Vanguard Newspaper 11 Februaey 2021
apparent external threats
but can’t tackle internal
threats to its security
It’s unfair to
criticise Zamfara
for granting
amnesty to
bandits —FG
16 14
Gunmen kill policeman,
injure 4 others in Taraba 6
Senate mourns Tony Momoh
as burial holds today
11
Foreign trade rises 3% to $7.7bn in Nov — CBN
19
VOL. 27: NO. 642269 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
of insecurity — SENATE
5
•Asks Buhari to issue executive order to flush out bandits, kidnappers, criminal herdsmen•Wants
govs to implement livestock plan•Senators clash over Akeredolu’s quit order •Killing, kidnapping of
citizens signal govt’s failure – REPS•Plans to amend ACJA, Human Trafficking Act, Police Service
Commission Reforms soon•Say on cost of governance, ‘we can’t keep making laws to set up more
institutions’•We haven’t got details of story —PRESIDENCY
Why court
ordered
banks to
unfreeze
9
accounts of
20 alleged
#EndSARS
promoters
APC:
Crisis trails
membership
registration
in S-East,
Delta,
Kwara,
Osun 8
ZULUM IN CAMEROON...
Borno Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum alongside officials of Federal Ministry of
Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, arriving Marwa in the Republic
of Cameroon, towards the voluntary repatriation of 9,800
46,000
FG okays
new debt
management
strategy
8
Mr & Mrs
COLUMNIST AMAECHI 17
34
SEE INSIDE
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vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguardnews
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021—5
POCKET CARTOON
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF CHINESE DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH NIGERIA
—A member representing Jalingo/Yorro/Zing Federal Constituency in Taraba,
Kasimu Maigari (L) with Charge D'Affaires, Chinese Embassy, Mr Zhao Yong
(R), decorating the Chinese Banny, during the celebration of the 50th
Anniversary of Chinese diplomatic ties with
Year celebration in Abuja, yesterday. Photo: NAN.
of insecurity — SENATE
By Henry Umoru,
Levinus
Nwabughiogu &
Johnbosco
Agbakwuru
ABUJA — The
Senate said
yesterday
is becoming a failed state
on account of the insecurity
situation in the country,
which has culminated in
high level insurgency,
banditry, kidnapping,
herdsmen attacks, and
asked President
Muhammadu Buhari to
issue executive order on the
need to flush out the
criminal herders.
It also asked governors to
implement the Federal
Government’s National
Livestock Transformation
Plan, NLTP, in an effort to
curb the unending conflict
between farmers and
herders in the country. The
quit notice given by Ondo
State governor, Rotimi
Akeredolu, SAN, to leave
forest reserves in the state
split senators, following the
debate on the issue.
The Senate’s position
came on a day Speaker of
the House of
Representatives, Femi
Gbajabiamila, said the
incessant killing and
kidnapping of
signified government’s
failure in its obligations to
the people.
Senators angry
At the resumed debate on
the general insecurity in the
country by the senators,
anger enveloped the
Senate chamber.
Senators were particularly
worried by the relentless
activities of criminal
herdsmen that have
engulfed the entire country,
following unending waves
of kidnappings, rapes,
murders, ransom-taking,
among others.
The lawmakers also urged
the President to direct the
National Security Adviser,
Major-General Babagana
Monguno, retd, the
Inspector-General of
Police, IGP, Mohammed
Adamu and the new
service chiefs to devise
what they described as a
proposal to rejig the
nation’s security
architecture against the
current security challenges.
Resolutions of the Senate
were sequel to a motion,
titled "General insecurity in
Deputy Senate Leader,
Senator Robert Boroffice
(APC, Ondo North).
Deliberations on the issue
generated a heated debate
on the quit notice given to
herdsemen by Ondo State
governor, Rotimi
Akeredolu, SAN, to leave
forest reserves in the state.
It will be recalled that
following incessant
invasions of farms and
damage of farm produce by
cattle, the governor had
asked the herders to leave
the forest reserves.
He also asked those who
wish to continue to do
business in the state to
register, so their
movements could be easily
monitored .
The governor had said:
"Bad elements have turned
the reserves into hideouts
for keeping victims of
kidnapping, negotiating for
ransom and carrying out
other criminal activities."
Adamu queries
Ondo gov's action
on herdsmen
Debating the issue
yesterday, Senator
Abdullahi Adamu (APC,
Nasarawa West), wondered
why the governor would
give such an order.
“There are rights of
residence. I don’t
understand why a
governor of a state will ask
people who are not
indigenes of his state to
leave his state.
"We see in the social
media, houses of people
that have been burnt who
are not even from the state.
“We need to find out
exactly the truth or
otherwise of these
allegations of killings as
reported," Adamu said,
while contributing to the
motion on insecurity
sponsored by Senator Ajayi
Boroffice.
Abaribe counters
Adamu
His contribution was
immediately countered by
Senate Minority Leader,
Enyinnaya Abaribe, who
said it was criminal
herdsmen the Ondo
governor ordered out of the
forest reserves and not out
of the state.
He said: "No
being sent away from
anywhere. Criminals are
being sent away from the
forests where they are.
When we come here and
say such, you send the
wrong message out.
"The message is simple,
the police IG has told us,
these are criminal elements
coming from outside
should ask ourselves is, if
someone is a criminal, and
he is in the forest, what is
he doing there? We should
not water down the issue
to please whatever,"
Abaribe said.
Buhari asked to
seek foreign help
Also contributing to the
debate, Smart Adeyemi
(APC, Kogi West), urged
President Muhammadu
Buhari to seek international
help in ridding the country
of the alleged foreigners
perpetrating crime in the
country.
"We are talking about
N500 billion for COVID-19
intervention.
problem is beyond
COVID-19. That N500
billion is needed to fight
insurgency, not for
COVID-19," Adeyemi said.
On his part, Senator
Francis Alimikhena,
APC, Edo North, who
lamented that
can no longer sleep with
their eyes closed because
of armed banditry and
kidnapping across the
country, said one of his
constituents, Prince
Denis Abuda, the USbased
in Edo for the Yuletide
holidays, was kidnapped
on his way back to Lagos to
return to America, but was
found dead five days after
his abduction.
He said it had become
imperative for the country
to embrace state police to
complement the present
federal police to fish out the
bandits.
In his contribution,
Senator Tolulope Odebiyi,
(APC, Ogun West), said
the nation is on the edge of
a civil war, urging
President Buhari to speak
out to calm the people.
He said that it is a serious
indictment on the
leadership of the nation for
foreigners to invade the
country to cause havoc.
"President Buhari should
sign an Executive Order
banning open grazing.
The nation is in great
danger and the President
has done nothing," he
lamented.
Similarly, Senator Biodun
Olujimi (PDP, Ekiti South)
said
sufficient attention to the
Continues on Page 41
By Yinka Latona
On appointment of ex-service chiefs as ambassadors (4)
Why not if they are
qualified? But I
would prefer career
diplomats. These men
should have been
allowed to go home and
have some rest. The idea
of recycling people in
Qualified younger
people should have been
given the opportunity.
—Mr. Benjamin Mordi,
Public Relations Officer
For me, the president
has remained a
sectional leader, not a
nationalist. Appointing
these ex-service chiefs as
non-career ambassadors
says so much. Could it be
he is shading them from
ICC petition against some
of them? Is this done in the
national interest?
has never been this divided
but our consolation is that
this too shall pass by 2023.
—Mr. Sunday
Osanyintuyi
Appointing the exservice
chiefs as
ambassadors isn’t right.
These same people have
been in service for years,
they have contributed their
quota; allow other people
with fresh ideas contribute
theirs too. It’s high time we
stopped patronising same
set of people. We need to
be progressive not
retrogressive.
—Sulyman Muhammed-
Robiu,
Content creator
It saddens my
heart that we keep
moving around in
circles in this country.
I don’t know why the
Presidency has to keep
recycling this same set
of people when we
have youths that are
capable and equal to
the task.
—Adeola Abiodun,
Entrepreneur
At first, I didn’t see the
decision as a good one
based on how unpopular this
govt. and its policies have become.
These people were retired
because they couldn’t deliver the
desired result and almost
immediately, they were saddled
with another responsibility.
However, this might help the
country in the comity of nations
based on their military expertise,
they might add a great value at
the end of the day.
— Olafimihan Sheriff,
Student
The appointment of these
ex-service chiefs as
ambassadors is not a good
idea. These people have
always been in charge yet
nothing worthy of note was
achieved. It is really
disheartening that we keep
moving around in circles in
this country. Why does power
always have to keep
revolving around these
same people when we have
young and vibrant
individuals that are capable
and equal to the task?
—Adebayo Muheez,
Student
6— Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
Police confirm
kidnap of NTA
reporter in
P-Harcourt
Mrs Onyia.
THE Police Command in
Rivers, yesterday, confirmed
the abduction of a reporter
attached to
Authority, NTA, in Port Harcourt,
Mrs Chidiebere Onyia.
Police Public Relations Officer
in Rivers, Nnamdi Omoni, said
the command had deployed
personnel to locate and rescue
Onyia from her abductors.
He said the Commissioner of
Police in the state, Joseph
Mukan, had ordered the
command’s tactical units to
ensure the victim’s safe release.
It was gathered that gunmen
had kidnapped Onyia, a female
reporter with NTA, at about 6.30
p.m. on Tuesday around Woji
area in Port Harcourt.
It was further gathered that
Onyia, a mother of three, was
taken away to an unknown
location by her abductors while
returning home from her office
at Choba area.
Onyia was reportedly with
some of her colleagues in her car
when the hoodlums intercepted
her vehicle at Woji area, forced
her out and drove her away in
their vehicle.
An eye witness said the
hoodlums fired several gunshots
into the air, forcing motorists and
bystanders to scamper for safety.
One of Onyia’s colleagues,
who alighted from the car before
the incident, wondered what the
female journalist could have
done to warrant her abduction.
The colleague said: “I was in
the vehicle before the incident.
Onyia drove me to my
destination and continued to
drop others.
“I was shocked to hear that
gunmen double-crossed her and
took her away whilst abandoning
the vehicle and other occupants.
“She is a mother of three
young children, and as such, we
are begging her abductors to
release her unconditionally.”
Confirm arrest of 3
suspected kidnappers
in Delta
Also, the Police Command in
Delta has confirmed the arrest of
three suspected kidnappers in
Agbarho, Ughelli North Local
Government Area of the state.
The command’s spokesperson,
Onome Onovwakpoyeya, who
confirmed the arrest in Warri,
yesterday, said: “Three
suspected kidnappers have
indeed been arrested by the
command. We are out for them;
it is either the criminals repent
or relocate out of Delta,” she said.
It was gathered that the
suspects were apprehended on
Tuesday in Agbarho.
Suspected pirates attack passenger
boats, abduct 64-yr-old chief, 6 others
By Samuel Oyadongha
& Emem Idio
YENAGOA—A 64-year-old
chief and three others have been
abducted by suspected pirates
terrorising the people of the coastal
area of Nembe, Brass and Akassa
in Nembe and Brass Local
Government Areas of Bayelsa State.
The development, it was gathered,
has forced maritime workers to
down tools in the troubled axis,
leaving commuters stranded.
The state Chairman of
Maritime Union, Ogoniba
Ibingansi, confirmed on phone that
the waterways are no longer safe
and all boats operating along
Odioma, Akassa, Brass and Nembe
are no longer loading with
passengers told to stay away.
Ibingansi also confirmed that the
security agencies, including Special
Adviser on Security Matters to the
Bayelsa State Government, are
battling to counter the pirates.
A source, who spoke under
anonymity said: "Pirates have been
operating along the waters since last
Sunday. It is funny. They attacked
some boats and robbed all the
passengers, Monday evening.
“They abducted three persons,
attacked another boat and
kidnapped four. They used the
earlier seized boat to release the first
three persons.”
It was also learned that on
Monday evening, along the
Yenagoa-Akassa in Brass Local
Government Area route, a
businessman was stripped naked
and taken away by the heavily
armed pirates.
The rampaging sea robbers
reportedly surfaced along Odioma
Creek and attacked a boat heading
to Nembe around 2 pm and took
away one person. They attacked
another boat heading to Brass from
Nembe and abducted three persons.
CP orders manhunt
for the kidnappers
Meanwhile, the state
Commissioner of Police Mike Okoli,
has ordered an immediate manhunt
for the kidnappers, who attacked
speedboats and kidnapped
passengers on the Okpoma/
Odioma and Nembe/Brass
INSPECTION: Comptroller, Federal Operations Unit Zone C of
Service, NCS, Mr Yusuf Lawal (right), inspecting seized items by NCS in Owerri,
yesterday. Photo: NAN.
Police arrest kidnappers of Oyo LG chair
By Adeola Badru
FOUR suspects allegedly
connected with the
kidnapping of Mr Jacob
Olayinwola, Chairman, Igangan
Local Council Development Area,
LCDA, Oyo State were, yesterday,
paraded by the state Police
Command alongside 44 other
suspects over various offences,
including cultism, murder, rape,
arson, armed robbery and stealing
among others.
The state Commissioner of
Police, Mrs Ngozi Onadeko,
during the parade, said the
suspects, who were armed with
AK-47 rifles, kidnapped the
chairman on the Igangan-Ado-
Awaye road in Ibarapa LGA of the
state.
Vanguard recalled that the local
government chairman was
kidnapped last year, on his way
to Ibadan for a meeting with
Governor Seyi Makinde on
October 25, 2020.
The police boss said the gang
members collected N5.5 million
ransom before releasing their
victim.
She said operatives of the
command later swung into action
and arrested the suspects and
recovered one double-barrel gun,
one cut to size gun and four live
cartridges found in their
possession.
•Nab suspected killers of Akinyele farmer
The suspects.
Onadeko said the suspects
would soon be charged to court.
Suspected killers of
Akinyele farmer
Also paraded were three alleged
kidnappers and killers of one
Oluwole Agboola at Akinyele Local
Government Area of Oyo State.
Onadeko said the suspects, while
armed with sophisticated weapons,
invaded the farm of the victim at
Adegbede village via Aba-Odo area,
Akinyele LGA, attacked the victim
and whisked him away to an
unknown destination.
She said: “They later contacted
his relatives and collected N1,
650,000 ransom and brutally
murdered and abandoned his
corpse in the bush where he had
been held hostage for several days.
“Discreet investigation carried out
by crack police detectives led to the
arrest of the three members of the
kidnapping syndicate, who all
confessed to the crime.”
A 56-year-old suspect was also
paraded for defiling a 14-year-old
girl at Bodija area of Ibadan.
The CP said the suspect gave the
victim a cola drink suspected to
contain some form of sedative to
drink.
She said the drink made the lady
unconscious and the suspect had
unlawful carnal knowledge of her.
Onadeko said all the suspects
would be charged to court after the
police completed investigations into
their separate cases.
waterways on Tuesday.
In a statement, spokesman of the
command, Asinim Butswat, said
the two separate incidents occurred
simultaneously and six passengers
were allegedly kidnapped by
unknown gunmen suspected to be
pirates.
He said: “In a joint operation,
operatives from the Marine Police,
Navy and Joint Task Force of
Operation Delta Safe are combing
the creeks to rescue the kidnapped
victims and apprehend the
kidnappers.
“The command appeals to the
good people of Bayelsa State to
remain calm and volunteer useful
information to enable the security
agencies to fish out these
hoodlums.”
Gunmen kill
policeman,
injure 4 others
in Taraba
A
police officer was
reportedly killed,
yesterday, as gunmen attacked
a Mobile Police checkpoint in
Chanchanji village of Takum
Local Government Area of
Taraba State.
Local sources said the
gunmen, who rode on
motorcycles, opened fire on the
police officers manning the
checkpoint, killing an officer,
while four other passersby
sustained injuries in the attack.
It was gathered that the
gunmen after killing the officer
allegedly made away with his
rifle.
A resident of Chanchanji said
the gunmen, who came from
the Benue State side of the
Taraba/Benue border opened
fire at a checkpoint mounted by
the police, killing one of the
officers on duty.
He said: “The gunmen rode
on three motorcycles and
passed at a high speed
heading towards the bridge
about 6:50 am.
“After a while, we heard
gunshots, but because of the
insecurity around here, we did
not rush to the area. It was after
30 minutes that we went out
only to discover that a police
officer was killed in the attack.
“Four other persons,
including the son of the Gara
of Chanchanji, was injured in
the attack.”
The resident also said the
Jukun youths suspecting the
gunmen might be Tiv people,
launched a reprisal on people
of the ethnic group in the area,
burning two motorcycles and
injuring several others, who
were on their way to Peva
market, which holds every
Wednesday.
Spokesperson for the Taraba
State Police Command, Reform
Leha, who confirmed the attack
on the telephone, said: “Yes,
one police officer, who was on
special duty in the area
protecting the internally
displaced persons, was killed
in the early morning attack
“Four other IDPs were also
injured. Those injured are
responding to treatment at the
Takum General Hospital.”
Y
K
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 7
One missing, 10 wounded, goods worth N50m
looted
By Chimaobi Nwaiwu
NNEWI—NO fewer than 10
people were wounded, while
one person was declared missing
with goods and money worth over
N50 million looted when some
unidentified hoodlums attacked a
market, known as Ugo-Gbuzue
Ochakee Cow and Goat Market/
Abattoir, in Osile Ogbunike,
Ogbunike Oyi Local Government
Area of Anambra State.
The traders and butchers operating
at Ugo-Gbuzue Ochakee Cow and
Goat Market /Abattoir have sent a
Save our Soul, SOS, message to
Anambra State government and the
state Commissioner of Police to
protect them from yet-to-be
identified people, who allegedly
invaded the market and carted
away their goods and money.
Chairman of the market/abattoir,
Mr Ikechukwu Ejike, accused the
people of Ezinkwelle, Nkwelle-
Ezunaka, who are also laying claim
to the market land, of invading them
with over 25 police vehicles and 50
policemen.
He said the police shot
sporadically to scare everybody
away before they looted their money
and goods.
Meanwhile, Osile Ogbunike
residents, who are the landlords of
the groups, through the Chairman
of Osile Ogbunike village, Sir
Donatus Mbanefo, have called on
Anambra State Government to put a
stop to such invasion, attacks and
looting of their tenants’ goods and
money to avoid shedding of blood,
warning that the community will
never tolerate such assault on their
tenants or people again.
Flanked by his Treasurer, Mr
Okechukwu Okakpu; community
lawyer, Kenechukwu Ejimkonye
and others, Mbanefo wondered why
the people of Ezinkwelle have
decided to be a thorn in their flesh
over land matters they lost three
times: 1927, 1931 and 2012 at the
Supreme Court.
“Since 1927, we have been
occupying the land, Ezinkwelle
people have no land there. We are
surprised that they invaded the
market/abattoir where our tenants
were doing their businesses and
destroyed, looted goods and money
and wounded over 10 people.
“We decided to hold our youths
not to confront them, but our shock
was that they were in company of
over 50 policemen, who watched
while they were destroying and
looting goods and money.
Ezinkwelle reacts
However, Chairman of Ezinkwelle
village, Nkwelle-Ezunaka, Chief
Wilfred Okafor, has dismissed Osile
Ogbunike community, Supreme
Court victories against them, saying
Osili Ogbunike community has
never won any case at the Supreme
Court.
“All the Supreme Court victories
Osile Ogbunike people have been
parading were against other
communities, not Ezinkwelle. We
won in a high court and were in
Appeal Court when they entered the
portion of our land trying to sell
before we stopped them.
“The Ugo-Gbuzue Ochakee Cow
and Goat Market/Abbartour, the
Osile Ogbunike people are claiming
is the portion of our land, which the
Anambra State Boundary
Commission gave us in the land
demarcation we had with Osile
Ogbunike and Agu Umunya.
•As Anambra communities fight over market, abattoir
Police explain
presence
Contacted, the Police spokesman
in the state, Mr Haruna
Mohammed, said police presence
at the market/abattoir on the day of
the incident was to execute court
order on the land secured by
Ezinkwelle village, Nkwelle-
Ezunaka.
“There was court judgment on that
land, which the court bailiff came to
execute. They needed police cover
for security and some policemen
accompanied them to execute the
order.
“However, in the process of doing
that unknown persons started
shooting with a locally made gun
from the bush and bullet hit two
persons. They were rushed to the
hospital and were treated and
discharged. Nobody died in the
incident, nobody is missing as
alleged."
Operation Akpakwu rescues 24 pregnant
women, arrests 2 in Calabar baby factory
By Ike Uchechukwu
CALABAR—TWENTY four
ladies,11 children and two
others have been handed over to
National Agency for the Prohibition
of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP,
by the security outfit codenamed
Operation Akpakwu that busted a
baby factory operating at Anantigha
axis of Calabar South Local
Government area of the state.
The owner of the baby factory, Mrs
Fedelia Daniel, who was arrested
by the security personnel with her
husband, denied the allegations
that she knows nothing about the
factory.
But, one of the teenagers, Stella
John, who claimed she was
carrying a five months old
pregnancy, said she was introduced
to the place by one of her friends.
“I was introduced to the place by
one of my friends after my boyfriend
left me when I became pregnant. I
had no money and I needed money,
that was why I decided to make
money through this means. I
receive N2,000 on weekly basis for
my upkeep,” she said.
24 pregnant women, 11
children handed over
Those rescued.
to NAPTIP
During the presentation, the
Officer, Commanding 13 Brigade,
Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Abudulahi,
represented by the Officer
Commanding 13 Brigade Provost,
Major. Stanley Ikepeme, said they
would carry out their duty, which is
to maintain peace.
He said the army will not relent
in its task of ensuring that peace and
security reign in the state and all
forms of criminality were completely
stamped out from the state.
The Head of Operations, National
Agency for the Prohibition of
Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, Mr
Oba Jacobs, said the suspects would
be investigated and charged to
court for prosecution.
Jacobs urged the public to keep
an eye on their neighbours and
report such to the agency for proper
action.
He disclosed that the agency had
a facility in Calabar where suspects
would be kept until proper
investigation was done and those
found wanting will be charged to
court.
“As an agency, we have the
mandate to arrest, prosecute. We
also urged the public to assist us
with useful information that would
lead to the arrest of this category of
people involved in this kind of
racket,” he said.
Indigenes flee as soldiers storm Delta
community over communal fracas
•Call JTF to order, community leader appeals to FG, Okowa
By Chancel Sunday
BURUTU—Indigenes of
Tuomo community, the
traditional headquarters of
Esuku Kingdom in Burutu
council area of Delta State,
have reportedly fled to the
forest over rampaging soldiers,
who reportedly stormed the
community over a communal
fracas.
In a distress call from the
newly-elected CDC chairman
of the community, Mr Binebai
Tomke, he noted that Tuomo
community could not afford to
experience what happened to
Bolou-Tubegbe community last
year.
He said: “Some powerful
people in the community
perfected a plan to oust me out
of office shortly after my
election, but the whole
community, including women
and youths, rose and protested
against their plan.
“Now, these powerful
individuals brought soldiers to
the community, who are now
molesting and harassing
indigenes. Three persons have
already been whisked away by
the soldiers and we cannot
sleep at night.
“I appeal to the Federal
Government, Gov. Ifeanyi
Okowa, HRM (Justice) Francis
Tabai (retd) and the Egbesu
priest of Tuomo Kingdom, Para
Ekiyes, to intervene and call
these politicians and their footsoldiers
to order.
“Right now, I’m talking to you
from my hideout in the forest
because of the soldiers rampage
both day and night. We don’t
want what happened to Bolou-
Final year
Osun poly
student dies
after last
paper
The late Apeke.
By Shina Abubakar
OSOGBO—AN HND 2
students of Microbiology at
the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree,
Omorinsola Apeke, was reported
dead on Tuesday after completing
her final year examination.
It was gathered that the
deceased suffered a health
condition prior to the last paper
and had to complete it at the
school’s medical centre.
A source around the student’s
hostel disclosed that she was
discharged from the hospital and
was very fine throughout the day.
It was gathered that she also
attended the finalists party
organised by her colleagues to
mark the end of their school
programme.
Findings also showed that the
deceased died after some private
hospitals rejected her before she
was admitted at a particular clinic
in the town.
The school’s spokesperson,
Tope Abiola, described the
incident as unfortunate, saying
the student’s death after going
through rigourous academic
programme was heartbreaking.
He said: “She finished her
examination yesterday and few
hours later in her private hostel,
you know the school is not a
residential institution, she had
crisis, I think after she went out
with her friends.
“The school sympathises with
the parents of the deceased. It is
not easy to nurse a child to that
level and died on the last day she
completed her last paper of HND
programme.
"We commiserate with the
family. We pray that God will give
the parents the fortitude to bear
the loss. It is very disheartening
and painful that she suddenly die
like that after passing through
rigorous academic efforts.”
2 escape death as truck crushes car in Lagos
By Bose Adelaja
TWO car owners narrowly
escaped death in Lagos after
one of their cars was crushed by
a containerised truck, Tuesday
night, along Mile 2/Badagry
Expressway.
While one of the cars was
crushed, the other, a Toyota
Corolla 2006 model, had its rear
damaged by the truck.
It was gathered that both cars
were parked by the roadside with
the drivers busy transacting
businesses around.
An eyewitness said:
“Unfortunately, the truck,
which was journeying on top
Tubegbe here.”
The Traditional Prime Minister
of Esuku Kingdom, High Chief
Mike Loyibo, whose property
was allegedly destroyed,
however, said: “Yes, it happened
just because of misinformation.
“My property worth millions
of naira were destroyed by
community youths but the
matter has been brought under
control by join intervention of
the police and army.”
Scene of the accident.
speed lost control
and landed on
one of the cars
while the impact
of the accident
also affected the
Toyota Corolla
car.
At press time,
the Public
Relations Officer,
Lagos State
Emergency
Management
A g e n c y
LASEMA, Nosa
Okunbor, said the
agency’s team
was closer to the
scene of the
incident.
C
8 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
:Vanguard News
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
APC: Crisis trails membership registration
exercise in South-East, Delta, Kwara, Osun
By Festus Ahon,
Demola Akinyemi,
Omeiza Ajayi &
Shina Abubakar
ABUJA — THE ongoing
membership registration
exercise of the All
Progressives Congress, APC,
has run into hitches, crisis in
the South-East, Delta, Kwara
and Osun states.
There was paucity of registration
materials in the South-
East geo-political zone, and
Osun State. The exercise was
suspended in Delta State, yesterday,
following disagreements
among party leaders
over alleged removal of the
names of some people nominated
for registration to favour
a faction by the State
Caretaker Committee Chairman,
Prophet Jones Erue.
Prophet Jones Erue confirmed
the suspension order
but denied removing names
of some of those nominated
for the exercise. In Kwara,
factional members of the state
executives alleged hoarding of
registration and revalidation
materials to deny some
members registration.
They accused the Senator
John Danboi-registration
committee of not carrying
them along in the exercise,
saying that even though their
chairman, Hon Bashir
Bolarinwa, is suspended, other
members of his team which
included Organising Secretary,
Women leader and other
are not suspended. “So, why
did the team side step all of
us?” the asked
Though efforts to get Senator
John Danboi Committee
for reaction were not successful
at press time a credible
source close to the committee
told Vanguard that based on
security reports there were
grand plans to attack selected
registration units particularly
in the urban areas by
thugs, so the materials which
are available in other places
outside Ilorin couldn’t be
made available there.
Erue denies tempering
with list of
nominees in Delta
Vanguard gathered that the
Chairman of the National
Registration and Revalidation
Committee of the APC and
Niger State Governor,
Abubakar Sani Bello, gave
order for the suspension of the
exercise in Delta pending resolution
of some issues the party
was beset with in the state.
A stakeholders meeting will
be held today (Thursday) in
Abuja to discuss issues that led
to the suspension of the exercise.
Vanguard gathered that the
disagreement arose over
Erue’s alleged removal of
some names nominated for the
exercise by some leaders to favour
a faction of the party
However, Erue denied removing
names of some of
those nominated for the exercise.
He said he was not chairman
of the registration exercise,
adding that he does not
have the powers to remove the
name of anybody nominated
for the exercise.
Factional state exco,
registration committee
bicker over hoarding
of materials
Though efforts to get the
Senator John Danboi Committee
for reaction on the alleged
hoarding of materials
were not successful at press
time, a credible source
close to the committee told
Vanguard that based on security
reports that there were
grand plans to attack selected
registration units particularly
in the urban areas by
thugs.
Deputy Chairman of the
party in Kwara North, Chief
Sunday Oyebiyi flanked by
other factional members of
the executives said they won’t
participate until the registration
materials are made available.
Oyebiyi said: “The
guidelines of the registration
are being severely raped
across all the 1,872 units without
exception. Unfortunately,
Senator John Danboi and his
team are not only looking
away but are also seemingly
enabling these aberrations for
reasons best known to them.
“First, the registration materials
are being hoarded in
virtually all the units of the
state that we have monitored,
both the registration forms
and the register of members
are never provided.
“Instead, party members
who are revalidating and others
who are prospective are
being asked to write their personal
details, including their
NIN on a rough sheet of paper.
We will not participate in
the exercise until the materials
are made available “
However, a source close to
the committee clarified that
areas where materials were
not available are those flash
points the thugs wanted to
come and destroy.
Shortage of forms
hit S-East
Decrying shortage of registration
forms in the South-
East, Ebonyi State Governor,
Engr. David Umahi, during a
maiden visit to the National
Secretariat of the APC in
Abuja, said south-easterners
want to join the party and
should not be discouraged
Speaking on his visit,
Umahi said he had fruitful discussions
with the Chairman
of the Caretaker Extraordinary
Convention Planning
Committee CECPC, Governor
Mai Mala Buni and that
the issue was being resolved.
His words: “You know since
I joined the party in November,
I have not visited the party’s
national secretariat and
so, the chairman afforded me
the opportunity while he is
around to visit. So, I visited
not just because I am visiting
first, but to also appreciate the
beautiful work the chairman
of the party is doing for our
party, and making it to be
more digital.
“The ongoing registration,
arrangements and logistics
and the intentions are very
wonderful. It is first class because
I have never seen it in
any party administration. So,
it is important I come to commend
him and to also commend
the staff, who are working
with him. This is essentially
the reasons I have come.
“APC is just coming on
board in South-East. I complained
to him that hundreds
of forms at the Polling Units
is a far cry from what we experience.
Everybody in the
South-East wants to belong to
the APC."
Osun seeks
more materials
In Osun, the exercise faced
various logistics challenges.
The exercise scarcely commenced
on Tuesday as scheduled
as many registration
units in Osogbo, the state capital
were without registration
materials.
Speaker of the Osun State
House of Assembly, Timothy
Owoeye, was revalidated at
his polling unit at Ilesa-East
local government. However,
the exercise was more visible
across polling units in
Osogbo, Ife, Modakeke,
Ibokun Igbajo, Ota-Ayegbaju
among other towns in the state.
Some of the personalities
revalidated include the state
party caretaker Chairman,
Prince Gboyega Famodun,
former Commissioner for Information
and Strategy,
Oluomo Sunday Akere, who
were registered at Igbajo, Bosun
Oyintiloye at Ibokun
among others.
FG approves new Debt
Management Strategy
State creation: Take your
case to NASS, Lawan appeals
to
By Henry Umoru
ABUJA — AS the constitu
tion review process is
on going, the President of the
Senate, Senator Ahmad
Lawan yesterday asked
agitating for additional states,
to take such issues they feel
strongly about to the National
Assembly..
Speaking yesterday in
Abuja when a delegation of
the Enugu State Committee
on the creation of Adada state
visited him in his office at the
National Assembly, Lawan
told his guests that they were
in order by taking their request
to the National Assembly.
The delegation which included
former Minister of Information
and the immediate
past President-General of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief
John Nnia Nwodo, was led by
Chief Vita Abba.
The meeting was facilitated
by Senator Chukwuka Utazi,
Peoples Democratic Party,
Senate begins screening of new
CDS, service chiefs, others,
refer request to committee
By Henry Umoru
ABUJA— THE Senate
has begun screening of
the newly appointed Chief of
Defence Staff, CDS, and service
chiefs whose names were
forwarded to it by President
Muhammadu Buhari for
confirmation.
Consequently, the Senate
yesterday referred their names
to its Joint Committee on Defence,
Army, Airforce and
Navy to commence the
screening and report back to
the Senate at Plenary for other
legislative actions.
President of the Senate,
Senator Ahmad Lawan, after
the Executive Communication
as presented by the Senate
Leader, Senator Yahaya
Abdullahi, All Progressives
Congress, APC, Kebbi North,
then referred the names to the
Joint Senate Committee.
Recall that Buhari had in a
By Emma Ujah
ABUJA — The federal
government has
approved a new Medium-
Term Debt Management
Strategy (MTDS) which has
increased total public debt as
a percentage of Gross
Domestic Product from 25 per
to 40 percent. The Federal
Executive Council (FEC),
approved the new Medium-
Term Debt Management
Strategy, yesterday. It will run
in period of 2020-2023.
A statement by Debt Management
Office (DMO) said
the new fiscal sustainability
of the target would enable
it accommodate borrowings
to fund budget deficits
and other government
obligations. In that regard, the
DMO said the government
would issue promissory
notes to settle government
arrears and the Ways and
Means Advance at the Central
Bank of
Under the new strategy, domestic
borrowing is targeted
at 70 per cent, while external
borrowing would be 30 per
cent and optimise access to
both concessional and commercial
sources abroad. An
average tenor or 10 years is
being targeted to effectively
manage the refinancing
risks.
“The Medium-Term Debt
Management Strategy
(MTDS) is a policy document
that provides a guide to the
borrowing activities of government
in the medium-term,
usually four (4) years.
“It is recognized as one of
the best practices in public
debt management and is recommended
by the World
Bank (WB) and International
Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure
that public debt management
is driven by a well-articulated
Strategy that is structured
to meet a country’s
broader macroeconomic and
public debt management
objectives", DMO stated.
PDP, Enugu North.
Lawan said: “You are in order.
You are at the right place.
This is the people’s Assembly,
saddled with the responsibility
and mandate of receiving
and listening to
who desire one form of legislative
Intervention or the other
to ensure that
peaceful and that people
live in harmony and trust.
“So your quest for the creation
of Adada, you are welcome.
We are going to give
you every opportunity and
support that will be necessary
for the creation of Adada
State. “It is a constitutional
and legitimate agitation.
should take the opportunity
of the Constitutional
review process that the
ninth Senate and indeed the
National Assembly has embarked
upon. “This is about
the creation of Adada state.
But there are so many other
opportunities to better the lot
of our people through constitutional
ammendment.
letter to the President of the
Senate, Senator Ahmad
Lawan, dated January 27,
2021, said the screening was
being sought in furtherance of
Section 18 (1) of the Armed
Forces Act Cap A.20 Laws of
the Federation of
The new service chiefs to be
screened are: Major General
Lucky Irabor, Chief of Defence
Staff; Major General Ibrahim
Attahiru, Chief of Army Staff;
Rear Admiral Awwal Gambo,
Chief of Naval Staff; and Air
Vice Marshal Isiaka Amao,
Chief of Air Staff.
Also referred was the President’s
request for the confirmation
of General Abayomi
Olonisakin, retd; Lt-Gen.
Tukur Buratai, retd; Vice Admiral
Ibok Ekwe Ibas, retd;
Air Marshal Sadique
Abubakar, retd; and Air Vice
Marshal Muhammad S.
Usman, retd, as non-career
ambassadorial nominees.
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 9
By Ikechukwu
Nnochiri & Luminous
Jannamike
ABUJA—THE Federal High
Court sitting in Abuja
yesterday vacated an order it
made on November 4, 2020,
which directed banks to freeze
accounts that were linked to 20
alleged promoters of the
#EndSARS protest that rocked
the nation last year.
The court, in a ruling by Justice
Ahmed Mohammed, ordered all
the commercial banks affected by
the order, to “immediately”
unfreeze the accounts, even as
it struck out the suit that was
filed against the alleged
#EndSARS promoters by the
Central Bank of
and its govenor, Mr. Godwin
Emiefele.
The order came after all the
parties notified the court that
they had resolved to amicably
settle the matter by withdrawing
all the processes they earlier filed
with respect to the suit marked
FHC/ABJ/CS/1384/2020.
While the CBN and its govenor
were represented by a former
Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of
Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa,
SAN, all the persons affected by
the freezing order were
represented by human rights
lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN.
The senior lawyers told the
court at the resumed proceedings
in the matter on Wednesday that
their decision to withdraw all the
processes in the suit was to allow
the reconciliation process that
is ongoing before various panels
of enquiry on police brutality
across the country, to progress
unhindered.
After he had listened to the
parties, Justice Mohammed
accordingly struck out the suit.
It would be recalled that the
court had on the strength of an
ex-parte application that was
brought before it by the CBN and
its govenor, ordered banks to
freeze accounts of the alleged
promoters of the #EndSARS
protest for a total period of 180
days.
The court said the order was to
allow the CBN to conclude its
investigation into allegation that
the accounts were used to
finance terrorism.
The 20 persons listed as
defendants in the suit were
Bolatito Oduala, Chima
Ibebunjoh, Mary Kpengwa,
Gatefield
Bibi, Bassey Israel, Wisdom Obi,
Nicholas Osazele, Ebere Idibie,
Akintomide Yusuf, Uhuo Promise,
Mosopefoluwa Odeseye and
Adegoke Emmanuel.
Others are, Umoh Ekanem,
Babatunde Segun, Mulu
Teghenan, Mary Oshifowora,
Winifred Jacob, Victor Solomon
and Idunu Williams.
Meanwhile, the defendants, in
an application they filed to setaside
the order, maintained that
they were denied fair hearing by
the court.
They accused the CBN of not
only lying to the court when it
painted them as suspected
terrorists, but also engaging in
gross abuse of the judicial process.
The Defendants contended
that the freezing order the court
issued against them was
“anchored on misrepresentation
of material facts and based on
suppression of material facts” by
the CBN.
Listing 13 grounds the court
should consider and unfreeze
their accounts, they argued that
the ex-parte order the court
granted to the apex bank only
:Vanguard News
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
Why court ordered banks to unfreeze accounts
of 20 alleged #EndSARS promoters •Strikes out CBN's suit
validated an illegal act.
According to them, “The
Plaintiff/Respondent unlawfully
froze the accounts of the
Defendants/Applicants before
seeking and obtaining the orders
of this Honourable Court on
November 4, 2020.
“This Honorable Court on the
4th day of November, 2020
pursuant to an ex parte
application brought by the
Plaintiff/Respondent, made a
mandatory order, inter alia,
empowering the Plaintiff/
Applicant to direct the head of
Access Bank of
Fidelity Bank Plc, First Bank Plc,
Guarantee Trust Bank Plc,
United Bank Plc and Zenith Bank
Plc to freeze forthwith all
transactions on the 20 Bank
Accounts of the Defendants/
Applicants for a period of 90 days
pending the outcome of
investigation and inquiry
currently being conducted by the
CBN without affording the
Respondents/Applicants the right
of fair hearing.
“The said order of the
Honourable Court permitting the
Plaintiff/Respondent to freeze the
applicants account for a period of
90 days (renewable for another
90 days) breached the
fundamental right of the
Defendants/Applicants, to fair
hearing guaranteed by Section
36 of the 1999 Constitution (as
amended) and Article 7 of the
African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and
Enforcement) Act, Laws of the
Federation, 2004 in that no fair
hearing was granted the
applicant/respondent before the
order was made.
“The Plaintiff/Respondent is
neither one of the investigative
agencies nor prosecuting
agencies recognized under the
Terrorism Prevention Act, 2011
and the Terrorism Prevention
(Amendment) Act, 2013.
“The said other violated the
rights of the Defendants/
Applicants to own movable
property. There was no urgency
warranting the grant of the order
ex parte.
“The ex-parte order made by
the Honourable Court has
determined the fundamental right
of the Defendants/Applicants
without affording them fair
hearing”, they argued.
More so, in a 27-paragraphed
supporting affidavit that was
deposed to by Marshal Abubakar,
a lawyer in Falana’s Chambers,
the Applicants, said they were
never afforded the
opportunity to defend the
terrorism allegation the CBN
made against them, before the
ex-parte order was made,
contrary to the the provision
of Section 36 of the 1999
Constitution (as amended)
and Article 7 of the African
Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights (Ratification
and Enforcement) Act, Laws
of the Federation, 2004.
They told the court that the
CBN had since October, 2020,
ordered banks to freeze all the
accounts belonging to them, even
before it approached the court for
the ex-parte order.
“That on October 15, 2020, the
accounts of the Defendants/
Applicants were frozen by their
respective banks on the orders of
the Plaintiff/Respondent without
notice and lawful justification.
“That the Plaintiff/
•CBN should stop freezing bank accounts of activists — FALANA
•It’s not over yet, CSOs warn FG •As CAN says freezing of the accounts
uncalled for,
CONDOLENCE VISIT: Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State (middle), his wife, Dame Edith Okowa
(left) and Chairman, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Jim Ovia during Ovia's condolence visit to the governor over
the death of his father, Pa Arthur Okowa in Government House, Asaba yesterday.
Respondent approached this
honorable court by way of
motion ex-parte to legalize the
illegal freezing of the Defendants/
Applicants accounts.
“That an ex-parte order was
made on the 4th day of November,
2020, by which this Honorable
Court froze the Respondents/
Applicants’ accounts based on
allegation(s) bordering on
terrorism.
“That the Plaintiff/
Respondent’s motion ex parte did
not disclose any fact capable of
linking the defendants/applicants
to any terrorism activity.”
The Applicant said they would
suffer economic hardship, unless
the court vacated the order it
made against them.
Meanwhile, Civil society
groups, on Wednesday, warned
the federal authorities that the
fight for justice and good
governance by #EndSARS
protesters is still not over,
despite the Federal High
Court’s order directing the
Central Bank of
(CBN) to unfreeze the bank
accounts of the 20 promoters
of the protest.
Stop freezing activists'
bank accounts, Falana tells
CBN
Meanwhile, counsel to the
protesters, Mr Femi Falana in
his reaction said: ''Let the
CBN stop freezing the Bank
Accounts of activists because
it constitutes a gross
infringement of the fundamental
Google announces online safety initiatives for
GOOGLE
has
announced a number of
initiatives across Kenya,
and South Africa to bolster its
continued efforts to keep
children, young people, and
families safe online.
In a statement released on
Tuesday by Juliet Ehimuan, the
tech giant’s country director,
Google said it has teamed up with
some organisations across the
continent to boost efforts and
develop programmes around
online safety.
To mark the 2021 Safer Internet
Day, Google also offered free
online safety books and
government collaborations.
“With an estimated 346 million
right to fair hearing and property.
If the CBN does not desist
from the illegal practice our
courts should turn down frivolous
applications for freezing the bank
accounts of activists and other
citizens.''
This is even as the Christian
Association of
described the freezing of their
accounts as uncalled for, adding
that
democracy by stopping citizens
from expressing their views or
demonstrating against bad
governance.
The CSOs, which spoke in
separate interviews with
Vanguard, noted that the Federal
Government had a history of
flouting Court Orders. So, they
urged the youths to take
proactive steps to ensure the
judge’s directive was
implemented.
Sue for damages,
Concerned
#EndSARS promoters
The convener of Concerned
Adeyanju, queried: “What was
the offence allegedly committed
by these patriotic
were just protesting and
exercising their fundamental
human rights?
“This is to show that we are
not practising democracy. That’s
why such aberration, could have
taken place.
“However, the youths who
suffered one loss or the other due
to the freezing of their accounts
internet users that came online
for the first time in 2020 and 376
million new social media users,
there is no better time for us to
help people stay safe online,” the
US firm stated.
“We are working with
nonprofits and social enterprises
to advance their work through
Google.org’s Africa Online Safety
Fund.
“We’re also working with
educational institutions and
governments across sub-
Saharan Africa in order to have a
greater impact.”
In administering its Africa
Online Safety Fund, Google said
it gave a grant to Impact Amplifier
and the Institute for Strategic
should sue CBN and claim
damages. This is how to make
countries work. They should not
leave everything to God.”
Stop bending backwards
to oppressive govts, Free
Courts
Also, the Free
Movement said the court, in the
first place, ought not to have
ordered the accounts frozen at
the request of the Federal
Government through the Central
Bank of
Convener of the group,
Raphael Adebayo said: “The
protesters’ accounts should
never have been frozen in the
first place. The protesters whose
accounts were frozen have had
to struggle immensely for the past
three months, living a destitute
life despite having money in the
bank.
Put #EndSARS on the
2023 agenda, CDNDC tells
youths
Reacting also, the Coalition in
Defence of
and Constitution, urged the
youths to put #EndSARS on
their human rights agenda for
governance ahead of the 2023
general elections.
Mr. Ariyo Atoye, Convener of
CDNDC said: “Interestingly, I
see no reason to celebrate this
‘well-deserved’ court verdict
unfreezing the accounts of
#EndSARS promoters, because
that ugly, thoughtless and
Dialogue to run a call across the
continent to find innovative nonprofit
organisations operating in
Africa.
“26 organisations across 9
African countries were selected
to get grants of up to $100,000
each. The five selected in
include Epower, LagosMums,
Velma Foundation, Hive
Creative Guild and Teens Can
Code,” it added.
“This funding will be used to
boost projects that work to combat
online vulnerabilities,
disinformation and extremism
aimed at children, the youth,
families, schools and small and
medium-sized businesses.”
Google also collaborated with
shameful action the government
took, shouldn’t have happened
in the first instance in a
democratic nation.''
We can’t nurture
democracy by stifling
freedom of expression
— CAN
On its part, the Christian
Association of
described the freezing of their
accounts as uncalled for, adding
that
democracy by stopping citizens
from expressing their views or
demonstrating against bad
governance.
CAN’s Vice Chairman
(Northern region), Reverend
John Hayab, said: “The freezing
of their accounts in the first place
was uncalled for. We cannot
nurture our democracy by
stopping citizens from expressing
their views or demonstrating
against bad governance.
“It is sad to remember that
those in authority now in our
country some years ago mobilized
citizens to protest against the
then government.
“A good teacher should expect
his students to do better than
him, but that is not what we are
seeing today. I salute the courage
of the Judge for this judgement
and advice the people concern to
respect the judgement.
Our nation will not enjoy
any good progress when
citizens are denied their right
to peaceful assembly and
expressions of views.”
Nomthi Odukoya, a
to create ‘How to be Safe Online’,
a book for kids.
It said that physical copies of
the book would be distributed to
30,000 learners in Kenya,
and South Africa this month. The
US tech giant added that the book
has also been made available
online on the Read-Along app.
“With more children, young
people and families increasingly
using the internet to learn and
work in the face of the COVID-19
pandemic, online safety is a
priority for everyone,” it said.
“We look forward to the
continued empowerment of
teachers and parents with tools
to keep children safe online.''
10 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
:Vanguard
News
Gridlock: Sanwo-Olu seeks
synergy with NIMASA to
decongest Apapa
By Olasunkanmi
Akoni
L AGOS—GOVERNOR
Babajide Sanwo-Olu of
Lagos State has stressed
the need for collaborative
efforts with the
management of the
Safety Agency, NIMASA,
and stakeholders to
decongest the perennial
gridlock in Apapa and
environs.
Sanwo-Olu said this
when he hosted top
management of NIMASA,
led by its Director-General,
Dr. Bashir Jamoh, on a
courtesy visit to him at the Lagos
House in Alausa, Ikeja.
He said: “It’s important we work
collaboratively. Another area of
partnership is in the area of the
wreckage. Once we find the
wreckage, we should put them
out. We are at the stage of
completing 15 jetties in the state.
“We have moved over 250,000
passengers through our ferries in
less than a year. We plan to
develop the waterways, where
people do a lot. It is a deliberate
strategy we need to look at.
‘’As a government, we are ready
to work hand-in-hand with you.
2023: We’ll sue Tinubu if...
—TSO
By Olayinka Ajayi
LAGOS—THE Tinubu
Support Organisation,
TSO, yesterday, vowed to
sue the Leader of the All
Progressives Congress,
APC, Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu, if he declines to
contest the Presidential
election in 2023.
Speaking at a programme
organised by the women
wing of the group, in
Lagos, Director-General of
the group, Aminu
Solaiman, said the group
would do all that is
required to see Tinubu
emerge as president in
2023.
He said: “I have a long
We will commission the Lekki Port
before the end of this
administration so we can decongest
Apapa.
“We are willing and ready. We
want to see that real synergy.”
In his remarks, Jamoh, who
declared Lagos as the best in
maritime safety in the country,
said: “Lagos remains the only
state that has the highest
maritime security.”
While identifying the area of
partnerships between the state
government and NIMASA, the
DG said: “We are seeing the
extinction of the fishery industry
due to maritime insecurity. 98 per
cent of the maritime insecurity
originates from land to sea but
Lagos remains the state that has
the highest maritime security.
“We are also looking at the ferry
services as the alternative means
of transportation so we can
reduce the level of traffic
congestion we are experiencing.
“Also, the estate management
on the sea. Another area has to
do with the shipping extension
and development so that our
visions which we envisaged in
the next 20 years will take us to
the Promised Land.
“We need alliances and we
have recognised Lagos State as
one of our alliances.”
time relationship with
Asiwaju Tinubu. I have
known him for over 18years
now. Based on the good
work he has done for this
country, I decided to
organize the TSO for him.
Like every political support
group, TSO is open to every
future in the leadership of
Asiwaju.
“If Asiwaju becomes the
president of
country will be better.
We are going around the
country meeting with some
governors.
“If Tinubu refuses to
contest in 2023, we will sue
him to court. He must
contest because we love
someone like him with a
good pedigree.”
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
Herdsmen didn't attack Soyinka
—Son, Police
By James
Ogunnaike
ABEOKUTA—ONE of
the children of the
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole
Soyinka, Dr. Olaokun
Soyinka, yesterday,
debunked rumours on
social media about the
alleged attack on his father
by Fulani herdsmen.
This came as the
Southern and MiddleBelt
Leaders Forum, SMBLF,
warned that there would be
consequences of hurting a
man like Soyinka.
But the young Soyinka
said, in a statement he
circulated on social media,
that the story was not true.
Some social media
platforms published a story
that “Prof. Wole Soyinka’s
house was attacked, last
night, by Fulani hoodlums
and miscreants wanted to
assassinate him, because of
his numerous truth to
power and, particularly, his
recent news interview,
where he spoke truth to the
Presidency, especially
advising Buhari to come out
openly and denounce the
Fulani herdsmen's
dastardly acts of violence in
the Southern parts of
But Dr. Olaokun Soyinka,
By Dayo Johnson
AKURE—ONDO State
government,
yesterday, warned that any
herder who breaches the
open grazing order would
be arrested and
prosecuted.
The state government had
banned open grazing and
under-age herding.
It stated that the
herdsmen were inimical to
security and, therefore,
issued a quit notice to them
in its forest reserves.
in the statement, said the
story was nothing but fake
news.
He said: “This is not true,
please do not circulate
further and help to debunk
it. “It is an attempt to encourage
discord. Although
some cows were spotted,
neither Prof nor his house
was attacked by anyone.
“I have confirmed this
today (Wednesday 10th)
directly myself from him.
“Kindly do not fall for this
attempt, whatever the
motive, to further inflame
this problematic situation.”
It's a case of stray
cows —Police
When contacted, the
Ogun State Police
Command said the matter
was nothing, but a case of
stray cow.
The command’s
spokesman, Abimbola
Oyeyemi in a statement,
said there was no attempt
by anyone to attack Prof.
Soyinka
Abimbola said: "It was a
thing of surprise to see a
video trending on social
media that the respected
Professor Wole Soyinka's
house was invaded by
Fulani herdsmen with the
view to attack or kill him.
It, however, asked those
with genuine businesses in
the state to register with the
government.
The commander of the
state security outfit,
codenamed Amotekun,
Chief Adetunji Adeleye
gave the warning in Akure.
Adeleye was reacting to
the arrest of two herders
and 200 cattle for destroying
crops in Irese farm
settlement in Akure.
The commander said that
the 200 cattle have been
taken to the headquarters
of the security outfit in
“The video is nothing but
a calculated attempt by
mischief makers to cause
panic in the minds of
people. There is nothing
like invasion of Prof Wole
Soyinka's house or any form
of attack on his person.
"The attention of the
Ogun State police
command has been drawn
to a video circulating on
social media about a
purported attack of Nobel
Laurete, Prof Wole Soyinka's
house by Fulani herdsmen
and the command wishes
to set the record straight.
"On Tuesday 9th of
February 2021, one Kazeem
Sorinola, an indigene of
Ijeun Abeokuta who is into
cattle business said to have
been informed by a young
Fulani man, Awalu
Muhammad, who takes
care of the cattle, that one
of the cows had got
missing.
"While the Fulani man
was searching for the stray
cow around Kemta Estate
where Prof. Wole Soyinka's
house is located, the Prof.
himself who was going out
then saw the Fulani man
with some of the cows. He
came down to ask where
the man was heading to
with the cows. He there and
then asked the Fulani man
to move the cattle away
from the vicinity.
The DPO Kemta division, who
Akure.
Farmers in the
community alerted the
Amotekun Corps after their
farmlands were destroyed.
On arrival at the farm, the
herders shot at the
Amotekun personnel.
Adeleye said that the
head of the Fulani group
would be invited to identify
the cattle and the owners.
3 pipeline vandals
nabbed
Meanwhile, three
suspected pipeline vandals
were arrested in Ore, in
Odigbo council area of the
state.
VISIT—Lagos
State Governor,
Babajide Sanwo-
Olu [right], with
Director General,
N i g e r i a n
M a r i t i m e
Administration
and Safety
A g e n c y ,
NIMASA, Dr.
Bashir Jamoh,
when the DG
paid a courtesy
visit to the
governor, at
Government
House in Alausa,
Ikeja.
heard about the incident quickly
moved to the scene with a patrol
team and the owner of the cows
was invited to come with the
Fulani man in charge of the cattle.
The duo were questioned and
properly profiled.
"The entire place was inspected
by the DPO and it was established
that it was just a case of stray cow
as nothing was damaged or
tampered with.
"The video is nothing but a
calculated attempt by mischief
makers to cause panic in the
minds of people. There is nothing
like invasion of Prof Wole
Soyinka's house or any form of
attack on his person.
The Commissioner of Police,
Edward Ajogun has been to the
scene for on the spot assessment,
and he personally interviewed
the owner of the cattle, Kazeem
Sorinola, as well as the Fulani
man who is in charge of the cattle
and their statements show
clearly that the mischievous
narrative of invasion is nothing
to take serious.
"The command, hereby, wishes
to warn the fake news peddlers
to desist from it as they may be
made to feel the weight of the
law. It is an offence for anybody
to originate or help in circulating
fake news. The command will,
therefore, be tracing and fishing
out those deliberately dishing out
fake information to members of
the public especially the one that
cause panic in the mind of
innocent people.”
Breach grazing order, get arrested, Ondo
warns herdsmen
The suspected vandals
include Mushood Agboola,
Taye Akande and Gbenga
Akinluyi.
The Amotekun commander
stated that his men, while on
patrol, laid an ambush for the
suspects after noticing some cuts
in the pipeline area.
He said one of the suspects,
Moshood Agboola, said it was
Akande who told him where he
could get iron scraps beside the
pipeline.
Agboola said: “It was Akande
that took me to the location. I
have never been there before.
The next thing I saw was the
Amotekun men that came to
arrest us.”
C
M
Y
K
Vanguard, , THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 11
:Vanguard :@vanguardnews :@vanguardnewsNEWS HOTLINES:
LAUNCHING—From left: Tunji Bello, Commissioner for the Environment and Water
Resources; Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, Commissioner for Education; Mrs. Ibijoke
Sanwo-Olu, First Lady of Lagos State; Mrs. Oluremi Hamzat, wife of deputy governor;
Mrs. Aderonke Odeneye, Permanent Secretary, Office of the Environment, Ministry
of Environment and Water Resources, and Joe Igbokwe, Special Adviser on Drainage
& Water Resources, during the official launching of the Environmental Bees Club
and Training Manual, at Adeyemi-Bero Hall in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, yesterday.
Photo: Bunmi Azeez.
I’m still in PDP —Fani Kayode
FORMER Aviation minister
and a chieftain of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday,
dismissed as false reports that he
has joined the ruling All
Progressives Congress, APC.
On Monday, he met with some
APC governors and Chairman of
the Caretaker Committee,
Governor Mai Mala Buni, and
claimed that the meeting was
consultative and would be across
party lines to find solutions to
By Henry Umoru
ABUJA—THE
Senate,
yesterday, described the
death of former minister of
Information and Culture, Prince
Tony Momoh, as painful and
shocking, after observing a
minute's silence in his honour.
Resolutions of the Senate were
sequel to a point of order raised
by Senator Francis Alimikhena,
titled: ‘The Demise of Prince Tony
Momoh (27th April 1937—1st
February 2021).’
Alimikhena said: “The Senate
notes with grief the death of
Prince Tony Momoh, a veteran
journalist and politician, who died
in Abuja, on Monday, February
1, 2021, at the age of 81.
“Notes that Prince Tony Momoh
was born on the 27th April 1939
in Auchi, Edo State. He was the
165th child of King Momoh of
Auchi. He attended Government
School Auchi and Anglican School Okpe
(1949-1954). He was headmaster at the
Anglican School, Ubuneke, Ivbiaro,
Owan East Local Government (January
$1.36m, N50m debt: Emirates seeks stay of execution
By Innocent Anaba
LAGOS—A Federal High
Court, sitting in Lagos, would,
on February 22, 2021, rule on an
application by Emirates Airlines
seeking to stay execution of a
$1.623 million and N50 million
judgment debt owed to a
businessman, Orji Prince Ikem.
The trial judge, Justice Muslim
Hassan, adjourned the matter,
yesterday, after the airline’s counsel, Prof.
Awa Kalu, SAN, moved an application
seeking to stay execution of the
judgment, pending appeal.
Ikem’s counsel, Chris Ekemezie, had
On Tuesday, Governor Yahaya
Bello of Kogi, one of those Fani-
Kayode met, on Monday,
reportedly claimed that the PDP
chieftain had defected to the APC.
Addressing reporters after
revalidating his APC
membership in Okene, Bello said
Fani-Kayode was now an APC
member, claiming that the former
minister approached him about
his decision to leave the PDP for
the APC.
“I have the mandate to
Senate mourns Tony Momoh as
burial holds today
1958 to December 1959) he went to the
Provincial Teachers Training College,
Abudu, Edo State and Government
Teachers College, Abraka in (1960-1961).
“The Senate notes that Prince Momoh
started his journalism career as a Sub-
Editor at the Daily Times in October
1962, rising steadily through the ranks
to become Editor and Deputy General
Manager (June 1976-1980);
“The Senate is aware that, as a
democrat, he played an active role in the
formation of various political platforms at
the transition stage in
Military to civilian rule. He was a media
director of Alex Ekwueme Presidential
Campaign organisation in 1999;
“Aware also that he was the Chairman,
Media and Publicity Committee of All
Organisation in 2003 and 2007 election
and was appointed Chairman of the
Congress for Progressive Change, CPC,
in the lead-up to the April 2011 General
elections; and led the CPC to a merger
that gave birth to the APC. "
“We are convinced that his death is a
grave loss, not only to his Edo North and
Edo state but to the nation as a whole.”
Prince Tony Momoh will be buried
today at Grailland, Iju Hills, in Lagos,
according to his wishes.
urged the court to order the judgment
debtor to deposit the $1.623milion and
N50million in an interest yielding
account of the court’s Deputy Chief
Registrar.
Ekemezie contended that the airline,
a judgment debtor, could not continue
to hold on to the sum and be enjoying
the benefits thereof while the appeal is
pending.
He said: “My lord, a labourer deserves
his wages. How can a judgment debtor
be holding on to the fruit of a judgment
creditor? I urge my Lord to refuse an
undertaking to pay after appeal which
can still travel up to the Supreme Court.”
On January 11, 2021, the court ordered
mobilise, to sensitize, to educate
and woo
irrespective of their background.
Our brother and friend, Chief
Femi Fani Kayode has joined our
party in good faith. He is joining
our party to come and add his
own positive energy and make
contribution into ensuring that
APC is a party to beat.
“Remember that Chief Femi
Fani-Kayode was a foundation
member of this great party. Due
to misunderstanding, he decided
to port elsewhere. Now he has
decided to join our party,
approached me, and by the
mandate given to me by the party,
I must not segregate or
discriminate against any
individual.
“Even if he has a different
opening about the party before,
about the government, and he has
seen the light, the reality and the
needs to join the All Progressives
Congress, it is just important,
nice, and sweet to welcome Chief
Femi Fani-Kayode to come and
join this party. Remember, this
party does not belong to one
individual, it belongs to all
“We will welcome you with our
hands wide open. So, Chief Femi
Fani-Kayode, you are welcome to
our party. Come and make your
contribution and ensure that this
party is greater than any
individual in
reportedly said.
However, Fani-Kayode,
yesterday, denied leaving the
PDP.
“Though we have had
meetings across party lines and
we are in a season of political
consultation I have not left the
PDP,” he tweeted.
Emirates Airlines to pay Ikem
$1.36million, being the amount
contained in his hand luggage that went
missing in the airline’s custody during a
2007 China trip.
Justice Hassan also ordered the
airlines to pay Ikem N50million as
damages for the “untold hardship and
loss of earning” he suffered by the
deprivation of use of his money from 2007
till date.
The judgment followed the plaintiff’s
nearly 12 years battle to recover two hand
luggage containing personal effects and
$700,000, as well as $930,000 in 18
bundles of $50,000 wraps each and
$30,000 cash not in a wrap.
Many home cooking have destroyed many
men's appetite oo!
Don't worry...what goes around, comes
around...God go catch you soon!
Everything has its time and season...so is
life!
12 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
:Vanguard News
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
VISIT: Delta State Commissioner of Police, Muhammed Ali (middle) with some management
staff of Delta State Broadcasting Service, during a visit the the station, yesterday.
Stop the dance of shame in NDDC,
N’Delta monarch tells Buhari
By Emma Amaize
THE Ovie (traditional
ruler) of Idjerhe
Kingdom, Ethiope West Local
Government Area of Delta
Sate, HRM Obukowho
Whiskey, has asked President
Muhammadu Buhari to halt
the dance of shame at Niger
Delta Development
Commission, NDDC, by
quickly returning the
regional interventionist
agency to the Presidency.
Whiskey in a statement in
Asaba, said: “Just like a similar
body, the North East
Development Commission is
under the Presidency. I am
advocating urgent return of
the troubled NDDC to the
Presidency because it will
help address the controversial
control of NDDC that has
been today hijacked by the
Minister of Niger Delta,
Obong Godswill Akpabio.
“President Buhari, as the
father of the nation, must now
listen to the voice of reasoning
and urgently reposition the
NDDC to carry out its
statutory responsibilities in
intervening in critical
infrastructural responsibility,
which the agency was
established to address.
“This avoidable crisis would
have been put to rest if the
president had listened to
critical stakeholders by
inaugurating the already
screened and confirmed
board of the NDDC under the
chairmanship of Dr Pius
Odubu and Chief Bernard
Okumagba as Managing
Director.
“The huge financial
mismanagement and
outright stealing of billions of
naira by individuals in the
name of Interim
Management Committee
and recently, Sole
Administrator have clearly
shown that the president must
put an end to this dance of
shame by removing NDDC
control from Akpabio, as all
evidences have shown total
failure and lack of capacity.
“It should be noted also that
the huge stealing that is
taking place in NDDC will
become a standard if nothing
drastic is done to bring the
looters and their conspirators
to book.
“I, therefore, call for urgent
probing and prosecution of
all those who are responsible
for the current sorry state of
the NDDC. We cannot
pretend that all is well in
Niger Delta when NDDC
has been hijacked by an
individual to the detriment of
larger populace of our
people. The president must
act now or never.”
2023: APC’ll win Delta if leaders
are less cantankerous — Ojougboh
By Festus Ahon
Apast SABA—IMMEDIATE
Interim Executive
Director of Project, EDP, on
the board of Niger Delta
Development Commission,
NDDC, Dr Cairo Ojougboh,
has said All Progressives
Congress, APC, has a better
prospect to win Delta State
in 2023, if the leaders of the
party could cooperate, begin
to be less cantankerous and
do not match their ambition
with hostility with other party
members.
Ojougboh on the sidelines
of sensitisation of party
members in Ika South said:
“APC is the most popular
party in Delta State for a very
long but we have not been
able to utilise that God given
advantage. So now is the
opportunity to exploit that
advantage.
“Our prospect in 2023
Gov Emmanuel seeks partnership with US
on Deep Seaport devt
By Chioma
Onuegbu
UYO —GOVERNOR
Udom Emmanuel of
Akwa Ibom State has sought
partnership with the United
States of America, USA, in
the development of the Ibom
Deep Seaport project.
Emmanuel spoke through
his deputy, Mr Moses Ekpo,
when the Chief of Political
and Economic Affairs of the
US Consulate in
Mr Brandon Hudspeth,
visited him at Government
House, Uyo.
He noted that by sheer
conceptualisation, the Ibom
Deep Seaport was
programmed to become the
flagship of the shipping
industry in this part of the
world given its strategic
location, which is endowed
with a natural draught and
direct access to all parts of the
depends on the cooperation
of the leaders starting from
now. Once we are able to put
our house in order, and
leaders begin to be less
cantankerous and do not
match their ambition with
hostility with other party
members, then we will move
forward.
“You see, with the
amendment we are making,
with the efforts we are making
at reconciliation, you will see
the party winning 15 to 20
local governments in the
March 6, 2021 local
government elections if there
is no government
interference, and the PDP
does not enter the house to
write the results. You will see
what APC will do, there will
be no surprises.”
Be fair to all,
Keyamo urges
world, including America.
He pointed out that US, as
a country has enjoyed a robust
bilateral relationship with
independence.
He said: “The huge
investment opportunities
abound in Akwa Ibom State
for American investors to take
advantage. So, I am inviting
the US to take advantage of
the enormous business
opportunities here. The Ibom
registration c’ttee
Meanwhile, Minister of
State for Labour, Mr Festus
Keyamo, has told the
Chairman of the APC
Registration/Revalidation
Committee and his members
to be fair to all the interests
within the party in Delta
State.
Keyamo, who threw the
challenge to the Chairman
of the APC Registration/
Revalidation Committee,
said: “As you are set to
distribute your materials to the
LGA coordinators, you must
bear in mind the need to
balance all the delicate
interests within the APC in
Delta State in such a way that
you don’t put the entire
materials meant for any LGA
in the hands of two
coordinators solely
nominated by a particular
political leader in the state,
including myself."
Deep Seaport project has
received the approval by the
Federal Government.
“I want to assure you that
the peaceful ambience, which
the state offers is the best in
Mobil, an American oil
company, is already enjoying
the state’s favourable
ambience.
In his brief remarks earlier,
Mr Hudspeth described his
tour of Niger Delta states as a
show of his country’s interest
in the zone.
Itsekiri Amnesty Students condemn group
for dragging INYC to court
BENEFICIARIES of
Itsekiri Amnesty
programme have
condemned some Itsekiri
sons and daughters for
dragging the Itsekiri
National Youth Council,
INYC, led by Weyinmi
Agbateyiniro to court.
Mrs Rechael Arueyingho,
who spoke on behalf of the
amnesty beneficiaries,
praised the Agbateyiniroled
administration for
giving over 1,000
scholarships to Itsekiri sons
and daughters, adding that
no regime of Itsekiri
Diri receives senator, ex-Reps,
APC, YDP defectors
By Samuel
Oyadongha
Y ENAGOA—Governor
Douye Diri of Bayelsa
State has urged the political
class in the state to shun
politics of hate in the interest
of development in the state.
Diri, who made the appeal
when he received defectors
from All Progressives
Congress, APC and Young
Democratic Party, YDP,
Tuesday evening in Yenagoa,
said the only way they can
benefit from the creation of
the state is to unite for the
purpose of development.
The defectors include
former
to Venezuela, Senator Felix
Oboro, as well as former
members of the House of
Representatives namely
Bolous Indiamaowei, Mike
Epengule and Graham
Ipigansi, who are all
returning to Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, from
APC.
Diri said time had come for
people of the state to spread
love rather than acrimony in
the interest of progress of the
National Youth Council has
attained such height.
The group warned that
should anything stop their
programme, they would
lead a protest match to the
houses of those involved in
dragging the INYC to court
and make them face the
consequences.
state.
He expressed delight over
the decision of members of
the opposition parties to join
forces with his government
to move the state forward,
saying posterity will be kind
to them for putting the
interest of the state ahead of
personal considerations.
He said: “There is no
reason to hate ourselves
when we should love. This
is the time to bring back
brotherly love."
In his welcome remarks,
the state PDP chairman, Mr
Solomon Agwanana, said
members of the opposition
parties were in Government
House to interact with the
governor preparatory to their
formal defection on February
14
Ṡpeaking on their behalf,
Senator Oboro said they were
impressed by the
performance of the Diri
administration, hence their
decision to join forces with it.
Also, a member of YDP,
Elvis Donkemezuo, said his
party was impressed by Diri’s
leadership style, which has
put the state on the fast lane
of development.
Wike releases N16.6bn for
Rivers varsity expansion
By Egufe
Yafugborhi
PORT HARCOURT—
GOVERNOR Nyesom
Wike of Rivers State has
released N16.6 billion for the
establishment of three new
campuses and medical
college upgrade for the
Rivers State University, RSU.
The state Commissioner for
Information and
Communications, Paulinus
Nsirim, at a briefing,
yesterday, said: “Out of this
amount, N9 billion will be
take-off grant for the three
new campuses at Ahoada,
Emohua and Etche.
“Each of the campuses has
N3 billion to cater for faculty
building, hostels, offices,
libraries, auditorium, lecture
halls and other relevant
requirements that will make
the campuses function
effectively.
“Similarly, N7.6 billion is set
for the College of Medical
Sciences of the university to
establish the Faculty of Basic
Medical Sciences, Faculty of
Clinical Sciences and the
Pathology Building.”
He said the development
was in the gradual fulfillment
of Wike’s desire to create a
new Rivers through prudent,
efficient and transparent
management of available
resources.
He said: “With
establishment of the three
new campuses, communities
where they are sited will be
opened up for consequential
development and economic
activities, in addition to
creating jobs that will reduce
unemployment in the state.”
Members of 52 deregistered
political parties in Bayelsa join PDP
By Samuel
Oyadongha
Ystate
ENAGOA—FORMER
chairmen,
governorship candidates and
other chieftains of the 52 deregistered
political parties
with their members have
joined the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, in
Bayelsa State.
Speaking on behalf of the
former governorship
candidates of the parties, at a
reception in Yenagoa, Kunde
Noah and Sotonye Kenny,
noted that they were
prepared to work with PDP
just as they called for proper
integration of their members
into the party.
Chief Henry Igwe and
Tarilaye Dakoru, who spoke
on behalf of the former state
chairmen and members of the
de-registered parties,
pledged their loyalty to the
PDP, adding that they would
work for its development.
Also, a chieftain of All
Progressives Congress,
APC, and former chairman
and coordinator of all the
other parties, James Inengite,
expressed their willingness to
work with the governor to
bring development to the
state.
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 13
:Vanguard News
11 youths detained by popular priest in
Anambra community regain freedom
By Chimaobi
Nwaiwu
NNEWI—WILD jubilation
took over the Nkwelle-
Ezunaka community in Oyi Local
Government Area of Anambra
State yesterday as the
eleven youths arrested and detained
by a popular Anambra
Catholic priest, Reverend Father
Emmanuel Obimma, popularly
known as 'Fr. Ebube
Muonso' regained their freedom.
The community had last year
protested the detention of the
eleven youths and disappearance
of 68 others who allegedly
fled the community for fear
of being arrested and clamped
into the Onitsha prison as done
to their eleven brothers who
spent over eight months languishing
in the prison.
The youths were arrested following
an allegation levelled
against them by the priest that
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
CONDOLENCE VISIT: Delta State Head of Service, Mr. Reginald Bayoko (middle); Mr. Austin Oghoro,
Permanent Secretary, Office of the SSG (right); Dr. Felicia Adun, Permanent Secretary, Ministry
of Water Resources (left) and other Permanent Secretaries at the residence of the late Permanent
Secretary, Office of the HoS, Mr. Cletus Obiegba, when the HoS led College of Permanent
Secretaries on a condolence visit to the deceased's family, Asaba, yesterday.
Herders, farmers crises: Why we met
Imo monarchs, Hausa/Fulani —Police
By Chinonso Alozie
OWERRI—THE Imo State
Police command yesterday
said they met with the
Hausa/Fulani communities
in Okigwe local government
area of Imo State for them to
live peacefully with their host
communities.
In a statement to newsmen
in Owerri, the State Police Public
Relations Officer, PPRO,
Orlando Ikeokwu said that
even the traditional rulers
from the area were part of the
meeting.
It stated that the purpose of
the meeting was to find a lasting
solution to the farmers/
herders crises.
According to the statement,
"The Commissioner of Police,
Imo State, CP Nasiru Mohammed,
visited Okigwe Local
government to interact
with the stakeholders and
Hausa/ Fulani communities
in the zone.
"The occasion which took
place at the Divisional Police
Hqrs Okigwe,on the 9th February,2021,
had in attendance,
the traditional rulers, youth
leaders, presidents- general of
various town unions, women
leaders, Hausa/ Fulani communities
members, farmers,
representatives of the LGA
chair person and councillors .
APC registration: We won't tolerate
inflation of figures in Anambra —Tukur
By Vincent
Ujumadu
AWKA—THE chairman
of membership registration
and revalidation for the
All Progressives Congress in
Anambra State, Mr. Bello
Tukur has warned that those
planning to inflate figures in
the register or induce members
of the committee would
have themselves to blame.
Speaking during the commencement
of the exercise in
Anambra State, Tukur assured
the people that members
of the committee would
be transparent and solicited
the cooperation of the party
members and stakeholders.
they attempted to kidnap him
over his preaching against
cultism in Nkwelle-Ezunaka.
However, some elders of
Uruebo village where the
Priest, Fr. Obimma also hails
from, including 90 year-old
Chief Abel Okafor and 79 yearold
Chief Augustine Okadigbo,
dismissed the allegation of
kidnapping, armed robbery
and other sundry allegations
levelled against the youths,
saying that the priest was just
trying to intimidate everybody
with his elder brother who is a
member of Anambra House
of Assembly, in order for his
lawmaker brother to continue
to sit tight as the chairman
of the Uruebo village.
However, while speaking
with newsmen at Otuocha
High Court where the 11 Nkwelle-Ezunaka
youths were
set free, Fr. Obimma said he
decided to drop the charges
against the youths because
"We charged them to live
peacefully with each other
and eschew violence as violence
does no one any good.
"We charged them to
promptly and amicably resolve
any issue that may arise
among them and further
commended them for having
a very effective committee
that dialogues on issues relating
to the parties especially
farmers/herders conflict.
Finally, the CP urged them to
tolerate each other's excesses
as that is the only way for
peaceful coexistence."
The statement added that
the "Representatives of the
various groups thanked the
CP for finding time to come
and interact with them and
Tukur said: "There is no
room for any form of manipulation.
This exercise excludes
those tendencies. If
someone thinks he can inflate
the figures and get them into
the register, such a person is
making a serious mistake.
"Even the party leader in the
state, Senator Chris Ngige has
said it. If such a thing happens,
it will be rejected. There
won't be duplication, proxy
registration or over inflation.
You have to be physically
present to be registered.
"Whoever that is planning to
influence the committee
through financial inducement
would loose both his intentions
and his money.
they are his brothers and he
only wanted to correct their
misbehaviour, adding that he
has totally forgiven them.
Ninety- year- old Chief Okafor
who was present with over
one thousand members of Nkwelle
Ezunaka community as
early as 8am at the Otuocha
High Court, said that what Fr.
Obimma did was commendable,
adding that it was what
the community long expected
of him but he decided to hold
the community hostage for
eight months with the case.
"Now that he has done what
is expected of him, we have accepted
him and we will plead
with our youths to forgive him
and his family. He is still our
son, we will not reject him, we
only rejected his intimidation
and harassment of our people
because of local politics and
we hope he has decided for total
peace in Nkwelle
Ezunaka."
promised to continue co-existing
peacefully.
"The head of the Hausa
community also used the opportunity
to thank the people
of the area for being good
landlords, saying he had lived
there for over thirty years without
any issue and that any issue
that arose had always
been settled amicably."
"The challenge of inadequate
funding has also been
taken care of. The members
have pledged to give the exercise
the desired support.
"Before we left Abuja, the
rumour we heard was as if
Anambra is boiling. Some
even said the registration had
commenced. Some said we
won't meet anybody on arrival,
or a crowd that would be
opposed to the exercise.
"But the people are all united
to do the needful. You can
see how they have mobilized
themselves and are very calm
and coordinated.
"The exercise is crucial to the
party and the state in particular
in view of the forthcoming
November election. They
need to come together to really
fight to take over the government.
"If they are not united, they
should forget about winning
any election. But if they're united,
they'll succeed in picking
a good person that will carry
the party's flag."
Chairman of the party in the
state, Chief Basil Ejidike, expressed
satisfaction over the
committee's preparedness for
the exercise, as well as the cordial
working relationship existing
between it and party
members.
He assured the committee
members of a transparent exercise
which, according to
him, was intended to grow the
party for future elections.
"The committee is here to
train members of the registration
supervisory committee so
they can be equipped to train
those at the ward and polling
levels.
"This is the foundation,
hence we must capture every
single one. The strength of the
committee depends on your
support. A good number of
registered members will guarantee
large support base.‘‘
NLC, TUC secretariats: Enugu
workers pay ‘Thank-you visit’ to
Ugwuanyi
ENUGU—WORKERS of
Enugu State under the aegis
of the Organized Labour,
on Tuesday, paid a Thank-you
visit to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi
for his administration’s
consistency in addressing
their issues in spite of various
challenges confronting
the nation.
The Organized Labour,
comprising the state leadership
of the
Congress (NLC), the Trade
Union Congress of
(TUC) and Joint Public Service
Negotiating Council
(JNC), described Ugwuanyi
as a God-fearing, peaceful and
Labour-friendly leader, who
has lived up to expectations
in fulfilling his promises to
workers of the state since his
assumption of office in 2015.
They maintained that Gov.
Ugwuanyi has made a lot of
promises to the workers and
fulfilled them expeditiously
despite “the state’s dwindling
resources occasioned by the
nation’s economic recession,
which your administration
has experienced twice in five
years, the novel COVID-19
pandemic, #EndSARS protests,
among others”.
Speaking, the State Chairman
of NLC, Comrade Virginus
Nwobodo said the governor’s
steadfastness and commitment
to the welfare of the
workers of Enugu State have
brought pride to the state, nationally,
to the extent that
“any time we go for our national
meetings, when other
labour leaders will be crying
that this one has not been
done, we will be giving them
information about new things
that are happening in Enugu;
and they have always applauded
you (Ugwuanyi),
even without you being in our
national meeting”.
On the ongoing construction
of befitting secretariat
complexes, simultaneously,
for the NLC and TUC in the
state, Comrade Nwobodo,
who disclosed that the major
aim of their visit was to thank
the governor specially for the
landmark feats, noted that the
former secretariat given to
NLC around 1998 by then
military administration “was
an eyesore but today you (Ugwuanyi)
have come to wipe
our tears.”
Striking ISOPADEC workers
asked to return to work
By Chinonso Alozie
OWERRI—WORKERS of
the Imo State Oil Producing
Areas Development
Commission, ISOPADEC,
have been advised to call off
their strike and return to
work.
The Managing Director of
ISOPADEC, Charles Orie,
spoke to newsmen in Owerri
through his Special Adviser
on Media and Publicity,
Demian Oparah.
He said that their return to
office would enable him to
engage the state government
on how to completely resolve
their issues.
He said: "We call on the striking
workers of the commission
to return to their offices
and resume work while we
discusses the issues with the
Imo State government; the
issues concerning the non payment
of their outstanding salaries
and other things that
made them to embark on the
strike".
The managing director told
the workers that even though
all the problems they enumarated
as their grievances didn't
happen under his administration
as MD /CEO of ISOPA-
DEC, he will do all that is within
his powers to make sure
that he solves the problems.
He told the striking workers
that the non payment of
their April and May 2020 salaries,
their salary equalization
with that of Imo State civil
service salary structure, which
they stated as the main issues
that led to the industrial action
had happened before his
appointment, that he will do
his best to ensure that the
matter is peacefully resolved.
The MD/CEO therefore,
advised the striking workers
to resume their duties and be
patient with the government
as he has no doubt in his mind
that all the issues they raised
would be addressed and settled
very soon.
"He warned the striking
workers that if they refuse to
resume their duties, the Commission
will be forced to apply
the common rule of ' No
Work no Pay," Orie said.
Students vacate lodge after
death of colleague
By Chinonso Alozie
Oof WERRI—STUDENTS
the Federal Polytechnic
Nekede in Owerri, Imo
State, have started packing
out from the Ezinwanne Lodge
in Nekede, after a first year student
of Building Technology,
Anthony Chinweotito Emmanuel,
was alleged to have
been beaten into coma by his
caretaker, one Daniel Okufuwa
and subsequently died in
the hospital.
Vanguard investigation revealed
that the students hurried
out of the lodge for fear of
being attacked.
This followed the report by
Vanguard that the President of
the Student Union Government,
SUG, Ezeh Chukwuebuka,
threatened a show down
with the caretaker and the landlord
of the building that the students
would shut down the
lodge should the landlord not
present himself, even as he said
that justice must be obtained
for Chinweotito.
On how the story surrounding
the death of Chinweotito,
started, a source who spoke to
Vanguard said that it was as a
result of disagreement between
the caretaker of Ezinwanne
Lodge and the students.
Following a meeting between
the school management,
landlords and the students
union government it was
agreed that final year students
should pay half for accommodation
and other students
should pay full. Some landlords
agreed while others said
they would not accept it. This
decision was taken as a result
of this Covid-19 lockdown
challenges. It was the disagreement
that led to the student's
death.
C
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14 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
:Vanguard News
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
Apostolic Church tasks Buhari
on economy, welfare of citizens
By Olayinka Latona
N
A T I O N A L
President of The
Apostolic Church
Sampson Igwe has urged the
Federal Government to put in
place policies and programmes to
improve the nation’s economy
and tackle insecurity to reduce
the sufferings of
Igwe made the call while
briefing journalists on the
church's forthcoming 7th
quadrennial national convention
scheduled for Friday through
Sunday at the church convention
ground, Olorunda Ketu, Lagos
By Moses Nosike
MEMBERS of the
New Heights
Leadership Forum, has resolved
to henceforth participate actively
in the socio-economic and
political developments of the
country.
The group made up of
“intellectuals, well meaning and
articulated”
political, academic, business
organisations with huge
leadership experiences, said the
right time to refocus and make
an impact in the leadership and
development of
Speaking on behalf of the
with the theme: “I will heal your
land.”
The cleric also appealed to the
Federal Government to initiate
better welfare packages for
security personnel, urging
government to provide
sophisticated equipment for the
military to enable them fight
terrorism, banditry, insurgency
and crimes ravaging the country.
He said: “Our government
should please take issue of
security seriously. It is very sad
that some set of people can enter
a village, kill people and burn down
the whole place and in most cases,
the culprits will not be arrested.
Forum sets for good governance
group, its Chairman, Ogunseye
Solomon, said the group “is one
of the foremost groups
strategically positioned to be a
political and national compass in
the building process of
which of course is continuum
from one generation to another
and to another. NHLF is not
limited to educating the citizenry
of the lofty vision and mission of
the group and all that it stands
for, but to from time-to-time
critically analyze the challenges
facing us as a nation, share our
thoughts on them and then go
on to offer some advice to the
government and the governed,
which we consider far reaching.”
Meadow Hall, Trinity Western
University offer
Canadian Degrees
DRIVEN by its passion to
provide
world standard education and to
raise the standard and quality of
educators, Meadow Hall has
signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with
Trinity Western University
(TWU), Canada’s largest private
Christian university and a
member of the Royal Society of
Canada.
Dr. Kehinde Nwani, the
founder of the Meadow Hall
Group, MHVL initiative, said:
''Through this partnership,
Meadow Hall now offers TWU’s
undergraduate programmes,
which commence with the U1
programme. Meadow Hall will
also be running TWU’s Master’s
programme, giving
and postgraduate students
the opportunity to learn from
TWU’s highly intellectual and innovative
faculty, whilst gaining
access to its fully-equipped Library
virtually.
''TWU’s U1 and Master’s
programmes are facilitated under
the umbrella of Meadow Hall
Virtual Learning (MHVL), an
online learning platform that
provides varying educational and
personal development
programmes for children and
adults.''
Nwani said the programme has
the the vision of developing
people to become change agents
through the enriching
opportunities provided by the
Group’s subsidiaries.
BRIEFING: From left, Comrade Momodu Buraimoh, Deputy Secretary General; Comrade Audu Amba,
National Publicity Secretary; Comrade Abiso Bulama, 2nd Vice President; Sir Kelvin Nwakwo, Deputy
National President, and Comrade Akosile Samuel, 1st Vice President, all of
NUT during press conference on the supreme court judgment between
Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools ASUSS held in Lagos yesterday. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.
It’s unfair to criticise Zamfara gov for
granting amnesty to bandits – FG
ABUJA—THE Federal
Government through the
Minister of Information and
Culture, Lai Mohammed
yesterday said it was unfair to
criticize Governor Bello
Matawalle of Zamfara State, for
granting amnesty to bandits
terrorizing the state.
According to the minister, the
Federal Government would not
stop any governor from
addressing the security
challenges in ways peculiar to his
state.
Zamfara State governor had
granted amnesty to Auwalun
Daudawa, a notorious bandit who
led his gang to abduct over 300
schoolboys from Government
Science Secondary School,
Kankara, in December last year.
The amnesty programme
which involves de-radicalisation
of criminals and their
reintegration into the society has
been embraced by the Federal
Government and some state
governments.
For instance, the Federal
Government granted amnesty to
600 repentant Boko Haram
terrorists last year, a development
that attracted nationwide outrage
with civil society organisations
censuring the government for
pampering ruthless and
bloodthirsty marauders who were
supposed to be punished after
committing unprintable crimes in
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
Recall that Governor, Nasir El-
Rufai of Kaduna State, also
faulted the proposition of
renowned Islamic scholar, Sheikh
Abubakar Gumi, who after
meeting with some bandits in
Zamfara, asked the government
to grant them amnesty like was
done for militants in the Niger
Delta region.
However, Mohammed who
spoke on AIT’s ‘Kakaaki’, said the
nature of the problem differs from
state to state and the governors
as chief security officers of their
states were in the best position
to deploy the best solutions to
tackle the issues.
He insisted that there was
nothing wrong with granting
amnesty to criminals if the
purpose was to restore desired
peace in affected areas.
Mohammed said: “When you
are fighting insurgency, you use
both kinetic and non-kinetic
means). Granting amnesty to
notorious drug barons, militants
is not a new thing, it is not unique
to
“You need to be in the shoes of
the Zamfara State government
or governor to appreciate what
the issues at stake are (and) why
he has done that. Don’t also
forget that the state governors
are their own chief security
officers. When you are dealing
with insurgency, kidnapping,
banditry, you are interested in the
bigger picture; how do we restore
peace? If granting amnesty to
one notorious kidnapper is going
to give me peace in my state, I
might take that decision. If
granting amnesty to one
repentant warlord would help me
capture a thousand bandits, I
might take that decision.''
Zulum, others storm Cameroon for repatriation of 9,800
refugees
By Ndahi Marama
M AIDUGURI—
GOVERNOR Babagana
Zulum of Borno State, alongside
officials of Federal Ministry
of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster
Management and Social
Development, has stormed
Marwa in the republic of Cameroon,
to facilitate the voluntary
repatriation of no fewer than
9,800 Borno State refugees who
are among 46,000
refuge in Minawao camp in
Cameroon.
The 9,800 Borno refugees
constitute the first batch of
citizens who had shown
willingness to return to resettlement
houses built by
Borno Government in Bama
and Banki towns.
Zulum arrived Cameroon on
Restorium Capital launches
credit enhancement, project
funding services
By Nkiru Nnorom
IN a bid to increase
productivity among
businesses and boost
infrastructure development in
the country, Restorium Capital
Limited, an Investment banking
and project development firm,
said it is launching trade finance
and credit enhancement services
for importers and manufacturers
as well as project financing as it
re-enters
Additionally, the company said
it would also launch stock loan
funding for publicly traded
securities on the
Exchange (NSE), for a minimum
loan of $1 million dollars.
The Managing Director/CEO
of the company, Omotayo
Adeola, disclosed this at a virtual
press conference to announce
the re-launch of the company’s
services in
the country five years ago.
She disclosed that Restorium
Capital was set up with a view to
assisting prospecting businesses,
governments and corporate
institutions achieve their
objectives by linking them with
various developmental and
investment funds in Europe,
America, and Asia.
She added that ''the company
currently works with alliance
partners that provide equity and
debt financing for corporates from
$20 million and above and Public
Private Partnership projects from
$100 million and above.''
According to her, the company
also provides funding for
humanitarian projects that make
profits in the areas of social
housing, agric business,
renewable energy, and waste
to wealth.
Merger'll make CAP Plc leader
in paints industry — MD
THE
Managing
Director of Chemical and
Allied Products (CAP) Plc, Mr.
David Wright, has said the
company will emerge the biggest
player in the paints industry in
total market share following its
proposed merger with Portland
Paints and Products
Already, the companies
have secured an approval-inprinciple
from the Securities
and Exchange Commission
(SEC) and no objection
obtained from the Federal
Competition and Consumer
Protection Commission, and
Federal Inland Revenue
Service for the merger, while
shareholders of both companies
are expected to ratify the plan at
a separate Court-Ordered
Meeting to be held on
February18, 2021.
Tuesday evening and yesterday
led
meeting on repatriation
where agreement was signed
among
the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees in Marwa,
northern Cameroon.
Governor of Cameroon’s
far north, Mijinyawa Bakare
hosted the meeting.
Before traveling to Cameroon,
Zulum had series of meetings
with
Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama,
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs,
Disaster Management and
Social Development, Hajiya
Sadiya Farouq, Federal Commissioner,
National Commission
for Refugees, Migrants and Internally
Displaced Persons, Sen.
Basheer Mohammed, and relevant
ambassadors with all meetings
aimed at following all established
procedures towards
lawful repatriation.
Speaking at the virtual Facts
Behind the Merger Presentation
on the
Exchange, Wright said the
company plans to complete the
process in first quarter (Q1) 2021
after obtaining final regulatory
approvals.
He explained that the proposed
merger presents value
maximising opportunities for
shareholders of both companies,
adding that the merger would
result in a diversified revenue
base and a broader distribution
capabilities for the enlarged
entity.
According to him, post-merger,
the enlarged CAP Plc would
boast of 26 product offerings
across the decorative, industrial,
marine and protective segments,
with presence in 32 states of the
federation and distribution
network rising to 91 stores.
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 15
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16 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
PRESIDENT Muhammadu
Buhari rejected National
Assembly resolutions and public
demands to sack his utterly inept
service chiefs. Suddenly, on
January 26, President Buhari
tweeted: “I have accepted the
immediate resignation of the
service chiefs.” But, akin to a
“golden handshake”, he promptly
nominated them as “non-career
ambassadors”. Was there a special
relationship between the ex-service
chiefs and the president, or were
they simply outstanding?
The Presidency said it’s the latter.
In his tweet, President Buhari
thanked the former service chiefs
for “their overwhelming
achievements in our efforts at
bringing enduring peace to
justifying their ambassadorial
nominations, the Presidency said:
“The President is rewarding hard
work and exceptional sacrifice by
a set of military leaders who gave
their best to the nation and will be
remembered for their contribution
to the security and survival of
In self-congratulatory
statements, the ex-military chiefs
blew their own trumpet. Lt-General
(retd) Abayomi Olonisakin, former
chief of defence staff, said: “Under
my leadership, the military
reclaimed all territories controlled
by Boko Haram.” Then, Lt-
General (retd) Tukur Buratai,
former chief of army staff, said:
“The
leadership was able to achieve a
great feat in the fight against
insurgency in the country.”
This is incredibly condescending
and insulting to
country were President Buhari and
the former service chiefs talking
about? Were they talking about
Beyond new service chiefs:
needs a truly professional military
declarations of victory by
government, Boko Haram
continues to act with impunity,
seizing army bases and
slaughtering soldiers and
civilians? Were they describing a
country where armed bandits,
notably killer herdsmen, have
ravaged villages and killed
thousands of innocent
According to the Global Terrorism
Index,
peaceful country in the world in
2020, a position it has held for
years!
Recently, the Gombe State
governor, Muhammad Yahaya,
said: “
security challenges in its history.”
President Buhari himself told the
new service chiefs: “We are in a
state of emergency”! Despite being
declared “technically defeated”,
Boko Haram’s daringness scares
the living daylights out of
soldiers. The Financial Times
recently noted: “Large parts of
country, particularly in the North-
East and North-West, are outside
of government control.” Truth is,
soldiers often run away from Boko
Haram insurgents.
The military’s weakness is not
due to poor funding or equipment.
According to Global Firepower
Index 2001,
most powerful armed forces in
Africa after Egypt, Algeria and
South Africa, in terms of budget,
manpower and equipment, and
ranks 35th in the world. Of course,
any military can be better funded
and equipped, but there’s no excuse
for the gap between military
funding and capability in
In a well-researched study last year,
apparent external
threats but can’t tackle
internal threats to its
security
Dr. Temitope Abiodun, a scholar
at the Institute for Peace and
Strategic Studies, University of
Ibadan, found stark evidence of a
mismatch between funding for
$2bn annually, and its
performance.
But why? Well, according to the
findings, corruption tops the list,
with military personnel enriching
themselves “by diverting public
funds meant to fight terror and
insecurity”. Then, there are
politics, bad leadership and poor
governance in the military
hierarchy. While the top brass
enrich themselves, the soldiers in
the battlefield are neglected,
engendering low morale among
the rank and file. Indeed,
according to some media reports,
soldiers are resigning from the
army.
Sadly, President Buhari
condones the culture of mediocrity,
incompetence and impunity at the
leadership cadre of the military,
which harms the entire forces. By
keeping the underperforming
service chiefs beyond their sell-by
dates, he sent a message that poor
performance was tolerable, and by
rewarding them with
ambassadorial nominations for
non-existent “overwhelming
achievements”, he showed that he
puts personal loyalty above
competence.
But here’s the key question: If the
former service chiefs failed to
achieve their military objectives,
in terms of
situation, why were they so
indispensable to President Buhari
and why did he treat them with
such deference after their belated
resignations? The answer may lie
in what Buratai regarded as one
of his achievements. The former
army chief said that under his
leadership, the army “ensured that
democracy was supported and
protected”. How? One
interpretation could be that he
foiled coup plans.
Indeed, in 2017, Buratai
announced alleged coup plans,
saying that “some individuals have
been approaching some officers
and soldiers for undisclosed
political reasons”. Since then,
there have been many coup scares,
including ahead of Buhari’s
second inauguration. The coup
rumours seemed baseless, and I
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wrote about them. But if, indeed,
the former military chiefs foiled
coup plots during their tenures,
that’s commendable, and it’s
probably why, despite their poor
operational performance, Buhari
wanted to keep them in office.
But “supporting and protecting
democracy” is more than loyalty
to the president. When President
Trump incited insurrection against
the US Capitol in January, the US
Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a
statement saying: “The U.S.
military will obey lawful orders
from civilian leadership.” Truth be
told, there’s no guarantee that
lawful orders. I mean, elections
are heavily militarised in
with soldiers used to intimidate
voters and rig elections. The
military is also used to suppress
legitimate agitations through
coded operations like “Operation
Crocodile Smile” and “Operation
Python Dance”, and to crack down
on peaceful protests, as the Lekki
shootings showed.
For years, Amnesty International
has accused
committing war crimes and crimes
against humanity. The Presidency
denies this, but the perception is
rife. The US won’t sell certain
weapons to
because of concerns about human
rights abuses by the military.
Every country needs robust
military capability to tackle
internal and external threats to
security.
external threats but can’t tackle
internal threats to its security.
Sadly, its coercive arm is weak
against insurgents but strong in
suppressing legitimate agitations.
sophisticated and apolitical armed
forces!
Kukah: Crucify him! But why?
By KIIKPOYE K. AARON
THE Christmas Day homily by the Bishop
of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Dr.
Mathew Hassan Kukah, has generated a lot
of reactions from government and sectarian
circles. Some of the reactions, particularly
those by Muslim groups, are so harsh that one
wonders if a fatwa is not about to be
pronounced on his head.
Expectedly, Christian groups have risen in
defence of him. Mr. Lai Mohammed, the
Minister for Information was the first to fire
the salvo. In his attack, which in my opinion is
borne out of a deliberate obfuscation of facts
in the service of defending the indefensible,
Mohammed, speaking on behalf of the
Federal Government, accused Bishop Kukah
of stoking the embers of disunity, sectarian strife
and calling for violent regime change of a
democratically elected government.
He warned religious leaders to ‘refrain from
stigmatising the leader they never supported
anyway, using well-worn and disapproved
allegations of nepotism or whatever.’ Similarly,
Prof. Ishaq Akintola, President of the Muslim
Rights Concern, MURIC, interprets Bishop
Kukah comments as reckless, inflammatory,
unguarded, a denigration of Islam as a violent
religion and call for a coup.
The Coalition of Northern Group threatened
to drag Kukah to the International Criminal
Court, ICC, stating that his sermon amounted
to inciting hatred against Northern Muslims.
A calm reading of Bishop Kukah’s message
and the reactions thereof leads me to wonder
whether and why Bishop Kukah deserves to be
crucified.
Although Bishop Kukah’s homily has
received wide circulation and, therefore,
somewhat superfluous to restate it here, it is
nonetheless necessary so to do, if not for
anything else, at least to place my argument
in its proper perspective. Against the
background of conditions strikingly
symptomatic of a failed state, namely: a
generalised sense of insecurity, leading to
unwarranted loss of lives, livelihoods and
property, a collapsing economy, social anomie
and much else, Bishop Kukah, in his message
aptly tiled ‘A Nation in Search of Vindication’
called on the priesthood to stand before the
‘mercy seat of God and plead the cause of our
great country.’
He encouraged the congregants, and by
extension,
conditions that inspire hopelessness. In other
words, the real essence of the Christmas Day
message was to rekindle hope among a people
whose circumstances bespeak hopelessness.
But simply invoking hope was not enough.
Bishop Kukah needed to attempt a diagnosis
of how we got here.
In his characteristic broadmindedness,
Bishop Kukah did not say that violence at
Christmas began with the Buhari
administration. He traced it to the Christmas
day bombing at Madalla, that is to say when
President Goodluck Jonathan, a
Christian, was at the helm of affairs in the
country. But of course, things have got worse
under Buhari, a fact that may be traceable to
the pathologies that define the Buhari
administration.
Among such pathologies are corruption,
which in his words, has ‘metastasised’;
nepotism, which has led to placing Northern
Muslims in all sensitive positions with the intent
to ‘reinforce the foundations of Northern
hegemony which has produced the opposite
consequences.’ These Northern Muslims in
sensitive positions have been retained in the
same positions for so long in spite of their
manifest under-performance in those
positions.
Even worse, he further points out that
government appears to be in ‘suspended
animation’, without direction, much like a ship
without a rudder. He observed that there would
have been a coup or civil war if a non-Muslim
President had done a fraction of what Buhari
has done and gotten away by his nepotism.
This is the summary of the content of Bishop
Kukah’s homily that has generated the
reactions set out in the opening paragraph of
this article.
To return to the posers raised earlier, why the
furore over Bishop Kukah’s message? Does he
deserve the tirade of abuses and threats that
have come his way? What has he said that is
exactly novel? More to the point, what has he
said that has not been said by other
Muslim men of conscience from the Northern
half of the country? Is there anything in the
content of that homily that does not reflect the
lived experience of
the usual case of the truth hurting?
In my considered opinion, there is nothing
in the content of Bishop Kukah’s message that
is untrue or substantially new that
have not been lamenting for so long. Since
Buhari came to power, a time-tested principle
of ‘Federal Character’ found under the Third
Schedule of the Constitution has long been
jettisoned. The Federal Character dictates that
What baffles me is the uncanny
knack for government
spokespersons to deny what is
obvious even for the blind to see
in the filling of positions in the public service,
conscious efforts must be made to reflect the
diversity that defines us. His first attempt at
composition of cabinet in his first term showed
a high level of lop-sidedness: North West 13
(43per cent), North East 6 (20 per cent), North
Central 3 (10 per cent), South-South 5(17 per
cent) South West 3 (10) and South East 0 (0 per
cent).
Key cabinet positions are occupied by people
related to the president by blood, marriage or
by faith. There was a time that the National
Security Council was almost Hausa-Fulani
that it was even doubtful if taking minutes in
that meeting needed to be done in the English
language and not Fulfulde.
Further, this administration has presided
over the recruitment into the Directorate of
State Service that was overwhelmingly
lopsided in favour of the North. More
specifically, of over 1300 cadets recruited in
September 2020, only 97 were from the South.
The same has been reported of recruitment
and posting in the
Petroleum Corporation and indeed any
Federal agency for that matter.
Quite sadly, there is no attempt to replace
these largely incompetent appointees even
when it is obvious to the blind that they have
been best at doing their jobs poorly well. The
case of the recently removed security chiefs is
quite telling here. Almost all of them are
Muslim Northerners. They have been there
for a reasonable time enough to succeed or
fail. It is clear that they have failed woefully as
far as the war on terror is concerned. In spite of
their manifest failures, no one deems it fit to
replace them even as the North is gradually
becoming a graveyard of dry bones.
All we hear is a Lai Mohammed, a Femi
Adesina, or a Garba Shehu or a Lauretta
Onochie, issuing a statement expressing shock
in the aftermath of every mayhem unleashed
on hapless citizens by Boko Haram or
herdsmen or bandits or hoodlums. Away from
recruitment, how does a government justify
double standard as state policy? I make this
point with reference to government’s policy
on gold mining in the North side by side the
extant law on natural resource extraction in
Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative, PAGMI, by
the Buhari administration.
This policy prepares artisans in the North to
mine its gold and sell it to the Central Bank of
happening in the same country that artisanal
refineries in the Niger Delta are regularly set
ablaze and the environment, degraded because
it is illegal for artisans to refine oil in the Niger
Delta. The idea is to prosper the North while
the Niger Delta remains poor in the midst of a
resource that generates the wealth of the
nation.
Continues online:www.vanguardngr.com
•Prof. Aaron teaches Political Science at
the University of Port Harcourt.
Deodorising evil in the name of peace
ISLAMIC cleric Sheikh
Ahmad Gumi is a man with a
lot of clout in his neck of the woods.
A retired army officer and a
medical doctor who decided to be
a full-time Islamic preacher, his
people put much stock in whatever
he says. So, when he embarked on
a self-assigned mission of talking
his Fulani kinsmen holding sway
in the ungoverned spaces of the
North West out of banditry,
he has been to Kaduna, Zamfara
and Sokoto states.
Emerging from the forests of
Shinkafi, Sububu, Pakai and
Maradun in Zamfara State where
he engaged with outlaws who have
declared war against the State last
week, Gumi has riveted
with tales of a people who have an
axe to grind with their fellow
citizens and their government. The
bandits, he told us, unfurled a
catalogue of grievances,
threatening there will be no peace
until their demands are met by the
abandoned them.
The Islamic cleric thinks they
have a point, concluding that they
are victims of the base conducts of
unconscionable state actors. He
also came to another conclusion.
Judging from what he saw in the
forests, the
chance of defeating the bandits
militarily and, therefore, they have
no choice than to negotiate for
peace on the bandits’ terms.
Most of these people who are
holding
Gumi said, are stark illiterates with
no education whatsoever; but he
thinks, nevertheless, that since they
took up arms because of injustice
allegedly done to them, then, “if
they should be called upon and
talked to, they could be persuaded
to embrace peace.”
“They were victims of violence so
they took arms to protect
themselves. Wherever they are as
cattle herders, they face problems
with farmers; we saw what
happened in Oyo, how their homes
and cattle were burnt. These people
live in huts while those killing them
and destroying their homes live a
better life,” Gumi said. He
canvassed for amnesty for those
who want to lay down their arms
as was done for the militants in the
Niger Delta region. Schools and
skills acquisition centres should be
built for them.
“Let there be peace; you all have
a legitimate concern and
grievances and I believe that since
the Niger Delta armed militants
were integrated by the Federal
Government and are even in the
business of pipelines protection, the
Federal Government should
immediately look into how
something like that will be done to
the Fulani to provide them with
reasonable means of livelihood,
including jobs, working capitals,
entrepreneurship training,
building clinic and schooling,”
Sheikh Gumi told the bandits in
their lair.
And to the rest of
said: “We cannot abandon them. I
have a picture of some little girls
that are drinking water from the
same stream with animals. They
have no social amenities; no
hospitals and we are here talking.”
In an interview with Daily Trust,
Gumi admitted that those he met
in Zamfara forests were Fulani
herders. Expectedly, Zamfara State
Governor Bello Matawalle is
happy and so is the Federal
Government that has publicly
endorsed the cleric’s efforts.
“When you want to resolve an
issue like this, you use lots of back
channels,” Minister of Information
and Culture Lai Mohammed said.
“Again, it is not unusual for a
respected cleric to have the
confidence of (approaching)
outlaws or bandits…. So, it is not
unusual for him to act as a bridge
between government and the
outlaws in an attempt to find
solution.”
Surprisingly, Kaduna State
Governor Nasir el-Rufai, who has
been an advocate of Gumi’s
appeasement rhetoric of
negotiating and paying ransom to
bandits, disagrees. Rather than
amnesty and compensation for
them, he calls for their elimination.
Speaking in an interview with the
Hausa Service of the British
Broadcasting Corporation, BBC,
on Monday, el-Rufai declared that
any bandit arrested in Kaduna
Who offended the
Fulani in
should a people be
compensated after
killing people and
destroying their homes?
State will be killed, insisting that
“the state is at war with bandits”.
El-Rufai said anybody who
believes that a Fulani herdsman
that is used to making millions of
naira from kidnapping will stop is
deceiving himself. “Anybody that
thinks a Fulani herdsman that is
engaged in kidnapping for ransom
and is earning millions of naira
would go back to his former life of
getting N100,000 after selling a
cow in a year, must be deceiving
himself.”
He may well be correct. Before
going into the forests to meet the
bandits, Gumi was told by the
chairman of Shinkafi local
government that they had paid
over N200 million ransom to the
bandits. If a local government has
paid that much, imagine how
much the bandits are making from
the state government and the
entire region. And to imagine that
there are little or no consequences.
No bandit will give up such a
lucrative business on a platter of
Sheikh Gumi’s ridiculous
platitudes.
Gumi’s ad-hominem fallacy
which has become the battle cry of
other Fulani ideologues such as
Prof. Usman Yusuf, former
Executive Secretary of the
National Health Insurance
Scheme, NHIS, and Adamu
Garba, the CEO of IPI Solutions
presidential aspirant under the All
Progressives Congress, APC, in the
2019 elections, is disingenuous
and dangerous.
To contend as Sheikh
Gumi and his cotravellers
are doing
that the bandits are
angry because they
have been grossly
offended, and their
livelihoods taken away
is to play fast and loose
with the facts. Who
offended the Fulani in
people
be
compensated after
killing people and
destroying their homes?
In the last one week since after
Gumi came back from the
Zamfara forests, bandits have
killed well over 43 innocent
others in Kaduna State alone. On
Saturday, 24 people were killed in
an attack on Ungwan Gajere,
Kutemeshi ward, Dankyawai,
Janbala, Kishisho, Gwagwada-
Kasaya, Agwa and Bugai, in
Birnin Gwari, Giwa, Chikun, Igabi
and Kauru local government
areas. That attack was launched
barely 72 hours after gunmen
killed 19 persons in Birnin-Gwari
and Kajuru local government
areas.
So, what did the victims do to
deserve death? And what kind of
peace is Gumi talking about here?
How can reward and
compensation for banditry
engender peace? Can there be
peace without justice and equity?
Who compensates the victims that
have been driven away from their
ancestral homes and are living in
IDP camps all over the country?
Who compensates the women that
have been made widows and
children who have been orphaned?
And make no mistake about this.
Sheikh Gumi said those he went
to the forests to talk to are Fulani.
So, the identity of those
committing these atrocities is not
hidden. Of course, it cannot be all
Fulani but that does not detract
from the fact that the fire of this
crisis that is threatening to
consume
To draw a moral equivalency
between Fulani bandits and Niger
Delta militants or Indigenous
Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, activists
as Sheikh Gumi and his ilk are
trying to do is a fallacy that is
unbecoming. It is as foolhardy as
"comparing apples and oranges."
The Fulani don’t own every inch
of the
them claim.
If the goal of this violence is to
cow other
submission, it will fail. Why?
Because no ethnic nationality has
the capacity to impose its will on
the rest of the country. If this
madness persists, particularly
“now that the war is on our
doorstep”, as Nobel Laureate,
Professor Wole Soyinka, said this
week, there will be mobilisation.
That is exactly what Sunday
Igboho is doing in the South West.
Nobody wants to be a slave in his
country. That is as intolerable and
unacceptable to Soyinka as it is to
anyone else.
Whatever will make a man like
Soyinka to declare that: “Whatever
it takes, I stand ready to contribute
in any way and I have made my
governor understand this, we are
here not just to live in but to live in
dignity. Right now, our dignity is
being rubbished,” is a serious
matter. Incidentally, many
inescapable conclusion.
If I were Sheikh Gumi, rather
than being an ideological prop to
bandits, my message to the Fulani
herdsmen would have been: Please
don’t provoke a war you have no
chance whatsoever of winning.
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 17
:Vanguard News
:@vanguardnews
APC registration: Not possible for
individual to hijack exercise —Ajobena
•Urges support for Omo-Agege
By Festus Ahon
ASABA—NATIONAL Caucus
member of the All Progressives
Congress, APC, AVM Frank Ajobena
(retd), Wednesday said it was
not possible for a person to hijack
the party Registration and Revalidation
exercise in Delta State.
Ajobena in a telephone interview
with the Vanguard, urged the Minister
of State for Labour, Mr Festus
Keyamo and other stakeholders
of the party to rally round the
Deputy Senate President, Senator
Ovie Omo-Agege to grow the party
in the State.
He insisted that it was difficult
for one person to know everybody
that would be registered in the 270
Federal wards in the State, describing
the outcry against the exercise
by Mr Festus Keyamo as
mischievous.
While urging Mr Festus Keyamo
to concentrate on his Ministerial
job and stop playing divisive politics,
he said there was the need for
all of them to be united and work
towards bringing people into the
party.
Ajobena who expressed dissatisfaction
at the number of persons
Court adjourns Edo communities'
boundary dispute
By Ozioruva Aliu
BENIN CITY—AN Edo State
High Court presided over by
the Chief Judge of the state, Justice
(Mrs) Esther Edigin has adjourned
a suit involving two neigbhuoring
communities; Egbiri and
Okhoromi over their disputed
boundary.
The defendants in the suit B/361/
19 opened their case with the testimony
of Chief John Edosomwan
before calling two other witnesses
chief Igbinowaye Idiagbonhia
from the Oba palace and
Okhoromi youth leader Mr Lucky
Osadiaye.
Under cross examination from
the claimant counsel, Idiagbonhia
said five persons including
himself were sent by the Benin
monarch to plant a tree called
Ikhinmwin as a natural beacon
between both communities but told
the court they were not shown any
existing boundaries.
The second witness Mr Osadiaye
tendered a recording from a local
television station which the court
viewed.
Counsel to Okhoromi commu-
that turned out at Orogun when the
Deputy Senate President, Senator
Ovie Omo-Agege revalidated his
membership of the party, said he
expected to see many of other political
leaders and stakeholders
there but "only few persons were
there", adding that "the grassroots
were well represented."
Continuing, he said: "What are
we really dragging? The sky is big
enough for all of us to fly. There
can be only one leader at a time.
As at today, Senator Ovie Omo-
Agege is number five in the hierarchy
of leadership of the country as
Deputy Senate President and he is
our leader in Delta State".
Ajobena disclosed that the party
has been planning the registration
and revalidation exercise since
2019, adding that the exercise was
meant to build on the strength of
the party in the country.
The National Chairman of the
Registration and Revalidation
Committee, Abubakar Sani Bello
who is also the Governor of Niger
State, Wednesday announced the
suspension of the exercise in Delta
state, siting seeming disagreement
amongst leaders of the party in the
State.
Amnesty: Ex-militant leader urges
peace, seek support for Dikio
By Chancel Sunday
BOMADI—Ex-militant leader
under the Presidential Amnesty
Programme, PAP, Para Ekiyes,
has tasked youths to maintain the
prevailing peace in the Niger Delta
region.
Para, who is Egbesu priest of Esuku
Kingdom, Burutu local government
area of Delta state, gave
the task this week during a peacebuilding
tour to various communities
in the region.
He noted that the coordinator of
PAP, Col. Milland Dikio’s plan to
execute the programme to a logical
conclusion was a welcome development
to beneficiaries and
Niger Delta region at large.
He appealed to community folk
to give the needed support to Dikio
to enable him fulfil his plans for
the region.
Addressing the people of Tuomo,
nity Chief Peter Uwadiae said the
case of the defense which ought to
have ended would continue at the
adjourned date.
On his part counsel to Egbiri
community, Dr. Monday Oseghale
alleged that the video played in
court was doctored
The tussle between Egbirhe and
Okhuoromi communities which
commenced three years ago was
preceded by a Judgment by Oba
Erediauwa in 2010, asking both
communities to maintain old
boundaries which both parties
agreed to, with the palace emissary
identified as Avbiogbe pegging
the Ikhinmwin tree as a natural
beacon.
However, following the dissolution
of Community Development
Associations (CDA) by Oba Eware
II in 2016, Okhoromi community
allegedly refuted the boundary demarcation.
Palace later directed that the old
boundary, the tree of demarcation
would be replanted on the agreed
demarcation and urged the Egbiri
people to add five plots to the 100
by 100 to make six plots.
Hearing in the suit has been adjourned
to the 15th of February
2021.
headquarters of Esuku Kingdom
in Burutu council area, Delta state,
he advised youths to avoid unnecessary
protests, kidnapping and
pipeline vandalization, which he
described as distractions to development.
“There is hope of logical implementation
of the amnesty programme
under Dikio because the
man has decided to work for his
people despite all distractions.
“So, this community-to-community
tour, preaching peace in the
region is for the good of our people
which Dikio himself is aware
of. We should avoid unnecessary
protests, kidnappings and pipeline
vandalization”, he said.
In his response, Tuomo CDC
chairman, Mr Binebai Tomke,
thanked Ekiyes and the amnesty
office for the good plans for beneficiaries,
stressing his leadership
would maintain the prevailing
peace in Tuomo and environs.
C
M
Y
K
18 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
TENSION has been building up
in Lagos State over the intention of
some angry youths to stage
#Occupy Lekki Toll Gate p rotest in
response to the imminent reopening
of the toll plaza by the Lagos State
Government.
Another group had announced its
plan to stage a counter #Defend
the purpose of setting up the panel
Lagos and #Dem No Born their
had not been achieved.
Papa Well protests at the same
The move for the protest gathered
venue, thus setting the perfect stage
momentum in the social media on
for possible violence and breakdown
the perception that if the Toll Plaza
of law and order.
is reopened without first getting
The Lagos State Judicial Panel of
justice for the #EndSARS protesters
Inquiry into the Lekki Toll Gate
killed and injured there, the purpose
shootings of October 20, 2020 headed
of the panel will be lost and the
by Justice Doris Okuwobi, had last
tragedy swept under the proverbial
week Saturday February 6, 2021,
carpet.
ordered reopening of the plaza which
We call on both sides to shelve their
has been idle for two and half months.
protests in the interest of public peace
Some members of the panel led by
and to avoid the obvious unpleasant
rights activist, Ebun Olu Adegboruwa,
consequences.
SAN, had opposed the reopening, as
Prevention is better than cure. There
Please, shelve #Occupy Lekki Toll Gate
is no way these protests can hold
without violent clashes taking place.
The sabre-rattling being deployed so
far shows that forces that feed fat
on crises are already at work.
This same interests had
unsuccessfully tried to twist the
peaceful #EndSARS protests last year
(which was later hijacked by
hoodlums) as an ethnic attack on
Lagos.
We must do everything in our power
to avoid a showdown of this nature
because it will only worsen ethnic
suspicions and lead to more
destruction of lives and government
and private property by hoodlums.
Lagos State has not yet recovered
from the hijacked #EndSARS
protests which cost it billions. The
mindless looting of shops which
wrecked thousands of businesses
and led to massive job losses will
be re-enacted in the wake of any
further protests. We must desist
from giving the criminals and
merchants of mischief chance to
carry out their evil agenda.
Meanwhile, the LASG should keep the
reopening of the toll plaza on hold.
The concerned youths should listen
to Adegboruwa and others
representing them at the Panel who
are also calling for a shelving of the
protests because the Panel is yet to
conclude its assignment.
With the cooperation of all sides,
justice for the dead and injured is
possible, while the Lagos State
Government is given maximum
support to rebuild the state.
Poverty and government in deficit
By YINKA OLAITO
IN economics, we learn a little about
balance of trade. This can either be
surplus or negative. A surplus is when
a country’s export value is greater than
its import and a deficit occurs when the
country becomes a major consumer
leading to higher import and lower or
zero export.
As the name implies, a deficit will do
a lot of damage to the economy or
balance of trade as a whole. This may
likely affect a country’s per capita
income in the long run. Yes, this may
not be the only factor but it may
contribute to it.
When a country continues to run at a
deficit, the tendency or urge to borrow
will increase over time. A borrower, they
say, is often at the mercy of the lender.
Borrowing may enhance the influence
of poverty over the country or citizens’
value.
Poverty, when it becomes fully blown,
does a lot of damage to the individual’s
psyche. Thinking pattern and
worldview of a very poor person is often
pitiable. A poor person has little choice
to pick from.
A poor person’s life can be cut short
with stuff that should not. An
insignificant disease that can be treated
fast with little or no money will become
epidemic with a capacity to destroy
thousands of lives in a blink of an eye.
A poor family often longs for the good
things of life without fulfilment.
Decision-making processes are often
affected by inability to ‘send money on
an errand’.
different from the outlook presented
above. Since 2015,
‘romancing’ the singsong: ‘
running on deficit.’ Oil prices dropped
sharply, and since this is what the
nation depends on heavily, everything
had taken a nosedive.
Quality of life on the street has been
moving from bad to worse although
Naira being shared to alleviate the
poverty in the land.
became major beneficiaries of these
palliatives because the region is the
worst hit. But pray, a journey through
the Northern region did not show any
evidence of a change that citizens had
been promised.
Things seemed alright until the
COVID-19 pandemic broke out last
year.
were lucky enough as the first wave
did not do the level of damage the
naysayers forecasted.
There were no dead bodies on the
streets, among other predictions. But
while some advanced nations decided
to lock-down for safety reasons,
but could not sustain such luxury.
lock-down but as the second two weeks
lock-down was introduced in the
middle of April 2020, it became obvious
that it was not practicable.
The level of poverty in the land and
the reality that majority of the people
OPINION
live from hand to mouth, through daily
earnings, made continued lock-down
ineffective.
Many of the affected citizens,
especially in Lagos, began to rob and
maim others whom they perceived were
better than them. Government had to
quickly stop the lock-down rule while
trying hard to mitigate the effects of
poverty in the land.
A poor mindset, wherever it is found,
is a huge liability. While many
advanced nations took good care of
their citizens during the lock-down
with lots of support measures, our own
palliatives found their way into the
Why is it difficult for the
present administration, which
has been in power since 2015,
to find a remedy to the deficit
till date?
storehouses of notable politicians. It
took the EndSARS confusion for
poor mindset had caused the so-called
politicians who should use their
positions to alleviate the problems of
the downtrodden.
The second wave of the COVID-19
is doing a great damage in
Africa. The second wave seems deadlier
and affects almost everyone. Poor and
the middle class, if that truly exists,
inclusive.
Hospitals are now filled to the brim.
Our health capacity and infrastructure
are overstretched. The pandemic is
ravaging like wild fire and it is killing
more in terms of numbers than its first
outbreak.
Send Opinions & Letters to:
opinions1234@yahoo.com
Few private health institutions with
little capacity to handle the pandemic
had become shylock over time. Private
health institutions in the urban centres,
from inception, had never been pocketfriendly.
Bills are given based on where
you work or patient’s economic status
rather than being based on the disease.
I have been authoritatively informed
that a patient with symptoms of
COVID-19 has to part with a minimum
of N3.5 million deposit for admission.
Where would an average
this? So the numbers of death continued
to be on the rise, but this is usually
under reported. What a shame of a
nation!
Government had considered and
threatened a lock-down but that seems
like the barking of a toothless bulldog.
While other countries with enough
power to provide basic amenities for
the entire citizenry had declared a lockdown,
implication of lock-down, so the best
option for being in deficit is to allow
people to die in droves.
The question is: How long shall this
continue? Why is it difficult for the
present administration, which has been
in power since 2015, to find a remedy
to the deficit till date?
How long will
for better days while the best of its
brains are leaving the country daily for
greener pastures and the remaining
are allowed to die cheaply?
•Olaito, a media and communications
specialist with deep interest in policy,
diplomacy and development, wrote from
Lagos.
Foreign trade rises 3% to $7.7bn in November — CBN
*Trade deficit falls 5.02%
By Elizabeth Adegbesan
ECONOMY
NIGERIA’s foreign trade rose
Month-on-Month (M-o-M)
by three per cent to $7.76 billion in
November 2020 from $7.53 billion
in October 2020.
The slight increase in trade was
driven by a six per cent increase in
exports, which exceeded the 1.2 per
cent growth in imports.
Consequently, the country’s
trade deficit fell 5.02 per cent (M-o-
M) to $2.08 billion in November
2020 from $2.19 billion in October
2020.
The Central Bank of
(CBN) disclosed this in its Economic
Report for November 2020.
The apex bank stated: “On M-o-
M basis, the value of aggregate external
trade increased by 3.1 per cent
to $7.76 billion in November 2020
compared with $7.53 billion in October
2020.
“The development reflected increased
export of goods and higher
demand for import, particularly raw
materials, as economic activities continued
to rebound. However, when
compared with the corresponding
period of 2019, it indicated a 23 per
cent decline.
“Aggregate export increased by six
per cent to $2.84 billion in the review
period, above $2.67 billion in
the previous period, due largely to
increase in the export of crude oil
but moderated by the decline in other
non-oil products.
“Available data showed that the
value of crude oil export increased
by 9.0 per cent to $2.31 billion in
November 2020, above $2.13 billion
in October 2020. This was, however,
38 per cent below the $3.72 billion
in the corresponding period of
2019.
“Gas export, on the other hand,
decreased by 3.1 per cent to $0.31
billion in November 2020, relative
to the $0.32 billion in October 2020.
CURRENCY BUYING SELLING
US DOLLAR
POUNDS
EURO
FRANC
YEN
CFA
WAUA
RENMINBI
RIYAL
RAND
120.95 -2.03
1,754.00 +15.00
15.84 -0.15
61.49 +0.40
59.89 +0.43
379 379.5 380
524.4981 525.1901 525.882
459.5375 460.1438 460.75
425.317 425.8781 426.4392
3.6171 3.6219 3.6266
0.6803 0.6903 0.7003
545.4506 546.1702 546.8898
58.7506 58.8286 58.9065
101.037 101.1703 101.3036
25.7978 25.8318 25.8658
CBN Exchange rate as at 10/02/2021
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY11, 2021 — 19
Corpreneuship: from left, Regional Manager, Unity Bank Plc, Mr Michael Akerele; Star Prize
winner of the Unity Bank Corpreneurship Challenge, Ms Evelyn Esumai; State Coordinator,
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) FCT, Hajiya Wahil Isa; and Garki Area 3, Unity Bank
Branch Manager, Mr Idris Usman during the CORPRENEUSHIP challenge for 2021 Batch B
Corps Members at the Kubwa Orientation Camp in Abuja
“Crude oil and gas components
remained dominant and accounted
for 94 per cent of total export.”
On import it stated: “Merchandise
import also increased by 1.2
per cent to $4.92 billion in November
2020, above $4.86 billion in October
2020, due to increase in the
importation of raw materials for domestic
production.
“Consequently, a lower trade deficit
of $2.08 billion was recorded in
November 2020, relative to $2.19 billion
in October 2020.
Post pandemic: Business leaders eyes transformation
with strategy reset — EY Report
By Peter Egwuatu
AS companies continue to
navigate the current
COVID-19 pandemic environment
and its unprecedented
disruption, business executives
have began to reset their strategies
with eyes on achieving
corporate transformation.
This is one of the highlights
of the 23rd edition of the EY
Global Capital Confidence Barometer
survey (CCB23), released
by Ernst & Young, EY.
Commenting on the
outcome of the survey,
Damilola Aloba, EY Partner,
Strategy and Transactions
(SaT), noted
that for many business
leaders, the emergence
of the COVID-19 pandemic
and the resultant
economic shock, have
acted as existential
threats to their businesses.
ECONOMY
According to
Damilola, the C-suite
has responded by resetting
their strategies and
making far-reaching
changes with a focus on
transformation. These
bold moves are now fueling
an optimistic
mindset and a strategic
agenda firmly focused on
capturing growth opportunities.
Companies
plan to not only restore
performance levels, but
to also make the necessary
investments to reframe their
future.”
According to the report, 23 per
cent of business leaders who
participated in the survey expect
return to pre-pandemic levels
of profitability in 2021, while
44 per cent expect return in 2022,
marking improved sentiment
among the C-suite compared to
CCB22 (March 2020).
In terms of geographical prospect
for growth 39 per cent of the
respondents expect Europe to generate
the most growth and opportunities
over the next three years,
followed by Asia-Pacific with 30
per cent and the Americas with 24
per cent.
In terms of factors that could put
growth prospects at risk, 29 per
cent of the executives cite impact
of the COVID-19 pandemic
as the biggest threat while 19
per cent cite the changing global
economic environment, and 14
per cent indicate climate change
as top threat.
The report further revealed that
geopolitical challenges have
forced 81 per cent of respondents
to alter their strategic investment
plans in the past 12 months.
Nearly two-thirds or about 64 per
cent of the respondents said they
have delayed a planned investment,
while more than a third
about or 36 per cent have terminated
their plans altogether.
MARITIME
Unity Bank’s Corpreneurship Challenge rewards
NYSC members
UNITY Bank Plc has awarded cash
prize of N4 million to 12 NYSC
members that emerged winners in its
flagship business plan competition,
Corpreneurship Challenge
The winners emerged during the final
business pitch in the fourth edition of the
contest for NYSC 2020 Batch B corps
members, which took place simultaneously
across four NYSC camps in
Lagos, Ogun, Benin, and Abuja recently.
The cash prizes included a N200,000
business grant for each of the second runner
up, N300,000 business grant for the
first runner ups and a star prize of
N500,000 for each of the four winners.
Some of the winners include Evelyn
Esumai, Aisosa Erica and Ozuoka
Moses in Abuja camp, while Akomolade
“The gradual pick-up in economic
activities resulted in higher imports
for industrial uses and infrastructural
upgrade. Thus, the rising importation
of raw materials during the review
period resulted in a M-o-M increase
in non-oil import.”
MONEY MARKET
Blessing, Okafor Augustine and Edokpayi
Harrison emerged the winners in the
Benin camp. In Lagos, Moses Bolanle,
Iran-Ola Oluwosulu and Zainab
Muhammed emerged winners to claim
the cash prizes.
The initiative attracted massive interest
among the corps members, as over 300
applications were received but only forty
were shortlisted for the pitching session
from where the twelve winners emerged.
The contestants’ business plans which
ranged from fish production, poultry farming,
fashion, piggery to beverages were
assessed on originality, marketability, future
employability potential of the product
and knowledge of the business. Recall
Ports & Cargo
Terminal records
6% growth
By Godfrey Bivbere
PORTS & Cargo Handling Ser
vices Limited, a subsidiary of
SIFAX Group and concessionaire
of Terminal C, Tin Can Island Port,
Apapa, has said that it recorded
12,153 Twenty Equivalent Units,
TEUs of containers throughput representing
six per cent increase last
year compared to 2019.
This is even as the foremost terminal
operator said that it is targeting
300,000 TEUs in the 2021 business
year.
Managing Director, Ports & Cargo
Handling Services Limited, John
Jenkins, noted that while the target
is ambitious, it is achievable in
view of the company’s impressive
2020 performance, despite the
myriad of challenges that the maritime
sector confronted in 2020.
A statement signed by Corporate
Communications Officer of Sifax,
Philips Ojo noted that in 2020; the
terminal recorded an increase of
12,153 TEUs to cap at 242,195
TEUs as against 2019’s figure of
230,042 TEUs.
The statement further noted that
the full import figure rose from
109,367 TEUs in 2019 to 122,243
TEUs while the export of empty containers
also witnessed an increase
from 94,041 TEUs in 2019 to 96,
605 TEUs in 2020.
However, the terminal operator
recorded a decline in its full export
which dropped to 23,347 TEUs last
year from 26,634 TEUs in 2019.
Jenkins said: “Despite the harsh
business terrain occasioned by the
COVID-19 pandemic, terrible state
of the port access roads and some
other hurdles, the terminal still recorded
this impressive performance.
“This is down to proactive business
strategy, committed staff, supportive
leadership, and loyal clients.”
Jenkins further explained that
in order to boost the terminal’s
efficiency, barge operation was
given utmost priority with the
creation of two dedicated points
at the quayside where the barges
load and offload with dedicated
cranes. He noted that the barge
operation has helped in the decongestion
of the terminal.
He said: “We now achieve a
minimum of 8,000 TEUs for our
barge operations on a monthly
basis. This has greatly improved
the terminal’s business offerings
and bring great relief to our customers
who have had to endure
the biting consequence of port
congestion primarily caused by
poor access roads and the ongoing
road construction.”
With all the strategies and
modern equipment put in place
at the terminal, Jenkins said the
company would meet the target
of 300,000 TEUs set for itself in
2021.
that Unity Bank debuted the Entrepreneurial
Development Initiative in 2019,
to specifically target corps members, as
part of efforts to contribute to job creation
in
Speaking during the finale, the Group
Head, Retail and SME Banking, Unity
Bank Plc, Mr. Olufunwa Akinmade,
said the competition was to encourage
more youths with clear entrepreneurial
intentions to expand or start profitable
ventures.
“The grants are not a loan and we
want the money to be directed towards
profitable ventures. First, you must learn
that making mistakes is part of business.
It is important to constantly think
about the challenges you will face. Put
the same energy you all have displayed
in preparing for this contest in your businesses
as you face your post-service year
ahead.
20 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
Solution to
insecurity lies with
enforcement of
rights — Obayuwana
DR Osagie Obayuwana, a human rights
activist, was the former Attorney-General
and Commissioner for Justice in Edo State under
the administration of Adams Oshiomhole. In this
interview, he spoke on security challenges in the
country and how it can be tackled using the law.
Excerpts:
By Gabriel Enogholase
What is your reaction to the
issue of herdsmen killings in
the country and the attitude
of the Federal government to
the problem?
What happened in Ondo
State is more of an emotional
reaction to this platitude of
issues. I think it was a good
point that it promotes dialogue
and ultimately we are heading
to the point of ranching. The
point that has been made
severally is that
even ranked among the
countries in the world that
produced milk. Cows can be
slaughtered even in the North
and frozen.
There are articulated trucks
when fish are distributed. So
why not same for cattle? If you
can have articulated trucks
that are frozen, you can also
have railway coaches that are
frozen. I think the situation
calls for creativity on the part
of those responsible for public
administration in this country.
There are instances where
most of the arrested
herdsmen are released
immediately. How do you
assess the roles played by
security agents in this regard?
I will not completely rule that
out because one of the criticism
we have put up against the
system of law enforcement
agents were drawn from
colonial policies . The Colonial
policy of divide and rule was
such that soldiers and
policemen were prevented
from serving in the area where
he comes from or state of
origin.
There are serious draw back
to that. Policing is also about
knowing the nooks and
corners of the state or area and
ability to relate with local
people with the rules of
cultural banners. The
EDITORIAL
Innocent Anaba
( Editor)
Ikechukwu Nnochiri
Henry Ojelu
Onozure Dania
policemen who were sent
seems not to have any form of
commitment. To them, it is just
a posting. So, the logic during
the colonial time was that
when our people rose up
against the colonial order, the
policemen that will be asked
to quell such a protest will
have no identification with
the Local populace. So they
can implore maximum
brutality in doing that on what
you have talked about, which
suggest away from where
there tend to be a means of
identification.
I will put the blame squarely
on the President. The
President’s speech to the
nation after he was sworn in
during his first term in 2015
was that he belongs to nobody
and yet he belongs to
everybody which seems to
suggest that he was a father
to all.
The criticism after six years
especially when vacancies are
being filled and appointments
made, the pattern that has
emerged has not been
consistent with that. It is a
great abuse for law
enforcement agents to believe
that they can confer immunity
on people based on the
language they speak and the
religion that they subscribe to.
It is a terrible injustice to the
spirit of our founding fathers
because we are supposed to
be pan Africans,
Internationalist.
The matter has gone beyond
the duties of the police. I think
we should be sending
battalion of soldiers to the
forests. Those who are found
to had illegally possessed fire
arms should be arrested and
charged. If we are really
serious about rooting out
criminalities from our
highways and forests, it is not
a challenge that cannot be
surmounted. Even in the
Sambisa forest, we can send
battalions there.
The government is half
hearted in the way they are
dealing with the Boko Haram
and so also in the way they
deal with the herdsmen,
bandits, kidnappings and
other security challenges.
What aspect of the
constitution do you think
should be amended to
forestall the looming crisis in
the country?
First and foremost, we
*Dr. Osagie Obayuwana
always call for justifiability of
Chapter 2 of the Constitution,
which should be enforceable
as a matter of law. That is the
chapter of the constitution that
provides for social, economic
and cultural rights. Part of the
challenges we are facing as far
as security is concerned,
stemmed from the level of
poverty in all parts of this
country.
Wandering herdsmen
It is the availability of the
wandering herdsmen because
the herdsmen that you see are
not children of the owners of
the cattle.
They are people who are
entitled to have their own
family and lead a settled life.
There is a right to healthcare,
right to religion, right to rest
and leisure, right to aspire to
the good things of life, but the
average herdsmen is denied
of those rights. Those who
own the cattle lives in the cities
and so, the herdsmen, and the
bulk of them don’t have
families. A few of them takes
their families with them that
are perpetually in the move.
So, how does that relates to
the right education of the
child? How does that relates
The matter
has gone
beyond the
duties of the
police. I think
we should be
sending
battalion of
soldiers to the
forests
08152060944
to the right of dignity of the
wives? So, we talked about
ranching, feeding the cattle is
a business expense. Why
should the cattle owners send
herdsmen into the bushes by
hook or by crooks to feed their
cattle, yet when the cattle is
sold, the herdsmen are
supposed to go back to render
account.
Those who idolized the
violation of the rights of
herdsmen, who are victims,
enjoyed these rights in the
sedentary lives they live in the
cities. So, it is where chapter
2 of the constitution is laid
justifiable and our people are
enlightened across boards to
appreciate that these rights
belongs to us all, that is when
the issues will be addressed
fundamentally.
Do you think that the
country has learnt any lesson
from the EndSars protest?
Again, I think the issue
should be placed squarely on
the shoulders of the
presidency. I was pleasantly
surprised when the Vice-
President at the on-set of the
protest, read the situation
properly and apologized to the
youths. He told the youths,
yes, we are sorry, gentlemen
and ladies, and we know we
have fallen out of your
expectations, give us the
opportunity to address these
issues.
I think it was to the credit of
the Inspector-General of Police
at that time to say all your five
points demand, have been
accepted. But when the youths
presented the issues in their
fullness, it presents leakages
between police brutality and
unemployment. Government
lost patients with them and
that was how we saw Lekki
and the attempted use of
armed thugs in Benin here not
by the police but by thugs that
were instigated. That was the
scenario that replicated itself
in Lagos, Abuja and many
parts of the country.
The consequences of that is
that the lessons was that the
police was humbled and even
embarked on a mild protest by
refusing to receive complaints
and all of that with the onslaughter
of the leaders of the
protest movement which
underscores the lessons that
would have been learnt. So,
what we have witnessed is
that we are back to the
situation of police brutality
and taking of lives. So,the kind
of synergy we expected from
the civil society groups and the
police to address the issue
was lost.
What lessons do you think
U.S. election where the
judiciary stood against being
armtwisted?
It is strength of character.
America is in the process of
redeeming itself from the dirt
of the destruction that former
President Donald Trump
placed ; even they say that
the law is an ass in the sense
that arguments can be raised
to a predetermined
conclusion, they have a date
with history and the level of
their reasoning can be
subjected to critical analysis.
A judge that throws away his
self respect by trying to
appease the person that
appointed him or her is a
disgrace to the system of
administration of justice.
Donald Trump appointed so
many judges, sometimes it
can be said that he has a
premonition that he would
later have to rely on the
judiciary, but those judges
sworn to uphold the law.
This is a great contribution
to the administration of justice.
Judges are not to be holding
to the litigants before them,
they close their eyes to the
facts and the law. That is what
is expected of our judges on
this country. Not only that, it
is also expected of our
commissioners of police and
our legislators.
There was a situation when
the National Assembly
especially the House of
Representatives invited the
president to address them on
security matters, the man said,
it was optional and that was
the end of the matter. So, our
system is founded in checks
and balance and the National
Assembly is supposed to put
the Government on its toes.
It does not suggest that
there should be war, but there
are occasions which the
situation calls for which the
legislatives must stand for the
Rule of law, otherwise, what
we are facing in this country
is dictatorship.
What is your take on moves
by some state governments to
deny non indigenes from
holding sensitive positions in
their states?
It is unconstitutional and it
will be a terrible blight on the
records of such governors.
Don’t forget that late Dr.
Nnamdi Azikwe won an
election in Ibadan that a
Northerner was the Mayor of
Enugu, and a Benin man was
the mayor of Port-Harcourt, so,
it is a call to service. If a man
or woman had served to attain
the position of the oldest long
serving judge, why would you
at that point bring ethnicity
and tribalism into the fore? So,
it is disgraceful.
C
M
Y
K
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 21
C
M
Y
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22 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
By Funmi Ajumobi
As the world marks the
annual International Day
of Zero Tolerance for Female
Genital Mutilation, FGM, in
the context of COVID-19, with
the theme, ‘No Time for Global
Inaction: Unite, Fund, and Act
to End Female Genital
Mutilation.’ the
government appears indifferent,
while the unwholesome
practice continues unabated.
WO engages stakeholders:
By now, FGM should
have ended — Onah
Margaret Onah is Executive
Director, Safehaven Development
Initiative, an NGO based
in Lagos and Calabar. She works
with vulnerable women, girls,
such as sex workers on their
human rights, HIV/AIDS, gender
violence and Female Genital
Mutilation at grassroots levels.
"If I’m going to rate us, I can say
we have gone up to 45 per cent.
The
not see Female Genital
Mutilation as a serious issue the
way they are attacking COVID-
19 or HIV. They don’t release
money for the work to be done.
Most of the funding to end this
heinous act against women and
girls is donor funds.
"By now, we thought FGM
should have ended in
but there is not enough
awareness because of funding.
Some communities are aware
about the dangers and yet, they
still do it. They still believe it is
their tradition and their culture.
"The UNFPA and UNICEF are
the ones that have big and concentrated
projects they are doing
on FGM and despite that, they
are not everywhere."
Policies, UN figures
"have policy in
FGM, Violence Against Persons
Prohibition Act, VAPP. How many
states have validated it? Have
they ever implemented it? Have
you ever heard in a community
where somebody was arrested
because the person cut the
daughter?
"When you take such a case to
the judiciary, they always
postpone the hearing until you
By Boluwaji Obahopo
WIFE of the Kogi State
Governor, Mrs. Rashida
Bello, during the week, commenced
the distribution of
working tools to women as vocational
empowerment.
This is coming as the governor’s
wife admonished pupils
and students in the state to give
priority to their educational pursuit,
said education still remained
the panacea to development.
Mrs. Bello stated this during
another round of her “Back To
School’ programme, where she
distributed free educational materials
to students and pupils.
She said the gesture was in
line with her belief in education,
urging the students not to
buggle the opportunity giving
to them to learn.
She said learning will stimu-
FGM: It’s attack on our
sexuality, stakeholders cry out
A girl child undergoing genital mutilation
get weary. What we need to do is
the printing and re-printing of the
law in local languages that people
will understand and if anyone is
caught, the law should get them
prosecuted. If this is done, people
will sit up.
The highest used to be Ekiti,
Oyo, Osun, Imo, Ebonyi. Lagos
is being used as a control state
because each clan and
community has family members
in Lagos. We believe that those
coming from every other state
are practising it in Lagos.
I disagree with UN on the
prevalence because the South
South states of Cross River
State, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Rivers,
Delta and Edo have high
prevalence as well and they are
not working in those states.
In those states, when their
daughters want to get married,
in the night of their bride price
payment, they cut them. It is
only NGOs that are working
there but the government is not
doing anything to stop them.
Before we went to those communities
in Cross River State,
every woman had been circumcised.
FGM and childbirth
It is done because they want
to cut the sexuality of women;
they want the woman to be
faithful to her husband. What
is then the function of the
clitoris they are cutting off from
the woman? It helps the
woman to have sexual
pleasure. It helps the woman
in child birth.
When the woman is about to
deliver, the clitoris expands
and allows the baby to come
out easily but when it is not
there, you see the woman
pushing and struggling to
give birth for hours or days.
Both the mother and the child
may get tired and die or one
of them can die in the process.
Men and FGM
campaign
So, FGM is one of the
causes of child mortality in
and be aware that clitoris
helps both the man and
woman to have sexual pleasure.
Sexual pleasure is a
fundamental human right for
both male and female and this
mutilation has made a lot of
women unable to have sexual
satisfaction and they are sad
about it.
If you talk to 20 women on
the street today, 10 out of
them that have been circumcised
will tell you they don’t
have sexual pleasure. Men
should be part of this campaign.
When a man goes to marry
from Cross River or Edo and
Kogi First Lady asks students to place priority on education
late their intellect and thinking
faculties, stressing that sustainable
growth and development
can only be achieved through
adequate and continuous pursuit
of knowledge.
She decried the negligence of
students towards learning,
which she averred had negatively
impacted on
process.
She said: “I’m doing this today
because I know the value of
education. These education
materials will help to bring relief
and convenience to your
educational pursuit.
“I, therefore urged you to be
of best behaviour. Place priority
on your education, help
your parents after school, and
avoid all social vices.”
The wife of the governor urged
them further not to give room
for frivolities or engaged in social
vices, rather, they should
Wife of Kogi State Governor,
Mrs. Rashida Bello.
engage in activities capable of
sharpening their intelligence
and reasoning.
She said she wouls continue to
contribute her quota towards
giving supports to quality education
in the state.
She, however, urged parents
and teachers to ensure that
aside the academic learning,
the students and pupils are
well looked after, as they represent
the future leader.
Speaking in one of the
schools visited, Headmaster
of LGEA Primary School,
Rahama, Okehi council area,
Momoh Jimoh expressed
happiness for the gesture,
said first lady’s efforts had
complemented her husband
thematic blueprints on education.
She said the education materials
are a great contribution
to the promotion of education
in Kogi State, and
urged the first lady not to relent
in doing more.
Speaking at the empowerment
ceremony in Okene,
headquarters of Kogi Central
senatorial district, she said
she would continue to champion
economic empowerment
of women in the state.
Materials for genital mutilation
Margaret Onah
on the night of the bride payment
when they want to circumcise
her, he should be able to
refuse it. Some women have pus
in their vaginal throughout their
lives because of circumcision.
Success stories
When Safehaven Development
Intiative, SDI, started in 2006, we
discovered two communities in
Cross River first and we worked
with the community leaders. They
requested for us to redefine their
culture where bride's clitoris is cut
on the night of bride price payment.
We redefined it as Alternative Right
of Passage Without the Cut.
In 2009, we have the first party on
the Alternative Right of Passage
Without the Cut ceremony
where, for the first time, 40 girls
were not cut. There and then, we
agreed that we cannot be waiting
for the communities because
they always have this ceremony
done at the end of the year.
Individual families can celebrate
their girl without cutting
her and since then, they have
been maintaining it. We have
been working with a local
government area for the past four
months and the community
leader has told them that anybody
caught will give a cow. Nobody
wants to give out a cow because
of the cost, so no one is
practising it in that community.
In September 2019, a community
also stood up and signed
that they were not going to do it
anymore but they only
demanded money for kola. Other
communities there also publicly
declared that they don’t want to
do it anymore. We have about 13
communities which have
publicly declared they don’t want
to do it again because of our campaign
in Cross River State.
Between male and female
circumcision
The male cutting is beneficial to
the male because if it is not done,
it can lead to infection.
Continues on page 23
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 23
Akeredolu shares BRECAN’s journey,
urges vaccination against cervical cancer
•As All Saints College wins BRECAN’s inter-school arts competition
WIFE of the Ondo State
Governor and
Founder Breast Cancer Association
of
Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu-
Akeredolu, shared her breast
cancer story. She said hers
was a lone voice in the wilderness
as nobody wanted to be
associated with BRECAN at its
formative stage.
She stated this while addressing
student participants
drawn from different schools
across Oyo State during the
Inter- School Arts Competition
held at the Law Hub,
Ibadan organised as part of
activities marking 2021
World Cancer Day by the Oyo
State Chapter of BRECAN.
Mrs Anyanwu-Akeredolu,
who acknowledged the
contributions of individuals,
groups and most especially
volunteer students who
through advocacy raised funds
for BRECAN’s activities, said
the journey has been tortuous
and rewarding as more lives
have been impacted.
While noting that the arts
competition was the second of
its kind in the history of
BRECAN in promoting
breast cancer awareness, she
said BRECAN is now set to
help eliminate incidence of
cervical cancer which she
noted can be eliminated one
hundred per cent.
On why women have continued
to die needlessly because
of the disease, Mrs. Akeredolu
identified ignorance as one of
the major causes, saying: “It
is shocking that some still assume
it is a spiritual attack
and only present when it is
too late.”
Mrs. Akeredolu, while
By Esther Onyegbula
ANon-Governmental Or
ganisation, Lift Above
Poverty Organisation,LAPO,
has called on the Federal and
state governments to provide
cancer treatment support for
indigent individuals due to
the high cost of managing
and treating the ailment.
Honestus Obadiora, Executive
Director, LAPO NGO,
made the call during a
sensitisation and awareness
rally organised by LAPO in
Igando area of Lagos State.
Obadiora, represented by
Sandra Asowata, Head,
Ondo State First Lady and Founder, Breast Cancer Association of
Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu (middle), Chairperson of BRECAN Oyo State,
Mrs. Tolu Taiwo (5th left) with the participants during the Inter-school Art
Competition in Oyo State for students of secondary schools, themed: "Hope, a
message to cancer patients," organised by BRECAN, Oyo State chapter as part of
activities lined up by BRECAN to mark this year’s World Cancer Day, at the Law
Hub, Ring Road, Ibadan on Tuesday.
stressing that cervical cancer
can be eliminated through
vaccination, said it’s high
time parents are educated on
the need to give consent to
the vaccination of their children
against Cervical Cancer.
She also urged the students
to be breast aware and
be breast health advocates
wherever they find themselves.
In her goodwill message,
Olori Adejumoke Adeleye,
Olori Olubaka of Okaland,
commended Mrs. Akeredolu
for initiating BRECAN. The
Olori said Arabinrin
Akeredolu’s committment to
the cause is laudable and will
remain a ray of hope to many.
She prayed for wisdom and
grace for survivor of 24 years
to continue in her service to
humanity.
The climax of the event was
the presentation of prizes to
winners. All Saint’s College
came first in the competition
followed by Seed of Life
College while the third
position went to Lead City International
College.
Earlier, Promise Ihieze while
speaking on the theme of the
programme: “Hope,” said the
arts competition was their own
way of sending the message
of hope across to survivors
and bringing attention to the
cause.
Earlier, the state Chairperson
NGO advocates cancer treatment
support for indigent
LAPO NGO, Western Region,
said the awareness, which
was centered on Cervical,
Breast and Prostate Cancer
was part of activities to mark
the 2021 World Cancer Day.
She noted that LAPO was
committed to the empowerment
of poor and vulnerable
people in
the implementation of innovative
financial and non-financial
development programmes.
According to him, the organisation
believes that poverty
is further reinforced by
diseases and vice versa and
has therefore been involved
in community health improvement
across the country.
”As a development organisation,
LAPO is concerned
that cancer is now a major
cause of morbidity and mortality
in
100,000 persons diagnosed
every year of which about 80
per cent die due to late detection.
”Globally, 9.6 million people
die from cancer every year
even though over 80 per cent
of cancer cases are preventable
with early detection while
40 per cent of the disease can
be eradicated by lifestyle
changes."
for Oyo State BRECAN, Tolu
Taiwo, in her Welcome Address,
acknowledged all those
who have been pillars of support
to BRECAN over the
years, noting that there is still
more grounds to cover.
Other dignitaries in attendance
include Bashorun
Arogunjo and his wife,
BRECAN members from
across the state among others.
FGM: It’s
attack on our
sexuality,
stakeholders
cry out
Continues from page 22
That is why any man that is not
circumcised can easily pass
infections to his partner. When
the foreskin of the penis is removed,
it helps to keep the
place clean and it won’t harbour
dirts but men that are not circumcised
can easily infect a
woman with HIV and other diseases.
It is the clitoris of a woman that
is supposed to give her sexual
pleasure and to also help her
during childbirth that is cut off.
Violence Against Persons Prohibition
Act, VAPP, was enacted
in May 2015 by former
President Goodluck Jonathan
when he was leaving the office.
Some states adopted it but
many have not. All those states
that are recognised to be prevalence
in FGM have adopted it
but they are not implementing
yet.
Women in
Town
Planning
holds
inaugural
meeting in
Lagos
By Etop Ekanem
The Association of
Women in Town Planning,
Lagos State Wing, recently
held its inaugural
meeting at The
of Town Planners, Lagos.
Speaking at the occasion,
Chairman of the Interim
Committee of the association,
Lagos State Chapter,
Mrs Gertrude Adenekan,
advised members to let sisterly
love permeate, adding:
“We have to let sisterly love
permeate. We have to be
thoughtful, value, and appreciate
and care for one another.
We have to be friends
in spite of our differences. We
should complement each
other.
“It is known that the warmth
of friendship can stop stress
even in the most intense moments,
it decreases the chance
of cardiac arrest or stroke. It
can also look younger than our
real age. Let us trust one another,
let us not hate someone
because they tell the truth,
bruise our ego or because they
do things differently. Let us
work together for our general
spiritual and physical wellbeing
and the progress of our
profession.”
She said the idea of setting
up a Women’s Group of Town
Planners was first mooted by
Mrs C. K. George in the mid
1990s, “in hindsight, I was naively
against it. I didn’t see
any difference between females
and males in professional
life. Maybe because I
had then never suffered discrimination
in the Lagos State
Civil Service where I worked.
In her key note address, the
Guest Speaker, Mrs Tinuke
Olaoye, who spoke on the
topic, “Strength of Leadership,”
said leadership does not
require position of post, adding
that everyone has the capacity
to be a leader.
She said: “If you are the
chairman or chief executive of
any organisation that gives
you the extra ground to display
your leadeship skill. It
starts from believing in you.
We are all leaders and how we
comport ourselves with or
without position or title is extremely
important.”
On his part, National President
of
Town Planners, NITP, Mr
Olutoyin Ayinde, said:
“Women group in a very
strong group and any civilization
that does not understand
their importance is likely to be
backward.
24 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
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28 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
Amidst Senate trials, Georgia begins probe into Trump
effort to overturn polls
By Henry Ojelu with
agency report
Despite ongoing trial of
Donald Trump at the
Senate, Prosecutors in Fulton
County, Georgia, are
now investigating his attempts
to overturn the
southern state’s 2020 presidential
election results.
Fulton County District
Attorney Fani Willis has sent
a letter asking state
government officials to preserve
documents, including
those related to then-
President Trump’s call to
Republican Secretary of
State Brad Raffensperger
pressuring him to “find”
more votes.
During the call, Trump
is heard saying to
Raffensperger: “I just
want to find 11,780 votes,
which is one more than we
have. Because we won the
state.”
“This letter is notification
that all records potentially
related to the administration
of the 2020 General
Election must be preserved,
with particular
care being given to set
aside and preserve those
that may be evidence of attempts
to influence the actions
of persons who were
administering that election,”
said the letter dated
February 10.
This matter is of high priority,
and I am confident
that as fellow law enforcement
officers sworn to uphold
the Constitutions of
the United States and Georgia,
our acquisition of information
and evidence of potential
crimes via interviews,
documents, videos
and electronic records will
be cooperative.”
Representatives for the
county prosecutor’s office
and for Trump did not immediately
respond to requests
for comment by Reuters.
On
Monday,
Raffensperger’s office
opened its own probe into
Trump’s January 2 phone
call pressuring him to overturn
President Joe Biden’s
November 3 victory in the
state based on unfounded
Ghana shuts down parliament after 168
lawmakers, staff contract COVID-19
Ghana has shut down
its parliament for
three weeks owing to the
rising COVID-19 cases
among lawmakers and
staff.
No fewer than 17 members
of parliament and
151 supporting staff have
been infected with the
virus.
A surge in cases had
forced the parliament to
limit its sittings to Tuesdays
and Thursdays —
with entry permitted to
only MPs and staff
needed for those days.
Alban Bagbin, speaker
of the house who announced
the closure on
Tuesday, said the
legislature would be in
recess until March 2 to
make way for “disinfection
and sanitisation of
the premises”.
I have, in consultation
with leadership, decided
that sitting of the house
be adjourned for three
weeks,” Bagbin said.
Bagbin said the parliament’s
appointments
committee will continue
to meet to consider the
ministerial nominees of
President Nana Akufo-
Addo who was re-elected
in December.
Last Monday, the Ghana
Medical Association
(GMA) said seven
doctors have died of
COVID-19 in the
country.
Five of the doctors reportedly
died in 2020.
Frank Ankobea, its
president, had said the
association would
recommend “extra
restrictions” to Akufo-
Addo if the rate of
infection continues to
rise.
Booking any kind of
summer escape became
an even bigger gamble
for millions of British
people on Wednesday as the
the government warned that
even staycations could be
under threat until vaccinations
are completed.
After officials previously
signaled that a foreign trip
may not be possible during
2021, UK transport minister,
Grant Shapps, says that
even a break on home soil
may now be out of the question.
The news came after the
nation’s health minister,
Matt Hancock, announced
that arrivals to the UK who
lie about visiting a destination
on its Covid “red list”
may face up to 10 years in
prison or a £10,000 ($13,800)
fine.
“Until we know the route
out of lockdown, which we
can’t know until we have
more data, more informavoter
fraud claims, saying
any further legal efforts
would be up to the state’s
attorney general.
Trump and his allies repeatedly
espoused unfounded
claims that Biden
won the election through
voter fraud, leading to the
deadly January 6 Capitol
occupation to stop Congress
from certifying the
results.
The country has reported
73,003 cases and 482
deaths since the pandemic
began.
EU’s von der Leyen admits vaccine
rollout failures
The EU was late to
authorise Covid-19
vaccines and “still not
where we want to be”, European
Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen
has said.
She also acknowledged
the EU had been overconfident
about production targets
being met amid delays
at factories.
The Commission chief has
come under fire for the EU’s
slow vaccine rollout.
There is anger that the
bloc has fallen behind countries
like the UK, where
UK warns all vacations could be
canceled for 2021
more than 12 million people
have already received the
jab.
But Mrs von der Leyen
was adamant that ordering
vaccines collectively on behalf
of member states was
“the right thing to do”.
Meanwhile pharmaceutical
group AstraZeneca has
said it will join forces with
German company IDT Biologika
to produce more
vaccines for Europe.
Producers of vaccines including
the Oxford-Astra-
Zeneca and Pfizer-BioN-
Tech jabs have postponed
delivery of some of the EU’s
order because of capacity
and supply issues.
tion on vaccines as well,
please don’t go ahead and
book holidays,” Shapps said
during a BBC interview early
Wednesday.
He went on say it was too
early to paint a clear picture
about what restrictions would
be in place by summer, advising
travelers to sit tight and
“do nothing” until things are
clearer.
The warning will be as a
disappointment to many UK
holidaymakers, who had
hoped that the nation’s
speedy coronavirus vaccine
rollout would pave the way for
vacations abroad later in the
year.
However, Shapps has
stressed that the UK, which
has administered more than
13 million Covid-19 jabs, will
have to wait for other destinations
to “catch up.”
The UK, which has one of
highest Covid-19 death rates
in the world, with nearly four
million cases and 114,066
fatalities as of February 9, has
been stepping up border restrictions
due the emergence
of new variants of the virus
found in the UK and Brazil.
From February 15, UK and
Irish residents arriving from
countries on the UK’s “red
list,” which includes South
Africa, Portugal, the UAE and
most of South America, will
have to buy a “quarantine
package” for £1,750 ($2,400,)
that includes accommodation
in a government-approved
hotel, transport to the accommodation,
and Covid-19
testing. All other travelers
who have visited these countries
10 days prior to traveling
to the UK, which is currently
under a third national
lockdown, are banned from
entering.
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KILLER HERDSMEN:
Why Yoruba should protect themselves
— SUNDAY IGBOHO
•Our people now live in fear in the S-West
•Yoruba monarchs secretly invited me to rescue the region
•I can’t be intimidated; I only fear God
•Only a Yoruba bastard won’t support my cause
•We’re not waging war against Fulani
•Report of me fighting Boko Haram without govt support is fake
•Sunday Adeyemo
By Deola Badru
YORUBA rights activist,
Chief Sunday Adeyemo,
also known as Sunday
Igboho, in this interview
conducted in the Yoruba
language, declares that the
Yoruba race can only protect
their lives and property by
themselves from criminal
herdsmen. He also speaks on
other sundry issues.
Excerpts:
What is the way out of farmers/
herdsmen clashes in the South-
West?
I have said it many times,
government alone cannot provide
security. The Yoruba people need
to first take their security into their
hands. They should learn to
provide their security in any way
they deem fit, without first waiting
for the government.
But how did we get to where
we find ourselves now? If the
government at various levels had
taken proactive steps, they
would have nipped the crisis in
the bud before it snowballed into
this.
We can’t continue to live in the
fear of the unknown in
Yorubaland. Enough is enough.
Where was the government when
the killer herdsmen were killing
innocent people in Yorubaland?
How many of the killer herdsmen
have they brought to book?
I will not wait till foreigners kill
my people before I do the right
thing. I will continue to fight for
the cause of justice till I die. I can’t
be intimidated by anybody; I only
fear God Almighty.
South-West people must rise
with one voice to resist killer
herdsmen. We are fighting for the
course of the Yoruba race, not
about sentiment. Anybody is free
to live in any part of the country
but must do so with the laid down
rules and regulations.
We can’t accommodate you in
Yorubaland and you begin to kill
our people on their property. If
the government wants peace,
they have to speedily act to avert
further crises. The only solution
for now, is for the people to take
their security into their hands.
Some prominent people from
the region are not on the same
page with you on this struggle,
why?
(Smiles). Any Yoruba who is
against this noble cause is a
bastard. We did not just start this
if not for the incessant attacks on
our people in the Ibarapa and Oke
Ogun areas of Oyo State. Yoruba
people are no longer safe in their
land.
In the North, they can behead
a Yoruba man for slapping a
Hausa/Fulani not to talk of
destroying their farmlands. You
will recall the case of ‘Oko Oloyun’
(a popular herbal medicine
practitioner) who was killed
during a visit to his country home.
He was killed at Igbo Ora. The
Police said they would unravel
the facts behind his killing but till
now, the matter has not been
unraveled. That killing would be
a year this month.
Another illustrious son, Dr. Fatai
Aborode, returned from overseas
and cultivated farmland in
Igangan. He employed about 300
people. When his farm was
plundered by cattle, he
complained to the Seriki Fulani.
A few days after, killer herdsmen
kidnapped him, tied him and
butchered him. Nothing was
done and no arrest was made.
With all these, if any Yoruba is
against my agitation, such a
person is an enemy to the Yoruba
cause. I only need sincere people
to support my cause not agents
of disunity.
Don’t you think you need the
support of traditional rulers and
other influential voices in the
region for your efforts not to be
in vain?
(Laughs) The majority of the
traditional rulers are supporting
me. They secretly invited me to
rescue them, but they can’t say it
in public when the government
refused to do the right thing. They
are just suffering in silence. I was
called upon to liberate them. They
are all in support of me. I can’t
do it without their consent.
There is no more fear of civil
war regarding the cause that I am
fighting. Those who thought that
such could happen had the fear
because they have hidden
agenda. We are not waging any
war against the Fulani people.
Our fear is that our leaders are
friends of the Fulani, who know
the herdsmen, who are criminals
in our midst. Our appeal to the
Fulani is to bring the killer
herders in our midst to book. We
have the right, as Yoruba people,
to fight for our freedom.
You’ve visited Ibarapa in Oyo
State, moved to Ogun. When are
you visiting other states in the
region especially Ondo where
the governor recently gave
issued quit notice to herdsmen
in government forest reserves?
Once they call on me, I am fully
ready to heed their call. I am
fighting for the Yoruba cause, not
my cause. We must liberate our
people.
Are you not afraid that
government may move against
you?
They have started that already.
I know Yoruba people are behind
me. They have frozen my bank
accounts because I am fighting
Our appeal to
the Fulani is to
bring the killer
herders in our
midst to book;
we have the
right, as
Yoruba people,
to fight for our
freedom
for a just cause.
I will not relent. I must achieve
my aims by putting an end to
criminality in Yorubaland. If they
refuse to release my account,
there will be a serious protest
across the South-West. Our
people are living in fear of
criminal herdsmen. They are
afraid that the herdsmen might
attack them.
Who are those sponsoring
your agitation? We allegedly
learned Chief Rashidi Ladoja is
backing your campaign to rid
Yorubaland of criminal
herdsmen. Is this true?
I don’t need such a backing,
Baba Ladoja is not sponsoring me
and there is nothing like that. Just
like what Senator Femi Ojudu
said about me. I have told
journalists that he is a mere
stooge and a slave to his
conscience.
What is your advice to South-
West governors, traditional
rulers and opinion moulders in
the region?
We can work in harmony with
the South-West governors since
they recognise the fact that we
have the fundamental right to
secure our people and to protect
their rights.
The problem is that those in
between us and the government
are the ones creating undue
tension. We are sure that if the
South-West governors can feel the
pulse of the people who are
feeling the heat from the killer
herdsmen, we believe that they
would rise to the occasion and do
the needful.
Our traditional rulers are the
custodians of our culture and
heritage in Yorubaland. As the
situation of things is now, I thank
our royal fathers for their efforts.
I thank all the Yoruba Obas
starting from the Awujale of
Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona; I
thank our father, the Alaafin of
Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, and
also thanks to our father, the Ooni
of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi. I
must pay obeisance to the Awujale
for his fearless and dogged spirit
and courage. They all want peace
in Yorubaland.
Do you have any political
ambition?
(Laughs) Is there anything
more honourable than what I am
doing for the Yoruba cause? I am
not going into politics and I am
not doing this to seek any form of
popularity. It’s a natural cause.
I am not afraid of anything or
anyone but God. God is the
owner and controller of every soul.
No human being can kill me, it’s
only God who can kill me.
What is your admonition to the
Yoruba race on this struggle?
We Yoruba people should be
united and stop playing politics
with the lives of our people. We
deserve to be united, so I preach
unity of purpose among the
Yoruba people.
We should always speak with
one voice. Yoruba people should
be protected from killer
herdsmen. That’s my message,
nothing more. The struggle
continues.
You were alleged to have said
you could fight Boko Haram
without government support..
(Cuts in) It is a total fabrication
and sensation which the journalist
who orchestrated it failed to
substantiate beyond a reasonable
doubt.
I never, at any point in time
said that. The report is fake news.
•Sunday Adeyemo: We can’t continue to live in the fear of the
unknown in Yorubaland
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 31
INSECURITY: Residents now pray, fast before traveling in S-West
•Travelling on the highway is a serious risk — NURTW
•Sanity’ll return to our roads soon — Osun, Ogun, Ondo Amotekun Commanders
By Dayo Johnson, Dapo
Akinrefon, Shina Abubakar
& James Ogunnaike
THE fear of Fulani herdsmen
is now the beginning of wisdom
in the South-West as commuters
and drivers now resort to
prayer and fasting before setting
out on their journey.
Several unpleasant encounters
with highway criminals by both
drivers and commuters have left
travellers to conclude that they are
no longer safe in the South-West.
Also, there is a general fear in
the mind of travellers because of
the spate of kidnapping, armed
robbery and other criminalities
on the roads.
Travellers and motorists, who
spoke with Vanguard, expressed
worry over the safety of the roads
in the region.
Despite the coming on board of
the Western
codenamed Amotekun, motorists
feel they are not safe on the
highways.
We embark on prayer session
before travelling—Commuters
A trader in Osogbo, Comfort
Kehinde, disclosed that whenever
she intends travelling out of the
state, she embarks on a prayer session
in the church.
She noted that the fear of wanting
to travel is enough to increase
her blood pressure than the travelling
itself as her husband and
children regularly warn her of the
dangers on the road.
She said: “Whenever I intend to
travel, I am always faced with two
fears, banditry and kidnapping.
From the time I board a car, till I
get to my destination, it is always
perpetual fear.
“Sometimes, I embark on fasting
and prayers a week before I
travel for fear of being kidnapped
or robbed by bandits.”
Also speaking, a commuter from
Ogun State, Mr. Rotimi
Olanrewaju, described travelling
on
putting into consideration
the high rate of insecurity in the
country.
According to Olanrewaju, the
incessant kidnappings, killings
and other forms of insecurity on
the nation’s highways had put
fear in the minds of the people.
He said: “The fear of kidnapping
and armed robbery, among
others, have enveloped major
highways, especially in the
South-West. This is gradually affecting
the socio-economic activities
in the region.
“The Federal Government
should beef up security on
highways to reduce the incessant
kidnapping, banditry and
armed robbery that have become
EDITOR: Dayo Johnson (08033509763)
Deputy Editor: Dapo Akinrefon 08023844928
CORRESPONDENTS:
Ola Ajayi
Ibadan
Dare Fasube
(Photo)
Rotimi Ojomoyela
Ekiti
Adeola Badru
Ibadan
Shina Abubakar
Osogbo
James Ogunnaike
Abeokuta
•Governors Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Babajide
Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) and Seyi Makinde (Oyo)
a daily occurrence.”
Also speaking with Vanguard, a
lawyer and rights activist,
Morakinyo Ogele said that the
state of insecurity in the region
has assumed a frightening dimension.
Ogele lamented that the catalogue
of the evils perpetrated by
the herdsmen in the region remains
countless.
He said: “It is no longer news
that some criminal Fulani herdsmen
are daily wreaking havoc in
the South-West.
“The cocktails of their criminal
activities are unprecedented; the
Yoruba never witnessed this
atrocities being perpetrated by the
Fulani herdsmen.
“Travelling from one town to
another or any state in the South-
West, you need fasting and prayer
before you set out on such journey.
“Chiefs, students, market
women, farmers, Obas are not
spared in the hands of these satanic
messengers.
“We must prepare ourselves to
face any killer and those who are
criminally-minded among the
Fulani.
“I, therefore, call on the people
in Yoruba land to brace up for selfdefence.”
Travelling on the highway is a
serious risk— NURTW
On his part, Chairman of the
National Union of Road Transport
Workers, NURTW, Ijetu unit,
Kamorudeen Agbowo, lamented
the state of insecurity on the roads,
especially in the aftermath of the
EndSARS protest.
Agbowo said: “Travelling on the
highway is a serious risk, there are
some routes that some drivers will
not dare to go, especially, Ikare,
Ekiti, Kogi and Abuja routes for
fear of kidnapping and banditry.
“After the EndSARS protest, the
roads were more vulnerable to
attacks as the protest exposed
police weaknesses, thereby, energising
criminals.”
The NURTW chairman in Ondo
State, Comrade Jacob Adebo said
his members need protection as
criminal herders attack and kidnap
them with impunity.
He said: “Our members now
pray for safety, not that they don’t
pray before, but this kind of
prayer is because of the present
security situation in the country.
Nobody is safe again. We are all
living in fear.
“But with the recent development
in Ondo State as regards the
quit notice to herdsmen occupying
the government forest reserves,
I think with time, travellers
would heave a sigh of relief.”
Sanity’ll return to our roads
soon – Osun, Ogun, Ondo
Amotekun Commanders
But assuring travellers and
drivers of their safety, the
Amotekun Corps Commandants
for Osun, Ogun and Ondo states,
said they are doing everything necessary
to secure the highways
across the region.
When contacted, the Amotekun
Commandant in Osun State,
Brig.-Gen. Bashir Adewinmbi
(retd), said the corps is not
working in isolation but
collaborating with other
Amotekun in the region to return
sanity to the roads.
Adewinmbi said: “We are aware
that the roads are not safe but we
are working to improve the situation.
Part of our plan is to establish
patrol spots across our roads
in collaboration with Amotekun
in other states and security agencies.
“We are also exploiting areas of
common interests with our partners
and very soon, sanity will
return to our roads.”
No cause for alarm - Ogun
Amotekun Commandant
Also speaking, the Amotekun
Corps Commandant in Ogun
State, Mr. David Akinremi, allayed
the fear of residents of the
state as well as travellers, especially
with the current insecurity
challenge facing the South-West.
Akinremi said: “The Amotekun
in Ogun State has taken off because
I have been appointed as
the Commander of the Corps. I am
sure a lot of things were considered
before the appointment and
to the glory of God, I have taken
over.
“We are prepared, we are taking
our time to ensure that we get
the best available grassroots men
who will be able to function adequately
towards achieving the
vision and purpose of establishing
the agency. We have been
given the go-ahead to commence
recruitment and we are working
out modalities to ensure that we
have quality men in line with the
Ogun standard of excellence.
“I want to assure our people that
they don’t need to entertain any
fear. We have come to serve them.
Our people have no cause to fear,
we are on top of the situation. Notwithstanding
that operatives have
BIZARRE: Envy led my wife to
kill her step-son — Husband
By Shina Abubakar
OSOGBO— Abdulwasiu
Musa, the husband of a
woman who poisoned her 3-yearold
son has told Vanguard how
envy led to his wife’s action.
Unfortunately, the action cost
the little child his life.
Before the unfortunate incident,
the family was living
harmoniously. Mariam, who is a
senior wife, from Benin in Edo
State came to participate in the
younger wife’s graduation
ceremony after completing her
apprenticeship in hairdressing.
On the said day, Mariam, the
younger wife and their husband
were all in their respective rooms
when she decided to take laws
into her hand by offering her stepson
a drink laced with herbicide.
According to her husband, four
of us were at home when the
incident happened.
Speaking to Vanguard, Musa
said: “Roqeeb came into the room
not taken off, we are doing some
strategic work underground on
the security situation on hand, not
just within the state but in the
South-West as a whole.
“We assure of protection of lives
and property for everybody living
in the state. Wherever you come
from does not matter. What is important
is that we must live together
in an atmosphere of peace
and harmony and respect of the
rights of all.
“There is no security without
human beings and no human beings
without security. It is a symbiotic
relationship. The work of
security agencies, at whatever
level, cannot be done without the
support of the people. That is why
we want to build a people-oriented
organisation.”
We’re rooting out criminals
elements—Ondo Amotekun
Commandant
Also, the Commander of
Amotekun in Ondo State, Chief
Adetunji Adeleye said the corps
has set up an outfit tagged:
Operation Clean Up to root out
criminal elements across the state.
Adeleye said over 120 suspects
have been arrested by the Operation
Clean-Up team within the last
two months.
The Special Adviser to the governor
on Security Affairs, Alhaji
Dojumo said: “As I talk to you, we
have created flashpoint across the
three senatorial districts and deployed
security patrols including
military personnel and federal
highway patrol to those places.
“We have military checkpoints,
safer highway patrol to areas
where criminal elements operate.
“We have them between Owo/
Ose highway, Akure/Ogbese
highway, USO/Owo highway and
other flashpoints in the Northern
Senatorial District.
“In the Southern Senatorial
Districts, we have checkpoints and
have deployed security personnel
to Akotogbo, lgbekebo,
Okitipupa, Erinje, Ilutuntun, Ore,
Omotosho and other areas.
“In the Central Senatorial
District, our security personnel
are at home to cover the district.”
and told me his stepmother,
Mariam, gave him drinks to take
but I never suspected any foul
play until later when the boy fell
sick.
“Having seen the suffering the
little boy was subjected to; she
called me and confessed that the
drink she gave him was
poisonous as it contained
herbicides.
“I never thought she could do
that, she is based in Benin, Edo
State where she was doing her
business and she came all the way
from there to participate in the
younger wife’s graduation
ceremony.
“She always plays with the boy
so, there was no way one could
have suspected she could poison
him until she confessed to it.
“I don’t think I treated her
differently, she is not based here
in Ede, but she has her own room
in the house; and I also discharge
my responsibility to her.
32 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
Stories by Victor
Ahiuma-Young
THE clamour for the unionisation
of the
NPF, was one of the highlights of
the mass sensitization of the public
on Community Policing in Lagos,
few days ago.
With the theme “Understanding
Community Policing: A Framework
for Action”, the programme attracted
top echelon of the
government officials, lawyers,
Labour leaders, religious leaders,
traditional rulers, civil society
organisations, youths, among other
stakeholders.
Speaking at the programme
organised by the NPF in
collaboration with Unite Consult
Limited and C.O. Luke & CO, a
former Vice President of
Labour Congress, NLC, and Vice
President IndustriALL Global
Union, IGU, Issa Aremu, contended
among others, that NPF needed to
be unionised to effectively address
issues affecting its rank and file
among others.
According to him, “NPF must
unionize just like in South Africa,
but the personnel do not go on
strike. The NPF must have a forum
where personnel can express
themselves, talk about their welfare,
and interest. It is the union that can
speak for the personnel. With a
union, NPF personnel can bring
to the public, their frustration, pains,
anger, needs among others that
cannot be individually, or as a group,
bring to the public domain.”
Aremu who is also the immediate
past General-Secretary of the
National Union of Textile, Garment
and Tailoring Workers of
NUTGTWN , insisted that
must acknowledge and reward
gallant policemen and women
while sanctioning criminal elements
within the force.
He said: “Members of the force
should be re-oriented, better trained,
adequately remunerated, motivated
and accorded dignity for them to
offer patriotic services to the citizens.
Policemen are working men and
women who must be paid. The
Wages and Salaries Commision
should quckly implement the
directive of President Muhammadu
Buhari on this.”
High unemployment,
high crime rate
According to Aremu, the high rate
of unemployment in the country was
a major contributor to the high crime
rate because the army of ablebodied
jobless men and women
especially the youths, would
definitely find solace in crimes.
He argued that with mass
unemployment, no amount of
policing with the latest technology
could solve the nation’s security
challenge, and demanded for
massive revival and setting up of
industries at all levels to keep
millions of idle hands gainfully
employed.
Aremu said: “
urgently create economic
opportunities for the youths to reduce
opportunities for criminalities. With
just over 300, 000 police workforce,
the lowest police per capita in the
world. With open unemployment of
as many as 50, the best of equipped
police cannot halt the outrage of idle
youths. There is the need for a New
Social Compact. It is important to
strive for a broad-based social
compact that goes beyond party
politics and involves civil society, the
state and the private sector, in liaison
with the international community to
*Policemen on duty.
08052202308 (sms only)
Labour seeks unionisation
of
•Says high unemployment equals high crime rate
reinvent industries and create jobs
for the youths.”
Support police
to protect you
The IGU Vice-President called on
stakeholders to support the
police, saying “in my over threedecades
trade union work, I have
witnessed the good and the bad of
the
whole, strengths of the police force
are far more than the negative. In
any case, as we have seen after the
#ENDSARS peaceful protests were
captured by God-knows them, it was
clear that the worse of public policing
is better than gang of self-serving
hoodlums. We must consolidate the
gains of existing police force while
we must help to reposition it for the
current challenges.
“It is time
community policing to curtail the
menace of insecurity. No country in
Africa has vibrant communities with
tested leaders like
long period of military dictatorship
has destroyed associational life of
dialogue and consultation.
Community policing is a timely
complimentary approach to
overcome the challenges of
insecurity.”
He called for involvement of “all
stakeholders and communities
represented by local governments,
churches and mosques, workforce
in formal and informal sectors in
organised unions, youths and
women organisations as well as all
pan-
organisations. Community policing
is a practical way of democratising
policing in a democratic system.
“Organised labour hereby calls for
all inclusive bi-partisan approaches
to eradicate violent crime. Current
discordant views among some
governors are unhealthy and
unhelpful. If elected state actors
operate separately, certainly forces
of banditry would defeat all of us
collectively.”
The IGU Vice-President added
that the police should be
strengthened to perform its
constitutional mandate of ensuring
security, stressing that “insecurity is
a national challenge and not
peculiar to any tribe or region but
must be addressed by the
cooperation of all. Only criminals
would profit from unconstitutional
profiling of criminals and their
victims instead of calling them for
what they are; criminals.”
Bearing of arms
On her part, Lagos State NLC
Chairman, Funmi Sessi, called for
massive recruitment, training and
deployment of community police
personnel to bridge the personnel
gap at the community level.
She, however, expressed concern
that community police personnel
would not be armed to confront
armed criminals, warning that this
would make them ineffective.
The NLC chairman also
expressed worry that the personnel
to be recruited as community police
would not earn salaries and that
their job would be voluntary,
arguing that would lead to lack of
commitment.
Sessi pleaded that all stakeholders
in the community should be carried
along on all issues concerning
community policing including
recruitment, training and
deployment to engender confidence
and support from the community.
Our fears over excessive fiscal deficit — NECA
NIGERIA
Employers’
Consultative Association,
NECA has said though there is
nothing wrong in using fiscal deficit
in addressing the critical
infrastructural gaps, but warned that
inappropriate management of the
accumulated debts over the years
on recurrent expenditures is
detrimental to any economic growth
Reacting to the International
Monetary Fund, IMF's advice to
economy and cut reliance on oil,
Director-General of NECA, Dr
Timothy Olawale, said: “Fiscal
deficit occurs when government
budgetary expenditures are in
excess of its revenue during a
budget cycle. Traditionally, the
country’s budgetary provisions over
the years have been tremendously
dominated by deficits.
“As much as we aligned our
thoughts towards using the fiscal
deficit in addressing the critical
infrastructural gaps,
appropriateness in management of
the accumulated debts over the
years on recurrent expenditures is
detrimental to any economic
growth.
“We believe that excessive
dependence of any economy on
accumulation of debts, domestic or
foreign, can hamper economic
growth in the long term. As the case
in our country, where most of
government revenues are used to
settle past loans, the result will be
fewer funds to invest in critical
infrastructure and creation of jobs.
“NECA has, in time past,
suggested the need to slow down
in accumulation of debts, we
advocated for conception of policy
framework towards opening up the
economy in addressing
improvement in the revenue side
while reducing continuous
borrowings. It is worrisome to note,
that the country has consistently
struggled to achieve its revenue
targets in funding annual budgets.
“Some of the policy options
suggested include cutting down on
the recurrent expenditures,
reduction in the high level of public
debts, restructuring of the joint
venture oil assets with international
companies in order to boost finances
as well as selling off or concession
of its assets that are lying fallow and
moribund. Proceeds from it should
be channeled into financing annual
budget deficits.
“With the unpredictable nature of
global oil prices and development
in usage of alternative sources of fuel
and modern technology, it is more
appropriate to hasten the process
of diversification of the non-oil
economy in expanding the revenue
sources away from oil. It is obvious
that revenue from non-oil is more
feasible than the oil revenue. We
applaud the initiative of the fiscal
authority around the 2021 Budget,
which appropriates 30 per cent of
its revenue to oil sector and 70 per
cent to non-oil revenue.”
COVID-19:
UNDP, ILO
advocate social
protection for
informal
workers
THE COVID-19 pandemic
has accentuated a focus on
vulnerabilities of informal
economy workers in sub-
Saharan Africa.
Together, they represent 86
and 92 per cent of men and
women’s total employment
respectively, and nearly 9 in 10
young workers.
These workers are also a large
share of the 82 per cent of sub-
Saharan Africans without
access to social protection.
While not all workers within
the informal economy are poor,
most are highly vulnerable to
poverty, with limited means to
cope with the economic, social
and health impacts of the
pandemic.
In recent years, African
governments have made
significant efforts to develop a
range of contributory social
protection schemes covering
workers in the informal
economy. The new UNDP
study, Informality and Social
Protection in African Countries:
A Forward-looking Assessment of
Contributory Schemes, provides
an overview of extension
practices in Africa through seven
country case studies - illustrating
the range of emergent design
practices. These include
extension of legal and effective
coverage; improvements in
quality of benefits and services
provided, introduction of new
schemes; making informal
workers’ contributions more
sustainable while remaining
affordable and flexible; and
leveraging digitalization to
simplify administrative
procedures.
The report raises the urgent
need to scale up innovative
approaches to expand coverage,
ensuring that emerging schemes
have greater financial
sustainability through a mix of
contributions from employers and
businesses along the supply
chain, workers and public finance.
Schemes must be designed in a
gender-sensitive manner to
correct gender inequalities in the
labour market. While social
protection is an important
component in protecting informal
livelihoods, it should be
considered within an integrated
package of measures that can
generate greater and more secure
incomes and job quality.
“Although many African
countries have introduced
temporary measures to protect
incomes and livelihoods of
vulnerable population during the
current pandemic, there is urgent
need to protect all workers
regardless of their employment
status. COVID-19 recovery
strategies give us one way out, to
use social protection tools to fight
inequality in Africa,” said
Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant
Secretary-General and Director,
Regional Bureau of Africa, UNDP.
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 33
C
M
Y
K
C
M
Y
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34 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
SSANU/NASU strike: No to another shutdown of
varsities — NANS, NAPTAN
By Adesina Wahab
AFTER the prolonged shut
down of the nation's
universities due to the outbreak of
the coronavirus disease and the
industrial action by members of the
Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU, the university
system is again reeling under the
weight of another strike courtesy of
members of the Senior Staff
Association of
SSANU, and Non-Academic Staff
Union of Educational and
Associated Institutions, NASU.
The two unions, acting under the
aegis of the SSANU, NASU Joint
Action Committee, JAC, have
embarked on an industrial action
since last Friday, threatening the
smooth operations of federal
universities in the country. Some of
their demands are in line with what
ASUU also went on a nine-month
strike for, while some are even
against ASUU as a union.
Among the issues that tally with
ASUU's agitation is the call to
discard the use of the Integrated
Personnel and Payroll Information
System, IPPIS, to pay them and the
call for better funding of education,
while SSANU and NASU are
accusing ASUU members of
usurping their roles by heading some
departments meant to be headed by
non-teaching staff.
However, the most contentious of
the issues raised by the non-teaching
staff is how the N40 billion
earmarked for the payment of
Earned Allowance would be shared
among university workers. SSANU
and NASU are accusing ASUU of
shortchanging them in the sharing
formula. Teaching staff are
reportedly collecting 75 per cent of
the sum with the rest for the nonteaching
staff.
Lagos reiterates adoption of COVID-19
safety protocols in schools
By Mary Obaebor
IN a bid to prevent further spread
of COVID-19 in the state as
public and private schools have
resumed academic activities, the
Lagos State Government has
reiterated that schools must adopt
and strictly adhere to all safety
precautionary and preventive
protocols of the federal and Lagos
state governments.
The Director-General, Lagos State
Office of Education Quality
Assurance, Mrs. Abiola Seriki-Ayeni,
who gave the warming, also advised
both public and private school head
teachers and administrators as well
as parents to adopt prompt
preventive measures to avert
COVID-19 infection in schools.
The DG who affirmmed the
position of the state government on
the matter, stated that health and
safety guidelines which include the
provision of soap, wash hand basin,
alcohol-based hand sanitizers,
thermometer and instructional
safety signs, must be adhered to.
Wearing of face mask and
maintaining social distancing must
also be strictly observed to avert
further spread of the virus.
She further stated that school
administrators have the
responsibility of ensuring total
compliance because evaluators
from the Office of Education Quality
Assurance would be visiting schools
to monitor compliance.
Urging schools to access online
learning support and distance and
•Project head, Dr. Kayode Oyende; Principal, Odogbolu Junior Grammar School, Mr. Odukoya; Secretary
to Set of 1975-1980 and Mr. Segun Bonojo at the commissioning of a borehole donated by the 1975-1980
set recently to the school.
blended learning system that would
help depopulate students in
classrooms and ensure proper sitting
arrangement in line with social
distancing, Seriki-Ayeni advised
school administrators to have in
place, sanitation managers that
would ensure that all environmental,
safety and health protocols are
observed.
"Since we are supporting schools
holistically, we encourage school
administrators to visit
www.oeqalagos.com to download:
Guidelines for the Prevention and
Management of COVID-19 in
Schools and Boarding Facilities,
LASG Emergency Guidance for
Public and Private Schools, Self-
Assessment and Safety Checklist for
Reopening of Schools, LASG Child
Safety and Protection and OEQA
Rapid Assessment Tool.
"These will guide and enhance safe
and seamless learning during this
time as well as help take key
decisions that will help influence and
reposition the COVID-19 and post-
COVID-19 pandemic school system,"
she stated.
The JAC, led by the National
President of SSANU, Comrade
Mohammed Ibrahim and the
National Secretary of NASU,
Comrade Peters Adeyemi, is
expected to meet the Federal
Government delegation led by the
Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige,
today, as their previous meeting
ended in a deadlock.
However, critical stakeholders in
the system, namely: the students and
their parents/guardians, are strongly
opposed to another shutdown of the
university system, saying the
consequences would be too dire on
education as a sector.
What students want:
The South-West Zonal
Coordinator of the National
Association of
NANS, Comrade Kappo Samuel
Olawale, chastised the government
for playing with the education of
toying with their future.
"The Federal Government should
know that education is the bedrock
of the country and its economy. In
that wise, the government should
know how to placate workers in the
sector and make them play their roles
with joy in their hearts.
"When we have a situation like this,
Nothing personal against AGF— Yabatech ASUP boss
THE Chairman of the
Academic Staff Union of
Polytechincs, ASUP, Yaba College
of Technology, Yabatech chapter,
Mr Remi Ajiboye, has said he has
nothing personal against the
Accountant-General of the
Federation, or any staff in his office
when academic session has become
unstable and unpredictable because
of incessant strike actions, it is the
students that bear the brunt and the
loss. Students should be seen as
critical in the sector and should be
treated as such. As a country, if we
see education as important and vital,
we will treat it as such. And until we
begin to do this, we have a very long
way to go.
"The unions too should be
considerate. What they do affect their
children too. I know it is not all of
them that have their wards in foreign
schools. They should look for a
common ground, a midpoint to meet
with the government.
"For the unions to think they can
get all they are demanding is raising
a false hope. They must consider the
economic situation in the country
and what everybody, government
inclusive, are passing through," he
said.
Parents' view: The National
President of the National Parent
Teacher Association of
NAPTAN, Mr Haruna Danjuma,
expressed sadness at the new wave
of strike after all everybody went
through last year.
"It is like our universities are not
happy with our children and do not
want to help them. To me, it seems
they delight in wasting the precious
time of our children by embarking
on endless and needless strike
actions.
"There is no justification for this
strike. To me, it is an act of sabotage.
It is a way to sabotage the
government and the educational
system as a whole. Why didn't they
make their demands when ASUU
was making their own? If they did
that then, the government would have
looked into all the cases at once.
"The non-teaching staff did not
make their demands then because of
the needless rivalry the unions are
involved in. That is the same thing we
see occasionally too in the health
sector. This must stop. It is an act of
sabotage," he stated.
The ongoing strike may affect the
post-UTME test being planned by
some universities beginning from this
month. Already, the plan by the
management of the University of
Lagos, UNILAG, to hold its postponed
51st convocation later in the month
is being threatened as well.
USAID launches new Early Grade Learning Book in local languages
By Adesina Wahab
THE United States Agency for
International Development,
USAID, and the
Educational Research and
Development Council, NERDC,
have jointly launched the new Igbo
and Yoruba early grade reading
materials titled Ka anyi guo! and Je
ká kawe! respectively.
These resources expand the
availability of quality local
language teaching and learning
materials for reading in
targeting all Igbo and Yoruba
speaking primary grade 1 to 3
learners in the Southern regions.
“Teaching children to read in a
language they understand equips
them with a powerful tool for lifelong
learning.
“Building foundational reading
skills accelerates English language
acquisition and other skills and
contributes to developing a new
generation of leaders equipped to
and that his recent comment about
the workings of the Integrated
Personnel and Payroll Information
System, IPPIS, was quoted
wrongly.
The ASUP boss said this in
reaction to the controversy the
comment that he was paid N4,000
help
ahead," USAID Mission Director,
Anne Patterson, said in a virtual
launch ceremony.
Developed by the Research and
Development Council with support
from the USAID Northern
Education Initiative (NEI) Plus
activity, the new Igbo and Yoruba
curricula will be available for any
interested state to adopt, print, and
distribute with their own resources.
The curriculum is tailored for a
21st Century audience of emerging
readers, rich with culturally relevant
stories, colourful pictures, genderbalanced
representation, and a clear
sequence of content that gradually
builds upon the abilities of each
learner as new skills and
proficiencies are acquired.
Let’s Read promotes active learner
engagement, comprehension and
critical thinking through three levels
of instruction that ensure learners
develop critical skills necessary for
sometime last year as monthly
salary generated. "I will like to state
sincerely that I was misquoted. My
statement on this matter was not
directed at anyone or any unit of
government. Any inconveniences
generated from this is indeed
regretted," he said.
all aspiring readers: phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency,
vocabulary and comprehension.
The comprehensive curriculum
package includes learner textbooks
and workbooks, teachers’ guides,
and storybooks for practice in school
or at home, all available at no
expense for download.
Bauchi and Sokoto, the first two
states supported by NEI Plus,
remain positive models and
resources for states recently
adopting an evidence-based early
grade reading curriculum.
Since October 2015, NEI Plus has
delivered over seven million
teaching and learning materials to
more than one million primary
grade 1 through 3 learners in 2,500
formal schools.
In his remarks, the Minister of
State for Education, Chief
Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, thanked
USAID and others for the initiative.
"The Federal Ministry of Education
recognises efforts of the project in the
last four years to improve literacy in
Northern
innovative early grade reading
program (Let’s Read! Mu Karanta!).
I am aware that USAID-NEI Plus
has improved reading skills for more
than 952,565 pupils, trained 9,600
teachers, and distributed more than
six million teaching and learning
materials to schools."
C
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Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 35
30,000 benefit from Commonwealth scholarship
awards in 61 yrs
By Joseph Erunke
THE Federal Government has
said a total of 30,000 scholars
in the country have so far benefited
from the Commonwealth
Scholarship awards between 1959
and now. Majority of the
beneficiaries, according to the
Minister of Education, Mallam
Adamu Adamu, who disclosed this,
made significant contributions to
minister spoke at the opening
ceremony of the 2021/2022
nomination Interview for
Commonwealth Scholarships and
Fellowship Plan, CSFP, in Abuja.
Speaking through his
representative, who is also the
Permanent Secretary in the ministry,
Arc. Sonny Echono, Adamu noted
that the award of scholarship would
be strictly guided by the criteria set
by the Commission with high
priority to relevance to national
development. While noting that
education remains critical to
accelerating economic growth,
engender social change, create a
stable polity and improve the quality
of life of the
said these could only come to
fruition through human capital
By Mary Obaebor
THE Moses Orimolade
University, MOU, being
floated by the Cherubim and
Seraphim Unification Church
Worldwide, will soon take off.
This was disclosed by the
Supreme Head of the church, His
Most Eminence, Prophet Solomon
Alao, while briefing the press
recently.
“I am proud to say that our
members are playing significant
roles in philanthropy and making
positive impacts to make
a better place and this will
continue. It is also my pleasure to
inform you that apart from various
primary and secondary schools we
have in various parts of the country,
our Moses Orimolade University
will not only stand but will soon
run.
“We trust in God that this
university will be unique and will
not just be another university but
a citadel of learning conceived to
development.
Adamu said: "Applications shall
be graded based on Academic
Merit, Quality of Research Proposal
and Development Impact on
completion of the study as PhD
candidates. However, it is
imperative to state that the CSC's
Selection criteria give high priority
to applicants that demonstrate the
strongest relevance to national
development. It is worth mentioning
that since the inception of the
Commonwealth Scholarship
Award in 1959, more than 30,000
scholars have benefited and
majority of the award holders from
significant contributions to the
development of the nation, mostly
in the tertiary institutions.
"To this end, the Commission's
mandatory regulation for scholars
is to acquire the requisite knowledge
as well as skills, and return to their
respective home countries at the end
of the award period to make
meaningful impact in their various
fields of study to achieve multiplier
effects. It is in the realisation of this
objective that the CSC adopted a
scholarship policy aimed at
ensuring greater and equitable
access to higher education by a
Moses Orimolade University to
take off soon — Alao
By Elizabeth Osayande
IN a bid to encourage children
to be creative, explore and to
believe in themselves, the Founder,
Eplaymuseum, Linus Seidougha,
has donated over 200 exercise
books, dozens of pencils, ball
pens, textbooks, mathematical
sets, poster colours, school bags
and other school items to children
in the FESTAC area of Lagos.
The arts lover and promoter
said for some years now, he has
decided to celebrate his birthday
by reaching out to children in poor
neighbourhoods.
According to Seidougha, "I
believe education is one of the
most important gifts that can be
given to any child in this 21st
Century. Based on the United
Nations Sustainable
Development Goal 4 which
encourages inclusive and
be unique and to be ranked
amongst the best in the world.
“At this stage, I wish to
specifically thank all those that
God has been using to finance the
project and the members of the
Project Implementation
Committee and the Moses
Orimolade Supervisory
Committee for their sacrifices to
give humanity one of the best
institutions of higher learning in
the world,” he said.
Alao said work on the site of the
university in Omu Aran, Kwara
State was over 75 per cent
completed.
He expressed the hope that the
university would start functioning
before the end of the year and that
the National Universities
Commission, NUC, would
accredit the courses to be offered.
On what the tuition regime
would be, Alao gave the
assurance that it would not be out
of reach of ordinary
equitable quality education and
to promote life-long learning
opportunities for all, "providing
these materials is a way of
encouraging these children to be
studious and supporting their
parents that are making effort to
ensure they have a better future.
Young people can get inspired by
any little thing and we never can
tell the long way this support can
go for these children.
"It is just like we are trying to
light their candles and they may
also be light to others in the future
if they are in position to do so.
"During the programme, we had
drawing/colouring activities,
dance competition, spelling bee
and a segment where the children
talked about what they want to be
in future," he said.
Speaking on Eplaymuseum, he
explained that it is an online
greater number of qualified citizens
of the Commonwealth membernations."
He added: "The education sector
has been saddled with the
responsibility of propelling our
country to the realisation of her
development goals so as to become
one of the top economies of the
world, and the improved access to
quality education is, no doubt,
critical to the attainment of our
national goals and global
competiveness."
The Director, Federal Scholarship
Board, FSP, Ndajiwo Asta, who
disclosed that due to the COVID-19
•Moses Orimolade University...taking off soon
THE Bunmi Adebayo
Foundation, BAF, has
announced the launch of the Tech-
Relevant Teacher, TRT project,
having received $52,725 as grant
from Coca-Cola Foundation to
train over 200 schools in virtual
teaching and technologies.
The Foundation, a non-profit
organisation that works to
improve the learning outcomes of
primary education in
during a press briefing in Lagos,
said the initiative is aimed at
training school leaders and
teachers from 200 low and middle
cost schools in virtual teaching
skills and technologies.
The Programmes Director, Femi
Martins, said the project would
lead to empowering
pandemic some candidates in 2020
were asked to defer their scholarship
to 2021, said only PhD candidates
would this year be nominated except
otherwise decided by the
commission.
"This year, due to the challenges
posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,
some selected candidates for last
year were advised to defer their
scholarship to commence in 2021.
Hence, this year, we have been asked
to nominate only a specific number
for PhD, but no Master's candidates,
though not a permanent decision by
the commission.
"It is important to inform you that
30 schools with content
production suites, improve the
learning experience in primary
school situated within the
neighborhood with increased
number of out-of-school children,
due to the aftermaths of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking further on the project,
he reiterated the Foundation's
commitment to improving
learning outcomes through their
works with teachers and school
leadership.
He emphasized that all children
deserved to have quality
education, irrespective of their
backgrounds.
"We are always deliberate about
our school leadership approaches
because they are critical factors
that affect teachers, pupils and
their performance, and the quality
of educational institutions we
Old students donate borehole to alma mater
the awards are very limited in
number compared with the large
number of applications received
each year. This year, approximately
three hundred and fifty (350)
candidates applied through the
Electronic Application System, EAS.
The value of the award per awardee
depends on field of specialisation
and it is adjudged to be sufficient,
with provision to spouses if
indicated, thus making the award
scheme the most competitive and
prestigious in the world."
According to her, out of the 336
offers made to 54 Commonwealth
countries with an average of six per
country,
due to the high quality of candidates
presented, the figure was out of the
4,424 candidates who applied
through the Electronics Application
System.
BAF gets $52,725 Coca-Cola grant, launches project
By Elizabeth Osayande
Why children should be allowed to create, explore — Founder, Eplaymuseum
platform that promotes creativity
and education.
"On our blog, we share what
children create at home and
encourage the days of their little
beginning. We strongly believe
that children should be given the
opportunity to explore and create.
In this way they develop their
brain cells and have solid self-
By Elizabeth Osayande
OLD students of Odogbolu
Grammar School,
Odogbolu, set of 1975-1980
recently donated a borehole to the
school as part of efforts to give back
to their alma mater. The borehole
project, led by Dr. Kayode Oyende,
was inaugurated in the presence of
the current principal, Odogbolu
Junior Grammar School, Mr. A.O.
Odukoya; some old students and
esteem.
During the first edition of my
outreach, we used this same
location because it is around
where I live. I cannot be going out
to the popular Makoko because
most people go there, whereas I
have people around me in need of
my charity."
current students in the school
premises.
Odogbolu Grammar School,
Odogbolu, is a co-educational
school established by the Odogbolu
Community in 1957. It was initially
a boys only school, but when female
students from the town were finding
it difficult to secure admission to
secondary schools elsewhere, it was
made a co-educational school in
1979-80 set and has remained so.
build.
"It is also important to build
school leadership competence in
exploring technology to operate
sustainable and enrich learning
experiences of the pupils," he said.
Speaking on the grant, the
Acting Board Chairman of the
Foundation, Mayowa Ogunnusi,
appreciated the Coca-Cola
Foundation, while also noting
that the grant "will directly impact
600 teachers and indirectly
benefit thousands of teachers
across
He also revealed that BAF
would set up a learning content
production suite for 30 schools so
that they would independently
develop quality content for
teachers and learning.
"There will be hands-on
exposure and training in
educational technology and how
they can use different tools and
techniques for virtual teaching."
Ogunnusi, however, reiterated
that the program was free as the
"application
portal,
www.bunmiadebayofoundation.org/
trtp, opened from the midnight of
February 3, 2021 and closes on
February 16."
Speaking on behalf of the
company, the Head, Public
Affairs, Communications and
Sustainability for Coca-Cola
Onyemelukwe, emphasised the
company's focus on the
development of the
educational sector through its
CSR partnerships and other
projects.
She also lauded the TRT
initiative, while imploring low
and middle cost schools in the
country to take maximum
advantage of the initiative to
"further enrich your teachers and
students academically and
technically."
36 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
C
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Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 37
:Vanguard
News
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
VISIT—Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State (right), with the Minister
of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite, during the
latter's visit to the Governor's Office, in Kaduna, yesterday.
COVID-19: UI
bans students'
accommodation
on
campus
By Adeola Badru
I MANAGEMENT B A D A N —
of
the University of Ibadan,
yesterday, banned the
allocation of students into
the institution’s halls of
residence.
In a statement by the
university’s Director of
Public Communication,
Mr. Olatunji Oladejo,
noted the information
trending on the social
media, indicating that the
university has published
allocation of students into
their respective halls of
residence and students are
expected to make
payments.
The statement reads: “The
University, hereby, wishes
to inform the new students
and the general public to
disregard the information
as students registration
portal has not been opened.
Kindly beware.
“Management wishes to
restate as contained in the
university’s Official
Bulletin No. 4353 of 14
January 2021 entitled:
‘Approved revised
academic calendar for 2018/
2019 as follows: In
approving the Calendar,
Senate noted the
prevailing circumstances
occasioned by the second
wave of the COVID-19
pandemic and the need to
comply with the protocols
established for the control
of the spread of the
pandemic.
“It, therefore, agreed that
the 2020/2021 first semester
lectures will be delivered
online. In this regard, “No
student will be
accommodated on
campus.
“New students are to
please note that the
opening of the registration
portal and the orientation
programme for 2020/2021
session will commence on
or before Saturday, 20
February 2021.”
CONFAB—From left: Coordinator, North-East, Arewa Youth Federation,
AYF, Malam Zarewa Sageer; President of AYF, Comrade Adamu Matazu;
National Vice President, North-West, AYF, Dr. Hamza Talbs, and Secretary
to Vice President, North-West, Alhaji Yahaya Garba, during a news
conference passing a vote of confidence on the leadership qualities of the
Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, at AYF Secretariat, in
Abuja, yesterday. Photo: NAN.
38— Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
C
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Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 39
C
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40 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
C
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Continues from Page 5
problem and should have
declared "national
emergency" against
insecurity as it did to tackle
the spread of COVID-19 in
the country.
Olujimi said: "We are in
denial, else, we would
have declared insecurity a
national emergency just like
we did for COVID-19.
Right now, we are an
endangered specie. People
are going into homes to
abduct, to rape. Herdsmen
are everywhere. We have
spoken severally and
nothing has been done.
Posterity beckons.
"We should declare
insecurity a national
emergency so that
everybody will start to work
on it as we are working on
COVID-19. The figures
that are coming out of
insecurity are sure higher
than the figures from
COVID-19, the deaths are
more.”
‘Foreign herders
have wreaked
havoc for more
than 20 years’
In his contribution,
Senator Bulkachuwa
Adamu Mohammed (APC,
Bauchi North), narrated
how foreign herders often
cross through his border
constituency into
sack farmers.
According to
Bulkachuwa, the attack by
these foreign herders on
local farmers have been on
for at least 20 years, a view
attested to by the Senate
President who noted that
the problem had lingered
for a long time, even in his
own state, Yobe.
Also contributing,
Senator James Manager,
(PDP, Delta South), called
for the arrest and
prosecution of culprits,
even as he asked how
many had been arrested
and prosecuted so far.
He queried: “It’s sad that
we only talk here and it
ends like that. How many
of these criminals have been
arrested and prosecuted?
In his remarks,
President of the Senate,
Ahmad Lawan, warned
politicians against
ethnicising the insecurity in
the country, warning that
doing so is capable of
inciting bloodshed among
the various ethnic groups
in
According to him, the
issue of insecurity remains
one the National Assembly
will continue to debate, as
it affects the welfare of
He emphasized the need
for more funding for the
military to enable it tackle
the widespread insecurity
in several states across the
geo-political zones, as a
result of the growing
activities of Boko Haram,
vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguardnews
insecurity — SENATE
bandits and kidnappers.
He said: "There’s no
better investment today in
than making more
resources available to our
security agencies because
security is the major thing
that government can do to
change the lives of the
people for the better."
Lawan, who further
warned politicians against
making unguarded
comments capable of
burning the country and
dividing
ethnic lines, said the fight
against criminality remains
the responsibility of security
agencies.
“Recently, in most parts of
the country, political
leaders have decided to
throw caution to the winds.
We must be careful about
what we say because the
people listen to us as their
leaders.
"So, if we appear to be
divisive, they will find
justification in taking
actions that all of us will
regret. Nobody is saying
the situation is okay; it is
not. If you have criminals
occupying areas they
shouldn’t be, of course, the
security agencies must take
the necessary steps to
ensure they address the
situation.
"But these are criminals,
and that is a specialized
criminal activity. All other
criminals must be flushed
out, otherwise, how do we
have peace?
“We have to address
criminality, we have to
defeat criminality, but we
also have to nip in the bud
that desire and excitement
sometimes of people
speaking as champions of
their tribes and ethnic
groups."
Senate
resolutions
After the argument and
counter-argument, the
Senate resolved to urge the
President to direct the
National Security Adviser,
NSA, and the new service
chiefs to overhaul the
country’s security
architecture.
It also urged the security
agencies to monitor the
country’s forests and
combat the proliferation of
small and light arms into
the country.
The Senate equally asked
governors of the 36 states
to key into the Federal
Government’s National
Livestock Transformation
Plan, NLTP, which had
been a subject of
controversy since it was
mooted in 2018.
Govt has failed
the people
— Gbaja
Meanwhile, speaker of
the House of
Representatives, Femi
Gbajabiamila, said
yesterday that the
incessant killing and
kidnapping of
signified government’s
failure in its obligations to
the people.
He also faulted the
creation of new institutions
of government, calling
instead for reform of
existing ones and phasing
out of those no longer
useful to the economy.
According to him,
creating new institutions or
agencies has helped shoot
up cost of governance.
Presidency keeps
mum
When contacted to react
to the statement from the
House of Representatives,
the Senior Special Assistant
to the President on
National Assembly
Matters, (House of Reps)
Umar El-yakub, said he
was yet to get the full story.
He said: "I have not heard
that yet. I don’t have the
full information of what was
said. I will only react when
I have the full details of
what was said."
Efforts to reach Minister
of Information and Culture,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, for
comments proved abortive,
as calls to his numbers were
unreplied. A text message
sent to his phone lines were
also not replied.
But Gbajabiamila, who
stated this while
welcoming members of the
House from their 2020
Christmas and New Year
break at plenary, urged all
hands to be on deck in
tackling the security
challenges in the country.
"The security and welfare
of the people shall be the
primary purpose of
government. With these
words, the constitution
obligates all of us who swear
to serve in government to
do everything to protect the
lives and property of all
citizens and promote their
well-being above all else.
"This obligation is central
to the governing contract
between the government
and the citizenry. Every
time a citizen going about
his business is killed or
kidnapped, loses his
property or livelihood, we
have failed in our
obligations.
"From the abundance of
these failures has emerged
a culture of self-help in
matters of internal security
that portends grave danger
for our nation’s continued
existence.
"If ever there was a time
for us to put aside all other
considerations, especially
the petty concerns of
partisanship and politics, it
is now. If ever there was a
time to set aside our
differences of tribe and
religion to focus on a
concerted effort to defeat
the challenges of
insurgency and banditry,
communal violence, and
the violent struggle over
land, that time is now.
"The forces that threaten
our lives and property, our
sovereignty and
nationhood, do not make
any exceptions based on the
God we pray to or the
language of our native
tongue. From every region
and state, citizens of every
tribe and religion have
suffered and will continue
to suffer the pain of death
and the grief of loss until
we put an end, once and
for all, to the terrors of
banditry, insurgency and
malignant crime in all
forms.
‘NASS doesn't
control Army,
Police’
“Here in the National
Assembly, we do not
command any armies or
control the police.
Command and control of
our nation’s security
infrastructure is an
exclusively executive
responsibility. Yet it is to us
that our constituents look to
when the forces of darkness
descend to disrupt their
lives, often irreparably.
‘’We have to reconcile the
obligations we owe to our
people with the
constitutional limitations
under which we operate.
But we will not shirk from
our role as advocates for the
forgotten voices, and we
will continue to exercise the
appropriation and
oversight authority vested
in us to hold to account
those who bear direct
responsibility for the
protection of all our nation’s
people."
Gbajabiamila also gave
hints of plans by the House
to tinker with the
Administration of Criminal
Justice Act and the
Trafficking In Persons
(Prohibition) Enforcement
And Administration Act to
reflect the current realities.
He added that the Police
Service Commission
Reforms Bill would also be
completely processed by
the House.
Continuing, he said:
“Honourable colleagues,
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 —41
the true test of
government is in our
ability to protect the most
vulnerable among us. We
cannot separate the goal
of economic prosperity
from the ambition to
ensure that all our people
live in a just society free
from abuse of power and
protected by a justice
system built on fairness
and the rule of law.
‘’Therefore, we will
shortly begin considering
bills to amend the
Administration of Criminal
Justice Act. We will follow
up with a long-overdue
review of the Trafficking In
Persons (Prohibition)
Enforcement And
Administration Act and
other legislation that seek
to deliver a justice system
that works for all.
“Last year, we initiated
legislative action in the
House of Representatives to
build a more effective
framework for policing
accountability. That process
is ongoing, with the Police
Service Commission
Reform Bill currently
making the way through
the legislative process.
‘’We will ensure that a bill
shortly emerges from the
House of Representatives,
without compromising any
of the objectives that
necessitated our
intervention in the first
instance.’’
The speaker also called on
the members to brace up for
the work ahead in the new
legislative year, saying
“Honourable colleagues,
we begin this new year
with a renewed
commitment to legislative
action that drives the course
of progress and brings us
closer to achieving the
highest aspirations we
hold for our nation.
‘’We begin with renewed
determination to achieve
better oversight of
government spending
priorities through a
collaborative effort with the
executive arm of
government and with civil
society. And we remain
dedicated to the lofty, yet
clear ambitions we
articulated in our legislative
NEWS HOTLINES
018773962,
08052867058
GROUND BREAKING CEREMONY—From left: Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Transportation, Dr Magdalene Ajani; Director, Rail in the ministry,
Engr Muhammed Babakobi with Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi
Amaechi and a guest at the groundbreaking ceremony for Kano-Maradi rail
line, Tuesday.
agenda when we resumed
in the 9th Assembly.’’
On creation of new
institutions to raise
government spending,
Gbajabiamila said: “In the
2021 legislative year, we
will focus the attention of
the House of
Representatives on bills
and motions that improve
ease of doing business and
unlock economic potential
by stripping restrictive
regulation and ending
predatory regulatory
practices that deprive our
young people the
opportunity to conquer
new frontiers.
‘’In this age of
technology and
innovation of daring and
enterprise, we cannot
risk implementing
policies that handicap
our ability as a nation to
participate in new
markets and profit from
emerging industries.
“At this time, I will crave
the House’s indulgence to
raise a matter of urgent
importance. It has become
more difficult with each
appropriation cycle for the
government to meet its
obligations. The exploding
recurrent cost of
governance demands that
we be more circumspect
in the priorities we pursue,
particularly regarding
Establishment Bills in the
National Assembly.
“At a time of reduced
revenue, with pre-existing
and worsening
infrastructure deficits
requiring significant
investments, we cannot
afford to keep establishing
more institutions that
impose a permanent
liability on government
income.
‘’I am not unmindful of
the realities that often
necessitate such
legislation, yet we cannot
ignore the facts that lie
before us. Let us work
together to reform and
strengthen the institutions
already in existence, and
remove those no longer fit
for purpose. I believe most
sincerely that this is the
pathway to a legacy that
we can all be proud of.”
42 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
EGBORODE
I, formerly known as
EGBORODE AKPABOME, now
wish to be called and addressed
as IKPEDAVID AKPBOME
JULIET. All former documents
remain valid, any Authority
concerned and the General
public to please take note.
KAREEM
This is to confirm that Ganiyatu
Kareem, Ganiyat Kareem, Tijjani
Ganiyatu,Ganiyat Abdulrasheed
Ajile are one and the same, now wish
to be known and addressed as
Abdulrasheed Tijjani Ganiyat. All
former documents remain valid, any
Authority concerned and the
General public to please take note.
ALIYU
I,formerly known as Suleiman
Mu’azu, now wish to be called and
addressed as Aliyu Suleiman
Mu’azu. All former documents
remain valid, any Authority
concerned and the General public to
please take note.
ANFANI
I, formerly known as Anfani Fedelis,
now wish to be called and addressed
as Daniel Fedelis. Wrong date of
birth 21/07/1987. Correct date of
birth 16/01/1987. All former
documents remain valid, any
Authority concerned and the
General public to please take note.
KARIM
I,formerly known as Sule Karim,
now wish to be called and
addressed as Suleiman Karim.
Wrong date of birth 3/01/1992.
Correct date of birth 3/11/1998.
All former documents remain
valid, any Authority concern and
the General public to please take
note.
SAID
This is to confirm that SAID ZAZI
and SAIDU ZAZI refers to one and
same person. Henceforth, wish to
be known and addressed as SA IDU
ZAZI. All former documents remain
valid, any Authority concerned and
the General public to please take
note.
TORIOLA
I,formerly known as Miss Toriola
Faith Temilola, now wish to be
called and addressed as Mrs.
Akinbami Faith Temilola
Shakirat. All former documents
remain valid, any Authority
concerned and the General
public to please take note.
ILOH
I, formerly known as
MATHEW ILOH, now wish
to be called and addressed as
YUSUF IBRAHIM. All
former documents remain
valid, any Authority
concerned, general public,
First Bank PLC take note.
FATIMA
I,formerly known as Isah Fatima
Ladidi, now wish to be called
and addressed as Isah Ladidi.
All former documents remain
valid, any Authority concern
and the General public to please
take note.
BLESSING
I,formerly known as Akintelu
Blessing Joseph, now wish to be
called and addressed as Akintelu
Ibukun Joseph. All former
documents remain valid, any
Authority concerned and the
General public to please take
note.
ABIGAIL
I,formerly known as ABIGAIL
KYAKKAWA GWADAH, now
wish to be called and addressed
as ABIGAIL GWADAH. All
former documents remain valid,
any Authority concerned and
the General public to please take
note.
BALOGUN
I,formerly known as Blessing
Balogun, now wish to be called
and addressed as Ebunoluwa
Fatogun. Wrong date of birth 1/
01/1971. Correct date of birth 28/
08/1973. All former documents
remain valid, Zenith Bank and
general public take note.
USMAN
I, formerly known as Abdullahi
Usman, now wish to be called
and addressed as Isah
Mohammad Lamari. All former
documents remain valid, any
Authority concerned, general
public, take note.
DAWA
I,formerly known as Rose Audu
Dawa, now wish to be called and
addressed as Rose Moses. All
former documents remain valid,
any Authority concern and the
General public to please take
note.
EKEZIE
I, formerly known and
addressed as EKEZIE
PRECIOUS CHIMANKPA,
now wish to be known and
addressed as NWODU
PRECIOUS CHIMANKPA.
All former documents remain
valid. General public to take
note.
EME
I, formerly known and
addressed as EME
EKEOMA, now wish to be
known and addressed as
EME PATRICK EKEOME.
All former documents remain
valid. General public to take
note.
OGIDI
I,formerly known as Grace
Ogidi, now wish to be called
and addressed as Grace
Godwin Itodo. All former
documents remain valid, any
Authority concerned and the
General public to please take
note.
BABATUNDE
I,formerly known as Fatai
Babatunde Ajisafe, now wish
to be called and addressed as
Fatai Ajisafe. All former
documents remain valid,
general public take note.
JOY
I, formerly known as Felicia
Jimoh Joy, now wish to be
called and addressed as
Felicia Emmanuel Chukwuka.
All former documents remain
valid, any Authority
concerned, general public,
take note.
SABO
I,formerly known as Alhassan
sabo, now wish to be called and
addressed as Alhassan haruna
sabo.y All former documents
remain valid, any Authority
concern and the General public
to please take note.
DIANA
I, formerly known as GEOFREY
JINKAI DIANA, now wish to be
called and addressed as JOFFREY
JINKAI DAINA. DOB From 6/1/
1984 To 4/3/1985 All Former
documents remain valid. Any
Authority concerned and the
General public to please take note.
THIS
SPACE
IS FOR
SALE
:Vanguard
News
Petroleum
releases new
date for NIPS
By Ediri Ejoh
ASylva, BUJA—TIMIPRE
the Minister of
State for Petroleum
Resources, has announced
June 6 to 10 as new date
for the 2021
International Petroleum
Summit, NIPS.
“We have had to reconsider
the dates in light
of the current global
pandemic,” Sylva said in a
special video broadcast on
some television stations
and which was also shared
by the Petroleum
Ministry’s official social
media handles.
The theme of the summit,
“From crisis to
opportunities: New
approaches to the future of
hydrocarbons” aims at
charting the way forward
for Africa’s oil and gas
industry in the post-Covid-
19 pandemic era.
The Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources said
that “while it has been a
challenging year for the oil
and gas industry due to
the impact of the COVID-
19 pandemic, the crisis
also provides us with the
opportunity to re-define
our industry for
transformative moments.”
The COVID-19
pandemic has indeed
engulfed the global
economy especially the
oil and gas industry. The
global level travel bans
along with grounding of
international flights led to
heavy reduction in
consumption of aviation
fuel across the globe.
Partial and complete
lockdown strategy which
was used to deal with the
pandemic further
curtailed industrial and
commercial activities
thereby reducing
consumption of fuel
further and pushing the
oil prices down to $23.36
at a point.
"Let us all, therefore,
come together under the
platform of NIPS 2021 in
our quest to return to the
attractive industry
performance that lifted the
entire economy over the
years,” Sylva added.
James Shindi,
Managing Director,
Brevity Anderson, event
producers of NIPS said
that “economies are going
through challenging
times and one of the
sectors that has witnessed
significant challenges is
the oil sector, globally and
in Africa.”
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 — 43
VISIT: From left—
Governor of Ebonyi
State, David Umahi;
his Yobe State
counterpart and
Chairman, APC
Extraordinary
Convention Planning
Committee, CECPC,
Alhaji Mai-Mala
Buni and Chief of
staff to the Yobe
State governor,
Alhaji Abdullahi
Yusuf Gashua, during
the visit of Ebonyi
State governor to the
APC National
Secretariat, in Abuja
yesterday. Photo:
Gbemiga Olamikan.
:Vanguard News
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
Security: group rues insecurity in Edo,
killing of US-based Prince
By Ozioruva Aliu
BEIN CITY —AS the se
curity situation in Edo
State continue to deteriorate
with the reported killing of
three suspected armed robbers
in a gun duel with the
police shortly after they
killed a businessman and
robbed several passersby, a
socio-political group, Afenmai
Patriotic Development
Association, APDA, made
up of sons and daughters
from Edo North senatorial
district has condemned the
recent kidnap and subsequent
killing of a United
States of America based
businessman, Chief Dennis
Abuda.
Abuda was recently kidnapped
in Ahor near Benin
City on his way to Lagos
from Fugar his hometown
to catch his flight back to the
US. He was killed by his
abductors, who thereafter,
still collected ransom.
A statement in Benin City,
yesterday by President and
General Secretary of the
group, Chief Kennedy
Izuagbe and Lucky Anyia
called on the state government
to improve security in
the state and empower local
vigilante groups to complement
the efforts of the
Delta commences demolition of illegal
structures under high tension, natural
waterways
By Onozure Dania
THE DELTA State Govern
ment has commenced the
demolition of illegal structures
and unauthorized
buildings built under high
event will take place on August
21, 2021.“
"Hopefully, by then the
current challenges of the
Covid-19 pandemic would
have given way to a freer and
more assured environment,’’
he said.“
He described his late father
as a “huge pillar of support,”
and said that he
would miss his wise counsel.
“On behalf of the Okowa
family of Owa-Alero, Ika
North East Local Government
Area, I wish to thank
all who have taken time to
commiserate with us on the
death of my beloved father,
Sir Arthur Okowa.
"Ever since the news of his
demise, our family has been
overwhelmed by the outpouring
of goodwill from a
wide spectrum of political,
business, religious leaders
as well as the mass of
"My siblings and I are
deeply grateful for the show
of solidarity, which have, in
no small measure, helped us
conventional security
agencies.
They said, "The association
leadership calls on
the Edo State Government
to immediately step up its
security apparatus particularly
on major highways
across the state. We also
note with dismay the incessant
harassment of Edo
indigenes, especially
farmers who can no longer
engage in their farming
businesses as their women
are raped and their men
killed in their farms.
"APDA implores the Edo
State government as a matter
of urgency to empower
local vigilantes to compliment
the efforts of the
Police Force, who
appear to be overwhelmed
by the sheer guts of these
suspected Fulani herdsmen.
"We believe that empowering
the local vigilantes
would mean that from Ibillo
to Igarra, from Igarra to
Auchi, from Auchi to Warrake
to Afuze, Ewu Road
through Uromi to Agbor,
Okpilla through Auchi to
tension wires, natural waterways
and access routes in Asaba
and environs.
State Commissioner for
Lands, Surveys and Urban
Development, Mr Churchill
Amagada, who supervised the
demolition exercise at the land
on the extreme axis in the state
Okowa appreciates
for late father
A SABA—GOVERNOR
Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta
State, has expressed appreciation
to
condolences and show of
love on the passing of his father,
Sir Arthur Okowa.
The governor, in a statement,
thanked all those who
came to condole with him
and those who called or sent
messages of condolences to
him and his siblings.
“He announced that because
of the second wave of
Covid-19 pandemic, the
family had resolved to hold
a private burial for their late
patriarch sometime in February
2021, adding that a
“Celebration of life” would
be held in his honour in August
2021, subject to the slowing
down of the pandemic.
According to Okowa, “In
view of the second wave of
the Covid-19 pandemic in
the country, we have opted
to hold a private burial ceremony
sometime this month,
while a Celebration of Life
to cope with Papa’s passing.
Although he died at what
may be considered a good
old age, the death of someone
so dear cannot but leave
one with a sense of void.
"My late father was a
strong pillar of support all
through my political/public
service career. I drew immeasurably
from his fountain
of knowledge and wisdom,
and he was very passionate
about the growth
and development of our beloved
Delta State.
"As a family, we will greatly
miss his physical fellowship
but we thank God that
he lived a good and full life;
he has etched his name in
gold with his legacy of hard
work, selfless service, discipline,
godliness, love for others/community,
and passion
for positive, lasting change.
"Once again, I thank all
those who have called, visited,
prayed for us and issued
statements in solidarity with
our family. May God richly
bless you," the governor added.“
Ehor to Benin City and other
communities would discourage
the murderous attacks
by these suspected
killer herdsmen.
"APDA equally uses this
opportunity to call on the
Federal Government to
look into the architecture of
the
Services as in the past, Fulani
herdsmen used to be
very friendly to the extent
that people always visited
their camps to buy furadinono.
However, modern
day Fulani are now seen
wielding AK 47 riffles. How
did the AK 47 wielding
Fulani find their ways into
the
and many other questions
are begging for answers."
capital saw the pulling down
of structures built without
government approval.
The commissioner represented
by the Area Planning
Officer, Mr Charles Egba said,
demolition notices had been
served to owners of such structures
and buildings five years
ago in line with laid down
procedures but thus were ignored.
He said structures blocking
natural water ways resulting
in flooding whenever it rained
were all pulled down while illegal
shops were also removed
as such structures over
time had defaced the beauty
of the state capital.
Amagada noted that the
demolition exercise would be
carried out in different parts
of the state in line with the urban
renewal programme of
the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa
administration as well as to
restore the Asaba master plan.
He emphasised that the
Delta State government was
determined to strictly comply
with all urban and town planning
development laws as the
construction of buildings without
government approvals
had denied government of
revenue.
Some residents commended
government for taking the
bold step in addressing the issue
of illegal structure with the
demolition exercise as it
would help restore the beauty
of the state capital and check
flooding necessitated by
buildings built on water channels.
Ndokwa union election: LNP
President urges indigenes to
elect credible leaders
By Henry Ojelu
A SABA—PRESIDENT
of League of Ndokwa
Professionals, Chief Tony
Amechi has urged indigenes
of the Ndokwa ethnic
region in Delta State to
elect credible leaders into
the tribe's union.
Amechi in a statement
ahead of the Ndokwa Neku
general election schedule
for February 13, 2021, noted
that the Ndokwa nation
was on the verge of extinction
due to years of marginalisation
and requires leaders
with vast experience and
sought character to reposition
the region.
Amechi, the Ajuwa of
Aboh Kingdom said people
of the tribe must not repeat
past mistakes of electing
individuals whose only interest
is amassing wealth to
the detriment of the region.
He said: "As the Ndokwa
Neku union elections come
OSPAC seeks govs' adoption as
South-South security outfit
By Davies
Iheamnachor
PORT HARCOURT—
ONELGA Security
Planning and Advisory
Committee, OSPAC, a local
vigilante group in Rivers
State has urged the governors
of the South-South
states to adopt the body as
a security outfit for the geopolitical
zone in view of the
security challenges in the
nation.
OSPAC also tasked the
Chairman of Emohua Local
Government Area of Rivers
State, Tom Aliezi, to review
the disbandment of the
outfit in the council, noting
that the development has
returned security treat to the
East-West Road.
Commander-General of
OSPAC, Mr Kingsley Ogwumike,
made the call at
the headquarters of OSPAC
in Omoku, ONELGA,
while reacting to security
lapses in the region and
some misconceptions about
the body.
Ogwumike noted that
OSPAC has all it takes to
restore sanity in all states of
Ogoja Paramount King dies at 84
By Emma Una
CALABAR—THE Para
mount ruler of Ogoja
Kingdom, Ntol George Ibembem
has passed on at the
age of 84.
Ntol Ibembem, passed on
at the University of Calabar
Teaching Hospital,
UCTH, on Monday night.
Paulin Ibembem, daughter
of the prominent king
told Vanguard on phone
that "My father died yesterday
in Calabar. He had
tooth ache and went to extract
the tooth but after extracting
it, his blood pressure
went up and he died."
Ntol Ibembem, who was
an educationist and sports
lover gained prominence in
up this weekend, I wish to
implore all delegates for
the election not to be
swayed by the posturing of
manipulative aspirants or
self-serving characters
around the leadership
space in Ndokwa but look
out for candidates with pedigree
and positive track
records.
"This is an opportunity to
make a difference through
socio-cultural networks
from where a clearing
house for the pursuit of
leadership in Ndokwa land
will emerge.
"We must begin to rebuild
Ndokwa land from all
fronts, develop iconoclastic
leadership precedents in
our socio-cultural groups,
communities and cooperative
societies to enforce excellent
representations in
politics, secure good governance
templates and rejig
residual strategies for
charismatic embellishments‘‘.
the region if they were allowed
to operate, calling for
a wider recognition in the
oil-rich region.
He said: "I think it is important
for the Governors of
South South to buy into the
establishment of OSPAC as
security outfits for the zone.
It is our wish to spread to
the six state of the region.
"Governors of South-West
came together and formed
their own. I think if such
development comes up in
South South, it will be a
welcome development. We
are working in synergy with
security operatives to bring
lasting peace in areas we
are operating.
"As OSPAC, we are ready
to sacrifices our life and time
to ensure that there is sanity
in every community, local
government and state
where we go. We can return
sanity in the region."
Ogwumike expressed regrets
over the disbandment