...towards a better life for the people

N150VOL. 25: NO. 62021

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013**

Mr & Mrs

Presidency, Jangblast Niger gov, Aliyu

COLUMNIST:

•P.17

Continues on Page 5

•P.44

•He is top on list of North's betrayers — Jang•Aliyu should respect his office — Presidency

BY SONI DANIEL &HENRY UMORU

ABUJA—CHAIRMAN of the

Northern States Gover-nors Forum, NGSF, Gov-ernor Babangida Aliyuof Niger State came un-der fire, yesterday, overhis allegation that thePresidency had bribedprominent northernersfor support ahead of the

ALLEGED BETRAYAL OF NORTH:

Taleveras, Afren seal Upstream Oil/Gas deal in I'Coast

Christ The King procession at the Immaculate Heart Catholic Church, Mile3, Diobu, in Port Harcourt, yesterday. Inset: Auxiliary Bishop of the CatholicArchdiocese of Abuja, Most Rev. Anselm Umoren (L), blessing the congre-gation during Christ The King celebration at the Sacred Heart Parish,Gwagwalada, Abuja, yesterday. Photos: NAN.

Jonathan returns,thanks Nigerians

Police arrestLebanese for defilingunderage girls

CHRIST THE KING PROCESSION

64

4

CMYK

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013 — 3

CMYK

4—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

VICE ADMIRAL MICHAEL OKHAI AKHIGBE'S BURIAL

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State (2ndleft), General Abdulsalami Abubukar (rtd.), formerHead of State (2nd right) and others.

Late Vice Admiral Michael Okhai Akhigbe was buried in his home town,Fugar, Edo State, Saturday. PHOTOS: Barnabas Uzosike.

Vice President Namadi Sambo (right) and Senate President, David Mark.

Mr. Matthew Urhoghide, Edo PDP PublicitySecretary (left) and Chief Dan Orbih, Edo PDPChairman. Chief Tony Anenih (right) and Naval officers.

Mrs. Josephine, widow (2nd left) and children.

Jonathan returns, thanks Nigerians

NIGERIAN indigenous independent oiland gas company, Taleveras, has sealed a fresh

upstream deal with the government of Ivory Coastfor offshore Block CI-523.

The President and CEO of Taleveras Group, Mr.Igho Sanomi, who led the firm’s delegation to thefrancophone West African state, signed the deal withofficials of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum,PETROCI, the national oil company of Ivory Coast,and Afren, the London-listed independent oil andgas company.

Prior to the fresh deal, Taleveras had acquired aninterest in Afren’s CI-525, located near the Ghanaianborder.

The new investment portfolio, which covers BlockCI-523, contains the Ibex oil and gas discovery, whileCI-525 covers the Kudu and Eland gas discoveries.

The Nigeria-based business concern had signed amemorandum of understanding, MoU, with PETROCIfor collaboration in upstream activities in Ivory Coastin July 2011.

Since then Taleveras had signed Production SharingContracts with PETROCI for four exploration blocksoffshore Ivory Coast.

Taleveras is a diversified energy and infrastructureconglomerate concentrating on oil and gasexploration, production, trading and supply, withfurther activities in power and construction.

Active across the globe, Taleveras’ offices are locatedin London, Geneva, Abidjan, Abuja, Lagos, CapeTown and Dubai. The company is privately owned.

Taleveras, Afren sealupstream oil, gasdeal in Ivory Coast

ABUJA— PRESIDENTGoodluck Jonathan,

yesterday, returned to thecountry and thanked Nigeriansfor the show of love extended tohim while he was indisposed inLondon.

He also confirmed that he willhave a meeting with the groupof seven governors who areestranged from the PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP, this weekdespite the seeming escalation ofthe crisis between the governorsand the party.

The governors on their partwere meeting last night to perfecttheir positions preparatory tomeeting the President.

Speaking with reporters shortlyafter he arrived at the PresidentialWing of Nnamdi AzikiweInternational Airport, Abuja,from London, PresidentJonathan also confirmed that hehad received the report of thecommittee he set up toinvestigate the purchase ofarmoured vehicles by theNigerian Civil Aviation Authority,NCAA, allegedly for the Ministerof Aviation, Stella Oduah.

The President, however, did not

say whether government hastaken action on the report ofthe committee.

The President, had onOctober 23, instituted a three-man administrative panel ofinquiry to probe the procure-ment of two bullet-proof carsfor the Aviation Minister.

The three-man panel, whichwas chaired by the immediateformer Head of Service of theFederation, Isa Sali Bello,also has the National SecurityAdviser, NSA, Sambo Dakusiand another defenceintelligence expert, DickIruenebere, as members.

The panel was mandated toinvestigate the minister’s rolein the procurement processand determine whether theprocess complied with dueprocess.

He told journalists: “I hadhealth challenges. I thank Godand I thank Nigerians for theconcern they showed. Iappreciate the show of loveand concern by Nigerians.

“On Wednesday, eventhough I was in London, Iread how peoplecongratulated me, remem-bering my birthday that I don’t

normally celebrate anyway.“I really had some health

challenges and I have tothank God again that I amvery okay to resume workfrom this night (yesterday).

“The most important thingis that I am back. You willexpect that when you areholding a political office asthe president of a country,anything that affects youattracts a lot of attention.

“If the President is sick, thisalone will definitely causeapprehension even if youdon’t know the ailment.”

On meetingwith G-7 govs

The President said: “Ibelieve within the week wewill be able to meet. Politicsis about discussion. Webelong to the same politicalparty.

“Even people fromdifferent political partiesengaged in politicaldiscussion and politicaldiscussion is a continuousprocess.

“Even during electionspeople discuss. So we willcontinue to discuss.”

BY BEN AGANDE

POCKET CARTOONVanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013—5

Presidency, Jang blastNiger gov, Aliyu

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

Continues from page 1

THE way to gain a good reputation is to endeavour to be what you desire to appear

— Socrates

I recall a scene from a movie called Fighting Temp-tation; in this scene, the substitute pianist sup-posedly sees himself as this honest, simple hearted,God loving individual, who attended service regu-larly and also thought the other fellows in the choirwere as dedicated as himself, when he discoversthat others have what he feels are inappropriateamorous feelings, some were still drinkers andeven liars and haters. He made this remark withindignation: “And I thought you people were holyand sanctified”. This is really funny because ear-lier in the movie he too has shown some lapses inhis behaviour.

The point of the story is that, I have silentlyexpressed such feelings about others and wonderedwhat kind of people I am fellowshipping with, someare constantly gossiping, and bickering like chil-dren, getting into other people’s businesses, so muchenvy and tall tales, and some will even try to en-sure you do not partake of activities because some-how your light will out shine theirs, as if that iseven possible, and will try to discredit others. Butknow that there are always and even more lovingpeople reflecting the good works of truth and di-vine love. And it dawned on me, why should I ex-pect mastership behaviour and perfection fromsomeone who is here to learn about life like me, weare all learning; some do well in some lessons thanothers, but all striving toward excellence and con-trary to the cliché ascribed to this word, FightingTemptation, which I will like to call OvercomingLimitations, the story is more about finding our truehumanity, through our virtues in our everyday liv-ing with each other, in a way you might want tocall it seeing the face of God or divine love.

JONATHAN RETURNS—From left: President Goodluck Jonathan; Cutlure and Tourism Minis-ter, Chief Edem Duke; Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Mike Oghiadomhe; Chairman, HouseCommittee on Health, Ndudi Elumelu and Special Adviser on Media to the President, Dr. Reuben Abation the President's arrival from London at the Presidential wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja,yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

2015 presidential elec-tions.

While the Presidency

accused him ofrubbishing his officethrough frivolous alle-gations, Governor Jonah

Jang of Plateau Statealso branded GovernorAliyu as the number onesaboteur on the list ofprominent northernersready to betray northerninterest.

Governor Aliyu hadlast Saturday allegedthat the presidency hadbribed about 400 promi-nent northerners to sup-port President Jonathanin his alleged bid for re-election in 2015. Heclaimed that he wouldmake the list public assoon as he obtained it.

Responding yester-day, Special Adviser tothe President on Politi-cal Matters, Dr. AhmedGulak, told Vanguard onphone that the allega-tion was not only laugh-able but was also frivo-lous and unbecoming ofa governor, who shouldknow better.

Gulak noted with dis-may the penchant by theNiger governor to throwup wild allegationswhich neither him norany of his officials hadbeen able to substanti-ate.

The presidential aiderecalled that it was thesame governor, who al-leged that Jonathansigned an agreementwith northern leaders toserve only a term buthad not been able to pro-

duce a copy of the so-called agreement whenchallenged to prove hisclaim.

The Presidential ad-viser said: “Nigeriansshould be able to knowAliyu Babangida for whohe is. He is recklesswith speech and fond oftrying to malign thePresident. They shouldjust ignore him for al-ways trying to play tothe gallery.

“I think that the NigerState Governor isrubbishing the high of-fice which he occupiesand should learn to re-spect his office.

“President GoodluckJonathan does not needto bribe anyone to winelection if he decides toseek a second term inoffice. The Jonathan thatwe know must go roundthe country and cam-paign as he has beendoing rather than seekto induce anyone forvotes,” Gulak said.

In his response yester-day, Jang, factionalchairman of the NigerianGovernors Forum, de-scribed Aliyu as numberone on the list of betray-ers of northern interests.

Jang said that if a listof those who have be-trayed northern interestsis ever compiled thatGovernor Aliyu would

top the list on account ofhis alleged tendency ofsowing seeds of distrustamong the Northern po-litical class.

He particularly ac-cused Aliyu of using thecrisis in the NorthernStates Governors Forumto further a sinisteragenda.

In a statement issuedby his media office inAbuja yesterday, Jangsaid: “The ultimate be-trayal occurred when thenorthern governors metand agreed on GovernorJang as the consensuscandidate of the Northto become the chairmanof the Nigerian Gover-nors Forum only for Gov-ernor Aliyu and his co-horts to betray the North-ern Governors agree-ment.

“Maybe GovernorAliyu and his group donot see me as a North-erner and perhaps needto explain to us whatmakes you a northerner

if they can so flagrantlydisregard the collectivedecision.

“If Governor Aliyu isaccusing anybody in theNorth of betrayal, maybehe should think hard tofind out if these peopledid not learn the actfrom him. Nigerians arenot stupid, the more theissues unravel, the morethey see the root causeof some of the issuesplaguing our polity to-day and those responsi-ble through their deceitand dishonour whichnow means state gover-nors can no longer sitdown together and be-lieve anything theyagree on collectively”.

Contacted on the de-velopment yesterday, asenior media aide toGovernor Aliyu prom-ised to respond aftermaking contacts with thegovernor but had not re-sponded as at press timelast night.

FG, ASUU bothlosers in ongoingstrike — Aremu

BY DEMOLA AK-INYEMI

ILORIN—THE VicePresident of Nigeria

Labour Congress, NLC,Comrade IssaAremu yesterday inIlorin, Kwara State saidboth the Federal Gov-ernment and strikingmembers of AcademicStaff Union of Universi-ties, ASUU, were bothlosers in the ongoingover four months old in-dustrial action embarkedupon by the universitylecturers.

Aremu who is also theGeneral Secretary ofNational Union of Tex-tile, Garment and Tailor-ing Workers of Nigeria,NUTGTWN, regretted

that the death of theformer ASUU leader,Professor Festus Iyayihad caused major set-back in the Nigeria La-bour Congress, NLC’sintervention in resolv-ing the face -off betweenASUU and federal gov-ernment.

Aremu spoke with journalists in Ilorin atthe fidau for the late wifeof the pioneer Chair-man, Independent Cor-rupt Practices and otherRelated Offence Com-mission (ICPC ), HajiaAkanbi.

He pointed out thatNigeria cannot beamong the top econo-mies of the world withher universities shut forover four months.

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

5 killed, houses burnt as gunmenattack Plateau community

BY TAYE OBATERU

JOS — FIVE people were yesterday killed and several houses

burnt at Kuka village in ShendamLocal government Area of PlateauState when armed men attacked thevillage.

The gunmen, said to have num-bered over 100, stormed the village,

which is about 300 kilometres fromthe state capital and sharesboundary with Taraba State, aftermidnight.

An eyewitness said the attack-ers who were armed with sophis-ticated weapons torched housesand shot sporadically as theymoved, killing the five and injur-ing others.

The eyewitness said they ranout of their houses to seek refugeas Policemen in the village couldnot match the fire power of theassailants who outnumberedthem.

He added that the prompt ar-rival of military men from TarabaState saved the situation fromgetting worse

Media Officer of the SpecialTask Force maintaining securityin the state, Captain SalisuMustapha, who confirmed the at-tack said there were only twodeaths, adding that the attack-ers had been successfully re-pelled and normalcy restored tothe village.

Lebanese arrested for defiling underage girls

... as Police nabbed woman for trafficking girls to Libya

BY DAYO JOHNSON

AKURE —A 32-year-old Lebanese, Jack Sankary, whose

hobby is to have carnal knowl-edge of under-aged girls inAkure, the Ondo State capital,has been nabbed by detectives.

Also middle agedwoman, Chinwe Chinasa, hasbeen arrested for allegedly traf-ficking six young girls to Libyafor prostitution.

His recruiter, Patience Godwin,is currently undergoing interro-gation at the state CID.

Vanguard gathered that Pa-tience was arrested at her hide-out in Odopetu area of Akuremetropolis and one 14-year-oldgirl about to be taken to the Leba-nese rescued.

Speaking on the woman whotrafficks young girls to Libya forprostitution, the state Police com-mand said she was arrested atthe Olufoam area of FederalHousing Estate, Shagari Villagein Akure following intelligencereports.

The command image maker,Wole Ogodo, said after the raidon the hideout, it was discoveredthat the six young girls had beenprepared for the journey to Libya.

Ogodo said part of the prepa-ration was shaving of their hairsand cutting of their nails.

He assured that investigationwas ongoing to apprehend all hercollaborators.

Ogodo said that some Nigerianinternational passports, cheque

books of different banks andfake Naira notes were recov-ered from the suspected traf-ficker ’s house. Speakingwhile she was paraded by thepolice, Chinasa said shepicked four of the girls from ahotel in Asaba, Delta State.

We were virginsSome of the girls confirmed

that the suspect deceived theirparents that she was going tohelp them look for jobs and not

prostitution.They alleged that they were

virgins before they were luredinto the illicit business by thesuspect.

The girls were said to havepleaded that the police shouldtemper justice with mercy sincethey were deceived into thetrade by the suspect.

According to Ogodo the sus-pects will be charged to courtafter completion of investiga-tion.

The rescued girls

4 Nigerian cadets injured in Hurricane Haiyan

BY GODWIN ORITSE

LAGOS— FOUR Nigerian cadets whose identity Van-

guard could not immediately as-certain were said to have beeninjured following the hurricanethat swept through the Philip-pines recently.

The cadets are currently undergoing different courses in mari-time studies in that country.

It was said that the cadets on

sighting the storm coming to-wards their hostel, tried to es-cape the hurricane andjumped from a high platformthereby getting injured in theprocess.

The injured cadets, it wasgathered, were taken to hos-pital for treatment but weredischarged after a few dayslater.

Besides the injured Nigeriancadets, more than 100 people

were killed in a major Philip-pine coastal city that took thebrunt of Super TyphoonHaiyan, authorities said Sat-urday.

The death toll in Taclobanwas the first significant casu-alty report on a day authori-ties began surveying devas-tation by a typhoon describedas perhaps the strongeststorm ever to make landfallin recorded history.

3 killed,houses razed,in Katsinavillage blast

D A N D U M E(KATSINA)—

THREE people were killedwhen two fuel-laden ar-ticulated vehicles explodedat Gyazama village, alongthe Funtua-Birnin Gwariroad in Dandume LocalGovernment Area ofKatsina State.

Transition CommitteeChairman of DandumeLocal Government Coun-cil, Alhaji AbdulkadirMuhammad, told theNews Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Dandume thatfour other persons sus-tained burns of variousdegrees.

He also said that sixhouses were also burnt inthe resultant inferno whichoccurred Saturdayevening.

According to reports, theblaze started when somedrivers were transferringfuel from a broken-downvehicle to another using apumping machine.

Muhammad said two ofthe deceased were opera-tors of the pumping ma-chine, while those who sus-tained burns were receiv-ing treatment at FuntuaGeneral Hospital.

He added that thehouses were burnt becauseof the fuel which spilledfrom the scene of the inci-dent.

Muhammad, who wasan eyewitness, explainedthat the fire could not becontained by the Dandumecouncil firemen, addingthat it took the interventionof nearby firemen fromFaskari, Funtua andDandume Local Govern-ment Areas to put it off.

He said that the firelasted till Sunday morning,adding that he attendedthe burial of the deceased,while paying condolencevisits to the victims’ fami-lies.

Edo policekill 7suspectedrobbers

BY SIMONEBEGBULEM

BENIN CITY—SEVEN suspected

robbers were shot dead,yesterday, along the noto-rious Benin by-pass, dur-ing a gun battle betweenthe police and the robbers.

The operation was per-sonally led by the EdoState Commissioner of Po-lice, Mr Folusho Adebanjo.

At press time, the CP anda special squad of detec-tives were still combing thearea popular referred ashaven for robbers.

Some of the robbers, ac-cording to CP Adebanjo,were still in the bushes withbullet wounds.

As at 10:30am when thebodies of the dead police-men were brought to theEdo State Police Com-mand, one of the robberswho identified himself asSanda from Kebbi State,was still alive and he con-fessed that he only joinedhis dead colleagues for thefirst time, because heneeded money to go backto Kebbi State.

NSCDCarrests 26over illegalmining

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

ABEOKUTA — THENigeria Security and

Civil Defence Corps,(NSCDC, Ogun StateCommand has announcedthe arrest of 26 suspects,including four teenagers,for allegedly engaging inillegal dredging activities.

The Corps Public Rela-tions Officer in the state,Kareem Olanrewaju, dis-closed this in Abeokuta,weekend.

The four teenagers ar-rested, according toOlanrewaju were, Argen-tina Zack 14, AzeezInagozou ,16, Podo Sunday17 and Kabra Kaziyan,15.They are from differentplaces including BeninRepublic.

“Exhibits recovered fromthe suspects include fourlorries fully loaded withsharp sand with numberplates Lagos, EKY244YE,Lagos KSF445XB and twoothers with no registrationnumbers as well as aJincheng motorcycle withnumber plate Lagos,QQ902EKY.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013—7

CONFAB:

Okurounmuc'tteesubmitsreportDec 2

POWER PRIVATISATION: From left— Mr. Samuel Agbogun, MD/CEO, National Electricity Liability ManagementCompany, NELMCO; Dr. Mike Uzoigwe, MD/CEO, Egbin Power Plc; Mr. Dapo Abiodun, Chairman, First Power (leaseholders for Ijora Power Company); and Mr. Ademola Adebisi, Executive Director, Wema Bank Plc, First Power financiers, atthe formal handover of Ijora Power Co by NELMCO to First Power.

WOW: Do business likemen, Oputu tasks women

LAGOS— THE ManagingDirector, Bank of

Industry, BoI, Ms. EvelynOputu, has charged Nigerianwomen to take their destiniesinto their hands and strive foropportunities that willempower them financially.

She gave the charge whilespeaking at Women onWellness, WOW, conferenceorganised by Vanguard Alluremagazine in Lagos.

Speaking on BuildingFinancial Capacity as a ValuedHealth Model: Approaches,Intents and Opportunities,Oputu asked women to beproactive and emulate theirmale counterparts’ approachto financial freedom.

Oputu said: “You need toempower yourselves sinceyou remain the pillar ofsupport of the society as faras care giving is concerned.

“When going into business,go into it like a woman butdo it like a man. Embraceyour hobby and things thatare profitable and you mustlearn to win without losingyourself.”

The conference, organisedto mark the fifth anniversaryof the WOW programme anda prelude to Allure’s annualaward, had experts fromdifferent fields educating wo-men on health-related issues,improved healthy lifestyleand financial management.

On health, sleepAn orthopaedic surgeon,

Dr. Aham Onyike, who spokeon The Desirability of HealthyHabits for Improved Condi-

tions of the MusculoskeletalSystem, said that changes inlifestyle, especially inactivity,are the major cause oforthopedic issues.

He encouraged theparticipants to embrace morephysical activity instead ofleading sedentary lifestyles.

He said: “The lifestyle of ourforefathers involved lots ofphysical activities andtherefore led to better health.Today, our bodies havebecome inactive due to thenature of work andpredominant lifestyles.

“So we have to designartificial activities, likeexercises that the body wouldrespond to, as research hasproved that the bodyresponds to such activity forimproved health.”

On his part, the ManagingDirector of Sleep Medics, Dr.Don Onu said that to maintainperfect health, people shouldunderstand the importance ofsleep as it is needed to restoreand heal the body.

Speaking on Managing SleepRoutine: A Necessity forOptimal Health, CognitiveFunctioning and EmotionalHealth, Onu noted that thehuman body depends on sleepto be able to function well.

Fashion, imageThe Creative Head, Adeba-

yo Jones Limited, AdebayoJones, who spoke on image,style and fashion, undersco-red the importance ofmanaging social reputationthrough responsible fashionand style.

He spoke on How Your Styleand Style Choices Affect Your

Image and Social Well-being,Jones said people’s oppor-tunities to succeed in life isimpacted by their sense andchoice of fashion.

He said: “How you presentyourself would affect youropportunities in life. It wouldalso affect how you areperceived as a professionalperson.

“It would by extensiondetermine whether peoplewould consider doing businesswith you.”

Other speakers at the eventwere Dr. Abayomi Ajayi andEryca Freemantle, who spokeon family wellness and non-invasive reconstructive makeup, fitness and living well,respectively.

Some participants that spoketo Vanguard after theprogramme said they wereimpressed as they have beenempowered to embrace lifewith a renewed vigour.

Ibiyemi Fashina said: “Thisis my first time of attending theWOW programme and I mustsay that I enjoyed all the topicsthat were treated.

“Although for want of time,some of the speakers could notgo into many details, I got themessages. They were clearenough. And this is good forNigerian women. I feelempowered.”

Editor's remarksOn her part, the organiser

and Allure Editor, RemmyDiagbare, said: “Allure is notjust a fashion magazine. It isabout fashion, lifestyle andwellness. Put together, thetopics make the total person.

“We are not just interested on

what you put on, on the outside.We are also interested in whathappens to you on the inside,because if you are not well andhealthy, whatever you may puton amounts to nothing.

“So we have tried to marrythe two, to ensure you are welland then doing fashion. Thatis what Allure is all about.

“WOW is all about trying tocreate awareness about healthand push out information thatwould help individuals makebetter health choices.

“What we are hoping toachieve is that by tomorrow,Nigerians would be soconscious about their healththat instead of all the gold andthe music, they would also addtheir fitness to all theirenjoyment in fashion, musicand football.”

Some dignitaries at the eventwere Dame Ambibola Fashola,the First Lady of Lagos State,and Vanguard’s Editor-in-Chief, General ManagerPublications, Mr. GbengaAdefaye.

BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

Ms. Evelyn Oputu

BARRING last-minute hitches, the

13-man PresidentialAdvisory Committee onNational Dialogue willsubmit its report on orbefore next Monday,December 2.

The panel would haveturned in its reportdetailing modalities fororganising the propo-sed national conferenceon November 19, butwas granted two weeksextension by thepresidency to wrap upits work.

A member of the paneltold Vanguard yesterdaythat the committeeconcluded its zonal touracross 13 cities in the sixgeo-political zones,weekend, with a visit tothe Federal CapitalTerritory, Abuja, and isnow holed up in thecapital city to finish offthe job.

The member said: “Wefinished going roundlast weekend. We arestill in Abuja getting ourreports ready. We aretrying to keep to limits.

“They gave us extratwo weeks and we haveloads and loads of me-moranda to work on.”

President Jonathanraised the Senator FemiO k u r o u n m u - l e dcommittee on October 1and inaugurated it onOctober 7 with a six-week time frame.

The cities visited by thecommittee are Akure,Jos, Minna, Calabar,Benin, Enugu, Umua-hia, Lagos, Sokoto,Maiduguri, Lagos, Bau-chi, Kaduna and Abuja.

Asked theirexperience during thezonal visits and thepicture emerging fromNigerians on theire x p e c t a t i o n s ,Okurounmu, after oneof the sittings, said:“The picture that hasemerged so far is thatof Nigerians exceedin-gly grateful to Mr.President for listeningand acceding to theiryearnings to convene anational conference.”

BY CLIFFORDNDUJIHE

8—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Jonathansacks aide

DEDICATION: The Bishop of Abuja and Primate of All Nigeria, Anglican Communion, The Most. Revd. NicolasOkoh, flanked by the Bishop of Arochukwu/Ohafia Diocese, Rt. Rev. Johnson Onuoha and Vicar of Our Saviour AnglicanChurch, Ven. Stephen Ejezie, at the dedication of Our Saviour Anglican Church's new building in Abuja, yesterday.

Pro-Jonathan lawmakers move todump constitution review for confab

ABUJA— THE review ofthe 1999 Constitution by

the House of Representativesmight have been put on hold,following subtle moves bymany members of the lowerchambers of the NationalAssembly to stop furtherwork on the matter, pendingthe conclusion of the nationaldialogue, which was recentlyinitiated by the presidency.

Findings by Vanguardindicated that many of thelawmakers loyal to PresidentGoodluck Jonathan werefavourably disposed to thesuspension of further actionon the amendment of theConstitution by the

leadership of the House ofRepresentatives until theconclusion of the proposedconference.

A source in the NationalAssembly said that the pro-government elements hadbeen meeting routinely onhow to scuttle the completionof the amendment of theConstitution, which theysuspect may adversely affectthe political fortunes of sometop politicians in their camp.

To get at the leadership ofthe House of Representativesand stall further deliberationson the constitutionamendment, the pro-government group isreported to have beguninsinuations that theleadership had already spent

close to N100 billion on theproject without any progress.

The group also alleged thatthe leadership had divertedpart of the funds meant forthe review for the acquisitionof exotic cars for some of thetop officials of the House,leaving the job undone.

‘Amendmentsmust proceed'

However, chairman, HouseCommittee on Media andPublic Affairs, Mr. ZakariMohammed, said thatmembers would not suspendreview of the constitution forthe deliberations of thenational dialogue, as the twowere completely different.

Mohammed stated that theamendment must be taken to

a logical conclusion to satisfythe desire of Nigerians tohave a truly peoplesconstitution and deependemocracy and goodgovernance in the country.

Although the lawmaker didnot say how much had beenexpended on the project, hedispelled the allegation ofspending N100 billion on theamendment of theconstitution, saying that theentire budget of the NationalAssembly was not more thanN150 billion.

Another lawmaker, who isclose to the leadership of theHouse, noted that there wasa serious attempt by someaggrieved persons to usesome members against theleadership of the House overperceived lack of cooperationand support for thepresidency.

According to the lawmaker“ we are aware of subtlemoves to get at our leader,whom they accuse of notsupporting the party that gavehim the ticket.

“But we know that they willfail woefully because theSpeaker has chosen to be onthe side of the majority of thepeople of Nigeria and notplay to the gallery for cheappopularity.

“The national dialogue is acreation of the presidency andwe do not know what it is outto achieve, while theamendment of the NigerianConstitution is a project thatmust be done speedily tobring about a positive changein the way we do things.”

BY SONI DANIEL,Regional Editor, North

CBN's reforms yet to impact on the people— WAIFEM

THE Central Bank ofNigeria, CBN’s banking

reforms is yet to impact onthe citizenry as lending rateis still high, Director-General,West African Institute forFinancial and EconomicManagement, WAIFEM, Pro-fessor Akpan Ekpo, has said.

He also said that theFederal Government has thecapacity and expertise todetermine the oil benchmarkmore than the NationalAssembly.

Ekpo, who spoke weekendduring a workshop for

financial journalists in IjebuOde, Ogun State, said: ”Inmy opinion, in as much as thelending rate is still high in thecountry, the banking reformshave not really impacted onthe lives of the ordinarypeople.

“It is obvious that thereforms have brought somelevel of sanity in the industrybut its desired effect ofimpacting on the economyhas not been achieved.

“Until we see the lendingrate dropping to a level wheremanufacturing firms orindustries can borrow atminimum cost, which will

then have a multiplier effecton price of goods,employment and standard ofliving, then we cannot reallysay that the reforms haveachieved its purpose.”

On benchmarkWhile answering questions

on the controversialbenchmark for oil price indetermining the 2014 budget,the WAIFEM boss said: “TheMinistry of Finance and thebudget office have thecapacity and expertise todetermine the benchmark foroil price than the NationalAssembly whose function is to

make law.“The fixing of oil price

should be conservative innature as it is a volatileproduct. It is better tounderestimate than overestimate.”

In his paper entitledEconomic Reforms in Nigeria:Issues and Lessons, Ekposaid: “Reforms are part andparcel of governance. Theyeven assume a life of theirown in most humanendeavours, in economic,socio-cultural or politicalspheres, reflecting limitationsof the human mind and needfor adjustments.”

BY PETER EGWUATU

P R E S I D E N TG o o d l u c k

Jonathan has sackedMrs Aisha Umar fromoffice as his SeniorSpecial Assistant.

This was contained ina press statement issuedyesterday by theSecretary to theGovernment of theFederation, SenatorAnyim Pius Anyim.

The statement furtherindicated that MrsUmar’s sack takes effectfrom today.

NIGERIAN CivilAviation Authority,

NCAA, yesterday, revea-led that only 10,000 outof the 75,000 pilgrimsthat participated in 2013Hajj were delayed in theirreturn journey becausethey employed the servi-ces of tour operators.

According to NCAAPublic Affairs GeneralManager, Mr. FanNdubuoke, “over 75,000pilgrims were airlifted inthe 2013 Hajj operation inan exercise that waslargely hitch free.

“All the pilgrims wereairlifted in a total of 166flight operations. Theonly grey area was thedelay experienced by the10,000 pilgrims whoemployed the services ofthe tour operators.”

NCAAdeclaresHajjoperationsuccessful

BY LAWANIMIKAIRU

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013—9

FORUM: From left, Dame Abimbola Fashola, First Lady of Lagos State; Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Access Bank Plc, and Mrs.Bisi Awoyomi, Director, Lagos Empowerment and Resource Network, LEARN, during theparenting forum, ‘Shaping our Future: The Vital Role of Parenting,' organised by LEARN, atMuson Centre, Onikan, Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi

Land Use Act: Lagos demolishes eventcentre

BY MONSURUOLOWOOPEJO

LAGOS — LAGOS Stategovernment, weekend,

demolished a multi-million nairaEvent Centre on block 36 Plot 4in Magodo, Ikosi-Isheri LocalCouncil Development Area,LCDA, for violating the land UseAct of 1990.

The demolition exercise carriedout by the State Taskforce onEnvironment and SpecialOffences, which stormed thenewly constructed Event CentreSaturday, suspended its operationtill yesterday, to avoid casualties.

When Vanguard visited thescene at Tokumbo Disu-SuleStreet, it was learnt that the landwas allocated to one Mr. SarumiAdebowale Atinmo in 1994 by thestate government under theMagodo Residential Scheme.

Sources said the governmentrevoked the certificate and 35others in 2011, for violating thestipulated clause in theCertificate of Ownership, C of O,issued during allocation, whichincluded inability to pay theground rent and erect residentialapartment after 17 years ofallotment.

After the revocation, it wasgathered that Sarumi allegedlyleased the land out to recoup hisinvestment.

However, effort to speak with

either the previous owner or thenew occupier of the buildingproved abortive.

Chairman of Taskforce, Mr.Bayo Sulaimon, while speakingto Vanguard after the demolition,said: “This land was among the36 plots of lands that wererevoked by the state governmentwithin the Magodo ResidentialScheme for inability to erectstructure on the land within thestipulated period and the

inability to pay the requiredground rent.

“The revocation was done inyear 2011 by the stategovernment after thegovernment had waited for 17years for the owners to developthe land. The previous allottee,Mr. Sarumi who got his C of O,in 1994, leased the land toanother person.

“There is a clause in the C ofO which falls in line with the

land Use Act of 1990, that eachof the allottees must commenceconstruction on the allotted landwithin three years. Before thegovernment revoked the land,the owners were contacted.”

He said they were referred tothe section in the C of O whichstated that the place must bedeveloped within a stipulatedtime, adding, “and they allaccepted.”

Lagos screens citizens for cancer, diabetes,hypertension

BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

LAGOS — Lagos StateGovernment is commencing awellness health week in which it

will carry out an integrated freescreening and awareness exercisefor breast cancer, prostate cancer,hypertension, diabetes and otherNon-Communicable Diseases,NCD.

The exercise which kicked offtoday, will run through to Friday,November 29, in all localgovernment and Local CouncilDevelopment areas of the state.

The wellness health week,

being organised to tackle thespectre of inadequate knowledgeand awareness of the symptoms,signs and effects of untreatedhypertension, diabetes, cancer ofthe breast,cervix and prostate,

Family warns against misinterpretation ofS-Court judgement

BY INNOCENT ANABA

PARTIES to the lingering tussle overthe control of resources of Oshodi

town, in Oshodi-Isolo Local Government

Area, have been warned to desist from dis-torting and misinterpreting the SupremeCourt judgment over the land tussle.

Mr. Lanre Oliyide, counsel to the ArotaOlogun family of Oshodi, handed down

among other NCDs,is designed to createawareness aboutearly detection.

Special Adviser tothe Governor onPublic Health, Dr.Yewande Adeshina,who disclosed this,weekend, noted thatLagos, being thecommercial nervecentre of Nigeria,had peculiarenvironmental andother risk factors thatp r e d i s p o s e dresidents to NCDsand explained thatthe exercise tagged‘First StatewideWellness HealthWeek Awarenessand ScreeningP r o g r a m m e , ’became necessary inview of the dangerto health andeconomic lossessuch disorders poseto society.

the warning in a chat withnewsmen over a recentpublication by a nationaldaily that Oshodi was anexclusive property ofOshodi family of Epetedo.

In the said publication,one Chief SurakatAlabi-Oshodi had claimedthat the Oshodi familygave the land to the ArotaOlogun family, which, heclaimed, had stopped torecognise them as theowner of Oshodi Town.

He said: “There havebeen court cases whichlasted 35 years in 2000, aSupreme Court judgmentaffirmed the Oshodis as theowner of Oshodi town butwe are still in court and we

will win.”But displaying the

Supreme Court judgmentin Appeal No. SC53/95,dated July 14, 2000, Oliyidesaid there was noambiguity in the fact thatboth Oshodi family of Lagos(Epetedo) and ArotaOlogun family jointlyowned the modern dayOshodi Town.

He said that the SupremeCourt affirmed andrecognised the two familiesin the third paragraph of itsjudgment, where it said“that the land in dispute inthis case, as shown on theplan attached to thestatement of claim in thissuit, is part of the landlitigated upon in suit AB/16/57 and it is also part ofthe land granted absolutelyto the Oshodis and Arotasby the Oba Onigbesa ofIgbesa

TUC decriesdelayedfederalbudgetpresentation

BY VICTORAHIUMA-YOUNG

Cleric urgesgovernmentto improvesecurity

TRADE Union Congressof Nigeria, TUC, weekend,decried the delay byPresident GoodluckJonathan in presenting the2014 budget proposal to theNational Assembly,warning that the delaywas bad for Nigeria’seconomic developmentand growth.

The umbrella body forsenior staff associations inthe country equally faultedperceived forced holidaygiven to NationalAssembly workers inpreparation for the abortedpresentation of the 2014budget by PresidentGoodluck Jonathan to ajoint session of the NationalAssembly, describing it asu n n e c e s s a r y ,counter-productive and anexample of executiveimpunity.

TUC in a statement by itsPresident and SecretaryGeneral, Bobboi Kaigamaand Musa Lawal, arguedthat it was a globallyacknowledged fact thatgood budgeting and earlypresentation of budgetswas a serious business forbetter fiscal andsocio-economic planningand should not be subjectto delay on the basis offrivolities.

THE LORD Bishop,Diocese of Lagos

West, Rt. Reverend JamesOdedeji has urgedgovernment to step up itssecurity apparatus to makethe country safe.

He spoke to reporters atthe Holy Communion/Thanksgiving Service tomark the 14th anniversaryof the diocese, at Arch-Bishop Vining MemorialChurch Cathedral, Lagos.

Odedeji said the countryneeded prayers to heal alldepartments in the countrythat had fallen short of thepeople’s expectation.

He said: “I don’t want toagree with governmentthat it is on top of thesecurity situation in thecountry. We need to pray.Things are easier said thandone. Life and property arenot safe and our people areliving in fear.”

10—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

VISIT: Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (2nd right); daughter of thekidnapped industrialist, Mrs. Olabisi Obaleye (left); All Progressives CongressChieftain, Senator Bayo Salami (right), and others, during the Governor's visit tocommiserate with the family of the kidnapped founder and CEO, Yinka Oba Foam,Mrs. Olayinka Obaleye, at Ilesa, Osun State.

Aregbesola, Omisore disagreeover 181 poll monitors

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN

GOVERNOR RAUFAregbesola of Osun

State and Senator IyiolaOmisore were, yesterday,locked in a verbal war over thefate of the 181 electionmonitors deployed from OsunState to monitor the recentAnambra State gubernatorialelection.

Senator Omisore, agubernatorial aspirant on theplatform of the PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP,asserted that the electionmonitors now held by thePolice in Imo State were fakeelection observers who shouldbe diligently prosecuted.

He said the electionmonitors were being used totest-run alleged riggingschemes of GovernorAregbesola ahead of theforthcoming gubernatorialelection in Osun State.

Omisore’s assertion wasimmediately rebuffed byGovernor Aregbesola whoaccused his traducer ofsmelling election defeat in theface and resorting to alldesperate means toameliorate defeat.

Aregbesola also accused thepolice in Anambra and Imostates of working in cahootswith opponents of freedom todestabilise the work of the 181election monitors, who, he

Okonjo Iweala appeals to ASUUto call off strike

BY OLA AJAYI

Akarigbocommendscement firmover roadrehabilitation

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

ABEOKUTA — THE Akarigbo ofRemo and paramount ruler of

Remoland, Oba Michael Sonarinwohas commended Lafarge CementWAPCO for its plan to rehabilitatesome parts of the Sagamu/OgijoFederal road in the localgovernment.

Oba Sonarinwo stated this beforethe commissioning of four renovatedblocks of classrooms and distributionof 176,000 exercise books,among others, at thepresentation of 2013Community DevelopmentProgrammes to the Sagamucommunity, weekend,

The monarch who, however,regretted the neglect of theroad by the FederalGovernment, said manycommuters and motoristsplying the Sagamu/ Ogijoroad were facing serioushardship.

Oba Sonarinwo’scommendation came as a resultof the pledge made by the chiefExecutive Officer,LafargeCement WAPCO, JoeHudson that the companywould rehabilitate some partsof the Sagamu/Ogijo road.

Hudson in his remarks, saidthe company had decided totake the responsibility of theroad in Ogijo with a view toameliorating the suffering ofthe people that ply the road.

Adeyeyedecries stateof Ekitihospitals

A F E N I F E R ECHIEFTAIN and

Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, governorshipaspirant in Ekiti State hascalled on the stategovernment to pay moreattention to the parlousstate of hospitals in theState, saying, “the presentstate of infrastructure andmedical services inhospitals in Ekiti Stateshould be a source ofconcern to well-meaningindigenes of the state.”

He admonished the stategovernment to stop payinglip-service to health-caredelivery in the state,adding that, “spending awhopping sum of N70million on a ‘HealthMission’ programme inwhich Paracetamol, cottonwool, cotton bud, soap andtoothpaste are distributedwhen hospitals in the stateare under-staffed withdecaying infrastructure isa waste of public fund.”

OgunpartnersWorld Bank,others onhealthinsurance

THE OGUN StateGovernment, under

its Public/PrivatePartnership, PPP, initiativehas secured support of theAfrican Health Market forEquity, AHME, partnerscomprising the World Bankand allies on the roll-out ofthe Community BasedHealth Insurance Scheme,CBHIS, in the state.

Commissioner forHealth, Dr. OlaokunSoyinka, who made thisknown in Abeokuta after apresentation to the groupon the process andmodalities for the operationof the scheme, pointed outthat the developmentwould help in achievingthe re-defined healthstrategy of governmenttowards providing efficienthealth-care system.

Responding, Director,Health Market of AHME,Mr. Matt Boxshall assuredof the readiness of his teamto collaborate with the stategovernment to providehigh quality servicedelivery, describing theCBHIS scheme as agenuine interventioncapable of addressinghealth-related challenges.

said, were genuine observersworking on the platform of theJustice and EquityOrganisation.

While calling on the policeand the Independent NationalElectoral Commission, INEC, tomonitor Governor Aregbesola’sactivities in the run-up to theOsun State gubernatorialelection, Senator Omisore said:

“What Aregbesola did was totest-run and perfect his riggingplans towards next year electionin Osun Sate having declaredto his APC members that hissecond term ambition is a do-or-die affair.”

Accusing the election monitorsarrested by the police in ImoState as fake election observers,Omisore called on the police todiligently prosecute them for thesake of equity.

Aregbesola in a riposte said:“It is laughable for people like

Iyiola Omisore to use theAnambra/Imo police chicaneryas a premise to call on theInspector General of Police, IGP,to monitor the movement ofGovernor Rauf Aregbesola.”

In the statement by SemiuOkanlawon, Director General,Bureau of Communications, thegovernor said:

“Omisore is smelling defeatalready before he emerges thecandidate of his party.Obviously, Omisore nurses thefear that Aregbesola’s influencetranscends the shores of OsunState and thus wishes that thegovernor ’s movement bemonitored.

“No amount of such dubiousand devious moves will earnOmisore a place in the hearts ofOsun electorate and, in fact,every right-thinking person. Formore than a week now,Nigerians have beenentertained with a drama of theabsurd by the Nigeria Police.”

Defending the mission of the

IBADAN — THECoordinating Minister for

the Economy and Minister ofFinance, Dr NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, weekend,appealed to the striking universitylecturers to call off the strike andresume teaching.

She said this after she and theGovernor of the Central Bank ofNigeria, Mallam Sanusi LamidoSanusi bagged doctorate honorarydoctorate degrees at a privateuniversity, Oduduwa University,Ipetumodu in Osun State.

The Ooni of Ife, Oba OkunadeSijuwade, according to the ViceChancellor, Professor AdelekeOgunwale, nominated the twoeminent Nigerians for the awardas part of activities marking themaiden convocation of theinstitution which produced 18 firstclass graduates out of 166 that

did not have any politicalcolouration as being insinuatedin some quarters.

According to her: “There isno politics in it. Every state goesto Federal AllocationCommittee meeting monthly;they see the account and knowthat oil production is down andthe receipts are down.

“They know Customs’revenues are down, yet wedistribute whatever that is to bedistributed. From that, we havebeen able to manage thiscountry and workers have beenable to collect their salaries.

On the need for therevitalisation of tertiaryeducation, she said: “Ourtertiary institutions face seriouschallenges which requireurgent attention. PresidentJonathan injects N220billion ayear on top of regular resourcesto address challenges in tertiaryeducation.”

graduated.Dr. Iweala was awarded

honorary Doctor of Science inAccounting, her counterpart washonoured with Doctor of Sciencein Economics.

The ceremony attractedimportant dignitaries like theOoni of Ife, Oba Sijuwade whowas represented by his wife,Chief Mojisola Sijuwade; thePro Chancellor/Chairman,Governing Council, Dr.Adegoke Adedoyin, amongothers.

She said: “We are indeedsaddened by the death ofProfessor Iyayi. I appeal toASUU to go back to school in theinterest of students, theirparents, because the FederalGovernment has acceded totheir requests.”

The Minister said this just asshe clarified that the shortfall inthe federal allocation to stategovernments in the federation

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013—11

Navy arrests three suspected oil thieves,community’s spiritual head

BY EMMA ARUBI

Bayelsaprobescommunalclash

We nowrepair ouraircraftlocally—COAS

Imoke declares free medicare forpregnant women

BY SAMUELOYADONGHA BY JIMITOTA

ONOYUME

WARRI—OPERA-TIVES of the Ni-

gerian Navy Ship, NNS,Delta, have arrestedthree suspected illegaloil bunkerers and gunrunners in oil-rich Ug-borodo community, inWarri South-West LocalGovernment Area, alongwith the community’sspiritual head, for alleg-edly parading himself asa traditional ruler.

The arrest followed araid, weekend, on thecommunity duringwhich the suspects werepicked up and taken toWarri for further investi-gation.

Chairman of DeltaState Waterways Com-mittee, DWSC, ChiefAyiri Emami, who spoke

to newsmen on the mat-ter, said he had to reportto Police, Soldiers andNavy authorities, thecriminal acts of the sus-pects, to stem any breachof the peace in the area.

Ayiri said that the sus-pects and their leaderswould be arraigned be-fore the state HighCourt, noting thatthough no gun was re-covered at the time ofarrest, investigation wason-going as it was notproper for him to allowthe nefarious activities ofthe suspects to continueunchecked.

He noted that the prob-lem in Ugborodo com-munity was because ofthe order by the Com-munity Trust Chairman,Chief Thomas Ereyitomithat all illegal bunkeringactivities be stopped

forthwith to protect livesand property of innocentindigenes or the perpe-

trators would face thewrath of security agen-cies.

GOVERNOR Liyel Imoke of Cross River

State has told pregnantwomen not to pay for theirmedical treatment becausesuch expenses would bedefrayed by the state gov-ernment.

Speaking while flaggingoff the state’s MaternalNewborn Child HealthWeek in Sankwala, Oban-liku Local GovernmentArea of the state, Imoke en-joined mothers in the statenot to also pay for the med-ical treatment of children offive years and below.

He explained that gov-

ernment’s decision wasborne out of the fact thatmedical treatment forpregnant women and theirchildren was free and mo-tor cycles, generators, pick-up vans and medical kitshad been provided to en-hance their treatment.

He said though thestate’s financial positionwas not buoyant, he wasdetermined to provide freeand affordable medicalservices to enable the peo-ple work and the childrengo to school, adding thatimmunisation was freewhile vaccination should

be taken regularly for po-lio and measles in order tokick them out of the state.

The governor advisedthat if they were asked topay for medical treatmentat government facilities,they should report suchmedical officers becausesuch money does not getto the government’s coffersbut to individual’s pockets.

Imoke said that the am-bulance given to the areawas meant to convey preg-nant women from theircommunities to the Gener-al Hospital in case of emer-gency for treatment andwas not the doctor’s car.

YENAGOA—Bayel-sa State Govern-

ment has condemnedweekend’s violent clashbetween Akenfa andAgudama-Epie commu-nities in Yenagoa LocalGovernment Area of thestate, which reportedlyleft three persons deadand several others in-jured.

Governor Seriake Dick-son, in a statement, yes-terday, flayed the ugly sit-uation and called on thefeuding communities tosheathe their swordspending the outcome ofthe investigation panelset up by the government.

The panel, headed bythe state deputy governor,Rear Admiral Gboribi-ogha Jonah (rtd), has asits members, the Com-missioner of Police, Di-rector of Department ofState Security, the Com-missioner for Lands andSurvey and the SpecialAdviser on Security Mat-ters to the Governor.

The setting up of thepanel, according to thestatement, was to findlasting solution to the lin-gering crisis.

“However, where suchcannot be achieved, thegovernment will be forcedto invoke a section of theConstitution and takeover the ownership of theland in accordance withthe laws of the land,” hesaid, noting that securi-ty operatives had beendeployed to the area toprevent any form of re-prisal attacks by either ofthe feuding parties.

PORT HAR-COURT— CHIEF

of Air Staff, Air MarshalAlex Badeh, has said thatthe Air Force now main-tains its aircraft in PortHarcourt, Rivers State,adding that the develop-ment was saving the AirForce huge sums of mon-ey that would have beenspent on such mainte-nance outside the coun-try.

The Air Force boss, whospoke during a tour of fa-cilities of the 97 SpecialOperations Group, SOG,of the Nigerian Air Force,Port Harcourt, said thatthe technological devel-opment would also gen-erate revenue for the AirForce.

“In Port Harcourt, we arefixing aircraft locally.”

REPORT: Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State (right) receiving a report from Mrs. CiciliaUdo Essien, Head, Committee on the Production of Schemes and Conditions of Service for IbomAirport Development Company Ltd., in Uyo.

12—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

UNIBEN ASUU wants Wada, others tried forIyayi’s alleged murder

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM& GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

DIC-FO laudsJonathan’sextension ofemergencyrule in N-East

BY SAMUELOYADONGHA

Family of murdered Fedpoly staff in Bayelsa wants IGto take over investigation

Appeal Court affirms Mbukpa as Calabarmonarch

IllegalbunkeringunsettlesRiversfishermen

B ENIN—ACADEMICStaff Union of Universi-

ties, ASUU, University of Ben-in chapter, has called for the tri-al of the Kogi State governor,Alhaji Idris Wada and othersconnected to the accident thatclaimed one of their colleagues,Prof. Festus Iyayi. The unionalso blamed the government ofthe state for attempting to dis-tort the facts about the accident.

Meanwhile, civil society or-ganisations in Edo State haveissued a seven-day ultimatumto the Federal Government toset up a panel of inquiry to in-vestigate the death of Prof. Iya-yi, or face unpleasant reactionsfrom Nigerians.

The organisations, made upof legal practitioners, students,labour unions and lecturers,made their position known,weekend, at a symposium andstreet protest organised by theAfrica Network for Environmentand Economic Justice, ANEEJ,and National Human RightsCommission and CitizensWealth Platform to mark 2013International Day to End Impu-nity.

Executive Director of ANEEJ,Rev. David Ugolor, said that asociety not driven by justice wasunacceptable, hence the need

for the Federal Government toset up a panel of inquiry intothe killing of the former ASUUpresident.

UNIBEN ASUU, on its part,said that at the appropriatetime, ASUU and the Iyayi fam-ily would demand concrete an-swers from the Kogi State Gov-ernment for Iyayi’s murder.

Reacting to the accident thatclaimed Prof Iyayi’s life, theASUU branch Chairman, Dr.Anthony Monye-Emina and

Secretary, Okeri Henry, said:”Prof. Iyayi did not just die inan accident, but was willfullymurdered by the state and itsagents.

“Nigerians are aware of therecklessness of political officeholders and their aides and inparticular, of Alhaji Idris Wadaon our roads and the arro-gance that goes with it. It istime that Nigerians rise up tocurb the menace and put a stopto the lawlessness, reckless-

ness and impunity of our lead-ers.”

Insisting that ASUU and theIyayi family were capable ofgiving him the befitting burialthat he deserves, the unionsaid that it did not want anystate interference in his burial,warning that “his burial shouldnot be an avenue for govern-ment officials to score cheappolitical points as we will re-sist any state involvement in theburial.”

As civil societies give FG 7 days ultimatum to set up probe panel

YENAGOA—THE familymembers of Mr. Frank

Moses, the 35 years old staff ofFederal Polytechnic, Ekeowe,Southern Ijaw Local Govern-ment Area of Bayelsa State,who shot death a fortnight agoby gunmen, have accused thePolice of shielding their son’skillers.

They want the Inspector-Gen-eral of Police to take over theinvestigation of the matter andarrest all the persons involved.

Frank Moses was assassinat-ed at Agudama, a suburb ofYenagoa Local GovernmentArea of the state.

Though the Police was saidto have arrested the Rector ofthe polytechnic in connectionwith the incident, but releas-ing him the same day. Sources

close to the Rector, said he wasonly invited for questioningand not arrested.

The family of the deceased,in a statement, weekend, bytheir representatives, Mr.Frank Talent, Chief BenjaminEgberi and Chief JamesFrankiyel, questioned the han-dling of the murder case by thePolice.

“We the members of the fam-ily are worried over the man-ner the Police in Yenagoa are

handling a sensitive matter ofthis magnitude. It is now obvi-ous that there is a grand de-sign to shield the culprits andall those involved in the grue-some murder of our son,” thefamily said in the statement.

They wondered why the Po-lice released the Rector, whowas said to be the prime sus-pect in the assassination.

They, however, alleged thatthe police acted in obedienceto “a powerful call from above.”

Besides, members of the fam-ily, said their investigations re-vealed that prior to the incident,many letters were written to thePolice and the Department ofState Security, DSS, informingthem about threats to the life ofthe deceased.

They claimed that the securi-ty agencies ignored the alarmraised by the deceased andmembers of the institution’s la-bour union.

They explained that the de-ceased and members of theSenior Staff Association of Fed-eral Polytechnics, SSAFP, wereengaged in industrial disputewith the Rector and manage-ment of the institution over is-sues bordering on workers’unpaid benefits and alleged fi-nancial recklessness.

BY JOHNBOSCOAGBAKWURU & EMMA

UNA

ABUJA—THE AppealCourt in Calabar has

upheld the ruling of a CrossRiver State High Court, Cala-bar, which affirmed Muri Ef-fiong Mbukpa as the MuriMunene of Calabar South andthe Grand Patriarch of Efutkingdom.

The ruling was sequel to anappeal by three Muris, chal-

lenging the selection of MuriMbukpa as the successor of thelate Muri.

The aggrieved Muris,Okokon Edet Edem and Hog-an Bassey, had challenged theruling of the state high courtaffirming Muri Mbukpa as theacclaimed Muri Munene ofEfut.

The Muris, in the appeal,had sought to nullify the rul-ing of the high court and to stopMbukpa as the Muri Muneneof Efut, as well as Ndabo God-

win Bassey and Ndabo Obo EObo, as Secretary and Chair-man respectively of Efut Com-bined Assembly the right to ex-ecute documents of transfer oftitle in land matters in Cala-bar South Local GovernmentArea.

The appellate court in its leadjudgment by Justice Uzo An-yanwu, held that the appealagainst the ruling of the statehigh court presided over byJustice Obojor Ogar was “un-meritorious” and consequent-ly dismissed the appeal.

HUNDREDS of tra-ditional Izon chiefs

from 14 kingdoms of Del-ta State have thrown theirweight behind PresidentGoodluck Jonathan forextending the emergen-cy rule imposed on thethree North-easternstates of Borno, Ad-amawa and Yobe for an-other six months.

The chiefs, under theaegis of Delta Izon ChiefsForum DIC-FO, in a state-ment, observed that thesecurity situation was or-chestrated to distract thecurrent administration,adding that with the boldsteps taken by PresidentJonathan, the Joint Mili-tary Task Force operatingin the North East, thepockets of insurgents stilloperating in the stateswould be dislodged.

DIC-FO, in the state-ment by its Vice Presi-dent, Chief Sunday Oru-ware and Secretary, ChiefAustin Enekorogha alsoaffirmed their support forJonathan’s 2015 secondterm ambition, addingthat the president’s trans-formation and peoples’oriented programmesearn him their support.

BY EGUFEYAFUGBORHI

PORT HAR-COURT— FISHER-

MEN in Bonny, particular-ly those concentrated be-hind the Oloma NigerianNational Petroleum Corpo-ration, NNPC, Flow Stationin Bonny locality of RiversState, have lamented thatuncontrolled illegal bun-kering close to the flow sta-tion was polluting the sur-rounding waters andputting them out of busi-ness.

The community dwellerswho live by fishing on theBonny waterways com-plained through the Or-ganisation of FishermenSeafood Dealers andFarmers in Niger Delta,saying that the absence ofpipeline surveillance in thearea was encouraginglarge scale illegal bunker-ing with monumental dam-age to fishing activities.

SAFETY CULTURE: Managing Director, Julius Berger Nigeria, JBN, Mr. Wolfgang Goet-sch (middle); Executive Director, Administration, JBN, Mr. Zubairu Bayi (left) and DeputyGeneral Manager, Operations, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, Mr. Ola Oluwa-femi, during the presentation of Toyota Hiace Ambulance bus by NSITF to Julius BergerNigeria, for exceptional safety culture in Abuja. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25 2013—13

Pension assets now N3.73trn, says PenCom DG

ALLEGED N230M CONTRACT SCAM:Police probe ex-Enugu UBEB boss

Obi doles outN200m toPaul, Madonnavarsities

BY TONY EDIKEBY VINCENT UJUMADU

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

A B U J A — N AT I O N A LPension Commission,

PenCom, weekend, told aWorld Pension Summit, thatPension assets in Nigeria had hitN3.73 trillion, with over 5.8 millioncontributors.

Acting Director-General ofPenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, while showcasing thesuccesses of Nigeria’sContributory Pension Scheme,CPS, to delegates from 40countries who attended the 2013World Pension Summit inAmsterdam, Netherlands,esplained that pool of pensionassets generated aided thedeepening of Nigeria’s financialsector.

A statement by Emeka Onuora,Head, Communication Unit,PenCom, said . Anohu-Amazuequally informed the delegatesthat the CPS was sustainable, fullyfunded and privately managed byoperators licensed by PenCom.

According to her “the legal andinstitutional frameworksestablished by the Commissionhave led to the registration of over5.8 million members and the poolof pension assets generated has

ENUGU—THE police inEnugu State have

commenced investigations intoalleged contract scam of overN230 million involving the formerChairman of Enugu StateUniversal Basic Education Board,ENSUBEB, Mrs Ethel Nebo-Ezeabasili and some contractors.

Operatives of the state CriminalInvestigation Department, SCID,are handling the case in whichthe former ENSUBEB boss isbeing accused of allegedconspiracy and fraud to the tuneof N230,245,000.

A statement by the State PolicePublic Relations Officer, Mr. EbereAmaraizu, weekend, said: “Theformer, ENSUBEB, Chairman,Chief Nebo-Ezeabasili betweenthe month of September andOctober, 2012 conspired withothers and allegedly defraudedGovernment of the sum of Twohundred and thirty million, twohundred and forty five thousandnaira.”

He said the alleged fraud wascommitted in course of an awardof a contract “which is viewed notto have involved ENSUBEBboard members who weresupposed to be members oftender’s board whose duty is torecommend procurement andcontracts thereby not following thenormal procedure of awardingcontracts. She is also accused ofusing more than two companynames and that some of thecontractors got the allegedcontract through her without

AWKA—TWO privateuniversities in Anambra

State, the MadonnaUniversity, Okija and PaulUniversity, Awka weekendreceived N100 million eachfrom Governor Peter Obi aspart of the state government’son-going intervention intertiary institutions in the state.

Similarly, Governor Obigave N30 million to St. John’sTechnical College, Neni toenable the college improveinfrastructure.

Obi recently began theintervention in tertiaryeducation in the state with agrant of N5 billion to the state–owned ChukwuemekaO d u m e g w u - O j u k w uUniversity for infrastructuraldevelopment during whichhe promised that privateuniversities in the state wouldalso be supported.

The governor said duringhis visits to the two privateuniversities that theintervention was necessarybecause as institutions inAnambra State, they weretraining the children of thestate.

Obi also donated twovehicles to each of theuniversities.

biding evidence and thatcontractors involved could not betraced hence the suspicion thatthe transactions were handled byher personally.

“It was based on the foregoingthat a written complaint was madeagainst the former chairman ofENSUBEB so that her allegedfraudulent activities could beinvestigated.”

The police spokesman saidsome suspects had been arrestedin connection with the allegedcrime, noting that they werealready helping the police in their

investigations.According to him, the former

ENSUBEB Chairman had madeuseful statement to theoperatives, explaining that “thesuspects are yet to produce anyvalid document to buttress theaward of contract neither has theformer chairman presented anyvalid document regarding theaward of the said contract.”

It was gathered that the awardof the contentious contracts didnot follow due process and thatsome of the individuals/companies said to have been

awarded the contract werealleged to be cronies of theformer ENSUBEB ChiefExecutive.

Efforts to speak with MrsNebo-Ezeabasili on the issueyesterday proved abortive asshe could not be reached on herphone.

Vanguard learnt that theformer ENSUBEB boss hassince traveled to London butthe police said she was arrestedand later granted bail after shehad made statements on theissue.

aided the deepening of Nigeria’sfinancial sector. They have alsoprovided a platform for theprovision of infrastructure and thedevelopment of the real sector,thereby reinforcing thetransformation agenda ofPresident Goodluck EbeleJonathan.”

The Acting Director-General leda delegation comprising Mrs.

Grace Usoro, the GeneralManager/Head Public SectorPensions Department and Ms.Olusola Odufuwa, HeadCorporate Counseling Unit of theNational Pension Commission(PenCom) to the Summit whichtook place between 13 and 14November 2013.

The statement said “The WorldPension Summit is an annual

event dedicated to ongoing andadvanced learning for seniorpension professionals and italso offers comparative analysisof pension experiences inparticipating countries, insightinto the impact of emergingtrends on pensionarrangements and ample roomfor peer-to-peer discussionamong delegates.”

E NUGU—OHANAEZEYouth Council, OYC, has

adopted Abia State governor,Theodore Orji as a replacementfor Anambra State governor, PeterObi, as chairman of South-EastGovernors Forum.

The adoption of Orji wascontained in a statement by theNational Organising Secretary ofOYC, Okechukwu Isiguzoro,yesterday.

Isiguzoro hailed Orji for theairport project in Abia State andhis rare courage to recall nonindigenes back to the state civil

Ohanaeze youths canvass Orji to headS-East govs forum

BY TONY EDIKE service.“Igbos are pleased with him

now. He is an icon in Igbo land.He has empowered Igbo youthsacross all the states of the South-East. We know that withsomebody like him in the saddleas chairman of South-EastGovernors Forum, there will bebetter federal presence in Igboland. We are totally behind him”he said.

Isiguzoro also said they werehappy that President GoodluckJonathan had fully recoveredfrom his ill-health and assuredhim of their unalloyed andunfettered support for his

government.He appealed to the federal

government to repair the Port-Harcourt express road, AbakpaIkot-Ekpene road and otherhighways in the South-Eastthat were now death traps, tostop further loss of lives on theroads.

He said: “Igbo youths arecalling on the IndependentNational Electoral Commission,INEC, to live up to expectationin the supplementary electionin Anambra State. We arewatching events in Anambrastate. OYC is watching.”

Ki-Moon, Zumabag GlobalPeace Award

BY EMMANUEL ELEBEKE

NEW YORK—SOUTH Africa’s President Jacob

Zuma and UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon havejointly won the Global Peaceaward 2013.

They were presented withthe award at a ceremony,organized by the AkasobaCentre for Peace and ConflictResolution, ACPCR duringthe just concluded UnitedNations General Assembly inNew York.

The Global Peace initiativeprize is specifically awardedannually to those who haveused their initiatives toensure Global Peace andcordial relations amongNations, for the elimination ofdiscrimination and fordisarmament.

Presenting the award toBan, the Chairperson ofACPCR, Her Royal Majesty,Queen Akasoba Duke-Abiola,who is the Akasoba ofKalabari, Rivers State praisedthe United Nations scribe forhis ‘humility, universalismand an unending passion forpeace’.

BRIEFING: From left: Co-founder, Paga, Mr. Jay Alabraba, customer, Mr. Murphy Isichei,MD/CEO, Paga, Mr. Tayo Oviosu, during the Paga's media celebration of its one millionuser, and customer engagement forum in Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

CMYK

14—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

ANNIVERSARY: From left: The Emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Faruk Bahago, Governor BabangidaAliyu of Niger State, and former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, during a gala night, tomark the 25 years on the throne of the monarch, at his palace in Minna.

Why Anambra guber pollmust be cancelled, by APC

Nyanya Gen Hospital to be demolished

ASUU may end strike this week

BY VICTORIA OJEME

ABUJA—Barely two years after

the commissioning ofNyanya General Hospi-

tal by the Minister ofFederal Capital Terri-tory, Bala Mohammed, ithas been marked fordemolition.

The general hospitalwas originally built toserve the people of sev-eral communities out-side the FCT city centre,with current daily pa-tient attendance put at150, majority of who livebelow the poverty line.

The communitiesserved by the hospitalinclude Karshi, Orozo,Jikwyo, Karu, Nyanya,Masaka, Mararaba andGagbarakpe, compris-ing mostly the poor whocan not afford privatehospital bills.

Precisely on the Sep-tember 16, 2013, the

Abuja DevelopmentControl was said to havemarked Nyanya generalhospital for demolitionon account of a road con-struction that is to linkto Kaduna.

At the hospital, doctorswere attending to pa-tients but a staff whopleaded anonymity, said“if the government wantsto be sincere, whyshould Kaduna roadpass through a hospitalthat is serving the poor?Why should they wastesuch amount of money tobuild a hospital thatthey know they are go-ing to demolish?

“This is the only hos-pital that is serving,Orozo, Karshi, Jikywo,Karu Mararaba, Masaka

and Nyanya, so thequestion we are askingnow is that after theydemolish this hospital,what is the next thingfor us to do, or are theysaying we should all begoing to private hospi-tals where consultationfees are thousands ofNaira? How many of uscan afford that kind ofmoney?

“They should look foralternative road thatwill lead to Kaduna andleave the poor alone, oris it a crime to be poorin FCT? The govern-ment has demolishedour buildings before,now it is hospital, whatdoes the governmentwant from us”? heasked.

LAGOS—THE All Progressives Con-

gress, APC, has saidthere is enough sub-stantial evidence for In-dependent NationalElectoral Commission,INEC, to cancel the No-vember 16 governorshipelection in AnambraState, rather than orderthe conduct of ‘supple-mentary election’ forwhat is nothing but anirredeemable poll.

“Our party has pro-vided incontrovertibleand more than substan-tial evidence to showthat what took place onNovember 16 was aparody of election, theparty said in a statementissued in Lagos yester-day, by its Interim Na-tional Publicity Secre-tary, Alhaji LaiMohammed.

His words: “What otherevidence can be moresubstantial than the factthat INEC, in conduct-ing the November 16election, failed to complywith the provisions ofthe Electoral Act? Whatother evidence can bemore compelling thanthe INEC Chairman’sadmission of compro-

mise by a top official ofthe commission? IfJega’s statement that theelection fell short of whatthe commission had ex-pected and prepared for,what else could be moresubstantial?’’ it queried.

APC said that, for theumpteenth time and sothat Nigerians can un-derstand the absurdityof Jega’s contradictorystance on the ill-fatedelection, the party hasdecided to list its rea-sons for demanding thecancellation of the elec-tion.

Professor Jega’s un-forced admission that asenior official of the com-mission has been finan-cially induced to com-promise the election inthe Idemili North LocalGovernment Area withover 173,000 registeredvoters is very seriousbecause this local gov-ernment is the strong-hold of the APC candi-date, Senator ChrisNgige, and the fact thatin the 2011 senatorialelection, Senator, Ngigescored over 80 per centof all votes cast in thelocal government.

BY LAIDEAKINBOADE & LAJU

ARENYEKA

ABUJA—Strong in dications emerg-

ed yesterday, that thefive-month- old strike bythe Academic StaffUnion of Universities,ASUU, may be called offthis week as PresidentGoodluck Jonathanmeets with ASUU lead-ers today in Abuja.

It will be recalled thatthe leadership of theASUU met at the BayeroUniversity, Kano, BUK,last week Friday.Though details of theirresolutions are still

sketchy, a source whospoke to Vanguard saidthe National ExecutiveCouncil, NEC, met inKano to discuss issuesrelating to their ongoingstrike which began onJuly 2, nationwide.

He said the meetingdeliberated on how tobring the strike to anend within the shortestpossible time.

He also disclosed thatthe union discussedamong other things, howASUU can contribute tothe burial of the late Pro-fessor Festus Iyayi, whodied in a motor accidentalong Lokoja-Abuja roadrecently.

Asked if the strike

would be suspended af-ter the meeting, he said:“It appears to be a real-ity, but it might be calledoff later this week.”

According to him,“there are strong indica-tions that tentatively, thestrike might be called offnext week, going by thelevel of discussion hereat the NEC.”

A few weeks ago,ASUU officials had metwith President GoodluckJonathan where hepledged to injectN1.1trillion into the uni-versity system to ad-dress lingering chal-lenges within the nextfive years.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013—15

5TH ALLURE VANGUARD WOMEN ON WELLNESS (WOW) SEMINAR & AWARDS

The 5th anniversary of Allure Vanguard Women On Wellness (WOW) Seminarand Award took place at Intercontinetal Hotel, Lagos, weekend. Photos: OscarOchiogu & Bunmi Azeez

From left: Mr. Chris Ebie, Mrs. Elizabeth Ebie, Mrs. Mubo Amoda andProf. John Amoda.

From left: Mrs. Bola Fashola, Regional Director for Internationl Associa-tion of African NGOs (IAAN); Mrs. Moni Ani, Monique Ltd and LawrettaSam-Ogrih.

From left: Mrs. Adeola Shabi, Mrs. OladunniOgunbanwo and Hon. Omorede Osifo, Commissionerfor Youths and Sports, Edo State.

Senator Oluremi Tinubu (left) presenting award to Mrs FlorenceAjimobi, Oyo State First Lady, represented by Dr. Oyedipe, for herEducational and Health programmes.

From left: Mrs. Remi Diagbare, Editor, Vanguard Allure; Dame Roli Uduaghan,wife of Delta State Governor, presenting award to Mrs Ebunola Anozie for BreastCancer Awarness.

From left: Dr. Abayomi Ajayi, Eryca Freemantle and Mr. AdebayoJones, all guest speakers.

Erelu Abiola Dosunmu (left) presenting award to OrodeUduaghan, for Cancer Advocacy.

Dr. DonO g u(left) andDr. AhamOnyike ,all guests p e a k -ers.

OPINION

16 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

MOSHOOD ISAH

Extension of emergency rule

Anambra election: Reassessing the electoral bodyRECENTLY my attention was drawn

to a news report that security agen-cies may be working towards unravelingsome politicking in the country wherethere are unnecessary and unfortunatebickering within the PDP as the rulingparty and the inter-party rivalry that aretaking negative dimensions.

I strongly believe security agencieshave a role to play in protecting the nas-cent democracy from the antics of poli-ticians who engage in distractions rath-er than serving the populace with posi-tive programmes and projects.

The recent altercation in Anambra isanother typical instance. I was not inAnambra to witness the recent guberna-torial polls in the state, but the scoopsfrom friends, updates on the media andnumerous comments on social network(especially twitter) are enough to con-vey the wrong message. Different opin-ions abound depending on individualbias towards a particular party but it allboils down to one thing: the election wasfar below average when defining a freeand fair election.

While candidates of the oppositionparties, i.e. All Progressives Congress,APC; Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, andthe Labor Party, LP, are all calling for thecancellation of the results, the leadingand incumbent party, All ProgressivesGrand Alliance, APGA, is happy with thepresent outcome of the election. This is

basically normal in every election in Ni-geria, in the sense that losers are alwaysbad losers, but with comments from eye-witnesses and protests from some disen-franchised voters, it could be said that theelection was not fair.

Already some aggrieved parties and in-dividuals are calling for the resignationof the Chairman of Independent NationalElectoral Commission, INEC, ProfessorAttahiru Jega, over the tussle.

No doubt INEC is still far away fromconducting a free and fair election in thecountry. There are little positives to takeaway from the Anambra elections. The factthat election results were cancelled inabout 65 polling units goes a long way insending a message that the body is deter-mined to deliver credible elections to thepeople. It is pertinent to say that INECofficials are just like every other humanbeing that could be vulnerable totemptation, especially in the face ofelectoral hazard in Nigeria. Officials canbe threatened by party hoodlums tocompromise the electoral process. Thisexplains why elections had to be cancelledin some polling units. More so, the factthat individuals can be dubious andgreedy, also explains why an electoralofficer was arrested for trying to maneuverelection result for a particular party. Thus,no matter the efforts of the body to delivera transparent election to the people, there

are always sabotages, that even Jega ad-mitted within and outside the body, mostlysponsored by party stalwarts to frustratethe effort of the electoral body.

We have also witnessed protestationsfrom different groups, including womentaunting Jega for accepting some of theresults, not minding the fact that the INECchairman is not the returning officer of theelection. All the same, he is always theculprit if anything goes wrong withelections in the country.

Election in a complex country, likeNigeria, filled with religious and ethnicextremists, goes beyond the electoral bodyalone. Patriotic citizens in concomitancewith incorruptible security personnel canonly complement a credible electoral body.

Imagine yourself as a polling officer andthe security personnel attached to you at apolling station are already negotiatingwith the highest bidders on how to rigelection on their behalf. The same securi-ty man who is supposed to protect you incases like this is already luring you into it.It is so difficult not to compromise in sucha situation.

In a scenario where, as a polling officer,you stood your ground to foresee a fairpoll, you are exposed to the mercy of des-perate and wicked party officials and theirhoodlums. Furthermore, even if you danceto their tune and later report irregulari-ties in the unit, your life still remains at

risk as you could be hunted down. Thus,security men have a major role to playin delivering credible election in thecountry.

In as much as security agents have astake in the conduct of a free and fairelection, the people are the omega ofcredible election anywhere in the world.Voters’ apathy is the number one oppor-tunity for election riggers to find theirway. Thus, voters should always comeout to vote in any election, in as much asthey are eligible. This will deter dubiouselectoral officers and party agents fromtransacting ballot papers. More so, anyother manipulation that would happenon the election field is always with theconsent of the people. This is especiallyif the manipulation goes in favour of thepopular party in the unit. Thus, at theend of the day people still ultimatelyblame INEC and its leadership if any-thing goes wrong.

The Anambra poll is a wakeup call toall stakeholders, ranging from citizens,voters, security men and every other per-son who dreams of a free, fair and cred-ible election in Nigeria. Let’s have it atthe back of our minds that no amount ofelectoral reform will ensure credible pollif bad citizens are bent on sabotagingthe effort of the electoral body.

*Mr Isah, a political analyst, wrote fromGarki, Abuja

AFTER a hectic six months of battlingIs- lamic insurgents under a state of

emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobestates, President Goodluck Jonathancame back to the National Assembly ear-ly in November 2013, to ask for a six-month extension to enable the armed forc-es complete the job.The Senate gave its express approval,even though a few of its members from thetroubled zone grumbled. The House ofRepresentatives was not so expeditious. Itsummoned the Service Chiefs on Novem-ber 20, 2013 to explain in greater detailsbefore also granting the President’s re-quest.The Service Chiefs made it clear thatmore military resources were needed toestablish the level of stability in the areasbefore the emergency rule could be calledoff, warning that this might go on for amuch longer period than expected.We are aware of the displeasure that cit-izens from those areas have expressedover the extension, particularly given thechallenges it imposes on their economicand social activities. The emotions are also

understandable, given that the politicalseason is coming into full swing, and peo-ple desire the liberty to go into the arena.We, however, wish to point out that unlessthe areas are completely secured, there willbe no room for political, social and eco-nomic activities. Terrorists will continue topenetrate the populace, wreak their havocand flee. The recent murder of a bridaltrain in Borno and attack on Damaturu byBoko Haram suspects should sound a noteof warning that there can never be halfmeasures when it comes to the war on ter-ror.It is evident that the armed forces havemade great progress, driving the terroristsaway from the big cities into the forests withthe support of the general populace. In fact,the valiant vigilance groups known as the

Civilian JTF have helped into no smallmeasure in driving the anarchists to thefringes, from where they now make des-perate and uncoordinated attempts prov-ing they still exist.The only way a return to sustainable nor-malcy can take place is for the armed forc-es and the local population to redoubletheir efforts and get the job finished inquicker time.Meanwhile, we call on government at alllevels to consider some relief packages forthose hardest hit by the conflict, especial-ly the displaced persons and those need-ing food, medicine and clothes. The waron terror is a war. Wars breed human suf-fering, and efforts are made to reduce itthrough relief efforts.The armed forces of the Federal Repub-lic of Nigeria are mandated by the Con-stitution to secure the nation from inter-nal and external threats. The Presidenthas sworn an oath to implement this con-stitutional provision. It is mandatory forthe people to cooperate and ensure thatthis sacred national mission is accom-plished.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013 — 41

,,Oduah: Emotions trump reasonsin Reps Report (2)

BY UGO ONUOHA

IF the report and recommendations‘leaked’ to the media ahead of

submission to a Committee of the wholeHouse were to be believed it would thenappear that the House ofRepresentatives Probe Panel memberson Oduah worked from the answer-GetOduah out by all means.

Let us analyze their findings andrecommendations taken fromnewspaper reports: *President Jonathanshould sack Minister Odua for burstingher approval limit.

*Oduah breached the Appropriate Act2013 by allowing an Agency under herwatch to procure vehicle not capturedin the Budget.

*Minister bypassed publicprocurement process.

*A clean bill of health for First Bankbut that the executed lease purchase

would still be accommodated within herapproval limit. The argument that by sodoing Minister Oduah would becommitting succeeding AviationMinisters is a non issue. And I willexplain. The Federal Minister of Workswill be stupid to limit the lifespan ofcontracts for road repairs andconstruction to terminate with theduration of his stay in the JonathanCabinet. In any case how would he knowhow long he will serve. Nothing thatsays he will be in the FEC and in thesame post till 2015. He, like others,serves at the pleasure of the President.In like manner the bold statement inremodelling our airports cannot beginand end with the initiator-Oduah. Inother words, future Aviation Ministerswill have to continue with contractsentered into under her charge as longas such contracts are not incurably bad.

More important is the fact that the

agreement should be revoked.*Other recommendations which

obviously were designed to fulfill allrighteousness. We will ignore them forbeing inconsequential.

It is interesting that a member of theHouse Probe Panel told a newspaperthat there was nothing in their findingsthat suggested that Oduah derived orwould derive personal benefits from thetransaction and that the bullet proof carswere not bought in her name. Drawingfrom the findings so far it would appearthat if Minister Oduah was guilty ofanything, that thing would beindiscretion. And indiscretion in thisinstance cannot be equated withcorruption.

Anticipatory approval for a contract ispart of government business in ourclime. The N255 million for bullet proofcars by NCAA will surely be covered bythis mode of doing business. If theMinister gave approval(which of courseshe did not do given the documentedevidence she directed the Agency to dothe “needful”), the sum which leasearrangement spans over 36 months Cncluded

,

,

Stella Oduah

The plot of Jonathan haters is todiscredit Oduah and weaken thecredibility and moral standing ofNeighbour-To-Neighbour when thetime comes.

inspired an NGO-Neighbour toNeighbour-that gave hell to those whoopposed Jonathan ahead of the 2011presidential election. Neighbour-To-Neighbour was a formidable movementand a nightmare to opponents ofJonathan. If Jonathan neededNeighbour-To-Neighbour in 2011, hewill need it more for the yet undeclaredreelection quest in 2015. The plot ofJonathan haters is to discredit Oduahand weaken the credibility and moralstanding of Neighbour-To-Neighbourwhen the time comes.

They have started with the President’sparty-the Peoples DemocraticParty(PDP). Nobody needs a prophetto confirm that Jonathan will seekreelection in 2015. But he should realizethat his opponents in the forthcomingcontest will not take prisoners. Prisonerscan be a burden and a distraction. Theywould rather apply the Italian solution.But for as long as he is the President,Jonathan holds the aces.

*Mr. Onuoha, former media manager,is a commentator on public affairs

travails of Oduah havelittle, if anything, to dowith corruption. It’smore about 2015 andJonathan. For those whochoose to live in denial,they are free to do so.Princess Stella Oduah

Take Action: End gender-based andintimate partner violence now

By MARIA BREWER

THE 16 Days of Activism AgainstGender-Based and Intimate

Partner Violence, beginning onNovember 25 and ending on December10, International Human Rights day,offers an opportunity to renew theglobal commitment to free women andgirls from violence. Whether ithappens behind closed doors or as apublic tactic of intimidation, whether itoccurs in our neighborhoods or ondistant shores, violence against womenand girls damages us all, men andwomen alike. As Secretary Kerry hasstated, “Too many women are beingsilenced, abused, or subjected toviolence simply because of theirgender…Their courage must inspire usto continue to work toward a worldwhere every woman can live free ofviolence and pursue her fullestpotential.”

Gender-based and intimate partnerviolence cuts across ethnic, racial, socio-economic, and religious lines, andknows no borders. It occurs in Nigeria,the United States, and every othernation. An estimated one in threewomen worldwide has been beaten,coerced into sex, or otherwise abusedin her lifetime, with intimate partnerviolence as the most common form. This means that most of us know avictim of this violence or even havebeen victimized yourself.

The term ‘intimate partner violence’describes physical, sexual, orpsychological harm by a current orformer partner or spouse. This type ofviolence can occur among heterosexual

or same-sex couples and does notrequire sexual intimacy. Intimatepartner violence includes acts ofphysical aggression, psychologicalabuse, forced intercourse and otherforms of sexual coercion, and variouscontrolling behaviors such as isolatinga person from family and friends orrestricting access to information andassistance. Intimate partner violenceaffects 30% of women worldwide; 35%of women around the world have beenraped or physically abused, and, if thisviolence occurs at home, 80% of the timeit is caused by a partner or spouse. Although women can be violent inrelationships with men, theoverwhelming burden of gender-basedand intimate partner violence is borneby women at the hands of men.

We all need to work together—theinternational community, governments,multilateral organizations, privatesector companies, and grassroots-leveladvocates, to address and preventviolence from occurring. Manynations, including Nigeria, havepassed legislation addressing gender-based violence. The next critical stepis to improve implementation of thoselaws in order to increase accountabilityand address impunity.

No country can get ahead if it leaves

half of its people behind. Nigerianwomen die needlessly for lack ofproper health care, are forced intoprostitution and human trafficking,face poverty for lack of aneducation, and cannot live up totheir potential to contribute to ademocratic and prosperous Nigeria.

The United States believesgender equality is critical to ourshared goals of peace, security andprosperity. We invest in thetraining and mentoring of womenentrepreneurs, so they can not onlylift up their own families, but alsohelp their countries’ economiesgrow. We invest in girls’ educationso that they can escape forced earlymarriage, break the cycle of poverty,and develop into community leadersand engaged citizens. Increasinggirls’ and women’s education andtheir access to resources alsoimproves the health and educationof the next generation.

We need to empower girls tospeak up for themselves, andeducate boys to speak up for theirsisters. We must support theinclusion of men, boys, and criticalcommunity stakeholders – such asreligious leaders – in addressingand preventing violence andchanging gender norms andattitudes. Together, we needincreased advocacy and moreinteraction between policy makersand those who work in the field. We must ultimately overcome thedeep-rooted gender inequalitiesthat either tacitly allow or activelypromote violent, discriminatorypractices. I hope Nigerians will

Partner Violence. You can followthe U.S. Embassy’s activities byvisiting our website at (http://nigeria.usembassy.gov) andFacebook (http://facebook.com/usembassynigeria). You can alsocontact or visit our InformationResource Centers in Abuja andLagos to learn what the UnitedStates and other countries havedone to protect women, such as theViolence Against Women Act of1994, which strengthened efforts toinvestigate and prosecute violentcrimes against women, includingdomestic violence.

When women and girls can livefree from violence and are affordedequal opportunities in education,healthcare, employment andpolitical participation, they lift uptheir families, their communitiesand their nations, and act as agentsof change. As Secretary Kerrystated, “Investing in girls is acritical part of our duty to promotepeace, security and prosperityaround the world. Empowered girlsgrow up empowered women. Theygrow up to be empowered mothers,leaders, and innovators.”

MARIA BREWER is United States’Deputy Chief of Mission in Nigeria

want to join mein taking partin the 16 Daysof ActivismA g a i n s tGender-Basedand Intimate

We need to empower girls to speakup for themselves, and educate boysto speak up for their sisters

42 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2013—43

Armed forces winning war againstinsurgency, crimes — David Mark

BY PETER DURU

MAKURDI — THE SenateP r e s i d e n t ,

David Mark, weekend, declaredNigerian armed forces were winning thewar against insurgency and other violentcrimes in parts of the country.

Mark noted the tremendous progressrecorded by the armed forces had alsobeen complemented by their “doggeddetermination, unwavering loyalty andsincerity to ensure the forces of evil didnot succeed in derailing the transformationagenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Senate President spoke at theclosing ceremony of theChief of Air Staff’s 10thannual golf tournament atthe Makurdi Golf Club.

While commending theAir Force Chief for thetournament, Mark urgedmembers of the armedforces to “continually strivetowards nation-buildingand the protection of thenation’s territorialintegrity.”

Represented by SenatorAhmed Alkali, theChairman, SenateCommittee on Air Force,Mark also said: “Thistournament should besustained because it wasaimed at improving thespirit of sportsmanship andensuring that our officersand men are mentally andphysically fit to dischargetheir statutoryresponsibilities at alltimes.”

OPC leader calls for promotionof Yoruba cultural heritage

NATIONAL LEADER of Odua Peoples Congress,OPC, Otunba Gani Adams has called on

governments and people of Yoruba nation to promoteand preserve the rich cultural heritage of Yoruba people.

Otunba Adams, who is the chief promoter of OlokunFestival Foundation, made the call at Ira in Oyun LocalGovernment of Kwara during the Oya festival celebration.

He said every son and daughter of Oduduwa whereverthey were in the world should be proud to display andshowcase the rich cultural heritage of the Yoruba nation.

“Let us be the generation that will bring back theglorious days of our cultural heritage; let us be thegeneration that will use culture to develop our land,”Adams said.

He called on Kwara State governor, Dr. AbdulfatahAhmed to emulate his Osun State counterpart, AlhajiRauf Aregbesola, who, he said, was focusing attentionon the development of cultural heritage of the state.

Gani Adams said Kwara State government shouldendeavour to develop indigenous culture and traditionsof the state to promote tourism and earn revenue.

“You will agree with me that Osun festival in Osogbohas successfully put the town and Osun State on globalmap,” he said.

44—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

OPINION

Decisive factors of Anambra guber

,

THE much awaited governorshipelection in Anambra State has come,

though it has not quite gone. The electionwas declared by the Chairman of the Inde-pendent National Electoral Commission,INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, as “incon-clusive”. Chief William Obiano of the AllProgressives Grand Alliance, APGA, estab-lished a commanding lead with 174,710votes, with Comrade Tony Nwoye, the can-didate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,scoring 96,856 votes to place second.

The candidate of the All Progressives Con-gress, APC, Dr Chris Ngige, surprised manyof his admirers with his 92,300 third placevote, while controversial moneybag, Mr If-eanyi Uba of the Labour Party, had 37,446votes to show for all the billions he pouredinto his gubernatorial venture.

Obiano was the only candidate who notonly led by a majority of votes cast but alsosecured 25% in 18 of 21 local governmentareas. He needed only 14 LGAs. However,due to irregularities, the INEC cancelled theelections in some polling stations and an-nounced it will conduct a supplementaryelection only in areas where the poll wascancelled. It enjoined any candidate or po-litical stakeholder not satisfied with the con-duct of the election to go to court, as thecourts are the only authorities vested withthe powers to cancel already declared re-sults.

Even as we wait for the supplementary elec-tions to be organised, it is pertinent to ex-amine the major factors that determined theresult of the election. It is interesting to notethat the candidate of the PDP, Nwoye, hasgone into cahoots with his rivals of the APC,Ngige and LP, Uba, to discredit the electionin its entirety. They are calling for fresh elec-tions. But on the other hand, Nwoye’s party,the PDP, APGA and 16 other registered polit-ical parties which participated have extolledthe poll’s virtues. It is a classic case of osondiowendi. Some are rejoicing, others are ag-grieved.

The Anambra governorship election ofNovember 16, 2013 was really between theAPGA and Chris Ngige of APC. Mind you, Idid not say Obiano versus Ngige. Obianowas (and still is) non sequitur. He is still adark horse, even if he is eventually declaredthe winner. The real object was APGA andall it stands for. Governor Peter Obi is anincumbent who has spent almost eight yearsin power and will be leaving in the next fourmonths. Had he failed in his bid to transferpower to a successor, his legacies would be

,Ojukwu will be gratified in his grave that the “last

wish” he requested from Anambra people in 2010was not the last; rather, it has been turned into apotent instrument for reclaiming Imo in 2015 andmoving on from there; if APC had won, Igbo ene-mies would have rejoiced

obliterated. The party itself would go intooblivion or more appropriately, empty backinto the PDP from where it made its origi-nal offshoot. That would have been the endof the experiment of having and “Igbo par-ty”, which the late Dim ChukwuememekaOdumegwu Ojukwu successfully spent thetail end of his life battling to in-root.

Predominantly Christian Anambra peo-ple would thus have handed over their stateto a Muslim-dominated APC, which is es-sentially a Yoruba/Hausa-Fulani (or moreappropriately, South West, North West andNorth East) party with Ngige as the local

tates of an individual political overlord.Ojukwu will be gratified in his grave that

the “last wish” he requested from Anambrapeople in 2010 was not the last. Rather, ithas been turned into a potent instrumentfor reclaiming Imo in 2015 and moving onfrom there. If APC had won, Igbo enemieswould have rejoiced. The “deportation saga”would have gone without appropriate po-litical sanctions.

The election in Anambra was not aboutObiano, Ngige, Nwoye and Uba. It was afailed attempt of a South-West and North-West alliance to annex Anambra State rath-

agent. The Igbos would have come out as apeople who are incapable of holding theirown politically but rather so weak that theyneed to climb on the backs of other parties.Hakeem Baba-Ahmed described it by say-ing that Igbos collect from the highest bid-der in their political games. Baba-Ahmedand his disgruntled cohorts have seen thattheir malicious aspersions on the Igbo have,once again, been proved for the waste ofempty hot air. Anambra has proved its so-phistication in politics as opposed to thosewho make all the loud noises about howsophisticated their politics when all they dois to follow sheepishly the self-serving dic-

er than accommodate the South East (andSouth-South) as equal partners with the restin a national party. This was one of the rea-sons that the election produced the resultthat we see. And I dare say, no matter howmany times fresh elections are conductedthe result will only be further confirmed. Itwas not a fluke.

The second critical factor that led to AP-GA’s victory was the strategic alliance be-tween Governor Obi and President Good-luck Jonathan. Obi was the Chairman ofthe South East Governors’ Forum when, in2010, the Igbo people decided not to field a

Oshiomhole’s 5th anniversary and Orbih’s hallucinationBY DAN OWEGIE

November 12 of every year is a day toremember in the annals of Edo de-

velopmental metamorphosis as that wasthe day light flushed darkness away fromthe State. In 2008, that was the day Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole wassworn in to dislodge the many failures ofthe Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in thestate with a clear focus and purpose toredistribute state resources for the masses.

This explains why Edo people from allwalks of life, at home and in Diasporarolled out their drums recently to celebratefive years of unbroken development in thestate by the Government of ComradeOshiomhole.

For this year ’s celebrations at theSamuel Ogbemudia Stadium in BeninCity, the event witnessed the presence ofall state government functionaries drawnfrom all the arms-Executive, Legislatureand Judiciary. Dignitaries were invitedand they came from all parts of thecountry-North, East, West, North Central,South-South and overseas. They massivelygraced the august event which wasspecifically a state function.

A day after the celebrations, thechairman of the PDP, who out of shamecould not attend the celebrationsaddressed a section of the media in Edowhere he spoke out of the abundance ofignorance and made unfoundedcriticisms of the State Government andthoughtlessly accused the Chief Judge of

Edo State, Justice Cromwell Idahosa of “attending APC rally.”

Dan Orbih, who is currently operating aone-man show in the Edo PDP havingusurped the duties of the Director ofPublicity, Mathew Urhoghide and otherofficials and having lost almost all hisfollowers to the ruling party wenthallucinating that he saw the Chief Judgeof Edo State at the formal launch of ournew party in Edo. This is a big fat lie! It isfetched from the pit of hell.

It is important, therefore to correct thiswicked lie. The CJ , Cromwell Idahosa,was not present at the launch of the APC inEdo State. He only attended the statefunction which held at the stadium in his capacity as the Chief Judge of theState. APC was not launched at thestadium as falsely circulated by Orbih andhis PDP. It was launched at the new APCsecretariat along Airport Road. So, theevent at the stadium attended by the ChiefJudge was simply a state functionpackaged to celebrate the five yearsanniversary and had nothing to do withpartisan politics. It amounts to the approach of the witchcraft to drag aserving Chief Judge into partisan politicswhere there is just no reason to do so. Orbihshould apologise to the Edo State ChiefJudge for falsely accusing him of an offencehe never committed.

Secondly, Orbih accused the Edo State

Government of borrowing over N250bn tofinance development in the state. Edo StateGovernment is in the good books of itscreditors. Of what was borrowed to financedevelopment, Edo State debt profile standsat N35bn with clear repaymentschedules that is unbroken and has notentered into any new borrowing. At the ratethe government is going, at the end of theOshiomhole’s administration in 2016,what his regime borrowed would have beenliquidated because, he has consistentlyassured that he will not leave any debts forhis successor as the PDP administration didto him when he took over. It is on recordthat the Comrade-Governor has beenservicing all the huge debts left behind bythe PDP government in Edo.

In Edo today, people see whatOshiomhole used whatever money he gets, including borrowed, to do forcitizens. In the world of development,borrowing is not bad. America today liveson borrowing and many other developednations. What is bad is when you borrowirresponsibly and even steal the moneyborrowed on behalf of a people. I challengeEdo PDP to point to one project theyexecuted with the billions of naira thataccrued to the state for 10 years and thebillions they borrowed from the capitalmarket during their locust years in thestate.

Let us even look at some more

burning issues in Nigeria and try to locateOrbih’s stands in all to really appreciatethe character of this garrulous politician. Where was Orbih when the BernDeclaration recent report showed a multi-billion dollar scheme used by the NigerianNational Petroleum Corporation, NNPCand Nigerian importers all under the noseof the PDP Federal Government , inconnivance with Swiss oil traders, to ripNigeria off to the tune of nearly $7 billion?Not a hoot from voluble Orbih.

Our children in public universities whohave been kept at home for several monthsby the PDP Federal administration whichhas failed to honour a simple agreement itentered into with Academic Staff Union ofUniversities, ASUU, in 2009. We havenot heard a word from Orbih condemningthe PDP government. Just as our children were getting happy to return to school theconvoy of a PDP Governor killed anillustrious son of Edo State, Prof FestusIyayi. Orbih’s voice is not heard among allthose who have condemned the Governor’sreckless driving with his entourage on ourhigh ways having dispatched so manyNigerians to their untimely graves in histhree avoidable accidents. So, Edopeople should disregard Orbih.

•Mr. Owegie is a chieftain of the AllProgressives Congress, APC, in EdoState.

presidential or vice presidential candidatebut to give their unqualified support to acousin and next door neighbour, PresidentGoodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan when heemerged as the presidential candidate ofthe PDP. They followed up by giving him thesecond highest block votes during the pres-idential election, thus being critical factorsin the making of the Jonathan presidency.

Jonathan has symbolically done quite afew things no leader has done for the Igbopeople since the end of the civil war. Theseinclude the appointment of Chief AnyimPius Anyim as Secretary to the Governmentof the Federation, SGF. Lt Gen AzubuikeIhejirika, the first post-war Igbo Chief ofArmy Staff is effectively “in office and inpower” (given his exploits since he assumedoffice).

Most importantly, President Jonathan di-rected Ihejirika to bring out the NigerianArmy and give Ojukwu a national burial fitonly for former presidents or heads of state!

These may seem merely symbolic, but theywent a long way in reassuring the Igbopeople that they have moved closer back totheir pride of place in Nigeria. Jonathan isthe closest thing to a Nigerian president ofIgbo extraction. Peter Obi and the SouthEast governors (minus Rochas Okorocha,who used APGA to climb into power only tojump ship and join APC without consultingwith Igbo people) have demonstrated theirsupport for the President since the rebellionstarted in the PDP to the point where theruling party has more confidence in Obithan any of the people tussling to emerge asgovernor of Anambra State on its platform.That was why it was possible for the federaland state incumbency powers to be com-bined to ensure the victory of APGA in thiselection in preparation for 2015.

What happened in Anambra was notunique. It was test-run in Edo and Ondostates. In Edo State, Governor Oshiomhole,who helped the President to win in his stateand assisted in easing the President’s La-bour headaches, had to be assisted to retainhis seat, while the PDP in the state was toldto cool it. In Ondo, Governor RahmanMimiko also helped the President to win inhis state in 2011, as well as supporting hiscamp during the Nigerian Governors’ Fo-rum, NGF, saga. PDP in Ondo had to waitfor Mimiko to ride on.

Jonathan has learned to go beyond hisparty to look for friends and allies since theparty is now full of people whose loyaltiescan no longer be trusted.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013—————4545454545

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HUMAN rights or in its easily understood form, are those inalienable

fundamental rights that a person (or or-ganisation) is inherently entitled to eitheras a human or corporate being. Locallyand internationally, human rights as adoctrine is a cornerstone of public policyand good governance.

Many Nigerians view human rights andits abuse(s) from the prism of the often-practised acts of denial of freedom, indis-criminate arrests, etc, without thinking fora second that the numerous demolitionsof immovable properties and evictionscarried out with purported legal backingare sometimes acts of illegality, discrimi-nation, nepotism, unconcealed favourit-ism and gross abuse of the fundamentalhuman rights of the people ororganisation(s) at the receiving end.

Demolition, as an act based on publicpolicy, is a variegated tool of enabling in-frastructure development and urban re-newal; easing the seamless movement andright of way of man and machine; restor-ing the original concept or masterplan ofa town or metropolis or as, in the Nigeri-an socio-political milieu, a handy instru-ment of coercion to whip “erring” personsor corporate organisations into line asatonement for perceived wrong(s) donesomeone in authority as a show of mun-dane strength. In the extreme case, a dem-olition is carried out as a precautionarymeasure to forestall and/or pre-empt alooming collapse of a structure with ques-tionable integrity that will endanger hu-man life if allowed to do so on its own.

What has really stunted public knowl-edge of the human rights component ofdemolition exercise(s) is the omnibus us-age of long-abused technical terms likeright of way, obstruction, distortion ofmasterplan, wrongful conversion,negative environmental impactassessment, etc, which serves asjustification for some of these exercises,even though they are illegal, ab initio.

In many cases, the so-called prescribedauthorities hide under a canopy of self-serving laws and bye-laws couched in akaleidoscope of legalese with enoughloopholes to achieve their mindsets or tar-gets.

One of the basic but very important re-

Demolitions, human rights and theEnugu MFM example

BY KELECHI ONWUGBUFOR quirements for living is shelter. It is a factthat the wilful destruction of any accom-modation – whether residential orotherwise- connotes the deployment andfiring of a missile at the very soul and ex-istence of such an individual or organisa-tion. In effect, it is a declaration of war!

It is gratifying to note that there is agrowing awareness and concern over theemployment of demolition; threat of dem-olition and eviction as a means of coer-cion and settling scores.

As a first step, there is an ongoing seriesof public hearings on demolitions and evic-tions in Nigeria. The hearing being orga-nised and conducted by the National Hu-man Rights Commission, NHRC, willtraverse the six geo-political zones start-ing with the South West from November18-21, 2013.

The exercise is expected to look into nu-merous allegations of demolitions andevictions in Nigeria with colourations ofhuman rights abuses; determine the effect,legality and otherwise on the fundamen-tal human rights of the victims and for-mulate government policy on the repara-tion of these violations and forestall fu-ture ones; provide the foundation for a newset of guidelines for the seamless exerciseof demolitions and/or eviction; compilerecommendations to the Federal Govern-ment of Nigeria for consideration, approv-al and adoption in consonance with theNational Human Rights Commission Act(as amended).

This new consciousness about the inherent abuses and deprivations in the

demolition of structures and the evictionof persons and organisations could nothave come in a more appropriate seasonsuch as this.

This is considering the illegal demoli-tion of the Mountain of Fire and MiraclesSouth East Regional Headquarters alongZik Avenue, Uwani, Enugu, Enugu State.The demolition exercise which occa-sioned the wilful damage and destructionof church property, came after a three-daynotice and a back drop of a subsistingHigh Court order to stay execution, whichthe government side-stepped in its hasteto demolish the building..

For a church organisation that is reput-ed to be the fastest growing one in Chris-tendom, the Enugu State Government’s

action was an over-kill in relation to theinfraction allegedly committed by theMFM authorities, encroaching on the freeflow of River Asata, which is in fact a sea-sonal pond at the point the Zik Avenuebridge traverses it.

Another salient issue that the EnuguState Government has completely down-played in their efforts to conceal the at-trocity visited on the MFM property, isthat the new bridge being constructed overRiver Asata on Zik Avenue is on a new sitemany metres aways from the old one nearthe MFM building. This detracts fromthe government’s propaganda that thebuilding is encroaching on a water chan-nel very close to the new bridge!

The initial building approval (Certifi-cate of Occupancy) and other necessarydocuments were issued in 1998 and up-dated for remodelling and reconstructionin 2002 and 2010 because of the constantastronomical rise in membership whichthe MFM authorities in Enugu had to con-tend with, always.

With the history and pedigree of MFMMinistries as the fastest growing Chris-tian organisation in the world, the vari-ous branches followed the trajectory of themother-church. A flash-back into the for-

mative years of the church organisationreveals that it grew from the mustard seedsown by Dr. Daniel Kolawole Olukoya in1989, under the guidance of God and with23 initial attendees. Within a short peri-od, this number increased in spiral de-grees and this neccessitated the movementof the prayer meetings to No. 60 Old YabaRoad, Yaba, Lagos. This did not last longas the prayer group relocated, once againto No. 13, Olasimbo Street, Onike, Yaba(Close to UNILAG Second Gate), a loca-tion that has remained as the Internation-al Headquarters of the Church organisa-tion, which held its first service on April24, 1994. The name Mountain of Fire andMiracles, MFM, Ministries was revealedto Dr. Daniel Kolawole Olukoya, the Gen-eral Overseer of the Church organisationthrough divine impartment. It is to theeternal glory of God that MFM branchesare located in the United Kingdom, Unit-ed States, Canada, the rest of Europe, theCaribbean, Asia and many countries in

Africa with diverse language blocs andthousands of member-branches.

In spite of this rapid global expansion,there have been no known incident or com-plaint of encroachment or obstructioncaused by any of the Church’s structuresuntil the recent wilful demolition of Enu-gu Regional Headquarters building by thegovernment of Governor Sullivan Ihea-nacho Chime.

Added to the fact that there is a subsist-ing court order emanating from an ongo-ing action filed by the MFM authoritiesin Enugu to put on hold the demolition,the issue of premeditated discriminationcomes to the fore. It is incontrovertible toaver that of all the structures owned byindividuals and corporate organisationswhich are equidistant to the pond overwhich the old Zik Avenue bridge traverses,ONLY THE MFM BUILDING WAS DE-MOLISHED. The other buildings/struc-tures are still standing with no threat ofdemolition!

Governor Chime should take a cue fromhis fellow Governors by extending the axesand frontiers of religion through empow-erment programmes, policies and projectsfor religious bodies. A case in point is Dr.Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, the Gover-

nor of Delta State, who has assisted manyreligious organisatins to erect place ofworship, irrespective of their denomina-tions.

The Chime administration should seekthe face of God by apologising for itsiconoclastic act of wilfully demolishing aplace of worship that has, in the main,sought for protection under extant lawspassed by the same government but ad-ministered with vengeance and discrimi-native behaviour.

The MFM should be fully compensatedfor the loss of its land and immovableproperty that were destroyed during thedemolition. Human rights should not beadministered in the breach to favour gov-ernment and its cronies, but the generalityof its citizenry.

BY SUNNY IKHIOYA

God is in control — Welcomeback GEJ from Israel

IT is a fact that our country isfacing enormous challenges.

It is also true that we have therequired human capital to tack-le these challenges but for thecorrupt and inept leadership atall levels of governance. Thegateway to the solution thereforeis to have a genuine God-fearingleader at the helm of affairsshowing the way by personal ex-amples.

It was with this in mind that wefollowed all the activities of MrPresident during his recent pil-grimage to Jerusalem. We no-ticed his resolve to get closer toGod, he even promised improve-ments at future election exercis-es. For a believer, relationshipwith God is a personal thing, sowhen Dr Goodluck Jonathanmakes promises andsupplications to the almightyGod, it is not the duty of us meremortals to criticize and rubbishhis actions as they relate to thespiritual.

However, we must highlight thefact that the Almighty God gavecertain conditions to be met be-fore our prayers receive His bless-ings, one of which is to observeand obey His laws as written inthe holy book.

One of the rules is that oneshould not steal. Has Jonathanresolved to tackle this canker-worm that is threatening the ex-istence of this country? He canstart by decisively resolving allissues relating to the BMW bul-letproof cars and extend the in-vestigation to all other ministriesand parastatals. It is well withthe righteous.

The holy book also says that weshould love our neighbours asourselves. As the President re-turns, it is hoped that he has putpast misgivings behind. All hiserstwhile traducers like Sylva,Amaechi et al, should be grantedunconditional pardon with newand progressive relationshipplanted, for except you forgivethose that offend you God will notlisten.

The holy book also says that we

should not be covetous. Anythingthat belong to your neighbourshould not be coveted by you. Inyour position as President, youmust begin to consider this veryimportant injunction of the Al-mighty God. Have you taken intoconsideration every ethnic na-tionality that is in this geograph-ical expression called Nigeria?Have you noticed that each ofthem came up under peculiar cir-cumstances? Have you takennote of these circumstances?What I mean here is, whether youhave taken note of their peculiarneeds. You are to give equity andequal representation to all eth-nic nationalities in this country,that is the demand of the United

Nations. You must also take careof them in the allocation of re-sources.

Even in the South-South region,we notice a manifestation of apredominantly Ijaw representa-tion at the Federal Governmentlevel. What happened to the oth-er ethnic groups in the South-South?

If you are giving positions andresources only to your own peo-ple, you are coveting and theAlmighty God does not like that.Now that you are back from Is-rael and haven drawn closer toGod, it is hoped that previous actof inequitable distribution andallocation of resources will be athing of the past. By doing so, allof your prayers will be answeredby God.

The Almighty God also saysthat we must not bow down to anyother god or worship him. Bow-ing down to mere mortals likeyou does no credit to your rela-tionship with the Almighty God.Therefore, let no man be indis-pensable in your present admin-istration. Do not allow yourselfto be misled by so-called elderswho have in the past helped torun this country aground and arenow prancing over the whole

place playing ‘gods’. If you aretruly in tune with God you willnot yield to their negative advic-es. If you are with God, you willnot fear, for the holy book says:‘Thou should not fear but holdyour peace’. The one to fear is theAlmighty God. The fear of theLord is the beginning of wisdom.Fear God only and not any man.The only way to fear God is tolisten to His commandments. Ifyou work in line with God’s te-nets, you will please the people.Your interest is in the progress ofthe people. When the people arehappy, God is happy. It is saidthat the voice of the people is thevoice of God.

Initiate programmes that willbenefit the people and not a mis-erable thieving few; through thisthe people will be behind you andwhatever is your prayer wish willbe answered by God.

The examples are many butspace contraints will not allowme to list all here, one thing issure. If you have truly sought Godand have resolved on His injunc-tions, you can be rest assured,God is in control. Welcome backMr President from Israel.*Mr Ikhioya, a commentator onnational issues, wrote from La-gos

*Dr. Onwugbufor, a commentator onpublic issues, wrote from Abuja

If you work in linewith God’s tenets,you will please thepeople; when thepeople are happy,God is happy; thevoice of the peopleis the voice of God

The MFM should be fully compensated for the lossof its property that were destroyed during the demoli-tion; human rights should not be administered in thebreach to favour government and its cronies

46—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

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Continues on page 47

DO you think the PresidentJonathan’s proposed

conference will reshapeNigeria, if well organised?

You used the word if ‘’well-organised.’ I am talking as alawyer now; what is the legalplank on which the nationalconference is seated? We havea presidential system ofgovernment with aconstitution that structured allstrata of the administration ofgovernance. We have notamended the constitution togive relevance and legalbacking to the constitutionalconference. Is the conferencesovereign? If it is sovereign,what makes it sovereign? Youmust carve out something togive out something. In myopinion, I don’t know theplank on which the nationalconference is based.

I am at a loss because thesame duty the National

2015: South-South ‘lldisown Jonathan if hedoesn’t run — Gbagi•Govt has no business running universitiesOLOROGUN Kenneth Gbagi, 52, lawyer, criminologist, businessman and formerminister of state (Education) is a chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). In a chat in Lagos, he, spoke among others on the protracted strike of theAcademic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the proposed national conference andwhy President Goodluck Jonathan must seek re-election in 2015. Without mincingwords, he said the people of South-South will not allow President Jonathan returnto the region if he does not seek re-election. He also advised government toprivatise the universities and hand them over to the professors to manage . Excerpts:

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

Conference is now supposedlydoing, both houses of theNational Assembly- the Senateand House of Representativesare invested with powers tolook at them under theconstitution.

Nigerians don’t haveconfidence in the NationalAssembly because of the waythey were elected...

What is the differencebetween the manner in whichthe members of the NationalAssembly are appointed,handpicked or selected bygovernment or persons andthe manner members of thecommittee were appointed?

So does that mean you

don’t agree with the opinionthat there is need forNigerians to dialogue?

I agree absolutely that, as apeople, we must have aconference. I only disagreewith the way it is being puttogether. For instance, who isrepresenting my interest as anUrhobo man, as a Deltan?What input do I have in theconference? Who isrepresenting you from Ohafia?What interest do you have?

Take for instance, the police.We must go back to state andlocal government police at theappropriate time. How can apoliceman from Adamawacome to Okpe, in Urhobo land,to say he wants to do properpolicing? He needs four yearsto study the language, toknow the place, etc. But youand I from the localgovernment know ourselvesfrom childhood, we know whois a thief or criminal fromprimary school. We can simply

do what needs to be done.So, on national conference,

we must thank PresidentJonathan for thinking aboutnational conference andinitiating the process.Whatever the shape or form ofthe conference, Nigeriansmust now use that platform todemand the proper wayforward, a sovereign nationalconference, to bring aboutchange.

Some critics see theconference as a diversionarytactics to boost PresidentJonathan’s 2015 re-electionagenda. How do you see that?

I disagree with you. We havestructures. I don’t see

Jonathan - I worked for him, Iam a criminologist and as aprofessional I can readpeople, I don’t see howPresident Jonathan canimagine that he can swindleNigerians with the nationalconference. We have courts,we have laws and legislation.If Nigerians truncate theconference, it is a differentmatter. Nigerians have beenagitating for nationalconference and now thepresident has started theprocess, whether we as apeople can use it to achieve apositive or negative purposeis not Jonathan’s making.

No president in Nigeria,military or civilian had saidthere should be no no-goareas. Before, it was like anevil forest, nobody dared gothere for 53 years. ButJonathan has said, open theforest. So it is a stepping stonein the right direction. IfPresident Jonathan does notconclude the conference theway it would satisfy theyearnings of Nigeria, it willno longer be a taboo for thepresident coming after him tosay, he has done to it to thisstage, I want to take it to thenext level.

I commend PresidentJonathan for touching anddaring what previouspresidents in Nigeria couldnot touch.

As former educationminister, what do you makeof the ASUU four-monthstrike?

The ASUU problem is that ofpure deceit. As a minister inthe Education Ministry I hadinformation. You will recallthat at a good cost, we created12 universities. Before then, Ihad a conviction and proposalthat we have no business, asa country, to run all theseuniversities. America andother developed countries do

not run universities. Why arewe still running universitieslike University of Ibadan,University of Lagos, Universityof Benin, University ofNigeria, Nsukka, AhmaduBello University, etc?

These new ones we arecreating, let’s nurture them,structure them as a businessand hand them over to theprofessors to manage. Theseprofessors can manage theuniversities. We will almost notinvest in these universitiesagain. All we need to do is totransfer ownership andstructure them in anarrangement of a corporatebusiness.

Corporatebusiness

If we can sell NITEL andNEPA, it is the responsibilityof government to sell theseFirst Republic universities tothe professors, let themstructure it themselves andrun it but let the Ministry ofEducation regulate them. Thatis how it is done everywherein the world.

There is no way we canresolve the ASUU problemwithout privatising theuniversities. We are not beingrealistic. We cannot continuelike this as a country. If thisoil that we depend on todaydries up, how are we going topay the trillions? If we did ityesterday as a FatherChristmas nation it is abouttime we get things right.

Private universities in

Nigeria now are workingbetter than these universitieswe have been carrying fordecades. You cannot fundthem adequately. If you handthe university to theprofessors, they will not allowanything to stop them fromdeveloping it because they willsee it as their own.

Won’t privatisation takeuniversity education out ofthe reach of the poor?

We can address this bygiving scholarship to all poorand disadvantaged students.Poor students can be givendiscounted fees and westructure them in all theuniversities. With that,Government will pay less thanfive percent of what we spendin running the universitiestoday.

With the newly created 12universities, the existinguniversities and privateuniversities, in my memo tocouncil, we still have 674,000Nigerians qualified to go intouniversities, but have noaccess because the universitieshave filled up. So we will stillneed more universities. Weneed education system wherewe produce technicians,carpenters, welders,bricklayers. We have driftedaway.

You are the first recipient ofArch-Klum Society (AKS)medal of Rotary Internationalin the Black world. What doesthat portend for Nigeria?

The AKS is an exclusive

•Gbagi: Asking Jonathan not to re-contest is making South-South people second class citizens

If because of this predominantlynorthern opposition Jonathan did notcontest, he cannot come back to theSouth-south, we will chase him away

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013 —47

2015: South-South ‘ll disown Jonathan if he doesn’t run — Gbagi

cadre of Rotary where youmust have donated to thecause of humanity the sum ofat least $250,000. Once I madethe mark of becoming the firstNigerian, African and Blackperson in the world to attainAKS, the President of Rotary,Sakuji Tanaka, flew all theway from America and cameto my private house in Abujato give me the pin. In spite ofthe security challenges, if thepresident of Rotary can cometo Nigeria to recognise me, ithas a leverage arrangementwhere relevant departmentsof government, if properlyused, can make a lot of impact.

Having started the AKSeuphoria, a few Nigerianshave joined me. Former VicePresident Atiku Abubakarpaid up and became thesecond AKS in the Black worldand then my friend, Sir EmekaOffor became the third. Wehave four other Nigerians,who have made somecontributions but have notfully paid up but because of aprovision of the Rotary

Continues from page 46 constitution they have beenelevated to AKS because theygave a promisory note to payup over time.

You asked about the gainsAKS has for us, our variousdepartments and agencies ofour ministries are not livingup to expectation. On October30, 2013 at the investiture inthe United States of America,there were two flags: theNigerian flag and theAmerican flag. Just before Iwas inducted, the Nigeriannational anthem engulfed theair.

Rotary started in 1961 inNigeria, the year I was born.It pleased God that throughme as a contact, we now havea Nigerian Day in Rotary.Talking about the budget ofRotary, it is more than thebudget of countries. There isno president in the world thatdoes not identify and partnerwith Rotary. By my efforts andthose coming behind me, wenow have seven AKS in Rotaryand established the NigerianDay in Rotary. I believe it isgreat step in the rightdirection that sooner than

later we will be able toinfluence more advantages toNigeria and Africa in theaffairs of Rotary. There is noway I will make a statementto Rotary the world over todayand Rotary will ignore it. It isa only a matter of time theseadvantages will begin tocome.

How do you view commentsfrom a section of the Norththat President Jonathanshould not seek re-election?

President Jonathan has aconstitutional right as aNigerian to seek re-election.I do not know what qualifies,Tafawa Balewa, ShehuShagari and OlusegunObasanjo to seek office forsecond term that Jonathandoes not have. Obasanjo fromthe South-West ran for twoterms and nobody challengedhis right to go for second term.Shagari from North-Westcontested election, completedhis first term and ran forsecond term and was sworn-in but the military truncatedhis second term. But nobodychallenged his constitutionalright to go for re-election.

Nobody also challengedTafawa Balewa.

If late President UmaruMusa Yar ’Adua was alive,nobody would havechallenged him if he wantedto go for second term. Nobodyhas stopped a servingpresident in Nigeria, Africa,America, from seeking re-election unless he wasdefeated at the election.

Matter ofmathematics

I do not agree that theproponents of askingJonathan not to re-contestmake any legal, political andhistorical sense.

However, should they feelthat Jonathan has not donewell, which is a matter ofmathematics; what didJonathan as president getoverall, what has he been ableto achieve? What didJonathan get overall and howmuch has he used toprosecute Boko Haram warwith the army and what is leftfor executing projects? Whatdid he get with regard to a

level playing ground of apeaceful existence as a nationas opposed to what otherpresidents got? We must havea benchmark to assess all thepresidents to know how theyhave performed.

Having said so, it is not tosay Jonathan should notcontest. Jonathan shouldcontest, Jonathan mustcontest. If those who don’twant him to re-contest knowwhat they are doing, theyshould mobilise and stop himat the election.

If because of thispredominantly northernopposition Jonathan did notcontest, he cannot come backto the South-south, we willchase him away. It is notJonathan’s mandate, it isSouth-South’s mandate. Wecannot be made second classcitizens in our country. Hecannot dare to say he will notre-contest. He will be shockedwith the answers he will get.His mandate is a collectivemandate of the South-Southled by our hero, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who paid with hisblood.

OSUN State hasexperienced dramatic

alterations in several spheresof infrastructurel and humancapital development in the lastthree years since the advent ofthe Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesolaadministration.

When Aregbesola wasinaugurated, 36 months ago,he pledged that he would offerthe people of Osun a friendlygovernment that will totallycommitted to unlocking thelatent potentials of Osunpeople.

The education sector isperhaps one of the mostnoticeable and talked aboutsectors that have received theimprint of the Aregbesolaadministration.

It flowed from the educationsummit spearheaded byrenowned Nobel Laureate,Professor Wole Soyinka andother stakeholders, which wasconvened by the administrationshortly after assuming themantle of leadership onNovember 27, 2010.

Prior to the inception of thepresent administration, theState of Osun as Aregbesolahas restyled the state, no onewould ever have imagined thechanges.

Public education had been sobadly managed that only pupilswhose parents could not affordthe financial implications of aprivate school were left inpublic schools. The students,especially those in primaryschools were roughly dressedand mal-nourished. School

Aregbesola’s three unusual years in OsunBY GBENGA OLARINOYE

GOVERNOR Rauf Aregbesola will clock three years in office this Wednesday. The three years havebeen largely remarkable

buildings were in dilapidatedstate, students’ performanceboth at the internal/externalexaminations were abysmallypoor.

One of the steps taken by theadministration in sharpeningthe sector is the provision of twopairs of unified school uniformto each of 750,000 pupils in allthe public primary andsecondary schools across thestate to boost the morale of thestudents and further promoteunity among the public schoolsin the state.

T h eprovision ofthe uniformfree of charger e p o r t e d l ygulped aw h o p p i n gN800millionaside theN1.8bi l l ionbeing injectedfor the runningof basiceducation.

About 3,000tailors werecontracted byt h egovernment tosew the newuniform madeof Adire batik.The materialwas chosen toe m p o w e r

artisans and Adire makers inthe state and as well make thestate a reference point for itscreativity.

The administration is alsoinjecting N30billion to give anew lease to the structures andclassrooms in line with therecommendations of thesummit.

Under the arrangements, thestate government isconstructing 170 new modelschools across the state toreplace the dilapidatedbuildings with state of the art

facilities expected to enhanceand stimulate the teaching andlearning environment.

To further stimulate theinterest of students in learning,the government said it isreducing the burden of havingto go to school by replacingbooks with computer tabletsinvented for that purpose.

The device designed in theform of an iPad called “OponImo,” has a software containingthe entire senior schoolsyllabus, including Yorubatraditions, past questions of theWest African ExaminationCouncil (WAEC), NationalExamination Council (NECO)and Joint Administration andMatriculation Board (JAMB) inthe last 10 years.

The government’sachievements in the educationsector have, however, beentrailed with controversy,notably in the reclassificationscheme of the schools. Thatscheme has been especiallycriticized by the opposition inthe state and the ChristianAssociation of Nigeria, CANwhich has flayed it as a schemedirected against Christians.

The administration has alsomade landmarks in security tothe extent that Osun is todayone of the most peaceful statesin the country.

Apart from the regular police,the government set up

dedicated crime responseteams nicknamed Swift ActionSquad (SAS), who are nowvisible in strategic areas in thestate as well as identifiedtroubled spots.

Not done yet, additional 100patrol vans were also to beprovided for the SAS and sevenmore police stations to be built. C u rrently, a state –widedistress management system,which would allow securityagency to respond within 40minutes, is being developed soto guarantee effective andefficient crime, detection,prevention and control.

In addition to this, acommunity policing network isalso evolving to boost securitynetwork across the state.Because security must be all-round, the government recentlypurchased a helicopter for SASfor area surveillance of the state.

The administration has alsomade strategic improvementsin the health sector andembarked on a social securitysystem tagged Agba Osun(Osun Elders), under whichthe government selected about1, 600 most vulnerable peopleacross the state and placedthem on monthly stipend ofN10, 000.

The youths have also beenboosted with an empowermentscheme dubbed Osun YouthEmpowerment Schemeotherwise called OYES.

•Aregbesola

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B-R-I-E-F-SB-R-I-E-F-SB-R-I-E-F-SB-R-I-E-F-SB-R-I-E-F-S

NUCLEAR DEAL: From left British Foreign Secretary, Williams Hague, EUForeign Policy Chief, Catherine Ashton, Russian Foreign Minister, SergeyLavrov, US Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, Germany’s Foreign Minister,Guido Westerwelle, French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius and ChineseForeign Minister, Wang Yi, after Ashton read a statement to the media at theUN Palais, Geneva, Switzerland after signing the deal yesterday.

KEY FEATURES OF THE DEAL

IT DEMANDS THAT IRAN MUST:•Halt enrichment above five per cent;•Dismantle technical connections required to enrich above five per cent;•Not install additional centrifuges of any type;•Not install or use any next-generation centrifuges to enrich uranium;•Not construct additional enrichment facilities;•Not commission or fuel Arak reactor;•Provide daily access to IAEA inspectors at Natanz and Fordow sites;•Provide IAEA access to centrifuge assembly, production and storage facilities; and• Provide design information for Arak reactor.

WORLD POWERS, IN RETURN, MUST OFFER:• Restrictions on new nuclear-related sanctions for six months;• Suspend some sanctions on gold and precious metals, cars and petrochemical exports, potentially providing Iran approximately $1.5 billion; •Allow purchases of Iranian oil at their current levels;•License safety-related repairs and inspections inside Iran for certain Iranian airlines; and• Allow $400m in governmental tuition assistance to be transferred from restricted funds directly to educational institutions in third countries to defray the tuition costs of Iranian students.

Iran's nuclear deal sparks off row•Obama hails deal•Israel vows to defend itself•Rouhani expects backlash from hardliners

CONTROVERSYgreeted Iran's

nuclear deal with worldpowers yesterday as Israelvowed not to honour itwhile hardliners in Iran areplanning a mass protestagainst it in Tehran, theIranian capital.

Iran struck the deal withthe United States and fiveother world powers,agreeing to a temporaryfreeze of its nuclearprogram in the mostsignificant agreementbetween Washington andTehran in more than threedecades of estrangement.

Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani endorsedthe six-month periodagreement. US PresidentBarack Obama hailed thepact's provisions, whichIsraeli prime minister,Benjamin Netanyahu,called "historic mistake."

Speaking to his cabinet,Netanyahu said yesterdaythat Israel is not bound bythe deal and reserves theright to defend itself. Thatis a reference to possiblemilitary action against Iran.Netanyahu has said theinternational community isgiving up too much to Iran,which it believes will retainthe ability to produce anuclear weapon andthreaten Israel.

The deal includes curbson Iran's enrichment andother projects that could beused to make nuclear arms,as key to preventing Iranfrom becoming a nuclearthreat.

"Simply put, they cut offIran's most likely paths to abomb," he told reporters inWashington. But for Iran,keeping the enrichmentprogramme active was acritical goal. Iran's leadersview the country's ability tomake nuclear fuel as asource of national pride andan essential part of itsinsistence at nuclear self-

sufficiency. Giving up toomuch on the enrichmentprogramme would havelikely brought a storm ofprotests by Iranian hard-liners, who were already

uneasy over the marathonnuclear talks and Rouhani'soutreach to Washington.

In a nationally broadcastspeech, Rouhani said theaccord recognizes Iran's"nuclear rights" even if that

precise language was keptfrom the final documentbecause of Westernresistance. The deal marksa milestone between the twocountries, which brokediplomatic ties 34 years agowhen Iran's Islamicrevolution climaxed in thestorming of the U.S.Embassy in Tehran.

Egypt passes new laws against protests

EGYPT’s interimpresident issued a

new law yesterdayregulating protests,weeks after the much-anticipated bill stirredcriticism from rights andpolitical groups that sayit will underminefreedoms and stifle allopposition.

Drafts of the bill havebeen widely debatedsince the military-backedgovernment first floated

it in October. InterimPresident Adly Mansourapproved an amendedversion Sunday and it willbe released later,

presidential spokesmanIhab Badawi said.

The law comes 10 daysafter authorities lifted athree-month long

emergency order thatgranted security forcessweeping powers.

JFK’s spirit lives on — Daughter

THE daughter of President John F. Kennedy

said that his spirit lives oneven though his life was cutshort.

Caroline Kennedy, who isthe new U.S. ambassadorto Japan, said in an inter-

view published in Japan’sYomiuri newspaper yes-terday that people oftentell her they were inspiredby her father. That’s a re-minder that we all have aduty to work together fora better world. Amb. Caroline Kennedy

Malians vote amid threats

MALIANS votedyesterday in

parliamentary electionsintended to seal thetroubled West Africannation’s return todemocracy butovershadowed by thethreat of Islamistreprisals. The polls markMali’s first steps torecovery after it wasplunged into chaos by acoup in March last year,and finalise a processbegun with the electionof its first post-conflict

leader in August.“I wanted to express

my joy at coming tovote,” President IbrahimBoubacar Keita said aftercasting his ballot in thecapital Bamako.

St. Peter's bones go on display

BONES believed tobelong to Saint

Peter, one of thefounding fathers of theCatholic Church, wenton display for the firsttime Sunday, as PopeFrancis held a ceremonyto end the “Year ofFaith”. Tens ofthousands of pilgrimsgathered to catch aglimpse of the remains,eight fragments of bonebetween two and threecentimetres (around oneinch) long displayed onan ivory bed within abronze chest on apedestal in St. Peter ’sSquare.

The chest, given toPope Paul VI in 1971and usually kept in thetiny chapel of the papal

apartments, wasdecorated with a carvingof Peter, who was afisherman beforebecoming the Church’sfirst pope, casting hisnets into the sea.

At the start of thesolemn ceremony, PopeFrancis prayed beforethe chest, bordered bywhite and yellow roses,before blessing thebones with incense.

The bones have longbeen the object ofcontroversy betweenhistorians andarchaeologists: theywere first discovered ina 1940 dig next to anancient monumenthonouring Saint Peter,but ended up gatheringdust in a storage box.

Afghan assembly favours US deal

AN assembly ofAfghan elders

endorsed a crucialsecurity deal yesterday toenable U.S. troopsoperate in the countrybeyond next year, butPresident Hamid Karzaileft the matter up in theair by refusing to saywhether he would sign itinto law or not.

The gathering, knownas the Loya Jirga, had

been convened by thepresident to debate thepact which outlines thelegal terms of continuedU.S. military presence inAfghanistan. It voted infavour and advisedKarzai to sign it promptly.

But Karzai, in his finalremarks to the four-daymeeting, said he wouldnot sign it until after apresidential election duenext April.

UK captives: Tanzanian, Indian freed

A couple accused ofkeeping three

women as slaves in aLondon house for 30years are of Indian andTanzanian origin andtwo of the victims werepart of a political“collective”, police saidon Saturday. The twoolder victims involved inBritain’s most shockingcase of modern-dayslavery are thought tohave met the malesuspect through a“shared politicalideology” and beganliving with him as part ofa collective, London’sMetropolitan Police said.

The third victim, a 30-year-old woman, isbelieved to have spenther entire life in servitudein a case that hasstunned Britain.

Police commanderSteve Rodhouse said thecouple, both aged 67,were of Indian and

Tanzanian origin andhad been living inBritain since the 1960s.

Pakistanisthreaten NATOsupply trucks

DEMONSTRATORSprotesting U.S.

drone strikes roughedup drivers yesterday asthey sought to stoptrucks carrying NATOtroop supplies andequipment from passingthrough northwestPakistan. The rally camea day after a party led bypolitician and cricketstar Imran Khan said itwould prevent NATOsupply trucks makingtheir way to and fromAfghanistan fromtravelling throughKhyber Pakhtunkhwaprovince until the U.S.stops drone strikes.

•Mali's President Keita

Sweeter alternatives to white sugar

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WHITE (processed) sugar is bad. I know it is incredibly nice tasting,but sugar is absolutely terrible for yourhealth. It rots your teeth and makes youfat. The more you eat, the more you crave.It increases your risk of developing seri-ous health problems, interferes with nor-mal insulin action, raises blood sugar lev-els and a lot more.Eating sugar or any foods rich in whitesugar is a sure health destroyer. So, themost effective method of keeping bloodsugar levels down is by avoiding intakeof processed sugars in the first place.Here are far better and healthier substi-tutes that you can freely use instead ofwhite sugar.

HoneyHoney is a better alternative to white

sugar because it is alkaline in nature. Itdoes not produce gas or acids. It helpsstrengthen the heart and prevent fever,cough and colds. It has also been foundto help purify the blood.

People who are hypertensive should takehoney, as the acetylcholine found in thehoney helps increase blood flow to theheart, therefore decreasing one's bloodpressure. This can be added to beveragesor used as a sweetener in desserts.

Sugarcane juiceThough white sugar comes from sugar-

cane, the process by which it is refinedtakes out a lot of the useful nutrients. Thejuice from sugarcane actually has vitaminsB and C, as well as various organic saltslike iron, calcium and manganese.

This is good for those who suffer fromanemia and jaundice. Natural, fresh juicefrom sugarcane can be taken as a refresh-ing beverage, even without adding lemon,

ginger or any other ingredient for flavour.

JaggeryOften called "medicinal sugar," and fre-quently used to cure constipation, coughsand indigestion. It has a large amount ofmineral content. In terms of usage, this isthe closest alternative to sugar. You canget jaggery in the form of a powder, liq-uid or even a solid block.

Dried fruitsPopular dried fruits include raisins,

prunes, dates and figs. Dates are a greatsource of iron, vitamin B, potassium andfiber. Raisins can be used to sweeten food.Figs are great for those who have diges-tive problems.

These are also great for fighting asthma,coughs and colds. Prunes are rich in fibreand can help people have a healthy di-gestive system. When you have a strongcraving for sugar, dried fruits are a great

alternative.

Fresh fruitsInstead of taking in white sugar or foods

that are rich in it, fruits like apples, or-anges, mangoes, watermelons and papa-yas will do the trick.

The sugar they contain isn't as concen-trated as white sugar. They are also full ofnutrients, but with none of the unwantedfat.

SteviaStevia is a herb that has been found to

help lower hypertension and reducesstomach acidity and gas. This is the onlysweetener suggested for diabetics.

Julia Oyefunke Fortune

The Chronic DiseaseThe Chronic DiseaseThe Chronic DiseaseThe Chronic DiseaseThe Chronic Disease

FIGHTERFIGHTERFIGHTERFIGHTERFIGHTERjuliafortune@hotmail.com

Stock up on yellow fruitsand vegetables (2)Health benefits of bananas youmight not know

IF you ever find yourself stranded on adesert island, you better hope for ba-

nanas. This nutrient rich fruit would beenough to get you by until you are res-cued. Bananas are rich in Vitamin B6, Vi-tamin C, manganese, fibre, and potassium.In fact, just one banana contains a whop-ping 467mg of potassium! Potassium is es-sential in maintaining healthy blood pres-sure levels and these miracle fruits alsocontain tryptophan and serotonin, or as Ilike to say, natures own anti-depressants.These have a calming and mood-boost-ing effect.

When researchers conducted a study on40,000 male professionals over a four yearperiod to determine the effect of diet onhealth (Bananas,whfoods.com), potassium

BY JOSEPHINE IGBINOVIA

• ... with this.

showed its true colours. It was proven thatindividuals who follow a diet rich in po-tassium laden foods had a reduced risk ofstroke due to its ability to lower blood pres-sure. Potassium in bananas also ensuresa healthy cardio-vascular system.

That’s not all, bananas protect againstpainful stomach ulcers by activating thecells that line the stomach. How? Theyaid in producing a thicker mucous mem-brane as well as eliminating bacteria inthe stomach, usually a direct cause of ul-cers. Those monkeys are onto somethingbig I’d say.

Yellow squash nutrition factsOkay, so it might not have been entirely

true when your grandma told you to eatyour squash for curly hair. She wasn’t ly-

NIGERIANS have been urged topursue health literacy if the spate of

sudden deaths must be curbed across thecountry.According to the Founder, LiveWellInitiative, Bisi Bright, who expressedconcern over the ebbing rate of lifeexpectancy in the country, Nigerians,irrespective of functional literacy, had beenfound wanting in health literacy.

Speaking at a comprehensive screeningexercise conducted by the SoroptimistInternational of Lagos Mainland incollaboration with the LiveWell Initiativeon over 500 grassroots men and womenat the popular Mushin area of Lagos,Bright regretted that most Nigerians wereironically unaware of this deficiency.

“They take diets that are very high infat, salt and sugar. Sugar on its own willnot cause diabetes except a person issugar-intolerant. Diets high in fat alsopredispose people to high cholesterollevel which subsequently predisposesthem to diabetes, hypertension and so on.Unfortunately, very few people eat fruitsand fibers which are essential forcountering cholesterol and sugar”, shestressed.

Speaking earlier on the significance ofthe exercise which included blood sugar,cholesterol, high-blood pressure, stresslevel, body mass index, breast and cervicalcancer screening, Titilayo Ramatu Ojeifo,President, Lagos Mainland Soroptimist,who hinted that some women had testedpositive to cervical cancer, emphasised thatthe absence of relevant structures in thecountry was also culpable for the growingtrend in sudden deaths.

“People are dying needlessly! In thecourse of this screening, we havediscovered cervical cancer positivepatients who never knew they had cervicalcancer! In England, once you are 35, theNHS would invite you for medical check.But here, government does not even knowhow many people reside in Lagos State;talk more of asking them to come forcheck”, Ojeifo bemoaned.

Pharmacistapprehensive overpoor healthliteracy

ing though when she said, “eat yoursquash for bright healthy eyes!” Yellowsquash is abundant in lutein and beta-carotene, which protects against maculardegeneration – which can lead to visionloss.

Yellow squash is also rich in potassiumand magnesium to promote heart healthand healthy blood pressure levels. Folatein yellow squash removes homocystienein our blood, which is a harmful meta-bolic by-product that has been linked toheart attack and stroke.

Yellow squash is also rich in manganese,which is effective in treating musclecramps, particularly PMS cramps. It hasbeen proven that women regularly con-sume yellow squash have fewer PMSsymptoms and less painful period pain.

These are just a few of the yellow fruitsand vegetables and their wonderful healthbenefits.

Other examplesYellow figs, yellow apples, yellow kiwi,

plantains, yellow peppers, just to name afew. One thing that these brightly-coloured fruits and vegetables have incommon is that they are all teeming inantioxidants, vitamins and minerals thatprotect against heart attacks, stroked, de-generative diseases and even cancer.Nature is a wonderful natural healer andyellow fruits and vegetables are a verygood place to start.

BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

• Replace this.....

L E I S U R ETHOUGHT FOR TODAY

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VIRGINIA

KAPTAIN AFRIKA in “Pretty Lunatic’ By Andy Akman

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TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye” By Lanre Kehinde

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HOME & ABROAD byLawrence Akapa

By Richard Eromosele

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139

LIBRA; Full-Moon across Aries/Libra axis maybring you personality clashes base on envy from theother party. Slow down and give peace a chance atleast for now.

SCORPIO; Full-Moon in Aries points to possiblemisunderstanding (probably) within your workingarena. This is the wrong time to fan the embers ofdiscord.

SAGITTARIUS; Although the full-Moon is gener-ating tension, your wish is to have your good time.It’s wrong to under-rate the havoc jealousy can wreck.

CAPRICORN; Full-Moon across Aries/Libra axiswill bring pressure from many fronts, the more no-ticeable ones are career/business and domestic re-lated types

AQUARIUS; Full-Moon in Aries warns you towatch what you sign and verbally agreed to do. Ifyou fail to respect the law, it’ll back-fire very soon.

PISCES; Today’s full-Moon in Aries does not en-courage carelessness with money as such can actu-ally lead to avoidable but serious troubles. Avoid jeal-ous approach

ARIES; Full-Moon in your Star sign will encour-age you to under-rate many to their resentment theway you too’ll be negatively affected. Don’t ignoreyour spouse

TAURUS; Full-Moon in Aries warns you to do awaywith whatever can not be placed above board. Takeyour health seriously today more than before

GEMINI; Today’s full-Moon in Aries can temptyou to expose your love life unnecessarily. Separateyour private/personal affairs and open friendship

CANCER; Full-Moon will certainly affect yourmood and make you aggressive but, encouragementof tension along your career line and/or within yourbusiness circle can not help your cause now. Protec-tion of your image is important however.

LEO; Full-Moon may bring you what you’re likelyto see as an insult but in reality it is not one. Youonly need to be on the right side of the law so thatyou’ll have the last laugh to the detriment of youropponents. Discourage of jealousy within you.

VIRGO; Full-Moon across Aries/Libra axis maygenerate tension around you but, the best way foryou not to be the loser is to make sure your financesare well protected. Then green eyed monster calledjealousy may make things a little bit difficult.

Basic characteristics ofPisces

Pisces is 12th of the twelve Zodiac signs ruled bymysterious Neptune. It quality is mutable while itelement is water. Mutable aspect of Pisces indicatesthat people born under it are changeable, by this Imean they change their minds often times. Being awater sign, naives of this Star have very strong in-tuition and can flow into anybody heart and/or mind.

Neptune as the ruler of Pisces brings compas-sion and ARTISTIC talent into Pisces born people’screativity quotient. Neptune rules psychic related

thing and many of things that cannot be placedabove board; Neptune makes most natives of thisstar sign secretive, hard to understand and dream-ing.

Two opposing fishes as joint symbol of Pisces of-tentimes responsible for occasional confusion sufferby all natives of Pisces one time or the other. It is

truly important for them to learn how to controlboth their emotion and mind.

Because it is easy for Pisces people to becomepessimistic unnecessarily The reasons are while oneof the fishes may head for optimism and day dream-ing, the other’s inclination may be of fear, despond-ency and timidity. Thus, confusion can creep in andthat will be to the detriment of their confidence.

Cultivation of practical nature and adoption of re-alistic method in all you do will be of great impor-tance. It is equally important for Pisces born peoplelike you to take psychic related things more seri-ously because they can make use of psychic and/orspiritual related things.

Managing rejection

WHEN you table arequest before

your parents and theyturn it down, how doyou reacts? And sup-posing it’s your boss inthe office that turneddown your request,how will you feel? Andwhat it it’s your peers

that refused your re-quest, how do youcope?

Being able to man-age rejection is a skill.And like every otherskill, it could belearned. Know thatrejection is part of the

equation of life. Thatsomebody has reject-ed your request is nota retorrendum on you.There are many rea-sons requests may notbe granted. It could bewrong timing. It couldalso be improperphrase of the words

used. It could be theperson is not in theright mould etc.

Rejection is part oflife’s equation. But donot reject yourself justbecause your requestis not granted today.Do you know what to-morrow has in storefor you?

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013 — 51

52—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

20,000 drivers’ licences ready for collectionin Lagos

BY EMMANUELAZIKEN, POLITICAL

EDITOREXCESS CRUDE ACCOUNT:Give statistics, notsemantics, Nyako tells FG

ABUJA—A serviceprovider company,

Backup Network Limited,has deployed a novelsolution to boost the qualityof service by telecomsoperators.

The deployment is aimedat strengthening the poorquality of services acrossthe country and to enable

CHIEFTAINCY: From left: Erelu Mojisola Adams, Otunba Gani Adams,receiving the certificate of Akinrogun and Yeye Akinrogun, from ObaSalawudeen Oyefusi, the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, and Olori Oyefusi, duringthe conferment of chieftaincy title on Otunba Gani Adams by the Ikorodumonarch, at Ikorodu Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

YOLA—GOVERNORMurtala Nyako of

Adamawa State haschallenged the presidencyto give facts and figures onthe alleged depletion of theExcess Crude Account,saying that the use ofsemantics againstGovernor Rotimi Amaechiwas largely unhelpful.

He spoke in response tothe war of words betweenthe Minister of Finance, Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala andGovernor Amaechi over thealleged depletion of theECA to the tune of $5billion.

Governor Amaechi,chairman of themainstream faction of theNigerian GovernorsForum, NGF, had at aretreat of the forum lastweek in Sokoto accusedthe Federal Government ofdepleting the ECA to thetune of $5 billion withoutthe knowledge of the othertiers of the federation whoare beneficiaries of theECA.

The Federal Ministry ofFinance had in responseaccused GovernorAmaechi of playing to thegallery as it claimed thatthe Rivers StateGovernment got N56.2billion from the sharing ofthe said $5 billion.

Amaechi retorted at theweekend, saying that whatthe state received was itsstatutory allocation and notfunds from the ECA,daring the FederalGovernment to give a

breakdown of the country’srevenue inflow from oil.

He specifically askedhow much Nigeria earnsfrom oil, what price is thecountry’s oil sold and howmuch exactly the countryhas earned this year fromoil sales.

Intervening yesterday,Governor Nyako chargedthe Federal Government torespond with facts andfigures to the issues raised

by Governor Amaechi andnot with semantics.

“So far it is Amaechi thatis giving Nigerians thetruth. Amaechi has quoteda figure and if anybody hasreasons to justify why thatfigure is missing, thatperson should give abreakdown, not mentionareas that they have spentthe money on, but give abreakdown,” GovernorNyako who spoke through

the Director of Press,Ahmad Sajo.

“This much of the moneywas used for this purpose,this much was used for thispurpose, but we are sayingthat between Amaechi andthe Federal Government,Amaechi has given afigure, they should alsogive statistical figures todisprove Amaechi notsemantics,” the governorsaid.

L A G O S — L A G O SState governor, Mr.

Babatnde Fashola hasvisited the drivers’licence Facility at Ojoduto complete hisdriver’s license process,directing all theagencies concerned topublicise the fact thatover 20,000 licences areready for collectionacross the state.

The governor wentthrough eye and writtentests with the VehicleInspection Service, VIS,and photo data capturewith the Federal RoadSafety Commission,FRSC, at the end ofwhich he got histemporary driver ’slicence.

In an interview at thepremises of the driver’slicence facility after theexercise, GovernorFashola told newsmenwho inquired about hisexperience, “the only

Back-up Network deploys novel solution forefficient service

thing now is that I wastold that there is a batchof drivers’ license therethat people have notcome to collect. So wewill, at the state leveland with the FRSC, thinkabout how to createpublic awareness onthis.

“I am told that about20,000 people out thereare yet to collect theirlicences. They (DriversLicence Facility

agencies) are concernedabout cost and may bethey are thinking abouthow to publish thenames on the internet orsomething. Perhaps, it isa good time, those whohave come here forbiometrics may comehere and do randomcheck and they willrespond to them.” thegovernor said.

He described his

experience during theexercise as good, noting,however, that it waspresumptuous to judgewith his own experiencesince it could also bepossible that he received afast tracked treatmentbecause of who he is.

The governor said he gotfavourable feedback frommembers of the publicwhom he met and spokewith at the facility.

telecom operators deliverimproved quality ofexperience, QoE for theincreasing number of itssubscribers in Nigeria.

The solution is believedto have the capacity ofenabling operators toachieve improved QoS,which will in turn boostQoE for subscribers.

The Chief ExecutiveOfficer of the firm, Mr.Monday Ogbe, descriedthe pain Nigeriansubscribers go through inthe hands of telecomoperators, due to poorquality of service, insistingthat there was a lot of roomfor improvement.

VanguardVanguardVanguardVanguardVanguardCLASSIFIED

B A N J O K O — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissOlajumoke AbiodunBanjoko, now wish tobe known andaddressed as Mrs.Olajumoke AbiodunAdeyemi. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

ORUGBO —l,formerly known andaddressed as MissHeritage OmohwoOrugbo, now wish tobe known andaddressed as Mrs. Omohwo HeritageOchuko Oge. Allformer documentsremain valid.General publicplease take note.

U N U A J E F E — I ,formally known andaddressed as MissGrace OghenekevweUnuajefe, now wish tobe known andaddressed as Mrs.Grace OghenekevweOghenebrume. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic take note.

EFE-OMOJEVWE—I, formally knownand addressed asZelda Anne Efe-Omojevwe, nowwish to be knownand addressed asZelda Anne Elum.All formerdocuments remainvalid. Generalpublic take note.

ISHAKA —I, formallyknown and addressedas Miss IshakaEreremena Nikky,now wish to be knownand addressed as Mrs.Ereremena NikkyAyoro. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publictake note.

NWEZE —I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss Promise EbereNweze now wish to beknown and addressedas Mrs. Promise EbereMeka. All formerdocuments remain valid.General public pleasetake note.

UZODINMA—We,formerly known andaddressed asUzodinma family ofOji River L.G.A.ofEnugu State, nowwish to be known andaddressed asIloejenachi. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

U K A R I A K U — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissUkariaku Peace, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Mrs.Nwoko Chibuzo Peace.All former documentsremain valid. Abia StateCollege of HealthTechnology, Aba andgeneral public pleasetake note.

IHEME —I, formerlyknown and addressed asMiss Catherine AzukaIheme, now wish to beknown and addressed asMrs. CatherineO n y e k a c h u k w uOrjiukwu. All formerdocuments remain valid.Nnamdi AzikiweUniversity Awka,R a d i o g r a p h e r sRegistration Board ofNigeria and generalpublic please take note.

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L A G O S I S L A N D O F FI C E —VA N G U A R D

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4 8 E A S T PAV I L I O N T B S ,L A G O S .

VANGUARD'S LAGOS OFFICE

,

,

Conversation with aGolden Eaglet parent

TELEPHONE rings....... Chief Effiong......Hello who is this?Alhaji Maigari...If I am on to Chief Effiong,, I am

Aminu Maigari the President of the NFFChief Effiong....Ah interesting how are you? You

are the one who wants to teach me how to manage myson? When I bought him his first ball when he wasthree years old where were you? At age six, I got hima football boot because I knew he was destined forgreatness.

You needed to be at my house on that day of thefinal. Over fifty people came to watch the match withme. Neighbours, relatives and well wishers they allcame.

And my wife had to cook for all of them because weknew there was going to be a celebration at the end ofthe match.

Do you know how much we spent for food and thedrinks?

Without consulting me as the father, you went andwrote the two million naira cheque in his name. Doyou know how much we spend every time he plays?You went and wrote a two million naira cheque in thename of a 16 year old?

I want to return the cheque so that you can reissueit in my name.

Alhaji Maigari.....on the contrary sir, I advice thatyou use the cheque to open an account in his name,so that as he grows up you can help him to investand….

Chief Effiong.. ( cuts in ) Invest what? I have toldyou what we have put in so far to bring him to thislevel and you want to put enmity between me and myson?

Alhaji Maigari....God forbid sir. In fact that is why Icalled to first of all congratulate you for siring a childwho has the potential of becoming a great footballer ifproperly nurtured

Chief Effiong....Did you hear when I told you that Iknew he was going to be great? Look if not for injury,today I would have been one of Nigeria’s best foot-ballers. I played for my primary school and I was al-ways the one called upon to take corner kicks...

Alhaji Maigari....No wonder your son is so good.Congrats Sir. As earlier said we will find time to sitwith you and discuss how best to handle your son’sfuture, because right from UAE, we noticed the influxof scouts who we believe can short circuit the future ofthese boys if we do not intervene..

Chief Effiong...listen Alahaji Maigari, I am not anovice, I know what is good for my son and I do notneed you to tell me about his future...

Alhaji Maigari.....hold on sir, talk to the Honour-able Sports Minister.

Chief Effiong....Hon Minister, are you one of thosewho want to reap from where you did not sow?

Hon Minister.....I beg your pardon Chief.....reapfrom where we did not sow? If you must know. We arethe ones that have sowed. This country invested mil-lions in those children. For the past three years wehave given them the best in terms of comfort of livingand personal development. I don’t know about yourson, but nearly all those kids stayed in hotels for thefirst time when we took them over. None of them hadflown in an aircraft before. Since we adopted themthey have benefited the best of training from first classcoaches and international academies.

Ask them about the Aspire Academy in Dubai, fivestar hotels, best of airlines......they owe this countrySir you owe us for bringing your child to the levelwhere he has become a global celebrity...dines withPresidents, met face to face with Mr Vice President,Senate President, Speaker of The House, Ministers…..

Chief Effiong ....Hon Minister, I withdraw my state-ment.. I think you have a point there.....I apologise.

In fact it was when he always came back from campthat we discovered he could eat rice with a fork andknife.

Hon Minister....Apology accepted. Sir I asked theNFF President to call you because I heard, and au-thoritatively too, that an agent offered you one millionnaira which you collected....

Chief Effiong....Don’t go there....don’t just go there.A whole country gave my son two million naira, anindividual brought one million naira and you are que-rying me...?

Hon Minister...The federal Government’s donationwas an appreciation, one that is bound to open theflood gates for more of such. The one million nairafrom the agent may be an invitation to slavery, a betthat you may regret.....

Chief Effiong ...What makes you think you peopleare the only ones that know about football?

Hon Minister....Far from it, we are not the only ones,but this is our culture medium. We plan and sincerelytoo to bring together experts in the business to sit downwith all the parents of the kids and the kids them-selves to advice on the way forward. We have multi-ples examples of bright youngsters whose careers weredestroyed by self seeking and selfish agents. We donot want that to happen to this glorious bunch at ourdisposal.

Let me also congratulate you for being the father ofsuch a wonderful footballer as I hand you back to theNFF President

Alhaji Maigari....So sir we are planning to comeand see you.

Chief Effiong....Are you coming alone?Alhaji Maigari...No sir, I am likely to come with one

of the coaches and the chairman of the technical com-mittee of the NFF. In fact if possible with other mem-bers of that committee including Chairman ChristianChukwu, JJ Okocha, Victor Ikpeba, GarbaLawal.......those who have seen it all and are in a po-sition to give wise counsel.......we also have your coun-try man Paul Bassey in that committee

Chief Effiong......Ah Paul Bassey....we are proud ofhim. Tell him I saw him on Tv during the Algeria Burki-na Faso match. He has added weight.....he is chop-ping FIFA money....

Alhaji Maigari....We thought so too but when weconfronted him he said the cold forced him to wear

two jackets that is why he appeared fat...Chief Effiong .....None of you will admit to chop-

ping money until we catch you with oil on your lips.On a serious note, let me know when you will comebecause we must celebrate with a feast

Alhaji Maigari.....Sir, that will not be necessary. Whatwe are coming for is serious, bordering on the futureof your child and of course the sustained sports gloryof this country.

Chief Effiong....My friend we in this part of thiscountry are noted for culinary excellence ask PaulBassey. Do you know what it means to be visited bythe Award winning NFF president? I am not talkingabout all those junk you eat in hotels....I am talkingabout home made buffet that includes afangsoup, edi-kang ikon, white soup with goat meat to go withpounded yam, fresh fish pepper soup........do you eatdog meat?

Alhaji Maigari.....No thanks I don’t like it.Chief Effiong... What is no thanks? How can you

not like what you have not tasted? The day you eatwell prepared dog meat with unripe plantain to bootthat day you will bow.....

Alhaji Maigari...(..laughter)......I pray that day doesnot come ( more laughter) so sir in summary of whatthe Honourable minister said, it is our desire and thewish of all Nigerians that these boys be guided andmonitored for a better tomorrow. Rather than collect aone million that is like a one off...

Chief Effiong....President, forget this onemillion....forget it. I have collected it and have spentit, except you want to refund it...

Alhaji Maigari.....Sir I was saying that rather thancollecting a one off, we will prefer a 500,000 thousandthat will come again and again.....I give you the clas-sic case of Mikel Obi and how two great clubs Man Uand Chelsea were fighting for him. On paper, Man Uwas the better choice, but a lot of other factors weretaken into consideration in counseling him, includ-ing playing regularly and the presence of Africans inthe team that will help him settle down faster, andtoday Mikel is one of the world’s greatest footballerswhose profile rises daily...

Chief Effiong....Alhaji Maigari, I am not dumb, Iappreciate all you are trying to say.....my only con-cern is that you people should consider the interest ofthe parents in all that you do. I could not have invest-ed so much in a child only for you to come and issuea two million naira cheque in his name..

Alhaji Maigari....Sir, again this is a one off. Whatwe are saying here is a stable future. Go to Jos andsee what Mikel has done to his parents andsiblings.....Kanu, Okocha, Finidi George, ObafemiMartins. With the benefit of proper counseling andgood upbringing, even the sky will not be his limit....Chief Effiong...Anyway, money is like a spirit. If youdon’t have, no problem, but the moment it enters yourhand you feel like taking a big bottle of stout withevery meal. Besides this agent looked quite honestand serious...

Alhaji Maigari.....Sir we are not saying all agentsare bad. By the time we know who you are dealingwith, he may just be someone we can trust.

Chief Effiong....Ok till you come. You people mustbring something for me and my wifeoooooo. You arebusy chopping CAF and FIFA money

Alhaji Maigari....( laughter )Have I also addedweight? You must be a very interesting person.

Chief Effiong....See let me tell you, did you seethat first goal my son scored? That was me in my youth.All I needed from my team mates was for them to putthe ball in my left leg and off I went. My nick namewas okokobioko.......

Alhaji Maigari ( prolonged laughter....)See you next week.

Vanguard, MONDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2013 — 53

THE Chairman of theNational Academi-

cals School Sports Com-mittee (NASCOM), YemiIdowu has lauded thecontribution of KwaraState in ensuring that theSterling Bank-sponsored6th National SchoolSports Festival (NSSF)holds.

Idowu said the level ofsupport accorded the or-ganisers coupled with thefacilities in place remainsa big surprise to him

NASCOM hails Kwara over national school sports fiesta“Kwara state is one of

the biggest surprises forme. Having a one-stopfacility of this nature madeit easy for us. Indoorsports halls, wonderfulpitches and they evenhave a Cricket pitch here.Akwa Ibom State disap-pointed us and we tooksolace in Kwara andthere’s this revelationthat lots of things are hap-pening outside Lagos.

Idowu said every one ina way is involved insports, adding that thefact one does not win amedal when running tocatch a bus does not makethe person less an athlete.

“Some of us have beenprivilege to have a back-ground of structuredsports. NASCOM is par-ticularly interested inschool sports and chil-dren below 17. Once a

child is 18, 19, there’s re-ally not much progres-sion. When you take achild of nine years, youcan manage theirprogress as they gradu-ate into the elite sports.

“You get the joy on see-ing how that child re-sponds to training or in-structions, the behaviourof the child and how thecharacter evolves andthat gives me a lot of sat-

isfaction and that is whyI am particularly involvedwith grass root sports. We will grow out theproblem of sports in Ni-geria. Instead of worringover what is happening,let’s start an agenda togrow out the problem andthats what school sportsrepresents. Focus on thechildren for the future,pay attention to the chil-

dren and the problemswill grow out naturally.

•Yemi Idowu

Without consulting me as the father, youwent and wrote the two million nairacheque in his name. Do you know howmuch we spend every time he plays?You went and wrote a two million nairacheque in the name of a 16 year old? Iwant to return the cheque so that youcan reissue it in my name

54 — Vanguard, MONDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Continues from BP

ria Football Federation(NFF) to invest in the ex-cellent performance ofthe Super Eagles chiefcoach, Stephen Keshi,who has showed his greatcoaching potential to theworld.

Adamu noted that thefootball federation shouldnot listen to calls, at anypoint in time, for it to em-ploy a foreign technicaladviser ahead of the 2014FIFA World Cup.

He said in a press state-ment signed by his Me-dia Assistant, Dapo So-tuminu, that, the NFFshould ensure Keshi getsthe right exposure andknowledge of a worldclass coach by sendinghim to internationalcoaching seminars, work-shops and trainingswhich other great footballcoaches across the globewould attend while pre-paring for the Brazil 2014World Cup.

“We should be proud ofKeshi and I am sure the

AdamuNFF has great respect forhim for helping to bringback the glory days ofNigerian football. Today,the Eagles can face anyteam in the world with-out fear of being mauled.The last Eagles’ friendlyagainst Italy tells it all”.He added: “Keshi shouldbe celebrated as the firstNigerian coach to win theNations Cup, play FIFAConfederation Cup andqualify the Eagles to theWorld Cup.

“Already, he is a refer-ence point in African foot-ball having helped Togoto play in their first everFIFA World Cup in 2006.He is also the only livingAfrican to win the NationsCup as a player and acoach.

“Keshi is our own andhe should be celebrated,”Adamu said.

The former CAF andFIFA Executive Commit-tee member also congrat-ulated the NFF president,Alhaji Aminu Maigariand the Super Eaglesteam for picking the tick-et to the 2014 World Cup.

Ikpeba

Beaten 1-0 by Sunder-land in their last outingprior to the internationalbreak, City did not lookback after Jesus Navasgave them the lead afteronly 14 seconds.

The Spanish wingerdeftly lobbed Spurs goal-keeper Hugo Lloris afterthe Frenchman had gift-ed the ball to SergioAguero with a loose kick,and an own goal fromSandro in the 34th minutemade it 2-0.

Aguero claimed a braceeither side of half-time,

City

Continues from BP

ruled them out, insistingthat they must passthrough the Under 20 andpossibly the Olympic teambefore they can qualify toplay for the senior team. Helater changed his mind,saying a chance could begiven to any one that mer-its a place in the Eagles.

All the members of theEaglets team that won theFIFA U-17 World Cup weredrawn from academies un-like before when some werefished from some clubs.This is why many Nigeri-ans dub the team theyoungest Nigeria have pa-raded in recent years.

They played with passionand their flair thrilled theworld.

“It will be good to give

them a chance to play forthe senior team but theycannot play for the nation-al team as academy play-ers,” Ikpeba said at theweekend, adding, “ theyhave to develop and gainclub football experience. Itis vital for development . Iexpect the players to be en-gaged by the clubs andthose doing well in theirclubs can be given achance. That should be thecondition. I was with themfor two weeks in UAE andI can tell you that they aregood players. But theyneed club football experi-ence to play for the nation-al team. That’s what willkeep them fit and competi-tive.”

Ikpeba is a product ofyouth football. He was inthe 1989 squad in Scotland.

tucking away centresfrom Navas and YayaToure, to take his tally ofgoals to 14 in his last 11appearances.

Alvaro Negredo addeda fifth in the 55th minute,flummoxing MichaelDawson with an auda-cious turn and lashing aleft-foot shot past Lloris,before Navas completedthe rout in injury time.

Victory preservedCity’s 100 percent homerecord in the league thisseason and having anni-hilated Norwich City 7-0in their last fixture at theEtihad, they have nowscored 13 goals in theirlast two home games.

Continues from BP

BY EMMA UNA

IN Keeping with itsrecord of producing

new winners each year,Abebe Dinkesa of Ethio-pia, the 2012 Obudu In-ternational MountainRace winner was dis-placed to second place by another Kenyan,Rono Philemon whileUgandan Godfrey Kusu-ru came third.

Rono Philemon won the11 kilometre race in 1hour, 43 seconds, AbebeDinkesa braced the tapeat a time of 1 hour, 57 sec-onds while third placewinner, Godfrey Ronotouched the finish line atthe time of I hour, 2 min-utes and 8 seconds.

The Ethiopians sweptthe female race, with 22-year-old Jenet Yellew

Obudu: Kenyans sweep the stakesmaking the distance atthe time of 58 minutes, 55seconds, Selem Aherecame second returning atime of 59 minutes, 48seconds and Berha Aferecoming third at the timeof 1 hour, two seconds.

The First Nigerian maleto brace the tape was Cle-tus Eyo while the first Ni-gerian female to brace thetape was Deborah Pamfrom Plateau State to carthome the, 2,000 USDeach respectively, thetop prize money ear-marked for the first maleand female Nigerians tobrace the tape.

The first prizes for bothmale and female athletesare the sum of 50,000USD dollars, 20,000 USDfor the second place win-ners and 9,000 USD forthird place winners. •Abebe Dinkesa of Ethiopia placed second in the race.

WITH barely 48hours to the award

ceremony of the secondedition of the NigerianSports Award, dignitariesand top shots in the Ni-gerian Sports circuit havebeen confirming their at-tendance for the event.President of the NigerianFootball Federation, AlhajiAminu Maigari who is anominee for the SportsAdministrator of the yearaward, alongside ChiefSolomon Ogba, President,Athletics Federation ofNigeria (AFN) and theChairman of Delta StateSports Commission, Mr.Amaju Pinnick are amongthose that have confirmedthey would be present atthe event.

The Director General ofthe National Sports Com-mission (NSC), Honour-able Gbenga Elegbeleyeand the Honourable Min-ister of Sports, MallamBolaji Abdullahi are alsoexpected to be at the

Nigerian Sports Award: Keshi, Maigariconfirm attendance

event.The organisers have re-

ceived a major boost fromAmstel Malta – a leadinglow sugar malt drinkbrand in Nigeria.

Speaking on the devel-opment, the General

Manager, Unmissable In-centives Limited, the or-ganises of the award Mr.Kayode Idowu describedthe coming on board of theleading malt drink brandas a major boost for theaward.

Idowu declared that thebroadcast support dealwith Amstel Malta wasbrokered by the MitchellObi and Ejiro Omonodeled MasterSports Interna-tional, the technical part-ner for the NigerianSports Award.

MOLADE Okoya-Thomas Hall of

Teslim Balogun Stadiumwill on Monday Novem-ber 25 comes alive asplayers commence hos-tilities at the 45th editionof the yearly Asoju ObaCup table tennis cham-pionship, which beginswith two cars at stake.

19 events includingpara table tennis eventwill be competed for atthe Africa’s oldest tabletennis tournament. According to the spon-sor of the tournament,Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas, this year ’s

Race for cars begins at 45th Asoju Oba Cuppromises to be glamor-ous as two brand newChevrolet cars would bewon by the men andwomen singles champi-ons.

He, however, used theoccasion to emphasisethe need for Nigeria toregain its lost glory intable tennis. “I have saidmany times during thepress conferences of theannual Asoju Oba com-

petition, that if Nigeriamust regain its lost glo-ry, not only in table ten-nis but sports in gener-al, we must go back tograssroots development.I must commend thegrassroots developmentembarked on by the La-gos State governmentsome years ago. It is notonly a great step in theright direction, but haseven yielded great divi-dends,” he said.

NIGERIA’s weightlifting team to the

Commonwealth weight-lifting championshipholding in Penang, Ma-laysia arrived the Asiancountry on Saturday twodays before the com-mencement of action to-day.

A board member of Ni-geria Weightlifting Feder-ation (NWF) LawrenceIquaibom who led theteam out of the countrysaid the 22-man contin-gent arrived Kuala Lum-pur Saturday morningand headed straight tothe coastal city of Penang,venue of the champion-ship.

“We arrived Kuala Lum-pur in the morning andflew thereafter to thecoastal city of Penangwhere the championship

Nigerian lifters arrive Malaysia

is holding. We have set-tled down and quiteready for the competitionwhich begins on Monday(today)” Iquaibom toldNWF official website yes-terday.

According to the ex-in-ternational who won sil-ver medal for Nigeria atthe Brisbane 82 Com-monwealth games, the 14lifters in the team are inhigh spirits and deter-mined to do the countryproud.

“The lifters are in highspirits and ready for thecompetition. The liftersare happy with the levelof support they are enjoy-ing from the president ofNigeria WeightliftingFederation (NWF) Hon.Chibudom Nwuche andfrom the leadership of theNational Sports Commis-sion (NSC).

Vanguard, MONDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2013 — 55

Delta set for NFF AGMTHE Delta State Football

Association has put thenecessary logistics in placeto host a successfulAnnual General Assemblyof the Nigeria FootballFederation in Warri, comeThursday, 28th November.According to a pressstatement by the SecretaryGeneral of the Delta FA,Friday Onothoja,delegates to the AGAmade up of state footballassociation chairmen andsecretaries from the 36states, including the FCTAbuja, are expected toarrive warri on Wednesday27th November.

Onothoja disclosed thatthe Brownhill EventsCentre, venue of the AGAis set for the ceremony,which is the highest andbiggest congregation offootball stakeholders in thecountry. As part of the AGAprogramme, there will bea charity cup match at theWarri City Stadiumbetween Kano Pillars Fc,current premier leaguechampions and EnyimbaFc, the Federations Cupchampions. The FA scribe

also disclosed that a galanight will hold at theBrownhill events centre,where the Governor, HisExcellency, Dr. EmmanuelEweta Uduaghan, CON isexpected to be given asports award.

Early in the day, theDeputy Governor, Prof.Amos Utuama, SAN willdeclare the AGA open. Alsoto attend the openingceremony is the Speaker,Delta State House of

Assembly, Rt. Hon.VictorOchei and members,House Committee onSports. The delta FA,through the scribe,Onothoja, has expressedappreciation to the Deltastate government, forgraciously accepting to hostthe 2013 edition of the AGAof the NFF, coming at timewhen Nigerians at homeand abroad are celebratingthe successes of ournational teams.

•Alhaji Aminu Maigari

CMYK

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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

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YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS

VANGUARD,VANGUARD,VANGUARD,VANGUARD,VANGUARD, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Across1 Gust (6)5 Oppressive (6)8 Catastrophe (8)9 Tidy (4)10 Network (3)12 Pulverise (5)15 Clique (3)17 Meadow (3)18 Vase (3)19 Fuss (3)20 Converge (5)21 Tavern (3)22 Rotten (3)23 Young goat (3)24 Owned (3)26 Premature (5)29 Sheep (3)33 Certain (4)34 Aristocracy (8)35 Reveal (6)36 Hate (6)

Down2 Wholly (5)3 Out (4)4 Afterwards (5)5 Temptress (5)6 Arm-bone (4)7 Chip (5)10 Anger (5)11 Gore (5)12 Blunder (5)13 Risk (5)14 Swarthy (5)15 Malicious (5)16 Tint (5)25 Sky-blue (5)27 Vex (5)28 Tag (5)30 Sorceress (5)31 Kit (4)32 Excuse (4)

QUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORD

Across: 1, Whim 4, Map 6, Pain 8, Fuhrer9, Notify 10, Shy 12, Edict 14, Chide 15,Leash 18, Ordeal 20, Insult 24, Break 26,Actor 28, Pithy 30, Bed 32, Mingle 33,Refund 34, Heat 35, Mob 36, Leck.

Down: 2, Hound 3, Miracle 4, Mars 5,Puny 6, Pitch 7, Infidel 11, Has 12, Ego13, Tea 16, Alb 17, Hie 19, Receive 21,Nap 22, Skilful 23, Toy 25, Rye 27, Ought29, Hence 30, Beam 31, Drab

EPLCardiff 2 Man Utd 2Man City 6 Spurs 0

SERIE ALivorno 0 Juventus 2Sampdoria 1 Laazio 1Sassuolo 2 Atalanta 0Torino 4 Catania 1Udinese 1 Fiorentina 0

LA LIGALevante 0 Villarreal 3Vallecano 1 Espanyol 4

BUNDESLIGAHamburg 3 Hannover 1

LIGUE ILille 1 Toulouse 0Nice 0 Etinnne 1

Results

Conditions for Eagletsto join Eagles — Ikpeba

Ike Uche scores a brace

City crush Spurs 6-0

Adamu: NFFshould investin Keshi

Continues on Page 54

BY ONOCHIEANIBEZE

E X - I N T E R N A -TIONAL and one

time Africa’s Footballer OfThe Year, Victor Ikpebahas backed StephenKeshi’s decision to givemembers of the GoldenEaglets a chance to playfor the Super Eagles butsays that “any such play-er must be playing clubfootball.”

Keshi had, before now

THE former Director-General of the Na-

tional Sports Commission(NSC), Dr Amos Adamu,has called on the NigeContinues on Page 54

BLOODY........Manny Pacquiao(right0 dodges a punch thrown by a bleeding Brandon Rios during their title fight onSunday morning. Pacquiao won the bout 120-108, 119-109 and 118-110 and collected the WBO international welter-weight belt. The former eight-division champion dominated the bout from the opening seconds until the end. Heimproved his record to 55-5-2, with 38 wins inside the distance, while Rios’ record dropped to 31-2-1, with 23knockouts.

Continues on Page 54

MANCHESTERCity swept back

into contention for thePremier League title af-ter humiliating title rivalsTottenham Hotspur 6-0 atthe Etihad Stadium onSunday.

IKE Uche made astrong case for an Ea-

gles recall after he scoredtwice for Villarreal againstLevante in the Spanish LaLiga.

Uche, who has notplayed for Nigeria sincethe Africa Cup of Nationsin February, was on targetin 74th and 89th minutesfor Villarreal’s second andthird goals on Sunday.

He has now scored sixgoals in 11 games and Vil-larreal are fourth on theleague table with 27 points

from 14 games.Nigeria coach Stephen

Keshi has said he hasoverlooked the striker be-cause they does not playfor the team.

In Belgium, former Ni-geria youth internationalMichael Uchebo was ontarget for Cercle Brugge ina 4-2 home loss to Lierse.

The former Enugu Rang-ers striker scored in the80th minute to take thegame to 2-2. He has nowscored four goals in theleague this term.