14042021 -6 Northern govs link up to fight banditry, terrorism

34 

Kidnapping and 

closure of schools: 

Surest bomb for 

the destruction of 

Nigeria (3) 

EFCC arrests ex-Imo governor, 

Okorocha over alleged N7.9bn 

cash in banks 

Lawmakers' aides disrupt 

4 

sitting over unpaid salaries 

Despite exiting recession, economy declines -1.9% 

11 

No to Hijab 

in Christian 

schools 

— CAN 

8 

19 

VOL. 27: NO. 64313 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021 

INSECURITY: 

6 Northern govs link up to 

fight banditry, terrorism 

8 

•Says Niger State's Gov Sani Bello, as Police arrest man,35 for alledgedly 

killing Chief Imam in Niger •Bid to kidnap Plateau varsity students foiled — P.6 

PASTOR ADEBOYE VISITS EL-RUFAI... 

Governor Nasiru El-rufai of Kaduna State (right) receives the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God 

(RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna, yesterday. Photo: Olu Ajayi. 

S-East govs, IPOB 

on collision course 

over EbubeAgu 

COLUMNISTS 

5 

Doctors, nurses 

declare strike over 

kidnappings, killings 

in Ogun 

NNANNA OCHEREOME 16 FASAN 17 DEAR BUNMI 33 

10 

Konshisha: 

Benue 

security 

council 

demands 

return of 

slain 14 

soldiers’ 

weapons 

Mr & Mrs

C 

M 

Y 

K 

2 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021 — 3 

COVID-19: US suspends J&J vaccine over 

blood clots fears 

CDC, FDA investigate 6 reported cases 

.By Sola Ogundipe 

LESS than a week after 

Europe’s drugs 

regulators admitted that 

there is an extremely rare 

chance of fatal blood clots 

occurring in persons who 

receive the AstraZeneca 

COVD-19 vaccine, US 

health agencies have 

suspended the use of the 

Johnson & Johnson, J&J, 

single-dose COVID-19 

vaccine following the 

development of a similar 

rare disorder involving 

blood clots among 

recipients. 

In a joint statement, the 

US Centres for Disease 

Control and Prevention, 

CDC, and the Food and 

Drug Administration, FDA, 

said they were reviewing 

“six reported US cases of a 

rare and severe type of 

blood clot within 13 days 

after receiving the vaccine.” 

All the six recipients were 

women between the ages 

of 18 and 48. One woman 

died and a second has been 

hospitalised in critical 

condition. About 7 million 

Americans have so far 

received the single dose 

vaccine. 

The regulators are 

reviewing whether the 

vaccine is safe to use 

following discovery of the 

extremely rare and severe 

blood clot found in 

recipients of the jab. 

“Right now, these 

adverse events appear to 

be extremely rare. We are 

recommending a pause in 

the use of this vaccine out 

of an abundance of caution, 

to ensure that the health 

care provider community is 

aware of the potential for 

these adverse events”, the 

statement noted. 

Following the 

development, Johnson & 

Johnson pharmaceutical 

company has announced 

that it would delay its 

European rollout of the shot. 

Food and Drug 

Administration scientist 

Peter Marks said the 

disorder might be triggered 

by a rare immune response 

to the vaccine similar to that 

seen among a few hundred 

recipients of the 

AstraZeneca jab in Europe. 

Both the Johnson & 

Johnson and AstraZeneca 

vaccines are based on 

adenovirus vector 

technology. 

The suspension is 

another blow for the 

troubled European vaccine 

rollout campaign. 

European Union has 

signed a deal for 200 

million shots of the vaccine 

with an option for 200 

million more. 

Dr. Janet Woodcock, the 

acting FDA commissioner, 

said she expected the 

pause to last for just days. 

From left—Director General, NACA, Dr. Gambo Aliyu; CEO, Lagos State AIDS 

Control Agency, LSACA, Dr. Monsurat Adeleke; Chairman of Board, NACA, Senator 

Dipo Odujirin, and Mr. Faud Laguda, at the graduation ceremony of Economic 

Empowerment of Youth for HIV/AIDS prevention in Lagos. 

“We are committed to 

safety and transparency 

and expeditiously learning 

as much as we can so 

further steps can be taken,” 

said Dr. Anne Schuchat, 

principal deputy director for 

the CDC. 

“When we saw this 

pattern and were aware 

that treatment needed to be 

individualised for this 

condition, it was of the 

upmost importance to get 

the word out,” she said. 

“That said, the pandemic is 

severe and it’s important to 

get vaccine out so want to 

make sure we make 

recommendation quickly.” 

Dr. Leana Wen, a former 

Baltimore health 

commissioner and a public 

health professor at the 

George Washington 

University, called the 

temporary halt of the 

By Gabriel Olawale 

MINISTER of Works 

and Housing, 

Babatunde Fashola has 

urged Nigerians to me 

more concerned with the 

quality of environment in 

which they live rather than 

agitating for more 

healthcare facilities. 

He opinioned that the 

conversation should focus 

more on the wellbeing and 

wellness of every citizen as 

no quantity of health 

infrastructure can be 

enough, "our conversation 

seems to be focus 

predominAantly on the 

quality of our health 

facilities rather than the 

quality of our environment. 

"We focus more on the 

number of hospitals, 

doctors, nurses among 

other health workers, while 

that is good, I think the 

Johnson & Johnson 

vaccine “exactly the right 

move. 

“To be sure, this is a 

disappointing setback, 

because the one-dose J&J 

has so much potential for 

easy distribution & 

administration. This, again, 

is why a thorough 

investigation is occurring. 

“The reason this really 

needs to be alerted now is 

for doctors who may see 

patients with this rare 

condition, to know what to 

look for and how to treat 

them.” 

The type of blood clot 

reportedly found in the 

vaccine recipients, known 

as cerebral venous sinus 

thrombosis, CVST, is 

accompanied by low levels 

of blood platelets. 

It occurs when a blood 

clot forms in the brain and 

more need to be on the 

quality of our environment. 

For instance, cars are made 

to work rather than to be in 

mechanic garage and you 

all know that we cannot 

build enough garages in 

case cars break down so 

also we cannot build 

enough hospitals. 

"The COVID-19 

pandemic has shown that 

even the country with 

abundance of hospitals 

and facilities soon became 

overwhelmed until they 

return to the basics such as 

hand washing, physical 

distance, sanitation among 

others. 

“So ideal healthcare 

system must emphasise 

more on proper refuse 

disposal, screening, 

healthy living among 

others while healthcare 

facilities are not left behind." 

Fashola, a guest lecturer 

leads to hemorrhages. The 

symptoms are similar to that 

of strokes, such as 

headache, blurred vision, 

loss of mobility, seizures or 

fainting. 

People that have received 

the J&J vaccine who 

develop a severe 

headache, abdominal pain, 

leg pain or shortness of 

breath within three weeks 

after vaccination, have been 

advised to contact their 

health care provider. 

Nigeria expects to receive 

up to 70 million doses of the 

J&J vaccine this year 

through the African Union, 

according to the the 

Nigeria Primary 

Healthcare Development 

Agency, NPHCDA. 

Up to 400 million doses 

of the J&J vaccine are 

expected to be delivered to 

Africa by 2022. 

We should prioritise environment more 

than health facilities — FASHOLA 

at the 7th Felix Oladejo 

Dosekun Memorial 

Lecture, said that Nigeria 

should not wait for the 

infrastructures to decay 

before starting the 

maintenance. 

"We need to ask ourselves 

on how we can replace, 

expand the decayed health 

infrastructures in the 

medical schools. No matter 

the quality of infrastructure, 

if people do not used it 

properly it will not last.” 

Speaking on the theme, 

"Medical Education in 

Nigeria: The Challenges of 

Infrastructural Decay", 

Fashola said: "Our focus is 

to redesign medical 

schools that will improve 

our public health and 

preventive health, 

especially epidemiology 

area because of outbreak 

of infectious disease or 

viruses. 

Study identifies potential 

COVID-19 drugs 

By Sola Ogundipe 

A 

TEAM led by 

scientists in the 

Perelman School of 

Medicine at the University 

of Pennsylvania has 

identified nine potential 

new COVID-19 

treatments, including three 

that are already approved 

by the Food and Drug 

Administration (FDA) for 

treating other diseases. 

The team, whose findings 

are published in Cell 

Reports, screened 

thousands of existing 

drugs and drug-like 

molecules for ability to 

inhibit the replication of the 

COVID-19 virus. 

Of the nine drugs found 

to reduce the replication 

in respiratory cells, three 

already have FDA 

approval 

"Our discoveries here 

suggest new avenues for 

therapeutic interventions 

against COVID-19, and 

also underscore the 

importance of testing 

candidate drugs in 

respiratory cells," said Dr 

Sara Cherry, a professor 

of Pathology and 

Laboratory Medicine and 

scientific director of the 

High-Throughput 

Screening (HTS) Core at 

Penn Medicine. 

Although great progress 

has been made in the 

development of vaccines 

and treatments for the 

By Sola Ogundipe 

A 

RENOWED Nigerian 

gynaecologist and 

fertility specialist, Dr 

Abayomi Ajayi, has been 

awarded the 2022 Endo 

Hero of the Year Award by 

the Worldwide EndoMarch 

Board and Nezhart Family 

Foundation. 

The award was 

presented in recognition of 

Ajayi’s outstanding 

contributions to the 

community and cause of 

ending the pain of 

endometriosis through the 

activities of the Nigerian 

EndoMarch chapter - the 

Endometriosis Support 

Group Nigeria, ESGN. 

Endometriosis is a disorder 

in which the endometrial 

tissue that normally lines the 

uterus grows outside the 

uterus, causing pain, 

menstrual irregularities and 

infertility, amongst other 

symptoms. 

In a statement announcing 

the award, the World 

EndoMarch Board 

described Ajayi, who is the 

Founder, and Patron of the 

ESGN, as “an incredible 

leader and inspiration in the 

global endometriosis 

community.” 

In a response, Ajayi, who 

is also the Medical Director, 

Nordica Fertility Clinic, 

Lagos, Asaba and Abuja, 

recounted how, as a trained 

SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, 

there is still much room for 

improvement. 

For their screening 

project, Cherry and 

colleagues assembled a 

library of 3,059 compounds, 

including about 1,000 FDAapproved 

drugs and more 

than 2,000 drug-like 

molecules that have shown 

activity against defined 

biological targets. They 

then tested all for their 

ability to significantly 

inhibit replication in 

infected cells, without 

causing much toxicity. 

They identified a suitable 

cell line, Calu-3, that is 

derived from human 

airway-lining cells. They 

used these respiratoryderived 

cells to test the 

antiviral compounds 

identified through the 

human liver cell screen, 

and found that only nine 

had activity in the new cells. 

The nine antivirals active 

in respiratory cells include 

salinomycin, a veterinary 

antibiotic that is also being 

investigated as an 

anticancer drug; the kinase 

enzyme inhibitor 

dacomitinib, an anticancer 

drug; bemcentinib, another 

kinase inhibitor now being 

tested against cancers; the 

antihistamine drug 

ebastine; and cyclosporine, 

an immune suppressing 

drug commonly used to 

prevent immune rejection 

of transplanted organs. 

Ajayi wins ‘2022 Endo Hero 

of the Year Award’ 

Dr Abayomi Ajayi 

gynecologist and 

obstetrician, he was 

fascinated by the 

disiscussions in the 80s and 

90s when it was believed that 

black women did not suffer 

endometriosis. 

Ajayi, who affirmed that 

endometriosis is not a 

Caucasian condition, noted: 

“From the inception of my 

fertility practice in 2003, 

especially after the 

introduction of endoscopy in 

2005, we encountered 

several patients with 

advanced endometriosis. 

“At that time, many people 

in Africa were struggling to 

pronounce the word 

endometriosis,” he noted. 

The ESGN is a non-profit 

organisation committed to 

raising awareness on 

endometriosis and providing 

support for women affected.

4 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021 

:Vanguard News 

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

COMMISSIONING: Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State (middle) flanked by his wife, Dr. 

Amina Abubakar Bello and Commissioner for Health, Dr Mohd Makunsidi at the official 

commissioning of Niger State Primary Health Care Development Agency in the state. 

Lawmakers’ aides disrupt sitting over 

unpaid salaries 

By Tordue Salem 

ABUJA—AIDES 

to 

senators and members of 

the House of Representatives 

yesterday embarked on protest 

over unpaid salary arrears, 

minimum wage implementation, 

duty tour allowance, and other 

entitlements. 

This is even as the 

Parliamentary Staff Association 

of Nigeria, PASAN, of both 

National Assembly, NASS, and 

We aren't against financial 

autonomy for judiciary — GOVS 

•Insist FG can't dictate ways of 

implementation to any state 

By Henry Umoru 

A Nigeria BUJA—THE 

Governors 

Forum, NGF said yesterday it was 

not opposed to financial 

autonomy of the judiciary at both 

the state and federal levels. 

The NGF said it had concluded 

plans to meet with the leadership 

of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, 

JUSUN, to nip the 8-day old 

strike in the bud. 

Answering questions from 

journalists yesterday in Abuja 

after a meeting of the governors 

and French Minister of Foreign 

Trade and Attractiveness, Frank 

Riester, Governor Simon Lalong 

of Plateau State, who insisted 

that governors were only 

concerned about the 

implementation of financial law 

and not order 10, said the federal 

government cannot dictate ways 

of implementation to any state. 

He said: “The court did not 

make any pronouncement on 

Order 10. The court said there is 

a law on financial, so Order 10 

and financial autonomy are 

different. Order 10 is not law, 

financial autonomy is law. 

“Now, the implementation of 

your financial autonomy was 

what according to them, led to 

the enactment of Order 10. So 

people don’t understand what is 

Order 10; Order 10 is talking 

about implementation. 

‘’But for us governors, we are 

saying no; we are going to do 

implementation, we don’t need 

any Order 10 to force us to do 

implementation. We are only 

working on the law of 

implementation because the 

Federal Government cannot tell 

us how to implement. 

“I was speaker, we started it in 

1999; today I’m a governor, and I 

knew how the governors agreed, 

and brought in financial 

autonomy. It was a law agreed by 

the governors and the governors 

said go and pass it. 

“So who is the one that is even 

crying more than the bereaved? 

We are the ones, all these things 

affect us. Talking today, I’m a 

lawyer and I would want the 

judiciary to be autonomous. 

“It is strengthening the 

institution, because people are 

thinking that is about money, it’s 

not about money. We want all the 

institutions strengthened; both 

the judiciary and the legislature.” 

While responding to a question 

on why governors were footdragging, 

Governor Lalong, who 

disagreed with the insinuation, 

however, argued: “No governor 

is foot-dragging. Who’s footdragging? 

“We were not consulted when 

we saw a law passed and Order 

came. So when you are talking 

about implementation, you’re 

talking about policy, you don’t 

wake up because law is passed 

and you said you are doing it, 

how? There must be processes. 

“For instance, as a speaker I 

will tell you that you cannot do 

financial autonomy until you 

have a service commission in 

place, you must establish a state 

allocation committee, and all 

these are steps toward autonomy. 

“You don’t achieve autonomy 

in a day; we did it for National 

Assembly, and there was no Order 

10 for implementation. It took 

them stages. The federal 

government is aware, members 

of National Assembly are today 

governors, how can they say they 

don’t want autonomy? 

‘’We have seven governors who 

are members of the National 

Assembly who fought for 

autonomy and got it for National 

Assembly. So we are saying it’s a 

process. By the time you move 

the process but someone will just 

come and say Order 10, I’m doing 

it today, no!” 

National Assembly Service 

Commission, NASC, chapters 

vowed to embark on strike today, 

if the management failed to meet 

its members’ demands. 

The aides, who stormed the 

lobby of the National Assembly, 

wielding placards with various 

inscriptions, accused the Clerk to 

the National Assembly, CNA, 

Arc. Olatunde Ojo, of failure to 

pay their salary arrears, 

implement Consolidated 

Legislative Salary Structure, 

CONLESS, minimum wage, 

Duty Tour Allowances, DTA, lack 

of training and conditions of 

service. 

The angry protesters on 

sighting the speaker of the 

House of Representatives, Femi 

Gbajabiamila, who was on his way 

to the Chamber, started chanting 

solidarity songs, forcing him to 

stop to hear from their leaders. 

Mr. Zebis Prince, who 

represents the South-South 

geopolitical zone of the group, told 

the speaker that the aides 

desired the CNA to meet their 

demands. 

The demands were presented 

to him by the Chairman, 

National Assembly Legislative 

Aides Forum, NASSLAF, 

Comrade Salisu Zuru. 

Receiving the letter of demand, 

Gbajabiamila said it was 

inexcusable not to pay workers’ 

arrears dating back to 2019. 

He said: ‘’I believe every 

labourer should be paid his 

wages. We are looking into it. 

While these things can be 

protracted, not paying wages of 

2019 is inexcusable. We will look 

into it. I will just ask that you be 

patient. We plead for your 

understanding. 

‘’We know there are 

financial constraints but one 

thing I know is this will be 

resolved amicably and your 

arrears will be paid. We 

appreciate you for bringing these 

demands to our attention and we 

will attend to it accordingly.’’ 

Addressing journalists shortly 

after, the chairman, National 

Assembly legislative aides, Mr 

Stanley Ugwu, said their 

grievances revolved around the 

fact that certain privileges and 

rights of the legislative aides were 

being sat upon by management 

of the National Assembly. 

He said: ‘’We engaged them on 

administrative processes up till a 

point of getting a resolution to 

investigate the non-payment of 

the 2019 salary arrears, which the 

House of Representatives set up 

a committee to look into. 

‘’They sat, conducted their 

activities and the report was laid 

and adopted by the House. Since 

the report has been accepted at 

the plenary, the management 

has not deemed it fit to make the 

payments. The quarterly training 

for the aides has not been done 

as well and if aides are not trained, 

the quality of the legislation you 

will have here will be low.’’ 

Meanwhile, parliamentary 

workers have vowed to embark 

on strike today, if the 

management of National 

Assembly failed to meet their 

demands. 

This was disclosed in a joint 

communique issued at the end 

of PASAN Congress held at 

Conference Room 28 of the 

House of Representatives in the 

New Wing of the National 

Assembly. 

The association in the 

communique signed by Comrade 

Sunday Sabiyyi (Chairman, 

NASS chapter) and Comrade 

Oisamaye Ojemeri (Chairman, 

NASC chapter), asked the 

management of National 

Assembly to implement the 

minimum wage/consequential 

adjustment and the financial 

provisions in their conditions of 

service. 

Speaking at plenary yesterday, 

speaker of the House, Femi 

Gbajabiamila, appealed to the 

workers to exercise some 

patience, assuring that the issue 

would be resolved soon. 

Political appointees causing 

heavy wage bill — NECA 

A BUJA—THE 

Director-General, 

Nigeria Employers’ Consultative 

Association, Dr Timothy 

Olawale, has said that state 

governments should take a cue 

from the association, whose 

members had pledged to try to 

retain their workers as much as 

possible amid the economic 

downturn in the country. 

According to him, the provision 

of jobs for the masses is part of 

the social responsibility of 

government. 

He said the wages overload in 

states was not on workers’ salaries 

but on political appointees. 

“So, the government should 

even be the very last to consider 

this issue of laying off of workers. 

‘’What we would advise the 

By Udeme Akpan 

AS Nigeria continues to 

record high level of expired 

refinery licences, experts 

yesterday identified lack of funds 

and feedstock as factors militating 

against the construction of new 

plants. 

The experts, who expressed 

their positions in different 

interviews with Vanguard, said 

such investors had the right to 

reapply for the renewal of their 

licences. 

Lead promoter, EnergyHub 

Nigeria, Dr. Felix Amieyeofori, 

said: “The investors encounter 

many problems, including lack of 

funds and feedstock. But the good 

thing about it is that they have 

the right to reapply.” 

Similarly, former Managing 

Director, Niger Delta Petroleum 

Resources, Dr. Layi Fatona, said: 

“conscientious focus and 

determination are required in the 

pursuit and delivery of any 

project in the Nigerian airspace. 

“There is no capital long 

enough and not much of equity 

is available to pursue refining 

projects.” 

Meanwhile, the Department of 

Petroleum Resources, DPR, has 

denied revoking 32 refinery 

licences in the country. 

Some publications, (not 

Vanguard) had erroneously 

Massive job creation, remedy for 

insecurity, says ex-Ecobank Chair 

By Providence 

Adeyinka 

FORMER Chairman 

of Ecobank Plc, Dr. John 

Odeyemi has called for 

massive job creation for 

Nigerian teeming youths as 

the only solution to the 

lingering and worsening 

security crisis in the country 

at the moment. 

Odeyemi who doubles as 

former National President of 

Nigerian Association of 

Chambers of Commerce, 

Industry, Mines and 

Agriculture (NACCIMA), said 

this at a thanksgiving service 

marking his 82nd birthday 

anniversary held at Saint 

Paul’s Anglican Church, 

Diocese of Ife (Church of 

Nigeria), Ayegbaju Ile Ife, 

Osun State, describing the 

government to do is to set their 

priorities right,” he said, adding 

that there were many avoidable 

expenditure heads that could be 

done away with. 

“Workers’ welfare, retention of 

workers should be top on their 

priorities. For political reasons, 

many politicians, many governors 

were recruiting and putting those 

we were not supposed to be in 

civil service there. The wages 

overload is not on the workers’ 

salaries; it is on political 

appointees. 

“Check most of the states, 

check the number of advisers and 

special assistants that are 

advising the advisers – all those 

appendages of government 

appointees; check what goes into 

their purses every month.'' 

Lack of funds, feedstock, hinder 

construction of 32 refineries 

•We didn’t revoke licences — DPR 

rising unemployment rate in 

the country as worrisome. 

In a statement, Odeyemi 

expressed concern on state of 

the nation, especially the 

rising unemployment rate 

and security challenge in the 

country currently, saying this 

was the time for radical 

decisions to be taken to 

address challenges facing the 

nation. 

Latest unemployment 

report by the National 

Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 

showed that Nigeria’s 

unemployment rate hit a new 

record high of 33.3 per cent 

in Q4, 2020 from 27.1 per cent 

recorded in Q2, 2020, which is 

a pointer and bad signal that 

something rational has to be 

done urgently to address the 

degeneration of social vices 

and security challenge in Nigeria. 

reported that the agency revoked 

the licences recently. 

But DPR said in a statement : 

“We wish to clarify that DPR did 

not revoke any refinery licence. 

Refinery licence like our other 

regulatory instruments has 

validity periods for investors to 

attain certain milestones. 

“This implies that after the 

validity period for the particular 

milestone, the licence becomes 

inactive until the company 

reapplies for revalidation to 

migrate to another milestone. 

This does not in any way 

translate to revocation of the 

licence of the company. 

”DPR in line with the 

aspirations of the government 

initiated the refinery revolution 

programme of government 

aimed at boosting local refining 

capacity by enabling business 

and creating new opportunities 

for investors with the granting of 

modular and conventional 

refinery licenses. 

‘’DPR will continue to provide 

support to investors in the oil and 

gas industry in Nigeria using our 

regulatory instruments of 

licences, permits and approvals 

to stimulate the economy and 

align with government’s job 

creation initiatives.” 

The refinery projects which 

licences expired include BUA 

Refinery & Petrochemicals (Akwa 

Ibom); Dee Jones (Cross River); 

Energia Ltd (Delta); Southfield 

Petrochemical & Refinery Ltd 

(Edo); Starex Petroleum Refinery 

(Onne Oil & Gas Free Trade 

Zone); RG Shinjin 

Petrochemicals (Delta); Don Mac 

(Edo), Platinum Hydrocarbon 

Resources (Delta), Mondonat 

Nigeria Ltd (Delta); Ikwe-Onna 

Refinery (Akwa Ibom); Shepha 

Petroleum & Petrochemicals 

Company (Delta); JIL-Amber 

(Port Harcourt Refinery); 

Gazingstock Petroleum 

Company (Delta); Petrolex Oil & 

Gas Limited (Ogun); Eghudu 

Refinery (Edo); Ibafon Refinery 

FZE (Calabar FTZ, Cross River); 

and Kainji Resources (Imo). 

Others are Eko Petrochem & 

Refining Company (Lagos); Hi 

Rev Oil (Akwa Ibom); Epic 

Refinery & Petrochemical 

Industries (Bayelsa); Masters 

Energy Oil & Gas (Rivers); Cross 

Country Oil & Gas (Imo); Grifon 

Energy (Ondo); Sifax Oil & Gas 

Co (Lagos); Capital Oil & Gas 

Industries (Lagos), All Grace 

Energy (Rivers); Green Energy 

Int'l (Rivers); and others.

vanguardnews 

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POCKET CARTOON 

Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri (middle), his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo 

(5th left), former Military Governor of Old Rivers State and Amanyanabo of Twon-Brass, King Alfred 

Diete-Spiff (4th left), new Commander, Operation Delta Safe, Rear Admiral Aminu Hassan, during a a 

courtesy visit to Government House, Yenagoa, on Tuesday. BAYELSA GOVERNMENT HOUSE PHOTO. 

S’East govs, IPOB on collision 

course over Ebube Agu 

•IPOB rejects new security network, says anyone joining 

EbubeAgu to spy on ESN should prepare to meet his ancestors 

•EbubeAgu’ll be backed by law – Ikpeazu•ESN is social media 

outfit, only south-east govs can set up security group •CSOs 

back regional security outfits as cover for defenceless 

Nigerians•Caution govs over abuse of operations 

By Anayo Okoli, Regional Editor, South- 

East, Gabriel Ewepu, Peter Okutu, 

Chinonso Alozie & Steve Oko 

ENUGU — South- 

East governors 

and the 

Indigenous People of 

Biafra, IPOB, may be on 

collision course, as the 

latter has rejected 

formation of the new 

security network, codenamed 

EbubeAgu, by the 

former. 

IPOB’s rejection of 

EbubeAgu came as Abia 

State Governor, Okezie 

Ikpeazu, said yesterday 

that the new security outfit 

will be backed by law, 

saying the houses of 

assembly in the region are 

working to give it legal 

teeth. 

But IPOB warned Igbo 

youths to keep their 

distance from EbubeAgu, 

if its motive is to spy on 

pro-Biafra groups. 

This is even as Ralph 

Uwazuruike, founder of 

the Movement for the 

Actualisation of Sovereign 

State of Biafra, MASSOB, 

yesterday threw his 

weight behind EbubeAgu, 

saying the Eastern 

Security Network, ESN, 

launched by IPOB, 

remains a “social media 

network” that has no form 

of recognition.” 

Civil Society 

Organisations, CSOs, 

also yesterday backed the 

establishment of regional 

security networks across 

the country to provide 

cover for defenceless 

Nigerians, but cautioned 

governors against using 

them to intimidate 

perceived enemies. 

It will be recalled that 

South-East governors had 

on Sunday announced 

formation of EbubeAgu, 

saying the regional 

security network which 

will be an amalgam of all 

the vigilante groups in the 

region, would be 

headquartered in Enugu. 

IPOB rejects 

Ebube Agu 

But reacting to 

EbubeAgu’s formation in 

a statement yesterday, 

IPOB in a statement by its 

Media and Publicity 

Secretary, Emma 

Powerful, rejected the 

outfit, saying the 

establishment of another 

security outfit in the zone 

is unnecessary. 

IPOB said the Eastern 

Security, Network ESN, 

set up in December 2020 

by its leader, Mazi 

Nnamdi Kanu, is enough 

and already living up to 

expectations. 

According to IPOB, the 

action of the governors is 

rather belated and 

suspicious. 

The statement read: 

“How can you launch a 

security outfit without first 

assembling the personnel 

and equipping them? 

“When Amotekun was 

formed, it was not 

abstract, the personnel 

and their equipment were 

handy. When our leader 

floated the gallant Eastern 

Security Network, ESN, 

the men were on ground. 

“How then did South- 

East governors announce 

a security outfit without 

any personnel or were 

they under any pressure 

to hurriedly make the 

announcement after years 

of foot-draging and 

deceit? 

“However, whether or 

not they were under any 

influence, we want to 

remind them that there is 

no need for them to form 

another security outfit in 

our land since we have 

our formidable ESN. They 

woke up from their 

slumber rather too late. We 

have gone beyond that 

stage unless they are on a 

mission to sabotage ESN. 

“Any other security outfit 

formed in South-East will 

crash because ESN is 

already on ground and 

living up to expectations. 

"ESN was floated based 

on the clamour by our 

people, and they have 

since thrown their support 

behind the outfit. Forming 

another regional security 

outfit is suspicious, and a 

needless waste. 

"The governors failed 

our people when they 

needed their protection. 

It’s already late! Biafrans 

will not be deceived by 

this purported EbubeAgu 

security outfit which is a 

huge joke. 

"South-East governors 

set up the outfit probably 

to fulfill all righteousness 

or to spy on ESN to curry 

favour from their slave 

masters.” 

The statement warned of 

bitter consequences for 

anyone joining 

EbubeAgu with the 

intension to spy on ESN. 

“We therefore, warn 

our youths to have 

nothing to do with the socalled 

EbubeAgu security 

outfit which was 

ostensibly formed to 

sabotage IPOB and ESN. 

“Anyone who neglects 

this warning and thinks 

he can hide under the 

cloak of EbubeAgu to spy 

on ESN should be 

prepared to join his 

ancestors. The protection 

of all Biafrans is our 

priority and we are 

prepared to sacrifice 

anything to achieve this.’’ 

It will be backed 

by law — Ikpeazu 

In a similar 

development, Governor 

Okizie Ikpeazu, has said 

the new security outfit, 

EbubeAgu, will be backed 

Continues on Page 35 

By Mary Obaebor 

On strike by JUSUN to demand autonomy for Judiciary 

I 

believe JUSUN is 

moving in the right 

direction. The Judiciary is 

the last hope of the common 

man and it has been 

hijacked by the executive for 

their selfish interest. The 

Judiciary the world over is 

supposed to be autonomous 

because it is the only arm of 

government that protects 

human rights. I believe 

JUSUN is fighting for the 

common man on the street. 

—Gloria Usonegbu, 

Entrepreneur 

I 

support the strike 

action by JUSUN; the 

judiciary should not be 

influenced by the other arms 

of government so that they 

can discharge their 

constitutional duties. Today, 

our democracy is in a 

shambles because the 

judiciary is not independent; 

it has been hijacked by some 

strong individuals. It has to 

be independent to function 

effectively. 

—Ejiro Uduovie, 

Safety officer 

Iam in support of the 

strike by the Judiciary 

Staff Union of Nigeria, 

JUSUN 100 per cent 

because everything 

seems to be upside down 

in Nigeria as a whole. 

An autonomous 

Judiciary is the best and 

the right thing to do. 

This will enable our 

judiciary to do their work 

without 

any 

interference. 

—Olubunmi Mabel, 

Nurse 

I 

strongly agree with 

the aim of the strike 

action by the Judiciary 

Staff Union of Nigeria, 

JUSUN. The Judiciary 

should be autonomous in 

every sense of the word 

if they are to 

conscientiously carry out 

their duties. To avoid 

government’s negative 

influences over the 

Judiciary, it must be 

autonomous. 

—Oghenekome Obaebor, 

Student 

I 

am not happy about 

the strike because the 

strike has impacted on businesses 

around the court environment 

negatively and it 

would elongate some outstanding 

cases in court. I am 

happy because I see no reason 

the Executive arm of govt 

would be interfering into the 

Judicial arm. There is suppose 

to be checks and balances 

but that is no longer in practice, 

if the strike would solve 

the problem, I accept the 

strike and welcome it. 

Georgina Madumeye, 

Entrepreneur 

The action is longoverdue, 

a step in 

the right direction, a 

victory for democracy 

and true federalism if 

accomplished. Judiciary 

as the last hope for 

the common man 

should not be left in the 

mercy of politicians to 

dictate its major activities 

and election of 

principal officers. 

Mbagwu Callistus, 

Business man.

6— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021 

Bandits kill 5, 

injure one in 

Kaduna 

By Ibrahim 

HassanWuyo 

SECURITY agencies have 

reported the killing of five 

people by bandits in different 

attacks on two local governments 

of Kaduna State. 

It was gathered that four people 

were killed in an attack on Baka 1 

and 2 neighbouring villages in 

Igabi Local Government Area of 

Kaduna State, while a herder was 

killed in a counter-killing at 

Sabanfan village of Zangon Kataf 

Local Government Area. 

According to the security report, 

the bandits invaded Baka 1 and 2 

neighbouring villages where they 

killed Buhari Alhaji Halle, Nasiru 

Mai Ungwa Dari, Ali Nasiru and 

Iliya Idris. 

Kaduna State Commissioner, 

Ministry of Internal Security and 

Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, in 

a statement, yesterday, said one 

Yusha’u Halle was injured in the 

attack. 

Samuel Aruwan added that 

during the attack on Sabanfan 

village of Zangon Kataf Local 

Government Area, Kaminu 

Suleiman, a herder, was 

macheted to death by the 

unknown assailants while 

grazing his herd at the location. 

Gas explosion 

rocks Lagos 

community 

S 

EVERAL residents were, 

yesterday, feared to have 

sustained injuries in a gas explosion 

on Iyasoko Street, Agboju, Amuwo- 

Odofin, of Lagos State. 

At press time, there was no official 

confirmation of the casualty figure. 

It was gathered that the explosion 

took place around 7pm . 

Confirming the development, 

Nosa Okunbor, spokesperson of the 

Lagos State Emergency 

Management Agency, LASEMA, 

said officials of the agency were on 

their way to the scene at press time. 

However, residents are said to have 

sustained injuries as a result of the 

explosion, while some persons 

attempted to put out the fire. 

Also, no casualty has been 

confirmed. 

15 headless bodies dumped on outskirts of 

Calabar 

By Emma Una 

C ALABAR.—FIFTEEN 

beheaded bodies were, 

yesterday morning, found 

dumped at the Five Miles area 

on the outskirts of Calabar, the 

Cross River State capital. 

The dead bodies, comprising 

males and females, were 

dumped in the steep valley 

along the double carriageway 

under construction by the state 

government. 

The identity of the bodies 

and those who might have 

dumped them there are still 

unknown. 

The beheaded bodies, 

discovered by farmers, 

attracted a large crowd that 

gathered to observe the gory 

sight while a horde of flies 

fluttered around the 

decapitated bodies. 

Alex, a commercial driver, 

who parked to observe the 

spectacle, said: “Some 

persons might have brought 

these corpses and dumped 

here in a vehicle last night,” 

adding that the people might 

have been killed in Calabar 

and taken to the lonely area 

“I wonder why police and 

security agents, who mount 

road blocks along this road 

could not intercept them 

because the odour that would 

be oozing from the bodies 

would be very strong,“ he said. 

Ms Irene Ugbo, the state 

Police 

Command 

spokesperson did not pick 

calls on her mobile phone line. 

Policemen reject N500,000 bribe offered by robbers to evade arrest 

By Evelyn Usman 

AN attempt by a robbery gang 

that specialised in vandalising 

construction materials used for the 

ongoing repairs of Mile-Two/ 

Badagry expressway, Lagos, to 

bribe policemen with N500,000 to 

evade arrest has failed, following 

the arrest of five suspected members 

of the gang. 

The suspects, who drove in a Ford 

bus with number plate, FST 679 

XZ, were intercepted by policemen 

attached to Area ‘E’ Command, 

Festac, at the early hours of last 

Saturday between Volks Bus Stop 

and Iyana Iba. 

The vehicle was discovered to be 

conveying some iron rods. When 

asked where they got the rods from 

and where they were conveying 

them to, they could not give the 

policemen a satisfactory reply. 

In the process, they were alleged 

to have offered N500,000 to the 

policemen to allow them leave. But 

the policemen insisted on taking 

them to the station, at the end of 

which the rods were discovered to 

be the property of China 

Construction Engineering 

Company, CCEC. 

The Lagos State Police Public 

Relations Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa 

Adejobi, who confirmed the arrest, 

said management of CCEC, who 

was contacted by the police 

identified the stolen items as the 

company’s property. 

Items recovered from the 

suspects, according to Adejobi, 

were “some pieces of 25mm iron 

rods, one nozzle, one gas cylinder 

and Ford bus. 

He said: “ The Commissioner of 

Police, Hakeem Odumosu, has 

ordered that the matter be 

Attempt to kidnap PLASU students 

foiled •As Lalong orders improved 

security around schools 

By Marie-Therese 

Nanlong 

JOS —AN attempt by armed men 

to abduct four students of the Plateau 

State University, PLASU, Bokkos was 

foiled as security personnel intercepted 

the intruders and rescued the victims. 

It was gathered that gunmen invaded 

the compound where the students stay 

off the ,Monday night, and whisked the 

victims away but the timely intervention 

of security agents aborted the plot. 

It was also gathered that a male 

student, who was shot, was rushed to 

the hospital where he is receiving 

treatment. 

Governor Simon Lalong of the state, 

who heaved a sigh of relief, was full of 

praises for the security personnel for 

their swift response but also directed 

that security be tightened in all other 

schools across the state to guarantee 

the safety and security of students. 

Lalong in a statement by his Director 

of Press and Public Affairs, Makut 

Macham, said: “The attempted kidnap 

was said to have occurred on Monday 

night when gunmen stormed the offcampus 

student residences at Ndar 

community near the university campus 

and attempted to kidnap four students. 

“On receiving the distress call, officers 

of Operation Safe Haven, Operation 

Rainbow, Nigeria Police, University 

Security and Community Watch Group 

mobilised and went after the 

kidnappers who had taken four 

students. Facing apparent capture, the 

criminals aborted their mission and ran 

away leading to the safe recovery of the 

students.” 

Governor Lalong who commended 

the security agencies for rising to the 

occasion and being proactive directed 

the immediate establishment of a police 

post within the host community of the 

University to forestall any future 

reoccurrence. 

While confirming the attack on the 

students, yesterday, the state Police 

command, through its spokesman, 

Gabriel Ubah, denied that three female 

students of the state university, Bokkos, 

were kidnapped by bandits on Monday. 

The suspects (ABOVE) 

and the stolen property 

(right). 

thoroughly investigated and the 

suspects charged to court as soon 

as possible.” 

2 robbery suspects 

nabbed with dummy 

gun 

In a related development, two 

suspected members of a separate 

gang were arrested, yesterday, by 

policemen attached to the Sagamu 

road division in Ikorodu area of 

Lagos. 

The duo of Awosika Kehinde, 24 

and Olatilewa Ayomide, 18, were 

apprehended while allegedly 

operating in their operational 

motorcycle. Their modus operandi, 

as gathered, includes accosting 

victims with guns and 

dispossessing them of their 

valuables. 

However, during interrogation, 

Adejobi said: “It was revealed that 

the suspects were using a dummy 

Beretta pistol to scare their victims 

anytime they were operating, 

particularly in the traffic. 

"Assorted charms were also 

recovered from them. They are 

giving useful information to assist 

the police in the course of their 

investigation. The Commissioner 

of Police has also directed that the 

suspects be transferred to the 

Command Special Squad for 

thorough investigation.” 

2 arrested for diverting company’s N4.5m goods 

By James Ogunnaike 

A 

32-year-old driver, Mutiu 

Olaonipekun, arrested by 

operatives of the Ogun State 

Police command for diverting 

goods worth N4.5 million 

belonging to his employer, has 

confessed selling the goods for 

N2,572,000. 

The suspect, a driver at 

Parkway Investment, a 

subsidiary of C-Way Foods and 

Beverages Company, Ota, 

according to a statement by the 

command spokesman, 

Abimbola Oyeyemi, was 

arrested following a complaint 

lodged at Onipanu divisional 

headquarters by the company. 

The company said the driver 

was given a truck loaded with 

the company’s goods on March 

15, 2021 to deliver somewhere 

in Isolo, Lagos, but absconded 

with the truck as well as the 

goods and his whereabouts 

unknown since then. 

Oyeyemi said: “Upon the 

report, the DPO, Onipanu 

Division, CSP 

Bamidele Job, 

detailed his 

detectives to 

unravel the 

mystery 

behind the 

s u d d e n 

disappearance 

of the driver 

and the 

goods. 

“After weeks of painstaking 

investigation, the empty truck 

was recovered at Ewupe area 

of Ota. Further investigation 

revealed that the goods were 

trans loaded into another 

vehicle before taken to the 

receiver. 

“The receiver of the stolen 

goods, Kayode Afolabi, was 

traced and subsequently 

arrested. On interrogation, 

Mutiu Olaonipekun confessed 

that he took the goods to 

Kayode Afolabi who bought 

them from him at the rate of 

N2,572,000. 

“He stated further that he used 

The suspects. 

part of the money to buy a 

Volkswagen LT bus at the rate 

of N900,000, and that he used 

the remaining to play Bet9ja.” 

On his part, Kayode Afolabi 

confessed receiving the stolen 

goods, and that the goods had 

been re-sold to one Alhaji 

Adamu Kano, who is now at 

large.” 

Meanwhile, the state 

Commissioner of Police, 

Edward Ajogun, has directed 

that the suspects be thoroughly 

investigated and charged to 

court as soon as possible.


Ebonyi massacre: 15 persons killed, 

over 70 houses burnt 

•As affected villages remain deserted •I counted 10 dead bodies myself 

—CSO, Ngbo clan •We have a recording of their (Fulani herdsmen) 

communication in our possession •From available security report, attackers 

are not our people —Ado LGA Chairman, Benue •I'm looking for my children; 

don't know their whereabout —Victim •Attack led to displacement of 3,000 

persons —37-yr-old farmer 

By Peter Okutu 

Aseem BAKALIKI—THERE 

to be many twists 

and turns over the early morning 

killing of innocent Ebonyi 

indigenes on Monday in Ngbo 

Community of Ohaukwu Local 

Government Area of Ebonyi 

State. 

Recall that the crisis between 

Effium and Ezza-Effium 

Communities is also taking 

place in the same LGA of 

Ohaukwu where many people 

have also been confirmed 

dead. 

In an exclusive chat with 

Vanguard, the Chief Security 

Officer of Ngbo Clan, Leonard 

Igwe revealed the identity 

of the killers of his people 

in the four affected villages to 

be Fulani herdsmen. 

According to him, 15 persons 

were killed in the attack 

as he personally counted 10 

dead bodies. 

He said: "To the best of my 

knowledge, it is suspected 

herdsmen because Agila people 

have their own way of 

fighting. The attackers collected 

the phone of one of the 

victims that escaped and when 

his uncle tried to reach him to 

get the situation report, it was 

a Fulani man that spoke with 

Fulani intonation that picked 

the call, telling him that the 

owner of the phone has died. 

"The uncle forwarded this 

conversation to my security 

platform. Agila people don't 

sound that way. They are up to 

15 people that were killed. We 

have taken record of 11 people 

that died. But I saw 10 persons 

with my eyes as four persons 

are still missing. There 

was another person that was 

given a matchet cut. He was 

rushed to the hospital and later 

died in the night at a private 

hospital. 

Four persons that are missing 

are nowhere to be found. 

More than three villages were 

attacked. It's up to four villages. 

I have all the names of all 

the people that were killed. It 

was yesterday that the Army 


and Police went to the scene 

of the crime and towards 

evening time, they all left. 

"As I am talking to you now, 

there is no presence of Army 

and Police in the affected villages 

except they are still preparing 

to come back. But they 

tried yesterday when they 

heard exchange of gunshots 

with those herdsmen. 

"We want the government to 

intervene in this matter because 

if you hear in the radio 

and watch the television, you 

hear of herdsmen attacking 

people. We have age long dispute 

with Agila people and so, 

we know that the attackers 

are not Agila people. Thousands 

of our people have been 

displaced from the affected 

villages and they are taking 

refuge in nearby villages. 

"Thousands of people were 

displaced. I cannot tell you the 

exact number of people that 

were displaced but properties 

worth millions of naira were 

destroyed. Over 50 houses 

were burnt down. " 

The Ebonyi State Government 

had from it's preliminary 

report exonated Fulani herdsmen 

from the attack even as 

the Commissioner for Inter- 

Governmental Affairs, Pastor 

Eze Nwachukwu Eze who is 

from Ohaukwu LGA stressed 

that Fulani herdsmen were 

not behind the attack. 

Meanwhile, a source close 

to Vanguard revealed that the 

attack was allegedly carried 

out by Fulani herdsmen led 

by Agila people. 

"If not because of the Army 

that some idiot called, none 

of them would have gone free 

because we have already surrounded 

them." 

But in a telephone conversation, 

the chairman of Ado 

Local Government Area of 

Benue State, James Oche, 

whose jurisdiction covers the 

Agila people, appreciated 

Vanguard for going extra mile 

to find out the true security 

situation in the killing that 

took place at Ngbo, Ebonyi 

State, on Monday. 

He said: "I was surprised 


UNVEILING: Abia Deputy Governor, Sir Ude Oko Chukwu (middle) and others, during the unveiling 

of Abia Long Term Development Plan in partnership with Foundation for Partnership Initiative in 

Niger-Delta, PIND, in Umuahia. 

when it was brought to my 

knowledge. My people know 

nothing about it. Yes, we have 

a boundary dispute with 

Ngbo people but recently, we 

have been committed to the 

Otse Otokpa/Cyril Obazi Agila/Ngbo 

Inter-community 

Peace and Security Committee 

set up by both Ebonyi and 

Benue States. 

"We know nothing. The victims 

said they saw Fulani 

herdsmen, the government is 

saying otherwise. For me, it's 

contradictory. This is the 

height of falsehood because 

if the victims are saying these 

are the people that came to 

attack us, why are you calling 

the other people. 

"This is what will ordinarily 

create tension. So, the way 

the government of Ebonyi 

State quickly ran to the press 

in a matter they have not properly 

investigated is not fair 

considering the peace we have 

with our neighouring community 

of Ngbo. 

"For me, when things like 

this happens especially when 

it borders on human beings 

and life, they try to do proper 

investigation before you rush 

to press. The press release yesterday 

can escalate a lot of 

issues. Both states of Ebonyi 

and Benue should continue 

what they are doing as regards 

the boundary issue. 

"We investigated properly. I 

have security information that 

are available to me. It's not 

our people." 

An indigene of Obodo Ocha 

Village, Umuogodo-Akpu 

Ngbo community in Ohaukwu 

Local Government Area 

of Ebonyi State, Mr Egbuu 

Sunday, said the attackers 

came from Benue State but 

however, added they were 

Fulani herdsmen. 

He said that so many people 

were killed in the gruesome 

attack which according 

to him, had led to the displacement 

of over 3000 natives. 

He said: "I am a native of 

Obodo Ocha village, Umuogodo-Akpu 

Ngbo community, 

in Ohaukwu Local Government 

Area of Ebonyi State. I 

am 37 years old and I'm a 

farmer. 

"As early as 5am on Monday 

morning, we heard gunshots 

repeatedly and we discovered 

that the invaders 

came from Benue State side. 

But actually, those attackers 

are Fulani herdsmen. 

"When they invaded the village, 

they started burning our 

houses and killing people. We 

have over 70 houses down 

there that they burnt. They 

killed many people and you 

can see dead bodies right 

where I'm standing now." 

One of the victims of the attacks 

who gave her name as 

Ngozi Ebenyi told Vanguard 

that the attackers arrived 

Ebele village shooting sporadically. 

She said: “Before we woke 

up onMonday morning, we 

started hearing heavy gunshots. 

The gunshots were coming 

so close and we started 

scampering for safety. As we 

were running for our lives, we 

heard that one of our neighbours 

had been killed. 

“They burnt my sewing machine, 

our motorcycles and 

other properties in our community. 

They also burnt many 

houses, including our own. 

They also shot many people. 

“Since yesterday morning, 

I have not seen my children, I 

am looking for my children 

and I don’t know their whereabout. 

I have not eaten since 

morning.” 

Another survivor, Fedrick 

Onah said his people were 

killed in the attack. 

His words: ”I started hearing 

gunshots and came out. I 

was told that it was our enemies 

that attacked us. They 

killed many people and burnt 

houses." 

Another villager, who gave 

her name simply as Ngozi, 

said she lost two of her relatives 

in the attacks. 

“They killed my husband’s 

two brothers – Chidibere and 

Emma Nwanjoku. They set 

all our houses ablaze and 

sacked us from our villages." 

Your position on zoning selfish, 

Mbazulike Amechi tells northren 

elders 

By Chimaobi 

Nwaiwu 

N NEWI—LEADING 

Igbo leader and elder 

statesman, Chief Mbazulike 

Amechi has reacted to the recent 

statement credited to the 

Northern Elders Forum, NEF, 

Coalition of Northern 

Groups, CNG, Arewa Consultative 

Forum, ACF, and other 

conveners of the Northern 

Peoples Summit, that they 

would not be stampeded or 

blackmailed into taking major 

decisions about rotating 

the Presidency, but rather want 

restructuring. 

Mbazulike, one of the 

founding fathers of Nigeria, 

agreed that in an ideal situation, 

a President of Nigeria 

could come from any part of 

the federation. But he reminded 

the Northern leaders that 

the Nigerian situation is not 

ideal because all the component 

units of Nigeria as presently 

constituted are not as the 

founding fathers of the country 

created or inherited them 

from the British administration. 

According to him, the long 

military government in Nigeria 

created a lot of imbalance 

in the country and truncated 

the whole system and arrangement 

to favour the 

North. 

Chief Amechi therefore, 

urged the North not to use 

their sudden acceptance of 

restructuring in Nigeria to 

change the generally accepted 

Nigerian President of Igbo 

extraction, warning that such 

action will throw Nigeria into 

intractable crisis that may 

end its existence. 

He also warned the two 

major political parties in Nigeria 

that if they fail to nominated 

an Igbo man as their 

presidential candidates for the 

2023 presidential election, he 

will personally lead Igbo people's 

boycott of the election. 

"In an ideal situation, a 

President of Nigeria should 

come from any part of the federation 

but the Nigerian situation 

is not ideal because all 

the component units of Nigeria 

as presently constituted in 

the present day Nigeria, which 

the founding fathers of the 

country created or inherited 

from the British administration, 

are not as they were created. 

The long military government 

led by the North introduced 

a lot of imbalance, 

injustice and unfairness. 

"For example, we created a 

federation of three regions, 

each region to manage its own 

internal affairs, internal finances 

and so forth and were 

making contribution as percentage 

of their revenue to the 

federal government. Now, if a 

a region was to be created according 

to the constitution, 

there was a constitutional process 

for doing that and as a 

result of that, Mid-West was 

created constitutionally. 

"And now, the military took 

over the country and started 

creating states and in all the 

exercises about creating states, 

it was the military of one region, 

the Northern Region 

that created the states, thereby 

making it imbalance, inequitable, 

unreasonable and unfair 

to give 19 states to one region 

and then fewer states to the 

whole South, Eastern Region 

and Western Region, including 

Mid Western Region. 

"And so, there is that imbalance, 

therefore, there is need, if people 

are sincere, if politicians are sincere 

and they want a peaceful 

country, there should be coming 

of together of the people for redrawing 

and looking at the constitution, 

as it particularly concerns 

the states, the regions and 

the zones, because all the states 

created in Nigeria were created 

by Northern militarily rulers. 

None was created by former President 

Olusegun Obasanjo who 

was the only southerner that had 

hand as a military ruler in the 

country and that was only because 

Murtala Muhammed died. 

If Murtala Muhammed had not 

died, Obasanjo would not have 

smelled the headship of the military 

federal government. 

"They created states in such a 

way that it is one sided and the 

intention, it would appear is to 

rule the South permanently." 

Work begins on Abia sea port soon 

—NWAIGWE 

By Steve Oko 

ABA—WORK will soon 

commence at the proposed 

Obeaku Deep Sea Port 

in Abia State following the 

completion of all the necessary 

documentations with the Nigeria 

National Petroleum Corporation, 

NNPC; Federal 

Ministries of Transportation as 

well as that of Petroleum according 

to the re investors. 

Chief Executive Officer, 

CEO, Zoros Energy Ltd - core 

investors in the project, Eze 

Ikenna Nwaigwe who disclosed 

this when he led other 

members of his team to the 

Deep Seaport site on an inspection 

tour commended Gov 

Okezie Ikpeazu for the great 

commitment of his administration 

towards realising the 

project.“The Sea port located 

on a 2,000 hectares of land near 

the Imo River, Obeaku in 

Ukwa West Local Government 

Area of Abia State, has about 

23 nautical miles to the Atlantic 

Ocean. 

It's closeness to the Atlantic 

Ocean, according to the investor, 

will make the shipping 

business easier for Abians. 

The investor said that the 

project would commence with 

the reclamation of the area 

and dredging of about 30 

meters deep from Obeaku to 

Ikot - Abasi Port in Rivers State. 

"There will also be an establishment 

of a Mega City 

Project comprising of 10,000 

housing units in its first phase, 

refineries, free trade zone, industrial 

layout, gas plant for 

steady power supply, shopping 

malls, hospital and police station 

all of which the team of 

Marine Engineers alongside 

other experts are working out", 

he added. 

The project facilitator, Elder 

Godwin Nnah expressed satisfaction 

over the level of support 

and interest Governor Ikpeazu's 

administration had 

committed to the project. 

He also commended the traditional 

ruler of Obeaku, Eze 

Ikeagwuchi Ekeke for his cooperation, 

noting that "the security 

condition of Abia and 

its industrial status are part of 

the comparative advantages 

foreigners look out for and 

which have been attracting 

them to the state. 

He said that Abians would 

enjoy better employment opportunities 

and better standard 

of living when the project 

came on stream.


:Vanguard 

News 

Insecurity: 6 northern govs unite to fight 

banditry, terrorism 

By Wole Mosadomi 

MINNA—Six governors 

in the North 

have joined hands to wage total 

war against banditry in 

their territories. 

Niger State governor, Abubakar 

Sani Bello, stated this 

yesterday while presenting 

letter of appointment to the 

new Emir of Kagara, Ahmed 

Garba Gunna as the 2nd Emir 

of Kagara at Government 

House Minna. 

Although he did not name 

the five other governors, Governor 

Bello said they had "all 

unanimously agreed to fight 

the bandits terrorising their 

states. Bello, therefore, advised 

bandits and their collaborators 

to change for the better 

in their own interest or face 

the wrath of the people and 

government." 

On the emergence of Garba 

Gunna as the new Emir of 

Kagara, the governor described 

his final selection as 

an act of God, adding that he 

did not in any way interfere in 

the election process of the new 

Emir. He reminded the emir 

of the security challenges facing 

the state, particularly in 

his domain and urged him to 

unite with the people of his 

emirate to jointly fight criminals 

within and outside and 

bring lasting peace to the area. 

It would be recalled that 

Niger State had been a victim 

of serial attacks by bandits 

who invade villages in their 

hundreds, killing, maiming, 

setting houses ablaze and kidnapping 

their victims. 

A case in point was the attack 

on Government Science 

Secondary School, Kagara, 

where a student was killed, 

while over 40 others were kidnapped 

and held in captivity 

for over a week until they were 

released, after ransom was 

reportedly paid. 

The joint effort by the governors 

to fight banditry is 

coming on the heels of the 

emergence of a regional security 

outfit, code-named 

Amotekun, by South West 

governors to address the spate 

of killings and kidnappings by 

criminal herders in the region. 

A similar effort by South 

East governors has also culminated 

in the formation of a 

security outfit, code-named 

EbubeAgu, to checkmate the 

activities of criminal herdsmen 

who have in recent times 

attacked many communities 

in the South East, the most 

recent being the killing of 

eight and 25 persons in Enugu 

and Ebonyi states respectively 

in the past two weeks. 

Meanwhile, Niger State 

Police Command has arrested 

a 35-year-old man, Umar 

Jibrin, for allegedly killing the 

Chief Imam of Enagi in Edati 

Local Government Area of 

Niger State. 

The Imam, identified as Attaihiru 

Alhassan, 48, was reportedly 

killed with an iron 

rod by the suspect who 

claimed the cleric was caught 

red handed having sex with his 

30-year-old wife, Aisha Umar. 

The incident occurred last 

Monday. Steps were earlier 


VISIT: From left, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State; Alhaji Raheem Adedoyin; Eesa of 

Oro High Chief, Taye Otunola; Iyaloja of Oro market, Mulikat Jimoh, and Awodiji Felix, during the governor's 

visit to commiserate with marketers who lost their property in yesterday's fire outbreak at Oro Central 

Market in Irepodun LGA of the state, yesterday. 

taken to settle the incident 

amicably by the two parties 

due to the Islamic cleric’s involvement 

but the peace meeting 

eventually turned bloody. 

Jibrin was said to have allegedly 

snatched the iron rod 

which the deceased was holding 

and used it to hit him in 

the neck, resulting in the death 

of the Chief Imam. 

According to reports from 

the area, the youths of the 

town rose in support of the late 

Chief Imam demanding for 

the head of the assailant who 

had fled the town to Batati in 

Lavun Local Government 

Area. Police Public Relations 

Officer Niger State Police 

Command, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, 

who paraded the suspect 

before journalists at the Police 

headquarters yesterday in 

Minna, said but for the intervention 

of some elders of the 

town, the incident would have 

led to assault on the police station 

at Enagi and the lynching 

of Jibrin because the youths felt 

the Divisional Police Officer, 

DPO, was keeping the suspect 

in the cell there. 

The PPRO said some elders 

in the area were, however, 

able to convince the youths 

that Jibrin was not in the station. 

“After the incident, the suspect 

took to his heels but was 

later arrested at Batati village 

in Lavun Local government 

area,”the PPRO stated. 

No to Hijab in Christian schools – CAN 

...Sponsor of bill in House of Reps seeks association’s input to 

religious discrimination 

By Levinus 

Nwabughiogu 

ABUJA — Christian Association 

of Nigeria, 

CAN has said no to a bill seeking 

to prohibit and prevent 

religious discrimination 

against adherents and practitioners 

of different faiths and 

beliefs in Nigeria. It also said 

the bill, if eventually passed 

into law, will cause chaos, confusion, 

division and crises for 

Nigeria. CAN made the declaration 

when the sponsor of 

the bill and a member of the 

House of Representatives, 

Said Musa Abdullahi, from 

Niger State paid a courtesy 

call on its leadership to solicit 

support for the bill. 

The bill, titled “Religious 

Discrimination (Prohibition, 

Prevention, ETC) Bill 2021)”, 

essentially seeks to provide a 

mechanism for enforcing certain 

provisions of the Constitution 

of the Federal Republic 

of Nigeria 1999 as altered, 

Universal Declaration of Human 

Rights and other relevant 

national and international 

laws and conventions on religious 

freedom and tolerance. 

Section 4(1) of part B of the 

bill sighted by Vanguard read 

thus: “A person shall not, directly 

or indirectly or by any 

combination of the two, be 

intimidated, harassed, victimized 

or discriminated against 

on the basis of religious belief 

or activity or on the ground of 

...Police arrest man, 35, for allegedly 

killing Chief Imam in Niger 

manifestation of religion or 

religious belief or any other 

ground of a characteristic that 

people who have or engage in 

the religious belief or activity 

generally have; and on the 

ground of a characteristic that 

people who have or engage in 

the religious belief or activity 

are generally presumed to 

have or manifest which may 

include wearing religious 

emblem, head cover, hijab, 

scarf, habit, decent and modest 

religious dress”. 

Speaking at the meeting in 

Abuja yesterday, the President 

of CAN, Rev. Dr. Samson 

Ayokunle, said the bill if 

passed into law, will enforce 

discrimination rather than 

uniting the country. 

He said: “We have laws already 

that can take care of 

discrimination. And if anyone 

is discriminated against, the 

court is open. The bill if 

passed, will enforce discrimination 

rather than war against 

it. “The bill is causing wahala. 

You don’t sit on my nose because 

you have a right to sit 

down. Beyond your good intent 

to solve a problem, we may 

be creating many other ones. 

There is no mutual respect. 

“Your name will go into history 

as one who disregarded 

the rights of Christians to promote 

their own in their institutions. 

Why do we have to 

wage war against ourselves? 

Why do we want to wake up a 

problem which is sleeping. 

“Wearing of hijab has not 

made any student more intelligent. 

Piety is in the heart. In 

a multi ethnic nation like ours, 

school uniform creates uniformity. 

Once you pass that 

bill, be prepared for a state of 

confusion.’’ 

The CAN president recalled 

the crisis in Kwara State, saying 

that a legal backing to a 

bill will escalate the situation. 

“I met with the governor of 

Kwara State here in Abuja, in 

Aso Rock, and I told him, ‘do 

you know that this problem 

had been before you? But the 

governors before you managed 

it with wisdom and 

through many other means... 

persuasion, getting closer to 

the people, etc. 

“Now, the problem I see in 

us, especially the radicalisation 

of religion that is now 

coming, which has been heating 

up the polity, is that there 

has been no Islamic school 

established for Western education 

where the Muslims 

who established it have not 

helped that community to develop. 

’There is no Christian 

institution established in any 

place that has not opened up 

that place for development. If 

that is at the bottom of our 

hearts, why do we now have to 

wage war against ourselves on 

what had been working? 

“For Kwara State, many 

people, great rulers in Kwara 

now went to Christian institutions 

in that place. I asked: ‘Is 

this the way to pay back the 

Christian institutions which 

provided opportunity for you? 

Nigeria’s oil exploration drops 

by 55.34% in Q1 ‘21; Rig 

count dips to 19 

2023: APC reaches out, holds 

first contact, strategy 

meeting 

By Omeiza Ajayi 

ABUJA — As part of 

measures to boost 

membership and retain its 

electoral viability in a post- 

Muhammadu Buhari era, the 

ruling All Progressives Congress, 

APC, said yesterday it 

will continue to reach out to 

various political stakeholders 

in the country to draw them to 

its fold. 

To this end, the Governor 

Muhammadu Badaru-led 

Contact and Strategy Committee 

of the party has scheduled 

a meeting for tomorrow 

at the national secretariat in 

Abuja, with a view to evolving 

strategies towards initiating 

contacts that would give it a 

landslide win in the 2023 general 

election. 

The committee, which was 

inaugurated last month, had 

been empowered to ensure that 

the party maintains its winning 

streak and retain the 

presidency beyond 10 terms 

Digital platform set to take 

local markets to global level, 

promotes quality 

By Elizabeth Osayande 

LAGOS — Six indigenous 

Nigerian popular local 

markets are set to go international 

with the launch of Shop 

Afrika, a digital marketplace, 

which seeks to provide seamless 

engagement between sellers 

and buyers desiring trade. 

Speaking during the unveiling 

of the platform in Lagos, 

the founder and chairman, 

Shop Afrika, Adeoye 

Fadeyibi, explained that the 

brand, which currently covers 

Aba new market, Onitsha 

main market, Alaba market, 

Ladipo market, Ariaria market 

and Nnewi market, would 

not only enable customers to 

buy items online as they 

would offline, but also champion 

the perception that madein- 

Africa products are top 

quality manufactured products 

that could meet people’s 

needs. 

He said: “On Shop Afrika, 

By Udeme Akpan 

LAGOS — THERE are in 

dications that oil exploration 

dropped by 55.34 per 

cent in the first quarter, January 

– March, 2021 as Nigeria’s 

rig count dips to 19, according 

to data collated from 

recent reports of the Organisation 

of Petroleum Exporting 

Countries, OPEC. 

The rig count, a major index 

of measuring activities in 

the upstream sector had stood 

at 65 in the corresponding 

period of 2020, before dropping 

to 19, mainly due to the 

delay in the passage of the 

nation’s Petroleum Industry 

Bill, PIB, and prolonged 

Coronavirus pandemic, 

which slowed down activities 

in the industry. 

A breakdown showed that 

the nation deployed six, seven 

and six rigs in January, February 

and March 2021, 

against 21, 23 and 21 deployed 

in the corresponding 

period of 2020. 

This showed that Nigeria 

did not invest much resources 

into exploration during the 

period under review, meaning 

that its reserves are being exploited 

without much addition. 

Consequently, in its report 

obtained by Vanguard, the 

Department of Petroleum Resources, 

DPR, puts the nation’s 

oil reserves at 37 billion barrels, 

even though the government 

had earlier planned to 

hit 40 billion barrels by 2020. 

However, the Minister of 

State for Petroleum Resources, 

Timipre Sylva, had 

recently promised that the PIB 

would be passed in April 2021. 

The Speaker of the House 

of Representatives, Femi 

Gbajabiamila, had also announced 

that the bill would be 

passed in April, adding that 

consultations on the bill will 

transcend the public hearing. 

of office. Secretary of the 61- 

member committee, Ikechi 

Emenike, said in a statement 

yesterday that the meeting 

would deliberate on the mandate 

of the committee. 

The committee, which is 

chaired by Governor Mohammed 

Badaru Abubakar of 

Jigawa State, is made up of 

several governors (past and 

present), National Assembly 

members (past and present), 

several serving ministers and 

other major stakeholders of the 

party. 

The nation-wide committee 

is mandated to establish constructive 

engagements among 

critical stakeholders at various 

levels of the party, with a view 

to enhancing confidence in the 

party and deepening trust 

among party leaders; to conduct 

a needs assessment survey 

from party members and 

the general public and to 

recalibrate the statement of 

vision, mission and core values 

of the party to reflect current 

realities. 

customers can buy in bulk, 

haggle, and pay on 

installment. The platform 

seeks to give customers the 

real shop from home experience, 

with emphasis on pushing 

the Nigerian market to 

Nigerians, other African countries 

and the rest of the world. 

“For example, large scale 

commercial shopping in Africa 

has had issues with distance, 

logistics, communication, 

trust, and security plaguing 

it. 

‘’However, Shop Afrika’s solution 

is not only to solve convenience 

and logistics issues, 

but also the brand seeks to offer 

unprecedented solution 

such as financial support, verified 

merchants, solving language 

barrier by incorporating 

indigenous languages, 

wide reach through a market 

agent system and technology 

innovations such as virtual reality 

to improve the customer 

shopping experience.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021—9 

:Vanguard :@vanguardnews :@vanguardnewsNEWS HOTLINES: 

Social Media Conversation 

GRIDLOCK—Commuters and other road users continue to lament, as the Oshodi-Apapa 

expressway traffic gridlock rejected all measures to keep it under control. 

Apapa gridlock: NPA, AMATO clash over 

impounded trucks 

By Godwin Oritse 

LAGOS—TRUCK owners, 

under the aegis of the 

Association of Maritime Truck 

Owners AMATO, and the 

Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, are 

currently on a collision course 

over some impounded trucks that 

attempted to circumvent the 

Electronic Call-Up system. 

The leadership of AMATO has 

called on the NPA to urgently 

release all trucks impounded by 

the Lagos State Special Traffic and 

Enforcement Team. 

The group said the impounded 

trucks had valid call-up tickets, a 

claim the NPA has debunked. 

In a statement issued at the end 

of the stakeholders meeting, 

yesterday, held at the AMATO 

headquarters in Apapa, the truck 

owners alleged that there were 

irregularities and corruption in 

the NPA’s call-up system, noting 

that fake call-up tickets are 

currently in circulation. 

It also expressed worry that this 

development may further truncate 

the newly introduced system. 

The statement reads in part: 

“Arising from transport 

stakeholders meeting at the 

AMATO secretariat in Apapa, it 

was agreed that all members must 

desist from parking 

indiscriminately on the port access 

roads for sake of traffic sanity. 

“The Nigerian Ports Authority, 

Lagos State Government and 

Transit Truck Park, TTP, Limited, 

TPP, must investigate and take 

action on the reason some trucks, 

without valid call-up tickets, are 

gaining access into the ports 

faster than trucks with valid callup 

tickets. 

“Being the regulator of the Electronic 

Call-up system, the Nigerian Ports 

Authority ETO automation system, 

the Lagos State Government and TTP 

should ensure the unconditional release 

of all trucks with valid call-up tickets 

impounded by the Lagos State Traffic 

Management Authority, LASTMA on 

the port access roads. 

“There should be a formation of a 

delegate team to engage the Lagos State 

Government, NPA, Nigerian Shippers 

Council, on the unlawful towing of trucks, 

slamming of outrageous charges and 

securing the release of trucks with valid 

call-up tickets.” 

Speaking to Vanguard, the 

Chairman of AMATO, Mr. Remi 

Ogungbemi said that a meeting was held 

on Tuesday adding that all relevant 

stakeholders were duly notified adding 

that some of its members have been 

directed to do a follow up on the letter 

sent. 

Efforts to reach the NPA for comments 

were futile as text messages and phone 

calls put to Mr. Nasiru Ibrahim were not 

returned, neither did he respond to the 

messages. 

Akeredolu petitions Police over ex-deputy's 

refusal to return govt vehicles 

• I’m waiting for official communication from police —Ajayi 

By Dayo Johnson 

AKURE—ONDO 

State 

government, yesterday, 

petitioned the Police Command 

to prevail on the former deputy 

governor of the state, Mr. 

Agboola Ajayi, to return 

government vehicles in his 

possession, two months after 

leaving office. 

Vehicles said to be in the 

former deputy governor’s 

possession, according to the 

governor, are a Toyota Land 

Cruiser SUV, a new Toyota Hi- 

Lux, and two other Hi-Lux 

models. 

In a letter addressed to the 

Commissioner of Police, Mr. 

Bolaji Salami, and signed by the 

Senior Special Assistant to the 

Governor on Special Duties and 

Strategy, Dr. Doyin Odebowale, 

said: “Ajayi was still holding on 

Defamation: Olukoya, MFM win again 

as London court slams perpetual 

injunction, cost on Maureen Badejo 

LONDON—A U.K. High Court of 

Justice, Strand, London, (Queen's 

Bench Division) yesterday, April 13, 

granted a perpetual injunction 

restraining Maureen Badejo from 

publishing further defamatory words 

against or concerning Dr. Daniel 

Olukoya, his family and the Mountain 

of Fire and Miracles Ministries 

(MFM), Collins Edomaruse has said 

in a statement. 

According to him, while handing 

down the injunction, the judge, Master 

Thornett, also ordered her to pay the 

legal costs incurred by the Olukoyas 

in the suit. Further court session(s) 

would be held to determine the actual 

cost to be awarded to Dr Olukoya, his 

family and the Church. 

Yesterday's hearing, which began at 

precisely 10:30 AM finished at 

approximately 1:05 PM. 

Represented by Mrs Nath Director 

and Solicitor of Nath Solicitors 

London Boutique firm specialising in 

defamation and by Mr Jonathan Price 

of Doughty Street Chambers, Dr. 

Olukoya, his family and the Church 

instituted the suit following several lies, 

no fewer than 52 of them, churned out 

by Maureen and her GIO TV on 

YouTube and Facebook against them. 

Maureen Badejo had also filed a 

counter-claim to demand monies 

allegedly lost by her from the shutting 

down of some of her broadcasts by 

You-Tube and Facebook sequel to 

complaints from Dr. Olukoya’s 

lawyers. 

The Judge in dismissing her counter 

claim, described it as a frivolous claim, 

and branded it an abuse of process. 

The erudite Judge opined in his 

judgment thus “…it is overwhelmingly 

clear that the nature of this defamation 

is severe and serious…..and that the 

number of publications are 

considerable.” 

to four government vehicles, 

despite leaving office almost 

two months ago.” 

The letter reads: “Our office 

has the firm directive of the 

Governor of Ondo State, Mr. 

Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, 

to recover all government 

properties still in the possession 

of former political office holders 

in the state, especially those 

who served in the immediate 

past administration. 

“Our record confirms that Mr. 

Agboola Ajayi, the immediate 

past Deputy Governor of Ondo 

State, is still holding on to four 

vehicles owned by the 

government. 

“All entreaties to him to return 

these vehicles, for the use of the 

incumbent occupier of the office, 

have been rebuffed. Please, Sir, 

find attached copies of the 

letters dated 16th February 2021 

and 1st March 2021 

respectively. 

“We lodge this complaint 

believing that you will use your 

good offices to look into this 

brazen act of conversion, and 

this is being charitable.” 

I’m waiting for official 

communication from 

police —Agboola 

But reacting, the former 

deputy governor said: “I will be 

waiting for the official 

communication from the police.” 

Practical chemistry! 

His breakthrough! 

Thank God you ‘woke' up on time!


:Vanguard 

News 

S-West PDP congress: No winner, 

no vanquished —Bode George 

By Dapo Akinrefon 

L AGOS—FORMER 

Deputy National 

Chairman of the Peoples' 

Democratic Party, PDP, 

Bode George, yesterday, 

hailed the outcome of the 

party’s South-West 

congress, saying there 

was 'no winner, no 

vanquished'. 

George, in a statement, 

commended those who 

participated in the 

congress, saying the 

victory belongs to all party 

members. 

The statement reads: 

“The South-West 

Congress held in 

Oshogbo has injected and 

infused a new mandate of 

hope and renewal, not 

only in the Peoples' 

Democratic Party but also 

across Yorubaland. 

“It has affirmed our 

commitment to a peaceful 

engagement, even when 

we disagree among 

ourselves. It has shown 

that disputes and 

differences need not fester 

LAGOS—CENTRE for 

Values in Leadership, 

CVL, has said that this 

year's special series of 

‘Leader Without Title' 

tribute roundtable would 

question why Nigeria 

lags behind its African 

counterparts in uplifting 

the condition of women. 

In a statement, the 

leadership training 

institute said that the 

event would seek 

answers to questions like 

why women, who 

graduate in superior 

classes, fall behind men 

of inferior capabilities in 

the course of their 

careers, and try to 

Bishop Edewor 

for burial Saturday 

THE remains of the pioneer 

Bishop of Oleh Diocese, 

Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. 

Jonathan Edewor, who died 

February 13, 2021, at 79, will be 

buried on Saturday. 

Service of songs takes place at 

Ozadhe Prmary School, Erawha- 

Owhe, tomorrow by 4pm, after a 

funeral service at St. Paul's 

Cathedral, Oleh, Isoko South 

Local Government Area of Delta 

State, by 10am. 

Outing service comes up on 

Sunday at the St. Paul’s 

Cathedral, Oleh. 

• Late Bishop Edewor 

into violence and 

communal disruptions. 

“Yes, democracy is about 

the pitting of ideas, the 

grappling with conflicting 

views and interests. But in 

the end, there is always 

an arrival at a consensusbuilding, 

the initiation of 

compromise, the 

settlement of rifts through 

the pacific largeness of the 

ballot box. 

“Well, the battle has 

been won and lost. But 

there is no vanquished 

and there is no restrictive 

winner. The victory 

belongs to all of us. 

This is now the moment 

to mend the broken places, 

to reconcile and rebuild 

without any recourse to 

personal triumphalism. We 

are all winners. 

“A new journey has 

started. A new hope has 

risen. The horizon is bright 

and appealing. Let us all 

join in steering the ship of 

state to a safe and strong 

harbor; steadfast and sure, 

protected from the tumult of 

the rough waters.” 

CVL to brainstorm on exclusion 

of women in Nigerian leadership 

interrogate the nature of 

the glass ceiling in 

Nigeria, which leads to 

sub-optimising on the 

country’s available pool 

of talents. 

The first in the series will 

hold on Thursday, 15th 

April 2021 at the Nigerian 

Institute of International 

Affairs, NIIA, Victoria 

Island, Lagos at 11 am. 

The panel for the 

colloquium includes Mrs. 

Bola Adesola of the 

Standard Chartered 

Group; the founder of 

LEAP Africa, Ndidi 

Nwuneli; the current 

ICAN president Onome 

Joy Adewuyi and First 

Bank’s Folake Ani 

Mumuney. 

Diokpa Monye 

dies at 87 

PA Anthony Dennis Monye, 

84, is dead after a brief illness. 

Funeral ceremonies will begin 

on Thursday, April 22, 2021, with 

a Christian/social wake-keep at 

at his country home, Onicha- 

Ugbo in Aniocha-North Local 

Government Area of Delta State. 

A funeral mass comes up next 

day at All Saint’s Catholic 

Church, Onicha-Ugbo, and 

interment follows at his country 

home. He is survived by wife, 

children and grand children. 

• Late Pa Monye 


GRADUATION—From left: Founder/Director, IAF IICFIP Global and Vice-President, Dr. Damilola 

Fagboro; Director, Unilag Consult, Prof. Auwalu Usman; graduand/Internal Auditor, Vanguard 

Newspapers, Mr. Olushola Ojo, and Mr. Iloya Osilamah, during the presentation of certificates/ 

graduation ceremony of International Academy of Forensics Investigation/Criminal Intelligence, 

held at Unilag, in Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Shonola. 

Doctors, nurses declare strike over 

insecurity in Ogun 

• Bandits kidnap women in Oyo 

• Hunters await govt’s approval to rescue victims 

• As NURTW commences e-tracking of vehicles 

By Ola Ajayi, Shina 

Abubakar & James 

Ogunnaike 

Ahigh-level BEOKUTA—THE 

insecurity in 

the country, which has 

culminated in the spate of 

kidnappings in Ogun 

State, has compelled health 

workers in the state, under 

the aegis of the National 

Association of Nigerian 

Nurses and Midwives, 

NANNM, and Nigerian 

Medical Association, 

NMA, to withdraw their 

services from public health 

institutions. 

This came on a day some 

bandits, yesterday, 

abducted three women at 

Onipe community in Idi 

Ayunre area of Ibadan, Oyo 

State. 

But as a way of ensuring 

safety on highways in the 

South-West, President of the 

National Union of Road 

Transport Workers, 

NURTW, Tajudeen Baruwa, 

stated that the union has 

embarked on electronic 

tracking of its cars. 

Doctors, nurses 

declare strike 

over insecurity in 

Ogun 

While the chairman of the 

NANNM, Roseline 

Solarin, affirmed the strikethrough 

a communiqué, 

the NMA Chairman in the 

state, Dr. Oladayo 

Ogunlaja, confirmed the 

strike in an interview. 

It would be recalled that 

Ogun State had, in recent 

times, been hit by frequent 

kidnap of doctors and 

nurses, as well as other 

residents of the state. 

In the communiqué 

issued by the NANNM, 

dated April 12 and 

addressed to the 

Commissioner for Health in 

the state, Dr. Tomi Coker, 

the nurses condemned the 

lackadaisical attitude of the 

government towards the 

release of their colleagues. 

In the communiqué 

titled: ‘Notification of 

withdrawal of services, the 

health workers described 

the approach adopted by 

the government as 

appalling. 

Ogunlaja said the strike 

was a joint resolution 

between the NMA and 

NANNM, saying they were 

going ahead with the strike, 

despite the release of their 

abducted colleagues until 

the government did the 

needful. 

He said: “There is a lot of 

security challenges in the 

state now. I want the state 

government to address 

them before we go back to 

work. 

“The government should 

make where we work a safe 

place so that we can work 

without any fear. The state 

is now becoming unsafe for 

everybody living here. 

“We want the government 

to do the needful so that we 

will know that we are 

secured.” 

We’re not aware of 

any strike 

—Ogun govt 

When contacted, the 

Commissioner for Health, 

Dr. Tomi Coker said she was 

not aware of any strike. 

She said: “I have not 

been informed that they are 

going on strike. Let them 

inform me; when they 

inform me, I will know the 

next thing to do.” 

Bandits kidnap 

women in Oyo, 

Ibadan 

Meanwhile, Vanguard 

gathered that hoodlums, 

who reportedly hid in the 

bush emerged and started 

shooting to scare people 

away. 

While the shooting was 

on, the bandits were said 

to have held the three 

women, hostage, before 

leading them into the bush 

in the area. 

One of the kidnapped 

victims was said to have 

been forced out of a Toyota 

SUV, marked AGL 66 FY. 

Two men, who reported 

the case at a police station 

in Idi Ayunre, disclosed 

names of the victims as Mrs. 

Okeowo, Mrs. Abosede 

Adebayo and Mrs. Bola 

Ogunrinde. 

Though the victims are 

yet to be rescued, 

Vanguard gathered that 

a team of policemen from 

Idi Ayunre Divisional Police 

station, hunters and local 

vigilante groups had been 

combing nooks and 

crannies of the area. 

The new Police Public 

Relations Officer in the 

state, DSP Adewale 

Osifeso, who confirmed the 

story, said other tactical 

teams had joined the 

security agents on the trail 

of the hoodlums. 

Hunters await 

govt’s approval to 

rescue victims 

Also confirming the story, 

the National President of 

Soludero Hunters 

Association of Nigeria, Oba 

Nureni Anabi, said he and 

his men were awaiting 

directives from Oyo State 

government to go for such 

an operation. 

Anabi said: “Yes, we heard and 

a security officer with the state 

government promised to get in 

touch with us but we have been 

trying to call him. 

“We need to be mobilized. First, 

the forest where the kidnappers 

took their victims is owned by the 

government. Also, we don’t have 

money to spend. All the 

achievements recorded so far were 

possible because of the help we 

got from Ilaji Farms. 

“As we are now, we are stuck. If 

we need to enter the bush for the 

rescue operation, the men would 

need to be encouraged. We can’t 

do so without the needed help 

from the government.” 

NURTW to 

commence e- 

tracking of 

vehicles 

Meanwhile, the president of the 

NURTW, Tajudeen Baruwa, 

disclosed yesterday that the 

union has embarked on 

electronic tracking of its cars. 

Addressing journalists in 

Osogbo after its National 

Executive Council meeting, 

Baruwa, who was flanked by the 

Deputy President and General 

Secretary, said the decision was 

in response to the spate of crime 

on highways, especially the 

kidnapping of drivers and 

passengers. 

His words: “We admonish our 

members to be security conscious, 

the issue of insecurity is 

worrisome. Many of our members 

have been kidnapped across the 

country. We have lost many of 

them to the menace of insecurity 

and without compensation to 

their families from the 

government. 

“So we need to be careful and 

vigilant when we are on the 

steering. The E-tracking policy 

will help the safety of passengers 

and our members after we put it 

to use.” 

He also condemned the 

decision of some state 

governments, especially in the 

South-West, to proscribe the 

union, urging the affected state 

governments to rescind the 

decision or push the union to 

seek redress in court. 

He said: “We kick against the 

decision of some state 

governments like Oyo, Ogun and 

Ondo states in proscribing our 

union. It is unlawful. We are an 

independent union like NUT, 

TUC which are under the Nigeria 

Labour Congress. 

‘’We appeal to the government 

to reverse the decision and not 

use politics to ruin our union. The 

issue must be resolved, else we 

will go to court to enforce our 

rights.”




EFCC arrests ex-gov Okorocha 

over alleged N7.9bn cash in banks 

By Soni Daniel 

A Imo BUJA—FORMER 

State Governor, 

Owelle Rochas Okorocha, was 

yesterday arrested in Abuja over 

alleged misappropriation of the 

funds of the state to the tune of 

N7.9 billion. 

There has been a running 

battle between the former 

governor and the EFCC in recent 

months following his claims and 

counter claims that he did not 

wrong and that he was being 

witch-hunted by the EFCC and 

his successor, Hope Uzodinma. 

The commission, which started 

investigating the former governor 

even before he left office in 2019, 

claimed that it traced at least N7.9 

billion in different bank accounts 

to the former governor, now a 

senator representing the state in 

the upper chambers of the 

Nigerian parliament. 

UNILORIN Alumni Impasse: CAANU 

commends VC for restoring sanity 

By Demola Akinyemi 

I L O R I N — 

CONFERENCE of 

ALUMNI Associations of 

Nigerian Universities, CAANU, 

has commended the Vice- 

Chancellor of University of Ilorin, 

UNILORIN, Professor Sulyman 

Age Abdulkareem, for the roles 

he played in the, “restoration of 

integrity and honour that the 

University of Ilorin Alumni 

Association is known for. “ 

In a commmendation letter, 

CAANU National chairman, 

Professor Ahmed Tijjani 

Mara said: “National 

executive committee of 

CAANU and the entire 

delegates at the 2021 first 

CHRISTIANITY 

is 

about meeting spiritual, 

physical and materiel needs, 

just like Jesus Christ and the 

early church did, unlike today; 

the Church is now taking more 

than it is giving. 

Pastor Rosemary Akaette, 

Founder, Living Encouraged 

Ministries and convener, 

Sought Out Outreach, said 

this in her address at the 

maiden outreach and 

empowerment conference for 

widows in Lagos. 

She noted that the lack of 

focus on the welfare of 

Christians had exposed the 

quarter meeting of CAANU 

held at the Ebonyi State 

University, Abakaliki on Saturday 

27th March 2021 use this medium 

to express our profound gratitude 

to our distinguished Vice- 

Chancellor, Professor Sulyman 

Abdulkareem for your role in the 

restoration of integrity and 

honour that the University of 

Ilorin Alumni Association is 

known for. 

“The University of Ilorin 

Alumni association was a giant 

among the comity of universities 

Alumni Association before a non 

compatriot and selfish individual 

found his way to the leadership 

of the association and brought it 

to disrepute for his egocentric and 

self serving agenda.'' 

Konshisha: Benue Security Council demands 

return of slain soldiers' weapons 

•Wants masterminds arrested, prosecuted 

•As youths allege plot to invade Benue communities 

By Peter Duru 

MAKURDI—THE Benue 

State Security Council, 

yesterday directed traditional 

rulers and stakeholders in 

Konshisha Local Government 

Area, LGA, to ensure the 

unconditional return of the arms 

and ammunition confiscated from 

the 12 soldiers killed on Easter 

Monday by armed bandits in the 

area. 

The Council also advised 

against any form of inflammatory 

statements that could aggravate 

the situation in the area urging 

stakeholders to allow the 

government and security agencies 

to handle the matter. 

These were part of the 

resolutions reached at the end of 

the Council’s meeting which was 

presided over by Governor Samuel 

Ortom and had in attendance 

stakeholders and traditional rulers 

from Konshisha LGA. 

While confirming that militias 

were responsible for the killing of 

the soldiers deployed to ensure 

peace between Konshisha and 

Oju LGAs, the Council 

condemned the killing and 

expressed its condolences to 

President Muhammadu Buhari, 

Chief of Army Staff and families of 

the soldiers. 

Reading the resolutions, 

Governor Ortom said, “the 

meeting confirmed that six persons 

including two militia members died 

during the search for the missing 

soldiers. 

“Stakeholders were advised to 

restrain themselves from making 

inflammatory statements and 

Foursquare holds annual int'l confab for ministers, 

leaders 

LAGOS—THE National 

Leadership of the Foursquare 

Gospel Church in Nigeria has 

announced that its annual 

International Conference for 

Ministers and Leaders 2021 will 

take place from Thursday, April 

15 to Sunday April 182021. 

According to the Chairman of 

the Organizing Committee, Rev. 

Dr. Ben Taiwo, the ICML is the 

flagship training programme for 

ministers and leaders of the 

organisation which over the 

years has trained thousands of 

leaders within and outside the 

The commission also claimed 

that it had identified many choice 

property said to be owned by the 

former governor in different parts 

of the county and that they would 

be eventually forfeited to the 

government. 

The former governor, according 

to EFCC sources, was arrested 

at his private office in Garki 

District of Abuja yesterday and 

taken to the EFCC office also in 

Abuja. 

It was learnt that the anti-graft 

agency might charge the former 

governor to court immediately in 

order to make him to account for 

his actions while in office as the 

Chief Executive officer of the 

state for eight years. 

The Spokesman for the EFCC, 

Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, who 

confirmed the arrest of the former 

governor to Vanguard on Tuesday 

night, however declined to give 

details of the matter. 

Foundation empowers widows, 

says Church now taking more 

than giving 

Church to criticism, lamenting 

that “the Church has missed it.” 

Represented by Pastor John 

Okwuone, Senior Pastor, Love 

Christian Centre, LCC, she 

urged the beneficiaries to also 

“bless and empower others as 

you were reached to reach 

others.” 

At the conference, over 50 

women were trained in makeup 

and hair making, simple snacks 

and cake making, and liquid 

soap and detergent making. 

While giving her talk on 

“Soaring Above the Storms of 

Life,” Olubunmi Onipede, the 

guest speaker, told the women 

that widowhood is a storm, but 

it’s one they can overcome. 

Foursquare Movement. This 

year's edition promises to be 

spiritually enriching and 

physically refreshing. Listed 

among the ministers during the 

programme are the General 

Overseer, Rev. Sam Aboyeji, 

Engr. Abiodun Fijabi, Rev. Yomi 

Oyinloye, the National Secretary 

and Pst. Tunde Oyediran, 

National Minister for Missions 

(Youth) among many others. 

Commenting on what should 

be expected during the 

programme, the General 

Overseer, Rev. Sam Aboyeji said: 

‘The theme of this year's 

conference, Stewardship taken 

from 1 Corinthians 4:1,2 is a reminder 

to us of the spiritual, sacred, 

solemn and serious service 

which we have been called to offer 

as Gods servants. Towards this 

conference, God has prepared His 

vessels to lead us, teach us and 

impact us in definite ways as we 

focus on this important subject of 

stewardship. The ICML will also 

reflect the dynamics of the times 

we are in. As a carryover from last 

year, we are retaining as much of 

what was planned before but will 

seek further opportunity to handle 

some of the subjects that are not 

accommodated.” 

allow the government and 

security agencies to handle the 

matter. 

“The meeting tasked traditional 

rulers and other stakeholders to 

ensure that all the weapons 

taken from the murdered soldiers 

are returned unconditionally. 

And soon as the arms are 

returned, the State Security 

Council will review the situation. 

“The meeting resolved that all 

those involved in the killing of 

the soldiers should be arrested 

and prosecuted. To end the 

lingering crisis between Oju and 

Konshisha, the meeting resolved 

that the demarcation of the 

boundary between the two LGAs 

be carried out as soon as possible. 

“The meeting also appreciated 

the military for accepting the plea 

of the state government not to 

further escalate the destruction 

of lives and property of innocent 

citizens in the affected 

communities of Konshisha.” 

Planned invasion of 

Benue communities 

Meanwhile, Benue Youth 

Forum, BYF, has raised the alarm 

over alleged plot by armed 

herdsmen to invade Guma Local 

Government Area, LGA, and 

other parts of the state. 

The group appealed to security 

agencies to intensify surveillance 

in border communities of the 

State, particularly Guma LGA to 

avert a repeat of the 2018 

massacre in the area. 

The National President of BYF, 

Terrence Kuanum in a statement 

Nigeria’s victory against 

insecurity’s around the 

corner — PASTOR ADEBOYE 

By Ibrahim Hassan 

K General ADUNA—THE 

Overseer of the 

Redeemed Christian Church of 

God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has 

said Nigeria’s victory against 

insecurity is around the corner. 

Pastor Adeboye, who made this 

known yesterday when he paid 

a courtesy call on Governor Nasir 

el-Rufai of Kaduna State at the 

Government House, told the 

governor that he was praying for 

him, the state and the country at 

large. 

The respected cleric, said: “We 

know that you have a problem 

that only God can solve. The 

problem is far beyond the abilities 

of any human being. We have 

known each other for years. I 

know the kind of person you are. 

I know you are tender hearted, I 

know how you definitely must be 

feeling, particularly when the 

kidnappings are going on. When 

they begin to kidnap school 

children, I know how you must 

be feeling.” 

He assured the governor that 

“victory is around the corner. We 

are praying for you and I believe 

God is going to answer the 

prayers. I am assuring you sir that 

the Almighty God is going to fight 

for you, He is going to fight for 

Kaduna State, He is going to 

fight for Nigeria. When God 

begins to do what He alone can 

do, then the world will see it and 

they will glorify the name of God, 

and many people who may be 

criticizing you now, will probably 

see the other side of story.” 

Responding, Governor el-Rufai 

commiserated with the Redeemed 

Christian Church family over the 

recent abduction of some pastors 

and parishioners in the state. 

He said: ‘’We also seek your 

blessings and prayers, as a great 

man of God, to assist us with 

the challenges that we are facing 

here and the country at large. 

This country needs divine 

intervention more than at any 

time in its history. So, we are 

grateful for your prayers, we are 

grateful for your blessings, and 

we will continue to ask for more. 

“The Redeemed Christian 

Church has been a pillar of 

strength; a symbol of Nigeria’s 

unity and positive force for peace 

and progress in the state. And 

we are very grateful with the 

contributions that they have 

made.” 

The governor urged Pastor 

Adeboye to continue to 

encourage the church to 

expand throughout the state 

because ‘’our state needs 

your prayers, our state needs 

your blessings.” 

PRESENTATION: From left; 

Passenger Service Agent, Arik 

Air Ilorin Station, Owolabi 

Joshua; Admin Secretary, 

Hope Motherless Babies 

Home, Idofian, Kwara State, 

Mrs Bunmi Enimola and Head 

of 

Corporate 

Communications Arik Air, 

Adebanji Ola during the 

presentation of food items to 

the Motherless Babies Home 

as part of Easter celebrations. 

in Makurdi, claimed that credible 

information had it that 

clandestine meetings were being 

held by armed herders in Bauchi 

at the border between the state 

and Kano State to unleash 

mayhem in Benue State. 

According to him “herders who 

have been holding meetings in 

some northern states have 

singled out Governor Samuel 

Ortom as their prime target and 

have threatened to make his 

country home a stream of tears. 

Information has it that the latest 

meeting of the evil planners took 

place at a community in Bauchi 

on the border between the state 

and Kano State. 

“The aim of the armed 

herdsmen is to intimidate the 

Governor through sustained 

attacks and force him to repeal 

the Open Grazing Prohibition 

and Ranches Establishment Law 

to give their cattle unhindered 

access to Benue lands. 

“Recall that Governor Ortom 

recently alerted the nation that 

his Bauchi State counterpart, 

Bala Mohammed was profiling 

him for attacks, and that if 

anything happens to him, 

Governor Bala should be held 

responsible. Also recall the eyepopping 

support and defence the 

Bauchi Governor publicly gave 

herdsmen who carry AK47. 

“Is it a coincidence that the said 

meeting and plot to attack 

Governor Ortom’s country home 

took place in Bauchi? Our 

investigation points to the fact 

that the same terror groups are 

remotely behind the communal 

clashes within Benue State to 

paint a picture of anarchy and 

make the Governor to appear as 

one who has lost control of affairs 

of his state. 

“The sophistication and 

audacity the communal crises 

have assumed lay credence to 

the suspicion of external 

influence. While supporting the 

call for the arrest of indigenous 

suspects, we urge security 

operatives to equally beam their 

searchlight on sponsors of the 

crises who may not be residing 

within the state. 

“We urge Benue people to 

continue to support security 

agencies as they have been 

doing and to report strange 

movements around them. 

While commending security 

agencies for their efforts in 

restoring peace in Benue State, 

we charge them to do more to 

enable our people who are in 

IDPs camps to return to their 

ancestral homes.”




Expedite action on PIB, Diri begs Reps 

•Says N-Delta needs clean-up 

By Samuel 

Oyadongha 

Y ENOGOA—Governor 

Douye Diri of Bayelsa 

State has urged members of 

the House of Representatives 

to expedite action on the 

passage of the Petroleum 

Industry Bill, PIB, saying it 

would correct some of the 

injustices faced by oil 

producing states. 

Diri made the appeal, 

yesterday, when members of 

the House Committee on Oil 

Spill Investigation, Clean-up 

and Remediation in Oil 

Producing States visited him 

at Government House, 

VISIT: The 

Interim 

Administrator, 

Presidential 

Amnesty 

Programme, 

PAP, Colonel 

Milland Dikio 

(retd) (right) 

and the Pere 

of Gbaramotu 

Kingdom, 

HRM Ogboro 

Gbaraun II 

Aketekpe, 

Agadagba 

during a 

courtesy call 

on the 

monarch in 

his palace, 

Oporoza, 

Delta State, 

yesterday. 

Yenagoa. 

The governor in a 

statement by his Chief Press 

Secretary, Mr Daniel Alabrah, 

said the PIB, when passed 

into law, would be an avenue 

to correct some of the wrongs 

of the oil companies in host 

communities, noting that the 

bill had been neglected for 

long by the National 

Assembly. 

He said: “Let me appeal that 

as you go, have a very 

serious interest in the PIB. 

The PIB has been there from 

one Assembly to the other. 

“It is another way of 

ameliorating what we 

perceive as cheating on the 

part of the oil companies and 

Nigeria on the Niger Delta 

and its people.” 

Diri lamented the level of 

negligence by oil companies 

and the Federal 

Government, saying the 

people have suffered so much 

in terms of environmental 

degradation and pollution of 

water bodies leading to 

increase in cases of cancer 

and other strange ailments. 

He queried the standards 

applied by oil firms in their 

operations in the Niger Delta 

compared to others part of the 

world. 

The governor also called for 

clean-up of Niger Delta as a 

whole, noting that the Ogoni 

clean-up, which attracted 

international attention, was a 

mere fraction of the polluted 

environment from oil spills. 

“What happened in 

Ogoniland is the same in the 

whole of Niger Delta. That 

there is a clean-up in 

Ogoniland is, to say the least, 

a fraction of the Niger Delta. 

So the clean-up should be 

the whole of the Niger Delta,” 

he said, expressing optimism 

that the report of the 

committee would bring 

succour to people of the area 

if implemented. 

Earlier, chairman of the 

committee, Amiru Tukur, said 

they were in the state on a 

verification mission to some 

oil spill sites to ascertain the 

actual clean-up and 

remediation, adding that the 

outcome would form the basis 

of the report it would submit 

to the House. 

Women in Edo protest against herdsmen's activities 

By Gabriel 

Enogholase & 

Ozioruva Aliu 

BENIN 

CITY— 

HUNDREDS of 

women, mostly farmers, in 

Ikabigbo community, in 

Uzairue Kingdom, Etsako 

West Local Government 

Area of Edo State, 

yesterday, protested the 

activities of herdsmen in 

their community, asking 

them (herdsmen) to leave 

as their presence was 

causing them more harm 

than good. 

The women protested at 

the palace of the traditional 

ruler, Chief Braimah 

Alegeh, to register their 

displeasure over what they 

described as wanton 

destruction of their crops 

and farmlands by the 

herdsmen. 

Spokesperson for the 

women, Mrs Rose 

Ekhalumhe, said: “The 

herdsmen want to create 

hunger in our 

communities. They will 

enter our cassava farm, 

uproot the cassava to feed 

their cattle and the cattle 

will destroy the remaining. 

“Yam barns are not 

spared in this destruction 

by the herdsmen and their 

cattle. We are now afraid 

to go to the farm because 

many of us have been 

beaten up and injured by 

herdsmen for daring to ask 

them to stop the 

destruction of our crops 

and farmlands. 

“So, we are here to let 

you know that we are tired 

of their atrocities. We can’t 

farm anymore and the little 

we have cultivated have 

been destroyed by the 

herders and their cattle. 

We want them to leave our 

land and community. We 

didn’t give them any 

land.” 

Responding, Alegeh, 

said: “I have reported the 

matter to the clan head, 

Ogieneni of Uzairue, His 

Royal Highness, Kadiri 

Omogbai that I am 

inundated with complaints 

about the destruction of 

crops and farmlands by 

herdsmen in my 

community and he 

promised to look into it.” 

He said the palace would 

make a formal report to the 

local and state 

governments to intimate 

them on the unwholesome 

activities of the herdsmen, 

adding that the community 

has no land for herdsmen 

and their cattle. 

Alleged marginalisation: Delta community 

barricades oil company's premises 

By Festus Ahon & 

Ochuko Akuopha 

K 

W A L E — 

DISSATISFIED by 

its conduct, the people of 

Ogbeani community in 

Ndokwa West Local 

Government Area, Delta 

State, have staged a protest 

against Sterling Oil 

Exploration and Energy 

Production Company, 

SEEPCO/Ashtavinayak 

Hydrocarbon Limited over its 

failure to sign a 

Memorandum of 

Understanding, MoU, with 

the community. 

The protesters, which 

include old and young 

indigenes of the community, 

besieged the company 

premises as early as 9 a.m., 

and barred all forms of 

movement in and out of the 

company. They chanted 

songs to express their 

displeasure with the 

company. 

The people carried placards 

with different inscriptions, 

such as “We need immediate 

signing of MoU”, “We Need 

To See The C.E.O”, “Give Us 

Job”, “SANDEEP Stop 

Frustrating Ogbeani,” 

among others and insisted 

that they would not leave the 

company premises till their 

demands were met. 

One of the protesters, Mr 

Samuel Enebeli, who spoke 

to newsmen on behalf of the 

people, alleged that the 

company had failed to sign 

an MoU with the community 

since they commenced 

operations, adding that the 

peaceful protest was to let the 

world know how the 

company was treating them. 

Also speaking, Mr Festus 

Obodeh said the agitation by 

the community for fair 

treatment by the company 

had attracted the intervention 

of the state government. 

Explaining that the 

company was not respecting 

the government and the host 

community, Obodeh said it 

was “wrong for the company 

to be operating without a 

Community Liaison Officer 

or reaching an 

understanding with their 

host.” 

On his part, Chief Peter 

Udome, accused the 

company of sidelining the 

community in the scheme of 

things, alleging that “the 

company has engaged more 

than 5,000 Indians and more 

than 200 non-indigenes with 

nobody employed from the 

host community, Ogbeani.” 

Efforts to reach the 

company for comments on 

the matter proved abortive at 

press time. 

S’South political parties 

denounce FG’s plot to seize 

Delta’s repatriated funds 

By Emma Amaize 

A SOUTH SABA—SOUTH- 

Political Parties 

Coalition, SSPC, a group of 

about 108 registered political 

parties’ chairmen in the 

South-South has scoffed at 

the design of the Federal 

Government to take over 

returned looted funds by the 

British government that 

rightly belongs to the 

government and people of 

Delta State. 

Rising from a leadership 

meeting in Port-Harcourt, 

Rivers State, the coalition in 

a communique by the 

national chairman, Prince 

A-Ibom sets up c'ttee over 

Ibom deep seaport take-off 

By Chioma 

Onuegbu 

UYO —Akwa Ibom State 

government has set up a 

committee to interface with 

strategic local stakeholders to 

facilitate the execution of the 

Ibom Deep Seaport project. 

State Commissioner for 

Information and Strategy, Mr 

Ini Ememobong, in a statement, 

yesterday, in Uyo, said the 

committee was set up during the 

State Executive Council 

meeting at Government House, 

on Monday. 

Ememobong noted that all 

the ministries and bureau 

presented their performance 

review for the first quarter of 

2021 at the meeting. 

He said: “At the meeting of the 

Executive Council of the Akwa 

Ibom State Government held 

at the Executive Council 

Chambers, Government 

House, Uyo, the governor 

directed that the Directorate of 

Solid Minerals be moved from 

Ministry of Transport to the 

Reuben Favour, and nine 

others, said: “SSPC frowns at 

the desperation of the Federal 

Government to ‘rob Peter to 

pay Paul' attitude in the clear 

circumstance that the funds 

returned is rightly and solely 

a Delta State and her 

people’s monies. 

“It has never been heard 

in history that recoveries in 

this manner are generally 

shared, other than refunding 

and reimbursing the source 

of the loot. 

“We will not hesitate to 

challenge any contrary action 

of the Federal Government in 

a competent court of law.” 

Ministry of Environment to 

properly align job 

responsibilities and fast track 

the completion agenda. 

“The Technical Committee on 

Ibom Deep Sea Port 

implementation informed 

EXCO that Nigerian Ports 

Authority, NPA, had set up a joint 

committee for the project and 

that execution plans are on track. 

“EXCO set up a committee to 

interface with strategic local 

stakeholders to facilitate a 

smooth take-off of the project. 

Also, EXCO took briefings on 

the state of affairs at Ibom 

Hotels and Golf Resort under 

the current management of the 

Icon Group. 

“The chairman of the board 

and the MD of the hotel 

presented their first periodic 

(120 days) report showing the 

developments made and the 

improvements sought to be 

undertaken. 

“EXCO expressed 

appreciation on the work done 

so far in the hotel and urged 

them to do better in the 

subsequent period.” 

Bizman recovers property 

after A’Court dismisses 

objection by AMCON 

By Onozure 

Dania 

FOLLOWING an Appeal 

Court decision, 

dismissing an appeal by 

Asset Management 

Corporation of Nigeria, 

AMCON, in respect of a 

property at Victory Park 

Estate, Igbokushu, Lekki 

Phase I, Lagos, a 

businessman, Mr Adedayo 

Shittu, has recovered the 

property from “unknown 

individuals.” 

Justice K. Jose of a Lagos 

High Court had restrained 

a Receiver-Manager 

appointed by AMCON, 

from encroaching on the 

land. 

The court had on October 

24, 2019, dismissed 

AMCON’s preliminary 

objection and granted an 

interlocutory injunction in 

favour of Shittu and More 

and S. A. More Ltd, 

authorising them to protect 

their interest in the property 

at Vicory Park Estate. 

Dissatisfied, AMCON 

challenged the ruling with 

Shittu, More and S. A. More 

Ltd, Knight Rook Ltd and Mr 

Lanre Olaoluwa as 1st to 4th 

respondents in the suit. 

But, on December 15, 

2020, a three-man panel of 

the Court of Appeal with 

Appeal Court President, 

Justice Monica Dongban- 

Mensem, presiding, 

dismissed AMCON’s appeal 

and affirmed Justice Jose’s 

order in Shittu’s favour. 

Shittu counsel on the take 

over of the property said: 

“During a routine visit to the 

land on March 22, 2021, our 

client discovered that some 

unknown persons had 

encroached on the land and 

were about to commence 

construction work on a 

foundation for a building. 

“Consequently, we filed a 

petition against the said 

persons at the Land 

Grabbers Task Force in 

Alausa on March 23, 2021. 

After processing the petition, 

a stop-work order was issued 

by the task force directing the 

persons to report to their 

office for interrogation in 

connection with our client’s 

petition. 

“Following the petition, the 

police intervened and we 

executed the court order and 

recovered possession of the 

property.”

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021—13

C 

M 

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9mobile empowers journalists on requisite skills for good reportage 

By Juliet Umeh 

TO equip journalists with 

the requisite skills and 

knowledge to boost reportage 

and adapt effectively to the 

dynamic media landscape, 

telecommunication service 

provider, 9mobile, held a capacity-building 

session recently. 

The training session was facilitated 

by the Regional Editor 

(West Africa), The Conversation Africa, 

Adejuwon Soyinka. 

Speaking on the theme “Online 

Content Optimization - engaging 

millennial and Gen-Z audiences with 

storytelling,” Adejuwon said that disruption 

in news media creates better 

opportunities for journalists to leverage 

and tell good stories that connect 

with new audiences. 

According to him, Content optimization 

entails making sure that 

stories are written and produced 

in a relatable way and can reach 

the largest possible target audience, 

in this case, the Millennials 

and the Gen-Z. 

He said: “Telling a good and 

captivating story means finding 

and verifying important or interesting 

information and then presenting 

it in a way that engages 

the audience. The fact remains 

that attention span is decreasing 

by the day. 

“But beyond this also, there is 

the question of how the journalist 

can match stories with the 

right and complimentary platforms. 

The truth is that there are 

certain kinds of stories meant for 

specific platforms, and this is 

where multimedia storytelling 

comes to play. By incorporating 

various types of media, you are 

creating a story that readers can 

engage with and possibly 

share,” he explained. 

The Executive Director, Regulatory 

and Corporate Affairs, 

9mobile, Abdulrahman Ado, 

represented by the Public Relations 

Lead, 9mobile, Chineze 

Amanfo, said that the training 

was part of the telco’s initiatives 

and ongoing strategic programmes 

for media engagement. 

By Prince Osuagwu, Hi- 

Tech Editor 

ESPITE ban, Nigeria 

Dstill blazes the trail in 

cryptocurrency growth. The 

country has become a reference 

point in the emerging 

markets of Middle East and 

Africa when trading on crytocurrency 

is discussed. 

In the first quarter of this 

year, Q1,2021 Nigeria 

shocked the world when between 

January and March it 

posted a peer-to-peer, P2P Bitcoin 

trading value worth $99.1 

million. Kenya also followed 

suit with $38.4 million, although 

that was $61 million 

less than Nigeria’s. Ghana and 

South Africa complete the top 

4 with $27.4 million and $25.8 

million respectively. 

In 2020, Nigeria’s Bitcoin 

trading volume was $309.6 

million followed by South Africa’s 

$98.4 million and Kenya’s 

$92.4 million. However, 

while Nigeria’s ban on cryptocurrency 

is not affecting both 

the P2P and general volume of 

trading, that of South Africa is 

having a negative impact considering 

that both Kenya and 

Ghana have eclipsed South Africa 

in the Q1 2021 trading 

report, according to 

UsefulTulips.org . 

South African government 

took a strong position on cryptocurrency 

after a $740million 

bitcoin scam allegedly coordinated 

by Bitcoin trader, Mirror 

Trading International, 

which is now liquidated. 

The effect of that scam 

brought about stiff regulations 

which eventually drove away 

some investors and made the 

South African crypto market 

lose appeal. 

Meanwhile Ghana and Kenya 

took a different route and 

rather preferred to tweak their 

regulations towards benefitting 

from where South Africa 

slipped. 

While Ghana’s Central Bank 

launched a regulatory framework 

that not strictly controls 

but also gives blockchainbased 

companies including 

cryptocurrency startups priority, 

the Central Bank of Kenya 

is reported to have proposed 

switching to Bitcoin as a reserve 

currency. These policies 

could have pushed up their 

volume of P2P trading in Q1, 

2021 

However, Nigeria’s case is 

described as unique because of 

the huge youth population involved 

in crypto trading. While 

the government banned banks 

from processing all crypto-related 

transactions, traders, 

who are mainly youths, bypass 

the restriction. 

Now, the country’s monthly 

P2P volume is currently valued 

at $33.1 million, as against the 

$25.8 million per month it 

posted in 2020. This represents 

a 28 percent increase. 

Despite ban, Nigeria leads bitcoin P2P trading 

across Africa in Q1 2021 

*As Crypto is tipped to solve Nigeria’s unemployment problem 

Bitcoin 

How crypto market tackles 

youth unemployment 

Experts say the growth of the 

crypto market in the last four 

years have benefited mostly 

young people, showing why it 

should continue, despite ban. 

There are more than 20 cryptocurrency 

exchanges in Nigeria employing 

hundreds of young Nigerians 

and some of the exchanges are founded 

and run 100 percent by young Nigerians. 

This is also as there are 

blockchain projects in the country that 

have many Nigerians working on 

them. 

According to data from Austin-based 

job search site, there was a 90 percent 

increase in blockchain, bitcoin, and 

cryptocurrency job postings between 

February 2018 and 2019. Job postings 

in blockchain categories rose 4,086 

percent in the share of job postings per 

million from the previous three years. 

Young people account for a staggering 

42.5 percent of Nigeria’s unemployment 

rate as of the fourth quarter 

of 2020. 

While the total unemployment rate 

surged to an unprecedented 33.3 percent 

from 27.1 percent in the second 

quarter, the highest rate of unemployment 

was recorded among those between 

the ages of 15 to 24 years with 

53.4 percent followed by those aged 

between 25 to 34 with 37.0 percent. A 

combination of unemployment and 

underemployment rates shows that 

those aged between 15-24 reported a 

combined rate of 73.2 percent, showing 

a serious challenge for the agegroup 

in securing full-time employment. 

The report by the National Bureau 

of Statistics (NBS) is the closest indication 

that the unemployment problem 

in the country has reached a crisis 

stage and would require every help it 

needs to address the problem. 

But while most young Nigerians 

may have lost faith in the ability of the 

economy to rescue them from widening 

poverty, a growing number are 

turning to blockchain and the evolving 

cryptocurrency ecosystem to build 

wealth. 

A survey conducted in the UK of affluent 

millennials discovered that 20 

percent have invested in cryptocurrencies. 

The story is similar in Nigeria, a 

market that is currently the largest in 

peer-to-peer trading in Africa. Out of 

74 countries in the Statista Global 

Consumer Survey, Nigerians were the 

most likely to say they used or owned 

cryptocurrency. 

Why youths prefer Crypto 

According to a crypto trader and 

founder SwiftCorp, Victor Asemota 

youths stick to crypto mainly because 

“Bitcoin, for instance, is not 

correlated with capital market fluctuations. 

There is much more volatility 

these days in equities than 

bitcoin. It is a great hedge that provides 

near-instant liquidity similar 

to cash”. 

Another crypto trader on Binance, 

Murphy Edafe said: “I like 

the volatile nature of cryptocurrency 

and with the help of cryptocurrency 

trading, I’ve been able to earn 

money at home, even much more 

than the salary I earn as a teacher. 

I have been able to feed my family 

and conveniently pay my other 

bills” 

For these young Nigerians, the 

cryptocurrency market is more 

than trading bitcoin and other altcoins, 

as it has begun to create jobs, 

inspire entrepreneurs to create startups, 

and spawn hundreds of tokens 

with unique functions and development. 

A survey by Binance found 

that the 51 percent of crypto users 

see it as a regular source of income. 

A blockchain expert, Lucky 

Uwakwe says there are hundreds 

of Nigerians willing to learn about 

blockchain, many of them, however, 

are discouraged by the lack of 

well-established training facilities. 

Only a few who can afford it, apply 

to schools abroad to study. 

He advocated a forward-looking 

regulatory approach as seen in 

countries like the US which made 

youths benefit from new jobs in the 

blockchain. 

Uwakwe who is currently studying 

Blockchain online with an institution 

abroad says that investors 

are willing to come and set up 

training in Nigeria but the regulatory 

environment does not yet support 

such investments. 

UBTH: How computerization makes care 

delivery seamless 

By Juliet Umeh 

N all the ways technology 

Ihas improved human activities, 

none is as important as the 

technological advancements in 

medicare. 

From the invention of X-ray 

machines to advances in surgical 

practices, technology has 

made lives healthier and increased 

life expectancies. 

In fact, technology experts say 

any healthcare facility without 

deliberate and concerted efforts 

to prioritise the development 

and integration of technological 

innovations in its clinical and 

non-clinical services may not be 

able to deliver quality healthcare. 

Deputy Chairman, Medical 

Advisory Committee, (Training 

and Monitoring), of the University 

of Benin Teaching Hospital, 

UBTH, Dr. Stanley Okugbo said 

since 2018 that the hospital created 

a separate information and 

communication technology, ICT 

unit, to coordinate, organise and 

oversee all ICT-related issues 

like hardware operations, website 

redesign, and the hospital’s 

health management information 

system, health care delivery has 

become easier and seamless. 

*Data capturing 

Okugbo explained that issue of 

missing case notes has stopped 

in the hospital as the hospital 

deploys data capturing machines. 

He noted that medical records 

services is key to ensuring that 

patient flow is seamless and doctor-patient 

relationship is rewarding 

for both parties. 

He said: “The management 

implemented interventions that 

Health tech equipment 

improved medical records efficiency 

and effectiveness. Right 

from when a patient comes to the 

hospital to last point, everything 

is paperless. Patients are captured 

at this first point of call. 

Sometimes, they don’t even know 

that their photographs are taken 

because it happens very quickly. 

When they go to see the doctor, 

they wonder how their photographs 

were gotten, but that’s 

for identification.” 

He added that the UBTH computerized 

its medical records 

functions at GPC, ANC and 

MOP clinics. 

*Booking system 

He also noted that concerted 

efforts were made to reduce turnaround-time 

for laboratory tests. 

Okugbo said: “In general out 

patients, we see a 100 and 140 

patients now because of the covid-19 

pandemic. Otherwise, we 

see much more than that but 

with the Covid restrictions, we 

had to use the booking system 

so that if we have more patients, 

we rebook them for the next day. 

“Emergencies are seen, those 

who are not emergencies can 

wait till the next day, we get their 

data and we book them till the 

next day and when they come the 

next day, they are quickly attended 

to. 

*Patient’s Code 

Okugbo explained that if a 

patient comes in, the patient is 

given a slip that has a unique 

code and only the patient has the 

code. 

He said: “So, the doctor enters 

the code and it displays the page, 

the doctor will see what the nurses 

have done and the details of 

the patient. Also, when the doctor 

generates a prescription, he 

has a code too, that is what he 

will put not the name of the 

drugs.”


C 

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Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

South East in the trenches (2) 

FIFTY one years after the end of the 

Biafra-Nigeria war, the Igbo nation is 

being forced to return to the trenches. Igbo 

people are not warlike, culturally or 

otherwise. If they were, there would have 

been empires in the history of the East. Apart 

from the great ancient Bini Empire, the 

people of the South East and South-South 

are historically and culturally republican, 

not imperialistic. 

They are peace-loving. War is not a central 

part of their cosmology, ordinarily. They 

believe in egbe bere, ugo bere (may the kite 

perch, may the eagle perch: live and let live). 

No one should deprive the other. They also 

believe in the dictum: O biara nke onye 

abiagbula ya. Mgbe O ga ala, mkpumkpu 

apula ya na-azu(A visitor should not bring 

disaster to his host. And when he is leaving, 

may he not go with a hunchback). Let there 

be peace between visitor and host. 

If the Igbo are such a peace-loving people, 

why were they the first ethnic group to fight 

a war of secession against the rest of the 

country over 50 years ago? The answer is 

simple: they were pushed into it after the 

first military coup of January 16, 1966. Why 

are they returning to the trenches today? The 

answer is the same: they are being pushed 

into it. 

As mentioned in the first part of this article, 

Europe dragged the world into the First 

By NWACHUKWU 

OBIDIWE 

NOW 

that the National 

Association of Resident 

Doctors, NARD, has called off the 

devastating 10-day old strike, what 

a time to interrogate the facts, 

fallacies and myths that precipitated 

the action, roamed the polity and 

occupied national discourse. It is not 

the best of times for Nigeria, sure. 

Uncertainty rankles. COVID-19 is 

still ravaging, though Nigerians 

have already declared victory. In the 

midst of scaring indices is the 

plague of hunger and destitution. A 

festering 

rural-urban 

poverty, worsted by pervasive 

insecurity, is blowing sky-high, a 

once palpable national confidence. 

Therefore, for doctors in what is 

a national theatre of emergency, to 

down tools would make Hippocrates 

turn in the grave. 

The doctors have genuine 

demands though, but the premise of 

the latest strike was impeachable. 

There is a mishmash of facts, lies, 

fallacies and even myths that 

enveloped it. This situation emitted 

a billow of smoke, confusing a 

genuine case against sheer 

subterfuge. NARD in its notice of 

trade dispute had raised the nonpayment 

of house officers as well as 

non-recruitment of new ones. It also 

called for the abolition of bench fees, 

payment of the new national 

minimum wage, hazard allowance 

and the Residency Training 

Allowance. There is also an ancillary 

issue of non-payment of insurance 

and death benefits to 17 doctors who 

lost their lives in battle against 

COVID-19. 

However, the Federal Government 

contended it had substantially met 

the demands of NARD as contained 

in the Memorandum of Action 

signed on March 1, 2021, a position 

NARD would later admit while 

calling off the strike on Saturday, 

World War against Germany and its allies. 

When Germany was defeated, the Treaty of 

Versailles laid out the conditionalities to 

prevent another war. German ultranationalists 

like Adolf Hitler felt 

dehumanised by these conditions. 

Eventually, the Second World War erupted. 

Again, Germany and its allies, notably 

Japan, were defeated. 

But this time, lessons were learnt. The 

United States of America, which had 

become the world’s dominant military 

power, ensured that the mistake of Versailles 

was corrected. There was a Marshall Plan 

which enabled the rebuilding of Germany 

and Japan. In exchange, they agreed to give 

up undue militarism. Since then, war has 

been averted in Europe, and Germany and 

Japan have enjoyed economic prosperity. It 

worked for both sides. 

At the end of the Nigerian civil war, the 

Britain-driven declaration of “No Victor, No 

Vanquished” and “Reconciliation, 

Reconstruction andRehabilitation” were just 

for the soundbites. While the Igbo thought 

that all was forgotten and went happy-golucky 

about their businesses, the other side 

strongly nurtured the war in their hearts, 

making sure that the Igbo were never 

allowed close enough to the centre of power. 

They were never allowed to truly belong to 

the fraudulent One-Nigeria they were forced 

Facts and fallacies of the just ended doctors strike 

April 10. The contentious issue of 

training and recruitment of house 

officers, it said, was already resolved 

as all officers, including those who 

fell outside the quota and those 

‘illegally” recruited by the chief 

medical directors in teaching 

hospitals were already receiving 

payments; while an online portal for 

the central recruitment of officers by 

the Medical and Dental Council of 

Nigeria came live, effective April 1, 

2021, thus bringing to an end, the 

whimsical selective recruitment of 

house doctors. Benching in training 

as well as the monthly deduction 

of N15,000 from the salaries of 

house doctors for 

accommodation were abolished. 

Refund of earlier deductions was also 

directed as doctors who are now paid 

The doctors have 

genuine demands, but 

the premise of the latest 

strike was impeachable 

in full, are at liberty to negotiate with 

local authorities in their place of 

service for individual 

accommodation. Undoubtedly, the 

decision of NARD to call off the strike 

came on the strength of dismissal of 

fallacies and suspicions it earlier 

brought to negotiation. How? 

While NARD had built emotion and 

drew the sympathy of Nigerians over 

the non-payment of death benefits 

to the 17 doctors who lost their lives 

in battle against COVID-19, stark 

reality dawned as government drew 

attention to the N9.3bn insurance 

premium instituted for health 

workers and all civil servants in 2020. 

It confronted the doctors over failure 

to stake claims on behalf of the next 

of kins of the fallen doctors, even as 

forms for claims were circulated in 

all the institutions for NARD to liaise 

with the chief medical directors in 

that regard, knowing that the 

insurance companies will only pay 

valid claims. Besides, the hue and 

cry over the review of the N5,000 

hazard allowance also got deflated 

as NARD discovered to its dismay, 

that the Ministry of Labour had 

already initiated a review meeting 

with the Remuneration Committee 

of the Nigerian Medical Association 

and the National Salaries, Income 

and Wages Commission. That 

NARD, after the grandstanding 

declaration at its extra-ordinary 

meeting on Wednesday, April 

8, wherein it insisted that strike must 

continue, would capitulate two days 

later as Nigerians began to 

see transparency 

in 

government’s implementation of 

the MOA, was no chagrin. Close 

observers at the various meetings 

cite an apparent chink, a 

discordance between what the 

militant NARD leadership claimed 

in the press and the mea-culpa it 

beat at negotiations, when 

confronted with facts. And here 

lies the half-truths and the fallacy 

in the recent strike. 

For instance, while the leadership 

of NARD admitted that the Nigerian 

Medical Association, NMA, led by 

Prof Uja kept it in the dark over the 

review of hazard allowance, puzzle 

and subterfuge hover over the 

intention of NMA president in 

keeping this development away from 

NARD, allowing it to front same as 

failings of government. One is then 

at freedom to posit mischief and 

sabotage, sensing the quick 

excoriating riposte made by Prof. 

Uja in criticising both the Minister 

of Labour and that of Health over 

the strike. A situation where the 

NMA plays the ostrich while laying 

a fertile ground for action by militant 

NARD suggests conspiracy. 

Take again the issue of a hitherto 

chaotic recruitment of house officers 

back into. 

The Igbo people complained of 

marginalisation and some even lately 

resumed toying with the idea of resuscitating 

their Biafra secessionist aspiration. But 

because the group was doing reasonably 

well materially, both in Nigeria and the 

Diaspora, Biafra, for most of them, was just 

a toy. The rise of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, MNK, 

and his Radio Biafra between 2012 and 

2014 were regarded as distractions that were 

better ignored. But the situation changed 

when Muhammadu Buhari became 

president in 2015 and declared his “97%/ 

5%” charter which he used to hand over the 

Nigerian commonwealth to his ethnoreligious 

and regional kinsmen, while the 

Igbo, who consistently refused to vote for 

Buhari, were shut out. 

The immediate effect of this Buharism 

was the catapulting of MNK to instant 

heroism. His own brand of Biafra agitation 

transformed from a toy to a mustering point 

for the impoverished and angry Igbo youth. 

It is this deployment of 

unwanted strangers in the forests 

that has now radicalised the Igbo 

youth and their peers from other 

parts of the South to re-enter the 

trenches to defend their native 

lands 

MNK’s arrest, detention, trial, bail and 

miraculous escape from Nigeria when the 

Army attacked his father’s palace has 

catapulted him to the symbol of the renewed 

Biafra struggle. The iron has gone through 

the fire, and no one can question his 

qualification to lead from any part of the 

world. 

If the Buhari regime had left matters at 

the level of marginalisation, it would not 

have been enough to drive the Igbo into the 

trenches. Like other Southern ethnic groups, 

and smooth transition into IPPS at 

the end of training for continuation 

of their salaries and 

emoluments. The NMA, whose 

umbrella should protect the house 

doctors, failed to provide 

proactive liaison with the 

Committee of CMDs and the 

Medical and Dental Council of 

Nigeria for ease of operation. So, it 

is either Prof. Uja who is also the Vice 

Chancellor of the new University of 

Medical Sciences, Oturpko, Benue 

State, is overwhelmed by the two 

heavy offices to give enough time to 

NMA, or pursues a sabotage of 

government effort or 

both. Otherwise his role in the entire 

crisis is a myth that only him can 

resolve. Besides, the insurance 

compensation to the 17 fallen 

doctors that has not been paid speaks 

volume of a lethargic NMA 

leadership that is unable to mobilise 

membership in various hospitals for 

actualization, only to turn back and 

use same as a base to egg the young 

NARD leadership on into 

strike. Here is the leader of the 

NMA, an umbrella for all doctors, 

that fails in its primary role, thereby 

laying a background for strike 

and latching onto it to launch 

umbrage on government. 

The trend aligns with the 

unnecessary misrepresentation of a 

harmless comparison of the 

residency service package in Nigeria 

against that of the United States and 

the UK by Senator Ngige, while on 

an interview programme on 

Channels Television, which Uja 

ignited, opening up another 

dimension in an allegory of 

sabotage. In fact, observers of 

development in global medicine 

practice agree that Ngige was right, 

though misunderstood. They 

contend that in the United Kingdom 

and the United States, resident 

doctors are not paid for books, 

journals as well as examination fees 

unlike Nigeria where government 

goes the extra mile to do all these. In 

fact, it was such a bazaar in 2020, 

they would have hunkered down and waited 

out the Buhari era which is just two more 

years to go. Apart from the highly 

provocative “97%-5/%” nepotism policy, 

Buhari also came with a demand for land 

to settle down his nomadic herder kinsmen. 

He proposed Ruga; it was rejected. He 

asked for cattle colonies. The people said 

no. He pleaded for their “accommodation”, 

no deal. Bills were sent to the National 

Assembly for the Federal Government to 

confiscate all water resources for the use of 

“all people”(we know who those “all people” 

are). The effort was repelled. 

For some time, there was a lull in the 

unrelenting attacks by armed herders largely 

condoned by the Federal Government. But 

shortly after the 2019 general elections, matters 

went into high gear. There was a noticeable 

drift of people of Northern extraction 

southward, which, ordinarily, is not an issue. 

The coronavirus pandemic lockdowns became 

an opportunity that some powerful Northern 

cartels seized to mass-move hundreds of 

thousands of Northern people, including 

foreigners, into all parts of the South. As soon 

as such people alighted, they were caught on 

camera drifting into the nearest forests. 

It is this deployment of unwanted strangers 

in South Eastern forests that has now 

radicalised the Igbo youth and their peers from 

other parts of the South to re-enter the trenches 

to defend their native lands. Marginalisation 

is tolerable because it is survivable. Forceful 

settlement of armed strangers on people’s 

native lands is a call to arms. Government has 

refused to do its job of protecting the lives and 

property of the citizens.They could not get their 

demand for land through peaceful means. 

Now it is being done through proxy, as Sudan’s 

fallen Omar Al Bashir did with the Janjaweed 

in Darfur: get it by force. They will fail! 

If government won’t protect you and your 

property, then you must protect yourself. If a 

visitor brings disaster to your doorstep, you 

must send him away with a hunchback! 

when government released N4bn from 

the Residency Training Fund for books, 

exams, among others. 

It was such that 558 locum doctors 

who were not in training also got the 

Federal Government largesse as 

NARD submitted their names for 

reasons best known to the junior 

doctors. One easily sights another 

fallacy that while the President of 

NARD, Dr. Uyi, claimed in the 

media he spent N400, 000 on his 

residency last year, he kept away 

from the public that residents, 

including him, were paid N540,000 

from the residency fund. Besides, 

compared to stipends paid residents 

abroad, despite heavy work load, 

resident doctors in Nigeria are 

treated as fully employed public 

servants, placed on government 

CONMES salary structure with all 

privileges and this is used as base for 

commencement of service year. 

Nigeria at a point had a fully 

sponsored one year abroad 

programme for residents. It, 

therefore, becomes easy to 

understand Ngige’s argument which 

Uja misrepresented for reasons best 

known to him. In fact, Uja is aware 

of the existence of the Residency 

Training Fund, but still went ahead 

to an NMA press release, directly 

attacking the Federal Government 

over it. 

There are many things that didn’t 

add up while doctors explained 

reasons for the strike. Reasonable 

underpinnings were not disclosed to 

the public who easily flew off the 

handle upon hearing doctors were 

placed at N5000 hazard allowance, 

completely oblivious of culpability 

of the doctors. After all, the same 

Federal Government pays N30,000 

hazard allowance to members of 

National Association of Academic 

Technologists, NAAT, in the federal 

universities. 

Continues 

online:www.vanguardngr.com 

•Obidiwe, a journalist, wrote from 

Abuja.

Diluting Oloyede’s JAMB with 

NIMC’s NIN mess 

THE Prof. Ishaq Oloyede-led Joint 

Admissions and Matriculation Board 

was until 2017 a cesspool of financial 

corruption. Dibu Ojerinde, also a professor, 

as Registrar of the Board, ran it like a 

personal business. This was, perhaps, also 

what Ojerinde’s predecessors in that office 

did. As we speak, Dibu Ojerinde is facing the 

wrath of the law. Properties worth billions 

of naira that were traced to him are being 

taken over by the state and he may yet end 

up in prison. But all of this would have gone 

unnoticed but for the appointment of Ishaq 

Oloyede. 

This Islamic scholar and former vice 

chancellor of the University of Ilorin was 

vehemently opposed by the umbrella union 

of university academics after he was first 

appointed in 2016. The Academic Staff 

Union of Universities, ASUU, embarked on 

a campaign to show Oloyede was not the 

right choice for JAMB. Oloyede, ASUU 

alleges, was not only corrupt and anti- 

ASUU, he also supervised the mass sacking 

of ASUU members during his time as VC in 

Ilorin. The fate of the so-called Ilorin 49 was 

sealed during Oloyede’s vice chancellorship. 

But one thing the Ogun State-born 

administrator had going for him was that 

he enjoyed the full support of then president, 

Olusegun Obasanjo. This strengthened his 

hold on and control of the university he 

superintended. 

Try as ASUU might, it did not succeed in 

its fight against Oloyede under whom the 

University of Ilorin operated like an island 

in a sea of Nigerian academics. He could 

not be dislodged from his position as vice 

chancellor. Nor did ASUU succeed in its 

campaign to truncate his appointment to 

JAMB. One could not say it was simply 

because of the stiff opposition that greeted 

his appointment or the fact that he knew 

many would be looking to see him fail that 

Oloyede has been making a resounding 

success of his time at JAMB. The allegation 

of corruption that preceded him to JAMB 

has not stuck. The point, therefore, is that 

the man must be made of sterner stuff. His 

conduct so far must be a result of principled 

living rather than just an attempt to prove 

his accusers wrong. But no sooner did he 

assume the leadership of JAMB than he 

began a process that would see the apex 

matriculation body in Nigeria transformed. 

He started by trying to plug all the gaps 

that enabled malpractice during 

matriculation examinations conducted by 

JAMB. Innovative security features were 

introduced to forestall cheating either by 

candidates, their parents or operators of 

JAMB examination centres. The duration 

for marking and release of results was 

drastically reduced and applicants no longer 

had to wait for long to know how they fared 

in the unified tertiary matriculation 

examinations. Officials of JAMB 

themselves who step out of line were and 

are still not spared. From one part of the 

country to another, examination cheats are 

being exposed alongside their facilitators. 

JAMB under Ishaq Oloyede has continued 

to innovate and finetune its activities, all in 

a bid to ensure Nigerians have the best 

experience matriculating to higher 

institutions. It is, however, in terms of what 

looks like his financial wizardry and prudent 

management of the Board’s funds that 

Oloyede stands out from his predecessors, 

especially the man he took over from as 

Executive Secretary in 2016. Suddenly, a 

body that was barely surviving became a 

money-spinning agency. Ishaq Oloyede was 

posting between N5 billion and N7 billion 

on the average, giving it a profit-making 

complexion, where his predecessors could 

hardly remit a tenth of those figures. He 

has made so much that Nigerians are 

outraged to the point of wondering if JAMB 

is a profit-making rather than a servicedelivery 

body. This has forced government 

to review downwards what JAMB charges 

for the purchase of forms. 

And talking about Oloyede’s 

predecessors, there has been so much focus 

on Dibu Ojerinde, so much that Nigerians 

tend to forget he was not the first and only 

At a time when more and more 

Nigerians are questioning the 

relevance of JAMB in higher 

education, Oloyede's effort is 

helping to give that body a new 

lease on life 

Registrar of JAMB before the appointment 

of Oloyede. Ojerinde had predecessors who 

did not appear to have done any better than 

him, but because he was the last to lead 

JAMB before Oloyede his alleged corrupt 

performance is sharply contrasted by 

Oloyede’s integrity. When attention turns to 

JAMB and how that body has been a drain 

on Nigeria or an inefficient body that tends 

to stymie rather than facilitate Nigerians’ 

effort at gaining higher education, this point 

needs to be remembered. 

While Oloyede’s financial success looks 

so sterling, it may be no more than a result 

of his hard work and personal integrity 

rather than owning to any special 

knowledge of finances. Which would go to 


show just how much honest and transparent 

leadership can achieve. While his 

predecessor was busy acquiring landed 

property, establishing businesses, setting up 

fuel stations and real estates, Oloyede was 

at his desk doing an honest job. He did not 

have to waste time talking about probing 

his predecessors as our corrupt leaders or 

public office holders are prone to do. He 

lodged no complaints and made no 

allegations against anyone. Neither Ojerinde 

nor his predecessors can accuse Oloyede of 

any mischief against them. He simply let his 

work speak for him. At a time when more 

and more Nigerians are questioning the 

relevance of JAMB in higher education, his 

effort is helping to give that body a new lease 

on life. 

But all of that is about being rubbished by 

JAMB’s attempt to dabble in the politics of 

the National Identity Management 

Commission’s National Identification 

Number debacle. It tried this last year and 

failed. But insisting now that prospective 

JAMB applicants must possess a NIN is a 

needless and unnecessary way to punish 

young Nigerians whose parents are 

themselves struggling without success to get 

a national identity number. In the 10 years 

since NIMC embarked on this corruptionriddled 

exercise, no headway has been made. 

The insensitive imposition of a December 

2020 deadline that led to crowded 

registration centres at the height of the 

second wave of the COVID pandemic, is an 

indication of the thoughtlessness of some 

leaders. 

This impossible deadline that has been 

shifted twice and is now the subject of 

litigation should have warned every thinking 

Nigerian against following the NIMC path. 

Granted that the JAMB NIN requirement 

came as a directive of the Ministry of 

Education, it is yet another way to put a 

roadblock on the path of Nigerians seeking 

higher education. The so-called glitch that 

impeded applicants’ registration last week 

is evidence of this. It is a sure way to dilute 

the record of Oloyede at JAMB, a body that 

has no busines functioning as the enforcer 

of an important policy whose 

implementation has not been thought 

through. 

08055069060 (SMS Only) 

Broadcasting in search of a 

patriot to clean up its failures 

THIS is Monday morning. At 

about the time of writing this 

material, the Minister of 

Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai 

Mohammed, is organising a 

broadcast industry stakeholders 

meeting in Lagos to discuss the 

readiness of the Lagos zone to 

welcome the launch of the Digital 

Switchover, DSO. There is a reason 

Lagos has been picked to feature in 

the next phase of the programme and 

I think that has to be duly recognised: 

Commerce. 

While this meeting provides an 

easy pick for a weekly tech column, 

I will want to observe that there are 

residual issues that deserve some 

attention in order to properly situate 

some unfolding events. But first, a 

little complaint. Monday is 

becoming a challenging day for me; 

because on that day every week, I 

have to search for words to sweeten 

the situation in the country, just to 

make some people feel good and 

reduce someone’s blood pressure. 

I search for bold euphemisms to 

normalise a degenerate situation so 

as to make panic a stranger in a 

festering environment damaged 

willfully by incompetence or, at 

times, greed in high places. How do 

I ever tell a Minister that while 

enthusiasm is important, the DSO is 

going to be more challenging than 

we can imagine. While enthusiasm 

is bounteous, we need more of truth, 

much more of reality checks, and less 

emphasis on politics. While the 

advantages of DSO are seemingly 

overwhelming, there is a crying need 

of capacity in the sector that has to 

handle the logistics nightmare of 

making at least 40 million set top 

boxes available to Nigerians. 

How do I tell a troubled subscriber 

that telecom services are not going 

to be better soon because the 

unfolding situation in our nation 

gives no room for any operator with 

the ambition of rolling out good 

services to actually go beyond his 

capacity? It is easy to look an 

operator in the eye and declare you 

haven’t done well in Nigeria in terms 

of service rollout obligations and 

quality of service. But I have had 

some of them speak to me. They say 

they want to do good business in 

Nigeria, invest more to deliver 

healthy industry services, and make 

more money; but they are not 

prepared to let any of their workers 

or contractors go on harm’s way as 

it is becoming increasingly difficult 

and dangerous doing business in 

Nigeria. Oh, you don’t believe? Tell 

me now with all sincerity, who owns 

the bushes and the highways or, 

please, permit me to resort to this 

euphemism, the ungoverned spaces? 

If the answer is blowing in the wind, 

it only explains while even good 

businesses are limping in Nigeria. 

I am going to return to my subject 

of today, not the Minister’s meeting 

in Lagos because I know in his heart 

of hearts, he can, in lonely moments 

or flash of sobriety, confess 

exhaustion under the strength of the 

unfortunate rain that pours on us. 

Featuring on an NTA Good 

Morning Nigeria programme 

recently the Minister said the Federal 

Government will impose a fine of 

N100, 000 on any Nigerian brand 

that creates an advert outside of the 

shores of Nigeria and run same on 

CNN or any international stations 

broadcasting in Nigeria. He equally 

informed that any local brands 

We need to clean up our 

failures and begin to look 

for very appealing 

channels to tell a new 

Nigerian story that will be 

defined by those who 

genuinely mean well for 

this nation 

which run adverts during foreign 

matches must put same adverts on 

Nigerian Premier Football League. 

One can hardly disguise the hue of 

patriotism here except that it can be 

punishing if the variables are not 

properly weighed. Before 

commenting on this issue much 

further, I wish to notify the Minister 

that the 58th edition of MIPTV will 

be holding from April 12 –16, 2021. 

Usually MIPTV, organised by REED 

MIDEM annually, holds in Cannes, 

South of France, but this year will 

be virtual because of the pandemic, 

the COVID-19 that has refused to 

go away. I want to implore the 

Minster to spare some little time 

from his very crowded schedule to 

attend. A lot happens at MIPTV 

concerning international 

programming, sales and 

advertising. It is in our national 

interest for him to attend as the 

country plans to deepen the 

operations of the broadcast sector 

and align it with international best 

practices. Nothing is new under the 

sun; there is so much to learn from 

those who blazed a trail in the 

industry; that is, if we are able to 

swallow our little pride and learn 

from the masters. One little addition: 

with the plethora of creative works 

coming out of Nigeria – in fact, 

Nollywood and the Music industry - 

Nigeria can actually take a pavilion 

in Cannes to drive the international 

community to our content. 

The minister is also relying on 

contents of the Nigeria Broadcasting 

Code to address certain knotty issues 

like advert production and 

placement, investment, anticompetition 

and a host of other 

seeming ills, saying very, 

outlandishly, that although NBC has 

issued about 30 pay TV licences, only 

one is functioning because of anticompetitive 

tendencies of 

Multichoice. 

The minister is very wrong. Cable 

TV business is very expensive and 

challenging to run; more so in a 

country that swallows up investment 

like boiled eggs, where the banking 

sector is very fickle but extensively 

greedy. Multichoice is not the one 

driving out Shoprite from Nigeria. 

Multichoice is not the one driving 

foreign direct investment, FDI, to 

Ghana, the West African country we 

always compare with Lagos State; 

it is our laws, very bad laws, and the 

land is choking. Multichoice did not 

kill the dream of Tinapa in Cross 

River State. That was bad planning 

plus ignorance. 

I have been looking at the Code 

again. There are things therein that 

read like satanic verses which, when 

manipulated for selfish intents, can 

blow up the industry like a landmine 

and shatter it into very tiny bits. They 

are not good and we cannot rely on 

them to build the industry of our 

dream. There couldn’t be a better 

response than what came from the 

Head of Advertising Sectoral 

Groups, HASG, to the effect that: 

“We put adverts where Nigerians’ 

eyeballs are.” Some of the best 

channels on DSTV are programmed 

locally but the contents have gone 

international because of the quality 

of production and packaging. If 

advertisers rush to them there is little 

anybody can do about it. I would 

rather encourage the minster to be 

asking questions about what 

happened to NTA after "Village 

Headmaster", "Cockcrow at Dawn", 

"Masquerade", "Hotel de Jordan", 

"Morning Ride" and a host of others. 

And then this: I once watched a 

film on the fall of Benin Empire by a 

diaspora Nigerian moviemaker. The 

film wasn’t even shot in Nigeria but 

in Europe. You could swear you saw 

the old Bini in that movie. She had 

her reasons for not coming to 

Nigeria and those reasons have 

grown even more complex today. 

While patriotism puts words in our 

mouth, we need to clean up our 

failures and begin to look for very 

appealing channels to tell a new 

Nigerian story that will be defined 

by those who genuinely mean well 

for this nation, not those who seek 

office for the love of self or the filthy 

lucre that drips from political 

heights. 

C 

M 

Y 

K

C 

M 

Y 

K 


SHOCK and an outpouring of grief 

were the immediate responses by 

many Nigerians to the death of 

Comrade Peter Oluyinka Odumakin, 

a democracy advocate, civil society 

activist and spokesman for the pan- 

Yoruba socio-political organisation, 

Afenifere. 

blow, a sad loss to the country. 

His wife, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, But death has not diminished his 

said he died on the night of Friday, relevance as he had variously been 

April 2, 2021 at the Intensive Care Unit described by friends and foes alike as 

of the Lagos State University Teaching undoubtedly a great patriot and 

Hospital, LASUTH, due to nationalist, with many expressing 

complications from COVID-19. regret that COVID-19 had unfairly 

Since his death was announced, robbed the country of his highly 

there has been a torrent of tributes valued contributions and services at a 

from different parts of the country. time they are most needed. 

From President Muhammadu Buhari An unrepentant critic of a troubled 

to former presidents, Olusegun Nigeria and the leadership 

Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, to responsible for this sad state of affairs, 

various state governors; other Comrade Yinka Odumakin was for 

prominent political and opinion many years in the forefront of 

leaders across the country, the verdict agitations to correct the many 

remains the same: his death is a tragic structural anomalies inherent in the 

Yinka Odumakin: A life of critical activism 

country, leaving it almost prostrate 

and in danger of collapsing on itself. 

As a ready mouthpiece of the 

Afenifere, he was never shy or afraid 

to step on the sensitive toes of those 

in authority for failing to respond 

appropriately to the many leadership 

problems confronting Nigeria. 

Until his death, he was a vibrant and 

relentless voice on the need to 

restructure the country so that it can 

find its bearing among the comity of 

nations that are developing at a rapid 

pace while Nigeria lags behind. 

A prolific writer, ace commentator 

and critic, Yinka never missed the 

opportunity to bare his mind on 

sundry issues bordering on politics, 

power and the economy. 

In the process, he kept government 

and public office holders constantly 

on their toes, hoping to get them to 

do the right things for the country. His 

column in Vanguard: “Candid Notes”, 

was a must-read every Tuesday, with 

his comments sometimes scathing but 

in most cases corrective. 

His last column in Vanguard was 

published on Tuesday March 9, 2021. 

For some weeks, he had not sent his 

script for publication as he faithfully 

did and on time. 

Unknown to us and most of his 

readers, he had fallen ill from the 

dastardly pandemic from which he 

eventually succumbed to the cold 

hands of death. 

He was born 54 years ago at Moro, 

Ife North, Osun State. May his soul 

rest in peace. 

OPINION 

Lekki toll plaza episode and the US report 

By SAMUEL OMOJOYE 

WITH the United States 

Department of States report stating 

that there is no verifiable evidence on the 

reported killings of #EndSARS protesters at 

the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20 last year, 

many questions arise on the actions that 

followed what was unjustifiably described as a 

massacre. In its “2020 Country Reports on 

Human Rights Practices: Nigeria”, the State 

Department stated that accurate information 

on fatalities resulting from the shooting was 

not available. 

According to the report, the #EndSARS 

protesters were allowed to proceed unimpeded 

in most places. Those charged with “conduct 

likely to cause a breach of public peace” were 

released within days of their arrest. Though a 

few human rights activists, as usual, have come 

out to condemn the said report, claiming it did 

not represent what actually transpired during 

the Lekki protest, they have failed to give any 

evidence to support their wild assertion of a 

massacre. 

Was the massacre claim made to ensure the 

destruction of Lagos, with its prime assets as 

targets? What were the purveyors of the fake 

news targeting? Who are their sponsors and 

enablers? Why would they want to destroy the 

unity that Lagosians so much cherish? This 

writer has always been of the view that the socalled 

Lekki ‘massacre’ was carefully hatched 

by enemies of the government just to give it a 

bad name and unduly overheat the polity. 

A massacre? Could there have been a 

massacre without blood and bodies? Would 

morgues not have been filled with bodies? 

Would parents and relations of supposedly 

massacred victims not have come out to give 

their identities? Now that the United States, 

which can be considered as an impartial actor 

in the episode, has come out with a report 

refuting any claim of a massacre, one would 

have expected those with contrary views to 

actually come out with empirical facts to 

buttress their claim. 

Sadly, in their characteristic fashion, they 

have failed to apologise publicly for their 

indiscretion or deliberate mischief. If the 

United States’ report had come out with 

findings that endorsed their unproven claim, 

they would have termed it as credible. But now 

that it disagrees with their spurious stance, it is 

nothing but a concoction. Such has always 

been the stock-in-trade of our so-called human 

rights activists, many of who are mere creations 

of the media. Every contrary view to theirs is 

always wrong because they erroneously believe 

that they have the monopoly of knowledge. 

If the US report had come out 

with findings that endorsed their 

unproven claim, they would 

have termed it as credible 

Besides, playing to the gallery is part of their 

tactics. The role of misinformation in the 

Lekki Toll Plaza incident cannot be overemphasised. 

After the incident, in the dead of 

the night, Lagos State Governor, Babajide 

Sanwo-Olu, visited some medical facilities 

around the area to see things for 

himself. Earlier, the army had tweeted “fake 

news” when the social media was awash with 

videos of soldiers in an armoured tank, 

shooting sporadically in a direction and scores 

of videos of bodies with body parts littering the 

ground had been spread as victims of the fake 

“massacre”. 

A certain DJ Switch released several videos, 

on LIVE, in which she claimed that soldiers 

were killing protesters and that many people 

had died and they were trying to remove a 

bullet from a victim’s leg. She was relaying 

these events, but not showing any footage of 

the most important videos (of dead bodies), 

soldiers shooting at people, blood on the 

ground, the process/procedure when the bullet 

was removed and when soldiers were carrying 

the bodies, among others. 

Her second video showed her talking to a 

friend and, all of a sudden, she started running 

and asking imaginary people to bend down 

and hold their flags. Her friend then said 

“daaaamn”, after which he covered his face as 

if he had just witnessed something gruesome. 

That, no doubt, was mere acting and a bad 

one at that. DJ Switch gave an impression that 

the army or police were still shooting 

protesters at Lekki even in the morning. 

Then she did another video where she 

apologised for not being online for some time. 

She then proceeded to reminisce about the 

night and, at that point, started to address the 

issue of numbers. It was then the death toll of 

over 80 suddenly reduced to 12. She also 

claimed that the DJ Switch account which 

posted over 80 deaths was a fake account and 

not hers. 

Experts have analysed that her behaviour 

was not commensurate with that of a victim of 

trauma and her description of how she carried 

and deposited bodies at the feet of soldiers 

defies logic. Soldiers opening fire and you 

taking bodies to them seem a drama taken too 

far; it is highly unlikely. Pictures that were 

touted as victims of the Lekki massacre turned 

out to be those of people who had died in 

separate circumstances - one from a bike 

accident and the other a stab wound victim. 

Those found in the hospitals who got injured 

from Lekki were as a result of stampede, and 

the injuries ranged from broken bones, cuts, 

bruises and slash wounds. No record of death 

as a result of gunshot wounds, but the social 

media was awash with people in hospital, who 

claimed that they were shot by soldiers at the 

toll plaza. 

The judicial panel of inquiry instituted by 

the Lagos State Government to investigate the 

episode has continued to encourage those with 

concrete evidence on the Lekki incident to come 

Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

up with such. Among all such judicial 

inquiries put in place by state governments 

across the federation over the #EndSARS 

protest, the Lagos panel, in particular, had 

proved promising. In all honesty, the set-up 

inspires confidence and proceedings have 

never lacked transparency. In fact, the sittings 

are televised live. As for those bent on 

spreading lies to further pollute the polity, they 

must realise that our nation has just endured 

a very tough 2020; one whose uncertainties 

still cloud our socio-economic structure. The 

strain and heavy burden that the COVID-19 

pandemic as well as the avoidable destruction 

that climaxed the #EndSARS protest have 

inflicted on our society will take years to 

lighten. For instance, in Lagos alone, analysts 

put the estimated economic loss during the 

12 days dissent at N700 billion, connoting a 

loss of N58 billion daily. This loss was also 

accompanied by looting, vandalism and arson 

at several shopping malls, public facilities, 

police stations and private facilities. 

As Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote: “No 

man consciously chooses evil because it is evil; 

he only mistakes it for the happiness that he 

seeks.” Such temptation to devour the society 

and interrupt the process of healing is 

destructive. We will only be spinning on a wheel 

that just goes around and around, eventually 

leading to the same problems over and over 

again. Let it be acknowledged that there is no 

magic formula that will resolve our grievances. 

But to tame the storm of our reality and reduce 

the intensity of conflict, a social contract must 

be forged between citizens and the 

government. It is to recognise that there are no 

differences that cannot be solved through 

dialogue, negotiation and conflict resolution 

or that are worth the damage created by the 

assumption of injustice. It is to engage in open, 

honest, collaborative effort and elicit heartfelt 

communications that invite truth and 

reconciliation. 

•Omojoye , a social commentator, wrote 

from Palmgrove, Lagos

C 

M 

Y 

Despite exiting recession, economy 

declines -1.9% 

*Records negative balance of trade 

By Elizabeth Adegbesan 

ECONOMY 

DESPITE the reversal of the 

negative growth trend in 

the fourth quarter of 2020, 

Nigeria’s overall gross domestic 

product, GDP, remained in 

the negative for the full year. 

The National Bureau of Statistics, 

NBS, yesterday disclosed 

that the economy recorded overall 

GDP growth rate of -1.9 percent 

year-on-year (YoY) which 

was a huge downturn against 

positive 2.3 percent recorded in 

2019. 

Nigeria’s economy had entered 

recession in the third 

quarter of 2020 when the GDP 

recorded a negative growth of - 

3.62 percent, second consecutive 

quarterly negative growth 

after the -6.1 recorded in the second 

quarter, 2020. 

The NBS also disclosed that 

exports and imports of goods 

and services fell by 27 per cent 

and 23 per cent respectively 

during the period. 

Due to declining rates of 

growth in exports and imports, 

a negative balance of trade (- 

30%) was also recorded during 

the period. 

In its Nigerian GDP Report 

(Expenditure and Income Approach 

for first, second, third, 

and fourth quarters of last year, 

Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4, 2020), the 

NBS stated: “In Q3’20, Nigeria’s 

real GDP at basic prices grew by - 

3.62 percent on a year on year 

basis, marking a second consecutive 

quarter of negative real 

GDP growth after -6.10 percent 

recorded in Q2’20. In Q4’20 

however, growth turned positive, 

recording 0.11 percent in Q4 

YoY. 

“Nevertheless, the negative 

quarterly growth rates recorded 

in Q2 and Q3 2020 resulted in 

annual growth rate of -1.92 percent 

for 2020, compared to 2.27 

percent recorded in 2019.” 

CURRENCY BUYING SELLING 

US DOLLAR 

POUNDS 

EURO 

FRANC 

YEN 

CFA 

WAUA 

RENMINBI 

RIYAL 

RAND 

131.80 +1.80 

2,445.00 +44.00 

15.59 +0.23 

63.96 +0.68 

60.37 +0.67 

379 379.5 380 

521.7314 522.4197 523.108 

451.3132 451.9086 452.504 

410.2176 410.7587 411.2999 

3.4653 3.4699 3.4744 

0.6678 0.6778 0.6878 

538.7739 539.4847 540.1955 

57.9059 57.9827 58.0596 

101.0586 101.1919 101.3252 

25.19577 26.9919 26.0261 

CBN Exchange rate as at 13/04/2021 

CONFERENCE— From left: Chief Risk & Compliance Officer, Cyril Ilok; Chief Transformation 

Officer, Olubayo Adekanmbi; Chief Financial Officer, Modupe Kadiri, all MTN Nigeria, and 

President, Institute of Chartered Accountants Nigeria (ICAN) Mrs Onome Adewuyi, during 

ICAN’s 50th Annual Accountants’ Conference at the Abuja International Conference Centre 

(ICC), Abuja sponsored by MTN Nigeria. 

Poor households suffer volatile work 

situations — NBS survey 


Asurvey by the National Bu 

reau of Statistics, NBS, has 

shown that poorer households suffered 

volatile work situations in 

February this year, resulting in a 

six month (September to February 

2020) decline in the share of workers 

in the lowest consumption 

quintile/ class. 

The survey Report titled, 

“COVID-19 National Longitudinal 

Phone Survey (NLPS), Round 

10”, released yesterday, stated: 

“Working situations have been 

ECONOMY 

most volatile for individuals living 

in poorer households. For individuals 

in the top consumption 

quintile, the share of people working 

has remained fairly stable, at 

69 percent in January/February 

2019, 67 per cent in September 

2020, and returning to 69 per cent 

in February 2021. 

“For individuals in the lowest 

consumption quintile, however, the 

share of people working jumped 

from 52 percent in January/February 

2019 to 70 percent in September 

2020, but then dropped 

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021 —19 

back to 63 per cent in February 

2021.” 

The survey showed that the share 

of Nigerians who were working in 

February 2021 was close to 70 per 

cent which was slightly lower than 

the share working in September 

2020, and higher than the share 

working in January/February 

2019. 

The survey noted that the reason 

for the rise in the share of Nigerians 

who were working may be due 

to “an added worker” effect where 

households boost their overall 

labour supply to cope with negative 

economic shocks. 

The survey revealed that labour 

supply was higher for women than 

men during the period. 

NGX Group launches new Brand Identity 

*As NGX Ltd trains traders for derivatives 

By Nkiruka Nnorom 

THE Nigerian Ex 

change Group 

(NGX Group) Plc, a 

leading integrated 

market infrastructure 

Group in Africa, has 

announced the launch 

of its new corporate 

brand identity and 

website This comes as 

its subsidiary, the Nigerian 

Exchange 

(NGX) Limited in collaboration 

with NG 

Clearing (NGCL) Limited, 

organised capacity 

training for traders 

to equip them ahead of 

take-off of derivatives 

trading in the Nigerian 

capital market. 

The launch of the 

new identity follows 

the demutualisation of 

The Nigerian Stock 

CAPITAL MARKET 

Exchange, NSE, and the resulting 

creation of the nonoperating 

holding company 

NGX Group Plc and its subsidiaries. 

The NGX brand identity 

follows a monolithic brand 

architecture, which will facilitate 

the formation of any 

new subsidiary by leveraging 

existing brand equity. 

Speaking on the development, 

the Group Chief Executive 

Officer, NGX Group, 

Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, 

stated: “Influenced by the 

dynamism and resilience of 

our market in both good and 

challenging times, our new 

identity, which builds on our 

rich heritage, reflects who 

we are today, our ambitions 

for the future, and our resolve 

to deliver superior 

value to our stakeholders. 

“As we step into the NGX 

era, we remain committed to 

achieving the highest level 

of competitiveness, both in 

African and global capital 

markets”. Together with the 

new vibrant, modern and responsive 

website, NGX 

Group offers an enriched 

user experience. Accessible 

via ngxgroup.com, information 

about the group and the 

various subsidiaries are independently 

situated but 

featured as one website. 

In consolidating its group 

perspective, NGX Group 

has also rebranded its social 

media assets. The new brand 

identity and digital assets 

reflect the vibrant, disciplined, 

inspired and engaging 

personality of NGX 

Group and its subsidiaries. 

Meanwhile, speaking on 

the derivatives training, Mr. 

Jude Chiemeka, Divisional 

ITA, NEPC partner 

on first 

e-Labinnova 

training for 

Agribusinesses 

By Etop Ekanem 

AGRICULTURE 

AS part of its commitment to 

boost trade relationships with 

Nigeria, the Italian Trade Agency, 

ITA, a governmental agency that 

supports the business development, 

partnerships and collaborations 

between Italian companies and 

their foreign counterparts, has 

launched the first E-Lab Innova in 

Nigeria. 

The E-Lab Innova will be implemented 

in collaboration with the 

Nigerian Export Promotion 

Commision, NEPC, alongside 

other Italian partners, such as 

MACFRUT, a leading exhibition 

for the agribusiness industry. 

The training is aimed at increasing 

the technical and managerial 

skills of Nigeria agri-food companies 

in order to support their access 

to EU markets and foster business 

partnerships with Italian companies. 

Participants which are selected 

with the support of NEPC are CEOs 

of high-potential companies active 

in the production of foods such as 

mango, pineapple, shea nuts and 

groundnuts. 

In his opening remarks at the event 

to flag off the training, the Italian 

Trade Agency Director for West Africa, 

Dr. Alessandro Gerbino, said: 

“Nigeria remains a strategic point 

for engagement between the agency 

and other countries across West Africa. 

The E-Lab Innova holds prospects 

for Nigerian companies to be 

imparted on the knowledge and 

technicalities of their counterparts 

abroad whilst also paving the way 

for collaborations between Italian 

and Nigerian agribusinesses. 

“The collaboration between the 

Italian Trade Agency (ITA) and the 

Nigerian Export Promotion Council, 

NEPC, is to develop the capacity 

of agribusinesses and aid their integration 

into the value chain of European 

Union markets.” 

In her keynote address, Uduak 

Etokowoh, Director, International 

Export Offices, NEPC, said: “The 

council constantly seeks out collaborations 

like this to strengthen trade 

relations across the world. The European 

Union (EU) is one of the largest 

markets for agribusiness, however, 

challenges such as logistics 

and inability to meet market needs 

pose a threat to growth opportunities. 

Head, Trading Business, 

NGX Limited, said: “We 

have worked with regulators 

such as the Securities and 

Exchange Commission 

(SEC) and the Central Bank 

of Nigeria (CBN) to establish 

the right regulatory and 

legal framework for derivatives 

in our market. We also 

continue to build on the 

trading infrastructure that 

will ensure domestic and foreign 

stakeholders are able to 

trade seamlessly once we 

launch within subsequent 

months. 

“With the ultimate goal to 

ensure that there is widespread 

understanding of derivatives, 

its applicability 

and how investors can reap 

maximum value from the asset 

class, NGX has collaborated 

with both local and international 

organisations to 

facilitate in-depth capacity 

building programmes on the 

derivatives market.”



C 

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C 

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vicahiyoung@yahoo.com 

Consolidation of insurance firms 

necessary to break foreign 

dominance — Oyetunji 

Dr. Femi Oyetunji is the 

immediate past Group 

Managing Director of Continental 

Reinsurance. In 

this interview, he speaks on 

changes that need to happen 

in the insurance industry 

to transform the sector. 

Excerpts: 

YOU spent close to 10 

years in Continental Reinsurance 

as GMD, what are 

the highlights of your tenure 

especially in terms of 

surmounting the challenges 

of repositioning the 

company? 

Yes, on the 3rd of January 

2011, when I first got 

into Continental Re office at 

St. Nicholas House, Lagos, 

I knew I was going to face 

some challenges because 

we had only two existing 

reinsurance companies in 

Nigeria after the last recapitalisation 

exercise. At that 

time, the Deputy Managing 

Director was a Nigerian, 

the Chief Financial Officer 

was an Ivorian and the 

Executive Director, Operations 

(who is still with us 

now) is from Zimbabwe, 

and myself Nigerian. In Lagos, 

we had people from 

different parts of Africa; our 

shareholders were Americans, 

South Africans, and 

Nigerians, so it was not just 

Nigerians. At the time I took 

over in 2011, we had a 

branch in Douala, Cameroon 

and a branch in Nairobi, 

Kenya. Even in terms of 

location, we were multinational. 

I got in there and I 

saw a multinational company 

but some people saw a 

small Nigerian company. 

My initial challenge was to 

have a paradigm shift in 

philosophy and mentality, 

to see us not just as a small 

Nigerian brand but a multinational 

brand. Things 

were as bad as on Fridays, 

in Douala, Nairobi people 

will wear Ankara tops to 

the office. I didn’t think that 

was what Continental Re 

was all about. Even from the 

name, the founders knew 

what they wanted. We will 

start work at 8.00 am Lagos 

time, which is 10 am in 

Nairobi. People in Nairobi 

couldn’t start work until 10 

am their time because everything 

was centralized 

here in Lagos and there 

was no thinking about the 

Pan-African nature of our 

businesses in the way we 

run our offices. So, it was a 

great challenge to get people’s 

mind away from a 

narrow focus to a broader 

picture. As a leader, the first 

thing was to envision. 

Therefore, I came up with 

the vision of being the Premier 

and African reinsurer. 

We had everything in 

place, but we were not 

thinking Pan-African and 

International. Of course, 

the most difficult situation 

is to change people’s mindset 

from where they have 

been. This was very challenging, 

but after 10 years, 

not only have we succeeded 

in becoming a truly Pan- 

African and a well-respected 

brand, we have internalized 

the philosophy of being 

Pan-African in all we do 

as an organisation. Ten 

years is such a short time 

for that kind of transformation. 

The achievements are 

not just by our assessment, 

but last year, we commissioned 

a global perception 

company to see what people 

think about us and how 

we are perceived. The international 

standard score 

is 73, but we achieved 79. 

So, there is documentary 

evidence that we really 

transformed from being a 

small Nigerian reinsurance 

entity to a well-respected 

Pan-African brand. 

The insurance sector has 

experienced a number of 

reforms in the last 10 

years. Which of these reforms 

excites you most? 

There have been great 

transformations in our industry 

over the last 10 years, 

not because I am an actuary 

but because it was an 

If we don’t 

reduce the 

number of 

insurance 

companies in 

this market, we 

are not going 

anywhere 

anomaly that we didn’t 

have actuaries operating in 

this industry and we have 

many of our offices writing 

annuity business. We have 

a lot of actuarial involvement, 

which means we 

have been more scientific, 

more analytical in our approach 

to risk management 

and risk-taking. We have 

come a long way off from 

the ‘if I know you and you 

know me, way we do business.’ 

In terms of insurance 

penetration, life and nonlife 

insurance, development 

in health care products, 

and digitalization, I 

can say a lot has taken 

place. This is the best time 

to work in this country particularly 

at Continental Re 

because the opportunities 

are immense. If we proceed 

along the current trajectory, 

we see a lot of new products 

and a new approach 

to doing things. We are at a 

very exciting time where we 

marry experience with technology, 

and I believe the insurance 

industry in this 

country is set to take over. 

What changes or transformation 

do you expect to 

see in the insurance industry? 

I am going to say the 

same thing I said in 2005, 

‘if we don’t reduce the number 

of insurance companies 

in this market, we are not 

•Oyetunji 

going anywhere.’ My personal 

belief is that 15 to 20 

well-capitalised, skilled insurance 

companies will 

transform the industry. What 

I will like to see is insurance 

companies talking to 

each other, looking for synergy, 

and saying, let us 

come together. 

The biggest threat at the 

moment is that global players 

with big capital and all 

that it takes to drive growth 

are here and taking a position. 

At the end of the day, 

they will take away the expected 

benefits. We can 

clearly see the danger, having 

seen the trend. Why we 

have not seen many of them 

at the moment is because 

of the economic situation. 

Once the situation improves, 

the big players from 

America and Europe will 

come in and dominate, and 

that is where the benefits 

will go. If the global players 

are based in the US, UK, 

or Germany, they will take 

the benefits to those places. 

What I will like to see is 

consolidation, having fewer 

insurance companies 

that have the requisite skills, 

the analytics, the technology 

and the products that 

people want. That is what 

will move us from the current 

less than one per cent 

penetration to at least double 

of that size at first, then 

we can get to five per cent, 

10 per cent and more. 

Imagine the kind of industry 

we will have when the 

penetration gets to five per 

cent. There is a need for reinsurers 

and more big players. 

The only reason people 

go outside to place their 

risks is that we have exhausted 

what we have domestically. 

There is the local 

content law that we 

should take advantage of, 

but because the capacity is 

not there, we go outside, 

and we cannot overexpose 

our balance sheet to a single 

risk. There is a limit to 

what we can take. The recent 

licensing of a new reinsurance 

company by the 

National Insurance Commission, 

NAICOM, is a 

welcome development. 

I believe that we should 

keep Nigerian premium 

within Nigeria and African 

premium within Africa. We 

can use those premiums to 

build hospitals, build roads, 

and build other infrastructure 

and technology within 

our societies. Nobody will 

bring dollars from the US 

to build schools or roads for 

us, let us keep what we 

have within the economy. 

Review of pension: Retirees beg Buhari, 

say pensioners dying in penury 

By Victor Ahiuma- 

Young 

PENSIONERS who 

retired under the 

Defined Benefits 

Scheme, DBS, have 

petitioned President 

Muhammadu Buhari, 

pleading with him to 

intervene and order the 

upward review of their 

pension in line with the 

1999 Constitution, saying 

retirees are dying in 

penury. 

Under the National 

Association of Nigerian 

Pensioners, NANP, in the 

petition copied among 

others, Vice-President 

Yemi Osinbajo, Senate 

President, Senator 

Ahmed Lawan, Speaker, 

House 

of 

Representatives, Femi 

Gbajabiamila, Secretary to 

the Government of the 

Federation, SGF, Mr. 

Boss Mustapha, Head of 

Service of the Federation, 

Mrs Folashade Esan, 

Minister of Labour and 

Employment, Senator 

Chris Ngige, and 

Minister of Finance, Mrs 

Zainab Ahmed, was 

signed by NANP’s 

President and General 

Secretary, Ifeanyi Usifo 

and Femi Adebayo, 

respectively. 

Among others, the 

pensioners lamented that 

“our problem revolves 

around the undue delay 

by you upon approval of 

You're insensitive to our plight, S-West 

pensioners tell FG, govs 

By James 

Ogunnaike 

PENSIONERS in the 

South-West states of 

Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun, 

Ondo and Lagos states, 

have accused the Federal 

Government and the state 

governments in the zone 

of turning a blind eye to 

their suffering in spite of 

using their productive 

years to serve the 

country. 

Rising from their bimonthly 

meeting in 

Abeokuta, the Ogun State 

capital, the pensioners, 

specifically alleged that 

the Federal Government 

and governors of the 

South-West region are not 

sensitive to the plight of 

pensioners. 

The meeting was 

attended by pensioners 

from Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, 

Osun, Ondo and Lagos 

states. 

Briefing journalists after 

the meeting, the Public 

Relations Officer of NUP, 

South-West zone, 

Olusegun Abatan, 

lamented that the federal 

and some state 

governments had refused 

to implement the 33.4 per 

cent pension increment 

the new National 

Minimum Wage in April 

2019, almost two years 

ago. This unwholesome 

and inexplicable delay 

which has inflicted untold 

hardship on us is a clear 

violation of the 1999 

Nigerian Constitution, as 

amended, particularly 

section 173, sub section 1 

to 3. For instance, section 

173, sub section 3, states 

that “Pensions shall be 

reviewed every five years 

or together with any 

Federal Civil Service 

salary reviews, whichever 

is earlier. 

“The last pension 

review in the public 

service of the federation 

was done on 1st July, 2015 

over five years ago and 

the next one was due by 

1st July 2020, over eight 

months ago, which is 

contrary to the 

constitutional provisions. 

The present state of high 

level of inflation in the 

economy has seriously 

eroded the purchasing 

power of our current 

pension. 

“Some of our members 

have passed on while 

waiting for this long 

overdue upward review 

of pension. Why is the 

Federal Government 

treating us this way? Why 

is the FG treating us very 

unfairly compared to its 

treatment of our 

counterparts who are still 

in service? Is it because 

since 2010. 

According to him: “As 

I speak with you, Ondo 

State is owing its 

pensioners from 

November 2020 to date 

and we want to appeal to 

Governor Rotimi 

Akeredolu to address the 

issue of non-payment of 

pensions of our members 

in Ondo State promptly. 

We don’t want to believe 

that the pension of our 

members is being used 

for non-essential pension 

matters. 

“Ogun State, like other 

states in the nation, has 

violated and still violating 

the Constitutional 

provisions of the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria 1999, 

section 210(3) where it is 

stated that pension 

should be increased 

concomitantly as wages of 

workers are increased. 

“Ogun State 

Government has refused 

to implement the pension 

increase of our members 

since 2010. I’m talking of 

the 33.4 per cent pension 

increase. 

“In Osun State, the 

payment of gratuity is 

done to selected 

pensioners rather than 

all pensioners. We want 

we are a set of hapless 

and powerless old men 

and women who, because 

we are no longer in 

service, cannot down 

tools or go on strike to 

compel the Federal 

Government to do the 

needful by complying 

with the relevant portion 

of the Nigerian 

Constitution? We don’t 

deserve this kind of 

unjust treatment at our 

old age, having served 

this nation meritoriously 

in the past in our youthful 

age.” 

According to them: 

“Having drawn your 

attention to our plight, we 

implore you to urgently 

intervene to save us from 

further hardship and 

even untimely death. We 

are appealing to you to 

kindly approve the white 

paper on pension review 

and awaited circular on 

pension increase to 

enable the relevant 

ministries, departments 

and agencies, MDAs, of 

g o v e r n m e n t 

expeditiously implement 

the approved review in 

their respective 

establishments without 

any further delay, 

hopefully, before the end 

of April, 2021.” 

The petition added that 

“your prompt action in 

this regard will be highly 

appreciated by the 

generality of Nigerian 

pensioners.” 

the Governor of Osun 

State, Gboyega Oyetola 

to please remove this 

selectivity in payment of 

gratuity to pensioners in 

the state.” 

The pensioners also 

condemned the bill 

seeking to remove the 

minimum wage from the 

exclusive legislative list 

to the concurrent 

legislative list, saying 

“it is quite insulting and 

out of common sense and 

logic that at every point 

in time, workers and 

pensioners are left to 

bear the brunt of missgovernance 

in Nigeria. 

They also aligned with 

the Nigeria Labour 

Congress, NLC, on the 

demand that minimum 

wage should not be 

removed from the 

exclusive list to the 

concurrent list. 

All pensioners in the 

whole of the federation 

are in support of this 

because we know that if 

this happens to workers, 

it will be worse for 

pensioners because at 

that level, the governors 

will do nothing than to 

start intimidating and 

punishing workers and 

they will start giving 

them whatever they want 

to give them.


C 

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K 


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VOL. 2 NO. 76 

• Destructions wreaked by unknown gunmen and hersdmen in Imo and Ebonyi states, respectively. 

Kudos, knocks greet EbubeAgu, the security 

outfit set up by S-East govs 

• It's dead on arrival — Anaekwe 

• Without community leaders’ input, it will lead nowhere — ASETU 

• It's suspicious — Intersociety 

• A welcome development — Ohuabunwa 

enacting a law that makes it a 

crime to graze openly and create 

an agency or commission to 

monitor and enforce? Where is 

the law? 

“This communiqué is almost 

nonsensical. Apart from committing 

to the Federal 

Government’s failing policy on 

security, what else did it say? 

There is henceforth “Ebubeagu” 

headquartered in Enugu to unify 

all nondescript vigilante and 

security agencies in the South- 

East. Is that how Amotekun was 

birthed? That the IGP should 

stop sending IGP Monitoring 

Group and allow CPs to manage 

security. Is that the expected big 

ideas we are waiting for? 

“Sadly, everyday, these 

governors prove IPOB right to 

say ESN is our only hope. I don’t 

want ESN. I wanted a stateestine 

Okoye had warned that 

over 332 forests were already inhabited 

in the South-East by 

AK47- wielding killer herdsmen. 

The damning revelation threw 

the zone into fear and the call 

for a regional security network 

heightened. 

The governors have been 

under fire as a result of insecurity 

in the zone. They were accused 

by the people of not taking 

security serious. So, those 

attacks by Fulani herdsmen did 

not surprise anybody. The signs 

have been there but our leaders, 

particularly the governors never 

acted; so the entire blame should 

in fact, go to them. They behaved 

as if it were the Fulani that 

elected them. 

Under this condition, the establishment 

of Ebubeagu was naturally 

greeted with mixed feelings. 

While everybody agrees 

there is the need to set up the security 

outfit, they also want to 

have it done very well. Many 

have pointed to the way and 

manner Amotekun is being run 

in the South-West and wondered 

why their South-East 

counterparts were afraid to 

emulate them. 

One of the people who criticized 

the modalities for setting 

up the outfit is human rights 

lawyer and former chairman of 

Electricity Regulatory Board, 

Sam Amadi. Shortly after the 

announcement was made, 

Amadi said: “I have read the 

communiqué of the South-East 

Governors' meeting on security 

in the region. I am sorry to say 

that I am not impressed with 

both the quality of thinking and 

political will displayed by the 

document. 

“There is so much hesitation, 

hedging and prevarication. 

What does it mean to say open 

grazing has been banned in the 

region and security agencies 

should implement it? Who 

banned it? Which law? Don’t you 

see how Benue banned it? By 

What does it 

mean to say open 

grazing has been 

banned in the 

region and 

security agencies 

should 

implement it? 

Who banned it? 

Which law? Don’t 

you see how 

Benue banned it? 

regulated but effective security 

outfit and structure that will 

make it impossible for 

communities to be attacked like 

in Ebonyi. 

But it looks like we are 

condemned to ESN as long as 

these governors are in charge. I 

was already rejoicing that 

Ebubeagu has come to protect 

the South-East so there will be 

no need for a private security outfit 

like ESN. Now, I have read 

By Anayo Okoli, Chidi 

Nkwopara, Ugochukwu 

Alaribe, Chimaobi Nwaiwu, 

Chinedu Adonu, Chinonso 

Alozie, Ikechukwu Odu & 

Steve Oko 

ENUGU — AFTER much pressure, 

particularly in the last 

three weeks, the South-East 

governors last Sunday announced 

the formation of a regional 

security outfit, 

EbubeAgu. The pressure on the 

governors to set up the security 

outfit which has been in the 

pipeline for over one year, increased 

last three weeks following 

ferocious bloody attacks in 

Uzouwani community in Enugu 

State and Egedegede community 

in Ebonyi State where no less 

than 20 persons were brutally 

butchered by killer Fulani herdsmen. 

The outrage that trailed the 

two incidents was so much that 

the Vice-President, Prof. 

Osinbajo had to visit the Ebonyi 

community. The two incidents 

raised tension and put the 

governors under pressure, 

especially Governor David Umahi, 

the chairman of the South- 

East Governors' Forum, who incidentally 

has been treating the 

Fulani herdsmen with kid gloves, 

not knowing they have a different 

agenda for him and his 

people. 

The Ebonyi attack was followed 

almost immediately by a 

very deadly attack at the Owerri 

Correctional Centre, where over 

1,800 inmates were freed. The 

attack was also extended to the 

State Police Command, all very 

close to Government House. It 

was alleged that there was intelligence 

on the attack and that the 

Governor of Imo State, Hope 

Uzodinma, and all the heads of 

security in the state were 

informed but they allegedly 

failed to nip it in the bud. 

Meanwhile, about a week before 

the attacks, a retired Deputy 

Inspector-General of Police, Celthe 

communiqué and hereby 

withdraw my excitement. The 

South-East governors are not out 

of the wood. They are still in a 

mental block. Sad.” 

Also, a leading rights group, 

Intersociety, said the formation 

of the outfit was suspicious, due 

to “the panicky and hurried 

announcement.” 

“Coming when all hopes have 

been lost from state actor angles, 

forcing most citizens of the 

region to place their hopes, expectations 

and solutions on the 

table of non- state actors; we are 

very surprised to hear the sudden 

announcement. “Intersociety 

also doubts the sincerity and 

genuineness of the promoters of 

the new security outfit. It is 

doubtful, too, whether critical 

indigenous stakeholders and 

other interest groups were duly 

consulted and carried along. 

The new outfit is most likely a 

baptism name given to the 2019 

illegitimate and unpopular 

Community Policing arrangement 

by the same South-East 

governors during which all the 

security chiefs that attended the 

meeting where the decision to 

use Community Policing to 

checkmate the menace of 

Jihadist Fulani herdsmen in the 

South-East Region were made up 

of officers of Fulani-Hausa 

Muslim background. 

“We, therefore, have strong reason 

to suspect and conclude that 

the South-East governos' newly 

created security outfit, tagged 

Ebubeagu Security Outfit, is a 

caliphate-inspired counter 

measure to truncate or weaken 

non- state actor arrangements 

including vigilante and 

vigilantism resort to legitimate 

self-defense safeguards provided 

in Section 258 of the Criminal 

Code and Section 59-60 of 

the Penal Code (operational in 

the Igbo parts of Benue and Kogi 

states). 

“The latest moves by the South- 

East governors are also likely 

geared towards using the socalled 

Ebubeagu Security Outfit 

to protect and consolidate the 

Jihadist Fulani herdsmen incursions 

and settlements in bushes, 

forests and farmlands in the 

South-East Region and its outposts 

in Benue, Kogi, Rivers, 

Cross River, Delta and Edo 

states. The name, Ebubeagu, as 

a matter of fact, is meaningless, 

a camouflage especially when 

the Nigerian Army has used 

similar camouflages like Egwu- 

Eke and Atilogwu Udo, to 

massacre over 700 unarmed and 

defenseless citizens of the region 

and maim over 800 others and 

engage in other atrocious 

conducts including roadblocks 

and corrupt practices. “Also, today 

in Igboland, the Ogbu-Agu 

title given to Retired Major-Gen. 

Muhammadu Buhari has turned 

out to be “a killer-licence 

(translated as lion killer ). 

“The outfit can never operate 

successfully in the South-East 

Region where almost 100 per 

cent of top security, especially 

military and police formations, 

are in the hands of officers from 

other regions, most of whom are 

Muslims of Fulani-Hausa 

extraction. 

“It is impossible to find any 

region in Nigeria where 10 per 

cent of its top security formations 

are commanded by officers of 

Igbo Christian stock, not to talk 

of dominating or controlling 

their majority or over 98 per cent 

as presently the case in Igbo 

South-East Region." 

Intersociety spoke through its 

chairman, Comrade Emeka 

Umeagbalasi. 

Elite Igbo group, Alaigbo Development 

Foundation, ADF, on 

its own welcomed the development 

but demanded for 

preparedness of the governors to 

ensure its take off. 

ADF also demanded a law by 

each state to back up the ban on 

open grazing. 

Its spokesman, Chief Abia Onyike 

said: “Well, they have pronounced 

on the Regional Security 

outfit. There should be a law 

banning open grazing of cattle 

in the the South-East. The law 

should be passed in the five 

states Houses of Assembly. To 

orally make an announcement 

banning open grazing shows 

lack of commitment on the part 

of the governors. They are being 

smart. 

“Again, we will like to know 

their logistic preparations. 

Where are their vehicles and 

other operational facilities and 

equipment like in the case of 

Amotekun in Yoruba land? 

“Let the South-East governors 

go and use the draft bill prepared 

by ADF in 2017 to make binding 

laws against open grazing. If 

they fail to do that, then it 

exposes them further as 

unserious people.” 

Reacting, Senator Mao 

Ohuabunwa commended the 

governors for setting up the 

outfit but urged them to back it 

with a law from their lawmakers. 

Ohuabunwa, former Leader, 

House of Representatives, 

believes the move would curb the 

growing insecurity in the zone. 

According to him: “the courage 

and the unity of the governors in 

establishing the outfit were 

strong indications that the 

security of the zone is paramount 

to the governors.” 

The action of the governors, he 

said, was in response to the growing 

clamour for a regional security 

outfit to help contain the activities 

of terrorists rampaging 

the zone and expressed 

confidence that the outfit would, 

in collaboration with other 

security agencies, help unmask 

and checkmate the elements 

behind the rising insecurity in the 

zone. 

He, therefore, tasked the various 

State Houses of Assembly in 

the zone to quickly provide the 

necessary legal backing for the 

outfit. 

However, a civil rights leader, 

Jonah said the arrangements 

were not clear. “First of all, who 

are to be recruited into the 

outfit? Will they be given AK47 

to combat Fulani herdsmen 

Continues on Page 31

Kudos, knocks greet EbubeAgu, 

a security outfit set up by South 

East governors 

Continues from page 30 

parading AK47 and JPGs? 

Which weapon will they be 

using? Will they be reporting to 

IPOB, ESN or Nigeria Police, 

Nigerian Military, DSS, EFCC, 

Immigration or who? 

“All Igbo should support to the 

maximum, IPOB or ESN which 

is the only security outfit that can 

save and deliver Igbo from the 

hands of Buhari, the 

generalissimo of Islamic Sharia 

laws,” he said. 

For Chief Ozoh Anaekwe, 

Ebubeagu is dead on arrival. 

According to him, it will not impact 

on South-East. He said the 

governors only want to use it to 

scuttle the good work the 

Eastern Security Network, ESN, 

is doing in the South-East 

forests. 

“I am very surprised about the 

belated and sudden action of 

South-East governors, coming 

up with Ebubeagu security outfit, 

when ESN has taken over 

security in South-East forests 

and guarding them well, and 

people are expecting them to extend 

their services to the urban 

areas. 

“If the governors are sincere, 

they would have supported the 

ESN to also extend their security 

activities to the environment 

where people are living, what 

happened in Ebonyi, Enugu and 

Owerri would have been averted 

if ESN is operating in urban areas 

and cities. 

The governors of the South- 

East are a bunch of jokers, 

recruiting South-East youths 

without training and guns is like 

asking them to go and commit 

suicide against the Fulani herdsmen 

carrying AK47 and backed 

by military that has been 

shielding and protecting them. 

“I’m very surprised that the 

South-East governors are recruiting 

South-East youths to go 

and confront the ESN, who are 

challenging the killer herdsmen, 

suspected to be Fulanis and 

Nigerian soldiers supporting 

them, with all their armament. 

“They are recruiting untrained 

South-East youths without guns 

to go and confront the people 

wielding sophisticated weapons, 

the South-East governors want 

to reduce the population of the 

youths in the South-East to 

impress their masters they have 

been working for in Abuja, for 

whom they refused to set up the 

security outfit for the people 

when we needed it most and 

called for it, before IPOB responded 

with ESN. 

“For me, they are recruiting 

people who will go and fight 

against ESN, or the people who 

will help them for political 

campaign, or they want to please 

the powers they have been 

worshiping in Abuja. 

“Setting up Ebubeagu without 

training the youths and equipping 

them is like asking them to 

go and commit suicide against 

the killer herdsmen and the 

military who are not doing what 

they are supposed to be doing in 

the South- East, rather, they are 

shielding and protecting the killer 

herdsmen. 

“To recruit South-East youths 

to go and confront the unknown 

gunmen, Fulani herdsmen and 

the military supporting them, is 

a suicide mission because once 

they confront killer herdsmen, 

the military shielding and protecting 

them will come after the 

Ebubeagu outfit that will be 

made up of South-East youths. 

The South-East governors 

should be held responsible for 

any loss of lives of South-East 

youths by their parents. If you 

will remember, a former 

Inspector- General of Police, in 

2019 disarmed all the vigilante 

groups in the South-East, the 

governors did not protest, they 

did not complain, where are those 

Pump Action guns and Dane guns 

taken from the vigilante men in 

the South-East which they were 

using to guard our communities, 

where will they get the guns for 

Ebubeagu outfit? 

“That Ebubeagu Security outfit 

is dead on arrival because it was 

ill-conceived, formed in a hurry 

and to impress their masters in 

Abuja and not to give South- East 

security which ESN is already giving 

the people in the communities. 

If they are allowed to extend their 

services to urban areas, they will 

equally provide security to the 

people. 

“Ebubeagu Security outfit will 

never make the South-East 

governors popular, but rather unpopular, 

their intention is to 

sabotage what ESN is doing now 

in the region, but they do not know 

that 95 per cent of the people of 

South-East are supporting ESN, 

so you can sabotage where you 

have people following you; the 

incumbent South-East governors 

have no followers in the South- 

East. They are losing their 

popularity on daily basis by 

attacking IPOB and ESN. 

“A good leader listens to his subjects, 

but the present governors are 

listening to their Abuja masters 

instead of the people of the South- 

East. What prevented them from 

coming up with the security outfit 

before now? Initially, they told us 

Ogbunigwe and now they are 

telling us Ebubeagu, but we know 

they are not serious, they are 

playing their normal politics.” 

Again, many Igbo questioned 

how the governors want to 

reconcile points 14 and 15 of 

their communiqué which said 

that open grazing has been 

banned and security agency 

should implement the ban and 

at the same time insisted that 

farmers and headers should be 

encouraged to peacefully coexist 

to allow governors to succeed in 

the fight against criminality. This 

issue was discussed in a number 

of radio stations, where people 

said they could not understand the 

position of the governors. They 

questioned how one can still coexist 

with his killer. 

The Igbo grassroots body, 

Association of South-East Town 

Unions, ASETU, also had issues 

with the way the governos set up 

the outfit. 

They said that any security outfit 

without involving community 

leaders will not work. ASETU also 

insisted on having anti-open 

grazing law backed by law in the 

region. 

“The creation of Ebubeagu security 

network, which on the authority 

of the statement by the 

South-East governors, will oversee 

the activities of the vigilantes, 

it is worrisome that the Town 

Unions which have had the natural 

mandate of creating and funding 

the various community 

vigilantes, were not carried along 

in the process leading to this formation. 

Security is a local affair. 

“We have severally advocated 

for indigenous and autonomous 

security architecture for the 

South-East, but if the creation of 

Ebubeagu is done at any rate 

without the involvement of the 

community leaders, the result will 

not be different from the failed 

security system that Nigeria today 

has.” 

Diwe further said that “the carnage 

and destruction of livelihoods 

wrought on our people by 

Fulani herdsmen cannot be tolerated 

any further. This is the reason 

that for three years, we have 

severally written the governors 

and the Houses of Assembly in the 

South-East. We also convoked a 

security summit in 2018 at Enugu, 

a security retreat at Abakaliki 

in 2019 and yet another security 

retreat at Enugu in 2020. It is 

therefore quite relieving that the 

governors in the zone are standing 

up to the menace of herdsmen. 

“However, we insist that mere 

verbal proscription of opengrazing 

is not sufficient in the 

face of this nightmarish reality. 

More concrete steps must 

therefore be taken to stem the 

reprehensible and gruesome 

activities of the herdsmen in our 

land. 

“As a result, we restate our demand 

that there is an overriding 

necessity for anti-open grazing 

laws in the South-East. They 

should immediately be enacted 

by the various State Houses of Assembly 

in the South-East. Such laws, 

as we have since conceptualized, 

would address the inadequacies 

of a verbal proclamation by 

defining enforceable frameworks 

that take cognizance of 

appropriate punishment to defaulters, 

restitution to victims 

and restoration of losses. As a 

corollary to that, a security 

outfit, known as Livestock 

Guards needs to be created by 

law to implement the provisions 

of the anti-open grazing 

legislations.” 

However, those supporting the 

governors are calling for calm, 

saying that they would get it 

right. The problem also remains 

that no date has been fixed for 

the take-off of the outfit. 

E NUGU—STAKEHOLDERS 

in the investment and business 

promotion sector have 

commended Governor Ifeanyi 

Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, for 

providing a conducive 

atmosphere and the framework 

for businesses to thrive in Enugu 

State. 

Speaking during the unveiling 

of the Lion Business Park in 

Enugu, an integrated industrial/ 

commercial hub, driven by publicprivate 

partnership initiative, 

which was an offshoot of the firstever 

Enugu State Investment 

Summit of 2016, christened 

'Oganiru Enugu' and organized by 

the Ugwuanyi administration to 

woo investors, the stakeholders 

described the project as one of the 

governor’s visions that has 

become a reality. 

The event also witnessed 

inauguration of the Lion Business 

Park Head Office complex and 

special presentation of the Park. 

In his goodwill message at the 

event, the Managing Director of 

Nigeria Export Processing Zones 

Authority, NEPZA, Prof. Adesoji 

Adesugba, applauded Ugwuanyi 

“for providing conducive 

environment to attract this 

project.” 

Represented by the Assistant 

Director/Zone Administrator, 

Enugu Industrial Park Free Trade 

Zone, Mrs. Obiageli Obioha, 

NEPZA’s Managing Director 


Windstorm: Hundreds of houses 

blown off, many feared dead in Imo 

By Chinonso Alozie, Owerri 

VIOLENT wind has blown 

off roofs of hundreds of 

residential buildings in some 

parts of Oforola and Obinze in 

Owerri West Local Government 

Area of Imo State, as many 

people were injured and taken 

to the hospital while some were 

said to have lost their lives as 

they struggled to survive from 

their pains. 

Investigation into the incident 

by South-East Voice revealed 

that it happened around 

03:30pm last Thursday. The 

heavy rain which came with ice 

pellets, was said to have lasted 

for over 30 minutes. 

One of the affected 

warehouses where alcoholic 

drinks are sold, was completely 

brought down by the 

windstorm, wares destroyed, as 

hundreds of passersby running 

for safety, were badly injured 

by flying roofs from the affected 

buildings. 

The strong wind also 

damaged a vehicle of the 

owner of a restaurant adjacent 

to the warehouse. It also 

caused havoc to many storey 

buildings around Obinze 

especially makeshifts around 

the Army Barracks. 

Not only that, it affected fuel 

stations as well as schools 

around the area. 

As at the time of filing this 

report, it was gathered that in 

the affected warehouse where 

they sell achoholic drinks, one 

person was feared dead and 

many injured as some were 

rushed to the hospital still in 

critical conditions. 

An eyewitness who narrated 

the incident to SEV said: “The 

incident happened at about 

3:30 pm. I was standing in front 

of the house when the rains 

started. It was a heavy rain with 

ice pellets. 

“And after sometime, it came 

with heavy wind and the whole 

building started shaking and 

before you know it, roofs of 

buildings started flying out and 

hitting people around. 

Everybody started running. 

“In the warehouse, at the time 

the strong wind came, a 

customer who entered the 

building in his car to buy beer, 

was buried by the roof of the 

warehouse. Many people were 

injured and taken to the 

hospital. The cashier, manager 

and others were wounded,” he 

said. 

Also in Oforola, many 

buidings were destroyed and 

valuable properties of residents 

damaged by the rains. 

• Buildings damaged by windstorm around Obinze. 

Photos: Chinonso Alozie. 

NEPZA, NOTAP, others hail Ugwuanyi at unveiling 

of Lion Business Park 

disclosed that they were impressed 

with the milestone the zone 

management of Lion Business 

Park has accomplished, pointing 

out that “the construction work 

here at site is enough to attest to 

the absolute readiness of the 

promoters to commence full 

business.” 

NEPZA stated that the initiative 

was a welcome development “as it 

will encourage in-Country 

manufacturing which aligns with 

the current drive by the Federal 

Government to focus the economy 

on local production and moving 

away from Import dependency. 

“It needs to be reiterated that Lion 

Business Park FZ Development 

Company has taken the bull by the 

horns by acquiring this massive 

land (measuring 2,000 hectares) 

through the support of the state 

government; and putting in place 

the necessary infrastructure, now is 

the right time to be allocated a space 

for active participation.” 

The agency, therefore, encouraged 

the captains of industry, local and 

foreign investors, other individuals, 

groups and governments to take 

advantage of the incentives which 

the scheme offers to bring about 

rapid socio-economic and 

industrial development in the 

South East region and Nigeria by 

extension, assuring them that 

“your investment is in safe hands 

while expecting that you play by 

the rules.” 

On his part, the Director General 

of National Office for Technology 

Acquisition and Promotion, 

NOTAP, Dr. Dan-Azumi Mohammed 

Ibrahim, lauded Ugwuanyi 

for his foresight towards 

the actualization of the gigantic 

investment project in Enugu 

State, saying: “I am really impressed 

with this vision.” 

Dr. Ibrahim maintained that 

NOTAP is committed to any effort 

to reduce unemployment and 

grow the nation’s economy, 

stressing that the agency will 

support and assist Lion Business 

Park to realize its set objectives. 

The former Economic Adviser to 

the President, Prof. Osita Ogbu 

pointed out that the governor’s 

vision to partner the Lion Business 

Park is clear and should be 

applauded, stressing that “it is an 

important project all of us should 

buy into.” 

Noting that the vision of the 

project is in line with the mandate 

of “Alaigbo Stabilization Fund,” 

Prof. Ogbu thanked Gov. Ugwuanyi 

and all those who are leading it for 

their philanthropic vision and zeal 

towards the progress of Igboland. 

In his welcome address, the 

Chairman of Lion Business Park, Dr. 

Okechukwu John Mbonu, 

congratulated Gov. Ugwuanyi for 

“your vision turned reality,” adding: 

“I am proud to say that you 

conceived the vision of an economic 

hub and Lion Business Park turned 

that vision into reality”.


Cattle owners and herdsmen-farmers problem: 

Matters Arising 

By LADIPO 

ADAMOLEKUN 

WHO are the cattle own 

ers? I would argue that 

just as the eminently sensible 

registration of herdsmen and 

farmers in the forests of Ondo 

State is critical to tackling the 

problem of criminality 

among herdsmen, registration 

of cattle owners must be 

acknowledged as critical to 

achieving a comprehensive 

solution to the various dimensions 

of the herdsmen-farmers 

problem. This dual-track 

registration of herdsmen/ 

farmers and cattle owners 

advocated for Ondo State 

should be adopted by every 

state confronted with the 

herdsmen-farmers problem. 

Deafening Silence 

on Cattle Owners 

Are all the cattle herded 

across all the six South-west 

(SW) states owned by Hausa- 

Fulani? What proportion of 

the cattle in SW is owned by 

Yoruba? Similar questions 

must be posed with respect to 

cattle ownership in the Southeast 

(SE), South-south (SS) 

and North-central (NC) zones 

where herdsmen/farmers 

conflicts have persisted for 

over a decade or longer. Based 

on what I know and what I’ve 

learned from reliable sources, 

it would appear that a significant 

proportion of the cattle 

owners in the SW are Yoruba 

and not Hausa-Fulani. I’ve 

also learned that a significant 

proportion of the cattle owners 

in Benue state in the NC 

are indigenes of the state and 

not Hausa-Fulani. In these 

circumstances, ethnic profiling 

and cries of attacks on the 

Fulani are nonsensical as far 

as cattle ownership is concerned. 

The deafening silence 

on cattle owners must come 

to an end; every state in the 

geopolitical zones where herders-farmers 

conflicts have 

persisted must proceed without 

delay to register the cattle 

owners within its territorial 

area and the registers must be 

accessible to the public. 

Regarding the herders 

(darandaran), it is widely acknowledged 

that they are predominantly 

Fulani. Again, 

what proportion of the herders 

is from within Nigeria? 

And what proportion is from 

outside Nigeria? We should 

have credible answers to these 

questions at the end of the 

registration of herders to be 

conducted in every state concerned 

– provided every registration 

is both thorough and 

detailed. Given the strong 

evidence that a very high proportion 

of herders are of 

school-going age, the Communique 

issued at the end of 

a meeting of SW Governors 

in Akure in late January to discuss 

aspects of the herdsmenfarmers 

problem included a 

directive that all school-age 

children who work as herders 

should be withdrawn and sent 

to school. Easier said than 

done! 

Without a reliable register 

of herders and without the 

active involvement of cattle 

owners, this decision is unlikely 

to be implemented. Pointedly, 

why would Yoruba cattle 

owners hire Fulani children 

as herders when they should 

be in school like the vast majority 

of Yoruba children (at 

least, in theory)? The same 

question is applicable to Igbo, 

Ijaw, Tiv, Idoma cattle owners 

who hire Fulani children 

as herders, to cite a few other 

examples. The proposed registers 

of cattle owners will 

help to name and shame both 

Fulani and non-Fulani cattle 

owners across the country who 

are keeping Fulani schoolage 

children out of school. 

A delicate but crucial task 

in the proposed register of 

herdsmen from outside Nigeria 

is separating regular/ 

legal from “mercenary” 

herdsmen. If, indeed, mercenary 

herdsmen are engaged 

in killings and kidnapping, 

getting them registered is likely 

to be a very tough challenge. 

Again, it is apposite to raise 

questions about Nigerian cattle 

owners and foreign herdsmen. 

All cattle owners who 

employ foreign herdsmen 

who are illegals and/or mercenaries 

are complicit in their 

criminality. And they should 

know that ignorance is no 

defense of the law. 

Overall, then, cattle owners 

are a big part of the herdsmen-farmers 

problem and 

the allied criminality of herdsmen. 

They must be made a 

part of the solution. In addition 

to the registration of cattle 

owners that has already 

been suggested, their representatives 

within each state 

should be included in the Livestock 

Business or Cattle Trade/ 

Farming Committees to oversee 

the implementation of the 

agreed solutions to the problem. 

Implementation Challenges 

and Enforcement 

Capability 

The Akure Communique 

mentioned above explicitly 

prohibited open (free-range) 

grazing and unequivocally 

adopted ranching and grazing 

reserves as the way forward 

with respect to cattle 

trade/farming. Media reports 

suggest that these positions 

are broadly agreed upon 

across the states of the federation. 

However, after two 

months, implementation 

progress has been slow; there 

has been more talk than action. 

Crucially, the weak enforcement 

capability of state 

governments has been exposed. 

FG owns no 

lands on which 

to establish 

ranches; its role 

in livestock 

farming can only 

be supportive of 

states’ initiatives 

Open Grazing 

Prohibition: 

Notwithstanding both legal 

and declaratory prohibition 

of open grazing in many 

states, the practice has persisted. 

Worse, there has been no 

official Federal Government 

(FG) response to recent news 

report that Fulani Nationality 

Movement (FUNAM) has 

threatened to attack individuals 

and states that are against 

open grazing of cattle in the 

country. Between February 

and April, herders who engage 

in open grazing have 

attacked farmers in several 

states across the SW, SS and 

NC, with varying degrees of 

•Prof. Ladipo Adamolekun 

criminality. Then, there is the 

category of criminal/killer 

herdsmen (mercenary herdsmen?) 

who attempted to assassinate 

Governor Ortom of 

Benue State during a visit to 

his farm in March and those 

involved in wanton killings in 

Ebonyi State in early April. 

To date, only a few cases of 

effective enforcement of open 

grazing prohibition have been 

reported, notably two interventions 

by Amotekun in 

Ondo State involving cow 

herders on Akure-Ilesa road. 

But there is the unanswered 

question of what Amotekun 

corps would do with hundreds 

and possibly thousands of 

“arrested” cows. Clearly, effective 

prohibition of open 

grazing requires the existence 

of operational ranches or/and 

grazing reserves. The logic of 

this sequencing appears incontrovertible! 

Ranching: 

The June 2018 consensus 

within the National Economic 

Council (NEC) on ranching 

through a National Livestock 

Transformation Plan 

(NLTP) is an echo of previous 

ranching initiatives by two 

regional governments in the 

1950s and 1960s. The striking 

difference is that the regional 

efforts in the 1950s and 

1960s – Western Nigeria Livestock 

Company (1956), comprising 

about 11 Ranches 

across the region and the 

Northern Nigeria Rural Grazing 

Area Law (1965) – had no 

FG involvement whatsoever. 

Against this backdrop, states 

that continue to evoke the 

NLTP ought to know that the 

primary responsibility for its 

implementation is theirs. Although 

one or two SW states 

are reportedly drawing on the 

template established in the region 

in the late 1950s, slow 

implementation appears to 

be linked to the expectation 

that some federal funding 

would be available. This 

could become a case of waiting 

for Godot. The FG cannot 

and should not be expected 

to fund ranches across the 

states in the federation – this 

will be antithetical to the devolved 

federation that many 

of the same governors are 

clamouring for. 

An outline of a good practice 

alternative is provided by 

Bayelsa State’s livestock farming 

approach. According to 

the State’s Commissioner for 

Agriculture “If you are interested 

in cattle business in 

Bayelsa, the governor has 

opened up business opportunities 

of huge value chain in 

the meat business. It is time 

now. If you have land and you 

want to ranch, you can ranch, 

since we are going purely for 

ranching. If you want to plant 

grass and sell for cattle, you 

can sell.” Specifically, he stated 

that the state has created 

“opportunities [enabling environment] 

in the meat business 

for people to take advantage 

of and establish ranches 

or grow grass to sell to cattle 

breeders” (see Punch, March 

30th 2021). 

Another good practice example 

is Kano State that has 

moved speedily to establish 

ranches. Because of the 

progress the state has recorded, 

it has attracted FG’s funding 

as recently confirmed by 

the Federal Minister of Agriculture: 

“Just this week in 

Kano, I inaugurated the pilot 

scheme of the National Livestock 

Breed Improvement Initiative 

aimed at increasing 

the diary potential of our indigenous 

dairy cows and 

meat yield of our national 

herd” (See Punch, March 

22nd 2021). Notwithstanding 

the ambitious programmes 

and projects that might be 

contained in NLTPS (copies 

of which are not widely available, 

to my knowledge), the 

initiative for implementing 

ranching lies with individual 

state governments; and that’s 

how it should be. FG owns no 

lands on which to establish 

ranches; its role in livestock 

farming can only be supportive 

of states’ initiatives. 

Finally, I learn that a livestock 

farmer in one of the NC 

states has established a Rural 

Grazing Area (RUGA) for 

breeding his own cows. Apparently, 

he must have liaised 

with his state government to 

secure the land for his RUGA. 

However, one hopes that if his 

herdsmen are Fulani, they are 

not children of school-going 

age nor are they illegals or 

mercenaries from foreign 

countries! 

Two concluding 

observations 

First, some suggestions 

have been provided about 

what states need to do regarding 

the establishment of functioning 

ranches. Bayelsa state 

provides an example of a clear 

statement of its role in establishing 

an enabling environment 

for private individuals 

and groups (cattle owners et 

al) to engage in livestock 

farming. No concrete results 

have been recorded but clarity 

of the approach is commendable. 

Next, Kano has 

moved rapidly to launch a 

state-led functioning livestock 

farming programme 

and has attracted FG’s funding 

support for one aspect of 

its programme. 

Second, as already mentioned, 

effective prohibition of 

open grazing is contingent on 

the existence of ranches and/ 

or reserved grazing areas. 

However, even as ranches are 

being established, prohibition 

of open grazing has to be enforced. 

I would argue that it is 

now irrefutable that urgent 

establishment of state police 

– by the Doctrine of Necessity, 

as recently advocated in a 

Punch newspaper editorial 

(April 7th) – is required for 

ensuring that state governments 

have the required enforcement 

capability to effectively 

prohibit open grazing. 

And it is only a state police 

directly answerable to the 

Governor who is the chief security 

officer within the state’s 

territorial area that can meaningfully 

tackle the unending 

killings wreaked by criminal 

herdsmen. 

*Professor Ladipo Adamolekun 

writes from Iju, 

Akure North, Ondo State. 


Foursquare holds annual Int'l 

confab for ministers, leaders 

SABA—AS part of 

Ameasures to bring 

medical services closer to 

the riverine communities, 

the Delta State Government 

has commissioned 

and handed over two boat 

ambulances for use in the 

‘hard to reach communities’ 

in the State. 

The Delta State Commissioner 

for Health, Dr. Mordi 

Ononye handed over the 

Boat Ambulances during 

the commissioning and 

handover ceremony to Dr. 

Patrick Omu, Zonal Medical 

Director, Central Hospital 

Warri yesterday at Shell 

yard, Ogunu, Warri in Warri 

South Local Government 

Area. 

Dr. Ononye listed the six 

beneficiary Council Areas 

to include Bomadi; Burutu; 

Patani; Warri North; Warri 

South and Warri South West 

with the charge to the Zonal 

Medical Director and the 

Executive Secretaries, Local 

Government Health 

Authorities to make judicious 

use of the boats for 

the benefit of the communities 

concerned. 

He decried the situation 

in which over the years 

there have been complaints 

of inability to provide 

social services to some 

communities in the State 

on the ground that they are 

hard to reach areas due to 

the difficult riverine terrain 

but can be reached for the 

purpose of extracting the 

One-Story 

magazine 

launch/ 

N100m 

equipment 

fund raising 

holds April 15 

ASABA—THE official 

launch of a frontline 

magazine known as ‘ONE- 

STORY’ and N100 million 

printing equipment fund 

raising is scheduled to hold on 

Thursday, April 15, 2021, at 

Hotel Benizia, Asaba, 

beginning at 10:am. 

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of 

Delta State will serve as the 

Special Guest of Honour with 

the Chief of Staff, Government 

House, Olorogun David 

Edevbie as the chairman of the 

occasion. 

According to a statement 

issued by the Managing 

Editor of the magazine, Mr. 

Omoru Godswill Itive, the 

Speaker, Delta State House of 

Assembly, Rt, Hon. Sheriff 

Oborevwori, is expected to be 

the guest of honour ,the 

Chairman, Delta State Oil 

Producing Areas 

Development Commission, 

DESOPADEC, Chief Michael 

Diden will serve as the chief 

launcher, while a renowned 

scholar, Prof Sam Ukala 

would review the magazine. 

Other dignitaries expected at 

the grand ceremony are the 

chairman, Nigeria Union of 

Journalists (NUJ), Comrade 

Michael Ikeogwu, Rev Fr (Dr.) 

Chukwuekwu Nwutu as well 

as south south governors. 

One-Story Weekly is a 

publication of Global Synergy 

Newspapers with the head 

office in Asaba. 

resources there. The Commissioner 

stated that the 

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is 

averse to this stand hence 

his efforts at making sure 

such communities get 

same services including primary 

health care services 

that communities located 

upland do enjoy. 

He commended the duo 

of Mr. William Angadi and 

Captain Smart Asekutu, 

Chairmen, Bomadi and 

Warri North Local Government 

Areas (LGAs) respectively 

for being present at 

the ceremony which was a 

display of their commitment 

to the activities in the 

health sector in their LGAs. 

According to the Commissioner, 

“these ambulances 

were purpose-built 

as they have more space 

inside and some level of 

comfort for the end users 

including toilet facility 

when compared to the 

regular ones we have”. 

In her remark, Dr. Isioma 

Okobah, Executive Assistant 

to the Governor and 

Board Chairman, Primary 

Health Care Development 

Agency said the additional 

two boat ambulances will 

go a long way in assisting 

her Agency in carrying out 

its immunization and vaccination 

exercise as well as 

ensuring that the maternal 

health care services are 

given full attention in the 

hard to reach communities. 

AHMED 

I, formerly known and addressed 

as MUSA ABDULKARIM 

AHMED, Now wish to be 

known and addressed as 

MUSA OSU ABDULKARIM. All 

former documents remain valid, 

General public and authority 

concerned please take note. 

CHIMA 

I Formerly known as MATHEW 

LUKE Now wish to be called and 

addressed as MATHEW LUKE 

CHIMA to update my BVN All 

Former documents remain valid 

ACCESS BANK PLC Authority 

concern and the General public to 


HABILA 

I Formerly known as HELEN 

HABILA Now wish to be called 

and addressed as HELEN 

HARUNA ALAU All Former 

documents remain valid DOB 

From 5/6/1979 to 5 /6 /1986 Any 

Authority concern and the 

General public to please take note. 

OKAY 

I formerly known as OKAY 

EWORO OKA, now wish to 


OBA OKA EWORO. Date of 

Birth: SEPTEMBER 10, 1987. 

All former documents remain 

valid. The general public should 

take note. 

NDABA 

I formerly known as SIMEON 

OKEMUEFULA NDABA, now 

wish to be known and addressed 

as SIMON OKEMEFULE 

NDABA. All former documents 

remain valid. The general public 

should take note. 

ONUOHA 

I, formerly known as PETER 

ONUOHA NDUBUISI . Now 

wish to be known as ONUOHA 

NDUBUEZE PETER. All 

documents bearing my former 

name remain valid. The general 

public take note.

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021 — 33 

He’s in denial about our 

relationship 

Dear Bunmi, 

I 

’VE been having an affair 

with one of my husband’s 

good friends for the past six 

months and I think I’m in love 

with him. He’s also married 

and we’re good family friends. 

I’m really confused about the 

relationship as he carries on 

as if nothing is between us 

when we’re with other people, 

yet he shows a lot of passion 

in the bedroom. 

In fairness to him, it all 

started out as a bit of fun and 

I’m sure that’s the way he still 

sees it. I daren’t tell him the 

way I feel in case he ends the 

affair. I also don’t want to 

seem pushy, as he’s made no 

promises. I know he’s 

sexually attracted to me. But 

is that all? 

Kuburat, by e-mail 

Dear Kuburat, 

Whether your lover feels 

love for you is not the point. 

Couples everywhere quietly 

fool around with each other’s 

closest friends. Apart from 

that, these extramarital games 

Turned down by a single mom 

Dear Bunmi, 

THERE is this single 

mother of two around 

where I live and we get on 

well together. Her children 

are under 10. 

When I eventual summoned 

the courage to ask her out, she 

turned me down. 

When I asked if she fancied 

me, she said she did but that 

things are not as easy as they 

seemed. What should I do? 

John, by e-mail 

Dear John, 

Getting mixed messages 

from someone you like could 

be really tricky. But, however 

much you want someone, if 

there is no real spark forget 

it; though the fact you get on 

well with her means there is 

some hope. 

So, explore the problem: 

Explore the 

problem: what’s 

making the 

relationship 'not 

easy?' Ask her what 

she needs from you. 

Put the ball in her 

court, saying: “If 

you ever feel 

differently, please 

tell me.” This gives 

her room to change 

her mind. If you 

have worked your 

way through all 

these and you are 

still getting a ‘no’, 

then it is time to 

call it quits. 

I love my ex better than my wife 

Dear Bunmi, 

IGOT married two years 

ago when I hadn’t 

completely fallen out of love 

with my ex-girlfriend. I met 

my wife on the rebound, after 

Dear Bunmi, 

IAM 28 and just had my 

first child. To my horror, I 

discovered my boobs have 

sagged since I gave birth. 

My husband has even 

noticed this and I'm desperate 

to get them back in shape. Is 

there anything I can do, or 

should I consider plastic 

surgery? Franka, 

by e-mail. 

Dear Franka, 

my ex left me for another 

man. But the relationship 

didn’t work out, and she’s 

started e-mailing me. My 

wife is kind, gentle and good 

company but I now realize 

Childbirth’s left my boobs saggy 

Breasts are fat and milk 

producing gland tissues. 

They are held up by ligaments 

that stretch as your breasts 

grow during pregnancy. They 

rarely return to their previous 

size afterwards. Exercise, 

such as swimming, can help. 

You will do well to invest in 

some confidence-boosting 

bras. Plastic surgery is a bit 

drastic and very expensive. 

Also, there is no guarantee 

that, in a few year, you might 

not need another. 

usually have little emotional 

value and do not provide 

romance let alone a happy 

new beginning. 

The consequences of being 

found out are often immensely 

painful for everyone involved. 

There’s no doubt you have 

feelings for this adulterer - 

there’s always a feeling of lust 

between attractive partners 

when they have sex - it is 

elementary chemistry. Your 

husband's friend is obviously 

using you for sex and he’s 

quite happy with the way 

things are. Put an end to this 

‘party’ as soon as you can, 

before you’re left with burnt 

fingers. 

what’s making the 

relationship 'not easy', as she 

alleged? Would she be able to 

take things further if certain 

things were resolved? Ask 

what her difficulties are, then 

be prepared to change. 

If there are some things you 

can do to improve your 

chances, then ask her what 

she needs from you - is it to 

see that you will get on well 

with her children? Give her 

some space too. Occasionally, 

someone says no because the 

timing isn’t right but they will 

be glad to be asked later. 

Put the ball in her court, 

saying: “If you ever feel 

differently, please tell me.” 

This gives her room to change 

her mind. If you have worked 

your way through all these 

and you are still getting a 

‘no’, then it is time to call it 

off. 

that my ex is the love of my 

life. My marriage is currently 

childless. What should I do? 

Smart, by e-mail 

Dear Smart, 

Before you do anything rash 

like throwing away your 

marriage, stop and think about 

your real feelings for your ex. 

It’s easy to look back at a past 

relationship with rose-tinted 

glasses, but she was the one 

who chose to break the 

wedding vows and must have 

had her reasons, which may 

well still exist. 

I would try to make your 

marriage work if I were you. 

Don’t rush back to your ex 

without being sure she’s not 

also settling for you on the 

rebound. What happens if 

what she considers a better 

option shows up - again? 

My parents ‘noise’ keeps me 

awake! 

DearBunmi, 

IAM in my early 20s and 

live at home with my 

parents. My bedroom is next 

to theirs and I am kept awake 

some nights by the horrible 

sounds they make when they 

are having sex. I know things 

like that are normal but I feel 

so embarrassed when I see 

them the next day. 

Nobody is against their 

having sex at their age, but 

shouldn’t they tone it down 

when there are children in the 

house? 

Nonye, by e-mail 

Dear Nonye, 

When next this happens 

and you run into your smugly 

glowing parents over 

breakfast, face your mom and 

tell her “wow. That must have 

been a really terrible dream I 

heard last night. 

"I heard you screaming as 

if you were being harassed by 

armed robbers and I was 

really scared, especially 

when you started panting. I 

almost rushed into your room, 

but I knew dad too must have 

heard the commotion!" 

I assume an expression of 

innocent round-eyed horror 

as you say this, and watch as 

they develop exactly the 

same look. Your nights should 

be a lot more peaceful from 

then on! 

Marriage hasn’t stopped his 

flirting 

DearBunmi, 

MY husband gets a 

load of kicks from 

flirting with other women. 

For the eight years we’ve 

been married, I’ve watched 

him chat-up women and I've 

had countless nights 

anxiously waiting for him to 

come home from his nightcrawling. 

Now after his last 

affair, where his latest 

girlfriend insulted me to my 

face in his presence, I’ve 

decided I can no longer live 

with him. 

When I told him I wanted 

to quit the marriage, he said 

that suited him fine, as he 

was thinking of going abroad 

to work. This would mean 

our two children might not 

even see him. It’s hell being 

with a man who can’t stay 

faithful, but if I end our 

marriage, my children will 

lose their father. What should 

I do? 

BiIikis, bye-mail 

Dear Bilikis, 

Being married to a 

casanova can be a 

nightmare. Flirting might be 

harmless but it led him to 

having affairs, while 

controlling you and does 

what he likes. Now that 

you’ve found the strength to 

fight back, he’s making you 

feel guilty for the hurt your 

children may feel at the 

separation. 

As a mother, you naturally 

want them to have contact 

with their father, but you 

can’t make your husband a 

responsible father. He has 

shown little respect for you 

and your marriage. 

You deserve better, and if 

he’s unwilling to change, 

then you are right to end the 

Being married to 

a casanova can be 

a nightmare. He 

has shown little 

respect for you 

and your 

marriage. You 

deserve better, 

and if he’s 

unwilling to 

change, then you 

are right to end 

the relationship. 

Let him know that 

going away would 

be his choice; and 

he would have to 

justify this to his 

children in the 

years to come. 

Unless your 

husband shows 

real desire to 

change, you owe 

it to yourself to 

build a happier 

life for you and 

your children. 

relationship. While your 

children need a father they 

also deserve a happy mom. 

Perhaps your threat to end 

the marriage has made him 

invent his job abroad, so 

you’ll change your mind. 

Let him know that going 

away would be his choice; 

and he will have to justify 

this to his children in the 

years to come. As much as 

plausible, I always try to 

advise couples to stay 

together, but unless your 

husband shows real desire to 

change, you owe it to 

yourself to build a happier life 

for you and your children. 

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


Kidnapping and closure of schools: Surest 

bomb for the destruction of Nigeria (3) 

IN the previous editions, I 

identified the incidence of 

incessant kidnappings in Nigeria 

and the consequent closure of 

schools. I have equally made 

copious references to the 

comments of some stakeholders as 

well as media reports on the spate 

of kidnappings in Nigeria which, 

unfortunately, has caught the 

attention of the world. 

As I had previously noted, the 

collapse of education is one sure 

way of destroying a nation. A South 

African university posted the 

following remarkable writeup at 

its entrance: “Destroying any 

nation does not require the use of 

atomic bombs or the use of longrange 

missiles. It only requires 

lowering the quality of education 

and allowing cheating in the 

examinations. Patients die at the 

hands of such doctors. Buildings 

collapse at the hands of such 

engineers. Money is lost at the 

hands of such economists and 

accountants. Humanity dies at the 

hands of such religious scholars. 

Justice is lost at the hands of such 

judges. The collapse of education 

is the collapse of the nation.” No 

doubt, the foregoing succinctly 

captures the importance of 

education to any nation and the 

effect of its collapse which will 

occasion catastrophic effects on 

every sector of the nation. Sadly, 

the attack on the education system, 

particularly in Northern Nigeria, 

by the incidences of incessant 

kidnap of students and teachers is 

gearing the nation towards this 

unfortunate course. 

Origin of the problem 

Nigeria is made up of many 

amalgamated nations by the 

colonialists. Knowing that Nigeria 

contains more than 250 ethnic 

nationalities with different 

cultures, languages, religions and 

customs, Nigeria’s founding 

fathers, after sitting together in 

Lancaster House in London for 

almost 10 years, fashioned out a 

constitution that united the different 

ethnic nationalities. This was one 

of the main reasons why both the 

1960 Independence Constitution 

and 1963 Republican Constitution 

worked well before the military 

made a forceful incursion in 

governance following the military 

coup of January 15, 1966. The byproduct 

of military intervention in 

Nigeria is the 1999 Constitution. 

Although the Constitution was 

called a federal constitution, it has 

fathered all the problems we have 

in the country today including 

failed leadership and the 

emergence of politics as the only 

lucrative business in the country. 

The current structural 

arrangement on which Nigeria is 

built and administered have both 

political and economic 

deformities. Politically, Nigeria’s 

federal system is more unitary than 

federal; it is unbalanced and 

unsustainable. Power is overconcentrated 

at the centre at the 

expense of the other two levels of 

government (state and local 

government). As I earlier noted, the 

1999 Constitution upon which the 

country is presently running is 

basically a military, unitary and 

imperfect constitution which does 

not have much bearing to the will 

or wish of the people. Also, there is 

a lack of social justice or the rule 

of law; while the tussle for power is 

not motivated by service, rather by 

self-accumulation of wealth and 

greed by the elite. 

In economic terms, production 

is what drives conventional 

capitalism. In the case of Nigeria, 

politics, corruption, political 

patronage and unproductive 

consumption are the driving forces 

of our economic system. As 

summarily noted by Nsongurua 

Udombana, LL.D: “The 1999 

Constitution has the imprint of 

authoritarianism written all over 

it, with no consideration to the 

genuine desires of the Nigerian 

people. There was not even the 

civility of a Constituent Assembly, 

let alone a referendum, thereby 

making the 'We the people' in the 

preamble a lie and fraud. It is an 

illegitimate document and will 

remain so notwithstanding the 

number of amendments, though it 

may make for a good POL 101 

Course on ‘The Making of an 

Undemocratic Constitution'”. 

Certainly, no amendment to the 

present Constitution can cure its 

inherent defects. There is an urgent 

While I advocate a 

return to the 1963 

Constitution, however, I 

recommend we 

introduce six regions, as 

against four, to operate a 

regional parliamentary 

government, not 

presidential government 

need for restructuring through the 

platform of the Sovereign 

National Conference as any 

election under 1999 Constitution 

will end up with recycling of the 

failed leaders. This will create an 

avenue to effectively discuss and 

resolve paramount issues of 

resource distribution, insecurity, 

effective political representation, 

among other contentious matters. 

It is also paramount that the 

Conference considers the 

inefficiency of the 1999 

Constitution in addressing the 

ethnocultural and socio-political 

diversities in Nigeria. No doubt, 

the only Constitution that will 

endure is the one that is truly 

expressive of the supreme will of 

the people. 

There is a need to revisit the 

structural foundation upon which 

Nigeria’s political future, ethnocultural 

unity, and economic 

sustenance are premised. 

Nigerians must have a voice in the 

Constitution which governs them, 

otherwise, the propensity to fall 

into more chaos is more withinreach 

than ever. 

The Way 

Forward 

By and large, a 

return to the 1963 

Constitution with 

necessary 

amendments is 

the light at the 

end of the tunnel 

for Nigeria. 

Under the 1963 

Constitution, 

sovereignty was 

non-centralised 

and was shared 

between the 

F e d e r a l 

Government and 

the regional levels 

which, in essence, enabled the 

regional units have authority on 

some matters including economy 

and social security. In my 

article,‘Nigeria in Search of a 

Nation’, I succinctly captured the 

decentralised and people-oriented 

nature of the 1963 Constitution 

thus: 

“Our forefathers spent over 10 

years deliberating on a people’s 

constitution that would 

accommodate the nation’s diversity. 

They came up with 1960 

Constitution which was later 

substituted with 1963 Constitution. 

But would this Constitutional 

framework accord significant 

respect to the derivative principle? 

The areas which produce the bulk 

of the nation’s resources have the 

right to a significant proportion of 

the revenues extracted from the 

region. Under the 1963 

Constitution, the Federal 

Government was entitled to pay to 

each region a sum equal to fifty 

percent of the proceeds of mining 

rents and royalty in respect of 

minerals derived from each region. 

The Federal Government was 

obliged to credit to the Distributable 

Pool Account 30 per cent of the 

proceeds of the royalty and mining 

rent received by the Federal 

Government after it had given 50 

per cent to the producing state. The 

Federal Government was only 

entitled to keep for itself 20 per 

cent.” 

Under the 1963 Constitution, 

power was shared between the 

federal and the four regional 

governments being the East, North, 

West and Mid-West. In reality, the 

four regions were constitutionally 

more powerful than the central 

government that was limited to less 

and specific exclusive legislative 

powers. Undoubtedly, Nigeria 

witnessed her greatest and fastest 

economic, political, social and 

educational development under 

the regional system of 

government. Each of the regions 

were largely autonomous and 

could legislate over a number of 

items which have, today, been 

taken over by the Federal 

Government. It was during this 

period that each region began its 

own regional developmental 

efforts and the period occasioned 

mutual, healthy rivalries to 

compete for development. 

While I advocate a return to the 

1963 Constitution, however, I 

recommend we introduce six 

regions, as against four, to operate 

a regional parliamentary 

government, not presidential 

government. 

The proposed six regions are 

North Central, Northwest, 

Northeast, South South, South 

West and South East. Without a 

doubt, a return to the 1963 

Constitution, which better factored 

the diversities in religion, 

language and ethnicity, will 

engender far greater developments 

in Nigeria, including curbing 

insecurity and restoring the 

education system of the nation to 

its former glory. 

Lekki Toll Plaza episode and the US report 

By SAMUEL OMOJOYE 

WITH the United States (U.S.) 

Department of States report 

stating that there is no verifiable 

evidence on the reported killings of 

#EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate 

on October 20, last year, many 

questions arise on the actions that 

followed what was unjustifiably described 

as a massacre. 

In its “2020 Country Reports on 

Human Rights Practices: Nigeria”, the 

State Department stated that accurate 

information on fatalities resulting from 

the shooting was not available. 

According to the report, the 

#EndSARS protesters were allowed to 

proceed unimpeded in most places. 

Those charged with “conduct likely to 

cause a breach of public peace” were 

released within days of their arrest. 

Though a few human rights activists, 

as usual, have come out to condemn 

the said report, claiming it did not represent 

what actually transpired during 

the Lekki protest, they have failed to 

give any evidence to support their wild 

assertion of a massacre. 

Was the massacre claim made to 

ensure the destruction of Lagos, with its 

prime assets as targets? What were the 

purveyors of the fake news targeting? 

Who are their sponsors and enablers? 

Why would they want to destroy the 

unity that Lagosians so much cherish? 

Hatched by enemies government 

This writer has always been of the 

view that the so-called Lekki ‘massacre’ 

was carefully hatched by enemies of 

the government just to give it a bad 

name and unduly overheat the polity. 

A massacre? Could there have been a 

massacre without blood and bodies? 

Would morgues not have been filled 

with bodies? Would parents and relations 

of supposedly massacred victims 

not come have out to give their identities? 

Now that the United States, which 

can be considered as an impartial actor 

in the episode, has come out with a 

report refuting any claim of a massacre, 

one would have expected those with 

contrary views to actually come out with 

empirical facts to buttress their claim. 

Sadly, in their characteristic fashion, 

they have failed to apologize publicly 

for their indiscretion or deliberate mischief. 

If the United States’ report had 

come out with findings that endorse 

their unproven claim, they would have 

termed it as credible. But now that it 

disagrees with their spurious stance, it 

is nothing but a concoction. Such has 

always been the stock-in-trade of our 

so-called human rights activists, 

many of who are mere creations of the 

media. Every contrary view to theirs is 

always wrong because they erroneously 

believe that they have the monopoly of 

knowledge. Besides, playing to the 

gallery is part of their tactics. 

The role of misinformation in the 

Lekki Toll plaza incident cannot be 

over-emphasized. After the incident, 

in the dead of the night, Lagos State 

Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, 

visited some medical facilities around 

the area to see things for himself. 

Earlier, the army had tweeted “fake 

news” when the social media was 

awash with videos of soldiers in an armoured 

tank, shooting sporadically in 

a direction and scores of videos of bodies 

with body parts littering the ground 

had been spread as victims of the fake 

“massacre.” 

A certain DJ Switch released several 

videos, on LIVE, in which she claimed 

that soldiers were killing protesters and 

that many people had died and they 

were trying to remove a bullet from a 

victim’s leg. She was relaying these 

events, but not showing any footage of 

the most important videos (of dead 

bodies), soldiers shooting at people, 

blood on the ground, the process/procedure 

when the bullet was removed 

and when soldiers were carrying the 

bodies among others. 

Her second video showed her talking 

to a friend and, all of a sudden, she 

started running and asking imaginary 

people to bend down and hold their 

flags. Her friend then said “daaaamn”, 

after which he covered his face as if he 

had just witnessed something 

gruesome. That, no doubt, was mere 

acting and a bad one at that. DJ Switch 

gave an impression that the army or 

police were still shooting protesters at 

Lekki even in the morning. 

Then she did another video where she 

apologized for not being online for some 

time. She then proceeded to reminisce 

about the night and, at that point, she 

started to address the issue of numbers. 

It was then the death toll of over 80 

suddenly reduced to 12. She also 

claimed that the DJ Switch account 

which posted over 80 deaths was a fake 

account and not hers. Experts have 

analysed that her behaviour was not 

commensurate with that of a victim of 

trauma and her description of how she 

carried and deposited bodies at the feet 

of soldiers defies logic. Soldiers opening 

fire and you taking bodies to them 

seem a drama taken too far; it is highly 

unlikely. 

Pictures that were touted as victims 

of the Lekki massacre turned out to be 

those of people who had died in 

separate circumstances - one from a 

bike accident and the other a stab 

wound victim. Those found in the 

hospitals who got injured from Lekki 

were as a result of stampede, and the 

injuries ranged from broken bones, cuts, 

bruises and slash wounds. No record of 

death as a result of gunshot wounds, 

but the social media was awash with 

people in hospital, who claimed that 

they were shot by soldiers at the toll 

plaza. 

The judicial panel of inquiry 

instituted by the Lagos State 

Government to investigate the episode 

has continued to encourage those with 

concrete evidence on the Lekki incident 

to come up with such. Among all such 

judicial inquiries put in place by state 

governments across the federation over 

the #EndSARS protest, the Lagos 

panel, in particular, had proved 

promising. In all honesty, the set-up inspires 

confidence and proceedings have 

never lacked transparency. In fact, the 

sittings are televised live. 

Bent on polluting the polity 

As for those bent on spreading lies to 

further pollute the polity, they must 

realize that our nation has just endured 

As for those bent 

on spreading lies 

to further pollute 

the polity, they 

must realize that 

our nation has just 

endured a very 

tough 2020 

a very tough 2020; one whose uncertainties 

still cloud our socio-economic 

structure. The strain and heavy burden 

that the COVID-19 pandemic as well 

as the avoidable destruction that 

climaxed the #ENDSARS protest have 

inflicted on our society will take years 

to lighten. For instance, in Lagos alone, 

analysts put the estimated economic 

loss during the 12 days dissent at N700 

billion, connoting a loss of N58 billion 

daily. This loss was also accompanied 

by looting, vandalism and arson at 

several shopping malls, public 

facilities, police stations and private facilities 

As Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 

wrote, “No man consciously chooses 

evil because it is evil; he only mistakes 

it for the happiness that he seeks’’. Such 

temptation to devour the society and 

interrupt the process of healing is destructive. 

We will only be spinning on a 

wheel that just goes around and around, 

eventually leading to the same problems 

over and over again. 

Let it be acknowledged that there is 

no magic formula that will resolve our 

grievances. But to tame the storm of 

our reality and reduce the intensity of 

conflict, a social contract must be 

forged between citizens and the government. 

It is to recognize that there 

are no differences that cannot be solved 

through dialogue, negotiation and conflict 

resolution or that are worth the 

damage created by the assumption of 

injustice. It is to engage in open, honest, 

collaborative effort and elicit heartfelt 

communications that invite truth and 

reconciliation. 

*Omojoye wrote in from Palmgrove, 

Lagos.

Continues from Page 5 

by law to give it legal 

teeth in its operations. 

Governor Ikpeazu, who 

spoke in an interview on 

Arise Television 

yesterday, said some state 

Houses of Assembly in the 

South-East had already 

done the needful with 

regards to giving the new 

security outfit the required 

legal backing, adding that 

those that had not done 

so are in the process of 

doing same. 

"This is the right time to 

do the needful to protect 

our people. We won’t 

allow non-state actors to 

continue to terrorise the 

people. The security of 

the people is the priority 

of South-East governors. 

Therefore, no effort will be 

spared to protect them, 

and also to make the 

South-East safe for 

investment," the governor 

said. 

Governor Ikpeazu, who 

refused to be drawn into 

how much his 

government is investing 

in the security project, 

said it is a security matter 

that shouldn’t be for 

public consumption. 

On the Indigenous 

People of Biafra, IPOB, he 

noted that there is no 

denying the fact that 

there is much injustice in 

the country, which the 

group is reacting to, but 

disagreed with the 

method it had adopted to 

respond to it. 

He urged the Federal 

Government to urgently 

address the injustices 

driving IPOB's 

secessionist’s agitation. 

"I do not subscribe to the 

strategy of IPOB because 

I’m yet to see the tunnel 

from where I am 

standing," the governor 

said. 

It will also be recalled 

that the South East 

governors were accused 

of embarking on mere talk 

shop at the meeting to 

announce formation of the 

outfit, saying the new 

outfit had no legal 

backing. 

Uwazuruike backs 

EbubeAgu 

Similarly, Chief Ralph 

Uwazuruike, founder of 

the Movement for the 

Naira depreciates to N411/ 

$ in I&E window 


The naira yesterday depreciated to N411 per dollar 

in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window. 

Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative 

exchange rate for the naira rose to N411 from 

N409.75 kobo per dollar on Monday, translating to 

N1.25 kobo depreciation for the naira. 

The volume of dollars (turnover) traded in the 

window yesterday rose by 18 percent to $53.53 

million from $ 45.35 million on Monday. 

vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguardnews 

S-East govs, IPOB on collision 

course over Ebube Agu 

Actualisation of Sovereign 

State of Biafra, MASSOB, 

also yesterday, threw his 

weights behind 

EbubeAgu, saying the 

Eastern Security 

Network, ESN, launched 

by the proscribed 

Indigenous People of 

Biafra, IPOB, remains a 

“social media network” 

that does not have any 

form of recognition. 

Speaking when he 

featured on ‘Your View’, 

a programme on 

Television Continental, 

TVC, Uwazuruike said 

only South-East 

governors have powers to 

establish a security outfit 

for the region. 

The MASSOB leader 

said ESN is an internet 

outfit that has no legal 

backing for its 

establishment, adding 

that no individual has the 

right to establish a security 

outfit for the region. 

He said: "There is 

nothing like Eastern 

Security Network. 

Nobody believes in ESN; 

that was just an internet 

affair — social media 

network. They did that on 

the social media. Nobody 

recognises ESN. I do not 

recognise ESN, 

personally; because 

nobody has the right to 

provide security for me 

when it is not legal; when 

it is not with the force of 

the law.” 

“You do not have more 

security than Ralph 

Uwazuruike as an 

individual in the South- 

East. I’m willing to 

donate 5,000 men and 

women to the South-East 

governors to work with 

them without 

interference.” 

Uwazuruike said 

EbubeAgu is the 

recognised security outfit 

for the region because it 

was established by the 

South-East governors. 

"No individual, no 

matter what you are, 

without consultation 

should establish a security 

outfit for the South-East 

region. It doesn’t happen. 

It is only EbubeAgu, 

established by the South- 

East governors that is 

recognised as a security 

outfit for the region. It is 

only the South-East 

governors that have the 

authority to establish a 

security outfit for the 

South-East. No individual 

has the right to establish 

any security outfit for the 

region," he said. 

CSOs back 

regional security 

outfits 

Meanwhile, Civil 

Society Organisations, 

CSOs, yesterday backed 

the establishment of 

regional security 

networks across Nigeria to 

provide cover for 

defenseless Nigerians. 

They,however, 

cautioned governors not 

to use regional security 

corps to oppress 

perceived enemies and 

gag voice of citizens that 

will lead to abuse in 

operations, but should 

allow them operate within 

the scope of the Act 

establishing them for 

professionalism and 

effective service to the 

people. 

The Founder of One 

Love Foundation, OLF, 

and social crusader, 

Patriot Patrick Eholor, said 

what is happening in the 

country in terms of 

security is failure of the 

Federal Government to 

holistically tackle 

insecurity and 

politicization of the 

machinery and 

architecture of the 

military. 

He said: “Of course, you 

were in this country when 

a retired general and 

minister of defence told 

the world on National TV 

that a certain tribe is 

playing god and has 

politicized the military. 

“The creation of these 

outfits is as a result of this 

failure and loss of trust 

and confidence at the 

centre. It is unfortunate 

that we have found 

ourselves in this state of 

helplessness and 

division. Security is local. 

The people can easily 

defend their territory 

when fully supported and 

trained." 

Also, Convener, 

Coalition in Defence of 

Nigerian Democracy and 

Constitution, CDNDC, 

Ariyo-Dare Atoye, said 

though the South-East 

was coming a bit late into 

the era of regional 

security outfits, it was 

better late than never. 

“I hope the South-East 

governors have learned 

some bitter lessons that 

you do not do political 

correctness with the 

security and welfare of the 

people, which is the 

primary duty of 

government.” 

Also yesterday, 

convener, Concerned 

Nigerians, CN, Comrade 

Deji Adeyanju, said the 

creation of the South-West 

and South-East security 

networks is an indictment 

on the Federal 

Government because 


NEWS HOTLINES 

018773962, 

08052867058 

NAF, ITF SIGN MoU —Representative of the Chief of the Air Staff, AVM 

Olusegun Philip (R), exchanging signed Memorandum of Understanding 

between NAF and Industrial Training Fund with Director General ITF, Sir 

Joseph Are (L) in Abuja, yesterday. With them are: Director, Research and 

Development, Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Air Commodore Abubakar Suleh 

(2nd L) and ITF Corporate Office Manager, Aminu Mohammed (2nd R). 

Nigeria runs a federal 

system, comprising the 

government at the centre 

and federating units. 

He said: "So, there has 

been debate for true 

federalism over the years 

with the centre refusing or 

resisting these calls, and 

we can see that the centre 

is failing, and it is run in 

such a way that there is 

Boko Haram operating in 

the North-East, banditry 

in the North-West, 

terrorist gangs operating 

in North-Central and 

there are fringes of 

insecurity all over the 

southern zones. 

‘’The government at the 

centre is overwhelmed 

and that is why the states 

that are federating units 

are beginning to tactically 

restructure themselves.” 

In his submission, 

Executive Director, Civil 

Society Legislative 

Advocacy Centre, 

CISLAC, Auwal Musa 

Rafsanjani, said rising 

insecurity in the country 

is worrisome, adding this 

necessitated the 

proliferation of non-state 

security actors to fill the 

gaps in security delivery 

where the state has not 

provided (security) or 

operated with low 

strength. 

“For Nigeria, it is mostly 

driven by the weak state 

syndrome and 

governance failure. The 

failure continues to affect 

the performance and 

management of state 

security institutions. 

“The continuous growth 

of ungoverned spaces, 

mostly rural areas and 

township slums, has led 

state governments, street 

associations, local and 

rural communities, 

individuals, and others to 

establish and fund their 

own security," he said. 

Doctors’ strike: Reps summon Finance 

Minister, as Gbajabiamila visits hospitals 

By Tordue Salem, 

Abuja 

ABUJA — The 

leadership of the 

House 

of 

Representatives will 

next week invite the 

Minister of Finance, 

Budget and National 

Planning, Zainab 

Ahmed, over the 

industrial action by 

resident doctors. 

Speaker of the House, 

Femi Gbajabiamila, who 

announced this 

yesterday, said the 

meeting would be over 

how to ensure execution 

of the Memorandum of 

Action, MoA, entered 

into between the 

government and 

National Association of 

Resident Doctors, 

NARD. 

According to a 

statement by his Special 

Adviser on Media and 

Publicity Mr. Lanre 

Lasisi, the speaker, 

while meeting with the 

executives of NARD, led 

by the President, 

Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, 

at the association’s 

secretariat in Abuja, 

assured that the House 

will reach an amicable 

and acceptable 

resolution of the 

contentious hazard 

allowance issue as well 

as other pressing issues. 

Recall that the resident 

doctors suspended the 

industrial action that 

began on April 1, 2021, 

after 10 days of its 

commencement. 

The speaker noted that 

though it was impossible 

to accommodate the 

hazard allowance in the 

2021 national budget, 

the House will work to 

ensure it was included in 

the supplementary 

budget. 

While commending the 

doctors for suspending 

the strike at the request 

of the House, the 

speaker said: "Even the 

constitution talks about 

essential services, but 

there’s nothing as 

essential a service than 

that which seeks to save 

and protect lives.” 

Noting that the House 

believed that “the 

labourer must earn his 

wages,” Gbajabiamila 

said: “We’ll monitor 

issues being processed, 

the IPPIS, training fund, 

hazard allowances 

which the House 

championed at the peak 

of the COVID-19 crisis. 

“All the issues will be 

addressed. We’re 

looking to come to a 

reasonable and 

acceptable hazard 

allowance as well as the 

training fund, which 

when the supplementary 

budget is introduced, we 

hope and expect to 

justify why this should 

be accommodated 

“We will do everything 

we need to do to see how 

we can capture that. We 

are inviting the Finance 

Minister next week so 

that we can talk and see 

how, as best as we can, 

accommodate all these 

issues and cement the 

Memorandum of 

Action.’’ 

On why the leadership 

of the House had to visit 

the NARD secretariat for 

the meeting, the speaker 

said it was to appreciate 

the respect and 

understanding the 

association had shown 

him and the House to 

suspend the strike to 

allow for the resolution of 

the issues. 

He said: “The decision 

to visit you is a clear 

message that we are 

with you because the role 

of doctors cannot be 

understated and to thank 

you for calling off the 

strike because of what 

we have done. 

“We are here to 

encourage and thank you 

for calling off the strike 

and give you assurances 

that the House will be 

there with you, talking 

with the executive on 

what needs to be done”.


Sighs, hisses as Edo 

2020 sports festival ends 

Stories By Ben 

The stage is set for the final 

show of the 20th National 

Sports Festival tagged ‘Edo 

202O’ at the Samuel Ogbemudia 

Stadium, today in Benin City. 

Though participating athletes 

and officials are relieved the events 

came to an end, they cannot forget 

the tragic and comic drama that 

dogged Edo 2020. 

“There’s been too much 

controversy, the urge to win at all 

cost was just too brazen,” sighed 

former Delta State sports 

commissioner and Athletics 

federation of Nigeria president, 

Solomon Ogba. 

Vice president Yemi Osinbajo, is 

expected to declare the games 

closed after a variety of 

entertainment and speeches by 

host governor Godwin Obaseki, 

deputy governor Philip Shaibu 

who is LOC chairman and Sports 

Minister Sunday Dare. 

‘Edo 2020’ was scheduled for 

March 2020, but it suffered 

several postponements due to 

covid-19 precautions. But when 

the games finally came on stream 

on April 2 with almost all the states 

With only a few hours left for the 

National Sports Festival to close, 

the hosts Edo State are yet 

receive the N500m grant 

promised by the federal 

government. 

Edo 2020 local organizing 

committee headed by the Deputy 

governor, Philip Shaibu had 

threatened to shut down the 

games midway, because 

resources to run the NSF dried 

of federation participating, 

intrigues of many sorts came to 

play. The hosts threatened to shut 

down the Festival, because the 

sports ministry failed to carry 

them along with regards to funds 

promised by the Federal 

government to assist Edo. 

There was also bitter contest for 

medals to the extent an Edo 

Edo still waiting for N500m grant 

Enyimba of Aba captain, 

Austin Oladapo remains 

confident that his side will qualify 

for the semi-final of the 2020-2021 

CAF Confederation Cup. 

Enyimba’s hope of reaching the 

last four of the competition is 

hanging on a thread following 3-0 

defeat to ES Setif of Algeria at the 

May 8 Stadium on Sunday. 

Although the defeat was not 

up. 

But after a long meeting between 

the Sports Ministry and Edo 

officials, it was resolved that the 

games continue with a firm 

promise the FG funds will be 

released. 

But as at yesterday, there was 

nothing forthcoming. 

“The funds will eventually be 

released, but for now they are tied 

down by procedures,” said an aide 

to the sports minister. 

We’ve to get result in Libya 

—Enyimba captain 

enough to take Aba Elephants 

away from the second position on 

the log, they are condemned to pick 

a point in the next game against 

Ahli Benghazi in Libya to remain 

in the position. 

Speaking to brila.net, Oladapo 

who was short of word after the 

collapse in Algeria said they have 

to pick themselves up quickly and 

keep believing. 

The inspirational captain insisted 

that their ambition was to make it 

Oladapo 

out of the group and he was 

confident they would achieve their 

target. 

“What happened in Algeria was 

just football, we gave our best, but 

it wasn’t enough to earn us the 

point we wanted,” he said. 

“We are frustrated, but we have to 

keep believing in ourselves because 

the qualification is still in our 

hands, so we have to go to Libya 

and do the needful” 

“It’s a difficult place to go and get 

a win, but everything is possible 

with the right motivation and 

mindset” he concluded. 

Troussier applies for Bafana job 

French coach Philippe 

Troussier has put his hands 

up for the vacant Bafana Bafana 

job. 

The representatives of the 

Frenchman have opened talks 

with the South African Football 

Association. 

Bafana have been without a 

coach since unceremoniously 

parting ways with Molefi Ntseki 

at the end of March, following the 

country’s failure to qualify for the 

Africa Cup of Nations. 

Since then, several names have 

been thrown into the hat to take 

over the national team hot seat, 

among them Pitso Mosimane, 

Benni McCarthy, and Carlos 

Queiroz who was identified as 

SAFA’s first-choice candidate. 

kickboxing coach attacked his 

Delta State colleague because a 

Delta athlete had won the gold. 

The Delta coach almost lost his 

left eye due to the impact of the 

vicious blow he received 

unexpectedly. The Edo coach has 

been handed a five-year ban by the 

NSF Main Organizing 

Committee. 

As the excitement of the 

National Sports festival Edo 

2020 gets to a crescendo, Minister 

of Youth and sports Development 

Chief Sunday Dare has reiterated 

the need for higher standards and 

Outrage as AFN cancels 

marathon event 

Athletes for the National Sports 

Festival marathon event were 

left seething yesterday, with the 

information that they would no 

longer run. 

The marathon was scheduled for 

today the closing day, but it was 

gathered that the event will not 

Club owners of the Nigeria 

Women Football League 

have agreed to take part in the 

Super 6 Tournament proposed by 

the NWFL Board to end the season 

and select Nigeria’s 

representatives at the upcoming 

maiden edition of the CAF 

Women’s Champions League in 

Morocco next month. 

At a virtual meeting of the club 

owners held on Tuesday, 13th 

April, and presided over by the 

President of NFF and FIFA 

Council Member, Mr Amaju 

Melvin Pinnick, and which was 

Edo2020: Sportsmanship must 

always prevail – Dare 

the importance of winning in the 

spirit of sportsmanship. 

In his words, “We have seen a lot 

of talents on display in the last 10 

days in various events, including 

Wrestling which is one of our best 

medal hope at the Olympics. I 

have seen a lot of athletes with 

Dare 

FORMER Premier League 

referee Howard Webb has 

married his long-term girlfriend 

Bibiana Steinhaus. 

The 49-year-old split with his exwife 

Kay back in 2016, but found 

love again in German ref Bibiana. 

After years of dating, Webb and 

Steinhaus tied the knot in secret 

during last month’s international 

break. 

For now, however, the couple 

maintain a long-distance 

relationship - with Webb living in 

New York, while Steinhaus still 

works as a VAR official in 

Germany. 

Having wed Webb, Steinhaus 

recently told Bild: “Yes, it’s true. 

“We got married during the last 

international break and are very 

happy. 

Unfortunately, due to the Corona 

regulation, Howard and I could 

only take this important step as a 

pair. Not even witnesses were 

allowed. 

“Of course there was no 

honeymoon either.” 

She also revealed that, come her 

great future in wrestling and I am 

excited with what I have seen in 

all the centers I have visited since 

I arrived Benin” 

The Minister charged the 

Athletes to remain disciplined and 

focused. 

“I have seen some athletes win, I 

have seen others lose , but the spirit 

of sportsmanship remains. The 

future is very bright for our young 

athletes, hence they should remain 

focused” 

The Minister has made a daily 

routine of moving from venues to 

venues to encourage the athletes. 

hold and no 

explanation 

has been 

given to the 

athletes. 

“It’s so 

annoying. 

Some of us 

deliberately 

did not run 

in the 

Access 

Bank Lagos 

Marathon 

just because 

of the Edo 

2020,” said 

one of the 

affected athletes. 

Efforts to reach the AFN president 

and secretary general proved 

abortive. But it was gathered that 

the AFN and sports ministry said 

there are no funds to cover the 

event. 

But Edo 2020 LOC said that they 

have the logistics to run the race. 

NWFL, club owners agree to Super 

6 tournament 

next match, viewers would be 

seeing a different name on screen: 

“As of now, Ms. Steinhaus-Webb is 

sitting in the Video-Assist-Center 

in Cologne.” 

Marathon athlets 

FC Midtjylland director Claus 

Steinlein is expecting Racing 

Genk to sell their top scorer Paul 

Onuachu in the summer transfer 

window. 

Most European clubs have been 

dealt a huge financial blow in the 

wake of the coronavirus pandemic 

and with that in mind Steinlein 

explained that the big clubs have 

to make new signings that could 

create a domino effect in the 

transfer market. 

The current Danish champions 

are believed to be in the market 

for new midfielders when the 

window opens, with Frank 

Onyeka, Evander and Jens-Lys 

Cajuste attracting interest from 

other clubs. 

“If Paul Onuachu is sold for 250- 

300 million (€34m - €40m), then 

also graced by the NFF 1st Vice 

President, Barr. Seyi Akinwunmi 

and General Secretary, Dr 

Mohammed Sanusi, the club 

owners said they would defer to 

the NFF chieftains and attend the 

tournament. Also present was 

Amina Sani Zangon Daura, NFF’s 

Head of Women Football. 

“I want you all to know that this 

is about our dear country Nigeria. 

It is not about a club, or even the 

NWFL or whatever issues might 

be on the front burner. It is about 

Nigeria which is bigger than all 

of us. I plead that you attend the 

competition because it is the right 

thing to do. Given the position of 

Nigeria in women’s football in the 

African continent, we must put our 

best foot forward with regards to 

this competition. We must send the 

very best and that must be 

determined by current form. 

“I have noted all the issues you 

have raised and I promise that I 

will sit down with the Board and 

Management of the Nigeria 

Women Football League and find 

a way to cogitate on the issues and 

pragmatically resolve them.” 

Chairman of the NWFL Board, 

Aisha Falode said it was important 

to stage the Super 6 in order for 

Nigeria to present her very best at 

the maiden edition of the 

competition. 

Webb marries fellow ref Bibiana in secret 

Webb refereed in the Premier 

League between 2003 and 2014, 

rising up the ranks to become one 

of the most revered officials in the 

game. 

Genk to sell Onuachu for €40m 

Aisha 

Genk will have to buy a new 

player, and then they might buy 

one for 50 (€6.7m). So that is 

whether those dominoes will be 

launched. 

Team Nasarawa 

clinches 4th gold 

medal at Edo Sports 

Festival. 

Mamman Tularam scoops 

the gold medal in the 

men’s 130kg Wrestling events, 

bringing the total number of 

medals so far won by Team 

Nasarawa to nineteen(19) - Four 

Gold, Three Silver and Twelve 

Bronze medals, after Day Eleven 

of the Festival.


C 

M 

Y 

K 



Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021 

TODAY’S CROSSWORD 

QUICK CROSSWORD 

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION 

TODAY’S PUZZLE 

Sudoku 

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER 

ACROSS 

1 Quarter of a pint (4) 

3 London rail terminus (8) 

9 Labour (7) 

10 Quibble (5) 

11 Sandy common (5) 

12 Systematic procedure (6) 

14 Quarrelsome (13) 

17 Altitude (6) 

19 Concise, pithy (5) 

22 Criminal organisation (5) 

23 Pariah (7) 

24 Award for selling many records (4,4) 

25 Among (4) 

DOWN 

1 Make progress (3,5) 

2 Long-necked woolly animal (5) 

4 Lights (13) 

5 Implicitly understood (5) 

6 Pasta dish (7) 

7 Proficient (4) 

8 A depth of six feet (6) 

13 Beaten (8) 

15 Joyous (7) 

16 Shrewd (6) 

18 Stately, splendid (5) 

20 Domain (5) 

21 Self-satisfied (4) 

How to Play Sudoku 

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

two of the same number). 

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

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

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

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

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

multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination. 

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

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