19032019 - Sack Buhari, declare me winner, Atiku tells tribunal

RIVERS: 

How Wike's 

police details 

brutalised us 

— Injured 

soldiers 

12 

March 23 re-run 

polls in Plateau, a 

walk-over —Lalong 

•Says, insecurity in the state 

politically motivated 

13 

Tension as 

APC, PDP 

trade tackles 

ahead of re-run 

polls in 5 42 

states 

INCONCLUSIVE POLLS: 

Bauchi gov, Abubakar 

storms Aso Rock, 

warns on security 

implications of INEC 

decision 

13 

Nigeria’s terms of trade declines by 2.8% in Q4’18 

19 

VOL. 26: NO. 63767 TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019 

Sack Buhari, declare me 

winner, Atiku tells tribunal 

•Lines up 20 SANs, 400 witnesses to fight case 

•Adds: Our petition solid, strong, unassailable 

ZENITH BANK AGM... 

STORY 

ON 

PAGE 8 

CJN'S CCT TRIAL: 

My asset 

declaration 

forms 

tampered 

with — 

ONNOGHEN 

5 

Naira 

depreciates 

to N360.61/ 

$ in I&E 

41 

window 

Mr & Mrs 

Chairman, Zenith Bank Plc. Mr. Jim Ovia (Centre); flanked from left by the Deputy Managing Director, Ms. Adaora Umeoji; the 

Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Peter Amangbo; the Company Secretary, Mr. Micheal Otu; and the Deputy Managing Director, Mr. 

Ebenezer Onyeagwu at the bank’s 28th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos, yesterday. 

FG cuts oil 

output by 

400,000 

bpd 

COLUMNISTS 

9 

SENATE SEAT: 

Akpabio drags 

Ekpenyong to 

tribunal 35 

TENIOLA 

Concerned citizens 

to INEC, politicians: 

Don’t set Kano 

on fire 

18 MAILAFIA 33 ODUMAKIN 17 

35 

See 

Inside

2— Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019—3

4— Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019—5 

POCKET CARTOON 

SANWO-OLU, HAMZAT AT ASO VILLA—President Muhammadu 

Buhari receives Governor Elect of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu (left) 

and Deputy Governor Elect of Lagos State, Femi Hamzat (right) in State 

House, Abuja, yesterday. 

My asset declaration forms 

tampered with —ONNOGHEN 

By Ikechukwu 

Nnochiri 

ABUJA — 

Suspended Chief 

Justice of Nigeria, CJN, 

Justice Walter 

Onnoghen yesterday told 

the Code of Conduct 

Tribunal, CCT, sitting in 

Abuja that his asset 

declaration forms 

submitted to the Code of 

Conduct Bureau, CCB, 

were tampered with. 

Onnoghen insisted at 

his resumed trial that the 

Form 001 he filled in 2014 

and 2015, were no longer 

the way he submitted 

them, to the CCB, 

querying why the hitherto 

bound documents 

appeared “in loose form” 

before the tribunal, 

alleging that it was 

tampered with, with some 

of the pages missing. 

Earlier, a senior 

investigative officer at the 

Code of Conduct Bureau, 

CCB, Mr. James Akpala, 

yesterday, admitted that 

the charge against 

Onnoghen was filed 

before his team concluded 

investigation on the 

allegation that he falsely 

declared his assets. 

Akpala, the star 

prosecution witness, PW- 

1, testified before the 

CCT, where the embattled 

CJN is answering to a sixcount 

charge that 

preferred against him by 

the Federal Government. 

Aside allegation that he 

failed to declare his assets 

as prescribed by the law, 

the Federal Government 

had in the charge, alleged 

that Onnoghen operated 

five foreign bank 

accounts, contrary to 

Section 15(2) of Code of 

Conduct Bureau and 

Tribunal Act. 

The Federal 

Government had insisted 

that it was the CCB that 

okayed Onnoghen’s trial 

based on certain 

infractions discovered in 

his asset declaration 

forms. 

The Mr. Danladi Umarled 

tribunal had in a 

bench ruling on March 

11, granted FG the nod to 

call witnesses and tender 

evidence against the 

defendant, who was 

suspended from office by 

President Muhammadu 

Buhari on January 25. 

At the resumed 

proceedings yesterday, 

the prosecution presented 

Mr. Akpala as its first 

witness. 

Led in evidence by FG’s 

lawyer, Mr. Aliyu Umar, 

SAN, the PW-1, told the 

tribunal that he was a 

member of a three-man 

team of investigators that 

uncovered alleged 

infractions in asset 

declaration forms the 

defendant submitted 

before the CCB. 

The witness tendered in 

evidence six sets of 

documents that included 

a copy of the petition he 

said led to Onnoghen’s 

trial, as well as his bank 

account details. The FG 

equally tendered through 

him, two asset declaration 

forms the suspended CJN 

submitted in 2014 and 

2015. 

The petition dated 

January 7, 2019, which 

was sent to the CCB by a 

civil society group under 

the aegis of Anti- 

Corruption and Research- 

Based Data Initiative, was 

admitted in evidence as 

Exhibit 1. 

My forms 

tampered with, 

by Onnoghen 

Meanwhile, before the 

asset declaration forms 

were admitted, 

Onnoghen, through his 

lawyer, Chief 

Adegboyega Awomolo, 

SAN, alleged that it was 

tampered with. Awomolo 

said he would raise his 

client’s objection to the 

admissibility of the 

documents, in his final 

written address. 

“We have some 

reservation on the 

documents’ we will not 

object in the interest of 

justice but we have 

reservations that would 

be addressed at the end 

of the day,” he added. 

In his evidence-in-chief, 

the witness told the 

tribunal that the petition 

was handed to his team 

for investigation by his 

superior at the CCB, Mr. 

Samuel Madojemu, on 

January 9. 

“The petition was 

authored by Chief Dennis 

Aghanya of the Anti- 

Corruption and Research- 

Based Data Initiative, 

alleging breach of Code 

of Conduct for Public 

Officers, including nondeclaration 

of assets and 

false declaration of assets, 

against Justice 

Onnoghen, the CJN. 

“Thereafter, the team 

wrote to the Federal 

Political Officers Unit (of 

the Bureau), Asokoro, 

requesting the 

defendant’s asset 

declarations forms 

received from 2000 to 

2009. 

“The department 

responded. The two asset 

declaration forms were 

examined and filed in the 

case file,” the witness 

stated. 

No idea where 

forms were kept 

— Witness 

Under crossexamination, 

the witness 

told the tribunal that he 

was not aware that the 

CCB had a central 

register where asset 

declaration forms 

submitted to it by public 

officers are kept. He said 

he also had no idea of the 

number of asset 

declaration forms the 

Bureau issued from 1993 

to 2019. 

The PW-1 maintained 

that the constitution 

mandated every public 

officer to go to the nearest 

office of the CCB to 

declare their assets. 

Responding to further 

questions, the witness said: 

“I have never worked in the 

department where asset 

declaration forms are 

issued to public officers. I 

have never worked in the 

department where the 

forms are verified.” 

He said the petition was 

delivered to the CCB on 

January 9 and forwarded to 

his team on January 10. 

“We requested for records 

of his accounts from the 

Continues on Page 41 

By Bose Adelaja, Ebun Sessou, Yinka 

Latona, 

Chiamaka Uba & Dickson Omobola 

Security agencies and 2019 polls (4) 

The military has no 

business in the 

governorship election. It 

has shown that the military 

is partisan. 

This is not good for our 

democracy. The police has 

the basic responsibility to 

protect lives and property 

before, during and after 

any election. 

Mr. Oseni Patrick 

Engineer 

Idid not see anything 

bad in using the 

military during the justconcluded 

elections. 

The military and other 

security agencies were 

on ground to protect the 

masses and I think the 

government depolyed 

them for the safety of the 

masses. I believe it is for 

our own good. 

Miss Bukola Adeyemi 

Teacher 

I 

personally disagree 

with any reason for 

which the military 

should be part of the 

electoral process. 

The involvement of the 

military during the 

governorship election 

was not good for our 

democratic process. 

Mr. Balogun Femi 

Fashion Designer 

In my own view, I will 

commend the effort of 

our military personnel 

for the role they played 

during the governorship 

election. 

If not for the presence 

of the security agents, 

especially the military 

before and during the 

election, there would 

have been serious crisis 

in the country. 

Mrs. Adanri Rita 

Teacher 

Security agents were 

partisan during the elections. 

They showed that 

they were not neutral 

and they can be used to 

achieve any political 

agenda. This is because 

they contributed to the 

rigging in some polling 

units also they were incompetent 

in some areas. 

Miss Abdullahi 

Jameela, Student/Fashion 

designer. 

I think there was poor 

security at the polls compared 

to what was expected. 

Looking at several 

situations that disrupted 

the polls you 

would observe that if 

there were to be adequate 

security such minor 

cases would not 

have been able to disrupt 

the polls. The security 

agencies didn’t 

live up to expectations. 

Onu Kevin, 

Events decorator

6—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MACRH 19, 2019 

Man to die by 

hanging for 

robbing, 

shooting 

stepmother, 

sister 

By Onozure Dania 

L AGOS—JUSTICE 

Oluwatoyin Ipaye of a 

Lagos High Court sitting 

in Igbosere, yesterday, 

sentenced an armed 

robber, Akeem Lawal, to 

death by hanging for 

attacking his stepmother 

with matches and shooting 

the stepsister. 

Justice Ipaye said: “I find 

you guilty as charged on 

count one of conspiracy to 

rob and guilty on count two 

of armed robbery as 

charged in the amended 

charge.” 

Before the judge handed 

down the sentence, she 

asked the convict’s counsel 

if she had any allocutus. 

The convict’s counsel, E. 

B. Obogwu, in her alloctus 

urged the judge to temper 

justice with mercy as the 

convict has a son who is 

dependent on him, adding 

that if given another 

chance he won’t toe that 

line again. 

However, Justice Ipaye 

held that Lawal shall be 

hung by the neck until he 

dies. 

“You shall be hanged on 

the neck until you die, may 

the Lord God have mercy 

on your soul,” the judge 

held. 

In her judgment, the 

judge held that the 

prosecution has been able 

to prove its case beyond 

reasonable doubt, that 

there was robbery, armed 

robbery and that the 

convict was one of the 

armed robbers that attacked 

the victims. 

When the matter came up 

yesterday for judgment, Z. 

O. Okunowo announced 

her appearance for the 

prosecution and E. B. 

Obogwu announced her 

appearance for the convict. 

In her judgment the 

judge held: “I have no 

reason to doubt the 

testimonies of the victims, 

as they were eyewitnesses 

and also had a close 

opportunity to see the 

robbers. 

"The first witness had 

only one son which the 

prosecution has been able 

to establish. 

“There is no doubt that 

the Police did not 

investigate the incident 

until after the petition was 

written to them about it. I 

am therefore satisfied that 

the prosecution have been 

able to prove its case 

beyond reasonable doubt,” 

the judge said. 

Kidnappers of Edo traditional ruler 

demand ransom in foreign currency 

•It’s not kidnap; they took him over communal matter—Police 

By Alemma Aliu 

BENIN—KIDNAPPERS of the 

Enogie(king) of Ukhiri in 

Ikpobah-Okha Local Government 

Area of Edo State, Godwin Aigbe, 

have reportedly opened talks with 

his family and are said to be 

demanding ransom in foreign 

currency before they will release 

him. 

A family member confirmed 

the development, but refused 

to disclose the amount. 

Recall that five heavilyarmed 

men stormed enogie’s 

palace on Saturday evening 

shooting sporadically into the 

air, before abducting him from 

his living room to an unknown 

destination. 

The kidnappers burnt their 

operational vehicle and 

escaped in the monarch’s car. 

Confirming the kidnap, the 

Commissioner of Police in 

Edo State, Dan Mohammed, 

had said on Sunday that some 

suspects had been arrested 

and were helping the Police 

WORLD CONSUMER DAY: Women buying plantain at Bakin Dogo Market, 

while the world celebrates World Consumer Day in Kaduna. NAN PHOTO. 

THE trial of four undergraduates 

of the University of Lagos, 

UNILAG, and an undergraduate of 

Babcock University who allegedly 

gang-raped a female student, was 

yesterday stalled in an Ikeja Domestic 

Violence and Sexual Offences Court 

due to a change in counsel. 

Moboluwaji Omowole, 19; Chuka 

Chukwu, 19; Peace Nwankama, 19; 

James Aguedu, 20, and Osemeka 

Josephine, 20, are alleged by the 

prosecution to be some of the students 

involved in the serial gang-rape of a 

UNILAG student within the premises 

of the institution. 

Following their arraignment on 

February 26, Aguedu hired a new 

defence counsel, Mr. Lawal 

Pedro(SAN), a former Solicitor- 

General of Lagos State and 

Permanent Secretary Ministry of 

Justice. 

The cross-examination of the 

complainant (name withheld), 

yesterday could however not proceed 

due to Pedro’s request for an 

adjournment. 

He said: “I just came into this matter. 

I thought the proceedings were for 

only hearing of the bail application. 

“In order for justice to be done, I 

will need time to study the proof of 

evidence in this case in order to 

properly cross-examine the witness. 

In order not to frustrate the trial, I 

request that my cross-examination 

should be adjourned and the other 

counsel should proceed with their 

cross-examination.” 

Following the SAN’s 

submission, Justice Abiola 

Soladoye adjourned the case 

until May 2 for continuation of 

trial. 

Defence team wants bail 

Earlier during proceedings, 

defence counsel to the students 

had via various applications 

asked the court to grant bail to 

the students who have been 

remanded for 21 days at the 

Kirikiri Prisons. 

Their defence counsel had 

noted that the students had no 

prior criminal record and had all 

attended court proceedings 

since their arraignment in 

March 2017. 

Mrs Abimbola Akeredolu 

(SAN) counsel to Chukwu, in 

her application, said: “The 

applicant does not constitute a 

flight risk. He is a student whose 

academic pursuits have been 

disrupted. 

“Both parents work at Chevron 

and are present in court and they 

will ensure that he is present in 

court. He has never failed to 

appear in court or whenever his 

appearance is needed.” 

Pedro (SAN) counsel for 

Aguedo, told the court: “The 

charge against the defendant is 

a misdemeanor not a felony. The 

applicant is a current student of 

Babcock University and we 

have a letter before the court to 

show that he is a current 

student of the school. 

“He is suffering from a back 

ailment that requires expert 

medical attention; we have 

documents from the National 

Orthopedic Hospital as proof. 

He has never abused the 

privilege of administrative bail 

given to him. 

“We gave his birth certificate 

to show that at the time the 

alleged offence was 

committed, he was a minor. If 

bail is refused, he will suffer 

undue hardship and his 

academic life will be truncated. 

“He is from a religious family 

and his pastor has written to 

Babcock University to give 

them sufficient time to sort out 

his bail application.” 

Mr. Rasak Abudu, counsel to 

Omowole said the first 

defendant’s father had suffered 

illness caused by his son’s 

criminal trial. 

According to him, “the first 

defendant (Omowole) is a 

second year student of 

UNILAG and would not jump 

bail, as he has never failed to 

appear in court and has always 

been present with his parents. 

“He has responsible parents. 

His father is critically ill as a 

result of this charge and his 

in their investigation. 

Mohammed explained that the 

enogie had a running battle 

with some of his subjects, who 

he earlier reported to the Police. 

“Those we arrested said it is 

not kidnapping; that they took 

him to make peace with others 

and are making contact with 

those that took him to release 

him,” the Police boss stated. 

He further stated that som 

enogie’s subjects had earlier 

attempted to burn his palace. 

Mohammed said: “He 

reported to us, but if he had told 

us that he was going there, we 

would have given him security.” 

It will be recalled that some 

aggrieved youths last week took 

up arms against the enogie and 

destroyed property in the 

palace. Some of them were 

arrested and few days after 

women in the community also 

protested and alleged that the 

enogie was traumatising them 

with his style of administration. 

However, enogie had said the 

issue he had with the aggrieved 

persons was their reintroduction 

of Community 

Development Associations, 

CDAs, which had been banned 

by the Oba of Benin and the state 

government, alleging that they 

wanted to forcefully sell 

community lands to individuals 

through the banned association. 

Change in counsel stalls trial of 5 in UNILAG student's gang-rape saga 

mother or any member of his 

family is ready to take his bail. 

“The country is trying to reduce 

crime, constant exposure to the 

prison inmates will expose him 

further to crime. He was 17 years 

old as at the time of the crime; he 

is now 19.” 

Mr. O. C, Aibangbee, the 

defence counsel to Nwankama 

asked the court to grant the third 

year student of Economics at 

UNILAG bail in liberal terms. 

“Granting the application will 

make the applicant attend her 

studies even though there is a 

pending charge,” he said. 

Mr. N. J. Edechime, counsel to 

Osemeka, noted in his bail 

application that the fifth 

defendant is an only child. 

He said: “She is incapable of 

interfering with evidence and 

witnesses in the matter and she 

will not jump bail as she is a third 

year student of Economics at 

UNILAG. If she is not granted 

bail, she will lose academic years; 

her mother is always in court as 

the applicant is her only child.” 

The judge 

Justice Soladoye adjourned the 

case until April 29 for ruling on 

Omowole, Chukwu, Nwankama 

and Osemeka’s bail application 

and March 25 for the continuation 

of the hearing of Aguedo’s bail 

application.”


Man kills brother-in-law 

over N30,000 debt in Ondo 

By Dayo Johnson 

AKURE—A man identified as 

Segun Oni, has reportedly 

killed his brother-in-law, Sunday 

Oluwadare, with a log in a 

disagreement over N30,000 debt 

he(Oni) owed his in-law. 

The incident happened in 

Akure, the Ondo State capital, and 

Oni has been apprehended by the 

By Gbenga Olarinoye 

OSOGBO—ECONOMIC and 

social activities were, 

yesterday, paralysed in Ilesa, 

Osun State, following a violent 

protest by the youths of the 

community over the disconnection 

of six local government areas in 

the community from the national 

grid by Ibadan Electricity 

Distribution Company, IBEDC, 

over alleged attack by the youths 

of the area on the staff of the 

company. 

No fewer than four journalists 

were attacked by the youths 

during the protest which began 

on Sunday and spread into all 

nooks and crannies of the ancient 

community. By yesterday 

morning, the aggrieved youths 

barricaded the roads and 

prevented vehicular movement. 

Journalists hospitalised 

On sighting the journalists, who 

were covering their protest 

yesterday, the youths went berserk 

and descended on the pressmen 

with cudgels, cutlass and other 

weapons, damaging their cameras 

and other equipment beyond 

repair. 

Among the attacked journalists 

are Rafiu Muhammad of TVC and 

his cameraman, Taiwo Adu; 

Channels TV reporter, Shittu 

Abdulfatai, and his cameraman. 

It was further gathered that the 

protesting youths also damaged 

the vehicle and cameras of Uniq 

FM/Freedom Television, Ilesa. 

As a result, the authorities of 

Uniq FM/Freedom TV, Ilesa, 

directed the station to shut down 

for three hours for the protest to 

subside. 

At press time, the attacked 

journalists were receiving 

treatment at the Ladoke Akintola 

Teaching Hospital, LAUTECH, 

Osogbo. 

Meanwhile, the state 

government has has promised to 

settle the journalists’ hospital bills. 

Chief Press Secretary to the 

governor, Mr. Adeniyi Adesina, 

who visited the hospital to 

sympathise with the victims, 

decried the attack promising that 

the state government would offset 

their medical bills. 

Some youths in Olomilagbala 

and Bolorunduro communities of 

Obokun Local Government Area 

of the state were said to have 

attacked Ilesa business hub of 

Police. 

Vanguard gathered that the 

incident occurred at Adebowale 

area of Akure metropolis. 

The disagreement was said to 

have degenerated into fisticuffs, 

during which the suspect received 

a thorough beating from the 

deceased. 

Oni went for a log and hit his 

brother-in-law on the head. 

IBEDC last Thursday and beat the 

company’s workers. 

Court, House intervene 

This came as the state High 

Court sitting in Ilesa, Osun State, 

has directed IBEDC to restore 

power supply to Ilesa and its 

environs with immediate effect. 

Justice A. L. Adegoke, yesterday, 

ruled that the decision of the 

Storm wreaks havoc on Edo communities 

THE people of Ofunama and 

Binidodogha communities in 

Ovia South-West Local 

Government Area of Edo State have 

cried out to the Federal, state and 

local governments, following the 

havoc wreaked on the communities 

by a rainstorm. 

Speaking with journalists at the 

end of a tour around the devastated 

communities, Chairman of 

Ofunama, Ajemiri Abel, urged 

government to ameliorate the effect 

of the disaster that befell them on 

the evening of Saturday, March 16. 

According to him, “majority of us 

where engaged in pursuit of our 

means of livelihood faraway from 

our homes when a heavy storm 

heralded rain and in no time there 

Oluwadare died before he 

could be rushed to Ondo State 

Specialist Hospital, Akure. 

The state Police image-maker, 

Femi Joseph, said the suspect 

is in Police custody while 

investigation had commenced. 

According to him, the suspect 

allegedly hit the deceased with 

a big stick on the head following 

an argument. 

IBEDC cuts power to Ijeshaland over attack on staff: 

Protesting youths attack journalists in Ilesa 

electricity distribution company 

to throw the entire Ijeshaland 

into darkness was an illegality. 

Meanwhile, Osun State 

House of Assembly has directed 

the House Committee on Public 

Petition to meet with 

management of IBEDC and 

representatives of affected areas 

in Ijeshaland to fashion a way 

out of the dispute. 

EFCC re-arraigns Babachir, 3 others 

THE Economic and Financial 

Crimes Commission, EFCC, 

has re-arraigned a former Secretary 

to the Government of the 

Federation, Babachir Lawal, and 

three others before Justice Jude 

Okeke of a Federal Capital Territory 

High Court, Maitama. 

Lawal, along with his younger 

brother, Hamidu Lawal, Suleiman 

Abubakar, Apeh Monday and two 

companies, Rholavision 

Engineering Ltd and Josmon 

Technologies Ltd, were rearraigned 

on an amended 10- 

count charge bordering on fraud, 

diversion of funds and criminal 

conspiracy to the tune of over 

N500 million. 

They were earlier arraigned 

before Justice Okeke on February 

13 and the prosecution was 

meant to open its case yesterday. 

At the resumed hearing, 

counsel to EFCC, Offem Uket, 

told the court that the charges 

against them had been amended 

and that they had to take a fresh 

plea. 

However, citing Section 218 (2) 

of the Administration of Criminal 

Justice Act, ACJA 2015, Akin 

Olujimi, counsel for Lawal, 

argued that “before the charge 

is taken, the prosecution 

ought to have filed the 

amended charge to ensure 

that it was properly 

endorsed.” 

Other defence counsel 

aligned themselves with the 

submission of Olujimi. 

Justice Okeke, while 

ordering the prosecution to 

comply with the section cited 

by Mr Olujimi, however ruled 

that in the interim, the 

amended charges be read to 

the defendants. 

After the amended charge 

was read they pleaded “not 

guilty.” 

The defence team, 

thereafter, prayed the court to 

allow the defendants to 

continue with the bail earlier 

granted them. 

The request of the defence 

was granted by Justice Okeke, 

who adjourned to April 11 for 

“commencement of trial,” noting 

that “the court is minded to grant 

an adjournment due to the 

amendment of the charges.” 

was bedlam as rooftops were 

blown off, while walls and 

fences were brought down. 

“You can see that only a few 

houses were not affected. Even 

electric poles were brought 

down. When the whole thing 

died down we discovered that 

we have lost millions of naira 

in destroyed buildings and 

other properties.” 

Endurance Eferusuogha, a 

youth, stated: “Most of us had 

to make do with sleeping in 

any enclosure we could find 

until Sunday morning. 

“We are appealing for urgent 

support in cash and kind: we 

need medical supplies, as most 

of us especially kids, are sick.” 

... with Emma'nKen (08163121378) 

That's how a gentleman stays 

calm when a goat is your barber 

You mean who designed 

this systemless system? 

Olodo! It's shock not suck. So ask your 

village people where your blood went

8—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019 

MEETING: From left, Minister for Budget and National Planning , Sen. Udoma Udo 

Udoma; Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola; Minister for 

Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh; Chief of Staff to the President, Abbah Kyari, and Vice 

President Yemi Osinbajo, during the inaugural meeting of the Federal Government Policies, 

Programmes and Audit Committee, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Photo: NAN. 

Presidential poll: Sack Buhari, declare 

me winner, Atiku tells tribunal 

•Lines up 20 SANs, 400 witnesses 

•Adds: We've solid case against Buhari 

By Ikechukwu 

Nnochiri 

ABUJA—IN a rush to 

beat the 21 days 

deadline provided by the 

Electoral Act, lawyers to the 

presidential candidate of 

Peoples Democratic Party, 

PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, 

yesterday, stormed the 

tribunal to lodge a petition 

against President 

Muhammadu Buhari. 

Atiku in the petition is 

praying the tribunal to sack 

Buhari and declare him 

(Atiku) winner of the poll. 

Independent National 

Electoral Commission, 

INEC, had on February 27, 

declared Buhari, who was 

the flag-bearer of All 

Progressives Congress, 

APC, winner of the presidential 

election. 

Under section 134 of the 

Electoral Act, 2010, any 

candidate that was 

dissatisfied with the outcome 

of the presidential contest, 

was mandated to approach 

the tribunal with a petition, 

not later than 21 days after 

the result was announced, a 

deadline that will expire on 

Tuesday. 

The tribunal must deliver its 

judgment in writing within 

180 days from the date the 

petition was filed. 

At press time, Atiku’s team 

of lawyers led by Mr. 

Chukwuma Ume, SAN, Chief 

Mike Ozekhome, SAN, and 

Mr. Emeka Etiaba, SAN, 

were perfecting the filing 

process at the Central 

Registry of the Presidential 

Election Petition Tribunal, 

PEPT, Abuja. 

The tribunal will be 

conducting its proceedings at 

the Court of Appeal 

headquarters in Abuja. 

Though Atiku had yet to 

arrive at the tribunal where 

he is expected to personally 

depose to an affidavit, 

however, some chieftains of 

PDP, including its 

spokesman, Mr. Kola 

Ologbodiyan, and Alhaji Buba 

Galadima, accompanied the 

lawyers to the tribunal. 

Addressing newsmen, 

National Legal Adviser of PDP, 

Mr. Emmanuel Enoidem, on 

the reliefs sought by Atiku and 

PDP, said: “We asked that our 

candidate, who won the election 

massively across the country be 

declared the winner. In the 

alternative, we also asked that 

the election be set aside on the 

ground of irregularity which 

was apparent across the country. 

20 SANs, 400 

witnesses 

“We have a pool of 20 SANs 

who are tested in election 

petition matters and other senior 

lawyers who are also working 

with them. So we are confident. 

We have also lined up more 

than 400 witnesses that are 

going to testify in this petition. 

“Nigerians are at home with 

what happened on February 23, 

the sham they called election. 

We are going to re-present 

those facts to Nigerians, we 

are not going to manufacture 

facts.” 

Challenges 

Similarly, a member of 

the legal team, Chief 

Ozekhome, SAN, told 

journalists that the 

petitioners encountered 

serious challenges in the 

hands of INEC, which he 

noted was reluctant to grant 

them access to the electoral 

materials. 

“Our petition is quite 

solid, very strong and 

unassailable. We believe 

that by the grace of God, 

the original winner will 

regain his mandate,” 

Ozekhome added. 

It will be recalled that the 

tribunal had on March 6, 

ordered INEC to grant 

Atiku and PDP access to all 

the electoral materials that 

were used for the 

presidential poll. 

The tribunal however, 

declined to allow Atiku 

and PDP to conduct forensic 

analysis on any of the 

electoral materials on the 

premise that such request 

was outside the scope of the 

Electoral Act, as amended. 

Justice Abdul Aboki who 

delivered the lead ruling of 

the tribunal, held that Atiku’s 

request for experts to be 

permitted to conduct forensic 

audit on the materials, could 

not be regarded as 

“inspection” that was 

allowed in section 151 of the 

Electoral Act. 

He held that a decided 

case-law in Hope Uzodinma 

Vs Osita Izunaso, which 

Atiku and the PDP relied 

upon to make the 

application, wherein a 

tribunal ordered INEC to 

allow the petitioner to scan 

and conduct forensic audit on 

all the election materials, had 

since been set-aside by the 

Court of Appeal. 

Nevertheless, the tribunal 

directed INEC to allow the 

applicants access to the ballot 

papers and voters register. 

Meanwhile, PDP is 

complaining that INEC 

was yet to obey the court 

order. 

Trade Fair traders protest over FG’s move to sell complex 

•Say 99, 50 years leases yet to expire 

By Esther 

Onyegbula 

TRADERS at the Lagos 

International Trade Fair, 

LSITF, embarked on a 

peaceful protest, yesterday, 

to register their displeasure 

over plans by the Federal 

Government to concession 

the market, saying two 

existing contracts are yet to 

expire. 

The situation led to the 

closure of the market in the 

early hours of yesterday. 

Traders and companies 

domiciled in the complex 

could not gain access until 

the protest ended. 

Earlier, when Vanguard 

visited the complex, there 

was confusion over the 

development as some 

claimed the Federal 

Government was 

behind the closure, 

while others alleged 

that All Progressives 

Congress, APC, was 

conducting a solidarity 

rally at the market. 

Further findings 

showed that the 

leadership of the 

various sections of the 

market decided to shut 

the place in protest over 

what they described as 

the imminent transfer of 

ownership when there 

are existing contracts. 

The traders, who were 

drawn from ASPAMDA, 

Balogun Business 

Association, BBA; 

Mandilas, and African 

Tyre Village, told 

Vanguard that some parts 

of the LSTIF were leased 

out for 50 years while 

another area was given 

out for 99 years. 

Also speaking to 

Vanguard, Assistant 

Secretary, Balogun 

Business Association, 

Chief Nwachukwu 

Maduakor, said a protest 

letter was handed over to 

the Executive Director, 

LISTF, Chief Lucy Ajayi, 

for onward transmission to 

the Federal Government. 

His words: “We held a 

peaceful protest to register 

our disapproval of the 

move by the Federal 

Government to concession 

the market while the 

Army rejects INEC’s Fact 

Finding report on River polls 

By Kingsley 

Omonobi 

ABUJA—THE 6 Division 

Headquarters of the 

Nigerian Army in Port 

Harcourt, Rivers State, 

yesterday, rejected what it 

described as the ‘lopsided 

and unfair’ report submitted 

by the fact-finding committee 

set up by Independent 

National Electoral 

Commission, INEC, to 

investigate the alleged 

interference of the Army in 

the Rivers State’s 

governorship and state 

House of Assembly elections. 

It will be recalled that INEC 

through one of its Directors, 

Festus Okoye, weekend, 

disclosed that the military was 

not authorised to participate 

in the collation of results of 

the election, which they 

involved themselves. 

Meanwhile, the army in a 

statement by its Deputy 

Director, Army Public 

Relations, Col Aminu Iliyasu, 

wondered why the position 

of the 6 Dvision, which was 

made known to members of 

the fact finding team, was 

totally ignored. 

He said: “Headquarters 6 

Division Nigerian Army has 

observed with dismay and 

sense of betrayal in the 

statement made by INEC 

signed by its National 

Commissioner and 

Chairman Information and 

Voter Education Committee 

Festus Okoye, on March 15, 

2019. 

“The statement, according 

to INEC, was the findings of 

its Fact Finding Committee 

that assessed the situation in 

Rivers State. 

“It is, however, pertinent to 

note that representatives of 

the 6 Division met with the 

Fact Finding Committee on 

ongoing contract is yet to 

elapse. 

"This is going to be a 

continuous protest until the 

Federal Government drops 

its interest in our leased 

property. Some property are 

actually on a lease for 50 

years, while others were 

leased for 99 years. The 50 

years lease will expire in 28 

years. 

“We pay land use charge 

and ground rent yearly 

through the major markets 

here. Last year, we decided 

to go to court because of 

constant harassment. For 

now, they haven’t provided 

us with any documentation 

of what they want. We are 

in court but you need to 

understand that the Federal 

Government indirectly runs 

March 12, 2019 at the 

INEC headquarters in Port 

Harcourt and had honest 

discussions and made a 

written submission to aid the 

committee in its task. 

“Regrettably, none of the 

division’s input form any of 

the findings of INEC as made 

public. This clearly indicates 

lack of trust by an institution 

that the NA sacrifices, so 

much to assist in the course 

of performing their role. 

“What INEC failed to 

mention or even consider is 

the fact that about 10:30 p.m., 

on March 9, 2019, troops of 

6 Division NA detailed at the 

outer perimeter of Obio/Akpor 

Local Government 

Headquarters Collation 

Centre were brazenly 

attacked by Governor Wike’s 

security aides and armed 

thugs who stormed the 

collation centre with the 

governor in a convoy of more 

than 50 vehicles while 

collation of results was going 

on. 

“In the ensuing melee, 

Captain Adams Salami was 

shot at close range by the 

security aides of Governor 

Wike while Corporal 

Adeosun Adebayo was 

macheted by the governor’s 

thugs. 

“Both victims are currently 

receiving treatment at 

University of Port Harcourt 

Teaching Hospital, UPTH, 

Intensive Care Unit and 

Military Hospital Port 

Harcourt respectively with life 

threatening injuries. 

“Thereafter, election 

materials were carted away 

and electoral officials 

abducted by the governor’s 

thugs to an unknown 

destination. 

“This was made known to 

the INEC Fact-Finding 

Committee but INEC did not 

see it worth condemning or 

mention in its report." 

the court.” 

Confirming the protest, 

spokesperson of Lagos 

State Police Command, Mr 

Bala Elkana said, the 

peaceful protest was held 

yesterday at 8 am. 

He said: “The 

stakeholders in Trade Fair 

and others held a peaceful 

demonstration within the 

premises following reports 

that the Trade Fair Complex 

is about to be sold by the 

Bureau of Public Enterprise 

not minding that various 

leases are still subsisting. 

"Executive Director of 

Trade Fair, Mrs. Lucy Ajayi 

addressed them 

accordingly and promised 

to inform the authority about 

their grievances."


FG cuts oil output by 400,000 bpd 

By Udeme Akpan 

THERE are indications 

that Nigeria may amend 

its N8.9 billion 2019 budget, 

following the recent oil output 

cut by about 400,000 barrels 

per day, bpd, in conformity 

with the Organisation of 

Petroleum Exporting 

Countries, OPEC, policy. 

The nation’s budget was 

based on $60 per barrel and 

2.3 million bpd price and 

output respectively. 

Investigation by Vanguard 

showed that Nigeria, which 

produced 2.2 million bpd in 

December 2018 had to cut its 

output to 1.9 million bpd, 

including condensate in 

January, 2019, because of 

OPEC instruction. 

It showed that, since then, 

the nation has consistently 

produced about 1.9 million, 

indicating 400,000 bpd below 

the 2019 budget projection. 

It was gathered that the 

budget President 

Muhammadu Buhari sent to 

the National Assembly last 

year is undergoing second 

reading. 

A source at the Senate said 

in a telephone interview with 

Vanguard that at the end of 

the reading, the budget would 

be sent to the Joint 

Committee, involving the 

Senate and the House of 

Representatives for further 

deliberation. 

He said at that stage, 

different ministries and 

agencies would be invited to 

appear and defend their 

budgets, after which various 

adjustments, including oil 

price and output benchmarks 

would be made in the budget. 

Tax evasion: ICPC moves to seize 

Yar’Adua, others' N4.8bn property 

By Soni Daniel 

A 

B U J A — 

INDEPENDENT 

Corrupt Practices 

Commission, ICPC, has 

moved to seize plots of land 

and buildings worth N4.8 

billion from 30 companies 

operating in Nigeria. 

The move by the anti-graft 

agency to seize the property 

located in many parts of the 

Federal Capital Territory 

followed a complaint by the 

Federal Inland Revenue 

Service, FIRS, that the 

affected firms have been 

defaulting in the payment of 

prescribed taxes to the 

government despite several 

reminders. 

A major setback to the 

owners of the identified 

It will be recalled that 

OPEC Secretary General, 

Dr. Muhammad Barkindo, 

had on the need to cut oil 

outputs to stabilise price, said: 

“The goal of the voluntary 

production adjustments in the 

‘Declaration of Cooperation’ 

was to stimulate and accelerate 

the drawdown of the huge 

property emerged recently 

when the owners denied 

ownership apparently to 

escape the sanctions being 

applied by the Federal 

Government. 

The property to be seized 

include 22.9 hectares of 

undeveloped land, one 

plaza, and a block of six twobedroom 

flats located in 

Wuse, Zone One, Abuja 

belonging to Shehu Musa 

Yar’Adua Foundation, Vibrant 

Issuance Brokers, Millard 

Fuller Foundation, Maibuhu 

Farm and Construction 

Limited, Gabcon Enterprises 

Limited and a host of others. 

In the course of 

investigation, the alleged 

owners of the property 

disclaimed ownership. 

A statement by 

spokesperson of ICPC, Mrs. 

stock overhang, expedite the 

re-balancing of the market, 

restore a sustainable stability 

to the industry and enable 

investments to return. It was 

a decision taken in the interests 

of both producers and 

consumers and to help restore 

confidence to the market." 

Rasheedat Okoduwa, 

explained that the decision to 

seize the property spread 

around Abuja, followed a 

petition to ICPC by FIRS, 

accusing the companies of 

defaulting in tax payment to 

the tune of N288.2 million. 

Section 37 of the Corrupt 

Practices and Other Related 

Offences Act 2000 empowers 

ICPC to seize assets alleged 

to be subject of an offence 

under the law while Section 

48 authorises it to apply to a 

high court for an order of 

forfeiture within 12 months of 

the date of seizure. 

Court 

adjourns NBA 

Prersident's 

trial till April 

17 

By Innocent 

Anaba 

LAGOS—A Federal High 

Court sitting in Lagos, 

yesterday, adjourned till April 

17, 2019, the trial of President 

of Nigerian Bar Association, 

NBA, Mr Paul Usoro, SAN, 

and hearing of three pending 

applications in the matter. 

Trial judge in the matter is 

Justice Rilwan Aikawa. 

The first application is a 

motion on notice brought by 

Usoro, seeking for an order 

of court, directing the 

complainant to serve him a 

summarised witness 

statement of evidence of 

those listed to give evidence 

in the matter. 

The other application is by 

Attorney-General of Akwa 

Ibom State, Uwemedimo 

Nwoko, and three others, 

who through their counsel, 

Chief Mike Ozekhome, 

SAN, are praying the court 

to set aside the bench 

warrant issued against them. 

The third application was 

brought by counsel to the 

governor of Akwa Ibom State, 

Dr. Charles Mekwunye, 

challenging the jurisdiction of 

the court to proceed with 

hearing of the charge. 


Economic and Financial 

Crimes Commission, EFCC, 

had slammed a N1.4 billion 

money laundering charge 

against the NBA President 

and others before Justice 

Muslim Hassan who 

recused himself from the 

matter for being a former 

prosecutor with the anti-graft 

agency. 

Our next target is job 

creation for Niger Deltans 

—Dokubo 

By Soni Daniel 

A BUJA—CREATION 

of job opportunities for 

Niger Delta indigenes, 

who have been trained 

under the Presidential 

Amnesty Programme, will 

be vigorously pursued this 

year, Special Adviser to the 

President on Niger Delta, 

Professor Charles Dokubo, 

has said. 

Dokubo, who is also 

Coordinator of PAP, gave 

the indication during an 

interaction session with 

journalists in Abuja. 

Dokubo said: “Job 

placement is the next stage 

of my plan for this year and 

I believe that if we can 

achieve that, we are going 

to do well. The people of 

Niger Delta will not cry 

their old cries again that 

they have been 

marginalised. 

“The amount of money 

government had spent on 

this programme is a lot and 

I know that if we judiciously 

expend it, most people 

from Niger Delta will 

benefit immensely. I want 

this programme to be a 

success, if not, our children 

yet unborn will keep asking 

us what we have done for 

them if we say we have 

fought for Niger Delta. 

“This tale about being 

deprived should not be 

something we should keep 

saying. We have been 

given access. No part of 

Nigeria has more agencies 

than Niger Delta. Now that 

we have these things, I 

implore the people of Niger 

Delta to know that the sky 

is their beginning if they 

will work when they are 

given a job. 

“We have signed 

memorandum of 

understanding with 

National Board for 

Technology Incubation, 

NBTI, so that our people 

will not just be trained by 

certain individuals, but will 

also be certificated by a 

known body and with their 

certificates, they can used 

them to look for jobs. 

“I always say government 

can create the enabling 

environment, which 

individuals can take the 

initiative by employing 

other citizens. That is what 

I want to do. I told you about 

the Greek fishing company 

that will train 2,500 of our 

delegates and they are 

going to employ 2,000 of 

them. 

“We are making strides in 

the right direction, so it is 

not just training for training 

sake, it is training to get a 

job. 

“Job placement is now 

the motto of the Amnesty 

Office and at the end, we 

will get beneficiaries of the 

Amnesty Programme 

gainfully employed and be 

made employable so that 

we can also know that we 

have done something for 

our people." 

5 investors bid for Yola 

DISCO, Afam GENCO 

By Emma Ujah, 

Abuja Bureau Chief 

A 

TOTAL of five 

investors have 

submitted bids for the 

acquisition of Yola 

Electricity Distribution 

Company, YEDC, and 

Afam Electricity Generation 

Company, GENCO. 

Two firms— Quest 

Electricity Nigeria Limited 

and Sandstream Nigeria— 

submitted proposals to 

acquire Yola DISCO while 

DiamondStripes 

Consortium, Unicorn 

Power Generation 

Consortium and Transcorp 

Power, sought to acquire 

Afam GENCO. 

The 19 firms have 

indicated interest to acquire 

Afam GENCO and YEDC 

put up for sale by the 

Federal Government. 

Seven companies 

submitted Expression of 

Interests, EOIs, to buy 

Afam, while 12 want to buy 

Yola DISCO. 

However, Head, Public 

Communications of the 

Bureau of Public 

Enterprises, BPE, Amina 

Tukur, disclosed, yesterday, 

in Abuja, that only five 

firms met the March 15, 

2019 deadline for the 

submission of Technical and 

Financial Proposals for the 

two companies. 

She added that 

Sandstream submission for 

Yola DISCO was found to 

be non-responsive, as it 

failed to include a bank 

guarantee in line with the 

requirements in the 

Requests for Proposal, 

RfPs. Accordingly, the 

representative of the firm 

took the bid back. 

She quoted Director- 

General of BPE, Mr. Alex 

A. Okoh, as saying that the 

evaluation of the bids 

would be subjected to the 

highest level of integrity 

culminating into the 

financial bids opening of 

the successful bidders. 

Okoh said the Evaluation 

Committee would meet 

immediately to discuss and 

finalise the scoring criteria, 

with the evaluation process 

starting yesterday and 

ending on Thursday.

10 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019 

ALLEGED N2.2BN FRAUD: 

Court admits evidence 

against Fayose 

By Innocent Anaba 

LAGOS—A FEDERAL 

High Court sitting in 

Lagos, yesterday, admitted 

in evidence a statement 

made by one late Mr Justin 

Erukaa, who worked as 

Personal Assistant to Mr 

Musiliu Obanikoro, before 

his death. 

In a short ruling, trial 

judge, Justice Mojisola 

Olatoregun admitted 

Erukaa’s statement and 

marked it as Exhibit J in the 

ongoing trial of former 

governor of Ekiti State, Mr 

Ayodele Fayose over an 

alleged N2.2 billion fraud. 

The second defence 

counsel, Mr Olalekan Ojo, 

SAN, had at the previous 

hearing tendered the 

statement, which Erukaa 

made to the Economic and 

Financial Crimes 

Commission, EFCC, in the 

course of investigating the 

alleged N2.2 billion fraud 

against Fayose. 

Ojo said Erukaa’s 

statement was relevant to 

the case, adding that it could 

be admitted in the absence 

of the deceased. 

After the judge admitted 

Erukaa’s statement in 

evidence, the case 

proceeded with further 

cross-examination of 

Obanikoro, who is the fifth 

witness to testify for the 

EFCC against Fayose. 

Fielding questions from 

Mr Ahmed Tafa, who stood 

in for Ojo, Obanikoro 

reiterated that he was into 

farming, with his farms in 

Lagos, Badagry and Ogun 

State. 

He also confirmed 

knowing a company, MOB 

Integrated Limited. 

FIRS arraigns firm, 3 others over 

tax evasion, assault on revenue 

staff 

LAGOS—THE Federal 

Inland Revenue 

Service (FIRS) yesterday 

arraigned Fortless Global 

Concept Limited and 

Everyday Wine Shop and 

their representatives at the 

Federal Hight Court, Abuja 

on alleged tax evasion, 

obstruction of official duty 

and attack on staff of the 

FIRS on duty among other 

charges. 

In the Charge No: FHC/ 

ABJ/CR/48/2019, between 

the Federal Government of 

Nigeria (Complainant) and 

Fortless Global Concept 

Limited (also known as 

Fortless Supermarket and 

Stores and Chukwu Ejike 

(Defendants), the FIRS 

preferred a six-count 

charge bordering on tax 

evasion and assault on 

FIRS staff on duty on the 

defendants pursuant to 

Section 174 (1) of the 

Constitution of the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria 1999 

(As Amended) and Section 

47 of the FIRS 

Establishment Act No: 13, 

2007. 

Similarly, in the Charge 

No: FHC/ABJ/CR/47/2019, 

Asked by Tafa if he knew 

that staff members of MOB 

Integrated Limited were 

signatories to the bank 

account of Fayose’s coaccused, 

Sylvan Mcmanara 

Ltd, Obanikoro said, “I 

don’t know what you are 

talking about.” 

He explained again that 

then NSA, Col Sambo 

Dasuki (retd), entered into 

an agreement with Taiwo 

Kareem, who owns Sylvan 

Mcmanara Ltd, to use the 

firm’s account for the 

disbursement of funds for 

security operations in 

Lagos. 

Obanikoro said after the 

agreement with Kareem, 

he took over Sylvan 

Mcmanara Ltd’s account in 

supervisory capacity, 

adding that all the major 

decisions taken on the 

account were cleared 

with him. 

“There were three 

transactions. One was for 

the security of Lagos; one 

for election in Ekiti and for 

election in Osun State,” he 

said. 

When Tafa asked if 

“matters of elections 

were matters of security,” 

Obanikoro said, “They 

can be.” 

Asked if the Office of the 

National Security Adviser 

funded his campaign while 

he was vying for 

governorship on the 

platform of the Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, 

Obanikoro said, “Not to my 

knowledge.” 

He said he had no 

records of his transactions 

with the NSA. 

He, however, said he 

would not be surprised if 

the record of the NSA 

showed no N2.2 billion 

transaction. 

between the Federal Government 

of Nigeria (Complainant) 

and Everyday 

Wine Shop (also known as 

Everyday Wine Shop &Bar), 

Mbah Sunday and Epkeha 

Peter (Defendants), the FIRS 

preferred a six-count charge 

also bordering on tax 

evasion and assault on 

FIRS staff on duty on the 

defendants pursuant to 

Section 174 (1) of the 

Constitution of the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As 

Amended) and Section 47 

of the FIRS Establishment 

Act No: 13, 2007. 

Representatives of the two 

companies who are 

currently on administrative 

bail: Mbah Sunday and 

Epkeha Peter for Everyday 

Wine Shop and Chukwu 

Ejike for Fortless Global 

Concept pleaded not guilty 

to the charges. 

Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo of 

the Federal High Court 10, 

Abuja granted the 

application of the leader of 

FIRS prosecution counsel, 

James Binang and 

scheduled March 21, 2019 

for the FIRS to prove the 

charges against the 

defendants. 

BRIEFING: From left; Country Director, PharmAccess Foundation, Njide Ndili; MD/CEO, Sterling 

Bank, Abubakar Suleiman; and founder/CEO, Premier Medical Systems Nigeria Ltd, Niyi Osamiluyi, 

at a press conference to flag off the Digital Health Summit in Lagos yesterday. 

Confusion over reports of fresh building 

collapse on Lagos Island 

•LABSCA, LASEMA dismiss 

reports as false 

•Four injured as LASG pulls down four more more distressed buildings 

By Olasunkanmi 

Akoni & Monsuru 

Olowoopejo 

LAGOS—FEW days 

after the Itafaji 

building collapse in which 

no fewer than 10 persons, 

including school children 

died, there was confusion 

in the polity, yesterday, 

following reports that fresh 

building collapse on Lagos 

Island, with people 

trapped. 

However, officials of 

Lagos State Building 

Control Agency, LASBCA 

and Lagos State 

Emergency Management 

Authority, LASEMA, have 

doused tension and 

debunked the report as 

false. 

The rumours, which had 

gone wide on social media 

along with videos of a 

collapsed building on 16 

Egerton Square, Oke-Arin, 

Sanwo-Olu meets Buhari in Aso Rock 

•Promises to make Lagos economic hub of black race 

By Olasunkanmi 

Akoni & Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru 

A BUJA—PRESIDENT 

Muhammadu Buhari, 

yesterday, met behind 

closed doors with the Lagos 

State Governor-elect, 

Babajide Sanwolu, and his 

deputy, Dr Obafemi 

Hamzat, at the Presidential 

Villa, Abuja. 

This came as Sanwo-Olu 

decried the incessant 

building collapse in the state 

and said Lagos required 

regeneration. 

Speaking to State House 

correspondents on his 

mission to the State House, 

Sanwo-|Olu said: "I think it 

is important for the Deputy 

Governor-elect and I to have 

a one-on-one short 

discussion with the 

Commander-in-Chief and it 

is a rare privilege. It was a 

short one, just to say 

congratulations to him in his 

own election and he also 

said the same thing to us. 

So it is a very short courtesy 

visit to Mr President." 

He also said the incoming 

administration under his 

leadership had many good 

packages for the Lagos 

people and will implement 

programmes that bring 

about positive development 

and improve the quality of 

lives and ''ease all of the 

challenges that we currently 

have in Lagos." 

On the recurrent collapse 

buildings in Lagos, he said: 

"It is an unfortunate 

incident, even when I was 

in government before, I 

used to be the Vice 

L 

A G O S — 

FOLLOWING 

the recent invasion and 

harassment of members of 

Igbo-Ilogbo community at 

Ayobo, in Alimosho Local 

Government Area of Lagos 

State, by some hoodlums 

over their right of 

occupancy, the Radio 

Communication Nigeria, 

RCN, Limited, has assured 

the residents that they have 

nothing to worry about. 

Chairman and Board of 

Director of RCN, Mr. Kola 

Abiola, gave the assurance 

at a stakeholders’ meeting, 

held at Isheri-Osun, Lagos. 

Lagos Island, where several 

people were said to been 

trapped in the rubble, generated 

confusion among 

residents as different versions 

of the report went viral. 

Some national dailies, 

excluding Vanguard, 

reported that the building 

that the building caved in 

during the demolition of 

adjacent building in the 

ongoing demolition of 

defective buildings on the 

Island. 

However, LASEMA 

General Manager, 

Adeshina Tiamiyu said the 

reports were not true. 

''What happened was that 

during the demolition of 

one of the marked 

distressed buildings on 

Egerton Square, Oke-Arin, 

Lagos, some of the 

scavengers who thronged 

the site got trapped in the 

rubble of the controlled collapsed 

building, injuring 

some of them in the process. 

Two persons were injured 

in the process." 

It was however, gathered 

that four people were 

seriously affected, one of the 

victims had his legs badly 

damaged. 

An eyewitness, Mr. Akin 

Adeoye, said: "The incident 

happened when officials of 

Lagos State Building 

Control Agency, were demolishing 

one of the 

marked distressed buildings 

and a part of the building 

being demolished fell 

on some people at the base 

of the building and people 

got injured in the process." 

Another resident, Akeem 

Owolabi, said that while the 

building was being pulled 

down by officials of 

LASBCA, some scavengers 

sneaked into the 

barricaded premises to remove 

doors on the ground 

Chairman on Building Collapse. 

It was something that 

was about 10 years ago 

which led to us to creating 

an agency called Lagos 

State Building Control 

Agency, LASBCA. It was 

meant to identify structures 

well ahead before issues 

like these begin to happen... 

"You know Lagos is a part 

Mr. Abiola, represented 

by Dr. Gabriel Oyedeji, 

said: “The property with 

register plan number RA144 

dated March 25, 1977 with 

deed of conveyance dated 

March 28, 1977and 

registered as No 24, page 

24 in volume 1260 of the 

Lands Registry in the office 

of Lagos State, belongs 

solely to RCN and does not 

form part of the late MKO 

Abiola’s estate.” 

It was gathered that the 

people woke up last 

Thursday morning when 

hoodlums numbering over 

100 allegedly stormed the 

area in a commando style, 

brandishing dangerous 

floor and in the process the 

falling part of the building 

collapsed on them. 

The residents stated that 

four of the scavengers 

sustained injuries and were 

rushed to the hospital for 

treatment. 

Number of demolished 

distressed buildings rises 

to 21. 

Also, LASBCA officials 

who were at the scene said 

there was no collapsed 

building but while pulling 

down a structure, a 

scavenger tried to pick up 

something and was injured 

in the process. 

Yesterday's demolitions 

have increased the number 

of distressed structures 

removed by the state 

government to 21 out of the 

80 marked for demolition 

on the Island alone. 

The four demolished 

buildings were located on 

the following streets: 2, 

of the old colony of Lagos, 

so it's not unexpected to see 

houses that are over a century 

old and in those numbers, 

we need to be sincere 

to ourselves and we need to 

be real. 

Sanwo-Olu also reiterated 

his commitment to make 

Lagos the economic capital 

of the Black Race. Sanwo- 

Olu said his administration 

will achieve the goal 

through provision of job and 

entrepreneurial 

opportunities for the 

residents. 

HOODLUMS' THREAT: Kola Abiola reassures Ayobo 

community residents 

By Innocent Anaba 

weapons and locked up the 

people’s houses. 

The management of the 

company, at the meeting, 

distanced itself from the 

hooligans who went to 

torment the legal 

occupants and condemned 

in strong terms the 

atrocities recently 

committed by the invaders, 

specifically on six plots in 

the area. 

He said, “In the recent 

development, the 

judgement and execution 

order Suit No: ID/155/86 

referred to by the invaders 

which was specifically on 

six plots of land formerly 

trespassed by a certain 

Alhaji, has been reverted to 

the company since 1988.”


Igini, Akwa Ibom REC, fumes: 

Says it's madness to accuse INEC 

of destroying electoral materials 

By Harris 

Emmanuel 

U 

Y O — T H E 

Independent 


Commission, INEC, has 

refuted allegations by All 

Progressives Party, APC, 

that it destroyed materials 

in a bid to cover up the 

outcome of elections, which 

APC claimed was rigged in 

favour of Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP. 

By Alemma Aliu 

BENIN—EDO State 

Elections Petition 

Tribunal, yesterday, said it 

received petitions from six 

candidates of All 


APC, and Peoples 


concerning the February 23 

elections, Secretary of the 

Resident Electoral 

Commissioner, REC, Mike 

Igini, described the 

allegations as porous and 

wicked, as there was no iota 

of truth in it, adding that 

the materials were taken to 

Uyo in line with the 

directives from Abuja and 

wondered why the party 

would cook up such lies. 

He said: “That is 

madness from the pit of 

hell. In any case, there is 

nothing like that. One of 

the vehicles that was 

bringing the materials had 

an accident at Abak and the 

Police were there at the 

time. 

“The materials were 

evacuated. Is that how they 

want to go about the whole 

thing? Why do they think 

that the results were for a 

particular party? 

“INEC had sent 

directives that all used and 

unused materials be 

brought for safekeeping 

because people could 

decide to burn the offices. 

Therefore, all those who say 

such things should have 

their heads examined.” 

APC leaders and 

stakeholders in Essien 

Udim had accused the 

electoral umpire of fraud, 

stating that they uncovered 

plans by INEC to destroy 

original results and other 

important materials used in 

the last polls in a desperate 

bid to cover up. 

... as 6 NASS candidates go to election 

respectively, 

tribunal in Edo 

tribunal, Mr. Musa Bako, 

disclosed to journalists. 

He said the tribunal was 

in receipt of petitions for two 

senatorial candidates and 

four candidates of the 

House of Representatives, 

made up of three 

candidates of APC and 

three candidates of PDP. 

Alhaji Abubakar Momoh, 

PDP candidate for Edo 

North senatorial candidate, 

is challenging the victory of 

Mr. Francis Alimekhena, 

while in Edo Central 

senatorial district, Mr. John 

Inegbedion of APC is 

challenging the victory of 

Mr. Clifford Ordia of PDP. 

Also, APC candidates, 

Mr. Ehiozuwa 

Agbonnayima and Idiake 

Akhimien, of Egor/ 

Ikpoba-Okha and Esan 

West/Esan Central federal 

constituencies, 

behalf of the Ijaw ethic 

nationality on the situation 

in Rivers State. 

“The INC Steering 

Committee, therefore, 

wishes to dissociate itself 

from the partisan position 

expressed by Chief Asara- 

Igbe or by any other 

persons or groups 

regarding the situation in 

Rivers State. 

“For the avoidance of 

doubt, we want to restate 

that it is only the Chairman 

of INC and the President- 

are 

challenging the victories 

of Jude Ise-Idehen and 

Joe Edionwele of PDP, 

respectively. 

Similarly, PDP 

candidates, Ms Omosede 

Igbinedion and Mr. 

Blessing Agbomhere, are 

challenging the victories 

of Mr. Dennis Idahosa 

and Johnson Oghuma, 

both of APC, for Ovia and 

Etsako federal 

constituencies, respectively. 

SLOT CAR PROMO: From left—Marketing Manager, Kola Ogunwumi; Sales Head, Retail 

Nigeria, Fayaz Ahammed, both of Redington-Apple Business; Deputy Director/Coordinator, National 

Lottery Regulatory Commission, Nkiru Onuzulu, and Sale Head, Nigeria, Redington-Apple Business, 

Sujeendra Prasad, at the first raffle draw of the SLOT-Phone-A-Car promo in Lagos. 

Don’t speak for Ijaw nation,INC warns politicians, others 

By Emma Amaize 

Y ENAGOA—IJAW 

National Congress, 

INC, yesterday, warned 

politicians and 

unauthorised persons to 

stop making statements on 

behalf of Ijaw ethnic 

nationality. 

The congress gave the 

warning in a statement in 

Yenagoa, Bayalsa State, by 

Chairman and Secretary of 

the Interim Steering 

Committee of INC, 

Professor Joseph Ajienka 

and Mike Zuokomor, 

respectively. 

They statement read: 

“The attention of the 

Interim Steering 

Committee of INC has 

been called to a recent trend 

of unauthorised persons 

making statements on 

behalf of the Ijaw Nation. 

“In particular was a recent 

press conference by one 

Chief Anabs Asara-Igbe, 

during which he claimed to 

have expressed views on 

General of the Ijaw Youth 

Council, IYC, that can 

speak or authorise official 

positions on behalf of the 

Ijaw nation after necessary 

consultations along our 

established internal lines of 

communication. 

“INC insists the situation 

in Rivers State must follow 

open democratic processes 

under the expected neutral 

supervision of the 



INEC.” 

Uboh raises alarm 

over death threats 

By Festus Ahon 

A SABA—THE 

candidate of All 


APC, in Delta North 

senatorial district in the 

just-concluded 

presidential and 

National Assembly 

elections, Mrs Doris 

Uboh, has raised the 

alarm over assassination 

attempt on her by 

suspected political 

thugs. 

Addressing newsmen 

at Agbor, Ika South Local 

Government Area of the 

state, Uboh alleged that 

she was attacked in her 

Agbor residence in the 

early hours of Monday, 

March 11, by “political 

thugs sent to kill me by 

W 

A 

R R I — 

POLOBUBO 

(Tsekelewu) community 

in Warri North Local 

Government Area of 

Delta State has urged 

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa 

to tackle challenges of 

under-development in 

the area. 

National President of 

Polobubo(Tsekelewu) 

National Council, Mr. 

Ebilate Mac-Yoroki, said 

urgent needs of the 

community are contained 

in a welcome address 

read at an event the 

governor could not 

attend in the community, 

but was sent to him. 

members of an opposition 

party.” 

She said that the killers 

made their way into her 

compound at about 

2:30a.m., adding “it was 

when I heard the 

terrifying bangs that I 

quietly went downstairs, 

called one of my girls 

and closed the door 

behind me when I heard 

no answer, then sneaked 

out of the house.” 

Noting that the attack 

was politically motivated 

because she stood her 

ground during the 

March 9 governorship 

and state House of 

Assembly elections, she 

said: “I had an altercation 

with the opposition party 

and INEC officials in my 

ward.” 

Okowa urged to address 

devt in oil community 

By Jimitota 

Onoyume 

By Perez Brisibe 

UGHELLI—A Warri 

based lawyer, Kunle 

Edun, is seeking the 

prosecution of 

Chairman of Code of 

Conduct Tribunal, 

CCT, Danladi Umar, 

“over his refusal to 

provide details of his 

assets in pursuant to the 

Freedom of Information 

Act 2011.” 

Defendants in the suit 

are the Code of 

Conduct Bureau, CCB, 

and Umar. 

Edun, who is the 

National Publicity 

Secretary of Nigerian 

Bar Association, NBA, 

in a suit before an 

Abuja Federal High 

Court, is also seeking a 

declaration by the court 

that by virtue of the 

provisions of sections of 

He said the community 

is not happy that the 

governor could not attend 

(Senator James Manager, 

Delta South, represented 

him) the commissioning 

of projects by Delta State 

Oil Producing Areas 

Develop-ment 

Commission, 

DESOPADEC, in the area. 

He said: “What is 

important is that all our 

requests are speedily 

taken into consideration 

and actions are taken 

promptly. 

“We have handed our 

request over to our senator 

and we are confident he 

will deliver it to the 

governor and also follow 

up on them to see that 

they are delivered.” 

Lawyer asks court to prosecute 

CCT boss over assets 

the Freedom of 

Information Act 2011 and 

Article 9(1) of the African 

Charter on Human and 

Peoples’ Rights, the 

defendants, particularly 

CCB, are under a legal 

obligation to provide the 

plaintiffs, within seven 

days, the information 

requested as contained 

in the plaintiffs’ letter 

dated February 5, 

relating to the declared 

assets and liabilities of 

Umar and his children of 

18 years and below. 

He also, among others, 

wants the court to declare 

that a public officer or 

former public officer who 

fails/failed to formally 

declare his assets and 

liabilities and that of his 

children of 18 years of 

age and below is not 

entitled to hold/remain in 

any public office.


RIVERS POLL VIOLENCE: 

Group asks FG to set up 

commission of inquiry 

By Henry Ojelu 

PORT HARCOURT—A 

group of concerned 

stakeholders has asked the 

Federal Government to set 

up a judicial commission of 

inquiry to investigate the 

loss of lives during the just 

concluded general election 

in River State. 

The group in a statement, 

yesterday, by Chukwujinka 

Okocha, SAN, Herbert 

Wigwe, Atedo Peterside, 

George Etomi, Tein George, 

Emmanuel Georgewill and 

John Mbata, said: “We 

have watched with 

disbelief and horror recent 

violent incidents which 

occurred before, during and 

after the elections that were 

held in Rivers State on 

February 23, and March 9, 

2019. 

“These violent incidents 

have led to the needless 

loss of so many lives, 

especially youths in various 

communities. 

“We are particularly 

concerned about the role 

played by the Nigerian 

Army in these events and 

welcome 

the 

announcement by the 

Army Command that they 

had set up a panel to 

investigate the conduct of 

their personnel who were 

deployed on election 

duties. In the light of 

numerous disturbing video 

footages which have gone 

viral across the globe, it is 

imperative that the 

investigation is thorough, 

professional and unbiased. 

“Whilst we cannot and 

should not stop the 

Nigerian Army or indeed 

any professional body from 

reviewing the conduct of its 

own personnel, we hereby, 

call for a judicial 

commission of inquiry to be 

speedily set up by the 

Federal Government to 

secure a broader, thorough, 

professional and unbiased 

inquiry into the massive 

loss of lives which occurred 

before, during and after the 

elections in Rivers State." 

OML 11: Ogoni people must 

be consulted before any 

decision —HOSCON 

Court sacks Erue-led Delta APC exco 

...nullifies Ogboru, Omo-Agege, others’ nomination 

•We’ll appeal judgment—Counsel 


ASABA—A Federal 

high court, sitting in 

Asaba, has sacked the 

Prophet Jones Erue-led 

executive of the All 


APC in Delta State. 

The court upheld Chief 

Cyril Ogodo-led executive 

as the authentic state 

executive council. 

It also sacked ward and 

local government 

executives under Erue’s 

leadership, while it upheld 

the ward and local 

government executives of 

the Ogodo camp. 

Delivering, her 

judgment, the presiding 

Judge, Justice Tosin 

Adegoke, said the primary 

election conducted by the 

Erue leadership was null 

and void. 

She further invalidated 

the nomination of Ogboru, 

Senator Ovie Omo-Agege 

and other candidates 

nominated by the 

leadership for the 2019 

elections. 

In suit number FA/ASA/ 

CS/76/2018, the plaintiffs 

had sought 13 reliefs 

among which was a 

declaration that the Ogodoled 

executive committee 

was the authentic state 

executive of the party. 

Among other prayers 

sought by the plaintiffs, was 

a declaration that 

candidates who emerged 

from the primaries 

conducted by the Ogodoled 

executive were the 

authentic candidates. 

The court granted all the 

reliefs sought by the 

plaintiffs. 

But counsel to the 

defendants, Dr. Okubor 

Nwachukwu said they 

would appeal the 

judgment, expressing 

hope that it would be 

upturned at the appellate 

court. 

On his part, counsel to 

the plaintiffs, Roland Ekpe 

said the judgment did not 

fall short of their 

expectations, adding that 

all the nominations done by 

Erue were null and void. 

Ogodo in his reaction 

said:”Despite all the 

intimidations and frivolous 

petitions, justice was 

delivered.” 

Meanwhile, the state 

Legal Adviser of the 

annulled executive, Mr. 

Ebata Onojeghuo said the 

judgment was 

inconsequential, adding 

that the judgment they got 

from a Federal High Court 

in Abuja was not set aside. 

He said all actions taken 

by the executive including 

the nomination of 

candidates were 

empowered by the consent 

judgment. 

Meanwhile, Prof Pat 

Utomi, while reacting to the 

judgment, said: “All who 

believe in the rule of law 

and pursue justice with a 

clean hand will be 

vindicated. 

“I regret that some people 

acting extra-judicially 

conducted matters in a 

manner that negatively 

impacted what could have 

been an easy win for APC, 

and sacrificed prospects of 

the party. But it is not too 

late. Full justice can still be 

obtained. 

“The celebrations that 

erupted across Delta State 

over the news of the 

judgment told the story. I 

want to assure Deltans of 

an inclusive future. We will 

challenge the conduct of the 

March 9 elections to 

ensure the people get 

justice.’’ 

By Michael Eboh 

& Ezra Ukanwa 

OIL 

producing 

communities, under 

the auspices of Host 

Communities of Nigeria, 

Producing Oil and Gas, 

HOSCON, yesterday, 

called for the suspension of 

the planned transfer of 

operatorship of Oil Mining 

Lease, OML, 11 in 

Ogoniland, to the upstream 

subsidiary of the Nigerian 

National Petroleum 

Corporation, NNPC, 

Nigerian Petroleum 

Development Corporation, 

NPDC. 

National Chairman of 

HOSCON, Mr. Mike 

Emuh told Vanguard in 

Abuja, that the transfer 

should be suspended until 

the Federal Government, 

NNPC, Shell Petroleum 

Development Company, 

SPDC, enter into a dialogue 

with the people of 

Ogoniland and meet all the 

demands of the 

communities. 

He warned that oil 

producing communities in 

the Niger Delta would not 

tolerate any imposition or 

attempt to resume crude oil 

production in Ogoniland 

without due consultations 

with the community. 

Emuh, further disclosed 

that Shell had given the 

Hydrocarbon Pollution 

Remediation Project, 

HYPREP, $10 million for the 

Ogoniland cleanup 

project. 

The HOSCON boss, who 

is also representing oilproducing 

communities on 

the board of HYPREP, noted 

that Ogoni people had on 

several occasions stated 

that the cleanup should get 

to an advanced stage, 

before oil exploration and 

production would 

commence in the 

community. 

He said: “HYPREP is 

working assiduously to 

make sure the Ogoni 

cleanup succeeds. The oil 

company, SPDC, gave $10 

million to HYPREP. The 

Ogoni cleanup is an 

international project; it has 

to do with the Federal 

Government of Nigeria, 

International Oil 

Companies, IOCs and the 

European Union, EU. 

“Ogoni people are saying 

that the cleaning exercise 

should be carried out 

before Shell will resume 

work. 

CELEBRATION: From left—Deputy Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Delta State chapter, 

Prince Emman Ambgaduba; National Leader of Ijaw Nation, Chief Edwin Clark; Deputy 

Governor of Delta State, Kingsley Otuaro; Chief of Staff, Government House, Asaba, Tam 

Brisibe; and National President of Delta Ijaw Political Assembly, DIPA, Chief Julius Government, 

during DIPA's celebration of success at the 2019 elections, held at Kiagbodo, Chief Clark's 

country home. Photo: Nath Onojake 

RIVERS: How Wike’s police details brutalised 

us —Injured soldiers 

•They're clowns —Okah, Info Commissioner 

By Egufe 

Yafugborhi 

PORT HARCOURT - 

TWO soldiers, who 

were allegedly tortured by 

suspected policemen 



Assembly elections in 

Rivers State, have 

recounted their ordeals. 

This came as the 

Spokesman of 6 Division, 

Nigerian Army, Port 

Harcourt, Col Aminu 

Ilyasu, yesterday 

confirmed a trending video 

in which both victims 

narrated their ordeals. 

The victims, Capt Adams 

Salami and Corporal 

Adeosun Adebayo, who 

are in the Intensive Care 

Unit at the University of 

Port Harcourt Teaching 

Hospital, said they were left 

with life-threatening 

injuries after attackers 

pounced on them at the 

Obio/Akpor Local 

Government Secretariat. 

Capt Salami said: “At 

about 2300 hours, we got 

information that hoodlums 

were trying to invade the 

Obio/Akpor Collation 

Centre. We were asked to 

provide security in the area, 

which we did, with 

policemen posted there. We 

agreed that there would be 

limited access to the 

premises. 

“Five minutes later, the 

governor’s convoy came 

with about 30 to 40 cars with 

hoodlums. Some were in 

police uniforms, shooting 

sporadically within the 

premises. As usual, we 

decided to step back. I was 

pleading with them as a 

soldier to resolve this 

amicably” 

On his part, Corporal 

Adebayo said: “The 

policemen in the 

governor’s convoy started 

hitting us with their 

weapons. I could not figure 

out the reason because 

nobody asked anybody any 

question. The policemen 

were hitting us with the 

nozzle of their rifles.” 

Meanwhile, three 

chieftains of All 


APC, who worked as party 

agents for the African 

African Congress, AAC, 

said Wike abducted them. 

They're clowns 

—Okah 

Reacting to the 

allegations, Rivers State 

Commissioner for 

Information and 

Communications, Emma 

Okah described those 

behind the allegations as 

clowns. 

Okah said: “They are 

clowns. No such thing 

happened. The APC and 

their ally AAC failed in the 

election. They are doing 

everything possible to 

divert attention from their 

failure. Why would 

anybody abduct them? 

“Of what use is their 

adoption? They should 

bury their head in shame.” 

Meanwhile in another 

trending video on the Obio/ 

Akpor drama, Wike, was 

heard saying he was 

shielding them from being 

lynched as they were being 

forced to enter one of the 

vehicles in his convoy.


Inconclusive polls: Gov Abubakar of 

Bauchi storms Aso Rock 

•Warns on security implications of INEC decision 

•Threatens to drag INEC to court 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru 

A BUJA—GOVERNOR 

Mohammed Abubakar 

of Bauchi State, yesterday, 

stormed the Presidential 

Villa, Abuja to brief President 

Muhammadu Buhari on the 

security implications of the 

decision of Independent 



cancel supplementary 

elections in Tafawa Balewa 

Local Government Area of the 

state. 

The governor also 

threatened to drag INEC to 

court for allegedly usurping 

the role of Returning Officers, 

claiming that when the 

Returning Officer during 

elections declares results, 

only the Election Petitions 

Tribunal has the power to 

reverse it. 


correspondents after meeting 

behind closed doors with 

President Buhari at the State 

House, the governor, who 

had visited the Presidential 

Villa, two times within a week, 

expressed optimism that he 

would emerge victorious after 

the process. 

Explaining why he was at 

the State House, he said: “I 

came to brief Mr. President 

on the situation in my state. I 

briefed him on the issues 

surrounding the inconclusive 

elections. 

“The Returning Officer for 

Bauchi State at the end of 

collation rejected the result of 

Tafawa Balewa Local 

Government Area and then 

36 other units spread around 

15 local government areas of 

Bauchi State and ordered a 

re-run. 

"Surprisingly, we woke up 

one morning and INEC came 

up with a procedure that is 

not known to law. Because, 

where a returning officer has 

declared the result, only an 

election petition tribunal can 

reverse the result. But INEC 

is attempting to reverse itself 

in the case of Bauchi. 

“When one juxtaposes that 

of Bauchi and other states 

with inconclusive elections, 

one wonders why that is 

happening only in Bauchi 

State. So, for that reason, 

there is a need for me to come 

and brief Mr. President 

because that has the potential 

of touching on the security of 

the state.” 

Asked as a legal practitioner 

and former INEC 

Commissioner whether the 

action of the commission was 

illegal, he said: “Of course, it 

is definitely illegal. It is a 

straight forward matter. The 

returning officer is the final 

arbiter even with respect to 

scores and declaration of result. 

Once he makes a declaration, 

no power can reverse that 

declaration except duly 

constituted court of the land.” 

When reminded that INEC 

is an independent body and 

that his visit could be viewed as 

an attempt to use the president 

to influence the result of the rerun 

election in Bauchi State, he 

said: “No, no, no. I said I came 

to brief Mr. President; I am 

not seeking any action of 

Mr. President. 

“We all know Mr. 

President, he is a stickler for 

procedure. What I 

pointedly told him was that 

I am not here to seek your 

interference on our behalf, 

but to brief you on what is 

happening and what 

actions I have taken.” 

On his next line of action 

after INEC had taken 

decision to cancel 

supplementary election in 

Tafawa Balewa Local 

Government Area, he said: 

"I am a lawyer and I am 

pursuing the legal angle. I 

briefed him and he 

emphasized on that legal 

angle that it is the best way 

to go.” 

Also commenting on 

security in Bauchi State, 

Abubakar said his 

administration was on top of 

the security situation and that 

he had ordered a ban on 

procession in the metropolis, 

adding that the state is 

relatively calm. 

CONFERENCE: From left, Ada Udechukwu, Head, Women Banking, 

Access Bank Plc; Herbert Wigwe, Group Managing Director/CEO, 

Access Bank Plc; Laure Beaufils, British Deputy High Commissioner 

and Ayona Aguele-Trimnell, Coordinator, Women Banking, Access 

Bank Plc at the W Initiative International Women's Day Conference 

2019, in Lagos. 

March 23 re-run polls in Plateau, 

a walk-over — Lalong 

•Says insecurity in state politically 

motivated 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru 

A BUJA—GOVERNOR 

Simon Lalong of Plateau 

State, yesterday, said the 

March 23 supplementary 

election in the state would be a 

walk-over for him and the ruling 

All Progressives Congress, 

APC. 

Plateau State is one of the 

states that Independent 

National Electoral Commission, 

INEC, declared the result of the 

March 9 governorship and 

state Houses of Assembly 

elections as inconclusive and 

ordered for a re-run. 


correspondents after meeting 

behind closed doors with 

President Muhammadu Buhari 

at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, 

Lalong, who is leading Peoples 


candidate in the results so far 

declared, alleged that the 

renewed insecurity in the state 

had political undertone. 

Asked why he was at the State 

House, he said: “My meeting 

with the president is the usual 

briefing. I call it usual because 

of my passion for peace in the 

state. It is not about the election, 

it is about the peace, to 

ensure we have very 

peaceful elections. 

"So far so good, we have 

had very good peaceful 

elections. We are coming 

back for supplementary 

elections. I will like INEC 

to conduct a peaceful 

election, so we will like the 

security apparatus to be on 

ground in the state. That 

was my briefing to Mr. 

President.” 

Asked if he is panicking 

over the supplementary 

elections, he declared: 

“How can I be when all the 

votes that were cancelled 

were my votes? These were 

areas that I won. There was 

no need for cancellation but 

then as a lawyer, I still want 

to comply with the rules, I 

don’t want to be talking 

about infringing on the 

rules when the elections 

result is very clear. So, for 

me, election is as good as 

concluded in Plateau 

State." 

On his reaction to the 

recent attack on the Plateau 

State on cattle rustling, he 

said: “That was why I said 

I am concerned about 

security. Usually, it starts like 

that, they start rustling and 

killing cattle and the next 

thing you will hear is that, it 

is farmers-herders crisis. I 

know that I have addressed 

that issue for a very long time 

and the police is handling 

the security." 

Also asked whether he 

suspected political 

undertone in the insecurity 

situation in the state, he said: 

“Very well. I always say it has 

political undertone. Why is 

it happening immediately 

after elections? It usually 

happens immediately before 

or after elections. Why is it 

like that? It has some political 

connotation.” 

Herders/farmers crisis, others my top priority 

—Yero, Senator-elect 

By Umar Yusuf 

Y OLA—SENATOR- 

ELECT for 

Adamawa Southern 

Senatorial District, Mr 

Binos Yero, has given an 

assurance that he will 

work with major 

stakeholders to 

permanently solve the 

Fulani/farmers feud that 

has lingered in the area 

for years. 

30 Kwara communities 

protest 6 months of power 

blackout by IBEDC 

By Demola 

Akinyemi 

ILORIN—NO fewer 

than 30 communities in 

Ilorin, the Kwara State 

capital, yesterday, protested 

over total blackout and nonsupply 

of electricity by 

Ibadan Electricity 

Distribution Company, 

IBEDC, for the last six 

months. 

Some of the affected 

commuties are Alore, Oloje, 

Ita-Merin, Banni, 

Abayawo, Gunniyan, 

Anifowose, Pakata, Alfa- 

Yahaya, Oke-Agodi, 

Agbarigidoma, Gaa Oke- 

Idi emi, Ogidi and Temidire. 

Others are Abemi, Adeta, 

Aiyekale, Ifesowapo, 

Sakele, Olomoda, Albarika, 

Iberuoluwa, Ajegunle, 

Gaa-Osibi and Ifedayo. 

They claimed the last time 

they were supplied power 

by IBEDC was November 

20, 2018. 

As early as 7am, members 

of the affected communities 

besieged the Oloje 

undertaking office of 

IBEDC, preventing officials 

of the company from 

opening for business, 

disrupting free flow of traffic 

Buhari’s election’ll further 

develop N-Delta —Group 

THE 4+4 Niger Delta 

Believer’s Council, a 

pressure group within All 


APC, has said the re-election 

of President Muhammadu 

Buhari will further develop 

Niger Delta through his 

developmental programmes. 

National coordinator of the 

group, Sir Fred Magada, in 

a statement, yesterday, said 

the second term of President 

Buhari as president and 

Minister of State for 

Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu 

as a cabinet member, should 

be seen as victory for the 

people of Niger Delta whom 

he said have been faced with 

series of under development 

in the past years. 

He said: “We will like to 

applaud the election of 

Yero, elected on the 

platform of Peoples 


expressed regret that the 

rift and other lingering 

crises had painted the 

senatorial zone in bad 

light and promised to 

work tirelessly to reverse 

the ugly trend. 

Yero, who spoke to 

newsmen in Yola, 

yesterday, after the 

presentation of his 

in and around the area. 

They displayed placards 

with various inscriptions to 

express their grievances 

and insisted that the 

company must quit the 

area or immediately restore 

power to the Oloje feeder, 

which serves the 

communities. 

Some of the inscriptions 

on the placards read: “We 

are tired of blackout for 6 

months”, "Oloje and Pakata 

Feeders are in blackout for 

6 months,” "Find solution 

to our problem." 

Spokesman of the 

protesters, Moshood 

Abdulkadir, decried the 

continued operation of the 

company in the area 

without anything to show 

the communities in terms of 

service delivery and 

regular supply of power. 

He lamented the 

continued suffering of 

residents of the affected 

communities when other 

communities in the state 

capital were enjoying 

power supply, insisting that 

the total blackout was no 

longer acceptable. 

When contacted, an 

official of IBEDC in Ilorin 

said efforts were on to solve 

the problem. 

President Buhari and laud 

the efforts of Kachikwu and 

other leaders of the party for 

the votes recorded in Delta 

State during the presidential 

election. 

“We believe his victory at 

the polls was made possible 

because of his integrity, 

character and leadership 

qualities during his first term 

in office. 

“I want to also use this 

medium to assure the people 

of Niger Delta that if Mr. 

President could do so much 

for the people of Niger Delta 

in his first term, when the 

people gave him little votes, 

he would definitely do more 

in his second term with the 

number of votes recorded 

this time.” 

certificate of return by 



INEC, assured people of 

his constituency, that he 

would work hand in 

hand with them for 

effective legislative 

representation. 

He said: “I have gone 

round the entire district, 

identified their 

challenges. I will give 

them effective 

representation when we 

get there."

14 — VANGUARD, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019 

Akeredolu to create LCDAs in Ondo 

By Dayo Johnson 

A 

K U R E — 

GOVERNOR 

Rotimi Akeredolu of 

Ondo State has said his 

administration would 

soon create Local 

Governments 

Development 

Authorities, LCDAs to 

''fast-track development 

and bring government 

closer to the grassroots.'' 

Akeredolu pointed out 

that he would soon set up 

committee for the creation 

of the LCDAs 

He said this during his 

state-wide thank-you tour to 

lrele, Ilaje and Ese-Odo 

local councils of the state, 

yesterday. 

The committee, the 

governor said would accept 

memoranda from 

communities seeking Local 

Governments or LCDAs. 

He however thanked the 

people of the town for 

supporting the All 


APC, in the House of 

Assembly election and 

asked the people to 

support the government 

so that more development 

projects would be executed 

in the town. 

Akeredolu assured 

that all ongoing projects 

and constructions across 

the state would be 

completed by his 

administration. 

Chairman of the party 

Ade Adetimehin 

appreciated the people of 

the three council areas for 

their support and trust in 

the present administration 

and promised that the 

Akeredolu administration 

would continue to deliver 

the dividends of democracy 

to them and pleaded with 

the people of the state for 

patience and support. 

Oyo CJ calls for criminal 

justice system reform 

...as S/W judges undergo training 

By Adeola Badru 

IBADAN—AS judges 

in the South West zone 

of the country undergo 

training that would facilitate 

improvement in the 

administration of justice, 

the Oyo State Chief Judge, 

Hon Justice Munta Ladipo 

Abimbola has called for the 

holistic and innovative 

reforms of the existing 

legislation to tackle delayed 

trials and improve the 

efficiency of the Criminal 

Justice Administration in 

Nigeria. 

He made the call 

yesterday at a training 

workshop on the 

implementation of the 

Administration of Justice 

Act (ACJA) 2015 and ACJ 

Laws held in Ibadan, the 

Oyo State capital. 

The workshop was 

organized by the Nigerian 

Institute of Advanced Legal 

Studies (NIALS) with the 

support of John D and 

Catherine T. McArthur 

Foundation. 

A similar workshop had 

earlier been organised at 

Ado Ekiti about two months 

ago to increase the 

knowledge of legal icons in 

the administration of justice. 

According to him, the 

Administration of Criminal 

Justice Act of May 2015 is 

a product of these efforts 

which objective is to ensure 

the administration of a 

criminal justice system that 

promotes efficient 

management of the 

Criminal Justice 

institutions, speedy 

dispensation of justice, 

protection of society from 

crime and protection of the 

rights and interest of a 

suspect, the defendant and 

victims of crime in 

Nigeria. 

The Act, he added, 

“introduced a number of 

innovations in the 

procedural Law in Nigeria 

to remove the delays. 

Sections 306 and 396 are 

intended at speedy trials. 

Stay of proceedings 

applications will no longer 

be entertained and 

objection to the validity of 

a charge shall be 

considered along with the 

substantive issues and 

ruling thereon shall only 

be made or the time of 

delivery of judgment.” 

THANKSGIVING SERVICE: From left; Oyo State Governor-elect, Engr. Seyi Makinde; his wife, Ominin; 

wife of former governor of Oyo State, Chief Olayinka Ladoja and Senator Hosea Agboola during a 

thanksgiving service at St Peter's Cathedral, Aremo, Ibadan on Sunday. Photo: Dare Fasube. 

Ekiti moves against rapists, child 

abusers 

By Rotimi Ojomoyela 

A DO-EKITI— 

THERE appears to 

be no hiding place for 

rapists and child abusers in 

Ekiti, as the state 

government has said it 

would henceforth conduct 

compulsory psychiatric test 

and publish the names and 

photographs of offenders on 

the website of the Ministry 

of Justice. 

According to the State 

Government, the names of 

such offenders, would also 

be announced on the stateowned 

radio and television, 

while the monarch of the 

town he hailed from would 

be alerted for them to get 

information about his 

personality. 

Speaking with journalists 

in Ado Ekiti, on Monday, 

the Attorney General and 

Commissioner for Justice, 

Barr. Wale Fapohunda, 

lamented that the menace 

is on the increase despite 

the high number of 

convictions recorded in the 

state. 

He said that the governor, 

Dr Kayode Fayemi, is 

disturbed by the increasing 

cases of sexual violence and 

that there was need for 

effective measures to nip the 

situation in the bud. 

Fapohunda said the new 

measures put in place will 

support the aggressive 

prosecution and exclusion 

of offenders from governor's 

prerogative of mercy that 

were already in place. 

"The additional measures 

put in place include pasting 

the photographs of 

convicted offenders in 

prominent public spaces in 

their communities and their 

local government 

headquarters. 

"Issuing an advisory to the 

•Offenders to undergo psychiatric test, 

names, photographs published in websites 

traditional rulers of the 

offender's communities on 

the status of the offender. 

Uploading the sex offenders 

photograph on the website 

of the Ministry of Justice. 

"Showing photographs of 

sex offenders on Ekiti State 

Broadcasting Service of 

Ekiti State, announcing 

their names on radio and 

television. 

"Compulsory Psychiatric 

Test for all persons of whom 

the Director of Public 

Prosecution has issued a 

case to answer legal advice 

for the offence of child 

defilement. This also 

includes persons standing 

trials," he said. 

FFK blasts Daniel over imminent 

defection to APC 

By Dirisu Yakubu 

AMinister BUJA—FORMER 

of Aviation 

and a Chieftain of the 


PDP, Chief Femi Fani- 

Kayode, has taken a swipe 

at former Ogun state 

governor, Otunba Gbenga 

Daniel for allegedly 

dumping the party that 

thrust him into national 

limelight for the ruling All 


APC. 

The ex-Minister was 

reacting to Daniel's open 

letter to the PDP national 

chairman, Prince Uche 

Secondus, on Sunday 

announcing his decision to 

quit partisan politics. 

Although Daniel, a twotime 

governor had in the 

letter claimed he was 

quitting active politics, he 

later stressed that he was 

being pressured by his 

supporters to lead them to 

the APC, a development 

•I've quit partisan politics, 

not joining APC – Daniel 

Fani-Kayode described as 

sad and tragic. 

Reacting to the issue on 

his verified twitter handle 

@realFFK, the PDP 

chieftain questioned 

Daniel's commitment to 

Atiku Abubakar's quest for 

the Presidency in the 

recently concluded 

elections. 

He wrote: "For the first 

Director General of Atiku's 

Presidential Campaign 

Organisation and his 

closest confidante in the 

South-West to dump the 

PDP and join the APC even 

before the conclusion of 

Atiku's election petition, is 

sad." 

I’ve quit partisan politics, 

Daniel insists 

However, Gbenga Daniel 

has denied joining the APC 

and insisted that he has 

quit partisan politics. 

On Sunday, he told 

reporters that his 

supporters were mounting 

pressure on him to lead 

them to APC. 

“Basically, they said I 

could resign from PDP… 

they said I must lead them 

to APC and they also said I 

could not retire from 

politics. That is the 

summary of what I heard,” 

he had said. 

Asked if he was ready to 

join APC, Daniel said: 

“What else can I say? My 

people have spoken.” 

He later took to Twitter to 

say he permitted his 

followers to “join any 

political party of their 

choice” but “I did not agree 

to lead them to APC.” 

“I have resigned from 

PDP and from partisan 

politics. I did that in writing, 

no ambiguities. A meeting 

was held today (Monday) 

and the meeting was 

reported with the request 

of my people. There was no 

ambiguity,” Daniel wrote. 

Lawmaker decries incessant building collapse 

in Nigeria 

By Bose Adelaja 

A 

lawmaker 

representing Epe 

Constituency, Lagos State, 

Hon. Wale Raji has 

condemned incessant 

building collapse in some 

parts of the country, just as 

he condoled with the 

victims of Itafaaji, Lagos 

and that of Molete, Ibadan, 

Oyo State. 

While thanking God that 

the Ibadan collapsed 

building did not record any 

casualty, Raji said he was 

saddened by that of Itafaaji 

Lagos, which left school 

children dead. 

He called on 

governments at all levels 

to conduct proper 

investigations on the 

buildings to forestall 

future reccurrence. 

Raji, who has visited the 

Lagos Island site said: ‘’I 

am extremely saddened 

by the incidents and I 

symapathise with the affected 

families. May Almighty 

God strengthen 

them at this trying period. 

I urge every resident to 

show spirit of compassion 

inherent in our community.'' 

He also condoled with 

the Oba of Lagos Rilwan 

Akiolu, calling on officials 

of Lagos State Building 

Control Agency to take 

their official assignment 

seriously and disallow 

some unscrupulous 

element in the profession.

VANGUARD, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019—15 

MASSOB condemns killings in Ebonyi, 

Kaduna, Taraba, others by herdsmen 

By Peter Okutu 

A BAKALIKI—THE 

Movement for the 

Actualisation of the 

Sovereign State of Biafra, 

MASSOB, led by Uchenna 

Madu, weekend 

condemned the incessant 

killings of citizens 

belonging to Christian 

communities in some parts 

of Nigeria, allegedly by 

herdsmen. 

In a statement in 

Abakaliki by the National 

Director of Information of 

MASSOB, Samuel 

Edeson, the group which 

observed that the killing of 

innocent Nigerians 

commenced immediately 

after President 

Muhammadu Buhari was 

declared winner of the justconcluded 

presidential 

election added that security 

agents in their bid to 

deceive the international 

community labelled the 

killers as gunmen instead 

of herdsmen. 

The statement read in 

part: “It is very unfortunate 

that these ethnic cleansing 

commenced immediately 

after presidential election in 

which INEC was subjected 

to announce Muhammadu 

Buhari as winner. 

“MASSOB reminds the 

citizens that prior to the 

presidential election, 

mostly within the campaign 

period, the terrorist 

activities of armed 

herdsmen suddenly 

reduced because Buhari 

and his cabals controlling 

Nigeria's federal 

government do not want to 

refresh the damaging 

effects of the activities of the 

herdsmen in the 

consciousness of the 

people because of their 

votes. 

“It is very disheartening 

that overwhelming 

evidences abound on the 

incessant, systematic and 

well coordinated attacks, 

killings and ethnic 

cleansing of Christiandominated 

villages of 

Kaduna, Taraba, Benue, 

Plateau and Ebonyi States 

recently after the 

presidential election. The 

killings were executed by 

herdsmen. Then, security 

agents in their bid to 

deceive the international 

community labelled the 

attackers as gunmen 

instead of what they are. 

“Having clinched power 

through dubious and 

corruptible means, we 

remind the people of Biafra 

to be more vigilant and 

conscious of their 

residential environment 

because the APC cabal will 

unleash many dangerous 

and systematic mayhem 

that will subject the people 

of Nigeria to political and 

economic islamisation of 

Nigeria." 

Group charges S-East govs to partner FG for devt 

By Anayo Okoli 

U MUAHIA— 

E T H N I C 

Nationality Youth Leaders 

Forum, ENYF, has called 

on governors-elect in the 

South East to keep party 

affiliation aside and cooperate 

with President 

Muhammadu Buhari to 

give the zone good 

governance to improve the 

living standard of the 

people of the zone. 

Speaking in Umuahia, 

the deputy national 

chairman of the group, 

Mazi Okechukwu 

Isiguzoro congratulated the 

re-elected and newly 

elected governors across 

the country and charged 

them to see their victory as 

call to service and dedicate 

themselves to serving the 

people well. 

Isiguzoro also appealed 

to President Buhari to 

complete all the roads and 

other projects in Igbo land, 

including the Second Niger 

Bridge and to do more 

projects in the zone to 

reflect the increased 

support he received from 

the zone in the last election. 

“We call on the South East 

Governors to keep party 

affiliation aside and work 

cordially with the President, 

give him total support and 

partner with him to give the 

people good governance”, 

Isiguzoro said. 

Setting agenda for the 

South East governors, the 

group urged the re-elected 

governor of Enugu, Mr. 

Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to work 

closely with the Federal 

Government to revive the 

Enugu Coal Mines 

abandoned over 46 years 

ago, saying the project 

would offer jobs to the 

teeming unemployed 

youths in the zone. 

For Governor Dave 

Umahi, the group called on 

him to establish a Salt 

Industry in the state to 

harness the raw materials 

and further urged him to 

ensure that the Nkalagu 

Cement factory resumes 

full scale production, 

pointing out that these 

measures would transform 

the life of the people. 

Isiguzoro called on the 

governor-elect of Imo State, 

Emeka Ihedioha to work 

towards the establishment 

of a dry sea port at Ngo 

Okpala and make the Sam 

Mbakwe Airport a full 

fledged International 

Airport. 

SDP NASS candidate drags 

INEC to tribunal 

By Chimaobi 

Nwaiwu 

NNEWI—THE Social 

Democratic Party, 

SDP, candidate for Anambra 

Central senatorial district, 

Chief Tony Chukwuelue, 

has dragged the 



INEC, to the Elections 

Petitions Tribunal to notify 

the tribunal that his party 

was excluded from the 

ballot papers for the 

election. 

Addressing newsmen in 

his Abatate home in Idemili 

North Local Government 

Area, Anambra State, while 

surrounded by his 

supporters, Chief 

Chukwuelue alleged that 

the exclusion of his name 

from the ballot papers for 

the election was a plan 

between INEC and his 

major opponents whom he 

said his campaign exposed 

their weaknesses and 

touched the minds of the 

people of Anambra Central 

to massively vote for him. 

Chukwuelue said: “I was 

nominated by my party 

SDP as the sole candidate 

to run for Anambra 

Central Senatorial district, 

having fulfilled all 

necessary requirements as 

demanded by law. 

“I ran one of the best 

campaign ever in the 

history of my district based 

on issues which resonated 

easily with the yearnings of 

the constituents in my area. 

“Our campaign brought to 

the fore, the tragedy that 

befell Anambra Central 

Senatorial district when 

their seat at the Senate was 

left vacant and without 

representation for three 

years because the political 

gladiators who sought to 

represent the district were 

fighting in the court over 

who was the rightful 

candidate." 

Perform or be sacked, 

Obiano warns aides 

By Vincent 

Ujumadu 

AWKA—THE governor 

of Anambra State, 

Chief Willie Obiano, has 

threatened to sack his 

commissioners and other 

political appointees if they 

failed to perform to his 

expectation. 

Obiano, who spoke 

during a ceremony to 

mark the first year 

anniversary of his 

administration’s second 

term in office, said every 

government functionary 

must be on the same page 

to continue at the pace of 

development going on in 

all parts of the state. 

He said his 

administration had been 

able to change the fortunes 

of the state better than he 

met it within his five years 

in office and urged all and 

sundry to join hands with 

his government to make 

Anambra great. 

According to him, the 

present administration in 

the state had attracted 

international recognitions 

for the developmental 

strides he had put in 

place, adding that such 

recognitions were enough 

encouragement to do more. 

He said: “The Forbes 

Magazine in the USA 

recently recommended the 

state government’s 

community choose your 

project initiative as a model 

for the development of 

Africa. This is very 

encouraging especially 

considering the impact the 

initiative had made on the 

wellbeing of the people in 

all the communities. 

“I assure you that I will 

remain focused and will 

therefore not hesitate to 

change anybody who is 

underperforming in my 

cabinet”. 

He identified the support 

from the members of the 

State House Assembly and 

the achievements recorded 

in all sectors of the state 

economy as part of his 

major successes in the past 

five years, noting that that 

state’s Gross Domestic 

Product, GDP, had 

increased from N3 trillion 

to N4.2 trillion in the last 

five years. 

Anambra: Atiku support group warns PDP 

against compromise with APC 

By Chimaobi 

Nwaiwu 

NNEWI—HOUSE to 

House Campaign 

Organization for Atiku 

Abubakar,Anambra State 

branch, a support group 

for the Peoples Democratic 

Party, PDP, candidate in the 

2019 Presidential election, 

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has 

warned PDP and its 

standard bearer against 

any compromise with the 

All Progressives Congress, 

APC. 


Isuofia, Aguata Local 

Government Area of the 

state, coordinator of the 

group, Ikechukwu 

Emenike said: “The 

suggestions in some 

quarters that Alhaji 

Abubakar should withdraw 

his election suit against 


Buhari and his party, APC 

and settle out of court over 

the outcome of the election 

is a disservice to PDP, Alhaji 

Abubakar and their supporters. 

“The suggestion for PDP 

and Atiku Abubakar to settle 

with President 

Muhamnadu Buhari and 

APC outside the election 

petitions tribunal would not 

only be a dis-service to 

Nigerians but would also be 

a colossal disappointment 

to Atiku support group 

who believed in and 

worked for the PDP’s 

candidate to win the 

election.


MEETING: From left— Renowned Economist, Dr. Doyin Salami; Head, Corporate Banking and 

Treasury, Union Bank, Emeka Okonkwo; President, CIBN, Dr. Uche Olowu and President, Financial 

Markets Dealers Association, FMDA, Samuel Ocheho, at the quarterly general meeting of the association 

sponsored by Union Bank in Lagos. 

Ex-militants back Dokubo, flay vandalisation 

of vocational centre in Yenagoa 

By Emmanuel 

Elebeke 

YENAGOA—A group 

of ex-militant leaders 

led by “General” Akpos 

Gala has condemned the 

alleged vandalism and 

looting of the multi-billion 

naira Vocational 

Training Centre by hoodlums 

in YenAgoa, 

Bayelsa state. 

The condemnation 

followed the call by a 

group of protesters for 

sack and prosecution of 

the Special Assistant to 

the President and 

Coordinator of the 

Presidential Amnesty 

Programme, Prof. 

Charles Dokubo by a 

group over the alleged 

vandalism and looting of 

training facilities. 

The group described the 

allegation as false and 

accused the protesters of 

misleading the general 

public on the true fact 

about the incident 

In a statement made 

available to Vanguard, 

the ex-militant leaders 

said that the allegation 

was targeted to 

undermine the credibility 

of the Amnesty boss and 

his impeccable character . 

The ex-militant leaders 

posited that the protest 

was orchestrated by the 

political detractors of 

Dokubo who are taking 

undue advantage of the 

theft at the centre to 

smear the good work 

Dokubo is using the 

Amnesty office to do in 

the Niger Delta, adding 

that the protesters were 

hired and does not 

represent the interest of 

the people of the region. 

According to the 

statement, the same 

masterminds of the 

Yenagoa protest are 

planning to carry out 

similar protest in Abuja, 

just as he used the medium 

to alert security 

agencies to forestall 

unnecessary public 

disturbances. 

While stating that the 

theft of the items worth 

N60 billion naira at Boro 

Town Training Complex 

was condemnable, it 

called on the people of 

the Niger Delta to desist 

from the pull-him-down 

syndrome and enjoined 

the people to join hands 

together to build the 

Niger Delta region of our 

dream. 

The group maintained 

that Prof. Dokubo’s 

leadership has brought 

the Amnesty programme 

to its height, stressing 

that the region has witnessed 

significant improvement 

in touching 

the lives and wellbeing 

of the people. 

‘Why Obaseki needs a 

2nd term' 

BENIN CITY—AS the 

race 

for 

governorship election in 

Edo state which would 

hold next year begins, a 

legal practitioner and 

public notary, 

Olayiwola Afolabi yesterday 

said that Edo 

state governor, Mr 

Godwin Obaseki 

deserves a second term 

to enable him continue 

the developmental work 

he has started. 

Speaking to journalists in 

Benin City yesterday, he 

urged the All Progressives 

Congress to give “the 

performing governor” a 

second term so that he will 

complete the works he has 

started. 

He said: “The Ambode 

style cannot apply in Edo 

State because Obaseki is 

working. The man has 

worked and he is working 

everywhere even during 

the elections work did not 

stop. During the 

presidential election, 

National Assembly election 

and state assembly election 

he kept working. He is 

working everywhere so 

Ambode pattern cannot 

apply in Edo state. 

“The man is not making 

noise but he is working 

everywhere. If he says he 

is not going to contest, we 

are going to beg him 

because we need him, if he 

says he doesn’t want, we 

will compel him. 

“He has been able to 

prove that development is 

possible. His style is unique 

from what we are used to 

and that is why Edo people 

and residents here believe 

that he deserves a second 

term as governor of Edo 

state” 

AfDB, Portugal, Mozambique sign MOU 

for private sector devt 

THE African Development Bank and the 

governments of Mozambique and Portugal 

have signed a Mozambique-specific 

Memorandum of Understanding for the 

implementation of the Lusophone Compact. 

The Lusophone Compact is a financing platform, 

involving the Bank, Portugal, Angola, Cabo Verde, 

Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea Mozambique 

and Sao Tome and Principe, which provides risk 

mitigation, investment products and technical 

assistance to accelerate private sector 

development in Lusophone African countries. 

The signing which took place in Maputo, was 

witnessed by over 200 Mozambican and 

international entrepreneurs. The parties were 

represented by Adriano Maleiane, Minister of 

Finance and Economy of Mozambique and 

Governor of the Bank Teresa Ribeiro, Secretary 

of State for foreign Affairs of Portugal, and Mateus 

Magala, Bank Vice President for Human 

Resources and Corporate Affairs. 

Egyptian pound appreciates to highest 

in over two years 

T 

HE Egyptian pound strengthened on Sunday 

to its highest in over two years, boosted by an 

increase in foreign funds into the country. 

The currency was trading at 17.34 to the dollar 

on Sunday, up more than three percent from 17.86 

on Jan. 22 when it began its latest round of 

strengthening. 

“You’re seeing most of the indicators improving,” 

said Hany Farahat, senior economist at Egyptian 

investment bank CI Capital. “Tourism, exports, 

substitution of natural gas imports with domestic 

production, remittances are at a peak, FDI is 

improving slightly.” 

EU trade surplus with US rises 

to more than 11bn pound 

THE European Union’s trade surplus with the 

United States continued to rise in January, 

further underlining tensions between Brussels 

and Washington. 

US president Donald Trump is unhappy with the 

size of the surplus, and has already imposed 

tariffs on European steel and aluminium. But he 

has also threatened to impose them on Europe’ 

much larger cars and car parts industry. 

Monday’s data from Eurostat may therefore be 

a cause of concern for some: in non-seasonally 

adjusted terms, the surplus in goods traded with 

the US expanded to 11.5bn pound in January, 

up from 10.1bn pound a year earlier. 

Samsung has transformed Nigeria 

into FPSO construction hub 

THE Nigerian Content Development and 

Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has declared 

that Korean shipbuilding giant, Samsung Heavy 

Industries (SHI) has transformed Nigeria into a 

hub for fabrication and integration of Floating 

Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) unit in 

Africa. 

A number of records were broken during 

construction as the project was the first ever 

project to meet Nigeria's demanding new 

standards for local content as attested to by the 

NCDMB. 

For instance, out of the 18 modules in the Egina, 

six modules were fabricated in the various 

fabrication yards across the country, and 

integrated locally in the company's yard in Lagos, 

unlike the previous FPSOs, which were all 

fabricated and integrated outside the country. 

The Korean firm had declared that during the 

construction phase, "Nigerian parts and expertise 

were even flown to Samsung's headquarters in 

Korea to be installed in the early stages of 

construction of the Egina before it was sailed to 

Lagos for final construction".

Pius Adesanmi: Endless tears (2) 

The first pasrt of this tribute was 

published last Tuesday. 

THE Nigerian practice of “mo 

gbo mo ya” was also trendy in 

the animal kingdom of Ijapa’s era. 

As the animals got ready for the trip, 

Ijapa, the most cosmopolitan among 

the animals because of his wide 

travels, told everyone to take a new 

name, as was the norm in civilized 

climes. Naturally, Ijapa adopted the 

name, Mr. Everybody. Off they went 

to heaven. The hosts were generous. 

There was plenty to eat and drink. 

Oh, the hosts also announced that the 

feast was for everybody! Ijapa was of 

course quick to remind his fellow 

guests who everybody was. At the end 

of the day, he hungry and, therefore, 

very angry birds, took their feathers 

from Ijapa, flew back to earth, and 

abandoned him to his fate in heaven. 

If you want to know what 

subsequently happened to Ijapa, get 

Ambassador Abass Akande Obesere 

omo Rapala’s album, “Diplomacy”. 

One crucial dimension to these 

animal tales in the Yoruba corpus is 

their didactic mandate. The lessons 

which these stories teach wear a 

severe warning label: do not behave 

like the trickster figure. Our case in 

point, Ijapa, takes intellectual 

ownership of his exploits extremely 

seriously. We, his human audience, 

are not in any way allowed to imitate 

Ijapa’s foibles. Even in the case of 

mixed tales, where the human and 

the animal worlds meet and their 

temporalities overlap, the human 

characters in those tales must heed 

the same warnings as those of us who 

are external to the narrative process. 

Those of you who have read D.O. 

Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola, and their 

London-based literary offspring, Ben 

Okri, will readily understand what 

happens to man when he violates the 

fundamental condition for dealing 

with the animals’ actions in the tales. 

That condition, the covenant we must 

all enter into with the trickster figure, 

is to avoid plagiarising his actions. 

When Ijapa offers his picaresque 

adventures in folktales as a 

pedagogical canvass of behaviours 

that the individual must avoid, we 

know that those deviant behaviours 

almost always come down to two 

things. The first is greed, especially 

that form of greed which privileges 

consumption above all other areas of 

human experience, transforming the 

subject into an unthinking slave of 

Opapala, the Yoruba deity of hunger, 

the god of food, gourmandizing, and 

untrammeled sybaritism. Hence, 

Ijapa is at his most outrageous, most 

reprehensible when he elevates his 

belly above the collective good of 

society. In story after story, his 

punishment for the sin of excessive 

greed of consumption is swift. Often, 

he barely escapes with his life to 

return in the next story to enact 

another scenario of what we call 

wobia (excessive consumption at the 

expense of others). The second 

behaviour to which the trickster figure 

in the folktales holds an exclusive 

copyright and which we are 

consequently not supposed to 

•Prof. Pius Adesanmi 

plagiarize is even deadlier than the 

first sin. It is individualism. 

Individualism is the father of 

selfishness and the mother of 

nombrilism. It is what enables the will 

to undermine the commonweal, to 

harm the collective good. 

It should be clear from the foregoing 

that Ijapa in these folktales comes from 

an ethno-national imaginary in which 

resides a specific welfarist vision of 

society and her institutions. The 

commonweal is the base of this vision. 

All the rules of social organization, 

Awolowo’s greatest 

assets were, 

therefore, his people 

and the ethos of the 

commonweal to 

which they 

collectively 

subscribed at the 

time 

all the institutions of society, 

including monarchy, have meaning 

insofar as they are able to guarantee 

the collective good and the 

commonweal. It is in fact safe to say 

that the commonweal is sacred. Ijapa’s 

sin during the party in heaven is worse 

than selfishness. By claiming to be 

Mr. Everybody, he was violating one 

of the most sacred aspects of his 

culture. The commonweal, the 

collective, the “us” is so important 

that even his language does not 

permit synecdoche in that area. When 

it comes to the sanctity of the 

collective, no part can represent or 

claim to be the whole. Ijapa’s 

language makes this clear in the 

proverb: “enikan ki je awa de”. A 

single person does not announce his 

presence in the 

plural by shouting: 

“here we are”! 

In essence, you 

must always be 

conscious of your 

responsibility to the 

collective. For 

instance, there is a 

reason why that river 

or that stream is 

called “odo ilu” 

(communal river). 

Institutions and 

codes of behaviour 

exist to guarantee 

equal and fair 

access to this river, 

especially in the dry 

season. To take more 

than your fair share 

of this water is a 

serious ethical 

breach, it is 

deviance of the sort 

that could give you 

an “oruko buruku” 

(bad name) in the 

community. Even 

the protocols of 

fetching water from 

that stream devolve from a deepseated 

social consciousness, a certain 

respect for the collective good. If you 

are the first to reach the stream, you 

do not just jump in and begin to cast 

your keregbe (gourd) or water pot all 

over the place. You have spent your 

entire life being socialized into 

responsible membership of the 

community with stories of Ijapa. Your 

traditional education emphasized the 

mandate not to be like Ijapa. You know 

that you do not want to stir the water 

in the river so vigorously as to make 

the water turn all brown with 

disturbed mud and particles from the 

riverbed, making it impossible for 

other members of the community to 

fetch water when they arrive. 

In other words, you don’t want to “ru 

omi odo”. Above all, you also don’t 

want to start suddenly thinking of 

creative ways to divert the entire river 

– or 90% of it – for your own private 

use. That would be breaking the 

covenant with Ijapa not to plagiarize 

him. That would be violating all the 

life lessons you were taught about how 

to avoidbehaving like Ijapa. Do you 

want me to go on? Okay, here is part 

two. 

It is no secret that we love foreign 

things in Nigeria. Our encounter with 

modernity, especially the version of it 

associated with the material trajectory 

of Western Europe after the 

Enlightenment and the rise of the 

culture of late capitalism in the 

United States after the World Wars, 

has been a history of uncreative aping 

of Western culture, tastes, and modes 

of being. Alas, our knowledge systems 

are not spared, hence we seek Western 

paradigms and explanations for 

things rooted in our own history, 

culture, and environment. Such is the 

case with a great deal of the literature 

on what most Nigerians agree is the 

country’s most successful postcolonial 

experience of statehood in terms of the 

management of resources and human 

capital. This experience, which has 

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019 —17 

entered the history books as one of 

Africa’s most successful cases of the 

harnessing of resources for the 

betterment of the collective, is none 

other than the political polity known 

as the Western region. 

If you explore the social science 

literature on the Western region and 

why the man at the centre of it all, 

Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was able to 

record developmental strides for his 

region that are still largely 

unsurpassed in our annals, you will 

find no shortage of Western-derived 

explanations for what happened in 

the Western region. You will encounter 

every Western theory of statehood, 

especially theories and models of the 

modern Welfare state, from its origins 

in Otto von Bismarck’s Germany to 

Canada via Scandinavia that 

Obafemi Awolowo and the 

bureaucracy he harnessed and led for 

the betterment of his people were 

supposed to have mastered. You will 

even encounter the reflections of a 

great 19th and early 20th-century 

German thinker known as Max 

Weber, whose reflections on the 

bureaucracy and the legal bases of 

the Welfare state have led to the 

emergence of a theoretical construct 

known as the Weberian state in the 

social sciences. You will hear that the 

Western region was a micro-Weberian 

state at its most successful level of 

actuation. What you will hardly 

encounter in the literature on the 

Western region are studies which trace 

the origins of this spectacular success 

to the cultural capital of Chief 

Awolowo and the energies he 

mobilized to implement his vision. 

Intellectual depth 

and erudition 

It is true that the leader of the 

Western region was a man of great 

learning. A polymath whose 

intellectual depth and erudition are 

still here with us in his speeches, 

lectures, and books. Added to his own 

talent and intellectual capital is the 

fact his generation of Nigerians is the 

last generation to have acquired what 

qualifies to be called great learning. 

You will understand what I am talking 

about if your father was roughly in 

Chief Awolowo’s generation. This is 

the generation that read the Greeks 

and the Romans, studied Latin, and 

spoke Queen’s English, stressing the 

proper syllables unlike those of us in 

subsequent generations who stress 

every syllable. So, it is true that Chief 

Awolowo had read Weber and many 

of the great thinkers of modern welfare 

statehood. However, Max Weber and 

European philosophers were not what 

happened in the Western region. 

What happened was cultural. What 

happened to and in the Western region 

was respect for the covenant between 

man and Ijapa. 

Although the free primary education 

scheme, which was launched on 

January 17, 1955, has become a 

leitmotif in narratives of the Western 

region’s success, we need to dig deeper 

to account for the philosophical bases 

of the vision of the man who dared to 

dream it in the first place. Let us 

examine for example the core themes 

of Awolowo’s 1955 budget speech: 

“Of our total expenditure of £12.45 

million not less than 82.6 per cent is 

devoted to services and projects which 

directly cater for the health, education, 

prosperity and general welfare of our 

people. Of this high percentage, 27.8 

per cent goes to education, 10.7 per 

cent to medical services, 5.4 per cent 

to agriculture”. The key terms here are 

health, education, welfare of the 

people, and agriculture. These are all 

areas directly related to human 

development. 

However, which humans? That is a 

logical question because if Squealer 

was able to perfectly rationalize the 

fact that all the resources of animal 

farm were to go towards the health, 

education, and welfare of the few pigs 

at the table, the envisioners of the 

Western region budget could also 

perfectly have reasoned that human 

development was synonymous with 

the welfare and the gastronomic 

preferments of a chosen and 

privileged few. So, which humans is 

a legitimate question. The answer to 

who Awolowo had in mind as he 

evolved a carefully-calibrated budget 

philosophy for the Western region on 

his assumption of office lies in his 

famous three principles of budgeting 

by which he meant the resources of 

the region would be expended on 

human development in the areas of 

health, welfare, and education. The 

overall goal of this budget philosophy 

was freedom of the people from 

ignorance, disease, and want. In 

Awolowo’s vision, the Western region 

was going to be the very embodiment 

of the collective good and the 

commonweal. 

What was being born in this project, 

the Western region, was a modern, 

postcolonial political apparatus 

whose formal institutions, 

bureaucracy, and modes of 

functioning devolved from the 

legacies of British colonialism. 

However, the ethos and the vision 

which transformed the project into a 

vector of generalized human 

development were not British. That 

ethos devolved from the cultural bases 

of the region’s chief envisioner and 

his greatest asset – his people. I will 

elaborate on the point about his 

people presently. Suffice it to say that 

the persona speaking in Awolowo’s 

description of the principles that 

would guide the budgeting process 

of the Western region and become its 

humanizing foundation is one 

grounded in the traditional pedagogy 

of the tortoise. We have explored how 

the cultural imaginary which 

produced Ijapa and his adventures 

promotes a conception of personhood, 

omoluabi, defined by a subscription 

to the superiority of the collective good 

and the commonweal. The budget of 

the Western region respected Ijapa’s 

mandate: do not emulate me. Do not 

plagiarize my actions. Remember, I 

am all about my belly and how to get 

more than my fair share of things 

meant for all of us. You, on the other 

hand, are people of the commonweal. 

Cultural 

praxis 

This is the cultural praxis which 

informed Obafemi Awolowo’s 

conception of statecraft and shaped 

what became the Western region. I 

am saying, in essence, that we did 

not hear of the welfare state and the 

social contract for the first time from 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Max Weber, 

and other Enlightenment and post- 

Enlightenment thinkers of Europe. 

Our ancestors were already using 

those philosophies to raise their 

children and forge ideas of society and 

social responsibility long before our 

modern scholars and thinkers 

dragged these Europeans into the 

argument. 

Something else is often left out in 

narratives of the Western region. I 

prefer to frame this second omission 

in the interrogative mode. Why did 

Awolowo’s vision and altruism work 

in the region? To render unto Ijapa 

what is Ijapa’s is to subscribe to the 

supremacy of the commonweal by not 

plagiarizing the trickster figure’s 

selfish and individualistic 

proclivities. My submission is that 

that is exactly what Awolowo did but 

was this adherence to the collective 

good the only ingredient of his success? 

The answer, evidently, is no. For 

Awolowo’s budget philosophy to be 

successful, those who were helping 

him run the vision and examples he 

was setting in Ibadan across the entire 

region would have had to be believers 

in and subscribers to the same ethos 

of the commonweal. 

Continues online 

C 

M 

Y 

K


AS at Friday, March 15, 2019, the 

official count of the dead from the 

collapsed school building on Massey 

Street, Lagos Island, had reached 20, 

while 45 injured persons were still in 

various hospitals. Sadly, this latest 

tragedy involving school children 

came only a week after more than 30 

Nigerians had lost their lives in the 

2019 general elections. 

These also came in the midst of 

reported renewed attacks in Benue 

State and Southern Kaduna by 

suspected herdsmen militias who had 

been ominously quiet in the months 

prior to the general elections. 

These raise the question once again: 

When will Nigeria be fed up with this 

careless way we live and die? When 

shall we stand up and do something 

about this gross cheapening of the 

lives of our people which is fast 

becoming a trite, daily routine for us? 

The catalogue of avoidable deaths 

in Nigeria is quite “rich”: If it is not 

Cheapening of lives in Nigeria 

herdsmen attacking innocent people 

in their homes at night and wiping 

them out, it will be road users burnt 

in fires from fallen petrol-carrying 

tankers, or people crushed to death 

by freight containers falling off trucks 

due to bad roads. 

At other times, it would be young 

Nigerians who end up in the bowel 

of the Sahara Desert or the 

Mediterranean Sea trying to escape 

from the prevailing unemployment 

and sundry hardships in the country 

arising from poor leadership. 

The noble purpose of governance 

is getting lost in this country. People 

manning the various offices of 

government have lost focus, and 

everybody appears only interested in 

activities that will give them access to 

power and money - lots of it. 

During these ongoing 2019 general 

elections, soldiers and security agents 

were mobilised to protect the vote and 

deal ruthlessly with vote-snatchers 

and election-riggers. Many of them 

allegedly turned around to provide 

security or cover for election-riggers 

and vote thieves! 

As we prepare for the inauguration 

of new governments all over the 

country on May 29, 2019, we hope 

that the new administrations at all 

levels will refocus fully on the core 

mandate of government as prescribed 

by our Constitution: the protection of 

the lives and property of Nigerians. 

Whether we are talking about weak 

regulation in the building industry, 

poor maintenance of public 

infrastructure, poor attitude to law 

enforcement, corruption in crime 

prevention and correction or securing 

the lives of the people from internal 

insurrection or external aggression, 

we demand that government must 

start working again. Government 

must once more become relevant in 

the lives of the citizens. 

More than everything else, the 

citizen must begin to feel protected 

once again. If the ordinary Nigerian 

is considered unsafe no foreigner will 

come here to invest and help grow 

our economy. 

THE recommendations of the 

Ahmed Joda’s committee 

was that the People’s Bank should 

be restructured and rationalised 

in accordance with its revised 

mandate, to strengthen its 

professional managerial 

capability for efficient delivery of 

services and better investment 

decisions. In particular, its credit 

disbursement and recovery 

department should be 

strengthened, with a more 

professional cadre of staff for 

effective programmes of loan 

recovery, be made independent 

of government’s political and 

administrative interference and 

desist from spending whatsoever. 

It was also recommended that 

the bank should regard the poor 

artisans and small-scale 

entrepreneurs as its target group 

and be professional in its 

operations. This meant that it 

should employ trained and 

qualified professional staff in its 

core activity, and that it should 

operate according to wellestablished 

banking principles, 

subject to approved policy 

directives issued by the Federal 

Government from time to time. It 

was also required to pay more 

attention to the provision of small 

scale, micro-enterprises and 

cottage industry credit, leaving 

agriculture related micro-credit 

delivery to the Nigerian 

Agricultural and Cooperative 

Bank, NACB. 

The committee was of the 

opinion that the People’s Bank 

should be responsible for loans 

disbursement to individuals, 

cooperative societies and 

enterprises of up to a maximum 

of N1million, at an interest rate 

of not more than 75 per cent of 

the Minimum Rediscount Rate, 

MRR, provided that it did not 

exceed 15 per cent per annum 

and receive substantial soft loan 

funding from the Federal 

Government for a period of three 

to five years, graduated in 

descending order, after which it 

should be self-sustaining. This is 

to enable it gain financial 

independence and cease to rely 

on government funding for its 

operations. 

In addition, it was 

recommended that the People’s 

Bank should clean up its balance 

sheet, through cutting out bad 

and irrecoverable loans, fictitious 

assets and liabilities and 

OPINION 

Is the People’s Bank coming 

back? (2) 

unrecognised items. This would 

ensure that it has a fresh start, with 

a relatively clean slate. It was also 

recommended that the bank 

should have a strong internal 

control systems, especially for 

auditing, which should report 

It was also 

recommended that the 

bank should regard the 

poor artisans and smallscale 

entrepreneurs as 

its target group and be 

professional in its 

operations 

directly to its board, rather than 

to the Chief Executive, be 

regarded as a core poverty 

alleviation agency and be funded 

accordingly and have equally 

strong systems of credit 

management, given the fact that 

the poor credit administration 

invariably leads to bad and 

irrecoverable loans and finally 

have its statues reviewed to reflect 

its new mandate and focus. 

The government white paper 

approved that the People’s Bank 

should have a Board consisting 

of a Chairman, a representative 

of the Economic Affairs 

Department of the Presidency, a 

representative of the Governor of 

the Central Bank of Nigeria, a 

representative of the Ministry of 

Finance, four other persons and 

the Managing Director of the 

Bank. It also approved that the 

People’s Bank should have eight 

zonal offices and 280 branch 

offices distributed all over the 

federation. It’s organisational 

structure was to comprise two 

Executive Directors and seven 

Departments: Finance, 

Administration and Personnel, 

Inspection, Banking Operations, 

Planning and Development, 

Credit Operations and Computer 

Services. 

The government also approved 

that the People’s Bank should 

open a branch office in every local 

government area of the country; 

only qualified and professional 

staff should be retained/employed 

for its effective operations, and to 

work for the bank in project 

evaluation, monitoring, extension 

service and loans recovery and 

ensure that effective loan 

monitoring and recovery 

machinery is put in place. 

The Ahmed Joda panel also 

made the following 

recommendations with respect to 

board composition and structure 

of People’s Bank of Nigeria: An 

eleven-member board to be 

chaired by a chairman appointed 

by the President with the 

following members: a. 

representative of the Central 

Bank of Nigeria; b. permanent 

secretary Ministry of Finance or 

his representative, who shall not 

be below the rank of a director; 

four other persons to represent 

public interest, one of whom shall 

be a woman; d. two executive 

directors; e. the managing 

director of the People’s Bank of 

Nigeria. The Board shall have a 

secretary/legal adviser. ii. An 

organisational structure 

consisting of a managing director, 

two executive directors and four 

general managers; f. six zonal 

officers according to the six geopolitical 

zones. 

At present the People’s Bank 

has a total strength of 1,546 

comprising 870,636 and 40 junior, 

senior and management staff, 

respectively. The ratio between 

operational and non-operational 

staff is in tune with the 

professional nature of the 

organisation. My appeal to the 

Federal Government is that the 

issues raised by Ahmed Joda’s 

committee and the government’s 

white paper on the People’s Bank 

should be properly implemented.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19 , 2019 — 19 

Nigeria’s terms of trade declines by 

2.8% in Q4’18 

•As prices of rice, others drop in February 

By Elizabeth Adegbesan 

The National Bureau of 

Statistics, NBS, yesterday 

said the nations’ Terms of Trade 

(ToT) declined by 2.8 percent in 

the fourth quarter of 2018. 

ToT is the ratio of export prices 

to import prices. It can be 

interpreted as the amount of import 

goods an economy can purchase 

per unit of export goods. The 

decline recorded in Q4’18 means 

a drop in the value of Nigeria’s 

export compared to the imports. 

According to the Bureau, the 

groups that contributed to the 

development were products of the 

chemical and allied industries, 

mineral products and live animals; 

animal products. 

The Bureau disclosed this in its 

Commodity Price Indices and ToT 

Q4’18 report. 

The report stated: “The all 

products terms of trade index stood 

at 98.0 percent in October, 99.6 

percent in November and 95.1 

percent in December. This 

indicated an increase of 1.64 

percent in November and a 

decrease of 4.48 percent in 

December. 

“On average, the terms of trade 

declined by 2.8 percent during the 

quarter, further indicating less 

favourable terms of trade. 

“The product groups that 

contributed to these changes were 

products of the chemical and allied 

industries, mineral products and 

live animals; animal products.” 

The Bureau noted that all 

commodity group import index, 

on average, grew by 0.89 percent 

during the quarter while all 

commodity group export index 

decreased by 2.02 percent. 

It stated: “The All commodity 

group import index, on average, 

CURRENCY BUYING SELLING 

US DOLLAR 

POUNDS 

EURO 

FRANC 

YEN 

CFA 

WAUA 

RENMINBI 

RIYAL 

SDR 

DANISH 

RAND 

$94.45 0.00 

2,179.00 -18.00 

$12.82 0.30 

$67.41 0.25 

$58.98 0.46 

305.95 306.45 306.95 

405.4449 406.1075 406.7701 

346.3048 346.8708 347.4367 

304.6097 305.1075 305.6053 

2.7383 2.7428 2.7472 

0.5081 0.5181 0.5281 

424.8802 425.5745 426.2689 

45.5681 45.643 45.7179 

81.578 81.7113 81.8446 

425.5765 426.272 426.9675 

46.3856 46.4614 46.5372 

. 21.1442 21.1787 21.2133 

CBN Exchange rate as at 18/03/2019 

grew by 0.89 percent during the 

quarter, following a 0.47percent 

drop in November and a 1.36 

percent rise in December. 

Food prices drop 

Meanwhile, the prices of eggs, 

rice, tomatoes and yam dropped 

in February 2019, according to the 

NBS’ “Selected Food Price Watch” 

report for February 2019. 

The data indicated that the 

average price of one dozen of 

Agric eggs medium size 

decreased year-on-year (YoY) by 

10.56% and month-on month 

(MoM) by 1.19% to N464.27 in 

February 2019 from N469.85 in 

January 2019, while the average 

price of a piece of Agric eggs 

medium size increased YoY by 

2.33% and month-on-month by 

0.12% to N42.23 in February 2019 

from N42.18 in January 2019 

The report further stated: “The 

average price of 1kg of tomato 

decreased YoY by -3.97% and 

month-on-month by -3.38% to 

N256.50 in February 2019 from 

N265.49 in December 2018. 

“The average price of 1kg of rice 

(imported high quality sold loose) 

decreased year-on-year by 0.23% 

and decreased month-on-month by 

-0.45% to N364.38 in February 

2019 from N366.04 in January 

2019. 

“Similarly, the average price of 

1kg of yam tuber decreased yearon-year 

by -10.56% and month-on 

month by -2.24% to N206.48 in 

February 2019 from N211.21 in 

January 2019”. 

From left: Executive Director, Transcorp Hotels Plc, Ms Okaima Ohizua; Managing Director/ 

CEO, Mrs. Owen Omogiafo; and Chairman, Mr. Emanuel Nnorom at the 5th Annual General 

Meeting of the company in Abuja. 

Shareholders appraise Zenith Bank’s cost 

management 

Shareholders of Zenith 

Bank Plc have applauded 

the bank’s cost efficiency business 

model which has resulted in a 16 

percent growth in profit, dovetailing 

into growth in dividend 

payout. 

Yesterday the 

shareholders approved 

the 280 kobo per share 

dividend recommended 

by the board of directors 

which gives a dividend 

yield of 12 percent for the 

2018 financial year as 

against 11 percent in 

2017. 

Responding to some of 

the issues raised by some 

shareholders at the 28th 

annual general meeting 

of the bank in Lagos 

yesterday, the managing 

director of the bank, Mr 

Peter Amangbo, said the 

bank’s business strategy 

has been very efficient in 

terms of cost 

management, even in 

areas such as training 

and information 

technology, adding, “we 

will consistently continue 

to train our people in the most 

efficient manner.” 

He stated further, “As a financial 

institution we continue to place a 

high premium on developing a 

robust risk management 

framework which has helped in 

promoting the soundness of the 

bank, protecting its assets and 

ensuring its growth.” 

According to the bank’s audited 

financial results for the 2018 

financial year approved yesterday 

by the shareholders, PBT was N232 

billion representing an increase of 

16.6 percent over the N199 billion 

recorded for the same period in 

2017. 

Notably the figure also represents 

the highest so far published by any 

bank in Nigeria in the current 

reporting period. Also, the results 

showed that profit after tax (PAT) 

witnessed an impressive growth of 

11 per cent year-on-year to N193 

billion from N174 billion. 

Analysts have attributed the 

profitability to the Zenith Group’s 

optimisation of its cost of funds, 

cost-to-income ratio and cost of risk, 

ensuring that earnings per share 

strengthened by 11% to ¦ 6.15. 

ELECTRICITY: Why we are not connecting new 

GENCOs — TCN 

By Prince Okafor 

With over 90 million 

households yet to be 

connected to the national grid, the 

Transmission Company of Nigeria, 

TCN, yesterday, disclosed that it 

has been unable to connect new 

Electricity Generating Companies, 

GENCOs because of the inability 

of the Electricity Distribution 

Companies, DISCOs, to take 

additional load. 

This is coming as the National 

Power Training Institute of Nigeria; 

NAPTIN commenced the training 

of 600 staff of TCN. 

Speaking during the kick-off 

capacity building training 

programme for the staff of TCN, 

the Company’s Managing 

Director, Gur Muhammed, said: 

“Currently we are not connecting 

new GENCOs, because connecting 

them is like putting contingent 

liability to Nigeria as a nation. 

“If the new GENCOs are 

connected to the power grid, they 

will like to generate to make a profit, 

Transcorp 

shareholders to 

get over N1bn 

dividend 

Shareholders of Transcorp 

Hotels Plc will get a total of 

N1.14 billon as dividend for the 

2018 financial year. 

Accordingly, the figure translates 

to 15kobo per ordinary share, 

which is a 20 percent improvement 

over the 12kobo per ordinary share 

for 2017. 

Consequently, shareholders of 

Transcorp extolled the company for 

its impressive performance for the 

year ended December 31, 2018 at 

the 5th Annual General Meeting, 

which took place in Abuja. 

Speaking on the company’s 

performance, Chairman of the 

Board of Directors, Mr. Emmanuel 

Nnorom said “Transcorp Hotels 

Plc has exceeded the bar with 

an impressive turnover of ¦ 

17.4billion from ¦ 13.8billion 

recorded in 2017, 

representing an improvement 

of 26 percent. This is an 

unprecedented achievement 

in the history of the Company. 

It is a further demonstration 

of our ability to adapt quickly 

to a changing business 

environment while keeping pace 

with global best standards in 

hospitality.” 

Commending the company for 

its overall performance, Patrick 

Ajudua, President, New 

Dimension Shareholders 

Association said that Transcorp 

Hotels Plc is an embodiment of 

what privatisation in Nigeria 

should be. He further stated that 

good Corporate Governance and 

the presence of a focused 

management team who are 

concerned with giving returns to 

shareholders are some 

underlying factors behind the 

company’s continued success. 

The Managing Director/CEO, 

Mrs. Owen Omogiafo reiterated 

the company’s commitment to 

quality and global standard 

customer experience, drawing on 

the varied international awards 

conferred on the Company. She 

said “We are redefining the 

hospitality landscape in Africa 

and positioning our continent as 

a preferred destination for local 

and international tourists. Our 

numerous awards and 

recognition are proof of this.” 

and once they generate, they will 

seek for money and we will be 

paying for capacity we are not 

using. 

“This is why TCN is not putting 

any effort to connect new GENCOs. 

We understand that Nigerians need 

electricity, and we also want to see 

that the DISCOs distribute this 

power to the end users. 

Unfortunately, the DISCOs have 

not been able to raise enough 

capital, there are also issues with 

the tariff, and the several other 

challenges they are faced with.”

20— VANGUARD, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019 — 21 

Prof.Yemi Osinbajo, Chairman, 

Economic Management Team 

Mounting concerns over Nigeria's weak 

disposable income 

By Nkiruka Nnorom 

Concerns have continued to 

mount over continous depletion 

in the country’s disposable income, 

which stood at N30 trillion as at 

second quarter (Q2’18). 

Analysts at FSDH Merchant Bank 

expressed the concern in a report 

themed: “Policies to Increase 

National Disposable Income (NDI)”, 

saying that the federal government 

needs to formulate policies to address 

the weakeness. 

National Disposable Income (NDI) 

refers to total income available for use 

by residents and firms in Nigeria over 

a particular period. 

They stated that the National 

Disposable Income during the review 

period (Q1’16 to Q2’18) was weak, 

saying that formulating policies to 

increase the country's disposable 

income would stimulate economic 

growth. 

According to the analysts, weak NDI 

limits consumption of households, 

government and investments by 

firms. 

Consequently, they said that urgent 

measures are required to shore up the 

NDI in order to discontinue overreliance 

by the government on 

excessive borrowing and also avoid 

a situation where savings will 

continue to go down. 

FSDH further stated that weak NDI 

accounts for high interest rate and 

also makes it impossible to achieve a 

single-digit interest rate regime in 

the country. 

“The weak NDI limits consumption 

of households, government and 

investments by firms. We note that 

little income is channelled into 

savings and investments. This is also 

one of the reasons the interest rate 

on loans is high, and a single digit 

interest rate may not be achievable 

in the short-run. 

“If an individual, business, 

government or, by extension, a 

country wants to increase its 

spending and savings power, there 

must be a plan to increase the ability 

to generate income. Any entity that 

desires to increase its spending and 

savings without a plan to increase its 

ability to generate income will surely 

have to borrow to fill the gap, all 

Zainab Ahmed, Finance Minister 

things being equal,” it said. 

The Report showed that National 

Savings has been on steady decline 

during the period under, dropping to 

N6 trillion in Q1’18 and Q2’18 each 

compared to N8 trillion and N9 trillion 

in Q4’17 and Q3’17 respectively. 

“The total income available for use 

by residents in Nigeria comes from 

four major sources. The total 

remuneration of employees in the 

formal sector, operating surplus (profit 

of businesses), total taxes payable on 

products, minus any subsidies 

received for the product, and the net 

income, transfer and profit from 

abroad. Our analysis shows that 

operating surplus dominated the total 

national disposable income, which 

represented an average of 69 percent 

during the period. However, the 

growth in the inflation rate during the 

same period, at 37.14 percent, was 

higher than the growth in the 

operating surplus at 32.85 percent. 

Therefore, in reality, the operating 

profit contracted. 

“Again, household compensation 

Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor 

was low. This is made up of salaries 

of employees in the formal sector 

including benefits in kind (such as 

pensions). Our analysis shows that 

household compensation contributed 

on average 27 percent to the total NDI 

between Q1 2016 and Q2 2018. A 

combination of profit of firms and 

household compensation contributed 

96 percent of total NDI. Nevertheless, 

it grew by 38.33 percent marginally 

higher than the inflation rate during 

the period. 

FSDH affirmed in the Report that 

weak income generation could be 

linked to the weak household 

consumption, adding that low level of 

Weak NDI 

accounts for high 

interest rate and 

also makes it 

impossible to 

achieve a singledigit 

interest rate 

National Disposable Income (Ntrillion) 

Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, 

Minister, Budget and National 

Planning 

household consumption also reduces 

government tax, particularly Value 

Added Tax (VAT). 

“In addition, it reduces the amount 

that is available to purchase goods 

and services produced by firms. 

Ultimately sales drop, profit drops, tax 

income drops and a firm will not be 

able to sell as much as it should sell 

to enable it to expand production; the 

firm will not be enabled to employ 

more people.” 

Solutions to NDI growth 

To fix the NDI income, the firm said 

that there must be removal of all 

administrative delays in obtaining 

licences and approvals including 

titles to landed properties for building 

and agricultural purposes. 

Additionally, government should 

also invest in data generation in the 

solid mineral sector, it suggested, 

saying that such data could be sold to 

potential investors interested in the 

sector. 

“This will reduce the risk inherent 

in this untapped sector of the economy. 

There is the need for human capacity 

building in business management and 

leadership. This must not be left to 

business schools, which are only 

affordable to a few people.


Stories by Rosemary 

Onuoha 

The insurance sector has 

recorded claims 

payments of N217.8 

million for terrorism cover, 

indicating reversal of the 

general apathy to this kind 

of insurance cover. 


insurance sector had shied 

away from introducing 

terrorism cover on the 

ground that the risk is highly 

volatile as a single incident 

could erode a company’s 

profit and capital. 

Analysis of figures released 

by the Nigerian Insurers 

Association, NIA, in its 2018 

insurance industry digest 

show that while the sector 

paid about N217.8 million as 

terrorism claims, flood claims 

was over N1.2 billion. 

The NIA digest further 

shows that Axa Mansard 

Insurance Plc paid the 

highest terrorism claim of 

N167.9 million, while the rest 

was settled by Continental 

Reinsurance Plc. 

Axa Mansard paid the 

terrorism claim to Dangote 

Cement Plc for the incident 

at its Ibese Plant. 

Meanwhile for flood claims, 

Prestige Assurance Plc paid 

the largest claims of N55.48 

million to D2H Services 

Limited & Associates. 

According to the NIA, the 

industry recorded a gross 

premium income of N364.7 

billion while net premium 

income stood at N258.1 

billion in the year under 

review. 

Chairman of the NIA, Mr. 

Tope Smart said the industry 

has been responsive in 

AXA Mansard, a member of 

AXA, a global leader in 

insurance and asset management, 

said it is committed to promoting 

youth sports as well as healthy 

living and development amongst 

children. 

To this end, AXA Mansard has 

sponsored Children International 

School, CIS Lagos, to the World 

School Games 2019 that held on 

the 28th of February to the 2nd of 

March in Dubai. 

The World School Games was a 

three day international multisport 

competition staged in Dubai 

and attended by international 

schools from across the globe. 

A minimum of 16 students (8 

boys and 8 girls) from each school 

took part in athletics, football and 

swimming in a bid to accrue the 

most points and be crowned World 

Champions. The 3-day 

competition saw CIS Lagos, 

winning several gold medals 

amongst others in athletics and 

swimming. 

The aim of the games was to 

create a truly international event 

that brings together students from 

all over the world, breaks down 

social and cultural barriers, and 

celebrates the talent, diversity 

and sportsmanship of children 

from different countries, 

backgrounds and education 

systems. 

Speaking about the event, 

Group Head, Strategy & 

Marketing of AXA Mansard, Mr. 

Kola Oni, said, “We are excited to 

From Left: Jude Modilim; Executive Director, Technical Operations, Sovereign Trust 

Insurance Plc, Mr. Peter Aghedo and Kayode Adigun, General Manager/Divisional Head, 

Finance & Corporate Services, Sovereign Trust Insurance plc during the presentation of 

the prize to the winner of the radio trivia question tagged “Stay Safe With STI at the 

Corporate Head Office in Lagos . 

Insurance sector records 

N218m claims payments 

for terrorism cover 

meeting genuine claims 

responsibilities, stressing 

that the industry will 

continue to honour the 

payment of all genuine 

claims. 

The Director-General of 

NIA, Mrs. Yetunde Ilori, 

urged the public to take 

advantage of conflict 

resolutions bodies set up by 

the industry to resolve all 

unpaid claims issues. 

She noted that the NIA in 

AXA Mansard promotes youth sports at 

world school games 

be a part of this iconic event as we 

promote youth sports, healthy 

living and development amongst 

children through the sponsorship 

of CIS Lagos to the 2019 World 

School Games. 

“It is a unique stage for the 

world’s best young athletes to 

compete in a fun and competitive 

event, at truly world class 

facilities. It was an opportunity for 

children all over the world to bond 

and create memories that will last 

a lifetime, while inspiring kids to 

become more physically active for 

a lifetime from an early age.” 

…promotes mental wellness 

AXA Mansard has said that it 

is committed to promoting 

physical and mental health as 

well as healthy living and 

development amongst children 

and adults. 

To this end, the insurer has 

sponsored the 2019 Special 

Olympics World Summer 

Games in Abu Dhabi. 

The Special Olympics World 

Games takes place every two 

years alternating between 

summer and winter. Austria 

hosted the Winter Games in 

2017 where 22 athletes 

represented Nigeria, winning 

12 Gold and 10 Silver medals. 

The Special Olympics World 

Summer Games scheduled to 

hold from the 14th - 21st of 

March 2019, will be the largest 

sports and humanitarian event 

in the world in 2019. It is 

expected to bring together 

7,000 athletes, 3,000 coaches, 

1,500 officials, 20,000 

volunteers, 3,000 guests, 6,000 

family members and over 

500,000 thousand spectators 

from over 170 nations. 

Speaking about the event, Mr. 

Tope Adeniyi, Chief Executive 

Officer, AXA Mansard Health 

Plc said, "The need to show our 

concern and support towards 

children and young adults that 

are physically challenged 

cannot be over-emphasized 

seeing they have very little 

opportunity to participate in 

organised athletic events. 

Sponsoring this iconic event is 

our way of ultimately 

contributing towards the mental 

and physical wellness of these 

children. 

"The Games serve to promote 

the concept of involvement in 

physical activity and other 

opportunities for people with 

intellectual disabilities. It also 

gives an opportunity for 

children and young adults all 

over the world to bond and 

create memories that will last a 

lifetime, while inspiring them to 

push beyond the barrier of 

intellectual disabilities." 

Commenting further, Adeniyi 

said, "At AXA Mansard, we 

remain resolute in making the 

world a healthier place, as such, 

we throw our weight behind 

a bid to ensure the public are 

not denied claims, set up a 

complaints bureau, adding 

that the National Insurance 

Commission (NAICOM) also 

has a complaint bureau for 

settlement of claims disputes. 

Commenting further, Oni said, 

“At AXA Mansard, we will 

continue to be at the forefront of 

the development of the next 

generation and look forward to 

making a difference in the lives of 

kids, young adults and the 

community at large” 

initiatives that promotes mental 

and physical wellness in the 

society." 

AXA Mansard is a member of 

the AXA Group, a worldwide 

leader in insurance and asset 

management with 166,000 

employees serving 105 million 

clients in 62 countries. 

AXA Mansard was 

incorporated in 1989 as a private 

limited liability company and is 

registered as a composite 

company with the National 

Insurance Commission of 

Nigeria (NAICOM). The 

Company offers life and non-life 

insurance products and services 

to individuals and institutions 

across Nigeria whilst also 

offering asset/investment 

management services, health 

insurance solutions and pension 

fund administration through its 

three subsidiaries - AXA 

Mansard Investments Limited, 

AXA Mansard Health Limited 

and AXA Mansard Pensions 

Limited respectively. AXA 

Mansard was listed on the 

Nigeria Stock Exchange in 

November 2009. 

Boeing 

insurers 

face large 

claims, 

agency 

report 

The insurers of Boeing 

Company will 

potentially face large 

claims following the recent 

Ethiopian Airlines crash, 

which was the second to 

involve a Boeing 737 Max 8 

model in five months, 

according to insurance and 

aviation source. 

While the initial insurance 

payments from the recent 

crash will be made by 

Ethiopian Airlines’ insurers, 

they may look to recoup their 

money from Boeing’s 

insurers if they can prove 

that the aircraft was faulty. 

A spokeswoman from Willis 

Towers Watson confirmed 

that the firm was the 

insurance broker for 

Ethiopian Airlines, while 

Chubb was the lead insurer. 

Britain’s Global Aerospace 

has also been identified as 

the lead insurer for Boeing 

and also for Lion Air, while 

Marsh is Boeing’s insurance 

broker. 

No financial details of the 

relevant policies are 

currently available, although 

losses from the Ethiopian 

Airlines crash are speculated 

to be in the region of $50 

million to $60 million. 

However, payouts could be 

much higher if families of the 

victims pursue legal claims 

against Boeing, particularly 

through U.S courts. 

“If there were to be 

anything defective in terms 

of the plane or any of its 

components, then it would be 

possible to bring a claim 

against the manufacturer as 

well as the airline,” said a 

legal expert. 

All 157 passengers were 

killed after Ethiopian Airlines 

flight ET302 crashed six 

minutes after take-off from 

Addis Ababa en route to the 

Kenyan capital of Nairobi. 

U.S aviation officials have 

said that they currently 

consider the Boeing 737 Max 

8 model to be airworthy and 

maintained that it is too early 

to reach any conclusions or 

take any action. 

While the cause of the 

Ethiopian Airlines crash is 

not yet clear, an automated 

anti-stall system on the 

newly commissioned Boeing 

aircraft has come under 

scrutiny. 

The system was also 

identified as a possible cause 

of the Lion Air crash in 

Indonesia last October, 

which similarly involved a 

Boeing 737 Max 8 plane. 

Boeing said that it would 

develop software updates for 

the aircraft following the 

incident.


Rice fortification can end hidden hunger 

in Nigeria — REPORT 

By Sola Ogundipe 

RICE, one of the most 

important staple foods 

in Nigeria could hold the 

secret to ending 

micronutrient deficiency 

(hidden hunger)in the 

country. 

Nigeria is the largest 

producer of rice in Africa 

producing about 15 million 

metric tonnes annually, 

while Nigerians consume 

an estimated 8-10 million 

metric tonnes of rice 

annually. 

Rice has potential to 

become another key food 

vehicle on the nation’s food 

fortification programme like 

vegetable oil and maize 

flour. 

Generally, food 

fortification is one of the 

major strategies by the 

World Health 

Organisation, WHO, and 

the Food and Agriculture 

Organisation, FAO, to 

decrease incidence of 

nutrient deficiencies at the 

global level. 

It is the practice of 

deliberately increasing the 

content of an essential 

micronutrient (vitamins and 

minerals including trace 

elements) in a food, so as 

to improve the nutritional 

quality of the food supply 

and provide a public health 

benefit with minimal risk to 

health. 

In Nigeria, rice 

fortification has been 

largely underutilised and 

while Nigeria is one of the 

countries that are 

signitories to the mandate 

of food fortification to 

combat hidden hunger, it 

is not necessarily 

translating policy into 

improved nutrition. 

Nigeria may therefore be 

missing an immense 

opportunity to improve the 

health of children and 

mothers, bolster 

communities, and boost 

national economies. 

But there is a silver lining 

as Nigeria now has 

opportunity to protect the 

next generation of 

Nigerians from 

preventable and lifelimiting 

impacts of 

micronutrient deficiency. 

This opportunity could 

be by adding 

micronutrients to rice 

according to new data from 

the Global Fortification Data 

Exchange (GFDx). 

The GFDx asserted that 

now that Nigeria is 

pursuing policies to 

produce more rice 

domestically, rice should 

be be added to the list of 

foods that must be fortified 

with additional nutrients. 

Experts say this simple 

act of fortifying rice-could 

help curb the high level of 

hidden hunger which is 

the inadequate access to 

micronutrients that are 

necessary for a healthy and 

functional body. 

According to UNICEF, 

“hidden hunger is a form 

of hunger that is not very 

visible and much more 

than an empty stomach”. 

The WHO and UNICEF 

note that there is triple 

burden of malnutrition in 

Nigeria in the form of 

undernutrition, 

overnutrition and 


Undernutrition and 

micronutrient deficiency 

contribute to underweight, 

wasting and stunting. 

Findings by Good 

Health Weekly reveal that 

the nutrition situation in the 

country has not improved 

much over the last decade 

according to the Multiple 

Indicator Cluster Survey 

(MICS5) 2016/17. 

The survey, conducted by 

the National Bureau of 

Statistics (NBS) in 

collaboration with 

UNICEF, shows that 

underweight and stunting 

are increasing even as 

wasting persists. 

No region in the country 

recorded progress in 

reduction of underweight 

between 2011 and 2016. 

* Rice fortification in process. 

Rice has 

potential to 

become a key 

food vehicle 

on the 

nation’s food 

fortification 

programme 

Underweight moved 

from 25 percent to 32 

percent; stunting from 34.5 

percent to 43.6 percent 

while wasting persisted at 

10.8 percent. 

Currently, more underfive 

children are wasted, 

stunted and underweight 

than five years years ago 

mainly as a result of 


According to the MICS 

result, 3 in 10 children 

under five years are acutely 

or chronically 

malnourished, while 2 in 5 

children under five years 

are stunted and 1 in 5 

children under 5 years are 

severely stunted. 

The wasting prevalence 

in 14 of the 36 States in 

Nigeria, is classified as 

“serious for public health 

significance”. 

Wasting increases risk of 

stunted growth, impaired 

cognitive development and 

noncommunicable diseases 

in adulthood. It increases 

the risk of child deaths from 

diarrhoea, pneumonia and 

measles. Severely wasted 

children are far more likely 

to die than their healthy 

counterparts. 

To assist Nigeria’s move 

towards rice fortification, 

the GFDx provides 

information from countries 

that have made rice 

fortification mandatory. 

GFDx shows that many 

countries have taken a 

critical first step to eliminate 

hidden hunger through the 

legislation of food 

fortification – a proven, costeffective, 

sustainable, and 

scalable intervention to 

address hidden hunger by 

adding vitamins and 

minerals to staple foods. 

According to the latest 

GFDx data, 137 of 196 

countries mandate food 

fortification of at least one 

food, while 68 mandate 

fortification of two foods. 

However, in these 

countries, commonly 

fortified foods – oil, wheat, 

and maize flour – reach 

only 51 percent, 26 

percent, and 4 percent, 

respectively, of people on 

average. The rest are 

potentially vulnerable to 

deficiency in critical 

nutrients. 

"GFDx shows that 

countries are on board with 

food fortification, but 

they're struggling to 

implement it, or at least not 

collecting the data on 

programme performance," 

says Helena Pachón, 

Senior Nutrition Scientist 

at the Food Fortification 

Initiative. 

For the first time, GFDx 

allows users to track and 

map international 

progress toward 

fortification of major food 

staples: specifically, oil, 

rice, salt, and maize and 

wheat flour. 

"GFDx isn't just a data 

tool, it's an advocacy tool, 

to drive demand and 

political will,” says Jessica 

Fanzo, co-Chair of the 

2018 Global Nutrition 

Report and Bloomberg 

Distinguished Associate 

Professor of Global Food & 

Agricultural Policy and 

Ethics at Johns Hopkins 

University. “Not only does 

it tell us which foods are 

fortified and how many 

people those foods are 

reaching, it's designed for 

the right audience: 

decision makers. 

As a country leader, if you 

can see that a critical 

vitamin is reaching people 

in a neighboring country, 

but not your own? That 

has the potential to be 

highly motivating." 

Nigeria showcases advances in Food & Beverage at West Africa 

trade show 

By Chioma Obinna 

NIGERIA holds Food 

& Beverage West 

Africa international trade 

show Nigeria's food and 

drink retailers will have 

the opportunity to connect 

with suppliers, 

distributors and 

manufacturers at a new 

globally-recognised 

business exhibition next 

year. 

Food & Beverage West 

Africa, a free-to-attend 

three-day trade event, 

will provide a platform for 

local companies to build 

business relationships 

with clients from across 

Nigeria, neighbouring 

West African countries 

and from around the 

world. The exhibition 

billed to take place 18th 

June through 20th, 2019 

at the Landmark Centre 

in Lagos is expected to 

attract over 4,000 people 

from the sector. 

Participants will include 

food and drink retailers, 

grocery buyers and 

hospitality businesses 

looking to source the best 

products and business 

deals from over 150 

exhibitors. 

The event which has the 

backing of the 

Association of Food 

Vendors in Nigeria, 

AFVN, Balogun Business 

Association Nigeria, 

Ogabaru Main Market 

Traders Association, 

OMMTA, Onitsha, 

Onitsha Main Markets 

Traders Union, 

OMMATU, and Eziukwu 

Road Traders Association 

is a new exhibition 

created by BtoB Events, 

a dynamic Exhibition 

organiser, created by the 

former divisional director 

for Africa of a FTSE 100 

organisation within the 

exhibition industry. 

On the event, 

Managing Director of 

BtoB Events, Jamie Hill 

said: "Having organised 

exhibitions in the food 

and beverage sector 

across Africa for the past 

three years I am 

particularly excited about 

it. "The foundations are 

in place to create a global 

market place here in 

Lagos, connecting local 

and international 

business and forging 

long term trade 

partnerships and 

knowledge sharing." 

“The event will help 

Nigerian companies who 

wish to expand their 

business across the 

country and to export to 

the Economic 

Community of West 

African States. 

"We have country 

pavilions already 

confirmed from no less 

than four continents, with 

more in the pipeline - so 

it really will be a unique 

opportunity for Nigeria to 

taste and sample the 

flavours of the world," said 

Mr Hill. 

"We want people to 

realise how exciting the 

market is here with huge 

opportunities and a 

growing customer base. 

Our long-term ambition is 

for the overseas 

companies taking part to 

establish good business 

links and set up their 

manufacturing plants in 

Nigeria in the future." 

JustFood, West Africa's 

leading provider of 

quality consumables 

and global food 

equipment brands, 

along with NASCO, an 

export and wholesale 

company based in the 

UK, are signed up as 

Gold Sponsors. 

Furthermore, national 

pavilions from countries 

such as Brazil, 

Indonesia, India, 

Pakistan, South Africa, 

Turkey and Sri Lanka 

have already confirmed 

their participation. Spar, 

which has 10 

hypermarket-style retail 

stores across Nigeria, is 

the Retail Partner for the 

event.

24— Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019 

*L-R: Consultant, Mental Health and Sleep Physician, Federal Neuro Psychiatric 

Hospital, Yaba, Dr Adeoye Adefemi: Commercial Director, Mr. Sola Owoade and 

Finance Director, Mr. Joseph Alegbesogie, both of Vitafoam Nigeria Plc; GM, Vono 

Products Limited, Mr Joseph Musa,and Group Admin Head/Legal, Vitafoam, Mr. 

Olalekan Sanni at the commemoration of World Sleep Day in Lagos weekend. 

8 hours sleep daily essential for brain 

health — EXPERT 

. As Vitafoam commemorates World Sleep Day 

and 

By Gabriel Olawale 

NIGERIANS have 

been advised to get at 

least eight hours of sleep 

daily to be in optimal 

health. 

A Consultant on Mental 

Health and Sleep 

Physician from Toronto 

University, Dr Adeoye 

Adefemi told Nigerians to 

strive to get adequate sleep 

daily by ensuring that the 

duration, continuity and 

depth of their sleep should 

be at a minimum of eight 

hours. 

Adefemi, who consults 

with the Federal Neuro 

Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, 

said quality sleep helps 

restore body functioning, 

boosts immunity and helps 

in conservation of energy. 

“Sleep should be deep 

enough to be restorative. 

And when you wake up, 

you should feel well -rested. 

Quality sleep plays critical 

role in learning and 

memory. It helps to identify 

what is essential and aid 

retentive memory,“said 

Adefemi. He spoke during 

the commemoration of the 

2019 World Sleep Day at a 

forum by Vitafoam Nigeria 

Plc., Nigeria's leading 

manufacturer of flexible, 

reconstituted and rigid foam 

products. 

Recommending regular 

exercise, Adefemi advised 

that in preparing for good 

sleep, caffeine-containing 

drinks should be avoided 

six hours before bedtime. 

Sensitising Nigerians on 

the health benefits of quality 

sleep, the Commercial 

Director, Vitafoam Nigeria 

Plc, Mr. Sola Owoade, 

reiterated the company’s 

commitment to production 

of innovative products that 

guarantee healthy sleep. 

He said good quality 

sleep is a major priority for 

Vitafoam. Quoting from 

Dr. Erik St Louis of Mayo 

Centre for Sleep Medicine 

in Rochester, Minnesota, 

he said for most adults, 

getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep 

every night may be the 

most important thing to 

improve future physical 


AFTER many months, 

the world’s only device 

that accurately reads 

glucose without drawing 

blood is now in Nigeria. 

Information made available 

by Kainico Ltd, noted that 

the egm1000 is suitable for 

type2 diabetics to monitor 

their blood glucose. 

Manufactured by Evia 

Medical Technologies from 

the United Kingdom, the 

egm1000 non-invasive 

glucose monitor, offers 

pain-free monitoring of 

glucose levels. The device 

has the European CE mark 

certification, and now also 

NAFDAC certified. Kainico 

Ltd is the distributor in 

Nigeria. It combines 

ultrasonic, electromagnetic 

and thermal technologies 

SeekMed offers quality healthcare 

services with mobile app 

Chioma Obinna 

Atelemedicine mobile 

Application 

SeekMed has introduced 

into the Nigerian market 

a mobile application that 

offers Nigerians the 

choice of getting 

impeccable medical 

diagnostics from the 

comfort of their home. 

Speaking on some of the 

unique features of the 

telemedicine App, 

Founder of SeekMed Mr 

Alok Awasthi explained 

that with SeekMed, 

individuals can easily 

send an appointment 

request to their trusted 

doctor, make an online 

payment, share scans/ 

by using a patented 

algorithm. It includes a 

small clip placed onto the 

user’s earlobe. 

Placing the clip on the 

earlobe activates 

measurements and an 

algorithm. Within one 

minute, the user’s glucose 

level is calculated, 

promptly displayed and 

verbally announced. 

When monitoring the 

device calculates and 

presents an estimated 

HbA1c level, the average 

level of blood sugar over 

the past 2-3 months. 

No bigger than a 

smartphone, the device is 

calibrated to each user and 

there can be up to three 

users per device. With 

about 97 percent accuracy, 

readings are clinically 

accepted when compared 

reports and have video 

consultation from the 

comfort of their home, 

thereby eliminating the 

often gruesome yet 

unavoidable decision of 

travelling long distances 

for just a few minutes of 

consultation. 

Statiistics have shown 

that in 2015, 5,994 

Nigerians made up a small 

percentage in the 460,000 

people who visited India, 

half of which reportedly 

visited for medical reasons. 

Over the past three years, 

this figure has increased 

with estimated 20,000 

Nigerians that visited the 

country majorly for medical 

tourism due to the sheer 

volume of medical experts 

and easy accessibility to 

top-notch medical 

infrastructure in the Asian 

nation almost 8,000 

kilometers away. 

India’s medical sector 

contributed $79 Billion to 

the country’s GDP in 2012 

and this figure was doubled 

in just five years rising as 

high as $160 Billion in 

2017, making up 17 

percent of the country’s 

generated revenue. 

Whereas it was reported 

that Nigeria spend $1 

billion annually on medical 

GLAUCOMA: NMA harps on regular eye screening 

By Chioma Obinna 

ON this year’s World 

Glaucoma Week, the 

Nigeria Medical 

Association, NMA, has 

urged Nigerians from age 

40 and above to go for 

regular eye screening at 

least once a year as part of 

strategies to nip glaucoma 

disease in the bud. 

Making the call in a 

press statement issued 

weekend and signed by its 

mental health. 

“Children need even more 

sleep for optimal learning 

and play. Recent research 

shows the importance of 

adequate amount of sleep 

for brain health. 

Sleep also keeps the brain 

working best, especially 

when learning,” he 

remarked. 

Chairman, Committee on 

Eye Health, Dr Biyi Kufo 

expressed worry that the 

disease has become a 

public health concern. 

According to him, cases 

of glaucoma is on the rise 

in Nigeria. 

He said regular 

screening of the eyes by a 

qualified ophthalmologist 

once a year would help 

people with the disease 

access treatment early and 

prevent blindness. 

He said surgery has 

been found to be more 

effective in the treatment of 

glaucoma than medical 

management alone. 

Kufo added that 

glaucoma remains a 

leading cause of blindness 

worldwide and in Nigeria, 

with a national prevalence 

of blindness of 4.2 

percent; glaucoma 

contributes 16.7 percent 

Non invasive blood glucose monitor 

debuts in Nigeria 

with a laboratory reference 

device. Clinical trials have 

confirmed that it is as 

accurate as the finger 

pricking. However when 

the finger pricking does not 

clean the finger prior to 

sticking the egm1000 is 

more accurate. When the 

finger pricking wrongly 

takes the first drop of blood 

instead of the second, then 

the egm1000 is also more 

accurate. 

The desire to develop a 

non-invasive glucose 

monitor came from a 

Founder of Evia, the late 

Dr. David Freger. 

David had diabetes and 

like many who suffer from 

the life-long debilitating 

disease, was sick and tired 

of pricking his fingers to 

draw blood several times 

each day. 

treatments abroad. 

With these facts in 

consideration, SeekMed, a 

user-friendly mobile 

interactive medicine 

application which is 

available for download on 

Google Play Store, allows 

patients and physicians to 

communicate in real-time 

while maintaining HIPAA 

compliance. 

The mobile app is set to 

curb the inconceivable 

amount of money spent on 

medical diagnosis and 

travel plans whilst offering 

Nigerians access to a host 

of top-ranked physicians 

right from the comfort of 

their home and on their 

mobile phone. 

Co-Founder, Sharad 

Dubey also explained that 

the unique features of the 

mobile App include and not 

limited to access to India’s 

leading physicians who 

would send reports and 

write prescriptions as well 

as an unlimited upload of 

files. “You can also mark 

your favorite physician for 

quicker identification and 

seamless follow-up. Why 

spend a huge amount of 

money going to India for 

medical consultation when 

there is healing on a mobile 

phone,”he added. 

of that figure. Lamenting 

poor management of the 

disease Kufo said more 

awareness on glaucoma is 

needed. 

“Glaucoma consists of a 

group of diseases that 

affect the optic nerve 

which connects the eye to 

the area of the brain 

responsible for the 

sensation of sight, and 

glaucoma if untreated, 

results in loss of optic 

nerve function, and 

irreversible blindness. 

“Most often, when we 

talk about glaucoma, we 

are referring to its most 

common form, primary 

open-angle glaucoma, 

which is also sometimes 

called chronic open angle 

glaucoma. 

It is referred to as open 

angle because in this 

condition, the angle 

between the transparent 

cornea in front of the eye 

and the iris, which is 

usually seen as dark 

brown inside the eye 

remains open. 

“In most cases glaucoma 

does not present with any 

symptoms, until the late 

stages of the disease, 

meaning that people who 

have the disease often do 

not know until it is 

advanced and the vision is 

seriously affected. They 

usually then experience 

cloudiness which gradually 

worsens vision 

deteriorates,” he explained.


Lagos pharmacists give Sanwo-Olu 4-point agenda 


TOWARDS expanding 

frontiers in the quest to 

build a virile and 

productive health system 

that will be a a National 

benchmark in the running 

of health inclined 

endeavours in Nigeria, 

pharmacists under the 

aegis of the Pharmaceutical 

Society of Nigeria, Lagos 

State branch, have outlined 

a 4-point agenda for the 

Lagos State Governor-elect, 

Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu. 

Presenting the 4-point 

agenda before the 

Governor-elect in a 

congratulatory letter, 

Pharm Adeniran Bolanle 

and Pharm Babayemi 

Oyekunle, the Chairman 

and Secretary of the PSN 

Lagos branch, respectively, 

called for re-organisation of 

the Managed Healthcare 

Programme of the State 

Government which they 

described as “appearing 

haphazard” and “unduly 

skewed” against prime 

stakeholders in healthcare 

as presently structured. 

“This is to ensure an 

impactful programme 

which shall have 

commensurate coverage/ 

growth rate. It is a 

worrisome commentary to 

put on record that coverage 

of the NHIS at national 

level since inception in 

2006 remains an abysmally 

woeful less than 2.0 percent 

(1.72 percent based on the 

declaration of the last 

Executive Secretary of the 

Scheme). The woes of the 

NHIS is holistically 

traceable to a poor 

implementation mode 

through and through,” 

they noted. 

The PSN called on the 

new Governor to urgently 

open hitherto restricted 

borders of restriction in 

benefit packages available 

to health professionals in 

terms of privileges and 

resources. 

“The welfare of all health 

professionals must be 

grounded on equity, 

fairplay and justice to all 

concerned. Our Lagos 

cannot continue to walk on 

the path of greatness if only 

a personage as epitomised 

by dominating the policy 

direction of the State 

Ministry of Health in 20 

straight years. 

“We at the Pharmaceutical 

Society of Nigeria (Lagos 

State Branch) continue to 

assure Your Excellency of 

our determination to work 

with you and in this 

direction, we declare very 

boldly that we have a pack 

of broad spectrum 

members who can help 

move your administration 

to the next level which is 

the greater Lagos we 

dream of.” 

The Lagos PSN is also 

COMMON SEXUAL PROBLEMS AND THEIR NOVELTY BASED SOLUTIONS (ADVERTORIAL) 

IWANT to buy a gift for my wife that can help her 

enjoy life particularly her sex life. The woman has 

really suffered because it took us five years to have 

our first child and this affected her libido and 

prevented her from really enjoying intercourse for 

years. What is the best adult gift that I can give to 

her? James 

The first thing we have to do is to restore her sexual 

desire. Nothing does this better than the right 

aphrodisiac. For this I recommend the G Female 

Tablets. It will balance her hormones, increase her 

desire for intercourse and help her lubricate better 

when aroused. 

And then to ensure she actually enjoys sex when she 

gets to have it, you need two things. The first is an 

arousal gel and the other is a vibrator. For the arousal 

gel, I recommend the Red Lips Orgasm Gel. For the 

vibrator, we have many of them but if you want the 

best, take the Classic Rabbit Vibrator – Uche 

Dear Uche, I am 54 years old, married with kids but 

I do not have any sex life again. For about five years 

now, I have not gone more than one round with my 

wife and I am so ashamed of myself. I am gradually 

pushing my wife to have extra marital affairs just to 

satisfy her. 

For years now I have not had a full erection as well. 

Currently I am on high blood pressure medication 

and I am also treating for typhoid and other infections. 

Twenty years ago I contracted Herpes Simplex virus 

and I understand it has no cure. 

Could this be the cause of my problems? Is there 

hope for me? I also have a small penis which is 

embarrassing and I am thinking of going for 

enlargement as well – Femi 

Dear Femi, I want to first assure you that your sexual 

performance problems have nothing to do with the 

fact that you have herpes. Herpes infection is common. 

It has no cure because the virus bonds with your spinal 

cord and becomes a part of you. But with protection, 

seeking establishment of a 

Faculty of Pharmacy at the 

Lagos State University 

(LASU), Ojo as part of their 

aspiration to build capacity 

in the march towards the 

greater Lagos initiative, 

even as they are calling for 

revalval of dwindling 

fortunes of the Drug 

Revolving Fund project as 

a major tool to ensure 

availability of drugs in 

public hospital pharmacies 

you can have a normal sex life. It is just that once the 

outbreaks come, they can be very irritating because of 

the itchiness of the blisters. But they go after a while 

too. Apply Skineal on the rashes whenever you have 

a herpes outbreak. 

Now regarding your sexual problems, from what I can 

understand, you cannot go more than one round 

during sex. Also, your erection is not strong and your 

penis is small. Here is what you need. For strong 

erections, multiple rounds and prolonged action, get 

Black Panther Pills. 

It helps with penis enlargement when used consistently 

and will not clash with your blood pressure medications. 

For enlargement purposes, you will need to combine 

VigRx pills with a penis pump for faster and more 

permanent results. So try these and get back to me. 

We deal with such issues regularly and you will be 

fine – Uche 

Please is Black Panther Pills like Viagra that you take 

before sex to get erection or is it a capsule you take 

over time for permanent results? – Isaac 

Black Panther is not like Viagra because it is mainly 

made of natural herbs and yes it works over a period 

of time while you are taking it. One capsule works for 

three to five days. Black Panther pills also help control 

premature ejaculation and increases your sexual 

stamina and recovery time – Uche 

Do you have Strap-On for women? – Adaeze 

Yes we do. There is even a version that vibrates as 

well. Call the numbers below – Uche 

That is all for today. Adults in need of these treatments/ 

novelties can call us on 08171912551, 08027901621 or 

07086754515 for help. We can also be reached via 

whatsapp on 08188153279 and instagram on 

zeevirtualmedialtd. Visit www.zeevirtualmedia.com 

to view our entire range of products or to order online. 

Zee Virtual Media delivers all over Nigeria. Email us 

at custserv@zeevirtualmedia.com- Uche Edochie, 

MD, Zee Virtual Media. 

in Lagos State. 

“Your Excellency, the 

Pharmaceutical Society of 

Nigeria (Lagos State 

Branch) will commit itself 

to offering advice to the 

Lagos State Government at 

Expert links treatment failure to fake drugs 

By Juliet Umeh 

TO curb a lot of deaths 

resulting from fake drugs 

in Nigeria, the new Chief 

Executive Officer of a 

healthcare company, Oculus 

Pharmacare Limited, Pharm. 

Valentine Ezeiro, has called 

on the government for stiffer 

measures to check charlatans 

engaging in fake products 

thereby tarnishing the image 

of the the profession. 

Speaking with Vanguard at 

the retirement celebration of 

the former CEO of the 

company, Sir Clifford 

Nzimako in Sheraton Hotel 

Lagos, last week, Ezeiro said 

the major challenge of the 

pharmaceuticals industry in 

Nigeria is that most of the 

products in the market are fake 

and some others are 

substandard. 

He said when the patients 

start taking them, they will 

have what is called treatment 

failures and that's why you 

there are a lot of deaths in 

Nigeria. 

He said: “Government 

should encourage 

Pharmaceutical companies 

that are ethical in their 

operations and then begin to 

do more things to check those 

charlatans that are spoiling the 

image of the industry. 

He noted that it is to avoid 

such grave consequence that 

Oculus Pharmacare has 

maintained quality for close to 

three decades of its existence. 

He, however, charged 

Nigerians to shun cheap 

products which consequently 

result in treatment failures. 

Disclosing where he hopes 

to see the company in the next 

few years, Ezeiro said the 

company's turnover presently 

is at 1. 3 billion. 

He said: “In the next two to 

three years, we should take it 

to three billion, that's my 

target.” 

Also speaking, the retired 

CEO, Nzimako called for an 

enabling environment such as 

power generation for the 

no cost on how to achieve 

zero funding for these 

projects which only 

requires sound cost 

recovery mechanism as a 

bedrock,” the PSN 

excecutives noted. 

pharmaceutical industry and 

other businesses to enable 

them to thrive. 

He said: “One of the 

challenges of the industry is 

that if you want to 

manufacture, you have to 

provide your own power. For 

a small company, that is trying 

to start, it is difficult because 

they channel the resources 

they could have used for 

marketing and promotions 

into power generation.


Nigeria, India: Consumers dump kerosene, gas as high prices 

persist –--- Study • Deforestation, erosion, other problems to worsen 

Stories by Udeme Akpan 

THE relatively high prices 

of kerosene and cooking gas 

have compelled many 

households to take to increased 

utilisation of firewood in Nigeria. 

Investigation by Vanguard 

showed that while the price of 

kerosene currently stands at 

between N200 and N300 per 

litre, depending on location, the 

price of cooking gas stands at 

N4,000 (N12.5 kg), which many 

households said they cannot 

afford. 

A visit to some markets in Lagos 

and its environs showed that 

trading in firewood, charcoal and 

cow dung has become a very brisk 

business. 

Many previously fertile lands 

were also observed to be bare in 

the outskirts, including Ikorodu 

and Ijebu Ode, thus exposing the 

environment to deforestation, 

erosion and other environmental 

challenges. 

Study 

In their recent study obtained 

by Vanguard, the Global 

Subsidies Initiative of IISD, with 

ENERGIA and partners, Spaces 

for Change, IRADe and 

Bangladesh Institute for 

Development Studies stated: 

“With a 40-50 per cent price 

increase in India and Nigeria, the 

majority said they would reduce 

subsidised fuel consumption and/ 

or revert to biomass. 

“Switching back to biomass has 

time and health implications for 

women, given they were found 

to be the primary cooks in all three 

countries surveyed. Women more 

frequently collect the wood or 

dung and are exposed to the 

smoke. Some households also 

reported secondary impacts such 

as a reduced ability of members 

to undertake activities that require 

lighting, such as studying and 

leisure time (e.g. in Bangladesh 

linked to kerosene).” 

The study, involving surveys 

with 2,400 households as well as 

focus group discussions in 

Bangladesh, India and Nigeria 

and an initial scoping phase 

included a review of 28 episodes 

of fossil-fuel subsidy reform, and 

research of secondary data in 

Indonesia stated: “Millions of 

dollars worth of fossil fuel 

subsidies could be better targeted 

by governments to benefit poor 

women.” 

It stated: “Currently, 

governments globally spend the 

equivalent of USD400 billion on 

subsidies. That’s around 10 times 

more than is needed to plug the 

universal education gap (USD 39 

billion), around seven times more 

than the global energy access gap 

(USD 56 billion) and more than 

enough to finance SDG health 

targets (USD 134-371 billion).” 

Subsidy 

The study stated: “Overall, the 

research found fuel subsidies do 

not work well for poor women. A 

large share of subsidies accrues 

to wealthier segments of the 

population because those people 

have higher consumption levels 

and better access to energy. This 

effect is particularly strong for 

liquefied petroleum gas, LPG, as 

the researchers found in India, 

and also for a ‘poor people’s fuel’ 

like kerosene, as observed in 

Bangladesh and Nigeria. 

“Subsidies do not guarantee 

lower fuel prices—and may even 

create price premiums by 

increasing fuel scarcity. Even in 

countries with fixed fuel prices, 

households were found to pay 

significantly more. In Nigeria, 

low-income women reported 

paying between two to six times 

more than the official price for 

kerosene, and in Bangladesh, 

14per cent more for kerosene. 

“As a result, households in these 

countries were often not aware 

of the existence of a subsidy. 

These findings imply that any 

benefits from subsidies are even 

lower than previously estimated.” 

It stated: “The burden of 

queuing for scarce cooking or 

lighting fuels frequently falls on 

women. In Nigeria, women 

reported queuing for hours and 

sometimes all day to get 

kerosene. In Lagos, Nigeria, 57 

per cent of survey respondents 

preferred informal dealers for 

THE average price 

of Organisation of 

Petroleum Exporting 

countries, OPEC’s basket 

of fourteen crudes in the 

past one week averaged 

$66.62 compared with 

$65.05 recorded the 

previous week. 

According to OPEC’s 

calculation, the highest 

price of crude was 

recorded on March 14, 

2019, which averaged 

$67.29 per barrel, while 

the lowest price for the 

period under review 

averaged $66.01. 

Source: NNPC 

convenience and availability, 

despite higher prices and safety 

risks of adulterated fuel.” 

Recommendation 

The study which found other 

factors that could be significant 

for fuel switching and better 

access to cleaner fuels for women 

stated: “Better-educated women 

are more likely to choose LPG (as 

in Nigeria). Existing patterns of 

decision- making and purchasing 

power over energy choices within 

the household also need to be 

considered (educating men as 

well as women around energy 

choices). 

“Other likely important factors 

include improving the 

distribution or electricity system, 

especially to rural areas and to 

the poor, in order to provide 

alternatives to switch to. In India, 

large drives to expand LPG 

distribution have played an 

important role in enabling greater 

access. Culture (tastes and 

preferences) may still matter 

more (e.g. in Nigeria).” 

It added: “Finally, investing in 

subsidy alternatives could 

empower women more directly. 

In Nigeria, surveyed households 

did not prioritise energy subsidies 

over other kinds of support when 

asked what kind of government 

support households preferred - 

jobs, health, financial support and 

education to access to modern 

energy. While households might 

undervalue the benefits of modern 

energy, this nevertheless raises 

the question of whether the 

billions spent on an inefficient 

subsidy system might not be 

better spent on social protection 

programmes.” 

Oil exploration, production, others gasp for $11trn 

investments–--- OPEC 

THE Organisation of Petroleum 

Exporting Countries, OPEC, 

has disclosed that $11 trillion would 

be required to invest in oil and gas 

exploration, production, refining 

and distribution of petroleum 

products between now and 2040. 

In his presentation at the CSIS 

Luncheon, Washington DC, USA 

obtained by Vanguard, the 

Secretary-General of OPEC, HE 

Mohammad Barkindo stated: 

“This is all brought home by the 

scale of the investment 

requirements. Oil-related 

investments across the upstream, 

midstream and downstream are 

estimated at around $11 trillion in 

the period to 2040. 

“We also need to recall that 

exploration and production 

spending fell by an enormous 27 

per cent in both 2015 and 2016, 

and only increased by 8 per cent 

in both 2017 and 2018. This only 

adds to the worry that if our 

industry is concerned about 

policies that detrimentally impact 

oil and investments, with talk of 

stranded assets and declining 

values of oil; then we have a 

potentially dangerous scenario, 

one that could increase volatility 

significantly and lead to a future 

energy shortfall. 

“Additionally, as often noted by 

Bob Dudley, BP’s CEO, we need 

to emphasize this is not a race to 

renewables alone; it is a race to 

lower greenhouse gas emissions. 

We believe that we need to 

constantly improve the 

environmental footprint of all the 

energies we use. 

“For oil and gas, the 

environmental challenge is not oil 

and gases themselves, it is the 

emissions that come from burning 

them. In OPEC, we are firm 

believers that solutions can be 

found in technologies that reduce 

and ultimately eliminate these 

emissions.” 

OGTAN holds second annual international conference, 

exhibition in Lagos Nigerian Content Development 

THE Oil and Gas Trainers 

Association of Nigeria 

(OGTAN), in collaboration with 

and Monitoring Board 

(NCDMB) has concluded 

arrangements to host its second 

annual international 

conference and exhibition 

tagged, “Human Capital 

Development: as a Driver for 

National Transformation”, 

billed to take place next month 

at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos 

from 13 to 16 of April, 2019. 

OGTAN recognizes the link 

between the quality of a 

nation’s workforce and its 

economic growth, noting that 

an onslaught of complex and 

broad ranging socio-economic 

challenges including poor 

governance, corruption, 

inadequate infrastructure, 

outdated educational 

curriculum, poor funding of 

research centres, social unrest 

and increasing poverty, just to 

mention a few, have affected 

the Nigerian human capital 

over the years. 

The training association, in 

identifying this gap shall 

assemble resource persons to 

deliberate on the solutions as 

it relates to generating 

sustainable employment with a 

direct impact on the country’s 

GDP. 

While it admits the urgent 

need to address the widening 

debt profile of states and 

unemployment among 

Nigeria’s young population, 

OGTAN is also using this 

conference to address the rapid 

advancement of digitalization, 

automation, artificial 

intelligence, and how it 

compounds the increasing 

concern about the future of job 

security, wealth redistribution, 

and comparatively rising cost 

of implementing local content 

where these advancements are 

lacking. 

C 

M 

Y 

K


PRESENTATION: Delivery Integration Lead, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, 

SNEPCo, Solape Akinola; SNEPCo’s Managing Director, Bayo Ojulari; Group Managing Director of 

NNPC, Maikanti Baru; and General Manager, Business and Government Relations of Shell Nigeria, 

Bashir Bello, at a presentation of the book: ‘In Pursuit of Excellence’ in Abuja. 

Investors need to embrace new opportunities 

--–– Wabote 

By Udeme Akpan 

THE Nigerian Content 

Development and 

Monitoring Board, NCDMB, 

has stressed the need for 

indigenous oil and gas 

companies to embrace and 

exploit new investment 

opportunities in Nigeria’s oil and 

gas industry. 

The Executive Secretary, 

NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote 

who disclosed this in Lagos 

stated: “As we encourage and 

support the establishment of 

these capacities and capabilities 

in-country, we are also conscious 

of the need to project the 

opportunities available to 

investors so that the established 

facilities do not lie fallow. 

“In fact, it is important for 

investors and other stakeholders 

to have line of sight to project 

opportunities in the funnel so 

that they can position themselves 

for the desired growth.” 

He said: “The maiden edition 

of the Nigerian Oil and Gas 

Opportunity Fair, NOGOF, was 

held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, 

with over 1,200 delegates, 33 

exhibitors and presentation of 

industry opportunities covering 

engineering designs, pipeline 

construction, facility upgrades 

and projects in the various 

sectors of the industry. In spite 

of the prevailing business 

environment at the time, we 

were able to provide a platform 

for industry players of the 

inherent opportunities in the 

sector. 

“This year’s event promises to 

be spectacular with the relative 

stability in the industry and a 

fairly encouraging level of oil 

prices. So, it is with great pride 

that we announce that we have 

put all machineries in motion to 

bring together major players 

across the Upstream, Midstream 

and Downstream sectors of the 

Nigerian Oil and Gas industry 

as well as Government 

Agencies, Industry regulators 

and the National Assembly to 

showcase Opportunities in this 

industry and present available 

in-country capacity to all 

stakeholders in attendance. This 

year’s edition is themed 

“Maximizing Investments into 

the Nigerian Oil and Gas 

Industry for the benefit of the 

Nigerian People”. 

He said: “As always, one of the 

key objectives of NOGOF is to 

bring together governments, 

national oil companies, investors, 

corporate players and 

independents, we can give them 

a unique space within our 

country to network, discuss and 

share knowledge. The Fair 

attracts the highest quality of 

speakers as our sessions are led 

by leaders of industry, Ministers, 

head of NOCs, leading 

geoscientists and CEOs from 

major local and international oil 

and gas companies.” 

...as ES inaugurates 

project 100 mangt office 

Mr. Wabote has inaugurated 

the Project Management Office 

for Project 100, an initiative 

launched by the Minister of State 

for Petroleum Resources, Dr. 

Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu on 

January 31, 2019. 

Members of the PMO were 

drawn from the Ministry of 

Petroleum Resources, the 

Nigerian National Petroleum 

Corporation, NNPC and 

Petroleum Technology 

Development Fund, PTDF and 

they would function within the 

NCDMB. The PMO would be 

supported by KPMG, an 

international consultancy that 

has been working on the project. 

Speaking at the ceremony, the 

Executive Secretary said the 

members were carefully selected 

in view of the relevance of their 

functions in the delivery of the 

Supplier Development Programs 

that will drive the growth of 

Nigerian service companies. 

He listed five key areas the 

PMO will focus on to include 

managing the ongoing process 

and refinement of Project 100 

strategy, managing the selection, 

acceleration and graduation 

process of Project 100 

beneficiaries and managing the 

implementation of initiatives for 

the various target beneficiaries. 

Other assignments include 

developing fact-based 

documentation of performance of 

Project 100 interventions and 

impact on local content and 

managing wide relationships 

and partnerships with public 

and private sector entities that 

support the delivery of Project 

100 initiatives and 

interventions. 

He charged members of the 

PMO to work assiduously to 

create a pool of high performing 

large scale enterprises that will 

impact positively on job 

creation, retention of industry 

spend within the Nigerian 

economy, development of 

skilled manpower, robust 

policies, and access to credible 

data. 

Wabote also directed the 

members to identify the various 

areas of interest of the 

beneficiaries and provide them 

opportunities in collaboration 

with theNational Petroleum 

Investment Management 

Services, NAPIMS.

28—VANGUARD, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019

VANGUARD, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019—29


VANGUARD, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019—31



Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

Requiem for Pius Adesanmi 

OUR paths never crossed on 

this earth, but we had a lot 

in common. We shared a similar 

worldview and intellectual culture 

as columnists and public 

intellectuals. He was an Okun 

Yoruba from Kabba, which made 

him my fellow Middle Belt 

compatriot. Like him, I also 

studied French language and 

civilisation, although mine was 

preparatory for post-graduate 

work in Economics, Public 

Administration and Law. We both 

had the privilege of moving freely 

from French Cartesian 

philosophical thinking to Anglo- 

Saxon philosophical empiricism - 

the best preparation, in my view, 

for any public intellectual worthy 

of the name. 

I had just arrived Casablanca, 

Morocco, for an international 

conference when news came that 

an Ethiopian Airlines plane had 

crashed less than 10 minutes after 

take-off on Sunday, March 10, 

killing all 157 passengers and 

crew. Two Nigerians also perished 

in that awful tragedy - 

Ambassador Abiodun Bashua, a 

top UN official and Canada-based 

literary theorist Pius Adesanmi. 

The Nigerian intelligentsia were 

thrown into mourning. I have 

always believed that highachievers 

among the Nigerian 

Diaspora like Bashua and 

Adesanmi are our unpaid 

ambassadors. The poor image our 

country has in the comity of 

nations has been assuaged by such 

men and women of excellence. We 

must evolve a better way to 

acknowledge and celebrate their 

achievements. 

Until his death, Adesanmi was a 

professor of literature and 

Director of the African Studies 

Centre at Carleton University, 

Ottawa. As fate would have it, 

another Nigerian Carleton 

professor from another 

generation, Claude Ake, also 

perished in an airplane disaster 

back in November 1996. Ake was 

indisputably the most influential 

political economist of his 

generation and a mentor to many, 

including my humble self. He had 

been appointed to a full 

professorship at Carleton at the 

unusual age of 28. Rumours had it 

that the Abacha military 

dictatorship may have had a hand 

in that air crash because of Ake’s 

principled opposition to the 

regime. 

Pius Adebola Adesanmi was born 

on February 27, 1972 in the small 

community of Isanlu in Yagba East 

Local Government Area of Kogi 

State. He attended the famous 

Titcombe College, Egbe, before 

proceeding to the University of 

Ilorin, where he earned a first class 

honours degree in 1992. He later 

earned a Master’s in Ibadan, 

subsequently completing a 

doctorate at the University of 

British Columbia in 2002. He 

began his academic career at Penn 

State in the United States before 

being appointed to a tenured 

professorship at Carleton. He was 

also Director of its Institute of 

African Studies. 

The late Adesanmi was a 

distinguished literary scholar and 

teacher and a much sought-after 

public speaker. His pen was as 

acerbic as was his tongue; oozing 

satire and unforgettable wit. In 

2015 he wrote criticising the Emir 

of Kano for taking an under-age 

girl for a wife. His Royal Highness 

was compelled to reply to the 

criticism; referring directly to 

Adesanmi in person. I myself had 

occasion to disagree with him. He 

once opined that the American 

approach to graduate work - with 

its coursework and comprehensive 

exams - was better preparation 

than the British and European 

system of direct research. 

As a matter of fact, research has 

I urge our 

government to 

accord 

posthumous 

national honours 

on both Bashua 

and Adesanmi 

shown that the classical Anglo- 

European approach has produced 

more discoveries and more pathbreaking 

ideas than the American. 

In the British system, for example, 

you cannot even be admitted if you 

do not have a First or a High 

Upper Second. Oxford and 

Cambridge believe so much in the 

quality of their undergraduate 

degree that graduates are 

automatically awarded an M. A. a 

few years after graduation. The 

Americans, on the other hand, 

open the doors to all sorts. They 

must of necessity design a system 

that weeds out the wheat from the 

chaff. 

I wholly concurred with him 

when he lamented the fact that ours 

has become an anti-intellectual 

anti-civilisation: “…when you 

declare war on philosophy, 

knowledge and critical 

intellection, the consequence, 

simply put, is Nigeria as you and I 

know it. Nigeria can, therefore, be 

defined as the absence and hostility 

to philosophy in the life of a 

nation”. Eulogies have come from 

far and wide. The Anglo-Canadian 

scholar, Michael Vickers, who 

taught at Ile-Ife in the sixties, had 

this to say: “Profound sadness. 

Immense loss….The Creator, it 

often seems, has a serious grudge 

against Nigeria and Nigerians.” 

Distinguished political scientist 

Richard Joseph wrote: “An 

irreplaceable man has gone. A 

silence descended upon me, a 

pregnant silence. I could not even 

recover to write this tribute, doing 

so only after request by friends and 

his family members….The pain 

refuses to leave.” 

One of his friends, Frank 

Dempster Sherman, had this to 

stay: “He opened the way to a 

larger discourse on the limits of 

superstructure, while also creating 

a path to extensive reflections on 

the social and cultural formations 

of contemporary Africa….Pius’s 

energy and enthusiasm for 

everything that life had to offer was 

infectious and inspiring. Those 

who knew him would admire his 

strength, his passion, his resilience, 

his exuberance, and his adorably 

audacious character. ” 

Another close friend, Samuel 

Oloruntoba, wrote from South 

Africa: “At a point yesterday, I just 

(lay) down flat on the bare floor of 

my office to ask God how to cope 

with this. This has nothing to do 

with the plans that we had together 

but the void that has been left - on 

the ideals that he stood for, his 

mother, who served us pounded 

yam in their Ilorin home in July 

last year, his wife and daughter and 

the manner of the tragic death…. 

a part of me is gone.” 

Writing from Rutgers University, 

Bode Ibironke had this to say: “The 

last time I saw Pius was in 

Michigan, at a conference….He 

made everyone laugh as he 

threaded together satirical 

narrative and theoretical 

arguments. His charm, his 

brilliance, his confidence, and his 

special skill in human connection 

made him so attractive…. How 

could one not tremble? What sort 

of gift is life when it’s never really 

our own?” Eminent historian 

Toyin Falola, President of the 

African Studies Association and 

Jacob and Frances Sanger 

Mossiker Chair in the Humanities 

at the University of Texas, 

eulogised him thus: “He is not 

dead. He cannot die. The tumult 

of life is different from the history 

of life. For a heart so large, in 

clouds and sun, rain and hurricane, 

our brother will always be 

here…” 

Remarkably, he seemed to have 

had a premonition of his own 

impending death. On Sunday, 

March 3, he wrote in his column: 

“I write basically these days 

because of archaeology. A 

thousand years from now, 

archaeologists would be interested 

in how some people called 

Nigerians lived in the 20 th and 

21 st centuries. If they dig and 

excavate, I am hoping that 

fragments of my writing survive to 

point them to the fact that not all 

of them accepted to live as slaves 

of the most irresponsible rulers.” 

And on Saturday, March 9, a day 

before his death, he posted his own 

picture on Facebook with a quote 

from Psalms 139 vs. 9-10: “If I take 

the wings of the morning and 

dwell in the uttermost parts of the 

sea, even there your hand shall 

lead me, and your right hand shall 

hold me.” 

He was among the ornaments of 

our endangered species of 

intelligentsia. He leaves behind an 

aged mother, his wife, Muyiwa, 

and a daughter, Tise, whom he 

adored with all his life. I pray our 

Good Lord to comfort them. I also 

urge our government to accord 

posthumous national honours on 

both Bashua and Adesanmi. Sic 

transit gloria mundi! 

Re-founding the Nigerian state and Buhari’s next level 

By Charles Onunaiju 

DESPITE sustained and uninterrupted 

civil rule in the nearly past two decades, 

the Nigerian state is essentially wobbling and 

even growing hollow. The ideals of the state 

expressed in its constitutional provisions are 

considerably constrained by institutions that 

should ordinarily facilitate its realisation. With 

the state increasingly rendered hollow, its 

institutional infrastructure is upended with a 

consequence of serious critical deficit in the 

regular function of processes outlined in the 

constitutional framework. A hollow state is 

characterised by institutional weakness and 

re-configuring its structural framework as 

agitators for restructuring have vociferously 

espoused cannot compensate for institutional 

inertia and dysfunction. In fact, only a strong 

state, with sufficient institutional integrity and 

credibility can guarantee the fragmentary 

structure of a federal framework. 

However, the simple reason that institutional 

inertia has hobbled the Nigerian state and 

rendered it grossly incapable of matching its 

expressed ideals with concrete service delivery 

of improving the living conditions of the vast 

majority of her population, despite the manifest 

abundance of resources to do so, is because 

the institutions are not rooted in the reality of 

the country and its people. To the extent of its 

alien nature, operators of the institutions are 

free to undermine or even co-opt it, in the 

pursuit of criminal activities or any other thing 

except for the purpose, it was formally designed 

to fulfill or achieve. 

With a false start that has stretched over half 

a century, growth in the economy and advances 

in democratisation has not translated to any 

substantive improvements in the living 

conditions of the people. Even routine and 

periodic political competitions through multiparty 

process that should have regularised with 

little or no friction has grown lethal and even 

more explosive. At the recent presentation of 

certificates of return to winners of the National 

Assembly elections, the Chairman of the 

Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, 

urged the incoming lawmakers to process 

Any meaningful “next level” 

of the President Buhari's 

second term must consist 

essentially in re-founding the 

Nigerian state through 

elaborate review, re-definition 

and re-invention of the 

institutions of the state 

legislation that will improve the electoral laws 

and make elections less susceptible to violence 

and manipulation. Such exhortation is forlorn 

and non-starter because it is not the electoral 

process that is the problem, but the institutions 

of the state that would be accessed through 

elections. 

When institutions are re-defined and reinvented 

for purposes linked to the people and 

rendered in such manner, in which the people 

are substantially engaged to it, through 

holding it responsible and accountable, 

operators would either shape into its purpose 

or ship out for incompetence or inability to 

deliver on its promise. Only in this context 

would democracy and democratisation 

capture the finest enthusiasm of our people, 

translate it to constant modernisation of the 

state, while maintaining steady momentum 

in the advances of institutions and its capacity 

to process growing sophistication of a 

changing society. 

Clearly, any meaningful “next level” of the 

President Muhammadu Buhari's second term 

must consist essentially in re-founding the 

Nigerian state through elaborate review, redefinition 

and re-invention of the institutions 

of the state. This is not a call for constitutional 

review or a summon of any national 

conference. Re-framing the conditions for the 

existence of the state is not political jobbery 

and would have nothing to do with the 

razzmatazz of any normal political festivity. 

It is serious work of political thought and 

theory, requiring an unusual hard thinking. 

For this purpose, President Buhari should 

quietly and without fanfare assemble a 

presidential think-tank to be composed by 

eminent and not-so-eminent scholars and 

intellectuals with an unusual depth of thinking 

drawn from history, philosophy, law, social 

science, natural science, humanities, literature, 

art and cultural studies. They would 

interrogate Nigeria’s unique reality, deploy 

strict scientific method to deconstruct the 

realities and construct or build relevant 

theories to understand its complexities and 

arrive at its pure objective outcomes. The 

purpose of these inquiries is to find connections 

and linkages between public institutions and 

the public they serve, and bring them, in 

tandem with the purpose of state and why it 

should exist. 

The law, which in its broad sense is a social 

instrument for the regulation of society would 

be put in a context, and not a life-less machine 

manipulated to serve pecuniary interests. 

Democracy in the sense of institutional 

synthesis between our aggregate norms, values 

and attitudes would radiate our realities, put 

our shortcomings in context and expose the 

relevant instruments for addressing and 

tackling it, while endowing us with the 

prerogative to manage our progress. 

With elections just over, the posturing and 

jostling for plum public offices, or struggles to 

occupy public institution is intense. In all 

desperation to occupy public institutions, it is 

customary now, that not many would give a 

thought to the responsibilities accruing from 

it but only the benefits and rewards. It will be 

another four years to use public institutions to 

position for the capture of even higher 

institutions. By 2023, when the presidency shall 

be officially vacant, the brigandage of the 2019 

elections would be a child play. President 

Buhari can alter all that if he sets out 

immediately to take the unusual measure of 

re-founding the Nigerian state. 

When a state institution aligns with the vision 

and purpose of the state, discharges its duty in 

pursuit of the high ideals of the state, society 

would not become paradise on earth but can 

proceed in an orderly fashion to address itself 

to the routine challenges of its very existence. 

In contemporary Nigeria, the fabric of 

collective existence is under intense stress and 

good leadership in the subjective sense cannot 

alter the tenacity of the intensity. 

*Onunaiju, a political commentator, wrote 

from Abuja. 

C 

M 

Y 

K


Onu worked against APC 

in Ebonyi —Candidates 

By Dennis Agbo 

ENUGU—HOUSE of 

Assembly candidates of 

the All Progressives 

Congress, APC, in Ebonyi 

State, have accused the 

Minister of Science and 

Technology, Dr. 

Ogbonnaya Onu of 

working against the party 

in the just concluded 

elections in the state. 

While accepting that the 

minister made financial 

contributions to all APC 

House of Assembly 

candidates in the South 

East, they alleged that Onu 

worked against the party’s 

governorship candidate in 

Ebonyi State, Senator 

Sunni Ogbuoji. 

The candidates accused 

the minister of working in 

favour of his kinsman and 

Governor of Ebonyi State, 

Dave Umahi, who was 

candidate of the Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP.. 

At a press conference in 

Enugu, 17 out of the 24 


candidates of the APC in 

the state described the 

March 9 Governorship and 


elections in the state as a 

sham and an exercise 

characterised by electoral 

irregularities. 

Leader of the APC 

candidates, Jude Okpor 

said: “There were massive 

irregularities characterized 

by multiple voting as 


PDP, thugs and supporters 

used stockpiled Permanent 

Voter Cards, PVCs, which 

were released to them by 

INEC officials prior to the 

period of election. 

“In most cases, the use of 

Card Reader was 

abandoned while manual 

accreditation was used 

which resulted in multiple 

thumb printing of unused 

ballot papers in favour of the 

PDP resulting to the 

invalidation of valid votes 

of APC candidates. 

“Several cases of 

intimidation, harassment, 

assault, abduction of party 

members, arrest of House 

of Assembly candidates 

were witnessed in all the 

24 constituencies of Ebonyi 

State while election was 

going on. Security agents 

and PDP thugs in 

connivance with INEC 

officials were used to hijack 

sensitive materials to 

unknown places where 

results were written in 

favour of PDP." 

INEC's refusal to allow Atiku 

inspect results worrisome, 

says Obaze 

By Vincent 

Ujumadu 

AWKA—THE chairman 

of the Peoples 


presidential council in 

Anambra State, Mr. 

Oseloka Obaze has 

frowned at the continued 

refusal of the Independent 



allow the presidential 

candidate of PDP, Alhaji 

Atiku Abubakar to inspect 

the results of the February 

23 polls. 

In a statement in Awka, 

Obaze, who was the 

governorship candidate of 

PDP in the 2017 

governorship election in 

Anambra State said it was 

intriguing that INEC 

would continue to withhold 

the polling unit results and 

other election materials 

long after the results were 

announced. 

He said: “As the world 

watches Nigeria, it is 

intriguing that INEC 

continues to withhold 

polling unit results and 

other election materials, 

long after the presidential 

election results were 

announced. 

“By its conduct, INEC 

creates room for 

speculation and 

imaginations to roam 

freely. Indeed, Nigerians 

now wonder what INEC is 

hiding from them. 

“Whatever the 

encumbrances, INEC must 

defend its statutory position 

as an unbiased umpire by 

releasing election materials 

for public scrutiny and 

complying with court 

orders where applicable. 

“The polling unit results 

are not INEC property, but 

that of Nigerian voters and 

the legacy of dozens that 

tragically lost their lives 

while trying to defend their 

votes. INEC should stop 

dithering. It should acquit 

itself and prove to the world 

that it is neutral by 

releasing the Nigerian 

presidential polling unit 

results. They are our 

results.” 

OKOROCHA: Group plans massive 

protest against INEC 

•As protest hits Imo police, ahead of Saturday’s 

supplementary elections 

By Chinonso 

Alozie 

OWERRI—A group 

known as Presidential 

Support Committee, 

PSC, yesterday, said it 

would proceed with its 

planned protests should 

the Independent National 


INEC, fail to issue 

Governor Rochas Okorocha 

his Certificate of Return as 

Imo West senator-elect. 

PSC and Southeast 

professionals led by Emeka 

Ugwu-Oju and Maxwell 

Okoye respectively, made 

this disclosure in Owerri, 

adding that it had earlier 

given INEC March 18, 

2019 as deadline to meet 

their demand. 

It should be recalled that 

Imo West senatorial election 

was enmeshed in 

controversies as the 

returning officer, Innocent 

Ibeawuchi said he declared 

Okorocha winner under 

duress. Since then, INEC 

has refused to issue 

Okorocha a Certificate of 

Return on the report that he 

(Okorocha) was declared 

winner under duress. 

However, the argument 

by the groups was that 

INEC should either issue 

Okorocha a Certificate of 

Return or conduct a run-off 

election, adding that by law, 

INEC does not have right 

to withhold Okorocha’s 

Certificate of Return. 

They also called for the 

removal of the state 

Resident Electoral 

Commissioner, REC, 

Francis Ezeonu, claiming 

that they were no longer 

comfortable with his 

activities in the state. 

They said: “Under the 

constitution of the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria and 

Electoral Act, INEC lacks 

the power to withhold a 

Certificate of Return in an 

election duly declared in 

line with the laws of the 

land or cancel an election 

that met the minimum 

requirement of the law." 

This group therefore, 

called on INEC to as a 

matter of urgency, issue a 

Certificate of Return to 

Owelle Rochas Okorocha 

as Senator-elect, Imo West 

Senatorial District and to 

conduct a run-off election 

in line with Section 179 (4) 

of the constitution of 

Federal Republic of 

Nigeria. 

Protest hits Imo 

police, ahead of 

Saturday’s 

supplementary 

elections 

Meantime, scores of 

youths yesterday protested 

at the Imo State Police 

Command headquarters, 

ahead of Saturday's 

supplementary elections in 

the state. 

The youths who are from 

Ikeduru Local Government 

Area said that they wanted 

to be assured of adequate 

security in the forthcoming 

Saturday’s supplementary 

elections in Ikeduru and 

called for the arrest of the 

sponsor of the suspected 

bombers who were arrested 

in the last election in the 

area. 

It should be recalled that 

about 40 polling booths 

were said to have been 

cancelled in Ikeduru by the 



INEC, during the last 

Governorship/House of 

Assembly elections. 

It was in the same 

Ikeduru collation centre at 

Central School, Iho that it 

was reported that three 

persons suspected to be 

bombers came with 

explosives device. They 

were arrested by the 

military in the area at the 

time of collation excercise. 

As a result of this 

development, the youths 

said they were afraid of a 

similar thing happening in 

the Saturday’s election. 

According to one of their 

leaders, Samuel 

Nwokocha, “We want 

security to be guaranteed 

in the election that will hold 

on Saturday in 

Ikeduru. We are afraid of 

what happened last time 

and we are not happy that 

some people were 

mentioned as those who 

sponsored some boys to 

bomb the collation centre, 

but the person is still 

walking about freely. We 

want him to be arrested." 

...as Imo workers shun Okorocha’s biometric 

verification electronic payment of 

By Chidi 

Nkwopara 

OWERRI—Imo State 

branch of Nigeria 

Labour Congress, NLC, 

has rejected the planned 

biometric verification and 

Ugwuanyi's re-election well-deserved —NLC 

ENUGU State workers, 

through the Nigeria 

Labour Congress, NLC, 

have congratulated 

Governor Ifeanyi 

Ugwuanyi on his 

resounding victory at the 

March 9 governorship 

election in the state. 

In a congratulatory 

message signed by the 

State Chairman and acting 

Secretary of NLC, 

Comrade Virginus 

Nwobodo and Comrade 

Eddie Olorunwa Edema, 

the workers disclosed that 

the governor’s “track record 

of achievements and 

purposeful leadership in 

Enugu State”, earned him 

the landslide victory. 

APPRECIATION: From left, Minister of Health, Prof Folorunso Adewole; 

Veteran yoruba actor, Babatunde Omidina; and Chief Medical Director, 

Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Prof Chris Bode, 

when Omidina paid a thank-you visit to LUTH in Lagos, yesterday. 

Photo: Kehinde Gbadamos 

The workers stated that 

the governor’s re-election 

will “ensure continuation of 

good leadership, grassroots 

development as well as 

inclusive governance of our 

dear state”, which they said 

the governor has 

“continually placed in the 

hands of the Almighty 

God.” 

workers by the outgoing 

Rochas Okorocha 

administration. 

Labour also fumed over 

what it called “the 

discriminatory payment of 

February 2019 salary, which 

workers in the parastatals 

are yet to receive”. 

The workers' position was 

made public in a letter 

addressed to the state 

Accountant General and 

signed by the NLC 

Chairman and Secretary, 

Comrades Austin Chilakpu 

and Ken Onwuemeodo, 

respectively. 

Labour was of the view 

that the intended exercise, 

is a last minute policy was 

capable of adversely 

affecting the state public 

service. 

The aggrieved workers 

equally accused the 

Okorocha administration of 

“plotting to use the 

programme to sack 

workers, especially those in 

the accounts departments”. 

Labour also reminded the 

Accountant General that 

“the programme cannot be 

fully realized within the 

remaining life span of the 

present 

state 

administration”. 

The labour leaders further 

argued that “if the planned 

programme is extremely 

necessary, it should be left 

for the incoming 

administration”. 

They insisted that: “The 

programme is aimed at 

making the workers 

redundant, especially those 

in the Accounts 

Departments of the various 

ministries, departments 

and agencies. The 

cumulative effect of the 

redundancy would lead to 

arbitrary sacking of 

workers. 

“Imo workers will reject 

any policy or programme 

that is aimed at making 

workers redundant and 

capable of leading to the 

sacking of workers.” 

The labour leaders then 

called on the state 

government to pay the 

salary arrears of workers in 

the parastatals, without 

further delay.


Akpabio drags Ekpeyong to tribunal 

By Harris Emmanuel 

& Chioma Onuegbu 

UYO—THE battle for 

Akwa Ibom North- 

West senatorial seat has 

shifted to the tribunal, as 

Senator Godswill Akpabio 

has filed a petition in Uyo, 

the state capital, 

challenging the emergence 

of Dr. Chris Ekpeyong of 


PDP, as winner of the 

February 23 polls. 

Akpabio’s Press 

Secretary, Aniete Ekong, 

told Vanguard: “Following 

the withdrawal of his case 

filed at the Federal High 

Court in Abuja, which 

sought to challenge his 

Senate re-election loss, the 

candidate of All 


APC, for the Akwa Ibom 

North-West senatorial 

district in the February 23 

election, Akpabio, and his 

party, have approached the 

election tribunal sitting in 

Uyo, to kick-start the legal 

processes that would lead 

to the validation of his 

victory at the polls.” 

Akpabio is seeking to 

upturn the victory of 

Ekpeyong and PDP, based 

on perceived electoral 

irregularities which 

characterised the said 

election. 

The former Senate 

Minority Leader had 

accused Independent 


Commission, INEC, of 

infractions and deliberate 

violations of the electoral 

law and guidelines during 

the senatorial election. 

According to him, “in the 

said election, INEC had in 

collaboration with some 

PDP chieftains in the 

senatorial district, 

wrongfully declared 

Ekpeyong and his party, 

PDP, winner of the poll, 

having scored 118,215 as 

against Akpabio’s 83,158. 

“However, incontrovertible 

result sheets from 

Akwa Ibom INEC office 

showed different figures 

that had Akpabio securing 

138,256 votes as against 

Ekpeyong’s 123,843. 

“Dissatisfied with the 

conduct and outcome of the 

election, the former 

governor of Akwa Ibom 

State and his party vowed 

to approach the election 

petition tribunal to ventilate 

their grievances as well as 

reclaim their stolen 

mandate.” 

WORLD SLEEP DAY: From left— Commercial Director, Mouka Limited, Mr. Dimeji Osingunwa; 

Mouka Distributor, Mrs. Folasade Wilhelm; Managing Director, Mouka Limited, Mr. Raymond Murphy; 

Senior Marketing Manager, Mrs. Tolu Olanipekun, and President, Nigeria Association of Physiotherapy, 

Dr. Rufai Ahmad, during the celebration of World Sleep Day in Lagos. 

Concerned citizens to INEC, politicians: 

Don’t set Kano on fire 

By Abdulmumin 

Murtala 

K ANO—FOLLOWING 

tension over the 

declaration of governorship 

election in Kano State as 

inconclusive, some elders 

in the state on the platform 

Kano Concerned Citizens 

Initiative, KCCI, have 

pleaded with Independent 



rectify all the perceived 

challenges that 

characterised the February 

23 and March 9 elections 

to douse the tension ahead 

of the re-run. 

The group, led by the 

presidential candidate of 

the defunct National 

Republican Convention, 

NRC, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, 

warned that on no account 

should the state be set on 

fire because of personal 

ambition of individuals, 

urging INEC and its 

officials to be above board 

and avoid anything that 

could compromise the 

integrity of the re-run 

election. 

At a briefing yesterday to 

express worries over 

perceived tension in the 

state, Tofa said: “We 

strongly believe that all 

electoral staff must be told, 

in no uncertain terms, to be 

above board and that 

anyone found to be 

wanting must receive the 

maximum sanctions 

provided for by the 

Electoral Act and the 

Constitution. 

“Any act of commission or 

omission would be 


ASABA—THE Coalition 

of Delta All 


APC Support Groups, has 

told the governorship 

candidate of the party in 

the state, Chief Great 

Ogboru, not to go to 

tribunal to challenge the 

victory of Governor Ifeanyi 

squarely placed on its 

(INEC) shoulders. Officials 

must be aware that such acts 

may be the difference 

between peace and 

violence in our state.” 

Declaring that no acts of 

violence would be tolerated 

in the state, the group 

praised the efforts of 

security agencies and also 

called on them to do more 

during the re-run exercise 

as “it is arduous and 

daunting.” 

Tofa called on the Police 

to be apolitical and ensure 

that people from 

Okowa of Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP. 

Saying it would amount 

to waste of time and 

resources, the group said 

Deltans reflected who 

should be their governor 

through the ballot on 

March 9. 


Asaba, Convener of the 

coalition, Mr. Daniel 

neighbouring states, not 

residents in Kano, do not 

come into the state to 

participate in the March 23 

re-run elections to forestall 

unnecessary tension or 

violence. 

“Kano and Kanawa shall 

never allow our state to 

burn on account of 

anybody’s vaulting 

ambition to lead or govern 

us,” Tofa declared. 

The group equally called 

on the youths to stay away 

from violence and avoid 

being used to disrupt peace 

in the state. 

Ekiugbo, said: “INEC’s 

declaration was a true 

reflection of the wishes of 

the people of the state and 

I want to appeal to APC 

leadership not to support 

Ogboru in his decision to 

go to court. 

“It is obvious that 

challenging the outcome 

will be a wild goose chase. 

The margin is too wide for 

Nasarawa Minority Leader 

dumps PDP for APC 

By David Odama 

LAFIA—BARELY two 

weeks after the 

conduct of the 

governorship and state 


elections, the Minority 

Leader of Nasarawa 

State House of Assembly, 

Peter Mbucho, yesterday, 

dumped opposition 

Peoples Democratic 

Party, PDP, for All 

Progressives Party, 

APC, in the state. 

Speaker of the 

Assembly, Ibrahim 

Balarabe-Abdullahi, 

announced the 

lawmaker’s defection 

while reading 

Mbucho’s defection 

letter during 

proceedings in Lafia. 

The Speaker, who 

congratulated Mbucho 

for joining the ‘next 

level’ train, said 

Mbucho’s defection 

was a confirmation that 

APC is a family, adding 

that Mbucho's defection 

NGC tasks gas-bearing 

communities on peace 

By Jimitota 

Onoyume 

W 

A R R I — 

NIGERIAN 

Gas Company, NGC, 

has enjoined gas bearing 

communities in the Niger 

Delta region to continue 

to explore instrument of 

dialogue towards 

resolving conflicts, 

stressing that this will 

enable them benefit 

tremendously from the 

gas company’s corporate 

social responsibility 

projects. 

Managing Director of 

NGC, Mr. Babatunde 

Bakare, who spoke 

through Executive 

Director, Asset 

Management of the firm, 

Engr Ibrahim Yusuf, 

while commissioning 

and handing over a basic 

health centre built by the 

gas company at Ijomi 

community, Ethiope West 

Local Government Area 

of Delta State, added that 

the company would 

Going to tribunal, waste of time, APC group tells Ogboru 

any sane person to think of 

challenging it. 

“Ogboru had been 

challenging electoral 

victories in the past on 

allegations of being rigged 

out. 

“So this time around, the 

national leadership of APC 

now provided the level 

playing field so that he 

would not be rigged out. 

was a homecoming long 

overdue. 

Speaking, Mbucho said 

he joined APC to 

contribute his quota to the 

development of his 

constituency. 

He said: “I have left 

PDP and joined APC 

since March 8. I 

delivered my 

constituency to APC 



Assembly elections.” 

According to Mbucho, 

“I would continue to use 

my wealth of experience 

to add value to the APCled 

government at all 

levels.” 

Meanwhile, the House 

has received nomination 

of members of the 

Nasarawa State 

Independent Electoral 

Commission, NASIEC, 

and Nasarawa State Local 

Government Civil Service 

Commission from 

Governor Umaru Tanko Al- 

Makura for consideration 

and approval. 

continue to maintain 

healthy relationship with 

its host communities in the 

Niger Delta region. 

According to him, “as a 

responsible and 

responsive company, we 

remain committed to 

developing a robust and 

sustainable relationship 

with our host communities. 

“Their wellbeing is 

paramount in our 

corporate social 

responsibility thrust. That 

is why we are here today. 

“Therefore, we present 

to you this project, fully 

furnished basic health 

centre, as a token of 

appreciation and 

contribution to the 

development of Ijomi, 

which we cherish dearly 

as one of our peace-loving 

communities in Nigeria.” 

He urged the 

community to protect the 

health centre, adding that 

the community should also 

sustain its peace and 

support the growth of 

NGC operations. 

But he was overwhelmed, 

winning in just two out of 

25 local government areas.” 

Noting that APC lost the 

governorship election 

partly as a result of alleged 

diversion of over N3 billion 

that was released for the 

purpose of the election, he 

said there was no evidence 

that such money was ever 

disbursed.




Building Collapse: Experts call for strict enforcement of 

national building code 

By Kingley Adegboye 

As reactions continue to 

trail last Wednesday’s 

collapsed building at 

Ita Faji Street, Lagos Island, 

killing several children and 

injuring scores of others, 

professionals in the built 

environment have noted that 

strict enforcement of building 

code by developers is the 

panacea to the unabated 

menace of building collapse in 

the country, 

Blaming incessant building 

collapse on shoddy building 

construction arising from use 

of sub-standard materials all 

in a bid to cut corners, the 

professionals insist that strict 

enforcement of the code will 

eliminate quackery from 

housing delivery while 

standard buildings will be 

guaranteed across the country. 

Reacting to Ita Faji collapsed 

building in Lagos Island and 

the three-storey building 

under construction that 

collapsed in Ibadan within 

days interval, the 

spokesperson for Lagos state 

chapter of Building Collapse 

Prevention Guild BCPG, a 

foremost body championing 

advocacy on prevention of 

building collapse in the 

country, Arc. Augustine 

Otuoke, said 

“Ordinarily, if the Ita Faji 

building was built 

professionals you can be sure 

that the story would have been 

different. This goes to unearth 

the fact that standard 

processes and procedures for 

construction must have been 

thoroughly compromised in 

terms of appropriate design , 

proper documentation, right 

construction procedure and 

professional supervision as 

well as appropriate control by 

personnel of the regulatory 

agencies of government. 

“Statistics obtained from 

Lagos State building Control 

Agency LASBCA, revealed 

that over 75 per cent of the 

buildings that are collapsing 

are the ones built by 

developers. This means that 

developers in their quest to cut 

corners to maximise profit, 

habitually compromise and 

jettison professionalism. 

“The collapsed building we 

are told, was a mix use 

housing a school and 

residents. The question 

begging for answer is , was the 

building originally designed 

and built for mix use or was it 

adapted for mix use after 

construction?. The 

superimposed load to habour 

a school is not the same for a 

residential use, particularly on 

the upper floors. 

“While the superimposed 

load for a school is about 

5.0kN/m2 , residential is 

between 1.5kN/m2 to 2kN/m2 

. By using a building 

structurally designed as 

residential for a school puts 

•Ita Faji collapsed building 

the lives of occupants at a 

great risk and sets the building 

on the path of collapse. 

“The Lagos state 

government has penciled 

about 1000 distressed 

buildings for demolition , what 

is preventing this action ; lack 

of administrative will and 

We are yet to 

implement the 

Nigerian 

building code 

which covers that 

if you are going 

to build a high 

rise building, it is 

supposed to have 

a certain 

percentage of soil 

volume or 

capacity to hold it 

politicking with the lives and 

safety of residents of Lagos . 

Government should rise up 

and do the right thing 

irrespective of whose ox is 

gored , as a stitch in time saves 

nine. 

“Government should know 

that many of it’s regulatory 

personnel are negligent and 

compromised. They should 

embark on outsource of it’s 

regulatory functions as the 

task of preventing building 

collapse is obviously getting 

beyond the ability of the 

government personnel to 

handle. 

Speaking with journalists 

weekend over the Ita Faji 

collapse, Amos Alao, an 

architect and National 

Secretary of Landscape 

Architects of Nigeria SLAN, 

said the strict enforcement of 

the Nigerian building code will 

avert the recurring building 

collapse in Nigeria. 

The landscape expert said it 

was necessary to go back to 

the drawing board in order to 

avert recurring building 

collapse in the country by 

enforcing the national building 

code 

He said: “There have been 

so many perspectives to 

building collapse in Nigeria. 

Some have talked about the 

structural analysis, 

architecture or engineering 

failure, but little is said about 

the land on which the 

buildings are standing on. 

“We are yet to implement the 

Nigerian building code which 

covers that if you are going to 

build a high rise building, it is 

supposed to have a certain 

percentage of soil volume or 

capacity to hold it. A lot of 

things are wrong with the 

Nigerian construction 

industry, everybody has this 

fault, from the manufacturers, 

to the clients, the engineers 

and the marketers. “There is 

a Nigerian building code that 

needs to be implemented to 

overhaul the Nigerian 

construction industry; we need 

to start from the 

implementation and 

enforcement of the building 

code. 

“The code contains what a 

building requires, for example 

escape routes, exit routes, all 

these parameters are stated in 

the building code. He said the 

building code should contain 

the provision of facilities a 

building requires so that in 

emergency cases, disaster 

managers could quickly rescue 

victims like in the recent 

building collapse in Lagos. 

“The Federal Ministry of 

Power, Works and Housing 

should be charged with the 

responsibility of implementing 

and enforcing the Nigerian 

building code. With the 

building code, the 

responsibility of every 

engineer will be clearly 

outlined in the construction of 

any building without crosscarpeting 

responsibilities”, 

Alao said. 

Alao, who also called for the 

vetting of building materials 

imported into the country, 

while importers of fake 

building materials are to be 

brought to book. He disclosed 

that engineers have always 

had the bulk of the blame for 

most of the collapses in the 

country, adding that they are 

either blamed for structural 

designs or low quality 

materials. 

“It is high time we 

sanctioned the importers of 

inferior building materials. 

The engineer purchases iron 

rods from the market that do 

not fit the strength 

specification for the building 

because its quality was 

reduced by the marketers. It 

is not the job of the engineer 

to check how strong the metal 

is, if he completely trusts the 

marketers. 

“In most building collapse, 

the client/owner of the 

building should be held 

responsible also. The 

engineers may complain about 

the quality of the building 

materials and the clients can 

insist they go ahead. When 

such buildings collapse, the 

professionals are always held 

responsible and the clients are 

nowhere to be found. Every 

developer is responsible for 

everybody on the site. 

“The expert also called on 

builders to adhere to the books 

when constructing a building 

and not cutting corners. 

Nigeria can get building 

construction right with plenty 

of research. For instance, the 

oldest storey building in 

Badagry. We have others also 

at Calabar and the first 

suspended floor in Lokoja. All 

of these buildings were erected 

by Nigerians with the input of 

the Whites, meaning that it is 

possible to have good quality 

buildings in Nigeria. 

“Why our buildings presently 

cannot stand the test of time 

is largely because of the 

materials used. For instance, 

the textbook says use clean 

water to mix cement, but here 

in Nigeria our water is not 

clean. When we make use of 

unclean water to mix cement, 

we should not expect to get the 

same strength with cement 

mixed with clean water”, he 

stated.



Babatunde heads Afreximbank’s IT Department 

THE African Export- 

Import Bank, 

Afreximbank, has named 

Olaleye Babatunde as director 

of its Information 

Technology Department, 

following an upgrade of 

the function from its 

former unit status. 

Babatunde had 

headed the Information 

Technology Unit as a Senior 

Manager, starting 

in February 2014 when 

he joined the bank. Prior 

Eze now NBC Public Affairs and Communications Director 

NIGERIAN Bottling 

Company, NBC Limited, 

a member of Coca-Cola 

Hellenic Bottling Company, 

has formally announced the 

appointment of Ekuma Eze 

as the Public Affairs and 

Communications Director 

effective from March 1, 

2019. 

In a statement issued by the 

company and signed by the 

Managing Director, George 

Polymenakos, the appointment 

is consistent with the 

company’s commitment to 

promote talent and grow 

leaders organically. On this 

new role, Eze is expected to 

bring his wealth of experience 

to bear by consolidating 

on the company’s strategic 

business growth trajectory 

and developing talents 

in the Public Affairs and 

to that, he was the Chief 

Information Officer/ 

Deputy General Manager 

at Stanbic IBTC 

Bank, Nigeria. 

He holds an MBA received 

from the Lagos 

Business School in 2004. 

He also received an 

M.Sc. in computer science 

from the University 

of Lagos in 1998 and a 

B.Sc., also in computer 

science, from the University 

of Ibadan in 

1995. 

In his new position, he 

will be responsible for 

leading Afreximbank’s 

strategy on information 

technology in support of 

the bank’s mandate and 

medium-term strategy. 

This includes leading a 

comprehensive strategy 

to build, develop and 

standardise technology 

solutions throughout the 

bank in direct support of 

its strategic priorities. 

Communications team to 

deliver on the company’s 

strategic goals. He is also 

expected to build on the 

good reputation of the company 

amongst its publics, 

stakeholder groups as well 

as effectively manage every 

aspect of NBC’s corporate 

relations. 

Eze joined NBC Limited 

in February 2010 as Regional 

Manager, Public Affairs 

and Communications 

and was responsible for 

supporting the objectives of 

the company through 

strong relationships and effective 

communications 

with all stakeholders as well 

as coordinating timely execution 

of its sustainable 

CSR programs, among 

other tasks. 

Prior to this new appointment, 

he was the Country 

Manager, Corporate Social 

Responsibility, saddled with 

the task of developing 

sustainability strategies and 

implementing them in support 

of NBC’s strategic business 

priorities as well as 

conceptualising, developing 

and facilitating the 

implementation of projects 

related to the company’s 

commitment to community 

relations. 

Before joining NBC, he 

spent a couple of years in the 

banking industry where he 

managed media relations, 

internal communications, 

brand management, Corporate 

Social Responsibility 

and External Relations for 

three Nigerian banks. Eze 

also had a stint with journalism 

in Daily Independent 

*Babatunde 

*Ezeh 

Newspapers where he distinguished 

himself as a political 

reporter and production 

editor and later moved 

on to the banking industry 

from where he joined NBC. 

Neimeth appoints Azoji Managing Director/CEO 

THE Board of 

N e i m e t h 

International 

Pharmaceuticals Plc has 

appointed Pharm. 

Matthew Azoji as the 

New Managing Director/ 

CEO of the company, 

which was ratified by the 

shareholders during the 

60th Annual General 

Meeting of the company 

held recently in Lagos. 

Pharm. Azoji graduated 

from the Obafemi 

Awolowo University, Ile- 

Ife, Osun State, where he 

obtained his B. Pharm 

(First Class Honours). He 

went on to obtain an 

MBA (Marketing) from 

the Enugu State 

University of Science and 

Technology, Enugu, and 

an Advanced 

Management Programme 

(AMP) from the Lagos 

Business School; Pan 

Atlantic University, Lagos. 

He obtained certificates 

in Pharmaceutical Policy 

& Pharmacoeconomics 

from Utrecht University in 

the Netherlands (a WHO 

Collaborating centre), 

and went on to get his 

M.Sc. in Public health 

from the University of 

London, International 

Programmes. He 

additionally has an 

M.Phil (Pharmacy 

Administration) from 

Obafemi Awolowo 

University, Ile-Ife. Pharm. 

Azoji is currently a Fellow 

of Pharmaceutical Society 

of Nigeria (FPSN) and 

fellow, West African 

*Azoji 

Postgraduate College of 

Pharmacists (FPCPharm). 

Pharm. Matthew Obi 

Azoji had before now 

worked with May & Baker 

at various levels; was the 

pioneer MD/CEO of 

Oriola takes over as Finance Director at UAC 

MR. Ibikunle Ibiyinka 

Oriola has been 

appointed Group Finance 

Director at UAC of Nigeria 

Oriola is a seasoned 

professional with 17 years 

experience gained from 

diverse functional roles 

spanning finance, strategy, 

risk management and 

corporate finance. 

He has provided strategic 

finance leadership, driving 

transformational and 

growth agenda of 

conglomerate businesses 

spanning several sectors 

such as hospitality, real 

estate, power, agriculture 

and asset/funds 

management. 

*Oriola 

Mr. Oriola worked as 

Group Chief Finance 

Officer (GCFO) of Asset & 

Resource Management 

Holding Company Limited 

(ARM), where he had 

oversight on the group’s 

finance function. Prior to 

that, he was the Group 

CFO of Transnational 

Corporation of Nigeria 

PLC (TRANSCORP) 

responsible for executing a 

broad range of finance and 

ancillary roles. 

He has extended 

corporate finance 

experience gained as a 

transaction adviser working 

with Ecobank Capital and 

KPMG. He was seconded 

to KPMG UAE for 15 

months in 2007 where he 

worked on several 

infrastructure finance 

CHAN Medi-Pharm Ltd/ 

Gte, and led the executive 

and management teams of 

Biovaccines Nigeria Ltd., 

a public – private 

partnership company 

between the Federal 

Government of Nigeria 

and May & Baker Nigeria 

Ltd., from where he 

joined Neimeth. 

He is reputed to be a 

performance driven 

professional with over 20 

years experience at senior 

level as a leader in the 

pharmaceutical and 

public health sectors of 

Nigeria. With his wealth 

of experience in the 

Pharmaceutical Industry, 

Pharm. Azoji is expected 

to drive the activities of 

the company towards a 

greater future. 

projects. He also previously 

worked with Kakawa 

Discount House (now FBN 

Merchant Bank). 

Mr. Oriola, who holds a 

BSc degree in Finance from 

University of Lagos, is an 

Institute of Chartered 

Accountants of Nigeria 

(ICAN) merit award 

winner. 

Ibikunle will deploy his 

experience to the 

development and 

implementation of 

appropriate finance 

strategies to uplift 

productivity and business 

performance across the 

UAC Group. 

Cellulant: Arelepo joins as 

CFO 

PAN-African financial 

technology service provider, 

Cellulant announces 

the appointment of 

Oluwatoyin Aralepo as its 

Chief Financial Officer, 

Nigeria.This announcement 

was made recently by Mr. 

Bolaji Akinboro, the Co- 

Founder and Co-CEO of 

Cellulant Group. 

He stated that the appointment 

of Oluwatoyin is consistent 

with the company’s 

quest to becoming a robust 

financial organisation as it 

continues its journey towards 

building a $1billion revenue 

business. 

According to Bolaji, 

“Oluwatoyin emerged as the 

best person for the position 

of the CFO Cellulant Nigeria 

and Deputy CFO 

Cellulant group after a meticulous 

search process led by 

International recruitment 

agencies. We are thrilled to 

have her join the Cellulant 

team,.” Her experience from 

the banking & telecoms industry 

would count in providing 

strategic financial leadership 

for the organisation. 

Oluwatoyin is a first class 

accounting graduate. A Fellow 

of the Institute of Chartered 

Accountant of Nigeria, 

ICAN, Fellow of the Institute 

of Information Management 

of Africa and an alumnus of 

the London School of Business 

and Finance, LSBF, with 

*Arelepo 

over 15 years of cognate 

work experience across finance 

strategy and business 

partnering, financial 

planning, analysis & reporting, 

audit and business 

assurance, financial controls 

and governance. She 

is a very passionate and entrepreneurial 

role model to 

young women. 

“We are excited to have 

Oluwatoyin with us; we run 

the largest marketplace 

and digital financial service 

platform for farmers 

in Nigeria and across Africa; 

finance operations is 

a huge part of our business, 

and it is imperative to have 

the right people who will 

be able to manage and 

monitor our operations. 

“We are confident that 

she will leverage on her 

wealth of experience to inspire 

the finance team to 

deliver on their mandate.” 

Dizengoff: Leslie in as 

Country Manager 

DIZENGOFF Nigeria 

has announced 

the appointment of Mr. Graham 

John Leslie as its new 

Country Manager. Graham 

takes over from Mr. 

Antti Ritvonen, who has 

been the Country Manager 

since 2015. Prior to his appointment, 

Mr. Leslie was 

the Sales and Commercial 

Director of Synergy, covering 

Europe and the United 

Kingdom. 

Mr. Leslie brings to bear 

his 30 years’ experience, 

having spent most of his 

career in Agricultural business 

where he has worked 

in various segments including; 

fertilisers, crop 

protection chemicals, 

seeds, biotechnology and 

most recently, biological 

crop protection products. 

Graham worked for 

Monsanto for 11 years 

where he was involved in 

the post-patent sales strategy 

for Roundup, 

Monsanto’s world leading 

herbicide, working in 

South Africa, Holland and 

Southern Africa, after 

which he went to head up 

the Sub-Saharan Region 

as the Area Director. While 

at Monsanto, Mr. Leslie 

was instrumental in 

launching Roundup 

Ready and BT crops in 

South Africa. Graham’s 

strength lies in the field of 

agricultural sales, essentially 

B2B sales. He has a 

wealth of experience in 

General Management 

having held MD roles at 

Leslie 

Monsanto, Greeff- 

Christies, PGP and GM at 

Farmsecure Agriscience. 

Graham also had an entrepreneurial 

interlude in 

the property sector, where 

as a partner in the business, 

he was involved in a 

growth strategy for a niche 

market, Real Estate Company 

in Cape Town, South 

Africa, before returning to 

where his passion lay, in 

Agriculture. 

With this appointment, 

Graham will continue to 

provide strategic leadership 

and direction for the 

Nigeria business. 

Graham holds a BSc in 

Agric Production and an 

MBA in economics and 

marketing from the University 

of Stellenbosch, 

South Africa. 

Dizengoff Nigeria is a 

member of the UK-owned 

Balton CP Group, a British 

multinational with 8 subsidiaries 

across Sub-Saharan 

Africa and with over 1000 

employers.

42 — Vanguard, TUESDAY MARCH 19, 2019 

Tension, as APC, PDP trade tackles 

ahead of make-up polls in 5 states 

By Emmanuel Aziken, 

Political Editor, Umar 

Yusuf, Peter Duru, 

Marie-Therese Nanlong 

and Abdulmumin Murtala 

Ahead of Saturday's make or 

mar supplementary governorship 

elections in five states, 

tension has gripped political 

actors in the affected states as 

they work towards getting the 

advantage over one another. 

The Peoples Democratic 

Party, PDP, and the All 

Progressives Congress, APC 

are the two parties in the reckoning 

for the governorship 

election that is to be determined 

in Adamawa, Kano, Benue, 

Sokoto, and Plateau this weekend. 

The declaration of the results 

of the March 9 governorship 

election that was held as inchoate 

in Bauchi and Rivers State 

are also to be respectively 

moved forward today and tomorrow. 

While gladiators in Benue 

and Plateau were yesterday engaged 

in sharp words over alleged 

plots to undermine the 

process, stakeholders in Kano 

including the police were, on 

the other hand, working to calm 

frayed nerves ahead of the 

polls. 

BENUE 

The PDP in Benue State yesterday 

accused Senator George 

Akume, the leader of the APC 

in the state of boasting that the 

March 26 governorship rerun 

election would be declared in 

favour of the party's candidate, 

Mr. Emmanuel Jime, irrespective 

of the votes of the people. 

State Chairman of PDP, Mr. 

John Ngbede who made the assertion 

at a press briefing in 

Makurdi said Akume had in 

several meetings with APC stalwarts 

boasted that the party 

would collaborate with the Independent 


Commission, INEC, security 

personnel and recruited militia 

to execute the plot. 

The claim was immediately 

countered by the APC which 

accused the PDP of convulsing 

at Akume's shadow as it accused 

the PDP of fretting because 

of what it claimed was the 

loss that was about to befall the 

party. 

Ngbede who claimed that the 

PDP had already petitioned the 

Inspector General of Police 

over the matter said, "in one of 

those meetings, Akume particularly 

assured his followers 

that the national leadership of 

the APC with the backing of the 

Presidency has already infiltrated 

INEC and Emmanuel 

Jime will be announced as Governor 

of the state without the 

supplementary election holding. 

"He assured that this would be 

achieved through already doctored 

results which will be compiled 

by INEC Returning Officers 

and staff who are already 

being posted to the affected 

polling units. 

Governor Ortom of the PDP 

•Prof. Mahmood Yakubu 

had polled 410,576 votes ahead 

of his closest rival Emmanuel 

Jime of the APC who scored 

329,022 votes. The poll was declared 

inconclusive on the 

claim that the margin between 

the two candidates which was 

81,554 votes was less than the 

number of cancelled votes. 

Speaking further, the PDP 

chairman cautioned that the 

plot by the APC was capable of 

throwing the state into deep crisis 

stressing that "Benue has had 

enough of deaths and crisis, as 

such, it should be the desire of 

all well-meaning people in the 

state to avoid a repeat of crisis 

at the coming election." 

Reacting, the State Publicity 

Secretary of APC, Mr. James 

Ornguga said "PDP is fond of 

raising the alarm where it is not 

necessary. It has become a tradition 

to accuse Senator Akume 

of anything they want. 

"Since the first election was 

conducted Senator Akume issued 

a statement just once so I 

don't know where they are getting 

the information from but 

the position of APC concerning 

that election is that since INEC 

guideline stated that the Card 

Reader, CR, must be used for 

election and PDP deliberately 

failed to use the CR, all votes 

cast in favour of PDP without 

use of the CR be removed. 

When contacted, the Public 

Relations Officer of INEC in 

Benue State, Andyer Terkaa, 

said, "all what they say is mere 

speculation, INEC is guided by 

the guidelines of an election, it 

cannot go outside the ambits of 

an existing law that guides its 

operation to do anything. 

"So people are making insinuations 

that lack any substantive 

fact. They make these 

statements based on what they 

feel should be. We all know that 

INEC is an independent umpire 

and we are not supposed 

to be seen to connive with any 

political party." 

On the claim by APC that 

INEC had set up a committee 

to look into some of the already 

declared results contrary to the 

Kwankwaso 

has vowed to 

resist the plot 

saying that 

whosoever 

does that will 

be left at the 

mercy of Kano 

youths and 

patriots. 

law, Terkaa said, "that is what we 

heard, but our Commissioner is 

not around when he comes back 

from Abuja if that is the situation 

in Benue it will be made 

public. 

"INEC is guided by law, and 

we cannot do anything outside 

what the law has stated," he 

added. 

PLATEAU 

While the two major parties on 

the plateau, PDP and APC canvass 

for support ahead of this 

weekend's supplementary election, 

a group of observers who 

monitored the initial exercise 

have asked for the replacement 

of the State Resident Electoral 

Commissioner, Haliru Pai. 

The group alleged that INEC 

allowed the use 300,000 unclaimed 

Permanent Voters 

Cards, PVCs for secret accreditation 

in the first exercise. 

Plateau has 2,480,455 registered 

voters out of which 

2,095,409 voters collected their 

PVCs, leaving INEC with 

385,046 unclaimed cards and 

the commission had said it deposited 

all the unclaimed PVCs 

at the Central Bank of Nigeria, 

CBN for safe keep. 

Not satisfied with the explanation, 

a local observer group, 

Plateau Peace Movement International 

(PPMI) led by Mr. 

Joseph Bot said the unclaimed 

cards were used to carry out "secret 

accreditation at various corners" 

in the State. 

Bot also alleged that INEC 

there was no fairness in the initial 

exercise as INEC hired 

card-carrying members of the 

APC as Returning Officers and 

they "imported figures to suit 

their party" during the polls. 

He said, "It was gathered that 

Qua'an Pan, Shendam collation 

centres were trans-located to 

somewhere in Government 

House, Rayfield, Jos, INEC 

changed result sheets and cancelled 

genuine votes in some 

polling units without 'tangible' 

reasons." 

The group, therefore, called 

for the cancellation of the entire 

elections in Jos North, 

Shendam, Wase, Kanam, 

Qua'an Pan, Langtang South, 

and Mikang Local Government 

Areas as well as the resignation 

of the Plateau State Resident 

Electoral Commissioner of 

INEC, Mr. Halilu Pai. 

But a chieftain of the APC, 

Stephen Sariki described the 

observer group as "Daydreamers, 

partisan observers," adding, 

"They avoided places where 

massive rigging took place (Jos 

South, Riyom, Barkin Ladi, 

Langtang North and some parts 

of Bassa) because the Party 

which sponsored them won 

there. We know where you 

came from and those behind 

you." 

It would be recalled that the 

inconclusive election was as a 

result of the cancellation of 

49,377 votes while the margin 

between APC and PDP is 

44,929. Already, the APC polled 

583,255 votes, and PDP polled 

538,326. 

The rerun is expected to take 

place in 41 polling units in nine 

local government areas in the 

State. Though both parties 

claim the affected areas are 

their strongholds, but they are 

not leaving anything to chance. 

KANO 

Political actors and key 

stakeholders in Kano were yesterday 

working to calm tension 

ahead of the crucial Saturday 

poll. 

Leading the charge were the 

commissioner for police, 

Muhammad Wakil, the emir of 

Kano Muhammad Sanusi II as 

well as the leader of the 

Kwankwasiyya Movement, 

Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso. 

They all made public calls for 

peace, and good conduct as the 

public awaits the rerun. 

The CP told newsmen in an 

interview that he will not compromise 

his apolitical stance in 

the election adding that the law 

will take its course on whosoever 

engages in acts that will 

breach the conduct of the election 

no matter his position in 

the state. 

Members of the PDP have 

staged daily peaceful processions 

in different parts of the 

state and have also engaged in 

public prayer sessions and sacrifices. 

The widespread rumour has 

meanwhile aggravated the tension 

in the state that the APC 

was planning to import some of 

its bigwigs from, especially Lagos 

to help it overturn the lead 

of the PDP. 

A member House of Representatives 

representing Dala, 

Rep. Aliyu Madawakin Gini 

speaking in a radio programme 

alleged plans by a leading APC 

chieftain from Lagos to influence 

the poll. 

Kwankwaso has vowed to resist 

the plot saying that whosoever 

does that will be left at the 

mercy of Kano youths and patriots. 

More so, police have arrested 

some individuals that were accused 

of buying PVCs from 

members of the public. 

Also, a video clip allegedly 

showing a prominent official of 

the APC vowing to win the election 

at all costs has also raised 

tension in the state. 

Just about a few days to the 

rerun election, the APC led government 

has embarked on a 

road construction project at the 

disputed Gama ward of the 

Nasarawa LGA along with water 

boreholes for the community. 

ADAMAWA 

With the decision on whether to 

hold the supplementary election 

in Adamawa State still under 

judicial consideration, political 

actors in the state have 

continued to plan subtle strategies 

to position themselves to 

an advantage whatever way 

the courts pronounce. 

Yesterday, it was realised that 

many political actors had taken 

their plans underground. 

When Vanguard visited the 

APC and PDP secretariats yesterday, 

only some few supporting 

staff of the secretariats were 

seen loitering without officials 

to comment on their next line 

of action. 

Some of the officials spoken 

to on their mobile phones said 

necessary arrangements were 

on for the election. 

The Independent National 

Electoral Commission INEC on 

its side said necessary arrangements 

are equally being finalized 

for the supplementary poll. 

A top INEC official told Vanguard 

that the media would be 

adequately informed when sensitive 

materials for the election 

arrive. 

SOKOTO 

The situation in Sokoto is no less 

tense with political glaidaotors 

in the state who until not too 

long ago in the same camp 

squared against one another. 

The PDP candidate, Gov. 

Aminu Waziri Tambuwal was 

leading his APC rival with 3,145 

votes before the election was 

declared inconclusive. 

Tambuwal and the PDP, however, 

claim that the figures were 

rigged in order to declare the 

election inconclusive.

Vanguard, TUESDAY MARCH 19, 2019 — 43 

Much ado about Daniel's next move 

By Daud Olatunji, 

Abeokuta 

After taking the Ogun State political 

landscape by storm for eight 

years, and sustaining himself as a force 

for another eight years after leaving 

office as governor, Otunba Gbenga 

Daniel's latest political body movement 

is an enchanting spectacle to 

some. 

For some seven years after he left office, 

Otunba Daniel laid low until 2017 when 

he made an abortive move for the office of national 

chairman of the Peoples Democratic 

Party, PDP. 

He later got an offer as Director- General of 

Atiku Campaign Organisation, a job he did 

successfully helping the former vice-president 

to win the PDP presidential ticket. 

However, Daniel's effort to install Gboyega 

Isiaka as his chosen successor when he left 

office as governor in 2011 had been unsuccessful. 

The crisis in the party at that time had forced 

him to direct his supporters to move to the Peoples 

Party of Nigeria, PPN to realise the plot 

which, however, derailed with the emergence 

of Senator Ibikunle Amosun as governor on 

the platform of the defunct Action Congress 

of Nigeria, ACN. 

In 2015, Daniel again tried his luck with 

Labour Party, but upon persuasions from President 

Goodluck Jonathan he returned to the 

PDP. 

The crisis in the Ogun State chapter of the 

PDP prior to the 2019 election was, however, a 

no winner for him and his supporters. 

The emergence of Senator Kashamu Buruji 

as governorship candidate of the party put the 

mainstream of the party away. 

Daniel had in a shocking development to 

outsiders teamed up with the APC governorship 

candidate, Dapo Abiodun against the 

desire of his former friend turned foe, Amosun 

who was backing Adekunle Akinlade of the 

Allied People's Movement, APM. 

Indeed, just as Amosun helped to ensure 

that Daniel was not able to put his chosen successor, 

Isiaka as his successor, Daniel also paid 

Amosun back by working to ensure that the 

outgoing governor was denied the opportunity 

of placing Akinlade as his successor. 

Dayo Johnson Akure 

THE jostle for the ministe 

rial slot for OndoState has 

split the ranks of the leadership 

of the All Progressives 

Congress (APC) in the state. 

Specifically, the battle to 

outwit one another has inadvertently 

pitched the state 

governor, Rotimi Akeredolu 

against some close allies of 


Buhari. 

Foremost among them are 

two engineers, Ife Oyedele 

and Rotimi Fasakin, both executive 

directors of engineering 

in the Niger Delta Power 

Holding Company and the 

Nigerian Maritime Administration 

and Safety Agency 

(NIMASA) respectively. 

Oyedele and Fasakin have 

come a long way with President 

Buhari since the days of 

the defunct Congress for Progressive 

Change (CPC) 

whichis a formidable power 

bloc within the ruling APC. 

Oyedele is from Okitipupa 

while Fasakin hails from 

Akure and it is generally 

•Otunba Gbenga Daniel 

Undoubtedly, 

the 

a b o u t 

19,000 difference 

bet 

w e e n 

Abiodun 

who was 

supported 

by Daniel 

a n d 

Akinlade, 

the candid 

a t e 

backed by 

Amosun 

was in the 

consideration 

of supporters of Daniel their 

handiwork. 

Daniel had directed his supporters 

across the state including 

the former Director-General of 

Ladi Adebutu campaign Organisation, 

Waliu Taiwo to back 

Abiodun, 

Daniel had announced his resignation 

from partisan politics 

and declared his intention to focus 

on running his charity organisation: 

Gateway Front Foundation 

. 

B u t , 

barely 

twentyf 

o u r 

hours after 

his 

resignation 

from 

partisan 

politics 

was made 

public, 

hundreds 

of his political 

supporters 

met 

with him to rescind the decision . 

Daniel's supporters who converged 

on his "Asoludero" private 

residence in Sagamu GRA prevailed 

on him to lead them to the 

APC, instead of abandoning them 

into what they called the political 

wilderness . 

It was as such not a surprise that 

the Daniel's supporters when they 

met him last Sunday urged him to 

lead them to the ruling party. 

But against the background of 

the assertion by Daniel a day earlier that he 

was quitting partisan politics, the development 

was considered by some as another act of subterfuge 

by a politician. 

Daniel at the meeting said he quit politics 

believing that the ovation was loudest for him 

at that point. 

According to Daniel, his decision to direct his 

supporters two days to the election to work for 

APC candidate in the state was borne out of 

wide consultations with people . 

Some have also said that Daniel's move 

against Amosun was also in part to help him 

recover a property belonging to him seized by 

the Amosun administration. 

In arriving at a final resolution, one of the 

leaders in the camp led members of the OGD 

Political Family in a voice vote where they all 

resolved to collectively join APC. 

Speaking with newsmen shortly after the 

meeting ,Daniel said "basically, they said I 

could resign from PDP. 

"They said I must lead them to APC and also 

said I can not retire from politics, that is the 

summary of what I heard." 

The body movement inclining towards the 

APC has, however, not been well received outside 

the state. 

Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a former minister 

of aviation was among those to have kicked 

against the move describing it as an irony. 

"For the first Director General of Atiku's Presidential 

Campaign Organisation and his closest 

confidante in the South West to dump the 

PDP and join the APC even before the conclusion 

of Atiku's election petition, is sad," the 

former minister said in a post on twitter. 

Former President Goodluck Jonathan is also 

among those who are believed to have also 

kicked against Daniel's apparent move. 

Yesterday it emerged that Daniel may have 

at least for now reversed whatever plans that 

may have been afoot towards joining the APC. 

In a post on twitter, the penultimate governor 

of Ogun State said that the meeting with 

his supporters did not affect his resignation 

from partisan politics. 

I listened carefully to them and I permitted 

them to join any political party of their choice 

since I have become non partisan. I did not 

agree to lead them to APC. Accurate reporting 

without ambiguities is desired. Thanks 

For now until he beats the drum again, Daniel's 

apparently wants to stay away from the 

show. 

Ondo's ministerial slot: Mimiko upsets permutations 

could also have flowed from 

his continued insistence on 

having an indigene of Akure 

in the federal cabinet. 

Ariyomo, however again is 

a political godson of Vice 

President Yemi Osinbajo. 

This twist is believed to have 

played Southwest coordinator 

of the APC Presidential Campaign, 

Chief Olusola Oke off 

the radar as his main backer, 

the immediate past governor 

of Osun State, Rauf 

Aregbesola is also said to be 

also keen to position himself 

in the cabinet. 

Oke's case is also not being 

helped by the poor performance 

of the APC in the presidential 

election in Ondo State. 

The APC lost not only the 

presidential election but also 

both the Ondo South senatorial 

district and Oke's Ilaje 

Ese-Odo Federal Constituency. 

While Oke had made frantic 

efforts to explain the reasons 

responsible for the parclaimed 

that they are both interested 

in the ministerial position. 

But Akeredolu according to 

one member of his kitchen 

cabinet is "disposed to either 

his immediate predecessor, 

Dr. Olusegun Mimiko or any 

of his two aides- Mrs Bunmi 

Ademosu (Special Adviser to 

the governor on Multilateral 

and Intergovernmental relations) 

and Mr Boye Oyewunmi 

(Special Adviser to the governor 

on Investment and Development). 

"He is yet to make up his 

mind on who to back but the 

worst case scenario is that he 

would forward the three 

names to the president for one 

of them to be considered". 

But a more interesting scenario 

appears to be playing 

out elsewhere as APC National 

Leader, Asiwaju Bola 

Ahmed Tinubu is said to have 

come under intense pressure 

to back Akeredolu's Special 

Adviser on Public Utilities and 

Gbenga Daniel's Political 

Adventures 

2003 Emerges governor with the 

support of Ibikunle Amosun 

2011 Backs Gboyega Isiaka for 

Governor on platform of PPN 

2015 Again backs Isiaka for 

governor on Labour Party 

2019 After successful stint as Atiku 

campaign manager, backs 

Dapo Abiodun of APC as Gov 

2019 Controversy trails resignation 

from PDP, politcs 

•Akeredolu 

Power Infrastructure, Engr. 

Tunji Light Ariyomo. 

In fact, the paramount traditional 

ruler of Akure land 

Oba Aladetoyinbo Aladelusi is 

believed in some circles to be 

also backing Ariyomo. 

Oba Aladetoyinbo's position 

ty's poor outing, 

thepresidency is said not to be 

convinced over the reasons. 

As for Mimiko, Fasakin, 

Ademosu and Ariyomo, their 

argument has been that while 

the North and South senatorial 

districts of the state already 

have the governor and 

deputy respectively, it was 

only equitable for the minister 

to come from the central. 

The trio of Fasakin, 

Ademosu and Ariyomo are all 

from Akure Kingdom in the 

central senatorial district. 

Mimiko, from Ondo town 

also from the central senatorial 

district contested the last 

senatorial election on the platform 

of the Zenith Labour 

Party (ZLP) but had endorsed 

and worked for President 

Buhari. 

It would be recalled that 

Mimiko cut a deal with 

Akeredolu in the last election 

whereby two of the three state 

Assembly seats were won by 

the APC.


YOUR LUCK TODAY 

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139 

PISCES; It is important you don’t exhibit aggression 

unnecessarily. Here is a day when secret love 

is capable of bringing serious pressure. Try to be 

very diplomatic. 

ARIES; Your concentration level is not perfect and 

if you take bad advice from friends you would be 

misled. The more practical you are the better for 

you. 

TAURUS; Unnecessary aggressive approach on your 

part along your career/business lines will back-fire 

more than you imagine. Graceful expression is what 

you will need. 

GEMINI; 

Happenings within your working arena can bring 

minor provocation but it is just a passing trend. Travelling 

for love will bring more challenges than expected. 

L E I S U R E 

TAKE HEART — ELLA RANDLE 

“If we want to see our rainbows, we have to stand a 

little rain.” -Take Heart Quotes.- 

Life can be challenging but it’s a choice to get up after 

a fall and start to walk a mile in your shoes everyday 

and make something beautiful of the moments we have 

been given, because that’s the only way one can begin 

to understand what it means to walk mile in someone’s 

else shoes. Every day comes with a chance to learn and 

grow. - Ella Randle - 

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye” 

SAYINGS OF 

OUR PEOPLE 

Always being in 

a hurry does not 

prevent death, 

neither does 

going slowly 

prevent living. ~ 

Ibo proverb 

By Kola Fayemi 

CANCER; Male members of this Star sign will need 

to watch their libido while female must not ignore 

their sex-life. Beware of joint ventures with those 

you don’t know. 

LEO; It is not compulsory you take to aggressive 

re-action to those within your base of operation who 

are not as perfect as you. Protect your spouse. 

VIRGO; Watch what you eat and drink today. This 

is the wrong time to engage in unnecessary heated 

argument.. Romance at work may bring disappointment. 

LIBRA; Trying to influence matters-of-the-heart with 

money will not give you the desired result. Any way 

it is a day you will need to be more careful with 

money. 

SCORPIO; It is important you are more careful while 

trying to pass judgment on people within your base 

of operation because you too may be wrong. 

SAGITTARIUS; Taking a pleasure drive or movement 

may bring more than anticipated responsibility. 

Keep away from whatever can not be placed 

above board today. 

DUDU in “ROLLING HOT” By A.O. OLAIDE 

CAPRICORN; If you allow friends to force their 

ideas on you financially or on matters-of-the-heart, 

you would be the loser. Express yourself gracefully. 

AQUARIUS; Unless you are more careful ,mattersof-the-heart 

may cause avoidable trouble the way 

your career/business can suffer temporarily. 

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING 

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING 

Send your date e and place of birth th to the Astr 

trological 

Counselling, P.M.B 100 

007, 7, Apapa, Lagos 

WHAT SHOULD I KNOW? 

Dear Joshua, 

Kindly tell me where the Moon was placed when I was 

born and other things I should know about my star. 

Mohammed, Ibadan. 

Dear Mohammed, 

What space can take will be given here-under. Your natal 

Moon was in Aries. 

ANALYSIS OF YOUR HOROSCOPE DATA 

Preponderance of cardinal quality in your chart is an 

indication of GREAT LEADERSHIP QUALITY together 

with innate ability to attain prominence on one hand, 

on the other hand, exaltation of intellectual related 

Mercury in Aquarius at positive angle to both lucky 

Jupiter and Uranus (the planet of genius) in Libra 

pointed to a person with higher pitch of intelligence. 

Action loving Mars as the final depositor of your horoscope 

( that’s most influential planet at home when you 

were born) will most times induce you to strongly desire 

importance with likeness for quick results; actually 

long promise without concrete action will bore 

you easily. Equally 60 percentage of push-full influence 

in your chart means that the best for you is to go 

after your needs and wants. 

Combination of all the placement and aspects formed 

within the planets when you were born are pointers to 

you as a person with balanced personality with little 

bias for good spiritual life. And you believe in disciplinarian 

life style. 

Placement of your natal Sun and Moon in compassionate 

Pisces and self conscious Aries respectively are 

indications of your being mainly a Piscean and partly 

an Arian, however as Aries is also your Stallion sign, 

both basic characteristics of Pisces and Aries are highly 

pronounced in your inner-self. 

VIRGINIA 

HOME & ABROAD 

dadadekola@yahoo.com 

By Lawrence Akapa


Death toll in Mozambique cyclone, 

floods could surpass 1,000 

—President 

T 

he number of peo 

ple killed in a powerful 

storm and preceding 

floods in Mozambique 

could exceed 

1,000, the president said 

on Monday, putting the 

potential death toll 

greatly more than current 

figures. 

Only 84 deaths have 

been confirmed so far in 

Mozambique as a result 

of Cyclone Idai, which 

has also left a trail of 

death and destruction 

across Zimbabwe and 

Malawi, with vast areas 

of land flooded, roads 

destroyed and communication 

wiped out. 

Speaking on Radio 

Mocambique, President 

Filipe Nyusi said he had 

flown over the affected 

region, where two rivers 

had overflowed. Villages 

had disappeared, he 

said, and bodies were 

floating in the water. 

“Everything indicates 

that we can register 

more than one thousand 

deaths,” he said. 

The cyclone has also 

killed 89 people in Zimbabwe, 

an official said on 

Monday, while the 

death toll in Malawi 

from heavy rains and 

flooding stood at 56 as 

of last week. No new 

numbers had been released 

following the cyclone’s 

arrival in the 

country. 

Boeing faces growing scrutiny in 

Ethiopian crash probe 

T 

he world’s biggest 

planemaker faced 

escalating pressure on 

Monday after Ethiopia 

pointed to parallels between 

its crash and one 

in Indonesia, sharpening 

focus on the safety of 

software installed in 

Boeing’s 737 MAX 

planes. 

The Ethiopian Airlines 

disaster on March 10 

killed 157 people, 

grounded Boeing’s marquee 

MAX fleet worldwide, 

and sparked a 

high-stakes inquiry for 

the shaken aviation industry. 

Ethiopian Airlines, 

whose reputation 

also hinges on the investigation, 

said at the 

weekend initial analysis 

of the black boxes 

showed “clear similarities” 

with a Lion Air 

flight from Jakarta in 

October which crashed 

killing 189 people. 

Both planes were 

MAX 8s and crashed 

minutes after take-off 

with pilots reporting 

flight control problems. 

Under scrutiny is a 

new automated system 

in the MAX model that 

guides the nose lower to 

avoid stalling. 

Lawmakers and safety 

experts are asking how 

thoroughly regulators 

vetted the system and 

how well pilots around 

the world were trained 

for it when their airlines 

bought new planes. 

Ethiopian Transport 

Ministry spokesman 

Muse Yiheyis said at the 

weekend that data recovered 

from the black 

boxes by investigators in 

Paris demonstrated parallels 

with the Lion Air 

crash and had been validated 

by U.S. experts. 

U.S. officials did not 

corroborate that, but 

U.S. Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA) 

acting boss Daniel Elwell 

last week acknowledged 

that initial inspection of 

flight data indicated “the 

flight was very similar”. 

Caroline Haga, a senior 

International Federation 

of the Red Cross 

official who is in Beira, 

said the situation could 

be far worse in the surrounding 

areas, which 

remained completely cut 

off by road and where 

houses were not as sturdy. 

Nyusi flew over areas 

that were otherwise accessible, 

and some of 

which had been hit by 

flooding before Cyclone 

Idai. 

In Beira, Mozambique’s 

fourth-largest 

city and home to 500,000 

people, a large dam had 

burst, further complicating 

rescue efforts. 

Large swathes of land 

were completely submerged, 

and in some 

streets people waded 

through knee-high water 

around piles of mangled 

metal and other 

debris.In the early 

hours of Monday morning, 

rescuers launched 

dinghies onto chest-high 

waters, navigating 

through reeds and trees 

- where some people 

perched on branches to 

escape the water - to rescue 

those trapped by the 

flooding. 

Meanwhile, rescuers 

were struggling to reach 

people in Zimbabwe’s 

Chimanimani district, 

cut off from the rest of 

the country by torrential 

rains and winds of up to 

170 km per hour that 

swept away roads, 

homes and bridges. 

Putin flies into Crimea for 

annexation party, launches 

power stations 

P 

resident Vladimir 

Putin flew into Crimea 

on Monday to celebrate 

the fifth anniversary 

of Russia’s annexation 

of the region from 

Ukraine and led cheering 

crowds in repeated 

chants of “Russia” after 

inaugurating two new 

power stations. 

Putin, who has poured 

billions of Russian taxpayer 

dollars into Crimea 

since Moscow 

seized control of it in 

Koffi Olomidé guilty of rape 

of 15-year-old girl 

K 

offi Olomidé, one 

of Africa’s most 

popular singers, has 

been found guilty of the 

statutory rape of one of 

his former dancers when 

she was 15. 

He was handed a twoyear 

suspended jail sentence 

by a court in 

France in absentia, as he 

failed to turn up. 

The ruling means the 

Congolese star only faces 

arrest if he commits 

further offences. Olomidé, 

62, was ordered 

to pay 5,000 euros 

($5,700; £4,300) in damages 

to the former dancer 

Ṫhe court in Nanterre, 

outside Paris, also ordered 

him to pay a fine 

of the same amount for 

helping three women 

enter France illegally. 

Olomidé’s lawyer has 

hailed the ruling as a victory, 

telling journalists it 

would result in the withdrawal 

of the star’s international 

arrest warrant. 

Koffi Olomidé is a 

huge star of rumba and 

soukous which are popular 

across much of Africa. 

2014, attended the 

launch of a power station 

in the city of Sevastopol 

and oversaw the launch 

of another in Simferopol 

by video conference. 

The facilities which 

were able to cover 90 

percent of Crimea’s 

power needs were partially 

launched last year, 

but Monday’s inauguration 

marked the moment 

they began working at 

full capacity. 

The same power stations 

were at the centre 

of an international scandal 

after German engineering 

company Siemens 

said its power turbines 

had been installed 

at them without its 

knowledge and in violation 

of European Union 

sanctions. Russia denied 

that. 

Putin on Monday 

fielded questions from 

local religious and community 

leaders and told 

a crowd at a pop concert 

that what he called their 

historical decision to become 

part of Russia in a 

2014 referendum was 

comparable to the bravery 

of Red Army soldiers 

at the start of World War 

Two. 

•Griezmann 

Griezmann is 

PSG’s priority 

AFTER a string of poor 

results for Atlético 

Madrid in recent weeks, 

some of the top teams in 

Europe are lining up 

Antoine Griezmann for the 

summer and he is 

reportedly considering his 

future too. 

His release clause is •200 

million and only a handful 

of clubs could and might be 

willing to pay such money. 

PSG are amongst those 

teams. 

Atlético will not negotiate 

a lower release clause and 

with the Parisian side 

Mbappe will play for 

Madrid — Relative 

PARIS Saint-Germain’s Champions 

League elimination at the hands of Manchester 

United has left the club shell-shocked, none more so than 

Kylian Mbappe, and a relative of the French forward has 

reaffirmed their belief that he will play for Real Madrid. 

Rumours linking Los Blancos with moves for 

both Neymar and Mbappe have intensified since 

Zinedine Zidane returned as the club’s head coach, whilst 

Florentino Perez made a rather tongue-in-cheek comment 

about wanting to sign them both. 

BASEBALL & SOFTBALL: 

Nigeria begins quest for 2020 

Olympic ticket in Ghana 

By Jacob Ajom 

THE national Baseball 

team will jet out to 

Ghana this morning to 

participate in the 2020 

Olympic qualifier 

beginning March 22 

through 24. 

Nigeria has been grouped 

in Zone West 1, alongside 

Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire, 

Burkina Faso and hosts 

Ghana. Two countries will 

The sudden withdrawal 

of Bordeaux winger 

Samuel Kalu from the 

Super Eagles squad for the 

Africa Cup of Nations 

qualifier against Seychelles 

and international friendly 

with Egypt had raised a few 

eyebrows because he 

played for his club against 

Monaco on March 9. 

qualify from the zone to the 

continental finals in South 

Africa coming up in May. 

The Nigerian Softball (the 

female) team have already 

qualified for the continental 

final. 

Other qualifiers from 

Zone East 1 and Southern 

Africa Zone will produce 

two teams each for the 

continental final. The six 

zonal representatives will 

then fight it out for the 

gearing up for offers for 

Neymar and Kylian 

Mbappé, Atlético would be 

even less likely to enter 

negotiations over his 

price. 

Griezmann does not see 

the potential move as a bad 

one either with PSG 

competing in the 

Champions League and 

with the Club World Cup on 

their agenda. Marseille 

have also knocked on his 

door but Griezmann and 

those in his entourage say 

that PSG remains a goal if 

he is to return to France. 

•Mbappe 

solitary African ticket. 

The winner of the African 

qualifiers will then procede 

to represent Africa in the 

Euro-African qualifiers in 

Italy later in the year, for the 

only Olympic ticket 

available for Europe and 

Africa. 

Speaking on their mission 

to Ghana, Chief coach of the 

national Baseball team, 

Omotosho Adeola assured 

that his wards were 

“technically prepared for 

the Ghana challenge and 

are determined to see that 

Nigerian flag is hoisted 

among other Baseball and 

Softball playing nations at 

the Tokyo Olympics.” 

Bordeaux coach explains Kalu’s withdrawal 

from Seychelles, Egypt ties 

•Kalu 

And speculation that he 

withdrew from the Nigeria 

squad for no cogent reason 

was fueled when Bordeaux 

announced their 19-man 

roster for the Ligue 1 match 

vs Rennes without 

providing an explanation as 

to why he was omitted from 

the squad as it’s usually the 

norm. 

Super Eagles Media 

Officer Toyin Ibitoye has 

informed that Kalu was 

nursing an injury and 

Bordeaux coach Paulo Sousa 

confirmed as much in the 

post-match conference on 

Sunday, adding that the 

recent kidnap of the player’s 

mother was the main reason 

for his omission vs Rennes. 

Speaking to reporters, 

Sousa said : ‘’Kalu is 

suffering from a minor 

muscle contracture which 

prevented him from 

participating in the game. 

NPFL announces end 

of season calendar 

Nigeria’s League Management Company said the 2019 

season of Nigeria Professional Football League 

season will end on June 9. 

According to LMC’s chief operating officer, Salihu 

Abubakar the amendments were made on the calendar for 

the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season 

after thorough checks. 

According to Football Live reports, Abubakar however, 

added in a circular to all the clubs in the top-flight that the 

2019 season were to continue last weekend with week 11 

games while games for the match days 12 to 19 will hold 

on the weekends of March 24th, and 31st, April 7th, 14th, 

21st, and 28th as well as May 5th and 12th.


Ighalo, Iwobi, Ajayi early birds in Eagles’ camp 

Forward Odion Ighalo and 

midfielders Alex Iwobi and Semi 

Ajayi were among the first arrivals 

in the Super Eagles’ camp in Asaba on 

Monday as the countdown began for 

Friday’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations 

qualifying match against the Pirates of 

Seychelles. 

Three –time African champions Nigeria 

have already made sure of a place at the 

Africa Cup of Nations holding in Egypt 

this summer, and the encounter against 

the Pirates is hardly more than an 

academic affair. But the Eagles have 

spoken of a need to end the qualification 

series on a high and maintain reputation 

while using the game to kick –start 

preparations for the AFCON. 

They take on the Pirates at the Stephen 

Keshi Stadium as from 4pm on Friday. 

Golakeepers Francis Uzoho, 

Ikechukwu Ezenwa and Daniel Akpeyi 

are all in town, as well as home –based 

professionals Ikouwem Utin, Ndifreke 

Effiong and Valentine Ozornwafor. 

The bulk of the invited group of 23 will 

come in on Tuesday, with the international 

friendly against the Pharaohs of Egypt on 

Tuesday next week also in mind. 

Technical Adviser Gernor Rohr called up 

23 players for the two matches, with 

Ikouwem Utin and Effiong leaping onto 

the list as a result of injuries to Samuel 

Kalu and Ola Aina. 

•Ogbonna 

•Hazard 

France 2019: Dennerby calls 30 home girls to camp 

•Oluehi 

Champions League: 

Fear of injury grips 

Guardiola 

anchester City manager 

MPep Guardiola hopes his 

players return injury-free from 

the international break this 

month for a hectic run of 

fixtures that could define the 

Premier League champions’ 

season. 

City play eight fixtures in 29 

days after the international 

break with the club fighting on 

three fronts — the league, FA 

Cup and Champions League 

— as they seek a quadruple 

having already won the League 

Cup last month. 

They are currently second in 

the league with a game in 

hand, two points behind 

leaders Liverpool, while 

Guardiola’s side also advanced 

to the FA Cup semi-finals and 

the Champions League quarterfinals. 

“I pray that they come back 

fit,” Guardiola told City’s 

website. 

“They 

have to go to 

t h e i r 

national 

teams... 

enjoy and 

play for their 

country, but I 

hope they 

can come 

back fit like 

they are now. 

•De Bruyne 

ead Coach Thomas Dennerby has 

Hcalled to camp 30 home –based 

professionals for a preliminary camp of 

the Super Falcons as preparations for this 

summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup 

finals enter a new gear. 

Goalkeepers Tochukwu Oluehi, 

Chiamaka Nnadozie and Christy 

Ohiaeriaku all make the list, as well as 

defenders Glory Ogbonna and Josephine 

Chukwunonye, midfielders Cecilia 

Nkwu, Amarachi Okoronkwo and 

Osarenoma Igbinovia, and forwards Alice 

Ogebe and Anam Imo. 

However, goalkeeper Alaba Jonathan, 

defender Ugochi Emenayo, midfielder 

Evelyn Nwabuoku and forward Chioma 

Ola Aina’s replacement, Effiong 

plays down injury concerns 

kwa United star Ndifreke Effiong has 

Aplayed down concerns over an injury he 

sustained in his side’s 2-1 win against 

Heartland FC in Okigwe on Sunday, March 

17 

Ṫhe versatile fullback, who was forced off 

injured in the early stages of the second half 

in the Nigeria Professional Football League 

clash, claims he has been cleared by doctors 

to report for international duty. 

Effiong was handed a late call-up by 

manager Gernot Rohr and the Nigeria Football 

Federation as replacement for Chelsea loanee 

Ola Aina who pulled out of the squad, citing 

injury. 

‘’I am coming to camp tomorrow (Tuesday). I 

had a little shock in my knee, that’s why I was 

substituted, it’s not serious,’’ said Ndifreke 

Effiong. 

‘’I am alright. The doctors have checked me 

and granted me permission to join the Super 

Eagles.’’ 

Five members of the Dream Team VI squad 

that won bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games 

have been named to the latest Super Eagles 

roster. 

Chelsea to sack Sarri during international break 

C 

•Ighalo 

Wogu return to the fold. 

The nine –time African 

champions, who have been to 

tournaments in China and Cyprus 

as part of preparations for the big 

global fiesta in France, playing six 

matches in all, are scheduled to 

play two matches in Spain in the 

first week of April to further put 

themselves in shape for the finals. 

30 HOME BASED 

PROFESSIONALS IN FALCONS 

CAMP 

helsea chairman Roman 

Abramovich is reportedly 

considering sacking manager Maurizio 

Sarri during the upcoming 

international break following Sunday’s 

2-0 defeat at the hands of Everton. 

Chelsea dominated the first half at 

Goodison Park without finding a 

breakthrough, and they were made to 

pay after the break as goals from 

Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson put 

another major dent in their top-four 

hopes. 

Sarri’s future came under intense 

scrutiny last month following a string 

of poor results and an extraordinary 

incident in the EFL Cup final when 

•Iwobi 

Goalkeepers: Tochukwu Oluehi 

(Rivers Angels); Christy Ohiaeriaku 

(Confluence Queens); Chiamaka 

Nnadozie (Rivers Angels); Alaba 

Jonathan (Bayelsa Queens) 

Defenders: Glory Ogbonna (Ibom 

Angels); Ugochi Emenayo (Nasarawa 

Amazons); Ugo Njoku (Rivers Angels); 

Sarah Nnodim (Nasarawa Amazons); 

Mabel Effiong (Rivers Angels) Ayomide 

Ojo (Police College, Lagos); Josephine 

Chukwunonye; Mary Ologbosere 

(Rivers Angels) 

Midfielders: Mary Anjor (Osun 

Babes); Peace Efih (Edo Queens); 

Osarenoma Igbinovia (Bayelsa Queens); 

Amarachi Okoronkwo (Nasarawa 

Amazons); Cynthia Aku (Rivers Angels); 

Cecilia Nku (Rivers Angels); Adebisi 

Saheed (Bayelsa Queens); Evelyn 

Nwabuoku (Rivers Angels); Joy Bokiri 

(Bayelsa Queens); Rejoice Ikoyo (Bayelsa 

Queens) 

Forwards: Chidinma Okeke (FC Robo); 

Alice Ogebe (Rivers Angels); Joy Jerry 

(Bayelsa Queens); Esther Sunday; 

Folashade Ijamilusi (FC Robo); Rofiat 

Sule (Rivers Angels); Anam Imo 

(Nasarawa Amazons); Chioma Wogu 

(Bayelsa Queens) 

•Effiong 

goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga openly 

defied the Italian’s attempts to take 

him off. 

An upturn in form lifted some of the 

pressure off Sarri’s shoulders, but he 

is now back on the brink of 

losing his job due to the 

nature of their defeat on 

Merseyside. 

Abramovich will 

reportedly use the 

international break to 

decide the former Napoli 

manager’s fate following 

a disappointing debut 

campaign at Stamford 

Bridge. 

Awoniyi, Nwakali top Olympic 

Eagles’ squad for Libya clash 

head of their first round, first 

Aleg Africa U-23 Cup of Nations 

qualifying match against Libya in 

the Tunisian city of Bengerdan on 

Wednesday, the Nigeria U23 squad 

departed the shores of the country 

through Lagos in the early hours of 

Monday aboard a Royal Air Maroc 

flight. Head Coach Imama 

Amapakabo named a 23-man squad 

for the game. 

After camping for almost three 

weeks, the former Enugu Rangers’ 

coach opted for a mixture of local 

and foreign-based professionals for 

the battle against the Libyans. 

In the list of home-based players 

are Flying Eagles shot-stopper 

Olawale Oremade who led 

two other goalkeepers whilst 

Lobi Star’s trio of John 

Lazarus, Ebube Duru, and 

Ugochukwu Anumudu also 

made the cut. 

Other home-based players 

in the party include Akwa 

United full-back Etiboy 

Akpan and Enyimba’s 

Oluwadamilare Olatunji. 

Portugal- based Tosin 

Kehinde and Chidera Ezeh 

and Russia-based Olabiran 

Muyiwa were the only 

overseas –based players to 

depart with the team from 

Nigeria. 

Other invited overseas – 

based professionals such as 

Suarez to miss last-eight tie 

with Man Utd 

arcelona forward Luis Suarez could miss his 

Bteam’s upcoming Champions League quarterfinal 

with Manchester United after picking up an ankle 

injury during Sunday’s La Liga clash with Real Betis. 

Suarez was on the scoresheet in Barca’s 4-1 victory 

in Seville, but had to be replaced in the latter stages of 

the contest after picking up a problem. 

Barca, via their official Twitter page, have confirmed 

that the Uruguay international will undergo tests to 

determine the “exact extent of the injury”. 

There have been suggestions that the issue could 

rule the forward out of Barca’s trip to Old Trafford 

in the first leg of their Champions League 

quarter-final on April 10, in addition to the 

return match six days later. 

However, the Catalan giants are expected to 

deny or confirm the reports before the end of 

the day. 

The 32-year-old has scored 21 times in 39 

appearances for the Spanish champions this 

season, but is yet to find the back of the net in 

the Champions League. 

•Sarri 

•Osimhen 

•Ronaldo 

Taiwo Awoniyi, Kelechi Nwakali, 

Azubuike Okechukwu, and new 

Club Brugge forward Dennis 

Bonaventure are expected to join 

the team in Tunisia on Monday 

directly from their bases in Europe. 

The first leg of the clash will be 

played on Wednesday in 

Bergandan and the return leg is 

scheduled for Asaba on 25th March 

with the winner over both legs 

advancing to the final round of 

qualifiers in June. 

The delegation of Nigeria’s U23 

squad will land at the Djerba 

International Airport, which is 20 

minutes’ drive to the town of 

Bengerdan. 

•Nwakali 

•Awoniyi 

Osimhen scores 

his 12th league 

goal in Belgium 

ictor Osimhen scores his 12th 

Vleague goal in Belgium 

Jupiler at the Sporting Charleroi 2- 

1 defeat to Eupen. 

The 20-year-old VfL Wolfsburg 

loanee has continued to impress in 

Belgium with a goal on the dot of 

half time break to draw his side level 

after Alessio Castro-Montes found 

back of the net early for the visiting 

in the encounter 

Osimhen set to travel to Nigeria 

for the international break and the 

striker has no doubt put himself in 

pole position to start at least one 

among the two games Super Eagles 

game against Seychelles in the last 

group game of the 2019 AFCON 

qualifiers and friendly match with 

Egypt at Stephen Keshi Stadium in 

Asaba. 

•Suarez 

Ronaldo faces UEFA charge 

uventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has been 

Jcharged with improper conduct by Uefa for a 

goal celebration in the win over Atletico Madrid 

in the last 16 of the Champions League. 

The 34-year-old appeared to mimic Atletico 

boss Diego Simeone, who turned to fans and 

grabbed his crotch during his side’s 2-0 firstleg 

victory. 

Ronaldo made the gesture after his third goal 

of his hat-trick in the return leg as Juventus won 

3-0. 

Uefa will rule on the case on 21 March. 

Simeone was fined 20,000 euros (£17,000) for 

his celebration. 

Juventus have been drawn to play Dutch 

side Ajax in the quarter-finals.


Vanguard, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019 

TODAY’S PUZZLE 

Sudoku 

FRIDAY’S ANSWER 

TODAY’S CROSSWORD 

QUICK CROSSWORD 

THURSDAY’S SOLUTION 

How to Play Sudoku 

ACROSS 

1 Putting right (10) 

7 Disadvantage (8) 

8 Division of the school 

year (4) 

9 Depend (4) 

10 Hailed (7) 

12 Trendy (11) 

14 Bedaubed (7) 

16 Ten cent coin (4) 

19 Car (4) 

20 Airmen (8) 

21 Later on (10) 

DOWN 

1 Seat (5) 

2 Conundrums (7) 

3 Apiece (4) 

4 Becoming narrower (8) 

5 Saltpetre (5) 

6 Gentle wind (6) 

11 Able to read and write (8) 

12 Renowned (6) 

13 Bubble raised on the 

skin (7) 

15 Distant in manner (5) 

17 Noblemen (5) 

18 Prospect (4) 

Place a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two 

of the same number). 

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines 

from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine 

blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no 

number can appear twice in any block, column or row. 

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or 

multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination. 

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