30012020

OLU FASAN 31 Killing of 

What Nigeria needs 

is proper Christians: 

restructuring, but 

with Amotekun, a CAN goes 

symbol of true 

federalism,the 

Yoruba deserve 

to UN, 

credit for inching the 

34 

country towards it EU, AU 

Sanwo-Olu raises N100bn infrastructure devt bond for Lagos 

EDO 2020: 

33 

Obaseki declares war, 

threatens to expel Oshiomhole 

•He’s overbearing, says Iriase 

19 

VOL. 27: NO. 63994 THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 

INSECURITY: 

Fire service chiefs now, 

Senators, Reps tell Buhari 

•Reps pass resolution asking service chiefs to resign or get fired 

•Declare national security emergency, Senate tells Buhari 

•Uproar in Senate as Abaribe asks Buhari, APC to resign 

•Abaribe ought to be in correctional centre — PRESIDENCY 

BIRTHDAY... 

10 

5 

Corps 

members to 

receive 

N33,000 as 

allowance 13 

Cabals not 

controlling 

my govt 

— BUHARI 9 

Mr & Mrs 

From left, Dame Edith Okowa, wife of the Governor of Delta State and Founder, O5 Initiative; the adopted quintuplet s (celebrants) 

with staff of Federal Medical Centre Asaba, during the one year birthday celebration of the quintuplets in Asaba. 

Omo-Agege not convicted in US — COURT 12 

GAMBO DORI 17 

IKECHUKWU AMAECHI 17 

C 

M 

Y 

K

2 —Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 --- 3


C 

M 

Y 

K 

vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguardnews 

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 — 5 

POCKET CARTOON 

The popular Balogun market on Lagos Island with many buildings and 

goods gutted by fire, yesterday. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele. 

Fire service chiefs now, 

Senators, Reps tell Buhari 

By Henry Umoru & 

Tordue Salem 

ABUJA — Worried over 

the escalating 

insecurity situation in the 

country, the House of 

Representatives,, 

yesterday asked service 

chiefs to immediately 

resign their offices or be 

sacked by President 

Muhammed Buhari. 

The House, in a 

resolution, said the Service 

Chiefs have not been able 

to address the security 

challenges plaguing the 

country since 2015 when 

they were appointed by the 

President. 

On its part, the Senate 

called on President Buhari 

to, as a matter of urgency, 

sack the Service Chiefs, 

who were appointed July 

2015, contending that that 

they have done their part 

and at the moment, are out 

of ideas and have 

overstayed their welcome. 

Similarly, Speaker of the 

House of Representatives, 

Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, 

has described Amotekun, a 

South-West regional 

security initiative and 

similar regional outfits, as 

solutions to the raging 

problem of insecurity in the 

country. 

Reps asks service chiefs 

to resign 

The Reps regretted that 

the security top brass have 

adopted ineffective 

strategies that have failed 

to yield positive results. 

A motion by the Chief 

Whip of the House, 

Mohammed Monguno 

(APC, Borno) and 14 

others, asked President 

Buhari to sack the service 

chiefs if they failed to 

resign their positions. 

Monguno, who 

expressed concern over the 

growing blood-letting from 

attacks by Boko Haram and 

the Islamic State West 

African Province, ISWAP, 

insurgents in the North- 

East, recalled that activities 

of the insurgents, were 

drastically reduced earlier 

in Borno and Yobe States, 

before the latest resurgence 

in attacks on communities. 

He said, “Recently, the 

insurgents have forced the 

Nigerian Military to close 

traffic on the Damaturu- 

Maiduguri Road for some 

days. The Damaturu- 

Maiduguri Road is the 

only access road from 

Maiduguri to other parts of 

Nigeria.” 

Abubakakar Fulata (APC, 

Jigawa) in his contribution, 

called for the withdrawal of 

security personnel serving 

in the North East and their 

replacement with new 

personnel, adding that the 

long stay of the security 

personnel has largely 

contributed to their 

inefficiency as they were 

tired of remaining there. 

Chairman, Committee on 

Army, Mr Abdulrazaq 

Namdas (APC, Adamawa), 

said, the rise in attacks by 

Boko Haram in the North- 

East and increasing 

insecurity in across the 

country, was troubling, but 

opposed the idea of 

removing all the personnel 

currently serving in the 

area, saying their 

experience was still 

needed to assist those that 

will be sent to work there. 

On his part, Francis 

Waive (PDP, Rivers), said 

the issue of insecurity in the 

country was general and 

needed to be addressed 

holistically and warned that 

every Nigerian should be 

concerned about what is 

going on in the country. 

He however, asked the 

Service Chiefs to resign, 

stressing that the President 

should take another look at 

the Service Chief with a 

view to replacing them 

with fresh hands who will 

bring fresh ideas into the 

security system in the 

country. 

Beni Lar (APC, Plateau) 

argued that the North- 

Eastern part of the country 

has gradually been brought 

to a standstill with the 

resurgence in activities of 

Boko Haram, stressing that 

the lawmakers cannot sit 

back and watch as if 

nothing was happening. 

Tobi Okechukwu (PDP, 

Enugu), said the nation 

needs to interrogate how it 

conducts the business of 

security in the country, 

questioning why the 

government should be 

investing heavily on 

Trader Moni when there is 

no money to adequately 

fund the security agencies. 

Minority Leader, Mr 

Ndudi Elumelu in his 

contribution suggested 

more investment in 

equipment for the security 

agencies, stressing that 

there was no way you can 

ask a policeman to rescue 

you when he is poorly 

equipped. He said there 

were lots of things going on 

in the country which need 

urgent attention. 

Sada Soli (APC, 

Katsina), argued that the 

President was not being 

told the truth about 

developments in the north 

east. 

In amending the original 

motion, Francis Waive 

asked the House to 

demand the immediate 

resignation of the Service 

Chiefs, while some other 

members said the 

President should 

immediately sack them. 

But the Chairman of the 

House Committee on 

Defence, Jimi Benson(APC, 

Lagos), said the laws allow 

the President to keep the 

Service Chiefs for as long 

as he wishes, but 

expressed concern over 

recent developments in the 

country. 

He said: “The National 

Security Adviser is from the 

North East and cannot get 

to his village. The Chief of 

Army Staff is also from the 

North East and cannot get 

to his village. The Chief of 

Air staff too. That speaks 

volumes of their ability. 

“But the solution lies in 

the hands of the President. 

I don’t know why he has 

kept them since 2015 when 

they were first appointed. 

He should decide whether 

to continue to keep them or 

not. I believe the resolution 

here will prick his 

conscience.” 

The House resolved that 

the leadership of the House 

and indeed the National 

Assembly should hold a 

tripartite meeting with the 

President and the Service 

Chiefs with a view to 

finding lasting solution to 

the security challenges. 

Senate toes similar line 

Toeing the same line, the 

Senators called on 

President Buhari to as a 

matter of urgency sack the 

Service Chiefs who were 

appointed July 2015 

against the backdrop that 

they have done their part 

and at the moment, they are 

out of ideas as they have 


Declare national security 

emergency, Senate tells 

Buhari 

For six hours yesterday, 

the security challenges in 

the country was the subject 

of discourse by the 

Senators, who came to the 

conclusion that the security 

infrastructure has failed in 

the country and that 

President Buhari, should 

as a matter of urgency 

declare a national security 

emergency. 

The Senate also 

summoned the Inspector- 

General of Police, IGP, 

Mohammed Adamu to 

appear before it next 

Wednesday to brief them on 

the security challenges, 

architecture, methods 

employed so far and the 

way forward towards 

addressing the problems. 

The Senate also set up a 

17-member ad- hoc 

Committee with the Senate 

Leader, Senator Abdullahi 

Yahaya (APC, Kebbi 

North), as chairman, 

saddled with the 

Continues on Page 41 

By Bose Adelaja & 

Olayinka Latona 

On ban of Okada, Tricycles in 15 LGAs by LASG (1) 

It is a laudable step in 

stamping out the menace 

of okada riders on our roads 

because many of the okada 

and tricycle riders are not 

Nigerians and can’t interpret 

road signs. 

Though we could say they 

have served as a fast means 

of transportation for those 

trying to beat traffic and get 

to their destinations on time, 

however, the risk involved is 

on the high side compared 

with the gains 

*Amodu Muhammed 

Administrator 

The ban, in my opinion, 

is not the right 

decision on the part of 

government. In a busy city 

like Lagos, the okada and 

tricycle are alternative 

means of transportation and 

easy means for commuters 

carrying out their daily 

activities. Moreso, the 

riders will be left jobless and 

this will increase the rate of 

unemployment. I will urge 

the LASG to have a rethink 

on this decision. 

*Gbadegesin Samuel 

Fashionpreneur 

There's no doubt that 

the carelessness of the 

tricycle and okada riders 

has become a menace to the 

society. Speaking from 

experience, I was actually 

brushed by a keke man 

recently because I refused 

to leave the pedestrian way. 

Placing a ban on them 

from plying major roads 

should be enacted promptly 

and anyone who refuses to 

adhere should be punished, 

in my opinion. 

*Akinbode Stellar 

Writer. 

Restricting okada and 

tricycles in Lagos 

State is like closing down a 

major means of employment 

for a set of people. 

I think the state 

government should instill 

sanity and discipline in the 

mode of operation of these 

riders instead of banning 

them from major routes in 

the state. So many 

families will suffer 

because those affected 

are breadwinners of their 

families 

*Olarewaju Ellen 

Makeup Artist. 

Personally, I really 

don’t see reasons 

for the ban, especially 

tricycles. 

Tricycles have really 

made it easy for people 

in the state to move 

around especially on 

streets that the buses 

don’t go through. 

Lagos State Government 

should have 

found a way to work 

round the situation. 

*Olutoto Iyinoluwa 

Educationist 

The ban is a welcome 

development but we 

have to look at the pros and 

cons as it affects Lagosians. 

Firstly, the rate of accidents 

occasioned by the 

recklessness of these riders 

is high; so many lives have 

been lost. Secondly, okada 

and tricycles are sources of 

livelihood for many 

families so, a stakeholders’ 

meeting should have been 

convened before the 

government arrived at the 

decision. 

*Kewulere A.Omolara 

Accountant

6 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 

Police arrest 

pastor for 

staging own 

kidnap in 

Kaduna 

By Ben Agande 

KADUNA— A pastor, who 

allegedly staged his own 

kidnap and demanded N5 

million ransom from his family, 

has been arrested by 

operatives of Kaduna State 

Police Command. 

The State Command Public 

Relations Officer, DSP Yakubu 

Sabo, said the pastor, James 

Clement, and his accomplice, 

George Otokpa, were arrested 

by operatives of the 

command’s Anti-Kidnapping 

Unit. 

According to the PPRO, the 

fake kidnap was stagemanaged 

on January 27, 2020. 

The 39-year-old pastor, who 

lives in Nasarawa Tirkaniya 

area of Kaduna, allegedly 

conspired with Otokpa, who 

resides at 23, Aleri Water by 

Sarki Street, Kudandan, to 

commit the offence. 

It said Clement “demanded 

the payment of N5 million as 

ransom from his own family 

through text messages using 

the second suspect as the 

negotiator.” 

The arrest followed a report 

by one Miss Monica Sunday 

and Mr Ejimba Ichukwu, both 

family members of the fake 

kidnapped victim about the 

kidnap of their relation. 

“The suspect, Clement 

James, was tracked and 

arrested at his hide-out where 

he hid, falsely claimed being 

kidnapped and conspired with 

his friend, George Otokpa ‘m’ 

22yrs (the 2nd suspect) to 

engage his family in 

negotiation for ransom. 

7 die in 

Sokoto road 

crash 

SEVEN persons, including 

the Village Head of Tudun 

Doki in Gwadabawa LGA, 

Alhaji Hayatu Ardo, have died 

in a road crash, which 

occurred along Gwadabawa- 

Illela road in Sokoto State. 

Mr Garaba Kanya, the 

Public Relations Officer of 

Federal Road Safety Corps, 

FRSC, Sokoto Sector 

Command, disclosed, 

yesterday, that the accident 

occurred Monday night. 

Kanya said the crash 

involved a commercial Toyota 

Avensis car conveying 11 

persons, which skidded off the 

road and hit some trees when 

the driver lost control. 

He said others who 

sustained injuries were 

hospitalised at Gwadabawa 

General Hospital. 

It was gathered that the Sole 

Administrator of Gwadabawa 

local government, Alhaji 

Aminu Aya, has commiserated 

with the families of the 

deceased and prayed Allah to 

give them the fortitude to bear 

the loss. 

Fire destroys 7 shopping plazas at 

Balogun market 

By Esther Onyegbula 

MANY traders at the 

popular Balogun Market 

on Lagos Island could not hold 

back tears, yesterday, as they 

watched their wares burning as 

fire razed seven shopping 

plazas. 

It was gathered that the fire 

started from Anambra Plaza, on 

Martins Street, beside Great 

Nigeria Insurance Company 

Limited, Leventis bus stop, as 

one of the traders tried 

refuelling his generator set that 

was running. 

When Vanguard got to the 

scene at about 2:30 pm the fire 

was still raging even as officials 

of the Lagos fire service battled 

to put out the fire. 

Some of the traders, whose 

shops were affected, just sat 

down helpless, while some 

lucky traders were seen 

salvaging their wares as the 

fire raged. 

Some who were able to 

recover their wares, were 

searching for where to keep 

them to avoid being looted by 

hoodlums. 

How it happened, 

by traders 

One of the traders, whose 

shop was burnt, Adaze Udo, 

said: “The fire started when 

one of the traders was refuelling 

his generator, which was on, at 

Anambra Plaza. While he was 

still pouring the fuel into the 

fuel tank, the generator went up 

in flames. 

“Unfortunately, he threw the 

remaining gallon of fuel which 

had already caught fire to Plaza 

4. It was from there the fire 

spread to Plazas 2, 6, 8.” 

Another trader, who simply 

gave his name as Chucks, said: 

“I was inside my shop when I 

heard people shouting, I came 

out of my shop and took a look 

at the place, it was just small 

fire, so I went back inside. 

Before I knew what was 

happening the plaza opposite 

ours was in flames and the fire 

was spreading really fast. I was 

only able to get a bag of wares 

out of my shop. 

“I was almost burnt while 

trying to park my wares. At a 

point, I had to flee and abandon 

my wares. Within 10 seconds, 

it spread to other shops because 

of the PVC used as ceilings in 

the shops and the marquees 

used to display clothes." 

A nursing mother, whose 

shop was also affected, Amaka 

Ikenna, said: “I was still trying 

to display my wares when I 

heard fire, fire, immediately I 

ran out. Our plaza was the first 

to be affected, so I couldn’t pick 

a single item from my shop. I 

had to run for my life. 

“Sincerely, I am tired of all 

these troubles. The other time 

it was only one plaza that was 

affected, now over five plazas 

have been razed down.” 

Asked if he was able to take 

Some of the traders lamenting their losses at the scene of the fire outbreak. Photo: 

Lamidi Bamidele. 

anything from his shop, one of 

the affected traders, who gave 

his name as Okey, simply said: 

"When there is life there is 

hope.” 

6 buildings affected 

As at 6 pm yesterday, about six 

buildings used as shopping mall 

by traders at Balogun market have 

been razed by the inferno. 

Most of the traders looked 

gloomy as they helplessly watched 

while officials of the fire service 

battled to contain the fire from 

spreading to other buildings for 

hours. 

The Lagos State Emergency 

Management Agency, LASEMA, 

Director-General, Oke- 

Osanyintolu, confirmed that 

explosion from a generator caused 

the fire outbreak. 

He said: “We were informed that 

some one was fuelling his 

generator, and suddenly, the 

generator exploded in flames and 

spread to other buildings.” 

4 buildings collapse 

He said four of the buildings 

collapsed while the rescue 

operation was still on. 

Oke-Osanyintolu said LASEMA 

and the Lagos Fire Service officials 

were promptly mobilised to the 

scene to put off the raging fire. 

The director said two of the 

affected buildings collapsed to 

ground zero, adding that 

LASEMA had, however, curtailed 

the fire from spreading to other 

buildings. 

He said: “We are going to carry 

out integrity test on all the structures, 

and any building that fails the 

integrity test will be pulled down. 

“Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu 

is doing a lot to ensure the safety of 

lives and property. The attitude of 

our people is highly challenging 

and does not conform to the mission 

and vision of the governor. 

Change of attitudes 

“However, we are appealing to 

our people to change their attitudes 

through sensitisation and advocacy 

from time to time.” 

The LASEMA boss lauded the 

efforts of all key stakeholders, 

including Julius Berger, Federal 

Fire Service, Lagos State Fire and 

other agencies in managing 

emergencies as they occur in the 

state. 

Meanwhile, Director-General, 

Lagos State Safety Commission, 

LASSC, Mr Lanre Mojola, has 

expressed disappointment over 

another round of fire disaster in the 

market. 

Mojola said his men were at the 

market on January 19 to sensitise 

traders on safety and how to avoid 

fire outbreak that could lead to loss 

of lives and goods. 

He noted with concern that in 

spite of the awareness campaign, 

such a disaster could still occur in 

the market. 

Robbers kill NYSC member in Osun 

By Shina Abubakar 

OSOGBO— A serving 

member of National Youth 

Service Corps, NYSC, in Osun 

State, Adebayo Mukaila, was 

reportedly killed by a two-man 

armed robbery gang. 

It was gathered that the 

deceased owned a shop at Omo- 

West Street close to the NYSC 

secretariat in the state capital, 

where he sells recharge-cards, 

cable TV subscription and also 

engaged in money transfer. 

Sources disclosed that 

Mukaila, popularly called Alfa, 

was attacked after closing his 

shop around 11 pm on Tuesday 

by the hoodlums. 

The criminals, according to the 

sources, after disposing the 

deceased of his bag containing 

cash, POS machine, recharge 

cards and a bunch of keys, shot 

him on the head before dashing 

away on a motorcycle. 

An eye witness, Idowu 

Korede, who resides in the area, 

said the incident occurred late 

in the night and the sound of 

the gunshot was too audible but 

no one could come out of the 

house. 

He said the deceased 

daughter (name withheld) was 

with him when he was shot and 

was crying for help after the 

robbers left the scene. 

He said: “We all heard a loud 

bang and we decided to stay off 

believing some cultists have 

started their usual rivalry clash 

but a few minutes later a little 

girl was crying for help and 

residents rushed to the scene. 

Mukaila’s body was found on 

the ground with gunshot injury 

on his head and was rushed to 

the hospital where he was 

pronounced dead. 

Korede, who described the 

incident as unfortunate, said: 

“We observed the night prayer 

together at the mosque before he 

returned to the shop and 

whenever he stayed late, he 

sleeps over at his parents’ house 

located few metres from his 

shop.” 

Contacted, an official of the 

Public Relations Unit of the state 

NYSC confirmed the incident, 

adding that the deceased is a 

serving corps member in the state. 

She said the secretariat had 

contacted and condoled with the 

family, saying the matter had also 

been reported at the police station.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 —7 

Strange ailment claims 4 persons 

in Benue, others hospitalised 

By Peter Duru 

MAKURDI—FOUR persons 

have been confirmed dead 

following the outbreak of a 

strange ailment at a border 

settlement in Oye-Obi, Obi Local 

Government Area of Benue State. 

In a Save-Our-Soul, SOS, alert 

to the relevant health authorities, 

yesterday, in Makurdi, President, 

Igede National Youths Council, 

INYC, Andyson Egbodo, 

lamented that several persons in 

the community were already down 

with the ailment. 

Egbodo said: “The sickness has 

so far killed four persons in two 

weeks. The four victims, namely 

Happiness Ogbu, Onah Ogbedu, 

Andy Edu and Wisdom Agwo 

developed the same symptoms of 

headache, internal heat, 

diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach 

ache, weakness of the body and 

swollen stomach before they 

died. 

“Our investigation revealed that 

the health authorities in Oju have 

been briefed. We are calling on 

the state and federal governments 

to, as a matter of urgency, do all 

within their powers to arrest the 

situation. 

“On our part, we are not resting 

in the area of mass mobilisation 

and awareness campaign on how 

to prevent its spread. Our 

investigation revealed that about 

six more persons as at today, 

Wednesday, are already down 

with the same symptoms and 

some have already been moved 

to General Hospital, Oju.” 

Confirming outbreak of the 

strange ailment, Benue State 

Commissioner for Health and 

Human Services, Dr Sunday 

Ongbabo, said: “Yes, we are aware 

of the strange disease killing 

people in the area but we have 

sent our focal person there to 

investigate the situation and 

ascertain the nature of the 

epidemic. 

“We are also in touch with the 

National Centre for Disease 

Control in Abuja and the World 

Health Organisation, WHO, to 

come to our aid so that we can 

identify the disease to enable us 

protect others. 

“We are presently doing 

everything to contain it. So far, 

three persons have been 

confirmed dead,” he added. 

... with Emma'nKen (08163121378) 

Go to 3rd mainland bridge area, 

we have enough water there 

NABBED: Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, 

Cross River Command, Mr Danjuma Elisha (middle), parading suspects for 

allegedly operating illegal Computer Based Test, CBT, registration centres and 

extorting high fees from candidates, in Calabar, yesterday. Photo: NAN. 

82-yr-old mother of Lagos business mogul 

abducted in Ondo 

By Dayo Johnson 

AKURE—MADAM Alice 

Fadeni, the 82-year-old 

mother of a Lagos business 

mogul, has been kidnapped by 

five gunmen in Ode Aye in 

Okitipupa council area of Ondo 

State. 

Madam Fadeni is the mother 

of a popular Lagos business 

mogul, Sehinde Fadeni 

It was gathered that the 

gunmen invaded her residence 

around 8 pm on Tuesday and 

dragged her into a waiting 

vehicle. 

An eyewitness said the 

gunmen collected the handset 

of their victim and zoomed off 

to an unknown destination. 

The eyewitness said: “I don’t 

know if they left with other 

valuables but l heard them 

asking for her handset before 

they zoomed off. 

“They zoomed off shooting 

sporadically into the air to avoid 

being stopped while residents 

of the town ran for safety for fear 

of being hit by a stray bullet.” 

At press time, the abductors 

were yet to open a line of 

communication with the son of 

the victim. 

Contacted, the state police 

image maker, Femi Joseph, 

confirmed the incident and said 

an investigation had 

commenced on the incident. 

Joseph said: “We are aware of 

the abduction of the old woman 

but we have started an 

investigation into it and we are 

already on the trail of the 

bandits.” 

Jealous housewife sets self ablaze 

in Kano 

By Bashir Bello 

KANO — A housewife, 

Rabi, allegedly set herself 

ablaze over jealousy and 

rivalry in Gayawa area, 

Ungogo Local Government 

Area of Kano State. 

It was gathered that Rabi’s 

husband, Badamasi, married 

another wife sometimes back, 

which didn’t go down well 

with Rabi leading to setting 

herself ablaze. 

The action of Rabi has put 

her relatives in the state of 

mourning as they expressed 

unhappiness with the 

circumstances surrounding 

her death. 

When contacted, 

spokesperson of the police, 

DSP Abdullahi Haruna, told 

our reporter that he was trying 

to make an inquiry from the 

Divisional Police Officer, DPO 

of the area. 

However, at press time, DSP 

Haruna was yet to issue any 

official statement on the 

incident. 

Yes, wait till you reach menopause! 

That means you are in real trouble


CORONAVIRUS: FG tells 

Nigerians not to travel to 

China in new travel advisory 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru 

:Vanguard News :@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058 

ABUJA—THE Federal 

Government yesterday, 

advised Nigerians 

to suspend any plans to 

visit China for now in view 

of raging case of Coronavirus 

in the Asian country. 

Minister of Health, Dr. 

Osagie Ehanire, gave the 

advice in Abuja, yesterday, 

while briefing State House 

correspondents at the end 

of the Federal Executive 

Council, FEC, meeting presided 

over by President 

Muhammadu Buhari at the 

Council Chamber, Presidential 

Villa, Abuja. 

The Health Minister said 

that he briefed the council 

and gave an update on the 

outbreak of Coronavirus. 

He said that after his presentation, 

the FEC approved 

a travel advisory for 

Nigerians, stating clearly 

that all travel plans to China 

be stopped in the meantime. 

According to him, the advisory 

also directed all returnees 

to Nigeria from 

China to be quarantined 

outdoors within for period 

of two weeks before being 

fully interacting with their 

families, adding that the 

two weeks would be used 

to monitor possible symptoms 

on the bodies of the 

returnees. 

He added that the Federal 

Government has also directed 

all airlines flying into 

Nigeria to report any passenger 

with signs of illness 

to airport authorities upon 

landing at any airport in the 

country. He said that all disease 

control and monitoring 

agencies in the country had 

been alerted to be on the 

look out for any sings of the 

infection. 

He said: “In view of the 

trending stories around the 

Coronavirus, it has become 

very necessary to issue a 

travel advisory to Nigerians. 

The first is that all Nigerians 

and all from Nigeria, 

intending to travel to China 

should delay their travel 

plans until further notice, 

except it is extremely essential 

for them to do that trip. 

“All persons arriving from 

China or any country that 

has a major outbreak is advised, 

if they have no symptoms 

at all, to self isolate, 

meaning that they stay indoors 

in their homes for at 

least two weeks and if they 

develop any symptoms, like 

cough, caterrh, sneezing, 

breathing difficulties within 

this period, to report to 

the nearest health facility. 

“We are also advising all 

airlines to report any case 

of a passenger falling sick 

on-board before the plane 

lands. That is a requirement 

in the agreement. Nigerian 

Port Health Services, Nigeria 

Centre for Disease Control 

are on alert at our airports 

and other points of 

entry. That is the advisory.” 

FG to repatriate fresh $321m 

Abacha loot 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru 

ABUJA — THE Federal 

Executive Council, 

FEC, has approved the 

commencement of the repatriation 

of stolen assets 

from the United States. 

The agreement on the 

repatriation of looted funds 

is expected to be signed 

next week while the looted 

assets of $321 million allegedly 

belonging to late General 

Sani Abacha are also 

expected to be repatriated 

from Island of Jersey. 

Briefing State House correspondents 

after the FEC 

meeting presided over by 

President Muhammadu 

Buhari at the Council 

Chamber, Presidential Villa, 

Abuja, the Attorney General 

of the Federation and 

Minister of Justice, Mr 

Abubakar Malami, SAN, 

said that other assets to be 

repatriated include that of 

former Minister of Petroleum 

Resources, Diezani 

Alison-Madueke and Kolawole 

Aluko. 

Malami, said that the 

Council approved the asset 

sharing tripartite agreement 

between Nigeria, Island 

of Jersey and the United 

States of America for the 

purpose of repatriation of 

looted assets. 

He said during President 

Buhari’s first term, his administration 

succeeded in 

the recovery of looted asset 

by over 1,300 percent. 

He further explained that 

based on the Memorandum 

of Understanding, MoU, 

reached by the three parties, 

the money would be spent 

on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, 

the 2nd Niger 

Bridge and the Abuja-Kano 

Expressway. 

Malami, however, explained 

that no figure 

had been placed on the 

Alison-Madueke asset to 

be repatriated. 

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING: Director, National Sugar Institute (NSI), Kanpur, India, 

Mr. Narendra Mohan (2nd left); High Commissioner of India to Nigeria, Mr. Abhay Thakur (middle); 

and the Executive Secretary, National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Abuja, Nigeria, Dr Latif 

Busir, during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on the establishment of 

a Sugar Institute in Nigeria between NSI and NSDC, in Abuja yesterday. 

BOKO HARAM: Senate condemns Plateau 

killings, abductions 

By Henry Umoru 

ABUJA — THE Senate, 

yesterday, condemned 

the abduction and 

killings of Nigerian citizens 

from Plateau State by Boko 

Haram insurgents, just as 

it warned against what it 

termed, the anti-Plateau 

hate narrative by bandits 

which is aimed at dividing 

Nigerians along ethno-religious 

lines. 

The Senate consequently, 

urged the authorities of Ahmadu 

Bello University, 

Zaria, ABU; University of 

Jos; and Tafawa Balewa 

University, Bauchi to absorb 

all undergraduate and post 

graduate students of Plateau 

State origin currently 

studying in the University 

of Maiduguri as their safety 

was gravely jeopardized 

and no longer guaranteed. 

The Upper Chamber noted 

that the recent killing of 

students and people who 

are of Plateau State extraction 

by the Boko Haram terrorists 

has put fear in the 

minds of many students that 

are at the moment stranded 

in Borno State. 

The resolutions of the 

Senate yesterday, were sequel 

to a point of Order by 

Senator Isifanus Gyang 

from Plateau State. 

Gyang who relied on order 

42 and 52 of Senate 

Standing Rules, in his notion 

said a total of 27 lives 

were lost on Tuesday in a 

renewed blood bath carried 

out by insurgents in Kwattas, 

Ruboi and Marish in 

Plateau State. 

The lawmaker said, “The 

consequential effects of this 

defective anti-Plateau narrative 

have led to the abduction 

of over six persons, 

Senate Committee screens Obiora 

for CBN Deputy Gov post 

OPL 245: Nigerian witness testifies in Italian court 

THE trial of Shell & Eni 

is ongoing in Milan, 

Italy, Valori, an Italian 

newspaper has reported. 

Italian authorities had 

asked prosecutors to produce 

Isaac Eke, a Nigerian 

witness who is a retired Assistant 

Inspector-General of 

Police, in the ongoing probe 

of the $1.1billion Malabu oil 

scandal. 

Eke was brought up by 

defendant Vincenzo Armanna, 

former Eni manager, 

who became one of the 

main accusers of the current 

CEO Descalzi and the other 

managers. 

Shell and Eni were said 

to have given out bribes in 

the bid for OPL 245, one of 

Nigeria’s richest oil blocks. 

The oil block’s reserves 

were estimated at 9.23 billion 

barrels of crude oil. 

At the time of the OPL 245 

deal between 2010 and 

2012, Eke was deputy commissioner 

of police operations 

in Abuja. 

While testifying, Eke 

said, he met Armannna 

twice through a mutual 

friend, Timi Ayei, the first 

time in 2014. 

But the Italian prosecutor 

pointed out that he had earlier 

said, in his letter, that 

he met Armanna in 2009 

and that he was introduced 

to him as Victor Nwafor. 

Although Eke confirmed 

that his signature was on 

the letter, he said he has 

never used the name Victor 

Nwafor. 

He said he was unaware 

the trial would be public but 

the prosecutor countered 

him, saying he had said he 

was ready to testify in the 

trial. 

Asked who paid for his 

flight ticket to Italy, the witness 

said he did but was told 

Armanna would pay him for 

his flights and accommodation. 

He also said he spoke 

with the Nigerian security 

services before he came to 

the country and was summoned 

by Babagana Munguno, 

National Security 

Adviser. 

four males and two females. 

“Three boys including an 

undergraduate of the University 

of Maiduguri, were 

murdered by Boko Haram 

at close range gunshots. 

“The anti-Plateau hate 

narrative is reminiscent of 

the Nazi Germany episode 

where the Nazi supremacist 

regime promoted the 

demonization of Jews and 

incited anti-Semitism as a 

justification for the subsequent 

gas chambers genocide 

against the Jews. 

“The xenophobic and 

hateful narrative being orchestrated 

by Boko Haram 

is intended to set other Nigerian 

citizens against 

Emma Ujah, Abuja 

Bureau Chief 

THE Senate Commit 

tee on Banking, Insurance 

and Other Financial 

Institutions, yesterday 

screened Dr Kingsley Obiora 

for the position of Deputy 

Governor of the Central 

Bank of Nigeria, CBN, urging 

him to bring his 

wealth of experience to 

bear in the task of assisting 

the Bank achieve its 

mandate of ensuring 

monetary and price stability, 

among others. 

This followed Dr Obiora’s 

nomination by President 

Muhammadu Buhari 

for the position of 

Deputy Governor of the 

apex bank. 

Chairman of the Committee, 

Senator Uba Sani 

said that the committee 

was impressed by Dr 

Obiora’s credentials and 

expertise. 

Senator Uba described 

the nomination of Dr Obiora 

as “fitting,” and expressed 

confidence that the 

nominee was well suited for 

the position, bearing in mind 

the fact that he had been actively 

involved in the process 

of monetary policy formulation 

at both the national 

and international levels. 

According to him, the 

Senate, through the committee, 

decided to give the 

screening expeditious consideration, 

given the sensitivity 

and critical role the 

Deputy Governor of the 

those of Plateau origin.” 

He added that the killings 

by Boko Haram are an “attempt 

by the fanatical sect 

to whip up religious and 

ethnic sentiments of unsuspecting 

Nigerians and to 

shift attention from its evil 

acts that have not spared 

Muslims and other Nigerian 

citizens of all classes and 

creeds from North to South, 

East to West.” 

The lawmaker added that 

Nigerians were looking up 

to the Senate to, not only 

show concern, but raise a 

strong voice in condemning 

the terror unleashed on 

them by the activities of 

Boko Haram and bandits. 

CBN plays in the nation’s 

economic sector and to plug 

any gap that might be created 

with the imminent exit 

of the out-going Deputy 

Governor, Economic Policy. 

In their individual remarks, 

members of the Senate 

Committee lauded the 

competence of the nominee, 

noting that he possessed 

the expertise to add great 

value to the management of 

monetary policy and indeed 

the Nigerian economy. 

The committee, while also 

commending the quality of 

the nominee and his patriotic 

zeal, said the nomination 

underscored the importance 

of merit in considering 

Nigerians for appointments. 

Responding to the questions 

posed by the Senate 

Committee members, Dr 

Obiora expressed gratitude 

to the President for considering 

him for appointment 

as Deputy Governor. 

He also thanked the Senate 

Committee for its kind 

words and their commitment 

to the Nigerian 

project. 

If confirmed as Deputy 

Governor, Obiora pledged 

to contribute his quota to 

enabling the CBN achieve 

its mandate.



PARLEY: Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State (left) receiving a brief from the Commissioner, 

National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), Sen. 

Basheer Mohammed (2nd left) and his team on the Commission’s report on repatriating Nigerian 

refugees from Chad Republic in Abuja yesterday. Photo: NAN. 

Cabals not controlling my government 

— BUHARI 

the inner cycle of the 

A 

B 

U J A — 

PRESIDENT 

Muhammadu Buhari has 

downplayed the claims that 

certain individuals among 

his aides and relatives, 

often called “cabals,” have 

an influence on his 

government. 

In an exclusive interview 

with The Interview 

Newspaper, President 

Buhari said “I was the one 

who went round the country 

on campaigns, and I was 

the one voted into office as 

President, twice. No one 

else did, and no one else 

took the oath of office, and 

can exercise the powers of 

a President.” 

Recall that some 

Nigerians, prominent 

among whom is the First 

HEALTH TIPS 

By Sola Ogundipe 

Lady, Aisha Buhari, have 

claimed that there is a 

‘cabal,’ whose influence on 

the decisions taken by the 

President and the 

presidency, is immense. 

The First Lady at several 

instances, had accused 

these people of controlling 

her husband at the expense 

of Nigerians, who 

entrusted the president with 

their mandate. 

It will be recalled that 

recently, the First Lady had 

asked an aide to the 

president, Garba Shehu, to 

resign or be relieved of his 

position after she accused 

Mr Shehu of receiving 

instructions from the said 

cabals to the detriment of her 

husband and the first 

family. 

Shehu who had admitted 

the existence of cabal within 

Signs your water might be 

unsafe to drink 

Most of us don’t think 

about the water we drink. 

We just fill a glass and 

drink. Is the water you’re 

drinking safe? What can 

you do if your drinking 

water suddenly became 

contaminated? A good rule 

of thumb is to check for 

cloudiness. 

Water that’s safe to drink 

should ideally be clear with 

no odour or funny taste. 

One way to tell if water is 

contaminated is to look for 

turbidity, or cloudiness. 

While cloudy water isn’t 

necessarily dangerous to 

your health, it could signal 

the presence of unsafe 

pathogens or chemicals. 

If your drinking water 

tastes metallic, smells fishy, 

or comes out cloudy, it 

could signal the presence 

of unsafe contaminants. 

The best way to tell 

exactly what’s in your 

water is to have it 

professionally tested, but 

there are a few ways to 

screen for contaminants 

using your senses. 

Also check to see if your 

hands feel slimy after 

washing them with soap 

and water. 

If your water smells like 

bleach, be wary of excess 

chlorine. Water that smells 

like bleach could be a sign 

of excess chlorine in your 

local system. 

Water that smells like 

sewage or rotten eggs 

could contain hydrogen 

sulfide, a colourless gas that 

can naturally occur in 

groundwater. When this 

gas is exposed to certain 

bacteria, it converts into 

sulphate, which can cause 

dehydration or diarrhea. 

If water smells fishy, it 

could be a sign of barium 

or cadmium. 

A number of 

contaminants, including 

arsenic and nitrates, are 

hidden to the naked eye. 

In many cases, a single 

drinking water system will 

contain more than one 

hazardous chemicl, making 

it difficult to evaluate the 

overall health risk. 

presidency, however, 

maintained that they are not 

“hungry people,” rather, 

they are “respectable 

people who deserve respect 

because they have 

achieved a lot.” 

Buhari was further asked 

why nothing much has 

been heard from the Doyin 

Salami-led Economic 

Advisory Council after its 

inauguration last October, 

he said that the committee 

was fulfilling its mandate in 

the background and results 

would soon be seen. 

“They don’t have to play 

to the gallery in doing their 

work. They don’t have to 

do it on the pages of 

newspapers, but be rest 

assured that they are 

working quietly and 

efficiently. Results are what 

matter, and you will see 

their influence on our 

economic policies in due 

course.” 

On his promise to lift 100 

million Nigerians from 

poverty in 10 years in the 

face of surging population 

growth, the president 

restated the resolve of his 

administration to meet the 

target with an assurance 

that he would hand over 

the baton to a successor. 

Industrial unrest in public 

service caused by lack of 

communication — FG 

By Emem Idio Permanent Secretary, 

Service Welfare, Office of 

Y ENAGOA—THE 

Federal Government 

has attributed lack of 

effective communication 

between employers and 

employees as the cause of 

unrest and industrial 

disputes in the public 

service, advocating the 

principles of collective 

bargaining and mutual 

respect for sustained 

industrial peace and 

harmony in service. 

Acting Head of the Civil 

Service of the Federation, 

Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan 

stated this yesterday, 

during the meeting of the 

Joint National Public 

Service Negotiating 

Council, JNPSNC, holding 

in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. 

Yemi-Esan said the 

JNPSNC meeting was 

another opportunity for the 

representatives of workers 

and government to 

interact and formally 

exchange ideas on some 

issues generally affecting 

the growth and 

development of the public 

service and particularly the 

well-being of the entire 

workforce. 

The acting Head of 

Federal Civil Service who 

was represented by the 

the Head of Civil Service 

of the Federation and 

Chairman of Council, Dr 

Evelyn Ngige, described 

the JNPSNC as “a platform 

for sustained cooperation 

amongst the respective 

entities of government and 

labour at the national and 

sub-national levels, noting 

that similar channels of 

conciliation, mediation and 

arbitration have been used 

to facilitate industrial 

harmony in government 

and corporate settings.” 

UTME: JAMB nabs 38 CBT 

operators over cyber crimes 

By Joseph Erunke 

ABUJA—THE Joint 

Admissions and 

Matriculation Board, 

JAMB, yesterday, handed 

over 38 operators of various 

Computer Based Test, CBT, 

centres to operatives of 

Nigeria Security and Civil 

Defence Corps, NSCDC, 

for prosecution over cyber 

crimes. 

The suspects, who were 

said to have allegedly 

indulged in the cyber 

crimes, using the Virtual 

Private Network, VPN, are 

from the six geopolitical 

zones of the country. 

VPN extends a private 

network across a public 

network, and enables users 

to send and receive data 

across shared or public 

networks as if their 

computing services were 

directly connected to the 

private network. 

JAMB’s Registrar, Prof 

Ishaq Oloyede, speaking 

at the board’s 

headquarters, Abuja, 

where the suspects were 

handed over to operatives 

of NSCDC for onward 

prosecution, explained 

that the suspects who are 

operators of CBT centres, 

extended the VPN to 

illegal outposts to register 

some candidates for the 

2020 Unified Tertiary 

Matriculation Examination, 

UTME, and those seeking 

admission through Direct 

Entry, DE. 

A one-on-one 

engagement between the 

Airforce commissions another C-130H 

aircraft after in-country PDM 

Kingsley 

Omonobi 

ABUJA—IN 

its 

continued efforts to 

boost its airlift and combat 

support capability for 

Armed Forces’ operations 

across the country, the 

Nigerian Air Force, NAF, 

yesterday, ‘accepted’ back 

into service another C- 

130H aircraft, NAF 913, after 

a successful Periodic Depot 

Maintenance, PDM, within 

the country at the 631 

Aircraft Maintenance 

Depot, Ikeja, Lagos. 

....Hands them to NSCDC for prosecution 

Emma Ujah 

A 

B U J A — 

DIRECTOR- 

General of the Bureau for 

Public Enterprise, BPE, Mr 

Alex Okoh, has said that 

efforts were on to resolve 

the lingering legal tussle 

over the Aluminium 

Smelting Company of 

Nigeria, ALSCON, Ikot- 

Abasi, Akwa Ibom State in 

order to revamp the firm. 

The Director-General 

pointed out that if the 

Smelter Company was 

functioning, it would have 

provided about 8,500 direct 

This brings to two the 

number of C-130H aircraft 

successfully reactivated incountry 

within one year after 

NAF 917 was commissioned 

in June 2019 upon 

completion of in-country 

PDM. 

Director of NAF Public 

Relations and Information, 

Air Com. Ibikunle Daramola 

said NAF917 has since been 

involved in many missions 

within and outside the 

country, including delivery 

of relief materials to flood 

victims in Mozambique and 

Zimbabwe, among others. 

JAMB Registrar, Prof 

Oloyede and the arrested 

CBT operators at the board’s 

headquarters in Bwari, 

showed that some had 

registered fictitious names 

and National Identity 

Numbers, NIN, with JAMB 

as staff of the CBT centres. 

By implication, the fate of 

all UTME/DE candidates, 

who knowingly or 

ignorantly registered at the 

illegal registration centres is 

presently unknown as there 

are no clear indication if 

they would be allowed to sit 

for this year’s examinations 

or other arrangements are 

out in place to capture them. 

Oloyede, who frowned at 

the development, said: “An 

average parent does not 

want the child to queue 

even for 10 minutes. 

“They will prefer paying 

these people extra money 

and they will claim to have 

done it for them not 

knowing the incalculable 

damage that they are doing 

to their own children. 

“Even if we have 

destroyed our own 

generation, let the 

incoming generation have 

the opportunity of building 

a better tomorrow for us 

and that’s our position. As 

s far as we are concerned, 

a prima facie case of cyber 

crime has been 

established against them. 

“The appropriate security 

agencies will take over from 

here and deal with the 

matter. They will go and 

give their statements to the 

law enforcement agencies.'' 

Efforts on to revamp ALSCON 

— BPE boss 

jobs and 35,000 indirect 

jobs to Nigerians while 

Akwa-Ibom State would 

have been the greatest 

beneficiary. 

He spoke at a meeting 

with the Governor of Akwa 

Ibom State, Mr Udom 

Emmanuel, in Uyo, 

according to a statement by 

Amina Othman, the BPE 

spokesperson, yesterday. 

According to Okoh, since 

the over 30 years of the 

Bureau’s existence, it had 

revamped over 230 

previous Public Enterprises 

in the banking sector, oil 

and gas, telecoms, pension 

and debts’ management, 

among others. 

On the power sector 

executed by the Bureau, he 

said if the privatisation had 

not been carried out in 2013, 

the sector would have 

collapsed by now, adding 

that the Federal 

Government was 

addressing the hiccups 

ravaging the sector. 

In his remarks, Governor 

Emmanuel pledged to 

support the BPE in its 

reform and privatisation 

mandate and called on 

Nigerians to support the 

privatisation agency in 

exercising its mandate. 

Emmanuel expressed 

satisfaction with the efforts 

being put in place by the 


through the BPE.


:Vanguard 

News 

I’m a change agent, not a recycled 

politician, Moghalu tackles Ngige 

By Clifford 

Ndujihe 

L AGOS—THE 

Presidential 

candidate of the Young 

Progressive Party, YPP, in 

the 2019 election, Professor 

Kingsley Moghalu has 

punctured comments by 

Minister of Labour and 

Employment, Dr Chris 

Ngige that he failed in his 

quest to become President 

of Nigeria because the YPP 

was “a relativelyunknown 

party”and he had not 

served anyone in politics. 

Among other things, Dr. 

Ngige also reportedly said 

that ‘’Moghalu, rather than 

aspire for the president, 

would have launched his 

aspiration by first contesting 

for the governorship or 

National Assembly…that’s 

how the game goes… Dr. 

Moghalu, my very good 

friend who was deputy 

governor of the Central 

Bank. He said he was going 

to YPP. I called him and 

said ‘young man. You have 

:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058 

Community Policing: LG chairmen, 

monarchs, others to recruit, screen 

40,000 CPOs 

By Evelyn Usman 

L AGOS—MOVE 

towards recruiting 

40,000 Community 

Policing Officers ,CPOs that 

will assist the Police in their 

duties, have begun, as the 

Lagos State Police 

Command has set up a 

screening committee 

comprising Local 

Government chairmen , 

traditional rulers and 

members of the Police 

Community Relations 

Committee, PCRC. 

When recruited, the 

constabulary Police are 

expected to carry out some 

duties like regular 

policemen, including 

wearing police uniforms. 

Briefing journalists after 

meeting with members of 

the screening committee, 

Lagos State Commissioner 

of Police, CP Hakeem 

Odumosu, explained that 

the meeting was to sensitize 

them on the new initiative 

LG dissolution: Makinde meets IGP, says 'I am trying to 

prevent chaos in Oyo' ....Informs IGP of court order restraining Police, AGF from 

By Kingsley 

Omonobi 

IBADAN—OYO State 

Governor, Seyi Makinde 

has declared that he is 

trying to prevent chaos in 

the state over the 

controversy surrounding 

the removal of chairmen of 

local councils. 

This is just as the 

Inspector General of Police, 

IGP Mohammed Abubakar 

Adamu, assured that 

whenever he received the 

court order restraining the 

Police and the Attorney 

General from reinstating 

not carried politics bag. You 

have not served anybody in 

politics’. Why would you 

jump into presidential race; 

not even for House of 

Representatives?’ If he had 

declared for governorship, 

we would have, maybe 

appealed to him to go for 

House of Representatives. 

So, one has to carry politics 

bag and learn from his 

master. You have to learn 

the art of politics.’ 

Reacting to the comments 

of Ngige, yesterday, 

Moghalu, in a statement 

said: ‘’Sadly, the tone of 

these statements by my 

brother and friend Dr. Chris 

Ngige reflects his utter 

contempt and arrogance as 

a Nigerian politician 

towards the poor masses 

and citizens of Nigeria. Our 

democracy is just a 'game' 

for him. Being a visionless 

career politician “carrying 

politics bag” before 

graduating to being a 

political “overlord” is, for 

some, the whole point of 

politics. 

Call for Buhari’s resignation: 

Abaribe ought to be in 

correctional centre —Presidency 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru 

A BUJA—THE 

Presidency 

yesterday, described the call 

by the Senate Minority 

Leader, Senator Enyinnaya 

Abaribe for President 

Muhammadu Buhari to 

resign over the alleged 

security failure in the 

country as foolish. 

The Presidency also said 

that it was the Senator that 

was supposed to resign 

from his position and 

replace the leader of 

Indigenous People of 

Biafra, IPOB, Mazi 

Nnamdi Kanu in 

Correctional Service for 

failure to produce the IPOB 

leader many times in court 

in line with the bail bond 

he signed. 

Reacting to Senator 

Abaribe’s call for President 

Buhari to tender his 

resignation the Presidency 

in a statement by the 

Senior Special Assistant to 

the President on Media 

and Publicity, Mallam 

Garba Shehu said, the call 

did not represent the 

opinion of the country. 

It said, “President Buhari 

to resign on what basis? 

Just because some 

characters think that 

President Buhari should 

resign, then they expect 

him to quit. That call does 

not represent the opinion 

of the country. This is the 

opinion of an arm chair 

critic, known for making 

stray comments." 

the sacked LG chairmen, he 

would comply. 

The Oyo State High Court 

sitting in Ibadan, on 

Tuesday, restrained the 

Attorney General of the 

Federation (AGF) and 

Minister of Justice, 

Abubakar Malami (SAN), 

Inspector General of 

Police, Muhammed 

Adamu and the sacked 68 

chairmen of Local 

Governments and Local 

Council Development 

Areas, LCDAs, from 

forcefully taking over 

council offices across the 

state. 

•Lagos Police boss meets with 

screening committee 

and to ensure that character 

checks were carried out 

before recruiting members 

of the public as Community 

Policing officers. 

Odumosu said: “ We are 

highly elated because they 

are coming in to assist us. 

Police can’t work without 

information. They will 

serve as our eyes and 

informants. 

“ The meeting is about 

practicality of community 

policing. It is a 

sensitization step towards 

actualizing the Federal 

Government decision to 

bring in community 

policing on board, through 

the IGP, that special 

Constabularies will be 

recruited into the Police. 

“ It is going to reduce 

shortage of man power in 

the police but more 

importantly it is going to be 

a symbiotic one. Inflow of 

information and to make 

people have sense of 

belonging. 

“The modalities for recruitment 

and their duties 

are stated in sections 49 and 

50 of the Police Acts and 

Regulations. They are 

unlike the SPY Police 

because they are going to 

be working in the police 

stations, like regular 

policemen. They have 

same rights and privileges 

of the conventional police. 

So they may be deployed 

to work at the counter, or 

be sent to invite somebody 

to the station. 

Okada ban: Maxokada, Gokada ask 

LASG to rescind decision 

By Innocent 

Anaba 

LAGOS—MAX Okada 

and GOkada have 

pleaded with the Lagos 

State Government to 

rescind its decision to ban 

all categories of commercial 

reinstating sacked chairmen 

•IG assures of compliance on receipt of court order 

The Court, presided over 

by Justice Moshud A.A 

Abass, also restrained the 

Commissioner of Police, 

Oyo State Command, Mr 

Shina Olukolu and the Oyo 

State chairman of the All 

Progressives Congress, 

APC, Chief Akin Oke from 

joining in the illegal 

takeover. 

The IGP had earlier 

ordered the Oyo State 

Police CP Shina Olukolu, 

to take actions to implement 

the legal opinion of the 

Attorney General of the 

Federation (AGF) on the 

sacked local government 

chairpersons in the 

state. 

In a letter addressed to 

the chairman of the 

dissolved Association of 

Local Government of 

Nigeria (ALGON), 

Ayodeji Abass- 

Aleshiloye, the IGP had 

asked the sacked 

ALGON chairman to 

liaise with the Police 

Commissioner to facilitate 

a smooth takeover of the local 

government areas in the 

state. 

motorcycles and tricycles, 

effective February 1, 2020, 

in six local government 

areas and nine local council 

development areas of the 

state, noting that it would 

compound the already bad 

unemployment situation in 

the country. 

Mr Tayo Bamidiro, Chief 

Executive Officer, 

MAXOkada and Mr Victor 

Daminabo, Pilot 

Operations Manager of 

GOKada, who briefed 

newsmen in Lagos, 

yesterday, on the proposed 

ban of all categories of 

commercial motorcycles by 

INSPECTION: From 

left—Federal Controller 

of Works, Lagos, 

Adedamola Kuti; 

Deputy Project 

Manager, CGC, Du 

Yunx Tang, and 

Director of Federal 

Highways, South- 

West, Funsho Adebiyi, 

during the inspection 

of on-going rehabilitation 

of Lagos-Badagry 

Expressway, in Lagos, 

Wednesday. 

the state government, said 

they were in compliant 

with Lagos State Transport 

Sector Reform Law 2018. 

Bamidiro said: “In 

communicating the 

decision to restrict the 

operations of commercial 

motorcycles and tricycles in 

the affected areas, the 

government’s 

spokesperson, while 

responding to a query on 

whether formalized 

motorcycle hailing 

operators are exempted 

from the ban, the 

Commissioner for 

Transportation remarked that 

“all forms of Motorcycles and 

Keke Napeps are banned."



DONATION—Senator Ibikunle Amosun (centre) in company of the Controller of Prisons, Victor 

Benson, acknowledges cheers from the correctional inmates, when he visited the Ibara Centre to 

donated food items, as part of the activities marking his 62nd Birthday anniversary, yesterday. 

Photo: Wunmi Akinola. 

Ogun communities protest incessant 

attacks, destruction by herdsmen 

By James 

Ogunnaike 

A BEOKUTA— 

HUNDREDS of 

farmers from over 12 

villages in Oja Odan 

community in Yewa North 

Local Government Area of 

Ogun State, yesterday, 

protested the incessant 

attacks and destruction of 

their farms by herdsmen 

and their cattle. 

The farmers who took 

their protest to the Palace 

of the Eselu of Iseluland, 

Oba Akintunde Akinyemi, 

alleged that they have also 

lost farm produce worth 

millions of naira to the over 

8,000 herds of cattle that 

routinely graze on their 

farms. 

They added that one of 

them was killed, last week, 

by violent herdsmen, who 

also cut off one of the hands 

of the murdered man’s son. 

Speaking on behalf of the 

protesting farmers, the 

Jagun Oba of Iseluland, 

Chief Festus Olabode 

Aina, said the herdsmen 

were intruders from 

Republic of Niger and 

Chad. 

Aina urged the monarch 

to convey their plights to 

the state and federal 

governments for urgent 

intervention, expressing 

fear that there could be 

bloodshed as witnessed in 

2007, if the 'peace loving 

villagers’ patience' thins out 

and they resort to self 

defence. 

He added that the 

available stream that 

supplies them water for 

drinking and domestic 

purposes has been 

polluted with cow dungs. 

He stressed that their 

women and daughters also 

suffer dehumanisation, 

abuse and humiliation in 

the hands of herdsmen. 

Responding, Oba 

Akinyemi lauded the 

farmers for their peaceful 

conduct and advised them 

to continue to be calm, 

adding that they should not 

take the laws into their 

hands. 

While assuring them that 

their message would be 

communicated to the 

government, the monarch 

lamented that the herders 

returned to the community 

in large numbers when the 

Benin Republic soldiers 

vent their anger on them 

over the border closure and 

sent them packing from 

their country. 

Speaking with newsmen, 

the Eselu appealed to the 

government to intervene. 

“Ever since I have been on 

the throne, this has always 

been a problem we have 

been trying to tame but 

because of the 

stubbornness of these 

herdsmen, they find it 

difficult to tame them. 

“The problem has 

become more tedious 

because many of them are 

from Benin Republic and 

Niger. My people are 

saying they can’t take it any 

more. The soldiers in 

Republic of Benin chased 

the herdsmen out and they 

now saw our community as 

Amotekun: APC chieftain tasks S/West govs 

to ensure workability 

LAGOS—A member of 

the Lagos Governor’s 

Advisory Council, GAC, 

Chief Lanre Razak, has 

thrown his weight behind 

the South-West security 

outfit codenamed: 

'Operation Amotekun', 

saying its establishment 

was long overdue for 

security of lives and 

property in the zone. 

Speaking in Lagos 

yesterday, the chieftain of 

the All Progressives 

Congress, APC, however, 

asked the South-West 

Governors, who initiated 

the move to do everything 

possible within the law to 

ensure its workability 

because of its importance to 

the security of the citizenry. 

Razak said the security 

situation in the country 

calls for more hands on 

deck to complement 

Federal Government’s 

efforts at curbing the 

menace, adding that 

Amotekun is not out to 

usurp the duties of the 

regular security agencies in 

the country. 

According to him, since 

bandits and criminals are 

not spirits but humans 

living within the 

community, it would be 

easier for the local outfit to 

identify them and their 

hideouts, fish them out and 

hand them over to the 

regular security agencies 

for appropriate actions. 

an alternative. 

“They are now destroying 

our crops, raping our 

women, maiming our men 

among others. So, as a 

matter of fact, I am 

appealing to the 

government to please come 

to the aid of my people as a 

matter of urgency.” 

The Ogun State Police 

Command said it is aware 

of the community’s protest 

and assured that there 

would be security beef up 

in the area to support those 

already on ground to 

ensure safety for the 

villagers and farmers. 

Speaking through the 

Command’s Public 

Relations Officer, Abimbola 

Oyeyemi, it added that the 

Police would continue to 

put measures in place to 

prevent breakdown of law 

and order in that part of the 

state. 

Osun approves Prince Oyetunde 

Ojo as new Olona of Ada 

O SOGBO—THE 

State Executive 

Council, at its meeting of 

Monday, January 27, 

2020, approved the 

appointment of Prince 

(Dr) Oyetunde 

Olumuyiwa Ojo as the 

Olona of Ada in Boripe 

North Local Council 

Development Area of the 

State. The stool became 

vacant with the demise 

of Oba Abimbola 

Olalekan, Abioye II on 

4th April, 2019. 

The Olona of Ada stool 

has a 1981 registered 

Chieftaincy Declaration 

and the newly appointed 

Olona hails from the 

Adeitan Ruling House 

which is the next in the 

order of rotation to 

occupy the stool. The 

new Olona of Ada is a 

member of the State 

Council of Obas and his 

appointment brings the 

number of monarchs 

approved by the Oyetola 

administration to five. 

2023 Presidency: I’ll make my 

intentions known soon —Bode 

George 

By Dapo 

Akinrefon 

L AGOS—FORMER 

Deputy National 

Chairman of the Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, 

Chief Olabode George, 

yesterday, said he would 

soon declare his intentions 

on whether or not he would 

contest the 2023 

presidential election. 

George, who said he has 

the requisite knowledge 

and experience to make the 

country better, spoke when 

some youth groups paid 

him a solidarity visit at his 

Lugard office in Lagos. 

According to George, 

many Nigerians mooted 

the idea of presidency to 

him but he said he is still 

keeping his cards to his 

chest 

The PDP chieftain, who 

disclosed that pressure is 

being mounted on him to 

run in 2023, noted that he 

is more focused on 

stabilising and uniting the 

country. 

His words: “Yes, people 

mooted that idea of 

FG Agric programme: Choice of 

Ogun, testimony of our policy on 

agriculture —Abiodun 

By James 

Ogunnaike 

A BEOKUTA—OGUN 

State Governor, Prince 

Dapo Abiodun has 

described the choice of the 

state to pioneer the Federal 

Government programme 

on agriculture in the South- 

West region of the country 

as a testimony to his 

administration’s policy on 

agriculture, which he said 

was aimed at ensuring food 

security and provision of 

employment. 

Abiodun, who stated this 

while receiving the 

Minister of Agriculture, 

Alhaji Mohammed Sabo 

Nanono in his office at Oke- 

Mosan, Abeokuta, said the 

state has potentials for the 

cultivation of food and cash 

presidential or no presidential 

but I keep my card to 

my chest. People mooted it, 

initially we played and 

laughed over it but you see 

2023 is a long haul from 

now and if people are 

wishing you well and are 

showing such good things 

to you, you don’t deflect it 

but time will tell.” 

Urging focus on addressing 

the challenges facing 

the county, he continued: 

“We know there are managers 

now. Our major concern 

should be what role 

are they playing? How well 

are they managing the resources 

of the country? 

“2023 is still a long time 

from now, that is about three 

years from now. Who 

knows who would even be 

alive by then? So, let us do 

the needful first and 

stabilize the platform on 

which you are going to 

move. 

“So, I want to thank those 

who have mooted the idea 

of presidency and those 

who have spoken about it, 

but it is not tomorrow, it is 

not next week." 

crops including cocoa, 

cotton, and palm oil among 

others. 

Alhaji Nanono had 

earlier told the governor 

that the state has been 

chosen to serve as a pioneer 

in the South-West for the 


mechanisation programme 

for the production of cocoa 

and rice in the country. 

According to the 

Minister, “Ogun is one of 

the states in the South-West 

that we have interest in, in 

two vital areas of cocoa, rice 

production and also in 

agricultural mechanisation 

which is going to affect 632 

local government areas 

across the country. We will 

consider Ogun as one of the 

states that will be the 

pioneer in the South-West,” 

he noted.


Rivers govt approves 

appointment of 

Sanitation Marshals 

PORT HARCOURT— 

IN a move to ensure the 

promotion of sanitation in 

Port Harcourt and neighbouring 

suburbs, the Rivers 

State Executive Council 

on Wednesday approved 

the appointment of Sanitation 

Marshals. 

The Rivers State Executive 

Council meeting presided 

over by Governor 

Nyesom Wike also approved 

that a bill be sent to 

the Rivers State House of 

Assembly to give legal 

backing to the appointments. 

State Information and 

Communication Commissioner, 

Paulinus Nsirim 

made this known after 

Wednesday's State Executive 

Council meeting. 

He said: "The Rivers State 

Executive Council approved 

that a bill be sent to 

the Rivers State House of 

Assembly on the appointment 

of Sanitation Marshals 

to be empowered to 

enforce new sanitary practices 

and habits. 

"Council frowned at the 

situation where people dispose 

refuse indiscriminately 

along the median and 

other unlawful places. 

"The council agreed that 

the sanitation Marshals 


would be used to ensure that 

residents of the city practice 

good sanitary habits." 

Specifically, the Sanitation 

Marshals will have the 

responsibility of ensuring 

that refuse are bagged by 

residents and kept in designated 

locations. 

"When they come into 

place, the sanitation Marshals 

will enforce the bagging 

of refuse, which will 

be kept at authorised places 

where sanitation Marshals 

will pick up the 

refuse. 

"The proposed law will 

make the Sanitation Marshals 

to work between 3pm 

and late in the night. This 

is to ensure that the city is 

kept clean at all times. 

"Under the proposed law, 

the State Government will 

provide vehicles to enforce 

sanitation laws across the 

state capital," he said. 

Speaking further, Nsirim 

noted that the Council approved 

the total rehabilitation 

of the premises of Tide 

Newspapers. 

"The Rivers State Executive 

Council approved the 

complete rehabilitation of 

the Rivers State Newspaper 

Corporation Premises. 

"This is in line with the 

Governor's Vision to ensure 

that the media industry in 

the state competes with their 

counterparts across the 

country. The Rivers State 

Newspaper Corporation in 

the next few weeks wear a 

new look in terms of the 

Physical Structure," he said. 

Omo-Agege not convicted in US —Court 

A 

FEDERAL Capital 

Territory (FCT) High 

Court sitting in Bwari has 

dismissed a suit seeking 

the removal of Senator 

Ovie Omo-Agege as deputy 

senate president. 

The suit by Incorporated 

Trustees of Patriotic 

Youth Organisation of Nigeria, 

had asked the court 

to void Omo-Agege’s 

election on the grounds 

that he submitted false information 

to the Independent 

National Electoral 

Commission, INEC. 

The NGO alleged that 

the deputy senate president 

committed perjury 

when he denied been convicted 

by any court of law 

in the United States of 

America. 

But delivering judgment, 

yesterday, Justice 

Othman Musa, held that 

the defendant was not 

guilty of perjury as alleged 

by the claimants. 

The judge said the case 

against the senator in the 

US was a non-criminal trial 

by a judicial commission of 

inquiry in California and 

does not amount to a conviction. 

He added that since 

Omo-Agege challenged 

the case at the US Supreme 

NIRSAL tasks NEXIM, other financial institutions 

on financing ...as NEXIM forum enters day 2 

By Festus Ahon 

ASABA—THE Manag 

ing Director of Nigeria 

Incentives-Based Risk 

Sharing System for Agricultural 

Lending, NIR- 

SAL, Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed, 

yesterday urged 

NEXIM Bank and other 

financial institutions to 

ensure they provide financing 

to all the various 

segments of the production 

value chain to encourage 

and promote 

MSME"s in the country. 

Addressing participants 

at NEXIM Bank, south 

south enlightenment fo- 

Court and won, he is not 

obligated to disclose such 

information to INEC before 

contesting an election. 

The court awarded N1 

million as damage cost 

against the claimant and 

dismissed the suit. 

rum in Asaba, Abdulhameed 

said, the major 

challenge with the MS- 

ME's, particularly the 

agriculture sector was 

that participating farmers 

were scattered and not in 

clusters to make for easy 

financing. 

Saying that NIRSAL 

has identified 19 agricultural 

commodities that 

farmers could engage in 

and form Geo- cooperative 

by acquiring enough 

hectares to enable the 

agency give them the 

needed support and financing, 

he said the 

agency which was created 

four years ago has financed 

projects to the 

tune of N121 billion as at 

2019 without recording 

any loss. 

He said: "A Geo-cooperative 

model will enable the 

farmers grow a single commodity, 

process the commodity 

and get a single 

buyer, this makes it easier 

to finance. 

"It is not just enough to 

have potential, we need to 

have the reality on ground, 

NEXIM Bank and Bank of 

Industry must ensure availability 

of raw materials.’’ 

NEWS HOTLINES 

018773962, 

08052867058 

Reject Buhari’s request to validate NDDC 

Interim Mgt, VATLAD tells Senate 

LAUNCHING: From 

left, Managing Director, 

TAJBank, Mr 

Norfadelizan Abdulrahman; 

Clerk of the 

National Assembly, 

Mohammed Omolori; 

Founder/COO 

TAJBank, Mr Hamid 

Joda; Co- Founder/ 

CMO, TAJBank, Mr 

Sherif Idi; and Mr 

Yahaya Dan-Zaria, 

Director, Public 

Affairs, National 

Assembly at the 

official launch of the 

bank's Third office at 

the National Assembly. 

By Emma Amaize, 

Regional Editor, 

South South 

ARIGHTS group, Van 

guard for Transparent 

Leadership and Democracy, 

VATLAD, yesterday, 

urged the Senate to reject 

the request by President 

Muhammadu Buhari to 

approve an Interim Management 

Committee, 

IMC, for Niger Delta Development 

Commission, 

NDDC, saying it was a 

mockery of the law. 

The group also insisted 

that the Senate, which 

screened and cleared 

members of the Commission's 

Board forwarded by 

the same Buhari, last 

year, should not be invited 

to approve the interim 

management it had asked 

to vacate the Commission 

because of its illegality.. 

National President of the 

group, Mr. Emmanuel Igbini, 

in a statement, said: 

"Having carefully analysed 

this request in light of 

the majority views of the 

affected people of the oil 

producing states of the 

core Niger Delta region, 

we patriotically demand 

that our distinguished 

Senate must rise up now 

in the true spirit of patriotism 

as it did in year 2006 

against former President 

Olusegun Obasanjo's 

third term agenda, to reject 

this new request by 

President Buhari to seek 

Senate's approval for Interim 

Management Committee 

of NDDC and rejection 

of NDDC Board 

screened and confirmed 

by the Senate. 

"This request like OBJ's 

third term must be rejected 

in its entirety in order 

to save our dear country 

from further crisis that if 

allowed, would worsen 

national insecurity and 

threaten existing peace 

and unity. 

"Unlike OBJ's term 

agenda, we have stated 

over and over that we are 

convinced that President 

Buhari means well for the 

peace and development of 

Niger Delta region, but 

sadly, some very few unpatriotic 

Nigerians who 

are privileged to have access 

to him are deliberately 

misleading him to act 

against the Constitutional 

decision taken by the 

9th Senate to screen and 

confirm his nominees for 

the Governing Board of 

NDDC. 

" These persons are misleading 

President Buhari 

in order to severe the 

smooth relationship so far 

existing between him and 

the Senate which Nigerians 

view as Senate being 

a 'rubber stamp'. 

"These few unpatriotic 

Nigerians never care 

about the peace, unity 

and progress of Nigeria 

but only about themselves 

and what they can exploit 

from our dear country, 

Nigeria. They do not even 

care about President Buhari. 

"They succeed in their 

unpatriotic acts only 

where and when there are 

crises in our Country 

which they exploit. 

"These are the same people 

who misled Late Gen. 

Sani Abacha only to turn 

around to condemn and 

betray him after his 

death. 

"These are the same 

people who misled Gen. 

Ibrahim Babangida to 

annul the June 12, 1993 

Election only to turn 


deny him. 


people who misled President 

Obasanjo to pursue 

3rd term only to turn 


deny him. 


people who misled President 

Goodluck Jonathan 

not to implement some 

positive outcomes of National 

Conference and 

some decisions of the 

National Assembly.”



COMMISSIONING—From left: Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council,Federal 

University Gusau, Professor Funmi Togonu-Bickersteth; the Chairman Senate Committee 

on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Senator Ahmed Kaita; the Executive Secretary, 

TETFund, Prof. Suleiman Elias Bogoro; the Chancellor, Federal University Gusau, HRH 

Ezeogo Ewa Elechi, the Isu Oha 1 of Ohaisu Kingdom and Vice Chancellor, Federal University 

Gusau (FUGUS), Prof. Magaji Garba during the commissioning of 1,000 seat Multi-purpose 

hall (present central Library) at Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State. 

Corps members to receive 

N33,000 as allowance 

By Lumious 

Jannamike 

B 

A U C H I — 

BRIGADIER 

General Shuaibu 

Ibrahim, Director- 

General of the National 

Youth Service Corps, 

NYSC, has said the 

monthly allowance of 

corp members has been 

increased to N33,000. 

Brigadier General 

Shuaibu Ibrahim 

announced this during a 

working visit to the 

NYSC Secretariat in 

Bauchi State, according 

to a statement, 

yesterday, through Corps 

Spokesperson, Adenike 

Adeyemi. 

He said the increase 

was in line with the new 

minimum wage 

approved by the Federal 

Government. 

The NYSC boss said 

provisions for the new 

allowance had been 

made in the 2020 budget 

and “payment would 

commence as soon as 

funds are released by the 

appropriate authorities.” 

Recall that in 

September, last year, 

Ibrahim had hinted that 

the monthly allowance of 

corps members would be 

increased “immediately 

Kogi gov election: Tribunal fixes 

Feb 10 to hear Wada, PDP’s 

petition 

By Ikechukwu 

Nnochiri 

ABUJA—THE Kogi 

State Governorship 

Election Petition 

Tribunal, sitting in 

Abuja, yesterday, fixed 

February 10 to commence 

pre-hearing session on 

the petition the Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, 

and its candidate, Musa 

Wada, filed against 

Governor Yahaya Bello’s 

re-election. 

A three-man panel of 

justices headed by 

Justice Kashim Kaigama, 

ordered service of prehearing 

notice on all the 

parties. 

the government starts 

the payment of the new 

minimum wage 

“Your monthly 

allowance would be 

increased immediately 

PDP and its candidate 

had, in their joint 

petition marked EPT/KG/ 

GOV/06/2019, prayed 

the tribunal to declare 

that Governor Bello of 

the All Progressive 

Congress, APC, was not 

the valid winner of the 

gubernatorial contest. 

Cited as respondents in 

the petition are the 

Independent National 

E l e c t o r a l 

Commission, INEC, 

Governor Bello and the 

APC. 

It would be recalled 

that INEC had, on 

November 18, declared 

Yahaya Bello of the APC 

as winner of the 

governorship election. 

The Returning Officer, 

Ibrahim Garba, who is 

the Vice-Chancellor of 

the Ahmadu Bello 

University, ABU, Zaria, 

declared that Bello 

polled the highest 

number of votes in the 

election with 406,222 to 

defeat Wada of the PDP, 

who scored 189,704 in 

the election. 

As collated by INEC, 

Bello defeated Wada 

with a total of 216,518, 

while Natasha Akpoti of 

the Social Democratic 

Party, SDP, came a 

distant third in the 

election with 9482 votes. 

However, Wada of the 

PDP insisted that the 

election was rigged in 

favour of the APC and its 

candidate. 

Aside contending that 

he won the election, 

Wada alleged that the 

exercise was marred by 

widespread electoral 

the Federal Government 

starts the payment of the 

new minimum wage to 

all public servants 

nationwide,” 

“Efforts are in top gear 

at all levels to ensure 

adequate welfare for all 

corps members.” 

malpractices and 

violence, adding that 

there was substantial 

non-compliance with the 

Electoral Act. 

The petitioners are, 

among other things, 

seeking a declaration 

that the second 

respondent, Governor 

Bello, did not secure 

majority of lawful votes 

cast at the election. 

They are praying the 

tribunal to issue an order 

nullifying the Certificate 

of Return the INEC 

issued to Governor Bello 

and declare that Wada 

scored majority of votes 

at the election, having 

fulfilled 

the 

requirements of section 

179(2)(a) and (b) of the 

Constitution. 

Alternatively, the 

petitioners are praying 

for an order directing 

INEC to conduct 

supplementary election 

in polling units, where 

elections were cancelled, 

noting that the margin of 

lead between the second 

respondent and the first 

petitioner, was Iess than 

the registered voters in 

the cancelled polling 

units. 

They further sought for 

a declaration that the Kogi 

governorship election 

that held on November 

16, 2019, and the 

subsequent declaration 

and return of the second 

respondent, are voided by 

corrupt practices in 

breach of the provisions of 

the Electoral Act, 2010 (as 

amended), which 

substantially affected the 

results of the election. 

Benue to hand over 

community, mission schools 

to owners in August 

—Prof Ityavyar 

By Peter Duru 

M BENUE AKURDI— 

State 

government has 

reiterated its 

commitment to ensure 

the return of all 

community and mission 

schools in the state to 

their original owners by 

August 2020. 

The Commissioner of 

Education, Prof Dennis 

Ityavyar, who gave the 

assurance, yesterday, in 

Makurdi, stated that 

modalities had already 

been put in place by the 

government to ensure a 

smooth handover of the 

schools. 

He explained that a 

committee had been setup 

to effect the 

handover, assuring that 

everyone was working 

round the clock to ensure 

that the target date was 

Bello swears s in 17 

commissioners, s, 3 SAs 

By Boluwaji 

Obahopo 

L OKOJA—BARELY 

48 hours after taking 

oath of office for second 

term, Governor Yahaya 

Bello of Kogi State, has 

sworn-in 17 

commissioners and three 

Special Advisers, SAs, 

informing them that he 

has zero tolerance for 

corruption.. 

The Governor who 

spoke yesterday also 

assigned portfolios to the 

new appointees. 

He said “Every 

commissioner as well as 

all Ministry, Department 

and agencies MDA must 

operate an open door 

policy and make 

By Ndahi Marama, 

Maidugur 

B ORNO—THE 

Deputy Governor of 

Borno State, Alhaji Umar 

Usman Kadafur , 

yesterday swore in four 

new Permanent 

Secretaries and Special 

Advisers to Governor 

Babagana Zulum. 

This came as one 

Special Adviser, 

Mohammed Ibrahim 

Kwajaffa, a Loyalist to 

former Deputy Governor, 

Usman Durkwa for 

mobilizing political 

faithful was not sworn-in 

over alleged loyalty to 

the former Deputy 

Governor and Chairman 

Stakeholders Forum of 

Hawul Local 

Government Area of the 

met. 

Prof. Ityavyar said: 

“Already, the Catholic 

Education Services, the 

NKST, the Anglican, the 

Methodists and all 

others who own such 

schools have all sent 

their representatives to 

the committee handling 

the process. 

According to him: “We 

are all working together 

and we have also 

prepared a very clear 

time table of what we 

intend to do and what 

will happen and we have 

written letters, formally 

informing all 

stakeholders of what we 

are doing. 

"The position of 

government is very clear. 

We are not going back on 

the decision; we are all 

eager to ensure the 

handover of the schools 

to their original owners 

by August 2020.” 

themselves available to 

the people because human 

capital development would 

form the nucleus of this 

administration”. 

The governor also 

warned the new 

appointees not to ruin its 

hard earned reputation on 

fiscal accountability with 

corrupt practices whilst in 

office. 

“The anti corruption 

agencies have scrutinized 

us based on petitions 

written by various people 

who are not happy with the 

way we carry out our 

reforms, and they have 

found us clean, don’t tarnish 

our reputation with corrupt 

practices, anyone found wanting 

will not be speared “ he said. 

Alleged loyalty: Dep gov fails 

to swear in SA to Zulum 

state. 

The ceremony which 

took place at Government 

House, Maiduguri, 

amidst tight security and 

party supporters was 

administered by Justice 

Musa Muhammad who 

represented the State 

Chief Judge. 

The current Deputy 

Governor and his 

predecessor (Durkwa) who 

just served one term in 

office following the demise 

of Late Umar Mustapha 

Zanna, incidentally are 

from the same ruling party, 

All Progressive Congress, 

APC. 

He was however asked 

to step down to allow the 

current Deputy Governor 

contest with the 

governor for the 2019 

general elections.

14 — VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 

FIRE RAZES BALOGUN MARKET IN LAGOS 

The popular Balogun Market on Lagos Island with many buildings and goods gutted by 

fire, yesterday. Photos: Lamidi Bamidele 

•Firemen from Federal and Lagos State Fire service, battling to put 

off the inferno. 

•Part of the buildings engulfed by fire. 

•A cross section of affected traders and sympathisers 

•Some traders with retrieved goods from the affected buildings. 

:Vanguard News 

:@vanguardnews 

Nationwide blackout looms, as workers 

issue fresh 14-day strike notice 

By Victor Young 

WORKERS in the na 

tion’s electricity sector 

yesterday issued a fresh 

14 day strike notice to the 

Federal Government over 

unresolved labour issues, 

raising fears of another nationwide 

blackout less than 

two months after a similar 

blackout. 

Under the umbrella of 

National Union of Electricity 

Employees, NUEE, the 

workers, at a briefing yesterday 

in Lagos, threatened 

to resume their strike, suspended 

on December 11, 

2019, lamenting, among 

others, that none of the issues 

agreed on before the 

suspension of the strike was 

addressed. 

Recall that members of 

NUEE had on December 

10, 2019 threw the country 

into darkness for one day, 

as they shutdown both 

power generating and distributing 

systems over unresolved 

issues especially 

payment of outstanding 

entitlements to former staff 

of defunct Power Holding 

Company of Nigeria, 

PHCN, among others. 

The strike was however 

suspended on December 

11, 2019 following the intervention 

of the National 

Assembly, and Ministry of 

Labour and Employment, 

leading to the signing of an 

agreement by key stakeholders- 

including NUEE, 

Ministry of Power and Bureau 

for Public Enterprises, 

BPE, that supervises the 

privatisation of public assets 

in the country. 

Briefing, General Secretary 

of NUEE, Joe Ajaero, 

alongside other officials of 

the union including its President, 

Martins Uzoegwu, 

lamented that at a meeting 

on Monday to chart a way 

forward, the Minister of 

State for Power, Goddy 

Agba, allegedly resorted to 

harassment, intimidation, 

banging of table and eventually 

walked out on the 

union. 

He demanded among 

others, a public apology 

from the Minister, claiming 

that rather than resolving 

the issue of over 2,000 workers 

who never received their 

severance pay following the 

privatisation of PHCN, and 

16 months underpayment 

of those who received 

theirs, as well as payment 

of 7.5 percent pension component, 

which the BPE fully 

acknowledged, the Minister 

resorted to harassment 

of the union. The union alleged 

that the minister after 

shouting down labour 

leaders and walking out 

during the meeting on January 

27, 2020, convened to 

resolve the outstanding issues 

captured in the agreement 

signed on December 

11, 2019, said, among others: 

“In view of this un-ministerial 

behavior of the minister 

of State, Power, the 

Union wishes to demand 

as follows: An unreserved 

apology from the Minister 

of State, Power for humiliation, 

intimidation, harassment 

and abuse of privilege, 

thereby undermining 

the interest of the workers 

in the sector, the Minister 

of State for Power must declare 

to Nigerians his relationship 

with Sahara Energy 

whose promoters 

have been involved in 

meetings with him against 

the interest of the Union. 

"Please note that the 

union had raised issues 

over the Sahara Energy 

takeover of Egbin Power 

Station without bidding 

and due process as well as 

the acquisition of both Egbin 

Power Station and Ikeja 

Electricity by the same 

Sahara Energy contrary to 

the Power Sector Reform 

Act; a withdrawal of the 

statement, that he has concluded 

arrangement with 

one Mr. Kola to send us to 

Minister of Labour to deal 

with the Union."

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020—15 


SWEARING-IN: Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State (left) congratulating his 

new Deputy Chief of Staff, Prof. Malachy Okwueze, after he was sworn in at the EXCO 

Chambers, Government House, Enugu, yesterday. 

Oraifite mayhem: FG, rights group 

trade words over investigative panel 

By Anayo Okoli 

ENUGU— THE Federal 

Government has said it 

would not set up any panel 

of inquiry into the December 

2, 2019 invasion of the 

Oraifite, Anambra State home 

of Indigenous People of 

Biafra, IPOB, lawyer, Ifeanyi 

Ejiofor, because of pending 

court cases on the incident. 

Federal Government’s 

position was in response to a 

letter written to it by an 

Onitsha-based rights group, 

International Society for Civil 

Liberties & Rule of Law, 

Intersociety, requesting the 

government to set up a panel 

to comprehensively look into 

the mayhem that took place 

in Oraifite, when security 

operatives invaded the home 

of IPOB lawyer, leading to the 

death of some members of 

IPOB and two police officers. 

But Intersociety has rejected 

the reason adduced by the 

Federal Government for not 

setting up a panel to look into 

the mayhem and insisted that 

the government should, as a 

matter of responsibility, set up 

a panel to unravel the 

circumstances that led to the 

incident. 

The rights group had 

routed the letter through the 

Office of the Secretary to 

Government of the 

Federation, OSGF, a demand 

the government rejected 

through a letter signed by 

Emmanuel Akissa, a Legal 

Officer from the office. 

However, Intersociety, 

through another letter signed 

by its principal officers, 

including the board 

chairman, Emeka 

Umeagbalasi, Obianuju 

Igboeli, Chinwe Umeche and 

Ndidiamaka Bernard 

rejected the excuse given by 

the government for not setting 

up a panel of inquiry on the 

incident and insisted on 

“setting up of an 

independent, impartial and 

credible Joint Investigation 

Board” on the Oraifite 

mayhem. 

While appreciating the 

OSGF acceptance and reply 

of its letter, Intersociety 

disagreed with the OSGF 

claim that “it cannot act or set 

up a Joint Investigation 

Board as demanded by 

Intersociety because of the 

pendency of a fundamental 

human rights suit filed by the 

chief victim (Ifeanyi Ejiofor) 

in which the OSGF was not 

joined as a party.” 

The leading right group 

further said: "We strongly 

reject the OSGF’s excuses 

particularly to the effect that 

'all the judicial remedies 

available before relevant 

courts shall be exhausted by 

us since our case is still 

pending in court.” 

The group argued that 

such an excuse only amounts 

to the Federal Government, 

saying that “it shall not carry 

out its constitutional and 

statutory functions and duties 

in the instant case because a 

fundamental rights suit filed 

by the chief victim, Ifeanyi 

Ejiofor (not Intersociety), for 

purpose of preventing further 

police and army mayhem, 

including attacks on his 

person and property is 

pending in court.” 

Enugu Police command 

neutralises bomb in Nsukka hotel 

By Ikechukwu 

Odu 

N SUKKA—Enugu 

State Police 

Command, yesterday, 

confirmed that officers from 

the command neutralised 

an object suspected to be 

an explosive device at 

Millipat Hotel Limited, 

Nsukka. 

The command fingered 

political power-play in the 

incident, but said they were 

still conducting round-theclock 

investigations to fish 

out the pepatrators and 

unravel the circumstances 

that led to the act. 

While speaking to 

Vanguard about the 

incident, spokesman of the 

command, Daniel Ndukwe, 

confirmed that officers 

moved to the scene of the 

incident and discovered an 

explosive device laid at the 

fence of the hotel, which 

belongs to a former 

lawmaker, Fidelis Okoro, 

who represented Enugu 

North in the Senate. 

Ndukwe, also assured of 

adequate security for 

residents within Nsukka 

and environs, adding that 

officers of the command 

have cordoned off the 

facility to forestall further 

arsonists’ attempts on it. 

WhenVanguard visited 

Millipat Hotel for an on-thespot 

assessment, a security 

guard who identified himself 

simply as Theophilus, and 

the Supervisor of the 

hospitality venture, Simeon 

Uliaga, said they got a tip-off 

of the incident from the local 

security outfit, the vigilante 

group who suspected some 

movements around the 

facility before alerting them 

and police officers from 

Nsukka Police Division. 

Uliaga, further said when 

he was alarmed, he called on 

Theophilus and both of them 

searched the environment but 

could not find anything. He 

said they were about to retire 

to their beds, as the incident 

took place in the night, when 

officers from Nsukka Police 

Division stormed the place 

and conducted a thorough 

check, which led to the 

discovery of the explosive 

device. 

He said: “When they saw 

the object in a bag, they 

thought someone has 

dumped a baby or charm 

there, but on a closer 

observation, they discovered 

it was a bomb. So, they called 

on anti bomb squad from 

Enugu Police Command 

who came in the morning to 

neutralise it.” 

The supervisor also told 

Vanguard that two fuel 

pumps installed in a petrol 

station belonging to Okoro 

were also set ablaze by 

unknown arsonists six days 

before the explosive device 

was found at the hotel. 

Abia council to prosecute 

landlords channelling wastes 

to roads 

By Ugochukwu 

Alaribe 

U MUAHIA—Osisioma 

Ngwa council area of 

Abia State has threatened to 

prosecute owners of buildings 

in the council who channel 

wastes to roads. 

Transition Committee 

Chairman, Osisioma Ngwa 

council, Dr. Ikechukwu 

Nwabeke, who stated this 

while inspecting buildings 

along Nicolas Street by Brass 

junction in Aba, said most 

landlords in the area had 

failed to provide soak away 

pits for tenants residing in the 

buildings. 

Nwabeke explained that 

such unhygienic practices 

could cause disease outbreak 

in the council and urged 

health officials to ensure strict 

supervision of the area to 

promote healthy living. 

“Some landlords 

channelled their waste pipes 

to the gutters because they 

have failed to provide soak 

away pits in their buildings. 

NDLEA convicts 8 drug 

peddlers in Imo 

By Chinonso 

Alozie 

O 

W E R R I — 

NATIONAL Drug 

Law Enforcement Agency, 

NDLEA, yesterday, said 

it had convicted eight 

drug peddlers in Imo 

State. 

The agency also said it 

rehabilitated five drug 

dependent persons, 

arrested 146 suspects as 

well as seized 225.32 kg 

exhibits. 

This was part of 2019 

performance record of the 

agency in Owerri, 

through the Public 

Relations Officer, PRO, of 

NDLEA, Mr. Sampson 

Uche. 

It also added that within 

the year under review,48 

persons who used drugs 

were counselled, just as 

he announced that as at 

December 31, 2019, there 

were 55 drug cases 

pending in court. 

He said: “On behalf of 

the command, our state 

commander, Mr Nse 

Inam wishes to thank the 

good and well-meaning 

compatriots in Imo for the 

goodwill and moral 

support which we 

Enugu govt approves N30,000 

minimum wage effective Feb 

ENUGU 

State 


approved payment of 

N30,000 minimum wage for 

civil servants with effect 

from next month. 

Following the submission 

of the report of the joint 

committee of labour and the 

state government set up by 

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi 

This is capable of causing 

disease outbreak in the area. 

We are giving them one week 

ultimatum to build soak away 

pits or face the full wrath of 

the law,” he said. 

The chairman handed a 

week ultimatum to defaulting 

landlords to build septic tanks 

in their houses or face the 

wrath of the law. 

enjoyed from them in 

2019. 

“With your support, we 

were able to achieve great 

feats, including the arrest 

of 146 suspects and 

seizure of 225.32 kg 

exhibits. In 2019, NDLEA 

also counselled 48 

persons. 

“The success we made 

could not have been 

achieved without the 

collaboration of local 

communities. 

“The command had a 

total of 55 drug cases 

pending in court as at 

December 31, 2019. The 

command successfully 

convicted eight drug 

peddlers while conducting 

sensitisation and 

enlightenment campaigns 

in sundry locations across 

the state and rehabilitation 

of five drug dependent 

persons. 

“The command hopes 

that with improved 

logistics and necessary 

infrastructure, we will do 

more to serve you better 

in pursuit of the 

provisions of the NDLEA 

Act and in fulfillment of 

the strategic pillars of the 

National Drug Control 

Master Plan.” 

for the negotiation of the 

consequential adjustment of 

the N30,000 minimum wage, 

Enugu State Executive 

Council approved the 

payment of the new wage for 

the state civil servants with 

effect from February 2020. 

Briefing newsmen at the 

Government House, Enugu, 

after a meeting with the 

council, the leadership of the 

organised labour led by the 

Chairman of the Joint Public 

Service Negotiating Council, 

Igbokwe Igbokwe, said the 

EXCO’s approval was a 

product of collective 

bargaining between the 

labour and the state 

government. 

Igbokwe, who noted that 

this is the first time labour 

was involved in the issue of 

minimum wage negotiation, 

disclosed that they were 

comfortable with the decision 

reached.

16—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 

COURTESY VISIT: 

Oyo State Governor, 

Engr. Seyi Makinde 

(middle); Inspector 

General of 

Police,IGP, 

Muhammed Adamu 

(left) and Chairman, 

Oyo State Advisory 

Council, Senator 

Hosea Agboola, 

during the 

governor's courtesy 

visit to the Inspector 

General of Police in 

Abuja, yesterday. 

Alleged money laundering: Ex-Kwara Finance 

Commissioner remanded in EFCC custody 

By Demola 

Akinyemi 

I LORIN—THE 

immediate past 

Commissioner for Finance 

in Kwara State,Demola 

Banu was yesterday 

remanded in the custody of 

the Economic and 

Financial Crimes 

Commission, EFCC, by an 

Ilorin High Court over 

allegations of money 

laundering. 

Banu was arraigned 

alongside an official of 

Travel Messenger 

Innovation, proper marketing crucial to business 

survival —GMD Group 

Gabriel Olawale 

LAGOS—THE Chief 

Executive Officer of 

GDM Group, Mr Victor 

Afolabi has identified lack 

of proper marketing and 

innovation as one of the 

main reason some business 

especially start-up 

struggled to make an 

impact. 

Speaking in Lagos 

during the company's 10th 

anniversary and the 

unveiling of a new logo, 

Afolabi said that business 

environment is something 

very tough and to stay 

relevant requires extremely 

creativity, dynamic and 

insight into consumer 

understanding. 

“As a company, our 

primary objective is to help 

business including a startup 

to drive strong 

Company Limited, one 

Olarewaju Adeniyi on a 

nine count charge before 

Justice Babangana Ashigar 

led Court. 

The EFCC alleged that 

the defendants conspired 

among themselves to 

launder the sum of about 

four hundred and eleven 

million naira belonging to 

the Kwara State 

Government. 

Count one of the charge 

reads, “That you, 

Olarewaju Adeniyi, 

Ademola Banu and Travel 

innovative products that 

will help them win their 

target market and drive 

market share. 

The need for appropriate 

marketing and innovation 

is the core of our business. We 

support business in the area of 

NDE trains 50 physically challenged 

persons in Edo 

By Ozioruva Aliu 

BÉNIN CITY—THE 

National Directorate of 

Employment, NDE, in Edo 

state has commenced 

training of 50 physically 

challenged persons with in 

Akoko Edo Local Government 

Area of Edo State 

which it called The school 

On Wheels, SOW, State coordinator 

of NDE Ayo 

Edegbai while flagging off 

Kessiena Majemite, “The studio 

model of building and launching 

new ventures has been around 

for a while, but has not been 

standardized. Becoming a GSSN 

Studio means we, like other 

studios, work to achieve the gold 

standard of building and 

launching more successful impact 

start-ups across Africa. 

“This milestone is a major move 

for CeedCap on its mission to 

become Africa’s leading venture 

builder and impact investor. 

“The fact remains that a majority 

of start-ups still identify poor 

execution, limited funding, and 

market access as the primary 

drivers of most failed innovative 

Messenger Limited 

between January to December 

2018 in Ilorin within the 

jurisdiction of this honourable 

Court conspired among 

yourselves to commit an offence, 

to wit: conversion of the sum of 

N411,000,000.00 ( four hundred 

and eleven million naira) only 

property of Kwara State 

Government, which sum you 

reasonably ought to know was 

derived from fraud, and thereby 

committed an offence contrary to 

section 18(a) of the money 

laundering (prohibition) 

(amendment) act, 2012 and 

innovation, marketing and 

business transformation. 

“We are changing from brand 

solution company to marketing 

and innovation. Ten years ago, 

we started as an experiential 

event below the line agency and 

in 2015 we became a marketing 

operation company. Now in 2020, 

we look at the direction the world 

the training said it was under 

the vocational Skills 

Development programme 

of the NDE. 

She noted that the scheme is 

aimed at creating a pool of artisans 

as part of Federal Government 

initiatives of creating jobs for the 

teeming army of unemployed 

youths in Nigeria. 

“We are here to officially 

flag off this Vocational Skills 

acquisition programme of 

the federal government 

Nigeria-based start-up studio joins GSSN 

By Prince Okafor 

L AGOS—NIGERIAbased 

start-up studio, 

CeedCap, yesterday, said 

it is now an official 

membership of the Global 

Start-up Studio Network, 

GSSN. 

GSSN, is a network of venture 

builders, giving start-ups the 

power to create and grow 

businesses and make a 

meaningful impact across the 

world. 

CeedCap is the first start-up 

studio in Africa to be named a 

GSSN Studio. 

According to the Founder and 

Managing Partner, CeedCap, 

ideas.” 

GSSN provides the highest 

quality support to studios and 

their founders, leading to 

incredible outcomes for start-ups 

across the globe. Best known for 

achieving local impact and global 

reach, GSSN Studios represents 

true leadership in the global 

industry. 

Corroborating the 

development, Director, GSSN, 

Nick Zasowski,said: “GSSN is not 

for everyone, and rightfully so. 

GSSN studios represent the 

world’s most respected studios as 

well as some of the most inspiring 

pioneers working to grow startup 

ecosystems in unexpected 

places. 

punishable under section 15(3) 

and (4) of the same act .“ 

The accused persons pleaded 

not guilty when the charges were 

read to them in Court. 

Counsel to the EFCC, 

Nnaemeka Omewa told the 

Presiding Judge “ My Lord, 

following the plea of not guilty 

entered by the defendants, the 

prosecution shall be asking this 

honourable Court to give a trial 

date to enable us prove our case 

, we also want you to remand the 

defendants in Correctional 

Facility pending the hearing and 

determination of this case“ 

is going which is getting more 

dynamic and we decided that innovation 

needs to become a critical 

part of our marketing. 

“In this century, people want 

to be sure of the impact of what 

marketing is contributing to their 

business, therefore we decided to 

change the very core of our 

business and not only the logo. 

which is under the National 

Directorate of Employment 

(NDE). As you all know, we are 

not here by chance, we are aware 

of the level of unemployment 

problem in Nigeria, so we are here 

to train 50 persons with various 

kinds of disabilities with different 

skills especially in the rural areas, 

because we have discovered that 

there are more persons with 

disability in the rural areas more 

than those in the urban areas, 

by so doing, we will be able to 

stem the tide of rural- urban 

migration.” 

“As we all know, 

unemployment has become a 

very big monster in Nigeria, this 

has greatly led to a high level of 

crime rate in our various communities, 

posing enormous danger 

to the stability of the nation at all 

levels. Therefore the National 

Directorate of Employment 

(NDE) as the apex agency saddled 

with the responsibility of 

employment generation in the 

country using training as its main 

strategy for employment creation." 

Meanwhile, the Director 

General of the programmme, Dr. 

NasirLadan Mohammed 

Argungu, in a goodwill massage 

charged the participants to be 

totally committed to the training. 

Boeing swings to annual loss as 

737 MAX costs near $19 billion 

BOEING Co, Wednesday, swung to its first 

annual loss since 1997 on mounting 737 

MAX costs and indicated it would again cut 

production of its bigger 787 Dreamliner aircraft, currently 

its main source of cash. 

Costs related to the global grounding of Boeing's once 

fast-selling 737 MAX reached $14.6 billion in 2019 and 

the planemaker warned of another $4 billion in charges 

in 2020 due to the expense of freezing and slowly 

restarting the jets' production. 

Boeing, facing the biggest crisis in its history, had 

previously estimated an around $8 billion price tag for 

the MAX fallout. 

The aircraft was grounded in March after two crashes that 

killed 346 people. Boeing has since frozen production of 

the aircraft as deliveries, the moment when the planemaker 

receives most of its cash, remain halted. 

"We recognize we have a lot of work to do," Boeing 

President and CEO David Calhoun said in a statement. 

Vodafone to sell stake in Egyptian 

unit to Saudi Telecom for $2.4 bn 

VODAFONE Group has agreed a preliminary deal 

to sell its 55 percent stake in its Egyptian unit to 

Saudi Arabia's largest telecoms operator STC for 

$2.4 billion, the companies said on Wednesday. 

The non-binding deal values Vodafone Egypt at $4.4 

billion and the two companies have agreed to long-term 

use of the Vodafone brand and other services in Egypt. 

Selling the stake is in line with Vodafone efforts to streamline 

its operations to focus on Europe and sub-Saharan 

Africa, Vodafone Chief Executive Nick Read said. 

"It will reduce our net debt and unlock value for our shareholders," 

he said. 

Vodafone said the transaction is expected to close by June. 

STC said the non-binding agreement was valid for 75 days 

from Wednesday and could be extended by mutual consent. 

"Vodafone Egypt is the leading player in the Egyptian 

mobile market and we look forward to contributing further 

to its continuing success," said STC Chief Executive 

Nasser al-Nasser. 

OVH Energy appoints Dagazau as COO 

OVH Energy, licensee of Oando retail brand, has an 

nounced the appointment of Mumuni Dagazau as 

Chief Operating Officer of the Company. 

Mumuni Dagazau is a business strategist with over 30 

years' experience in the private sector. Prior to his 

appointment, he was Chief Operating Officer at A.A. Rano 

Nigeria Limited. 

Mumuni Dagazau has over the years, in various capacities, 

become recognized for his talent in Strategy Development, 

Process Optimization, Corporate Vision actualization with 

maximum revenue generation. As Chief Operating Officer of 

OVH Energy, he will be responsible for Supply and Trading; 

Customer Service; Sales and Marketing; ASPM; Engineering 

and Terminal business. 

Dagazu stands out as a professional with the unique ability 

to convert strategic plans into reality. In his previous roles, he 

has guided companies to establish themselves as viable 

businesses. He is an associate member of the Association of 

Business Executives, United Kingdom and Alumnus of Valley 

Forge Military Academy in the Unites States. 

"We are pleased to have Dagazau join OVH Energy Marketing. 

His strong background in operational organizational 

optimization coupled with his technical expertise make him 

an ideal person to take on this position. His appointment is 

also an indication of our commitment to build a business that 

continually provides our customers with products and services 

of the highest standards." said Huub Stokman, CEO OVH 

Energy. 

2000 retailers to benefit from MTN 

'Turns It Up' scheme 

MTN Nigeria says 2000 retailer across the country 

will benefit from its 'Turns It Up' "Kiosk as a Service" 

scheme. 

The scheme which will empower retailers with an 

omnibus stall that will enable the retailers provide MTN's 

bouquet of products and services more efficiently and 

afford customers access to services like SIM registration, 

(mobile money) MoMo, 4G migrations, airtime purchase 

and so much more. 

Starting with the South-West region of the country with 

over 180 already installed in Lagos State, the kiosks come 

pre-fitted with solar panels that will power the kiosk, enable 

users to charge phones and generally support the ease 

of doing business. 

Speaking on the scheme, Chief Sales and Distribution 

Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Kunle Adebiyi said: "The 'Kiosk 

as a Service' is a demonstration of MTN's unwavering 

belief in partnership." 

Adebiyi said MTN's use of pre-installed solar panels on 

the kiosks was a deliberate action and a commitment to 

ensure that the company leads the clamour for the use of 

renewable energy as a way to preserve the environment. 

Some stories credited to Reuters

What will be President Buhari’s 

legacy? 

THREE years from now, Muhammadu 

Buhari will become Nigeria’s expresident. 

He will most likely retire to his 

ancestral home of Daura to live out the rest of 

his life. At that stage, what will matter most is 

the legacy he left behind for the unmerited 

privileges the country bequeathed him. The 

time to create those legacies is now. It will be 

too late in 2023. Most of those who voted for 

him in the 2015 presidential election did so 

because they believed he was a man conscious 

of legacy. 

I was one of them. Former Managing 

Director of Nigerian Breweries Limited, Eze 

Festus Odimegwu, was also in that loop. In an 

interview shortly after the 2015 polls, 

Odimegwu said he believed in Buhari’s 

personal example. "Buhari had been military 

head of state. Some others who had occupied 

the same position simply emptied the Central 

Bank of Nigeria, CBN. But he did not. He had 

headed the Nigerian National Petroleum 

Corporation, NNPC, but he did not steal. He 

had been military governor, he did not steal. 

There is nothing as personal example.” 

Besides, Odimegwu noted that: “Buhari 

doesn’t talk much. He is a man of few words. 

He is measured. But anything he says, he is 

clear. He doesn’t talk from two sides of the 

mouth. That clarity of thought and speech 

mirrors intention. A leader will never do well 

unless his intentions are good.” That is the 

audacity of legacy. Those presumed virtues 

were what people remembered of Buhari after 

his first stint in power. 

Last week, I went back to Abuja to do an 

encore with Odimegwu. He could barely 

recognise the pre-2015 Buhari. The Buhari who 

superintends over the affairs of Nigeria today 

is an “unmitigated disaster”, he insists. 

So, what happened? Was he changed by the 

presidency? Not really going by the immortal 

words of former U.S. First Lady, Michelle 

Obama, that “being president doesn't change 

who you are. It reveals who you are,” a 

sentiment re-echoed by her husband, President 

Barak Obama, at Miami’s Florida 

International University in October 2016 thus: 

“Let me tell you something about this office 

that I’ve been in for 

eight years. Who you 

are - what you are - does 

not change after you 

occupy the Oval Office. 

All it does is magnify 

who you are. All it does 

is shine a spotlight on 

who you really are.” 

Maybe Nigerians 

never really knew 

A president 

with his eyes 

on legacy with 

do everything 

to halt this 

perilous drift 

to anarchy 

Buhari, the man they 

elected president in 2015. But now that Aso 

Rock has magnified and shined a spotlight on 

who he really is, the image staring at us in the 

mirror is perplexing. But beyond all this, what 

I see is a man who does not care, a man to 

whom legacy means nothing as long as his 

narcissistic agenda is achieved. 

A president who has his eyes on leaving a 

legacy will not sit idly and watch his underlings 

wheedle the unwary with falsehoods even as 

the country slips inextricably into a season of 

anomie. Such a president will not continue to 

live in denial, playing the ostrich in the face of 

grave national occurrences. Under Buhari’s 

watch, Nigeria has become the archetypal 

Hobbesian state where life is "solitary, poor, 

nasty, brutish, and short," with violent non state 

actors daily delegitimising the 

commonwealth. 

A president with his eyes on legacy with do 

everything to halt this perilous drift to anarchy. 

Not Buhari. Instead, he is sitting on his palms 

watching his minions harangue Nigerians with 

the falsehood that security has improved 

considerably. On Sunday, January 26, a day 

two bombs were exploded by terrorists with 

fatalities, Femi Adesina, presidential 

spokesman, said on national television that 

“Nigerians ought to be thankful for the job 

met with a delegation 

from Niger State that came to Aso Rock to 

tell him that insecurity and death had become 

the unenviable lot of the people. “I was taken 

aback by what is happening in the North West 

and other parts of the country. During our 

campaigns, we knew about the Boko Haram. 

What is coming now is surprising. It is not 

ethnicity or religion; rather it is one evil plan 

against the country. 

“We have to be harder on them. One of the 

responsibilities of government is to provide 

security. If we don’t secure the country, we will 

not be able to manage the economy properly,” 

he vowed. This is one vow too many. I doubt if 

anyone still takes the president serious 

anymore. His promises no longer assuage 

anxieties. And the reason for the incredulity is 

not far-fetched. There is no evidence of any of 

the so-called bandits or Fulani herdsmen 

wreaking havoc that has been successfully 

prosecuted for their heinous crime. Instead, 

the president is on record advising the victims 

of these atrocious crimes to accommodate 

their tormentors in the spirit of brotherhood. 

At the meeting with Niger State indigenes, 

the president lamented that activities of 

bandits had forced many to abandon their 

farms and homes. So, he knows? What has he 

done about that as the Commander-in-Chief 

of the Armed Forces? Is he aware that the 

bandits who chased away Benue indigenes 

from their ancestral lands are still occupying 

them till date while their victims are living in 

squalid conditions in IDP camps? 

Squalid 

conditions 

being done by the 

government.” 

“It (insecurity) is 

not as bad as you 

make it seem,” he 

admonished his 

interviewer. But two 

days later, the 

president himself 

threw Adesina under 

the grinding wheels 

of his hypocritical 

locomotive when he 

Buhari’s embarrassing security lethargy has 

led to regional self-help which is what the 

Western Nigeria Security Network, WNSN, 

called Operation Omotekun is all about. On 

Wednesday, January 29, senators reminded 

the president to do the needful – sack the 

Service Chiefs and Inspector General of 

Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu. 

A president with his eyes on legacy will not 

wait to be told that it is high time he kicked 

out service chiefs who have supervised the 

disconcerting deterioration of security. 

Under Buhari, Nigeria’s democracy has 

gone to the dogs, elections have been reduced 

to mere joke. Yet, here is a man who contested 

the presidency four times and vowed to 

sanitise the electoral space. Rather than fulfil 

his vow, the situation has become worse. No 

decent Nigerian has any iota of confidence in 

the country’s electoral process again. The 

Independent National Electoral Commission, 

INEC, has become a mere parastatal of the 

presidency. The courts have effectively been 

tethered to the apron-strings of executive 

shenanigans. 

Under Buhari’s watch, election rigging has 

assumed a very frightening dimension. Before 

now, malpractices will mean, in worst case 

scenarios, thugs snatching ballot boxes and 

running away. Under Buhari, nobody 

snatches ballot boxes and runs away. The 

political gladiators will wait until after the 

counting just to ensure that they have lost at 

the polling unit and then in the full glare of 

the camera make a bonfire of not only the 

ballot boxes but also the result sheets and all 

other vital INEC documents. It happened in 

the Okota area of Lagos in the 2019 general 

elections. 

But that is even for those who still give a 

damn. The more hardened politicians don’t 

even care to campaign. They don’t bother 

about voting. They don’t snatch ballot boxes. 

They stay in the comfort of their bedrooms to 

write their own results and head to court. 

Others kidnap the returning officers and order 

them at gunpoint to announce them winners 

of elections they lost. Everything President 

Muhammadu Buhari touches when it comes 

to leadership goes south even as his 

government pettifogs. What a legacy for a 

man once touted as the country’s saviour. 

HOW time flies! It is 

now some 50 years 

since the Nigerian civil 

war ended. I recall those 

days in mid-January 1970 

when the war ended. I was 

a form four student in 

Government College, 

Keffi, and we had just 

reported back to school 

after the end of the year 

holidays. I came back to 

school with a small 

transistor radio which 


became of high value to me and my 

roommates, to follow reports aired by BBC 

and other international radio outlets. 

There were hardly any newspapers in 

remote Keffi, then. And television was still 

some years ahead. The radio was the most 

dependable source of news. It was from the 

radio that we started having an inkling that 

the war was ending. By the time the official 

announcement came it wasn’t much of a 

surprise. In any case it was also confirmed 

by the principal of the college at the 

morning assembly session. 

There was immense sigh of relief at the 

announcement, especially for those of us who 

were midway into secondary schools. We 

had known nothing else but the war since 

we came into the form one. The first shot 

heralding the civil war was launched in the 

mid-1967 when my set was just settling into 

form one. 

Since then it was one trauma or the other 

as the war escalated. We had imagined that 

the war was far away in the Eastern part of 

the country, but when bombs were detonated 

in Lagos and Kaduna it registered that one 

was vulnerable anywhere. There was a 

general fear of the unknown all around. We 

even had bomb drills in schools to train 

school children on what to do in case of 

bomb attacks. 

One could remember a general slowdown 

in everything. Obviously government had 

no money to do anything else but prosecute 

the war. Everything that needed government 

funds was affected. The roads were 

dilapidated, and 

journeys took days 

rather than the hours 

we spend now. The 

road I followed to 

college from 

Maiduguri, my home, 

was the single lane 

highway through 

Bauchi, Jos, 

Akwanga, Gudi and it 

was only tarred in 

Children of the Nigerian 

civil war 

Wars are 

horrors; we 

should talk 

about them so 

as to avoid 

them, not to 

repeat them 

parts. 

In fact, the portion from Bauchi would be 

some of the most terrifying roads one had 

ever travelled on. There were frightening 

deep gorges on the sides of the roads leading 

up the hills to Jos and after. There were no 

buses or taxis; we could only travel on 

rickety, open bolekajas. Trains were a luxury 

but available. At least one could take a train 

from Maiduguri all the way to Gudi. 

Nevertheless, the depravations we suffered 

as school children during the civil war on 

my side of the divide cannot by any stretch 

of imagination be compared to what our 

mates went through in the other side of the 

divide. 

Many of them were uprooted from where 

they considered home and driven under 

frightening conditions to a life of terrifying 

depravations. They suffered cramped family 

lives, deaths, bombs, hunger, diseases, in 

whatever order. In wars, and times of 

troubles, children suffered most and the civil 

war literature is full of such testimonies. 

After the war, secondary school over, we 

all converged in the universities as from 

1972 onwards with the other kids from the 

war-torn areas who survived the war. 

Through various levels of interactions and 

sharing of experiences, we came to 

appreciate what hell they went through in 

those traumatic years. Much later I would 

come face to face with the horrors that the 

civil war visited on the affected areas when 

in 1975 we went as delegates from ABU 

Zaria to Benin to attend the convention of 

the now defunct National Union of Nigerian 

Students, NUNS. 

We went through Onitsha and it was the 

first time I crossed the River Niger into the 

East. Even though it was some four years 

after the war the tell-tale scars were visible 

all the way to Benin. The roads were bumpy 

and full of pot holes. And in all the towns 

and villages we passed through, the 

buildings bore plenty marks from bullets 

and or shells. Poverty was written all over 

the place. It was truly horrifying to see. 

During the national service year, I lived in 

Lagos but I took time off occasionally to 

visit fellow corpers living in the East. I would 

spend a day or two with Bello Abdullahi who 

served in Ogidi – Chinua Achebe’s home 

village, a short run from Onitsha. I would 

then hop off to Owerri where Tijjani El- 

Miskeen was teaching. 

My last port of call would be Port 

Harcourt where Zakar Isah Chawai was 

serving along with his new bride. In all these 

journeys the pattern I saw was the same: 

dilapidated infrastructure, destroyed 

buildings in towns and villages, and poverty 

written all over. That was 1976, six years 

after the war, yet the conditions were just as 

bad as the war had just ended. 

Wars are horrors. We should talk about 

them so as to avoid them. Not to repeat them. 

Sunny side of the 

social media 

WONDERS never end! At a time when 

the social media was under intense 

scrutiny with negative labels such as fake 

news being bandied about, it is heartwarming 

to follow what good the social 

media has generated to the life of blind 

singer living in a village in Makoda local 

government of Kano State. The singer, 

Magajiya Dambatta was a heroine of the 

1970s, a great popular singer who had 

produced songs extolling the virtues of 

sound education and moral values. In the 

early 1970s many would recall the 

sonorous voice of Magajiya Dambatta, 

dishing out song after song, over the radios 

in Kano, encouraging citizens to bring out 

their wards to school. 

Unfortunately, the old maestro went blind 

and subsequently fell on real hard times. 

She was forced to go out begging to sustain 

herself until words reached Jaafar Jaafar, 

Editor-in Chief and publisher of the Daily 

Nigerian, an online medium. Jaafar went 

out to the village and sought out the singer 

to assess her situation and the environment 

as well. He immediately put her condition 

to the public on his Facebook account to 

raise awareness on the plight of the 

unfortunate blind singer as a means for 

mobilising funds from the public towards 

her rehabilitation. The response was 

overwhelming. Over 500 responded to 

Jaafar’s entreaties and within a week an 

amount of over N5million had been raised. 

After this wholesome collection, Jaafar 

went back to the village to brief Magajiya. 

I followed their encounter as it was 

reported in many international Hausa 

language radio stations. Their meeting, as 

readers would expect, was ecstatic as 

Magajiya was briefed on the goodies lined 

up to cater for her livelihood. She even 

belted out a thank you song, in a strong 

and vibrant voice, that belied her 82 years. 

This is expected because I understand that 

a substantial part of the proceeds will be 

used to build or rent a modest dwelling for 

her. They have also planned a three-year 

payment of allowances to cater for her food, 

shelter, health care and other daily needs 

on monthly, quarterly or as the need arises. 

She would also be taken to the Aminu 

Kano Teaching Hospital for detailed 

medical examination, particularly her eyes 

condition. 

Obviously things are looking up for 

Magajiya Dambatta. Thanks to the 

positive power of the social media and 

large-heartedness of Jaafar Jaafar and his 

friends. We shall be following the 

developments. 

C 

M 

Y 

K


IT is no longer news that Nigerian 

politicians have very little regard for 

ideology, morality and integrity. Politics 

in Nigeria has often been described as 

a “criminal enterprise” where people 

with crooked characters and criminal 

intentions hold sway. 

The questionable character of 

Nigerian politicians makes it difficult his defection along with seven other 

for people who are ready to promote PDP lawmakers to the APC. This brings 

the noble visions of society to get the total number of APC lawmakers in 

involved. 

the house to 18, while the PDP is left 

So Nigerians were not surprised with eight. 

when they learnt that nine lawmakers The defections were obviously sequel 

elected on the platforms of the Peoples to the recent controversial Supreme 

Democratic Party, PDP, All Progressives Court ruling in which Senator Hope 

Grand Alliance, APGA and Action Uzodinma of APC, who came fourth at 

Alliance, AA, had on Tuesday, January the 2019 governorship election in the 

21, defected to the All Progressives state, was pronounced as the winner, 

Congress, APC, in the Imo State House thus displacing the PDP’s Hon. Emeka 

of Assembly which previously had no Ihedioha who was sworn-in on May 29, 

APC representation. 

2019. 

As if that was not enough, the Speaker Such an eyesore development has 

of the Imo House of Assembly, Dr. become a recurring decimal since the 

Collins Chiji, on Tuesday, January 28, nation returned to democracy in May 

announced during a plenary session, 1999 when politicians nominated by 

Imo’s defecting lawmakers 

various political parties and elected to 

represent the people do whatever 

favours their personal interests once 

they get into office. 

The saddest part is that they violate 

Section 68 (1g) of the 1999 Constitution 

which says the only condition that 

lawmakers can defect from the parties 

which nominated and got them elected 

is if there is factionalisation or their 

parties go into mergers. 

This provision means that if 

lawmakers must defect from their party 

before the end of their tenure they must 

first resign their position to allow for a 

new election and their seat declared 

vacant. The intendment of the framers 

of this section of the Constitution is to 

promote stability in the parties and our 

democracy at large. 

Over the years, lawmakers have 

flagrantly abused this constitutional 

provision. In spite of the series of legal 

challenges, most of them go scot-free, 

thus paving the way for more abuses. 

We affirm that it is the constitutional 

right of lawmakers to choose to depart 

from the parties which got them elected. 

However, in doing so, the Constitution 

must be upheld. Where there is no 

factionalisation or merger as in the 

cases of PDP, AA and APGA in Imo 

State, the defecting lawmakers must 

have their seats declared vacant. They 

are free to re-contest from their new 

political party, and if they win, so be it. 

It is wrong and objectionable for them 

to remain on their seats as lawmakers 

representing political parties which did 

not get them elected into office. It is a 

rape of our Constitution and 

unacceptable. 

Their seats should be declared vacant 

forthwith. 

OPINION 

Bridges we haven’t destroyed 50 years after Biafra 

By BANJI OJEWALE 

One should not forget that the war of 1967- 

1970 taught everyone, even the victors, a lesson: 

you cannot massacre a people or destroy their 

property, even an ethnic minority (without a 

response)…If you do, they will fight because 

they have no choice but to fight— 

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1933- 

2011) Biafra war leader. 

IN both modern and ancient times, we have 

inspiring annals of nations which 

emerged from devastating civil wars and grave 

turmoil and never remained the same again. 

They destroyed old roads that could tempt them 

into bigger caves of crisis. Then they embarked 

upon a long and engaging construction of great 

bridges that connected their people to a bright 

and hopeful future. These overhead stretches 

ensured the society wouldn’t return to the bitter 

past that gave nothing but anguish and 

despondency. 

If we spare ourselves a throwback too deep 

into the past, we can simply settle for two 

African nations of contemporary times and 

prove our point that you don’t come out of a 

life-threatening storm and still be at the mercy 

of deadly winds. Rwanda went through a 

genocidal tide that consumed a third of the 

population in 1994. A writer says the crisis 

plunged the land into a “cataclysmic 

wasteland”. But today the country has been 

redefined by a united people and selfless 

leadership building bridges of true 

reconciliation, reconstruction, rehabilitation 

and reintegration. Its president, Paul Kagame, 

has brought forth a new society from ashes to 

beauty. 

An observer concludes: “Rwanda is easily 

the safest, least corrupt, best groomed nation 

in the region…In other ways the image is a 

fantasy…” The motto in Rwanda is, ‘never 

again’. They’ve allowed the harsh winds of war 

to whip them away from the past into the future. 

They keep singing, once bitten, forever shy. Go 

to Ethiopia and you will find the same ashesto-beauty 

story. After a succession of ‘creeping 

revolutions’, as the bloody military coups in 

the Horn of Africa came to be known, Ethiopia 

fell into the league of the continent’s failing 

countries. But when visionary leaders lay hold 

on such circumstances, they sail on the crest of 

adversarial torrents to turn the tide to favour 

their people and society. 

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been one 

such leader. His government has made 

Ethiopia “overtake Kenya as the economic 

giant of East Africa”. The International 

Monetary Fund says the country’s “economy 

since 2015 has been on an upward trajectory 

since the government moved to modernise its 

roads, railway and power plants. They are on 

cue to have Africa’s biggest hydroelectric dam 

upon the completion of work on the Grand 

Ethiopia Renaissance Dam. Even though 

landlocked, the country continues to make 

giant strides in trying to industrialise.” It wasn’t 

a surprise that the country’s PM won the 

coveted Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, owing to 

his effort in pulling Ethiopia from an 

internecine war with Eritrea to peace and 

thence into full blast postwar reconciliation 

and development. 

Now, Nigeria has had its own scorching civil 

war which ought to have taught us lessons on 

how to build bridges on which to walk into 

progress. Hundreds of thousands, millions 

indeed, lost their souls in the secessionist bid 

by Biafra. Many more were maimed, while 

several more incalculable losses were incurred 

in the conflict. Fifty years after the inferno that 

nearly brought down our rattletrap structure, 

we can’t identify any bridge we’ve erected to 

take us away from the graves of those cut down 

by the sanguinary conflagration. We’ve been 

standing at the spot we were in January 1970 

when the Biafra War ended. Other nations 

concluded their hostilities, whether domestic 

or external, and moved on, improving the lot 

of their citizens. They didn’t mock the departed 

as we do when we fail to improve the society 

they were slain for. 

Fifty years after Biafra, the wraith of Biafra 

hasn’t gone home. Every day it threatens us. 

All what gave birth to this abiku is alive in our 

politics, in our economy, in our lifestyle, in our 

home, in our schools. Is it a coincidence that 

six state governments in the South West of 

Nigeria are declaring they have no confidence 

in the security apparatus of the central 

We must begin to pull down 

those structures that seem to 

be taking us down the war 

alley again 

administration and that they are pushing for 

an independent machinery to protect their 

people? Is it a coincidence that this is taking 

place in January, the month marking the 50 th 

anniversary of the end of the Nigerian Civil 

War? 

There was this ambience that preceded the 

war- insecurity, corruption, nepotism, mutual 

fear among the ‘federating’ units, toxic politics 

followed by inane military rule, ethnicity, 

official contempt for the masses, poverty, social 

discontent, marginalisation of sections of the 

nation, unchecked violence, dismantling of the 

principles of federalism for an extenuated and 

disfigured one, religious extremism, etc. The 

question is: can we notice that we still have 

these as our backcloth today, some five decades 

after the Civil War? Military rule is missing in 

the murderous mix. But you know Esau’s hands 

and Jacob’s voice. These are bridges we 

shouldn’t have retained after the war. 

When we bulldozed the physical bridges in 

Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

Biafra land we should have also razed the more 

dangerous ones threatening Biafrans scores 

of years after. But we have lacked great leaders 

to exploit the conflict to go for broke over a 

radical reordering of Nigeria. Of course, there 

have been several other missteps in the wake 

of numerous opportunistic national 

challenges. 

Elsewhere, the war would have produced an 

Abraham Lincoln with a masterly Gettysburg 

dirge to inspire the mourning folks to look 

beyond the seeming helplessness and death 

around them. Surrounded by fallen servicemen 

and grieving citizens at the dedication of the 

cemetery for the slain during the American 

Civil War in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln 

delivered one of man’s greatest speeches, 

where he said your duty in crisis was to honour 

those the crisis had claimed by abolishing what 

brought about the challenges. He made the 

point that “in a larger sense, we cannot 

dedicate-we cannot consecrate-we cannot 

hallow- this ground…It is for us the living, 

rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished 

work which they who fought here have thus far 

so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here 

dedicated to the great task remaining before 

us…” 

In our case, after we mowed down Biafra 

and all its great promise of giving the Black 

Race a home-grown technology whose fetuses 

we saw during the war-a mobile radio station, 

locally-made rockets with launchers and 

bombs, improvised refineries, etc., we did not 

dedicate to the “great task remaining before 

us”, namely destroying the bridge to Biafra. 

We have put up more. To honour those who 

fought for the land, we must begin to pull down 

those structures that seem to be taking us down 

the war alley again. Wars, avoidable or 

unavoidable, are challenges not meant to 

crush us. They are to guide us into Eldorado as 

they did for others: Vietnam, South Korea, 

Rwanda, Ethiopia etc. 

*Ojewale, a commentator on national issues, 

wrote from Lagos

Nigeria’s oil, gas earnings up 3% 

to N5.54trn 

CURRENCY BUYING SELLING 

US DOLLAR 

POUNDS 

EURO 

FRANC 

YEN 

CFA 

WAUA 

RENMINBI 

RIYAL 

SDR 

DANISH 

RAND 

$ 102.85 -2.20 

$2,728.00 -25.00 

$14.51 -0.03 

$60.05 0.54 

$53.51 0.03 

306 306.5 307 

398.3202 398.9711 399.4954 

336.7224 337.2726 337.8228 

313.8462 314.359 314.8718 

2.8048 2.8048 2.8139 

0.4942 0.5045 0.5142 

420.1167 420.8031 421.4896 

44.111 44.1836 44.2561 

81.5543 81.6876 81.8208 

421.0484 421.7365 422.4246 

45.0748 45.1485 45.2222 

20.9377 20.9719 21.0061 

CBN Exchange rate as at 29/01/2020 

By Michael Eboh 

Nigeria’s earnings from 

the oil and gas sector 

rose marginally by three percent, 

year-on-year, to N5.536 

trillion 2019 from N5.39 trillion 

in the 2018 fiscal year. 

The Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) disclosed this in its 

latest quarterly economic report 

adding that oil and gas 

earnings accounted for 54.2 

per cent of total federally-collected 

revenue of N10.21 

trillion in 2019. 

Further analysis showed 

that the amount the country 

earned from the oil and gas 

sector represented 62.06 per 

cent of the Federal 

Government’s 2019 budget 

estimate of N8.92 trillion. 

According to the apex bank, 

oil revenue stood at N1.41 

trillion in first quarter 2019 

(Q1’19) representing 4.1 percent, 

quarter-on-quarter (q/ 

q), when compared with 

N1.47 trillion recorded in the 

preceding quarter (Q4’18). 

Oil revenue however 

dropped by 12.93 per cent, 

(q/q), to N1.219 trillion in the 

second quarter of 2019. 

Oil revenue appreciated 

slightly by 9.93 per cent, (q/ 

q), to N1.34 trillion in the 

third quarter and further rose 

by 16.4 per cent, (q/q), to 

N1.56 trillion in the fourth 

quarter. 

Giving a further breakdown 

of components of the 

country’s earnings from the 

oil sector, the CBN disclosed 

that crude oil and gas exports, 

at N398.64 billion, accounted 

for 0.07 per cent of 

total federally-collected revenue, 

while earnings from 

petroleum profit tax/royalties 

stood at N3.529 trillion, accounting 

for 63.75 per cent of 

total federally-collected revenue 

in 2019. 

By Olasunkanmi Akoni 

Lagos State Governor, Mr 

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday, 

approved the issuance 

of N100 billion Bond, the third 

in its series aimed at improving 

infrastructure in the state. It is 

the largest bond issuance by any 

sub-national in Nigeria. 

Recall, the state government 

had previously issued bonds 

under N107.5billion and 

N167.5billion 

programmes, respectively. 

The latest bond, which 

is already over- subscribed, 

is under the 

state’s N500 billion bond 

issuance programme 

slated to mature in December 

2023. 

Speaking at the event 

at the Lagos House, 

Alausa, Ikeja, Sanwo- 

Olu, assured residents 

of judicious use of the 

bond proceed to improve 

the state infrastructure, 

adding that 

prosperity of the state 

was paramount to his 

administration. 

He said, “We are doing 

things and it is about 

prosperity of the state. 

We made commitment to 

Lagosians that we will 

create a greater Lagos. 

This Bond has helped us 

to restructure our financial 

balance sheet. We want to 

assure Lagosians we will not 

put their confidence in us to 

shame. We will ensure Lagosians 

feel the effect of this intervention 

in the schools, hospitals and infrastructure 

we are going to build. 

“We really appreciate the investing 

community, whose sustained 

support of Lagos State continues 

to spur our resolve to deliver 

on a Greater Lagos. Our 

achievement of a very solid outing 

in terms of the tenure, size 

and pricing of the Bond, positions 

Lagos State as very active 

participant in the development 

of our domestic capital markets. 

We remain resolute to upholding 

our commitment to being the 

most responsible issuer in the 

Nigerian markets.” 


Other oil earnings, comprising 

education tax, customs 

special levies, federation 

and non federation and 

National Information Technology 

Development Fund 

(NITF); solid minerals and 

other mining revenue, stood 

at N1.609 trillion, representing 

29.06 per cent of total 

earnings in 2019. 

From left, Lagos Commissioner for Women Affairs & Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Cecilia Dada; 

Deputy Country Representative, United Nations (UN Women Nigeria), Mr. Lansana Wonneh 

and Tokunbo Abiru, Managing Director/CEO, Polaris Bank at the official launch of HeForShe, 

a UN Women Gender Equality Campaign in Lagos where the Polaris Bank CEO was appointed 

a UN Gender Equality Champion (GEC). 

Sanwo-Olu approves N100bn infrastructure 

devt bond 

While appreciating the support 

of the issuance Houses, the Commissioner 

for Finance, Lagos 

State, Dr. Rabiu Olowo, said the 

Bond which is at 12.25 per cent, 

is the largest Bond issuance by 

any sub-national in Nigeria. 

“We acknowledge the unwavering 

support of investors to the significant 

growth witnessed by 

Lagos State, given that the monies 

raised through our Bonds are 

being committed to the development 

of physical and social infrastructure, 

for the benefit of us 

all. 

’Our partners, especially the issuing 

houses led by Chapel Hill 

Denham, have worked tirelessly 

with us to deliver another successful 

outcome on this landmark 

transaction. 

NSE creates platform for SMEs to access 

funds in capital market 

By Peter Egwuatu 

The Nigerian Stock Exchange, 

NSE yesterday created a platform 

for Small Scale Enterprises, 

SMEs to access long term funds 

in the Nigerian capital market. 

The Chief Executive Officer, 

NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema stated 

this while unveiling the NSE 

Growth Board segment that allows 

the SMEs to list on the Exchange 

without much stringent 

requirements. 

He said: “This platform is pivotal 

to our efforts in catering to a 

segment of the economy that 

hitherto has been neglected and 

UBA rewards 

100 customers 

with N10m in 

‘Bumper 

Account’ promo 

United Bank for Africa 

(UBA) Plc has rewarded 

100 customers in the first 

monthly draw of the ‘UBA 

Bumper Account’ promo. 

The bank in a statement said 

that the ‘UBA Bumper Account’, 

is a hybrid account, targeted 

at transforming the lives 

of its customers. “The new account 

is in line with the bank’s 

mission of creating superior 

value for its stakeholders while 

encouraging saving cultures 

among Nigerians. 

“The account, carefully crafted 

to improve the lives of the UBA 

customers, will offer account 

holders an opportunity to win 

cash prizes of up to N2 million,” 

the bank said. 

Speaking during the launch 

and monthly draw which was 

held at the UBA Head Office, 

in Lagos on Tuesday, the Group 

Head, Retail Banking, Jude 

Anele said, the New ‘UBA 

Bumper Account’ was created 

with the customer in mind. 

Anele said, “We have in recent 

times deepened our focus 

on the most important aspect of 

our business – the customers we 

serve. Hence, our huge investment 

in technology to make 

banking easier and seamless, 

even as we introduce new offerings 

such as this Bumper 

Account, that will deliver improved 

value to stakeholders. 

He explained that new and 

existing customers of the bank 

need to ensure they have a 

minimum deposit of N5,000 in 

their UBA Bumper Account to 

qualify for draws. According to 

him, current UBA customers are 

to dial *919*20*1# to migrate 

to the UBA Bumper Account 

whilst potential customers 

should dial *919*20# if interested 

in opening a UBA 

Bumper Account. 

In the first draw which was 

held live during the official 

launch in Lagos today, a total 

of 100 customers emerged winners 

as the Bumper to Bumper 

Crooner, Wande Coal serenaded 

guests with his famous 

hit songs to the delight of all 

present. 

“A total of 100 customers 

emerged winners at the live 

draws which took place here today, 

and as you have seen, 

some of our customers here 

present were part of the lucky 

ones who won N100,000 each. 

From here on, lucky customers 

will win from N10,000 to N2 

million each in the monthly, 

quarterly and targeted draws,” 

Anele stated. 

perceived as a high risk and low 

reward venture by most service 

providers especially in relation to 

access to capital from financial institutions. 

The traditional role of the Exchange 

as an enabler of capital 

flow from areas of surplus to deficit 

holds good promise for its capability 

to support SMEs, as access 

to capital is the prime challenge 

faced by companies that are 

active in the SME sector.” 

He said: “Without a doubt, the 

SME space remains critical to the 

growth of the economy. According 

to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, 

SMEs in Nigeria have contributed 

about 48 percent of the 

national GDP in the last five 

years. This segment of the 

economy also accounts for 96 percent 

of operational businesses 

and 84 percent of employment. 

With a total number of about 41.5 

million enterprises, the SME segment 

accounts for nearly 90 percent 

of companies operating in 

the manufacturing sector and 50 

percent of industrial jobs. 

Continuing he said: “In line 

with the Exchange’s focus and 

drive to deepen the Nigerian capital 

market and its support for Start 

Ups and Small and Medium Enterprises, 

I am pleased to unveil 

to you today the Nigerian Stock 

Exchange - Growth Board.


Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 --- 21 

Leah Sharibu: 

Why FG should do more 

— CAN Woman Leader 

Pastor Dr. Mrs Mabel Oyin Sowoolu is CAN Woman Leader and 

former president of the Women Wing of Christian Association of 

Nigeria, WOWICAN. In this interview with WO, she speaks on the 

negative effect of the circumstances surrounding Leah Sharibu’s 

purported birth of a child fathered by one of the commanders of the 

Boko Haram insurgents. According to her, the federal government 

should be held responsible regarding the plight of Nigerian girls 

especially Leah Sharibu. 

By Ebunoluwa Sessou 

There are reports that 

abducted Leah Sharibu 

gave birth to a baby for 

one of the Boko Haram 

commanders. In your own view 

as a mother and as one of the 

leaders in the Christian 

Association of Nigeria and by 

and large Christian community, 

what is your position on this? 

As a mother and grandmother, a 

spiritual leader and a woman, if it is 

true, it is a serious matter and very 

unfortunate. If something happens to 

one person and you feel nothing has 

happened until it affects you, you will 

not understand what it is. If it is true, 

the government has so many 

questions to answer from God. They 

have questions to answer from God 

or what do you expect such a girl to 

do in that situation. It is either they 

kill her or make her do what they 

wanted. For me, it is like a dream 

because what the federal government 

told us last was that she would soon 

be released. And now, she is carrying 

a baby. Even if we have no power over 

the perpetrators of such evil, God in 

heaven will make His judgment. They 

will not go unpunished. All the 

spirits, all mothers are crying 

because if it is true, the perpetrators 

will never go unpunished. The Lord 

who makes heaven and earth will 

ensure that they really suffer for the 

act. It is not a matter of having a baby. 

She is under serious emotional stress, 

and you know what that means. How 

old is she that she should undergo 

such emotional stress? We are 

praying that God Almighty will 

judge those who have put that girl 

in such a situation. She is a 

Nigerian who has the right to 

religion. 

One will assume that 

Christian leaders would 

have put some 

machinery in place 

especially after the 

assurances given by the 

federal government 

that Leah Sharibu 

would be released, until 

this recent report? 

The Christian 

Association of Nigeria 

tried her best. We did all 

we could. The government 

is not just responsive and 

it is a bad omen for us as 

Nigerians. The Save Our 

Girls group also did her 

best. There are 

communiqués about Leah 

Sharibu released by CAN. 

CAN in the Northern states 

did; CAN in Nigeria as a nation 

did. We have never kept quiet 

about it. 

Peradventure the story 

is false, what do you think 

the government should 

do? 

Whether it is true or not, the 

point is that they should 

ensure the release of the girl. 

If it is true and she is not out by now, 

maybe, the government is 

trying to feel the pulse 

of the masses before 

they do what they 

want to do. If it is 

true, let them bring 

out the girl, enough 

is enough. 

We are 

talking 

about Leah Sharibu yet we still have 

the Chibok girls in Boko Haram 

custody, what do you think Nigerians 

or Nigeria government should be 

doing right now? 

We all know what they should be 

doing. If they are ready, they should 

ensure that the Chibokgirls are 

released. They should explore every 

avenue to get the girls out of the place. 

Look, it is not a good omen at all. We 

By Josephine Agbonkhese 

NIGERIANS were disappointed last Sunday 

when at the 2020 Grammys in Los Angeles, 

USA, Beninese singer-songwriter and actress, 

Angelique Kidjo, was announced winner of the 

World Music Album category for which one of their 

indigenous music stars, Burna Boy, was also 

nominated alongside three others. 

That was 

Kidjo‘s fourth 

Grammy win in 

n i n e 

nominations; 

first of which 

came in 1995 with her 

first Grammy coming 12 

years later when she won 

the Best Contemporary 

World Music category. It 

would have been the first for 

Burna Boy though—and of 

course his first Grammy 

nomination too; a feat made 

possible by his fourth album 

‘African Giant’ in which, 

interestingly, he collaborated with 

Kidjo on a track entitled ‘Different’. 

While Nigerian music lovers still 

feel defrauded by the Record 

Academy as they couldn’t see any 

reason their homeboy to whom 

should all put ourselves in their 

position. These girls did not bargain 

for what they are currently passing 

through or prepare for what they 

got themselves into, neither did 

their parents did. An adage says, 

a child is dead is better than a 

child is missing. If the child 

is dead, we will know she is 

dead not the one we do not 

know her where about. The 

government will say, it is not 

easy but I know, it is what 

they can do. As much as we 

are all praying for the 

successful return of the girls, it is 

unfortunate, that the government has 

been negative about the responses. 

And that is the truth. 

We all know that release of 

victims of Boko Haram 

insurgents attracts negotiation, 

do you think, government will 

be doing the right thing in 

terms of negotiation? 

I do not think negotiation 

should be a problem for 

responsible government. As 

long as it is to secure the 

release of those girls, 

government should do 

everything possible to get 

them released. We are 

talking about innocent lives 

that money cannot buy. 

These people are using 

millions of naira to acquire 

wealth, why can’t they safe lives? Is it 

a sin to be girls; is it a sin to be a 

woman? God created us. Any money 

spent to get these children back is 

money well spent. And I know that is 

the view of every good mother. 

There seems to be 

reinforcement of the operations 

Continues on page 22 

Meet female Beninese Angelique Kidjo who 

dashed Nigerians’ hope at the 2020 Grammys 

Kidjo dedicated her award lost the 

Grammy, we bring you a few things you 

probably didn’t know about four-time 

Grammy award winner, Angelique 

Kidjo—plus perhaps why her album, 

‘Celia’, won over others in the Best World 

Music Album category. 

*Kidjo was born in Ouidah, Benin, 

on July 14, 1960, to a Beninese father 

and Yoruba mother. 

*At age six, she was already 

performing with her mother’s theatre 

troupe. That gave her an early 

appreciation for traditional music and 

dance, so much that in school, she joined 

her school band, Les Sphinx, and soon 

found success as a teenager with her 

adaptation of Miriam Makeba’s “Les 

Trois Z”, which played on national radio. 

*She grew up listening to Beninese 

traditional music, Fela Kuti, Miriam 

Makeba, Hugh Masekela, James 

Brown, Manu Dibango, Otis 

Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie 

Wonder, Osibisa, Celia Cruz and 

Santana. 

*The success of her first album, 

‘Pretty’, which was recorded with a 

Cameroonian, earned her a tour of West 

Africa until political conflicts in Benin 

led her to relocate to Paris in 1983. 

Continues on Page 25

22 —Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 

I plan to do exploits for humanity under 

Rotary international — Dr. Sholoye 

By Naomi Uzor 

THE Managing Di 

rector/CEO of International 

Alpha limited 

Group of Companies, Dr 

(Mrs) Oluwaseye Yomi- 

Sholoye, Tuesday, said 

she plans to do exploits 

for humanity under Rotary 

International Club, 

Victoria Island East. 

Disclosing this during 

her acceptance speech at 

her induction ceremony 

of Rotary club of Victoria 

Island East, district 

9110, Sholoye noted 

that she has informed the 

District Governor of the 

club to sponsor the treatment 

of 20 girls today 

and another 30 girls later 

through his cervical 

cancer initiative. 

“We all know in life 

there are several milestones 

that are life altering, 

we go through life 

to focus on career and 

family but at some point, 

we realize that we must 

give back to the society, 

to our community. I came 

into realisation early 

enough and has set up 

different apparatus to 

give back, one of which 

is Oluwaseye Yomi- 

Sholoye foundation” she 

said. 

According to her, when 

invited by the president, 

Rotarian Otunba Gbemi 

Oyeneyin, to join the 

club, she saw it as yet as 

another opportunity to 

give back and impact 

more, knowing fully well 

that Rotary international 

is the largest humanitarian 

organisation in the 

world, having over 1.2 

million members and 35 

thousand clubs worldwide. 

“ Rotary club of Victoria 

Island East has done 

Innovation and Resilience key to 

consolidating leadership in the 

Nigerian Luxury Space 

— Obayuwana 

By Ebunoluwa Sessou 

THE 

Nigerian 

Luxury Market is 

one which is unique due 

to the ever changing 

consumption behavior of 

Nigerians who are 

fashion enthusiasts and 

defined by the latest 

trends. However, the 

onus falls on Luxury 

brands to understand 

consumers and remain at 

the top of their game in 

ensuring that they satisfy 

the fashion needs of the 

market that are keen on 

keeping up with the 

latest trends and 

patronizing premium 

brands that speak to 

them. 

a lot of projects in youth 

empowerment and development, 

education, 

scholarship and health, 

and to this course, I intend 

to support and ensure 

we achieve the desired 

goals and objectives. 

I will be partnering 

with the club on the 

adoption of the Aro community 

in Jakande, Eti 

Speaking at the 

Financial Times Luxury 

Conference in London, 

Executive Director, Polo 

Limited, Jennifer 

Obayuwana commended 

the organizers of the 

conference for providing 

a platform for luxury 

custodians to share 

insights and give a 

balanced perspective of 

their unique markets 

especially those within 

the African luxury market 

space. 

Speaking on the 

challenges faced by the 

industry, she highlighted 

that, despite 

organisational and 

external challenges 

which had threatened to 

disrupt the business 

Osa local government 

through the Be A Guardian 

(BAG) project and I 

will call on my friends 

and partners to join me 

in this movement. There 

are about 7,000 inhabitants 

in this abandoned 

community very close to 

us at the Lekki axis” she 

stated. 

growth, the company has 

continued to grow 

through resilience and 

commitment by the 

business drivers in 

adding beauty to the way 

of life of Nigerians 

through premium pieces 

that defines their 

persona changed the 

game within the 

Nigerian Luxury Market. 

“In over 34 years of 

operation in the 

industry, innovation has 

led the foray of the 

business’s strategic 

direction which has been 

aimed at adapting to the 

ever changing economic 

landscape, increasing 

the market penetration 

drive and diversifying 

the unique offerings of 

the group in servicing 

the growing fashion 

market. 

“Consistently, the 

company has continued 

to impact the economy 

space and creating value 

in the country. We have 

partnered with other 

companies not just 

because of our heritage, 

history and insight of the 

luxury market space, but 

because we share the 

same core values, 

philosophies and passion 

to bringing happiness to 

the world and the pursuit 

of excellence in achieving 

consumers delight”, she 

said. 

Why FG should do more 

Continues from Page 21 

of the Boko Haram 

insurgents, are there 

measures put in place to 

ensure safety of the girls 

in the Northern part of 

the country. Are there 

measures the Christian 

community will be 

putting place vis-à-vis 

parents and Nigerians 

in particular to secure 

lives of girls in the 

Northern part of the 

country? 

Once bitten twice shy. 

Anyone that tries to 

kidnap any Christian or 

any girl up there will see 

the wrath of God. We will 

cry with our wombs. We 

have been crying 

everyday praying against 

this entire crisis. But, if 

there is any abduction of 

any Christian or girl in 

Nigeria again, we will 

not hesitate to pray with 

our wombs against the 

perpetrators. If they try 

it they will see the wrath 

of God. God does not 

fight back easily. He will 

give you all avenue to 

repent but if they refuse, 

they will see what God 

will do. We are serving a 

Living God. 

What would you 

advice Christian 

leaders, school owners, 

parents in securiing the 

girls in the North? 

They should be vigilant 

and be united. United we 

stand, divided we fall. At 

times, we are careless 

especially when 

something happens to 

Mr. A, Mr. B is less 

concerned and that is our 

problem. The insecurity 

issue we are talking 

about is not only in that 

area. We are talking 

about Nigeria as a 

country. We must be 

security conscious. When 

you are in the house, you 

must be security 

conscious, when we are 

in the market, anywhere 

in Nigeria, we must be 

security conscious. It is 

not a matter of this or 

that. We have to be 

united to fight this 

insecurity. It cannot be 

done 

single 

highhandedly. Only 

Christian leaders cannot 

do it. Leaders must lead 

and followers must 

follow. 

Mrs Sowoolu


LASG partners women NGOs on 

implementation of THEMES agenda 

By Olasunkanmi Akoni 

The Lagos State Gov 

ernment through the 

Ministry of Women Affairs 

and Poverty Alleviation, 

WAPA, has expressed the 

need for collaborative efforts 

with Non Governmental Organisations, 

NGOs, to achieve 

the THEMES, agenda of the 

present administration in the 

state. 

The acronym for THEMES 

is, Traffic Management and 

Transportation; Health and 

Environment; Making Lagos 

a 21st Century Economy; Entertainment 

and Tourism; 

Security and Good Governance. 

The Commissioner for 

Women Affairs and Poverty 

Alleviation, WAPA, Mrs. Cecilia 

Dada, made the remarks 

at an interactive meeting with 

women focused NGOs, in 

Aausa, Ikeja, with the theme: 

"Positioning NGOs as a Veritable 

Platform to Drive the 

T.H.E.M.E.S Agenda." 

Meet female Beninese Angelique Kidjo who 

dashed Nigerians’ hope at the 2020 Grammys 

Continues from page 21 

*But like they say, a golden 

bird has no hiding place. It 

wasn’t therefore a surprise 

that even in a strange land, by 

the 1980s, Kidjo had become 

one of the most popular live 

performers in Paris and had 

recorded a solo album called 

‘Parakou’. 

*Till date, she has over 40 

albums with countless hit 

songs including Agolo, 

Batonga, Wombo Lombo, 

Malaika, We-We, Afirika, We 

Are One, Blewu, Gimme 

Shelter, Lonlon, Redemption 

Song, Kelele, Samba pa ti, 

Salala, Babalao, Kulumbu, 

Pearls, and many many more. 

*Kidjo is an activist who 

calls passionately for freedom, 

dignity and the rights of 

people, as well as an 

unrepentant advocate for girl 

child education. The latter 

drives her Batonga 

PHOTO NEWS 

Foundation which equips 

vulnerable women and girls 

with life skills and has seen her 

partnering some of the world’s 

most prominent individuals 

and organisations including 

Michelle Obama and Bill Gates 

on the education of girls in 

Africa. 

*Kidjo has appeared in 

various capacities and 

performed on virtually all of 

the world’s biggest stages; and 

has also collaborated with 

artistes of various generations. 

In 2015, she performed her 

song, Afirika, in support of the 

launch of the global 

Sustainable Development 

Goals along with Shakira at the 

United Nations General 

Assembly in New York. The 

event had in attendance over 

130 heads of states. 

*Kidjo has been involved in 

several international 

engagements. She has been a 

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador 

Speaking at the venue with 

over 50 NGOs in attendance, 

Dada said, “Non-Governmental 

Organization (Women-focused) 

play critical role in the 

development support fight 

against social menace on 

women, promotion of women's 

participation in the socioeconomic 

growth of our society, 

by making them achieve 

economic self-reliance, equal 

access to the labor market and 

social security system. 

“This meeting is however 

meant to bring us all together, 

affording us opportunity 

to rub minds on the issues 

pertaining to our progress and 

development as Non-Governmental 

Organizations domiciled 

in Lagos State. 

“NGOs have been veritable 

tools in supporting the 

T.H.E.M.E.S agenda of the 

present administration and 

Lagos State Government has 

been collaborating and supporting 

various NGOs, especially 

those who in the business 

of promoting the course 

of women. 

“Also, from to time, the Lagos 

State Government 

through the Ministry of Women 

Affairs and Poverty Alleviation 

Carry out various Free 

Health Checks for Women 

Particularly the less privileged 

and Vulnerable. This is 

in addition to the Free Skill 

Acquisition training Programmes 

which takes place in 

our 17 Functional skill Acquisition 

Centers around the 

States, Such Programmes are 

usually followed by empowerment 

of participants. 

“Let me applaud and appreciate 

all the very active NGOs 

and to implore and encourage 

others to be versatile and 

active in their different capacities 

in this New Year. 

NGOs, at their various level 

can still do more in their 

stride to reach out to the less 

privileged and the down trodden 

in the remote areas of the 

state.” 

since 2002, served as one of 

the African Union’s 14 Peace 

Ambassadors in 2010 and has 

supported peace processes in 

war torn African countries 

such as Sudan, Congo, etc. 

*Her winning album, ‘Celia’, 

reflects on her musical idol and 

an icon of the Americas; Celia 

Cruz, a celebrated salsa singer. 

It investigates the African 

roots of the Cuba-born woman 

who became the ‘Queen’ of 

salsa, a music genre invented 

in New York by Caribbean 

immigrants. ‘Celia’ 

reinterprets ten songs from 

Celia’s legendary catalogue to 

showcase African influences 

on the salsa classics. 

*You therefore will agree 

that former US President, Bill 

Clinton wasn’t exaggerating 

when he said on the back cover 

of Kidjo’s book titled ‘Memoir: 

Spirit Rising: My Life, My 

Music’, that “The only thing 

bigger than Angélique Kidjo’s 

voice(music) is her heart.” 

L - R . 

Chairman 

ICAN LMDS, 

Mrs Olawumi 

Abidemi; 

Secretary to 

the Lagos State 

Government, 

Mrs Folashade 

J a j i ; 

Permanent 

Secretary 

Cabinet Affairs, 

Mrs Kemi 

Durosimi-Etti 

and Financial 

Secretary 

ICAN LMDS, Mr 

Sofiu Ahmad, 

during the 

ICAN LMDS 

visit to SSG 

office recently. 

Osun Governor commends 

Ashimolowo, wife 

•As over 21,000 widows receive wrappers, 

N23m, food items 

By Josephine Agbonkhese 

On the first Saturday of the 

New Year, Osun Statebased 

Kings University, 

venue of the annual Widows’ 

Celebration of renowned 

clergyman, Rev Matthew 

Abiodun Ashimolowo and his 

wife, Pastor Yemisi, was filled to 

capacity. That day, women 

gathered from various 

communities in the state to 

receive a 6-yard piece of African 

wax prints; N1,000 mint; and a 

pack of food and drinks, each. 

Dancing heartily to the 

sonorous voice of notable gospel 

act, Opelope Anointing, who 

performed live with her band 

throughout the event, the 

women, numbering over 

21,000, thronged the venue, 

community after community. 

The event which was in its 14th 

year, was a personal give-back 

initiative of the Ashimolowos. 

This year’s edition, which 

witnessed the distribution of 

23,000,000 naira cash, was also 

aimed at celebrating Yemisi who 

recently clocked 60. 

Recalling how the initiative 

began 14 years ago, Pastor 

Matthew Ashimolowo said: “We 

started with 308 women in the 

first year. It grew to 1,008 to 

5,000. But this year, we 

deliberately planned to host 

21,000 women and we have 

exceeded that now firstly because 

we wanted to celebrate Pastor 

Yemisi Ashimolowo, my wife 

who was 60 in September.” 

“Recently, I clocked 46 years 

in ministry. So, I’ve seen it all. I 

went to Bible School January 2, 

1974. We need to touch people 

in physical ways. But at the same 

time, we need to teach people 

principles of catching fish 

instead of giving them just the 

fish. Church is not just where we 

preach about heaven; we should 

also teach people how to be 

relevant in Nigeria; how to break 

through and make a difference 

in their communities. This is one 

way 

The Governor of Osun State, 

Gboyega Oyetola, commended 

the Ashimolowos for helping to 

provide for widows and the less 

privileged in the state. 

“We want our people to 

emulate what he is doing by 

being our brother’s keeper. By 

so doing, the number of lessprivileged 

people in the 

community will reduce 

drastically. It’s our prayer that 

God will continue to energise 

him and renew his spirit in giving 

to the less-privileged. 

On what the state government 

is currently doing to alleviate 

poverty in the state, Oyetola, 

who was represented by his 

Deputy, Benedict Alabi, said the 

present administration is 

women and children-focused. 

“Recently, the state 

government empowered over 

1,700 less privileged individuals 

by giving them funds for their 

businesses. To those identified 

as being in dire need, 

government is giving N15, 000 

quarterly so that their lives can 

be sustained. We will continue 

to do this. We believe this 

gesture will continue to make 

our community peaceful,” 

Oyetola said. 

On his part, the Senior Pastor, 

Christ Living Spring Apostolic 

Ministry, CLAM, Pastor Wole 

Oladiyun, described the 

programme as unique because 

it was organised for widows and 

the needy in the society. “Pastor 

Ashimolowo epitomises Christ 

by giving back to his community 

which he has been doing for 14 

years consistently. We need to 

know that he is a good 

ambassador of Christ here on 

earth,” he said. 

He told Woman’s Own: “I’m 

feeling we should begin to winddown 

our widows programme 

and bring it down to just Ode- 

Omu Town because we want to 

hold crusades which will include 

distribution of clothes, food, 

relief materials, praying for the 

sick, provision of medicines and 

other poverty alleviating 

materials—and we’ll do this four 

times every year instead of a 

yearly widows celebration in my 

home town. It will be a Christian 

Evangelistic crusade that just 

doesn’t say “repent or perish”. 

“We’ve started this already last 

October in Zimbabwe where we 

gave out 8,000 half thousand 

bags of food were gone and we 

had to shutdown to continue 

with one and half thousand bags 

of food which we still had left by 

the next day. But three 

thousand people showed up. We 

gave over a thousand medicines 

because there was no time. 

There was a woman who said 

her hospital prescribed drugs 

for hypertension but who 

couldn’t afford them because 

they were too costly. She got 

those drugs free-of-charge from 

us. We gave out the 40-foot 

container of clothing which we 

brought. That’s the thing I want 

to do around the nation three or 

four times a year. 

The ceremony had in 

attendance famous, anointed men 

of God, as well as delegates from 

the Osun State government and 

high-profile traditional rulers both 

from Osun and surrounding 

states. 

Pastor Yemisi Ashimolowo distributing the items at the event in 

Ode-Omu, Osogbo, recently








THE Yoruba are 

quintessential federalists. 

They are the Californians or 

Texans of Nigeria. California and 

Texas are powerful American 

states that have positioned 

themselves as bulwarks against the 

erosion of federalism in the US. 

For instance, Texas sued the 

Obama administration 48 times 

and, so far, California has sued the 

Trump administration 32 times. 

Both have won several legal battles 

to safeguard the federalist 

principles. The Yoruba are doing 

something similar in Nigeria: 

fighting to move this country 

towards true federalism. 

As everyone knows, Nigeria is 

not a true federal state. 

Considerable power is 

concentrated in the centre, and 

those living in the Abuja political 

bubble want to extend the 

monopoly of power so that they can 

tell everyone else in the country 

what to do. But the Yoruba have 

often pushed back on the insidious 

power grab, and it’s largely thanks 

to them that Nigeria has some 

semblance or pretence of a federal 

system. 

Last year, Vice President Yemi 

Osinbajo wrote that, as the 

Attorney General of Lagos State, 

he led the legal team against the 

Federal Government and won 

several landmark cases at the 

Supreme Court that helped deepen 

fiscal federalism in Nigeria. From 

who should own VAT revenue to 

who should grant building and 

other development control 

permits, from whether states could 

create their own administrative 

units to who should have 

supervisory authority over local 

government finances, Lagos State 

did what California or Texas 

Amotekun: Well done Yoruba for 

nudging Nigeria towards true federalism 

would do: defend the principles of 

federalism. And now the South 

West has given us Amotekun! 

Of course, the biggest win, the 

ultimate trophy, is the 

restructuring of Nigeria, but that 

too will happen. The restructuring 

of this country is, as Governor 

Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State 

rightly put it, “inevitable”. But 

while we await that restructuring, 

while we hold our breath for a new 

and enduring political and 

constitutional settlement, we must 

acknowledge and celebrate the 

little steps that are taking us there. 

And one of such steps – in fact, a 

major one – is the birth of the 

Amotekun regional outfit. 

I was thrilled to bits when I saw 

pictures of the geared-up, readyto-go 

Amotekun personnel and 

their patrol vehicles. The South 

West governors did not indulge in 

months of empty posturing and 

grandstanding. There was no 

threat or blustering. They simply 

quietly got on with the job. They 

consulted leaders and traditional 

rulers in the South West, they 

consulted or sounded out the 

Inspector-General of Police, and, 

with aplomb, Amotekun was born. 

It’s the kind of efficiency you would 

expect from serious-minded 

people: action not words! 

Another hugely exciting aspect 

was that Operation Amotekun is a 

regional initiative. In fact, its 

official name is Western Nigeria 

Security Network, WNSN. Nigeria 

will be strong when its constituent 

What Nigeria needs 

is proper 

restructuring, but with 

Amotekun, a symbol 

of true federalism,the 

Yoruba deserve credit 

for inching the country 

towards it 

parts are strong, when they become 

regional powerhouses. And the 

Yoruba are showing the country 

that regionalism and regional 

integration can work in Nigeria. 

One of the six South West states is 

controlled by the PDP, the others 

by the APC. Yet they put the region’s 

best interests above partisan 

considerations. I say kudos to 

them! 

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 —31 

Of course, we mustn’t forget how 

we got here in the first place. As 

they say, necessity is the mother of 

invention. Amotekun was not 

conceived out of malice to 

antagonise the Federal 

Government or another ethnic 

nationality. It was a child of 

necessity. Governor Seyi Makinde 

of Oyo State put it 

eloquently:”Our regional 

integration should be seen in one 

light and one light alone – that we 

are coming together to fight a 

common enemy. That enemy is not 

Nigeria.” And, of course, we know 

what that common enemy is: the 

monster of insecurity that has 

ravaged the South West over recent 

years. 

That’s why it was utterly 

misguided of the Minister of 

Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi 

to say, in criticising the Amotekun 

initiative, that “national security 

is an exclusive responsibility of the 

Federal Government”. Really? 

Where was the Federal 

Government when the rampaging 

herdsmen maimed and killed 

people in the South West with 

impunity, culminating in the 

dastardly murder of Olufunke 

Olakunrin, the daughter of Chief 

Reuben Fasoranti, the 

Afenifereleader, last year? Leaving 

aside the fact that, as Chief Afe 

Babalola helpfully pointed out, the 

Constitution imposes clear 

responsibility on citizens to ensure 

the security of their lives and 

property, self-defence is a wellestablished 

right in international 

law. But, for me, the bigger picture 

is that Operation Amotekun 

represents a clear assertion and 

defence of the principles of 

federalism. The Minister of Justice 

and Attorney General of the 

Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

Federation, Abubakar Malami, 

initially wasted his time trying to 

oppose the creation of Amotekun, 

reportedly declaring it “illegal”. 

What kind of federal Constitution 

makes governors the chief security 

officers of their states and yet denies 

them the right to create the security 

apparatus necessary to perform 

that role? 

We are told that Nigeria practises 

the American system of 

government, but does the US have 

a centralised police operation? 

Does New York Police or Los 

Angeles Police take orders from 

Washington? Even in the UK, 

neither the Scottish Police 

Authority nor the Police Service of 

Northern Ireland reports to the 

Metropolitan Police in London. 

State or regional police is a 

common feature in federalist 

countries, except in Nigeria where 

the megalomaniacal centralists 

want to police the entire country 

from Abuja! 

The key characteristics of a truly 

federal system, according the 

Encyclopaedia Britannica, are noncentralisation 

and local autonomy. 

Nigeria’s “federalism” lacks these 

characteristics; hence it is not a 

true federalism. But Amotekun is 

built on those principles of noncentralisation 

and local autonomy. 

The Federal Government put itself 

in an invidious position by initially 

opposing Amotekun, although to 

save face it later endorsed the 

initiative, saying that it should be 

aligned with its so-called 

“community police strategy”. 

Of course, what Nigeria needs is 

proper restructuring, but with 

Amotekun, a symbol of true 

federalism, the Yoruba deserve 

credit for inching the country 

towards it. Well done! 

Rethinking solutions for internally displaced persons 

By FATIMA SHEHU IMAM 

WE cannot make the same mistakes of 

assuming that the answers we derive 

for our most vulnerable members of society 

are the solutions they require; because, often, 

our own answers are reductive. 

Last year, I visited one of the communities 

with a significant number of internallydisplaced 

people, and noticed that the young 

boys and girls would trek several miles in 

search of water for their families. We decided 

to fix the problem and gifted the community 

with a borehole, but soon realised that they 

didn’t even want it! In a subsequent 

conversation with Aisha - one of the 

community members - we soon learned that 

sending their children such long distances 

presented the only opportunity they had to be 

intimate with their spouses - something that 

was increasingly difficult considering the 

cramped living conditions at the camp. 

This experience emphasised the need to 

understand the people for whom we are 

developing solutions - of any kind. For IDPs - it 

is easy to fall into the trap of limiting the 

solutions required to reintegrate forcibly 

displaced people to those most basic human 

needs. 

In my work as the Director of the Network of 

Civil Society Organisations in Borno State, I 

have identified that it is meeting these needs 

that will empower internally displaced persons 

and set them on the road to self-sustainability; 

becoming contributing members of the 

economy - and eventually, self-actualisation. 

Nigeria contributes to nearly four per cent 

of the world’s forcibly displaced population: 

Adamu and Aisha are some of the more than 

two million people that have been internally 

displaced within Nigeria. The violence 

inflicted by Boko Haram has been one of the 

singular most destabilising influences on 

Northern Nigeria; setting swathes of the region 

back several decades and exacerbating social 

divisions and distrust. Worse still, in the process 

of flight, forcibly displaced individuals have 

often lost capital and the tools they need to 

continue or restart their trade elsewhere. So, 

not only have these survivors lost their homes, 

their families, their chattel, and often their 

livelihood - they also have little opportunity to 

rebuild their lives and fall quickly into an 

insidious cycle of poverty. 

The Nigerian humanitarian crisis, with its 

resultant development challenges, is entering 

its tenth year, but initiatives targeted at 

expanding access to substantive finance for 

forcibly displaced individuals remain few and 

far between. Compounding this is the fact that 

these most excluded of excluded individuals 

also lack access to traditional banking 

facilities and often are at the very bottom of 

Nigeria’s financially excluded pyramid. There 

is a clear and present danger posed by this 

neglect of the Aishas and Adamus of this 

country: a danger that will be felt heavily by us 

all, left untreated. We must begin to better 

appreciate the avoidable and often devastating 

consequences that can emerge from this cycle 

of poverty, alienation and even violence - and 

take steps to address it. 

In doing so, however, it is important to 

make no assumptions about our internally 

displaced people. We must remember that they 

are not a homogenous group. Before their 

forcible displacement, they were farmers, 

business people, carpenters, fishermen and 

women; - their promise compromised by 

ideologies. We must also appreciate the 

humanitarian actors engaging in cash-based 

interventions in the region. Even as we do, we 

must keep sight of the limitations of the 

majority of these interventions. For the 

survivors of this forced indignity; freedom and 

independence also comes from the ability to 

securely store, transfer or receive funds needed 

to live a dignified life and manage the 

economic shocks that inevitably come with 

such protracted displacement within one’s own 

home country. 

Vulnerable and displaced persons like Aisha 

need security and independence to take 

ownership of their own health, economic and 

development outcomes. For this to be at all 

possible, capital is required. Even if available, 

traditional means of accessing capital do not 

work for IDPs who have no collateral and often 

no identification or guarantors to satisfy the 

requirements of brick and mortar institutions. 

To that point, the evidence is clear: research 

from around the world indicates that digital 

financial services are particularly impactful 

in post-disaster contexts, by allowing forcibly 

displaced individuals receive and manage 

their money privately and quickly. 

In the Philippines, for example, mobile 

money was vital in distributing financial aid 

following Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, and 

households with these savings accounts 

True empowerment is 

impossible if, at its core, the 

beneficiary is hindered from 

taking the steps needed to 

escape from poverty 

recovered faster after the typhoon. In Uganda, 

mobile network operators delivered fast, secure 

humanitarian cash transfers to the Bidi Bidi 

refugee settlement through mobile phonesresulting 

in savings on the logistics of 

humanitarian efforts, whilst giving displaced 

individuals greater dignity and choice. The 

evidence from Kenya is also positive; M-Pesa 

usage increased during violent periods e.g. the 

2007 post-election violence and resulted in a 

reduced vulnerability to consumption shocks; 

whereas during a negative shock, the 

consumption of non-users fell. As you can 

probably guess, the reverse was the case for 

poor families who used M-Pesa. 

The future is mobile. Mobile phones are 

transforming our very lives: evolving from 

mere connectivity tools, to facilitating financial 

and even health transactions. Many countries 

have already begun to move away from cashaid 

to digital aid. In 2016, businesses, 

governments and donors in Uganda disbursed 

US$718 million to citizens via mobile money, 

incidentally resulting in significant investments 

in infrastructure and beneficiary skills training. 

The promise of mobile money hardly lies in 

its ability to lower transaction costs for already 

connected individuals. Rather, it is in its very 

transformational potential to empower those 

most excluded Nigerians - not just the 

financially poor, but those who have been 

beaten down by war, famine and gender based 

violence. Beyond eliminating forced 

nomadism, and giving IDPs back their 

independence and dignity, mobile money is 

also a gateway into expanded financial services 

beyond just aid: insurance, savings, peer-topeer 

remittances, pensions and, of course, 

credit. 

Thinking about the future is unproductive if 

we are unprepared to implement the holistic 

approaches that make it more tenable. Every 

human being has a basic right to life, liberty, 

and to acquire and own property. For survivors 

of forced displacement in Nigeria, there is 

often no access to these basic rights. 

The challenges of protecting our displaced 

people require new ways of thinking about the 

challenges they face. True empowerment is 

impossible if, at its core, the beneficiary is 

hindered from taking the steps needed to escape 

from the poverty into which they have been 

thrust. 

The world is watching how well we achieve 

the reintegration of our own, into society. We 

must remember that there are no simple - or 

single answers. However, if all we do is meet 

physiological needs, then we have failed - and 

we can no longer afford to. 

The successful reintegration of our IDPs into 

society will not be complete until they have 

been given access to the financial services that 

are perhaps the most critical enablers of intergenerational 

prosperity. As we strive to meet 

the development goals to leave no one behind, 

we are obligated to look beyond the band-aid 

solutions that we have implemented hitherto. 

•Imam is Director of Legal Affairs, Network 

of Civil Society Organisations in Borno State

32— Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 

YOUR LUCK TODAY 

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139 

CANCER; Many of you may be tempted and give 

in to the urge to gamble either with love or other 

important issue to the detriment of your cause. Be 

practical. 

LEO; This is not the right time to take happenings 

along your career line for granted. Prepare for important 

domestic challenge. Keep your family secrets. 

VIRGO; You may over inflate your ego to the resentment 

of people that matter. Watch what you do 

with money before 12.31pm. Try to be more diplomatic. 

LIBRA; If care is not taken you would mislead 

others before 12.31pm while you are close to minor 

but costly mistakes from 12.31pm. Be wise with 

money. 

SCORPIO; After initial confusion before 1pm you 

find your bearing and assert yourself but you will 

need to prepare to take care of oppositions that may 

come up suddenly. 

L E I S U R E 

TAKE HEART — ELLA RANDLE 

“Speak when you are angry and you’ll make 

the best speech you’ll ever regret.”- 

Laurence J. Peter- 

This may require some effort on your part, 

when you feel upset about something. Pause 

in the moment and take a long deep breath. 

Deep breathing releases tension, calms the 

nerves and this is enabling in taking rational 

decisions.— Ella Randle 

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye” 

SAYINGS OF 

OUR PEOPLE 

A close 

friend can 

become a 

close enemy. 

~ African 

proverb 

By Kola Fayemi 

SAGITTARIUS; It is important you don=t allow 

friends mislead you before 12.31pm no matter how 

genuine their intention. Watch what you do with 

your health. Tomorrow is your best day. 

CAPRICORN; Take it easy along your career/business 

line during the morning period so that costly 

mistakes will not make things difficult for. Take your 

social life seriously. 

AQUARIUS; What may look like a very good advice 

from younger members within your base of operation 

may eventually lead to avoidable trouble. 

PISCES; Miscalculation is possible before 

12.31pm that is why you will need to be as practical 

as possible and refuse to take people for granted 

throughout. 

ARIES; Yes it is good to take partnership related 

issue seriously but priority attention must be given 

to money. Watch what you tell others before 12.31pm. 

TAURUS; If you take your new ideas too seriously 

they would mislead you. But taken good advice 

from your influential friends can prove helpful. As 

the Moon fluctuates during AM period it is important 

you practical till after 12.31pm. 

GEMINI; Provided you don’t allow mid-morning 

blues to get better off you will eventually live up to 

expectation at work. Take good care of your health, 

please. 

ASTROLOGICAL ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING 

COUNSELLING 

DUDU in “ROLLING HOT” 

“HOT” 

By A.O.OLAIDE 

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

trological 

Counselling, P.M.B 100 

007, 7, Apapa, Lagos 

What’s my sensitive part? 

Dear Joshua, 

I ma interested in your daily analysis in Vanguard Newspapers. 

The truth is your daily horoscope column always 

work for me and now I just cant do without reading my 

Star in your papers. 

My believe is since you can be as accurate as possible 

writing daily horoscope you are in a better position to 

analyse my health which is very important to me. I want 

to know which area (s) of my body should be taken more 

seriously. 

Bala, Jos. 

VIRGINIA 

dadadekola@yahoo.com 

Dear Bala, 

According to your natal horoscope you have gone above 

danger zones of your life health-wise. But then what you 

will find here-under will be of benefit. Thanks for your commendation. 

Opposition between the Sun (an indicator of basic selfhood) 

and difficult Saturn during your birth hour pointed 

to a very tough beginning in life but luckily for you both 

Spiritual Neptune in powerful Scorpio and steady Pluto in 

healthy Virgo were at positive angles to your natal Sun 

thus, your chances of surviving are more than the delicate 

ones. More so as your natal Sun and Moon are members of 

strongest Star signs-health wise. 

Certainly Saturn must have brought you a few number of 

health related challenges raging from skin, bone, sometimes 

the stomach and importantly headache . Since you 

were able to survive infancy and middle age you have very 

good chances of living to a very old age. While the ailments 

stated here can easily be managed by yourself one important 

organ of your body that must be managed by medical 

expert is your HEART because of many placement in heart 

related Star sign. This is not to say you must have heart 

problem but here is an organ you in particular must take 

very seriously. Yes fever is common in Africa and today fear 

of STDs is the beginning of good health. STDs are mentioned 

here because of your natal planets is sexual Scorpio. 

Mind you nothing fatalistic here, but mere warnings. 

HOME & ABROAD 

By Lawrence Akapa



Edo 2020: Obaseki declares war, threatens 

to expel Oshiomhole 


BENIN CITY—EDO 

State Governor, Godwin 

Obaseki has threatened 

to expel the National 

Chairman of the All Progressives 

Congress (APC) 

if he (Oshiomhole) continues 

to “disrupt activities” in 

the state and in the Edo 

APC. 

Obaseki handed down the 

threat when he attended a 

meeting of the 18 APC local 

government Chairmen 

in the state where he also 

directed the party chairmen 

to seriously deal with any 

person or group carrying 

out activities outside what 

the party hierarchy has 

agreed to do. 

This threat is on the heels 

of a rally held last weekend 

in Auchi, Etsako West Local 

Government Area 

where thousands of people 

from the Peoples Democratic 

Party (PDP) defected to 

the APC. But the governor 

through one of his aides, 

Osaigbovo Iyoha declared 

the rally as illegal saying 

there is a ban on political 

rallies in the state. 

But the immediate past 

Deputy Chief Whip of the 

House of Representatives, 

Pally Iriase described the 

governor’s comments as 

‘‘repressive and jackboot 

politics.‘‘ 

Obaseki told the chairmen 

that: “All this nonsense they 

are doing, if anybody in the 

name of our party tries to 

do anything contrary to 

what we have agreed as a 

party we will deal with that 

person ruthlessly no matter 

who he is. 

“If you are elected a chairman, 

your attitude should 

show if you believe in the 

party. Party supremacy 

means the leadership of the 

party must respect the 

membership. It is the members 

that make the party supreme 

because the members 

subscribed to a constitution 

which governs the 

conduct of the party. One 

man cannot be the party. 

Delta poly students in peaceful protest 

over welfare 

By Gab Ejuwa 

A SABA—HUNDREDS 

of students of the Delta 

State Polytechnic, Ozoro, 

yesterday, embarked on 

a peaceful rally on the campus 

to press home their 

demands for better conditions. 

Just before the rally which 

was described as the most 

peaceful in the history of the 

institution, the President of 

the Student Union, Comrade 

Gabriel Udemude, 

AGRIC EXPO: 

From left — CEO/ 

MD, Tab Group, 

Mr. Tahir Bari, 

Group CEO, Nahco 

Aviance, Mrs. 

Olatokunbo 

Fagbemi, Head, 

Machinery Dept., 

David Kornemann 

and Deputy 

General Manager, 

International 

Business, Sonalika 

Tractors, Rupesh 

Khanna, during the 

Africa Agric Expo, 

2020 supported by 

Nahco Aviance, in 

Lagos, yesterday. 

• He’s repressive says Iriase 

“We are warning the suspended 

National Chairman. 

If he continues his 

activities in Edo State, I will 

show him that I am the Governor 

of Edo State. Why he 

was Governor, he will not 

tolerate a fraction of the 

misdemeanour and misbehaviour 

he is undertaking 

today. I have declared that 

if Oshiomhole comes to 

Edo to say he wants to disrupt 

the activities of the 

state and the party we will 

deal with him the way we 

know how best to do it. 

Comrade Oshiomhole 

stands suspended from the 

party. In due course, we will 

expel him if he does not 

behave. The party does not 

belong to him, it belongs to 

all of us.” 

But Iriase, described 

Obaseki’s comments as 

‘‘unfortunate’’ and a hard 

one at that and wondered 

how receiving defectors 

would amount to anti-party 

activities. 

His words, “Ever since we 

left the military, we have 

not seen this kind of repressive 

administration 

that gas political opinion. 

By now, Obaseki should 

be pointing out projects in 

my local government and 

several others and not 

this jackboot tactics. 

“How does growing the 

party and swelling its 

ranks become anti-party 

activities? We should be 

getting kudos. Obaseki is 

trying to scare people 

away. This jackboot democracy 

in Edo will not 

work.” 

...As court strikes out suit seeking 

Oshiomhole’s ouster 

had warned the students 

not to highjack the opportunity 

to destroy property or 

cause any violence. 

Security operatives were on 

ground to ensure orderliness 

as the students 

marched on the campus 

singing various solidarity 

songs, 

At an emergency congress 

convened to address the 

students, which had in attendance 

some top members 

of the Management, 

the union president, Comrade 

Udemude, said the 

By Omeiza Ajayi 

ABUJA—PLOTS by 

some factional members 

of the ruling All Progressives 

Congress, APC 

in Edo State to remove 

the party's National 

Chairman, Comrade Adams 

Oshiomhole from office 

again failed when a 

Federal Capital Territory, 

FCT, High Court struck 

out the suit filed by one 

Steven Oshawo and others, 

seeking to oust Oshiomhole 

from office. 

Oshawo and others from 

Oshiomhole's Ward 10, 

students decided to embark 

on the peaceful rally 

after the institution's management 

refused to look 

into their grievances after 

several meetings. 

He listed the students' demands 

to include: the lift 

of ban on the entry of vehicles 

and bikes into the 

campus, increment of the 

Continuous Assessment 

(CA) from 20 to 30 marks, 

inadequate practicals for 

students and also poor 

medical facilities on campus. 

Etsako West Local Government 

Area of Edo 

State, had gone to Court 

asking it to stop the party 

chairman from parading 

himself as National 

Chairman of the APC, alleging 

that Oshiomhole 

had since been suspended 

from the APC by members 

of his ward. 

However, Oshiomhole in 

his defence, argued that 

the Appellants did not 

possess the powers to suspend 

him according to the 

Constitution of the APC, 

adding that all the Plaintiffs 

in the suit had earlier 

been suspended in 

their respective units in 

Ward 10. 

He said, at the time they 

purported to have suspended 

him, they no 

longer had such powers 

anymore since they were 

already on suspension. 

Kokori to Buhari: Be vigilant, 

your govt run by cabal 

by Perez Brisibe 

UGHELLI—A chief 

tain of the All Progressives 

Congress, APC, 

and former General Secretary 

of the Nigeria 

Union of Petroleum and 

Natural Gras, NUPENG, 

Chief Frank Kokori has 

advised President Muhammadu 

Buhari to be 

vigilant and watchful as 

his administration is being 

run by a cabal. 

Kokori, while speaking on 

the heels of a planned reconstitution 

of the Niger 

Delta Development Commission, 

NDDC, board after 

the completion of the 

forensic audit, wondered 

why the commission 

should be placed in the 

hands of three persons 

manning the Interim 

Management Committee. 

OSHEVIRE debunks crisis in 

UPU 

By Festus Ahon 

A SABA—NATIONAL 

Publicity Secretary of 

the Urhobo Progress 

Union, UPU, Mr Abel 

Oshevire, has said there 

was no crisis in the union, 

saying that the UPU under 

the leadership of 

Olorogun Moses Taiga 

was at peace with all 

stakeholders. 

Oshevire in a statement, 

said; "Our attention has 

been drawn to an allegation 

by Chief Joe Omene 

that Governor Ifeanyi 

Okowa of Delta State, is 

responsible for an imaginary 

crisis in the UPU. 

"Ordinarily, we had intended 

to ignore Chief 

Omene, the former President-General 

of the UPU. 

However, given the fact 

that the allegation could 

convey a wrong impression 

in the minds of those 

not conversant with the 

workings of the UPU, we 

have decided to put the 

records straight. 

"Let it be stated for the 

umpteenth time that there 

is no crisis in the UPU, 

under the control of 

Olorogun Moses Taiga, 

who was first elected President- 

General on December 

6th, 2016, for a threeyear 

term and was reelected 

on 5th December, 

2019, for another threeyear 

term. 

"Chief Omene duly 

served his tenure and was 

replaced with Olorogun 

Taiga in a legally constituted 

national congress of 

the UPU that had most of 

the royal fathers and delegates 

from all the 24 

kingdoms of the Urhobo 

Nation in attendance.’’ 

World Hijab Day: Groups decry 

discrimination against women in 

hijab ....Demands equal right 

A 

COALITION of Is 

lamic group, Hijab 

Right Advocacy Initiative, 

has decried continued 

discrimination 

against women in hijab, 

saying that prejudice 

against women in veil is not 

only unconstitutional but 

also inimical to the development 

of the country. 

Speaking at a media briefing 

to commemorate the 

2020 World Hijab Day, in 

Lagos, on Wednesday, the 

Executive Director Hijab 

Right Advocacy Initiative, 

Hajia Mutiat Balogun, said 

continued denial 

of Muslim girls and women 

in hijab deprives and 

According to him, “The 

way the thing is now with 

three persons nominated 

by one man running that 

mighty organization is 

very unconventional especially 

for a place like 

the Niger Delta region, it 

is not possible. 

“How can you just give 

the whole thing to just 

three persons and you say 

until they finish audit, do 

you know how many 

years it will take to finish 

the audit.? 

“Let the current Pius ledboard 

continue especially 

when you do not have 

anything against them 

and let the IMC handover 

quickly. The audit should 

be done fast and not 

leave our monies in the 

hands of a few cabals eating 

our money.” 

reduces the chance of the 

victims getting further education 

and other things 

as guaranteed by the constitution. 

According to Balogun, 

‘‘the promotion of girl child 

education can only be 

achieved if the girls in hijab 

are not harassed or 

molested by their teachers 

on the basis of hijab usage.’’ 

She said that it was high 

time Nigerians stopped 

needless discrimination 

against women on the basis 

of hijab, adding that 

women and girls in hijab 

have proven to the world 

that their.



Dirisu Yakubu, 

Chinonso Alozie, 

Praise Njoku & 

Jennifer Gideon 

ABUJA—THE leadership 

of Peoples Democratic 

Party, PDP, has called on 

Independent National 

Electoral Commission, INEC, 

to immediately declare the 

seats of its member-lawmakers 

of the Imo State House of 

Assembly, who defected to All 

Progressives Congress, APC, 

vacant. 

The party said that by 

defecting to another party 

which played no part in their 

emergence as lawmakers, the 

defectors have lost the right to 

keep their plum seats and 

should therefore, quit as 

quickly as possible. 

Addressing journalists at the 

party’s national headquarters, 

yesterday, spokesman of the 

party, Kola Ologbondiyan, 

said the defectors “have 

indeed shown absolute lack 

of character, failure of 

leadership capacity in 

moments of challenges and 

absence of faith to stand with 

the people in their most trying 

moment, but are easily bought 

by personal pecuniary and 

political interests. 

“The PDP is left with no 

other option than to request 

INEC to immediately 

commence the processes for 

the conduct of fresh elections 

into the respective state 

constituencies where the 

legislators have vacated their 

seats in line with the provisions 

of the 1999 Constitution. 

“The PDP holds that these 

defectors are fully aware of the 

grave implication of their 

actions to the effect that by their 

defection to APC, they have 

automatically lost their seats 

and membership of the Imo 

State House of Assembly as 

they can only hold such 

position on the mandate of the 

party on which they were 

elected—the PDP. 

“It is settled under the 1999 

Constitution (as amended), 

that a legislator who decamps 

from a party upon which he 

was elected a member of a 

legislative house 

automatically loses his or her 

membership of that house as 

the seat belongs to the political 

party upon which platform the 

election was won and not the 

individual. 

“The vacation of seat, as a 

direct consequence of 

decamping to another political 

party other than the party 

upon which one was elected 

to occupy a seat in the 

legislature, is clear and 

unambiguous under section 

109 (1) (g) of the 1999 

Constitution (as amended). 

“For the avoidance of doubt, 

section 109 (1)(g) provides 

that 'a member of the House 

of Assembly shall vacate his 

seat in the House if …(g) 

being a person whose election 

to the House of Assembly by 

a political party, he becomes a 

member of another political 

party before the expiration of 

the period for which that 

House was elected.' 

“The constitution went 

further to state that ‘provided 

that his membership of the 

latter political party is not as a 

result of a division in the 

TOUCHING LIVES: Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (left) with 

award-winning writer, Chimamanda Adichie, at the Airtel Touching 

Lives Season 5 premier, in Lagos. 

IMO: Declare seats of defectors 

vacant, PDP tells INEC 

•PDP exco begging to join APC —Uzodinma's aide 

political party of which he was 

previously a member or of a 

merger of two or more political 

parties or factions by one of 

which he was previously 

sponsored. 

“Consequent upon the 

above constitutional 

provisions, these defectors 

have vacated their seats, they 

no longer have a place in the 

state assembly, as there is no 

division or merger of any kind 

in the PDP at any level 

whatsoever.” 

PDP excos begging 

to join APC 

—Uzodinma’s aide 

In a related development, 

the Campaign Director of 

Media and Strategy to 

Governor Hope Uzodinma, 

Declan Emelumba, yesterday, 

alleged that more of the state 

executive members of PDP 

are begging to join APC in 

the state. 

While reacting to a statement 

credited to the PDP, claiming 

that the state lawmakers that 

defected to APC were offered 

N50 million and two plots of 

land each, Emelumba said 

the way their state chairman 

left PDP was the same others 

will abandon PDP in the 

state. 

He said: “If it was true as 

claimed by the state secretary 

of PDP that the state 

government gave lawmakers 

N50 million and two plots of 

land each to defect to APC, 

how much was the state 

chairman of PDP, Charles 

Ezekwem, who defected 

recently to APC given before 

he joined APC? The truth of 

the matter is that Imo State has 

been and will remain an APC 

state. 

“The mandate Imo people 

gave to APC in the 

governorship election brought 

about great confusion and 

many people out of that 

confusion went different 

ways. 

“Now that the mandate has 

been recovered, they are 

coming back to where they 

belong and the lawmakers, 

the state chairman of PDP and 

their national officers are not 

excluded. 

“I can tell you that even the 

state secretary, Ray Emeana, 

is not left out. As I speak, he is 

negotiating to join APC but 

there is no head way yet. 

“I suspect he is feeling 

frustrated that he is not 

making much progress in his 

negotiations, hence his 

decision to vent his anger with 

the tissue of lies he released 

in the hope of drawing 

attention to his stalled 

negotiations.” 

Illegal mining: Community sends SOS to 

Umahi 

Addressing government 

By Peter Okutu 

Acommunity BAKALIKI—The 

of Ndiezoke 

in Igbeagu village in Izzi 

Local Government Area of 

Ebonyi State, yesterday 

staged a peaceful protest to 

drive home their 

dissatisfaction over illegal 

incursion into their land for 

the purpose of mining. 

The community members 

who came in their numbers, 

mostly women, to protest in 

front of the Ebonyi State 

Government House were 

tying only wrappers round 

their chest , palm leaves 

around their foreheads and 

chanting songs of appeal to 

Governor David Umahi. 

The protesters were equally 

seen carrying placards with 

various inscriptions such as 

“Umahi please come and 

help us” , “Governor Umahi 

please save”, “Our dear 

village is not a war zone”. 

representatives in front of the 

Government House, 

Abakaliki, the leader of the 

protesters, Dr. Christian 

Nwogbaga called on the State 

Government to intervene in 

the crisis brewing in the area, 

alleging that one indigene, 

a member of the Elders 

Council had put 

machineries in place to begin 

illegal mining and exploration 

of the natural resources 

in the area."We are 

here to protest the proposed 

illegal mining of the natural 

resources in our commu- 

Killing of Christians: CAN 

goes to UN, EU, AU, others 

By Chinonso 

Alozie 

O Southern WERRI—THE 

Youths of 

Christians Association of 

Nigeria, SYCAN, led by 

Oluchukwu Green 

Nnabugwu, yesterday said it 

has concluded plans to visit 

the United Nations, UN, to 

expose the predicament 

faced by Christians in 

Nigeria. 

Nnabugwu, spoke in 

Owerri, while reacting to the 

recent report of the killing of 

a CAN Chairman, Rev. 

Lawan Andimi, of Michika 

Local Government Area in 

Adamawa State. 

Apart from the UN, the 

group said it will also visit 

European Union, EU, and 

the African Union, AU, to lay 

bare the plague of Christians 

in the country. 

He said among other 

9mobile, Google, Kirusa host 

workshop to promote RCS 

business messaging 

9MOBILE, leading 

telecom operator in 

Nigeria, in association with 

Google and Kirusa, a global 

leader in communication 

solutions over data networks 

for consumers and 

enterprises, recently hosted a 

workshop in Lagos for Mobile 

Network Operators, MNOs, 

Aggregators, and brands to 

introduce Rich 

Communication Services 

RCS. 

The event showcased how 

RCS Business Messaging, 

RBM, is revolutionising 

enterprise communication 

with their consumers. 

The workshop was 

attended by over 50 persons, 

including representatives 

from MTN, Airtel, Glo, GTB, 

Zenith Bank, Unity Bank, 

Accion Microfinance, 

Interswitch and Infobip, 

among others. 

At the workshop, 9mobile 

announced that they had 

chosen Google’s Jibe 

platform for offering RCS, 

and had chosen Kirusa for 

managing their RBM 

services in Nigeria, including 

directories, onboarding, 

verification, and APIs to send 

OTP’s over RCS. 

Head of Digital Media, 

Uzodinma restores public water supply in Imo 

By Chinonso 

Alozie 

O 

W E R R I — 

GOVERNOR Hope 

Uzodinma of Imo State has 

restored public water 

supply in Owerri 

metropolis. 

Uzodinma spoke 

yesterday in Owerri, 

through his Chief Press 

Secretary, Oguwike 

Nwachukwu, adding that 

the governor took the 

action immediately he 

discovered there were 

complaints of scarcity of 

water in the state capital. 

Some of the areas that 

have started enjoying 

public supply of water 

included Aladinma, 

Ikenegbu, Areas M, N and 

C of World Bank, New 

Owerri. 

The governor said efforts 

were ongoing to ensure 

public water supply to the 

homes of every resident in 

and around the state 

capital. 

It stated: “Imo State 

government is pleased to 

announce that the Imo 

State Water and Sewage 

Corporation has restored 

public water supply to 

some parts of Owerri 

metropolis. 

“Specifically, pipe borne 

water now runs in parts of 

Aladinma and Ikenegbu in 

Owerri as well as in Areas 

M, N and C of World Bank, 

New Owerri. 

“Imo people should be 

rest assured that 

government is working 

round the clock to ensure 

that public water supply is 

restored in all parts of 

things that the government 

had failed in its primary 

responsibility to protect lives 

and property of its citizens. 

The chairman also called 

on the Christians in the 

country to be committed and 

proactive as they pray for 

God’s intervention in the 

Nigeria insecurity 

challenges. 

Nnabugwu said: “We are so 

worried following the 

unabated kidnappings and 

gruesome murder of Rev 

Lawan Andimi, the CAN 

Chairman of Michika Local 

Government Area in 

Adamawa State and Rev 

Dennis Baguari by insurgents 

"So, the Southern Youths of 

Christain Association of 

Nigeria is set to embark on 

an international advocacy to 

United Nations, UN; 

European Union, EU; 

Commonwealth, and African 

Union, AU." 

9mobile, Bola Afuye, said: 

“We are glad to be the frontrunners 

not just in Nigeria, 

but in all of Africa to launch 

RCS and RBM. RCS opens 

up newer avenues for brands 

to communicate with their 

customers. This workshop 

demonstrated how carriers 

can benefit from RCS and 

leverage it to offer innovative 

services to their subscribers 

and have engaging 

conversations with their 

customers. 

“We are excited to see 

Kirusa and 9mobile leading 

the way by launching the first 

RCS agents in Nigeria on 

Google’s RCS MAAP 

platform,” said Johanna 

Kollar, Partnerships Lead, 

Communication Products, 

EMEA, Google. 

On his part, 

InderpalSingh Mumick, 

Founder, Chairman and, 

CEO of Kirusa, said: “We are 

delighted to be a part of the 

workshop hosted by Google 

to showcase the possibilities 

of RCS for the Nigerian 

market. Through this 

workshop, we want to 

enhance the usage and 

adoption of RBM by brands 

in Nigeria, as it provides 

convenience and value to 

consumers." 

Owerri metropolis in the 

shortest possible time. 

“Governor Hope 

Uzodinma on resumption 

of office was worried that 

there was scarcity of water 

in Owerri metropolis and 

has promised to ensure that 

the situation is rectified as 

quickly as possible. 

“To the governor, 

provision of safe potable 

water is a major mantra of 

his administration and he 

regrets inconveniences 

during the period of 

interruption of water 

supply.”



DEATH IN POLICE CELL: Court 

strikes out robbery, cultism charges 

against four mechanics in Rivers 

TRAINING: From left: Mr. Ola Temitope, Principal State Counsel, Ministry of Justice, Lagos State; 

Mrs. Adeola Adebowale, Assistant Safety Training and Skills Development; Mr. Lanre Mojola, Director 

General, Safety Commission and Mr. Adeyinka Adebiyi, Director, Safety Training Education and Skills 

Development, during the one-day Occupational Safety & Health Training for Lagos State Traffic Management 

Authority (LASTMA) by Lagos State Safety Commission at Folarin Coker, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos. 

Why I'm probing central hospital built 

by Oshiomhole — OBASEKI 


BENIN 

CITY— 

GOVERNOR 

Godwin Obaseki of Edo 

State has said he is 

probing the new Benin 

Specialist hospital built by 

his predecessor, Comrade 

Adams Oshiomhole as a 

result of discrepancies in 

the building of the project. 

Kano Assembly approves Ganduje’s N15bn loan request 

By Ndahi Marama 

K State ANO—KANO 

House of 

Assembly has approved the 

request by Governor 

Abdullahi Ganduje for the 

44 Local Government Areas 

in the state to access N15 

billion loan from one of the 

new generation banks to 

fund the state’s free and 

compulsory education. 

Japan commits $197, 736 to boost sesame seed production in Taraba 

By Femi Bolaji 

JALINGO—THE pet 

project of Taraba first 

lady, Hope Afresh 

Foundation, has entered an 

agreement with Japanese 

government to establish a 

five star hospital was built 

and commissioned by President 

Muhammadu Buhari 

in November, 2016 but 

took several protests by civil 

society group before it was 

opened last year and operated 

through a consultancy 

firm. 

Obaseki, had on 

Monday, constituted a 

Commission of Inquiry 

The Assembly approved 

the request yesterday 

during its plenary presided 

over by the Speaker, 

Abdulazeez Garba-Gafasa. 

Recall that Vanguard had 

reported on Tuesday that 

the Speaker had read a 

letter by Ganduje seeking 

for approval to allow the 44 

LGAs to access the loan 

from the bank. 

The legislators approved 

sesame seed processing 

facility in the state. 

The contract which is 

valued at $197, 736, will be 

funded by the Japanese 

government under the 

country’s Grant Assistance 

for Grassroots Human 

headed by Justice J. Oyomire 

(retd) to conduct a detailed 

inquiry into the process 

leading to the conceptualisation, 

design, construction 

and equipping of 

the hospital. 

Obaseki said, “We have 

opened that hospital. We 

had consultant there 

working. So much has been 

said about the hospital. I 

the request after the Deputy 

Majority leader, Kabiru 

Hassan-Dashi who 

supervised the House 

Committee on Local 

Governments presented its 

report before it. 

The committee 

recomended the approval 

of the request, saying the 

fund would be used to 

construct more classes and 

rehabilitate some aimed at 

Security Projects. 

Japan’s Ambassador to 

Nigeria, Yutaka Kikuta who 

entered the agreement for 

his country explained that 

the project would be 

executed by Hope Afresh 

Foundation in collaboration 

VIVO promises consumers quality smartphone 

VIVO Mobile, a 

smartphone brand 

has assured consumers of 

quality, innovative and 

premium smartphone with 

unique features in the new 

year, vowing to maintain its 

position as one of the top 

five smartphone brands in 

the world. 

The Country Manager, 

Vivo Mobile, Felix Lu said: 

‘’At a time when the 

industry standard was 

having a fingerprint sensor 

either at the rear of the 

device or on the home 

button, Vivo showed its 

innovative prowess by 

being the first to introduce 

the In-Display Fingerprint 

sensor. Also, the Vivo V7 

and V7plus devices 

launched at the Mobile 

World Congress were the 

first smartphones to spot an 

elevating 24MP front 

camera from APEX. 

‘’The launch of its latest 

device – V17Pro in 

November 2019 was proof 

that customers' needs is at 

the fore of Vivo's interest 

and considering that 

mobile photography is 

trending, Vivo's new 

device houses the first Dual 

Pop Up Selfie camera and 

a 60MP A1 Quad Rear 

Camera. This front camera 

also comes with a Selfie 

Softlight which makes 

pictures captured in 

lowlight environments very 

clear. 

‘’Some smartphone 

brands will definitely come 

and go, however the few 

ones that are able to 

continually pivot with 

innovation and consumercentric 

mindset will stay 

afloat for a long time. Vvivo 

will be leading that team.'' 

am beginning to see many 

things I don’t understand. 

“It is only fair for Edo tax 

payers to understand what 

happened and why they 

decided to build the 

hospital. How much was 

spent to build the hospital, 

the state of the hospital 

today. I cannot be held liable 

for something I didn’t do. I 

want to make sure that at 

the end of my tenure I can 

explain everything that has 

happened.” 

reducing congestion in the 

schools. 

Hassan-Dashi further 

explained that the loan will 

also support the provision 

of free uniforms for the 

students and also enhance 

the school feeding initiative 

by the state government. 

After deliberations by the 

legislators, the Assembly 

adopted the motion and 

approved the request. 

with Toyota Tshusho 

Corporation. 

He further assured that 

the government of Japan 

would continue to support 

projects that are people 

oriented. 

A statement by Senior 

Special Assistant to Taraba 

State Governor on Media 

and Publicity, Bala Dan 

Abu, yesterday, said the 

agreement was at the 

instance of governor Darius 

Ishaku. 

Taraba’s first lady, Anna 

Ishaku who spoke at the 

signing ceremony, 

lauded the government 

of Japan for the gesture, 

which she said was 

essential to increase 

sesame seed production in 

the state and country at 

large. 

Ishaku on his part 

thanked the Japanese 

government for the 

support to the Foundation 

and the state. 

By Davies 

Iheamnachor 

O R T 

P HARCOURT— A 

Magistrate Court sitting in 

Port Harcourt has struck out 

charges levelled against the 

four motor mechanics, in 

Ikoku motor parts market, 

earlier remanded in prison 

for alleged car snatching 

and cultism. 

Rivers State Police 

Command had in 

December arrested the four 

persons, including one 

Chima Okwunado, who 

died in police cell following 

alleged torture, alleging 

that the five persons were 

members of a cult group 

and were involved in car 

snatching. 

Although, the Public 

Relations Officer of the 

Rivers State Police 

Command, Deputy 

Superintendent of Police, 

DSP, Omoni Nnamdi had 

issued a statement claiming 

that the suspect died of high 

sugar level. 

APC receives Hussein with 

funfair in Auchi 

AUCHI—THE 

All 

Progressives 

Congress, APC community 

in Auchi, Edo State, acting 

under the mantra of "the 

more we are, the merrier it 

gets", rolled out the drums 

to welcome the savvy 

politician,Engr Hussein 

Garba, back into the APC 

fold. 

Top APC chieftains 

attended the brief but 

colourful ceremony, led by 

the party's leader in the 

LGA, Alhaji Jim Garuba 

and former Etsako West 

LGA chairman, Hon 

Yakubu Oshiorenua Musa 

aka Yakson 

In his remark, Auchi APC 

leader, Alhaji jim Garuba 

and Etsako West former 

council chairman, Hon 

Oshiorenua acknowledged 

that Hussein's entry into the 

party is a huge boost and 

honour. 

They described him as an 

invaluable political asset, 

However, when the court 

resumed hearing 

yesterday, after it had 

remanded the four persons 

pending the Department of 

Public Prosecution, DPP, 

legal advice on the case, 

struck out the charges 

against the accused 

persons. 

In her ruling, the trial 

Chief Magistrate, Mr. 

Amadi Nna struck out the 

charges and subsequently 

discharged and acquitted 

the four persons, following 

the report of the DPP which 

revealed that the suspects 

had no case to answer. 

Nna held that the DPP 

reports revealed that the 

charges against the Ikoku 

four by the police were 

unfounded and should not 

have come up in the first 

place. 

Meantime, counsel for 

the four accused persons, 

Morrison Opue, who 

welcomed the decision of 

the court and noted that he 

would depend on advise of 

his client on what to do next. 

noting his coming will 

create a united front for the 

APC in the locality 

In particular, Hon 

Oshiorenua recalled how 

Hussein posed a serious 

political nightmare to the 

APC in the community, 

ensuring the party either 

lost or won with marginal 

votes. With his coming, Hon 

Oshiorenua is hopeful of 

landslide victory for APC 

Engr Garba Hussein , a 

former coordinator of Pastor 

ize iyamu campaign 

organisation in Edo North 

,believes his defection will 

help fasttrack the 

realignment of political 

forces and afford Auchi an 

opportunity to make bold 

political statements that will 

reverberate far and beyond. 

The highpoint of the 

ceremony was the 

presentation of APC 

membership card to the 

former PDP leader. 

The event was attended 

by all 28 APC Exco 

members from Auchi. 

Corruption: NAFDAC suspends 

official over Illegal products 

certification 

AN official of the 

National Agency for 

Food and Drug 

Administration and Control, 

NAFDAC, Micheal Ikoro, 

has been placed under 

suspension following his 

transactions in illegally 

certifying uncleared honey 

products for desperate 

clients/vendors. 

This was disclosed by the 

Federal Capital Territory, 

FCT, Director, NAFDAC, 

Mrs. Clementina Ayankora, 

who joined the Progressive 

Impact Organization for 

Community Development, 

PRIMORG, on the 

programme — Public 

Conscience on Radio, in 

Abuja, yesterday. 

The syndicated radio 

program is designed by 

PRIMORG, a civil society 

organization to amplify 

corruption reports done by 

media houses in Nigeria. 

The Director was 

deployed by NAFDAC to 

appear on the radio 

program to respond to a 

report by the 

International Centre for 

Investigative Reporting, 

ICIR, titled, “Honey 

Products with NAFDAC 

No. Impure, Compromise 

Health,” which was also 

PRIMORG’s topic of 

discuss.


japhdave@yahoo.com 

08066625505 

Alexis Galleries; promoting artistic creativity with 

Fate VI 

By Japhet Davidson 

POISED by her passion for 

arts and the need to 

change the face of African art 

by providing a platform for 

artists to exhibit their works 

in a favourable condition and 

hosting artists-in-residence 

programmes, one of the leading 

galleries in Nigeria, 

Alexis Galleries graduated 

the batch 6 artists that participated 

in a two-week residency 

programme with an 

exhibition tagged Fate IV. 

The programme which took 

place at the galleries home, 

282 Akin Olugbade Street, 

Victoria Island lived up to its 

bidding as it afforded the artists 

a conducive environment 

which enabled them to come 

out better than how they entered 

there. 

Founder and Director, 

Alexis Galleries, Mrs. Patty 

Chidiac-Mastrogiannis, who 

introduced the artists to the 

press announced that the programme 

will climax with an 

exhibition tagged Fate IV, an 

exhibition of painting, assemblage 

sculpture, mixed media 

and metal foiling. 

The artists are: Olatunde 

Taiwo David, Taiwo Owoyemi 

Sola, Usman Semiu Alvin, 

Kalu Isaiah, Darlington A. 

Chukwumezie and Akeem 

Dada. 

The exhibition which is 

scheduled to open on 15th 

February and run till 22nd 

February, 2020 at Alexis galleries 

will feature diverse 

works of arts that speak on 

topical issues affecting human 

being. Speaking about 

the theme, Chidiac said that 

“Fate is just about people who 

are destined to come and 

grow with me and fulfill their 

destiny in arts. Since inception 

over 30 artists have participated, 

in this edition we 

have six artists from different 

backgrounds who were 

housed together for the purpose 

of identifying themselves, 

helping one another 

and learning from each other 

and it has been interesting. 

One good thing about the 

programme is that it offers 

space for creative minds to 

live and work with all expenses 

paid courtesy of some 

art loving organisations like 

Pepsi, Tiger, Indomie, 

Mikano, Wazobia, Cool FM, 

Delta, Cobranet, The 

Homestores , Art Café, UPS, 

Cool World etc. 

Another benefit of the programme 

is that, some of the 

works of the artists would be 

shown on the galleries to put 

them on a bigger scale. 

The studio was filled with 

some finished works and 

some unfinished works which 

they are working on. A look 

at the works confirm what she 

said as their stay brought out 

the creative ingenuity of the 

artists and they were able to 

produce many works within 

* A piece by Taiwo Owoyemi 

the short period. 

Speaking about their experiences, 

the artists commended 

the management of Alexis galleries 

for the wonderful opportunity 

which has really 

changed their artistic life. 

For Olatunde Taiwo David, 

who is a third time participant 

in the residency, “before the 

residency I paint on canvass 

but delved into panel after last 

year’s residency.” A look at 

some of his works confirm that 

as they resemble works by Professor 

Bruce Onobrakpeya and 

El Anatsui, who he said he 

studied online and got a lot of 

inspiration from. Some of his 

works are, Swim in your own 

direction, The heartbeat of 

love. 

For Usman Semiu Alvin, 

“My experience so far has 

been tremendous, meeting 

with colleagues of mine, got 

new ideas, new ways, new 

knowledge and experience. It 

was an eye opener, never 

taught what I did I could actually 

achieve that. In my 

studio, it takes me like two 

weeks to do one job, but here 

I was able to do five works 

in just few days. 

I acquired more speed, felt 

impressed with the residency. 

My coming here 

made me to explore new 

ideas, concepts.” 

For Dada Akeem, it was a 

wonderful experience, working 

with people, learnt a lot 

from them, improved on my 

speed and developed new 

approach to work. 

I really appreciate it. I really 

improved in the speed, 

a lot of training, advice, constant 

talk. 

I appreciate the opportunity 

given to me by Alexis, 

the experience I gathered is 

not what money can buy. 

For Taiwo Owoyemi, a multi 

dimensional artist who work 

on scrap materials. 

“The residency 

afforded 

me a new environment 

that allows 

me to work 

any time of the 

day unlike at my 

studio, no distraction. 

The volume 

of works I 

produced here is 

great, in my studio 

it takes me 

like two weeks to 

finish one work 

but here I have 

been able to produce 

seven 

works within 

this period.” He 

however advised 

art dealers/ 

community 

*The heartbeat of love by Olatunde David 

to key into what Alexis is doing, 

“make this type of opporprove 

on their work. Most of 

the masters benefited from 

tunity available to upcoming 

things like this, so they 

artists so that they can im- 

should do so for upcoming 

artists too”, he added. 

The Voyage of Saints; Marvin Abe’s testimony of love 

By Japhet Davidson 

ONE of the qualities of a 

good book is that it makes 

the reader feel and takes him/ 

her on a compelling journey 

and after reading Marvin 

Abe’s debut novel, The Voyage 

Of Saints, I was left with no 

other view but to concur with 

the view. 

Apart from the above, one 

other special attribute of this 

romantic thriller is that it is 

based on a true life story and 

the author as a good story teller 

exhibited his story telling act 

which made reading it very 

engaging. 

In the 334 pages book of 

thirty chapters published by 

Masobe Books , Lagos, Nigeria, 

the author narrates how 

Michael Ajose, who was convinced 

by an unforgettable 

dream that his life’s course 

could only be charted by a mysterious 

woman’s love decided 

to find her, and marry her. He 

was 12 years old. 

Michael has big dreams to 

sail on a big ship and travel 

the world. Despite all the road 

blocks thrown his way, he still 

finds himself on the path to be 

a sailor with his eyes on the 

ultimate prize to be Captain of 

a ship some day. It is on this 

journey fate brings beautiful 

*One of the works to be exhibited 

Lami his way. 

Here, the author tells the 

reader of how he loved her 

like an addiction. And how 

she loved him like an anchor 

for his soul. Their love is 

one that is hard to believe 

still exists but yet believable 

as they go through life’s difficulties 

and challenges especially 

through life’s dangerous 

waters and against all 

forces determined to keep 

them apart, from external 

•The Voyage of Saints; Marvin 

Abe; Masobe Books Lagos; 

2019;PP. 334 

forces. 

Lami becomes Michael’s 

pillar and strength, she literally 

maps out how she would 

navigate towards achieving 

his goals and she ensures that 

he gets to the peak even at her 

own detriment. Michael on the 

other hand, is enchanted by 

her love for him and would do 

everything to please her so he 

marries her despite his family’s 

objections and it seems 

like this is happily ever after 

but as they say, good things 

does not come so easy there is 

always the unknown voice beyond. 

They partially achieved, the 

power from within did not all 

them to accomplish the rest, as 

Lami had challenges, she was 

unable to have a child for him, 

she battled with many ailment 

that finally took away her life. 

Micheal was devastated. 

The author utilised the use 

of many ingredients that 

spiced up the story, example 

the characters in this book 

were well built, Lami was 

lovely, strong and selfless 

while Michael’s zeal and tenacity 

were a plus. 

Another angle was the series 

of letters Lami and Michael 

wrote each other at the times 

they were apart. The author 

took the readers to the era of 

letter writing unlike these 

*A piece by Darlington Chukwumezie 

days where text messages 

and email have taken over. 

Even in far distances, they 

still expressed their love and 

commitment to their marriage 

and dreams for each other. 

Another angle was their visits 

to native doctors and seers. 

Though it might look 

somehow, but it was in the 

course of searching for solutions 

which can happen to 

any other person in need. 

In all, the story highlights 

the limitations of man over 

certain happenings, one can 

have the best plans, dreams 

and aspirations, and worked 

hard to achieve them, but 

there are sometimes forces 

that makes it look as if one 

has no plan or did not plan 

well. 

Overall, it was an interesting 

attempt by an experienced 

Manager with a demonstrated 

history of working 

in the Maritime and Oil and 

Gas industries. It is a well 

crafted piece waiting for a 

good producer that will turn 

it to a movie that it is. 

The Voyage of Saints’ is 

published by Masobe Books, 

a Lagos-based publishing 

house with the primary aim 

of encouraging reading by 

making available to the public, 

books by talented African 

authors.


Dr. Charles Oni Dr. Yinka Alawode Dr. Jide Jimoh 

Unbundling of Mass Communication long 

over due — Experts 

RECENTLY, the National Universities Commission, NUC, 

announced the unbundling of the study of Mass Communication 

into seven different programmes. Vanguard sought the opinions 

of some experts on the matter and their opinion was the same - 

policy desirable. 

Head of Department, Mass Communication, Yaba College of 

Technology, Yabatech, Dr. Charles Oni, described the step as a way 

of securing the future of the industry. He also said it came as result 

of the concerted efforts of regulatory bodies and various 

stakeholders in the sector that began some years ago. 

By Elizabeth Uwandu & Glory 

Ojojo 

HOW do you see the 

decision of the NUC to 

unbundle the study of Mass 

Communication? 

Permit me to say that the 

unbundling of Mass 

Communication was a concerted 

efforts of Mass Communication 

scholars, industry experts and 

regulatory organizations in the 

communication industry, such as 

the NIPR, APCON, NUJ, BON, 

NGE, and Nigerian 

Communications Commission that 

sat for over two years to brainstorm 

on the future of the industry and 

eventually unfolded the unbundling 

scheme to the NUC in February 

2019. The NUC is to spearhead the 

campaign being the content 

regulator in the university system. 

The unbundling is a welcome 

development as it is capable of 

further sharpening the skills of 

future communicators, and enhance 

human resources development in 

the university system. 

As things are, there is none of the 

seven new courses that is not 

capable of sustaining stand alone 

status - Journalism & Media 

Studies, Public Relations, 

Advertising, Development 

Communication, Film and 

Cinematography, etc. All these are 

courses that were hitherto taught 

superficially before at the 

undergraduate level. Only those 

who pursue postgraduate studies in 

Mass Communication have full 

glimpse of the courses depending 

on their areas of specialization. 

Are Nigerian universities 

prepared for the unbundling? 

I doubt if any university can start 

wholesale immediately because of 

the enormous resources required to 

put studios and laboratories in 

place. One good thing is the latitude 

given each institution to key in when 

ready. Good enough, they have to 

invite the NUC for resource and 

advisory visits before they can fully 

unbundle. One positive aspect 

again is the employment 

opportunity and training inherent 

in the new scheme. To a large extent, 

if the road map prepared by the 76 

wise men is followed to the letter, 

the universities would be better 

equipped, better empowered and 

funded under the scheme. 

Otherwise, I am of the opinion, not 

••‘Our varsities capable of handling development’ 

By Elizabeth Uwandu 

AN Associate Professor, Mass 

Communication (Broadcasting), 

Lagos State University, LASU, 

Ojo, Dr Yinka Alawode, said Nigerian 

universities are capable of handling 

the new development. 

He appealed to the government 

and owners of universities to provide 

adequate funding and facilities 

for the take off of the scheme. 

What is the timeline for the programmes 

to start? 

No deadline, no date. Each university 

is to decide what it wants and 

when it wants to start running these 

programmes. It is just that NUC has 

made it public and it has sent it to 

the universities. 

Are Nigerian universities capable 

of starting these seven courses 

distinctively? 

They are capable. If you go to the 

University of Lagos, UNILAG today, 

it has a Film Unit supported by maybe 

the World Bank. They have 

mounted Film and Digital Media 

Studies, so UNILAG was to start like 

that but people in Nigeria turned it 

around. What we are saying now is 

that at the Lagos State University 

now, we have BSC Mass Communication. 

But you know we have 

three departments already existing 

in LASU, there are: Broadcasting; 

Journalism and Public Relations 

and Advertising. The only thing is 

that we only have that structure under 

the table. 

It is BSc Mass Comm, it is BSc we 

offer and we do not even put the parenthesis 

in your certificate, saying 

your specialisation is PRAD or Journalism 

which we should have actually 

done. But that was because the 

design then was that be silent on anything 

specialisation. 

So, everyone is a generalisimo, a 

bit of Journalism, a bit of Broadcasting. 

A bit of PRAD, a bit of Publishing, 

a bit of Human Communication, 

a bit of Digital Communication, 

among others. But now we are 

saying let us go back that if you want 

to specialise in Photo-journalism, 

stay there, you will still have a bit of 

all others, but your own area from 

the time you enter from year one is 

Photo-journalism. 

That is specialisation, you will start 

with BSc Photo-journalism and graduate 

with that. That does not mean 

you do not have an idea of journalism 

or that you cannot function as a 

Broadcaster. 

What informed this decision to 

change the narrative to unbundle 

Mass Communication into seven 

courses or programmes? 

Look at it this way, when our students 

finish now, they go to National 

Broadcasting Academy to learn presentation 

and others. If from day one 

you are in BSc Broadcasting, all 

those ones are given. You must know 

them inside out. But now, it is not 

possible because the curriculum is 

so broad and you cannot possibly 

learn everything within the BSC 

area. 

As you are supposed to be generalisimo 

of everything and shallow in 

one. Now, we want you to be a generalisimo 

in one thing, know everything 

about one thing indepthly and know 

little in so many other things in Communication. 

If you are into Accounting, 

you can put Accounting with other 

subjects and call it Financial Accounting/Management. 

So that you learn a bit of Banking, 

a bit of Accounting, a bit of Marketing 

etc, but instead of doing it that 

many universities can unbundle their 

current scheme in the next two years. 

When would the directive take 

effect? 

There is no deadline set. Both the 

think tank behind the new scheme 

and the NUC knew huge resources 

would be needed to provide 

equipment, hire teachers, and 

replace outmoded facilities as well 

as restructure the faculties hosting 

the courses before takeoff. So, it is 

not a scheme that could be 

established or enforced by fiat. This 

goes to correct insinuations that 

Mass Comm has been canceled and 

similar headlines in the news media. 

They are farther from the truth. 

Nobody cancelled Mass 

Communication as a field of study. 

What will happen to students 

currently studying Mass 

Communication? 

They will continue with their 

course of study until their 

institutions meet the criteria for 

NUC’s resource inspection. 

What are the implications of 

the new scheme? 

The unbundling demands new 

curricula to ensure all universities 

involved are on the same page with 

regard to courses taught. For long, 

each university had run its Mass 

Communication programme as 

pleased. This accounted for some 

institutions awarding Bachelor of 

Arts and some Bachelor of Science, 

and of course, Master of Arts/Science 

respectively. With the new scheme, 

each university would teach the same 

courses and host the programmes 

under same faculty. This will enhance 

inter varsity transfer and put students 

in same stead. The unbundling will 

naturally demand human resources 

rearrangement. 

Each university would need to 

improve on their staff development 

and increase spending on facilities 

improvement. Students are likely to 

have deeper insights into the narrow 

disciplines they have chosen. The 

Continues on page 30 

way, Accounting is a degree programme 

on its own. As a degree holder 

in Accounting, you have a bit of 

Insurance, a bit of Taxation among 

others. There is no big deal about it. 

School of Communication, Lagos 

State University actually started a 

school with seven departments. But 

collapsed because of NUC did not 

have the benchmark. 

Now, NUC has the benchmark for 

all of these areas. It has published it 

and made it public to all of the universities 

so that they can implement 

it at their own time and with their 

own resources. So as a university, if 

you have resources for one, just take 

one. If you have resources for two, 

take two. That is what it is. And when 

you go abroad, you will see that you 

do not have a university taking everything. 

They may take one or two or even 

three. And for crying out loud, that is 

not all, there is still the need for 

School of Entrepreneur in Communication. 

School of Fashion is also 

an area in Communication. All of 

these small areas are there and were 

not even touched. They will later become 

an Institute or a Centre.


Why we get population census wrong in Nigeria — Oshuntuyi 

By Adesina Wahab 

THE President, Mathematics 

for Life Foundation, Mr 

Omoniyi Oshuntuyi, has said 

Nigeria has been grappling with 

conducting credible population 

census because the exercise is not 

seen as a tool for national 

planning and development. 

By Glory Ojojo 

LAGOS State Governor, Mr 

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said 

education is a vital tool for economic 

emancipation and therefore should 

be taken seriously by all 

stakeholders, including the 

government. 

He said this in Ikeja during the 

Formal Launch and Graduation 

Ceremony of the Eko Excel Teachers 

Professional Development and 

Training Programme. 

The Eko Excel is aimed at training, 

supporting and motivating public 

school teachers to succeed as highly 

skilled professionals in their calling. 

Governor Sanwo-Olu said, “This 

multi investment in teachers 

capacity building seeks to reposition 

public education, improve the 

method of teaching to make it 

standard of the 21st Century and 

restore confidence in public school 

system. 

“We are committed to enabling 

Lagos State teachers to be more 

professional and technologically 

sound in the delivery of their work. 

At the end of this initiative, over 

14,000 public primary school 

teachers would have benefitted from 

the initiative and our belief is that 

this model will impact people 

positively all over our state. 

“The importance of this 

programme cannot be down played 

since well trained teachers will assist 

in the education and development 

of our future leaders and that we 

believe, will make them 

academically sound, financially 

Oshuntuyi stated this in Lagos 

during the Annual Mathematics 

Conference and Exhibition, 

AMCE, organised by the 

Foundation. 

The event had as theme “The 

Mathematics of census: 

Population, planning and national 

development.” 

According to him, mo realistic 

By Mary Obaebor 

HARD work, perseverance 

and commitment to 

study have been prescribed as 

prerequisites for outstanding 

academic performance. 

The Vice Chancellor of Tai 

Solarin University of Education, 

TASUED, Prof. Abayomi 

Arigbabu, stated this during the 

2019/2020 matriculation 

ceremony of the institution, 

where 6,715 new students took 

the Oath of Allegiance. 

The VC said that TASUED 

and credible population census 

had been conducted because the 

government and people only see it 

as an exercise for election and 

political gains rather than 

foreconomic and social 

development.“Population census 

should be held every 10 years, but 

in Nigeria, the last one we had was 

over 14 years ago. Then how do 

•From left, Guest speaker, Evangelist F. F. Ago; chairman of the occassion, Barr. Akin Adepoju; and proprietress 

of Great Omega Schools, Deaconess Bisi Adepoju, during the end of year party of the school 

•Students of Great Omega Schools, Ibeshe Ikorodu 

Education is tool for economic emancipation— Sanwo-Olu 

literate and be committed to serve 

as role models with an enterprise 

spirit needed for a sustainable and 

competitive national economy.” 

He therefore encouraged the 

graduands to redouble their efforts 

in order to justify government’s 

investment in the educational sector. 

He urged the teachers to show 

genuine love and concern for their 

pupils and care for them like their 

own real children so that the 7-8 

hours they would spend in class 

would be thier best time of the day. 

The Commissioner for Education, 

Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, said that 

Eko Excel would lead to a 

turnaround of the sector for the better 

in the state. 

“The reason why we identified the 

educational technology as a central 

pillar is because it is a detailed and 

we plan for the future? Census 

figures are not just meant for 

deciding statutory allocations to 

tiers of government or states, but 

the data obtained for planning 

adequately for the future. 

“Some would say the cost of 

conducting a census is huge, but 

we know that with the deployment 

of modern technology, the cost can 

be drastically reduced. Our 

Foundation has always been taken 

topical issues for academic 

digestion by experts and we are 

focusing on census this year 

because of what lack of acxurate 

data and planning are costing us 

as a nation,” he said. 

On how to make teaching and 

learning of Mathematics 

enjoyable, Oshuntuyi noted that 

the first step was to have well 

trained and motivated teachers of 

By Mary Obaebor 

THE Chairman, Governing 

Board of National Board for 

Technical Education, NBTE, Prof. 

Modupe Adelabu, has showered 

encomium on Yaba College of 

Technology, Yabatech, for moving to 

third position from its former seventh 

position in the latest polytechnic 

webometric ranking in Ngeria. 

Adelabu praised the 

administration of Engr. Obafemi 

Omokungbe, who within a year 

transformed the College into a 

peaceful and rancor free environment 

with stable academic calendar. 

The former deputy governor of Ekiti 

State who was in the College to 

inspect ongoing Tetfund projects, 

noted that if the College continued to 

maintain its peaceful academic 

stability it would move from no third 

the subject to make the subject 

attractive to students. 

Contributing, Prof. Mrs Olabisi 

Ugbebor, Mr Niyi Okuboyejo and 

Mr Oluwatosin Ilesanmi, said 

population count was only a partof 

what could be derived from a 

population census. 

They added that 

allocatingresources based on 

census figures had led to the 

manipulation of th exercise. 

They noted that GIS, socialmedia 

and other things could beused in 

conducting population census that 

would produce credible figures at 

lower cost. 

The experts added that Nigeria 

would continue to experience 

stunted economic growth when 

basic information about the 

nation’s demography were 

lacking. Merit awards were given 

to outstanding individuals and 

corporate bodies during the 

conference. 

NBTE board boss commends 

Yabatech over improved ranking 

important part of the development 

agenda of the state. 

“Education cannot wait, now is the 

time, we are part of the global 

technological revolution. I want us 

to know that it has been carefully 

thought through and it is not just 

about technology but about 

transforming practice, engaging 

learners, and coming out with 

excellent result for every child.” 

VC counsels students as TASUED matriculates 6,715 

CHIDINMA Umeh and 

Daniella Jumbo of Lora 

International School, Lagos 

have won this year’s Young 

Ministers Competition. 

The competition was 

organized to test the 

intelligence of Nigerian 

remained the most subscribed 

state university in the country 

with overwhelming number of 

applicants applying for limited 

admission space in the 

university before the lucky ones 

were admitted. 

Prof. Arigbabu, however, 

urged the new students to face 

their studies in order to attain 

great heights in their academics 

and compete favourably in the 

global market after graduation. 

He warned the matriculating 

students to shun all forms of 

Umeh, Jumbo win Young Ministers Competition 

students on how they know the 

country, as well as enlighten 

them on the functions, the 

organs and activities of 

government. 

It is also to teach them the 

histories of the country and 

guide the young ones who 

deviant behaviours, as the 

university had zero tolerance for 

all vices, coupled with stiff 

penalities for various offences. 

Prof. Arigbabu assured the 

students of maximum security, 

stable academic calendar and 

conducive learning 

environment, which he noted, 

had made the university tower 

higher than its contemporaries. 

The Vice Chancellor, 

thereafter, urged the new 

students to always contact the 

University Counselor when 

would become the leaders of 

the country in the future. 

Umeh took the overall first 

position under the Ministry of 

Finance and Jumbo took the 

overall second position under 

the Ministry of Culture and 

Tourism. 

position to being no one in no distant 

time. 

The NBTE Chairman opined that 

the College had produced 

personalities that were making waves 

both in Nigeria and abroad, 

especially in the accounting 

profession. She said this was 

possible due to the quality of staff in 

the College. 

Adelabu implored the College to 

invest more in skills development, up 

to the stage of exporting skills and 

not importing skills, likewise to invest 

more in technical education and in 

engineering, adding, “In fact, 

Yabatech should be the first point of 

call when looking for quality 

engineers.” 

Earlier in his welcome address, 

Omokungbe appreciated her for 

visiting the College to inspect Tetfund 

capital projects. He thanked Tetfund 

for its intervention in ongoing capital 

projects in the institution campuses 

at Yaba and Epe. 

Adelabu alongside Yabatech 

management team later inspected the 

construction of Comfort Station; 

classrooms, offices and highway 

laboratories, rehabilitation and 

refurbishment of Engineering Block, 

Construction of Lecture Theatre 

Building for School of Management 

and Business Studies SMBS, and 

construction of two-storey building 

for SMBS. 

necessary and to also avail 

themselves of maximum 

relaxation through sporting 

activities as well as engagement 

in religious activities. 

The Oath of Allegiance was, 

thereafter, administered by the 

University Acting Registrar, Mr. 

Tunde Oduwole. 

In the same vein, the National 

Alumni Association of the 

university has awarded a 

financial gift to the University 

Scholar who doubled as the 

Best Student in 100 level for 

2018/2019 academic session, 

Miss Elibe Patricia Ogadinma, 

who has a Cumulative GPA of 

4.88. The award was presented 

by the Alumni President, Mr. 

Abdullahi Oyekanmi. 

She is of the Department of 

Biology, in the College of 

Science and Information 

Technology of the university.


By Shina Abubakar Osogbo 

A 

LECTURER in the 

Department 

of 

Linguistics and African Languages, 

University of Ibadan, Prof. Francis 

Egbokhare, has said universities are 

the last channel for value formation 

and pipeline for national 

development. 

He stated this in Osogbo during 

the Annual Retreat of the College of 

Humanities and Culture of the Osun 

State University, UNIOSUN. 

In his speech tagged, 

“Mentorship, Academic 

Collaboration and University 

Culture: A Global Perspective,” the 

don added that teamwork, freedom 

of learning, institutional autonomy, 

intellectual development, pursuit of 

truth, academic and moral integrity, 

leadership, service orientation, 

respect for one another and diversity 

were the core elements which 

determine an ideal academic 

culture. 

The professor of linguistics who 

described UNIOSUN as a unique 

institution, also emphasized the 

need for academic collaboration, 

mentoring practices, national 

ideology-driven research and 

curricula that emphasize 

interdisciplinary. 

He noted that belief in single 

modernity was a bane of 

educational development in the 

country and advocated for a system 

that would be open to diversity. 

His words: “This (belief in single 

modernity) mindset enforces a 

worldview and paradigm that is 

considered as truth but only 

applicable to originating cultural 

ideology. 

It ignores the fact that there are 

alternative paths to progress and 

divergent conceptual possibilities of 

what constitutes progress, 

development and modernity. 

“Alternative and authentic 

pathways have been crowded out 

and there is a failure to build our 

educational system on the basis of 

the potentials of our society. 

"The foregoing emphasizes the 

TESCOM boss 

lauds Fayemi 

over support for 

commission 

By Israel Ibekwe 

EKITI State Governor, Dr. 

Kayode Fayemi, has been 

commended for his support for 

the state’s Teaching 

Service Commission, 

TESCOM. 

The Chairman of the 

Commission, Hon. Babatunde 

Abegunde, gave the 

commendation in his address 

during a meeting of the 

Commission in his office in 

Ado-Ekiti. 

The Chairman described 

TESCOM as a reservoir of 

knowledge where people come 

up with ideas on how to 

improve educational system in 

the state. 

He highlighted some of his 

achievements recorded since 

his assumption of office at the 

Commission to include; 

successful verification exercise 

for teaching and non-teaching 

staff of all schools in Ekiti to 

ascertain staff payroll, 

headcount, staff strength and 

infrastructure. 

•From left, Mr Ezeilo Everist, Bursar, Loral International School, Lagos, Mrs. Ada Nwauwa, Head Teacher, 

Daniella Jumbo, and Mr Christian Ndujihe, Class Teacher celebrating with Jumbo on her winning the 

Young Ministers Competition. 

Universities are pipelines for value formation, 

national development — Egbokhare 

fact that a critical appraisal of the 

nature of state, vision/ideology of 

state, national priorities and vision 

of humanity should be at the center 

of our approach to learning. 

“What we regard as knowledge, 

what we allocate to diverse aspects 

of knowledge enterprise cannot be 

determined externally on the 

conviction that the propositions 

By Naomi Uzor 

IN the spirit of giving back 

to the society, distinguished 

men and women will on Saturday 

assemble to give back to the 

school which nurtured the 

foundation of their success over 

three decades with a fund raiser 

of N2 billion. 

Disclosing this in a chat with 

Vanguard, Administrative 

Manager, Atlantic Hall School, 

Mrs Oluwadamilola 

Ogunwumiju, said the school 

would open its doors to all; 

homecoming for people eager to 

improve standards by raising 

funds estimated at two billion 

naira, adding that the targets 

were a N300 million Endowment 

Fund; a solar power scheme 

worth N200 million and N1.065 

billion for a new Multi-Purpose 

Hall for the school. 

from the global centers of power are 

always right and true. 

“Global standards are not global 

at all and standards are not in fact 

standards but project narrow 

perspectives which are validated by 

researches localized and whose 

results are generalized as universal. 

Prescribed models for dealing with 

issues have to be tested locally. 

Atlantic Hall School @ 30: Set to raise 

N2 billion fund 

She said the school’s alumni 

would also embark on a five-year 

transformational agenda titled 

“Charting a new path; an agenda 

driven by the notion “what got 

us here won’t get us there”. 

“The Ambassadors of the 

Decade will also be unveiled at 

an anniversary gala where 

distinguished members of the 

alumni will be honored. 

“The Vice President, Prof. Yemi 

Osinbajo is expected to lead the 

pack of well wishers and 

prospective partners lined up by 

the school’s management for the 

grand finale of the 30th 

anniversary events. No fewer 

than 10 Ambassadors for the 

New Decade have been 

identified. These are described 

as flag bearers; men and women 

who have demonstrated 

exceptional skills and merit the 

honour." 

Standards and procedures can 

easily be seen as cultural template 

for thinking and narrowing down 

alternatives. 

The strident call for endogenous 

solutions to problems is a call for a 

culturally appropriate approach. 

There is in fact a clear recognition 

of the importance of culture in 

development agendas.'' 

Oyo to promote teachers according to students’ performance 

OYO State government 

has said public school 

teachers will henceforth be 

promoted and honoured 

according to their diligence and 

efficiency, as reflected in the 

overall performance of their 

students in external 

examinations. 

The stated by the Chairman, 

Oyo State Post-primary Schools 

Teaching Service Commission 

{TESCOM}, Pastor Akinade 

Alamu, at an interactive session 

he had with School Managers, 

Saki zone, Oke Ogun, that was 

held at main hall of Ansaru 

Deen High School, Saki. 

He hinted that a committee 

had been set up by Governor 

Seyi Makinde to have data and 

measurement of individual 

teacher across the state after 

which he would personally 

reward the most efficient among 

them. 

He also said that the 

promotion of teachers would no 

more be ‘business as usual’, as 

the administration had 

concluded plans to reward 

excellence, based on measures 

of efficient and productive input 

by teachers to make their 

students excel in external 

examinations. 

‘’You can see that our 

government is a listening one, 

we are here today to have some 

feedback, tell us which area we 

need to improve as government 

and I can assure you that era of 

unpaid salary has gone forever 

as this administration will 

continue to make prompt 

payment of salary its priority. 

“In the last promotion that we 

did where over eight hundred 

(800) teachers got promoted, 

there were no report on the 

beneficiaries, everybody was just 

moved together at the same 

time, though we believe our 

teachers are noble, good and 

hard-working but we may have 

some bad eggs, who are lazy 

and might have scaled through 

without been qualified and the 

hard-working ones will be 

feeling cheated. 

According to the chairman, the 

interactive session would be 

held across the six zones in the 

state and was meant to maintain 

a good rapport between the 

Commission and its teachers. 

Earlier in her welcome 

address, Saki zonal head, 

Deaconess Aderonke 

Oladoyinbo appreciated the 

giant strides taken by the 

present government under the 

leadership of Governor 

Makinde towards improving the 

education sector. 

Unbundling of Mass 

Communication long 

over due — Experts 

Continues from page 28 

unbundling for now is limited to the 

universities. The polytechnic sector 

is not carried along. Truth is, the 

polytechnic system is focused on 

hands on training. No deadline. For 

the polytechnics, Mass 

Communication should retain the 

current curriculum for National 

Diploma and possibly unbundle at 

the Higher National Diploma. 

The options cannot be as many as 

seven. Journalism and Media 

Studies, Broadcast, Public Relations, 

Digital Communication, Film and 

Cinematography as well as Mass 

Communication 

Technology 

(focusing on management of studios 

and laboratories). 

The polytechnics need not follow 

the unbundling as spelt out for the 

universities since they are more into 

the practical and hands on training. 

What advice do you have for 

prospective students? 

Mass Communication under any 

name retains its glory as the 

programme that focuses you on the 

search for the truth. It is dedicated to 

starry eyed youngsters who want to 

change the world. 

If your mission is to defend the 

ordinary man on whom indignity is 

heaped, embrace Mass 

Communication and you will not 

regret it. If you desire a course of study 

to keep you abreast of others in public 

affairs, embrace any aspect of Mass 

Comm and you will have no regrets. 

We are prepared 

—Jimoh 

The Head of Department, 

Journalism, in the School of 

Communication, Lagos State 

University, LASU, Ojo, Dr. Jide 

Jimoh, said the university and the 

department are adequately 

prepared for the unbundling of the 

study of Mass Communication into 

seven departments as ordered by the 

National Universities Commission, 

NUC. 

He said: “In 2000-2001 session, 

when we started this department, it 

started with seven departments 

which would have had students 

graduating with B.Sc Journalism, 

Public Relations and Advertising, 

Broadcasting, etc, but the setback 

we had was that we didn’t have 

enough personnel to drive the vision 

we had about departmentalization 

of these courses.” 

Jimoh opined that the unbundling 

would be an advantage over 

previous policy “because Mass 

Communication is a very wide field 

and this, therefore, will make 

students masters in certain areas as 

they will have deep knowledge in 

the departments they choose to go 

and study.” 

While noting that students will still 

be taught basic knowledge in Mass 

Communication generally at the 

foundation level, he added: “For 

now, we cannot say when the new 

policy will kickstart in LASU but 

most likely, the set after the 2019/20 

will be part of this new policy.” 

He explained that for the exercise 

to start in LASU, the department 

needs to get the NUC’s approval 

which has already been given, then 

engage the management of the 

university on allocation of resources. 

Dr Jimoh said students resuming 

for the 2019/20 academic session 

will not benefit from the new policy 

because they picked Mass 

Communication when they 

registered for the Unified Tertiary 

Matriculation Examinations and 

were offered admission for the same.


Coronavirus: Whole world ‘must take 

action’, warns WHO 

The “whole world 

needs to be on 

alert” to fight the 

coronavirus, the head of 

the World Health 

Organization’s Health 

Emergencies Programme 

has said. 

Dr Mike Ryan praised 

China’s response to the 

deadly outbreak, saying: 

“The challenge is great 

but the response has 

been massive.” 

The WHO will meet on 

Thursday to discuss 

whether the virus 

constitutes a global 

health emergency. 

The Chinese city of 

Wuhan is the epicentre of 

the outbreak. 

But the virus has 

spread across China and 

to at least 16 countries 

globally, including 

Thailand, France, the US 

and Australia. 

More than 130 people 

have died in China and 

close to 6,000 have been 

infected. 

There is no specific cure 

or vaccine. A number of 

people have recovered 

after treatment, however. 

The WHO’s Dr Ryan 

said an international 

team of experts was 

being assembled to go to 

China and work with 

experts there to learn 

more about how the 

disease is transmitted. 

“We are at an important 

juncture in this event. We 

believe these chains of 

transmission can still be 

interrupted,” he said. 

Scientists in Australia 

have managed to 

recreate the new 

coronavirus outside of 

China, raising hope that 

it could be used to 

develop an earlydiagnosis 

test. 

WHO director-general 

Tedros Adhanom 

Ghebreyesus, who 

visited China this week, 

said most people who 

contracted the virus were 

suffering only “milder 

symptoms”, but about 

20% had severe effects 

such as pneumonia and 

respiratory failure. 

He said that China 

“needs the world’s 

solidarity and support,” 

and that “the world is 

pulling together to end 

the outbreak, building on 

lessons learned from 

past outbreaks.” 

The director-general 

added that the WHO 

“deeply regrets” 

referring to the 

worldwide risk from the 

virus as “moderate” in 

three reports last week 

instead of “high”. 

He described the 

person-to-person spread 

of the illness in 

Germany, Vietnam and 

Japan as worrying, and 

said experts would 

consider it on Thursday 

when deciding whether 

to declare a global 

emergency. 

Brexit: European Parliament backs terms 

of UK’s exit 

Brexit: European 

Parliament backs 

terms of UK’s exit 

Members of the 

European Parliament 

have overwhelmingly 

backed the terms of the 

UK’s departure from the 

EU. 

MEPs ratified the 

Brexit Withdrawal 

Agreement by 621 votes 

to 49 following an 

emotional debate in 

Brussels. 

After the vote, MEPs 

marked the UK’s exit 

by singing Auld Lang 

Syne. 

Several British MEPs 

said they hoped the UK 

would return one day 

although Eurosceptics, 

including the Brexit 

Party’s Nigel Farage, 

used their final 

speeches to tear into the 

EU. 

The UK is due to leave 

the bloc at 23:00 GMT 

on Friday. 

Ratification of the 

withdrawal agreement, 

agreed by the UK and 

EU in October, was not 

in doubt after it easily 

cleared its committee 

stage last week. 

Signing the letter 

confirming the EU’s 

consent, the Parliament’s 

president, David Sassoli, 

said the two sides must 

heed the words of the 

late Labour MP Jo Cox 

when approaching their 

future relationship and 

recognise “there is more 

that unites us than 

divides us.” 

“You are leaving the EU 

but you will always be 

part of Europe…It is 

very hard to say 

goodbye. That is why, 

like my colleagues, I will 

say arrivederci.” 

WH objects to Bolton book as Trump impeachment 

trial enters new phase 

The White House 

yesterday objected 

to the publication of a 

book written by President 

Donald Trump’s 

former national security 

adviser John Bolton that 

depicts Trump as playing 

a central role in a 

pressure campaign on 

Ukraine, as the Senate 

impeachment trial entered 

a new phase. 

A letter from the White 

House National Security 

Council to Bolton’s attorney 

said the manuscript 

based on a preliminary 

review appeared 

to contain “significant 

amounts of classified 

information” and 

could not be published 

without the deletion of 

this material. Some of 

the material was considered 

top secret, according 

to the letter. 

“Under federal law 

and the nondisclosure 

agreements your client 

signed as a condition for 

Boeing reports annual loss 

of $636m 

Boeing reported its first annual loss in more than 

two decades on Wednesday as the lengthy 

grounding of the 737 MAX undercut the company’s 

revenues and exploded costs. 

The aerospace giant reported a $1.0 billion loss in 

the fourth quarter and a loss of $636 million for all 

of 2019, the company’s first year in the red since 

1997. 

Newly-installed Chief Executive David Calhoun, 

who took the reins this month to stabilize the 

situation, pledged to turn the company around even 

as Boeing disclosed $9.2 billion in new costs 

connected to the MAX. 

Some analysts had expected new costs twice as 

high, and despite the hefty charges, Boeing shares 

rallied early Wednesday in pre-market. 

The MAX has been grounded since March 

following two crashes that killed 346 people which 

opened the doors to intense scrutiny of Boeing’s 

safety practices — and regulatory oversight of its 

productions — as well bruising congressional 

investigations which have revealed a troublesome 

culture at the aviation giant. 

“We are committed to transparency and excellence 

in everything we do,” Calhoun said in a statement. 

“Safety will underwrite every decision, every action 

and every step we take as we move forward.” 

Calhoun has been at the helm of Boeing only since 

January 13 after Dennis Muilenburg was ousted in 

December following criticism of his handling of the 

crisis, and immediately after damning series of 

internal communications were released. 

Calhoun is targeting mid-2020 to win approval 

from aviation regulators to resume flights on the 

MAX, which is seen as a more realistic timeframe 

after Muilenburg repeatedly pushed a more 

optimistic schedule. 

The grounding of the MAX dented Boeing’s 

earnings in multiple ways, halting deliveries of new 

planes to customers, a major source of revenues. 

Five killed in jihadist attack 

in Cameroon 

Five people were killed in an overnight attack 

by jihadists in the Lake Chad region of northern 

Cameroon, sources said on Wednesday. 

“Five civilians were killed by Boko Haram in 

Blaram,” a village in the Blangoua district of 

Cameroon’s Far North region, a local official said. 

The toll was confirmed to AFP by an army officer 

in the region. 

Based in neighbouring Nigeria, Boko Haram has 

stepped up attacks in the vast Lake Chad region 

where the borders of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and 

Nigeria converge. 

Cameroon says the group has carried out nearly 

13,000 attacks on its territory since 2014, with the 

loss of “several thousand” lives. 

The insurgency has forced more than 250,000 

people to flee their homes and triggered an influx 

of 60,000 people from Nigeria. 

gaining access to classified 

information, the 

manuscript may not be 

published or otherwise 

disclosed without the 

deletion of this classified 

information,” the letter 

said. 

Democrats view Bolton 

as a key figure who 

could help them solidify 

their case against the 

president, and reports 

about the book’s contents 

appear to boost 

their arguments in the 

trial. Democrats want to 

call Bolton, a foreign 

policy hawk in several 

Republican administrations, 

and a small number 

of other officials to 

testify but many Republican 

senators have so 

far resisted the idea of 

having any witnesses. 

The letter said the 

White House would be 

in touch with Bolton’s 

lawyer with “detailed 

guidance” for manuscript 

revisions. 

Senators began the first 

of two planned days of 

posing questions to both 

Trump’s legal team and 

the Democratic lawmakers 

in the House of Representatives 

who have 

served as prosecutors in 

the trial on charges of 

abusing power and obstructing 

Congress arising 

from his request that 

Ukraine investigate political 

rival Joe Biden. 

Democratic senators 

used their questions to 

cast doubt on the veracity 

of the Trump defense 

and make their case for 

witnesses including Bolton. 

The Senate is expected 

to acquit Trump but 

allowing witnesses such 

as Bolton could inflict 

political damage on the 

Republican president as 

he seeks re-election on 

Nov. 3. Biden is a leading 

candidate for the 

Democratic nomination 

to challenge Trump.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020—41 


NEWS HOTLINES 

018773962, 

08052867058 

Fire service chiefs now, Senators, Reps tell Buhari 

Continues from Page 5 

responsibility of engaging 

the Security Agencies and 

reporting back to the 

Senate in two weeks time. 

The committee which will 

also engage the National 

Security Adviser, Major- 

General Mohammed 

Monguno on the 

implementation modalities 

of the December 2019 

national security strategies, 

will also engage the 

National Security Institute 

to discuss their operational 

structures, funding, 

equipment and staff 

disposition with a view to 

reviewing the national 

security architecture to 

make it more responsive in 

tackling the myriad security 

chalienges facing the 

nation and the people. 

The committee will also 

produce a draft 

implementation modality/ 

blueprint on the ways and 

means of tackling the 

current securty challenges 

for the consideration of the 

Senate. 

‘Fire service chiefs now’ 

Senators also called on 

President Buhari to as a 

matter of urgency sack the 

Service Chiefs, against the 

backdrop that they have 

done their part and at the 

moment, have ran out 

ideas as they have 


According to the 

Senators, the time has come 

for the Chief of Defence 

Staff, General Abayomi 

Olonisakin; National 

Security Adviser, NSA, 

Major-General Monguno; 

Chief of Army Staff, Lt. 

General Tukur Buratai; 

Chief of Air Staff, Air 

Marshal Sadique 

Abubakar and Chief of 

Naval Staff, Vice Marshal 

Ibok- Ete Ibas to give way 

for fresh brains to man the 

country’s security system. 

Particularly in their 

remarks, Senators Betty 

Apiafi, Matthew 

Urhoghide, Emmanuel 

Bwacha, Binos Yaros, 

Elisha Abbo, Abba Moro, 

Olamilekan Adeola, Sani 

Musa, Bamidele Opayemi, 

Rochas Okorocha, Francis 

Alimikhena, among others 

called for the immediate 

sack of the security chiefs 

in order to give room for 

new ones who may have 

new ideas. 

Also prominent during 

the debate was the call for 

State Policing, if the 

present security 

challenges must be 

addressed in all its 

ramifications because the 

present central security 

infrastructure has failed the 

country. 

On his part, Senator 

Abbo who called for the 

sack of the Service Chiefs 

said, “ We have never had 

it bad in this country in the 

area of security. The 

Service Chiefs appointed 

in July 2015 and 

according to report by the 

Budget Office, from 2012 

to 2014, N4.5 trillion have 

been received by the 

Military and there are 

grumblings within the 

Military and silence is no 

longer golden. The Service 

Chiefs have run out of 

ideas.” 

Split over state Police 

There was however, a 

sharp division among 

Senators who advocated 

State Policing and those 

who kicked against it. 

Senators who supported 

the urgent need for the 

establishment of State 

Policing for effective 

policing in the country 

were Senators Olamilekan 

Adeola, Ibikunle Amosun, 

Oluremi Tinubu, Smart 

Adeyemi, Ibrahim 

Shekarau, Matthew 

Urhoghide, Olubunmi 

Adetunmbi, Tanko Al- 

Makura, Sandy Onor, 

among others. 

Deputy President of the 

Senate, Senator Ovie Omo 

Agege; Senators Gabriel 

Suswam and Danjuma 

Goje, Adamu Aliero, and 

Abubakar Yusuf, , kicked 

against the establishment 

of state police. 

From 11.30a.m., to 

4.25p.m., the Senators took 

time to debate on the 

motion entitled, “Security 

Challenges: Urgent need 

restructure, review and 

reorganise the current 

Security Architecture.” 

The motion was 

sponsored by the Senate 

Leader, Senator Yahaya 

Abdullahi, and cosponsored 

by 105 

Senators. 

Resign Now, Abaribe 

tells Buhari, APC 

Naira down to N363.51/$ in 

I&E window 

By Elizabeth Adegbesan 

THE Naira yesterday depreciated to N363.51 

per dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) 

window. 

Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange 

rate for the window rose to N363.51 yesterday from 

N363.33 per dollar on Tuesday, translating to 18 kobo 

depreciation of the Naira. 

The volume of dollar (turnover) on the window dropped 

by 81 percent to $108.87 million from $586.22 million 

traded on Tuesday. 

However, the Naira appreciated by 50 kobo in the 

parallel market yesterday. 

According to naijabdcs.com, the live exchange rate 

platform of the Association of Bureaux De Change 

Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), the parallel market 

exchange rate dropped to N358 per dollar from N358.5 

per dollar, indicating 50 kobo appreciation of the Naira. 

In his contribution, 

Abaribe said, “When I was 

coming this morning, I saw 

the newspaper headline, “ 

Mr President, Commanderin-Chief 

expresses shock at 

the level of violent crime.” 

In other words, Mr 

President was expressing 

surprise. But in accordance 

to our rule 53(13), I will not 

go into that but I will only 

say, Mr President, in pidgin 

English, this surprise 

surprise me. 

“You have told us that on 

this solemn day that we are 

discussing this matter, that 

we may not at any point be 

partisan and I want to tell 

you, Mr President, if you 

didn’t insist that we will not 

be partisan, I would have 

called out the presidential 

spokesman, Femi Adesina, 

who when the CAN leaders 

complained about the 

killings of a priest, he turned 

around and said that CAN 

was acting like a political 

party. 

“Now that we are talking 

about it here, let me hear 

him say that all of us are 

acting like a political party, 

when somebody is 

complaining about these 

incessant deaths in this 

country. 

“Because we have to get 

to the root of this matter, I 

can only say one thing, 

those who live on 

propaganda will die by 

propaganda. It is a matter 

of life and death. 

“Boko Haram has been 

defeated, Nigeria is now 

safer. Everything was being 

done to make sure that the 

hard work that was 

supposed to be done in 

securing Nigeria was not 

done because certain 

people did not do their 

work and preferred to cover 

the eyes of Nigerians with 

propaganda. 

“All the time that we 

wasted in Nigeria trying to 

find all these excuses for 

non-performance has now 

come to stare us in the face. 

Reality is no respecter of 

persons; the reality is what 

we are facing now. Sen. Sani 

Musa is shouting every day 

that his people were being 

killed in Niger; we just took 

one from Jos, a student who 

was murdered in the full 

view of everybody with a 

pistol. 

“And we are told that they 

have been defeated.” 

Adamu tackles Abaribe 

At this point, former 

governor of Nasarawa state, 

Senator Abdullahi Adamu, 

then stood up to speak, 

countered Abaribe, asking 

him to retract his comment 

and apologize, just as he 

said that the debate should 

be approached with 

responsibility. 

Senator Adamu said: 

“There is no doubting the 

fact that we do face security 

challenges in the country; 

anybody who says 

otherwise is only 

pretending but the fact that 

we have security 

challenges and the fact that 

we are in a democratic 

dispensation, and the fact 

that in the National 

Assembly, on the floor of 

this hallowed chamber, we 

enjoy some immunity, if, 

HUMANITARIAN AND RELIEF AIDS—Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's 

Ambassador, Adnan Bostaji (R), with First Lady and Founder of the Aisha Buhari 

Foundation, Mrs Aisha Buhari, during a meeting on ways of co-operation between 

Saudi Arabia and the Foundation on humanitarian and relief aids. 

Mr President, we do not 

approach this debate with 

the level of sensibility that 

it demands, we shall be 

doing more harm than 

good to this issue of 

national security.” 

Earlier in his 

presentation of the motion, 

the Senate Leader, Senator 

Abdullahi said that the 

Senate “Notes the recent 

upsurge of security related 

challenges and the 

devastating loss of lives, 

limbs and properties that it 

has unleashed on the 

nation. 

“Further notes the 

comprehensive new 

national security strategy 

that the government 

adopted in December, with 

its very clear statement of 

goals, objectives and 

challenges that faced the 

nation particularly those 

challenges whose recent 

upsurge have a direct and 

devastating impact on the 

lives and safety of the 

people.” 

In his remarks after the 

debate, President of the 

Senate, Senator Ahmad 

Lawan said, “We represent 

the people here, we must 

not shy away from what 

affects their lives. The 

security of our people is the 

issue that concerns almost 

every Nigerian. I think we 

can do better than just 

discussing but finding 

solutions to issues at stake. 

“This is not something we 

can do alone, we must work 

with the executive to 

achieve these. The 

President himself has been 

working hard with security 

agencies to ensure that we 

protect the lives and 

property of our people but 

we have come to a point 

where the legislators will 

also intervene or we give 

the necessary legislation 

and support to the executive 

arm of government.” 

Amotekun, solution to 

Insecurity in Nigeria— 

Gbajabiamila 

Speaker of the House of 

Representatives, Mr Femi 

Gbajabiamila, has 

described Amotekun, a 

South-West regional 

security initiative and 

similar regional outfits, as 

solution to the insecurity in 

the country. 

He said,: “Recently, the 

Governors of Lagos, Ogun, 

Osun, Ekiti, Oyo and 

Ondo states, took action to 

implement a regional 

security network to support 

the efforts of the Nigeria 

Police Force in preventing 

crime and protecting the 

lives and property of those 

our citizens who live, work 

and travel through these 

states. 

“The establishment of 

Amotekun, as the network 

is called, has met with 

commentary from across 

the country, both for and 

against. Too often, it has 

seemed to me that lost in 

these interactions is the 

hard, brutal and 

unavoidable fact that 

Amotekun and other such 

state or zonal interventions 

that already quietly exist in 

other parts of the country, 

are a desperate response to 

the vile manifestations of 

insecurity that trouble the 

lives of citizens, depriving 

them of the peace and 

security that gives life 

meaning. 

“I do not know whether 

Amotekun or whatever 

iterations of it may follow 

represents the ultimate or 

perfect solution to the 

problem of insecurity in our 

country. 

“The localised 

manifestations of insecurity 

across the different parts of 

our country, call for unique 

and localised approaches 

that take those peculiarities 

into account.” 

He however, advised that 

the arrangement should 

abide by the provisions of 

the 1999 Constitution. 

He also lamented the 

killing of Pastor Lawan 

Andimi and a student of 

Plateau origin, by Boko 

Haram terrorists. 

“All people of conscience 

mourn the loss of a 

reverend and a senior 

member of the Christian 

Association of Nigeria, 

CAN, in Adamawa State, 

Mr Lawan Andimi, a good 

and honourable man, who 

through the church and in 

his personal capacity 

served the people of his 

community, earning their 

reverence and our 

collective gratitude. In the 

midst of our mourning, our 

hearts were broken once 

more by the release of a 

video depicting the 

gruesome assassination of 

Mr Ropvil Daciya, a 

student from Plateau State 

who was abducted by 

suspected Boko Haram 

terrorists on his way back 

to school at the University 

of Maiduguri,” he stated. 

He warned that if not 

quickly addressed, the 

issue of insecurity will bog 

the country down. 

“God forbid that it is now 

our nation’s fate to live 

forever under the threat of 

abduction and murder. 

What gaps and weaknesses 

continue to exist in the 

national security 

infrastructure that makes us 

more susceptible to the 

machinations of those who 

seek to achieve wealth and 

power through brutal 

violence? How do we 

achieve for all our people, a 

just and honourable peace? 

These questions are never 

too far from my mind, and I 

know that it is the same for 

you too because often it is 

you who are at the frontline 

responding to the concerns 

of constituents who have 

themselves been victimized 

and those who fear that the 

moment of their own 

affliction is only a matter of 

time and circumstance,” he 

said. 

“Colleagues, this House 

will shortly take action to 

put these questions before 

those agencies of our 

national security to whom 

our constitution and other 

legislation have granted the 

powers and the resources to 

ensure the safety and 

security of all our people. 

“Our cup of endurance 

has run over and we are no 

longer willing to labour 

under these dark clouds of 

random violence inflicted 

upon our people by faceless 

cowards whose ends we do 

not understand, and whose 

means we do not know. 

Overcoming our 

overwhelming national 

security challenges now 

requires of us all that we 

be willing to accept new 

approaches and consider 

novel ideas. Neither the 

security institutions nor 

political leaders can afford 

to hold on too tightly to a 

status quo whose 

frustrating limitations are 

painfully evident, whilst 

reflexively rejecting 

innovations that may 

improve our fortunes if 

properly implemented.” 

C 

M 

Y 

K


CORONAVIRUS: Chinese returning to 

Lagos to be quarantined 

— Prof Akin Abayomi, Commissioner for Health, Lagos State 

.Be cautious in China, Dabiri-Erewa urges Nigerians 

.Don’t travel to Wuhan, Anambra State govt warns citizens 

By Vincent Ujumadu, 

Victoria Ojeme 

& Gabriel Olawale 

THE Lagos State 

government has said 

that all Chinese citizens 

who fail to stay back in 

China till the current 

outbreak of the Novel 

Coronavirus outbreak is put 

under control, would be 

quarantined on arrival. 

Speaking on the level of 

preparedness in the State, 

the Commissioner for 

Health, Professor Akin 

Abayomi said necessary 

measures have been put in 

place to handle any case of 

the Coronavirus if detected 

in the State. 

"Aside from our 

preparedness, we also 

need to stay on the part of 

caution because Lagos is 

vulnerable to the 

Coronavirus due to large 

trading population 

between China and Lagos. 

“This informed our decision 

to reach out to the Chinese 

Embassy in Lagos on the 

way forward. 

"We are happy with their 

level of concern as well and 

they have reached out to 

all their citizens who 

travelled to China to stay 

back till the current 

situation is put under 

control. 

“However if some of them 

choose to return, we can 

not restrict people’s 

movement. But if any of 

them choose to return, they 

are going to be 

quarantined on arrival.” 

Abayomi who urged 

Lagosians to engage in 

regular hygiene and be 

conscious of what they eat 

and places they go said that 

the state government is 

inline with the World 

Health Organisation, 

WHO, and Nigeria Centre 

Travellers returning to Nigeria from China to be quarantined. 

for Disease Control, 

NCDC, guideline in the 

process of preparation. 

Further, Abayomi stated: 

"The Mainland Hospital 

Yaba is dedicated for the 

treatment of this kind of 

virus and we have beefed 

up our biosecurity 

preparation level, but in 

case Mainland hospital is 

not able to handle any 

outbreak, our other health 

facilities are ready to be of 

help.” 

Dabiri-Erewa 

advises Nigerians in 

China to be cautious 

THE Chairman/CEO 

Nigerians in Diaspora 

Commission, NIDCOM, 

Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa 

has advised Nigerians 

living in China to be wary 

of the novel Coronavirus 

even as she confirmed that 

the Nigerian Mission in 

Beijing is in touch with 

Nigerians in Wuhan. 

In a statement, Dabiri- 

Erewa counselled 

Nigerians in China to stay 

more indoors to prevent 

contacting the killer disease 

by avoiding crowded areas 

or close contact with people 

who are having cold. 

In the statement issued 

the Head of Media and 

Public Relations of the 

Commission, by Abdur- 

Rahman Balogun, she 

said the warning became 

imperative there was no 

specific medication or 

vaccines so far for the virus. 

"It is important to advice 

Nigerians in China to be 

careful and take necessary 

precautions by staying 

indoors more for now", she 

advised. 

The NIDCOM boss also 

called the attention of 

Nigerians in China to 

follow medical advice as 

obtained in many 

educational fliers and 

announcements. 

Dabiri-Erewa equally 

advised Nigerians to avoid 

eating uncooked meat and 

animals products for now. 

She told Nigerians living 

in China to always wash 

their hands regularly and 

maintain personal hygiene. 

She said while some are 

worried that they may run 

LASSA FEVER: 3 more States confirm outbreaks 

By Davies Iheamnachor, 

Samuel Oyadongha, 

Emem Idio & Umar Yusuf 

Rivers confirms 3 cases 

THE Rivers State 


confirmed three positive 

cases out of the 50 reported 

in the State last week. 

Disclosing this, the Acting 

Permanent Secretary, 

Rivers State Ministry of 

Health, Chiwendu Atata, 

said the Rivers State Public 

Health Emergency 

Operation Centre (EOC) 

had earlier commenced 

pro-active effort for 

containment of the 

outbreak. 

“So far, all hands are on 

deck for facility 

decontamination, linelisting, 

presumptive 

prophylaxis and 

surveillance to ensure 

Public health safety and 

security. 

"In addition, the State has 

procured large quantities of 

anti-viral agents, isolation 

centres have been 

designated and are being 

set-up across the teaching 

hospitals in case of any 

eventuality. Rivers State 

Government is doing 

everything to contain the 

Lassa Virus.” 

Bayelsa investigates 

suspected Lassa fever 

case 

THE Bayelsa State 

Commissioner for Health, 

Dr. Pabara Igwele has 

disclosed that a suspected 

case of Lassa Fever has 

been recorded in the state. 

According to Dr Igwele, 

although details of the case 

has not been made clearly, 

he said the suspected case 

was discovered at the 

Federal Medical Centre, 

Continues on Page 

out of goods and other 

household stuff as a result 

of movement restrictions, 

she assured that the 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

is monitoring the situation. 

Don’t ravel to Wuhan, 

Anambra State govt 

warns citizens 

THE Anambra State 

government has urged its 

citizens to avoid travelling 

to Wuhan, China, so as to 

avoid contracting 

Coronavirus prevalent in 

that part of the Asian 

country. 

The State Commissioner 

for Information and Public 

Enlightenment, Mr. Don 

Adinuba, in a statement in 

Awka warned the people, 

at home and in the 

Diaspora not to fall for the 

economic, industrial and 

transport hub of the city of 

Wuhan, especially at this 

period. 

"The Coronavirus 

pandemic may have 

started in Wuhan, China, 

but it is a clear and potent 

danger to the international 

community, including 

Anambra State. Therefore, 

the Anambra State 

government has decided to 

issue this advice to its 

people, fully aware of our 

reputation as easily the 

most travelled Nigerians, if 

not Africans. 

"We advise Anambra 

people not to travel to the 

city of Wuhan, China, for 

now, despite its allure as an 

industrial and 

transportation hub. Any 

Anambra entrepreneur or 

traveler who has been to 

Wuhan in central China in 

the past three weeks is 

hereby advised to make 

use of our remedial 

measures by reporting to 

the Ministry of Health, 

Awka. 

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE 

Total deaths: 132 (all in China) 

Confirmed cases: 6,148 ( 6,078 in China) 

Total recovered: 110 

No. of affected countries: 18 

Confirmed cases by Country/Region 

Mainland China: 5,970 

Hong Kong: 8 

Thailand: 14 

Macau: 7 

Australia: 5 

Singapore : 7 

Taiwan: 8 

US: 5 

Japan: 7 

Malaysia : 7 

South Korea: 4 

France: 4 

Vietnam: 2 

Cambodia: 1 

Canada: 2 

Germany: 4 

Nepal: 1 

Sri Lanka: 1 

China will defeat Coronavirus 

— Chu Maoming, China’s Consul General 

in Lagos 

By Chioma Gabriel 

CHINA’S Consul General in Lagos, Chu Maoming, 

said China will defeat cornavirus. He spoke in Lagos 

as the local Chinese community was celebrating the 

Chinese New Year at the Tafawa Balewa Square with 

Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, the executive governor 

of the State of Lagos in attendance. 

Chu Maoming said China has full confidence and 

capability to win the battle against the outbreak of 

pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus. 

“Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China 

in 1949, the Chinese government has always put the 

people’s safety and health first, and thus the prevention 

and control of the outbreak is China’s most important 

work for now. 

“Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired a special meeting 

of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 

Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on 

the outbreak on the first day of this Chinese new year. 

President Xi’s personal guidance and deployment show 

his great leadership capability. At the meeting, the 

comprehensive deployment has been made for the 

containment and mitigation of the epidemic, and a central 

leading group on battling the virus was established. 

Nigerian Quarantine Agency to 

collaborate with FAAN over 

coronavirus 

THE Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) 

has said it is collaborating with the Federal Airports 

Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to ensure that the fight 

against the potential introduction of coronavirus into the 

nation is properly managed. 

In a statement signed by the agency’s spokesperson, 

Chigozie Nwodo, on Tuesday, the agency said it is 

obligated to buffer the nation from the potential 

introduction of this high-risk virus. 

“Bearing in mind the zoonotic nature of 2019 n-CoV, 

the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service is 

collaborating with FAAN to ensure that there is no gap or 

breach on the veterinary quarantine front at the airports,” 

the statement highlighted. 

The statement revealed that FAAN had issued a travel 

advisory, admonishing passengers to submit themselves 

to standard quarantine formalities. 

It highlighted that as the single point of command for 

all agricultural quarantine activities in Nigeria, the stakes 

are high. “Therefore, officers are on their professional 

guard,” it said. 

Consequently, all NAQS officers stationed at all ports 

of entry have heightened their alertness to make certain 

that procedural quarantine inspection is performed 

stringently, diligently and rigorously. There can be no 

exception or exemption. 

The Agency advised the general public to report any 

case related to the above to quarantine posts in their locality 

or the agriculture department in their local government 

council. 

Alternatively, they may reach the Nigeria Agricultural 

Quarantine Service directly via email: 

contact@naqs.gov.ng or call +234 809 133 3385, +234 

807 777 8943.


No threat of Coronavirus in 

Nigeria — FG 

. 

By Victoria Ojeme, 

Fortune Eromosele, 

Jennifer Gideon 

THE 

Federal 


declared that there is no 

threat of Coronavirus in 

Nigeria. 

The government made 

the assertion following the 

closure of popular retail 

supermarket- Panda in 

Abuja for selling exclusive 

China food products to 

select Chinese customers. 

Panda was closed down by 

the Federal Competition 

and Consumer Protection 

Commission, FCCPC, 

following a tip-off. 

The FCCPC, Babatunde 

Irukera, told newsmen in 

Abuja on Wednesday that 

investigation is ongoing 

with respect to the closure. 

He said there is 

absolutely no reason to be 

concerned that the outcome 

of the investigation will 

result in the threat of 

Coronavirus. 

His words: “My sense of 

it is that I don’t believe that 

there are any threats with 

respect to the products that 

have been found in this 

place. However is the 

process that we found, the 

manner we found the 

products, the lack of clarity 

about how the products 

have arrived in this country. 

Can that present a 

possibility for future threat? 

The answer is yes if you do 

not address it.” 

Irukera added the 

objective is not about a 

virus threat but about a 

process to protect 

consumers in Nigeria. 

Shuts Panda Supermarket, Abuja 

“The assumption is not 

that products coming from 

China to Nigeria are 

potentially compromised 

but like I said, we are 

considering in abundance 

the caution just to be sure 

that every measure to 

protect the community is 

activated. 

“I am more concerned 

that there’s potential for 

any of the food items in 

Nigeria to be carried out at 

this point, but the reason 

why I am not concerned is 

the quality of the vigilance 

and what we are doing.” 

Speaking about other 

agencies compliance in 

tackling the prevailing 

threat, he said “ NAFDAC, 

FCCPC have activated 

different protocols, being 

that the Federal 

Competition and 

Consumer Protection 

Commission is not a 

primary agency for 

managing that kind of 

thing, but we all work 

together with the Federal 

government and with the 

information that we 

develop and provide. 

“The investigation is 

continuing, the NAFDAC 

and FCCPC operatives are 

inside right now. In 

addition, a lot of senior 

operatives of Panda 

Supermarket are actually in 

our office right now, 

answering questions and 

assisting the investigation. 

“One of the key areas of 

the interrogation in our 

office right now is the 

supply chain that panda 

follow through to get its 

products and so we will be 

providing that information 

obviously to relevant 

authorities to ensure that 

they will be acting as 

swiftly as we have.” 

When contacted, Mr 

wang jingxi of The China 

Chamber of Commerce in 

Nigeria said "I have 

contacted the supermarket 

owner, who said that they 

will actively cooperate with 

the government and are 

willing to accept the 

inspection." 

He added that the 

Supermarket guarantees 

that all goods in the 

supermarket are absolutely 

safe, and that consumers 

should be rest assured. 

Earlier, it was gathered 

that the Commission 

carried out unscheduled 

spot check on a concealed 

food store within Panda 

Supermarket, Jabi, Abuja. 

"Discoveries so far 

include products with 2089, 

2037, 2018, 2019 expiry 

dates, etc," Irukera said in 

a Tweet. 

"Selling frozen imported 

seafood, other animals like 

frogs and snakes under 

suspicious conditions with 

no packaging raises 

serious concerns, 

especially when origin is 

China because of 

coronavirus. 

“Discriminating against 

Nigerian nationals in 

access to displays is also 

wrong so we acted," he 

said. 

He said the "FCCPC 

inspected Panda 

Supermarket, Jabi on 

credible reports that it 

discriminated and had a 

concealed area for Asian 

nationals. 

LASSA FEVER: 3 more States confirm outbreaks 

Continues from Page 

FMC, Yenagoa, stating 

that samples have been 

collected and send to the 

Irrua Specialist Hospital for 

confirmation 

The State Health 

Commissioner who made 

this known in a press 

briefing in Yenagoa, advised 

health care workers and the 

public to take preventive 

measures such as, washing 

of hands before 

consumption of food, 

disinfecting surfaces and 

materials in the health care 

setting to avoid the 

transmission of the virus 

which spreads through 

ingesting food and drinks 

contaminated with the 

feaces and urine of infected 

rodents as well as through 

person to person 

transmission. 

He said: We are rounding 

up our level of 

preparedness and 

awareness campaigns in 

we are also in touch with the 

Centre for Disease Control, 

Abuja to align our strategies 

and the World Health 

Organization as well, 

importantly, we are 

collaborating with the 

Federal Ports Authority at 

air, land and sea borders." 

Meanwhile, the State 

government has reportedly 

set up an isolation centre 

at Niger Delta University 

Teaching Hospital to cater 

for cases of the disease if 

any is suspected in the 

state. 

Adamawa confirms 

outbreak 

ADAMAWA State 

Government has confirmed 

the death of a 29-year- old 

woman from Numan Local 

Government Area of the 

State as a result of the 

recent outbreak of Lassa 

fever. 

The State Commissioner 

for Health and Human 

Services, Professor 

Abdullahi Isa disclosed this 

on Tuesday while 

addressing the press. 

Isa said the index case of 

a 29-year-old woman was 

first seen in a private health 

hospital in Yola, before she 

was referred to the FMC, 

where she expelled a 

macerated still birth. 

He, however, admitted 

that after the laboratory test 

the woman was confirmed 

positive, while the three 

others tested negative for 

Lassa fever virus; "they 

were quarantined and 

discharged accordingly". 

Sources at ethe FMC 

disclosed that those that 

had direct contact with the 

patient are being 

quarantined. 

The State Director, Public 

Health, Dr Bwalki Dilli 

admitted that for now, one 

woman was confirmed 

dead just as the results of 

the other cases were still 

being awaited from the 

referral laboratory centre in 

Abuja. 

PDP protests in Imo: Do not yap, act! 

By OBI NWAKANMA 

IT is no longer news that the Supreme Court 

of Nigeria led by Tanko Muhammad had 

supervised what must now go down as the most 

controversial judgement in the history of the 

judiciary in Nigeria. 

Judges, like Justice Mrs. Kekere-Ekun, who 

wrote the so-called lead opinion of the court, 

and who were thus used to deliver what is 

nothing but a bare-faced injustice will go down 

in the history of the court as deserving nothing 

but what they currently get: the opprobrium of 

the citizens whom they betrayed by denying 

them justice. But that is not the most galling 

thing: it is that this judgement has destroyed 

the citizens confidence in the courts. Its 

dangerous consequence is that it now leaves 

more people little option but to resort to selfhelp 

rather than to the courts in matters of 

justice. 

In a nation whose courts can no longer 

guarantee justice, anarchy reigns. It will soon 

come to pass that condemnation by a court in 

Nigeria will be a badge of honour rather than 

reproof against crime because the judges 

themselves will be seen as the real offenders. 

That is the danger to which this judgement 

puts the courts in Nigeria. 

A judge can be fallible and may deliver 

fallible justice, as the honourable Justice 

Chukwudifu Oputa once averred, because 

judges after all are human and are not 

infallible. But a judge who betrays his calling 

by delivering partisan justice betrays God, 

nation, and conscience. So, what should an 

aggrieved people who find themselves 

betrayed by the highest court of the land, and 

without further recourse to a court for justice 

do? This is the question. And this is exactly the 

situation with the voters in Imo State, majority 

of whose votes the Supreme Court willfully 

and brazenly cast aside. 

There is the theory of just action. Where a 

citizenry feel themselves no longer covered by 

the protection of true and efficacious justice, 

they have a right to organise and seek 

alternative justice. Until justice is done 

completely they must not rest. They have a 

right to disobey any laws, or rules, or orders, or 

injunctions issued or emanating from a court, 

or a government which they feel does not 

represent or reflect their truest interest. A free 

and organised 

people in other 

words have an 

obligation to disobey 

a court where the 

ruling of such a 

court is questionable 

under the conditions 

of natural law. The 

import of this is that 

the majority of the 

voters or the 

electorate of Imo 

State have both the 

A judge can 

be fallible and 

may deliver 

fallible justice, 

because 

judges after all 

are human 

and are not 

infallible 

right and the 

obligation under the full rights of their 

citizenship to disobey the Supreme Court, 

where they discern that such a declaration of 

the court is unjust, or inconsistent with their 

common interest that are protected under the 

constitution, namely, their rights to suffrage. 

Thus, in my estimation, Imo people must 

not allow Hope Uzodinma to be imposed on 

them, or to govern for even a day, if indeed, he 

was not elected by them. But if on the other 

hand Hope Uzodinma represents the true 

repository of their mandate, then they must 

rally and support his government and his 

election as effected and as established by the 

Supreme Court. 

But if the Imo people feel that Uzodinma is 

an impostor sent to govern them against their 

popular wishes, they owe it to themselves, and 

to the future generation to make it impossible 

for him, Supreme Court or no Supreme Court, 

to govern in Imo State. They must make it 

clear by denying him the very grounds on which 

he can stand in Imo State. Imo people will not 

be the first to send an impostor governor 

running. 

The people of Ondo sent Akin Omoboriowo 

running from Akure to Lagos in 1983. Imo 

people must send back Hope Uzodinma to 

the Supreme Court in Abuja, and defy every 

order of government until their mandate is 

restored. They cannot do this merely with street 

campaigns and talk. Street campaigns and 

talk are only part of it, but such tactics alone 

are no longer effective in forcing the hands of 

oppressive orders. 

In the past week, there have been various 

marches on the streets in Owerri, and solidarity 

street marches to protest this Supreme Court 

judgment in Abuja, Lagos, and some 

neighbouring Eastern states. Such street 

marches are okay for show. But they do not 

change anything as we know it because they 

no longer threaten those against whom the 

protesters march. 

You may march all you can, but they will 

disperse protesters with a battery of gun-toting 

police, or get some soldiers from the barracks 

to shoot into the air, and dispatch strong arms 

against the public protests. There are two forms 

of protests: one is a street march, that is largely 

theatre, and the other is a defiance campaign. 

That is the real McCoy. 

Its goal is often to defy and force the 

oppressive order to its knees. It locks down all 

avenues of citizens participation in civic life, 

and brings down governments by confronting 

it with its own methods. The most important 

tool of every government is the power of 

coercion. Popular governments can get away 

with it. But an unpopular government alienates 

people the more it deploys coercion. 

Just last week, Hope Uzodinma announced 

that he will bring down the full weight of the 

law on anybody who continues to protest in 

Imo as a result of the Supreme Court ruling 

that imposed him on Imo. “God made me 

governor,” he said. But this is a lie from hell! 

God did not make him governor. A partisan 

court violated the will of the people in the most 

inexplicable ruling and imposed him willynilly 

on Imo State. If his mandate is truly the 

mandate of the people, the protests should 

quickly fizzle out. But if his is an unpopular 

government, or an impostor government, he 

most certainly has set the stage for a sustained 

defiance campaign. 

Sustained defiance 

campaign 

For a defiance campaign to work, however, 

it means that the people themselves must be 

properly organised, and be prepared. They 

must gird their loins, and must be ready to 

meet the government’s capacity for violence 

measure for measure. They must not just yap 

about injustice, they must act to restore justice 

to themselves. 

They must not stop only on street marches, 

they must organise directed campaigns to hit 

this government at its most vulnerable: they 

must become tax resisters, and refuse to pay 

taxes to the government, including forced taxes. 

If the government tax collector comes to them 

they must drive them away until such a time 

when the government of their choice is restored. 

They must organise frequent closures, sitins, 

stand-ups, break-ins, and make the streets 

empty, ensuring no movement of people, no 

opening of shops or markets; that nobody in 

fact opens the gates of government ministries. 

They must deploy guerrilla tactics. 

They must openly defy the laws of the state 

until the jails are so full, there will be no more 

space for civil offenders. They must be 

prepared to suffer pain for a little moment 

until their electoral rights – the most important 

right of their citizenship – is restored. 

The first act must be for a citizens committee 

to go to a state high court and secure an order 

of mandamus restraining Hope Uzodinma 

from assuming or entering the office of the 

governor to Imo State. Thereafter, at least one 

million citizens must invade and occupy the 

State House in Owerri, and stay there until a 

judicial review restores the mandate of the 

people. They must store water, dry food packs, 

and volunteer doctors must be on standby in 

case of emergencies. 

Continues online 

•Nwakanma, a social commentator, wrote 

from Johannesburg, South Africa


08052202308 (sms only) 

Rumble in Power sector as unions fight over membership 

•SSAEAC accuses NUEE of poaching, seeks sharing of union dues 

•You're amorphous, mischievous, NUEE fires back 

TWO of the unions in the na 

tion’s Power sector; the National 

Union of Electricity Employees, 

NUEE, and its Senior 

Staff Association of Electricity 

and Allied Companies, SSAE- 

AC, are at each other throat over 

membership. 

Vanguard investigation revealed 

that the fight over membership 

has been on for sometimes 

now and that the leadership 

of the SSAEAC has taken 

NUEE to National Industrial 

Court, NIC, accusing the former 

of poaching. 

According to Vanguard’s 

checks, the matter comes up later 

in February. 

Investigations revealed that 

while the matter is pending, 

SSAEAC has also petitioned the 

Ministry of Labour and Employment, 

complaining over the 

same issue of poaching and 

begging the ministry to intervene. 

The feud got to a boiling point 

during NUEE’s delegates’ conference 

on December 19, 2019, 

where the President-General of 

SSAEAC, Chris Okonkwo was 

booed by some members of 

NUEE over his alleged uncomplimentary 

role in the nationwide 

strike by NUEE on December 

10, 2019. 

Okonkwo was to later same 

day at a briefing, among others, 

declared the NUEE’ strike 

illegal and insisted that NUEE 

was poaching SSAEAC members. 

Vanguard gathered that 

ahead of the planned strike by 

NUEE, it wrote to SSAEAC on 

the need to join hand to prosecute 

the planned strike since the 

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige at a bilateral session with the 

Director General of the ILO, Mr. Guy Ryder by the sidelines on the on-going conference, entitled, 

“Taking Next Steps; Ending Child Labour by 2020 Conference in Leiden, Netherlands. 

The International Labour 

Organisation, ILO, has 

declared that Nigeria is key 

in eliminating child labour, trafficking 

and slavery in Africa 

as she is a pathfinder country in 

8.7 Alliance against modern slavery. 

The Director General of the ILO 

Mr. Guy Ryder made the declaration 

at a high level bilateral 

meeting with the Minister of Labour 

and Employment, Senator 

Chris Ngige by the sidelines 

of the on-going conference, entitled 

“Taking Next Steps; Ending 

Child Labour by 2025,” taking 

place in Leiden, Netherlands. 

While commending Nigeria for 

her untiring efforts, Mr. Ryder 

said “Africa being in the conference 

is extremely important”, 

noting that the bilateral forum 

was to discuss the country’s efforts, 

peculiar challenges and 

sort out areas of cooperation in 

order to bolster Nigeria’s capacity 

at winning the battle against 

modern slavery. 

In his response, the Minister 

catalogued the efforts of the Federal 

Government, remarking the 

domestication of the ILO Conventions 

138 and 182 on the 

Minimum Age and Worst Forms 

of Child Labour and the enactment 

of the Child Rights Acts 

of 2003, to consolidate all the existing 

laws on the fundamental 

rights of children. 

Ngige informed the Director 

General of the policy document 

approved by the Federal Executive 

Council on National Policy 

on Child Labour , National 

Action Plan for the Elimination 

of Child Labour as well as the 

comprehensive list of activities 

amounting to Hazardous Child 

Labour. 

He further said the National 

Social Investment Programme 

was designed to tackle poverty, 

boost the enrolment of children 

in schools through a home 

grown school feeding programme 

and stem the tide of 

unemployment among youths 

vulnerable to modern slavery. 

The Minister argued that central 

to the raging social problem 

was poverty, hence, asked 

that international cooperation be 

focused on assistance to the education 

of the deprived child, institutionalization 

of the social 

welfare programmes to em- 

Nigeria key to ending Child Labour in Africa 

— ILO 

power poor parents and provision 

of logistics for mass mobilization 

against child labour . 

“We will need assistance to site 

special schools in the mining 

fields of Zamfara, Niger, Katsina, 

Nasarawa and Plateau 

States, in the cocoa plantations 

of Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, 

Abia as well as in the palm oil 

farms of Imo, Abia , Cross 

River, Anambra, Edo among others 

where poverty has taken 

children away from schools,” 

Ngige pleaded with the ILO 

Director General . 

On anti-labour practices such 

as casualization, insufficient 

paid work, working-poor among 

others, the Minister said the 

Ministry’s strategy was to sensitize 

all the social partners to 

their responsibilities, citing the 

pressure on Nigeria Employers 

Consultative Association 

(NECA) to expand its activities 

to all the states of the federation 

to net in dispersed private sector 

groups and ease accountability 

to labour standards. He further 

stated the Ministry was 

tackling the recent unilateral 

declaration of redundancy by 

some banks. 

issues in contention affected all 

workers in the sector. 

SSAEAC letter to NUEE 

In its reply to NUEE’s letter, 

SSAEAC wrote among others, 

“We in SSAEAC commend your 

desire for united trade unions 

(SSAEAC and NUEE) action, 

to redress the lingering decadence 

in the power sector. Our 

coordinated and concerted effort 

and will most certainly yield 

better result, hope and trust 

among our teeming members. 

As we commend your initiative, 

we have the following concerns 

and observations which if taken 

up will end the seeming 

unnecessary tension/division 

between our Unions: 

(1.) In the past, specifically by 

our letter on planned action on 

Trade Dispute against TCN in 

August 2019 and another of 27th 

January 2019,both being on 

anti-Labour actions against our 

Union (SSAEAC), your Union 

interfered with it despite our 

soliciting for cooperation. We 

ask why your union acted as 

such despite notice on matters 

that affected our union. We never 

meddled in your union matter 

if notified ahead. We think 

that such cooperation issues 

between SSAEAC and NUEE 

need to be resolved to enable 

us work as a team against our 

common enemies. 

(2.) Issues raised in your letter 

to the Minister, addressed 

the situation in the GenCos and 

DisCos without mentioning 

TCN. This suggests protection for 

the reckless and oppressive management 

of TCN. TCN workers 

have consequently been abused 

for two and half years now, which 

we have raised with your Union 

on some occasions. We are of the 

view that issues affecting workers 

in the Nigeria’s power sector must 

be addressed since it is out collective 

pain. 

(3.) Our disagreement in membership 

classification and earnings 

which is before the courts is still a 

source of conflict among our teeming 

officers in the field. We had 

approached your union to have 

negotiated settlement but were 

rebuffed. We believe that we have 

an opportunity now to resolve 

these issues and get a win-win 

solution in all the cases. 

In the above circumstance, we 

propose that urgent meeting of the 

leadership or nominees of the two 

unions be arranged to address the 

issues raised and chart ways forward 

for a unified labour movement 

in the Nigeria’s power sector. 

This is a sure way to achieve 

the goal stated in your letters. Imagine 

a situation where SSAEAC 

and NUEE face each enemy without 

being divided in interest.” 

NUEE’s letter to Ministry of 

Labour 

Besides, Vanguard gathered that 

SSAEAC equally petitioned the 

Ministry of Labour and Employment, 

complaining over NUEE’s 

alleged poaching of members and 

sought for intervention. 

Consequently, NUEE in a response 

to a letter of invitation from 

the ministry, said among others, 

“Please recall Minister Sir that the 

House of Representatives joined 

as parties to the issue on December 

12, 2019 and we are worried 

that you are trying to resuscitate 

this matter at this material time. On 

the reference to SSAEAC on this 

matter, SSAEAC is not our employers 

and cannot interfere with 

operations of NUEE. 

“We don’t want to believe that 

your Ministry is providing SSAE- 

AC with an extra leg to stand. It 

may interest you that we entered 

into series of correspondence with 

SSAEAC on this issue of 21 days 

ultimatum and part of the reasons 

they backed out is because of court 

cases we are having with them. 

Consequently, SSAEAC can’t be 

rushing to your office for reconciliation 

when they are already in 

court. We will not like to meet with 

SSAEAC with any pretence of reconciliation 

especially with pendency 

of cases in court against us. 

“Besides, we will not meet with 

SSAEAC with headship of a General 

Manager in place in SSAE- 

AC; unless he is representing the 

Managing Director TCN in such 

a meeting. We are surprised that 

you are mentioning other Industrial 

Relations matters when you 

had earlier delved into jurisdiction 

scope of the Union by trying to 

award membership to SSAEAC 

without consulting us. 

“You will also recall that a response 

to this letter which we also 

forwarded to your office is yet to 

receive attention. This development 

smells of bias and partianship 

on the side of your ministry. 

All these issues are already pending 

in the Courts and will be subjudice 

if your office will be adjudicating 

on some of the issues which 

SSAEAC had taken to the Courts. 

This bias manifested further in 

the erroneous reference to our 

Union as a junior Staff Union, a 

reference you had earlier made in 

your letter to SSAEAC contrary to 

position of the law. 

Please note that some Union’s 

were never registered as Junior 

Staff Unions example Nurses & 

Mid Wife, Nigeria Union of Journalists, 

NUJ, National Union of Local 

Government Employees, 

NULGE, Medical & Health Workers 

Union of Nigeria, National 

Union of Electricity Employees 

NUEE, etc. 

These Unions organise both Junior 

and senior Employees, based 

on their professional nature even 

though the Ministry erroneously 

registered SSAEAC which was a 

branch of SSASGOG.


:Vanguard News 

:@vanguardnews 

INEC alone can’t guarantee free, 

fair elections — Ekiti REC 

By Rotimi Ojomoyela 

ADO 

EKITI—THE 

Acting Resident Electoral 

Commissioner, Independent 

National Electoral 

Commission, INEC, Ekiti 

State, Dr. Muslim Omoleke, 

has said that INEC alone 

cannot guarantee error-free 

polls in the country. 

Omoleke said all stakeholders 

– INEC, police, political 

parties, politicians and 

voters must be ready to play 

by the rules and contribute 

their quota to re-jig and solidify 

the country’s elector- 

MyPharmacy set to launch 50 pharmacy 

franchise 

By Elizabeth 

Uwandu 

LAGOS—THE Chief 

Executive Officer and 

Founder of Advantage 

Health Africa, Abimbola 

al system. 

The Acting REC spoke in 

Ado Ekiti during a courtesy 

visit on the State Secretariat 

of the Nigerian Union 

of Journalists, NUJ, Ekiti 

Council, yesterday. 

The INEC boss, who 

came with heads of departments 

of the commission’s 

office in Ekiti, said 

the visit was to thank NUJ 

for its support leading to 

the successful conduct of 

the 2919 general elections. 

Omoleke said the much 

mouthed request by interested 

Nigerians that there 

C'River: Group gives Ayade 30 days 

ultimatum to fix bad roads 

By Ike Uchechukwu 

CALABAR—A group, 

Niger Delta Activists 

Forum, NDAF, has given a 

month ultimatum to the 

Governor Ben Ayade-led 

Cross River State administration 

to fix all the bad 

roads in the state or face 

mass protests in the coming 

month. 

The group in a statement 

issued in Calabar on 

Wednesday by its state 

Chairman, Com. Paul Ajie 

and Public Relations Officer, 

Com. Ogar Emmanuel 

Oko, said “the Governor of 

Cross River State, Prof. 

Benedict Ayade a fortnight 

ago allegedly said in his 

Adebakin yesterday said 

that availability, accessibility 

and affordability of quality, 

safe and essential drugs 

are critical to the success of 

Nigeria’s healthcare delivery 

system. 

She disclosed that the 

desire to improve 

Etiebet, Agusto, others for 

Aret Adams memorial lecture 

FORMER Minister 

of Petroleum and 

Mineral Resources, Chief 

Donald Etiebet, former Director 

General, Budget Office 

of the Federation, Mr. 

Olabode Agusto and others 

are billed to speak at the 

17th annual Aret Adams 

Memorial lecture on February 

25, 2020 in Lagos. 

In a statement, the Programs 

Coordinator of Aret 

Adams Foundation, Mr. 

Akin Jokojeje, said this 

year’s lecture tagged: “Nigeria’s 

Economy after Oil: 

How Prepared Are We?” 

will attract expected major 

players and stakeholders 

in the oil and gas industry, 

government officials, diplomats, 

financial institutions 

as well as captains of industries. 

The Foundation, Jokojeje 

said is aimed at promoting 

and building educational 

capacity and policy 

formulations. 

He disclosed that the 

National Energy policy 

delivered to the Federal 

Government in April 1980 

was formulated by the late 

Aret Adams and that it was 

him that re-energised negotiations 

that led to the 

successful execution of 

shareholders agreements 

for the execution of the Nigeria 

Liquefied Natural Gas 

(NLNG) project in 1989 

and many others. 

He also disclosed that the 

Foundation has institutionalised 

the Aret Adams Professorial 

Chairs at the University 

of Port Harcourt in 

collaboration with Shell Petroleum 

Development Company 

(SPDC). 

The BOT Chairman also 

revealed that the long- proposed 

Aret Adams Professorial 

Chair in Business 

Entrepreneurial Development 

in Ambrose Alli University, 

Ekpoma, Edo State 

and that of Geological Studies 

at the University of 

Ibadan, Oyo State will be 

established and inaugurated 

this year. 

must be improvement in 

the electoral system was not 

misplaced, adding that 

this could only be realised 

if stakeholders strictly adhere 

to the rules guiding 

the game. 

He said: “Conduct of 

credible elections is not the 

sole responsibility of INEC. 

INEC is just a principal 

stakeholder and participant. 

Others too have a lot 

to do. If an election is being 

conducted under a crisis-free 

and secured atmosphere, 

it means the security 

agencies have done 

well.'' 

address during the courtesy 

visit paid on him by the 

Honourable Minister of 

Niger Delta Affairs, Obong 

Godswill Akpabio that the 

state (CRS) did not need 

road(s) but food/farming 

(rice) which can generate 

employment for it citizens. 

They said, he further supported 

his statement by saying 

that good roads give 

room for criminals to operate. 

"By this release, NDAF 

hereby give a 30-day ultimatum 

to the government 

of Cross River State to commence 

immediate reconstruction 

and palliative 

works on the enumerated 

roads and others not mentioned 

across the state within 

this time frame. 

"From today being 28 

January, 2020 or contend 

with the simultaneous 7 

days state wide protest by 

our members across the 18 

LGAs, civil society groups, 

market women, political 

parties and other interest 

groups after the ultimatum 

elapses, the protest is expected 

to span between 

28th and 29th February, 

29th,2nd,3rd,4th,5th,6th of 

March 2020," they stated. 

“Our council members 

nay Cross Riverians are disturbed 

by the Governor's 

statement. That infamous 

statement has confirmed to 

us his disdain and lack of 

interest towards road infrastructure 

in the state." 

healthcare outcomes has 

prompted myPharmacy to 

launch a value-based franchise 

chain, commencing 

with a 50 pharmacy 

premises in several cities 

and towns. 

"The growth of pharmacy 

businesses at the last mile, 

where essential healthcare 

is rendered, has been 

somewhat stunted over the 

years. This problem, 

largely based on their inability 

to remain financially 

afloat and differentiate their 

service offering, has forced 

several pharmacies out of 

operations. 

"Our aim is to empower, 

innovate, create access and 

accelerate growth in the 

franchise chain to revolutionize 

the country’s 

healthcare sector. This 

chain from the stable of 

Advantage Health Africa, 

the parent group of 

myPharmacy is a network 

of pharmacies merging to 

make a significant change 

in the healthcare sector. 

"This move will drive up 

the value proposition of 

independent pharmacies 

by building professional 

back-end processes on a 

performance basis. You 

know that poor pharmaceutical 

care is known to 

lead to half of treatment 

failures, so, we are targeting 

a significant improvement 

in healthcare outcomes 

for Nigerians,'' 

Adebakin said. 

PRESS CONFERENCE: From left — Anthony Igbonosun, Safety Manager, 

Gokada; Victor Damwabo, Pilot Operation Manager, Gokada; Adebayo 

Bamiduro, Chief Executive Officer, MAX.Ng and Guy-Bertrand Njoya, Chief 

Financial Officer, MAX.Ng during a Press Conference held yesterday by 

MAX.Ng to state its position on the ban on Commercial Motor Cycle aka 

Okada from plying specific routes within Lagos. 

COMPETITION— From left: Area Marketing Manager, Indomie Kano, 

Fatoke Oluwaseun; Indomie Story Telling Competition First prize winner, 

Yusuf Isma'il of Fagge Model Primary School Kano; Indomie Marketing 

Strategist Pan Nigeria, Ashish Ranjan and Deputy Director, State Universal 

Basic Education Board Kano, Malam Haruna at the Indomie story telling 

competition held at Race Course Model Primary School, Kano. 

BREAKFAST — From left: Awuna Titus, Tutor, The Redeemer Nursery and 

Primary School; Territory Sales Manager, PZ Wilmar; Mr. Oluwatomisin 

Omiyale; and Mr. Chinadu Okonkwo Tutor, Redeemer Nursery and Primary 

Schools, during the Mamador Breakfast school activation at Redeemer 

Nursery and Primary Schools in Abuja 

CELEBRATION — A cross section of members of Government College Ughelli 

Old Boys Association, GCUOBA, Class '70 in front of the renovated Assembly 

Hall of the college as part of activities marking the golden jubilee celebration 

of the class and platinum celebration of the school with a four-day reunion 

activity.


RAF AND TUMBLE 

Nadal’s hopes of matching 

Federer’s Grand Slam haul 

crushed by Thiem 

HOT and bothered 

Rafael Nadal will not 

equal Roger Federer’s 

Grand Slam record in 

Melbourne after crashing out 

of the Australian Open 

quarter-finals. 

The world No1 was 

desperate to stand alongside 

Federer in the Slam pantheon 

on Sunday evening – he has 

spent his whole career 

chasing his Swiss rival – but 

those hopes were cruelly 

dashed by the inspired 

Dominic Thiem. 

As Nadal lost his 

composure over a time 

warning and also felt hot 

under the collar, the Austrian 

played the match of his life, 

progressing 7-6 7-6 4-6 7-6 in 

a thrilling four-hour-tenminute 

clash on the Rod Laver 

Arena. 

Nadal, 33, will remain 

stranded on 19 majors – one 

shy of Aussie 

Open semifinalist 

Federer – 

and his best 

chance of 

drawing level 

will come on his 

favoured clay 

court home of 

Roland Garros. 

ormer Manchester United 

Fstriker Danny Webber hailed 

the predatory instincts of Kelechi 

Iheanacho after the red-hot 

Leicester City number 14 found 

the net against Aston Villa in the 

Carabao Cup semifinal second 

leg at Villa Park on Wednesday 

night. 

A superb play from Aston Villa 

on the break ended with a 

tremendous finish from Matt 

Targett after lovely play by Jack 

Grealish in the 12th minute before 

Iheanacho’s equalised with 18 

minutes left on the clock. 

In stoppage time, a dramatic 

goal from Egypt star Trezeguet 

saw Aston Villa beat The Foxes 2- 

1 on the night (3-2 on aggregate) 

to progress to the final of the 

Carabao Cup. 

Speaking during commentary 

Pablo Mari becomes Arteta’s first Arsenal 

signing 

Flamengo centre-back 

Pablo Mari has agreed a 

move to Arsenal on loan until 

the end of the season,with the 

option to make the deal 

permanent in the summer. 

The move ends what turned 

out to be a topsy-turvy transfer 

deal that initally stalled and 

saw the defender return to 

Brazil. 

The clubs seemingly 

agreed to the deal last 

weekend, with Mari traveling 

from Rio de Janeiro to London 

That, of course, is if Federer 

doesn’t do the unthinkable 

and beat Novak Djokovic and 

then win a seventh title Down 

Under. 

Of the four Grand Slams, 

this is the one that has caused 

Nadal the most issues and it 

is 11 years since he lifted his 

one and only Norman 

Brookes Challenge Cup. 

But credit to Thiem who 

played magnificently 

throughout, especially in 

the three tie-breaks. 

He said: “The whole 

match was on a good level, 

and we were both in good 

form. We had this epic 

match in New York two 

years ago. I had a feeling I 

would be lucky. The net 

cord was on my side. 

“He is one of the greatest 

all time, one of the biggest 

legends this sport has had, 

and you need luck to beat 

him. 

“It came to 5-4, a special 

situation, I am 

serving for 

the match 

against 

Rafa for 

my first 

semi-final 

at the 

•Iheanacho 

Webber hails Iheanacho’s 

predatory instincts 

of the game for the world feed 

(Super Sport), Webber said : “We 

spoke about his record before the 

game and it’s him who just sets 

the move. 

“It’s all about Harvey Barnes, I 

think it is a shot but it doesn’t 

matter because Kelechi 

Iheanacho senses there’s an 

opportunity at the back 

post, he comes in. 

“It’s not actually an easy 

finish , it bubbles up, very, 

very good finish. It puts 

Leicester back in the game 

against the run of play.” 

Iheanacho’s strike vs 

Aston Villa saw him 

continue his remarkable 

record of scoring in every single 

Cup game he has featured in this 

season - five goals in five 

appearances. 

to undergo a medical and 

sign with the Premier League 

side. 

However, negotiations 

suffered a setback on Monday 

with Mari then returning to 

Brazil. 

Mari put pressure on the 

Flamengo’s hierarchy to 

accept Arsenal’s offer and 

sources told ESPN the deal 

was never dead despite 

Flamengo putting out a 

statement criticising 

Arsenal’s attitude. 

Nonetheless, the deal now 

•Nadal 

Australian Open, and it 

mentally tough situation. I 

couldn’t handle it, but turned 

it around in the tiebreaker. 

“I am happy I 

won the tie break 

otherwise we 

would be in a fifth 

now. I feel good so 

far. I am full of 

adrenaline and 

happy moments, so 

we will see when 

that is off, how I feel 

•Ronaldo 

•Pablo 

sees Mari reunite with 

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta. 

Mari, 26, was on Manchester 

City’s books between 2016 

and 2019 — where Arteta 

served as an assistant for Pep 

Guardiola — but never 

actually played for the first 

team. 

Ronaldo hits 200 million 

followers on Instagram 

uventus talisman 

J Cristiano Ronaldo 

is certainly neither 

tired of making the 

headlines nor 

breaking records. 

The former Real 

Madrid ace has 

flagged off history 

making achievements 

in the new decade 2020 

hitting a massive 200 

million followers on 

Instagram. 

American singer, 

songwriter, actress and 

television producer Selena 

Marie Gomez, his closet 

rival and the one he 

overthrew to become 

‘King of social media’ 

back in October 2018, is 

W 

some 32million follows 

away from reaching 

Cristiano. 

According to Forbes, 

Ronaldo makes staggering 

$47.8million dollars per 

year from paid-instagram 

posts. 

He will be looking to 

continue his free-scoring 

form when Juventus hosts 

Fiorentina on Sunday after 

a disappointing result last 

time out. 

Ronaldo has scored 33 

goals in all competitions 

for club and country this 

campaign and would be 

looking to increase his 

tally come Sunday. 

Some have predicted 

that the rise and rise of the 

Portugal international is 

bound to continue and he 

has a finger in virtually 

every pie thus making him 

a regular item on social 

media. 

Only recently the former 

Manchester United ace 

hinted that he might 

venture into movies when 

he parts ways with the 

round leather game. 

But the parting ways 

with the round leather 

game some also say will 

not be come soon for 

Ronaldo who continues to 

dazzle his followers both 

on and off the pitch. 

Ronaldo has so far made 

2,752 posts followed by 200 

million people but follows 

434 people. 

Coronavirus threatens athletics world 

Indoor Championships 

orld Athletics officials 

are set to take a 

decision whether to hold the 

World 

Indoor 

Championships billed for 

March 13-15 in Nanjing, 

China. 

Shaquille O’Neal breaks down 

in tears over Kobe Bryant 

SO’NEAL HAQUILLE 

has paid 

an emotional tribute 

to his former teammate 

Kobe Bryant 

after the 41-year-old 

tragically died in a 

helicopter crash 

alongside his 

daughter and seven 

others on Sunday. 

The pair played 

together for eight 

years with the LA 

Lakers before O’Neal 

left 

for the Miami Heat in 

2004. 

O’Neal, 47, had been due to be a pregame 

pundit for TV network TNT ahead of 

the game between the Lakers and local 

rivals the LA Clippers. 

But with Tuesday night’s game postponed 

in the wake of the tragedy, Shaq and his 

colleagues instead sat on court at the Staples 

Center and paid tribute to Bryant. 

O’Neal said: “The fact that we lost 

probably the world’s greatest Laker, the 

world’s greatest basketball player is just - 

listen, people are going to say take your time 

and get better, but this is going to be hard 

for me. 

“I already don’t sleep anyway, but I’ll 

figure it out.” 

Upon hearing the news, O’Neal 

desperately hoped it wasn’t true: “I didn’t 

want to believe it. I said to my son, ‘I hope 

some buttface made this up and it’s not true’. 

“But then after getting all the calls... my 

spirit just left my body. I never could have 

imagined nothing like this. 

“I was thinking the other day I’ve never 

seen anything like this. All the basketball 

idols that I grew up [watching], I see them. 

They’re old.” 

•Shaq 

SHAQ TRIBUTE 

Nigerian athletes and 

those from other countries 

are building up to the 

season opener ahead of the 

2020 Olympics in Japan, but 

the health scare situation in 

China threatens to mar their 

expectations. Already Team 

Despite still texting regularly, O’Neal 

revealed that he hadn’t seen Bryant since 

the day of his final Lakers game in 2016. 

Kobe Bryant’s helicopter 

lacked recommended 

warning system 

T 

he helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant 

didn’t have a recommended warning 

system to alert the pilot he was too close to 

the ground but it is unclear it would have 

averted the crash that killed the former NBA 

star and eight others on Sunday, federal 

regulators and experts said. 

Pilot Ara Zobayan had been climbing out 

of the clouds when the aircraft banked left 

and began a sudden 1,200-foot descent into 

a hillside that lasted nearly a minute. Local 

conditions on the day of the crash were 

foggy. 

“This is a pretty steep descent at high 

speed,” Jennifer Homendy of the National 

Transportation Safety Board said on 

Tuesday. “We know that this was a highenergy 

impact crash.” 

The aircraft was intact when it hit the 

ground, but the impact spread debris over 

more than 500 feet. 

Determining what caused the crash will 

take months, but investigators may again 

recommend that helicopters carrying six or 

more passenger seats are equipped with a 

Terrain Awareness and Warning System 

(TAWS) that sounds an alarm if an aircraft 

is in danger of crashing. 

The agency made that recommendation 

after a similar helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76A 

carrying workers to an offshore drilling ship, 

crashed in the Gulf of Mexico in 2004, 

killing all 10 people on board. 

GB are 

reportedly set 

to pull out of 

t h e 

Championships, 

following 

advice from 

the Foreign 

Office to 

avoid travel to 

China. 

A 

spokesperson 

for World 

Athletics 

hinted that 

•Kobe 

they were monitoring the 

situation closely and were 

in contact with the World 

Health Organisation. 

The coronavirus has now 

infected more than 6,000 

people and the death toll 

has risen to 132. 

The virus originated in 

Wuhan but has since spread 

to other regions of the 

country. 

The Department of Health 

announced that British 

nationals returning from the 

Chinese city will be put in 

quarantine for 14 days. 

Coronavirus is still 

spreading and unless it can 

be quickly brought under 

control other sporting 

events could be under 

threat.

Don't renew Rohr's contract, 

Odegbami tells NFF 

Nigeria football legend, Segun 

Odegbami has observed that the 

Super Eagles havn’t achieved much 

with coach Gernot Rohr in charge and has 

asked the Nigeria Football Federation to get 

a manager with a winning history. 

Odegbami who won the Africa Cup of 

Nations with the Super Eagles in 1980 was 

speaking against the back ground of the 

reluctance by the NFF to extend coach Rohr’s 

contract. He is expected to start negotiations 

next month with the NFF. But Odegbami feels 

the job shouldn’t be given to Rohr. 

“I think we have had enough of these 

foreign coaches, especially ones that don’t 

have pedigree. Especially with the Super 

Eagles we should go and get the Zinedine 

Zidanes and Jurgen Klopps not Coaches 

without pedigree that we end up paying 

stupendous salaries,’ said Odegbami during 

a sports radio chat. 

‘With Gernot Rohr, he has taken us to the 

World Cup and brought us back and to the 

Nations Cup, but has disappointed us.’ 

‘We have a generation of Nigerian players 

who have played at the highest level that are 

capable of training our national teams. It is 

time we start looking in their direction to 

bring them in. 

Okwonkwo happy 

to work under 

‘legend’ Henry 

Nigeria youth international 

Orji Okwonkwo has opened 

up about his excitement to work 

under Montreal Impact head 

coach Thierry Henry. 

The 22-year-old joins the Major 

League Soccer (MLS) club for a 

second season on-loan from 

Bologna. 

Okwonkwo enjoyed a superb 

first season in Canada, netting 

eight goals in 28 games on his way 

to earning Impact’s Most Valuable 

Player award. 

Talking to BBC Sport the 

versatile winger revealed his 

excitement at learning from the 

Arsenal legend, who will be eager 

to improve on Impact’s ninth place 

finish from last season. 

“I’m looking forward to making a 

bigger impact when I wear the shirt 

again,” Okwonkwo told BBC Sport. 

“I feel lucky to get a chance to 

work under a legend like [Thierry] 

Henry. I can learn important tips 

on how to be a better player from 

someone who has won the World 

Cup and achieved so much at club 

level as well. 

‘If they are good enough to play for 

the best teams in the world under some 

of the best Managers in the World, then 

why aren’t they capable of handling our 

National teams?’ 

‘In the past Amodu (Shaibu) took us 

to the Nations Cup won Bronze, he also 

qualified us for the World Cup. 

‘Augustine Eguavoen won Bronze at 

the Nations Cup and Keshi won the 

AFCON, these people did this under the 

most unfriendly environment, but still 

won something.’ 

‘Honestly, we should start looking at 

the generation from Yobo (Joseph), 

have them understudy with top coaches 

in Europe and in two years we can have 

them back home coaching our teams. 

Kaizer Chiefs extend 

Akpeyi’s contract to 

2022 

Daniel Akpeyi has extended 

his contract with PSL side 

Kaizer Chiefs and will remain at 

the club until June 2022. 

Akpeyi joined Amakhosi in the 

January transfer window of 2019 

on a one-year deal. The move was 

a contingency plan after first 

choice goalkeeper Khune 

Itumeleng suffered a long term 

injury. 

But, the Nigerian has been so 

impressive he has remained first 

choice for Manager Ernst 

Middendorp, although Khune has 

been in and out with niggling 

injury concerns. 

Yesterday, the club confirmed the 

33 year-old has agreed a contract 

extension that’ll see him stay for 

another two seasons. 

Player Updates! 

We are pleased to announce that 

goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi>Ø•Ý 

who joined Chiefs in January 2019 

has earned himself a two-year 

contract extension to June 2022. 

It is believed Chiefs value their 

Nigerian goalkeeper at •700k and 

the sixth highest in the Club. 

According stats provided by 

transfermarkt .com the former 

Warri Wolves Goalkeeper is 

ranked the 625th highest in value 

among goalkeepers in the World. 

•Odegbami 


Eguavoen: Rohr deserves a new contract 

Super Eagles Captain and 

on one condition coach, Austin Eguavoen has backed 

•Rohr 

Former Super Eagles captain and midfield 

maestro, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha said he failed 

to win CAF and FIFA football awards because he was 

busy creating goals for others to score. 

Okocha played in Germany, France, England and 

Turkey and despite his world acclaimed soccer artistry, 

he was never crowned as the Africa Player of the Year 

or shortlisted for the FIFA World Best. 

The closest Okocha came to winning Africa’s top 

prize was in 1998 when he finished as runner-up to 

Morocco’s Mustapha Hadji. 

“In my time, it is true that the number 10 position 

was prestigious, but if you wanted to become the best 

in the world you had to play in 9,” the former Super 

Eagles skipper was quoted by Afrique Sports. 

“I am certain that if I had played higher, I would 

have won at least two gold balls, not African, but the 

gold ball which recognizes the best player in the world. 

“It is not pride, but just an observation. I think I had 

the ability to play 9, however, I preferred the position 

of No. 10 because it allowed me to unleash all my 

creative genius.” 

Okocha, though, won the BBC African Footballer 

of the Year award twice and was also named the Best 

Player of the Tournament at the 2004 African Cup of 

Nations. 

Former coach Gernot Rohr for a new deserved 

Super Eagles contract on one condition, he 

must stay here in Nigeria. 

Living in Nigeria, according to Cerezo 

will afford him time to watch over our local 

players and also help develop the local 

football. 

“Westerhoff did the same while coaching 

the super Eagles team and players back 

home in the league had access to him 

directly”, He told brila.net. 

“Gernot Rhor has done well, he deserves 

a new contract, but he must be resident 

here in Nigeria to help us develop our 

league and our football, Eguavoen added. 

“I don’t think that should be a big deal, 

Rohr deserves a contract but I want him 

more here in the country than out there. 

Okocha: Why I didn’t win CAF and 

FIFA awards 

Red House are Grenville School's Interhouse 

sports champions 

Grenville School in Ikeja, Lagos held its second 

Inter-house sports competition last Friday, at the 

University of Lagos Sports Center in Akoka with 

Red House emerging as overall winner. Yellow 

House, Green House and Blue placed second, third 

and fourth respectively. 

The chairman of the 

occasion, Rotharian Jide Ajayi 

urged schools to encourage 

sporting activities stating that 

it helps to discover the talented 

ones at a tender age. 

“This event will help them 

develop their skills, talents will be 

discovered along the line and they 

have to know that when you’re in 

a competition like this you will 

learn a lot. They will learn that if 

you lose today and you plan well 

you can win next time”. 

Ajayi further noted that 

Grenville Schools is keen at 

developing a total child and so 

we “cannot undermine the place 

of Sports in our curriculum as 

it promotes the three major 

domain of learning, the 

It was another thrilling day at the 

ongoing preliminaries of the football 

event of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry 

Games as semi-finalists emerged 

following the conclusion of procedings on 

Match Day 3 at the Legacy Pitch, National 

Stadium, Lagos. Today is rest day. 

Team DPR who were 6-1 winners over 

SEPLAT on Tuesday, booked their place in 

the semi finals after another dominant 

display against PTI in the last match 

played yesterday. DPR won 3-1 as captain 

of PTI saw red after he brought down a 

cognitive, Affective and 

Psychomotor. In addition, gifted 

students with extra-ordinary skills 

are brought to lime light at 

competitions like this. It is a time 

of fun and laughter which is 

beneficial to good health and 

general well being of everyone, 

especially those of us who live in 

Lagos where stress is a major part 

of our daily lives”. 

The chairman of the school, Mr 

Jide Babalola noted that the school 

takes sports seriously stating that 

it helps to build mental the health. 

“Sports education not only 

teaches students to maintain their 

physical well being bit also 

teaches the habit of discipline, 

resilience, competitiveness, and 

also a time of fun for the students 

and parents present. Sport is very 

important in education that is why 

we don’t compromise the space of 

sport in our curriculum. The 

significance of sports cannot be 

over emphasized because it 

encourages mental alertness” 

NOGIG 2020: NNPC sets up semi-final clash 

against ExxonMobil 

•As DPR, 

TOTAL also 

hit last four 

DPR striker near the vital area. 

His dismissal weakened the PTI defence line 

as DPR players soon took advantage of their 

numerical superiority to score two quick goals. 

PTI pulled one back but the overwhelming 

display of the DPR players resulted in a 

collapse of their defence. They conceded the 

third goal just before the final whitsle to end 

the encounter 3-1 in favour of DPR. 

Earlier, TOTAL showed class as they 

anihilated EROTON 11-0 in their encounter. 

It was a game to forget for the EROTON 

players who were described by a spectator as 

tourists. The massive score ensured they 

booked their place among the last four who 

will contest for semi-final spot against DPR 

on Friday. 

Tournament giants, NNPC ensured nothing 

distracted them from their target of lifting the 

trophy this term as they crushed 2018 finalists, 

CHEVRON 5-0 to set up a semi-final pairing 

against the defending champion, ExxonMobil 

who recorded a hard-earned 1-0 victory over 

NAOC yesterday.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 

TODAY’S CROSSWORD 

QUICK CROSSWORD 

THURSDAY’S SOLUTION 

TODAY’S PUZZLE 

Sudoku 

FRIDAY’S ANSWER 

Across: 

1 Sad (Sad (7) 

5 Quick (5) 

8 Approaches (5) 

9 Parvenu (7) 

10 Absent (7) 

11 Early birds (5) 

12 Gambling establishment (6) 

14 Rise (6) 

18 German submarine (1-4) 

20 disabled person (7) 

22 Samson’s temptress (7) 

23 Frequently (5) 

24 Circles (5) 

25 Mun and Dad (7) 

Down 

1 Go-getting (7) 

2 Untruthful people (5) 

3 Nuclear process (7) 

4 Sitting room (6) 

5 Of the Nose (5) 

6 Open grassland in the USA (7) 

7 Aborminable snowmen (5) 

13 Distended (7) 

15 Redeemer (7) 

16 News (7) 

17 Chess piece (6) 

18 Below (5) 

19 Stories (5) 

21 Caesar’s language (5) 

How to Play Sudoku 

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. 

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri-Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Phone: Newsroom: 018773962. Deputy Editor: 01-4548355. Advert Hotline: 

08027767834; 01-4544821. Abuja office: 7, Dambata Close, Area 7, Garki, 09-2921024. Ikeja office: 73, Awolowo Way. V.I. Office: Murplus Plaza, 27, Sanusi Fafunwa Street. Asaba: 21, Anwai 

Road. Benin City: 4E, Arusa Street. Port Harcourt: 50, Ikwerre Road; Warri: 102, Efurun-Sapele Road. Advert: advertproduction@yahoo.com; E-mail: editor@vanguardngr.com, 

news@vanguardngr.com, letters@vanguardngr.com. Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: EZE ANABA. Phone: 01-4548355. All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.

30012020

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?