Jonathan consults OBJ, IBB

Ghanaian president, Atta-Mills, buried

Appointment of Defence Minister

Cold weather Fraudsters have hacked my phone

Hospitals record increase in patients

L-R: President Goodluck Jonathan; President Alassane Quattara of Cote dIvoire and representative of the President of Republic of Suriname, Mr. Henk Herrenberg, signing the condolence regis-ter for the late President John Atta Mills during the final burial ceremony in Accra, Ghana, yesterday. PHOTO: STATE HOUSE

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WAEC: 38.9% pass May/June examsWithholds 112,000 results

Immortalise him ECOWAS

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FasholaP. 8P. 8 P. 7

700 Nigerian troops deployed in Liberia

Vol. 02 No. 35 Saturday, August 11, 2012 N150

Saturday Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.netAugust 11, 2012 2 Living

Okonkwo

INSIDE

Test-tube baby set to Test-tube baby set to become Miss Worldbecome Miss World

How 20 worshippers How 20 worshippers were massacred in were massacred in Kogi churchKogi church

Their leader ordered Their leader ordered my executionmy execution

I can identify fi ve of my attackers Okonkwo, shot union leader

Kidnappers kill surgeon Kidnappers kill surgeon over unpaid ransomover unpaid ransom

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NWABUEZE OKONKWOONITSHA

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Motorcycle Trans-port Union of Nigeria, MTUN and the Autobike Owners Association of Nigeria, AOWAN, Chief Jimmy Okonkwo, narrowly escaped death few days ago when gunmen suspected to be members of a rival group attacked him at Ekwulobia in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. The union leader, speaking from his hospital bed, has said that he can eas-ily identify five of his attackers.

Still nursing his bandaged deep machete cuts and bullet-riddled body, Okonkwo, who reeled out the names to newsmen yesterday in an interview at his hospital bed, disclosed that his at-tackers were the same armed bandits who attacked him and some other mo-torists about three weeks ago at Oba Junction in the Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State when they mounted a robbery opera-tion along the Onitsha/Owerri dual carriage way.

He said he would soon go to the state police headquarters, Awka to give the names of those he could identify to the state Commissioner of Police, Ballah Nassarawa, for prompt action, after taking a medical x-ray to ascertain whether or not he still has internal bleeding .

He therefore urged the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Abubakar Mo-hammed, and the state CP, Nassarawa, to come to his rescue by ensuring that

those gunmen who are bent on termi-nating his life for no just cause are ar-rested and prosecuted, no matter how highly placed.

The gunmen, numbering about 10, had on Monday, August 6, shot and robbed Okonkwo about two poles away from one of the new generation banks (Ecobank Plc) shortly after he with-drew the sum of N3 million cash from the bank.

According to eye witnesses, as soon as Okonkwo withdrew the cash from the bank and was escorted to his red-coloured Chrysler car and drove off up to two poles from the bank premises, two Mitsubishi buses carrying about 10 armed men allegedly blocked his ve-hicle, one in front and the other at the rear.

It was gathered that as soon as they succeeded in blocking him, they jumped down and some of them started firing gunshots at him, while others forced the car doors open and allegedly used axes and cutlasses on him, while one of his staff who was with him in the vehicle managed to escape.

The source further hinted that while the attacks lasted, the hoodlums alleg-edly took N362,000 from his car door mat and were still struggling to open the car boot to take the N3 miilion, which he had just withdrawn before they got wind of a fast-approaching police van and they quickly abandoned him and his vehicle, jumped into their two buses and zoomed off.

The police team arrived the scene, took him and his vehicle to Ekwulobia Police Station and recovered the N3

million still intact inside the car boot before he collapsed and became uncon-scious as a result of the severe attacks on him.

It was also gathered that while the police rushed him to a nearby hospital where he is currently recuperating, the bank officials who just paid him the N3 million cash he had just withdrawn be-fore the attack rushed to the police sta-tion, confirmed the withdrawal to the police who in turn, remitted the money back to the bank.

Confirming the incident yesterday in a telephone chat, the Divisional Po-lice Officer, DPO-in-charge of Ekwulo-bia Police Division, Mr. Sunday Adama, said the police were waiting for his re-covery so that he could come forward and make an official statement to en-able them commence investigations, adding that already, the matter had been transferred to the police head-quarters at Awka.

Also speaking to newsmen over the incident, the member representing Anaocha I Constituency in Anambra State House of Assembly, Hon. Ebele Ejiofor, who also visited him at the hospital, condemned the dastardly act and warned criminals to retrace their steps.

The Ogirishi Igbo, Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka, and the National Direc-tor of Information of the Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Comrade Uchenna Madu, who also spoke on the incident, warned criminals to steer clear of Igbo land or be fished out and dealt with ac-cordingly.

Dr. Canice Omeziri was 62 years old and in love with his people. But when the time came for them to return the gesture, something happened. Now, he is dead and the ransom meant for his kidnappers is hanging somewhere.

Some people pocketed the ransom, associate alleges

Pregnant woman recounts ordeal at the hands of kidnappers

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StarterSaturdaySaturday

Nigeria is big. Yes, very big. It is the worlds biggest concentra-tion of black people. Made up of quite a number of ethnic nationali-ties, it is blessed with a very rich cultur-al base.

With its estimated population of about 170 million people, there is no doubt that its big size has become its strength.

Previous governments and the cur-rent one have seen the benefits of the unity of the different nationalities that make up the entity called Nigeria, and defended it very well. They have guard-ed it jealously such that to advocate for a breaking away of any of the nation-alities would be tantamount to commit-ting a heinous crime against the state. The constitution even abhors such with a passion.

Many Nigerians agree too that the

advantages in the oneness of the eth-nic nationalities cannot be overempha-sised. That is perhaps why the Nige-rian government would do everything possible to make sure that the whole is not shattered into pieces.

Despite the advantages, there have been different attempts by some of the nationalities to go their separate ways. The reasons are often not far-fetched. Among other things, they point out the marginalization of their people; they complain about the violation of the rights.

And to get the emancipation of their people, they have resolved to go their own way, but the attempts have been re-sisted.

The example that readily comes to mind is the declaration of the State of Biafra by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu for the Igbo people on 30th May

1967. The declaration led to a 30-month war which was declared by Nigeria on July 6 of the same year.

Although unequal to the declaration of a State of Biafra in any way, only last week, a faction of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), led by former president of the National Youth Council of Ogoni People (NY-COP), Goodluck Diigbo, declared self government for the people of Ogoni in Rivers State.

Of course, the government has ex-pressed its execration for the abomi-nation. According to the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, the dec-laration was equal in effect to treason, and that comes with an unpalatable consequence.

But the question is: Should such a declaration of self-rule be taken with any ounce of seriousness?

self determinationFanning the embers ofFanning the embers of

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TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE

By this declaration of po-litical autonomy, we, the Ogoni people are deter-mined to enforce the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, without fear or retreat, droned the voice of Dr. Goodluck Diigbo, Presi-dent and spokesman of a faction of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) in a live broadcast on a newly established radio station Voice of Ogoni.

It was Thursday, 2 August, 2012. Fi-nally, a faction of MOSOP had actual-ised the thoughts and probably hopes of some leaders and people of Ogoni land.

The Ogoni people are one of the many indigenous peoples of the oil rich Niger-Delta region of the country.

They share common oil-related envi-ronmental problems with the Ijaw and otherpeople of Niger Delta, but Ogonis are not listed in the list of people his-torically belonging to Niger Delta. They number about 1.5 million people and live in a 1,050 km2 homeland which they also refer to as Ogoni.

It is also the home land of the late en-vironmentalist and writer, Kenule Saro Wiwa.

Diigbo, in the broadcast, affirmed that self-government within Nigeria would secure for the Ogoni people, their indigenous rights, enable them to meet their needs and interests and finally end internal colonialism.

He said that self-government became

urgent recognising the need to arrive at a consensus to collectively review the dis-puted UNEP Ogoniland Oil Assessment report, as any dialogue must be with the genuinely elected representatives of the people expected to enforce indigenous rights without dictation.

The Ogoni rose to international atten-tion after a massive public protest cam-paign against Shell Oil, led by MOSOP.

Among other things, MOSOP in its 1990 Ogoni Bill of Rights had demanded po-litical autonomy to participate in the affairs of Nigeria as a distinct and sepa-rate indigenous unit, provided that this autonomy guarantees political control of Ogoni affairs by Ogoni people; the right to control and use a fair propor-tion of Ogoni economic resources for Ogoni development; adequate represen-

tations, as of right, in all Nigerian na-tional institutions, and the right to pro-tect the Ogoni environment and ecology from further degradation as recognised under international law.

This proclamation by a faction of MOSOP has, however, been greeted by kudos, knocks and indifference.

First to react is the governor of the state directly involved: Rivers.

Our right to autonomyA MASSOB demonstration

It is not the wish of all Ogoni people UrantaHow do you see the recent dec-laration of political autono-my of the Ogoni people?

We all know that the United Nations has given minority or ethnic groups the right to self autonomy. We are all aware that there have been moves in Nigeria in the past, even after the Biafran War by different groups to obtain autonomy. The groups include: Oodua Peoples Congress, Ijaw Youth Councils, MAS-SOB and even at one time some north-ern groups including the Middle Belts Forum. However, we do not believe that this is the wish of all the Ogoni people at this time. Although we do not begrudge whoever has come up with this proposal or motion of their right to express them-selves, associate and seek whatever they wish, provided they do so within the bounds of the law and the constitution existing at the moment in Nigeria.

We feel strongly so that this shows more than ever before the need for dia-logue on state, regional and national levels. You will also notice that even the Bayelsa State government has recently

announced its state flag, state anthem and possible state constitution, which re-ally are the fundamental rights of every component units in a federal state. All these obtain since 1966 in Nigeria, when all regions have their anthems, constitu-tions and flags. We need to return to the discussion table to address things and the abnormally of our so-called federal system and coming to an understanding that it is all encompassing and accept-able to all component units of Nigeria.

Dont you see other ethnic groups

following suit?I think the more people that follow

the Ogoni move to announce unilateral declaration of autonomy, the more we would find ourselves forced to come to a negotiating table in Nigeria. It is all well and good for anybody to call it treason but truly it is not treason provided it is within the bounds of treaties, statues or decisions that Nigeria is party to in the United Nations.

Mr. Tony Uranta, Executive Secre-tary of National Summit Group Uranta

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Ogoni student demonstrating for self determination

Governor Rotimi Amaechi described the declaration of as treasonable felony.

Amaechi, said Diigbos aim is not achievable adding that the man would flee at the slightest attempt to question him by the security agencies.

On Ogoni autonomy, I wish them well. Ogoni autonomy is not achievable. The man (Diigbo) who declared Ogoni au-tonomy will run into the bush tomorrow morning.

What Diigbo is doing is treasonable felony. You do not declare autonomy on the pages of newspapers and magazines or on radio and television, Amaechi said.

It is not only Amaechi who descended hard on Diigbo and his declaration, the other faction of his group did too. It im-mediately dissociated itself from it.

The faction, managed by a Provisional Council with Professor Ben Naanen as chairman and Dr. Meshach Karanwi as secretary said Diigbo is on his own.

Naanen and Karanwi said they received the purported declaration of Ogoni Au-tonomy Day by Diigbo with dismay.

In statement signed by both of them, they said Diigbos claim of Ogoni people voting for autonomy via a referendum was false.

At no time did the Ogoni people take any decision to establish a sovereign na-tionhood. The Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR) is clear on the aspiration of Ogoni people in Nigeria. The Ogoni, according to OBR, want adequate representation in all the in-stitutions of the Nigerian state as a matter of right. They want their economic, social and political rights to be protected in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A people as-piring to sovereignty cannot also be ask-ing for representation at the same time, the other faction of MOSOP declared.

The statement from Naanen MOSOP also accused Diigbos MOSOP of putting Bori, the headquarters of Ogoni people under tension since Tuesday July 31, 2012 through the use of groups of young men armed with automatic and other danger-ous weapons.

These young men are connected to Mr Diigbo. They attacked the Peace and Free-dom Centre (MOSOP Complex) in Bori, causing considerable destruction while the staff of the centre suffered various de-grees of injury. The attack was a prelude to their celebration of the so-called Ogo-ni Autonomy Day on Thursday August 2.

MOSOP is calling on the government to take lawful measures to check Goodluck Diigbos anti-state activities and protect lives and property in Ogoni as these cult

boys remain an enduring threat to peace in the Bori area and other parts of Ogoni.

MOSOP, as the case may be, is in fact one of the self actualisation groups in the country. Others include: the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Movement for the Actu-alisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Arewa Peoples Congress (APC). None of the other group has, how-ever, gone the length which it (MOSOP) has.

The OPC is a militant Yoruba nation-alist organisation situated in the South-West geo-political zone of the country. It was formed when a group of Yoruba elite, including Dr. Frederick Fasehun de-cided to form an organisation to actualise the annulled mandate of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, a Yor-

uba who won the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election but was barred from office.

The group along other major ethnic groups in the country fought tirelessly during the June 12 annulment struggle to regain Abiolas mandate. During the struggle, several leaders of the group, such as Fasehun, Otunba Gani Adams, among others were arrested and de-tained by the military government. But OPC never relented in defending the cause of the Yorubas, especially on is-sues bordering on the regions interest.

The APC is a group in the northern part of the country established to pro-tect the interests of the Hausa and Fu-

No govt can force unity on the people YerimaWhat is your take on the MOSOP declaration?They are entitled to their opinion because under the internation-al law by United Nations, which Nigeria is a member, any region or tribe has the right to declare its political autonomy and it is left for the government to ei-ther accept it or not. For as long as we remain a member of the UN, we are part and parcel of that agreement so it is binding on us. So, there is nothing spe-cial about it.

Dont you think it could create

confusion in the country? Nigerians would have loved to stay

together but what is the need of staying together in a country where there are a

lot of injustices in the system. Nigerian leaders are sick upstairs; they are sick and they cannot move the country to another level. All you see daily is threat to life, insecurity, lack of sincerity of purpose and political will and inability to address issues. What is important in staying as a nation without any answer to some of our problems? So, if people are tired and they decided that they dont want to be together, you cant force unity on people. So, the day we are tired, we in other ethnic groups will declare that we need our autonomy and there is nothing anybody can do about it.

Comrade Shetima Yerima, Presi-dent Arewa Youth Consultative Fo-rum

Yerima

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The embers of self determination

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It should be done at National Conference FasehunHow would you react to the declaration for political autonomy of the Ogoni people by MOSOP?

I am of the view that such unilateral action is not called for. If anybody is interested in showing grievances, they should wait till we meet at the National Conference. It is only the National Conference that can persuade people to stay in the federation or allow people to go. After all, we have such a thing in Ethiopia and the government that is involved became so enticing that people who had with-drawn from the federation applied to return and they did. I do not subscribe to unilateral action. Nigeria should now begin to dispense social justice to all its constituents so that we may desire national unity.

What is the implication of the MOSOP action to

national unity? The nation cannot condone such unilateral action. The

nation of course can take steps to repair any damage that has been done.

Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, President Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC)

It is not a constitutional matter AturuWhat can you say about the declaration?The truth of the matter is that I dont know whether that declara-tion is by the people themselves. I dont know whether it is a decision process by the people of Ogoni. But if it is, then I think it is a very great challenge in the sense that government must have to deal with it. The government cannot just dis-miss them and say they are not serious minded people. What the government has to do is to find a way of engaging them. I belong to that school of thought that says that people have right to self determination under international law. So, if the people of Ogoni have decided to go, they have the right. But I think the right attitude is to say; Look what are the issues, let us discuss, but not just to

Fasehun

Okunniyi

Aturu

The leadership of Pro National Conference Organization, PRO-NACO backs the declaration of the Ogoni people for political autonomy and self determination of their people and territory within Nigeria. We are of the view that the time has come for the indigenous peoples and federating units in Nigeria to deliver their peoples and territories from the pilfering and violent centralized structure operating in the country.

The Ogoni peoples declaration for self determination and political autono-my is long awaited and the only way to go for the Nigerian federating peoples since the predatory political cartel in the coun-try is not willing to allow the Nigerian people negotiate and agree the terms of their well being at a national conference.

Comrade Wale Okunniyi, spokes-man of Pro National Conference Or-ganisation (PRONACO)

Peaceful method better than violence

say, They can go to hell. All these show that people are dissatisfied with our sys-tem and federation.

Do you think the action of MOSOP

is constitutional?Nigerians did not come together con-

stitutionally. In 1914 they were different people, so when people want to go you can be using constitution. Whether or not they have right to self determination under international law is what is im-portant. The constitution is a document and we cannot be using constitution to discuss an extra-constitutional matter. This issue is political, social, cultural, socio-economic issue; it is not constitu-tional matter alone.

Mr. Bamidele Aturu, human rights activist and lawyer.

lani. It has been described as a militant wing of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF).

The group was formally launched on December 13, 1999. It was chaired by a retired army officer, Brigadier General Sagir Muhammed, who had been an op-erative in the Directorate of Military In-telligence. The APC has a motto to pre-serve the indivisibility of the country.

The group was believed to have been established then for full self-defence training for northern residents in some parts of the country, especially in reac-tion to attacks on the Hausas by the OPC.

Another group is MASSOB. It is the Igbo militant group. The group since its inception has been championing the cause of the of the Igbo nation. It is be-lieved to be working towards the actu-alisation of the Biafra, which was first declared by the late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu in 1967 for session of the Igbo

from Nigeria. MASSOB is under the leadership of Chief Ralph Uwazuruike.

While there is yet to be a move by the Federal Government to either castigate or recognise the declaration by the fac-tion of MOSOP, Nigerians have not been silent in their reaction to the action.

Mr. Tony Uranta is the Executive Sec-retary of the National Summit Group. To him, though the action of Diigbo is per-mitted under the provision of the United Nations, however, it should not be a uni-lateral action carried out by a group or a group of people rather it should be ap-proved by all Ogoni.

We all know that the United Nations has given minority or ethnic groups the right to self autonomy. However, we do not believe that this is the wish of all the Ogoni people at this time, he added.

To Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, founder of OPC, Diigbos action if at all necessary, should have been ratified by a bigger body, the National Conference.

I am of the view that such unilateral action is not called for. If anybody is in-

terested in showing any grievance, they should wait till we meet at the National Conference. It is only the National Con-ference that can persuade people to stay in the federation or allow people to go, he stressed.

Comrade Shetima Yerima, President Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, is, however, indifferent. His take: if it is ac-cepted by the Federal Government, so be it.

They are entitled to their opinion be-cause under the International law of the United Nations, which Nigeria is a mem-ber, any region or tribe has the right to declare its political autonomy and it is left for the government to either accept or not, he stated.

Mr. Bamidele Aturu is a human rights activist and lawyer. To him, there should be a process and procedure. If it was the decision of the people, it could hold.

I belong to that school of thought that says that people have right to self determination under international law. So, if the people of Ogoni have decided

to go, they have right to that under the international law, he pointed out.

The leadership of Pro National Con-ference Organisation, (PRONACO) has, however, thrown its weight behind the declaration of the faction of MOSOP.

Its spokesman, Comrade Wale Okun-niyi, expressed the stance of the group when he said: The leadership of Pro National Conference Organisation, (PRONACO) backs the declaration of the Ogoni people for political autonomy and self determination of their people and territory within Nigeria. We are of the view that the time has come for the indigenous people and federating units in Nigeria to deliver their people and territories from the pilfering and violent centralised structure operating in the country.

The question on the lips of many a Nigerian and the international commu-nity now is: will the self determination and autonomy of the Ogoni people as de-clared by Diigbo and his group hold or not?

Our right to autonomy CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

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Saturday Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 7August 11, 2012 National News

Appointment of defence minister: Jonathan consults OBJ, IBB

JTF arrests terrorists, recovers arms in Maiduguri

Fraudsters have hacked my phone Fashola

OBIORA IFOHABUJA

Nearly two months after the Dr. Bello Haliru Moham-med was sacked as the nations Minister of De-fence, the Presidency may have relaxed the urgency in appointing another one until the consultation be-tween President Goodluck Jonathan and two former leaders, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida is con-cluded.

Until now, the media have been awashed with several names as possible replace-ment for the former minister who was relieved of his post alongside the National Secu-rity Adviser, Major General Patrick Aziza, by President Jonathan.

While Colonel Sambo Da-suki (rtd) was announced as Azizas replacement as NSA,

the Presidency kept the pub-lic guessing on the likely suc-cessor of Mohammed.

Although President Jona-than would have wanted the new Defence Minister to be announced before the recent visit of the United States Secretary of States, Hilary Clinton, the consultation be-tween the president and the former heads of state which has reached advanced stage, it was gathered, stalled the announcement.

A source told Saturday Mirror that Chief Obasanjo did not feel comfortable with President Jonathan surrounding himself with former loyalists of IBB as security aides and would prefer the Defence Minister coming from the South.

While Colonel Dasuki, a former ADC to IBB has since resumed as President Jonathans security adviser, the favoured candidacy of Lt-Gen. Aliyu Gusau (rtd), a

former NSA and close asso-ciate of IBB has continued to elicit some concern in some quarters.

According to the source, the next defence minister will be announced soon af-ter the consultation that is going on presently between the president and the former leaders.

I can confirm that nota-ble names who have served this country in several ca-pacities are being consid-ered but the Presidency is also aware that the slot be-came vacant only because the minister from one of the northern states was dropped and it is only proper that the state or the zone be accom-modated in the executive council.

Another source told Sat-urday Mirror that although the president was not in a haste to make the final choice, some interest groups were lobbying that a particu-

INUSA NDAHIMAIDUGURI

The Joint Task Force in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, has arrested some suspected members of the terrorists group, Boko Haram, and recovered a large amount of arms and ammunitions from their hideout.

The arrest and recovery yesterday followed the adop-tion of a new tactics which is tagged Humanitarian Line of Operation.

With the tactics, raids are carried out within the me-tropolis.

Briefing newsmen at the JTF headquarters along Pompomari by- pass in Mai-duguri, the Field Operations Commander, Colonel Victor Ebheleme, commended the efforts of residents who are now cooperating with the se-curity agencies in providing information on the hideouts of members of the sect.

According to him, the as-sistance of the members of the public led to the recovery

L-R: Representative of Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), Alhaji Alhassan Magaji; Director of Logistics, Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Commodore Olutayo Adetomiwa, and representative, Ministry of Defence, Procurement Department, Echowo Peter, at the open public bidding for college library project at the AFCSC in Jaji, Kaduna State, yesterday.

lar political zone produce the next defence minister.

The source claimed that because of the sensitive na-ture of the defence sector, the president reportedly fa-voured a military technocrat to head the ministry instead of a politician again.

Stakeholders from the South-South geo-political zone are contending that the positions of NSA and defence minister should not both go to the north.

Former governorship as-pirant in Rivers State, Chief Sergeant Awuse, has called on President Goodluck Jona-than to appoint somebody from the South-south region as the new Minister of De-fence.

Awuse said since Azazi came from the South-South zone of the country, if the Presidency was to maintain a balance in appointments, it was only natural to give the defence portfolio to some-body from the region since the new NSA comes from So-koto State in the North-West

of Nigeria.He noted that for Azazi to

be given the NSA position in the first instance, the South-South region had to give up other positions.

According to him, it would be unfair to the region if the defence portfolio is not given to the South-South.

I am saying that the NSA to be given to the South-South, Bayelsa specifically; other positions had been given to other sections of the country. President Jonathan has to give the position of Minister of Defence to the South-South.

Two former military chiefs, General Alexander Ogomudia and Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike, are among two notable Nigeri-ans being projected from the zone as possible choice of the government as the next Min-ister of Defence.

Ogomudia is a former Chief of Defence Staff, a similar post once occupied by Dike, who was also the first Air Force officer to at-

tain the rank of an Air Chief Marshall.

From the North, beside Gen. Gusau, other promi-nent retired officers being considered for the top se-curity assignment are Col. Abubarkar Umar; a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Abdurrahman Damba-zau (rtd); Gen. Bitrus Boka Ushe (rtd) from Kebbi State and a former Director of Military Intelligence, Col. Halilu Akilu.

Though highly favoured, however, Gen. Gusau is said to have given three condi-tions for accepting the offer which include being given free hand to operate; a waiv-er to do whatever he can to salvage the security chal-lenges facing the nation; and opportunity to resign any-time, if he is displeased with the situation or if he feels that he has fulfilled his mis-sion in the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The conditions, it was gathered, is not likely to be granted by the president.

Gunmen kill banker

MURITALA AYINLA

Lagos State gover-nor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, yesterday raised alarm that his phone number has been hacked by some fraudsters to extort money from members of the state cabinet and perma-nent secretary.

He said the fraudsters had opened an account in Skye Bank and used his phone number to send text messages to members of his cabinet to pay some specified amount of money into it.

I must use this oppor-tunity to appeal to all citi-zens and all of those who have received text messages purportedly being sent in my name. Apparently my phone has been cloned by some internet fraudsters, they sent messages round to my commissioners and permanent secretaries ask-ing them to come and pay money into one Skye Bank account.

Please ignore those messages, they are not from us. It apparently shows the

desperation to make money by all means. These are the small crimes, those are the corrupt tendencies that we must all as a nation put to bed. They are the ones that lead to the bigger crimes. If we focus our attention on the bigger crimes, we will lose the larger picture. All of these speak to the need for increasing compliance with law and order in every state, every local govern-ment, every ward, every home. All of us must rise up and reclaim our country back from this lawlessness.

Fashola bemoaned the development, adding that making money through cheap means could halt the nations value system .

Meanwhile, the governor has ordered a full scale in-vestigation into the circum-stances that led to the bat-tering of a photojournalist of Leadership newspaper, Benedict Uwalaka , by mor-tuary attendants at the La-gos State University Teach-ing Hospital (LASUTH) on the allegation that he had photographs of one of the corpses of Dana plane crash.

Orders investigation of battered photojournalist

of the arms and ammuni-tions from one house in Mai-duguri metropolis.

Ebheleme said some good Samaritans provided infor-mation on the hideouts of some suspected members of the sect, in which the JTF swung into action and arrest-ed them at their hideouts.

He said after interroga-tion, the suspects revealed the house of someone where the four AK47 rifles; one set of GpMG; 9 RPG bombs and 11 chargers were recovered.

He added that other weapons of mass destruc-tion recovered from the

house include 1,032 rounds of ammunition, three AK47 magazines and three wooden butts.

In another development, some gunmen laid ambush in Gwange Ward of Mai-duguri metropolis and shot dead a banker, injuring one of his friends.

The third person in the company of the other two es-caped unhurt.

The incident, it was gath-ered, took place at about 6:45pm when the deceased along side his two friends were breaking their fast in front of his house.

8 August 11, 2012 National News Saturday Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

L-R: Ambassador of South Korea to Nigeria, Mr. Choi Jong Hyun; Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, and Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, during the signing of agreement on cultural and educational co-operation between Nigeria and the Republic of South Korea, in Abuja, recently. PHOTO: ROTIMI OSASONA

Islam is against killings Don

A renowned Professor of Islamic and Ara-bic Studies, Prof. Al-ani Seriki, has stressed that Islam is a religion of peace that does not allow incessant killings of innocent people.

Seriki who is the Dean, College of Humanities, Tai Solarin University of Edu-cation, Ijagun, Ogun State, made this assertion at the 2012 Ramadan lecture or-ganised by Ijebu-Ode Club held recently at the clubs premises.

He noted that the Boko Haram sect did not follow the doctrine of Allah.

According to him, Islam is a religion of peace, knowl-

edge, tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

Prophet Mohammed (SAW), he said, is a man of peace and so are his follow-ers.

The university don urged Muslims to use the Rama-dan period to pray exten-sively for peace in Nigeria.

He said it was unfortu-nate that Nigeria is now rated as one of the terrorists nations of the world.

He urged the federal gov-ernment to be more security conscious and find a last-ing solution to the menace which had claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Nigerians.

WAEC: 38.81% pass May/June exam

Cold weather: Hospitals record increase in patients

TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE

A total of 649,156 candidates repre-senting 38.81 per cent of 1, 695878 who wrote this years May/June Se-nior Secondary School Examination (SSSE) con-ducted by the West Afri-can Examination Council (WAEC) obtained credits in five subjects and above

including English and Mathematics.

Another total of 112, 000 candidates represent-ing 6.70 per cent have their results withheld over various alleged examina-tion malpractice while 46 schools have their results pending for failure of their schools to have sub-mitted their candidates assessment scores which form 30 per cent of the to-

tal score for the results to the council.

The Head of National Office in Nigeria, Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, disclosed this yesterday in Lagos while announcing the results barely three months after the exam was conducted.

Giving the statistics, Uwadiae said out of the to-tal candidates, minus 16, 654, who registered but did not sit the exam, 1, 545,004 can-

didates representing 91.10 per cent, had their results fully released, while 150, 874 candidates representing 8.90 per cent had a few other results still being processed due to some errors mainly traceable to them.

The WAEC boss further gave the breakdown of the results saying: 771, 731 candidates, representing 46. 14 per cent, obtained six credits and above and

Withholds 112,000 results

TOBORE OVUORIE

Following the intense cold weather in some states of the country, there has been an increase in the number of patients, particularly those suffering from asthma and sickle cell.

Dr. Abimbola Abiodun a physician with the Gener-al Hospital, Agege, Lagos disclosed this in an inter-view with Saturday Mir-ror yesterday.

The number of patients attended to has increased while most of the ailments, I believe are as a result of the weather condition she stated.

Although she couldnt give statistics of the num-ber of such patients, she emphatically told our cor-respondent that there had been an increase in the number of patients.

I cannot really tell you the exact figures of cold-re-lated ailments we have had

to treat here but I can say that theres been an alarm-ing increase which should call for attention, she said.

According to her, there have been an upshoot of cases of feverish conditions which were triggered by se-vere cold.

There have equally been unusual number of people coming in with prolonged cough, catarrh, fevers.

She however disclosed that the elderly are not hav-ing the best of times because they are not only battling with the cold but the fact that it is affecting their bones.

On what could be done to manage the prevailing situ-ation, she stated that Im afraid that there isnt much we can do to stop the pre-vailing weather condition, but like Ive been telling patients, we can control the extent we expose ourselves to the weather by doing the needful such as digging into our closets for warm cloth-

ing instead of trendy ones.This is no season for

us to try being fashionable because we must think less of fashion and more of our health thus we must wear clothes that cover our bod-ies in totality.

I believe we can still look good even while fight-ing off the cold. It is worthy to also state that people liv-ing with asthma, other re-spiratory conditions such as bronchitis and even sickle cell patients must be extra careful this season. They must guard their bod-ies jealously with very thick clothes from head to toe. They must befriend warm water this season both in drinking and bathing and should expose themselves less to the weather and stay away from air conditioners and even fans at night.

Like Lagos, other South-ern states of the country are having their share of the weather, as well as large turn

outs of patients in hospitals.According to a senior

nurse in the clinic of the University of Ibadan which is popularly known as Jaji, there have been more incidences of asthmatic stu-dents being rushed to the health institution.

The nurse who pleaded anonymity on the grounds that she is a civil servant told Saturday Mirror that I believe you can hear someone coughing uncon-trolled at the background; that is another student who is asthmatic that has been rushed here. Until this sudden change in our weather, I never knew we had so many students who are either asthmatic or liv-ing with sickle cell. Since the cold weather, they are either rushed in at any time of the day, particularly at night when the weather goes too cold or they volun-tarily walk in for medical consultations.

Asthmatic, sickle cell attacks rise

TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE

The International Press Centre (IPC) yesterday called on the Lagos State Government to ensure a thorough inves-tigation into the vicious attack on the Leadership newspaper photojournalist, Mr. Benedict Uwalaka, on Thursday at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospi-tal (LASUTH).

In a statement made available to Saturday Mir-ror yesterday, the Director of IPC, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, said the perpetrators should be made to face justice as the

use of brute force on a jour-nalist while on legitimate duty cannot be justified un-der any circumstances.

The media has suffered a lot in recent times through bombings and kidnap-ping. We want an immedi-ate probe into this matter and the culprits brought to book, Arogundade said.

IPC said the assault was condemnable and called for the re-orientation and education of government agencies and personnel on how to relate with journal-ists, who apparently, some of them see as enemies as was the situation during military rule.

Bring attackers of photo-journalist to book IPC

952, 156 candidates, rep-resenting 56. 93 per cent, obtained five credits and above.

He also disclosed that 114 blind candidates reg-istered for the exam out of which 95 sat the exam and 21 representing 22.11 per cent obtained credits in five subjects including English Language.

He noted that blind can-didates did not take Math-ematics and Science prac-tical in WASSCE diets.

On the general perfor-mance, Uwadie said there was significant improvement in this years results over the past two years in both coun-cils May/June and Novem-ber/December exams.

He said it was 23. 71 per cent and 25.16 per cent of candidates in 2010 May/

June and November/De-cember exams that passed in five subjects including English and Mathematics at credit level and above, while it was 30.91 per cent and 36.07 per cent last year.

He noted that while the council would have pre-ferred better performance, Uwadiae said the council also recognised the sig-nificant interventions of various state govern-ments in their education sector which had led to the improvement in students performance in exams and the results.

He, however, said the candidates who sat the exam would be able to check details of their per-formance on the councils website within 48 hours after the announcement.

9Saturday Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.netAugust 11, 2012Politics

2015: Strategising ahead of battle

CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE

From the look of things, the politi-cal battle in 2015 promises to be tough. The major opposition par-ties, particularly, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), seem not to be leaving anything to chance. They are already working underground on how best to wrest power from the ruling Peo-ples Democratic Party (PDP) come 2015. They seem to be a little more determined this time around than their last effort.

The ruling party, PDP, is apparently conscious of the danger of pretending that it would be business as usual in 2015, and it is not taking the threat by the opposition parties with levity. At

least, going by its reaction recently, it would counter any move by the opposi-tion parties and remain in power in 2015 and beyond. But how possible is it for the PDP to successfully counter the proposed onslaught by the opposition? That is the question that begs for answer.

It would be recalled that in the last few months there have been several moves by the opposition parties to form a formida-ble platform to seize power from the PDP. To that effect, merger talks have been going on between the ACN and the CPC. To many people, with a new and strong platform as being planned by the opposi-tion, the PDP may be in for a tough time during the next general elections.

PDP has, since May 29, 1999, domi-nated the political scene, especially at the federal level. The opposition parties

have, in the last three general elections, found it difficult to change the tide de-spite their threat to do that. The farthest they have gone, has been to retain just a part of the state where they have their base.

For example, ACN has become the rul-ing party in the South-West, while All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) is regarded as a strong party in the South-East. CPC is also believed to be gaining popularity in the North.

It is with the success recorded by some of the parties in the different parts of the country that many are today becom-ing optimistic that PDP may be in for a big trouble come 2015. But PDP is seeing the issue differently. As far as the party is concerned, nothing would stop it from enjoying its position as the leading party.

In a statement by its National Pub-licity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, on Sunday, the party declared that no alli-ance against PDP would survive. He said PDP is not threatened by the proposed alliance between some major opposition parties, since it (PDP) remained the only national political party that was com-mitted to the continued existence of Ni-geria and its transformation.

His words: We hear of alliance and mergers every day. That is not new. Let us wait for 2015. Do you think Nigerians are fools? Do you think that Nigerians do not take notice of the character and tendency of individuals and political parties? The PDP is the only party that is committed to the continued existence of Nigeria and the welfare of its people. At the appropriate time, they will decide whether to entrust their great nation to the hands of regionalists, doomsday prophets and pro-anarchists or to the safe hands of the PDP.

Our party has shown enormous capacity and has achieved significant manifest benefits in national growth drivers as in freedom, which is at the heart of civilisation, in terms of free and fair elections, which is the livewire of democracy and in real infrastructur-al growth at the federal and in the states under our control. We can only continue to improve.

However, PDP may have prided itself as the ruling party and vowed to remain so, some political analysts would still believe that all would not likely be well with the party in the next general elec-tions.

The reasons for their position are ob-vious. They believe that at present, PDP is currently having crises in virtually all its state chapters following its inabil-ity to manage some of its internal prob-lems. The problems emanated from the last congresses and national convention.

It is also believed that the call for change in government by many Nigeri-ans, considering the security challenges in the country, high rate of corruption and some of the perceived anti-peoples policies of the present administration may affect the popularity of the ruling party.

On the other hand, it is not as though the opposition would find it easy to un-seat the PDP as the major party. Many are of the belief that the coming togeth-er of the opposition parties may not be easy at all.

Although the proposed ACN-CPC merger talks are in top gear many feel strongly that the merger may not see the light of the day considering similar ef-forts in that respect in the past.

During the April 1999 general elec-tion, for example, the then All Peoples Party (APP) and Alliance for Democ-racy (AD) formed an alliance to com-pete against the PDP. The two parties presented a common candidate in the person of former Minister of Finance, Chief Olu Falae, to contest against PDPs Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. At the end of the election Obasanjo became president.

In 2007, several efforts by the oppo-sition parties to unite failed. Even the

Bamanga Tukur, PDP chairman

Tony Momoh, CPC chairman

Bisi Akande, ACN chairman

10 Saturday Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netAugust 11, 2012POLITICS

Corrupt offi cials must be Senator Anthony Adefuye was a member of the Senate in the Third Republic in the country. He is today the national secretary of the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF) and a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). In this interview with TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE, he speaks on the effect of corruption on the nations system. He also speaks on the threat by the House of Representatives to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan on issues bordering on the implementation of the 2012 budget. Excerpts:

Adefuye

Former presidents, Chief Oluse-gun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida, recently reviewed the security situation in the country and called for a dialogue with Boko Haram. Do you support this idea as a way out of the state of insecurity?

We need to dialogue and there is no doubt about that. In fact we need a con-stitutional conference; Nigerians need to sit down and plan the way forward for Nigeria. We need to find answers to some basic questions. Are we satisfied with the present state of the economy of the country? Do we want to contin-ue with a central government or do we want a parliamentary system? There are so many things to discuss. The con-stitution needs some amendments if we are to continue in this country. So, I think they are right that there must be dialogue.

What is your view about the move by the House of Representatives to kick-start an impeachment process against President Goodluck Jona-than over poor implementation of the budget?

Impeachment is not a new thing. If the president is not performing his duty, the National Assembly has the right to caution him. If he refuses to get cau-tioned then there would be an impeach-ment. It is a normal democratic system. There is nothing extra ordinary in im-peachment provided it is done properly and not for any trivial reason. For im-peachment to occur, the reason must be genuine and it must be in the interest of the people. If you make a budget, you must execute it. There is no need deceiv-ing the people presenting a budget and then not backing it up with money. The budget must be executed because the lives of the people depend on it.

In the last few weeks, the Econom-ic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) has been arraigning many oil cartels due to the outcome of the report of the Hon. Farouk Lawan-led House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on management of fuel subsidy. Do you see the cabal being brought to book considering how many high profile corruption cases have been swept under the carpet?

It is always very difficult to fight a ca-bal but the justice system will catch up with them sooner or later. If they have stolen peoples money and the court is there then justice will prevail. We only hope that the court this time would be ready to give justice. Honestly, the situ-ation of the country is very bad. Every-where is corrupt and you dont even know where to go. The whole system is very corrupt and that is the problem we have. Many people have even stolen pen-sion funds. That is one of the corrupt cases that have been discovered. Who knows other things that have been sto-len? Pension fund is the last thing that is expected of anybody to steal. It is the money of the aged and they still steal them. Who knows many other things that have been stolen but have not been

discovered? Many funds have been sto-len; petroleum fund, pension fund, po-lice funds and many other funds have been stolen and grabbed by some cabals. So, we must look at all those funds; there must be security for them so that people dont just take them as easy money that can easily be stolen.

Again, when you put people who are not qualified in charge of certain things, you will find out at the end of the day that you have introduced virus into the system. Those people would only bring about corruption galore. We must there-fore start sanitising the system by put-ting round a peg in a round hole. Once we can do that from the beginning, we can save ourselves. When you begin to put corrupt people into places that must not be corrupted there is going to be prob-lem. When you begin to swear in people who should not be judges, then you have corrupted the place and you cannot get justice through the judicial system. When you begin to make nurses, doctors, then you have corrupted the place and you cannot get a good healing from such

an arrangement. That is the kind of situ-ation we have now. Quite a lot of wrong people have been put into the system and they must all be flushed out.

Is there a possibility that they would be flushed out, considering the Nigerian system?

We must be determined to do so. No-body has made any attempt to do so. If you look at the local government for in-stance, you will find out that the council officials are all corrupt from the top to the bottom. Even if you are appointed as a saint as council chairman today before the next day they would have cor-rupted you. So, we must find a way to en-sure that we put good people in the right places.

But many Nigerians dont care about who governs them, but what they can benefit from him as indi-viduals.

Before, the belief was: What can I get? But now, people know that once they put wrong people in government they suffer. So, people must now be determined to en-sure that they only vote the right people

into the government. If people are forced on them they must reject them; they must freely choose those they consider to be good and credible as their leaders. Once we start that, then the problem is over.

Many Nigerians seem to be losing interest in some politicians consid-ered to be credible in view of the al-leged involvement of Hon. Farouk Lawan in a bribery scandal with Femi Otedola. Are you not worried?

The whole system is corrupt. I was shocked by the Farouk Lawans action because I thought we had begun to make a headway in the fight against corrup-tion. I did not know that it was corrup-tion fighting corruption. That is where the problem is. When corruption fights corruption what you will get at the end of the day is corruption. We must do something quickly if Nigeria is to stand. The greatest enemy we have now is cor-ruption; even when you put your money in the bank, it is not safe.

Why did you think so?Because of corruption. In Europe,

Saturday Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 11August 11, 2012 POLITICS

fl ushed out Senator Adefuye

2015: Strategising ahead of battle CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

you can put your money in a bank and go to sleep but in Nigeria we are not yet there. Central Bank of Nigeria still has to do a lot of things to ensure that our money is safe and money is made avail-able to the people. If you dont make the money available to the people, then it is a waste of time putting our money in the bank. It is unfair to put your money in a bank where the banker starts trading with your money. It is no more banking and that is why so many banks collapsed in Nigeria. We need to put our system in order. Up till now we are being told that some people still deep their hands into the purse of the Central Bank and spend the money anyhow. We cannot run a country like this. The country must be put in a proper order and the only way we can start that is by ensuring that we vote for good people. And when we have made

mistakes by voting wrong people into of-fices, we must not be shy to remove them.

Do you think that one is possible in Nigeria?

Yes, it is very possible. Anywhere in the world when the damage is being done they want change and they would revolt.

Whats your view about the plan to oust PDP from the centre come 2015?

One of the beauties of democracy is that every four years, you have oppor-tunity to change every government. But the fact is that things dont even depend on peoples votes any more. There is what we call rigging. The whole system is corrupt and many people are rigged into office. So, we must ensure that our future elections are credible, free and fair. If we have elections where there is no rigging then that would be the first step toward cleansing Nigeria. We can-

not be sure now that if we hold election that it would not be rigged because all the returning officers are from the rul-ing party. Even in the local government elections, all the returning officers are members of the ruling party in that state too. So, this is where our problem is and it is only God who can save us. We too can save ourselves by doing the right thing.

What is your view about the on-going merger talk between the ACN and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)?

It is a good move if it would work. More parties must come together if they are to be relevant. I believe that the co-alition of the CPC and ACN is a good move. But honestly speaking, just like ACN cleared the South-West, so also the CPC cleared the North. But of course,

some of them were rigged out during last election. If they are together this time, they would be strong enough to de-fend and protect their votes.

The agitation for the establish-ment of state police is on. Are you in support of this?

The whole thing is still about corrup-tion. Whether state or federal police; po-lice is police. The advantage of state po-lice is that the state is able to manage its own security, whichever way it wanted. And the people who are managing the se-curity are from that state. So, they know one another and therefore it is very easy to secure the state. That is why people are calling for state police. But the fact is that the people themselves must not be corrupt and the police must not be cor-rupt. Whether state or national police, if they are corrupt, it is not good.

coming together of some AD chieftains and disgruntled members of the PDP led by former Vice President Atiku Abuba-kar to send PDP out of government also failed as PDPs candidate, Alhaji Umar YarAdua became victorious in the presi-dential election of that year.

Again, prior to the 2011 general elec-tions, many people looked forward to a possible merger between CPC and ACN considering their popularity in the North and South-West respectively, but the efforts did not yield any fruit. The talks collapsed owing to irreconcilable differences among the party leaders.

The two political parties presented different candidates at the election and came second and third respectively. The inability of the two parties to work to-gether gave President Goodluck Jona-than of the PDP a smooth ride to Aso Rock Villa at the end of the election.

It is against the backdrop of the futil-ity of the efforts then that made many to give up hope on the renewed merger talk. As far as many people are concerned, the personal ambition of the respec-tive leaders would, as in the past, work against the overall ambition to sack the PDP from dominating the political atmo-sphere.

Some analysts are of the view that the refusal of some of the opposition parties to join the CPC and ACN in the merger talks may affect the success of efforts.

Speaking to Saturday Mirror, ACN chieftain, Senator Anthony Adefuye, said that the coming together of the op-position parties would give them the opportunity to defend and protect their votes in their quest to sent PDP packing from the Aso Rock come 2015.

His words: The merger talks between CPC and ACN is a good move if it would work. More parties must come together if they are to be relevant. I believe that the coalition of the CPC and ACN is a good move. But honestly speaking, just like ACN cleared the South-West, so also CPC cleared the North. But of course,

some of them were rigged out during last election. So, if they are together this time, they would be strong enough to de-fend and protect their votes.

The spokesman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) and CPC chieftain, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, said the opposition, having learnt their lessons in the past would do everything possible to ensure that the merger talks work this time around.

We have learnt a lot of lessons from our failure to consummate the merger before the 2011 elections. We are doing all we can to make sure that there is no miscarriage any more. One can safely say that we cannot repeat the mistake we made before. As luck will have it, we have time on our side unlike in 2011.

We also know that Nigerians are tired of the vice-like grip of the PDP; so we cant afford to fail to unite all the pro-gressive forces. Barring any unintended obstacle, the merger will be concluded before March 2013, which provides us time to market the name and the mani-festo of the new baby, he said.

While many see the alliance talks bringing about a major force, former Zamfara State governor, who is cur-rently the Senate Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, said the proposed merger of ACN and CPC ahead of the 2015 presidential election may not produce a fruitful result.

He said the personal interests of personalities involved in the proposed merger overrides national interest. He stressed that unless politicians can take national interest to be above their per-sonal interests, it would be difficult to have a successful merger of the two po-litical parties.

The recent crises in the CPC that led to its factionalisation are the beginning of the mergers obstacles and this may not allow that merger to become reality, he added.

ACN National Publicity Secretary, Al-haji Lai Mohammed, believes that the merger of political parties is the only

weapon that the opposition can use to rescue the country from the grip of the PDP.

The merger of our party, ACN, with the CPC, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a splinter group of disen-chanted members of the PDP will come into being very soon. I can assure you, the leaders of the parties have been

meeting to consider the proposal, as the only way through which we can rescue this country from the PDP, he said.

With the possibility of attacks against the PDP by the opposition parties, and the likelihood of a strong defence by the former, it would be appropriate to wait till 2015 when the battle would have been declared open.

Ex-governors: Prosecution in limbo? It was Ijaw leader and former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, that stirred a hornets nest last week. It was at a lecture of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) when he took on the anti-corruption agencies and the Federal Government on the fight against corruption. He wondered why there had not been any conclusion on the prosecution of ex-governors accused of misappropriating their peoples wealth.In this weeks report, we take a look at the issue; the accusations and why it has been difficult to prosecute these former governors.

Ifys passionIfeoma Okeke, a Nollywood act, is a graduate of Business Administration of the Lagos State University (LASU). Ify, as she is fondly called by her friends, also studied Nursing. But she neither took a career in her course of study nor practised the Nursing profession. Her reason? I dont want to be caged. Ify tells of her passion, her fashion preference and the chal-lenges in Nollywood, among others. Meet her tomorrow.

If i

2015: Again, the Igbo presidency debate 2015: Again, the Igbo presidency debate The 2015 general election is still about three years away, but political permuta-The 2015 general election is still about three years away, but political permuta-tion, especially in the South East geo-political zone, has started. The Igbo have tion, especially in the South East geo-political zone, has started. The Igbo have begun moves to actualise their plans for a President of Igbo extraction. Will begun moves to actualise their plans for a President of Igbo extraction. Will they succeed? Will they achieve their aim in view of rumbles from the North they succeed? Will they achieve their aim in view of rumbles from the North for the same office? Though President Goodluck Jonathan has not signified his for the same office? Though President Goodluck Jonathan has not signified his intention to contest for a second term, his body language indicates this to be a intention to contest for a second term, his body language indicates this to be a possibility. So, can the Igbo achieve their aim? What is their strategy? We serve possibility. So, can the Igbo achieve their aim? What is their strategy? We serve you this tomorrow.you this tomorrow.

Kogis tales of deathsKogis tales of deathsLokoja, the Kogi State capital, had a bitter pill of insurgents attacks during Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, had a bitter pill of insurgents attacks during the week. While gunmen invaded the camp of Deeper Christian Life Bible the week. While gunmen invaded the camp of Deeper Christian Life Bible Church members on a retreat, killing no fewer than 20 worshippers in one fell Church members on a retreat, killing no fewer than 20 worshippers in one fell swoop, another set of insurgents invaded a local mosque where it detonated swoop, another set of insurgents invaded a local mosque where it detonated explosives. There, two soldiers lay dead while many worshippers were fatally explosives. There, two soldiers lay dead while many worshippers were fatally wounded. We reached out to survivors of the attacks, among them, the wounded. We reached out to survivors of the attacks, among them, the injured. It is a gripping episode that you cannot but read. injured. It is a gripping episode that you cannot but read.

In your refreshingly different

These and many more available tomorrow in your

ANPP may disappear before 2015 Tofa

Dana plane crash: LASUTH explains delay in collection of corpses

AUGUSTINE MADU WESTKANO

Former chairman of the elders com-mittee of the All Nigerian Peoples Party ( ANPP), Alhaji Bashir Tofa has expressed doubt over the possible survival of his party beyond 2015, citing exodus of key mem-bers and factional crisis

rocking the opposition party as reasons.

He told Saturday Mirror in an interview that the once leading opposition party in the country is now in a seri-ous problem with leadership crisis tearing it apart.

As it is now, ANPP is in a serious problem; that is just my opinion. The party is not in some states, especially in the South East; it is not even in the North; key party mem-

bers are leaving for other parties, he said.

The partys former Con-tact and Alliance Commit-tee chairman also recalled that in recent months we have lost many leaders in the North and also in the South. These are leaders who are strategic to the survival of the party and this is a seri-ous problem for the party.

According to him, an-other major factor militating

against the partys growth is the attitude of most of its elected officials such as Na-tional Assembly members and governors.

Our governors and sena-tors are not always forthcom-ing to assist the party and they are not even serious with the partys activities.

Recently a meeting was held in Abuja, it was a cau-cus meeting, I think only one governor out of the three

attended that meeting with just a few senators. So, this kind of disenchantment with the party is a very se-rious development and set back to the party.

The former presidential candidate of the defunct Na-tional Republican Conven-tion (NRC) in the aborted Third Republic said the most disturbing scenario in all these is the partys appalling status in Kano State where

it hitherto enjoyed tremen-dous patronage.

The partys situation in Kano is disturbing with the emergence of no fewer than six factions, each angling for power, fighting one another with unity eluding the par-ty. So, the party is virtually crippled in Kano because the leadership is lacking and I think if we are not careful we may disappear before 2015.

TOBORE OVUORIE

The Chief Medical Director of the La-gos State Univer-sity Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Prof. David Wale Oke, has explained that the delay in the col-lection of the bodies of Dana plane crash victims is partly because some of their next-of-kin are out-side the country.

Oke also officially ap-pologised on behalf of the hospital for the beating of a photojournalist, Mr. Benedict Uwalaka at LA-SUTH mortuary on Thurs-day.

He disclosed that the hospital had received calls from next-of-kins in Unit-ed States , United Kingdom , China , Lebanon and oth-er parts of the world and even within the country, requesting that the bodies of their loved ones be pre-served for them pending their arrival.

Some said they will be available in two weeks time, others pleaded for more time; but one thing is sure, we are not going to charge a dime for any ex-tra time the corpses spend in the mortuary.

If we have kept the corpses at no expense for the relatives since June that the plane crash oc-curred, why should we charge money for just a few days.

Lagos State govern-ment has spent so much money on this matter, and doing it free for the vic-tims families, he said.

Another reason, it was

gathered, why families are not in a hurry to pick their corpses is because the Lekan Ogunsola Memo-rial Mortuary, LASUTH, reputedly has one of the modern, state-of-the- art facilities for corpse preser-vation in the country.

Therefore some vic-tims relatives have de-cided to leave their corpse there till they are ready to collect them.

A victims relative who spoke to newsmen on con-dition of anonymity ex-plained that even though it was their utmost desire to claim their bodies for buri-al, how to further preserve the bodies till the time for burial was a major force militating against the pro-cess as most of them were not ready for burial.

He questioned the logic behind further exposing the corpses of which most are devoid of one part of the body or another.

According to him, some mortuary attendants con-fided in them that the chemical used in preserv-ing the corpses were like-ly to expire within 24/48 hours after being taken away from LASUTH mor-tuary which would make the corpse to further de-cay just as he expressed fear over the availability of the chemical in other morgues.

For these reasons, he stressed, relatives who would have to convey their corpses to other parts of the country for burial have decided to wait for about one or two days to the set dates for burial before they come for their corpses.

700 Nigerian troops deployed in LiberiaAZA MSUEKADUNA

About 700 officers and men of 195 Bat-talion, Nigerian Army, have been deployed in Liberia on peace keeping mission just as authorities warned against sexual mis-conduct.

The army troops were also warned against being disarmed by criminal in the unpredictable mission area.

General Officer Com-manding (GOC), 2 Division, Nigerian Army, Ibadan, Major General Moham-med D. Abubakar, gave the

warning yesterday at the graduation ceremony of the troops after a four-week pre-deployment training at the Nigerian Army Peace Keeping Centre, Jaji, Ka-duna State.

Represented by the Com-mander, 22 Armoured Bri-gade, Ilorin, Brigadier Gen-eral Saidu Bello, the GOC told the troop to be resolute in dealing with operational matters in line with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNAMIL)s rule of engagement and force pro-tection measures.

Said he: It is important to bring to your attention,

the unpredicted brewing violent situation in Libe-ria which is the fallout of the just concluded general election. You must exercise utmost care, considering the nature and lifestyle of Liberian women.

I will equally highlight the cultural sensitivity re-lated to the Liberia envi-ronment, which requires caution and respect from deployed peacekeepers. In this regard, I urge you to abide by the missions dos and donts.

In his address, the Com-mandant of the Nigerian Army Peacekeeping Centre

(NAPKC), Major General John Samuel Zaruwa, said the troop had adequate lev-el of training to ensure ef-fective performance in any peace-keeping operation theatre.

General Zaruwa who spoke through his deputy, Brigadier General Abuba-kar A. Tarfa, said the spe-cialised training was in tandem with Army head-quarters desire to ensure that troops receive the much needed robust and theatre-specific peace sup-port operation training pri-or to induction into peace-keeping missions.

Projects in aviation to be contractor-fi nanced MinisterOLUSEGUN KOIKI

The Minister of Avia-tion, Princess Stella Oduah, has said that all projects in the countrys sector will henceforth be un-der contractor-financed busi-ness model.

The minister stated this yesterday in China during her business meeting with

the Chinese business com-munity.

Oduah is currently on tour of China, United States and Canada to woo foreign investors to the countrys aviation industry.

According to Oduah, ev-ery project contained in the investment baskets current-ly being marketed through the Investors Road show would not be through con-

cessioning or Public Private Partnership (PPP) business model as was the case in the past.

Speaking through her Special Assistant, Media, Mr. Joe Obi, the minister empha-sised that the ministry was looking for investors who were interested in investing in the Nigeria Aerotropolis Cities and the aviation sector in general, to partner with

Nigerian indigenous inves-tors in growing the aviation industry in the country.

What the government is actually looking for is contractor-financed inves-tors who can finance the projects while the govern-ment provides the enabling environment; we are looking for investors that can have joint ventures with our local, indigenous companies.

Apologises over brutalisation of photojournalist

Saturday Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net12 August 11, 2012 National News

L-R: Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, congratulating the Group Managing Director of Nest Oil Plc., Dr. Ernest Azu-dialu, after being conferred with the West Africa Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Lagos, while the Managing Director, ABN Group, Roberta Nadoo watches, recently.

NSC needs complete overhauling Eseka

I dont respect Carl Lewis BoltP. 16 P. 43P. 42

13Sport Saturday Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.netAugust 11, 2012

We never planned to win Olympic medals Popoola

SAYO OGUNDEJI

As Nigerias U-20 national team, known as the Flying Eagles, take on their Tanzanian counter-parts in tomorrows second leg of their African Youth Championship qualifier at the Ilorin Township Stadium, coach of the team, John Obuh, says his team is battle ready and will fight to get the three maximum points.

The Flying Eagles defeated the Ngorongoro Heroes 2-1 during the first leg at the National Stadium in Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania, a fortnight ago and stands a better chance of booking the final ticket with at least a draw.

Enugu Rangers forward, Alhaji Gero, was Nigerias hero as he got a brace scoring in the 5th and 46th minutes to

bring coach Obuh-led team closer to qualifying for the tournament, while Tanzania only managed to pull one back in the second half.

Also, despite the Flying Eagles, failure to impress at the Cape Town International Challenge earlier in May and their woeful performance in a friendly match against Rwanda prior to the first leg, the team has churned out good results in friendly matches ahead of tomorrows encounter.

The Flying Eagles who are the defend-ing champions of the AYC, defeated Ni-geria Premier League (NPL) side, Kwara United, 2-1 on Sunday and hit Federa-tion Cup semi finalists, Prime FC, 3-0 on Tuesday in the matches played at the Ilorin Township Stadium, venue of Sun-days showdown.

According to Obuh, who was obviously excited over his sides change of fortune,

the team has learnt great lessons from those defeats, adding that the players are in to shape going into Sundays clash.

We had some disappointments ear-lier on, which cast doubts on our ability to qualify, but those poor results made us stronger and you will surely see a much-improved team against the Tanzanians come Sunday.

It is not always easy putting a team together especially when you have a pool to draw from, but we have had a couple of weeks to train and that has helped the players understand themselves, and our style of play has improved the team in so many ways.

Nigerians expect positive results from us anytime we play and as the de-fending champions, the players have all promised to raise their game in order to get the desired result, Obuh who also

doubles as Sharks of Port Harcourt han-dler, stated confidently.

The winner of the Nigeria/Tanzania tie will play the winner of the Congo/South Africa fixture, for a place at the 8-Nation tournament, and Obuh believes a positive result over the visitors will in-crease his sides chances of qualifying for the 18th African Youth Championship scheduled to hold in Algeria next year.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has named Li-berian referees for the match between Nigeria and Tanzania. Jerry Yekeh will be the Centre Referee, with compatriots Anthony Dopoh, Elisha Johnson and Emmanuel Neewon as 1st Assistant, 2nd Assistant and Reserve Referees, respec-tively while Moucharaf Anjorin from Benin Republic will be the Match Com-missioner.

Flying Eagles line up before an encounter. INSET: Coach John Obuh.

b i h Ob h l d t l t th t h l t t l f d bl Sh k f P t H t

AYC qualifi er:AYC qualifi er: We are ready for We are ready for Tanzanias challenge Tanzanias challenge ObuhObuh

Saturday Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net14 August 11, 2012 SPORT

AndrewEkejiuba

HARD TACKLE with

anelsports@yahoo.com 08034343377

SPORT NEWS

Following the dismal per-formance of Team Nige-ria at the ongoing London 2012 Olympics, it is imperative at this time of our countrys sports development to take a ret-rospective view on how best we can churn out athletes that can challenge the best in the world and win laurels. It is because of this fact that we need to em-brace school sports to salvage our sports development, which is on a free fall.

As kicker, it is shameful that a nation of more than 150 million inhabitants cannot muster the will to discover her best poten-tials in various sports from the grassroots, talk less of training and nurturing them to stardom. Therefore, it is important we be-gin to plan early on how best we can get it right before the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

In our recent interview with the President of the Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF), Mallam Ibrahim Muhammad, he threw light on the need for our sports administrators to go back to the basics, in order to rediscov-er our laudable prowess in sports development.

According to records, NSSF was founded in 1976, and since then, the sporting body has been actively involved in the organisa-tion of National School Sports Festival, All Nigeria Secondary School Football Championship (NNPC/Shell Cup) and Nestle

Milo National Secondary Schools Basketball Championship to mention but a few. Yet, NSSF does not receive any subvention from government or anywhere to compliment their efforts even many decades after.

Thus, it is the opinion of HT that all the sporting bodies (Na-tional Sports Commission and the Nigeria Football Federation inclusive), alongside members of Corporate Nigeria should as a matter of urgency compliment NSSFs effort to help the country discover more budding athletes (at their right ages) and nurture them to stardom as they did in the past.

Using a fire-brigade approach in preparing our athletes for ma-jor competitions like the Olym-pics is never the best and quoting the NSSF Presidents reaction in this regard, it is not the right thing to do, but situation forces our sports administrators to do so. For example, if money meant for the development of sports or

for the prosecution of a major competition is not released on time from the budget, what do you expect the sports adminis-trator, to do? Take a look at what happened prior to the Olympics in London where at the last min-ute, the entire funds meant for the prosecution of the competi-tion where not fully released. So, governments bureaucracy is a major problem militating against sports development in our country.

From the foregoing, one can see that there is a fundamental problem from government who has remained the sole financier of sports development in the country. Our sports administra-tors have an arduous task of working ahead in seeing that athletes discovered from schools are nurtured to stardom, rather than allowing them to rot away with their enormous God-given talents.

School sports competitions

are the best place to catch a pos-sible future Olympic gold med-allist and that is why attention is always given to students who are inclined to sports in most of the developed sporting nations across the globe.

In the National School Sports Festival being organised by NSSF annually, more than 22 events are featured and since the commencement of the festival in 2008, 17 out of the 22 sporting events are medal scoring, while 5 are non-scoring. This figure goes to show the importance, which NSSF attaches to the develop-ment of other sports aside from football.

Today, we are glad to celebrate the prowess of the captain of DTigers, Olumide Oyedeji, who led the national basketball team for the first time to the London Olympics and was a product of the Nestle Milo Secondary Schools Basketball Champion-ship, also organised by the NSSF.

To say the least, the basket-ball event is in its 14th edition and will be concluded today at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Na-tional Stadium, Lagos with lots of future Oyedejis on parade. But this cannot happen on a platter because lots of corporate bodies and individuals are needed to come forward and bankroll other sports begging for resuscitation under the auspices of the NSSF.

In the 2008 edition of the bas-ketball competition for example,

a total of 3,500 schools nation-wide participated in the event from the preliminary stage in states, to the national finals and today the number of schools com-peting has increased.

Aside the aforementioned, Nigeria, with lots of her inhabit-ants living in riverine areas, can take up the gauntlet by produc-ing great swimmers that can beat the best in the world and this can only come to fruition if the corpo-rate bodies are willing to sponsor these grassroots competitions, which are aimed at exposing hid-den talents even from schools.

Another advantage of discov-ering athletes from schools is that it helps to catch them young espe-cially at their right ages; thereby eliminating the age-cheat syn-drome, which has rubbished the image of Nigerian sports, espe-cially in football.

HT discovered in NSSFs com-petitions, that they have zero tol-erance for age cheats as athletes featured in their competitions are screened thoroughly in an at-tempt to curb this cankerworm. Therefore, if the National Sports Commission (NSC), Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and other sporting bodies should rally round NSSF, the issue of using over-aged players in youth competitions would be a thing of the past, as athletes discovered would remain long in the sport-ing terrain; competing and win-ning laurels for our dear country.

Flamingoes in training.

Ahmadiyah College, Kano (white) defeated Government Secondary School, Minna (blue) by 49-33 during the ongoing 14th MILO Secondary Schools Basketball Championship at the National Stadium, Lagos.

Embracing NSSFs sports development programme

Ijeomah hails Nestle Milo for supporting basketball development Flamingoes tackle State House FC, as Dedevbo drops fi ve playersANDREW EKEJIUBA

The coach of Interna-tional School, Lagos (ISL), Ernest Ijeomah, has commended the efforts of Nestle Milo Nigeria PLC for supporting the growth and development of basket-ball in the country.

Ijeomah, who did not hide his emotions because of the quality of officiating and players on parade from the different schools that made it to ongoing national finals of the Nestle Milo National Secondary Schools Basket-ball Championship said the country will benefit im-mensely from the products of the competition.

I think Nestle Milo has remained children friendly with this initiative of sup-porting basketball for the past 14 years. Today, most of their products from the championship are already

In tandem with prepa-rations for the FIFA U-17 Womens World Cup in Azerbaijan in Sep-tember, the national U-17 team, The Flamingoes, will be having a training match with State House Football Club of Abuja today.

The coaching crew feels this match will ascertain properly the fitness level of the players vis--vis playing to instructions and tactics.

The team will also take on Ghanas U-17 ladies team, The Black Maidens, in two friendly matches later this month to test their might.

Ghana are drawn in Group D with Uruguay, China PR and Germany while The Flamingoes are drawn with hosts, Azer-baijan, Colombia and Canada in Group A.

making it to the national team which is commendable.

This year, the company has shown its sincerity to sports development with the laying of new floor at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos; the floor is world class equip-ment, which is the first in the country, he enthused.

Ijeomah, whose school is one of those participating in the ongoing national finals in Lagos, believes that claim-ing the coveted trophy of the 14th Nestle Milo Secondary

School Basketball Champi-onship by his school remains their greatest priority.

We were unfortunate to have lost the title last year and this year we are eager to re-deem our image by ensuring that we are on top of things during the final. We believe we will scale through to the final even as we continue to work hard to achieve our dream of lifting the trophy come Satur-day, Ijeomah said.

However, ISL has crashed out at the semi-finals of the competition.

Meanwhile, five play-ers were on Friday dropped from the team. These players are Okafor Lovina, Waheed Aminat, Kehinde Akinwade, Jen-nifer Ajuwah and Mary-am Abdulrashid.

Thirty players are therefore left in camp as the training match with State House Football Club of Abuja will be played at the FIFA Goal Project, National Stadium, Abuja by 3:00pm.

Saturday Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net August 11, 2012 15

The Chief Coach of Kano State Tae-kwondo Associa-tion, Ibrahim Yahuza, has blamed Isah Mohammeds ouster from the Olympic Games on poor communi-cation and sub-st