Monday, march 30, 2015

Vol. 5 N0. 1079 Monday, March 30, 2015 N150

Security forces on red alertAPC raises alarm on plot to manipulate polls

Election results ready today –INEC Buhari leads in KanoMu'azu fails Jonathan, loses unit to APCMimiko loses Ondo Central seat, Aliyu defeated in Senate bid

P.2

P.2,52P.2,51

72% telecom subscribers rate services poor – Survey

Election results ready today –INEC

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5>>


ISAIAH ERHIAWARIEN

Despite surpassing the tele-density target, investiga-

tions indicate that tele-communication operators in the country have failed in the key area of qual-ity service delivery on an industry-wide scale.

An industry survey conducted by the Con-sumers Affairs Bureau of the Nigerian Communica-tions Commission, NCC, revealed that 101,122,000 subscribers, representing 72.23 per cent of the total 140,822,483, were not sat-isfied with the operator’s services.

Only 21.05 per cent be-lieved the services were satisfactory, while 6.72 per cent simply could not rate the performance of the operators

The results of the sur-vey appeared to have confirmed a latest report on the Key Performance Indicators, KPI, for the service providers, which scored the operators low in terms of the quality of services they rendered to the consumers.

The KPI for the tele-coms industry in Nigeria, which was jointly agreed by the NCC and the ser-vice providers is a busi-ness metric used to evalu-ate factors that are crucial

to the quality of services from all the service pro-viders.

The survey further re-vealed that the operators were currently struggling to achieve the metrics, which are indicated by the Call Set-Up Success Rate, CSSR, Drop Call Rate, DCR, Traffic Channel Congestion, TCH CONG and Stand Alone Dedicat-ed Control Channel Con-gestion, SDCCH despite increased tele-density as was announced recently by the NCC.

In addition, the survey findings indicated that each of the metrics has a set target for achieve-ment, which all operators

must meet to avoid sanc-tions from the Commis-sion.

For the Call Set-Up Suc-cess Rate, Drop Call Rate, Traffic Channel Conges-tion, and Stand Alone Dedicated Control Chan-nel Congestion operators must hit the target of 98, 1, 0.20 and 2 per cent re-spectively.

So far, the result of the survey also indicated that only the new entrant into the sector, Emerging Mar-kets Telecommunication Services, EMTS, going with the brand name, Eti-salat surpassed the target mark while others could not meet it.

For instance, Etisalat

surpassed the 98 per cent mark for Call Set-Up Suc-cess Rate hitting over 99 per cent while Airtel, Glo and MTN trailed behind scoring 97, 96.70 and 96.80 per cent.

By the record, it means that Etisalat subscribers find it easy calling from their network.

On the Drop Call Rate, a metric which has of-ten topped the complaint list of subscribers at the quarterly Consumer Par-liament organised by the Consumer Affairs Bureau, Etisalat also re-corded the lowest score with a 0.40 per cent, while MTN and Glo over-run the

Associate Priest of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Gwagwalada, Rev. Fr. Lawrence Abanobi (right) blessing palms during Palm Sunday celebration at the Church in Gwagwalada, Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net2 Monday, March 30, 2015News

OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU, ABIODUN NEJO, OMEIZA AJAYI, UBONG UKPONG, BOLADALE BAMIGBOLA, THEOPHILUS ONOJEGHEN AND ABDUL-GAFAR OLADIMEJI

The Independent Na-tional Electoral Com-mission, INEC, has

expressed optimism that re-sults of the presidential and National Assembly elec-tions would be announced on a national level today.

Accordingly, final colla-tion of the results would start by 12pm at the Na-tional Collation Centre in Abuja.

INEC said it will only declare results when they have been collated from the states.

According to the com-mission, in spite of the sev-eral glitches that marred the exercise in some parts of the country, most results had been collated and were being expected at the com-mission’s headquarters last night.

Chairman of the Com-mission, Prof. Attahiru Jega stated this last night in Abuja when he gave a pre-liminary assessment of the polls.

Several challenges, including the late com-mencement of elections, accreditation issues and se-curity breaches forced the postponement of the polls in 387 polling units spread across the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Lagos, Kebbi, Niger, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Jigawa and Taraba states.

While the elections in the affected polling units were concluded yesterday, colla-tion was still being done at the local government level as at the time of filing this report.

This came even as the INEC boss vowed to identify and sanction one of its Pre-siding Officers in Taraba State, who allegedly allowed under-age voting in his poll-ing unit during Saturday’s elections.

On the Taraba incident, Jega said under-age voting is against the law.

“We are investigating the reports and we will take measures once this is done.

“There was one clip that has been in circulation since yesterday (Saturday) after-noon about an underage voter said to be from Taraba

and we have mandated our Resident Electoral Commis-sioner to investigate it thor-oughly and identify where this happened and to also identify the polling official who did it because it is clear-ly illegal to allow and under-aged person.

“There were a few other reported cases in which some observers said they have seen under aged vot-ing, we are yet to see details which would have enable us to investigate these malprac-tices,” he said.

On the challenges en-countered in Rivers State, the INEC boss said All Pro-gressives Congress, APC, wrote the commission yes-

terday, calling for the cancel-lation of the polls.

The INEC boss also dis-missed concerns that the commission was under in-tense pressure to declare in-conclusive elections.

While he said the failure of the card readers was a big shock to him, he added that it was very probable that many of the electoral offi-cials had not been trained in handling the device.

He also evaluated the situation in Delta State and said the commission has received reports that its ad hoc staff were substituted but that investigations were already ongoing to ascertain the veracity of the claims.

On claims by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that it was leading in 23 states, Jega said he would not know where the party got its own results.

“I do not know where the PDP spokesman got his source, but we have not col-lated results in 23 states,” he said.

Jega called on Nigerians to disregard any result that does not emanate from the commission.

He urged Nigerians to avoid listening to such an-nouncements from people that are clearly partisan.

“The Commission warns strongly against unofficial announcements and decla-

ration of results by unau-thorised persons and chan-nels, particularly online sites. Only INEC is empow-ered by law to announce re-sults and it is an offence for anyone to preempt the Com-mission”.

He said the Commission has taken notice of hitches that were experienced dur-ing the election ranging from difficulty in using the card readers to late arrival of INEC officials to the poll-ing units and security chal-lenges, adding that efforts would be made to avert such in future elections.

In another development, Nigerians and the inter-national community were

yesterday alerted by APC of alleged ongoing plans by the PDP and President Good-luck Jonathan to tamper with the results of Satur-day’s elections and circum-vent the people’s will.

Speaking through its Na-tional Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement issued in Lagos yesterday, APC said it has information to the effect that some clandestine meet-ings were being held with the sole aim of changing the result of the election.

“The information that we have received since we is-sued our last statement is to the effect that the Jonathan

DID YOU KNOW?Regular alcohol intake increases liver damage

Green tea promotes brain function

EATING HEALTHILY, GETTING ACTIVE

AND QUITTING SMOKING CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN REDUCING YOUR RISK

OF STROKE

FRANKA OSAKWE

If you slept longer than eight hours before work this morning, and have made this your regular habit, you may be increas-

ing your chances of developing stroke - a life-threatening condition that cuts off blood supply to some parts of the brain.

Stroke has become the second leading cause of death globally, with about 5.5 mil-lion people dying from the disease annually. However, experts recently discovered that the upsurge in the disease could actually be caused by excessive sleep.

Researchers from the University of Cam-bridge found that those who regularly slept longer than eight hours a night were twice as likely to suffer a stroke compared with av-erage sleepers.

They also found out that people who switch from sleeping less than six hours a night to more than eight hours were four times likely to suffer the dreaded disease.

The researchers, followed about 10,000 people aged 42 to 81 over nearly 10 years.

They started collecting data by asking participants how long they slept on an av-erage day and checked their patterns four years later and then six years after that.

Most reported sleeping between six and eight hours a day while one in 10 slept for more than eight hours a day.

Over the course of the study, 346 partici-pants suffered a stroke including some fa-talities.

After taking into account other factors, in-cluding age and sex, the team concluded that people who slept longer than eight hours a day were at 46 per cent greater risk of stroke than average.

The study, supported by the Medical Re-search Council and Cancer Research UK, further said the risk doubled for those who slept longer over the entire duration of the study.

Initial findings have been that people who slept less than six hours a day were at an 18 per cent increased risk of having coronary heart disease and stroke.

But now this new findings revealed that sleeping more than eight hours were at a staggering 46 per cent greater risk of stroke than those who slept an average six to eight hours.

Drinking every day appears to add significantly to the danger of developing alcoholic cirrho-

sis of the liver, researchers claim. Until now scientists had thought

that the disease is mainly caused by taking excessive amount of alcohol.

But the Danish study of 56,000 peo-

A good cup of tea can clear your head and help you think more clearly.

Researchers at the University of Cali-

Monday, March 30, 2015 National Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net

Good Health

PAGE3

ple, aged between 50 and 64, is the first to reveal the difference in risk between drinking daily and drinking on five or six days a week.

The results are published in the Journal of Hepatology.

Lead investigator Dr Gro Ask-gaard, from Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, said: “The de-tails of alcohol induced liver injury are unknown.

“We can only speculate the reason may be that daily alcohol exposure worsens liver damage or inhibits re-generation of the liver.”

The study also found that the risk of strokes doubled in elderly women.

The scientists said the reasons for the link were unclear and more research needs to be carried out to establish why too much sleep could be a killer.

Yue Leng, from the university, said sleep-ing more was unlikely in itself to directly cause a stroke.

But she said an increased amount of sleep could be a key sign that someone was more likely to suffer from one.

“It’s apparent both from our own partici-pants and the wealth of international data that there’s a link between sleeping longer than average and a greater risk of stroke.

“What is far less clear, however, is the di-rection of this link, whether longer sleep is a symptom, an early marker or a cause of cardiovascular problems’, she said.

Dr Madina Kara, Research Manager at

the Stroke Association, explained that in the past, oversleeping has been linked to a host of health problems, including diabetes and obesity.

“The results of this latest research sug-gest that sleeping for longer could be a sign that you’re at increased risk of stroke, par-

ticularly among older people.However, there is no scientific proof yet

that sleeping for longer is a risk factor for stroke, the data presented in this research does not provide sufficient evidence to prove that this is of concern.

The researchers have highlighted that the reasons behind the suggested link be-tween sleeping for prolonged periods and stroke are still not known.

“Longer sleep could be a symptom, or a cause, of cardiovascular problems.

“The known stroke risk factors include high blood pressure, smoking and lack of exercise.

“Eating healthily, getting active and quit-ting smoking can make a big difference in reducing your risk of stroke.

“Anyone concerned about their health should have a chat with their GP”, Dr. Kara said.

fornia, Davis, have been studying how green tea influences brain function and boosts memory. Now Chinese research-ers have confirmed findings that Green tea favorably affects the generation of brain cells and provides benefits for memory and spatial learning.

The main ingredient in green tea re-sponsible for the benefits is a chemical called epigallocatechin-3 gallate (EGCG). It’s an antioxidant that improves cog-nitive function by promoting neuron (nerve) cells in the brain.

In addition, green tea helps combat degenerative diseases related to aging, as well as memory loss.

Watch! Excessive sleeping could cause stroke

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net4 Monday, March 30, 2015Photo News

Francis EkponEONITSHA

All Progressives Congress, APC, in Anambra State

has rejected Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly election over al-leged massive rigging and late arrival of materials in some voting centres.

The party therefore, called on the Independent National Electoral Com-mission, INEC, to cancel the election and choose a new date for a fresh one that would be guided by the smart card reader.

Anambra Central Senatorial candidate of APC, Dr. Chris Ngige, while briefing newsmen in Awka, said the card reader sent to Anambra State was programmed into an invalid date with the intention of resorting to manual accreditation system that would pave way for rigging.

Ngige explained that he did not vote in his

A youth leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC,

was on Saturday clubbed to death and his body set ablaze by thugs believed to belong to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ikpoba Okha Local Govern-ment Area of Edo State.

The youth leader, Igie Osayande, met his untimely death when thugs led by one Osamede Edorodion, in-vaded Ward 9, Units 9, 10 and 11 in Obagienevbosa com-

munity, off Sapele road in Ikpoba Okha Local Govern-ment Area.

According to the APC agent in Ward 11, Mr Sunny Osagiede, trouble started when the said Osamede Edorodion, who according to him, is not from the com-munity, allegedly stormed the area with thugs demand-ing to be accredited long af-ter accreditation had closed and voting had commenced.

According to Osagiede, “Edorodion’s efforts to get

accreditation were rebuffed by the Presiding Officer who told him that voting had al-ready commenced. He was then prevailed upon by the policeman on duty at the unit to leave the area.”

Osagiede said trouble later escalated when the said Edorodion received a phone call later from the PDP and SDP agents in the ward that the PDP was losing. “He re-turned to the ward after the calls with his boys and scat-tered the ballot boxes and

tore the ballot papers into shreds.

“In an attempt to resist them, the APC youth leader, Igie Osagiede, was attacked by the thugs and clubbed to death. His body was also set ablaze. My Mercedes Benz 190 was damaged and the Youth leader’s Mercedes Benz ML 350 4Matic was also set ablaze.”

He said the body of the deceased youth leader had since been deposited at a morgue.

Ngige wants poll cancelled in Anambra

APC youth leader clubbed to death in Edo

...uncovers rigging centres in Nnewi, Nkpor

L-R: Supply Chain Director, Guinness Nigeria, Cephas Afebuameh, Chief Executive Officer, Nige-rian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema; Managing Director/CEO, Guinness Nigeria, John O’Keeffe and Executive Director, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Ade Bajomo, during Guinness Nigeria Plc close of business bell ringing ceremony, recently.

L-R: Group Managing Director, UACN Plc, Mr. Larry Ettah; Managing Director, Chemical and Allied Products (CAP) Plc, Mrs. Omolara Elemide; Executive Director, Corporate Services, UACN Plc, Mr. Joe Dada and Chief Finance Officer, Mr. Abdul Bello, during the unveiling of the 2015 Dulux Colour of the Year in Lagos at the weekend.

L-R: Head, Operations, Central Securities Clearing System Plc, Mr. Joseph Mekiliuwa; Head, Product Management, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr. Dipo Omotoso and Head, Global Markets, Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Sam Ocheho, during a workshop on retail bonds organised by Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers in Lagos, at the weekend.

L-R: Newly conferred fellows/commercial Director, Promasidor, Kachi Onugbogu; Vice President, National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, Rotimi Olaniyan; West Africa Managing Director, Kim-berly Clark, Mrs. Lola Daniels and Managing Director, PZ-Healthcare, Mr. Alex Goma, during a function in Lagos, recently.

National News

constituency because the manual accreditation was against the electoral law and will give room for an open ended system that will allow rigging.

“We initially allowed the manual accredita-tion system, which is unknown to electoral manual as law-abiding citizens but at a point, we suspected foul play as no-body’s finger was tipped with indelible ink and no ticking of voters in the accreditation form in the voter’s register and lastly, they were writing names of accredited persons on fresh sheets of papers. We are protesting because it did not conform with the manual accreditation.”

Ngige, who was flanked by APC National Assem-bly candidates and party executives, also noted that INEC did not an-nounce the number of voters accredited, noting

that, “it was an all comers affair and people voted as many times as possible in all the polling centres in the state.”

He also alleged that INEC in Anambra State withdrew the card read-ers and gave them to PDP for rigging of the elec-tion, even as he added that PDP collaborated

with security agencies to rig election in some plac-es in Anambra.

“As I speak to you now, over 200 Nigeria Police Force cordoned off Nnewi South Local Government Area where supervising polling officers and ward collection officers were quartered. Fresh sheets were provided to produce

results and in the coun-cil area, some prominent PDP members were there forcing INEC officials to sign a blank result sheet at gun point.

We therefore, call for those who were held hos-tage to be released and the election cancelled while a fresh date be fixed,” he said.

Ngige presented a copy of result sheet from Nk-por, Ilo Obiofia polling unit in Idemili North Lo-cal Government Area, where 684 voters were registered and 187 ac-credited, but in the result sheet, 481 votes were cast, even as he wondered why INEC should be deceiving itself.”

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 5Monday, March 30, 2015 News



CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2


72% telecom subscribers rate services poor –Survey

L-R: Aso Villa Chapel Chaplain, Ven. Obioma Onwuzurumba; President Goodluck Jonathan; Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Jones Arogbofa and Executive Secretary, Christian Pilgrims Commission, Mr. JohnKennedy Opara, during Palm Sunday service in Abuja, yesterday.

set target of 1per cent, hitting 1.20 while Airtel scored 0.82 per cent.

One major reason while subscribers rated the operators so poorly in quality services poll was the high level of conges-

tions on the networks, despite huge claim of in-vestment on expansion.

Traffic Channel Con-gestion report indicated

that Etisalat also record-ed the least congestion rate falling far below the target of 2 per cent, with a metric score of 0 per cent,

meaning that subscribers on the Etisalat did not ex-perience congestion.

Unfortunately, for the same metric, Airtel and Glo recorded over 0.50 per cent, while MTN recorded below 0.50 per cent of the Traffic Channel Conges-tion rating. Similarly, on the Stand Alone Dedicat-ed Control Channel Con-gestion with a metric of 0.20, while Glo and Airtel recorded 0.60 and 0.40 per cent respectively, Etisalat and MTN were on 0.10 and 0.80.

It would be recalled that the Commission had endured a period of 18 months during which it reduced the KPIs for the operators.

It however regretted that there has been no significant improvement from the three operators; MTN, Glo and Airtel as they promised.

Executive Vice Chair-man of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah on the sidelines

of the just concluded Mo-bile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, said the Commission had to take a more drastic action to improve user experience in respect of issues with capacity of the networks and that it would appear that the service provid-ers load up the network as soon as there is some ex-pansion.

He said the Commis-sion reached understand-ing with all the service providers that the KPI’s upon which they were sanctioned in 2012 should be reduced over a peri-od of 18 months during which they were to make significant improvement through provision of more infrastructures and achieve a progressive im-provement in quality of service.

However, the latest re-port may have suggested that the operators have not braced up with the agreement on the KPI.

administration is holding clandestine meetings with security chiefs and others with the sole aim of alter-ing or scuttling the results, which they consider to be highly embarrassing and unpalatable, using mallea-ble Resident Electoral Com-missioners, RECs,” Moham-med said.

Warning that nothing but the authentic results held by the party’s agents and all other stakeholders will be acceptable, and that whoever is planning to do otherwise should weigh its implication on the survival of the nation’s democracy, APC said the moves to ma-nipulate the results are also being replicated in some states, including Bauchi, where everything is being done to reverse the outcome, and Imo, where many aides of Governor Rochas Okoro-cha are being brutalised and arrested in hordes.

Mohammed said: “We know they are stunned diz-zy by the crushing defeat which has been inflicted on them across the nation, going by the results in the hands of our agents.

“We know they have acti-vated their paid media chan-nels to seek to confuse Nige-

rians by making outlandish claims that their presiden-tial candidate is leading in the elections.

“We know they are count-ing on malleable RECs to thwart the will of the peo-ple, and we know they have no qualms about plunging the nation into crisis just because of narrow interests.

“This is why we are put-ting on red alert all the good people of Nigeria who trooped out in large num-bers, defying the sun and the rain and against all odds, to vote for change.

“We are also by this state-ment calling on the interna-tional community to urgent-ly prevail on the Nigerian authorities not to tamper with the results of the elec-tions as expressed by Nige-rians.

“As we have said many times, we will accept the outcome of the elections if they are free and fair. What we will not accept is the ma-nipulated outcome of the polls.”

In a related development, security forces have been de-ployed in readiness for any attempts to breach the peace across the country, after the announcement of the results of the presidential elections today.

Our correspondent learnt

from top security sources that more operatives have been drafted by various agencies to reinforce op-erations in any eventual attempt by miscreants to break the law.

The source said that se-curity chiefs were not tak-ing chances over the result announcement and as such, were battle-ready.

It was learnt that the se-curity chiefs have already advised that curfew must be imposed with immediate ef-fect in any state where there is imminent breakdown of law and order.

The source said that State of Emergency across the country was not ruled out in view of the alleegd despera-tion and agitation that have characterised the election-eering processes.

Already in Abuja and en-virons, there has been mas-sive deployment of security, both on the highways and within the city as well as the hinterlands.

Soldiers and police op-eratives were sighted inten-sifying road blocks on the highways into Abuja, delay-ing commuters to ascertain their movements.

Checks have been inten-sified along the Keffi-Abuja roads, Kaduna-Abuja, Lo-koja-Abuja roads, as well as

any known routes leading into the Federal Capital Ter-ritory, FCT.

Equally, military and po-lice operatives are carrying out surveillance in notable black spots in the territory and environs as well as in the hinterlands where mis-creants have been identified.

Our correspondents learnt that plain clothed se-curity operatives, including operatives of Department of State Services, DSS and Directorate of Military In-telligence, DMI, have been deployed to fish out all cat-egories of trouble makers for immediate arrest.

Defence Headquarters, DHQ, has said that citizens need not fear as security forces will ensure that lives and property are protected.

In a tweet on its twitter handle, the DHQ said that it was prepared to safeguard democracy, indicating that it would go after all trouble makers.

Meanwhile, results com-ing in showed Gen. Muham-madu Buhari still leading President Goodluck Jona-than in the presidential race.

In Osun, Ogun, Oyo and Kano states, results so far re-leased showed Buhari lead-ing, while President Jona-than cleared Ekiti State,

where he polled 176,474 votes to beat the APC candidate, who garnered 120,332 votes.

Buhari is coasting to vic-tory in Kano after results from 20 local governments were released.

The APC candidate se-cured the large chunk of the results from the 20 local gov-ernments announced at the state INEC headquarters, on Hajj Camp road.

The returning officers from the 20 local govern-ments took turn to present the results to the state col-lation officer, Prof. Muham-madu Hamisu, with party agents and observers in at-tendance.

The local governments, which results were an-nounced are, Kibiya, Ga-basawa, Albasu, Bagwai, Kunchi, Tsanyawa, Gaya, Tofa, Rano, Wudil, Bunkure, Makoda, Gezawa, Garun Mallam, Kura, Kumbotso, Dawakin Tofa, Ajingi, Madobi and Kabo.

The results showed that 798, 821 people voted on Sat-urday, with Buhari, secur-ing 686, 981 votes, while Jon-athan scored 91, 687 votes.

About 16, 997 votes were declared invalid.

PDP won all the three senatorial and the six House of Representatives seats in Ekiti.

With the development, two APC senators seeking re-election, Senators Olu Adetumbi (Ekiti North) and Anthony Adeniyi (Ekiti South) lost their bids as well as their House of Represen-tatives counterparts: Hons Bimbo Daramola, Oyetunde Ojo, Robinson Ajiboye, Bamidele Faparusi, and Ife Arowosoge.

In Ogun East, Prince Bu-ruji Kashamu of the PDP was declared winner with

99, 540 votes to beat his APC challenger, who polled 84, 001, while the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP scored 12, 972

In Ogun Central, APC candidate, Prince Lanre Tejuoso is leading.

Senator Sola Adeyeye, APC, won the Osun Central Senatorial District with 137,379 to PDP’s candidate, who scored 82,529

In Lagos, INEC has de-clared the candidates of APC, winners of Lagos Is-land Federal Constituencies 1 and 2.

Mrs. Martha Amadi, the Returning Officer for the La-gos Island Federal Constitu-ency 1, said that Mr. Enitan Badru of the APC polled 15,389 votes to beat Mr. Luk-man Oladipo of the PDP who secured 5,732 votes.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net6 Monday, March 30, 2015 News

FG orders NIS to reopen land borders

Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, has been directed by

the Federal Government to re-open the land borders by noon on Sunday, Mr David Parradang, Comptroller-General of Immigration, said.

Parradang disclosed this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja on Sunday.

He said the directive was given to the service late on Saturday as the country needed to resume activities within and across its land

borders, which had been closed since Wednesday.

Parradang said al-though INEC had extended the voting time in some polling centres to Sunday, the government gave the directive with the view that voting in those areas would be rounding off or end by 12 noon.

He said the opening of the land borders would not in any way affect the voting process, considering that officers of the service were on a 24-hour surveillance of areas within and around the borders.

Minister of Interior, Mr Abba Moro, also confirmed the directive when he spoke with NAN by telephone.

He said the directive was given considering the smooth nature in which voting was conducted in most states as well as the effort of INEC to ensure the process was concluded as soon as possible.

The NIS had in a state-ment signed by its spokes-man, Mr Chukwuemeka Obua, on Sunday said the Federal Government had given a directive to open the land borders by 12 noon.

L-R: INEC Commissioner, Engr. Nuhu Yakubu; Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega and INEC Commissioner, Dr. Chris Iyimoga, during a press conference commending Nigerians for their large turnout and peaceful conduct during the presidential and National As-sembly elections in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: ROTIMI OSASONA

UN scribe congratulates Nigerians over polls

Women group backs trial of election riggers

UN Secretary-Gen-eral, Ban Ki-Moon, has congratulated

Nigeria on the largely peaceful and orderly con-duct of the presidential and parliamentary elec-tions.

Ban, in a statement is-sued on Saturday night in New York, encouraged all Nigerians to continue

to maintain the peace and to exercise patience throughout the ongoing voting process and the announcement of the fi-nal results.

He condemned attacks reportedly carried out by Boko Haram in parts of the country and attempts by hoodlums to disrupt polling in some areas.

OLUFEMI ADEOSUN ABUJA

Christian Asso-ciation of Nigeria president, Pas-

tor Ayo Oritsejafor, has again lashed out at those who predicted that the 2015 elections will lead to break-up of the coun-try, insisting that on the contrary, “Nigeria will remain.”

Oristsejafor, in a state-ment obtained yesterday in Abuja, said the destiny of the country was not tied to a particular date as some agents of doom had predicted.

He said, “Everyday de-fines who we are and the future of this country is not tied to a particu-lar date. A lot of people have reasoned that the 2015 general election will define the unity and exis-tence of Nigeria.

“But we say, No! Elec-tions will come and go, but Nigeria will remain.

Those who believe that Nigeria will break will be disappointed because this is our country. We urge the citizenry to take their minds away from the thinking that Nigeria is going to break in 2015.”

However, in order to continue to maintain the corporate existence of the nation, the minister of God enjoined all citi-zens irrespective of their religious, ethnic and po-litical affiliations to em-brace peace and ensure the safety of one another before, during and after the elections.

Oritsejafor, who warned that Nigeria could not afford a repeat of the post-election vio-lence of 2011, stated that the dictate of the Holy Bible and Koran was for all Nigerians to live in harmony together.

The statement reads in part, “While rights of individuals should be respected, CAN believes

that Nigerians must be given their rights to vote for whoever they want. We call on Nigerians to vote according to their conscience in line with democratic principles and not through coercion.

“Our advice is vote and protect your votes but avoid acts of violence that could threaten a credible electoral exercise.

“Nigerians must es-chew violence and assist the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure a transparent and credible exercise because democracy does not ex-press itself through vio-lence.

“If Nigeria must get it right again and repli-cate the experience of 2011 general elections, we must have confidence in each other. Chris-tians and Muslims must resolve to protect each other. We must ensure that Christians are safe in Muslim areas and vice

OLUFEMI ADEOSUN ABUJA

A group under the aegis of Nigerian Women’s Platform

for Peaceful Election has thrown its weight behind the International Crimi-nal Court, ICC’s resolve to prosecute anyone fingered in electoral violence.

This is even as the group, which is an offshoot of the Women’s Situation Room, also threatened to hold politicians accountable for any breach of peace during and after the election.

Women’s Situation Room is a wholly women organisation with mem-bership drawn from Af-rica; it engages women in collaboration with youths and key stakeholders to ac-tively support their call for peaceful elections.

Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, National Coordinator, WSR-Nigeria, Mrs. Joy Onyesoh, said the militarisation of the elec-tion by the security forces was capable of creating an atmosphere of intimidation to the electorate, especially the Nigerian women.

She said: “We welcome ICC’s statement that any person fingered in elec-toral violence will face the wrath of the law. With the multiplicity of secu-rity, forces including the military deployed to cover the elections, the question again arises as to who is in charge (is it INEC, the po-lice or military?).

“For the women is im-portant for them to know the command structure with regards to who is in charge and who to report to when there are problems.

Nigeria will not break-up –Oritsejafor

This will lead to confidence building in the process.”

Onyesoh noted that the group derived its man-date from the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 which reaffirms the role of women in peace processes and peace building.

To participate in the election, she said an all-women observer physical Situation Room had been created at the nation’s capi-tal in Abuja to collate infor-mation from the over 300 all-women election moni-toring team.

According to her, the key issues in the election for the group include security, inclusiveness and partici-pation.

She insisted that beyond the peace accord signed by the candidates and the media messages, security should be provided at the polling units to prevent vio-lence erupting.

Explaining the group’s proactiveness in this elec-tion, Onyesoh added, “Anytime violence erupts, women and children suffer most. The law enforcement agencies should, apart from providing security at the polling booths, deal with situations of breakdown of law and order promptly and prosecute offenders.”

Also, Yemisi Ransome-Kuti deplored the nation’s po-litical space which not only limited women participation in politics, but also made women vulnerable in the ad-vent of political violence.

She however counseled women to be actively in-volved in politics and be ready to slug it out with the men, no matter how highly placed.

The UN chief said he was encouraged by the determination and resil-ience shown by Nigeri-ans in pressing forward and exercising their civic duties.

The Secretary-Gen-eral called on all ac-tors to channel any complaints that might arise from the elections

through the established dispute resolution mechanisms.

The Secretary-General said he believed that the successful conclusion of the electoral process would mark an important step forward in further consolidating democracy and the rule of law in Ni-geria.

versa. “Nobody must be victi-

mised on the basis of re-ligion or ethnicity. Every-one must be able to go out and vote for whoever they want; this commitment is necessary. The security agencies must ensure the protection of the lives and properties of citizens.”

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 7Monday, March 30, 2015 Election Photo News

APC vice presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo casting his vote at polling boot 033, during the presidential and National Assembly elections at Victoria Garden City, Lekki, in Lagos on Saturday. PHOTO: NAN

Security check on Lekki Epe expressway during the presidential election in Lagos, yesterday. PHOTOS BY ADEMOLA AKINLABI, YINKA ADEPARUSI, ROTIMI OSASONA AND SAMUEL ADETIMEHIN

Observers from the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

Foreign observers during the presidential election in Lagos on Saturday.

A nursing mother (right) with her voter’s card taking time to attend to her thirsty child as voters queue at Ward 1 Unit 29 inside Muslim College in Oworonsoki, Lagos, during the presidential and National Assembly elections, yesterday.

Voters reacting during collation of presidential and National Assembly election results at Ward 4 Unit 5, Oke-Meta Memorial Primary School, Bajulaiye road in Somolu, Lagos, yesterday.

Voting at Alimosho in Lagos during extension of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, yesterday.

Nigerian soldiers on standby against hoodlums’ unruly attitude at Oshodi in Lagos, yesterday.

MURIC warns against repeat of June 12 debacle

Dare akogun

Ten persons, in-cluding the crown prince of Epe,

Kunle Adewale, report-edly drowned on Satur-day in Lagos after a boat conveying them cap-sized shortly after going across the lagoon to cast their votes.

Kunle is the first son of the Olu of Epe, Oba Shefiu Adewale, and was a deputy director in the state’s Ministry of

Senatorial candi-date of the Peoples Democratic Par-

ty, PDP, in Osun State, Francis Fadahunsi, has been accused of orches-trating an attack on the Electoral Officer for Ife Central Local Govern-ment Area, in order to falsify results of the en-tire senatorial district in the state.

In a statement issued by Media Assistant in the Election Situation

Dare akogun

Lagos Commandant of the Nigeria Se-curity and Civil

Defence Corps, NSCDC, Gabriel Abafi, has com-mended Nigerians for coming out en masse to participate in Saturday’s election.

Abafi, who spoke while monitoring voting ac-tivities around the state, lauded the electorate for coming out to participate in the electoral process despite the clamour about voters’ safety and securi-ty concerns in the nation.

He said those having the nation’s interest at heart are more than the “saboteurs hell-bent on dragging the fortunes of the country backwards.”

He commended the In-dependent National Elec-toral Commission, INEC, for ensuring the sanctity of the electoral process, urging them to ensure the little hitches noticed in many polling units about the operations of the card readers are addressed against the next round of elections.

Meanwhile, some resi-dents of Lagos on Sun-day lauded the efforts of INEC in conducting free and fair elections in the country.

The residents, who hailed the electoral um-pire, said the elections went on smoothly, even when postponed till Sun-day in some places where materials arrived late.

A Health and Safety professional, Mr. Vincent Fagbolagun, said the in-troduction of the card reader also improved the electoral process.

“If we study the lapses very well and we improve on the gaps identified, I am sure it will take our elections to the next level, which is a free and fair one to start with.

“Free and fair elections will take away violence and we will begin to trust ourselves knowing that when any government comes in place, they have to deliver to the masses,’’ Fagbolagun said.

He said the conduct of the elections would chal-lenge elected officers to deliver the dividends of democracy to the masses.

Epe monarch’s son, 8 others drown after voting

Sekinah LawaL

Muslim Rights Con-cern, MURIC, has commended Nige-

rians for manifesting high-level patriotism by coming out en masse to exercise their franchise, and urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, not to repeat the June 12 palaver.

The organisation also urged politicians to continu-ously appeal to their sup-porters to avoid violence before and after announce-ment of the results, and also charged INEC to treat the results with dispatch. “INEC is advised to avoid unnecessary delay because this is capable of generating tension. We call on the Fed-eral Government and the security agencies to fully re-spect INEC’s independence. Breathing down INEC’s neck or arm-twisting it at this crucial period should

APC accuses PDP candidate of attacking Electoral Officer

NSCDC lauds large turnout of voters

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net8 Monday, March 30, 2015South West

L-R: Oba of Lagos,Oba Rilwan Akiolu; Sen. Oluremi Tinubu; Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun; National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Funsho Amosun and Sen. Gbenga Ashafa, during the 63th birthday prayer of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at his residence in Ikoyi, Lagos, yesterday.

Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

The All Progres-sives Congress, APC, candidate for Epe lo-cal council, Muiz Bello, also died in the boat mishap, which the state APC Chairman, Henry Ajomale, described as unfortunate. Adewale’s wife, however, survived as she was rescued on time.

According to eyewit-nesses at the accident scene, Adewale was trav-elling along with Bello,

his wife, and personal assistant and others when the boat capsized. They were on their way to Mausa village, across the lagoon.

Confirming the in-cident, National Emer-gencies Management Authority, NEMA, Southwest zone spokes-person, Ibrahim Farin-loye, stated that Bello’s wife, who registered in Mausa had wanted to go and vote, while the hus-band insisted on follow-ing her.

not be contemplated,” said MURIC’s spokesperson, Prof. Ishaq Akintola.

The organisation also called Federal Government’s attention to the June 12, 1993 debacle, saying the general election, widely believed to have been won by Chief M. K.O. Abiola, was the most free, fair and peaceful in Nigeria’s political history. It lamented though that the results were most criminally and callously annulled by the then military govern-ment.

“We all know what fol-lowed. There was wide-spread civil disobedience. Sanctions were imposed on Nigeria by Western powers. Life became unbearable and we are yet to fully recover from its impact 22 years later. Nigeria must not repeat the June 12 conundrum,” MU-RIC said.

It also appealed to stake-holders to let INEC do its work without any hindrance.

“Bello’s wife regis-tered across the sea and wanted to go and partici-pate in the electoral pro-cess, while the husband insisted he would not al-low her to go alone.

“It took rescuers a long time to find the bodies of Bello and his personal assistant. The corpse of Prince Ad-ewale has also been re-covered and buried in his house, while Bello’s wife, who was rushed to a general hospital, is re-sponding to treatment,” Farinloye said.

Room of the party, Kun-le Owolabi, the party stated that the Electoral Officer whose name was listed as Mr. Awolusi, was originally consid-ered to have made away with the results on his own when he did not show up at the final collation centre where results of the poll in the senatorial district would have been an-nounced.

Awolusi, according to the APC Election Situa-

tion Room, reappeared few hours later, claim-ing that some unknown gunmen attacked him on his way to the collation centre and took away the result sheet from him and destroyed it.

The Situation Room stated, “This has held up announcement of the result for the dis-trict, but we know their plan. It is all to falsify the result in order to give victory to Fadahun-si, who has been roundly

defeated by our candi-date, incumbent Senator Jide Omoworare.

“The action and plot by Fadahunsi is an ef-fort in futility. Our par-ty has won and the re-sult is out and it cannot be changed.”

The development has created tension in the state especially in the senatorial district, as supporters of the APC candidate, Mr. Jide Omoworare, are al-ready celebrating.

…residents commend INEC over election

All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State has

asked the Independent National Electoral Com-mission, INEC, to charge Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kolapo Olusola, with election violence.

APC’s call followed his alleged directive to his se-curity aide to shoot an APC member, Jide Owolabi, in Ikere-Ekiti, during Satur-day’s presidential and Na-

tional Assembly elections.It also asked the INEC to

cancel the election result in Ire-Ekiti over allega-tion of violence and ballot snatching.

Reacting to the two inci-dents, Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement said the two in-cidents were well plotted by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to have undue advantage to win the bal-lot.

Archbishop of Ibadan Catholic Archdiocese, Most Rev. Gabriel Abegunrin (left) leading the procession of St. Mary Catholic Church, Oke-pade, Ibadan, to mark the 2015 Palm Sunday in Ibadan, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

Shooting: APC wants Ekiti deputy gov prosecuted

Lagos chapter of the All Progres-sives Congress,

APC, yesterday expressed gratitude to Lagosians for trooping out on Saturday to cast their votes peace-fully during the presiden-tial and National Assem-bly elections.

The party, in a state-ment by its Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, also said that voting took place yesterday in about 110 units in five local gov-ernments in the state.

The statement said: “Lagos APC thanks La-gosians for trooping out in large numbers to cast their votes yesterday in a peaceful manner despite some little challenges during the exercise.

“APC is equally happy with our teeming support-ers for voting to retain the covenant and social con-tract they have with APC and the promise is that our party will continue to make the welfare of Lago-sians our top priority.

“We are very proud of Lagosians that despite President Jonathan’s attempt to use dollars, pounds sterling, our local currency, rice, indomie, ankara, oil blocks, posi-tions, etc. to woo Lago-sians, our people showed love, commitment and dedication to our great party.

“As we write this, elec-tions are continuing in about 110 units in five lo-cal government areas out of more than 12,000 poll-ing units in Lagos State.

“They ar Alimosho (30 units), Shomolu (15 units), Eti Osa (units), Kosofe (57 units) and Os-hodi/Isolo (5 units).

In the same vein, some residents yesterday laud-ed the efforts of the Inde-pendent National Elector-al Commission, INEC, in conducting free and fair elections in the country.

The residents said the elections went smoothly.

A health and safety professional, Mr Vincent Fagbolagun, said the in-troduction of the Card Reader also improved the electoral process.

He said the conduct of the elections would chal-lenge elected officers to

Lagos APC thanks Lagosians, urges vigilance

INEC official arrested for mutilating result sheets

Osun residents hail INEC for peaceful polls

OjO Oyewamide AKURE

One of the collation officers in Ondo State has been

handed over to the police over the alleged mutila-tion of Collation Forms in

Idanre Local Government of Area of the state.

State Resident Elector-al Commissioner, Segun Agbaje, made the disclo-sure yesterday in Akure while addressing journal-ists.

The collation officer allegedly tampered with

Some residents of Osogbo, Osun State capital, on Sunday,

commended the Indepen-dent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over the conduct of Saturday’s election.

The residents told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, that the polls were generally peaceful.

Mrs Jumoke Ajenifuja, a resident of Dada Estate area of the town, said the introduction of the smart

card reader gave more credibility to the process in spite of its inherent hiccups.

She said: “Kudos should be given to the election management body for its courage to conduct credible and peaceful polls.

“I am convinced that the introduction of the card reader made the ex-ercise more transparent and less chaotic as the various challenges that

came with the functional-ity of the device are sur-mountable.’’

In the same vein, Mr Chris Uche, who lives at Ogo-Oluwa area of the metropolis said Nige-rians and INEC should be congratulated for the peaceful conduct of Sat-urday’s elections.

According to him, Nigerians all over the country exhibited a rare attribute by comporting themselves in an orderly

manner.Another resident of

the town, Mr Rotimi Alay-ande, commended INEC for strengthening democ-racy in Nigeria, `ànd its innovative idea in ensur-ing credible polls.’’

He, however, urged the electoral body to improve on some of the electoral process and to prevent hiccups in the usage of different devices that could be deployed in fu-ture elections.

deliver dividends of de-mocracy to the masses.

Mr Nwere Chidi, a local area representative of the Nigeria Breweries, said that though there was vio-lence in some areas dur-ing the election, but the situation was managed.

Another resident, Mr Michael Okosis, a photog-rapher, said that it took him five minutes to be ac-credited, adding that the process was smooth and fast.

“These elections have shown that Nigerians are beginning to understand the democratic system of government because peo-ple really came out to vote for their choices,” Okosis said.

A trader, Mrs Ayantoye Iyabo, said that in her area at Railway Line, Ebue-Meta, Lagos, the elections was peaceful, saying that she voted before 4 p.m.

“We want government to provide stable power supply and government should also improve on health facilities,’’ Ayan-toye said.

A businessman, Mr Tunde Akanni, said he was unable to vote be-cause he could not get his PVC.

He alleged that the dep-uty governor’s action in Ikere-Ekiti was a reckless display of lawlessness and flagrant abuse of power to intimidate the opposition to gain advantage at the poll.

He said: “What hap-pened in Ikere-Ekiti was a pre-meditated incident to cow the opposition to sub-mission. We had earlier raised the alarm to plan by top officials of Governor

South WestNational Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 9Monday, March 30, 2015

the original result sheets submitted to him after the voting exercise.

The attempt to alter the outcome of the election threw the entire Idanre community into confu-sion in the early hours of yesterday.

Agbaje said the man

had been taken to the police headquarters in Akure for interrogation.

The commissioner said the delay in release of re-sults would soon be sorted out, assuring people of the state that the collation process would not be ma-nipulated.

Ayodele Fayose’s adminis-tration to employ violence and intimidation to cow our members to enable them manipulate the elec-toral process. We wrote the security agencies, in-cluding both local and in-ternational human rights organs, about PDP’s plan. Yesterday’s incident was just a manifestation of the fears we raised.

“The deputy governor cannot claim ignorance of the provisions of the Elec-toral Act, which prohibits movement of government officials from one unit to the other on election day. He can’t claim ignorance of the law that disallows government officials’ secu-rity men to carry weapons during election. It is clear that the deputy governor was not accredited to car-ry out any election duty, including providing or re-storing order where there is violence.

“But he deliberately ex-ercised a reckless abuse of power by leaving his unit with his armed security, who he ordered to shoot our member for complain-ing that his interference in other polling units outside his unit was a breach of the law,” Olatunbosun said.

The APC spokesman said INEC and security agencies should not allow this attempted murderto go uninvestigated, while also asking INEC to charge the deputy governor with electoral violence.

National Mirror www.nationalmir-10 Monday, March 30, 2015South East

Commanding Officer, Naval Base, Onitsha, Navy Capt. Mike Oamen (middle front row); Commander, Onitsha Military Cantonment, Col. Mohammed Bello (left) and the Commanding Officer, 14 Field Engineer Regiment, Onitsha, Lt.-Col. Sherif Aremu (right), during Anambra Joint Security Task-Force meeting on the 2015 general elections in Onitsha, Anambra State, recently. PHOTO: NAN

Tension as DSS arrests 136 youths in Imo

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Speaker,

House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, have ex-pressed reservations over the use of Card Readers by the Independent Na-tional Electoral Commis-sion, INEC, for the ongo-ing elections in Nigeria.

Okorocha is the candi-date of All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state, while Ihedioha is Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s standard bearer.

The duo spoke with newsmen in separate in-terviews in Owerri on Sunday.

Okorocha said the card reader was not function-ing well and advised that people should be allowed to vote with their Perma-nent Voter Cards, PVCs.

On conduct of the elec-tion, Okorocha noted that the election went on okay until later when some people tried to scuttle it.

“So far, so good, aside the unwarranted ar-rests,’’ he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that it took some minutes before the card reader could identify the gover-nor during the accredita-tion exercise on Saturday.

Also reacting to the use of the machine, Ihedioha through his Public Rela-tions Officer, Mr Chibui-ke Onyeukwu, said it was not successful in some parts of the state.

“It’s obvious that be-cause of our technologi-

Chairman of Anam-bra Central Tradi-tional Rulers Coun-

cil, Igwe Chukwuemeka Ilouno, has commended voters in the state for their comportment and maturi-ty in Saturday’s elections.

“From what we saw yes-terday and this morning, our people, the electorate, have moved a huge step for-ward in election maturity,’’ he said.

Ilouno, who spoke with the News Agency of Nige-ria, NAN, in Onitsha, said he observed people sitting and waiting long hours without anyone stirring up trouble.

“What happened yester-day and this morning was interesting. For the first

Okorocha, Ihedioha worry over card reader

Polls: Anambra monarch hails voters’ maturity Chris NjokuOWERRI

More than 2,000 supporters of the All Progres-

sives Congress, APC, who came to the Independent National Electoral Com-mission, INEC, headquar-ters in Imo State to protest alleged diversion of ballot boxes to unknown destina-tion, were yesterday tear-gassed by a combined team of security agencies.

The protesters, who hit the street after being briefed by some state gov-ernment officials at the International Civic Centre, ICC, Owerri, marched to the INEC office at Port Har-

cal difficulties, we are not yet there.

“Because you can see that the accreditation time is lagging. It is not as efficient as it should be.

“I thought it should have been done on a very micro scale to try the card reader process; but interestingly we hear about the incidenc-es of malfunctions,” he said.

Ihedioha pointed out that the card reader will not give Nigerians what they wanted.

He called on INEC to combine the manual accreditation with the electronic voting in sub-sequent elections.

“Meanwhile, the turnout for the election is very satisfactory and encouraging,” he said.

time, nobody in a crowd was complaining or murmuring about time wasting or being under the heat of the sun.

“They waited so patiently, quietly and with high hopes from 8am to about 7pm and 7:30pm, in most polling units across the state.

“I think the latest de-velopment shows that the electorate is growing, and it is good for our democracy. Its overall benefit would be seen on our socio-economic status as a nation.

“With this, local and for-eign investors can trust Ni-geria for a peaceful electoral transition and they will not panic over their invest-ments any longer,’’ he said.

He added that even the aged waited to see the con-

court-Owerri Road to lodge their complaints.

They complained that INEC officials instead of collating and announcing results at the designated ward centres, insisted that the results would be sent to INEC office in the state where it would be announced.

According to them, “it is a breach of the Elector-al Act, which stipulates that every result must be announced at the polling booths and that the total results must be collated at the ward centres and then forwarded to INEC head-quarters.”

They maintained that they were not allowed to

register their protest, add-ing that they were tear-gassed by masked police-men.

As the protesters led by Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Kenneth Eme-lu, visited INEC office, the combined team of se-curity agencies stationed about 30 metres away from the commission’s office, allegedly tear-gassed the crowd to disperse them.

However, some journal-ists that were anxiously awaiting results at the INEC office, were asked by the Civil Defence offi-cers to lie on the floor in case of stray bullets, as the angry protesters ap-proached.

tained.Governor Okorocha

shortly after casting his vote at Ogboko ward 2 in Ideato South, alleged that the security operatives were acting the script of the Presidency, which he said was to intimidate members of the opposition All Pro-gressives Congress, APC.

He said 500 of those ar-rested were APC support-ers, adding that they were detained at an emergency cell set up for that purpose.

According to him, “I think there was a clear cut directive by the Presidency to arrest APC supporters. I have made attempt to se-cure the release of the peo-ple, but the security opera-tives have been dribbling me. I will take up this mat-ter to any extent to prove that this is unfair.”

When our correspon-dent visited the temporary

Chris NjokuOWERRI

Anxiety is mounting in Imo State Gov-ernment Quarters

over the condition of 136 youths arrested by the De-partment of State Security, DSS, during the presiden-tial election on Saturday.

The youths, who were apprehended at Governor Rochas Okorocha’s Foun-dation at Ogboko in Ideato South Local Government Area, were said to be in pos-session of valid and cloned Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs.

National Mirror gath-ered that the state govern-ment intends to lodge com-plaint to the United Nations over what they described as “inhuman condition the youths are subjected to” particularly the environ-ment where they are de-

cell where the students were kept, there was heavy presence of security opera-tives, who denied journal-ists access to the detained students.

Reacting, Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Andrew Ewerem, de-scribed the governor’s com-ment as “full of lies,” add-ing that all those arrested had violated the electoral laws. “Even those we first paraded, for instance, were discovered to have stock-piled various dangerous rifles and ammunition that are not double barrel, as the governor alleged. The suspects could not have been arrested without them committing the offence for which they were appre-hended,” he stated.

Also, state Director of DSS, Olusegun Adegboye, explained that the people arrested were under-aged,

adding that some of them came from outside the state with cloned PVCs.

Adegboye said the ac-cused have given useful information that would aid them in their investigation.

Meanwhile, journalists who were anxious yester-day to get the result of the presidential, senatorial and House of Representatives elections were barred from entering both the INEC and Owerri Municipal Council collation centre.

Stern looking soldiers ordered the journalists to go back, saying, “We were directed not to allow any-body to enter the premises.”

Also the roads leading to the INEC office and colla-tion centres were barricad-ed, thereby causing heavy traffic gridlock which forced motorists and pass-ersby to unintended diver-sions.

clusion of the exercise in their polling units.

“My mother left home at 8 a.m. yesterday and I only got to see her at about 6.30p.m. after she had cast her vote,’’ he said.

The monarch, however, said officials of the Inde-pendent National Electoral Commission, INEC per-formed below expectations.

“Most of INEC staff did not master how the card readers function in the first place, which created a lot of confusion and time wasting.

“Secondly, the electoral body did not provide elec-tricity or light for polling centres, where the exercise continued into the dark hours of the night,” he said.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 11Monday, March 30, 2015

South South

Int’l observers allege irregularities in Rivers

OsahOn Julius YENAGOA

Facts emerged yester-day of how a candi-date of the All Pro-

gressives Congress, APC, for the April 11 House of Assembly election, Mr. Tare Ekati, was brutalised and arrested by police on the order of a House of Representatives candidate of the Peoples Democrat-ic Party, PDP, in Bayelsa State.

Ekati, who is contesting the seat of Kolokuma-Opo-kuma Constituency 1, was reportedly manhandled by policemen alongside one of his supporters, identi-fied as Odiowei Imomo-emi.

They were apprehended after they kicked against alleged malpractices per-petrated by supporters of PDP at the wards in Isam-pou area of the council during Saturday’s Presi-dential election.

They were later dumped at a police station in the area.

Some policemen at the station, who spoke on con-dition of anonymity, said they did not understand why the party members were being detained.

“They just brought

Police arrest Bayelsa APC members

Apathy, poor logistic, mar Delta’s rescheduled poll

them and dumped them in our station. We don’t un-derstand their offences,” one of them said.

A chieftain of APC, Mr. Christopher Abarowei, said the arrest of the party members was the handi-work of PDP.

He said: “Our members were arrested because they opposed multiple thump printing in the area. The candidate of the PDP ordered their arrest.

“They were beaten and taken to the Area A Com-mand in Yenagoa. We visited them there and a policeman we met there said they did not know the offence they committed.”

When contacted, Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Buswatt Asinim, promised to find out the cir-cumstances behind the ar-rest of the party members.

But a police officer, who spoke in confidence, said the detention of the party members in Yenagoa was wrong and illegal.

“It is wrong to arrest people in Isampou in Kolo-kuma-Opokuma and bring them to Yenagoa Local Government Area for de-tention. They should have been taken them to Kaiama police division in their area of arrest,” he said.

Dennis nakuPORT HARCOURT

A group of interna-tional observers, Contact Project, CP,

on Sunday alleged irregu-larities and violence during last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections in Rivers State.

Also, the observers al-leged severe challenges due to non-functionality of electronic card readers, causing lengthy delays and reporting irregularities.

Leader of the group, Jennifer Lynne, further said tampering with elec-tion materials, questions of security concerns and reports of misconduct of election officials and can-didates were some of the challenges noticed in most parts of the state during the polls.

According to Lynne:

“during the process yes-terday (Saturday) we had the opportunity to travel around Rivers State, ob-serving many polling units and in conjunction with ad-ditional support from our colleagues, received feed-back on the broader elector-al process in Rivers State.

“As many have reported, we would confirm the dif-ficulties of availability and security of result sheets. Ranging from distribution to collection, many stations were compromised due to handling of these materi-als.

“In addition, as widely reported, we observed se-vere challenges due to dys-functional card readers, causing lengthy delays, voter denial and report-ing irregularities. Further concerns include the tam-pering with election mate-rials, questions of security

in that election, and called for the removal of the Resi-dent Electoral Commis-sioner, Gesila Khan.

The angry protesters defiled heavy security mounted from the popular Waterlines Junction and marched to INEC gate, chanting “We no go gree o”.

The protesters displayed placards with inscriptions such as ‘INEC in Rivers is an arm of PDP’, ‘PDP mem-bers accredited as INEC Ad hoc staff ’, ‘Change INEC REC now, Jega’, ‘Rivers INEC, where is our vote?’, and ‘Electoral officers in Rivers State compromising with PDP’.

Dakuku and other stal-warts made attempts to

access the INEC office to register their grievances to the commission, but were stopped by security agents.

But ‎for some 30 min-utes, the demonstrators, who have been calm, re-mained at the gate of the commission, even as ‎more troops of secu-rity operatives arrived the INEC office to forestall a breach of the peace.

Addressing newsmen Senator Magnus Abe, al-leged that he was manhan-dled in his hometown in Gokana Local Government Area, during the election, adding that neither himself nor anyone else voted in his senatorial district, the Riv-ers South East.

Rivers State APC members protesting irregularities during the presidential and National Assembly elections in Port Harcourt, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

concerns, and reports of misconduct by election of-ficials and candidates.

“Areas affected includes, but not limited to Omuma, Tai, Ahoada-East, Ogu/Bolo, Bonny and Khana. The documentation of these events would lead us to question the validity of the results with Rivers State,” she said.

Lynne stated that the group would be making a full report to the Indepen-dent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as part of the larger observation feedback provided by or-ganisations within Nigeria.

Meanwhile, chieftains of the All Progressives Con-gress, APC, in Rivers State,

TheOphilus OnOJeghen WARRI

Rescheduled presi-dential and Na-tional Assembly

elections for Udu Local Government Council in Delta State were on Sunday marred by late arrival of materials and low turnout of voters for the exercise.

Our correspondent, who monitored the exercise in the area reports that there was scuffle in Aladja town as angry voters tore elec-toral materials meant for the ward over incomplete disbursement of materials to the area.

It was gathered that trouble started when elec-

toral materials sent to the ward were discovered to have run short for all the units, this led aggrieved voters to scuttle the exer-cise.

To ensure the over 13,000 votes from Aladja were not wasted, AC Mu’Azu prevailed on the Electoral Officer and her team to mobilise fresh materials to the area. The materials and INEC officials were led back to Aladja at the time of filing this report.

The ward representa-tive, one Onyo Leo, in charge of Aladja ward 10, told police officials at Otor-Udu, administrative headquarters of the coun-cil, that materials for both Presidential and National

Assembly were destroyed over non-availability of materials for House of Rep-resentatives’ election.

Disturbed by the devel-opment at Aladja, Hafiz and Mu’Azu Mohammed, both Assistant Commis-sioners of Police, who were on ground at the Otor-Udu INEC distribution centre, confronted Mrs. C. Dibosa, Electoral Officer (EO) for Udu area.

The Electoral Officer in-charge of the council, Mrs. C. Debosa, said she was aware of the shortfalls re-corded in the distribution of materials, explaining that it was occasioned by her subordinates during the sharing of materials.

At about 3:30pm voting

was still ongoing in Udu ward 1 while in some other areas accreditation was still on at the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, men of the Nigeria Police Force at-tached to the Ughelli zonal office of the Independent National Electoral Com-mission, INEC, yesterday assaulted and stopped journalists from monitor-ing the collation of result of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

The journalists are Bris-ibe Perez, a reporter with Vanguard newspapers, and Mr. Shedrach Onitsha, publisher of The Advocate, a local weekly tabloid in Delta State.

…APC protests, shuts down Port Harcourt yesterday, led their members and supporters to the office of the Independent Nation-al Electoral Commission, INEC, protesting against the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state on Saturday.

Governorship candidate of the APC, Dr. Dakuku Pe-terside, his deputy, Honour-able Asita Okorie, Senator Magnus Abe, Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Tony Okocha, commissioners, federal and state lawmakers, as well as their teeming supporters, called for the cancellation of the poll in the state.

Dakuku and supporters of the party insisted that APC members did not vote

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net12 Monday, March 30, 2015North

Kebbi NYSC Coordinator, Mr. Abdullahi Baba (left) representing quarterly NYSC magazine to Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Sama’ila Mera, during a visit to the Emir in Argungu, at the weekend.

Damaturu, Yobe State capital, Mr. Zarma said insecurity was respon-sible for the lack of election in the affected polling units.

The electoral officers posted to the affected wards, according to him, were advised not to go for the election on

security ground.He also revealed that

non-arrival of electoral materials in 18 polling units in Fika, Potiskum and Yunusari Local Government Areas also thwarted the conduct of the exercise as ar-ranged.

The extension of the

election, according to him, affected 10 units of Fika Local Govern-ment Area as well as four units each in Potis-kum and Yunusari lo-cal government areas.

With the arrival of electoral materials, ac-cording to him, elec-tions are currently go-

ing on in the affected units of Potiskum, Fika and Yunusari local gov-ernment areas.

The commission ac-cording to him will meet to consider the position of the affected units in Geidam Local Government Area of the state.

Yobe: Insecurity, logistics mar elections in 36 units

INEC offi cial in police net over fraud

Mob attacks Jos private radio, vandalise cars

2 dead, 10 suspects arrested in Osun –Police

Nasarawa IDPs protest disenfranchisement

JUSTIN TYOPUUSU JALINGO

Electoral Officer in charge of Ibi Lo-cal Government

Area of Taraba State is currently in police de-tention over alleged elec-toral malpractice during Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly polls.

Police spokesman, ASP Joseph Kwaji, who confirmed the arrest, explained that during the election, voters in the area discovered that ballot papers meant for House of Representa-tives were tampered with.

“Following the devel-opment, some aggrieved voters, who suspected foul play, swoop on the electoral officer and al-most lynched him before police came to his res-cue,” he said.

Kwaji said investiga-

tion was ongoing into the matter to ascertain what actually transpired in the area.

National Mirror gath-ered from electorates in Nwonyo II ward where the incident occurred that the Electoral Of-ficer confessed to the mob, who attacked him that he was induced by one of the candidates for the House of Representa-tives seat to the tune of N20 million to skew bal-lot papers in his favour.

He was alleged to have sold the ballot papers meant for some registra-tion areas in Ibi to the said candidate after collecting the money from him.

When contacted, Resi-dent Electoral Commis-sioner in Taraba, Alhaji Ahmad Makama, who also confirmed the inci-dent, said the concerned officer has been removed from Ibi and is now with the police in Jalingo.

JAMES ABRAHAM JOS

Angry youths from Anguwan Rogo and Zinaria community

in Jos North Local Govern-ment Area of Plateau State yesterday attacked a private radio station, Unity FM, and journalists in Jos, the state capital, including a Daily Trust correspondent.

The youths were after a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain, Mu-hammed Adam, for mak-ing what they termed an inciting statement on a live programme, which was aired on the private radio station.

Adam allegedly tagged a religious scholar and youths, who had stoned him the previous day as Boko Haram members during a live chat with journalists at Unity FM.

He had made the insti-gating remark before he was hurried out of the station accompanied by security operative. How-ever, the irate youths gathered before journal-ists could leave the build-ing. They threw stones at the journalists, de-manding the hand-over of Adam and threatened to burn the Radio House. They damaged five cars and injured a youth leader from Zinaria com-munity, who tried to calm them.

The youths also burnt the politician’s family home and his brother’s house at Anguwan Rogo after his family had been evacuated. Eyewitness account alleged that one person was killed when the Special Task Force stormed the area to dis-perse the youths.

deploy security person-nel to the volatile area to enable us cast our votes, which was the place we obtained our Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, with no avail.”

He said they had hoped the authorities would al-low them to vote at Lafia township stadium, which serves as centre for the displaced persons from Assakio, but unfortunate-ly, they took the election materials to Assakio on the day of election.

“Therefore, we cannot go there because some of our community members were killed when they went there to renovate their houses as directed by the state government that all displaced persons should go back to their ancestral homes.

Right now, the Eggon and Tiv people are no longer there since the ad-vent of the crisis that en-gulfed our area; we even appealed to the authori-ties concerned to bring

the voting materials to Lafia township stadium to enable us exercise our civic right instead of As-sakio, which is volatile to both the Eggons and Tivs, but no response came to us,” Isua claimed.

Efforts by our corre-spondent to get reaction for the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Abdullahi Umar Dan-yaya, was unsuccessful as his mobile phone was switched off at the time of filing this report.

BOLADALE BAMIGBOLA OSOGBO

Osun State Police Command yes-terday confirmed

the death of two men following violence in Ikirun, headquarters of Ifelodun Local Govern-ment Area, and Olomu village of Ife South Lo-cal Government during the presidential and National Assembly elec-

tions.Speaking with news-

men in Osogbo, Com-missioner of Police in charge of election in the state, Mr. Sam Okaula, explained that 10 sus-pects have been arrested in connection with the incidents.

He added that prelimi-nary investigations indi-cated that the deceased were involved in clashes between two political

parties, which eventu-ally led to their death.

He assured that the police would not allow further breakdown of law and order in any part of the state.

Okaula further dis-closed that investigation was ongoing to get to the root of the matter, add-ing that anyone found fomenting trouble would be made to face the full wrath of law.

IGBAWASE UKUMBALAFIA

Thousands of In-ternally Displaced Persons, IDPs,

from Assakio ward in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State yesterday protested their exclusion from the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections.

The displaced persons in a peaceful protest marched through the streets of Lafia around Bukan Sidi part of the metropolis, calling on the federal and state govern-ments to address the situ-ation.

Speaking with jour-nalists during the pro-test, spokesman for the displaced persons, Attah Isua, said: “We are more than 15,000 registered voters from Assakio ward with 19 polling units.

“We had earlier writ-ten a letter to that effect and served the authori-ties concerned in order to

INUSA NDAHI DAMATURU

Resident Electoral Commissioner in Yobe State, Mr.

Habu Zarma, said elec-

tion could not be held in 18 wards in Gaidam Local Government Area of the state.

Speaking with news-men yesterday in

PoliticsNational Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net 13Monday, March 30, 2015

American Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle (left) with INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for FCT, Prof. Jacob Jatau (right), during Entwistle’s visit to the Commissioner for the presidential election in Abuja on Saturday.

Nick UwerU aNd ebere NdUkwU

Electorate at polling units 057 and 058 Ward 1, Shasha Ali-

mosho Lagos, where elec-tions were extended until yesterday, said they were happy with the process de-spite casting their vote a day after the initial scheduled date, saying it would have been very bad to disenfran-chised them.

This was just as voters who returned to their vari-ous polling units in some parts of Eti-Osa Local Gov-ernment of Lagos State to vote in compliance with Independent National Elec-toral Commission, INEC, directive were mostly disap-pointed, yesterday.

As a result of election glitches that marred the use of the smart card read-

ebere NdUkwU

The first civilian gov-ernor of Osun State and All Progressives

Congress, APC, senatorial candidate for Osun West, Asiwaju Isiaka Adeleke, who emerged victorious at last Saturday election, has called on politicians, either elected or appointed, to strive and serve the elec-torate with sincerity and dedication, so as to be able to hold their heads high af-ter leaving office.

Adeleke who stated this in a post-victory press re-lease, by his Special Adviser, Media and public Affairs, Olumide Lawal, said offices of whatever nature, call for serious-minded people, who are dedicated and absolutely transparent in their deal-ings with the people they were meant to serve.

The newly-elected sena-tor, who is returning to the Senate for the second time, having won convincingly in all the 10 local government areas of Osun West senato-rial district, said he was prepared, more than ever before, to render selfless service to the people of his senatorial district, saying he

ers, SCRs, for the voting exercise on Saturday, voters were told to return yester-day to continue voting.

According to Abdullahi Inuwa, a voter who claimed that officials at his 031 poll-ing unit at Victoria Island, Lagos asked those who could not vote on Saturday to re-turn yesterday said no elec-tion took place at the unit.

He said: “I was disap-pointed. We were told that voting would continue to-day but I came here and found nobody.”

It was also learnt that apart from 031, unit 021, too, was expected to continue with voting yesterday but could not.

was not out to push personal agenda.

Adeleke said his focus would be on the welfare of the teeming voiceless, help-less and downtrodden mass-es of the people in the dis-trict, who despite all hurdles placed on their ways, turned out in their thousands to vote for him, to record a landslide victory.

Thanking members of APC in all the 10 local gov-ernment areas of Osun West senatorial district, for their perseverance, loyalty, love and magnanimity, dur-ing the campaigns and elec-tion proper, Adeleke prom-ised not to let them down, adding that the victory is not personal to him, but to God and all those who stood solidly behind him, even when he has nothing to offer them as pecuniary gains.

Adeleke then called for unalloyed support of Osun people for Governor Rauf Aregbesola at this crucial time of economic down-turn, stressing that, tough times do not last, but tough people do, adding: “All hands shall be put on deck to en-sure, that workers’ salaries and pensioners allowances are paid as and when due.”

When National Mirror visited the affected polling units in Alimoso Local Gov-ernment by 3:00pm yester-day, elections were still on-going in a very harmonious and peaceful atmosphere.

Electorate at Polling Unit 057, despite waiting on Saturday for Independent National Electoral Commis-sion, INEC, officials who never showed up, while cast-ing their votes yesterday, ex-pressed happiness at the con-duct of the election, saying though it was disappointing after waiting for very long hours without INEC officials showing up on Saturday, “we are happy at the smooth pro-cess of the exercise.”

Unlike in unit 057 where there was absence of INEC officials on Saturday, there were electoral officials at Unit 58 only that they came in the evening hours and were still on accreditation when night falls. And because they could not continue in darkness, since there was no power in the area, stopped to continue the next day.

According to electorate at the unit, INEC officials returned early morning yes-terday continued accredita-tion till 12, before commenc-ing voting by 1:30. It was also a tale of excitement by the electorate as they expressed happiness at the smooth con-duct of the exercise.

Voting extension: Lagos electorate happy not being disenfranchised

My victory belongs to God, the people –Senator Adeleke

We’ll challenge polls’ conduct in Kwara –Ministerwole adedejiILORIN

Minister of Nation-al Planning, Dr. Suleiman Abuba-

kar, yesterday in Ilorin, kicked against the conduct of the presidential and Na-tional Assembly elections in Kwara State last Satur-day.

In a chat with newsmen, Abubakar decried that the exercise was “more of an electoral tragedy, which is not acceptable, and which to large extent has signifi-

cant negative implications on our electoral future if not addressed.”

The apparently enraged minister complained that “the process of accredita-tion was faulty, the card reader in most cases were not working, hence the re-course to the manual.

“Using manual method for accreditation attest to what we have been saying in PDP that the card reader introduction by Attahiru Jega at this point in time is a misplaced priority.”

His words: “It is obvious

to Nigerians now that the card reader usage in this election did not really work and as such created room for a lot of irregularities in accreditation process.

“I saw a connivance of the security agencies in Kwara State, to be specific, with the opposition party. It does not tally with sense, for instance, where you have about 1,800 potential voters to one policeman without any arms. How will he contain the crowd? And you see the policeman eating left and right, being

invited upstairs for one thing or the other.

“When there were dis-orderliness and you see policemen laughing, trivi-alising issues. This country has a long way to go. Secu-rity men were inadequate and in some cases, they were not there at all.”

He complained that he reported to security agents about thugs and need to check them but nothing was done, adding that when he personally complained to Independent National Electoral Commission,

INEC, chairman, Attahiru Jega, about the use of pri-vate residences being used as polling units in contra-vention of the Electoral Act, Jega told him that it was too late and that they cannot do anything about it.

He added: “When I in-sisted that it was a viola-tion of the law, he promised to get back to me. He did not get back to me; he did not do anything about it. Many of these houses were used as electoral fraud ha-vens by the ruling party in Kwara State to rig election yesterday. Where I voted, at Opobiyi, was the residence of an All progressives Con-gress, APC, chieftain.

“Going by the declared

votes, the vote declare for Mr. President, especially for the opposition, out-weighed the PVCs collect-ed. It is a case of electoral tragedy.”

He added that a local government boss was ar-rested who specifically ac-cused the Commissioner of Police in Kwara; Alhaji Salihu Garba, of “aiding and abetting electoral mal-practices”.

He concluded: “While we await other results and other reactions, what we saw yesterday was no elec-tion. It was indeed a mock-ery of democracy; I want to assure you that it will not last. Any house that was built on mere sands will not stand the test of time.”

•As INEC officials missing at polling units in Eti-Osa

Politics National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net14 Monday, March 30, 2015

Polls: INEC ad-hoc staff replaced in Katsina

Olajide OmOjOlOmOju

Delta State All Pro-gressives Con-gress, APC, gu-

bernatorial candidate, Olorogun O’tega Emer-hor, has urged the Inde-pendent National Elec-toral Commission, INEC, chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega to cancel results in all electoral units where original copies of INEC result sheets were missing before voters exercised their franchise.

Emerhor in a statement by his Director of Media and Political Communi-cation, Dr. Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, said the rigging process starts au-tomatically in a situation where original copies of INEC results sheets get missing before voting commences, adding that in most of the polling units across the coun-try, particularly in Delta State, the original copies of the result sheets were nowhere near the polling units.

He said the units re-sult sheets ought to be recorded and signed by INEC officials and agents of political parties after votes were counted so as to ensure the genuineness of the process.

The APC gubernato-rial candidate disclosed that most polling units in the three senatorial dis-tricts in Delta State had

Presidential poll: Cancel results where result sheets went missing before voting –Emerhor

Fani-Kayode denies losing his PU to APC, claims victory in 23 states

james danjumaKATSINA

Allegations of mal-feanse rocked Katsina State yes-

terday as several ad-hoc staff recruited by the In-dependent National Elec-toral Commission, INEC, for conduct of Saturday’s

election were replaced hours to the polls with new hands.

Many of the new hands were said to be inexpe-rienced in handling the card readers which led to slow accreditation and election process in several parts of the state.

The situation, it was

learnt, had led Saturday’s election in some parts of the state to drag on to yes-terday as not a few of the new ad-hoc staff fumbled in the process of operat-ing the card readers.

The allegations were drawn from investiga-tion carried out during the election and some of

the sidelined ad-hoc staff members that spoke on the issue.

In several polling units in Funtua, Katsina, Ba-kori, Mashi, Sandamu and other council areas, accreditation was delayed by hours as ad-hoc staff members made efforts to operate the card readers

Collation of presidential and National Assembly results at the Lagos Mainland Local Government collation Centre, Sabo Yaba, in Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

no INEC original result sheets, which implies that election riggers hijacked the process in collabora-tion with some unscrupu-lous INEC officials to rig the elections in favour of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Labour Party, LP.

The ideal thing, accord-ing to Emerhor, is for the original copy of the result sheet per polling unit be displayed for voters to see before accreditation com-mences, pointing out that voting becomes absolutely useless where the original copies of election results sheets have been stolen by riggers who secretly fill in figures in their favour for INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, to announce as final results.

Dr. Oghenesivbe quoted Emerhor as saying that unless INEC authorities rejects the results of poll-ing units that had no orig-inal copies of the INEC result sheets before votes were counted, Nigerians and indeed Deltans will stay away from the guber-natorial elections slated for April 11.

It will be recalled that there were several reports in the social and elec-tronic media across the country that INEC result sheets were missing be-fore voting commenced, a development which makes the entire process vulner-able to sophisticated rig-ging, the statement added.

•You lied –APC

ebere ndukwu

Director, Media and Publicity, Peoples Democratic Party

Presidential Campaign Organisation, PDPCO, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has denied that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lost election in his polling unit, describing election results being circulated by some media houses as fake and misleading, as he calls on the general public to disre-gard them.

Disclosing this in a press conference yesterday, he said: “We are deeply con-cerned by the level of dis-information and falsehood that is being peddled around by the friends of the opposi-tion in the media and par-ticularly their paid agents and associates on the social media about the results of Saturday’s elections. Since yesterday afternoon they have been releasing fake results and they have been attempting to mislead the Nigerian people and our friends in the international

community.“The public have been

inundated with lie after lie about the All Progressives Congress, APC’s, so-called victories in virtually every single polling booth, ward, lo-cal government area and state in the country. This is not only nonsensical but it is also far-fetched, absurd and childish.

“The dirty lies that these two media houses have told is just one example of the gross and irresponsible mendacities and falsehood that the agents and associ-ates of the APC habitually enjoy peddling. As we have always said, they are a party of liars that are led and in-spired by a small cabalistic cult of shameful deceivers, liars and cheap propaganda merchants. In them there is no truth and lying is their second nature and natural habitat.

“As we speak now, we are winning in 23 states and we

have 64 per cent while the APC is winning in 14 states and has 36 percent. These results are subject to confir-mation by the Independent National Electoral Commis-sion, INEC. However, we are certain of what we are saying because we have information from our agents in every poll-ing unit nationwide. No one must test our will by attempt-ing to change these results and the APC should desist from pushing this nation to the brink of fire, chaos and destruction with their dirty lies and propaganda.”

“We use this medium to call on our friends in the so-cial media, the party faithful and all President Goodluck Joanthan support groups not to remain silent in the face of these shenanigans. They should speak out on what they know about the propaganda and falsehood of the opposition APC. They should not be intimidated at

all by the opposition’s des-perate and reprehensible antics. They should set the record straight and not al-low themselves to be robbed of a well-earned victory.”

But reacting to Fani-Kay-ode’s claim, APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, faulted the claim citing the Independent National Electoral Commis-sion, INEC, Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega’s statement where he denied knowledge of the source of the claim, when he was asked to re-spond shortly after Fani-Kayode made the claim.

Mohammed quoted Jega as responding thus: “(that the PDP is leading in 23 states). The results have not been col-lated in 23 states. Fairly very few states have actually col-lated. In fact, only two states have been collated…. There is the need to be careful about the information being put there by people who are clear-ly partisan.”

to no avail.When confronted, some

of them confessed that they did not participate in any INEC training for the position but were called few hours to the polls to serve as electoral work-ers.

Some of those trained by INEC but sidelined, la-mented that they resumed for work early on Election Day, only to be told that their names had been re-placed with others.

Speaking on the issue, the state former Commis-sioner for Agriculture, Musa Adamu, said his polling unit in Funtua council area, among other

polling units, witnessed a number of inexperienced card reader operators.

Adamu said some of them could hardly under-stand how to operate the card readers, and that the development resulted in delays in voters’ accredi-tation and election pro-cess.

He however called on INEC to ensure the situa-tion did not repeat itself in the April 11 polls.

Efforts to get state INEC’s reaction how-ever proved abortive, as its state spokesman, Mukhtar Abuh, did not re-spond to call and text mes-sages to his mobile line.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net

As I was writing this piece, Nige-ria was in the last days of pre-paring for last Saturday’s polls.

But I convinced myself that whatever would be its outcome, all of us are win-ners. The elections holding in spite of the misgivings was enough a victory for the nation. Whatever was the tenor of the campaigns that preceded the polls I assumed was borne out of the patriotic instincts to get the best for the job of running Nigeria. After all in the lexi-con of development, transformation and change are interchangeably used. So, all are committed to developing the country.

My views today were actually ger-minated around the time a controversy erupted over the creation of additional 30,000 polling units by INEC. Studying the tone and direction of the contro-versy, it will not be difficult to realize that a large majority of Nigerians has either accepted or is clamoring for what I describe as equalitarianism. I never knew the word existed before. I just rea-soned that if there is the notion of equal-

ity, then there should be an ideal called equalitarianism. My dictionary check revealed that it is a political doctrine that holds that all people in a society should have equal rights from birth.

In the context I was to use the termi-nology I had noted that there is an en-trenched consciousness in the country that population size, need or merit can-not be the only determinants of repre-sentation and distribution of power and resources in the country as there is a growing awareness that no part of the country should be taken as superior in need or size than the other under any guise. This awareness has been at the root of different agitations in the coun-try, and has informed some of the poli-cies in place.

Across Nigeria, people now canvass for equal length of tenure of office among the six geopolitical zones. We have accepted that there should be equal number of representation both in gov-ernment and in the parliament in a way that no region will have undue advan-tage over the other, and that we should have equal share of resources. In my un-derstanding of our equalitarian politics, however, we must accept equal burden of neglect in every part of the country, equal blame for failure in governance, and also equal responsibility for the wastage of opportunities and advantag-es we have had.

In essence, we can generalize the no-

tions of the minority, the marginalized and the disadvantaged to embody all the regions. When a policy or programme seems to address the existing need of the real disadvantaged or marginalized, the culture in Nigeria is for the dominant group to feel threatened. And we are back to the metaphor of the “marginal-ization of the majority”. When a policy seems to take care of the future needs of a seemingly advantaged group, it is seen by those who do not have such need at all as the “consolidation of the advan-taged”. Navigating through this com-plexity requires some strategic skills and sensitivity to the national mood.

We seem to have achieved a consensus on the number of geopolitical zones in the country and believe that a readjust-ment of the states in each region should reflect the equality. The implication is that we are also likely to canvass for equal distribution of local government areas among the regions. Many agita-tions and demands by the respective

SANDRA AKUOMA

Learning to love oneself is the great-est love of all. Most of us go into co-dependent, addictive relation-

ship because we have low self-esteem and believe that someone out there will make us feel whole. Truth is that person is not out there. No one can meet our deepest needs, no one can feel that hole, and no one can feel the ache in our hearts, no matter how hard they try. It’s like look-ing for a needle in a haystack.

Learn to love yourself by treating yourself like your own best friend; be the lover you have butterfly feelings for; give yourself hugs; embrace your pain, do not run away from it, and cry if you have to. Look after your body, it is a sacred temple and a car to use on mother earth, there are no spares; exercise, eat healthy. Steer clear of toxic negative people in your life.

That gaping hole we constantly walk around with and looking for someone to fill it can only be plugged by a higher power - God/higher self/Allah. An intimate relationship with this higher power will provide solace, comfort and guidance because he wants the best for us. It is an important step towards being intimate with others. Feed your soul with spiritual practices like worship, prayer, scripture reading. They make us to be at peace with ourselves.

Have realistic expectations. From

childhood, mostly in our teenage years, we are guided by the media, especially Hollywood films and romantic novels, and mills and boons on what an ideal relationship is supposed to be like. So we go about expecting one person to be completely at our disposal and expect more from a relationship than a relationship can deliver - we fall for the Hollywood and romantic novel fantasy that the perfect lover should love us no matter what. Then when our partners fail to meet these expectations, we feel betrayed, frustrated, angry; and eventually form a conclusion that the expectations aren’t being met because we have done something wrong -we turn it on ourselves.

Learn to understand what it means to be in a healthy relationship: A relationship does not define you, it should be a bonus in your life. Healthy relationships are based on communication (having a deep understanding and connection with each other, like treating each other with respect) and setting boundaries in that we should be able to express to our partners what we are and issues we are not comfortable with - sex, finance,

family ties and friends, and personal space and time.

Get in touch with negative thoughts that may be affecting you: From childhood we might have formed some negative thoughts about ourselves which now live in the subconscious mind and has now formed part of our belief system. They include thoughts like “I’m not loveable”; “I’m not important”; or “I’m ugly”. This normally affects what we attract into our lives. Spend time by paying attention to those thoughts, write them down and replace them with positive thoughts. Like “I am loveable”, “I am valuable”, etc.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. King Solomon, who has been acknowledged the wisest man in the Bible, made that statement. We all have an emotional desire to love and be loved. The desire is strongest when we are coming out of a broken relationship. But we should be very careful; emotionally, our hearts are extremely fragile and can be easily hurt, therefore, sending us in the wrong direction of life. Many of us simply throw our hearts away, allowing ourselves to be repeatedly hurt while trying to soothe our broken heart. We go from one relationship to another to another to another on the treadmill of tragedy.

Before long, our whole life is ruined. There is more to life than having a partner. To have them playing god is too much to ask. Address the problem and

take time to heal it. If you don’t, it could be worse and you could lose everything plus more. If you don’t guard your heart, you could end up losing what’s most important in life – love.

Don’t be scared of being alone: When you’re feeling alone or scared, find opportunities to spend time with others in a healthy environment. This may include volunteer work or participating in support groups. Remember that being alone does not mean you are worthless or undeserving of love. Find ways to fill your time by making time to focus on something you are passionate about, or something that gives you a strong sense of purpose. Learn something new that you enjoy. Focusing on a new task or project is a great way to ward off intrusive thoughts.

Food for thoughtSo where does the healing for love

addiction begin? It begins by admitting our hearts are priceless. We must make a commitment to protect our hearts and not just throw them away looking for love in people and places where love cannot be found. Let us all respect our own hearts.

FOCUSING ON A NEW TASK OR PROJECT

IS A GREAT WAY TO WARD OFF INTRUSIVE

THOUGHTS

ACROSS NIGERIA, PEOPLE NOW CANVASS

FOR EQUAL LENGTH OF TENURE OF OFFICE

AMONG THE SIX GEOPOLITICAL ZONES

Of Nigeria’s equalitarian politics

Managing love or relationship addiction

[email protected], 08090585723 (SMS only)

ABDUL-WAREES SOLANKE

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Mirror of the moment

15Monday, March 30, 2015 Views

Send your views by mail or sms to PMB 10001, Ikoyi, or our Email: [email protected] [email protected] or 08164966858 (SMS only). The Editor reserves the right to edit and reject views or photographs. Pseudonyms may be used but must be clearly marked as such.

groups in the country are reasonable and many policy initiatives to address them are profoundly scientific and ratio-nal, but mostly misunderstood by those that are supposed to benefit from them. The only reason is that the necessary political explanation and public engage-ment are lacking.

In the Nigerian equalitarian politics, the belief is that what you give A, B must also have regardless of whether B has a need for it or not. The metaphor of the national cake is illustrative of this phenomenon. Many states will actually prefer that the proverbial cake is sliced into 36 equal parts but none may ask if the equal share is the right or sufficient share for each state. Let each manage its own share is likely to be the refrain even when the so called equal slice might be too much or too little for some. The problem here is that over the years, we pursue equality without its concomitant utility, which is the reason for waste or underutilization of material and human resources in some cases and under-quali-fication or over-representation in others.

The lessons are many for us as the Fourth Republic enters Phase Five. How do we manage our diversity and its asso-ciated challenges in a manner that when addressing the peculiarities of specific regions or parts of the country, we have mutual understanding that it is not con-ferring undue advantages over some re-gions or holding the other regions back?

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

NIGERIA’S PRESENT FEDERAL STRUCTURE IS PATENTLY DEFECTIVE. IT IS SICK AND NEEDS URGENT AND HONEST

SURGERY

16 Monday, March 30, 2015 EditorialEditorial

On true federalism and Jonathan’s promiseThere have been strident

agitations by eminent Nigerians - political lead-

ers, statesmen and scholars for true federalism, though interpreted from different eth-nic perspectives and interests. One of such calls came lately from the former Federal Com-missioner for Information and South-South leader, Chief Edwin Clark. When such matters arise, however, they are often politi-cised or sentimentalized. The development has remained one of the major factors responsible for Nigeria’s under-development and her almost total reliance on petro-dollars to sustain the nation’s economy. In the process, non-oil producing states ne-glect their natural endowments without qualms and depend on revenue allocation from the central government, indeed, a unitary system of government hypocritically veiled as a federal structure.

The 1960 Independence Con-stitutions of Nigeria, as well as the Republican Constitution of 1963, and other subsequent ones that followed in 1979 and 1999, all defined Nigeria as a federal state. The 1999 Constitution (as altered) which is the latest, in Section 2 (1), avers, for instance, that Nigeria is one indivisible sovereign state to be known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with federating units (states) and a Federal Capital Territory

(FCT). But whereas the said Con-stitution mouths federalism, os-tensibly in the spirit and letters of what Nigeria inherited from the British in the First Republic, the country’s federal system as operated after the first military coup of January 15, 1966, till date has been an aberration, indeed, a mockery of virtually all the known principles of true federalism.

In place of thriving and self-reliant federating units compet-ing for development and prog-ress; and a less attractive centre that serves as a co-coordinating shield and clearing house for the units, Nigeria parades a very strong centre that arrogates excessive power, responsibili-ties and resources to itself. The lopsidedness is at the heart of what most agitators for true federalism call the National Question – the sharing of power, responsibilities and revenues. During the First Republic, when true federalism flourished, the regions controlled 50 percent of their resources and contributed just 20 percent to the central government. The remaining 30 percent was set aside as special fund for the purpose of address-ing extreme situations. The fiscal federalism practised then accounted for the rapid pace of development experienced in the then Western, Eastern, North-ern and Mid West Regions.

Depending on each region’s

area of comparative advantage, cash crops like cocoa, ground nut, palm oil, cotton, et cetera were bountifully produced and exported to earn foreign ex-change needed for industrial, infrastructural and human development. Apart from the fact that such level of economic self-reliance encouraged indi-vidual regions to be productive and resourceful, it made less attractive the urge and rush for political contest at the centre. But because of Nigeria’s federal-ist hypocrisy today, occasioned by the concentration of power and resources at the centre, com-petition for the post of president and other political offices, seen as national cakes, is feverish, on the one hand. On the other, many states cannot survive without the monthly handout from the Federation Account. In addition, the vagaries of oil prices in the international mar-ket have direct crippling effects on the capacities of both the federal and state governments to function and meet their finan-

cial obligations, as is presently the case; crude oil proceeds be-ing the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.

There have been countless confrontations between the Federal Government and some states on issues bordering on the National Question, such as state creation, revenue allocation for-mula, resource control, political appointments vis-a-vis- federal character, neglect in infrastruc-ture development, and the like. All these point to the fact Nige-ria’s present federal structure is patently defective. It is sick and needs urgent and honest surgery. That is why President Goodluck Jonathan’s promise to implement the report of the National Conference he con-vened last year, which addressed some of the contentious issues involved, appears attractive.

Unfortunately, however, the President made the promise at the peak of his campaign for re-election; and most probably without liaison with the Nation-al Assembly, which has power to effect the changes through constitutional amendment in the absence of a plebiscite or ref-erendum. This will help explain why many view the president’s promise with suspicion, until he demonstrates his commitment to the implementation of the report in the event of his being re-elected as President on Satur-day, March 28, 2015.

Letters to the EditorLetters to the EditorLetters to the Editor

x

The first ‘Land Day’ protests were held in Israel/Palestine. Land Day is an annual day of commemora-tion for Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976. In response to the Israeli government’s announce-ment of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land for security and settlement purposes, a gener-al strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Negev.

March 30, 1976 March 30, 2009

Twelve gunmen attacked the Manawan Police Acad-emy in Lahore, Pakistan. They took over the main build-ing during a morning parade when 750 unarmed police recruits were present on the compound’s parade ground. Security forces arrived 90 minutes later and were able to take back the building by 3.30 pm. Five trainees, two in-structors and a passer-by were killed. A suspect was cap-tured alive in a field near the school.

March 30, 1981

United States’ President Ronald Reagan and three others were shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John Hinckley, Jr. Two people were wounded, but there were no fatali-ties immediately. White House Press Secretary, James Brady, who was left paralyzed from a gun-shot wound related to the shooting died in 2014, while Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

ON THIS DAY

All the Facts, All the SidesAll the Facts, All the SidesA PUBLICATION OF GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTD

BARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, CFR PUBLISHER

SUNDAY OLAJIDE MANAGING DIRECTOR/CEO

SEYI FASUGBA DAILY EDITOR

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AYO OLESIN SUNDAY EDITOR

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AUGUSTUS IMEKAN ACTING HEAD, GRAPHICS

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, March 30, 2015A2 18 Business CourageCourage

Cover

N22Obn MSMEs Fund:

UDO ONYEKA, CO-ORDINATOR

BUSINESS [email protected]

c Global Media Mirror Limited

When President Goodluck Jona-than launched the N220bn Micro,

Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund, MSMEDF, about a year ago amid fanfare and high expectations that the end to decades of lack of access to credit by micro enterprises will end. It was most unthink-able that one year after the target benefi ciaries will still be suffering from fi nancial asphyx-iation.

But then and quite char-acteristically with such simi-lar past initiatives targeted at boosting the performance of the micro economy, the Microfi -nance Banks, MFBs, are not po-sitioned to access the fund and embark on its disbursement due to a combination of fac-tors, particularly what analysts termed CBN’s under-estimation of the complexities of the micro fi nancing sub-sector.

Although seen largely by stakeholders as a desirable in-tervention for the MSMEs when analysed within the context of the capital adequacy position of

Can MFBs give DMBs good run on disbursement?As the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, reviews downward the requirement for accessing and disbursing the N220bn Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund, MSMEDF, analysts say the move might renew Microfinance Banks, MFBs, and other Primary Financing Institutions, PFIs, operators’ interest in the Fund and how best to deploy it to micro entrepreneurs for economic growth in the years ahead.UDO ONYEKA reports

the past, analysts believe that MFBs and Microfi nance Institu-tions; MFIs, were discouraged from accessing the fund by the stringent ‘conditionalities’ at-tached to warehousing and dis-bursing of the Fund.

For instance, though the CBN has reviewed the criteria across board to make the fund more accessible, many opera-tors are no longer excited over the fund and have therefore dis-tanced themselves from access-ing it to support micro entrepre-neurial activities.

Apart from the above, the MFBs had thought initially and in line with the President’s as-surances that the development fund would be warehoused and disbursed by them and MFIs, since they deal directly with the MSMEs.

The recently announced in-volvement of the Deposit Money Banks, DMBS, in the disburse-ment of the fund did not only jolt MFB operators but also engen-dered misgivings within the rank and fi le of the micro fi nancing institutions as they know this policy stance by the Bankers

Committee of the CBN would naturally put them at disadvan-taged position based on the fi -nancial clout and stronger links of the DMBS with the CBN.

Before the recent turn of events, the Participating Fi-nance Institutions PFIs, espe-cially MFBs had raised alarm

over the collateral required to access the funds.

However at a workshop pen-ultimate week in Lagos CBN Head of Relationship Manage-ment, MSME Development Fi-nance Department, Tobin Jona-than, disclosed that complaints from the MSME operators sug-

gesting that the criteria were too strict and diffi cult to meet, had

Emefi ele

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, March 30, 2015 A3 19Business CourageCourage

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led to relaxing the criteria across board to make the funds more accessible

According to him, the PFIs said that the collateral required to access the funds was an is-sue and the CBN had reduced it signifi cantly, stressing that with that reduction there have been some improvement in the appli-cation level.

He said the CBN has also addressed all other complaints raised by PFIs including the spread of profi t to cover their cost of operations. “So they can collect the forms at 2 per cent and give it out at 5 per cent. So they have 7 per cent spread which is good enough. That has encouraged so many of them to begin to apply,” said Jonathan.

Business Courage gathered that many operators of MFB be-came un interested, because of the stringent criteria and has distanced themselves from the fund since it does not make sense to engage in a business that would not yield any profi t according tom them.

The inclusion of DMBs as in-stitutions’ that are qualifi ed to partake in disbursing the fund initially did not go down well with MFBs and MFIs for fear of being crowded out due to their fi nancial strength.

Managing Director, Ojokoro Microfi nance Bank, Mr. Taiwo Peters had told Business Cour-age many months ago that the funds have no business going through DMBs, since it was meant for SMEs and micro-businesses.

“The funds were supposed to be channelled through the MFBs. The Central Bank of Ni-geria, CBN, is aware we do not have enough fund to service our clients. DMBs have ways of making their money. Even though this is a fund, many MFBs should have used the lit-tle money they would have made to revive their businesses.

According to Peters, a large number of un-served and un-der-served clients exist in the Nigerian MSME sub-sector and

it is the MFBs that would serve them better because MFBs are closer to them than the commer-cial banks, adding that “primar-ily fund was set up to provide for the wholesale funding require-ments of MFBs/MFIs.”

Though many say that the disbursement was very slow due the harsh conditions attached to its disbursement, Jonathan in-formed that MSMEs are begin-ning to access the fund.

He informed that the CBN has disbursed a total of N40.3bn out of the N220bn MSME, devel-opment fund lunched in 2013, with microfi nance banks access-ing over N2bn from the funds.

The Head, Relationship Man-agement of MSMED fund, said that deposit money banks have accessed about N814m, micro-fi nance institutions N100m and some state governments have accessed N2 billion mark while some accessed N1bn as fi rst tranche few months back.

“We are holding meetings and discussions with them to facilitate access of this N220bn by entrepreneurs. CBN is doing a lot of discussion, collabora-tions to ensure that this fund gets out of CBN and then people will begin to do business with this fund,” he said.

The CBN said it has reviewed the guidelines for the fund to en-able many more PFIs access the fund for lending to MSMEs.

According to the apex bank the collateral required for ac-cessing the fund has been re-duced to 50 percent from 75 percent, while the interest rates have been brought down to 2-9 percent from 3-9 percent.

“We have reviewed the guide-lines; for example, formerly you have to present two years exam report, now we have reduced it to one year, making easy. We are toning down the guidelines to ensure that many more MFBs access the fund”, he said.

Many have said that the re-laxing the criteria is capable encourage many operators to develop interest in the fund. This is because currently a lot of

MFBs operators are not ken in the fund.

Managing Director, Glory Mi-crofi nance Bank, Lagos, Moses Ajao, told Business Courage that he has never bothered to assess the fund, perhaps be-cause of the initial unrealistic condition for interested opera-tors.

He said that even though not was not offi cially stated but a close watch at events indicate that the CBN are more disposed to banks assessing the fund, al-legation which Goodluck early debunked.

In fact according to Goodluck many MFBs have accessed the fund and many more are eager to be part of the project.

But Managing Director, Fi-naTrust Microfi nance Bank Deji Popoola, said the banks inclu-sion in the Fund has not ad-versely affected MFBs.

According to banks and MFBs have different business model. MFBs are not competing with banks. “It may be diffi cult for instance for a small business person looking for N2m to go the DMBs.”

However Popoola said the 300 points interest gap was not encouraging and could not take care of administrative and other expenses.

President of the Associa-tion of Micro Finance Banks of Nigeria, Jethro Akun, said what

this fund hopes to achieve is to provide wholesale fi nance to the MFBs. Akun said the fund is aimed at transforming the lives of the rural people fi nancially. “It is the beginning of unlocking the untapped potentials and op-portunities in the microfi nance industry”, he said.

A senior manager in one of the DMBs, who did not want his name in print, said there was no way the banks, would be ex-empted from being part of the MSMEDF since we are talking about fi nancial inclusion.

He noted that DMBs service a lot of SMEs and micro- busi-nesses. “Many SMEs and micro business owners prefer to deal with the banks for reasons best known to them. So if banks are exempted from this fund, it then means you have excluded such group of persons,” he said.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, had also said the slash-ing of the requirements was to encourage access to the fund.

He said the decision was taken based on the recommen-dations of a sub-committee chaired by the Minister of Na-tional Planning, Dr. Suleiman Abubakar, and contribution made by the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefi ele.

“Based on the comments of the CBN governor, the council took certain decisions. The fi rst is that access to collateral re-quirement, which was initially 75 per cent and made it diffi cult for some commercial banks to be able to access, has been re-duced to 50 per cent.

“All inclusive interest rate must not exceed nine per cent. That has always been the di-rective of the CBN and we have stuck to that. However, the CBN is disbursing to these banks and the fi nancial institutions and others at two per cent from the original interest rate of three per cent.”

The minister added that on the need for women to have ac-cess to the fund, President Jon-athan had directed that about

60 per cent of the fund should be made available to women.

Aganga said men and women with disabilities had also been prioritised in the disbursement of the fund.

According to Abubakar, the council had approved that the collateral requirement of 50 per cent for micro fi nance banks be progressively reduced by period of six to nine based on the rat-ings of the MFBs.

“We also approved in council that special focus be given to the banks with the strongest infra-structure and capacity for lend-ing to the MSME sub-sector in the CBN strategy. Council also approved that the loan tenor for micro loans across the agricul-ture value chain be determined on a case-by-case basis based on the gestation period.

National President of NASSI, Chief Chuku Wachuku said put-ting such funds directly into pri-vate sector organisations, or de-velopment fi nance institutions, would mean getting the fund as quickly as possible without too many bottlenecks.

He said this would be done by working with members of the Organised Private Sector, OPS, who would translate the interventions into real industrial growth. “I am using this oppor-tunity to call on the Presidency to re-evaluate these huge sums of money pumped into public sector agencies and put them directly into private sector or-ganisations,” he stated.

In the same vein Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Indus-try, Mines and Agriculture, EC-CIMA, Director-General, Mr. Emeka Okereke, also corrobo-rated Wachuku.

He said since the fund is a developmental initiative, OPS members should be involved in its administration.

According to him, this would allow ECCIMA and other private sector organisations vouch for the integrity of their members wish-ing to access the fund and this would go a long way in reducing incidents of loan default.

Akun Aganga Wachuku

Okereke


News

Banks won’t charge customers for BVN cards –NIBSSBy Udo Onyeka

As banks’ customers inten-sify efforts to enroll for the

Bank Verifi cation Number, BVN, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Interbank Settle-ment System, NIBSS, Mr. Ade Shonubi, has said that they would not be charged for the BVN cards that would be is-sued to them after they have completed their registration.

The BVN is an initiative aimed at protecting bank cus-tomers and further strength-ening the Nigerian banking system. It is an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in conjunction with the Bankers’ Committee meant to address the safety of cus-tomers’ funds, avoids losses through compromise of per-sonal identifi cation numbers and other criminal activities in the industry.

The NIBSS boss, who is responsible for the implementa-tion of the BVN said: “We are giving the BVN cards out for free. The cost is borne by the Bankers’ Committee, which considers the whole biometric project very important. They have been bearing the cost; the cost of the cards, cost of almost everything else that has to do with the BVN.”

Shonubi, who stated that the number of bank customers that have so far obtained their BVN has been quite encourag-ing, said that going by the cur-rent high level of compliance by customers, he was optimistic that banks will achieve their targets of customer registra-tion.

He said that lenders would soon commence the distribu-tion of the BVN cards, stressing that the cards are ready and are with the banks awaiting collection by customers.

“I have gotten my BVN card. I would encourage banks’ customers to talk to their banks as well. They have been printing them and sending them to the banks to distribute to the branches where you have enrolled, you would be sent an SMS. For those that have given

email address, they would be notifi ed through their emails,” he said.

As part of efforts to encour-age enrolment on the BVN, the CBN directed banks to only honour transactions over N100m from customers with BVN from March 2015. Such transactions according to the apex bank include but not lim-ited to, money transfers, loans, and contingencies, among others.

The regulator also urged all bank customers to register for their BVN by June 2015, warning that any bank cus-tomer without a BVN would be deemed to have inadequate know-your-customers, KYC, by that date. BVN involves the registration of customers in the fi nancial system using biometric technology making accounts more secure using unique identifi ers such as fi ngerprints. Analysts have also described the BVN as a ‘silver-bullet solution’ to many of the challenges in the bank-ing industry. The BVN is a unique identifi er for each bank customer across the fi nancial industry, making it possible to build and track customer fi nancial history and activity. This will allow banks access to more reliable information that could inform decisions on customer loan and credit ap-plications and other complex transactions.

The initiative, which was launched on February 14, 2014, will also encourage fi nancial inclusion as those who have typically stayed away from mainstream banking due to low literacy levels will be able to open and access their bank accounts using their biometric information rather than traditional identifi cation methods.

The NIBSS which is owned by the CBN and all licensed banks in the country provides the infrastructure for automat-

ed processing of data, such as customers ’biometric informa-tion, settlement of payments and fund transfer instructions between banks, Discount Houses and card companies in Nigeria.

HarvestPlus meets partners, sets agenda for 2015

In pursuit of its delivery agenda for Vitamin A Cas-

sava initiative and preparation for the 2015 planting season, HarvestPlus Nigeria has held a three-day work-planning/review meeting with its 16 partners from four target states of Imo, Benue, Akwa-Ibom and Oyo as well as stakeholders in the agricultural sector in Ow-erri recently.

According to Country Man-ager, HarvestPlus Nigeria, Paul Ilona,“Part of the agenda for this year includes: dissemina-tion of improved vitamin A cassava stems to over 700,000 farmers; establishment of over 300 processing centres for vita-min A cassava; establishment of over 300 points of sale for vi-tamin A cassava food products and confectionery; ensuring that at least three million Nige-rians consume vitamin A cas-sava products this year; and, reaching out to over 50 million

Nigerians with information on vitamin A cassava initiative.

Commissioner for Agricul-ture, Imo State, Chief Frank Ibezim, while declaring the work-planning session and Vitamin A Cassava products exhibition open, said, “Imo State is happy to host Har-vestPlus and its partners. We will support you in your drive to ensure that Nigerians have access to healthier and more nutritious foods using the vita-min A cassava initiative.”

He called on HarvestPlus and partners to sustain the fi ght against hidden hunger, poverty reduction and empow-erment of small and medium enterprises, SMEs.

Keystone Bank unveils ‘Pink Network’ to empower women

Women participation in Small and Medium Scale

Enterprises, SMEs, in Nigeria has received an inspiring and creative boost from Keystone Bank Limited, as the Bank recently unveiled The Pink Net-work, an initiative for women entrepreneurs and profession-als to share business ideas and interact.

Speaking recently dur-ing the premiere interactive session Lagos, Otunba (Mrs.) ‘Debola Osibogun, President/Chairman of Council, Char-tered Institute of Bankers, CIBN, said “Keystone Bank Limited has creatively set up this platform to cater for the dreams and aspirations of women SMEs and the profes-sional working class women.”

While commending the Bank, the CIBN President also said “This initiative, beyond supporting the Central Bank’s Financial Inclusion Policy, would also solve some of the challenges built around mar-

kets and infrastructure that SMEs face.”

The Managing Director/CEO, Keystone Bank, Mr. Philip Ikeazor spoke about the possibilities that partnering with Keystone Bank Pink Net-work offers to include fi nanc-ing of ventures in “agriculture, technology, education, hospi-tality and tourism, media and entertainment, professional services and advisory. Once it is a Small and Medium Scale venture, the possibilities are endless.”

According to the Chief Ex-ecutive, a lot has been written about women, from girls in their teens, to women in middle ages, from student entrepre-neurs, to mom entrepreneurs, from women who quit their job to start a business, to women who were made redundant and so started a business, “I strongly believe that the Pink Network can offer a platform for the success story that every woman entrepreneur needs to make an impact to family, friends and the community at large. We want that when you tell your success story as a creator, a businesswoman, an entrepreneur and that it is a PINK story.”

Keystone Bank’s Executive Director in charge of Op-erations and Technology, Mrs. Yvonne Isichei spoke about the motive behind starting the Pink Network: “We were inspired to build this platform for women from our vision of creating ut-most value for our stakehold-ers and our mission of being the preferred partner.

“The Pink Network Interac-tive evening is an evening for us to rub minds as women and introduce to you the unique features of the Pink Network Platform.”

NIPP lauds Jonathan on Olorunsogo II project commissionBy Gbenga Odogun

The National Integrated Power project NIPP has re-

futed reports that the recently commissioned 750mw NIPP Olorunsogo II power plants had earlier been commissioned by former president Olusegun Obasanjo

A statement by the compa-ny’s General Manager Commu-nications and Public Relations, Yakubu Lawal said that the completion and commission-ing of the project was another manifestation of President Goodluck Jonathan’s commit-ment to deliver on his promises to complete inherited projects.

lawal said that the phase II is a combined circle plant consisting of 4No GE made Gas turbines,4NO Heat Recovery steam Generators and 2NO

L-R: CEO, Spotone Global Solution, Senegal and Member, Selection Committee, Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP), Mariéme Jamme; Director, TEEP, Parminder Vir; Founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony O. Elumelu; CEO, Tony Elumelu Foundation, Reid Whitlock; CEO and Founder of Java Foods, Zambia and Member, Selection Committee, TEEP, Monica Musonda; Founder and Chair of Believe in Africa, Cameroon and Member, Selection Committee, Angelle Kwemo during the offi cial announcement of the selection of the fi rst 1,000 African entrepreneurs for the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) in Lagos

Shonubi

Ilona

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Steam turbine units each tur-bine unit of 125mw capacity.

The power plant thus has the capacity to generate 750 mw, a positive development over the phase I plant commis-sioned by the Obasanjo regime which has 8 turbine units each of 42MW with a total of 335 MW.

He also disclosed that the Olorunsogo II project was built by the NIPP, as a joint investment of the three tiers of government of Nigeria while Olorunsogo I project was basi-cally a Federal project.

Both projects he said were built by SEPCOIII of China under distinct and separate contracts with both sitting adjacent to one another but on a defi ned and distinct survey coordinates.

“NIPP was conceived in 2004 by the then president Olusegun Obasanjo as a major fast track initiative to add signifi cant new capacities in power generation, transmission and distribution to Nigeria’s electricity supply chain but that Jonathan’s com-mitment, fi rst as the steering chairman of NIPP and later pioneering chairman, Board of directors of Niger Delta power Holding company NDPHC actually gave life to the success stories of today” he said.

Lagos set to commence allocation of license to taxi operators By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

The Lagos State Government is set to commence the is-

suance of the provisional Taxi License Allocation Letter and badge to operators in the State with effect fromTuesday, 31st March, 2015 at Adeyemi Bero Auditorium, Alausa, Ikeja.

In a statement signed by Commissioner for Transporta-tion, Kayode Opeifa the provi-sional allocation letter will be issued only to taxi cab opera-tors who had earlier accredited with the State Government through the Vehicle Inspection Service ,VIS, offi ces and cap-tured on the data base of the Lagos State Public Transport Management System.

Opeifa noted that the is-suance of the allocation letter is in line with the agreement reached by the taxi cab opera-tors in the State with Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, dur-ing a stakeholder meeting held at the Blue Roof, LTV on Thurs-day 26th February, 2015.

The provisional allocation letter would enable the taxi cab operators be fully integrated with the New Lagos Taxi Sys-tem via the collection of the OK paper from the VIS following which a Permanent Taxi Cab License would be issued.

SURE-P trains 50 unemployed graduates on entrepreneurial skills

The Graduate Internship Scheme, GIS, of the Sub-

sidy Re-investment and Em-powerment Programme (SURE-P) has trained 50 unemployed graduates on sourcing and sustaining funds for small and medium scale business, a con-sultant said on Friday.

Dr Nazifi Abdullahi, the Lead Consultant, Econometri-cal Consultants Ltd., told the News Agency of Nigeria ,NAN, in Akure that the training was to provide entrepreneurship skills to interns for 12 months.

Abdullahi said SURE-P as-signed his company the respon-sibility to undertake training for GIS interns in Ondo State.

“The 50 graduate youths were taught skills and to have experience relevant to the la-bour market and enhance their employability.

“Also, they were provided entrepreneurial skills and training suffi cient to make them employers of labour, rather than being employees of organisations.

“We trained them on skills for small-scale business, fi nan-cial management, accessing loans from various fi nancial in-stitutions, remaining steadfast and partnering with each other for national growth.

“We also gave them suf-fi cient information to access micro-credit facility available in the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, as well as the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency ,SMED-AN.’’

Abdullahi said he was very impressed by the interns’ at-tentiveness and compliance throughout the training pro-gramme.

He encouraged unemployed graduates in Ondo State who had yet to benefi t from the GIS to grab the opportunity by up-loading their Curriculum Vitae ,CV, online and submitting other necessary information on SURE-P website.

The consultant said the ori-entation programme was done in batches with interns, who were drawn from all 18 local government areas of the state.

Commending the initiative, a benefi ciary, Miss Olafunmi Sefunmi, said she had been able to learn about sourcing and raising funds to start a business, writing a good CV, planning for business and knowing interview tips.

``GIS is real and not politi-cal,’’ she added.

NDDC completes 33KV substation, transmission line in Delta

The Niger Delta Development Commission ,NDDC, said it

completed and inaugurated a 132KV transmission line and two 30MVA-132/33KV substa-

tion in Oghara, Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta.

The spokesman of the com-mission, Mr Toye Abosede, said this in a statement on Friday in Port Harcourt.

The statement quoted the NDDC Managing Director, Mr Bassey Dan-Abia, as saying the “multi-billion naira project would boost the Federal Govern-ment’s bid to provide constant electricity supply to Nigerians’’.

“With the completion of this project, the constant power available at the Benin-Ugheli 132 transmission line will be stepped down to 33KV to power the injection substation at Oghara,” he said.

Dan-Abia said Oghara and its environs had been experi-encing poor electricity supply because the area’s transmission line lacked “step down” struc-ture to connect to Sapele and Ugheli substations.

“This project ensures that a step down from 132KV to 33KV has been achieved, thereby improving electricity supply in the whole of Ethiope West and in the state in general.

“This project will have direct benefi t to small and medium scale enterprises and impact positively to economic activities in the state,” he said.

Dan-Abia, according to the statement, said the substation

was among a cluster of electri-fi cation projects initiated by the Delta Government but taken over by the commission in 2011.

He said that other major electrifi cation and substation projects embarked upon by the commission were currently in different stages of completion.

“The substations include the Omotosho to Okitipupa 132KV 56 kilometre transmission line and two 30MVA 132/33KV substations at Okitipupa, Ondo State.

WAEMU states record 6.1 per cent growth in 2014, says IMF

The International Monetary Fund has said that West

African Economic and Mon-etary Union, WAEMU, member states recorded 6.1 per cent growth in 2014.

This is contained in a re-port issued by the Executive Board of the Fund at the end of its 2015 Article IV consulta-tion with WAEMU.

“In spite of fragile political and security situation in some member countries, growth reached 6.1 per cent in 2014.

“This was driven by con-tinued high growth in Côte d’Ivoire and a favourable agricultural season in many countries,” IMF said in the report.

It further said that rising public infrastructure invest-ment also stimulated econom-ic activity.

“Consumer price and un-derlying infl ation were close to zero in 2014. In the medium term, growth should remain above 6 per cent due to con-tinued buoyant public and private sector investment.

“The overall budget defi cit increased to 4.6 per cent of GDP in 2014, up from 3.1 per cent in 2013, due to rising public investment to address infrastructure gap, it said.

It said that WAEMU mem-ber states tapped the regional fi nance market as tax revenue remained broadly unchanged at 16 per cent of GDP.

“Though fi scal pressures persisted, the current account defi cit, including grants, declined to 7.3 per cent of GDP in 2014 mainly refl ecting the drop in international oil prices.

“After declining for three consecutive years, the in-ternational reserves of the Central Bank of West African States ,BCEAO, rose slightly in 2014 covering 4.6 months of imports, the report said”, the report said.

It said the BCEAO had kept its key interest rate unchanged since September 2013, adding, “Credit to the economy has continued to grow at robust rates.’’

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in a handshake with Rodemade Oluwasegun Ayomide a graduate and benefi ciary of the Nigerian Seafar-ers Development Programme (NSDP) an initiative of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) during an interactive session with Young Professionals in Lagos on Sunday

Fashola

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Companies & Markets

By Udo Onyeka

Heritage Bank has ad-vised students to take full advantage of the fi -

nancial literacy campaign being championed through partner-ship between the Central Bank of Nigeria and other banks in the country to become adept at growing and managing wealth from their formative ages.

According to the bank, the emerging global economic reali-ties have made it imperative for the leaders of tomorrow to have unparalleled skills in money management matters.

Speaking to senior students of the National Comprehensive secondary school in Aba, Abia State during the recently held 2015 Financial Literacy Cam-paign as part of the Global Mon-ey Week activities, the Bank’s Customer Experience and An-alytical Offi cer, Kikanwa Ak-penyi, said the intention of CBN in launching the Financial Lit-eracy campaign is to teach chil-dren and young adults fi nancial responsibility as well as create a more enabling environment where students can understand what happens in banks where their deposits are lodged.

“The need to be prudent has never become more important than now. The young genera-tion need to learn, as a matter

of compulsion, why it is impor-tant to be knowledgeable about where they keep their funds. So fi nancial management, money management, savings, how to spend, how to be prudent are basically the things that are needed to be able to live a suc-cessful and fulfi lled life as an adult; these are the things that are taught during the fi nancial literacy sessions”.

Mr. Oturu Emmanuel of Ju-nior Achievers of Nigeria, an NGO that partners with the CBN for the 2015 Literacy Day, said, “The efforts of Heritage Bank and others in taking fi -nancial literacy to the students deserve commendation because the future of every country is in the hands of the youths and we have to move from a job seeking

generation to a job creating gen-eration. Our vision as a country to build business conscientious leaders with work readiness and entrepreneurship acumen will be greatly boosted by this campaign”.

Also Experience Centre Man-ager at Heritage Bank’s Port Harcourt Branch, Mr. Figbene Briggs, noted that the outing was impressive as the students and teachers who took part in the exercise displaced hunger for information and knowledge on money management and wealth preservation.

“The commitment of the students and teachers, in terms of their eagerness to have the knowledge we bring to bear, goes a long way to show that they have interest in being suc-cessful as they grow up. As a Bank, we intend to create more awareness among the Nigerian youths on the need to be hard working and fi nancially disci-plined so that they will make less mistakes in fi nancial mat-ters and excel in their chosen career”, he said.

The principal of the school, Mr Stanley Nwigwe and the teachers all expressed happi-ness for the programme. They also appealed to the bank to continue to strengthen its com-mitment and relationship with the school.

Heritage Bank charges students on money management

Ifi e Sekibo, Heritage Bank CEO

Cadbury Nigeria Plc has recorded dismal results in all performance in-

dicators for the fi nancial year ended Dec. 31, 2014.

News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that the com-pany’s profi t-before-tax dipped by 80 per cent to N1.47bn from N7.42bn achieved in the corre-sponding period of 2013.

The report is contained in the company’s audited result released by the Nigerian Stock Exchange ,NSE, on Friday in Lagos.

Its profi t after tax dropped by N4.51bn or 74.89 per cent to N1.51bn from N6.02bn posted in the comparative period of 2013.

Also, revenue stood at N30.52bn against N35.70bn re-corded in the preceding period of 2013, a decrease of 15 per cent.

The company’s total current liabilities stood at N14.04bn compared with N14.39bn de-clared in 2013.

Total current assets stood at N12.34bn from N26.231bn achieved in the preceding year of 2013.

The company’s net assets decreased by 52 per cent to N11.54bn from N23.994bn achieved in the comparable pe-riod of 2013.

The company has proposed a dividend payout of 65k to all shareholders whose name ap-pears on the register between May 11 and May 15.

Cadbury profi t before tax drops by 80%

By Isaiah Erhiawarien

Microsoft Nigeria and Paradigm Initiative Ni-geria, PIN has pledged

to seek for further collaboration that will provide capacity build-ing for non-governmental or-ganisations, NGO, particularly in the area of ICT. The pledge was made at a training organ-ised by both organization for NGO in Lagos.

The event, which has been running for fi ve years had in attendance over 80 non-govern-mental organisations from La-gos and neighboring states and covers trainings on Research tools and Report Publishing, In-ternet Safety and Security, So-cial Media Tools, and Offi ce 365 for NGO.

Managing Director, Micro-soft Nigeria, Kabelo Makwane emphasised that Microsoft is committed to youth educa-tion and empowering of young

people with the right tools and partnerships to create new businesses that will help the country thrive and grow stating that Microsoft is shaping the future of Nigeria and provid-ing a foundation for its stability and growth.

Chief Operating Offi cer, Par-adigm Initiative Nigeria, Tope Ogundipe said NGOs need to be equipped with the applicable technologies required to make their work relevant to and ef-fective in the 21st century say-ing that Microsoft through the NGO Connection Day supports our organization to provide free training to NGOs based on the Digital Literacy Standard Cur-riculum.

Participants expressed deep satisfaction at the event, and recommended that the num-bers of days for the training be increased in order to give time for more detailed training and for questions to be taken.

According to Olufemi Omo-tayo of Young Start up Net-work, the event was worth every minute of my time adding that knowing how to use technology effi ciently for one’s work can be potentially game-changing.

Keji Ajakaiye of Irede Foun-dation said lessons learnt are very fundamental and quite in-exhaustible saying “we have not committed so much time and resources to research in our or-ganisation before now but the session on Research Tools and Report Publishing helped me see how valuable research is to our work.”

Microsoft, PIN pledge more capacity devt for NGO

Makwane

Emil Moskofi an, MD Cadbury Plc

Aircraft engine manufac-turer, CFM International and Arik Air have com-

menced discussion on the train-ing of Nigerians on aircraft en-gine maintenance and repairs.

According to the airline, this is in line with the federal gov-ernment’s local content devel-opment policy. As discussion progresses, it is expected that Arik will select intelligent, bright and young Nigerians that would be trained by CFM, which is the manufacturer of Arik Air Boeing 737 New Generation (NG) en-gines.

The collaboration was a fall-out of last Monday’s visit of the President of CFM, Jean-Paul Ebanga to the headquarters of Arik Air at the Murtala Mu-hammed International Airport, Lagos to affi rm the importance of the airline to the company and also show commitment to the planned partnership.

Ebanga who toured Arik Air’s facilities at its headquarters said he was impressed by the prog-ress the airline has recorded in just eight years of its commer-cial operations, adding that Arik would soon be one of the leading airlines in Africa.

“What the Chairman of Arik Air, Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide is

doing right now is to do, not to talk. He is bringing the needed change in air transport in Nige-ria. In three to four years from now Africa will be the most populated continent with grow-ing middle class. We have CFM engines in many aircraft operat-ing in Africa. So we grow with Africa’s economy as the middle class becomes empowered by the on-going economic growth. I think the population of CFM engines in Africa is the biggest one. I think we have about 900 engines fl ying all over Africa and the engines are behaving very well,” Ebanga said.

The President of CFM also observed that for African airlines to be competitive they have to operate new and modern equip-ment as Arik Air is doing, engage the services of skilled manpower and operate modern system that would dovetail with operators in other parts of the world because every airline in the world is com-peting at the same level because all have access to the same mar-ket.

“I think one of the challenges of Africa is that Africa is now part of the global economy and African airlines are competing with all the other airlines in the world. I think African airlines

will have to keep up with the skills, organisational effi ciency to be able to compare with the best airlines in the world. This is what is already in progress. Arik is one of such airlines in Africa.

They are using the top notch aircraft like other companies in the world. Of course, there are challenges but the leaders of these airlines in Africa un-derstand those challenges,” the CFM President said.

Chairman of Arik Air, Aru-memi-Ikhide explained that the airline and CFM International talked about partnership, the development of indigenous man-power and technical support of the company to the airline.

“We set up two working groups made up of people from their side and our side and we are looking at issues of Harmattan on our engines and you know we are go-ing to build MRO. They are going to let us know what role they will play there. We are going to start a lot of work locally but they must have to be of international stan-dard. Nigerians are well trained. We have skilled people all over the world. Like he said, it is one step after the other but govern-ment must support. Without gov-ernment’s support, we cannot do anything,” he said.

Arik, CFM partner on indigenous skills in aircraft maintenance

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Companies & Markets

Oduoza


Etisalat Nigeria appoint-ed Ibrahim Dikko as Vice President, Regula-

tory and Corporate Affairs, and Ken Ogujiofor as Vice President Consumer Sales and Service. The appointments aim to fur-ther support the organisation and delivery of innovative prod-ucts, services and to meet the demands of its customers.

Dikko was the Director, Gov-ernment and Regulatory Affairs

where he was responsible for regulation, community and en-vironmental issues. In his new role, he will be leading the Cor-porate and Regulatory Affairs teams in an integrated approach to achieve the company’s stra-tegic plan of forging and main-taining valuable partnerships among all its stakeholders.

Ogujiofor was the Director, Channel Sales at Etisalat Ni-geria where he was responsible for identifying Channel Part-ners across Corporate, Distri-

bution and Alternate channels for sales of Etisalat’s products and services.

As Vice President Consumer Sales and Service, he will play a major role in synergizing the mix between direct and indirect sales as well as ensuring qual-ity services across all Etisalat’s touch points.

Matthew Willsher, Chief Executive Offi cer of Etisalat Nigeria explained that the ap-pointments refl ect the level and scope of responsibility of the

Etisalat Nigeria names two vice presidentstwo executives adding that it is also to sharpen the organisa-tion’s focus on the customer, drive operational effi ciency, and improved results through bet-ter alignment of functions with similar priorities.

According to him, Etisalat is committed to empowering indi-viduals and our communities to empower the nation; therefore we look forward to the benefi ts of the transforming leadership that will follow these new ap-pointments. Willsher

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

GOtv has promised to keep children absorbed with exciting and edu-

cative programming over the Easter weekend and through the month of April.

According to GOtv’s general manager, Elizabeth Amkpa, the variety of children’s channels on GOtv entertains its young-er audiences and also enable them channel their energies to learning.

“From the Kids’ Choice Awards on Nickelodeon which will air on the 1st of April to loads of movies at Easter, and other great shows, kids are in for an unbelievable viewing ex-perience this month”.

“Kids will also be enchanted by the famous fairy tale prin-cess, Cinderella on Disney Ju-nior. Airing of the three-part movie will begin on 12 April. Cinderella 2: Dreams Come Truewill follow on 19April and fi nally, Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time on 26 April”, she pointed out.

With over 40 channels con-

taining news, music, movies, sports, religious and children’s programming,GOtv caters to a variety of viewing tastes within the family.

The children’s channels on GOtv bouquets are; Channel ED, Disney Junior, JimJam and Nickelodeon.Channel ED gives children aged 15 to 18 years, access to an exciting knowledge portal by offering a combination of global high-end documenta-ries and new locally produced content that aim to inspire au-diences to remain curious. It covers a range of subject matter from physics tofi nance, culture, chemistry, and more.

GOtv promises to engage kids in April

By Johnson Okanlawon

United Bank for Africa loan to customers has crossed N1trn mark for the fi nan-

cial year ended December 31, 2014.

The bank which showed a14 per cent increase in the book year-on-year now has non per-forming loan ratio of 1.55 per cent well below the Central Bank of Nigeria maximum of fi ve per cent.

A statement from the bank attributed the growth to loyal customers in the corporate, com-mercial and retail segments of

the African markets, adding that the bank continues to grow loan portfolio in a responsible manner that ensures the quality of the assets and sustainability of its earnings.

The statement quoted the Group Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, as saying that the bank expanded loan book without compromising its focus on asset quality.

According to him, the bank focuses its lending on emerging growth sectors across the African markets; agriculture, manufac-turing, resource-based sectors such as oil and gas and mining,

information and communication technology, power and infra-

structure. He explained that the bank is

considered by businesses on the African continent as a well posi-tioned partner for multinational corporates seeking opportunities in the diverse African markets.

He said, “UBA’s high level li-quidity and strong capital base make it the bank of choice Bank for big-ticket transactions in the emerging African markets, where it continues to offer unique fi -nancial solutions to businesses and governments.”

The bank’s Group Chief Fi-nancial Offi cer, Ugo Nwaghodoh said that the bank will continue to support Africa-focused busi-nesses and governments, given its strong belief in the continent’s prospect.

“ We believe the opportunities

UBA’s loan book hits N1trn in 2014in Africa far outweigh the risks, given our on-the-ground experi-ence in these markets.

“We however do not com-promise our risk management criteria and selective approach to lending across all our target markets, as we focus on quality and profi table risk assets that fi t into our sustainable growth principles and objectives,” he added.

Also, the Group Chief Risk Offi cer, Uche Ike explained the growth in the bank’s loan book, is in line with it moderate risk ap-petite in the year 2014.

He also said that the bank is pleased with the quality of the risk assets created, as refl ected in the low 1.55 per cent non per-foming ratio and moderated 0.7 per cent cost of risk.

Amkpa


The Nigerian Aviation Han-dling Company, NAHCO aviance plc ,has put smiles

on the faces of its shareholders following the declaration of a cash dividend of 20 kobo and a bonus of one new share for every 10 shares already held for the 2014 fi nancial year.

Shareholders of the company are getting this double return on investment even as the compa-ny is set to benefi t from its free trade zone subsidiary,NAHCO FTZ,which commenced opera-tions last quarter of 2014 and is expected to begin to reap prof-its soon after signifi cant invest-ments in its development the past two years.

NAHCO ended 2014 with a marginal increase in revenues of N8.13bn and a profi t after tax of N568m, compared to N8.09bn and N817m recorded in 2013 re-spectively.

The company’s bottom line was affected by the three months Ebola virus scare which reduced the movement of passengers and cargo fl ights across West African airports by major international carriers, Nahco’s core custom-ers. Also, the company’s ratios withered the general high cost of operations, the slowdown in the economy major macroeconomic volatility preceding the 2015 elections.

The 2014 group results re-leased and approved by the Ni-gerian Stock Exchange on Friday was most impacted by pre-op-erating expenses and sunk cost made in its free trade zone sub-sidiary reducing its overall prof-itability and performance relative to 2013 results.

However, the Managing Direc-tor of the Nahco, Mr Norbert Bie-dermann noted in a statement that inspite of the unplanned diffi culties and the several health and safety fl ight cancellations and limitations in travels and travel warning coupled with the warehouse closure, the company achieved marginal growth of two per cent in a very diffi cult year, and expressed optimism that the Nahco Group is on course to de-liver its strategic medium term growth and profi tability objec-

tives for 2015 and beyond as ac-tivities have since stabilized.

According to him, there are improvements income streams from subsidiaries and effi ciency improvements in the core busi-ness and new routings demand for the second quarter that will gradually add upto group perfor-mance.

He confi rmed that while in-vestments in the FTZ will con-tinue apace in 2015/2016 the company will begin to reap the fruits of such investments.

Nahcos bonus declaration plus a cash dividend is the fi rst double corporate action by a list-ed company this year on the Ex-change and it refl ects the com-pany’s continuing strategy for cash retention as development and diversifi cation.

Nahco’s Group Chairman, Mr Suleiman Yahyah had told shareholders in Abuja last May, that a 25-year master plan was being developed for implementa-tion by NAHCO FTZ which will triple its cargo handling capac-ity in the short term and create a long term pipeline for both its expansion of revenues and con-solidate its diversifi cation strat-egy while supporting Nigeria’s exports earnings and trans-shipments capabilities across the west Africa sub region- The FTZ is projected to attract over $500m in new investments in next 5 years.

NAHCO declares dividend, bonus for shareholders

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Global News

South Africa’s Eskom fi res 1,000 workers as crisis deepens

South African utility Eskom [ESCJ.UL] fi red 1,000 work-

ers at a power plant on Friday and its chief executive failed to overturn his suspension, worsening the turmoil at the company.

Africa’s most advanced economy is suffering its most se-vere power shortage since 2008 as state-owned Eskom struggles to keep the lights on.

A union threatened a new walkout after the workers were told of their dismissal via text message. They had been ac-cused of vandalism at Eskom’s new Medupi plant during a strike this week.

Eskom is also in confl ict with its senior management, hav-ing suspended CEO Tshediso Matona and three of his fellow executives this month while an inquiry is held into the opera-tions of the troubled utility.

A labor court in Johannes-burg dismissed an attempt by Matona to overturn his suspen-sion.

“The application is struck from the roll,” Judge Benita Whitchers said, adding that the challenge by Matona would be decided by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Ar-bitration - an independent labor arbitrator.

Standard and Poor’s last week cut Eskom’s credit status to junk, saying the suspensions had led to a loss of confi dence in the company’s corporate governance.

Eskom has suffered from years of underfunding and investment in new plants has failed to keep up with demand.

Labor disruption and techni-cal faults have delayed con-struction of Medupi for years, increasing costs at the coal-fi red plant. Medupi is expected to start partial operations by July, generating 800 megawatts of extra electricity for the strained power grid.

In this week’s strike, about 21,000 contract workers, not directly employed Eskom but by fi rms contracted to build the plant, were protesting against poor living conditions and seek-ing higher pay.

Eskom’s spokesman Khulu Phasiwe told Reuters the work-ers received text messages ask-ing them not to report to work.

U.S. House committee advances ‘threat-sharing’ cybersecurity bill

The U.S. House of Represen-tatives Intelligence Commit-

tee has voted unanimously to advance a long-awaited bill that would make it easier for compa-nies to share information about cybersecurity threats with the government without the fear of lawsuits.

A committee spokesman said the panel approved the measure unanimously, by voice vote, during a closed meeting. The legislation is expected to come before the full House as soon as late April, after lawmakers return from a two-week early April recess.

Similar legislation is mak-ing its way through the U.S. Senate and backers of both bills say they have a good chance of passing after repeated setbacks.

The House bill has been in the works for fi ve years, and previous versions have stalled before becoming law, largely due to concerns by privacy advo-cates worried that they could lead to more surveillance.

The measure offers corpora-tions liability protection if they share information through a civilian portal, most likely to be run by the Department of Homeland Security. Data handed over also would be “scrubbed” twice to remove per-sonal information.

U.S. corporations have been clamoring for more protection against cyberattacks, but they also worry about potential law-suits if they hand information over to government investiga-tors.

Private industry is alarmed by the frequency of attacks on corporate networks, such as recent assaults on Sony Pic-tures Entertainment and Home Depot.

Many Americans, mean-while, have become hugely concerned about the govern-ment’s access to their private

data, particularly since 2013 disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Ed-ward Snowden about the bulk collection of citizens’ telephone records.

U.S. economic growth slows in Q4; corporate profi ts fall

U.S. economic growth cooled in the fourth quarter as

previously reported and after-tax corporate profi ts took a hit from a strong dollar, which could undermine future busi-ness spending.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday in its third estimate of GDP. That was unrevised from the forecast the government published last month.

Businesses throttled back on inventory and equipment invest-ment, but robust consumer spending limited the slowdown in the pace of activity. The economy grew at a 5 percent rate in the third quarter.

After-tax corporate profi ts declined at a 1.6 percent rate last quarter after increasing at a 4.7 percent pace in the third quarter. Corporate profi ts from outside the United States fell at an 8.8 percent rate, the steep-est decline since the 2007-2009 recession.

“Slower profi t growth could mean slower investment in the coming months,” said Thomas Costerg, an economist at Stan-dard Chartered in New York.

Multinationals such as tech-nology giant IBM, semiconduc-tor maker Intel Corp, industrial conglomerate Honeywell and Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest household products maker, have warned that the dollar will hurt their profi ts this year.

The dollar gained 7.8 percent against the currencies of the main U.S. trading partners be-tween June and December.

For all of 2014, after-tax cor-porate profi ts fell 8.3 percent, the largest annual drop since 2008.

Economists had expected fourth-quarter GDP growth would be revised up to a 2.4 percent rate and after-tax cor-porate profi ts would rise at a 1 percent pace.

U.S. stocks were trading marginally higher, as investors bet that the weak growth data would delay a Federal Reserve interest rate increase until later in 2015. The dollar dipped against a basket of currencies, while prices for U.S. Treasuries rose.

DOLLAR HEADWINDA separate report showed

consumer sentiment slipped in March, adding to signs that

the moderate pace of economic expansion persisted through the fi rst quarter.

The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index fell to 93 this month from a reading of 95.4 in February.

The sturdy dollar, lingering weakness in Europe and Asia, harsh winter weather in the United States and a now-settled labor dispute at busy U.S. West Coast ports dampened activity in the fi rst two months of the year.

With temperatures rising, there are signs of some pick-up in activity. But the dollar will likely provide a challenge for domestic manufacturers. First-quarter growth estimates range between a 0.9 percent and 1.4 percent rate.

“The impact of dollar strength and energy price de-clines may prove too much for GDP to hit the long-awaited 3 percent threshold in 2015, leav-ing another year of mid-2 per-cent growth in its wake,” said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial in New York.

Businesses accumulated $80 billion worth of inventory in the fourth quarter, less than the $88.4 billion the government had estimated last month.

As a result, inventories sub-tracted 0.10 percentage point from GDP growth in the fourth quarter. Restocking was previ-ously reported to have added 0.1 percentage point to output.

The weak pace of restocking, however, removes the threat of an inventory overhang, giving businesses scope to place more orders for goods, which should help to stimulate manufactur-ing.

Business investment on equipment was revised to show it rising at a 0.6 percent rate instead of the previously re-ported 0.9 percent pace, likely refl ecting the impact of the strong dollar and lower crude oil prices, which have caused a drop in drilling and exploration activity.

But consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased at a 4.4 per-cent rate in the fourth quarter instead of the 4.2 percent rate reported last month. It was the fastest pace since the fi rst quar-ter of 2006.

Ford CEO Fields received $18.6m in 2014 compensation

Ford Motor Co (F.N) Chief Ex-ecutive Offi cer Mark Fields

made $18.6 million in salary and other compensation last year, below the $23.2 million that predecessor Alan Mulally received in 2013, the company said on Friday.

Last year’s compensation for Fields, 54, was for half the year

as CEO and half as chief operat-ing offi cer. For 2013, he made $10.2 million as COO.

Mulally, who was replaced by Fields on July 1, made $22 million in salary and other compensation for 2014. Ford’s board decided he deserved a full year’s worth of stock awards because the company felt his impact for the full year, a spokesman said.

Earlier this month, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCHA.MI) (FCAU.N) said its CEO, Sergio Marchionne, received 31.3 mil-lion euros (about $38 million at end-2014 exchange rates).

General Motors Co (GM.N) has said its CEO, Mary Barra, would make about $14.4 million for 2014. The company has not yet disclosed her specifi c 2014 compensation.

Fields, Marchionne and Bar-ra will have their compensation compared with that of unionized assembly line workers ahead of and during this summer’s labor talks with the United Auto Workers.

The Center for Automotive Research last week estimated that Ford labor costs for each of its U.S. union workers aver-aged $57 per hour, including benefi ts. Hourly pay is between $15.78 and $28.50 for Ford line workers.

Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford made $15.1 million in 2014, up from $12 million in 2013.

“We remain absolutely com-mitted to aligning executive compensation with the compa-ny’s business performance and to tying a signifi cant portion of executive compensation to long-term shareholder value,” the company said in a state-ment.

Ford executives are com-pensated in part on meeting performance targets. The com-pany achieved 91 percent of the targets last year, compared with 112 percent in 2013. It sur-passed targets for automotive cash fl ow, Ford Credit earnings and quality, but missed on au-tomotive revenue and operating profi t margin.

The company’s pretax profi t in 2014 was $6.3 billion, down from $8.6 billion the previous year, while net income fell to $3.2 billion from $7.2 billion. North American pretax profi t in 2014 was $6.9 billion.

Matona

Obama

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Brand Watch

By David Audu

The appointment of Udeme Ufot as Advertising Prac-titioners Council of Nige-

ria, APCON chairman is seen by many as a move in the right di-rection in the search to reform advertising sub sector.

According to industry watch-ers for nearly two years, Nige-ria’s the apex advertising regu-latory agency, was somewhat in limbo, without a substantive chairman and recognised coun-cil, adding that Udeme as new APCON chairman is expected k to salvage the multibillion naira industry.

Having been inaugurated in a formal ceremony in Lagos by the former supervising Minister of Information, Mr. Edem Duke, the new council was charged on the need to bring on board posi-tive changes in the practice, and bestow on the profession a new lease of life. He reminded them that as people on top of the industry regulatory activi-ties they have a chance and the duty to redeem the industry image and save the advertising profession.

The new APCON chairman, a respected professional who manages one of the top advertis-ing agencies in Nigeria, SO&U

however realised the enormity of the task when in his inaugu-ral speech drew attention to the facts that having been in limbo for almost 18 months, a lot of work need to be done to get AP-CON back to effectively play its regulatory role.

Prominent on his agenda is the need to strengthen the en-forcement capacity of APCON through adequate legal backing for the Advertising Practitio-nersInvestigation Panel, APIP, and the Advertising Practitio-ners Disciplinary Committee, APDC, promising that members of these committees would be restructured to entrench the principle of fair hearing.

In today’s fast paced high tech driven industry, the ac-quisition of appropriate gad-gets and equipment that will enhance the capacity for moni-toring the media space across Nigeria will be a priority and, Udeme, understanding the in-terface these will play if APCON is to relevant, urged govern-ment for adequate funding.

“We urge government to con-tinue to see APCON more as a regulator that it is, and there-fore empower and adequately fund it to perform its statutory duties effectively”.

Still on the need for a strong

regulatory agency, Udeme not-ed that the stronger, more via-ble the sectorial groups are the stronger the industry, hence he vowed that APCON will strive to maintain its mandate of sanitiz-ing the industry, working close-ly with the heads of sectoral groups, HASG, but will require the cooperation of all stakehold-

ers, especially, the government.He appealed to the govern-

ment to ensure that in the de-ployment of government com-munications, round pegs are placed in round holes. “Govern-ment cannot have at its dispos-al some of the fi nest marketing communicators within the reg-istered members of APCON, yet choose to appoint foreign con-sultants or quacks to handle its communications”.

Reinforcing his believe for a vibrant and robust contribu-tions of the marketing commu-

nications industry to the econ-omy, the APCON chairman, highlighted the value chain of marketers, creative agencies, media agencies, outdoors, fi lm production companies among others and the potential for em-ployment for the youth these sectors hold for Nigeria.

To realise these employ-ments potential, Udeme prom-ised that the council under his tenure will engage with univer-sities and polytechnics offering advertising and related courses to grow manpower for the in-dustry.

“Our biggest potential is our people, especially our youths, 54 per cent of whom are un-employed. If we can adopt and drive a policy of local content in a highly technical sector like the oil industry, then it should be obvious that the highly la-bour intensive and talent driv-en creative services industries deserve some encouragement through appropriate policies.

“Advertising and its related service industries can be a veri-table avenue for the reduction of youth unemployment and contribute to the growth of the Gross Domestic Products, GDP.

The APCON boss also used the occasion to impress it on the media as gatekeepers to discharge their duties in a re-sponsible manner, reminding them that no desperation for revenues should motivate the urge to expose uncertifi ed ad-vertisement.

Stakeholders task APCON on redeeming ad industry


Public Relations Consul-tants Association of Ni-geria, PRCAN, the body

charged with the responsibility of regulating public relations consulting business in Nigeria has affi rmed its readiness to work with the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations to enforce the law regulating PR consult-ing business in Nigeria.

The association rose from its Extraordinary General Meeting held recently with a clear man-date given to its Executive Com-mittee to work with the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR and relevant security agencies to take all legal means necessary to enforce the provi-sions of the Bye Law No. 3 of 1993 which empowers PRCAN to regulate PR consulting busi-ness in Nigeria.

While presenting his presi-dential roadmap for PRCAN in 2015 during the fi rst quarter extraordinary general meeting, President, Mr. John Ehiguese bemoaned the manner, in which foreign PR agencies come into the country to set up their agencies without the knowledge of regulatory bodies in the in-dustry.

“The public relations con-sulting business is one that is regulated by law. Before any foreign agency can set up in Nigeria there are conditions

to be met as in other jurisdic-tions too. You cannot just go into South Africa and set up an agency. You will not be allowed, because the laws are there. Ni-geria cannot be a country of anything goes.”

He added that, “Public Re-lations consultants in Nigeria can compete favourably with their counterparts in other Af-rican climes like South Africa and other countries with highly developed Public Relations in-dustry but one thing we need to work on is the coordination of the industry in terms of re-forms.”

“Before a foreign PR agency can set up in Nigeria, there are conditions to be met; 75 per cent of the company shares must be owned by Nigerians,

the company must be a fi nan-cial member of PRCAN, senior executives of the of the com-pany must be members of NIPR and certifi ed to practice PR” he added.

Also speaking at the meet-ing, the Vice President, PRCAN, Mr. Muyiwa Akintunde said “membership of PRCAN is a le-gal requirement for fi rms wish-ing to offer public relations con-sultancy services in Nigeria. It is illegal for any PR agency for-eign or local not registered with PRCAN to offer public relations consultancy services in Nige-ria. Public and private sector clients who offer consultancy businesses to such agencies are also accessories to the crime”.

He added that apart from the responsibility of promoting the practice of professional public relations consultancy in Nige-ria, PRCAN also has the man-date to provide institutional, in-tellectual and other productive support to professional public relations consultants within Nigeria and to help establish a pool of material resources to enhance their capacities.

Ehiguese added that PRCAN is ready to sanitise the industry by ensuring that both foreign and local players follow due process and this will be done in partnership with NIPR and the relevant security agencies to bring the full weight of the law on erring agencies.

PRCAN set to enforce law regulating PR Consulting

Eheguise BC

BC

Ufot

Canadian mobile phone fi rm Black-berry has post-

ed better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, but its revenues showed a larger-than-expected drop.

It reported net profi t of $28m ,£18.8m, against a loss of $148m a year ear-lier.

It was the second quar-ter running the company had posted a surprise prof-it.

However, revenue slid to $660m from $793m, below analysts’ expectations. For the year, Blackberry reported that its loss had narrowed to $304m.

“Our focus this past year was on getting our fi nancial house in order while creating a multi-year growth strategy and investing in our product port-folio. We now have a very good handle on our margins and our product roadmaps have been well received,’’ chief executive John Chen said in a statement.

“The second half of our turn-around focuses on stabilisation of revenue with sustainable

profi tability and cash genera-tion.”

The fi rm reported a positive cash fl ow of $76m, compared with a cash burn of $784m a year previously.

“Blackberry continues to do a good job controlling operat-ing expenses and eliminating its cash burn during its busi-ness transition, but the total revenue was still a big miss and we still have concerns about the demand side of the equation,” said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello.

Blackberry posts profi t for fourth quarter

Chen


BC BC

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Energy Review

By Gbenga Odogun

The transfer of generation and distribution rights of electricity on October

1, 2013 to private investors marked a turning point in the history of electricity supply in the country.

On this day, ten distribution companies; Abuja Electricity Distribution Company,, Benin Electricity Distribution Compa-ny, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Compa-ny, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Jos Electricity Distri-bution Company, Kaduna Elec-tricity Distribution Company, Kano Electricity Distribution Company, Port Harcourt Elec-tricity Distribution Company, and Yola Electricity Distribu-tion Company, were privatized and handed over to new own-ers. This exercise, which started during the last administration of President Olusegun Obasan-jo after the passage of the Elec-tric Power Sector Reform Act, was completed by the present administration under the lead-ership of President Goodluck Jonathan to give impetus to government’s transformation agenda.

After the initial battle with the staff of the now defunct

Power Holding Company of Ni-geria, PHCN, leading to the dis-engagement of some essential employees of PHCN for a period of six months, the stage was set in April 2014 for the full take-over of the distribution network by the new owners. Prior to the takeover, actual electricity gen-eration stood at 3,405 mega-watts.

However 7 months into the exercise, electricity generation stands at 3,600MW as against the needed 15,000mw. On the part of distribution compa-nies with a combined capacity to distribute 15,000MW, just 3,600MW is available for dis-tribution. So Nigerians are still grappling with inadequate or

rather epileptic power supply.Even Abuja the seat of gov-

ernment is not left behind in the wave of power outages.

A survey on power supply in the country released by NOI polls, an indigenous survey company revealed that 63 per cent of Nigerians experienced no improvement in electricity supply since the privatisation of the sector. Specifi cally the survey stated that in the fi rst quarter of this year, 43 per cent of Nigerians experienced wors-ened electricity supply while 20 per cent saw no difference at all in the privatized sector com-pared to when it was run by the defunct PHCN .The survey fur-ther revealed that six out of 10

Power: Nigerians await dividend of privatisationNigerian households received less than fi ve hours of power supply in the fi rst quarter of this year.

“When we heard about the privatisation, we thought that power supply would have been stabilized by now but the re-verse is the case, in fact it is even worse” said a Lagos resi-dent.

‘Suit vogue’ is a cloth retail outlet in the Magodo area of La-gos, the retail outlet manager, Foluke, says she has opted out of getting electricity from public power supply and instead has resorted to the use of generators to power her shop.

For her, the outrageous bill being forced on her on a month-ly basis was responsible for the decision. She prefers fuelling her generator on daily basis as it’ is more cost effective than paying a huge bill for electricity she did not consume.

Pekun Adeyanju, the assis-tant general manager, public affairs, Ikeja electricity distribu-tion company, IKEDC, explains that while 1200MW is required for stable supply to areas within the company’s jurisdiction, only 350MW is being allocated to it daily.

According to him, there is a whole lot of activities involved before electricity can get to the consumers. First, enough power

has to be generated by genera-tion companies, while the trans-mission system must also be solid enough to wheel the elec-tricity generated before it will be available to the distribution companies for supply to con-sumers.

He explains that consumers will start to experience signifi -cant improvement when gen-eration improves. On meter-ing, Adeyanju discloses that a mass metering exercise will commence before the end of the year. To this end, more than 300 meters are now available for distribution to the areas be-ing covered by, IKEDC.

He pleads with consumers to exercise a little more patience adding that the delay is because the Sahara Group, which owns, IKEDC, is “only being meticu-lous so as not to make mis-takes.”

In line with high standard of ethics of the group, he says that core areas of operations will be attended to fi rst

According to him, when this issue of metering is addressed as it is currently being done, the complaints of outrageous bills will stop.

Also the issue of outrageous bills has attracted the attention of the Nigerian Electricity Regu-latory Commission, NERC.

At a stakeholders’ forum re-cently in Abuja, NERC directed that the fi xed charges paid by consumers as service charges be stopped to be paid only if the distribution companies could supply electricity for an average of 15 days a month.

NERC is the regulator of the power sector; it was created to ensure that all participants in the industry play according to the rules; however whether the distribution companies will im-plement the directive remains to be seen. Nigerians in the meantime wait earnestly for the much trumpeted dividend of privatisation.

The Managing Director of the Nigerian independent Petroleum Company Plc,

NIPCO, Mr Venkataraman Ven-katapathy has observed that one of the main challenges that plagued the downstream sector is the issue of subsidy payment to marketers on Premium Motor Spirit imports.

Venkatapathy made the ob-servation while speaking on the sidelines at the company’s 11th-Annual General Meeting held at the Transcorp Hotel, Abuja

``The outstanding payments with regards to premium mo-tor spirit ,PMS, importations by marketers is seriously eroding into the operating results of the companies in the sector:”,he de-clared

The MD said that the Petro-leum industry which remains the mainstay of the nation’s economy and the highest con-tributor to national revenue have had its fortunes marred by plethora of challenges.

According to him, there are also concerns about the effects of shale oil on the falling Crude Oil prices which also have its negative effects on the value of the national currency.

He noted that despite the challenges, the company was able to put a transformation agenda in place to ensure that organization remains commit-

ted to meeting the needs of its stakeholders.

“ Our services are second to none as we continue to store petroleum products in an en-vironment that is friendly ,safe and dignifying in line with our corporate vision “ ,Venkatapa-thy stated .

The company ,he said im-proved on its operational effi -ciency ,optimum capacity utili-zation and enhanced sales even as new business lines and pro-cesses were developed .

According to him, Nipco’s passion for safety continued to pay off and earned her scores of recognitions ,the most recent being Nigerian Ports Authority ,NPA, Best HSE compliant ter-minal award for the fourth con-secutive year.

The Nipco CEO asserted that

2015 will bring its own chal-lenges but we shall remain fo-cussed to the vision and work to make the best out of the year.

“ We will continue to lay em-phasis on what we can control ;providing our customers with the best in the market ;man-aging our costs ;strengthening our brand and doing our part to move the economy forward ” ,he declared

Mr Venkatapathy asserted that the company’s operations

will continue to be in tandem with international best practic-es with our integrity intact and unassailable stressing that this focus will no doubt ,propel her to exceptional performance in 2015 .

He appreciated the com-pany’s shareholders for their unqualifi ed support which had given the fi rm great impetus to aim high and work harder in the quest to take the organiza-tion to greater heights.

Subsidy payment major challenge for marketers says Nipco boss

Venkatapathy

Non performing marginal oil fi elds may be given more times to source for funds

and technical competence needed for their operations.

This is as a result of the un-willingness of the Federal Gov-ernment to implement the recom-mendations of the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, to the effect that the licences of non per-forming marginal oil fi elds be re-voked and the oil fi led recovered by March this year.

Industry sources attributed this to the current political atmo-sphere in the country which does not favour such decision.

DPR had given the marginal fi elds owners up till March ending to develop the fi elds or have them taken away from them.

In spite of this warning how-ever,21 out of the 30 marginal oil fi elds allocated in 2003 remained dormant as a result of what in-dustry watchers attributed to lack of funds and technical know- how needed to develop them.

Among them are;Asaramotu

in OML 11(swamp), owned by Prime Energy and Suffolk petro-leum; Eremor-OML 46 Owned by Excel E&p Ofa-OML 30 (Onshore) owned by Independent Energy and Atala OML 46,swamp, promoted by Bayelsa oil and Gas.

Others are Millenium oil and Gas, Network E&P, Universal En-ergy Resources, Stubb Creek, and Tom Shot Bank Field among oth-ers.

Sources close to the depart-ment however hinted that gov-ernment might have a look at them after the election but might not be immediate adding that the wise ones among them will lever-age on the extended time to adjust in terms of sourcing for fund and technical competence they need to develop them.

Non-perfomimg marginal oil fi elds may be given more time – DPR

Power distribution transformer

George Osahon, Director, DPR

Submarine fi bre -optic cables


Continued on pg A12


West Africa’s largest in-dependent fi bre optic infrastructure and tele-

communications services pro-vider - Phase3 Telecom has said it plans to deploy aerial fi ber optic infrastructure from Kano in Nigeria to Gazaoua in the Re-public of Niger.

The network, which will run from Kano state through Katsina state before arriving at Gazaoua will be 228 km long and is ex-pected to be completed in the coming months.

The Republic of Niger is a landlocked country that borders seven countries; Algeria, Re-public of Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, and Nigeria. The lack of backbone infrastruc-ture between the Republic of Niger and its neighbours leaves Niger unable to fully enjoy the broadband advantage to its full-est.

With one of the lowest inter-net penetration rates in West Af-rica, Republic of Niger will now have the opportunity to leverage on the huge bandwidth capacity which is available at the Nige-rian coast in Lagos through the Phase3 telecom aerial fi ber net-work.

This development will also widen the market for under-sea cable owners in Nigeria while enhancing broadband develop-ment in the Republic of Niger.

This project will further en-hance and solidify the objec-

Phase3 Telecom deploys fi ber-optic cable in Nigeria, others

tives behind the Nigeria - Niger Joint Commission, NNJC, and the partnership/relationship be-tween the two countries.

Chief Executive Offi cer, Phase3 Telecom, Stanley Jegede while commenting on the proj-ect said the opportunities that the internet delivers are critical to the acceleration of sustain-able socio-economic inclusion and growth for the Republic of Niger.

As this will open doors to new opportunities for residents to enjoy the benefi ts of the inter-net such as being able to work from the comforts of their home or study online. Businesses in this region will also be better positioned to use the internet to

boost productivity, offer better service, connect with customers faster and work anywhere at re-duced costs.

Today, easier and reliable access to information from any-where drives development thus; This deployment is part of our wider West Africa roll out plan to deliver regional connectivity through a single network across the region. It is a confi rmation of our commitment to ensure that the digital divide diminishes, de-livering connectivity to new ur-ban and rural areas”.

“I believe that this mile stone is a positive step towards sus-tainable economic development in West Africa. With the support we have received thus far from

both the governments of the Re-public of Niger and Nigeria; we are confi dent that this will mark the fi rst phase in a long term partnership and we look forward to the dividends West Africa as a whole and in particular the Republic of Niger will benefi t from the integration of this tele-communication infrastructure”, Jegede concluded.

Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola John-son said “Africa’s true economic potential will be harnessed by increasing the level of internet connectivity we currently have.

This is one of the many ways to tap into the economic and so-cial benefi ts Africa has the po-tential to deliver. The Ministry of Communication Technology and the Federal Government of Nige-ria have worked very hard and closely with the Republic of Ni-ger on integrating both countries under a single telecommunica-tions infrastructure and projects like this that will deliver the in-frastructure to connect us to our neighbours and the rest of the world is the fi rst step in realizing that vision.

Establishing strong and sus-tainable partnerships across the sub-region will deliver benefi ts for us all. I am delighted that Phase3 Telecom has the capaci-ty and is delivering a homegrown solution that will deliver signifi -cant long term value”.

She explained that the project is being facilitated by the Uni-versal Service Provision Fund, USPF through the extension of

the Backbone Transmission In-frastructure Program (BTRAIN) programme to Niger.

The Phase3 Telecom fi ber network is delivered through aerial deployment on high volt-age transmission lines along Nigeria-Niger transmission py-lons. This will also increase the existing power sharing infra-structure that is already in place between both countries. Phase3 telecom’s, aerial fi bre is more re-liable than its terrestrial equiva-lent, and with over 7000km of existing fi ber infrastructure in Nigeria alone, Phase3 is ideally positioned to deliver a wider re-gional solution.

Meanwhile, a survey from FTTH Council Africa in part-nership with Africa Bandwidth Maps revealed that 52 African countries are now connected to submarine cables, either directly or by terrestrial cross-border fi -bre optic networks. 44 per cent of Africans live within a 25-km reach of a fi bre node.

According to the latest re-search by Africa Bandwidth Maps, Africa’s total inventory of transmission network edges towards 1 million route kilome-tres, the continent had a total of 586,707-km of operational fi -bre optic network by December 2014. This comprises of long-haul, metropolitan and FTTH/B (fi bre-to-the-home/building) ter-restrial fi bre optic networks.

Of this inventory of 586,707–km of operational terrestrial fi bre, at least 91,182-km was

Johnson

Jegede


BC

with Esther Ozue

([email protected]) 08059234648 (sms only)

TechnotalkTechnotalk

Transforming the way you work using an online collaboration tool

BC

Teamwork is one of the most important aspects of the modern workplace. However, with the wide-spread of Internet availability, members of a team

could be anywhere in the world. For teamwork to be effec-tive, it is important for companies to adopt modern work practices and technologies that help co-workers, wher-ever they are, share their work in a simple and effi cient way. This is where a good online collaboration tool comes in. Online collaboration allows a group of people work together in real-time over the Internet. Those engaged in online collaboration can work together on word processor documents, Power Point presentations and even for brain-storming, all without needing to be in the same room at the same time. There are many great online collaboration tools available, which can help your team accomplish its goals.

However listed below are benefi ts of online collabora-tion that will help you and your organisation make a deci-sion on this useful technology.

1. It is easy to keep track of projects - Online collabo-ration tools have a variety of project tracking capabilities that make it easy for team members to see the evolution of a project from day one. From tracking who made the latest changes to a document, to how the document was before the changes, to tagging a colleague to review the document.

2. Team members can be anywhere - As long as they have an Internet connection, team members can be work-ing remotely from anywhere in the world. This means that it’s possible for a team to be completely dispersed, while still working in an organized way. Co-workers in different states or countries can easily work together on the same project, which helps organizations put together the best possible team for a project, It also means that while em-ployees are away from the offi ce on a business trip, they don’t need to be disconnected from the project, and can contribute to it as if they were on their desks.

3. Ease of reporting - Nearly all work projects have some kind of reporting associated with them, and report time is usually stressful. Sometimes, you can lose track of some of the activities that have been done for a certain project, especially when you are working with a large team. However, by using a good online collaboration tool, you can quickly generate detailed reports that include all of the activities associated with a certain project, giving team members more time to work on result-generating activities.

4. Actions are done quickly - With a good online collab-oration tool, you don’t have to arrange a meeting or phone call in order to review documents. Documents can be up-loaded into the tool, and reviewers can be automatically notifi ed via email that documents have been uploaded. Reviewers can then annotate the document and make any necessary changes and notify all team members that the document has been reviewed and is ready. This makes it much easier to keep a steady and organized work fl ow on a project, with team members promptly contributing when necessary.

5. Documents are all stored in a single place - This makes it easy for all team members to have access to all necessary documents, regardless of their location and any updates to a document are seen immediately.

Finally, online collaboration is good for organisations of any size, as long as there is interest in working together over the Internet to achieve same result. Not only is on-line collaboration great for working with your colleagues, but it’s also good when working on documents with client as it create a sense of teamwork and transparency and improves client relationships.

BC

within cities: metropolitan fi bre rings and FTTH/B networks. The metro rings distribute band-width from fi bre optic nodes to districts and suburbs around each city. The FTTH/B networks provide the last mile access, de-livering the bandwidth right to the door.

This network expansion has brought dozens of new towns, cities and countries within reach of high capacity national and in-ternational fi bre backbone net-works for the fi rst time. Over the last fi ve years, more than 150 million more Africans live within reach of fi bre networks.

By June 2014, 44 per cent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa (410 million) lived within a 25-km range of an operational fi bre optic network node. This compared to 41.8 per cent of the population (371 million) in 2013, 40.0 per cent (345 million) in 2012, 36.3 per cent (313 million) in 2011, and 30.8 per cent (259 million) in 2010.

The number of people within

reach of a broadband service provided by fi bre depends on the range of the fi xed or wireless broadband access network used from the fi bre node. In Decem-ber 2014, 65.1 per cent of the population (606 million people) lived within a 50-km range of an operational fi bre optic network node. This distance of 50-km is the maximum theoretical range of a WiMAX network. 44.0 per cent of the population (410 mil-lion) lived within a 25-km range, and 22.3 per cent of the popula-tion (207 million) lived within a 10-km range of an operational fi bre network node.

The new measurements now are how many people are within a zero kilometre reach of a fi bre backbone. How many homes, public and commercial buildings are plugged directly into the fi bre optic backbone?

The FTTH Council Africa, in partnership with Africa Band-width Maps, announces its intention to conduct annual research to track FTTH/B pen-

etration. Measuring penetration is critical to understand how the industry is progressing. The research will take place in the form of a short survey and will attempt to document as many metro and FTTH/B networks as possible.

The aim is to determine net-work reach and ultimately un-derstand how many homes, pub-lic and commercial buildings are connected and the rate at which this is growing. If we know this we will better understand what still needs to be done.

We would like to see all Afri-can operators participate to en-sure technical accuracy of the data. The results will, over time, also establish trends and this information is important for the industry.

The survey is now open for network operators to add their network locations on to the map, and to update details on the progress of their FTTH roll-out.

The results for Q1 2015 will be compiled in April 2015.


The $7.2bn GDP, which the Nigeria’s fi lm industry gener-

ated in the 2014 is attributed to the application of technology.

A study, from the Oxford Business Group describing the industry as the second-largest in the world in terms of number of fi lms produced said that the spread of digital technology will be a major driving force for the fi lm industry in the years to come, as domestic consumption increases.

Higher levels of internet ac-cess, increased penetration rates for smartphones and improved bandwidth are all expected to help generate a production boom.

An increase in demand for programming is also likely to generate new opportunities for content producers. Accord-ing to a PwC report, Nigeria’s entertainment and media revenues will more than double to reach an estimated $8.5bn in 2018, from $4bn in 2013, with internet one of the key drivers. Mobile internet subscribers are forecast to surge to 50.4m in 2018 from 7.7m in 2013, ac-cording to the report.

Likewise, pay-TV penetra-tion is forecast to reach 24.4 per cent by 2018, with competi-tion amongst digital terrestrial television operators set to grow after Nigeria migrates to digital. However, doubts remain over whether the country will be able to meet the June 2015 digital switchover deadline – set by a 2006 agreement brokered by the UN’s International Telecommu-nication Union.

According the report, the need for homegrown content remains crucial to the develop-ment of the industry, quoting Charles Igwe, fi lmmaker and Chief Executive Offi cer of pro-

duction fi rm, Nollywood Global.“All content is going digital,

there is an explosion of fi lm content, in all forms,” said Igwe, speaking at a conference in Jan-uary. “Big telecoms companies will have to improve delivery creating the capacity to make content is imperative if we are going to exist in this space,” he added.

The report said that plat-forms like Nigeria’s iROKOtv are providing new distribution channels for Nollywood fi lms, which number more than 2000 produced annually.

The tech company, which pays fi lmmakers about $10,000 to $25,000 for the digital rights to stream their content for a period of time, claims to be the world’s largest online distributor of African content with a cata-logue of 5000 Nollywood fi lms, report revealed.

The Oxford Business Group in its study observed some chal-lenges in the industry.

It said that despite standing to benefi t from the increasing number of distribution options, Nollywood producers still face signifi cant challenges.

“While Nigeria’s fi lms are often produced for relatively modest amounts of money, funding and fi nancing continue

to be a challenge for fi lmmak-ers, and gaps in infrastructure and coverage plus an unreliable electricity supply limit digital distribution channels in the shorter term”, the study said.

It added: “Piracy remains another issue with the illegal copying, distributing and unau-thorised broadcasting of movies eating into box offi ce earnings. While efforts have been made to strengthen intellectual prop-erty rights, including a N2bn ,$9.85m, state fund to improve Nigeria’s content distribution network announced in late January, illegal downloads and bootleg DVDs look likely to con-tinue undercutting revenue.”

The study said despite the challenges, that Nollywood’s contribution to GDP is on track to rise during 2015 saying that in late December, the IMF said it expected Nigeria’s economic expansion to ease somewhat this year, with GDP on course to increase by 5 per cent, having slowed to 5.9 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2014.

“However, the IMF noted that the non-oil sector was to be less affected by slower growth, set-ting the scene for newly recog-nised segments, like Nollywood, to continue their expansion”, it added.

The Nigerian fi lm industry, known as Nollywood, is a key contributor to the increase. Under the rebasing conducted by the state statistics agency, the fi lm industry accounted for more than 1.4 per cent of GDP – or $7.2bn of Nigeria’s economy. With an estimated 1m people directly or indi-rectly working in the industry, the making, distributing and screening of moving pictures has become the country’s second-biggest source of em-ployment after agriculture.

Technology earns $7.2bn for Nollywood

Igwe


Continued on pg A14

Yemi Adesokan:

A rare gemHe had deep admiration for the U.S. military and had desired to join the US Marine Corps when he got into the United States of America at the age of 18. But that ambition did not materialise as fate thrust on him, another greater job that was to later throw him up among great men of ideas and innovation. This is the story of 39-year old Yemi Adesokan, whose exploit in the field of scientific research has placed Nigeria’s name conspicuously on world map

Great men are noted to have always gone the extra miles to achieve success in their re-

spective endeavours. And just like such great men abounds across the globe, Nigeria, the self-acclaimed Giant of Africa has its own fair share of these great minds who have continued to excel in their various fi elds of endeavour, at home and in the Diaspora.

Yemi Adesokan, the 39 year-old award-winning, Harvard trained US- based Nigerian born-scientist cum researcher belong, to this exclusive group.

As a scientist and entre-preneur with experience in the development and optimization of multiplex capture and high-throughput genome sequencing technologies, it was this Nigerian youngster’s company, Pathogen-ica, that invented DNA sequenc-ing technologies for medical tests.

According to experts, Yemi’s discovery has potential to change the way mankind responds to disease pathogens and has the capacity to eradicate the era of increased burden of drug resis-tance in the world particularly, in the sub Saharan Africa.

Yemi grew up in Okupe Es-tate Maryland, Ikeja, Lagos and attended Maryland Convent Private School for his Senior Secondary School Certifi cate in

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi 1989 which he later completed in 1994 at the Command Day Secondary School, Ikeja.

He left the shores of Nige-ria at age of 18 in 1996 for the United States of America where he later became a citizen. When he moved to United States, lit-tle did the young Yemi realise that he was was merely pre-paring the ground for a lifetime achievement that will make him rub shoulders with some of the greatest names in scientifi c tech-nology.

Today, Yemi is an industry consultant with extensive expe-rience in providing strategic ad-visory services to Fortune 500 life-science companies. He holds a B.Sc degree in Biology from the University of Houston and PhD in theoretical chemistry from the University of California, Irvine.

In 2009, as a post-doctoral researcher in the prestigious Harvard University in the United States, Yemi collaborated with an American molecular geneti-cist, George Church to invent a diagnostic application which they called Pathogenica to boost DNA sequencing technologies. Prior to that, he had pioneered the development and implemen-tation of the BioWeatherMap project, an initiative that collects real-time assays and uses them to track and limit viral outbreaks and antibiotic resistance in the developing world.

Yemi started Pathogenica, chiefl y because he saw a unique commercial opportunity where-

by he could provide physicians with a diagnostic tool that will enable the provision of better pa-tient care. Pathogenica’s test kits are able to identify the presence, allowing for physicians to screen for multiple diseases with ac-curate results and a rapid turn-around. “I founded pathogenica with genomics pioneer and Har-vard Prof George Church in 2009 in order to commercialise appli-cations of pathogen sequencing,” Yemi said in a recent interview.

Yemi’s Pathogenica’s technol-ogy is quite signifi cant especially to clinical diagnostics as its great impact on the global healthcare industry cannot be underesti-mated. Diagnostic tests, as be-ing developed by Yemi and his company, could let physicians quickly and cheaply pinpoint features of a patient’s infection, such as whether it is resistant to certain antibiotics, and prescribe the most effective treatment.

In essence, when a patient goes to the hospital because of a bad cold or fl u, sometimes, the drugs might not work because of the presence of “resistance mu-tations”. Pathogenica technology can detect not only the presence of the disease-causing organism, but also the presence of muta-tions. The doctor can then give the patient the right medica-

tion that will work even with the presence of mutations. The util-ity of the innovation in clinical practice lies in the low error rate, thereby reducing the number of inaccurate diagnoses due to false positives or the emergence of drug resistance mutations undetected by current methods. This, Business Courage gath-ered, reduces the occurrence of patient mortality (death) due to misdiagnosed infections.

With the coming of the Patho-genica technology, the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped more than 40, 000-fold since that time to just $5,000 today. And the price has continued to drop. “We are applying this fast, inexpensive technology in a unique way to improve routine clinical diagnostics. The util-ity of the innovation in clinical practice lies in the low error rate, thereby reducing the number of inaccurate diagnoses due to false positives or the emergence of drug resistance mutations undetected by current methods. This reduces the occurrence of patient mortality (death) due to misdiagnosed infections. In ad-dition, the technology does not require cultures as samples. TB samples can take over one week to culture. We can demonstrate diagnostic results in a single

day. This would reduce the spread of TB. In the case of HPV (Human Papilloma Virus), which causes cervical cancer and other types of cancers, this technology can be used for detection with a very low occurrence of error,”he noted.

Of course, Yemi teamed up with a right person Professor Church who has greatly infl u-enced the Nigerian youngster,.

In real fact, Church seemed to have been the best choice for Yemi to work with, because it was Church who, in 1984, with another scientist, Walter Gilbert that developed the fi rst ever di-rect genomic sequencing meth-od and also helped to initiate the Human Genome Project as a Research Scientist at the then newly-formed Biogen Incorpora-tion in the US.

Church is also the man who invented the broadly-applied concepts of molecular multiplex-ing and tags, homologous re-combination methods and DNA array synthesisers, among many other inventions to his credit.

This, coupled with their in-vention on clinical diagnostics had brought a great break-through to the science world, es-pecially the medical fi eld.

Pathogenica’s initial efforts

Adesokan


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had focused on detecting the microbes that cause urinary- tract infections. Its researchers are also developing tests to ana-lyze how microbe populations change when someone is treated with new antibiotics or antivi-rals. Because the technology can detect small changes in DNA, it may be able to reveal early on if a population of microbes is devel-oping resistance to a drug.

However, Yemi did not just start this wizardry after his en-counter with Church. The ini-tiative indeed started during his undergraduate days. Then, as a Biology undergraduate research-er at the University of Houston, US in 2001, he had predicted the fi rst HIV-Integrase/Viral DNA binding pattern. Then later, as part of his doctoral thesis in theoretical chemistry at the Uni-versity of California, US, Yemi worked on the development of new force-fi elds for bimolecular modelling. There, he spearhead-ed the genomic centres of excel-lence programme, which includ-ed the multi-drug resistant TB analysis and capacity-building initiatives funded by a Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Exploration grant.

“To identify these pathogens today, scientists must use ex-pensive DNA tests or grow the microbes from a sample—a slow process that doesn’t work for many bacteria. And both meth-ods often fail to detect small dif-ferences in DNA that can have a huge impact on the organ-ism’s virulence and resistance to drugs. Pathogenica’s technology can pick out specifi c regions of a pathogen’s genome, such as the genes involved in its ability to in-fect its host, and sequence many of these regions simultaneously. It minimizes the amount of se-quencing, so Pathogenica’s ap-proach will be cheaper, faster, and more precise than existing tests”, says Yemi.

Pathogenica’s two-dimen-sional multiplexing method pro-vides the only effective means to screen thousands of samples and hundreds of unique patho-gens in a single day. It also dis-criminates between pathogen and non-virulent “near neigh-bour” species with negligible false positive rate. While it adapts to emerging polymorphisms and unknown pathogen variants, it also delivers diagnostic assays for medicine and industry at a fraction of a dollar per pathogen.

By his own admission, Yemi’s journey in the fi eld of Biotechnol-ogy thus far has been both excit-ing and challenging. “My doctor-ate is in theoretical chemistry, so switching to genomics as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard was frightening for a fl eeting second. However, having an advisor like George Church, plain hard work and God’s mercies got me over the initial hump. Biotechnology and genomics, in particular, has been a driver of the healthcare industry over the past decade,

especially with the completion of the human genome project which has catalyzed the emer-gence of the fi eld of personalized medicine. I and the Pathogenica team feel very fortunate to be at the fore front of the genomics revolution,” he said.

Recognised for his excellent track record in predicting inno-vative technologies, and based on his work on the development of fast DNA sequencing tech-nologies for clinical diagnostics, recently, Technology Review selected him in the TR35, MIT Technology Review’s annual list of 35 top innovators under the age of 35.

The TR35 award is presented each year to 35 innovators un-der the age of 35 whose “accom-plishments are poised to have a dramatic impact on the world.” The TR35 recognises the world’s top innovators, spanning energy, medicine, computing, communi-cations, nanotechnology, and other emerging fi elds.

Past recipients have included Sergey Brin (Google), Mark Zuck-erberg (Facebook), and Konstan-tin Novoselev (a Nobel Laureate in Physics).

Of course, Yemi could not but felt honoured and excited to have been named among the world’s top 35 innovators. “When I googled TR35 to review the list of individuals such as Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Sergey Brin (Google) and Konstantin Novoselov (Nobel Prize Winner in Physics) that have made the cut over the last fi ve years, I felt honoured and humbled to be considered among such greats. The successes of the TR35 in-novators over the last few years show that the MIT Tech Review has a pretty solid track record of predicting emerging technologies and innovators,” he said.

Bolstered by the honour, Yemi says his dream is to contin-ue to work as fast and as hard as ever before to commercialize the technology globally as he noted

that “this is no time to rest on our oars.”

Yemi is not thinking of ad-vancing medicine and technol-ogy in the US and Europe alone. The Nigerian blood still fl ows passionately in him as he has expressed his resolve to make impact in Nigeria as well.“I would love to have our products in Nige-ria. Please be on the lookout for Pathogenica’s sequence-based tests for HIV diagnostics. We are in talks with various groups in Nigeria to implement this. It will be in place very soon,”he noted.

Health experts who spoke with Business Courage on the possibility of adapting Yemi’s in-vention said it will help address one of the major issues in the health sector in Nigeria today. According to them, the fears that some of the sterilised water be-ing used for many patients might really have contained harmful pathogens would be addressed by the Pathogenica technol-ogy which is said to be useful in screening a range of pathogens in water, livestock (poultry, etc.), and in food manufacturing.

Yemi is looking forward to partnering with the Nigerian pri-vate and public sectors, particu-larly in the area of Tuberculosis which is not an issue in the US market. “We plan to visit Nigeria soon to give some presentations on the utility of our technology, particularly in the case of drug-resistant infections,” he said.

Yemi believes that the Nigeri-an government can still do more in terms of encouraging young innovators embarking on vari-ous ground-breaking research-es, noting that the establishment of technology incubators to nur-ture and fund young companies would be a good starting point. “There is need for the govern-ment to send science and tech-nology representatives to scout out new innovations worldwide, and encourage private sector venture capitalists to invest in local technology innovation,” he noted.

Signifi cantly, Yemi’s patho-gen sequencing analysis com-pany, Pathogenica is already spreading its tentacles wide be-yond the US market. The com-pany recently announced its fi rst product, a hospital acquired infection (HAI) BioDetection Kit and has also signed an agree-ment with Life Technologies, Ja-pan to launch and distribute it in that country on the Ion Tor-rent platform.

The kit is based on Pathogen-ica’s DxSeq technology platform, a DNA sequencing analysis prod-uct that can identify infectious disease with high accuracy, at high specifi c strain resolution and at a scale that makes hos-pital-wide testing practical. The kit can test more than 12 differ-ent pathogens and 15 resistance gene families in a single assay; and up to 12 patient samples can be tested per sequencing, enabling dozens of samples to be

tested in one day. The kit is marked for re-

search use only and works with any DNA sequencing platform and not to diagnose hospital patients.“Current methods for detecting causative organisms can take up to two days for re-sults and are limited in their ability to discriminate between hospital- and community-ac-quired infection or to identify or-ganisms beyond a small group of common pathogens,” Yemi, CEO of Pathogenica, said.

Yemi said that “For effective surveillance and control of HAIs, it is necessary to identify the causative organism, while also providing high-resolution se-quence data that includes strain identity and resistance genes. We have developed a low-cost se-quencing assay that can address both these needs and deliver re-sults in less than 12 hours.”

According to Yemi, “Patho-genica’s bio-detection system for hospital acquired infections has the potential to radically improve HAI management, rendering tra-ditional testing methods obso-lete,” The reduction of mortality rate, and economic burden, of HAIs could be signifi cant.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control, each year in the United States, about one in 20 hospitalized patients will con-tract an HAI, leading to 100,000 deaths and adding $4.5 billion in healthcare costs.

The Pathogenica kit has re-agents for identifying pathogens and drug resistance markers per sample including: Acinetobacter baumannii, Clostridium diffi cile, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Enterobacter aerogenes, En-terobacter cloacae, Klebsiella pneumonia, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Coag-ulase negative staph (epidermis, saprophyticus), Staphylococcus aureus, and common beta-lac-tamase resistance genes, mecA, and the vanA gene family.

“Making hospital care safer is a global priority,” added Adeso-kan. “Our partnership with Life Technologies provides access to many hospitals in Japan where together we can help to begin controlling the spread of infec-tion very quickly.”

Pathogenica is not a labour intensive endeavour as it only has about 20 employees in its payroll and it recently moved to its new 5,000-square-foot space in the Boston Design Centre.

Though Yemi would not be drawn into disclosing his net worth, investigations have re-vealed that the Harvard-trained scientist currently worth several millions of dollars.

However, like every business, Yemi was also confronted with the challenge of funding, a major killer of many start-ups but he admitted that the never say die spirit and the environment where he started from (US), helped his course tremendously.

‘

‘We are applying this fast, inexpensive technology in a unique way to improve routine clinical diagnostics. The utility of the innovation in clinical practice lies in the low error rate, thereby reducing the number of inaccurate diagnoses due to false positives or the emergence of drug resistance mutations undetected by current methods

Adesokan


ThebuddingEntrepreneurs

Motivational Business Quotes

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The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, in-

stead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed. – Henry Ford

It’s through curiosity and looking at op-portunities in new ways that we’ve always mapped our path at Dell. There’s always an opportunity to make a difference. – Mi-chael Dell

If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re do-ing and you always put the customer fi rst, success will be yours. – Ray Kroc

Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what

makes the view from the top so exhilarat-ing. – Denis Waitley

Management is nothing more than motivating other people. – Le Iacocca

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. – Dwight D. Eisen-hower

The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question. – Peter Drucker

Why did I want to win? Because I didn’t want to lose! – Max Schmelling

B U S I N E S SMamora is a system thinker and advisor whose belief and activator leadership strengths are directed towards improving workers perspective for city and enterprise development. e-mail: [email protected]

K L I N I CWith Mamora Victor

Energy, work and initiative age

‘

‘A man found a cocoon for a butterfl y. One day, a small opening appeared,

he sat and watched the butter-fl y for several hours as it strug-gled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared stuck.

The man decided to help the butterfl y, and with a pair of scis-sors, he cut open the cocoon. The butterfl y then emerged eas-ily. But something was strange. The butterfl y had a swollen body and shriveled wings. The man watched the butterfl y, ex-pecting it to take on its correct proportions. However, nothing changed.

The butterfl y stayed the same. It was never able to fl y. In his kindness and haste, the man did not realise that the butterfl y’s great effort to walk through the small cocoon is a systematic process of forcing fl uids from the body of the but-terfl y into the wings so that it would be ready for fl ight. The quick fi x limits the potential of the butterfl y to go on fi rst fl ight.

Dear friend, at times, you need to, humbly tell people who are afraid of your failure to al-low you do your work. This is because, the process of daily work develop your potential in the enterprise. It is important to respect work system processes as it helps people become origi-nal when drawing out their in-nate abilities through respon-sibility. Every responsibility requires vigor or energy and that could be in form of inter-nal or external motivation. We all need energy, especially from words of encouragement known as verbal energy.

Energy, by the defi nition of physical science, is the abil-ity to work. Every entrepre-neur needs energy that comes from conviction, vigor, liveli-ness, motivation, support of team members to keep work-ing. Also, no physical system can change without introduc-ing the required energy into it. Actually, the crises on earth are energy-interest motivated. Ev-ery nation needs different form of energy to work and aims to become a developed nation.

“In 1979, United States President, Jimmy Carter, ad-dressed the nation to declare that the country was suffering from an energy crisis, as well as a deeper and more general cri-

sis of confi dence. Some of the most visible effects of the energy crisis in the United States were high gasoline prices and long wait to fi ll up at gas stations. Carter saw working to solve the energy crisis and decreas-ing the country’s dependence on imported oil as the fi rst step in uniting people behind a com-mon cause and renewing their faith in the nation.” Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009.

Consequently, the physical world or earth is a system and requires energy to be developed. Without energy, no nation can develop and evidently, every economy depends on energy to grow. All policy for job creation is only achievable when energy policy is favourable for busi-nesses. In the same thinkig, ev-ery entrepreneur require energy for successful business opera-tion. Either energy for her body or emotional energy should never be lacking among peo-ple working as business team. Without energy, business team members cannot create wealth. The biggest crisis in the world today is because of people des-perate desire to get energy. Our world is a system that can only sustain us by access to energy.

Since the creation of the earth, the most important fac-tor for both business and soci-ety system development is the energy. Energy is the ability to do your responsibility. Energy is the ability to move forward. Energy is the ability to exercise dominion. Energy is the ability

to get wealth. Energy is the abil-ity to lead effectively. Energy is the ability to destroy the resis-tance of enemy in battle. Ener-gy is the ability to win race. You need energy to work in your en-terprise system.

What is work? Work is who you become by the discovery, training and application of dormant ability in you. If you respond to your music talent-because you discovered it and sing, daily and over a period, you will become a musician. However, what you hear and see generate energy; and with-out energy, you cannot work. Verbal-energy is articulated words that stimulate your soul and body for your potential to keep stretching and creating more values. There are two fun-damental principles that guide

work. The principle one: without a

system you cannot work.Human being can only ex-

press his ability within an en-vironment called system. All effective and successful entre-preneur work within a system they created and in organised society. Without good system, potential is dormant, because it is within system that energy can be converted and conserved. Make sure your business op-eration dont waste workers en-ergy and efforts. Be organised by creating good system.

The principle two: Work is for the benefi t of people.

Every opportunity to work is an opportunity to increase in-fl uence, grow people potential for management, and exercise mastery over the system. One of the benefi ts is that people per-spective to life and leadership is shape at the work place. Work place provides opportunity for people to respond to their abili-ties. If people are not becoming better in your enterprise then perhaps they are not working or the leader is not working.

From the beginning of cre-ation of earth, the people have worked only in three different economic systems and have become three different types of business perspective people. I will quickly explain these.

The fi rst economic system was “agriculture dominant” business society.

In agriculture dominance age, land cultivation was the

fi rst recognised business that people engaged in and it was all about growing crops. This work of growing crops became a dom-inant culture and the language of man was all about grow-ing up. Today, we expect our businesses to grow just as the planted seeds grow. People who lived in the pre-industrial pe-riod became “growers” because of the prevalent work culture in the economic system.

The second economic sys-tem was “manufacturing domi-nant” business society.

Factory sprang up after the discovery of iron ore, coal, and crude oil in the earth core. The discoveries of natural energy and its productivity capac-ity motivated people to move from farm into factories and the prevalent culture of grow-ers subsided to the new culture of manufacturing. Many people became “makers” because a new system gave them the op-portunity to express abilities they never knew that existed within. “Made in China” or “Manufactured in China” is an expression of manufacturing dominant culture.

The third economic system is the present “initiative domi-nant” business society.

In this generation, every en-terprise system that leads and desire to lead in his product and service category have an expectation from every employ-ee and it is to take initiative. In the present economic system, you can develop enterprise by the quality of your thinking.

Today, people think more than previously mentioned people were in the last two eco-nomic systems. Microsoft, Or-acle, Apple, Facebook, Google, Samsung, Wal-Mart, Toyota are examples of business sys-tems that are relevant because of quality of thinkers involved in products and services devel-opment processes. Toyota says “Good thinking, Good product”. “As a man think, so is he, - Holy Bible.”

Dear entrepreneur, when you understand that in the present age energy, work and productive thinking are major drivers of global economic sys-tem, then it is easier to work and be relevant. This is when you truly work as an entrepre-neur. Cheer up, you will fulfi ll your dream because the poten-tial is in you.

Since the creation of the earth, the most important factor for both business and society system development is the energy. Energy is the ability to do your responsibility. Energy is the ability to move forward. Energy is the ability to exercise dominion. Energy is the ability to get wealth. Energy is the ability to lead effectively. Energy is the ability to destroy the resistance of enemy in battle


ThebuddingEntrepreneurs

Management Principles

Abdul-Ghaniyy Alabi-Ojolowo, is the Manag-ing Director of Resofam

Foods and the secretary of Commercial Agriculture Devel-opment Association CADA, La-gos State chapter, where he has been deservedly identifi ed as a lead farmer in the rice project. Given his success today anyone could be swayed into believing that he was born on the farm.

The reality is that Abdul-Ghaniyy is no different from most Nigerian youths who see little or no reason to embark on agriculture as a sustainable means of livelihood after formal education.

True to type, after gradua-tion he started out with a paid employment, which he quit af-ter a while when he discovered that his employer was only out to exploit his abilities without adequate compensation for his efforts.

With that sour experience he launched his entrepreneur-ial adventure, armed only with ideas of what kinds of business activities he wanted to engage himself in namely being a prod-uct distributor or a manufac-turer’s representative.

In the meantime before he could realise his dreams, he took up a teaching job in a pri-vate secondary school where he taught the students Further Mathematics and Economics, at the same time preparing himself to write the fi nal stage of the Institute of Chartered Accoun-tants of Nigeria ICAN Certifi cate test.

Fuelled by his passion for en-trepreneurship and his desire to be self employed, Abdul-Ghani-yy recounts that he made it a duty to visit every fair and ex-hibition that took place in Lagos even if he had no money to shop for items. “There is hardly a fair or exhibition that I don’t attend

The accountant – turned rice farmerWhen he decided to venture into farming, it was only natural that those around him should discourage him because he had neither the requisite training nor experience. Having graduated from the University of Ilorin as a trained accountant, Alabi-Ojolowo was bracing for the unknown when he took a leap of faith plunging himself completely into the world of agri-business that has today earned him so much recognition in agro entrepreneurship

except I did not hear or see the advertisement. I will strive to be there, because I believed it was a place to meet manufacturers since I had the desire to be a product distributor or manufac-turer’s representative.”, he said.

He also recalled that a ma-jor deterrent for him to getting a dealership from the manufac-turers was the requirement of capital and storage facilities. “I got discouraged when I discov-ered that these conditions ran into millions of naira and large warehouses.”

So he decided to start small by getting a shop after which he successfully secured a dealer-ship with a manufacturer that made rice fl our and yam fl our.

However he later discovered that frequent upward price ad-justments by the manufactur-ers which were usually without notice was creating problems for him with his customers who were unable to adapt to the price changes.

He was soon to be intro-duced into farming by a chance meeting with Mrs. Adeoye, the chairperson of rice farmers as-sociation Lagos state at one of such fairs where she was show-casing Nigeria’s local ‘ofada’ rice after making a purchase from her, he sought to be introduced to the growers because he felt there might just be a marketing opportunity in it.

Incidentally it was during that time in 2009 that former President Olusegun Obasnjo initiated the presidential initia-tive on rice production and ex-port to boost local rice produc-tion and after Abdul-Ghaniyy was privileged to see a copy of the document that was adopted by the initiative’s committee he started dreaming farming as a veritable platform to actualise his entrepreneurial ambition.

“It was that document that

gave me the theoretical idea in terms of the prospects in the rice value chain, but despite being armed with a sound theoretical background it was the practice on the job that has really deep-

Alabi-Ojolowo

The Secret to Selling Your Brand With One Sentence

You believe in the importance of your vision, but how do you get others to stop and listen to you? There will be many instances when you don’t have a lot of time to grab someone’s attention, be it a potential investor or a licensee. That’s why you need to be

able to summarize the benefi t of your business idea in a single, powerful sentence - a sen-tence that is so direct and compelling; it stops whoever reads or hears it dead in their tracks. A good one-line benefi t statement should make someone think: “I want to know more about that.”

On the day the iPod launched, Steve Jobs called it “a thousand songs in your pocket.” Wow. That’s captivating. He didn’t have to explain any further. We wanted it already!

People don’t care about how something works. They want to know what it’s going to do for them.

Newspapers, tabloids, and these days, Twitter has been making use of the headline for years. How often do you fi nd yourself on a webpage you never intended to visit, all because a headline was so tempting, you had to click on it? Creating excellent one-line benefi t state-ments isn’t an easy skill, but it’s an important one, because it can be used to explain your idea in so many different kinds of situations in an attractive, successful way.

Sometimes, you only get one chance to make an impression. Cut through the clutter to

ened my wealth of expertise in the fi eld besides exposing me to making contact with major stakeholders who have impact-ed my venture into agribusiness so far,” he said.

Initially he was only inter-ested in being involved at the value chain level as either a processor or marketer, but Mrs. Adeoye impressed it on him to be a producer and after giving it


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ThebuddingEntrepreneursPersonal Finance

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Ways of making your business grow

Everyone wants their business to succeed. You want your business to be around next year and the following year, don’t you? The

question is, how many customers do you need to be successful and, more importantly, sustainable?

Here are four tips for preparing your business for growth.

1. Treat your business like a restaurant.Do you have enough capacity to accommo-

date an increase in your customer base? Before you decide to acquire more customers determine whether that strategy is realistic. Take inventory of whether your production and assembly facil-ity can handle an increase of even 10 percent more customers. Everyone dreams of their busi-ness being wildly successful. The reality of growth without preparation is like giving a party where everyone shows up -- at the same time. Can you feasiblly and successfully serve everyone?

2. Build your growth strategy around a loyal and retained customer base.

If you are constantly replacing customers you lose, that’s no growth strategy at all. A loyal and retained customer base is comprised of your ear-ly-adopters and continuous ambassadors. These folks become the fulcrum for leveraging improve-ments, new product introductions, enhanced and expanded services and referral business. They are gold. Identify who they are early on and make them the focus of your attention over the long haul.

3. Acknowledge customer growth angst.Your early customers can become anxious

as your business grows. Some early adopters will perceive that you have become “too big and famous” to meet their ongoing needs. Create a strategy for maintaining contact with and reas-suring your fi rst customers that your success is founded on their belief in you. Realistically, your growth strategy should include how to transi-tion smaller accounts to other companies better able to meet their needs. Some original custom-ers won’t want to increase their job size to meet your need for a customer base seeking increased capacity and complexity -- especially in the case of manufacturers.

4. Differentiate yourself and your business via continuous customer touches.

Build your business on the basis of customer experience: The sum total of what each customer experiences when working with you and your company over the lifetime of your relationship. Think about it like a restaurant: You won’t main-tain a loyal customer base if you are running around your overcrowded restaurant trying to serve new customers while your original custom-ers wait outside in the rain. If you need to make changes, be transparent. Communicate with your customers and prepare them for changes you are making. It’s better to offer to transition them to other suppliers (in advance) than to disappoint them with your lack of attention and have them voice their feelings to the community

some thought he went to the farms just to observe how rice was grown he was convinced that he could do it and so he took the bold step starting with two hectares of land which has more than doubled fi ve times today to a minimum of 10 hectares barely fi ve years after he started.

He points out that he has only been able to achieve the feat be-cause of his quick adaptation to mechanisation and the opportu-nity to have access to modern farm machineries and processing fa-cilities provided by the Lagos state government under its rice for job initiative.

According to him, “the inter-vention of the project encouraged me to expand my farmland be-cause no farmer in his/her right mind will ever plant on more than two hectares of land with the old manual method of production pro-cess right from the stress of land preparation to planting, weeding, application of fertilizers and insec-ticides etc all the way to manual

harvesting method not to think of threshing. But with the project intervention,” he said.

He did not take a loan to start according to him, he managed with the little that he had but he got a lot of support from the local farmers that helped him through the early stages.

Today he not only produces but has extended his entrepre-neurship to processing and mar-keting and he has a very good business reason for doing that.

“When I was only producing, I noticed that people came to buy off our harvests at a very cheap and ridiculous price because we had no facility for storage. So I sat down to see how we can be adding value to our crops so that we can also attract premium,” he said.

That was how he decided to start processing and storage of his harvest and later on pack-aging them to supply to eater-ies directly instead of waiting for people to come to the farm gate to

buy at ridiculous prices.At the end of every harvest sea-

son he gets about three tonnes of improved variety and 2.5 tonnes of the local variety per hectare.

He humbly attributes his suc-cess today to his wife who was pa-tient with him and supportive over his decision to quit a paid job for entrepreneurship; those who were willing to teach him what he did not know about rice farming; fed-eral and Lagos state government Agriculture ministry offi cials and CADP offi cials who helped him in no small measure in obtaining necessary training, farm input, in-terest free grants and capacity en-hancement both here and abroad.

“The cluster of farmers around Itoikin, Ise, Igbogun have been doing our businesses under an umbrella of an association called Resofam with more than 200 members dealing with rice produc-tion, processing and marketing, but when CADP came up, those of us in the same interest line came together as a group and formed a Commodity Interest Group (CIG) under the project; each CIG with 10 members consisting of eight males and two females,” he said.

He pointed out that before the intervention; the highest yield re-corded was 950kg representing 23.7 per cent of target per hectare which when packaged does not give up to 10 bags of paddy rice.

“But now with the intervention, we are proud of harvesting 2.5 tonnes representing 62 per cent of target per hectares which is three times what we used to produce before the intervention and when bagged gives us nothing less than 50 bags per hectares. So the in-tervention has been a great bless-ing to farmers generally we have benefi tted a tractor; Gas gun to scare birds away ; a combine har-vester besides inputs like fertilis-ers, seeds, herbicides and insecti-cides,” he said.

He aspires to increase produc-tion capacity by four tonnes which is 100 percent at the end of each year and a better irrigation man-agement practice as they currently have no irrigation facilities that could aid in all season planting rather than waiting on rain fall be-fore planting.

Today in a country where many youths especially gradu-ates are seeking for what to do Abdul-Ghaniyy sees himself as a contented successful employment provider who has in his own little way helped to create means of live-lihoods for himself, his family and few other Nigerians.

“Defi nitely some people have to do the ‘paid offi ce job’ too, if not, who do we employ; but my addi-tional view is that we all cannot get paid offi ce jobs, hence the need for those of us left behind to be looking in the direction of wealth creation while the government at all levels should help to build the necessary infrastructures for such ideas to easily fl y,” he said.

Rice farm

make it count! Here three ways to create an awesome one-line benefi t statement:

1. Make it emotional.Why should people care about what you have to say? Grab

them with something they can relate to. Benefi ts sell ideas, not facts. What is your idea going to do for the consumer or the world? Don’t be afraid to use emotion. People are motivated by their emotions more often than they are motivated by reason. Emotion also evokes visual imagery - if people can begin to see your idea, that’s a good thing. Some emotional words include:

“free”, “incredible” and “unbelievable.”

2. Keep it shortLike - really short. I’m talking no more than 10 to 12 words,

ideally less. Remember, you don’t have much time. If your state-ment is too long, people may move on before they’ve even fi n-ished reading or hearing it. Don’t be intimidated by using fewer words. This is a really good exercise in general. Too often, I ask an inventor or entrepreneur to tell me about his or her idea and I’m overwhelmed with a fi ve-minute speech. “What is he talking about again?” I fi nd myself thinking. I’m not even sure. Brevity forces clarity.

3. Use numbersNumbers convey specifi city. Look around you. Headlines with

numbers dominate our world. One has only to look at Buzzfeed to understand the power of numbers. BC


Behind d WheelsThis page is open to sponsorship


The Mercedes-Benz F 015 is not a typical con-cept car, some lightly

disguised version of next year’s sedan complete with zippy entertainment electron-ics and snappy taillights. In-stead, this Mercedes is a leap into the future, a car so dif-ferent and provocative that it leaves you feeling woozy, as if you had taken a ride in Doc Brown’s time-traveling DeLo-rean DMC-12.

It has to be admitted that trundling around a deserted aircraft runway in the Mer-cedes-Benz F 015 is not ex-actly a futuristic experience. Even so, it did help to un-derstand that this concept car introduced at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show is about more than just the latest technology for autono-mous driving.

Instead, it is a demonstra-tion of what the future will feel like and why autonomous driving will seem like a very good idea in 2030, no matter what you might think about it now.

Shaping the futureAt the 2011 Tokyo auto

show, a group of future-ori-ented designers came together at the request of Holger Hut-zenlaub, the leader of Mer-cedes-Benz Advanced Design in Sindelfi ngen, not far from the headquarters of Mercedes in Stuttgart, Germany.

As Hutzenlaub explained, he was looking for more than just the usual thinking about new cars. Instead, he wanted to understand the cultural trends of our time and then bring them together into a car that could take Mercedes into the future.

The result is more like a carriage than a rocket ship. Passengers “inhabit” the Mer-cedes-Benz F 015 rather than drive it, and the interior has the visual cues and physical features of a mobile offi ce rather than the usual jet-fi ghter cockpit. The message here is com-fort and well-being, not excitement and motion. Indeed the vehicle is focused in-ward, even as it com-municates with the out-side world with an array of

sophisticated electronics. It looks like an electronic prod-uct, and its license plate even carries a QR code.

When Hutzenlaub present-ed the proposal to build the F 015 concept car to the Mer-cedes board of management, it was part of a complete re-port, “The City of the Future 2030+.”

He recalls that the whole board unexpectedly seemed to respond to his plan with a sigh of relief. He says, “It was like they were pleased to know that there were people at Mercedes who were think-ing about the future of the company.”

The world will be spinning faster

It should be no surprise that Mercedes believes that the world will be spinning faster in 2030 as life becomes more crowded and complex, yet the scenario is far from the dysto-

pian vision you might expect. It’s true that urban centers will grow, but Eric Larsen of Mercedes-Benz R&D in Sunnyvale, California, points out that a baby boom looms ahead as the millennial gen-eration matures. In the U.S., this generation will turn to America’s large areas of sub-urban space to raise their families. And in the world of 2030 just as in the world of 1955, the automobile is the key instrument that makes the suburb possible.

Not that the world of 2030 will look familiar. Alexander Mankowsky, the Mercedes specialist in future studies, says that the limited spaces and bustling crowds of the future will make it foolish to continue the use of a forest of traffi c signs to maintain a strict separation of cars and p e o p l e .

Instead, he says, cars must learn to coexist with humans in shared spaces, not only recognizing humans but also communicating with them. And in these circumstances, a car’s ability to deliver autono-mous driving will be crucial.

Motoring into the futurePeter Lehmann, who leads

the 100 people at Mercedes Advanced Design in Sindelfi n-gen that engineer and craft prototype cars, cheerfully in-vites media men into the F 015. At the push of a button, the four doors swing outward by 90 degrees, and then four seats swivel outward to make it easier to cross the wide doorsill. The car is about the size of a Mercedes S-Class, although its long 142.1-inch wheelbase and 26-inch

wheels make

it look much larger. The plat-form carries its fuel cell up front, while the carbon-fi ber tanks of hydrogen are hid-den beneath the fl oor. The twin electric motors and the battery are in the rear. The lightweight body is built from steel, aluminum and carbon fi ber.

Lehman motors the Mer-cedes-Benz F 015 around with a futuristic steering wheel, and the various con-trols on the instrument panel in front of him are meant to be operated with gestures. Then he engages automated mode so the car will follow a pro-grammed loop around the va-cant runway here on the site of the former Naval Air Station Alameda, and he swivels his seat around so we’re all facing one another as if we were in a kind of booth at a very futur-istic bar.

The windows of the cabin present a

view of our s u r -

d theno a car es into

like a t ship. e Mer-r than or has hysical fi cel

t-y of

It should be no surprise that Mercedes believes that the world will be spinning faster in 2030 as life becomes more crowded and complex,yet the scenario isfar from the dysto-

continue the use of a forestof traffi c signs to maintain a strict separation of cars andp e o p l e .

although its long 142.1-inch wheelbase and 26-inch

wheels make

seat around so we’re all facing one another as if we were in a kind of booth at a very futur-istic bar.

The windows of the cabin present a

view of our s u r -


Autocare

To be continued next weekBC

BC

Behind d WheelsThis page is open to sponsorship

roundings, only at a very sub-dued intensity. Meanwhile the door panels incorporate elec-tronic screens that display an interface to control telephone and computer communica-tion, some basic vehicle func-tions and even screen-saver graphics.

As Lehman points out, the great luxury in the future will be free time. And when your vehicle might be caught up in traffi c during a trip, it will be a great luxury to devote your-self to work, entertainment or relaxation, and leave the car to its own devices. An autono-mous vehicle like the Mer-cedes-Benz F 015 will get you to your destination thanks to a programmed route, an ar-ray of sensors, an ability to communicate with pedestri-ans and other vehicles with a system of external LED lights front and rear, and an incred-ibly powerful and fast-acting on-board computer.

The technology for autono-mous driving is already here

The Mercedes-Benz F 015 is actually more like a roll-ing proof of concept than a research vehicle for autono-mous driving, and it rumbles around like a science experi-ment instead of a car. Now, it

is not actually much of an au-tonomous car, although test-ing continues on a dedicated research platform at a facility in Northern California dedi-cated to this purpose by the state government. Of course, the surprise is the fact that almost all the technology for the autonomous driving car is already on the road.

In August 2013, a pre-production Mercedes S-Class autonomously drove the same 100-km route from Mannheim to Pforzheim taken by Bertha Benz in 1888 when she car-jacked her husband’s three-wheeled science project with-out his knowledge and took their kids to see her mother. And now the Mercedes-Benz S550 you can buy incorpo-rates precisely the array of ra-dar- and optic-controlled sen-sors and systems required for fully autonomous driving.

Of course, it is presently understandable that these systems as slightly prosaic features that give us adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, emergency brak-ing, front-and-rear collision avoidance (both with cars and pedestrians), blind-spot warning and collision avoid-ance, and even active parking assistance. At the moment,

Mercedes-Benz is also work-ing on “Highway Pilot,” which allows automated driving at higher speed.

The real leap into the fu-ture of autonomous driving will come only when the vehi-cle can recognize and respond to pedestrians in a compact environment, and this will take some serious computing power, not to mention sophis-ticated algorithms. In effect, Mercedes must teach the au-tomobile to speak the same language as humans, and this will not be a simple process.

Driving into the futureThe Mercedes-Benz F 015

is about the future, not just autonomous driving. It sees a time when humans and au-tomobiles must share space, and this will call for new thinking when it comes to personal mobility. As it turns out, autonomous driving seems like the right response, since it leads the way to inter-action between humans and automobiles that is safe, ef-fi cient, and even potentially rewarding in terms of taking road rage out of the driving equation.

The key here is an intel-ligent partnership between driver and car, which is some-thing that driving enthusi-asts can understand. In the world that Mercedes-Benz envisions, there will be times and places when you let the car take care of its occupants, just as there is now.

Other times and places, you will determine the car’s speed and direction, just as you do now. As long as the partnership between man and machine remains natural and enjoyable, Mercedes believes there will be little to fear from the forthcoming mobility revo-lution.

Ways to proactively protect your engine (1)Majority of the time, most of us don’t spend a lot of

time thinking about our engines. We hop into the car, turn the key and head out to wherever we’re go-

ing. When we do notice the engine, however, it’s usually when we hear it making sounds we’re not accustomed to hearing or when the car feels a little different than it did before.

Engines need to be looked after. They need a check-up ev-ery now and then, and they also require some regular main-tenance to keep them in good running condition. To help you take proper care of your engine and to keep it from creating serious problems, we’ve put together this list of 10 ways to proactively protect your engine.

For your engine to run better, last longer and keep you from shelling out more cash later on down the road, here are top suggestions you must follow:

1. Change the oil regu-larly

Changing the oil regularly is one of the most important things you can do for your engine. If don’t read any of the other ways to protect your engine (but we really hope you do) make sure to do this one. Oil keeps vital engine parts well lubricated so that they won’t overheat. Your engine can’t function without it and if you go too long between oil changes it can cause permanent damage to your engine over time.

Suggestions for when you should change your oil will vary, but the most recent standard for modern cars is to change the oil every 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers) [source: Cars.com]. Some engines can go longer while some older engines may need it sooner than that. Since we’re talking about pro-actively protecting your engine, make sure to look up what your car’s manufacturer suggests for your specifi c vehicle’s oil change interval. If you can’t fi nd your car’s manual, do a quick search online to fi nd out when it should be changed.

We can’t mention changing the oil without also stressing that the oil fi lter needs to be replaced at the same time. The oil fi lter catches all the dirt and debris fl oating around inside of your engine and keeps the junk from circulating back through engine. With a new fi lter and new oil, your engine will run smoothly, and most importantly, it’ll keep all the internal parts of the engine cool and well lubricated.

2. Keep the cooling system workingIn addition to changing the oil, there’s another part of

keeping the engine cool that you can’t overlook -- the cooling system itself. The cooling system includes the radiator, ther-mostat, water pump and coolant. The easiest way to protect your engine from overheating is by making sure you have the proper amount of coolant (radiator fl uid) circulating through-out your engine.

The coolant circulates through your engine when the ther-mostat determines that the engine is getting hot and needs to be cooled down. The water pump then pulls coolant from the radiator, sends it into the engine block and then back out to the radiator to be cooled back down. To check the coolant level, lift the hood and look at your coolant tank. It’s a clear tank with a green or orange colored liquid in it. Make sure the coolant is above the minimum mark but below the maximum mark.

If you notice that your car is overheat-ing and you know that there’s enough coolant, take your car to a me-chanic and have them run a cooling system check. The cost to fi nd and replace a problem with the cooling system ahead of time will far outweigh the damage done to your engine if it ever overheats.


BC

REGULATORS

BC

BC

By Francis Ezem

The Nigerian Ports Author-ity has said that the 13 per cent growth recorded

in the volume of cargo imported into the country is attributable to the current efforts of the au-thority at improving infrastruc-ture, which made the ports use-friendly and thus increased patronage.

Report of port activities for the fi scal year ended Decem-ber 2014 shows that the cargo throughput stood at a total of total of 86.6 million metric tonnes of cargo were handled at the nation’s various seaports, showing an increase of 12.6 per cent when compared with the 76.9 million metric tonnes recorded in the comparative pe-riod of 2013.

The cargo throughput repre-sents the total volume of cargo comprising both inward and outward handled in all the port locations during the period un-der review, excluding crude oil terminals.

Details of the report shows that Laden container through-put stood 1.1 million Twenty Equivalent Units ,TEUs, repre-

senting a growth rate of 5.2 per-cent when compared with the 1.0 million TEUs recorded in the comparative period of 2013.

Meanwhile, the general cargo trade segment also recorded a strong growth pattern, as a total of 14.5 million metric tonnes of cargo were imported in the review period, which represents an increase of 21.2 percent compared with the 11.9 million metric tonnes recorded in the comparative period of 2013.

Further details show that dry bulk cargo stood at 9. 9 million metric tonnes as against the 9.5 million recorded in the previous year, shows an increase of 3.2

percent. over 9,537,442 metric tons achieved in 2013.

Empty container throughput stood at 790,586 TEUs, show-ing an increase of 10.3 percent over the 717,011 TEUs recorded in 2013.

Also, 20.7 million metric tonnes of refi ned petroleum products were imported in the year under review as against the 19.4 million metric tonnes achieved in the previous year, representing an increase of 6.8 per cent

Managing Director of the NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi, who commented on the port performance, attributed it to im-proved infrastructure.

According to him, the cur-rent management has taken defi nite steps towards improv-ing the port infrastructure, which is the bedrock of any ef-fi cient port system.

“The management would continued to pay attention to fi rst and foremost, improving existing port infrastructure in the areas of rehabilitation of port quay walls and aprons, deepening of the channels, up-grading of common user facili-ties and wreck removal from the

nation’s water channels”He argued that the resul-

tant effect of this is that big-ger vessels such as West Africa ,WAFMAX, with a length overall 232.33 meters and capacity of 4,500 TEUS requiring draught of 13.5 meters would continue to visit the Nigerian seaports due to consistent dredging cam-paign undertaken by the au-thority.

On the substantial growth of the container throughput, the NPA-boss noted that the 10.3 percent growth shows that Nige-ria remains a signifi cant hub of containerised goods in the West and Central African sub-region.

The Federal Government had in the course of the port reform programme, which brought pri-vate terminal operators stripped NPA of its cargo handling func-tions, which are now performed by the terminal operators.

In exchange, the authority was vested with technical regu-lation functions as well as har-bor-related duties such as pilot-age services, wreck removal and general channel management, which it also outsourced to pri-vate fi rms to enhance effi ciency.

Meanwhile efforts of the

Federal Government at increas-ing export products other than crude oil is currently yield-ing the desired results, as the Liquefi ed Natural Gas Limited NLNG, recorded a total of 21.7 million metric tonnes.

The NLNG is joint venture partnership between the Nige-rian government as represented by the Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation NNPC, Shell, Total Nigeria Limited and Eni International.

A total of 21.7 million met-ric tonnes of gas was exported within the year, which repre-sents 12.1 percent when com-pared with the 19.3 million metric tonnes recorded in the comparative period of 2013.

This increase has been at-tributed to the fact that the NLNG has maintained its repu-tation as a reliable and secure supplier of LNG .

Other export records also show that that the nation’s crude oil shipments within the period also recorded a marginal growth rate of 0.2 percent from the 107.7 million metric tonnes recorded in 2013 to the 107.9 million metric tonnes recorded in 2014.

Nigeria’s import cargo volume grows 7% on improved infrastructure

Abdullahi

Many Ministries, De-partments and Agen-cies, MDAS, have

complained of their inability to access funds from their op-erational accounts domiciled in First Bank PLC.

News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, learnt in Abuja on Friday that some of the MDAs could not carry out their businesses because no money was left in the accounts.

An employee of First Bank, who spoke to NAN on condition of anonymity, said the Central Bank of Nigeria cleared the ac-counts by removing monies in them.

But Alhaji Ibrahim Mu’azu, the CBN Director of Communi-cation, said that the MDAs were

making false allegations. He said that apart from the

reserve, the apex bank would not mop up MDAs accounts for any reason.

“I know that what we are try-ing to follow now is the new gov-ernment policy on Treasury Sin-gle Account, TSA, which gears towards ensuring the safety of all government revenue.

“All monies that belong to government under this policy will be easily accessed by gov-ernment,’’ he said.

However, another reliable source from the apex bank said that MDAs would from April ac-cess their operational accounts through CBN.

“From April 1, all operational accounts of MDAs will be ac-cessed through the CBN; right now most of the MDAs may not be able to access their funds be-cause we have started the pro-cess.

“This is part of the e-banking scheme introduced to help man-agement of government reve-nues, so henceforth, no Deposit Money Bank ,DMB, will house operational accounts of the MDAs,’’ he said

According to him, most MDAs are aware of the situation and the process.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has said that most resi-

dential customers would not enjoy the benefi ts of the recent cut in electricity tariff.

According to the commis-sion, most residential electric-ity consumers in the R1 and R2 categories did not experience any increase in tariff when elec-tricity rates were hiked on Jan-uary 1, 2015.

It said the increase on the fi rst day of the year only affect-ed industrial, commercial and high-end residential consum-ers, stressing that most people in the R1 and R2 categories would begin to pay increased tariffs from July 1, 2015.

The Chairman, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, made this known at a meeting with members of the Electricity Consumer Asso-ciation of Nigeria.

“Majority of the residential

customers in the R2 and R1 categories did not experience the January 1, 2015 increase in tariff. They will not also see any reversal or reduction in tariff as the industrial, commercial and high-end residential consumers whose tariff were increased.

“It was a reduction based on the impact collection loss had on the tariff,” he said.

NERC had two weeks ago announced the reduction in tar-iff by 50 per cent following what it called “bombardment of com-plaints” from customers who decried the increase that was announced earlier this year.

The NERC boss stated that the tariff reduction for the in-dustrial, commercial and high-end residential electricity cus-tomers ,R3 consumers, would become effective from this month.

“We have always tried to lis-ten to complaints from consum-ers and operators alike and we carry out tariff reviews when necessary. We are a responsive and accountable regulator,” he said.

According to Amadi, the re-duction in tariff was a decision reached in line with the com-mission’s business rules after consideration was given to pro-

MDAs bemoan mopping up of operational accounts by CBN

Godwin Emefi ele, CBN Governor

Electricity tariff cut not for residential consumers – NERC

tests from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria on the im-plication of the January 1, 2015 increase on their businesses.

He stressed that NERC took the action because it saw that there was merit in the argument put forward by MAN that the in-crease would impact their busi-nesses.

The President, ECAN, Mr. Chijioke James, said the group was at the commission to en-dorse the recent tariff reduction for some classes of electricity consumers.

“We have been very critical of NERC to see that consumers enjoy power supply, but it will be bad to see that a government agency has done something right and we fail to commend it openly,” he said.

James observed that ECAN needed the support of agencies like NERC and the Consumer Protection Council, among oth-ers, to enlighten consumers on the dangers of patronising sell-ers of fake electrical equipment as well as the need to imbibe en-ergy conservation practices.

He stated that consumers expected improvement in re-sponse rate to complaints from service providers like the elec-tricity distribution companies.

Amadi

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, March 30, 2015 A21 37

Stock Updates

GAINERS

COMPANY OPENING PRICE CLOSING PRICE CHANGE

DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 2.90 3.70 27.59

CHAMPION BREWERIES PLC 5.16 6.39 23.84

FORTE OIL PLC 190.05 224.89 18.33

FIDELITY BANK PLC 1.29 1.50 16.28

UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC 33.99 39.35 15.77

ZENITH INTL BANK PLC 16.49 18.90 14.61

TRANS NATIONWIDE EXP PLC 0.97 1.11 14.43

FBN HOLDINGS PLC 7.70 8.80 14.29

PFIZER PRODUCTS PLC 0.64 0.73 14.06

TOTALFINAELF NIGERIA PLC 140.00 158.74 13.39

LOSERS

COMPANY OPENING PRICE CLOSING PRICE CHANGE

UBA CAPITAL PLC 1.65 1.29 -21.82

UAC OF NIGERIA PLC 36.00 32.05 -10.97

STERLING BANK PLC 2.29 2.10 -8.30

CEMENT CO OF NORT NIG PLC 11.80 10.99 -6.86

CAP PLC 36.29 34.00 -6.31

VAN LEER CONT (NIG.) PLC 12.08 11.48 -4.97

CADBURY NIGERIA PLC 41.28 39.23 -4.97

RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 3.94 3.75 -4.82

PRESCO PLC 27.78 26.47 -4.72

COSTAIN (WEST AFRICA) PLC 0.64 0.61 -4.69

Treasury Bills

Maturity date Bid Offer

25-Jun-15 14.40 14.94

24-Sep-15 14.67 15.83

17-Mar-16 13.62 15.71

Primary Market Auction

TENOR AMOUNT (N’mn) RATE (%) DATE

91-Day 21538.34 9.95 7-Mar-15

182-Day 33783.25 10.1 14-Mar-15

364-Day 59081.14 10.35 14-Mar-15

Market Indicators for Week Ended 27-03-15All-Share Index 29,243.91 Basis PointsMarket Capitalization 10,327,088,265,975.08

Business CourageCourage

BC

BC

A turnover of 2.509 billion shares worth N24.115 billion in 19,971 deals

were traded last week by in-vestors on the fl oor of The Ex-change in contrast to a total of 1.382 billion shares valued at N12.053b billion that ex-changed hands last week in 16,877 deals.

The Financial Services In-dustry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 2.198 billion shares valued at N14.144 billion traded in 12,589 deals; thus contributing 87.60 per cent and 58.65 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Indus-try followed with a turnover of 161.705 million shares worth N1.095 billion in 1,223 deals. The third place was occupied by the Consumer Goods Indus-try with 67.492 million shares worth N7.157 billion in 2,516

deals.Trading in the Top Three Eq-

uities namely- United Bank for Africa Plc, Mansard Insurance Plc and FBN Holdings Plc (mea-sured by volume) accounted for 1.223 billion shares worth N5.403 billion in 4,715 deals, contributing 48.76 per cent and 22.40 per cent to the total eq-uity turnover volume and value respectively.

ETPsAlso traded during the week

were a total of 572,478 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N8.255 mil-lion executed in 22 deals com-pared with a total of 105,162 units valued at N1.504 million transacted previous week in 20 deals.

INDEX MOVEMENTThe NSE All-Share Index

and Market Capitalization ap-

preciated by 4.19 per cent and 5.41 per cent respectively to close on Friday at 30,562.93 and N10.319 trillion. Similarly, all Indices fi nished higher dur-ing the week.

RETAIL BONDSA total of 210 units of FGN

Bonds valued at N221,637.88 were traded in three deals this week. There was no trade re-corded on bonds last week.

SUMMARY OF PRICE CHANGES

Fifty equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than 11 equities of the preced-ing week. Twenty-one equities depreciated in price, lower than 53 equities of the preceding week, while 125 equities re-mained unchanged, lower than 132 equities recorded in the preceding week.

Stock market last week

Online threats in Africa including Nigeria are be-coming similar to those

in the rest of the world accord-ing to experts from Kaspersky Lab.

The great adoption of the in-ternet across the continent is a breeding ground for targeted at-tack and general infections.

“Cyber criminals now don’t care about the industry and the country where they are target-ing,” Kirill Kertsenbaum, head of presales management said.

According to their statistics the majority of infections in Ke-nya are caused locally, mean-ing that the use of USB sticks between computers continues to perpetuate virus infection across the country.

“Last year for Africa we see that the rate of infection is pret-ty much the same with the rates in Asia,” said Kertsenbaum, adding that this was based on similar uptake of technology in the two continents.

Kertsenbaum continued say-ing that in Kenya, in February, the Company saw 55,000 of their customers infected with one malware or another.

He said that almost 18 per-cent of their users are infected with malware. Web threats ac-count for an infection rate of 10 percent, while network attacks are responsible for just two per-cent of their infected customers.

Kertsenbaum said that there is not much information on the ground on how people can pro-

tect themselves from infection.Kaspersky Lab wants to in-

troduce corporate training in Africa to sensitise businesses and government to the growth of internet threats.

Mikhail Nagorny, head of business development, Security Intelligence Services at Kasper-sky Lab said that education is the greatest tool in fi ghting se-curity, but this is lacking in emerging markets.

“One of my jobs is to conduct education in creating awareness of the threats and also conduct professional training,” Nagorny said.

This, he said, would help organisations be sensitive to potential loopholes in their se-curity.

Internet growth opens Nigeria to security threats


BC


Guaranty Trust Bank performance for the fi nancial year end-

ed December 31, 2014 was boosted by non-interest in-come, despite the declining oil prices and the naira devalu-ation which have affected the profi t margins of many lend-ers. The bank thrives through the year 2014 having enjoyed investors’ better price ap-proval and trend as high as N31.60 by the seven month of the year.

Profi tability The bank’s profi t after tax

rose 10 per cent year-on-year, from N90.024bn in 2013 to N98.695bn in 2014. Also, its basic earnings per share and fully diluted earnings per share appreciated 10 per cent to N3.47 in the review period from N3.17 in 2013.

Analysis of the bank’s stock between 2010 and 2014 showed an improvement in share price from the 2010 opening price of N15.50 to low of N12.30 in 2011 as at Oc-tober 7, and then all high of N31.80 in June 2014 but now trading N22.90 after adjust-ment for the fi nal dividend of N1.50 for the fi nancial year ended Dec. 31, 2014.

Its earnings per share for the period was up as a result of great cost and risk manage-ment of the bank regardless of increase in its non-performing loan. The earnings power grew from N1.63 in 2010 to N3.35 in 2014 representing an in-crease of 106 per cent.

The bank latest earnings revealed better performance than the past considering 2014 challenges experienced by the banking industry. The bank profi t margin has been sliding down to refl ect opera-tional cost increment as the bank managed increasing customers’ base and control cost to create value for its cus-tomers and shareholders with improved innovative banking products.

The bank seems to have led the industry unchallenged by any other bank except Ze-nith Bank .Critically, looking at the bank’s performance for the last fi ve years showed that the bank has consistently en-

hanced its performance as re-fl ected in its profi tability ratio within the review period. Its gross income during the pe-riod grew by 81.06 per cent from N153.9bn in 2010 to N278.7bn.

The profi tability level has steadily grown to support share price placing the bank among the top three banks in terms of profi tability, as-set, margin, service delivery and risk management in the industry today. Under the pe-riod of fi ve years, the risk and cost management of the bank had improved tremendously as shown in its profi t margin that moved from 24.91 per cent in 2010 to 35.44 per cent after it had hit 38.21 per cent in 2012.

In the year under review, the bank gave out more loans with loans and advances hit-ting N1.281tn, up by 27 per cent from the N1.008tn it gave out the previous year.

The total dividend of N51.504bn for the 2014 fi -nancial year was, however, 2.94 per cent higher than the N50.033bn it paid in the pre-ceding year.

Prospect in the bankThe expected relative stable

macroeconomic outlook after election may favour the bank as volume of transactions has increased with the cashless economy due to its IT driven banking products. Its recent International Finance Cor-poration loan to boost lend-ing to its tilling customer as its retail banking service has complemented other bank-

ing products and service mix to enhanced profi tability and drive share price.

The bank ranking among top 500 banks in the world is a plus, and customer’s choice due to its professionalism and prompt customer service de-livery had made the bank the choice of the banking public. Also,

Its strong alliances with in-ternational fi nancial institu-tions as an international bank with branches in many coun-tries of the world, good knowl-edge and expertise of domes-tic markets would boost the bank’s future operations.

Business Strategy Its brand name and good

succession plan of the bank assures continuity and the recent re-introduction of ATM transaction fee of N65 are fac-tors that will make the bank thick.

Other positive factors are robust risk management framework, increased oppor-tunities in retail banking and infrastructure fi nancing, good track record, good corporate social responsibility initiative and huge fi nancing opportu-nities in the country especial-ly in the power sector, infra-structure and agriculture.

Weaknesses and threatsOver regulation of the in-

dustry will be the major threat the bank would confront go-ing forward.

Also, high operational cost due to infrastructure chal-lenge and high investment

in products and services to satisfy its sophisticated cus-tomers would be another fac-tor the bank would contend with. Other factors that will put pressure on the bank’s profi tability are policy incon-sistency, regular increase in cash requirement ratio of the public, private funds, high MPR, tight liquidity, falling naira value, dwindling crude oil price which is affecting the external reserve and the ex-change rate.

BackgroundGuaranty Trust Bank is a

foremost Nigerian fi nancial institution with vast business outlays spanning Anglophone West Africa and the United Kingdom. It was incorporated as a limited liability company licensed to provide commer-cial and other banking ser-vices to the Nigerian public in 1990. It commenced opera-

tions in February 1991 and undertook its second share offering in 2004 and success-fully gathered over N11 billion from Nigerian Investors to ex-pand its operations.

The bank made a strategic decision to actively pursue re-tail banking and it embarked on a major rebranding ex-ercise in June 2005, which saw the bank emerge with improved service offerings, an aggressive expansion strategy and its vibrant orange iden-tity.

The bank remained tall through all regulations that put the banking sector at its current position in Nigeria. The bank is listed on the Lon-don and Nigerian Stock Ex-change.

Analysts opinion FBN Capital Research not-

ed that the bank’s profi t and the dividend beat its estimate.

It said, “On a full year basis, GT Bank’s PBT of N116.4bn came in ahead of manage-ment’s full year guidance of N110bn. The PBT also came in ahead of consensus full year PBT forecast of N109bn.

“We believe that GT Bank will fare better than most banks and should be viewed as a core holding for investors through the challenging times ahead.

“However, we also ac-knowledge that growth, par-ticularly for risk assets, is bound to slow down in 2015. GT Bank’s exposure to the oil and gas sector at over 20 per cent of its loan book is a slight concern also.”

Guaranty Trust Bank: Delivering value to long term investors

Segun Agbaje, MD, GTB

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, March 30, 2015 A23 39

STOCKWATCH

AGRICULTURE/AGRO-ALLIED Crop Production FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 0.50 9,140 0.64 0.50 2,200,000,000 0.10 N/A 0.50OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 28.42 261,540 107.81 20.92 476,955,000 2.29 -0.28 28.50PRESCO PLC 26.47 107,996 41.14 8.24 1,000,000,000 7.55 -4.72 27.78Fishing/Hunting/Trapping ELLAH LAKES PLC. 4.26 70 4.26 4.26 60,000,000 0.00 N/A 4.26Livestock/Animal Specialties LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 2.19 1,249,104 7.18 0.68 1,199,549,736 0.07 8.42 2.02CONGLOMERATES Diversifi ed Industries A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 1.24 100,150 2.08 0.71 2,191,895,983 0.11 0.00 1.24CHELLARAMS PLC. 3.95 300 6.43 4.15 963,900,300 0.16 N/A 3.95JOHN HOLT PLC. 0.94 17,558 5.89 1.07 389,151,408 1.09 N/A 0.96SCOA NIG PLC 4.44 512 4.44TRANSNATIONAL CORP. OF NIG.PLC 3.00 6,693,406 5.89 0.50 821,666,666 0.09 N/A 2.67U A C N PLC. 32.05 2,658,148 71.10 28.00 1,600,720,323 4.38 N/A 36.00CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Building Construction ARBICO PLC. 5.30 375 26.00 5.05 148,500,000 0.33 N/A 5.30CAPPA & D’ALBERTO PLC. NT 3 95.49 95.49 196,876,000 4.50 N/A NTBuilding Structure/Completion/Other COSTAIN (W A) PLC. 0.61 807,550 2.66 0.72 920,573,765 0.00 N/A 0.64G CAPPA PLC 14.46 217 14.46 14.46 125,000,000 0.00 N/A 14.46Non--Building/Heavy Construction JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 41.81 27,437 83.75 19.86 1,200,000,000 6.74 0.00 41.81ROADS NIG PLC. 6.29 1,832 10.60 6.61 20,000,000 1.69 N/A 6.29Real Estate Development PINNACLE POINT GROUP PLC NT NT 7.28 7.28 0.00 N/A NTUACN PROPERTY DEV 9.17 324,368 20.90 8.82 1,375,000,000 2.20 0.22 9.15Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 100.00 93 100.00 100.00 20,000,000 5.82 N/A 100.00UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INV 45.22 100 50.00 50.00 250,019,781 0.19 N/A 45.22UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 10.00 6,350 10.50 0.00 10.00CONSUMER GOODS Automobiles/Auto Parts DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 0.50 5,016 0.50 0.50 4,772,528,415 0.00 N/A 0.50Beverages--Brewers/Distillers CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 6.39 54,992 19.48 3.13 900,000,000 0.00 N/A 5.16GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 0.89 8,132 0.68 0.68 272,160,000 0.00 N/A 0.89GUINNESS NIG PLC 127.00 28,374 297.41 209.10 1,474,925,519 8.66 0.79 126.00INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 18.00 172,515 30.00 5.34 2,112,914,681 0.63 N/A 17.20JOS INT. BREWERIES PLC. 2.02 50,000 9.09 0.81 562,000,000 0.00 N/A 2.02NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 141.19 1,808,302 179.40 91.10 7,562,562,340 5.03 7.37 131.50PREMIER BREWERIES PLC 3.61 513,550 0.97 0.93 126,000,000 0.00 N/A 3.61Beverages--Non-Alcoholic 7-UP BOTTLING COMP. PLC. 156.00 24,150 75.90 38.12 640,590,362 4.46 N/A 156.01Food Products BIG TREAT PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 2,000,000,000 0.00 N/A NTDANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 3.70 224,970 10.68 3.85 5,000,000,000 0.00 27.59 2.90DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 6.68 1,588,435 12.85 3.26 12,000,000,000 0.81 9.51 6.10FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 33.60 187,271 109.24 50.00 1,879,210,666 3.38 2.85 32.67HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 3.00 952,850 4.11 1.83 7,930,197,658 0.34 0.00 3.00MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 0.50 53,816 1.21 0.50 3,722,493,620 0.00 N/A 0.50N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 18.05 159,011 29.70 17.51 178,200,000 0.00 N/A 18.05NATIONAL SALT CO. NIG. PLC 6.80 2,835,920 14.00 3.65 1.05 4.29 6.52P S MANDRIDES & CO PLC. 5.35 2.08 124,000 5.94 5.35 40,000,000 0.08 N/A 5.35U T C NIG. PLC. 0.50 50 0.93 0.50 1,233,375,004 1.13 0.00 0.50UNION DICON SALT PLC. 12.46 100 13.31 4.22 360,000,000 0.00 N/A 12.46Food Products--Diversifi ed CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 39.23 5,725 64.53 8.33 3,129,188,160 1.57 -4.97 41.28NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 800.54 390,319 1250.00 400.00 792,656,250 28.34 -3.49 829.50Household Durables BETA GLASS CO PLC. NT 25,333 15.58 10.03 3.90 N/A NTNIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 31.82 100 36.19 32.27 63,360,000 13.92 N/A 31.82VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 3.80 187,845 5.54 2.91 819,000,000 0.71 7.04 3.55VONO PRODUCTS PLC. 0.93 15,000 2.88 0.57 300,000,001 0.00 N/A 0.93Personal/Household Products P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 26.82 156,973 56.00 21.02 3,176,381,636 1.34 9.78 24.43UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 39.35 119,119 76.00 27.60 3,783,296,250 1.42 15.77 33.99Textiles/Apparel UNITED NIG. TEXTILES PLC. NT NT 0.97 0.57 843,284,027 0.00 N/A NTFINANCIAL SERVICES Banking ACCESS BANK PLC. 5.89 20,610,779 12.39 4.70 17,888,251,479 1.61 0.34 5.87DIAMOND BANK PLC 4.00 1,358,484 7.85 1.92 14,475,243,105 1.71 10.50 3.62ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INC. 18.00 5,746,153 17.51 9.90 9,873,614,567 3.67 4.05 17.30FIDELITY BANK PLC 1.50 4,669,271 3.47 1.13 28,974,797,023 0.68 16.28 1.29FIRST CITY MONUMENT BANK PLC. NT NT 8.30 3.04 16,271,192,202 0.60 #VALUE! NTGUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 24.36 11,491,149 29.99 13.02 29,146,482,209 3.08 6.38 22.90INTERCONTINENTAL BANK 13.50 13.50SKYE BANK PLC 2.41 5,074,965 7.05 2.65 13,219,334,676 0.97 4.78 2.30STERLING BANK PLC. 2.10 2,601,379 3.05 0.80 12,563,091,545 0.63 -8.30 2.29U B A PLC 3.79 11,173,106 9.60 1.64 32,334,693,693 1.70 7.37 3.53UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 10.16 1,469,943 15.30 2.34 13,509,726,273 0.44 12.76 9.01UNITY BANK PLC 0.50 359,359 1.16 0.50 33,675,576,085 0.18 0.00 0.50WEMA BANK PLC. 0.96 1,128,531 1.88 0.50 12,821,249,880 0.00 0.00 0.96ZENITH BANK PLC 18.90 9,778,427 27.40 11.96 31,396,493,790 3.30 14.61 16.49Insurance Carriers, Brokers & Services AFRICAN ALLIANCE INS. COY. PLC 0.50 200 0.50 0.50 20,585,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.50AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 0.87 1,627,718 1.42 0.50 7,809,391,256 0.19 0.00 0.90CONFIDENCE INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.64 0.61 211,626,000 0.00 N/A NTCONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INS. PLC 0.50 9,140 0.52 0.50 6,000,000,000 0.05 N/A 0.50CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 0.88 1,882,960 1.45 0.58 10,372,624,157 0.15 0.00 0.86CORNERSTONE INS. COY. PLC. 0.50 62,000 0.72 0.50 8,820,010,363 0.02 0.00 0.50CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED INS. PLC NT 9,054,578 2.44 1.08 5,100,846,808 0.24 0.00 NTEQUITY ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 4,754 0.50 0.50 8,847,298,420 0.01 N/A 0.50GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 0.53 NT 0.69 0.50 4,549,947,000 0.00 N/A 0.53GREAT NIGERIAN INSURANCE PLC 0.50 42,003 0.60 0.50 3,827,485,380 0.03 N/A 0.50GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 0.50 165,731 0.50 0.50 720,000,000 0.01 N/A 0.50INTERCONTINENTAL WAPIC INS. PLC NT NT 2.50 0.50 5,061,804,000 0.00 N/A NTINTERNATIONAL ENERGY INS. PLC 0.54 698,304 2.50 0.50 6,420,427,449 0.00 0.00 0.50INVESTMENT AND ALLIED ARN. 0.5 NT 0.50 0.50 28,000,000,000 0.02 N/A 0.5LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 14,710 0.50 0.50 7,323,313,227 0.00 N/A 0.50LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 0.50 100 0.61 0.50 3,437,330,500 0.00 N/A 0.50LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 0.50 220 0.50 0.50 4,083,713,569 0.02 0.00 0.50MANSARD INSURANCE PLC 3.05 23,600 2.87 1.06 10,000,000,000 0.25 1.67 3.00MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 1,319,465 0.63 0.50 7,998,705,336 0.00 N/A 0.50N.E.M INSURANCE CO (NIG) PLC. 0.63 10,579,013 1.01 0.50 5,332,830,881 0.37 6.78 0.59NIGER INSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.50 52,100 1.11 0.50 5,649,693,923 0.02 N/A 0.50OASIS INSURANCE PLC NT 1,654,611 0.50 0.50 5,003,506,791 0.04 N/A NTPRESTIGE ASSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.50 27,973 1.24 0.50 2,508,315,436 0.06 0.00 0.50REGENCY ALLIANCE INS. COY PLC 0.50 5,028 0.53 0.50 6,668,750,000 0.04 N/A 0.50SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 0.50 100 0.59 0.50 5,203,757,266 0.09 0.00 0.50STANDARD TRUSTASSURANCE PLC 0.50 1,650 0.50STANDARD ALLIANCE INS. PLC. 0.50 161,547,689 0.50 0.50 8,493,173,450 0.00 N/A 0.50UNIC INSURANCE PLC. 0.50 25,000 0.50 0.50 2,581,733,505 0.00 N/A 0.50UNITY KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 0.50 200 0.50 0.50 13,000,000,000 0.02 N/A 0.50UNIVERSAL INS. COMPANY PLC 0.50 518,140 0.50 0.50 16,000,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.50WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 0.50 1,368,084 1.55 0.50 0.07 0.50Micro Finance Banks FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 5.42 10,000,000 6.60 0.00 1.18 5.42NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 0.99 584,766 1.22 0.72 0.19 0.95Mortgage Carriers, Brokers &Services ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 1.30 500 1.65 1.37 4,200,000,000 0.03 N/A 1.30ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 0.50 500 0.50 0.50 8,679,148,676 0.02 N/A 0.50INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 1.45 500 1.45RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 0.50 220,000 0.50 0.50 13,175,732,404 0.30 N/A 0.50UNION HOMES SAVINGS&LOANS PLC 0.5 4,570 0.99 0.50 7,812,500,000 0.00 N/A 0.5Other Financial Institutions AFRICA PRUDENTIAL REGISTRARS 2.49 313,164 2.1 0.5 0.63 2.4CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED INS. PLC 3.83 369,250 3.75CRUSADER ( NIG) PLC. NT 500 0.61 0.50 3,778,005,975 0.00 N/A NTDEAP CAPITAL MGT & TRUST PLC 0.67 5,000 2.02 2.02 1,333,333,333 0.15 N/A 0.67FBN HOLDINGS PLC 8.80 8,812,914 21.50 8.57 32,632,084,358 2.45 14.29 7.70FCMB GROUP PLC 2.81 27045923 5.70 2.90 1.23 2.57ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 0.50 1,050,953 1.33 0.50 3,608,657,661 0.13 N/A 0.50STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 28.00 3,807,836 20.72 10.64 18,750,000,000 1.53 7.69 26.00SIM CAPITAL ALLIANCE VALUE FUND 103.24 465 103.24 98.33 103.24NIGERIA ENERGY SECTOR FUND 552.20 100 552.20UBA CAPITAL PLC 1.29 1,926,013 1.70 0.00 0.29 1.65HEALTHCARE Healthcare Providers EKOCORP PLC. 3.72 170 5.05 4.32 498,600,908 0.13 N/A 3.72UNION DIAGNOSTIC &CLINICAL PLC 0.50 40,000 0.50 0.50 3,553,138,528 0.00 N/A 0.50Medical Supplies MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 1.82 100 10.54 7.39 152,178,750 0.00 N/A 1.82Pharmaceuticals

NOTE NT=Not Traded on 27-03-15 N/A=Not Avialable

EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 2.05 74,488 4.80 0.50 486,473,856 0.58 0.00 2.05FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 3.29 1,444,640 2.50 0.61 1,500,000,000 0.24 9.67 3.00GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER PLC 42.00 66,411 69.00 18.97 956,701,192 3.07 0.00 42.00MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 1.59 163,454 3.38 1.23 980,000,000 0.09 2.58 1.55NEIMETH INT PHARM PLC 0.73 251,300 1.76 0.58 1,925,717,268 0.00 14.06 0.64NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 6.32 100 8.59 7.36 153,786,012 0.00 N/A 6.32PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 2.24 572,185 3.50 1.83 100,000,000 0.00 N/A 2.24ICT Computer Based Systems COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SLN PLC 0.50 37,000 0.96 0.50 2,960,000,000 0.11 0.00 0.50Computers and Peripherals OMATEK VENTURES PLC 0.50 100 0.50 0.50 2,941,789,472 0.00 N/A 0.50Electronic Communications Services MTECH COMMUNICATIONS PLC 0.91 NT 0.91 0.91 4,966,666,668 0.00 N/A 0.91IT Services COMPUTER WAREHOUSE GROUP PLC 4 400 4NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 12.19 100 18.70 13.12 108,000,000 0.00 N/A 12.19TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 1.77 5,460 2.94 2.07 492,825,600 0.03 N/A 1.77Processing Systems CHAMS PLC 0.50 27,420 0.50 0.50 4,620,600,000 0.04 N/A 0.50E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 3.39 1,080 4.97 3.13 4,200,000,000 0.04 N/A 3.39Telecommunications Services IHS 3.8 3.8HIS NIGERIA PLC 2 2.25 2.25HIS NIGERIA PLC 1 3.08 3.08MTI PLC 0.5 100 0.50 0.50 4,893,594,400 0.00 N/A 0.5INDUSTRIAL GOODS Building Materials AFRICAN PAINTS (NIGERIA) PLC. 2.72 2,000 2.86 2.86 260,000,000 0.07 N/A 2.72ASHAKA CEM PLC 18.33 1,557,197 29.98 8.01 2,239,453,125 0.80 0.00 18.33BERGER PAINTS PLC 8.00 40,673 12.20 6.82 217,367,585 0.91 -0.74 8.06CAP PLC 34.00 20,474 67.50 13.78 560,000,000 1.66 -6.31 36.29CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 10.99 1,514,719 12.99 4.00 1,241,548,285 1.12 -6.86 11.80DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 153.00 1,167,463 210.01 102.00 15,494,019,668 5.77 0.66 152.00DN MEYER PLC. 0.83 40,890 3.54 0.50 242,908,200 0.06 N/A 0.83FIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC 0.50 600 0.75 0.50 2,109,928,275 0.00 N/A 0.50IPWA PLC 0.50 6,000 1.34 0.50 513,696,000 0.00 N/A 0.50PREMIER PAINTS 10.93 60 10.93LAFARGE WAPCO PLC. 84.00 109,667 110.00 39.80 3,001,600,004 6.83 4.48 80.40PAINTS & COATINGS MANFACT.PLC 1.40 50,000 2.41 0.50 792,914,256 0.36 N/A 1.42PORTLAND PAINTS & PRDT NIG. PLC 3.30 72,650 7.22 2.27 400,000,000 0.43 N/A 3.30Electronic and Electrical Products AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2.09 100 2.00 2.00 0.05 N/A 2.09CUTIX PLC. 1.45 220,132 2.39 1.20 510,396,608 0.19 -4.61 1.52NIGERIAN WIRE AND CABLE PLC. 0.50 100 0.73 0.50 2,220,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.50Packaging/Containers ABPLAST PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 3.98 3.98 25,000,000 0.00 N/A NTAVON CROWNCAPS & CONTAINERS 1.59 561 5.94 1.71 683,974,528 0.00 N/A 1.59BETA GLASS CO PLC. 22.57 1,361 13.18 9.04 3.23 22.57GREIF NIGERIA PLC 11.48 100 13.28 12.68 42,640,000 0.90 N/A 12.08NIG. BAGS MANFACT. COY PLC NT NT 3.60 1.60 6,215,000,000 0.24 #VALUE! NTPOLY PRODUCTS (NIG) PLC. NT NT 1.86 1.05 240,000,000 0.22 N/A NTW A GLASS IND. PLC. 0.63 NT 0.63 0.63 199,066,550 0.00 N/A 0.63Tools and Machinery NIGERIAN ROPES PLC 7.46 100 8.69 8.26 265,409,280 0.00 N/A 7.46NIG SEW MACH. MAN. CO PLC. 0.15 200 0.15STOKVIS NIG PLC. 0.14 NT 0.14 0.14 2,918,000 0.00 N/A 0.14NATURAL RESOURCES Chemicals B.O.C. GASES PLC. 5.21 10,000 9.35 5.68 393,120,000 0.76 0.00 5.21Metals ALUMACO PLC 7.75 320 7.75 7.75 75,600,000 0.00 N/A 7.75ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 10.43 100 12.39 10.55 100,000,000 0.24 N/A 10.43MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE PLC 0.50 100 0.50 0.50 4,058,989,226 0.01 N/A 0.50Paper/Forest Products HALLMARK PAPER PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 3.22 3.22 50,000,000 0.04 N/A NTTHOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 0.73 4,050 1.38 0.67 220,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.73OIL AND GAS Energy Equipment and Services JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SER. PLC 0.50 1,408,720 1.02 0.50 6,262,701,716 0.00 0.00 0.50Integrated Oil and Gas Services OANDO PLC 13.40 4,924,248 24.80 9.32 2,262,711,568 1.24 0.00 13.40Petroleum &Petroleum Products Distributors BECO PETROLEUM PRODUCT PLC 0.5 10000 0.5CONOIL PLC 33.91 2,577,516 76.00 16.96 693,952,117 2.69 4.98 32.30ETERNA PLC. 2.84 2,541,040 4.87 1.32 1,249,162,828 0.61 7.17 2.65FORTE OIL PLC. 224.89 412,758 115.64 7.73 1,080,280,628 1.43 18.33 190.05MOBIL OIL NIG PLC. 147.95 22,164 146.00 106.00 300,496,051 9.93 2.03 145.00MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 50.54 167,074 59.00 16.20 253,988,672 1.04 N/A 50.54TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 158.74 43,476 190.01 118.75 339,521,837 12.91 13.39 140.00Exploration and Production SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVT. CO, LTD. 399.00 306,355 28,677,671 388.08SERVICES Advertising AFROMEDIA PLC 0.50 200 0.72 0.50 4,035,497,307 0.00 N/A 0.50Apparel Retailers LENNARDS (NIG) PLC. 3.15 100 3.48 3.48 0 N/A 3.15Automobile/Auto Part Retailers R T BRISCOE PLC. 0.73 209,933 2.45 1.00 980,294,400 0.00 8.96 0.67Courier/Freight/Delivery RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 3.75 2,572,000 5.10 2.19 589,496,310 0.52 -4.82 3.94TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 1.11 3,000 3.45 0.73 198,819,763 0.00 N/A 0.97Employment Solutions C & I LEASING PLC. 0.50 4,059,547 1.64 0.85 865,808,912 0.00 N/A 0.50Hospitality TANTALIZERS PLC 0.50 1,500 0.75 0.50 3,211,627,907 0.00 N/A 0.50Hotels/Lodging CAPITAL HOTEL 4.28 100 4.28IKEJA HOTEL PLC 4.50 599,750 1.72 0.64 2,078,796,396 0.00 0.00 4.50TOURIST COY NIG PLC 3.51 1,000 3.88 3.51 3.51TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 10.00 2,800 10.00 10.00 10.00Media/Entertainment DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 0.50 1,000 0.51 0.50 8,000,000,000 0.43 N/A 0.50Printing/Publishing ACADEMY PRESS 1.06 16500 1.06LEARN AFRICA PLC 1.07 224,498 3.09 1.39 771,450,000 0.00 N/A 1.12STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 2.30 20 2.78 2.52 0.00 N/A 2.30UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 4.63 20,800 5.77 3.00 425,641,111 0.61 0.00 4.63Road Transportation ABC TRANSPORT PLCPLC 0.55 955,140 1.29 0.50 1,507,000,000 0.21 N/A 0.53Specialty INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC 4.66 6 5.15 4.90 236,699,511 0.00 N/A 4.66SECURE ELECTRONIC TECH.PLC 0.5 40,000,700 1.88 0.80 5,631,539,736 0.00 N/A 0.5Transport-Related Services AIRLINE SERVICES AND LOGISTICS PLC 1.70 111,000 5.90 1.27 634,000,000 0.50 N/A 1.72NIG. AVIATION HANDLING COY PLC 5.04 246,274 8.81 5.08 1,230,468,750 0.43 1.00 4.99SUPPORT AND LOGISTICS CAVERTON OFFSHORE GROUP PLC 3 189044 2.98ASeM CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Property Management SMART PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC NT 60 1.43 1.04 45,000,000 0.12 N/A NTCONSUMER GOODS Food Products MCNICHOLS PLC NT 100 2.26 1.02 201,885,335 0.00 N/A NTOIL AND GAS CAPITAL OIL PLC NT 100000 NTNAVITUS ENERGY PLC NT 1000 NTPersonal/Household Products ROKANA INDUSTRIES PLC. NT NT 0.60 0.60 30,000,000 0.00 N/A NTHEALTHCARE Pharmaceuticals AFRIK PHARMACEUTICALS PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 24,898,850 0.00 N/A NTINDUSTRIAL GOODS Electronic and Electrical Products NT NT NTADSWITCH PLC. NT NT 1.88 1.63 125,005,250 0.00 N/A NTNATURAL RESOURCES Metals W.A. ALUM. PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 6,650,000 0.00 N/A NTFood/Drug Retailers and Wholesalers NT NT NTJULI PLC. NT 1,000 3.05 2.76 194,700,000 0.00 N/A NTETF’s Sector ETF LOTUS HALAL EQUITY ETF NT NTNEWGOLD EXCHANGE TRADED FUND NT 41 2,706 2,003 #VALUE! NTVETIVA GRIFFIN 30 ETF NT 10 49467 NT

PRICE 52 WK 52 WK SHARES MOV.SECURITY (=N=) QUANTITY HIGH LOW OUTSTANDING EPS (%) Previous

PRICE 52 WK 52 WK SHARES MOV.SECURITY (=N=) QUANTITY HIGH LOW OUTSTANDING EPS (%) Previous

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41National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, March 30, 2015

It will be depriving the citizens of the rights of action legitimately due to him, if the only remedy he gets is the quashing of the illegal order constituting the infringement — Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, Retired Justice Of The Supreme Court

Law & Justice

US judge orders seizure of Chinese firm’s foreign domains

How Privy Council ruled on Oluwa family land tussle 45

42

We need special court to handle corruption cases —Ikokwu

INEC Chairman, Prof; Attahiru Jega President, Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa

Participants in the electoral process should be aware that the election tribunal exists as the only judicious mechanism for them to resolve their grievances in post-election disputes. For the petitioners to have faith and belief in the election disputes resolution-process, th e tribunal should be fair and allow equal access to all, writes FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary.

AN ELECTION PETITION MUST BE FILED WITHIN TWENTY-ONE (21) DAYS AFTER

THE DATE OF THE DECLARATION OF THE FINAL RESULT OF THE ELECTION.

Don’t compromise rule of law, lawyers tell election tribunals

CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

The 1999 Constitution pro-vides for the establish-ment of electoral tribu-

nals to resolve disputes arising from the elections. Specifically, Section 285 sub-sections (1) and (2) provide for the establishment of the National Assembly Elec-tions Tribunal and the Gover-norship and Legislative Houses Election Tribunals, respectively. Members of the tribunals were appointed by the President of the Court of Appeal in consul-tation with the Chief Judge of a state, the Grand Khadi of the Sharia Court of Appeal of the state or President of the Cus-tomary Court of Appeal of the state, as the case may be.

By Section 285 (4) of the 1999 Constitution, the quorum of an election tribunal is properly constituted with the chairman and two other members. By Sec-tion 239 (2), the Appeal Court panel is properly constituted with at least three Justices to hear and determine original pe-titions arising from the conduct

of presidential poll. By Section 234 of the constitution, the Su-preme Court panel is properly constituted with not less than five Justices of the Court to hear and determine presidential and governorship appeals brought before it.

Other notable statutory provi-sions, among others, are that an Election petition must be filed within twenty-one (21) days af-ter the date of the declaration of the final result of the Election and an Election Tribunal must deliver its judgment in writing within 180 days from the date of the filing of the petition.

Besides, an appeal from the decision of an Election Tribunal or Court of Appeal in an elec-tion matter must be heard and

disposed of within 60 days from the date of the delivery of judg-ment of the Tribunal or Court of Appeal. Moreover, the court in all final appeals from election matters may adopt the practice of first giving its decision and reserving the reasons to a later date.

Electoral cases are said to be sui generis (“of its own kind’’ or class; unique or peculiar). Ac-cordingly the rules that govern them are most of the time differ-ent from rules that govern other civil actions. In the event the peculiar nature of such cases admits two parallel interpreta-tions - that such cases should not be defeated by ordinary technical hitches that can mar mere civil actions or that where

the procedures of the tribunal are not followed in any mate-rial particular, the petition is defeated.

A Lagos Lawyer, Mr. Ba-sil Ugochukwu, in his article, “Reforming Nigeria’s Election Tribunals’’, while raising the poser, — Election Tribunals: Has Anything Changed? Said In Uche Nwole V Amah Iwuag-wu, the Court of Appeal held that “Election petitions are by their very nature peculiar from other proceedings and are very important from point of view of public policy. It is the duty of the courts there-fore to hear them without al-lowing technicalities to unduly fetter their jurisdiction. In the instant case, the tribunal al-lowed the issue of technicality to prevail in a case where very serious and even scandalous allegations were made. The trial tribunal should have al-lowed the case to go on and to die a natural death if need be instead of shutting out the op-ponent (sic) through the use technicalities. Once there are other areas worth looking into ,it behoves on a tribunal to do so and if the petition has to fail after applying the stipulated le-gal tests, then it is welcome to

42 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, March 30, 2015Law & Justice

We need special court to handle

Nearly eight years after he was first ar-raigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Supreme Court recently ordered a former Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, to submit himself for trial on corruption and money laundering charges before the High Court. What does this portend for our judicial system?

It portends that too much time is being spent in the judiciary. It is either we don’t have enough judges or there should be di-visions of certain kinds of cases. There should be a special court to handle corrup-tion cases and there should be a constitu-tional court. Presently, it’s only in election petitions matters that the constitution has prescribed how long the election tribunal can sit, otherwise election petitions can go on for four years. The judicial system is not fast in Nigeria. There are cases that EFCC has being handling for years but immedi-ately the case reaches the London court, it was disposed within 3 months. Our ju-dicial system needs thorough re-organisa-tion. There should be speedy dispensation of justice. If there is no speedy dispensa-tion of justice things will go astray.

I still have cases that have lasted for 20 years in Lagos High Court. Some of my children refused to be lawyers when they see on my table case files of such cases that I was handling when they were in primary and secondary schools. Sometimes, files get lost in our courts and you spend money and time to locate them. This might take an-other two years. In the process, witnesses die and litigants get disappointed. So, there must be quick dispensation of justice so that people do not take laws into their own hands, so that the rule of law will start to prevail and not the rule of anarchy.

Do you think the Supreme Court is over-burdened?

Even though, not all cases go to the Su-preme Court but the number of cases going to the apex court over-burdens the court. And that is why we are saying there should be specialised courts to handle certain cases. There are judges you appear before them, they don’t even know what you’re talking about. That is why I am advocating that a Judge should not be appointed from the civil service. Eighty-five (85) percent of our judges today in the country were ap-pointed from the civil service. They were State counsel before they were appointed.

When you are a State counsel, you just practice one branch of the law and when you are told to incorporate a company, you don’t know what to do. A judge who comes from the Bar and is in active legal practice has varieties of legal experience and can appreciate addresses from the Bar and will not get annoyed. Some of our judges get annoyed when you start teaching them the law. Instead of writing a ruling on a motion same day, it takes them three to four weeks. A simple ex-parte motion, some judges will adjourn it for three or four weeks. That is why you have the delays. The Supreme Court at the moment can only hears cases filed eight years ago.

As a senior member of the Bar, how would you assess the standard of the legal profession in Nigeria?

To some extent it has improved because we have more technical resources because of the use of internet. Now, you don’t need a whole library to research your law. You don’t need a law report of 10, 000 pages to read, you can easily programme it into you legal disk. It is faster now to research cases than before when everything have to be done manually. But those who are us-ing them are those who are already experi-enced and who can afford it. The younger member of the Bar cannot afford this tech-nology, price wise. Some of these disks cost about N100, 000. So, to that extend the prac-tice of law has been revolutionalized but for the younger generation of lawyers to benefit from the system, I think the system

of education should be strengthened. How-ever, there are some of these young lawyers who are doing very well and are able to come up with very good judicial preposi-tions.

How can law be used to develop the country?

I have been very much interested in the affairs of Nigeria and see how we can change Nigeria for the better, so that we will have more development and progress in the country. The Ghanaians have been able to live up to standard because of the history they went through. They have to go through a revolution but we have not gone through a revolution. Now we have a con-stitution which most Nigerians disagree with which was imposed by the military. In actual fact, in the last 40 years the mili-tary has been ruling in Nigeria and have been able to manipulate the constitutional system in the country and gives us a consti-tution which is more suited to the military than the civilians. If you look at the con-stitution we have today, the 1999 constitu-tion which was drafted by the military, is tailored towards the military line. In the military, only one person is in charge at the top and every other person below obeys his command. Civilians are no brought up that way and that is why we have problems in the constitution and that is why we have problems in the polity.

How will you react to several court judg-ments that restricted the Federal Gov-

ernment from deploying soldiers for the ongoing elections?

There has to be a differentiation, the military is just one of the security forces but we have other security agents that use weapons. Without security most of the ad-hoc staff of INEC, most of the sensitive materials of the Commission cannot be protected. In the past we have had cases of snatching of ballot boxes, so that the votes will not be counted. They can steal the Card Reader, so there are genuine reasons to se-cure INEC staff. However, it is a different thing for security agents to guide election materials but it is another thing for them to be involved in the actual voting.

Ikokwu

THERE ARE JUDGES YOU APPEAR BEFORE

THEM, WHO DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT

YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT. THAT IS WHY

I AM ADVOCATING THAT A JUDGE

SHOULD NOT BE APPOINTED FROM THE

CIVIL SERVICE.

Chief Guy Ike Ikokwu belongs to the old generation of practising lawyers in the country, having been called to the Bar 53 years ago. In this interview with WALE IGBINTADE, the London University-trained attorney speaks on the appointment of judges and the need to reduce the work load of the Supreme Court, among others. Excerpts.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 43Monday, March 30, 2015 Law & Justice

corruption cases —Ikokwu Several months after Judges were at-tacked in Ekiti state, no one has been charged before the court by the Police. How do you see this development?

The judiciary is yet to resolve the mat-ter. It is difficult for one to point accusing finger on who did it or lay the blame on a particular person, when those who are charged with investigating the matter, us-ing the resources available to them are yet to get to the bottom of the matter. But, I do not think the judiciary itself has resolved the matter to its logical conclusion. Has there been a precedent in the past where judges were attacked?

Litigants that are drunk do it and that is why even in the court premises you have security men. Even when a lawyer goes to the court and sees security guards around judges, he would mind his language. He does not talk anyhow to the judge because if he does he could be charged with con-tempt and the security guard will take him in. So, there should enough security around judges and in the court premises.

That is why the judiciary is being bas-tardized in many areas by the use of money. At the judges’ conference, the Chief Judges and the Judicial Commissions agreed that corruption has entered into the judiciary. I am a lawyer and I can tell you that there are perceived cases where it is terrible. Court clerks and registrars are being bribed openly. If you want your case file to be lost, produce the money and the registrar will help you hide the file. Isn’t that bad?

Most of what is happening is based on militaristic nature of our present constitu-tion. Many people shy away from the fact that Nigeria is not yet a democratic State yet. We are operating a military constitu-tion and not people’s constitution. That is why some of us agreed with the convoca-

tion of the last National Conference held in Abuja. But, some political parties refused to participate in that conference. We know that the National Assembly as presently constituted will not pass the resolutions and recommendations of the national con-ference and that is why its implementation is still in abeyance. Nigeria has to be re-structured for us to get going.

Lagos, especially the western part of the country have significant role to play because you have a lot of educated people. People who are economically buoyant in Lagos are in the western zone. I am happy that most people in the western zone have said the only condition they will support anybody for the presidency is that they agree that the decisions of the national conference should be implemented within their first year in office. This means they have placed their demands on issues and not on personalities. Nigeria should be re-stored to a federation, we should have fiscal federalism.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

SHOULD RETAIN JUST ABOUT 40 PERCENT OF ITS PRESENT POWERS

WHILE THE OTHER POWERS SHOULD BE

DISTRIBUTED TO THE STATES.

Why do you say Nigeria is not a federat-ing state?

What we call the Federal Government is a unitary government. The Federal Gov-ernment has so many powers. The Fed-eral Government deals with agriculture, it deals with basic education, it deals with maternal care and electricity. Is that the job of a federal government? Why should the federal government have such mo-nopoly? A lot of things in the exclusive list should be whittled-down by about 60 per-cent. The FG should have just about 40 per-cent of its present powers while the other powers should be distributed to the States. Nigerian can be one of the dominant coun-tries not only in Africa but in the world pro-vided we are structurally orientated. The problem in the country is caused by the military. The military sets Nigeria back by more than 30 years because they are not supposed to rule, they don’t know anything about governance. Our cultures are not au-tocratic, so why should our constitution be autocratic?

Since June last year, the judiciary in Riv-ers State has not been working due to the crisis over appointment of the state’s Chief Judge. How will you react to this?

Why should the judiciary be locked up in Rivers State till now. It is because the state government knows that there has been no restructuring in the judiciary. The state government can do what it wants under the ambit of the law. But, at the moment, the National Judicial Council has more constitutional say in the appointments of judges. In other States, they listen and ap-ply the advice and recommendations of the National Judicial Council, so, why should Rivers State be an exception? That is why I am advocating for the restructuring of the constitution, once there is restructuring certain things will progress.

Do you support the removal of immunity clause from the constitution?

The immunity clause should go. To some extent it would initially be difficult, but af-ter some years people who get into office will know that they cannot go scot-free. We should look at India and other countries and see how they have amended the immu-nity clause to suit the development of their country. The present system of governance in Nigeria plus immunity is more or less a way of welcoming corruption. Tell me one governor that EFCC has not brought charges of corruption against, but also tell me which of these governors EFCC has successfully prosecuted. If you check the governors whose cases are still hanging, most of them are on bail. Some of them are even members of the Senate. I can name so many of them in the South- East, South-South, and South- West and in the North- East. In every of the six zones you have former governors who have been charged. Some of them have had their illegal assets taken away from them. But that is not the same as convicting them. Because when you convict them, you deprive them of holding political office for life.

What advice will you give to young law-yers?

They must get the support of members of their families. They must also attach themselves to senior lawyers where for the first three years they are to learn and if they are financially handicapped they should bear it. After three years of learn-ing they would have had sufficient basis to establish on their own or to continue in that chambers with increased benefits? If they don’t and they just because of money estab-lished a law firm of their own they would lose a lot. If they don’t have anybody in their family to support them, they should go into legal service of a State.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net44 Monday, March 30, 2015Law & Justice

Taiwo Ajayi Fatoki Segun Fatoki

MY ONLY ADVICE TO POLITICIANS IS THAT THEY SHOULD LEAVE THE JUDGES ALONE AND ALLOW

THEM TO DO THEIR WORK.

‘180 days’ time-frame, challenge before tribunals’ such an eventual end”.

On the contrary, Justice Samson Uwaifo of the Supreme Court in the case of Buhari V Dikko Yusuf observed that “An election petition is heard and determined by an appropriate election tribunal as usually provided by the con-stitution. In the 1999 Constitution, such provision is made under section 285 and the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution. The procedure is largely governed by a law made specifically to regulate the proceedings. The jurisdiction of an elec-tion tribunal to deal with election peti-tions is of a very special nature different from that in an ordinary civil case. It is plain that the proceedings are special for which special provisions are made under the constitution. Election peti-tions are distinct from the ordinary civil proceedings. It is such that in certain circumstances the slightest default in complying with a procedural step which otherwise could be cured or waived in or-dinary civil proceedings could result in fatal consequences to the petition”.

National Mirror in separate inter-views with lawyers highlighted their ex-pectations election tribunal. The Second Vice- President, Nigerian Bar Associa-tion, (NBA), Mr. Taiwo Obayemi Taiwo said ‘’ I expect the election tribunals to be up to their oaths of office. The enor-mity of the responsibilities which the democratic governance has placed on the Judiciary demands that they must rise to their constitutional responsibilities. Members of the tribunals are men of in-tegrity and proven records. I am sure we will get the best from them.

‘’My only advice to politicians is that, they should leave the judges alone and allow them to do their work. Whatever judgement that is delivered they should abide by it and if they are not satisfied they should appeal. ‘’ he added.

The Publicity Secretary, NBA, Ikeja Branch, Mr. Samson Omodara, said that he expected the election petition tri-bunals to turn out justice according to the details of fact of the petition before them adding that,’’ there would be fewer litigations because of the Independent Electoral Commission’s ability to reduce election fraudulent activities via the in-troduction of card reader. ‘’

Omodara also advised that all election matters should be resolved before the de-clared winner of an election is sworn-in. He, however said that, it might be diffi-cult to have conclusive election matters within stipulated days.

He said that “it will surprise you that the stipulated days to conclude election petition matters may be difficult because the person declared as winner might put clogs in the way of justice for the other party to make sure that justice is not met within the 180 days and it is not good for the society at large”.

Mr. Segun Fatoki said that his expecta-

tions are not far from what many Nigeri-ans are expecting.

According to him, ‘’We are expecting fairness and possible quick determina-tion of the election petitions matters to avoid a situation where one would have almost completed the term before the decision of the election tribunal would turn against him. The tribunal should display their political wills by displaying fairness and boldness to hit the nail of the matter at the head without any com-promise”

“I don’t think Nigerian should be wor-ried about the election petition matters again because a lot of precedents estab-lished which will aid possible and quick work of election petition“.

Another lawyer Mr. Ojo Akinwale said’’I believe members of election tribu-nals will do their best provided we do not have too much petitions. The time speci-fication to hear and determine election petitions will surely work against them because they will not have time to scruti-


nize and analyse the entire evidence that will be presented before them. This may affect the quality of their judgements ex-cept where there is a clear-cut victory by any of the parties.

We have capable judges in Nigeria and if they are selected I have no doubt that we will get very good judgements from the tribunals.

On falsification of election documents, he said ‘’ the jurisdiction of election tri-bunal does not cover criminal matters. The tribunal will concentrate on who should be declared as winner of an elec-tion. In election petition you may have al-legation of crime.

Mr. Ajayi Fatoki also stated that the tribunals have heavy responsibilities on their shoulders.

‘’They should remember that the con-tinued relevance of the judiciary de-pends on public confidence. They must avoid anything that will compromise the preservation of the rule of law. They will surely play a very important role in the determination of election conflicts. How-ever, I do not see election tribunal derail-ing. When you look at the judges that will preside over election matters, there are no doubts that they are highly experi-enced judges.

LEGAL TIPS

BarBarJokesJokes

all eternity, and that lawyer gets to spend it with a beautiful woman.”“Shut up”, barked the devil, jabbing the man with his pitchfork.“Who are you to question that woman’s punishment?”

Lawyers take everything A reporter outside of a courtroom asked a defendant clad only in a barrel: “Oh, I see your attorney lost the case!” The defendant answered, “No, we won.”

Only two bullets You find yourself stuck in a hole with a murderer, a rapist, and a lawyer. You’re armed but you only have two bullets left, what do you do?

Free advice at social affairs? A doctor and a lawyer were attending a cocktail party when the doctor was approached by a man who asked advice on how to handle his ulcer. The doctor mumbled some medical advice, then turned to the lawyer and remarked, “I never know how to handle the situation when I’m asked for medical advice during a social function. Is it acceptable to send a bill for such advice?” The lawyer replied that it was certainly acceptable to do so.

Culled from Funny Lawyers Jokes.com

The Lawyer and effect of surgery There was a lawyer and he was just waking up from anesthesia after surgery, and his wife was sitting by his side.His eyes fluttered open and he said: “You’re beautiful!” and then he fell asleep again.His wife had never heard him say that so she stayed by his side. A couple of minutes later, his eyes fluttered open and he said: “You’re cute!”Well, the wife was disappointed because instead of “beautiful” it was “cute.”She said: “What happened to ‘beautiful’?”He replied: “The drugs are wearing off!”

A man and the devil A man died and was taken to his place of eternal torment by the devil.As he passed sulphurous pits and shrieking sinners, he saw a man he recognized as a lawyer snuggling up to a beautiful woman.“That’s unfair!” he cried. “I have to roast for

The service of writ of summons or originating summons is very funda-mental to the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the claim.

*Where a party is not served he will have no knowledge of the claim against him. He can there-fore bring an application to strike out the action for improper service.

The essence of the ser-vice is to enable the defen-dant become aware of the suit against him in court and be able to put up a de-fence if he intends to do so.

•Service is usually done

by the Bailiffs or Sheriffs or other officers of the court.

•There are two types of service (a ) Personal Ser-vice and (b ) Substituted Service.

•Personal service is one that is served personally on the defendant whereas Substituted service is one that is effected by other means other than person-al service.

•For instance, by advert in newspapers or in a ga-zette or by pasting in the last known address of the defendant.

Time of Service •Service can be done

on any day except Sun-day and public holidays between 6.00 am and 6.00 pm.

•Note that service out-side jurisdiction connotes two things-

(a) Service outside the state of issue and

(b) Service outside Ni-geria.

Written by Francis

Famoroti, Head, Judicia-ry. We welcome feedback and reactions from read-ers via our e-mail: [email protected].

Service of court processunder Nigerian law

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 45Monday, March 30, 2015 Law & Justice

Late Oluwa of Lagos, Tijani.

Amodu Tijani was the Head Chief of the famous Oluwa family of Lagos in the 1920s. He was engaged in a fierce legal battle with the colonial government at the Privy Council in 1921 over the payment of compensation for land purportedly acquired from his family in Apapa, Lagos. FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary reports.

The vexed issue of land acquisition is not new in Nigeria; likewise the problems relating to the payment

of compensation by the government. These have been in existence far back 94 years ago and they became serious legal issues decided by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1921. In this case the question raised was the basis for cal-culation of the compensation payable to Amodu Tijani, the Oluwa of Lagos.

He had in his capacity as the head of Oluwa landowning family of Lagos lodged an appeal to the Privy Council against the decision of the Supreme Court which fa-voured the Colonial Secretary, Southern Provinces of Nigeria. In his appeal, he made claims for the takeover by the Gov-ernment of the Colony of Southern Nige-ria of his family land in Apapa, Lagos for public purpose.

The Public Lands Ordinance of 1903 of the Colony provides ‘’that the Governor may take any lands required for public purposes for an estate in fee simple or for a less estate, on paying compensation to be agreed on or determined by the Supreme Court of the Colony.

‘’The Governor is to give notice to all the persons interested in the land, or to the persons authorised by the Ordinance to sell and convey it. Where the land required is the property of a native community, the Head Chief of the community may sell and convey it in fee simple, any native law or custom to the contrary notwithstanding. There is to be no compensation for land un-occupied unless it is proved that, for at least six months during the ten years preceding any notice, certain kinds of beneficial use have been made of it.’’

Besides, the enabling ordinance states that in other cases the court should assess the compensation according to the value at the time when the notice was served, in-clusive of damage done by severance. The Oluwa family was dissatisfied with the de-cision of the Supreme Court and it lodged an appeal to the Privy Council.

At the hearing of the appeal before the Privy Council, Viscount Haldane, Lord Atkinson, and Lord Phillimore sat on the panel.

Delivering judgment on Monday, July 11, 1921, Lord Haldane declared that ‘’The land in question is at Apapa, on the mainland and within the Colony. The appellant is the Head Chief of the Oluwa family or commu-nity, and is one of the Idejos or landowning white cap chiefs of Lagos and the land is oc-cupied by persons some of whom pay rent or tribute to him. Apart from any family or private land which the Chief may possess or may have allotted to members of his own family, he has in a representative or official capacity control by custom over the tracts within his Chieftaincy, including, as Chief Justice Speed points out in his judgment in

this case, power of allotment and of exact-ing a small tribute or rent in acknowledg-ment of his position as Head.

‘’But when in the present proceedings he claimed for the whole value of the land in question, as being land which he was empowered by the Ordinance to sell, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court held that, although he had a right which must be recognised and paid for, this right was: “merely a seigneurial right giving the hold-er ordinary rights of control and manage-ment of the land in accordance with the well-known principles of native law and custom, including the right to receive pay-ment of the nominal rent or tribute pay-able by the occupiers, and that compensa-tion should be calculated on that basis, and not on the basis of absolute ownership of

the land.”In the judgment, the question which

their Lordships decided among others was the real character of the native title to the land.

Lord Haldane said ‘’In the instance of Lagos, the character of the tenure of the land among the native communities is de-scribed by Chief Justice Rayner in the Re-port on Land Tenure in West Africa, which that learned Judge made in 1898, in lan-guage which their Lordships think is sub-stantially borne out by the preponderance of authority.

“The next fact which it is important to bear in mind in order to understand the native land law is that the notion of indi-vidual ownership is quite foreign to native ideas. Land belongs to the community, the village or the family, never to the individ-ual. All the members of the community, village or, family have an equal right to the land, but in every case the Chief or Head-man of the community or village, or head of the family, has charge of the land, anti in loose mode of speech is sometimes called the owner. He is to some extent in the posi-tion of a trustee, and as such holds the land for the use of the community or family. He has control of it, and any member who wants a piece of it to cultivate or build a house upon, goes to him for it. But the land so given still remains the property of the

THE NOTION

OF INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP IS QUITE FOREIGN TO NATIVE

IDEAS. LAND BELONGS TO THE COMMUNITY, THE VILLAGE OR THE

FAMILY, NEVER TO THE INDIVIDUAL.

community or family. He cannot make any important disposition of the land without consulting the elders of the community or family, and their consent must in all cases be given before a grant can be made to a stranger.

‘’This is a pure native custom along the whole length of this coast, and wherever we find, as in Lagos, individual owners, this is again due to the introduction of English ideas. But the native idea still has a firm hold on the people, and in most cases, even in Lagos, land is held by the family.

‘’The history of the relations of the Chiefs to the British Crown in Lagos and the vicinity bears out this conclusion. About the beginning of the 18th century the Island of Lagos was held by a Chief called Olofin. He had parcelled out the Is-land and part of the adjoining mainland among some 16 subordinate Chiefs, called” Whitecap” in recognition of their domi-nation over the portions parcelled out to them. About 1790, Lagos was successfully invaded by the neighbouring Benins. They did not remain in occupation, but left a representative as ruler whose title was the “Eleko.”

The successive Elekos in the end became the Kings of Lagos, although for a long time they acknowledged the sovereignty of the King of the Benins, and paid tribute to him. The Benins appear to have interfered but little with the customs and arrange-ments in the island. About the year 1850 payment of tribute was refused, and the King of Lagos asserted his independence. At this period Lagos had become a centre of the slave trade, and the British Govern-ment determined to suppress it.

Their Lordships accordingly humbly ad-vised His Majesty that the judgment of the courts’ below should be reversed, and that declaration should be made:

* That the appellant, for the purposes of the Public Lands Ordinance No.5 of 1903 was s entitled to claim compensation on the footing that he is transferring to the Gover-nor the land in question in full ownership, excepting in so far as such land is unoccu-pied, along with his own title to receive rent or tribute;

* That the consideration or compensa-tion awarded was to be distributed, under the direction of the Native Council of the District with the sanction of the Governor, among the members of the community rep-resented by the appellant as its Head Chief in such proportions and in such manner as such Council, with the sanction of the Gov-ernor, may determine.

The Privy Council also directed that the case be sent back to the Supreme Court of Nigeria (Southern Provinces) to secure that effect was given to these declarations. The appellant was entitled to his costs of this appeal and of the appeal to the full court.

How Privy Council ruled on Oluwa family land tussle

FAMOUS CASES

46 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Indonesia’s S’Court rejects appeal of Filipina on death row

US President Barack Obama

India Prime Minister, Narendra Modi

British Prime Minister David Cameron

Indonesia’s Supreme Court has rejected an application by a Fili-

pina on death row for a judicial review of her case, taking her a step closer to being executed along with several other foreign drug convicts.

According to AFP re-port, the Filipina, Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, two high-profile Australian inmates and convicts from France, Brazil, Ghana and Nigeria are set to face the firing squad after they recently had requests for presi-dential clemency reject-ed.

In her application for a judicial review, Velo-so’s lawyers had report-edly argued that she was not provided with a ca-pable translator during her first trial.

But the Supreme Court’s website said that judges rejected Veloso’s application for a review of her sentence.

It did not provide de-tails about the ruling and a court spokesman could not immediately

Indian court declares ‘Facebook’ arrest law unconstitutional

S’Court to rule on Prince Charles’ letters

Greece ex-minister guilty of tampering with tax list

be contacted for com-ment.

INDONESIA

INDIA

NEW YORK

UNITED KINGDOM

GREECE

The government had defended the law, saying it was meant to deter people from uploading offensive material.

The court order was delivered by a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court on petitions filed by civil rights groups and a law student who argued that Section 66A violated people’s funda-mental right to freedom of speech and expression.

“Section 66A is uncon-

stitutional and we have no hesitation in striking it down,” news agency AFP quoted Justice RF Nariman as saying in court. The public’s right to know is directly af-fected by section 66A,” he added.

Section 66A was sweep-ing in its powers - it could send a person to jail for

India’s Supreme Court has struck down a con-troversial law which

allowed police to arrest people for comments on social networks and other internet sites.

A BBC report says the court ruled that the contro-versial Section 66A of the Information Technology Act was unconstitutional.

In recent years, several

Former Greece Fi-nance Minister George Papaconstan-

tinou has been found guilty of removing relatives’ names from a list of poten-tial Greek tax evaders.

But the charge was re-duced to a misdemeanour, and he received a one-year suspended prison sentence, escaping a longer term.

According to BBC re-port, he was acquitted of a second charge of breach of

people have been arrested for their comments on Facebook or Twitter, spark-ing outrage.

three years for sending an email or other electronic message that “causes an-noyance or inconvenience”.

The law was first chal-lenged by a law student af-ter two young women were arrested in November 2012 in Mumbai for comments on Facebook following the death of politician Bal Thackeray.

trust. The “Lagarde list” of

HSBC bank account holders caused outrage in Greece as it faced its economic crisis.

Greek governments have been accused of not fully investigating the list, which was given to Athens in 2010 by the then French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.

It is an extract of a list of account holders at a Geneva branch of HSBC leaked by former bank employee Herve Falciani.

The Supreme Court is set to rule on whether Prince

Charles’s letters to gov-ernment should be made public.

The UK’s highest court has been asked to judge whether the Attorney- General’s office acted unlawfully when it pre-vented their publication in 2012.

The Guardian newspa-per is seeking the disclo-sure of the letters written to government depart-ments between 2004-5.

A report by BBC says that it has been argued that releasing the so-called “black spider mem-os” would undermine the prince.

The Guardian said it had been “pressing the government” for 10 years to see the letters, written by the Prince of Wales to

seven government depart-ments.

He is heir to the throne and, as the royal family’s own website explains, it is central to the British Con-stitution that the reigning monarch should remain politically neutral.

The former Attorney -General Dominic Grieve has said that any per-ception the prince had disagreed with the then Labour government in 2004-5 “would be seriously damaging to his role as future monarch because if he forfeits his position of political neutrality as heir to the throne, he can-not easily recover it when he is king”.

The letters were coined the black spider memos in reference to the prince’s handwriting

After 10 years, several court cases, and a cost to the taxpayer of hundreds of thousands of pounds,

an end appears to be in sight for this dogged pur-suit of Prince Charles’s black spider memos.

A final resolution will only be delayed if there’s a referral on an issue of Eu-ropean law to the Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

If not, the prince’s pri-vate letters will either re-main confidential, as the sender intended, or they’ll be exposed to a large and inquisitive audience.

Monday, March 30, 2015Law & Justice

My first appearance was before Justice Beckley at Lagos

High Court, Ikeja, though I could not remember what the matter was all about but I knew there was vehement opposition from the other counsel because she was an experienced and a famous lawyer then.

I tried to exercise little boldness before the judge

and after a long argument the judge decided in my fa-vour.

Since that day, I had con-fidence to appear before any judge even at the Ap-peal Court. I had confront-ed many Senior Advocates of Nigeria in different mat-ters and I won the cases.

The law is all about knowing the onions sur-rounding a particular case.

I exercised little boldness —Adegunle

US judge orders seizure of Chinese firm’s foreign domains

Indonesian President, Joko Widodo

Bisi Adegunle

A federal judge in New York has ordered dozens of global domains owned by the Chi-

nese company Fengtao Software to be seized, for its social media ac-counts to be blocked, and for pay-ment processors to cut off their ser-vices to the company.

A report by ABC says the order was as a result of legal action by the decryption licensing body AACS, founded by companies such as Mi-crosoft and Walt Disney. Last year AACS won a preliminary injunction against Fengtao Software, which sells the popular DVD-ripping soft-ware DVDFab.

Initially, Fengtao failed to re-spond to the court, which caused the injunction to be granted by default.

Later, the Chinese company asked

for the decision to be reviewed, argu-ing that the order was too broad be-cause it affected the company global-ly, while the relevant copyright law applied by the judge was US-specific.

But the judge confirmed that he wanted Fengtao to cease using doz-ens of domain names around the world adding many new ones to those specified in the preliminary injunction as well as several asso-ciated social networking accounts.

The court ordered that “defen-dants shall not conduct or partici-pate in any of the Circumventing Activities through any website, so-cial media or social networking site or service, or other online service or platform, or through any offline means.”

The judge extended his order to “main name registries, including but not limited to VeriSign, Inc., NeuStar, Inc., Public Interest Regis-

try, Japan Registry Service Co., Ltd. (JPRS), DENIC Verwaltungs- und Betriebsgesell-schaft eG (DENIC), China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) and the indi-vidual registrars holding.


The International Bar Association (IBA) seeks to affirm an African dimension to women working, and

succeeding, in law as it is billed to hold a conference for female African commer-cial lawyers in Zambia next month.

Shortly after the achievements of wom-en have been rightly celebrated interna-tionally during International Women’s Day, on March 8, 2015, the IBA announced it would hold a conference for female Afri-can commercial lawyers, under the aegis of the IBA’s Legal Practice Division’s Women Business Lawyers’ Initiative.

The event, entitled ‘African Women in Law Rising’ is the second of its kind, fol-lowing the inaugural event held in Dubai in March 2014. The Initiative will take place in Livingstone, Zambia, from April 21-22 2015, in partnership with the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ).

The Initiative programme was conceived by Sylvia Khatcherian, head of IP and IT law at New York bank, Morgan Stanley, and an IBA council member. It aims to provide women lawyers with resources to enhance their international commercial law prac-tices by strengthening their knowledge base of international commercial law; and in de-veloping their international practices and enhancing their awareness of global stan-dards and trends in commercial practice.

Of greatest interest to the speakers, fol-lowing a welcome address by George Kang-wa Musole Chisanga, president of the Law Association of Zambia, will be an address by Dr Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula deputy gov-ernor at the Bank of Zambia, and winner of the IBA 2014 Woman Lawyer of the Year Award.

Kankasa-Mabula commented, in a state-ment, she was “honoured to have been asked to deliver the keynote speech for this unique event. We should continue striving to advance opportunities for women within the legal profession through such initia-

tives and I look forward to sharing my own experiences and learning from the other speakers and delegates present.”

Kankasa-Mabula’s own track record in supporting women in business was one of the principle reasons she received the prestigious award; having been educated at London and Harvard, her nomination recorded that she had “selflessly… edu-cated local law students at the University of Zambia (the country’s only law school at the time) for 18 years” before she taking up in-house practice.

She has held a wide variety of voluntary roles in government, including in mentor-ing young businesswomen, in child human rights, and in the law reform arena, where, as a commissioner of the Law Develop-ment Commission, where she contributed to the amendment of laws that disadvan-taged women.

Kankasa-Mabula also previously acted as secretary to the Bank of Zambia (1998-

2007) which combined the functions of general counsel, secretary to the board, and director in charge of public relations. She was promoted to deputy governor, in charge of administration, in 2007.

Kankasa-Mabula said that she is us-ing her current position to “engender the financial sector by promoting financial inclusion of women and the participation of women in senior decision making posi-tions in the financial sector”.

One source called her “a source of in-spiration to many female lawyers in the country both as an academic and a career woman. I cannot think of a more deserving candidate for this prestigious award”.

A chief aim of the event is to highlight is-sues of particular relevance to women law-yers, including questions such as whether the concept of risk avoidance influences fe-male lawyers’ decision-making in relation to career paths and practice areas.

It will also assess whether there are

practice areas that can be considered as male-dominated or dangerous for female practitioners, resulting in fewer women lawyers getting involved; why there are so few women advocates; and how both sexes can overcome gender roles and stereotypes to network effectively with both men and women.

The event will also focus on capac-ity building topics on advocacy, marketing and branding, plus an overview of practice areas increasing in importance and creat-ing a demand for experienced legal practi-tioners.

To encourage the women of the future, the event also holds a session on how to develop and retain associates, while advis-ing African lawyers on what to do to move from being a locally recognised firm to an internationally recognised firm.

Two such methods are merger and lat-eral hires, ALB has seen a number of both such moves recently, not least between firms in South Africa as demand for the continent’s top lawyers, including female ones heats up.

Supported by the IBA African Regional Forum, the event has attracted high-level speakers across Africa including, the host nation, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Af-rica, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

For example, Linda Kasonde, the LAZ’s vice-president will speak; she is a name partner at Mulenga Mundashi Kasonde (MMK), and will be appearing alongside Nigerian lawyer, Boma Ozobia, head of public law, Sterling Partnership, mining lawyer; Tabitha Maro, partner at Tanzani-an firm, Rex Attorneys; Ngosa Simachela, of Nchito & Nchito, in Lusaka, Zambia; and international disputes lawyer, Olu-funmi Oluyede, of Nigerian business law firm, TRLPLAW.

The Forum’s chair, Sternford Moyo, a former president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, who will also address the event, commented: “It is critical that from the lo-cal, to the regional, to the global level that the position of women lawyers is strength-ened.”

He added: “In this respect, the IBA’s Women Business Lawyers Initiative pro-vides a forum for women, and men, to work towards building capacity central to ben-efitting the legal profession as a whole, and raising the consciousness of society on gen-der equality.”

He added: “With lawyers attending from all parts of Africa, from key firms, industry and the judiciary, this event promises also to provide valuable networking, which can only amplify action towards equal opportu-nities.”

Kasonde said: “The Law Association of Zambia is proud to host the first African edition of this valuable IBA Initiative in Livingstone and we look forward to wel-coming both male and female legal practi-tioners.”

She added: “This important event aims to empower and educate female commer-cial lawyers, as well as raise awareness and understanding of issues commonly faced by women practitioners. It will be a fasci-nating dialogue and a career-enhancing experience.”

Law & Justice

Projecting African women in law

IBA President, David Rivkin Former President, Commonwealth Lawyers Association, Mrs. Ozobia

National Industrial Court establishes ADRMATTHEW IRINOYE

Determined to fast-track resolution of industrial and labour related cases in the country, the National

Industrial Court of Nigeria (NIC) has con-cluded plans to establish Alternative Dis-pute Resolution (ADR) centre within the court premises.

This was disclosed by President of the court, Justice Babatunde Adejumo, during a valedictory court session in honour of re-tired Justice Oluseun Adefolake Shogbola of the Abuja division.

Adejumo said the establishment of ADR was not negotiable in the dispensation of justice since about 30 years ago.

The NIC President said that the estab-lishment of ADR was historic in many re-spect, adding that the constitution empow-ers the court to establish an ADR centre.

According to him “It is the first time any court in Nigeria will receive a constitution-al mandate to establish and apply ADR for the resolution of matters over which it has

jurisdiction.“ADR development and usage will

definitely receive a huge boost in this regard.”Mediation is fast becoming a fea-ture of courts in countries like the United States of America, Germany, South Africa to mention but a few” he said .

The President also noted that the devel-opment would certainly aid and fasten the resolution of cases with a view to voiding the usual problem of over-filled dockets and delayed in justice delivery, adding that ‘’it will also help in settling disputes with-out bitterness and rancour.

According to the statement, ‘’Machin-ery has been set in motion towards the re-alization of this significant constitutional mandate. Efforts are on to designate cer-tain office accommodation within some Judicial Division of the NICN as ADR centers. The ADR centre of the court will be situated at the Headquarters in Abuja with branches in each of the six geo-polit-ical zones across the country. ‘’

It said the ADR centre would be saddled with the responsibility of settling disputes referred to it by any judge of the court us-

ing mediation, conciliation, pointing out that the relevance of mediation and con-ciliation is to make amicable settlement of disputes.”

“The Court officers to work at the cen-ters have been trained at home and abroad to acquire cutting-edge skills in mediation and other ADR processes. The types of cases that may be referred to the centre, the stage at which cases could be referred, the mediation process, roles and responsi-bilities of parties, counsel and mediator(s) before, during and after mediation will soon be published for public consump-tion”

He further charged the bar and other stake holders with a view of ensuring me-diation as a mechanism for the resolution of disputes.

Adejumo said that ADR mechanism which was a major instrument of modern dispute resolution would be useful par-ticularly in labour and industrial arena. He added that, the cost effectiveness, speed and accuracy and retention of business relation by the parties would impact the economy positively.

Community MirrorWe have made rigging impossible for them as there is no how

the total number of votes cast at the polling unit should exceed the number of accredited persons.

INEC Chairman – Prof. Attahiru Jega

Federal House of Representatives, Candidate in Ajeromi/Ifelodun, Ajegunle, Lagos, Federal Constituency Honourable Barrister Rita Odichinma Orji; meeting with the Market women, during the distribution of gifts to the people, in Lagos.

Achusa, a small vil-lage in Makurdi local government of Benue

State has been thrown into confusion after an 11-year-old boy identified as Terkula Botwer committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree.

Tekula, who was accused of stealing N200 by his guardian, allegedly committed suicide to prove his innocence.

An eyewitness who pleaded anonymity noted that, “It all happened on Sunday morning when Mrs. Nadoo Hember, the boy’s guardian, was alleged to have complained that her only N200 was missing in the house she lived with the late boy.

“She confronted Terkula who denied taking the mon-ey, but as she was leaving for church, she allegedly warned the boy that if the money was not found, she would be forced to return him back to his par-

Former Chairman of Bwari Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory, Mr Isa

Dara, has applauded the impres-sive turnout of Nigerians in Sat-urday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Dara told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bwari on Sun-day that the large turnout of vot-ers, especially in the council area, was a complete deviation from the past.

Dara, who is seeking to repre-sent Bwari/Amac in the FCT, at the National Assembly under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), described the peaceful election as an improve-ment of the democratic process.

What I have seen today is im-pressive; people are really yearn-ing for a change, because the turn-out I saw is encouraging, so I think it’s a welcome idea.

``Which means people are ready and that shows they really

The Emir of Kanam, Alha-ji Babangida Mu’azu and the Chairman, Panskhin

Local Government of Plateau, Mr. Samuel Goar, on Saturday commended the peaceful con-duct of the Presidential and Na-tional Assembly elections.

They both commended the electorate in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria

(NAN) in Kanam and Pankshin Local Government Areas for their peaceful conduct.

While describing the election as `à success” despite the hitches in the accreditation of voters, Mu’azu said the maintenance of peace was ``paramount and laud-able.”

``We have every reason to thank the Almighty God for the way and

11-year-old boy accused of stealing N200, commits suicide

ents in the village.“Unfortunately, when she

got back from church later

hicles attacked some towns in Alkaleri and Kirfi Local Gov-ernment Areas.

“Today 29/3/2015 at about 12.25 am, unspecified num-bers of unknown gunmen in a convoy of over ten vehicles,

in the day, she got into the house and discovered that the boy was nowhere to be found.

But after a search, the life-less body of the boy was seen hanging on a tree at the back

stormed many polling units in Kirfi and Alkaleri Local Gov-ernment areas, destroying many election materials.

“The hoodlums further at-tacked Kirfi and Alkaleri Di-visional Police Headquarters,

but were repelled and pursued towards Dindima Town along Bauchi Gombe Road.

“Meanwhile, operations are still on-going .The entire surroundings have been cor-doned-off by combined secu-

Ex-LG chairman applaud Nigerians for massive turnout at polls

Emir, LG boss laud peaceful conduct of voters

Women fl eeing from insurgents give birth in bush

of the house.“It was at that point that

she raised alarm that attract-ed neighbours who gathered at the scene to rescue the boy who was already dead.”

Confirming the incident the Benue State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, ASP Austin Ezeani disclosed that the incident was reported on Sunday at the ‘B Division’ po-lice station in the State.

Ezeani further stated that officers attached to the Divi-sion were dispatched to the scene where the body was recovered and deposited at the Makurdi Federal Medical Centre.

The PPRO further stated “we are carrying out serious investigations into the matter in order to unravel the mys-tery of the bizarre death,” though no arrest has been made.

rity forces and effort is being intensified to restore normal-cy in the area.

“Members of the public are urged to remain calm and dis-regard rumour from mischief makers,” he said

want government to be closer to them?

``People have started to know why there is government and where government should exist and why they should choose the right person they want.

``Nigeria is growing, like be-fore, we see many people going to farms, when there are business-es, you will see shops open.

Now the shops are closed, ev-ery farmer is at home, just wait-

ing to go and cast his vote, to vote the person he wants, so, Nigeria is progressing.

So thats why this time up, peo-ple want change, people are really ready for a change, nothing more than that.’’

He, however, decried the at-titude by some people in some parts of the country who in-dulged in violence as a means to express their grievances, adding that the habit portrayed Nigeria’s

democracy in bad lightDara recalled that past in-

cidences of electoral crisis oc-curred mostly after the conduct of election, especially in the North, noting that such could hinder the peace and progress of democracy.

He stressed the need for Nigeri-ans to always seek peace and em-brace the will of God in the cause of choosing leaders to promote meaningful democratic growth.

Two pregnant women gave birth to babies in the bush Sunday

morning while fleeing from suspected Boko Haram in-surgents that attacked Gunti Gumi village of Alkaleri Lo-cal Government area in Bau-chi state.

An eye witness, Malam Bala Kurba, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the in-surgents stormed the village, forcing the residents to take to their heels.

“The pregnant women were among those who fled the vil-lage. I was also in the bush when I saw a group of women battling to assist the two preg-nant women deliver their ba-bies.

“The women gave birth suc-cessfully and were taken to a nearby community, where they were kept,” said Kurba, who is the Manager of the Bauchi State government-owned Community FM Radio station in Alkaleri.

Bauchi Police Command’s spokesperson, DSP Haruna Mohammed, confirmed the at-tack in a statement issued on Sunday.

He said that some unknown gunmen in a convoy of 10 ve-

manner we as Nigerians in this part of the country went about the election.

`Ìt is my hope that we shall all accept the result of this general election because power is only given by God,” the monarch said.

The royal father stressed the need for politicians to eschew vio-lence whenever the results of the election are declared by INEC.

48 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, March 30, 2015

The dangerous accord which is being negotiated in Lausanne (Switzerland) confirms our concerns and even

worse.

–ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU

Tunisia’s prime minister said yesterday a leading suspect in a deadly museum attack on foreign tourists has been killed in anti-terrorist operations, as tens of thousands of Tunisians marched through the capital to denounce extremist violence.

Chaieb is believed a prominent Algerian militant in al-Qaida’s North African arm, and suspected of leading or helping lead the March 18 attack on the National Bardo Museum.

Twenty-two people, mainly foreigners, and two gunmen were killed in the March 18 attack on the National Bardo Museum.

French President Francois Hol-lande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and several foreign ministers and legislators from other coun-tries are joining an anti-terrorism ceremony in Tunis after the march.

The Tunisian government called on all major political parties to join the march from the seat of govern-ment at Bab Es-Saadoun to the museum.

The international visitors are showing solidarity with Tunisia, whose fragile new democracy was deeply shaken by the museum attack, for which the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday denounced as “dangerous” a nuclear accord that world powers are negotiating with Iran, saying it goes beyond what his government had feared.

“The dangerous accord which is being negotiated in Lausanne (Switzerland) confirms our concerns and even worse,” Netanyahu said in remarks at a meeting of his cabinet broadcast on public radio.

Netanyahu denounced the “Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis which is dangerous for all of humanity and which must be stopped,” making a reference to the Swiss city where the talks are taking place.

The premier warned that Iran could be in a position to “conquer” the Middle East through what he called the “axis” of control it has over the capitals of Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.

The Israeli leader also said that his country had “strong, bipartisan support” from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the United States.

Netanyahu angered the White House when he addressed a joint session of the Congress to warn against a nuclear deal with Iran in the lead-up to Israel’s March 17 general election.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in remarks published yesterday he hoped key talks with international creditors would yield a “happy ending” in the standoff over the country’s crippling debt crisis.

Athens is set to present a list of economic reform proposals to international creditors this week in a bid to unblock a new 7.2 billion euro ($7.8 billion) tranche of EU-IMF loans and avoid a debt default.

“I am confident there will be a happy ending soon to this first phase of the negotiations, and to normalising the situation,” said Tsip-ras, whose anti-austerity Syriza party took power two months ago.

Tsipras’ remarks came after Ger-many’s Bundesbank chief Jens Weid-mann said Friday he opposed giving Greece any more emergency loans, accusing it of frittering away trust.

European paymaster Germany has been leading the push for aus-terity in Europe, with Greece com-plaining that the punishing budget cuts demanded were damaging its economy and threatening to force it out of the eurozone.

Paul arheweWITH AGENCY REPORTS

Guinean President Alpha Conde has declared a 45-day “health emergency”

in five regions of the Ebola-hit nation in a bid to stem the spread of the deadly disease.

The focus of the virus “has shifted to our country’s coastal areas”, the president said in a statement published in national media.

“That is why I am declaring a reinforced health emergency for a period of 45 days in the pre-fectures of Forecariah, Coyah, Dubreka, Boffa and Kindia,” he said.

The regions affected are in the west and southwest of the coun-try.

In the capital Conakry, “strict measures will be taken to in-crease vigilance in communi-ties,” the president added.

Since the Ebola outbreak be-gan in Guinea in December 2013, more than 24,000 people in nine

Saudi-led airstrikes in Ye-men will continue until Shiite rebels there “with-

draw and surrender their weap-ons,” a summit of Arab leaders decided yesterday, as they also agreed in principle to forming a joint military force.

The decision by the Arab League puts it on a path to more aggressively challenge Shiite power Iran, which is backing the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis.

A Saudi-led coalition began bombing Yemen on Thursday, say-

countries have been infected with the virus, and over 10,000 of them have died.

All but a handful of those deaths have occurred in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Conde announced a series of measures on Saturday, including the temporary closure of hospi-tals and clinics where there have been cases of Ebola.

“Anyone who hides the sick or moves bodies from one locality to another will be prosecuted ac-cording to the law for endanger-ing the lives of others,” Conde warned.

He called for a continued “un-wavering commitment” to the fight against Ebola.

The World Health Organiza-tion declared in January that the epidemic was finally declining in west Africa after the three coun-tries at the epicentre recorded a steady drop in cases.

But renewed concern has been triggered by fresh setbacks in the worst-hit nations.

Liberia on Saturday an-

ing it was targeting the Houthis and their allies, which include forces loyal to Yemen’s former leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Cur-rent and former Yemeni military officials have said the campaign could pave the way for a possible ground invasion.

At the summit, held in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby read a final communique outlining the leaders’ views.

“Yemen was on the brink of the abyss, requiring effective

Arab and international moves af-ter all means of reaching a peace-ful resolution have been exhaust-ed to end the Houthi coup and restore legitimacy,” Elaraby said.

The Houthis swept down from their northern strongholds last year and captured the capital Sa-naa in September. Embattled Pres-ident Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a close U.S. ally against a powerful local al-Qaida affiliate, fled first to the southern city of Aden and left the country last week.

Speaking at the summit Sat-urday, Hadi directly accused Iran of being behind the Houthi offensive, raising the specter of a regional conflict. Iran and the Houthis deny that Tehran arms the rebel movement, though the Islamic Republic has provided humanitarian and other aid.

Asked at a news conference to explain vague references to “for-eign powers” being behind con-flicts in different Arab nations, Elaraby said: “I will answer this question indirectly. There is med-dling by some neighbors, Israel on one side, Turkey and Iranian inter-ference in several countries.”

Leading suspect in Tunisia museum attack killed

Dangerous accord with Iran worse than Israel

Greece seeks happy ending as creditors mull loan deal

Guinean President, Alpha Conde

Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, wearing an army uniform, ride on an armed truck to patrol the international airport in Sanaa, Yemen, on Saturday.

Yemen airstrikes to go on until rebels withdraw –Arab summit

Guinean president declares 45-day Ebola emergency in five regions

World News

WORLD BULLETIN

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, March 30, 2015 49

nounced the death of a woman who last week became the coun-try’s first new Ebola patient in more than a month. Health offi-cials also said two new suspected cases had been identified.

Liberia has recorded more than 4,300 Ebola deaths but was at an advanced stage of recovery, expecting to be declared Ebola-

free by mid-April before the latest case in the capital Monrovia.

And Sierra Leone on Friday began a new three-day nation-wide lockdown sparked by fears that the virus was making a comeback in certain parts of the country.

The country’s six million peo-ple, with the exception of health workers, were to remain indoors from 0600 GMT Friday to 1800 GMT Sunday on orders from President Ernest Bai Koroma.

50

German plane crash: ‘Co-pilot may have had detached retina’

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, March 30, 201550 World News

Uzbekistan’s election commis-sion said 91 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday’s presidential election, where victory by long time authoritarian leader Islam Karimov is a foregone con-clusion.

The 77-year-old Karimov has led the former Soviet republic in Cen-tral Asia since the late 1980s and ruthlessly quashed all opposition to his rule.

While Uzbekistan is untroubled by any immediate signs of unrest, the future of the country of 30 million people is coloured with uncertainty amid a troubled security situation in neighbouring Afghanistan and the lack of a clear succession plan should Karimov suddenly leave office.

Economic woes could also be in store as a knock-on effect of the looming recession in Russia, where around 3 million Uzbeks live and work.

Russian news agencies, cit-ing the Uzbek Central Election Commission, said turnout was 91 percent. Results will be released Monday.

Karimov faced three purely nominal rivals. In the previous elec-tion in 2007, he won 91 percent of the vote.

France’s conservative UMP Party and its allies appear to have won well in the final round of de-partmental elections.

The UMP, led by former Presi-dent Nicolas Sarkozy, came first and appeared set to secure more than 60 local councils, exit polls suggested.

Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front also appeared to have made gains, while the ruling Socialists and their allies lost about 30 departments.

These elections are seen as a test case ahead of 2017’s presi-dential election.

Paris and Lyon, France’s two biggest cities, were excluded from Sunday’s election.

Lufthansa, the parent company of the budget airline, said the carrier was unaware of a psychosomatic or any other illness affecting Lubitz. “We have no information of our own on that,” a Lufthansa spokesman said.

A spokesman for state

prosecutors in Duesseldorf declined to comment on Sunday on the various media reports, adding there would be no official statement before Monday.

The mass circulation Bild am Sonntag said investigators had found evidence that Lubitz feared losing his eyesight,

An Air Canada plane slid off a runway and suf-fered heavy damage

while landing in the east coast city of Halifax yesterday, send-ing more than 20 passengers and crew to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The incident happened shortly after midnight. The airline said in an update on Sunday afternoon that all but one of those admitted to hospitals had now been released.

“We at Air Canada are greatly relieved that no one was critically injured. Yet we fully appreciate this has been a very unsettling experience,” Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Klaus Goersch said in a statement.

Air Canada said the Airbus A320 flying from Toronto was carrying 133 passengers and five crew members. The airline did not give the cause of the accident but said it was cooperating fully with investigators.

It was snowing heavily at the airport at the time of the accident. Passengers interviewed by local media described a “big flash” before landing and speculated the flight may have struck a power line, but this was not confirmed by the authorities.

Peter Spurway, a spokesman

The co-pilot suspected of crashing a passenger jet in the Alps may have

been suffering from a detached retina but investigators are un-sure whether his vision prob-lems had physical or psychologi-cal causes, a German newspaper said yesterday.

Bild am Sonntag also reported how the captain of the Germanwings Airbus had screamed “open the damn door!” to the co-pilot as he tried to get back into the locked cockpit before the jet crashed last Tuesday, killing all 150 on board.

Another German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, quoted a senior investigator as saying the 27-year-old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz “was treated by several neurologists and psychiatrists” and that a number of medications had been found in his apartment.

Police also discovered personal notes that showed Lubitz suffered from “severe subjective overstress symptoms”, he added.

Uzbekistan’s poll records 91 percent turnout

‘Conservative win French local elections’

WORLD BULLETIN German plane crash: ‘Co-pilot may have had detached retina’

Air Canada flight slides off runway, injuring passengers

Afghan court sentences photojournalist’s killer to 20 years in jail

Lubitz

apparently because of a detached retina.

However, it was unclear whether this was due to an organic failure or psychosomatic illness, when physical problems are thought to be caused or aggravated by psychological factors such as stress.

An Air Canada Airbus A-320 at Halifax International Airport after making an “abrupt” landing and skidding off the runway in bad weather, yesterday.

An Afghan police officer who shot and killed a vet-eran Associated Press

photographer during the coun-try’s 2014 presidential election has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, a Supreme Court offi-cial told Reuters yesterday.

The official spoke on condi-tion of anonymity because he

was not authorized to give state-ments to the press.

A second AP reporter was in-jured in the attack, which took place in eastern Khost province while they were sitting in their car inside a government com-pound.

Anja Niedringhaus, 48, a German national, was killed in-

stantly while Canadian reporter Kathy Gannon who had covered conflict in Afghanistan for 30 years survived the shooting.

The police officer had initial-ly been sentenced to death, but that decision was overturned by an appeals court and the Su-preme Court upheld that ruling, the court official said.

for the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, told local

media that power was out at the airport around the time of the

crash but did not give the cause. Power has since been restored.

Hollande

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 51Monday, March 30, 2015 News

L-R: President, Genotype Foundation, Mrs. Doris Gbemiloye; Former Acting Vice Chancellor, Lagos State University, Prof. Yemi Olatunji Bello and representative of Commissioner of Health, Dr. Olajumoke Oyenuga during Sensitization on Sickle Cell Disorder, Blood Group and Genotype in Lagos, at the weekend.


Aliyu loses Niger East Senatorial seat


ECOWAS declares Nigeria’s presidential elections acceptable

Elections: We made arrests in Lagos, says CPCommissioner of Po-

lice in Lagos State, Mr. Kayode Aderanti,

yesterday said some persons were arrested in the state on Saturday for being in possession of some election materials.

Aderanti disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, while monitoring the elec-tion in Oworonsoki area of Lagos yesterday.

He, however, did not men-tion the number of arrests made and the areas where they were made, but said that the suspects were un-der investigation.

The commissioner de-scribed the two-day exercise as peaceful, assuring that other elections in the state would be better.

“We are going to have the best election after now in Lagos where everybody will vote and go home because there would be no issue any-where,” he said.

Aderanti said he had been monitoring the elec-tions together with some sister security agencies, in-cluding the army, navy and State Security Service on land, air and on water.

On the drowning of some persons at Epe on Saturday during election, the com-missioner said they were looking into the incident.

NAN reports that there was a large turnout of vot-ers in the Oworonsoki area as many defied the rain to cast their ballot.

As at 4.30pm, voting had ended at polling unit 016, Mi-yaki area and was followed by counting of votes.

NAN reports that the ex-ercise was peaceful with the police and civil defence on ground to provide security.

Meanwhile, the police on electoral patrol yesterday arrested two hoodlums, who tried to truncate the voting process at Jabi Sarki Prima-ry School polling unit with code 014 in Abuja.

An officer, who spoke to NAN on the condition of anonymity said that the hoodlums came from Bwari Area Council to cause chaos at the polling unit.

He said police arrested the two because their ac-tion was capable of causing tension that could lead to

violence and mar the voting process.

He also said that a hand-cuff and other things were found in possession of one of the suspects who claimed to be a staff of the Security and Civil Defence Corps.

Meanwhile, Alhaji Garba Sokoto, a 64-year-old farmer, said that he had exercised his civic duty and was wait-ing to hear the outcome of the result.

Sokoto also confirmed that he saw police officers arresting two men who were taken in a marked Hilux van to the police station.

He commended the po-lice for the prompt response in bringing calmness to the polling unit as it was very rowdy a day before with hoodlums trying to truncate the process.

Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Presiding Officer at the polling unit, Mr. Abdul-lahi Abduramah, said the hoodlums were forcing the electoral officials to accredit them and allow them to cast their votes.

The Returning Officer for Lagos Island Federal Constituency 2, Mr. Ad-ekunle Salvador, said that Mr. Yakubu Balogun of the APC got 16,437 votes while Mr. Rahman Salawe of the PDP secured 7,305 votes.

The Returning Officer for Lagos Central senatorial election, Mr. Adebisi Adeg-bola, told journalists that the election was inconclusive on Saturday in one council area.

In Delta State, Deputy Leader, House of Representa-tives, Leo Okuweh Ogor was declared winner of Isoko Fed-eral Constituency election.

Ogor who is being re-elected for the fourth term on the platform of PDP de-feated three other contend-ers.

While declaring the re-sult, the Returning Officer for Isoko Federal Constitu-ency, Dr Omosode Osafile said Ogor polled 79,052 to defeat his closest rival, Mr. Daniel Oyovwe of the APC, who polled 6,626 votes, while the candidate of SDP came third with 4,257 votes.

Meanwhile, reports from Ondo State indicated that Governor Olusegun Mimiko lost the state Cen-tral Senate seat to the oppo-sition candidate.

The result which gave the APC candidate the ad-vantage further confirms the inability of the gover-nor to deliver the state to President Goodluck Jona-than even as the coordina-tor of his campaign in the South-West.

The ECOWAS Observ-er Mission, EOM, has declared that Satur-

day’s Presidential election is acceptable and meets the criteria of being free and transparent.

The declaration was made by the mission’s head and former President of Ghana, John Kuffour, in Abuja yesterday.

Kuffour expressed sat-isfaction with the commit-ment made by the Inde-pendent National Electoral Commission, INEC, political parties, security agencies and various entities on the electoral process.

He observed that the turn-out of voters was generally high with a laudable partici-pation of women and young people who displayed com-mendable level of patience and discipline.

“Security agents were present at most of the poll-ing stations and on patrols in and around the cities as peaceful atmosphere pre-vailed in most parts of the country,” he said.

The mission also noted that INEC officials dem-onstrated good knowledge and compliance with vot-ing procedures.

He also noted that agents of the major politi-cal parties, including All Progressives Congress, La-bour Party and the People Democratic Party, were in attendance in most polling units.

“The process of count-ing at the polling stations and the subsequent colla-tions at designated centres were successful and in accor-dance with the Electoral Act.

“Some of the challenges the mission observed dur-ing the exercise included the late arrival of INEC officials in many polling stations and malfunctioning of Card Readers across the country,” he said.

Kuffour further said the elections were still ongo-

ing in some affected polling units were elections had been extended by one day.

He said the mission also observed that there was in-sufficient and/or non-avail-ability of electoral materials in some polling units, which led to delay in accreditation and voting processes.

“Cases of attempt to snatch ballot papers were reported in some polling sta-tions leading to instances of uproar, shootings and spo-radic violence in the affected polling stations.

“Despite efforts by the relevant agencies to secure the electoral exercise, explo-sions were also recorded in some parts of the country,” he added.

EOM is part of the ECOWAS sustained efforts to support the consolidation of democracy and good gov-ernance in Nigeria.

The mission is also in line with ECOWAS guidelines on election-monitoring.

PRISCILLA DENNISMINNA

Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has

lost his senatorial bid to his rival and All Progres-sives Congress, APC can-didate, Mr. David Umaru

in the Niger East senato-rial district.

Umaru won in five out of the nine local governments that make up the zone.

Aliyu was defeated in all the wards of the five local governments as declared by the Independent Nation-al Electoral Commission,

INEC.While, the governor

scored 46,459 votes, Umar polled 149,443.

Declaring the results of the five councils, the Re-turning Officer, Prof. Ali Audu Jiigam told journal-ists that the APC candi-date polled 49,519 votes in

Chanchaga, the council of the governor who recorded 17,209 votes.

Aliyu scored 6,520 votes as against the APC candi-date’s 18,887 votes in Gura-ra local government, while in Shiroro, Umaru led with 27,191 votes Aliyu’s 7,519 vote

Also, the APC candidate beat Aliyu in Tafa local government with 17,596 votes as against 8, 151 votes, while in Bosso local gov-ernment, APC got 36,250 and PDP, 7,060 votes.

At the time of filing this report, results four local governments of

Suleja, Paikoro, Munya and Rafi were yet to arrive at the collation centre.

With the results from the five local govern-ments, APC supporters have started jubilating over the successful outing of the party and its candi-date.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net52 Monday, March 30, 2015North

Palm Sunday procession by members of St. Michael Anglican Church, in Kaduna, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

INUSA NDAHI MAIDUGURI

Thousands of inter-nally displaced per-sons, IDPs, and sol-

diers at various barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State, yesterday voted for candidates of All Progres-sives Congress, APC.

People from 16 of the 27 local government areas of

the state cast their votes in Maiduguri, where they are camped since they were dislodged from their homes by Boko Haram.

Camps visited by our correspondent where the IDPs cast their votes included the Teacher’s Village at Pompomari Es-tate, NYSC camp, Arabic Teachers College, Yerwa Government Girls College,

Government College, Mai-duguri, Bakkasi Housing Estate and Women Teach-ers College, WTC.

At polling unit 017 where displaced Gwoza residents cast their votes, APC scored 276 votes against PDP’s 28 in the presidential election. The situation was the same at Teacher’s Village where APC scored 315 against

PDP’s 41 and 297 against 33 votes in two separate poll-ing stations.

At Government House polling unit 1 in Mai-duguri, APC scored 218, while PDP got 28.

Similarly, at polling unit O29, APC polled 66 votes against PDP’s 24. At polling unit 30, APC polled 41 votes, while PDP clinched 21.

Displaced persons, soldiers vote against Jonathan in Borno

Mu’azu fails Jonathan, loses unit to APC EZEKIEL TITUS BAUCHI

Results so far re-leased of the Presi-dential and Na-

tional Assembly elections held yesterday showed the National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP, Adamu Mu’azu, failed to deliver his ward to President Goodluck Jonathan.

In Mu’azu’s hometown, PDP’s presidential candi-date, President Jonathan, got only 98 votes while presidential candidate of the opposition party, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, got 2,993 in Kardam B, Boto Ward in Tafawa Balewa council area of the state.

The Senate result also released showed that the senatorial candidate of

the opposition APC, Mal-lam Ali Wakili, won with a total of 2,300 votes, while PDP senatorial candidate and Bauchi Governor, Isa Yuguda, also lost in the same ward with a total vote of 1,600.

Barrister Dogara Yaku-bu of APC also won the House of Representatives elections with 2,347 to beat PDP candidate, who got 1,782 votes.

The PDP national chairman had in an inter-view with journalists yes-terday shortly after being accredited, said he was optimistic the PDP would win the elections.

According to him, “more than ever before, I am more than confident that PDP would lead de-spite speculations and animosities.”

Attacks have no bearing on election results Resident Electoral

Commissionerin Bauchi State, Prof.

Hamman Tukur, has said Saturday’s attacks on some polling units in Da-razo, Kirfi and Alkaleri

towns would have no ef-fect on election results.

Reacting yesterday to the reported attacks by unknown gunmen, Tu-kur noted that the attacks occurred when polls had

closed in Kirfi and Alka-leri, though ongoing in Darazo.

Tukur said INEC was informed in good time about the attacks, and that it reported the mat-

ter to security agencies, which responded prompt-ly.

According to him, no life was lost, and no seri-ous damage done to mate-rials.

PDP supporter dies in Kogi violenceWALE IBRAHIM LOKOJA

A Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP member, Alhaji

Megeudi, 35, fell victim to election violence and was killed by suspected rival gang on Saturday at Iyale in Dekina Local Govern-

…early results favour Buhari

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ment Area of Kogi State.The PDP supporter

was reportedly killed by a rival opposition gang over struggle to take pos-session of electoral ma-terials for their political parties.

The youths, who invad-ed the polling unit from different directions at about 9am, were attempt-ing to cart away election materials and card reader.

The struggle to out-do each other degenerated into violence and led to Megeudi’s death.

Sport–TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STRIKER, EMMANUEL ADEBAYOR

As to whether I will rescind my decision to quit the Togo team, I think we have to still

wait and see


54

Bale shakes off critics

Bafana force Eagles to 1-1 draw

Ahmed Musa

A 93rd minute goal from Bongani Zun-gu saved the Bafana Bafana of South Africa from home defeat yesterday

against the Super Eagles of Nigeria. Thus, the international friendly match

ended 1-1 draw at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.

Bafana dominated most of the game with Andile Jali denied from the spot by Nigeria’s keeper, Daniel Akpeyi.

Stand-in captain, Ahmed Musa, looked to have provided the sucker punch with five min-utes remaining, but Zungu popped up with vir-tually the last kick of the game to earn a draw for the home side.

Musa cut in from the left flank before curl-ing an unstoppable effort past Bafana goalkeep-er, Itumeleng Khune, from the edge of the area

in the 85th minute. With time running out the Super Eagles

looked to have won it but Zungu pounced af-ter Akpeyi parried Thuso Phala’s close range effort in the third minute of stoppage time to score the equalizer.

Aaron Samuel forced Khune into an early save. The burly forward dusted himself off af-ter being fouled by Erick Mathoho before firing his left-footed free-kick from 25 yards straight at the South African stopper who was up to the task.

The hosts conjured up their first chance with six minutes on the clock. A well worked one-two between Bongani Zungu and Thulani Hlatshwayo culminated in a first time effort by the Sundowns man who was denied by a leap-ing Akpeyi in the Nigerian goals.

AAG Lusaka battle: Siasia relies on Manu Garba playersJoel AJAyi ABUJA

Under-23 Team Coach, Samson Siasia, has bowed to the yearn-ings of many Nigerians by in-

viting five key members of the Manu Garba-led victorious 2015 Africa Youth Championship (AYC) Flying Eagles to camp ahead of second leg of the All

Africa Games (AAG) qualifier against Zambia in Lusaka in a fortnight.

The players include: captain Musa Muhamed, Taiwo Awoniyi, Sunday Alampasu, Bernard Bulbwa and Mus-tapha Abdullahi.

Siasia had insisted that no amount of pressure would make him to aban-don his players and look elsewhere for assistance, despite his team’s failure

to get the maximum three point in the first leg played in Abuja.

The U-23 team coach had told Na-tional Mirror in Abuja that a goalless draw by his side would not spell doom for Nigeria’s quest to grab Congo Braz-zavilleAAG ticket come April 11 when the reversed fixture will be played.

According to him, “It doesn’t mean that because we played draw here they

would not allow us to win over there. We just have to get our acts together and make sure we prepare better in front of goal before going into second leg.

“There is no need to think of bring-ing in other players. All we need is to work with the ones we have in camp now so we could perfect our strategies ahead of the second leg.”

54 Sports National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, March 30, 2015

Chelsea increases Varane-crazy tempo

role model for youth’

‘Kane,

England striker Harry Kane is a fantastic ex-ample for other young players, according to various analysts in England.

The 21-year-old took less than two minutes to score his first international goal as he made his debut in England’s 4-0 win over Lithuania on Friday night and has been in phenomenal form for Tottenham Hotspur since establishing himself in the starting lineup.

However, things have not always gone so smoothly for Kane and renowned analyst, Henry Winter, be-lieves it is his application as much as his ability that have enabled his meteoric rise this season.

“Everyone you talk to at Spurs, they just rave about Harry Kane as a person and as a footballer,” Winter said yesterday.

“They admire the way he has fought back, they saw him come through the ranks, he was very good with the U18s and then he went out on loan,” he add-ed.

“One of the reasons why it has struck a chord, maybe to kids generally but particularly to the younger generation of footballers, is that he has shown that a pathway can develop if you push for it.”

Another analyst, Andy Dunn, says Kane has im-proved his game to overcome certain limitations.

“If you speak to people who coached him through all those developmental years, everyone always used to say he lacked half a yard of pace and he’s worked on that,” Dunn explained.

“He’s adapted his game and the coaches have adapted his game and he is a good striker and fin-isher. That is why I think he is a great prospect, but I do think we all need to calm down a bit.”

Bale shakes off criticsWales forward, Gareth Bale, insists he has nothing

to prove to anybody after playing a starring role in a vital victory for Wales in Saturday’s European

Qualifier in Israel.The Real Madrid winger came into the match under scru-

tiny, having been criticised for his recent club form by the Spanish club’s supporters and the media.

His car was attacked by fans after last week’s 2-1 loss to Barcelona, but he responded with a fantastic performance in Haifa, setting up Aaron Ramsey’s opener and then scoring twice in the second-half.

“I don’t need to answer the critics,” Bale said after the match.

“There are ups and downs in football. You have to take it with a pinch of salt and all you can do is respond with your performances on the pitch, like that.

“I don’t feel I need to prove anyone wrong or right, I just need to play my football.

“I love playing for Wales. It’s a big honour and the most important thing is I focus on my football and I don’t listen to anyone else.

Wales now has a great chance of reaching Euro 2016, the win having taken the side to the top of Group B.

Raphael Varane

Kane

Bale

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 55SportsMonday, March 30, 2015

Taifa Stars and Flames of Malawi played to a 1-1 draw in their inter-

national friendly at the CCM Kirumba in Mwanza, Tanzania yesterday.

The Flames claimed an early lead through Mucium Mhone, who netted in the third minute

from a corner kick to put the visitors ahead.

The teams exchanged scoring chances through the remainder of the first half, but the break ar-rived with Malawi 1-0 to the good.

The second half continued in much the same manner, but this time it was the Taifa Stars’

Mbwana Samatta who got his name on the score sheet mid-way through the stanza to level the scores at 1-1.

The hosts pushed hard for a winner in the latter stages, but were unable to further trouble Malawi and the match ended in a stalemate.

Joel AJAyi ABUJA

President of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Alhaji Tijani

Umar, has commended the strong-willed spirit of the D’ Tigers in the past weeks which gave Nigeria the 2015 Afrobasket and All Africa Games tickets.

“The team has done well and it shows that we as a people can achieve whatever

we want to achieve,” Umar told National Mirror yester-day.

“We just have to ensure adequate preparation ahead of the continental basketball competition later in the year,” the NBBF boss added.

Nigeria sealed qualification to the 2015 FIBA Africa Bas-ketball championship in Tuni-sia and the All African Games in Congo with a 63-50 victory over Burkina Faso after the second leg of the qualifiers in

Lagos last week.D’Tigers have now joined

Angola, Egypt, Cote d’ Ivoire, Cameroon, Mali, Morocco, Uganda, Cape Verde, Zimba-bwe, Mozambique, Gabon, Congo and host Tunisia for a 17th appearance at FIBA Af-rica Championship built for the cities of Nabuel and Ham-mamet, Tunisia between Au-gust 20 and 30 as well as the 11th AAG scheduled for Sep-tember 4 to 19 in Congo Braz-zaville.

The month-long 2015 Ethnic Unity Cup Championship ended

at the Naval Playing Ground, Apapa last weekend with Team Ijaw carting away the trophy.

At the final witnessed by a representative of Governor Babatunde Fashola, Prince Wale Oladunjoye, who is also the Principal Special Assis-tant on Grassroots Sports De-velopment to the Governor, Team Ijaw beat Team Isoko 2-1 to emerge winner.

The third place match was won by Team Ukwuani

via 5-4 penalty against Team Isale Eko after a 2-2 draw at regulation time.

Prince Oladunjoye com-mended the organisers for organising what he called a great tournament which sur-passed the last edition.

Chief Coordinator, An-thony Ilkhator, thanked the Lagos State government for its support while urging the government to encourage competitions that would fos-ter harmonious relationship among ethnic groups in La-gos State.

Prizes and trophies were

given to the winner and runners-up, while individu-al and team awards of Best Goalkeeper, Best Defender, Best Midfielder, Highest Goal scorer and Best Coach also went to deserved winners.

Other dignitaries who graced the final were Ola-wale Faola JP, Ewa Henshaw of the Office of Grassroots Sports Development, Gover-nor Office, former Nigeria international, Ifeanyi Udeze; Efemena Elutabe, Hon. Ja-mal Oyebo and Fred Odita, among others.

Lagos State government has commended former athlete and Nigeria’s

team captain to the 1952 Hel-sinki Olympic Games, Alhaji Karim Babalola Olowu, OON, for instituting the annual best long jump athletes award.

Olowu represented Nigeria at the British Empire Games in 1950 and two Olympic Games in 1952 and 1956 as well as three Commonwealth Games where he won two silver medals.

The K.A.B Olowu Awards, which will be given to the best three long jump athletes in La-gos State, saw the first set of recipients honored during the prize giving ceremony for out-standing performance at the recent Lagos State Secondary Schools Sports Festival tagged IBILE Games 2015.

Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Barrister Wahid Enitan Oshodi, who was represented on the oc-casion by the Permanent Secre-tary, Office of Sports, Mr. Sowe-

Ibile Games Awards: Lagos hails ex-Olympian, Olowu

…Tanzania, Malawi share spoils

NBBF hails D’Tigers’ feat

Friendlies:

Chipolopolo bombs Rwanda in Lusaka

Team Ijaw wins Ethnic Cup

Rainford Kalaba

Fashola

Golden Eaglets yesterday failed to finish third at the CAF U-17 Championship after they lost 3-1

to Guinea.Both nations will feature at the FIFA U-17

World Cup in Chile in October.The Eaglets scored first in the 28th min-

ute through Victor Osimhen, his fourth goal of the tournament.

However, Guinea drew level through Aboubacar Toure in the 34th minute.

Abdoulaye Jules Keita then grabbed a brace in the 39th and 53rd minute to kill off the game for the Guineans who continued to search for more goals thereafter.

Nigeria and Guinea played out a 1-1 draw when they clashed in the group phase of the competition.

do Oluseyi Whenu, described the gesture by the legendary long jumper, saying it would en-courage upcoming athletes to give their best.

“He’s a role model for us all and we appreciate his magna-nimity for donating trophies and cash awards for the ath-letes,” Whenu said.

A student of Federal Col-lege of Science and Technology, Yaba, Kake Tope, who leaped 6.26 metre at the Lagos Second-ary Schools Sports Festival, won the award in addition to cash prize of N100, 000.

Second placed Idowu Timele-hin of International School, Akoka, Lagos with the jump of 6.21 metre was rewarded with N75, 000, while Agbo Olisa of White Sands Schools, Lekki with the record, 6.19 metre re-ceived N50, 000.

Three schools each in the in junior and senior secondary school categories at the 2015 Ibile Games also got equipment and facilities in various sports.

Vol. 05 No. 1079 Monday, March 30, 2015

w

World number one, Serena Wil-liams, showed

no sign of a recent knee injury in her opening match of the Maimi Open early yesterday as

she easily defeated Roma-nian Monica Niculescu 6-3, 6-1.

The match was the first for Williams since she withdrew before the semifinals at Indian

Wells last week, citing a right knee problem.

“It was a little sore in practice, but it was OK today,” the younger of the Williams sisters said after the match.

Although Williams had also defeated Niculescu two weeks ago, she strug-gled at the start with her opponent’s unorthodox game, which includes a squash-style slice fore-

hand that creates lots of spin.

“I was clearly frus-trated but I just try not to explode, which is hard because I’m really pas-sionate,” she added.

Tennis: Serena shines in Miami opening gameSport Extra

Fastest mile fi reman’s carry

N150

Printed and Published by Global Media Mirror Ltd: Head Offi ce: Mirror House, 155/161 Broad Street, Lagos Tel: 07027107407, Abuja Offi ce: NICON Insurance House, Second Floor, Central Business District Area, Abuja Tel: 08070428249, Advert hotline: 01-8446073, Port-Harcourt Offi ce: Suite 115, NICON Hotel, 6, Benjamin Opara Street, Off Olusegun Obasanjo Rd, GRA Phaze 3, Phone: 07032323254 Email: [email protected].

Editor: SEYI FASUGBA. All correspondence to PMB 10001, Marina, Lagos. Printed simultaneously in Lagos, Abuja and Akure. ISSN 0794-232X.

WORLD RECORD

Serena

Largest hands - living person

The largest hands on a l iving person belong to Sultan Kösen (Turkey, bor n 10 December 1982) who had hands measuring 28.5

cm (11.22 in) from the wrist to the t ip of the middle f inger.

[email protected]

HeartBeatCallistus Oke

[email protected] 08054103275 (SMS ONLY)

CARD READER FAILURE WAS NOT THE ONLY

LOW POINT OF INEC’S PREPARATIONS FOR THE

ELECTIONS

2015 elections: Triumph over pessimismUp to the eve of last Saturday presi-

dential and National Assembly elections, the impression created

in a section of the national media was that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party could still spring some surprises that would put paid to the ambition of General Muham-madu Buhari, the APC standard bearer in the presidential election. One of the front page stories in most of the national dailies of last Wednesday was to the effect that the PDP had procured a court judgement to disqualify Buhari.

Adding to the tension of a likely Buhari disqualification was the awaited ruling of an Abuja High Court in a case filed by one Barrister Chinwike Okafor seeking for the disqualification of the APC presiden-tial candidate. It was one of the series of cases seeking to stop General Buhari on the grounds of alleged perjury over his

affidavit on his certificates claims. For me, the last Wednesday ruling by the trial judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, which technically cleared the general to contest, was a triumph of social justice over legal activism. The nation was on the edge while waiting for the ruling. And when it came, there was no doubt it was a strong political sedative administered on a nation whose political temperature was on the critical point. With that ruling all imagin-able obstacles were cleared for Saturday polls.

Talking of fidelity to commitment to make the exercise a success, the Federal Government manifestly demonstrated a strong resolve, including overzealousness! I saw this in the initial closing of all the nation’s land and sea borders only for it to reverse itself on the closure of the sea borders, when it was reported that ‘ex-perts’ advised that such move would harm the economy. You will also recall that the FG preferred to err on the side of the law when it defiantly deployed soldiers for overt security duties during the elections instead of exposing the entire nation, including the voters, INEC personnel, election monitors and even parties chiefs to security risks.

I have always seen the politically mo-tivated contestation over the deployment of the military for limited electoral duties by the parties as normal reaction from a sordid history of state manipulation of se-curity agencies during general elections.

As tenuous as the legal-constitutional arguments against such deployment might be, there is no denying the fact that the political grounds leading to the opposi-tion are very solid. However, for this year’s general elections, any arguments against the deployment of the military given the palpable state of insecurity in parts of the country and our ugly history of election-induced violence would remain at best histrionics.

That the March 28 elections held in spite of both the rabble rousing and sabre rattling of the APC and PDP show the resilience of the nation. It is a different ball game altogether when INEC erects a super structural edifice far more sophisti-cated that the nation’s substructure. This is the context I see the failure of the apex electoral body’s technological innovation that is smart card reader. The device, which is expected to scan biometric iden-tity card (PVC) to authenticate the voter, is a measure meant to cut electoral fraud to the barest minimum, if not to totally eliminate it. The deployment proved to be INEC’s Achilles’ heel. President Goodluck Jonathan was the most high-profile victim

of the glitches occasioned by the deploy-ment of the technology. At a stage INEC buried its pride as it directed it field staff to do ‘manual accreditation’ to save the day.

Card reader failure was not the only low point of INEC’s preparations for the elec-tions. Nationwide, there was late and even non-arrival of election officials in some places. And in many states also, critical electoral materials like result sheets were not supplied to polling units. About 300 of the over 120, 000 polling were said to have been affected, and INEC’s response to these reported glitches was extending polling into Sunday. The shortfall of sensitive ma-terials also led to the postponement of elec-tion into the House of Representatives in 11 federal constituencies in Jigawa State.

A painful backlash of this development is the politicization of the failure of INEC. Quite unfortunately, the PDP, which never sanctioned the deployment of card read-ers, characteristically made Professor At-tahiru Jega, INEC boss, the fall guy. In con-trast, the APC showed more understanding in its reaction to the hitches, calling on its supporters to remain calm.

The deployment of the military could not stop Boko Haram from striking in selected areas in the North East; parts of Rivers State were turned into battle grounds; there were incidents of ballot boxes and smart cards snatching, among other political malfeasance. Jega did not cause them. Rather they are a portrayal of a nation still steeped in dirty politics. The nation needs more than a reformation of the electoral process or political reengi-neering to entrench and sustain clean political culture. Nigerians need renewal of the mind as well.

Whatever anyone says to the contrary, last Saturday polls were a huge success. That the elections held in the North East region was a national triumph over ter-rorism; and that the turnout was high nationwide was a reconfirmation of the confidence of Nigerians in the unity of the country.

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