24032021 - Insecurity threatens 2023 elections, Ortom tells Buhari

How Buhari’s 10 

Economic 

Sustainability plan 

helped Nigeria tackle 

COVID-19 — OSINBAJO 

Senate moves to recover 

N16trn AMCON loans 9 

AstraZeneca may have used 

outdated information in trials, 

US health officials allege 

Forex: CBN threatens banks, to create complaint desk 

10 

Obaseki's bulldozer 

pulls down ex-Edo 

deputy gov, Odubu, 

Ihonvbere, 

34 

Itemuagbo's houses 

19 

VOL. 27: NO. 64298 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 

Insecurity threatens 2023 

elections, Ortom tells Buhari 

•Adds Nigeria sitting on keg of gunpowder•Reps condemn attack on Ortom, say offenders must face 

justice•Afenifere blasts FG to failing to restore security, punish perpetrators of Agatu massacre•Attack on 

Ortom: Military deploys troops to Tyo-Mu forests in Benue 

OIL SPILLS: Reps ask FG 

to sanction Shell, AGIP 

•For violating environmental laws 

13 

Anti-graft 

war: Why 

we need 

guidelines 

on plea 9 

bargaining 

—MALAMI 

Zenith Bank 

retains 

position as 

‘Best Bank 

in Nigeria’ 

8 

ORTOM IN ASO ROCK... 

5 

S-West: 

Calls for 

secession 

out of 

frustration 

—FAYEMI 

$1.5bn: 

PH 

Refinery 

will run for 

another 

15yrs 

—NNPC GMD 

Mr & Mrs 

15 

34 

Gov Samuel Ortom of 

Benue State arriving 

Presidential Villa Abuja, 

yesterday, for a meeting 

with President 

Muhammadu Buhari 

following the recent 

assassination attempt on 

his life. 

COLUMNISTS 

OCHEREOME 16 AFE 34 DEAR BUNMI 36

2 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 — 3 

C 

M 

Y 

K


vanguardnews 

@vanguardnews 

@vanguardnews 

NEWS HOTLINES 

018773962, 

08052867058 

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24,2021 — 5 

POCKET CARTOON 

SPECIAL CONSULTATION —President Muhammadu Buhari with Chief of 

Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, during a special consultation at the 

State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: NAN. 



•Adds Nigeria sitting on keg of gunpowder•Reps condemn 

attack on Ortom, say offenders must face justice•Afenifere 

blasts FG to failing to restore security, punish perpetrators 

of Agatu massacre•Attack on Ortom: Military deploys 

troops to Tyo-Mu forests in Benue 

By Peter Duru, 

Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru & 

Tordue Salem 

ABUJA — 

Governor 

Samuel Ortom of 

Benue State, yesterday, 

met President 

Muhammadu Buhari at 

the Presidential Villa, 

Abuja, and told newsmen 

after the meeting that the 

2023 elections may not 

hold, if insecurity in the 

country persists. 

Meanwhile, the 

military, yesterday, 

deployed troops to Tyo- 

Mu, the community 

Governor Samuel Ortom 

of Benue State, was 

attacked in his farm last 

Saturday. 

Commander of the joint 

military security outfit in 

Benue State, Operation 

Whirl Stroke, OPWS, 

Major-General Adeyinka 

Yekini, disclosed this 

while conducting 

newsmen round the 

scene of the attack where 

five bullet shells were 

recovered. 

This is even as the 

House of Representatives, 

yesterday, condemned in 

very strong terms the 

attack on the governor, 

saying the perpetrators 

must be fished out and 

dealt with. 

Similarly, the Pan- 

Yoruba socio-cultural and 

political organisation, 

Afenifere, berated the 

Federal Government for 

its inability to resolve the 

insecurity in the country 

and for failing to fish out 

perpetrators of Agatu 

massacre in Benue State 

which claimed scores of 

lives. 

Military deploys 

troops in Tyo-Mu 

On military deployment 

in Tyo-Mu, Major- 

General Yekini said the 

troops were deployed to 

the community to intensify 

patrol and surveillance of 

the general area. 

General Yekini, 

accompanied by Security 

Adviser to the Governor, 

retired Col. Paul Hemba, 

noted that his troops had 

immediately moved in to 

patrol, comb and clear the 

area. 

He noted that the patrol 

will help check activities 

of the militia herdsmen 

and other criminal 

elements emerging from 

the forest across River 

Benue to unleash 

mayhem on people. 

His words: “We are here 

to show you that the 

general area is clear of 

any bandits. The incident 

was quite unfortunate. 

When we were alerted, 

we immediately combed 

the area. We should not 

be judged by this 

singular assignment; we 

have accepted it was a 

security breach and we 

will take action.” 

He disclosed that in the 

course of patrol, the 

troops discovered a 

makeshift camp of the 

armed herders which it 

destroyed and set ablaze. 

On his part, the 

governor’s security 

adviser, Col Paul Hembe, 

retd, who disclosed that 

five empty shells of 

bullets were recovered 

from the scene of the 

attack, said no arrests had 

been made but noted that 

three persons who reside 

in the area were only 

invited for questioning 

after which they were 

allowed to go home. 

Hemba, who 

commended the swift 

response of troops of 

OPWS to the area, said as 

soon as they were 

alerted, they moved in to 

comb the area but noted 

that the bandits had fled 

by the time the troops 

arrived. 

“We are at the scene of 

the unfortunate incident 

of the attack on Governor 

Samuel Ortom. He came 

into his farm and while 

touring the farm, he went 

to a small market and on 

his way back, the gunmen 

who were hiding in the 

bushes opened fire on 

him. 

“We quickly alerted the 

OPWS and they 

immediately responded 

and gave them a hot chase 

and they have been 

combing the bushes since 

then. We commend OPWS 

for their prompt response. 

“The troops combed the 

bushes and found some 

makeshift hideouts and 

burnt them. We could not 

make any arrest because 

the bandits ran away as 

soon as the troops 

arrived,” Hemba said. 

2023 elections 

may not hold 

over insecurity 

— Ortom 

Also yesterday, Benue 

State governor, Samuel 

Ortom, said if the 

insecurity challenges in 

the country persisted, 

2023 elections would not 

hold. 

Governor Ortom stated 

this when he visited 

President Muhammadu 

Buhari at the Presidential 

Villa in Abuja. 

The governor, who 

arrived at the Villa 

unaccompanied, met with 

the President over issues 

of insecurity in the 

country. 

He thanked the 

President for condemning 

the attack on his farm but 

said “that there will be no 

2023 elections in Nigeria 

if insecurity persists.” 

Briefing journalists after 

meeting with the 

President, Governor 

Ortom disclosed that the 

nation was sitting on a keg 

of gun powder without 

meaningful progress 

being made on the issue 

of security. 

He said: “It’s not just 

enough to say that one 

criticises the policies of the 

President, but when he 

does a good thing, it is our 

responsibility to team up 

with him to ensure that it’s 

done because it is when 

we are peaceful, when we 

have security that we can 

talk about tomorrow. 

“I want to also appeal to 

Nigerians, 2023, yes to a 

politician is not far, but it’s 

still a long way. If we 

secure our country and 

everything is working 

fine, then we can talk 

about 2023, but with the 

way things are going, if 

we don’t secure the 

country, there is no way 

we can talk about 2023, 

that is why I always 

dismiss people who come 

to me to say we will 

Continues on Page 35 

By Cynthia Alo 

On FG's approval of $1.5bn for rehabilitation of PH refinery (4) 

Shell sold a 149,000bpd 

capacity refinery in the 

US for $1.2m. We can’t expect 

to make economic progress if 

we continue to fund 

inefficiency. We’re fast moving 

into a debt trap, from ¦ 12 

trillion in 2015 to over ¦ 32 

trillion today because some 

people are enriching 

themselves with every policy. 

Let this refinery be sold to coreinvestors 

with proven capacity 

to repair it with their own funds. 

—Anyanwu Celestine, 

Asst. brand manager 

That amount is 

enough to build two 

new refineries with 

optimum performance. 

$1.5b is too high, the 

contractors and FG should 

be probed per dollar spent 

if they go ahead with the 

project. This is a wrong 

advice to the FG with the 

present state of the 

economy. Every spending 

should be focused on 

improving our standard of 

living. 

—Maximums Ohio, 

Businessman 

As for me, the FG 

cannot be trusted. 

The money will not be 

utilised in rehabilitating 

the refinery, it will be 

looted! All we need is 

accountability and 

transparency to grow this 

nation. It is not a question 

of bringing out this money 

but can we say it has been 

used and how it was used? 

—Maryjane Raphael, 

Entrepreneur 

I 

see this as a way to 

appease the South- 

East. Why is this coming at 

this point in time? It’s a total 

waste. We should think of 

diverting the money into 

something that will generate 

income for the South-East 

and South-South. I will 

advise they invest the money 

in Agriculture. With the rate 

at which corruption is 

disturbing us, some officials 

may even mismanage the 

money. 

—Richards Ayobami, 

Teacher 

Being a nation that 

consumes what she 

does not produce has 

always been an 

economical landmine for 

us. 

So, spending $1.5b to 

rehabilitate the Port 

Harcourt this is a step in 

the right economical 

direction to consume 

what we produce which 

would reduce inflation. 

—Jesse Ugwunwa, 

Debt Manager 

In my opinion, the 

approval of $1.5bn by 

the FG for rehabilitation 

of Port Harcourt refinery 

is goodnews to Nigeria 

as it will not only reduce 

the prices of petroleum 

products, but also create 

jobs for both graduates 

and non-graduates. 

—Uchechi Wonderful, 

Digital Marketer

6— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 

Bandits kill 

4 in Kaduna 

villages 

By Ibrahim 

HassanWuyo 

BANDITS reportedly killed 

three people in Ungwan Lalle 

village, Igabi Local Government 

Area, while another person was 

killed at Niima Clinic in Golgofa 

village, Jema’a Local Government 

Area of Kaduna State, Monday. 

Confirming the killings, 

yesterday, Kaduna State 

Commissioner for Internal 

Security and Home Affairs, 

Samuel Aruwan, said the bandits 

initially attempted to barricade the 

Kwanar Tsintsiya road, along 

Kaduna-Zaria highway but were 

repelled by troops and vigilante 

patrols. 

He said: “As the bandits 

retreated to their camp, they 

attacked the village and killed the 

following locals: Dayyabu Yarima, 

Dalhatu Ashiru and Suleiman 

Samatu." 

In another incident, troops of 

Operation Safe Haven reported 

that gunmen attacked Niima 

Clinic in Golgofa village, Jema’a 

Local Government Area, late 

Monday night. A staff of the clinic 

was killed, and three others 

sustained gunshot injuries. 

One dead as 

C-River youths 

attack A-Ibom 

community 

shops 

By Chioma Onuegbu 

UYO— ONE person was 

reportedly killed in a clash 

between residents of Oku Iboku 

community in Itu Local 

Government Area of Akwa Ibom 

State and armed youths of Ikot 

Offiong community in Odukpani 

Local Government Area of Cross 

River State over a boundary 

dispute. 

It was gathered that the Ikot 

Offiong warriors invaded Oku lboku 

community, overpowered the 

military at the beach area popularly 

known as Esuk Oku, entered some 

villages, torched some houses and 

shops including the clan head's 

House. 

It was also gathered that scores at 

the beach area were injured while 

fleeing from the armed youths. 

Many families, according to 

sources from the area, are currently 

taking refuge in neighbouring 

communities in the local 

government area and Uyo, the state 

capital for fear of the unknown. 

It was gathered that the Ikot 

Offiong youths stormed the Oku 

Iboku community in two speedboats 

and engaged the military men 

positioned at the beach in a gun 

battle for about 25 minutes. 

A source, who spoke to 

newsmen yesterday said the 

military officers fled because the 

Ikot Offiong youths came with 

sophisticated weapons, stressing, 

“Since the military could not stop 

them it means we are not safe, 

please pray for our community.” 

When contacted, the Police 

Public Relations Officer, Akwa 

Ibom State, Mr Odiko MacDon, 

confirmed the incident, adding 

that the police have not received 

any report of loss of life. 

Bandits kill 3 policemen, cart away rifles in 

Abia 

By Ugochukwu 

Alaribe 

THREE policemen were, 

yesterday, killed by suspected 

bandits and two of their rifles carted 

away in Abiriba community, Ohafia 

council area of Abia State. 

It was gathered that the three 

policemen, Inspector Austin Ugwu, 

Inspector Longinus Ugochukwu 

and Constable Ama Ifeanyi, serving 

By Dayo Johnson 

AKURE—A 

five-year-old 

primary school pupil (name 

withheld) has narrated how her 

father (name withheld) strangled 

her mother, Wayesola, in her sleep 

in Ondo town, Ondo State over a 

minor disagreement. 

She told police detectives that 

when she woke up around 5 am to 

answer the call of nature, she saw 

her father on the bed turning her 

mother’s neck. 

She said: “My mother was 

struggling to free herself from the 

grip of my father but she was 

overpowered." 

Police detectives told Vanguard 

that the daughter of the deceased, 

who witnessed how her mother was 

murdered, gave evidence against 

her father, hence his arrest by police 

for further interrogation. 

The ugly incident occurred at 

at the Abiriba Police Division, were 

ambushed by the bandits when they 

arrived at Agu Eze Amaogudu area, 

Abiriba, at 8.30 am. 

The killing of the policemen 

caused panic in the community as 

some of the residents stayed indoors 

for the fear of mass arrest by the 

police. 

Abia State Deputy Governor, Sir 

Ude Chukwu, who visited the crime 

scene, sympathised with the families 

and friends of the officers, who lost 

their lives. 

He promised that the state 

The late Wayesola. 

Salvation Army Street, OdojÍmu, 

Ondo town. 

Reports had it that the couple had 

a disagreement, which resulted in 

a shouting match the night 

preceding her murder. 

According to the police source, the 

daughter of the deceased said her 

father threatened to kill her when 

government would deploy 

necessary resources available to 

ensure the protection of the people 

and all law-abiding citizens. 

Oko Chukwu, who was 

accompanied on the visit by the state 

Commissioner for Information, John 

Okiyi-Kalu, called for support for 

security agents to ensure that the 

perpetrators were quickly identified 

and brought to justice. 

He also visited traditional rulers 

of the community and assured them 

of government’s support to ensure 

that the perpetrators were brought 

How man allegedly killed wife in Ondo 

— Police 

she made an attempt to raise alarm 

and wanted to run out of the room 

to seek the help of their neighbours. 

The source said: “The little girl 

said she later saw her mother’s 

lifelessly body beside her father on 

the bed and their neighbours came 

into the room and covered her with 

clothing." 

The police source said it was the 

neighbours that alerted the 

deceased brother on phone. 

It said: “The neighbours locked 

up the man and the lifeless body of 

his wife inside the room so that he 

won’t escape. lt was the deceased 

brother, who went to Enuowa police 

station in Ondo town to report the 

incident." 

Contacted, the image-maker of the 

state Police command, Tee- Leo 

Ikoro confirmed the murder, saying 

the matter had been transferred to 

the state CID for further 

investigation. 

According to him, the suspect 

would be charged for murder after 

the completion of the investigation. 

2 killed, 2 injured in Anambra, Delta communities' 

cult clashes •Suspected robbers shoot one in Lagos 

By Bose Adelaja, 

Vincent Ujumadu & 

Ochuko Akuopha 

RENEWED 

cult 

activities at Okija in Ihiala Local 

Government Area of Anambra State 

have reportedly claimed one life 

while another is in a critical condition 

in the hospital. 

No fewer than five persons had 

lost their lives in the community 

under similar circumstances since 

November last year. 

Only last week, the head of a 

young man was cut off in the 

presence of his aged mother and 

taken away by suspected cultists. 

Vanguard gathered that the latest 

victim, who hailed from 

Umuatuegwu village, was hit by a 

stray bullet while the rival cult 

groups were firing at each other. 

A source at Okija said the groups 

had created tension in the area as 

they have continued to harass each 

other at the busy Nkwo Okija 

market. 

The source said: “As I am 

speaking, there is a commotion at 

Nkwo market and the disturbing 

thing is that these boys are using 

the opportunity to extort money from 

people. 

“Those who refuse to give them 

money usually have their cars 

torched. The development has 

forced many people to hurriedly 

leave the market for their houses.” 

According to him, the new 

Divisional Police Officer, DPO, and 

Divisional Crime Officer, DCO, 

have been deployed to the area, 

adding that the expectation was that 

they would return normalcy to the 

town. 

Police Public Relations Officer in 

the state, Mr Tochukwu Ikenga, said 

he was yet to get the report of the 

incident. 

One killed as cultists 

go on rampage in 

Delta community 

Another violent clash between 

rival cults claimed one life and 

another inflicted with bullet wounds 

at Ekakpamre community, Ughelli 

South Local Government Area, 

Delta State. 

The clash, which began Monday 

night, continued yesterday, as the 

deceased was killed at about 4 am. 

A source said: “Presently, there is 

tension in the community. Shops 

have been closed down and people 

can barely move around.” 

Contacted, the state Police Public 

Relations Officer, Bright Edafe, 

confirmed the incident, saying the 

Divisional Police Officer of the Otu- 

Jeremi divisional headquarters had 

led his men to restore normalcy to 

the community. 

He disclosed that the police were 

on the trail of those behind the 

killing. He, however, could not 

confirm if the incident was cultrelated. 

Suspected robbers 

shoot one in Lagos 

Also, scores of commuters, 

yesterday, scampered for safety at 

Carwash bus-stop, Lagos State, as 

some suspected robbers opened fire 

on a commuter around 6.10 am 

outward Third Mainland Bridge. 

An eye witness said the victim was 

with some of his colleagues 

awaiting a staff bus when the 

unfortunate incident occurred. 

It could not be ascertained if the 

gunshot led to his death. 

A commercial driver, Adeyinka 

Abdulkareem, said he was about 

dropping passengers at the busstop 

when he witnessed the 

incident. 

He told our correspondent that the 

suspected robbers were four in 

number and all were dressed in 

blue/black T-shirts when they 

arrived at the bus-stop. 

At press time, the spokesperson, 

Nigeria Police Force, Lagos State 

Command, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi 

could not be reached. 

to book. 

Responding, the Enachioken in 

Council, which spoke through Eze 

Eme Uguru Ikpoka, assured that the 

community would fully cooperate 

with security agencies to protect the 

people and prevent the perpetrators 

from escaping justice. 

Ikpoka urged the government to 

prevail on security agents not to 

engage in mass arrests, assuring 

that the community has dispatched 

hunters and youths into the 

surrounding forests to track down 

the bandits. 

3 die, 

4 hospitalised 

in Osun in 

suspected 

cholera 

outbreak 

By Shina Abubakar 

OSOGBO—There is palpable 

fear in Ede, Osun State as 

three persons reportedly died in the 

Hausa community in the town due 

to alleged outbreak of cholera. 

Vanguard gathered that the 

victims, beggars, reportedly died 

between Monday evening and 

yesterday morning at the Oke-Gada 

area of the town, while four others 

were taken to the hospital. 

Sources in the town said the 

incident was a result of food 

poisoning, claiming that about 15 

beggars died after eating food given 

to them by unknown persons. 

However, Serikin Hausa in Ede, 

Alhaji Gambo Ibrahim, said the 

incident was due to an outbreak of 

cholera within the community and only 

three persons died. 

He said: “There is nothing like food 

poisoning in the community, it is the 

outbreak of cholera. Three persons died 

before they were taken to hospital, while 

four other persons were hospitalised. 

“We have informed the state 

government about the development 

and health officials have visited the area 

and collected samples from both the 

dead and the sick victims. Only three 

persons died and I led their burial rites.” 

Also, the state Police Command 

spokesperson, Yemisi Opalola, 

confirmed that three persons died from 

the incident, adding that investigation 

is ongoing to ascertain the cause of their 

death. 

Efforts to get a reaction from the state 

government proved abortive. 

Police arrest alleged serial rapist, 

others in Delta 

By Festus Ahon 

ASABA—A 35-year-old alleged 

serial rapist, Michael Ovie, was 

yesterday, arrested by the Delta 

State Police Command at Oghara, 

Ethiope West Local Government 

Area of the State. 

It was gathered that the suspect, 

who is also a motorcycle rider, 

specialised in picking young girls 

at night as passengers, divert them 

to the bush, rob them of their 

belongings and forcefully have 

carnal knowledge of them after 

threatening them with a dagger. 

The command in a statement by 

its acting Police Public Relations 

Officer, Bright Edafe, said it also 

arrested one suspected cultists and 

one illicit drug dealer, adding that 

it rescued a kidnap victim. 

Edafe in the statement said: 

“When arrested, nine mobile 

phones, including that of his last 

victim, were recovered from him. 

Also, an iPhone valued at N400,000, 

nine female handbags, two pairs of 

eyeglasses, five phone chargers, 

two ATM cards and 13 SIM cards 

were recovered. 

“On 19/3/2021 at about 0846hrs, 

some vigilante members led by one 

Kess Opia reported that one of their 

members, Monday Mila, was 

kidnapped by suspected herdsmen 

along his farm road in Umutu. 

"The DPO Umutu Division, CSP 

Patience Ugbe, immediately 

mobilised a combined team of 

Policemen, vigilantes and some 

youths to the bush in search of the 

victim. Due to the pressure, the 

suspected kidnappers abandoned 

the victim and fled. The victim was 

rescued and reunited with his 

family. An effort is ongoing to arrest 

the feeling suspects.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24 , 2021—7 

How cultist shot, beheaded, used 

body parts of rival for rituals in Aba 

By Ifeanyi Okolie 

FOR allegedly beheading 

and videotaping the 

killing of Ugochukwu Igwilo, 

operatives of the Force 

Intelligence Response Team, 

IRT, have arrested a 27-yearold 

Okonkwo 

Nzubechukwu 

It was gathered that 

Nzubechukwu, after killing 

Igwilo, who was a member 

of the Supreme Vikings 

Confraternity, circulated the 

video on social media, in Aba, 

Abia State. 


suspect, who was arrested 

alongside one Prince Kalu, 

who is also a member of his 

confraternity, was 

apprehended after operatives 

of the IRT, headed by Deputy 

Commissioner of Police, Abba 

Kyari, raided a seven mangang 

of armed robbers who 

robbed and killed some POS 

agents within Aba town, Abia 

State. 

Sources disclosed that the 

robbers were all members of 

the Supreme Vikings 

Confraternity and during 

interrogations, they confessed 

that a member of their 

confraternity, Nzubechukwu, 

was the person who killed 

and beheaded the person 

who was seen on the viral 

videotape on circulation. 

It was gathered that after 

the victim was beheaded, 

Nnzubechukwu and three of 

his gang members also cut off 

the victim’s legs, arms and his 

private part and took them to 

a native doctor at a village 

called Ahia Afor, in Abia State, 

where the body parts were 

used for charms that will give 

them protection from the 

police and their rival gangs. 

Why I beheaded 

Igwilo 

—Nzubechukwu 

Narrating why he killed 

and beheaded Igwilo, 

Nzubechukwu, who is a 

student of Nigeria Maritime 

Academy, Oron said: “I am 

from Idiator North Local 

Government Area of Imo 

State and I joined the Vikings 

confraternity in 2013 and I live 

in Aba with my parents. One 

Mr Virus took me to join the 

Vikings Confraternity. 

“I was the former head of 

the confraternity in Aba in 

2015 and I ruled for six 

months before I was removed 

and we have three guns 

during my time. I was 

arrested because I killed one 

Ugochukwu Igwilo, who is a 

member of the Black Axe 

confraternity. 

“We had a cult war in Aba 

in 2020 and Ugochukwu 

killed one of our members 

known as Lampard and the 

message was reported in our 

Whatsapp group chat. 

Ugochukwu attacked 

Lampard in his compound in 

Umuchichi around Osisioma 

area of Aba and butchered 

him and before then, 

Ugochukwu had also 

attempted to kill me, but I 

escaped. Ugochukwu was 

also the head of the Black Axe 

group in Aba. 

“So, on March 6, 2021, 

Ugochukwu came to where 

we were playing football with 

one Segior and a member of 

our group and there was a 

member of our group known 

as More-Light who had a 

gun with him then, we 

ordered Ugochukwu to 

follow us into the bush with 

the gun and he obeyed. 

"But while we were moving 

into the bush, he attempted 

to escape and Otiko, a 

member of our group went 

after him and broke his head 

with a big stick. Then I shot 

him with the locally made gun 

and he died on the spot. 

"We dragged his dead body 

to our island, which is not far 

from the bush and I cut off 

his head and I videotaped it. 

I then sent the video to our 

Whatsapp group chat, where 

it went viral. I also presented 

the head to our members, who 

were not on the ground when 

we killed the victim. 

The rituals 

"Two other members of our 

group, Spiritual and Otiko, 

went to the corpse and 

removed more body parts, 

which they took to a native 

doctor at Ogbor Hill in Ahia 

Afor village. The herbalist 

grinded the head then asked 

us to pound the bones and 

the head while the herbalist 

was making incantation. The 

charm was to prevent the 

police from arresting us. 

"But the charm failed us. 

The video I shared went viral 

and when More-Light was 

arrested over the POS 

robbery, he also confessed that 

he was part of the group that 

killed and beheaded Igwilo. 

“Prince was just a witness 

to the crime. I was planning 

to become an engineer but 

now that dream has been cut 

short. My biggest regret is 

that someone else will be 

sleeping with my girlfriend.” 

7 arrested over death of LASTMA official in 

Lagos 

By Esther 

Onyegbula & 

Nimat Otori 

SEVEN persons have 

been arrested in 

connection with the attack that 

led to the death of an official 

of the Lagos State Traffic 

Management Authority, 

LASTMA, along Ikorodu 

Road. 

Vanguard gathered that a 

commercial bus driver plied 

the BRT lane, last Tuesday, 

at the Bariga area of Lagos, 

consequent upon which the 

vehicle was impounded. 

Some social miscreants 

were said to have besieged 

the scene, in an attempt to 

forcefully take the vehicle 

from the official. But they did 

not succeed as the vehicle was 

driven to the agency’s office. 

In anger, the miscreants 

were said to have taken over 

the area, attacking any 

LASTMA official insight. One 

of them, Olusegun Obasu, 

who was at his duty post at 

Anthony was not spared. 

While his colleagues 

managed to escape, he could 

not. 

While parading the 

suspects before journalists at 

the Lagos State Police 

Command headquarters, the 

Commissioner of Police, 

The suspects 

Hakeem Odumosu, 

described the attack on the 

LASTMA official as barbaric. 

Odumosu said: “The case 

is under investigation at the 

State Criminal Investigation 

and Intelligence Department, 

Yaba. The suspects will be 

charged to court soon.” 

We're not involved 

—Suspects 

However, when 

approached, the suspects: 

Alaba Adepoju, 44; Ayodele 

Yusuf, 25; Yusuf Waris, 21; 

Oladele Adejobi, 32; Rilwan 

Ramanu, 25; Babalola Femi, 

23 and Ayomide Oyeyeni, 28, 

denied culpability in the 

attack that led to Obasu’s 

demise. 

One of them, Ayodele, said: 

“On that particular day, I was 

doing my normal job as a 

conductor when the whole 

place was in disarray. I 

crossed to the other side of 

the road to check what was 

happening, only to be 

arrested as a suspect. I didn’t 

kill any LASTMA official, my 

hands are clean.” 

On his part, Ayomide, a 

commercial bus driver, said: 

“I was doing my normal job 

when the incident happened. 

I stopped my bus and joined 

other drivers at the spot where 

we were discussing what 

happened, only to be 

rounded up by the police.” 

Like Ayodele, Kwari said he 

had gone to see what 

happened, only to be 

apprehended.

8 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 

:Vanguard News 

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

POETRY DAY— From left: Renowned Poet, Odia Ofeimun; art enthusiast, Chief Kayode Aderinokun; MD/CEO, 

ProvidusBank, Walter Akpani; Veteran actor, Mrs. Taiwo Ajai-Lycett; Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka; 

MD/CEO, Northwest Petroleum, Dame Winnie Akpani; Consul General, U.S. Consulate, Ms. Claire Pierangelo, 

and Nigerian explorer, Chief Newton Jibunoh, during ProvidusBank's 'Poetry Café' event, to mark the World 

Poetry Day, with the theme: ‘Voices in the Cause of Earth’, at Eko Hotel & Suites, VI, Lagos, weekend. 

Drama as Dickson confronts Dahiru over 

comment on Bayelsa's population 

•Mubi’s population much higher than Bayelsa’s 8 LGAs 

Senator Dahiru; •Who conducted the census, how justifiable 

is Mubi’s population? Senator Dickson fires back 

By Henry Umoru 

ABUJA — THERE was 

drama in the Senate 

yesterday, following altercation 

between Senators Aishatu 

Dahiru, APC, Adamawa Central 

and Seriake Dickson, PDP, 

Bayelsa West, over comments 

on Bayelsa’s small population. 

Trouble started during plenary 

when Senator Dahiru 

took a swipe at Bayelsa State, 

saying Mubi North’s population 

of 2,089,540 was much 

higher than the entire population 

of Bayelsa State which is 

currently 1,704,515. 

Dahiru attacked the South 

South state when she led a debate 

on the general principles 

of the Bill for an Act to provide 

the legal framework to establish 

the Federal Medical Centre, 

Mubi, Adamawa State, 

and for related matters, 2021( 

SB.668), sponsored by her. 

Presenting the bill, the Adamawa 

senator immediately 

veered off her presentation, 

alleging that the population in 

need of the facility in Mubi was 

more than that of some states 

like Bayelsa. 

According to her, the town, 

Mubi, with a total land mass 

of 506.4km2 and a population 

of 759,045, is bound by neighbouring 

nine local government 

areas. “This together with 

the population of Mubi North 

makes it 2,089,540 people 

(very much higher than Bayelsa 

State’s eight local government 

areas, with a population 

of 1,704,515). “Nonetheless, 

this historic town has suffered 

from government neglect in 

terms of federal presence, especially 

in the area of tertiary 

healthcare delivery. “ 

Senator Dahiru’s argument 

did not go down well with Seriake 

Dickson, the immediate 

past governor of Bayelsa State, 

who was infuriated. Angered 

by the submissions, Senator 

Dickson quickly raised up his 

hand which the President of 

the Senate mistook for an intention 

to contribute to the debate 

and obliged him. Dickson, 

who lampooned the Adamawa 

senator, faulted her 

claim on Bayelsa population. 

He declared that figures 

presented by Senator Dahiru 

were not verifiable, arguing in 

an angry tone that the size of 

Bayelsa, the physical land 

mass and the water bodies 

were thrice bigger than some 

states in the country. He said: 

“In my senatorial district, it 

will take me four days to go 

round. In my local government, 

Sagbama, it will take 

me three days to go round. 

“I just felt I should rise to 

enlighten the sponsor of this 

bill and by so doing, the rest of 

the country. 

“When people talk about 

population, they should be 

careful because if you go deep 

and ask who conducted the 

census, who verified what and 

what are counted, who are the 

residents and how justifiable? 

Noting the dangerous trend 

the argument was taking, the 

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, 

interjected and cautioned 

Dickson against imputing 

improper motives to 

the debate. 

He said: “Apparently, I have 

to guide this contribution because 

you have made your 

point and, giving our standing 

orders, we shouldn’t impute 

improper motives to the 

submission by our colleagues. 

“The discussion is not on the 

population of Bayelsa or population 

censors conducted 

before now. We should rather 

concentrate on the main focus, 

which is on the establishment 

of federal medical centre. 

“I agree that there are 

many questions people will 

like to raise, but I think the 

essence of this debate is to focus 

on the general principles 

and merits of the bill.” 

Dickson, however, continued 

his presentation: “Debates 

and submissions in this 

hallowed chamber must be 

based on justifiable fact. 

“I was only rising to enlighten, 

without prejudice to the 

merits or demerits of the bill, 

that the premise that she has 

put forward as a reason or one 

of the reasons this bill should 

be considered is faulty. That 

should be expunged, it should 

not form part of it. That is not 

factual, it is incorrect.’’ 

Zenith Bank retains position as ‘Best Bank in Nigeria’ 

ZENITH Bank Plc has 

emerged as the Best 

Bank in Nigeria in the Global 

Finance Magazine’s Best 

Banks Awards 2021, retaining 

the award for the second successive 

year. 

The bank was among other 

banks from 35 countries in 

Africa recognised as the prestigious 

US magazine, Global 

Finance announced its 28th 

Annual Best Bank Awards 

Winners in Africa. The editors 

of Global Finance made all 

selections after extensive consultations 

with corporate financial 

executives, bankers 

and banking consultants, and 

analysts worldwide. 

Global Finance considered 

factors that ranged from the 

quantitative objective to the 

informed subjective in selecting 

these top banks. Objective 

criteria considered included: 

growth in assets, profitability, 

geographic reach, strategic 

relationships, new business 

development and innovation 

in products. Subjective criteria 

included the opinions of 

equity analysts, credit rating 

analysts, banking consultants 

and others involved in the industry. 

Global Finance’s “Best 

Banks Awards” are recognised 

amongst the world’s most influential 

banking/finance and 

corporate professionals as the 

most coveted and credible 

awards in the banking industry, 

with winners chosen in 150 

countries and territories 

across Africa, AsiaPacific, the 

Caribbean, Central America, 

Central & Eastern Europe, 

Latin America, the Middle 

East, North America and Western 

Europe. 

Founded in 1987, Global 

Finance regularly selects the 

top performers among banks 

and other financial services 

NHRC: Buhari seeks 

Senate's confirmation of 

Suleiman as chairman, 

Vanguard’s Soni Daniel, 

others, members 


ABUJA — PRESIDENT 

Muhammadu Buhari 

has written the Senate, seeking 

the screening and subsequent 

confirmation of 

Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman 

as chairman of the National 

Human Rights Commission, 

NHRC. 

Also to be confirmed are fourteen 

others as members of the 

commission. In a letter to the 

Senate, read by the President, 

Senator Ahmad Lawan, at 

plenary yesterday, Buhari is 

asking the Senate to confirm 

the chairman and 14 others. 

The request was contained in 

a letter, dated March 17, 2021. 

According to President Buhari, 

the confirmation request 

was made pursuant to Section 

By Udeme Akpan 

LAGOS — THE Federal 

Government said yesterday 

it would realize $500 million 

(N189.5 billion) from the 

sale of the nation’s 57 marginal 

oil fields. 

The Minister of State for 

Petroleum Resources, Chief 

Timipre Sylva, who expressed 

the optimism, said 50 per cent 

of the target had been realized. 

Speaking at the end of the 

just concluded 2021 First 

Quarter Ministerial Meeting, 

held in Lagos, Sylva, who also 

spoke on the rehabilitation of 

refineries and petrol pricing, 

said: “The process has been 

concluded. Letters have gone 

BUA Group Chairman launches $100m Africa 

Endowment Fund 

By Babajide Komolafe 

LAGOS — Chairman, 

The BUA Group, Isyaku 

Rabiu has announced the establishment 

of a $100 million 

Africa Endowment Fund for 

social development and renewal. 

In a statement announcing 

the fund, Rabiu said that the 

Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative 

Africa Fund Endowment will 

focus on education, health and 

social development sectors, 

starting with infrastructure 

and capacity development. 

He added that on an annual 

basis the Abdul Samad Rabiu 

Initiative will commit $50 

million to Nigeria and $50 

million to the rest of Africa. 

providers, and the awards 

have become a trusted standard 

of excellence for the global 

financial community. 

According to Joseph D. Giarraputo, 

publisher and editorial 

director of Global Finance, 

“this year’s evaluations 

are more important and valuable 

than at any point in their 

28-year history, given the unprecedented 

economic conditions 

wrought by the global 

pandemic.” In his words, 

“Banks are playing a key role 

in economic recovery around 

the world, and as such, our 

Best Bank awards highlight 

the leaders in restoring growth 

and mapping a way forward.” 

Commenting on the recognition, 

the Group Managing 

Director/Chief Executive of 

Zenith Bank, Mr, Ebenezer 

Onyeagwu said: “This award 

is a strong indication of our 

resilience despite a very excruciating 

macroeconomic environment 

exacerbated by the 

COVID 19 pandemic”. 

He added that the award 

was made possible by the joint 

contributions of the bank’s key 

stakeholders – the Group 

Chairman, Jim Ovia, for his 

pioneering and foundational 

role in building the structures 

and laying the foundation for 

an enduring and very successful 

institution, the Board for 

the deep insights and outstanding 

leadership they provide, 

the staff for their commitment, 

doggedness, creativity 

and very outstanding talents 

as well as the Bank’s teeming 

customers for their continued 

support and loyalty. 

Zenith Bank has remained 

a clear leader in the Nigerian 

financial services industry, 

distinguishing itself through 

unique customer experience 

and sound financial indices. 

2(3) of the National Human 

Rights Commission Act (as 

amended). The names of 

nominees to be confirmed as 

members of the National 

Human Rights Commission 

include the Regional Editor, 

North, Vanguard Media Limited, 

Mr. Soni Daniel ; Mrs. 

Beatrice Jedy-Agba; Amb. 

Umar Zainab Salisu; Mrs. 

Dafe T. Adesida; Joseph Onyemaechi 

Mmamel; Ahmad 

Abubakar Fingilla; Kemi Asiwaju-Okeyonda; 

Abubakar 

Muhammed; and Femi 

Okoeowo. 

Others are Barrister Agabaidu 

Chukwuemeka Jideani; 

Mrs. Nella Andem-Rabana, 

SAN; Azubuike Nwakwenta; 

Jamila Isah; Mrs. Idayat 

Omolara Hassan; and 

Prof. Anthony Ojukwu. 

Marginal fields: FG sets $500m 

target as buyers pay 50% of 

Signature bonus — Minister 

He said: “Over the years as 

a corporate, and through the 

BUA Foundation, we have 

been actively involved in corporate 

philanthropy in various 

sectors – from health, education, 

community development, 

water & sanitation, 

sports, and even more recently, 

our work on COVID- 

19. 

“However, with the Abdul 

Samad Rabiu Initiative and 

its annual $100million Africa 

Fund for Social Development, 

we are specifically extending 

this work to the Education, 

Health and Social Development 

sectors, starting with infrastructure 

and capacity development 

in these areas and 

supporting the efforts of various 

governments in Nigeria 

and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

“Our broad focus is equipping 

facilities, our researchers, 

healthcare practitioners and 

community-level service providers, 

with the aim of providing 

sustainable solutions for 

generations to come. 

“They say life begins at 50; 

what they never tell you is that 

a pandemic can change your 

life at 60. In that year 2020, 

when I turned 60, at least two 

million others turned into 

memories, taken by this 

deadly virus. I watched millions 

become numbers in a 

global death toll and ancestors 

in the world beyond." 

out and people have started 

paying their signature bonuses. 

We have received almost 50 

per cent of signature bonuses 

already. “161 companies were 

allocated marginal fields and 

I will not give you the details 

of how many have paid. I’ve 

told you that up to 50 per cent 

of those winners have paid.” 

On the transparency of the 

exercise, he said: “I think this 

is the best we could have gotten 

clearly. If you followed the 

processes, we published, people 

applied, companies were 

pre-qualified, companies went 

to the data room and of course, 

assessment of their bids was 

done by competent people. 

’There were consultants involved 

in the whole process 

and bidders emerged, and 

that’s all I can say." 

It was a very transparent 

process and I think a lot of people 

are also hailing the process.” 

On the rehabilitation of 

the nation’s refineries, he said: 

“I have already spoken about 

the refineries in a detailed interview. 

Last week Wednesday, 

the Federal Executive Council, 

FEC, approved comprehensive 

rehabilitation of Port Harcourt 

Refinery and that is going 

to start forthwith. 

‘’It was approved for the sum 

of $1.5 billion and we are going 

to also start the rehabilitation 

of Warri and Kaduna Refineries 

shortly.” 

Also commenting on petrol 

pricing, the minister who 

pointed that the government 

was not aware of any increase 

in the price of petrol, said: “Definitely, 

there is no fuel increment. 

The price remains N162 

per litre. We, are in discussion 

with labour and with other 

stakeholders, and until all 

those discussions are concluded, 

we are not going to fully 

deregulate. ‘’But we understand 

that some people, and that is 

criminal, are beginning to sell 

product for more than the approved 

price and the relevant 

agencies should ensure that 

those marketers are sanctioned. 

“You will recall that on 

my inauguration, the Ministry 

of Petroleum Resources was 

given mandate areas to 

achieve and we are very well 

on course."




MEETING: Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State (right) greeting the Right Revd. 

Timothy Yahaya, Anglican Bishop of Kaduna and his team at a briefing meeting on the 

initiatives of the Diocese in education, health and agriculture, in Kaduna yesterday. 

Senate moves to recover N16trn AMCON 

loans 


A BUJA—THE 

Senate, yesterday, 

began consideration of a Bill 

that will empower the Asset 

Management Corporation of 

Nigeria, AMCON, to recover 

about N16 trillion bad loans. 

The AMCON Amendment 

Bill 2021, which scaled second 

reading on the floor, is 

sponsored by Senator 

Opeyemi Bamidele of APC, 

Ekiti Central. 

Leading debate on the Bill, 

yesterday, Bamidele said: “The 

main aim of this amendment is 

to update a few clauses in the 

Act that have been hampering 

the operations of the Asset 

Management Corporation of 

Nigeria. 

“Under the current Act, the 

continued smooth operation of 

AMCON is threatened by the 

tenor put on a key funding 

provision for AMCON. 

“Therefore, the proposed 

amendment is designed to allow 

for more flexibility in the tenor of 

this key funding provision.’’ 

Bamidele further emphasized 

that the amendment would 

strengthen AMCON in 

stabilizing Nigeria’s banking 

sector and empower the agency 

in carrying out its functions of 

assets and debt recovery agency. 

Speaking further, he said: 

“AMCON is a very important and 

strategic national institution that 

must be strengthened to 

effectively contribute to the 

stabilization of the banking sector 

in Nigeria. 

“It proved its mettle in the 

banking crisis of 2009. Our 

economy still grapples with huge 

challenges; the banking sector is 

not immune from the difficulties 

we face. We must, therefore, 

review and amend the AMCON 

Act (2014) in order to reinvent 

and reposition AMCON to 

optimally perform its functions. 

“In particular, this amendment 

will strengthe AMCON in assets 

recovery. AMCON must be reenergized 

to tackle the problem 

of toxic loans. Highly placed 

debtors have been employing 

different strategies and tactics 

to stall the repayment of loans. 

Cases drag on in courts for 

many years. AMCON has 

remained at the receiving end of 

this well laid and orchestrated 

acts of economic sabotage. 

“As patriots, we have an 

obligation to empower AMCON 

and make its assets recovery 

efforts less cumbersome. We must 

remove all obstacles to its smooth 

operations. We must safeguard 

our banking sector and the 

economy in these trying times.” 

Contributing, Senator Uba 

Sani (APC, Kaduna Central) 

emphasized that, “AMCON 

largely depends on the resources 

from the resolution fund, and 

failure to extend this amendment 

Bill will certainly affect the 

operation of AMCON and it may 

force the government to bear the 

entire cost of debt management 

of AMCON.” 

On his part, Senator Adamu 

Aliero (APC, Kebbi Central), said 

the amendment “Will give teeth 

to AMCON to recover all debts 

that were given to private 

individuals and also companies. 

“Mr. President, I don’t know 

whether my colleagues are aware 

of the information circulating in 

social media and even in the 

conventional media, where only 

twenty individuals have taken 

about N7.5 trillion. 

Court orders extension of NIN registration by 2 months 

By Henry Ojelu 

A 

Federal High 

Court sitting in Lagos has 

ordered the extension of the 

deadline for National Identity 

Number, NIN by two months. 

Justice M.A. Onyetenu 

granted the extension while 

delivering ruling in a suit filed by 

human rights lawyer, Monday 

Ubani against the Federal 

Government, Attorney General 

of the Federation, Nigerian 

Communications Commission, 

NCC and the Minister of 

Communication and Digital 

Economy. 

In the suit, Ubani had 

contended that the initial two 

weeks ultimatum (now extended 

to April 6, 2021) given to 

telecommunication operators to 

block SIM cards of Nigerians who 

have not registered their SIM 

card with NIN if allowed, will 

infringe on his constitutionally 

guaranteed freedom of 

expression, right to own moveable 

property and right to life. 

He therefore prayed the court 

for an order halting the said 

ultimatum and extending the 

deadline. 

Other prayers made by Ubani 

includes; a declaration that the 

ultimatum given to 

telecommunications operators by 

the 1st, 3rd and 4th Respondents 

to block all Subscriber 

Identification Modules (SIM) 

cards that are not registered with 

NIN, is grossly inadequate and 

will not only work severe 

hardship, but will likely infringe 

on the fundamental rights of the 

Applicant (and millions of other 

Nigerians) to freedom of 

expression as guaranteed by 

section 39(1)(2) of the 1999 

constitution as well as violate 

section 44(1) of the 1999 

constitution which prohibits the 

compulsory acquisition of right or 

interest over moveable property. 

“A declaration that in view of 

the COVID-19 pandemic and 

the rising cases in Nigeria 

presently, the deadline given by 

the 1st, 3rd and 4th Respondents 

to the Applicant and over 200 

million Nigerians to register their 

SIM Cards with NIN, will lead to 

a rush, thereby resulting to 

clustering of the Applicant and 

other Nigerian citizens in a NIN 

registration centre, subjecting 

him to the possibility of easily 

contracting the COVID-19 virus, 

and such will amount to a 

violation of his fundamental right 

to life as protected by section 33(1) 

of the 1999 Constitution.'' 

“Mr. President, this is more than 

what we spend as capital budget 

of this country, and these individuals 

are well to do and they are 

walking on our streets. 

“They have huge sums of 

money, some of them have even 

transferred these monies abroad. 

There’s nothing toxic about it. 

The money is with them; they 

have used it and they don’t want 

to pay. 

“They are using all tactics to 

ensure that they block the 

investigation agencies like the 

Economic and Financial Crimes 

Commission, EFCC, from 

recovering the loan. They have 

even gone to court to get all kinds 

of injunctions stopping AMCON 

from recovering the loan. 

“We should all support this 

amendment. It will make Nigeria 

to be sanitized financially, and 

banks would even be in a better 

position to give loans to people 

bearing in mind that there must 

be collateral for giving such loans. 

“They were a little bit careless 

in the past, but with this, if this 

amendment passes through, it 

will be a wake-up call for all 

financial institutions in the 

country to do what is right and 

proper,” Aliero said. 

Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf (APC, 

Taraba Central) underscored the 

need for extending the tenure 

of AMCON, adding that doing 

so would rescue Nigeria’s 

financial and banking systems 

from the burden of loans 

obtained by individuals. 

His words: “We have no 

option but to extend the tenure 

of AMCON because AMCON 

is carrying a contingent 

liability of nearly N6 trillion. 

“Loans that were private in 

the past have now been made 

a sovereign loan. So, we are 

all carrying this as a result of 

past errors committed in the 

banking system. 

“Mr. president, this Bill to 

extend the tenure has come 

at the right time, otherwise, 

we may not be able to recover 

the N6 trillion debt, and I 

don’t know what would have 

happened to this financial 

system or the banking system. 

“Finally, while we are 

extending this tenure, we hope 

and pray that the judiciary will 

work in tandem with the 

aspiration of the Bill to assist 

and make sure that individuals 

that are carrying these 

liabilities are brought to book 

and are made to pay so that 

our sovereign will be relived of 

this burden.” 

ANTI-GRAFT WAR: Why we 

need guidelines on plea 

bargaining — MALAMI 

By Ikechukwu 

Nnochiri 

ABUJA—THE Attorney- 

General of the Federation 

and Minister of Justice, Mr. 

Abubakar Malami, SAN, said 

yesterday that the effective 

deployment of plea bargain 

provisions would reduce the 

financial cost of prosecutions and 

hasten the trial of corruption 

cases. 

However, the AGF said there 

was need for harmonized 

guidelines on plea bargaining 

that would be adopted by all 

federal prosecutors. 

He maintained that the 

concept of plea bargaining, when 

properly applied, would eliminate 

uncertainty of trials, enhance the 

quick return of stolen assets, and 

generally enhance the efficiency 

of the criminal justice system. 

In his opening remarks at the 

virtual stakeholders roundtable 

to review the draft guidelines on 

plea bargaining for federal 

prosecutors, which held 

yesterday, Malami, who was 

represented by the Solicitor- 

General of the Federation, Mr. 

Dayo Apata, SAN, noted that 

there are lacunas in existing 

statues that okayed the use of 

plea bargain in criminal trials. 

He said: “You will recall that 

the purpose of the 

Administration of Criminal Justice 

Act (ACJA), 2015, as detailed in 

section 1(1) is to guarantee that 

the system of administration of 

criminal justice in Nigeria: 

promotes the efficient 

management of criminal justice 

institutions; ensures speedy 

dispensation of justice, protects 

the society from crime; and 

protects the rights and interests 

NDLEA intercepts parcels of 

cocaine, heroin bound for UK, 

Ireland, Australia 

By Kingsley Omonobi 

THE National Drug 

Law Enforcement Agency, 

NDLEA, has intercepted various 

types of hard drugs wellconcealed 

and unaccompanied 

parcels of cocaine, heroin, 

methamphetamine and cannabis 

sativa being shipped to the 

United Kingdom, Northern 

Ireland, Australia, Maldives and 

New Zealand. 

Consequent upon the 

interception, a notorious 

trafficker, Sikiru Owolabi, who is 

behind at least two of the parcels, 

has been traced and arrested 

after days of thorough and 

systematic surveillance by 

NDLEA operatives. 

The Director, Media and 

Advocacy, of the NDLEA, Femi 

Babafemi, disclosed that 

“undercover narcotic agents 

attached to two international 

courier companies in Lagos made 

the seizures.’’ 

Sikiru Owolabi, who has made 

useful confessions during 

interrogations, was tracked after 

1 kilogramme of cocaine 

concealed in cream containers 

and meant for Dublin in 

Northern Ireland was intercepted 

at one of the courier firms in 

Lagos. 

This was also followed by the 

discovery of another 200 

grammes of cocaine meant for 

of the suspect, the defendant and 

the victim. 

“One of major innovations of 

ACJA aimed at achieving these 

objectives is the introduction of 

plea bargain which is defined in 

section 494(1) as: ‘the process in 

criminal proceedings whereby the 

defendant and the prosecution 

work out a mutually acceptable 

disposition of the case, including 

the plea of the defendant to a 

lesser offence than that charged 

in the complaint or information 

and in conformity with other 

conditions imposed by the 

prosecution, in return for a lighter 

sentence than that of the higher 

charge subject to the court’s 

approval’. 

“Section 270 of ACJA (2015) 

provides the general legal 

framework for the application of 

Plea Bargain. 

“I believe that this provision can 

also be effectively deployed to 

address the compounding of 

offences which features in some 

statutes but without any 

procedural detail to aid its 

application. 

“This lacuna is responsible for 

abuses in compounding of 

offences which had strengthened 

the current public skepticism 

about plea bargaining in general.’’ 

Malami stressed that inspite of 

the laudable provisions of section 

270 of the ACJA, the provisions 

are still inadequate to guide the 

prosecutor and the defendant in 

reaching a plea bargain that 

ensures the protection of public 

interest, the interest of justice 

and prevents abuse of legal 

process. 

He said it was due to lacunas 

in the existing laws that informed 

the development of the Draft 

Guidelines. 

London, United Kingdom in the 

same courier company. 

In another undercover 

operation, Babafemi said 320 

grammes of heroin concealed in 

earrings coming in from Congo 

and going to Australia was seized 

at a different courier firm in Lagos, 

adding that another 390 

grammes of cocaine hidden in 

men’s clothing meant for 

Northern Ireland was intercepted 

in the same company. 

According to him, while 500 

grammes of cannabis sativa 

concealed in automobile parts 

going to New Zealand was seized 

at one of the courier companies, 

200 grammes of 

methamphetamine hidden 

inside an award plaque and en 

route New Zealand, with 

another 200 grammes of 

methamphetamine concealed in 

a book for Maldives, were equally 

intercepted in another firm. 

Beside the arrest of Owolabi, 

the NDLEA spokesman said 

efforts were on to track and arrest 

other traffickers behind the other 

unaccompanied illicit drugs 

packaged as parcels for shipment 

to Europe. 

Chairman/Chief Executive of 

the NDLEA, Brig. General Buba 

Marwa, retd, also commended the 

men and officers involved in the 

operations to frustrate attempts 

by drug barons and traffickers to 

ship illicit drugs overseas through 

unaccompanied parcels.


AstraZeneca may have used outdated 

information in trial, US health officials allege 

.As Nigeria vaccinates 215,277 eligible persons 

By Sola Ogundipe & 

Chioma Obinna 

RESULTS from a US trial 

of AstraZeneca's Covid- 

19 vaccine may have 

included "outdated 

information" and that could 

mean the company 

provided an incomplete 

view of efficacy data, 

American federal health 

officials have stated. 

This development came 

as 215,277 eligible 

Nigerians were vaccinated 

with with the 1st dose of the 

vaccine. 

AstraZeneca reported 

Monday that its Covid-19 

vaccine provided strong 

protection among adults of 

all ages in a longanticipated 

US study. 

In the study of more than 

30,000 people, the company 

reported that the vaccine 

was found to be 79 percent 

effective at preventing 

symptomatic cases of 

Covid-19 — including in 

older adults. 

There were no severe 

illnesses or hospitalisations 

among vaccinated 

volunteers, compared with 

five such cases in 

participants who received 

dummy shots — a small 

number, but consistent with 

findings from Britain and 

other countries that the 

vaccine protects against the 

worst of the disease. 

AstraZeneca also said the 

study's independent safety 

monitors found no serious 

side effects, including no 

increased risk of rare blood 

clots like those identified in 

Europe, a scare that led 

Nigeria records worst TB burden in Africa 

— EL-Lab boosts case detection with 16-module GeneXpert machine 

By Chioma Obinna 

ONE hundred years 

after the launch of the 

Tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, 

Nigeria ranks worst in 

Africa and 6th among 20 

countries with the highest 

burden of TB in the world. 

To this end, the country 

yesterday launched the 

first 16 Module GeneXpert 

machine for the detection 

of TB in a private laboratory 

in Lagos even as the 

Federal government has 

been urged to step up 

private sector contribution 

to improve the poor global 

ranking in TB burden. 

Speaking during the 

official launch at the El - 

Lab Medical Laboratory 

Diagnostic Ltd, Festac 

Lagos as part of the USAID 

funded SHOPS Plus 

project, the Lagos State 

Commissioner for Health, 

Prof Akin Abayomi said 

Nigeria contributes 8 per 

cent of the million missing 

numerous countries to 

briefly suspend 

vaccinations last week. 

But just hours after those 

encouraging results were 

reported, the US National 

Institute of Allergy and 

Infectious Diseases issued 

an unusual statement. 

The agency said the Data 

and Safety Monitoring 

Board "expressed concern 

that AstraZeneca may have 

included outdated 

information from that trial, 

which may have provided 

an incomplete view of the 

efficacy data." 

"We urge the company to 

work with the DSMB to 

review the efficacy data and 

ensure the most accurate, 

up-to-date efficacy data be 

made public as quickly as 

possible," the statement 

added. 

Nigeria vaccinates 

215,277 persons 

The National Primary 

Healthcare Development 

Agency, NPHCDA, 

Tuesday said it has 

vaccinated a total of 215,277 

eligible Nigerians with the 

first dose of the 

AstraZeneca COVID-19 

vaccine as of 23rd of March 

2021. 

In an Electronic 

Management of 

Immunisation Data 

(EMID) System made 

available to Vanguard, 

Lagos is still topping the list 

with a total of 58,461 

persons, (11.5%). 

However, seven states are 

yet to commence COVID- 

19 vaccination. These 

TB cases in the world while 

Lagos contributes 11 per 

cent in the country’s TB 

burden. 

Abayomi, represented by 

a Director at the State 

Ministry of Health, Dr 

Agbo Lagoritie said it is 

important to recognize the 

contribution of private 

sector facilities such as EL- 

Lab. 

The occasion marked this 

year’s World Tuberculosis 

Day with the theme: “The 

clock is Ticking”, and the 

slogan adapted by Nigeria 

is “That cough, e fit be TB, 

not COVID, check am ooo!” 

It was organised in 

collaboration with the 

National Tuberculosis and 

Leprosy Control 

Programme, NTBLCP, 

Lagos State TB 

Programme, and the 

USAID SHOPS Plus 

project. 

The Chief Executive 

Director of EL-Lab, Dr 

Elochukwu Adibo said 

data made available by 

states are Abia, Kebbi, Oyo, 

Zamfara, Niger, Kogi and 

Taraba. Other states that 

have made significant 

NTBLCP, has shown that 

private sector engagement 

has increased TB case 

detection by 68 per cent in 

the first quarter of 2020 

compared to 2019. 

Further, Adibo said 

private sector participation 

increased case detection 

from 104,904 cases in 2017, 

to 106,533 in 2018 and 

120,266 in 2019 

respectively. 

”TB is still a major public 

health problem in Nigeria 

and a leading cause of 

death among infectious 

diseases. The adoption of 

the GeneXpert MTB/RIF 

test as the entry point 

diagnostic tool for TB case 

detection was done in 2016 

and the Federal 

Government in its wisdom, 

through the FMOH 

NTBLCP, engaged private 

health sector including 

Guild of Medical Directors, 

GMLD, of Lab Private 

Sector, Association of 

General Private Medical 

Practitioners, AGPMPN, 

progress includes; Bauchi, 

23,827, Jigawa, 20,800, 

Kaduna, 14572, Kwara 

state, 12, 016 among others. 

community pharmacists 

and Association of General 

Private Nurses 

Practitioners of Nigeria, 

AGPNPN and others to 

help increase case detection 

and treatment. 

Adibo said with the 

donation, EL-Lab, applied 

private-sector efficiencyoptimised 

testing with the 

machine and brought 

about significant 

improvement in TB case 

detection and testing with 

tremendous support and 

partnership from the 

USAID SHOPS PLUS 

programme network and 

their technical and logistic 

excellence. 

Citing what EL-Lab has 

done with other private 

labs, he said In Lagos state, 

private sector contribution 

was less than 3 per cent in 

2018 to TB detection but 

has now risen to 21 per cent 

in 2021, bringing the 

Nigerian case detection rate 

to 31 per cent up from 24 

per cent in 2017 

How Buhari administration’s 

ESP helped Nigeria tackle 

COVID-19 challenges 

— OSINBAJO 

NIGERIA’S priorities in 

a post-COVID-19 

world include restoring 

economic growth in the 

immediate term, building 

resilience in the health 

sector, and repositioning 

the economy on a 

sustainable footing in the 

medium term while saving 

jobs and building domestic 

capacity and local 

production in critical areas. 

The Vice President, Yemi 

Osinbajo, who disclosed 

this during a virtual 

Chatham House interactive 

session on Tuesday 

highlighted the significant 

impact of the Buhari 

administration’s Economic 

Sustainability Plan (ESP) as 

a crucial pivot in helping 

the country respond to the 

fallouts of the pandemic. 

In the chat themed: 

“Priorities for Nigeria’s 

Post-COVID Recovery”, 

Osinbajo discussed the 

challenges posed to 

Nigeria by the global 

COVID-19 pandemic and 

the Nigerian government’s 

response aimed at ensuring 

lasting socio-economic 

recovery and development. 

In his viewsm he 

emphasised that the Buhari 

administration’s first 

priority was to protect 

people and their 

livelihoods in response to 

the fallout of the pandemic. 

One of the ways was to 

support the critical 

MSMEs sector through the 

Survival Fund scheme, a 

component under the ESP.” 

“One of the specific 

interventions under the ESP 

was what we describe as the 

Survival Fund, which 

essentially was a fund to 

protect jobs and to ensure 

that during the course of the 

pandemic and immediately 

thereafter, informal workers 

in particular or private 

sector workers especially 

those in the informal sector, 

were at least able to 

continue to earn some 

wages," the Vice President 

stated. 

He added that through 

the Survival Fund scheme, 

over 300,000 beneficiaries, 

as well as businesses have 

been supported during the 

pandemic “by providing 

salaries for three months for 

beneficiaries, which 

include private school 

teachers, artisans, road 

transporters, taxi cab 

operators, and commercial 

tricycle operators in the 

urban areas. 

“We also sought to protect 

the most vulnerable, in 

particular, the urban poor 

who were also hard hit. What 

we did was to provide direct 

cash transfers to the urban 

poor, many of them who are 

captured in a social register. 

“We also have a mass 

housing programme which 

is designed to deliver 

affordable homes through 

direct intervention in the 

housing construction sector 

aimed at creating 1.8 

million jobs together with 

the construction of 300,000 

homes in the first phase. At 

the moment, the 

programme is ongoing in 

12 states which will be 

expanded to all of the states 

in the federation.” 

“Since February 2020 

(when Nigeria confirmed its 

first COVID-19 case), we 

have significantly ramped 

up our testing and case 

management capacity. We 

have activated from about 

five molecular laboratories 

to about 120, most of them 

public laboratories. 

“We have expanded the 

footprint of our sovereign 

public health response 

capacity, especially at the 

sub-national level, and in 

areas where such 

capabilities didn’t exist 

before. 

“Going forward," he said 

"we are committed to 

building on the exemplary 

dedication of our health 

workers and strengthening 

the capacity of our health 

systems to withstand 

shocks created by infectious 

diseases and pandemics 

such as we are 

experiencing. 

“One reason why we've 

been able to manage this 

pandemic better than 

expected is that we did have 

some existing public sector 

infrastructure to work with, 

the Ebola outbreak in 2014, 

our ongoing battles with 

Lassa fever, our successes 

with polio eradication all 

helped us to tighten our 

pandemic contingency 

plans, strengthen our 

emergency coordination 

and surveillance capacity 

and also enhance 

investments in public 

health laboratories.” 

He highlighted the 

government’s efforts 

through the Nigeria Centre 

for Disease Control, 

NCDC, in tackling the 

pandemic, adding that it 

also prioritized the 

strengthening of the 

country’s public health 

infrastructure. 

“While it is true that in 

many respects, our hospital 

infrastructure still lags 

behind in standards, 

especially when compared 

with richer countries of the 

world, we've been able to 

draw on the resilience and 

adaptability of our tried and 

tested community health 

system,” he noted.

Vanguard, , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 — 11 

:Vanguard :@vanguardnews :@vanguardnewsNEWS HOTLINES: 

Social Media Conversation 

VISIT—Country HR Director, Nigerian Bottling Company, NBC, Olumide Sholanke; 

Director, Public Affairs & Communications, NBC, Ekuma Eze; MD, NBC, Matthieu 

Seguin; President, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUCN, and Food, Beverages & 

Tobacco Senior Staff Association, FOBTOB, Comrade Quadri Olaleye; Deputy National 

President, FOBTOB, Comrade Jimoh Oyibo, and National Treasurer, FOBTOB, Comrade 

Adebayo Aderogba, during a courtesy visit by the union team, to the NBC Head Office, 

in Lagos. 

INSECURITY: Police mount 24hr 

surveillance on Lagos schools, farms 

By Evelyn Usman 

LAGOS—THE Commissioner 

of Police, Lagos Command, 

Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, 

yesterday, disclosed that 

policemen have been deployed 

to carry out 24 hours surveillance 

on schools and farms, to avert 

kidnappings and banditry in 

Lagos State. 

The Police boss, however, 

lamented that some of the terrains, 

especially those of the farms, were 

not accessible by vehicles. 

He said the command would 

liaise with the Ministry of 

Agriculture and the state 

government in purchasing 

motorcycles for that patrol of the 

farmlands. 

Fielding questions from 

journalists on the Command’s 

Our community no longer safe over herdsmen's 

influx —Iwo youths 

By Shina Abubakar 

OSOGBO—SOME angry 

youths in Iwo, Osun State, 

yesterday, expressed worry over 

the invitation to herdsmen by the 

town’s monarch, Oba 

Abdulrosheed Akanbi, saying 

that the town is no longer safe. 

The youths also stated that the 

rate of influx of herdsmen into the 

community is worrisome, hence 

the decision to alert the public. 

Addressing newsmen, under 

the aegis of Iwoland Concerned 

Youths, its President, Taiwo 

Ewonda expressed worry over 

the influx of unknown herdsmen 

into the community since the 

blanket invitation by the monarch, 

urging the state government to 

take urgent steps to halt the trend. 

Oba Akanbi had last Friday, 

February 19 stated that Iwo is 

ready to host more Fulani 

herdsmen and urged repentant 

herdsmen to relocate to the town. 

But Ewonda said the invitation 

has led to an unexpected influx 

of unknown herdsmen into the 

community, making Iwo a 

security threat. 

He said: “While it is expressly 

agreed that the operational 

Constitution of the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria is 

magnanimous enough to have 

allowed the freedom of 

movement and domiciliary in any 

part of the country by the 

preparedness to prevent kidnap 

attacks on schools and farmlands, 

Odumosu said: “The Command 

has designed an Operation Order 

to cater for the deployment of 

personnel, surveillance, patrol 

and strict monitoring of schools 

and students’ activities across the 

state, in its bid to provide 

adequate security for both public 

and private schools in Lagos 

State.” 

Besides, the Police boss said: 

“The command has also 

established synergy between 

schools, parents, communities 

and other security agencies in the 

state on the need to improve on 

the existing security architecture 

in various schools to forestall any 

attack or ugly incidents. 

“The surveillance will be 

extended to farmlands. 

indigenes of this nation, such 

constitutional liberty should, 

however, not be a license for 

visitors to be burdensome in 

another land. 

“We are genuinely worried by 

the unexpected and injurious 

recent pronouncements of some 

leaders and traditional rulers of 

our community which are tilting 

towards threatening of the 

subsisting peace in our 

community 

Anti-Open Grazing Law: Again, 

Ondo Amotekun seizes over 100 

cattle 


AKURE—THE Ondo State 

Security outfit, codenamed 

Amotekun, yesterday, seized 

another 100 heads of cattle, for 

violating the state government’s 

open grazing law. 


cattle were seized, after they 

allegedly destroyed farmlands in 

Ipinsa, in the Ifedore local 

government area of the state. 

It was gathered that some 

farmers in Ipinsa sent a distress 

call to the chairman of the security 

outfit, Chief Adetunji Adeleye 

following the invasion and 

destruction of their farms. 

Consequently, Amotekun 

Unfortunately, some of them are 

located in rural areas that are not 

motorable. So, we have discussed 

with the Ministry of Agriculture 

that all farms must have 

government permits, as most of 

them are just farming without 

letting the government know 

what they are doing. It makes it 

difficult to provide security for 

them. 

“We are going to incorporate the 

Ministry of agriculture and 

traditional rulers for data of 

farmlands. By the time this is put in 

place, we will begin to map out security 

strategies for them. At the moment, we 

are patrolling areas that are motorable. 

When we get the data and with the 

assistance of the Ministry of Agriculture 

and state government, we hope to use 

motorcycles to access the difficult 

terrains.” 

“Equally worrisome was the 

recent open invitation needlessly 

extended to the Fulanis by a 

revered traditional ruler in our 

community which has formed the 

pedestal for an influx of Fulani 

herdsmen into our constituency 

of recent like never before. 

“It is our observation that this 

intended royal tact of extension 

of a blanket invitation to Fulani 

herdsmen is less thoughtful 

which is capable of rocking the 

subsisting peace of Iwoland. 

operatives were deployed to the 

community. 

The herders, according to 

findings, fled the scene while the 

cattle were arrested by the 

security personnel. 

Meanwhile, there was heavy 

vehicular traffic for over an hour 

along the Oyemekun-Oba 

Adesida road when Amotekun 

operatives conveyed the seized 

cows to their headquarters located 

at Alagbaka Government Reserve 

Area in Akure. 

The Amotekun chairman said 

that the cows were arrested at 

Ipinsa and have been moved to 

the Amotekun office. 

This came on a day after nine 

herders and 100 cattle were 

arrested along the Akure/Ilesha 

road in the state capital. 

Report him to the gods! 

Go ahead! 

Things women do!


EMPOWERMENT: 

From left—Dr. Chioma 

Nwachuku, Director, 

External Affairs and 

Communications, 

Seplat; Prof. Pat 

Utomi, Moderator of 

Seplat Education 

Roundtable and Prof. 

Ngozi Osarenren, 

Keynote Speaker, 

during the Seplat 

Teachers 

Empowerment 

Programme, STEP, 

Awards ceremony 

2021, at the STEP 

Certificate Award 

Ceremony/Seplat 

Education Roundtable 

in Benin City. 



Oil spill: Reps ask FG to sanction Shell, 

AGIP for violating environmental laws 

•Delta communities cry out 

By Emma Amaize, 

Regional Editor, 

South-South & 

Levinus 

Nwabughiogu 

ABUJA—THE House of 

Representatives, yesterday, 

urged the Federal Government 

to sanction Shell Petroleum 

Development Company 

of Nigeria Limited, 

SPDC and the Nigeria Agip 

Oil Company, NAOC, for 

gross violation of the country's 

environmental laws. 

The House also asked the 

Department of Petroleum Resources, 

DPR, the SPDC and 

NAOC to comply strictly with 

the act establishing the National 

Oil Spill Detection and 

Response Agency, NOSDRA. 

The call to apply punitive 

measures followed the incessant 

incidences of oil spills in 

the Niger Delta by the oil 

companies. 

Meanwhile, one week after 

another oil spillage that killed 

a villager and left many others 

hospitalized at Polobubo 

(Tsekelewu), Opuama and 

other riverside communities 

in Warri North Local Government 

Area, Delta State, the 

communities cried out, yesterday, 

that both government 

and affected oil company had 

abandoned them to their fate. 

Considering a motion, sponsored 

by Henry Nwawuba 

and 14 others at yesterday's 

plenary, the House noted the 

high level of environmental 

pollution caused by oil and 

gas exploration and production 

activities in the Niger 

Delta region as well as environmental 

degradation due 

to poor production practices, 

and inadequate maintenance 

of pipelines and oil infrastructure. 

It noted two separate oil 

spills from Okordia Rumuekpe 

pipeline and the flow 

station at John Krana 4 

known as Adibawa flow station 

in Eharama community 

of Bayelsa State owing to long 

usage of oil pipeline since 

1969, operated by Shell 

(SPDC), and the Ogada-Brass 

pipeline operated by Agip 

(NAOC) both of which occurred 

in 2020. 

The lawmakers said that 

there was tension in the region 

due to lack of employment, 

scarcity of natural resources, 

pollution of land, rivers and 

forests as well as poverty 

caused by the activities of 

SPDC, in B-Dere, Ogada- 

Brass, Okordia Rumuekpe 

and other communities in 

Ogoni land of Rivers and 

Bayelsa states. 

It expressed concern that 

both "SPDC and Agip have 

failed to clean up affected areas 

and compensate the affected 

families, and neither 

have they repaired damages 

caused by fire outbreaks arising 

from the spills dispersed 

by flood which destroyed other 

sources of livelihood in the 

region." 

Adopting the motion, the 

House mandated the Committees 

on Host Communities 

and Environment to liaise 

with NOSDRA, DPR, SPDC 

and Agip and carry out effective 

inspection and Comprehensive 

assessment at Muuabooh, 

Kinaben, Vuruvulu and 

Ke-eegio creeks in B-Dere and 

other impacted areas in Gokana 

Local Government Area 

of Ogoni land, including other 

host communities in the 

Niger Delta region with a 

view to ensuring strict compliance 

with NOSDRA Act as 

well as the environmental 

guidelines and standards for 

the petroleum industry in Nigeria. 

1 week after oil spill, 

Delta communities 

By Levinus 

Nwabughiogu 

ABUJA—HOUSE of Rep 

resentatives Commitee 

on Public Accounts, yesterday, 

said that the Presidential Amnesty 

has been grossly mismanaged. 

The committee made the 

allegation following the inability 

of the new interim administration 

led by Col. M . Dixon 

Dikio (rtd) to account for monies 

paid to ex-agitators and 

contractors. 

In a session with the officials 

of the programme, yesterday, 

arising from the Audit query 

from the Auditor General of 

the Federation, the chairman 

of the committee, Wole Oke 

expressed disclosure that the 

office could not account for the 

monies expended. 

Taking three out of the 21 

audit queries, Oke said that 

over N3.9 billion was reportedly 

expended by the Agency 

with proper documents to back 

cry out 

President of Polobubo bloc 

of communities, Mr Paul 

Toruwei, who addressed newsmen, 

said: "Some persons are 

still sick while the majority of 

the people are without a 

source of livelihood. 

"One week after the spillage, 

there is no relief in any 

form, be it food, drugs and 

clean-up of the environment 

or whatsoever. Thousands of 

fishermen whose means of 

livelihood had been destroyed 

are lamenting their woes with 

no help in sight. 

"The people are left to their 

fate as the oil company and 

government do not care about 

them and are only interested 

in how they would start oil 

exploration from the facility 

without concern for the immediate 

needs of the community." 

Toruwei, who decried the 

alleged nonchalant attitude of 

the management of the 

NPDC/ELCREST, owners of 

the OML 40 facility where the 

spillage occurred, Delta and 

Federal governments, added: 

"Already, the NPDC/ 

ELCREST has been sending 

their officials to the site of the 

spillage like divers to work 

without consulting or approval 

of the affected communities. 

"Even the Joint Investigation 

Visit (JIV) that was done 

was controversial as parties 

are yet to agree on the cause 

of the spillage. 

"We call on NPDC/ 

ELCREST joint venture to 

consider the plight of the people 

of their host communities, 

who are facing the adverse 

effect of the spillage from their 

facility rather than the desperation 

to start operations 

"We further call on President 

Muhammadu Buhari and 

the Minister of Petroleum, 

State, Chief Timipre Slyva, to 

prevail on NPDC to do the 

needful by providing relief 

materials to the affected communities 

to reduce the adverse 

effects of the spillage," he added 

Ṁeanwhile, Governor Ifeanyi 

Okowa, last week, sent a 

high-powered delegation led 

by his Commissioner for Oil 

and Gas, Chief Emmanuel 

Agbadugba to some of the affected 

communities for an on 

the spot assessment. 

In the team, which visited 

Opuama community were 

the member representing 

Warri North constituency Delta 

State House Assembly, Fred 

Martins, newly elected Warri 

North council chairman, 

Smart Asekutu and his deputy, 

Solomon Mikie. 

Presidential Amnesty grossly mismanaged 

—Reps •Quiz Interim Administrator, Dikio over N3.7bn 

paid to ex-agitators 

up the expenditures. 

The committee said that the 

programme paid over N3.7bn 

to ex-agitators and that the 

payments violated e-payment 

policy of the Federal Government 

as they were made into a 

single account instead of the 

individual beneficiaries accounts. 

The Audit query had also 

accused the office of paying 

N136 million to two different 

contractors without proper 

rendition of accounts of the 

beneficiaries. 

The committee further accused 

the programme of approving 

the sum of N79m for 

11 individuals as cash advancement 

without retirement 

of the same. 

In his response, Dikio pleaded 

for more time to organize 

himself for the answers, saying 

he was new in the office. 

But the Commitee frowned 

at the response, saying that 

government was a continuum, 

urging him to take responsibility. 

The table later turned to the 

Director, Finance and Accounts, 

DFA, Mr Ityohume 

Isaac who said that the N3.7 

billion was paid to Camp 

Leaders of the former agitators 

who in turn paid to those under 

them. 

He added that not all the 

former agitators were on the 

Bank Verification Number, 

BVN of the Central Bank of 

Nigeria, CBN. 

However, the Committee 

Chairman ruled that the Agency 

should provide the Committee 

with relevant documents on 

the expenditures detailing the 

number of the beneficiaries, 

amount involved, their addresses 

and the names of the 

hotels used which they claimed 

issued them receipts 

The Committee also ruled 

that the details of the beneficiaries 

of the programme 

should be published in three 

different national dailies, adding 

that the relevant documents 

should also be subjected 

to forensic investigation. 

Belgium pledges to partner Rivers 

govt, NDDC on devt 

By Egufe Yafugborhi 

PORT 

HARCOURT— 

THE Government of Belgium 

has pledged to offer strategic 

partnership for mutual 

development with the Rivers 

State Government and Niger 

Delta Development Commission, 

NDDC, in diverse sectors 

in the state and Niger Delta 

region. 

In separate meetings in Port 

Harcourt, yesterday, Belgian 

Ambassador to Nigeria, 

Daniel Bertrand acknowledged 

NDDC's request for 

Belgium's support in the development 

of critical infrastructure 

in the Niger Delta 

and presented the Rivers State 

government's intent to expand 

Belgian investments in various 

sectors of the state. 

Following a closed-door 

meeting with Governor Nyesom 

Wike at Government 

House, Port Harcourt, the diplomat, 

said, "I am here to visit 

the state and visit Belgium 

companies existing in this 

area. 

"There are already some 

Belgium companies in Nigeria 

with facilities in Rivers 

SSG warns Wike to steer clear of 

C-River's politics 

By Jimoh 

Babatunde 

A 

POLITICAL organisa 

tion in Cross River State, 

Southern Senatorial Group, 

SSG, has come hard on Governor 

Nyesome Wike of Rivers 

State, warning him to steer 

clear of Cross River State affairs 

as his meddlesomeness 

was a distraction that is not 

welcomed by the people of the 

state. 

This followed the recent 

statement by Wike casting 

aspersion on Cross River State 

governor, Ben Ayade. In a 

statement by its Coordinator, 

Chief Okon Edet, the group 

said "For us here in Cross River, 

Wike didn't insult Ayade but 

our dear state. Ayade symbolises 

Cross River and so any 

dart thrown at him is invariably 

thrown at Cross River. 

"Wike's infantile comparison 

of his state with Cross River 

in terms of availability of 

funds smacks of shallow 

thinking. 

"Under Wike, how exactly 

State. We have some opportunities 

to have our facilities 

in gas and agriculture." 

On the visit to NDDC headoffice 

in the Rivers capital city, 

Sole Administrator of the 

commission, Efiong Akwa, 

had told Bertrand, "We want 

collaboration in health, environment, 

training, agriculture 

and developing a new master 

plan. 

"Health is a major challenge 

in the Niger Delta and Belgium 

has what it takes to assist 

us, considering the way it 

was able to successfully tackle 

the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"Our environment has been 

put in jeopardy because of oil 

and gas exploration and exploitation 

by multinational 

companies in the region. Our 

people are predominantly fishermen 

and farmers and agriculture 

is the strength of the 

region." 

The Belgian envoy responded 

"I am looking forward to 

working with the NDDC to 

deepen our excellent relationship. 

I wanted to see what you 

are doing, your priorities and 

see what we can do together." 

has River's financial wealth 

directly impacted on the common 

people? Under Wike, 

Rivers was recently listed by 

the National Bureau of Statistics, 

NBS, as one of the 

states with the highest unemployment 

rate. 

"Building flyovers all over 

Port Harcourt and commissioning 

two kilometre roads 

amid TV cameras create no 

jobs for Rivers youths, while 

Julius Berger carts offshore 

the collective wealth of Rivers 

for the contract awarded. 

"Wike perhaps needs urgent 

tutorials from Ayade on how 

to utilise limited resource for 

the establishment of projects 

that impact directly on the 

people. With Cross River's 

meagre income, Ayade has 

built a plethora of industries 

that create jobs and wealth for 

the people. 

"Wike absolutely has no 

right to impose a governor on 

Cross River in 2023. Essentially, 

the whole gamut of reason 

for his insult on Ayade, nay 

Cross River, is our governor's 

rock-solid determination to 

resist his sinister design for 

Cross River.‘‘ 

Rivers lawyers condemn attempt 

to impose junior judge as CJ 

PORT 

HARCOURT— 

SOME lawyer groups in 

Rivers State have condemned 

the move by Governor Nyesom 

Wike to impose a new 

Chief Judge on the state while 

overlooking the proper candidate 

in the process. 

The groups, International 

Federation of Women Lawyers, 

FIDA, represented by Pastor 

Ngozi Ighosevebe and the 

Concerned Lawyers in Rivers 

State led by John Owubokiri 

and 11 others in different statements 

in Port Harcourt, yesterday, 

expressed displeasure at 

the move by the governor to 

approve the recommendation 

and appointment of Justice 

Simeon Amadi, as Chief 

Judge purely on clannish considerations. 

The groups noted that the incumbent 

Chief Judge, Justice 

Adama Laminkanra, an indigene 

of Edo State, who would 

retire in May 2021, was so appointed 

by the same Wike 

based on seniority and hierarchy. 

It would be recalled that 

Wike had sworn at the time of 

Justice Laminkanra's appointment, 

that he would sustain the 

policy of seniority and precedence 

in judicial appointments. 

The groups said Wike had 

shifted grounds unethically on 

ethnic considerations. 

They said, "We are at a loss 

on why Governor Wike would 

abandon seniority and precedence 

so soon after it had suited 

him to overlook Justice Joy 

Akpughunum in the list sent 

by his Judicial Service Commission 

to the National Judicial 

Council, NJC, for consideration 

for appointment into 

the office of Chief Judge even 

when she is erudite, calm, 

learned and filled with probity. 

"Justice Akpughunum is the 

most senior judge in a list in 

which Justice Simeon Amadi 

comes a distant second with 

Justice E Teetito coming third.‘‘


By Ikechukwu 

Nnochiri 

ABUJA—FOLLOWING a 

petition the national leadership 

of the All Progressives 

Party, APC, lodged against 

three Justices, the Supreme 

Court, yesterday, suspended 

hearing on the legal dispute 

surrounding the Senatorial 

bye-election that held in Imo 

North on December 5, 2020. 

It will be recalled that the 

Independent National Electoral 

Commission, INEC had 

at the end of the Senatorial 

bye-election, returned the APC 

as the winner. 

The electoral body based its 

decision not to return any candidate 

for the party on the fact 

that there were many conflicting 

court decisions, for and 

against the two main contenders 

from the APC ticket-Senator 

Ifeanyi Ararume and Mr. 

Chukwuemeka Francis Ibezim. 

Both Ararume and Ibezim 

have been laying claim and 

counter claim to the candidacy 

of APC in Imo North Senatorial 

district. 

However, the Federal High 

Court in Abuja, in a judgement 

by Justice Taiwo Taiwo delivered 

on March 18, ordered 

INEC to issue Certificate of 

Return to Ararume. 

The order came on a day 

another High Court sitting at 

Owerri, gave a counter order 

that barred the electoral body 

from issuing Certificate of 

Return to Ararume. 

The Supreme Court had 

earlier adjourned to hear an 

appeal Ibezim lodged against 

the concurrent verdicts of 

both the Federal High Court 

and the Court of Appeal in 

Abuja, which nullified his candidacy 

on the ground that he 

made false declaration in documents 

he submitted to 

INEC. 

However, at the resumed 

proceedings in the matter yesterday, 

the apex court, suspended 

further hearing on the 

appeal, sine-die (indefinitely), 

owing to the petition by the 

APC. 

The party, in the petition 

that was signed by its Acting 

National Chairman and Governor 

of Yobe State, Mai Mala 

Buni, alleged that three Justices 

of the Supreme Court, 

held nocturnal meetings with 

the Peoples Democratic Party, 

PDP, so as to scheme it out from 

the Senate seat. 

In the petition, the APC, specifically 

fingered Justices 

Mohammed Musa Dattijo, 

Abdu Aboki and Helen Ogun- 



INSPECTION: Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State (middle); Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, 

Greg Nnaji (left) and the Project Manager, IDC Construction Ltd, Mr. Youssef Zghaib, when the governor inspected 

progress of work at the ongoing construction of flyover bridge at T-Junction, Abakpa Nike, Enugu, yesterday. 

Ibezim vs Ararume: S'Court suspends hearing 

over APC's petition against 3 Justices 

wumiju, as those that participated 

in the said meeting. 

Acting National Chairman 

of the APC, Buni, claimed that 

information at the disposal of 

the party, indicated that the 

three apex Justices, held meeting 

with PDP leadership and 

allegedly perfected the means 

of giving the senatorial seat 

to the PDP candidate in the 

bye election. 

Consequently, when the 

matter came up yesterday, 

Justice Dattijo who led a fiveman 

panel of Justices of the 

apex court that are presiding 

over the appeal, announced 

the suspension of further proceedings 

in the matter, pending 

the resolution of the damaging 

petition. 

Justice Dattijo bemoaned 

that the APC had by the petition, 

called the integrity, reputation 

and honour of the 

three Justices to question, 

stressing that the issue must 

be resolved first. 

He said: "Let me confirm to 

all counsel in this matter that 

the Interim National Chairman 

of the All Progressives 

Congress (APC) had written a 

petition against me and two 

other Justices of this court, 

namely Helen Ogunwumiju 

and Abdu Aboki accusing us 

of having a meeting with 

By Victor Ahiuma- 

Young 

OWERRI—THE Federal 

Government yesterday in 

Imo State, pleaded with organized 

labour not to disrupt 

the nation's industrial peace 

because of the bill before the 

National Assembly that seeks 

to remove the minimum 

wage from exclusive legislative 

list to concurrent list, saying 

Nigeria is a signatory to 

International Labour organization, 

ILO, conventions on 

minimum wage and wage 

fixing. 

Speaking through the Minister 

of Labour and Employment, 

Senator Chris Ngige, 

the government which made 

the appeal at the meeting of 

the National Labour Advisory 

Council (NLAC) in Owerri, 

Imo State, said the Nigerian 

government adopted and ratified 

the ILO Convention 28, 

the Minimum Wage Fixing 

Machinery Convention of 

1928 (No.26) and the Minimum 

Wage Fixing Conven- 

members of the People’s Democratic 

Party (PDP) to subvert 

justice in the case". 

He said the APC alleged, 

that "my humble self had led 

my two brothers to attend a 

meeting with members of the 

PDP to strategize on how to 

subvert the outcome of this 

case. 

"I must say that this is most 

unfortunate and my heart 

bleeds for this country. 

"If people as highly placed 

as the interim Chairman of 

the APC would open his 

mouth and make this weighty 

statement against innocent 

Justices of this court, then I 

say my heart bleeds. 

"We are not interested in any 

matter and I challenge him 

and the party to substantiate 

his allegation that my humble 

self attended a meeting 

with members of the PDP with 

a view to subverting the interest 

of their party. 

"This is a reckless and irresponsible 

statement. That is 

how these useless statements 

were made in the past and 

that is why we are not taking 

it lightly. 

"If they have honour, let 

them substantiate their allegations 

and I will not leave a 

day longer in this court. 

"So, this matter is adjourned 

sine die, and parties should 

approach the Chief Justice of 

Nigeria " 

Responding, counsel to 

Senator Ararume, Ahmed 

Raji, SAN, distanced himself 

from the petition. 

Raji said he was shocked to 

hear about the allegations 

made against the Justices. 

He said: "This is very very 

shocking. I swear with my last 

day in this court that I, Ahmed 

Raji knows nothing about this 

issue and I condemn it with 

all the strength in me. 

“I sympathise with your 

lordships and whatever measure 

your lordship deems appropriate, 

we are fully in support", 

he added. 

On his part, counsel to the 

APC, Mr. Umeh Kalu, denied 

knowledge of the petition, 

saying he was only hearing 

about it for the first time. 

“I am taken aback by this. I 

have never in my life met with 

the interim chairman of the 

APC. 

"In matters of this nature, we 

normally deal with the legal 

adviser. 

"In the first place, PDP is not 

a party in this matter". 

Though all the parties distanced 

themselves from the 

petition, the panel went ahead 

and adjourned the appeal indefinitely. 

Don't go on strike because of minimum wage 

bill, FG begs labour •Says Nigeria, signatory to ILO 

conventions on wage fixing 

tion of 1970 (No131). 

According to him, from 

these conventions, the Minimum 

wage Act was signed in 

1981. 

Delivering his inaugural 

address, Ngige said much as 

he supported the Organised 

Labour 100 percent on the bill 

pending before the National 

Assembly, organised labour 

should not embark on strike 

because of the issue, saying , 

"Although the council has 

been inactive, the Ministry in 

the spirit of Tripartism has 

ensured and maintained a 

sound tripartite relationship 

with Social Partners. 

"For example, during the 

negotiation for the national 

minimum wage from 2017 

to 2018, we used the tripartite 

plus composition of government, 

employers, employees 

and other interests and for 

other interests. We made sure 

that it reflected the members 

of this council. 

"That was why we got the 

Nigerian Governors Forum 

(NGF) involved in that negotiation 

and we called it tripartite 

plus. The chairman of that 

minimum wage committee, 

Ama Pepple came from outside 

as an experienced technocrat 

who had been the 

Head of Service of the Federation, 

Minister and Clerk of 

the National Assembly. We 

invited her to give that plus 

the effective ingredient that is 

needed, so also the state governments. 

"Mr. President of NLC, you 

didn't need to thank me for 

what I said about the minimum 

wage bill because I was 

re-echoing what the Nigerian 

government stood for by 

adopting the ILO Convention 

28, the Minimum Wage Fixing 

Machinery Convention of 

1928 (No.26) and the Minimum 

Wage Fixing Convention 

of 1970 (No131). From 

these conventions, the Minimum 

wage Act was signed in 

1981. So, I am with you 100 

percent but I don't want you 

to go on strike on that." 

I picked Abaribe from gutters 

—Kalu 

ABA—CHIEF Whip of the 

Senate and former Governor 

of Abia State, Senator 

Orji Uzor Kalu, has taken the 

Senator representing Abia 

South Senatorial zone, Enyinnaya 

Abaribe, to the cleaners. 

Abaribe was Kalu’s deputy 

during his first term as Abia 

governor. The deputy governor 

was later impeached.“ 

Kalu, on Monday, also said 

he was thankful to God to 

have been imprisoned for six 

months, declaring that God 

allowed the conspiracy of his 

enemies because “it is part of 

my life script. 

“The billionaire businessman 

and politician made the 

revelations in Aba North 

Ward 1 during his ward to 

ward campaign for All Pro- 

gressives Congress,APC, candidate, 

Chief Mascot Uzor 

Kalu, for the Aba North/South 

Federal Constituency byeelection 

scheduled to hold on 

Saturday. 

The former governor was 

responding to statements from 

Abia State Governor, Okezie 

Ikpeazu and Abaribe, accusing 

him of unrecovery from 

Kuje Prison experience. 

Ikpeazu and Abaribe, in 

their reactions had stated that 

Kalu’s suggestion that road 

projects in Aba are funded by 

the Niger Delta Development 

Commission (NDDC) and the 

Federal Government “is a 

clear pointer that something 

is wrong with him. 

‘‘It is either he is yet to fully 

recover from the effects of his 

several months of incarceration 

at the Kuje prisons or he 

is just plain ignorant.” the governor’s 

statement read. 

Lawyers, judiciary workers in 

Imo suspend court sittings over 

alleged abduction of colleague 

OWERRI—Lawyers and 

judiciary workers in Imo 

suspended court sitting yesterday 

to protest against the kidnap 

of a lawyer Barr. Chima 

Awurum. 

Awurum was kidnapped by 

gunmen last Friday in 

Mbano/Etiti, Imo. 

Secretary of the Imo branch 

of the Nigerian Bar Association, 

NBA, Chinedu Agu, said 

in a memorandum yesterday 

that there must be strict compliance 

with the directive to 

down tools. 

Agu said that the request to 

suspend court sitting was approved 

by the Acting Chief 

Judge on the state, Ijeoma 

Oguguo and signed by the 

Chief Registrar, C.N Okereke. 

The memorandum read: 

Obi congratulates Nwabueze at 90 

Arewa youths laud Ugwuanyi on 

peace, economic prosperity 

THE NATIONAL Execu 

tive Council and members 

of Arewa Youth Forum (AYF), 

both in the country and the Diaspora, 

have lauded Governor 

Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu 

State for his untiring efforts 

in ensuring peace, economic 

prosperity and a unified Nigeria. 

In a congratulatory message 

to Gov. Ugwuanyi on his 

57th birthday, the National 

President of Arewa Youth Forum, 

Gambo Ibrahim Gujungu, 

on behalf of the forum, described 

the governor as “a 

worthy son of Nigeria, a humane, 

simple, humble, focused 

and accessible leader”. 

The Northern forum told 

"The Office of the Chief Registrar, 

High Court of Imo 

State, has declared that in 

solidarity with the Mbano/ 

Etiti Branch of the NBA, the 

High Courts and Magistrates 

Courts will not sit on Tuesday.’’ 

Meanwhile, some litigants 

were seen at court premises 

looking frustrated over the 

sudden development. 

A litigant, Mr Kingsley Anyawu, 

told the News Agency 

of Nigeria (NAN) that his case 

had lingered due to long adjournments 

and courts boycott. 

Anyawu condemned the 

kidnap of the lawyer and appealed 

to security agencies to 

find lasting solution to insecurity 

in the state. 

THE IMMEDIATE past 

Vice Presidential candidate 

of the PDP, Mr. Peter Obi 

has joined other Nigerians of 

goodwill in congratulating 

Prof. Ben Nwabueze who 

turned 90 yesterday. 

In a message made available 

to the press by his Media 

Office signed by Mr. Valentine 

Obienyem, Obi said that 

people like Prof. Nwabueze 

deserved to be celebrated for 

their contributions to their 

communities, the country and 

humanity at large. “ 

He exemplifies the beauty 

of using one’s gift to serve humanity”, 

Obi said. 

The former governor recalls 

that Prof. Nwabueze has 

served the nation in various 

capacities, including being 

the Federal Minister of Education. 

He however said that 

what stood him out of the park 

was his contributions to scholarship 

as a lecturer and author 

of many books that have 

continued to address aspects 

of constitutionalism, politics, 

rule of law and jurisprudence. 

He however, notes that 

when “nonagenarians that 

were evidently committed to 

better Nigeria as Nwabueze 

reflect on the Nigerian condition, 

that the feeling will certainly 

be that of regret at what 

the country has turned into.” 

Obi therefore concludes: 

“beyond panegyrics, the debt 

the younger generations owe 

the older ones is to become 

the instrument for the actualisation 

of the country they 

dreamt of during independence. 

Gov. Ugwuanyi that “your 

untiring efforts aimed at ensuring 

a unified Nigeria is established, 

well appreciated 

and documented, given by 

your good virtues and all-inclusive 

leadership style”. 

According to them, “you 

(Ugwuanyi) have within the 

shortest period of your political 

career made yourself to be 

an astute and exemplary leader 

who has committed the 

greatest part of his cherished 

days on earth to Nigeria’s 

quest for economic prosperity, 

peace and national unity. 

“We at Arewa Youth Forum 

are happy to be associated 

with you in upholding this 

spirit of nationhood.‘‘




Katsina reopens 5 boarding 

schools, 3 months after 

Kankara abductions 

K Katsina 

ATSINA—THE 

State 

government has directed the 

reopening of five boarding schools 

in the state for the continuation 

of the 2020/2021 academic session 

from Sunday, March 28. 

The state government also 

directed the reopening of all 

female boarding secondary 

schools. 

Female pupils are to resume at 

nearby day schools within their 

locations today, March 24. 

The schools were shut in 

December following the abduction 

of more than 300 students of the 

Government Science Secondary 

School, GSSS, Kankara. 

The students regained freedom 

five days after their abduction. 

According to a statement by 

Public Relations Officer, PRO, in 

the state Ministry of Education, 

Sani Suleiman, COVID-19 

protocol must be strictly adhered 

Tarfa gives DSS 48 hours to 

release 26 BDC operators 

ABUJA—A 

human 

rights lawyer, Mr. Rickey 

Tarfa (SAN), has given the 

Department of State Services, 

DSS, a 48 hour ultimatum to 

either release the 26 Bureau de 

Change, BDC, operators in its 

custody or take them to court. 

In a letter to the Director- 

General of DSS, Yusuf Magaji, 

in Abuja, Tarfa insisted that if 

DSS failed to act, he would 

approach a court and demand for 

the enforcement of their 

fundamental human rights. 

He said: “The Apex Court of 

Nigeria has, in a plethora of 

decided cases, frowned at the 

continued detention of citizens 

of this country unlawfully by 

security agents and their 

agencies without due recourse 

to the court and in violation of 

to by staff, students and visitors. 

According to the statement “In 

line with the Katsina State policy 

on school’s resumption, 

Governor Aminu Masari, has 

directed the reopening of all 

Female Boarding Secondary 

Schools on Day System Basis to 

nearby Schools of their locations/ 

residence on Wednesday 24th 

March, 2021.” 

“Similarly, the Government 

directed the re-opening of the 

following boarding Schools: 

Government Unity Secondary 

School Malumfashi; SUNCAIS 

Katsina; Government Girls 

Secondary School Dutsin Safe 

Katsina; Government Girls 

Arabic Secondary School 

Dutsinma; Government School 

for the Deaf Malumfashi and 

Government School for the Blind 

Katsina on Sunday 28th Match, 

2021 for the continuation of 2020/ 

2021 academic session. '' 

S-Court rules June 11 on 

N24.4bn NOSPETCO Oil & Gas 

investors’ suit 

By Onozure Dania 

THE Supreme Court 

has fixed June 11, 2021 

to deliver judgment in the case 

of 14,296 nvestors in 

NOSPETCO Oil and Gas 

Limited whose money are in 

the apex bank. 

The five-man Justices of the 

apex court, Presided by Justice 

Aminat Augie, fixed the date 

for judgment after lawyers of 

all the parties adopted their 

various briefs before the court. 

extent provisions of the 

Constitution. We, therefore, 

demand the immediate release 

of all our clients in your custody. 

This is without prejudice to the 

investigation that is being 

conducted by your establishment 

with respect to whatever reason 

they were arrested for.” 

Tarfa noted that the 26 

detainees who are all members 

of the Association of Bureau De 

Change Operators of Nigeria, 

ABCON, Northwest chapter, 

were invited from Kano, Sokoto, 

Yola, Minna and Lagos for 

questioning by DSS in Abuja on 

March 9, 12 and 14, 2021; adding 

that they have been held 

incommunicado since then. 

Tarfa described their arrest by 

DSS, without any arraignment 

before a court, as illegal. 

The 14,296 investors’ N24.4 

billion was deposited with CBN 

by the Security and Exchange 

Commission, SEC, following an 

embargo it placed on 

NOSPETCO’s operations. 

The investors through Mr 

Debo Adeleke, prayed the 

Supreme Court to compel CBN 

to release the money trapped in 

its coffer. 

Most of the investors who were 

aged and pensioners, subscribed 

to the fraudulent investment 

scheme put up by Nospetco Oil 

& Gas Ltd, each with N450, 000 

slots between 2004 and 2005. 

Panel on sexual, gender-based 

violence receives 14 petitions 

in Adamawa 

By Umar Yusuf 

YOLA—NO 

fewer 

than 14 complaints have 

been lodged before the special 

investigation panel on sexual 

and gender-based violence 

(SGBV) sitting in Yola, Adamawa 

State. 

The Executive Secretary, 

National Human Rights 

Commission, (NHRC), Tony 

Ojukwu disclosed this in Yola at 

the commencement of a two-day 

sitting of the panel . 

Ojukwu noted that with the 

high turnout of people, at the 

commencement of the sitting of 

the panel, he expected more 

petitions. 

He observed that based on the 

preponderance of SGBV during 

the lockdown, NHRC decided to 

constitute the panel to attend to 

the various complaints by 

survivors of the crime. 

He said: “The commission 

is the first institution that has 

the temerity to embark in this 

exercise.'' 

SIGNING: From left, the Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Abuja, Prof. Park Idisi; 

Corporate Director, Dairy Development and Milkstreams, Royal FrieslandCampina, Mr. Jeroen 

Elfers; Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah; MD, 

FrieslandCampina WAMCO and Chairman CNDDD, Mr. Ben Langat; and Executive Director 

Corporate Affairs, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Mrs. Ore Famurewa at the signing of a partnership 

agreement under the aegis of the Centre for Nigerian Dutch Dairy Development in Abuja. 

Don’t set Nigeria on fire over hijab, PFN 

tells Kwara gov 

By Demola Akinyemi, 

with Agency report 

I 

BADAN— THE 

Pentecostal Fellowship of 

Nigeria, PFN, has warned 

Governor Abdul-Raman 

Abdulrasaq of Kwara State, 

against engaging in actions that 

could set the country on fire, 

saying that the hijab crisis may 

degenerate if not handled with 

caution. 

This came as students and 

teachers of the 10 mission schools 

yesterday returned to classroom 

amidst tight security. 

PFN’s President, Bishop Wale 

Oke, who spoke at the 

Cornerstone City, Ibadan, during 

the visit of the Ekiti and Ondo 

states chapters of the Fellowship, 

led by the duo of Bishop Clement 

Abifade and Bishop Joshua 

Opayinka, also decried the 

tenure extension approved for 

the Inspector General of 

Police,IGP, Muhammed Adamu, 

arguing that he should instead 

tender his letter resignation in 

view of his abysmal performance 

as the IGP. 

‘I am appealing to Your 

Excellency, Mr Governor, to let 

the sleeping dog lie. Respect the 

tradition and feelings of others. 

Avoid divisive politics that can set 

this nation on fire. Bring 

everybody together; don’t force 

hijab on our people, they won’t 

back down. Your Excellency, stoop 

to conquer; stoop for peace, stoop 

for harmony,” Oke said. 

Meanwhile, the students and 

teachers of the 10 mission schools 

run by the state government 

grant yesterday returned to 

classroom amidst tight security. 

The schools earlier closed by 

the government are C&S College 

Sabo Oke, St Anthony College, 

Offa Road, ECWA School, Oja Iya, 

Surulere Baptist Secondary 

School and Bishop Smith 

Secondary School, Agba Dam. 

Others are CAC Secondary 

School Asa Dam, St. Barnabas 

Secondary School Sabo Oke, 

St. John School Maraba, and St. 

Williams Secondary School Taiwo 

Isale, St. James Secondary 

School Maraba, all in Ilorin, the 

state capital. 

Governor AbdulRahman 

AbdulRazaq, however in a 

statement ordered security 

agents to deal decisively with 

anyone fomenting trouble 

irrespective of his or status, even 

as he lauded leaders of various 

religious bodies for their 

understanding and leadership 

over the last few days. 

When Vanguard visited the 

nine schools, some Muslim 

students were seen wearing 

hijab, while others did not use. 

But the situation was 

different at Cherubim and 

Seraphim College at Sabo Oke, 

Ilorin as the gates remained 

By Peter Duru 

M 

A K U R D I — 

COMMANDER of the 

Joint military operation in Benue 

State, Major- General, Adeyemi 

Yekini, has said over 700 different 

calibre of weapons have been 

recovered from bandits operating 

in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba 

states. 

General Yekini, who spoke in 

Makurdi, said the operation had 

succeeded in restoring peace to 

the troubled communities in its 

areas of operation stating that, 

“when we look back to where 

Benue was when Operation 

Whirl Stroke, OPWS, came into 

the state you will realize that we 

have made a lot of progress. We 

recall that in 2018 the cry all over 

the country was #Pray for Benue. 

It was killing galore. But since the 

coming of OPWS, working in 

tandem with other security 

agencies on ground, we have 

been able to substantially 

improve security in Benue state. 

“So far we have recovered up 

to 700 different weapons, not just 

in Benue but including Nasarawa 

and Taraba states. And a good 

number of them were recovered 

in Benue State. 

''Only this year alone we have 

recovered over 50 weapons in 

Benue alone between January 

and now. In terms of armed 

bandits being neutralized, I can 

tell you clearly that they are 

probably in their thousands. 

These were armed bandits who 

exchanged fire with the troops. 

And when you do that you are 

neutralized. 

“So, this is an ongoing 

operation and we have been able 

to ensure peace in Benue but we 

know that occasionally there 

could be a challenge here and 

there but we are on top of it all.'' 

•As students, teachers resume classes 

amidst tight security 

locked by 1.25 noon when the 

youths opened the gates from the 

inside for the teachers to enter. 

Vanguard gathered that 

despite the initial agreement by 

the church leaders, the youths 

disagreed and locked out the 

teachers, officers from 

ministry education and 

security officials, on the main 

road since morning. 

No student was seen around 

probably due to the 

pandemonium that broke out in 

the school on Monday. 

Vanguard also gathered that 

the church leaders have agreed 

with the state government to 

open the gates to enable the 

students and teachers resume 

academic activities, but some 

youths disagreed, allegedly 

holding everyone hostage. 

Over 700 weapons recovered from 

bandits in Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa 

We know that Benue state is the 

food basket of the nation and I 

can say with confidence that the 

food basket triangle comprising 

Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba 

states still remains the key areas 

in getting food supply in the 

country and that is possible 

because troops of OPWS and 

other security agencies are all 

working hard to ensure that we 

do not have such challenges that 

will deter our farmers from going 

to the farms. 

“As we speak if you go to Zaki 

Biam yam market there are 

hundreds of trailers loaded with 

yam being moved out of Benue 

to other parts of the country and 

all these wouldn’t have been 

possible if there are no security 

people on ground to ensure that 

things go on well. All we are 

saying is that the attack on 

Governor Ortom was an 

unfortunate situation.'' 

NGO, firm partner to drive women 

economic empowerment 

By Providence 

Adeyinka 

A 

Non-Governmental 

Organisation, Future 

Females Invest, FFI, is 

partnering with a firm, Old 

Mutual Insurance Company, to 

empower women with education 

to take charge of their situations 

in uncertain times. 

The partnership, one of the 

developments that marked this 

year’s International Women Day 

celebration, saw the two parties 

launching an initiative, known 

as “Ready to Inspire” a year 

round campaign that will enable 

women achieve their potentials, 

using knowledge, role models, 

webinars and coaching, among 

others. 

By the partnership, N1 million 

is expected to be made available 

in capital seed fund or COVID- 

19 fund for businesses owned by 

women in Nigeria, while 

N500,000 is set aside for career 

development training, free 

coaching and mentoring for 

selected women. 

The campaign will reach 50,000 

women through an innovative 

and compelling campaign across 

Nigeria over a 12-month period. 

Speaking at a media briefing in 

Lagos, Co-founder/CEO, FFI, 

Ms. Aysha Tegally, said over the 

past decade, the Nigerian 

insurance industry had grown 

steadily, even when women do 

not understand the importance 

of insurance as a means of 

investment. 

Tegally said: “COVID-19 has 

turned the world upside-down, 

which is why we are living in 

extraordinary times. The way we 

work is changing and the 

economy and outlook is 

uncertain. Women have been 

disproportionately impacted and 

it is of paramount importance that 

women plan for their futures 

against this backdrop.’’ 

In her remarks, Executive 

Head, Marketing and Customer 

Experience, Old Mutual Nigeria, 

Mrs. Alero Ladipo, said the new 

innovative partnership leverages 

the respective strengths of Old 

Mutual and FFI to create 

compelling value for both 

companies and women.


:Vanguard 

News 

Amotekun a forerunner to 

state police —Afenifere 


AKURE—THE Pan- 

Yoruba Sociopolitical 

organisation, 

Afenifere, said, 

yesterday, that the 

creation of the South- 

West security outfit, 

codenamed Amotekun, is a 

forerunner to state police. 

A delegation of the group 

led by its General-Secretary, 

Basorun Sehinde 

Arogbofa, said this during 

a visit to Governor Rotimi 

Akeredolu of Ondo State, 

in Akure. 

Arogbofa commended the 

chairman of the South-West 

Governors’ Forum for his 

tenacity and bravery on the 

creation of Amotekun in the 

region. 

The Afenifere scribe said: 

“We salute your courage. 

We saw the Amotekun 

thing as a forerunner to the 

state police. 

“The creation of 

Amotekun is a forerunner 

to the state Police which 

Afenifere has always 

advocated. 

“What can any 

government do without 

security? The security of 

lives and property should 

be a priority. We commend 

you. 

“We acknowledge the 

leadership of Governor 

Akeredolu in bringing 

together the Southwest 

governors to tackle 

insecurity and making the 

security of lives and 

properties of the people a 

priority. 

Restructuring is 

not secession 

Final burial for 

Pa Iyaogeh 

April 2 

THE Iyaogeh family of Apana- 

Uzairue in Etsako West local 

government area of Edo State has 

announced the transition to glory 

of Pa Thomas Iyaogeh, on 

November 20, 2020, and has since 

been buried. 

Final burial ceremony begins 

with traditional rites at Iyaogeh 

family compound, Apana- 

Uzairue, on April 2, 2021 at 9 am. 

Social outing will take place on 

April 3, 2021, at St. Philip’s 

Catholic Church, beside Azama 

Primary School, Jattu-Uzairue, at 

12 noon, while thanksgiving 

service will take place at the same 

venue, at 8 am. 

• Late Pa Iyaogeh 

• Restructuring is 

not secession 

—Akeredolu 

Responding, Governor 

Akeredolu hailed Afenifere 

for acknowledging his 

efforts on security, while 

stressing that the security of 

lives and property is 

crucial. 

The governor said: 

“Thank you for noting our 

efforts on the security of the 

state. You have captured it 

succinctly in a way that you 

can’t put it better. We met 

with a lot of forces and it was 

not easy and it is still not 

easy. 

“When you are forced into 

a corner where you have a 

security outfit without the 

right to carry the right arms, 

but we thank God that in 

all of Amotekun’s efforts, we 

have not suffered any 

casualty. 

“Amotekun is going to be 

a forerunner for state 

police. We believe that our 

security architecture needs 

total restructuring. There 

must be a multi-level 

system of policing. 

“This is where I believe 

part of the issue of 

restructuring lies. People, 

who thought restructuring 

is about secession, are 

wrong. We must restructure 

fiscal policy. We must restructure 

to show true federalism. 

“President Muhammadu 

Buhari has done a few things on 

restructuring more than any 

President. But we are still 

clamoring for more. 

On ranching, he said: “We are 

not going to give our land to 

foreigners. But ranches are 

important.” 

Igwe Ogbobe 

loses wife 

THE traditional ruler of 

Uvuru, Uzo-Uwani 

LGA in Enugu State, Igwe 

Daniel Ogbobe, has lost his 

wife, Lolo Josephine Uzo- 

Onisha Ogbobe, after a 

brief illness, at the age of 

75. Burial cceremonies will 

commence from May 14, 

2021, with service of 

songs\requiem mass in the 

Igwe’s palace, Ugbene 

Uvuru, at 6pm. Lying in 

state will be on May 15, 

followed by funeral service 

at St. Patrick’s Catholic 

Church, Uvuru. Interment 

and reception follow at the 

Igwe's palace and village 

square, respectively. She is 

survived by her husband, 

children 

grandchildren. 

and 

• Late Lolo Ogbobe 


UNVEILING—From left: Risqat Kamson, Lagos State Quality Assurance Officer, TB Programme; 

Prince Elochukwu Adibo, Laboratory Director, EL-LAB Diagnostics and National President, Guild 

of Private Medical Laboratory Directors; Dr. Agbolagorite Olurotimi, Director of Disease Control, 

Lagos State, representing the state's Commission for Health, Dr. Sokoya, Lagos State TB Programme 

Manager; Dr. Ndidi Nwosu, Team Lead, IO. USAID ShopsPlus; Mrs. Ayodele Iroko, Senior Private 

Sector Advisor, USAID ShopsPlus, during the unveiling of 16 modular GeneExpert Tuberculosis 

testing machine, donated by USAID, in Lagos. 

South-West: Calls for secession out of 

frustration —Fayemi 

• As Yoruba group dares Akeredolu, plans 1m march in Akure 

• Yoruba in Diaspora hold dialogue on restructuring 

By Dapo Akinrefon, 

with agency report 

L AGOS—GOVERNOR 

Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti 

State said yesterday that 

those calling for secession 

were doing so out of 

frustration. 

Fayemi spoke a day after 

his Ondo State counterpart, 

Rotimi Akeredolu, 

dissociated his state from 

the calls for the secession 

of the South-West from 

Nigeria. 

But the Ilana Omo 

Oodua, led by a renowned 

Professor of History, Banji 

Akintoye, yesterday, tackled 

Governor Akeredolu, 

saying he spoke only for 

himself, and not the people 

of Ondo State. 

Fayemi on 

secession 

Speaking on Arise 

Television yesterday, 

Fayemi said such agitation 

was expected, considering 

the stress and laxity in the 

society. 

The governor said: 

“Frankly, when you have 

stress and laxity in the 

society, you’re bound to find 

a whole range of responses. 

Some rational, some 

irrational, some that speak 

to the fears of the people, 

some opportunistic and 

harebrained. 

‘’There’s no question that 

some of the reactions we’ve 

seen will fall into all of those 

categories.” 

While expressing 

optimism that the country 

would triumph and survive 

the challenges currently 

facing it, Fayemi said the 

time had come for the 

devolution of power, adding 

that the country needed to 

adopt other measures at 

managing its diversity. 

“I have gone on record to 

say that I have unfailing 

optimism that despite all our 

challenges, this country will 

triumph and we’ll survive 

current challenges. 

‘’We, as leaders, must 

focus on the goal of 

protecting lives and 

property, and focus on 

safety and security as the 

primary responsibility that 

we have. 

“The people who are 

talking about secession, 

frankly, are doing it out of 

frustration. I don’t think 

that’s the solution to the 

Nigerian predicament right 

now. 

“In matters of economic 

development, we may need 

to begin to look at other 

ways of managing diversity 

and differences in our 

country and that devolution 

of power is an idea whlch 

time has come.” 

Yoruba group 

dares Akeredolu, 

plans 1m man 

march in Akure 

Reacting to Akeredolu’s 

declaration Monday that 

Ondo State would not be a 

party to the secessionist 

plan of such persons as 

Igboho, the Ilana Omo 

Oodua said the agitation for 

self-determination “shall be 

bloodless, intellectually 

rooted, legally grounded.” 

The group is the umbrella 

body of Yoruba Self- 

Determination Groups 

within and beyond the 

shores of Nigeria. 

In a statement by Messrs 

Kunle Adesokan and 

Folashade Olukoya, Ilana 

Omo Oodua challenged 

Governor Akeredolu to 

allow it hold its planned one 

million man march in 

Ondo State “without 

unleashing the 

instrumentalities of terror 

and state-sponsored 

commercial thugs on the 

masses of the state that 

desire an autonomous 

Yoruba Nation.” 

The statement read: “We 

wish to say very clearly that 

Akeredolu is entitled to his 

opinion. He has only 

spoken for himself. If he is 

sure he speaks for the 

classical masses of Ondo 

State, he should allow us 

to stage our one million 

march peacefully in Akure, 

Ondo State capital, to prove 

whether he spoke for Ondo 

State people or himself. 

“We are saying for the 

sake of clarity that what we 

declared is the sovereignty 

of Yoruba Nation from 

Nigeria and not secession 

from Nigeria. We want an 

autonomous Yoruba 

Nation. 

“We want to determine 

how we want to govern our 

people. We want to control 

and manage our resources. 

We want to police and 

secure the lives and 

property of our people. 

“We have made our 

position known. Our 

agitation for autonomous 

Yoruba Nation is legally 

grounded, intellectually 

rooted and it shall be executed 

By Olasunkanmi Akoni 

LAGOS—AMID the 

threat of secession in 

Nigeria, Governor Babajide 

Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, 

yesterday, urged religious 

leaders to support 

government in propagating 

peace, in the quest to build 

a better and thriving society. 

Sanwo-Olu gave the 

charge at the 40 days final 

burial ceremony of late 

Alhaji Lateef Jakande, the 

first civilian governor of 

Lagos State, held at the 

Police College Pavilion, in 

Ikeja. 

The governor, 

represented by his Deputy, 

Obafemi Hamzat, said: 

“Religion is the strongest 

pillar in Nigeria, people 

respect their religious 

leaders and they listen to 

without shedding of blood." 

Yoruba in 

Diaspora hold 

dialogue on 

restructuring 

Also, a Diaspora Yoruba 

coalition, Yoruba One Voice, YOV, 

is set to hold a webinar lecture on 

the current state of Nigerian 

federalism and what may become 

of it. 

In a statement by the Secretary- 

General of the Diaspora Group, 

Dr. Sina Okanlomo, the coalition 

said the webinar dialogue will hold 

on Saturday, March 27 at 5 pm 

Nigerian time. 

Okanlomo stated that the lead 

speaker for the dialogue is the 

renowned scholar of Legal 

History at the Obafemi Awolowo 

University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Akin Alao. 

The theme of the dialogue, 

which will be live on Webinar, is: 

‘Dealing With The Critical Fault- 

Lines Of A Federation: Is It To 

Unbundle Or Restructure The 

Leviathan?’ 

Secession: Lagos tasks 

religious leaders on peaceful 

coexistence 

them. So, please don’t 

leave the preaching of 

moral values to the 

government alone. 

“Nigeria must not 

disintegrate; men of honour 

must strive to hold the 

country together.” 

Also speaking, Governor 

Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto 

State urged the Lagos State 

government to complete the 

Blue Rail, to ease 

transportation for the 

masses, saying: “It is a 

testament to the late Alhaji 

Jakande’s memory.” 

Tambuwal stated that the 

late Jakande had a huge 

impact on Lagos and the 

nation, having served the 

state with so much 

“compassion and 

humility.”. 

He urged all to learn from 

the late Jakande in terms 

of vision and commitment 

to building a viable state.


You’ll regret losing your land to invaders (1) 

IF your education has left you 

incapable of defending the land that 

your ancestors acquired and preserved for 

you and your future generations, then you 

are beyond pathetic; you are worthless! In 

Igbo, a fool is often described as efulefu or 

ofekhe (Abiriba); a person who has lost the 

sense of what makes him “the son of his 

father”. 

Before the White man came, we had our 

own templates for raising young men and 

women into strong adults well-equipped 

to sustain their inheritances. In Abiriba, 

we had the ikpu uzu and ije uzu, which was 

eventually copied by other Igbo groups and 

became what we all know as the Igbo 

entrepreneurship mentorship system. You 

served your master, learnt his trade, 

leveraged on his experience and contacts 

and (expectedly) benefited from his reward 

when you were ready to set up your own 

shop. 

You also moved systematically from the 

lowest level of cultural initiation and strove 

to attain the highest. Through all this, you 

acquired the ability to understand the 

culture, defend the land and preserve it for 

the future generations. This was what 

defined your social stature. 

The coming of Western education was 

meant to confer an “additional brain” to 

the African. It was not meant to displace 

his traditional sense of belonging or rob 

him of his manhood. But unfortunately, 

that is exactly what it has done to many of 

us, especially those from the southern parts 

of Nigeria. 

Education gave us certificates and we 

headed off to the nearest urban area 

developed by the British colonialists 

because of the jobs that used to be 

abundant. There were also limitless 

opportunities for commerce. Urban 

dwellers enjoyed power and water supply 

and modern amenities which were not 

available in the rural areas. With the 

massive embrace of education, the urban 

areas filled up. 

The jobs dried up, the amenities which 

government could not expand became 

dilapidated, and millions of unemployed, 

poverty-stricken people became trapped in 

urban slums. Even today, people are still 

drifting to big towns like Lagos, Abuja and 

Port Harcourt. 

Virile young people abandoned the 

villages to the weak and elderly who survive 

on subsistence agriculture. The fertile lands 

with almost year-round rainfall were no 

longer cultivated. The richly-endowed 

southern people rendered themselves 

vulnerable to a punitive “food blockade” 

by the North! 

Climate change and self-imposed 

instability has been steadily driving the 

northern population southwards in the past 

20 years. Ordinarily, there is nothing wrong 

or strange about this. It is a natural human 

instinct to move towards the greener 

pasture. Once upon a time (between the 

1950s and 1980s) the North was once 

considered by many people in the South as 

a greener pasture. Many people migrated 

northwards to earn their livelihood. That 

is why many people from the South had 

their birthplaces in the North. 

The problem, therefore, is not that 

Nigerians of northern extraction are 

drifting southward. When this migration 

started, nobody complained. Northerners 

came into the towns and villages as lawabiding 

citizens and took up honest, 

menial jobs. They mended shoes, hawked 

water, operated commercial motorcycles, 

worked on the farms and construction sites 

and generally performed the grunt tasks 

that southern youth now believe they have 

become “too big” to do. Minor ethnic 

skirmishes apart, we have cohabited quite 

What we now have is 

no longer mere 

migration; it is an 

armed invasion of our 

ancestral lands! 

well. 

But right now, the situation has changed 

to land grabbing by means of war or 

conquest! What we now have is no longer 

mere migration; it is an armed invasion of 

our ancestral lands! In the past five years, 

there has been a steady influx of strange 

people masquerading as “herdsmen” into 

the South with assault weapons. Many of 

them are not Nigerians. For six weeks, 

around this time last year, most parts of 

the country were forced into a lock-down 

to minimise the spread of the coronavirus. 

The lock-down was so fierce that some 

governors closed state boundaries to 

prevent the influx of people. 

While the rest us were forced to stay 

indoors, thousands of food, cattle and 

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cement trailers and trucks were used by 

some faceless powerful individuals to bring 

hundreds of thousands of youth into the 

South. As soon as they were disembarked 

from the trucks they were herded into the 

nearest forests! We saw them live on several 

viral videos. There were also rumours that 

some of the trucks contained assault rifles 

and ammunition. 

The security agencies who were 

mobilised to implement the lock-downs 

betrayed their assignment by allowing 

these unknown elements through their 

control posts. Some governors found 

themselves having to struggle with superior 

officials up the hierarchy of our political, 

military, police and security agencies who 

were bent on forcing through the armada 

of strange arrivals. State task forces on the 

implementation of the lock-downs were 

now clashing with the “authorities” who 

were obviously playing the double game 

of imposing a lock-down and facilitating 

the drafting of these strangers down South. 

Within a little time, we began to see the 

morphing of the number of “camps’ in the 

southern forests. These strangers had set 

up settlements made of the typical thatched 

round huts usually associated with the 

people of the Sahel. In the South West, 

reports had it that about 150 such camps 

had been identified. Another report also 

had it that no less than 350 such settlements 

were isolated in the South East with its tiny 

tranche of landmass! The situation is not 

different in the South-South where 

“helicopter drops” have been reported. 

The Federal Government, whose Ruga, 

Water Resources and Cattle Colony 

policies had been firmly rejected 

throughout the Middle Belt and South, is 

now preaching that Nigerians have the 

constitutional right to “settle anywhere”, 

which is a pathetic lie. Miyetti Allah and 

other interest groups even claim that the 

whole of Nigeria is a property of their 

ethnic group! 

We continue this next week. 

Soyinka 'blunders' again! 

By EKANPOU 

ENEWARIDIDEKE 

THERE is a towering aromatic 

blunder in the air. As before, ever 

and always - like ‘Abiku’ the 

perpetually irrepressible troubler of 

the Nobel Laureate’s creation - 

Soyinka, ‘the perpetual 

dramatist who tends to dramatise 

on every grammar of his own 

manufacture’, has blundered again. 

This is the first time Akinwande 

Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, born 

July 13, 1934 at Abeokuta, has 

blundered and unashamedly 

admitted he has actually 

blundered. General Sani Abacha 

and his cohorts must be in a derisory 

jubilant mood over the fact that the 

literary legend hitherto thought 

flawless has at last openly admitted 

his blunders. So even Soyinka 

blunders too! 

Wole Soyinka is my father - my 

literary father. This literary 

fatherhood is a fortified formation 

created of my own volition, seduced 

by the voluptuous features/physique 

unveiled or shed in his writings: 

drama, poetry, prose, essays, 

lectures, his oratorical prowess, 

fluidity and seductive phonological 

proficiency. And again, of my own 

volition, I have just dismantled this 

formation hitherto built on filial 

literary allegiance and love - a 

sudden dismantlement occasioned 

by Soyinka’s recent blunders! 

For a mind-bogglingly morbid 

portrait of a nation as one of 

paedophiles, assassins, 

anthropophagi, marketers of human 

parts, crisis-profiteers, ritual 

murderers, religious hypocrites, 

tainted government functionaries, 

promoters of development stasis , 

hunters of visionaries, pathological 

promoters of infanticide, homicide, 

terrorism, pathological promoters of 

arsonists, pathological haters of 

intellectuals and reformers and 

pathological scapegoaters of 

religious crisis as a camouflage for 

gold-mining in Zamfara State - a 

great nation like Nigeria for that 

matter! Soyinka merits 

dismantlement and expulsion from 

my republic as my literary father. 

This I have already done as the only 

distinguishable patriot in a great 

country called Nigeria where the 

welfare of the citizens is always 

speedily given a royal priority 

The Niger Delta is still 

an abandoned child full 

of scalding tears of 

underdevelopment 

attention - a radiant reality which 

Soyinka does not bother to know in 

his boundless, unremitting 

vituperations in his recent artistic 

creation called Chronicles Of The 

Happiest People On Earth. From 

1960 and beyond when Soyinka 

patriotically offers as rituals for 

societal reordering, re-orientation, 

re-direction and transformation his 

own babies of imaginative 

procreation - undaunted by the 

glaring risk of accusatory jabs and 

poisoned arrows of infanticide and 

homicide disparagingly deposited at 

his doorstep - A Dance of the Forests, 

The Swamp Dwellers, The Strong 

Breed, The Road, The Lion and the 

Jewel, The Interpreters, The Man Died, 

etc.etc. - his consistent critical dance 

is always anti-establishment whose 

murderous institutions are always 

poised to silence his stentorian voice 

of vision with every opportunity 

corralled or commandeered. 

Imaginatively procreative 

continuum of the anti-establishment 

critical dance of the Nobel Laureate 

is a normal expectation of his 

believers, but the Soyinka we know 

seems to have gone AWOL on this 

noble and commendable path - 

only sadly shaping ominous path 

out of his hitherto glorious noble 

path. Could this be that lionised 

Soyinka we know whose words and 

oral renditions could seduce Holy 

Mary and Helen of Troy into noble 

relationship? 

The Niger Delta is still an 

abandoned child full of scalding 

tears of underdevelopment. From 

the 1950s till now, Chief Harold 

Dappa Biriye, Major Isaac Boro, 

Ken Saro-Wiwa and High Chief 

Tompolo had megaphoned the 

developmental backwardness of the 

Niger Delta to the Federal 

Government of Nigeria whose 

present response - after series of 

failed interventionist developmental 

organs created - revolves around 

NDDC and the Presidential 

Amnesty Programme. 

NDDC is in the grip of a ‘mafiad’ 

systematic suffocation. Contractors 

with proofs of job-completion are 

denied payment. This deliberate 

non-payment of contrctors can be 

located in the deliberate nonpayment 

of the canalisation project 

professionally carried out in 

Akparemogbene River in Burutu 

Local Government Area of Delta 

State - a commendable canalisation 

project taken on by a competent 

contractor in 2019 but the contractor 

is yet to be paid a kobo by NDDC. 

What about the Amnesty Programme 

now administratively captained 

some nautical miles away from the 

ideal course where only competent 

administrators very much at home 

with the agitation nitty-gritty of the 

region were usually appointed when 

it began in 2009. It is today the 

capital of discordant songs as 

regards the course it is being piloted 

by the privileged hands. Is Soyinka 

not aware of these weird happenings 

in NDDC and PAP? Why the silence, 

Soyinka? 

I thought Soyinka’s vocal cords 

would assume stridency and 

deafening decibel over the visible 

storm threatening NDDC and PAP 

but suprisingly, he has chosen 

professional silence over and above 

weird occurrences that keep the 

interventionist development bodies 

convulsed. Soyinka appears not to 

be bothered that NDDC and PAP are 

dancing fractionally away from the 

known rhythm of development of the 

people for whom they are created. Is 

Soyinka afraid of NDDC and PAP? 

Strikingly, in Delta State the 

mantra that dwells on the lips of the 

people is that of Governor 

Ifeanyi Okowa as the road master - 

referentially echoed as a responsive 

critical appraisal of his development 

projects - and the Deputy Governor, 

Kingsley Otuaro, around whom 

development theories revolve in their 

variety - ‘Otuaroism,’ ‘Otuaro- 

Singaporeanism,’ ‘Otuaro- 

Intellectualism’, ‘Otuaro-Ruralism’, 

‘Otuaro-Philanthropism’ and many 

other allied development theories 

society can lean on for 

transformational progression. 

Governor Okowa’s mantra as the 

road master activated by a vision 

to finish strong, and Otuarosim and 

its allied development theories 

formulated can be given 

investigative thrusts for extraction of 

the truths in these phenomena 

distilled as materials to inspire and 

trigger off a chain of devleopment 

thrusts because Okowa’s 

developmemnt mantra, and 

Otuaroism and its allied 

development theories constitute a 

magical developmental compass 

when constructively mangled. 

As regards imaginative and 

constructive mangling of Okowa’s 

mantra and Otuaro’s ‘Otuaroism’ 

and its allied development theories, 

no writer on earth can do this better 

than Soyinka but in Soyinka I only 

see infectious disinterest and 

dismissive glares. Is anything 

the matter O Soyinka, the giant of 

Literature and activism? Is anything 

the matter with Soyinka the 

untainted voice of vision in the 

society? That Governor Okowa and 

Deputy Governor Otuaro are 

politicians may constitute the 

mitigating basis for Soyinka’s 

disinterest and analytical 

dissociation from the activities of the 

two personalities. What about the 

activities of King Alfred Izonebi? 

King Izonebi is of the world of 

Soyinka. King Izonebi is a 

philosopher, gifted musician who 

anchors the music revivalism 

movement through which he hopes 

to revive the ancient traditional 

Ijaw songs produced by old 

musicians of the dead years.These 

ancient but great songs - timeless 

in their didactive value and appeal 

- are faced daily with extinction. This 

king Izonebi has laboured to revive 

most of these dead songs for mankind 

and he is still at it. The music 

revivalist movement of King Izonebi 

ought to have rung a bell of high 

decibel loud enough to attract the 

creative sensitivity and sensibility of 

Soyinka. Even on this music 

revivalism matter alone, which is the 

domain of the Nobel laureate, he 

gives off professional distance and 

silence like bats upon BIA branches 

in Oyangbene town whose clanging 

voices are never heard when it 

is dawn. Is Soyinka at war with the 

talented Ijaw music revivalist called 

King Alfred Izonebi of Bayelsa and 

Delta states of Nigeria? 

Continues 

online:www.vanguardngr.com 

•Enewaridideke, a poet, wrote 

from Akparemogbene, Delta State. 

C 

M 

Y 

K

Nigerian leaders not Nigeria (2) 

THE third ‘error’ I now address is not so 

much an ‘unforced error’ as it is 

something of a Freudian slip- it reveals the 

actual or inner thought of the person 

concerned even if inadvertently. This time 

around it concerns the statement made by 

the National Security Adviser, NSA, retired 

Army Major-General, Babagana Munguno, 

who in an interview with the British 

Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, Hausa 

Service made the jaw-dropping claim that 

arms meant for the anti-insurgency war for 

which billions of naira and at least $1 billion 

were released and which arms were 

supposedly procured under the watch of the 

immediate past service chiefs, were nowhere 

to be found. 

The only reason this revelation could be 

considered jaw-dropping at all is simply 

because it came from a member of the All 

Progressives Congress, APC-led 

administration and not one of the so-called 

wailers or the supposedly hate speech-filled 

Opposition. 

According to Monguno, the new Service 

Chiefs, who were appointed by President 

Muhammadu Buhari, with the clear 

mandate to defeat the insurgents that have 

made most parts of the North-East (and now 

the North-West and North-Central) 

ungovernable in the last ten years, assumed 

duty only to find that their predecessors 

neither bought nor left them any weapons 

with which to fight the insurgents. Hear 

Mungono in his own words: “The President 

has done his best by approving huge sums 

of money for the purchase of weapons, but 

the weapons were not bought, they are not 

here. 

“Now, he has appointed new service chiefs, 

hopefully, they will devise some ways. I’m 

not saying the former service chiefs diverted 

the money, but the money is missing. We 

don’t know how, and nobody knows for now. 

I believe Mr. President will investigate 

where the money went. I can assure you the 

President takes issues of this nature seriously. 

The fact is that preliminary investigation 

showed the funds are missing and the 

equipment is nowhere to be found. When 

the new service chiefs assumed office, they 

also said they didn’t see anything on the 

ground.” 

I have quoted the NSA, Munguno, at 

considerable length in order to clear any 

doubt as to whether he meant to say what he 

was quoted to have said and that his 

meaning lacked any contextual ambiguityit 

was clear as daylight. In what manner 

could this remark made by the NSA have 

led to a misconstrual based on context? But 

Mungono now wants to walk back his own 

comment by retailing that old, worn lie of 

the typical Nigerian politician caught in the 

act of telling lies: that he was quoted out of 

context. No, Mr. NSA, you have spoken your 

truth! It may neither be the official line 

sanctioned by party apparatchiks, but it is 

the truth as seen from an insider who should 

know. 

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021—17 

had done his best by releasing money for the 

purchase of arms. But as we have said often 

here, the best of this government is many 

times not good enough. Mungono’s charge 

is not just an indictment of the President as 

an individual, it indicts the entire machinery 

of the APC-led administration, including 

Mungono himself, and the opacity that 

appears to characterise their activities. 

When did Mungono come to the 

realisation that the funds meant for arms 

were missing- before or after the former 

service chiefs left office? Although he might 

himself have been frustrated into silence but 

the question still remains: why didn’t he 

speak before now, and why is he walking 

back his claim? When Nigerians see things 

like this, they are frustrated not just with the 

individuals and groups responsible for it. 

They write off the perpetrators of these acts 

and in the process Nigeria itself. No, Nigeria 

deserves better and should be so treated. This 

country is the accommodating mother or 

spouse that is roundly abused and misused 

by her evil children. 

A House of Representatives investigative 

committee has more or less confirmed 

Mungono’s claim by its own admission that 

60% of the $1 billion meant for arms 

purchase was expended on building a base/ 

hanger for the Super Sukano fighter jets 

Nigeria ordered from America. The 

unnamed member, according to Sunday 

Punch of March 21, 2021, made clear they 

are yet to trace the whereabouts of the 

outstanding 40% of the arms funds. Is it any 

surprise that just a day or two after 

Mungono’s interview Abuja announced it 

would be taking delivery of some of the 12 

Super Tukano jets in July? What’s the point 

in making this announcement just after the 

BBC interview ruckus even when delivery of 

the jets is still three full months away? Why 

is the House of Representatives recalling the 

former service chiefs for grilling? There’s fire 

on the mountain and everyone is panicky 

fighting the fire. 

No, Nigerian politicians are not Nigeria. 

They do not equate this much abused country 

that will survive her bastard children that 

strayed into governance. 

Concluded 

It also would not make a difference that 

Munguno now seeks a walk-back. He may, 

indeed, have deliberately made this remark 

knowing full well that Nigerians would read 

between the line even when he now 

disclaims it, washing his hand off of it 

Pontius Pilate-style. He said enough to 

absolve himself of future culpability. He has 

taken enough risk and said more than 

enough as a prominent member of the 

present government. It is left for Nigerians 

to work out what is true or not for themselves 

from his bold statement. 

To be clear also, Mungono has said 

nothing that Nigerians, including others 

directly involved in the anti-insurgency war, 

have not said. Was it not General Olusegun 

Adeniyi’s criticism of the management of 

the anti-insurgency war, his complaint 

about the non-availability of weaponry to 

prosecute the so-called war that led to his 

being court-martialled and demoted? 

How many other officers and men have 

been so treated in the last five years? How 

often before now have we as Nigerians heard 

of soldiers deserting or going AWOL all out 

of frustration about how corruption among 

their commanders and service chiefs has 

Why is the so-called antiinsurgency 

campaign 

unending, why have the 

insurgents been so 

impregnable? 

wrong-footed their effort and placed their 

lives at risk? Why is the so-called antiinsurgency 

campaign unending; why have 

the insurgents been so impregnable? 

Mungono’s BBC interview needs no special 

pleading or interpretation, let seekers of 

truth make of it what they will. And mind 

you, the BBC is none of the other mistreated 

Nigerians media outlets that could be so 

easily and mischievously discredited with a 

charge of unprofessionalism. 

It is Abuja that must of its own accord come 

clean about the monkey business 

surrounding its management of the war 

operations in the North-East and the rest of 

the North. Although Mungono tried to 

absolve the President, telling the world he 

08055069060 (SMS Only) 

Finally, timeline comes for Digital 

Switchover, DSO 

THERE is the street language 

of “money talks”. Translated 

in street value, it means that 

money has so much power that it 

can virtually do anything for the 

owner, command authority and 

bend people into oxymoronic 

genuflection or sustained 

obsequiousness. Money talks. 

Perhaps, this is why in 1969, the 

British author, James Hadley 

Chase, real name, Rene Lodge 

Brabazon Raymond, wrote the 

thriller, The Whiff of Money. Only 

a few can resist the scent or the 

temptation of money. Some pursue 

it inordinately and find out at the 

very end even with loads of it that 

life is nothing but vapour. 

In Nigeria, the pursuit of money 

is more aggressive and more 

grotesque. Governments make 

budgets and steal half of the 

money. National Assembly 

members earn so much of it and 

are yet unable to visit their villages 

for fear of being killed or 

kidnapped. Young men and women 

go into yahoo yahoo business and 

engage in voodoo to make cash. 

That was before kidnappers 

realised that you can make a 

booming trade out of the business, 

especially when government is 

insipid and far away from reality. 

Money talks. 

As a country, we throw cash at 

problems and earn vacuity as 

rewards. Is that not the reason we 

throw billions of naira every year 

at fixing our refineries and yet tax 

the ordinary fellow on the streets 

for our failure to earn even a little 

result? We fail to align cash with 

planning and reality, and what 

confronts us is that the country lives 

from day-to-day and hand-tomouth, 

while only those who 

preside over the looting of the 

commonwealth sing hosanna 

about the biggest economy in the 

continent that cannot feed nearly 

half of its people. Money talks. 

I can announce with excitement 

this morning that since the Federal 

Executive Council, FEC, on 

February 10, 2021, made a 

payment approval for the Digital 

Switchover, DSO, both the 

regulator, National Broadcasting 

Commission, NBC, and the 

Ministry of Information and 

Culture, have gone on maximum 

overdrive to achieve projected 

results. For once, I will try to 

overlook the subterranean 

maneouvres and contradictions 

within the implementing 

organisations, to focus on what 

can be taken for real tangible 

roadmap that was recently 

released. They don’t seem to be 

throwing money this time; there 

seems to be a conscious effort to 

align money with planning. Even 

then, there are too many open 

questions that can hardly be 

ignored. 

Money talks. Now empowered 

to meet residual debts, Acting 

Director General of the NBC, Prof. 

Armstrong Idachaba, with the 

support of the Minister, Alhaji Lai 

Mohameed, penultimate week, 

released a switchover timeline 

which, we hope, will weather 

intervening situations going 

forward. The reason being that in 

the November/December issue of 

2015, ITU News had warned that 

in countries like Nigeria, where 

demand for terrestrial television is 

strong, Digital Switchover would 

be a long and complex process and 

called for the involvement of 

No matter how grandiose 

our plans are, some TV 

viewers will still suffer, 

shut out of their only 

means of information and 

entertainment with 

Analogue Switch off 

stakeholders and an information 

campaign promoting the 

availability of free-to-air digital 

terrestrial television. 

With all the warning, this writer 

cannot be sure whether anybody 

thought the process was going to 

be this convoluted and tortuous. 

Nigeria has missed the Digital 

Switchover window twice: 2015 

and 2020. Government has thus 

acted to save a failing process 

from becoming an international 

embarrassment, you know, as a 

country that cannot manage any 

process to conclusion. 

Like a man challenging the 

nation to hold him to his words, 

Idachaba said of the timeline: 

“Phase 2 of the Nigeria DSO will 

commence with roll out in the 

most populous and commercially 

viable locations of Lagos, Kano 

and Rivers states as well as Yobe 

and Gombe states. This departure 

from the initial roll out plan of six 

locations from each geopolitical 

zone was necessitated by the need 

to evolve a self-sustaining strategy 

for the DSO. 

“The new timetable will, 

therefore, be kick-started with roll 

out in Lagos State, April 29, 2021; 

Kano State on June 3, 2021 and 

Rivers State on July 8, 2021; on 

the heels of these states will be 

switch on of Yobe State on July 15, 

2021 and Gombe State on August 

12, 2021.” Anticipating the success 

that will be recorded in the process, 

Idachaba informed that the first 

Analogue Switch off, ASO, is, 

therefore, slated to take place on 

May 28, 2021 in Abuja, the 

Federal Capital Territory. The 

remaining phase one states of 

Plateau, Kaduna, Kwara, Enugu 

and Osun will follow in June, 

August and September 2021. What 

this means is that effective from 

the date of Analogue Switch off, 

television broadcast can only be 

received with the DSO approved 

Set Top Boxes. 

Money talks. Everything seems 

to be falling in place. The minister 

has promised that nobody will be 

excluded from the process. 

Meaning that no matter the 

situation, a TV user should be able 

to receive signals. 

“Before we embark on the 

analogue switch off in any state, 

we will ensure that the Digital 

Terrestrial Television, DTT, signal 

has covered at least 70 per cent of 

the population in that state, while 

the remaining 30 per cent will be 

covered by Direct-To-Home, DTH, 

satellite signal. Please note that 

once the analogue signal is 

switched off, no one on the system 

will receive television signals 

anymore,” the Minister said. 

The minister also addressed the 

issue of Set Top Boxes, promising 

that availability and cost are being 

addressed with the manufacturers 

and through the Ministry of 

Industry, Trade and Investment. In 

some other countries of the world, 

their governments subsidised the 

acquisition of Set Top Boxes in 

order to make them available to 

those at the base of the economy. 

Nigeria with over 40 million TV 

homes may not be ready for direct 

subsidy (hey! that is only easily 

possible in the importation of 

premium motor spirits - PMS – 

where woolly deals are made), but 

the Minister is looking at other 

factors that can knock down 

prices. 

However, I have my little hold 

back. No matter how grandiose 

our plans are, some TV viewers 

will still suffer, shut out of their only 

means of information and 

entertainment with Analogue 

Switch off. I have visited some 

places recently, even in the FCT; 

the people who live there will not 

understand the meaning of Digital 

Switchover or Analogue Switch off 

in the next few years. Even if they 

do, they cannot afford the cost 

which may hover at about $60, 

which is only a fraction short of 

the minimum wage, my friend. And 

the little information available 

about the DSO has been 

adulterated by the poor 

performance of this government. 

There is the crying need to pump it 

up and keep it pure.


IT has gone down history that 

Nigeria’s popular musician, Damini 

Ebunoluwa Ogulu, best known as 

Burna Boy, became the first Nigerian 

to win the Grammy, the world’s 

biggest music award though some 

Nigerians had earlier been mentioned 

in connection with minor Grammy 

achievements. 

endeavours. 

He was crowned under the World Burna Boy’s victory is one of the 

Music Album category for his high points in the build-up of our 

album, Twice as Tall, at the 63rd rhythmic renaissance; a turning point 

edition of the prestigious music event in Nigeria popular music which began 

held virtually in Los Angeles on in 2009 when two Nigerian Afro-pop 

March 14, 2021. It was the second year artistes, Obumneme Ali and 

in a row Burna Boy was nominated in Nwachukwu Ozioko known as 

that category. 

Bracket, in their Yori Yori, brought the 

He beat other nominees like ‘owewelele’ or what the Yoruba call 

Antibalas, Bebel Gilberto, Anoushka ‘konkolo’ rhythm, into Hip-hop. 

Shankar and Tianariwen. Last year he Apart from the brief era of the early 

was beaten by the veteran Beninois Nigerian high-life musicians and the 

singer, Angelique Kidjo. Burna dominance of Fela Kuti, Sonny 

Boy’s Grammy award is significant in Okosun and their ilk, the Nigerian 

one respect. 

music arena had been dominated by 

It is another proof of the excellence Western popular music both on radio 

that Nigerians can attain in all human and in social life – a state of affairs 

Burna Boy: We can be twice as tall 

that music communication scholars 

described as “cultural imperialism”. 

Even in recent years, the Nigerian 

airwaves and social events had been 

dominated musically by foreign 

artistes like 50-Cent, R-Kelly, 

Notorious BIG, etc. Nigerian popular 

musicians simply lost out to their 

Western counterparts because they 

played Western rhythms, competing 

outside their own cultural milieu. 

Things, however, began to turn 

around for Nigerian popular music 

when the Nigerian high-life music, 

constructed in the 1960s, was 

deconstructed, reconstructed and 

imported into the new sound we know 

today as Nigerian popular music, 

confirming the writings of Benson 

Idonije (Burna Boy’s grandfather) 

that “modern pop music in Nigeria is 

derived from high-life.” 

Three major forerunners of that 

reconstruction processes were Sunny 

Nneji with his song, Mr. Fantastic, 

released in 1998; Tu Face Idibia’s 

African Queen (2004) and Bracket’s 

Yori Yori (2009). From there, the 

buildup continued, manifesting in the 

works of P-Square, D’banj, Flavour, 

Phyno, Timaya, Davido, Olamide, 

Wizkid, onto Burna Boy. 

The lesson here can be drawn from 

Mahatma Ghandi’s words, quoted in 

UNDP Human Development Report, 

1999: “I do not want my house to be 

walled on all sides and my windows 

stuffed. I want the cultures of all the 

lands to be blown about my house as 

freely as possible. But I refuse to be 

blown off my feet by any.” 

We congratulate Burna Boy and 

Wizkid. 

Who is sabotaging Nigeria? 

By SUNNY IKHIOYA 

YOU claimed during the 2015 election 

campaign that you do not understand 

why we are talking about fuel subsidy; 

today you have been in government for 

over six years and subsidy cost has 

escalated under your regime. Who is 

sabotaging Nigeria? 

We are an oil producing nation and 

attend meetings regularly and even got 

allocated executive seats at the OPEC 

sessions; yet we import all of our 

petroleum products from abroad. Who is 

sabotaging who? 

We are an oil producing nation with four 

standard refineries, three in the South and 

one in the North, all of them not working 

presently and millions of dollars spent 

annually on their maintenance. Who is 

sabotaging Nigeria? The technology of 

refining crude oil into petrol and diesel is 

no longer rocket science. 

The locals in the Niger Delta have 

mastered the art of cooking oil to produce 

petrol, kerosene and diesel. But instead of 

streamlining these local productions and 

bringing them up to acceptable standards, 

we are busy sending military personnel to 

destroy the production centres and wasting 

whatever they have produced. Who is 


You send troops into the creeks of the 

Niger Delta to ensure that local 

production is stopped or totally 

eliminated. These men see the viability of 

this project and decide to have a cut in the 

deal. They collect their cut and the locally 

produced petrol and diesel are allowed 

into the mainstream. Who is sabotaging 

who? You know that the importation of 

petroleum products into the country is 

depleting our foreign exchange earnings 

and you are stopping local productions of 

same products. Now prices of almost 

everything have escalated because of 

wrong policy implementations. Who is 

sabotaging who? 

State governors are given huge 

allocations as security vote; meanwhile, 

the entire country is sinking under the 

weight of criminal activities. Who is 

sabotaging Nigeria? Everyday die-hard 

fundamentalists and insurgents, run riot 

maiming, killing, kidnapping Nigerians 

and destroying their properties. But 

instead dealing decisively with them when 

arrested, they are granted amnesty under 

the guise of reforming them. In other 

words, you end up compensating the 

It is imperative for us to look 

deeply into the mirror and see 

facing us the main cause of our 

problems; to be honest, the 

fault is ours 

criminals and abandon the victims. Who 

is sabotaging Nigeria? 

We all claim that we are in a secular 

nation, where everyone is free to practise 

his religion in any part of the country. Now 

you go to people's shops to destroy goods 

and properties on the excuse that your 

religion does not permit such. Meanwhile, 

you are collecting large chunks of money 

as taxes derived from the goods you are 

destroying. Who is sabotaging Nigeria? 

We claim that Nigeria is a multi-ethnic 

nation, on which account every section of 

the country must have representations in 

federal appointments. 

You have deliberately miscued this 

policy that is meant to unite this country 

by ensuring that only only people of 

certain ethnicity and religion are placed 

OPINION 

at the echelon of strategic positions at 

Federal Government institutions. Who is 

sabotaging Nigeria? All over the world, 

people are looking beyond petroleum 

products-driven engines. In fact, other 

countries are now using solar and wind to 

generate electricity and power their motor 

engines. 

But we spend a huge chunk of our hard 

earned money digging to find oil in the 

desert part of the country, something 

previous administrations tried without 

success. Meantime, our refineries are lying 

idle. Who is sabotaging Nigeria? 

Almost all of our major federal roads 

are in very bad shape, especially in the 

Southern part of the country; they are in 

this state because of depleting funds and 

you chose to, at this period, to build a 

railway line from Nigeria to Niger 

Republic, when such a project is crying 

for implementation in the commercially 

viable part of the country. Who is 


Agreed that we are in a secular state, a 

country badly in need of scarce foreign 

exchange; meanwhile, you dole out 

millions in foreign currencies to 

encourage religious pilgrimages abroad, 

money that can be used in addressing 

critical infrastructure needs of the 

country. 

You forget also that there are certain 

percentage of your population that do not 

benefit from this religious largesse. You 

are in charge of government and certain 

officials have been found incompetent in 

the performance of their duties, instead of 

relieving them of their duties, you granted 

them extended stay in office and when you 

finally removed them, you recommended 

them for higher diplomatic assignments. 

Who is sabotaging Nigeria? 

That is the question we must all ask 

ourselves. The solutions are not far fetched, 

it is imperative for us to look deeply into 

the mirror and see facing us the main 

Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

cause of our problems; to be honest, the 

fault is ours. We have to take management 

to another level, especially as it affects 

public service. This country is suffering 

from maladministration in all of its 

ramifications and the resultant 

consequence is a drifting nation. 

Suddenly, from every corner, groups are 

springing up, asking to be released from 

this union that is not working. It is very 

important that government officials take 

very positive action to halt this drift. The 

answer is not in bullying or suppression 

of dissenting voices; the answer is in sitting 

down with everyone and talking it over to 

find a way forward. 

There is no other way; an idea whose 

time has come can never be stymied; 

power is ephemeral; Generals have come 

and gone; suppressing dissenting voices 

did not start today and is still continuing; 

but, ultimately, it is the people who will 

come out victorious. The situation in the 

country today is not a matter for 

grandstanding by those in power. Those 

sabotaging this country are the people 

ruling us and their business accomplices. 

Let no body say that this country is poor; 

this country has potentials to be great, it 

can be seen by all. You calculate wealth 

potentials through tangible and intangible 

assets; the intangible assets in Nigeria are 

in our resources and potentials that are 

yet to be tapped. Let us review our 

management of these assets and begin to 

do the right things. 

The insurgency and banditry we are 

facing presently is also as a result of the 

mismanagement of our resources; 

people's minds have been reprogrammed 

to finding ways of making easy money; 

people who were once gentle, loving, 

passive with neighbours and strangers 

have been transformed into dangerous 

criminals. We are our own problem. 

•Ikhioya wrote via www.southsouthecho.com

Forex: CBN threatens banks, to create 

complaint desk 

By Emma Ujah, Abuja 

Bureau Chief 

MONEY MARKET 

THE Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) has assured members 

of the public that there was 

enough foreign exchange for 

them to meet their obligations. 

This comes against recent complaints 

from a cross section of the 

private sector, especially manufacturers, 

over difficulty in obtaining 

forex for importation of 

production inputs as well as repatriation 

of dividend by foreign 

investors and payment of school 

fees of Nigerians schooling 

abroad. 

Giving the assurance in Abuja 

at the end of the Monetary Policy 

Committee, MPC, meeting yesterday, 

the CBN Governor, Mr. 

Godwin Emefiele, disclosed that 

the nation’s foreign reserve rose 

to $36. 5billion as at the end of 

last month, from $34.5billion in 

the preceding month. 

He stated: “There is enough foreign 

exchange for people to meet 

their obligations. If you have 

forex obligations, they will be 

met. There is no need to panic 

or for everyone to rush to the 

bank at the same time and create 

an atmosphere of panic and 

give some people the opportunity 

to rip-off innocent people. 

“CBN disburses not less than 

•From left: Independent Non-Executive Director, Hajiya Sutura Aisha Bello; Group CEO, Peter 

Ashade; Non-Executive Director, Emmanuel Nnorom; General Counsel, Leo Okafor; and Sunny 

Anene, Group Executive Director, all of United Capital Plc at the company's Annual General Meeting 

(AGM) in Lagos. 

FG steps up action to implement AfCFTA protocols 

By Nkiruka Nnorom 

THE Federal Government 

has stepped up activities 

towards mobilizing Nigerians to 

take advantage of the African 

Continental Free Trade Area 

(AfCFTA) agreement which the 

implementation measures are 

already in top gear. 

Disclosing this to the media in 

Lagos, Mr. Francis Anatogu, Senior 

Special Adviser to the President 

on Public Sector Matters, 

said that while over 5000 eligible 

CURRENCY BUYING SELLING 

US DOLLAR 

POUNDS 

EURO 

FRANC 

YEN 

CFA 

WAUA 

RENMINBI 

RIYAL 

RAND 

127.50 -2.60 

2448.00 -57.00 

15.43 -0.10 

58.76 -2.80 

61.95 -2.67 

379 379.5 380 

525.5972 526.2906 526.984 

452.1849 452.7815 453.378 

409.5969 410.1373 410.6776 

3.4851 3.4897 3.4943 

0.6679 0.6779 0.6879 

540.428 541.1409 541.8539 

58.2396 58.3169 58.3942 

101.0505 101.1838 101.3171 

25.7813 25.8153 25.8493 

CBN Exchange rate as at 23/03/2021 

$80 million to banks weekly. In 

fact we will create a help-desk 

where people can call the CBN 

directly to complain if they need 

forex to pay school fees or BTA 

and say, ‘I went to such and such 

a bank and was told there is no 

forex.’” 

Emefiele also explained that the 

nation has not changed its foreign 

exchange management policy, as 

the apex bank has continued to 

adopt the managed-floating strategy. 

His words, “Nigeria has not 

changed its foreign exchange 

policy. CBN has continued to 

watch the market and intervenes 

depending on its readings. 

ECONOMY 

products for the scheme has been 

agreed amongst the countries, 

the Nigerian Customs Service, 

NCS, is now working on the administrative 

protocols for the 

implementation. 

While admitting that Nigeria 

was behind some countries in 

terms of stage of preparedness 

for the implementation, 

Anatogu who is also the Secretary 

of the National Action Committee, 

NAC, for Nigeria’s 

•Says it has enough forex 

•As MPC retains rate at 11.5 % 

“It might interest you to know 

that CBN has not intervened in 

the E&I (Export and Import) Window 

since January. The exchange 

rate has moved at a point 

to N409 /$1, N412/$1 and even 

N413/$1. That is how it should 

be.” 

Retains policy rates 

Meanwhile, the MPC held the 

Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, at 

11.5 per cent and retained all 

other parameters by maintaining 

the Asymmetric Corridor of +100/ 

-700 basis points around the 

MPR; Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) 

at 27.5 per cent; and the Liquidity 

Ratio at 30 per cent. 

With an inflation rate of 17. 33 

AfCFTA implementation, also 

said that efforts are ongoing in 

most of the 36 states of the country 

for the take off of Nigeria’s participation. 

The NAC, according to him, 

has already embarked on states 

mobilization programme, which 

has covered four states, in a bid 

to ensure that all Nigerian businesses 

are sensitized and prepared 

to take advantage of the 

scheme. 

He added that the states were 

being encouraged to concentrate 

and develop three or four 

products they could command 

Experts advocate framework to 

institutionalise social interventions 

ECONOMY 

By Babajide Komolafe 

FINANCE and social advocacy 

experts have called for a framework 

to institutionalise the social interventions 

of the Federal Government 

for sustainability and effective 

implementation. 

The experts include Founder, 

LAPO Microfinance, Godwin 

Ehigiamusoe, Executive Director, 

Microenterprises, Bank of Industry, 

Toyin Adeniji, Co-Founder/Chief 

Executive Officer, Bankly, Tomi 

Adejana and Chief Impact Officer, 

Rendra Foundation, Onyeka 

Akpaida and Prof Olawale Ajai, 

Policy Lead, Sustainable and Inclusive 

Digital Financial Services initiative 

(SIDFS). They spoke at virtual 

media parley on the impacts of 

COVID-19 on the informal sector 

and on people at the bottom of the 

pyramid. 

Speaking against the backdrop of 

the economic challenges being experienced 

by Nigeria’s informal sector, 

Toyin Adeniji emphasised the 

need for continuous concerted efforts 

and partnerships between the 

government and private sector 

players to deepen solutions to reach 

a wider number of vulnerable 

groups in our informal sector. 

In his presentation, Godwin 

Ehugiamusoe, spoke on the need 

to not just use data for quick fixes 

or interventions, but to institutionalize 

programmes that have 

worked so that the informal sector 

can actually start to build wealth 

and grow, rather than look to it as 

a fall back for hard times. 

He added that institutionalizing 

these interventions means going 

beyond business credits and looking 

into other areas like micro-insurance 

for healthcare, educational 

support, both of which require 

huge expenditure from lean 

financial resources by households 

at the bottom of the pyramid. 

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 —19 

per cent and a desire to stimulate 

growth in an economy that has 

just exited recession, Emefiele 

admitted that the MPC faced a 

dilemma at yesterday’s meeting. 

He, however, disclosed that after 

exhaustive deliberations on 

whether to cut, hold or raise the 

MPR, the majority of the members 

chose to hold the rate with 

all its parameters. 

He stated: “We were faced with 

contradictions. Tight monetary 

policy makes credit difficult and 

so people will not be able to easily 

access capital to stimulate output 

growth. As rising inflation 

confronts you, you want to take 

competitive advantage over any 

other African country in terms of 

quality and cost. 

He stated that the government’s 

national AfCFTA aspirations are 

to create economically viable 

states through the establishment 

of dominant industry/service cluster 

at every state, establish an 

emerging cluster(s) of products 

or service industries to provide 

stability during downturn as well 

as build strong linkages with 

other communities across states, 

geographical zones and countries. 

steps to reduce the rate of inflation. 

But if you do, then growth 

is affected. 

“The country just managed to 

crawl out of recession. Should 

monetary policy be tightened in 

a way that will be a disincentive 

to activities that will stimulate 

output growth and therefore reverse 

us back into recession or 

should we continue to stimulate 

the economic growth? 

“MPC deliberated on these and 

decided that we should continue 

to do those things that we did and 

more intesenly those things that 

took us out of recession: intervene 

in agriculture; ICT, services, 

the creative industry and 

health.” 

COVID-19: 

Entrepreneurs 

urged to innovate, 

digitise operations 

By Nkiruka Nnorom 

ECONOMY 

IN view of the disruptions 

in supply chains and other 

challenges to businesses occasioned 

by the outbreak of Covid- 

19 pandemic, Mr. Adesola 

Adeduntan, CEO, First Bank of 

Nigeria, has called on entrepreneurs 

to innovate and leverage 

technology to scale their operation 

post-pandemic. 

He stated this while speaking 

at a webinar organised by Surrey 

Business School, University 

of Surrey, England, with the 

theme: “Digital Disruption: How 

Can Companies Thrive in Africa 

Post COVID-19”. 

He said though the pandemic 

brought a lot of barriers with it, 

in addition to pre-existing barriers 

to businesses in Nigeria and 

other African countries, it also 

brought a lot of opportunities, 

saying that serious minded institutions 

are now tapping the opportunities 

to change the ecosystem 

within which they operate 

by using technology to accelerate 

growth. 

“We have also seen a number 

of businesses on the back of reduced 

demand due to disruption 

to supply chain have constrained 

or very low cash flow/ 

liquidity and a number of them 

are about going to a kind of restructuring 

of their exposure to 

banks and suppliers to give them 

more breathing space to align 

their repayment with their cash 

flow. “We have also discovered 

that Covid-19 for some industries 

has been quite positive.”


By Obas Esiedesa 

Last week’s approval of 

$1.5 billion (about N600 

billion) for the rehabilitation of 

Port Harcourt Refinery by the 

Federal Executive Council, FEC, 

has sparked off some 

controversies as independent 

reports show that the federal 

government has spent over 

N10 trillion so far on the 

refineries in the country without 

any result. 

First, the approval was the 

culmination of two years effort 

by the Nigerian National 

Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, 

to bring the refinery back on 

stream amidst rising import 

bills for refined petroleum 

products. 

Nigeria, one of the world’s 

largest crude oil exporting 

countries, has, over the years 

become a net importer of 

refined petroleum products 

with trillions of Naira spent 

annually in the importation of 

premium motor spirit, PMS, 

(popularly known as petrol) 

alone. 

But it was not always this way. 

Armed with four refineries 

located in Kaduna, Warri and 

Port Harcourt which has two 

refining plants, Nigeria has in the 

past refined all its domestic 

needs with the allocation of 

445,000 barrels of crude oil per 

day for domestic use. 

However, years of negligence 

and failed turn around 

maintenance, TAM, have left 

the refineries in state of 

comatose with the country 

relying 100 percent on imports 

to meet domestic demand for 

PMS and other petroleum 

products. 

State of the refineries 

The old refinery in the Port 

Harcourt Refinery complex was 

built in 1965 with a capacity of 

60,000 barrel per stream day, 

BPSD. The new refinery was 

commissioned in 1989 with a 

capacity of 150,000bpsd, giving 

a combined Port Harcourt total 

capacity to 210,000bpsd. 

During the administration of 

former President Goodluck 

Jonathan, the government 

contacted Chiyoda Group of 

Japan, which built the refinery 

to carry out a TAM, but the 

company declined due to the 

prevailing insecurity in the Niger 

Delta. 

The Japanese conglomerate, 

instead, recommended Maire 

Tecnimont of Italy for the job. 

In 2012, top management of 

Maire Tecnimont Group had 

visited Port Harcourt for an onthe-spot 

assessment, but the 

TAM never took place. 

Latest data from the Nigerian 

National Petroleum Corporation, 

NNPC, shows that the refinery 

has not refined any crude in the 

past two years. 

The story is not quite 

different for the 110, 000bpsd 

Kaduna 

Refinery. 

Commissioned in 1980, it has 

been in state of disrepair and 

has also not refined any crude 

since 2017. 

The Warri Refinery 

commissioned in 1978 is the 

first wholly owned Nigerian 

refinery. At commissioning, it 

had a capacity to process 

100,000 barrels of crude per 

day. In 1987 it was debottlenecked 

to process 

125,000bpsd. 

*Chief Sylva Timipre, Minister of State for Petroleum 

*Malam Mele Kyari, GMD, NNPC 

Endless road to refineries’ 

maintenance 

*Experts see drain pipe investments, corruption 

In May, 2020, a $7.6 million 

contract was awarded to Italian 

firm, Comerint SPA for the 

repair of the plant which had 

been comatose due to an 

explosion in its crude 

distillation unit that damaged 

the main crude oil heater. 

Nothing came out of this, and 

the refinery has been dormant 

for years before the failed 

attempt. 

Expectedly, the refineries are 

in poor financial state following 

years of huge accumulated 

losses. 

Latest data from NNPC 

showed that the refineries 

remain the highest loss making 

centres in the NNPC Group. 

According to NNPC data, the 

refineries, combined, made a 

total of N118.048 billion loses 

in a year from October 2019 to 

September 2020. 

A breakdown of the loses 

showed that Kaduna Refinery 

incurred N44.124 billion loss 

during the period while Warri 

Refinery and Port Harcourt 

Refinery recorded loses of 

N35.083 billion and N38.841 

billion, respectively. 

In addition to these losses, 

huge amount, mostly 

unbudgeted, is said to have 

been spent in maintaining the 

refineries over the years. 

Between 2013 and 2015, 

$396.33 million was said to 

have gone into financing TAM 

for the refineries with another 

N276.87 billion spent between 

2015 and 2018 for the same 

purpose. 

Botched privatization 

At the twilight of the former 

President Olusegun Obasanjo 

administration, the Port 

Harcourt Refinery and the 

Kaduna Refinery were sold to 

Bluestar Oil Services Company, 

owned by a consortium of 

Nigerian companies, for a 

combined sum of $721 million, 

$561 million for Port Harcourt 

Refinery and $160 million for 

Kaduna Refinery. The amount 

gave the company a 51 percent 

stake in the refineries. 

The Bluestar consortium was 

made up of Dangote Group, 

Transcorp Plc, Zenon Petrol & 

Gas, Rivgas Petroleum and Jovis 

Nigeria Ltd. China Petroleum & 

Chemical Corporation 

(SINOPEC) was engaged as 

technical partner. 

The deal which was signed a day 

before Obasanjo’s exit on May, 

29th 2007, generated huge public 

furor and led to a strike action by 

labour unions the following 

month. 

Sensing that the new 

government of former 

President Umaru Musa 

Yar’Adua was considering the 

revocation of the deal, Bluestar 

wrote to the Bureau of Public 

Enterprises on 17th of July 2007 

to withdraw from the 

agreement. 

The Federal Government 

subsequently refunded the 

company and the refineries 

reverted to NNPC ownership. 

Focus on Port Harcourt 

Last December, NNPC in a 

detailed explanation on the plan 

to rehabilitate the refinery, set 

a January 7, 2021 deadline for 

the re-tender of the project to 

all the prequalified seven 

Engineering Procurement and 

Construction (EPC) companies. 

It explained then that the 

shift in deadline for the 

submission was to enable it 

have a competitive commercial 

offer. 

The bid process which ought 

to have concluded last year 

was delayed following the 

decline of selected EPC 

companies to continue with the 

Continues on page 21


Endless road to refineries’ maintenance 

Continued from page 20 

tender process. 

NNPC explained: “A total of 

four EPC companies declined 

further participation arising 

from their inability to submit 

competitive tenders due to a 

variety of reasons including 

challenges with their subcontractors, 

the Covid-19 and 

the tight bid submission period. 

“Following clarification 

meetings held with the bidders, 

the bid closing deadline was 

extended to 30th November 

2020. Along the tendering 

process, 12 clarification 

requests were received from 

the bidders and responded to 

accordingly. 

“However, due to requests 

from the bidders for 

submission of alternative bids, 

the ITT document was 

amended to accommodate 

alternative bids and 

communicated to the bidders. 

Furthermore, the refinery’s 

Technical Audit Report was 

shared to all the seven EPC 

Companies as well. 

“At the bid submission 

deadline of 30th November 

2020, only one company, 

Messrs Technimont, submitted 

a proposal for the Refinery 

Rehabilitation. The submission 

of a proposal by just one 

company was considered not 

satisfactory”, the Corporation 

added. 

Early January, 2021, it emerged 

that the NNPC was seeking a 

facility of $1 billion from the 

Afrieximbank for the 

rehabilitation of the refinery. 

The facility, a prepayment with 

trading firms, would be repaid 

over seven years through 

deliveries of Nigerian crude and 

products from the refinery 

once the refurbishment is 

complete. 

A spokesman at the bank said 

“Afreximbank is looking into a 

facility for the refurbishment of 

the Port Harcourt Refinery. 

However, the borrower is yet to 

be determined”. 

That move has now been 

*Refinery 

*Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, 

Zainab Ahmed 

confirmed by the approval of 

$1.5bn for the rehabilitation of 

Port Harcourt Refinery. 

The Minister of State for 

Petroleum Resources, Timipre 

Sylva, told journalists that the 

rehabilitation which would be in 

three phases will commence 

immediately and to be handled 

by an Italian firm, Tecnimont 

SPA. 

He explained that the first 

phase would be completed in18 

months, the second phase in 24 

months and the final phase would 

be within 44 months. 

He said the funding has three 

components from Nigerian 

National Petroleum 

Corporation, NNPC, Internally 

Generated Revenue, IGR, the 

budgetary allocations provisions 

and the Afreximbank loan. 

The Minister, who assured that 

the other three refineries will be 

put in place before the end of the 

Buhari-led administration, 

further said that the local content 

was fully involved in the job. 

He said: “The Ministry of 

Petroleum Resources presented 

a memo on the rehabilitation of 

Port Harcourt refinery for the 

sum of 1.5 billion, and that 

memo was $1.5 billion and it was 

approved by council today. 

“So we are happy to announce 

that the rehabilitation of 

productivity refinery will 

commence in three phases. The 

first phase is to be completed in 

18 months, which will take the 

refinery to a production of 90 

percent of its nameplate 

capacity. 

“The second phase is to be 

completed in 24 months and all 

the final stage will be completed 

in 44 months and consultations 

are approved.” 

On the contractor handling the 

rehabilitation, he said: “The 

contractor that was approved by 

Council today is Messrs. 

Tecnimont SPA, of Italy, it’s an 

Italian EPC company that won 

the bid and that was approved 

by Council.” 

Fielding question on the 

operations and maintenance, 

Sylva said: “That has been a big 

problem for our refineries, as 

we all know, that was also 

exhaustively discussed in 

Council and the agreement is 

that we are going to put a 

professional Operations and 

Maintenance company to 

manage the refinery when it has 

been rehabilitated. 

“In any case, it is actually one 

of the conditions presented by 

the lenders, because the lenders 

say they can only give us the 

money if we have a 

professional operations and 

maintenance company, and 

that already is embedded in our 

discussions with the lenders 

and we cannot go back on 

that.” 

Controversy as experts, 

stakeholders react 

In an interview with Vanguard 

Business Magazine, energy 

expert, Henry Adigun described 

the move by the government as 

a waste of money, noting that 

government has no business in 

managing the refineries. 

“I think it is a waste of money 

and I think it is money not well 

utilized because I do not see 

how this will add value to the 

economy”. 

Mr. Adigun explained that the 

problem is not with the 

refineries and that is why the 

private sector is not doing it. 

“Why is government spending 

money to do what the private 

sector can do if it is viable”. 

He said government needs to 

deregulate the sector, 

concession the refineries to the 

private sector or sell them off 

to people that will buy them, 

even at scrap value. 

“But government must get out 

of the business because it is not 

a business that the government 

should be involved in”, he 

insisted.He stressed that 

refining is not a profitable 

business for the government, 

pointing out that “government 

has spent over $25 billion on 

repairs of refineries in the last 

15 years. Government has lost 

over N775 billion on the 

refineries. So, why are they 

putting another $1.5 billion 

(about N600 billion)? 

“This same government told 

us a few months ago that they 

were going to concession the 

refineries; what changed their 

minds? There is a lot of 

corruption and inefficiencies in 

the system”, he added. 

Also speaking in a telephone 

interview on the $1.5 billion 

contract award, the Executive 

Director of Women in 

Extractives, Faith Nwadishi, 

urged the government to make 

the terms of the contract 

available to the Nigerian 

public. 

Nwadishi explained that this 

would allow Nigerians 

examine the deal to establish if 

it was worth the money it was 

signed for. 

She noted that the 

government has, in the past, 

spent so much money on the 

TAM of the refinery with 

minimal or no returns for the 

investments. 

According to her, “We are 

concerned about the details of 

the contract. It is good that 

Nigeria has signed on to the 

EITI (Extractive Industry 

Transparency Initiative) and 

they are supposed to be 

implementing the contract 

transparency requirement 2.4. 

That contract was just signed 

in 2021, so we expect that the 

Federal Government and 

NNPC will make this contract 

available to us. 

“But my concern is that in 

2017, the same Federal 

Government approved about 

$300 million for the repair of 

the Port Harcourt Refinery and 

between 2018 and 2019, they 

approved about N1.2 trillion 

for Port Harcourt refinery 

TAM. Now in 2021, we are 

having another $1.5 billion for 

the same Port Harcourt 

refinery maintenance. 

“Meanwhile there is a report 

that came out showing that 

people have been receiving 

salaries without producing 

anything. Now, if you put all of 

these monies together, what is 

the return on investment in all 

of these? Why do we keep 

putting monies into a place that 

is not yielding any result?”, she 

queried. 

Nwadishi argued that rather 

than pump such huge sum into 

the refinery, government should 

think of privatizing them to 

allow competent people 

manage them. 

“How can we have four 

refineries in the country and we 

are not able to process crude? 

The reason for having these 

four refineries was for them to 

process 445,000 barrels per 

day and we are not even getting 

5,000 barrels from them. 

“A private refinery would soon 

come on stream and we are still 

pumping money into 

government owned refineries. 

Why not give them out to people 

who can manage or better still 

we can have private people run 

the refineries on behalf of 

government”. 

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Why Nigeria needs 2% of GDP for research, innovation 

By Emmanuel Elebeke 

Minister of External Affairs, 

Geofrey Onyeama has said 

that the country needs to set aside 

two per cent of its Gross Domestic 

Product, GDP for research and 

innovation, if it must continue to 

get recognition in the global 

market. 

He said setting such amount 

aside would position the country 

for real development and 

guarantee production of 

problem-solving solutions such as 

COVID-19 vaccines which 

Nigeria clearly relies on other 

countries for supply. 

Onyeama spoke at the justconcluded 

2021 Technology and 

Innovation Expo in Abuja. 

He, however, commended the 

Minister of Science and 

Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, 

for the passion and commitment 

he is showing on science and 

technology. 

Onyeama said: “If you look at 

all the developed and 

industrialised countries of the 

world, there is one common 

factor;- emphasis on investments 

on science and technology and 

innovation. 

“Today, no society can prosper 

and grow without science and 

innovation; we have to put in 

more into our research, 

innovation and an enabling 

environment for our research and 

innovation. It is important that the 

country should set aside at least 

two per cent of its GDP for 

research and innovation. 

“We have a global pandemic and 

we need vaccines and vaccination 

and one of these things is that 

countries that have invested on 

research and development and 

innovation are the ones producing 

the vaccines and we that have not 

invested resources on science, 

technology and innovation are 

now sitting down waiting for those 

countries to provide us with 

vaccines to keep our people alive. 

“If there is anything that 

suggests that we know the 

importance of research and 

development, it is this challenge 

of COVID-19 that we are in 

now.” 

Responding to the challenge, 

Minister of Science and 

Technology, Dr Onu charged 

investors to take advantage of 

research findings displayed at the 

Expo to create jobs, wealth for 

citizens and for the entire nation. 

DIGITAL SWITCH OVER: 

Lagos ready to go 

digital —NBC 

•Hails StarTimes’ roles towards feat 

By Prince Osuagwu, 

Hi-Tech Editor 

Lagos State is exiting the 

analogue broadcasting April 

29. From that day, broadcast 

signals will switch to digital and the 

nation will have successfully put the 

right steps to the second phase of 

the national digital switch over 

project. It is expected to terminate 

sometime in 2022. 

The journey practically began in 

2016 with the pilot rollout in Jos. 

And a few years after, the country 

announced a phase two to the 

project. Although financial and 

technical issues have not allowed 

the phase to take shape until now, 

the Director-General of the 

National Broadcasting 

Commission, NBC, Prof Armstrong 

Idachaba says everything is now in 

place to hit the ground running. In 

addition to other supports, Idachaba 

said the Federal Government has 

released about N9.4billion to drive 

the project. 

Under phase two, Lagos, Port 

Harcourt and other cities will be 

switched on to digital TV and in 

preparation to that, the NBC came 

on an inspection tour of facilities 

necessary to give Lagos a drive to 

the digital broadcasting. 

Interestingly, Idachaba who led 

the NBC team confessed that Lagos 

was ready to go digital based on 

what is on ground. 

The inspection which began with 

a tour of digital transmitters at NTA 

Station, Channel 10, Tejuosho, left 

the NBC team in awe. After the tour, 

Idachaba said: “Nigeria has taken 

a decision to continue with the 

transition from analogue to digital 

broadcasting. This visit is in 

furtherance of this objective. We are 

glad that ITS Ltd has already 

installed DVB2 technology. We have 

seen that the installed capacity for 

DTT transmission is very high. I 

acknowledge the role of their 

partners, StarTimes, and I think, 

between NTA and StarTimes, there 

is a great combined effort to ensure 

that the rollout happens in Lagos 

and other cities in Nigeria quickly. 

“This inspection is reassuring. It 

means that we have the technical 

and infrastructural capabilities, and 

are ready to kick off in Lagos on 

April 29,” he added. 

He described the project as a 

capital intensive revolution which 

gulps a lot of money but expressed 

happiness that the government is 

assisting greatly. Meanwhile, 

seeing how viable the project is, the 

federal government has also 

decided it is self-sustained. 

Idachaba said the commission is 

hoping that some of the component 

players will be able to to generate 

their own funds to sustain the rollout 

even as the federal government 

recently approved N9.4billion for 

NBC to facilitate the DSO drive. 

Also speaking, Acting CEO, NTA- 

Star TV Network, Alex Jian, said 

the company’s technical team is 

ready to support the nation in 

transiting fully to digital TV. 

He said: “The NBC DG has a big 

strategy for DSO and NTA- 

StarTimes will cooperate very well 

with ITS Ltd to support this project. 

Our technical team is ready. We 

have already prepared ourselves for 

this switch over all over the country. 

“So we are providing affordable 

decoders and our bouquets are 

much more affordable. On our 

coverage, we have more than 60 

base stations nationwide. In some 

base stations, we are losing money 

because there are a small 

population and few customers but 

we are still holding our position 

there. Our goal is to make 

everyone enjoy digital life. We have 

also created a pay-per-day module 

and we have implemented this for 

more than three years,” Alex said. 

‘Why data protection must be 

taken seriously’ 

Stories by Juliet Umeh 

EO of Data Services Protection 

CLimited, DSPL, Mr. Tunde 

Balogun has advised Nigerians to 

protect their personal data from 

falling into wrong hands else they 

could be used to commit crimes and 

other online atrocities. 

Balogun, who is also the convener 

of the Association of Licensed Data 

Protection Compliance 

Organisations of Nigeria, 

ALDPCON, harped on the need for 

the public and private sectors to 

ensure that data in their possessions 

are secured. He stated that the 

Federal Government of Nigeria is 

aware of the need to protect the data 

of Nigerians and so put facilities in 

place to ensure compliance with this 

directive. 

According to him, the FG through 

the National Information 

Technology Agency, NITDA, has 

been going about sensitising 

ministries, departments and 

agencies, MDAs, state governments 

and the private sector on the need to 

comply with data protection. 

Conscious of the concerns around 

privacy and protection of personal 

data and the grave consequences of 

leaving personal data processing 

unregulated, the NITDA in 2019 

issued the Nigeria Data Protection 

Regulation (NDPR). Nigeria’s 

principal data protection 

legislation is the NDPR issued by the 

NITDA on 25 January 2019 

pursuant to Section 32 of the NITDA 

Act 2007 as subsidiary legislation 

to the NITDA Act 2007. 

B us-hailing 

company, Plentywaka, application 

has 

announced a new investment from 

an American global platform for 

investment and innovation, 

Techstars, to gain funding, 

mentorship and access to experts. 

This is as the startup currently sets 

its sights on global expansion after 

one year of moving over 300,000 

riders in Nigeria. It will also join 

nine other startups in the Techstars 

Toronto accelerator programme, 

Class of 2021. 

In another development, the 

company has launched its city-tocity 

service for Nigerians, where 

commuters travelling from one 

state to another within the country 

can now purchase discounted bus 

tickets from its mobile app. 

With this added feature, 

commuters have the luxury of 

According to Balogun, “the good 

thing is that some of our people are 

beginning to understand why data 

must be protected in all 

ramifications. A good example is 

the government of Oyo State where 

we are currently implementing data 

protection services for about eight 

ministries, departments and 

agencies as part of the first phase of 

the scheme. 

“It is still going to all other 

ministries but we started with these 

eight MDAs because they handle 

more data than most other MDAs 

and it even goes beyond mere 

putting facilities in place to enforce 

compliance with data protection. 

“This is where we are shoulder high 

than other DCOs. Many people 

think data protection is only about 

data auditing but it goes beyond that 

because we provide other 

deliverables. In our case, we do 

auditing, we train staff, organise 

lectures, we ensure full privacy and 

arrange workshops to drive home 

the point,” he explained. 

He stated that data collection is 

the most resourceful enterprise in 

the world and that most successful 

companies in the world are not in 

the oil & gas, banking or insurance 

but in the collection of data. 

He said this was why government 

is insisting on protection of data of 

Nigerians in both public and private 

sectors of the country. 

Balogun said data protection is 

part of the larger layers of strategies 

being in place by governments all 

over the world to checkmate 

cybercrimes, which he said had 

attracted the concern of wellmeaning 

human beings. 

Plentywaka set for global expansion 

with Techstars new investment 

… Launches city-to-city service for Nigerians 

choosing their preferred bus 

transportation company from the 

list of partners listed on the 

company’s app from the comfort 

of their homes. 

To kick-start the service, it would 

be partnering with some major 

bus travel companies in Nigeria 

including Libra Motors with over 

300 buses in their fleet along with 

four other players with a capacity 

of more than 2000 buses plying 

over 100 routes across Nigeria. 

Co-Founder and CEO of 

Plentywaka, Onyeka Akumah, 

said: “We are very excited about 

this new investment to partner with 

Techstars. This is the second time 

a startup I founded will go 

through a Techstars accelerator 

program and we are truly happy 

they have believed in our ability 

again to execute. 

Samsung approves sales discount for Tech Experience Centre customers 

By Juliet Umeh 

amsung Nigeria says it is 

Simpressed with the opportunity 

sales outlet, Tech Experience Centre 

has afforded customers to 

experience the latest technological 

transformational devices on display 

in the Tech Experience Centre, which 

was opened by TD Africa last 

October. The commendation 

coincides with the company’s 

decision to give its customers 

discounts on some of its products. 

The Tech Experience Centre, 

Victoria Island, Lagos, is home to 

latest global technological devices 

manufactured by Original 

Equipment Manufacturers, OEMs, 

like Samsung Nigeria. The centre 

offers visitors a first-hand experience 

of new devices, gadgets, solutions 

and infrastructure that were 

previously alien to the industry and 

customers in Nigeria. 

Head, Marketing, Samsung 

Nigeria, Iretiogo Oke, said: “The 

Tech Centre provides customers an 

array of our latest premium 

technological devices and gadgets 

on a consistent basis. It is like a daily 

technological exhibition of some 

sort and it is open to customers for a 

long period of time daily. We are 

glad to be part of this remarkable 

arrangement which enables us to 

reach our customers in a whole new 

level and avail consumers with 

ultramodern home and office 

appliances,” she added. 

On the discounts, Head, 

Consumer Electronics, Samsung 

Nigeria, Oluwaremilekun 

Ogunsan, said “We are very happy 

to announce that Consumers can 

enjoy up to 20 percent discount on a 

range of home appliances such as 

Refrigerators and Washing 

Machines. This offer is our own way 

of assisting our customers who 

would love to celebrate their 

mothers with a special gift and we 

thought it wise to help them achieve 

it.” Mother’s Day celebration has 

become a huge part of us in Nigeria 

and it is an opportunity for Mothers 

to receive pleasant gifts of 

appreciation from their Children, 

she added. 

Head of the Tech Experience 

Centre, Chidalu Ekeh, says that 

aside from reducing the decisionmaking 

cycle for Chief Executive 

Officers, CEOs, Chief Information 

Officers CIOs, Chief Technology 

Officers, CTOs, as well as other 

technology consumers, the Centre 

serves as a training centre for young 

Nigerians on the latest technology.


C 

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C 

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VOL. 2 NO. 75 

•Members of an Isusu group 

•Traders use contributions to start businesses 

Isusu, a traditional savings and loans scheme 

boosting petty businesses in Igboland 

• Isusu helps raise money for business, investment 

• It is fastest means of raising capital for low income earners —Dim 

• It is nice but the sincerity of other members must be guaranteed —Ude 

• It has helped me develop a culture of savings —Ebonyi mechanic 

• Isusu helps the apprentice, trader to mass business capital —Ihesinulo 

• Isusu also helps to promote fiscal discipline among the traders 

• I bought my welding equipment with Isusu loan —Ifeanyi Oyiga 

By Anayo Okoli, Vincent 

Ujumadu, Chidi 

Nkwopara, Chimaobi 

Nwaiwu, Ugochukwu 

Alaribe, Peter Okutu, 

Chinedu Adonu, 

Ikechukwu Odu & 

Steve Oko 

ENUGU—”ISUSU” (meaning 

small, small), a savings and 

loans scheme in Igboland, has been 

of immense benefit to petty and 

medium size business operators. It 

has transformed some of these petty 

traders to big time business operators. 

It helps them build up capital in their 

businesses. It is popular in Igboland 

for capital formation. It is a good 

alternative for borrowing from 

financial institutions. The modalities 

are not too rigid. What an interested 

person needs to do is to make up his 

mind to obey the conditions 

stipulated in the scheme and before 

long, he saves enough capital to 

embark on any business he desires. 

Traders who want to grow their 

business can, instead of borrowing 

from financial institutions with their 

attendant strict conditions,start 

saving to raise adequate capital 

through isusu. Even people who 

want to build houses but do not have 

enough money to start with, can 

join isusu club to enable them 

achieve target savings to enable 

them accomplish their desire. 

However, Isusu scheme is 

principally based on trust. Those 

engaged in it understand the high 

risk involved. 

Mrs. Emilia Nwosu, a petty trader in 

Awka said she has consistently been 

involved in isusu for the past 20 

years. She explained that one must 

know the background of the operator 

before committing his or her money 

with the person. 

“When I started my petty trading 

business, it was very difficult for me to 

save as most of my profit went into 

housekeeping. I knew that sooner than 

later when my children would start 

school, my husband and I might find it 

difficult to cope with payment of school 

fees. 

“So I joined one isusu club in the 

market and was contributing N500 

daily although it was affecting us in 

the house as we had to reduce some of 

the items we were consuming. I 

persevered and was making the 

contribution religiously and at the end 

of every year, I would have saved 

enough money to pay for the children’s 

school fees”, Mrs. Nwosu said. 

Another type of isusu is the one 

where a number of contributors decide 

to raise money for their members. They 

contribute an agreed amount monthly 

which is given to a member on 

rotational basis to enable the 

beneficiary to embark on whatever 

project he has targeted for himself. It is 

even on record that many wealthy 

individuals engage in this type of 

isusu. 

Mr. Obiadi Dike, a businessman 

narrated how he used the money he 

saved from isusu to build a house 

for his mother. “We were ten trusted 

friends making the contribution and 

the minimum each person 

contributed every month was N100, 

000. I took two slots and luckily for 

me, I picked the first number during 

the ballot, which gave me N2 million. 

The amount went far in the house 

project and at the end of the cycle, I got 

another N2 million and completed the 

house for my mother in the village. 

“If not for the isusu, the house project 

would have affected my business or I 

might not even have contemplated 

building the house in the first place.” 

However, isusu business is not 

always a palatable story to tell. A civil 

servant, Mrs. Gloria Okonkwo 

narrated a story of how she lost N60, 

000 to an isusu operator. She said: 

“This lady was always coming to the 

office on the payday for my monthly 

contribution of N5000 which was to 

mature by December of the year. Before 

the closure of the office for the 

Christmas when she was supposed to 

pay all the contributors, she was 

nowhere to be found. Up till now, she 

has not showed up and her telephone 

line had since gone off. 

“We traced her home only to be told 

that she had since relocated from Awka. 

It was indeed a bleak Christmas for 

my family and I will never get involved 

in isusu again in my life.” 

For Fidelis Dim, a curtain and 

footman dealer based in Umuahia 

Abia State, isusu has tremendously 

impacted the Igbo economy as it serves 

as one of the fastest ways to raise quick 

capital for low income earners. 

According to Dim, many middle class 

Igbo traders and entrepreneurs today 

at one time or the other, raised their 

initial capital through isusu 

contributions. 

The Uga, Anambra State-born 

trader, said isusu helps like-minds 

raise soft capital which members of 

the group access easily either to help 

boost their trade or for other purposes. 

He said that he was actively involved 

in the practice but currently his wife is 

much deep into it. 

“I can tell you that isusu is nice 

provided you are able to identify sincere 

and honest people that make up 

members of the thrift society.It helps 

people especially those without godfathers 

to raise quick capital. You 

contribute small money depending on 

your capacity, and when it gets to your 

turn to collect, you receive something 

bulky. 

“I did it before and my wife is still in 

it. It helps us to solve a lot of financial 

needs especially during Christmas 

Isusu is a 

nice thing, but 

one has to be 

careful about 

the sincerity of 

other members. 

That’s why I 

choose the 

groups I 

belong, not just 

every group, to 

avoid 

disappointment. 

period”. 

He however advised people willing 

to be involved in the practice to ensure 

they ascertain the financial strength of 

other members of the group to avoid a 

member defaulting. According to him, 

defaulting members negatively affect 

other members of the group who are 

yet to receive their contribution before 

any break in chain occurs. 

“That is why members provide 

guarantors before receiving loans from 

the group so that in the event of any 

default the surety will be held 

responsible”. 

Dim explained that one person may 

be involved in many isusu groups 

and may take loan he collects in one 

group to service the loan he gets in 

other groups, thus, defaulting in 

repayment. 

Besides such cases of defaulting 

members, isusu generally, “is a very 

wonderful idea. 

Corroborating Dim’s account, a 

tailor, Mr. Mba Ude from Afikpo in 

Ebonyi State but based in Umuahia, 

said he raised the capital to buy sewing 

machines and rent his shop through 

isusu contributions. 

The Alvan Ikokwu graduate of 

Education/Political Science said that 

he trained himself in school through 

isusu contributions. He strongly 

recommended the scheme but 

cautioned that one has to be sure of the 

integrity and financial capacity of 

other members of the group to avoid 

some members defaulting. 

“Isusu is very good. It helps 

members to set goals and targets for 

themselves. You can target a particular 

project you want to execute for the year 

and make you contributions towards 

it. Once it is your turn to collect your 

contributions, you go and deploy it to 

the project immediately. 

“It has helped me a lot. I started 

isusu many years ago and I credit my 

success story to it. I trained myself in 

school with isusu contributions. I 

also used it to buy machines and rent 

this shop. I currently belong to three 

different isusu groups. Each year I 

target one major project I want to 

execute with the contributions, and 

once it is my turn to collect, I execute it 

immediately. 

“Sometimes I swap turns with other 

members if I have a pressing need but 

I usually like collecting last so I can 

use it for projects. So, isusu is a nice 

thing but one has to be careful about 

the sincerity of other members. That’s 

why I choose the groups I belong, not 

just every group to avoid 

disappointment.” 

A Mechanic who operates at the 

Abakaliki Mechanic Village, Mr. 

ThankGod Njoku said that the isusu 

scheme has helped him develop the 

culture of savings and prudent 

management of every available 

financial resource at his disposal. 

“The contribution we do is very 

helpful. If there is nothing like isusu 

existing, I am not sure I can establish 

or expand my business. With the 

isusu, I have begun early this year, I 

believe that at the end of the year, I will 

be able to start selling some motor parts 

in my shop instead of depending on 

other people. 

“The scheme helps in the expansion 

of businesses and helps one develop 

the culture of savings. With the way 

and manner money comes to us, if you 

don’t save, it will be difficult to carry 

out any other forms of business”, Njoku 

said. 

For a Civil servant, Mrs. Chinwe 

Chukwudi, who complained about the 

merger salary she gets monthly, the 

scheme has given her the courage and 

financial stability to invest in other 

areas of business, instead of relying on 

her poor monthly pay. 

“The salary we are paid is very 

merger and so isusu has helped us 

to carryout projects that ordinarily we 

wouldn’t have been able to do. What 

we do is on a monthly basis, until the 

end of the year. 

“No matter how small you 

contribute, make sure it is steady and 

definitely you will reap from it if you 

are disciplined, determined and 

dedicated to the terms and conditions 

of the scheme. 

“I am planning to buy a car before 

the end of this year and I believe that 

with this scheme which has helped 

Igbo in their businesses, my project will 

surely be achieved. The reason persons 

don’t go into it is because, one’s 

earnings come gradually. Also, if those 

involved are not committed and 

faithful to the agreement governing the 

scheme, it could lead to the disruption 

of the entire process, monetary loss and 

sometimes chaos”. 

In his contribution, a barman in 

Nsukka Local Government Area of 

Enugu State, Cajetan Agbo, said the 

culture of saving bit by bit has helped 

to start and sustain many businesses 

flourishing in Igboland today. 

Agbo explained that many Igbo 

businessmen who are today, owners of 

big businesses started through such 

saving scheme. He said that it helps in 

controlling extravagant spending 

because those involved in the saving 

culture usually save something on a 

daily basis, leaving them with the cash 

to solve only basic needs. 

“Some people spend unnecessarily 

because they have money at their 

disposal. Different saving schemes 

have helped Ndigbo to build their 

businesses. For instance, a foodstuffs 

retailer who wants to go into wholesale 

may start saving when a particular 

foodstuff he is interested in is scarce. 

He can then use what he has saved to 

buy reasonable quantity of the 

foodstuff when it is abundant in the 

market. That way, he can become a 

wholesaler of the foodstuff. 

“Many people have used the method 

to grow their businesses and even start 

businesses for their younger ones,” he 

explained. 

But for an Onitsah based industrialist, 

Chief Johnson Okolo, isusu savings 

and loan scheme, is necessitated by 

ignorance by the operators and the 

people that patronize them. 

“Banks are there for the people to 

save money but people out of ignorance 

patronize them and they are creating 

more trouble for them than solving 

their financial problems because 80% 

of the people who transact the business 

with them end up getting negative 

stories about what happened to their 

money. 

“It is poor people that manage the 

thing, and when they collect the money 

and have one problem or the other, 

they use the money to solve their 

problems leaving the depositors to cry 

and complain for mismanagement of 

their money."


Uproar over alleged 

ostracization in 

Ishi-Ozalla, Enugu 

community 

• Archbishop 

Chukwuma, Jim 

Nwobodo & barth Nnaji 

during the Ozalla 

abolition of Ohu system 

in 2018 

By Dennis Agbo 

A 

RESURGENCE of Ohu-caste 

system, an ancient social 

discrimination stigma that makes 

one less inferior, has once more 

thrown into turmoil the Ishi-Ozalla 

community in Nkanu west local 

government area of Enugu State. 

The abolition of ‘Ohu’ practice in 

the entire Ozalla federated town was 

celebrated on September 1, 2018 

with prominent Nkanu indigenes 

such as Senator Jim Nwobodo, Prof 

Bath Nnaji, Mr. Frank Nweke jnr 

and Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma 

in attendance. 

But last week, the Edeaniagu 

kindred, a part of Ishi-Ozalla 

autonomous community marched 

in protest to both the Enugu State 

Government House and the state 

House of Assembly, alleging 

ostracization from the community. 

The President General of Ishi- 

Ozalla Town union, Chief Obinna 

Nveneh, however said that the 

allegation was not true; stating that 

issues started with self-crowning as 

king by one of the members of the 

Edeanigu kindred, Don Sylvester 

Nweke, which he said was 

repugnant to community as due 

process was not followed. 

The Edeaniagu people however 

insisted that they have been 

excluded, ex-communicated, 

banished and out rightly ostracized 

from their community. 

One of their leaders, Mrs. 

Munachi Okoye said that some 

leaders of Ishi-Ozalla have sworn 

not to allow peace reign in the 

community, despite Governor 

Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s intervention on 

the matter. 

She said: “The latest that made us 

see the governor was the 

ostracization of a group of people 

in my community. We have not had 

a king in the community for nine 

years and anybody that comes out 

to indicate interest in the kingship 

will be blackmailed, frustrated and 

use government apparatus, police, 

EFCC, thugs to intimidate the 

person. 

“Recently, the community decided 

that they will have the kingship and 

• Edeaniagu kindred 

protesting at Govt House 

last week 

the community has a son called Don 

Sylvester who has been doing 

philanthropic jobs for the 

community and unanimously 

people chose him to be king and his 

family members decided to give him 

a chieftaincy title in their compound 

to acknowledge him as their own 

candidate that will go out and 

contest with other people during the 

election and that was turned into a 

different story. They set him up and 

said he had crowned himself a King 

of Ishi-Ozalla, whatever Don 

Sylvester did was done inside their 

family house but it was twisted and 

that started causing ripples in the 

community. 

“Thereafter, a cartel in the 

community held a meeting and 

instructed people to go and ostracise 

the entire village, including people 

that are not part of the village. Some 

people that are in Amaechi were 

dragged into Edeaniagu, people in 

Ndiagbor village were dragged into 

Edeaniagu and the pronouncement 

was made in the village square that 

they have ostracized the 

Edeaniagus; nobody should buy 

from them, nobody should sell to 

them, they will not have anything to 

do with them, that everybody should 

be on their own, that they are now 

outcasts and shouldn’t have 

anything to do with anybody. 

“As if that was not enough, they 

started the execution. Some people 

went for a traditional marriage and 

they were beaten up and sent out of 

the traditional marriage, saying 

that they do not associate with them. 

Our children that go to school are 

being mocked, called names that 

nobody should hear of, our young 

ladies that are to get married, people 

will come for their hands in 

marriage and they will say a lot of 

bad stories about them. They have 

refused peace to reign. We had to 

cry to the government house,” 

Okoye lamented. 

The President General of the 

community, Obinna Nveneh 

however said that he had instructed 

that nobody should discriminate 

against anybody in the community, 

warning that anybody found guilty 

of discrimination will be punished 

by the community. 

With the weighty allegation 

gaining attention, the community 

was pressed to issue a statement, 

stating that Ishi-Ozalla remains 

committed to the abolition of 

segregation in Ozalla, noting that 

the community in a progressive and 

peace loving, together with the other 

four autonomous communities in 

Ozalla town, on Saturday 

September 1 2018, accomplished 

the widely applauded and historic 

project for the Abolition of 

Segregation in Ozalla, PASO, which 

ended all forms of social 

discrimination in the entire 

community.


Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 — 29


Remembering CKC Izuwah (1965 – 2021) 

By ZERRY IHEKWABA 

IT was at the University of Nigeria, 

Nsukka, UNN, that we first met over 40 

years ago. We were part of the 1980 

matriculating class of the Department of Civil 

Engineering of the Agbebi College of 

Engineering. He was young, conspicuous, and 

everywhere striking acquaintances. The 

round-faced, ebony black, chubby fellow 

would walk up to anyone, male and female 

alike, with confidence and good cheer to 

introduce himself as “Big Fish”. It was a special 

case of youthful novelty and genuine 

merriment. 

In art and in life, persons often tend to assume 

a moniker for sundry reasons or to emphasize 

mission. I never got to find out why a medium 

sized lad and one not particularly gifted with 

the height of a basketballer would choose such 

an unforgettable and debonaire nickname. 

Not many in the freshman class, assembled 

from all parts of the country and elsewhere, 

would ever forget our friend. His boldness was 

memorable and stylish, with a voluptuous 

taste of urbane feel and charming disposition. 

Ever since that momentous beginning, his 

unique indefinability has remained his social 

vita and a subtle canvass to remember. 

It took several months after that memorable 

introduction before many realized his natal 

name was Chidi Kennedy Chikezie Izuwah, or 

as he would prefer to write it simply as CKC 

Izuwah. He came from royalty and was the 

oldest scion of the now late Eze A.E.N. Izuwah, 

Eze Udo I of Amaitolu Ovungwu Autonomous 

Community in Isiala Ngwa South Local 

Government Area of Abia State, and the late 

Ugoeze (Professor) Lucy Izuwah. Eze A.E.N 

Izuwah was a doyen of the civil service in the 

erstwhile East Central State and successfully 

retired as a Permanent Secretary in the old 

Imo State. While the family patriarch reigned 

as the traditional ruler of his community till 

death, our friend and classmate, Chidi Izuwah, 

kept to the rule book of his ecclesiastical suasion. 

This he did by mixing it with the unique social 

mores and cultural confines of his ancestry 

whilst maintaining the fraternity of his 

youth, just as he went on to achieve a glorious 

professional career in Nigeria’s public service 

sector. 

Chidi Izuwah meant many things to many 

•The late Chidi Izuwah 

of his contemporaries and admirers. He 

effortlessly charted himself well into success 

in academia, his engineering career, and his 

subsequent foray into the national 

establishment. He was focused and 

determined to excel by challenging 

conventions through a determined effort to 

promote a homily of humanistic ideals. CKC 

Izuwah believed in sustaining lifelong 

friendships without abandoning the cultural 

demands of filial bonds. Comradeship and 

chivalry were key aspects of his social 

engagement even as he built harmony with 

folks. He stubbornly refused to stray from those 

paths, and without remiss, insisted that icons 

of negative tribal accoutrements must be 

scrupulously redirected as he maintained his 

thought cues. Those were testimonial 

reminisces of a past era while we cavorted and 

perused the campus and throughout the over 

40 years of association. 

CKC Izuwah served his NYSC year from 

1985 through 1986 in Port Harcourt with 

Shell Petroleum Development Company. 

Serendipity meant that we must meet again 

at a recruitment session with University of 

Port Harcourt where three classmates 

competed for a position. He secured the offer 

and proceeded to the University of New Castle 

Upon Tyne in the United Kingdom for a 

TRIBUTE 

Master’s degree in hydraulic engineering 

whilst Dr. Emeka Agbasi went on to Imperial 

College in London for a Master’s and Doctoral 

programme in materials engineering, and 

myself to Queen’s University in Kingston 

Ontario, Canada for a similar Master’s and 

Doctoral programme. He was a recurring 

presence in kindling the bond of friendship 

amongst us and the other Agbebites, as we 

fondly call engineering graduates of UNN. 

Several years after, during a visit from the 

United States, we met again and this time he 

had become a staff of Shell Petroleum 

Development Company after his brief stint 

with University of Port Harcourt. He 

promptly invited me over for lunch at his 

home on Faith Avenue, Woji, in Port Harcourt 

where I met his wife, Doris, for the first time. I 

realised then that Chidi’s in-laws were from 

my old local government area in Imo State. It 

was a time of great nostalgia recounting our 

journey and the exuberances of youth and 

maturity as married men! Chidi was such a 

good fare to socialise with. 

He was later to pay me a visit in my ancestral 

village of Nkwerre in Imo State in 2007 when 

I returned to pay my last respects to my 

He was persistent 

in seeking novel, 

tried and tested 

models for 

delivering excellent 

and fiscally prudent 

infrastructure assets 

departed dear mother. He was joined by Prof 

Okey Onyemelukwe during the Sunday 

outing service in the local church. They were 

preceded in the visit by several fellow 

Agbebites in the previous days, notably Paul 

Nwafor, Ike Egbogah, Ovoks Anyaegbunam, 

Chibuzor Njoku, Dozie Eze, Hazel Anele, as 

well as others who either visited or reached 

out through other means. Again, the bond of 

friendship was strongly aglow in that 

moment of loss and mourning. This much 

we owe Chidi’s family now. 

Sometime in early 2009, he expressed his 

desire to join the Infrastructure Concession 

and Regulatory Commission, ICRC, in Abuja. 

We talked and shared ideas of mutual 

interest. He successfully joined the ICRC as its 

pioneer executive director for Public Private 

Partnership Resource department. He quickly 

settled into bringing international best 

practices to his ICRC work and went about it 

by engaging the right professionals in the right 

places. He reached out extensively and 

participated in several international forums 

and conferences on infrastructure finance and 

Public-Private Partnership, PPP, contracting 

process. 

In 2013, he visited the United States and we 

met at a local manufacturer’s facility in 

Broward County, Florida while he inspected 

the process for fabricating and assembling 

modular buildings and tilt-up construction. 

Over lunch at a boutique restaurant along 

Las Olas Boulevard in the dainty part of 

downtown Fort Lauderdale, we reviewed and 

he requested for a copy of a paper I had 

delivered at the National Infrastructure 

Renewal Summit in Fort Lauderdale in 2012. 

He was persistent in seeking novel, tried and 

tested models for delivering excellent and 

fiscally prudent infrastructure assets. 

Chidi Izuwah was a leader extraordinaire 

and he rolled out reliability-based regulatory 

framework and guidelines for many of the 

ICRC initiatives. No wonder in 2016, he 

became its Executive Director for the crossdisciplinary 

Support Services department. His 

trajectory included breaking grounds and 

charting new courses so much as to be 

recognised as a leader amongst peers when 

the ICRC under his purview was named by 

Africa Investor Magazine as the African 

Infrastructure Regulator of the Year in 2018. 

In 2019, he easily earned his promotion as 

the Director-General of the ICRC when 

Nigeria’s government under President 

Mohammadu Buhari announced his 

appointment and the Senate, Nigeria’s upper 

legislative body, easily concurred, to 

everyone’s admiration. In all his assignments, 

he was hugely successful as he garnered laurels 

and recognition in the industry, and through 

his tireless work, ICRC was named as an 

African PPP Champion in 2020. Together 

with his wife, Dr. Doris Izuwah, they promoted 

civic causes and community efforts, especially 

by committing personal resources. 

•Dr. Ihekwaba wrote from Florida, 

USA 

C o n t i n u e s 

online:www.vanguardngr.com


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HARUNA 

I, formerly known as Asmau 

Haruna Hammad, now wish to 

be known and addressed as 

Asmau Ahmad Idris, All 



take note. 

KOGI 

I, formerly known as Auta 

Godfrey, now wish to be known 

and addressed as Auta Godfrey 

Kogi. All former documents 

remain valid. FCMB PLC and 

general public take note. 

NGWOBIA 

I, formerly known as MISS 

BLESSING NWACHUKWU 

NGWOBIA, now wish to be 

known and addressed as MRS. 

NWACHUKWU BLESSING 

JANE. All former documents 

remain valid.General public 

please take note. 

AKAN 


EDWARD OMOLARA AKAN, 

now wish to be known and 

addressed as EDWARD 

OMOLARA AKANINYENE. 

All former documents remain 

valid.General public please take 

note. 

NDIFREKE 

I formerly known as Victor Imeh 

Ndifreke. Henceforth, wish to be 

known and addressed as Victor 

Imeh Udoh. And my date of birth 

is January 18, 2002. All former 

documents remain valid. The 

general public should take note. 

AJURUCHI 

I formerly known and addressed as 

MISS STELLAMARIS CHIKODI 

ONYEKACHI AJURUCHI now 

wish to be known and addressed 

as MRS STELLAMARIS 

CHIKODI ONYEKACHI 

UHUEGBU. Former documents 

remain valid. General public take 

note. 

IWUOHA 

That the name KERLY-IKPI JENNIFER 

CHIAMAKA, IWUOHA JENNIFER 

CHIAMAKA and NJOMAGU-JONES 

JENNIFER CHIAMAKA that appears on 

my various documents refer to one and the 

same person but now wish to be known 

called and addressed as KERLY-IKPI 

JENNIFER CHIAMAKA. All documents 

bearing my name(s) remain valid general 

public should take note. 

CLETUS 


BONIFACE CLETUS , Now 

wish to be known, Called and 

addressed as BONIFACE 

ZAPHANIAH CLETUS. 


valid. Public note 

SALIFU 

I WAS FORMERLY KNOWN 

AS SALIFU YUNUSA NOW 

WISH TO BE KNOWN AND 

ADDRESSED AS SHITTU 

SALIFU GENERAL PUBLIC 

TO TAKE NOTE. 

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021—33 

:@vanguardnews 

1.2 billion people lack access 

to drinking water worldwide 

—Minister 

By Festus Ahon 

BENIN 

CITY—THE 

Minister of Water 

Resources, Suleiman 

Hussein Adamu has said 

that over 1.2 billion people 

globally lack access to safe 

drinking water and this he 

said has affected the health, 

education and general 

livelihood of the people. 

The minister spoke at the 

commissioning of some water 

projects executed by the 

Benin Owena River Basin 

Development Authority, 

BORBDA, at the Ogbe 

Secondary School Benin 

City, and Igo, in the Ovia 

North East LGA of Edo. 

Represented by the 

Assistant Director, 

Procurement of BORDA, 

Augustine Chukwuyem, 

Adamu said the problem of 

access to safe drinking water 

could only be solved when the 

vital role water plays in 

human life is recognised by 

all 

Ḣe said “we must 

contribute our quota to 

mitigate the global water 

crises and reflect on how 

important it is, that we 

continue to ensure that 

someday soon, everyone is 

able to have access to clean 

water while conserving the 

natural resource”. 

In his welcome address, the 

Managing Director, BORBDA 

Engr Saliu Ahmed who was 

represented by the Executive 

Director, Engineering 

Services, Mrs Veronica 

Olalemi said besides 

emphasizing the importance 

of water to daily living, 

assured of the federal 

agency’s preparedness to 

deliver on its core mandate of 

meeting the water needs of 

the people for food, 

agriculture-irrigation, 

recreation and industrial uses. 

Delta lawmaker distributes 

computers, projectors to 

schools in riverine communities 

By Chancel Sunday 

Bschool OMADI—PRIMARY 

teachers and 

pupils in riverine 

communities have lauded 

the lawmaker 

representing Patani/ 

Bomadi Constituency in 

the House of 

Representatives, Mr 

Nicholas Mutu, over his 

distribution of hardwares 

to primary schools in the 

constituency. 

Commending the 

lawmaker, yesterday, 

headteachers and pupils 

of the receiving schools 

noted that the gesture was 

unprecedented, stressing 

it would enable them 

inculcate the requisite 

knowledge on pupils. 

However, five schools in 

Bomadi council area 

received the items which 

are Olou Primary School 

Bomadi, Epekiri Primary 

School Ogboin-ama, 

Onoru Primary School 

Ogriagbene, Awobu 

Primary School Akugbene 

and Ogideze Primary 

School Ogo-Eze. 

Mrs Comfort Umana, 

headteacher of Ogideze 

Primary School, Ogo-Eze, 

said: “I’m dumbfounded 

and happy to receive such 

wonderful gifts to our 

school. 

“Just few days ago 

textbooks and notebooks 

were brought by Mutu, 

today he has brought 

equipment to enable us 

teach the pupils properly." 

Ekio-Atonye Anita, a 

primary six pupil in 

Ogideze Primary School, 

said: “I’m so happy and I 

thank Mutu for bringing 

these things to us, may 

God bless him”. 

Coordinating the 

distribution, liaison officer 

to Mutu in the 

Constituency, Mr Kenneth 

Ebitonmo, said the 

materials were facilitated 

by Mutu through the 

Universal Basic Education 

Commission. 

PDP chieftain seeks continued 

support for Nwaoboshi 

IBUSA—IN recognition 

of a true representation 

of the people of the Delta 

North Senatorial District, 

a chieftain of the Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, 

and political aide to the 

member representing 

Delta North Constituency 

in the National Assembly, 

Mr. Philip Elueme, has 

stressed the need for continued 

support for Senator 

Peter Nwaoboshi in his 

quest to attract more development 

to the district. 

Elueme, in a chat with 

newsmen, stated that the 

call for the support became 

necessary, so as to enable 

Nwaoboshi continue to 

ventilate outstanding overall 

developmental sagacity 

in governance for the development 

of Anioma communities. 

The PDP chieftain stated 

that with prayers, passion 

and enthusiasm, as one 

time President-General of 

Ibusa Community Development 

Union, ICDU, 

worldwide, in 2008, he had 

called for similar support 

for Nwaoboshi. 

Elueme stated further 

that Nwaoboshi can best be 

described as an accepted 

man of many good parts, 

as well as a visionary 

leader, whose exemplary 

leadership and representation 

is worthy of emulation.


Kidnapping and closure of schools: Surest 

bomb for the destruction of Nigeria (1) 

IN recent times, news media 

across the country have been 

replete with stories of incessant 

kidnappings and closure of schools. 

From these reports, it is clear that 

students and teachers at all levels 

of education – primary, secondary 

and tertiary – are not immune from 

the danger posed by armed 

invaders. Right from the widelyreported 

kidnapping of female 

students in Chibok community by 

members of the Boko Haram terrorist 

group on April 15, 2014, it does not 

seem that the incidents of 

kidnappings are waning in the 

country. Due to this, many state 

governments have resorted to the 

closure of schools as the first and 

immediate response to 

kidnappings. Therefore, I will 

consider some of the reported 

incidents of kidnapping and 

schools’ closure, and the effect on 

education and the country. 

Some reported incidents of 

kidnapping & school closure: PM 

News issue of March 11, 2021 gave 

a caption as follows – Kidnapping: 

Niger Government Closes All 

Public Secondary Schools. It 

reported thus: The Niger State 

Ministry of Education has directed 

closure of all public secondary 

schools for two weeks to enable the 

state government asses security 

threats and and its impact on 

schools. The schools would be 

closed between Friday, March 12 

and Friday, March 27, according 

to the state Commissioner of 

Education, Hajiya Hannatu 

Salihu. The commissioner noted 

that the closure will give relevant 

security agencies the time and 

opportunity to conduct a 

comprehensive risk assessment of 

all public secondary schools in the 

state. The decision to close schools 

in the state came after an 

emergency consultative meeting 

with the leadership of the 

Association of the Proprietors of 

Private Schools, NAPPS, 

Association of Model Islamic 

Schools, AMIS, Executive 

Chairman, Niger State Universal 

Basic Education Board, NSUBEB, 

Heads of Education Agencies, 

Directors of the Ministry and other 

stakeholders of the sector. The 

closure of schools came in the light 

of recent abduction of students at 

the Government Science College, 

in Kagara community of the state 

few weeks ago. 

On March 17, 2021, 

Withinnigeria News under the 

headline, "Kidnapping: Kaduna 

Closes All Schools in Kajuru LGA" 

reported thus: Kaduna has ordered 

the closure of all public and private 

schools in Kajuru Local 

Government Area of the state 

following continuous attacks on 

schools by bandits… Last Thursday, 

39 students were abducted when 

gunmen invaded the Federal 

College of Forestry Mechanisation 

in Afaka, Igabi LGA of the state. 

The students were later seen in a 

video clip receiving heavy beatings 

from their abductors, calling on 

government to pay the ransom to 

secure their release. Another 

report, Newdawnngr, gave the 

following headline, February 27, 

2021, "Kidnapping/Abduction: 

Zamfara Govt Orders Closure of 

Boarding Schools". It reported 

that: The Governor of Zamfara 

State, Bello Matawalle, on Friday, 

ordered the immediate closure of 

all boarding secondary schools in 

the state following the abduction 

of 317 female students in Talata 

Mafara Local Government Area. 

The governor gave the directive in 

a special state broadcast on the 

abduction of the students at 

Government Girls Secondary 

School, Jangebe, saying it is a 

trying moment for the state. “I wish 

to assure everyone that we are 

wholly committed to ensuring a 

speedy rescue of our dear schoolgirls 

and reuniting them with their 

families" . 

He said police helicopters and 

other search and rescue operatives 

have been deployed to the area 

where the abducted girls are 

believed to be, adding that 

members of the public, and most 

especially the parents and 

guardians of the students, would be 

kept informed of developments in 

the efforts to rescue them. “As we 

are making efforts to strengthen 

security around our schools, I have 

directed the immediate closure of 

all boarding secondary schools 

across the state," the governor said. 

The effect of kidnappings and 

school closure on education: As I 

earlier observed, there seems to be 

no reduction in the reports of 

kidnappings, so much that experts 

have predicted a rise in the number 

of out-of-school children due to 

More proactive steps 

have to be taken to 

secure schools from 

bandit or terrorist 

attacks and to stop the 

kidnapping of students 

incessant attacks on schools 

particularly in the North Central 

and Northwestern Nigeria. 

According to a report by Blueprint, 

an expert noted thus: Never in 

history has the education industry 

in Nigeria been so threatened by 

insecurity like its current state. The 

attacks on schools often have 

adverse effects not only on students, 

educators, parents and educational 

institutions, but also on the 

government and the society at 

large. The rising cases of 

kidnapping incidents at schools in 

Nigeria show how vulnerable 

schools in northern Nigeria have 

become for bandits and kidnappers. 

It means that kidnappers, bandits, 

terrorists or whatever name they are 

called, have declared war on the 

education sector in the North and 

in extension on the future of our 

students and country. 

When a teacher goes to school and 

is not guaranteed of his safety, it 

will affect his performance. Schools 

being shut down completely will 

impact negatively on the education 

sector, the system. The number of 

out-of-school children will continue 

to rise because 

parents whose 

children are back 

from bandits will 

begin to think 

otherwise and will 

not want them to 

go to school. The 

children will then 

begin roaming 

the streets and in 

the future, these 

children will be 

recruited into 

c r i m i n a l 

activities. More 

proactive steps 

have to be taken to 

secure schools 

from bandit or terrorist attacks and 

to stop the kidnapping of students. 

This is because if the emerging trend 

of kidnappings, especially 

students’ abductions are allowed to 

continue, it will not only consume 

our education sector, but also the 

future of our country. Our children 

and teachers deserve to learn and 

teach under a peaceful atmosphere 

devoid of any form of fear or 

intimidation either by kidnappers, 

bandits or terrorists. 

In another interview, Blueprint 

also reported thus: Everyone has 

the right to education. It is 

unfortunate that the fragility in the 

North is derailing education which 

is fundamental to the socioeconomic 

growth and development 

of the region and its ability to 

compete in the global 

economy. Following the incessant 

attacks on schools in the northern 

part of the country, certainly, the 

gains of the past in term of 

enrolment, retention and 

completion or graduation are being 

eroded. It will balloon the 

outrageous figure of out-of-school 

children in Nigeria. This is 

because no one wants to suffer the 

trauma of having his/her children 

abducted in the name of getting 

education. The number of street 

children/Almajirai will also 

increase. Child marriage will 

automatically rise with its nasty 

attendant implications like VVF 

and maternal mortality and 

morbidity among other issues. 

Unfortunately, with this trend, 

Nigeria cannot actualize the SDGs 

2030 target. 

Another expert noted thus: Given 

the pace at which bandits attack 

schools, government and private 

proprietors will be forced to shut 

down schools, intermittently, and 

then for much longer. Parents on the 

other hand will also be reluctant to 

send their wards and children to 

school; while teachers and other 

caregivers will be reluctant to report 

for work. The overall consequence 

will be empty schools, and gap in 

the education of children. Children 

will be left idle, and restless, since 

they cannot even be engaged with 

the livelihood practices of their 

parents due to insecurity. Poverty 

will increase, social cohesion within 

the homes and the communities 

will be stretched, and there will be 

increase in anti-social behaviour 

among children, with both children 

and their parents developing 

mental health issues. All of these 

will make recovery more tedious, 

and take longer even when security 

and safety are restored. 

Unfortunately, the impact will not 

just be on the North-west, or Northcentral; 

the impact will eventually 

be national and nationwide. People 

will tend to leave insecure places 

for relatively more secure places, 

and the inequality with respect to 

the conditions of living and 

existence of residents and the new 

influx of those seeking refuge from 

insecurity will potentially be 

destabilising for their new place of 

refuge as well. 

To be concluded… 

:Vanguard 

News 

:@vanguardnews 

$1.5bn: PH refinery'll run for 

another 15 years —NNPC GMD 

•Says new refinery may cost $12bn 

By Obas Esiedesa 

ABUJA—THE Group Managing 

Director of the Nigerian National 

Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), 

Mallam Mele Kyari, has explained 

that the Port Harcourt Refinery would 

operate for the next 15 years after its 

rehabilitation at the cost of $1.5 billion. 

Kyari who defended the cost involved 

in the rehabilitation of the 

refinery, pointed out that building a 

new one may cost up to $12 billion. 

The Federal Executive Council 

had last Wednesday approved $1.5 

billion for the rehabilitation of the 

moribund refinery, a decision that 

has been criticized in several quarters. 

But the NNPC in a statement on 

Tuesday explained that the scope of 

the contract goes beyond just turn 

around maintenance of the refinery 

to entail replacement of key components 

of the plant. 

Kyari described the approved rehabilitation 

contract of the 210,000 

barrels per day capacity refinery as 

a worthy undertaking embarked 

upon after diligent consideration and 

in strict adherence to industry best 

standards. 

He explained that in arriving at 

the decision to award the Engineering, 

Procurement, and Construction 

(EPC) contract to Tecnimont spA of 

Milan, Italy, after a competitive bidding 

process, the Corporation observed 

an unprecedented level of 

transparency and due diligence 

By Ozioruva Aliu 

BENIN CITY—EDO State govern 

ment, yesterday, evening destroyed 

the residence of former deputy 

governor, Dr Pius Odubu situated 

at Dennis Osadebey Avenue GRA 

in Benin City. 

The property was occupied by the 

younger brother to Odubu as at the 

time of the demolition. 

Also destroyed were properties belonging 

to a former Secretary to 

State Government, SSG and present 

member representing Owan Federal 

Constituency, Professor Julius Ihonvbere 

and that of a sports marketer, 

Mike Etemuagbo. 

Odubu described the incident as 

unfortunate, adding the matter was 

already before the court of law after 

the government announced the revocation 

of the Certificate of Occupancy, 

which he said he read in the news. 

"The information came to me this 

afternoon (yesterday), March 23, that 

my property situated at Dennis Osadebe 

Avenue had been brought 

down by agents of the government on 

the directive of the governor. 

"Before now, my attention was 

which consists of a governance 

structure and tender process that included 

key independent external 

stakeholders. 

He said: "We have people saying 

why not build a new one; why will 

you repair an old refinery with 1.5 

billion dollars? 

"The fact is available even by Google 

search, what it takes to build a 

refinery of this status today. It will be 

difficult for the country to build a 

new refinery as it will take four years 

for it to commence production. 

"It is around $7 billion and $12 

billion to construct a refinery of this 

nature (Port Harcourt refinery). This 

is the estimate you see in public space 

and there are things you do outside 

the construction battle-limits like the 

utilities that are never accounted for 

when estimates of this nature are 

done. 

"Typically, there is an additional 25 

per cent cost for construction battlelimits, 

so, when you say a refinery 

can be built at $7 billion or even $10 

billion, also think of that 25 per cent", 

he added. 

He continued: "With today's estimate, 

you cannot build a refinery at 

any cost below these amounts, that 

means that the option you have is to 

scrap this and build a new one, and 

we all know that we don't have that 

resource. 

"If we start a new refinery of this 

nature today, it can't work in less than 

four years; therefore, it means we will 

continue to import petroleum products 

in the next four years or more". 

Obaseki's bulldozer pulls down ex-Edo 

dep gov, Odubu, Ihonvbere, Etemuagbo 

brought to a publication in the media 

in January that the C of O of my 

property had been revoked without 

prior notice given to me. 

"I went to court in the matter and I 

am surprised that after they were 

served, the government still went 

ahead to bring down my house with a 

bulldozer. 

"My younger one was in the house 

when it was brought down and they 

did not give them notice nor allow 

him to remove any of their properties 

before destroying the place," he said. 

Wife of his younger brother, Mrs 

Precious Odubu, who narrated the incident 

to newsmen, said, "The way 

they came in, not through the main 

gate, I was afraid and asked about 

their mission and they told me that 

they want to demolish the house and 

if there are children in the building, 

they should be brought out. 

"Without even waiting for my response, 

they just brought in their buldozers 

and started destroying the 

house without allowing us to remove 

our properties," she stated. 

At press time, there was no official 

response from the state government. 

Leading Ladies Africa pushes for 

gender parity, gets Appzone support 

By Prince Osuagwu, 

Hi-Tech Editor 

WOMEN-FOCUSED Non-Prof 

it Organisation Leading Ladies 

Africa has said that the panacea for 

Africa's economic growth is to give 

women a fair share in the leadership 

of the economies. 

The group which condemned what 

it described as gender imbalance in 

the scheme of things in Africa said 

African leaders must let women take 

adequate share in leadership of the 

continent. 

The group in a statement said it 

must continue on its goal of strengthening 

the continued push for gender 

equality, parity and inclusion for African 

women. 

Amplifying the group's internal diversity 

and inclusion drive, it initiated 

a Leadership By Design Summit, 

which seeks to address and proffer 

solutions to the most pressing challenges 

women face in business, workplace, 

and leadership fields. The event 

is billed to hold March 27, at the Four 

Points by Sheraton Hotel, Oniru, Lagos. 

Meanwhile, a leading FinTech Software 

Company, Appzone Group has 

thrown its weight behind the summit, 

saying it understands the importance 

of fostering a society where women 

and men are treated as equals. 

Group Chief Marketing Officer 

Appzone, Efosa Aiyevbomwan said: 

"As a Pan-African brand with a global 

outlook, we're excited to partner 

with Leading Ladies Africa because 

we understand the importance of cultivating 

a workforce and society that 

is truly diverse and inclusive, fostering 

a continued sense of equity for 

women and other minority groups.

Continues from Page 5 

contest this, we will 

contest that. 

“For me, I want us, as 

leaders of this country, 

who have taken oath of 

office, let us abide by 

those things we have 

said, work together as a 

team, leave politics aside, 

leave ethnicity aside, 

then secure the country, 

Nigeria. We have no other 

country than Nigeria. 

“Today, we cannot go to 

Cameroon or Senegal or 

any other country and 

claim responsibility, so my 

appeal to everyone is to 

ensure that we work 

together. Security matters 

are not just for the 

security agencies alone. 

We as people who are 

being led, have a 

responsibility, we who are 

leaders, have a 

responsibility. 

“It is only when we team 

up that we’ll be able to 

surmount this challenge. 

But I think there 

shouldn’t be room for 

people who are creating 

problems for us. We have 

a constitution, we have 

laws of the land. If people 

are found wanting, they 

should be cautioned, they 

should be arrested, 

prosecuted and let the 

right thing be done.” 

‘Let’s protect the 

constitution’ 

Speaking on the 

protection of the 

constitution, Ortom 

appealed for the 

provisions of the 

constitution to be 

protected to enable 

equity, fairness, and 

justice in the country. 

He criticized the issue of 

impunity in the country 

which he said had been 

allowed to fester, and 

urged the Federal 

Government to 

immediately prosecute 

anyone found culpable of 

breaching the law. 

On the question of 

reports alleging that 

attack on his convoy was 

a pseudo-claim, the 

governor appealed to 

Nigerians not to politicize 

the issue of attempted 

assassination on his 

person. 

Naira appreciates N409.80/$ 

in I&E window 

By Elizabeth Adegbesan 

The naira yesterday appreciated to N409.80 kobo 

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

window. 

Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative 

exchange rate for the window dropped by 33 kobo 

to N409.80 kobo per dollar from N410.13 per dollar 

on Monday, translating to 33 kobo appreciation of 

the naira. 

The volume of dollars (turnover) traded in the 

window yesterday rose by 28 percent to $33.11 

million from $25.88 million on Monday. 

vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguardnews 



He reiterated that the 

attack on his convoy by 

about 15 gunmen 

suspected to be herdsmen 

while on a visit to his farm, 

was not stage-managed. 

While asserting that he 

had done nothing wrong 

to enact an anti-open 

grazing law beneficial to 

the state, he said the 

demand by the cattle 

breeders association, 

Miyetti Allah, to repeal 

the law would be 

impossible to fulfill, 

having passed through 

due process. 

Ortom, who prayed that 

what happened to him 

should not be experienced 

by anyone else, 

commended other 

governors, colleagues for 

standing by him during 

the attack. 

Gunmen suspected to 

be herdsmen last 

Saturday attacked 

Governor Ortom at Tyo 

Mu along Makurdi/ 

Gboko road in Makurdi 

Local Government Area of 

the state. Ortom, who 

described the gunmen as 

‘herdsmen’, said about 15 

of the attackers trailed 

him to the river bank 

where he was on foot. 

Attack on 

Ortom, 

indication of 

anarchy — Reps 

Similarly, the House of 

Representatives 

yesterday condemned the 

attack on the governor 

and asked security 

agencies to go after the 

perpetrators. 

The lower chamber 

condemned the incident 

when the matter came up 

during yesterday’s 

plenary presided over by 

the speaker, Femi 

Gbajabiamila. 

It described the attack 

on the governor as an 

indication of anarchy and 

full-scale lawlessness in 

the country. 

The House, however, 

commended President 

Muhammadu Buhari for 

promptly ordering an 

investigation into the 

incident. It also called on 

the security agencies to 

ensure that those 

involved were brought to 

justice, to serve as a 

deterrent to others. 

The resolution of the 

House followed a motion 

of urgent public 

importance sponsored by 

Kpam Jimin Sokpo, who 

represents Buruku 

Federal Constituency of 

Benue State and 11 

others. 

Presenting the motion, 

Sokpo raised concerns 

about the worsening spate 

of violent crimes and 

insecurity across the 

country, ranging from 

cultism, armed robbery, 

armed herdsmen attacks, 

bandit attacks, armed 

militia attacks, to Boko 

Haram insurgency and 

terrorism. 

He expressed worries 

that “on Saturday, March 

20, 2021, some gunmen 

suspected to be killer 

herders, ambushed and 

opened gunfire on the 

convoy of the governor of 

Benue State, Samuel 

Ortom at Tyo-Mu, a 

distance of less than 20 

kilometers from Makurdi, 

the state capital.’’ 

He explained further 

that the attackers, 

numbering over 15, 

wielding sophisticated 

weapons and dressed in 

black, had trailed the 

governor from the farm 

but were repelled by the 

security details attached to 

the governor who had to 

run for over one kilometer 

to safety. 

In his contribution to 

debate on the motion, 

Minority Leader, Ndudi 

Elumelu (PDP, Delta), 

warned that if the violent 

herdsmen were not 

stopped as fast possible, 

Nigeria might soon begin 

to import basic foods as 

cassava. 

“If care is not taken, we 

will soon be importing 

yams, cassava and garri 

into the country, to feed our 

people, because our people 

in the grassroots, are no 

longer going to their farms, 

because of attacks from 

herdsmen,” he warned. 

Adopting all the 

arguments, the House 

collectively condemned 

“the armed attack and 

assassination attempt on 

Governor Samuel Ortom of 

Benue State by 

unidentified gunmen on 

the 20th March, 2021”. 

Though the House 

commended President 

Muhammadu Buhari for 

his prompt response and for 

immediately ordering an 

investigation into the attack 

on the governor, it also 

resolved to call on the 

Department of State 

Services, DSS, and Nigeria 

Police to investigate claims 

of responsibility of the 

attack on the governor by a 

Fulani group. 

The House, also urged all 

Nigerians of good 

conscience and lawabiding 

citizens to keep 


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018773962, 

08052867058 

PUBLIC HEARING ON MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS —From left: 

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb. Zubairu Dada; Minister of Foreign 

Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama; and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs, Amb. Gabriel Aduda, during the House of Representatives Committee 

on Foreign Affairs’ public hearing on incessant malpractices associated with 

diplomatic postings and deliberate draining of resources in the Ministry of 

Foreign Affairs, at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja, yesterday. Photo: 

NAN. 

faith with the indivisibility, 

unity and sovereignty of the 

nation. 

Afenifere blasts 

Buhari over 

insecurity 

Meanwhile, the Pan- 

Yoruba socio-cultural and 

political organisation, 

Afenifere, yesterday 

berated President, 

Muhammadu Buhari over 

the failure of his 

government to resolve the 

nation’s insecurity 

problems and prosecute 

perpetraors of Agatu 

massacre in Benin State in 

2018. 

Afenifere’s new leader, Pa 

Ayo Adebanjo, who stated 

this in a statement, titled 

“Afenifere synpathises with 

Ortom over attack,” said 

“President Buhari’s 

reaction to the development 

amounted to shedding 

crocodile tears. 

He asked the President to 

“desist from pretending 

that he was not aware that 

herdsmen were the 

perpetrators of most of the 

killings the country has 

witnessed in recent time.” 

Adebanjo expressed 

displeasure that Buhari’s 

government could neither 

apprehend perpetrators of 

the 2018 Agatu massacre in 

Benue State nor do 

anything to stem attack by 

herdsmen in the state. 

“Rather than help the 

people of Benue, the 

President told an embattled 

Ortom when he 

approached the Presidency 

for help in 2018 to go make 

peace with his 

neighbours,” Adebanjo 

added. 

The Afenifere leader said 

the myriad of intractable 

crises bedevilling the 

nation appeared to have 

overwhelmed the 

President. 

He said now is the time 

to give governors full 

powers to be in charge of 

security in the states, if 

insecurity was to be nipped 

in the bud. 

“Restructuring still 

remains the only way out 

of the doldrums for the 

nation, if disintegration is 

to be avoided,” the 

Afenifere leader said. 

APC registers 36 million members, vows 

to remain in power for next 26 years 

By Omeiza Ajayi 

ABUJA — The Caretaker 

Extraordinary 

Convention Planning 

Committee, CECPC, of ruling 

All Progressives Congress, 

APC, has said it was putting 

in place mechanisms to assist 

the party retain power at the 

centre for at least the next 26 

years. 

National Chairman of the 

CECPC and governor of Yobe 

state, Mai Mala Buni, 

disclosed this in Abuja 

yesterday while inaugurating 

a 61-member Strategy and 

Contact Committee, ahead of 

the 2023 general election. 

This is even as Jigawa State 

governor and chairman of the 

committee, Alhaji Badaru 

Abubakar, said the party has 

now registered over 36 

members in its nationwide 

membership registration and 

revalidation drive. 

He also expressed optimism 

about the ability of the Buniled 

CECPC to conduct the 

national convention of the 

party latest June. 

The ruling party is nearly 

half way into its second term 

of four years, but Buni said the 

party was looking at being in 

power beyond its eight-year 

tenure. 

He said: “The constitution 

of the Strategy and Contact 

Committee, therefore, is to 

consolidate the achievements 

we are making in building a 

strong party with a solid 

structure that would 

accomplish APC to stand the 

test of time. 

“Our vision is to provide a 

wheel that will drive the party 

to go beyond 6th, 7th and even 

8th term of office to effectively 

implement the party 

manifesto, improve the lives 

of Nigerians and remain 

Nigeria’s leading political 

party. 

“This committee is, 

therefore, very key to our 

process of transition towards 

successful congresses and 

national convention and, to 

establish a very solid, 

reputable and reliable future 

for the party.” 

“As l said earlier, if you don’t 

manage your crisis, your crisis 

will manage you. I am happy 

to say that the committee is 

running an all inclusive 

administration, giving all 

stakeholders and indeed our 

members the opportunity to 

contribute in the onerous task 

of rebuilding the party." 

In his remarks, chairman of 

the committee and governor 

of Jigawa State, Alhaji 

Badaru Abubakar, urged 

members of the committee to 

make the necessary sacrifice 

and complement the efforts of 

President Muhammadu 

Buhari and the CECPC in 

ensuring that the party 

continues to be the party of 

choice for Nigerians. 

“I note with commendation 

that many Nigerians have 

continued to join the party 

daily and the ongoing 

registration has further 

demonstrated the popularity 

of the party in the country. We 

are mindful of the time table 

publicized by the party and 

our committee shall work 

assiduously to support the 

party in delivering on the time 

table. 

36 million members 

“Initially, we printed forms 

for only 10,000 members but 

we got up to 10 million 

members and now, we have 

gone to 36 million and that is 

not even enough. Now, we are 

printing more because people 

have seen what President 

Muhammadu Buhari has 

done with one slice of the 

resources the previous 

administration got. And the 

support is really tremendous. 

“It is very feasible. I know 

the national caretaker 

committee is committed to 

delivering in June. And we will 

support them and do 

whatever it takes to make sure 

we deliver by June,” the 

Jigawa governor added.

36 — VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 

She refuses to have my family 

at our wedding 

Dear Bunmi, 

MY FIANCÉE doesn't 

get on with my family 

and things have turned really 

nasty. She wasn't their 

favourite candidate when we 

first started dating as she used 

to date a relation. With time, 

I was able to work on my 

family to respect the love I 

had for her. Now that we're 

talking marriage, she's issued 

an ultimatum that if I 

involved my family the 

wedding wouldn't take place. 

I think this is absurd 

and I've told her she's 

overreacting but she refuses 

to budge. What should I do? 

Walter, By e-mail. 

Dear Walter, 

What an outrageous and 

ridiculous ultimatum! You 

should tell her to stop 

behaving like a spoilt brat. 

She supposedly loves you, yet 

wants you to promise not to 

see your family who you love 

dearly. Her behaviour should 

make you question the whole 

relationship but if you still 

want her, then let her know 

what she's asking for is 

impossible. That your family 

is as important to you as she 

is and you need to have an 

honest and practical chat 

about how to make things 

work so everyone can be 

happy. 

She doesn't have to love your 

family - or they her, but they 

both need to be respectful of 

your situation. Whatever you 

do, don't tell your family she 

asked you to make this choice 

because she certainly will 

forever remain in their bad 

books! 

Your friends who knew of your husband's affair and 

kept quiet didn't do so out of nastiness but fear of 

what might happen if the truth came out. They were 

afraid to be honest with you in case you turned on 

them and they might also be wary of interfering in 

your relationship, hoping that marriage might change 

your husband for the better. 

I don't feel passionate about him 

Dear Bunmi, 

I 

have had good and 

intense relationships in 

the past and had hoped this 

would continue with my 

current boyfriend, but life 

with him is quieter and though 

the lovemaking is okay, I 

wouldn't call it earth 

shattering. 

I just turned 30 and would 

love to have children, and my 

new man could be a sensible 

choice as he's financially solid. 

Only I'm not that excited 

about spending the rest of my 

life with him. My married 

friends have told me that 

passion fades with time, 

anyway, and I should stay 

with him because he's a good 

catch. 

Am I wrong for wanting to 

hang on for someone I feel 

passionate about? 

Constance, by e-mail. 

Dear Constance, 

We're not talking about a 

business partnership here, but 

a love match. Like your 

friends, some people would 

argue differently, saying 

If you're after a 

more powerful, 

emotional and 

sexual experience, 

then hang on for 

the person you 

want to instantly 

fall all over you! 

Passion won't 

guarantee you a 

lifetime lover but 

it's a good start 

and is likely to 

make you stick 

around for the 

finish. 

marriage plus children is a 

type of business arrangement, 

and the qualities you search 

for in a husband are different 

from those in a lover. The 

danger here is that if you 

settle for Mr. Sensible, 

chances of having affairs with 

men who turn you on are 

high. 

Who you choose to spend 

the rest of your life with and 

why, has a lot to do with your 

personality. If you want a 

passionate, intense 

relationship, chemistry is 

crucial. 

But if you would rather settle 

for 'content', then chemistry's 

not important. With real 

passion, the more involved 

you are, the more you have to 

lose and some people are wary 

of this. 

If you're after a more 

powerful, emotional and 

sexual experience, then hang 

on for the person you want to 

instantly fall all over you! 

Passion won't guarantee you 

a lifetime lover but it's a good 

start and is likely to make you 

stick around for the finish. 

And remember, even good 

relationships have a lot of 

boring bits, and passion is 

what keeps us hanging in 

there, rather than dashing out 

the door the second problems 

start. 

Who you choose to spend the rest of your life with 

and why, has a lot to do with your personality. If you 

want a passionate, intense relationship, chemistry is 

crucial. 

It feels like I'm still 

inexperienced 

Dear Bunmi, 

ALTHOUGH I am in my 

mid twenties, I lost my 

virginity only last year and 

I've had sex with a couple of 

guys to get more experience. 

But my relationship with these 

guys didn't last because sex 

with them didn't turn me on 

all that much. 

I've now met a man I 

consider my dream guy but 

we haven't had sex yet in 

spite of the fact we've been 

dating for weeks now. My 

problems is that I still feel like 

a virgin because I'm so 

inexperienced and I don't 

want to do anything wrong 

and put my new man off. 

What should I do? 

Saudat, By e-mail. 

Wearing knickers makes her 

uncomfortable! 

Dear Bunmi, 

Ihave been involved with 

Franca for over two years. 

She is a professional, highly 

successful woman and comes 

from a respectable 

background. She lives in a 

flat she bought in Ikoyi and I 

share a luxury flat with a 

friend on the Island. 

We are very compatible 

sexually and I have marriage 

on my mind. 

One thing that makes me 

uncomfortable is Franka's 

refusal to wear knickers. She 

says they make her 

uncomfortable. Even when 

she has her periods, she uses 

tampons and refuses to have 

anything to do with that brand 

of underwear. I shouldn't 

complain really as it has made 

love-making an adventurous 

project. But what happens if 

she climbs the stairs and 

Why did he marry me? 

Dear Bunmi, 

AFTER I discovered I 

was pregnant, my boyfriend 

of two years decided 

we should get married. I 

now have an 18-month-old 

son and my husband is in a 

hot affair with this woman he 

knew before we got married. 

As a matter of fact, almost 

everybody we knew were 

aware of the affair, yet no one 

told me especially since she 

is well known to me. I feel 

betrayed by everyone and 

have left my matrimonial 

home. I would have gone 

mad if I had stayed. 

Felicia, By e-mail. 

Dear Saudat, 

Why don't you learn to relax 

for a start? And forget the 

notion that you'll learn to be a 

good lover by having a series 

of men to practice with! 

Most people learn about sex 

in a committed relationship 

where you both have the time 

and desire to explore each 

other's bodies and learn how 

to communicate your sexual 

wants and needs in a safe, 

loving environment. 

Let your new man know you 

have limited experience with 

sex and that's why you haven't 

rushed it. With his help, you 

can then relax and if he's more 

experienced, let him take you 

through your paces! 

people can see up her legs? 

Or if she suddenly gets 

knocked down by a car and is 

exposed? 

She said nothing I would say 

would make her change her 

mind. But don't you think it's 

a bit of a frivolity for a lady 

not to wear knickers. 

Alaba, By e-mail. 

Dear Alaba, 

A lot of men would give their 

right arm to be in your shoes! 

Seriously, how many exposed 

knickers have you seen in the 

last ten years? Except you are 

a flasher, what you wear or 

don't wear underneath your 

clothes, be it male or female, 

is strictly your business. 

Frivolity has nothing to do 

with it and the earlier you 

came out of the Dark Ages, the 

sooner you'd enjoy this 

healthy relationship better. 

Dear Felicia, 

Your friends who knew of 

your husband's affair and 

kept quiet didn't do so out of 

nastiness but fear of what 

might happen if the truth 

came out. They were afraid 

to be honest with you in case 

you turned on them and they 

might also be wary of interfering 

in your relationship, 

hoping that marriage might 

change your husband for the 

better. 

Your husband is the love rat 

here and while you now have 

to get over his deceit, don't 

think your friends betrayed 

you too. They obviously believed 

they were doing their 

best for you. 

Share your problems and release 

your burden. Write now to 

Dear Bunmi, 

Vanguard Newspapers, 

P.M.B 1007, Apapa, Lagos, or 

bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 — 37


AFCON 2021: 

Super Eagles camp bubbles 

for Squirrels, Crocodiles 

Nigeria’s senior men team’s camp 

is teeming with her superstars 

as countdown begins for the final 

round of qualification matches for the 

2021 Africa Cup of Nations against 

Benin Republic and Lesotho 

respectively. 

At lunchtime on Tuesday, 23 

players had arrived at the 

magnificent Eko Hotel & Towers, 

Victoria Island, Lagos where the 

three-time African champions are 

ensconced ahead of the big duels. 

Nigeria top their group with eight 

points, one better than the Squirrels 

of Benin Republic, against whom 

they trade tackles at the Stade 

Charles de Gaulle in Porto Novo on 

Saturday in the penultimate round 

of the qualifying campaign. Three 

days later, the Eagles confront the 

Crocodiles of Lesotho at the Teslim 

Covid-19 pandemic has denied 

the world the spectacle usually 

associated with sports events. 

And since 2020 great football 

matches have been played and are 

still being played in empty stadiums 

to avoid spread of the diseases. 

Covid-19 has changed the world. 

However, Africa's soccer icon and 

Qatar 2022 World Cup ambassador, 

Samuel Eto'o is hopeful that some 

normalcy may result from the 

current global efforts fighting the 

pandemic and that the world will 

be treated to the usual spectacle that 

the World Cup is in 2022. 

'It's 600 days to the World Cup. 

That's a lot of time for things to get 

better and possibly get 100 percent 

of the usual spectacle we all 

experience from the fans', Eto'o said 

in a virtual media chat with African 

journalists Tuesday. Eto'o has been 

living in Qatar for three years now. 

He is a witness to the transformation 

the country has gone through in 

readiness for the World Cup in 2022. 

'If you consider the efforts 

everybody is making including the 

World Health Organisation, WHO, 

Balogun Stadium, Lagos in what will 

be their first encounter in Nigeria’s 

commercial and economic capital in 

10 years. 

With three –pointer Sierra Leone, 

third in the pool, concluding their 

game away to bottom –placed 

Lesotho in Maseru earlier, the Eagles 

could be guaranteed qualification for 

the final tournament in Cameroon 

before kick-off in Porto Novo. Failure 

by the Leone Stars to pick all three 

points will mean Nigeria and Benin 

are through to Cameroon. 

On Tuesday, Coach Gernot Rohr 

said his wards will approach 

Saturday’s match with the intention 

of picking all three poits, no matter 

the result of the group’s other tie in 

southern Africa. 

“We are keen to restore a winning 

mentality to the group ahead of very 

Qatar 2022 World Cup: 

I wish I were 10 years younger 

to play in Qatar — Eto'o 

•Says 'Football spectacle may 

return before the games' 

GWG acquires 

HISL/HIFL 

trademark 

Green White Green Sports 

Centre Ltd (GWG) has 

acquired Higher Institution Sports 

League (HISL) and Higher 

Institution Football League (HIFL) 

trademark. 

The acquisition extends the 

GWG’s search for all 

encompassing education - 

providing training; entertainment; 

sporting and cultural activities. 

Announcing the acquisition 

yesterday, Secretary, HISL/HIFL 

Supreme Management 

Committee, Babatunde Adejuwon, 

said GWG will at any moment from 

now come up with aggregate 

sports programmes for all Higher 

Education Institutions — in a way 

that suits developmental needs of 

combining sports with education. 

Adejuwon, who is a renowned 

volleyball promoter, added that 

combining sport with academic 

study improves athlete 

performance on the field as well as 

off it and gives the athlete a headstart 

in post-sport career. 

it's possible the spectacle may return 

at the World Cup. However, if the 

pandemic continues I'm sure that 

Qatar will take the right decisions 

that will be good for football,' he said 

while assuring that the Middle East 

country is ready to host the best 

World Cup ever. 

On the facilities he said that all the 

stadiums will be ready this year, 

noting that some are ready now and 

hosting matches. 

'Each time I visit any of the venues 

and see the magnificent structures I 

feel like a baby given a new toy. The 

sights are amazing to behold and I 

wish I were 10 years younger so that 

I could play there at the World Cup. 

Some of them are already hosting 

matches. The rest will be ready before 

the end of this year.' 

No African country has gotten 

close to winning the World Cup. 

Cameroun, Senegal and Ghana only 

reached the quarter finals. Will Qatar 

offer African countries better 

opportunities to excel? 

The last time Eto'o was asked a 

similar question he said Africa had 

the talents to do better than they 

have done at the World Cup but 

regretted that administration of the 

game in the continent has always 

frustrated the teams. His position has 

not changed but he hopes that 

African teams have what it takes to 

make their continent proud in Qatar. 

'Football is like a religion in Africa. 

The fans support their teams and 

they will bank on them to make them 

proud.' 

By John Egbokhan 

Super Eagles manager, Gernot 

Rohr, has inferred that Genk 

towering striker, Paul Onuachu, 

was a victim of his instant and early 

success in the senior national team. 

Rohr, initially excluded Onuachu, 

who has scored 25 goals from 30 

matches in the Belgian top flight 

league, from the upcoming African 

Cup of Nations qualifying fixtures 

against Benin Republic and 

Lesotho in Port Novo and Lagos, 

said the striker’s failure to live up 

to his early promise,where he 

scored a quick-fire goal, pushed him 

to the stand-by list of the national 

team. 

crucial matches that we have ahead. 

It is important that we earn victories 

in the upcoming matches so that we 

get into our paces for the FIFA World 

Cup qualifiers. There will be tough 

games to come and we need to be 

rearing to go.” 

The Eagles have Cape Verde, 

Liberia and Central Africa Republic 

to dispute in the 2022 FIFA World 

Cup race, with only the winner 

heading to the final knockout series 

in November. Liberia’s Lone Star will 

be the Eagles’ first opponents in that 

race, at home, before a trip to Bangui. 

•Ahmed 

Musa 

On the 

organisation 

a n d 

preparedness 

of Qatar, 

E t o ' o 

challenged 

African 

countries 

to emulate 

Qatar and 

be inspired 

by their vision. 

•Eto'o 

'Qatar is a small country in the 

Middle East but they are a country 

with visionary leaders who have 

made them what they are today. I 

hope that Africa will draw inspiration 

from them. The World Cup is not only 

about the games, there are so many 

benefits that come with it.' 

Eto'o feels that the package Qatar 

is offering to the world in 2022 is so 

amazing that he describes it as 'a 

gift to the world.' 

Rohr: Onuachu a victim of 

instant Eagles success 

But for UD Almeria's decision to 

stop Sadik Umar from linking up 

with the Eagles camp in Lagos, 

Onuachu, would not have been 

deemed good enough to make the 

team and speaking yesterday at the 

Eko Hotel, Rohr, who back-tracked 

on his earlier snub for Onuachu, 

with a late invitation, said the latter 

remains “a very important player” 

for Nigeria. 

“Onuachu is a part of the team, I 

invited him already when he 

played his first match and he 

scored the goal after seven seconds 

and then the people are waiting 

all the time that he is doing the 

same but he could not." 

Home-based players too much 

in a hurry —Rohr 

Super Eagles coach, Gernot 

Rohr has said home-based 

Nigerian players are too much in 

a hurry to get overseas clubs, hence 

their lack of break-through with 

the national team. 

Rohr has been under much 

criticism for his lack of 

enthusiasm for players in the 

Nigeria Professional Football 

League, but he said ahead of the 

African Cup of Nations qualifiers 

against Benin Republic and 

Lesotho this weekend, that homebased 

players need to develop 

their skills before going abroad. 

"I already invited more than 23 

or 24 local players since I have 

been in charge of the Super Eagles 

but we invite them and then 

immediately they are going to 

Europe. 

It is wonderful for them but 

maybe not for us,” said coach 

Rohr 

Meanwhile Adekunle Adeleke, 

Abia Warriors defender one of the 

NPFL players invited for the 

AFCON qualifiers games said he 

By John Egbokhan 

Super Eagles players have not 

been told that they would be 

travelling by boat to Port Novo for 

this weekend's African Cup of 

Nations qualifier against the 

Squirrels. 

Only last week, the President of the 

Nigeria Football Federation , Amaju 

Pinnick and the Eagles manager, 

Gernot Rohr, embarked on a boat trip 

to Benin Republic, as a way of 

reassuring the Franco-German 

tactician on the safety and 

workability of moving the team 

for the duel with the 

Squirrels. 

It was learnt that Rohr 

had initially raised 

eyebrows over the plan to 

ferry the team to Benin 

•Adeleke 

would make good use of the 

opportunity. 

“Definitely we are going to give 

a good account of ourselves and 

try to do our best to show that 

there are good and quality 

players in the league,” Adeleke 

said 

Eagles not aware of boat 

trip to Benin 

By Jacob Ajom 

Super 

Eagles 

manager, Gernot 

Rohr has said that the 

Super Eagles were happy to be in 

Lagos after their sojourns to Uyo, 

Asaba and Benin in the past. 

Rohr who was speaking with 

the media after Super Eagles 

walkout in the gym Tuesday 

morning said Lagos was an ideal 

place with superb facilities that could 

not be accessed in Benin and Asaba. 

“I am happy to be in Lagos because 

we have good facilities here and Uyo 

was very good too. But we don't have 

to travel far before playing our match. 

In the past, when we were going to 

the regions we had to sleep in Lagos 

first before travelling to either Benin 

or Asaba to play,” he recalled. 

He was sure the pitch would not 

be a problem because he was aware 

Republic by boat but later softpedalled 

after the sea voyage to 

Cotonou in a boat. 

''With the experience, I strongly 

believe our coming trip to Port Novo 

is doable by boat'', Pinnick wrote on 

his instagram page. 

But speaking for the first time on 

the issue, captain Ahmed Musa said 

yesterday that the players were yet 

to be intimated on the recourse to 

boat to hit Benin for the AFCON 

qualifier. 

''We are not aware that we would 

be travelling by boat to Benin 

Republic. This is news to me'', said 

Musa. 

When told that Manager Rohr has 

confirmed that the team would go 

on a boat voyage for the game, Musa 

responded, ''I am sure we would be 

briefed and personally, I have 

nothing against the plan if its okay. 

Rohr: Eagles happy to be 

in Lagos 

Benin match a 

must win – Rohr 

that the Teslim Balogun stadium 

management had been working on 

the grass/ 

He expressed optimism, “They 

have been working hard on the 

grass. The last time I came here 

some weeks back, I made a point 

about the grass. I think the grass 

will be okay.” 

The coach also expressed 

happiness over the prospects of the 

Eagles playing in front of Lagos fans 

when they take on the Crocodiles of 

Lesotho, March 30. 

“Playing in front of 

fans will make the 

players happy 

and I am sure it 

is going to be a 

very good final 

match because 

we are going to 

celebrate our 

qualification.” 

Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, 

has said beating the Republic of 

Benin at home is a task that must 

be accomplished when they meet in 

•Rohr 

the AFCON qualifiers. 

The Franco-German coach is already 

anticipating challenging games in Porto Novo 

against the Squirrels and in Lagos against Lesotho on March 27 and 

30 respectively. 

Nigeria leads the Group L qualifying group with eight points after four 

matches while Benin trail in second place with seven points and Lesotho are 

at the bottom of the group with two points. 

But the Super Eagles remain favourites to join the party at Cameroon 

2022, especially with the majority of invited Europe and home-based stars 

already available in the country for the two crucial encounters. 

And a confident Rohr is targeting a draw in Porto Novo against the tough 

Squirrels and a big win in Lagos versus Lesotho. 

“We want to finish our qualification on a positive note, and the two matches 

against Benin and Lesotho are very important,” Rohr told the CAF website. 

“Of course, we know that Benin is difficult to beat after our last game in 

Uyo (Nigeria won 2-1) and we need at least a point against them to qualify 

for next year’s Afcon.


C 

M 

Y 

K

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 

TODAY’S CROSSWORD 

QUICK CROSSWORD 

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION 

TODAY’S PUZZLE 

Sudoku 

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER 

ACROSS 

1 First showing of a film (8) 

6 Fool (3) 

9 Abate (3,2) 

10 Colonist (7) 

11 Ridiculous pretence (7) 

13 Synthetic fabric (5) 

14 Whitening chemical (6) 

15 Brigand (6) 

18 Broadcasting medium (5) 

20 Pseudonym (3,4) 

21 First (7) 

22 Subject, topic (5) 

23 Express (3) 

24 Extend (8) 

DOWN 

2 Go over again (7) 

3 Chart (3) 

4 Festival in spring (6) 

5 Divert (9) 

6 Mixture of metals (5) 

7 Fortified (12) 

8 Bramble fruit (12) 

12 Hermit (9) 

16 Local language variation (7) 

17 Handsome Greek god (6) 

19 Make into a god (5) 

22 Sudden abrupt pull (3) 

How to Play Sudoku 

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

two of the same number). 

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

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

(nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means 

that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row. 

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

multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination. 

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

24032021 - Insecurity threatens 2023 elections, Ortom tells Buhari

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