How Oshiomhole won Edo guber battle

...towards a better life for the people

VOL. 25: NO. 61666 MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012

**

Mr & Mrs

N150

Continues on Page 5

•President Jonathan congratulates, assures of FG's support•End of an era as PDP chieftain, Anenih, loses ward•All hail Oshiomhole — See more stories and pictures on Pages 8,51&52

•PG.17

How to achieve 10% real sectorcontribution to GDP by 2015

BY EMMANUELAZIKEN, POLITICALEDITOR, SIMONEBEGBULEM &

GABRIEL ENOGHO-LASE

BENIN—AFTERweeks of prepara-

tion, alignment, re-align-ment and anxiety, theEdo State governorship

SWEEPING VICTORY —ACN supporters celebrate in Edo State. Inset top left: An Okada

rider jubilates. Right: A Sweeping victory.

ACN 477, 478

ANPP 3,642

CPC 2,793

LP 604

NCP 540

PDP 144, 235

SDMP 807

THE SCORE CARD2012 EDO GOVERNORSHIP

RESULT

•See details on Pg.12

•Pg.6

We lost over 10,000people to Fulaniattacks — Berom

EDO POLLS:

How policescaled acid test

•Pg.7Car bomb explodes in Kogi, suspect arrested

•Pg.46

How Oshiomholewon Edo guber battle

CMYK

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012

Vanguard, MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012 — 3


POCKET CARTOON

Vanguard, MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012—5

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

Continues from Page 1

How Oshiomhole won Edoguber battle

THE VICTIMS:

election ended in adramatic fashionweekend with GovernorAdams Oshiomholeretaining his seat with alandslide victory.

Out of a total of630,099 valid votes cast,Oshiomhole clinchedvictory by amassing477,478 votes represent-ing 76% of the validvotes, leaving MajorGen. CharlesAirhiavbare of thePeoples DemocraticParty, PDP, with 144,235votes representing 23%of the valid total votescast. Chief SolomonEdebiri who flew theflag of the All NigeriaPeoples Party, ANPP andhad been seen as an al-ternative was only ableto manage 3,642 votesrepresenting less than1% of the valid votescast.

Commercial motorcy-clists who had been atthe vanguard ofOshiomhole’s cam-paigns took to the streetsin wild celebration rid-ing even in the thick ofa heavy downpour.

Yesterday’s rains inthe opinion of many, washeaven’s own tide tosweep out the oppositionPDP from the state.

“It is finished,”Oshiomhole shouted outin a tone reflective of themessianic image he hascut for himself yester-day afternoon as hemoved in carnival fash-ion along one of the ma-jor roads of the ancienttown.

End of an era inEdo

It is indeed the end ofan era not just for thePDP but for the leader ofthe party, Chief TonyAnenih, the formerchairman of the PDPboard of trustees. Anenihsince he entered politicsin the early eighties hadwithout exception influ-enced the election of allcivilian governors thatruled the state. Not onegovernor entered theGovernor ’s Officewithout his approval.

Yesterday, as he sa-voured the fresh scent ofvictory, Oshiomhole washumble in victory pledg-ing that he would con-tinue to accord Anenih,79, the respect he de-serves.

“Many believe that theelection was betweenmyself and Anenih,”Oshiomhole told news-men at a post-electionpress conference.

“I appreciate him as aleader in our state, whodeserves respect from allof us. I will continue torespect him and showrespect to him and mem-bers of his great partyinspite of our politicaldifferences,” the re-elected governor said.He, however, affirmedthat he had no regretsover the taunts heheaped on the elderlypolitician during thecampaign declaring thatit was his own style.

Senator EhigieUzamere, ACN, EdoSouth, who championed

the campaign to stop thePDP’s gubernatorialcandidate, on his part,saw the result as the de-termination of thepeople to build a newEdo State.

“It shows that peopleresented the old orderand we stood by a manwho has given us hopeand a man who hasgiven us the things thatwe have for long beenseeking,” SenatorUzamere said.

Senator Uzamere wasneck deep in the cam-paign and fought to stopAirhiavbare who inci-dentally is his maternalnephew.

How Oshiomholebroke opposi-tion's challenge

How Oshiomhole wasable to break down thechallenge of the opposi-tion was no easy task. Itwas a combination of in-trigues, deployment offorces, good perform-ance and despondencyon the part of the PDP’sfoot soldiers.

The governor alsoused the time testedpractice of crying wolf tounnerve the opposition.When last Saturday vot-ing materials failed toarrive early enough atsome strongholds of thegovernor, Oshiomhole atabout 11.45 a.m. in pressinterviews denouncedProf. Attahiru Jega, thenational chairman of theIndependent NationalElectoral Commission,INEC as having failed.

The governor particu-larly singled out the de-ployment of an INECNational Commissioner,Ishmael Igbani to EdoState alleging past elec-toral misdeeds by thecommissioner that madehim not to be trusted forthe sensitive job.

There are now indica-tions that Oshiomhole’sassertion that the elec-tion was compromisedwould be used as an is-sue by the PDP.

“For the first time weagree with Adams andwholeheartedly adopthis claim that the elec-tion was not free andfair. He said it and webelieve him,” a highranking official of thePDP told Vanguard yes-terday.

PDP chieftains weremeeting in Benin, yes-terday, to appraise thesituation and give a for-mal response. A state-ment earlier prepared

alleging loopholes in theconduct of the electionwas hurriedly withdrawnas the party’s top brassreviewed the develop-ment yesterday. Amongthe considerations beforethe party officials wasthe fact that the party’snational leader, Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathanhad congratulatedOshiomhole whose vic-tory the president saidwas a reward for hisgood performance.

JonathancongratulatesOshiomhole

Congratulating thegovernor, PresidentJonathan had urgedOshiomhole to see hisreelection as “an en-dorsement of his out-standing performance inhis first term and an ex-pression of their desirefor a continuation of hisfocused, purposeful anddynamic leadership.”

Ahead of the electionthe ACN had envisagedthat the PDP would con-centrate its energies onthe Edo South SenatorialDistrict which has 58% ofthe voting population.Remarkably, the ACNguessed the PDP welland sought to checkmatethe opposition there. Itis no surprise that whileit was able to check thePDP in Edo South whichis incidentally the PDP’scandidate’s base, it al-lowed the PDP room tomove in the two othersenatorial districts.

It was as such aston-ishing to some that thePDP did fairly well inEdo North. Even thoughit still lost there, but theopposition party wasable to gain almost 30%in Akoko Edo and 32%in Owan West. The sur-prising performance wasaccredited to the deter-mination of ChiefMichael Oghiadomhe,the Chief of Staff to thePresident to show elec-toral value at home. ThePDP also did measurablywell in Esan North Eastand Esan North Westlargely on account of theinfluence of ChiefAnenih getting as muchas 40% in those areasbut still not winning thetotal votes.

Lucky escape forAnenih

For Anenih, it was alucky escape as he man-aged to deliver his poll-ing booth to the PDP by

one vote. The PDP wonby 40 to 39 votes inAnenih’s booth, but thenhe still lost his ward tothe ACN by as much as2,000 votes.

In Edo South that hadthe bulk of the votes, theACN’s strategy as im-plemented by PastorOsagie Ize-Iyamu, thedirector general of theOshiomhole CampaignOrganisation was to de-ploy what one sourcesaid yesterday were“ready tested ACN loy-alists as agents in EdoSouth.”

The deployment oftested hands it waslearnt was to avoid thesituation where agentswould be compromised.

Indeed, these die-hardenthusiasts of the ACNfollowed the officialsand the votes from boothto ward and LGA com-pilation centres. At theGeorge Idah PrimarySchool centre that alsowas the compilation cen-tre for Ward 2, in OredoLocal Government Area,soldiers had to be calledin after the PDP agentfor one of the units dis-appeared at the end ofthe voting leaving thespace for his signatureblank.

ACN operatives wereset to descend on onePDP official who theyidentified to compel himto sign the space for theagent. Their fear wasthat the strategy of thePDP was to leave the sig-natures blank openingroom for denial during apossible litigation.

In Uhumwonde LocalGovernment Area, Mr.Charles Idahosa, thePolitical Adviser to theGovernor led the attackagainst the forces of thePDP led by an old reli-able in the person ofSenator Roland Owie.Owie’s experience wasindeed of little help asthe PDP still lost.

In Oredo, Bob Izualed the ACN electionmachine against thePDP that was in the lastweek re-energised withthe emergence of thebillionaire business-man, Captain HosaOkunbor on its side.While Captain Hosapumped in money, hismoney could really notdo much. Many of hisreliable operatives itwas learnt had aban-doned him for theACN.

The influence ofmoney one PDP chief-tain said, yesterday,became a matter of con-cern as he lamented therefusal of the “Secondlayer” that is the footsoldiers, who he saidcollected money fromthe PDP hierarchywithout passing on themoney to bring out orbuy out the votes. Ourproblem was to say theleast disillusionment.

"The foot soldierswere simply disillu-sioned and believedthat there was nothingthey could do,” a topranking member of thePDP disclosed yester-day, ahead of the par-ty’s caucus meeting inBenin.

Also in Edo South thehusband and wife tagteam of Harrison andLucy Omagbon com-bined to demystify theEsama of Benin, ChiefGabriel Igbinedion en-suring that the PDPcandidate did not winup to 16% of the votescast.

Also strategic to theACN was the employ-ment of the old PDPhands in hitting back attheir former party. Mrs.Omagbon was, for in-stance, a former StateWoman Leader of thePDP and like Ize-Iyamu and many othersin the ACN who exitedthe party, knew how toplug the loopholes."

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards;they try to have more things, or more money, inorder to do more of what they want, so they willbe happier. The way it actually works is the re-verse. You must first be who you really are, thendo what you need to do, in order to have what youwant

—Margaret Young

SOME of the greatest joys in life are also thesimplest. Beran Wolfe sums it beautifully: “If

you observe a really happy man you will find himbuilding a boat, writing a symphony, educating hisson, growing double dahlias in his garden, or look-ing for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He willnot be searching for happiness as if it were a collarbutton that has rolled under the radiator. He willnot be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will havebecome aware that he is happy in the course of liv-ing life twenty-four crowded hours of the day. Loving others and being loved is central to thehappiness of people. Everyone needs to know theyare loved and people usually find great satisfac-tion in loving others in meaningful ways.

6—VANGUARD, MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012

STF clarifies quit order onPlateau villages�As air and land assault imminent

From left: Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Kaduna State, Amb. Nuhu Audu Bajoga; hiswife; Vice President Namadi Sambo; and Gov. Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State during a thanksgivingreception for PDP chairman, Kaduna State, in Kaduna, weekend.

We lost over 10,000people to Fulaniattacks — Berom

JOS—THE Berom ofPlateau State say they

have lost over 10,000people and property worthmore than N180 billion toFulani herdsmen since theattacks began.

This was disclosed,weekend, by Chairman ofthe Berom Community inAbuja, Mr. Peter Gai, whotold journalists in Jos thathis people had always beenat the receiving end of theattacks and were alwayshaving to react to defendthemselves.

He said given theirexperience with the Fulani,they would resist anyattempt to carve out anypart of Berom land asgrazing reserve as beingproposed in the Grazing Billcurrently before theNational Assembly.

He said: “If the NationalAssembly insists on passingthat bill into law, as far as

BY TAYE OBATERU &

KINGSLEY OMONOBI

JOS— COMMANDERof the Special Task

Force, STF, maintainingsecurity in Plateau State,Major General HenryAyoola, has explainedthat the recent order topeople in the troubledvillages of Barkin Ladi andRiyom Local GovernmentAreas to relocate within 48hours was in line withinternational conventionguiding militaryoperations and nottargeted at any group.

He gave the clarificationfollowing speculationssurrounding theultimatum which somehave interpreted asdesigned to displacecertain people from theirhomes.

Ayoola told newsmenthat contrary to theinsinuations, askingcivilians to evacuate anarea where militaryoperation is going tobegin was in line withglobal practices andinternational law.

He said since fullmilitary operation was tocommence in the affectedareas which had beenlargely deserted, it wasimportant to ask thoseremaining in the affectedvillages to move outbecause of the operations,for their safety.

He stressed that theorder was not targeted atany particular group but

in the best interest andsafety of the people.

The STF had some daysago temporarily moved itsoperational base to thetroubled area in BarkinLadi Local GovernmentArea in an apparent moveto stem the tide of killingsand invasion of villagesby gunmen which hadresulted in several deaths.

In a statement,weekend, it gave thosestill inhabiting thedevastated villages likeMahanga, Kakuruk,Kuzen, Maseh and Songto vacate within 48 hourswhen the militaryoperation is expected tobegin.

The statement signed bySTF’s Media Offficer,Captain Salisu, alsoadvised residents of KuraFalls, Kuzuk and Sharuk,Rim of Gashish and BachitDistricts which are close tothe affected villages to becareful of their movementin view of the militaryoperation.

Air and land assault

imminent

According to Vanguardsources, the militaryoperation which willinvolve the use of AirForce helicoptergunships, artillery andinfantry components ofthe Nigerian Army willsee the Special Task Forceoperatives embarking onswift and precise attacks

to dislodge the criminalelements.

According to astatement by the DefenceHeadquarters confirmingthe planned attack,entitled ‘DefenceHeadquarters OrdersRaid on CriminalHideouts in Plateau State’and signed by Col.Mohammed Yerima,Director of DefenceInformation, DHQ, said:“The Special Task Force inJos has found out thatsome of the criminals whocarried out last week’sattack on innocent peopleare still hiding aroundsome villages in order tocontinue to perpetratecrimes against the goodpeople of Plateau State.The Task Force isdetermined to rid the stateof these murderers.

“Having failed in theirattempts to continue toinstigate communal strifein Plateau State, criminalelements who areenemies of the peopledecided to wear militarytype uniforms and attackdirectly innocent citizensin some parts of the state.

“This direct attack wasobviously decided uponwhen these criminalsrealised that their previoustactics of inciting onesection of the populaceagainst another is nolonger working becausethe people of Plateau Statehave seen through thedivisive technique of these

ungodly people.“The Defence

Headquarters wishes toinform the villages wherethese criminal elementsuse as hideouts to vacateto a safer place where anarrangement is beingmade for them by the stategovernment to avoidcollateral damage.

“This temporaryrelocation is for a whileand the villagers willrelocate when theoperation is completed.The villages affected are:Mahanga, Kakuruk,Kuzen, Maseh andShong.

"Residents of Kura-falls,Kuzukand Sharuk, Rim ofGashish and Bachitdistricts respectively areenjoined not to panic andto be careful of theirmovement within the areaand avoid places ofmilitary operations untilfurther notice. People arealso advised to report anysuspicious movement/activities in their areas tosecurity agencies.

“These are temporarymeasures put in place bythe Defence Headquartersfor the safety of theinhabitants of the affectedareas. The residentsshould be rest assuredthat as soon as theoperations are over, theywill be called back to theirr e s i d e n c e s .Inconveniences causedare highly regretted.”

Berom land is concerned,that law is dead on arrivalbecause no one would liketo surrender his land tosomebody who would notwant to live in peace withhis host.”

The group called for theevacuation of the Fulaniinhabiting Berom land as away out of the spate ofattacks and clashes thathave resulted in the loss ofinnocent lives.

It said it was unfortunatethat the hospitality theBerom people accorded theFulani by accommodatingthem had become anightmare as they werebeing paid back withviolence.

The Grazing Bill seeks tocarve out grazing reservesfor Fulani herdsmen indifferent parts of the countrywhere they can grazeunmolested and withoutstraying into people’s farmswhich is often a source ofclash between them andfarmers.

BY TAYE OBATERU

Middle Belt Forum urgesFG to end bloodshed inPlateau, others

BY TAYE OBATERU

JOS — THE Middle BeltForum, MBF, has called

on the Federal Governmentto take decisive steps to endthe killings in Plateau andother parts of the MiddleBelt or the people might beforced to defendthemselves.

Former Minister ofInformation, Professor JerryGana, said this, yesterday,when he led a delegationof the forum on acondolence visit toGovernor Jonah Jang overthe recent killings in thestate which resulted in thedeath of two legislators andseveral others.

He urged PresidentGoodluck Jonathan to actfast to check the bloodshedin different parts of thecountry, adding: “We wantto use this opportunity to tellMr. President to acteffectively and stop thesekillings here and there.”

According to Gana, “if theFederal Governmentcannot defend our people,Mr. President should comeout clearly and tell us. If ourpeople cannot be defended,they are ready to defendthemselves. So, Mr.President should acteffectively before thesituation gets out of hand.

“We are now beenpushed to the wall and weare saying enough is

enough. Our people laiddown their lives to defendthis country; we deserve tobe defended as well, but ifMr. President cannotdefend us he should let usknow now.”

He assured the governorand the people of the stateof the support of the forumat this trying time, sayingtime had come for allMiddle Belters to unite to,according to him,”acttogether and thinktogether.”

Reacting, Gov. Jangdescribed the visit asencouraging and anindication that they sharedin the pains the state wasgoing through.

He lamented thatterrorists had taken overpart of the state and wereunleashing mayhem on thepeople while the cries of thestate over this in the pastwere not taken seriously.

He said: “It is sad thatsince 1994 there have beenconsistent plots todestabilise Plateau State,but unfortunately theFederal Government is notdoing anything."

Also on the MBFdelegation were GeneralZamani Lekwot and JoshuaDogonyaro (rtd), Dr. BalaTakaya, Dr Philp Salawu,Mr. John Dara, ChiefMichael Abdul and Mr.Ibrahim Bangulu, amongothers.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012—7

An auto crash involving two trailer trucks with number plates XD207LND and XB461UGH, and LASTMAtowing van which resulted in the death of one person at the Mile 2-Oshodi expressway, yesterday.Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

AGF okays draft bills for lawsagainst terrorism, corruption

BY IKECHUKWU

NNOCHIRI

ABUJA — THE AttorneyGeneral of the

Federation, AGF, andMinister of Justice,Mohammed Bello Adoke,has okayed five draft billsfor new laws that willstrengthen the fight againstterrorism and corruption inthe country.

The five draft bills that heproposed for enacting intonew laws are “WitnessProtection Bills, MutualAssistance in CriminalMatters Bill, Administrationof Criminal Justice Bill,Whistle Blowers Bill andProceeds of Offences Bill.”

Besides, the AGF,according to a documentmade available toVanguard, has equallypinpointed grey areas inthe existing laws of Nigeria,which he said ought to beamended with a view tocurbing the spate ofeconomic crimes in theprivate and public sectorsof the economy.

According to him, there isneed for an immediateamendment of the “Anti-Money Laundering Act,Independent CorruptPractices Act, Economic andFinancial CrimesCommission Act, PublicComplaints CommissionAmendment Bill and theCode of Conduct Bureauand Tribunal.”

It would be recalled thatthe AGF had on Friday,decried the increasingspate of violence across thecountry, saying the FederalGovernment was “workinghard to stem the gradualdecent to anarchy bydiligently prosecuting allthose indicted for civildisturbances to serve as

deterrence.”In a speech he presented

at a valedictory courtsession held in honour ofthe outgoing Chief Justiceof Nigeria, Justice DahiruMusdapher, the AGFnoted: “The recent BokoHaram and Jos crises areunfortunate examples thathave evoked a lot ofemotions and publiccondemnation both inNigeria and from the

international community.“May I also use this

auspicious occasion toreiterate government’scommitment to the waragainst corruption and ourcollective determination toprosecute the war withinthe confines of the rule oflaw.

To this end, governmenthas concludedarrangements to commencethe prosecution of those

recently indicted in the fuelsubsidy probe report andthe charges arising from theinvestigation conducted byrelevant law enforcementagencies will be filed verysoon.

“Efforts are also beingmade to strengthen ourinstitutions and processesto prevent futureoccurrence as well as curbcorruption.”

Labour raises alarm over mass

retrenchment in banks

�Says over 9000 workers sacked in last 12 months

BY VICTOR

AHIUMA-YOUNG

LAGOS — WORKERSin the banking sector

have raised alarm overongoing massretrenchment in thesector, saying no fewerthan 9,000 workers havebeen retrenched in thelast 12 months.

Under the umbrella ofthe Association of SeniorStaff of Banks, Insuranceand FinancialInstitutions, ASSBIFI,labour named five newgeneration banks asalleged major culpritsand lamented that theaffected workers weredisengaged withoutrecourse to the subsistingprocedural agreement.

In a statement byEmeka Ogene andObukese Orere,ASSBIFI vowed that thefull weight of labourmovement would bebrought against thebanks should theycontinue to sack workers

indiscriminately and failto follow due process bymeeting with organisedlabour to negotiate thefull benefits of thealready retrenchedworkers.

Giving detail of theretrenchment, Oreresaid: “It is mind buglingand the process sadlyhas not stopped. In thelast 12 months, the bankshave disengaged over9,000 workers.

"It is a serious issue andorganised labour will beforced to bring its fullweight on the affectedbanks should they fail tomeet with labour todiscuss full payment ofbenefits to the affectedworkers in accordancewith the industry ’sprocedural agreement.”

According to thestatement, “if the job lossin the finance industrybetween 2004 and 2008was disturbing, the loss ofjobs between 2009 andnow is colossal.

"It is worthy of note that

while the NDIC was setup to insure onlydepositors in the banks,no institution has been setup to take care of theworkers in theseorganisations.

"This loophole is nowbeing capitalised upon bythe CBN and themanagement of thesevarious institutions, intheir policies to arbitrarilyterminate theappointments of theirworkers.

“Managements ofbanks are hereby calledupon to respect thesanctity of the collectiveagreement as it affectsredundancy and engagethe national unions indialogue. We hereby callon the managements ofthe banks that haverecently disengaged theirstaff, to urgently engagethe national unions in thesector for propernegotiation and urgentsettlement of the fullentitlements of theirdisengaged staff.”

SERAP asks US to depositAlamieyeseigha's $400,000assets into trust fund

BY ABDULWAHAB

ABDULAH

LAGOS — SocialEconomic Rights

Advocacy Project, SERAP,has asked the United Statesgovernment to deposit intoan established trust fund,the $400,000 in assetsbelonging to formerGovernor of Bayelsa State,Diepreye Alamieyeseigha,which were forfeited afterhe was convicted for moneylaundering offences.

SERAP’s advice to the USauthority was sequel to arequest by the USgovernment asking SERAPfor input on how to releasethe fund stolen by the formergovernor, for the use of thepeople of Bayelsa State.

The US Department ofJustice in a letter signed byJeffrey Benzing of theDepartment of Justice toSERAP’s volunteerattorney in the US, ProfessorAlexander Sierck, haddemanded what to do with$400,000 in assets traced toDiepreye Alamieyeseigha.

In its response, SERAPurged the US to adopt theprovisions of Article 79 ofthe Rome Statute thatestablished theInternational CriminalCourt, ICC, which providesfor the establishment ofseparate trust funds intowhich criminal penaltiesand asset forfeiture

proceeds are paid.These trust funds,

according to SERAP,“should benefit the victimsof the crimes committed bythe accused.”

The intervention rolesbeing played by SERAP onissues of corruption,especially its recent requestand proposal to the USSECs EnforcementDivision concerningproceeds of FCPA civilpenalty and disgorgementpayments led to the USrecognition of theorganisation.

The organisation askedthe Department of Justicein its first Asset RecoveryInitiative forfeiturejudgment of $400,000 inassets tracedto Alamieyeseigha todeposit the fund for directuse of the people of thestate. It suggested that adirect payout from the trustfund to adult citizens of thestate would seem to be“impractical andinefficient.”

According to theorganisation, “in thespecific context of theAlamieyeseigha case, theUS should establish a trustfund comprised of presentand future civil assetforfeiture proceeds to bepaid, ultimately to a futurebenefit of the people ofBaylelsa State.

Car bomb explodes inKogi, suspect arrested

BY BOLUWAJI

OBAHOPO

LOKOJA — A CARcarrying explosive

devices, yesterday,exploded along Okene-Obehira road just by TheLiving Faith Church inOkene Local GovernmentArea of Kogi State.

The blast came on theheels of apprehensionoccasioned by allegedrumour from a pastor in thearea of an intending attackon some locations in thestate by members of theBoko Haram group.

The Kogi State PoliceCommand spokesman, MrIle Simon, who confirmedthe explosion in Lokoja, saidthe suspect was driving ina car and heading towardsthe church when he wasaccosted by security men.Ile said that it was while thesuspect was stillundergoing screening thata “big” explosion occurred.

He said the security mendeployed to the church then

arrested the suspect beforehe could escape. He addedthat no report of death wasreceived but some peoplewere being treated for shockand injuries from thestampede that followed theblast.

But another eye witnessclaimed that the occupantsof the said vehicle wereapparently waiting for thechurch service to end beforecarrying out their attackwhen they were accosted bythe manager of the NNPCfilling station where thevehicle was parked to movethe car away.

The source added that itwas in the process ofmoving the vehicle from thestation that it exploded,though he said there wasno casualty aside theoccupant of the car

Simon said one personhad been arrested inconnection with theincident and was beinginterrogated while thesecurity agents were on thetrail of another suspect whowas said to have escaped.

8—Vanguard, MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012

THE ACTION CONGRESS OF NIGERIA, ACN, VICTORY IN EDOIndependent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN's candidate, Adams

Oshiomhole, as winner of the Saturday governorship election in Edo State, yesterday. Photos by Nath Onojake and NAN capturesupporters' celebration and Oshiomhole's thankgiving in Benin.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and his Deputy, Dr.Pius Odubu, at the thanksgiving service at St Paul's CatholicChurch, Benin.

Ring Road, Benin.

INEC headquarters in Benin after the an-nouncement of election results. Oshiomhole (left) and Senator Chris Ngige.

Children on Wire Road, Benin.

Prof. Osayuki Oshodi (left), Edo State, Return-ing Officer, announcing the result of the gover-norship election.

ACN supporters at St Paul's Catholic Church, Benin City, yesterday.

CMYK


How TV presenter, Gawat'scar was found, by LASTMA

BY OLASUNKANMI

AKONI & EVELYN

USMAN

From left; Mr.Muyiwa Adekeye,Member, Board ofWole Soyinka Cen-tre for InvestigativeJournalism; Mr.Gbenga Adefaye,General Manager,Publication/Editor-in-Chief, VanguardNewspapers andProfessor Lai Oso,Dean, School ofCommunication,Lagos State Univer-sity, at the 4th WoleSoyinka AnnualLecture, weekend,in Ikeja, Lagos.Photo: KehindeGbadamosi

5 policemenarrested forallegedlykillingOkada rider

BY ALBERT AKPOR

2 die, many injured inLagos auto crashes

LAGOS—FIVE policemen attached to

Isashi Divisional Head-quarters, Lagos, havebeen arrested for alleg-edly pushing a motorcy-cle operator out of theirfast-moving patrol vanaround Iba new site areaof the state. The man, simply iden-tified as Effiong, alleg-edly died in the process.

An eye-witness nar-rated that the policemenhad impounded Effiong’sbike for undisclosed rea-son.

As he was being takenaway to an unknown des-tination he protested andjumped into the policevan, insisting to knowwhere his bike was be-ing taken to.

When contacted LagosState Police Public Rela-tions Officer,PPRO,Deputy Superintendentof Police, Ngozi Braide,said the arrested police-men had been trans-ferred to SCID for furtherinvestigation.

She said that only anautopsy report could de-termine whether Effiongwas pushed from a mov-ing patrol van or not.

According to reliablesources, when the newsof Efiong’s death broke,other motor-bike opera-tors in the area quicklymobilised and chased thepolice patrol van whichlater ran into a gridlockwhere the policemenwere overpowered.

The mob was said tohave surged towards theIsashi Division protest-ing police extortion andhigh- handedness.

BY OLASUNKANMI

AKONI

LAGOS—NO fewerthan two persons

died and several othersinjured, yesterday, inseparate auto accidents onon Oshodi-Apapa Ex-pressway, involving La-gos State Traffic Manage-ment Authority, LASTMA,towing truck, three con-tainer-laden articulatedvehicles and a Danfo bus.

Involved at one accidentspot, on Apapa-OshodiExpressway, at Mile 2Area, opposite FatgbemsFilling Station, were aLASTMA towing truckand two container vehi-cles.

At press time, themaimed and lifeless bodyof the victim was still onthe expressway with oneof his legs few metresaway from the half cutbody.

The victim was said tobe a pedestrian trying tocross the expresswaywhen the container vehi-cle crushed him to death.

The accident, which wassaid to have happenedabout 12.35 p.m, occurreddue to over-speeding bythe container driver whileescaping from street ur-chins, “Area boys” whowere allegedly trying toextort money from him.

In the process, he was

said to have rammed intothe LASTMA towing ve-hicle and the container ve-hicle with number-plateLagos XD 207 LND.

An unidentifiedLASTMA official, whosustained serious injurywas rushed to a nearbyhospital for treatment.

As at 1 pm, no rescueteam was on hand to helpout with the clearing of thevehicles involved in theaccident.

LASTMA official weresaid to have stayed backbecause of fear of attackby “Area boys” who be-sieged the scene. The de-velopment led to gridlock,stretching for over twokilometres along the ex-pressway.

It was learnt that men ofthe Federal Road SafetyCorps took the victims tothe hospital.

Relatedly, at Iyana-Isolounder Bridge, the lifelessbody of a man was re-trieved from beneath acontainer vehicle, whileother victims of the acci-dent, who sustained inju-ries were taken to anearby hospital for treat-ment.

An eyewitness narratedthat the Apapa-boundcontainer vehicle, appar-ently, in an attempt toavoid a pot hole, rammedinto the stationary buswith passengers on board.

IKEJA—GENERALManager of Lagos

State Traffic ManagementAuthority, LASTMA, Mr.Babatunde Edu, has ex-plained how the agencyrecovered the abandonedvehicle of the missingpopular television pre-senter, Alhaji RasakGawat, who was declaredmissing since lastWednesday.

He said a black colourfour-runner Toyota SUVwith number-plate RE 77AAA was discovered onEko Bridge inwardApongbon at 11:45p.m. onTuesday by LASTMA of-ficials led by the ZonalHead, Mr. AkinpeluAyuba, while conductingsafety checks on thebridge.

The vehicle was parkedclose to the kerb with nosign of accident exceptthat the hazard light of thevehicle was on and thefour doors locked.

According to Edu: “Ourofficials, thinking that theunknown occupant (s)had ran out of fuel andhad gone to source forsame or in dire need ofassistance, and to ensurethe safety of the occupant(s) and also render assist-ance if need be, formed asearch group to look outfor the owner of the vehi-cle.”

Edu said the searchwent on for over an hourwith no trace of the owner.

To guide against steal-ing of the vehicle and toensure that in-coming ve-hicles and other road-us-ers did not run into thevehicle, the black jeep wastowed away in the earlyhour of Wednesday to the

Olowu Zone of the agen-cy’s office in Lagos Is-land.

Investigation still on– Police

Six days into the mys-terious disappearance ofGawat, the Lagos StatePolice Command said itwas still investigating thecase.

Although there wasnews, weekend, thatGawat was found inIbadan, a developmentthat threw family mem-bers, staff of Nigerian Tel-evision Authority, NTA,and well-wishers intowild jubilation.

Their joy was short-livedafter several calls to theOyo State Police Com-mand revealed that it wasmere rumour.

At the Dolphin Estate,Adeniji-Adele Phase 2,Lagos Island, abode ofGawat, members of hisfamily wore long faces,unsure of what wouldhave happened to theirbread winner.

There are, however,fears that Gawat’s lifecould be in danger. Whilesome concluded he couldhave been abducted, oth-ers ruled out that possi-bility, positing that therecould have been callsfrom his abductors de-manding ransom.

The Lagos State PoliceCommand, maintained,yesterday, that the casewas that of a missing per-son and not kidnap.

Investigation so far, ac-cording to police sources,showed that there was nosign of struggle where hisvehicle was found atApongbon end of EkoBridge. The car, sourcessaid, was neatly parked.

“From the way it was

parked, it did not suggestit was intercepted, exceptthat the hazard lightswere on, with his Identitycard on the front seat.”

Sources also informedthat when his phone wasdialed as at Friday, it rangwithout response.

Spokesman for the com-mand, Ngozi Braide, saidpolicemen, were not rest-ing on the incident. Al-though she declined com-ments on how far investi-gation had gone, she as-sured that the commandwould make headwaysoon.

Meantime, Lagos Statechapter of National Coun-cil of Muslim YouthsOrganisation,NACOMYO,has appealed for his re-lease by whosoever kepthim.

At a briefing in Lagos,NACOMYO decried theinability of the police togive a clue on the fate ofthe broadcaster, who wasa former state coordinatorof NACOMYO since lastTuesday when he was de-clared missing.

Man, 29, docked overalleged N11m theftBY IFEANYI OKOLIE

LAGOS—A 29-year-oldman, Obinna

Onyekelu, was, weekend,arraigned before anIgbosere Magistrate'sCourt, Lagos, for alleg-edly stealing goods worthN11million from a ware-house in the Abule-Adoarea of the state.

The accused, who wasarraigned before Magis-trate F.O. Aigbokhavbo, ona two-count charge ofstealing, punishable un-der Section 409 and 326of the Criminal Laws ofLagos State, was said tohave burgled the ware-house belonging to oneCharles Izundu sometime in August 2009 andcarted away all the goodsin it. However, the stolengoods which includes;1682 sets of Twyford W/C,843 Twyford basins, 6820extra-fitting valued at N11million, were transportedand stored at a warehouseallegedly belonging toone Chief Jude Umehfrom where the goodswere sold. Vanguard gathered thatpolicemen at Festac PoliceStation, where the matterwas reported, after thegoods were declaredmissing, arrested a manwho took part in the load-ing of the goods and heallegedly led them toOnyekelu.

�We're still investigating — Police

Lagos property owners gettitle documents

IKEJA—GOVERNORBabatunde Fashola of

Lagos State, weekend,presented sub-lease titledocuments to 1,000allottees who boughtproperty from governmentagencies before January 1,2000 and before the pres-entation, had no titledocuments.

The beneficiaries in-clude occupants of Min-istry of Housing, LagosState Development and

Property Corporation,LSDPC and Lagos Build-ing Investment Company.

Presenting the docu-ments at Adeyemi BeroAuditorium, Secretariat,Alausa, Ikeja, the gover-nor, said on assumption ofoffice for the first term in2007, his administrationwas concerned about thelarge number of proper-ties in Lagos State with-out registered titles.

Fashola was repre-sented by Commissionerfor Housing, Bosun Jeje,at the presentation.

BY MONSUR OLOW-

OOPEJO

CMYK


Flood sacks Ibadan residentsBY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN—SOME residents of Ibadan me-

tropolis have been sackedfrom their homes byaheavy rain which startedSaturday evening.

Though, there was noreported casualty, manyresidents at Challenge,Oke-Ayo and Eleyeleabandoned their resi-dence to prevent loss oflives as happened lastAugust 26, which senthundreds of people totheir early graves.

As at 4pm, yesterday,the rain still continuedand even prevented someChristians from going tochurches in the morning.

As a result of the con-tinuous rainfall, somebridges and culvertscaved in.

Areas worst hit includedApete and a link road thatleads to Army Barracksand Sabo.

Other places affectedare Odo-Ona/Apata andOluyole Estate in Oluyoleand Ibadan South-Westlocal government areaswhere two bridges cavedin.

A Mercedes Benz carfell into the stream atMokola area when thebridge gave way.

Jolted by the effects of

the flood, the state gov-ernment said some struc-tures on waterways had tobe demolished.

Commissioner for Infor-mation and Orientation,Mr. Bosun Oladele, saidthere was no casualty as

AGAIN, FLOOD RAVAGES IBADANIbadan, Oyo State Capital, yesterday, experienced another flood disaster, after

a downpour, the previous day. Pix: Dare Fasube.

A Peugeot 504 Station Wagon that ran into a bridge washed away on ArulogunRoad.

A make-shift pedestrian bridge at Apete, washed away by the flood.

a result of the flooding.The commissioner said

the incident had furtherexposed some of thestructures that should bedemolished on the waterways, especially at Orita-Challenge.

Ekiti Fed varsity admits 400pioneer students

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

ADO-EKITI—THEmanagement of

newly-established Fed-eral University, Oye-Ekiti,has said only 400 studentsout of 11,560 that appliedfor admission would beadmitted as pioneer stu-dents, for the Oye andIkole campuses of the in-stitution.

Vice-Chancellor of theuniversity, ProfessorChinedu Nebo, said thisin Oye-Ekiti, weekend, ata briefing to wrap up thepost-JAMB test for pro-spective students.

Nebo,who spokethrough the university’sActing Registrar, Mr.Abiodun Adeyemo, saidthe institution would com-mence academic activitieswith five faculties; namelyHumanities, Sciences,Agriculture, Social Sci-

ences and Engineering.The Acting Registrar

said the pioneer studentswould resume formally onJuly 25, making the uni-versity the first to take offamong the nine newly-established universitiesby the Federal Govern-ment last year.

The Vice-Chancellor as-sured that the students shallnot only be sufficiently madeto pass through academictraining alone, but wouldbe exposed to skills acqui-sition programmes that willguarantee self-employmentafter the completion of theircourses.

He said the dream of theinstitution was to train stu-dents that will be employ-ers of labour rather than thesituation in conventionaluniversities, wheregraduands turn out to bejobless for several years af-ter graduation.

Don't politicise our leaders' death — Ondo studentsBY DAYO JOHNSON

AKURE—NATIONALAssociation of Ondo

State Students,NAOSS,yesterday, took exception topoliticians in the state play-ing politics with the deathof the three student unionleaders who died in an autocrash,weekend.

In a statement, its Na-tional President, VictorOguntoyinbo, in Akure, thestudents’ body said it wasunfortunate that some poli-ticians were blaming thestate government for the ill-fated crash.

The students, who died inthe road mishap were theStudent Union Presidents

of Federal University ofTechnology, Akure, FUTA;Awopegba Oluwaseun,popularly known as“DCO”, Adeyemi Collegeof Education,ACE,Akintola Abiodun and thatof Ondo State School ofMidwifery Miss OyikanOlotu.

The students were re-

turning from an award cer-emony organised in honourof Ondo State Governor, Dr.Olusegun Mimiko, atSheraton Hotel, Abuja bythe National Association ofNigerian Students, NANS.

Oguntoyinbo whilecommerating with the fami-lies and the institution ofthe student union leaders,

dispelled claims by somepeople that the studentswere invited to Abuja for theaward programme by thegovernor.

He said the students at-tended the programmebased on the invitation sentto them by NANS nationalexecutives.

The statement reads inpart, “The award pro-gramme was organised byNational Association of Ni-gerian Students, which isthe apex body for all Nige-rian students both home andin diaspora. It is mandatoryfor NANS to invite all stu-dent leaders across the

globe, which Ondo Statestudents were not ex-empted.

“Governor OlusegunMimiko did not invite us tothe award programme toshow its popularity amongthe students of Ondo State;we attended the pro-gramme on the basis of in-vitation sent by NationalAssociation of Nigerian Stu-dents.

“We are urging somepoliticians who are usingthis pathetic incident togain cheap popularity todesist from it or else OndoState students we movedagainst them.''

Vanguard, MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012 —11

Ewherido pushes for State Police

Abavo crisis deepens as traditionalcouncil denounces new monarch

Shell faults JTF on illegal oilbunkering

BY EMMA AMAIZE

BY FESTUS AHON

C-River spends N1.7bn on bordercommunities' devtBY JOHNBOSCO AGBAK-

WURU

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

Jonathan gets commendation

Urhobo community pledgessupport for Uduaghan, Utuama

BY GAB EJUWA

UGHELLI—SENATOR Pius

Ewherido, representingthe Delta Central Sena-torial District, has stressedthe need for the establish-ment of State Police, argu-ing that if established, itwould go a long way toaddress the new securitychallenges facing thecountry.

Calling for greater com-mitment to the issue of in-security bedevilling thecountry, he said that thedeath of Senator GyangDantong suggested that“nobody is immune to theeffects of terrorism in the

PORT HARCOURT—

Shell Petroleum De-velopment Company hasdescribed as untrue, alle-gations by Joint Task Force,JTF, that multinational oilcompanies in the NigerDelta region were not sin-cere in the crusade againstillegal oil bunkering.

Managing Director ofShell, Mr MutiuSunmonu, weekend, inPort Harcourt, Rivers State,said there was noting thefirm would gain by frus-trating the crusade againstoil theft.

CALABAR—GOVERNOR Liyel Imoke of

Cross River State, hasspent over N1.7 billion onthe provision of basic infra-structure to 40 border com-munities in the state.

Cross River State sharesinternational border with theRepublic of Cameroon,Equatorial Guinea andsome states in the South-South, South East andNorthern part of the coun-try with 245 border commu-

UGHELLI—THE people of Ovwor-Olomu

Community in UghelliSouth Local GovernmentArea of Delta State, havecommended GovernorEmmanuel Uduaghan forhis developmental stridesin the community.

President-General of thecommunity, Chief AmosOyoroko, Pa JohnEfeurhiewe, Chief SamuelIchipi, Chief M.Ovbagbedia and the Sec-retary General, Mr.Jonathan Ofuyovwi, in astatement noted that theUduaghan administration

WARRI—THE AbavoTraditional Coun-

cil, ATC, Abavo Kingdomin Ika South Local Gov-ernment Area of DeltaState, has described thepurported crowning of anew monarch by some per-sons in the community astaboo, insisting that HRMUche Irenuma II, remainsthe lawful monarch.

About 20 persons werearrested, weekend, for al-legedly engaging in vio-lent acts in the kingdom,while a source said secu-rity agents were looking forthe supposed new monarchand others, whose wherea-bouts remain unknown.

HRM Irenuma, it wasgathered, made statementto police detectives at theGeneral Investigation De-partment of Delta State Po-lice, Command, Asaba,which is handling the mat-ter on Saturday.

The traditional council ina statement by the Ero ofAbavo kingdom, ChiefAgbeje Osameha, said: “Itis sheer madness for some-body to go to any market tobuy traditional ruler’s rega-lia, put them on and pro-claim himself traditionalruler.

“Where and whocrowned the purportedking? Did he perform anytraditional rites that lead tothe ascendency to thethrone? In addition, onwhose authority was hepurportedly crowned?” the

council queried.The council said that a

king was not crowned out-side his kingdom and in thehistory of humanity, twokings were not known tohave ruled one kingdom ata time.

However, legal officer tothe assumed new monarch,Mr. Nwadozie Okonta, toldVanguard, yesterday, thathe had sent a delegation tothe Inspector General of Po-lice over the partisan roleof the police in the state.

On the report that there

was a manhunt for the newmonarch, he said he wasnot in Abavo now, adding,“He is undergoing tradi-tional purification that goeswith the crowning of a newking and I can tell you, heis in a safe place.”

Delta Commissioner ofPolice, Mr. IkechukwuAduba, deployed policeofficers to Abavo, weekend,to quell the violence thaterupted following the pur-ported installation of a newmonarch by one of the par-ties.

country.”Ewherido, who fielded

questions from newsmen,described late SenatorDantong as a gentlemanand committed colleague.

He said: “We have always saidthat anybody could be victim ofthe problem of insecurity in theland.

“We lost a Senator and theDeputy Leader of the PlateauState House of Assembly. It is now

certain that it could be anybody.What is required therefore isgreater commitment to the issueof insecurity in the land.”

Noting that the Federal Gov-ernment had not lost the battleagainst terrorism, he said, “Thebattle is not beyond the scope ofthe Federal Government. Gov-ernment has not lost the battle.What we have is a new trend tothe challenges terrorism poses toNigeria."

nities.Speaking in Calabar,

weekend, Director Generalof the State Border Com-mission, Mr. Leo Aggrey,said the projects in the ar-eas were to enhance the liv-ing standard of the people.

Aggrey said that Gover-nor Imoke in hisinfrastructural developmentprogramme in the commu-nities had committed N1.7billion on the rehabilitationof schools, police stations,police quarters, hospital fa-cilities and water projects.

had tarred the nine roadsin the community, whichwere in deplorable situa-tion.

“No chronicle of OvworOlomu will be completewithout reference to ProfAmos Utuama, whose loveand effort made the govern-ment to tar all the streets inthe community at once,” thestatement said.

They observed thatinfrastructural development wasan impetus to social development,stressing that the Uduaghan ad-ministration had done a lot toimprove the living standard of thepeople and should therefore becommended.

He said Shell was suffer-ing so much loss alreadyfrom the activities of illegaloil bunkers, so would con-tinue to support the fightagainst same.

It will be recalled that theCommander Sector II ofJTF, Operation Pulo Shieldand Brigade Commander,Port Harcourt Army Bar-racks; Brig Gen TukurBuratai, had alleged thatthe oil companies were notserious in the fight to stopcrude oil theft in the region.He described their effort aslukewarm and unfortunate,assuring that JTF wouldcontinue to do its best.

Devt fund for Ogbe-Ijoh notdiverted —DESOPADEC

WARRI —DELTAState Oil Produc-

ing Areas DevelopmentC o m m i s s i o n ,DESOPADEC, has denied

BY EMMA AMAIZE allegation that some per-sons had hijacked thefunds meant for the devel-opment of Ogbe-Ijoh king-dom in Warri South-WestLocal Government Area.

The traditional ruler ofOgbe-Ijoh, Pere AmakosuOduwor III, had recentlyraised alarm over allegeddiversion of DESOPADECfunds meant for develop-ment of the area by somepersons for their self-centered aim and called onGovernor EmmanuelUduaghan to probe all con-tracts awarded by the com-mission to save the commu-nity from another round ofcrisis.

He had said: “You can'tbelieve that as the tradi-tional ruler, I don’t knowwhat is going on inDESOPADEC as regardscontracts awarded for the devel-opment of my kingdom. I had writ-ten several times to the Commis-sion but no response. I only hearthat they had awarded one con-tract or the other in my commu-nity.”

But the Commissioner repre-

senting Ijaw ethnic nationalityin DESOPADEC, Mr. KingsleyOtuaro, has denied the claim,saying, the current board, whichwas about 10 months old, hadnot awarded any contract sinceit was inaugurated.

Similarly, deputy head, PressUnit, DESOPADEC, Mr. Ru-therford Adowei, said:“DESOPADEC does not givecash to any community for de-velopment. Nothing could bemore absurd than saying thatDESOPADEC gave cash tosome people in Ogbe-Ijoh.”

PR E S I D E N T

G O O D L U C KJonathan has beencommended for appointingMr. Patrick Akpobuloukemias Director-General of Ni-gerian Maritime Adminis-tration and Safety Agency,NIMASA.

Founders of Ijaw YouthCouncil, IYC, in Bomadiaxis Delta State, MosesEseimokumoh; BedfordAbule, Mr. Stanley Patrickand Phillip Kase, in a state-

ment, noted thatAkpobuloukemi’s accessibility/empowerment strides had helpedreduce sea piracy in the NigerDelta region.

They also commended Presi-dential Adviser and Chairman ofthe Amnesty Programme, MrKingsley Kuku and Mr NicholasMutu, Bomadi/Patani representa-tive in the National Assembly, forcollaborating with NIMASA DGto translate President Jonathan’speace dream in Niger Delta intoreality.

Activist lauds Kuku onpeace in N-Delta

WARRI—CHIEFKenneth Oboku,

an activist in NigerDelta, has commendedthe effort of Mr KingsleyKuku, Special Adviser to

Goodluck Jonathan on Am-nesty Programme, sayingthat there had been relativepeace in the region since heassumed office.

Oboku, who addressednewsmen, also called on exmilitants to be patient asKuku, as means well for thepeople of Niger Delta re-gion and Nigeria in gen-eral.

He said; “I commend theeffort of Kuku so far. Sincehe assumed office, the rateof crude oil production inthe region had increaseddrastically, compared towhen there was crisis in thearea. We were producing anaverage of 1.4milion barrelsof crude before the amnestyprogramme but now, we areproducing 2.4 million bar-rels of crude oil par day."

President Goodluck Jonathan (2nd right) flanked by the First Lady, DameGoodluck Jonathan (right) and wife of the Chief Security Offier, CSO, to thePresident, Mrs. Gordons Obuah and Mr. Gordons Obuah during a thanks-giving service to mark the first year anniversary of the Obuah triplets at theAso Villa Chapel, State House, Abuja. yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.


BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

Sapele residents send SOS to FG overpower outage

SA P E L E — R E S IDENTS of Adidi Road

in Sapele, Sapele LocalGovernment Area of DeltaState, have sent a save oursoul, SOS, to the FederalGovernment to come to theiraid by restoring publicpower supply to the area,following what they de-scribed as negligence ofSapele Distribution Unit ofPower Holding Company ofNigeria, PHCN, to providethem with electricity.

The residents, who stageda peaceful protest, said theywere deliberately neglectedby staff of the company, de-spite their repeated de-mands to the company tothat effect, adding that theyhad suffered unimaginableeconomic losses, while theactivities of night robbers,who operate under cover ofdarkness, had become fre-quent in the area.

One of the residents, Mr.Benson Tobi, told Van-guard that the people of thearea had written several let-ters to Sapele and Beninoffices of PHCN to fix theonly transformer in the area,

BY GODWIN OGHRE which he claimed wasgiven to the area by thestate government, but withno luck.

He described as laugh-able, claims by officials ofSapele business unit ofPHCN, that the trans-former was damaged byflood, noting that on thecontrary, that the trans-former was damaged as aresult of negligence on the

part of officials of the com-pany.

When contacted, theSapele Business Unit man-ager, Engr. DenisOkonkwo, said the AdidiRoad transformer wasparked off, when water en-tered its reserviour duringa recent flooding of the area,which had presently made it diffi-cult to repair and that unlessanother one was provided by thegovernment, there was nothingthey could do to correct the prob-

WARRI—PRESIDENT of Move-

ment for the Actualizationof the Dreams of NigerDeltans, MADND, andformer Niger Delta mili-tant, General JosiahOyimi, has said that theNational Security Adviser,NSA, Colonel SamboDasuki (rtd) was capableof tackling the spate of in-security facing the coun-try.

Oyimi, said, yesterday,in Warri, Delta State, thatfor Nigeria to win the war

From left: Dr. Orji Kalu,Chairman,Slok Group; Mr. Jean-Louis Ekra, Presi-dent, Afrexim Bank; Mr. Zhu, Xianqiang,Vice President, China Exim Bank;Mr. Emeka Ugwu-Oju,President, South-East South-South Professionals ofNigeria; and Dr.Francis Mbroh, Director, Research and International Coop-eration, Afrexim Bank during the 19th General Meeting of shareholders ofAfrican Export-Import Bank of Africa in Beijing,China.

lem of power outage in the area.Meanwhile, residents of Nana

Road, Dore Numa Road and Wa-ter Soad in Sapele, have called onthe state governor, Dr EmmanuelUduaghan to prevail on the TownPlanning Officials of Sapele coun-cil to demolish all illegal structuresblocking the natural waterways inthe area. They insisted that theillegal structures in the area hadworsen the flooding, which de-stroyed their property and madelife unbearable for them in recenttimes.

Jubilation as Oshiomhole wins Edoguber poll

UGHELLI—DELTAState Deputy Gov-

ernor, Prof. AmosUtuama, SAN, has con-doled with GovernorEmmanuel Uduaghanon the death of hismother-in-law, MadamRebecca Ayomike.

Utuama, in a statementby his Press Secretary,Mr Tunkeaye Bisina, de-scribed the death aspainful and a great lossnot only to the Ayomikefamily but the entire

Utuama condoles with Uduaghan overmother-in-law's death

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA Delta State.He described the late

octogenarian as a devoutChristian and a “motherin Israel” whose godlycounsel would be greatlymissed by all who hadcome in contact with her.

He recalled with sad-ness, Mama Ayomike’sinspirational testimonyduring her 80th birthdaycelebration, “That herenthralling revelationabout her encounter withChrist, left lasting anddeep impressions in myheart.”

Utuama urged the gov-ernor, his wife, Roli, andthe Ayomike family to takesolace in the fact that“Mama” died in the Lordand prayed that Godwould help “each andevery one of us to followin Mama’s godly foot-steps.”

Similarly, the DeputySpeaker of the DeltaState House of Assembly,Mr Basil Ganagana haslost his mother, MadamPatricia Ganagana.

She died at the age 64.

BENIN CITY—THERE was jubilation

in the state capital BeninCity and Auchi, yesterdayafter the Returning Officer inthe governorship election in thestate and Vice Chancellor of theUniversity of Benin, UNIBEN,Professor Osayuki Oshodin de-clared the result of the election at8:45am.

The jubilant crowd includingthousands of Okada riders, mar-ket women, youths and the eld-erly defied the rain, held proces-sion round the town with placardssome of which read “bye bye PDP,”“Edo state has been liberated,”“The end of the god father andPDP.”

Save us from kidnappers, Reptells IG

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

AGBOR—MEMBERrepresenting Ika

Federal constituency inthe House of Representa-tives, Mr. Victor Nwokolo,has raised alarm over thefrequent cases of kidnap-ping in Delta State, la-menting that more thanfive kidnap cases were re-corded in the last onemonth in his constituency.

Nwokolo in a statement,weekend, urged the In-spector General of Police

“to quickly intervene in thesecurity situation in IkaNorth East and Ika Southlocal government areas ofDelta State.”

He noted that the peopleof the two councils wereknown for their industry,trading, farming, and ex-pressed fear that if the se-curity situation was not ur-gently checked, “it has thetendency of negatively af-fecting the economic life ofthe people. In the last onemonth, more than five kid-nap cases had been reportedin the area.”

Declaring the result,Prof.Oshodin noted that thenumber of registered voters inthe state stood at 1,651,099, but667,933 were accredited, totalvotes cast 647,698, total validvotes 630,099 while 17,599 voteswere rejected.

He said: “We had a summaryof registered voters of pollingunits that elections were can-celled. This happened in eightlocal governments. These wereEsan Central, where there wasone polling unit with 700 voters;Esan West, nine polling unitswith 4,784 registered votes can-celled; Esako Central, two poll-ing units, with1,149 votes can-celled; Egor Local GovernmentArea one unit, with 856 votescancelled.

Others are: “Esan South East,two units 1,539 votes cancelled;Ikpoba Okhai Local Govern-ment Area, five units 230 votescancelled; Akoko Edo Local

Government Area , three pollingunits with 2,015 votes cancelled;and Ovia South West, with eightunits and 5,971 votes cancelled.The number of polling units af-fected is 31 and the total votesaffected is17,282.”

He said: “Adams AliyuOshiomhole, having satisfied therequirement of the law and scoredthe highest number of votes castis hereby declared the winner andhe is returned elected.”

The Resident Electoral Com-missioner in the state, KassimGaidam, expressed joy that theexercise was not marred with vio-lence as earlier predicted, sayingthat the peaceful conduct of theelection had proved that “EdoState is the heart of the nation.”

He, however, mourned thedeath of one ad-hoc staff of INECand police officers who died whentheir boat conveying electionmaterials to the riverine areas inOlogbo, capsized.

INTEGRITY MEDIACommunications,

publishers of IntegrityMagazine will hold its fourthedition of International Leader-ship Conference on Develop-ment in Accra, Ghana, on Sep-tember 1, 2012.

Dr. Richard Ikpada, Head Af-rica Operations of Integrity In-ternational Magazine in a state-ment, said the conference, is to

Integrity Magazine holdsconfab in Accra

Ex-militant urgescooperation for Dasuki

against Boko Haram men-ace, Nigerians should stoplaying blames only on thesecurity operatives but joinhands to fight the securitychallenges facing the coun-try.

He said: “With cooperation fromNigerians, the NSA, police andthe armed forces, insecurity willbecome a thing of the past. I urgethe Northerners to shield theirswords and support Dasuki in hisnew job of wiping out insecurityfrom the country, so that Nigeriawill be the best place to live.”

sensitise world leaders on integ-rity in diverse leadership cadresfor sustainable economic growthand socio-political development inthe continent.

The event will attract accom-plished professionals across thecontinent and beyond, who areexpected to rub minds on issuesaffecting security, leadership andgood governance in Af-rica.


Monarch decries neglectof agric sector

Court jails man for producing200,000 fake injection valves

Obi assures on beautification

of Anambra's entrance

BY TONY EDIKE

Orji sets up panel onhousing, property devt

BY ANAYO OKOLI

BY VINCENT UJU-

MADU

BY VINCENT UJU-

MADU

AWKA—THE FederalHigh Court sitting in

Awka has sentenced a 42 -year old man, Mr. PeterOtuome to two years im-prisonment for illegal pro-duction and distribution offake water for injection.

Otuome, who was arrest-ed by officials of NationalAgency for Food, DrugAdministration and Con-trol, NAFDAC, in 2007,was said to have used hishouse for the production ofthe counterfeit product andabout 200,000 injectionvalves found during theraid by security operativeswere also impounded.

The presiding judge, Jus-tice Peter Olayiwola, whopronounced the accusedperson guilty as charged,ruled that he would also for-feit the seized valves to theFederal Government andthat his sentence would run

from July 13, 2012.The judge expressed sad-

ness that many Nigerianswere losing their lives dai-ly due to the nefarious ac-tivities of fake and substand-ard drugs and other prod-ucts in circulation, addingthat it was due to the seri-ousness of the issue thatinformed the decision ofmany countries to passdeath sentence on any per-son caught in the manufac-ture, distribution and saleof counterfeit drugs so as tosanitize the drug industry.

NAFDAC deputy directorin charge of legal services,Mr Kingsley Ejiofor, whilehailing the judgment,hoped that it would serveas a deterrent to other man-ufacturers and distributorsof fake drugs and otherproducts.

The defence counsel, Mr.Emmanuel Obidinma how-ever, expressed dissatisfac-tion with the judgment, add-ing that he would appeal

against it.“I feel that from the way

we presented our case be-

fore the court, the judgeshould not have sent myclient to jail,” he said.

BY CHIDI NK-

WOPARA

Insecurity, siege againstNigeria — Cleric

UMUAHIA—GOVERNOR Theodore Orji of

Abia State weekend inau-gurated a six-man JudicialPanel of Inquiry to look intothe activities of the stateHousing and Property De-velopment Corporationeven as he tasked the pan-el not to witch-hunt any-body.

Governor Orji told theJustice Emele Onuoha-ledpanel that its duty was factfinding and advised mem-bers to do their job “with-out fear or favour”.

However, according to thegovernor, in the course ofits assignment, the panelwas at liberty to name peo-ple who it believes contrib-uted one way or the otherto the problems bedevillingthe corporation.

Vanguard learnt that thecorporation is indebted tosome financial institutionsand others to the tune ofover N1.3 billion.

The governor said, “donot witch-hunt any personbut bring out facts that willmake us move the corpora-tion forward. The panel isnot for witch-hunting, it isa fact finding panel. Thecompany has existed foryears but we have not seenanything there. We are dis-illusioned.

“The people have beencomplaining. The peoplewant government to lookinto the activities of the cor-poration. It is not an ordi-nary panel, it is a judicialpanel and your decision canbe taken as judicial pro-nouncement. We expectyou to do your best for thestate.”

ENUGU—THE Traditional ruler of Amuri

community in Nkanu Westlocal government area ofEnugu state, Igwe CharlesNwoye has said the contin-ued neglect of the agricul-tural sector by all levels ofgovernment in the countrywould have dangerous con-sequences on the nation’seconomy.

He warned that unlessthe disturbing trend was re-versed, the nation might beplunged into serious foodcrisis in the nearest future.

Igwe Nwoye who spoke

at his Amuri palace whileflagging off this year’s NewYam festival, wondered whygovernment should rele-gate such an important sec-tor to the background.

He noted that until poli-cy makers in the countrybegan to accord agriculturethe attention it deserves,“our nation may soon be infor food calamity.”

The royal father said:“Paying of lip service to ag-riculture over the years hadreally done serious harmto the growth of the na-tion’s economy because ifproperly funded, the sectorhas the potentials to trans-form the entire country".

OWERRI—CATHOLICArchbishop of Owerri

Ecclesiastical Province,Most Rev. Dr. Anthony J.V.Obinna, has described thegrowing state of insecurityin parts of Nigeria as “a de-liberate but senseless siegeagainst the country and itscitizens”.

Archbishop Obinna, stat-ed this at Emekuku, Ow-erri North local council areaof Imo State, while preach-ing the homily during aconcelebrated Pontificalsung mass to mark 100years of the arrival of Cath-olic missionaries in the

Province.Obinna was particularly

irked by what he termed“the damnable activities ofkidnappers, armed robbersand the Boko Haram”,stressing that only recent-ly, a member of the Obi roy-al family, whose forefatherbrought the CatholicChurch to the area, was kid-napped by criminals.

While saying that corrup-tion, robbery, kidnappingand Boko Haram are someof the crimes bedevillingour day and age, the fieryCatholic cleric howeverwondered if the perpetra-tors of these heinous crimeswere stronger than the gov-ernment.

AWKA—GOVERNORPeter Obi said week-

end that his administrationwould not relent in ensur-ing that the entranceinto Anambra State lookedbeautiful.

S p e a k i n gwhile inspecting theprogress of work at the Up-per-Iweka area of the com-mercial city of Onitsha, thegovernor called on those ob-structing the progress ofwork to desist from doingso, expressing his prepar-edness to restore Onitshato the standards where An-ambra people would beproud of it.

According to him, theon- going work on the roadwas as a result of the per-

mission granted the stategovernment by the Feder-al Government to fund thecontract and called onthose displaying theirwares on the road in thearea to relocate wherespace was provided forthem.

Obi said Anambra peoplein various states do not ob-struct progress of workmeant to restore the beautyof the cities where they re-side and wondered why thesame situation should notapply in Anambra State.

The governor who alsoinspected the on-going Ug-wuagba road at Nkpor,Obodoukwu road warnedhoodlums who extort mon-ey from contractors in thoseareas, that his governmentwould deal ruthlessly withthem.

National Chairman, Forum for Local Government Nurses and Midwives in Nigeria, FOLGONM, MrPeter Oyebamiji being assisted to decorate the Wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Olufunso Amosunas the Forum's Grand Patron at Valley View Auditorium, Isale-Igbein, Abeokuta weekend.


PaMobuogwu,94, for burial

THE death has been announced of Diokpa

James Mobuogwu, 94, ofOnicha-Uku Quarters,Ubulu-Uku, Delta State.Until his death, PaMobuogwu was a devoutCatholic, community lead-er, philanthropist and aprincipled man.

Service of songs wil holdon July 19, 2012, and willbe followed by a funeralmass at St Charles Catho-lic Church, Ubulu-Uku onthe following day. This willbe followed by interment atthe Mobuogwu family com-pound. He is survived bymany children and grandchildren.

�Late Pa Mobuogwu

Airtel CEO, Rajan Swaroop (2nd left) assisted by Lagos FA chairman, Mr Seyi Akinwunmi presents aplaque to Aminu Nuhu captain of winning Jos team at AirtelRising Stars final yesterday.

Faulty masts: Lagoswarns banks

Peer review: Wammakovisits Orji

BIRTHDAY—Bayelsa State Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, presents a birth-day card to Justice Nikki Tobi, former Justice of the Supreme Court whoclocks 72 years last Saturday.

TO save lives and property, the Lagos State

Government, through theMinistry of Physical Plan-ning and Urban Develop-ment, PPUD, has cautionedbanks operating in the stateto maintain existing com-munications masts and tow-ers, warning that it wouldpull down weak masts oc-cupying airspace in thestate.

The General Manager,Urban Furniture Regulato-ry Unit, UFRU, Mr. Joe Ig-bokwe, who made this callat a stakeholders’ meetinginvolving banks operatingin the state said the meas-ure became necessary, fol-lowing incessant collapse ofmasts and towers in thestate, damaging propertyworth billions of naira andin some cases, claiminglives of people and leavingmany in critical health con-ditions.

He said there was needto remind them of the let-ters written to them to sub-mit the list of all their exist-ing structure for data base,

Dana crash: OAUTH can now

do DNA test on tissues—CMD

BY ANAYO OKOLI

BY EMEKA AGINAM

UMUAHIA—GOVERNOR Wamatarkada

Wammako of Sokoto Stateweekend visited his Abiastate counterpart, ChiefTheodore Orji, in line withrecent resolution by theGovernors’ Forum for thegovernors of the 36 statesto engage in peer reviewvisits and activities to ex-change ideas.

Speaking to newsmen atthe end of the visit, Gover-nor Wammako explainedthat he was in the state incompliance with the Gov-ernors Forum directives.

According to him, region-al pact among the federat-ing units of the country wasan antidote to achieving thedesired unity amongst thepeople of the nation.

According to him, “I amhere because of the resolu-tion of the Governors’ Fo-rum for us to exchange vis-it and engage in peer re-view. Governors will visittheir colleagues across thenation and see how theycarry out development ac-tivities and learn from eachother. I am here to see whatmy friend and colleague isdoing in Abia and how heis doing it, and learn fromhere as well".

THE Obafemi AwolowoUniversity Teaching

Hospital, OAUTH, can nowdo DNA test on tissues, itsChief Medical Director,Prof. Olusanya Adejuyigbehas said.The CMD who disclosedthis weekend revealed thatthe teaching hospital nowhad the ability to conduct afull spectrum of DNA testscontrary to what obtained

during the Dana crash ofJune 3 in which over 153passengers on board died.The professor of Paediatricsaid the hospital could notassist in conducting theDNA test on the victims be-cause they were burnt andhad no blood in them andthe reagent for conductingthe test on tissues was notavailable at the time.He explained “DNA is likean identification tag for in-dividuals. If you know yourDNA, no other person, ex-cept your identical twinscan have it. So, if we canaddress the DNA, we maybe able to address that in-dividual. Or discover ifyou have blood relation withwhich you share geneticmaterials. "But as you know,many of the victims of theDana crash were burnt, andblood was not available. Wewere advised to get thereagent to perform DNA onthe tissue. So we were re-stricted at the time becauseblood was not available andthat was the common re-quirement either for pater-nity dispute or for tissue.”Now we have that reagentand we are now able to doany form of DNA investiga-tion. We might even go be-yond that to do DNA se-quencing, and that is theultimate,” Adejuyigbe said. On the claims of somepractitioners in the countrythat they can carry out DNAtests, the CMD cautionedthat some of them weremere fronts for foreignagencies, and that all theydo is collect specimens andsend to the principal com-panies overseas where thereal tests are carried out.He stressed that the hospi-tal was making efforts at go-

ing beyond the issues ofconducting DNA test usinghuman blood samples andtissues, but that the hospi-tal was going to the next lev-el of gene sequencing.Adejuyigbe while speak-ing on the achievement ofthe Hospital said theOAUTH renal unit was oneof the best in the countryand had conducted nine

kidney transplants since2001 till date.On surgeries, Adejuyigbesaid the Pediatrics SurgeryUnit of the establishmenthad carried out two success-ful separation of siamesetwin as well while 139 con-secutive laparoscopicsurgeries had also beenperformed in the institutionas at August 2011.

and to be prepared to sub-ject all masts and towerstructure to integrity test.

He said it was illegal forany bank to build mast, tow-ers or antennae in the La-gos metropolis withoutseeking permit from UFRU,the body empowered byPPUD to regulate mastsand towers installation inthe state.

'FG needs N150bn tosettle agreement withSSANU, others'

BY JOSEPH

ERUNKE

ABUJA— NOT lessthan N150 billion is re-

quired by the Federal Gov-ernment to honour its 2009agreement with the SeniorStaff Association of Nigeri-an Universities, SSANU,and other unions in theuniversities.

This was the figure sometrade unions in federal uni-versities submitted to theImplementation Monitor-ing Committee, IMC, set upby the government to workwith SSANU and othertrade unions to address thedemands of the universityworkers.

But the N150 billion con-tradicted that of the Com-mittee of Vice Chancellorswhich had earlier peggedits own at N106 billion.

Vice Chairman of the Fed-eral University of Agricul-ture, Makurdi and Alter-nate Chairperson of theCommittee of Vice Chan-cellors, CVC, Prof Daniel

Vershima Uza and Com-rade Samson Ugwoke,President of SSANU spokeat the union’s National Ex-ecutive Council, NEC, inMakurdi

But Prof Uza said theN150 billion was the finalcomputation made availa-ble and presented by thetrade unions to the IMC.

He said the trade unionswere asked by the IMC tocome up with its own com-putation after the Commit-tee of Vice-Chancellors hadpresented N106 billion asits own figure.

He said the Federal Gov-ernment panel had ac-cused the Committee ofVice Chancellors of inflat-ing the figure, saying thecomputation presented bythe trade unions had vin-dicated the vice-chancel-lors.

According to him, “Thiscomputation we arrived atis N150 billion. That hasexonerated the position ofVice-Chancellors who didthis job honestly".

CMYK


OPINION


DANA crash and aviation industry (2) Continued from Friday

THE aviation sector best explains the scenario.For example, it is difficult for the domestic

airlines to afford new and functional planes becausethey don’t have the financial muscle and so they buyrelatively cheap and very old aircraft.

It is also very expensive maintaining an aircraft,especially the old ones due to high cost of aviationfuel and other associated costs. This is partly thereason why the airline operators repeatedly go capin hand to government for bailout similar to the recentbanks’ bailout. The big airlines that have the capacityto operate a functional airline service can hardly flythe domestic route since just a few people could affordthe airfare. Patronage is a key aspect of business,particularly in a capital-intensive sector like aviation.

When patronage is low to the extent that profit isnot guaranteed on a sustainable long term basisbecause of low purchasing power, the capitalist eitherdo not venture into such business or move theircapital to where profit is assured. Moreso, when profitis threatened or in pursuit of more of it, safety,standard and workers welfare are undermined, whichwill have negative impact on operations and servicesrendered. So, those who are waiting for privateinvestors to develop or industrialise our economy areeither wallowing in delusion or deliberately

spreading deception. The best we can get fromprivate investors is to come and exploit for profit andnot to meet the needs of all. It may take imperialismfor strategic reason to massively invest in a ThirdWorld country like Nigeria in order to protect itsinterest or stabilise its pliant domestic rulers when itis threatened by either revolution or mass movementsuch as the Marshal Plan project after World War II.

There is only one way out. And that way out iscollective and democratic approach. There is norationality that one man can best handle a situationbetter than the collective will of a people united inthe quest for growth and development.

If the present rulers can conveniently andconsistently bail out private investors to the tune

of trillions of Naira owned by the public, while thesame funds as well as the abundant human andnatural resources can best be invested in a plannedmanner to rebuild the state of infrastructure to meetthe needs of all in the long run, shows clearly theweb of connection between those occupying publicoffices and private investors just for the purpose ofprotecting private interest against overall publicinterest. The Nigeria Airways was built by the stateand with public funds but was run aground throughthe pursuit of private interest (corruption) like everyother public utility. The only economic approach thatwill save such company is to keep it public andintroduce democratic control and management

wherein workers/experts and the consumers shall beelected and subjected to recall anytime. Everytransaction is done in an open and transparentmanner alongside abrogation of official secrecy. Theseare key measures that will drastically reducebureaucratic bottleneck and abrogate corruption.

Expectedly, government will set up panel to lookinto the crash; another panel will be set up later toscrutinize the earlier panel report and the rigmarolewill continue in vicious circle, wasting public funds;those found wanting may not be prosecuted andbusiness will continue as usual and with no lessonto be learnt. Beyond the crocodile tears, speech-making and grandstanding, and waiting for anotherdisaster to happen, government should resurrect theNigeria Airways (a national public funded carrier)with massive investment, get modern aircraft on itsfleet, employ the right set of experts and workers,pay living wage and introduce democraticmanagement and control by workers in the sectorand consumers if there must be any meaningful andsustainable development in the sector. This is theonly sure way to sustain development in the aviationsector and to end the vicious circle.

I commiserate with the families of all victims of theDana air crash, both on board and on ground. Hence,adequate compensation should be paid to all affectedfamilies, including those affected on the ground.

BY CHINEDU BOSAH

*Mr. Bosah, a social critic, wrote from Lagos.

Concluded

FORMER Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission

(EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, deservespity in his defence of his EFCC days. Hisrecent attempts at exonerating someindividuals of corruption fail under thebarrage of questions he posed about theirconduct.

Ribadu would not accept he could havedone things differently. He refuses toacknowledge that ineffectiveness of EFCCderives from scopes he permittedpoliticians. Corruption is a majorchallenge. The Ribadu strategy of selectiveblame, fails woefully, by circumstantiallyexcluding some from the shame list. Often,he sounds confused about what transpiredin his days.

At a lecture organised by the NigerianElectricity Regulatory Commission(NERC), he launched into his usual tirade.“For decades, Nigeria has lackedleadership. I’ve seen it happen in theEFCC, the first set of people that weworked with at the Commission werepolicemen from the same Nigeria Police

Ribadu’s interim regretthat people talk about derisively and sayall sorts of things about. They were justabout 14 officers that we picked, and wedecided to do things differently.

“One of my biggest regrets in life was ourinability to accomplish that. Sadly,everything changed from 2007, when somepeople came from nowhere and saidhonesty and hard work do not pay, andbrought in people who do not knowanything other than making something fortheir own pockets.”

He said he invited foreign securityagencies to investigate Olusegun Obasanjoand Abubakar Atiku, while they werePresident and Vice-President, the agenciescleared them of corruption. Why could hisdedicated 14 not do the investigation?

At the same forum he stated: “You are aMinister, a Vice-President or the President,who couldn’t run our universities very well,and after you come out you end up havingthe best university in the land. It is ashame.” It is more than a shame. Ribadu, alawyer, was in EFCC when licences for theuniversities were granted.

Was he unaware too that CorporateNigeria raised billions of Naira forObasanjo-Atiku campaign in 2003? Did heknow it was contrary to Section 221 of theConstitution, which states: “No association,other than a political party, shall canvassfor votes for any candidate at any electionor contribute to the funds of any politicalparty or to the election expenses of anycandidate at an election”? Since the duohad immunity, did Ribadu investigateCorporate Nigeria?

Ribadu did his best at EFCC but he mustadmit that he either did not understandcorruption, or set standards, which he nowrates shameful. Either way, his confusingnarratives create impressions that hebattled corruption in similar manner.


,

OPINIONNo to another Ezeigbo Gburugburu

BY TOCHUKWU EZUKANMA

•Mr. Ezukanma, a commentator on na-tional issues, wrote from Lagos.

WITHOUT being hyperbolic, I can statethat leadership is everything. It is

leadership that builds or destroys a nation.No wonder, the 18th Century Frenchphilosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau, wrotethat “... no nation would be other than whatthe nature of its leaders made it”.

Great leaders seek power with a sense ofmission. They believe in their mission andtheir ability to change the course of historyto the point that nothing, not personal gain,and, not even, their own personal survivalmatters to them. Bad leaders seek power forpersonal gains, thus, without a sense ofmission or dedication to service. A one timepresident of United States of America,Richard Nixon, once wrote that: those whoseek power without a sense of purpose, butfor personal gains, will, at the very best, bedangerous leaders. The problem of the Igbonation is bad, actually, dangerousleadership.

Up till 1966, the Igbo had good leaders.They recognised the strengths andweaknesses of the Igbo nation. They tookmeasures to harness Igbo strengths andameliorate their weaknesses. They did suchan outstanding job at these objectives. Not

surprisingly, all over Nigeria, the Igboexcelled in business, politics and theprofessions. Our dazzling successes in allfacets of the Nigerian social life got theother ethnic groups of Nigeria railingagainst “Igbo domination”.

Subsequently, the quality of Igboleadership declined. Arrogance, recklessnessand disdain for reason and caution becamethe hallmarks of Igbo leadership. Bravadoand bombast were taken to unparalleledand pernicious heights. Image and make-believes became more important thansubstance. Showmanship and oratoricalpyrotechnics obviated somber reflection instatecraft. The leadership’s all or nothingpolitics marked by intransigence anddisregard for counsel plunged the Igbonation into a war.

According to General Dwight Eisenhower,“the object of war is victory”. To the Igbo,the object of war became blurry because themotivation for the war was inseparable fromthe personal ambition of an arrogant despot.He rebuffed series of options for a peacefulsettlement to the war and continued to wastemore and more Igbo lives, even, as the futility

of continued fighting became blindinglyclear. These set the Igbo nation many years,possibly, 100 years back; relegating us tothe dregs of the Nigeria society.

Now, the Igbo have an opportunity tochoose a new leader. In identifying this newleader, it is important to note that a leaderis not a manager. A manager/administratoris usually a narrow-minded conformistpreoccupied with the exigencies of the time.And, as such, he can only manage/administer the status quo. Managementsolves problems and improves existingconditions but leadership strives to bringabout a new order. Management is prosebut leadership is poetry.

Secondly, a leader is not a ruler. A ruler isappointed and/or coronated over a people.To enable him exercise his control andauthority over the people, some trappingsand symbols of power, deliberately designedto intimidate the masses and hold them inawe the ruler, are fashioned around him. Inhis elitism, he can detach himself from themood and sentiments of his subjects andchoose not to share in their pains and sorrow.He can therefore live in the comfort and

security of a bunker and indulge his hedonicand lecherous lifestyle while the generalityof his people starve to death and die frombombardment and superior enemy firepower. He may have no qualms insacrificing more than one million (of hispeople’s) lives in a futile enterprise. Andfinally, as the ravages of war and the risk ofdeath close in on him, he can abandon thestruggle and run for his own dear life.

On the other hand, a people willinglyfollow their leader because he personifiestheir dreams, hopes and aspirations. Aleader is courageous and strong willed. Heis farsighted - a dreamer and a visionary.He sees more than others and then laboursto bring into existence that which others,sometimes, can neither perceive norcomprehend. Richard Nixon called thisfarsightedness, this ability to dream, “havingthe mountain top view”.

We should reject the managers andprospective rulers posturing as the new Igboleader. We should also reject that offensivelyself-assertive proponent of Igbo secessionfrom Nigeria that is trying to forcefullyimpose himself on the Igbo as a leader.

IT pays to keep an eye on Egypt – awary eye at that, especially for those

of us in this part of the world. Manyso-called democracy lovers have beenhailing the “Arab Spring”, therevolutionary explosion that detonatedlate in 2010, even though few can guessat the possibility that it might lead to achange in the world order, a changemajority of us might find unpalatable.

It has led to the downfall of threedespots – Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali ofTunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt andMuamar Gaddafi of Libya. The lifePresident of Syria, Bashar al Assadwould not go down without a fight,and a civil war is still raging in hiscountry. The unfinished revolutions arestill simmering in Yemen and Bahrain.

The Muslim Brotherhood-inspiredFreedom for Justice Party ’s (FJP)candidate, Mohammed Morsi’s victoryshould not be seen as just anotheroutcome of these democratic electionsthat routinely take place around theworld. It simply means that theMuslim Brotherhood (MB) which hadhitherto been kept at bay from partisanpolitics since it was formed,successfully hijacked a revolution itdid not initiate. In fact, it was not untilFebruary 15th 2011, four days afterMubarak was pressured to resign frompower and twenty one days after theprotests started at the Tahrir Square,that the MB joined the protest.

It only formed a legal political partyon the 15th of February 2011, whichwas why many were startled to see itwinning the majority of seats in theparliament and the presidency. SinceMB was formed by school teacher,Hassan al Banna in 1928, it has alwaysbeen anti-West, anti-colonialist. Aboveall, it is an Islamist political movement.Most terrorist groups now wreakinghavoc in many parts of the world(including Al Qaeda) were inspired bythe teachings of MB scholars. In fact,the current leader of the terrorist group,Ayman al Zawahiri, who led theEgyptian Jihad before merging withthe late Osama bin Laden to form AlQaeda, had his humble beginnings inthe tutelage of al Banna’s MuslimBrotherhood.

When he was sworn in, Morsiseemed to confirm the fears of manythat he would take Egypt down the pathof radicalism; something akin toMahmud Ahmedinejad’s Iran. We allknow how the Islamic Republic of

An eye on Egypt

Iran’s President rants about how thestate of Israel does not exist and howhe would obliterate it once he acquiresthe means to do so. If Morsi moves inIran’s direction and succeeds in usingthe popular protests to loosen the irongrip of the military on power, thealready dark clouds over the MiddleEast might condense into a downpourof conflicts.

Egypt's secondconquest by Islam

The peace accord that the USbrokered between Egypt and Israel

might be revoked and Israel might onceagain be designated an enemy state.Already, Morsi has set the nerves ofthe ten per cent Christian populationof Egypt astir, with his avowal tointroduce Sharia, saying that thosewho do not want it should leave thecountry. He has already dubbed therevolution that chased out Mubarak asthe second conquest of Egypt byIslam.The military institution, backedby the Judiciary, caged Morsi’s fervourby sending the Islamist majorityparliament home just before Morsi was

sworn-in, but how longcan they hold out?

It is not just theChristians, secularists,Israel and the West thathave reason to worryabout Egypt’s futureunder the FJP. It is left toquestion exactly how farthe Islamists are preparedto go when it comes toreconciling with theprehistoric legacies of thecountry. Today, theaccomplishments of the

ancient Egyptian civilisations underblack Pharaohs remain its foremostsource of foreign exchange. However,there is a tendency for some Islamistgroups to embark on the destructionof relics of history that they considerout of line with their own perceptionof Islam. When Mullah Mohammed

Omar’s Taliban took over Afghanistanfrom Mohammed Najibullah, theyembarked on the destruction of culturalshrines they considered hallmarks ofpaganism.

Even here in West Africa, the MalianIslamists who have taken control ofTimbuktu and Gao, which were famouscentres of Old Mali Empire, have been

destroying cultural sites prized by theUnited Nations as World Heritagesites. Their reasons are that these sitesare contrary to their own perception ofIslam. It is also for this reason that theBoko Haram insurgents in Nigeriaperturb stakeholders in the SokotoCaliphate. Assuming that Boko Haramis able to realise its dream of takingover northern Nigeria, it will beconsidered the second conquest of thenorth by Islam, and the new people inpower might feel compelled to teardown many of the cultural legacies leftbehind by nearly two centuries of theSokoto Jihads led by Usman DanFodio.

Sites for penciledfor destruction

One of the sites that might bepencilled for destruction is the

hubbare in Sokoto, the tomb of the firstSultan of Sokoto. It today serves as aplace of pilgrimage for Muslims fromall over West Africa, especially thosewho are unable to travel to Mecca andMedina. Islamist groups typicallyregard such sites as relics set up by“unbelievers”, even if those wereJihadists.

Egypt in the hands of Islamists couldmean the end of an era when theMuslim and Western civilisationsfound mutually beneficial cohabitation.It might be the beginning of far morepronounced and unending conflict ofvalues demonstrated throughconventional and unconventional

wars. This is probably what the militaryis trying to moderate. I wonder whythe federal government has beenstrangely mute on happenings inEgypt unlike in Mali where it took afirm (if hasty) position. If Egyptbecomes another Iran, then theprospects of peace in Nigeria aredoomed.

Dr. Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's new president

Egypt in the hands of Islamists couldmean the end of an era when the Muslimand Western civilisations found mutuallybeneficial cohabitation. It might be thebeginning of far more pronounced andunending conflict of values demonstratedthrough conventional andunconventional wars


•Mr. Nwafo wrote from Lagos.

,

,

,,

BY CHIMA NWAFO

‘

Birth, prospects of Bioethics in Africa

WHILE the rest of the world is exploringnew frontiers of knowledge within and

outside the ivory towers, Nigerians are stillgrappling with corruption, examinationmalpractices and poorly equipped tertiaryinstitutions that churn out half-bakedgraduates. Yet, problems of mankind hardlydistinguish between advanced and crawlingeconomies, producing and consumernations or thinking and unthinking societies.When it comes to thinking, one wonderswhether Socrates had Nigerians in mindwhen he said that “unexamined life is notworth living”. Much as thinking alone isnot enough, it is important for a people,especially the intelligentsia, to thinkseriously about societal problems with aview to proffering solutions.

Among the problems of mankind areillnesses that continue to multiply, the needto maintain the state of equilibrium in theecosystem, how to make the positive laws ofmankind serviceable and not disserviceableto himself. All these demand man’s promptintervention as he struggles to render hissocio-political activities more humanely.Besides, the desire to maximise the supplyof goods and services “needed to elevate hisdignity and the insalubrious counter-actionof the same by the more tantalizingdemands to minimise man’s respect for themaximisation of profits in commerce,which propels him to widen his search forthe best economic and political standards.

In these efforts to enhance his life andsurvival, man had employed a lot of otherthings: some salubrious while others werebaneful. For example, the discovery of ironimproved his life – living standards – andalso imperilled his survival, by sharpeninghis will to go for wars. The fabrication ofknife (that was useful for his domestic works)also marked the discovery of a weapon thatcould at the same time be useful for thekilling of other human beings.

The foregoing contradictions in the effortsof man to enhance the quality of his life andimprove on the factors necessary for hissurvival, activated the ignition of hisconcern for the excesses of those means

chosen to develop himself, most of whichhave instead, become devastating. As manmoved from one stage of civilisation toanother the situation became worse, asexistence on earth became increasinglythreatened. Troubled by what he describedas a devastating approach of homo-technologicus, Van Rensellaer Potter “sawa quickly declining motivation in man topreserve his life and the life of all thatcontributes to the realisation of the objectiveof preserving his life and a provedincapability of both the science of life (thehuman sciences) and the empirical sciencesin sustaining the needed equilibrium thatonly could guarantee the survival of man ina qualitative and sanctified way”. He saw aworld deeply engrossed in the admirationand adoration of a vice, which had not onlybefuddled man but had also besmirchedhim. “The same vice had induced him to seethe mass media - which is the protagonistclarion caller of this spectrum of war thathelps to make man more bespectacled andmore bespangled - as a mass-messiah. Thissituation, according to him, bemoans andbedevils man at the same time, making himaccept what is “ignobling” as ennobling.

Potter, therefore, saw it as urgently appositeto carve out a new discipline that woulddisentangle man en masse from thisscientific delight, which was only a furtiveway of enshrouding the intellectual lucidityof man and invariably enmesh him to onlya part of his life rather than his life as awhole. According to the second edition ofthe book, Bioethics, the first definitions ofbioethics were those presented in the titlesof the article and the book of V.R Potter: TheScience of Survival in 1970 and The Bridgeto the Future in 1971, respectively. “It is,however, true that the meanings of thesedefinitions could seemingly be made fromtheir wordings, but obviously they are not.Their inability to formulate anunquestionable area of thought, which willbe added to the existing areas urged theauthor to give a more elaborate and precisedefinition. One could no doubt, observe thatto say ‘the science of survival’, one needs tospecify what survival means in this contextand also why a new discipline should be

instituted to cater for it. On the other hand,the phrase ‘the bridge to the future’ is moreopaque than the previous one. What type ofbridge? What is being bridged by Bioethics,and so forth, are questions that must beinevitably asked. The author of Bioethicsnever hesitated to clarify his intentions orhis use of the above phrases.

In an article, “Bioethics: The Science ofSurvival”, Potter intended Bioethics to be abiological wisdom, a biologically foundedwisdom, the wisdom that knows how torealise a bridge between bio-experimentalsciences and ethico-anthropologicalsciences. He stated that it is this type of abridge between experimental and humansciences that could guarantee a ‘bridge’ tothe future of man, the survival of the humanrace, and, in any case, the survival of thequality of life. Also in his book, Bioethics:Bridge to the Future, he stated that throughthe construction of the new discipline, itwould be possible to construct a bridgebetween two cultures - experimental sciencesand human sciences - which have for a verylong time been disjointed and are apparentlyunable to talk with each other.

But for Andre‘ Hellegers, Bioethics isthe bridge between medicine,

philosophy and ethics. This quasi-reductivedescription of the term Bioethics, arguedexperts, played a very great and very“distortive” role in the history andinstitutionalisation of Bioethics. Hellegers’reduced Bioethics from a bridge betweenexperimental sciences (biology, zoology,etc.) and human sciences (ethics,anthropology, etc.) to a bridge betweenmedicine, philosophy and ethics, thereby

shifting the formal object of Bioethics – asoriginally conceived by its founder, Potter –from its cynosure interdisciplinaryexamination of the problems on the “lifeand survival” of man to its periphery: “lifeand its biological care”. It overlooked theplace of other areas of life, such as social,religious (spiritual) and economic.

Warren T. Reich in the Encyclopaedia ofBioethics, defined it as “the systematic studyof human conduct in the areas of thesciences of life and of health, examined inthe light of values and of moral principles”.The above definition given by Reich is themost generally accepted one. It is mostgenerally accepted for the followingreasons. Firstly, it presents Bioethics as asystematic study, therefore giving to it anepistemological status that is marking it outas an autonomous discipline. Secondly, itaccentuates the field of study of this youngdiscipline – the human conduct – and theareas of approach to this study – in the lightof values and of moral principles.

However, the recently concluded first-everBioethics conference held at, Enugu, is thefirst of its type in the history of the AfricanRegion. Entitled "Bioethics in Africa:Challenges and Prospects", promoter of theconclave, Associate Professor EdmundUgwu Agbo, articulated the aims andobjectives of the international discourse as:“First, to galvanise thoughts, exchange ideas,and share insights on the adverse effects ofscience and technology, political leadership,social crusaders, the economic policymakers, religious leadership, ecologists,medical practice, agriculturists, mass mediaand liberal opinion leaders, etc, on man,using the bioethical lens.

Second, to search for a way to conscientiseAfricans on the adverse effects of thetechnological productions and how topromote those practices that are beneficialto the continent; how to adapt theseproductions by the various fields of life toAfrican reality by giving them an Africanface, etc.

The conference discussed among otherissues abortion and all it entails, artificialinsemination and reproduction, drug abuseand experimentation on human beings,homo-sexualism and trans-sexualism,environmental degradation and economicdehumanisation; political and religiousabuse of human rights.

Jonathan’s smallmeaningful gesture

BY ADELAJA ADEBANJO

IT was a small gesture that wasinsignificant to many. But

when the fruits begin to germi-nate in the next few years, theyouths of our country and thecritically important educationsector will be the better for it.Indeed the flag-off of the dis-tribution of books and instruc-tional materials for basiceducation schools in the coun-try under the Universal BasicEducation, UBE, programme bythe Federal Government is ac-tually a robust attempt to ensuretransformation of the criticaleducation sector at its mostimportant level. For it is gener-ally agreed that it is better tocatch them young. And the ad-ministration of President Good-luck Jonathan has started theprocess of not just catchingthem young but also nurturingthem into maturity with this wellthought out programme. Not that it would be the firsttime that government at thecentre will decisively interveneto change the fortune of the pri-mary and junior schools in thecountry.However, this is the

most comprehensive in livingmemory since it touches allschools in the country and it isnot designed to be a one-off in-tervention but a systemic andcontinuing initiative. NamadiSambo, the Vice President, whoperformed the flag-off on behalfof his boss at the Model PrimarySchool, Maitama, Abuja under-scored this much when he saidthe initiative was carefully de-signed to bring added value tothe education process at its mostrudimentary level. As it takesroot, it is expected that primaryschool pupils in the country willno longer study without therequisite instructional materialswhich has been the norm in thepast.

The initiative in the estimation of its key driver,

President Jonathan,underscores the importance theadministration attaches to edu-cation as an important compo-nent of the transformationagenda. The President rightlysees basic education asproviding a very solidfoundation for the provision ofquality education in the coun-try. The President and his team

are doing the right thing andare on the right course. If wemiss it at the basic educationlevel, we will continue to clutchat straws at the other levels. We are all agreed that you can-not build something on nothingand those who should know be-lieve that the downward trendin the sector is traceable in partto the neglect of the basic sec-tor in the past. Most of the at-tempts to rejuvenate the sectorby past administrations havebeen concentrated on the sec-ondary and tertiary levels withtoken interventions at the basiceducation level which inciden-tally is the most critical founda-tion for sustainable growth anddevelopment in the education

sector. This intervention by theGoodluck Jonathanadministration, therefore,strikes at the very core of theproblem besetting the educa-tion sector in the country andthe process to get it right hassimply been kick-started. Whatis more, it is part of the four-year strategic plan principallytargeted at improving and cre-ating marked sustainablegrowth in the education sector.

Now that the President hasdelivered on another criticalcomponent of his transforma-tion agenda, it is important forall stakeholders to own the pro-cess and deliver on their as-signed responsibilities. Thisshould be politics-blind. Allstates must buy into this visionand ensure the equitable dis-tribution of the materials. Thosein charge must not allow bu-reaucracy to frustrate the pro-cess. This is about the future ofthe Nigerian Child and itshould not be turned into anoccasion to score cheap politi-cal points or play dirty politics.The process should be well mon-itored and effective measure-ments parameters put in place. The collaboration between theUniversal Basic EducationCommission, UBEC, and the 36states and Abuja must be firmedup to ensure that the promisedgains of this all-importantgesture get to the all targetedpupils. The statement of Mr.President to the effect that:“This three-dimension strategy-

quality production, equitabledistribution and effectiveapplication, are essential stepsthat must be taken if we are torealise significant benefits fromour enormous investment inquality education, over theyears”, should be the guidingprinciple for all those involvedin the process of getting thebooks and the instructional ma-terials available to the endusers. The process and its im-plementation should be fine-tuned from time to time to en-sure that identified lapses arecorrected while areas of suc-cesses are improved upon.

We expect that with the distribution of English Lan-

guage, Mathematics, SocialStudies and Basic Science andTechnology books to primaryone and two pupils and libraryresources materials for JuniorSecondary Schools all over thecountry, the youngsters will begiven a head-start as they nav-igate their journey through life.It is a small gesture that willturn out to be a giant leap for-ward for the education sector inthe country before long. Thereis no doubt that the FGN-UBEintervention will certainly en-hance the quality of basic edu-cation in the country, put the Nigerian child at an advan-tage and give the needed fillipto the sector as a whole. •Mr Adebanjo, a teacher,wrote from Ijebu Ode, OgunState.

There is no doubtthat the FGN-UBE interventionwill certainly en-hance the qualityof basic educationin the country, putthe Nigerianchild at anadvantage and

give the neededfillip to the sectoras a whole

When it comes tothinking, one wonderswhether Socrates hadNigerians in mindwhen he said that“unexamined life is notworth living”; it isimportant for a peopleto think seriously


Continues on page 52

FOR re-elected Governor ofEdo State, Comrade AdamsOshiomhole, it was torrents

of commendations yesterday asa host of eminent Nigerians andgroups saluted him on his victoryat the Saturday polls and urgedhim to accelerate the pace ofdevelopment in the state.

Running on the banner of theAction Congress of Nigeria(ACN), Oshiomhole beat hisclosest marker, Gen. CharlesAirhiavbare of the PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP), with over300,000 votes. He polled 477,478votes while Airhiavbare scored144,235 votes.

Among those who commendedOshiomhole yesterday werePresident Goodluck Jonathan;Senate President David Mark;Speaker of the House ofRepresentatives, Hon AminuWaziri Tambuwal; ACN NationalLeader, Asiwaju Bola AhmedTinubu; Governors Peter Obi(Anambra), Raji Fashola (Lagos),Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), AbiolaAjimobi (Oyo), Gov AbdulfatahAhmed (Kwara), IbikunleAmosun (Ogun) and Liyel Imoke(Cross River).

Others include NationalChairman of the ProgressivePeoples Alliance, PPA, ChiefSam Nkire; National Chairmanof United Progressive Party(UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie;the ACN; Nigerian MedicalAssociation (NMA), NigeriaLabour Congress (NLC),Committee for the Protection ofPeoples Mandate (CPPM); June12 Coalition of DemocraticFormations (J12CODEF);National Union of Textile,Garment and Tailoring Workersof Nigeria (NUTGTWN); SeniorStaff Association of NigeriaUniversities (SSANU).

Chief of Staff to the President,Chief Mike Oghiadohme, formerChief of General Staff, AdmiralMike Akhigbe and first CivilianGovernor of Edo State, ChiefJohn Odigie-Oyegun, describedthe victory of GovernorOshiomhole as a good omen forthe people of the state.

The salutation came as EdoState PDP commended Edopeople for their conduct duringthe polls as Governor

All hail Oshiomhole•Jonathan, Mark, Tambuwal, Tinubu, govs,others greet Comrade Governor

Oshiomhole called on Chairmanof the Independent NationalElectoral Commission (INEC),Professor Attahiru Jega, to probethe lapses observed at theelection.

Jonathan pledges FG’ssupport

For his victory, Oshiomhole gotwords of encouragement andsupport from PresidentGoodluck Jonathan.

In a statement, by his SpecialAdviser on Media and Publicity,Reuben Abati, the presidenturged Oshiomhole to receive thefresh mandate as anendorsement of his outstandingperformance in his first term andan expression of their desire fora continuation of his focused,purposeful and dynamicleadership.

Wishing the governorcontinued good health and asuccessful second term in theservice of Edo State and Nigeria,Jonathan said he expected that“the Governor will work evenharder in his second term to

justify the confidence in hisleadership clearly expressed bythe Edo State electorate onSaturday and assures him thatthe Federal Government willcontinue to give all possiblesupport and assistance fordevelopment in the state.”

The president also commendedthe INEC, its personnel and thenation’s security services forensuring that the elections werefree and fair in keeping with hisadministration’s commitment tocontinually strengtheningdemocracy in Nigeria throughthe establishment of a morecredible electoral system.

Mark to Oshiomhole:Victory, a reward forservice

To Senate David Mark,Oshiomhole’s re-election was areward for his service to thepeople of the state.

In a statement by his SpecialAdviser, Media and Publicity,Kola Ologbondiyan, SenatorMark said, “this re_election is areward for service. It must serve

as an elixir for greaterperformance. You must thereforecontinue to do only those thingsthat have made you the bestchoice of your people. You musttherefore continue to makeservice to your people the focalpoint of your administration.”

Urging Oshiomhole to bemagnanimous in victory, SenatorMark said the issue of electionhad come and gone adding thatOshiomhole as well as his fellowcontestants “must do the neededthing by joining hands togetherto build a new Edo state in theoverall interest of the people.

It’s manifestation ofpeople’s trust — Tambuwal

Also, Hon Tambuwal, in astatement by his Special Adviseron Media and Public Affairs,Malam Imam Imam, noted thatOshiomhole’s victory was amanifestation of the people’s trustand confidence in his leadership.

The speaker implored theGovernor to rise above partisanconsideration and carry along allpeople along in the task ofbuilding the state.

The people havetriumphed — Tinubu

Also hailing the governor,Asiwaju Tinubu, in an eightparagraph statement titled:“Triumph of the People,” said byhanding Oshiomhole anoverwhelming victory, thepeople of Edo State had “servednotice that ‘never again’ in theirstate will the public’s mandateand right to pick the leaders oftheir choice be stolen.”

He noted that the election wasabout more than GovernorOshiomhole and Edo State. “Itwas a contest pitting democracyand the people on one sideagainst the powerful and corruptruling political elite on the other.As such, this victory signals anew chapter in our democraticstruggle. Try as they might, thiselite employed every old electionrigging trick and invented somenew ones. It deployed thebehemoth weight of governmentand party to break the democraticaspirations of the people of EdoState. However, the people stoodfirm because they know thedifference between democracyand despotism, betweeneconomic development andeconomic depression, betweenjustice and injustice. The peopledemonstrated that where theystand united and vigilant thepowerful and mean cannotdispossess them of theirdemocratic rights. The people

stood defiantly anddemocratically in the publicsquare asserting their politicalrights and freedom. In the faceof this popular demonstration,the powers that be were forcedto retreat into the caverns andshadows of their political trickeryand greed.

Tinubu, who stated that theINEC performed below standardand the rightful outcome wasreached only because of thepeople’s diligence, urged peopleof other states to learn lessonsfrom what the people of Edoachieved. “

Oshiomhole must not reston his oars — Imoke

Governor Imoke, in a statementby his Chief Press Secretary, Mr.Christian Ita, describedOshiomhole’s victory asimpressive and a vote ofconfidence on the governor byEdo people.

He said that the ComradeGovernor’s victory apart fromfurther deepening the practice ofdemocracy in Nigeria,demonstrated that the electoratehad become politically consciousof their rights to vote forwhomever they deemed fit togovern them.

It’s victory for democracy— Obi

To Governor Obi, the re-election of Oshiomhole wasvictory for democracy and wasexpected.

In a statement in Awkayesterday, Obi said the victory ofOshiomhole was not a surpriseto Nigerians in view of what hewas able to achieve during hisfirst four year years as governor.

His words: “I knew what EdoState used to be and what it isnow due to Oshiomhole’sdevelopmental strides. This is agood lesson of what politicsshould be – the promotion of thetotality of the welfare of thepeople. I am happy to note thatin Oshiomhole’s case, his workand not the amount of money hewas able to share endeared himto the people.”

Fashola, Aregbesolasalute Oshiomhole

To Aregbesola, the victory ofACN was a triumph of peoples’will and aspiration in the nation’sdemocratic evolution. Accordingto him, it demonstrated Edopeople’s love for democracy andgood governance, which he saidthe ACN exemplified as apolitical party.

In a statement signed by theDirector, Bureau ofCommunications and Strategy,Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, thegovernor stated that thesuperlative performance ofOshiomhole’s administration innearly all sectors of governance,which had rescued the state fromthe precipice the PDP draggedit during its almost nine year’sreign of abysmal performance,worked the magic for the party

*Gov Oshiomhole: Winner of the Edo guber poll

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE,TONY EDIKE, VINCENT

UJUMADU, CHIOMAOBINNA, BEN AGANDE,

VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG,OLASUNKANMI AKONI,HENRY UMORU, SIMONEBEGBULEM, DEMOLA

AKINYEMI, EMMANOVUAKPORIE,JOHNBOSCO

AGBAKWURU & JOSEPHERUNKE


in the weekends’ poll.In like manner, Fashola

congratulated Oshiomole sayinghis victory was never in doubt.

Fashola, who spoke tonewsmen shortly after inspectingthe task force clean upenforcement in Apapa andObalende areas of Lagos, notedthat Oshiolmole victory was “asweet victory for the nation’sdemocracy and the social contracton which democracy finds itsvoice.”

He said, “For too long, ourpeople have suffered badgovernance, the social contract isbeginning to make its impact. Itwas not whether Oshiomole willwin, it was by what margin.”

Ajimobi, Amosun,Ahmed congratulateOshiomhole

Oshiomhole also got plauditsfrom Governor Ajimobi, who sawhis triumph a demonstration ofthe love the people of the statehad for him and the ruling ACN,adding that it was a furtherconfirmation of the age_longprogressive nature of Edo people.

In a statement issued by hisSpecial Adviser on Media, Dr.Festus Adedayo, Governor,Ajimobi said Oshiomhole’slandslide victory at the poll wasan appreciation of hisoutstanding performance in thelast four years by the people ofEdo State.

To Governor Ahmed,Oshiomhole’s election wasanother milestone in thecollective efforts to strengthendemocratic culture in the country.

Governor Ahmed, in a

congratulatory message issuedin Ilorin by his Chief PressSecretary, Alhaji AbdulwahaabOba, noted that it was very heartwarming that despite theanxieties which preceded it, theelection was largely peaceful,which he said ‘was an indicationof the salient fact that we can getany national venture right if weshow the required commitmentand resolve’.

Felicitating with Oshiomhole,Governor Amosun, in a pressrelease by his Senior SpecialAssistant on Media andCommunications, Mrs FunmiWakama, describedOshiomhole’s victory as “areward for hard work andcommitment to the welfare of thepeople of Edo State.”

“Comrade Oshiomhole has seta new template for governance,which has led to thetransformation of Edo State in anunprecedented scale in the lastfour years,” the governor said.

ACN salutes ‘people'spower’ in Edo

Also, the ACN hailed thecourage and determination of thepeople of Edo State, whom it said,defied all odds to vote and defendtheir votes in order to re-electOshiomhole.

In a statement by its NationalPublicity Secretary, Alhaji LaiMohammed, the party

said the good people of Edostate had shown, by the action,that true sovereignty lies with thepeople.

‘’The courageous anddetermined people of Edo Staterefused to be intimidated by themassive deployment of securityforces by the PDP-controlled

Continues from page 51

Federal Government. Theyovercame the shenanigans of acolluding INEC and renderedirrelevant the dirty tricks ofmisguided moneybags. In theend, they shut out the do-nothingPDP,’’ it said.

Oshiomhole asks Jega toprobe lapses in Edo polls

To ensure a perfect election infuture, Governor Oshiomholehas called on Jega to conduct aninvestigation into the delay in thearrival of election materials inBenin metropolis with a view toforestalling a repeat in otherparts of the country.

Speaking with newsmen inBenin City yesterday,Oshiomhole said “I ask Jega toconduct an investigation intowhy for four hours, materialswere not delivered in Benin City.That investigation would helpdetermine why some people weredisenfranchised.”

Oshiomhole howevercommended the INEC Chairmanand the State Resident ElectoralCommissioner for conducting afree and fair election in the state.

He said “I believe that the StateResident ElectoralCommissioner, Mr. Geidamdemonstrated uncommon qualityof leadership. He showedcommitment and courage to duty.Under tension he maintained hiscool.”

The Governor said “some of thepeople posted to Edo are peoplethat cannot be entrusted withresponsible positions. I haveargued that anybody in INECwho has conducted an electionthat was annulled has no basisto get involved in any otherelection. It is unacceptable forINEC to have been able todeliver materials to Edo Centraland North that are over two hoursdrive, how can they explain thatthey could not deliver materialsto areas that are within five to 10minutes drive”?

Oshiomhole maintained thatone outcome of the election wasthe unanimous agreement of thepeople that his governmentdeserved a second term.

EDO PDP hail EdoPeople

Reacting to the outcome of theexercise, Edo PDP, in a statementby its Publicity Secretary, Pharm.Matthew Urhoghide (FPSN),congratulated Edo people “overtheir decision of July 14, 2012 onwho rules them in the next fouryears. This is however withoutprejudice to all other latentissues that may arisesubsequently after a thoroughstudy of all the issuesappertaining to the election.

Our party being part and parcelof the people, will always feeltheir pulse and do their bidding.

The PDP in Edo State will liketo reassure Edo people that wehave learnt from our immediateand past experiences andpromise to always stand in thegap for Edo people in their questto achieve to the fullest theiraspiration of quality life.”

Outcome reflects the

people’s will — NLC

The NLC described the victoryof Oshiomhole as true reflectionof the will of Edo people of thestate.

In a congratulatory letter to there-elected governor of Edo Statetagged “ Edo verdict: A victoryforetold” and signed by itsPresident, Comrade AbdulwahedOmar, the NLC urged ComradeOshiomhole to see this victory asa challenge to take up thegauntlet once more andconsolidate on the remarkablegains made in the last four yearsin Edo State and further expandon the dividends of democracyto the Edo people.

PPA, UPP speakChief Nkire of the PPA said

ACN’s thrashing of the PDP“means a rejection of PDP notonly in Edo State but throughoutthe country” because PDP hadsquandered the mandateNigerians gave it in the last 13years and should not expectpeople to trust the party with theirvotes anymore.

Nkire congratulated the Binipeople of Edo State for risingabove tribal sentiments in votingfor Oshiomhole’s goodperformance and urgedOshiomhole reciprocate thisgesture by doing more work forthe people of Edo State

On his part, Okorie said withOshiomhole’s resounding victoryat the polls, Edo people have“sent a strong signal that goodgovernance shall always berewarded with electoral solidarity.Our democracy is on the path ofsteady development.”

Aside Oshiomhole, the UPPcongratulated the ACN and theurged the INEC “to keep up thegood work and build on thesuccess recorded in their conductof the governorship election. Theelection petition tribunal has nojob to do in this matter.”

Senator Ewherido laudsOshiomhole

Senator Pius Ewherido (DPP,Delta Central) has congratulatedGovernor Adams Oshiomhole of

*Jonathan: Predicted victory for PDP *Tinubu: Triumph of the People

All hail

Oshiomhole

Edo State on his re-electionsaying that it was a reward forgood performance.

Oghiadohme, Oyegun,Akhigbe, otherscongratulate Oshiomhole

Oghiadohme in a statementcongratulating the governor,described Oshiomhole’s victoryas a “confirmation of the maturityof Nigeria’s democracy andurged him to be magnanimousin victory”.

On his part, Admiral Akhigbestated: “I think this victory is justthe end of cabalism and thebeginning of one man one votein Edo state. It is a landslidevictory. This has reinforced atradition which has alwaysexisted in Edo/Delta, people’sattitude towards one man one.

“You remember the oldMidwest region was created outof one man one vote, and thecampaign was championed bythe late Oba Akenzua 11, and lateSenator Lamai was also in thepicture. It is also the beginningand the end of election riggingin Nigeria.

“My advise now is thatOshiomhole should sit down andrebuild the state and bring everybody on board including thosewho misunderstood the project."

Chief Oyegun said: “It is justwonderful. The people havespoken and they have stated thatthey are happy with thegovernance which Oshiomholeis providing. Every nook andcorner of the state votedmassively for Oshiomhole. Ihope the rest of Nigeria iswatching. They should becourageous and take theirdestinies into their hands."'

SSANU, NUTGTWN, NMAspeak

Apart from NLC, the ComradeGovernor receivedcommendations from othersections of his primaryconstituency – the Labourmovement.

The NUTGTWN via astatement by its GeneralSecretary and NLC VicePresident, Issa Aremu, laudedEdo people and the politicalparties in the state for allowingthe electoral process to runthrough despite initialchallenges and describedOshiomhole’s victory as a votefor development politics asopposed to corruption politics ofthe past.

Also SSANU’s GeneralSecretary, Promise Adewusi, saidthe outcome of the polls hadtestified that power truly belongsto the people in a free and pluraldemocracy.

And the NMA in a statementby its National President, Dr.Osahon Enabulele, whilecommended the governor, urgedhim to build on his previousperformance, strengthen theinstitutions, industriliase Edo,increase physical and financialaccess to quality healthcare,create more jobs and improve thestandard of living of the people.


Research links spanking tomental illness


IN recognition of its contribution in

drug manufacturing and complianceto quality standards, the Board of Fellows,Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSNhas awarded Phamatex Nigeria Limitedaward for excellence in Lagos just asNigerian pharmacists have beenadmonished to approach their professionwith commitment to mankind.

Presenting the award, Chairman of theBoard, Pharm. John Nwaiwu saidPhamatex was chosen after careful andthorough research on its brands andquality over the years. The award, he said,had been sustained over the years due tothe importance the members of the Boardattached to it.

Responding, MD, Phamatex, PrinceOnyeka Nnebe described the award asan inspiration. “With this award, we feelwe can do more. Quality is our inspiration.Despite the faking issue, we will not bedeterred but must do more in fighting fakeand substandard products.”

Nnebe who called for the stregtheningof all border posts, stressed the need forlaw makers to put in place stringent lawsthat could deter people from embarkingon faking of genuine products.

“I don’t think our laws are effective. Forus to make progress, law makers shouldbe make good laws that can deter fakers,”he added.

General Manager of the company, Mr.George Friday said “Our products havedelivered what we claim. For this awardto come from a highly distinguishedsegment of pharmacists it is a challengefor us and we will continue to sustain that

THE Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’Group of the Manufacturers

Association of Nigeria has called on theFederal Government to invest more inresearch and development whilst alsostating that mergers and acquisition is theway forward in growing thepharmaceutical manufacturing industry inAfrica.

Phamatex wins pharma fellowship for excellenceBY EMMANUEL ELEBEKE standard we were known for. And to justify

the confidence the general public havefor us. We will also continue to work inconsistence with the law of all theregulatory agencies.”

Speaking on the theme “ConsistentGovernment Fiscal Policy: A Key to SoundIndustrial Development”, Friday said thetopic was informed by the fact that one ofthe key determinants to industrial growthis a consistent fiscal policy, which helpsin planning, projections and in attractingforeign investment.

Former Minister of Health, Prince Julius

R&D, collaboration, key to local manufacturing— PMGMAN

BY EBELE ONUORAH

Adelusi-Adeluyi who chaired the occasionurged Nigerian pharmacists to approachthe practice of their profession withwholesome sense of commitment to thecourse of mankind.

Adelusi who described pharmacy as themirror of the society urged pharmacists touse their individual potentials to transformthe country. “This profession is the mirrorof the country. Nigeria has untappedpotentials that must be explored totransform the country, which pharmacistshave a duty to do. Let us turn our potentialinto success,” he urged.

• L-R: MD/CEO Phamatex(Hovid) Nig Ltd, Prince Christopher Nebe and his wife receivingthe award for consistent and innovative quality products from the Chairman Board of Fel-lows, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Pharm. (DR.) John Nwaiwu at Mid Year Meetingand Award for Excellence Dinner 2012 of Board of Fellows,PSN in Lagos recently.

HARSH corporal punishment meted

out to a child in the form ofspanking, hitting, slapping and otherforms of punishments – even in theabsence of full-scale maltreatment – hasbeen associated with an increased risk ofmental disorders in adulthood.

A group of University researchers in theUnited States of America, who studied ageneral population sample of adults,found that adults who reported suchpunishments in their childhood had agreater risk of mood disorders, anxietydisorders, alcohol and drug abusedependence, and several personalitydisorders.

In their report, published in the onlineedition of Pediatrics, they said up to 7percent of some adult disorders can beattributed to "harsh physical punishment"in childhood.

The link between child abuse – bothphysical and sexual – and mentaldisorders in adulthood has long beenestablished, the researchers noted.

Studies of milder forms of punishmentthat had similar findings have beendisputed as having "weaknesses in design,measurement, and analysis," they added,including the lack of adjustment forconfounding factors such as full-scaleabuse.

In interviews, participants were asked:"As a child how often were you everpushed, grabbed, shoved, slapped or hitby your parents or any adult living in yourhouse?"

Answers, on a five-point Likert scale,

This was made known during the 4thConference and Annual General Meetingof West African PharmaceuticalManufacturers Association (WAPMA)tagged: " Growing the Africa- basedPharmaceutical Manufacturing Industry",in Lagos recently.

Presenting an address, Chairman,PMGMAN, Mr. Bunmi Olaopa,identified concerted effort as one of themost effective options towards moulding

pharmaceutical firms in Africa to stand firmin the global sphere and thrivesuccessfully.

Corroborating his views, DeputyDirector, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria(PCN), Mrs Emily Olalere who wasrepresenting the Acting Registrar of theCouncil said : "To grow the localmanufacturing industry, we have to investmore in research and in doing so,collaborate with the academia and otherdevelop countries like India and Europe.With that, we would get closer tomanufacturing essential drugs for use inthe African sub-region and even globally."

Meanwhile, Mr Olaopa expresseddispleasure at the fact that

only four African manufacturers werelisted by the World Health Organisation(WHO) 's pre - qualification programme,with none coming from the West Africansub-region.

Lamenting further he said that thecontinent still lagged behind in majorbreakthroughs, financial benefits andglobal funding of industry-developinginitiatives.

According to him, the current turnoverof Africa-based pharmaceutical industryis less than five per cent of globalbusiness. "The level of research anddevelopment is still too low."

Citing the United Nations IndustrialDevelopment Organisation’s position,Olaopa said Nigeria and Africa hadimmense potential in agriculture andpharmaceuticals but despite the potential,fails to keep apace with the global trend.

He enlisted poor infrastructure, whichhas continued to engender high cost ofproduction; low level of technology;continued importation of activeingredients; persistent barriers to cross-border trade, and human resourcedevelopment needs as some of theobstacles to the industry's growth.

According to him, for these obstacles tobe dealt with, certain things must be putin place. For instance, such measures, hesaid, would include improvement in goodmanufacturing practice and processing ofinternational certificate andencouragement of mergers and acquisitionacross African borders.

could be never, almost never, sometimes,fairly often, and very often. Participantswho answered sometimes or higher weredefined to have experienced harshphysical punishment.

For this analysis, participants who alsoreported severe physical abuse, sexualabuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect,emotional neglect, or exposure to intimatepartner violence were excluded. The finalanalytic sample included 20,607participants.

Overall, the researchers wrote that 1,258participants reported physicalpunishment, or 5.9 percent of the total.They were more likely to be male, black,and to have a family history of dysfunction.The findings "provide evidence that harshphysical punishment independent of childmaltreatment is related to mentaldisorders."

• From left: Dame Abimbola Fashola, First Lady of Lagos state, Special Guest of Hounor,Mr. Peter Eshikena, Deputy Managing Director Friesland Campina WAMCO Nigeria PLC,Mrs Ganiyu Solomon and Mrs. Ore Famurewa, Coporate affairs manager, During the Enjoytoday the goodness of milk seminar organized by Friesland Campina WAMCO NigeriaPLC, in Lagos. Photo: Joe Akintola, Photo Editor.

Vanguard,MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012 — 55

THE battle for the soul ofEdo State has come and

gone. At long, long last, victoryhas gone to the popular choiceof the people while othercontenders are left to lick theirwounds. However, where ever

Edo polls: How Police

scaled the acid testBy EMMA NNADOZIE,

Crime Editorit would be appropriate to makean appraisal of the build-up tothe election against anticipatedviolence, fear of all mannersand lawlessness. It is pertinentto point out that whilecampaigns and its anticipatedpropaganda were going on,police authorities in Abujacommenced its own intensive

the pendulumswung to, what isp a r a m o u n tpresently is thatagainst allpredictions andexpectations ofviolence andanarchy, the electionhas come out to bes u c c e s s f u l l yconcluded with littleor no skirmishes.

With theconclusive endcoming few hoursafter MohammedDahiru Abubakarwas confirmed as the16th substantiveInspector-Generalof Police in Nigeria,

preparation towardsmaking the exercise ahuge success.

Firstly, the then actingInspector-General ofPolice visited the statemonths before theelection and held aclosed-door meetingwith all his officers andmen with the forth-coming election as topagenda. After, hecommenced a pre-deployment trainingfor all the officers thatwould participate inthe election. While thiswas going on, the statepolice boss, OlayinkaBalogun was directedto carry out a meeting

of all thestakeholders inthe electionwith leaders ofall the politicalparties. TheIGP thend e p l o y e dm a s s i v eu n d e r c o v e roperatives withstern directivesto providestreams ofuninterruptedin te l l igenceinformation to

IGP, MD Abubakar

him personally.

Few days before theelection, the IGP, in a

deft move aimed at forestallingperceived pre-arraignedcompromises, pulled out thestate Commissioner of policeand posted him to the Forceheadquarters, Abujatemporarily. In his place, hedeployed threeCommissioners of Police toman the three senatorialzones in the state. A deputy

Inspector-General of Police wasalso deployed to the state to co-ordinate the entire securityapparatus for the election.

The Inspector-General ofPolice also deployed policemenfrom the conventional unit, cracksquad from the dreaded PoliceMobile Force, PMF, andpolicemen from the counter-terrorism squad andintelligence unit popularlycalled undercover operatives.The Marine Police were alsodeployed to the creeks and

waterways while those from theAir wings were fully on the airthrough out the election.

At the end of the day, whatwas seen was a perfect securityarraignment that was able tocheckmate any form of thuggeryor violence, cases of hijackingof election materials or stuffingof ballot boxes, cases of assaultor intimidation of INEC officialsor anybody whatsoever. Mostimportantly, no form ofaccidental discharge or mis-useof firearms were recorded.

It should be noted that thecor-ordination and collaborationbetween the police and othersecurity agencies was perfect.All expectations and fears thatthe election was going to berancorous and full of violenceturned out the other way roundbecause the police provided aperfect, peaceful and conduciveenvironment for the people ofEdo State to exercise theirfranchise and vote in a Governorof their choice.

From all indications, therecently concluded election inEdo which was like an acid testfor, not just the police, but allother embattled securityagencies, has turned out toprove that with propercoordination and planning, oursecurity agencies would, nodoubt, prove their mettleagainst all expectations.

Navy clamps downon illegal MaritimeAssociation

By EVELYN USMAN

•The suspects

•Chief of Naval Staff, ViceAdmiral Sa'ad Ibrahim

•arrest 4 suspects

THE Nigerian Navy hasclamped down on a group

of persons discovered to betraining Nigerian youths onmilitary activities and rescueoperations illegally. Already, thegroup known as MerchantMaritime Transport Safety Asso-ciation, according to the Navy,had trained over 200 youths, witha promise to engage them in theMilitary and Marine sectors .

But the bubble burst, Monday,following discovery by theNigerian Navy that the group’soperation was illegal, as it wasinfringing on the constitutionalroles of the Nigerian Navy,Marine Police, NIMASA, Cus-toms and other governmentmaritime agencies.

They were also discovered tohave swindled unsuspectingmembers of the public to the tuneof N14 million, an amountrealized from the sale of recruit-ment forms.Suspected members of thegroup: Parading four suspectedmembers of the group beforenewsmen, the Western Naval

Command Operation Officer,Commodore Henry Babalola,disclosed that the group was alsousing similar logo with that ofthe Nigerian Navy, a develop-ment he described as ‘worri-some’, considering the securitysituation of the country.

For instance, Babalola notedthat while the Nigerian Navyhad “Onward Together’ as itsmotto, the group, had ‘OnwardForever’ as its own, an indica-tion which he said, was to giveunsuspecting members of thepublic the impression that thegroup was affiliated to the Navy.The cat was let out of the bagfollowing a disagreement be-tween members of the groupover the sharing formula of theN14million realized from thesale of forms thereby leading tothe splitting of the group.

Explaining how they were ar-rested, Babalola said: “thegroup was to commence sales ofanother set of forms at N5,000each. They were detained whenthey wrote a letter to the Nigeri-an Navy for support. The asso-ciation, though registered by theCorporate Affairs Commission,

is a dubious association seek-ing relevance in the nation’smaritime sector. The associa-tion has no relationship or ap-proval from NIMASA whichthey claimed they were to helpcollect fund or other maritimeagencies, to undertake thetask/duties the organizationclaims to be discharging or in-tends to undertake.

Babalola said: “More worri-some is the fact that the asso-ciation has been training un-suspecting members of thepublic on Maritime Safety andSecurity duties with the prom-ise of job opportunities. There-fore, in view of the prevailingsecurity situation in the coun-try coupled with the menaceof sea robbers and other crim-inal elements in the nation’smaritime environment, there isurgent need for the CAC to de-register the association.”

One of the suspects who gave

his name as Godwin Awuku, alsoidentified himself as leader of thenew faction of the group, sayingthat he was not aware that the actwas illegal. According to the 38year-old Bayelsa born and grad-uate of Maritime University ofGhana, “I am into marine trans-port. We wrote a letter to introducethe organization to the NigerianNavy for recruitment and trans-port. We are into transport, secu-

rity and our aim is to supportgovernment agencies for marinetransport. We have an agendato help NIMASA. We have abase at Erewe in Ojo local gov-ernment area of Lagos.”

On the illegal training and re-cruitment, he said: “The firstchairman, one Simeon Omofu-wa and the vice president,Ogundipe, were involved in thetraining. The aim was to trainthe youths for marine relatedwork. But along the line, thingsturned apart because of the waythey were running it. For in-stance, the money realized wasswindled by these persons. Trou-ble started when they were sell-ing the forms and collecting cashfrom applicants and when wedemanded for the money, theycould not give account. Already,we have reported the case at Ojopolice station and even theEFCC.

“Their action led to the split-ting of the group, with majorityleaving with the chairman andvice chairman, leaving me andthree others. I brought the ideaafter attending an InternationalShipping and vessel course inGhana.”

Asked if those trained wouldat the end be enlisted into anyof the military or maritime for-mations they promised them, hesimply maintained that theywere only trained on Safety andSea surviving, adding that thetraining was not on weaponhandling. “I never knew theaction was illegal. But that is leftto the court to decide”, he stated.

The co-ordinationandcollaborationbetweenthe policeand othersecurityagencieswas per-fact


Why our planes crash (4)

MEDIUM TERM (6 — 12MONTHS)

70. Government should grantcustoms duty waivers on aircraftspares, engines and test equip-ment. This would reduce finan-cial burden on the airlines. Itwould also encourage good main-tenance practices since spareparts would be more easily avail-able. It would also remove theextra delay occasioned by cum-bersome custom procedures.

71. The Accident Investigationand Prevention Bureau (AIPB) inthe Federal Ministry of Aviationshould be well funded. Recruit-ment into the Bureau should bemade from qualified and experi-enced professionals.

The Bureau blamed its currentpoor performance on inadequatefunding and manning. To facili-tate its role of providing informa-tion on previous accidents whichwould be used as a corrective in-put to the aviation industry, thisproblem needs to be urgently ad-dressed. Accordingly, govern-ment could consider making an-nual budgetary provisions to theBureau. Furthermore, the Bureaucould compile a list of experts,

both serving and retired fromwhich it can co-opt persons whenneeded to participate in accidentinvestigations.

72. The Civil Aviation (Investi-gation of Accidents) Regulationsshould be amended to reflect thepresent status of the AIPB as wellas make provisions for the settingup of an Accident Review Boardwhenever the need arises.

The Civil Aviation Regulationshave not yet been updated to in-clude the establishment and func-tions of the AIPB. The update isnecessary to remove any dupli-cation or ambiguity in functionsof the AIPB and the NCAA in ac-cident investigation and accidentinformation dissemination.

73. Summaries of all AccidentReports should be available toaviation stakeholders, free ofcharge within 30 days of theirpublication. AIPB should workout an effective mechanism fordissemination of accident reportswithin the Aviation Industry. Fur-thermore, disagreements with thecontent of an accident reportshould be referred by the Honour-able Minister of Aviation to anadhoc accident review board. Avi-ation accident reports provide amajor feedback to the industry on

appropriate corrective measures.The reports should therefore bereadily available especially with-in the industry. However, accidentreports are not sacrosanct. Provi-sion should be made for an inde-pendent board to review appealswhenever the need arises.

74. NCAA should provideguidelines on Air Traffic IncidentInvestigation functions by:

(I) Ensuring that in all cases airtraffic incident investigation com-plies with ICAO guidelines;

(ii)Government should provideterminal radars for the airports on24-hour basis.

Total radarcoverage

It’s requirement does not pre-clude government’s efforts on theTotal Radar Coverage of Nigeria(TRACON) which is mainly foridentifying - anywhere in theNigerian airspace. Terminal ra-dars are shorter in range and usedfor separation of aircraft in con-trolled airspace around the air-port where air traffic is dense.

75. NAMA should install auto-mated terminal information ser-vice equipment at the four majorairports. This would relay pre-re-

NCAA shouldmake it manda-tory that all air-craft above5,700kg shouldhave detectivedevice. Thisshould provideadditional warn-ing to pilots atthe critical phas-es of landingand taking off

The summary of the final report of the Presidential TaskForce on Aviation Industry submitted by the Task Force teamheaded by Air Vice Marshal Paul Dike (rtd) on March 2006

Continues on page 57

,

,

Continues from Friday

Sosoliso plane crash

corded information on weatherand airfield conditions in arriv-ing/departing aircraft, hence, re-duced fatigue on air traffic con-trollers. It would also ensure ac-curacy of information.

76. NCAA should perform over-sight functions in the area of aero-nautical/MET and should posi-tion itself to carry this out. Mete-orological services are not regu-lated as required by ICAO. NCAAwhen adequately staffed, shouldprovide oversight for both servic-es and personnel of NIMET. Thiswould also encourage NIMET toremain proactive in its duties atall times.

77. NCAA should adopt regu-lations to codify and publicise theflights of consumers of all avia-tion services and take steps toprotect their rights. NCAA/airlinesshould have a consumer com-plaint desk manned by a manag-er. This is a desirable practice toprotect consumers. It would alsobring the industry in line withcurrent best practices. Consumersatisfaction would help expand airtravel if properly handled sincethe current level of patronage islow, relative to the size of the pop-ulation.

Critical phasesof landing

78. NCAA should make it man-datory that all aircraft above5,700kg should have detectivedevice. This should provide ad-ditional warning to pilots at thecritical phases of landing and tak-ing off.

79. NCAA/AIPB should procureflight data recorder readingequipment. This would give themthe capability to read flight datarecorders at any time, not neces-sarily after an air crash. Thus,they may not necessarily rely en-tirely on pilot’s feedbacks to de-tect breach of flight operations orincidents that may not be report-ed in flight.

80. Relevant agencies shouldproduce qualification-trainingmanual for their various functions.This would improve the qualityof training and provide back-ground for NCAA to assess per-formance. The manuals wouldalso be relevant for on-the-jobtraining.

81. NCAA should expand itspublished requirements to in-clude a licencing procedure forair traffic engineers/techniciansand flight dispatches. This wouldnot only ensure that standards aremaintained but also enhance thecareer progression of these cate-gories of staff. It would also boosttheir morale and performance onthe job.

82. NCAA should set up ad-hocExamination Review Board toconsider cases of appeal on li-cences. This is to ensure speedyand dispassionate treatment ofcomplaints. The composition ofthe board should reflect the typeof licence examination in ques-


tion.83. NCAA should establish an

effective Aeromedical Unit andappoint assessors from among itsmedical personnel. A medicalassessor shall not be appointedas an authorized medical exam-iner at the same time and viceversa. This is to ensure that med-ical reports of crew are reporteddispassionately.

84. NCAA should regulate de-velopments around the airport.This is to ensure that the ap-proach paths are cleared of ob-stacles. There are reported casesof obstructions by masts and hightension pylon/cable at the runwayends.

Presence

of masts

The Task Force observed thepresence of masts very close tothe runways at Benin, Katsina andCalabar. This constitutes seriousdanger to flight operations andshould be dismantled as a matterof urgency.

85. NCAA should develop andenforce regulations to minimisehealth hazards to airline workers.There is the need to establish andmonitor standards for steady safenoise levels at airports especiallyhangars and workers. NCAAshould also direct airlines andagencies to provide appropriateprotective clothing and devices totheir ground crew/technicians.

86. NCAA should review allsafety procedures within the in-dustry to encourage self policingand reporting. This would be en-hanced by having regular meet-ings between the Director of Air-

ing, would raise the quality ofour flight crew re-currency train-ing.

88. All agencies should instituteregular and adequate continuoustraining of their staff to keep themabreast with new technologies/practices in the industry. Thiswould enhance the knowledgebase of staff on current best prac-tices and boost their morale.

89 Government should guran-tee the tenure of the chief execu-tives of the aviation agencies. Thecompletion of the tenure shouldbe subject to good conduct andsatisfactory performance. Thiswould give the chief executivemore confidence to resist outsideinterences.

90. NCAT should focus its at-tention to producing manpowerto meet the areas where the in-dustry is in dire need, in the nextfive years. These areas are:I) Pilots (up to Airline TransportPilot (ALTP) licence and includ-ing helicopter training)II) Aircraft Maintenance Engi-neersIII) Air Traffic System ControllerIV) Air Traffic System PersonnelV) Flight dispatchers

Training on Human Factor/RiskManagement should also be in-stituted. This would facilitate newentrants to the industry. It wouldalso ease current manpowershortages in the medium andlong terms, and provide for moreorderly succession.

91. NCAT should commence re-fresher courses on basis instru-ment flying review of West Africameteorology; use of Global Posi-tioning System (GPS), Traffic Col-lision Avoidance System (TCAS)and around Proxinity WarningSystem (GPWS). The Task Force

Why our planes crash (4)Continues frompage 56

Training onHuman Factor/Risk Manage-ment shouldalso be institut-ed. This wouldfacilitate newentrants to theindustry

,,

expand the membership of itsProject Monitoring Committee toinclude Internal Audit and Com-mercial Department.

95. NCAA should correct andstabilise its accounting system.The full implementation of SAGEAccounting Package should beviewed as a matter of high priori-ty. Part of the implementation prob-lems arose because users were notproperly involved in the specifi-cation for the set up of SAGE Ac-counting System such as the con-trol parameters, charts of account,systems test results and financialopening balance.

96. Aviation Agencies shouldmake concerted efforts to recoverdebts owed themselves NCAAwould need to recover a debt ofappropriately N2.6 billion.

Corrective

action

This represents debt due fromlocal and international airlines forremittance of five per cent ticketsales and cargo charges (TSC).Recovery of this debt would helpmeet some requirements of theAgencies preparatory to the ICAOaudit in November 2006.

97. NCAA should instruct its linemanagement to take corrective ac-tion on a prompt basis on internalaudit recommendations. The in-ternal audit should be given ahigher profile in the organisation.Internal audit reports and obser-vations are often ignored. Also,the Head of Audit should reportto the DG and not to Dirctor of Fi-nance.

107 Government should revisitthe whole issue of the aircraft (5NAVK) sent to South Africa for re-pairs by NCAA. This is to ensurethat value for money on the con-tract is received as well as to re-cover any money lost as a result ofsplitting of the contract. The re-pair of aircraft in South Africa is aworst case of project splitting asall the three companies are ownedby the same person.

108. FAAN should review itsbudgetary process. The budgetshould be integrated with the roll-ing plan to enable the achievementof the plan objectives. The creationof this linkage would ensure thatthe plan receives the necessarysupport.

•Air Vice Marshal Paul Dike (rtd),chairman, Task Force on Aviation Industry

To be continued

ly addressed by Federal, Stateand Corporate sponsorship of stu-dents to the College.

92. NCAT should introducemodern instructional methods.This should include the instruc-tional system development (ISD)methodology of ICAO TRAINAIRprogramme, and various comput-er-based training system. Thiswould improve the quality oftraining at the college.

93. NCAA should revise its bud-getary process. The revisionshould provide for budgets re-maining uncommitted to be can-celled at the end of the quarterfollowing the year to which theyrelate. There should be a definedprocedure for budget set-offs. Thiswould prevent abuse.

94. NCAA should comprehen-sively overhaul its contract pro-curement procedures, and thisshould be made known, embed-ded and complied with through-out the organisation. The proce-dures should set out the contractcycle from award through to exe-

worthiness at NCAA and QualityAssurance Managers of Airlines.

87. NCAA should ensure thatoperators meet either the FAA(USA) or Joint Aviation Authority(JAA) of the European Union(EU) standard during aircrew sim-ulator training, and that appro-priate fees are paid to avoid skip-ping some aspects of the train-ing. The FAA (USA, and the JAA(EU) are the highest standardsin the industry and if used as thebasis for NCAA simulator train-

observed that most of the crewhave not updated their knowl-edge in these critical safety areas,mainly due to non-availability oftraining facilities in the country.NCAT is better positioned to runthe course for the entire industry,and this would enable NCAA tomonitor standards attained.

92. Government should raisethe age limit for retirement of in-strument staff at NCAT and someother Aviation Training Organi-sations (ATOs) to 65 years as is

cution and completion. The ac-coutability and actions of the par-ties involved and the relevant re-porting systems should be speltout. Contracts should only beawarded to contractors who havethe technical and financial capa-bility to execute the work. Con-tracts should only be awardedwhere budget cover is availableand funds are on hand. Further-more, to ensure that price verifi-cation is carried out before theaward of contracts, NCAA should

the case in tertiaryinstitutions. Thiswould guarantee areasonable periodof service for high-ly trained profes-sionals; more so, asthere are no young-er ones to succeedthem.

91. Government(Federal and State)and Airlines shouldsponsor studentsinto NCAT. A majorproblem of NCAT islow patronage. Thisproblem of low ca-pacity utilisationcan be immediate-

Plane crash survivors


WEDDING: From left— Former military President Ibrahim Babangida; Vice President Namadi Sambo;Gen. Mohammed Buhari (rtd), former Head of State, and Nasir El-Rufai, former FCT Minister, andothers at the wedding Fathia of Nasir el-Rufai's elder brother's daughter in Kaduna State, Saturday.

Lawmaker tasks NCCon ‘private calls'

250 couples wed in KanoShareholders appealAfribank's liquidation

NAFDAC boss urgessupport for FG on education

Missing N44bn: Miners task FG on solid mineral funds

Strike grounds researchinstitutions

KANO—NO fewerthan 250 couples

were joined in matri-mony in Kano State,weekend, during the sec-ond batch of mass wed-ding organised byHisbah Board, aparastatal in the state.

Unlike the previousone held May 15, where100 couples took the mar-riage vow at the KanoCentral Mosque, week-end’s ceremony was de-centralised as 220 cou-ples wed in their respec-tive local government ar-eas, while 30 were joinedin the state capital.

Among the newly-wedwas an octogenarian,Malam UbaAbdulRahaman, 82, whotook a 70-year-old woman,Amina Usman, as wife inthe ceremony that hadHajiya Amina Sambo,wife of Vice PresidentNamadi Sambo, top gov-ernment official, clerics,traditional rulers, busi-nessmen and women inattendance.

The couples were lecturedby the Chief Imam of the KanoCentral Mosque on their du-

�Get N20,000 from govt, sewing machines from Sambo

ties and responsibilities.Speaking on the occa-

sion, Governor RabiuKwankwaso, who had ear-lier presented bed andbedding, bags of rice, car-tons of spaghetti, house-hold items and N20,000each as take-off capital,said his administrationhad committed N46.6 mil-

lion to the project.He said the state gov-

ernment introduced masswedding as a measureto tackle the high rate ofdivorce cases and re-duce poverty.

He pointed out thatpoverty was the majorfactor that leads to earlybreakage of marriages

in the state, a develop-ment that informed hisdecision to initiate pov-erty alleviation pro-grammes, focused onyouths and women.

Hajiya Sambo do-nated 250 sewing ma-chines, worth aboutN3.73 million to all thebrides.

BY ABDULSALAM

MUHAMMAD

AS part of efforts toensure adequate

security and to checkkidnapping in the coun-try, a member of Houseof Representatives,Alhaji Yakub Balogun,has asked the NigerianCommunications Com-mission, NCC, to directall telecommunicationsservice providers tostop all local calls madeunder the guise of ‘hid-den numbers’.

Balogun, representingLagos Island FederalConstituency II in theHouse of Representa-tives, in a motion, saidthe telecommunication

operators can put a checkto hidden numbers callsthrough activation ofCaller Line IdentificationSystem, CLIS.

He said cases of hid-den number calls, usedby people to perpetrateall manner of atrocities,was alien to the countryuntil the advent of GSM.

Balogun explainedthat calls from hiddennumbers were danger-ous and capable of un-dermining security inthe country, adding thatsuch exercise couldmake nonsense of therecent registration exer-cise of GSM lines.

ABUJA—ACADEMICactivities in research

and allied institutions in thecountry have been sus-pended following a nation-wide strike by academicworkers under the aegis ofAcademic Staff Union ofResearch Institutions,ASURI.

The strike followed theexpiration of a 24-hour ul-timatum earlier given theFederal Government by theunion to address theirgrievances. Top among theissues was the disparity inresearch grant to universityprofessors and the contin-ued stay in office of Dr. Solo-

mon Badejo as ExecutiveDirector of Forestry Re-search Institute of Nigeria,FRIN.

The workers had earliercalled on the Federal Gov-ernment to desist from giv-ing preferential treatment touniversity professors, say-ing there was no basis forthe university professors tobe placed above them,threatening to shut all re-search institutions within 24hours if their demand on theremoval of FRIN boss wasnot met.

Briefing newsmen, week-end, National President,ASURI, Dr. Alhassan Maji,claimed that they weremore grounded in researchwork than the universitiesprofessors, adding that the

Gamaliel Onosode reportalluded to their claim.

He said: “Researchersand university professorsare all academics but witha difference in conditions ofservice. So academic staff ofresearch institutions shouldnot be inferior to those offederal universities.

“Also, the Onosode reporton comparisons of the na-ture and content of aca-demic duties of research in-stitutions and those of Ni-gerian universities con-firmed the superiority of theformer in research endeav-our to the latter.”

He decried what hecalled “imposition of uni-versity professors on re-search institutions as ex-ecutive directors.”

BY JOSEPH ERUNKE

ABUJA—MINERS Association of Nigeria

has called on the FederalGovernment to stop allocat-ing money meant for solidminerals development toSpecial Intervention Fundon Solid Minerals.

The association said theSolid Minerals Commis-sion was the body meant to

receive any money in re-spect of development ofsolid minerals.

The organisation’s posi-tion came amidst lastweek’s revelation by theSenator Ahmad Lawan-ledSenate Committee on Pub-lic Accounts that N44 bil-lion was missing from theFederal Government’s Spe-cial Intervention Fund onSolid Minerals.

The committee discoveredthe missing funds duringan interactive session it hadwith officials of FederalMinistry of Finance; Cen-tral Bank of Nigeria, CBNand Office of the Account-ant-General of the Federa-tion, AGF.

The association’s Na-tional President, Alhaji SaniShehu, reacting to the de-velopment, weekend, in

Abuja, said: He said:“There is no basis for theFederal Government tokeep sending money meantfor development of solidminerals to Special Inter-vention Fund, when theSolid Minerals Commis-sion, the body meant tocarry out functions in re-spect of development of thenation’s solid minerals, is inexistence.”

BY JOSEPH ERUNKE

SOME shareholders ofAfribank Plc have ap-

pealed last week’s FederalHigh Court, Lagos, deci-sion, which granted an ap-plication by Nigerian De-posit Insurance Corpora-tion, NDIC, to liquidate thebank.

Justice CharlesArchibong of the FederalHigh Court, Lagos, hadwound up Afribank on theground that it was no longernecessary for the bank tocontinue to exist since theCentral Bank of Nigeria,CBN, had revoked its op-erating licence and samehad been properlygazetted.

The bank’s shareholders,through their counsel, Mr.Onyebuchi Aniakor, in theappeal before the Court of

Appeal, are contendingthat the trial judge erred inlaw and committed gravemiscarriage of justice by hisorder.

The shareholders,Igbrude Oke, RasakMumuni, Akinsanya Sun-day, Suleiman Babatundeand Igba Olatomide, onbehalf of themselves andother shareholders of thebank, are contending in theappeal that JusticeArchibong struck out a pre-liminary objection they filedto the winding up petition,without hearing same.

They argued that thewinding up order wasmade by Justice Archibong,when the matter wasslated for mention andnot hearing, adding thatby so doing the judgehad committed grave mis-carriage of justice.

BY INNOCENT ANABA

MAKURDI—DIRECTOR-General of

National Agency for Foodand Drug Administrationand Control, NAFDAC,Dr. Paul Orhii, has urgedorganised private sectorto support the FederalGovernment’s initiatives

aimed at checking the fall-ing standard of educationin the country.

He said the slide in thesector was a wake-up callto all stakeholders to rallyround government’s ef-forts at revamping the sec-tor.

Orhii, weekend, whilepresenting seven com-puters to outstandingstudents and teachers ofhis alma mater, St.Francis’ College,Otukpo, in commemora-tion of the school’s 2012prize and award cer-emony, said: “The timehas come for allstakeholders in the Ni-gerian project, especiallyorganised private sector,to rally round the effortsof the Federal and stategovernments to revampthe educational sector.”

BY PETYER DURU

VICTORY Group ofSchools will hold its

annual valedictory gradu-ation on its school premisesin Ikeja, Tuesday, July 24.

The ceremony, where beststudents will go home withprizes and awards, accord-ing to the Managing Pro-prietor, Chief C. F. I.Olaniyan, will be graced byprominent Nigerians.

Valediction

CMYK


•Syrians praying during the funeral procession of a man killed, in Homs, Syria. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN) .

THE Red Cross(ICRC) says

fighting in Syria hasbecome so widespreadthat the conflict is now ineffect a civil war. Thechange in status meanscombatants will now beofficially subject to theGeneva Conventions,leaving them moreexposed to war crimesprosecutions. The RedCross had previouslyregarded only the areasaround Idlib, Homs andHama as war zones.

Meanwhile, the Syriangovernment deniedSunday that it used tanksand helicopters to attackthe village of Tremseh inHama province onThursday. Activistsreported mass killings inthe village, but agovernment spokesmansaid only two civiliansand 37 armed individualswere killed in whatDamascus said was a

Syria is in civil war — Red Cross•There was massacre but... Syrian Govtdefensive operation. The U.N. observers wereat Tremseh on Sundayinvestigating events.

At a news conference inDamascus Sunday,Foreign MinistrySpokesman JihadMakdissi denied thearmy had used tanks,helicopters and heavyweapons to target thetown. He said yes, therewas a massacre. What

happened, he said, wasnot an attack by the armyon innocent civilians buta clash between regularforces and armedgroups.

Meanwhile, oppositionfighters battled Syriangovernment forces inDamascus on Sunday inwhat residents describedas the fiercest fightingyet inside the city limitsof the capital.

Numerous residentscontacted by Reuters saidthey could hear loudexplosions, persistentgunfire and sirenswailing. Thick blacksmoke was visible abovethe Damascus skyline inlive internet video links.

Activist Samir al-Shami,who spoke to Reuters bySkype from Damascus,said the fighting wasunder way in the al-

Tadamon district in thecapital’s south, after anight of sustained battlesin the nearby Hajar al-Aswad district. Aspokesman for U.N.-ArabLeague mediator KofiAnnan said he wouldtravel to Moscow onMonday for two days oftalks with PresidentVladimir Putin andForeign Minister SergeiLavrov.

THE African Unionsummit opened in

Ethiopia on Sunday withan appeal for a regional

AU seeks regional response to conflictsresponse to conflicts. AUChairman Jean Pingcalled for Africa to solveits own problems. The

summit is to focus ontrade and security.

The AU said it may sendforces to battle armed

rebels in the DemocraticRepublic of Congo. It alsobacked a plan by WestAfrican nations to battleIslamist militants innorthern Mali.

The summit will alsoaddress a stalemate overthe AU’s chairmanship.

Ping is beingchallenged by SouthAfrica’s Home AffairsMinister NkosazanaDlamini-Zuma. Duringan election in January,both candidates failed togarner the two-thirdsmajority needed to winthe chairmanship.

A French judge hasissued an

international arrest

France to arrest E’ Guinea leader’s son

warrant for the son of thepresident of oil-richEquatorial Guinea,reports say.

Teodorin NguemaObiang Mangue is beingsought on money-laundering charges. Heserves as EquatorialGuinea’s agricultureminister Obiang, the sonof President TeodoroNguema ObiangMbasogo, denies anywrongdoing.

The judge, Roger LeLoire, issued the warrantafter Mr Obiang refusedto be interviewed bymagistrates on charges ofcorruption, legal sourcessay. Obiang’s lawyer toldthe AFP news agencythat he had not beeninformed that anymandate for his client’sarrest had been issued.

He added that any suchwarrant would be a “non-

event” due to Obiang’sstatus.

“Mr Obiang hasjudicial immunity as he isthe vice-president ofEquatorial Guinea andtherefore could not attendthe summons,”Emmanuel Marsignytold AFP.

According to Frenchnewspaper Le Monde,the warrant for MrObiang - known asTeodorin in his country -was issued on Thursday.French judges areinvestigating allegationsthat several Africanleaders have boughtassets in France withembezzled state funds.They are looking atPresident Obiang as wellas Congo-Brazzaville’sPresident Denis SassouNguesso, and OmarBongo, the late presidentof Gabon.

A 61-year-old USpastor Rev. Michel

Louis and two othershave been abductedwhile on a church trip tothe Middle East, U.S.officials told NBC Newson Sunday.

The son of Louis toldThe Associated Press thathis father was on achurch trip to retraceJesus’ steps through theHoly Land with 23 othermembers of the clergyand worshippers whenhe was abducted. Alongwith him, a 39-year-oldBoston woman in thegroup and a tour guidewere kidnapped Friday.

The AP said anEgyptian Bedouin, JirmyAbu-Masuh, was thecaptor – and that he wasdemanding policerelease his uncle fromprison. It reported Abu-Masuh vowed to takemore hostages of differentnationalities if hisdemands were not met.

US pastorabducted inEgypt

THE U.S. MarshalsService announced

the capture of VincentLegrend Walters, one ofthe law enforcementagency’s 15 most wantedfugitives, in the resort cityof Cancun.

Walters, 45, was wantedon kidnapping, murderand drug chargesstemming from a 1988San Diego, Calif., case.The agency said Walterswas apprehended Fridaymorning, thentransported to MexicoCity where he will awaitextradition to the UnitedStates. Walters had beenworking at the CancunInternational Airportunder the assumed nameOscar Rivera, accordingto a statement released bythe agency.

Walters is accusedin the kidnapping andmurder of ChristinaReyes in September1 9 8 8 , U . S .Marshals said in astatement obtained byNBC News. He was alsoindicted by a federalgrand jury in 1989 onconspiracy tomanufacture, possessand distribute crystalmethamphetamine,carrying firearms duringa drug trafficking crimeand possession ofunregistered firearmsand explosives.

US most-wanted fugitivenabbed

THE mother of the

Tunisian peddler

whose suicide sparked

the Arab Spring was

arrested after getting

into a scuffle with a court

official, a family member

said on Friday.

Salem Bouazizi,

brother of Mohammed

Bouazizi, whose death

made him a symbol for

the frustrations of many,

said their mother was

arrested for allegedly

attacking the official in

Sidi Bouzid, the central

town where Tunisia’s

revolution began.

Mother of Tunisian whosparked Arab Spring arrested

Bouazizi said his

mother, Manoubia

Bouazizi, 60, returned

an insult after the court

employee insulted her,

pushed her and

slammed a door in her

face, refusing to assist

her application for

documents.According to the AFP

news agency, Salem

Bouazizi said the

documents she was

there to sign would haveallowed her to receive

compensation from the

government given to

“martyrs of the

revolution.”

•Jean Ping at the open-ing session of the AUPeace and Security coun-cil meeting in Addis Aba-ba, July 14, 2012.


L-R: Hon. Kamal Salau-Bashua, Chairman Lagos IslandEast LCDA, Senator Gbenga B. Ashafa, representative ofGovernor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) and Mr Toyin Jimba,representative of the Commissioner for Environment,Tunji Bello, during the tree Planting Campaign 2012 atLagos Island East LCDA, on Saturday

L-R: Wing Commander Paul Trumhesun, representingCommander, 107 Nigerian Airforce Camp, Lagos; MasterAyobami Olounfemi, the graduand, Mrs ModupeOwolabi, guest speaker; and Mr. Jso Audu, at the NigerianAir Force Primary School Lagos organised annual speechand prize giving ceremony. Photo: Diran Oshe

L-r: Mr Kola Fadairo, Director, Lagos StateEnvironmental Protection Agency, LASEPA; EngrAdebola Shabi, General Manager, LASEPA; Mr ParimalVipani, Group Executive Director, Sunplast IndustriesLimited, and Mr Arun Ghate, General Manger SunplastIndustries, during the 2012 Tree Planting Campaign,orgasnised by LASEPA at Ilasamaja, Lagos, yesterday.Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi

L-r: Lagos State Governor and guest speaker, Mr.Babatunde Fashola, SAN; Chairman of the GoverningBoard of Whitesands School, Professor Albert Alos andthe Principal, Dr. Lorenzo David during the School’sGraduation Ceremony on Saturday

L-r: Mr. Hassan Taj Alssir M. (Sudan StandardsMonitoring Org.), Mrs. T.N. Ojomo (Head, Chemtech Div.S.O.N), Chief Emma Orizu (Managing Director, ChikkiFoods Industries Ltd), Mr. Philip Okungu-Kenyan (ARSOrepresentative) and Mr. Kofi Kankam (Ghana StandardAuthority) when the African Organisation forStandardisation (ARSO) team visited Chikki FoodsIndustries factory in Ikorodu after the 19th ARSO GeneralAssembly held in Lagos and sponsored by Chikki FoodsIndustries.

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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

M E D I A L I M I T E D ( L A G O S O F F I C E ) K I O S K4 8 E A S T PAV I L I O N T B S , L A G O S .

VANGUARD'S LAGOS OFFICE



One Visa denial toomany

,,

I repeat here verbatim a column that I wrote lastyear concerning the denial of visa to Nigerians

on official sports assignment. Specifically the beachsoccer team to Italy.

I wrote then that we cannot allow any country tomess us up concerning the issuance of visas underflimsy excuses. This column has become relevanttoday as I have sat through one week of the worldjunior championship in Barcelona without Nigeriadue to the reported refusal of the Spanish Embassyin Nigeria to give them visa.

For these young athletes denied the opportunityof a life time, the scars will not heal in a hurry.

Last year, I wrote.'From September 1-11 2011 in Ravenna Italy, Ni-

gerians sat through a harrowing experience as theirdecimated beach soccer team, faced a herculean taskin the 5th FIFA beach Soccer competition.

Vice champions of Africa, Nigeria competed with15 other countries for the prized beach soccer tro-phy.

'Contesting in Group C the Beach Eagles as thecountry’s national team is known and called facedRussia in the first match and lost 4-8. It was in thecourse of that match, during the commentaries, thatNigerians got to know that Nigeria arrived the com-petition with 9 players instead of 12 as stipulated inthe rules and regulations.

ON enquiry it was discovered that the remaining players could not get visa in time and were

likely to join their colleagues later. By the time Ni-geria lined out against Venezuela in their nextmatch, Emmanuel Zabi, Shehu Maijana and MusaNajare were still yet to arrive Italy.

‘Gratefully, we won that match 5-3 and went on toface Tahiti in the last group match which we alsowon 4-1.

'At this point it was believed, perhaps that all waswell as no one seemed to bother anymore about theneed to get those players flown in. It was when wefaced defending Champions Brazil in the quarterfinal that it dawned on us that extra feet were need-ed in a sport that is as physical as it is exhausting.

'In what was considered the most exciting matchof the championship, our boys fought back gallant-ly to level with the Brazilians 8-8 at full time only tolose 8-10 in extra time, no thanks to the absence ofextra man power. On September 8 at the Stadio delMare in Ravanne, the Nigerian players accordingto FIFA ‘sprawled on the ground’ after the energysapping encounter. FIFA had entitled the matchBRAZIL OUTLAST BRAVE NIGERIANS. ‘outlast’was definitely the word that best describes a teamthat was not complete even for a top class tourna-ment of that nature.

'Question. Why did the three players not make itto Italy?

‘The shocking reply was that they were deniedvisas!

'This is as unbelievable as it is true.

'The story has it that when the team was depart-ing for a training tour of Portugal, the NFF ap-plied for Shengen visas for the squad, one inwhich they could easily use to cross over to Italyfor the competition. Portugal granted nine play-ers visa and left out three.

‘Efforts to get the players visa met a diplomaticbrick wall.

THE NFF I gathered then approached the Italian Embassy and asked for visa for the three

to proceed straight to competition venue. Againthe request was turned down the technical rea-son being that since one European country hadturned down the request, another could not grantsame.

'Bizarre as this may sound, the next step was toinform FIFA given the very explicit hosting de-mands that makes it mandatory for visa doors tobe thrown open to participating countries.

‘Abridging a very long story, FIFA did not suc-ceed to get Italy to give the players visa, nor didit consent to their substitution on health grounds,as the time for such had elapsed.

'Question. Why were Messrs Zabi, Maijana andNajare denied visas?

'Nobody claims to know. Did the Embassies notstate the reason for the visa denial? NFF sourcessay ‘no’.

'This is definitely one visa denial too many.'We cannot allow ourselves further humiliation

by embassies even on the flimsiest of excuses.‘The Nigeria Football Federation should as a

matter of urgency file a protest to the Ministry ofForeign Affairs through the National Sports Com-mission seeking an explanation on why thosethree Nigerian players were dropped.

‘Being a law abiding country we are ready tomake amends if reasons so advanced are tenable.If not, we should demand unreserved apology foran act that is believed to have contributed to ourearly ouster from the competition.

THERE may also be need to mention here thepsychological trauma that the trio are going

through for being punished as it were for a sinthey are so far ignorant about.

‘Cases like this are common within our sportsenvironment and should not be allowed to con-tinue. This is definitely a slap on a country thatpresented those players as her ambassadors.

‘Never again.This time around we should not take things ly-

ing low. If we do, like we did last year the proba-bility of a repeat remainsis very high.

AS CHIEF OJIDOH CLOCKS 86

'On Thursday July 19, Chief John Ojidoh willbe 86.

During the problem days of our football, when“honorary membership” of the NFF became a sub-ject of litigation a colleague asked me the whereabout of “…….people like Chief JohnOjidoh….people who deserve to be honoured forpast services to the game.” I said to him that ChiefOjidoh was very much alive and kicking and didnot spare any opportunity to lend his voice to is-sues of national sports importance.

Just recently I got a text from him saluting thecolumn on Chief J. B. Ogufere and wishing thatveterans of the round leather game are accordeddue recognition and prominence.

THURSDAY will be the turn of a tested and established Football administrator, one who lived

his life for sports, especially football. Those whocan tell the story of Chief Ojidoh go back to thattop referee and gamesmaster who created waveswith unknown Abudu Rovers and went on to be-come Chairman of the then Midwest football as-sociation piloting it in the golden era of BendelInsurance and New Nigeria Bank.

Also, the then Nigeria Football Association hadto fall back on the expertise of Chief Ojidoh aschairman of the NFA Constitution and act reviewpanel. His honesty and integrity informed his ap-pointment as pioneer chairman of the Pepsi Foot-ball Awards. 86 cheers to a man commonly re-ferred to by his friends as “ Old Bobo”

May you live long IJNSee you next week.

For these youngathletes denied theopportunity of a lifetime, the scars willnot heal in a hurry

AFTER the Olympictrials in Calabar

and Africa’s Champion-ships in Benin Repub-lic Blessing Okagbaremoved to Delta State touse one of their manyfacilities to continuepreparation for theOlympic Games. But,in the main, shetrained for the SamsungDiamond League inCrystal Palace Satur-day.

Blessing trained inOghara since returningfrom Port Novo. And

Okagbare dedicates London feat to UduaghanDelta State Governor,Emmanuel Uduaghansupported her with somefunding, the same wayhe had done to otherOlympic bound athletesfrom Delta State.

And for his continuedfatherly support Bless-ing dedicated her featin London on Saturdaywhen she caused an up-set, beating the best inthe world to win the100m event in 11.01 sec-onds.

The pack includedOlympic champion andthe fastest woman thisyear Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica, thereigning world champi-

on Carmelita Jeter whocame second in 11.03seconds. Tianna Madi-son was third in 11.13as Fraser-Pryce hadstumbled on leaving theblocks and never recov-ered. Delta sports boss,Amaju Pinnick said thisabout the London race:

“I spoke with Blessingafter the race and shededicated her victory toour governor who hasbeen of tremendoussupport to her and theNigerian team in partic-ular because he hasdone a lot for the Deltaathletes going to theOlympics and you know

that more than half ofthe athletes are from Del-ta. Blessing trained inOghara and only left twodays before the race inLondon. She has been so

•Okagbare

delighted and gratefulfor the assistance fromGovernor Uduaghan andhas dedicated the Lon-don feat to him. Blessingis a serving civil servantin Delta. All our athletesare so employed.”

•Gov. Uduaghan

BY ONOCHIEANIBEZE

LIONEL Messi is con-sidering the possibility of

taking legal action against aHungarian magazine afterthe Barcelona forward deniedclaims by the publication thathis teammates in La Masiathought he was ‘dumb’.

The Argentina internationalhad been quoted as sayingby Kepes Sport that his col-leagues in the Catalan side’syouth ranks, including CescFabregas and Gerard Pique,initially believed he had prob-lems as a teenager.

Messithreatenslegal actionagainstHungarianmagazine


AFNContinues from BPpresident SolomonOgba.

“What is even morepainful is the effort ofthe athletes who havebeen in camp sinceApril. They werehopeful of putting intheir best, but this wasnot to be,” added theAFN boss.

He submitted that thetrip cost the federationN10m and the NationalSports Commissionhave told the AFN tomake up for the balanceas they were not in aposition to do so.

Nigeria was two dayslate into thechampionships, afterthe athletes weredelayed in Lagos bySpanish Embassyofficials. This made thedepleted team to misstheir strong holdevents. Nigeria was notrepresented in the4x400m after keymembers of the quartetwere denied visas.

However the women4x100m team foughttheir way into the final,Only to be disqualifiedafter running a goodrace.

Gone!!!Going! Going!!

HAMMERED ... Haye sends the Upton Park crowdwild with a crushing blow

DEREK DECKED ... Haye lands a hard left hookto send Chisora crashing to the canvas

Good night ... Chisora is flat out on the canvasafter Haye’s power punching

DAVID HAYEsmashed Dereck

Chisora to Brits — thencalled for worldchampion VitaliKlitschko.

Haye knocked out DelBoy in the fifth roundwith a flurry of punchesin the grudge match.

And the Hayemakerroared: “Thatperformance shows youwhat I can do and ifVitali thinks he canhandle it, then let’sfight. He will probablywant to fight somechump and then retire tobecome a politician.

“I’d be very surprisedif Vitali wants to fight meafter that.

“But if he wants to givethe world a great fightI’m ready to go.”

Haye showedawesome power andspeed to floor Chisoratwice in the fifth to takethe bragging rights aswell as the WBA andWBO internationalheavyweight title belts.

A five-punchcombination put an endto a fight arranged onthe back of their Munichmaul in February.

Haye, who wore

Haye KO’s Chisoratrainers in the ring to getmore grip at rain-sweptUpton Park, added:“This is one of the bestever nights for Britishboxing.

“Two warriors went atit from the first bell andgave the crowd whatthey wanted. I didn’tgive Chisora muchrespect before the fightbecause I had neverexperienced what hecould bring to the ring.

“But I now knowChisora has one of thebest chins in thebusiness — how he wasstanding after some ofmy shots landed I don’tknow.

“The atmosphere hereis the best I have everexperienced.”

Chisora has to pay upa £20,000 bet to GreatOrmond Street Hospitalfor Children after theKO.

Garcia teaches Amir a harsh

lesson

AMIR KHAN wasmade to pay for

claiming he was a‘superstar ’ as DannyGarcia ripped the WBAlight-welterweight titlefrom his grasp.

With Khan looking tostep up to welterweightand secure a money-spinning fight withFloyd Mayweather,Garcia brought his worldcrashing down aroundhim.

Bolton ace Khan went

Amir Khan on the canvas after being knocked down by Danny Garcia.

into the fight in LasVegas as theoverwhelming favourite— despite the fact Garciaholds the prestigiousWBC crown.

The 25-year-old waslooking to make astatement but wasfloored three times onthe way to being savedfrom further punishmentby referee KennyBayless, who waved thefight off in the fourthround.

And while Garciastretched his unbeatenrecord to 24 fights,Khan was left to reflecton what could havebeen.

He said: “It wasn’t mynight. After watchingthe replays a little bit Ithought I was coming inwith my hands downand Danny tookadvantage.

“I respect Danny, hewas countering verywell against me.”

Carl Lewis

in 100m at the 1984 Los An-geles showpiece and fouryears later in Seoul, said itwas difficult for sprinters toremain in peak condition forextended periods.

“The reason it hasn’t beendone is because it’s hard tostay at that level for a longperiod of time. People arealways trying to beat youwhen you are a champion,”the American pointed out.

“(Yohan) Blake has beat-en Bolt two years in a rownow after the World Cham-pionships in 2011 and we

Continues from BPdon’t know what Bolt’shead is like when he los-es.”

He continued: “It’s a chal-lenge to win two in a rowbut history defines great-ness. You don’t have great-ness in your time - you aregreat because of history.

“We always try to predictwhich races are going to begreat but you just don’t knowand that is the brilliant thingabout it.”

Chinks appeared in Bolt’sarmour two weeks agowhen he was twice beatenby training partner Blake at

Yakubu, who only moved tothe club during the pastweek, scored his debutgoal on 86 minutes tostart his China sojournon a bright note.

This victory means thatR&F move up to the fifthposition after defeatingthe league leaders. Theynow have 27 points from17 matches.

Yakubu is among a trio

YakubuContinues from BP

the Jamaica National Trials.On both occasions, Blake

clocked world-leading

times - 9.75 seconds in the100m and 19.80 in the 200m- to install himself as one ofthe favourites in London.

of top African footballerswho recently made themove across to China asthat country hopes to in-crease the popularity ofthe game among locals.

Didier Drogba and Sey-dou Keita have bothmoved to ShanghaiShenhua and DalianAerbin respectivelybringing lots of attentionto the world’s most pop-ulated country.

SHAF promises enduring awards

SPORTS Heroes Awards Foundation has promisedan enduring award that will not only reward excel-

lence but that which will live with the athlete thereafter. According to the initiator, Philip Balepo, the award which

is simply called “The Sports Award” promises to be differ-ent in a lot of ways:

He said, “first, it rewards the present, reveres the pastand encourages the future. It is one award that strives tobring all sports under one roof. It is not a football onlyaward.”

Above all, Balepo said, “the Life Time AchievementAward is for many of our truly committed but never cele-brated athletes and administrators, who would be foreverremembered; which shall eventually give birth to TSAHall of Fame.”

The Sports Award - TSA -has 19 categories lined upand each category has three (3) nominees from which theactual winner will emerge. SHAF as a foundation, hasdifferent programmes lined up for our sports men andwomen; both the normal and the physically challenged,including the coaches, administrators, sponsors and eventhe fans.

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e-mail: [email protected]

How to Play SudokuTHE 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.

QUICK CROSSWORD

FRIDAY'S SOLUTIONS

TODAY'S PUZZLES FRIDAY'S ANSWERS

VANGUARD, MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012

ACROSS: 1, Lawful 5, Thwart 8, Maintain 9,Loud 10, Fen 12, Pater 15, Sew 17, Use 18, Irk19, Air 20, Demon 21, Inn 22, Spa 23, Sum 24,Lee 26, Ladle 29, Pie 33, Base 34, Inclined 35,Severe 36, Tangle.

ACROSS

1 Blemish (4)4 Cushion (3)6 Bulk (4)9 Vase (3)10 Splendid (8)11 Remain (4)14 Resin (3)16 Climb (5)19 Hugged (8)21 Danger (5)23 Differ (8)24 Choose (5)27 Knock (3)31 Unfasten (4)33 Adorned (8)34 Fire-arm (3)35 Yield (4)36 Plaything (337 Dumb (4)

DOWN

2 Chef (4)3 Rant (4)4 Manufactured (8)5 Run (4)6 Melody (5)7 Skill (3)8 Growl (5)12 Barrier (5)13 Overhead (5)14 Breach (3)15 Deserve (5)17 Grant (5)18 Eject (5)20 Disorder (8)22 Circuit (3)25 Thrust (5)26 Hag (5)28 Warmth (4)29 Dross (4)30 Exploit (4)32 Counterfeit (3)

DOWN: 2, Awake 3, Fang 4, Llma 5, Tin-gle 6, Walk 7, Route 10, Frail 11, Nurse12, Pedal 13, Timid 14, Rinse 15, Skimp16, Wince 25, Evade 27, Agile 28, Licit30, Ideal 31, Fete 32, Kiln

Haye KO’s Chisora

AFN in pain forfumbling in Spain

BY BEN EFE,Barcelona

NIGERIAN athleticsofficials are sulking

for participating in theIAAF World JuniorChampionships that

ended in Barcelona,Spain yesterday.

This was after the teamfailed to win a singlemedal in the Champion-ships, despite the spir-ited attempt made by theathletes. Besides, the

federation is now saddlewith the responsibility ofshouldering expensesincurred after lastminute cancellation offlights, as a result ofthe team’s inability totravel on schedule.

“Maybe we shouldn’thave come after all thattrouble of securing visa.This is because ourteam’s performanceswere affected and alsowe have been left with adebt burden,” said AFN

Continues on Page 63

Yakubu scores in Chinese debut

THE Yak has hit theground running as

his lone strike put R&F

above their opponents inthe Guangzhou derby onSunday afternoon

The Nigerian interna-tional justified his sign-ing as he scored to givethem a lone goal victoryover local rivals Guang-zhou Evergrande inSunday’s match.


Carl Lewis doubts Bolt’sOlympics 100m title defence

OLYMPIC legendCarl Lewis has cast

doubts on sprint sensa-tion Usain Bolt repeat-ing his Beijing exploitsat the London Olympicsstarting later this month.

Jamaican Bolt will start

the Games as the de-fending champion inboth sprints after domi-nating in Beijing fouryears ago, reports CMC.

Lewis, who won gold


GOLDEN DIAMOND•••Nigeria’s London 2012 Olympics medal hopeful,Blessing Okagbare, centre, wins the women’s 100m race at the London Dia-mond League weekend.

•Yakubu

DOWN ‘N OUT ...Haye sends Chisoracrashing — See storyand pictures on P.63

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