NGF ELECTIONS: How Presidency's plot tounseat Amaechi failed

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 61827

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Jonathan signs 2013 Budget

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Clinton lists Nigeria's challenges

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NGF ELECTION:

How Presidency's plot to unseat Amaechi failed We were forced to work against him —Govs As Presidency goes back to drawing board

BY SONI DANIEL, REGIONAL EDITOR, NORTH

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BUJA — DETAILS of the ‘political coup’ carefully plotted and executed by the Presidency to oust Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State from the leadership of the influential Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, emerged, yesterday, with Continues on page 5

COLUMNISTS:

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DEAR BUNMI •P.33

ROTIMI FASAN •P.19

Mr & Mrs

THISDAY AWARDS: From left: Teacher Emeritus Pa Dotun Oyewole; former President of the United States, Mr Bill Clinton, and Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State during the 18th Annual ThisDay Awards to celebrate Nigeria's Best Teachers, at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State, yesterday. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.  See more photos on Page 15.

How genuine is your Pope Benedict to be called insurance?

•Pg. 9 ‘Emeritus Pope’ •P gs 30 &3 1

C M Y K

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POCKET CARTOON

From left: Mr. Akin Adesokan, MD, Lagos Dangote Cement Terminal; Chief Ige Taiwo, President, Lagos State Bricklayers Association; Mr. Knut Ulvmoen, Group Managing Director, Dangote Cement; Alhaji Rasheed Adebowale, President Block Makers Association; Chief Abegunde Okunola and Johnson Olaniyi, Regional Manager Marketing Services, Dangote Cement, during a meeting with block makers and bricklayers, in Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Joe Akintola, Photo, Editor.

How Presidency's plot to unseat Amaechi failed Continues from Page 1

some of the governors claiming they were put under pressure to work against the governor.

Vanguard gathered that the Presidency had long nursed the plan to edge out Amaechi as the chairman of the NGF but was not sure of how to go about the controversial plot without raising eyebrows.

The idea to create a splinter group to be headed by a ‘core loyalist’ from among the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors, was mooted by Goodluck Jonathan’s political strategists as a way of

stopping Governor Amaechi.

Reliable sources hinted that it was after the Villa was assured by top aides that they could secure the needed support from the PDP governors to deal a blow on Amaechi that the President summoned the governors to a parley, last Sunday.

Insiders said the Presidency was so sure that Amaechi would be removed, that a principal aide to Jonathan sent out text messages to State House correspondents to ‘expect breaking news’ at the end of the governors meeting with the President.

One of the governors, who attended the

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love — William Wordsworth.

Be kind to others and live a worthwhile life.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

These words’ "I Am" is an incredible expression of beingness. I am Soul! I am Love! I am Well!

It is used to acknowledge and recognises the uniqueness of Soul. For indeed, everything is made from love and for love! — Ella Randle.

In my journey of life, I choose the path of love, I choose to see beauty in everything and all circumstances, and this is not an easy task but to do this successfully, I have learnt total surrender to a higher force of life. This I am learning in the moment. Soul is love! It is all that really matters!

I'd rather bring light and love to everyone I meet however little. It starts from the heart.

A dear friend said to me once: “I water the plant I want to grow." And for me, that is pure love energy.

Every moment offers an opportunity to fine-tune the awareness to bring about better understanding and this makes for better relationships. Often, things aren’t what they appear to be, but to find the answers you seek may require that you connect deeper and find truth from within.

Every moment, life offers a person the chance to recognize to choose love, compassion, the purity of thought, understanding, kindness, granting others their beingness with reverence, and grace. It’s your life...choose well.

meeting, told Vanguard, yesterday, that he was disappointed with the desperation of the Presidency and its aides to remove Amaechi at all cost, regretting that such a dictatorial tactic, which he referred to as "gunboat democracy" could be employed in the current political dispensation.

Some PDP govs forced to sign document The governor, who related what happened at the meeting with the President, on Sunday, and the one presided over by Amaechi on Monday, pointed out that most of the 15 PDP governors were forced to sign a document on the orders of the Presidency without knowing what the document was to be used for.

He noted:“What they did was that each of the governors was spoken to by some presidential aides and made to sign a document circulated to them without disclosing the purpose.

“What some of us did not know was that the signatures collected by the aides would be used as an endorsement for the setting up of PDP Governors’ Forum, which was later announced to our bewilderment."

Efforts to remove Amaechi The governor explained that on Monday, when the NGF meeting was in progress at the Rivers State Governor ’s Lodge, Asokoro, the Villa also tried desperately to win over some governors to remove

Amaechi.

Apart from monitoring the meeting from the Villa, Jonathan’s men also made frantic efforts to infiltrate the venue and personally convince the governors to vote out Amaechi.

The source said that at a point, the Villa was on the phone with the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum trying to ascertain if he had enough support to go ahead with the election or whether the poll should be shelved.

Threat against uncooperating govs It was learnt that at some point, some of the governors who refused to cooperate with the Villa, were threatened with serious sanctions, including the withdrawal of their security personnel and other benefits they are currently enjoying.

One source told

Vanguard that when the President’s men saw that they had lost the support of the governors to oust Amaechi, they quickly moved for the postponement of the election, a suggestion the Amaechi camp did not oppose to avoid a walkout, which had been planned by the pro-Jonathan group.

We'll not abandon him— Pro-Amaechi group A pro-Amaechi member of the NGF boasted, yesterday, that the NGF would not abandon Amaechi even if the election is held tomorrow, given the fact that he was not fighting a personal battle but working for the overall interest of the Nigerian people.

The governor said: “I am sure the Presidency is aware that it has lost the battle against Amaechi and that the latest attempt to force members to move against him has even made the governors to be more supportive of the Rivers State governor."

Presidency goes

back to drawing board The Presidency is said to have withdrawn to the drawing board to restrategise on how to remove Amaechi when the election is held in May. It is believed that before then, the Presidency would have succeeded in wooing or forcing more governors to its side.

Amaechi is being accused of nursing a vice presidential ambition with his Jigawa State counterpart, Sule Lamido, although both governors have denied having such ambition.

Last week, Jonathan’s wife, Dame Patience, boasted openly that 100 opposition parties put together would not unseat her husband’s party.

At the event, the women canvassed that Jonathan be given automatic ticket so as to give women 50 per cent representation in his administration, 15 per cent up from what they are currently enjoying.

Another set of the President’s posters has appeared in major locations in the country, without him condemning the campaigners.

Boko Haram commander, three others killed in JTF dawn raid

BY SONI DANIEL, REGIONAL EDITOR, NORTH

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BUJA — A TOP Boko Haram commander and his three lieutenants were yesterday, killed in a morning raid carried out by snipers deployed from the Joint Task Force, Operation Restore Hope, in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The Boko Haram kingpin and his lieutenants were said to have crossed from Kano State to Borno some weeks ago and had been carrying out series of attacks on JTF patrol

vehicles and locations as well as the bombing of many places in the state.

However, the four men and their fighters ran out of luck when soldiers from the JTF confronted them in a gun duel following a tip off on their location, which was traced to the Kasuwan Kaji area of the metropolis.

The battle was taken to the insurgents between the hours of 2 a.m and 5.50 a.m on Monday when the fighters were still enjoying their sleep.

On arriving at the location, the JTF was said to have cordoned off the area and carried out checks

on suspected houses and business premises during which the kingpins reportedly opened fire on the soldiers without knowing that they were in for a rough deal.

The spokesman for the JTF, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, confirmed the raid on the sect’s hideout and the death of its commander and three of his lieutenants during the raid.

Musa also said three other sect's fighters arrested by soldiers during the raid, had been detained in their custody and were undergoing interrogation.

6—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Man bags 20 yrs jail for killing his father

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

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SABA— AN Asaba High Court, yesterday sentenced a 30-year-old farmer, Opukeme George to 20 years imprisonment for killing his father on Christmas eve.

The convict, who hails from Tuomo town in Bomadi local government area of Delta State, was found guilty of killing his father, Kosine George with a cutlass following quarrel that broke out between them over missing fish.

He told the court that he killed the father on December 24, 2011, due to provocation, saying that it was the father that attacked him first when he (son) demanded to know the whereabouts of the two pieces of fish that he kept.

Prosecution called one witness to prove its case while the covict testified for himself.

Presiding Judge, Justice M.O. Omovie stated that “in the final analysis after reading the written submissions by both counsel, I hold that the accused is guilty of manslaughter. I hereby convict you for manslaughter.”

BY OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

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BUJA—MEMBERS of the House of Representatives, yesterday, mandated its committees on Internal Security and Police Affairs to investigate the killing of four students of the University of Nasarawa State by soldiers.

The House also dismissed the motion on the need to further investigate Justices Charles Archibong and Thomas Naron over alleged illegal misconduct.

This was sequel to a motion brought by Kingsley Chinda, PDP, Rivers State under matters of urgent national importance.

Chinda who led the debate had argued that “the killing of some Nasarawa State University students by soldiers on February 25 for embarking on a peaceful protest over lack of water and electricity was very uncivil.’’

He also said that, “the deployment of soldiers or policemen armed with live ammunition to university campuses in the guise of quelling students' protest is clearly wrong and unacceptable.

"The present case is one too many of killings by men of the police and the armed forces that daily take place in university campuses and several parts of the country against defenceless, innocent students and citizens is very condemnable.

The incident has led to very se-

BY VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG

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two-man armed robbery gang yesterday, stormed the Abuja liaison Secretary of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, located at Cameroun Road, Wuse, and made away with the PresidentGeneral of the union, Comrade Nted Anthony’s car.

The car, a black new Hyundai Accent at the time of theft was with number plate EKY 75 AV. Vanguard gathered that the driver of the car was washing it in the morning when robbers came and forcefully took away the car.

According to information, at the time of the robbery, all the original documents of the car were inside it.

Confirming the robbery, Nted said he just asked the driver to take the car to Abuja for his use any time he came to Abuja.

Reps probe alleged killing of 4 students from Nasarawa varsity by soldiers rious tension within the university community and its environ as so many were reported to have deserted thier homes for fear of further attacks by men of the Nigerian Army and/or reprisal attack by the students.

The situation is already gener-

ating ill feelings and bad blood between the university students and men of the Nigerian Army and if not immediately checked could lead to further escalation of violence in the area and the area could be completely cut off from other parts of Nasarawa.”

Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal who presided over the session called for a voice vote and it was unanimously adopted.

Both committees on Security and Police Affairs are expected to submit their reports within two weeks to the House.

ing “No water, no road.” This disrupted flow of traffic for hours, until armed security personnel broke up the riot.

At about 8.30am, the university’s registrar, Mamman Dalhatu drove to the scene of the protest in company of the Chief Security Officer, John Aboh, who tried to calm the students.

Later on Monday, the university authorities announced the closure of the campus and ordered students to leave the hostels as contained in a statement signed by the University Spokes-

man, Jamil Zakari.

The statement read: “For the avoidance of doubt, any student who remains on or around the campuses does so at his or her own risk as security forces have been notified of this closure.”

A spokesman for the Federal Medical Centre in Keffi, Jamilu Nagogo, confirmed to newsmen that six people were brought in with gunshot injuries; one of them already dead while three others died later, with over 15 other injured students receiving treatment at the hospital

....How the crisis began

BY ABEL DANIEL

Suspected robbers steal MWUN boss' car

Gridlock on Olusegun Obasanjo way, Wuse Zone 7, Abuja due to road rehabilitation in parts of Abuja municipality, yesterday.

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AFIA—FOLLOWING a pro test embarked upon by students of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, on Monday, it has now been confirmed that at least four students were shot dead while four others were wounded when soldiers and policemen fired live bullets on the demonstrators.

They students carried out the illfated demonstration over lack of water and electricity on campus.

The protest started at about 7.30am by few students at their hostels but it soon escalated and spilled into the streets, according to a student who spoke in confidence to Vanguard.

Sources also told Vanguard that there had been acute water scarcity as public water supply stopped in Keffi for nearly two weeks now, and the state water board blamed power cuts from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, for the scarcity.

The protesting students blocked some major roads in Keffi, chant-

10 hunters in police net over mysterious death of colleague

BY DAYO JOHNSON

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KURE—AT least 10 friends who are hunters have been arrested by the police in Ondo State over the mysterious death of one of their colleagues, Abiodun Olanipekun during hunting expedition in Arigidi Akoko, Akoko North West area of the state.

The deceased also a hunter was said to have gone on hunting expedition with his friends in the thick Agbaluku forest in Arigidi only to be brought back dead.

Although Ondo State police

PRO, Wole Ogodo said that the preliminary investigation showed that it was suicide, he noted that investigation into the case continuing.

Family of the deceased informed Vanguard that reports brought by the suspects was that Abiodun while fiddling with his dane gun mistakenly shot himself dead.

Another source said that Abiodun was trying to adjust his gun after he missed killing an animal but ended up shooting himself mistakenly.

He was said to have aimed the gun at an animal but the bullets refused to be released following

which he decided to adjust it only for the cork to snap killing him instantly.

The police, is however, trying to unravel another report that maybe one of the hunters mistakenly shot the deceased thinking he was an animal during the expedition.

However, Vanguard learnt that the bullets pierced through his mouth and the head and ripped it open.

He was said to have died on the spot and his corpse deposited at the mortuary of the Specialist hospital in Ikare. His 10 friends are said to be in detention at the Oke-Agbe Divisional Police sta-

tion for questioning but the police PRO, Ogodo claimed ignorance of the arrest of the suspects.

Ogodo, however, said that a paramount traditional ruler in the town reported the matter to the divisional Police station in Arigidi.

An Uncle of the deceased, Mr Dele Ajayi who confirmed the death of Abiodun said that several versions of what happened in the forest during the tragic hunting expedition were given by the suspects.

Ajayi, however, said that the family members of Abiodun have taken the ugly incident as an act of God.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013—7

N18m land scam: Court remands ex-Gov Audu's son in prison

BY SONI DANIEL

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BUJA—SON of former Kogi State Governor, Mustapha Audu, was yesterday remained in Kuje Prisons on the orders of Justice Abubakar Sadiq Umar of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, for allegedly obtaining N18 million under false pretence.

Mustapha was charged along with his wife, Zahrah, and their company, Constructor Guild Ltd, under the guise of assisting her to get a four bedroom apartment at the Ruskin Terrace in Katamkpe Extension, Abuja.

Mustapha will remain in the prison until his bail application is heard tomorrow while his wife, who had earlier been arraigned, was allowed to go home on subsisting administrative bail.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had dragged the couple before the judge and slammed them with a three-count charge on conspiracy, falsehood and fraud.

One of the charges against the accused persons read, “That you Mustapha Audu, Zahra M. Audu in your capacity as directors of Constructors Guild Ltd on or about the January 7, 2010 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court obtained the sum of N3 million from one Nike Kolawole under the pretence of help-

ing her to get a four-bedroom town house at Ruskin Terrace situated at Katampe Extension Abuja which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3)of the same act.”

The accused persons, however

pleaded not guilty to the threecount charge.

Following their plea, their counsel, Kingsley Akpokona moved a motion for bail on behalf of his clients, but was opposed by the prosecution counsel, Mr. Samuel Ugwuegbulam who prayed the court for time to respond to the application.

While consenting to the prose-

cution’s request for time to respond to the application for bail, Justice Umar remanded Mustapha Audu in Kuje Prison but allowed the second accused person, Zahrah M. Audu to continue to enjoy the administrative bail earlier granted her.

The case has been adjourned to tomorrow, February 28, 2013 for hearing of the bail application.

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AKURDI—BENUE State Police Command has recorded a major breakthrough in the last three days in its renewed onslaught against crime with the arrest of 36 robbery suspects and vandals.

Parading the suspects yesterday, at the state police command headquarters, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Christopher Katso said, “among the arrested robbery suspects is a teenager (names withheld) who alongside two others now on the run raided a popular supermarket in town in broad day light”.

While the robbery was going on, the police patrol team covering the area stormed the scene after they got a distress call from those in the neighbourhood.

Mr Katso said: "My men apprehended one of the robbery suspects with a fully loaded English pistol while two of his cohorts escaped but we are on their trail.

"Also arrested were a five-man robbery gang which trailed and killed an orange farmer in Ushongo Local Government Area of the state after they had dispossessed their victim of N100, 000.

"Within this same period, we

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BY DANIEL ETEGHE

AGOS—THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, yesterday arrested a drug suspect with 1.295 kilogrammes of methamphetamine at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos aboard an Ethiopian Airline flight on his way to Thailand.

The 22-year-old suspect, Mr. Ilechukwu Ejikonye, who claimed to have invested about N750,000 into drug trafficking was apprehended by officers of the anti-narcotic agency who detected the drugs during the outward screening of passengers.

Speaking on the arrest, NDLEA Commander at the Airport, Mr Hamza Umar said that the drug was carefully hidden in the suspects’ luggage in a bid to beat officers of the agency.

Security trust law checkmates crime —Ikuforiji

BY EBUN SESSOU

Some of the paraded suspects with weapons and army camouflage.

Benue Police arrest, parade 36 robbery suspects, vandals

BY PETER DURU

NDLEA arrests suspected drug peddler

apprehended various gangs across Makurdi town who while robbing their victims were nabbed by my men who daily patrol the streets.

"My command recently got a tip off which led to the arrest of some communication cable vandals and equipment.

"I must also point out that our recent operation outside Makurdi town also led to the arrest of a gang at Okpoga in Okpokwu Local Government Area of the state which specialized in ambushing local traders and dispossessing them of their valuables.”

The Police Commissioner fur-

ther said that items recovered from the various gangs include “military camouflage uniform, different types of firearms, ammunition and machetes”. Katso said the suspects would soon face trial after investigations have been completed.

One killed, scores injured as area boys clash in Lagos

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BY EVELYN USMAN

AGOS—ONE person was, yesterday, killed and several others injured in a clash between some miscreants in Coker area of Orile Iganmu, Lagos.

The fight which started on Sunday was reportedly caused by supremacy battle between rival groups.

Dangerous weapons were reportedly used during the free-forall which brought commercial activities in the area to an abrupt halt, as traders hurriedly locked up for the day.

Motorists plying the route reportedly had their windscreen smashed by the warring miscreants said to have also used the opportunity to rob commuters and other passers-by.

A member of one of the

factions,allegedly stabbed in different parts of the body, bled profusely and died on the spot.

Policemen from Orile Division were said arrived the scene and made some arrests.

Police nab 2 suspected vandals

BY KUNLE KALEJAYE

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HE Police, yesterday, ar rested two suspected vandals of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, transformers in Lagos.

Luck ran out of the duo as they were caught vandalizing and removing four single core cables from a 500KVA feeder pillar/transformer at the Sehinde Calypso area by a team of policemen guarding Marblefield Hotel near the transformer and handed them

over to Akinpelu police Station Oshodi for further interrogation.

According to a statement signed by the Assistant General Manager, Public Affairs, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. Pekun Adeyanju, the management expressed its sincere appreciation to the Police for assisting PHCN to arrest and prosecute the suspected thieves He urged the police authorities to ensure speedy prosecution of the vandals to serve as deterrent to others.

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PEAKER of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji has said that the Security Trust Fund Law passed by the assembly in 2008 has effectively checkmated armed robbery, violence and other social vices in the state.

Ikuforiji spoke when the Executive Committee of Crime Reporters Association of Nigeria, led by its Vice President, Mr. Raymond Tedunjaye presented him with the twinaward of “Best Security-Conscious Speaker and Best House of Assembly in Nigeria.”

Bus driver bags 50 yrs jail for robbery

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High Court in Asaba pre sided over by Justice C. Ogisi sentenced one Ndubisi Onwe to 50 years imprisonment for armed robbery.

Prosecution told the court that Ndubisi, a commercial bus driver and others still at large on or about Decemeber 14, 2011, “at Onitsha Bridge Head in Asaba, within Asaba, robbed one Emeka Obodor of Mitsubishi L-300 bus with number plate XD 129 WER property of Mr. Mirage Chinedu while armed with a gun.”

8—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

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BEOKUTA—FORMER President of United States of America, Bill Clinton, said yesterday in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, that the inability to manage the nation's natural resources well was one of the three major challenges Nigeria was facing as a nation.

The former US president, who was speaking at the 18th Annual Awards of Thisday newspaper, organised to celebrate Nigeria’s best teachers, further tasked Nigerian leaders to tackle unemployment, brain-drain and to maximise the potential of the citizens.

The 42nd American President, who spoke in the presence of former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, his counterpart in Delta, Emmanuel Uduaghan and other notable Nigerians, said Nigerian leaders mismanaged the proceeds from oil, underutilised technology and failed to retain its best brains.

Clinton said: “When I became President, my Secretary of Commerce did a lot of work in Africa before he was tragically killed in a plane crash in 1995.

“I said he should make a list of 10 most important countries in the world for the 21st century. Nigeria was in the list.

“Imagine the future of the entire continent if Nigeria fails or South Africa fails. So, you are a country of potential. I will say you have about three big challenges.

Oil money, economic distribution, brain-drain

“First of all, like 90 percent of the countries, which have one big resource, you haven’t done well with your oil money.

You should have reinvested it in different ways. Now you are at least not wasting the natural gas. You are developing it in pipelines but you don’t do a better job of managing natural resources.

“Secondly, you have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don’t have.

This is not a problem specific to Nigeria. Almost in every place in the world, prosperity is heavily concentrated in and around urban areas.

“So you have all these political problems: violence, religious differences, and all the rhetoric of Boko Haram.

“But the truth is the poverty rate in the north is three times greater than what it is in the Lagos area. To deal with that, you have to have both powerful stake in the local governments and a national policy that work together.

“As you keep trying to divide the power, you have to figure out a way to have a strategy that will help in sharing prosperity.

PDP BoT MEETING: President Goodluck Jonathan (3rd right); Vice President Namadi Sambo (right); Alhaji Bamangar Tukur, People's Democratic Party, PDP, National Chairman (2nd left); David Mark, Senate President (left) and others arriving for PDP Board of Trustee, BoT’s meeting at the Banquet Hall, State House, Abuja, Monday. PHOTO: Abayomi Adeshida.

Clinton lists Nigeria's challenges “The third thing is there has to be a way to take the staggering intellectual and organisational ability that Nigerians exhibit in every country in the world in which they are immigrant and bring it to bear here, so that the country as a whole can rise.

“One of the people on my trip with me today, who unfortunately could not come up here because he had to go and visit his family, is a young Nigerian-American named Nnamdi. He is an all pro-quarter back footballer for the Philadelphia Eagles.

“He’s a wonderful man; he does great work in America for poor kids in Arkansas City and he became a friend of mine.

“Both his parents have PhDs. His sister has a PhD. He often says ‘I’m the failure in my family and I only have a university degree and I play football.’

“My point is: there are Nigerians who are like this all over the world. What you have to figure out is how to keep those people in Nigeria and how to ensure their success encourages others in the country.

Solutions

“So, I think solving the economic divide that is in your country will help the political divide; making better use of your resources.

“Nigeria is trying to set up an investment fund where the Federal Government will set it up and the governors are being consulted so that they can concentrate the capital.

That is the problem in India.

“They have unbelievable entrepreneurs but they are not very good at collecting capital and investing it in infrastructure so that they can unite the poor part of the

country with the rich part.

That’s what you have to do.

And then, you have to empower people with education so they can succeed at home as well as around the world.”

Speaking on the essence of education, Clinton said: “I have to explain that education is more important in dealing with the challenges facing Nigeria. On the continent and the entire world, we are living a revolutionary time, full of positive and negative forces.

“The information technology is good for people who can take advantage of it. I see this all over the world. Cell phones give farmers the access to information about crop prices and fish prices in Africa and Asia.

“It increases their income by reducing their ignorance. It is empowerment. People are using cell phones to have banking services for the first time.

“I see it even in the United States where people who thought they have no money to help others donate a billion dollars to Haiti during the earthquake because ordinary citizens use their cell phones to make transfer to an account and they had a billion dollars.

Education, globalisation

“It is an age where if we are sufficiently educated we can be empowered but with enormous challenges. First of all, with all of these new opportunities which technology had given us, we have not yet succeeded in automatically reducing poverty and inequality of opportunity in accessing education and health care.

“It is a global phenomenon.

If we really want to take advantage of education, empowerment and information

technology, we have to tackle this problem. The second problem we have in the world is instability as we all know.

“We have to stop this problem. One major problem of unemployment is this instability all over the world. We have not yet solved the problem of how to embrace our potential and common humanity.

“And until we do this, the globalisation of the economy, the globalisation of the society for information technology will continue to face serious trouble. We have to deal with how to maximise the capacity of all the people through education.

“We have to find a way through education, through the information technology revolution to change the way we produce and consume energy and to change the way we use local resources in a way that sustains them.

“We have to know how to do this and do it right. And in every case, education will play a major role whether in developed or developing countries. We need intelligent people to take a new way to challenge themselves.

“There is a lot of work to be done but we cannot ever neglect the role of education. So I want to end my remarks by saying two things. Every year at the opening of the United Nations, I sponsor a meeting where we invite the global leaders to come.

“We actually ask people to make a commitment to do something and we are all making progress.”

Obaigbena speaks

Speaking earlier, Editor-inChief and Chairman, Thisday, Nduka Obaigbena explained that the choice of Abeokuta as the venue for the

18th edition of the award was made by Clinton due to the presence of Presidential Library.

According to him, Delta, Port Harcourt and Abeokuta were the options presented to Clinton as the venue before Abeokuta was chosen by the ex-American President.

He eulogised eminent media personalities present, including former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba, the Chairman and Publisher of Vanguard newspapers, Mr. Sam Amuka, among others.

Obaighena disclosed that 15 best teachers were selected by a panel headed by Vice President World Bank (Africa) and former Minister of Education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, from 700 nominees.

Awardees

Those who bagged the Builder of Modern Nigeria awards were Oba Otudeko; professor of musicology, Laz Ekwueme; deposed Sultan, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki; Osile of Oke-Ona, Oba Adedapo Tejuoso, and Chief Rasak Okoya.

The 15 best teachers, who received N2 million each, were Mrs Victoria Jolayemi, Mrs Dorothy Ugwu and Mrs Christie Ade-Ajayi, for primary school category.

For secondary category, Rev. Father Angus Frazer, Chief D.B.E. Ossai, Mrs Yakubu Dimka, Chief Reuben Majekodunmi, Chief Dotun Oyewole, Mrs. John O. B. Adeaga, Mr. Bawa Mohammed Faskari and Hadiza Thani Muhammed were honoured as best teachers.

In the universities category, Prof. Iya Abubakar, Prof.

Frank Ugiomoh, Prof.

Michael Obadan and Prof.

Eunice Nkiruka Uzodike, were given award.

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013—9

Jonathan averts constitutional crisis, signs 2013 budget

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor, OKEY NDIRIBE, EMMAN OVUAKPORIE & JOSEPH ERUNKE

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BUJA—PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan last night signed the 2013 budget into law, averting an unprecedented constitutional crisis and a face-off with the National Assembly.

Confirmation of the President’s assent of the budget came as the House of Representatives spoiled for war, yesterday, at a closed door session of the House.

At the end of the session, the House had resolved to mandate its leadership to consult with the Senate on taking action concerning the President’s purported refusal to give his assent to the budget.

President Jonathan, however, took the wind off the sail of his critics last night when he signed the budget into law despite what the presidency described as its reservations.

President of the Senate, David Mark; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, and Special Adviser to the president on National Assembly matters, Senator Joy Emodi, were among other dignitaries present at the signing yesterday.

2013 Appropriation Bill, President Goodluck Jonathan today (yesterday) signed the bill into law.

“President Jonathan wishes to reassure all Nigerians that the consultations have been in the best interest of the country, and in pursuit of understanding and mutual cooperation between both arms of government.

“As part of the understanding reached with its leadership, the observations of the executive arm of government about the Appropriation Bill as passed by the National Assembly will be further considered by the National Assembly through legislative action, to ensure effective and smooth implementation of the 2013 Appropriation Act in all aspects.

“The administration re-

mains fully committed to the positive transformation of the country, and effective and efficient service delivery for the benefit of all citizens.

“All Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government have therefore been directed to work very hard to ensure that all the services, projects and programmes contained in the budget are successfully delivered on schedule in spite of the slight delay in its enactment.”

If he hadn’t signed...

If the president had failed to sign the budget at the end of the 30 working days deadline, he would have been expected to re-present it, or another proposal, to the National Assembly in line with Section 59 (4) of the Constitution.

A constitutional lawyer in the National Assembly pointed to what he claimed

was the ignorance of presidency officials who were mistaking the constitutional provisions on appropriation with that pertaining to other bills.

Whereas Section 58 of the Constitution pertaining to ordinary bills allows the president to wield a veto on a bill passed by the National Assembly and allow the National Assembly to override the veto, the president is, however, bound by the provisions of Section 59 (4), which applies to money bills, to re-present the budget where he applies the veto.

Constitution’s provision

(4) Where the President, within thirty days after the presentation of the bill to him, fails to signify his assent or where he withholds assent, then the bill shall again be presented to the National Assembly sitting at a joint meeting, and if passed by twothirds majority of members of

both houses at such joint meeting, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required.

A constitutional lawyer in the National Assembly leadership speaking on the issue, yesterday, expressed concern that the country could be headed towards a constitutional crisis unless the President immediately signs the budget bill.

Speaking before the President signed the bill last night, the source said: “It is in the best interest of the President to sign the bill before him otherwise we are headed towards a constitutional crisis where the budget would be taken from him and he would no more have a say on it.

“Should he fail to sign it, he is now bound to physically represent the bill to the National Assembly and from then he would lack any power to make an input again.”

Presidency statement

A statement by Dr. Rueben Abati, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, said further legislative actions would be taken by the National Assembly to address the observations made by the presidency on the N4.98 trillion budget passed by the National Assembly.

The president had last October presented to the National Assembly a N4.92 trillion spending proposal for the Federal Government which the National Assembly, however, hiked to N4.98 trillion when it passed it last December.

President Jonathan had refused to give his assent to the budget transmitted to him on January 14 on the claim that there were mistakes in the details, the refusal to apportion funds for the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and the increase in the benchmark for oil revenue from $75 per barrel to $79 per barrel.

The statement confirming the president’s assent to the budget bill read: “Following consultations and an agreement between the executive and the legislature on the

ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT TEAM: From left— Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman Dangote Group; Dr. Akinwumi Adeshina, Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Chief Kola Jamodu, President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria; Mr. Aigboje Imokhuede, MD, Access Bank Plc., and Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, during the Economic Management Team meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House, Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: Abayomi Adeshida.

Retiring Pope Benedict XVI now Emeritus Pope

BY UDUMA KALU, with agency reports

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HEN Pope Benedict XVI quits the Papacy tomorrow, he will be known as “emeritus pope.” In retirement he will wear a white cassock and will also continue to be called “Your Holiness Benedict XVI,” the Vatican announced yesterday.

Vatican spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi, at a news briefing, yesterday, said the Pope would wear a “white cassock.” However, his ring of office as pope will be destroyed – as is traditional – and he will stop wearing his trademark red

shoes.

Benedict had taken a liking to a pair of hand-crafted brown loafers made for him by artisans in Leon, Mexico, and presented to him during his 2012 visit. He will wear them in retirement.

Lombardi told reporters that Benedict, previously Joseph Ratzinger, had made the decisions himself. The Vatican press office refused to comment or elaborate on the briefing, but said more details might be posted on its website later.

Pope’s final 48 hours

Lombardi described Benedict’s final 48 hours as pope:

Yesterday, he was packing, arranging for documents to be sent to the various archives at the Vatican and separating out the personal papers he will take with him into retirement.

Today, Benedict will hold his final public general audience in St. Peter’s Square at which 50,000 tickets had already been requested. He won’t greet visiting prelates or VIPs as he normally does at the end but will greet some visiting political leaders — from San Marino, Andorra and his native Bavaria — privately afterward.

Tomorrow, the Pope will meet with his cardinals in the

morning and then fly by helicopter at 5pm to Castel Gandolfo, the papal residence south of Rome. He will greet parishioners there from the Palazzo’s loggia (balcony) — his final public act as pope.

And at 8pm, the exact time at which his retirement becomes official, the Swiss Guards standing outside the doors of the Palazzo at Castel Gandolfo will go inside, their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church now finished.

His personal security will be assured by Vatican police, Lombardi disclosed.

10—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, FUBRUARY 27, 2013

EFCC re-arraigns Akingbola

BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH & ONOZURE DANIA

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AGOS—FORMER Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank, Plc, now Access Bank, Dr Erastus Akingbola, was yesterday re-arraigned before an Ikeja High court over alleged theft of N47.1bn belonging to the bank. The re-arraignment was as a result of the elevation of the former trial judge, Habeeb Abiru, to the Court of Appeal before the conclusion of Akingbola’s case.

It would be recalled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had already concluded its argument, while the defence had also opened its defence before the sudden halt of the case before former justice Abiru.

The former bank MD is standing trial alongside the former General Manager of Tropic Security Limited, Mr. Bayo Dada, before their case file was transferred to a new judge, Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo.

When the matter came up yesterday, the duo pleaded not guilty to the 22 count charge read to them, while the trial judge aligned with the argument that they should continue with their bail earlier granted them by Justice Abiru.

The judge also adjourned the matter till July 10 for commence of the fresh trial.

However, at the middle of the proceedings, the defence lawyers accused the EFCC of trial by ambush, while they also condemned the arrest of the defendants, especially when their old bail granted them by another court had not been withdrawn.

Gunmen kill 7 guards in Yobe — Official

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UNMEN yesterday shot dead seven men who were guarding a market in Kune, Yobe state.

Chairman of Kune Local Government Area, Alhaji Maina Gana, who confirmed the incident said, “ yesterday night some people came with guns and killed seven people and injured one person, we can’t tell if they are Boko Haram yet.

These people that were shot dead were vigilante men, they were shot while guarding the town’s market.”

Key Lagos MDAs ‘ll commence Saturday work in March —Fashola Ministries of Transportation, Urban and Physical Planning, Judiciary affected Slams FG on Good Governance tour

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

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AGOS—LAGOS State Gov ernment yesterday said from first week of March, it would commence Saturday’s services in some key ministries, departments and agencies, aimed at enhancing efficient and effective service delivery to members of the public.

This is against the current practice where most key services are opened to the public from Monday to Friday, while Saturday and Sunday are observed as rest days.

Governor Babatunde Fashola who announced this at an event to mark his 2,100 days in office in Ikeja, said the pilot service of the exercise would begin Saturday, March 2 ,2013.

been prevalent in the past. ‘’Our traffic law has also recorded increased acceptability and compliance, and it has most importantly delivered on its objective which is the safety of lives.

‘Between November and December 2012, we recorded a 24.2 percent reduction in fines. This reinforces our position that this is about safety of human lives and not about monies.”

On FG’s good governance tour Meanwhile, Fashola has dis-

missed the ongoing Federal Government’s “good governance tour” programme describing it ill conceived.

The minister of Information, Labaran Maku, has been going round the states to assess projects embarked upon by governors.

Fashola, speaking on the development said the Federal Government on its own cannot point to a 100 kilometre road that connects any two states in the country.

“The tour is a mere attempt by government at the centre to appear busy. In an attempt to ap-

pear busy, they have embarked on an ill-conceived Good Governance tour, because they have no project to inspect. The question to ask is whether Nigerians need a tour to know good governance or they are well governed.

“We do not need Good Governance Tour in Lagos before citizens know that their lives are improving. Completed projects such as the Ibeshe Road in Ikorodu, the mother and child care centre in Amuwo Odofin and Alimosho, the completed school of nursing are examples of good governance.”

Ministries affected According to Fashola, these services would include Ministries of Transportation, Urban and Physical Planning and Land Bureau to further make services available to every citizen, saying ‘’Consequently, in response to this demand, we have resolved to commence Saturday service in some pilot Ministries, Departments and Agencies with effect from the first Saturday in March in 2013 excluding the last Saturday of every month reserved for sanitation day to serve the public better in some critical areas of need.”

“Similar case will also be applicable in the state judiciary where judges and magistrates will from the second Saturday of March 2013, sit on weekends to adjudicate on cases before them, in what is expected to facilitate quick dispensation of justice and ensure that accused persons stand trial on weekends as against the current situation where they can only be brought to the courts on week days.”

Government not only for the elite While debunking claims that his government was meant for only the elite, he said he had nothing against the poor “rather we are bent on improving their lots. No responsible government would allow things to go wrong without taking appropriate action where necessary.’’

He explained that the traffic law which had generated much reactions from the public was an attempt to save lives, stressing that ‘’there has been a significant reduction in the number of deaths relating to Okada riders as a result of the impact of the traffic law.

“No death has been recorded this year compared to what had

CELEBRATION: From left: Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, chief host; Mrs. Idiat Adebule, Secretary to the State Government; Otunba Henry Ajomale, Chairman Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and Prince Abiodun Ogunleye, former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, during the celebration of 2,100 Days in Office of Gov. Fashola in Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Bunmi Azeez.

Closed market: We’re losing N100bn daily, cry Ladipo traders

BY DONALD ARJI AGOS—TRADERS in the popular Ladipo auto parts market closed down, yesterday,

by Lagos State Government on Monday have started counting their losses, saying they are losing at least N100 billion daily.

Traders who spoke to Vanguard yesterday, lamented that they were already feeling the pains of the closure as they could no longer meet their obligations to their families.

Speaking, Secretary of the Aguiyi Ironsi Traders Union, Mr. Christain Igbaunam told Vanguard that his members would be losing over N100billions per day to the closure and lamented that efforts to meet with the Lagos State Task force on Environmental and Special Offenses (Enforcement) Units, to negotiate the opening of the market had proved abortive.

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He said: “We have over 15,00 registered members.

Individual members make not less than N10 million daily. On the average, members will be losing over N100billions on a daily basis to the closure of the market.”

He denied allegations that their security guards arrested were armed robbers, saying “those allegations made against our security guards are false.

They were not armed with guns and were not against the state officials. They were only misunderstood. These are security guards put in place by the association to arrest criminal activities in the market. I am pleading for their release.”

A trader who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “whenever I offload my containers, I make not less than 15millions.

Just imagine what I will be losing now that the market has been shut.”

Another who gave his name as Jude Tobechukwu, pleaded for the re-opening of the market, saying “we are losing billions of Naira to the closure of this market. Today’s (yesterday) is the second day that we have been shut out. I have lost over N10 millions since the closure. That is a huge sum of money even those in government do not want to lose.”

One Okolie Amadi, claimed his wife was in the hospital for a kidney transplant, lamenting that “I was hoping to use this week to look for money for the transplant.

My wife is lying helpless in the hospital awaiting a kidney transplant due to lack of money. I came to the market to see if I can raise some money for her operations only to see that armed mobile police men have barricaded the entrance to the market. I am pleading to the state government to have piety on us.”

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 —11

Oyo N1.6bn pension fraud: Court remands 10 in prison

BY OLAAJAYI

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BADAN—ALL the 10 sus pects alleged to have defrauded the Oyo State Local Government Pension Board of N1, 590, 783, 671. 47 have been arraigned before a Chief Magistrates Court in Ibadan.

However, the accused persons pleaded not guilty to all the three count charges.

The accused are Hakeem Muili, Alhaja Iyabo Giwa, Adeduntan Johnson, Oguntayo Banji, Adesina Jimoh, Johnson Bosede, Adebiyi Olasumbo, Kareem Rasheed, Muili Adedamola and Salewa Adedeji.

According to the charges brought against them, they were alleged to have been involved in conspiracy to steal, abuse of office and stealing of Local Government Staff Pension fund totaling N1, 590,783,671,47.

The Chairman of the board, Chief Lasisi Ayankojo, had raised alarm some months ago that the suspects had allegedly defrauded the board.

After being arraigned under Charge No. Mi/238C/2013, and their pleas taken, Justice Tijani Durosaro, ordered them to be remanded in the Agodi Prison custody for their inability to perfect the bail conditions.

While the Attorney -General of Oyo State, Mr. Ojo Adebayo, led the prosecution team, Mr. Yinka Okunade, held the brief for the accused persons except the second accused person who was represented by another counsel, Mr. O. Makinde.

On the application of the Defence Counsel, each of the accused persons was admitted to bail in the sum of N2,000,000,00 with two sureties in like sum.

According to the judge, each surety must have a ertificate of lo-

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journed to March 19, for trial.

In August last year, the Oyo State Government had discovered a pension fraud in its Local Government Service Pensions Board totaling, at the initial stage, N2, 608, 398, 709. 29 but later skyrocketed to N6.4 billion.

COMMISSIONING: From left: Sir Adebutu Kessington, Pro-chancellor, University of Lagos, UNILAG; Prof. Rahamon Bello, Vice Chancellor, UNILAG; Deacon Gamaliel Onosode, and Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyattu Rufai, at the commissioning of Sir Adebutu Kessington Maternity Centre and Medical Laboratory, at the university in Lagos, yesterday.

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HE Igbimo Ure Ekiti, IUE, a body of Ekiti State indigenes, not affiliated to any polilical party, will host Governor Kayode Fayemi to a motivational dinner at Harbour Point, off Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos, tomorrow.

The group is attracting through the event, a number of their associates well wishers’ influence to connect deeply with Ekiti State Government and its citizens, with a view to improving the economy and the social bearing of the state.

Mrs. Funke Adebajo, the Social and Publicity Secretary alongside Mr. Gbenga Oyebode, the Chairman of the group had assured their expected guests of a most fruitful outing at the event.

Akeredolu alleges irregularities in Ondo guber election

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BY DAYO JOHNSON

KURE—THE governor ship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in Ondo State in the last governorship election, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, yesterday, alleged that the election was marred with mas-

Fayemi’s N5m donation tears Members were said to have rechurch apart solved on how to utilize the money

BY GBENGAARIYIBI DO-EKITI—THE N5million donated to the Millennium Anglican Church, Odo Owa Ekiti by Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, is allegedly tearing the church apart.

It would be recalled that Fayemi donated N5 million to the church during the burial of its late primate, Most Rev. Abiodun Adetiloye on January 19, 2013.

Shortly after the donation, the leaders and clergy of the church were said to have met where the issue of the donation was discussed.

cal government origin, or a Certificate of Occupancy in respect of a landed property within the jurisdiction of the court, or an account with any of the reputable banks in Oyo State, or certificate of business registration.

The matter was thereafter ad-

Igbimo Ure Ekiti hosts Gov Fayemi

sive irregularities.

Akeredolu appeared before the Election Petition tribunal sitting in Akure as one of the 41 witnesses that he and his party called to testify in the matter.

He said exhibit P52A, P1H12, P16G12 included voters’ register and insisted that the election was marred which frauds.

The candidate who cited the case of Isowopo, Akoko 01, Ward 08, Unit 12, said the irregularities discovered were perpetrated in all units in the state.

He told the tribunal that his case and that of his party was very clear but that the tribunal must and could only understand the case by going through the exhibit and relate it with the findings of the experts, arguing that both must be connected.

Akeredolu said: “There were cases of double registration where voters appeared twice with differ-

ent VIN number.”

He said one Abdulai Idris appeared two times with different VIN number.

The former NBA President added that there were people that were marked to have voted who were invalid registrants and whose thumbprints were not captured.

Akeredolu who was led in evidence by his counsel, Oluwole Aina, said his claims before the tribunal was contained in his petition.

During cross examination by the first, second and third respondents led by Mr. Wole Olanipekun, SAN, Akeredolu, was asked whether his agents were in all polling units in the state for the election.

He told the tribunal that his agents were chased out from most of the polling units, saying the ACN only had few agents in

among others.

It was gathered that they agreed that among others, it would be used to renovate the church, buy a bus for evangelism while N1million would be put into a special account.

However, the Bishop of Ekiti West Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Oludare Oke, was said to have told the members including the vicar, Reverend Mike Ogunniyi, that the N5 million was dePUBLIC NOTICE posited in a fixed Account because it was an endowment The general public is hereby informed that the above named organisation has applied to the Corporate Affaris Commission for the Registration under Part “C” of the fund and not a gift Companies and Allied Matters Act Cap C20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

THE BELOW LISTED PERSONS HAVE BEEN APPOINTED AS BOARD OF TRUSTEES: to the Church alone.

few polling units.

When asked about his voter’s card and if he registered in the state, Akeredolu said he did not register in Ondo State in 2011, but had a transfer of his voter’s card to Ondo State legally, under section 13 of the electoral act, following the procedure.

Akeredolu said that he transferred his voter ’s card from Jericho in Ibadan where he was initially resident.

Olanipekun asked if his registration was also part of the injections as analyses by the expert.

Akeredolu said the expert was very specific in the course of his presentation, adding that there were categories of voters injected and those that might have come under review of voters register or transfer.

PUBLIC NOTICE

THE SELEMATI FOUNDATION

THE SPEED CHURCH INTERNATIONAL

1 MRS. JUDITH NWANODI 2 MRS. ALERUCHI COOKEY-GAM 3 MS. FRANCES NYEMACHI NWANODI THE OBJECTIVES OF SELEMATI FOUNDATION ARE LISTED BELOW: 1 To promote the advancement of knowledge in the field of Law, Medicine and the Environment.

2 To establish a first class Medical diagnostic and examination centre with clinical facilities.

3 To promote research in the field of environmental studies, administrative and constitutional law, the law of evidence and civil procedure by the establishment of research and professorial fellowships in these fields in any university of the Trustees’ choice within Nigeria.

4 To promote international exchange of ideas by attracting distinguished scholars and practitioners in the fields; and 5. To encourage Nigerians to undertake research abroad in fields within the objects of the Trust.

Any objections should be forwarded to the under listed address within 28 days of this publication to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja.

Signed: IBRAHIM YEKU Legal Consultant

This is to notify the general public that the above named organisation has applied to the corporate Affaris Commission for Registration under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act Cap C20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

The Trustees Are: 1. PASTOR BEN SOLOMON MBA 2. MRS. ROSEMARY O. MBA Aims And Objectives: 1. To preach the word of God. 2. To promote the teachings of Jesus Christ.

3. To establish chapels, churches and house–fellowship centres for the benefit of residents and promote the scriptures according to the Holy Bible.

4. To establish Mission Houses, pastoral houses for the residence of our ministers and missionaries worldwide, shelters for the needy and homeless and pantry services.

5. To use any or all means permitted by law for communication such as: established religious radio stations, tele-broadcast network, also to write, publish and distribute religious literature such as the Bible, books, magazined and allied service.

6. To establish, extend and otherwise carry on any or all of the aforesaid purpose into a worldwide ministry movement.

Any objections should be forwarded within 28 days of this publication to the RegistrarGeneral Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja.

Signed: IBRAHIM YEKU Legal Consultant

12—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Chatham House hosts Ihedioha on Constitution review

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EPUTY Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, has been invited by Chatham House to present a keynote address on the constitution review process by the National Assembly to an audience of Nigerians in the Diaspora and key foreign policy experts.

Ihedioha, who is chairman of House Committee on Constitution Review, is expected to address the audience on the level of progress on the constitution amendment process thus far at a meeting scheduled to hold today in London.

It is noteworthy that under the leadership of Ihedioha, the House Committee on Constitution Review successfully midwifed the peoples’ public sessions, the first-of-itskind in the country.

Ex-militants unleash mayhem on Bayelsa

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

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ENAGOA—NO fewer than 10 vehicles, were, yesterday, vandalized, while one, was set ablaze in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, as hundreds of ex-militants protested alleged meagre slots allotted the state.

Also, some shops on Otiotio Road, in Yenezue-Gene, a suburb of Yenagoa, were, allegedly looted by the protesters.

The incident, which occurred between 11 am and 12noon caused gridlock on the Mbiama-Yenagoa Road, as motorists were forced to make a detour to avoid running into the irate youths.

However, the intervention of men of Joint Task Force, code named Operation Pulo Shield, anti-riot policemen, Operation Doo Akpor, operatives of Department of State Security, DSS and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, brought the situation under control.

When Vanguard, visited the scene, the charred remains

of a Toyota Camry was seen and smashed windscreen of cars and broken bottles littered Otiotio and Erepa roads.

Trouble, it was learnt, started in the area when news filtered to the ex-militants that the Inter-Agency Task Force, IATF, set up by the Federal Government to carry out the verification and reconciliation of disarmament records, had al-

legedly resolved that 15 guns submitted by a camp will be entitled to one amnesty slot.

The protesters described the slot allocated to them as meagre and inhuman, a development, which stalled the commencement of the documentation, verification and authentification of genuine ex- militants in the state.

Staff of IATF, to carry out the verification and reconciliation of disarmament records, were already on ground at the Sector 2 headquarters of JTF, to commence the biometric exercise with a view to opening bank accounts in the names of the genuine ex militants to prevent issue of impersonation, when violence erupted.

VISIT: National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Bamanga Tukur (middle) welcoming Chairman of PDP Governors' Forum and governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio (right) and Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, during a courtesy visit by Akpabio to the PDP national secretariat, in Abuja.

Peace returns to Delta community

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ARRI—PEACE has finally returned to the oil producing community of Ekamtagbene, in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State, after series of intra-communal crises, following a leadership tussle in the area.

The 10-month-old dispute, which divided the community into two factions, ruined the socioeconomic life of the people, until it was resolved.

Peace was restored during a Security and Peace Reconciliation Meeting, SPRM, chaired by the Transition Committee Chairman of the council, Mr. Collins Olorogun, at the council's secretariat.

At the meeting, the security council dissolved the Alex Kemasuode-led faction, which was seen as a legitimate community government and the Gowon Kimaki-led community development committee CDC, to pave way for peace.

The dissolution followed the failure of the two parties to shift ground as well as to forestall further breach of the peace and insecurity in the community, where a parallel government was already running.

An eight-man interim committee selected from both factions was set up

with a four-month mandate to manage the affairs of the community, maintain peace in the area, and to hand over to a duly elected community chairman, just as a six-member electoral committee was also put in place to conduct elections after an amendment in the constitution in areas of tension in the community within the period.

Members of the interim committee include: Mr. Victor Ogboeye,

chairman; Mr. Sunday Omorun, vice Chairman; Mr. Timipere German, Secretary, and Chief Arere Lore, Treasurer.

The Security Council disclosed that in order to build trust and confidence amongst aggrieved parties and engender genuine support for the new caretaker government in Ekamtagbene, members were drawn from both factions to form the new interim committee

Ijaw mourn Okoro, Founder, Social Media Network

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JAW Monitoring Group, IMG, has described the death of late Colonel Godfrey Okoro (rtd) as an agonising loss to the Ijaw and the entire Niger Delta.

In a tribute by Comrade Joseph Evah, Coordinator of IMG, the group lamented that Okoro, who founded the Internet forum referred to as Ijaw Nation Forum, aimed at encouraging views and opinions on the problems and challenges facing the Ijaw people, as well as Niger Delta region, was one of the greatest thinkers pro-

duced by the region.

“Niger Delta is experiencing a shortfall in the supply of men of vision, character, selflessness and courage. So the death of Colonel Okoro, from the great Kabowei Kingdom of Patani, is a terrible loss to our region.

“The platform the late Colonel Okoro created to network the various organs of Ijaw nation and strengthen our unity as well as provide solution ground for our survival as a people will remain a reference point from generation to generation,” he said.

— 13 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013—

C M Y K

14— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 —15

ThisDay holds 18th annual Award at Abeokuta, Ogun State

Mr. Bill Clinton, former President of the United States (left) and Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Ogun State Governor, shortly after receiving an award, presented by Mr. Clinton, for his Exemplary Commitment to the Welfare of Teachers, at the 18th Annual ThisDay Award, From Left: Dr. Wanle Akinboboye and Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, Pubat the June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta, yesterday lisher ThisDay Newspaper, at the Award.

From Left: Chief Fola Adeola, Chief Titi Ajanaku, at the Award.

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BUJA— SIX years after he was removed as Chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Tony Anenih on Monday bounced back to the position through a consensus.

Vanguard gathered that members of the BoT were not prepared for the election because the meeting was held primarily to receive and deliberate on the Professor Jerry Gana’s report to structure the membership of the board.

It will be recalled that on June 27, 2007, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo emerged the new Chairman of BoT where he took over from the then Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih.

Chief Obasanjo was, however, absent at Monday ’s meeting where Anenih whom he took over from then, was brought back to take over from him as his successor.

Vanguard also gathered yesterday that immediately after the discussions of the report, some members called for a date to be fixed for the election of a new Chairman, but this was rejected by majority of members who insisted that the election must be held immediately.

Those who were against the election being held argued

From Left: Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, Delta State Governor; former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Olufunso Amosun, First Lady of Ogun State, and Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Ogun State Governor

BoT: How Anenih bounced back

.Obasanjo absent at meeting

BY HENRY UMORU

that this was not the time for the party to go into an election to elect a Chairman for BoT because if an election was conducted, it would polarise the PDP. They also contended that members agreed that since BoT was simply advisory and not

Executive, there was no need to go into such stress and rigour.

Having agreed to hold the election same day, Vanguard gathered that governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State was immediately nominated to be the returning officer.

It was at this point that the

aspirants went out after leaders of the party had spoken with them of the need to be guided by the precedent set in March 24 National Convention where all the aspirants stepped down for Bamanga Tukur. All the aspirants for the position of BoT chairman then came in and announced that

....With Anenih, Akpabio, PDP is repackaged, ready for opposition parties — Tukur

.Buhari was misquoted on merger talk —Akpabio A

BUJA — THE National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, Alhaji Bamanga Tuku boasted that the election of Chief Anthony Anenih as chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT and Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State as the chairman of PDP governors will reposition the party to challenge the opposition political parties.

According to him, with Anenih and Akpabio on board, the PDP has nothing to fear with regard to 2015 presidential election.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, yesterday, on the chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, and Anenih as BoT Chairman, Tukur said, “It then means that the PDP is a repackaged political party, ready to face all the challenges ahead of the party in 2015.”

Meanwhile, governor Godswill Akpabio has stressed that former Head of State and 2011 presidential candidate of Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, General Muhammadu Buhari was misquoted on statements regarding the merger.

Buhari, had on Monday at an interactive session with CPC members alluded that there was no need for PDP to merge as it had already merged with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Police, Judiciary and others.

Akpabio told journalists that he could not understand why a former head of state would choose to pretend that he does not know that INEC, Police, Judiciary and others were all independent institutions constitutionally empowered to have separate functions.

they were stepping down.

The aspirants before Anenih’s emergence were former Vice President Alex Ekwueme; former National Chairman, Dr. Amadu Ali; former Deputy National Chairman, Alhaji Shaiubu Oyedokun; Chief Don Etiebet; former Senate President Ken Nnamani; and Chief Emmanuel Iwuayanwu, among others.

After they all stepped down, the returning officer, Governor Ibrahim Shema then announced Chief Tony Anenih as the consensus candidate which was greeted with applause by members. ‘’We all agreed that there should be a consensus candidate and there should be no need for election to avoid overheating the polity and at the end of the day, all the aspirants stepped down and Chief Tony Anenih emerged and everyone was happy including the President. The whole process was smooth and very lively.” the source said.

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16—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

7 Nigeriens arrested over tree felling in Kwara

CHIEF G. K. ANIMASHAWUN'S 80TH BIRTHDAY

BY DEMOLA AKINYEM

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LORIN—FIFTEEN Niger Republic nationals have been apprehended in Kwara State over alleged involvement in illegal felling of trees.

Speaking on the development, yesterday, Commissioner for Environment and Forestry, Mr. Kayode Towoju, commended the new Forestry Monitoring Committee for apprehending the suspects.

He noted that the state government had invested on sensitisation campaigns against misuse of the forest reserves, which had caused climatic challenges in the state.

Towoju said that economic trees like Bombas (Ose), Shea Butter (Emi) and Locust Bean (Igba) were destroyed in Woru village to produce 800 pieces of carved woods of various sizes by the Nigerien.

He also said that the estimated cost of woods felled in Woru was more than N1 million, while warning other village heads to desist from aiding and abeting illegal activities in their areas.

He disclosed that the carved woods were impounded and deposited at the Area Forest Office, Ilorin while the culprits had been transferred from A Division Police Station, Ilorin to the office of The Nigerian Immigration, Ilorin.

From left— Chief Earnest Shonekan, Chief Akin Disu and Chief Femi Okunnu at the occasion.

80TH: Mr. Kayode Animashawun, Jr., (left) and Alhaji Mustapha Kekereekun at the special prayer and thanksgiving to mark the 80th birthday celebration of Chief Gaffar Kayode Animashawun, Grand Patron, Ahmadiyya Movement-in-Islam, Nigeria, at the Ahmadiyya Central Mosque, Ebute-Metta, Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: Biodun Ogunleye.

A cross section of white cap chiefs at the occasion.

From left— Chief Bukky Ajomo, Dr. Doyin Abiola, Chief Nike Akande and Mrs Jumoke Majekodunmi at the occasion.

From left— Chief Yomi Aiyepola, Alhaji Demola Fashola and Chief Sinari Daranijo at the occasion.

Kwara rainstorm victims get N11m relief materials

BY DEMOLA AKINYEMI

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LORIN—KWARA State government, yesterday, gave relief materials worth N11 million to the victims of rainstorm in Ilorin.

It would be recalled that the first rainfall two weeks ago blew off rooftops of several

buildings in Ilorin, the state capital, rendering many residents homeless.

Speaking while distributing the materials, Special Adviser to the governor on Emergency and Relief Services, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi, said the gesture followed an assessment of some of the

damaged property by the state emergency committee.

The items distributed include roofing sheets, roofing nails, mattresses and blankets.

Abdullahi said the items would go a long way in relieving the victims and cushioning the effect of the dis-

By Bartholomew Madukwe

PEOPLE SPEAK

08102479985

asters.

He said: “On the order of Governor Ahmed and as part of his commitment to the welfare of the people, the government directed us to pay a sympathy visit and we discovered most of the victims were massively affected which turned them to refugees.”

(nwamad@yahoo.com)

Youths on LG autonomy

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E may need local government autonomy if there is a better system of government at the centre. Such will on its own provide supervisory bodies to monitor what the local governments do with the people’s money.— Miss Thelma Onwughara, Model.

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N local government areas that I have per sonally visited for one reason or the other, I do not think local government autonomy would yield any positive result. Even local government staff tell it all with their lackadaisical attitude to work.— Miss Ayo Olushola, Student.

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ET us give it a try, at least. If it does not work well for us, we can make a Uturn. But I think it will be nice to have local government autonomy compared to what we have today where nothing is working.— Mr. Afolami O l u w a f e m i , Businessperson.

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would subscribe to local government autonomy since it is something new. I do not see anything wrong in trying something new. If in the end it is abused, we can then maintain status quo and return to how it was. So let us give it a try.— Mrs Ijeoma Mba, Businessperson.

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HEN we talk about local gov ernment autonomy, we have to first ask ourselves the simply question ‘ who shall be checking the activities of the local government?’ It will all end up in raising corruption to new heights.—Miss Omotayo Adejoke, Caterer.

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N my view, let us tackle corruption first. With corruption, call it autonomy or whatever, nothing will work. It will just be like chasing shadows in the country. Local government autonomy is the least of our problems.— Miss Josephine Agina, Student.

— 17 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013— “Have you ever seen a candidate talk to a rich person on television?” -Art Buchwald.

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Democracy and elections

2015 elections hurting the nation

T power and the resources of the public live increasingly further and further away from citizens.

Stunted democracy

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t is not just the security of the Nigerian state that is crumbling bit by bit. Its democratic process never had a chance to grow, and is now showing all the signs of a fatal atrophy. From 1999 to 2007, our democracy was distinguished by the struggle to build power around a leader, not around institutions of the state that should improve economic welfare of citizens, fight corruption and institutionalise credible elections.

Thereafter, the cult of the leader grew.

The concerns are about clans or powerful leaders handpicking successors, and ensuring that the electoral process endorses them. Leaders who came to power as a result of a clan’s efforts now create their own clans to survive.

Survival means successfully dismantling the clan that engineered your acquisition of power and building your own, very often on the skeletons of former fixers and godfathers. Then you take firm control of the electoral process to ensure that election results are returned in your favour, or in favour of those best guaranteed to give you political cover for massive violations while in office.

The nation now bleeds and goes up in flames when insurgents and security forces clash, or when communities tired of state inaction and indifference over grievances, and take up arms against each other. It bleeds when large numbers of criminals take over villages and kill and maim because the state’s capacity to protect citizens is exhausted.

The nation bleeds from massive audacious scams that appear to draw inspiration from the spectacular failure of the regulatory mechanisms of the state to limit or arrest them. Poverty compounded by a damaging perception that relief for it will come from nowhere pushes millions of particularly young

people to desperation, crimes and drugs.

Yet, Nigeria’s leaders today fight over the 2015 elections. The President is locked in a deadly battle over 2015 with governors, that special breed which has built massive powers with public funds.

The governors are fighting for second terms, or cover after second terms or

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HE way our President, Governors of the PDP, major opposition parties, eminent, perennial actors and fixers in the political system are running around in pursuit of 2015, you would think our democratic process is all about elections.

And you will be right. Since 1999, elections have defined the character of our democracy, and every election since then had merely reinforced the centrality of elections in our political system. From now until 2015, all attention will be focused and devoted to elections. The real point of elections, which is to put people in charge of governance that should make real difference in lives of voters and citizens for the entire period between elections will be lost. Attention will be diverted from performance of elected officials. Huge public resources will be plundered in pursuit of elective offices. Costly deals and gambles will be made. Worse of all, the electoral process itself will come under heavy pressure in a manner guaranteed to compromise it. The period intended for governance between elections will merely serve the next elections, not the people.

Elections are vital to the growth and development of any democratic process, but they are only one among many elements that help that development. To use a rather imperfect analogy, to equate elections with the democratic process is like equating the entire essence of being a woman with giving birth. There is a lot more to being a woman than producing children, although this is a most critical function and the foundation of the growth of mankind and civilisation. The woman needs to be healthy, willing and able to deliver children, and, ideally, the children should be healthy. She has to nurse them through many delicate stages in childhood, and be part of their adult lives until death. But a woman is also a daughter, sibling, relation, wife, colleague and many other things.

Democracy grows with elections which are generally free and fair. But rigged elections and stolen mandates harm the democratic process, and if the electoral process cannot successively deliver better quality of elections, voters and citizens are alienated from it. They begin to look for options, or at best become indifferent to the fortunes of the democratic process. Democracy becomes hostage to a clique, a cult of the powerful and the rich who know how to tweak the system. All policies, programmes and activities of this cult are centred around retaining and expanding power, which they do through subversion of the electoral process. In the end, democracy comes to mean nothing to the vast majority of the people, and leaders who corner

of the state even further. The opposition is working to merge, principally to replace the PDP as the dominant party.

It will be desperately hoping that the electoral process will not be subverted, so that in the event that Nigerians prefer the APC to PDP, the results will say so.

Little is being said about the survival of the merger after 2015, its chances of surviving turbulence from marriages of convenience forced upon it by the PDP, or how the PDP will behave in the event that it loses power. Or, which is equally likely, if the opposition does not unseat the PDP in 2015.

he attention on the 2015 elections is hurting the nation very badly. A President whose record is not exactly a great source of pride will now abandon matters of state for the engaging venture of seeking for re-election. PDP Governors will wield their awesome powers once again, against the President, within their party, during congresses and conventions, and all of this will be done with public resources they all claim are inadequate to promote

Our democratic system has been reduced to elections by our politicians, who have equated their election fortunes with the nation’s fortunes. The electoral process which will shoulder all this weight still needs much improvement between now and 2015

protection against prosecution or humiliation after 2015, or for the position of the President itself in 2015. The President is fighting to whittle their powers to decide whether his fight for another ticket in 2015 costs him a lot more than it should, or it can be achieved by striking deals which will be paid for by compromising the integrity of the electoral process and critical institutions

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real development. Non-PDP governors will also dig deep into public resources to fund the merger activities and the merged party, and will justify this in the name of improving democracy.

Politicians will mobilise now, miles from the starting point, and will splash massive resources in pursuit of personal ambitions. Tensions will rise around faith and region, and will feed an already dangerously-exposed political system.

Our democratic system has been reduced to elections by our politicians, who have equated their election fortunes with the nation’s fortunes. The electoral process which will shoulder all this weight still needs much improvement between now and 2015. No one appears interested in this for now. The danger here is akin to a woman who is pregnant with very high expectations riding on it, but Prof. Attahiru Jega, chair INEC: How prepared no one remembers to feed her, is the electoral body for 2015? or look after her health or the pregnancy.

OPINION

BY ONWUKAMIKE NWACHUKWU

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POPULAR Igbo saying has it that if a child’s washes his hands clean, he is therefore admitted to feast with elders. This wise saying of the Igbo people of South East of Nigeria finds fulfillment in the life and personality of Rt Hon. Chukwuemeka Ihedioha.

Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Ihedioha, who represents Aboh Mbaise/ Ngor Okpakala Constituency in the Federal House of Assembly was born in Aronta Mbutu in March, 1965.

As a post-civil war Nigerian child, his emergence in the political turf of Nigeria represents an important shade and a wish fulfillment for the generational shift campaign being canvassed by majority of Nigerian youths.

As a young man born in that era that Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka would prefer to describe as a ”generation of historical accident”, Ihedioha, through dint of hard work, got proper and wellrounded education that prepared him for the present day responsibilities.

Educated at Town School Mbutu Mbaise, St C M Y K

Ihedioha and the baton of generational representation Ephraim Secondary School Okpala, University of Lagos and later, Stanford university and Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Ihedioha was professionally trained and nurtured in the art of management and legislative dexterity.

In the course of his political career, Ihedioha has been privileged to work with , and learnt from notable political titans and tacticians. He worked closely with the that late Gen Shehu Yar'Adua, the late Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar both as personal aides and media spokesperson.

The experience drawn from the political interactions with these political heavyweights manifest in Ihedioha’s great power of mobilisation, consensus building ability and transformational visions that embody in his politics and philosophy.

It is these characteristics that also shape some of the positive and life-changing developmental feats

being recorded in his constituency.

It is also important to add that the quality of education that Ihedioha got from Nigeria’s University of first choice, the University of Lagos and from the two Ivy league institutions in the United States of America, Stanford and Harvard universities are equally pointers to the quality of leadership management that he has excellently exhibited in his capacities as former Chairman, House Committee on Maritime; member, Joint Committee on Constitutional Amendment; Chairman, Ad hoc Committee on process and procedures of obtaining local and foreign loans; Chairman, Sub-committee on the Review of the Police Act and Nigerian branch representative, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

Continues on pg 18

*Mr. Nwachukwu, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.

18 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 A DRAFT legislation the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has before the National Assembly, will endanger our liberties, if it becomes law. Titled ‘Draft Lawful Interception of Communications Regulations’, it would allow unhindered access to communications under the guise of security.

NCC on its website states, “These Regulations shall....provide the legal and regulatory framework for the lawful interception of Communications in Nigeria and to put into effect the provisions of Sections 146 and 147 of the Act (the Nigerian Communications Act).

Section 147 of the Nigerian Com-munications Act states, “The Commission may determine that a licensee or class of licensee shall implement the capability to allow authorised interception of communications and such determination may specify the technical requirements for authorised interception capability.”

However, as the Nigerian telecom-munications revolution progressed, crimes are being committed using electronic devices, particularly mobile telephones and computers.

In attempting to solve some of these crimes, law enforcement agencies have found call

No Wiretap Law Unless… records of targeted individuals useful, and obtained them to speed up investigations. In many cases, these have not been done with warrants duly signed by judges of competent courts.

Section 4 of the draft regulation allows interception of communications without a warrant. We hold that this is not just porous as it is open to all kinds of abuses, but injurious to the primacy and privacy of communications among individuals.\ How do we tackle abuses that could arise? How safe would the information be for unauthorised uses?

Further, the draft regulation says in Section 7 that “a warrant shall be granted for an initial period of three months or such lesser period as the judge may determine based on the circumstances of the application made before

the judge and shall cease to have effect at the end of the period stipulated in the warrant unless renewed.”

This is particularly problematic, as information accumulated over three months may not be germane to the initial case but form grounds for a fresh case. This cannot be overlooked in a polity like ours, where public institutions are prone to misuse and abuse by elected officials in pursuit of political objectives.

Our communications are on record, and fears abound that under the cover of fighting crimes, the records can be used for other purposes. A solution could be found in provision of jail terms for those who abuse information collected for national security or for crime i n v e s t i g a t i o n .

Section 37 of the Constitution states that, “The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected.”

The proposed legislation runs contrary to the Constitution, without appropriate checks against abuses, it will pose more dangers by curtailing our liberties than in fighting crimes.

OPINION

BY ONWUKAMIKE NWACHUKWU Continued from pg 17

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OMING to his performance in his Aboh Mbaise/Ngor Okpala constituency, the image of Ihedioha looms very large and his youthful zest has equally attracted a kind of cultic following, especially from the youthful community, who see in his presence in power politics as conforming to the 21st century generational thinking.

And he has not disappointed them.

A review of his constituency projects in the two local governments show that they are youths centred.

Coming from his own background as an indigent student, who by dint of luck and essentially also through the help of education rose to where he is today, Ihedioha in his two tenure stay in the Federal House of Assembly has invested so much in the rehabilitation and re-equipment of schools.

He understands the importance of primary school education and the very vital role it plays in the sustenance of education culture and therefore strategically embarks on the

Ihedioha and the baton of generational representation(2) rehabilitation of many of the public schools that were left by previous administrations in a lamentable state of disrepair.

Being also aware of the importance of ICT education in the modern age and about the revolutionary intrigues of the new media on the new generation, the Deputy Speaker has ensured that selected schools in the two local government areas are hooked onto the ICT grid and properly installed with computers for proper ICT education.

Ihedioha’s ICT visionary education programme is also tied to the need for job creations. Being also aware that unemployment is an issue in Nigeria, and that the youths can become selfemployed when properly educated with other necessary infrastructures provided, he, as part of his constituency

projects, embarked on massive power generation and road constructions in the local governments.

The construction of 133/33 KVA substation located between Nguru and Ibeku Okwuato in Aboh Mbaise as well as sub-stations at Mbutu, Ahiara in Ahiazu, Onicha in Ezinihittee and Ngor Okpala, are all meant to generate enough power for domestic and commercial users in the two local governments and their environs.

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committed a lot of fund to the rehabilitation of, and equipping of health centres in various communities.

In the same vein, previously abandoned water schemes in the two local governments are being rehabilitated with a view to providing potable water for the masses and by so doing help to prevent water-related diseases.

However, there are also some communities which complain about being neglected by Ihedioha in his transformational programmes. While they are entitled to their opinion and have the right to make legitimate demands from their servant, it is, however, important to advise these aggrieved communities to exercise some patience, wait and see all that are yet to roll out from the Deputy Speaker ’s kitty. Rome, they say, was not built in a day.

hile all these projects are keyed to Ihedioha’s vision towards the socio- economic transformation of the previously remote local government areas which by the grace of God are Concluded attaining urban status, the Honourable is not unaware that it is only a healthy mind that is a wealthy mind. *Mr. Nwachukwu, a commentator on naIn this regard, he has equally tional issues, wrote from Lagos.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013— —19

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NE look at the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and it’s clear it is one mad house of hostile room mates with clashing ambitions. But these apparently hostile roommates are nevertheless united by their common greed for power and the unmerited perks that come with it.

They may fight, bicker and trade punches but none of these unhappy roommates are ready to walk out.

When they do which is very rare, they almost always manage to retrace their steps and find their way back into the mad house- from Atiku Abubakar, Orji Uzo Kalu to Ayo Fayose, among too many others; it’s as always the same old song- nobody hates the house enough to walk away for good.

Sooner than later those who appear to have walked away for good do so only to raise their market value by allying with erstwhile enemies in order to secure a greater purchase on the slippery floor of the mad house when they return.

And though it controls both houses of the National Assembly as well as Aso Rock Villa, the relationship between members of the PDP in the

legislative and executive arms couldn’t be more acrimonious.

Not even governors of the party are at peace with the President to say nothing of the party chair.

Everyone is at each other’s neck.

The situation, as it is, appears primed to get worse. The President has no answer for the many problems assailing the state. Not only does he lack the experience; he lacks the courage to learn, much less do what is necessary to move ahead. He spends too much time fighting fire ignited by members of his own household. Fires caused by desire to advance personal interests. His own desire to remain in office beyond 2015 even when he has done next to nothing to justify his present mandate- his ambition to be a two-term president would not allow him to do even the little history has positioned him for. He would rather make compromises that only show him up for the excuse of a leader that he is.

For a while he tried to make it look like his media battle with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was driven by some high motive to

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break from the stranglehold of party leaders who have nothing but their pockets to protect. Obasanjo on his part latched on to what is now folk wisdom, the fact that Goodluck Jonathan hardly knows his right hand from the left when matters turn to governance. He portrayed him as a weak leader, too confused and inexperienced to reassure Nigerians of his leadership in the face of backward forces of corruption, fake religion and ethnic militias ranged against his government.

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ut after the bruising media remarks, they all retired to a quiet Sunday morning breakfast at Aso Rock and a ‘return’ thankyou visit by the President at a London function, an initiative of the Obasanjo Foundation, to finally bury the hatchet of a contrived war to save Nigeria. Nobody could have guessed that both parties and their respective supporters were at each other’s throats only days before.

The confusion in the larger PDP household is not helped by the one in which the President is engulfed

Nigerian media: Issues in editorship and professionalism

BY BISI OLAWUNMI

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S members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors converge at Premier Hotel, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, for their biennial conference from February 28 to March 2, 2013, there is need to ponder the state of the Nigerian media. It has to be admitted that the Nigerian media enjoys the accolade of being one of Africa’s most vibrant. Editors have led the media posse, as people’s vanguard, on various occasions to confront authorities when policies are deemed to be anti-people, the most recent example being the media’s strategic role in opposition to increase in the price of petrol, that eventually exposed the fuel subsidy scandal. Yet, media performance can be much better. In this regard, the issues which demand attention include fairness and accuracy in the media; rabid political partisanship in editorial content as well as media credibility. There is the issue of poor quality control of editorial content, particularly news stories, which is the flagship product of the media. In all these, the ownership factor is crucial.

However, as the professional leader, the editor is the pivot of any media establishment, in spite of competing forces seeking control of the media. A key competing force is the media owner – public or private. There is the widespread notion that the media owner, like the person who pays the piper, has the right to dictate the tune in editorial content. This is a fallacy, given the media’s primary mandate as a public trust. For the privately-owned media, it is a dual mandate – as a business and public trust. Hence, while the investor has a right to expect returns from a media

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company as a business, it is for the editor to determine the editorial content that strikes a balance between the investor ’s expectations and what serves the public good. It is a responsibility that he should neither abdicate nor compromise. Where the owner is government, such media outfit should function mainly as public service, not business, as is currently the case with the commercialization of news, particularly in radio and television stations owned by federal and state governments. To surrender publicly owned media to market forces is a repudiation of government’s fundamental service to the people and a denial of their rights to know and be heard as such policy shuts out a significant section of the polity.

It is a policy the Editors’ Guild should contest.

It is understandable that governments, private owners, special interest groups and even advertisers would seek to influence or control the media in their desire to sell a point of view, to be positively projected to the people through the media or to contain resistance by the masses. The editor is the bulwark against these assaults on the media by power blocs and he can only resist such assaults successfully by imbibing professional integrity. A prerequisite to acquiring professional integrity is to acquire professional training – being a trained journalist with a university degree in mass communication or journalism, a training that emphasizes the ethics of the profession.

So, a major challenge for the Nigerian Guild of Editors is professionalizing the position of editor and other editorial cadres and their equivalent positions in the broadcast media. A situation where just anybody can get into media establishment,

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PDP, power mongering and the APC (1)

The one thing uniting members of the party is their raw hunger for power and a desire to hold on to it in perpetuity; this is the only ideology that binds members of this party

by his wife, Patience, who is determined to inflict her housewife, woman-versus-man knowledge of governance on everybody. She appeared again recently in her Brazilian Carnival Queen regalia to recount tales of her Seven Days Sojourn in the Land of the Dead.

The story retailed at the so-called thanksgiving service she held two Sundays ago came many weeks late. For someone the Presidency lied was never ill, admitted only went for a bed rest when rumours of her ill-health/death would not cease, it’s revealing to hear her story- from the Living-Dead’s own mouth, you may say. Rather than staying quietly out of the media after what she claims is a miraculous comeback, Mrs. Jonathan is back at what made her absence last year immediately obvious- unnecessary media gaffes. Now this Permanent Secretary that is yet to put in a day at her Bayelsa State’s ministry post is out campaigning for an office for African first ladies in Abuja. And the foolish civil servants in the FCT have obliged her by proposing to appropriate funds for this waste of public funds. With other PDP women like Kema Chikwe who couldn’t resist putting in words for Jonathan’s 2015 campaign, Patience called for an office for the first ladies as if destitution was the only alternative. Her utterance about how other countries jostled to be chosen to erect this monument to ineptitude is to say the least very touching and emphasises the quality of her thought and her recommendation for the position of first lady and permanent secretary all at once.

One wonders what practical gain Nigeria is to expect from such building. In truth, President Jonathan did not start the rot that is grinding Nigeria down but he has done next to nothing to improve things.

If editors hold officials of governments and other institutions accountable to the people, if they decry impunity, they also must be accountable to their audience – readers, listeners and viewers

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parade himself or herself as a journalist and even aspire to be editor should not be allowed to continue. With over 100 universities, polytechnics and monotechnics offering courses in mass communication and journalism in Nigeria, there is a pool from which to build a class of professional journalists. A concession might, however, be given to non-mass comm. graduates in the media to undertake a post-graduate diploma course in mass communication to upgrade their status. A professional journalist is expected to know the limitations of owners in terms of editorial content.

There are studies which support this stand.

Scholars, including Peter Golding, Noam Chomsky and James Curran, note that while governments and other media owners are inclined to determine the editorial line in newspapers and broadcast stations, “ they exercise these powers within structures which impose limits”. They thus contend with regard to media control that “owners, advertisers and key political players cannot always do as they would wish”.

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adly, some editors, lacking professional integrity, by their obsequiousness, give media proprietors the impression that they (owners) can always

Given this picture of things in the PDP, the hunger for alternatives is such a seductive, in fact, inevitable thought. The PDP lacks ideological mooring of any sort. At least not in the sense political parties are expected to. The one thing uniting members of the party is their raw hunger for power and a desire to hold on to it in perpetuity.

This is the only ideology that binds members of this party. And it would do anything, as it has in many instances in the past, to win power.

Even where it was expected to sweep the stakes at elections, it inflated its victory in terms of voter statistics that rendered the whole process a sham. Many times winning votes of PDP members, including states that voted for President Jonathan in the last election, far outstripped total number of registered voters in an entire locality.

For this reason, everybody knows the PDP can’t be trusted to play straight. One major way to assess the electoral relevance of the party and other parties in present day Nigeria is to look at individuals within them imbued with the right political virtues and go with such persons. To repeat: Perhaps the only way to decide on who or which party to support in Nigerian politics today is to look at and identify individual members of some of these parties who still have political virtues which translate into personal conviction for public good left in them. Otherwise there is hardly anything to choose between one party and another irrespective of claims of ideological differences. But how many individuals can one identify in any one party and how far would such lone voices go in the vast wilderness of party hawks? Sooner than later such persons would be framed and ostracised for so-called anti-party activities.

do as they wish. A trend where some editors tag along, as seeming bag-boys, on the entourage of their proprietors on local and foreign trips diminishes the position of editor.

I often cite the News Agency of Nigeria, NANM as an example of a credible government-owned media, largely due to the professionalism and integrity of its pioneer Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Femi Adefela, a tradition that has been sustained by NAN’s current managing director, Mrs. Remi Oyo, a former NAN staff, even when she had served in the politically partisan position of media aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

An important issue with editorship is accountability. If editors hold officials of governments and other institutions accountable to the people, if they decry impunity, they also must be accountable to their audience – readers, listeners and viewers. Freedom of the press cannot be freedom to be irresponsible in their editorial content. In this regard, newspaper editors need to subject themselves to the arbitration of the Nigerian Press Council when aggrieved members of the public petition the Council on alleged media excesses.

Treating summons from NPC with levity does not accord with media ethics.

A key function of the editor is quality control of media content to ensure fairness and accuracy. It would, however, seem that this function has been largely abandoned given the many embarrassing errors of fact, spelling and grammar in media fare, even on the front pages of newspapers! In this regard, the media needs government intervention to assist with capacity building for the overall public good.

The Nigerian Guild of Editors need to make a ‘truly professional man’ of editors and other cadres of journalists by initiating a peer review on qualifications and a mechanism to bring erring editors and other journalists to order.

Dr. Olawunmi is a Fellow of the Guild & lecturer at Bowen Varsity, Iwo.

20—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, FEBRUARY 27 , 2013

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Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBUARY 27, 2013 — 21

FATF: Nigeria still blacklisted – GIABA

BY CHINEDU IBEABUCHI

N

IGERIA is still blacklisted in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) public statement despite its enactment of the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act 2013, the Inter Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, GIABA, said.

GIABA in a statement said Nigeria would remain blacklisted until it could be ascertained through an onsite visit that Nigeria has met substantially all items in its action plan.

GIABA said the Mutual Evaluation of Nigeria (MER) was adopted by GIABA on 07 May 2008, and the country was rated Partially Compliant (PC) or Non Compliant (NC) in 13 out of the 16 Core and Key Recommendations of the FATF. “This result, together with a banking asset in excess of US$5 billion, Nigeria was subjected to the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) of the FATF. With the support of the ICRG Regional Review Group (RRG) and GIABA, Nigeria developed an Action Plan to remedy the identified deficiencies and, in February 2010, Nigeria made a political commitment to address it’s deficiencies within one year.

“Nigeria’s efforts were

136.55

reviewed in February 2011 and despite passing the Money Laundering and Terrorism Prevention legislation, Nigeria was placed on the FATF Public Statement after the pieces of legislation were analysed and found not to fully conform to international standards.

“Since then, Nigeria has made significant efforts and taken steps towards improving its AML/CFT regime, including criminalization of the full range of predicate offences for money laundering and the passage of the Money

-1.45

2,170.00 +41.00 18.0

0.06

117.38

-0.28

95.50

-0.36

CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL DOLLAR POUNDS EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYA KRONA SDR

154.74 239.4447 206.6088 167.4857 1.6469 0.2954 235.315 24.7857 41.2596 27.6959 236.2106

155.24 240.2184 207.2764 168.0268 1.6522 0.3054 236.0753 24.8662 41.3929 27.7854 236.9739

SELLING 155.74 240.9921 207.944 168.568 1.6575 0.3154 236.8357 24.9467 41.5262 27.8749 237.7371

CBN Exchange rate as at 26/02/2013

Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) ACT 2012; and most recently on 21 February, 2013 President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan assented to the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act 2013.

“The enactment of the AntiTerrorism Act marks a turning point in the implementation of a robust counter terrorism measures in the country, which is a major requirement for an effective AML/CFT system. However, FATF has not yet assessed the legislation, due to the very recent nature of its enactment.

“This means that Nigeria is

still retained on the FATF Public Statement for some time until it is ascertained through an on-site visit that Nigeria has met substantially all items in its action plan,” the statement said.

GIABA commended Nigeria for its constructive engagement with the FATF and GIABA, and for taking those significant steps, including the enactment of the legislation, adding that FATF and GIABA encourage Nigeria to remain resolute and continue with the implementation of its action plan.

Nigeria, Brazil sign agreement to boost trade, investment

P

ETROLEO Brasileiro SA (PETR4) expects to expand oil production in Nigeria as the Rio de Janeirobased company looks to strengthen its presence in Africa’s top oil producer.

“Petrobras has been producing oil in Nigeria for 14 years, and expects to increase production,” Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said today during a speech in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. “Petrobras expects to establish an ever-stronger presence here in Nigeria.”

Trade between Brazil, South America’s biggest economy, and Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is $9 billion a year. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Rousseff signed an agreement to boost cooperation on energy, aviation, agriculture, electricity, infrastructure development and defense. The two leaders “pledged to work together toward attaining a more balanced, diverse and mutually beneficial trade relationship,” according to a joint statement issued after they held talks today.

From left: Deputy President, Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, NACC, Chief Bintan Famutimi; President, NACC, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa; Representative of the United States Consulate General, Mr Fred Armand and former Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Musiliu Smith at the annual dance dinner of the chamber held at the Lagos residence of the United State Consulate General.

UBA deepens eBanking channels, introduces reloadable prepaid card T

HE United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has introduced a reloadable prepaid card offering customers financial control, convenience and security.

The UBA Prepaid Card which is available in Nigeria and 18 African countries where UBA has presence is accepted at all VISA acceptance points, on over 1 million ATMs, 30 million POS/Merchant Terminals in over 179 countries across the world. The card, which is the first of its kind in the industry, is one of the most prestigious prepaid cards in the world. It gives user full control over personal finances as it is not linked to any bank account and therefore attracts no minimum balance.

Commenting on the new product, Head, eBanking, UBA Plc, Dr. Adeyinka Adedeji said UBA Prepaid Card “helps customers control spending and be in control of their funds making it ideal for budgeting and travel.. It is also ideal for students and even

employees or casual workers who may not have a Bank Account”.

Other key benefits of the card, according to him, include “efficiently allowing customers that cannot get approval for a current account to have access to financial services and deepen financial inclusion; while banked customers can still use the prepaid card to effectively manage their spend to what they have loaded on the Card. In addition, they can limit their account exposure by using prepaid card online or at locations where they do not trust safety of their information. Travelers can load Naira and be able to spend as much as $40,000 equivalent per annum on the secure card which is protected with the CHIP and PIN technology.”

Elaborating on the new product, Esaie Diei, Head of Prepaid Cards, UBA Plc, said “Prepaid cards are a fast-growing form of providing finan-

cial services, facilitating payments.

Consumers see the value and convenience of using these cards for a variety of financial needs. It may be used as an alternative to having a bank account for unbanked, as a budgeting tool or way to segment spending, and to make secure online purchases by underbanked and banked customers. The good news is even without a Bank Account, you can have your own Prepaid Card, loaded with Naira and be able to spend in any currency online and anywhere in the world.” According to him, UBA Prepaid cards come with a low issuance fee adding “there is no charge to load money to the card and customers may do so at UBA branches or via U-Direct and U-Mobile.” United Bank for Africa Plc is one of Africa’s leading financial institutions offering services to more than 7 million customers across 750 branches and over 2000 ATMs in 19 African countries.

22—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Diamond Bank invests N30bn in Aba Power Plant PETEREGWUATU

D

IAMOND Bank Plc has invested more than N30 billion in a geometric power project in Aba that will generate sustainable power supply for the industrial city all year round.

Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Dr. Alex Otti disclosed this in his opening remarks as chairman of the First- Madein Abia Products Exhibition which opened recently in Umuahia, Abia state.

The theme of the exhibition was promoting made in Abia products for accelerated economic development.

The plant would ensure entrepreneurs in Aba and environs can produce goods at full capacity and at a reduced cost and it will be commissioned at the end of the year he said “I’m aware that there are well over 60,000 shoe makers in Aba but they have challenges of producing at full capacity because of irregular supply of electricity, adding that as soon as the new plant is commissioned , Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) would switch off in the area because the new plant will be able to generate sustainable electricity for 365 days yearly.”

Otti who commended Governor Theodore Orji for the initiative, noted that with this exhibition, ‘Abia has shown itself is a producing state,” remarking that Rome was not built in a day and if the exhibition is sustained over time, there would be significant improvement in some of the inventions made by the people. The Otti remarked that people used to look down on products from China, Japan and Korea as inferior but today everything they use in their homes are made from those countries, adding that there is need to encourage and support the enterprising people of Abia to achieve this same feat because no society can develop without production.

He said the best type of trading is value-chain trading, whereby people sell what they produce and not just buying and selling, remarking that there is need to encourage entrepreneurs in the state to showcase their products.

In his keynote address, Governor Theodore Orji commended the initiative put together by the office of his wife that culminated in the public-private partnership to holistically address the issue of industrialisation of the state

From left: Head Card Product First Bank, Mr Emezino Afiegbe; Consultant PPM Corporation, Mrs Delia Omatshola; Head Marketing & Corporate Communication, First Bank Plc, Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney; Human Capital Management Development First Bank ,Mrs Ayo Jaiyesimi and Group Head Product & Marketing Support, First Bank, Mrs Ezinne Obikile, briefing on Youth Excel Series against All Odds organised by First bank Plc in Lagos. Pix By Diran Oshe.

NEXIM renews commitment to borderless and connected West African markets T

HE Managing Director/ CEO of Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM), Mr. Roberts U. Orya has reaffirmed the commitment of Nigeria’s Trade Policy Bank to removing trade barriers and promoting seamless commercial exchanges among ECOWAS Member States.

He disclosed this at the annual conference of the Borderless Alliance tagged ‘Connecting Markets’ taking place in Accra.

In a statement issued by the Bank’s Head of Corporate Communication, Mr. Chinedu Moghalu, the BorderlessAlliance fosters change by bringing to light trade inefficiencies throughout the region.

Speaking through his keynote address, ‘Improving Investment Climate Through

Effective Movement of Goods and Persons in West Africa’, Mr. Orya praised the partners of the Alliance and lauded the initiative of the ECOWAS Commission targeted at creating an enabling environment to attract investment within the Region.

Such frameworks espouses Common Investment market initiatives such as the ECOWAS Investment Policy Framework (IPF)are designed to nurture and facilitate the creation of a healthy business environment that would be attractive to all investors as well as foster the pursuance of effective key investment policy, Investment promotion and facilitation; Trade Policy; Tax policy and Corporate governance.

He stated that notwithstanding the good

intendment of the IPF and other frameworks targeted at free trade within the subregion, facilitating free movement of goods, persons and capital as well as macroeconomic policy convergence, have not worked as satisfactorily. To achieve the desired progress, the ECOWAS community needs to

Nigeria attains new milestones in economic reforms — Stanbic IBTC Chairman

N

IGERIA’S quest for economic growth and development attained important milestones in the last 12 months, with the power sector, capital market, ports, agriculture and foreign direct

First Bank unveils ‘expression’ Naira MasterCard

By PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

I

N first Bank Nigeria (FBN) customers can now ‘express’ themselves via its new Naira Mastercard Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card, prepared for local and international transactions.

The card according to the bank allows customers the freedom to design their ATM card with pictures or word (s) of their choice, but not with vogue pictures or word (s).

Like Mr. Chuma Ezirim, Head, EBusiness Group of the bank explained when the bank stormed University of Lagos to showcase the card to the students, upon this, he said the bank will be at other higher institutions of learning to enable prospective and existing customers have a feel of the new card, which is a way to celebrate freedom, especially when it relates to how we spend our money or what

enhance their commitments to improving the operations and processes of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) and ECOWAS Road Transit Scheme (ISRT) and as a matter of urgency invigorate implementation of the macroeconomic policy convergence and policy harmonization.

one does with instruments that yield money.

“With ‘expressions’, the Bank’s customers assume control of the look and design of their Naira MasterCard by exercising the freedom to print images of their loved ones and favourite moments of their lives on their cards. Flashing the card whenever one is out shopping or having it tucked away safely in one’s wallet is sure to evoke in FirstBank’s card holders a feeling of being in charge.

Talk about a card you can really call your own, that’s what ‘expressions’ is all about.

Rewarding our esteemed customers with the freedom to determine the design of their Naira MasterCard is the bank’s way of appreciating their patronage and restating our commitment to constantly seeking creative ways of delighting our customers,” Ezirim enthused.

investments recording significant improvements.

Chairman of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Mr. Atedo Peterside, said Nigeria’s economy has reached a threshold, a critical phase during which the country will accelerate the realization of its vast economic potentials and deliver growth on a sustainable basis.

Speaking at the 2013 Standard Bank West Africa Investors’ Conference in Lagos last week , Peterside, who is also Chairman of the Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatization, said Nigeria’s economic fundamentals are getting stronger every day.

This, he said, is pivotal in helping investors to leverage the attractive investment opportunities that exist in the country and to derive optimal value from such investments.

“We all know that a tipping point only becomes unmistakably clear after the fact when one has joined the ranks of those who are left to ponder how they could possibly have missed out,” Peterside stated.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 — 23

DIARY Select ICT events Casual Connect 2013. Holds 12-14 Feb 2013 in Hamburg, Germany.

EDITED by Adekunle Adekoya

FG to partner Omatek on Made-inNigeria PCs

Graphics of the Americas 2013.

Holds 21-23 Feb, 2013, in Orlando, USA. Mobile World Congress 2013.

Holds 25-28 Feb 2013, in Barcelona, Spain.

BY EMEKA AGINAM

A

RSA Conference 2013. Holds 25 Feb1 Mar 2013 in San Francisco, USA. CeBIT 2013.

Holds 5-9 Mar 2013, in Hannover, Germany.

Preview

New inventions shaping life and living

Bottle charger charges cell phones with boiling water

VISIT: Managing Director of Omatek Ventures Plc, Mrs. Florence Seriki (right) here explains something to Minister of Trade & Investments, Dr Olusegun Aganga during a visit to Omatek Solar Lighting Solution in Lagos on Monday. In the middle are National President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, Chief Kola Jamodu and CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr Oscar Onyema. Photo by Emeka Aginam.

More SIM cards than people this year — GSMA

BY ADEKUNLE ADEKOYA

A

The Bottle Charger, developed by a team in Kenya, can charge a smart phone with boiling water and a tiny turbine.

It works by harnessing changes in temperature, powering a cell phone in about 30 minutes with just one cup of boiling water.

It features a miniature Blackbeard Unidirectional Constant Turbine, which responds to changes in air pressure within the plastic bottle. In addition to providing a source of electricity for people in remote areas, it also makes use of a plastic water bottle that could otherwise go to waste.

The Bottle Charger project is currently seeking funding on Indiegogo.

I N S I D E C M Y K

Need for one-stop shops in the ICT arena

S the entire world saw almost seven billion SIM cards connected by end of last year, the GSM Association, an umbrella group of nearly 800 networks, vendors, handset makers and service providers worldwide has predicted that this year, the number of connected SIM cards will be in excess of the world population.

This revelation came via a report, The Mobile Economy 2013, powered by a consultancy, AT Kearney and the GSMA, released Monday at the on-going Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

More SIMs than people

“In 2012, the global mobile market grew strongly to nearly 7 billion connec-

tions, representing a growth rate of 13.7% p.a. since 2008 (see Figure 1).

The number of individual subscribers increased by 38% in the four years from the end of 2008 and the number of connections grew by 67% over the same period (an increasing number of people have multiple connections, e.g. for work and personal use or for phone and tablet). As the global market continues to grow, 2013 is expected to be a landmark year, with, for the first time more SIMs active than people alive.”

The chief reason for this phenomenal growth in number of connected SIMs is that many con-

sumers have multiple devices — dual SIM phones, laptops, and tablet PCs. Further, the report indicated that “with the number of mobile subscribers standing at 3.2 billion people, nearly half of the world’s population now uses mobile communications. It is expected that a further 700 million subscribers will be added by 2017 and the 4 billion subscriber milestone will be reached in 2018.”

Contribution to economy

The GSMA-Kearney report further said that the mobile industry is a major contributor to the glo-

bal economy. “The total mobile ecosystem revenues were US$1.6 trillion, or 2.2 per cent of global GDP. For the period through 2017, the mobile industry will invest US$1.1 trillion in capital expenditure and will contribute US$2.6 trillion to public funding. Importantly, in 2017, companies across the ecosystem will employ nearly 10 million people globally. The mobile industry’s economic impact reaches far beyond its already_impressive $1.6 trillion in revenues, to boost individual well_being, corporate productivity and government

Continues on page 27

As the global market continues to grow, 2013 is expected to be a landmark year, with, for the first time more SIMs active than people alive

Monkey kit holds your tablet any way

Tackle youth unemployment through software, say Ndukwe, Ovia, Uwaje, others

FTER a facility tour of its plant last Monday in Lagos, Minister of Trade and Investments, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, while commending state-of-art factory of one the nation’s leading indigenous computer manufacturers, Omatek disclosed that the Federal Government would work with the company to make available made-inNigeria computers to educational institutions across the nation.

According to the minister, the the partnership was in line with the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan and the Local Patronage Initiative of the Ministry of Trade and Investment.

Partnership

Omatek, according to the Minister has taken the lead in innovation and quality. "We will like to partner with you as long as it does not break the law. We will be able to achieve the much-needed linkage between our abundant natural resources and the application of appropriate technology and production processes through the application of ICT in our schools and industries.

“We are, therefore, designing a strategy for a workable partnership between Government, Omatek and the banks to make available your Made-in-Nigeria computers to all our schools and colleges.” he said.

While disclosing that the Federal Government will monitor patronage of local content in its ministries, the minister assured local manufacturers of the Federal Government’s support and commitment towards providing an en

Continues on page 27

FG sets up onestop information portal

24 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Need for one-stop shops in the ICT arena

I

,

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N bits and pieces, I Now, if a single am sure, we will get national portal is there. There will be coming, that would problems and solutions address a lot of inforwill come, which bemation needs of both cause of who we are will Nigerians and foreigngenerate new problems ers seeking knowledge and fresh solutions, but I about our country. am convinced we will The near 600 MDAs get there. Where is of the Federal Govern“there”, anyway? ment must have spent “There” as you know, is huge sums of money a country where things designing and uploadwork. It is a country ing their websites. But where reasonable of what use is a website expectations of the that, for instance, was ordinary citizen are updated last August? actualized.

How reliable would be When the Minister of the information on that Communication Technol- site? Personally, I ogy, Mrs Omobola welcome the single Johnson national anSimilar initia- information nounced site. A onetives like the that a stop shop single will solve a Laptops for All, national lot of the OLPC are informaproblems tion portal here. there. if all of will soon And them could be talking come of alive, I integrated, per- one-stop was sure shops, we haps greater not a few certainly and faster im- need more Nigerians will be in the area pact would be delighted. certain registered, rath- of What initiatives. this er the isolated Minister of means is one-man shows Trade and that Investments, digitizaDr Olusegtion of the un Aganga simple processes of just paid a visit to one government information of the OEMs in Lagos, is proceeding apace, and announced that and endless frustration the Federal Governat not being able to get ment will go into information needed on partnership with the certain issues and OEM for PCs made subjects will soon be here that will be over. It is inconceivable distributed to schools. that more than twelve Good initiative, both for years into the 21st government and the century, in the ICT age, OEM. But I hope the a researcher, or even a minister remembers curious layman will that his ComTech search for some informa- partner had launched a tion about certain similar initiative with activities in his country the OEMs just last and come up zip. What year, including some is even worse are foreign ICT forms and government departour banks. if the ments, ministries and minister has funds for agencies that advertise such an initiative, a their websites everysynergy will be better, where, only for you to rather than opening a type the address in your new window of efforts. browser and what do Too many cooks can you get? Error 404! The spoil the soup, abi? page you are looking for Similar initiatives like could not be found! the Laptops for All, the There is even the OLPC are there. if all website of a certain of them could be MDA charged with integrated, perhaps promotion of critical greater and faster aspects of the nation’s impact would be economy. After typing registered, rather the the address in the isolated one-man browser, the return was: shows. It’s all in our Site under Construction. interest, anyway.

That was the situation for years until recently.

,

A new tablet stand called the Monkey Kit takes what users expect from a stand, which is obviously holding a tablet, and adds some creativity.

Instead of being limited to just one position, the Monkey Kit is adaptable.

What makes Octa's Monkey Kit worth a second look is its versatility. It comes with a bendable arm called the Monkey Tail, that can be manipulated and placed in almost any position. Users can bend the arm into the shape of a base to sit on a desk or a table, or they can get a little more creative and use the arm as a hook. It can even be placed under a mattress like the Manatee stand.

The Monkey Tail portion of the device weighs in at about one pound (0.45 kg) and is three feet (0.9 meters) long, which should give it enough length to wrap around objects or form a sturdy stand for a tablet.

The Monkey Kit also includes what Octa calls the Vacuum Dock. Instead of a standard suction cup,

Monkey kit holds your tablet any way

Monkey kit in use which could be a little weak to hold a heavy tablet, the Monkey Kit's suction cup actually sucks the air out of the space between it and the tablet, which creates a tighter hold. Users pump the button five times, and then it is locked in place. To release the Vacuum

Dock, users slide their finger underneath a built-in tab and lift up.

Alternatively, they can slide a credit card under the Dock to release the vacuum's grip.

Octa is planning for the future, and as such, the Vacuum Dock will work with future tails (including the already

available Whale Tail), so buyers won't need to purchase additional docks if they decide to upgrade to a different tail. The company has completed its funding period on Kickstarter.

Now that the Kickstarter period is over, the retail price of the Monkey Kit will be $99 when it ships in April. Source: Octa

House Committee boss lauds NCC on DAP, ECC

T

HE House of Rep resentatives has commended the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, on the implementation of the Digital Awareness Programmes, DAP, and the Emergency Communications Centre, ECC, projects across the country, hailing both as major citizen empowerment programmes whose impact will be felt across the nation and beyond.

Chairman, House Committee on Communications, Honourable Oyetunde Ojo, who lauded the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah for his purposeful leadership of the Commission during the Commissioning of DAP at Erijiyan Government High School in Ekiti State, said the project is also an indication of how the Commission has faithfully utilized its budget, especially at this period when the availability of physical infrastructures has become the basic criteria for performance measurement.

Hon. Ojo while Commissioning the DAP at Erijiyan Government High School, said the impact of this project, even in rural Nigeria, can easily be felt and such, conveys the ap-

preciation of government, and the community to NCC for investing in the future of their youth in an area that is very crucial to the development of the Nigerian nation. In support of the Commission, he also pledged to pay for the bandwidth fees for the school for the next three years after the expiration of the initial payment by the NCC, to ensure that the school does not experience any down time on its Internet connection in the next four years.

Ojo also inspected the Emergency Communica-

tions Centre under construction in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.

Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, who was represented by a Commissioner of the NCC, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi, said more than 222 higher institutions across the nation have so far benefitted from DAP while another programme called Wireless Cloud has yet another beneficiary 93 higher institutions of learning.

“DAP is part of the ma-

jor objectives of the Commission to achieve universal access for ICT. Having conquered the voice telephony, the area of data has become our major focus at the NCC. DAP, and the related programmes, are some of the ways that the Commission has strived to key the Nigerian youth into accelerated universal access. By making Internet services available to the younger generation, we are helping to build the bridge to connect this generation to the next”, he said.

COMMISSIONING: The Digital Awareness Project of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, at the Erijiyan Community High School, in Ekiti State, was recently commissioned by the Chairman of the House Committee on Communications, Hon. Oyetunde Ojo. Photo shows from left: Head, Media and Public Relations of NCC, Mr. Reuben Muoka, NCC Commissioner, Mrs. Abiodun Olujimi, Hon. Oyetunde Ojo (cutting the tape), and Chairman of Action Congress in Ekiti State, Chief Jide Awe at the commissioning event.

NCC Photo.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 — 25

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26 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Ajayi named to serve on gTLD workgroup

BY EMMA ELEBEKE

I

ISPON DINNER: The 2013 Annuel ISPON President's Dinner held last week in Lagos. Above at the event, are, from left, Professor Pat Utomi, ISPON President, Chris Uwaje, Secretary, Chinenye MbaUzokwu and Mr. Seni Williams. Photo by Emeka Aginam.

Tackle youth unemployment through software, say Ndukwe, Ovia, Uwaje, others

BY EMEKA AGINAM

A

GAIN, stakeholders in the Nigerian IT industry who gathered in Lagos at the weekend for the 2013 Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) President’s Dinner were worried, saying that unemployment will remain unabated except youth entrepreneurship through software development for job creation is encouraged.

Speaker after speaker at the event while expressing worry over the death of skilled software human capital among youth warned that if young graduate were not encouraged to write software code, Nigerian may remain a consumer nation and digital colony of the developed economies in the global competitiveness.

According to the forum, software code writing if well explored will open windows opportunities for IT entrepreneurs with particular reference to software start-ups. The event with the themeFramework for entrepreneurship and venture capital in the ICT industry-the role of software' enabled the attendees to examine the critical role of software for national development and future survivability of Nigeria.

Earlier in his welcome address, the ISPON President, Chris Uwaje told the gathering that government must begin to engage the youth in software code writing otherwise digital colonization by foreign nations will continue.

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“With 60.3% youth population, Nigeria is definitely a nation to reckon with in the emerging information society. The comfortable mantra seeking to explain the inability to designate special funding scheme to promote innovation and Youth Entrepreneurship Start-up Development on the grounds of lack of realistic collateral for lending opportunities, is to state the least, a blatant misinformation to the pioneers and champions of Software Nigeria.

Delivering his keynote address, Mr Jim Ovia, Chairman, Quantum Capital Group said that any country who fails to innovate in the 21st century knowledge society will be left out eventually. Citing the example of Mark Zuckerberg, he said: “We have to continue to innovate to be part of the information society. Iam passionate about youth development. Iam passionate about youth engagement in software programing” he said.

Also speaking, the Vice Chancellor, Covenant University, Ota. Prof.

Charles Ayo who was the Chairman of the 2013 ISPON President Dinner, said that the youth must be retooled to software engineering for the challenges ahead after graduation from the university.

“My concern today is lack of innovation among the Nigerian youth. Institutions of higher learning must strive to graduate entrepreneurial youths rather the one that will be in the street looking for

job that may not go round” he said.

In the opinion of the representatives of Special adviser on ICT to the Governor of Cross River, Victoria Uju, development of any nation in the 21st century society lies in software.

“We are passionate about youth innovation.

We are passionate about youth empowerment through software development. That is the only way to develop the country” she said.

Human capacity building is the bail out option:

Former Executive Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, and Chairman of Open Media, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe said there is no better way to build Nigeria other than human capacity development especially among youths who are future leaders.

Ndukwe who currently chairs Broadband committee warned that if the government fails to pay attention to human capacity building, economic development will remain at low ebb.

CANN has appoint ed Engr. Lanre Ajayi a member of the Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services. Ajayi is Managing Director of Pinet Informatics Limited, and President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).

He has served as the Vice-Chairman of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) and Africa ISP Association (AfrISPA). He also has served as a member of the National Cybercrime Working Group of Nigeria. He currently serves as a GNSO Council member appointed by the NomCom and is based in Nigeria.

It will be recalled that on 13 December 2012, Fadi Chehadé, ICANN’s President and CEO, announced the creation of an Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Serv-

Tigo Cash wins mobile money award

BY EMMA ELEBEKE

TIGO Cash has been awarded “Best Mobile Money Product in West Africa” at the 2013 Kalahari Awards held in Nigeria.

The award is given to organisations that have made significant contribution to the mobile financial sector and are poised to change the market landscape in the near future.

Annual operating levy aimed at efficiency, says Juwah

BY CHRIS OCHAYI

A

BUJA — The Annu al Operating Levy, AOL, Regulations were aimed at creating and providing an effective and efficient administration of an annual operating levy regime which would specify the mode and methods of assessment of AOL, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Eugewe Juwah has said.

Dr. Juwah who disclosed this while speaking in Abuja during the Public inquiry on the Annual Operating Levy Regulations, AOL, explained that these regulations shall complement the Act and the respective licences issued by the commission and would also remove any ambiguity existing in respect of the AOL and other fees and

charges to be paid by operators.

According to him, “the Commission is certain that these Regulations will provide the guiding standards and Principles for a dynamic Annual Operating Levy administration regime in the Nigerian Telecommunications industry and would represent another effort by the commission towards ensuring that the standards in the industry reflect international best practices while taking into consideration our local circumstances,” he said.

Operators who participated in the discussion made their contributions freely and raised issues that would assist the commission in finalizing the regulations.

In his contribution, Mr. Lucky Ubani who represented Airtel stated that

ices (EWG) and invited volunteers to submit applications to indicate their interest in serving on it.

The EWG is the first step in fulfilling the ICANN Board's directive to help redefine the purpose and provision of gTLD registration data.

This project is designed to provide a foundation for the creation of a new global policy for gTLD directory services, and requisite contract negotiations, as appropriate.

Over 70 highly qualified experts from across the Internet ecosystem were considered in the selection. In selecting the EWG, each candidates' operational knowledge and experience with registrant data or directory services (or analogous systems) was considered, along with consensusbuilding skills, aptitude to innovate, geographic diversity, and other published criteria.

the Public inquiry was an improvement but suggested that certain other issues should be included, like the net pay which he said should be reductable.

Others who spoke almost in defence of their various organizations included Mr. Debo of Etisalat, Mr. Rasheed of MTN who respectively pleaded that issues be clearer so as to be on the same page with the NCC. He also requested that the regulatory body NCC should “understand” their business more.

In a closing remark the Executive Vice Chairman told participants that NCC as a regulatory outfit does not stay on the side of operators or consumers but was always there to resolve issued between both sides.of the service provider ’s well which is just what we are starting to do.

A statement from organizers of the award said at this year ’s Kalahari Awards, only eight categories existed of which Mobile Money, with a focus on innovation, was listed.

Tigo Cash, which was voted best, is said to be unique among its core competitive base.

The keenly contested Mobile Money category included telecommunication companies, independent Mobile Money providers as well as banks offering Mobile Money services, for which nine (9) entries from five (5) West African countries were shortlisted from several nominations.

Head of Mobile Financial Services at Tigo Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh, said “We are excited to have been recognised as ‘The Best Mobile Money Product in West Africa’ at the just ended 2013 Kalahari Mobile Money Awards in Lagos, Nigeria.

“On behalf of the excellent Tigo Cash team members, who have worked so hard to make the product the market choice in Ghana, I will like to express my humble gratitude for this honour. It is with great pleasure that we thank our loyal customers for making this happen.

“This was made possible due to the confidence they have shown in the product and we wish to dedicate this award to them.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 — 27

FG creates one-stop information portal Inauguarates IDEA board

BY EMEKA AGINAM

M

VISIT: The Nigeria Economic Summit Group paid a courtesy visit to MTN Nigeria last Friday. Above from left are Corporate Services Executive, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Akinwale Goodluck; CEO, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Brett Goschen, Chairman Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Mr. Foluso Phillips and DirectorGeneral NESG, Mr. Frank Nweke, Jnr during the visit.

INISTER of Com munication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson has disclosed that that the Federal government has created a national single window portal that will ensure that all government information is domiciled in one portal.

The Minister who disclosed this to newsmen at the Social Media Week in Lagos entitled ‘’Showcase: Technology in Governance’’ stressed that the primary objective of deploying a National Portal, an initiative of the Ministry of Communication Technology in collaboration with the Ministry of Information is to create a single point of entry for Nigerians to access government information and services online.

The National Portal which will be launched next month, according to

NCS seeks more women participants in ICT

BY EMEKA AGINAM

T

HE Nigerian Com puter Society, (NCS) has called for more women participation in Information Technology so as to bridge digital divide.

The Nigeria Women in Information Technology (NIWIIT), is an interest group of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), The President of the group, Mrs. Adeola Ilechukwu said that NIWIIT was committed to driving the future of Nigeria by harnessing on the strengths and contri-

butions of women in Information Technology, in line with its motto of "Advancing the use of Information Technology amongst women".

NIWIT she said is a new Interest Group in NCS like ITAN, ISPON, ISPAN, etc. Membership is open to female members of NCS, CPN and any woman involved in IT. “Foster unity among Nigerian women in the IT industry through networking, maintain and defend the integrity and right of women in the IT industry, promote professionalism, capacity

building and good relationship among members through mentoring, maintain the highest standard of ethics, conduct, virtue, etiquette and discipline among women in the IT industry, engage in any activity and ventures which will promote NIWIIT as well as the welfare of members, create a platform by which women in IT can collaborate with other women in other professions in Nigeria and elsewhere, develop and train members of the NIWIIT through workshops and capacity building programs,

among others are the objectives of the NiWiiT “The interest group is an imperative to empower and encourage women working in the field of information and communication technologies (ICTs). NiWiiT works with government, interest groups and other stakeholders to achieve objectives for women in IT in unique and innovative ways” she said.

According to her, events and activities would recognize the impact of women in ICT while promoting the advancement of women in ICTs. NiWIIT is focused

More SIM cards than people this year — GSMA Continues from Page 23 funding,”

Booming mobile broadband

At the end of last year, according to the report, there were 6.8 billion mobile connections worldwide, which is expected to grow to 9.7 billion by the end of 2017.

“Mobile broadband accounted for 1.6 billion of these connections in 2012, increasing to 5.1 billion in 2017, including 920 million LTE connections. The proliferation of mobile broadband enabled an explosion in data traffic and in 2012, 0.9 exabytes of data traversed mobile networks every month; this will increase by 66 per cent to 11.2 exabytes per month in 2017. 2 The rate C M Y K

of growth is best illustrated by the fact that total traffic volumes in 2012 were as high as all prior years combined.”

Africa, Asia lead mobile growth

The global view of mobile growth identifies a number of regional themes. Emerging markets are the major engines of mobile growth – Asia Pacific in particular. The region generated an impressive 57% of all new connections between 2008 and 2012 to stand at 3.3 billion and is projected to grow at 7% p.a. between 2012 and 2017 adding 1.4 billionnew connections.

Africa and Latin America have also been a key source of mobile industry growth, accounting for the next 20% of connections growth between

2008 and 2012. This growth is set to continue with combined connections growth rate of 7% _ 8% p.a. over the next 5 years to 2017, representing 0.6 billion new connections by 2017. The headline growth in number of connections hides an important shift taking place in the types of connections that make up the total. In terms of numbers of connections, 2G technology – which provides digital quality voice, messaging and low bandwidth data connections – still accounts for the majority of global connections in 2012, 5 billion of the 6.8 billion total.

However, the growth in connections will be driven by increased uptake of 3G and 4G connections, which are forecast to increase from 26% to 53% of

global connections over the period 2012 to 2017.

4 bn subscriber mark by 2018

Looking ahead, the report said the milestone 4 billion mark is expected to be broken at some point in 2018. The gap between subscribers and connections growth is explained by adoption of multiple SIM devices per person and rapid growth of M2M, especially in the developed world. This is indicated by SIM per subscriber ratio which is forecast to grow from 2.1 in 2012 to 2.5 in 2017 globally. North America, which sees the one of the fastest multi-device, has 2.8 SIM cards per subscriber, higher than any other region.

on increasing the active participation and contribution at all levels in the IT industry.

The group she added would work on “catching-them-young” through events highlighting opportunities for young girls and young women in educational institutions, government agencies and ICT driven organizations.

FG to partner Omatek Continues from Page 23 abling environment for their businesses to flourish.

“I am delighted that this on-going success story is being championed by a woman of high entrepreneurial repute in the person of Engr. Florence Seriki. Partnering with government to actualize the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is indeed a noble initiative.

“Let me re-iterate here that the Federal Government’s Transformation Agenda is a project which recognizes the need to consciously nurture Nigerian industries in the quest for a sound economy developed on the back of industrial growth.

We are therefore assuring Omatek of the necessary support all the way.” he said.

her will showcase all the Ministries Departments and Agencies MDAs of the Federal Government of Nigeria on a single Window portal that will enable Nigerians at the click of a button view and engage any desired Agency of Government.

She added that that a government Call Center with vanity number ‘’0700 CALL GOV’’ is set for launch in April.

The portal, Johnson said was created with the latest technology with more intuitive domain names (finance instead of fmf, environment instead of Fme)that makes it easier for citizens to view what they want from a single window.

Reiterating the role of the new Ministry of Communication Technology, Johnson stressed that the creation of the Ministry resulted in a better focus on the ICT industry and egovernance. She added that though egovernance was already happening, but in silos. Government had publish and inform websites of 420 MDAs (not standard, not updated regularly).

Nigerians according to her could get Customs HS Codes, NIPOST post codes, transact websites

by Immigration for passport issuance, register for exams and check exam results online (JAMB).

But the National portal will have a single window will have all that and more.

In a related development, Mrs Johnson has inaugurated the Governing Board of the National ICT Incubation Programme tagged IDEA( ’Information Technology Developer Entrepreneurship Accelerator) The programme has a mandate to support Nigerian ICT Entrepreneurs to create successful businesses that will have global impact.

The programme will offer support to promising ICT entrepreneurs through ICT incubation centres established in a selected number of cities with the first two located in Tinapa and Cross Rivers state.

Members of the Governing council inaugurated include Mr Adedotun Suleiman of Arian Capital, Pius Okigbo Jr of Infosoft, Osayi Alile Oruene of Fate Foundation, John Obaro of Systems Spec, Teemu Kiijarvi of Nokia, Wiebe Boer of Tony Elumelu Foundation, Juliet Anammah of Accenture, Mohammed Balarabe of Fidelity Bank, Vincent Olatunji of NITDA and Aristotle Onumo also of NITDA.

28 —Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Etuhu out for rest of the season S

UPER Eagles midfielder Dickson Etuhu has been ruled out for the rest of the season due to a nagging knee injury.

The Blackburn Rovers star was getting close to a comeback after he featured in a reserves’ game against Fulham only for the injury to relapse.

The former Fulham combative midfielder has not featured for Rovers this year as his last game was on December 15, 2012.

Etuhu played for Nigeria at 2008, 2010 AFCONs as well in 2010 FIFA Word Cup in South Africa.

He has won 17 caps for

•Etuhu Nigeria after he debuted in 2007.

United adamant on Nani’s deal N

ANI has been given a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum on a new contract.

The Manchester United winger was called into a meeting last week to be told the club would not budge on their original offer of £90,000

•Nani

a week for another four years.

That would have matched his current agreement but the Portugal star, who had a £130,000-a-week demand turned down, is now considering his options.

And, if he does not sign, United will start looking for buyers and sell him at the end of the season.

Nani, 26, joined United from Sporting Lisbon for £14million in July 2007 and Old Trafford chiefs do not want to risk losing him for nothing, with only next season left on his current deal.

Boss Alex Ferguson made clear his desire to keep Nani after his match-winning display in the FA Cup fifthround win over Reading.

But Nani was unhappy at being a sub and Fergie said: “We want to keep him. He’s one of the best match-winners in the game.

Chelsea keen to wi Cup despite odds C

HELSEA assistant man ager Boudewinjn Zenden has bemoaned the club’s busy fixture scheduled, but insisted they are desperate to win the FA Cup. The Blues take on Middlesbrough in the Fifth Round today and are bidding to bounce back from a 2 -0 loss at Manchester City at the weekend.

Indeed, despite having dropped down to fourth in the Premier League following

Inter fined for Balotelli slurs I

NTER Milan have been fined £50,000 euros (£43,200) after a section of fans racially abused AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli during Sunday night’s Milan derby, the Lega Serie A have confirmed.

The Lega took action after the 22-year-old was subjected to “ racially discriminatory chants” by a section of Nerazzurri fans at the San Siro, while several supporters were seen waving inflatable bananas towards the Italy international.

A statement published on Gazzetta.it confirmed that Balotelli has also been fined 10,000 euros (£8,600) for directing a vulgar gesture at the Inter fans when leaving the pitch at the final whistle, with Milan receiving a 10,000 euro fine for unveiling “insulting banners”.

Inter were recently fined 20,000 euros (£13,200) when a section of fans were heard singing racist songs about Balotelli during a Serie A match against Chievo.

•Balotelli

Tottenhan Hotspur’s 3-2 win over West Ham last Monday night, Chelsea could still finish the season on a high note.

Rafael Benitez’s men may still be able to combine a top four finish with Europa League and FA Cup success.

But to triumph in England’s domestic Cup competition, the Blues must pass their first test away at Middlesbrough. And they will be aiming to do just that, inspite of the tough fixture congestion with which they have been battling , Zenden explained.

“We always have so many games to play in our busy schedule”, the Dutchman told his club’s official site, with avoiding a replay against Middlesbrough also key.

“We’ve played more matches than any other team in Europe so we will be looking to get the job done on the high”, Zenden continued. “It’s an opportunity to win a trophy.

As a player you always have the desire to win trophy and we want to finish the season strongly. “It’s vital we progress inn the competition because it’s a beautiful trophy to win”. Man United await winners in FA Cup quarter-finals.

Rafael Benitez takes the west

London side to the Riverside Stadium to face the Championship outfit with a last-eight clash at Old Trafford awaiting the victors. Tony Mowbray will be without defenders Justin Hoyte and Stuart Parnaby, meaning Andre Bikey should start at right-back with Stephen McManus alongside Rhys Williams at centre-back.

Josh McEachran, currently on-loan from Chelsea, is ineligible to play against his parent club. Up front Lukas Jutkiewicz (ankle) is a doubt for the game, and so Curtis Main is on standby to support Scott

Lukaku awaits to ROMELU Lukaku appreciates that Chelsea will decide whether he can stay on at West Bromwich Albion for another year.

The 19-year-old striker has excelled during a loan spell at The Hawthorns this season, with regular football allowing him to fulfil his potential.

Game time has been hard to come by for the Belgium international during his time at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea reluctant to ask for

C M Y K

Fellaini needs to be more like Messi — Moyes E

in FA McDonald.

Meanwhile, Rafa Benitez should continue with Petr Cech in goal ahead of secondchoice keeper Ross Turnbull, despite his tendency to rotate goalkeepers in the cup. Ryan Bertrand is likely to replace Ashley Cole at left-back, though, with John Terry set to partner Branislav Ivanovic at centre-back and Cesar Azpilicueta to start at rightback. Juan Mata is likely to be rested for the tie to give Oscar a chance whilst Fernando Torres should also return to Benitez’s team.

VERTON manager David Moyes says that Marouane Fellaini needs to be more like Lionel Messi in dealing with opponents who try to rough him up.

The Belgian midfielder has been the Toffees’ star player this season but has earned a reputation for retaliating to provocative treatment.

The 25-year-old was sent off earlier in the season for headbutting Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross, while he reacted angrily to a challenge from Bradley Johnson of Norwich at the weekend.

“Everybody wants to kick Messi because it is the only way to stop him, but all he ever does is sort of smile, get up and get on with it, and then does it again,” said Moyes.

“So I have told Fellaini he has to copy that. I don’t think he’ll ever be as good as that, but certainly in his

temperament, he should try to be similar to Lionel Messi, who looks as if he just gets on and accepts that people have to try to stop him some way.

Bolt set to light up Paris Diamond meet

O

LYMPIC sprint champion Usain Bolt has been signed up to run the 200m at the Diamond League meeting in Paris in July, organisers said on Tuesday.

“With Bolt, we know that we will easily fill the Stade de France.” said the head of the meeting, Laurent Boquillet, adding that organisers had shelled out $300,000 (229,000 euros) to bring the Jamaican track king to the French capital on July 6.

Bolt, 26, won 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay gold at last year’s Olympics in London, repeating the feat that he first achieved in Beijing four years earlier and cementing his reputation as the greatest sprinter of all time.

Boquillet said the fee was standard for a runner of Bolt’s

•Ronaldo

M

ANCHESTER United have been put on red alert as Cristiano Ronaldo has

He said: “I don’t know what Chelsea will decide. We’ll have a chat about how to build up a good career for me there.

“There are a lot of clever people over there and they’re seeing that I am playing in a good way.

“Every 10 days I have a meeting with Chelsea.

Sometimes they just come and talk with me and say what I have to improve, if I go back there I have to be like this or like that.

apparently become frustrated at the lack of contract talks with his current employers, Real Madrid.

Ronaldo is not happy with the amount he has to pay Real as they take 40 per cent of his individual earnings, which is a lot when you consider the amount that he makes from being such a sporting icon.

The Portugal captain wants to reduce this and feels as though he is not being treated fairly by the La Liga champions and unsurprisingly, United are keen to see how this story develops.

Many believe that United will manage to secure the services of their former attacker one day and if he isn’t happy at the Bernabeu, then a move to Old Trafford certainly would make sense.

Ronaldo doesn’t seem to be a man that is driven by money however, and he would only move for footballing reasons.

If United look like the best football team to go to though and they can offer him a better contract, then one of the best players in the world could be on his way back to the English Premier League.

•Bolt calibre, pointing out that before his Olympic triple feat last year, he was available for $250,000 per meeting.

The Paris Diamond league meeting is the ninth on the main athletics circuit.

Davydenko overcomes Tipsarevic in Dubai

United red alert on R Ronaldo

o Chelsea decide future too much from their teenage frontman.

The Blues were, however, prepared to part with £18million to secure Lukaku’s services and have high hopes for him in the future.

It could be that the Stamford Bridge outfit wish to draft him back into their plans for next season, after seeing him shine in the Premier League this term, but Lukaku claims to be unaware as to what the 2013/ 14 campaign will hold for him.

•Fellaini

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Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 — 29

USSIAN Nikolay Davydenko broke a twomatch losing streak against sixth seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 6-0, 7-5 yesterday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

•Davydenko

The first two games lasted 31 minutes, with 24 points in the first game and 26 points in the second game, of the 50minute set. Davydenko fought back from a 1-4 deficit in the second set and improved to a 38-70 record against players in the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings.

“I won [the first] six games because we fought or made mistakes,” said Davydenko. “I tried to not hit winners, but [tried to] push the ball in the middle [of the court] and wait.

The first two games were half an hour. I was really tired. In two games, I was thinking ‘the match has just started and I’m already tired.’”

Tipsarevic has now lost in the opening round of his past three tournaments. The 31year-old Davydenko will next challenge Victor Hanescu of Romania.

Nadal still struggling with knee R AFAEL Nadal will miss next month’s ATP World Tour Masters Series events in Miami and Indian Wells, the Madrid sports daily Marca reported on Tuesday.

The 11-time Grand Slam champion has only recently returned to the court after a seven-month injury lay-off with a persistent knee problem but has decided to only play on clay courts as he prepares his bid for an eighth French Open

title in May. Nadal, who begins his campaign at the Mexico Open in Acapulco later on Tuesday against Argentine Diego Schwartzman, won the Brazil Open in just his second tournament since his return a fortnight ago.

But he admitted on arriving in Mexico that his knee was still was not 100 percent. ”It’s better and I’ve been able to compete but it’s still bothering me,” he said.

30 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

D

OES your motor insurance certificate bears such company names like Savana Insurance, Gateway Insurance, Quality Insurance, Liberty Insurance, CBN Agric Insurance Limited or Access Insurance? Then, you have fake insurance.

Have you bought any insurance policies through an insurance broker and he/she is taking eternity to give you the documents to prove that you actually purchased such policy? Then, you are dealing with a fake.

Fake insurance of any sort is dangerous because it has contributed in impoverishing and killing many Nigerians that suffered material or physical loss which genuine insurance would have replaced. Fake insurance policies have no liabilities attached to it as such people who patronise fake are causing harm to themselves.

Surprisingly, only about 15 insurance companies out of the 49 operating in Nigeria are known by the public. This was confirmed by a study conducted by GIZ, a German agency for sustainable development and RiskguardAfrica Limited.

According to the report, a survey conducted across selected states in the country showed the few insurers that are known to include, Aiico Insurance; Niger Insurance; Industrial & General Insurance (IGI); Leadway Assurance; NICON; LASACO; Oasis; Mutual Benefits; Royal Exchange as well as Crusader.

Need to deal with genuine insurance companies Policyholders must ensure that they obtain their policies from insurance companies duly registered by the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM. A

How genuine is your insurance?

By ROSEMARY ONUOHA policy obtained from a fake insurance institution has no liability attached and no compensation can be received if such complaints are made to NAICOM. Due to the inability of some

people to get compensation for a loss they suffered because of the prevalence of fake insurance, so many are not buying insurance as they are not aware of the benefits of insurance. But the truth is that people need insurance so that they can provide a standard of living for themselves and their

loved ones.

In recent times, eradication of fake insurances and the sanitisation of the insurance industry is one of the cardinal objectives of NAICOM through its Market Development and Restructuring Initiative, MDRI. Accordingly, the insurance consumer can contribute to this effort by patronising only genuine

insurance companies.

Industry stakeholders are of the opinion that fake insurance is worse than fake drug, because fake drug affects only one person which is the consumer while fake insurance affects both the consumer and other third parties who may be affected by the absence of genuine insurance protection in case of accidents.

Is your insurance genuine?

Lizzy Benson Well, the only insurance I have is third party motor insurance policy. I obtained it from the motor licencing office in Lagos. I have heard that s o m e t i m e s , i n s u r a n c e certificates from licencing offices are

•Lizzy Benson

mostly fake and don’t cover any liability. Well, I don’t have time to do it in a genuine insurance company, so I make do with what I have.

Olivia Amara I used to have fake third party insurance for my car because I taught it would be C M Y K

•Olivia Amara

very expensive if I go to a genuine insurance company.

But there was a period when I was on leave from my office and decided to go to an insurance company.

Surprisingly, I got the insurance policy at a cheaper rate than the rate at which I normally get it from the licencing office. So I have

•Tony Omoh

decided to patronise genuine insurance companies.

Tony Omoh I don’t know if the insurance for my car is genuine or not because I did not pursue the documents for my car myself.

I gave all the details to an agent and she brought my

•Chinwe Onu papers.

Chinwe Onu My insurance is from a registered insurance company because when I needed to renew my car papers, I went to a genuine insurance company and got a real policy before proceding to the licencing office.

•Emole Egwim

Emole Egwim I only have motor insurance for my car and I did it from a rputable insurance company.

There was a time when my car was accidented and my insurance company responded accordingly. So it is good to deal with a genuine insurance company.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 — 31

Does your employer default in remitting your pension to your account?

NAICOM registered insurance companies

By ROSEMARY ONUOHA

A

*A&G Insurance Co .Ltd; *Adic Insurance Co. Ltd; *African Alliance Insurance Plc; *Aiico Insurance Plc; *Anchor Insurance Co. *Ltd; Capital Express Insurance Ltd; *Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc; *Cornerstone Insurance Plc; *Crusader Insurance Plc; *Crystalife Assurance Co Ltd; *Custodian and Allied Insurance Plc; *Equity Assurance Plc; *Fin Insurance Co. Ltd; *Goldlink Insurance Plc; *Great Nigeria Insurance Plc; *Mansard Insurance Plc; *Guinea Insurance Plc; *Industrial & General Insurance plc; *Insurance PHB Ltd; *Wapic Insurance Plc; *International Energy Insurance .Plc; *Investment & Allied Insurance Plc; *Lasaco Assurance Plc; *Law Union & Rock Insurance plc; *Leadway Assurance Co. Ltd; *Linkage Assurance Plc; *Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc; *Nem Insurance Plc; *Nicon Insurance Plc; *Niger Insurance Plc; *Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation; *Oasis Insurance Plc; *Oceanic Insurance Co. Ltd; *Prestige Assurance .Plc; *Regency Alliance Insurance Plc; *Royal Exchange Plc; *Trust Insurance Plc; *Spring Life Assurance plc; *Staco Insurance plc; *Standard Alliance Insurance Plc; *Sterling Assurance Nigeria Ltd; *UBA Metropolitan Life Insurance Ltd; *Unic Insurance Plc; *Union Assurance Co. Ltd; *Unitrust

Insurance

Co.

*Unitykapital Assurance Plc; *Universal Insurance Plc; *Zenith Insurance Co. Ltd. C M Y K

Ltd;

RE you a contributor in t h e Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS? Does your employer regularly remit the statutory contribution to the Pension Fund Administrator, PFA, on monthly basis after deduction from salary?

If your answer is in the affirmative, then there is no cause for alarm.

But if not, then you need to inform the National Pension Commission, PenCom, which is the regulatory body for the CPS, because it is an offence for employers to deduct money from salaries and not remit same to the CPS. The CPS is well regulated by PenCom, however, a major challenge facing it is that many employees are yet to register coupled with the fact that some employers fail to remit or default in remittance.

Until 2004, Nigeria had operated, particularly in the public sector, a Defined Benefit, DB, pension scheme, which was largely unfunded and non-contributory. The system was also referred to as a PayAs-You-Go, PAYG, scheme since retirees were to be supported not by their previous contributions but by annual budgetary provisions.

Because it was largely unfunded, the DB system led to massive accumulation of pension debt, estimated at over one trillion naira.

In response to the telling effects of this system on the lives of our senior citizens and their families, the Government of President Olusegun Obasanjo took measures aimed at reversing the situation by developing a sustainable system with the capacity to achieve the ultimate goal of providing a stable, predictable and adequate source of retirement income for each participant.

The CPS

Since 2004, the CPS has been in operation under the Pension Reform Act 2004 to replace the previous Defined Benefit scheme, DBS. The CBS as the name suggests is contributory in nature and is mandatory for every employee in the Federal Public Service (including employees of the Federal Capital Territory) and employees in all private sector organisations.

Employers are expected to deduct 7.5 per cent of the employee’s total emolument and also provide a

over their retirement savings. Pensioners are no longer at the mercy of employer, and are assured of regular payment of retirement benefits.

The new scheme also affords employees an opportunity to pass wealth to survivors in the event of death. In addition, RSAs maintained by millions of workers generate a huge pool of long-term funds, which are available for investment. Also, having a pension scheme that pays out benefits in the form of a life annuity or programmed withdrawal affords workers protection against longevity risk, by pooling mortality risk across others.

Penalty default

for

H a v i n g enumerated all the above, there is no justification whatsoever, for any counterpart funding of 7.5 per cent to be remitted into a Retirement Savings Account, RSA, which the employee is expected to open with any Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) of his/her choice.

This makes up a minimum of 15 per cent to be paid into the employee’s RSA. However both the employer and the employee may opt to fund the RSA above the mandatory minimum of 15 per cent.

Employers may also opt to bear more than half of the mandatory minimum of 15 per cent.

Old Scheme Vs New Scheme

Under the old scheme no contributions were made, and projections were required to be made of the pension entitlements of each employee by the employer, with such projections being determined by the employee’s years of service and earnings. Thus, the pension obligations were effectively the debt obligation of the employer, which assumes the risk of insufficient funds to satisfy the contractual obligations to retired employees. In contrast, under the CPS, the employer is responsible only for making specific contributions on behalf of employees. However, the employer does not guarantee any certain amount upon retirement as he is no longer indebted to the employee.

Payments to employees upon retirement will depend on age, gender, RSA value and final salary.

The new scheme allows for the maintenance of a RSA by each employee, which gives the workers responsibility

employer to default or refuse to remit deducted money from salaries into employees RSA. The role of PenCom in enforcing the penalty for defaulting employers as provided in the Act is critical in ensuring compliance with the law and also ensuring the overall success of the scheme.

PenCom in recognition of this role, appointed compliance monitoring team who are expected to follow up on defaulting employers while PFAs are also required to report defaulting employers to the Commission on a monthly basis. Accordingly, employees are expected to support the efforts of NAICOM in ensuring a successful CPS, by reporting erring employers.

The CPS is robust, safe and is poised to help retirees live well after their active life in employment.

To a large extent the CPS has placed in the hands of the contributor the responsibility for the contribution that is available in the RSA upon retirement, thus, participants will have to take their destiny in their hands.

SEND YOUR QUESTIONS AND ENQUIRIES TO Insurance&you@yahoo.com

32 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Climate, Climate Change, the Dry and Wet Seasons in West Africa (2)

F Chairman,Ejigbo LCDA,Kehinde Bamigbetan(middle) signing the approved copy of the council’s 2013 budget of N1.6Bn into law last Tuesday in his office,while the Leader of the council’s legislature,Hon. Adeniyi Abayomi(left) and secretary to the local government,Remi Gbadegeshin(right) watch with keen interest.

Dematerialisation: Shareholder blasts Stockbrokers, registrars over excessive charges

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

A

shareholder in the cap ital market has flared stockbrokers and registrars over huge cost they impose on shareholders who intend to dematerialise their certificates to meet the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, and Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC’s demand.

Chief Olufemi Timothy, a shareholders activist, affirmed that the dream of achieving a certificate-less market will remain a mirage if the issue of excessive charges is not urgently addressed.

He said that shareholders are charged N500 for verification of a single share certificate, while banks charge as much as N2000 to confirm a client’s signature.

His words: “They are talking about attracting retail investors and dematerialising share certificates, but they are chasing shareholders away with excessive charges. Stock brokers for instance charge N500 to verify one share certificate no matter the number of units you have. When you also go to you registrar to verify your certificate, they will send you back to the banks, which will ask you to pay between N1500 and N2000 to confirm your signature.

“What this means is that I will need like N30,000 to dematerialise about 150 share certificates I have.

Where do they think shareholders will get all this money from,” he queried.

“Good business sense will tell you that you have to strive to increase your customers and reduce cost.

When stockbrokers buy or sell shares on behalf of their clients, they take commission C M Y K

on such transaction, the same with registrars. So why impose all these extra cost on investors,” he added.

He said that they should rather abandon the thought of having retail investors back in the market with the present situation, adding ‘these are disincentives to investors.’

It would be recalled that as part of effort to rid the stock market of sharp practices involving the sale of clients’ shares without permission and other related offences, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, in conjunction with the SEC had on several occasions toyed with the idea of dematerializing share certificates.

Only last year, the SEC

extended the deadline for dematrialisation to January 2013.

Emeka Madubuike, the Chairman of the SEC Committee on Dematerialisation had said that the deadline would likely be extended to ensure effective sensitisation of investors.

He said that the capital market community was in the process of concluding arrangement for a nationwide enlightenment campaign and needed time to get the process right.

Madubuike said that the committee planned to get the details of all share certificates through biometrics and as a means of ensuring that dematerialised certificates belonged to their rightful owners.

ACCA introduces certificate for SME reporting standard

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SSOCIATION of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has launched a new certificate to support finance professionals in understanding the new International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs).

According to ACCA, the CertIFR for SMEs was launched by to ensure finance professionals understand the details of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) that has been introduced for SMEs.The IFRS for SMEs has been adopted in many countries and its use is spreading. It will be essential for many finance professionals - especially those working in, and for,

the SME sector - to understand this standard that will be used by the millions of companies within its scope.

This IFRS has significant disclosure reductions to the full IFRS for larger companies, and different accounting treatments for some items such as goodwill.The aim of the certificate is to ensure finance professionals will understand how the IFRS for SMEs is used around the world and know how to use it in practice. It will also enable them to examine its fundamental requirements for the benefit of preparers, auditors and users of financial statements.Alan Hatfield, director - learning at ACCA, said: “The certificate is available on-demand so it fits around people’s jobs and lives.

EBRUARY and March have been observed to be the hottest months of the year in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa. However, this year in the Lagos area, we have had three noticeable rainfall events during January and we have, in early February, been experiencing the cooler temperatures brought about by the harmattan. The long-term average rainfall in the Lagos area for January is less than 25mm but the rainfall experienced in January 2013 is more than this long-term average. Can we because of these January rains say that the climate is changing?

We should understand, in the first place, that the climate over Nigeria and the rest of West Africa has several features. The annual rainfall in the region decreases in magnitude as one goes from the coast in the South to the border with the Sahara Desert in the north. There are two main seasons – the rainy season and the dry season. The rainy season occurs between April and October in the south while in the north, the start of the rainy season is delayed till June. The climate observed is the result of the interactions between the ocean, the land and the atmosphere.

There are two air masses, the Equitorial Maritime and the Tropical Continental and the boundary between these two air masses is called the Inter Tropical Front, ITF, and this boundary stays to the north of the equator all year round. The Equitorial Maritime air mass is characterized by southwesterly winds coming to land off the Gulf of Guinea and these are the main rain bearing winds in Nigeria.

The Tropical Continental air mass is the dry northwesterly winds known as the harmattan. The rainy season occurs all over Nigeria when the ITF has retreated to beyond the northern boundary of Nigeria and the whole country is traversed by southwesterly winds. The dry season occurs when northeasterly winds cover the whole of the northern part of the country and may even break through to the coast on a few days during the height of the season as we have experienced in Lagos during early February 2013.

Other factors that determine our climate are humidity, air temperature and pressure, wind speed and direction, cloud cover and types, amount and form of precipitation, infrared and solar radiation, terrestial radiation, soil moisture, evaporation, vegetation cover, latitude, elevation and sea surface temperature. There are variations in all the factors we have just mentioned above from one year to the next year with the result that we have years of heavy rainfall, the wet years, and years of low rainfall, the dry years.

In a study of rainfall fluctuations in West Africa for the period of 1901 to 1990, the average of annual rainfalls for the period was used as a baseline against which annual rainfalls were plotted and compared. It was observed that annual rainfall levels from 1971 to 1990 were significantly low compared to the long-term average. Another study at Ahmadu Bello University of rainfall in Northern Nigeria covered the area north of latitude 0 10 N with data from Kontagora, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe, Yelwa, Samaru, Poliskum, Birnin Kebbi, Gusau, Kano, Maiduguri, Sokoto, Katsina, Hadejia and Nguru. Rainfall data for the period 1976 to 2005 was analysed and the results showed that the rains now start late but end early and thus the length of the rainy season is decreasing. The frequency of dry spells of 5 days is decreasing, while dry spells of 10, 15 or more days are on the increase. Northern Nigeria is therefore becoming drier.

Professor O. J. Olaniran gave an inaugural lecture at the University of Ilorin entitled Rainfall Anomalies in Nigeria: the Contemporary Understanding. Rainfall data for Nigeria for the period 1921 to 1985 was considered. One of the conclusions was that in Southern Nigeria, there is evidence that the climate oscillates frequently between wet years and dry years.

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NIMET, has carried out a review of the climate over Nigeria in 2010. The review indicated that warmer than normal conditions prevailed over greater parts of the country. It was also found that rainfall amounts in 2010 over the country were generally higher than long-term mean values. Rainfall data provided by NIMET for Iseyin and Sahki in Oyo North for the period 1990 to 2010 show a pattern of wet years followed by dry years. Maximum rainfall was at 4-year intervals, with a minimum two years after a maximum.

There was noticeable drought in the northern parts of West Africa between 1968 and 1973 and there was a Drought Relief Committee in Nigeria.

We have mentioned earlier that in the period following on the drought, West Africa had lower than average rainfall. The rainfall that has been observed in 2010, 2011 and 2012 in Nigeria would suggest that we might be in a period of higher than average rainfall.

Whether the rainfall we have experienced in the last few years follows the natural variability between wet years and dry years or the rainfall is a reflection of climate change, our communities should be able to cope adequately with the levels of rainfall we are experiencing. Current rainfall levels are not higher than what has been observed at various times over the last 100 years. We will examine in the weeks ahead what can be done to prevent floods or mitigate the effects of floods in some of our communities.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013—33

What present would impress him?

Help! My premature ejaculation is getting worse Dear Bunmi, I AM in my thirties, married with two children but my problem with premature ejaculation is getting worse. I used to ejaculate quickly but go a long distance immediately I’m aroused the second time.

However, I don’t get aroused the second time that often lately, so how do I sustain the first erection?

Lukeman, By e-mail

Dear Lukeman, Your problem is quite a com-

mon one, but there are ways of dealing with premature ejaculation. One is the ‘startstop’ technique. The man masturbates nearly to orgasm, stops for a minute, then repeats the sequence five or six times before ejaculating.

In the ‘squeeze’ technique, just before orgasm, the man squeezes below the head of his organ to delay ejaculation.

However, a new rubber ring device, 'prolong’, may prove to be a simple self-help treatment for premature ejaculation. According to reports, a

small trial with six men found that the flexible ring, worn around the male organ, increased the time from arousal to orgasm by an average of 15 per cent, for six weeks.

Men wear the ring several times a week for around 15 minutes at a time while masturbating. The device is safe but shouldn’t be worn for penetrative purpose.

‘Prolong’ can only be bought online at www.prolongit.co.uk and costs 30 pounds (about seven thousand naira) for a six-week treatment course containing six rings.

My kids side with their dad’s family Dear Bunmi, FOR years, I was married to a man who spent a huge chunk of his money on women and booze. He was also abusive to me and our three children. It was an effort to keep up with my husband’s escapades and his family was hostile to me because they thought I drove him to drink.

He died a few years ago but I’m now left with a wild son and a daughter who has taken sides with her father’s family. She said I should forgive them and let them see us more, but the things they’d done to me in the past have made me bitter. My son is on drugs but he’s trying to get over it. It is only my first son

Are local herbs dangerous?

Dear Moroun, It is not true that you can’t have too much of a good thing.

Herbal teas, especially the ones made from fruits, can dissolve your teeth. Their high acid content means they can be as acidic as fizzy drinks like kola. So, despite their image as a natural healthy pickup, they are far from molarfriendly.

According to a report in the Journal of Dentistry, a recent test compared the fate of extracted teeth in three different drinks: a black currant, ginseng and vanilla tea, ordinary Typhoo tea and water.

After 114 days, equivalent to drinking three cups a day for 16 years, the teeth in the

ordinary tea and water were virtually unaffected, but the herbal tea dissolved a layer of the enamel. So, if you’re a herbal tea devotee, it may be a good idea to keep your consumption down. Local herbs that are too concentrated are processed by the liver and they could be quite toxic.

’

Dear Bunmi, I believe strongly in alternate medicine and I’ve tried quite a few herbs in the recent past.

I am now into local herb teas (agbo in Yoruba). But I’m told it could be damaging to the liver. Is this true, especially with all these ‘bitters’ in the market?

Maroun, By e-mail

that is some sort of consolation to me. Can I ever get my family back on the right track?

Irene, By e-mail.

Dear Irene, It is obvious that you feel that the whole world is against you at the moment. I am sorry that you lost your husband but you were not really happy with him. Now that he’s gone, you have your children to look after.

No matter how resentful you feel about the way your inlaws behave, you can’t really keep them away from your children. You must learn to forgive the past and move on.

Try and get your family relationships into a better footing so that your household can be a happy one once more.

Counselling helps if all other things fail.

No matter how resentful you feel about the way your inlaws behave, you can’t really keep them away from your children; you must learn to forgive the past and move on; try and get your family relationships into a better footing so that your household can be a happy one once more

’

Dear Bunmi, I’VE been involved with a married man for about two years now. This year, I’m thinking of giving him a complete native wear. He seems to be short of this. I don’t care if his wife finds out about where the gift comes from, but from past experience, gifts that look remotely suspicious have been left in my flat. What do you suggest I give him that he could take home?

Chichi By e-mail

Dear Chichi, You say you love this man, but wouldn’t you rather have a man of your own to share your birthday with? Someone

you could shower with love and gifts for the whole of various holidays? I think you’re playing a dangerous game if you think you can give him something so special he’ll wear it all the time so that his wife will eventually find out about you.

This is hurtful to say, but be rest assured that whatever you give him that couldn’t be taken home would be given away to someone else rather than have his wife find out.

Why not get a bottle of good wine to share, or prepare his favourite meal you can eat together? Why not make sure you get out, meet and have fun with other single people?

He’s hot enough to make me commit adultery!

Dear Bunmi, I’VE been with my husband for over ten years and we have three lovely children and a good house of our own. We both have good jobs and life is good.

Although I love my husband to bits, I’ve fancied his very good friend for years. He’s been quite helpful and friendly to me and I even get jealous if he speaks of other women.

If he hits on me, it’s going to require all my willpower to turn him down!

Christy, By e-mail Dear Christy, What you’re describing has

all the signs of lust, not love.

You’re happy with your home and husband, but you want the excitement of strong emotion.

So you lust after this man from a distance, get jealous if he sees someone else.

The reality is, if you knew your partner’s best friend as well as you know your husband, you’d feel the same about him - you’d be affectionate but restless. So, instead of trying to hurriedly have a bite of the forbidden fruit, hoping not to be caught, put your energy back into loving your husband.

Talk yourself out of doing anything you’ll later be very ashamed of.

His demands get more and more insatiable Dear Bunmi, MY husband works with an airline and has a high sexual urge. As a result, as soon as he gets home, mostly weekends, he pounces, wanting to make love all night long. As for me, after doing it once, I get sore and dry, and don’t want to go on. My husband now complains he feels frustrated about what he calls our non-existent love life and we end up having rows.

I’ve tried getting tipsy to dull out the pain of prolonged love-making, I also read sexy books but all these seem not to have helped.

Clair, By e-mail

Dear Clair, When you get sore and dry during love-making, it’s almost certainly because you are not lubricating enough.

You need to persuade your husband to spend more time on foreplay, and invest in a good lubricant from a reputable chemist. You also need to reassure your husband that making love with him doesn’t repulse you.

After weeks away from you and probably with no love life, the poor man gets upset as he needs to know he’s loved and wanted by the wife he’s toiling for. Let him know you’re saying no because it hurts. If he realizes you’re not rejecting him, he’ll help proffer solutions.

Share your problems and release your burden. Write now to Dear Bunmi, Vanguard Newspapers, P.M.B 1007, Apapa, Lagos. or bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

34—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBURARY 27, 2013

We'll ensure peace, religious tolerance ---Osun Dep Gov

*From left: General Secretary/CEO Bible Society of Nigeria, BSN, Rev. Fred Odutola, Dr. Sunday Makinde receiving his award from BSN president, Dr. Aaron Nuhu.

African Church opposes same-sex marriage

By SAM EYOBOKA

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RIMATE of The African Church, Most Rev. Emmanuel Josiah Udofia has urged Nigerians to use the current Lenten Season for sombre reflection and repentance when necessary for the nation to move forward, just as he condemned same-sex marriage, noting that it is prohibited in the Holy Book.

Addressing newsmen at the first quarterly general committee meeting at the Cathedral Salem in Ebute Metta, Lagos, Udofia stated that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, adding “if that is the case nobody should do anything that the Bible kicked against. Nobody should live a life that the Bible had frowned against. Since the Bible has condemned Sodomy, nobody, irrespective of location or geography should practice what is anti-God. It is not acceptable and must not be heard of among Christians in any part of the world.”

On the recommendation for the registration of preachers to avert terrorism in the country, he said the government has no right to register preachers in the country because that would amount to censorship. “The government and the Church have their different role to play in the develop-ment of the country,” he ex-plained, adding that religion has a critical role to play in any nation and it will be out of place for any person to conceive any idea that will make government to control preachers.

On the lessons of Lent, the primate enjoined Christians and every being created by God to have a rethink because “God did not just create man, He created man in His own image. And the purpose of creating man is for him to fear God.” According to him, everybody irrespective of religion, creed or culture, should bring glory to God through their deeds and contribution to the

development of the human race, noting “men of God must have reflect during this season on what we have done so far and repent if need be to fashion a new pathway for the good of everybody in the country.”

While not saying that Lent is the only period for the needed change of attitude, the primate urged Nigerians to make it a point of duty to live a holy life at all times, adding that Christians must endeavour to live lives pleasing to God, stressing that what one finds today is that people live double lives—one to please the church leadership while another for the society out there.

The leadership of The African Church had gathered for the church’s first quarterly general committee meeting of the year, to review activities of the past year as well as formulate policies for the growth and development of the church.

The occasion is always an opportunity for them to put heads together to discuss issues that affect the smooth running of the church and whatever decisions they arrive at would be taken to the confer-

ence for ratification.

In his welcome address, the vice lay president, Engr. Babatunde Odufuwa emphasized the need for peace and understanding which “are prerequisites for progress and growth in the country. It is incumbent on all Nigerians, high and low, clergy and laity to give peace a chance and in all our activities to be positive, dynamic, fair, truthful and evangelistic.”

C&S marks anniversary

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S the Choir of the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement celebrates its 40th anniversary, General Leader of the church, Prophet Gabriel Fakeye has stressed the importance of praise and worship amidst daunting security challenges and despondency facing Nigerians, reports EBUN SESSOU. He stated this at a press conference heralding the anniversary of the church. Speaking through his representative, Senior Apostle Akande, on the theme; ‘Celebration in Canaan’, Fakeye said: “Praise goes up to God and brings back His grace to mankind and turns hopeless situations around for good. Songs and music delievered by choristers had impacted in many people in various ways turning their stories to testimonies”.

Explaining the essence of praise, he said, it is to bring comfort and happiness to dying souls, taking care of the needy, providing for them as well as reaching out to the motherless, widows and elderly.

Cleric tasks Nigerians on dev R ESIDENT pastor of Assem blies of God Church, Apapa GRA Assembly, Rev. Etim Oboh has called on Nigerians to contribute their individual quota to make the nation a true giant of Africa, reports OLAYINKA LATONA. Speaking at a thanksgiving service in honour of Major Gen. Benneth Odunukwe at the church in Apapa, Rev. Oboh said if all hands can be on deck, Nigeria will take its rightful place as the giant of Africa.

“This country belongs to all of us and if we are to have a better society that we are all clamoring for, there is need for all Nigerians to do their best in serving their father’s land, embark on positive works so that Nigeria

Qua Iboe ends 7 Great Sundays

Q

O

SUN State deputy governor, Mrs. Titilaoye Tomori has e emphasized the state government’s policy on religion which is that the government does not have any intention and will not adopt one form of religion over another, reports ADEKUNLE ALIYU. She made the statement in Osogbo at a thanksgiving service for the successful completion of year 2012 pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Israel.

Mrs. Tomori who doubles as the Commissioner for Education, reminded the congregation about the disposition of government to religion in Nigeria, saying “we live in a multireligious and multi-cultural society and this is enshrined in the nation's Constitution. For us as a government therefore, we shall always endeavour to provide the needed enabling environment for peace, religious tolerance, and economic prosperity for all Osun citizens”.

She commended the timely intervention of the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria and Nigerian Inter Religious Council in what would have caused chaos in the education sector, and by implication confusion in the society.

It would be recalled that a national newspaper had on February 12 published an alleged state cancellation of the teaching of Christian Religious Knowledge as a subject in public schools. She asserted as follows: “For the avoidance of doubt, there is no iota of truth in that speculation. It was a lie, a made-up story, aimed at causing disaffection among the people of Osun. We are grateful to the Church, other religious bodies, and advocacy groups for their stand”. r

UA Iboe Church (UEC) has called on Nigerians to hope in God, saying the future of the country is bright, reports ETOP EKANEM. The congregational pastor of the church in Surulere, Lagos, Rev. Message Aquaowo stated this during the end of a special event tagged “7 Great Sundays” with the theme: “There is a God” at the Lagos Superintendency headquarters.

According to Rev. Aquaowo, “I hope Northern Nigeria will be better in days to come because we know that God is in control.

As for Boko Haram, nobody should fight the group by human efforts, God is going to do it by Himself.”

On what inspired the '7 Great Sundays', programme, the cleric said nobody can start anything without God. We felt we should begin this year with God because without Him, we can do nothing.

On his part, Elder Samuel Bassey, church chairman, said the programme was inspired by God, noting: “A lot of churches started their activities for the year by asking God to take control. So this is our own special way that at the beginning of the year we must commit everything to God and let Him give us the direction that we should follow."

can become a better society,” he said.

In a sermon titled: “God is doing a new thing already”, the man of God urged Christians to live by faith, explaining that anything done out of faith amounts

to sin.

Major Gen. Odunukwe attributed his achievement in the military to the grace and mercy of God, saying: “I am here to give thanks to God because I have realised that there is no alternative to serving God.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27 , 2013 — 35

Mali, booby trap for West Africa, says Prof. Oche NIGERIA’s participation in the multinational military coalition in Mali continues to generate interest as the Islamists in the Sahel are ready to engage France and the foreign troops on a prolonged military combat.

In this interview with Vanguard Newspaper, the Director of Research and Studies at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs(NIIA ) Professor Ogaba Oche looks at the dynamics playing out in the crisis in the Sahel. Excerpt:

•Professor Ogaba Oche

BY HUGO ODIOGOR, FOREIGN AFFAIRS EDITOR

H

OW would you look at the security situation in West Africa region today against the objectives of what ECOWAS was set up to achieve Well, my view or perception of West Africa in terms of economic integration which is basically what the Economic Community of West African states was meant to achieve in the first place is that we are slightly better off than where we started off in 1975.

Our economies are more integrate to the external world than amongst ourselves in West Africa .West African leaders that formed ECOWAS have become more pre-occupied with security issues than with economic issues. ECOWAS has become more pre-occupied with political and security than with economic.

Extensive poverty This has manifested itself in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire and now Mali.

There is no doubt that security is important, but we must not forget economic. We have very poor states in the Sahel. West Africa is characterised by poor states and even the seemingly oil rich country like Nigeria, there is extensive poverty.

So we must not forget about economic issues as well as governance issues. With regards to what has happened in Mali, it is good that a multinational military intervention has taken place. It is necessary given the character of the threat that poses itself in Mali, terrorism, Islam inspired terrorism; I think it is good thing that it is being taken care of because it can spread across borders very easily.

In Nigeria we already have the Boko Haram insurgency, and people are talking about the emergence of other terrorist

•Map of Mali groups within Nigeria and other West African countries. Let’s look at it from the perspectives of Nigeria, I think that without Nigeria, there wont be ECOWAS. So for endeavours like this, I think Nigeria has to be involved otherwise, it wont succeed, of course,with respect to our national security, it all depends on how we define our national interest, terrorism is something we know has no borders. It is occurring within Nigeria and some people say that Boko Haram has been training in Mali or that the Whatever the case may be, they may have links with terrorist in Mali and the dynamics within Mali is such that some actions from ECOWAS, some form of intervention, any thinking is that if Nigeria did not take part it would fail ab initio The French led intervention has come with a prize as we can now see a domino effect in acts of kidnappings and adoptions and upsurge on threats to foreigners all over the place, is this a pattern of things to come in the region?

Well I think it was a pattern even before the French intervention, some of the extremist groups in the Sahel seem to have specialised in the area of kidnapping, trading in drugs, arms and other illegal activities to make money and sustain their activities. I don’t think it is something new but if it becomes intensified, because of the French intervention then, I think there is a visible problem

How do we rationalise the terrorist targeting former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, Alhaji Dasuki, for assassination even when some one like Gen. Babangida was the one that took Nigeria to OIC these are known Muslim?

Their own end goal is a theocracy a government based on Islamic tenets, they see that as a means to establish a just society by targeting people like Gen. Babaingida, the Emir of Kano and Sultan of Sokoto to me it means that these are individuals who do not have legitimacy in their own estimations. That is why they are ready to attack them as well as other highly placed Muslims in the society.

Islamic theocracy In their eyes, these people do not count for much. In fact, they see them as part of the problem.

So according to what their scripture tells them, putting in place an Islamic Theocracy would be one major advancement in solving the problem once and for all.

How would you describe the management of information on our mission in Mali? If America is going to put its troops to a foreign mission the government will spend time to educating its citizens on why it is sending Americans soldiers abroad but here it seems as if were are shipping out cattle?

there, that has to be tackled.

At what stage do you think the global community should come together to look at the issues of migration, terrorism, sovereignty of states and globalisation as we have began to see discontents in all these areas?

Well first in terms of sovereignty, there is no real distinction between de facto and de jure sovereignty.

African states are generally weak and cannot sustain their sovereignty, their borders are highly permeable, there are a lot of trans-border movement here and there, it is not what states alone can tackle. In terms of globalisation as you rightly pointed out, some countries are beneficiaries some are not but the

With respect to that, informing the intelligentsia of Nigeria, I don’t think that information has been handled adequately. We have not informed Nigerians adequately on why we are in Mali. I think is even in the mindset of our leaders now that Nigeria is a leading peace keeping nation globally in contributing troops to any major peace keeping so our door are open whenever they come knocking. I think t is a mindset It definitely has not been explained to Nigerians, to that extent I think we were to hasty in going in and again we should not assume that the participation of French initially paved the way for us to go in, it may be a long drawn out affairs but that is for military analysts to handle, all said and done, I think there should be more information regarding Nigeria’s contribution of troops to international peace keeping.

What has been the contribution of intellectuals and institutions like the NIIA and other research and policy institutions to studying and analysing Nigeria’s participations in peace keeping operations since the 196os, in terms of the lesson we have have learnt, the mistakes that we may have made, analysis of policy initiatives, etc?

We have made our contributions, conferences have been held, books have been written, debates have been held, and I think we have done much to contribute to policy. But I wont hesitate to say that there is no strong connect between our contribution to international peace keeping and defined national

The threat of terrorism is not what we sit back in Africa or West Africa and expect the international community solve problems that African countries are facing now in the Sahel region is that of weakness in terms of governance, in terms of institutions that can sustain the states, weakness in terms of economic opportunities and activities for the people.

These terrorist activities arise out of discontent and deprivations and if the states are so weak to be able to intervene materially in the lives of the people, there is little that can be done even by the international community , we must not forget that Sahelian states are very poor.

The threat of terrorism is not what we sit back in Africa or West Africa and expect the international community solve It is something we must solve ourselves, especially with the evolution of strong states systems. We must realise that these terrorists although religious in their orientation, they are viewing the actions of the state from their religious world view and making their demands based on their perspectives.

interest in the peace we are going to keep or in the conflict internationally, take for example the case of Liberia as example. We spent over $12billion , lost so many lives, many officers died, yet without and consummate stake in the Liberian economy, political system, we have left Liberia to be politically influence by the forces that watched Liberians butcher themselves openly on the streets. The same thing happened in Sierra Leone, and now in Mali . I think what government should do is to define in concrete term what we stand to gain or what we stand to loose by being international peace keeping in Mali.

We must know what the dangers are for the region, for the continent and for Nigeria and what the benefits are, Because we contribute so much in human and non human resources and at the end of the day, there is no commensurate returns in terms of economic, political gains or anything like that, so I think to that extent government has a lot of work to do.

36 —Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Delta LGs told to support cultural festivals

BY FESTUS AHON

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GHELLI—PRESIDENT, Ufuoma Okri Organsation, Mr. Ufuoma Okri, has charged local government chairmen and Heads of Personnel Management in Delta State, to support to Community Development Departments to mobilise their representatives for the annual Delta State Children Cultural Festival.

Okri, who spoke during the 5th edition of the festival in Ughelli, which saw Ethiope West, Aniocha North and Bomadi Local Government Areas emerging as winners, 1st and 2nd runners up respectively, said the organisation had the mandate of the state government, through the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and Ministry of Culture and Tourism, to propagate the rich culture of the state.

2,000 Delta DPP members decamp to PDP for Ochei

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O fewer than 2,000 members of Democratic Peoples Party, DDP, in Delta State, have decamped to Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with a promise to work for the party in the forthcoming general elections, if Mr. Victor Ochei, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, wins the party’s governorship ticket, come 2015.

Speaking on behalf of the decampees at Oharisi Model Primary School, Ughelli, Chief Obaguonor Oletu, said they decided to decamp to the ruling PDP because of rumours that Ochei will contest the governorship election in 2015.

He explained that Ochei, as Speaker of the state Assembly, had been able to key into the state government's three-point agenda of peace and security, human capital and infrastructural development, adding that there was no doubt that Ochei will improve on what was on ground from 2015 onward.

Uduaghan tackles kidnapping, reconstitutes Delta Waterways

BY EMMA AMAIZE

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ARRI—DELTA State Government has renewed its war against kidnappers and oil thieves, with the reconstitution of Delta Waterways Security Committee, DWSC. The governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, said the major function of the committee was to gather and provide intelligence to the Police, Army, Department of State Security, DSS, and Navy, to enable them to counter kidnappers, oil thieves and other criminals operating on the waterways of the state.

Uduaghan, who was represented by his deputy, Prof.

Amos Utuama, SAN, inaugurated the committee, headed by Chief Ayiri Emami at Government House Annexe, Warri.

Former chairman of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, Chief Wellington Okrika, is chairman, Advisory Council of the committee.

He said government selected members of the committee based on their proven competence and charged them to work closely with the security agencies, as DWSC

was not an arm-bearing body.

In his response, Chief Emami assured that the committee will live up to expectation, pointing out that the committee lived up to expectation prior to its earlier dissolution.

Meanwhile, Delta State Police

Commissioner, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, has said that the police were still on the trail of the fleeing kidnappers of Prof. Kamene Okonjo, mother of Minister of Finance, Prof. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was abducted December,

TOWN HALL MEETING: Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State (right), with Mr. Chike Ogeah, Commissioner for Information, at the Town Hall meeting in Asaba, during the Good Governance tour by Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku.

Rivers Varsity students' hostel razed

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

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ORT HARCOURT— SOME female students of Rivers State University of Science and Technology, RSUST, Port Harcourt, have been displaced, following a dawn fire, which razed one of the female hostels on campus.

The fire consumed the entire Hostel A2 bungalow, displacing official residents and several squatters in over 30 rooms with most victims losing all their belongings.

Miss Wosa Prisca, a Foundation Education student,

one of the victims of the inferno, told Vanguard that “many of us left early for 6am lectures, only to be told moments later that our hostel was on fire. It was too late when those in my situation got back.”

Miss Good Isiah, a 100 Level Computer Studies student, an orphan of Ogoni descent, who lost all her belongings, was inconsolable over her vital documents, which she lost to the fire.

In a preliminary investigation, South-South Zonal Team Leader, Search and Rescue Unit of National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Mr. Fortunatus Anyanwu, told Van-

guard that the fire started when a camp cooking gas exploded on an occupant in an undisclosed room while lighting the cooking appliance.

The NEMA official, however, explained that no casualty was recorded in the incident, but there were indications that the student, who lit the gas cooker may have sustained injuries.

Other affected students, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the gas cooker exploded in Room 28 of the affected block and spread fast to the entire building.

Eket senatorial district lauds Akpabio on zoning

BY TONY NYONG

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YO—AHEAD of 2015 general elections, the people of Akwa Ibom South (Eket) senatorial district, have commended the state governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, for supporting zoning in the state.

Eket Senatorial District As-

last year.

He spoke to Vanguard in Asaba, just as the Area Commander, Warri, Mr. Hussain Rabiu, said that the police were on the trail of two suspected kidnappers that were wounded, last Friday.

sembly, ESDA, after its meeting in Ikot Abasi, weekend, said: “We stand by the governor’s pronouncement that he was not averse to zoning.”

In a statement by Chairman of the Assembly, Chief Nduesso Essien and others, the Assembly said the pronouncement by the governor last week, “stands him out as a statesman, gentleman and a peace maker in the

state and Nigeria at large.”

Commending the Akwa Esop Imaisong Ibibio for creating the avenue for the pronouncement last week, the group called on the people of Eket senatorial district and the entire Akwa Ibom State to “rally round the governor on this landmark pronouncement on zoning,” which according to them was in the spirit of fair play.

Edo Assembly drills commissioner nominees

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

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ENIN—EDO State House of Assembly, yesterday, commenced the screening of the 18 commissioner nominees sent to the House by Governor Adams Oshiomhole, last week.

Chairman of the screening Committee and Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Philip Shuaibu, said there were petitions against some of the nominees, adding that the Committee would investigate the petitions and make its report public.

Petitions were written against the former Commissioner for Environment and Public Utilities, Prince Clem Agba and former Commissioner for Education, Mr. Ekpenisi Omorotionwa.

At press time, Agba had defended the allegations against him while Omorotionwa, whose petition borders on his tenure as the immediate past Commissioner for Education, was expected to do the same before the end of the day.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 — 37

95 % of African airlines distressed—Negatu

BY KENNETH EHIGIATOR, Addis Ababa

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S aviation experts from across the globe gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the future of aircraft maintenance in the continent, managing partner of Ernst and Young, Dr. Zemedeneh Negatu, yesterday, painted a grim picture of the aviation sector in Africa, saying 95 percent of African airlines were distressed at the moment.

At present, African Airlines Association, AFRAA, has 35 airlines, with 503 aircraft in their fleet.

Negatu spoke as coordinator for the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative, NEPAD, Planning and Coordinating Agency, Dr. John Tambi, expressed concern that though Africa remained one of the fastest growing regions in the world, its global share of air traffic was still at abysmally low four percent.

Negatu, who spoke at the 22nd Annual African Aviation MRO Supplies and Stakeholders Conference, organised by Mr. Nick Fadugba, CEO, African Aviation and former secretary general of African Airlines

Association, AFRAA, said the only way out for airlines in the continent was to go into merger.

According to him, the combined resources of Africa’s three leading airlines of Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways and South African Airways was just a third of Emirates Airlines.

He advised airline operators in Africa, especially Nigeria, to de-emphasise ownership and come into merger as quickly as possible, if they were to survive and grow, noting: “Merger is the way to go in present day aviation development. Over 95 percent of African airlines are distressed. It is impossible for any airline to go it alone, look at the two major airlines in the U.S., American Airlines and United, merging one for purposes of survival.

“The combination of SAA, Ethiopian and Kenyan Airways is just one-third of Emirates and these are the biggest airlines in Africa. They are small compared to competition. Ownership is irrelevant, what is important is partnership and collaboration,” Negatu said.

Dr John Tambi of NEPAD, noted that since aviation re-

mained a major contributor to Africa’s GDP, creating direct and indirect employment of over six million, governments should harness the sector’s potentials properly.

“Transport cost increases the price of African goods by 75 percent and Africa still lacks the necessary infrastructure to ensure rapid and radical economic growth and development,” he said.

Tambi blamed African governments for neglecting the sector over time, stressing that issues of safety and security in African aviation sector could only be guaranteed through efforts by governments to encourage establishment of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul, MRO, centres across the continent.

According to him, African airlines were spending a huge chunk of their revenue on aircraft maintenance overseas, which increases their cost of operation and limits their capacity to compete with non-African airlines.

Organiser of the conference and Publisher of London-based African Aviation magazine, Mr. Nick Fadugba, said African governments will do airlines in the

continent a lot of good, if they invested in MRO centres, lamenting that the airlines were paying so much in foreign currencies to have their mainte-

nance done outside their bases.

He particularly urged the government of Nigeria to ensure that MRO centres were set up in the country to reduce the burden on domestic airlines.

Edo PDP to launch operation to reclaim members

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

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ENIN – EDO State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said it will soon launch an ‘operation reclaim’ all members of the party that defected to the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the state at the wake of the July 14, 2012 governorship election.

The decision by the party to have its former members back to its fold is coming on the heels of the position by stakeholders in Edo Senatorial District of the state, that PDP’s lost to ACN in the April 14, 2012 governorship due to the demeaning and deceitful actions of elders and leaders of the party from the zone.

PDP said the reclamation exercise becomes imperative, adding that its members “have been used and dumped” by the ACN led government of Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

Chairman of PDP in the state, Chief Dan Orbih, weekend, when over 300 members of the ruling ACN from ward five in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area led

by Mr. Esosa Ogbekwu dumped the ruling party for PDP, said “we want o launch the exercise of operation reclaim most members of ACN in Edo State because they have been used, dumped and have been rendered worthless in the eyes of ACN government. We are going to win them back to PDP, where we will appreciate them.”

The state PDP chairman, said the unfolding ugly developments orchestrated by the ruling ACN was a good omen for the opposition party to galvanize its members and commended the new members for the bold step, assuring them that the PDP will continue to sustain the platform as a true democratic party.

38—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Adelusi makes case for old politicians

By JOSEPHINE IGBINOVIA

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AGOS — FORMER Minister of Health, Prince Julius AdelusiAdeluyi, has faulted criticisms against former political leaders still struggling for power with younger generations.

Adelusi who is also the Chairman, Juli Plc, was the guest speaker at the just concluded Chairman’s Week of the Ikoyi Club 1938, in honour of Mr. Richard GiwaOsagie, the out-going chairman of the club, in Lagos.

Adelusi argued that if the former leaders could still contribute positively to the development of the country, they should be given the chance, blaming the criticisms on perception of public offices as platforms for personal gains.

According to him, “in developed nations, leaders are also recycled. But because of poverty, many now struggle for positions in Nigeria, thinking that they can get economically lucky by occupying political offices.

Political offices should be platforms for service rather than mismanaging resources and amassing wealth."

Bakare, Okonkwo for GCM Glory Summit

BY OLAYINKA LATONA

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AGOS — THIS year’s Annual Glory Summit of the Glory Christian Ministries, GCM, will come up on March 6-10 at the church's International headquarters in Lagos.

Addressing journalists, yesterday, the convener and General Overseer of GCM, Dr. Iruofagha James, said the theme will be “In the Power of the spirit” adding that the highlight of this year's summit will be the official dedication of the church temple called “The Gloryland Dome” The programme would feature speakers including Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly, Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM), Bishop Mike Okonkwo and other anointed ministers of God According to the convener, "the theme of the summit is like a compass that will guide us through the year and the high point of this year's summit is the dedication of our temple.

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Several houses destroyed as crisis hits Imo community

BY CHIDI NWOPARA

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WERRI — ANOTHER round of intra-communal crisis has hit Ububo community, Awarra in Ohaji/ Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, with several houses destroyed.

Similarly, other property worth millions of Naira have been damaged or looted by the feuding parties.

Vanguard investigations revealed that apart from the property destroyed, aged women and young girls have reportedly been raped.

Currently, most of the indigenes of the area have relocated to safer neighbouring communities.

It would be recalled that trouble started during a botched youth election in Ububo but soon after, a group of boys, suspected to be cultists and who lost during the exercise, re-grouped and unleashed mayhem in the community.

As at the last count, no fewer than 10 houses belonging prominent sons of the area, including the traditional ruler, Eze Ekwueme Ekwueme, and former Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Imo State University, Owerri, Dr. Vitalis Nwulu, have either been razed down or partly destroyed.

Although the Police Public

Relations Officer, Mr. Vitalis Onugu, could not be reached for comment, a source in the

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MUAHIA — ABIA State Government has introduced auto-registration, AutoReg, for the registration of all categories of vehicles in the state.

The introduction of the computerised vehicle registration, according to the government, would help to check corruption in the Board of Internal Revenue which has affected negatively the revenue accruable to the government.

According to the Chairman of Abia State Board of Internal Revenue, BIR, Mr. Udochukwu Ogbonna, the board had also driven away touts from all its offices across the state.

Ogbonna warned members of the public not to patronise touts milling around tax offices soliciting patronage from unsuspecting motorists, saying: “Any person that does so is at his or her risk.”

He said a task force had been constituted to flush out

He said the command had already waded into the matter and some arrests made.

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State (left); Dr Ausbeth Ajagu (right) and Chief Goddie Uwazurike President General, Aka Ikenga during the February meeting of Aka Ikenga, in Lagos. Photo: Shola Oyelese.

Abia House tasks security agencies on kidnapping, child trafficking

BY ANAYO OKOLI

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MUAHIA — ABIA State House of Assembly has called on security agencies and

Abia begins computerised vehicle registration

BY ANAYO OKOLI

state Police Headquarters, Owerri, confirmed the incident.

touts in the board’s offices across the state.

According to him, “as I am talking to you, we have many fake motor licence plates we have retrieved from people who have come to renew their vehicle particulars."

other relevant authorities to strictly enforce the law against kidnapping, child trafficking, among others to check the rising cases of child trafficking in some parts of the state.

There are reports of increasing cases of kidnapping of children and child trafficking among related crimes in the state especially in Abia South.

Reports of missing children and in some cases, some of them are found dead with vital body parts removed.

Last week, while giving five additional new Hillux Pick-up vans to the Commander of 14 Brigade, Ohafia, Brigadier General Abubakar, Governor

Theodore Orji tasked him to tackle head-on the rising problem of child trafficking.

The governor lamented that some of the children have had the misfortune of being killed for ritual purposes among others.

To stem this tide, the House of Assembly passed a resolution asking the relevant authorities to comply with law on such issues.

Deputy Speaker of the House, Chief Alwell Okere, said the resolution followed a report by the member representing Isiala Ngwa North constituency, Chief Martins Azubike, on the way children were being adopted in the council.

Edo PDP chairman not sincere with reality —Stakeholders

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ENIN — STAKEHOLDERS in Edo State, yesterday, said the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, was not sincere with developmental realities in Edo State and advised him to appreciate the ongoing developmental projects in the state.

Under the umbrella of “Edo is in safe Hands” in a statement said unless the party chairman was blind and deaf that he could not feel, hear or see the completed and ongoing projects of the Comrade Adams

Oshiomhole’s administration.

The statement by Washington Osa Osifo claimed Orbih goofed when he said “Edo State Government had no project to showcase to the visiting Good Governance Team,” saying “for us in Edo, we are aware that the Good Governance Team does not have anything to look out for when they come here."

Osifo described the statement credited to Orbih as reckless, stating: “This is a reckless statement from a party chairman who does not know the definition of good governance. For Orbih to

say there is nothing to show in Edo, what about the road leading to Orbih’s village? Is it not dualised? Can’t he see? Water is flowing in his village at Ogbonna, right at his backyard and the two primary schools (Imaikene and Oboarekpe primary schools) in his village have been reconstructed with modern facilities. Can’t he see or feel? ”The road from Ekperi to Anegbete is almost completed and that means it is no longer a difficult terrain and yet he cannot attest to these projects."

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013—39

Dr. Bode Olajumoke greeting some of the children of the Home. With him, l -r: Apostle Paul Tunde TiOluwani, President of the Home; Senator Femi Okuronmu, Dr. Kunle Olajide and Sen. Tony Adefuye, when members of the Yoruba Unity Forum paid a vist to Dr. Bode Olajumoke Centre for Ophans and Disabled Persons on Ibadan-Lagos Expressway, Ibadan.

Chief Mrs H. I. D. Awolowo (Yeye Odua of Yorubaland) with Chief Bari Adedeji Salami (of Awoist Movement, in New York), during Yoruba Unity Forum meeting, at Awolowo House, Ikenne, Ogun State.

From left: Barrister Fred Majemite, Senior Special Assistant (Political), Delta State Government; Barrister Richard Mofe-Damijo, Representative of Delta State Governor/Commissioner for Culture and Tourism; Mr. Sidney Onoriode Esiri, son of late Justus Esiri and Mrs. Omiete Esiri, the wife of late Esiri, during Delta State government's condolence visit to the family, in Lagos.

From left: Alhaji. Bello Garba Kankarofi, Registrar/CEO, APCON, receiving a carton of Indomie noodles from Manpreet Singh, Head, Marketing, DUFIL Prima Foods Plc and Tope Ashiwaju, Public Relations/Events Manager, during a courtesy visit to the APCON Office, Iganmu.

From left: Prof. Amos Utuama, SAN, Delta State Deputy Governor; Sara Nyanti, Assistant Country Representative, UNICEF and Dr. Adeniyi Olaleye, when UNICEF team visited the Deputy Governor, in Asaba.

From left: Mr. Jae Sang Lee, General Manager, Digital Media Division, LG Electronics, West Africa Operations; Mr. James Adejimi, Product Marketing Manager, Home Entertainment Division, LG Electronics, West Africa Operations and the Assistant Product Manager, Audio Video, LG Electronics, West Africa Operations, at the LG Xboom Sound System Launch, in Lagos From 2nd right: Mr. Tunji Bello, commissioner for Environment; Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, Commissioner for Information and Strategy; and Mr. Tajudeen Ajide, Chairman Surulere Local Government, inspect bad side of Ojuelegba Motor-park, during a tour to the local government, in Lagos. Photo: Bunmi Azeez.

From left: Mr. Wole Oyeleke, Manager, Yaba Branch of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Plc; Prof. Ogwo E. Ogwo, immediate past President of The Academy of Management, Nigeria and the Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof.

Rahman Bello, during the FCMB sponsored conference of The Academy, at UNILAG. C M Y K

Uzoma Nkem–Abonta, House of Representatives member (left) with his legislative aide, Archibald Ubani, during the “HotSeat Series,“ organised by Press Corps, House of Representatives, in Abuja.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, decorating Bayo Sulaimon, Chairman of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Taskforce with his new rank as Chief Superintendent of Police, at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

40—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

No fresh amnesty for N-Delta region — IATF Coordinator

BY EMMAARUBI

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ARRI—COORDI NATOR of the InterAgency Task Force, IATF, set up by the Federal Government to carry out the verification and reconciliation of disarmament records of repentant militants, Air Vice Marshal James Gbum, has said that the government had not declared a fresh amnesty programme for the Niger Delta region.

He spoke at the 3 Battalion Army Barracks, Effurun, during the display of weapons surrendered by ex-militants to Joint Task Force, JTF, and other security agencies in the state.

Air vice Marshal Gbum, said the Federal Government set up the Task Force because, despite the successes recorded by the amnesty programme, it was still very clear that “a significant quantity of arms and ammunition are still in the hands of former militants, criminals and other residual groups in the region.” He noted that the Task Forcewasmeanttomopuparms andammunitionsosurrendered by genuine militants up till March2012.

He said,the mandate of the TaskForcethathadbeeninDelta State for the past three weeks was“simplytoreconciletheDisarmament Records and Document qualified former armed youths in the state. ”Though the Task Force was often referred to as an InterAgency Task Force for the Third PhaseAmnestyProgramme,the President has not declared a fresh Amnesty Programme for Niger Delta.

Bauchi teachers vow to boycott WAEC, JAMB, others over pay dispute

BY SUZAN EDEH AUCHI—THE Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools, ASUSS, in Bauchi State has said that it would boycott this year’s West African Examinations as well as NECO, NAPTIP and JAMB examinations in the state, following the refusal of the state government to address the lingering dispute of non-payayment of allowances to its members.

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to announce the termination of appointment of any striking teacher in the state.’’

Call for AG’s resignation Tanko maintained that the call for the immediate resignation of the Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General of the state was ‘’connected to his’’ alleged breach of his Oath of Office by wrongly advising the govern-

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AFIA—THE Civil Liberties Organisation ,CLO, has called on the Federal Government to urgently probe the killing of three students of Nasarwa State University by armed soldiers, with the view to bringing the perpetrators to book.

It also condemned the use of armed soldiers and mobile policemen to quell the student’s peaceful protest against the absence of water and electricity in the institution.

A statement by Messrs. Uche Durueke and Ibuchukwu Ezike, President and Executive Director respectively of CLO, lampooned the university authorities for mo-

“The union is therefore warning pupils, parents and guardians to diregard any invitation by government to send their children to school in the midst of the existing crisis as there won’t be anybody to guarantee proper learning of their children in the schools,” he added.

The union also called on the government among other demands,to immediately reinstate the eight teachers who were served with termination letters last year.

Lingering strike Members of ASUSS in the state had embarked on indefinite strike following the suspension of their allowances and other entitlements by the governemt.

Last week, the government sued the teachers over the strike action after denouncing their association as illegal trade union.

However, the teachers, yesterday, vowed to continue with their strike even as they demanded the sacking of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Justice AlMustapha Suleiman over the matter.

Sacking of striking workers Addressing a press conference in Bauchi, the Chairman of the union, Mr. Abduallahi Muhammadi, said that although the government sued the union over the strike and the matter was adjourned till March 6, this year for hearing, the plaintiffs in the matter went ahead to announce the termination of their appointments.

He said: “Wednesday, March 6, was fixed for the hearing of the motion on jurisdiction of the court on the matter, but to the union’s greatest surprise, the state government went ahead

From right: Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, decorating his Aide de Camp, ADC, Jaafaru Yakubu with his new rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP. He is being assisted by CSP, Miller Dantawaye. Photo: Speaker's Media Officer.

Niger govt bans Okada in Minna

BY WOLE MOSADOMI

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INNA—NIGER State Government has banned the use of motorcyles for commercial purposes in Minna the state capital with effect from mid March, 2013.

In its place, government has officially launched 1000 tricycles and 14 mass Transit Buses to replace the outlawed motorcycles.

Nasarawa varsity killings: Bring perpetrators to book, CLO tells FG

BY CHARLES KUMOLU

ment to terminate the appointment of the striking teachers, contrary to the rule of law.

The Chairman then urged teachers to remain focused, resolute by continuing with the strike until further official directive from the union, even as he advised the state governor, Isa Yuguda not to allow himself to be misled by sycophants as the ASUSS was not ready to negotiate with anybody unless the government rescinds its anti-people policies in the state.

bilising the soldiers, who allegedly perpetrated the act.

The statement reads, ‘’We are shocked at this barbaric action of the university authorities, especially deploying military officers to employ the use of excessive force to quell civil protest by armless students. CLO recalls that similar event had occurred in Ebonyi State early this year when the students of Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, protested against over 300 per cent increase in tuition and service fees by the university authorities in which CLO vehemently condemned the wickedness and called on the state government to inves-

tigate the crisis and bring culprits to book.” ‘’We urge the Federal Government including the National Assembly and the National Human Rights Commission to, as a matter of urgency, probe the use of armed military men and mobile police officers to attack and kill innocent students doing a legitimate action with the view to bringing the perpetrators and those who sent and received them to do this evil act to book.’’ ‘’We believe that the major causes of these crises in our tertiary institutions are government’s insensitivity to education,” the CLO said.

State governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, who launched the new vehicles in Minna, yesterday, said government’s decision should not be seen as punitive but a bold step to save lives on the roads.

The governor said: “We are tired of losing precious lives in avoidable road crashes involving motorcycles in different parts of the state. The decision should not be misunderstood as a punitive measure to deny people their means of livelihood but rather as a necessary step aimed at ensuring the safety of lives on our roads.”

Each of the tricycle was subsidized from N624,700 to N400,000 re-payable in 18 months from date of allocation just as the governor called on the beneficiaries to ensure prompt payment and observe road signs.

Aliyu said the government intervention will serve as a springboard for upgrading the living condition of both the operators and commuters as well as alleviating some of the difficulties encountered especially at critical periods.

He said besides reducing youth unemployment and poverty in the state and also improving the socio-economic lives of the people, the pro-

gramme would also address some of the security challenges in the state.

The state Commissioner for Transport, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed, said two of the 43 seater buses would be deployed to Bida, Suleja, Kontagora and New Bussa routes to ease their transportation problems.

Wellness resort holds evening of dance and wine

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LEAR Essence California Spa and Wellness Resort, Lagos, is poised to treat guests to an unforgettable evening of merriment, music and good food. The event tagged “Wine & Dance” is predicated on the legendary William Purkey’s philosophy of dance, love and song.

The Marketing Manager, Ms. Nnenna Obioha, said the Spa will offer assorted delicacies, good music and complementary wine on the evening of Thursday February 28, as a fitting climax to February, the acclaimed month of love.

Obioha therefore, enjoined interested guests to endeavour to sign-up online or indicate their interest to be part of the event.

— 41 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013—

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42— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

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44—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

The Third Mainland Bridge

Third Mainland Bridge: How real is the threat?

•The fears, facts and solutions Experts’ views on state of the bridge THE 11.8 kilometre Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos has been in the news in the last three weeks, albeit, for the wrong reasons.

The whistle that the bridge, touted as the longest in Africa, is on the verge of collapsing, was blown by Senator Gbanga Ashafa, representing Lagos East Senatorial District in the Senate. Ashafa has in a motion co-sponsored by 55 other senators, alleged that a report produced by a company experienced in underwater surveys indicated that the underwater metal casings housing the concrete piles on which the bridge stands, have rusted and this accounts for the vibration experienced in some portions of the bridge.

The report was attributed to Professor JHT Kim, Head of the Concrete Structural Engineering Laboratory at Yousei University, Seoul, South Korea, who came to Nigeria for research work in December 2012. The Korean professor who allegedly conducted an underwater examination of the structures holding the bridge, had reported that the

By JUDE NJOKU & KINGSLEY ADEGBOYE

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FORMER President of the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers, C M Y K

damage to the structure was worse than what he had been revealed.

Ashafa’s observation, although not stated in his submission at the Senate session, must have been informed by fears of what happened several years ago, when a lateral displacement occurred at the Five Cowrie Bridge in Lagos. The lateral displacement occurred when one of the piers caved in, and construction giants, Messrs Julius Berger Niger Plc, were contracted to fix the bridge which links Lagos Island and Ikoyi.

The Senator lamented that the repair works done on Third Mainland Bridge during the last quarter of 2012 by the Ministry of Works, were mere window dressing on the expansion joints of which reports had confirmed that some parts had since become disjointed.

“The implication is that the Third Mainland Bridge between Adeniji Adele, Adekunle and Oworonshoki ends could collapse and therefore require comprehensive works to be carried out on the foundation immediately,” he claimed.

NIStructE, a division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, Kunle Adebajo, who reacted to claims that the bridge is under severe threat

stated that “as a professional engineer, it worries me when major issues such as the structural stability of a significant bridge are being

speculated upon in public by non-experts. This can certainly cause alarm in the minds of the general public and this does not do anyone any good”.

Adebajo who is the Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Ove Arup & Partners Nigeria, suggested that the issue should be immediately referred to engineers who are better positioned to scientifically assess the true state of the bridge.

Adebajo called for “a fullscale structural investigation, particularly of the bridge piers and their supporting piles, to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the reported claims”. He did not stop there.

“Until otherwise informed, to the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence to indicate that the bridge is in danger of

imminent collapse, as no significant signs on the superstructure support that assertion,” he said..

The former NIStructE boss was quick to point out that there is usually no smoke without fire. “The Federal Ministry of Works would certainly have in the past conducted investigations into the reported structural distress of the Third Mainland Bridge.

Reported structural distress Such investigations should normally involve reports of deep sea divers who would take underwater pictures and observations. It could well be that there has recently been some evidence discovered that gives some cause for concern.

This would not be readily available in the public domain.

If, for example, any of the piles supporting the piers have become badly corroded or damaged, such conditions

Continues on page 45

Senator Ashafa : Blew the whistle.

*Kunle Adebajo: Bridge requires constant maintenence

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, FEBRUARY 27, 2013— 45

Third Mainland Bridge: How real is the threat?

The Third Mainland Bridge: Sand dredging threatens bridge’s viability.

No immediate threat of failure —Federal Ministry of Works

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EACTING to speculations that the Third Mainland Bridge may soon collapse, the Director, Highways Design (Bridges) in the Federal Ministry of Works, A.O. Effiong, outlined measures taken by the government to protect and keep the ever-busy bridge in an acceptable state.

In a statement titled “Facts File on Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos”, Effiong, an engineer, disclosed that the Federal Ministry of Works has commenced the process of engaging a consultant to urgently carry out investigation/ assessment on the entire bridge substructure so as to determine the extent of maintenance work required.

The scope of works to be covered, according to him, include* echometric test to check the structural integrity of the piles in water and selected piles on land (total of 988 No. piles), including coring on selected piles, testing and chemical analysis. *Underwater Inspection of 658 No. piles and submission of Report of the

drastically reduced the vibrations on the bridge to tolerable limits and allayed the fears of members of the public.

Following yet another report of subsidence and oscillation of the bridge structure exceeding tolerable limits under minimal load stress, the Ministry’s engineers inspected the bridge and their Site Inspection Report indicated that: •Excessive vibrations occurred at damaged expansion joints locations whenever heavy vehicles crossed over them; •Rubber accessories of the expansion joints at the Ebute Metta axis of the bridge had been damaged and were therefore not water-tight; •Significant horizontal displacement of a retaining wall at an intermediate abutment of the bridge was observed; •Dredging activities around the bridge piers from where large quantity of sand was being excavated on a daily basis might undermine the integrity of the bridge foundations.

The Site Inspection Report

There is no evidence of immediate threat of failure of the pilings; in their conclusion, they made recommendations that elaborate maintenance programme based on systemic assessment of all the piles be put in place

,

Inspection/Assessment of Foundation piles with appropriate recommendations.

The statement reads in parts: “Following reports of oscillation and excessive vibrations of the bridge under traffic load, the Federal Ministry of Works in 2008 engaged the services of Messrs JBN Plc. to conduct preliminary investigations of the structure and later Dynamic tests were carried out by Messrs 4EMME, an internationally acclaimed bridge engineering consulting firm. The reports of the investigations and tests at the time indicated that the bridge was structurally adequate but required the replacement of bad expansion joints and bearings.

Consequently, Messrs Borini Prono & Co. Nigeria Ltd. carried out the replacement of four critically affected expansion joints (Phase I) which

,

recommended the immediate replacement of more damaged expansion joints since the vibrations were still traced to them and also underwater inspection to ascertain the current state of the bridge substructure/ foundation. Accordingly, and following the approval by the Federal Executive Council in October 2011, eight additional joints (Phase II) adjudged to be border line cases in 2008 were replaced by the same contractor in 2012.

In recognition of the importance of the bridge, the Ministry commissioned Messrs Nigerian Submarine Divers Limited, NSD in December 2010 to undertake the underwater inspection of the Third Mainland bridge and Eko bridge in Lagos in order to ascertain the state of the underwater structural

elements which had hitherto not been inspected since the bridges were constructed and opened to traffic some 35 and 25 years ago respectively for the two sections. An initial report of the underwater inspection presented by NSD in July 2011 showed “alarming” deterioration and serious damages on numerous pile foundations of the Third Mainland Bridge.

Continues from page 44 cannot and must not be swept under the carpet as real corrective measures must immediately be undertaken. In addition, some parts of the bridge may have been subject to the negative effects of scouring due to the activities of sand miners. Again, in such instances, urgent and decisive action must be taken,” he said.

Continuing, Adebajo who called for a comprehensive structural investigation of the bridge, declared: “ A bridge such as the Third Mainland Bridge is much too strategic to be ignored. This is why a comprehensive structural investigation must be carried out now, and done by suitably competent consultants”.

On how long it would take before repairs are carried out on such a national infrastructure, Adebajo explained that maintenance should be done regularly. “If you buy a car today, it is likely that you may not visit a mechanic workshop for the next two years.

Final Report

Constant maintenance

The Final Report submitted by NSD in November, 2011 indicated “extensive” deterioration of embedded steel reinforcement in piles, concrete degradation and appreciable loss of concrete material as well as discontinuities in some foundation piles which apparently has affected the load bearing capacity of the piles. They recommended the replacement of some piles, encapsulation of others, cleaning piles of marine growths using high pressure water jets and discontinuation of organic effluents discharge into the water. Hence, Advanced Integrity Assessment tests of the affected foundation piles and chemical analysis of the concrete samples were recommended.

Following further review of Messrs NSD Ltd’s Final Report, it was observed that not all piles were inspected due to various reasons advanced such as obstruction by human activities and inaccessibility. To ensure that their report was adequate and comprehensive in accordance with the contract’s terms of reference, the Ministry directed that all piles, whether in water or on land, be duly investigated which culminated in the submission of an addendum to the Final Report in December, 2012.

It is pertinent to note that the Addendum to the Final Report submitted by Nigerian Submarine Divers Limited in December 2012 confirmed some deterioration and defects at the underwater sections of some of the foundation piles as follows: •Concrete degradation and appreciable loss of concrete infill materials •Extensive deterioration of embedded steel reinforcement in piles •Progressive deterioration of steel caisson of foundation piles.

But after that, wear and tear sets in and it becomes necessary for you to regularly maintain the car. In like manner, a bridge such as the Third Mainland Bridge may not have problems within the first few years but with usage, the bridge will begin to deteriorate and requires constant maintenance to keep it in good shape,” he said.

Also reacting to the alarm raised about the health of the Third Mainland Bridge, another Lagos-based civil engineer, Mr. Afolabi Adedeji, called for the constitution of a joint ad-hoc panel of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN; Federation of Construction Industry, FOCI, which is the umbrella body for all the major construction companies in Nigeria and the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors, NIS, to study the report of the Korean professor and advise government on an appropriate line of action to be taken concerning the report.

Adedeji who warned against what he called an ‘alarmist’cum-‘panic’ response, maintained that although the safety of commuters is vital, “primordial job for the boys instincts must also be tempered by sound engineering judgement”.

46—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Jonathan comes of age Once derided for his hesitancy in using the instrument of state to protect his political interests, President Goodluck Jonathan may now have bared his fangs as he moves to consolidate his hold on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the polity. His challengers are scampering for shelter

F

EW of the men gathered in the presidential villa that evening had seen President Goodluck Jonathan as feisty and determined as he was last Sunday. A man that had been taken by some as a weakling was before the 18 or so governors gathered in the room showing a strong hand that many had not envisaged.

By one account, the president was alleged to have sworn that he would never be humiliated out of office by the Nigerian Governors Forum and its chairman, Rotimi Amaechi.

Before now, close associates of the president like his now controversial Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, had played the game of hitting Amaechi. But Orubebe’s efforts had not made any success as he was easily dismissed on account of the failed repair of the East West road, which crisscrosses the Niger Delta.

But last Sunday with few party chieftains like the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur at hand, President Jonathan moved to divide the ranks of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF a body that had turned into a major opposition body to not just his government, but also

his seeming quest for a second term.

The president, himself a former governor, was not oblivious of the power and influence of the governors. About 23 months ago at the final rally of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential campaign at the Eagles Square in Abuja, Jonathan had described the governors as the Field Marshals of the party, upon whom victory or otherwise in a presidential contest rest upon.

Perhaps in recognition of the powers of the governors, President Jonathan had

,

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

now embattled national chairman, Tukur, who the governors led by Amaechi were as at last Sunday craving to push out.

As such, President Jonathan had every reason to express concern as the clouds began to gather around his political future.

The governors were his major nemesis.

Remarkably, many of the governors were also forming linkages with another powerful one-time benefactor of the president now turned into an enemy: Olusegun Obasanjo.

Before the 2011 primaries and in the heat

,

Anenih, however, to the discomfort of Obasanjo subsequently moved in to take command of the Amen Corner of the Jonathan camp

conceded to them in nearly all political engagements. He stopped the eregistration of party members because of the governors, closed his eyes when Okwesileze Nwodo who he brought in as national chairman was eased out, turned the other way when several senators who pushed for his enthronement as Acting President were refused re-election tickets by the governors, and also, allowed the governors to produce all but one member of the 12-member National Working Committee, NWC of the party. The president’s only proxy in the NWC is the

of the crisis that trailed the Umaru Yar‘adua presidency, nearly all the governors at that time had been united in opposing Jonathan’s emergence as acting president.

But faced with the 'Hand of God,' the governors accepted the inevitable.

Remarkably, the champions against his emergence at that time are today practically licking dust. James Ibori, a former governor of Delta State is in jail abroad, Timipire Sylva, a former governor of Bayelsa State is out of power and fighting prosecution by anti-graft agencies, and Bukola Saraki, a former chairman of

the influential NGF, is under the shadows of anti-graft agencies for alleged offences committed while in office. It is the kind of stealthy use of power that few have given Dr. Jonathan credence.

Last Sunday, the president literarily forced those among the governors and others outside to take notice that he would not just use his powers stealthily, but also overtly when and where the need arises.

President's determination The president’s determination to weaken the opposition it was learnt, was essentially focused on two of his main opponents: the NGF and the Obasanjo tendency in the party. While Obasanjo had found it not a too difficult task forging an alliance with some northern governors, doing the same with southern governors had proved Herculean. It was especially difficult with Amaechi, the embattled chairman of the NGF. Obasanjo’s problem with Amaechi had to do with the latter’s bluntness in his relationships.

Amaechi it is alleged has a predilection for blunt speaking irrespective of whose ox is gored. It is a character trait that some of his associates allege may have led him to his problems with the president.

The Rivers State governor it is equally claimed, has consistently rebuffed peace gestures from Obasanjo finding it difficult to forget the hostility of the former president which culminated in him, Amaechi, fleeing the country in the twilight of the Obasanjo era. So where the two Continues on page 47

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 —47

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LMOST everyone but the men accused had forgotten the salacious and sordid story of the N55 million naira bribe for budget scandal that rocked the National Assembly in 2005.

Given the several scandals that have permeated the polity since then: the N50 million per legislator third term bribe money, the purchasing contract scams in the immediate past House of Representatives, the running pension scams, the Farouk Lawan –Otedola affair, the multi trillion naira petroleum subsidy scam, the presidential banquet deal et al, only the very conscious would have remembered the details of the 2005 bribe-for -budget affair.

So, Nigerians who had forgotten about that alleged scam were reminded of it last weekend with reports that the trial is yet to take off more than eight years after it was initiated.

The principal accused was Senator Adolphus Wabara, then senate president, who was charged alongside some

POLITICAL METABOLISM with

EMMANUEL AZIKEN detritetradetoxifiedpolitics@gmail.com SMS 08052201189

What of Wabara? five other lawmakers for demanding bribe from the then Minister of Education, Prof.

Fabian Osuji in lieu of the passage of the 2005 budget of the ministry.

The charges and the television indictment of Wabara and the other accused legislators by President Olusegun Obasanjo, was for many, a veritable evidence of the much-touted assertion that the National Assembly as claimed by Mallam Nasir elRufai was at that time an axis of corruption.

The humiliation for the legislators who were arraigned was unprecedented. Two of the

about seven legislators have died, one from a plane mishap and another in active service at a retreat for senators in Kano.

One of the accused who your correspondent met last year and who was forced to retire from politics apparently arising from the scam at a relatively young age, spoke of the indignity of politics. He is now engaged in full time profitable business.

Another senator central in the scheme though was not prosecuted, in a private meeting, not too long ago, spoke of how he almost committed suicide on account of the alleged scam.

It is nevertheless remarkable that eight years after the issue came to national attention that the prosecution of the alleged crime is yet to get fully underway.

Today almost everyone now believes that the case was inspired by political motif.

Ignorant of the third term script of those in the corridors of power in late 2004, Wabara had been induced by some crafty Igbo senators to think of himself as a potential Igbo leader who could actualize the dream of having a South-East president.

It was a set up the Igbo senators and Wabara’s enemies expected to attract vengeance from Obasanjo towards Wabara and then open the door for one of them to replace him.

But as it is, none of the two senators central to the script got the position. But whether it was a set up or not, the issue of the guilt of Wabara and the other accused former lawmakers remains an issue that must be fully resolved.

The sluggishness of our judicial system must be of concern to

everyone as it is a deterrent to the actualization of a functional criminal justice system.

Remarkably, while we are waiting for the prosecution of the Wabara group, many other scandals have surfaced and with many adjournments. It is remarkable that several former governors who have been accused of embezzlement and are facing trial are now lawmakers in the National Assembly.

In one case, a former governor who was accused by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of practically taking money from the state coffers entered the senate and became an official of the committee on anticorruption.

It is welcoming that the Chief Justice of the Federation has taken the bold step in addressing impropriety in the judiciary. She must be encouraged to focus on the speed of the prosecution of cases and score that point that what a man can do, a woman can do, and even better!

Jonathan comes of age: The manifestation of power Continues from page 46 principal opponents of the incumbent president could have joined hands to fight a common ‘enemy’, the ill-feelings of the past created a divide that allowed the president to move in to decisively crush the opposition.

The presidency had started by disrobing Obasanjo of his political architecture in the Southwest two weeks ago with the dismissal of Obasanjo’s men in the NWC and in the Southwest executive of the party.

Bode Mustapha, who is generally known as Obasanjo’s Man Friday was sacked by the PDP leadership as national auditor using as excuse, the court judgment which annulled the 2011 Oshogbo zonal congress where the Southwest delegates to the national convention were chosen.

But the Obasanjo camp was quick to respond that the party’s action was selective as it alleged that applying the court judgment would have meant that all those elected at the national convention including Tukur should have stepped out of office as they were elected by illegal delegates.

Following the action on Obasanjo, the presidency launched a frontal war against the NGF. Presidency officials at the highest levels were alleged to have routinely called up governors all through last weekend on the need to remove Amaechi from office.

In some cases, audiovisual recordings of Amaechi were played to some governors who were told that Amaechi was

determined to remove the president and that they must divorce themselves from the alleged plot by opposing Amaechi’s return as chairman of the NGF. Apparently determined to call the president’s bluff, the Amaechi supporters in the NGF pushed for a quick election to reaffirm their clout in the polity.

It was an invitation that the presidency took up and the election fixed for last Monday. Its first move was to break the ranks of the NGF by the creation of a new group, the PDP Governors Forum at last Sunday’s meeting with the party’s governors.

Remarkably, Tukur announced Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State as the chairman of the new forum even without a say by the governors. Akpabio is generally regarded as one of the strongest loyalists of the president among the governors.

Newly created forum Other loyalists include Ibrahim Shema of Katsina, Theodore Orji of Abia, Gabriel Suswam of Benue, Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa and Isa Yuguda of Bauchi.

The next day which was scheduled for the NGF election, Akpabio made the first move on behalf of Jonathan when he invited members of his newly created forum for a meeting prior to the NGF election at the Akwa Ibom Governor ’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja.

At that meeting it was alleged that Governor Shema, another Jonathan loyalist was adopted as

2007 by Obasanjo and since then both men had played cat and mouse in the politics of the PDP. Not surprisingly in the dying days of the Yar‘Adua presidency, while Obasanjo strongly supported Jonathan’s emergence as acting president, Anenih reportedly was in cahoots with the governors in opposing Jonathan. But Anenih, however, to the discomfort of Obasanjo subsequently moved in to take command of the Amen Corner of the Jonathan camp.

Potential rivals •Jonathan: Takes his chance the PDP Governors’ Forum choice as the next chairman of the NGF. From the Akwa Ibom governor ’s lodge, the PDP governors proceeded to the Rivers State Governor’s lodge for the election which was to involve the nation’s 36 governors.

As the meeting commenced, Governor Babangida Aliyu, who was absent at the two meetings at the villa on Sunday and Monday afternoon hosted by Akpabio, questioned the rationale for the creation of the PDP-GF in the continued presence of the NGF. He was immediately challenged by Akpabio leading to a shouting match among the duo that almost broke up the meeting as many of the governors immediately started packing their things to abandon the meeting. But once reason prevailed on the combative duo, the meeting returned to order.

Remarkably, the persuasion and pressures from the presidency

had whittled support from Amaechi, but not sufficient to enthrone Shema. So not surprisingly the governors resolved to postpone the evil day till May. Derobing Obasanjo: The presidency was still unfinished that Monday. Later that night, the unfinished agenda of derobing Obasanjo was completed at a scheduled meeting of the BOT where a report on restructuring the membership of the advisory body was presented to the president at the villa.

Following Obasanjo’s resignation as chairman of the BOT last year, the contest for the chairmanship of the body had turned to a proxy war between him and Jonathan. Obasanjo it is alleged, was strongly opposed to the emergence of Jonathan’s favourite, Tony Anenih as his replacement. A former chairman of the BOT, Anenih was displaced from the position in

The opportunity to derobe Obasanjo came in the early hours of yesterday after the report articulated by a former secretary of the BOT, Prof. Jerry Gana on restructuring membership of the BOT was submitted.

The report it was learnt, recommended the excision of members of the BOT who had in the past shifted loyalties to other parties. It is a recommendation that further strengthens the hands of the president on the party as it removes some of his potential rivals such as Atiku Abubakar, Ghali Na‘Abba from membership of the body.

Following the submission of the report, one of the members present, perhaps in a choreographed submission said that the vacancy in the chairmanship should be filled and Anenih was nominated and unanimously adopted. Fixing Jonathan's future was back fully on course.

48 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27 27,

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HERE was stampede re cently at the popular Katsina/Ala street , Makurdi town, when two armed men on a motorbike waylaid a man later discovered to be the cashier of Makurdi local government council (name withheld), carting away over N6million.

The amount, which was withdrawn from the bank, was reportedly meant for payment of some creditors of the council.

Eye witnesses told Crime Alert that the armed men had trailed the cashier from the bank. On reaching Katsina / Ala street, they reportedly intercepted his vehicle , shooting sporadically into the air.

An eye witness said: “Initially we thought they were policemen, but when they started shooting into the air and asked occupants of the vehicle to hand over the bag of money in their possession, we realised they were armed robbers”.

“At that point we all scampered for safety, for fear of being shot by the fierce- looking men who took total control of the area, while shop owners hurriedly closed their shops for fear of being attacked also.

The operation lasted for about seven minutes. While it lasted, we were helpless because we couldn’t stand up against them and there was no way the police could come to the rescue of the victims within that period.

“It is painful because in the last few weeks, cases of armed men operating on motorbikes have become rampant in parts of Makurdi town”, he added.

A

Recruitment Scam:

Police in Benue arrest ex-naval personnel, two others Stories by PETER DURU, MAKURDI

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OR some time now, a hotel in Makurdi area of Benue state(name withheld), has been witnessing an unprecedented crowd, majority of whom were youths between ages 18 and 22.

Their mission was unknown until policemen from the Benue State Police Command stormed the hotel Sunday, arresting three men in full naval uniform,where preliminary investigation revealed that they were into illegal recruitment into the Nigerian Navy, NN. Another startling discovery was that the suspects who apparently hijacked the on-going recruitment into the lower cadre of the Nigerian Navy were not personnel of the Service, neither were they consultants.

Only one of them was discovered to be a dismissed Naval personnel.

The Benue State Commissioner of Police, Mr Christopher Katso explained that , “ our intelligence report uncovered a syndicate of three men, led by one Emmanuel Audu who were fully kitted in Naval uniforms, in a hotel room from where they were conducting phony recruitment into the Nigerian Navy”.

Upon arrest and interrogation, they confessed that they were not personnel of the Nigerian Navy but were in the business to make money for themselves.

randy senior staff of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State (name withheld), was recently caught pants down making love to another man’s wife in his bedroom.

Heaven was let loose when an Akwa Ibom state indigene in the University town stumbled on an ugly sight of another man and his wife making love right inside his bedroom.

Crime Alert gathered that the alleged adulterous house wife (names withheld) and a staff of the University attached to the security department was allegedly caught red handed, with another randy staff who hails from Nnobi, Anambra State and a senior Staff of Energy Research Center of the University, enjoying one

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Robbers attack local government cashier, cart away N6m

2012

Another startling discovery was that the suspects who apparently hijacked the ongoing recruitment into the lower cadre of the Nigerian Navy were not personnel of the Service

“After a thorough search of their room, we recovered large number of credentials, list of short listed candidates and cash ostensibly collected from their unsuspecting victims; photocopiers, computers and several documents”, the CP said.

Alleged leader of the syndicate, Emmanuel, told Crime Alert that he was dismissed from the NN in year 2011.

According to him, “I was once a naval personnel but was unjustly dismissed in 2011 by the authorities after I took ill and was declared AWOL. Even when I tendered the medical reports that clearly showed that I was truly ill, my plea was not listened to and I was summarily dismissed for no justifiable reason; even when others who committed worse offenses were forgiven and allowed to stay in service, I was dismissed in my case. Noone, listened to me even when I showed them the reason why I

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had to stay away from my duty post”. He added that he resorted to the phony recruitment exercise in order to eke a living for himself since he was unjustifiably deprived of his source of livelihood.

His alleged partners in crime claimed Emmanuel played on their gullibility by talking them into joining him,without the slightest inkling that he had been dismissed from service.

According to one of them, John Ochi,” “I knew him from home in Otukpo. We were friends for a long time. So, when he informed me of the opportunity to get enlisted into the navy for N100,000, I jumped at the offer because for a long time, I’ve been struggling to get enlisted into the military or paramilitary service without success, that is why I felt I should give him the money to assist me get the job; I didn’t know it would turn out this way”. The suspects according to the CP, would be charged to court.

The suspects in complete Navy uniform

Randy UNN Staff caught

By CHINENYEH OZOR, Nsukka another on her matrimonial bed.

An impeccable source disclosed that the husband of the woman had been suspecting that his wife had been having amorous overtures with the man but his suspicion became real on that fateful day he caught them pants down. The source said that the man returned to his house following a tipoff, only to behold the bizarre scene, explaining that when the husband of the adulterous woman walked into

the room, he saw them pants down and the Energy Research Centre lover took his cloths and ran away.

Neighbors who were attracted to the ugly scene gave him a hot chase but he escaped, the source noted.

Unable to bear the slight, the husband of the adulterous woman headed to the Nigeria Police Area Command, Nsukka and lodged the complaint. When Crime Alert visited the Police Area Command, the aggrieved husband said he was making his statement to the police.

According to him, it was true, they have been having this affair since and I have been suspecting them, but my wife would always convince me, taking advantage of my being a nonIgbo. When our reporter reached out to the suspect on phone for comments, he quipped “that is rubbish, that is rubbish” while the alleged adulterous woman also told our reporter on phone “there was nothing like that”.

However, Police sources at the Area Command Nsukka revealed that the

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27 27, 2012 — 49

Attack on Minority Whip:

Benue elders urge police to unravel masterminds of arson Stories bY PETER DURU, MAKURDI

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GROUP under the aegis of Ushongo Elders Forum in Benue state, has urged the Benue State Police Command to investigate and bring to book, masterminds of the recent arson attack on the Minority Whip of the State House of Assembly,Hon. Terkimbi Ikyange.

The forum which described the midnight attack on the lawmaker as “barbaric, unacceptable and highly condemnable” made the call during a visit on the Minority whip’s Makurdi residence. Spokespersons for the forum, Mr. Isaac Mtu, Haagher Chubu and Iortim Kpam separately said, “this development portends danger and does not tell good of our democracy and the safety and protection of the people”.

“In order to put an end to this type of barbaric attack on Benue

indigenes , we urged security agencies in the state to thoroughly investigate the matter, fish out and prosecute masterminds of the attack on the lawmaker, to serve as deterrent to others.

“On our part, we will however, return home and meet with the Ter Ushongo (paramount ruler) and possibly summon all

Ushongo sons in government so as to give them the opportunity to clear themselves of complicity in the matter”.

It would be recalled that Mr. Terkimbi Ikyange and his family members escaped death narrowly when unknown arsonist besieged his house midnight and set two of his cars ablaze.

Hon. Terkimbi Ikyange inspecting one of the burnt cars at his Makurdi residence

COMMISSIONING

m

in the Act

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The man comes to our house and has been a friend of the family; he acts as a father to me

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woman claimed her alleged lover was just a family friend for many years. She denied the alleged sexual intercourse claiming that “the man comes to our house and has been a friend of the family. He acts as a father to me”. When contacted, the Area Commander, Nigeria Police Area Command, Nsukka, RosArmson Haladu (ACP) confirmed that a case of adultery was reported to his office and both suspects have made useful statements to Police in respect of the matter.

ASP. D.D. Galadanchi (right) representing, the outgoing Commissioner of Police Oyo state, Mr. Mbu J. Mbu during the official commissioning of Skynet Special Squad building at Alisholoye Ibadan, a structure reconstructed and renovated by Insp. Usman Dimka, the Squad Commander (left).

Police to dispose vehicles at Isolo and Okokomaiko

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HE following abandoned vehicles would be disposed by Lagos State Police command.

Santana car with reg BJ86AAA, Toyota Starlet car reg AP90IGWA, Coat car reg AU496MUS, Volkswagen Bus Reg HA524AAA, Scrap Toyota Celica without registration number, Scrap Mitsubishi Bus without registration, Volkswagen Bus Reg XQ9788LSR, Mazda 626 car registration GZ52EKY, Honda Accord car Reg

EH498LND, Scrap Mazda 626 without registration number, Land Cruiser Prado Jeep Reg FB636LSR, Accident Volkswagen Bus Reg XW158FKJ, Accident Toyota Sienna Reg with Reg LY67KJA, Accident Toyota Camry car reg MR594KJA,. Accident Toyota Sienna with reg FST510AH, Accident Mercedes Benz with reg LC460KJA, Accident Volvo 80 Jeep 791SDC. Accident Honda car reg EX197ABJ and Accident Mazda car reg EE780APP.

50— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

C M Y K

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013—51

CAN chapter chairman vows to chase out non-performing politicians

BY TONY EDIKE

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NUGU—THE Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, yesterday, vowed to mobilise the masses against anti-people politicians in the country with a view to forcing them out of public offices.

The South-East chapter of CAN, took the stand after its meeting in Enugu, yesterday.

Chairman, South East Chapter

of CAN and the Anglican Bishop of Enugu, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma, who briefed newsmen on the outcome of the meeting attended by several church leaders in the zone, said the church would no longer sit on the fence and watch politicians take the masses for granted.

According to him: “All the politicians who have not performed will be re-called, before

talking of second tenure and all that, they should come and give their account of stewardship to the people.

“Anything short of that, we shall mobilise the masses, the church shall act as a catalyst to chase all the non-performing politicians out.”

He called on the Federal Government to make both the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu and the

Onitsha Seaport functional without further delay, saying, “We don’t like the political way the Seaport is being handled. Ever since we were told the port was commissioned, it has not been operational.

“We are demanding the dredging of the River Niger should be completed, vessels should be arriving at the port, otherwise it will be a white elephant project.

Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti State Governor; wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Helen Mark; Representative of President Goodluck Jonathan and President of Senate, David Mark and Deputy Ambassador of the US to Sierra Leone, Ms. Kathleen Fitzgibbon, at the inauguration of President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, for a second term in office, in Freetown.

Breast cancer survivor trumpets need for early detection, treatment

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

AWKA—A survivor of breast cancer, Miss Juliet Agunwa has begun an awareness campaign on how to ensure early detection of

the disease, advising women to constantly examine themselves and go for early treatment when detected.

Delivering a lecture to secondary school students on

breast cancer and its curability at Nkpor in Anambra State, Agunwa argued that breast cancer killed many women in Nigeria due to ignorance and stigmatisation of

Pension Scam: Maina begs court for safety

.Hearing adjourned till March 5 A

BUJA—EMBAT TLED Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, PRTT, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, yesterday, begged the Abuja High Court to shield him from arrest pending the determination of his suit.

Maina who was declared wanted following his alleged complicity in the illegal diversion of funds meant for pensioners across the federation, made the appeal on a day the Senate secured an order extending the warrant of arrest earlier issued against him.

Meantime, presiding Justice Adamu Bello yesterday fixed March 5 to commence hearing on the substantive suit that was entered before it by the accused pension boss who went into hiding following intensified bid by

the upper legislative house to apprehend him for questioning.

At the resumed sitting on the case yesterday, Maina, through his counsel, Mr. M. A Magaji, SAN, pleaded the high court to compel the Senate and the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, to maintain status-quo –ante, and refrain from taking any step to-

wards arresting him pending the determination of the suit.

Besides, Maina urged the court to void the recent dissolution of PRTT by the Federal Government and order that issues pertaining to pension administration in the country should remain under him till the case is determined.

the victims.

Aguwa, who is the founder of ‘Courage to Dare Foundation’, a non-governmental organisation, NGO, noted that what every person having challenges of cancer needed was love and encouragement.

She said: “A lot of people need the information; people have actually shown the interest to learn about how to prolong their life and how to cut down the death rate caused by breast cancer.

“Educating people about cancer is something I always look forward to because when I was diagnosed of breast cancer, I thought that my world had turned for the worst.”

Judge stays action on Ifeanyi Uba’s suit

BY INNOCENT ANABA

L

AGOS — A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, stayed proceedings in the suit by Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah against Access Bank Plc and Coscharis Motors Limited.

Trial judge in the matter, Justice Okon Abang, stayed proceedings in the matter, and adjourned till May 31, pending the outcome of an appeal by Access Bank at the Appeal Court, Lagos.

Access Bank had through its lawyer, prayed the court to stay the matter, contending that the

records of appeal had been compiled and transmitted to the appellate court.

The application, was not opposed by Ubah’s counsel, following which the court stayed further hearing in the matter, pending the outcome of the appeal at the Court of Appeal,

Jonathan directs Army engineers to renovate Ikeja Police College KINGSLEY OMONOBI

A

BUJA — FOL LOW- ing the public outcry that greeted the dilapidated structures of the Police College, Ikeja, Lagos, President Goodluck Jonathan has directed the Army engineers to renovate the premier Police institution.

The development is a fall-out of the documentary by an independent television station that aired the deteriorating state of the college and subsequent visit by the President to the Police College.

Sources told Vanguard that the Presidency had released about N700million directly to the Army engineers who have since moved to site.

Sources at the Army Headquarters, however, said the amount of money released “cannot be said to be the final cost of repairs as the work is being done

LPPC suspends SAN over judicial misconduct

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

A

BUJA—THE Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, LPPC, yesterday, suspended Chief Ajibola A. Aribisala from using the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, and stripped him of all other privileges attached to the rank.

The legal body headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Aloma Muhktar, reached the decision after a meeting in Abuja, yesterday.

A statement by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Mr. Sunday Olorundahunsi who is also the Secretary of the LLPC, said that the action was taken after due consideration of a petition that was filed against Chief Aribisala

by Fidelity Bank and PHCN.

52 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Okocha upsets Delta Air second seed •Plays James today in quarterfinal

BY JOHN EGBOKHAN

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ORMER Super Ea gles captain, Austin “Jay Jay’ Okocha is living life off the football spotlight to the full following his adventure at the ongoing Delta Air Tennis Classics holding at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan.

Playing against the tennis captain of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Dapo Aboaba, who incidentally is the second seed of the tournament for players in the age bracket of 40 to 49 years old, Okocha, who until the game, was not reputed for his tennis play, became the talking point of fans, who crammed the tennis club, courtesy of his 6-3, 6-3 straight sets conquest of Aboaba.

When both players stepped on the Lord Rumens Centre Court for the start of the match, not a few tennis faithful gave the former Eintracth Frankfurt and PSG star,any chance of win-

•Okocha ning a set, not to talk of the match but what transpired at the end of an hour of tennis play, left many having a rethink.

In winning the opener, Okocha served six aces, had nine winners and broke his opponent’s serve twice to take the set 6-3.

The second set almost took the same pattern, with Okocha producing some excellent mobility

and hitting three backhand winners and another two service breaks to announce his arrival as the one to beat to the winner’s prize of a return air ticket to the United States of America, courtesy of Delta Air. He next plays Kola James today in a quarterfinal match at the same venue. Peter Osagie is the top seed of the tournament.

MTN/Lagos International Polo tourney gallops off

B

Y JACOB AJOM

THE 2013 MTN/Lagos International Polo Tournament gallops off today at the prestigious Lagos Polo ground, Awolowo Road Ikoyi with clubs from Kano, Kaduna, Ibadan and host, Lagos jostling for the various trophies up for grabs.

Tournament director, Tade Oyinlola said yesterday, at the pretournament briefing that this year’s edition would be unique as the organisers had made it possible for spectators to enjoy the best of Polo throughout the two-week event.

“We have structured the tournament schedule of play to reflect a mix of highbrow and lowbrow polo,” he explained, adding that “the arrangement assures allround high level competition.”

Speaking at the

occasion, Events and sponsorship manager of MTN, Dola Bamgboye said the company decided to identify with the tournament as a means of reaching out to its core customers and enhancing connectivity among them.

“The consistency and continuity in our desire to recognise our core customers will see us maintain a long standing relationship with the Lagos Polo club and its flagship tournament, the M T N / L a g o s International tournament,” Bamgboye said.

He said the company was prepared to thrill the numerous spectators at the two-week event.

Some of the clubs featuring in the tournament include Tavia/Trojan, Lagos Ericsson, Lagos TRaiders, Lagos Ironclad, Kano Eurovite, Lagos Goodfellows/Ark, Lagos

Caverton, Ibadan Jericho, Delany/ Linetrale, among others.

Trophies at stake include the Low Cup, the Dansa Cup, the Italian Ambassador ’s cup, Independence Cup, the Lagos Governor’s Cup and the Majekodunmi Cup. The tournament ends on March 10 with the final of the prestigious Majekodunmi Cup.

•Continued from BP “I challenge Keshi to name those two members of the EXCO so that this matter will be settled once and for all. We are fourteen on the board and Keshi said two members wanted him sacked. I can’t see how two members of the board can engineer a coach’s sack without the support of others. He should name them,” Umeh said .

The NFF chieftain said he felt scandalised as a member of the board as the coach’s media interview did not clarify who the members were.

Asked if Keshi would be invited by the board to explain his interview with the media, Umeh said, “we don’t need to invite him. He should go to the same media and name the two board members. That will clear the air once and for all.”

We still have very important assignments, like qualifying for the World Cup, we should put all this crisis behind us and face the challenges ahead.”

Umeh said for opening up to the media, in an interview, which Keshi said his decision to resign his appointment after the Nations Cup was prompted by the overbearing nature of two members of the Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation who

•Continued from BP Effiong, Special Adviser, ICT Development, Mr. Edem Ekong, Special Adviser, Public Transportation, Mr. Nzan Ogbo, Special Adviser Event, Hon. Ngim Okpo, Mr. Wilfred Usani, Special Adviser, T o u r i s m Development,Mr. A;lex Egbonna, Mr. Rekpene Bassey, Mr. Igbe Aruku, Mr. Jude Amadi, Elenda Osima-Dokubo, Bruce Ijirigbo, Mercy Nku and Mike Aniah, Secretary to the state government.

Speaking shortly after

NFF

had wanted him sacked, even before the Nations Cup. In a widely reported interview with cable network, Super Sports on Monday, Stephen Keshi said “I know for sure the (sack) letter was there, the letter was waiting

Rangers •Continued from BP as inconsequential and of no effect as it lacked the locus standi to enter into the fray of ascertaining the rightful owner of the player.

“We don’t have any issue to grind with the NPFL especially as we know that the issue they ’ve elected themselves to speak on is beyond their bound, so whatever statement emanating from them on Sunday Mba is considered null and void by the management of Enugu Rangers.

“The NPFL has no right to comment on player’s status. That right is reserved for the Nigeria Football Federation Players’ Status Committee.

“All the parties will soon appear before the

HE Inspector-Gener al of Police, IGP MD Abubakar, has assured that the 10th Biennial Police Games “Port Harcourt 2013”, scheduled for Rivers State, from 3rd to 9th March, 2013, will not only provide a platform for the Police, the Military and other security agencies to showcase their sporting prowess; it will also be a

veritable tool for further strengthening the relationship among these sister agencies.

While justifying the decision of the Force Sports Planning Committee to invite the military and other law enforcement agencies to the Police sporting fiesta, the IG noted that the Police and the military share a common sporting

committee with facts and figures to establish once and for all the rightful and legal owner of the disputed player.

“Wolves are forcing themselves on the case which actually is between Dolphins and Rangers by extension Enyimba.

“We obtained Mba from Enyimba from where we loaned him to Dolphins who didn’t fulfil the loan agreement. We learnt, too, that Dolphins complained that Wolves didn’t fulfil its loan agreement with the Port Harcourt side. I believe every fact will be laid bare at the NFF Status Players’ Committee at the right time and justice will be given to the parties involved,” he said to supersport.com.

We learnt that Mba is far away from the shores of Nigeria where he is believed to be negotiating contract deal with some European clubs.

2014 National Sports Festival inaugurating the committee in Calabar, the Acting Governor and Chairman of the committee, Mr. Efiok Cobham, asserted that “since the creation of Cross River State, this is the first time we are hosting the festival, some states have hosted more than once and we will love to use this opportunity to set a bench mark for the fiesta’.

He reiterated the state’s readiness to successfully host the 19th National Sports Festival, tagged

Police Games to boost Police/Military relationship — IG history dating back to the

T

before Nations Cup after we won 6-1 against Liberia in Calabar, And those two members were the main problem in South Africa.,” Keshi said on the live television programme.

Keshi exonerated the NFF President, Aminu Maigari, “It wasn’t from my president, not from the board of the federation, but from one or two other people.

pre-independence era. He explained that special invitation has been extended to the Nigerian Army, the Navy and the Air Force. Also expected in Port Harcourt for the Games are the Nigerian Prisons Service, the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Federal Fire Service, Federal Road Safety Commission, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.

“2014 Paradise Games” which he said will be huge in contents with over 15 thousand competitors of Nigeria extraction from all over the world competing for laurels.

Drogba •Continued from BP six point lead over second-placed Fenerbahce in the Super Toto Super League.

A Selcuk Inan own goal put Orduspor ahead in the 15th minute and Bogdan Stancu made it 20 with a penalty just before half-time.

Goals from former Inter Milan and Real Madrid midfielder Wesley Sneijder, a brace from Burak Yilmaz and another goal from Inan, however, gave Galatasary the win.

Drogba made a stunning start to his Galatasaray career by coming on as a substitute and scoring within five minutes in the 2-1 victory against Akhisar Belediye.

— 53 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013—

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54— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

— 55 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013—

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Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Drogba headbutts rival to hospital

F

ORMER Chelsea hitman Didier Drogba is proving to be a knockout in Turkey as David Barral discovered on Monday.

Orduspor’s Barral was knocked out cold when he was accidentally headbutted by the

•Drogba

Umeh challenges Keshi •To expose overbearing NFF members

BY JACOB AJOM

•Continues on Page 52

•Umeh

•Keshi

Rangers dare NPFL over Mba N

IGERIA’S Caf Champions League campaigners, Enugu Rangers are taking their statutory claim over Nigerian international, Sunday Mba to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Status Players

Committee.

The status of the Africa Cup of Nations’ hero has been hotly disputed between two NPFL sides, Warri Wolves and Enugu Rangers leading to the Interim Management Committee of the Nigeria Professional Football

PUZZLE

League (NPFL) issuing a statement on Monday that the Nigerian forward is a bona fide player of Warri Wolves.

However, an official of Rangers, Foster Chime on Tuesday declared the NPFL statement on Mba •Continues on Page 52

HEAD of the 2014 National Sports Festival scheduled to be hosted by the Cross River State Government, the state’s Acting Governor Mr. Efiok Cobham, has inaugurated a reconstituted 24 man Local Organizing Committee (LOC) in Calabar to champion the planning of the event.

Members of the committee include The Acting Governor Mr. Efiok Cobham, Chairman, and Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development, Mr. Patrick Ugbe, Vice Chairman and Mr. Egwu Egeh, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of youths and Sports will serve as secretary.

Other members are; Surv. Raph Uche, Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Hon. Legor Idagbo,

Commissioner for Works, Mr. Bassey Oqua, Commissioner for Special Projects, Dr. Angela OyoIta, Commissioner for Health, Rev. Takis Caiaphas, Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Sandy Onoh, Commissioner for Environment and Chief Akin Rickets, Commissioner for Information.

The Committee also has Chief Peter Ojie, Commissioner for Local Government, Mr. Odo

•Continues on Page 52

•Ugbe

QUICK CROSSWORD

Sudoku TODAY'S

2014 National Sports Festival: Cross River inaugurates LOC

A

F

IRST Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Chief Mike Umeh has expressed fear that the lingering crisis in Nigerian football, occasioned by the purported sack threat on Super Eagles head coach, Stephen Keshi might linger on longer than expected and could jeopadise Nigeria’s World Cup qualification chances if not properly handled.

In a bid to find a permanent solution to the crisis, Chief Umeh has thrown a challenge to Coach Stephen Keshi to mention the two overbearing members of the executive committee of the NFF that he said prompted his decision to attempt to throw in the towel after the tournament.

Galatasary striker as the pair challenged for a header at a corner.

The substitute was taken to hospital by ambulance after colliding with Drogba in the penalty area, but the Ivorian went to pay him a visit after the match.

Galatasary overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat Orduspor 4-2 and hold a •Continues onPage 52

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

Across: 1 Penalty (4) 4 Conflict (3) 6 Existence (4) 8 Rubbish (6) 9 Character (6) 10 Follow (3) 12 Strict (5) 14 Revolt (5) 15 Keen (5) 18 Span (6) 29 Shrewd (6) 24 Singer (5) 26 Tender (5) 28 Jig (5) 30 Beverage (3) 32 Summer-house (6) 33 Dozen (6) 34 Group (4) 35 Total (3) 36 Story (4)

Down: 2 Fool (5) 3 West in (7) 4 District (4) 5 Circle (4) 6 Supple (5) 7 Ardent (7) 11 Individual (3) 12 Weep (3) 13 Horse (3) 16 Obtain (3) 17 Managed (3) 19 Chorus (7) 21 Turf (3) 22 Disaster (7) 23 Sheep (3) 25 Watch (3) 27 Choose (5) 29 Lid (5) 30 Pitch (4) 31 Particle (4)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS Across: 2, Obese 7, Sauce 8, Front 10, Chief 12, Ire 13, Issue 15, Pottery 17, Coarse 19, Rut 20, Tremble 23, Loom 25, Ease 26, Notable 30, Nut 31, Arrest 34, Moronic 37, Munch 38, Tic 39, Civil 40, Eagle 41, Newly 42, Sever

How to Play Sudoku

THE VIGILANTE

Down: 1, Lasso 2, Occur 3, Behest 4, Seep 5, Brittle 6, Inert 9, Ore 11, Formula 13, Icily 14, Salon 15, Tub 18, Erratic 21, Eaten 22, Teeth 24, Monocle 27, Tun 28, Ermine 29, Total 32, Ruler 33, Cold 35, Rig 36, Cite

e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

Place 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.

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