addressing journalists at the end of the 7th annual retreat of the Committee in Lagos.

The committee however stressed the need for provision of infrastructure necessary to enhance supply of agricultural products in the country.

Emefiele said, “Banks generally agreed to increase lending to the agricultural sector, but the committee feels that there is the need to de-risk the agricultural value chain. The bankers’ committee also feels that the monetary and fiscal authorities need to work together in a collaborative manner to achieve the objective of improving local production of specific agricultural products, so that as a result of lending to this sector, we can begin to see a reduction in the demand for foreign exchange that would help to conserve our foreign exchange reserves and strengthen our currency.

“Banks feel that there is a need to improve the level of infrastructure in various sectors. For instance, build more Fadama roads; build more silos and warehouses to receive final produce, so that products don’t get destroyed at the farm.

US DOLLAR POUNDS EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYAL KRONA SDR

“We should have Fadama roads which make it easy for goods to be transported from the local communities to areas where they could be sold to increase the wealth of those in our local communities.

“Banks therefore set a target to boost agricultural lending not only to the small and medium enterprises, but

By Franklin Alli

D

-12.00

$14.28

-0.30

196 296.9204 215.0316 198.5011 1.6138 0.3078 271.969 30.3547 52.2416 28.8151 272.8124

-0.87 -0.39

197 298.4353 216.1287 199.5139 1.6221 0.3278 273.3566 30.5105 52.5081 28.9621 274.2043

CBN Exchange rate as at 14/12/2015 C M Y K

ANGOTE Industries Limited, DIL, is to inject

SELLING 196.5 297.6779 215.5802 199.0075 1.6179 0.3178 272.6628 30.4326 52.3749 28.8886 273.5084

a need for a paradigm shift in the feeling that SMEs are in an endangered sector.

Banks recognised that the BVN would assist in creating a pool of SME loans in the country. We however agreed that there is a need to take identified SMEs through capacity building in skills in record keeping and how to run their business.

This, we believe would make the SMEs more bankable.

“Banks agreed to support all efforts of government to boost employment of young graduates in the country. Of course in the area of infrastructure, banks identified power, roads, as strong enablers and drivers of growth in the country.

Dangote to inject N10bn into Tiger brands consumer goods

$3,336.00

BUYING

also to large scale farming and companies to up to N300 billion in 2016.”

He said that the committee also resolved to evolve measures to support small and medium enterprises in the country as well as boost employment.

He said, “ Banks also looked at financing SMEs. The recognised that there is

MEETING: From left: Mr. Kayode Akinkugbe, MD, FBN Capital Limited; Mrs. Yinka Edu, Chairman, Capital Market Solicitors Association (CMSA); and Mr. Michael Oyebola, MD, FBN Capital Asset Management at the recently held CMSA Business Luncheon on ‘Making the Capital Market a Catalyst for Change’.

-0.60

35.23 CURRENCY

Bankers Committee to increase lending to agriculture by N300bn in 2016

$117.50

$37.06

— 21

N10 billion into Tiger Branded Consumer Goods Plc (TBCG), owners of Dangote Flour Mills.

This is the highlight of the agreement reached between DIL and TBCG with respect to the latter’s shareholding in Tiger Branded Consumer Goods Plc (TBCG. The agreement also includes the return of three directors representing DIL on the board of TBCG. The agreement was a n n o u n c e d yesterday by the c o m p a n y ’ s secretary, Aisha Ladisa, in a statement titled,

“Announcement regarding agreement between Tiger Brands Limited and Dangote Industries Limited in respect of Tiger Brands’ shareholding in Tiger Branded Consumer Goods Plc. Shareholders have been in discussions in respect of Tiger Brands shareholding in TBCG. The parties have reached an agreement regarding the terms of transaction, the details of which are set as below: “The former directors of TBCG Messers Olakunle Alake, Arnold Ekpe and Asue Ighodalo have agreed to rejoin the board of Tiger Brands and have subsequently been reappointed with effect from 10th December 2015.

“Subject to regulatory approvals, Dangote Industries Limited will provide TBCG with an immediate cash injection of N10 billion. In return, Tiger Brands will divest its 65.7

percent shareholding in the company to DIL for a nominal consideration and write off its shareholder loans to Tiger Brands. In addition, Tiger Brands will assume and settle

The parties have reached an agreement regarding the terms of transaction

outstanding debt guaranteed on behalf of the company,” said the statement.

It further noted “Apart from the approval of Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, implementation of the transaction will also be subjected to the fulfilment of certain conditions precedent, including approval of the Exchange Control Division of the South African Reserve Bank.”

Recall that Tiger Brands, which is a leading South African Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company (FMCG) company, acquired 63.5 per cent equity stake in Dangote Flour Mills Plc (DFM) almost two years ago.

DIL said the divestment was in line with its strategic move to streamline its operations to maintain leadership, while Tiger Brands said the 63.5 per cent stake would enable it consolidate its growing business interest in Nigeria.

22 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

The priority for SEC is massive awareness campaign to educate investors. While this is on-going, registration should be FREE until the portal is available in all the registrars and in 50 percent of bank branches

INVESTOR'S ,

,

TOP 10 PERFORMING STOCKS

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

L

AW Union & Rock Insurance Plc topped the leading stocks at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) last week, rising by 21.82 per cent or N0.12 to close at N0.67 from N0.55. Only last month, Global Credit Ratings affirmed the BBB+ (NG) ratings assigned to Law Union & Rock with the outlook accorded as Po s i t i v e .

The rating, which is valid until October 2016, was accorded the insurer following the appointment of a new management team towards the end of 2014 to drive its medium term strategic objectives.

According to GCR, the insurer reflects strong risk adjusted capitalisation, following the clean-up of the debtors’ book, although capital appreciation in absolute terms remained constrained.

“The ratio of shareholders’ funds to net written premiums remained strong, albeit contracting (FYE14: 137 per cent; FYE13: 159 per cent), on the back of sound gross premium growth. Furthermore, the statutory solvency ratio remained sound at 1.3x at FYE14 (FYE13: 1.2x).

“Liquidity metrics improved over the last two years, supported by sound operating cash flow generation and the liquidation of property investments (of which the proceeds were largely invested in liquid instruments).

As such, the two year average claims cash coverage ratio equated to a strong 28 months, compared to the prior two year average of 11 months.

“Similarly, the average cash coverage of net technical liabilities equated to 1x, compared to 0.5x over the prior two years.”

Furthermore, “Earnings capacity is largely a function of the insurer ’s investment portfolio (FYE14: N4.9 billion; FYE13: N4.1 billion), which generates sound investment income.” For the third quarter ended September, 2015, the company recorded 14 per cent increase in premium income to N2.0 billion as against N1.77 billion in the previous year.

Learn Africa Plc followed with 18 per cent or N0.12 kobo increase, closing at N0.78 from N0.66. Learn Africa has been at the forefront of promoting C M Y K

academic excellence by constantly rewarding outstanding students in the NECO/WEAC examinations as part of its social responsibility initiative programme. Available financial report and accounts of the company for the year ended December 2014, showed a marginal drop in all performance indicators compared to the previous year.

This is despite the promise by the chairman, Mr. Segun Oladipo, to ensure that the company remains on the path of profitability after the two majority shareholders - Pearson Education Limited and Longman Group (Overseas Holdings) Limited- divested their 51 per cent stake from the company in 2012.

Review of the full year result showed that it posted a turnover of N2.21 billion for the year ended December 2014, as against N2.27 billion that was achieved in 2013, which represent a marginal fall of 2.9 per cent (N66.7million).

The Profit after Tax, PAT, halved from N100.13 million to N58.68 million, a development the company attributed to insurgency in the north east part of the country.

However, the company grew sales by 27 per cent during the period.

Eterna Plc trailed closely behind with 17.76 per cent or N0.27 appreciation, closing at N1.79 from N1.52. Eterna Plc’s business is being weighed seriously down by increasing cost and high finance charges as indicated by the half year financial statement to June, 2015.

Though the company recorded significant topline growth, it was not able to impact the bottomline. Specifically, it achieved huge 342 per cent increase in revenue to N61.74 billion from N13.98 billion in half year 2014. However, the profit after tax (PAT) dropped by 10 per cent from N662.57 million H1 2014 to N598.36 million in 2015, after cost of sales jumped by 374 per cent wiping the entire income for the period. Breakdown showed that the cost of sales surged to N60.11 billion as against N12.69 billion, while finance charges rose to N200.47 million from N194.75 million, representing three per cent increase.

Re: SEC, investors and e-dividend portal

By Babajide Komolafe

T

HE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued a public notice to address one of the issues raised in the series by Vanguard’s Investors Forum on the Electronic Dividend Mandate Management System (e-DMMS) portal.

Investors Forum had among others things emphasised the need for SEC to specify the charges or fees investors would have to pay to access the portal.

In its November 17 article, Investors Forum had written, “One of the salient and silent aspects of the e-Dividend mandate is the issue of charges. The circular by SEC to the banks, registrars and the public is silent on this aspect. Is it free or investors are to pay for it? If it is not free, is the charge regulated and uniform? Or banks and registrars are free to charge what they like? These are questions that need urgent

answers from SEC and CBN.” In response the SEC public notice said that access to the portal is free for investors that register in the first three months, while a fee of N100 will apply thereafter.

The three months of free access is supposed to have commenced this month, which implies that SEC believe or is sure that the portal is available in all the registrars and banks’ branches. Investigations

I personally visited five banks in Kano; One bank confirmed the existence of the Portal while four banks gave negative answer

however reveal that this is not so.

For example, an investor, Mr. Jonathan Oksooto wrote to Investor Forum, “In My opinion, SEC is expected to also communicate the Circular (on e-Dividend portal) to banks and other operators in the Capital markets-stockbrokers, investment advisers / consultants etc. Banks and stockbrokers are widely spread and closer to Investors while Registrars have their presence mostly in Lagos and Abuja.

On 2nd December 2015, I personally visited five Banks in Kano; One Bank confirmed the existence of the Portal while four Banks gave negative answer. ” Furthermore, in order to ascertain level of awareness about the e-Dividend portal, Investors Forum last week visited branches of seven banks in Lagos namely, Skye Bank, Sterling Bank, Access Bank, Fidelity, Ecobank, UBA and Zenith Bank. The visit

MARKET NEWS

Turnover on fixed income OTC market down 30.6% in Nov

By Nkiruka Nnorom

T

OTAL turnover recorded in the Fixed Income over-thecounter (OTC) market at the end of November 2015, declined by 30.6 per cent, according to data

from FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange.

Specifically, the OTC market for fixed income and currency recorded N10.08 trillion in turnovers compared to N11.48 trillion posted in the previous month, representing 30.6 per

cent decrease month-on-month and 19 per cent drop YoY. The data showed that bullish sentiments continued to prevail in the Fixed Income market as yields pared downwards on all tenors within the review period, while on the average,

From left: Head, Savings Group, Fidelity Bank Plc, Janet Nnabuko; Chief Risk Officer, Kevin Ugwuoke; winners in the Rent Support Category of the Fidelity Save 4 Shelter Savings promo, Mrs Risikat Remilekun Jimoh; Executive Director, Corporate Banking, Adeyeye Adepegba and Head, Strategy, Innovation and Business Transformation, Gbolahan Joshua during the bi-monthly prize presentation held at the bank’s corporate headquarters in Lagos.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 — 23

,

S FORUM

Those who are participating in the market are investment managers and companies who have been rolling things over and making gain

,

INVESTORS SPEAK

Investors should exercise patience on market rebound — Shareholders

By Providence Obuh

From left: Zhiteng Liu, Manager, Inspection Department; Engr. Uche Molokwu, SONCAP Liason Manager; Huang Dezhu, Director, Government and Trade Service Department, all of China Certification and Inspection (Group) Co, LTD; Dr Joseph Odumodu, Director General, Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) and Henry Zhu, Senior Manager, Business Department, China Certification and Inspection (Group) Co, LTD. during the SON)/China Media forum on anti dumping of Standard products at SON Lekki Operational Office in Lagos. revealed gross ignorance about the portal. At Skye Bank, Sterling Bank, Access Bank, and Fidelity, the staff said they don’t know anything about the portal, while at Ecobank, UBA, and Zenith, the staff said they were waiting for directives from their headquarters about the deployment.

Yet investors have till February 28th 2016 to register on the portal for free.

Definitely, SEC is putting the horse

before the cart. First, the issue of charges should not even arise now.

The priority for SEC is massive awareness campaign to educate investors.

While this is on-going, registration should be FREE until the portal is available in all the registrars and in 50 percent of bank branches.

Thereafter, SEC can then set deadline for free registration on the portal.

the yield curve shifted downwards by 315 basis points.

Like the previous month, transcations in T-Bills dominated activities in the market, accounting for 96.7 per cent of all the activities recorded in the month.

Consequently, the T-Bills segment retained 42 per cent market share of the total turnover during the period under review. The foreign exchange (FX) contribution to turnover for the month stood at 17 per cent, recording a total of $10.51 billion; inclusive of Member-CBN5 trades, compared to $12.83 billion recorded in October.

per cent). Month-on-month, fixed income Spot and Swap transactions dipped by 21 per cent ($1.86 billion) and 16 per cent ($0.28billion) MoM to record turnovers of $6.94 billion and $1.45 billion respectively.

The CBN’s exchange rate remained flat at an average value of $/N195.99 within the month, while the inter-bank exchange rate traded at an average rate of $/ N197.49, recording a slight depreciation of 19kobo.

According to FMDQ, “The total value of fixed income securities traded in the month of November stood at N5.49 trillion; N2.46 trillion or 69 per cent MoM decline.

T.bills turnover came to N4.15 trillion, accounting for 75 per cent of total fixed income market turnover.

“On a YoY basis, turnover on T.bills and FGN bonds increased by N976.40 billion (31 per cent) and N369.83 billion (38 per cent) respectively. Trading Intensity for T.bills and FGN bonds decreased to 0.78 and 0.22 respectively compared with 1.08 and 0.31 recorded in the month of October.” Also, outstanding FGN bonds increased by N0.18 billion, a three per cent growth to settle at N5.88 trillion from N5.70 trillion recorded in the previous month; outstanding T.bills, comprising 46 per cent CBN OMO9 bills and 54 per cent Nigerian T.bills, settled at N5.31 trillion in the review period; N384.85bn (6.75 per cent) less than the previous month’s value.

Unsecured placements Further analysis showed that secured market transactions (Repos/Buy-Backs) accounted for 20 per cent of total turnover, while FGN6 bonds’ contribution remained relatively flat at 13 per cent, same as the two previous months.

Activities in unsecured Placements/ Takings contributed eight per cent of total turnover. Analysis of the fixed income market for the month indicated that it settled at $8.54 billion; an 18 per cent ($1.89 billion) decrease compared to the value recorded in October, with an average daily turnover of $0.42 billion.

FMDQ noted that member-to- member trades decreased by $0.98 billion (55.30 per cent), while member-to-client trades also decreased by $0.91 billion (10.50

because when the market is dull, the incentive to come and trade will not be The stock market usually experienced there and they will not be making their increased activities during the yuletide own commission. That is why they are period. This is driven by investors shouting. I am a long term investor. I selling to fund year end expenses, and cannot approach the market now that I also investors taking advantage of want to sell my shares because I know decline in prices to buy for this pupose that whatever is happening now is of capital gains. This notwithstanding, something that will come and go. it is believed that the decline in market Those who are participating in the performance since the beginning of the market are; investment managers, year will perists during the yuletide companies who have been rolling things period. Shareholders who spoke to over and making gains and now that they Vanguard however advised investors see the repercussion of their work they to exercise patience, expressing are shouting. But I am appealing to them optimism that the market will soon because the capital market recognises expereience rebound. that for everything, I want to appeal to them that they should wait, the market LHAJI Gbadebo Olatokunbo, will bounce back by the time we start Shareholders Activist: You putting things in order in Nigeria. cannot build a two story building on a The issue in Nigeria cannot be ramshackle house. f you don’t have any approached with haste. Anybody other land to construct the building, hasting the country is deceiving what you do is to demolish that house himself. They want the market to and start from the scratch. continue as usual, but it will Whatever that is never be the same again. I happening in the capital don’t believe Nigeria’s case market now is because The market should be business as usual, the market is a long term will bounce I believe we should start on a thing. By the time we good clean slate. The market start getting it right, back by the will bounce back soon. So prices will skyrocket. they should exercise time we start Nigeria was not patience recognised before, but putting things now that we elected in order in Chief Shotunde Shopeju, Buhari, everybody wants Chairman Beacon to reckon with him, not for Nigeria Shareholders Association of politics and you know the Nigeria: At the moment the whites don’t joke like we atmosphere is not conducive Nigerians. to bring out large chunk of They have been looking at Nigeria that money in that shareholders are looking this country that is supposed to show to see what the government have in the light to other Africa nations, stock. What their policy is going to be unfortunately we have been having and since there is friction in the All mediocre. In this country, if there is Progressive Congress (APC), there has someone from your area or my area at not been any wave created and the the helms of affairs, even if I decided to President is very cautious treading on attack him, my own people will come to some thorny issues. me and say, ‘that man is our man just So it is not an appropriate time when leave him alone.’ such an amount would be brought for So, whatever that is happening to the consideration. Investors should wait market for now, the market will regain until the Senate and House of it. It is only speculators that are worried Representative act on the budget.

A

•Alhaji Gbadebo Olatokunbo

•Chief Shotunde Shopeju C M Y K

24—Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

Oil price slump: Nigeria’s economic outlook remains difficult — World Bank

By Michael Eboh

T

HE World Bank has projected that Nigeria’s economic outlook would remain difficult in the short run due to the persistent low price of crude oil in the international market.

The World Bank in its Nigeria Economic Report 3, released recently in Abuja, stated that for the country ’s economy to survive within this period, fiscal adjustment will be of critical importance, warning that even if oil prices recover, government oil revenues should continue to decline in the medium term relative to the size of the Nigerian economy.

The World Bank, in the report presented by its Lead Economist for Nigeria, Mr. John Litwack, however, noted that investors are currently willing to bring considerable investment to Nigeria if they receive credible signals from the new government of commitments to policy directions and regulations consistent with strong private sector growth.

the kind of pressure that would negatively impact on the people beyond what they are currently facing.

The World Bank put the fiscal cost of fuel subsidy to the country at $35 billion, about N7 trillion, between 2011 and 2014, stating that the cost of fuel subsidy in 2015, is expected at 18 per cent of all of the country’s oil revenues to the country, which is equivalent of 25 per cent of the federal budget.

Other costs of fuel subsidy to the country, according to the report, include the fact that the report of widespread fraud in the scheme is costly to the

reputation of the government.

It further blamed the perennial fuel scarcity currently

The benefits of the fuel subsidy in Nigeria appear quite limited, while the costs are high

witnessed across the country on the fuel subsidy scheme, stating that attempts to crack down on fraud in the scheme had always led to reduced supply, while it added that price distortions encourage overconsumption of fuel.

To this end, the World Bank said, “The benefits of the fuel subsidy in Nigeria appear quite limited, while the costs are high. For given fixed domestic fuel prices, the burden of the fuel subsidy, that is, its share of government oil revenues, will likely increase over time regardless of whether oil prices remain low or recover.”

Private sector growth The World Bank said, “Sharp declines in oil prices since the second half of 2014 can be associated with slower growth, falling budgetary revenues, and pressures on the Naira.

The short-term outlook for the Nigerian economy continues to be modest in the light of the difficult adjustment to lower oil prices.

“Nigeria has the opportunity to build a foundation to support growth and rapid development over the medium and longer term.”

The World Bank further called on the Federal Government to remove the subsidy on petroleum products, stating that the uncertainty about the fuel subsidy, in addition to its negative impact on Nigeria’s economy, has strongly discouraged investment in domestic oil refining.

It added that the best time to remove fuel subsidy is now when global crude oil price is at its lowest level, noting that the Bank foresaw continuous decline in global crude oil price.

The report stressed that scraping fuel subsidy at this period when the price of crude oil is low would not push retail pump price beyond an average of N100 per litre, or generate C M Y K

VISIT: from left, Mr. Muda Yusuf, Director General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI; Dr. Nike Akande, LCCI President; Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke, General Manager, External Relations, Nigeria LNG Limited and Mr. Emmanuel Ike, Head, Brand & Events, NLNG during a courtesy visit by the organisation to the LCCI office, in Lagos.

NEITI seeks funding, support in quest for oil sector transparency

By Michael Eboh

N

IGERIA Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, has called for increased funding and support from its development partners to enable it meet up with its operations and activities.

This, according to a statement by NEITI, is due to the crash in the global prices of crude oil which has created a number of challenges in the discharge of its duties.

Acting Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, who made the call in Abuja at a meeting with relevant development partners and diplomatic missions, identified automation of NEITI audit process, data gathering and management, capacity building for NEITI staff, the media and the civil society as well as wide dissemination of the audit reports, as major challenges.

He, therefore, called on international development partners to come to its aid to strengthen its fight against corruption in the oil, gas and mining sectors.

According to him, as a result of the crash

in global oil prices, the support of development partners would be helpful to complement the Federal Government’s budgetary provisions for NEITI operations.

Orji explained that NEITI’s agenda is to transit from its focus on transparency through accountability to ensuring that its work results to visible impact in the lives of the citizens.

He said, “By providing credible information and data on revenue generation, collection and management of extractive industries, NEITI is encouraged that its intervention has led to increasing public demands for accountability and the on-going reforms in the oil, gas and mining industries.”

He further extolled the virtues of the former Executive Secretary, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, now a Minister and assured the donors that she left behind a solid team and structure to build on her achievements.

Representatives of the World Bank, DFID, European Union, Oxfam and major Diplomatic missions endorsed NEITI’s strategic plan and pledged to offer the support needed to actualise the plan.

FG pushes for electricity tariff increase …Promises to add 2,000MW to grid

By Chris Ochayi

M

INISTER of Power, Works and Housing Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said Nigerians should expect increase in electricity tariff in no distant time. This is as he also indicated the Ministry of Petroleum has signified their interest to build certain critical pipelines to transport gas to the power plants that will add another 2,000 mega watts to the national grid within 12-15 months.

According to him, “By far the most complex challenge is the problem of tariff. It is complex because it is more in the hands of citizens than in the hands of Government.

“The role of Government is to set the tariff and in doing so, Government has committed to what is called a Multi-Year Tariff Order. This was done in order to attract investors to the market; otherwise we will not have achieved the privatization if the price of the product is not attractive to the investors.

“The tariff is the price of producing power. It covers cost of generation, gas purchase, transportation, transformers, staff costs and so on, disaggregated and charged per kilowatt/hour to make the business of power profitable.

“What Government did was to spread it over a number of years so that the impact is not felt at once but over a periodic incremental process. I know that it has been a contentious matter, but I make this fervent appeal to consumers to give us the benefit of doubt, to forbear and accept it. As regards transmission network, the Minister noted that the amount of power that is available today is slightly larger than the capacity which the transmission network can support. He said, “We have identified a total of 142 (One Hundred and forty-two) projects of which 45 are at 50 percent level of completion and about 22 (twenty-two) can be completed within a year.

“The budget estimates are known and we intend to aggressively pursue completion to increase the carrying capacity from the generating companies, GENCOs to the distribution companies, DISCOs.

Monarchs tell A-Ibom gov to change ‘sad story’ of Uyo

Ex-militants, women take resource control battle to Ijaw deity

PAGE 2

VOL. 1: No. 75

PAGE 3

TUESD AY, DECEMBER 115, 5, 20 15 TUESDA 201

•Igbobi Beauty Uzezi, rape victim.

•Incarcerated over her many ordeals

•Uzezi (right) among colleagues in last bush camp during her training.

How I was drugged, raped, persecuted, fired from Air Force, by Igbobi Uzezi, Air Police

*Detained in cell with lunatic, chained to hospital bed *Starved for days to make me not expose my Air officer-rapist

By Egufe Yafugorhi

W

ARRI—WHEN the chair, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, Delta State, Mr. Benefit Orugbo, called me on phone, about a fortnight ago, and said that he had a spine chilling case of human rights abuse in his hands, I did not understand the brutality of the matter and almost ignored the issue.

However, it was not until Warri Reporter, EGUFE YAFUGORHI, detailed to meet the victim at an agreed venue reported his encounter with Igbobi Beauty Uzezi, an Air Police of the Nigerian Airforce, NAF, with Personal Service Number, NAF10/25157F, that the reality dawned on me.

Uzezi, who hails from Bayel-

C M Y K

sa state, revealed that an Airforce officer (names withheld) drugged, raped and infected her with a Sexually Transmitted Diseases, STD, and the said officer detained and tortured her through proxies for daring to expose him and finally got her dismissed from the Airforce.

The air-force officers she complained to and sought help before the hammer fell on her, queried why she chose to make trouble with the officer, pointing out that she was not the only female personnel to pass through the ordeal.

They detained her in a cell with a mad woman, chained her to the bed in the hospital, locked for several days without food to force her to forgo justice. She refused to surrender and was court marshaled

after she threatened to shoot one of the air-force officers used to intimidate her, who allegedly wanted to disarm her.

The court marshal was a leeway for those who want her thrown out of NAF, as the case was getting messier by then.

Systematically, they congested her with drugs and a physician diagnosed of critical depression disorder, CBD, paving way for her final discharge.

Igbobi appeared dehumanized when she spoke to Niger Delta Voice, NDV, and what ricocheted throughout the interview was her cry for justice.

This interview, first in the series of our reports into and alleged Nigeria Air-force rape scandal is hair-raising. Will she get justice?

Editor.

Tell us about your en-

I g b o b i appeared dehumanized when she spoke to Niger Delta Voice, NDV, and what ricocheted throughout the interview was her cry for justice

listment into the Air Force

My name is Igbobi Beauty Uzezi. I enlisted into the Nigerian Airforce August 18, 2010 when I was 18. My Personal Service Number is NAF10/25157F with seniority of Air Craft Woman, ACW, in 19 February 2011. On 17 May, 2011, two months and 10 days after my passing out from the Nigeria Air Force basic military training, Kaduna, I was posted to 335 Base Services Group, Kaduna as an Air Police. We reported March 7 2011.

How did your ordeal start?

On that May 17, 2011, at about 8.00 pm, I received a

Continues on Page 4

2—Niger Delta Voice, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

AKWA IBOM… LAND OF PROMISE

Monarchs tell A-Ibom gov to change ‘sad story’ of Uyo

By CHIOMA ONUEGBU

U

YO—ROYAL fathers in Uyo Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, have lamented that the State Government recurrently abandoned them by not providing them good roads, electricity and other infrastructure after voting it to power and urged Governor Udom Emmanuel to change the sad story.

They made the call last week at Uyo when the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Victor Antai, visited the area to sensitize them on the Dakkada Initiative.

Paramount Ruler of Uyo local government area, HRH Edidem Silas Akpan, in a brief remark, said Uyo has always supported positive policies and programmes of government in the state, but government has to extend dividends of democracy to them.

He, however, assured that the people would support and cooperate with the present administration to actualize its agenda/vision to industrialize Akwa Ibom.

Speaking, the Clan Head of Offot Ukwa , Etebom Sylvanus Okon, said: “Uyo local government has always supported the government in power and will continue to stand by the present government. But it is sad that government always neglect us by not giving us good roads, electricity and other infrastructure in return for the support we gave during the election.”

No drinkable water, rundown roads

Chair, Uyo Transition Com-

THE TEAM Emma Amaize, Editor Jimitota Onoyume Samuel Oyadongha Simon Ebegbulem Gabriel Enogholase Festus Ahon Egufe Yafugborhi Emmanuel Una Akpokona Omafuaire Godwin Oghre Tom Moses Chioma Onuegbu Ike Uche Davies Iheamnachor Emem Idio Brisibe Perez Theresa Ugbobu Ochuko Akuopha Barnabas Uzosike Nath Onajoke Chijioke Nwankpa

C M Y K

•Uyo community leaders during the visit of LG Commissioner

mittee, Dr. Grace Ekpo, who spoke through the Secretary of the Council, Mr. Imo Okon, bemoaned that despite being a state capital, Uyo was facing challenges of lack of potable water, health facilities, dilapidated roads and educational facilities.

She added, “I want to thank the administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel for the various groundbreaking ceremonies and commencement of some projects

within a few months in office, I use this opportunity to appeal to the administration to include Uyo in the industrialization agenda for the state

Gov prepared for transformation

Responding the Commissioner said: “Mr. Udom Emmanuel is so passionate about the development of this state, which is why he has performed groundbreaking ceremonies for

various projects. He is also building the second runway at the Ibom International Airport that will enable cargo plane to land; he has opened more roads to link up every local government area in the state.”

He asserted: “This government has also mapped out plan to introduce mechanized farming in every local government areas, which will help in producing enough food for the state and reduce importation of food

items such as garri, and palm oil. Every local government area will be carried along in the industrialization policy, but we cannot achieve much without your support and encouragement.”

Continuing, the commissioner assured them that the epileptic power challenge that the area has faced all these years would soon be outdated, as Akwa Ibom state has received license to generate 685 mw of electricity.

Benin palace chiefs rain curses on alleged Oba’s enemies

•For purportedly creating parallel monarchy

By SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN CITY—THE travails of a top chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Edo state, Arisco Osemwengie and others declared as “Oghion Oba”, meaning enemies of the Oba of Benin, continued last Friday in Benin City, Edo State, as top palace chiefs went round strategic shrines in the ancient kingdom to proclaim curses on Osemwengie and his cohorts.

Osemwengie and gang supposedly created a parallel kingdom in Edo land last September, when they allegedly carved another monarchy called Utantan from the Benin Kingdom and pronounced himself as the Ogiamen of Utantan.

Besides making himself the imperial leader of Utantan

EDO… HEART BEAT OF THE NATION Kingdom, Prince Osemwengie reportedly declared that as Ogiamien of Benin Kingdom, he does not bow to the authority of the Oba of Benin, a declaration that pitched him against Benin monarchy and all that it represents.

Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice in the state, Barrister Henry Idahagbon, dragged the trio of Messrs Rich AriscoOsemwingie, Patrick Osabuohien and another, who is at large to the Magistrate Court in Benin, which remanded in prison.

Government accused them of carrying out an alleged traditional coup, which it said was capable of causing unrest in Benin Kingdom and the

palace of the Oba of Benin in particular.

The court granted Osemwengie bail, but as it seems, Benin chiefs led by the Iyase of Benin Kingdom, (Prime Minister) Chief Sam Igbe, are still enraged. Last Friday, they unleashed curses on Osemwengie and others. They made sacrifices at different shrines, slaughtering a puppy and exposing the hearts and intestines in the sun.

Other groups that joined in cursing the group were the Ewaise, Ihogbe and powerful palace native doctors. They wore red attires known as ‘Ododo’ and visited several shrines within Benin City to invoke the wrath of the gods.

Chief Igbe who addressed journalists, said they gathered to send a message to all perceived enemies of the

Oba, that nobody dares the Oba of Benin no matter his status in the society.

He described the action of Osemnwengie and others as a taboo, saying, “No one argues with the Oba. It has not happened in this land before and it will not happen in our time. We do not have two Obas here. We are caretakers of the land. We hold forth for the Oba, we have always had one ruler and not two.”

“We will not allow anybody divide Benin Kingdom. We are here to tell God that no one drags the land with the Oba. We do not fight to become an Oba in Benin and anyone who tries to fight the gods of our land will meet its consequences. This Kingdom is unique and no miscreant will be allowed to desecrate it, irrespective of where the person comes from,” he said.

Niger Delta Voice, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—3

DELTA… FINGER OF GOD

Ex-militants, women take resource control battle to Ijaw deity *Thank the gods for fortification, sacrifice rams, goats, dogs, fowls to renew power *Gbekebor agog with hyperactive dance and cultural displays •Worshipers in a boat display

•Women at Gbekebor festival

By CLETUS OPUKEME

B

URUTU—THE ancient town of Gbekebor in Burutu Local Government of Delta State was abuzz lately as hundreds of ex-militants, elders, women and youths from Bayelsa, Delta, Cross River and Ondo states in the Niger-Delta region thronged the community to worship the Ijaw god of war.

Chief Priest, Godday Smith aka General Bounanwei, King

of the Forest, led the multitude in this year’s feast, the third since a group of adherents initiated the ceremony.

They sacrificed one big ram, seven he-goats, three dogs, seven fowls and other items to the deity before the overthe-top dance processions and a make-belief battle against the enemies of the Niger Delta with devotees dressed in war attire, white wrappers and white ribbon clad over their foreheads,

mimicking a real war scene.

Change in the atmosphere

The enchanting rite took a frenzied dimension when the weather suddenly changed, raindrops covered Gbekebor and environs, as worshipers chanted war songs.

Die-hard devotees, who rejoiced at the spell of rain, said it was a mark of acceptance of their sacrifice by the deity.

Reminiscent of ancient

•Bounanawei, chief priest times, the priest, Bounanawei is like a human incarnate, who understands the voice of the spirits and therefore, mediates between the deity and humans.

There were unique and scenic lively cultural displays which that displayed the flourishing African culture, abandoned due to the advent of Christianity.

High-point

C-River monarch resolves row between Hausa, Fulani communities

By IKE UCHECHUKWU

C

ALABAR—THE bitter leadership tussle that tore the Hausa and Fulani communities at Calabar metropolis, Cross River State, apart for over one year is now over.

The Ndidem of Quas and Paramount Calabar Municipality His Majesty, Ndidem Patrick Agbor V, who brokered the peace deal, confirmed substantive heads for both groups.

They are Alhaji Sani Baba Gombe and Alhaji Salisu Sarki Lawal, as the first substantive head of Hausa/Fulani Community under the Calabar Municipality Council and Calabar South respectively.

The Ndidem disclosed that onward, both the Hausa/ Fulani communities of Calabar South and Calabar municipality would operate as separate autonomous entities under their respective host local government areas.

The paramount ruler made the pronouncement in his palace to end the over one year feud between leaders of the two communities.

C M Y K

Uphold existing restrictions

In a chat with Niger Delta Voice, the royal father charged the communities to maintain the existing political boundaries, rally around their people, ensure peaceful coexistence, tolerance and respect to laws of the state, local government and ensure that their allegiance is first to the Quas people.

“Although, you may wish to form an apex body to bring all Hausa leaders together, for the common good and development of the state, such synergy will depend on agreement by the respective representatives of Hausa/ Fulani across the state, “ he said.

“For now, we have not officially received any information on the formation of any apex body, but for now, you are to limit yourself to welfare and security of your different communities and avoid transcending into areas you do not legally cover,” he added.

He tasked both heads of Hausas for Calabar South and Municipality councils to be responsible by bearing both

CROSS-RIVER… THE PEOPLE’S PARADISE positive and negative consequences of heading people from different states of the North under their watch.

He also warned them not to arrogate excess powers to themselves, stressing that their role is that of liaising between their people and the certificated traditional leaders of the Quas.

He appreciated the solidarity given to his predecessor by the Hausas and their presence during his inauguration as the new Ndidem- in- council.

New Hausa/Fulani leaders pledge allegiance

In their reactions, the head of Hausa/Fulani for Calabar Municipality, Alhaji Sani Baba Gombe and his Calabar South counterpart, Alhaji Salisu Sarki Lawal, appreciated the Ndidem for the bold steps he took to bring peace between them and promised to operate in consonance with the dictates of the Ndidem and his respective Ntoes.

Climax of the ceremony was the cleansing/reactivation of the spiritual power of worshipers by the deity, as they performed the rites, rituals and sacrifices.

Energetic dancing, singing and clapping follow the reinvigoration.

Bounanawei wore a straight face as he poured libation with a local gin and invoked the gods, saying, “Hear me Ijaw ancestors/gods of war as your messenger, we are here to thank you for protecting us over the years.”

Invocation

He said: “The Niger Delta struggle will continue until our aims and objectives are achieved.

Democracy unarguably does not favour the people of Niger Delta. The last concluded presidential election, the North and West ganged-up against our son, former President Goodluck Jonathan to take power away from the South- South region.”

Pausing as he poured yet another libation, the king of the forest asserted, “It is saddening to note that the Niger Delta is replete with tales of woes and miseries amid abundant oil wealth from the time of Isaac Boro, Ken Saro-Wiwa to the historic Kaiama Declaration.”

“The Federal Government of Nigeria carried out onslaught and mass killings in Odi, Gbaramatu and Ayakoromor to intimidate the people from agitating for resource control and justice. Come to the protection of the people of Niger Delta to fight to achieve a total freedom. Do not abandon us and allow strangers to control our resources,” he appealed to the gods amidst thunderous jubilation and applause from the crowd.

Pledge support for Buhari, Okowa

Bounanawei lauded the governor of Delta state, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, for appointing him as a member in the Delta Waterways/Land Security Committee and assured him that he would not fail to maintain the existing peace in the state. He also urged the governor to keep to his campaign promises to put a smile to every Deltan.

The chief priest also urged President Muhammedu Buhari to handle Niger Delta case with caution and not compel the youths to return to the creek. He vowed his support for the Buhari administration as long as justice and fair play come to play.

Blessings

This year ’s event came as a bountiful harvest to the young priest as he reaped more than he prayed for, last year, from the gods. Major among them is the completion of his hometown multi-million duplex, which accommodated several guests during the service.

He counted among his blessings his recent appointment by the governor and his honor as a Peace Ambassador by the Unique Global Initiative of Nigeria, a nongovernmental organization in conjunction with Amnesty International.

The worthy award was in recognition of his selfless and remarkable contributions towards the Niger Delta struggle. Bounanawei has received several awards in the past, including the ‘Icon of Hope and Inspiration to the South-South’ by the SouthSouth Youth Assembly in 2014.

4 — Niger Delta Voice, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 ization, they took me to theatre, but they never told me what operation they carried out on my body.

They kept me secluded from other patients. I noticed that I bled for three days before they took me to the theatre. They did scan on me, after those two weeks and three days, they discharged me. During my admission, Squadron Leader Okafor, now late, was the Commanding Officer I served under as an Air Police, he came and collected an official statement from me and told me the Air Force was going to give me justice.

Undergoing military drills during her training

Warned to keep mum

Manacled Continues from Page 1 phone call from a strange number. From the conversation, I discovered that the caller was one of our training instructors on general service knowledge during our training (names withheld by NDV).

He said I should come to the Protestant Church inside the Nigerian Air Force Base, Kaduna.

With lots of conviction as our former training instructor and his claim that he was in Kaduna for a special assignment of which I do not know, I obliged his strange invitation. Getting to the church, I saw him and another instructor, who also trained us, Sgt. Hossan and my course mate, who he said gave him my phone number, ACM Bello and a woman I do not recognize.

He said I should join them to the Nigeria Defence Academy, NDA old site. I asked why I have to join them because there was Kafachan crisis in Kaduna then. He said they were going to drop the woman companion at the NDA old site and return. He said he trained me and asked if I was scared of being with him. He said I should not entertain any fear with my course mate on the movement. I joined them out of sheer respect and having no thought of any sinister motive.

At the point they ought to drop the unknown woman, I heard Sgt Hossan tell the officer (instructor),”Oga, after we train recruit finish, e no go do something for your godson?”

Opposite the place we supposedly came was the Communicator Mess. At that point, I asked excused myself to urinate, but before I left, I overheard him ordering two wines and barbecue fish. I eased myself, came back and he gave me a glass of wine.

Drugged

I took the glass of wine, not knowing he had drugged it for me. I was urging to return home because it was late and there was crisis. We entered the vehicle and proceeding a little, they dropped the woman.

At the Air Force Base, Kaduna, I stayed behind the Aeromedical Hospital, opposite a branch of Oceanic Bank, now

C M Y K

We struggled for more than two hours as I shouted for help. I pleaded with him not to touch me because it was evident he wanted to forcibly sleep with me. I pleaded that I am a virgin and he should not hurt me Ecobank. Approaching there, I said I want to drop, but Sgt Hossan said they wanted to drop the instructor in his own quarters before coming to drop me. From their discussion, I discovered Hossan stays in Block B next to my Block C. We proceeded further and Bello dropped. At JD Quarters where the officer resides, they parked opposite his apartment.

He and Sgt Hossan came down discussing while I was inside the vehicle.

The instructor came to me and said I should come into his apartment to wait at the parlor while he finished his discussion with Sgt Hossan, who happened to be owner of the car we drove in. I was hoping as my immediate neighbor, he would take me home after dropping off instructor, the last man remaining besides me.

Deception

I sat at the parlor and all of a sudden, I heard the sound of Hossan vehicle outside and I made the door to go out to confirm. Immediately, the instructor rushed in, pushed me back and shut the door. I asked why he pushed me and shut the door knowing Sgt Hossan was to take me home.

He asked in Pidgin English, “U mean say after I train you finish as recruit, na your course mate go charge through you first before me?”I asked what he meant by that utterance just

as Sgt Hossan zoomed off. I told him he knew quite well that it was not right for me to be in his apartment and Hossan, supposed to take me home has driven off.

I begged him to open the door, he refused and we started an argument. From the argument, we started fighting.

Battery and rape

He was beating me mercilessly, carrying and hitting on the floor. If I want to scream, he would cover my mouth so violently that no passerby hears my screaming. We struggled for more than two hours as I shouted for help. I pleaded with him not to touch me because it was evident he wanted to forcibly sleep with me. I pleaded that I am a virgin and he should not hurt me.

He said it was none of his business if I were a virgin and that he must charge through me first before any other person. I said I will not allow him rape me. Then he hit my head against the wall, saying he would teach me a lesson since I am proving stubborn. Then I fainted.

Pool of blood

When I regained consciousness, I discovered the bed I lay was soaked with water and I saw myself on a pool of blood.

I sensed he has violently beaten to coma and violated me.

Even in that state as I regained consciousness, he attempted raping me a second time. I was weak and dizzy with the wine. cannot explain how but I managed to struggle out of the door.

Outside, I tried crossing a gutter, but collapsed again.

Medical attention

The next day, May 18, I found myself in a hospital bed at about noon. When I attempted urinating, my whole pelvis was aching severely and blood coming out of my private parts. My body was soaked with sand and water with bruises all over from the struggle and beating from him.

They led me to the toilet, but I could not urinate because of the pains the doctor told me the instructor and ACM Bello brought me. asked how and

why they brought me. He said the instructor said I was having malaria and so they were managing me for malaria, but he was doubtful of the indicated condition because of the blood flow from my vagina.

Therefore, he asked if I was seeing my period. I said no, but could not explain because of the pain and trauma, so he took me back to the bed.

Untimely discharge

He started asking me more questions. The medical officer identified himself as Sgt Samsudeen. I told him to give me a paper and pen. The more I was writing the more I felt traumatized. At this point, I mustered courage to open up to him my ordeal. On hearing my story, he called in two colleagues, Sgt. Uganjuwa, now Flying Officer and Flying Officer Balami, a medical doctor.

They examined me and I overheard them saying this is a big problem and wondering how they were going to hide it, not wanting to be involved.

They quickly discharged me knowing I was not yet okay at all. They took me to my apartment and told me I have injections and drugs to come and take the next day.

Conspiracy to cover up the rape and battery

The next day, May 19, I received a call from Dr. Balami saying the Aeromedical Commander, Air Cmdr Shinkafi, wants to see me aside injections I needed to take. There was no strength in me at that point. I was still bleeding and aching all over my body, but because of the urgency of medical attention I needed, I summoned courage to be at the hospital, which was luckily just behind my apartment.

A passerby, who saw me struggling to walk down, assisted me to the hospital. I got there and no one was willing to attend to me. I was groaning in pains, but they said I should wait for the Aero-medical Commander. Then I collapsed again. I never knew where I was and what they did to me. I spent two weeks and three days in the hospital from that point. During my hospital-

After my discharge from the hospital, the Aero-medical Commander told me I should not talk, that Air Force would give me justice. Air Commodore N.A. Sanusi told me same.

The late AVM Salihu, Air Officer Commanding Training Command in Kaduna and the Base Commander 335 Base Services Route, where I was serving, also told me not to talk.

Air Commodore Sanusi, Director of Air Police was repeatedly warning that I should not speak of my ordeal to the hearing of the society, including my family. Surprisingly they appointed a marshal on the incident, but they neither allowed me to have a lawyer nor participate in telling my story, except one day they asked me to appear as a witness to prove how the instructor brutally battered and defiled me as a virgin. They brought prosecution counsels and denied me access to the marshal, all in bid to cover up and sweep the criminality under the carpet.

Punitive posting/intimidation

Immediately after the court marshal, they posted me outside Kaduna in that 2011, I was not due for posting. I am supposed to serve for minimum four years in Kaduna before posting from my first service point.

At Abuja, victimization started. In muster parade, Group Capt Inuwa would be asking me before everybody if my virginity was gold. He would say these people were very wicked and they can easily kill me.

He told me this not once, not twice with serious threats. He started the intimidation and threat to my life. When I voiced that what they did to me is injustice, they would say I am a fowl, they can easily kill and that nothing would happen if they kill me. They asked me if I do not know that Airforce women are officers’ materials and said that my rape was not the first case.

Infected with STD

From there, I was so restricted and so monitored that I never had a life of my own anymore. In addition, the rapist infected me with severe STD, which they never told me. They were giving me antibiotics and I started fainting on regular basis from that May I left hospital in Kaduna up until my transfer to Abuja. When I asked what was wrong with me, they would say nothing.

Continues next week

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—25

Involve oil communities to fight pipeline vandalism —NOSDRA

By Funmi Olasupo HE National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) said oil communities must be part of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) plan programme if the fight against pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta region must be effective.

The Director-General, NOSDRA, Peter Idabor, who stated this at a workshop in Port Harcourt, said that the community- based DRR in Port Harcourt, River State, was expected to press home the fact that oil pipeline vandalism was a threat to the environment.

He explained that previous efforts at combating the menace which excluded the oil producing communities had recorded limited success in the fight to curb pipeline vandalism.

He said, “The DRR plan was developed by the Agency to incorporate and sustain an interface with stakeholders that hitherto have not been effectively engaged in the effort to curb pipeline vandalism.

T

Pipeline vandalism “While it is true that crude oil is spilled into the environment due to equipment failure, pipeline vandalism by unscrupulous elements also contributes largely to the menace resulting in adverse socio – economic, health and environmental conditions.

“The DRR plan will be a community – driven, community- implemented, community- monitored. It is a community- evaluated project in which the host and transit communities in collaboration with relevant stakeholders hold themselves responsible for the advocacy and protection of the immediate environment,” Idabo said.

Also commenting, the Head, Remediation, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Prof.

Akuro Adoki, said that pipeline vandalism was a very serious matter with its consequences in the country’s development.

He explained that it was worst at the time when low oil price was already impacting negatively on the nation’s foreign exchange earnings and commended NOSDRA for sustained interest in oil spill management.

C M Y K

Kudos, knocks greet proposed pipelines privatisation ••As cautious optimism trails split of NNPC, PIB Stories by Sebastine Obasi

T

HE announcement by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, that the Federal Government will privatise the nation’s petroleum products pipeline network has continued to elicit mixed reactions from stakeholders in the oil and gas industry. While operators applaud the decision as a wise move, labour on the other hand thinks it is anti-people.

This is as the federal government’s split of the contentious Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, as well as the division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, into two components have been greeted with cautious optimism by industry players The Executive Vice-Chairman, Techno Oil Limited, Mrs. Nkechi Obi, told Vanguard that it is a welcome development as pipelines privatisation will curtail the incessant vandalism being experienced in the industry.

“I welcome the idea. I support it. It is a good initiative because it is a challenge that has hindered distribution of petroleum products. So many things are involved though. The integrity of the pipelines is a big challenge. The private sector can invest in the pipeline networks.

It is something that should be done now; it is a way to go.

“The initiative will minimise pipeline vandalism in the country. Come to think of it.

Many depots are privately owned. How many of them are vandalised? The private sector knows how best to relate with

PRESENTATION: Manager ,Corporate Affairs ,Nipco plc ,Lawal Taofeek [L] presenting cylinder to one of the beneficiaries of LPG accessories donated by Nipco to women in Apapa, Mrs Ramoni Adeola [M] while Hon. Kabiru Dosunmu watches with admiration at the event in Lagos .

their host communities - they provide roads, hospitals, water and other amenities for their communities.

“If the pipelines are privatised, vandalism will be minimal. The new owners will look into the

If the pipelines are privatised, vandalism will be minimal; the new owners will look into the problems associated with vandalism and tackle them drastically

problems associated with vandalism and tackle them drastically,” she said.

Also commenting, the Chairman/CEO, Brittania-U Nigeria Limited, an indigenous exploration and production company, Mrs Uju Ifejika, said the policy should be fully supported to encourage government to face governance and leave out business for the private sector.

She said: “Government should face governance and leave business for the private sector.

Overtime, it has shown that government cannot manage the pipelines. They should be given out to people who will pay through put.

The private sector will run the pipelines profitably. Mind you the Minister is coming from a background that knows that

BEDC, Elizade partner to boost power sector employment

T

HE Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC has entered into a partnership with Elizade University for training of BEDC staff, aimed at reducing the knowledge gap to boost power sector employment.

According to the EU project Co-ordinator, Prof.

O. A. Oyelana, the partnership training is to foster innovative research collaboration, leading to the fabrication and production of light equipment and accessories that are essential for minor routine repairs within the existing power facilities and ultimately to jointly develop alternative renewable energy sources to boost the present level of power generation in the country.

At the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony, Managing Director/ CEO, BEDC, Funke Osibodu, said, ‘’Vigeo Power Limited, the core investor in BEDC, believes that the training of the workforce in the industry would improve the performance of the company and ultimately build capacity in the newly growing power sector”.

She explained that the trainee programme, the first ever in the electricity supply industry

was essentially a part of overall corporate strategy to be an industry leader, adding, ‘’we are the first DISCO to turn out a set of management trainees who are well rounded, knowledgeable and fit to lead the revolution required to achieve the core objective of the privatization programme of the Federal Government.

According to her, during the on-the-job training, the graduate trainees were rotated across the various departments of BEDC to gather hands on experience after which classroom training began. “The trainees received trainings in all aspects of power, covering electricity generation, transmission, distribution, repair and maintenance, billing and metering and customer care,” she said.

Also commenting, the Vice- Chancellor, Elizade University, Prof. Oloyede Adekunle said the trainees consisted of three batches of graduates of Engineering, Accounts, Statistics and Mathematics among others and exhibited exemplary conduct throughout the duration of the training at the university campus in IlaraMokin, Ondo State.

there is a demarcation between business and governance. Most of the pipelines are very old. The new owners should be able to do integrity check on them, maintain them effectively and run them efficiently to make profit.

“As regards vandalism, the new owners will put in place everything that will help to protect the pipelines. They will use sensors which government has not been able to use. They will find a way to reach the host communities and partner with them for effective monitoring.

They can engage the communities by training them and giving them jobs. By so doing, the communities will know who to hold responsible.

Everybody should support the policies of the Minister of State for Petroleum, because he has shown that he means well for the survival of the oil industry.”

However, President, Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Achese Igwe, believes that the policy is anti-people.

According to him, “If this is the kind of change this administration is intending to bring in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, then the nation is down for the worst.

I thought he will be talking about privatising the security of the pipelines. We (NUPENG) will be waiting for that time to come.

However, we will not afford to fold our arms to watch.”

Pipelines network Kachikwu recently disclosed that the federal government is set to privatise the petroleum products pipeline network in the country to minimize the issue of perennial vandalism and ensure availability of products in the country in 2016.

Also, many of those who spoke to Vanguard believe that though the split of the petroleum industry bill, PIB and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC were expected, the implementation would determine the seriousness of the government.

The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Crusteam, a group of energy and power companies Mr. Barry Esimone told Vanguard that the attitude of the NNPC staff should change for the positive, if the reform would be effective. “For me, it is like a difference between half a dozen and six. What is important is the attitude and commitment of the staff. If the work attitude is not changed, we will not make any headway.

“They staff are used to easy way out. The split may not guarantee performance. Human beings make a difference.

26—Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

‘FG should separate commercial activities from regulatory’ Stories by Ediri Ejoh

T

AWARD: from left: Wife of the Managing Director, Total Nigeria Plc, Mrs. Elspeth Vovk;

thirty years outstanding Staff service award winner/Customer Service Executive, Mrs. Clara Nnenne Eze Achinivu and Managing Director, Total Nigeria Plc, Mr. Alexis Vovk, during Total Nigeria Plc End of the year party/award ceremony in Lagos. Photo by Akeem Salau.

support campaigns of politicians and other beneficial parties). How then can you bit the hand that has fed you?

He also advocated for transparency in the industry.

“The industry has to be more open so that there will be transparency, reduction in conflict of interest and we can have sanctions that will be applied to all. We are aware that some of the sanctions are weak going by the law, but some also are not weak, only that they have been crippled by conflict of interest.

As regards Ibe Kachikwu’s dual responsibility as the GMD, NNPC and Minister,

state for Petroleum Resources, he said that development of the petroleum industry will be

The industry has to be more open so that there will be transparency, reduction in conflict of interest and we can have sanctions that will be applied to all

‘DPR’s chemical certification rules draconian’

T

HE Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has been accused of restricting the growth of the chemical industry through imposition of expensive charges on the issuance of certificate to vendors.

The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Matrix Petro-Chem limited, Dr. John Erinne, who stated this at a workshop in Lagos, said that the DPR policy is draconian.

He noted that, “The prevailing DPR chemical certification regime is rather stiff and expensive in principle. The necessity is well understood and agreeable but in practice it is more of a discouragement to vendors in particular.

Having to recertify each chemical every 3 years is considered rather draconian. “ C M Y K

….. Donates cylinders to Apapa residents

By Sebastine Obasi

T

HE Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, has advocated the clear separation between commercial and regulatory activities, to ensure efficiency in the petroleum industry.

The Senior Manager, CISLAC, Mr. Kolawole Banwo, stated this at an oil and gas sector forum held in Lagos.

According to him, some of the challenges bedeviling the petroleum industry are simply due to conflict of interest arising from commercial, as well as regulatory issues.

“By default, if companies like; Shell, Mobil and other Majors do wrong, they will definitely not get away with it. However, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, could get away with some of these crimes if sanctioned because of its systematic complexity.

“There is conflict of interest in all of this and that is why it is imperative for sanctions to be effective, the regulator and operators should be separated for adequate checks and balances in the sector. The clear scenario between NCC and MTN is a good one,” he said.

He also stated that the lack of political will has given birth to rise in nefarious activities among operators in the industry.

“Corruption is also something we cannot hide from. This is because some of the operators, private sector holders, have interest in politics (They

NIPCO commits to grow LPG use

According to him, vendors need to invest substantially in equipment and facilities such as field kits, laboratories, warehouses, blending plants for effectiveness, but regretted the absence of credit facilities to support such investment for the local vendor.

He stressed that despite being bona fide contributors to the Nigerian Content Fund, members of Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers are unable to access the funds.

According to him, “Apart from the DPR certification requirement for chemical, vendors are also faced with other similar regulatory bottlenecks at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, and sometimes Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON. These regulatory

hurdles combine to sap the energy of the vendors.”

He therefore called for the harmonization and streamlining of the regulatory routines of DPR, NAFDAC and SON for greater efficiency without loss of effectiveness, adding that DPR should extend its recertification period to 5 – 10 years.

As regards the urgent need to revive the nation’s ailing refineries, he said, the short term prospects in the process treatment sub-sector are less bright in view of the deplorable situation of the country’s refineries. He maintained that except the government has the political will to do the needful to reverse the dwindling fortunes of these refineries, prospects for treating chemicals in Nigeria is doomed.

jeopadised.

In his view, “It is an institutional thing. Separate regulation from the operation.

For instance, we have DPR, and NNPC, while DPR is a regulator and NNPC operator.

If NNPC can be strictly for business, it doesn’t really matter who is the Minister.

Because when the law states thus, one cannot do otherwise.

But because they have combined both roles there will be prevailing conflict of interest. As the industry is, there is no separation of these functions and that is why the problem will be unending.”

HE Federal Government’s quest for a massive embrace of liquefied petroleum gas, LPG, also known as cooking gas has received a boost as NIPCO Plc, an indigenous oil and gas company donated free cylinders to scores of residents of its host community –Apapa.

Making the donation, the Managing Director of NIPCO, Mr Venkataraman Venkatapathy said the 6 kilogramme cylinders attached with burners was part of the company ’s contribution to addressing the challenge of needed accessories to jumpstart use of gas as cooking fuel.

According to him, the company had to fill up all the cylinders donated to enable beneficiaries begin its use almost immediately with the hope that after such use they would have seen the inherent benefits of switching to gas as the most efficient cooking fuel.

The MD, who was represented at the event held at Apapa Nursery and Primary School by the company ’s Corporate Affairs Manager, Lawal Taofeek recalled that such initiative was undertaken by the firm last year at Auchi, Edo State in furtherance of NIPCO’s resolve to be part of the change mantra in the use of gas as healthier source of domestic fuel across the country.

EKEDC promises regular power supply at Yuletide

A

HEAD of the yuletide season, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC, said it is committed to ensure regular power supply to customers, going by the high expectations of its customers to enjoy regular power supply during this season.

The Head, Corporate Communications Department of the company, Mr. Godwin Idemudia, stated this during an interactive session with newsmen in Lagos.

According to him “The Company has commenced replacement of faulty cables and equipment to ensure easy evacuation of power as received from the national grid.

To this end, appropriate measures are being put in place to ensure that customers’ expectations are not played down. We will ensure customers within our

operational territory enjoy uninterrupted supply during the Yuletide.”

He explained that aside from replacement and repairs of faulty equipment, special fault clearing teams had been set up in all the business districts to facilitate quick response to customers’ complaints.

He appealed to customers to show understanding if their expectations were not met as a result of drop in the national generation level.

He noted that whenever there was a drop in bulk energy load allocation to the company, such situations were usually beyond the company’s control.

He further urged customers to include settlement of electricity bills in their Yuletide budget to avoid disconnection during the period.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 — 27

C M Y K

28—VANGUARD, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

Why we created Creta — Hyundai VP T

HE Vice President and Head of Africa and Middle East Operations, Hyundai Motor Company, Mr. Jin Kim has given reasons behind Hyndai’s entry into the subcompact Sport Utility Vehicle segment, with the all new Creta.

The Hyundai vice president who spoke to Vanguard Motoring shortly after a testdrive of the sub compact SUV at Trou Aux Bische Resort and Spa in Mauritius stated that Hyundai wanted to tap from the growing sub-compact SUV market with the all new Creta which is economical, affordable, dependable and comfortable, with class leading qualities in its segment.

“We are tapping into the growing sub-compact SUV market to give customers affordable SUV with class leading qualities,” he said.

Although, the vice president noted that there were few competitors in this segment for now, he disclosedthat their coming would expand demand base as the Creta would increase Hyundai market share in its segment.

According to him, the Creta is a unique product, targetted at certain markets like Africa, the Middle East, India and China.

He expressed satisfaction with the performance of the car in India and China where it was launched earlier in the year, adding that within the first few months of its launch in the market, it became the most sought after sub-compact SUVs in the market.

Aggressive promotion Mr. Kiin further noted that the huge success of the Creta in the markets where it was earlier introduced would not deter them from aggresively promoting the car in other markets.

“Our strategy to push the Creta is to focus on communication with the customers, after experience to the customers (active test-drive) for them to feel the performance, comfort and class-leading features of the car,” he said.

The Hyundai vice president further noted that their goal was to become the first choice to new car buyers in Africa by equipping their vehicles with more features and offering excellent service backing to their numerous customers across the world.

On what Hyundai intends to bring to the motoring world in the near future, he promised

Hyundai Creta sub-compact SUV launched recently in Mauritus

Jin Kim Hyundai Motors Vice President them to expect world-Class and excellent products from Hyundai including fine tuned and refined products, high performance cars, pickups and luxury sedans from Hyundai Genesis product live.

Already, he said six new models and variants have been lined up from Genesis which will compete in the luxury vehicle segment.

For this, he said Genesis would create its own customer base, especially for customers who want to stand out.

“We will create our customer base especially for customers who want to express themselves with Genesis. We want to take a different approach by making cars according to customers demands,” he stated.

Kim further noted that customers satisfaction remains the priority of Hyundai Motor Company as they would ensure high quality in their car production all over the world.

To this end, he said service network expansion is being carried out to serve the custom-

ers better at every point where Hyundai operates.

Meanwhile, Mr. Jinho Ki, who is in charge of Hyundai vehicle business in Nigeria and West Africa was full of praises for Hyundai Nigeria for their commitment to Hyundai's business. He also commended the Federal Government’s auto policy saying “the policy was implemented because of Nigeria and we are happy about it.”

Though, he said that their performance in Nigeria dropped this year due to the Federal Government’s auto policy, He expects business to pick up shortly as the new plant in Nigeria has started producing cars.

According to him, in 2014, Hyundai grew 30 percent

when compared to 2013, when about 7000 Hyundai models were shipped to Nigeria.

“This year has been a little tough but the good thing is that production lines for Hyundai Accent, Elantra, Tucson, Grand I 10 are now in place in Nigeria,” he remarked.

Adding that the new Creta would help boost Hyundai's market share in Nigeria, given its many attributes.

He expressed satisfaction with the quality of vehicles being rolled out from the Hyundai plant in Nigeria, which are made for Nigerian road condition.

Considering the road condition in Nigeria, Mr. Ki explained that the Creta SUV would be a perfect car for their customers who desire cars with good road clearance and overall performance for their everyday use.

CIG kicks off Xmas bonanza for GAC customers

C

IG Motors, owners of the GAC brand franchise in Nigeria has kicked off a Christmas and new year bonanza for its loyal and prospective customers across the country. The loyalty offer according to the company is in appreciation of their patronage since the launch of the brand in the Nigerian market. To this end, the company has lined up special gifts as well as an all expense paid trip to China, for some lucky customers.

GAC GS5 SUV

Diana Chen, chief executive officer, CIG Motors described the two GAC cars in Nigeria as top notch models. They include GA3 Sedan and GS5 SUV which she said were efficiently built for Nigerian roads.

She said the introduction of the beautiful cars into the country could not have come at a better time than now, which would offer buyers good value for money.

According to Chen, GAC Motors is rated among the top 500 companies in the world

and a top premier automobile brand in China. She remarked that since opening shop in the past one year, there has been increasing patronage for the brand which was the reason for the year-end discounted sales and raffle draws.

Giving more insight into the customer loyalty programme, Khadijah Junaid, executive director, CIG Motors Company Limited disclosed that with vehicles becoming more fashionable these days, CIG Motors primarily would want to step out of the everyday transportation by moving to the next level.

She said, in trying to do something different, the outlet has come to realise that automobiles are not just a sheet of metal on four wheels with four doors, adding that there is more to it than just vehicular design. CIG Motors have sold about 180 units of both GAC models since the introduction of the brand to Nigeria.

To appreciate its customer base which cuts across private individuals, security, banking, and corporate institutions, CIG is embarking on a nationwide sales promotional drive called GAC Christmas offer which would last from December 1 to 31, 2015, followed by a raffle draw on January 2016.

Giving rationale behind the initiative, the executive director said, “People have bought our cars, people are using our cars, people have seen our brand.

We deem it fit to promote the brand by giving a bonus during the GAC Christmas offer”.

While the month-long public promotion lasted, the company will be selling any of the GAC products to the public at discounted prices and the introduction of its new airconditioner system produced

by GAC which prospective buyers of the automotive models will stand an opportunity of going home with.

VANGUARD, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—29

By Theodore Opara

T

HE local automobile media last week put to the test a sizeable number of Zahav Automobile product range during a guided media tour of the plant facility at Ikotun-Egbe – a suburb in Lagos, where motoring journalists, for the first time, experienced the performance; road handling, fuel efficiency and adaptability of the locally assembled Chinese engineered vehicles.

Zahav Automobile Company is the assembler and distributor of Chinese designed Changan and BAIC passenger cars and Stallion badge Force and Foton Tunland pickups; minibus and vans.

Addressing the media at the plant, Zahav Automobile Company Quality Assurance Manager, Kavi Kumar said: “Zahav was conceived to cater for value line automobile brands such as Foton, Jinbei, Baic and Changan brand of vehicles.”

Mr. Kumar explained that the plant which was built with installed capacity for 12, 000 vehicles annually currently produces 20% of its installed capacity owing to inadequate demand but added that the Ikotun based Zahav plant would commence activity fully soon as the Federal Government wholly implements the National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) with definitive restrictions on used import vehicles.

He explained that the plant has the capacity to double its production if demand increases. "The Zahav plant engages 45 indigenous technicians and experts in one

shift to produce competitively priced vehicles that are priced 20% cheaper that its Korean rivals," Mr. Kumar noted.

The quality assurance manager also said: “The Changan sedan was designed by Italian Carminati Stefano and currently produces 2.8 million cars per annum to rank among foremost selling vehicles in China while the BAIC Group who recently acquired Swedish SAAB technology for styling and powertrain is rated No. 5 largest automotive groups in China.”

Some of the models put to test by the journalists include 1.5litre Baic S3 DVVT, 1.5litre Baic M20 (aka Kembo), the1.5 tonne Mitsubishi engine powered Foton Tunland pick-up; 1.6litre Changan EADO executive sedan, and Foton View CS2 (18-seater bus).

Kumar said the Zahav plant would cater for the teeming

Zahav Automobile Range impresses in road test

•The Zahav Auto range. demands of the upwardly mobile, middle income earners and start-up businesses without sacrificing quality, elegance and durability.

Also adding that the Zahav automobile range is a perfect choice for work and leisure, the

Zahav Automobile Company head of sales and marketing, Sanjay Rupani said: “though the vehicles are of Chinese extraction, they all inherit the DNA of renowned automobile manufacturers – Daimler Automotive Company and Cummins Engine Company.

Briscoe opens auto workshop in UNILAG

C

ORPORATE fleet owners, institutional and individual vehicle owners can now avail themselves of quality auto repair and services with the opening of automobile workshop at the University of Lagos following collaborations between RT Briscoe plc,, franchise owners of the Toyota and Ford brands in Nigeria.

The historic opening of the ultra-modern workshop facility followed years of discussions between the University authorities and the publicly quoted company; RT Briscoe.

The workshop is a 10 work bay

facility, refurbished to ensure that at least more than 15 vehicles can be worked upon simultaneously. RT Briscoe will stock it with modern equipment and also ensure that original spare parts are made available.

Giving a remark at the official opening ceremony, Seyi Onajide, managing director and chief executive of RT Briscoe plc disclosed that, the automobile garage is a joint venture between the University of Lagos and RT Briscoe put in place for two major reasons. He said as it was coined, the joint

venture partnership intends to bring the ‘gawn and town’ together.

And what that means in the words of Sofoluwe, the former Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos in one of their meetings, is that in most institutions all over the world, there is no wall between the town and the academic environment.

"One of the vice chancellor’s visions is that, he wants to see the walls of the town and academic community broken down, not necessarily physically, but interacting the

Toyota emerges 2015 NAJA awards highest winner

D

ESPITE not having a plant yet in Nigeria, which has resulted to the high cost of its products in Nigeria in recent times, Toyota Nigeria Limited still carted the highest number of awards at the just concluded Nigeria Auto Journalists Awards, organised by the Guild of Motoring Correspondents.

Toyota went home with the pickup of the year award (Hilux), Minivan of the year award (Hiace), sports utility vehicle of the year (Prado), while its dealer Elizade Motors won workshop of the year award.

Though, the Toyota Corolla was nominated for prestigious car of the year award which was incidentally won by Kia Rio this year, Toyota Corolla has dominated the car of the year award in the history of the Nigeria Auto Journalists award.

This year’s car of the year award must have slipped off Toyota’s hands because of the high price of the Corolla resulting from the high duty (70 per cent) being paid by the company for not having a plant in Nigeria.

But a Toyota source told Van-

Mr. Rupani described the vehicles as ergonomically designed with an ideal mix of style, practicality and attractive lines like the American and Japanese styled cars to woo discerning drivers who want exceptionally trendy kind of vehicles.

guard Motoring that the Toyota product would soon become competitively priced as the company has completed a semi knock-down plant in Egbeda Lagos which will be commissioned in the first quarter of next year.

Kia’s emergence as the car of the year in 2015 did not come as a surprise to many as it had severally emerged first runnersup in previous years.

Automotive assembly Also, PAN Limited, assemblers of Peugeot automobiles, was declared the ‘Car Company of the Year, due to its progress in the automotive assembly in Nigeria.

Other winners at the award night included Mercedes Benz S-class, which bagged the Luxury Sedan of the Year award; Briscoe won the Most Enterprising Auto Dealership of the Year Award; and Iron Products Industry (IPI) bagged the Auto Builder of the Year Award.

Others included; Auto Assembler of the Year, Stallion; Lux-

ury SUV of the Year, Range Rover; and Truck Brand of the Year went to Mercedes Benz.

Also, Mitsubishi Canter emerged Light Truck of the Year; Independent Auto Workshop of the Year, Admiralty Motors; Auto Dealership of the Year, Globe Motors; and Sixt was voted the Car Rental Company of the Year.

Speaking on behalf of the awardees, the Managing Director, Toyota Nigeria, Mr. Kunle Ade-Ojo thanked the journalists for organising the award, saying he was pleasantly surprised at its depth.

He charged the awardees not to rest on their oars but should continue to provide good and quality automobiles for Nigerians.

Ade-Ojo urged those who could not win any of the awards to work harder next year for them to be recognised appropriately.

The grand award night, which held in Victoria Island, Lagos, was attended by the bigwigs in Nigeria’s auto industry, including the Director General, National Automotive Design and Development (NADD), Aminu Jalal; the Corps Marshal, Fed-

eral Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Boboye Oyeyemi, represented by Nseobong Akpabio, Assistant Corps Marshal and Zonal Commanding Officer RS2, made up of Lagos and Ogun States, among other distinguished personalities.

academic world with the outside world and I took that to be very strong, and that to me aligns with the vision and mission of RT Briscoe plc," he said.

The CEO of RT Briscoe noted that the duo can never go wrong in a situation where the business conglomerate is bringing its almost 60 years of automotive engineering to bear with so many decades of academic experience and excellence of University of Lagos. This he said was the rationale for these two coming together to have a joint venture like this.

As Onajide put it, “We have our expertise in different areas, but with a synergy of bringing those two together, you can be rest assured that what we are going to get from this joint venture is a combination of academic excellence, professional competences and value driven to our discerning customers.”

L-R: Public Relations and Advert Manager of Toyota Nigeria Limited, Bukola Ogunnusi receiving the SUV of the Year Award for Toyota Landcruiser Prado from Dr. Oscar Odiboh at the 2015 Nigeria Auto Journalists Awards held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos

30—Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

By Jude Njoku

T

WO and half years after it flagged off the construction of Festival Mall located within the expansive premises of Golden Tulip Hotels, (former Durbar Hotels) in Festac Town, Messrs UACN Development & Property Company, UPDC PLC last week, formally commissioned the imposing N5 billion mall which has redefined shopping in the entire Amuwo-Odofin Council Area.

Actual construction works commenced on the mall on Friday 17th May 2013 and was concluded in November 2015.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, UPDC’s Managing Director, Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran disclosed that the mall was developed by UPDC through the vehicle of First Festival Mall Limited, a - joint venture between UPDC Plc, Africa Capital Alliance and UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust REIT. “Festival Mall project was conceptualised in 2011, generally due to absence of modern formal retail channels in Festac and its environ. The mall was born out of UPDC‘s desire to create a destination point for Lagos State residents around Festac, Amuwo-Odofin, Mile 2, Ojo, Alaba, Orile and Okota to have an experience of a formal shopping mall. The mall is located in a commercial/ entertainment node that includes the newly built Golden Tulip Hotel & Conference Centre and The Residences, a block comprising of 195 Condominiums,” he explained.

Surveillance system Continuing, Ogunniran said; “Festival Mall prides itself on such facilities as 500 car parking bays, sewage treatment plant, water treatment plant, fire alarm and fire fighting system, 24/7 CCTV surveillance system, armed police patrol and independent power plant, IPP”.

Located on 3.2 hectares of prime land, other prominent features of Festival Mall include gross buildable area of 12,722sqm, 10,071m2 of leasable space, comprising 4,508sqm of retail line shops, 1,035 of F&B shops, Cinema of five viewing screens and 3,320sqm of anchor space.

The mall comprises 47 retails shops, including two anchor tenants (Shoprite and Silverbird Cinemas) and 45 other retailers offering diverse products and services ranging from the Food Court to Line Shops Also speaking at the ceremony, the Deputy Managing Director of Stanbic

UPDC draws curtain on construction of N5bn Festival Mall

Festival Mall after the commissioning.

IBTC, Dr. Demola Shogunle said the bank “provided a $9 million Bridge Facility as part funding to commence the development phase and subsequently refinanced the amount with the provision of a seven-year $25 million medium term loan facility representing 50 percent of the total project cost".

“Despite the difficult operating year in 2015, debt funding was secured for the project. In addition, the bank provided additional support via transactional banking and hedging products to further enhance project feasibility. The transaction structure which allows quarterly rental payments and a bullet repayment at maturity, eases the cash burden on tenants and supports new businesses that may otherwise struggle with lump sum upfront rental payments,” he said.

Flaunting the advantages of the Mall, the Stanbic IBTC deputy MD pledged his bank’s readiness to support landmark real estate projects in Nigeria which contribute to economic growth, improve infrastructural

Despite the difficult operating year in 2015, debt funding was secured for the project

development and ultimately create jobs for Nigerians. “It is our belief that the mall which is strategically located within the Amuwo-Odofin and Festac

community and in close proximity to the Badagry expressway which is currently undergoing expansion works and include a rail line by the

Lagos State Government would provide a cultural hub and diversity for the surrounding area and would be the first modern retail facility within the location,” he said.

Okowa calls for professionalism in estate surveying practice

By Kingsley Adegboye

T

HE Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has called on Estate Surveyors and Valuers in the State to bring their professionalism to the forefront in the society, saying that the profession is critical to the development of any society.

The Governor made the call last week during the 2015 Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Workshop organised by the Delta State chapter of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, NIESV. The theme of the workshop was “Land acquisition for infrastructural development: Challenges and options” .

Governor Okowa reiterated the importance of estate surveyors and valuers in the workings of government as regards acquisition of lands and payment of compensations to land owners by government for infrastructural development. The Governor who was represented by former Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly, Dr. Martins Okonta, noted that without the presence of estate surveyors and valuers, the society will be unorganised.

The Governor submitted that if due processes concerning land acquisitions and compensation are not followed by government at all levels, there might be delay in infrastructural development in the country as government has to deal with litigations and protest

by the owners of the land. He charged estate surveyors and valuers to make themselves strong in order for the society to recognise their value.

Also speaking at the workshop, the Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Chief Dan Okenyi urged the surveyors to prove to the world that they are true professionals who know their worth in the society.

Chief Okenyi who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Land, Survey and Urban Development, Mr. Sam Adjohwenyo, enjoined the land experts to take the workshop seriously.

The Delta State Chairman of the NIESV, Mr. Efe Appih stressed the need for professionals to develop their professional skills for efficient service delivery.

Developer tasks FCTA on provision of infrastructure

By Victoria Ojeme HE Chairman of MetroWest, developers of the Flowergate Estate in Abuja, Mr Wale Adegbite has called on the Federal Capital Territory Administration to provide infrastructure for residential estates in the city as this would help in the reduction of the cost of housing.

Adegbite noted that the cost of decent housing in Abuja would be reduced by between 30 and 50 per cent, if the FCT Administration will shoulder the responsibility of providing infrastructure. He explained that every estate developer in the city bears the cost of of providing infrastructure such as roads, sewage reticulation, power reticulation and storm water drain among others.

Adegbite who spoke to newsmen, stressed the need for the government to provide the

T

enabling environment that would be an incentive to developers to bridge the housing gap especially in the FCT’.

“It is noteworthy to state that in areas where the developer have to provide infrastructure, cost could go up by some 30 to 50 per cent.

He disclosed that the 88- unit Flowergate estate has attained 75 per cent completion and about 50 per cent subscription levels. The estate, according to him, will be open for residents by the first quarter of 2016. The project construction began a year ago.

“For the company which developed Olympia estate and The Oakville, developing the Flowergate “goes beyond the business side of it; we were driven by a passion to deliver spacious homes for our subscribers.

VANGUARD, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—31

FG vows to stamp out corruption in construction industry

By Chris Ochayi

M

INISTER of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola has restated the commitment of the Federal Government to stamp out corruption inherent in the construction industry. The government said it would apply the key complements to guarantee the achievement of value for money on all services rendered to the people.

The Minister made the pledge at the 2015 induction ceremony for newly registered quantity surveyors and practicing firms and 4th annual professional clinic on riskmanagement for registered quantity surveyors , organised by the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria, QSRBN in Abuja The ceremony witnessed the induction of 317newly registered quantity surveyors and 34 practising firms of quantity surveyors, thus bringing the total number of registered quantity surveyors and practising firms in the register of the Board to 2,777 and 236 respectively.

Fashola promised that the Federal Government would pay great attention and invest heavily in road infrastructure, power and housing in the coming years.

The sector, he said, would be prioritised on account of its contribution to the national economy due to its capacity to generate multiplier effects and employment on a large scale.

He said the government would be counting on the support of quantity surveyors and other professionals in the construction industry to deMinister of Power, Works & Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (right) being decorated by the Chairman, Nigeria Legion, Col. Micah Gayya (retd).

Registered quantity surveyors must queue behind President Muhammed Buhari in his anti- corruption crusade

liver good governance to the people.

The Minister who was represented by the Director, Survey department, Mr. Dickson Onojah urged quantity surveyors to bring their expertise as construction cost managers to bear on the costing of projects in order to achieve value for money and cost-efficiency in the implementation of

projects in both the public and private sectors of the economy.

“It is one sector which this government will give due attention in view of its contribution to the national economy due to its capacity to generate multiplier effects and employment on a large scale,” he said.

Fashola commended the QSRBN for “the good

work you have done so far in the pursuit of your mandate,” not only in the regular registration and induction of eligible quantity surveyors, but also in the area of professional development as well as accreditation of quantity surveying programmes in the universities and polytechnics.

QSRBN President, Mallam Hussaini Dikko

LASURA mulls citizens’ participatory approach to urban planning

T

By Kingsley Adegboye

HE newly appointed General Manager of the Lagos State Urban Renewal Agency, LASURA Mr. Lateef Sholebo, has unveiled plans to redevelop blighted areas in Lagos metropolis.

Sholebo, a city planner who worked for 25 years in the United States of America believes communities are better planned through participatory approach and he intends to adopt this to make a difference in planning during his tenure as the boss of LASURA. Speaking to Vanguard Homes & Environment in his office, he promised to introduce a mixed income development where different classes of people who live together in the same environment, can be made to influence one another.

“The idea here is that those who are not too financially endowed can be made to have a changed mentality through influence from social, environment and economic awareness. For instance, if the less privileged in the community look at the way their neighbours are disposing their refuse in a more hygienic way, they will have no choice than to emulate them”, Sholebo noted.

The LASURA GM said he would make citizens actively participate in the

planning of their neighbourhoods.

He explained that the state government is conscious of the challenges confronting the country’s commercial nerve centre, especially in the area of transportation.

According to him, the transport sector is paramount to the successful management of any megacity.”This is one area that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is not taking lightly and it is obvious that with several road projects that are ongoing, the problem is under control”, Sholebo said.

Pointing out that residents in blighted areas may not be favourably disposed to government’s regeneration programmes because of lack of trust, he explained that this was why the citizens’ participation approach is paramount to carry everyone along. “In our own case, the local government officials, community development associations, CDA, human rights groups and other interests would be included. There is going to be a lot of sensitization programmes, workshops and seminars where every issue involved will be thoroughly discussed. So, the issue of trust or no trust will be out of place if everyone is involved”, Sholebo said. .

Towards achieving a seamless urban regeneration and redevelopment, the LASURA GM stressed the need for restructuring of the communities, creating

urban growth boundaries, introduction of tax increment financing, regional approach and involvement of public/private participation, PPP. Emphasising that LASURA will ensure its programmes are community-based, he said the agency will develop a plan for each affected area, give the plan to the community where the residents would discuss them and offer suggestions as it is done all over the world.

“Since it is the people we intend to serve, we must carry them along in the redevelopment process,” he posited.

Shedding more light on the meaning of urban growth boundary, he said certain locations would be earmarked for physical development for the residents and such development will not pass the delineated boundary.

“Outside the boundary, we can then have amenities such as schools, hospitals, recreational grounds, parks and so on. This is because to allow sprawl development is to invite chaos”, he said.

On tax increment financing, Sholebo said the principle behind it is where a slum is identified, LASURA will come and redevelop the area. “With the exercise properly carried out, it would attract investors, and property in the area will attract higher value.

warned that the Board would come down heavily on any unethical behaviour or professional misconduct by a registered quantity surveyor.

“In this regard, registered quantity surveyors must queue behind President Muhammed Buhari in his anti- corruption crusade. Quantity surveyors have a key role to play in fighting corruption in the building and engineering industry,” he said

Quantity surveyors Dikko described as a drop of water in a mighty ocean, a situation whereby there are only 2,777 registered quantity surveyors and 236 practicing firms to serve a population of over 170 million people. He was however mindful of the need to uphold quality, standards and competence in the sector.

The QSRBN president who explained that the thematic focus for this year’s professional clinic is “Risk Management for Registered Quantity Surveyors, said this seamlessly keys into the MCPD programme of the QSRBN. While describing Risk Management as key to the effectiveness of quantity surveying practice, he noted that risks are necessary occurrences in life, adding that understanding the science of risk management is therefore a normal course of life.

32 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

Managing the inflection point in organizations (2) This is the concluding part of this piece which was first published yesterday. In that edition, Dr. Akanni of the School of Communication, Lagos State University, had argued that this is the age of information society. sophistication. Labour and

By Tunde Akanni general human rights activists like yours sincerely will frankly WARTZ declined a plea label it downsizing. bargain under which he Today, the banking industry has would have served six months become so less human being in federal prison. Two days after dependent that the only regions the prosecution rejected a of the world where banking counter-offer by Swartz, he was keeps expanding as an industry found dead in are the largely illiterate ones his Brooklyn apartment, where including Nigeria. Indeed, he had hanged himself.

Nigeria stands out most uniquely In June 2013, Swartz was with bogus building for bank posthumously inducted into branches, continentally and even the Internet Hall of Fame. Let globally. What do you need all no one mistake our message for the fat tables in our banks for incitement to undue radicalism when the apex banking keeps here. Rather we have gone this preaching cashless policy? Why far to emphasise the importance should anyone deliberately run of access to information in our him/herself against the law of any lives and indeed the sacrifices country by travelling with more some genuinely convinced than $10,000 cash with all the individuals had made to electronic transfer avenues and democratize it beyond selfish a number of airports around the indulgence. world (except Nigeria and few There are, however, two main others) serviced by free internet submissions here: Firstly, access and even buses run by whether we are professionally consortium of hotels with good adventurous or not, there is so presence on the internet? much information out there in the public domain to support and Presence on sustain humanity’s endeavour the internet? for a better world. Of course, as much as for destructive purposes Telecommunications industry is which why it is more compelling perhaps a greater recipient of the for us as management experts to dynamism induced by be ahead of those who would put computerization.

May we all ask public information to negative ourselves: What has happened use.

Secondly, to echo the ageless to all the roomy facilities that sage, Obafemi Awolowo, “only used to be dedicated to in various the deep can call to the deep”. exchanges establishments?

As if, the GSM It’s the extent to which we are wonder with its multifarious functions isn’t intriguing enough, the multiplying instant messaging and supratelephoning platforms dependent on the internet including whatsapp, viber, skype, vimeo and so forth have all come as huge relief for pockets even as they have additional advantages of transnational operations which may not accrue readily to basic GSM facilities.

The effect of computerization on journalism has manifested in DR. TUNDE AKANNI ready to explore information that countless phases and may take will shape our world view. This us more than twenty years back. is the very basis of the The most recent is the signal continentwide campaign for yours sincerely attempted to drop internet freedom. Already, as you in the Saturday Tribune of know, in such countries as November 7, 2015. Simply, Finland, access to the internet is journalism will soon become a fundamental right.

But how are we able to manage the information deluge? There is no alternative to what Manuel The effect of Caastells call technoliteracy.

Computer skills have become computerization on indispensable. But not just ordinarily. Can we all spare some journalism has time to reflect on what may manifested in become of the sector in which countless phases and each of us function today, say in 10 or 15 years time? Most may take us more undisputably, practices in the than twenty years realms of banking, retail trading, law, catering, back telecommunications, catering and agriculture are already manifesting computer induced

S

robot assisted. Robots, with their artificial intelligence will in the months to come be deployed to complement the efforts of humans in and outside of the newsroom. Already, unmanned drones otherwise referred to as quadcopters are being used to take photographs. Some of them even have the capacity to livestream photographs on the internet once appropriately programmed. Computers have suddenly made typists and copy boys irrelevant in the newsrooms as such is the level of computerization that information processing and storage in the newsroom have become more efficient and speedier.

So much said about the computer as a basic tool. The internet has since come to confer a much higher level of performance. Hear another phenomenal entrepreneur like Groove, Bill Gates (founder of the renowned Microsoft company, together with coauthors, Nathan Myhrvold and Peter Rinearson): “Popularity of the Internet is the most important single development in the world of computing since the IBM PC was introduced in 1981(Gates, Myhrvold and Rinearson,1995: 91) After the bookThe Road Aheadwas written, Gates recognized that the Internet was gaining critical mass, and on December 7, 1995 - just weeks after the release of the book he redirected Microsoft to become an Internet-focused company. Then he and the coauthors revised the book, made it 20,000 words longer and focusing on the

Internet.

Distinguished gentlemen and ladies, whether we are Christians or not, we can’t claim to be indifferent to the fundamentality of the “word” in our lives.

In particular, the phrase “In the beginning was the word…” But the word as a constant variable keeps interfacing with new variables by the day the most prominent being the internet technology in the recent time. The renowned Spanish scholar, Manuel Castells locates this on three platforms n a m e l y , production, dissemination and consumption. Where is the publishing industry here?

If we approximate production to the preparation of manuscripts and allied pre-press activities, it is not what we used to have in the past again. Research is becoming increasingly exciting and the challenges are becoming increasingly involving such that researchers often have to update trends. Although I can authoritatively say that researching on the internet is not part of what most Nigerian schools teach as part of Research as a course, there is hardly any research undertaken today that can measure up to international standard, global best practices, that can be independent of internet navigation. Was Aaron Swartz a fool to have nurtured such a commitment t o information access to the extent of paying the supreme price for it?

This is not to talk of the influence of the increasing sophistication of printing machines with bourgeoning capabilities. It is no longer a breaking story that a number of Nigerians today indulge in offshore publishing thus widening the outlet for for forex leakage.

It is particularly important to mention here the place of the internet reliant virtual private network which can be both advantageous and disadvantageous to the nation’s publishing industry. I hope we would have enough time to exchange ideas on this during discussion.

The physical boundary blurring effect of the internet has indeed rendered publishers in countries like Nigeria relatively powerless to their contemporaries in the advanced world. This has also been strengthened by the emphasis on “foreign publications” for the promotion of academics in our higher institutions. Publishers in the west now embark on virtual roaming globally in search of quality manuscripts such as Ph D theses often offer. Indeed, such is the global preponderance that as soon as title registration of doctoral theses is done at the University of Ibadan, these publishers go after the potential authors.

Dissemination is no less dependent on internet technology, indeed, it is burgeoning. The advent of epublishing has changed the face of publishing forever.

Operations of the publishing industry thus get suddenly compressed even as, ironically, frontiers of patronage may extend substantially with contrastingly lower earnings.

For consumers though, it seems a brighter day. Publishers who want to remain in business therefore need to be creative but this may require some collaboration. Are we there?

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—33

Witness absolves ex-NIMASA DG of contract splitting, bid rigging

By Innocent Anaba

A

Federal High Court sitting in Lagos was, yesterday, told that former Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, DirectorGeneral, Raymond Omatseye, awarded contracts in accordance with the Procurement Act. Omatseye is standing trial on an amended 27-count charge of alleged bid rigging.

At the resumed hearing in the case, a subpoenaed witness, Mr Abdulahi Mohammed, from the Federal Ministry of Justice, told the court that all contracts awarded by the accused were within the threshold allowed by the Act. Led in evidence by defence counsel, Mr Edoka Onyeke, the witness said that on February 13, 2013, a letter was received from the office of the Chief of Staff.

He said that the letter urged the Attorney-General of the Federation to act on a letter it received from the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, which absolved Omatseye of approving contracts above his threshold.

“The letter, which was signed by Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, was received,

stamped and forwarded to the former Attorney-General of the Federation. The A-G minuted it to the Solicitor- General who forwarded same to the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP. “The DPP in turn, minuted same to a lawyer for action as is done in the ministry,” he said The witness, however, told the court that when the file

came back to him, it was marked “keep in view.”

He said that the file remained there, until it was subpoena by the Federal High Court, Lagos.

According to the witness, an internal memo with reference number BPP/PRES/2013/04 noted that all procurement by the accused were within the approved thresholds of

NIMASA. After listening to the witness, the court adjourned the case to February 22, 2016 for continuation.

The accused is charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, with contract splitting and bid rigging to the tune of N1.5 billion.

CONVOCATION: Former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Nsima Ekere (left) and Rector of Missionary Theological College and Seminary, an affiliate of Cornerstone University and Theological Seminary, USA, Apostle Patrick Jerome, during the second convocation of the institution, in which Ekere was honoured with a doctorate of philosophy degree in Public Administration, in Uyo, on Saturday.

Chevron committed N16bn to GMoU in 10 years —Idowu

By Festus Ahon, Dayo Johnson & Akpokona Omafuaire

A

SABA—CHEVRON Nigeria Limited, CNL, has committed over N16 billion in its Global Memorandun of Understanding, GMoU in the past 10 year in its operational areas in Nigeria, which has led to improved relationship with host communities.

Olatunji Idowu, Manager, Social Perfor mance and Planning, CNL, at a two-day media capacity building for journalists organised by NNPC/Chevron joint venture, in Asaba, Delta State, stated that the policy was aimed at placing more emphasis on projects and programmes that would enhance sustainable economic empowerment and employment generation.

On her part, Mrs. Clementina Arubi, Deputy Manager, Community Development ‘B’ of the Public Affairs Department, PAD, NNPC-NAPIMS, called for joint efforts in curbing the hydra-headed monster of pipeline vandalism which has

become a recurring decimal in the oil industry.

Arubi made the call in her lecture titled “Securing the operational environment and eliminating oil theft and pipeline sabotage.”

According to her, there have been 2005 breakages of pipeline between January and September, this year alone.

The Deputy Manager lamented that between 2009

and 2011, 136 million barrels worth $10.9 billion was lost to crude oil theft and pipeline sabotage.

She listed some practical ways of eliminating oil theft and pipeline sabotage to include continuous education, sensitization and creation of awareness of the communities on the dangers of vandalism, continuous monitoring of the pipelines and more improved

skill acquisition programmes.

The Manager, Offshore Assets- Chevron Nigeria Limited, James Okereke, called for increased funding of the joint venture to be able to remain competitive in the long haul, insisting that not doing so will discourage investors in committing to further investment which is needed to drive the oil sector.

Bayelsa poll: Ijaw leader wants Sylva declared gov-elect election overwhelmingly in

A

chieftain of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta State, Chief Micheal Johnny, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to direct the Returning Officer for the Bayelsa State governorship election to announce the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area results and subsequently declare Chief Timipre Sylva the governor-elect.

Johnny, in a statement, yesterday, in Warri, while reacting to threats by Asari Dokubo and some self acclaimed former warlords,

said that if Sylva is declared winner, heaven will not fall as their threats should be disregarded.

The Ijaw leader said that APC and Sylva won the

the Southern Ijaw council, results of which gave APC and Sylva the highest votes cast in the December 5 and 6 governorship election in Bayelsa.

Cleric bags NANS award

T

HE National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has confered the Platinum Award for Excellence in Humanitarian Services as Education Developer on the Bishop of Anglican Diocese of Ughelli, Delta State, Right Revd.

Cyril Odutemu.

Receiving the award at a brief ceremony in Ughelli, Bishop

Odutemu thanked the students’ body, led by four Muslims and a Christian, for considering him for the award, explaining that Nigeria must continue to live together as one irrespective of religious and ethnic differences.

Odutemu noted that religion and ethnicity had been used to divide the people over time.

Navy beefs up security on N-Delta waterways

By Ike Uchechukwu

C

ALABAR—THE Nigerian Navy says it has established double presence on the waterways to forestall crime and checkmate activities of sea pirates in the Niger Delta with a view to safeguarding lives and property of people living and doing business in the region.

Speaking with Vanguard shortly after the Navy's quarterly exercise in Calabar, Cross River State, the Flag Officer Commanding, FOC, Eastern Naval Command, Rear Admiral Atiku Abdulkadir, disclosed that the Navy had redoubled its presence in the axis to check and curb the activities of criminals on the waterways.

The FOC who was represented by Com. Henry Ekpa, reaffirmed the Navy’s commitment to fight crime especially during the yuletide to ensure that there was peace both on land and on the waterways.

Lawmaker makes case for constant electricity supply

A

lawmaker in the Delta State House of Assembly, Evance Ivwurie, has appealed to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, to reconnect some of the communities in Ethiope East Local Government Area of the state, which had been disconnected for some years due to misunderstanding.

Ivwurie, who represents Ethiope East constituency, condemned the manhandling of BEDC staff every time they disconnect electricity from debtor homes which led to the disconnection of electricity in various communities, saying he considered the actions as barbaric on both sides.

The lawmaker advised the management of BEDC that the problem occurs in other parts of the country and the solution to the crisis was the installation of prepaid meters in homes.

“The need for BEDC to install prepaid meters in all home to disconnect only those who do not want meters and those who cannot afford to pay their bills cannot be over emphasized as this will put to rest the issue of attacks on BEDC staff."

34—Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

ONCCIMA decries state of federal roads, abandonment of 2nd Niger Bridge Chimaobi Nwaiwu

N

NEWI—THE Organised Private Sector, OPS, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to

Ebonyi LG distributes medical items to nursing, pregnant women

mobilize Julius Berger Plc, the contractor handling the 2nd Niger Bridge project back to site to douse the tension and dispel the rumours that he has cancelled the project.

President of Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, ONCCIMA, Uchenna Apakama made the appeal at the 26th Annual

Luncheon and Award Ceremony of the Chamber held in Onitsha, Anambra State.

He said that the “crucial mandate of the Chamber borders centrally on the creation of conducive and sustainable business environment for the OPS through advocacy and partnership with government and relevant stakeholders in

promoting the socio–economic development of Anambra State and South East in general.

“The Chamber strongly believes that the Buhari-led Federal Government has not abandoned or cancelled the contract for the 2nd Niger Bridge. It is on this basis that we are sustaining our appeal to the government to mobilize the contractor, Julius Berger Plc

Group accuses SSA to the President on MDGs of planning to divert funds

By Peter Okutu

By Onozure Dania

A

H

BAKALIKI— AFIKPO South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, yesterday, distributed pluses and medical equipments worth N5 million to nursing mothers, pregnant women and healthcare centres in council.

The items given out include cartons of soaps, pampers, quantities of baby clothes, dettol, powder, baby food, 60 units of hospital beds, seven units of big electricity generators, 12 units of weighing scales, 20 units of baby colts, deep freezers, delivery couches among others.

According to the council chairman, Eni Chima, the exercise was not only for the smooth implementation of the health policies of the current administration but also for the revival of primary health care centres in the council.

The exercise took place during the flag off of the second round of the 2015 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health week at Egbebu Central School play ground, Ekoli Edda, in the council.

UMAN RIGHTS Group Advocates for People's Rights and Justice, has raised alarm over the alleged plans by the office of the Senior Special Adviser, SSA, to the President on Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, to divert, and misappropriate funds meant for the payment of local contractors, owed over N18 billion.

The group accused the office of the SSA to the President on MDGs of plans to divert part of the N15 billion released for the payment of the contractors by awarding fresh contracts to themselves and cronies while deliberately refusing and neglecting to pay the contractors whom the funds were meant for.

In a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari by its National Coordinator, Victor Giwa, the group accused the office of the SSA of diversion of funds and breach of some sections of the procurement Act. According to Giwa: ”The summary of the facts is that certain Nigerians, businessmen and small scale business owners and employers of labour had in 2013/ 2014 bidded and won numerous contracts under the OSSAP on MDGs for various works in all the states of Nigeria. The contracts were executed, evaluated and

confirmations given by the relevant authorities and certificates issued for onward payment.

“Instead of prompt payment of the contractors, who had by their letter of awards, sought and received loans and other credit facilities from various banks for the execution of the project, the former SSA indulged in selective payments, manipulation and fund diversion, paying a meagre amount to the real contractors."

He noted: “However, after series of intense pressure and agitation from these contractors and the intervention of the former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Iweala, in 2014, the then SSA, incorporated these contractors’ liabilities in the value of N15 billion, in the 2015 budget of her office, under the sub-head MDG Intervention 1 and 2 and the contractors were pacified to wait

for the release.

“It is shocking that while the OSSAP is now in receipt of the said sum via a warrant of release dated December 8, 2015, under the sub-head MDG Intervention 1 and 2, officers of the OSSAP have failed, refused and neglected to pay the said contractors their full sums. They have rather engaged in diversion of this fund into award of new contracts, for personal gains. This is in clear breach of the Fiscal Responsibility and Financial (Control and Management) Acts, Laws of the Federation.

"More so, the officials even in the award of the new contract, have brazenly perverted the express provisions of section 30 (a-e) of Public Procurement Act, in that they did not permit bidders or attendees to observe the bidding process nor did they make all the bids in the open.

back to site as soon as possible.

“It is unfortunate that the Bridge has become a perpetual political issue with many past administrations in the country, despite its critical position in the socio-economic and security interest of all, not only the South East and South South, but also the entire nation,” he said.

Apakama who is also the Managing Director of Pax Pharmacy Limited, said: “The perpetual neglect of the Onitsha Enugu Expressway by the Federal Government has continued to pose a lifethreatening challenge to the people of South East, as so many souls have been lost and yet the authorities feels less concerned, and surprisingly, the road receives yearly appropriation in the federal budget.

“We urge government at all levels to take necessary actions needed to complete the rehabilitation and completion of the road, the segment between Umunya to Awkuzu is a horror to commuters and without immediate palliative intervention, this Christmas period, it will be a nightmare to thousands of road users.”

ONCCIMA also decried the yet to be seen operational commencement of the Onitsha River Port, and tasked the Federal Government to conclude the process of concession of the port without further delay.

Umudara people fight unemployment with skill acquisition

By Maximillan Anosike

T

O MAKE its youths gainfully employed, Lagos State branch of the Umudara Progressive Union, UPU, of Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State, has embarked on establishment of skill acquisition

centres.

The position was taken in Lagos at the celebration of Umudara Day and conferment of chieftaincy titles on Chief Kingsley Ekwunife and his wife Mrs. Nkiru Ekwunife as the Ebekuo Dike 1 of Umudara and Adaugo Ezedara respectively.

Speaking at the event which was attended by the traditional ruler of the community, His Royal Majesty, Eze D’ Arah, Chief T.I Nwadialor, the chairman of the forum, Chief Thaddeus Mbadinuju regretted that unemployment had made youths to engage in social vices.

By Bartholomew Madukwe (08102479985) nwamad@yahoo.com

PEOPLE SPEAK

On President Buhari's fight against corruption

I

hope President Buhari will not be fighting till his tenure will run out, leaving more hunger and bad economy in the country.

However, Amaechi, Rochas, Tinubu and others, I hope that their toes won’t be bigger for him to step on.

-Mr. Joseph Iriabije, Self Employed C M Y K

I

am in total support with President Buhari stepping on toes in his bid to fight corruption. It does not matter, if the President likes, he should step on heads, bodies or march on them; afterwards their actions sent many people to the grave. -Miss Hope Macaulay, Worker

W

hy was Buhari voted in as President of Nigeria? Go on, we are with you! We did not vote for a gentleman, but a warrior that will take the fight to the criminals holding Nigeria to ransom. -Miss Regina Osakwe, Businesswoman

I

wholeheartedly endorse any genuine war against corruption in Nigeria. In Nigeria, under President Buhari, anti-corruption is wearing a colour of selectivism, tokenism and down-right c h a o s . -Mr. Ogwu Nwachukwu, Communicator

Y

ou do not chase thieves in one party while dining with thieves in another. It is unjust and would put the nation on fire. Majority of Nigerians will strongly back President Buhari anti-corruption war, if it is across board. -Mr. Uche Anyambuba, Student

T

he fight against corruption will be just if certain persons are prosecuted. If anti-corruption war is war on opposition while leaving these persons to move freely as saints, it is dead on arrival. -Mr. Chinaza Martin, Worker

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 — 35

Buhari passionate about completion of Ajaokuta Steel — FAYEMI

By Boluwaji Obahopo

L

OKOJA—MINISTER of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has said that President Muhammodu Buhari is very passionate about the completion and effective operation of the Ajaokuta Steel Company, located in Kogi state.

Fayemi who stated this yesterday in Ajaokuta during a one day official visit to the company, said the new government is taking a holistic look at the company to ensure that the steel complex works for the benefit of Nigerians.

“I want to let you know that the President is very passionate about the Ajaokuta steel company. We will take a look at the company holistically with a view of making it work for the benefits of Nigerians.

“We are looking at the entire steel complex. We are not going to segment the plant. We are told that the captive power plant, has been reactivated. After taking the one needed by the company, we will be happy if Kogi and its environs could benefit from the remaining

Megawatt”, Fayemi stressed.

The sole Administrator of the company, Isah Joseph Onobere, had earlier said that since the determination of the Russian contract, the original designers of the company, in 1994, no significant progress was made

in the fortunes of the company.

Onobere called on the FG to ensure the timely completion of the company, saying that the minister’s visit after few months in office, is a clear demonstration of government’s good intention to complete the steel plant.

He described the much taunted obsolete nature of the technology adopted by the Ajaokuta steel company as borne largely out of ignorance and campaign of calumny against the Nigerian state, “The campaign is to ensure that the company perpetually remain a dumping ground for steel products from the developed nations.

PARLEY: President Muhammadu Buhari (2nd left) receiving a presentation from the National Chairman of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Professor Bankole Okuwa (2nd right) while other members of the delegation watch at the State House, Abuja.

NUMAN, LAMURDE: PDP tackles SDP in Adamawa rerun

By Umar Yusuf

Y

OLA—ADAMAWA State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is set to participate in the forthcoming re-run election to be conducted by Independence National Electoral Commission

(INEC) in to Numan and Lamurde Federal constituency in the state soon.

State chairman of the party, Chief Joel Madaki, who made the party ’s position know during the stakeholders meeting of the party held at the

party’s secretariat, said the election will be a litmus test for the party in the state since the failure of the party in the 2015 general elections.

“We are going into this coming re-run election as directed by the court and we are participating

4,000 persons get free medical services in Benue

By Peter Duru

M

AKURDI—THE National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA, in collaboration with the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, yesterday availed over 4,000 persons free medical service in two locations at Aboho in Mbaigba Ward of Tarka local government area of Benue state.

The medical outreach included laboratory testing for HIV/AIDS treatment of Malaria, Hepatitis, Diabetes, the deworming of children, screening for tuberculosis and free medical consultancy.

Speaking at the occasion, the Director General of NACA, Prof.

John Idoko said the programme

was part of the agencies’ drive to ensure free and qualitative healthcare services in the rural communities.

Represented by Dr. Lawrence Kwagha, the Assistant Director,

Strategic Knowledge Management of NACA, the Director General urged traditional rulers to mobilize their subjects to take advantage of the nationwide programme.

with full hope of winning the context”. he pledged Vanguard learnt that the election of the ousted federal lawmaker from the Green Chambers, Hon. Kwamati Laori was challenged by the PDP candidate from the constituency (Numan/Lamurde) Hon. Mike Zidon, who contested at the election tribunal sitting in Abuja that, Laori’s nomination as the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was wrongful, faulty and questionable as he did not participate in the SDP primaries as provided by the electoral act.

NAMA urges FG, NASS to patronise made in Nigeria vehicles

By Iyabo Aina

T

Nigerian Automotive Manufacturers Association, NAMA, has urged the Federal and State Governments to support local assembly plants, by ensuring auto manufacturers are patronised.

HE

Reacting to media reports that the Senate is on the verge of procuring various brands of imported vehicles from importers, NAMA made a fervent appeal to the FG pleading for support to be able to sustain their operations under most challenging market

conditions.

“Thousands of jobs are at stake at these assembly plants that have been commissioned by faithful investors over the past two years with large investments in plant and machinery, equipment and training on technical skills,” the management said.

SANCTION: Folawiyo Energy denies breaching regulations

F

OLAWIYO Energy Limited (FEL) has denied violating regulations that guide the sale of petroleum products, noting that the company has not had its own products in storage for the past three months.

The company said during the period that it only stored and distributed products for the NNPC,

without any involvement in collecting payments from the companies taking the NNPC stock.

The company’s spokesman, Adeshola Komolafe , said that FEL has notified the appropriate authorities of these facts and has protested the unfair attempt to tarnish its

corporate reputation.

Reacting to a statement issued

by DPR announcing sanctions on Folawiyo Energy Limited, for allegedly “allowing Sahara Energy to use its depot to sell above the stipulated price”, Adeshola Komolafe, in a statement said, “The management of Folawiyo

Energy Limited (FEL) has affirmed that its operations conform to best practice and are not in breach of any regulations.

FEL is not involved in any conduct that could either invite fines or be construed as selling fuel stocks above regulated prices. How can you sell product you don’t have?

NAFDAC seeks drug safety, stiffer punishment for counterfeiters

By Chioma Obinna

T

HE Director-General of the National Agency for Foods and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Dr Paul Orhii has said that for Nigeria and Africa at large to make progress in the areas of food security and disease control; particularly malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/ AIDS and reproductive health, the region must attain the required socio-economic development.

In his submission during the on-going National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Summit & Exhibition, SUMMEX. Orhii, who also regretted that Nigeria’s legal and enforcement/regulatory mechanisms, lacks the capacity of protecting the ultimate consumer against counterfeit and pirated goods, advocated for stiffer punishments for counterfeiters of regulated products.

Tantalizers opens outlets in Ile-Ife, Jikwoyi

M

AJOR food eatery chain in the country, Tantalisers, last week opened two new outlets in Jikwoyi, Abuja and Ile ife, Osun State.

Speaking at the opening of the new outlet in Jikwoyi, the Deputy Managing Director of Tantalizers Plc, Mr. Gbolahan Labinjo described the new outlet as a dream come true for customers of Tantalizers in the area as it provides the opportunity for motorists to fill their stomachs while filling their vehicles.

The Ile-Ife outlet located along Ede road is the second outlet in the ancient town. The first outlet which opened in February is located opposite the Teaching Hospital along old Ilesha road.

While declaring the second Ile Ife outlet open, Labinjo said it was opened following the yearnings of customers along Ede road and Lagere axis.

He said the new outlets offer customers a wide array of products cutting across breakfast, pastries, continental meals, traditional and home style meals as well as ice cream and oven fresh bread.

36—Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

COMMISSIONING: From left: Pastor-in-Charge of Province 33, Pastor Dele Jaiyeoba, Mrs. B.B. Makinde, Deputy Director of Education, Inspectorate Services & Teachers Secondary Dept, Ogun State Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, representing the Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. O.M. Oloko, Zonal Education Officer, Sagamu, and Chief Sunday Lawal, representative of the Baale of Ogijo, at the commissioning of block of classrooms at Ogijo Community Senior High School by The Redeemed Christian Church of God.

ANNOUCEMENT: From left: Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, Regional Director, Africa Magic, John Ugbe, Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria, and Yolisa Phale, CEO M-net, during the AMVCA 2016, nominee announcement, at Oriental Hotel, Lagos.

CONFERENCE: From left: Dr Munirat Ogunlayi, Depty Director, Voices for Change, Eustace Onuegbu, Executive Director, Human Rights and Business, and Kunle Ajagbe, at the first international conference on Business & Human Rights in Africa in Lagos.

INAUGURAL FLIGHT: From left: Director of flight Operations, Dana Air, Capt. Segun Omole, Communications Manager, Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa, Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Obi Mbanuzuo, and Dana Air’s representative in Accra, Mr. Sukhjinder Mann on arrival at Accra Airport, during the airline’s inaugural flight from Lagos to Accra, Ghana.

ORDINATION: From left: Madam Cordelia Udechukwu, Bishop Abraham Olaleye, General Overseer, Abraham's Evangelisitic Ministry, Prophetess Ada Amechi and Pastor Ikechi Amechi of Jesus the Crown of Glory Ministries, during their ordination in Lagos.

AUDITION: From left: Ifedayo Oni, Digital Manager, PZ Cussons, Oluwaseun Ayeni, Brand Manager, Mildred Bayshaw, Category Manager, and Tobi Adetunji, Assistant Brand, all of Family Care, Cussons Baby, at the auditions of the Cussons Baby Grow and Shine Activation in Lagos. Photo: Akeem Salau.

PASSING OUT PARADE: From left: Commodore O.O. Nesiama, Brig Gen M.S. Danwalis, representing Commander Corps of Artillery, Commodore MS Garba, representing FOC Western Naval Command, Gen. Usman (retd), former Commandant, NACOL, Major General Isidore Edet, GOC 81 Division, Maj. Gen. Adeku Saliu, representing Chief of Army Staff, Brig. Gen. Julius Olusola Oni, Acting Commandant, Nigerian Army College of Logistics, NACOL, Gen. Abidoye, former Commandant, NACOL, Air Commodore Aliyu Istifanus, representing Air Officer Commanding, Logistics Command, Maj. Gen. Augustine Okoh, GMD, Nigerian Army Welfare Limited and Commodore F.O. Ezeugwu, representing Commandant, Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre, NAFRC, during the passing out parade of the Logistis Management Course 13/2015 of the Nigerian Army College of Logistics, in Lagos.

C M Y K

PROGRAMME: From left: Prophet A.O. Tokunbo and Pastor Ezekiel Adeyemo, General Overseer, at 11th annual 21 days programme of Hour of Solution Prayer Ministries, Sango-Ota Ogun State.

38—Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

RETREAT—From left, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Suleiman Yusuf Lasun; Speaker, Yakubu Dogara and former member, House of Representatives, Mohammed Kumalia at the one-day retreat for chairmen and deputy chairmen of committees of House of Representatives, yesterday, at the National Assembly, Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

Arms probe: Dasuki set to name more beneficiaries Continues from Page 5

The EFCC lawyer told the court that the accused persons have made confessional statements.

“My lord, we are talking about monies running into billions of Naira”, Jacobs added.

Whereas two of the charges EFCC preferred against Dasuki yesterday read: “That you Col. Mohammed Sambo Dasuki whilst being National Security Adviser and Shaibu Salisu, whilst being the Director of Finance and Administration in the Office of the National Security Adviser and Hon. Waripamowei Dudafa (now at large) whilst being Senior Special Assistant , Domestic Affairs to the President on or about 27th November,2014, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court entrusted with dominion over certain properties to wit: the sum of N10billion being part of the funds in the account of the National Security Adviser with the CBN, the equivalent of which sum you received from the CBN in foreign currencies to wit: $47million and •5.6million Euros committed criminal breach of trust in respect of the said property when you claimed to have distributed same to the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Presidential Primary Election delegates and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 315 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Vol.4, LFN 2004.

“That you Col. Mohammed Sambo Dasuki whilst being National Security Adviser and Shaibu Salisu, whilst being the Director of Finance and Administration in the

Office of the National Security Adviser(ONSA) between 22nd January 2015 and 19th March 2015 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court entrusted with dominion over certain properties to wit: N2,120,000,000 which was in the account of National Security Adviser with the CBN committed criminal breach of trust in respect of the said property by remitting the said sum into the account of DAAR Investment and Holding Company Limited controlled by one Dr. Raymond Dokpesi for the funding of media activities for the 2015 Presidential Election Campaign for the PDP and you thereby committed an offence punishable under under Section 315 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Vol.4, LFN 2004”.

Some of the charges in the case before Justice Affen reads: “That you Col. Mohammed Sambo Dasuki (rtd), whilst being the National Security Adviser and Shuaibu Salisu whilst being the Director of Finance and Administration in the Office of the NSA, between 14th April, 2014, and 7th May, 2015, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this court, entrusted with dominion over certain properties to wit: an aggregate sum of N3,350,000,000 (Three Billion, Three Hundred and Fifty Million Naira) being part of the funds in the account of the office of the NSA with the Central Bank of Nigeria, committed criminal breach of trust in respect of the said properties when you transfered same to the account of Dalhatu Investment Limited with the United Bank of Africa Plc. purporting same to be

payment for the supply of security equipment and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 315 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Vol. 4, LFN 2004.

“That you Dalhatu Investment Limited, Sagir Attahiru and Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, between 14th April, 2014 and 17th May, 2015, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this court, dishonestly received stolen property, to wit: an aggregate sum of N3,350,000,000 (Three Billion, Three Hundred and Fifty Million Naira) into your account with the United Bank of Africa Plc from the account of the office of the NSA with the CBN, which belonged to the Federal Government of Nigeria and knowing the said sum to be stolen property but purporting same to be payment for the supply of security equipment and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 317 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Vol. 4, LFN 2004.

Dokpesi secures N400m bail

Also, the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, granted Chairman Emeritus of DAAR Communications Plc, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi , bail in the sum of N400milion. Dokpesi who was docked before the court on December 11, is answering to a six-count criminal charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. He is facing trial alongside his firm, DAAR Investment and Holdings Ltd, owners of African Independent Television, AIT, and Raypower FM. EFCC, in the charge signed by its

Deputy Director, Legal and Prosecution, Mr. Aliyu Yusuf, alleged that Dokpesi received about N2.1billion from the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, for PDP’s presidential media campaign.

According to the charge, the funds were released to the accused persons between October 2014 and March 19, 2015. The funds were allegedly transferred from an account in the office of the NSA operated with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN , to a FirstBank Nigeria Plc account owned by DAAR Investment and Holding Company Limited. The prosecution maintained that the transaction was in breach of section 58 (4) (b) of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and punishable under section 58 (6) and 7 of the same Act, as well as under section 17 (b) of the EFCC Act, 2004.

Dokpesi had since pleaded not guilty to the charge, even as the court slated February 17, 18 and March 2 and 3, 2016, to begin full-blown hearing on the matter.

He had through his counsel, Chief Mike Ozehkome, SAN, pleaded the court to grant him bail on self recognizance or on the most liberal terms. His prayer was however refused yesterday by trial judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole.

Ruling on the bail application yesterday, Justice Kolawole ordered Dokpesi to produce two persons that will stand surety for him. He directed that the two sureties must deposit N200m each. According to the court, one of the sureties must be a public servant, either serving or retired, not below the level of a Director.

The trial judge stressed that in the event that the surety is a serving Director, the person must produce an identification letter from his or her boss. If retired, the person must produce a gazetted document depicting that he or she was formerly a director.

Besides, the court held that the second surety could be an entrepreneur who must submit three years tax clearance, including that of 2015.

Justice Kolawole maintained that either of the two sureties must tender the title deeds of a landed property in any part of Nigeria, the value of which must not be below N200milion. The sureties, the court said, must also depose to an affidavit of means, submit two recent passport photographs to the Deputy Chief

Registrar, DCR, Administration, of the high court.

Dokpesi was further directed to surrender his international passport, “If already in custody of the EFCC, it should be delivered within 24 hours to the DCR of the Federal High Court in charge of Litigation”, the court ordered.

The court dismissed the objection EFCC raised against Dokpesi’s bail request. Justice Kolawole held that the charge against the accused person is a bailable one.

“No court of law can rely on proof of evidence to refuse bail to a defendant charged with indictable felony. To do so will amount to a violation of the constitution”.

The judge said it was not enough for the EFCC to hinge its opposition to the bail application on the fact that it is currently investigating a fresh N8.4billion fraud involving the accused person.

“This court cannot at this stage indulge itself in speculation as to what the outcome of the fresh investigation will be”, Justice Kolawole added.

Noting that the charge against Dokpesi could only attract a maximum of seven years jail term upon conviction, the judge, said the most crucial factor was the prospect that the defendant would be available to stand his trial. The judge said the anti-graft agency failed to prove that Dokpesi posed flight risk.

Moreover, he observed that though EFCC had in its counter-affidavit, alleged that Dokpesi looted funds meant for the purchase of arms for the military, he said that none of the six-count charge made mention of such allegation.

“Which of the six count charges mentioned any issue with regard to diversion of funds meant for security? None of the charge said so. But I don’t want to go further lest I be accused of descending into the arena.”

He further observed that the alleged fresh offence was committed since 2012 , describing EFCC’s allegation that the accused person will interfere with its witnesses as “merely speculative”. The judge further queried why the prosecuting agency charged only Dokpesi and his company even though it alleged that he connived with some officials in the office of the NSA to perpetuate the fraud.

Justice Kolawole said he could not accede to EFCC’s request for

Dokpesi to be allowed to remain in detention pending accelerated hearing of the case against him. The judge said from experience, he was sure the trial could last for more than 36 months.

Meantime, before adjourning the case for trial, Justice Kolawole, ordered that Dokpesi should be remanded in prison custody pending perfection of bail conditions. The court, while giving EFCC the nod to go ahead with its fresh investigation, however directed that Dokpesi should always be notified in writing through his counsel, at least 48 hours, any day he is wanted for questioning.

Specifically, the court held that such investigation should commence by 10am and not go beyond 18:30pm.

The court warned EFCC against re-arresting the accused person under the guise that it is conducting fresh investigation.

“This is to ensure that the bail is not rendered illusionary. If there is need for the EFCC to keep the accused person beyond 18:30pm, it must file an ex-parte for leave to be granted by this court.

“This is to ensure that no agency of government sidetracks the efficacy of court orders. The government should not by its own procedure adopt measures or encourage any agency to abuse its powers. To do so will in itself amount to gross corruption of the due process of the law,” Justice Kolawole added.

EFCC had alleged that the transaction between Dokpesi and the office of the NSA was in breach of Section 58 (4) (b) of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and punishable under section 58 (6) and 7 of the same Act, as well as under section 17 (b) of the EFCC Act, 2004.

The commission said it was probing Dokpesi over about N8.4billion he collected from the Federal Government when Nigeria hosted Under-17 World Cup in 2012.

It alleged that though it was the world football body, FIFA, that awarded viewing right for the under-age tournament, Dokpesi, still collected “billions of Naira from the Nigerian government”.

“My lord there are still other issues, we believe that if granted bail, the accused person has the capacity to scuttle ongoing investigation into the matter”, EFCC lawyer, Jacobs

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—39

LAUNCH: Cross section of participants at the launch of Friends of Mirabel Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Lagos recently.

Emotions run high as rape survivors recount ordeal

By Chioma Obinna & Gabriel Olawale

I

T was an evening of tears and testimonies in Lagos last week as rape survivors, mostly minors, narrated their nightmarish experiences at the hands of rapists. The occasion was the launch of Friends of Mirabel, held at the The Social Place, 33 Sinari Road, Victoria Island. It was on a day the Mirabel Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Lagos State, said thank you to Nigerians and other partners who have been its pillar of support in the effort to reduce the financial and emotional burden of 1, 074 rape and other sexual violence victims it has helped since it started two years ago.

Some of the victims betrayed emotions while narrating their various experiences. The atmosphere became charged and guests who were initially in a celebration mood in the colourful hall became moody. From the Master of Ceremony to the last guest, tears flowed freely.

The victims narrated how they suffered and lost their pride of womanhood. Their stories broke emotional barriers and many wept profusely in solidarity with the survivors.

Despite the counselling and motivation these victims may have received, they remain distraught and heartbroken.

Narrating her heart-rending story, Mercy, who was raped at the age of eight said it was a day she would never want to remember.

Her case could be described as pain after pain because she was later diagnosed with Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), a diagnosis that compounded her agonies.

An abnormal fistulous tract extending between the bladder

and the vagina, VVF allows the continuous involuntary discharge of urine into the vaginal vault.

Apart from the medical complication, VVF has a profound effect on the patient's emotional wellbeing.

"I was eight-years-old when a man raped me. If his action ended there, it would have been better for me but, it was the beginning of many problems ahead of me till today. After the rape, I was taken to the hospital for treatment.

It was after many tests that the doctors said I had developed VVF. I have been operated twice as a young girl.

"At a point, nobody was willing to help me to the extent that I was using piece of cloth to clean the discharge from my body.

When Mirabel Centre took up the case, my shame was taken away because they provided me with lots of medical and psychological support.

Psychological support "In all, I thank God that I didn't die in the process and I am alive today to share the testimony. I want government to work harder to get rapists punished and eradicate sexual violence in Nigeria."

Janet was barely two years when she was raped. She was so young that her story could only be told by her mother. She was assaulted by two men. The violation occurred while her mother, Nkiru, was away from home to eke out a living.

A single mother, Nkiru, said it all started when she noticed her daughter was frequently falling ill. "The father abandoned me when I became pregnant so I had to work to support myself and my baby. As a single mother, I was working at a factory to cater for

I was eightyears-old when a man raped me. If his action ended there, it would have been better for me but, it was the beginning of many problems ahead of me till today

my family. Since I was not allowed to take her to my place of work; my neighbour offered to assist me to look after her while I was off at work.

"Initially, I was reluctant to place her under the woman's care but she assured me she would be safe with her. I later learned the woman allowed her to play in other neighbours' apartments and the men were buying things to entice the innocent child.

"One a day I returned from work and I was discussing with her when she said something about sex and I was shocked, considering her age. I did not really suspect she was raped; I only thought she might have watched pornographic films or seen such pictures. But when she repeated it some other times, I told one of my sisters, who then advised me to ask her other questions and to take her to the hospital.

Medical examinations "When we took her for test, medical examinations showed that she had been violated. I was furious and heartbroken. I cried.

The men might have raped her many times because I was keeping her with the woman for about a year. My daughter started having discharges and itches in her private part. It was very embarrassing to me and I saw the girl was in pain", she said.

Based on the information supplied by her daughter, Nkiru went to the Police Station to complain.

The Police arrested the two men accused of the act. They were later charged to court and prosecuted.

"The rapists threatened to deal with me on several occasions.

They told me that I would soon abandon the case since I had no money to hire a lawyer to defend my daughter in court," she added.

Jenny's case was in court for four years before judgment was given. The perpetrators were convicted of the crime and sentenced to jail.

Miriam's case was also highlighted. She was raped by a Customs Officer at Apapa, Lagos.

She alleged conspiracy by the Police and expressed disappointment and pain that the perpetrator walks freely on the streets of Lagos.

"A Nigerian Customs officer raped me on August 3, 2015. It didn't end there; when he saw that I opened up, he was sending people after me and threatening to deal with me. His threats lasted about two months. I reported at the Police Station but nothing has been done to him to date.

"After he had carnal knowledge of me, I was frustrated and became very angry at the slightest provocation. Many times, I felt like committing suicide. When I got to Mirabel Centre, the staff counselled and comforted me that it was not my fault. We need more centres like Mirabel in Nigeria," she said.

In her contribution, the Managing Partner of the Centre, Mrs. Itoro Eze-Anaba, who expressed appreciation for the United Kingdom's Partnership for Justice, an arm of the country's Department for International Development, DFID, for funding the Centre in the last two years, ap-

Continues on page 40

Why NAFDAC workers want director out

By Gabriel Olawale & Juliet Obi

T

HE Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, has been called upon to wade into the brewing crisis between members of the Medical and Health Workers' Union of Nigeria, MHWUN, Lagos branch, and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, who are spoiling for a showdown over alleged insensitivity of management to their plights and highhandedness of the Agency's Director of Administration/Human Resource.

At a peaceful protest in Lagos, the workers called for removal of the Director, Mrs. Yetunde Oni, on allegations that she lacks administrative expertise and the right attitude to staff welfare.

Placards displayed during the protest had messages such as "Say No Nepotism in

NAFDAC"; "President Buhari, If Your Government Is Serious about Fighting Corruption, then we must start from Yetunde Oni"; "PMB Sack NAFDAC management now, enough of impunity" among others.

Making the call, Comrade Ibrahim Attah Isah said the Minister of Health should urgently intervene in the alleged administrative irregularity ongoing at the agency.

Addressing the workers, Isah said: "We are here to picket the Director of Admin and Human Resources, Mrs. Yetunde Oni, unfortunately she is not here, but we want to make it clear to her that we have heard her atrocities in NAFDAC." He explained that many of their members have been suspended for over a year while no attempt is on to investigate their guilt or otherwise. "Some people have been on suspension since October last year without their salary being paid and it is against the public service rule.

"If anyone committed any

offence, after maximum of three months, the person should be called back and investigated but while you are doing that such person is entitled to half pay."

"Last year, the Agency declared 21 vacancies for Chief Regulatory Officers and to move to that position, you have to be Assistant Chief. The Agency invited 37 staff to write the exam and 25 passed. Instead of promoting 21 out of the 25 that passed, Director of Administration and Human resources promoted only 15 staff, he said.

On his part, the Union's Secretary, NAFDAC Chapter, Anzaku Peters said: "This year, three vacancies were declared for that same position and they are inviting 27 people to write the exam, our question is what will happen to the previous six people that passed?"

Further, he alleged that the Agency had introduced some offices which do not exist in public service rule. "They Continues on page 40

40—Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

MHWUN, NAFDAC at war over director Continues from page 39 introduced the office of Deputy Director in Charge, in public service such does not exist. When a director leaves, you nominate an acting director which you will notify the Head of Service, Federal Civil Service Commission and tell them that this person is acting director and will be there for a particular period of time, then you fill form 66 so that when time comes you can have a substantive director by either retaining the person or appointing new substantive director for that position, but what we have in NAFDAC is impunity, they have turned everything upside down.

Union executives are now being re-deployed without following due process in accordance with Labour Act. We are appealing to the Minister to look into all these issues."

Anzaku Peters said all efforts to table their grievances to the management proved abortive as several letters were turned down

LUTH matriculates 81 for diploma programmes

By Gabriel Olawale

I

PROTEST: Cross section of members of Medical and Health Workers' Union of Nigeria, MHWUN, Lagos branch during a protest at NAFDAC’s Office, Oshodi, Lagos last week. without any feedback.

He however hinted that the Union may be forced to embark

on an indefinite strike nationwide.

"Few weeks ago, we embarked on a week warning strike, I am seeing

an indefinite strike looming around the corner if these issues were not properly addressed." he noted.

Pfizer supports Church against CVDs

By Sola Ogundipe

P

FIZER Nigeria in the scope of its corporate social responsibility recently supported St. Gabriel's Catholic Church during their health week to address the growing problem of cardiovascular diseases in the country.

This was achieved through donation of strips for cardiovascular screening. The screening which covered health parameters like blood pressure, glucose, total cholesterol held in the church premises.

The Medical Committee Chairman, Austine Ihedioha stated: "We are very glad with the support and assistance we received from Pfizer during our medical 6th year anniversary at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church. We will hope to get similar support from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, in the near future especially in the area of cancer screening and Cholesterol screening".

Addressing the growing concern over cardiovascular diseases in Nigeria, Pfizer's Cardiovascular Screening Project has provided free

medical screenings to more than 15,000 people at risk across the country.

Pfizer Nigeria continues to offer blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol readings in pharmacies, religious organizations, corporate establishments, and health care institutions.

Pfizer Nigeria's Director Corporate Affairs/Health & Value, Mrs. Margaret Olele, called on all to learn to imbibe good and healthy lifestyle.

"Pfizer is committed to the provision of life saving

medicines in the treatment and management of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. It is also important to note that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a necessity for healthy blood pressure",Olele affirmed.

Working together for a healthier world, Pfizer, applies science and its global resources to improve health and wellbeing at every stage of life. It strives to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of medicines for people and animals.

N its bid to further elevate standards of clinical record keeping in hospitals and other healthcare facilities across the country, the School of Health Information Management, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, has matriculated 34 students into its National Diploma and 47 students into its Higher National Diploma programmes for 2015/2016 academic session.

Speaking during the matriculation ceremony, the Chief Medical Director,LUTH, Professor Chris Bode said the choice of Health information management, HIM, programme at LUTH was a right decision as the school remained the only one presently in the South West subregion whose graduates are allowed into the NYSC programme.

Bode said aside from the fact the institution enjoys seasoned and qualified lecturers, the school also remains the first to be granted full accreditation by the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE. He implored the student to remain focused on the tenets, ethics and ethos of their alma mater and make the best use of the opportunities that abound.

NHIS: National Mobile Health Insurance will increase access, up coverage — HCPAN

By Chioma Obinna

H

EALTHCARE providers and stakeholders in the Information Technology (ICT) sector have described Mobile Health Insurance as a 'game changer' in the country's quest to achieve universal health coverage. They expressed optimism that the National Mobile Health Insurance would improve

access to quality health care among Nigerians and increase the number of enrolees under the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS. Speaking at the 2015 Annual General Meeting of the Healthcare Providers' Association of Nigeria, HCPAN, with the theme: "Health Insurance as a Vehicle for Providing Qualitative Healthcare in Nigeria", former Chairman, Nigerian

Emotions run high as rape survivors recount ordeal Continues from page 39 pealed to Nigerians not to allow the Centre closed down.

Eze-Anaba, who acknowledged that challenges at the centre were increasing, said they now receive an average of 100 victims per month. She urged all stakeholders in the society to devote their time and financial resources in campaigning against rape and other social vices in Nigeria as the issue of rape is not a joke.

Also speaking, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, who was also decorated as an Ambassador of Mirabel Centre, said Nigerians should see the fight against rape as everyone's responsibility. Odinkalu faulted a portion of the

law on rape, which places stiffer penalty on a rapist of an adult and lighter punishment on those that rape minors.

She lamented it was the reason the number of female children being sexually molested is increasing. "It is unfortunate that it is only Lagos State and the FCT, Abuja that have criminalised rape in Nigeria," he said.

Continuing, he disclosed that a recent government sponsored survey showed that 25 per cent of Nigerian girls would be raped before they are 18, and nine million children would be exposed to rape annually, except something is done urgently to correct the ugly trend. "The issue of rape is not a joke. We need to look into families that are suffering some forms of domestic violence,” he said.

Communication Commission, NCC, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe said fusion of technology and healthcare does not only represent the transformational power of modern medicine, but represents the future of universal access and sound administrative management of health care anywhere in the world.

Ndukwe, who was the chairman of the occasion, said with mobile health insurance, about 140 million mobile phone owners would be captured under the health insurance scheme.

Regretting that Nigeria has tried providing health insurance by face to face registration of people that captured less than 5 percent of the population, he said, there is need to use the mobile phones to ensure that all Nigerians are covered.

Expressing optimism, he said: "You will be surprised what is going on in the mobile arena. Nigerians have embraced mobile technology wholeheartedly; they are buying all kinds of things over the mobile phone.

When people started talking about online shopping, people didn't believe that it was possible to shop online but today, all the online businesses are providing fantastic services over the mobile platform.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015—41

Apollo Hospitals, NGO partner to save Nigerian children from cancer

By Chioma Obinna

I

N a bid to ensure that Nigerian children do not die from terminal illnesses like cancer, Apollo Hospitals in India and Hope Alive Childcare Initiative, HACCI, a Nigerian Non Governmental Organisation, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, to ensure that less privileged Nigerian children with terminal illnesses get treatment at an affordable cost.

Speaking during the presentation of a cheque to parents of 3-year-old Tobechukwu Nwachukwu who has cancer of the eye to undergo Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI, in Lagos, Country Head, Apollo Hospital, Nigeria, Mr. Rakesh Jalla explained that the agreement with Hope Alive was to raise funds for children who cannot afford treatment as well as give reasonable discount to those that can afford the cost of treatment with a view to ensuring that Nigerian children do not die for lack of access to health.

Jalla said cancer is a serious illness that cannot only kill the victim but render the family poor. Apollo Hospital is sponsoring some of the medical investigations and treatments and collaborating with HACCI through an online platform, known as Medical Police.

No fewer than 17 senior consultants from Apollo hospitals are on the platform where free health information is given to the public.

“The Medical Police platform is used as a platform to pass medical information to people free of charge on any health issues. There, your questions are answered. They offer free consultation,” he said.

Speaking, the Executive Director Hope Alive Child Care Initiative, HACCI, Mrs. Adaugo Nwalema who explained that Hope Alive was initiated due to the death of her two babies at birth, explained that

the partnership would strengthen healthcare access to Nigerian children.

Noting that Nigerians face challenges of health information, she said her NGO decided to establish Medical Police to fill in the gap. “Our doctors have no time to discuss with patients and educate them on effects of treatment. At the moment we have 17 Apollo doctors on our platform,” she disclosed.

Nwalema who confirmed that Tobechukwu is on chemotherapy at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital said the child requires a total of $10,000 to $12,000 for treatment.

Tobechukwu’s mother, Mrs Victoria Nkwocha who thanked the organisations said the family spent an average of N200, 000 since the ailment was correctly diagnosed since April, 2015.

Standard Chartered donates N8m for eradication of avoidable blindness

D

ETERMINED to fight avoidable blindness across the world, Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria has donated a whooping sum of N8 million towards the eradication of avoidable blindness in Nigeria even as it held its 9th annual “Walk for Sight” charity in support of the Group’s Seeing is Believing (SIB) Initiative.

The Seeing is Believing project, is a Standard Chartered Bank initiative developed to help tackle avoidable blindness in communities around the world, 90 percent of which is found in the developing world where the Bank’s business is rooted.

Standard Chartered staff in 2003 as a way of celebrating the Bank’s 150th anniversary, Seeing is Believing has over the years

DONATION: Country Head, Apollo Hospital, Nigeria, Mr. Rakesh Jalla and Hope Alive presenting a cheque to parents of 3-year-old Tobechukwu Nwachukwu who has cancer of the eye in Lagos recently.

raised over USD82 million, reached about 100 million people, provided sightrestoring surgeries for over 3.5 million, organised sight screening for 16 million people and have helped in the distribution of about 800,000 pairs of spectacles. The bank has held various fundraising events raising over $ 950,000 which has helped to fund successful cataract operations, eye care treatment (still ongoing) and rehabilitation for over 100,000 affected persons between January 2006 and October 2015.

However, based on the funds raised this year, the Bank presented a cheque of N 8 million to the Nigerian Society for the Blind, NSB. On the donation, Vice Chairman of the Governing Council of NSB, Mrs. Sade Adefisayo said they have received unwavering support from Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria, adding that without the support, it would have been extremely difficult for them to achieve the objectives of their Vocational Training Centre for the Blind in Oshodi.

In his remarks, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria, Bola Adesola, stated that the bank was proud of what they have achieved with the Walk for Sight initiative in the last nine years.

“We could not have done this without the support of our committed staff, esteemed customers, friends, family members and the media. It is quite gratifying to see that funds we have raised from this initiative in the last nine years have made a positive difference in the activities of our partner NGO,” he said.

Adesola also expressed gratitude to the support of the Lagos State Ministry of health in providing free medical tests and glasses to guests and members of the public who attended the event.

COMMON SEXUAL PROBLEMS AND THEIR NOVELTY BASED SOLUTIONS (ADVERTORIAL)

H

ELLO everybody and welcome. We have even more new adult products to discuss today. First on the list are books for adults that women in particular will benefit from greatly, especially because men have little problem climaxing, unlike women. Great sex can bring you relief, happiness, peace and an optimistic outlook on life, amongst other things. The following books will teach you how to get great sex. They are Orgasm in Five Minutes, Explosive Sex and Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica. Sex can be phenomenal and out of this world.

When it is that good, it feels like winning a lottery. The ideas in these books can transform anybody’s sex life beyond their wildest dreams.

But sometimes we buy adult products not to become experts but for light fun and amusement. The new feature films Double O Blonde, Au Pair and Black & Whiteare incredibly entertaining and can really brighten a miserable day.

We can also mix the fun we get from movies with romantic activity as well. By this I am talking about adult card and board games that couples can play for fun, variety and an element of unpredictability. If you are a man or woman that hates doing the same things in bed over and over again, then you will love games like Entice: The Passionate and Playful Couple’s Game, Encounters: A Wild, Kinky and Adventuresome Game for Couples and Who is the Biggest Slut?It doesn’t take much to have a great romantic holiday with a loved one. Adult games offer the easiest paths to a good time, without boarding a plane to overseas.

Last for today is a very exciting product for men because it is a penis enlarger. Specifically, I am talking about the grand SMP Penis Enlargement Pump. Like we have mentioned several times over the years, no matter the kind of penis enlarger you are using, the package is not complete without a penis pump. Just like body builders go to the gym to exercise after taking muscle building supplements, you must exercise your penis tissues while taking enlargement supplements to grow your penis to its fullest length. So the SMP Penis Enlargement Pump

is a very good pump for enlargement and firm erections.

What I like most about it is that it is big enough to accommodate any size and help you achieve a much bigger size as well. This is all for now. Our end of year sales is ongoing so all these items and everything else we have can be obtained on the cheap with gifts and raffle draws to follow. Let us now answer a few questions.

Please what alternative products can I use for penis enlargement? I started using Vigrx some months ago and when I needed to buy more, I could not find it again. I do not want to stop the growth results that I have seen – Sunday Vigrx is now available and other supplements like Prosolution, Extenze Plus and Penis Pumps will also give you very good results. So if tomorrow you cannot find it, the above mentioned are suitable alternatives – Uche I received my package but I could not call because it was late. Anyway, thank you for your very professional service. My performance has improved and I never knew that a bottle of ointment called LS Desensitizing Spray could solve a premature ejaculation problem that I have had since my university days. I appreciate – Chinedu You are welcome – Uche Please I need a performance enhancer that is mild but effective. I just need erection and I prefer gentle aphrodisiacs. Thanks – Maxwell Take Libigrow or Stiff Nights. Sex Volts is also gentle on the body. These erection enhancers all have lower grammage for people like you – Uche Boss Rhino erection enhancer changed my love life and performance. I am not just writing to thank you.

My wife thanks you as well. Merry Christmas - John Merry Christmas too John.Adults in need of these treatments/novelties can call 08171912551, 08027901621 or 07086754515 for help or visit www.zeevirtualmedia.comZee Virtual Media delivers all over Nigeria. For enquiries email us at custserv@zeevirtualmedia.com.

42 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

•Tank farm at Apapa

APAPA GRIDLOCK:

Lagos tackles DPR over unilateral tank farm approvals

By Monsuru Olowoopejo

T

HE Lagos State Government has condemned the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, for using the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, to unilaterally issue approval to investors for the construction of tank farms in the state.

This was contained in the report of the Intergovernmental Committee on Tank Farms in Lagos State set up by the state government to address the complaints raised by residents of Apapa.

Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, few weeks after assuming office, constituted the committee.

The body headed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello, also had representatives of the Nigeria Police, Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Nigerian Navy, Lagos State Traffic

Management Authority, LASTMA, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, DAPPMA and Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD among others.

The committee was to investigate causes of gridlock and other challenges in Apapa and work out permanent solution that will free the corridor.

Security challenges This is in recognition of the abandonment three years ago, of the Apapa Regeneration Plan, that would have gulped N11billion, which compounds the persistent gridlock and security challenges in the axis.

The tankers who thronged the corridor often cause the gridlock along the Apapa – Oshodi Expressway, forcing many residents to relocate. The relocation crashed the rent in

the corridor by at least 50 percent.

Also, security issues became prevalent as residents argued that the gridlock gave traffic robbers opportunity to operate.

It was learned that about 3, 000 tankers enter the Apapa ports daily and at least 1, 000 articulated vehicles, otherwise called trailers thronged the corridor daily. Their aim was to lift fuel, diesel and Kerosene, while the trailers visit the port to transport fish, rice, vegetable oil and others.

The development forced residents and property owners in the axis to register their complaint to the state government through letters, Short Messages, SMS and others.

During investigation, the committee discovered that Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) granted approvals to investors to site

tank farms in the axis without adhering to the due process stipulated in the DPR guidelines; leading to haphazard construction of tank farms in the state.

Vanguard gathered that this act by the two federal

The tankers who throng the corridor often cause the gridlock along the Apapa – Oshodi Expressway, forcing many residents to relocate

government agencies is leading to a face-off between the State government and the agencies as regard coordinating the activities of tank farms in the state especially in Apapa where larger percent of the country imported goods pass through.

And it could lead to the state introducing stringent guidelines before any investor could be allowed to construct tank farm in the state.

Vanguard gathered that though the governor never stated the reason for issuing a ninety-day ultimatum to petroleum tank farms owners within Apapa to secure parking bays for their trucks or get shut; findings of the committee forced the State governor to issue ultimatum to save residents of the corridor who have complained of government neglect.

Government neglect The committee in its report stated that the convenience of discharging imported petroleum products from oceangoing vessels accounted for the clustering of tank farms being situated around Apapa, which housed no fewer than 47.

However, the report argued that that all guidelines from the

Continues on page 43

VI

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 — 43

Apapa-Oshodi expressway

Lagos tackles DPR over unilateral tank farm approvals Continues from page 42 DPR, NPA, Environmental Impact Assessment Law, National Policy on Environment and existing laws for the sitting, construction and operation of tank farms “are adequate, but the structure for monitoring and enforcement of compliance is ambiguous and weak.”

Monitoring and enforcement The report further stated that the DPR single headedly “grants approval for the construction of tank farms on the presentation of evidence of title of the land rather than the approval from Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development,” the sole building permit authority in the state.

Also, the report of the Intergovernmental Committee on Tank Farms noted that the NPA “allocates land and grants approval for construction and operation of tank farms within the port area merely upon the approval of DPR without recourse to the state government.”

It added that the manner the DPR and NPA granted approval for the construction and operation of tank farms

violated a 2004 Supreme Court judgment, which stipulated that developers including the federal government “shall obtain development permit from the relevant authority for any kind of development.”

In a suit Lagos State vs.

Attorney-General of Abia State and others, the apex court declared that the state “has the overriding power or control to determine what is being done on every square metre on land as it is the state that bears the brunt of any disaster. A developer shall, at the time of submitting his application for development permit, present planning technical report in respect of application for any other building as specified in the regulation made pursuant to the law.”

The report lamented that the DPR and NPA breached the judicial precedent, noting that the tank farm operators failed “to follow the prescribed guidelines, which requires them to seek consent of the state before construction of the tank farms.

It added that tank farm operators “often use armed personnel of the Nigeria Police and Nigeria Armed Forces to prevent and intimidate officials of the state in gaining access to the facilities to monitor and enforce compliance.”

It also noted that political interference “has been observed as a major factor in granting approvals for the establishment of tank farms in the state,” lamenting that the federal government persistently claimed supremacy of authority for compliance of development on federal land.

The committee thus came up with an eight-point plan to restore order to Apapa,

recommending that the DPR should only approve the construction and operation of tank farms having fulfilled all statutory requirements.

It recommended that the DPR should ensure that any applicant for the construction and operation of tank farms obtained approval from the Lagos State Physical Planning and Urban Development Authority.

It also recommended that the position of the state government “must be highly considered in the procedure of granting approval for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report and published for public hearing acceptable to the state.”

Public hearing

In view of the present situation, the committee recommended that subsequent tank farms should be conveniently located away from built up areas for safety measures

It recommended that the applicant must have evidence of storage permit for the facilities issued by Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA); obtain report from the State Ministry of Transportation on traffic management of the area and evidence of adequate waste management plan and copies of approval of the building permit for the facility.

The committee advocated that “police report duly signed by the Commissioner of police and health, safety and environmental report signed by LASEPA. “Ministry of Physical planning and urban development shou;ld process

the application for the approval of the governor upon being satisfied that all the aforementioned documents are included in the application,” the committee recommended.

It recommendation that “applicants (investors seeking to establish tank farm), shall forward the original of the aforementioned approval to DPR for final approval.

Existing tank farms Its recommendation called for regular compliance monitoring visits of the construction and that operation of the existing tank farms should be conducted by the DPR in conjunction with the relevant State agencies.

The committee stated that it was expedient to the Lagos State government to carry out regular auditing of the operations of the existing tank farms in order to determine the level of compliance.

In view of the present situation, the committee recommended that subsequent tank farms should be conveniently located away from built up areas for safety measures.

“The approval of the consent of the Lagos State governor must be duly obtained to construct tank farms. Existing tank farms shall regularize their position or where possible and where they failed to do so shall be sanctioned,” the committee recommended.

44 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 — 45

C M Y K

46—TUESDAY, Vanguard Vanguard,, DECEMBER 15 , 2015

Winter schedule will affect Chelsea—Thiago Silva T

•Champions League... All the round of 16 fixtures

City to play Dynamo Kiev behind closed doors

M

ANCHESTER City ’s Champions League last 16 clash in Kiev will be played behind closed doors.

The Blues were drawn against Ukrainian club Dynamo in yesterday’s draw in Nyon.

But City face the prospect of playing a second Champions League game on Wednesday, February 15 in an empty stadium after last season’s clash

with CSKA Moscow.

Dynamo were hit with a three-game UEFA punishment following racist chanting at their group stage clash with Chelsea in October.

The first match of that ban was against Macabi Tel Aviv with the clash with City the next game up.

FC Dynamo Kyiv has been ordered to play their next three UEFA competition matches as host club behind closed

Cooreman takes over Akwa United

B

ELGIAN coach Maurice Cooreman has replaced Zakary Baraje, who led Akwa United to a historic Federation Cup triumph last month.

Cooreman has handled several top clubs including Enyimba, Gombe United and Ghana’s Asante Kotoko.

In November, the experienced Baraje guided Akwa United to

win a first-ever major trophy at the expense of Lobi Stars after they survived relegation from the Nigeria top flight for the second straight season.

They will represent Nigeria in next year ’s CAF Confederation Cup and will face V.Club Mokanda of Congo in the preliminary round of the annual competition in February.

Siasia: We must tidy up for Olympics

A

FTER winning the CAF Under-23 African Cup of Nations coach Samson Siasia has stressed the need for his team and the Nigeria Football Federation to tidy arrangements, if Nigeria were to do well at the 2016 Olympics.

Siasia was speaking against the back drop of the hiccups in preparations for the C M Y K

tournament, which Nigeria won last Saturday, beating Algeria 2-1 in final. Siasia who won a silver at the Beijing 2008 Olympics stated that Nigeria was lucky to CAF U-23 tournament if face of the distractions.

“There is a whole lot of work to be done between now and August if we have to go far in the Olympics.

doors. The third match is suspended for a probationary period of three years. The club have also been fined •100,000.

HIAGO SILVA believes Chelsea’s winter schedule will hamper them in their Champions League clash with Paris SaintGermain.

Thiago Silva thinks Chelsea could be hampered by not having a winter break The Blues go head-tohead with the runaway Ligue 1 leaders in March and February as they look to cement a place in the quarter-finals.

Jose Mourinho was undone by Laurent Blanc’s side last season on away goals in the exact same fixture, despite the visitors going down to 10 men.

And PSG’s captain Silva, who scored an extra-time equaliser for the French side in that game, believes the lack of a winter break could be Chelsea’s undoing yet again.

“Chelsea are playing at Christmas and New Year and that must be a great effort for them, a very

difficult moment both mentally and physically,” he told Omnisport.

“When it comes to the crucial moments of the season, the knock-out stages of the Champions League and the end of the local leagues, they are

more tired because they didn’t have a winter break.

“I hope we can take advantage of this situation, but in the Champions League you never know what is going to happen.”

Muller looking forward to Juventus

T

HOMAS Muller declares he and Bayern Munich are “looking forward” to facing Juventus in the Champions League.

The German champions knocked out the Bianconeri the last time the sides met in 2013, and the forward is happy to renew acquaintances.

“Juventus have a very clever side,” Muller acknowledged, speaking to UEFA’s official website.

“And, of course, in Mario Mand•uki a top goalscorer, who we know very well from his time in

•Muller Munich.

“In the Champions League, we have always had good experiences with Juve.

“I am especially looking forward to the Juventus Stadium – it will be a real occasion.”

Toure disputes Iheanacho’s goal M

ANCHESTER City striker Yaya Toure is laying claim to the goal, which secured a win against Swansea in their 2-1 win last Saturday.

Toure’s stoppage time effort bounced off the back of Kelechi Iheanacho into the net.

Toure argued that the ball was heading straight into the net, and the deflection from Iheancho was immaterial. Majority of Manchester City fans back his claim for the goal.

“When you see the action, the ball was going into the net.

“When you shoot on target I think it is your goal because the intention was to score so can we do?

“We’ll see what the verdict is but as far as I’m concerned, it’s mine,” he told the club’s official website, www.mcfc.co.uk. City

fans also agree with Toure as 60 per cent of them who took part in an online poll conducted by the club’s website voted that the goal be credited

to him. Forty per cent of the 10,120 fans who voted however disagreed, insisting that the goal be credited to Iheanacho.

•Freak Goal... Kelechi Iheanacho benefits from Yaya Toure’s shot at goal.

FIFA Club W/C: Neymar now a more complete player—Messi

L

IONEL Messi believes Barcelona team-mate Neymar has developed into a “more complete” player since their meeting in the Club World Cup final in 2011.

The Brazilian was regarded as an unproven teenager when his Santos team took on Pep Guardiola’s Barca four years ago, losing 4-0.

However, Neymar has

since established himself as one of the world’s top players following his move to Camp Nou, recognised by his inclusion alongside Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo - on the shortlist for the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or. And four-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi has been impressed by his team-mate’s progress.

“A lot of time’s gone by since then and I’ve witnessed his enormous growth, both as a footballer and as a person,” Messi told FIFA.com.

“Back then he was already a really great player and now he’s even more so - he’s much more complete.

“Truthfully, it’s a pleasure and a privilege

to have him alongside us now.”

The Catalans trained without Neymar ahead of their with Guangzhou Evergrande in Yokohama Neymar missed Barcelona training on Monday as Luis Enrique’s team stepped up their preparations for their Club World Cup semi-final against Guangzhou Evergrande.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 — 47

Arsenal draw Barca, Chelsea face PSG, Madrid battle Roma B

ARCELONA will afford Arsenal “the utmost respect” in the Champions League last 16, club director Albert Soler has insisted.

The reigning European champions were drawn against Arsene Wenger’s side in Monday’s draw in Nyon and enjoy a strong record against the Gunners, having twice beaten them in the knockout phase since they triumphed in the final in 2006.

However, Soler has warned Barca’s successes against Arsenal in recent years will have no bearing on this season’s tie.

“Arsenal and Barca have a very similar system of play. I’m convinced the fans will enjoy the football,” he said after the draw.

Chelsea will play French champions Paris SaintGermain for the third year in a row.

Jose Mourinho’s side lost on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate draw last season having gone through on away goals the year before - after a 3-3 aggregate draw.

Another clash between big guns will feature former winners Juventus and Bayern Munich, while 10times champions Real Madrid were drawn against AS Roma.

PSV Eindhoven will take on Atletico Madrid, Dynamo Kiev will play Manchester City and Benfica will be against Zenit St Petersburg.

Gent, in their first participation in the competition, will take on Germany’s Wolfsburg.

C M Y K

S

UPER Eagles began preparations for next year ’s CHAN yesterday in Abuja, but without ailing coach Sunday Oliseh.

Assistant coaches Salisu Yusuf and Jean Francois Loscuito will supervise the team’s training with Oliseh calling the shots from his sick bed in Belgium.

“He will be in touch with the camp via Skype and telephone, like he did when they played the

second leg of the qualifiers in Burkina Faso without him on the bench,” an official said.

Oliseh has named 26 players for this training camp with a possibility that some of the standout players from the U23 AFCON in Senegal will be drafted.

The CHAN Eagles are scheduled for a training camp in South Africa later this month with Oliseh likely to join the team there.

CHAN: Maigari leads five Nigerians to Rwanda

T

BACK HOME: National U-23 players at the Lagos Airport yesterday. Photo: Keyinde Gbadamosi.

HE immediate past President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Aminu Maigari and five other Nigerians have been named in the 136 man strong CAF Delegation to the Orange Championship of African Nations taking place in

Rwanda from January 16 to February 7 2016.

Alahji Maigari who is a member of the Organising Committee of CHAN will be joined

by Mr Paul Bassey who will operate as Championship General Coordinator

Defeats galore for Nigerians at Gov’s Cup Lagos Tennis

BY JOHN EGBOKHAN

T

HE free-fall of Nigerian tennis continued yesterday when no fewer than five home talents crashed out of the Governor ’s C u p L a g o s Te n n i s Futures 11 at the Lagos L a w n Te n n i s C l u b , Onikan.

After last week’s dismal outing of the local players at the International tennis Federation-sanctioned Futures event, some tennis faithful were hoping to see a better performance from their

Siasia Continues from BP tournament, which also doubles as a qualifier for the Olympics.

Former Super Eagles coach Siasia said his team’s build-up to the U23 AFCON was nothing to write home about.

“From how we prepared, we did not deserve to win anything.

It was just a miracle we won,” lamented the coach.

“We had to manage everything, from kits to what have you, for the past one year.”

He added: “Motivating the boys was not easy at all, it was tough but thank God

Eagles begin CHAN training without Oliseh

we survived it.”

Siasia’s Dream Team VI were criticised after the first two games for conceding two goals in the second half after a convincing lead in the first half.

The coach was therefore selective in crediting those behind his team’s triumph.

“I dedicate the victory at the U-23 championship to God and well-meaning Nigerians who were praying for us to succeed, but not the wicked ones who wanted me and the team to fail,” Siasia said.

home stars, who however failed to lift their game beyond the realm of the ordinary, losing out in the first round of the men’s and women’s singles draw.

Unlike what occurred in the first Futures, where about three of them reached the second round, with Christian Paul getting as far as the quarterfinal, what happened yesterday was simply a nonstarter.

Having shown signs of brilliance and good play last week, Paul

was simply a shadow of himself, losing in straight sets 2-6, 1-6 to Ben McLachlan of New Zealand. It was an unceremonious way to crash out of the $15, 000 tournamet.

Also biting the dust of d e f e a t yesterday,Thomas Otu fell in quick sets 0-6, 26 to second seed from South Africa,Harris Llyod of South Africa while Christopher Edwar stumbled at the first hurdle, losing 2-6, 2 -6 to third seed from Z i m b a b w e , Ta k a n y i Garanganga.

CAF Awards Continues from BP Toure is in contention for a third consecutive win of the CAF Africa player of the year, after he made the top three short-list alongside Ghana’s Andre Dede Ayew and Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Toure was last week named the BBC player of the year and from all reckoning he fits the bill for the CAF awards.

For the African Player of the Year - Based in Africa, the top three finalists are; Baghdad Boundjah (Algeria/: Etoile du Sahel), Mbwana Aly Samata

(Tanzania/ TP Mazembe) and Robert Kidiaba (DR Congo/ TP Mazembe) .

Ngozi Ebere made the woman of the year list where Cameroon duo Gabrielle Onguene and Gaelle Enganamouit are contenders. N’rehy Tia Ines, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana’s Portia Boakye, make up the women list.

The winner to be decided by votes from Head Coaches or Technical Directors of the National Associations affiliated to CAF will be announced at the Glo-CAF Awards Gala on January 7, 2016.

The trail of defeats spread into the women’s singles as Patience Onebamhoin lost I quick sets 0-6, 06 to Prarthana Thombare of India, while Osariemen Airhunmwundealso lost in straight sets 0-6, 1-6 to Ushua Suhail of Pakistan Nigerian-born Russian player, Melissa

Ifidzhen defeated Sabath Ibrahim 6-1, 60 just as Norwegian Ulrikke Eikeri advanced to the second round with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Ester Masuri of Israel Other first round matches are billed to be completed on Tuesday with no fewer than five Nigerian players scheduled for action.

Amuneke Continues from BP The names were announced at a joint press briefing by the Confederation of African Football, organisers of the most prestigious annual African footballer of the year award and its exclusive sponsor, Globacom, the Next Generation Network at a joint press conference held at Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja on Monday.

For the Coach of the Year Award, Baye Ba of Mali Under 17 team, Emmanuel Amuneke of Nigeria’s Under 17 team, Fawzi Benzarti of Etoile Sportive de Sahel, Herve Renard of Cote dIvoire and Patrice Carteron of TPMazembe were nominated.

Azubuike Okechukwu of Nigeria,DjiguiDiarraofMali, EteboOghenekaroofNigeria, Mahmoud Abdelmonem of Egypt, and Zinedine Ferhat of Algeria were shortlisted

for the Most Promising Player of Year Award.

Also released is the list of nominees for other categories of the Awards. Nominated for Women Player of the Year are theduoofGabrielleOnguene and Gaelle Enganamouit of Cameroon, Ngozi Ebere of Nigeria, N’rehy Tia Ines of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana’s Portia Boakye while the Youth Player of the Year has Adama Traore of Mali, Kelechi Nwakali of Nigeria, Samuel Diarra of Mali, Victor Osimhen of Nigeria and Yaw Yeboha of Ghana as nominees.

Others are African Legend Award which will be decided between Charles Kumi GyamfiofGhanaandSamuel Mbappe Leppe of Cameroon and National Team of the Year Award which will be contested for by Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali U-17, Nigeria U-17 and Nigeria U23 teams.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

CAF awards: Toure, Ayew, Aubameyang battle for crown

BY BEN EFE

M

ANCHESTER City and Cote ‘d Ivoire midfielder, Yaya Continues on Page 47

CAF U-23:

Siasia: We didn’t deserve to be champions

•Aubameyang

•Toure

N

IGERIA U-23 team coach Samson Siasia has dropped a bombshell by saying his team did not deserve to be champions of Africa if their preparations for the U23 AFCON were anything to go by.

Nigeria beat Algeria 21 in last Saturday’s final to clinch the second edition of the Continues on Page 47

•Ayew

Amuneke in running for coach of the year title

Champions League draw:

Arsenal draw Barca, Chelsea face PSG, Madrid battle Roma — Pg.47

•Nwakali, Osimhen, Etebo chase awards

T

DREAMLAND — Coach Samson Siasia beats the drum to celebrate the triumphant return of the Riobound U-23 team yesterday in Lagos. PHOTO: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

HE Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Abuja on Monday shorlisted Golden Eaglets coach, Emmanuel Amuneke amongst the nominees for the coach of the year.

Continues on Page 47

QUICK CR OSS WORD CROSS OSSWORD

T OD AY'S PUZZLE ODA

FRI DAY'S ANS WERS FRID ANSWERS

ACROSS 1 Moist (4) 4 Seed-case (3) 6 Manufactured (4) 8 Angle (6) 9 Maintain (6) 10 Summit (3) 12 Capture (5) 14 Stream (5) 15 Greeting (5) 18 Strict (6) 20 Garland (6) 24 Singer (5) 26 Hamper (5) 28 Delete (5) 30 Vitality (3) 32 Acrimonious (6) 33 Hidden (6) 34 Spoken (4) 35 Gain (3) 36 Gang (4)

DOWN 2 Fragrance (5) 3 Style (7) 4 Divide (4) 5 Ooze (4) 6 Skinflint (5) 7 Deform (7) 11 Lubricate (3) 12 Lettuce (3) 13 Girl’s (3) 16 Permit (3) 17 Possess (3) 19 Sooner (7) 21 Fish-eggs (3) 22 Wandering (7) 23 Colour (3) 25 Sheep (3) 27 Sum (5) 29 Because (5) 30 Bow (4) 31 Scheme (4)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 2, Stern 7, Quota 8, Agate 10, Abbor 12, Are 13, Pupil 15, Musical 17, Ironed 19, Men 20, Tempest 23, Over 25, Tire 26, Decreed 30, Due 31, Decamp 34, Prowess 37, Money 38, ado 39, Strip 40, Endow 41, Sever 42, Greed.

DOWN: 1, Augur 2, Stain 3, Tablet 4, Room 5, Against 6, Steam 9, Arc. 11, Rumpled 13, Pilot 14, Poked 16, See 18, Depress 21, Titan 22, Weepy 24, Redwood 27, Cue 28, Demise 29, Frank 32, Coped 33, Meter 35, Odd 36, Stir.

How to Play Sudoku

P

lace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Phone: Newsroom: 018773962. Deputy Editor: 01-4548355. Advert Dept Hotline: 014544821. Abuja Advert Hotline: 09-2921024. E-mail: editor@vanguardngr.com, news@vanguardngr.com, letters@vanguardngr.com. Advert:advertproduction@yahoo.com Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: MIDENO BAYAGBON. Phone: 01-7742861, All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.

C M Y K