governance: respect your age, jonathan blasts akande

...towards a better life for the people

N150VOL. 25: NO. 61944

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013**

Mr & Mrs

Continues on page 5

•Says attack on him narrow, personal•Charges APC leaders to settle party problems first•Insists he has right to contest in 2015

Respect your age,Jonathan blasts Akande

COLUMNISTS:

•P.48OCHEREOME

NNANNA

LES LEBA•P.40

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DELESOBOWALE

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GOVERNANCE:

COURTESY VISITL-R: Dr Eugene

Juwah, Executive ViceChairman of the Nige-rian CommunicationsCommission, NCC, andMr. Emeka Mba, Direc-tor General, NationalB r o a d c a s t i n gCommission,NBC, dur-ing a courtesy visit toNCC in Abuja.

DURBAR—Some horsemen displaying during the continuation of Durbar to mark the Eid-el-fitr celebration in Bauchi andZaria, Kaduna State, weekend. Photos: NAN.

BY BEN AGANDE

A BUJA—P R E S IDENT Goodluck

Jonathan, yesterday, ad-monished Interim Chair-man of the AllProgressives Congress(APC), Chief BisiAkande, to stop being ill-mannered and hypocriti-

Oil firms lie overcrude production— Tompolo, Ex-militant Leader 7

VISA POLICY: Nigeria's brigade leaders denied entry into UK12

GUEST COLUMNIST:

FEMI FALANA, SAN

Deportationof dissidents

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CMYK

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013 —3

CMYK


CMYK

POCKET CARTOON

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013—5

LIFEWORDSBY PASTOR ITUAH

Respect your age, Jonathan blastsAkande

Continues from page 1

There is a seed of greatness in every individual,it takes patience to discover this seed; to plant andnurture it into greatness require great patience.Mixed with sacrifice and discipline it becomes trulyoutstanding.

The people who get on in this world are the peo-ple who get up and look for the circumstances theywant, and if they can’t find them, make them

— Bernard Shaw

TWO men fell on hard times. Try as they might,they couldn’t find work. They heard that a mu-

seum was willing to pay $50 apiece for live rattle-snakes so, in desperation, they decided to catchsnakes.

Outfitted with a net and basket, they hiked to aremote area renowned for its large snake popula-tion. But as they scaled a steep ledge, rock gaveway and they tumbled down a slippery bank into adeep pit crawling with rattlesnakes.

One of the men quickly sized up the situation andshouted to his friend, “Look! We’re rich! We’re rich!”I find this story hilarious but it is a very good prin-ciple to illustrate the intensity of seeing only thepossibilities in all situations. Maybe the feller inthe snake pit didn’t fully appreciate his predica-ment. But in most situations, I believe there is asunny side.

Steve Goodier puts it beautifully: “I’ve learnedthat my greatest power may well be my power tochoose my outlook.” As Abraham Lincoln wiselysaid, “most people are about as happy as they makeup their minds to be.” The truth is, I can choose toview tough times as growing times, I can choose tosee life challenges as seasoning for unfoldment,and I can choose to focus on whatever good thereis to be found in living.

APC LAUNCH—From left: Chief Michael Koleoso, former Alliance for Democracy (AD)National Chairman; Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State; former Deputy Governor, Iyiola Oladokunand Chief Akin Oke, Chairman of defunct ACN in Oyo State at the launching of All ProgressivesCongress, APC, in Ibadan, Oyo State, yesterday. Photo: Dare Fasube.

cal. He said the APCchieftain should respecthis age and Nigeria.

The President was re-sponding to commentsattributed to Akande,weekend, that he was a“kindergarten” leaderwho treated national is-

sues with levity.In a statement by Dr

Reuben Abati, PresidentJonathan's Special Ad-viser on Media and Pub-licity, entitled: “Presi-dent Jonathan toAkande: Respect thetruth, your age and Ni-geria,” the presidentsaid it was sad thatAkande was denigrating

the exalted office of thePresident of Nigeria.

Noting that he was yetto declare whether or nothe would seek re-elec-tion, which he was con-stitutionally entitled to,he asked Akande andleaders of the APC toresolve their internalleadership problemsarising from allegedambitions of AsiwajuBola Ahmed Tinubu andGeneral MuhammaduBuhari (Rtd) instead ofdenigrating the presi-dent.

The statement

The statement read:“We have noted with dis-may the continuation ofefforts by leaders of theopposition to promotethemselves and theirparty through the irre-sponsible denigration ofPresident GoodluckJonathan and the ex-alted office of the Presi-dent of the Federal Re-public of Nigeria. Theinterim National Chair-man of the APC, ChiefBisi Akande sank to anew low in this regard,yesterday, when herudely and falsely de-scribed PresidentJonathan as a “kinder-garten” leader whotreats national issueswith levity.

“Chief Bisi Akande hasevery right to embark ona flight of fancy aboutthe APC beating the PDPin the 2015 general elec-tions, but he does no jus-tice to his age and sta-tus when he resorts topropagating falsehood,

wilfully insulting thePresident of his country,impugning his integrityand desecrating the veryoffice which his partywishes to take over in2015 by fair or foulmeans. We urge ChiefAkande and his fellow-travellers to rememberthat there are lawsagainst libel and defa-mation of character inthis country even ifthere are no legal im-pediments to indeco-rous, hypocritical andunpatriotic vituperation.

“It is certainly rude,ill-mannered, uncharita-ble and hypocritical forChief Akande to falselyand cavalierly allegethat a President whotoils tirelessly every dayof the week, evolvingand implementing work-able solutions to Niger-ia’s problems, is han-dling national issueswith levity.

“Also, nothing else butgross ignorance and lackof consideration couldhave led Chief Akandeto refer to a Presidentwho, having served asdeputy governor, gover-nor, vice president andpresident, has far moreexperience of govern-ance at the highest levelthan him and his pre-ferred “candidates”, as akindergarten leader.

“By his very un-guarded and intemper-ate outburst yesterday(Sunday), Chief Akandeexhibited not only anunbecoming lack of re-spect for the person andoffice of the President ofhis country, but also a

complete disregard forthe patriotic feelings ofthe millions of Nigerianswho voted for PresidentJonathan and who con-tinue to appreciate hissincere efforts to posi-tively transform the na-tion.

"It is very sad and un-fortunate that unbridledambition for the officethey constantly impugnand denigrate hasblinded Chief Akandeand his ilk to the visibleaccomplishments of theJonathan Presidency.

"Certainly, nothingelse but a manic and un-scrupulous quest forpower could have ledthem to make such accu-sations against a Presi-dent who, among othersignificant achieve-ments, has been praisedfor his handling of theinsurgency in some partsof Northern Nigeriawhere he has used acombination of diplo-macy and targeted mili-tary force to contain thesecurity threat.

"Nothing else but therelentless pursuit of nar-row personal and sec-tional interests couldlead them to make suchclaims about a Presidentunder whose leadershipNigeria’s economy hasbeen promoted from alow income economy toa middle incomeeconomy by the WorldBank and whose leader-ship has seen the GrossDomestic Product of Ni-geria increase at an an-nual rate of over six percent since he took office.

“Finally, though Presi-dent Jonathan has notindicated whether or nothe is interested in a sec-ond term, Chief Akande,who has taken stock ofhis party and seen thatthey have no electablepresidential material isalready trying to beclever by half by claim-ing the President is stat-ute-barred from contest-ing in 2015, saying itwill amount to a “thirdterm”.

What theConstitution says

“If this is the winningstrategy of the APC,Chief Akande has everyreason to panic becausethe issue of eligibility forelection into the office ofthe President has beensettled by the Constitu-tion of the Federal Re-public of Nigeria, 1999,as amended which pro-vides as follows;

137. (1) A person shallnot be qualified for elec-tion to the office of Presi-dent if -

(b) he has been electedto such office at any twoprevious elections;

"President GoodluckJonathan has beenelected into office ononly one previous occa-sion and is therefore notstatute-barred from run-ning.

“It is clear that theAPC is seeking to baitthe Presidency to re-spond to it to achievetwo purposes. The firstpurpose is to get theirname into the press andgain name recognitionfor their party. How pa-thetic. The second andmore important reason isto divert the attention ofthe public from the fes-tering feud betweenMuhammadu Buhariand Bola Tinubu over theoverriding ambition ofthe two men which isthreatening to tear thenew contraption which ismistakenly referred toby the gullible as a party.

"To the discerning, it isonly a matter of time be-fore ambition sinks theAPC boat. It is only 2013and already the big mas-querades in the partyare using undemocraticwords like “must”, “no-body can stop” and othermilitary terms in dis-cussing their presiden-tial ticket.

“Our advice to the APCis this: treat your partylike a democratic asso-ciation and don’t mis-take it for the ArmouredPersonnel Carrier (APC)that someone used toforce his way to power.”

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013

Driver who impregnated widow,daughter burnt to death

Suspected pipeline vandals arrested by a team of Nigerian Army and Nigeria Security andCivil Defence Corps, NSCDC, at Ogere Remo, weekend. Photo: WUMI AKINOLA.

BY CHINENYEH OZOR

NSUKKA — THE universitytown of Nsukka in Enugu

State has witnessed yet anotherbrutal death as a tipper driverwho allegedly impregnated awidow and her daughter has re-portedly been burnt to death byson of the widow, SundayUgwoke.

Vanguard gathered that the tip-per driver, Sylvester Ezema, at-tached to Ferguson Nig. Limitedhailed from Akpa Edem, NsukkaLocal Government Area, EnuguState and shared a common fenceboundary with his widowed lover,Mrs. Ugwoke.

Report said he had been hav-ing amorous dealings with thewoman's daughther too, un-known to the widow before hedied a few days ago.

According to report, Sylvesterwas allegedly burnt to death bySunday, who had warned him toleave his mother alone and stop

making love with her in his latefather’s bedroom, which is adja-cent to his room, a warning thedeceased allegedly turned downand continued with his amorousact.

Vanguard gathered thatSylvester defied all the warningsby Sunday, saying the widowwas a family friend and as such

nobody would suspect them.Having defied his warning,

Sunday, armed with grindedpepper and petrol and allegedlyambushed the lover boy. AsSylvester stepped out of thehouse, Sunday was said to havepoured the grinded pepper andpetrol on Sylvester and allegedltset him ablaze.

8 arrested for killingelephant in Ogun

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

ABEOKUTA — EIGHTpersons, including the al-

leged killer of an elephant ina forest reserve popularlycalled Elephants Forest in aborder area between J1 andJ3 in Ijebu-Igbo, Ijebu NorthLocal Government Area ofOgun State have been ar-rested.

The state Commissioner forForestry, Ayo Olubori, whodisclosed this to newsmen inAbeokuta, yesteray, said hehad to pass a night in the jun-gle after a three-hour journeywithin the forest before thesuspects were arrested, de-scribing the crime as a veryserious one.

Olubori said the elephantwas killed at the wee hours ofThursday by a man (namewithheld) after he encroachedin to the forest exclusively re-served for elephants in thestate and was later joined bysome villagers to dismemberit.

According to Olubori, thekiller and his accomplices hadbeen taken to a police stationin Ijebu-Igbo for interroga-tion.

He said: “The suspected killerof the wild animal was arrestedon the spot at 1 am after a three-hour journey into the forest re-serve. The animal is an endan-gered specie, we have them inlimited number and if care is nottaken, they may go into extinc-tion.

“Preliminary report of the in-vestigation has shown that thesuspect was sent by some promi-nent people in the society to getthem elephant tusks which costN25 million each. He confessedto the crime."

Flood unearths corpsesin Kano cemetery

KANO — NO fewer than 20corpses were unearthed at

the Yan Kaba Cemetery in Kanometropolis following flood whichoccurred after a heavy rainfall.

The flood occurred on Fridaynight after a down pour in thecity.

A resident of the area, MalamAudullahi Musa, told the NewsAgency of Nigeria, Saturday, inKano that the corpses were dis-covered outside the cemetery inthe morning by the residents ofthe area.

“At the moment, there are 20corpses awaiting reburial at thecemetery,” he told NAN.

Musa called on people of thearea to come out and assist torebury the corpses, to avoid pos-

sible outbreak of diseases.Executive Secretary of the State

Emergency Relief and Rehabili-tation Board, Alhaji Ali Bashir,confirmed the incident in an in-terview, saying the flood affectedsome houses in the metropolis.

Bashir said the agency haddeployed some officials to the areato ascertain the situation.

Meantime, the flood has killedone person and destroyed 434houses. Bashir said the deceaseddied after he fell in Katsaiki Riverat Darmanawa in Kumbotso Lo-cal Government Area of the state.

He said of the affected houses,408 were destroyed in Kano me-tropolis while the remaining 26houses were located in Dawakin-Tofa local government area.

Body of drowned teenagernot recovered —NEMA

By EVELYN USMAN

LAGOS — THE National Emergency Management Agency,NEMA, yesterday said the body of the teenager who drowned

last Friday at the Bar Beach, Lagos, was yet to be recovered.This is just as the identity of the teenager who was reportedly

swept by ocean surge was as at yesterday still unknown. Enquir-ies at the Bar Beach police division and others around the vicinityrevealed that no one had come to complain of any missing personor identified the drowned teenager.

The teenager, a male, was sent to an early grave after some funseekers celebrating the Eid-el-fitri at the beach suddenly raisedalarm on noticing that the boy’s life was in danger. The victim, asgathered, was swimming when all of a sudden, the wave becameboisterous and swept him deeper into the ocean.

Attempt by three life guards to rescue the drowning teenagerfailed as they could not go further following the intense wave ofthe surging ocean.

NEMA’s South West zone, Ibrahim Farinloye, told Vanguardon phone, yesterday, that the teenager’s body was yet to be re-covered.

6 policemen detainedover driver’s death

BY DAYO JOHNSON

AKURE — SIX policemen have been detained in Ondo Stateover the killing of a driver of an unregistered truck, Friday

Igbenidion, weekend, along the Ore/Benin Expressway.The suspects were on patrol duty along Ore/Benin expressway

when the deceased was reportedly killed.Vanguard gathered that the Police authorities ordered the ar-

rest of all its men in that area to unravel the person behind thekilling of Friday and to know the motive behind the killing.

Confirming the death and arrest of the policemen, the statepolice image maker, Wole Ogodo, said: “The command receivedinformation at about 1 pm on August 9, 2013 that a driver with anunregistered truck was shot and killed close to a police pin downpoint on Ore/Benin Road.

“Following the report, we have arrested the crew members tothe police patrol vehicles along the route. They have been de-tained and subjected to interrogation."

Three killed in Bayelsaboat mishaps

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

YENAGOA — THREE persons were reportedly killed, weekend, in separate boat mishaps along the creeks of Sagbama

and Ekeremor Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State.While two persons, among them half brother to the late former

National Security Adviser identified as Felix Azazi, lost their livesalong the waterways of Ekeremor council area, a woman alsoreportedly lost her life in the Forcados river close to Agbere inSagbama Local Government Area.

It was gathered that the Ekeremor council area boat mishapoccurred at 7.30pm, Friday.

The deceased persons, it was learnt, were heading to Ojobo inDelta State for a wake keep when the boat in which they weretravelling capsized while trying to overtake another boat.

The ill-fated speedboat which met its waterloo in front of theMobile police jetty at Ekeremor was said to have sailed fromTuomo in Delta State.

The other deceased person which identity could not be ascer-tained, Vanguard learnt, is of Urhobo extraction.

The deceased Urhobo man, a landlord in Warri, accordingsources, was said to have embarked on the trip for the wake keepto identify with his tenant alongside his wife when tragedy struck.His wife was, however, lucky as she escaped with five others.

Meantime, the Forcados river boat mishap was said to haveoccurred at about 8pm also on Friday when a speedboat collidedwith a wooden boat, killing a woman some distance away fromAgbere in Sagbama council area.

The deceased woman whose identity could not be ascertainedwas said to have sailed from Oshikwenike in the council areawhen she met her untimely death.


Oil firms lie over crude production— Tompolo, Ex-militant Leader

Excerpts:The Federal Government

awarded a contract to Oil Fa-cility Surveillance Limited,OFSL, which you are a prin-cipal owner, to secure oil pipe-lines, yet oil theft is escalatingin Niger-Delta. What iswrong?

The Federal Governmenttruly awarded a contract to OilFacility Surveillance Limited,OFSL, a security company ofwhich High Chief GovernmentEkpemupolo, alias Tompolo, isthe chairman of the board ofdirectors, including someprominent Itsekiri youths inFebruary 2011.

The contract was for a one-year pilot scheme that coversonly Delta State and that it isto say the contract expired Feb-ruary 2012, over a year ago.

The operations of OFSL inDelta State was successfulwithin the one year the contractlasted, which manystakeholders in the oil indus-try, including the presentGroup Managing Director,GMD of Nigeria National Pe-troleum Corporation, NNPC,Mr. Andrew Yakubu, attested

to during one of his televi-sion interviews with jour-nalists.

How much was this con-tract? We were told it wasabout N3.6 billion?

The contract sum is be-tween OFSL and the Presi-dency, represented byNNPC. We would not liketo disclose the contract sumbecause it is a security is-sue.

However, due process wasfollowed in the award of thecontract and invoice wasusually sent to NNPC withevidence of work done eachmonth before payment wasmade. About 5,000 workerswere engaged.

You also have anothermulti-billion naira contractwith the Federal Govern-ment through NIMASA, tosecure the coastal borders.What is really the worth ofthis contract and the scope?

The Federal Government,through NIMASA, awardeda public private partnership,

PPP, contract to Global West Ves-sel Specialist Limited, GWVSL,and not to Chief GovernmentEkpemupolo, aka Tompolo.Tompolo is not on the board ofGWVSL.

He was only approached bythe management of the com-pany to help it in carrying outits operations because of hisvast knowledge of the coastalareas. The scope of the job isthe area of the Nigerian terri-torial waters where shippingactivities take place. One can-not give the worth of the con-tract because it is based on No-cure, no-pay.

What are the terms andvalue of this contract with Glo-bal West Vessel Specialist Lim-ited? It is all over the place thatyou have collected over $103.4million (about N15 billion).

Well, you have heard thetruth and the whole truth fromme now. Nevertheless, I knowthat in the contract terms,GWVSL is to provide a platform(made up of sea-going secu-rity vessels, technology fortracking ships, and so on).

No dime was given to

GWVSL. It is what comes out ofthe operations that will be sharedbetween the Federal Government/NIMASA and GWVSL. If there isno increase in the revenue ofNIMASA, then GWVSL will notget any money. That is the mean-ing of no-cure, no-pay.

From the reports by the oilcompanies and government of-ficials, oil bunkering across theboarders has increased. Why isyour company unable to live upto expectation?

For the avoidance of doubt, Iwant to say that there is no con-tract now. OFSL fought crude oilbunkerers to a standstill duringits operations in Delta State.

Says his one-year contract expired in Feb 2012Offers solutions to oil theft

EX-MILITANT leader and founder of the non-operational Movement for the Emancipation of Niger-Delta,MEND, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, has accused oil multinationals of telling lies

and deceiving the Federal Government on the actual quantity of crude oil they produce daily.Tompolo, who spoke to Vanguard through the Executive Secretary of Tompolo Foundation, Warri, Mr. PaulBebenimibo, weekend, however, offered the Federal Government tips on how to tackle oil bandits in theNiger-Delta region.He advised government, among other things, to increase shadowing activities in the oil-bearing states andrestore its abandoned surveillance contracts in Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers states.Contrary to the thinking that he has a running multi-billion contract with the Nigeria National PetroleumCorporation, NNPC, on protection of crude oil pipelines in Delta State, he said the contract awarded to OilFacility Surveillance Limited, OFSL, which he is the chair, was only for one year, and that it expired sinceFebruary 2012.

Clearly, it gave oil bunkerersthe battle of their lives. Someof them are weeping till date.

Are the oil companies in par-ticular telling the whole truthabout sharp increase in oiltheft?

The oil companies may not betelling the truth. They may beusing this strategy to deceivethe government since the ac-tual amount of crude oil pro-duced daily in the country isnot known.

Who are those responsiblefor the theft and how do theyoperate?

The identity of those respon-sible for the theft of crude oilcan only be unraveled througha high-powered investigationbecause it is a business for therich.

How can government check-mate them?

The government can effec-tively check illegal crude oilactivities by renewing the sur-veillance of oil facilities con-tract in Delta, Bayelsa and Riv-ers states, as well as expandthe job to other oil-bearingstates.

Performance can be measuredby regular meetings withstakeholders, while the Depart-ment of Petroleum Resources,DPR, must wake up and liveup to expectation.

For the one year the contractlasted, there were threats toOFSL workers. What were theproblems the company facedat the time?

You are correct. For the oneyear the contract lasted in DeltaState, there were threats to thelives of operators of OFSL, in-adequate salary for workers.NNPC only approved N30,000for ordinary workers andN36,000 for supervisors againstthe proposed amount ofN100,000 for ordinary workersand N120,000 for supervisorsby the OFSL.

Even at that, OFSL was pay-ing its proposed amount be-cause no one working in acoastal area like ours will ac-cept such paltry amount ofmoney for one month. To dootherwise would be to the det-riment of the company.

There were no storage facili-ties for impounded crude oil,as well as the refined products.

The identity of thoseresponsible for the theft of

crude oil can only be unraveledthrough a high-powered

investigation because it is abusiness for the rich

‘

’

LAUNCH: From left— High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo; Mr. Ezenwo Wike, Minister of State,Education, and HRM Pere Godwin Bebenimibo, Ogeh Gbaran III, Aketekpe of Gbaramatu Kingdom, at the launch ofTompolo Foundation in Effurun, Delta State.


PresidencyfaultsAfDB'sreport onpoverty inNigeria

Constitution review: State Housesof Assembly mobilise for autonomy

ABUJA—AS the NationalAssembly fine-tunes its re-

view of the Constitution, Speak-ers of the 36 states' Houses ofAssembly have begun seriousmobilisation towards getting in-dependence from their respec-tive governors.

However, the state governors,it was also gathered, were notcomfortable with granting au-tonomy to their Houses of As-sembly.

A governor told one of our cor-respondents that they were notin support of autonomy for therespective Houses, just as theydid not support the removal ofimmunity from the Presidentand governors.

Speaker of the Enugu StateHouse of Assembly, Mr. EugeneOdo, in an interview with ourcorrespondent in Abuja, saidthey were ready to back inde-pendence for the assemblies.

Odo, who also heads the Con-stitution Review Committee ofthe Conference of NigerianSpeakers, said that the speak-

ers had resolved to ensure theindependence of the respec-tive Houses of Assembly to beable to serve their constituentsbetter.

Odo said: “The autonomy ofthe legislature is very para-mount. We have alwayswanted autonomy but unfor-tunately we lost it during thelast amendment. Those of usin the South-East did verywell, as we all voted for au-tonomy except for one state.

“I know that the South-South did not do much, so welost all the states in the South-South. The South-West didvery well but the North did notdo well.

“This time we areregrouping to make sure thatwe pass the resolution in fa-vour of granting autonomy tothe state Houses of Assembly.

Advantages ofautonomy

“The whole essence of au-tonomy is not to fight the ex-ecutive but to strengthen thepolity and the economy.

“It equally assists in makingsure that what is budgeted forthe legislature is properly re-leased to them. By so doing,proper oversight and goodgovernance are guaranteed.

“You can imagine state leg-islators going on oversightfunction and applying to theexecutive to get funds, whichthey will use to prosecute theoversight function. I do notthink that is what the doctrineof Separation of Powerteaches.

“The doctrine tries to giveeach arm of government alevel of independence to en-able it to do its duty.

“Of course, the separation ofpower is not water tight, butthen it has to guarantee somelevel of independence as notto inhibit the proper function-ing of each of the arms of gov-ernment. That is the main rea-son why we want autonomyfor the state legislature.”

On Jonathan’s per-formance

Asked to assess the perform-

ance of President GoodluckJonathan in the last two years,Odo said that Jonathan haddone well, but added that theproblems he inherited from hispredecessors were still hinder-ing the progress of the nation.

The Speaker said: “Mr. Presi-dent has really done very well.Most of these problems in thecountry today were not causedby him. These problems havebeen there even when Mr.President had not dreamt ofentering politics.

“But since he is our majortrustee, we have to urge him todo more. I believe Mr. Presi-dent has done well. And I amparticularly impressed by theaggressive road maintenanceacross the country.

“He has equally done verywell in the area of sanitisingthe economy itself. I am awarethat so many companies arenow coming in to encouragemass production of rice in thiscountry.

“At least, we should be proudthat this is what we produceand this is what we have beenable to offer from this country.”

BY SONI DANIEL,Regional Editor, North

VISIT: From left— General Yakubu Gowon (rtd.), Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, Chief Fred Sohwo and Patrick Origho, whenGowon visited Delta State, weekend. PHOTO: Akpokona Omafuaire.

ABUJA—THE Presi-dency, weekend, in

Abuja faulted the AfricanDevelopment Bank,AfDB’s report on Niger-ia’s poverty reduction ef-forts.

Special Adviser to thePresident on Media andPublicity, Dr. ReubenAbati, told newsmen thatthe report was “devoid oftruth and political.”

Abati said that it wasinconceivable thatAfDB’s report camebarely a month after theUN gave an award toNigeria for its efforts atreducing poverty signifi-cantly in the country.

He recalled that theFood and AgriculturalOrganisation, FAO, a UNbody, at its 38th Sessionin Rome in late Junegave an award to Ni-geria as one of the na-tions that made signifi-cant progress in reduc-ing hunger.

The Minister of Agri-culture, Dr. AkinwumiAdesina, representedPresident GoodluckJonathan and receivedthe award on behalf ofthe Federal Government.

Adeshina presented theaward to the Presidentduring a Federal Execu-tive Council, FEC, meet-ing.

Abati said that such anegative report fromAfDB some weeks afterthe FAO award was “sus-picious and laced withfalsehood and political.”

Lamido blasts Okupe, Gulak over comments on Northern govs

GOVERNOR Sule Lamidoof Jigawa State has be-

rated presidential aides, DoyinOkupe and Ahmed Gulak ontheir recent outbursts againsthim and four other governorsjust as he has dismissed therecently registered All Progres-sive Congress, APC, as a pana-cea to the nation’s problems.

Governor Lamido, in an in-terview, said he was in agree-ment with President GoodluckJonathan that Nigeria cannot

break as he said that membersof the elite class in the countrywere united in preserving theiradvantages over the masses ir-respective of tribe and religion.

Lamido also expressed disap-pointment with statements cred-ited to former Minister of theFederal Capital Territory, FCT,Mohammed Abba-Gana, thatthere was no presidential mate-rial in the north.

Lamido, who attended thesame Barewa College withAbba-Gana, said that the edu-cation Abba-Gana had, pre-pared him for the presidency.

Defending recent visits tosome of the country’s elder-statesmen, he said the gover-nors acted in the interest ofthe nation and in their deter-mination to salvage the coun-try’s democracy.

He said: “A situation wherea hired hand like DoyinOkupe, a wage earner thatspeaks only to justify his pay,will malign me that I am ir-relevant.

“He became an aide after theelection. These people whoare now talking and abusingus are personal aides, whobecame what they are whenthe mandate was achieved.

“They were nowhere when

the whole thing was beingworked out. It means therewas an election before theywere able to serve as aides.

“There is nothing like hon-our in that because they arejust hired hands. If tomorrowyou have another President,they go to him.”

‘Why Nigeriacan't break'

Agreeing with PresidentJonathan that Nigeria cannotbreak, he said: “It is too weakto break. Who will break it? Theordinary person in Jigawa orthe ordinary person in Sokotoor the ordinary person inBayelsa?

“Is it the Ibo vulcaniser or theYoruba woman that is sellingkerosene by the roadside or theOkada man in Delta?

“They don’t have the capac-ity to unite because they areburdened by poverty. We havetaken away from them their dig-nity, their self esteem, theirpride and self worth so that theycannot even organise.

“Up there, we (elite) unite, wesing and so we will never al-low Nigeria to break becauseonce it breaks, we will lose.

“But the common man losesnothing. What is he losing? Heis already living in hell; he can-not lose anything more thanthis hell.”

BY EMMANUELAZIKEN, Political Editor

Says poor Nigerians 're in hell


Firm denies receiving N486mfrom NIMASA monthly

BY GODFREY BIVBERE

LAGOS — Global West Vessel Specialist Limited,

has refuted insinuations in themaritime industry that it re-

VISITT: From left, wife of the governor of Niger State, Hajiya Jummai Babangida Aliyu; Governor Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu,governor of Lagos State, Raji Fashola, and his wife, Abimbola Fashola, during a condolence visit on Governor Fashola overthe death of his father, Ibrahim Fashola, at Lagos House, Marina.

SONI DANIEL, REGIONALEDITOR, NORTH &, HENRY

UMORU

PEOPLES DEMOCRATICParty, PDP, has said it is

unaware of any offer byPresident Goodluck Jonathan,to erstwhile Chief SecurityOfficer, CSO, to the late SaniAbacha, Major Al-Mustapha,to join the party.

An online publicationreported that the Presidenthad indeed wooed Al-Mustapha, freed by an AppealCourt last month of complicityin the murder of KudiratAbiola, wife of late MKOAbiola, to join PDP with a viewto using his new-found

2015: We’re unaware of Jonathan’s offerto Al-Mustapha to join party —PDP

ceives N486 million monthlyfrom the Nigerian MaritimeAdministration and SafetyAgency, NIMASA, for the pro-vision of platforms to combat

popularity to win politicalsupport for his re-election in2015.

The medium said, however,that it was not clear if the ArmyMajor would accept the offeras he did not give an immediateresponse.

It was further reported by themedium that Al Mustaphaopted to report to someinfluential northern politicalleaders before making hisposition known to thePresidency.

But the PDP yesterday deniedany talks between the Presidentand the former Abacha’s CSO.

The National PublicitySecretary of the PDP, Mr. TonyCaesar Okeke, said there wasno such invitation and that

those banding the story did sofor ulterior purpose, saying “Weare not aware of any suchinvitation.”

But the National President ofthe Arewa Youths ConsultativeForum, Alhaji Shettima Yerima,said there was nothing wrongfor the former CSO to seekhigher office in the land if heleft the army.

12 soldiers, 7 police killed in uprisingMAIDUGURI — THE

commander of theMilitary Joint Task Force, JTF,fighting North Eastern

Nigeria’s Islamic uprisinghas admited that 12 soldiersand seven police officerswere killed in recent attacks.

The military had earliersaid only two soldiers andone police officer were killedwhen suspected members of

the Boko Haram terroristnetwork attacked a militarybase and police outpost nearNigeria’s border withCameroon on August 4.

Maj. Gen. Jah Ewansiahmade the admission Saturdaywhen he spoke to the BornoState governor andjournalists present.

He said despite the losses,the task force “is resolute andcommitted to ensure thatpeace is completely restoredin Borno State, even if itmeans losing our lives.”

Thousands more troopswere sent into North EasternNigeria after a state ofemergency was declaredmid-May.

crimes on the na-tion’s waterways.

Managing Direc-tor of the company,Winfred Itima, toldVanguard in Lagosthat what the com-pany received wasbased on the reve-nue collected byNIMASA from itsintelligence reports,monitoring activi-ties in addition tothe provision of plat-forms.

According to him,there was no specif-ic amount paid tohis company month-ly because the con-tract stipulated thatthe company wouldonly be paid if NI-MASA surpassed itsset revenue bench-mark.

ABUJA_GOVERNORS loyal to Rivers State

governor, Rotimi ChibuikeAmaechi in the NigeriaGovernors Forum, NGF,crisis, yesterday for thethird time shunned themeeting summoned by thefaction led by Jonah Jangof Plateau State.

Yesterday’s meeting ofJonah Jang led faction,which took place at the newsecretariat at 2 Nana Close,off Erie Crescent, NileStreet, Maitama, Abuja,followed the one it held onJune 17 which attracted 18state governors.

Sunday meeting was at-tended by ten governorsand five Deputies. In atten-dance were governorsMartin Elechi of Ebonyi;Emmanuel Uduaghan ofDelta; Gabriel Suswam ofBenue; Godswill Akpabio ofAkwaIbom; OlusegunMimiko of Ondo; IbrahimShema of Katsina; JonahJang of Plateau; TheordoreOrji of Abia; SeriakeDickson of Bayelsa andActing governor of Taraba,Garba Umar.

The deputy governorspresent were Yomi Awoniyiof kogi; Nuhu Bajoga Auduof Kaduna; Efiok Cobhamof Cross River; Anambrastate deputy and that ofGombe. Governor SullivanChime of Enugu State andIsa Yuguda of Bauchi whobelong to this faction wereabsent.

While the meeting wasstill going on, GovernorGodswill Akpabio of AkwaIbom State told Journaliststhat the meeting was sum-moned to find a way of rec-onciling Amaechi led NGFand that of Jang to enablethem continue to work inthe interest of Nigerians.

He said, “We believe inbringing all the governorsback to the fold so that wewill continue to impact pos-itively on Nigerians.”

Akpabio also explainedthat the meeting would dis-cuss peer review and theforthcoming National Con-vention of the ruling Peo-ples Democratic Party(PDP) as well as the Anam-bra State election.

Also speaking while themeeting was still inprogress, Katsina Stategovernor, Ibrahim Shema,disclosed that the meetingwould also deliberate onthe ongoing constitutionalreview, just as GabrielSuswam of Benue said theissue of strike by the Aca-demic Staff Union of Uni-versities was also slated fordiscussion.

NGF:Amaechiloyalistsshun Jang’smeeting

BY HENRY UMORU


Fayemi, PDP chieftain bicker overscholarship award

Fayemi’s claim is false —Adeyeye Stop exhibiting ignorance —Fayemi

THE CAMPAIGNorganisation of

Afenifere chieftain andPeoples Democratic Party,PDP, governorship aspirant inEkiti State, has dismissed asfalse the claim by the stategovernor, Dr. Kayode Fayemithat he gave personalscholarship to six Ekitistudents to study abroad.

The organisation, PrinceAdebayo AdeyeyeMovement, PAAM, said thatFayemi’s claim was not onlyfalse, but cheap and childishadvertisement of a failedgovernment.

PAAM said in a statement byits Director General, Hon. BisiKolawole that, “What we aresimply demanding from

Fayemi is names of 20 Ekitistudents that he helped withas cheap as payment forJAMB forms between 2005and 2010.”

However, in a swift reaction,th e governor’s Chief PressSecretary, Mr. OlayinkaOyebode alleged thatAdeyeye has laboured tocreate false impression in theminds of people throughillogical reasoning.

According to Oyebode; “TheGovernor’s decision to awardfull scholarships to theseexceptionally brilliantstudents is to assist them intheir quests for greatness andto encourage countlessothers to dare to be excellentin learning and character.

“And this is withoutprejudice to the activities ofthe scholarship board, which

apparently cannot take care ofevery student that applied forit.

“Governor Fayemi, who isimpressed by the exceptionalperformances of these sixgraduates chose to personallysponsor their post graduatestudies in their chosen foreignuniversities includingHarvard, Oxford and theUniversity of Technology,Tinajin, China.

“It is rather amusing foranyone to compare thegesture of the Governor to theN500,000 Adeyeye claimedMr. Segun Oni’sadministration paid asscholarship to Ph.D students.”

But Kolawole fired back,asking: “Was he (Fayemi)giving such scholarshipswhen he was going about withhis Non-Governmental

Organisation, NGO, business?“The reality they are trying

to runaway from is that theirclaim that the scholarship hegave to six Ekiti students tostudy abroad was from hispurse was total falsehood andeven a five year old child cannever believe it.

“And in their bid to defendthis falsehood, they haveexposed to the public thatwhen Adeyeye was Chairmanof Ekiti State Universal BasicEducation Board,SUBEB, theboard’s fund was used toexecute projects, hundreds ofwhich were ongoing beforeFayemi came to power.

“Isn’t it even interesting thatin the warped opinion ofFayemi and his men, theresponsibility of completingSUBEB projects that wereongoing before October 15,2010 should be that of SegunOni and Adeyeye?

“Instead of false generosity,we think Fayemi and his menshould rather tell the publichow a governor, whosemonthly salary is less thanN700,000 could havesponsored scholarship worthclose to N50 million from hispocket?”

We have notendorsed Amosun— APCchieftain

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

ABEOKUTA — AChieftain of the

newly registered AllProgressives Congressin Ogun State, WaleOkuniyi, has clismissedas false the controversytrailing the purportedendorsement of the stategovernor, SenatorIbikunle Amosun forsecond term in office.

Okunniyi, who was agovernorship candidateof the defunct CongressProgressive Change inthe state in 2011elections, maintainedthat the newly formedparty was yet to name itsgovernorship candidatefor the coming generalelections.

ASUU wants NUC investigatedBY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN — THEAcademic Staff Union of

Universities, ASUU, saidProfessor Julius Okojie ledNational UniversitiesCommission, NUC, shouldbe probed over allegedfraudulent practices onuniversity accreditation in thecountry.

The union making thisdemand, through its NationalTreasurer, Dr. Ademola Aremuand Chairman, University ofIbadan Chapter, Dr. OlusegunAjiboye, argued that the Actestablishing the NUC and theJoint Admission andMatriculation Board, JAMB,must be reviewed.

They wondered how Prof.Okojie could still declare that allwas well despite the perceivedrot in the university system.

“NUC to us in ASUU hasoutlived its usefulness. Whengovernment gives

Ondo oilproducingareacounsels FGover NDDCboard

BY DAYO JOHNSON

AKURE — STAKEHOLDERSin the oil producingareas of Ondo State,weekend, enjoinedPresident GoodluckJonathan to follow theAct establishing theNiger DeltaD e v e l o p m e n tCommission, NDDC, inthe appointment of thenew board of thecommission.

They noted that the statehas been short changed inthe past in theappointment of theManaging Director andthe Executive Directors ofthe intervention agencyand that they were readyto take any of the positionsin the new board.

Spokesperson for thecommunities, who was aformer Special Assistant tothe President on youthmatters, Kolade Akinjo,said that successivegovernments had notapplied the provisions ofthe NDDC Act in theappointment of theManaging Director andthe Executive Directors.

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

MEETING: Ogun StateGovernor, SenatorIbikunle Amosun(2ndright); Ogun State DeputyGovernor,Prince SegunAdesegun(2nd left);Speaker, Ogun StateHouse of Assembly, Rt.Hon. Suraj IsholaAdekumbi (1st left), andChairman, AllProgressives Congress,APC, Ogun State Chapter,Alhaji Tajudeen Bello (1stright), during thevaledictory meeting of theAction Congress ofNigeria, ACN, Ogun StateChapter, in Abeokuta,yesterday.

appointment, they know thekind of people they take andmost of the time they arepeople who can compromiseanything.

“Very recently, the RiversState University of Technologyconducted an examinationunder some fraudulentsituations when academicstaff were on strike and NUCcame out to say theexamination was conductedunder normal conditions.

“The fraud going in NUCover accreditation of coursesin Nigerian universities muststop. If JAMB is working well,there will be no need for postJAMB and that is why we aresaying the laws thatestablished JAMB should alsobe reviewed.”

On the strike embarkedupon by the academic union,Dr. Aremu said: “On the partof government, they aretalking about re-negotiationand we are saying we cannot

be talking about re-negotiation when we have notimplemented the agreementon ground.

“It took us three years ofstruggle to get thegovernment to enter into oneagreement with us in 2009.”


Gowon advocates good leadership for nationalunity, devt

BY FESTUS AHON &GODWIN OGHRE

Runawaykidnapkingpinresurfaces inhometown

UGHELLI—FORMERHead of State, General

Yakubu Gowon (rtd), week-end, charged religious lead-ers in the country to alwaysspeak the truth. He admon-ished those in government toimprove the country’s quali-ty of leadership.

Gowon insisted that it wasthe only way to achieve na-tional unity and develop-ment, noting that the churchmust reinforce the teaching ofmoral instruction from the cra-dle.

In another development,Gowon has commended theUrhobo for their support dur-ing the Nigerian civil war.

He said, after being con-ferred with the chieftaincy ti-tle of Ekue’ Nigeria egbere’ovie’ of Ughelli Kingdom,Ughelli North Local Govern-ment Area, Delta State, thatthe Urhobo were very close tohim when he was militaryHead of State.

Speaking during the secondSynod of the Anglican Com-

munion, Sapele Diocese, Del-ta State, with the theme, TheCovenant Keeping God, Gow-on said unless Nigerian lead-ers imbibe the doctrine andprinciples of God, the coun-try would not experience eco-nomic, social and political de-velopment.

He said: “Obedience and re-

spect for the dignity of fellowhumans was the practice inthe Bible era when theocracywas the order of the day, whenpriests and judges ruledbased on instructions and lawsreceived directly from God.”

At the conferment awardand flanked by former Minis-ter of State for Education,

Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi andothers in his entourage, Gow-on said that the Urhobo con-tributed greatly to keepingNigeria one during the Nige-rian civil war, noting thatkeeping the country one wasnot his personal achievementbut a collective achievementof all Nigerians.

...commends Urhobo for support during Nigerian civil war

BY EMMA AMAIZE

Abe condemns alleged arrest of Amaechi’sloyalists

BY GABRIELENOGHOLASE

BENIN—THE Enogie ofEvbuovbioba community

in Oredo Local GovernmentArea of Edo State, EdwinIzevbokun, and one of his sub-jects, Matthew Iyoha, havepetitioned the Inspector Gen-eral of Police, Alhaji Mu-hammed Abubakar, over theiralleged illegal arrest and den-tention by police officers fromthe Homicide Section of the Ni-geria Police Headquarters,Abuja.

They were alleged to havebeen arrested over allegationthat they were preventing theleaders of the Community De-velopment Association, fromtaking over the running of thecommunity.

In the petition through theircounsel, Afolabi Olayiwola, thepetitioners claimed that the mat-ter of who should take over therunning of the affairs of thecommunity was already beforean Edo State High Court foradjudication, noting that theirarrest by the police from Abujawas illegal.

Insisting that the self-ac-claimed chairman of the Com-munity Development Associa-

Royal father, subject petition IG over alleged illegaldetention

tion, who brought the police-men from the Homicide Sectionof the Force Headquarters,Abuja, was using the police tostall the matter already in thecourt, the petitioners pleadedwith the Inspector General tolook into the conduct of the po-lice officers from Abuja, whowere being used to harass andintimidate them.

“We were shocked whenLucky Enababor brought policeofficers from the Federal Hom-icide, Abuja, to arrest the sus-pects on the ground that they

were threatening him and hisexecutive from taking over theaffairs of the community whenthe matter is already in courtto his knowledge.

“Mr. Iyoha was arrested onAugust 6, as he was going outin his car and thinking that thepeople were kidnappers, heabandoned his car and went toEvbuotubu Police Station andit was there the policemen fromAbuja arrested him.

“The case of the second sus-pect, HRH Edwin Izevbokunwas so pathetic as he is over

BY HENRY UMORU

A B U J A — S E N AT O RMagnus Abe, Peoples

Democratic Party, PDP RiversSouth-East, has condemnedalleged arbitrary arrest anddetention of some members ofthe PDP loyal to GovernorChibuike Amaechi of RiversState. He called on the InspectorGeneral of Police, Mr. Mo-hammed Abubakar, to carryout a proper investigation intothe manner the Amaechi sup-porters were arrested.

W A R R I — T H Emost wanted

kidnapper in Delta State,Kelvin, who fled hishometown, Kokori inEthiope-East Local Gov-ernment Area of the statein the wake of the man-hunt for him by the po-lice, some months ago,has reinforced and re-turned to Kokori, it wasgathered.

Vanguard learnt thatnotwithstanding thechase for him, the kidnapkingpin, whose familyhouse in Kokori had beenset ablaze, returned toKokori, in the last fewweeks, armed to theteeth.

He reportedly, abduct-ed a military officer andheld him incommunicadoin his stronghold,prompting the military todeploy a team of militarypersonnel, led by a Cap-tain to Kokori, on a res-cue mission.

Our source said that themilitary team discoveredto their chagrin that Kel-vin was under the protec-tion of over 200 youthand could do nothing butto request for the releaseof the abducted officer. 70 years with a failing health

and we don’t want him to diein Police custody in Abuja,” thepetition said.

“This is not the first timeLucky Enababor is using thePolice to harass members of thecommunity as he had tried touse the Edo State Police Com-mand to harass members of thecommunity and we forwardeda petition to the Commissionerof Police, Edo State. We also in-formed the Assistant InspectorGeneral of Police, Zone 5, aboutthe illegal act.”

Senator Abe, who describedthe manner Charles Ahame-fule and Leo Anyanwu wereliterarily kidnapped from Riv-ers State to Abuja and re-manded in Kuje Prison, Abu-ja, as unacceptable, said hewas worried about the coun-try’s constitution, adding thatthe constitution must be pro-tected by President GoodluckJonathan and other Nigerians. It will be recalled thatCharles Ahamefule, Chair-man, PDP in Omuma LocalGovernment Area and Leo An-yanwu, Assistant Secretary ofChief Godspower Ake-ledPDP, the executive which is

loyal to Governor Amaechiand sacked by an Abuja HighCourt and replaced by ChiefFelix Obuah, were arrested inRivers State and taken to Abu-ja ,where they are being de-tained in Kuje Prison, on thealleged instigation of theObuah’s faction, which is loy-al to Minister of State, Edu-cation, Mr. Nyesom Wike. Speaking to journalists af-ter paying a visit to the de-tained PDP members at KujePrison, weekend, Abe, who isthe Chairman, Senate Com-mittee on Petroleum, Down-stream, described them aspolitical prisoners.

I never saidDelta DPPwas dead—Kokori

FORMER GeneralSecretary of Niger-

ia Union of Petroleum andNatural Gas Workers,NUPENG, Cheif FrankKokori, has dismissed re-ports that he allegedlysaid that Democratic Peo-ples Party, DPP, was deadin Delta State, describingthe report as a misrepre-sentation of facts.

Kokori, in a chat withVanguard, said he wasquoted out of context,adding that he only saidhe had opted out of DPPfor All Progressive Con-gress, APC.

He said: ‘’In a mediareport of July 5, 2013, Iwas quoted as saying thatDPP is dead in DeltaState. That was not whatI said. I only said I hadopted out of the party tojoin forces with APC.”

BY CHARLESKUMOLU

Chief Imam of Auchi, Edo State, Prof. Z.I Oseni, leading prayers during the Eid-el-fitricelebration.


2014: I’ve notendorsed anycandidate —OBI

Oguebegod e c l a r e sAnambra PDPweekend rallyillegal

BY ENYIM ENYIM

....As stategets sicklecell screeningcentre forbabies

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

O NITSHA—THElong drawn crisis in

the Peoples DemocraticParty, PDP, in AnambraState may not have beenover as the state chairmanrecognised by the Inde-pendent National ElectoralCommission, INEC, ChiefEjike Oguebego, yester-day, described the PDPrally organised last Fridayby a factional chairman,Chief Ken Emeakayi, as il-legal and unconstitutional.

This came as LabourParty, LP, startedsensitisation campaignahead of the local govern-ment election scheduled forOctober 5 this year.

Chief Oguebego’s out-burst is coming barely 24hours after the PDP factionled by Emeakayi, held arally at Ekwueme Square,Awka, where the nationaldeputy chairnan of theparty affirmed that he wasthe state chairman.

Speaking with newsmen,Oguebego said Emeakayihad no locus standi to or-ganize such rally in thename of the party when hewas not the chairman of theparty in the state.

AWKA—GOVERNOR PeterObi of Anambra State has debunked the alle-

gation that he has endorsed a particular candi-date among the governorship aspirants in All Pro-gressives Grand Alliance, APGA, for the forthcom-ing gubernatorial election.

Obi, who spoke through the Commissioner forInformation and Culture, Chief Joe-MartinsUzodike, described as mischievous the idea of as-sociating him with endorsing a candidate for gov-ernor when he had been preaching against it.

According to him, sponsoring anybody is dan-gerously close to godfatherism.

He said the only thing Governor Obi had contin-ued to do in his usual spirit of fairness and equity,was to insist that Anambra North should producethe next governor and had urged them to comeout with best candidates for the job.

The governor said: “For the governorship elec-tion, a number of aspirants from Anambra Northhave come out, with competitive advantages to ri-val the best from other zones.

“We have the Secretary to the State Government,Mr. Oseloka Obaze, an international civil servant;we have Dr. Chike Obidigbo, a renowned indus-trialist; we have Mr. Tony Nnaecheta, who was anex managing director of a bank; we have ChiefWillie Obiano, who was an executive director in abank, among others.

A W K A — G OV E RNOR Peter Obi of

Anambra State has flaggedoff the sickle cell screeningcentre for new born babiesat Anambra State Univer-sity Teaching Hospital,Awka.

The facility was installedby the Nigeria New BornScreening Initiative, a non-governmental organisa-tion, NGO, in collaborationwith the state government.

Obi said during the cer-emony that his administra-tion would continue to pro-vide every child in the statethe opportunity to surviveand attain full potentials inlife.

The governor assuredthat the stategovernment would givethe programme total sup-port, explaining thathealth remained a criticalcomponent of the vision ofhis administration.

BY VINCENT UJU-MADU

BURIAL: From left: Mr. Segun Famoriyo, Head, Internal Control Group; Mr. SundaySalako, National President, ASSBIFI and First Deputy President, TUC; Mr. Anogwi Anyanwu,Executive Director, Operations &IT and Mr. Bolaji Shenjobi, Executive Director, Lagos &West,all of Mainstreet Bank, during the burial of Mr. Salako's mother in Lagos.

LAGOS—ALTHOUGH November is still far for Britain’s

£3000 visa bond to take off, Brit-ain has started denying many Af-ricans entry into their country.

A report in London’s TheGuardian and Kenya’s DailyNation last weekend reported that47 Boys Brigade leaders weredenied entry into the Great Brit-ain last weekend.

Only eight applicants from thecontinent were allowed to join thefestivities.

The report said the Africanyouth leaders were denied entryinto Britain for an internationalconference because of a clamp-down by the UK Border Agency,UKBA.

It noted that “Tough new guide-lines issued by the UK Home Of-fice mean that all African del-egates for a special conference ofBoys’ Brigade young leaders nextweek were refused entry to thecountry.”

The UK Home Office, it said,will not comment on what it termsas “individual cases” but it saidthat “the ruling is part of a grow-ing pattern of restrictions whichmake it harder for Africans to en-ter the UK.”

Most of the 49 out of the 120visitors denied entry were fullyfunded by the charity and manyhad significant leadership roles,including a Girls’ Brigade presi-dent from Rwanda and the na-tional secretary of Boys’ BrigadeKenya.

VISA POLICY: Nigeria’s brigade leadersdenied entry into UK

BY UDUMA KALU WITHAGENCY REPORT

The Nigerian Boys Brigades aremembers of a Christian youthgroup that are championed byBritain’s royal family. They wereinvited to a prestigious globalevent to recognise civic leadership.But the handpicked teenagers andtheir two dedicated leaders were

barred from Britain.Arastus Mbamoh, national sec-

retary of the Boys’ Brigade inNigeria, said: “We are not happyat all. It is very annoying andhighly disappointing for every-one.”

“This is the flipside of UK’s toxicimmigration debate, with thosevile ‘go home’ posters and racisttalk of ‘bongo bongo land’. Each

day, thousands of Africans areturned away from Britain, wreck-ing carefully laid plans to trade,visit relatives, attend confer-ences, see the sights or simplyenjoy some shopping.

“They lose costly visa fees ofup to £772 and go elsewhere; welose goodwill alongside much-needed business in key sectors,”the report said.

Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013 — 13

BY HENRY UMORU

FG reiterates commitment to end inadequate power supply

ABUJA—OVER 15,000Nigerian women cutting

across diverse socio-economicbackgrounds will on Thursdayconverge on Abuja for a megarally and award ceremony to ad-vance the cause of peace andwomen empowerment in thecountry.

The rally, which would begraced by Vice President NamadiSambo, and First Lady, Dame Pa-tience Jonathan, is being organ-ised by the National Council ofWomen Societies, NCWS, in col-laboration with the office of theFirst Lady of the Federation.

The mass rally and carnivalwould take stock of the gains re-

A BUJA—PRESIDENTGoodluck Jonathan yes-

terday, reiterated his total com-mitment and focus towards theimprovement of the nation’s over-all economy, especially the powersector.

The President also assured Ni-gerians that he will not rest on hisoars regarding the promise hemade to Nigerians on the provi-sion of uninterrupted power sup-ply as a key component of theTransformation Agenda.

In a statement by the Senior Spe-cial Assistant to the President onPublic Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe,the President said with some ofthe hydro dams becoming fully op-erational in September this year,most Nigerian cities will havemore hours of power supply fromthe national grid.

According to him, that will im-prove social and economic activi-ties, increase industrial produc-tions as well as create jobs foryoung Nigerians.

He said the federal governmenthad concluded plans to removeits control of the power sector, add-ing, “the good news, however,is that government’s control with

To remove government’s control of the power sectorits attendant low productivity andthe cumbersomeness of the civilservice bureaucracy are being to-tally removed from the power sec-tor and the new owners of the di-vested assets will be able to utilisethe present installed capacitiesmore efficiently and add morepower to the five thousand mega-watts, even before they add moreinfrastructure to the power plants.

Okupe, who noted that the Fed-eral Government acknowledgedimproved approval rating by NOI,Nigeria’s leading opinion poll,said: “The NOI polls, Nigeria’sleading opinion poll and researchorganisation recently released itsgovernance polls for the month ofJuly 2013.

”The summary of the survey car-ried out by the organisation showsthat 53 per cent of Nigerians sam-pled in the exercise expressed sat-isfaction with the President’sperformance,with majority of re-spondents attributing the highapproval rating to improvement inpower supply across the country.

”The organisation’s findingswhich have been published by afew Media outfits indicate thatmore respondents from the NorthCentral,North East,South East and

South South Geo political zonesexperienced varying degrees ofimprovement in power supplycompared to what obtained in pre-vious months.

” While we acknowledge thepositive indicators in NOI’s sur-vey with regards to the approvalrating of Mr President’s perform-ance by majority of Nigerians, we

wish to assure that the Presidentwill not rest on his oars regard-ing the promise he made to Ni-gerians on provision of uninter-rupted power supply as a keycomponent of the TransformationAgenda.

”The present power improve-ment noticed and acknowledgedin some parts of the country is duepartly to measures put in placeby government to reduce points

15,000 women for Abuja peace rally

of leakages and transmission fail-ure as well as improve transmis-sion capacity of power infrastruc-ture.

”It is expected that by the timemost of the hydro power damswhich are currently being reha-bilitated also resume operationsby the end of September 2013,most Nigerian cities will havemore hours of power supply fromthe National grid.”

corded so far in the empowermentof Nigerian women and the questfor peace in the country.

National President of theNCWS, Mrs. Nkechi Mba, saidin a statement in Abuja yester-day, that the event, which has thetheme: “Celebration of NigerianWomen for Peace and Empower-ment,” would go down as the firstof its kind in the country.

According to her, the event willfeature performances by popularartistes, including OnyekaOnwenu, Yinka Ayefele, Iyanyaand Sani Danja.

She said those expected to beconferred with awards were emi-nent public officers who have con-

tributed to empowerment ofwomen and peace enhancement.

Mrs. Mba enjoined Nigerianwomen to come out “en-masse totake stock, celebrate and honourthose who have demonstratedcommitment to their cause aswomen, as agents of peace, unityand development in the country.

She explained that the carni-val float by women from all spec-tra across the states of the fed-eration and the FCT would startat 7am from the Old ParadeGround, Central Area throughdesignated routes in the federalcapital city centre and terminateat the Eagle Square, Abuja forthe mass rally.

CMYK


Aviation ministry not afraid of probe —OduahBY OKEY NDIRIBE

ABUJA — THE Minister ofAviation, Princess Stella

Oduah, has declared the readinessof her ministry to face any probeover recently awarded contracts andcompleted projects.

This was disclosed, weekend, bythe minister’s Special Adviser onMedia, Mr. Joe Obi, while speak-ing to Vanguard.

Obi said: “The ministry is notafraid of any probe because it hasnothing to hide. All the contracts inthe aviation sector were awardedand executed very transparently. “

He was responding to a recentcall by the Airline Operators of Ni-geria, AON, urging the Senate toprobe the ministry.

According to him, “We know weare answerable to the National As-sembly which also includes theSenate. If they invite us to explainhow contracts in the sector wereawarded or executed, we wouldgladly do so. But of course, theimportant thing to know is that weare not afraid of any probe. We haveno skeletons in our cupboard.”

Obi also dismissed fears that thenation might lose its US FederalAviation Administration’s, FAA, cat-egory one certification, arguing that

this was not possible becausethe nation had sustained andeven exceeded the minimumrequirements laid down for at-tainment of that status.

Responding to another ques-tion on the review of the na-tion’s aviation policy as it per-tained to the Aviation Act of2006, he said: “As good as the2006 Aviation Act is, it is inad-equate to cope with modern de-velopments in the sector wheretechnology changes by theminute. A lot of developmentshave taken place since that Actwas enacted in 2006.

“We cannot be seen to be ob-livious of the current trends. So,we have to make our laws toaddress some of the emergingchallenges in the sector. This isthe whole essence of the civilaviation policy that has justbeen reviewed.”Policies are not made to suitthe preferences and idiosyncra-sies of individuals and groups.They are made to serve the in-terest of the sector and the na-tion. Those who are complain-ing about the new aviationpolicy are just crying wolfwhere there is none.

“They are hiding behind the lit-tle finger to protect their own indi-vidual and group interests to thedetriment of the sector and thenation. The civil aviation policy isa product of rigorous consultationand work which was put togetherby experts. They cannot dismisswhat was done by experts after alot of consultations.”

On the call for the scrapping ofthe ministry, he said the FederalGovernment would not be black-mailed into doing what was notright, adding that governmentknew what it was doing.

He said it was not in the place of

Akanbimakes casefor lessprivileged

BY DEMOLAAKINYEMI

ILORIN — PIONEERC h a i r m a n

of Independent CorruptPractices and other RelatedOffences Commission,ICPC, Justice MustaphaAkanbi (rtd), weekend inIlorin, called on wealthy in-dividuals in Nigeria to ca-ter for the less-privilegedNigerians.

Justice Akanbi made thecall during the unveiling ofKwara CitizenshipDevelopment Initiative,KCDI, at its Flower Gar-den, GRA, Ilorin office.

Akanbi explained thatpeople who have should beready to give back to thesociety, saying that is theessence of life.

He applauded the initia-tive of the NGO which is tostart giving empowermentto widows, orphans and theindigent to make life mean-ingful to them.

APC registration excites Plateau politicians

BY TAYE OBATERU

JOS— THE registration ofthe All Progressive Con-

gress, APC, is exciting to poli-ticians in Plateau State, sayingit has potential to provide analternative platform to the rul-ing People’s Democratic Party,PDP.

Vanguard’s findings re-vealed that top politicianswithin and outside the PDPare desirous of a strong oppo-

sition party to check what someof them see as “overconfidence”of the ruling party.

A staunch PDP member whopreferred anonymity told Van-guard that certain arbitrarinessnoticeable in the ruling partywould be checked if there was analternative platform that couldchallenge it.

According to him, “the generalfeeling among many is that noparty is strong enough to chal-lenge the PDP. Except for a fewinstances where strong people in

the PDP left to other parties to con-test against the PDP, there is reallyno party strong enough to face thePDP in the state.

”But this will change if we haveanother strong party that can alsopresent formidable candidates onits platform. This will enhance theemergence of credible candidatesfrom both parties.”

Vanguard learnt that such poli-ticians see the new party as hav-ing the potential of serving as astrong electoral platform againstthe PDP in future elections.

CMYK


CMYK

OPINION

16 — Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST12, 2013

BY BOBSON GBINIJE ComedyComedyComedyComedyComedy, comedians and Nigeria's rebir, comedians and Nigeria's rebir, comedians and Nigeria's rebir, comedians and Nigeria's rebir, comedians and Nigeria's rebirththththth

*Mr. Gbinije, a social critic, wrote fromWarri, Delta State.

BELIEVE, every man has his secretsorrows, which the world know not. And

often times we call men God when he is onlysad” --(Henry Long Fellow).Man’s quest for joy, bliss and happinesstakes protean venturesomeness and can belikened to the sphygmic temperaments ofartifacts, relics and museum scoundrels andthieves standing before sphragisticdetectives. They exude grotesquedisposition. Hence, the comedian tries tocreate a balance through comedy.A comedy within the context of usage is anyliterary work, including, but not limited toa drama, play, motion picture, television,radio, oratorical dexterity, verbalphosphorescence and entertainment, etc,characterised by a humorous treatment ofcharacters, situations, and having a happyending. A comedian is, therefore, anyonewho applies these afore – mentioned toolsto create humor, joy and laughter.Comedy is as old as man and comediansare always with us. In our world suffused,bemused and impregnated by Neanderthalbellicosity, scorching poverty, sanguinaryproclivities, leadership inertia, chauvinism,tribal jingoism, religious extremism, mind-boggling hatred, saber rattling, genocide,psychotic corruption, horrendous rapes,ritual murders, ludibrastic cluelessness,planlessness and lovelessness, etc. We canwater down our feelings through comic reliefcharacters and comedians who use satires,sarcasms, allegories, lampoonery,pantomimes, onomatopoeias, reconditegesticulations with religious, political,

tribal, socio – economic connotations andundertones to laugh at ourselves.The great literary masterpieces andmythologies from Homer's Illiad, Odyssey;Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, A Man of thePeople, The Trouble with Nigeria; Soyinka’sInterpreters, Bacchae of Euripides and TheMan Died, The Kings’ Horsemen; Dickens’Great Expectations, Marten Chuzzlewit,Nickolas Nicke, David Copperfield;Shakespeare’s Corolinus, Julius Caesar,Hamlet, Merchant of Venice, Tempest;Chaucer’s John Milton’s Plays; Sheridan’sThe Rivals-A Comedy and others toonumerous to mention had a tincture ofcomedy that didactically said somethingabout ourselves and society, precipitatinglaughter.We are in a world cocooned in cerebraldwarfishness, pusillanimous tergiversationand spiritual darkness because of our lostvalues, inability to speak truth to power andnormative social standards. We use comedyand comedians to humourise our situation,to ameliorate our emotional erebus andpolitical torpsy–turvydom. However,comedians must heed the admonitions ofstatesman Abraham Lincoln that “withmaice toward none, with charity for all, withfirmness in the right, as God gives us to seethe right , let us strive on to finish the workwe are in”.The comedian and his jokes are tools forsocietal change, political renaissance,cultural revolution, psychological therapy,

“

attitudinal reorientations, propagandisticelan and religious rebirth, because he canhide real happenings to galvanise theleadership and the citizenry into action forsocietal change.A comedian once said that PresidentKwame Osagyfo Nkrumah once visitedNigeria and as he drove in a convoy withAbubakar Tafawa Balewa he saw a manurinating by the road side. He castigatedNigerians for being dirty litter louts.Abubakar Tafawa Balewa felt chagrined,despondent and crestfallen.He quickly organised a reciprocal visit toGhana. As he drove in a convoy withPresident Nkrumah he sighted a mandefecating by the road side. He quicklycalled Nkrumah’s attention to it. PresidentNkrumah breaking protocols, asked theconvoy to stop. He quickly called for thearrest of the defecating scoundrel and askedhim: “Where are you from”? The manquickly retorted “I AM FROM NIGERIA”.He immediately recalled the words ofMohandas K. Ghandi that: “I can retainneither respect nor affection for agovernment which has been moving fromwrong to wrong in order to defend itsimmorality”. What a shame! And whithergoeth Nigeria?

The comedian made this joke and alllaughed. But the silent and salient point

is to admonish our leaders and Nigeriansin general on social courtesies, responsible

waste disposal mannerisms, provision ofpublic toilets and efficient wastemanagement. It is also a truism that thecomedian gave a joke which lookedharmless, but in a actual fact, if a critic orjournalist had written an article on“Nigeria, waste management andleadership inertia”, it would have attracteddetention and or verbal or physicalflagellation. Comedy is a way of laughingat our all-embracing inadequacies andweaknesses as individuals and as a nation.We must draw or make a clear-cutdichotomy between comperes, masters ofceremonies and comedians in any socialforum. The popular social mistake is thedesire of comedians to function as all ofthese. The popular compere, CollinsAdeyemi, in his recent book entitled Directorof Ceremony adumbrated on the need forthere to be a difference between all of theseto make professionalism the watchword inthe trade.The Comedy Guild in Nigeria has becomea fertile ground for youths, graduates andthose with creative talents. They havebecome professional in their own rights anda regular feature at private and publicoccasions. The field is robustly enrichedwith Warri (Wafi), Sapele (Safa) boys andgirls. Indeed, the South-South, South Eastand the South West are overwhelminglyrepresented in this field.Some of the notable of these greatcomedians are Basket Mouth, I Go Die, AliBaba, Gandoki and Rocky Feller.

HOW will Governor Adams Oshiomhole ofEdo State address the parlous result of theState’s primary schools audit? The solutionswould be more challenging than the report.Anyone who is aware of the neglect of primary

school education would have expected thereport which reflects a nationwide decay. ManyStates give no thought to the morass in primaryschool education. Their officials could be amongthose expressing surprise about Edo Stateschools.Summaries of the findings are -• Only 1,304 or 9 per cent of the State’s 14,484

teachers have accurate records• 91 per cent 0r 13, 180 teachers have various

forms of discrepancies in their records•1,379 teachers were employed without

primary school certificates• Some teachers got primary school

certificates only about two years ago• In some cases, they obtained the certificates

while teaching in the same schools• 789 teachers had primary school certificates

before the age of 8 or 9Years of consigning primary school education

to the “unimportant matters list” has resulted

SoSoSoSoSow Nothing, Rw Nothing, Rw Nothing, Rw Nothing, Rw Nothing, ReapeapeapeapeapNothingNothingNothingNothingNothing

in what Edo State discovered. It is not a recentphenomenon. Governments in Ekiti, Kaduna,Kwara and Ogun had the same results whenthey put a searchlight on their primary schools.In one State, primary school teachers could

not pass the same tests they administered ontheir pupils. Others had cases of certificateforgery as is evident in Edo State. Morecommonly, the pay rolls were inflated, and hadnames of teachers who died years back.A lethargic nation momentarily mulled these

deficiencies in its future and turned to moreinteresting matters like oil revenue allocationand quotas to fill juicy federal appointments. Wemissed the point then, as we are about to do itagain in Edo State, the issue is national.

Education – you can wonder what is - is notimportant to the Nigerian state. The distractedattention it gets is the evidence.Our individual solution to the problem has

been to patronise private schools which, formany reasons, cannot provide the answers tothe mass education of our peoples.Education is under the control of the same

syndicates that control many aspects ofgovernment operations. Organised criminalgroups have taken over education;governments’ actions fail to tackle thisdimension.Who are issuing the fake certificates? Who

are falsifying employment documents? How dounqualified teachers get into the system? Whyare governments paying for more teachers thanthey employed?Urgent measures are required to manage the

issues. The current concerns about highereducation, without a care about primary andsecondary education, are duplicitous. We haveinvested minimally in education, we cannot reapdifferently.When punishments for frauds are effected,

education would be a big beneficiary.

Vanguard,Vanguard,Vanguard,Vanguard,Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 12 MONDAY, AUGUST 12 MONDAY, AUGUST 12 MONDAY, AUGUST 12 MONDAY, AUGUST 12,,,,, 2013— 2013— 2013— 2013— 2013—A1A1A1A1A1

CMYK

A2—VanguardA2—VanguardA2—VanguardA2—VanguardA2—Vanguard,,,,, MONDAY, MONDAY, MONDAY, MONDAY, MONDAY, AUGUST 12,AUGUST 12,AUGUST 12,AUGUST 12,AUGUST 12, 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013

YOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAY

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGSend ySend ySend ySend ySend your datour datour datour datour date and place of bire and place of bire and place of bire and place of bire and place of bir th tth tth tth tth to the Aso the Aso the Aso the Aso the Astrtrtrtrtrologicalologicalologicalologicalological

Counselling, PCounselling, PCounselling, PCounselling, PCounselling, P.M.B 1.M.B 1.M.B 1.M.B 1.M.B 100000000007, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

VIRGINIA

KAPTAIN AFRIKA in “Princess Shii’ By Andy Akman

[email protected]

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye” By Lanre Kehinde

HOME & ABROAD By Lawrence Akapa

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139


By Richard EromoseleLIBRA: After a few tension soaked days, you’ll havethe needed opportunity to look through windows of theworld and have your way as well. Magnetic and/ormagic days is predicted for lovers today.

SCORPIO: Even if you continue to work underpressure via increased workload, you will have goodresults to show for your efforts today. Be steadfast.

SAGITTARIUS: Promise made to genuinepersonalities should be kept if not because of today butfor better tomorrow. Be reasonable and clean.

CAPRICORN: Those of you willing to let go hardfeelings at work are for a progressive day to thebetterment of your finances. Let go yesterday, moveahead.

AQUARIUS: Once again, you’ll have the neededopportunity to assert yourself to the administration ofothers. Both love and financial success can be yourswith efforts. Reason with your tried and trusted friends.

PISCES: You can make it a successful day withpositive approach on your part. You will be in a betterposition to defuse tension within your working arena.Try to be more ambitious.

ARIES Yes! You’re not scared a bit even, whenopposition and/or competition come your way but, ifyou give in to diplomatic approach, you’ll fare bettertoday.

TAURUS: Pressure that came your way suddenly willgive way unexpectedly, today, to the betterment of yourcourse. The more financially ambitious you are today,the better for you. Be steadfast.

GEMINI: You sincerely believe in intelligentargument or discussion. And if you allow your abilityto be diplomatic come to play today, you’ll be betterfor it. Enjoy your love life.

CANCER: You’ll tend to become both creative andpersuasive to the administration of others. Then thosewho’ve been resisting secret love may slip suddenly andbecome excited.

LEO: Even if opposition persists, supports you aregetting from the influential people will be enough tosee you through. Yet, the more cooperative you are thebetter.

VIRGO: Your creativity quotient within your workingarena will today be enhanced. You’ll be blamed if youkeep official issues secrets from your challenges atwork.

What’s my Horoscope?Dear Joshua,Kindly tell me how the planets lined up when I was

born and the day of the week I was born but don’t publishmy date of birth.. Please tell me my full horoscope.

Anonymous, Nigeria.Dear AnonymousYou were born on a Sunday. The Sun was placed in

early degree of Scorpio together with many other heavenlybodies. Then with the Moon in Libra when you were bornLibra will equally be influential in your characteristicsbuild up but, you are mainly a Scorpio born person

YOUR HOROSCOPE DATADay of Birth = SundaySun Sign = Scorpio. Sun in Zero Degree of ScorpioMoon Sign = Libra: Moon in 5th Degree of LibraMercury in 12th Degree of ScorpioVenus in Zero Degree of SagittariusMars in 1st Degree of AquariusJupiter in 29th Degree of CancerSaturn in 10th Degree of ScorpioUranus in 27th Degree of CancerNeptune in 25th Degree of LibraPluto in 26th Degree of LeoNorth Node in 8th Degree of CapricornSouth Node in 8th Degree of CancerNo planet in earth spar sign, one in available, two in

fire, three in air, four in cardinal, fixed and water starsigns hosted five planets each.

PHYSICAL INFLUENCE = 50%NON-PHYSICAL INFLUENCE =50%PLANET AT HOME = NONEANALYSIS OF THE HOROSCOPE DATAYou are both an intelligent and emotional person. And

as there was planet at home when you were born, toomany ideas will always struggle for prominent place inyour mind, thus decision making is difficult but mosttimes, your intelligence comes to the rescue.

Certainly, you appear to other as a gentle person whocan be mistaken for soft fellow but your inner-self is thepersonality with a steel like will power.

You are the consistent type who may find it difficult tochange once you have made up your mind as indicatedby distribution of the planets as written out in paragraphtwo of this exercise.

Saving the kobosNOW, I do not know

what your indul-gence is, but whatever itis, I sincerely believeyou can have a secondlook at it, in order to im-prove on your personalfinances.We are going to do apersonal audit together.First, who are yourfriends? Do they havepositive influence on you

or they influence younagatively? Where doyou reguarly visit withyour friends? Do yousmoke? Where andwhen did you startsmoking? Deliberatelydeconstruct how youstart smoking and re-place it with somethingworthwhile e.g. reading.Put a price on your time.

For example - onehour’s cost could be onethousand naira. And thatmeans for every houryou stayed outsideidling away your time,you have wasted thou-sands of naira. For ev-ery stick of cigarette yousmoke take direct recordof it and the cost of vis-iting the doctor. At the

end of the month weighthe economic and healthimpact on your life. Doso to other unnecessaryexpenses in your life,you will discover youcan make do withoutmany of them.Save your kobo and thenaira will take care of it-self.

Think about it!

Vanguard,Vanguard,Vanguard,Vanguard,Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 12 MONDAY, AUGUST 12 MONDAY, AUGUST 12 MONDAY, AUGUST 12 MONDAY, AUGUST 12,,,,, 2013— 2013— 2013— 2013— 2013—4141414141

Diagnosed with brain cancer:

Oyinyechi, 14, sends SOS toGov Peter Obi

BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

ONYINYECHI Mary-Colette Okafor, the third of five

children born to Aloysious and GraceOkafor of 34, Osho Drive, Olodi-Apapain Lagos, has sent a distress call to theAnambra State Governor, Peter Obi, andall well-meaning Nigerians at homeand abroad, for assistance to raise N5million to undergo an urgent life-savingbrain surgery.

As you read this story, Onyinyechi,who hails from Utuh, in Nnewi SouthLGA of Anambra State, is on admissionin Ward D3 of the Lagos UniversityTeaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi Araba,Lagos after diagnosis of a rare andaggressive form of brain tumour knownas Brain Stem Glioma.

Making the call to Governor Obithrough her paternal aunt, Ms.Obiageli Ulasi, ailing Onyinyechi, whoalthough has been receiving palliativecare at LUTH, is yet unable to speak,walk, stand or function normally, ispraying the Governor assistance to raisethe N5 million in order to have accessto adequate treatment and care in anIndian hospital.

“I implore you sir, with due respectand humility, to use your good officeas my Governor, my mentor and myfather, to enable be get a new lease oflife through this surgery,” sheremarked.

Until April 27, 2013 when her worldturned upside down, Onyinyechi wasa healthy and intelligent 14-year-oldJSS 2 student of Ajeromi/Ifelodun HighSchool, Lagos.

Today, she has stopped school and nolonger attends Church or partakes ofother normal activities like hercontemporaries. The entire left side ofher body is paralysed and she isseparated from her family and friendsand has become a permanent residentin the hospital.

A medical report from LUTHdescribed Onyinyechi as “a known

What you need to knowabout total knee replacement

recommended further evaluation andexpert care.

The brain stem is the part of the brainthat controls breathing, heart rate, andnerves and muscles used in seeing,hearing, walking, talking and eating.Although brain tumours are the thirdmost common cancers in children, thecauses are generally unknown.

Onyinyechi never had previoushistory of head injury or trauma.Relating the ordeal to Health & Living,Obiageli stated: "Onyinyechi just wokeup one morning complaining ofdizziness, a nagging headache andgeneral body weakness. She washospitalised four days after an initialmedical diagnosis of typhoid andmalaria. But there wasn't muchimprovement. She kept complaining ofprogressive weakness and paralysis onthe left side of the body, so she was

THE knee is considered a "hinge" joint because of its ability to bend andstraighten like a hinged door. In reality,the knee is much more complex becausethe bone surfaces actually roll and glideas the knee bends. When the knee failsto function as expected, total knee re-placement may become desirable.

Total knee replacement surgery is con-sidered when all other conservativemeasures have failed to provide suc-cessful intervention, and may only beperformed to relieve pain, improve jointstability and alignment and correct bonedeformity, maximize quality of life andoptimize activities of daily living.

A Replacement Specialist, at PrimusInternational Specialty Hospital, DrRaghvendra Sigh, explains that in atotal knee and hip replacement surgery,the painful parts of the damaged kneeand hip are replaced with artificial partscalled Prosthesis.

“Joint replacement surgery is one ofthe most successful procedures in or-thopedics. A joint Replacement can im-prove the quality of life tremendouslyby making the patient free of pain, de-formity and physical dependence,” hestated.

Singh, in a chat with Health & Livingin Abuja, observed that doctors gener-ally try to delay joint replacement.“However in patients with advancedjoint disease, joint replacement offersrelief from pains and a return to normalactivities. Due to osteoarthritis, you maydevelop joint pains that limit your dailyactivities such as walking, bending anduse of stairs. Pain continues even while

BY VICTORIA OJEME

• Requires N5m for life-saving surgery in India

patient of the Haematology andOncology Unit of the hospital whopresented two months ago with a onemonth history of headache and inabilityto use the left side of the body.”According to the report signed byProfessor Edamisan Temiye, a CT scanrevealed the brain tumour which isbeing managed with radiotherapy anddexamethasone. Already, she has had20 sessions of the radiotherapy, andrequires an additional 10. The doctor

taken to another hospital from where shewas referred to LUTH where the braintumour diagnosis was confirmed.

At the moment, the family is barelymanaging to pay the huge hospitalbills. Worse still, Onyinyechi’s father,a trader, is also indisposed.Onyinyechi's only hope is to be flownabroad for better medical outcome.

"We have contacted Yakoda Hospitalin India, which has assessed her caseand given us a breakdown of treatmentexpenses to the tune of N5 million. Thiswould cover surgery, drugs,transportation, and accommodation forsix weeks for Onyinyechi and hermother who would accompany her. Thehospital is ready to comence treatmentbut financial constraint is hamperingus.”

In a passionate plea, Obiageli solicitedassistance towards raising the requiredsum. "We are appealing to GovernorPeter Obi of Anambra State in particularand all Nigerians to please help savethis soul. Let us give Onyinyechi theopportunity and ability to live again,"she pleaded.

If you are touched and wish to assistOnyinyechi raise the N5 million, kindlysend your donations to Onyinyechi M.Okafor, Fidelity Bank Plc 6150328103,or call 08039097686 and 08028491550for more details.

resting day and night. Stiffness in jointlimits your ability to move or lift yourleg. You will only get temporary relieffrom anti-inflammatory drugs whichhave harmful or unpleasant side effects.

“Ageing causes loss of muscle andbone mass. Bones lose calcium and min-erals faster and become brittle, makingserious injuries such as a hip and kneefracture more likely.”

The most common cause of joint painsis osteoarthritis which is a degenera-tive joint disorder that occurs as a re-sult of age related wear and tear ofjoints. Osteoarthritis mainly affectsknee and hip joints.

Diseases that can cause joint pains inyounger groups are rheumatoid arthri-tis, ankylosing spondylitis and similarconditions.

“Always consult a specialist in case ofsignificant pain in the hip or knee.Other warning signals include swell-ing around the joints, stiffness or in-ability to bend or straighten knees fully,or gradually developing deformity.

Onyinyechi Okafor

Dr. Raghvendra Singh

CMYK

IN 1885 the British colonialregime deported King Jaja

of Opobo to a remote island inWest Indies where he died in1889. His offence was that hehad challenged the imperialistcontrol of the coastal trade. In1941 Comrade Michael Im-oudu, President of the Nigeri-an Union of Railwaymen wasdeported from Lagos and ban-ished to his hometown, Auchiin the Benin Province as hewas considered “a potentialthreat to public safety” .

He only returned to Lagos in1945 following the revocationof sections 57-63 of the Gener-al Defence Regulation, 1941under which he had been de-tained. There were other na-tionalist agitators and labourleaders who were deportedand banished to prevent themfrom taking part in the strug-gle against colonialism. Thebarbaric practice of deportingNigerians was resuscitated bythe defunct military dictator-ship. In particular, the reaction-ary regimes of Generals Ibra-him Babangida and SaniAbacha resorted to the crudeharrassment of political oppo-nents by deportation.

Unendingmilitary rule

In 1992 the late Chief GaniFawehinmi SAN, Dr BekoRansome -Kuti and I weredeported from Lagos anddetained at Kuje prison forchallenging the unendingmilitary rule of the Babangidajunta. The retired GeneralZamani Lekwot was deportedfrom Kaduna and detainedwith us in the prison. Thefollowing year we were alsorepatriated from Lagos andbanished to the same prison forleading peaceful rallies inLagos against the criminalannulment of the June 12presidential election. In June1994, the winner of thepresidential election, ChiefMKO Abiola was deportedfrom Lagos and detained inmilitary custody in Kano, Bornoand Abuja.

In 1995, the chairman of theCampaign for Democracy(CD), Dr. Beko Ransome-Kutialerted the world that thesecret trial of GeneralOlusegun Obasanjo and othersby a Special Military Tribunalhad been concluded and that

THE LAGOS DEPORTATION AND THE LAW:

Deportation ofdissidents

BY FEMI FALANA

Anyanwu, Kunle Ajibade,Charles Mbah and CharlesObi who were convicted forbeing accessories after the factof treason i.e the 1995 phantomcoup, were deported fromLagos and kept in separateprisons in the northern states.

In 1996, Chief FawehinmiSAN was once again deportedfrom Lagos and detained at theBauchi prison while FemiAborishade and I weredeported from Lagos and held at the Gumel and Mawadashiprisons (in Jigawa State)respectively. Comrade FrankKokori who was arrested inLagos was banished to Bamaprisons in Borno state for 4years. General Obasanjo who was convicted in Lagoswas deported to Yola prison.His ex-deputy, General ShehuYaradua was deported fromKaduna, convicted in Lagosand held at various times inKirikiri, Port Harcourt andAbakaliki prisons .

Like King Jaja both ChiefAbiola and General Yar’Aduadied in suspiciouscircumstances while they werein custody. But as deportationof colonial subjects could not bejustified even under colonialrule it was carried out pursuantto special regulations. In thesame vein, the military dictatorsengaged in deportation ofcitizens under the preventivedetention decrees and thePrison Act.

Deportation of Poor People:It is common knowledge that the beautification project of theBabatunde FasholaAdministration has led to thedeportation of hundreds of thejetsam and the flotsam fromLagos state to their states oforigin.

The elite and the media havebeen celebrating the ban on“Okada” from the major roadsand the removal of traders andarea boys from the streets. For

understandable reasons, mostof the hundreds of thousandsof poor people who have beendisplaced and dislodged in theoperation “keep Lagos clean”are of the Yoruba extraction.

In fact, on April 9,2009, whenthe Lagos State governmentdeported 129 beggars of Oyostate origin and dumped themat Molete in Ibadan the AlaoAkala regime alleged that theaction was aimed at sabotaginghis government. Just last week,some beggars of Osun Stateorigin were also deported bythe Lagos State governmentand dumped at Osogbo.

Disadvantagedcitizens

It is sad to note that mostNigerians never tookcognisance of the war beingwaged by state governmentsagainst the poor anddisadvantaged citizens in theurban renewal policy until themuch publicised case of the14 beggars of Anambra Stateorigin who were deported inLagos and dumped in Onitshaabout three weeks ago.

In fact, it was thecondemnation of thedeportation by the Governor ofAnambra State, Mr. Peter Obithat drew the attention of theelite to the unfortunatedevelopment. However, indefence of its action the LagosState Government stated that itentered into an agreement withthe Anambra State Governmentthrough its liaison office inLagos on the controversialdeportation.

Although the Anambra Stategovernment has not denied theallegation that it was privy tothe deportation of the 14beggars it is on record that inDecmber 2011 the Peter ObiAdministration had deported29 beggars to their states of

origin i.e Akwa Ibom andEbonyi states. Apart from suchofficial hypocrisy the Peter Obiregime did not deem it fit toprotest when the Abia Stategovernment purged its civilservice of “non-indigenes” in2012. Many of the victims of theunjust policy who hail fromAnambra State were left in thelurch.

In June 2011, the FederalCapital Territory governmentdeported 129 beggars to theirrespective states of origin. InMay 2013, hundreds of beggarswere also removed from thestreets and expelled fromAbuja. Of course, it is commonknowledge that the FCTauthorities has continued todemolish residential houseswithout following due processin order to “ restore the

defending the Igbo beggars outof sheer ethnic irredentismshould be advised to examine the socio-economicimplications of the anti-people’s urbanisation policybeing implemented by thefederal and state governments in the overallinterests of the masses.

The Illegality of InternalDeportation: Since deportationhas been resuscitated under thecurrent political dispensation ithas become pertinent toexamine the legal implicationsof the forceful deportation of agroup of citizens on account oftheir impecunious status.Although street trading andbegging have been banned insome states, it is submitted,without any fear ofcontradiction, that there is no

masterplan of Abuja” whichwas distorted throughcorruption and abuse of office.The majority of the victims ofsuch illegal demolitions whoare poor have been dislocatedand forced out of FCT.

Last week, the Rivers StateGovernment removed 113Nigerians from the streets ofPort Harcourt and deportedthem to their states of origin.The Akwa Ibom stategovernment has just contactedits Lagos counterpart of theplanned deportation of two“mad” Lagosians roaming thestreets of Uyo.

Many other stategovernments are busydeporting beggars, mad men and other destitute in the on-going beautification of statecapitals. Those who are

existing law in Nigeria whichhas empowered the federal andstate governments to deportany group of Nigerian citizensto their states of origin.

Accordingly, the forcefulremoval of beggars from theirchosen abode and repatriation to their states oforigin are illegal andunconstitutional as they violatethe fundamental rights of suchcitizens enshrined in theConstitution of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria, 1999 asamended.

In particular, deportation isan afront to the human rightsof the beggars to dignity oftheir persons (Section 34),personal liberty (Section 35),freedom of movement (Section41), and right of residence in

,

,The reactionary regimes of Generals

Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacharesorted to the crude harassment of politi-cal opponents by deportation

Continues on page 43


Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi

Map of Lagos State

the convicts were beingprepared for execution.For leaking suchinformation to the mediathe human rights leaderwas tried in Lagos,jailed for life anddeported to Katsinaprison. The CD vicechairman, Shehu Sanniwas arrested in Kaduna,jailed for life in Lagosand banished to Kirikirimaximum prison inApapa. Fourjournalists viz: Chris

CMYK


CONFLICTS IN NORTHERN NIGERIA:

13 years of civilrule in perspective

BY AKINLADE, M. T.

BACKGROUND toconflicts in Northern

Nigeria: Northern Nigeria is aconglomeration of over ahundred tribal groups, with thevarious groups having differentaccounts of their historicalepisode as they migrated into theregions, from various placeschiefly by the desire for safetyduring warfare as well asadventure. The various groupsalso attempted to dominate theother through warfare as typicalof every traditional society. TheHausa race, however, was andis still the most populous of thevarious ethnic groups.

Hausa community was dividedinto Hausa ‘bokwa’ and Hausa“banza”, under the powerfulrulers, who ruled according tocustom and tradition, but theintroduction of Islamic religion inthe region “in the twelfth orthirteen century”, and itseventual firm root, following freshband of Muslim Wangara andFulani traders and scholars, whoentered the land from Mali in thefourteenth century, as well thefirst royal convert which occurred,when Ali Yaji B. Tsamia, the Sarkior king of Kano converted in thefourteenth century, opened a newchapter in the land.

Heavy taxesand injustice

Meanwhile, heavy fighting(jihad) broke out in Gudu in 1804which extended to other Hausaland, as Uthman dan Fodio, apopular and respected FulaniMuslim preacher led Muslimcommunity resisted the attack of“King Yunfa of Gobir, along withother Hausa Kings”.

King Yunfa, a former pupil ofFodio, and his father - hispredecessor had earlier enactedagainst the wearing of veil,turban (head gear), publicpreaching of Islam unless byFodio alone, and ordered areturn to traditional religion, byall converts. The peasants,already frustrated by heavy taxesand injustice in the land greatlycontributed to the fall of Hausaroyalty and this made Sharia tocome to lime light, as Uthmandan Fodio introduced it in allconquered territories. The Shariasystem brought the Hausa statesunder a federation, with the statecapital being in Sokoto and

Gwandu and this broughtconsiderable unity among theHausas, as the Fulani race alsocame into prominence.

The Hausa/Fulani communityalso engaged in “slave-raidingexpeditions in the middle belt,”the minority groups and the twogroups threatened the existenceof one another, but the Hausa/Fulani community was seen as agreat threat. This formed the basisof the hatred between the Hausa/Fulani and the minority groups.Therefore, when Christianity wasintroduced, the minority groupsaccepted as a means of unityamong themselves andresistance to the perceived threatof the Hausas. This partlyexplains why conflicts appearreligious, in the north. The newadministration Emirate systemsoon met its waterloo, asLugard’s West African VolunteerForce crushed it with its fadinglegitimacy, occasioned by areturn of the elite to the pre-jihadcorrupt life style. Although thepeople put up great resistance,British attack was not without

North, through his NorthernPeople’s Congress, NPC. Hereasonably distributed projectsand political offices among theethnic and religious groups. Thisexplains why the slogan of NPCwas “one North, one peopleirrespective of religion, rank ortribe”.

Independent Nigeria was likea period when storm isexperienced in a bucket of wateras the administration soon metits waterloo, starting with theAction Group Crisis of 1962 anddispute over the 1962/1963population census. The Northernversion of the crisis, was the 1964wrath of the soldiers and police,experienced by Rafin Goracommunity in the present dayKatsina State, on the directive ofthe Native Authority, forassociating with NorthernElement Progressive Union,NEPU, that was sympathetic toSouthern political elite.Dandunni village, also in Katsinasuffered the same fate. The Tiv

riot in the present Benue Stateadded to the devastatingexperience of the period as theriot continued till 1966. The Tivuprising and military operationthat followed in the area, dealtan untold blow on the futureunity of the North, which peoplein the 1980s, 1990s and the 21stCentury have come to live with.

The Tiv Crisis, 1964 generalelection and the Western regionalelection crisis of 1965, broughtlaw and order to nothingness, asanarchy raged, thereby “pavingthe way for the ascendancy of thespecialist of violence, themilitary,” who eventually turnedthe scene to a semi warfare,through coup of January 15,1966 and counter coup of July 29,1966. This was followed by crisisin the North, over Aguiyi Ironsi’sunification decree of May 1966and the September killings aswell as eventual civil warbetween the FederalGovernment led by a Northernminority and Republic of Biafra.

some support as some of thepeople celebrated, as they sangnasara ka dede ba ka zoba, kobah au dokin hawainiya ne?which means “white man, youtook so long to come, is yourhorse a chameleon?”

The invasion ceded thesovereignty of the Hausa/Fulanistate to Britain. British colonialrule consolidated the alreadytensed relationship between theminority groups and Hausa/Fulani group, as they made noattempt to unify or create anunderstanding between them.Rather than make them livetogether, “Sabongiri” strangersquarters were built for non-Hausas including Southernersresident in Hausa communities.This could not afford the peoplethe opportunity of havingunderstanding amongthemselves. It needs beingstressed that, the British indirectrule system worsened thesituation. The necessity ofpolitics, however, made SirAhmadu Bello to workeffortlessly, for the unity of the

Akinlade in this second edition of the discourse,argues that the introduction of Islamic religion inthe twelfth century and the conversion of the king ofKano opened a new chapter in the dominance of thenorth by the Hausas

To be continued

Map of Nigeria

,

,Although the people put up great

resistance, British attack was not withoutsome support as some of the peoplecelebrated

any part of Nigeria(Section 43).

Furthermore, thedeportation of beggarsand other poor people bythe Federal and StateGovernments is arepudiation of section 15of the Constitution whichhas imposed a duty on theState to promote nationalintegration. Since thepolitical objective of theState imposes a duty onthe governmentsto ”secure full residencerights for every citizen inall parts of theFederation” it is illegal toremove poor people fromthe streets of state capitalswithout providing themwith alternativeaccommodation. Bytargetting beggars andthe destitute anddeporting them to theirstates of origin the stategovernments involvedare violating Section 42of the Constitution whichhas outlaweddiscrimination on thebasis of place of birth orstate of origin.

In so far as Article 2 ofthe African Charter onHuman and PeoplesRights (Ratification andEnforcement) Act (CapA9) Laws of theFederation of Nigeria,2004 has specificallybanned discriminatorytreatment on the groundof “social origin, fortune,birth or other status” it isindefensible to subjectany group of citizens toharrassment on accountof their economic status.

Urban renewalpolicy

An urban renewalpolicy that has provisionfor only the rich cannotbe justified under Article13 of the African Charterwhich provides that everycitizen shall have equalaccess to the publicservices of the country.

In the celebrated caseof the Minister of Internal Affairs v. AlhajiShugaba AbdulrahamDarma (1982) 3 N.C.L.R.915 the Court of Appealupheld the verdict of theBorno State High Courtwhich had held that thedeportation of theRespondent (AlhajiShugaba) from Nigeria toChad by the FederalGovernment constituted“a violation of hisfundamental rights topersonal liberty, privacyand freedom to movefreely throughoutNigeria.” In the Director,State Security Service v.Olisa Agbakoba (1999) 3

NWLR (PT 595) 314 at 356the Supreme Courtreiterated that “It is not indispute that theConstitution gives to theNigerian citizen the rightto move freely throughoutNigeria and to reside inany part thereof.”

Since deportation hasdenied the vicctims thefundamental right tomove freely and reside inany state of their choice itis illegal andunconstitutional.

Fundamentalhuman rights

It is indubitably clearthat the fundamentalhuman rights guaranteedby the Constitution andthe African Charter Act arenot for the exclusivepreserve of thebourgeoisie but for theenjoyment of all Nigeriancitizens including beggarsand other economicallymarginalised people. Tothat extent no stategovernment has thepower to deport or enterinto agreements torepatriate any group of citizens to their states oforigin.

The Socio-economicChallenge ofDeportation

It ought to be made clearto the managers of theneo-colonial state thatthere is no country whichpromotes social inequalitythat has successfullyoutlawed the poor fromexistence.

This explains whybeggars are found inlarge numbers on thestreets of major cities andin the ghettos of theUnited States of America– the bastion of capitalism.The situation is bound tobe worse in the peripheryof capitalism like Nigeriawhere the poverty ratehas reached an alarmingproportion due to thefailure of the State toprovide for the welfareand security of thepeople which is theprimary purpose ofgovernment.

The Federal and Stategovernments should alsobe made to realize at alltimes that beggars areNigerian citizens wholack money, food andother basic facilities to livedecent lives. Theauthorities should stopstigmatizing andharassing them and othercitizens who have beenpushed to a state ofpenury by the grossmismanagement of theeconomy by a selfish andshort sighted ruling class.

Deportation ofdissidents

Continues from page 42

To be concluded

CMYK

NEW Opportunities,new partnerships and

new structures will shape Ni-geria’s future as an energy gi-ant: When you change some-thing that has been around for50 years, however much itneeds changing, chances arethat this change will not beuniversally popular. So it iswith Nigeria’s gas and petro-leum industries. For the bestpart of 50 years they have rum-bled on, in many ways makinga hugely important contributionto our nation’s prosperity. ButI don’t think anyone wouldclaim that the arrangementsunder which they have oper-ated were perfect. And as timegoes by, these imperfectionshave become increasingly dif-ficult to deny. Things need tochange. The signs are quiteclear. If you look at the key per-formance indicators, most ofthem are moving the wrongway. For example, the rate ofexploration drilling is drop-ping, even as production ratesand national reserves decline.

The effect of all this is nothard to imagine. Nigeria’searnings from oil and gas areactually declining, and there’sa growing danger that if ourproduction levels and reservescontinue to drop, our positionat the Organisation of the Pe-troleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) high table could be putin jeopardy.

Currentarrangement

Of course, 50 years ago whenmost of the current arrange-ments were put in place, theworld was a very differentplace. The great oil shocks ofthe Seventies had not yet hit,and very few of the oil-rich na-tions had yet seen those richestransformed into real prosper-ity for their people. In Nigeria,we had only limited experienceas an oil producing nation, andlike almost everyone else, hadabsolutely no idea of the vastchanges the future would bringfor the sector. So, in drawingup the regulations and ar-rangements that would apply,it was natural that the exper-tise and experience of the in-ternational oil companies

TIME FOR CHANGE:

lowed, great wealth flowedfrom Nigerian oil wells into thecorporate coffers of our busi-ness partners. But this in itselfis no bad thing. Today, we re-main equally determined thatour industry partners of the fu-ture will thrive and prosper. Butthat prosperity has to be basedon fair partnership, mutual re-spect and social responsibility.Over the years, it has becomeincreasingly apparent thatthese qualities have not alwaysformed the bedrock of the com-mercial exploitation of our pe-troleum industry.

Environmentaldevastation

But it is not just a matter ofcommercial arrangements.There has also been a greatcost suffered by our country andour people in terms of environ-mental damage. Much hasbeen said, and arguments haveraged over the extent of thisdamage; the causes, and wherethe blame lies. But anyone whospends any time in the NigerDelta will tell the same story.The harm done has been griev-ous. The land, the air and thewaters of the Delta have beenpolluted and poisoned overmany decades. And for this, theinternational oil companiesmust take a great share of theresponsibility. Of course, thesecorporations don’t cause everyspill: sabotage, theft, and ille-gal refineries also seriouslyshare in the blame. But corro-

sion, out-dated piping (oftenfar beyond its projectedlifespan), and maintenancemalpractice by some of theselarge firms have led to hun-dreds of spillages – large andsmall, each year. According tothe World Bank, the numbercould be in the thousands.

In the Petroleum Industry Bill(PIB), we recognise that thisconstant abuse of the environ-ment and of local livelihoodsof the farmers and the fisher-men must stop. As part of ourresponse, we’re introducing aregulator with real teeth thatwill investigate all damage tothe environment, and hold it upto the light for intense publicscrutiny. We need an end toimpunity. To do this, the billbreaks up the Nigerian Na-tional Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), which currently actsas both regulator and an oilcorporation – both a player anda referee.

PIBobjectives

Under the PIB, the regulatorwill stand alone and will de-fend the environment from fur-ther devastation, no matterhow large or small the offender.

These environmental issuesrepresent the sharp end of thestick: any oversight or accidentin the oil industry is felt first,and felt hardest, by the envi-ronment. But the PIB doesn’tleave off with these immediateconcerns.

Currently, the revenue

stream from oil-production isshared, and one of thesestreams – the Derivation Fund,pours money into local devel-opment. But there have beenproblems of distribution and offairness. The bill meets thiscomplaint with the introductionof a new, additional measure:the Petroleum Host CommunityFund,which splits part of theoil (and gas) revenues betweenthe coastal communities with oiland gas facilities, includingpipelines, for the first time giv-ing both local upstream anddownstream communities a de-cent share of their black gold.Over the coming years, theFund would start to meet thebasic deficiencies we see everyday in the most oil-rich areasof Nigeria: bad roads, badstreet-lighting, and a lack of

process of exploring, it’ll makeits findings freely available toany member of the public or in-terested party. Nigeria is inter-ested in extracting oil whereverit finds it, and the ExplorationService will lead the way. It’sgood news for the oil corpora-tions, and it’s good news for theNorth, and ultimately, goodnews for Nigeria.

So the bill is ambitiously re-formist. Undoubtedly, there areopen questions and these ques-tions will receive attention. Butthe PIB draft contains solutionsto urgent problems. If Nigeriais to maintain its competitive-ness worldwide, and its peo-ple are to get their new, fairdeal in this oil bargain, Nige-rian legislators should be pre-pared to ruffle the occasionalcorporate directors’ feathers.

to ensure we cangain and retain thebest partner compa-nies for Nigeria.

To guarantee thefuture of Nigeria’shydrocarbon sup-ply, the bill also es-tablishes a FrontierExploration Serviceto search for andanalyse Nigeria’sextensive deposits.Critics of the billhave argued that itmakes no provisionfor exploring undis-covered Northernreserves.

But the Explora-tion Service doesjust that, and in the

clean, safe water.But naturally, the bill isn’t just

about the environment: it’s alsoabout fine-tuning the engine ofthe industry, and directing theoil industry back towardgrowth. For example, by par-celling land into smaller blockslike the United Kingdom (UK)does with its North Sea oil andgas, we’re planning to makeNigerian exploration and ex-traction more competitive, forc-ing companies to explore theirland blocks or risk losing them.This is urgently needed,as Ni-geria discovers fewer and fewerwells each year and reduces itsoutput, countries as small asGhana are growing from pyg-mies into real competitors in theinternational oil markets. Un-der the PIB, we’ll also be pris-ing open space for smaller com-panies to operate alongside theinternational corporations,while cutting back certain taxes

,Anyone who spends any time in theNiger Delta will tell the same story. Theharm done has been grievous. The land,the air and the waters of the Delta havebeen polluted and poisoned over manydecades


BY ABIYE MEMBERE

New opportunities,partnerships andour energy future

,

Of course,it would benaive to ex-pect the oilcompanies ofthose days tohave encour-aged ar-rangementsor regula-tions that se-riously inhib-ited their ownbusiness op-portunities,and over theyears that fol-

should have made an impor-tant contribution to the think-ing of Government at the time.And much of the success of ouroil industry since then has beendue to the expertise and goodadvice offered.

These companies have beenour friends, playing their partin Nigeria’s rocketing growth,and the returns we ask are nogreater than those asked byNorway or Indonesia of theirown corporations. Indeed, Ni-geria and the oil industry havea strong common future, but theterms of engagement must beupdated. Through legislationand cooperation, the Govern-ment and corporations canclean up this industry, recog-nising that the old rules aren’tprotecting Nigerians againstnew and difficult circum-stances. The economist, JohnMaynard Keynes, understoodthe dilemma. As he oncequipped, “When the factschange, I change my mind –what do you do, sir?”

•Membere is the Group Execu-tive Director, Exploration and Pro-duction, Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation (NNPC)

Map of the Niger Delta

•PetroleumResources Minister, Deziani Alison-Madueke

CMYK


CMYK


Continues on page 47

WHAT do you intend toachieve with your visits

to the past leaders?We are people who are

normal human beings who areconcerned about their country,who believe in their countryregardless of which party theycome from. If we are going tohave democracy, democracyhas rules therefore we shouldlearn to uphold those tenetsof democracy.

If you manipulate it you arerocking the entire system. Itis not against anybody ’saspirations, we are not againstanybody. But we are beingmaligned, we are now beingcalled a gang of five, we arenow being calleddesperadoes. See how we arebeing maligned.

But if you look at us, theseare people who stuck out theirnecks for this country twoyears ago, all of us! It isbecause we have the capacityto understand where we aregoing that is why we have the

courage to stand up and say.It has nothing to do with thisso called aspiration for 2015at all, it is about the waythings are being done withinthe system, the way thegovernment is being run. Itdoesn’t matter if it is my owngovernment or any other onein the country, the way theinstitutions are being run, theway the parties are being run,do they really conform withthe rules of democracy?

A situation where a hiredhand like Doyin Okupe, awage earner speaks only tojustify his pay will malign methat I am irrelevant.

Justifyingthe wages

He became an aide after theelection. These people whoare now talking and abusingus are personal aides whobecame what they are whenthe mandate was achieved.

They were nowhere whenthe whole thing was beingworked out. It means therewas an election before theywere able to serve as personal

aides.In their own case,

it is an industry,they are justifyingthe wages they areearning, it is for thepay. There isnothing likehonour in thatbecause they arejust hired hands iftomorrow you haveanother presidentthey go to him. Allof them are soirrelevant in theirown constituencies,they have no ideawhat we wentthrough. Our worryis the institution,ignore ourp e r s o n a l i t i e s ,ignore SuleLamido, he may bean irritant it doesn’tmatter, you can

they are not stakeholders.Two, we are going round not

because of any personalinterest or because we have anambition, we are going round

more money because theyhave got very difficult terrain.

So, the issue is not aboutpersons, but it is about whatdo we get as governors from

•Lamido: Okupe is an appointee, he didnt win election

•Lamido: The president is decent, but..

abuse my person but don’tabuse the office l am holdingbecause the office is symbolic.If you demystify the office, ifappointees of the presidentwould be that audacious toorganise people to pellet uswith stones unwittingly theyare also disrobing the Officeof the President because he isalso our symbol.

You can abuse Sule Lamido,you can abuse Kwankwaso,you can abuse Wamakko butdon’t abuse our office becauseafter I leave office as governorof Jigawa State, this institutionwill remain.

If appointees of the presidentwould insult us simplybecause they are justifyingthe pay that they are earning,because they are there for thepay. They are wage earners,

because we feel that no matterwhat, a democracy must havesome pattern, some standard.It must have clearly definedrules and when the rules aredepressed to obtain anadvantage, you are alsodepressing the country.

How can we as governorsunite and pick our own leader,clearly, our own chairman,

,

,

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN,POLITICAL EDITOR

It's rude for Okupe, an appointee tobe insulting govs — Sule Lamido•Forget NGF crisis, when it comes to money govs 're unitedGOVERNOR Sule Lamido is arguably the most socialist inclined of the country’s 36 governors. In his six years in office as governor ofJigawa State, he has in several ways sought to give the imprint of the Talakawa ideology he inherited from his one time leader, Mallam Aminu Kano onthe state. Such policies as the allocation of slots to women and the physically disabled at all levels of government, subsidy on quality medicare andeducation, and the frantic effort to extend infrastructure to reach the lowest cadre of the citizenry are glimpses of Governor Lamido’s socialistinclinations on ground in Jigawa State. Following the Sallah Durbar marking the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan, the governor sat down for abrief interview touching on the recent effort by him and four other governors to mobilise some of the country’s elder-statesmen to intervene in thecrisis in the polity. Of course, he spoke on the conspiracy of the elite class against the Nigerian masses. Excerpts:

Get me very clear, when the issue isabout the economy, about getting moneyfrom the federation account, all thegovernors in Nigeria are on the samefrequency

the federation account whichis defined as ours. That is all.

Today, the FederalGovernment is the custodian,minister of finance controls themoney and for us to take fromthe money we have to go andbeg and beg and beg.

Get me very clear, when the

nobody else’s. Youknow in theGovernors Forumwe don’t discusspolitics, it is allabout theeconomy.

Are you notbothered that thereal agenda of theG o v e r n o r sForum is beinglost?

No, no. TheGovernors Forumis an informalthing, nothing likean agenda.

What I mean isyour comingtogether toa r t i c u l a t ecommon issues?

My friend iftomorrow the issueis about sharingmoney, thegovernors of AkwaIbom, that ofLagos, that ofZamfara, Bayelsawill be on thesame frequencybecause they allwant money. Infact, Bayelsa andAkwa Ibom need


•Lamido: Abba-Gana was prepared for the presidency

Buhari and El-Rufai missing when we foughtfor democracy — Lamido

,

,

issue is about the economy,about getting money from thefederation account, all thegovernors in Nigeria are onthe same frequency. All thegovernors are on the samewavelength whether it is Jangor Fashola or Giedam orSuswam or Sule Lamido, allof us, when it is about gettingmoney to your state, we are onthe same frequency. That isall. So, let us have institutionswhich are functioning.

Clearly defined and whenthey are functioning you wonttalk about problems in Nigeriafor the next one million years.Not Nigeria of today and whena country is not defined byinstitutions we will keep onremaining in one spot.

So when it is said thatNigeria cannot break, yes it istoo weak to be broken. It is tooweak to break. Who will breakit? The ordinary person inJigawa or the ordinary personin Sokoto or the ordinaryperson in Bayelsa? Is it the Ibovulcaniser or the Yorubawoman who is sellingkerosene by the roadside orthe Okada man in Delta?

They don’t have the capacityto unite because they areburdened by poverty. We havetaken away from them theirdignity, their self esteem, theirpride and self worth so thatthey cannot even organize.Who did? We the elite.

Up there, we (elite) unite,we sing and so we will neverallow Nigeria to break becauseonce it breaks we will lose.

Doyin Okupe who is saying allthese, that we cannot bepresident or this boy, Gulak?

In 2011 where were they?Did they win theirconstituencies? Doyin theretalking and he is from the

his telephone? For failing toanswer the telephone of yourchairman you are suspended.What are all these?

So, will you now say thatPDP is a bigger threat to itselfthan APC?

No, no, no. there is simplyno alternative to PDP. It isbecause those who are inthere now do not know thehistory of the PDP. When itwas founded in 1998, it had avery clear mission. At thattime we were looking at thecountry because if you don’tlook at history you cant thinkof tomorrow.

In 1998 we were looking atthe country the way it wentthrough between 1983 up tillunder Abacha, June 12 andothers. So, we were trying toput a mechanism which wouldbe able to reconcile Nigeriaand Nigerians across thedivide caused by the misruleof the military junta.

So, the mission was how doyou put in a political partypeople with a high profile tobe seen.

So you needed symbols to beable to restore hope. At thattime the issue was what do youput in place as institutions asa mechanism to restore

Nigeria? So, Nigeria has beenfully restored and there is nobetter way to assess this thanseeing those who areclamouring to be president.

Those who are talking nowin APC, in 1998 could theytalk? Could they? All thematerials in APC in 1998could they talk about Nigeriaor the Nigerian presidency?Could they?

Full restorationof Nigeria

The El-Rufais, the Buharis,could they? We have to bevery, very honest so it meansthat it is left to the PDP torestore Nigeria. Nigeria isnow fully restored that they cannow come out to say that Iwant to be president. Good!

Therefore to us we have beenable to accomplish the firstphase. The next phase is forthe PDP to be able to now sitdown and look at Nigeria’sproblems and address them.Human development which isthe most difficult thing. Themost difficult thing.

So, it is the second phasewhich is now posing a bigproblem, but APC is not thealternative.

A few days ago, formerFCT minister MohammedAbba-Gana came out to saythat the north is not preparedfor 2015 and does not have apresidential material?

You see Abba-Gana is an oldboy from Barewa College andhe is my senior and we deferto our seniors. Abba-Ganaknows the values upon whichBarewa was founded and Idefer to him and if that is hisopinion fine, but to me hecould be a material for thepresidency.

The preparation he got inthat school, the upbringing,he is a material for thepresidency. This is my feeling.

Can the PDP under Tukurtake the country to that nextphase you envisage?

It is part of the process, thismetamorphosis. Even a snakebefore it gets out of the skin toput a new skin there are somepains, they go and hibernateand so, we are going througha very difficult period ofmetamorphosis.

Period ofmetamorphosis

It is very, very difficult, butthere are pains but thank GodPDP has the wherewithal, asthe name indicates, thepeople, no matter ourdifficulties it will be able toovercome its own problemsbecause there are noalternatives. By the time weare going to the brinks, wewill say enough is enough, weapply the brakes and this iswhat PDP is all about.

Talking about institutions,northern governors were lastyear against state police, butwith the developments inRivers State would you bechanging your stance?

Nigeria Police is no differentfrom any other Nigerianinstitution. I think we shouldstart to build the institutions,the Police is no different fromthe Governor ’s Office inJigawa State, or from thepresidency or from theNational Assembly or fromNigerian banking or even thepress.

It is from the same societythat we get the leaders,therefore we should be able tomake sure that we as peopleshould be able to sit down tosay, how do we defineourselves? How do we giveourselves some standards,some set values?

Which means making theeffort, first, to do the rightthing. The effort first! If theeffort is there, off course wecan get there.

But the common man losesnothing. What is he losing? Heis already living in hell, hecannot lose anything morethan this hell.

When you met the presidentdid you raise the issue of hisaides abusing you?

Yes we did.What did he say?He said it is wrong.But they have not stopped?You see the president as a

person is a very decent manbut these are people who willtry to justify their pay becausethey are nothing but wageearners.

They are not stakeholders.Where were they when wewere doing the elections?

Yoruba area which is 99 percent ACN? Of course to him,he is trying to justify his wage.

So, I will not join issues withwage earners, those who arethere for the pay. I will joinissues with those who believein the unity of this country,who believe in building stronginstitutions and we have beenvery, very consistent.

It is not about personalities,it is not about interest. It isabout operating by rules andregulations, as per the laws,as per the rules and theconstitution.

Political parties are alsodefined by constitution. Butwhen a chairman will suspenda governor for not answering

Continued from page 46

A situation where a hired hand likeDoyin Okupe, a wage earner speaksonly to justify his pay will malign methat I am irrelevant, he became an aideafter the election

48—Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST12, 2013

OPINION,

,

BY SUNDAY ALIFIA

APC's registration: Jinx broken?

*Mr. Alifia, a political analyst,wrote from Ibadan, OyoState.

THERE is no doubt about it – theregistration of the All People’s

Congress (APC) is very well receivedand acclaimed. The dominance of thePeople’s Democratic Party (PDP) hadbecome worrisome and a threat to ourdemocracy. The nation had alreadybecome hostage to a ruling party which,in spite of its many disappointingshowings over the past fourteen years,boasted it would be in power for sixtyyears (though it is not clear to me thecalculation used to arrive at thatnumber).

With the coming of the APC, those whowish for change both at the state andfederal levels can look forward to abrighter prospect for it. Indeed, goingby its current strength vis-à-vis the PDP(11 compared to 23 states) the APC is agreatly handicapped underdog. Butbased on the novelty of its emergencethe euphoria factor is on its side. Itssupporters have reason to hope that theflux in the PDP will result in greatdividends for the APC. The Interimspokesman for the upstart party, AlhajiLai Mohammed, boasted that by themiddle of July, the number of governorspopulating the APC would have risento 23. It has not happened. Whether(and when) it will happen, no one cantell.

The PDP is no stranger to internalcrisis. In fact, what is happening to itnow is a child’s play compared to whatit has gone through in the past andemerged stronger. For instance, in 2005,former President Olusegun Obasanjowent as far as ordering a freshregistration of PDP members with a viewto keeping a large section of hisopponents (supporters of his VicePresident, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar) out ofthe party. Governor Orji Uzor Kalu leftthe Party, formed his own ProgressivePeople’s Alliance (PPA) and used it towin two states in the 2007 elections.Atiku contested for the presidency on theplatform of the Action Congress (AC).

In spite of this, the party continued tomaintain its dominance in all elections,which obviously led the main oppositionparties to settle for this merger option.The PDP is an accomplished election-winning machine, and that is why mostof the time, those who run away from itafter each crisis find their ways back,sometimes braving great opposition, asOrji Kalu and Atiku Abubakar did. Eachtime its critics and opponents predictdoom for the PDP it comes back strongerdue, mainly, to its enormous incumbencyand ombudsman advantages.

The APC has an uphill task before itcan gain the confidence of its members

Who leads the APC?and admirers as a party that will surviveits teething problems as the PDP wasable to do. As I noted in an earlier write-up, the APC is still a party of strangebedfellows. Perhaps, the only thing thatcurrently unites its merging componentsis the common desire to dethrone thePDP. Beyond that, there is little commonground.

Historically, the merging parties donot belong to a common root. The

Northern wing of the APC is basicallythe old All People’s Party (APP) madeup of the General Sani Abacha loyalistsand deserters from the PDP, such asAlhaji Aminu Asari. The APP became theAll Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) andlater split when General Buhari left andformed the Congress for ProgressiveChange (CPC) when some ANPPleaders decided to work with the PDPadministration in a quasi-“governmentof national unity” after the 2007 polls.

These Arewa components of the APCcome with the typical northern mindsetof pushing for the continuation of thecurrent centralised federalism with theNorth in charge of the presidency andthe South providing the Vice President.General Buhari also strikes the postureof a man who will fight corruption; anattribute that may not endear him to

machine showed they meant businesswhen they created the 37 Local CouncilDevelopment Areas (LCDA’s) in LagosState, opting to endure the withholding

By far the most challenging obstaclefor the party is the emergence of itsleadership. Yes indeed, there was littlefriction when the interim leaders wereagreed by the joint committee of themerging parties. These are justtechnocrats. The main headache will bewhen the LEADER of the party isconsidered. That is the man on whosetable the buck comes to a final stop; theman who gives the last order anddelivers the casting vote when crucialdecisions are taken. Will it be Buhari theleader of the minority CPC or Tinubu,the largest shareholder”? Or will onesection produce the leader while theother produces the presidentialcandidate? Bearing in mind that if thepresidential candidate wins andbecomes president of Nigeria he willalso be the leader of the APC, which ofthe divides in the party will be willingto give away this prized position?

Of particular interest to Nigerians isthe person who will stand as thepresidential candidate of the APC in2013. The party cannot afford to presentan unelectable candidate such as

many of his fellow leaders when thestruggle for the presidential slot heatsup.

The South arm of the APC is mainlythe former Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN) led by Asiwaju Bola AhmedTinubu. Historically, the Westernregional vision of Nigeria’s federalismis based on the Awoist ideology ofdecentralisation of power. They call it“true federalism”. The Tinubu political

Buhari, who has become stigmatised byhis loss of three presidential electionsto the PDP. He has not done much toimprove on his drag factors that led tothose losses, such as his perceivedparochialism, religious extremism, lackof reach outside the North and lack ofbridges across Nigeria. And yet, it isobvious that Buhari’s main attraction toenter the merger is for him to have abetter fighting chance for thepresidency.

APC has to go out of the box for thefresh, inspirational X-factor candidate forpresident. Some of the hot names itmight consider are: retired Col.Abubakar Umar, Comrade AdamsOshiomhole, Gov. Rochas Okorocha andeven Gov. Rotimi Amaechi.

But will Tinubu and Buhari be willingto make the unusual sacrifice required?

APC has to go out of the box for the fresh,inspirational X-factor candidate for president.Some of the hot names it might consider are:retired Col. Abubakar Umar, Comrade AdamsOshiomhole, Gov. Rochas Okorocha and evenGov. Rotimi Amaechi.But will Tinubu and Buhari be willing to makethe unusual sacrifice required?

Tinubu and Buhari: Will they make sacrifice?

of the federal allocations dueto the local councils duringthe Obasanjo presidency.

The challenge before theAPC now is to decide once andfor all, whether to go with theArewa view of centralisedfederalism for Nigeria or settlefor the Western/Awoist modelwhich Tinubu and hisfollowers prefer. Solving thatissue will be a majorideological milestone for theAPC because it will close thechapter of a discordant rootand grease internal bed-fellowship.

HISTORY of Democracy in Nigeria has shown that ithas not been easy for opposition parties since the second

Republic to form strong mega party to tame activities ofthe leading party in power. Since 1999 when democracyreturned to the country, opposition parties has failed to forma formidable party, and this has given more momentum tothe leading party producing a second class leadership whichcan hardly differentiate between right and wrong.

The opposition started from APP in 1998. It was made ofa coalition of associations which received full support underthe regime of late General Sani Abacha. PDP under thecandidacy of Olusegun Obasanjo won the presidentialelections in 1999. APP and AD then formed a coalition tocontest the presidential election. Olu falae of the AD becamethe presidential flag bearer while Umoru Shinkafi of theAPP was nominated as running mate. But lost the election.

Governorship elections in 1999, APP won ninegovernorship seats in the North. Since then, their politicalsagacity kept deminishing. To resurrect the party from itsconstant declining, the name of the party was changed toANPP and in 2003 general elections, Muhammadu Buhariwas invited as the party's candidate, late Dr. ChubaOkadigbo as running mate to face Olusegun Obasanjo ofthe PDP and it became the battle of the generals. GeneralBuhari remained ANPP presidential candidate in 2003 and2007 elections which returned late Umoru Musa Yar'Aduaof the ruling party as the winner. Buhari took his brother tocourt for election fraud but lost as usual!

General Buhari not satisfied with the support received

from ANPP, formed his own party and in December 2009,he got INEC's registration and CPC became another force.Lost presidential elections to Goodluck Jonathan in 2011,winning governorship seat in Nassarawa state.

ACN on the other hand, was a faction of the Alliance forDemocracy (AD) and by September 9, 1998, AD wasregistered, won 34 out of 360 seats in the House ofRepresentatives, claimed 6 senatorial seats and 6 states inthe west. And the party's downward slop performancecontinued until the faction ACN strongly came to limelightin 2006 when they succeeded using their emblem broom tosweep the whole south west from the domineering partyPDP.

Again, ACN not done with their political calculations todismantle the PDP at the central level, came up with mergersolution. But to cross the INEC's hurdle was another brickwall and the pressure continued until history was made fewdays ago. And by this victory, APC is the name. Nigeria inthe history of democracy now have two solid political partycompeting to share power at the centre level.

Analytically, PDP now controls 23 states, 75 Senators with204 House members while APC shot up to 11 states, 30Senators and 135 House of Representatives. The 2015political atmosphere is now set and very interesting indeed!

It was a jubilation galore across the nation especiallyamong the opposition party members when INEC

pronounced the registration of the mega party. The jinxseems broken, sky looks clearer, but not yet uhuru. A meremerger constituting members from all different politicalparty is not enough. The agitation or desperation to win2015 presidential election after the merger still not the bestway out of our mess. If the new party is out to meet theaspirations of the Nigerian people, there is urgent need towork on their manifestos, modalities to overrun where PDPhas failed, internal democracy and politics of imposition,then convince Nigerians that the new party can make thedifference. There are still bridges to cross. What do we sayabout the clash of Interest among party leaders in the pastthat has led to failure and death of some political parties?For a successful taming and annihilation of a party thatcontrols the government at the centre, opposition party mustunity. Individual or personal interest should not bementioned at all.

The lingering and heart-breaking issue in the land is nolonger the name of your party. It is not the acronyms or howpopular the party is across the globe. Nigerians right fromthe second Republic till date have been victims of big party.Nigerians are clamouring for quality of leadership andwho cares whichever political party produces this qalityleadership.


APC won’t survive in Edo —AsekhameBY SIMON EBEGBULEM

Delta demolishes caravans, illegal structures in Warri

VISIT: Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State (right), and an official of PrimusSuper Specialty Hospital, Mr. Nitin Dewan, during a courtesy visit, at the Governor's Office,Uyo.

BENIN—AS the leader-ship of the newly regis-

tered All Progressive Con-gress, APC, perfects its merg-er arrangement in Edo State,a chieftain of Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP, in the state,Mr. Dan Asekhame, has saidthat APC will not survive inthe state due to what he de-scribed as the controversialconduct of the local govern-ment elections in the state.

Asekhame, a former councilchairman in the state, recalledthat the former All NigerianPeoples Party, ANPP, gover-norship candidate, Mr. Solo-mon Edebiri and the leader-ship of the then Action Con-gress of Nigeria, ACN, disa-greed over the result of theelections after Edebiri de-scribed same as sham and arape on the country’s democ-racy.

He described APC in EdoState as a union of strangebed fellows, which accordingto him, will help in the de-struction of the party in thestate to the advantage of PDP.

But reacting, a chieftain ofAPC in the state, OdaroOmoregie, describedAsekhame’s claim as laugha-ble, saying: “Apart from thepages of newspapers, PDP isnowhere in Edo, so how arethey going to match APC?Asekhame is day dreaming.What I expect him to say isthat PDP will disintegrate intodifferent parts and they willfinally be buried in 2015 inEdo.”

However, Asekhame insist-

ed that “it is obvious thatANPP and ACN cannot worktogether in Edo State. You re-member how Edebiri de-scribed ACN leaders as fraud-ulent over the council elec-tions, so that problem willcome up again and that will

lead to the end of APC. I wantto encourage those who wantcome back to PDP becausethat is the only party in EdoState.

“The APC-led governmenthas disappointed our people.There is so much hunger in

the state, no employment, sowe don’t see APC offeringanything new to our people.And I can tell you that PDP iswaiting patiently for the 2015national and state Assemblyelections and it will be bye byeto APC in Edo.”

WARRI—DELTA StateMinistry of Environ-

ment, yesterday, demolishedall caravans and illegal struc-tures on Edjeba Road and itsenvirons in Warri.

The operation, led by theEnvironment Commissioner,Mr. Frank Omare, Vanguardgathered, commenced at 5am,ridding the entire area of cara-vans and other illegal struc-tures on the road.

Omare said that he had giv-en notice to affected personslong ago but yesterday, madegood his promise to bring downall the caravans and illegalstructures in the area.

The commissioner, however,gave students of the College ofEducation, Warri, who stageda peaceful protest, one monthgrace, within which to moveout of their makeshift hostelsbefore the bulldozers sendthem packing from the area.

Vanguard also gathered thatdespite the notice given to own-ers of caravans and other ille-gal structures on Edjeba Road,

many of them were caught nap-ping when the bulldozers start-ed the demolition exercise,witnessed by the Commission-er for Transport, Mr. Ben Ig-bakpa and Warri South Transi-tion Committee Chairman, DrAugustine Uroye.

Many people rushed fromchurches, when the news got

to them, to salvage their busi-ness places, with many com-plaining that they were not giv-en enough notice to look else-where for accommodation. Butit turned out to be a good dayto some, such as cab drivers,truck owners and pay loaders,who made brisk business evac-uating things from business

Call DLA D-Gto order, DeltaNLC tellsUduaghan

BY VICTORAHIUMA-YOUNG

premises.Describing the demolition as

a huge success, Omare said:“We carry out demolition exer-cises on regular bases as it ispart of the mandate given to us.Caravans are more than thepopulation in Edjeba commu-nity and we are not out to cele-brate caravans as they have togo.”

N-Deltaex-militantsflay call forsack ofPPMC MD

NIGER Delta ex-militant ‘generals’

in Bayelsa and DeltaStates have condemnedin strong terms, the callfor the removal of theManaging Director of thePipeline Products Mar-keting Company, PPMC,Prince Haruna Momoh,by some ex-agitators inthe region over the scar-city of kerosene, sayingthat such a call was self-ish and based on person-al interest.

The ex-militant gener-als expressed their dis-pleasure over the call ina statement by formermilitant, Otungbolo Oneand eight others at theend of a meeting in War-ri, Delta State.

They described the callas unpatriotic, judgingfrom the effort put inplace by the PPMC man-agement that had re-structured the outfit andenhanced the effectivedistribution of petrole-um products across thecountry.

DELTA State coun-cil of Nigeria La-

bour Congress, NLC,yesterday, implored thestate governor, Dr. Em-manuel Uduaghan, tocall the Director Gener-al of the state Direct La-bour Agency, DLA, toorder before he causedindustrial unrest in thestate.

Chairman of the stateNLC, Mr. Williams Ak-poregha, in a statement,accused the DG of di-vide and rule aimed atinstigating crisis in theagency to weaken theunion’s activities.

He said: “We call onGovernor Uduaghan, tocall the Director Gener-al of the state DLA to or-der before he causes anindustrial unrest in thestate. We have observedthat the DG has beenconcentrating his ener-gy on divide and rule inthe agency to instigateand cause disharmonyamong workers.”

BY SAM EYOBOKA &OLAYINKA LATONA

Adeboye shops for fund to build biggerauditorium

FOLLOWING the failureof the third auditorium

in the Redemption Camp toadequately accommodate theunprecedented crowd thattroop in for different pro-grammes of the RedeemedChristian Church of God, theGeneral Overseer of thechurch, Pastor Enoch Ade-boye, weekend, appealed forfunds towards the construc-

tion of a bigger one.Making the announcement

before a crowd of worshippers,who had taken over everyspace in and around the HolyGhost Arena, including thefields that served as places ofrelaxation for residents, Pas-tor Adeboye said: “Obviously,the present auditorium hasbecome too small to accommo-date participants.”

He, therefore, called onbrethren of the church to joinhim in building a new audi-

torium to the glory of the Al-mighty God, adding that thenew auditorium would meas-ure about three kilometers bythree likometres and shouldbe completed before the nextconvention in August 2014.

Adeboye, a former lecturerat the University of Lagos andthe University of Ilorin, main-tained that considering thesize of the next auditorium, itwould be expensive but withGod, nothing shall be impos-sible.


CMYK


MO Farah saidmemories of

missing out on gold twoyears ago in Daegu in-spired him to push hardfor 10,000m victory atthe World Champion-ships.

The double Olympicchampion held off thechallenge of Ibrahim Jei-lan on the final lap tosecure the title whicheluded him in 2011.

Defending championJeilan threatened toovertake the Briton, justas he did in the last150m in South Korea.

But Farah said: “I wasthinking ‘not again, notagain, not again’.”

The 30-year-old won in27 minutes 21.71sec,producing a 54.49seclast lap, to finish aheadof the Ethiopian.

“Two years ago Jeilandid wonderfully and rana great race,” said Farahafter becoming the firstBriton to win a 10,000mworld title.

“But ever since thensomething has beenmissing and after Lon-don you just want to getthat feeling again.

“It was very exciting. Iknew what Jeilan wascapable of so it was im-portant I had somethingleft.

“To be honest, with thelast lap I could see hewas there and I wasthinking, ‘God, I’ve gotto make this lap worthit’.”

Daegu heartbreak inspired Moscowvictory — Mo

Ukraine’s Natalia Semenova competes in the women’s discus at the worldathletics championships despite a broken nose.

WAYNE Rooneyhas told friends

he is confident he willmake the move to Chel-sea this summer. The unsettled Man-chester United striker isseemingly intent onleaving Old Trafford,and has been the sub-ject of two bids from

Rooney: I will join ChelseaChelsea so far. While the Red Devilshave turned down bothoffers from Chelsea andremain adamant he isgoing nowehere, ESPNsay the 27-year-old isconvinced he will gethis move to StamfordBridge before the endof the transfer window. Rooney has missedthe vast majority ofManchester United’spre-season through in-jury, was absent fromtheir CommunityShield win over Wiganat Wembley today. Healso missed Rio Ferdi-nand’s testimonalagainst Sevilla on Fri-day.

Bale: Spurs want£100m from Real

T O T T E N H A Mhave reportedly

drawn up two possibleoptions for Real Ma-drid in relation to theSpanish side’s interestin attacker Gareth Bale.

The Marca claim theWhite Hart Lane sidehave demanded •116m(£100m) or •100m andReal Madrid youngsterAlvaro Morata, the lat-ter option said to be aless favourable onewith the La Liga side.

The Bernabeu outfitare not keen on losinghighly rated strikerMorata but are also nottoo keen on offering sucha hefty sum for 24 yearold Welsh internationalGareth Bale, this despitetheir very genuine inter-est in the Spurs star.

Re-elected presidentFlorentino Perez hashoped to persuade theNorth London side to ac-cept a cash plus playerdeal involving the likesof Angel Di Maria or Fa-bio Coentrao but this op-tion does not sit well withchairman Daniel Levy,who can probably see thesense in bringing in ayoung talent like Mora-ta, who could well havegood sell on value.

NIGERIAN 400mhurdles record

holder,Ajoke MuizatOdumosu will begin herchase for a first everappearance in the finals

Odumosu begins medal chaseof the quartermilebarrier run early thismorning at the Luiznikistadium in Moscow.Odumosu,who ran anew 54.40 secondsNigerian record at thesemifinal stage of theLondon 2012 Olympicson her way to becomingthe first Nigerian woman400m hurdles runner tomake it to the finals ofthe event at theOlympics will also beaiming to score anotherfirst here.The University of SouthAlabama,USA graduateis participating in herfourth IAAF Worldchampionships and shehas never gone beyondthe semifinals.She hasbeen drawn in the firstlane of a very toughsecond heat where shewill compete for one ofthe three automatic slotswith athletes who havebeen in better form sofar this season than shehas been.

Ukraine’s Semenova bows out with broken nose

THE unluckiest competitor at the World

Athletics Championships inMoscow has to be NataliaSemenova, who lived up toher billing as Ukraine’s“Iron Lady” by bravely com-peting in discus qualifying

after suffering concussionand a broken, bloodied nosein a freak accident just be-fore the event began.

The European champion-ship bronze medallist wasaccidentally hit in the faceby Poland’s Zaneta Glanc,

who had mimed a throwwhile holding the discus, asshe sat in the athletes’ areanext to the circle.

“Coach asked me not tocompete … but I had tothrow to show my husbandand parents watching on TV."

•Mo Farah

•Rooney


BRIEFS

Mali votes in presidential election run-off

MANY expect FormerPrime Minister

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita,who won 40% of the votein the first round, to defeatex-Finance MinisterSoumaila Cisse.

The election follows morethan a year of turmoilwhich included a coup anda French-led militaryintervention to oustIslamist rebels from thenorth.

The victor will overseemore than $4bn (£2.6bn) in

foreign aid promised torebuild the West Africanstate.

A 12,600-strong UnitedNations StabilisationMission in Mali(Minusma) is currentlydeploying, as Francebegins to withdraw its3,000 troops.

Meanwhile, the UN hasstressed the importance ofthe election to therestoration of constitutionalorder and the start of

national dialogue andreconciliation.

A record 49% of the 6.8million registered voterscast a ballot in first roundon 28 July.

Mr Cisse, who wassecond among the 27candidates with 19.7% ofthe vote, complained thatthere was widespreadfraud, with more than400,000 ballots declaredspoiled.

However, Mali’s

Constitutional Courtrejected the allegationsand the head of the EUelection observer mission,Louis Michel, praised theelectoral process for itstransparency.

Ahead of Sunday’ssecond round, for whichsome 21,000 pollingstations opened acrossMali at 08:00 GMT, MrMichel said he had been“positively surprised” bypreparations.

Pro-Mosri protesters at the Rabaa al-Adawiyamosque, Cairo

Egypt threatens to arrest pro-Morsi protesters

EGYPTIAN policehave given order to

arrest any pro-Morsiprotesters henceforth.As pro-Morsi areexpected to start moreaction in supportousted PresidentMohamed Morsi. Theprotester were gather inCairo, security. Butgovernment sourcessaid the could triggermore bloodshed.

Western and Arabmediators and somesenior Egyptiangovernment officialshave been trying topersuade the army toavoid using forceagainst the protesters,who at times cannumber as much astens of thousands.

“State security troopswill be deployedaround the sit-ins bydawn as a start of

procedures that willeventually lead to adispersal,” a seniorsecurity source saidyesterday , adding thatthe first step will be tosurround the camps.

Army chief GeneralAbdel Fattah al-Sisi,who toppled Mursi, hascome under pressurefrom hardline militaryofficers to move againstthe protesters, securitysources say.

Congolese protest against UN’s in-actionover

UN chief, Ban Ki-moonhas said that the Central

African Republic (CAR) hassuffered a “total breakdownof law and order” sincerebels seized power inMarch.

He urged the UN SecurityCouncil to consider

sanctions or to set up apanel of experts to monitorthe situation.

Seleka rebel group leaderMichel Djotodia oustedPresident Francois Bozize inMarch.

Last month MedecinsSans Frontieres (MSF) said

the country’s health caresystem had collapsed.

In a report that theSecurity Council is due todiscuss on Wednesday, MrBan said infighting amongrebel groups had led towidespread abuses.

US condemns Eid violencein IraqTHE United States of

America, weekendcondemned bombingsand shootings in Iraq inwhere more than 60people were killed.

It said those carryingout the attacks duringcelebrations marking theend of the Islamic holymonth of Ramadan wereenemies of Iraq and theinternational community.

The state departmentsaid the attacks bore thehallmarks of al-Qaeda inIraq.

This Ramadan in Iraqis thought to have beenone of the deadliest inyears, with more than 670people killed.

In a statement, the statedepartment said: “Theterrorists who committedthese acts are enemies ofIslam and a sharedenemy of the UnitedStates, Iraq, and the

international community.”It reiterated its offer of

a $10m (£6.5m) rewardfor information leading tothe death or capture of thegroup’s leader, Abu Bakral-Baghdadi.

“He has taken personalcredit for a series ofterrorist attacks in Iraqsince 2011, and mostrecently claimed credit forthe operations against theAbu Ghraib prisonoutside Baghdad, thesuicide bombing assaulton the ministry of justice,among other attacksagainst Iraqi securityforces and Iraqi citizens,”the statement said.

Most of the casualtieswere in the capital,Baghdad, which was hitby apparently co-ordinated car bombingsnear markets, cafes andrestaurants.

Ramadan festival: Popereaches out to Muslims

POPE Francis hasurged Christians

and Muslims to worktogether to promotemutual respect,particularly byeducating newgenerations of believers.

He greeted Muslimsaround the world duringhis Sunday blessing of

pilgrims gathered in StPeter’s Square in Rome.

He said that “ourbrothers’’ the Muslimshad just concluded theirholy month of Ramadan,dedicated to fasting,prayer and alms-giving.

The Pope spoke fromhis studio windowoverlooking the square.

Greek deploys police amid riot atmigrant camp

GREEK riot policehave been

deployed to end a riot ata migrant detentionfacility north of thecapital, Athens.

Detainees threwstones at the policeguards, injuring at least10 of them, and set fireto their bedding in whatpolice called an

“unprovoked” attack.The rioting began

when the detainees wereinformed that themaximum time theycould be held at thefacility had beenextended from a year to18 months.

Some 1,500 are keptunder guard at theAmygdaleza “closedhospitality centre”.

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CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013 — 55

event at the LuzhnikiStadium

O k a g b a r e ’ spenultimate jump of6.99m was onlysurpassed by thedefending championfrom America, BrittneyReese, whose secondjump of 7.01 wasenough to win her thegold.

With one giant leap,Reese again rose to theoccasion and became thefirst woman to win threelong jump titles at theworld championships.

Despite losing the goldto the American, Okag-bare was gracious in cel-ebrating her silver-med-al feat, by hugging thechampion from Ameri-ca.

Tipped by many ath-letics buffs, includingMary Onyali to win atleast a medal at theworld championships,Okagbare was all smilesas she celebrated withthe Nigerian flagdraped around her to the

Okagbaredelight of the few Nige-rians at the stadium.

Okagbare’s silverearned her $30, 000 fromthe IAAF. Reese pocket-ed $60, 000 for her gold-medal win.

Interestingly before thelong jump final, Okag-bare ran earlier in theday to reach the 100msemifinals, where she isa medal favorite in to-day’s final. But unlike inthe long jump event,Okagbare must dig deepto upstage Olympicschampion from Jamaica,Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce,who like Reese is thedefending champion.

Remarkably, Reese,gold medallist in 2009and 2011, had scrapedinto the final on count-back after a below-parshowing in Saturday’squalifying but the Amer-ican had no intention oflosing her crown and,after opening with a foul,leapt 7.01m.

Her jump was the onlyseven metre jump of thecompetition

Continues from BP

The win will give Moyesa big boost heading intothe Premier League sea-son opener away toSwansea next Saturday,with Sir Alex Ferguson’ssuccessor having en-dured some less thaninspiring pre-seasonresults ahead of theteam’s English title de-fence. The RedDevils opened the scor-ing after just six min-utes as Patrice Evra’sdelivery found Van Per-sie just inside the area,and the Dutchman pro-duced a fantastic head-er to send the ball backacross goal and past theflailing Scott Carsonbefore nestling in theback of the net.United were dealt ablow midway throughthe first half as Rafaelneeded to come off in-jured, with ChrisSmalling coming in atcentre-back while PhilJones shifted out to theright.

Boltdisqualified from the

2011 final won bycompatriot Yohan Blakeafter he false-started.

Continues from BP Meanwhile, Great

Britain’s James Dasaolucould only finish lastwith a time of 10.21seconds.

Man UContinues from BP

DR Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, the

Governor of Delta State,has congratulated Ni-geria’s Blessing Okag-bare who won a silvermedal in the LongJump event of the 14thedition of the Athlet-ics World Champion-ships yesterday in Mos-cow Russia.It was the first time aNigerian would win amedal in the Wor ld Championships since1999 when Gloria Aloz-

Uduaghan congratulatesOkagbare

ie and Francis Obikwe-lu won silver andbronze in Hurdles and200.m respectively inSpain.

”I congratulate you forthis great honour thatyou have done for Ni-geria. We are proud ofyou. I wish you luck inyour remaining events,”Uduaghan told Blessingin a message he sent tothe Nigerian delegationyesterday. He watchedthe events on televisionand monitored all Bless-ing’s jumps.

GABON havebooked their

place at next year’s Af-rican Nations Champi-onship (CHAN) afterbeating Cameroon onpenalties in their first-round qualifier.

The score was 1-0 toGabon after 90 minutesof the second leg in Li-breville on Saturday,making the tie level 1-1on aggregate after Cam-eroon won the first legin Yaounde.

And the Panthers com-pleted their comeback bywinning the penaltyshoot-out and clinchingtheir place at the finalsof the tournament for lo-cally-based players,which will take place inSouth Africa.

Cameroon, however,have another chance toqualify as they will nowface the Democratic Re-public of Congo in theplay-offs, with the win-ner making it to the fi-nals.

There are also two sec-ond-round, first-leg tiesthis weekend, Zimbabwehosting Zambia inHarare and Mozam-bique taking on Angolain Maputo.

Gabon stun Cameroon to qualify for CHAN finals ‘Suárez must say sorry’

JOHN W Henry ledfrom the front when

he declared it would be“ludicrous” to sell LuisSuárez to Arsenal but itseems that opinion is notuniversally held at Liv-erpool. Ian Ayre, theclub’s chief executive,

spent his Ryanair flightto Dublin being urgedto sell the disillusionedand disaffected strikerby supporters. On theground, 1-0 defeat toCeltic merely rein-forced the principalowner’s point.

TUSSLE: Arsene Copa of Gabon and AchilleEmana of Cameroon in a contest for the ball

Pa Fashola was pillar of sports – Tesilim

AS Lagos Governor,Babatunde Raji

Fashola and family

converge for the eight dayFidau prayer for their latefather, Pa Ibrahim Ademola

Fashola, the Teslim BalogunSports DevelopmentFoundation has extolled thequalities of the late patriarchrevealing that he was oneof the pillars of sports in thestate.In a statement signed byKayode Teslim Balogun,president of the foundationand son of the footballlegend, Teslim Balogun, thefoundation stated that thelate Pa Fashola not onlyprovided the best possibleformal education for hischildren but also ensuredthat they were activelyinvolved and committed tosports, “a value whichenhanced all rounddevelopment of his childrenand which Lagosians andNigerians are nowbenefiting from through theworks of the governor.”“It is common knowledgethat Governor Fashola is avery skilled and all roundsportsman and that qualityderives from the kind ofeducation and exposurethat he enjoyed from hisfather.

Keshi, Okoku donategenerator to school

EX-EAGLES stars,Stephen Keshi,

Paul Okoku and GodwinOdiye have donated agenerator set to St Paul’sCatholic Primary School,Ebute-Metta, Lagos, topower the computersystems which they gavetheir Alma Mater lastyear. Disclosing this to SportsVanguard, Okoku saidthe decision to donate thegenerator, which the triopledged when they werepresenting thecomputers, was madebecause of the poor stateof electricity in thecountry, stressing that thecomputers when fully putinto use, were going tofast track the academicdevelopment of the pupils

BY JOHN EGBOKHAN in the school.“During our presentationof computers last yearSeptember, the MainlandSecretary of Education,Mr. Lawrence AdebisiAdetona, requested for agenerator. Instantly,Stephen Keshi was kindto respond on our behalf,with these words, ”weshall get you agenerator”.“I am happy to announcethat we have deliveredthe generator worthN350,000 as promised tothe school through theheadmistress, Mrs. G.O.Jalekun. We arecommitted to puttingsmiles on the faces thepupils as we graduallyredeem all our pledges tothe school in the comingmonths."

TWO WEEKS TO LIVE

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Phone: Newsroom: 018773962. Deputy Editor: 01-8944295. Advert Dept: 01-7924470;Hotline: 01-8737028; Abuja: 09-2341102, 09-2342704. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Advert:[email protected]

Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: MIDENO BAYAGBON. Phone: 01-7742861, All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.

How to Play Sudoku

Place a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line canhave two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (alsonine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within abold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1through 9. This means that no number can appear twicein any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, divisionor multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

YESTERYESTERYESTERYESTERYESTERDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSTODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLE

Sudoku

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS

QUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORD

VVVVVanguardanguardanguardanguardanguard,,,,, MOND MOND MOND MOND MONDAAAAAYYYYY, A, A, A, A, AUGUST 12UGUST 12UGUST 12UGUST 12UGUST 12 , 2013, 2013, 2013, 2013, 2013

ACROSS3 Fastened (5)9 Cement (6)10 Indecent (6)11 Guide (5)12 Grit (4)15 Convey (4)17 Barren (7)20 24 hours (3)21 Apply (5)23 Gap (4)25 Note (4)26 Deal (5)28 Deed (3)30 Enclose (7)33 Remain (4)35 Decline (4)36 Tribunal (5)38 Refutation (6)39 Elf (6)40 Spectre (5)

DOWN1 Wrong (5)2 Prostrate (5)3 Weaken (3)4 Treble (6)5 Harvest (4)6 Gear (3)7 Team (5)8 Irritable (5)13 Pull (7)14 Float (5)16 Cabal (7)18 Ooze (5)19 Curve (3)22 Toss (5)24 Attempt (3)27 Appear (6)28 Apart (5)29 Jeer (5)31 Sortie (5)32 Intended (5)34 Unaccompanied (4)36 Taxi (3)37 Plaything (3)

ACROSS: 1, Depute 5, Fabric 9, Olden10, Peruse 11, Verbal 12, Screw 14, Clod17, Tar 18, Pile 20, Tuned 22, Hated 23,Conceal 24, Bigot 26, Serum 29, Idly 30,Fur 32, Dare 33, Merit 35, Tablet 36, Praise37, Scree 38, Relish 39, Nearly.

DOWN: 1, Depict 2, Pardon 4, Elect 5, Fever 6,Anew 7, Rabbit 8, Called 13, Rancour 15, Lucid16, Decoy 18, Paled 19, Lemur 21, Dot 22, Has24, Bitter 25, Global 27, Rapier 28, Merely 30,Fetch 31, Ripen 33, Mess 34, Tree.

Okagbare jumps tosilver, pockets N4.8mB L E S S I N G

Okagbare, the24 year-old Delta-bornathlete, who is leadingNigeria’s medals chase

at the on-going IAAFWorld AthleticsChampionships inMoscow, yesterdayproved that she was

destined for great thingswhen she jumped to asilver medal win in theWomen’s Long Jump

Continues on Page 55

uBolt runs 9.77 secs to win 100m goldUSAIN Bolt yesterday won the men’s

100m final at the World AthleticsChampionships in Moscow.

The Jamaican posted a time of 9.78 sec-onds ahead of America’s Justin Gatlin insecond placed.

Bolt’s fellow countryman Nesta Carterclinched the bronze medal.

It was a sweet final for the world recordholder and Olympic champion, who was

AIRBORNE! PROUD MOMENT!

Blessing Okagbare (left) leaps to 6.99m to win silver in the women’s long jump, which she (right pix) celebrates with gold medalist Brittney Reese of USAand bronze medalist from Serbia, Ivana Spanovic at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Moscow yesterday.


Van Persie wins CommunityShield for Man U

DAVID Moyes collected his first piece

of silverware as Man-chester United managerfollowing the 2-0 victoryover Wigan in the Com-munity Shield at Wem-bley

Robin van Persie openedthe scoring early on witha wonderful header be-fore grabbing his braceshortly after the restartwith a deflected shotfrom distance.


CMYK

governance: respect your age, jonathan blasts akande

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