Osinbajo named after late night call

Court orders firms to refund N1tr to ports users

NIGERIA THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2014 VOL. 1. NO.4 N150

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•APC digs into Awo family, RCCG to name candidate

•Tinubu: I rejected VP offer in nation’s interest

Gen. Buhari, unveiling Osinbajo ... yesterday. PHOTO: TEMITOPE BALOGUN

Augustine Aminu, Abuja; Mustapha Ogunsakin

“He l l o , P r o f . P l e a s e be pre-

pared. A chartered plane will be in Lagos to fly you

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

2 men sentenced to death for stealing fowl

Æ s

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2 Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014

Editorial

Dealing with oil workers strike

More info: www.dailytimes.com.ng

The industrial strike embarked upon by the National Union of Petroleum and Gas (NUPENG) and Petro-

leum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGAS-SAN) is very worrisome, coming at this time of the year. The action has not only disrupted economic activities all over the country, it is also threatening to shut down the entire system of government administration. According to NUPENG and PENGASSAN, the ac-tion followed government refusal to address some of the problems affecting the oil industry. They accused it of not maintaining the refineries and ensuring they had adequate supply of crude oil, as well as neglecting to combat pipe-line vandalism. Moreover, they are calling for the passage of the Pe-troleum Industry Bill (PIB), aimed at overhauling the inefficiency in the sector and ending of unfair labour practices. The demands include carrying out turnaround maintenance of the refineries, reduction in pump petrol prices, improvement in the country’s neglected road network, curbing pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, stemming the high rate of divest-ment and attendant job losses in the industry. Furthermore, the unions insist that their members will not suspend the strike until there is a strong commitment from both the government and opera-tors to resolve the issues.

We acknowledge that industrial strike is a legitimate weapon of collective bargaining and negotia-tion in every democratic society. So, when labour resorts to this option, it is an indication that all avenues for resolution of the conflict have broken down. It is pertinent that the government looks into this barrage of griev-ances with all the seriousness it deserves. For example, the menace of oil theft and sea piracy in the maritime sector is becoming wor-risome, with the feeble attempt to curb the vices. Despite the mas-sive investment in surveillance facilities and other state-of-the-art equipment, it is estimated that the country loses about $25 billion to oil theft annually. Another area of grievance is the allegation that the authorities have concluded plans for the sale of the country’s four refineries. Much as the oil workers reserve the right to strike in order to press home their demands, we make bold to remind them that the timing of their action robs it of all altruism. It has been in the man-ner of the unions to embark on wildcat strikes, especially during festive periods, in the hope of cre-ating a groundswell of animosity against the government.

This ritual has to stop if the unions are desirous of getting the sympathy of Nigerians. On its part, government must not wait until there is a breakdown of communication between it and the unions before it acts to resolve

The opinions expressed in the articles published in this newspaper are solely those of the authors. Articles may be reproduced, provided that the original source is indicated.

Group Managing DirectorNoel Anosike

Managing EditorGabriella Osamor

EditorYinka Olujimi

Deputy EditorYemi Ogunsola

Abuja Bureau ChiefBisi Abidoye

Head of OperationsInnocent Nwankwo

PublisherFidelis Anosike

Deputy Head of OperationsMark-Anthony Osilaja

Head, Sales & MarketingMoses Ebong

Head ICT (Shared Services)Banjo Ayorinde

Head GraphicsKing Ododoru

Corruption is not a Nigerian word, it is an English word, they have it there too, it is all over the place, it is in America, in England in Africa, in Asia. Each group has a word for corruption, you can’t have a word for what does not exist? –Former Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa.

Ondo state is blessed with a lot of potentials and we cannot but continue to develop these potentials and maximise it for the growth of our economy and promotion of our natural resources, culture and heritage--- Segun Mimiko, Ondo State Governor.

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of

criticism. ---Wole Soyinka

If the legislature is corrupt, you go to the judiciary for redress. If the executive is corrupt you go to the judiciary for remedy. If the judiciary itself is corrupt, where do you go from there? ---Former Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa.

Appointing Osinbajo as my Attorney- General is the wisest decision I have ever taken in my

life. I am proud to be a successful governor but Osibajo’s story is part

of my success.--- Former Lagos State Governor,

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Daily Times NigeriaThurssday, December 18, 2014 3

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 20144

At Acorn Petroleum, we remain committed to delivering unrivaled products and services to our customers. Acorn Petroleum Plc., your new energy

Jonathan Eze

Former Presiden-tial candidate of the All Peoples Party (APP) and

now member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Oluyemisi Falae, has described as undemo-cratic the decision of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to present President Goodluck Jonathan as the sole candidate of the par-ty ahead the 2015 general

election. In an interview with

the Daily Times, Falae opined that there should have been a level playing ground for all those that are interested in contest-ing for any position.

According to him, if it is expensive to conduct party primaries, what should Nigerians expect during next year’s general election.

He urged the electorate to elect the leaders they want without being en-ticed with money or any form of inducement.

Falae frowned at what he described as display of wealth by aspirants into the various offices who went as far as bribing del-egates with foreign cur-rency.

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014 5 News

Jonathan Eze

A federal high court sitting in Abuja has ordered the

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Indepen-dent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to maintain the status quo on the contentious guber-natorial primary election held in Lagos over a week ago.

The court has fixed De-cember 23, 2014 for INEC

and the PDP to appear before it and has forbid-den Mr. Jimi Agbaje , the acclaimed winner to stop parading himself as the candidate of the PDP until the suit is heard.

Senator Musiliu Oban-ikoro had pleaded with the court to compel the PDP not to accept the result of the primary election held on the 8th of December in Lagos due to the alleged rigging that saw 806 ac-credited voters turn in 866 votes.

Obanikoro also asked the court not to recognize Jimi Agbaje because he joined the party barely six months ago and as such is unfit to contest for gover-norship since the Nation-al Working Committee of the party had not given him a waiver.

Another allegation was that the leader of the party in Lagos, Chief Olabode George, allegedly came with thugs to scare away accredited voters loyal to Obanikoro from

the venue.Hence, Obanikoro seeks

an outright cancellation of the exercise and a date for a new one.

When contacted, the director of media to Jimi Agbaje, Mr. Felix Oboag-wina, said that he was not aware of the order and wondered what exactly is the status quo that the court is asking to be main-tain.

He added that he would contact his principal and respond appropriately.

The Chief of De-fence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh,

Wednesday assured that elections would hold in the troubled areas of the North East in 2015.

According to him, the nation is winning the war against the Boko Haram sect, saying that Nigeri-ans should have faith in the military.

Marshall Badeh spoke with State House Corre-spondents after President Goodluck Jonathan met with security chiefs at the Presidential Villa.

The President had ear-lier met with the security chiefs on Tuesday.

The Chief of Defence Staff said the meeting was to brief the President about the current security situation in the country.

“You are aware of the security situation in the

country, the President thought it fit to call us this morning to brief him about the current situa-tion of things. We have told the President exactly where we are and our fu-ture plans. As you know, we can’t talk about our fu-ture plans here, that will mean us telling the enemy what we are doing,” the four star general said.

On the fake Boko Ha-ram members arrested by the State Security Service and his earlier ceasefire order, Badeh said it was better not to discuss such matter as the DSS was on it.

“It is better not to dis-cuss those things. SSS is on it, they are doing their own investigation. They did a briefing yesterday and they have told you ex-actly what they are doing. It is better we leave the SSS to handle that one,”

Court orders obanikoro, Agbaje to keep status quo

L-R: Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah; Chief Of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh; Chief Of Air Staff, Air Marshal Olusola Amosun and Inspector General Of Police (Igp), Suleiman Abba during a briefing with State House correspon-dents after their breakfast meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja yesterday.

By Monday Agu Jnr.

President Goodluck Jonathan yes-terday led other members of the

Federal Executive Council in eulogizing the late for-mer Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olugbenga Ashiru who died recently in South Africa at the age of 66.

Ashiru served as Minis-ter of Foreign Affairs be-tween July, 2011 and Sept, 2013.

Jonathan described the late minister as a patriotic

diplomat who helped the country to streamline its foreign relations within and outside the African continent.

According to the presi-dent, Ashiru played a key role in the country’s suc-cessful management of the international outrage that greeted the visit of the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, to the country at a time the International Court of Justice had issued an arrest warrant in him.

“ Within the period he served we had a lot of chal-lenges in West Africa.

“We had the Ivorian crisis, we had the Libyan crisis, we had the military coup d’etat in Niger.

“Incidentally within that period, I was the chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Gov-ernment.

“And without a foreign minister that knew his on-ions, I couldn’t have been able to manage the situ-ation. With Ambassador Ashiru by my side we were able to pull through.

“When the President of

Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, vis-ited Nigeria, the world was alerted and they were all looking at Nigeria.

“He (Ashiru) had to move with the Attorney-General and they were able to calm the situation because of the personal relationship he had with some of the global players.”

Jonathan said that the country had lost a rare gem in Ashiru and urged serv-ing ministers of foreign af-fairs to draw from his com-mitment and dedication to the protection of the coun-try’s interest.

FEC holds valedictory session for Ashiru

2015: Elections’ll hold in North East, says CDS

Jonathan’s sole candidacy in PDP undemocratic, says Falae

Jega

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014News 6

here for a major meeting right-away.”

“Fly me where, Gover-nor?”

“Abuja, of course. Your attention is urgently need-ed in Abuja tonight. A ma-jor meeting is under way and it is important for you to be here.”

“I am already in Abuja. I have a matter at the Su-preme Court tomorrow.”

“Abuja? Allah be praised. Where exactly? Your attention is needed urgently.”

That was the conversa-tion between Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and eminent lawyer, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, just about 11pm on Tuesday. A few hours after, Osinbajo was un-veiled as the Vice Presi-dential candidate of his party, the All Progressives

Congress (APC).A former Lagos State

Governor, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, under whom Osinbajo served as Attorney-General, said yesterday that he was ap-proached by Gen. Abacha for the Vice President slot but that he turned it down in the nation’s interest. He also counselled against making religion an impor-tant factor in conducting elections.

The nomination at the 1am meeting not with-standing, Osinbajo con-tinued with his legal com-mitments, according to sources.

It was learnt that the APC Vice Presidential candidate still went to the Supreme Court where he appeared in the case that took him to Abuja.

Despite being so named, Osinbajo decided that his duty as a lawyer must still be carried. By

Osinbajo is an in law of the Obafemi Awolowo fam-ily. His wife, Oludolapo, is a grand daughter of the late Awolowo and daugh-ter of the statesman’s daughter, Mrs Ayo Soyode who died in 2011.

Despite the frenzy of the last four days concerning his nomination as a Vice Presidential candidate of the APC, Osinbajo had attended to all matters he had in his chambers. He was before a Lagos High Court on Tuesday and left Lagos for Abuja in the eve-ning only to be called by Aregbesola, with whom he served as cabinet mem-bers in the Lagos Execu-tive Council between 1999 and 2007.

Aregbesola was going to arrange a chartered flight to convey Osinbajo to Abu-ja when the Vice Presiden-tial candidate told him he was in Abuja to attend to a suit he had before the Su-

preme Court on Wednes-day.

A team was then dis-patched to fetch him from his hotel. He got to meet Buhari at 1.00 am Wednes-day. In the morning, Osin-bajo still attended to his case before the Supreme Court. He defended Hon Abegunde, a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly who defected from Labour Party to APC

The APC presidential candidate Osinbajo pre-sented to the media as his running-mate after days of marathon meetings and horse-trading by leaders of the party.

The candidate was un-usually effusive as he described Osinbajo as “a man of unimpeachable integrity, an excellent pro-fessional, a man of faith, a devoted family man and a role model”, to the wild applause of party leaders at the ceremony.

How Osinbajo emerged APC candidateUgochukwu Onyeocha

Emir of Kano, M u h a m m a d u Sanusi II, may have stepped on

the toes of Boko Haram terrorists and is being put under surveillance by members of the sect..

A leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, yester-day, in a video, vowed to at-tack the Emir as payback for the monarch’s call on Kano residents and other Nigerians to arm and de-fend themselves against Boko Haram following the recent bombings in Kano.

In the video, Shekau was questioning the faith of the Emir, saying the group does not consider the monarch a true Mus-lim. The terrorist leader thus said that they would attack the Emir whenev-

er an ample opportunity presents itself.

A multimedia & bilin-gual journalist with BBC World Service, Naziru Mi-kail, claimed the terrorist group’s threat against the Emir was contained in a new video released by the group on Tuesday.

Mikail posted the group’s threat on his twit-ter handle Naziru Mikail @nazirumikailu, thus

#BokoHaram leader vows to attack Emir of Kano in a new video re-leased last night #Nigeria.

Shekau, in a 19-minute video, first released last Saturday, did not claim re-sponsibility for the Kano Mosque attack.

But he said his group was prepared to fight and kill anyone who challeng-es its ideology, and all non-Muslims and “fake” Mus-lims like the Emir.

‘Shekau’ threatens to attack Emir SanusiCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

AN SHIPPERS’ COUN-CIL and SUIT NO. FHC/CS/1704/2014 – APAPA BULK TERMINAL LTD & ORS Vs NIGERIAN SHIP-PERS’ COUNCIL.

The court held that the

Court orders private operators to refund N1tr to ports users

Shipping Line Agency Charges (SLAC) collected from shippers in the coun-try by shipping companies since 2006 is illegal.

Justice Buba gave the orders sequel to an origi-

nating summons filed be-fore him by some shipping companies urging the court to determine issues that concerned the legal status of the NSC. They cited the NSC as defen-

dant in the suit. President Goodluck

Jonathan had on Febru-ary 2014 appointed the Nigerian Shippers Coun-cil (NSC) as the Economic Regulator of the Nigerian

Mustapha Ogunsakin

A Federal High Court has void-ed charges im-posed on ports

users by private shipping companies and terminal operators. In effect, the companies are to refund the charges which had been imposed on the users since 2006.

The refund is valued at over N1 trillion.

Justice Ibrahim Buba, who gave the orders in a suit filed by the terminal operators, affirmed the ap-pointment of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) as the economic regulators of ports. He struck out two suits by the shipping com-panies.

The matters, filed as SUITS NO. FHC/CS/1646/2014, are en-titled: ALRAINE SHIP-PING AGENCIES (NIG) LTD & ORS Vs NIGERI-

ports in line with his ex-ecutive powers.

Based on this appoint-ment, the NSC issued no-tices to both the shipping companies and Terminal operators to reverse all illegal charges levied on Nigerian shippers. Dissat-isfied, the shipping com-panies and the Terminal Operators, mostly foreign owned, filed these suits to invalidate the actions of the NSC.

The plaintiffs include: Apapa Bulk Terminal Ltd, ENL Consortium Ltd, West Africa Container Terminal Ltd, APM Ter-minals Ltd, Joseph Dam Port Services Ltd, Tin-Can Island Container Ltd, Ports and Cargo Handling Services Ltd, Five Star Logistics Ltd, Ports and Terminal Operators Ni-geria Ltd. BUA Port Ser-vices Ltd, BRAWAL Oil Services Ltd, and ECM Terminals Ltd.

Finance Minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala laying the 2015 budget proposal before the National Assembly yesterday

Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014 7 News

The leading ground handling company in the country’s avia-

tion industry, the Nige-rian Aviation Handling Company, NAHCO, Plc, has sacked no fewer than 15 of its top management staff over what it termed “restructuring exercise of the company.”

It was gathered that more staff of the ground handling company would still be dismissed in the next couple of months.

Some of the positions af-fected in the recent purge in the company included Assistant General Man-agers, General Managers and a few others, while the affected departments in-cluded Human Resources, Corporate Communica-tions, Risks Management departments and the of-fice of the Managing Di-rector.

The sacking spree had started in late October with the dismissal of the Managing Director, Mr.

Kayode Oluwasegun-Ojo by the Board of Directors and the immediate an-nouncement of a replace-ment for him.

NAHCO had claimed, then, that the removal of Oluwasegun-Ojo was in line with the company’s succession plan and good corporate principles.

The board, then, an-nounced Mr. Norbert Biel-derman as the Ag. Manag-ing Director effective from October 23, 2014.

However, investigation carried out by our corre-

spondent revealed that un-certainty has rented the air in the ground handling company, as several staff, especially from the Assis-tant General Manager up-ward were unsure of their future in the company.

Some of those spoken with by our correspon-dent, but craved anonym-ity, alleged that all may not be well with the company after all, saying that rath-er than sack workers, the ground handling company needed to employ more staff to beef up its opera-

tions.The source said: “No

one is sure of his or her tomorrow in NAHCO at the moment. The rate at which people are fired and hired is unprecedented in the company. In the last one year, over 70 person-nel have either been fired by the board of directors or resigned from the com-pany. But, the truth is that we actually need more hands to beef up our op-erations and not sack of competent personnel.”

NAHCO sacks 15 officers in ‘restructuring exercise’

Despite employ-ing over 8,000 graduates of National Certif-

icate of Education (NCE), Higher National Diploma (HND) and university graduates, the Niger State Government has said it has registered over 38,000 unemployed graduates awaiting employment.

Governor Muazu Ba-bangida Aliyu made this known when he received the Director of Education Corps of the Nigeria Air Force, Air Commodore Sani Naiya, in Minna.

Decrying the high lev-el of unemployment of graduates, Aliyu urged individuals and corporate organizations to reduce the figure as the state will welcomed their efforts.

Responding to the re-mark by Naiya of the readiness of Nigeria Air Force to employ teachers and non-teaching staff from the state to teach in the school built in Minna by the state government and donated to the force promised to assist NAF in the fencing of the school and construction of ac-cess roads.

Earlier, the Director of Education Air Commo-dore Sani Naiya thanked the state government for constructing and donat-ing the school to the force, while assuring that re-cruitment of pupils and students into the school will be done in favour of the state.

Niger registers 38,000 unemployed graduates

Eno-Obong Okon, Uyo

A non-governmen-tal organisation, Community Po-licing Partners,

has called for the establish-ment of Security Trust Fund to take charge of security lo-gistics in the country.

Executive Director of the organization, Mr Saviour Akpan, made the call in Uyo,

on Wednesday, during a-one-day Sensitisation Training on “Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights” for security officers.

According to him, the trust fund, when established, would provide security agen-cies with logistics to quicken their operations.

He advised that extractive industries in the country be made to contribute to the

trust fund, since they are the direct benefactors of se-curity agent services in the country.

Akpan also stated that se-curity personnel employed by extractive industries in the country should be mind-ful of the rights of members of host communities.

He added that the abuse of rights had been one of the causes of conflict between

the companies and their host communities.

He said: “Among many controversies that surround the operations of extractive industries around the globe is the persistence of security forces. Many of the security personnel that have been employed by oil, gas, and mining companies, have re-portedly been said to be com-mitting grave human rights

abuses against the members of their host communities.”

According to him, train-ing on voluntary principles for security and human rights was aimed at exposing stakeholders on how they could protect the company’s assets without abusing the rights and fundamentals freedoms of their host com-munities.

NGO sets up security trust fund

L-R:Executive Chairman, Champion Newspapers Ltd, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyawu; Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha; represen-tative of Abia State Governor, Prof Chudi Uwazuruike; a former commissioner for Information in Abia State, Dr ACB Agbazuere, and Deputy Chairman, Imo Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sunday Chikwe, during the Most Outstanding Governor Award bestowed on Gov. Orji to mark the 25th anniversary of Cham-pion Newspapers in Owerri, Imo state, recently.

Gov. Aliyu

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 20148

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014 9 News

Jonathan urges firm global action against insurgency

Monday Agu Jnr.

President Good-luck Jonathan has called on world leaders to unite

and form stronger action against the scourges of insurgency and piracy in West Africa and beyond.

Speaking at the 46th Or-dinary Session of the Au-thority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja, yes-terday, President Jonathan noted that the sub- region’s security challenges were getting out of hand.

He expressed further re-

gret about the damage Eb-ola Virus Disease has done to West Africa, adding that stronger alliances were needed to combat these challenges.

The President noted that the aforementioned chal-lenges constitute direct negative consequences on the continued peace, stabil-ity and prosperity of the region.

His words, “Worrisome is the ravaging scourge of terrorism, which now threatens the peace and se-curity of our sub-region.

“In the Sahel region, we have witnessed increasing proliferation of small arms and light weapons. As a

result, countries in the re-gion are today threatened by insurgents or terrorists.

“These actions have di-rect consequences for the continued peace, stability and prosperity of the re-gion.

“In the Gulf of Guinea the increasing incidents of piracy has assumed a wor-risome dimension.

“This is confounded by drug trafficking, oil bun-kering and human traffick-ing. All of these require ur-gent and concerted actions from all of us.

“I therefore, call for stronger and more effective regional, continental and global alliance to rid our

region of terrorism, piracy and violent extremism,” the President said.

The Nigerian leader also expressed satisfaction with the fact that West Africa was the fastest growing sub region in the conti-nent, recording an econom-ic growth rate averaging seven per cent in 2013 com-pared to 6.6 per cent in 2012.

He attributed this to the region’s huge markets and various integration pro-grammes that continued to attract regional and for-eign investors.

He urged the ECOWAS commission to continue to coordinate the full im-plementation of various

Alao-Akala promises people-oriented govtRemi Oladoye

Former Gover-nor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala and

the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Oyo State has said that his government would be centred on people-orient-ed projects if re-elected.

He told newsmen in

Ibadan on Wednesday that such a style of gov-ernance characterised his first term in office as the governor of the state and was ready to do better if re-elected.

Alao-Akala expressed optimism that his party would win the next gov-ernorship election in the state.

The LP flag-bearer

promised to reshape the economy of the state by patronising local con-tractors to allow money to circulate in the state’s economy.

``Prioritising the needs of the people based on their demands had always been my style of gover-nance. I cannot procure fertiliser for the people of Ibadan North Local gov-

ernment, which is located within Ibadan city, instead of Iseyin. Money will only flow within the economy of the state when capital flight is discouraged”

“ How will l patronise contractors outside the state when there are pro-fessionals here, who will, in turn, patronise our var-ious market people.

“I am a grassroots man

who so much loves put-ting smiles on the faces of the people and will never relent in doing that. It has been my nature and life philosophy to live and let others live,’’ he said.

Alao-Akala, who was the governor of the state from 2007 to 2011 on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), recently defected to the

Folarin picks two-time LG boss as running mate, promises better deal for Oyo

Twenty-four hours to the deadline for the final submission of candidates to the Independent Na-tional Electoral Commis-sion (INEC) by political parties, the Peoples Demo-cratic Party governorship candidate in Oyo State, Senator Teslim Kolawole Folarin, yesterday un-veiled his deputy and run-ning mate, Hon. Ezekiel Oyedepo.

Oyedepo was a former Chairman of Oriire Lo-cal Government in Ogbo-moso. Also, Folarin ap-pointed a former Speaker of the state House of As-sembly, Alhaji Asimiyu Alarape from Oyo town as the Director-General of his campaign team.

Members of a local chapter of the National Association of Butchers, from 11 local governments in Ibadan, Oyo state, on Wednesday, vowed not to leave their various slaughter grounds for the newly- opened abattoir on Moniya/Oyo Road, in Amosun village.

Their spokesman, who is also the chairman of Ibadan North Local Government arm of the Union, Alhaji Ganiyu Olobo, told reporters, in Ibadan, that a former governor of the state, Al-haji Lam Adesina, who moved the Hausa commu-nity out of Bodija market due to incessant attacks between them and the Yoruba, knew what his government encountered prior to the separation of the two camps, because of the unhealthy rivalry that pervaded the market then.

Oyo Butchers shun new abbattoir

economic integration pro-grammes of the organisa-tion.

This, according to him, is to fast-track the economic development of the region in the years ahead.

Jonathan

L-R: Founder and CEO, Field of Skills and Dreams Vocational Technical and Entrepreneurship Academy, Mrs. Omowale Ogunrinde; First Lady of Lagos State, Dame Abimbola Fashola and Mrs. Yinka Yussuf at the formal opening of the academy in Lagos, recently. Photo: Taofeek Babajide

Tanzania’s AG, Frederick Werema, quits amid corruption row

Tanzania’s At-torney Gen-eral Frederick Werema has re-

signed, making him the first casualty of a cor-ruption scandal that has rocked the government.

MPs last month ac-cused him of authoris-ing the fraudulent transfer of about $120m (£76m) to an energy firm.

He denied wrongdo-ing, but quit because the controversy had “disrupted the country’s political atmosphere”, a presidential statement said. The corruption al-legations have led to do-nors suspending aid to Tanzania.

President Jakaya Kik-wete took office in 2005 with a promise to tackle corruption in govern-ment, but critics accuse him of failing to live up to his pledge.

Tanzania’s parlia-

ment, dominated by the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, passed a resolution last month, calling on him to sack Mr Werema.

It also called for the dismissal of Prime Min-ister Mizengo Pinda, En-ergy and Minerals Min-ister Sospeter Muhongo and other senior offi-cials.

All the officials and companies implicated in the scandal denied any wrongdoing.

An investigation by a parliamentary watchdog committee found that about $120m of govern-ment money had been taken from an escrow account, paid to an en-ergy firm and then given to various government ministers.

In his resignation let-ter, Mr Werema said he was stepping down “be-cause his advice on the... escrow account issue

had not been understood and had disrupted the country’s political atmo-sphere,” the president’s statement is quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

The escrow account was held jointly by state power firm Tanesco and independent power pro-ducer IPTL.

The money was trans-ferred to IPTL’s owner Pan Africa Power (PAP) in 2013. PAP said the transfer was legal.

Non-governmental or-ganisations in Tanzania have urged the govern-ment to prosecute offi-cials linked to the scan-dal, Reuters reports.

A group of 12 donors - including Japan, the UK, the World Bank and the African Development Bank - decided in Octo-ber to withhold about $490m until the govern-ment takes action over the alleged corruption.

Tanzanian premier, Mizengo Pinda

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014Africa 10

A British char-ity boss who preyed on vul-nerable Ke-

nyan street children has been found guilty of sex-ual abuse.

Simon Harris was con-victed of eight charges of indecent and sexual as-sault on youngsters in Gil-gil, and four of possessing indecent images of chil-dren.

Birmingham Crown Court heard he would lure boys to his house in Ke-nya by offering them food, shelter and money.

Harris, 55, of Pudleston, near Leominster, Here-fordshire was cleared of 10 further charges, including rape.

Documentary crew tip-off The jury failed to reach a verdict on one remain-ing rape charge. He will be sentenced in the new year.

It was the first prosecu-

tion to use legislation that allows British citizens to be tried for sex offences committed abroad against children if it is also an of-fence in that country.

Before the trial, Har-ris also admitted six of-fences of indecent assault against three boys aged between 13 and 14, when he was a teacher at Sheb-bear College, Devon in the 1980s.

Det Ch Insp Damian Barratt, of West Mercia Police, said Harris used his work to exploit some of the most vulnerable children on the planet.

“He was a predatory sex offender who, over a number of years, groomed and exploited children and those around him in order to perpetrate his abuse,” he said.

Harris had faced 23 charges in total, including 18 allegations relating to

assaults.The offences in Kenya

were committed while Harris was running a gap year charity he set up in the East African country, in the 1990s.

During his trial prosecu-tors said he lured home-less boys to his home, known locally as “The Green House”, by offering them food and shelter.

The court heard he would drive into Gilgil and encourage them to get into his Land Rover, with food and money.

One man who claimed he had been raped by Har-ris as a child, committed suicide shortly after giv-ing evidence.

Michael Kamondia was among several boys to tes-tify across a live video link from Kenya but died on 7 December, days before the jury retired to consider its verdicts.

A popular but controversial Kenyan blog-ger has been

charged with undermin-ing the presidency, fol-lowing a tweet he posted earlier this week.

Robert Alai, a fierce government critic, called President Uhuru Kenyat-ta an “adolescent presi-dent”.

He denied the charge and was released on bail of $2,000 (£1,300) but or-dered not to post similar comments while investi-gations continue.

Somaliland has seized more than 51 Yemeni boats and an Egyptian

ship for fishing illegally in its waters, an official has said.

Admiral Ahmed Osman said coast-guards had also arrested more than 250 fishermen who were on board.

This is the biggest arrest ever by Somaliland’s coast-guards, trained by Western states to curb piracy and illegal fishing off its coast.

Illegal fishing has deplet-ed fishing stocks along the Somali coast.

Correspondents say years of illegal fishing by foreign trawlers devastat-ed the livelihoods of many

people, some of whom then became pirates who at-tacked vessels for ransom.

Piracy in the region has declined in recent years fol-lowing the deployment of a multi-national naval force.

Last month, the Europe-an Union Naval Force pro-vided training and equip-ment to the Somaliland coast-guard.

Briton found guilty of child sex abuse Kenyan blogger charged over Uhuru Kenyatta slur

Mr. Alai is among Ke-nya’s most prominent and influential bloggers.

He has 140,000 follow-ers on Twitter.

A report from Nairobi says Alai attracts love and hate in equal mea-sure.

On the same day as call-ing Kenyatta an “adoles-cent president”, he also tweeted the phone num-

bers of the president and other senior officials.

Alai has already re-ceived massive support on Twitter from Kenyans who see his prosecution as part of a government scheme to curtail media freedom and freedom of expression. Soon after be-ing released, he tweeted defiantly that it will be hard to silence him.

Somaliland seizes Yemeni and Egyptian vessels

Pakistan’s premier vows to end school terrorism

Pakistani leader, Nawaz Sharif, has vowed to rid his country of

terrorism after a Taliban attack at a school in Pe-shawar killed nearly 150 people, mostly children.

He spoke after emer-gency talks with all main political parties to discuss the attack, which sparked national outrage.

The funerals of the vic-tims continued through-out the day across the country, as well as prayer vigils.

Gunmen went from class to class shooting the students in the Paki-stani Taliban’s deadliest attack to date.

New images of the school, published by a

BBC team that gained access to the site on Wednesday, showed the scale and brutality of the attack, with pools of blood on the ground and walls covered in pock-marks from hundreds of bullets.

The Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said they had carried out the attack against the Army Public School to avenge army-led opera-tions against them in the Khyber and North Wa-ziristan areas.

Pakistan’s army chief, General Raheel Sharif, is on a surprise trip to Afghanistan to discuss security co-ordination aimed at tackling the Taliban insurgency.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan stood united to ensure the deaths of the chil-dren were not wasted, after meeting party leaders in Peshawar on Wednesday.

In any action against the militants, he said, there would be no dis-tinction between “good and bad” Taliban.

“We...have resolved to continue the war against terrorism till the last terrorist is eliminated,” he added.

He also announced an end to the moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism cases, which correspondents say is a move aimed at counter-ing a view held by many Pakistanis that many

A E u r o p e a n Union court on Wednesday ordered the

Palestinian group Hamas removed from the EU ter-rorist list for procedural reasons, but says the bloc can maintain asset freez-es against Hamas mem-bers for now.

The Islamic militant group, which calls for the destruction of Israel, hailed the decision. Israe-li Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu urged the EU to reverse it.

Hamas was put on the EU terrorist list as part of broader measures to fight terrorism in the wake of the September 11, 2001 at-tacks. It won elections in 2006 and runs Gaza, and has long contested the classification.

The EU court ruled Wednesday that the list-ing was based on press and Internet reports and not on “acts examined and confirmed in deci-

sions of competent au-thorities.”

The court insisted that its ruling did not “imply any substantive assessment of the ques-tion of the classification of Hamas as a terrorist group.” It therefore ruled that the asset freezes should stay in place for three months pending further EU actions.

The EU is considering its next steps. It has two months to appeal.

The terrorist list desig-nation bars EU officials from dealing with the group, and requires that any of the group’s funds in EU countries be frozen.

The decision comes amid growing pressure from European legisla-tors to recognize a Pales-tinian state, after years of stalemate in peace talks. There was also growing frustration in Europe with Israel’s government after the Gaza war earlier this year.

Hamas is no terrorist outfit, says EU

terror suspects end up evading justice.

The army has been working through the night to clear the prem-ises of explosives.

There were blood stains running right down the steps and to-wards the auditorium itself.

There was a child’s shoe on one of the steps. The auditorium, where children were taking exams, was one of the places within the school grounds that the mili-tants first targeted. The chairs that the children were sitting on had been upturned, the place has been turned upside down and I could see the blood stains on the floor right around me.

11 WorldDaily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014

China tops the world in jailing journalists

China topped an-other global list of superlatives, Wednesday, with

its government jailing more journalists than any other in the world.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says in its an-nual report that 44 report-ers languish in Chinese prisons. Second-placed Iran has locked up 30 jour-nalists, according to the

report.The list of imprisoned

Chinese journalists is lon-ger than it has ever been since CPJ began keeping records in 1990. That re-flects “the increasingly repressive media and gen-eral political atmosphere that has evolved” since President Xi Jinping took power two years ago, writes Bob Dietz, coordi-nator of the CPJ’s Asia programme, in a commen-

tary published alongside the report.

The number of detain-ees jumped from 32 last year, partly because Ilham Tohti, a prominent Uighur teacher and blogger, was jailed last month along with six of his Uighur stu-dents who worked on the “Uighurbiz” blog.

Nearly half the journal-ists held in Chinese jails are Tibetan or belong to the Uighur ethnic minor-

ity – a predominantly Muslim people from the far Western province of Xinjiang, where the au-thorities have responded harshly to a rising tide of separatist and religiously inspired violence.

But there has also been an increase this year “in the number of more mainstream, non-minori-ty journalists who found themselves behind bars,” Mr. Dietz says.

They include 80-year-old Huang Zerong, who writes under the pen name of Tie Lu. He was arrested in September, not long after he had writ-ten an article criticizing the government’s propa-ganda tsar Liu Yunshan that was published on the Internet and in Chinese overseas media. He was later charged with “creat-ing a disturbance” and is in custody awaiting trial.

In a move to wipe away one of the Cold War’s last vestiges, President Barack Obama will

launch negotiations with Cuba on resuming full dip-lomatic relations five de-cades after they broke off, a U.S. official said on Wednes-day. Obama’s decision came after Cuba freed U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross.

The official, who did not set a timetable for when embassies might open in

Washington and Havana, said Obama would an-nounce his plans in a mid-day speech at the White House.

The president was report-edly also set to announce changes to U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Cuba at the height of the Cold War follwing Fidel Castro’s revolution, and to order a review of Cuba’s place on the U.S. list of state spon-sors of terrorism.

US, Cuba to re-establish ties

Chinese leader, Xi Jinping

In sympathy with Taliban-slain Pakistani school-girls

Æ s

For a first time caller to the Kogberegbe com-munity behind Ojota New Garage in the Ko-

sofe local government area of Lagos State, it would be difficult to fathom how the residents of this area survive in such an environment, considering the stench from the deluge of refuse and scraps that make up the en-tire community. In this disease-prone settlement of over 5,000, the residents dine, wine, make love, give birth and perform all other activities of normal life.

Inhabited by various ethnic groups but mainly Hausas, these people are far removed from the megacity mantra of the state.

Many of these residents are into metal scrap sales and gen-eral recycling businesses and so to them what you call filth or scraps is actually wealth!

While majority of the women

engage in food selling and petty trading in provision items and perishable foods, their men are majorly into the business of scavenging for scraps and mak-ing large sales out of it.

Apart from the pungent odour from dilapidated zinc and wooden buildings, the sight of malnourished women and kids playing around the refuse keeps one wondering how man, beast and filth can co-habit so freely.

Another puzzling thing is that the residents seem content with the life they live.

Alhaji Salihu Adamu, chair-man of Gidankwali, the Hausa part of the community, disclosed to Daily Times that he is one of the very first people to come to that community when the place was all bush.

“I came into this community in 1958 and, back then, there were no houses; everywhere was bush and swamp. You would

not even know that anyone was living there because it was a very thick bush. We only man-aged to create narrow paths for us to move around. I was not here alone at that time. Other persons were with me. We were many because what brought us to this community then was our job. At that time, we were into the business of dredging for sand. Sand digging and selling were our major jobs.”

Adamu added that when the

sand business came to an end for them, they had to start an-other type of business.

“We had to start something else, and that was how we start-ed the scrap business around 1967. We started gradually at that time and that is what we still do till today.”

Scrap business, he explained, entails sourcing for discarded computers, a ir conditioners, and other metal items, and re-moving the valuable compo-

nents like copper, iron, which we put together and send to Uni-versal Steel Company for sales.

“That is what we do till now and that is the major business in this community. As much as this community is residential, it is also a commercial one where waste is being converted to wealth and that is why you see a lot of scraps around,” explained Adamu.

However, medical per-

12 Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014

Features

Lagos community where 5,000 souls live, trade atop filth

As you drive towards Ojota from Maryland across the bridge, look to your right and you would see a sprawl-ing slum beginning from under the bridge right behind the Ojota New Garage. The unusual thing about the slum is that people live right on top of scraps and refuse dumps. Daily Times undertook a tour of the filth com-munity called Kogberegbe, which has been in existence since the late 1950s.

Wealth packaged amidst filth

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014 13 Features

Living it up amidst filth sonnel do not share Adamu’s optimism all the way.

Dr Francis Onyemuchara, medical director, Healing Balm hospital, Ikeja warns:

“Inherent in this pile of metal scraps and refuse are serious likelihood of tetanus, typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery and even the risk of being bitten by snakes and scorpions that may be hiding in the filth or, worse still, hepatitis B.”

He lamented that in most cas-es having access to basic ameni-ties such as water, health system and other necessities may be dif-ficult.

Adamu had also noted that the community had collectively approached the state govern-

ment for some amenities most of which are yet to be provided.

However, Adamu affirmed that at present, there is an on-going project by the state gov-ernment to give them borehole water. “The project is almost completed and would soon be ready for use,” he said.

Another resident of the com-munity, Akeem Enitan, a Yo-ruba, who has been living there for over 10 years corroborated Adamu’s claims. He told Daily Times that although the place appeared filthy and dirty, those scraps are wealth. “Most of us living here are into this busi-ness of metal scrap sales and recycling. It is a very lucrative business, although people look down on it because it is a menial

job.”Asked how he felt living in a

place like this, he responded: “Although it looks like a ghetto, we all live in peace here and we are like brothers and sisters. We co-habit with people from other tribes like the Hausa, Edo, Yoru-ba and other ethnic groups. An-other good thing about this slum is that we have had no cause to worry over armed robbery.

“If any strange face comes in here today, it is very easy to identify because we all live like one big and happy family. We are each other’s brothers’ keep-ers here. If you are used to the life here, you will not want to live elsewhere. Besides, it gives me lots of access to where my business is.”

Rose Osagie, an Edo lady who

has lived and done business in the community for about four years, noted that life in the slum was not as tough as it appeared. “Although things are not rosy, but like in other places, we are trying to make ends meet. I have been selling food here for almost four years now and all I can say is that I thank God.”

However, Rose urged govern-ment to make their roads more motorable so that vehicles will be able to access the commu-nity easily and thus make life better for them. She noted that the community needed a health centre of its own. “Right now we don’t even have any health cen-tre around. If you are sick, you have to go all the way to Ogudu before you can get any treat-ment.” Rose lamented.

Adamu

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014Opinion 14

Another Christmas present from Obasanjo

Religion: Tool of our partisan politics

In the traditional Igbo-Ukwu society from where I hail, soup-making is a serious and expensive business. Soup was the most expensive

culinary undertaking and it was also only done on Nkwo market days. Consequently, we have some proverbs around this seri-ous soup business. One is that it is unbecoming for an adult to ‘igwo-ofe’ (being uneconomical with the soup); another is the need to be careful so that the thick soup would go round. Note that these are serious infractions for adults but may be pardonable for children. These soup proverbs have undergone serious meta-morphoses and are now applied to situations when adults com-mit serious mischief, conduct themselves in ways that are un-becoming, or cause trouble. The recent outing and 2014 Christmas present from our writer ex-president, Chief Obasanjo surely fits into this scenario. Baba, a senior adult, generally seen as elder statesman and was just few days ago, crowned the ‘oracle of leadership’ by Babangida Aliyu, of Niger State. I refer to his new

book as another Christmas pres-ent because about this time last year, he also gave us his letter bomb to President Jonathan.

In November 2013, I had x-rayed the role of yesterday’s men and women in Nigeria, compared it with ‘global best practices’ and declared that ‘The curse of the yesterday’s men [and women] syndrome is that they are always better, their successors are al-ways up to no good and they never appreciate the efforts of today’s men. Furthermore, and most un-fortunately, most of yesterday’s men are hypocritical, economical with the truth and forget that the foundation for today --- good or bad --- was laid yesterday when they were in charge! But Obasan-jo actually had a different view of things. During a keynote at the Ibadan Sustainable Summit on August 13th 2013, he declared that “It is sad that after 53 years, we have no leader that we can com-mend. The problem in Africa is that when one person takes over, he would not see anything good that his predecessor did.” Prob-ably, he decided to reverse the trend by running down his suc-cessors.

The presentation of the book

came just after he hosted Atiku, Tinubu, Mark and the PDP gov-ernors, all of whom went on po-litical marketing and pilgrimage. It is easy to conclude that his ob-jective is to nail the political cof-fins of some of our professional and accidental politicians. His outbursts and some third-party analysis have already indicated that it will not be different from his other books. He would paint himself as the saint and others as the devil, including those who are no longer able to reply.

He brought the judicial sys-tem to ridicule by the public trial and conviction of the judge who granted an injunction against the book, and directed the whole world to do something about it. The fact that he ridiculed and despised the judicial system and contravened an existing injunc-tion did not mean anything. He continued his existing lie about the ‘Third Term’ agenda except that he has now placed the blame on over-ambitious governors. I don’t know how he would react to Ibrahim Mantu’s assertion that ‘President Obasanjo as a matter of fact solicited my support for tenure elongation, as I presume that he must have solicited similar

support from other legislators’, or Gbajabiamila’s story that he was offered N100m, through Bode George to back out of the anti-3rd term struggle. His grouse against Jonathan is not that he does not listen to him; it is that Jonathan does not respond to his requests, opinions or commands as he used to respond to his predecessors. Of course, if Jonathan behaved like Obasanjo, he would no longer be Jonathan! He also wouldn’t tell us if any of these predecessors was laying political landmines for him as he has been doing for his political son.

Obasanjo had written ‘My Com-mand’, extolling his bravery as the conqueror of Biafra. Briga-dier Alabi Isama was so incensed that he wrote a whole book to counter every line of that book. Isama reported that Obasanjo was shot in the buttocks and that only those running away from battle are shot behind! This present book will also attract similar re-actions. However, the question re-mains: what does Obasanjo want? He should write his memoirs; but it should be such that would build bridges and selflessly show us the way forward. I am still expecting such a book.

According to Wikipedia, a secular state is a concept of secularism, whereby a

state or country purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion.”

A secular state also claims to treat all its citizens equally, regardless of religion.

Happenings in our polity over the years have shown we have been divided between two power-ful religions, Christianity and Islam. Both have large follower-ship in Nigeria. A person’s social status is often determined by religious affiliation.

The similarity between both religions is the absolute cer-tainty that they are correct, their beliefs are the will of God, the highest authority over man and therefore their belief should be respected and worshipped.

Today, one can’t separate religion from our politics. Both

religions have been a dominant factor in determining who rules, gets appointed and promoted.

In Nigeria, the undue attention to religion has widened the gap between adherents of Christian-ity and Islam. Faithful view each other with deep suspicion, as both believe they deserve more attention, when it is not forth coming; it is often interpreted as persecution.

Government’s meddling in religious activities has not helped matters. Rather, it has led to an increase in fanaticism and extremism in the country. Some go as far as causing mayhem over government’s policies that did not favour their interest. The insurgency ravaging North East-ern Nigeria is a good example.

Our clerics’ meddlesomeness in politics and their arrogance on the pulpit is appalling. Some of them have lost their credibil-ity at the altar of politics, and have virtually turned blind eyes to the sufferings of the people. Not surprisingly, some have

relocated to Aso Rock, Villa and become personal pastors to the President.

These meddle some acts have made the public to take a rather apathetic approach towards reli-gious issues,as more Nigerians are becoming secular and reject-ing any form of religious faith.

A friend recently told me that he would not vote for Buhari in 2015because the latter will Islamise Nigeria if ever he won. This is the same view shared by many Christians. Why will a Muslim president Islamise Nigeria? Where has that hap-pened in the world? And what does he stand to gain? Likewise, Muslims, see no reason in voting a Christian into power in any capacity, even if the latter is more qualified than the Muslim counterpart.

The use of religion for politi-cal gains or to incite violence should be avoided. We should be mindful of hate speeches at public gatherings, especially now general the general elec-

tions are at hand. Any individual who thinks he or she is credible enough to vie for any position should come out and convince Nigerians regardless of religion.

We need to separate religion from politics and abide by the secularity of our nation which the constitution recognizes. The United States and Turkey are both Christian and Muslim dominated countries respective-ly. Their constitutions proclaim the secularities of their nations; they have to a reasonable extent separated religion from politics. Why can’t we do that in Nigeria? Our unity in diversity should be a unifying factor not the other way round.

Religion being a matter of in-dividual discretion should be left for clerics to take care of, while our political leaders take care of the business of governance. We should resist the temptation of making religion a tool of our national partisan politics, as it has not contributed in any way in uniting us as a people.

Joe Onwukeme

Ikechukwu Muo

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014 15 Opinion

Nigerians and their love for evil men

Northern leaders and the region’s fate

Most Ni-gerians are po-litically compla-cent. And

that’s why in the 2015 presidential election, they’d be voting for or against two devils representing two major political parties in Nigeria—PDP and APC. It is like taking a walk in hell and Satan asks which part of his infernal community one finds comfort-able. Whatever choice, one is still caught in his heated milieu. But, there is heaven, which Nigerians are too scared to attain.

It might be too late to achieve that eternal bliss now as these par-ties, it seems, have spread their spell over the populace. Thinking or any form of logical reasoning by Nigerians, therefore, still leads them into hell.

Perhaps, it is time to shine light on reasons why many Nigerians prefer hell.

The man who lied about his shoe-less nature is campaigning with a “do or die” strategy. He would go to any length to cut off his “enemies of progress” and even if it means displaying a Mé-

gadian attitude. If records serves us right, things, during his six-year reign remained static. There is and there has been no signifi-cant improvement in Nigeria.

It is not news that during the shoe-less regime, the nation has been consistently pummeled by Boko Haram and it is not news, also, that the man has not come up with practical solutions to stop this insurgency. Flimsy excuses rent the air: “We know the people orchestrating the insurgency, but of course, nothing can be done. Is it not logical that once you know such puppeteers, you make moves to stop them? Over 200 girls are still missing and the boy from Otueke still has the guts to contest in 2015. Some staunch support-ers, with their eyes blind on facts, would come up with all kinds of defenses and point their fingers to his achievement and, these ones, are the ones who sing that “North-erners and enemies don’t want him to rule”. Come 2015, he would be representing the most corrupt political party in the world and some Nigerians would vote for him.

Then the M,essiah, Mr. Disci-pline lines up as the second most important devil in the presiden-

tial contest. He goes around pre-senting himself like an angel. Ni-gerians believe he would change the country, even though he rep-resents another party that was cut from the same cloth. Some have even gone as far as using biblical references to define him; giving him that ‘Rock of Ages’ status. Again, history tells us that Mr.Discipline was involved in a scandal involving the loss of $2.8 billion during his military rule the 80s. He also ordered brazen beatings on Nigerians and com-manded that humans be shot to death like flies in public. But Ni-gerians believe that when he puts on a civilian robe he would do bet-ter. Nigerians are good like that; they are quick to forgive their leaders’ past.

If there is an Alamieyeseigha and Ibori presidential team for 2015 election, they will definitely get some votes. Most Nigerians like to eat their vomit and more importantly, cherish criminals. One example of criminal worship can be found in Bode George’s stories; he received the kind of praise given to athletic champi-ons.

When would Nigerians ask for a party that is free of old criminals?

When would they seek for a party with candidates that are purely chosen on merits of their past?

In 2015, the same old rags would come with beaming messages and you’d see Nigerians, in their num-bers, singing their praises.

The brand of politics played by Nigerian politicians is one of the dirtiest in the world. Like in every politics, you should expect puppe-teers, but the Nigerian puppeteers are ready to kill their fellow citi-zens to achieve their aim.

Satan, it is fair to say, would not vote for any of his proteges. When there is no angelic choice what can the people do? The people need to start creating their own path to heaven. It is simplistic to allow the same set of evil characters to run and control everything. For once, let the people control the affairs of selecting candidates.

No significant change should be expected from the next can-didates. To sum up Nigeria and Nigerians’ blind journey to 2015, Ikhide Ikheola’s words are apt here: “… it is between the PDP and the APC, no difference really, only in the letters. They will run us to the ground – until we either fight for a better Nigeria or lose the nation. ”

For the north to reel out of its squalour, there is definitely a need for major re-thinking, an inside-out revo-

lution of mindset. A region and its people cannot develop when a handful of its population can ‘live high on the hog’ almost for eternity. Witness how many tra-ditional rulers, ‘first class’ Emirs and Chiefs especially, sit on their thrones for decades with nothing to show for it, while at the same time, they and their relatives live in luxury. These rulers expend so much energy to ensure that only those who will protect their own self-interest get to be presented as ‘Northern Leaders’.

I am yet to see sufficient evi-dence of the public good that had been done by these traditional rulers, especially, the long serv-ing ones among them. It used to be the case that they employed the services of the so-called ‘native authority’–a bunch of pathetic characters dressed in clownish

outfits, running around hound-ing and harassing the populace, especially under the guise of tax collection. The saving grace for the ‘masses’ was probably the emergence of military govern-ments, that put an end to the ter-ror conducts of these minions. In fact, one can now argue that the conduct of Boko Haram, and the inability of the traditional rulers to respond clearly demonstrates their illegitimacy as rulers.

The manner in which Boko Ha-ram has emasculated the Emirs and Chiefs is too revealing to ig-nore. These were the same rul-ers who were able to whisper into the ears of the likes of Ibrahim Babangida to overthrow Buhari’s regime, partly due to Buhari’s willingness to put them in check. Whatever happened to their sup-posed ‘influence’? Should anyone venture to retort that they possess no armed forces or security capa-bility, then the question ought to be asked, of what good are they? More importantly, why is their ex-istence so heavily subsidised, of-ten times, at the expense of the fu-

ture generation? After all, it is not that they ever served the interest of the ordinary citizen anyway. They have always legitimised val-ue on the basis of influence ped-dling, but now that they have been unable to ‘influence’ Boko Haram, state government, or federal gov-ernment, even to save their own lives, then the ‘jig is up’. The ruse has been uncovered.

After all, nowhere was it ever ‘written by the fingers of God, that certain individuals, just by virtue of, or by accident of birth should ‘lord it’ over the rest, for-ever. In fact, I will submit that the concept of rulership by in-heritance should be alien to sunni Muslim north in particular. After all, the Exemplar of Muslim con-ducts and traditions (Prophet Mu-hammad) never practiced leader-ship by inheritance.

The northern re-engineering and re-orientation campaign should also emphasise the need to seek out, identify, and present educated, enlightened, committed individuals, regardless of fam-ily background. In some sense,

this is actually a clarion call for a return to late Aminu Kano’s phi-losophy, whereby, the children of ‘talakawas’ share in the opportu-nity for development and leader-ship. Though it must be noted that some of the current crop of ‘Northern Elites’ were once ‘tal-akawas’ or are children of ‘talaka-was’ whose loyalty to self and kin has now gone awry. After Amimu Kano rescued them and their par-ents from the shackles of para-sitic ‘Sarakunas’, they have now become the predators. Further-more, it is arguable that Buhari actually represents the Aminu Kano of this generation, and like the Aminu Kano of the past, his beliefs, philosophy, agenda, and popularity among the dispos-sessed has remained a disturbing threat to the ruling class.

However, in this second time around, the population of the north needs to remain vigilant, so as not to be hoodwinked by the hypocrites within. Yes, it is not always easy to tell the hypocrites from the sincere, but, it is worth the effort.

Ahmed Garba

Michael Irene

Æ s16 Daily Times Nigeria

Thursday December 18, 2014

Politics

Obasanjo’s govt opened the floodgate of corruption – Falae

How will you react to the recently concluded pri-maries by political par-ties ahead of 2015 gen-

eral elections?

What we witnessed from all the po-litical parties can best be described as open display of wealth by aspirants into the various offices. Some of them from the report we read went as far as bribing delegates with foreign curren-cy. This is very unfortunate and does not speak well of the democratic pro-cess in the country. One of the parties had attempted to field only a candidate, I mean President Goodluck Jonathan as a sole candidate; this is not democ-racy. There should be a level playing ground for all those that are interested in contesting for any of the positions.

If it can be as expensive to conduct party primaries, what do we expect during next year’s general elections? By now I expect electorate to be able to determine and elect whosoever they want as their leader without being en-

Chief Oluyemisi Falae, Technocrat, Banker, Economist and a Politician of Repute, now a leader of Social Democratic Party, (SDP) as well as Olu of Ilu Abo, a town in Akure North local government area of Ondo State. In this interview with VICTOR AYODELE in Akure, he spoke on some major political problems of Nigeria since Independence. Excerpts:

Falae: some aspirants went as far as bribing delegates with foreign currency

PDP has failed Nigeria–Ogiemwonyi Page 18

Continued on page 17

Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014 17 Politics

Falae

President Goodluck Jonathan as a sole candidate; this is not democracy. There should be a level playing ground for all those that are interested in contesting for any of the positions.

ticed with money or any form of induce-ment.

With your experience, what do you think is responsible for Nigeria’s un-derdevelopment?

My humble opinion is that we inher-ited a constitution malformation, an unbalanced federation which was not de-signed for success. As soon as the British left, the instability began; emergency de-clared, rigging of elections, coups, civil war and all that. We got it wrong from the very beginning. The second point is that because of the ethnic, religious and cul-tural composition of Nigeria, there are deep suspicions within the ruling elites and those in government quite often only take care of themselves, they hardly think of Nigeria as a country. I am yet to see a civilian President or governor who is passionate about developing Nigeria as Chief Obafemi Awolowo. When Chief Awolowo was planning his free educa-tion, I leant that every minister in his cabinet has to go home to go and super-vise the construction of schools in towns and villages in his area. It was as if the life of government was dependent on the actualization of that programme. Where is that zeal and

commitment today? People are more interested in getting big contracts, make money and become billionaire and hide the money in Switzerland, Abdudabi and all those funny places. Once your focus is not in the development of the society, you cannot achieve much in the area of de-velopment. You can achieve more when your thoughts and energy are channeled to development.

Do you think the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is keen about implementation of the report of the just concluded national confer-ence?

I believe God himself had a hand in that conference, otherwise how could we have succeeded in passing more than 600 resolutions without division, I was surprised. Yes we worked very hard and negotiated, we built coalition and con-sensus but how come we succeeded in all the cases? What has emerged in my view is a beneficial blueprint for reinventing Nigeria because when you look at the report, in every area we analyzed the problem and offer possible solutions that are beneficial to the people. Take railway for example, a country of a size of Nige-ria has virtually no rail network to talk about, the single line we have from Lagos to Kano for the past 20 years have become none functional. That is why we are not growing as we should; why employment is not growing, the railway in India car-ries up to 20 million a year and close to two million work in the railway. We have virtually none here and it is because the federal government is the only agency that could establish and run railway sys-tem. At the conference, we decided that the state government can now partici-pate in developing railway network.

What does that mean? Take the south-west, we have six states and one of the de-

cisions taken at the conference was that although we did not agree with regional government, we agreed with zonal com-mission under which the zone can do whatever they want, develop any indus-try, build anything they want. To me, it is like an experimental regional govern-ment. What is wrong if the recommen-dation becomes law, Yoruba people who are the same race set up the zonal com-mission and give it as a first assignment to build railway to link towns and com-munities in Yorubaland. The construc-tion of that network alone will provide at least half a million jobs and the effect on the economy of that area will be tre-mendous. It will make it easier to move people and goods for industry to develop. This is just one recommendation from the conference that can transform the country; other zones can do the same and do other things together.

The report also says, ports which the federal government monopolised can

now be built by the state government. We have three coastal states in south-west; Lagos, Ogun and Ondo States each of the states can build commercial port that will employ thousands of people to facilitate the movement of goods and ser-vices around the southwest. Even solid minerals which had been the monopoly of the federal government since inde-pendence, what have they done about them? Next to nothing, the conference has decided that mineral development can now be the joint efforts between the federal and state governments. Take Ondo State, we have bitumen, the em-ployment potential is at least one hun-dred thousand people and our people are unemployed. They want to employ 2,000 and 200,000 people applied. And we have a commodity which if developed can em-ploy more than that number, in the light of this good potentials, I can see people pressurizing government to implement this programme so that the benefit can be to the people.

As I have always said, it is the quality, relevance and the usefulness of the re-port that will determine what happens to it whether it will be implemented or like other reports gather dust in the shelve of the federal government. I am persuaded that this report contains too many rec-ommendations that are beneficial to all parts of the country.

Considering agitations by various ethnic nationalities at the conference, don’t you envisage the breakup of Ni-geria?

There is nothing you can do about it; people want to be who they are. Re-cently in United Kingdom, homogenous by skin, creed, language, culture and in terms of being governed by kings and queen for over 300 years, despite all that, Scotland voted in a memorandum, not to have their government as they already have that for years but to be totally in-dependent of United Kingdom; they lost but there would be another day. That they even voted at all is to educate us, if these people who are the same virtually from creation can come to a point, first of all devolution of power, an homogenous country can operate defacto federal sys-tem, the Scottish, Wales, Edinburg and Northern Ireland have their assemblies and the central government is in Lon-don. If a homogenous community has to do that and one regional country is try-ing to be totally independent, you should not be surprised if such tendencies exist in Nigeria. The thing to do is to manage the process, the British government did not force Scotland to stay, they reduced it to democratic process. The point I am making is that the tendencies for people to be independent cannot be stopped, it is worldwide, and it should be more pro-nounced in heterogeneous community like ours.

If homogenous ones are doing it, why do we think 400 different ethnic groups should not do it? In fact, it is a miracle that we are one country and so what is required is management of the process. Nobody should be worried about it, it is worldwide and it would continue. The creation of states at the confab is to dem-onstrate that we can keep people in Ni-geria.

‘Why Jonathan should implement confab report’

Continued from page 16

Politics 18 Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014

PDP has failed Nigerians

From your experience, what would you say are the prob-lems with the country’s oil industry?

In the case of the oil industry where I spent 34 years, the call for diversifi-cation is true but before we talk about diversification, the management of the oil and gas today consists of the International Oil and Gas Companies (IOCs), who are here on joint venture with Nigeria. The other arm, the pro-duction sharing contract companies equally work with the government in partnership. We need a strong effective monitoring of this oil and gas busi-ness. Today we see the need to be more steadfast in doing that so that the cost of our operation will be within what we expect. The cost of contracting, the con-tract circle, the need to quickly address it because if you don’t approve these contracts in time, there will be prob-lem. Then on the diversifying, it is im-perative. We have seen some countries building refineries within two years but in our case its quite different. Our refining capacity is there but the issue

Engineer Chris Ogiemwonyi was the Group Executive Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and a former Minister of State for Works between 2010 and 2011 in the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. He recently dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State. In this interview with TITUS EGUAOJE, he defends his decision to change political platforms. Excerpts:

The Minister works with the Minister of State at his whims and caprices,

we have seen most cases where the Minister

of State is really doing nothing or very little.

Ogiemuonyi Our people here embrace change, PDP is not used to change; they are clueless

•Only APC can transform Nigeria

of vandalism is still a problem. So, it is a matter of trying to really address holisti-cally and let those who are very experi-enced drive this industry. I think we can do better to manage the oil industry. We have inexperienced people manning the oil industry today.

Government interference in NNPC?It is not the best option. I always pride

NNPC staff as competent and I think we should give them a better enabling envi-ronment to operate but there are lots of interference from the top. Talking about having more refineries, if we want to have that, then we must deregulate. Let market forces prevail, today the market is controlled. When investors see that they can guarantee their investment, surely people will want to invest. If you look at it, people feel that if we deregu-late the price will be higher than what we have today, but I tell you the problem today is that we are subsidising products to neighbouring countries. The borders are very porous, if we do it rightly, I think we should go for deregulation, let the market forces dictate the price and

then we block various leakages in our operations, in our importation, a lot of things go wrong at that level is just that the system have allowed these things to continue to take place.

Can you please relate your experi-ence as minister?

I was Minister of State for Works for one year. And my recommendation when I was leaving was that if you have a Minister of State, if it is necessary, en-sure that you give that Minister of State as well as the full Minister their respec-tive job discretions. The Minister works with the Minister of State at his whims and caprices, we have seen most cases where the Minister of State is really doing nothing or very little. My experi-ence in the one year I spent, I can confi-dently tell you that I was under utilised compared to where I was coming from, from the NNPC where I was head of an establishment. I did not shy away from this discussion when I was a Minister. I remember I told Mr. President that for

Continued on page 19

19 PoliticsDaily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014

Edo PDP leaders are clueless

I am pleased with the type of leadership that I see among the APC

people. I see very refined people. I see Oshiomhole

doing what he speaks, no double standard, hard working, focused, smart.

subsequent Minister of States, it will be nice they have job discretions.

We can talk about roads from now till tomorrow. Before I went in as a Minister I had a different perception but when I was now a Minister I saw more than I did not know before. One common prob-lem facing many of these projects we talk about like the East West road, the contract award process is not faulty but when you remember you award a con-tract you pay 25 per cent mobilization, say a N30billion contract, you will give the first 25 per cent and subsequently every year you put N2billion into that contract. If time is not taken, that con-tract will last for another 10 years which is not ideal. So the major issue facing most of those contracts is funding and I think we must start thinking outside the box to see how we can fund our key projects. You talk about roads, we have issues in Health sector, our universities, various services are contending with the limited resource at the center. So the East West road though it is a little bit dif-ferent, I understand for that one, it was alleged that there was no design or there is design, I don’t know, but one thing we equally did in the Ministry of Works at the period we were there was to advise that the design for a particular road should be unique for that road and not generics designs. What we applied when I was there with Daggash was to say you must design as per that road because two roads are not the same. The terrains dif-fer from place to place because within one mile you can see a variation in the strength of the ground so you cannot use the design here in Benin now where we have firm soil to a place like Bayelsa that is water logged. If you do that at least you will solve the first problem of design by design cases.

How did you feel when you were ap-pointed minister of State for Works?

Of course I was shocked because look-ing at the CV of the contending people, there was none close to mine. When you talk about oil and gas operations there was none. I thought it was given when I was called upon to serve but I was shocked. But I later learnt that you don’t have to be a petroleum engineer to work in NNPC in Nigeria. But again it is something different that we are do-ing here, in other places Ministers are supposed to add value to governance. If you are secretary for energy in the US you must have been senior Vice Presi-dent in Exxon Mobil, big oil companies but it tells you how we take things here. Here in Nigeria I am told that Ministers are not supposed to know the business, it is the civil servants who will advise him. But I see it differently, it is one area where we talk about leadership, the leader must be good but here in Nigeria you see an architect in the Ministry of Health and that is why we are not mak-ing any improvement in many areas in this country.

While you were in PDP, the thought was that you were going to run for the gubernatorial seat of Edo state

in 2012. What happened?When I was Minister of state for

Works, I was thinking of running for the governorship of Edo State, but when I noticed the leadership style of those driving the PDP in the state I pulled back to re-strategise. Where I come from in my profession, we always believe that one plus one is two but I realised that what I was seeing here was quite different. I came from a system where you use your best 11, where competence is key. But I realise that in PDP in Edo State their preference is loyalty and I pulled out. I did a lot for PDP during the 2011 gen-eral elections because I remember the President asking us Ministers to go back home and work. He asked Ministers who are from PDP controlled states to go and work under their governors but states where you have none PDP governors, the Minister from that state is supposed to take leadership of that state. As the

style of Governor Oshiomhole. I always believe that once the head is good there is high probability that the body will be good. But once the head is not too straight, there is high probability that the body will not perform well. I am pleased with the type of leadership that I see among the APC people. I see very refined people. I see Oshiomhole doing what he speaks, no double standard, hard working, fo-cused, smart. And at the center, the APC again, look at the National Chairman of APC today, a fantastic super secretary. I see APC as people I can work with, I see people who are sincerely working to-ward a change due to the decadence we have observed today in Nigeria caused by the PDP government. I give you one example, before I left NNPC I was driv-ing this project gas to power, by 2009, I was promising Dr Luqman that we will deliver 6,000 megawatts by 2009, this was the beginning of 2009, I was saying by December 2009 we will deliver 6,000 megawatts. That time I was pushing the IOCs, pushing the NNPC, pushing Pan Ocean to deliver. That time we were on about 3,400 megawatts. Where are we to-day after almost six years? I hear we are now making about 3,200 megawatts, it is like we have lost almost five, six years. So if you look at the APC governors, you will know they meant the change. Look at Fashola, there was a day I took that Lekki new bridge to Orsbourn, when I got to the Orsbourn and I took my phone and called him and I told him my broth-er I am proud of you. There was one day I was going to the Airport in Lagos, I asked my driver where is this Oshodi traffic, he said no Sir, no traffic again and I saw all greens. They changed that place to a park. This is an APC gover-nor. Go to Edo North and the entire Edo State and see what Oshiomhole is doing. Roads they said before were going no-where, today they are going somewhere. Today we have red roof schools. The first thing you give to a people is edu-cation because once you are educated they can diversify. If you see what APC governors are doing, you will say these people are focused, they know what they are driving at. And if you give them the opportunity to lead Nigeria, you will see growth. And that is some of the rea-sons why I am glad to say I want to be a progressive.

Minister from Edo State then, I was sup-posed to take charge but Edo State was quite peculiar because you have very strong leaders who are very domineer-ing, they are not prepared to allow you as a Minister to play your role. I noticed all these things; I was not prepared to be confrontational with these people. I just felt the best thing was to allow them do what they know best which is politics and I went back to my business. But from all indication, their politics have led them nowhere today, they are gnash-ing their teeth for all they have done to Edo people. Our people have embraced change, PDP are not used to change, they are clueless.

Why did you decide to dump PDP for APC?

My decision to have a transition from the PDP to APC today was informed by other factors, notably the leadership

Ogiemwonyi

Continued from page 18

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014Crime 20

Gbenga SodeindeAdo Ekiti

“We still find it difficult to believe that dad has ac-

tually gone”. Those were the words of

24-year-old Nkechi, the first daughter of Mr. David Onu Itumah, a Divisional Crime Of-ficer (DCO) who was gunned down by a gang of robbers in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State on No-vember 25.

The late Itumah, 62, was at his duty post at the divisional police station when the gang struck, killing two police offi-cers and three other civilians, one of them a 25-year-old female national youth corps member, Miss Uguwoke Oyinyechi Edith.

Nkechi told the Daily Times: “We still refuse to believe that our dad is dead. We are still pinching ourselves to be sure dad has really gone, it has been very difficult to accept it.”

The first daughter said fur-ther: “My mother, Ngozi Itumah

is 45. She is a petty trader in Auchi. She is the only person struggling to sustain us. It is beginning to dawn on me that as the first born, I have got to tighten my belt now and fend for the family but I still have school fees to pay for a session.”

Her younger sister, who is a Polytechnic student, has to pay about N200, 000 as school fees in the coming session. “Our young-er brother reading law also has to pay over N200,000. Dad had as-sured us that even if had to bor-row or starve to death, he would give us all quality education. He even wished that some of us would finish our education and join the police force and become top shots there,” Nkechi said.

On the kind of family man that her father was, she said: “My dad wanted the best for us irrespective of the cultural bias for educating the female child. My dad wanted all of us, espe-cially the girls, to get the best of education he could afford. You can imagine a man with seven kids, five girls and two boys, all in school, one studying Bio-

chemistry, another Economics and the other Law. In fact, his plan was for me to study up to Masters level before I starting seeking employment.”

Itumah, according to his daughter, had lined a number of things for himself after his retirement. Unfortunately, he can’t do those anymore.

Itumah, hailed from Abaka-liki Local Government Area (LGA) of Ebonyi State.

A senior police officer from Ikere Divisional Police Station where he worked told Daily Times under anonymity that Itumah was one of the officers the station relied on for crime fighting because he was a brave and gallant officer.

Another insider from the sta-tion who witnessed the robbery attack, told Daily Times that the robbers just went straight into Itumah’s office indicating that they had planned to take him out.

“He didn’t fall to the robbers’ bullets. He didn’t have his raffle when they stormed his office, so he had to run into a corner.

He locked himself in so that he could have enough time to prepare for them, but the rob-bers were too many, over five of them. They broke into his office, grabbed him, lifted him off the ground and shot him,” the in-sider said.

The deceased had just three months to retire from the police force having put in almost 35 years into the service.

“It was after they finished him and succeeded in sending every other officer scampering that they went for the Police ar-moury in the office and emptied it,” the eye-witness said.

An insider, who disclosed that the other Police officer, a female sergeant, was killed while she was trying to scale a fence at the Police command. The source said: “The female police officer that was killed was popularly known as Iya Joel by everyone in this area. We knew her as a very nice woman, very friendly and good to all.

“Those who murdered poor Itumah didn’t know that they have tampered with the life of

his seven children, five girls and two boys, four of whom are already in higher institutions while the younger two are in secondary schools. Their mum is a petty trader.”

Nkechi, who is about to com-plete the Higher National Di-ploma (HND) from the Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, relayed her last moments with the de-ceased. She said: “My dad was the best father ever. If I hap-pen to come to this life again, I would choose him as my father a million times.

“I will miss him a lot. He was very loving, tender and caring. We didn’t lack anything, my fa-ther was the best and he would not force us against our wish. Een if he didn’t feed well, he would make sure we all eat.

“Two weeks before they killed him, I called him to say that I was coming to Ekiti to get some clothing materials for the yule-tide and in preparation for re-sumption in school in January. He gave me money for the shop-ping and i came back the follow-ing week. He was so full of life.

Sorrows, tears and blood for slain Police officers

We didn’t lack anything, my father was the best and he would not force us against our wish

•Families mourn

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014 21 Crime

Sorrows, tears and blood for slain Police officers

Little did I know that it was the last time I would see him alive.”

Nkechi, who described her dad as a very dedicated Po-lice officer, said: “ While going through his file lately, I saw an award in which he was hon-oured for rejecting a two mil-lion Naira (N2 million) bribe. That shows how dutiful he was.”

She urged the Federal gov-ernment to assist the bereaved family by paying all his en-titlements on time. “I want the Federal Government to ensure that he is not denied any of his entitlements, his pension and gratuity as early as possible and not to let his children drop out of school and they should enlist some of his children in the Po-lice force, because that was his dream when he was alive.”

She appealed to the gov-ernment “and anyone who is touched to come to our aid so that we won’t drop out of school.”

Nkechi said: “He had been making a lot arrangements for a very long time for his retire-ment. Although, the nature of the job schedule sometimes

made it impossible to see him as often as we would have loved to as a family, we knew that he was very near retirement and he had been planning big for it.”

Apparently suspecting foul play in Itumah`s attack Nkechi wondered how, according to re-ports, the gunmen had to pur-posely go to attack his dad in his office and even ensured that they killed him before leaving. She urged the government and the Police authority to carry out a proper investigation into the killing.

Meanwhile, the State Public Relations Officer of the Police, Mr Victor Babayemi has as-sured that the Police Commis-sioner Mr Taiwo Lakanu would ensure that the force investi-gates the incident properly.

IKERE Ekiti bank robbery: on late Mrs. Iyabo Deborah Fasoro, a female Police officer

“She had promised to give me my school fees the day she was killed. But now, she can’t do that again. I don’t know who to turn to for help now.” Elizabeth Faso-ro, 17-year-old daughter of slain police woman

Gbenga SodeindeAdo Ekiti

The unfortunate incident that cut shot Late Mrs. Iyabo Deborah Fasoro`s life during the recent

armed robbery attack in Ikere Ekiti where about five innocent citizens including two policeman and a Youth corper died may have dashed the hope of the chil-dren she left behind to further their education because she was the bread winner of the family

This was the lamentation of Pa Shittu Isa, elder brother to the late Fasoro’s husband is in his 60s. saying: “her death is a big blow to even us, her husbands’ people. Our late wife was a very good woman, she had always been the breadwinner of her family and she even extended her generosity to our family.”

Late Mrs. Iyabo Deborah Faso-ro, was the second Police officer whose life was cut down while on active duty during the November 25 bank robbery in Ikere-Ekiti, State while trying to scale a fence at the police station in a bid to es-cape the sporadic gun shots being fired by the armed robbers who were operating the first Bank lo-cated directly beside the station

The old man sobbing profusely when the Daily times visited him lamented further that “My major worry has been how the children will continue their education. Personally, I am only a vulcanizer and can hardly afford to feed my-self. She had five children but two have died now. May it please God to make the government help the children of the deceased.”

Pa Shittu lamented further

that the father of the children, a bricklayer, who could

have taken up the responsibil-ity is handicapped because of his present state of health.

According to him, “their father is a bricklayer but he is sick and cannot work well. This means we are financially incapable of spon-soring their education. Iyabo had put in over 17 years into the service of the Police force before this unfortunate thing happened to her.”

Miss, Elizabeth Fasoro, 17-year-old daughter of slain police wom-an, currently in final year of the Senior Secondary School (SSS) at Ansar-Ud- Deen Grammar School, Ikere-Ekiti, expressed re-grets that she has no one to run to now.

According to her, “my mother had promised to give me my school fees the day she was killed. But now, she can’t do that again. I don’t know who to turn to for help. Mum was the best thing in my life. She was a very caring and understanding woman who played the role of both father and mother for me.

“I just came back from school that day around 4pm when I learnt that robbers had invaded the bank and the police station, knowing that she could be in dan-ger as a police woman, I prayed for my mum and then I was doing the house chores.

“After a while, my boss at the shop where I learn tailoring after school hours, came to announce to us at our house that the robbers had killed two police officers, a man and a woman. This made me to rush down to the station and it was then I got to know that my mum was the police woman that was killed that day.

“My mum lost her elder sister a few days before she was shot dead. She discussed arrange-ment of the burial with me and even told me about her plans to settle in Ekiti State. My ambition is to become a journalist in fu-ture. I’m appealing to the govern-ment to please intervene on the payment of my late mum’s enti-tlement from the police force and also do something for me and my elder brother, Tope Fasoro, who is just in the first year studying at the Ikere College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti.

“Since this happened to us, everyone has been in shock. The families have particularly re-stricted my movement because they know that I could do some-thing harmful to myself because I never imagined that my mum would die in 50 years’ time. She was very determined to sponsor my brother and I in school so that we won’t have problem in future. Now, there is no one we can turn to. I am appealing to the govern-ment to please sponsor our edu-cation, “ Elizabeth said, wiping off a stream of tears on her face.

Elder brother of the deceased, Mr. Jacob Fasoro sounded broken when he relayed how he got the news of his younger sister whom he had brought up: “I’m the elder brother of Iyabo Deborah Fasoro. I’m 56 now and the deceased was 46, we are from Ayedun in Oke-ero Local Government Area, Kwara State. I brought her up from when she was a kid.

“We were in church when the

‘Husband ill, she was the family’s breadwinner’

shocking news of her death hit me. We were having a meeting and after the meeting we were served some refreshment, I was just about to start taking it when the call that announced Iyabo’s murder came, and the bearer of the message demanded that we come to Ikere-Ekiti that day. I screamed on hearing the news and it was our church members who brought me home.

“ I brought Iyabo up. She was a very good woman. She was good to her family and even the family of her husband.

“ She has three children, two girls and a boy. Her first born should be in her early 30s. The second is in his late 20s while the last born is about 13 years old.

“Sadly, her first born has a se-rious health challenge: She was attacked by small pox when she was very young. The disease al-most claimed her life as it rav-aged her for almost a month, eventually it has since rendered her very inactive. She can’t even speak well. The disease forced her to stop schooling then.

“ The second born, a male, is in the first year in the College of Education in Ikere. The last born, poor Elizabeth Fasoro is to sit for the West African Examination Councl (WAEC) next year. She is currently in SSS 3. Now that their mother is no more, there is little or nothing that we can do for them, that’s why we appeal to government to help.”

Fasoyo

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014Crime 20

Gbenga SodeindeAdo Ekiti

“We still find it difficult to believe that dad has ac-

tually gone”. Those were the words of

24-year-old Nkechi, the first daughter of Mr. David Onu Itumah, a Divisional Crime Of-ficer (DCO) who was gunned down by a gang of robbers in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State on No-vember 25.

The late Itumah, 62, was at his duty post at the divisional police station when the gang struck, killing two police offi-cers and three other civilians, one of them a 25-year-old female national youth corps member, Miss Uguwoke Oyinyechi Edith.

Nkechi told the Daily Times: “We still refuse to believe that our dad is dead. We are still pinching ourselves to be sure dad has really gone, it has been very difficult to accept it.”

The first daughter said fur-ther: “My mother, Ngozi Itumah

is 45. She is a petty trader in Auchi. She is the only person struggling to sustain us. It is beginning to dawn on me that as the first born, I have got to tighten my belt now and fend for the family but I still have school fees to pay for a session.”

Her younger sister, who is a Polytechnic student, has to pay about N200, 000 as school fees in the coming session. “Our young-er brother reading law also has to pay over N200,000. Dad had as-sured us that even if had to bor-row or starve to death, he would give us all quality education. He even wished that some of us would finish our education and join the police force and become top shots there,” Nkechi said.

On the kind of family man that her father was, she said: “My dad wanted the best for us irrespective of the cultural bias for educating the female child. My dad wanted all of us, espe-cially the girls, to get the best of education he could afford. You can imagine a man with seven kids, five girls and two boys, all in school, one studying Bio-

chemistry, another Economics and the other Law. In fact, his plan was for me to study up to Masters level before I starting seeking employment.”

Itumah, according to his daughter, had lined a number of things for himself after his retirement. Unfortunately, he can’t do those anymore.

Itumah, hailed from Abaka-liki Local Government Area (LGA) of Ebonyi State.

A senior police officer from Ikere Divisional Police Station where he worked told Daily Times under anonymity that Itumah was one of the officers the station relied on for crime fighting because he was a brave and gallant officer.

Another insider from the sta-tion who witnessed the robbery attack, told Daily Times that the robbers just went straight into Itumah’s office indicating that they had planned to take him out.

“He didn’t fall to the robbers’ bullets. He didn’t have his raffle when they stormed his office, so he had to run into a corner.

He locked himself in so that he could have enough time to prepare for them, but the rob-bers were too many, over five of them. They broke into his office, grabbed him, lifted him off the ground and shot him,” the in-sider said.

The deceased had just three months to retire from the police force having put in almost 35 years into the service.

“It was after they finished him and succeeded in sending every other officer scampering that they went for the Police ar-moury in the office and emptied it,” the eye-witness said.

An insider, who disclosed that the other Police officer, a female sergeant, was killed while she was trying to scale a fence at the Police command. The source said: “The female police officer that was killed was popularly known as Iya Joel by everyone in this area. We knew her as a very nice woman, very friendly and good to all.

“Those who murdered poor Itumah didn’t know that they have tampered with the life of

his seven children, five girls and two boys, four of whom are already in higher institutions while the younger two are in secondary schools. Their mum is a petty trader.”

Nkechi, who is about to com-plete the Higher National Di-ploma (HND) from the Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, relayed her last moments with the de-ceased. She said: “My dad was the best father ever. If I hap-pen to come to this life again, I would choose him as my father a million times.

“I will miss him a lot. He was very loving, tender and caring. We didn’t lack anything, my fa-ther was the best and he would not force us against our wish. Een if he didn’t feed well, he would make sure we all eat.

“Two weeks before they killed him, I called him to say that I was coming to Ekiti to get some clothing materials for the yule-tide and in preparation for re-sumption in school in January. He gave me money for the shop-ping and i came back the follow-ing week. He was so full of life.

Sorrows, tears and blood for slain Police officers

We didn’t lack anything, my father was the best and he would not force us against our wish

•Families mourn

Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014Metro 22

Where life is nasty, brutish, short... but sweet

It was a rainy day and almost the whole place was water-logged with just few parts escaping the heavy tears from the sky. And were it not for scavengers – who paraded themselves as lords of the slum while also getting paid

by residents to fill up the naturally wa-ter-based community with dirt gathered from both theirs and neighbouring com-munities – the expanse of land would have been inhabitable for the residents.

Judging from the outward show of well-built houses and tarred roads, no

one would have guessed that such a slum exists just at the back of Olayinka Street in Badagry, Lagos State.

But then, the reality of inhabitants living, eating, drinking, raising their children, and passing body wastes in same place, is more real than ever.

Ajegunle, a land under Badagry Di-vision, Lagos State, with some 57,276.3 inhabitants per square kilometre, is among, if not the world’s densest. In Yo-ruba language, Ajegunle literally means “wealth’s abode.” In reality, however, it is the home of want, privation and gov-ernment neglect.

Coming into Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government Area through one of its

major roads, Mile 2/Orile Express Way, Alaba-Suru to be precise, the first items that would catch your eyes are traders selling their wares and buyers in hot bargaining.

Moving through the market on the tarred but marred road, straight down to ECN Bus-stop, major catchy sights in-clude Christ The King Catholic Church situated along the road. The building painted in cream and coffee brown, has the capacity to contain over three hun-dred worshipers in a single mass.

The community also houses one of the biggest public hospitals in Lagos State, Tolu Medical Centre. This State-owned health centre not only caters for

residents of Ajeromi-Ifelodun but also attends to the health needs of patients from far and near.

Exactly at the ECN Bus-stop is the Ojora Family Council building. This body handles matters such as fam-ily disputes, land issues and other petty matters.

The Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Govern-ment secretariat is also a magnificent building. Going by the gigantic struc-ture, it could arguably be Nigeria’s most beautiful local government.

Painted light and dark brown, the building is a four-storey with three

AjegunleOpeoluwani Akintayo

Continued on page 23

23 MetroDaily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014

The many shades of poverty in Ajegunle PHOTOS: Opeoluwani Akintayo

wings. On working days, both workers and non-workers can be seen trooping in and out of numerous offices for one business or the other. The Ajeromi/If-elodun local government also boasts of numerous luxury, coastal and mini bus-es which convey its workers to and from the office and for other official func-tions. And just across the local govern-ment is the community’s Police Station, as well as the Postal Service.

There’s also the community’s major secondary schools located inside Tolu Complex.

Tolu Complex contains about four different schools. Because the schools cater for students from both inside and outside the community, even for those living at nearby riverine settlements, students, teachers and non-teaching staff alike, transport themselves there either through canoes paddled on the water that flows all the way from Tin Can Island, or through the normal Aje-gunle tarred yet rugged roads.

Ajegunle has also produced some of the best crops of entertainers in the country ranging from the likes of dread-locks-wearing Daddy Showkey, Baba Fryo, Father U-Turn, Oritsefemi, Afri-can China, including popular On Air Personality, Yaw of Wazobia FM.

So, it is no doubt that Ajegunle is one of the richest in terms of the human ca-pacity it wields, resourceful individuals and wealth generation. Yet, many of its people still live below acceptable stan-dards.

The journey into the slum took a bet-ter shape as one walked through the narrow untarred path leading through Ezeagwu Lane.

The Lane is not far from the finely built structures capable of disguising and covering up the slummy area, mak-ing it hard for visitors to ever imagine the possibility of an existing dung.

Children running everywhere, ob-viously having a nice time with their peers; adults busied themselves with one activity or the other some washing, some cooking, some women sat weav-ing each other’s hair, some talking and laughing away, a few sat in front of their wooden shops and so-called houses, while others just sat and watched.

Since it was afternoon, most men were out to their various places of work, with just a few of them hanging around.

However, the highly degrading state in which they had pitched their tents seemed not to occur to them. Perhaps, one could conclude that they were al-ready used to such lifestyle.

Upon sighting the reporter, they stared with rapt attention and curiosity which suggested it wasn’t the first time the community would receive visitors who paraded themselves as media yet, served as spies to telling on them and their activities which had led to trouble in the past.

This probably informed the coldness with which some of them spoke when asked to tell the tale of their experiences in the slum they had come to call home.

Ajegunle has also produced some of the best crops of entertainers in the country ranging from the

likes of dreadlocks-wearing Daddy Showkey, Baba Fryo, Father U-Turn, Oritsefemi,

African China, including popular On Air Personality,

Yaw of Wazobia FM

Continued on page 24

Continued from page 22

Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014Metro 24

Even at that, their pitiable conditions didn’t in any way tell on their faces, as they were still receptive, living happily and ‘healthy’; some of them were glad to welcome the reporter, including offer-ing assistance on how to get around the place.

Two women who craved anonymity for fear of being victimised said they had lived there for as long as thirty years. Their husbands already owned spaces on which their houses were built. They narrated their ordeals when they first moved into the place thirty years ago.

According to them, the whole area was water-logged and filled with thick bushes which they had to fill up with dirt bought from scavengers before it became habitable.

They have through their little effort, without the help from government, dug soak away, constructed wooden bridges, rugged bathrooms and toilets, including borehole water, and other low-cost ame-nities for their comfort.

The women complained of being left out by the local government as there are so many abandoned projects in the area.

They also complained of mosquito bites due to the never-dry land and near-by already polluted river which causes sickness, especially malaria.

However, as proud as they are to have developed the area all by themselves to the stage where it is presently, the fear of suddenly getting kicked out by the lo-cal government looms in their minds.

“We arrived here thirty years ago and have lived here ever since. When we just got here, everywhere was filled with thick bushes and water and because we had no place to live, we started develop-ing the land gradually. We cleared some part and built wooden houses. In fact then, snakes, insects and other bush animals, were our regular visitors. Af-ter toiling to build our houses, we con-structed bathrooms and toilets with corrugated roofing sheets, built wood-en bridges, we even pay scavengers to bring dirt collected from other places to fill up the water-logged ground. And as you can see, we live right inside the dirt. Sadly enough,” one of them said.

The other added in vernacular; “Sadly enough, thus is where we raise all our children. They go to school and return here to us. This is our home. And as you can see, this is the rainy season which is usually the toughest for us because we sleep virtually on wet floors when-ever the water penetrates our houses. Mosquitoes feast on us making us fall ill often. ”

A young man who had been watch-ing all along suddenly burst through the chat like a volcano waiting for an opportunity to explode. “The only time we see government officials come here are whenever elections are approach-ing. They come here to tell us all kinds of lies that they will do this and that but, after we might have voted them in, they forget us. They don’t even care about us because they see us as outcasts. It will surprise you that even after we had used our own money to develop this area, lo-cal government officials still collect rent from us! But we are waiting for any of them to come one day and say they want to eject us from here after all we’ve done to develop this place to this state!”

Findings revealed that aside Olayin-ka, that such slums also exist in other

places like Surulere Community which is directly at the back of Oyedeji street, Banana Estate, Apanpa, Zumura and Olodan.

The Baale of Apapa, Alayabiagba Town, His Royal Highness, Baale Y.O.A. Adeshina Ojora spoke about the slum. His highness explained that the reason for the slum at Ezeagwu, Olayinka and others is that the L.G.A is still a baby compared to others. According to him, the community is still growing and that with time, development will surely get to all its parts.

The Local Government Information Officer who refused to give out informa-tion about himself, refused to comment on the issue of the slum. “do you under-stand the system of the government? So you want civil servant to speak for the government? I’m never in charge even if I’m the Information Officer. I can’t speak except i was given the order. Can you please leave this office because I have lots of things to do. I don’t have a boss for now because the Local Government is not on seat. Their tenure has ended. You can go to the Council Manager(CM) because he’s now in charge so if he asks me to talk to you then, I will”, he said.

It will surprise you that even after we had used

our own money to develop this area, local government

officials still collect rent from us! But we are waiting

for any of them to come one day and say they want to eject us from here after all we’ve done to develop this place to this state!”

Rich name, poor lane Continued from page 23

25 MetroDaily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014

We Need Help Here- Aliu Abolarin

Since when did you start living in this area?

I got here in 1993. I used to live at Tun Karimu around Boundry. The house I used to live in then got burnt so I had to look for another place and that’s how I got here.

What was this place like then?That time, this place wasn’t as devel-

oped as this because there were lots of trees and of course, there was a canal here. It used to be called Banana Estate. Then we paid scavengers to bring those dirt they collect from neighbouring ar-eas to fill the canal. But even as we paid for it, they were also happy that they found a place where to dump the refuse they collect.

What about these wooden bridges?This bridges weren’t here then. But lat-

er, the landlords here contributed money and built the bridges here

But I saw some men collecting money from users of the bridges

Yes, they collect the money from users

What do they use the money for?The money is being used to renovate

the bridges. They also use it as business

What about your toilets and bath-rooms. Who built them?

They were built by us. As you can see, we use same place as bathroom and toi-let. What we do is that whenever we want to defecate, we make use of nylon bags. After defecating inside it, we throw it into the canal.

But it can cause sicknesses! (laughs). We are already used to the

environment and it doesn’t affect us any-more.

But you would have fallen sick when you first got here

I’ve never fallen ill since I got here but there are some who always fall sick

Now that Ebola is everywhere. We know it’s transmitted through mon-keys. But human’s are now carriers and if you people are not careful and keep being dirty, you are more liable to contact it. So how did you people react to the news of Ebola here?

It’s not a lie. God knows how he does his things

Aren’t you people scared?No we are not. It’s a lot of dirt here.

Sometimes you can enter into bathroom and meet faeces on the ground. So you’ll have to wash it before using it.

I know it’s hard to keep this place clean since it’s dirt-based. How do you sanitise the environment?

‘We need help here’We do it gradually. This is a canal and

then everywhere is dirty too. We just try to rake the nylon bags that have already detached from the ground

You pay rent here right?Yes, we do.

How much?Some pay N1500, some pay N1000 per

month. It all depends on the nature and how big the room is.

Your own room is how much?Mine is N1500

How big is it?It’s counted by the ceiling. Mine is 9

ceiling. My landlord built my room

Do your landlords pay for the land?Yes, they pay land use charges, NEPA

bill to the local government

Since you pay that much, why hasn’t this community approached them to do something about this place?

We have been there several times to complain. There were times they would promise to come here but they won’t. They promised to clear the canal and dredge it but they don’t fulfill their prom-ises. They told us they want to dig toilets for us now because of the Ebola outbreak

How will they dredge the toilets here?

They say they will build it like a soak away and pour chemicals into it to keep the faeces and stench down. It won’t be along the canal. It will be inside the com-pound. So what happens to some of us who don’t have compounds? We have the

chairman of the community here.

Does he live here?Yes, he has his own house here

The other time I came you guys were complaining the idea of the toilet won’t work because it’s a swampy area?

Yes. This place is filled with water so we don’t know how that will work. But they said they will dig the ground and fill it with concrete

But it’s going to cost a lot of money. Who will pay for it?

They said each room should pay N3,000

How do you get water for drink-ing and bathing here?

We go out to fetch water.

Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014Inside S-East 26

Moses OyediranEnugu

The richly endowed oil community of Eha-Ndiagu in Nsukka Lo-cal Government Area

of Enugu is currently battered by erosion which has rendered the only entry point to the com-munity inaccessible to motor-ists and other road users.

Daily Times Correspondent learnt that since the end of the civil war, the community has remained cut off from the out-side world forcing the people of the community go through Ikem, in Isi-Uzo Local Govern-ment and Obollo-Afor in Udenu Local Government Area at an enormous cost to reach Enugu or Nsukka.

Apart from the road leading to Eha-Ndiagu, there have been high rates of deaths of both pregnant women and sick peo-ple who travel by motorcycle, the only means of transporta-tion, to seek medical attention or deliver their babies in Nsuk-ka.

According to the Chairman, Eha-Ndiagu Town Union, Mr.

Jerry Nwamu, a journey from Eha-Ndiagu to Nsukka takes al-most a day and not less than N1, 000.00 which ordinarily should have been about 45 minutes at just N200.

“We seem to have been aban-doned by our own state govern-ment and right now we are con-sidering joining Benue State as the best option if we cannot be cared for in our own state.

“Avoidable deaths have been recorded in the community as instances abound when the sick and women in labour died on their way to hospitals in Nsukka as the only means of transportation is commercial motorcycle” he said.

Eha-Ndiagu, a predomi-nantly farming community is equally known for production of yam, cassava, tomatoes, and cashew nuts, but farmers in the area have no means of trans-porting their agricultural prod-ucts to cities like Enugu and Nsukka.

Investigations conducted in the community reveal that sev-eral public buildings at Eha-Ndiagu have been taken over by rodents as workers posted

to the community find it diffi-cult to stay after their first visit. Schools in the area are without teachers except the indigenous teachers; so also have other public institutions suffered in the area.

Car owners from the village pack their vehicles in Nsukka and take commercial motor-cycles.

The chairman of Nsukka Lo-cal Government Council, Mr. Charlie Ugwu, described the Eha-Ndiagu situation as unfor-tunate and a helpless one, add-ing that there was nothing the local government lacked the funds to fight the ravaging ero-sion in the area.

“The road belongs to the state and successive local govern-ment chairmen said they have drawn the attention of the state to the plight of residents of Eha-Ndiagu. He however expressed optimism that the state gover-nor may this time do something to alleviate the suffering of Eha-Ndiagu people, ” he said.

Recently, the people of Eha-Ndiagu resorted to self-help via manual labour to make the road accessible to motorcyclists

The many sorrows of Eha-Ndiagu community

The road belongs to the state and successive local government chairmen said they have drawn the attention of the state to the plight of residents of Eha-Ndiagu

there have been high rates of deaths of both pregnant women and sick people who travel by motorcycle, the only means of transportation, to seek medical attention or deliver their babies in Nsukka.

Erosion has cut us from the world

Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014 27 Inside S-East

The many sorrows of Eha-Ndiagu community

to enable people to continue to have access to the community. They said the measure became necessary as both state and lo-cal government had for long abandoned them to their fate.

Speaking with our corre-spondent, the Assistant Par-ish Priest of St Charles’ Parish Eha-Ndiagu, Christian Ani, said he was posted to the com-munity two years ago ande that he encouraged the setting up of “Eha-Ndiagu Road Day” dedi-cated to the repair of the road because of the disaster and hav-oc the erosion has continued to wreak in the community.

“People die in large num-bers here during rainy session which becomes the climax of erosion. Erosion has made this place inaccessible to vehicles.Once you find yourself here on Okada, you are trapped. The people are farmers and they produce a lot of crops in large quantities.”

An Octogenarian Bar-tholomew Agbo, said the only means anyone can get to Nsuk-ka is by motorcycle at very exor-bitant cost:

“Thank goodness, govern-ment has not banned Okada in Nsukka LGA. You can see large cashew nut plantations. Our women who harvest them and carry it on their heads to Obollo-Afor to sell to enable them take care of their children. A large percentage of the cashew nuts perishes annually as a result of non- availability of transporta-tion.

“In fact, we are begging gov-ernment to save us from the tragedy that has befallen us since the end of the civil war. Crude oil has been discovered here since 1956 but because of non-accessibility of our roads, companies find it impossible to stay.”

The Councilor representing the area and a one-time leader of Nsukka Legislative Coun-cil, Festus Ugwu, said the com-munity had become helpless as they have done everything to get the attention of government to no avail.

“We have approached our representative in the state House of Assembly, Chinedu Nwamba, to call the attention

of government to our plight but still got no response.

“In real sense, this road is a federal road because during the colonial rule, the road was linked to the northern states.

“Our community has abun-dant oil deposits. When the road was in good shape as far back as 1956, CGG, an oil prospecting company struck huge deposits of oil on our land. SAFRAP also came and later Geoquenetic. But all their efforts came to naught due to inaccessibility of Eha-Ndiagu road,” he said.

“Enugu through the discov-ery of oil in Eha-Ndiagu should have been named among the oil producing states in the country but because we have no one to champion our cause. We ap-peal to the present chairman of Nsukka Local Government to fulfill the promise his predeces-sors made to give us a march-ing-grant of N2m to enable us carryout works so as to make the road motorable for motor-ists.”

Traditional Prime Minister, CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

olomew Agbo, said the only means anyone can get to Nsukka is by motorcycle at very exorbitant cost

A large percentage of the cashew nuts perishes annually as a result of non- availability of transportation

Erosion has cut us from the world

Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014Inside S-East 28

Tony EmmanuelAwka

When Dr. Chukwue -meka Eze-ife became

the first Executive Gov-ernor of young Anam-bra State sometime in 1991, he embarked on aggressive housing proj-ects in his ‘think home’ philosophy. Before he left in 1993 as a result of the Abacha coup d’état of that year, he had set up no fewer than six functional housing es-tates in Awka, the state capital.

The estates were: Udoka Housing Estates, Iyiagu Housing Estate, Esther Obiakor Estate, Real Estate, Ahocol Es-tate, and Amenyi Hous-ing Estate.

Among these estates, Esther Obiakor Es-tate was mapped out as quarters for lectur-ers of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, which was the Awka campus of the old Anambra State University of Technol-ogy (ASUTECH) owned by the old Anambra be-fore the Federal Govern-ment took it in 1992.

Today, the aim of set-ting up the estate has been defeated. Tales of woe occasioned by aban-doned government proj-ects have become part of life of the people of the community.

Most children in the area would have stopped schooling long ago if their parents had been people of means who could take their children and wards to any school of their choice, irrespec-tive of the circumstanc-es.

The only school in the estate had been sub-merged by flood, causing the residents to send the children to school out-side the estate, kilome-tres away.

That is not all, the peo-ple of the area have even been deprived spiritualy as the nearest church to the estate has become

inaccessible to the resi-dents because the bridge linking the estate and the Aquinas Church, where most of the resi-dents worship had been damaged.

Efforts by Dr. Chris Ngige when he was gov-ernor of the state to sal-vage the situation was dashed in 2006 via the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Enugu Divi-sion that removed him from office after about 33 months.

Before Ngige left of-fice, he had done reason-able work on the road and bridge linking the estate and the church. Soon after Ngige left, the road and bridge project were abandoned --- till date, leaving erosion and flooding to complete the remaining “contract”, ferociously.

An impeccable source told our correspondent on Sunday that the plight of the commu-nity was made worse be-cause during elections, the people continued to vote against successive administrations to soli-darise with Ngige for re-membering them in his reign.

The worst hit are Nnobi road of the Estate, where over 12 professors live. Among them are Professors Edwin Aku-soba (current President General of Nnobi town in Idemili Local Gov-ernment Area), Gabriel Ukachukwu (former Anambra State Director of the National Orienta-tion Agency, NOA), Ben Osisioma (a renowned Professor of Manage-ment Science and an orator), Nonso Nnabuife (Professor of Engineer-ing) Ben Chuks Okeke (Vice Chancellor of Fed-eral University GUSAU).

Others are Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Oseloka Obaeze, Speaker of the Anam-bra State House of As-sembly, Princess Chinwe Nnwaebili, among oth-ers.

Just recently, no

Tribulation of a Professors’ estate...

fewer than 30 profes-sors and 20 doctors (PhD holders), mostly of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Univer-sity, Awka petitioned the state government over poor state of government infrastructure and eco-logical degradation as well as abandoned gov-ernment project in the estate.

Briefing the press, Pro-fessor Gabriel Ukachuk-wu, flanked by an array of professors and other residents of the commu-nity, regretted what he called government’s de-liberate neglect of the place, saying several pe-titions and entreaties to the state government had yieled no results.

They maintained that since the estate was built in 1991, residents had

been providing for them-selves all the essential facilities such as electric-ity and water.

The professors won-dered why government should neglect an area made up of a cluster of heavy tax-payers as pro-fessors and top public servants and business class.

They said “we are only happy here during the dry season. Each rainy season, we lose human and material resources. Today we struggle to go to church because the road linking this estate and Aquinas Church where most of us worship had been cut off by flood.

‘The only school in this estate is threatened by erosion. Most other buildings are on danger Osisioma

Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014 29 Inside S-East

Tribulation of a Professors’ estate...

Chief Ugwuanyi Dan, on his part, said the road was aban-doned over 50 years ago, and despite all their appeal govern-ment refused to look their way.

“We have huge clay deposits here, our women are pot mak-ers. All the earthen wares our women produce perished as they are only able to get a few to the market for sale. They do not use Okada because of the atten-dant risk because the products are fragile,” he said.

An indigene of the area con-fided in Daily Times that the tra-ditional ruler of the community, Igwe Kevin Mamah, had done nothing to draw government at-tention to the plight of the com-munity simply because he is not residing in the community as he resides in a neighboring com-munity called Eha-Alumona were also he has his business.

“I can authoritatively tell you that since our Igwe ascended the throne, he has not slept in Eha-Ndiagu for one day. That is why he doesn’t know what the people are suffering,” he said.

A woman leader, Mrs. Char-ity Ezugwu, who also spoke to our correspondent said people of the area have suffered untold hardship as they are confined only to their community.

“We are trapped here like rats in a cage. We don’t know what is happening in our Local Government Headquarters or the world. Two of our women died in labour recently while on their way to Nsukka on a motor-cycle. We don’t know what our offence is. There are 45,000 reg-istered voters in Eha-Ndiagu. During electioneering cam-

paigns, politicians promise us heaven on earth. Eha-Ndiagu is predominantly a Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) community. The bridges and culverts built by the colonial masters on the abandoned road were destroyed during the civil war to prevent enemy incursion.

Meanwhile, the member rep-resenting Nsukka East in the Enugu State House of Assem-bly, Chinedu Nwamb, has urged the people of Eha-Nduagu not to lose hope saying he was doing his best to see that the road got the attention of government.

“I have met with Governor Sullivan Chime and the com-missioner for works and also took eight members of the com-mittee for works to see the de-plorable condition of the road. I’ll also make sure that the road is captured during the budget defence.

He expressed optimisim that the road project will be captured in the 2015 budget

“My colleagues in the House of Assembly have nicknamed Hon. Eha-Ndiagu because there is no time I make contribution without making references to the deplorable condition of Eha-Ndiagu road.

“I want to tell my people in Eha-Ndiagu community and as-sure them that I will not relent in making sure that govern-ment does the needful in allevi-ating their sufferings by repair-ing the road. Eha-Ndiagu is my constituency I am worried at the inaccessibility of the road the people are my people what-ever affects them affects me”, the lawmaker said.

The many sorrows of Eha-Ndiagu communityCONTINUED FROM PAGE 27

list. Adding his voice, Chief Joseph Nwakpadolu, a busi-nessman, said the irony of the whole story was that de-spite their tribulations, gov-ernment still imposes heavy taxes and levies on them with impunity.

Efforts to get the commis-sioner for works in the state, Mr. Callists Ilozumba, to com-ment on the matter failed as he was not in office on several attempts.

The residents of the area have now resorted to tasking themselves and motorists ply-ing the estate to temporarily survive the situation.

But for Professor Emeka Ezeonu “this measure is just like postponing the evil day; how far can this go?

For Professor Akusoba, “we are looking up God to make a difference through the new government of Chief Willy Obiano.”

Personsin class of profes-sors ought not be reduced to scooping water in their apart-ments each rainfall or manu-ally repairing government roads leading to their resi-dences.

Such spectre is a major in-dex of backwardness.

Just recently, no fewer than 30 professors and 20 doctors (PhD holders), mostly of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka petitioned the state government over poor state of government infrastructure and ecological degradation

Ezugwu

Æ s

Nigeria’s GDP growth estimate drops from 6.35 to 5.5%By Lara Adejoro

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coor-dinating Minister of the Economy, Dr.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala yesterday told lawmakers in the National Assembly that the Gross Domes-tic Product (GDP) growth of the country has been re-estimated from 6.35 per cent to 5.5 per cent.

Okonjo-Iweala revealed this at the 2015 budget presentation which took place at the separate chambers of the lawmakers in the National Assembly.

She also revealed that the in-flation rate in the country has dropped from 8.1 per cent to 7.1 per cent.

The 2015 budget which has an estimate of about N4.3trillion is said to be the country’s lowest budgetary estimation in four years.

The finance minister also stated that the benchmark price for oil is $65 with a production figure of 2.27million barrels a day. This is in response to the uncertainty that has surround-ed the oil market as oil prices continue to slide further daily.

Okonjo-Iweala also pointed out that the Federal Govern-ment has focused the 2015 bud-get on economy diversification.

“The key of the budget is fo-cused on the diversification of the economy and it’s been work-ing because food prices has not risen, inspite of the deprecia-

L-R: Minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki; Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda; Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala; and FCT Minister, Bala Moham-med, at the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja yesterday.

tion of the naira,” the minister said.

“If you check all around the market, you will discover that the average Nigerian is enjoy-ing stable food prices and in some places like Enugu, you

discover that the price of Harry has fallen. Inflation rate as esti-mated by the Nigerian bureau of statistics from 8.1 per cent to 7.1 per cent.

“We have made up for the fall of $13per barrel from $78 to $65

by raising more non-oil revenue through various types of taxes and policies.

“A surcharge is luxury goods is there plus additional tax ef-fort to close leakages in rev-enues”, she said.

CBN EXCHANGE RATES AS AT 15TH DECEMBER, 2014.

Currency Buying(NGN) Central (NGN) Selling(NGN)

US DOLLAR 167 167.5 168 POUNDS STERLING 261.4552 262.238 263.0208 EURO 207.5142 208.1355 208.7568 SWISS FRANC 172.7348 173.252 173.7691 YEN 1.4049 1.4091 1.4133 CFA 0.2979 0.3079 0.3179

Wall St climbs ahead of interest rates hike Page 35

CBN EXCHANGE RATES

30 Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014

Business

Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014 31 Business

Ministry signs $80m housing MoU with Dubai firmTayo Adelaja

As part of the Federal effort in reducing the housing deficit in Nigeria, the Fed-

eral Minister of Lands, housing and urban development signed an agreement to introduce new houses into the Abuja market.

The agreement witnessed by the junior minister of FCT Ju-moke Akinjide was with Dubai

based Signature Value homes led by Anand Ramani.

The project expected to start in January 2015 will cost over $80 million and the first phase of 300 units will be delivered in 6 months.

According to the Minister Minister of Lands, housing and urban Mrs Akon Eyakenyi, Sig-nature Value Homes Limited submitted an unsolicited propos-al of intent to develop affordable mass housing under the Public

Private Partnership (PPP) Con-tractors Finance Initiative of the Ministry.

“Consequently, the Company made a technical presentation to the Management of the Min-istry on 10th November,2014 and the due diligence carried out by the PPP Unit showed that the Company is technically capable and has the financial capacity to undertake the project if given the opportunity.

She stated that PPP was the ve-

hicle through which the Ministry builds mass housing, explaining that the Ministry provides land and developers build according to agreed specifications.

According to the Minister, Sig-nature Value Homes Limited are a mass housing project de-veloper entity that specialises in providing holistic solutions for integrated community develop-ment.

The Company also presented a profile of successful execution

of projects in India and Sub- Sahara African Countries and announced that they were also engaged in mass housing devel-opment with the Niger State Gov-ernment.

The Company also boasts of local partnership with Stallion Group Nigeria, Technical and Engineering partnership with Mahindra Consulting Engineers and Construction partnership with Klassic International.

The development which is pro-posed on a 20 HA land situated at Gwagwalada FCT is a mixed de-velopment that will comprise of One Bedroom, Two Bedroom and Three Bedroom flats on ground plus three upper level floors comprising approximately 1,672 dwelling on the Ministry’s land at Gwagwalada FCT. The Field Headquarters FCT

The junior minister of FCT Madam Jumoke Akinjide in her speech praised the minister of Housing for what she termed “uncommon transformation” of the housing sector in Nigeria. She said that FCT have confi-dence in the quality of houses provided by the Ministry seeing the good work done in other proj-ects by the Ministry of Housing.

Mrs Eyakenyi remarked that the housing ministry is effective-ly utilising the lands allocated to it by FCT.

SON incinerates over N500m worth of substandard productsEmmanuel Ogbonnaya

The Standards Organisa-tion of Nigeria (SON) has destroyed over N500 million worth of sub-

standard goods in the country, in sticking to its mandate and zero tolerance for substandard prod-ucts policy.

The Director General, SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu pledged that come 2015, the agency will intensify its war on substandard products, maintaining that all hands were on deck to reduce the influx of substandard goods into Nigeria.

The SON boss who was repre-

sented by the Head of Inspector-ate and Compliance, Engr. Bede Obayi during the incineration of the substandard goods at its dumpsite in Shagamu, Ogun State, stressed that the move by SON was to show its zero toler-ance to substandard products and also to serve as a deterrent to unscrupulous importers who do not mean well for the nation.

“We are also going to inten-sify our effort to ensure that these products do not find their way into the Nigeria market and also warned importers to desist from the act.You all a aware that these goods are imported by people who do not mean well for

the country. We have told them that if they must bring in goods, it must be goods that meet the minimum requirements of the Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) that will give consum-ers value for their hard earned money,” he said.

“The total value of these sub-standard goods is over N500 million and this is not the first time we are destroying this year because since January to De-cember, we have destroyed over N5billion worth of substandard goods in this country. If they do not rest, we will also not rest, we will continue to fight this act until we rid this country of sub-

standard products.According to him, the sub-

standard products to be de-stroyed includes, electric ar-mored cables, tyres, expired supermarket breakfast cere-als, extension sockets, mini led flashlights, rechargeable lamps, shaving sticks, mobile phones, stabilisers, engine oil, ball pens amongst others.

“We are destroying this huge volume of goods but creating jobs for people overseas because by the time we destroy these goods, we get nothing but eco-nomic loss. We are not happy destroying these products but if we can save the life of one Nige-

rian by burning these products, we have done something for this country and this is exactly the core mandate of our agency by showing zero tolerance for sub-standard goods in this country,” he added.

He pointed out that the cur-rent administration will con-tinue to show commitments to its zero tolerance policy and will also give a lot of awareness and enlightenment campaigns about the negative effects of these products in the country.

“We have used many foras to educate importers and other stakeholders on the right way to import products into the country.

Mrs Akon Eyakenyi , minister of Lands and Housing, second from right exchanging Mou with officials of a Dubai company

tiatives, particularly as they re-late to poverty alleviation, job creation and wealth generation will not be fully achieved with-out increased investment in skills acquisition.

In line with this, the ITF em-barked on a series of measures that were designed to boost its skills acquisition capacity and open up more opportunities for Technical and Vocational Skills Acquisition in Nigeria.

Only recently a major land-mark achievement was recorded with the signing of a N15bilion Memorandum of Understand-ing between the The Industrial Training Fund and the Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria, CTIN, to end Nigerians’ reliance on foreign artisans and techni-cians especially in the construc-tion sector.

Under the collaborative initia-tive, CTIN will provide funding to the tune of N15billion, while the ITF will complement with training facilities and resource persons, this was disclosed by the Director General of ITF while addressing newsmen in Lagos.

“The first stage of this collab-oration will be focusing on nine states of the federation where

we will be training about 350 people in every one of the nine states which will be over 3000 people in all,” said the Direc-tor General of ITF Mrs. Juliet Onaeko.

According to her, this initia-tive was important to the coun-try as a whole and it ties very well with the transformation

agenda of the federal govern-ment and the Nigerian Indus-trial Revolution Plan (NIRP).

She noted that the construc-tion sector was also part of those key sectors that the policy has identified for special atten-tion, stressing that it was going to have a multiplier effect and artisans and technicians will receive special training to help them even start up their own businesses to create wealth and jobs.

“Importantly there will be an improvement in their services as well because it is an area where quality cannot be com-promised and it is important to build sufficient capacity in that sector: in the low and middle level cadre of the sector so that we can stop the influx of for-eigners coming to take up the artisan jobs and the technicians

jobs as well,” she stated.She explained that after com-

mencing with the training of the initial 3,150 in nine states, the initiative will continue in the other states of the federa-tion including the Federal Capi-tal City Abuja.

“We want to see a situation where we will have some of these skills being exported to other countries as well and not the other way round. So it is go-ing to be a win-win for everyone both for the Nigerian economy as well as the government’s transformation agenda, the con-struction sector and the ITF,” she said.

Another of such efforts was the establishment of an ultra-modern Model Skills Training Centre in Abuja. The Model Skills Training Centre, has fa-cilities that are comparable to any other in the world. Built in partnership with the Technical Cooperation of the Institute of Technical Education Services (ITEES), Singapore, the Cen-tre has admitted its first set of trainees in five trade areas namely: Facility Technology, Mechatronics, Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Culinary Skills. Instructors of the Centre were

sent to Singapore to acquire the necessary skills to effectively discharge their functions.

Another Skills Centre, the In-dustrial Skills Training Centre (ISTC),Lokoja, Kogi State is set to be commissioned this year as construction has been complet-ed, and equipment have started arriving. Similarly, an ICT Training Centre, which is locat-ed in Jos, has been completed, and was recently commissioned by the Hon Minister of Indus-try, Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga.

These heightened efforts are predicated against anticipated escalation in the number of Ni-gerians that would want to ac-

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014 Industry 32

Emmanuel Ogbonnaya

As Nigeria’s construc-tion sector continues to expand and grow in terms of invest-

ments, it is sad to note that the bulk of artisans being used at construction sites across the country are sourced from neigh-bouring countries like Togo and the Republic of Benin, because of the belief that they are bet-ter trained and adept at the job than their Nigerian counter-parts.

And so with the signing of a N15billion MoU between the Industrial Training Fund ITF and the Cement Technology In-stitute of Nigeria recently it is expected that shortly Nigeria should be an exporter of profes-sional artisans and technicians.

One of the significant roles of the Nigerian Industrial Revolu-tion Plan (NIRP) is to develop the requisite industrial skills of the labour force as well as cre-ate more jobs for the teeming number of unemployed youths in the country.

A significant sector of to-days’s labour force does not have the requisite skills de-manded by employers; the country’s industrial sector lacks skilled manpower in jobs such as general wiring, spot welding, general machine op-erator, coil winding technicians and printed circuit board tech-nicians. Others include tool fabricators, mould makers/en-gineers, fabricators and process control technicians.

The aforesaid has wittingly resulted in abysmal capacity utilisation and dismal perfor-mance of the manufacturing sector, poverty and insecurity, un-competitiveness, occasioned by other challenges, high rate of factory closures, low con-tribution to GDP and outright extinction of some manufactur-ing subsectors.

But with the unveiling of the NIRP, the government initiated far-reaching measures to cor-rect the anomaly in the employ-ment sector by mandating the ITF to transfer requisite knowl-edge capacity to the employed and unemployed.

This became especially im-perative against the realisa-tion that Vision-20:2020, the Transformation Agenda and other Federal Government ini-

Ending the reliance on foreign artisans, technicians

Mrs. Juliet Onaeko, ITF DG

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014 33 Business

Proposed Development Bank of Nigeria gets $500m AfDB boostEmmanuel Ogbonnaya

The proposed De-velopment Bank of Nigeria to be established by

the Federal Government to support the funding of Micro, Small and Me-dium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country has received a $500million boost from the African De-velopment Bank AfDB.

A statement released by the AfDB yesterday, said that the Board of Direc-tors of the Bank unani-mously approved a finan-cial the package of 500 million dollars to support the establishment of the Development Bank of Ni-geria Plc (DBN).

The statement said the financial package con-

sisted of loans of 450 mil-lion dollars and an equity investment of 50 million dollars in the DBN.

It stated that the funds from the AfDB Group would be used to support Micro, Small and Me-dium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) operating in various sectors of the Ni-gerian economy.

“The DBN is being es-tablished by the Federal Government of Nigeria in partnership with interna-tional development finan-cial institutions such as the AfDB, the World Bank, KfW of Germany and the French Development Agency (AFD).

“Recognising the limita-tions of the existing De-velopment Finance Insti-

tutions (DFIs) in Nigeria, the FGN has decided to establish a DFI, which will be better regulated and more clearly aligned with development priorities.

“Furthermore, to en-sure sustainable impact and scale, the mandate, governance and opera-tions of the DBN will be grounded in internation-ally recognised good prac-tice principles,” AfDB-said.

The statement said the structure and operational design of the DBN had been informed by global experience and the de-signs of successful DFIs from across the world.

It added that AfDB had taken into account all the factors that led to the un-

der performance of the existing DFIs in Nigeria.

The statement said the MSME sector was critical to the development of the Nigerian economy as it possessed great potentials for employment genera-tion and output diversifi-cation.

“MSMEs in Nigeria cover the entire range of economic activity; nev-ertheless, there has been gross under-performance of these enterprises and this has undermined their contribution to economic growth.

“Among the issues af-fecting their performance, the shortage of finance, particularly investment finance, occupies a very central position.

The Gas Exporting Country Forum (GECF), at its 16th Ministerial

Meeting in Doha , Qatar, has expressed concern over the increasing vola-tility of the energy market around the world.

According to the Chair-man of the meeting and Minister of Energy and

Industry of Qatar, Dr Mo-hammed Saleh Alsada, the industry was facing a cru-cial challenge of increas-ing volatility of the en-ergy market, adding that the trend was driven by various reasons, includ-ing economy and political elements.

He said: ``The GECF is

a platform for cooperation among the member coun-tries.

``Its existence and the success achieved so far is a reflection of its mem-bers’ determination to cooperate yet on a mutual understanding and co-operation as to grow the industry, especially in fac-

ing the crucial challenges of today - increasing vola-tility of energy market which is driven by variety of reasons.

``These include econo-my and political elements which affect its stability of the market; we need to be alert and keep monitor-ing the volatility of ener-gy market.

Gas exporting countries fret over market volatility

14 mining companies penalised over environmental law violations

The Mines En-v i r o n m e n t a l Compliance De-partment, of the

Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, has said that 14 mining compa-nies have been penalised by the Federal Govern-ment for violating various environmental laws.

Mr Salim Adegbayega, the Acting Director, said on yesterday in Abuja that the companies were sanc-tioned in Ogun, FCT, Na-sarawa, Lagos, Kogi, Ondo and Edo.

Adegbayega said the ministry enforced the sanctions by giving stop work order to some of them; others were refused renewal of their licenses’ as well as refusal to trans-fer mineral titles.

He said sections 116 and 119 of the law stipulated that before any company commenced mining, it had to submit statutory environmental documents mandatory for the opera-tion.

He disclosed that the documents were Envi-ronmental Impact As-sessment, Environmental Processing and Rehabili-tation Programme as well as the Community Devel-opment Agreement.

The acting director said it was mandatory for any mining company in Nigeria to submit these documents to the ministry before it commenced min-ing but all the companies sanctioned had failed to do so.

Adegboyega said the companies involved both local and foreign ones and were mostly into mining of granites and other min-erals while more would soon be sanctions.

He said the ministry had developed new strat-egies to monitor the ap-proval of the renewal of licenses.

``If an operator is known to have defaulted in environmental obliga-tions, the ministry will re-fuse to renew the license; we have more than 10 cases recently which has been effected.

``There are some who transferred their licenses from one company to the other because they have secured partners; they are also sanctioned by refus-ing the transfer to happen.

``We have many cases like that close to 10 also. We have 14 companies which had suffered one sanction or the other by denying them certain re-quirements or outright stop work order.

``We operators working out this document, we see it as violation of the law and that is when we nor-mally come in, to ensure compliance by way of writing them,’’ he said.

The acting director said once they failed to comply with the laws, it would at-tract sanction after serv-ing them with series of letters.

He advised mining com-panies to observe all the environmental obliga-tions by working in line with the law, adding that the law was very clear as to what the obligations were.

Adegboyega said that the Federal Government had earlier published the names of the companies involved this year, to cre-ate public awareness on environmental regula-tions among the miners.

He said that the min-istry would soon put in place mechanisms to sen-sitise the general public to how to produce those envi-ronmental documents.

He appealed to the gov-ernment to continue to support the solid mineral sector as the government had already made a policy statement to develop the sector in a way to support oil revenues.

Donald Kaberuka, AfDB president

Musa Sada, Mines & Steel minister

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014Business 34

Mr Abullahi Babani, the Comptroller, Pre-Arrival As-sessment Report

(PAAR), yesterday in Abuja disclosed that the Nigeria Cus-toms Service (NCS), through the PAAR scheme had increased revenues by 20 per cent in 2014 and was capable of hitting the trillion mark.

He said there was tremendous improvement on the revenue in the current year, considering the economic situation in the coun-try when compared to the per-formance of NCS in 2013.

Babani explained that PAAR was the new system of Destina-tion Inspection (DI) which trans-ferred the assignment from the service providers to the NCS in December 2013.

The comptroller added that the service had been able to block all the potential areas of revenue leakages through PAAR system and improved on rev-

enue collection.He said: “There is a tremen-

dous improvement in the rev-enue when you compare our performance in 2014 as against 2013; we have recorded over 20 per cent in revenue collection.

“When you look at most of the economic fundamentals, we are having downward turn because of insecurity and other issues which have had impacts on our ability to collect the revenue we are to collect.

“But because the system has been able to block all the poten-tial areas of revenue leakages, we have been able to improve on our revenue collection,” he said.

Babani stated that the service would not have been able to get 80 per cent of what it collected in 2013 if it was using the old system of destination inspec-tion called “Risk Assessment Report”.

According to him, ``we strong-ly believe that if we were using the RAR system of the service

providers in 2014, we wouldn’t have been able to recover up to the amount collected in 2013’’.

The comptroller said the transfer of DI to customs had en-abled the Federal Government to save about 25 million dollars monthly, being the amount that would have been paid to service

providers.He stated that the service

would be able to hit a trillion revenue collections for the first time under PAAR regime, add-ing that the service would not have made the mark under RAR regime.

``All we do in trying to succeed is that we are strengthening our

internal control mechanism to block all the potential leakages to enhance revenue collection.

“But the fact of the matter as at today is that Federal Govern-ment does not pay any service provider for these services; it is NCS that is delivering these services on behalf of the gov-ernment.

“So there is saving in that re-gard and as I have told you ear-lier on, we have recorded over 20 per cent increment in the revenue.

“So we will be able to hit a tril-lion revenue collections under the PAAR regime which has not happened under the old regime.

“You can only appreciate the contribution that PAAR is mak-ing when you look at the eco-nomic fundamentals.’’

According to Babani, the ser-vice is using more of profession-alism to be able to get our reve-nue valuation and classification correctly which is fundamental basis for raising assessments.

Fiscal Responsibility Commission, FIRS to boost internal revenue

The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) said yesterday that it was collaborating with the

Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to ensure improvements in internally generated revenue for the Federal Government.

This was contained in a state-ment issued in Abuja by FRC’s Head of Media, Mr. AbdulGaniyu Amin.

According to the statement, a meeting was recently held be-tween the two bodies to shore up internally generated revenue in the face of dwindling oil receipts.

The statement reported the acting Chairman, FRC, Mr. Vic-tor Muruako, as saying that only strict observance of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, could guarantee a comprehensive im-plementation of budgets.

“It is high time Nigeria took a cue from countries like Singa-pore, India and Brazil which have done away with budget deficit through strict adherence to fiscal discipline.

“FRC will ensure prompt re-mittance of operating surplus by

revenue generating agencies so as to enthrone an era of balanced budget for the country,” it said.

The statement decried the practice by some government agencies who indulged in some practices in order to avoid paying their exact operating surplus.

The FRC boss disclosed that the commission had designed a new template for calculating Op-erating Surplus which would be adopted in early 2015.

He also urged FIRS, as the sec-ond largest revenue earner of the Federal Government, to assist the commission toward the reali-sation of its mandates.

The statement stated that the Acting Executive Chairman, FIRS, Alhaji Kabir Mashi, as-sured that FIRS would partner with FRC to ensure that minis-tries, departments and agencies complied with the FRA, 2007.

It also said that FIRS was work-ing to ensure that tax payers got value for their tax remittance.

The statement said that there was the need for the two govern-ment agencies to partner, to en-sure increased revenue for the

government.“The FIRS has already em-

barked on an aggressive tax drive in response to the dire situation even though more still needs to

be done.“There are still a number of

government agencies that deduct withholding taxes, VAT on con-tract and PAYE from employees

but do not remit same to FIRS. “We will collaborate with FRC

to ensure prompt remittances of these taxes by such agencies,” he said.

PAAR can hit the trillion mark in generated revenue - Customs

Dikko, Comptroller General of Customs

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (2nd left), All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (2nd right), Secretary to the State Government, Dr. (Mrs.) Oluranti Adebule (right) and the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Ben Akabueze (left) the during the public presentation of the Lagos State Development Plan (2012-2025) organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Eco-nomic Planning and Budget at the Banquet Hall, Lagos House, Ikeja, recently.

35 Global Business Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014

FedEx Corp yesterday posted lower-than-expect-ed quarterly earnings as results at its FedEx

Ground and FedEx Freight units missed estimates, and it reiter-ated an outlook analysts consider conservative, sending its stock down nearly five per cent.

Both FedEx and main rival United Parcel Service Inc are in the final days of their peak holi-day season, which has boomed over the past decade due to the rise of e-commerce. Last year both companies were hit by a last-minute surge in online orders and bad weather, leaving an estimated two million packages undelivered on Christmas Eve.

The two companies have worked with online retailers in hopes of avoiding a repeat of last year. So far the plans appeared to be paying off.

On a conference call with ana-lysts, FedEx executives said la-bour problems at West Coast ports this year had left cargo shipments backed up over the last three months, causing inventory short-ages.

FedEx profit misses expectations as stocks drop

U.S. consumer prices fall on gasoline

Wall St. climbs ahead of Fed decisionU

.S. stocks were higher shortly after the open yesterday, following a three-session losing

streak for major Wall Street index-es, as investors awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve’s final statement of the year that may set the stage for interest rate hikes in 2015.

A strengthening U.S. economy is expected to trump global eco-nomic worries and the Fed is likely to signal it is still on track

to raise rates.U.S. consumer prices recorded

their biggest drop in nearly six years in November as gasoline prices tumbled, but this prob-ably will do little to change views the Fed will start raising interest rates in mid-2015.

“I do think they will take in con-sideration slow global economic activity and perhaps mention the threat of deflation in Europe,” said Peter Cardillo, chief mar-

ket economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

“If there isn’t a change in lan-guage, that would be the surprise,” he said, adding that as the U.S. economy continues to strengthen and lower oil prices give a boost to the consumer “the year-end rally in stocks will resume.”

The Dow Jones industrial aver-age .DJI rose 88.72 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 17,157.59, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 12.76 points, or 0.65

per cent, to 1,985.5 and the Nas-daq Composite .IXIC added 24.43 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 4,572.26.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2,075 to 739, for a 2.81-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,596 issues rose and 725 fell for a 2.20-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The S&P 500 was posting 5 new 52-week highs and 10 lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 13 new highs and 46 lows.

Central bank of Russia

Russian ruble firms, but remains volatile

Russia’s ruble strength-ened yesterday after dramatic falls against the dollar in the previ-

ous two days but remained ex-tremely volatile and fears of a prolonged crisis remained.

The ruble was about three per cent firmer against the dollar on the day after the government sold dollars to try to prop it up and because exporters sold dol-lars in preparation for monthly tax payments due this week.

At 0735 ET yesterday, the ru-

ble was up around three per cent against the dollar at 65.45 rubles per dollar and was four per cent stronger versus the euro at 81.68.

The ruble had fallen by around six per cent in the early minutes of trading. Small vol-umes were capable of moving the market sharply in either di-rection.

“Today it’s likely exporters are helping the ruble, though we haven’t seen them or the central bank,” said Pyotr Neimyshev at Otkritie bank in Moscow.

The Finance Ministry said it had started selling foreign cur-rency left over on its accounts, but this provided only fleeting support to the ruble.

The ruble has come under heavy selling pressure this week, falling around 20 per cent against the dollar at one stage on Tuesday, despite the central bank increasing its key interest rate by an unexpected 650 basis points, in an emergency move that did little to buttress the currency.

U.S. consumer prices recorded their biggest drop in nearly six years in November as gasoline

prices tumbled, but that did not change views the Federal Reserve would start raising interest rates in mid-2015.

The Labour Department said on Wednesday its Consumer Price In-dex (CPI) fell 0.3 per cent, the larg-est decline since December 2008, after being flat in October.

For the 12 months through No-vember, the CPI increased 1.3 per cent, the smallest gain since Febru-ary, after advancing 1.7 per cent in October.

“Beside a brief mention about keeping an eye on oil prices, do not expect this inflation report to mate-rially impact today’s Fed decision,” said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial in New York.

While inflation is running below the U.S. central bank’s target of two per cent, job growth has shift-ed into higher gear and the pace of slack absorption in the economy has accelerated in recent months.

Capital Market 36 Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014

DAILY MARKET SUMMARY

Nigerian Stock Exchange contends with negative trend

With the presentation of the budget to the National House of Assem-bly by the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy; Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi

Okonjo Iweala the market still closed at a low with a 2.78 per cent loss or 827.92 points as the

All share index (ASI) continues in its down-ward trend from its previous 29,789.59 points to 28,961.67 points recorded on Wednesday.

A total of 481,850,767.00 shares worth 6.2 bil-lion naira in 3822 deals were traded bringing Market capitalization to N9.56 trillion.

Adesola Akindele

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014 37 Daily Times Nigeria

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10”X6 389,025.00 16,533.56 10”X5 324,252.34 13,780.72 10”X4 259,401.87 11,024.58 10”X3 194,551.41 8,268.43 10”X2 101,415.24 4,310.15 9”X6 350,122.50 14,880.21 9”X5 291,827.10 12,402.65 9”X4 233,461.68 9,922.12 9”X3 161,635.50 6,869.51 8”X6 311,282.25 13,229.50 8”X5 259,401.87 11,024.58 8”X4 207,521.50 8,819.66 8”X3 143,693.55 6,106.98

8”X2 95,786.12 4,070.91 7”X5 226,976.64 9,646.51 7”X4 158,886.00 6,752.66 7”X2 68,249.93 2,900.62 6”X4 143,693.55 6,106.98 6”X3 87,749.87 3,729.37 6”X2 58,499.95 2,486.25 5”X5 121,874.89 5,179.68 5”X4 101,415.24 4,310.15 5”X3 73,124.89 3,107.81 5”X2 48,749.95 2,071.87 4”X2 38,999.96 1,657.50 3”X3 43,874.94 1,864.68 3”X2 29,249.98 1,243.12 2”X2 19,499.98 828.75 1”X2 9,749.99 414.37 1”X1 4,875.00 207.19 BPS 2”X2 268,734.38 11,421.21

1 F/PAGE 309,684.38 13,161.59 2 H/PAGE 176,520.09 7,502.10 3 Q/PAGE 95,073.11 4,040.61 4 14”X5 300,393.28 12,766.71 5 14”X4 240,315.08 10,213.39 6 14”X2 121,533.92 5,165.19 7 13”X5 278,936.62 11,854.81 8 13”X2 95,847.32 4,073.51 9 11”X5 269,728.90 11,463.48 10 11”X4 215,783.12 9,170.78 11 11”X2 81,107.81 3,447.08 12 10”X6 294,200.16 12,503.51 13 10”X5 245,208.10 10,421.34 14 10”X4 196,185.05 8,337.86 15 10”X3 147,138.80 6,253.40 16 10”X2 73,734.38 3,133.71 17 9”X6 264,780.15 11,253.16 18 9”X5 220,687.29 9,379.21 19 9”X4 176,566.55 7,504.08 20 9”X3 119,483.60 5,078.05 21 8”X6 235,399.77 10,004.49 22 8”X5 196,185.05 8,337.86 23 8”X4 156,948.04 6,670.29 24 8”X3 108,668.25 4,618.40 25 8”X2 58,987.50 2,506.97 26 7”X5 171,661.92 7,295.63 27 7”X4 121,533.92 5,165.19 28 7”X2 51,614.05 2,193.60 29 6”X4 108,668.25 4,618.40 30 6”X3 66,360.90 2,820.34 31 6”X2 44,240.63 1,880.23 32 5”X5 92,160.88 3,916.84 33 5”X4 73,734.38 3,133.71 34 5”X3 55,300.74 2,350.28 35 5”X2 36,867.18 1,566.86 36 4”X2 29,493.75 1,253.48 37 3”X3 33,180.45 1,410.17 38 3”X2 22,120.32 940.11 39 2”x6 48,173.99 2,047.39 40 2”X2 14,746.87 626.74 41 1”X2 7,373.44 313.37 42 1”X1 3,686.72 156.69

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Moses - 08169118913Helen - 08035208749

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ABUJA.

Æ s38 Daily Times Nigeria

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Genesis Of Our Times

The Incorpora-tion of the Nige-rian Printing and Publishing Com-

pany on 6th June 1925, was followed two days later by a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company to appoint its Chairman, a Secretary and an Editor for the proposed newspa-per, The Nigerian Daily Times.

In those early days, the Board directed and con-trolled all matters relating to the appointment, promo-tion and discipline of its staff, a practice from which finally emerged policies regulating the pattern and structure of the Company’s management.

An illustration of the ear-ly beginnings of manage-ment policy may be found in a resolution of the Board on Friday, August 28th, 1925, to appoint a Business Manag-er who should “be responsi-ble for the commercial side of the Company at a salary of N20 per month until De-cember and N30 per month thereafter.” It is worthy of note that the Board resolved at that meeting to offer the appointment to Mr. C. A. Ka-sumu, subject to a guaran-teed bond in the company’s favour to the value of N500.

The appointment of Mr. Kasumu and. Later, Messrs Omololu and Ijabode in Feb-ruary, 1926 exposed practi-cal problems in the organi-zational hierarchy and it took three Board meetings to resolve these problems. To illustrate the wisdom and care taken to settle the issue, relevant extracts from the Board Minutes are reproduced hereunder:

FRIDAY 11th SEPTEM-BER, 1926

“Mr. Osborne supported by Mr. Alakija was of the opinion that this title (Busi-ness Manger) to be given to Mr. Kasumu will lead to fric-tion between Mr. Ikoli and Mr. Kasumu. It was under-stood that Mr. Ikoli objected to the title of Business Man-ager on the grounds that the outside African public will

be under the impression that Mr. Kasumu was senior in position to the Editor.

“Lengthy discussion arose over this point and it was suggested that Mr. Ikoli be called Editor and Manger and Mr. Kasumu Business Manager.

Mr. Alakija suggested that Mr. Kasumu be called Accountant. It was decided to adjourn the question until the next meeting and ask Mr. Ikoli to come to the next meeting in order that he may be given the oppor-tunity to express his views.”

TUESDAY 13th OCTO-BER, 1926

“At the request of the Chairman, the minutes of meeting held on 11th Sep-tember, 1926, were read. Mr. Ikoli was then asked to join the meeting. The Chairman advised Mr. Ikoli that he had been asked to attend in order to give the Board his views on the question of the duties and designation of himself and Mr. Kasumu.

“Mr. Ikoli stated that he cordially welcomed Mr. Ka-sumu but, as he previously had entire control which was publicly recognised, he wished to understand clearly his position as Edi-tor to the Company. He de-sired that the other staff of all grades should be respon-sible to him and he to the Directors.

“The Chairman stated that Mr. Kasumu will be entirely responsible to the Editor for all matters ex-cept stocks in his personal charge fro which he alone will be responsible. The Chairman asked Mr. Ikoli whether or not he will be satisfied with the designa-tions: Mr Ikoli, Editor and Manager; Mr. Kasumu, Business Manager.

“Mr. Ikoli replied that he would be quite satisfied with the designation and di-vision of duties as outlined by the Chairman. Mr. Ikoli then withdrew”.

At a subsequent meeting, the matter was settled when the Board resolved that in view of the practical diffi-

culties involved, the whole office and works should be placed under the control of the Editor being previously responsible to the Directors fro all matters. As a result, an organization pattern emerged:

Mr. E. S. Ikoli - Editor/Manger

Mr. C. A. Kasumu - Accounts/Stores

Mr. Omololu - Advertisements/Circulation

Mr. Ijabode - Head Compositor

This structure was to re-main until the appointment of Mr. C. H. Jeal (a Europe-an) as the Company’s Man-ager in October. 1928.

On the question of disci-pline, the Board of Direc-tors was equally firm. The minutes of a Board meeting on July 16, 1927, illustrates the point:-

“The Chairman brought to the notice of the Direc-tors the conduct of Mr. C. A. Kasumu, the Business Man-ager, in authorising an ex-penditure on repairs of the premises without sanction of the Board. The Direc-tors view with displeasure and disfavour such a con-duct and request that in fu-ture the Business Manager should not incur any expen-diture without the previous sanction of the Board being first asked and obtained”.

With the discontinuance of the African Messenger in December 1928, Mr. C. H. Jeal was requested to reorganize the Company. A major decision of the Board on the reorganization was that Messrs Cassleton Elliot (Chartered Accountants) were specially engaged at a fee of twenty-five guineas to audit the Company’s ac-counts up to 30th September, 1929, and thereafter became the Company’s auditors on a quarterly fee of fifteen guineas. The fees have of course increased with the growth of the business.

Commendations, even at that early stage of the

The company

CONTINUED ON PAGE 39

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014 39 Genesis Of Our Times

Company’s development, were not uncommon. In the minutes of a meeting held on 14th February 1930, the following sentiments in re-spect of a senior staff and a director were recorded:

“It was moved by Mr. P. D. Rose and seconded by Mr. Eric Moore, that a vote of thanks be accorded to Mr. C. H. Jeal, the Manager of the Nigerian Printing and Publishing Company for the services performed by him during the year 1928 to 1929… …

“Mr. O. Alakija informed the Board that he would crave leave to bring to the notice of the Board the ser-vices rendered at all times by the Chairman of Direc-tors in the interest of the Company and for promot-ing generally the interest of the establishment.”

In 1935, while Europe was in the midst of an economic depression, the Company was acquired by Mr. Rob-ert B. Paul. A condition of the acquisition was that the new owner should select the European Manager.

The new owners applied themselves to the task of restructuring the Company and building up the news-paper. Europeans were em-ployed to fill the posts of Managing Editor, Business Manager and Works Man-ager. In addition, the com-pany engaged the services of a European Works Assis-tant who “offered to pay his own steamer fare to Lagos and prove his efficiency.” The Board sanctioned his engagement at N60 per month.

Business and commer-cial control of the Nigerian Daily Times became the responsibility of the new owners, but Sir Adeyemo and his local staff contin-ued to direct editorial pol-icy, circulation and local management.

Rough times came with the Second World War and there were problems not only of news-sprint supply but of a tired management. The general manager of that period went for some four years without a single break and slackness crept into the production so

much so that in 1945 when the war ended - and for a year afterwards, the cir-culation was seldom more than 1,000 copies a day.

When the Daily Mirror Newspapers of London ac-quired the Company from Mr. R. B. Paul in December 1947, a new era and manage-ment style were to follow.

The first general manag-er to be posted to Lagos by the Daily Mirror was Frank Rogers and others followed after him; but present-day history of the Daily Times did not begin until the leg-endary figure of Percy Rob-erts came on the stage.

An ebullient journalist and a tireless and dynamic work leader, Mr. Roberts joined the company as edi-torial adviser in 1952 and rose to the post of general manager by 1955. As gen-eral manager, he success-fully launched the “Sunday Times” and the “Sporting Record”, but his efforts with an evening newspaper and a weekly entertainment pa-per were unsuccessful.

In December 1957, Mr. Percy Roberts was appoint-ed Managing Director of the Company with Mr. A. B. Osula (who had earlier been elected a director) as Deputy Managing Director.

Percy Roberts was clear-ly the starting point of mod-ern journalism in the Daily Times Group. An all-round man that he was, Percy was everything at any time of the production timetable: reporter, sub-editor, stone-sub, production manager, marketing and transport organiser, general manag-er, director, etc., etc.

Such was the versatility of this man Percy that his shadow hung like a legend over Kakawa Street for many years. He was liked and feared at the same time and it can be said without exaggeration that it was under his regime that most of the present-day Nigerian executives mastered the se-cret of producing a success-ful newspaper.

A student of Percy’s school, Chief Olu Fadiro, who was sales manager at Nigerpak, described him as follows:

“I worked very closely

The companyCONTINUED FROM PAGE 38

with Mr. Percy Roberts at a time when I very much needed an appreciation for hard work. I was a linotype operator and he was the General Manager.

“With Mr. Roberts, the sky was the limit for any worker who combined hard work with initiative. Such an employee could receive as many incentives as pos-

sible within one calendar year.

“Mr. Roberts inspired me for his hard work and he was, indeed, a pillar of strength: a ‘Jack-Never-

Tire’ type of man. “In the Composing Room,

we called him O-Oga-let it go-o as such outbursts read-ily reminded us that it was press time”.

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014 News 40

Idris

People’s Democrat-ic Party (PDP) leaders in Ower-ri, the Imo State

capital, have urged Sena-tor Ifeanyi Araraume and Chief Ikedi Ohakim, to sheathe their swords and support the candidature of Hon. Emeka Ihedioha for the governorship slot of the state.

The party therefore ad-vised all former aspirants, members of the party, and indeed, Imo indigenes to rally round its governor-ship candidate, Chief Emeka Ihedioha to ensure victory in the general elec-

2015: Imo PDP sues for peacetions.

The leadership of the party also condemned ceaseless protests trailing the results of just conclud-ed Governorship prima-ries in Imo State particu-larly the efforts by some individuals to engender hostility within the party, stressing that the party members ought to have learnt from previous expe-rience.

In a statement made available to newsmen wednesday in Owerri, en-titled “PDP governorship candidate 2015, No victory, No vanquished, United we

stand to achieve victory” , the zonal chairman of the party, General Rowland Ogbonna (rtd), warned that the party would view any act of indiscipline or anti-party activities with every seriousness in the present circumstance.

Gen. Ogbonna, support-ed by the chairmen of the party in the nine LGAs of the zone and their secre-taries advised the party’s governorship aspirants from Okigwe zone, Sena-tor Ifeanyi Araraume and Chief Ikedi Ohakim who lost in the exercise to tow the path of honour and

demonstrate the spirit of sportsmanship, sheathe their swords and join hands with Chief Ihedio-ha who he said emerged winner in the free and fair primaries.

“The governorship pri-mary was the best ever conducted in our state, be-ing transparently free and fair and all aspirants had their agents who were not prevented from coming to where the votes were counted.

While congratulating Chief Ihiedioha on his well- deserved victory, he recalled that the party in

the zone had prior to the gubernatorial primary, commenced for the first time, an expensive visi-tation and consultation with the leadership of the party in Orlu and Okigwe zones which involved all the governorship aspi-rants of Owerri zonal ex-traction and which was marked by cordial recep-tion and honest discus-sions.

He also commended all the party delegates for participating in the exer-cise and for conducting themselves in the most peaceful manner to the extent that the exercise was devoid of any form of violence.

Moses Oyediran, Enugu

The Movement for the Actualiza-tion of Sovereign State of Biafra

(MASSOB), has again launched a new plate num-ber for vehicle following the success of the motor-cycle in February this year.

The group also called on all Igbos in the country to see the launch of the new plate number as their

MASSOB launches Biafran vehicle number plate in Enugu

identity and avail them-selves of every privileges due citizens of Biafra.

The MASSOB leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, while launching the vehi-cle plate number in Nsuk-ka yesterday urged vehicle owners all over Biafra ter-ritory not to be afraid of purchasing it, adding that no security agent will ha-rass or disturb them for using Biafra plate number as they have not commit-

ted any offence. Uwazuruike, was rep-

resented by Chief Arinze Igbani, the Awka South Regional Administrator of MASSOB.

He said, “The plate num-ber is our identity and MASSOB have every right to launch its own plate number as it will forestall criminal activities among people hiding under our name to perpetrate evil.

“MASSOB as you know

is a non-violent and non-arms carrying organiza-tion set out to achieve our sovereignty”, he said.

He commended member and urged them to remain steadfast in the pursuit of the struggle.

The MASSOB Regional Administrator for Nsukka, Mr Kenneth Okwudili, thanked Uwazuruike for his confidence for the Nsukka Region and prom-ised that they will not be-tray his trust in them.

Wale Ibrahim, Lokoja

Kogi State House of Assembly has voted in fa-vour of Local

Government Councils au-tonomy among other sec-tions of The Constitution 4th Alteration Bill, 2014 forwarded to it by the Na-tional Assembly.

The house voted in fa-vour of all sections for-warded to it for its consid-eration but insisted on the scrapping of the State In-dependent Electoral Com-mission (SIEC) as part of the constitution amend-ment.

The house which dis-solved into a Committee of the Whole to consider and vote met a rancorous on reaching Section 197 providing for the estab-lishment of the SIEC but few members held that the commission must stay.

Majority of members who held their ground against the sustenance of the commission alluded among other hindrances to the clause, duplication of functions of the Inde-pendent National Elector-al Commission (INEC).

The house however re-frained from voice votes of a yes and nays to count-ing and at the end, only two members out of the 19 at plenary session voted in favour of SIEC as they held that the commission would not serve the inter-est of the people.

Other clauses ratified by the house include New States and Boundary ad-justment, Police Reforms, Protection of Persons with Disabilities against Discrimination among many others.

Kogi Assembly votes in favour of LG autonomy

Herbalist jailed 10 years for abducting lecturer’s wife in Delta

Chief Willie Obiano, Governor of Anambra State welcoming Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, Nigerian Ambassador to Spain to the Special National Convention of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), held in Awka, Anambra.

An Effurun High Court has sentenced a self-acclaimed

prophet, Mr Philip Itoje to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour for the kidnapping of one Mrs. Christiana Eruotor.

The woman, wife of Prof. Peter Eruotor, a renowned University Lecturer, Agriculturist and pioneer Professor of Agronomy, Delta State University, Abraka, got missing in 2012 under mysterious circumstanc-es.

She was a retired Chief Internal Auditor, College of Health Sciences, DEL-SU, a Certified Accoun-tant and had three sons, three daughters and nine grand-children before her disappearance.

The Court held that from the totality of the circumstantial evidence before it, there were irre-sistible facts that pointed to the fact that the accused person kidnapped the vic-tim.

“MASSOB expects every vehicle owners to buy the new plate number sold for N5, 000”, he said.

He informed members that license and other particulars will as well be issued to them after pur-

Daily Times NigeriaThursday December 18, 2014 41 News

L-R: Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George; Chairman of Northern El-ders Council, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai; A former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide SAN; Senior Spe-cial Assistant on Public Affairs to President, Dr Doyin Okupe; representative of Ooni of Ife, Oba Kole Olutalayo; Guest Speaker, Prof Dupe Olatunbosun and former Minister of State for Finance, Senator Jubril Martins at the media presentation of candidate Goodluck Ebele Jonathan held in Lagos. Photo: Bolaji Olasunkanmi

An Osun State High Court, Okuku Judi-ciary Division,

yesterday sentenced two armed robbers to death.

According to a state-ment by the information officer of Osun state Min-istry of Justice, Mr. Opey-emi Bello, the convicts, Olowookere Segun and Morakinyo Sunday had pleaded not guilty to eight 8 count charge.

The charge include con-spiracy, robbery and steal-ing contrary to section 6(b) and 1(2)(a) of robbery and Firearm (special pro-visions) Act, cap R 11 laws of Federation of Nigeria 2004 and section (390)(1) Criminal Code Law, Cap 34, Laws of Osun State, 2002.

The statement further disclosed that the prosecu-tion team from the Minis-try of Justice led by Solic-itor General, Mrs. Abiola Adewemimo called six 6 witnesses and tendered exhibits to prove its case.

Electricity con-sumers in Yena-goa, the Bayelsa State capital,

are indebted to the the Port Harcourt Electric-ity Distribution Company (PHEDC) to the tune of N5 billion.

This was disclosed in a statement issued by Man-ager, Corporate Commu-nications, PHEDC, Mr. Jo-nah Ibomah. The company also claimed that over 15 transformers were lost to activities of vandals

which has resulted in epi-leptic supply of electricity to the area.

Ibomah said the huge debt had impacted nega-tively on the growth of Yenagoa Business Unit in particular and the overall performance of the com-pany which came into existence just over a year ago.

He said the indebted-ness cut across various categories of PHEDC cus-tomers.

Ibomah said, “The PHEDC available record shows that out of 4,977 pre-paid customers, only 183, representing less than four per cent, are vending.

“What this suggests is that the rest of the custom-ers must have tampered with their meters thereby engaging in energy theft which has accounted for energy losses.”

The corporate Com-munication manager also said customer using ana-logue meters with a total

population of about 10,669, only 2,681 were paying electricity bills.

“The energy Yenagoa is receiving is not at all commensurate with its payment. For instance, in October, 2014, Yenagoa re-ceived 17,782,270 worth of energy, the highest among the 15 Business Units un-der the licensed area of the company’s coverage; but it was only able to ac-count for less than 40 per cent of this,” he added.

2 men sentenced to death for stealing fowl

Bayelsa community owes N5.1b electricity bills

Change of NameI, formerly known as AYO-

DELE BOLANLE MARY now wishes to be known and addressed as OGUNLOLA AYODELE BOLANLE. All documents remain valid. The general public please take note.

Change of NameI, formerly known as ADE-

BANKE OLURANTI TAIWO-TANIMOWO now wishes to be known and addressed as ADEBANKE OLURANTI TANI-MOWO. All documents remain valid. The general public please take note.

Change of NameI, formerly known as CATHE-

RINE APANA ATAH now wish-es to be known and addressed as CATHERINE APANA DICK-SON. All documents remain valid. The general public please take note.

Giving the facts of the case, the statement main-tained that the accused persons forcefully broken into the house of one Ba-logun Tope, a police offi-cer attached to divisional police headquarters, Okuku in April 2010 and carted away some of his belongings.

On13th November, 2010, five men, were said to have been apprehended around Balogun’s house wielding cutlasses and a dane gun.

Two of them were said to have been arrested and later confessed that they actually stole fowls and admitted being the robbers that attacked the house in April, 2010.

Ola Yekeen, Ilorin

Kwara State Gov-ernor, Dr Abdul-fatah Ahmed on Wednesday pre-

sented the sum of N119.8 billion budget for 2015 to the State House of Assem-bly for consideration.

The budget, tagged “Budget of introspection and job creation” was N4.6 billion more 2014 budget representing 3.7% increase of the total bud-

get size.According to the Gov-

ernor, the Capital Expen-diture would gulp N62.1 billion which represents 52 per cent of the total budget size while N46.4 billion for Recurrent Ex-penditure represents 39 per cent.

Ahmed also said the budget has a debt profile of 11.2 billion which rep-resents 9 per cent of the total budget.

According to Governor

Ahmed, N16.4 billion is expected from Internally

Generated Revenue (IGR), while the foreign and local aids for capital development amounted to N29.7 billion.

Governor Ahmed added that the state is expect-ing N33.6 billion from the Federation Account, N7.5 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT) and N2.5 bil-lion from Non Oil/Excess Crude account.

“The other anticipated

source of revenue for funding the 2015 budget is from a bond of Twenty-three billion naira to be sourced from the Capital Market and to be repaid back by 2022.

“We are also anticipat-ing a term loan facility of seven billion naira from financial institutions in case the bond accessibil-ity might delay, in order to ensure that we continue with our developmental

projects”, Ahmed added.The governor said the

sum of N2.3 billion from recurrent revenue sur-plus would be transfer to Capital Development in case of any short fall in the budget.

Ahmed said the budget would be used to complete on-going projects in the state, adding that it would be used to support private and emerging entrepre-neurs to grow their busi-

nesses. The budget was spread

across nine sectors with General Public Service taking the lion share of 30% amounting to N35.9 billion followed by the Economic affairs gulping N35.5 billion representing 29.7%.

Education came third with N24.1 billion which is 20% of the total budget size followed by the Health sector with 8.6% amount-ing to N10.2 billion.

Kwara gov proposes N119.8bn budget for 2015 fiscal year

Æ s42 Daily Times Nigeria

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Sport

Managing Arsenal remains Thierry Henry’s dream job but the former striker knows he has a long way to go before

he can replace Arsene Wenger.Henry announced his retirement on

Tuesday after four and a half seasons with New York Red Bulls, and has signed a contract to join Sky Sports as a pundit, al-though the 37-year-old has long-term plans

to become a manager, with one of his for-mer clubs high on his wish list as a future employer.

While working alongside Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher as an on-screen ana-lyst, Henry plans to complete his coaching education and Arsenal looks set to play a key role.

Henry joined Arsenal in 1999 and went on to make 258 Premier League appear-

ances with the club - including a short loan stint from the Red Bulls in the 2011-12 season - scoring 175 goals, and the French-man would love to return to the club as manager one day.

“That would be a dream come true but that’s not how it works,” Henry enthused.

“You have to prove yourself first, you have to learn first. You need to be able to understand what it is to be a manager.

“Can you teach, can you be patient? All these problems. People think they are all managers in their own way but it’s not that easy.

“The plan is to start my badges and I guess Arsenal will help me. To pass your badges, you have to work closely with a

Eagles to battle Elephants, Les Aiglons in friendly– Amadu

Ex-internationals stun Nollywood stars in friendly

Benin chess tourney enters crucial stage

No January signings for Blues – Mourinho

Continued on page 43

Football Page 43

Football Page 43

Football Page 44Football Page 46

Æ

Thierry Henry opens up on career move

Managing Arsenal is my dream!

37 -year-old Arsenal legend Thierry Henry

43 SportDaily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014

In kick-starting its pledge to ensure that the senior na-tional team, Super Eagles, are engaged for all the FI-

FA-free days available next year, NFF General Secretary, Barris-ter Musa Amadu has confirmed that the Nigeria Football Federa-tion (NFF) has secured two in-ternational friendly matches for the team prior to the 30th Africa Cup of Nations finals.

Amadu said on Wednesday that the Eagles will confront two teams they battered on their way to a third African title in South

Africa early last year, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in January 2015.

He also added that the Super Eagles will confront 1992 African champions Cote d’Ivoire, whom they edged 2-1 in the quarter fi-nals in South Africa, on January 9, and take on fellow Eagles of Mali, who were humbled 4-1 by the Nigerians in the semi-finals in South Africa, four days later.

“We are working round the clock to make sure that the Su-per Eagles will have opponents for all the FIFA windows avail-able in year 2015, and we are happy that the two games with

the Ivoirians and the Malians are sealed.

“The Elephants and the Les Aiglons are on their way to the 30th Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea, so they are sure to give our team good games,” Amadu said.

Already, Assistant Coach Dan-iel Amokachi has drawn a list of 24 players who will do battle for shirts for the two matches.

Gombe United goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim leads the invi-tees, with Azubuike Egwuekwe, Kwambe Solomon, Umar Zango, Rabiu Ali, Emem Eduok, King-sley Sokari, Mfon Udoh, Gbola-

han Salami and Gambo Muham-mad.

Also invited are Daniel Ak-peyi, Theophilus Afelokhai, Id-ris Aloma, Chimma Akas, Nel-son Ogbonna, Erhun Obanor, Bright Esieme, Ammel Angel Wilfred, Joseph Nathaniel, Charles Henlong, Stanley Dimg-ba, Chinedu Udeaga, Osaguona Christian and Christian Obio-zor.

All the invited players are ex-pected to report at the Bolton White Apartments, Abuja on Sunday, December 28, with their international passports and four passport photographs.

Eagles to battle Elephants, Les Aiglons in friendly – Amadu

Super Eagles line up

Ex-internationals stun Nollywood stars in friendly

Managing Arsenal is my dream!club and I would like to think it is going to be Arsenal. You know I’m in London when you see me at Arsenal.

“First and foremost, I don’t know how or when, but every-body knows I would love to go back to Arsenal in some capac-ity. But I need to be equipped to

go back. I want to learn the pro-cess, so I have to get my badges and what not. We will see what is going to happen.

“First and foremost, I have to make sure that I have everything on board to be able to go back.”

But while coaching is Henry’s long-term goal, he is confident he will make a good TV pundit, claiming he already analyses

games at home.“If I watch a game on Sky

with my friends, I will pause it 20,000 times and by the time it starts again, the game is al-ready over, we already know the result, but I’m still pausing it to make my friends understand why something happened or why it shouldn’t have happened,” he said.

Continued from page 42

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry (right) in discussion with Theo Walcott

Iyanu Oni-Orisan

’SODIQ ADEKUNLE, OSHOGBO

A football team com-prising of 16 ex-in-ternationals defeated Team Nollywood by

6-2 during a celebrity-studded novelty match played at Campus Square Sports Centre, Lagos, to commemorate the 2014 World HIV/AIDS Day in Nigeria.

Among the ex-internationals who featured at the event in-cludes Austin “Jay Jay” Oko-cha, Emmanuel Babayaro, Em-manuel Okocha, Victor Agali, Dan Amokachi, Teslim Fatusi and Celestine Babayaro, while the Team Nollywood celebri-ties comprised of Sound Sultan, Hafiz “Saka” Oyetoro, John Nja-mah, Emmanuel Mordi and DJ Steel.

The celebrity team was com-plemented by five officials of Coca-Cola Nigeria.

The match tagged ‘Superstars Play for Life’ was sponsored by Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited in partnership with Friends Africa (Friends of the Global Fund Af-rica), a pan-African non-govern-mental organisation.

During the event, no fewer than 4,000 persons took the HIV test.

“Nearly 4,000 persons, mostly women and youth, took the test to ascertain their HIV status at the mobile HCT centres acti-vated in four locations: Campos Square, Sangrose Market and Oluwole Market on Lagos Island and at the University of Lagos campus in Akoka.

“About 70% of those tested did so for the first time. A few persons who tested positive for the virus were counselled and referred to the Lagos General Hospital for enrolment on follow up counselling and treatment programme,” a statement from the organisers read.

Sport 44 Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014

2015 AFCONBenin chess tourney enters crucial stage

NFF boss, Amaju Pinnick

Rufai

Tahmi

Rufai’s Staruf Academy set for fifth anniversary

Former Super Eagles goal-keeper and proprietor of Staruf Football Acad-emy, Peter Rufai, has an-

nounced that the academy will be celebrating five years of its exis-tence on Friday, December 19, at the Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos.

Rufai told our correspondent that the academy which is aimed at improving the lives of Nigerian youths through football is cel-ebrating its foundation in order to express appreciation to Nige-rians who have stood by it since inception, as well as take stock on its achievements and chart a new way forward for the foremost foot-ball academy in the country.

According to him, the celebra-

tion will involve red carpet re-ception, formal presentation of Staruf Academy, recognition and award presentation to support-ers of football, American auction, cutting of cake and fund raising.

“We are celebrating five years of our existence to give thanks to God and commend all those that stood by us all these years.

“The celebration will also be used to reassure Nigerians that we are more prepared now to help develop future football stars through technical and tactical discipline by ensuring the conti-nuity of stable performance of individual and team adaptation to pressure.

“We shall also help in meeting clubs ambition and objectives be-sides encouraging fair play,” Ru-fai said.

Ghana can succeed despite tough group – Desailly

Algerian fans told to avoid AFCON

NFF lauds Seina Marine, ARIK for supporting refs training

Former France cap-tain Marcel Desailly believes Ghana can succeed in Equatorial

Guinea despite being paired with South Africa, Algeria and Senegal at the 2015 AFCON tournament.

“We have hope that they (Ghana) are going to do well in the competition. The group is a difficult one because we see that South Africa are doing well.”

The Ghana-born player said: “I am curious and I want to see what they can do. But we believe if the Black Stars can begin well, they will go to the knock-out stages and who knows what can possibly follow?”

The 2015 AFCON can easily be called the Francophone Cup and it will not be misplaced. That’s because 11 of the 16 teams are French-speaking.

Marcel touched on this pecu-liarity: “We see that there are lot of Francophone countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Guin-ea but we hope that Ghana as an

Anglophone country will make it to the last four or the final.”

Ghana’s group alone has two such - Senegal and Algeria - and the Black Stars will definitely meet another if they progress as Group D has Ivory Coast, Mali, Cameroon and Guinea.

Desailly

Algeria’s Sports Minister, Mohammed Tahmi, has appealed to national team supporters not to

travel for the AFCON.There are a few standard hotels

in Mongomo where the Desert Foxes will be competing against South Africa, Ghana and Senegal. The best have been allotted to the national teams with the rest deemed to be below par.

“The conditions are inappro-priate,” Tahmi spoke against the proposed movement of the fans for the 30th edition of the AFCON in Equatorial Guinea at a meeting on Tuesday.

If the pleas of the Algerian gov-ernment are heeded to, the Chris-tian Gourcuff side may not be enjoying the traditional support they are used to at recent major tournaments.

“According to our information, the movement of our fans in Equa-torial Guinea will be very difficult given the lack of accommodation facilities in the country.”

“It is so difficult to find accom-modation facilities and this will even complicate the work of our journalists there,” Tahmi admon-ished.

Meanwhile, Algeria coach Christian Gourcuff has named his final squad for the 2015 AF-CON.

Aside the main team of 23, the Frenchman also created a back-up list of seven players to cater for emergencies that could occur before the start of the tournament in Equatorial Guinea.

Spanish side Real Betis’ mid-fielder Foued Kadir and 22-year-old Ishak Belfodil, who plays as a striker for Parma in Italy, appear to be the surprise inclusions in the squad.

Iyanu Oni-Orisan

Iyanu Oni-Orisan

The ongoing 2nd edition of the annual Benin Chess Tournament currently holding at the Indoor

Sports Hall of Samuel Ogbemu-dia Stadium, Benin City, enters its crucial stage today, as the race for the star prize begins with round five and six games of the event.

Players are to size up each other in the Day Four of the event which is expected to give a clue on who could emerge as the winner of the tournament tagged “Oba’s Cup” being sponsored by Seven Up Bot-tling Company Plc as part of its contribution towards sports devel-opment in the country.

Going into the day’s game in the master category will be the duo of Igubor Micah and Balogun Oluwafemi as both players have gathered three points each, while Ekpoikong Unwama Eugene and Emuakpeje Ochuko with two and half points apiece are expected to improve their chances for the golden race which ends on Friday December 19.

In the U-10 event, Ikegbunam Johnson chances of winning the category looks bright ahead of other contestants having won all his four games played so far with four points in his kitty, while the U-14 cadre will be a straight battle between Osadebe Michael and Uwadia Osaze, as both players have four points each after win-ning all their four games in the tournament.

Meanwhile, Ikegbunam Dan-iel has been tipped to lift the U-16 trophy, as he is leading with four points from four rounds of match-es played, while other players are expected to jostle for the runner-ups position.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has applauded Seina Ma-rine Limited and ARIK airline

for the support both companies are offering to 20 Nigerian elite referees going to the United Kingdom for the arbiters’ next capacity enhancing programme.

NFF President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick said: “Seina Marine Limited is bankrolling the cost of the three –week exercise as well as the stay of the 20 referees in London.

“On their part, ARIK Airline has offered to fly the referees at only half the fare and we are very appreciative of this gesture. I can tell you that this

is the beginning of what is sure to be useful relationships between Seina Marine and NFF, as well as ARIK Air-line and NFF.

“There were 10 referees involved in the first batch that returned to the country on Sunday. There will be 20 referees in the second match that will leave the country on January 25, 2015, for another two-week capacity build-ing exercise.”

Earlier NFF confirmed that 17 highly-qualified persons, including coaches and ex-internationals will fly to the United Kingdom mid-January for a three-week match reading tech-nique and backroom analysis exer-cise, aimed at helping all the National Teams in international engagements.

‘Niyi Omo-Okiri

45 SportDaily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014

Kipsang

Kimetto

Dasaolu competes in Birmingham’s Grand PrixG

reat Britain’s European 100m champion James Dasaolu will compete at the 2015 Sainsbury’s

Indoor Grand Prix, an IAAF In-door Permit meeting, in Birming-ham on February 21, the organis-ers announced wednesday.

At the 2014 Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix earlier this year, Das-aolu set a world-leading 60m time

of 6.47secs in his heat before win-ning the final in 6.50secs.

The 27-year-old is excited about returning to the Barclaycard Are-na in February, where he will face a field that will also include Great Britain’s 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships 60m winner Rich-ard Kilty.

“I can’t wait to compete at the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix

next year. Training is going bril-liantly and I believe I’m over my injuries,” commented Dasaolu, who can also boast of an impres-sive 100m best of 9.91secs.

Also announced on Wednesday was Asha Philip, who is currently the British champion over 60m in-doors and 100m outdoors and now training with Dasaolu in Lough-borough under the guidance of

Coach Steve Fudge.In 2014, Philip won the British

60m title in 7.09secs, just 0.01 shy of Jeanette Kwakye’s British re-cord.

Double Olympic, World and Eu-ropean champion Mo Farah has already confirmed that he will compete at the 2015 Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix.

James Dasaolu (left) winning the 60m at the 2014 Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham

Kipsang accuses Athletics Kenya for smearing his name

Former marathon world-record holder Wilson Kipsang has accused Ke-nya’s athletics federation

of smearing his name by disclos-ing that he missed an out-of-com-petition doping test.

The IAAF told Athletics Kenya it had tried to test Kipsang on No-vember 11.

Athletics Kenya issued a state-ment saying no sanction would be imposed as it was his first missed test.

Kipsang, 32, said the statement was a “breach of privacy with ma-licious target to soil my name and efforts”.

He added he would seek legal action against the “unprofes-sional misconduct” of Athletics Kenya.

The federation said Kipsang was told he would be in violation of anti-doping rules if he misses three tests within an 18-month period.

Kipsang, who said he was aware of the IAAF notification, added: “I have submitted all nec-essary required details and the matter was settled accordance to the governing law.”

He said he was in South Africa on the day of the test, attending a global athletics conference as the Kenyan and African representa-tive.

He added Athletics Kenya was aware of his whereabouts.

“Missing unwillingly a single test for the first time cannot amount to issuing a press state-ment by a national federation,” said Kipsang.

“I am not the only athlete who misses a test. I am not the first one in Kenya, neither in the whole world. Then, why Kipsang?”

AK bans Kimetto, Kiplimo for 2 years

The Athletics Kenya (AK) has announced that it had banned two marathoners Viola Chelangat Kimetto

and Joyce Jemutai Kiplimo for failed doping tests.

The AK Medical and Anti-doping

Commission chaired by Dr Victor Bargoi, which met on December 10, are also studying the tests of six others marathoners – excluding Rita Jeptoo – for possible sanctions.

Kimetto, 33, third at the Athens marathon in 2012 in 2:40:28 tested positive for Norandosterone dur-ing the Macau Galaxy Entertain-ment International Marathon held on December 1, 2013 and has been banned for two years effective Octo-ber 12, 2014.

The 26-year-old Kiplimo, a half marathoner has a personal best of 1:10.21 from Yangzhou – a result that has since been nullified as the tests taken after the race in China last April also returned positive test for Norandosterone – a banned

substance that is detected in urine.Athletics Kenya however steered

clear of the recent allegations pub-lished by a British Newspaper last week that reported that up to 25 Kenyan runners, possibly some world and Olympic champions, are among 150 athletes who had suspicious blood values but were not subject to targeted testing af-terwards by the International As-sociations of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The report followed a documen-tary aired on a German television that was in possession of the sus-picious records that also included names of the runners. The IAAF’s ethics commission is investigating the claims.

Drug cheats!

Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014Sports 46

No January signings for Blues – Mourinho

Lukaku keen to end Everton’s title drought

Romelu Lukaku is de-termined to spearhead Everton’s drive for their first major trophy since

1995.Lukaku, the 21-year-old club re-

cord signing, was speaking after Roberto Martinez’s side continued to pick up Premier League momen-tum by beating QPR 3-1 on Monday night.

But it has been a long wait for silverware at Goodison - some-thing that the Belgium striker is well aware of.

“I am the first to say that I want to win something. As players, we have to stay focused and work hard, and hopefully try and win some silverware at the end of the season,” he said.

Everton’s next league game is a trip to Southampton, suddenly struggling to find form after five successive defeats. Then comes a busy Christmas programme, with fixtures against Stoke, Newcastle and Hull.

Lukaku believes there is grow-ing confidence under Martinez that the players can now put to-gether some impressive results and climb the Premier League table. They’re currently 10th - just above neighbours Liverpool - and seven points off the top four.

But already, thoughts are turn-ing to Europe and two games against Young Boys of Switzerland in the last 32 of the Europa League in February and maybe a Euro-pean showdown against Liverpool.

Green backs Mignolet to return stronger

Liverpool lose injured Johnson

Metz axe Maiga over unauthorised absence

Euro Briefs

QPR goalkeeper Rob Green has backed Liverpool counterpart Simon Mignolet to come back stronger after being dropped by Brendan Rodgers.

Liverpool manager Rodgers left Mignolet out of Sunday’s Pre-mier League clash with Manches-ter United at Old Trafford after the Belgian had come in for criti-cism for a string of below-par per-formances.

Mignolet

Johnson

Mourinho

Maiga

Lukaku

Glen Johnson will be out of action for at least a month af-ter tearing a groin

muscle in Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester United last weekend.

The England full-back was replaced by Kolo Toure dur-ing the first half of United’s 3-0 Super Sunday win and later he revealed that he had suffered a tear to the muscle.

Johnson, who will be out of contract next June, is now fac-ing a second significant spell on the sidelines after missing almost six weeks with a thigh injury in the autumn.

And Brendan Rodgers goes into Christmas without one of his most trusted defenders as he aims to turn around a run of form which has seen Liverpool win just two of their last 10 games.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has ruled out making any January additions to his squad.

Mourinho was active in the close-season as he lured Diego Costa, Filipe Luis, Loic Remy and Cesc Fabregas to Stamford Bridge, while veteran striker Di-dier Drogba also made an emo-tion return to the club.

Bolstered by the arrival of that

particular quintet, Chelsea have set the pace at the top of the Pre-mier League, reached the League Cup semi-finals and will face Par-is Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League.

However, given the club’s fi-nancial backing, Chelsea con-tinue to be linked with a host of top players – including Real Ma-drid defender Sergio Ramos - but Mourinho is not anticipating any

activity in the transfer window next month.

“We have a short squad but we’ve got good players, some younger, some older, but the squad is very, very good,” Mourinho said.

“Our project is to start and finish the season with the same group of players, so there will be nobody to leave and nobody to come in either.”

Metz have suspended Modibo Maiga for two days after he failed to travel to their Ligue 1 fixture with Marseille earlier this month.

The West Ham loanee made an impressive start to his time at Stade Saint-Symphorien with four goals in his first 10 league appearances, but he has not fea-tured in Metz’s last three match-es.

Daily Times Nigeria Thursday December 18, 2014 47Sport

Blanc snubs Mourinho’s mind games, hails retiring Henry

PSG coach Laurent Blanc avoided try-ing to enter the mind games of Jose

Mourinho, ahead of their UEFA Champions League tie with Chelsea.

The Ligue 1 champions drew Mourinho’s Chelsea in the last 16 on Monday, with the first leg to take place in Paris on Febru-ary 17.

Mourinho claimed prior to the draw that he would be happy to play Paris Saint-Germain, and Blanc was not biting - aware of the Portuguese tactician’s cun-ning ways.

“Did Mourinho win the psy-chological battle? If he wins a point, it is because he’s playing a game. I have no game to play with Jose,” the French coach said.

“We know him. We know him very well. You (the media) like that, you like his quotes. That’s it.

“Good or bad draw? At the end of both games, we will be able to know that,” Blanc said.

“It’s going to be very interest-ing. We have to get ready. We still have time beforehand. There’s a huge opponent waiting for us.”

PSG’s boss also paid tribute to retiring countryman Thierry Henry, with who he played with for France - and also against in the Premier League.

“The youngsters today cannot imagine what Thierry Henry has done during his entire ca-reer because he played abroad a big part of his career,” Blanc said.

“He has done so many things in football. I think to the French national team obviously.

Blanc

Real Madrid defend-er Sergio Ramos is hopeful he will be able to play in

the final of the Club World Cup (CWC) after coming off with a thigh injury in the 4-0 semi-final victory over Cruz Azul.

Ramos opened the scoring with Karim Benzema, Ga-reth Bale and Isco adding to the tally but was substituted just after the hour due to discomfort in his left thigh.

Tom Starke

Bayern duo sign new deals

Bayern Munich reserve goalkeeper Tom Starke has agreed a new contract that will see him stay at

the Allianz Arena until 2016.Starke has been back-up to

Manuel Neuer for the Bundes-liga leaders this season in the ab-sence of Pepe Reina, but he has yet to make an appearance in any competition.

The 33-year-old has not started for Bayern since March when Neuer was rested in the build-up to Bay-

ern’s UEFA Champions League clash with Manchester United.

However, despite his lack of activ-ity, Starke has been rewarded with a new deal by the club and will con-tinue his battle with Neuer, Reina and Leopold Zingerle.

Bayern also confirmed on Wednes-day that 18-year-old Gianluca Gaud-ino has signed his first professional contract.

The midfielder has made six ap-pearances for Pep Guardiola’s side this season.

“I am not in too much dis-comfort and we hope it isn’t anything serious,” he said after the match.

“They are going to take a look at it today, and see how I am feeling then. I hope to play in the final.”

Real boss Carlo Ancelotti was also confident Ramos would feature in the final, adding: “We aren’t worried as it was simply a case of slightly hurting a muscle and he will recover well

Ramos targets Real return

in two days and he will be available for the final.”

Los Blancos extended their winning run to 21 matches with victory over the Mexicans and Ramos is determined that should continue in the final on Sat-urday against either San Lo-renzo or Auckland City FC.

“This is a year of statis-tics and records for Real Ma-drid,” he added. “We are go-ing through a good spell and we want to keep winning and making the Madrid fans

happy.“The title we are compet-

ing for is the reward for last year’s work. We aim to win the title.”

Real are competing in Marrakech on the strength on winning last season’s Champions League and, while many will be looking to the team to defend that title as well as winning the Primera Division and Copa del Rey, Ancelotti is keep-ing his focus on the task at hand.

Traore

Adama Traore hopes his Copa del Rey cameo against Hues-

ca will convince Luis En-rique to give him more opportunities in the Bar-celona first team.

The 18-year-old came on with 16 minutes to play on Tuesday and net-ted his first senior goal four minutes later as Barca romped to a com-prehensive 8-1 win on the night and 12-1 success on aggregate.

Traore made an im-mediate impact with a mazy run that saw him skip past several challenges before ap-plying a neat fin-ish beyond Dani Jimenez.

The young for-ward now hopes to

keep impressing Barca’s head coach.

“I am happy for the op-portunity Luis Enrique and the coaches gave me,” he said. “It’s a great feeling to play with the first team.

“It’s exciting for any youth player to debut with the first team and share the dressing room with such great players.

“I bring speed and pow-er to the team, but I know

that I have to keep improving to be a complete player and be able to com-

pete with these guys.

“I will do my best with the B team and if Luis En-

rique calls me I’ll be

happy to help.”

Traore wants more Barca chances

Lagos community where 5,000 souls live, trade atop filth

Managing Arsenal is my dream. – Henry

Jonathan urges firm global action against insurgency

Obasanjo is father of corruption –Falae

The Buhari re-emergence and implications for Nigeria

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2014 VOL. 1. NO.4 N150

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Akintokunbo Adejumo

ing Corporation to their Winnipeg, Manitoba radio station to shed some light on the situation in Nigeria. I was then the President of the International Students Organisation.

One of the issues put to me was that Nigerians and those of us in the Diaspora were fearful for ourselves or for our people at home because of the obvious mil-itary putsch’s clampdown on freedom. My reply was “The ordinary Nigerian has nothing to fear; only the corrupt politicians who were deposed have to fear Buhari and Idiagbon”.

Now 31 years later, I daresay the same applies, or may apply. Only the cor-rupt and inept people in government, irrespective of party affiliations, now need be fearful of Buhari’s emergence as a presiden-tial candidate of the APC.

But let us put a few is-sues in perspective. Buhari has not yet contested and has not won the 2015 elec-tions. He might not even win the election despite the euphoria at last week’s APC primaries. After all, he has run unsuccessfully for the office of the Presi-dent of Nigeria in the past. His detractors’ label him a “septuagenarian serial election loser”, and his eth-nic background is Fulani, and his faith is Islam, a native of Daura in Katsina State.

So, how are we sure he’s going to be fourth time lucky and accepted by Ni-gerians?

In Nigeria, where cor-

Obasanjo, Babangida and Abdulsallam for still re-ceiving this huge amount despite the massive amount of money they allegedly made while in power.

So, you will ask me, why have Nigerians sud-denly woken up, ready to give this “serial election loser” a fourth shot at the prize? Like a friend asked recently, why are Nigeri-ans euphoric over a “re-furbished Messiah”?

I replied, “Who is call-ing Buhari a Messiah? I am definitely not. All I can say is Nigeria stands a better chance with him instead of what we have now. We must give CHANGE a CHANCE. That’s all we can hope for now. Do we stick with the same rot, and continue to mutter curses on Jona-than and the PDP or do we give Buhari a fourth chance?

Is Buhari the best man available to rule Nigeria? No, not by a long shot! As far as I am concerned, I am confident that I will make a better leader than him, but of course, I am not interested nor have I been approached or stand any chance in Nigeria’s brand of politics.

So he’s 72 and too old? Who said? I am always for the younger generation to be at the forefront of nation-building but cur-rent evidence indicates that even our youths and their mind-set have been hijacked by the older cor-rupting politicians.

Only the corrupt and inept people in government, ...now need be fearful of Buhari’s emergence as a presidential candidate of the APC

FeaturesP42 P16

P9

P12

Sports News Politics

ruption rules, fighting it is a damned hard chore and battle. So when you fight corruption, it will fight back a thousand times more powerfully, and vi-ciously. We see it every day in our country, such that if you can’t beat it, you join it. Those corrupt Nigeri-ans, and their foreign col-laborators who have made enormous wealth from it over the decades are not prepared to down arms or surrender. They will mo-bilise all ill-gotten resourc-es, power and weapons to fight back, so they do not

lose their illegal source of wealth.

Buhari has been la-belled with many uncom-plimentary physiognomies too, from being a religious bigot and zealot to an un-repentant ethnic misogy-nist who being a Fulani, believes in the superiority of the group over others in Nigeria. Many unpalatable quotes have been attrib-uted to him, ostensibly to consolidate the evidences of religious and ethnic in-tolerance against him.

Incidentally, a deep look into all these accusations

g g g g

Shortly after the coup of December 1983 in Nigeria, in which the seem-

ingly no-nonsense duo of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Gen. Babatunde Idiag-bon took over by force the government of Nigeria from the corrupt and inept Shehu Shagari-led civilian regime, I was invited by the Canadian Broadcast-

Published by FOLIO COMMUNICATIONS LTD, Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja. www.dailytimes.com.ng email: www.dailytimes.com.ng. Tel: 018447948. EDITOR: YINKA OLUJIMI

will produce the fact that they are mostly fabricated by confirmed ethnic, reli-gious and political bigots who do not have any other things to say to negate Bu-hari’s noted honesty and sincerity.

Allow me say to say, that I have never been ardent of Buhari; in fact, I always believe he was inferior to his then deputy, Babatunde Idiagbon. I always believe that most of the discipline attributed to him was the handiwork of Idiagbon. I always believe the man is humourless and too rigid in his outlook, but, as it is, I acknowledge his self-disci-pline. Even I do not really think he was a good leader, probably because, I was not in Nigeria during his mili-tary rule to witness first-hand his achievements and secondly because he did not have the luxury of a long enough time to prove he is a good leader.

However, his subse-quent records in public life were to confirm the hon-esty of this man, at least according to the facts avail-able.

For example, a 1998 report in New African praised the Petroleum Trust Fund , PTF, under his watch, for its transpar-ency, calling it a rare “suc-cess story”. Another was the story that he declined to receive the N300 mil-lion monthly allocations to him as a former Head of State, rather opting to re-ceive only N2.3 million per month.

“Shame on Shagari,

Æ s

For a first time caller to the Kogberegbe com-munity behind Ojota New Garage in the Ko-

sofe local government area of Lagos State, it would be difficult to fathom how the residents of this area survive in such an environment, considering the stench from the deluge of refuse and scraps that make up the en-tire community. In this disease-prone settlement of over 5,000, the residents dine, wine, make love, give birth and perform all other activities of normal life.

Inhabited by various ethnic groups but mainly Hausas, these people are far removed from the megacity mantra of the state.

Many of these residents are into metal scrap sales and gen-eral recycling businesses and so to them what you call filth or scraps is actually wealth!

While majority of the women

engage in food selling and petty trading in provision items and perishable foods, their men are majorly into the business of scavenging for scraps and mak-ing large sales out of it.

Apart from the pungent odour from dilapidated zinc and wooden buildings, the sight of malnourished women and kids playing around the refuse keeps one wondering how man, beast and filth can co-habit so freely.

Another puzzling thing is that the residents seem content with the life they live.

Alhaji Salihu Adamu, chair-man of Gidankwali, the Hausa part of the community, disclosed to Daily Times that he is one of the very first people to come to that community when the place was all bush.

“I came into this community in 1958 and, back then, there were no houses; everywhere was bush and swamp. You would

not even know that anyone was living there because it was a very thick bush. We only man-aged to create narrow paths for us to move around. I was not here alone at that time. Other persons were with me. We were many because what brought us to this community then was our job. At that time, we were into the business of dredging for sand. Sand digging and selling were our major jobs.”

Adamu added that when the

sand business came to an end for them, they had to start an-other type of business.

“We had to start something else, and that was how we start-ed the scrap business around 1967. We started gradually at that time and that is what we still do till today.”

Scrap business, he explained, entails sourcing for discarded computers, a ir conditioners, and other metal items, and re-moving the valuable compo-

nents like copper, iron, which we put together and send to Uni-versal Steel Company for sales.

“That is what we do till now and that is the major business in this community. As much as this community is residential, it is also a commercial one where waste is being converted to wealth and that is why you see a lot of scraps around,” explained Adamu.

However, medical per-

12 Daily Times NigeriaThursday, December 18, 2014

Features

Lagos community where 5,000 souls live, trade atop filth

As you drive towards Ojota from Maryland across the bridge, look to your right and you would see a sprawl-ing slum beginning from under the bridge right behind the Ojota New Garage. The unusual thing about the slum is that people live right on top of scraps and refuse dumps. Daily Times undertook a tour of the filth com-munity called Kogberegbe, which has been in existence since the late 1950s.

Wealth packaged amidst filth

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