...towards a better life for the people

N150VOL. 25: NO. 61810

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013**

Mr & Mrs

Nigeria sacksCote d'Ivoire•Jonathan, Mark, PDP hail Eagles' victory•NASS 'll reward Eagles — Mark

SHOOTING TO SEMI-FINAL—Nigeria's forward Sunday Mba, second goal scorer,kicks the ball during the African Cup of Nations 2013 quarter final football match against Ivory Coast,yesterday in Rustenburg, South Africa. Photo: AFP.

AU REVOIR!

BY TONY UBANI,HENRY UMORU &

EMMAN OVUAKPO-RIE

Continues on page 5

LAGOS —IMAGINEthis line up and

their status in world foot-ball: Barry; Eboue,Zokora, Bamba,Tiene,Tiote, Romaric,Toure, Gervinho; Kalou,Drogba.

Many favoured themand predicted they wouldoverrun the line up be-low: Enyeama; Echiejile,Omeruo, Oboabona,Ambrose; Mba, Onanzi,Mikel, Moses; Ideye,Emenike.

But shortly after beat-ing Ethiopia for the

Presidencyto returnbudget2013 toNASS •P.8

—P.8

Obasanjo,Jonathanworshipat AsoVillachapel

•P.7

OgunPoliceuncoverritualists'den

Sweetcrude

IN this month’s,Sweetcrude, read

about how some oil ma-jors denied Nigeriansof benefiting from the$30.82 billion or aboutN5 trillion in dividendpayouts in 2012, follow-ing their refusal to en-list on the NigerianStock Exchange.

Market experts speakon the share listing, anda PIB committee mem-ber explains all the huesand cry over the fiscalterms proposed in thePIB.

—See inside

CMYK

Burkina Faso 1Togo 0

AFCON RESULT

2 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 — 3

4 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

CMYK

POCKET CARTOON

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4 , 2013—5

LIFEWORDSBY PASTOR ITUAH

Continues from page 1

Nigeria sacks Cote d'Ivoire

The protection of God is critical in achieving yourdesired goals. Ask for it and you will receive it.

IF you don’t have anything good to say aboutsomeone then you don’t know them well

enough to say anything bad — David Dayton

Richard Templar in his writings concludes that, itis very easy to moan, to complain, and to criticise.It is much harder to always find something nice tosay about a situation or a person. But think of itnow as a huge challenge. Saying something niceis hard because our natural inclination is to moan.No matter how a person is, there is always some-thing about them that is good. Your job is to findthe good and highlight it.

Obviously, if you are going to say good things,then refrain from back-biting, gossiping, tellingtales complaining and being rude to people.

Try to find a new rule everyday or at least occa-sionally. It’s one of those things that will amazeyou on how you’re improving, you don’t have totake this statement literally, try it for yourself andsee the difference in you.

MOMENT OF JOY—Nigeria's Emmanuel Emenike, (C) being congratulated by team mates afterscoring the first goal in the match against Ivory Coast, yesterday. Photo: AFP

quarter final tieagainst star studdedIvory Coast, StephenKeshi said his teamwould adopt a differentmentality, different tac-tical approach and hope-fully would win thematch.

His words came topass, yesterday whenthe Eagles proved thatthey could be superagain.

A team that had diffi-culties with ball posses-sion, controlled the ball,kept their heads, lookedfor space and used itwell.

A team that passedmost of their balls back,

found the need to go for-ward. A team thatplayed poor free kicks,changed yesterday. Ateam that one couldn’tvouch for defensively,stood firm. And that wasthe story of Nigeria inthe quarter final againstIvory Coast, yesterday.They won 2-1 and willnow play Mali in thesemifinal on Wednes-day.

“There are a lot of pos-sibilities in this team andwe just want to keep onprogressing,” Keshi saidin the post match pressconference, yesterday.He commended theplayers and said thatthey reminded him of hisdays in the Eagles

“when we fought andfought and fought.”

Eagles fought hardyesterday. Early in thegame they showed signsof what was to come.

On the 10th minuteVictor Moses rifled afierce strike from 25yards towards goal tosting the palms ofIvorian keeper BoubacarBarry. The ball dippedand swerved but Barrydid enough to preventNigeria from taking thelead. On the 28th minuteanother huge chancewent begging for Ni-geria. Ivory Coast care-lessly lost possession inmidfield to allow IdeyeBrown to burst forward.He picked his moment toslip in EmmanuelEmenike, but he lost allcomposure to blast woe-fully high over the cross-bar.

The game

The dubious honour ofthe match’s first bookingwent to Nigeria’sOgenyi Onazi whohacked down SalomonKalou from behind togive away a free-kick ina dangerous position.But he was better thanFegor Ogude whomissed the match oncard offences. Thosewho followed his awfulplay would be thankfulfor the cards that madecoach Keshi call in a bet-ter player. With SundayMba, Mikel Obi andAmbrose Efe effectivelyoverlapping from theright back and Victor

Moses outwitting theopponents, the Eagleshad the flair they hadlacked since the compe-tition started. The resultcame in the 42nd minute.What a strike it was. Vic-tor Moses rolled a freekick to EmmanuelEmenike. He smasheda thunderous shot pastIvorian keeper BoubacarBarry. It was about 25yards away. Simply su-perb.

Emenike gave the Su-per Eagles a 1-0 leadwith the super strike. Ni-gerians in the stadiumwent wild in celebration.

On the balance of play,Nigeria certainly de-served their lead. TheSuper Eagles playedwith more energy andfreedom than their moreexperienced Ivory Coastopponents. The El-ephants looked prettylaborious but it changedin the early minutes ofthe second half.

Didier Drogba isknown for his falls.Sometimes he falls whenair blows past him. Itwas his trade markshortly after joiningChelsea. English presstook on him and hechanged a little bit. Af-rican referees are yet tomaster his tricks. TheAlgerian referee whowas fair in his officiating,yesterday, fell for histrick when he earned anundeserved free kickwhich Cheick Tioteheaded home. FourIvoriens attacked thesecond post of the Ea-gles and they were un-

marked. Not good forAlderton Echiejile. Tiotescored his first goal forhis country in the 50th

minute.Thereafter, Ivory Coast

appeared to be poweringtheir way back but mo-ments later, Victor Mo-ses continued his runswhich were a constantthorn in the Ivoriens’side. In one moment hetwisted and turned pastleft-back Siaka Tiene toengineer space to cross.It was far too strong forEmmanuel Emenike butthe move rattled theIvoriens and probablyincreased the confidenceof the Eagles.

Ideye Brown was alsoa menace for Ivory Coastwith his aerial prowess.But he wasted anotherfantastic opportunitywhen he was left un-marked at the far post.

Then the moment ofmagic came. It was agoal worthy of winningany match. And it did forNigeria in the 78th

minute. Sunday Mba ofWarri Wolves whomRangers now claim istheir player, created achance with his drib-bling, ran into the goalarea and spun the ballpast Elephants’ keeperBarry in a splendid waythat won him the man ofthe match. It was a clini-cal finish that sent Nige-rians into a party moodtill this morning.

Jonathan laudsEagles

On his Facebook, yes-terday, PresidentGoodluck Jonathan, re-acting to the victory,wrote: “The Super Ea-gles played well in theirmatch against Côted’Ivoire. I am veryproud of our able repre-sentatives at the ongo-ing AFCoN tournament.They showed the trueNigerian spirit. To coachKeshi and the players,we are all behind youand will cheer as yousoar like the great Ea-gles to victory.”

Victory, sign ofgood things tocome — PDP

Meanwhile, the Peo-ples Democratic Party,PDP, has described theSuper Eagles’ victoryover the Elephants ofCote D’ Ivoire as an in-dication that Nigeria willsoon surmount all itschallenges under thepresent dispensation.The PDP in a statementby its National PublicitySecretary, Chief OlisaMetuh, however,charged the team not torelax at this moment butto increase their zeal asthey meet their next op-ponent in the semi finalstage.

Tambuwal hailsEagles victory

Meantime, Speaker ofthe House of Repre-sentatives, Hon AminuTambuwal has congratu-lated Super Eagles ontheir victory yesterday.

Tambuwal in a state-ment by his Special Ad-viser on Media, MallamImam Imam particularlypaid tribute to the fight-ing spirit exhibited bythe Eagles.He said the outcome ofthe match has demon-strated that if Nigerianscan work together theywill overcome all thechallenges facing thecountry.

NASS willreward Super

Eagles — Mark

Also Senate PresidentDavid Mark, yesterday,promised that the Na-tional Assembly will re-ward the Super Eaglesfor defeating the El-ephants of Cote d’Ivoireand pushing Nigeria tothe Semi- final position.He however, thankedthe team for emerging

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013—7

Robbers, kidnappers on therampage in Delta

Two policemen, woman killedOru, PDP vice-chairman shotKidnap attempt on Oru, Elumelu foiledBandits attack Navy CommanderThree-year-old child vanishesWe’re hunting for the perpetrators — CP

UGHELLI — IT was agruesome weekend in

Delta State as suspectedkidnappers and bandits shotdead three persons, two policeofficers and a woman, woundeda police and naval officers andseized a Navy Commander.

Two chieftains of the PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP, nationalvice chair, South-South, Dr. SteveOru and member, House ofRepresentatives, Hon. NdudiElumelu, reportedly ambushedby kidnappers, miraculouslyescaped being kidnapped.

However, Oru, who was shotby the hostage-takers, iscurrently hospitalised.

Governor EmmanuelUduaghan of Delta State wassaid to have intervened andordered the security agencies tofish the criminals. He hasreviewed the security measuresput in place by government andis reportedly coming up with anew strategy in the next fewweeks to keep his security andpeace agenda aflame.

The State Police Commissioner,Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba,confirmed the attacks in atelephone interview withVanguard, saying the policehave launched a manhunt for thecriminals.

He did not give details, butsaid: “It was unfortunate, thepolice, both junior and seniorofficers, are looking for them. Youknow, the governor of the state,Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, gaveus more vehicles and we have aspecial security patrol teamworking round the clock. We willget them.”

Kidnappers bundle NavyCommander

However, Vanguard wasinformed that Navy CommanderI. Mohammed, who is based inLagos, was attacked betweenUghelli and Patani on his wayfrom Warri to Port-Harcourt, alongthe East-West Road by a seven-man robbery gang.

A source said NavyCommander Mohammed tried tomake a nippy u-turn when hesighted the heavily armedbandits, operating near Oru

Filling Station at about 3.00 p.m,Saturday, but the hoodlums, whohad positioned themselvesstrategically, trapped him andopened gunfire on his vehicle.

It was learnt that the N.5 millioncash which was in the possessionof the Navy Commander andGSM phones were stolen by thebandits.

Reports said his car, riddledwith bullets, was abandoned bythe bandits, who bundled himinto an SUV they used for theoperation and turned in thedirection of Warri, but apparentlyunsatisfied with their loot, theydiverted to Agbarho.

His orderly was allegedly shoton the chest region and was saidto be in critical state. His actualcondition could not bedetermined at press time.

PDP vice chair shot,orderly killed

The bandits, Vanguardgathered, laid siege tounsuspecting travellers betweenOrhokpokpor-Agbarho andUwiamughe-Agbarho on theEast-West road at about 2.00 pm.

According to a dependablesource, the armed robbersattacked vehicles from both endsof the road, dispossessing theirvictims of their valuables.

The source, who pleadedanonymity, said an unidentifiedwoman was also shot dead by thedare devil robbers, as sheattempted to escape into thebush, adding that the policeorderly of Dr Steve Oru, simplyidentified as Ofor was also killedwhen he attemptede to engagethe bandits in a shootout.

Speaking further, the sourcesaid: “Dr Steve Oru was shot onhis back as he was trying to runinto the bush. Many others alsosustained bullet injuries as thearmed robbers shot sporadically.

“As I speak with you, GovernorUduaghan is very concernedabout the health condition of Oruand has directed that he betransferred to a more competenthospital (name withheld) forproper medical attention.”

Bandits lay siege toElumelu

Similarly, the police aide to Hon

Ndudi Elumelu was also killedbetween Orhia-Abraka and Eku,by suspected armed bandits whoalso laid siege to the Eku/Abrakaroad at about 1.00 pm onSaturday.

A reliable source saidsuspected robbers, who openedfire, attacked the convoy ofElumelu but the lawmakernarrowly escaped death.

Police orderlies killed

Commissioner Aduba toldVanguard that the suspectedkidnappers had wanted tokidnap Oru and Elumelu, but theplot failed, as their aides foughtgallantly but were killed in theensuing battle.

He confirmed that a policemanlost his life in the attack onElumelu's convoy, while in theOru incident, a policeman waskilled and another injured.

Police finger Kelvin, mostwanted kidnap suspect

He fingered a notorious kidnapsuspect, Kelvin, who had beendeclared wanted by the police asbeing responsible for the spateof kidnap and robbery attacks inthe state.

The Commissioner said somepeople in Kokori appeared to beshielding Kelvin from the police,as they were not giving thepolice useful information on hisactivities and whereabouts.

Aduba said the police in thestate would give out N2.5 millionsoon to informants at Abraka,Warri, Asaba and other parts ofthe state, who gave theinformation that led to thebursting of some kidnap andarmed robbery gangs andcommended Gov. Uduaghan forthe assistance.

Increased patrol

Vanguard observed, yesterday(Sunday) that the special securitypatrol introduced this year by thestate government had intensifiedsecurity checks in the state.

A combined team of securitypersonnel has taken over the Eku/Abraka road with a view totracking down the suspectedhoodlums.

At Sapele end of the Warri-

Benin road, yesterday, a heavypresence of the special securitypatrol team was seen byVanguard, while the Deltasegment of the road and Warri-Eku road have been underconcentrated patrol by soldiers,drawn mainly from the 3Battalion, Effurun, Delta State,headed by Lt Col Ifeanyi Otu.

Three-year-old pupilabducted

Meawhile, a pupil, AkachukwuAbatam, was allegedly abducted,Saturday, at about 2.00 p.m byunknown persons.He was saidto be returning from his school,Green Height InternationalSchool.

PPRO, Mr. Ajieh, whoconfirmed the incident, saidAkachukwu’s teacher was beingquizzed over the matter.

Corps member killed

A National Youth ServiceCorps, NYSC, member,identified as Akrigbe, was alsoshot dead on Saturday bysuspected robbers, along Bomadiroad in the state.

The incident occurred at about11.00 am around Ode Bridge.The corps member was travellingin an 18-seater Delta mass transitbus heading to Bomadi whentragedy struck.

In another robbery incident atOleh on Saturday, robbersraided a boutique at Old EmedeRoad, but the police mobilizedand in a gun battle, one of thebandits was killed, while othersfled.

Ajieh told Vanguard that on acloser look, the police found outthat the deceased robber “was awanted person who snatched aToyota Camry from a woman atCampus gate sometime inOctober 2012.”

His words: “The police arecombing the area for possiblearrest of the fleeing gangmembers.”

BY EMMA AMAIZE,AUSTIN OGWUDA, EMMAARUBI & FESTUS AHON

Some suspected prostitutes arrested in Lagos recently: "Rapport between us and policemen is very cordial."

Police officer kills colleague at drinking jointBY DAYO JOHNSON

AKURE —AN AssistantSuperintendent of Police

(ASP) Kazeem Shehu,attached to the AjagbaDivisional Police Station inAjagba town, Irele LocalGovernment Area of OndoState has shot dead his closefriend also a policeman,Inspector Adelakun Lawal,over an argument at a beerparlour.

Vanguard gathered that theunfortunate incidentoccurred, weekend, in Ondotown area of Ondo State.

The shot police officer wasattached to Yaba DivisionalPolice Station before he met

his untimely death in thehands of his colleague.

The state Police Commandimage-maker Wole Ogodoconfirmed the killing of the

deceased by his colleague.Ogodo who said the suspect

was in detention, pointed outthat investigation into incidentwas ongoing. He said thesuspect would face the fullwrath of the law afterinvestigation into the incident.

Eyewitness account said thetwo friends went to arelaxation centre at EjankoleStreet in Okerowo area inOndo town at about 5 pm fora drink. It was later learnt thatan argument ensued betweenthem and this snowballed intoa hot argument and altercationwhile all efforts by others atthe centre to call them to orderwas rebuffed.

The suspect, it was learnt,

after the hot argument report-edly drew out a pistol whichwas hidden in his pocket andshot his friend at a close range.

The sound of the gunshotattracted others in therelaxation centre who rushedthe victim to the state SpecialistHospital in Ondo town.

Sensing the gravity of whathe has done, the suspect in anattempt to flee from the areawas apprehended by thosepresent at the relaxation joint.

Meanwhile, the corpse of theslain policeman has beendeposited at the morgue of theOndo State SpecialistHospital.

ASP Kazeem Shehu, thesuspected killer.

Mother of 4 arrested for allegedly killing hubbyAs Police foil bank robbery in LagosBY EVELYN USMAN &

BOSE ADELAJA

LAGOS — A MOTHER offour has been arrested by the

Police in Lagos for allegedlykilling her husband during abrawl over food, weekend, inIkorodu area of Lagos.

Vanguard gathered that thesuspect, Mrs Folake Adekoya-Ojo, was arrested followingreports by her late husband’srelative,one Olaoye, whosuspected she had a hand intheir brother’s death,followingwhich she was invited bypolicemen at Shagamu RoadDivision.

The widow was said to have toldpolicemen that her 37-year-oldhusband committed suicide byhanging himself on the ceilingfan, last Friday,while her in-lawsinsisted that their late brother washacked to death.

Consequently, policemen fromthe division were deployed bythe Divisional Police Officer toinspect the late Emmanuel’s

corpse where it was discoveredto have a deep cut in the head.

On further interrogation, thewidow reportedly admitted tohave hit her husband with a stoneduring a scuffle.

The widow explained that herhusband came home at about11p.m. that fateful nightdemanding for food. She said sheserved him amala and okro soup,only for him to complain that itwas not properly served. Ratherthan doing his bid, the widowreportedly ate the meal, an actionshe said infuriated her husband.This, as gathered, generated intoa fight during which she claimedshe hit him with a stone on thehead in defence.

Mr Emmanuel, reportedly gaveup the ghost at about 2.30 a.m.

Police foil bank robbery

Meantime, armed banditsnumbering over 10, weekend,engaged policemen from theShagamu road division in a gunbattle that lasted over 30 minutes

during an attempt to rob a sec-ond generation bank at theOdogunyan branch.

The gunmen, as gathered,stormed the bank at about 3 a.m,in two vehicles which theyparked poles away from theirtarget.

They were said to have gainedentry into the bank’s premisesand succeeded in breaking thedoor leading to the threeAutomated Teller Machines,ATMs.

Just then, police sources at theLagos State Police Command saidoperatives from the Shagamuroad, who got wind of the robberspresence, stormed the bank in twoArmoured Personnel Carriers and20 patrol vehicles.

On sighting the policemen, ledby the Divisional Police Officer,Mr Bernard Odiagbonya, aSuperintendent of Police (SP), therobbers said to have been armedwith sophisticated weapons,opened fire on them. But theywere reportedly overwhelmed bythe number of policemen.

Ogun Police uncover under-ground ritualists' den

Arrest three suspects

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

ABEOKUTA — THE Ogun State PoliceCommand, yesterday, said it had

arrested three suspected ritualists anduncovered another ritualists' undergroundden in Idode-Imomo, Ijebu North-East LocalGovernment Area of Ogun State.

The state Police Public Relations Officer,Muyiwa Adejobi, who stated this said thecommand had begun an investigation intothe matter.

According to him, the suspects, KehindeRufai,Debo Awonaya and one David, are

cooling their feet inpolice custody.

V a n g u a r dgathered that theplace was locatedbetween Ijebu-Odeand Atan, closed tothe border area ofOyo, Ogun andOndo states.

An eye witnesstold Vanguard,however, that someyouths discoveredthe ritualistsunderground denlocated in a forestafter a 70-year-oldman identified as

Kehinde Rabiu was declared missing.According to the source, residents of the

area were shocked when they saw theunderground den which has stairsunderneath.

The suspected ritualists were reported tohave built a house beside the undergroundin the forest and planted indian hemparound the place.

Speaking on the incident, Chairman ofCommunity Development Association in thearea, Kola Ologbode, described the threesuspects as criminals.

He said the trio had been known for

criminal activi-ties, adding that,he had over-heard them say-ing they werelooking for agedman for a busi-ness.

Also speaking,the village head,D u r o j a y eO l u g b o d e ,begged thegovernment forassistance to getrid of kidnappersin the area.

Entrance of the ritualists underground den.

16-month-old boy stolen fromchurch in Imo

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI — Sixteen-month old Emman-uel Onyekachi Alamanjo has been report-

ed abducted from Saint Mary’s Catholic Ca-thedral Parish, Okigwe, giving the impressionthat hoodlums have again started kidnapping,snatching and stealing toddlers from church-es in Imo State.

Vanguard investigations revealed that thelittle boy was taken to the church for the 10a.mmass by his mother, Mrs. Salome Alamanjo.

It was also gathered that little Emmanuelbecame very uncomfortable with the tempera-ture inside the crowded church and becausehe was crying ceaselessly, his moth-er handed him over to his elder sis-ter to take outside for fresh air.

A lady was said to have offered toassist the little girl who was clutch-ing her younger brother and thereaf-ter tricked her to move to the churchhall where members of the CatholicBiblical Instructors Union, CBIU,were giving children lunch, to col-lect some rice for her brother.

“On her return from the hall, thelittle girl did not see either the ladyor her brother and broke down weep-ing. She relentlessly searched andhoped to find the fleeing lady. Thisgave the baby thief ample opportu-nity to escape,” a woman, who sim-ply identified herself as Ngozi, toldVanguard.

The boy’s father, Mr. Sylvester Ala-manjo, a native of Umuinem, Okig-we and the Administrator of Saint

Mary’s Cathedral, Okigwe, Rev. Fr. Grego-ry Osuji, confirmed the ugly incident.

“It is most shocking that people can dareGod so brazenly. The missing boy was bap-tized on August 12, 2011 and his date of birthwas given as August 1, 2011,” Rev. Fr. Osujisaid.

He passionately appealed to the public tocome forward with any information that wouldlead to the recovery of the little boy soonest.

“Anybody with useful information on themissing boy can call 08062423712, report tothe nearest police station or any Catholicpriest,” Rev. Fr. Osuji pleaded.

8—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Obasanjoworships withJonathan atPresidentialVilla Chapel

BY BEN AGANDE

BY SONI DANIEL, RE-GIONAL EDITOR, NORTH

& HENRY UMORU

From left: Lazarus Angbazo, President and CEO GE Nigeria; Jay Ireland, President andCEO GE Africa; Jeff Immelt, Global Chairman and CEO GE; Aliko Dangote, President Dan-gote Group during signing of agreement between Dangote Group and General Electric inLagos.

Presidency threatens to return2013 budget to N-Assembly

...gives conditions for assent

ABUJA—AFTER many meetings between the National

Assembly and the Presidency onthe 2013 budget, there were in-dications yesterday that the Pres-idency might throw back the ap-propriation bill at the legislature.

The Presidency is unhappywith the final packaging of thebudget, which saw an inexplica-ble ‘padding’ of N63 billion by thelawmakers and zero allocation tothe Securities and ExchangeCommission, SEC, over irrecon-cilable differences with its Direc-tor General, Arunma Oteh.

Jonathan had sent a proposalof N4.92 trillion to the NationalAssembly in October 2012 butwhen the lawmakers passed thebudget in December 20, 2012,they jerked up the figure toN4.987 trillion.

They are insisting that Jonath-an must first sack Oteh in line withtheir resolution before anyamount is appropriated for thecommission.

But Jonathan, who is reportedto be in support of the embattledDG, is not in the mood to wieldthe big stick against her.

Another sour point, which hasreportedly irked PresidentJonathan and drawn his signa-ture away from the document, isthe controversy over oil bench-mark, which the Presidencypegged at $75 per barrel in hissubmission to the National As-sembly.

However, before agreeing topass the bill, the lawmakers fixedthe benchmark at $79 per barrel,saying that the bright oil outlookhad made it possible for the bench-mark to be reviewed upwards.

$75 per barrel oilbenchmark

The Presidency, it was reliablygathered, had in the several meet-ings with the legislature drawnits attention to the three vexatiousissues and asked them to reworkthe budget for him to sign.

The President is said to haveasked the lawmakers to revert theoil benchmark to his original sub-mission of $75 per barrel, approvea commensurate budget for SECand remove the additional N63billion inserted by them into thebudget before he appends his sig-nature to the document.

However, it was gathered thatthe lawmakers are also unwillingto shift their grounds on any ofthe three contentious items.

Arising from the stalemate, thePresident has refused to assentto the bill, over a month after thelawmakers had passed it into lawand dispatched the document tothe Villa.

But the Special Adviser to thePresident on National AssemblyMatters, Senator Joy Emordi, saidshe was neither aware of anybudget row nor threat by the Pres-idency to return the budget to theNational Assembly.

Emordi did not, however, say

why the President had withheldhis assent to the appropriation billalmost two months after the pas-sage by the lawmakers.

I'm not aware of budgetrow — Emodi

The lawmakers unanimouslypassed the bill on December 20,2012 and had given hope to Ni-gerians that for the first time inmany years, Nigeria would be-gin to run a budget from the firstday of the New Year.

However, the rowt between thelawmakers and the executive armof government is gradually tak-ing the nation back to its familiarpath of budget delay and poor im-plementation.

The Presidency had denied thereceipt of the document from theNational Assembly but when thelawmakers showed evidence thatthey had since sent it to the Pres-ident, his officials were forced toadmit that he was studying thebudget

Vanguard learnt that some law-makers were already mobilisingto see how they could pass the2013 budget as an Act of the Par-liament in the event that the Pres-ident returns the bill to the Na-tional Assembly without signingit as stipulated by law.

The law stipulates that a bill,which has been denied presiden-tial assent after 30 days, may bepassed as an act of the parliamentby two thirds majority of the Na-tional Assembly.

One lawmaker, who spoke toVanguard in confidence, said thelawmakers were ready to chal-lenge the presidency by passingthe bill as an Act, if it is returnedto the National Assembly.

Another lawmaker pointed outthat the days when the Presidenttook them for granted were over,

as they were now more united towork for the interest of Nigerians.

The lawmakers, it was gath-ered, were confident they wouldwin the budget war against the

Presidency given the rancour be-tween PDP governors and thePresidency and the growing uni-ty among members of the NationalAssembly .

I get N25,000 for localtrips — Sanusi

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

Says I fuel my personal cars

THE Governor of the CentralBank of Nigeria, CBN,

Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi,has said he collects N25,000 pernight for trips within Nigeria andfuels his personal cars with per-sonal funds.

Responding to questions askedby Lagos Lawyer, Mr. BamideleAturu, concerning recurrent ex-penditures on the CBN governorand his office in view of the ris-ing cost of governance, Sanusialso said he does not charge CBNor the Federal Government anyfee outside his remuneration.

Early December, Sanusi, stirredthe hornets’ nest when he sug-gested the reduction of the na-tion’s workforce by 50 per cent.Sanusi said a situation where thegovernment spends over 70 per-cent of its annual budgets on re-current expenditure at the ex-pense of capital expenditure,mainly to service a few politicaloffice holders and public servantsthat account for about one millionof the country’s 167 million pop-ulation was unsustainable

Sanusi’s comments, whichraised dusts in the polity espe-cially from Organised Labourmade Aturu to ask 14 questions

pertaining to his remunerationson December 31 pursuant to therelevant sections of the Freedomof Information Act, 2011.

In the response dated January16 and signed by S.M Onekutu(legal adviser/director, LegalServices), Sanusi, however didnot disclose his total remunera-tion because it “is a subject of lit-igation” and it will be prejudicial.He also did not disclose howmuch he gets per night for for-eign trips.

Reacting to the CBN governor’sresponse yesterday, Aturu saidwhile he was not completely sat-isfied with the response, he wouldcommend Sanusi “for not behav-ing like most public officials whowould have simply ignored therequest. We are of the view thatthe reaction of the bank to our re-quest will encourage public in-stitutions to conduct their affairstransparently.”

He continued: “We intend to doa follow up to the request as itappears that the Bank misunder-stands some of the questions con-tained in the request. When werequested for the monthly remu-neration of the Governor we werenot asking him or the Bank tocomment on an earlier decisionwhich the Bank is contesting. Weare aware of that decision".

Efforts in top gearto reconcile them

ABUJA—FORMER President Olusegun Obas-

anjo yesterday made a sur-prise appearance at the Pres-idential Villa chapel wherehe worshiped with the firstfamily.

The former president whohas been a virulent critic ofPresident Jonathan GoodluckJonathan came into the Villachapel in company of FemiOtedola and two of his chil-dren.

Though details of his visitwere not available, Vanguardgathered that the formerPresident was invited to thechurch service by mutualfriends of the president andChief Obasanjo in an effortto secure a truce in the ongoing disagreement betweenthem.

The source who does notwant to be named because hewas not authorised to speakon the matter said "since thetwo (Obasanjo and Jonath-an) are christians theirfriends feel that there is nobetter place to begin the rec-onciliation process than thechurch. It is a first step in amove that we hope will stopthe altercation between thetwo leaders and their aides."

An official of the presiden-cy who attended the servicesaid the former president tooksecond reading at the serv-ice and accompanied Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathan tothe children’s church afterwhich he had lunch withPresident Jonathan beforeleaving the villa.

President Jonathan hascome under scathing criti-cism from the former presi-dent who accused Jonathanof failing to guarantee secu-rity in the country. He partic-ularly accused PresidentJonathan of not doingenough to tackle the BokoHaram menace which hassignificantly affected eco-nomic activities in the north-ern part of the country ,es-pecially in Maiduguri andother states in the North East.

Obasanjo’s criticism hasopened a flood gate of criti-cism from his former officials,especially former Minister ofFCT, Nasir El Rufai and ObyEzekweseli who accused thepresident of incompetenceand corruption.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 — 9

10—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2012

ACN accuses FG of diverting SURE-P funds

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

LAGOS —THE ActionCongress of Nigeria,

ACN, weekend, accused theFederal Government ofdiverting the fund of SubsidyReinvestment andEmpowerment Programme,SURE-P, set up in the wake oflast year’s partial removal offuel subsidy.

National Publicity Secretaryof ACN, Alhaji LaiMohammed, claimed thePeoples Democratic Party,

PDP, controlled FederalGovernment had been usingpart of the funds meant forprogramme to empower theparty’s cronies ahead of the2015 general elections,instead of using it for thebenefit of all Nigerians.

ACN warned SURE-P’shead, Dr. Christopher Kolade,a respectable citizen, knownfor his transparency andintegrity, not to allow theskewed and partisanimplementation of the

programme by the FG totarnish his hard-earnedreputation.

‘’Ordinarily, SURE-P seemslaudable as it is aimed at theempowerment of the citizensthrough job creation andinfrastructure development,but in reality, PDPapparachiks have hijacked itfor the purpose ofempowering only the party’smembers.

They have created StateImplementation Committees,

SICs, to handle thedisbursement of SURE-Pcash to party members as astrategy to arm them with awar chest ahead of the 2015elections.

‘’To make matters worse, thePDP is denigrating thetraditional institution by usingtraditional rulers in somestates as the conduit todistribute SURE-P funds,ostensibly to empowerNigerians but in reality to putmoney in the pockets of PDP

supporters,’’ ACN said.The party contended

that only bodies createdby law could disbursefunds accruing to theFederation Account, andwarned that since theSICs were notrecognized by the law, itwas an illegal body andits operations violate theconstitution of theFederal Republic ofNigeria.

‘ACN continued:,‘Money being spent onfuel subsidies was in thepast taken out of theFederation Account,hence its is money thatwould have been dividedamong the three tiers ofgovernment inaccordance with therevenue allocationformula.

‘’But by virtue of theSURE-P arrangement,the funds are nowavailable for the FG toshare freely byapproving contracts,programmes andactivities in accordancewith its whims andcaprices. The PDP-controlled FG has nowseen the accruing hugefunds as money whichmay well be spent withspecial favour for itscronies and partyaffiliates.

But South-West PDPhas described asmischievous andlaughable, ACN's claimthat the SURE-P hasbeen hijacked by the PDPto empower only theparty ’s members,saying; “it is politicstaken to a bizarre leveland we hope thesecharacters in the ACNwon’t criticise God forcreating human being inHis own image one day.

“Instead of makingnoise on theimplementation of theFederal Government’sSURE-P, the partyshould rather account forover the N10 billionLagos, Oyo, Ogun,Osun, Ekiti and Edo'sshare SURE-P fund."

BY BASHIR ADEFAKA

Obanikoro's LCDA election tribunalloss rattles PDP

LAGOS — THE judgment ofAppeal Court sitting in Lagos

which Thursday upturned thevictory of Babajide Obanikoro, sonof former Nigerian Ambassador tothe Republic of Ghana, MusiliuObanikoro, has been generatingdiscomfort in various PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP, circles in thestate.

Stalwarts of the party and elitewithin the Eti-Osa LocalGovernment and Ikoyi/ObalendeLocal Council Development Area,directly affected by the judgmentwere said to be brazing up for whatnext to do.

According to the Chairman of PDPin Eti-Osa Local Government, Mr.Adeniyi Adams, “To use his word,the judge said, ‘The law is harshbut the law is the law. ’ So ,apparently they never faulted thelower court judgment that Jide

Obanikoro won but, they saidsection 14 of the Lagos Stateelectoral Act actually stipulated thatthe judgment must be done within30 days and that it took over a yearin the lower court and so that ontechnical ground, they had to setaside the judgment of the lowercourt

“We did all that we were requiredto do within the stipulated time.

It was the ACN lawyer that wasdelaying so much that even thejudge at the lower court oncelambasted for that attitude. So,what they are now making us tosuffer is price for the sin of the ACNand its lawyer.

"If the leaders of the ruling partywho rose to the limelight throughfight against June 12, 1993 electoralinjustice and election annulmentwere the same people perpetratingsame in Lagos State LocalGovernments electoral process,there is big problem”.

Ground victims of Dana air-crash paid$30,000 each

LAGOS — PASTOR DanielOmowumi, the owner of the two-storey building where the Danaair plane crashed into at the Iju-Shaga area of Lagos State and

other ground victims have beenpaid USD 30,000 each ascompensation.

Earlier, Pastor Omowunmi inconjunction with the Committeefor the Defence of Human Right,CDHR, Funmilayo Unit had

protested with other victims ofthe accident blocking theentrance to the Dana Air headoffice at Allen avenue,demanding the sum of N500million for his property thatwere destroyed by the crash.

Head CorporateCommunication, DanaAirlines, Mr. TonyUsidamen whoconfirmed the paymentof compensation to theground victims, saidDana Air insurers werecommitted towardsensuring that allclaimants were fullycompensated to theextent of their losses.

Mr. Usidamenhowever pointed out thatalthough the payment ofcompensation to theground victims tooksome time, it was doneaccording to the laiddown processes by lawand the settlementreached by all partiesconcerned.

According to him, “Wecan confirm that paymentof compensation foraffected Iju-Shagaresidents has commen-ced and the process isstill on-going."

BY DANIEL ETEGHE

From left: Mrs. Florence Oguntuase, Commissioner for Establishment and Training; Mr. DisunHolloway, Commissioner for Tourism and Inter-Govermental Relations; Gov. Babatunde Fasholaof Lagos, Mr. Lateef Raji, Special Adviser to Governor Fashola on Information and Strategy, andothers, during the inspection tour of projects at Vlekete Slave Market, Posukoh Quarter, in Badagry.Photo: Bunmi Azeez

Deathsentence:Rev. Kinghinges hopeon SupremeCourt

BY BARTHOLOMEWMADUKWE

LAGOS — EMBAT-tled General

Overseer of ChristianPraying Assembly,R e v e r e n dChukwuemeka Ezeugo,popularly known asReverend King,weekend, expressedconfidence that theSupreme Court wouldvindicate and set himfree from the murdercharge for which anappeal court hasconfirmed the deathsentence passed on him

BY INNOCENT ANABA

Capital Oilsues AccessBank overcontempt

LAGOS — IFEANYIUbah and Capital

Oil and Gas Ltd, haveinitiated contemptproceedings before aFederal High Courtsitting in Lagos, againstAccess Bank Plc, over itsalleged refusal to complywith an order of thecourt, directing the bankto discontinue a suit itfiled against Ubah andothers at a London court.

Capital Oil and Uba inthe Form 48, “notice ofconsequences of dis-obedience to courtorder,” is warning thebank to obey the ordersof Justice Okon Abang,failing which it will askthe court to commit theofficers of the bank toprison with Form 49.

Capital Oil and Ubahare contending in theproceedings that theirstep was informed by thealleged failure of AccessBank to withdraw thesuit: Claim No. 2012Folio 1300, it filed at theHigh Court of Justice,Queen’s Bench division,Commercial Court,London, in relation tothe dispute betweenthem over a purportedloan.

They alleged thatrather than withdraw theLondon suit as orderedon January 28, 2013 byJustice Abang, the bankallegedly went beforethe London court onJanuary 31 and got afresh order against them.

ACN's claim laughable, mischievous — PDP

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013—11

Don't subvert collective interest of Nigerians, NLCtells National Assembly

Constitution review:

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

LAGOS —NIGERIALabour Congress, NLC,weekend, said the signalscoming from the NationalAssembly, particularly theHouse of Representatives onthe review of the 1999constitution of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria wasdisturbing. NLC in a statement by itsPresident, ComradeAbdulwaheed Omar, warnedthe House of Representativesnot allow itself to be used byany political group or interestto subvert the views andcollective interests of theNigerian people in the finalreport of the sessions heldnationwide on the constitutionamendment. Congress said it hoped thatthe National Assembly was notyielding to pressure from theGovernors Forum amongothers who had been reportedto be against some popularproposals on critical sections ofthe constitution most Nigeriansadvocated should be includedin the new constitution. According to NLC,“ we

reiterate our position thatthe new constitutionprovides for full localgovernment autonomy asexpected in a federation.”According to the statement. “The Local Governmentsare closer to the mass of ourpeople and its only whenthey are fully independentthat the Nigerian people canenjoy the benefits ofdemocracy. "Rather than continue to tiethe local governments to thewhims and caprices of stategovernments, theconstitution should ensurefunds meant for localgovernments go directly tothem and all funds and otherresources generated by thelocal governments should bemanaged by the localgovernments and not thestate governments. "This is one way we candeepen democracy inNigeria and ensure aworking federal system thatwill benefit the Nigerianpeople.” “The Nigerian people wereunited on this during thepublic sessions held lastyear in all the 360

constituencies where thePeoples’ Public Sessionswere held by the House ofRepresentatives incollaboration with labour andcivil society groups in thecountry.

"The Nigerian people werealso united that labour andindustrial relations mattersmust remain in the exclusivelist as it is in the 1999constitution and must not betampered with as it is in the

interest of industrial peaceand the principles oftripartism which promotestransparency, fairness, andresult oriented collectivebargaining.

PDP accuses Oyo ACN ofhijacking LG funds

BY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN — PEOPLESDemocratic Party, PDP, inOyo State, weekendalleged that thehijacking of localgovernment funds by theAction Congress ofNigeria, ACN, rulinggovernment in the statewas responsible for itsrefusal to conduct localgovernment electionstwo years after itassumed power. State Chairman of PDP,Alhaji OmokunmiMustafa, in a statementin Ibadan, claimedpolicies likeindiscriminate towing of

vehicles from roads andimposition of heavy finesand “massive demolitionof shops and officeswithout providingalternative parkingspaces where driverscould conveniently parktheir vehicles wasunbecoming of a trulyp r o g r e s s i v eg o v e r n m e n t . ” According to him, " atruly progressivegovernment as the ACNis always pretending tobe would first put inplace palliativemeasures that wouldcushion the effect ofpolicies that may beharsh on the people.

Apapa-Oshodi Expressway Congestion: Minister givescontractor 16 weeks deadline

LAGOS — MINISTERMinister of Works, MikeOnolememen, weekend,inspected ongoing works onApapa-Oshodi expresswayin Lagos State and directedthe contractor to expediteaction on the construction ofthe 450-capacity Trailer Parkon the expressway to easetraffic flow. The Minister who was inLagos on inspection ofongoing projects of hisministry gave the contractor,Boroni Prono Nigeria Ltd adeadline of 16 weeks tocomplete the Trailer Parklocated opposite Tin CanPort.According to a statement byTony Ikpasaja, Special

Advier (Media) to theMinister of Works, “the trafficgridlock on Apapa_Oshodiexpressway, especially around

Bakare slams CAN

LAGOS — CONVENER of the Save Nigeria Group, SNG,Pastor Tunde Bakare, yesterday, slammed the leadership ofChristian Association of Nigeria, CAN, for allegedly failing tocriticise the Federal Government over the deploring state ofthe nation. Bakare who spoke in a state of the nation address at theLatter Rain Assembly church, in Lagos, also lampooned theFederal Government for taking on a former Minister ofEducation, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili over her recent outbursts thatgovernment mismanaged $67billion.He said: “I have read most publications in Nigeria in the lastweek and I am yet to come across a word spoken by leaders ofCAN on the weighty issues Dr. Ezekwesili raised on how theprodigal sons have run the country bankrupt."

the sea ports is not onlyunacceptable, but alsoinjurious to the nation’seconomy."

BY DAPO AKINREFON

Fulani herdsmen kill 10, injure 15

FULANI HERDSMEN havereportedly killed 10 persons andinjured 15 others as they attacked twocommunities in Nasarawa StateSaturday afternoon. The attackers who were armed withguns, knives and axes were said tohave taken residents of Iga and Rutucommunities in Nasarawa Eggon andDoma local governments respectivelyunawares between 2 and 4p.m. as theyleft immediately after the attack. According to a source, the Fulanis

numbering over 50 besieged thecommunities through the bush andstarted destroying any property insight, killing eight inhabitants of thearea majority of who were said to befarmers. According to an eyewitness: “Nobody was aware of the attack. Someof us were under the tree andsuddenly we heard some peoplescreaming, shouting, calling for help.By then, the whole community was inconfusion commotion, and everybody

needed to run and hidesomewhere”. The corpses of thedeceased were said tohave deposited at theDalhatu Araf SpecialistHospital (DASH) inLafia, the state capital. At Rutu village in DomaLocal Government, itwas learnt that themiddle-age man whowas an Eggon by tribeand farmer was shotalongside his son as hetried to move out some oftheir belongings fromthe community. It was gathered that thedeceased and his sonhad successfully packedsome of the belongingsand were trying to escapeon a motorcycle whenthe assailants sprayedthem with bullets.

12—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Nigeria lost N39.42trn to gas flare in KoloCreek —Bayelsa govt

Soldierswarnedagainstconnivingwith oilthieves

Uzerenativesdumpreconciliationexercise

I'll leave solid institutional framework—Oshiomhole

YENAGOA—SPECIALAdviser to Bayelsa State

Governor on Power, Engr. Ol-ice Kemenanabo, weekend,said until the recent wake upcall for gas utilization, theKolo Creek in the state alonewasted N39.42 trillionthrough gas venting.

He said the wasted gas, ifharnessed, would have boost-ed the nation's revenue pro-file.

Kemenanabo, a guest lectur-er at the 12th DistinguishedElectrical and Electronics En-gineering Annual Lecture ti-tled: Surmounting the Obsta-cles to the Development ofSustainable Power System inNigeria: The Techno-Econom-ic Approach, in Yenagoa, de-scribed as ironic and untena-ble, the story of lack of gas orany other feedstock for thatmatter, when the country hashuge untouched fossil re-sources with potentials capa-ble of exporting electricity tothe entire sub-Saharan Afri-ca.

He noted with concern thatsince Nigeria struck oil incommercial quantity at Oloi-

biri in Ogbia Local GovernmentArea of the state in 1956, gasflares had continued to be an as-sociated part of life in the NigerDelta.

He said: “Besides the attendantconsequences, the unharnessedgas from 1956 till date can onlybe imagined in terms of wealthcreation and employment gener-ation. We simply burnt away ahuge chunk of directly accruable

revenue and the regenerativepotentials of that revenue.”

He said Kolo Creek, wherethe first and largest independ-ent power project by any stategovernment was sited, flaredabout 80 million standard cu-bic feet of gas daily from 1962until recently, when it was har-nessed and gathered by ShellPetroleum Development Com-pany at the Gbarain-Ubie

Gathering Facility.“From that time, 45 years till

the wake up call for gas utili-zation, Kolo Creek alonewasted N39.42 trillionthrough gas venting whileflares like the Nun River,Adibawa, Tebidaba, CloughCreek, Benesede, Ru-mukrushie and Yorla amongothers, have continued to “il-luminate the environment” ina poisonous way that is unac-ceptable anywhere else in theworld but Nigeria,” he said.

BY SAMUELOYADONGHA

BY SIMONEBEGBULEM

BENIN—GOVERNORAdams Oshiomhole of

Edo State, weekend, vowedto leave solid institutionalframework that will sustaingood governance and devel-opment in the state even af-ter his tenure as governor.

Oshiomhole, at a receptionorganised in honour of theimmediate past Secretary to

the State Government, Dr. Si-mon Imuekemhe, by Etsako Cit-izens Club, in Benin City, ex-pressed appreciation for the sup-port he had received so far fromthe people of the state and as-sured that he would not relentin his development projects.

Represented by the state Headof Service, Princess Ine Ekhio-wa, he said: “You are one ofthose that made it possible forus to have 18 over 18 in the gov-ernorship election. I also thankyou for the support through the

court cases that were decid-ed recently. I need your sup-port so that in the next fouryears, Edo State will be at itsbest and we shall all say, wecame, we saw and we con-quered.” Speaking to news-men after he was honouredas an outstanding Etsakoson, Imuekemhe, who com-mended the club for the hon-our, said Oshiomhole’s devel-opmental stride was unquan-tifiable, describing him as a“material needed for our na-tional reform.”

BY JIMITOTAONOYUME

PORT HARCOURT—COM-

MANDER of Joint TaskForce, JTF, OperationPullo Shield, MajorGeneral Barta Debiro,has vowed to deal withany soldier in the secu-rity outfit caught aidingillegal bunkering opera-tions in the Niger Deltaregion.

Major-General Debiro,weekend, when he ad-dressed a specialtrained troop of the JTFfor amphibious opera-tions at a House boat onBille water, said hewould not spare any sol-dier caught aiding ille-gal bunkering.

He also charged hismen to put in their bestin the anti-illegal bun-kering crusade, stress-ing that they would con-tinue to get all the need-ed support.

The JTF boss said hewas in touch with the oilcompanies operating inthe region on security ontheir platforms, assuringthat the JTF was set towipe out acts of oil theftin the region.

THE people ofUzere, Isoko South

Local Government Area,Delta State, have pulledout of the peace and rec-onciliation committee ini-tiated by the Isoko SouthCouncil caretaker com-mittee chairman, DeltaState, Engr. GoodluckIdele, accusing him ofbias.

The community, in astatement by Mr. God-spower Ukpiki and threeothers, said: “Our peoplehave since lost confidencein the caretaker commit-tee chairman, who set upthe committee for peaceand reconciliation in thecommunity.”

They explained that thecouncil chairman, EngrIdele, was a cousin andsympathiser of Mr. AskiaOgieh, who is adviser tothe deposed king, IsaacUdogri, who is in courtagainst the community.

MEDIA CHAT: From left: Mr. Norbert Chaizor NUJ Chairman Delta State Chapter; Gover-nor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State and his deputy, Prof. Amos Utuama, during a mediachat with journalists in Asaba. Photo: Nath Onojake.

PIB: Northern,SouthernSenators poisedfor battle

ABUJA—THERE arestrong indications that

the Upper chamber of the Na-tional Assembly will witness astormy session soon as Sena-tors from the North and Southare poised to do battle whenresumed discussions on thePetroleum Industry Bill, PIBcome up.

A Bill for an Act to providefor Establishment of a Legal,Fiscal and Regulatory Frame-work for the Petroleum Indus-try in Nigeria and for otherRelated Matters is presentlybefore the National Assemblyfor deliberation after PresidentGoodluck Jonathan forwardedthe Bill to the lawmakers lastyear.

It will be recalled that beforethe lawmakers went on recesslast year, discussions on theBill never came up, but theSenate, when it resumed,tried to look at it, just as it failedto progress with the secondreading against the backdropthat Northern Senators kickedagainst it.

BY HENRY UMORU

BY EMMA AMAIZE &EMMA ARUBI

Delta community shuts down Chevron’spipeline project

WARRI—MEN of Jointmilitary Task Force, JTF,

code-named Operation PuloShield, yesterday, arrestedNiger Delta youth leader andbusinessman, Chief AyiriEmami, over the shutdown ofChevron Nigeria Limited’sgas pipeline project in WarriSouth-West Local Govern-ment Area of Delta State.

The project was reportedlyshut down by aggrieved in-digenes of Ugborodo commu-nity, who were protesting thecompany’s failure to provide

electricity to the town.Chief Emami is the spokesper-

son of Ugborodo CommunityTrust, a community developmentgroup.

Ugborodo community, whichhosts the multi-billion dollarsEscrasvos-Gas-to-Liquidproject, has had a running bat-tle with Ugborodo communityover electricity.

The Presidency intervened inthe feud last year when it sum-moned the company and repre-sentatives of the community toAbuja for a peace parley.

At the meeting, Chevron wasdirected to supply stable and sus-tainable power from its tank farm

to Ugborodo and Gbaramatucommunities, as part of its cor-porate social responsibility.

Vice President Namadi Sam-bo and Delta State governor,Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan,played major roles in the me-diation.

Government, however,charged the communities tomaintain the peace to allow forsmooth and unhindered oper-ations by Chevron.

A prominent leader in thecommunity, Ayiri, was arrest-ed because he was believed tobe one of the unseen powersbehind the protest.

…JTF arrests community spokesman, Chief Emami

VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 — 13

CMYK

14—Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2013

BY PETER OKUTU

Land dispute: Elechi threatenslawsuit against Rep

Abia movesagainst taxdefaulters

BY ANAYO OKOLI

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

Anambraintroducesmonthly welfarepackage forelderly

UMUAHIA—IN itsdetermined effort to

fight tax evasion, AbiaState Government hasconstituted three rev-enue courts to try de-faulters.

The revenue courts areto sit in Aba, Umuahiaand Ohafia.

Chairman of AbiaState Board of InternalRevenue, Mr.Udochukwu Ogbonna,the measure was to en-sure the board met thestate’s targeted Inter-nally Generated Rev-enue, IGR, for 2013.

He said that the boardwas ready to collect allpayable taxes due thestate for the 2013 fiscalyear.

Ogbonna appealed toAbia people to avoid actsthat could lead to theirprosecution by thecourts.

He enjoined all taxableadults in the state to paytheir taxes and ratespromptly no matter howsmall their business en-terprise, reminding themthat payment of tax andrates was obligatory.

ABAKALIKI—GOVERNOR Martin Elechi of

Ebonyi State weekend threat-ened to sue the member repre-senting Abi/Yakurrr Federal Con-stituency in the House of Repre-sentatives, Mr. Bassey Ewa,over comments of allegedlysponsoring militants against thepeople of Adadama in CrossRiver State in a land relateddispute.

The people of Adadama hadin recent times been locked in acrisis over land ownership withIkwo people of Ebonyi State,which has claimed several lives.

Elechi, who stated this duringa town hall meeting organisedby the state government whenmembers of the Good Govern-ance Tour team visited the state,described the allegation made bythe Cross River State lawmaker

AWKA—NON pensionable people in

Anambra State will soon bereceiving monthly financialwelfare package from thestate government as a wayof giving them a sense ofbelonging.

Wife of the state gover-nor, Mrs. Margaret Peter-Obi, who announced thepackage weekend in Awka,explained that the packagewould be for those aged 75years and above.

Mrs. Obi has alreadystarted what could pass asa pilot project of the pro-gramme as she gave grantsof N10, 000 each to two eld-erly persons from each ofthe 21 local governmentareas of the state.

Among those who re-ceived the money were102-year-old Mrs. TheresaOsita Debo from Umukwavillage, Awka in AwkaSouth local governmentarea and 99-year -old ChiefSimon Okedo fromAbubuno Nnewichi villagein Nnewi North local gov-ernment area.

ELECTION: From right: President, Nigerian Union of Pensioners (First Bank unit), La-gos chapter, Mr. Samuel Adeta, 1st Vice President, Mr. Ignis Eribhogbe, Lagos, SecondVice President, Ibadan, Mr. Hassan Bamgbola, General Secretary, and Mr CosmasAligwekwe, after First Bank unit's general election into the National Executive Office inLagos.

Pension thief:Group wantsNJC to prosecuteJudge

ABUJA—ABOUT 13 different church groups within

the Christian Association ofNigeria, have called on theNational Judicial Commis-sion, NJC, to commence theprocess of trial and imprison-ment of Justice AbubakarThalba of Abuja High Courtover his recent ruling on thepension scam to save the ju-diciary from further embar-rassment.

The group, operating underthe umbrella of TarayarEkklisiyar Kristi A Nijeriyasaid the light sentence passedon the director in the PolicePension Office, John YakubuYusufu, amounted to a mis-carriage of justice.

Reverend EmmanuelDzieggau, President of thegroup, who spoke to journal-ists yesterday in Abuja,through his Media Assistant,Mr. Sunny Oibe, describedthe judge as one of the badcharacters spoiling the imageof Nigeria before the interna-tional community.

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAK-WURU

Alleged recruitment bribery: Reps probeFederal Civil Service Commission

BY OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMANOVUAKPORIE

ABUJA—THE Houseof Representatives has con-

cluded plans to probe the Fed-eral Civil Service Commission,FCSC, over alleged bribe takingfrom job seekers into the federalcivil service.

The Green chamber of the Na-tional Assembly late last yearpassed a resolution mandating itsJoint Committee on Public Serv-ice Matters, Employment, Labourand Productivity, Anti-Corruption,National Ethics and Values to in-vestigate the allegations.

Chairman, House Committeeon Public Service Matters,Andrew Uchendu, PDP/Rivers,who disclosed this at the week-end, said that already, membersof the Joint Committee had heldpreliminary meetings and de-cided to invite memoranda fromthe MDAs and Federal Civil Serv-ice Commissionon the issue.

He explained that the commit-tee had requested the MDAs tosend to it memoranda on all therecruitments they had under-taken between 2007 and 2012 aswell as the procedures theyadopted in these exercises.

He said: “A number of Nigeri-ans have written petitions com-

plaining that they have beenshortchanged in various re-cruitment exercises into thepublic service.

“We want to take a secondlook at some of our key poli-cies such as federal character,quota system and zoning be-cause experience has shown

that they have become indirectways of enthroning mediocrity inthe polity.”

“We think that it is time for Ni-geria to go back and enthronemeritocracy in the conduct of allour affairs, particularly in the civilservice which is the engine roomof governance.”

It would be recalled that re-cruitment into some paramilitarybodies late last year was smearedby allegations of bribery thateven led to the sacking ofComptroler General of Immigra-tions by the Federal Govern-ment.

BY EMMA UJAH, ABUJABUREAU CHIEF

A B U J A — F O R M E RAviation Minister, Chief

Femi Fani-Kayode, under theChief Olusegun Obasanjo admin-istration, yesterday, carpeted theSpecial Adviser to the Presidenton Media and Publicity, Dr.Reuben Abati, over the latter’scriticism of former aides of ChiefObasanjo who have been attack-ing President GoodluckJonathan’s administration lately.

Fani-Kayode who was reactingto an article written by Abati, ti-tled “The Hypocrisy Of Yester-day’s Men’’ published in themedia, did not only disagree withthe President’s spokesman butalso said Mr. Abati “sought to ridi-cule and demean” those whoserved under former PresidentObasanjo.

According to the former Minis-ter of Aviation, Mr. Abati’s articleis a smear campaign and an at-tempt to intimidate him and hiscolleagues. Ostensibly irked byMr. Abati’s comment on the clo-sure of Port-Harcourt Airport un-der Chief Obasanjo, Chief Fani-Kayode said the insistence ontransparency in the administra-tion of the nation’s foreign reservehad clearly annoyed the Presi-dency.

He said: “Abati indulged in aresponse other than to say that, I

Fani-Kayode berates Abati

‘shut down Port Harcourt Airportfor two years’ and ‘allowed grassto grow all over it.

“This is false. It is a classiccase of disinformation comingfrom a man that is obviously suf-fering from a very low self-es-teem. It is clear that Abati, whois a journalist, has forgotten the

most important tenet of his pro-fession which is that ‘facts aresacred and opinion is cheap.”

In his explanation, the closureof the Port-Harcourt Airport wasdue to the Sososliso plain crashwhich affected the runway andwas not deliberately closed bythe government of Obasanjo.

as serious.He said no amount of immunityshould prompt a House of Rep-resentatives member to makesuch grave allegation withoutany evidence to substantiate hisclaim.

The governor added that dur-ing the court proceedings, hewould insist on proofs by theHouse of Representatives mem-ber, warning that withdrawal ofthe case would come with pen-alties.

Elechi said: “Concerning theissue of a House of Reps mem-ber in Cross River accusing meof sponsoring militants againsthis people in his area, I haveasked my lawyers to look into itbecause it is a serious allega-tion and no amount of impunityor rather immunity will excusethat and I will insist on a proofor else the withdrawal willcome with necessary penalty.”

Says he seeks to ridicule those who served under Obasanjo

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAYVanguard, MONDAYVanguard, MONDAYVanguard, MONDAYVanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, , FEBRUARY 4, , FEBRUARY 4, , FEBRUARY 4, , FEBRUARY 4, 2013—152013—152013—152013—152013—15

ACN, CPC merger c’ttee holdsinaugural meeting tomorrow

BY JOHNBOSCOAGBAKWURU

ABUJA—THE merger committees of

Action Congress of Ni-geria, ACN, and theCongress for Progres-sive Change, CPC, willhold their joint inaugu-ral meeting tomorrow inAbuja.

Secretary of the merg-er talk committee for theCPC, Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, who disclosed thisto Vanguard yesterday,said the joint committeesof the two parties will,among other things,draft a new constitution,mission statement, vi-sion and manifesto forthe mega party as wellas the new name.

Obono-Obla, who ob-served that there hadbeen speculations, espe-cially from the rulingPeoples Democratic Par-ty, PDP, that the ambi-tions of the leader ofCPC, General Muham-madu Buhari, andACN’s Bola AhmedTinubu, would not allowthe merger to work out,boasted that nothingwill stop the merger fromworking out to rescuethe country from the pitallegedly dug by the

Jubilation, confusion trailALSCON’s takeover

BY SONI DANIEL,Regional Editor, North

THERE have beenwild jubilation and

confusion in Akwa IbomState, following the deci-sion by the Bureau forPublic Enterprises, BPE,to effect the judgment of

PDP.He said contrary to the

speculations, the first in-augural meeting of themerger committees ofboth parties will takeplace tomorrow in Abu-ja.

He said: “I can assureyou that the two leaders,General MuhammaduBuhari and AsiwajuAhmed Tinunbu, and allthe leaders of the twoparties have agreed thatthe parties should mergeto rescue Nigeria fromthe pit and no Jupiterwill change it.

“So, the merger com-mittees are just meetingto fulfill all righteous-ness. We have agreed inprinciple that the partieswill merge so the jointcommittee will work outthe constitution, themanifesto and the nameof the party because we

will not want to carry thenames of the two partiesover, we are going tohave a new name com-pletely.”

On the suspected in-fluence of Asiwaju Ti-nunbu and General Bu-hari on the new expect-ed mega party as a re-sult of the fusion of thetwo, he said: “Bola Tinu-bu is a democrat to thecore, you know he wasin NADECO, he was asenator, he was twotimes a governor, so hecannot impose his willon anybody.

“Likewise General Bu-hari, he has contestedpresidential elections,he went to the SupremeCourt three times, hehas been the most vocalvoice for change in Ni-geria, so they are not go-ing to impose their wishon anybody.”

the Supreme Court of Ni-geria giving the owner-ship of Aluminium Smelt-ing Company of Nigeri-an, ALSCON, in Ikot Aba-si, to the American group,BFIG.

BPE had, last Tuesday,written to BFIG, asking itto take over the plant incompliance with the apexcourt’s ruling of July 6,2012, by preparing to paythe stipulated 10 per centof the $410 million it of-fered for the purchase ofthe plant in 2006 as soonas the Share PurchaseAgreement is signed byboth parties.

Vanguard learnt thatNigerian workers at theplant had been jubilatingsince they learnt of thetransfer of ownership ofthe beleaguered plant tothe rightful owner andhad asked the govern-ment to take necessarysteps to complete theprocess to save the plantfrom going under.

On the other hand, theBPE letter is said to havehit the RUSAL manage-ment below the belt,prompting its top officialsto virtually relocate toAbuja to press buttons to-wards preventing thetransfer. A competentsource said a very seniorofficials of RUSAL , whohad got wind of the trans-fer letter before BPE re-leased it to the media lastWednesday, tried to per-suade Abuja to stall therelease of the letter toBFIG.

Hollande pledges to re-build Mali astroops pound Islamist camps

FRENCH warplanespounded Islamist

rebel camps in the farnorth of Mali, militarysources said, hours afterFrench PresidentFrancois Hollande visitedthe West African country.

Thierry Burkhard,spokesman for theFrench army in Paris,said on Sunday theovernight raids targetedlogistics bases andtraining camps used bythe al Qaeda-linkedrebels to the north of thedesert town of Kidal.

“These were importantair strikes,” Burkhard toldReuters.

He said the bombingraids took place aroundthe settlement of Tessalit,close to the Algerianborder, one of the maingateways into the Adrardes Ifoghas mountainswhere the rebels arebelieved to be hidingafter fleeing major towns.

helicopters and transportplanes carrying specialforces left the city of Gaoto reinforce the Frenchand Chadian contingentstationed at the airport inKidal.

Assad accuses Israel ofdestabilizing Syria

Sheikh Moaz Alkhatib, President of the NationalCoalition of Syrian Revolutionary and OppositionForces and U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden (R) meetfor bilateral talks during the 49th Conference onSecurity Policy in Munich .

SYRIA’S embattledPresident Bashar

al-Assad has accusedIsrael of trying to“destabilize” hiscountry.

This is follows his firstremarks on last week’sreported Israeli airstrike in Syria.

Syrian TV has shownimages of the raidDamascus says Israelijets carried out on amilitary research centrein Jamraya lastWednesday.

US officials said theair strike targeted aweapons convoy boundfor Lebanon. The Israelidefence minister hashinted his country wasresponsible.

Ehud Barak told asecurity conference inGermany on Sunday

FORMER BritishPrime Minister,

Tony Blair has warned.That it will be a hugeproblem for the UK ifpeople vote to leave theEuropean Union.

David Cameron haspromised an in/outreferendum before theend of 2017 if the Torieswin the next election.

He said the UK’srelationship with the EUneeds to change.

But Mr Blair said a

Blair warns UK against

quitting EU

decision to quit wouldreduce the UK’s “weight”in the world and therewould be “uncertainty” inthe lead-up to the vote.

In a speech last month,Mr Cameron promisedan in/out referendumbefore 2018, following arenegotiation atgovernment level.

This came amidgrowing concern amongmany Conservatives overdevelopments within theEU, particularly over theeffects of increasingfinancial and politicalintegration by eurozonemember states.

EGYPTIAN PrimeMinister, Hisham

Qandil has said that hewas confronted by youthsand troublemakers onCairo’s Tahrir Squareamid continuingopposition unrest.

Mr Qandil saidSaturday ’s incident“sheds light on the

Egyptian protesters confront PM

•Blair

Malian military sourcessaid French and Chadiantroops had clashed withmembers of the AnsarDine militant group in theregion around Kidal onSaturday.

French attack

that the strike was “proofthat when we saysomething we mean it”.

“We don’t think [Syria]should be allowed tobring advanced weaponssystems into Lebanon,”he told the meeting oftop internationaldiplomats and defenceofficials.

nature of peopleoccupying the square”.

He did not expand onthe incident, but Egypt’sDream Live TV said theprime minister’s car waspelted with stones.

On Friday police andprotesters clashed nearthe presidential palace,after a week of violencein which dozens died.

In a statement MrQandil said he had been“accosted” by protesterson Tahrir Square onSaturday, adding that he“preferred to avoid aconfrontation betweenthem and securitypersonnel”.

The incident comes aday after riot police usedtear gas and watercannon against rock-throwing crowds outsidethe president palace.

One person wasreportedly killed andmore than 50 injured.

CMYK

OPINION

16 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

*Mr. Kupoluyi, wrote from Federal Varsityof Agric., abeokuta, Ogun State.

BY ADEWALE KUPOLUYI

Is CAN still relevant? (2)IRONICALLY, these ‘christians’ find

solace in the various worship centresand invest a large chunk of their ill-gottenwealth in church activities andprogrammes!

This has been the moral burden for CAN,as the body has not been known to speakloud and clear against corruption andcorrupt office holders.

Besides, there is the accusation ofmaterialism within the ranks of CANofficials. In the 1980s, about ten millionnaira was allegedly released to thenational body of CAN, to build itsecumenical centre by the Babangidaadministration but which could not beproperly accounted for.

Some CAN leaders were accused ofsurreptitiously collecting money frompolitical aspirants with a promise toinfluence their followers to give suchaspirants votes.

Following the series of criticism trailingthe activities of CAN, the Catholic Church,through the President, Catholic Bishops’Conference of Nigeria (CBCN),Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama hadcommunicated to CAN President, AyoOritsejafor, saying his group wassuspending “participation in CANmeetings at the national level until such atime the leadership of CAN reverse backto the original vision, mission andobjectives of CAN”.

The Catholic bishops had argued thatCAN had been politicised and was nolonger being used to promote peace andunity in the country.

“CAN is being dragged into partisanpolitics thereby compromising the abilityto play its true role as conscience of thenation and the voice of the voiceless”, thebishops said.

At one time or the other, notableNigerians - who are not even Christians -including a former minister of Petroleumand former education minister, ex-SenatorJubril Aminu had called for the banningof CAN.

Similarly, a former minister of theFederal Capital Territory and nowchieftain of the Congress for ProgressiveChange, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai hasmocked CAN, calling it a branch of thePeoples Democratic Party (PDP) as he alsoflayed its president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejaforfor accepting the gift of a private jet, whichthe congregation of Word of Faith BibleChurch, of which he is Senior Pastor,allegedly gave him.

Even, the controversial governor of theCentral Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi LamidoSanusi, has equally called for the ban ofCAN.

In the same vein, the Senior Pastor, LatterRain Christian Assembly and Convener ofSave Nigeria Group (SNG), Pastor TundeBakare, has equally criticised religious

leaders in the country for allegedcorruption.

Bakare alleged that religious leaders hadcontributed immensely to the level ofcorrupt practices in the country, when heinsisted that it is irresponsible and sinfulfor religious leaders to amass wealth whilemajority of members of their churchescannot afford three square meals a day.

He had asked people to query suchreligious leaders on the sources of theirmovable and immovable assets that runinto billions of naira: “If the money is notfrom members in the church, definitely, it'sfrom the presidency", he alleged.

On the continued relevance of CAN, itis instructive to note that there are

two competing voices in CAN: the ‘voice’of political unity and the ‘voice’ ofChristian unity.

To any discerning mind, what pervadesthe nation now is the fact that the voice ofpolitical unity is undoubtedly louder,clearer and overwhelming at the expenseof real Christian unity.

Therefore, genuine Christian unity maybe hard to come by as long as the quest forpower and materialism continue to be themain preoccupation of the leaders of CAN,instead of its original objectives.

For CAN to meet the expectations ofNigerian Christians that are moreconcerned about unity than political

affiliation, more efforts should be gearedtowards reawakening the various interestson the need to have a common sense ofpurpose in line with biblical teachings.More than ever before, the nation needsthe contributions of CAN in its trying times.

CAN should be formidable and apowerful body to make positive change inthe nation going by the number of politicalleaders and followers that could have beeninfluenced by the sterling qualities ofChrist – the epitome of true and idealChristian virtues. The body should befearless, firm and always stand by thetruth, irrespective of whose ox is gored.

Rather than continue to swim in thepresent filthy ocean, the leadership of CANshould painstakingly identify what thedifferent denominations have in common,work in harmony and explore the variousscriptural texts that encourage Christianunity to its advantage.

Such efforts should be geared towardsentrenching mutual respect for themember churches of the association. Thisshould be the priority of CAN.

On a final note, government should stopinterfering with the activities of theassociation – after all, we are meant to bea secular nation - it should allow CAN tocarry out its statutory functions for thegood of Christians and most especially, thesacred role of being the moral conscienceof the nation.

Continued from Friday viewpoints

Concluded.

THE demand that portfolios should beattached to nominees for ministerial positionsis a legitimate demand that falls firmly in linewith the spirit of the 1999 Constitution, whichinsists that Ministers should be appointed toreflect the geographical, ethnic and othercolourations that make Nigeria the vivaciouscountry it has remained.When the Senate goes on rigmaroles in the

name of screening, neither the Senate nor thepublic is able to benefit from the ability to askpertinent questions that can help in arrivingat reasonable decisions about the candidate’ssuitability.Anyone resting on the Constitution to justify

the non-inclusion of nominees’ portfolios isbeing legalistic without sparing a thoughtabout the workability of the government, inorder to achieve the constitutional provisionin Section 14 (2) b, “The security and welfareof the people shall be the primary purpose ofgovernment”. The precedent set since 1999 isnot helpful.How could the Senate ensure balance in the

composition of the Federal Executive Councilthat Section 14 (4) of the Constitution

Screening By GuessesScreening By GuessesScreening By GuessesScreening By GuessesScreening By Guessesenvisaged? Too much power is awarded thePresident when he gets blank approvals forhis Ministers and portfolios he allocates tothem.Nigeria did not come into existence in 1999.

Former President Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari(1979-83) attached portfolios to nominees,even for ambassadorial positions, he includedthe proposed stations. Was that not how weknew a Russia-bound diplomat who knewonly the old national anthem? Alhaji Shagariset a better precedent.How can the Senate screen nominees’

suitability for positions when they do notknow what briefs the President would assignto them? What is the point of conducting ascreening exercise when the Senate cannot ask

basic questions? We saw that again with thescreening of two ministerial nominees toreplace those who left the cabinet.The Senate should impress it on the

President, in future, to disclose the portfoliosfor nominees and stations of ambassadorialnominees. The Senate would then drill themalong the lines of their expectedresponsibilities to Nigerians.Sports is a veritable example. Sports

Ministers since 1999 have lamented that theywould have wanted to be elsewhere. They allcome to sports to learn, during which theydo more damage than their successors canever repair.With all the hype about transparency, a

ministerial list that does not discloseportfolios has too much to hide for the Senateto play along. What does the President haveto hide? Why should the Senate encouragehim?In the Oath of Allegiance, our senators and

the President swore to, they all promised towork for the well-being of Nigerians. It istime to act beyond the words. The Senateshould lead the way.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013—49

,,

OPINIONBY ERIC TENIOLA

*Mr. Teniola, a retired director in the presidency,wrote from Lagos.

HE sent his emissary, Alhaji Isa Keita to Lagos tobrief the then Prime-Minister, Sir, Abubakar

Tafawa Balewa(1912-1966) of his decision, in 1963.‘You can’t do it for Kano will be of fire’,the Prime

Minister told Alhaji Keita. In the presence of the thenpowerful Minister of Defence, MuhammaduRibadu(1910-1965),Alhaji Isa Keita replied’ Sir, I am here toinform you not to seek an approval for the Sardaunahad made up his mind and there is no going back’,adding that it was the Northern Region constitutionalresponsibility and not that of The Federal Government.

The Emir’s son, Aminu, who was a diplomat in Cairoin Egypt, rushed home to plead on his father’s behalfbut it was too late. The emir was dethroned and sentto Azare in the Katagun province where he died. Hewas succeeded as Emir by Alhaji Muhammad Inua.

Alhaji Inua reigned for less than a year before hetoo died,only to be succeeded by the then Nigerianambassador to Senegal at that time, Alhaji AdoBayero,who is still on the throne.

Alhaji Sanusi’s son,Aminu later rose to become thePermanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign affairs,and Aminu’s son Lamido, is the present Governor ofCentral Bank.

Sir Ladipo Samuel Ademola was the Alake ofEgbaland between September 27, 1920-1962),

The old lion roars back (2)

following the death of Oba Gbadebo. He was crownedon 27 September 1920 at a spectacular ceremonyattended by the British governor and crowd of 10,000.Although annexed to Nigeria in 1914, Abeokutaretained much of its earlier traditional system, whichnevertheless was altered by the early impact ofChristianity and Western education. Oba Ademola isrecalled as having fitted well the somewhat unusualrequirements of the natural ruler of the Egbas, who in1930 celebrated under him the centenary of Abeokuta.Educated men were appointed to traditional positionsby the Oba. And he favoured Western Educationallowing his own son Adetokunbo (born in 1906) to goto England to complete his education, and providinghelp for others’ schooling. In 1935 he was awardedthe CBE.

In 1948, a protest against him by market women ledby Chief (Mrs.)FunmilayoRansome-Kuti (1900-1978),daughter-in-law of the Reverend JosiahRansome-kuti who had been a friend to the Alake ledto the Alake’s temporary exile on July 29 1948.

The then British Resident deported him to Oshogboin the interest of peace. The Alake’s deposition wasfollowed by major reforms in the taxation policy of theEgba native authority which brought relief to themarket women.

Oba Ademola came back to regain control of histhrone after two years in exile, he later became a seniormember of the Western region house of chiefs. He diedin 1962.

The last of the independent rulers of the Edo kingdomof Benin was Oba Ovonramwen. During the nine yearshe reigned (1888-97), he sought to preserve thesovereignty of the Edo state as well as well as itseconomic interests which,in the end, led to the Britisharmed invasion of Benin in 1897. The Oba lost thebattle and was dethroned and banished into exile forlife while his kingdom was merged into a wider politicalunit under British administration. By 1912 that unit,the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria had been fusedwith the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria to becomethe entity of Nigeria. In 1914 the monarchy wasrestored under Ovonramwen’s eldest son, Eweka II,who was succeeded in turn, in 1933, by Akenzua II.

Like Dasuki, King Pepple of Bonny was dethronedin 1854, Jaja of Opobo in 1887 and Nana,the King ofthe Itshekri was also dethroned in 1854.

King Federick William Koko (1853-1898) who led thepeople of Brass and Ijaw was dethroned in 1896. Hefled from Nembe,and went into exile at Etiema. Hedied on 25 February 1898 having apparentlycommitted suicide.

Concluded

Continued from Fridayviewpoints

NIGERIA is a country of one week,one outrage. That of last week had

to do with John Yakubu Yusuf, the AssistantDirector in the Police Pension Office, Abuja,who was fined N750,000 and allowed togo home after confessing his role in thestealing of 32.8 billion naira belonging tohis office, along with six other accusedpersons who are still standing trial.

Yusuf’s lawyer had approached theEconomic and Financial CrimesCommission (EFCC) which wasprosecuting the case, to enter into a pleabargain on behalf of his client. Yusufconfessed he stole 2.4 billion naira. Heforfeited some 32 houses in Abuja and thesum of 325 million naira found in his bankaccount. In the end, the presiding AbujaHigh Court judge, Justice MohammedTalba, convicted Yusuf on three countcharges of stealing and abuse of office. Hewas sentenced to the maximum two yearsjail term or N250,000 per count which thePenal Code of Northern Nigeria prescribesfor the charges under which EFCC wasprosecuting him.

Rather than send him to jail, Talbadecided to let Yusuf go home if he partedwith the N750,000 fine. The convicted manpaid immediately and was driven homein his posh Mercedes Benzes sedan. Itseemed as though Yusuf and his lawyerknew ahead of time what the fine wasgoing to be, and they were ready with it.

Plea bargaindeal

The outrage started right there in court.EFCC’s lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs, (SAN) wasshocked to tears. I found that surprising.As the Commission’s lawyer, was he nottaken along when the plea bargain dealwas brokered? Did the EFCC go behindhim to do it?

Everything about this case is wrong. Whyit that, 99 years after the Southern andNorthern Protectorates wereamalgamated; and 95 years after the PenalCode was enacted for Northern Nigeriawhile the Criminal Code became the legalbasis of crime administration in the South,the dichotomy is the sustained? I ask thisquestion, bearing in mind that theJudiciary is the only arm of governmentthat has remained intact since the artificialcreation of Nigeria. The Executive Branchhas moved from the colonialists toindigenous civilians and from the militaryback to civilians, with a shift fromParliamentary to Presidential systems ofgovernance.

North and South legal codes: Each of

Beyond the thief and the judge

unmolested by externally or politicallyinduced change. Why has it failed todevelop into an institution that everyNigerian can look up to for protection andjustice? Why has it maintained separatelegal codes for North and South?

Some lawyers have tried to mount aspirited defence of Justice Talba’s strangemagnanimity. Their main plank is that theEFCC, seeking to reduce cost and reclaimas much of the police funds from Yusuf aspossible, as well as getting more facts fromhim to nail his other adamant six accusedaccomplices, settled for a softer treatmentfor him. This, in all honesty, is the mainspirit behind the plea bargain option all

other ranks who as a result of the lootingof their pension fund, are going to sufferwhen they retire? A policeman, whoprobably was forced to bribe someone tobe recruited, bought his own uniforms andboots, studied in decrepit traininginstitutions which we saw recently,endured dehumanising conditions ofservice and still served to the best of hisability. He will retire and cannot access hispension because a group of officials whosejob was to manage his pension chose tosteal it, and were not even jailed! For himthe judiciary can no longer be trusted todo justice. Some might decide to go andextract justice by themselves, their own

way, and thus plunge society into anarchy.Talba also did not reckon with the fact

that the six other accused persons and theirlawyers were watching with keen interesthow Yusuf’s case would end. Other officialsstill managing workers’ pensions andretirement funds, which run into trillionsof naira, are also watching. Without aresounding deterrent factor in crimeadministration, corruption will becomeuncontrollable. Talba’s judgement greasesthe cogs in the wheels of crime andcorruption.The implication for the economy

A corruption-riddled economy like ours tends toattract the wrong kind of foreign investors. It is thekind of economy where the big time hustlers andmafias direct their predatory attention to. They comein, hit and run. They use the weak judiciary andcorrupt public officials to work against the system,make their killing and vamoose

Ibrahim Lamorde, EFCC chair:Equally surprised by judgment?

over the world.However, Justice Talba, for whatever

reason, in his eagerness to grant Yusuf asoft landing, shut his eyes to the impact ofsuch a ruling on society at large.

Where is justice for the police officers and

as a whole is obvious. Asystem that encouragescorruption will neverallow the common man toenjoy the benefits of goodgovernance. Since theend of military rule in1999, the economy ofNigeria has continued togrow. Annual incomeshave bloomed from yearto year due to risingprices of crude oil in theinternational market, andyet the poverty level is

worsening. Corruption is the main culprit.Corrupt economy: A corruption-riddled

economy like ours tends to attract thewrong kind of foreign investors. It is thekind of economy where the big timehustlers and mafias direct their predatoryattention to. They come in, hit and run.They use the weak judiciary and corruptpublic officials to work against the system,make their killing and vamoose.

If we are really serious about playing inthe economic big league in the world, wemust upgrade the laws and overhaul thejudiciary. The courts must become thetemples of justice. Right now, theperception is that Nigerian lawyers andjudges are not prepared to make the courta temple of justice but an arena to makemoney, pander to the interests of the richand powerful and trample upon the poorand lowly. Nigerians are beginning to lookto foreign courts for justice. Someone upthere should be perturbed enough to dosomething about it.

these shifts required lengthyperiods for people to get used to the newunfolding dispensations. The legislaturehas been suspended and restored severaltimes. But the Judiciary has remained

Tampering with the people's future.

DISCLAIMER

Please note: My email has beenhacked. Kindly ignore the use of it tosolicit financial assistance byfraudsters. Thank you.

—Ochereome Nnanna.

CMYK

50 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

CMYK

VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 — 51

52—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Conscience and History- My Story, by Peter Odili

A BOOK YOU MUST READ

HOW IT ALL STARTED:THE PLOT-THE GREAT

GANG UP

I, DR. Peter Otunuya Odili, became the elected Governor of

the new Rivers on the 29th day ofMay, 1999, after a well contestedand won election against a strongopponent Chief Ebenezer Isokar-iari who was the then immediatepast Secretary to the State Mili-tary Government under Gen. SaniAbacha regime.

With my team of appointees, weset out on a “Restoration” agen-da in fulfillment of my campaignpromises - “Letter to Rivers peo-ple.” We made a success of theprogramme and the details of ourperformance are set out elsewherein this ‘book’. The highpointswere that in 2002 a team of over500 journalists in collaborationwith the Federal Ministry of In-formation under Prof. Jerry Gana,after inspection tours of executedprojects by State Governmentsacross the country declared Riv-ers State the best performing StateGovernment and Dr Peter Odiliwas presented with the Gold Tro-phy as the best performing-Gov-ernor in Nigeria.

The trophy was presented bythe then Vice President AtikuAbubakar on behalf of PresidentObasanjo. No other credible con-test has taken place since then.

Free schoolbus scheme

We built 1200 low cost housesacross the State in our first 100days in office in 1999. We intro-duced ‘Free School BussingScheme’, free education at prima-ry and secondary levels, and freemedical treatment for under 6years and over 60 years.

The other high point of our firstterm was the commissioning ofthe first independent power plant,Trans-Amadi Phase 1, designed,built and made operational by anyState Government in Nigeria un-der the Obasanjo administration.The commissioning ceremonywas performed by the PresidentChief Olusegun Obasanjo on the2nd of October, 2002. This plantbrought 36 Mega Watts of elec-tricity into the national grid.

In 2003 I declared my intentionfor a 2nd term, contested and wonand was sworn in for the 2nd termon the 29th day of May, 2003 withminimal changes in my team. Weset out in continuation of the res-toration and consolidation pro-gramme. The details are set outelsewhere in the book. From1999-2006 there were of course

challenges that every Govern-ment in developing and even thedeveloped world must encounter(details of some of these challeng-es are set out elsewhere in thebook). We confronted these chal-lenges and made successes outof them.

But it is significant to note thatat no point in the period 1999-2006 was the executive branchunder my leadership investigat-ed by the State Assembly whoseconstitutional responsibility it wasso to do, or by any other body ororgan of Government legallycharged to do so.

‘THE PLOT’: With the failureof the constitutional amendmentswhich included tenure elonga-tion, campaigns for the presiden-cy in 2007 took off about the 3rdquarter of 2006, across the coun-try. By October/November mycampaign, led by Dr. RaymondDokpesi, had penetrated everystate in the Federation and it be-came obvious that the Odili can-didacy had attained national ac-ceptance and had become amovement. Odili was seen as thefront runner, the candidate tobeat. Traditional Rulers, Emirs,Tribal leaders, Labour unions,Stakeholders, etc had embracedand were favourably disposed toOdili. For some inexplicable rea-son, the plot to stop him, by somepeople, became pathologically‘urgent’. The PDP convention for

nomination of the PresidentialCandidate was slated for 16th De-cember, 2006.

Biggestpower plant

The commissioning of theOmoku Power plant of 150 MegaWatts, and 120 km double circuitTransmission Line to Port Har-court, by President OlusegunObasanjo, took place on the 5thDecember, 2006. This again wasthe biggest power plant designed,constructed, completed and func-tional, by any State Government,between 1999 and 2006, the sec-ond by Rivers State Governmentunder Dr Peter Odili. We werelauded very generously and ex-tolled for the unprecedented feat.

Exactly one week later, 12thDecember, a spurious and anon-ymous petition was posted in theinternet from a questionable‘source’ alleging CORRUPTpractices against the Rivers StateGovernment under me. Theseallegations were converted into apetition by the EFCC under NuhuRibadu’s hand, to the Presidentsame day. On the 13th of Decem-ber, 2006 Mr President directedEFCC to investigate. On the 14thday of December, 2006, EFCCsubmitted a so-called “interim”report to the then President whopromptly minuted for my responseon the same 14th December,

2006, but forwarded to me on 15/12/06, a day to convention videref. PRES/44. I assembled whatwas left of my cabinet team, a fewhaving been arrested and kept atthe EFCC office in Lagos withinthese few days of urgent dramat-ic action. We submitted our re-sponse on the 15th day of Decem-ber, 2006 by which time it had

This became lucidly clear withthe instant release of my staff whowere being detained in Lagos bythe EFCC as soon as I voluntari-ly and wisely withdrew from thecontest. There was jubilation atthe EFCC office immediately thenews of my withdrawal broke andall my staff were asked by EFCCto go home immediately. This wason the 15th of December. Thencame the ‘D’ Day 16th Decem-ber, 2006 - the date of the con-vention. I was invited for morn-ing prayers with the President atthe Presidential Villa and after theprayers I had a brief chat with thethen President in his privatestudy at the residence. He ac-knowledged my letter of with-drawal from the race and in-formed me of his intention to getUmaru Yar’Adua - the now ex-pected winner of the upcomingprimaries at the Convention, tomake me his running mate.

I thanked him for his kindthoughts and assured him that Ibore no grudge or ill-will for theturn of events and that all throughmy campaigns I had ended myspeeches on the note ‘let God’swill be done’. I left him on thatnote at about 7.30-8.00am. Theconvention was to start at l0am.As at 12.30pm the venue was lit-erally empty. I was informed thatmost of the delegates who werein support of my candidature wereupset and unwilling to go to thevenue. It took the extra-effort andpersuasion of my campaign or-ganisation leader, Dr. RaymondDokpesi, and some key Directors

Continues on page 53

,

,

Dr. and Justice (Mrs) Peter Odili and children: Adaeze, Peter (Jnr), Chinelo and Njideka

For maximum mischievous damage thiscontrived so-called ‘interim report’ washurriedly uploaded into the internet, butwhen our response to the spurious alle-gations was submitted on the 15th ofDecember 2006, it was not accorded thesame treatment

•An Autobiography by Dr. Peter Otunuya Odili

become clear what the whole ex-ercise was about - “Get Odili outof the race for the Presidency, atall cost.”

For maximum mischievous dam-age this contrived so-called ‘in-terim report’ was hurriedly up-loaded into the internet, but whenour response to the spurious al-legations was submitted on the15th of December 2006, it was notaccorded the same treatment.Why, you may ask? Some senseof fair hearing isn’t it? Till datethe innocent uninformed stillmake reference to that judiciallynullified and voided report.

of my campaign to get most of thedelegates out to the Eagle Square.By 3pm the venue became fairlyfull.

I was persuaded to go and ac-company Umaru to the venue. Ihad been informed earlier in theday that the news of my pairingwith Umaru was in the air andthat ‘some people’ were alreadyganging up to oppose the pro-posed pairing. It was, however,noteworthy that when I got to theKatsina State Lodge to join Uma-ru to proceed to the Eagle SquareI met him downstairs in the com-

CMYK

A BOOK YOU MUST READ

Conscience and History - My Story

THE EFCC ROLE

On Sunday the 17th day of De-cember, 2006 at about 3pm I wasinvited to the Villa to see the Pres-ident. When I got there I met himsitting in his private study at theResidence with Chief TonyAnenih then Chairman of theBoard of Trustees of the party, Dr.Ahmadu Ali then Chairman of theparty, the Late Yar’ Adua thenflag-bearer of the party and ChiefBode George then Deputy Na-tional Chairman of the party. Itwas there and then I was informedthat Nuhu Ribadu had informedthe President that some ‘ForeignMissions’ in Abuja will not behappy to see me on the PDP tick-et on the basis of the so-called“EFCC interim Report” whichhad been circulated to them. I wasnow formally told that I have beentaken off the ticket.

I thanked them, congratulatedYar’Adua, wished him well, as-sured him of my support and thensaid to President Obasanjo toplease now close the EFCC chap-ter since it was clear the aim hadbeen achieved.

Driving outof the Villa

He in no uncertain terms as-sured me that he would ensurethat was done. On that note I leftthe Villa. As I was driving out ofthe Villa gate ‘then Governor’Goodluck Jonathan was drivingin at about 3.40pm, December17th, 2006. A few moments laterthe announcement of GoodluckJonathan as the running mate toYar’Adua hit the air-waves. Mis-sion accomplished. I got back toPort Harcourt at about mid dayMonday the 18th December, 2006and addressed the press urgingand declaring support for theYar’Adua/Jonathan ticket.

At the new year 1st January,2007 banquet at the new Govern-ment House Port Harcourt, I as-sured the public that the (false)

pany of some party leaders - ChiefJames Ibori, Chief Lucky Ig-binedion, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Al-haji Aliko Dangote, MallamNuhu Ribadu and Nassir El-Ru-fai. Their conversation stoppedwhen I walked in but I read noth-ing sinister to the gathering orreaction to my entry. Umaruquickly took me upstairs andthanked me for coming and as-sured me of his happiness at theprospect of our working together.He called his wife Turai into theroom and introduced us.

We later proceeded to the Ea-gle Square together and werejoined by other colleagues inwalking round the square.

Convention started after the ar-rival of all dignitaries and con-vention events proceeded peace-fully. In the course of the night Iwas invited to the VIP Guest Roomat Eagle Square and was privi-leged to sight the typed copy ofUmaru’s prepared acceptancespeech. It was clearly stated thathe had nominated Dr. Peter Odilias his running-mate for the Pres-idential race. This was at aboutmidnight or so. In the course ofthe next few hours informationstarted reaching me that therewas strong pressure to drop mefrom the ticket. Since I did notlobby for it, I wasn’t bothered - Iremained with my State dele-gates.

At about 3.30 am or so, I wasagain invited to the VIP Guestroom at the Eagle Square andinformed that there was a strongchallenge to my being the run-ning-mate based on ‘some fresh

By 4pm Sunday 17th Decem-ber, 2006 Dr Jonathan was an-nounced as the running mate toUmaru Yar’Adua. By Monday18th December I congratulatedUmaru and Jonathan and urgedall my supporters nationwide andRivers people to support the tick-et. Odili was out of the race andthe ticket.

At the general election in April,2007, Rivers State under myLeadership returned the highestvotes in the country for Yar’Adua/Jonathan ticket for the Presiden-cy. But ‘how did water enter mel-,

,

Continues from page 52

Rev. Fr. N. C. Tagbo, former principal of CKC Onitsha with Dr. and Mrs. Peter Odili

lon’? Let’s try to find out. So manyconspiracy theories emerged inthe days and months that fol-lowed. Since nothing is hiddenunder the sun someday God willreveal the truth.

What was the genesis of thefight against the possibility of anOdili Presidency? Who wasthreatened by that possibility andwhy? Whose decision and whenwas it made to stop Odili by allmeans possible? Who was thefulcrum of the execution of thatdecision? How come that for sev-en and half years nothing wasraised by EFCC or any relevantagency against Odili’s Govern-ment in Rivers State and sudden-ly on the ‘eve’ of the PDP Presi-dential Primaries all conceivablevile allegations were unleashed?

When did we Nigerians acquiresuch meteoric and forensic exper-tise and competence to producea report within 36 hours of instruc-tion to investigate? Just in timefor the deadline - December 16th2006. These are questions yawn-ing for answers. God’s time willtell.

afraid of the possible repercus-sions of an evil agenda, it wasnow imperative for the plotters tofind a way to justify their actionby finding ‘something’ againstOdili. Logical. The only thing todo was to work backwards fromthe already predetermined andexecuted end to find ‘something’.Common sense. I was ‘frightened’by the sudden realization thathuman beings could be this per-fidious and evil. I prayed over thesituation with my family and, withthat, set my legal team to work.

Principle ofself preservation

I decided to legally fight backinvoking the principle of “selfpreservation”. Within a few daysour papers were ready for vari-ous judicial battles. Out of a senseof patriotic commitment to a Gov-ernment I was considered a friendof, in the public eye, I told mylegal team to stay action. It wasafter a very astonishing meetingat the Presidency over the matterof my successor as Governor ofRivers State that I instructed mylegal team led by the AttorneyGeneral Odein Ajumogobia SAN,to commence legal action first atthe State High Court and then atthe Federal High Court , Port Har-court, against EFCC .

The first case went through fulltrial at the High Court of RiversState, with all parties fully andproperly represented. Trial last-ed several weeks and judgmentwas delivered on the 16th day ofFebruary, 2007. Following is fullreproduction of the judgment

SUIT NO: PHC/114/2007

BETWEEN:ATTORNEY-GENERAL FOR

RIVERS STATE Claimant/Applicant

AND THE SPEAKER, RlVERSSTATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY& 36 OTHERS} Defendants

JUDGMENTBy his originating summons

issued and dated 31st January2007 the Claimant seeks from thiscourt, ten (10) reliefs. The first sixare declarations, while the re-maining four (4) are injunctivereliefs: They are as follows:

i) A declaration that the Houseof Assembly for Rivers State (nowconsisting of the 1st to 31st De-

and contrived allegations mali-ciously made against me and myadministration were untrue andthat ‘we shall be vindicated in duecourse.’ This statement appearednot to have been kindly receivedin some quarters because a fewdays into the new year, January,2007, I was informed that EFCCoperatives had invited some ofmy officials to Lagos for interro-gation. I allowed them to go, toshow that we had nothing to hide.I promptly informed the Presiden-cy of the development and wasassured that the unnecessary ha-rassment would be stopped.

Seizure ofdocuments

The EFCC menace, rather thancease, increased with the seizureof documents from some minis-tries by EFCC carting them awayto their offices. I again lifted nofinger to stop them, just to showthat we were not afraid of any-thing. I, however, decided to goand speak to the President inAbuja. In my presence Nuhu Ri-badu was supposedly called onthe phone and instructed to stopthe contrived operation in RiversState. The President again reas-sured me and I left back to PortHarcourt.

A few days later more stories ofEFCC rampage in my ministriesgot to me. I once more made con-tact with the President and ex-pressed my displeasure and dis-satisfaction with this matter. I wasagain assured by him that noth-ing would happen. By this time Iwas beginning to smell somethingsinister. I thought through the en-tire saga from December 12th,2006 to about the end of January,2007. I decided it was time to takecare of the developing situation.

I got my legal team together andwe looked at the whole picture. Itbecame clear that having concoct-ed and contrived a spurious peti-tion, produced a pre-determinedand malicious report, achieved thegoal it was meant for and now,

What was the genesis of the fightagainst the possibility of an Odili Presi-dency? Who was threatened by that pos-sibility and why? Whose decision andwhen was it made to stop Odili by allmeans possible?

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013—53

information’ just received, fromNuhu Ribadu, that would needto be sorted out later in the day. Itook the information in my strideand went back to my Rivers Del-egates stand and didn’t say aword about it to anyone. By theclose of convention at dawn onlytwo State delegate Stands werestill full- Katsina and Rivers allothers were either empty or hadone or two people left.

The result was announced -Umaru was the winner and hepromptly read a handwritten ac-ceptance speech that excludedmy name. He announced thatfurther consultations were beingmade on the matter of his run-ning mate. End of Story.

The plot had worked. This con-firms what Russel Wayne Baker,an American Columnist said in1925 in “the sayings of Par Rus-sel”: “The dirty work of PoliticalConventions is almost alwaysdone in the grim hours betweenmidnight and dawn. Hangmenand politicians work best whenthe human spirit is at its lowestebb." Continues on page 54

CMYK

54—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

CONSCIENCE AND HISTORY - MY STORY

fendants) is not entitled to sur-render to any person, body ororganization (including the In-dependent Corrupt Practicesand other Related Offences Com-mission, ICPC; the Economic andFinancial Crimes Commission,EFCC; or any other investigativebody), is not entitled to share withany person or abdicate its pow-ers of control over the publicfunds of Rivers State as vestedin it by the Constitution of theFederal Republic of Nigeria1999.

(ii) A declaration that under theConstitution of the Federal Re-public of Nigeria 1999, only theHouse of Assembly for RiversState is entitled to direct or causeto be directed an inquiry or in-vestigation into the disbursing orthe administering of moneys ap-propriated or to be appropriatedunder any appropriation billpassed by the House, (whetherfor the purpose of exposing cor-ruption, inefficiency or waste)and that the said House of As-sembly is not entitled to share,surrender or abdicate the consti-tutional powers so vested in itwith, or to any other person, body,agency or organization no mat-ter how described.

Public accountof a state

(iii) A declaration that underthe constitution of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria 1999 the pow-er to audit the public account ofa state of all offices and all courtsof Rivers State is vested in theAuditor-General for Rivers Stateand that the said Auditor-Gen-eral in the exercise of the consti-tutional duties is not subject tothe direction or control of any au-thority or person and is not enti-tled to surrender its powers, ab-dicate or share its powers withany person, body authority or or-ganization no matter how de-scribed.

(iv) A declaration that under theconstitution of the Federal Re-public of Nigeria 1999, the Ac-countant General for Rivers Stateis the only person entitled to pre-pare and present the financialstatement and annual accountsof Rivers State to the Auditor-General (who in turn presentsthe same to the House of Assem-bly) and not any other authority,person, body or organization andaccordingly the Accountant Gen-eral of Rivers State is not enti-tled to submit financial state-ments, report of annual or otheraccounts of Rivers State, docu-ments, or vouchers or other finan-cial records/statements of RiversState to any other authority, per-son, body or organization (in-cluding the Independent Cor-rupt Practices and Other Relat-ed Offences Commission, ICPC;the Economic and Financial

Crimes Commission, EFCC; orany other investigative body).

(v) A declaration that the 35thand 37th Defendants or indeedany other bank or financial insti-tution are not entitled to submitto, to release to, or in any man-ner whatsoever to disclose to anyperson, body or agency (includ-ing the Independent CorruptPractices and other Related Of-fences Commission, ICPC; theEconomic and Financial CrimesCommission, EFCC; or any oth-er investigative body) any docu-ment, financial statement/records, statement of account,cheques, vouchers or any infor-mation relating to the Bank Ac-count(s) of the Rivers State Gov-ernment other than to the Houseof Assembly for Rivers State instrict compliance with the Con-stitution of the Federal Republicof Nigeria 1999.

(vi) A declaration that the pow-er of removal from office of a Gov-ernor or his deputy vested in theHouse of Assembly for RiversState under the Constitution ofthe Federal Republic of Nigeria1999 is to be exercised indepen-dently by the House of Assem-bly and that the said House ofAssembly and its members arenot entitled to act in collusionwith, or under coercion, induce-ment or influence of whatevernature from any authority, per-son, body or organization (in-cluding the Independent Cor-rupt Practices And Other Relat-ed Offences Commission, ICPC;the Economic and FinancialCrimes Commission, EFCC; andother such related bodies.)

(vii ) An order of injunction re-straining the Defendants bythemselves or by their servants,agents, and privies from surren-dering their constitutionally as-signed roles, sharing their con-stitutionally assigned roles, in-cluding the power of control overthe public funds of Rivers State,the duty to direct or cause to be

restraining the Defendants bythemselves or by their servants,agents and privies from submit-ting to, surrendering to, or in anymanner whatsoever disclosing toany authority, person, body,agency or organization (includ-ing the Independent CorruptPractices And Other Related Of-fences Commission, ICPC, theEconomic and Financial CrimesCommission- EFCC) any docu-ment, financial statement or in-formation relating to the publicfunds of the Rivers State otherthan in strict compliance with theConstitution of the Federal Re-public of Nigeria 1999.

(ix) An order of injunction re-straining the 36th and 37th de-

count(s) of the Rivers State Gov-ernment, to any person, body, au-thority, organization or agency(including the Independent Cor-rupt Practices and other RelatedOffences Commission, ICPC; theEconomic and Financial CrimesCommission, EFCC; and othersuch bodies) other than to theHouse of Assembly for RiversState and in strict compliancewith the Constitution of the Fed-eral Republic of Nigeria 1999 orfrom acting in or continuing to

gether, facts upon which this sum-mons is founded. The claimantis the Attorney-General for Riv-ers State. He instituted this casein such capacity on behalf of theGovernment of Rivers State ofNigeria. The 32nd Defendant isthe Legislative arm of the Gov-ernment of Rivers State, whilethe 1st-31st Defendants are itselected members. The 33rd De-

fendant is the Chief Administra-tive Officer or Clerk of the House.The 34th Defendant is the Audi-tor-General for Rivers State,while the 35th Defendant is theAccountant General for RiversState. The 36th and 37th Defen-dants are commercial banks andthey hold some Accounts of theRivers State Government.

act on the instruction of any oth-er person, body or organization(including but not limited to theEconomic and Financial CrimesCommission) other than the dulyauthorized signatories of the Riv-ers State Government in respectof all accounts of the Rivers StateGovernment kept in the 36th and37th Defendants Banks.

(x) An order of injunction re-straining the 1st and 33rd De-fendants by themselves or bytheir servants, agents and priv-ies from commencing or continu-ing with any process or proceed-ing for the removal of the Gover-nor of Rivers State or the DeputyGovernor of Rivers State from of-fice at the behest, prompting oradvise of any authority, person,body, agency or organization (in-cluding the Police, the Indepen-dent Corrupt Practices And Oth-er Related Offences Commis-sion, ICPC; the Economic and Fi-nancial Crimes Commission,EFCC) other than in accordancewith strict compliance with theConstitution of the Federal Re-public of Nigeria 1999.

From the affidavit filed in thiscase, this court is able to put to-

fendants by themselves or bytheir servants or agents from dis-closing any information relatingto the bank account(s) of the Riv-ers State Government, from sub-mitting any document, financial

directed the investigation of thedisbursement and administrationof moneys appropriated or to beappropriated under any appro-priation bill passed by the Houseof Assembly or as enabled underthe Constitution.

(viii) An order of injunction

statement, record, statement ofaccount, cheque or voucher inrespect of or relating to the bankaccount(s) of the Rivers StateGovernment or in any mannerwhatsoever releasing or allowingaccess to any document or infor-mation relating to any bank ac-

From left: Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Iche Ndu, the Attorney General and Commissionerfor Justice, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, SAN; Governor Peter Odili and his wife, Mary, and JusticeElizabeth Membere shortly after a special court session at the High Court Complex, Port Harcourt

,

,

The grouse of the complainant is that inspite of these clear constitutional provi-sions, the Rivers State House of Assem-bly, the Auditor General for Rivers Stateas well as the 35th Defendant, the Ac-countant-General for Rivers State, havebegun to show signs of surrenderingthese constitutional responsibilities, andabdicating same to other bodies foreignto the Constitution of the Federal Repub-lic of Nigeria

TOMORROWJustice I. N. Bubagives judgment inSuit No. PHC/114/2007 between At-torney General forRivers State andthe speaker, RiversState House ofAssembly & 36other defendants

Conscience and History - My Story

Continues from page 53

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 —55

THE InternationalCoalition of Tourism

Partners, ICTP, yesterday,congratulated Nigeria forintroducing tourist visa cardto ease the burden oftourists carrying cash whilein the country and abiometric registrationsystem for the tourismindustry workers.

This follows a meeting atFITUR between Mr OtunbaOlusegun Runsewe,Director General of theNigerian TourismDevelopment Corporationand Minister Alain St.Angeof the Seychelles.

In a statement released inMadrid, Spain by theorganisation, a co-founderof the internationallyacclaimed body, Mr. AlainSt.Ange, also commendedNigeria for its efforts atcurbing fraudulenttendencies in the industry.

Mr. Alain St.Ange, whois the Minister of Tourismand Culture of Seychelleslauded these efforts atrepositioning the tourismindustry in Nigeria withinternational standards andbest practices.

He said: “We in ICTP arevery pleased with thesedevelopment andinnovations in Nigeria. Webelieve these new productsare good for tourism growthin the continent.”

Ange noted that ICTPwas encouraging othercountries in Africa to dowhat Nigeria has done forthe growth of tourism intheir countries, adding:“We encourage othercountries in Africa tointroduce these products toease the movements oftourists who would notcarry cash because peopledon’t carry cash acrossborders any longer”

On the introduction ofbiometric registration, Angesaid the ICTP said it viewedthe development as a rightstep forward at instillingconfidence in tourists inline with global standardand best practices.

He said: “The biometricregistration will ensure thatthe CV of hotel staff arealways available to alltourism establishmentsprior to recruitment of newapplicants. This will remainan internal confidentialdata base for the tourismindustry. It is an innovativesystem and Africa will bewatching how it developsas it will ensure hotels havethe latest information on thetourism workforce. We arepleased Nigeria has takenthis step, we hope othercountries would do same.”

ICTP laudsNigeria oninnovativeTouristProducts

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AMARACHI—I, for-merly known and ad-dressed as Mr. IbezimAmarachi Kyrian, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Mr.Ibezim AmarachukwuKyrian. All former docu-ments remain valid.General public pleasetake note.

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ENEKWEIZU —I,formerly known andaddressed as MissEnekweizu OnyinyeNwanneka, nowwish to be knownand addressed asMrs. NwekeI f e a n y i c h u k w uO n y i n y eNwanneka. Allformer documentsremain valid. Gen-eral public pleasetake note.

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NWOSU —We, formerly known and addressed asNwosu John Kennedy, Nwosu EmmanuelOnyeachisim, Nwosu Darlyton Chinenye, NwosuClifford Olumba, Nwosu Maureen Adamma,Nwosu Victoria Ekpewerechi, Nwosu JovitaNgozi, Nwosu Theresa Tobechi, Nwosu Rita MaryOgadinma, Nwosu Regina Okwuchi, now wishto be known and addressed as Nwachukwu JohnKennedy, Nwachukwu Emmanuel Onyeachisim,Nwachukwu Darlyton Chinenye, NwachukwuClifford Olumba, Nwachukwu Morrine Adamma,Nwachukwu Victoria Ekpewerechi, NwachukwuJovita Ngozi, Nwachukwu Theresa Tobechi,Nwachukwu Rita Mary Ogadinma, andNwachukwu Regina Okwuchi. All former docu-ments remain valid. General public please takenote.

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YOU CAN B O O K Y O U R A D V E RT S AT OU RL 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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01- 8737025

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VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 — 57

58 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 — 59

IT’S A GOAL . . . Super Eagles forward Emmanuel Emenike (C) celebratesafter scoring the first goal in Nigeria’s 2-1 win over Ivory Coast in the AF-CON 2013 quarter final match in Rustenburg.

NO WAY . . . Eagles forward Brown Ideye ( R ) holds on to his own as he vieswith Ivory Coast’s midfielder Didier Zokora (L) HEADER . . . Ivory Coast’s forward Didier Drogba (R) heads the ball in front

of Nigeria’s defender Elderson Echiejile in Rustenburg.

CONTEST . . . Ivory Coast’s midfielder Cheick Tiote (L) vies with Eaglesforward Emmanuel Emenike

CROSS FIRE . . . Ivory Coast’s forward Didier Drogba (2ndR) kicks the balldespite Nigeria’s defender Kenneth Omeruo ( R)

CELEBRATION . . . Super Eagles forward Emmanuel Emenike (C) is con-gratulated by teammates after putting Nigeria ahead of Ivory Coast duringtheir AFCON 2013 quarter final match

NIGERIA vs IVORY COAST AFCON 2013QUATER FINAL MATCH IN PIX BY AFP

60 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Eagles sweep awardsSuper Eagles

midfeilder, Sunday Mbayesterday won the Manof the Match award inthe AFCON quarterfinalmatch against CoteD’Ivoire at the RoyalBafikeng Stadium inRustenburg.

Mba, an home-basedplayer with Warri Wolvesof Delta State, scored thesecond goal as theyEagles ran out with asurpirse 2-1 win over thehighly rated Ivorians,featuring the likes ofDidier Drogba, YayaToure and Cheik Tiote.

His goal was simplystunner, as he raced into launch a ferocious shotwhich landed in the backof the net of the Ivorians.The contribution of theattacking midfielder inthe match, was verysignificant as he cut ofpasses to the likes ofToure and Drogba.

Adding his name to thelist of award winners wascentral defender,Kenneth Omeruo, whosepartnership with GodfreyOboabona of SunshineStars, held the Ivoriansat bay, won for him thefair play gong.

SORRY BOY: Nigeria's Godfrey Oboabona (R) consoles Ivory Coast's Didier Drogbaafter the match in Rustenburg. Nigeria won 2-1. PHOTO AFP

KeshiContinues from BP

emotional Keshi, said thathe was confident that histeam were going to reachthe final of the nextSunday.

“I thank God for thiswonderful victory.Sincerely, I thank myplayers for everything thatthey did today. They weresimply great.. There arelots of possibilities for thisteam. I hope that we keepgoing this way to thefinal”, said Keshi, whoadded that the Ivoriansbrought out the best fromhis Eagles.

“It was not an easygame. We had to speed upat times and catch playerslike Drogba and YayaToure off guard. I am gladthat my team isprogressing. There is greatdiscipline in the team andeverything worked outwell.

“Before the game,maybe 20% of people gaveus the chance of winningbut my boys showed greatcharacter. They fought andwe are going to fight, fight

and fight till we winsomething. When theIvorians equalised, wehad to push our players toplay and not allow theheads to drop”, addedKeshi.

On the goal scored bySunday Mba, an home-based player with WarriWolves of Delta, the formerTogo and Mali coach, saidthat he was happy for theyoung player, adding thatas a show of appreciationthat he might kiss him.. Hehowever added that it wasnot individual game but acollective performance thatwon the game for Nigeria.

“I am happy for Mba. Itis not individual thing. Wejust wanted to win thegame. May be, when I goback to the hotel, I will goand kiss him and say thankyou”, added Keshi, whosaid that it was shamefulthat Nigerians do not havepatience with home-basedplayers.

“It is a shame that thatwhere I come from, we donot have patience withthese boys”, he said.

They wanted to sack Keshi,Amanze tells PresidentJonathan

FORMER VicePresident of Nigeria

Football AssociationAmanze Uchegbulan hassent some words toPresident GoodluckJonathan.

“Many of thosecommending StephenKeshi yesterday forNigeria’s victory againstIvory Coast had concludedplans to sack him.”

Amanze was referring tothe sports minister BolajiAbudullahi who pressedhard on the footballfederation to disengageKeshi on the grounds thathe was not good enoughto manage the Eagles.

At a time, they were evenconsidering sacking Keshiin South Africa. Later, theywanted to sack two ofKeshi’s assistant coaches.

“Look at the game theEagles played today. Greatgame. Great game. I toldthem that Keshi is buildinga team and that he was onthe right track. But theminister wanted him outand the federation boughthis plan. I wish thePresidency could havesomebody whounderstands sports andwho will help in advisingthem on the right way torun sports. Many of thepeople congratulatingKeshi now including theminister wanted to sackhim. They have concludedthat he would go after theNations Cup. But look atthe game Nigeria playedunder Keshi today. Superbgame. Please, let themleave them to continue thegood work that they aredoing. It takes time to builda solid team and Keshiand his colleagues aredoing the right thing.”

Uduaghan congratulates Eagles

THE Governor ofDelta State, Dr

Emmanuel Uduaghan hassent a congratulatorymessage to players andofficials of the Super Eaglesafter their historic victoryover pre-tournamentfavourites, Ivory Coast inyesterday’s Afcon 2013quarter final match inRustenburg, South Africa.

Uduaghan who is anardent football follower anda popular fan of the nationalteam told the Eagles that“after that hard-earned andwell deserved victory overthe Elephants, Nigeriansare waiting for the trophy.”

The Governor who is thechief financier of Warri

•As Pa Ojidoh says, victory restores our national pride

Wolves FC, the club ofSunday Mba , scorer ofNigeria’s winning goalyesterday said themidfielder’s performancedemonstrated the fightingspirit and high level ofdiscipline that shouldcharacterise Nigerianplayers. “He is our trueambassador,” the Governorsaid. Warri Wolves were, at atime, to be disbanded butUduaghan continuedfunding the club as hiscontribution to Nigeriansports. He is also at themoment, driving track andfield and college football.Mba is a product of Wolves.

Meanwhile, veteran

football referee, Pa JohnOjidoh has commended theSuper Eagles of Nigeria foredging out Ivory Coast inthe quarter final of the AfricaCup of Nations yesterday,saying “the victory hasrestored our national prideand confidence.”

Speaking after the epicencounter, the retiredreferee said, “the Eagleshave given us a new brandof football and I mustcommend the performanceof Sunday Mba, a homebased player who, togetherwith Oboabona hasjustified the confidenceKeshi has in them and theother NPL stars in theteam.”

ON THE RUN......Nigeria’s Victor Moses (L) beatsIvory Coast’s Cheick Tiote during yesterday’smatch in Rustenburg. Photo: AFP

I'm not the SpecialOne — Enyeama

SUPER Eaglesgoalkeeper, Vincent

Enyeama yesterdayadded a lighter side tothe 2-1 win of the SuperEagles over the Ivorians,when he said that hedidnot consider himselfas the Special One.

Enyeama played downtalks about his record ofnever losing in anyquarterfinal match at theAfcon he has appearedin.

The 30-year-old

goalkeeper when askedabout his record of neverlosing in the quarterfinalof the Afcon he said: “Idon’t know how ithappens as I’m not theSpecial One.”

He further said: “I canonly thank God for all ofthe achievements as Idon’t care aboutstatistics.” The formerEnyimba goalie has mademore than 70appearances for Nigeriasince his debut in 2002.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 — 61

CMYK

CMYK

62 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

FORMER Nigeriai n t e r n a t i o n a l ,

Chief Adokiye Amiesi-maka has congratulatedthe Super Eagles for yes-terday’s victory over theElephants of Coted’Ivoire but cautionedagainst being carriedaway by the feat.

He said, “Congrats toNigeria!But,we have not‘arrived’ yet.

“Part of our challeng-es in this country is thatwhen we play reason-ably well in onematch,we conclude pre-maturely that we’ve wonthe championship. Coted’Ivoire had a similarmentality and were justnot in this match. Appar-ently, they were carriedaway by their ‘No.1’ranking in Africa. Andthey lost. There are stillissues with organisationin our defence. In a set-piece situation,you don’tleave an opponent un-marked in your penaltybox.

“We did that and con-ceded a goal. We shouldcorrect that and note toothat we do better whenwe are in ‘ATTACK’mode as in this match.And we will do bestwhen we spread defenc-

We’ve not arrived yet — Amiesimakacautions

es thin by using entirewidth of the pitch. Fur-thermore, kudos to thelocal league player for

our second goal. But thatdoesn’t mean ourleague is still not verysick.”

The best team is goinghome — Antunes

CAPE Verde Islandscoach Lúcio Antunes

says the best team in thetournament are goinghome.

Antunes was referringto his side that fell to a 2-0 loss at the hands of Af-rican powerhouses Gha-na in their Africa Cup ofNations match at NelsonMandela Bay Stadium inPort Elizabeth on Satur-day.

KEEP THE FLAG FLYING: Coach Lucio Atunesof Cape Verde with his country's flag, after leadingthe Blue Sharks to the Afcon 2013 quarter finalberth. Ghana knocked the them out 2-0, Saturday.

The Islanders dominat-ed large parts of the en-counter, and the gamechanged just after thebreak when Ghana wereawarded a controversialpenalty and The BlackStars never looked back.

Cape Verde threw ev-ery player forward in des-perate search of an equ-aliser and were caughtout on the break, hand-ing Ghana their secondgoal.

“Today we watched abeautiful game of soccer,unfortunately the bestteam is going home to-morrow so the tournamentis going to lose a little bitof shine,” said Antunesafter the game.

Antunes went on toquestion the match offici-ating.

“Today was our fourthgame of the tournament,never were there ques-tions of the first, secondand third. Now the ques-tions come.”

Antunes sarcasticallysaid nobody would wantto watch Cape Verde inthe last four and that iswhy the Ghanians weregoing through.

“Although the score was2-0 Cape Verde really didput Ghana under pres-sure, especially in the sec-ond half they had a lot ofstress. Do you think thisresult is fair? “The resultis fair because Ghana winthe match. I don’t thinkthere would be very big in-terest for the tournamentif Cape Verde for exam-ple was to play with Togoin front of maybe 200spectators. It is importantfor the tournament thatGhana stays on to thesemifinals.”

GHANA captainAsamoah Gyan says

the team’s rich experiencehelped them to eliminateCape Verde at the AfricaCup of Nations.The Black Stars were sec-ond best to the BlueSharks in their quarter-fi-nal clash on Monday butdid what mattered by win-ning 2-0.

Second half substituteMubarak Wakaso scored abrace-the first from thespot and struck an injury

Ghana used experience to KOCape Verde — Gyan

time goal.Gyan, who won a pen-

alty for the opening goal,admitted they had tostruggle to dispatch theCape Verdians.

“The first half was a bitfrustrating,” Gyan said inpost match conference.

“We couldn’t go throughtheir defence. But whatmade the difference in ourvictory, was the penalty.When we scored, thegame became opened.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 — 63

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e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

How to Play Sudoku THE VIGILANTE

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.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

FRIDAY'S SOLUTIONS

QUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORD

FRIFRIFRIFRIFRIDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSTODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLE

ACROSS4 Elude (5)7 Surplus (6)9 Epoch (3)10 Scuttle (3)12 Elbow (5)13 Labour (4)15 Flat (5)17 Suit (6)19 Snare (4)20 Encourage (5)22 Finish (3)24 Revolved (7)27 Enclosure (3)28 Wear away (5)31 Bird (4)33 Wandered (6)35 Object (5)37 Desire (4)38 Swift (5)39 Tear (3)41 Queen (3)42 Flood (6)43 Trivial (5)

DOWN1 Feverish (6)2 Writer (6)3 Tree (3)4 Sea-eagle (4)5 Cellar (5)6 Demeaned (8)8 Unaccompanied (4)11 Behaviour (9)14 Ogle (4)16 Opening (4)18 Harvest (4)21 Waver (8)23 Consider (4)25 Period (4)26 Sketched (4)29 Hateful (6)30 Resounded (6)32 Fool (5)34 Parched (4)36 Whirlpool (4)40 Favourite (3)

ACROSS: 1, Neat 4, Nip 6, Akin 9, Den10, Fracture 11, Once 14, Tic 16, Entry 19,Vertical 21, Panic 23, Location 24, Tally27, Net 31, Dive 33, Assemble 34, Lag 35,Fete 36, Aid 37, Near.

DOWN: 2, Earn 3, Tact 4, Nautical 5, Prey 6,Adorn 7, Ken 8, Incur 12, Overt 13, Frail 14,Tip 15, Canon 17, Toxic 18, Young 20, licensed22, Cat 25, Agile 26, Liege 28, Saga 29, Omen30, Plea 32, vat.

Keshi: We willbattle to the final

MOMENT afterseeing Nigeria

secure a Nations Cupsemifinal ticket at theexpense of CoteD’Ivoire, Coach StephenKeshi has hailed hisdogged Eagles for theirfighting spirit andstrong character, in the2-1 win at the RoyalBafokeng Stadium.

Speaking at the post-match conference,Keshi, who was close totears, said that therewere lots of possibilitieswith the team, who playMali in the semifinal onWednesday.

While thanking God,his players and themedia for the 2-1 victoryover the Ivorians, anKeshi celebrates with Sylvanus Okpala after the

matchContinues from P.60

JOYOUS.....Eagles celebrate Sunday Mba's winning goal against Ivory Coastin Rustenburg yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

They wanted to sack Keshi,Amanze tells PresidentJonathan — Pg 60

Uduaghancongratulates

Eagles — Pg 60

CMYK