21042021

26 

Need for a review 

of justice system – 

tribute to Justice 

Bode Rhodes-Vivour, 

JSC (rtd) 

FG fumes as UK offers asylum to 

IPOB, MASSOB members 

Mother in police custody for 

locking up, starving daughter 

for 10 years in Kano 6 

JUSUN, PASAN walk out of 

parley with Ngige, others 

Manufacturing sector contracts further by 4.7 points —CBN 

13 

9 

19 

VOL. 27: NO. 64318 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 

Agitators for secession can't 

bully Buhari — PRESIDENCY 

•Says no need for any National Confab•’No criminal or terrorist is bigger than Nigeria•Agitation for 

separation never this loud in previous administrations, PFN tells Presidency•Secessionist groups 

only asking Buhari to change his ways of governance — MBF•Change tactics, Ohanaeze tells 

Presidency•History won’t be kind to present govt, if.... — CAN 

Take COVID-19 

vaccine, scientists 

tell Nigerians 

7 

FUEL SCARCITY IN ABUJA... 

5 

Motorists join long queues at the few fuel stations where products were being dispensed as fresh scarcity 

of petroleum products hit the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida. 

George Floyd's killer, Derek Chauvin convicted of murder 25 

•Late President Idriss Deby 

Chadian 

president, Idriss 

Deby dies on 

25 

frontline, son 

named interim 

leader by Army 

•Mahamat Deby 

No timeline for full deregulation yet 

— NNPC BOSS, KYARI 

9 

COLUMNISTS OCHEREOME16 FASAN 17 DEAR BUNMI 26 

Mr & Mrs

C 

M 

Y 

K 

2 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021

C 

M 

Y 

K 

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 — 3

C 

M 

Y 

K 

4 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021

vanguardnews 

@vanguardnews 

@vanguardnews 

NEWS HOTLINES 

018773962, 

08052867058 

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 — 5 

POCKET CARTOON 

COURTESY VISIT—NYSC Director-General, Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim 

(R) presenting a souvenir to the Chairman, Ned Nwoko Foundation, Prince 

Ned Nwoko, during the latter’s visit to the NYSC National Directorate 

headquarters in Abuja yesterday. PHOTO: NAN. 

Agitators for secession 

can't bully Buhari —PRESIDENCY 

•Says, no need for any National Confab•’No criminal or 

terrorist is bigger than Nigeria’•Agitation for separation 

never this loud in previous administrations, PFN tells 

Presidency•Secessionist groups only asking Buhari to 

change his ways of governance – MBF•Change tactics, 

Ohanaeze tells Presidency•History won’t be kind to present 

govt, if.... - CAN 

By Anayo Okoli, Ola Ajayi, Peter Duru, 

Omeiza Ajayi & Luminous Jannamike 

ABUJA — The 

Presidency 

yesterday 

reacted to the growing 

wave of secessionist 

agitations in some parts 

of the country, stating 

that President 

Muhammadu Buhari 

can neither be 

intimidated nor bullied 

into giving in to the 

threats of such agitators. 

But the Pentecostal 

Fellowship of Nigeria, 

PFN, in a swift reaction, 

said continued separatist 

agitations by various 

ethnic groups under 

Buhari’s administration 

had never been this 

loud, compared with 

previous administrations 

that had governed the 

country. 

Similarly, the Middle 

Belt Forum said 

secessionist agitations in 

the country were not 

intended to bully or 

intimidate President 

Muhammadu Buhari, 

but to ask him to change 

his ways and style of 

governance in order to 

keep the country united. 

However, describing 

the secessionists as 

mercantile agents who 

were only out for 

pecuniary gains, the 

Presidency said 

President Buhari will not 

open the vaults to share 

free money to anyone. 

Senior Special 

Assistant to the 

President on Media and 

Publicity, Mallam Garba 

Shehu, stated 

government’s position 

yesterday in Abuja while 

giving a scorecard of the 

Buhari administration at 

an event organised by 

the All Progressives 

Congress, APC, 

Professional Forum at 

the national secretariat 

of the party. 

He also dismissed 

calls for the convocation 

of a national conference, 

saying with an elected 

parliament in place, 

having such a conference 

was a non-issue. 

Shehu added that the 

Boko Haram terrorists 

are currently fighting 

for survival as the 

Federal Government 

had cut their supply 

chain. 

‘You can't 

intimidate 

Buhari’ 

“On the unity of this 

country and the calls for 

secession and the 

insinuation that the 

Presidency is not 

talking, the Presidency 

has been talking. And 

our position is that this 

country is one, is united, 

and by the grace of God 

will continue to be 

united. 

“Look, one thing with 

this President and the 

National Secretary of the 

party has said a bit of 

that, you cannot 

intimidate Buhari; you 

cannot bully him. A lot 

of these people who are 

calling for secession are 

the problem of this 

country and I am happy 

that reasonable opinion, 

reasonable voices are 

now rising. Is it not only 

yesterday we were 

reading Afenifere, the 

most credible faction of 

Afenifere saying they 

were not for secession? 

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo 

has said this over and 

over again. So this thing 

about secession is, they 

had used it in the past. 

You create secession and 

break up Nigeria and 

then you intimidate the 

sitting leader and then 

he opens the vaults and 

brings money to settle 

people. 

“President Buhari will 

pay no one. He is not 

going to pay and and 

now, it is clear that 

having ignored all of 

that, reasonable 

opinions are coming 

from those states and 

from those regions. 

“Now, the thing about 

the South-East is part of 

the earlier conversation 

we just had now. 

Criminals are fighting to 

gain the upper hand but 

I tell you that no 

criminal or terrorist is 

bigger than this 

country. None of them 

is mightier than our 

armed forces. 

“This structure has 

been there. They were 

certificated and praised 

for World War One, World 

War Two, they stabilized 

the entire West Africa 

region. Without Nigeria, 

would there be Liberia in 

its present form? Would 

there be Sierra Leone in 

its present form, even 

Gambia? So just give it 

time and support and 

pray, we will win against 

these forces. 

“The governors in the 

South-West, we have all 

heard them, they have 

denounced all of these 

things. So, it is a sham, 

Nigerians want to be 

one, they want to 

continue. Yes, there are 

problems and we are 

hoping that as people 

united and loving of one 

another, we will come 

together and solve our 

problems and that leads 

me to the next question, 

whether there should be 

national conference? 

‘No need for 

Continues on Page 27 

By Victoria Adibeli 

On expectations from acting Police IG 

My expectation of him 

is high though I have 

learnt not to expect too much 

from any political office 

holder. I expect him to first of 

all organise conferences that 

will enlighten the citizens and 

then establish a police-citizen 

relationship. I am not 

expecting him to make 

Nigeria corruption-free but 

there’s no harm in doing 

something about it and 

creating an atmosphere of 

peace. 

—Olawale Olalekan, 

Student 

The new IGP is a man 

that has served in 

different states and 

positions. He rose in the 

Force through hard work 

and diligence. I expect 

that since he has done 

well previously which 

earned him his 

promotion, I believe he 

will live up to 

expectation and do all it 

takes to move the country 

forward. 

—Okoye Ijeoma, 

Communicator 

Iexpect the new IGP to 

be the bridge between 

the police and the people. 

Right now, the Police 

have lost respect among 

the citizens. I expect him 

to be able to redeem their 

image and restore their 

former glory. So much has 

happened because the 

people have lost faith in 

the police who are 

supposed to be protecting 

them hence I expect him 

to correct that. 

—Blessing Adibeli , 

Nurse 

Since IGP Baba 

Usman did well in 

his previous 

assignments, I expect 

him to work even more 

towards curbing 

insecurity to achieve 

peace and to make 

sure the citizens have a 

safe place to dwell in. 

The country is our own 

and Nigeria and 

Nigerians need peace. 

—Sotonwa Olanike, 

Self-employed 

He has a great 

responsibility 

ahead of him because of 

the insecurity in Nigeria. 

He should try to boost 

the morale of police 

officers and equip them 

adequately with relevant 

trainings and arms to 

deal with insecurity in 

the land. I believe 

Nigeria police still have 

the capacity to deal with 

these crimes and 

criminals. 

—Christian Izu, 

Content writer 

T 

he new acting IGP has 

a great job ahead. The 

Police Force needs 

reformation to restore public 

confidence in the police. This 

means that the police will be 

made to respond as quickly 

as possible to emergencies 

and not to use their power to 

oppress citizens in any form. 

I love his recent activities 

which discourages the 

inefficiency of certain arms 

of the police. It’s the dawn of 

a new era. 

—Olaoluwa Joshua, 

Student

6— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 

Again, petrol 

tanker explodes 

in Agatu, houses 

razed 

By Peter Duru 

MAKURDI—A petrol laden 

tanker, yesterday, 

exploded some metres away from 

the site of Sunday’s explosion at 

Oshigbudu in Agatu Local 

Government Area of Benue State 

that claimed 12 lives and razed 

about 100 houses, cars and 

motorcycles. 

Though no casualty was lost 

in yesterday’s incident, several 

houses were reportedly 

destroyed in the explosion. 

The Agatu Council Secretary, 

Sunday Oteyi and an indigene 

of Oshigbudu, who confirmed 

the accident, said a major disaster 

was averted when residents fled 

the area shortly before the 

explosion occurred at about 4 am 

some metres from where the 

earlier explosion took place. 

The secretary added that the 

conductor of the tanker was 

arrested and handed over to the 

police while the driver escaped 

from the scene. 

Confirming the development, 

Benue State Sector Commander 

of Federal Road Safety Corps, 

FRSC, Mr Yakubu Mohammed, 

said: “Yes, a tanker lost control 

and crashed where it burnt 

buildings near Oshigbudu in the 

early hours of today (Tuesday). 

“Our personnel have rescued 

the two persons involved, no life 

was lost and no injury recorded. 

The obstruction has been cleared 

and motorists have been moving 

freely now.” 

Undergrad, boyfriend nabbed for selling 

drugged cookies to school children, others 

By Evelyn Usman •We sell each pack for N1,500 —Suspect 

A 

300-level university 

student, Rhoda Agboje, 

has been arrested by 

operatives of National Drug 

Law Enforcement Agency, 

NDLEA, for allegedly selling 

cookies laced with a drug to 

secondary school students and 

unsuspecting members of the 

public in Abuja, the Federal 

Capital Territory. 

Arrested alongside the 

undergraduate was her 

boyfriend, Ifeayin Nwankwo, 

while the anti-narcotic agency 

operatives are still on the trail 

of other members of the 

syndicate. 

The syndicate, as gathered, 

produced the cookies with a 

highly psychoactive variant of 

cannabis known as Arizona, in 

addition to alcohol and 

Rohypnol, among other 

ingredients. 

Their lid, according to the 

NDLEA Director, Media and 

Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, was 

blown open following the 

arrest of Rhoda Agboje with 

four pieces of the drug cookies 

on April 18, 2021. 

He said: “She was arrested 

at the NNPC Cooperative 

Estate, opposite Gaduwa 

Estate in Abuja, based on a 

complaint that she gave an 

unsuspecting young girl the 

cookies to eat. After eating the 

drugged cookies, the girl lost 

her mind and could not sleep, 

making incoherent utterances 

due to the effects of the 

cookies. 

The suspects: Rhoda Agboje 

(ABOVE) and Ifeayin Nwankwo 

(BELOW). 

How house-help masterminded death of 

58-yr-old woman in Calabar 

•I was promised N500,000 to drive her 

car—Suspect 

Suspected killers Mr Doris Inyang(from right) Eteng 

Omini, 19 and Godwin Nyenime,18. 

By Ike Uchechukwu 

C suspected ALABAR—SOME 

killers of a 58- 

year-old woman, who was 

allegedly murdered by four 

suspects with the assistance of 

her house help in Calabar, 

were yesterday, paraded 

alongside 28 others suspected 

criminals by the Cross River 

State Police Command. 

It was gathered that before 

the victim, Mrs Doris Inyang, 

was killed, she was reportedly 

raped by the teenage gang at 

her residence in State Housing 

Estate, Calabar. 

The gang members also 

reportedly carted away 

household items and a 2016 

Sentra Nissan car after the 

crime. 

But speaking with 

journalists during the parade, 

the suspects, 18-year-old 

Godwin Nyenime and 19- 

year-old Eteng Omini denied 

killing their victim, adding that 

they only went for her car 

without any knowledge of her 

death. 

Omini said: "I was not 

involved in her killing. I was 

promised, N500,000 by her 

house help, Udobong, who is 

my friend. 

“He told me to come and 

drive the lady’s car that he 

would pay me 500k. I was not 

involved in the rape and her 

death. If I knew someone was 

killed in the deal, I wouldn’t 

have been involved at all. I 

regret my involvement in the 

deal. 

“I never knew he was an 

armed robber because he is 

someone that we used to play 

ball together in the street 

around Bogobiri and Nelson 

Mandela Street. I regret my 

action because I have a mother 

and a younger one.” 

Briefing journalists earlier at 

the Police Command 

Headquarters, the state 

Commissioner of Police, Sikiru 

Akande, said the command 

has recovered the Nissan 

Sentra 2016 car from the 

suspects, adding that two 

other cars were recovered 

including one black Prado 

SUV, one white Mercedes 

Benz 350 

Akande called for total 

commitment and partnership 

from all stakeholders and 

general public for an outright 

boost of the internal security 

architecture to curb criminality 

at all cost. 

The drugged cookies. 

“Under interrogation, the prime suspect, Rhoda, 

confessed she prepares the cookies with a friend and 

sells each pack of three pieces at N1,500. A followup 

operation in her boyfriend’s house led to the 

recovery of over 200 pieces of the drugged cookies.” 

On his part, the Commander, FCT Command of 

the NDLEA, Mohammed Sokoto, said: “Her 

boyfriend, Ifeanyi Nwankwo, and all the equipment 

used for the production of the cookies were brought 

to the office for further investigation. 

"The suspect confirmed that she sells at parties and 

to unsuspecting members of the public, including 

school children that are the most vulnerable. The 

suspect also supplied to some supermarkets and 

clubs in the FCT.” 

Mother arrested for locking 

up, starving daughter for 10 

years in Kano 

By Bashir Bello 

KANO— A mother, identified 

as Rabi Mohammed, has 

been arrested by operatives of the 

Kano State Police command for 

locking up and starving her 

daughter, Aisha Jibrin, for 10 years 

in Darerawa Quarters, Fagge 

Local Government Area of the 

state. 

Rabi and her husband, 

Mohammed Jibrin, who is now at 

large, allegedly locked up their 

15-year-old daughter inside a 

room (solitary confinement) within 

their house for about 10 years 

without proper feeding and 

health care. 

Spokesperson of the state police 

command, DSP Abdullahi 

Haruna, who confirmed the 

development, yesterday, said 

efforts were in progress to also 

arrest the father of the victim. 

Haruna said good Samaritans 

reported the act to the police, 

leading to the rescue of the victim, 

adding that the victim was rushed 

to Murtala Muhammed Specialist 

Hospital, Kano. 

According to him, “On Monday, 

at about 1100hrs, the Kano State 

Police Command received an 

information, which revealed that 

one Aisha Jibrin, 15 years old of 

Darerawa Quarters, Fagge LGA, 

Kano State was solitarily confined 

for 10 years in a room by her 

biological parents, one Mohd 

Jibrin and Rabi Mohammed of the 

same address inside their house 

The rescued victim. 

without proper feeding and health 

care. 

“On receipt of the report, the 

Commissioner of Police, Kano 

State Command, Sama’ila Dikko, 

raised and instructed a medical 

team and a team of detectives to 

proceed to the scene, rescue the 

victim and arrest the culprits. The 

teams immediately swung into 

action. The victim was rescued 

and rushed to Murtala 

Muhammed Specialist Hospital, 

Kano and was admitted. 

“One suspect named Rabi 

Mohammed, 35 years old, a 

mother to the victim, was arrested 

while efforts are in progress to 

arrest the father of the victim who 

is currently at large.


Go for COVID-19 vaccination, scientists tell Nigerians 

.Prioritise procurement of doses to achieve herd immunity, NARD tasks FG 

NPHCDA vaccinates 1,114, 408 persons with 1st dose 

.By Sola Ogundipe & 

Chioma Obinna 

NIGERIANS have 

been admonished to 

take the COVID-19 

jabswhen it is their turn 

to be vaccinated. 

A renowned professor of 

virology and former 

president of the Nigeria 

Academy of Science, NAS 

Professor Oyewale Tomori 

who made the call on 

Tuesday in Lagos 

however warned that a 

3rd wave of COVID-19 

infections was imminent if 

Nigeria becomes 

complacent. 

Tomori who spoke in 

Lagos at a media 

roundtable, themed: 

“Journalism, Pandemic 

and Vaccines: Where do 

we go from here?”, 

organised by the NAS, in 

collaboration with 

Vitafoam Nigeria Plc, 

urged Nigerians to go for 

their shots as directed as 

soon as it is their turn to 

be vaccinated. 

“Take the vaccine, do not 

debate it because there is 

no debate about this. We 

should continue to take 

the vaccine. 

“The 3rd wave may 

come if we do not change 

our attitude. Although we 

are currently witnessing a 

decrease in infections, the 

number of new cases may 

spike in the coming 

months,” he cautioned. 

In his presentation 

entilted “COVID-19 

Vaccines: To take or not to 

take”, Tomori said the 

protective effect of the 

vaccine is not immediate 

because it takes some 

time for it to begin to work 

in the body. 

“When you are 

vaccinated, the vaccine 

does not begin to work 

immediately, it takes time. 

The day that you take the 

vaccine is not the day that 

you develop immunity, it 

takes between 10-12 days 

for the vaccine to work.” 

According to Tomori, 

vaccines do not prevent 

exposure to COVID-19 

infection because they 

were not designed to stop 

infection. 

“So if you are not 

wearing your mask or 

you wear it carelessly, you 

can get infected. The 

vaccine does not stop the 

infection, it prevents the 

infection from becoming 

disease and the disease 

from becoming death. 

“Prevention does not 

have to do with the 

vaccine, it has to do with 

you, the individual. It is 

your actions or inactions 

such as wearing your 

mask and social 

distancing that prevents 

infection. If you get 

L-R: Dr. Olakinka Oyegbile, Media Consultant; Mr. Sola Owoade, Commercial 

Director, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc; Prof. Ekanem Braide, President, Nigerian Academy 

of Science; Prof. Musbau Akanji, Public Affairs Secretary, NAS; Prof. Oyewale 

Tomori, Chairman, Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee ion COVID-19 and 

Executive Secretary, NAS, Dr. Oladoyin Odubanjo, during the meedia round table 

held in Lagos, on Tuesday. Photo: Kehinde Shonola 

exposed you will get 

infected,” he stressed. 

Explaining that 

vaccination is not the 

same as immunisation, 

Tomori described 

immunisation as 

successful vaccination. 

He said the efficacy of 

one vaccine can only be 

comparable with the 

efficacy of another vaccine 

if both have been tested 

with the same parameters. 

“The vaccines must be 

run under the same 

conditions in order for 

their eficacy to be 

comparable. You cannot 

compare efficacy of 

vaccines except the tests 

are done under the same 

conditions. 

“The WHO actually says 

says that each vaccine 

must have at least 50 

percent efficacy in order 

to be useful.” 

Calling for effective 

scientific communication, 

Tomori said that the 

information that is 

produced by the federal 

government should be 

more proactive than 

reactive in order to narrow 

the communication gap. 

There should be more 

education and 

enlightenment. 

“You can achieve 

immunity through herd 

immunity but research 

shows that the level of 

herd immunity 

experienced so far is 

lower than expected. 

“So you need to wear 

your mask, herd 

immunity is not the 

solution to the virus, it is 

vaccines. 

“Covid is worse than the 

flu and because of the way 

that the virus is spreading 

it is neccessary to wear 

your mask.” 

On the issue of risks 

associated with the 

vaccine, Tomori argued 

that there uis no vaccine 

without rists. he mentions 

the level of risk associated 

with the polio and yellow 

fever vaccines. 

In her own contribution, 

the President of the NAS, 

Prof Ekanem Braide, who 

noted that the media was 

critical to stamping out the 

virus, said the world and 

Nigeria in particular, 

needs to speed up the t 

exit of this tiny virus that 

has caused so much havoc 

globally. 

Prioritise 

procurement of 

vaccine doses 

— NARD 

The President of the 

National Association of 

Resident Doctors, NARD, 

Dr Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, 

has stressed the need for 

the Federal government to 

prioritise the procurement 

of more vaccines for 

Nigerians so that the 

country to achieve herd 

immunity. 

Making the call in a chat 

with Vanguard, Uyilawa, 

said to address vaccine 

apathy in Nigeria, the 

government needs to do 

more advocacy and 

enlighten Nigerians of the 

benefit of being vaccinated 

with the COVID-19 

vaccines. 

The NARD President, 

who insisted that Nigerians 

stand to gain more when 

vaccinated with COVID-19 

vaccine, lamented that the 

pandemic has dealt with 

people across the world and 

every country would want 

to keep their citizens safe. 

Continuing, Uyilawa 

who acknowledged that the 

National Primary 

Healthcare Development 

Agency, NPHCDA, has 

done a good enlightening 

Nigerians on the 

advantages of vaccination, 

added: “The advantages 

are more beneficial to 

Nigerians than the side 

effects and the apathy 

being experienced across 

the world. 

“There is apathy towards 

getting the vaccines and 

there are plenty of videos 

all over the world telling 

you about the side effects 

but I have encouraged my 

parents and every member 

of my family to take the 

vaccine. 

“I have also taken mine 

and I am encouraging all 

Nigerians to also try and 

get theirs. It will go a long 

way to help the country get 

the required herd 

immunity.” 

On whether the 

vaccination should be made 

compulsory, he said: 

“Everybody has a choice to 

want to get good healthcare 

or to get vaccinated. 

Putting it into law for it to 

be made compulsory is like 

bridging people’s own 

right. Which we don’t 

normally want to do in the 

medical world. 

“For everything in 

medicine you need the 

patients consent and in 

medicine, patient’s consent 

is respected at all times. If 

you bridge their consent it 

is something you can be 

sued for and there are 

consequences for bridging 

their consent. 

“Government can do more 

of advocacy to tell them 

what they stand to benefit 

by getting vaccination than 

the apathy. That will do 

better work for all of us.” 

Reacting to agitation by 

some European countries 

for vaccine passport, 

Uyilawa said It is an 

obvious truth that vaccine 

passport would be required 

at some point in the future 

because all government 

would want to protect their 

citizens. 

“I am encouraging all 

Nigerians to get the 

vaccine. This is because for 

those that travel out, at one 

point people will be asked 

to show their COVID-19 

card just like yellow fever. 

Definitely, it will become 

one of the criteria if anyone 

is trying to get out of the 

country. 

Further, he called on the 

Federal government to pay 

more attention to 

healthcare as well as 

procure more COVID-19 

vaccines to avert possible 

shortage in the country. 

“Government needs to 

pay more priority to health 

sector because health is 

wealth. When you get your 

citizens vaccinated that 

means you are trying to 

encourage and develop 

your economy. 

It is a healthy economy 

that leads to productivity. It 

is very important that for 

government to pay more 

priority to the health of 

Nigerians. 

I am encouraging those 

in authority to buy more 

vaccines and channel all 

special intervention funds 

to the health sector for better 

healthcare services and 

getting the required herd 

immunity.” 

Nigeria vaccinates 

1,114,408 persons 

with 1st dose 

As of Tuesday, April 20, 

2021, a total of 1,114, 408 

persons representing 55.4 

percent of the eligible 

persons targeted with the 

Astrazeneca COVID-19 

vaccine have been 

administered their first 

dose, according to an 

update released by the 

National Primary Health 

Care Development 

Agency, NPHCDA. 

A breakdown of the 

update contained in an 

Electronic Management of 

Immunisation Data, EMID, 

System, showed that 

Lagos remains ahead in 

the exercise with 209,734 

persons vaccinated. 

Trailing Lagos are Kano, 

58,749; Kaduna, 57,241; 

Ogun, 53,286; the FCT, 

50,541; Katsina, 39,523; 

Bauchi, 36,308; Oyo, 

38,978; Ondo, 31,506; 

Kwara, 31,230; Edo, 29,468; 

Jigawa, 28,451 among 

others. 

In response to the global 

shortfall of COVID-19 

vaccines and the late 

commencement of the 

vaccination in some States, 

the NPHCDA is expanding 

the eligibility period 

between the first and 

second doses of the vaccine 

from 12 weeks to between 

8 to 12 weeks. 

The agency said it is in 

line with the scientific 

recommendation provided 

by the WHO’s Strategic 

Advisory Group of Experts, 

SAGE, on immunisation 

that the two doses of the 

vaccine be given at 8-12 

weeks intervals. 

WELLNESS: Fitbit debuts Luxe 

Health Tracker 

By Juliet Umeh 

A 

NEW fashion-forward 

fitness and wellness 

tracker, Luxe, designed to 

help people take a more 

holistic approach to their 

health and wellness has 

been introduced by Fitbit. 

According to the 

management of Fitbit, 

Luxe offers the motivation 

and support needed to stay 

healthy in today’s world 

with everything from stress 

management tools to 

automatic activity and sleep 

tracking – all in an 

effortlessly chic bracelet 

design. 

According to the Co- 

Founder of Fitbit, James 

Park, the tracker also gives 

insights into individuals’ 

wellbeing through the 

Health Metrics dashboard 

in the Fitbit app to help 

them identify changes, 

which could be caused by 

increased stress or fatigue. 

Users get a six-month trial 

to Fitbit premium for added 

support, motivation and 

deeper analysis of their 

data. 

Park said: “Over the past 

year, we’ve had to think 

differently about our health 

and wellness from keeping 

an eye out for possible 

COVID-19 symptoms to 

managing the ongoing 

stress and anxiety of 

today’s world. Even 

though we are starting to 

see positive changes, it has 

never been more important 

to control your holistic 

health. 

“That’s why we’ve 

doubled down on our 

efforts to introduce 

innovative tools and 

insights to support you in 

staying mentally well and 

physically active. We’ve 

made major technological 

advancements with Luxe, 

creating a smaller, slimmer, 

beautifully designed 

tracker packed with these 

advanced features – some 

that were previously only 

available with our 

smartwatches – and 

providing access to these 

tools to even more people 

around the globe.” 

With Luxe, he explained 

that Fitbit is bringing its 

innovative stress 

management tools to 

trackers for the first time – 

to support users no matter 

what life throws their way.

8 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 

:Vanguard 

News 

With AFCFTA, Nigerian firms 

can access markets worth 

$666bn — Emefiele 

By Elizabeth 

Adegbesan 

LAGOS — The Central 

Bank of Nigeria, CBN, 

said the full implementation 

of Africa Continental Free 

Trade Area (AFCFTA) will allow 

Nigerian firms access 

market-size of $666 billion, 

comprising $504.17 billion in 

goods and $162 billion in services. 

CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin 

Emefiele, stated this at the 

Zenith’s Bank 2021 Export 

Seminar yesterday, in Lagos. 

Speaking on the benefits of 

intra-regional trade and 

CBN’s steps to improve Nigerian 

businesses, Emefiele 

said:”Full implementation of 

the AFCFTA, is expected to 

give Nigerian firms preferential 

access to markets in Africa 

worth $504.17 billion in 

goods and $162 billion in services. 

“We believe that AFCF- 

TA offer significant opportunities 

for the Nigerian private 

sector to expand into new 

markets, and seek new export 

opportunities, particularly in 

the area of Manufacturing, 

ICT, Agriculture and Financial 

services, given our growing 

advantage in these areas 

relative to our counterparts in 

other parts of Africa. 

“We are also working with 

stakeholders in repositioning 

the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, 

which would help to 

support greater trade for operators 

in these vital sectors 

earlier mentioned. 

“Once the exchange becomes 

fully operational in the 

2nd half of the year, international 

buyers of raw and processed 

agricultural commodities 

will be able to enter into 

forward contracts with domestic 

suppliers on the exchange, 

and they can be assured 

of not only the quality 

of the goods sold through the 

exchange, but on the expected 

date of delivery. 

“We believe these forward 

contracts will help to support 

improved productivity for 

farmers and agro-processors, 

it will also help to improve 

access to credit for these entities 

using the forward contracts 

as collateral. “ 

Emefiele further called on 

banks to support businesses 

seeking to expand into new 

markets and also urged exporters 

to repatriate their export 

proceeds as stated by law. 

“Our banks are already playing 

a significant role in expanding 

across the African 

continent. I would like to encourage 

them to also leverage 

their presence in other parts 

of Africa, to support Nigerian 

businesses seeking to expand 

into new markets in Africa, by 

providing trade facilities to 

those with strong potential for 

growth. “We would also like 

to urge existing exporters that 

they endeavour to repatriate 

their export proceeds as required 

by law. 

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

Anybody saying Nigeria’s stronger now is 

living in fool’ s paradise — Mbazulike Amechi 

By Nwabueze 

Okonkwo 

ONITSHA – Elder 

statesman and first Republic 

Aviation Minister, 

Chief Mbazulike Amechi, 

said yesterday that anybody 

saying Nigeria was alright 

and stronger at present is not 

only sick but also living in fool’ 

s paradise. Reacting to a recent 

statement credited to 

President Muhammadu Buhari 

that Nigeria was stronger 

when united than divided, 

Amechi stated that with the 

present economic downturn, 

insecurity and instability, Nigeria 

was not as strong and 

united as it should be. 

Amechi, who spoke in an 

exclusive interview on the sidelines 

of the meeting of Anambra 

Elders and Stakeholders’ 

ANELDERS, Forum for Good 

Leadership, held in his country 

home, Ukpor, Anambra 

State, said nobody was 

against Nigeria’s unity but 

Buhari himself who he said 

was dividing the country 

through his leadership style. 

According to Amechi, “Buhari 

is the one dividing Nigeria 

through his leadership 

style and if he does not want it 

divided, he should stop what 

he is doing”. 

ANELDERS Forum for 

Good Governance had after 

meeting in his house, come out 

with a 7-point communique 

which insisted that the next 

president of Nigeria must 

come from the South East. 

In the communique, jointly 

signed by their National Leader 

and former civilian governor 

of Anambra State, Dr. 

Chukwuemeka Ezeife (Okwadike) 

and Prof. Mike Aghadiuno, 

National Secretary, the 

forum maintained that 2023 

Igbo presidency was non-negotiable, 

saying it was sacrosanct. 

The meeting was attended 

by prominent elders 

and stakeholders of Anambra 

State, including Ezeife himself, 

former Chief Judge of old 

Anambra State, Justice’ Anthony 

Iguh who is the national 

president, past Chief Judges 

of Anambra State, Justice 

G. U. Ononiba, Justice Paul 

Obidigwe and Justice Peter 

Umeadi and; First female Professor 

of Mass Communication 

and Director of Nnamdi 

Azikiwe University, UNIZIK 

Radio station, Prof. Stella 

Chinyere Okunna who compiled 

the communique. 

The communique said there 

must be a clear leadership 

structure in Igbo land, to disprove 

the negative branding 

of Ndigbo as Igbo Enweze 

(Igbo have no king). 

PIND challenges FG to address 

unabated unemployment rate in 

Nigeria 

By Cynthia Alo 

LAGOS — Worried by the 

unemployment rate in 

Nigeria, the Foundation for 

Partnership Initiatives in the 

Niger Delta, PIND, has called 

on the federal government 

and other stakeholders to 

adopt data processing and 

market study to evaluate the 

relevant skill required in the 

labour market. It will be recalled 

that the Nigerian Bureau 

of Statistics recently disclosed 

that Nigeria’s unemployment 

rate has increased 

to 33.3 percent in fourth quarter 

of 2020 from 27.1 percent 

in second quarter of 2020. 

According to the non- profit 

organisation, Nigeria lacks 

empirical study in aggregating 

the rate of demand of a 

particular skill in the labour 

market which often results in 

supplying more than the demand 

and often ends in under 

utilisation of skills in the country. 

Speaking at the recent 

close-out workshop for the 

Niger Delta Youth Employment 

Pathways (NDYEP) 

Project which was a hybrid 

event, Executive Director of 

PIND Foundation, Dr. Dara 

Akala, said the issue of unemployment 

was the biggest challenge 

for development in Nigeria, 

especially in Niger Delta, 

particularly in Akwa- 

Ibom, Rivers and Abia states 

which have the highest rate of 

unemployment in the region. 

He stated that to tackle this 

menace, the organisation had 

between September 2017 and 

March 2021, trained over 

4500 unemployed youths in 

relevant skills higher demand 

in the labour market. 

It commended South East 

governors for proposing to 

establish a security outfit, 

code-named Ebube Agu. 

Noting that the Eastern Security 

Network, ESN established 

by the Indigenous People 

of Biafra, IPoB, was necessitated 

by the fact of a regional 

security network, the forum 

urged the South East 

governors to do more in the 

area of security by encouraging 

the vigilante group with 

adequate logistics and at the 

time, equipping schools and 

markets with CCTV and other 

surveillance gadgets. 

We’ll confront herdsmen coming to Ebonyi 

with AK-47 — Umahi 

•South East leaders should condemn burning 

of police stations, •Says no state govt 

has control over bandits 

By Peter Okutu 

ABAKALIKI — GOV 

ERNOR David Umahi 

of Ebonyi State said yesterday 

that his administration will 

confront herdsmen coming 

into Ebonyi State with AK-47 

rifles. Umahi, who stated this 

while briefing newsmen immediately 

after an Enlarged 

Security Council meeting at 

the Exco chamber of the Government 

House, Abakaliki, 

added that herdsmen were no 

longer needed in the state for 

now. 

According to him, there’s no 

more cows and herdsmen in 

Ebonyi State. On the attack 

that took place at Ngbo Community 

in Ohaukwu Local 

Government Area of Ebonyi 

State, where over 12 persons 

were gruesomely killed, the 

governor insisted that the assailants 

were people of Agila 

By Olayinka Ajayi 

ABUJA — The Minister 

of State for Education, 

Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba has 

insisted that the Federal Government 

will not stop the 

school system in the North. 

Speaking during a monitored 

interview on Channels 

Television, Politics yesterday, 

the minister explained that the 

motive of the attacks on 

schools was meant to discourage 

the idea of going to 

school. 

“We are aware that some of 

the attacks are meant to stop 

the idea of going to school at 

all, and that is behind the 

motivation by governors that 

we will not stop schooling. 

Stopping schooling is suicidal 

for the country. We are battling 

the insecurity problem as 

in Benue State. He said: “Our 

problem is not just herdsmen 

but we’re are killing ourselves. 

We have sent out messages to 

miyetti alah and we want 

them to stay out of Ebonyi. 

“There is no cow and herdsman 

in Ebonyi State. Security 

agencies cannot be everywhere. 

Security agencies 

should enforce the ban on 

open grazing. We will confront 

herdsmen coming to 

Ebonyi with AK 47; you will 

be confronted them with the 

same measure they are using 

to come with to Ebonyi State. 

“I have been in touch with 

Benue State. We still hold the 

killing of our people on Agila 

people. Am going to fund fully 

the activities of Vigilante in 

that axis. 

“The attack on Police Station 

is not done by herdsmen 

but criminals. South East 

leaders should rise and condemn 

what is evil. Those we 

claim are protecting us are 

not protecting us.” 

On Effium/Ezza-Effium crisis, 

Umahi stated that the people 

of the area have promised 

to live in peace not minding 

the activities of some unscrupulous 

elements. 

“About the 10 times, the 

stakeholders have made their 

promises to live in peace; Effium/ 

Ezza-Effium are willing 

to make peace and live together. 

We appeal to security agencies 

to ensure peace. 

“We are determined to get 

the people of Effium back to 

their homes. On Ezilo/Iyonu 

crisis of Ishielu LGA borders 

on land dispute. One Councilor 

from Ezilo took expatriate 

to the land where two people 

were shot dead. 

“I have directed the arrest 

and prosecution of the councilor 

involved; there is no 

herdsmen is in Ebonyi State. 

It means they were privy of the 

attack. No State Government 

has control of bandits.” 

Reacting to the allegation 

that his people were responsible 

for the killing that took 

place at Ngbo Community, 

the Chairman of Ado LGA, 

Mr. Oche James stated that: 

“It may be recalled that, in the 

wake of the attack which led 

to loss of lives and property, 

statements in the media credited 

to the Ebonyi State Government 

were to the effect that, 

the attack on Ngbo communities 

of Ebonyi was from the 

Agila people of Ado Local 

Government Area of Benue 

State. 

Amid Insecurity: Stopping 

schooling in the country is 

suicidal – Nwajiuba, Edu Minister 

much as possible. The military 

is getting to the top of it. Although 

the security situation 

cannot be solved with bombs 

and bullets. 

“I am as worried as the next 

parent (about the insecurity in 

schools). All my children are 

in public schools in Nigeria. 

No parent would want these. 

Mr. President himself is as 

worried as we are. I want everybody 

to understand that this 

is work everybody needs to do 

together. 

The security chiefs told us 

and we all agreed that security 

is everybody’s business. 

When we talk about policing, 

it cannot rise above what 

the community agreed it 

should be. The communities 

are at the base of these, people 

should report moves observed”, 

the Minister said .


:Vanguard News 


PRESENTATION: From left: 

Mrs. Ify Akerele, representing 

Chamber of Shipping, Dr. 

MkGeorge Onyung, President, 

Shipowners Association of 

Nigeria, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, 

Director-General of NIMASA, 

Honourable Chudi Offordile, 

ED, Finance & Admin, Mr. 

Ahmed Shehu, Executive 

Director, Operations and 

Honourable Victor Ochei, 

Executive Director, Cabotage 

Services of NIMASA during 

the presentation of the One- 

Year in Office scorecard of the 

Jamoh-led Executive 

Management of NIMASA. 

No timeline for full deregulation yet — NNPC 

chief, Kyari •Says petrol queues ‘ll disappear soon •As queues return 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru & Obas 

Esiedesa 

A BUJA—THE 

Group Managing 

Director of the Nigerian National 

Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, 

Mallam Mele Kyari, said 

yesterday that there was no 

timeline for full deregulation of 

the oil sector in the country at 

present. 

Kyari, who stated this in an 

interview with State House 

correspondents after meeting 

with President Muhammadu 

Buhari at the Presidential Villa, 

Abuja, also assured Nigerians 

that the queues at petrol stations 

in some parts of the country 

would soon fizzle out. 

His reaction came against the 

backdrop of fresh petrol scacity in 

the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, 

Niger and Nasarawa states 

which led to the product selling 

for as much as N500 per litre in 

the black market. 

to FCT; petrol sells for N500/litre 

Kyari said: “I have no update 

in hand now, this (deregulation) 

is beyond me, but we are 

engaging to make sure we have 

the right timeline.” 

Responding to a question on 

his position on subsidy, having 

said few weeks ago that subsidy 

would set in no matter the 

situation and his recent 

statement that there would be 

no increase in petrol price in the 

month of May, he said that 

subsidy was a government policy 

matter. 

“Subsidy is a policy matter, I 

am sure you are aware of this, 

there are engagements going on 

within government to get the best 

framework for having a fully 

deregulated PMS market. 

“As this is going on, we are 

engaging all parties and all 

stakeholders as government and 

to make sure that at the end of 

the day, there is an exit that is 

beneficial to the ordinary man. 

“That is why we know we will 

not be able to complete that in 

the month of May and and, 

therefore, we declared that there 

will be no increase in fuel price.” 

Fielding question on the 

increasing market price of crude 

oil to about $67 per barrel and 

how it had impacted on NNPC 

finances, being the major 

importer of the product, he said 

there was no cause for alarm. 

“ You know it works both ways. 

Once prices increase, your 

revenue also increases. So I don’t 

have any numbers around it, but 

I also know that your obligation 

to price of petroleum increases 

and your net revenue also 

increases. There is a balancing 

factor, I don’t think there is 

anything much to worry about,’’ 

he said. 

On the fuel queues that 

surfaced in Abuja and adjoining 

states yesterday, the GMD 

explained that the queues were 

a result of the industrial action 

embarked upon by petroleum 

tanker drivers against their 

employers, the National 

Association of Road Transport 

Owners, NARTO, on 

JUSUN, PASAN stage walk-out at parley with Ngige, 

others •Why we postponed meeting — Minister 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru 

A BUJA—THE 

striking members of 

Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, 

JUSUN, and Parliamentary Staff 

Association of Nigeria, PASAN, 

yesterday staged a walk-out at 

the meeting convened by the 

Minister of Labour and 

Employment, Senator Chris 

Ngige over the ongoing industrial 

action by the unions. 

The meeting was scheduled for 

3pm at the Conference Hall of 

the Minister’s office, Abuja, but 

the two unions after waiting for 

about two hours without being 

attended to stormed out of the 

venue. 

But the Minister has explained 

that the meeting with JUSUN 

and PASAN was postponed to 

enable the Federal Government 

negotiating team harmonize all 

issues from the Memorandum of 

Understanding reached at 

separate meetings with tiers and 

arms of government. 

Ngige in a statement issued by 

the Deputy Director, Press and 

Public Relations in the ministry, 

Charles Akpan said the 

postponement was necessary to 

ensure that the meeting with the 

unions come with a 

Memorandum of Action which is 

implementable with time lines. 

The statement said: “There is 

no point rushing to do a meeting 

that will be fruitless. The 

Judiciary, the Governors Forum 

and even the Presidency are 

involved in this negotiation 

because the meeting held 

yesterday was at the Office of the 

Chief of Staff to the President . 

“The arising documents are not 

yet properly harmonized. It will 

therefore not be fruitful to hold a 

negotiation where people speak 

from irreconcilable positions. It 

won’t help us and it won’t help 

the unions either. 

“The reason is to ensure that 

the agreement reached at the 

end of our meeting here is put 

into action , with timelines for 

implementation. So if we don’t 

have a paper that is ready to go, 

then there will be no point for 

the talk shop.” 

The Minister explained that 

the members of the unions were 

in a hurry even as they were 

properly informed of the little time 

needed for him to round off a 

meeting with the government 

team, comprising the Solicitor 

General of the Federation, Mr. 

Dayo Apata, the Director General 

of the Governors Forum, 

Asishana Bayo Okauru and the 

Senior Special Assistant to the 

President, Senator Ita Enang. 

He said the meeting will 

continue at a date to be 

announced soon, adding, “It is 

better done properly so that the 

governors can implement 

whatever agreement we enter 

into. 

However, speaking with 

newsmen, JUSUN national 

Public Relations Officer, Koin 

Selepreye said it was wrong for 

the minister to keep the workers 

for that long, when the invitation 

sent to them clearly started that 

the meeting was for 3:pm. 

She said the union would 

always aveil herself for meetings, 

but won’t take it when the time 

for the meeting is not respected. 

Also speaking, the National 

President of PASAN, 

Mohammed Usman barrated 

the minister for what he 

described as unfair treatment 

meted out to the workers. 

compensation package which 

made them to suspend loading 

of petroleum products at the 

depots. 

Kyari said the disagreement 

had been sorted out, following the 

intervention of NNPC, adding 

that normal loading operations 

had commenced from the depots. 

He also said government had 

embarked on engagements with 

relevant stakeholders to get the 

best framework to have a fully 

deregulated Premium Motor 

Spirit, PMS, which he described 

as a government policy. 

He said: “These queues will go 

away. It is because there was an 

industrial action by petroleum 

tanker drivers against their 

employers, the National 

Association of Road Transport 

Owners around their 

compensation package. 

“Those issues were not 

resolved up till yesterday 

(Monday), until we intervened 

to ensure that there is an 

amicable settlement between the 

parties so that they will have 

peace and then normal loading 

operations will commence from 

the depots. 

“As I speak to you at this 

moment, loading has 

commenced in all depots in the 

country, dispatches of trucks are 

ongoing in all the depots in the 

country and they have called off 

the strike for a period of one week 

to enable us intervene and find a 

solution. So there is really 

nothing fundamental that is 

happening now.’’ 

Meanwhile, motorists besieged 

petrol stations around the 

Federal Capital Territory, FCT, 

yesterday, despite assurances by 

the Nigerian National Petroleum 

Corporation, NNPC, that there 

would be no hike in the ex-depot 

price of petrol. 

Checks around the nation’s 

capital, Abuja and surrounding 

towns and states, showed that 

most independent petrol stations 

were shut, with only few major 

marketers opened to motorists. 

Expectedly, motorists flocked 

around the few stations with the 

product, with queues stretching 

for long distances. The scene at 

the two petrol stations, Total and 

Conoil opposite the NNPC 

Towers at the city centre, was 

chaotic as motorists struggled to 

gain entrance into the stations. 

Youths took the advantage of 

the situation to make brisk 

business as they hawked petrol 

in 10 litre kegs for N5,000, 

amounting to N500 per litre. 

Senate probes CCT chairman 

over assault allegation 

By Henry Umoru 

A BUJA—THE 

Senate yesterday 

waded into the assault allegations 

leveled against the chairman of 

the Code of Conduct Tribunal, 

Danladi Umar, in a petition 

received to that effect. 

Recall that the CCT boss 

allegedly assaulted a security 

guard, identified as Clement 

Kargwak, who hails from Plateau 

State, in Abuja a few weeks ago. 

The petition was brought to the 

floor by Senator Istifanus Gyang 

(PDP, Plateau North). 

Consequently, the Senate 

President, Ahmad Lawan referred 

the petition to the Senate 

Committee on Ethics, Privileges 

and Public Petitions for immediate 

investigation. 

Gyang, while giving a summary 

of the petition said: “Justice Umar 

Danladi assaulted him 

(petitioner), brutalized him and 

slapped him on the face, and asked 

him to kneel down and, thereby, 

used his leg to hit him on the chest 

and inflicted bodily harm on him.’’ 

According to the lawmaker, the 

petitioner “is asking this Senate 

to investigate this matter to 

ascertain the role of the 

Honourable Justice Danladi in 

this allegedly unwholesome 

happening to ensure justice to Mr. 

Clement Kargwak.” 

The security guard, Mr. 

Clement Kargwak, in the petition 

to the Senate signed by his 

lawyer, Timzing Venyir Ramnap, 

urged the upper chamber to 

investigate the matter in keeping 

with its duty of oversight on the 

executive and judicial arms of 

government. 

He also requested the Senate 

to prevail on President 

Muhammadu Buhari to take 

disciplinary action against the 

CCT chairman or call on the 

Inspector General of Police, Alkali 

Usman Baba, and the Attorney 

General of the Federation and 

Minister of Justice, Abubakar 

Malami, to investigate, arrest and 

FG launches SOPs for civil service 

By Dirisu Yakubu 

ABUJA—AS part of its 

commitment to enhance 

professionalism and quicken 

service delivery in the conduct of 

government business, the federal 

government yesterday launched 

the Standard Operating 

Procedures, SOPs, for the civil 

service. 

The procedures, an initiative 

of Africa Initiative for 

Governance, AIG, in 

collaboration with the Office of 

the Head of the Civil Service of 

the Federation, OHCSF, are 

aimed at assisting officers to 

understand and document 

records digitally. 

Addressing newsmen at the 

event, Head of the Civil Service 

of the Federation, Dr. Folasade 

Yemi-Esan, commended the 

expertise brought to bear in the 

design of the procedures by AIG, 

noting that with the SOPs now 

in place, the service would come 

up “with an effective system that 

complied with industry-specific 

regulations and standards to 

significantly reduce or avoid 

operational errors as well as 

unwanted work variations.” 

She said: “SOPs also ensure 

the repeatability and consistency 

of the performance of any type of 

prosecute Umar for his actions. 

Narrating his experience, 

Kargwak in his petition to the 

Senate said: “This whole thing 

started on March 29, 2021, at 

Banex Plaza when Justice 

Danladi Umar drove into the 

plaza to do some business 

transactions. 

‘’Mr. Clement Kargwak 

informed us that on that fateful 

date, he was at his duty post at 

the Banex plaza when a Toyota 

SUV Jeep with plate number 

ABC-989-LZ drove into the plaza, 

when he was busy in the 

business of directing every 

vehicle that drove into the plaza 

to so properly park as directed by 

the management of the plaza. 

“That on sighting Justice Umar 

Danladi’s car trying to park 

wrongly, he instructed him to 

properly park in a space provided 

by the management of Banex 

plaza, only for Justice Umar 

Danladi to come down from the 

SUV keep with his security men 

and started assaulting and 

brutalizing him by slapping him 

on his face, asking him to kneel 

down and thereby used his leg to 

hit him on his chest, and thereby 

inflicting bodily harm on him. 

“That the management of the 

plaza rushed him to the hospital 

for medical attention where he 

has been receiving medication. 

“That Justice Umar Danladi 

personally did 99 percent of the 

assault and brutality on him as 

can be seen in a viral video which 

circulated on social media and is 

hereby enclosed for your 

consideration. 

“That after the incident, Justice 

Umar Danladi rushed to Maitama 

Police Station and reported, 

which prompted my invitation 

(petitioner) to the Police station 

by the Maitama Police Station 

for investigation which he 

honoured and went with a legal 

representative of the Banex Plaza 

who went with a copy of the viral 

video showing how Justice Umar 

Danladi perpetrated all the 

assaults and brutality on him.'' 

process. It helps employees to perform 

complicated tasks, one in 

which remembering every detail 

of a procedure can be difficult or 

in which a precise sequence of 

steps is essential. 

“It is instructive to note that in 

view of the importance of the SOP 

manuals to the seamless 

implementation of the Enterprise 

Content Management Solution, 

ECMS, and in line with 

international best practices, the 

office decided to take the lead and 

has gone further to approve the 

immediate service-wide 

development of SOPs. 

‘’This starts with four selected 

Ministries Departments and 

Agencies, MDAs, made up of the 

Federal Civil Service 

Commission, Federal Ministry of 

Finance, Budget and National 

Planning, State House and the 

Federal Ministry of 

Transportation.’’ 

Dr. Yemi-Esan noted that her 

office had in partnership with AIG, 

initiated plans to obtain relevant 

International Organization for 

Standardization, ISO, an 

independent, nongovernmental, 

international 

organization “that develops 

standards to ensure the quality, 

safety, and efficiency of products, 

services, and systems.”


:Vanguard 

News 

Kidnapped Ekiti monarch 

released, hospitalised 

By Rotimi 

Ojomoyela 

A TRADITIONAL DO-EKITI— 

ruler of 

Obadu in Ilemeso-Ekiti, in Ekiti 

State, Oba David Oyewumi, who 

was kidnapped by suspected 

gunmen, last Thursday, 

yesterday, regained freedom from 

captivity. 

Oba Oyewumi was kidnapped 

in his palace by gunmen, who 

scaled the fence and invaded his 

apartment around 8.30 pm on 

that day. 

The kidnappers later contacted 

the family on Saturday and 

demanded N20 million ransom to 

secure his release. 

Confirming his release, the 

Police Public Relations Officer, 

Ekiti Command, ASP Sunday 

Abutu, said the monarch had 

been left off the hook. 

Iyalode Tinubu Estate: Akindele 

confirmed holder of power of attorney 

By Onozure Dania 

L AGOS—ADAMAKIN 

Investment and Chief 

Akinfolabi Akindele have been 

confirmed as sole holders of the 

Power of Attorney of the Iyalode 

Efunroye Tinubu Estate, in 

Lagos, following the withdrawal 

of a suit filed by the Iyalode 

Efunroye Tinubu family. 

Trial judge, Justice O. 

Mabekoye, of Ogun State High 

Court, sitting in Abeokuta, struck 

out the matter, after the court 

granted leave to the applicant's 

counsel, Mr. J. Ogunbiyi, who had 

prayed to discontinue the case. 

In his ruling on the application, 

Justice Mebekoya noted the 

affidavit in support of the 

Abutu said: “I can confirm 

to you that the monarch had 

been released from captivity. 

He had also reunited with his 

family. 

“However, he is presently 

receiving medical care in one of 

the facilities in the state as a result 

of the trauma he passed 

through.” 

Also, the Ekiti Amotekun Corps 

Commander, Brig Gen. Joe 

Komolafe (retd), said the release 

of the traditional ruler was secured 

at Obbo Ayegunle, Ekiti Local 

Government Area of Kwara State 

with the support of the Vigilante 

members in Kwara State for the 

Amotekun operatives. 

Komolafe said: “When we went 

into the bush, we tracked the 

traditional ruler to the area. The 

vigilante from Kwara State joined 

our team and we were able to 

rescue him in the night in the 

application, sworn in support 

by one Gafar Ibrahim, and the 

fact that the family had indeed 

settled their differences. 

Therefore, there was no need 

to go on with the matter. 

He then struck out the case. 

The crisis got to a head 

sometimes in 2019, when some 

members of the board of trustees 

of the Iyalode Efunroye Tinubu 

Estate went to court, challenging 

the legal status of Adamakin 

Investment and Chief Akindele 

as the sole holders of the power of 

attorney to Iyalode Efunroye 

Tinubu Estate in Lagos state. 

While the matter was in court, 

several versions of the reasons 

why the families were in court 

were postulated. 

‘Nigeria needs Tinubu to surmount 

current challenges’ 

By Victor 

Aijiromanus 

LAGOS—NETWORK for 

National Stability, 

NENSTAB, has said the 

challenges confronting Nigeria 

require the experience and 

capacity of the National Leader 

of All Progressives Congress, 

APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to 

surmount them. 

In a statement by its Executive 

Secretary, Steve Ugwu, the group 

said: “As human as he is, Tinubu 

INSECURITY: PDP tasks Northern 

govs, others to fix region 

By Cynthia Alo 

L AGOS—PEOPLES 

Democratic Party, PDP, in 

Lagos State, has called on 

Northern governors, to fix their 

regions and make it conducive for 

young people to maximize their 

potentials, rather than allow 

them to migrate to different parts 

of the country. 

The party noted that the influx 

of young people from different 

regions of the country, especially 

from the North, into Lagos to seek 

greener pastures is worrisome. 

Speaking during a virtual town 

hall meeting, state Chairman of 

the party, Mr. Deji Doherty, 

lamented the daily painful 

experiences Lagos citizens 

encounter while going about 

indeed has been extra remarkable 

by sheer weight of purpose, 

conviction and articulation, in 

sustaining the solid base of hope 

that Nigeria will not only outpace 

her challenges, but can do that 

faster together, not asunder. 

“We are persuaded as a Non- 

Governmental body to note that 

we find inspiring resonance in 

what the celebrant has made his 

birthday become a deliberate 

conscientization vehicle of the 

elites and the masses towards the 

revival of our bonds as our 

commonwealth.” 

their legitimate businesses. 

He said: “If every governor does 

proper planning and deploy 

professional administrators and 

managers in various strategic 

sectors, I believe those young men 

and women trooping into Lagos 

(most of which are causing 

nuisance) would have reason to 

remain in their respective states, 

over 90 percent of okada riders 

are from the north. Though there 

is a ban on their operations in 

some areas for obvious reasons, 

yet they still operate. 

"Our Northern governors must 

fix their region and make it 

habitable for people to live 

comfortably and do their 

businesses; Lagos is getting too 

populated, making Life miserable 

especially the traffic congestion 

and other structural defects.” 


MEETING—From left: Oyo State Deputy Governor, Rauf Olaniyan; Governor Seyi Makinde, and 

Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Olubamiwo Adeosun, during the State Executive Council 

meeting, held at Governor's Office, Secretariat, Ibadan, yesterday. 

Tribunal throws out Jegede’s petition 

against Akeredolu’s re-election 

By Dayo Johnson 

A KURE—ONDO 

State Election 

Petitions Tribunal, sitting 

in Akure, yesterday, 

dismissed the petition 

filed by the Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, 

candidate, Mr. Eyitayo 

Jegede, against 

Governor Rotimi 

Akeredolu of the All 

Progressives Congress, 

APC. 

Jegede’s petition was 

struck out for want of 

Jurisdiction and lack of 

merit. 

The tribunal 

judgement, earlier 

scheduled for today, was 

rescheduled for 

yesterday and was held 

via zoom. 

In the two hours 

judgement, Chairman of 

the Tribunal, Justice 

Abubakar Umar, struck out 

Jegede’s petition for lack of 

Jurisdiction. 

The Independent 

National Electoral 

Commission, INEC, had 

declared Akeredolu the 

winner of the 2020 

governorship election, 

having polled the highest 

lawful votes to defeat 

Jegede of the PDP and 

former Deputy Governor, 

Agboola Ajayi, of the 

Zenith Labour Party, ZLP. 

Displeased with the 

outcome of the election, 

Jegede, through his 

Counsel, Mr. Onyeksasi 

Ikpeasu, SAN, challenged 

the victory of Akeredolu at 

the poll. 

However, delivering 

judgement virtually in 

Akure, the chairman of the 

three-member panel, 

Justice Umar Abubakar, 

said: “The issues raised 

therein in this petition are 

settled issue of internal 

affairs and management of 

a political party, which this 

tribunal has no jurisdiction. 

“The tribunal cannot 

determine whether 

Governor Mai Bala Buni of 

• Verdict reflects peoples' wish —Akeredolu 

• I’ll decide what next to do, says Jegede 

• As Ondo APC, PDP bicker over verdict 

Yobe State is illegally 

occupying the seat of 

Caretaker Chairman of the 

planning committee of the 

extraordinary convention of 

the APC. 

“There is also evidence to 

confirm that the APC, as the 

sponsor, complied with the 

law in the process for the 

submission of the names of 

its candidates, Akeredolu 

and Lucky Aiyedatiwa. 

Jegede’s case is flawed and 

hereby dismissed.” 

Verdict reflects 

peoples’ wish 

—Akeredolu 

Reacting to the verdict, 

Governor Akeredolu 

described the judgement as 

a true reflection of the 

position of the Law and the 

collective wish of the 

people. 

Akeredolu said: “For 

every purpose and mission 

endorsed by God, the will 

to navigate the clouds of 

uncertainties and the path 

of thorns becomes stronger 

if backed by faith. In our 

case, our faith is 

unshakable. 

“It is, therefore, with 

gratitude to God that we 

accept the verdict of the 

Tribunal.” 

I’ll study 

judgement, says 

Jegede 

In his reaction to the 

judgement, the PDP 

candidate, Mr. Jegede said: 

“I will consult my counsels, 

eminent counsels who are 

knowledgeable in this 

business. A good number 

of them, some of them my 

senior. By the time I add my 

knowledge, we shall forge 

forward. 

“We don’t want to rush to 

do anything. We will look 

at the judgment. We will 

request for a copy of the 

judgment given the fact that 

we have sixty days within 

which to conclude and we 

shall appeal if there is one 

and the time starts.” 

Ondo APC, PDP 

bicker 

Meanwhile, the tribunal 

verdict has elicited mixed 

reactions from the APC and 

the PDP in Ondo State. 

While the APC hailed the 

judgment, the PDP on its 

part expressed optimism 

that its candidate will win 

at the Court of Appeal. 

The Caretaker Chairman, 

Mr. Ade Adetimehin, in a 

statement by the state 

party’s Publicity Secretary, 

Alex Kalejaye said: “The 

party advises the main 

opposition party to accept 

the judgment in good faith, 

and put its house in order, 

while preparing for future 

elections.” 

On its part, the PDP 

vowed to appeal the 

judgement of the tribunal. 

The party’s Publicity 

Secretary, Kennedy Peretei, 

in a statement, said: “The 

PDP is convinced that we 

have a strong case for which 

we shall be vindicated at 

the end of the day.” 

Passenger hails AVSEC over return of missing 

N2.3m 

UYO—AN Uyo-bound 

passenger on Ibom Airline, 

Mr. George Etuk, has 

commended the Aviation 

Security, AVSEC, personnel at 

the Murtala Muhammed Airport 

Terminal 2, operated by Bi- 

Courtney Aviation Services 

Limited, BASL, after receiving his 

lost baggage containing the sum 

of N2,350,000 and other vital 

documents. 

The incident, according to 

BASL AVSEC Manager, Mr. 

Olatubosun Okeowo, occurred at 

about 1715hrs recently, while the 

passenger, who just returned from 

the United States, was at the 

terminal to link up with an Uyobound 

airline. 

It was gathered that the 

passenger was at the Ibom Airline 

check-in counter, alongside other 

intending passengers and, along 

the line, he got carried away and 

lost concentration on his bag. 

During the CCTV investigation 

by BASL AVSEC team, it was 

discovered that the bag was 

accidentally picked up by a fellow 

passenger. 

Okeowo said: “During our 

CCTV investigation, it was 

discovered that the bag was 

accidentally picked up by another 

intending passenger with the 

same airline. They were not aware 

at all. But after the flight was 

delayed, and the passengers had 

to find means to relax ahead of 

the rescheduled time, the 

anomaly came to the fore. 

“The other passenger who took 

the baggage unknowingly, too, 

had disappeared. On receiving 

the prompt message, our AVSEC 

team immediately swung into 

action to unravel what went 

wrong. With the aid of the CCTV, 

we were able to identify what 

happened, and we quickly went 

after the man who picked the bag. 

“The man was intercepted at 

the Drop Off Zone area, when he 

was about leaving for a nearby 

hotel to relax, since the flight was 

rescheduled.” 

The highly elated Etuk, who 

could not hide his gratitude, 

expressed appreciation for the 

professional manner with which 

the investigation was carried out, 

saying “their quick intervention 

was commendable because it 

saved the day.”

Vanguard, , WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 — 11 

:Vanguard :@vanguardnews :@vanguardnewsNEWS HOTLINES: 

Social Media Conversation 

VISIT—From left: CEO, Coollink, Shahin Nouri; French Minister Delegate for Foreign 

Trade and Economic Attractiveness, Franck Riester, and Co-founder, Wazobia Media, 

Tatiana Nouri, during the French minister's visit to AIM Group, in lagos, yesterday. 

Photo: Joseph Akintola, Photo Editor. 

INSECURITY: We’re dealing with 

consequences of 33% unemployment rate 

—Fayemi 

A Kayode BUJA—GOVERNOR 

Fayemi of Ekiti 

State stated, yesterday, that 

insecurity in Nigeria is a 

consequence 

of 

unemployment, adding that 

more steps should be taken to 

address the menace. 

Speaking at a programme 

tagged: Financing Safe Schools, 

Fayemi said there is a need for a 

coordinated response to 

unemployment and addressing 

the socio-economic effects on 

citizens. 

His words: “Even when we do 

all that is required of us, that is 

stemming the tide of the problem 

of insecurity and brigandage, I 

think we need to look at the 

broader socio-economic 

response. 

“It is good to be tough on crime. 

We must be tougher on the causes 

of crime. You cannot have a 33 

per cent unemployment rate in 

any country and not expect to deal 

Bayode goes 

home 

THE funeral rites for foremost 

educationist and former Principal, 

Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, Chief Olusola 

Bayode, a former President of All Nigeria 

Conference of Principals of Secondary 

Schools, Ondo State, who passed on in 

January aged 82, has begun. 

Family members and friends, Christ’s 

School community, as well as wellwishers, 

will converged on the school's 

premises, today, for a night of tributes in 

his honour. 

Burial services will hold at Saint Luke’s 

Anglican Church, Uro, Ikere-Ekiti, on 

Friday, after which a Christian Wake will 

be conducted. His body would later be 

interred at the church’s cemetery. 

• Late Chief Bayode 

with the sociological implication 

of that. And that is an area that 

the Nigeria Governors’ Forum 

believes we must also work 

collaboratively with our partners, 

also work with our financial 

institutions and the private sector 

to find the best mechanism to 

bring our youths to work. 

“If we do that, we would have 

fundamentally played our role in 

addressing the causes of this 

untoward crisis that the country 

is dealing with.” 

Also speaking on how insecurity 

has affected schoolchildren, the 

Minister of Women Affairs, 

Pauline Tallen, said Nigerians 

need to speak out against the 

“disturbing trend”. 

Lagos to renew clampdown on 

Okada, illegal abbatoirs 

By Olasunkanmi Akoni 

LAGOS—LAGOS 

State 

Government, yesterday, vowed to 

renew enforcement on the ban of 

commercial motorcyclists, popularly called 

Okada riders, following flagrant disregard 

to the provisions of the 2018 Lagos State 

Transport Sector Reform Law, restricting 

their operations in certain areas of the 

state. 

The state government also resumed 

the dislodgement of illegal abattoirs, 

slaughter houses, animal markets and 

other veterinary premises. 

Speaking at the opening ceremony of 

the 2021 Lagos Traffic Radio General 

Staff Retreat, themed: Rekindling the 

Workforce for Effective Performance in 

the New Normal’, the Commissioner for 

Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga 

Omotoso, said: “The menace of Okada 

riders has been of great concern to the 

Tallen said: “Since 2014, it has 

been one incident after the other. 

We’ve been battling with out-ofschool 

children, ensuring that we 

reach out and increase advocacy 

for our children to be in school. 

“But with the insecurity, what 

has happened in Zamfara, 

Kagara, Kaduna has created so 

much fear in the minds of 

parents. And if parents are scared 

of sending children to schools, 

where do we run to? 

“Education is the greatest hope, 

life, wealth, and power. I call on 

all of us to be ambassadors, vanguards of 

speaking out, of giving the right 

information to our security chiefs. 

Government alone cannot do all. It is an 

emergency on our hands.” 

state government, especially the 

increasing rate of crimes being 

perpetrated by some of the operators, and 

decisive steps will soon be taken to curb 

their excesses. 

“Also, the government is planning the 

procurement of seven new ferries to 

strengthen water transportation, so that 

when people have different alternatives 

that are safer and reliable, this menace 

of Okada will not only be a thing of the 

past, but also improve the security of 

Lagosians.” 

On the dislodgement of illegal abattoirs, 

slaughter houses, animal markets and 

other veterinary premises, the 

Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. 

Abisola Olusanya, stated that the 

exercise was in continuation of the state 

government’s sanitization and reform of 

the red meat value chain with the goal of 

producing wholesome meat for the 

consumption of its citizenry. 

Disregard call for Pantami’s sack, 

CSOs tell Buhari 

By Gabriel Olawale 

LAGOS—COALITION of Civil 

Society for Good Governance said, 

yesterday, that the ongoing call for the 

resignation of the Minister of 

Communications and Digital Economy, 

Dr. Isa Pantami, is a well-funded 

programme, aimed at heightening 

insecurity in the country. 

Addressing a press conference in 

Lagos, the coordinator of the coalition, 

Comrade Declan Ihekaire, said: “We are 

forced to publicly condemn the ongoing 

well-coordinated campaign of calumny 

against Dr. Pantami, by those, whom we 

have discovered, are opposed, not only 

to the digital revolution of our economy 

but also the efforts of the ministry, under 

his Leadership, particularly the 

compulsory National Identification 

Number, NIN, which these unpatriotic 

Nigerians, have exploited over the years 

to fester insecurity in the country, when 

the use of mobile telecommunication 

devices, became a veritable tool for 

kidnappers, terrorists and other criminals, 

who operates under the cover of being 

anonymous to perpetrate evil 

unhindered. 

“We dare say that Pantami’s sincere 

admission of once holding radical views, 

is an unusual display of sincerity, 

patriotism and we see this, has a welcome 

step.” 

Poverty is bad! 

A gourmet of local salad laced with...?! 

Equity? Raise the volume!




VISIT: Delta State Head of Service, Mr. Reginald Bayoko (middle); Chairman of 

Association of Delta State Public Officers Loan Scheme Operators, Prince Edwin Ozoma 

(2nd left) with other members of the association moments after the group paid a courtesy 

visit on the Head of Service, Asaba, Delta State. 

ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE OF OFFICE: 

Emami to appear before disciplinary c'ttee 

of Warri Council of Chiefs today 

By Jimitota 

Onoyume 

WARRI— Chief Ayiri 

Emami is to appear 

before a disciplinary 

committee of the Warri 

Council of Chiefs today, over 

allegations of abuse of office 

as Ologbotsere of Warri 

Kingdom. 

It will be recalled that the 

Regent of the kingdom, 

Prince Emmanuel Okotie- 

Eboh, at a recent press 

briefing in front of the palace 

of the Olu of Warri on 

Ajamimogha Road, Warri 

South Local Government 

Area, Delta State, had 

announced the suspension 

of Chief Ayiri as the 

Ologbotsere of the kingdom 

over allegations of abuse of 

office. 

Meanwhile, Secretary of 

the Disciplinary Committee, 

Chief Robinson Ariyo, the 

Egogo of Warri Kingdom, in 

a statement, said others to 

appear before it at a later date 

are Chiefs Richmond 

Mcgray and Samuel 

Omamuli. 

He said the committee 

would afford them the 

opportunity to respond to the 

various allegations levied 

against them. 

He said: “The committee 

was established in 

accordance with the Code of 

Ethics and Conduct of the 

Chiefs of Warri Kingdom. 

The Itsekiris are a very lawabiding 

people, each of the 

chefs involved will be given 

adequate opportunity and 

time to respond to the 

allegations in line with the 

principle of fair hearing and 

each allegation will be 

determined on its merit.” 

He said some of the 

allegations against Emami 

were that at a time, he wore 

an attire with the inscription 

“I am the King” that went 

viral on social media. 

He said: “Chief Emami at 

the material time, proceeded 

to attire himself in a wear on 

which the inscription, “I am 

the King” was boldly made 

and published on the social 

media, to his shredding of a 

letter sent to him by Ruling 

House and delivered to him 

personally, which letter was 

entitled 'Re: Nomination and 

Transmission of Prince 

Utieyinoritsetsola Emiko 

(Omoba) as the successor to 

the Ancient Throne of the 

Olu of Warri'. 

“Others to appear before 

the committee on a separate 

date, include Chief 

Richmond Mcgray, who is 

alleged to have caused the 

publication and postings of 

messages (written and 

audio), on the WhatsApp 

group of the Warri Council 

of Chiefs, the contents of 

which publication are now 

circulating on the social 

media, wherein, Chief 

Mcgray made very 

derogatory remarks about the 

council and his fellow chiefs; 

thereby, allegedly bringing 

the Warri Council of Chiefs 

and the Olu Advisory 

Council to disrepute. 

“Also, to appear before the 

committee on similar 

allegations is Chief Samuel 

Omamuli. The later chiefs 

are to appear on April 28, 

2021.” 

Insecurity: Onuesoke berates Buhari, 

says Nigeria hanging on a thread 

By Festus Ahon 

ASABA— A former Delta 

State governorship 

aspirant and chieftain ofPeoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, Chief 

Sunny Onuesoke, has berated 

President Muhammadu 

Buhari over the high rate of 

insecurity, unemployment and 

disregard for Nigeria’s 

constitution, lamenting that 

Nigeria is hanging on a thread. 

Onuesoke, in a chat with 

newsmen at the Murtala 

Muhammed International 

Airport, Lagos, said Nigeria is 

at crossroads. 

He said: “The worsening 

security situation, hypergeometric 

inflation rate, free fall 

of the naira, capital flight, 

quadruple-rising 

unemployment rate, FDI 

shortfall, flagrant disregard for 

the constitution and brazen 

corruption by the Buhari-led 

government has become the 

new normal in our national life. 

“Lack of focus and policy flipflops 

have put our economy in 

jeopardy and in a state of 

comatose. Failure by the Buhariled 

government to curb and 

tackle the security situation in 

the country has led to desolation, 

despair and fear among citizens 

who can no longer sleep with 

their two eyes closed since the 

government has become 

helpless in securing their lives 

and property. 

“This government has 

polarized Nigeria along ethnic 

and religious line; never has this 

country been so divided across 

ethnic and religious line like we 

have today under this 

government built on nepotism 

and ethnicism, not forgetting 

that we currently have a known 

terrorist apologist as a member 

of the federal cabinet as the head 

of a very sensitive government 

office. 

“It is not surprising that 

Nigeria has become the world 

headquarters for extreme 

poverty and the country with the 

highest unemployment 

population within a space of five 

years of this government, whose 

only aspiration and agenda are 

to pursue and encourage 

policies and programmes that 

tend to divide us as a people. 

“The economy has been so 

bastardized to the point that we 

have resorted to the printing of 

naira notes to augment 

government expense. 

“We are in a much worse 

situation, and you can see today 

that ordinary Nigerians are 

bearing the brunt in form of high 

price for even the smallest of the 

commodity." 

Land disputes: No land is 

worth blood of any Deltan 

— Okowa 

By Festus Ahon 

AIfeanyi SABA—GOVERNOR 

Okowa of Delta 

State, yesterday, said no land 

is worth the blood of any 

Deltan and charged 

communities against taking 

up arms when there are land 

disputes. 

Okowa, who gave the 

warning in Asaba, while 

receiving the report of the 

Judicial Commission of 

Enquiry into the boundary 

dispute between Ozoro and 

Oleh communities in Isoko 

North and Isoko South Local 

Government Areas of the 

state, insisted that no land 

“should actually lead to the 

death of any person whether 

the person is from Oleh, 

Ozoro or any other part of the 

state.” 

Assuring that the 

commission’s report would 

be processed with a view to 

raising a White Paper that 

would permanently resolve 

the boundary dispute 

between the feuding 

communities, he said: “We 

will process both the findings 

and recommendations 

through the normal processes 

that it has to go and we will 

be able to come out with a 

white paper as quickly as 

possible. 

“We want to assure you of 

that because the only way we 

can truly say thank you is to 

ensure that the work you 

have brought forth and spent 

your time to present the 

report today translates to 

peace among our people of 

Ozoro and Oleh 

communities.” 

He acknowledged that 

there were many boundary 

disputes in parts of the state 

and country, adding: “By the 

grace of God, we have 

continued to tackle issues 

concerning boundaries with 

a lot of tact and a lot of appeals. 

We do this by ensuring that 

we follow through with the 

processing integrity to ensure 

that we are able to resolve as 

many boundary disputes as 

possible. 

Meanwhile, the State 

Executive Council, yesterday 

approved N221 million for the 

enhancement of cassava 

production. 

Edo spends N6bn on primary 

education infrastructure 

By Ozioruva Aliu 

BENIN CITY – AS part 

of its efforts to improve 

primary education, the 

administration of Governor 

Godwin Obaseki of Edo 

State, said no fewer than N6 

billion, including counterpart 

funding, had been spent in 

providing infrastructure for 

public primary schools in the 

state in the last three years. 

Chairman, State Universal 

Basic Education Board, Dr 

Joan Oviawe, who made the 

disclosure, yesterday, at an 

interaction with newsmen to 

mark the third anniversary of 

the launch of EdoBEST (Edo 

Basic Education Sector 

Transformation), said not less 

than seven million education 

materials, including 

textbooks and others had 

been distributed to pupils. 

She said of the 1,046 public 

primary schools in the state, 

only 186 have not been linked 

to the EdoBEST, which efforts 

she said was slowed down 

by the COVID-19 but 

assured that all the schools 

would become part of the 

transformation programme 

before the end of the year. 

She said: “What has been 

put into the reform efforts by 

the Governor Obaseki 

administration is 

unquantifiable in terms of 

human and material 

resources but the key thing 

is the effort that has been put 

in because the governor is a 

data-driven decision-maker, 

so every decision that is taken 

is backed by facts. 

“In the area of 

infrastructure, I will say at 

least N6 bilion in state and 

counterpart funding had 

been expended in 

infrastructure. We already 

know the cost of having every 

child in the classroom, 

including the training of the 

teachers, the smartphones 

that the headteachers use to 

sync with the tablet of the 

teachers, the textbooks and 

other educational materials 

are there." 

Nembe lawyers seek end to 

armed agitation in N-Delta 

By Samuel 

Oyadongha & 

Emem Idio 

YENAGOA –Lawyers of 

Nembe extraction in 

Bayelsa State under the aegis 

of Nembe Se Lawyers Forum 

have called for an end to 

violent agitation as a means 

of attracting attention to the 

underdevelopment in the oil 

and gas-rich Niger Delta. 

Speaking at a virtual 

conference, a traditional ruler 

in Nembe, His Royal 

Highness, King Serena 

Dokubo-Spiff, said the 

lawyers in the area were 

committed to the 

enthronement of lawful 

means of conflict resolution. 

Dokubo-Spiff, who is also 

a leader of the forum noted 

that given the rich natural 

endowment of oil, gas and 

maritime potentials, the 

people would reap immense 

benefits if the resources were 

harnessed in an atmosphere 

of peace. 

According to him, there are 

so many opportunities in the 

economic activities in the area 

but noted with regret the 

dearth of capacity on the part 

of legal practitioners to 

leverage on them. 

He said the Nembe Se 

Forum had concluded plans 

to build the capacity of 

lawyers to drive the 

development of Niger Delta 

and reposition the area to 

attract more investments. 

Dokubo-Spiff said the 

forum had scheduled a 

professional development 

and networking session for 

May 3, 2021, with the theme: 

Law Practice in 

Contemporary Times,” to 

enhance the skills and 

preparedness of lawyers in 

the emerging environment. 

In his remarks, Mr Iniruo 

Wills, who is the Planning 

Team Lead for the event 

noted, that the Nembe Se 

Lawyers Forum was working 

to harness the expertise of 

professional groups from the 

area to drive the process of 

development. 

PDP youths stop screening of 

supervisory councillors in Isoko 

North 

By Festus Ahon & 

Ochuko Akuopha 

OZORO— THE internal 

wrangling rocking the 

Peoples Democratic Party, 

PDP, in Isoko North Local 

Government Area, Delta 

State, degenerated, 

yesterday, following the 

disruption of the proposed 

screening of Supervisory 

Councillors by aggrieved 

youths of the party. 

The protesting youths from the 

13 wards of the council stormed 

the Isoko North secretariat, 

disrupted official activities and 

the proposed sitting by the 

council’s legislative arm to 

screen the selected supervisory 

councillors. 

The youths kicked against the 

selection process of the 

supervisory councillors, which 

they alleged was carried out by 

few leaders in the council. 

One of the leaders of the 

protesters, Joseph Owhologbo, 

from Ellu Ward said: “We are 

protesting the wrong selection 

of supervisory councillors, they 

are supposed to be screened 

today, being done by the council 

chairman, Christian Iteire; 

Isoko North PDP Chairman, 

Prince Godwin Ogorugba and 

a few other leaders. 

“They selected the supervisory 

councillors without consulting 

other leaders such as Elder 

Emmanuel Ogidi, Chief 

Ovuozourie Macaulay, Jude 

Ogbimi, Chief Kome Okpobor, 

Chief Philip Adheke, Dr Nelson 

Ejakpovi and other leaders from 

the 13 wards in Isoko North 

council. This is wrong, we cannot 

fold our hands to watch this 

insolence being done.


By Anayo Okoli, 

Chinonso Alozie, 

Chimaobi 

Nwaiwu,Chinedu 

Adonu & 

Ugochukwu Alaribe 

THE 

FEDERAL 

Government yesterday 

expressed angst over the 

decision of the United 

Kingdom to offer asylum to 

'persecuted' member of 

Indigenous People of Biafra, 

IPOB, and Movement for the 

Actualisation of Sovereign 

State of Biafra, MASSOB. 

The UK Visas and 

Immigration had released 

new guildelines to its decision 

makers on how to consider 

and grant asylum 

applications by members of 

Biafran secessionist groups, 

according to online platform, 

TheCable. 

Asylum is to be granted to 

‘persecuted‘ members of the 

Indigenous People of 

Biafra,IPOB, which has been 

designated as a terrorist 

organisation by the Nigerian 

government and the 

Movement for the 

Actualisation of the 

Sovereign State of Biafra 

(MASSOB). 

IPOB was formed in 2012 

by Nnamdi Kanu and is 

believed to be an offshoot of 

MASSOB, which was 

founded in 1999 by Ralph 

Uwazuruike. 

Both are campaigning for 

the secession of mainly the 

South East but also several 

other ethnic nationalities 

from Nigeria. 

In the just-released ‘Country 

Policy and Information Note 

Nigeria: Biafran secessionist 

groups’ seen by TheCable, the 

UKVI, a division of the Home 

Office, directed its decision 

makers to consider if a person 

“who actively and openly 

supports IPOB is likely to be 

at risk of arrest and detention 

and ill-treatment which is 

likely to amount to 



FG fumes as UK offers asylum to 

IPOB, MASSOB members 

•UK to grant asylum to persecuted IPOB, MASSOB members 

•UK disrespectful, sabotaging terrorism fight, says FG •What Biafrans 

need, cherish most is referendum —IPOB •Ohanaeze Ndigbo tasks 

Buhari to embrace dialogue •UK wants to pacify Igbos —INC 

•President Muhammadu Buhari 

persecution”. 

According to the guidelines, 

the decision makers “must 

also consider if the Nigerian 

government’s actions are acts 

of prosecution or not 

persecution. Those fleeing 

prosecution or punishment 

for a criminal offence are not 

normally refugees. 

Prosecution may, however, 

amount to persecution if it 

involves victimisation in its 

application by the 

authorities”. 

An example of persecution, 

the UKVI said, is “if it is the 

vehicle or excuse for or if only 

certain groups are prosecuted 

for a particular offence and 

the consequences of that 

discrimination are sufficiently 

severe. Punishment which is 

cruel, inhuman or degrading, 

including punishment which 

is out of all proportion to the 

offence committed, may also 

amount to persecution”. 

They are also to “consider 

each case on its facts to 

determine if the person is 

likely to be of interest to the 

Nigerian government and 

whether this is for the 

legitimate grounds of 

prosecution which is 

proportionate and nondiscriminatory.” 

The onus is on the 

applicants to demonstrate 

that they will be “at risk of 

persecution or serious harm” 

in Nigeria, according to the 

guidelines. 

In particular, the decision 

makers are to consider each 

case on its facts, taking into 

account: profile, size and 

organisation of the group/ 

organisation to which the 

person belongs and its 

activities; whether a person in 

the UK would wish to 

continue their activism if 

returned to Nigeria (if not, 

why not); whether the group/ 

organisation has a presence 

in Nigeria as well as outside 

of the country and any 

evidence that it is being 

monitored by the 

•Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister 

government; person’s profile 

and political activities 

(including those online) and 

relevant documentary or 

other evidence; profile and 

activities of family members 

and past treatment. 

The UK acknowledged that 

the Nigerian government has 

a responsibility to maintain 

law and order, “to prevent and 

protect the public against acts 

of violence.” 

It said where supporters or 

members of MASSOB or 

IPOB have incited or used 

violence to disrupt public 

order, the government may 

have legitimate grounds to 

arrest and prosecute those 

people. 

“However, where the 

government has arrested and 

detained persons who, for 

example, peacefully 

participate in demonstrations 

and has then charged them 

with treason or the person is 

subjected to periods of 

detention in degrading or 

inhuman conditions, such 

treatment is unlikely to be fair 

or proportionate, and is likely 

to amount to persecution,” the 

guidelines noted. 

The UK defined ‘Biafra’ as 

an area “in the south-east of 

Nigeria that comprises the 

states of Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, 

Enugu and Anambra. The 

area is inhabited principally 

by Igbo (Ibo) people who are 

one of the country’s three 

largest ethnic groups”. 

The UK, which is a 

signatory to several human 

rights and refugee 

conventions, believes Biafran 

secessionist agitations are 

covered by one or more of the 

following policies: A person 

is reasonably likely to face a 

real risk of persecution or 

serious harm; The general 

humanitarian situation is so 

severe as to breach Article 

15(b) of European Council 

Directive 2004/83/EC (the 

Qualification Directive)/ 

Article 3 of the European 

Convention on Human Rights 

as transposed in paragraph 

339C and 339CA(iii) of the 

Immigration Rules; The 

security situation presents a 

real risk to a civilian’s life or 

person such that it would 

breach Article 15(c) of the 

Qualification Directive as 

transposed in paragraph 

339C and 339CA(iv) of the 

Immigration Rules; A person 

is able to obtain protection 

from the state (or quasi state 

bodies); A person is reasonably 

able to relocate within a 

country or territory; A claim 

is likely to justify granting 

asylum, humanitarian 

protection or other form of 

leave and; If a claim is refused, 

it is likely or unlikely to be 

certifiable as ‘clearly 

unfounded’ under section 94 

of the Nationality, 

Immigration and Asylum Act 

2002. 

However, decision makers 

are directly to still consider all 

claims on an individual basis, 

taking into account each 

case’s specific facts. 

UK disrespectful, 

sabotaging 

terrorism fight, 

says FG 

Irked by the decision of the 

United Kingdom, the Federal 

Government described it as 

disrespectful of Nigeria as a 

nation. 

The Minister of 

Information and Culture, 

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said 

that the decision amounted to 

sabotaging the fight against 

terrorism and generally 

undermining Nigeria’s 

security. 

Fielding questions at a 

News Agency of Nigeria 

(NAN) flagship interview 

programme, NAN Forum, 

yesterday in Abuja, 

Mohammed said the decision 

is unacceptable to Nigeria. 

“Let me say straightaway 

that this issue is within the 

purview of the Honourable 

Minister of Foreign Affairs 

and I am sure he will handle 

it appropriately. But as the 

spokesman for the Federal 

Government of Nigeria, I will 

say that if indeed the report 

that the UK will grant asylum 

to supposedly persecuted 

IPOB and MASSOB 

members is true, then 

something is wrong 

somewhere. 

“Against the background of 

the fact that IPOB is not only 

proscribed but also 

designated as a terrorist 

organisation here in Nigeria, 

the UK’s decision is 

disrespectful of Nigeria as a 

nation. The decision amounts 

to sabotaging the fight against 

terrorism and generally 

undermining Nigeria’s 

security. It is not only 

unconscionable, it is 

inexplicable,’’ he said. 

The minister said that there 

had recently been heightened 

attacks against security 

agencies in the South East 

Zone. 

He said IPOB had been 

fingered as being behind the 

attacks inspite of its denials. 

“For the UK to choose this 

time to give succour to IPOB 

beggars belief and calls to 

question the UK’s real 

intention. If we could go down 

the memory lane, what the 

UK has done is like Nigeria 

offering asylum to members 

of the IRA before the 1998 

Good Friday Peace 

Agreement,’’ he said. 

What Biafrans 

need, cherish most 

is referendum, 

not UK asylum 

—IPOB 

In its reaction, the 

Indigenous People of Biafra, 

IPOB, in a statement by its 

Media and Publicity 

Secretary, Emma powerful 

said that what they need is 

referendum and not asulum. 

IPOB's statement entitled, 

"We need Referendum not 

Asylum, IPOB tells UK 

Government" however 

commended the United 

Kingdom for what it called 

their bold initiative and 

thanked them most 

graciously. 

IPOB's statement read in 

part: "We, the global family of 

the Indigenous People of 

Biafra, IPOB, ably led by our 

great and indomitable leader, 

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has 

noted with satisfaction the 

news that the United 

Kingdom has agreed to grant 

asylum to persecuted Biafra 

agitators resident in the UK. 

"While we commend them 

for this bold initiative, we wish 

to most graciously remind 

them that what we Biafrans 

need and cherish the most is 

referendum and not asylum 

in the UK. 

"We are tired of living in 

bondage in the devilish 

contraption called Nigeria 

they single-handedly created. 

We would not wish our 

children, now and generations 

unborn, to share the same 

geo-political space with those 

that reward terrorists and 

criminalize law abiding 

citizens. 

"We particularly thank the 

UK government for 

confirming what the rest of the 

civilized world already know 

that the great IPOB worldwide 

family are not TERRORISTS 

but peaceful agitators and 

freedom fighters. 

"That Nigeria is a country 

run by terrorists for the benefit 

of terrorists has been 

confirmed by this noble move 

by the United Kingdom. 

"Aso Rock, the seat of power 

in Nigeria is a terrorist haven 

with serving ministers who are 

openly sympathetic to 

terrorists and their activities 

coming and going as they 

please, while freedom fighters 

are languishing in jail. We 

want freedom, not asylum." 

UK wants to 

pacify Igbos 

—INC 

Also reacting, the Igbo 

National Council, INC, 

yesterday said the United 

Kingdom wants to pacify the 

Igbo people over the wrongs 

did to them. 

INC President, Chilos 

Godsent argued that it was 

part of the move by UK to 

address the anomalies which 

they had supported in Nigeria. 

But however, the INC said 

that it believed that the UK 

was not sincere in their move 

for asylum. 

According to INC President, 

"the only thing is that the UK 

is trying to address some of 

the anomalies targeted on the 

Igbo nation. They want the 

Igbo to feel pacified and 

believe that the UK is in for 

social justice. 

"The UK wants to redeem 

its image. In the history of 

Nigeria, the UK has not 

shown any support for the 

Igbo nation. They know that 

things have fallen apart in 

Nigeria. 

"The damage has been done. 

It cannot be cleaned. They just 

want to pacify the Igbos. The 

UK government is not sincere 

and genuine in their move." 

Ohanaeze tasks 

Buhari to embrace 

dialogue 

Following the government's 

condemnation of the asylum 

proposal, apex Igbo socio 

cultural organization, 

Ohanaeze Ndigbo has 

tasked President 

Muhammadu Buhari to 

change his style of dealing 

with issues concerning the 

South East and the 

agitation for an 

independent state of Biafra. 

Secretary General, 

Ohanaeze Ndigbo , Engr. 

Chidi Ibeh faction, said 

Buhari should embrace 

dialogue in dealing with 

secessionist threats rather 

than resorting to " an eye for 

an eye". 

“What's good for the goose 

is also good for the gander. 

It's not fair to use carrot and 

stick policy for bandits and 

Boko Haram members in 

the north and use brutal 

force against secessionist 

groups in the south. 

“Negotiations are the best 

approach for rebuilding 

trust and confidence 

amongst secessionist 

groups. Incarceration and 

military actions are 

outdated weapons used to 

win the battle against 

secessionist threats.” 

Also reacting, Movement 

for the Actualization of the 

Sovereign State of Biafra, 

MASSOB, rejected the offer 

of asylum from Britain for its 

members being persecuted by 

the Nigerian Government, 

saying the offer is an 

arrangement with President 

Muhammadu Buhari-led 

federal government to divert 

the attention of the people of 

Biafra 

He commended the UK 

and other western nations 

for accepting to grant 

asylum to persecuted 

Biafran agitators.




Don’t be distracted from daily 

worship 

AMONG the things 

that can destroy the 

rewards of fasting is allowing 

oneself to be distracted by being 

engrossed in TV shows, movies, 

soap operas, football matches 

especially the common European 

and English championship; 

playing games, idle talk and 

gathering among others. These 

most times, distract Muslims from 

daily congregational prayers and 

other ibadah in this month. Some 

fasting Muslims also use most 

time of the day to sleep so as to 

avoid the pangs of hunger and 

thus spend the night in 

entertainment and indulging in 

their desires. 

These acts diminish the 

rewards of a Fasting Muslim. The 

month, both day and night 

should be used to the fullest in 

gaining the rewards in it. It is 

important we have to work, 

though, even as we go about our 

businesses in the halaal way, we 

have to minimise our mundane 

involvements and maximise our 

acts of worship. 

We can change the sinful 

lifestyles that have crept into our 

lives. To do this, we need to exert 

ourselves more in spiritual 

matters this period. It is only a 

Workers strike over unfair labour 

practice by Chinese firm 

Group focuses on mental, physical 

well-being in movie premiere 

AWARD: From right, Security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, the Vice Chancellor, European American 

University, Prof. JC Egbuta, the awardee, Dr. Victoria Ekhomu, the Registrar, Dr. Amaechi and Director 

of Academic Planning, Dr. Aro Olusegun at the conferment of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) in 

Industrial Security and Risk Management on Voctoria, yesterday. 

Benue leaders demand arrest, prosecution 

of killers of 12 soldiers in Konshisha LG 

By Peter Duru 

M 

A K U R D I — 

BENUE leaders and 

stakeholders have demanded for 

the arrest and prosecution of 

those involved in the Easter 

Monday murder of 12 Nigerian 

soldiers at Bonta community in 

Konshisha Local Government 

Area, LGA, of the state. 

The leaders also mandated 

Governor Samuel Ortom to lead 

a delegation from the state to visit 

President Muhammadu Buhari 

to condole with him and thank 

him for his patience and 

understanding. 

This was contained in the 

communiqué issued yesterday in 

Makurdi at the end of the Benue 

State Security Council/ 

Stakeholders Meeting on 

security challenges in the state. 

While condemning any form of 

attack on security agencies, the 

meeting commended Governor 

Ortom and Konshisha 

COVID-19: FG laments death of 2, 000 

By Ibrahim Hassan Other grievances of the 

Nigerians 

MEMBERS of the 

National Union of 

Engineering 

Civil 

Construction, Furniture and 

Wood Workers, NUCEECFWW 

have begun a nationwide strike 

against China Zhonghao 

Nigeria Ltd over alleged unfair 

labour practices. 

Chairman of the Kaduna 

State Council of the Union, 

Shola Oyelayo, accused the 

company of violating the 

nation’s labour law, among 

other issues. 

“Some of the labour laws that 

the China Zhonghao Nigeria 

Limited violated included 

casualization of workers, noncompliance 

with health and 

safety standards at work 

place,” he said. 

TO ease the stress 

imposed by daily hustle, 

Freak Media Limited, 

organizer of Movie X Event 

will weekend celebrate its 

second edition, billed to be the 

first ever outdoor movie 

premiere in Nigeria. 

In a media chat, the organizer 

of the event said the premiere 

promises to be a unique one with 

an unconventional screening 

style of having to see movies in 

the most memorable settings, 

with wellness theme that 

would support physical and 

mental well being as a way of 

encouraging young adults to do 

away with stress and think about 

their health just as often as they 

consider their wealth. 

“This edition would be 

premiering a Nevada Bridge T.V. 

exclusive movie and have some 

month and must be used to the 

fullest. 

We know that in this month 

the Prophet (s.a.w) beside fasting 

during the day, prayed for longer 

hours at night, exerted more in 

Allah’s dhikr (remembrance), 

humbled himself before His 

Creator, and showed his love and 

fear of Allah and special reverence 

for this month. This Ramadan we, 

too, need to take the minutes and 

the hours from our schedules to 

exert more in worship of Allah. 

This is the only way Ramadan 

can positively change our lives 

for better. 

The Children 

Endeavour to encourage your 

children to recite Quran regularly 

every day even if it be a little. 

This will not only instill discipline 

in them but will also make them 

know more about the words of 

God. 

Wake them up for Tahajud, 

Suhoor and Fajr prayers. Build 

their confidence by encouraging 

them (especially the younger 

ones under ten years old) to fast 

even for a few hours or half a day. 

Let them perform Salat together 

while you pray. Teach them one 

new things about Ramadan 

every day, on dua, Quran, 

Hadith, benefit of fasting and 

Taraweeh, Charity, etc. 

workers included nonimplementation 

of condition of 

service, non-payment of outof-station 

and transfer 

allowances and poor industrial 

relationship practice. 

Oyelayo lamented that the 

union held series of meetings 

with the management but 

failed to address their demands. 

He said the workers 

embarked on indefinite strike 

after the expiration of 14 days 

ultimatum, explaining that the 

strike was nationwide and all 

the gates of the company 

would remain closed till further 

notice. 

The Director of China 

Zhonghao Nigeria Limited, Mr 

Liu said the firm would call for 

an emergency meeting to 

address the workers’ demands. 

of the biggest A-list Nigerian 

celebrities in attendance,” the 

statement read. 

The event, which is 

scheduled for this Saturday, 

is to be aired at the Amore 

Gardens, Freedom way Lekki 

Phase 1 in Lagos. 

The organiser also added that 

the event is billed to start with a 

red carpet walkway and guests 

are encouraged to dress casually, 

noting that the event is 

positioned to attract a wide media 

attention. 

“Movie X is more about a 

unique experience rather than 

the movie itself. Movie X can air 

anywhere but the cinema house. 

We hope to give people more 

options when it comes to movie 

screening as against the very 

conventional cinema house 

style,” the organiser said. 

By David Odama 

LAFIA—THE Federal 


decried the death of over 2,000 

Nigerians due to COVID-19 

pandemic and urged 

stakeholders to mobilize against 

the virus. 

The Secretary to the 

Government of the Federation, 

SGF, Boss Mustapha stated this 

at the Presidential Steering 

Committee on COVID-19 town 

hall meeting on COVID-19 

vaccination for North Central 

Zone in Lafia, Nasarawa Sate 

capital. 

According to Mustapha who is 

also the Chairman Steering 

Committee, CSC, on COVID-19, 

over 142 million persons in 

Nigeria had contracted the virus, 

noting that the country was yet 

to receive negative report on the 

effect of the vaccine administered 

on people since the receipt of the 

Oxford AstraZanica vaccine in 

March this year. 

While noting that the nation 

would soon overcome the 

pandemic, the SGF disclosed that 

travelling out of the country 

would henceforth be determined 

by COVID-19 vaccination. 

Also speaking, Minister of 

Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire said 

2,060 Nigerians had died of 

COVID-19 since the first case of 

the disease was confirmed in 

Lagos on February 27, 2020. 

According to the minister, the 

COVID-19 pandemic had slowed 

the country’s Gross Domestic 

Product GDP by 23 percent due 

to the downturn in the economic 

activities within and outside 

Nigeria as well as the 

international trading partners. 

•As Nasarawa receives 61, 350 doses of 

Astrazeneca vaccine 

He said the Federal 

Government had successfully 

taken delivery of the first batch of 

four million doses of the COVID- 

19 vaccines on March 2, 2021. 

On his part, Governor 

Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa 

Miyetti Allah leader's peace award, scandalous, 

mockery of Tiv nation — MUT 

By Peter Duru 

M AKURDI—AN 

umbrella body of Tiv 

speaking people, worldwide, The 

Mzough U Tiv, MUT, has 

distanced itself from the peace 

award given to the President of 

Miyetti Allah Kauta Hore, by a 

Tiv Unity Forum, TUF, 

describing it as scandalous, 

mischievous, a blasphemy and 

mockery of the Tiv nation. 

The MUT in a statement, 

yesterday signed by the 

President General, Chief Iorbee 

Ihagh and Secretary General, 

Luther Iorbee in Makurdi, said 

Solomon Semakaa of TUF had 

no mandate of the union or that 

of the Tiv Traditional Council, 

TTC, to bestow the said award. 

Part of the statement read, “We 

want the world to know that TUF 

is a sycophantic and a self seeking 

partisan organisation which is not 

recognised as a socio-cultural 

organisation in Tiv land by both 

Mdzough U Tiv and the Tiv 

Traditional Council. The group 

does not have the power to speak, 

act and conduct any activity of 

such a magnitude for and on 

behalf of the Tiv people. 

“We view the conferment of 

award by this group on the 

leadership of Miyetti Allah as 

stakeholders for ensuring the 

recovery of 11 out of the 12 

weapons that were taken away 

from the murdered soldiers urging 

that efforts be intensified to 

recover the remainder 

The meeting also commended 

the efforts made by the governor 

to ensure peace and security in 

the State as well as preventing 

the escalation of the crisis in 

Konshisha LGA. 

Part of the communiqué read, 

“the meeting recommends 

State, announced that the state 

received 61, 350 doses of 

Astrazeneca vaccine and had 

administered most of them on the 

people in the state. 

He said the state government 

would commence second phase 

of the jab this May. 

scandalous and mischievous and 

must not be misconstrued by the 

public as a true reflection of the 

feelings and aspirations of the Tiv 

people. 

“It is also an act of blasphemy, 

mockery to the Tiv nation and 

blunt disregard for the 

uncountable deaths of innocent 

and defenseless Benue citizens 

By Bose Adelaja 

THE Executive Chairman 

of Igbogbo/Bayeku Local 

Council Development Area 

(LCDA), in Ikorodu, Lagos 

State, Mr Olusesan Daini has 

said that the council would 

build two more Police stations 

and posts within the area. 

Daini, who spoke while 

rendering his account of 

stewardship within 1,358 days in 

office, at the Council Secretariat, 

said this will improve the security 

situation in the LCDA. 

The Council Chairman said 

with the approval of the state 

government, the Police 

stations would be cited at 

Elepe and Agunfoye areas, 

adding that a family has 

increased surveillance in Benue 

communities while monarchs and 

other stakeholders should 

support security agencies 

through intelligence gathering. 

The meeting cautions politicians 

against the use of thugs to harass 

opponents and charges leaders 

at all levels to intensify synergy 

in combating criminality in the 

state. 

“The meeting recommends 

that all illegal revenue check 

points in the state be dismantled 

with immediate effect. The 

meeting supports the call for 

restructuring and devolution of 

powers, as well as a review of the 

revenue sharing formula. The 

meeting recommends that 

security support be provided to 

traditional rulers to enable them 

discharge their duties effectively 

at the grassroots level.” 

The meeting had in 

attendance political and religious 

leaders as well as traditional rulers 

from the three senatorial zones. 

in the wicked hands of blood 

thirsty herdsmen militia over the 

years. 

“Hence the purported award 

is merely a calculated attempt to 

jeopardize and scuttle the 

collective determination of the 

Benue people to protect and 

defend themselves from the 

orchestrated agenda of the 

Fulani herdsmen.'' 

Council plans more police 

stations, clears drainages 

donated six plots of land at 

Elepe for the project. 

According to him, plans were 

underway to also cite a Marine 

Police post in Ibeshe area of the 

LCDA to curtail and ensure 

security of lives and property in 

the area. 

Daini said the council has 

embarked on repair works on 

canals and clearing of drainages 

to make the roads passable ahead 

of the rainy season. These, he 

said, would reduce flooding, 

accidents and ease movement of 

motorists during the rainy 

season. 

He said: “As part of our efforts 

to ensure adequate security, we 

constructed 63 squadron base of 

the Nigeria Police Mobile Force 

in Igbogbo Baiyeku.''

C 

M 

Y 

K 


Truecaller’s new anti-fraud solution builds business-client confidence 


Telephone search engine and 

caller identification, ID 

service provider, Truecaller, has 

introduced a new identity 

solution, Truecaller Business 

Identity, for businesses to 

reinforce safety and eliminate 

fraud. 

The enterprise solution makes 

business calls tamper-proof and 

increases consumer safety by 

preventing fraud and scam calls. 

It allows businesses to verify 

their identities using a green 

verified business badge, 

accurately presenting the name, 

photo and the logo of the 

organisation. 

Truecaller said the new solution 

brings greater trust and efficiency 

in communication between 

businesses and clients as it gives 

confidence to consumers, 

knowing that the caller is a 

verified business by Truecaller. 

Apart from adding trust and 

reducing the possibility of fraud, 

a Verified Business badge can be 

a big boom for start-ups and 

businesses who are brandconscious 

and want to accurately 

present the name of their entity, 

logo and give their customers the 

satisfaction of knowing exactly 

who they are conducting 

business with. The new feature 

also allows businesses to drive 

efficiency in their 

communications while 

improving call-pickup rates for 

genuine and important calls. 

Speaking during the launch, 

Zakaria Hersi, Director of 

Business Development in Africa 

said: “Fraud continues to be a 

major issue across Africa and as 

a company, Truecaller wanted to 

provide solutions on a business 

level as well as a personal level. 

Trust is at the heart of everything 

we do and with so much of our 

lives lived through our phone, we 

need to ensure that our 

communication happens in a safe 

environment. 

“Truecaller Enterprise has been 

set up with the strong intent of 

building solutions for businesses 

that will not just improve the 

efficiency of their communication 

but also provide significant value 

and safety to consumers in their 

day-to-day lives. 

*Mr Alioune 

Ciss 

By Prince Osuagwu, 

Hi-Tech Editor 

You once worked at UNCTD. How 

has the experience helped you to 

shape the vision of Webb Fontaine? 

When I was working for the United 

Nations Conference on Trade and 

Development, we were offering ICT 

solutions for Customs 

Administrations. I was collaborating 

with Customs Administrations such 

as the Nigeria Custom Service. This 

allowed me to develop a great 

understanding of the importance of 

technology to develop the trade 

environment. 

In Webb Fontaine, our purpose is 

to transform the future of trade 

through technology. Our mission is 

to empower governments and 

communities with future-proof 

technology and expertise to 

transform the Customs and Trade 

environment. 

At Webb Fontaine, our ethos is 

centred around knowledge transfer 

and this is something I have carried 

with me. 

You recently announced 

readiness to establish AI Centre for 

R&D in Africa, which of the three 

big African ICT countries; Nigeria, 

Kenya and Egypt are you looking to 

do that? 

We are investing in Africa because 

we know the talent is there and its 

growing, I have seen it with my own 

eyes. As you mentioned, there are a 

few countries that are really taking 

strides in IT, and Nigeria is definitely 

one! We are looking at all of the IT 

leading countries in the region and 

looking for the best fit. Setting up the 

centre will be a step-by-step process. 

Firstly, we need to identify the best of 

the best Africans to power our 

research and development centre. We 

will organise bootcamps where we 

will gather people from different 

countries. We will be looking at a 

large spectrum of talent. Not only in 

ICT, but also need people in 

geography, mathematics, physics, to 

enable us build the best solutions. 

We have realised that the location 

of the center is not such a big issue. 

Today, people work remotely while 

others will be working in the centre. 

Why Africa, for this project? 

Look at the technology around AI, 

Our AI centre will open up 

Africa’s economy — Alioune 

Ciss, Webb Fontaine CEO 

CEO of Trade technology company,Webb Fontaine, Mr Alioune Ciss, is 

a tech professional with cognate experience in Trade and Customs field. His 

job entails strategically bringing together new technologies and ideas to implement 

and change mindsets. He has worked in different international fronts including the 

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, where he spent a record 24 

years. While at the UNCTD, Ciss worked on Trade and Customs issues, and was 

instrumental to digitising the sector in Nigeria. His experience in Nigeria gave him 

more insight to the pool of talents from Africa. So, when he joined Webb Fontaine in 

2015 as the Executive Director of Sales, basically helping countries to optimize trade 

through technology, Africa was on his radar. Today as CEO, he has a lofty plan to 

establish an Artificial Intelligence centre in Africa; which he says will open up the 

continent’s economy. 

you have things like face recognition, 

right? But when you go to an airport 

today, you have to use face 

recognition, which most often, 

doesn’t recognise Africans or darkskinned 

people. This is because the 

technology was not built to fit our 

needs. 

Although this has started to change 

gradually, but we still have a long way 

to go; and I believe the technology 

that is being developed in Africa now 

will not only address that but will be 

exported and shared across the globe. 

How will the project open up 

Africa’s economy? 

I think things are changing 

especially in ICT. For a long time, 

Africa has been receiving a lot of new 

technologies. This has changed 

tremendously over the last few years 

where we have seen ICT hubs and 

development boom from within Africa 

by Africans. But we want to see this 

more and be a part of this. This is why 

we will be opening our R&D hub. 

The pace of technological 

development in Nigeria is high and 

that makes almost everybody who 

wants to come to Africa, think of 

Nigeria. Are you considering the 

country for modular space of 

innovations? 

It is a consideration, a serious 

consideration that we’ve been 

working on. As I said, Webb 

Fontaine has been working in 

Nigeria since 2006. And we are 

already collaborating with a lot of IT 

companies and telecom companies 

to set up the solutions we are 

delivering to Nigeria Customs Service 

today. Nigeria is definitely one of the 

countries we are seriously 

considering for this centre. 

Are there expectations that the 

centre will attract FDI in the region? 

FDI is extremely important across 

the Africa region, especially in this 

new era of the African Free Trade Area 

that we’re setting up for the 

continent. I think that we need to 

continue developing our economies, 

but we also need to attract people to 

invest and build companies. 

From a Webb Fontaine perspective, 

through our technology, the Trade 

environment is being optimised. It’s 

easier to import, it’s easier to export 

and this is extremely important in 

attracting FDI. 

I have taken time to study Webb 

Fontaine and I can see how much 

you have increased your outputs in 

multiple countries. What other 

plans beside the AI Centre do you 

have for Africa? 

Webb Fontaine has some of the 

largest R&D centres in the industry 

that are all fully in-house. This means 

that we can develop the most effective 

Trade technology in the industry from 

within Africa that can be fully tailored 

to Africa but also more importantly, 

taken to the rest of the world. We see 

so much talent in the continent, we 

want to tap into this talent, and we 

want Africa to be at the forefront of 

the trade transformation that is 

happening. 

Are there policies you think will 

challenge your setting up the AI 

Centre? 

Not at all; we know the policies very 

well across the region. We are in talks 

with a few countries already in regard 

to setting up the centre. 

The countries I talked about are 

definitely giving good incentives to 

set up centres. 

Nigeria, we know quite well and of 

course have a large foothold there 

already therefore this is of huge 

interest to us. 

Recently you got three prestigious 

awards at the Nigeria Technology 

Awards, are they part of incentives 

spurring your actions? 

I think it was a great honour, to 

receive these awards in Nigeria. This 

is a testament to not just us but to 

our partners and their vision. 

Nigeria Customs Service, our 

partners here in Nigeria are really 

making strides in digitalisation in 

Trade and Customs and you can see 

this through the continued positive 

results. They are a great example of 

an optimal Trade environment 

powered by AI and technology. Even 

through the challenges of Covid-19, 

NCS continue to set a great example 

to not only the region but to the rest 

of the world as well. 

This award is about the coming 

together of two partners to create 

positive change. 

POST-COOKIE ADVERTISING: Terragon, Facebook introduce new 

solution to bail-out brands 


As the online advertising industry 

counts down to the total extinction of 

third-party cookies, online advertisers 

and digital marketers have been urged 

to test new solutions now rather than 

later. This was a consensus call at a 

recent webinar organized by Terragon 

Limited in conjunction with Facebook. 

The Webinar titled: Online 

Advertising in a Post-Cookie World: 

Delivering Personalised Ads using the 

Terragon CDP and Facebook 

Conversions API, had almost 300 signups 

from industry leaders and 

practitioners from leading FMCG, 

Telcos, Banks and E-Commerce brands 

across Africa. 

Speaking during the Webinar, Chris 

Humphery, a Marketing Strategy and 

Tech Consultant at PwC, noted that 

brands must invest in data and 

technology to prepare adequately for 

the post-cookie world. 

“To test and learn is not to move fast 

and fail, it is about moving fast and 

building things. It is understanding 

what data and technology can expand 

into the marketing technology space 

and potentially adding to that 

MarTech space to drive through the 

greater ability to execution.” 

Buttressing the same point, Dayo 

Adefila, Head Digital Marketing, 

Africa at PZ Cussons advised against 

a fire-brigade approach to online 

advertising in a post-cookie world. 

“Test and begin. Don’t wait till 

October, November. Start getting to 

see how you can take advantage of 

Facebook’s Conversions API and look 

at the right CDP. Terragon has 

something that is really customised 

for Africa because it is mobile-first and 

it has mobile reach.” 

Acknowledging the potential 

disruptions to online advertising that 

the extinction of third-party cookies will 

cause, the speakers called for restrategising 

and investment in 

customer data. 

“What advertisers really need to do 

is to rethink their approach to customer 

data. Ultimately, by doing that, they 

will reduce their reliance on the thirdparty 

cookies.” Chris Humphrey 

noted.” 

“The role of a CDP (Customer Data 

Platform) will become very important 

in a post-cookie world and particularly 

API into each of the Walled Gardens. 

The challenge that we as advertisers 

will have is getting the level of data 

back from those Walled Gardens.” He 

added 

On his part, Dayo Adefila 

highlighted the importance of restrategising 

in order for advertisers to 

meet their KPIs. 

“There’s a brave new world that is 

not waiting. At the end of the day you 

don’t want to be spending money 

without achieving key results.” 

“Customer Relationship 

Management is required to help get 

better first-party data and to 

understand what is important to your 

customers.”- He added. 

Introducing the Facebook 

Conversions API, a solution to help 

brands prepare for the post-cookie 

world, Emily Wilson, a Marketing 

product and Partnership Manager at 

Facebook discussed the importance of 

personalisation to consumers and how 

Facebook’s solution can help brands. 

“When we surveyed consumers 

across 8 markets globally, 87% of 

consumers feel that it is really 

important to purchase from brands or 

retailers that understand them and 

understand what they actually care 

about.” 

“Personalised experiences are 

powered by data and that is what helps 

advertisers provide the most relevant 

message at the right time across a 

customer’s journey. It is impossible to 

serve a targeted Ad to someone and 

make sure that Ad is super relevant 

and interesting to them if you don’t 

know anything about that user.” 

Also speaking on the benefits of the 

solution, she noted that the Facebook 

Conversions API can be used to share 

any kind of real-time website 

interaction with a brand’s website as 

well as the customer activity that may 

be stored in the server that the pixel 

may not be able to access.” - 

She stressed the need for Brands to 

invest in data-driven marketing noting 

that “The better your data, the better 

your Return on Investment.” 

According to her: “A more reliable 

data connection ultimately means 

better insight into your customers’ 

activities and preferences and more 

insights provide more opportunities 

to personalise the Ad experience for 

customers which ultimately drives 

higher engagement and better 

outcomes for your business.” 

Terragon is the leading data and 

analytics company in Africa that uses 

data and analytics to help brands in 

Africa connect at scale to their 

customers. 

Terragon is also listed as the only 

African-founded CDP partner for the 

Conversions API, in Africa.


Orkar’s coup and agenda, a prophecy? 

I 

T was a Sunday morning as I came 

awake shortly after 6.00 am. As usual, 

I switched on my radio. In those days, it 

was Radio Nigeria AM and FM channels 

you were likely to tune to, or BBC Africa. 

I was just less than four months old as a 

resident of Lagos, having transferred my 

services from Minna, Niger State to The 

Sunday Magazine, TSM, published by 

Chris Anyanwu and edited by the late Ely 

Obasi. 

The sound of martial music met my ears. 

Radio Nigeria played classical music a 

lot. So, when you heard that sort of music 

you needed to listen for a little while to be 

sure it was classical music, not martial 

music, which Nigerian coup plotters 

delighted in using to announce the change 

of government. It was not long before the 

voice of Major Gideon Orkar came on. As 

a young reporter, I quickly dressed, 

jumped into the next available yellow bus 

(molue) and headed for Obalende to cover 

the coup live! Obviously, few of the 

commuters knew what was going on. 

At that time, Lagos was still the capital 

of Nigeria. General Ibrahim Babangida’s 

Federal Military Government was based 

in Dodan Barracks which is next door to 

Radio Nigeria and the defunct Federal 

Secretariat in Ikoyi. What interests me 

most here is the message that the coup 

plotters broadcast through Orkar. In 

terms of objective, it was mostly gibberish, 

obviously hurriedly cobbled. Three 

portions of that coup speech are of 

historical interest because they are very 

vividly playing out today. According to 

Orkar: “Another reason for the change is 

the need to stop intrigues, domination and 

internal colonisation of the Nigerian state 

by the so-called chosen few. This, in our 

view, has been and is still responsible for 

90 per cent of the problems of Nigerians”. 

“…In recognition of the negativeness 

(sic) of the aforementioned aristocratic 

factor, the overall progress of the Nigerian 

state, a temporary decision to excise the 

following states, namely: Sokoto, Borno, 

Katsina, Kano and Bauchi from the 

Federal Republic of Nigeria comes into 

effect immediately until the following 

conditions are met… This clique (what we 

now call cabal) has an unabated penchant 

for domination and unrivalled fostering 

of mediocrity and outright detest (sic) for 

accountability…” 

For the sake of the “millennials”, Sokoto 

State still had Kebbi and Zamfara in it. 

Yobe had not been split from Borno State. 

Jigawa was still part of Kano State, while 

Gombe had not been carved out of Bauchi 

State. Instructively, these were 10 of the 

12 states that unconstitutionally 

embraced full sharia law after Governor 

Ahmed Yerima of Zamfara State launched 

it in September 1999. This is the core of 

the Muslim North, Arewa- the territorial 

theatre of the problematic Sokoto 

Caliphate. 

The coup was not popular because you 

cannot just dissolve a country like Nigeria 

at that time with a mere radio broadcast. 

The students and the masses that Orkar 

called to come out in their support did not 

respond. Nigerians were complaining 

about Northern domination, but they were 

not ready to do more than that. Had the 

coup plotters succeeded in toppling 

Babangida and taking over, the chances 

were that internal disagreements alone 

(based on the analysis of Orkar’s 

indecisive speech) would have undermined 

them. 

Certainly, the excised states would have 

fiercely responded. In fact, the military 

governor of the defunct Northern Region, 

retired Major General Usman Katsina, 

was reported to have stormed a military 

facility in Kaduna and comically 

demanded the key to an armoured car. 

The coup was not popular 

because you cannot just 

dissolve a country like Nigeria 

at that time with a mere radio 

broadcast 

Whether this happened or not, there would 

have been serious bloodshed. It is 30 years 

since this speech was broadcast. What has 

changed? Was any lesson learned? Haven’t 

things not gone from bad to worse? Have 

the germs cultivated by those being 

accused by Orkar and his comrades not 

morphed into the monsters that are now 

destroying the “excised” part of the 

country from inside? Is Nigeria not on the 

brink of collapse, as acknowledged by even 

Buhari’s Minister of Defence, Bashir 

Magashi? 

Orkar hadn’t even seen anything, 

because now we are no longer just talking 

about Northern domination, we are now 

talking about Islamisation and 

Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

Fulanisation of Nigeria. The sad thing is 

that a large chunk of the indigenous 

people being Islamised and Fulanised are 

still not ready to stand up and defend their 

lives, property and ancestral patrimonies. 

Armed strangers have seized their 

farmlands and forests. Rather than join in 

the efforts to get rid of these terrorist 

vermin, they are forming laughable 

security outfits to fight those who are 

fighting for them. 

As confused as Orkar and his colleagues 

appeared, they (for the first time in 

Nigeria’s history) dared to draw a map 

that vividly existed in the minds of all 

informed Nigerians but which most of us 

were too cowardly to admit. Nigeria was 

divided into the Muslim/Sharia North and 

the rest: the “Middle Belt and South”. 

That was long before the formation of the 

Northern Elders Forum and Arewa 

Consultative Forum, both of which 

champion the cause of the old Sokoto 

Caliphate with pan-Fulani interests at the 

core of it. 

On the other hand, we now have the 

Southern and Middle Belt Leadership 

Forum, SMBLF, which now shares 

common views about the present and 

future of Nigeria, particularly the 

“restructuring” agitation. The North and 

South have continued to drift apart, 

particularly now that some Northern 

elements have gone beyond domination 

and are now claiming to “own” Nigeria 

as Kano State governor, Abdullahi 

Ganduje recently told Igbo and Yoruba 

people. 

Northerners are claiming ownership of 

the resources belonging to the South, 

including their ancestral lands. When your 

land and resources now belong to 

imperialists masquerading as your fellow 

countrymen, it simply means you are now 

also their property – slaves! 

How much more insults are we willing 

to swallow? Aisha Buhari once asked: 

“Where are the men?” Good question! 

Censorship and freedom of speech: The Nigerian labour conundrum 

By CLARIUS UGWUOHA 

IT was the late Ugandan 

despot, Idi Amin, who was 

credited with the immortal but 

infamous dictum: “You have 

freedom of speech. But freedom 

thereafter, that I cannot 

guarantee.” This appears to be 

the guiding principle in Nigeria 

and most other African 

countries. The history of the 

Nigeria Labour Congress, 

NLC, as a trade union with 

capability to sway labour laws 

in the country and advance the 

interest of workers, has been 

heavily vitiated by graft, 

intimidation and compromise. 

The current Nigeria Labour 

leader, Mr. Ayuba Philibus 

Waba, is certainly in a dilemma 

due to the peculiar operating 

terrain. The contemporary 

Nigerian reality is worse than 

military dictatorship and the 

autocratic reflex is evident in 

every tier of government-citizen 

engagement. 

There are no pretensions 

about the repression of workers. 

Labour laws, if any in Nigeria, 

are obeyed in negation. 

Pensioners cannot access their 

wages and the national 

minimum wage – a paltry 

US$74 - cannot be 

implemented in many states of 

the federation because they are 

not the priority. Therefore, 

Nigerian workers continue in 

sub simian subsistence, spiking 

crime and insecurity in the 

country. 

In the hey days of military 

dictatorship in Nigeria, 

organised labour was a strong 

democratisation voice. But nonviolent 

protests and strikes to 

stand down military rule, were 

met with escalating repression. 

There was crackdown on 

unionists and leaders. Many 

were dismissed from duty posts, 

leaders like Mr. Frank Ovie 

Kokori and Milton Dabibi of the 

oil workers union were jailed. 

Union offices were sealed off by 

troops and subjugation 

continued unabated despite 

Irrespective of 

anyone’s views or 

political leaning, it is 

indecorous to lay off 

workers without 

commensurate terminal 

benefits and in complete 

negation of enabling 

labour laws 

international outcry and 

sanctions. 

Trade unionism cut her teeth 

as a militant body to be reckoned 

with under the foremost 

Nigerian labour leader, Pa. 

Michael Aikhamen Omnibus 

Imoudu. Before then, trade 

unions were more like social 

organisations and not industrial 

movements. It was during the 

colonial era. Pa. Imoudu had 

become the President of the 

Nigerian Railway Workers 

Union in 1939, the same year 

that the trade union was 

registered under the enabling 

Colonial Ordinance giving 

them legal authority to seek 

communal bargaining with their 

employers. The fixation of the 

radicalised union was 

enhanced 

wages, 

decasualisation and better 

working conditions. Most of 

these were met, but crackdown 

on union leaders was the order, 

culminating in the dismissal 

from service of Pa Imoudu in 

January 1943 by the Railway 

authorities. 

Pa Imoudu later headed the 

Trade Union Congress of 

Nigeria, which was the 

forerunner of the present 

Nigeria Labour Congress. It 

was a vibrant and radicalised 

body that sought workers' 

welfare as well as good 

governance in the larger 

society. Union leaders have 

constantly faced attempt by 

various despots at muffling 

their voices. From Pa Imoudu 

to Wahab Goodluck, from 

Hassan Sunmonu to Ali 

Ciroma; from Pascal Yeleri 

Bafyau to Adams Aliyu 

Oshiomhole, 

from 

Abdulwaheed Omar to Ayuba 

Philibus Waba. All of them faced 

the heat from autocracy. Some 

were fairly successful in their 

stewardship, while others were 

accused of graft and 

compromise. 

Today, with the semblance of 

democracy in place, union 

leaders have largely shunned 

the anti-democratic tenets of 

governments, concentrating 

only on workers welfare, which 

is also not too effective as many 

anti-labour practices are firmly 

in place under the very nose of 

the unionists. Recently, in 

Kaduna State of the federation, 

local government employees 

above 50 years of age – a nonretirement 

age- were extraconstitutionally 

sacked in one 

fell swoop. The template also 

pegged the number of staff in 

each local government council 

of the state at 50. There was no 

recourse to any extant labour 

laws in the state before this illadvised 

muscle flexing. This 

prototype has been replicated 

in various states of Nigeria, 

citing government fiscal 

exigencies, employment 

irregularities, paucity of fund for 

salaries and whatever else. 

Under cover of COVID-19 

issues, about 850 contract 

workers were laid off in the 

nation's refineries. This act, 

perpetrated by the Group 

Managing Director of the 

Nigerian National Petroleum 

Corporation, was allegedly 

without consultations with the 

National Union of Petroleum 

and Natural Gas workers, 

NUPENG, and there were no 

terminal benefits for the victims. 

In another development, 

Chevron Oil company, a 

multinational in Nigeria, was 

said to have sacked about 175 

workers without even the 

dignity of termination letters, 

via WhatsApp chat platform. 

The Waba-led NLC strongly 

condemned this anti-labour and 

condescending treatment. 

Recently, in Imo State of 

Nigeria, workers of Imo State 

Oil Producing Areas 

Development Commission, 

ISOPADEC, received severe 

salary cuts and about 126 of 

them were laid off, allegedly 

without disengagement 

benefits. It is not clear if any 

union was consulted before this 

exercise, but knowledgeable 

sources fingered employment 

anomalies as reason for the 

sack. 

Irrespective of anyone’s views 

or political leaning, it is 

indecorous to lay off workers 

without commensurate terminal 

benefits and in complete 

negation of enabling labour 

laws. The subliminal reasons 

behind the current trend of 

repression of workers is deeply 

political. Workers of the state or 

federal service engaged during 

a given political dispensation 

risk arbitrary disengagement 

when a new faction takes over 

political centre stage. 

The solution to the myriads of 

problems faced by Nigerian 

workers is not only functional 

unions insulated from politics, 

unions prepared to go the 

whole hog but also a responsible 

government ready to obey the 

enabling labour laws and allow 

freedom of expression within all 

humanitarian context. 

•Ugwuoha, a labour activist/ 

analyst, wrote from Abuja. 

C 

M 

Y 

K

Between a wailing Godwin Obaseki 

and a hailing Zainab Ahmed 

ONE of the less aggravating things that 

happened last week, something that 

offered diversion if not comic relief from 

the now-humdrum news of mass abductions 

and murders whose economic dimension is 

often occluded by their bestial details, was 

the spat between two unlikely adversaries: 

the Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, 

and the Minister of Finance, Budget and 

National Planning, Zainab Ahmed. 

It followed the release of an apparently 

private recording of the governor, lamenting 

the state of the Nigerian economy. In this 

age of social media and secret devices hardly 

anything is considered private. Not a locker 

room, or more precisely, beer parlour talk. 

Otherwise, Obaseki would probably have 

kept his musing to himself, or at least within 

the close circle of his associates. 

In the leaked footage, he condemned the 

country’s fixation on crude oil, a wasting 

and fast depleting resource, as the main 

revenue earner at a time many countries are 

switching to more environmentally-friendly 

means of energy. The culture of overdependence 

on the centre that sees state 

governors go, bowl in hand, to Abuja for their 

monthly allocation, a beggarly handout that 

discourages self-reliance and economic 

discipline and creativity, also came under 

Obaseki’s attack. 

The governor, in the course of his outburst, 

made the bombshell remark that things had 

become so bad and unsustainable that 

Abuja literally resorted to printing money 

to the tune of N60 billion in order to give 

each state its March allocation. 

The idea that government could on its own 

print money no doubt sounded strange and 

alarming to many Nigerians. This way of 

increasing cash flow and stimulating an 

economy already in or headed for recession, 

quantitative easing those who know call it, 

is not unheard of among economists or 

financial experts even while it may sound 

like the outcome of a child’s imagination. 

But to the rest of us civilians, it looked and 

sounded like a crude way of ensuring the 

availability of funds. If things were that easy, 

if it was that simple to claw one’s way out of 

debt, why is everyone not free to do it, some 

might ask? Obaseki’s aim was to warn of 

the impending danger of what he has since 

called "monetary rascality", while doubling 

down on his initial statement after the cold 

reaction of the typically sedate Ahmed. 

Since nobody else has addressed the 

authenticity of Obaseki’s claim or the 

refutation by the Finance Minister, who then 

should Nigerians turn to? Yet this is a serious 

matter that deserves more attention than it 

has received from official quarters. 

Not even the usually loquacious 

"presidency" that is quick to respond to even 

more arcane and extraneous matters has 

spoken. It’s been dead silence everywhere. 

We must leave God out of this very mundane 

matter. Perhaps only the devil knows the 

truth of the printed N60 billion as neither 

the Central Bank of Nigeria, nor state 

governors nor "the presidency" have chosen 

to speak. 

At the heart of this debate, however, is the 

increasing worry about Nigeria’s 

indebtedness to foreign creditors. Many 

Nigerians, less those presently in the All 

Progressives Congress-led government, are 

almost united in their fear about the 

unsustainability of Nigeria’s increasing 

debt profile. But Ahmed has denied money 

had to be printed, and all but called Obaseki 

a liar. Nigeria’s debt, she says, is within 

sustainable limits at 23 per cent of the GDP. 

The country under this present 

government has been seeking and taking 

loans from every available quarters, even 

dipping or attempting to dip its hands into 

other people’s coffers (read pockets)- 

pensioners’ funds, unclaimed dividends and 

sale of what it says are its own property. 

This is evidence, if no other, of a desperate, 

cash-strapped economy. Abuja harps on 

building infrastructure and insists there is 

nothing bad in taking loans. What matters, 

The President’s habit of 

relying on surrogates whose 

actions he does not appear 

to question or scrutinise is at 

the root of his government’s 

failure 

it argues, is what the loan is spent on. Which 

has the same ring as that claim often 

attributed to General Yakubu Gowon, who 

famously said Nigeria was so afloat with 

money its only problem was what to spend 

it on. 

That claim would explode in his face in 

less than five years following the oil glut of 

the late 1970s and the subsequent plunge 

into recession and "austerity measures" at 

the end of that decade. Time was when a 

president went out of his way to clear the 

country’s debt even when many felt there 

was nothing bad in the country owing a little 

provided there was justification for it. 

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021—17 

Olusegun Obasanjo paid off Nigeria’s debt 

and won some relief from the Bretton Woods 

institutions in the early 2000s. Today, his 

successors are telling Nigerians that we can 

owe for as long as we are only borrowing to 

finance infrastructure. 

If only government words could be taken 

at face value! Not with inflation or prices of 

goods beyond galloping but perched as if on 

a flying carpet. Governments across the 

country (for this is not all about Abuja alone) 

have been fuelling inflation and taking loans 

to finance recurrent expenditure- paying 

salaries of and buying vehicles for outsized 

and unnecessary staff; furnishing the homes 

of surrogates and officials, fuelling their 

vehicles and meeting their daily expenses. 

These facts are concealed in the overarching 

claim of borrowing to fund infrastructure, 

including dead horses like our outmoded 

refineries. 

To clasp the hands of future generations in 

economic cuffs is not a way to secure the 

future or build infrastructure. There are too 

many crooks in the corridors of power that 

the very idea that they are encouraging the 

procurement of foreign loans for whatever 

purposes should worry everyone. 

Some of the leading lights and key decision 

makers of the present government have been 

too embroiled in accusations of corruption 

and lack of transparency to be trusted in 

matters like this. 

Muhammadu Buhari may be the face of 

this government and should rightly be held 

accountable for its successes and failures. 

But it is obvious that he only reigns where 

his aides/ministers rule. Whenever Aisha, the 

wife of the president, raises a ruckus that her 

husband does not know most of his own 

appointees, some may cite this as evidence 

of the President’s impartiality. 

But the backstory to this is more complex 

and what it implies is that the President’s 

lifelong habit of relying on surrogates whose 

judgement or actions he does not appear to 

question or scrutinise is at the root of his 

government’s failure. 

It should be concerning and is the reason 

Nigerians have to be wary of the dodgy busy 

bodies spinning yarns of reassurance around 

the country’s increasing indebtedness. 

08055069060 (SMS Only) 

With Twitter, an indignation 

most uncalled for 

LIFE in Nigeria would have 

continued its new normal last 

week, not the new normal imposed 

by COVID-19, but the bizarre reality 

of waking up to stories of deaths and 

attacks and threats of war – yes – 

that is the new normal, only if Twitter 

did not decide, in a flash of corporate 

affront and effrontery to Nigeria, to 

take its African headquarters to 

Ghana. What a cheek! Nigeria is the 

giant of Africa with the largest 

economy and a population of over 

200 million, compared to Ghana 

with just about 30 million people 

which can easily be accommodated 

by one and half states in Nigeria. So 

one could understand our 

entitlement mentality and why there 

is outrage in the land about how one 

organisation has decided to spend 

its money and in what location. We 

have the land. We have the people. 

We have the economy. So, nations 

must come to worship at our shrine 

and obliterate every little vestige of 

freedom of choice. 

Such expectations by indignant 

Nigerians punctured my little 

cocoon of peace and excitement 

which had started for me early in the 

week. I thought I was going to follow 

the nation’s rambunctious 

presentation on the preparation for 

the Digital Switchover, DSO, launch 

in Lagos, one little orchestration of 

government genius and intervention, 

that would bring economic and tech 

relief to the people of Lagos, at least, 

something to look forward to, if they 

survive the daily grind of traffic on 

their bodies! Somewhere, the 

apparitions of a previous life were 

emerging from their pantheons to 

haunt the life of a minister who now 

has the immediate responsibility of 

clearing his name, apart from the 

simple task of pointing to dangerous 

enemies hiding in the shadows. 

But there was also a breather, 

something to break a little smile on 

the face. Government has lifted, 

beginning Monday, April 19, 2021, 

the ban imposed on the registration 

of new SIMs since last year, but this 

must be done with your National 

Identification Number, NIN. Dear 

friends, in the situation we are in, you 

have to quickly hold tight to your 

half bread before it is taken away 

completely by the strongman. 

However, the Twitter decision was 

the most irritating intrusion last 

week. The Minister of Information 

and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, 

who should have been enjoying the 

fallout of a successful conference in 

Lagos on the DSO, couldn’t hide his 

anger when he blamed the media 

and those who speak ill of our 

beautiful nation for instigating such 

rash decision by a corporate 

international entity. Except, however, 

that Twitter was ready, knowing that 

there are countries in Africa who 

would like to dictate to owners of 

money where and how they would 

have to spend their cash. That is, 

irrespective of their business plan. “As 

a champion for democracy, Ghana 

is a supporter of free speech, online 

freedom, and the Open Internet, of 

which Twitter is also an advocate. 

Furthermore, Ghana’s recent 

appointment to host the Secretariat 

of the African Continental Free Trade 

Agreement aligns with our 

overarching goal to establish a 

presence in the region that will 

support our efforts to improve and 

tailor our service across Africa,” 

Twitter said. 

No investor jumps into 

fire because it wants to do 

business in a big country; 

where there is chaos, 

structures and systems are 

broken 

And Nigeria is fuming! Or, at least, 

the government is hitting the rooftop 

in boiling rage!! How preposterous! 

We claim to be so much that we are 

not. We claim to be a democracy but 

it is a strongman that is in charge, 

not strong institutions, dispensing 

favour according to his state of 

mind. The strongman decides who 

to listen to. When citizens’ actions 

become too irascible, and voices too 

loud, the strongman wields the big 

stick and hit everybody into silence. 

There is nothing unusual there, so 

we have ventriloquists who wax oriki 

(chants) for the strong man. 

Unfortunately you cannot force the 

international community to take 

their eyes away from evil. 

Let’s do a little flashback. October 

20, 2020, Nigerians saw an 

equivalent replay of happenings at 

Tianamen Square in 1989. In the 

night of that day, a group of men 

dressed in military uniform took 

advantage of the dark hours to 

attack a mammoth gathering of 

young people who had 

demonstrated for days under the 

#EndSARS, demanding for a 

reform in the Police Force. From all 

sides, as pictures would show, bullets 

rained on them, their only crime 

being that they demanded to be 

treated better by their government. 

The event played out on Twitter. 

Blood flowed at the Lekki Toll Gate 

before mayhem would spill all over 

the land; but government said 

nobody died. Twitter would still have 

the details. It would have been 

wishful thinking for anybody to 

expect that organisation to bring an 

office to a land that drank the blood 

of its youths. There is a hackneyed 

saying that investment goes to where 

it is needed. It goes beyond 

population and size of country. This 

is why at international fora, like the 

GSMA, there are usually sessions 

organised for governments to share 

ideas on how to attract and handle 

big businesses operating in their 

countries. Plus genuine democracy 

are the policies of government, 

whether they accommodate 

investors and guaranty their funds. 

Here we fall in serious deficit. One 

will only need to point to a few areas. 

The telecommunications and the 

broadcast industries are atrophying 

under inexplicable regulatory 

capture which is never an exemplary 

hallmark of genuine democracy. The 

Minister of Information and Culture 

is running the broadcast regulatory 

agency, the National Broadcasting 

Commission, NBC, to the 

discomfiture of its workers, while his 

counterpart in Communications 

and Digital Economy, has 

guillotined the Nigerian 

Communications Commission, 

NCC, to his own advantage. The 

Minister of Finance, Budget and 

National Planning doesn’t seem to 

have the bravura to take on such a 

complex economy like ours. Oh, my 

God, just look at where we got the 

country by not playing a deserving 

first eleven! 

Government should listen to quiet 

whispers on the streets. Quite a few 

operators in the tech sector are 

unable to express themselves 

because they don’t know what 

government will do next. Some have 

expressed fears to this writer that this 

government is so unpredictable that 

its officials can withdraw their 

licenses. This is an information that 

will be circulating locally and 

internationally. And there are policy 

decisions and individual 

predilections to support their fears. 

Security is a major concern. Deaths 

are mounting in Nigeria as the 

country drifts towards anarchy in the 

face of strongman democracy. Yet 

government looks so incapacitated 

and nearly absent. No investor jumps 

into fire because it wants to do 

business in a big country. Where there 

is chaos, structures and systems are 

broken. The Nigerian system is 

fractured. We are too afraid to look 

at the mirror and tell ourselves the 

true image that we see. This 

government is abridging the future 

of Nigeria without claiming 

responsibility for such malfeasance. 

The world can only react by keeping 

away.


THE recent announcement by Jack 

Dorsey, the CEO of tech giant Twitter, 

that it will hire its first crop of staff 

on the African continent in Ghana has, 

expectedly, set the social media and 

concerned Nigerians abuzz and 

melancholic. We have lost yet another 

opportunity to show that our country In taking this decision, Twitter is 

still matters in the considerations of following a similar drift earlier taken 

foreign direct investors. 

by its peer, Facebook. In June 2015, 

The implication of Dorsey’s Facebook had chosen Johannesburg, 

announcement, analysts say, is that South Africa, to site its African 

Twitter will imminently plant its Africa headquarters to oversee its 120 

headquarters in Ghana. Twitters’ million (then) subscribers on the 

decision was not a knee-jerk one. It continent. 

is a product of careful consideration The clear conclusion to be drawn 

of factors. In 2019, Dorsey toured from the choices made by these tech 

Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia and South superpowers is that when it comes to 

Africa because he was led by decision making, high tech investors 

unfolding trends to believe that Africa do not necessarily put population or 

“will define the future”. What Twitter even the size of an economy first. If 

is about to do is an affirmation of its they did, Nigeria would most certainly 

belief that Ghana is among the nations win the race as the hub of big tech in 

that will define the future. 

Africa. Nigeria, with about 206 

Twitter avoids Nigeria, goes to Ghana! 

million people and still retaining its 

first position as the largest economy 

in Africa, dwarfs the rest. 

In terms of Facebook users on the 

continent, Nigeria had 31 million 

subscribers in 2020, compared to 

Ghana (7.9m); South Africa (24.6m) 

and Algeria (25m). Internet World 

Statistics reported in March 2017 that 

in the top ten Twitter subscriber base 

in Africa, Nigeria dwarfed the others 

with 93.5m, compared to Ghana (7.9); 

South Africa (28.6m) and our closest 

rival, Egypt (34.8m). 

Twitter said its choice of Ghana was 

because the country supports free 

speech and online freedom. It also 

already harbours the headquarters of 

the African Continental Free Trade 

Area, AfCFTA, another big loss to 

Nigeria. 

In effect, all these chances eluding 

our country in spite of our hype as 

the “giant of Africa” simply means 

that Nigeria’s size does not matter. 

What matters more is national 

character which is very much in deficit. 

Nigerian lawmakers must do away 

with primitive laws that abnegate the 

citizenry and make government to 

loom too large in our daily lives. 

For Nigeria to recover its economic 

relevance in Africa, we must 

rediscover progressive governance. 

We must also ensure that basic things 

like power and water supply, 

education, health, security, 

infrastructure, law and order and 

social justice are entrenched. 

We must pull back from this path of 

failure. 

OPINION 

Dealing with insecurity the el-Rufai way 

By SUNDAY ONYEMAECHI EZE 

EVEN the deaf can hear the rhythm of 

the prevailing chaos in the country. 

One could feel the heavy hands of the grave 

danger. There are no pretences about it. 

Internal peace and security of lives have 

departed. Lives are snuffed out of citizens 

day-in, day-out with impunity by criminal 

elements and unknown gunmen. In today’s 

Nigeria, life and living has no meaning! 

Banditry, kidnapping and Boko Haram 

insurgency have held sway for too long. 

There is growing threat of hunger arising 

from mounting challenges confronting 

farmers. What about the increasing sense 

of collective despair and despondency 

among the populace. The people no longer 

trust their government. In fact, 

government’s inability to crush security 

threats, despite saying so, has fuelled 

suspicion in some quarters that either 

people in government or their allies are 

behind the carnage. Centrifugal forces like 

the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB; the 

Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, and others 

have capitalised on government’s glaring 

ineptitude to rise in defence of their 

identities. 

The people are glad these groups stood 

by them when government was nowhere to 

be found. The magnanimity of these 

groups, more than ever, has further 

emboldened their ideologies and attempt 

to dismember the nation. The very 

existence of Nigeria is seriously 

threatened. Nigeria is a country at war. A 

country in conflict with itself. Recently, 

former Head of State, General 

Abdusallam Abubakar (retd), painted an 

alarming picture of deadly arms and 

ammunition in circulation in the country, 

estimated at over six million. He lamented 

that the proliferation of weapons has 

heightened insecurity in the country 

leading to over 80,000 deaths and close to 

three million internally displaced persons, 

IDPs, across the country. 

This is coming on the heels of a recent 

report by SBM Intelligence revealing that 

civilians were in possession of more arms 

than security officials in the country. An 

estimated 6,145,000 arms in circulation 

in Nigeria are in the hands of civilian nonstate 

actors, while the armed forces and 

law enforcement agencies put together 

possess 586,600 firearms. The report 

attributed the proliferation of small arms 

as a major factor fuelling insecurity in the 

country. This, according to it, has an impact 

on the country’s internal security, which 

Resisting the attempt to 

negotiate for ransom, deploying 

exceptional intelligence and 

military higher fire power are 

the best in the circumstances at 

the moment 

has led to violence, deaths and injury of 

many citizens. Apart from that, Governor 

Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State also 

informed that over 30,000 heavily armed 

bandits are roaming the bushes of the 

North West states. 

According to the governor, there are over 

100 bandits camps across the states of 

Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi 

plus Niger State with each having no fewer 

than 300 members, while there are less 

than 6000 troops operating across North- 

West states. The governor spoke through 

the state Commissioner for Information, 

Alhaji Ibrahim Magaji Dosara, at a news 

briefing in Kaduna. He said the Federal 

Government does not have adequate troops 

to fight the bandits across the region. 

The above ugly scenarios 

notwithstanding, the nation must rise to 

its responsibilities and save Nigerians from 

this menace. In dealing with insecurity, I 

think Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s 

recommended approach is a realistic, 

brave and effective way of pulling the 

nation out of the current security quagmire. 

According to the governor: “Bandits 

terrorising Nigeria have lost their rights 

to life under the Constitution and must be 

wiped out. The bandits are at war with 

Nigeria and there is no other way to 

approach the current insurgency but for 

security forces to take the war to the bandits 

and recover forests where they are 

occupying. 

“The security agencies mostly react to 

cases of banditry and abduction, we are in 

a war with these terrorists challenging the 

sovereignty of the Nigerian state. Our 

security forces must collaborate to take the 

war to the bandits and terrorists, recover 

and restore the forest to enable our lawabiding 

citizens to engage in legitimate 

farming and livestock production.” 

On negotiating for ransom with the 

bandits, Governor el-Rufai, after an 

expanded meeting of the state security 

council at Council Chambers, Kashim 

Ibrahim House, Kaduna, said his job as 

governor is “to protect the people and 

prosecute those who committed offences.” 

He said: “We will not engage with bandits 

or kidnappers. Private citizens like clerics 

and clergy men can do so in their individual 

capacities, to preach to them and ask them 

to repent. We also want them to repent but 

it is not our job to ask them to do so.” 

In 2003, for example, US President 

George W. Bush (2003) declared: ‘You’ve 

got to be strong, not weak. The only way to 

deal with these people is to bring them to 

justice. You can’t talk to them. You can’t 

negotiate with them.’ 

At the height of IRA violence, UK Prime 

Minister, Margaret Thatcher, vowed never 

to negotiate with terrorists; a pledge also 

Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

made by other world leaders when they 

were in our shoes. No government all over 

the world bends backwards to all the 

demands of criminal elements as it is done 

in Nigeria. It is obvious that having 

understood the weaknesses of government, 

the criminals have become emboldened 

and more daring. 

According to Harmonie Toros in his 

work, We Don’t Negotiate With Terrorist!: 

Legitimacy and Complexity of Terrorist 

Conflicts: “Traditionally, negotiations with 

terrorists would legitimise the terrorists 

and terrorism more broadly. Legitimising 

terrorist groups and their actions would 

weaken the democratic quality of states 

and likely only serve to incite more 

violence.” 

Attack is the best form of defence. The 

wise does not attempt to kill a dangerous 

animal with bare hands. Suffice it to say 

that the entreaties made by an Islamic 

scholar Sheik Mahmud Gumi, who turned 

an apostle of amnesty for bandits, should 

be taken with a pinch of salt. 

No serious country will accept most of 

the reasons given by bandits for indulging 

in the dastardly acts of killing, rapping, 

kidnapping and cattle rustling . It may seem 

unkind, wicked and abnormal for a 

governor to publicly rule out negotiating 

with kidnappers to save lives of those held 

hostage. But is that the best in all fairness 

to ending this criminality? 

We are all aware and have heard 

confessions and analyses made in 

connection with ransom payment that the 

proceeds are used to buy more arms and 

funnelled back into the illegal business. 

Resisting the attempt to negotiate for 

ransom, deploying exceptional 

intelligence and military higher fire power 

are the best in the circumstances at the 

moment. 

•Eze, a media and communication 

specialist, wrote via: sunnyeze02 

@yahoo.com

Manufacturing sector contracts further by 

4.7 points — CBN 

By Elizabeth Adegbesan 

ECONOMY 

CURRENCY BUYING SELLING 

US DOLLAR 

POUNDS 

EURO 

FRANC 

YEN 

CFA 

WAUA 

RENMINBI 

RIYAL 

RAND 

134.40 +2.50 

2,421.00 -71.00 

16.71 +0.50 

66.27 -0.78 

62.40 -0.98 

379 379.5 380 

529.5009 530.1995 530.898 

456.8087 457.4114 458.014 

414.1171 414.6635 415.2098 

3.4953 3.5 3.5046 

0.6763 0.6863 0.6963 

542.8995 543.6158 544.332 

58.3194 58.3967 58.4741 

101.0532 101.1865 101.3198 

26.502 26.537 26.5719 

CBN Exchange rate as at 20/04/2021 

INAUGURATION — From left: Sam Daibo, Area Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs, , 

Field Operations; Chevron, Comrade Jude Ukori, Chairman Egbema Gbaramatu Communities Development 

Foundation; Pott Johnson Reginald, Delta State Coordinator, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs at the 

inauguration of community projects in Delta State, on April 15, 16 and 20, 2021. 

THE nation’s manufacturing 

sector has recorded further 

decline as the sustained Central 

Bank of Nigeria, CBN, latest sector 

report shows the Manufacturing 

Purchasing Managers 

Index (PMI) for January 2021 at 

44.9 index points, a 4.7 points 

drop from 49.6 index points recorded 

in December 2020. 

Similarly, the non-manufacturing 

PMI fell by 2.4 points to 43.3 

index points in January from 45.7 

index points in December 2020. 

A composite PMI above 50 

points indicates that the manufacturing/non-manufacturing 

economy is generally expanding; 

50 points indicate no change 

while a performance below 50 

points indicates a contracting 

sector. 

The apex bank’s Economic 

Report for January 2021, stated: 

“The Composite Manufacturing 

PMI contracted to 44.9 index 

points, from the 49.6 index 

points recorded in the preceding 

period. The decrease was 

associated with the decline in 

demand, rising production cost 

and supply chain bottlenecks 

experienced by firms, in the review 

period. 

“All components of the Composite 

Manufacturing PMI contracted, 

except supplier delivery 

time, which increased to 55.7 

index points from 51.2 points in 

December 2020, due to improvements 

in logistics, shipments and 

inventory control.” 

On non-Manufacturing PMI, 

it said: “Similarly, the Composite 

Non-Manufacturing PMI for 

January 2021 dropped to 43.3 

index points from 45.7 points in 

December 2020. The index recorded 

declines in all the subcomponent 

indexes.” 

The report also noted that the 

level of employment and business 

activity declined during 

the review period. 

According to the regulator, in 

January employment level fell 

by 2.1 points to 46.3 index 

points from 44.2 index points 

in December. 

Similarly, level of business 

NIMASA lists achievements of maritime 

law, gears-up for amendments 

By Godwin Oritse 

MARITIME 

THE Nigerian Maritime Ad 

ministration and Safety 

Agency, NIMASA, has said the 

Suppression of Piracy and Other 

Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act, 

signed into law by President 

Muhammadu Buhari in June 

2019, has shown Nigeria’s determination 

to end piracy and sea 

robbery in Nigeria and the Gulf of 

Guinea. 

Speaking at the at the maiden 

edition of the Nigerian Admiralty 

Law Colloquium organised in 

Lagos by the Agency, in 

collaboration with the Nigerian 

Institute of Advanced 

Legal Studies, 

NIALS, NIMASA’s Director-General, 

Dr. Bashir 

Jamoh, said that the admiralty 

law conference, in its 

10th year, has achieved 

significant milestones in 

the continued effort to better 

maritime law administration 

in Nigeria. 

Jamoh stated: “The Admiralty 

Law Conference 

instituted by NIMASA has 

achieved important milestones 

in the pursuit of its 

target of continuously improving 

maritime law administration 

in Nigeria. I 

am happy to announce 

that the key recommendations 

captured in the 

communiqué of last year’s 

conference would be sent 

to the National Assembly 

for the necessary legislative 

actions expected to 

improve the SPOMO Act. 

“We have made good progress 

in the implementation of the 

SPOMO Act. We have secured convictions 

at the Federal High Court 

in Port Harcourt and Lagos, and 

more judgements are expected next 

month. “These prosecutions and 

convictions have greatly helped to 

improve Nigeria’s image in the international 

community by producing 

a better appreciation of the 

country’s role and determination 

to end piracy and other maritime 

crimes in its territorial waters and 

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 —19 

activity dropped by 3.1 points 

to 46.9 index points from 43.8 

index points in December 2020. 

the Gulf of Guinea.” 

The NIMASA Director-General 

also spoke on the adjustment in the 

name of the maritime law sessions, 

saying it is prompted by the need 

to bring on board a wider range of 

stakeholders, including Supreme 

Court justices. 

“From next year, Supreme Court 

justices and more lawyers would 

be included in the continuous attempt 

to fine tune the processes 

and procedures of justice administration 

in maritime issues.” 

TGI Distri 

launches 

Kleansol 

toilet cleaner 

ECONOMY 

TGI Distri Limited, the sales 

and marketing arm of the 

Tropical General Investments 

Group has launched Kleansol 

toilet cleaner with power actives 

ingredient. 

The new Kleansol toilet 

cleaner, packaged in two sizes 

of 500ml and 750ml, offers 360- 

degree deep protection with 

99.99% germ kill on the toilet 

rim. 

A statement from the company 

said “its power active shield instantly 

kills microorganisms, 

providing long lasting protection, 

making toilets not just 

clean, but healthy clean. Its active 

ingredients ensure the removal/ 

of lime scale and stubborn 

stains to reveal sparkling 

clean toilet bowls.” 

Speaking during the launch 

in Lagos, Govind Agarwal, 

Marketing Manager, TGI 

Distri, explained that due to 

growing reports of a large proportion 

of Nigeria’s being unable 

to access safe, hygienic private 

toilets, leading to poor toilet 

sanitation, there was a need 

to create a solution that is highly 

effective, healthy and pocketfriendly. 

Agarwal also stated: “The difference 

between the new 

Kleansol toilet cleaner and other 

toilet cleaners is its all-in-one 

power active ingredients that 

disinfects, providing superior 

cleaning value that improves 

overall toilet hygiene for the 

family.” 

He added, “Kleansol toilet 

cleaner is a product of years of 

research and development 

based on consumer insights on 

toilet hygiene and usage in Nigeria. 

Many homes and offices 

often make use of detergents 

and bleach to wash their toilet 

bowls, which do not guarantee 

deep clean and proper hygiene”. 

Unity Bank grows asset base by 67.9% to 

N492bn 

By Babajide Komolafe 

MONEY MARKET 

UNITY Bank Plc has re 

corded 67 per cent 

growth in its total assets to 

N492.02billion in the year 

ended December 2020 from 

N293.05 billion in the corresponding 

period of 2019. 

The agric-focused lender 

also declared Gross Earnings 

of N42.71 billion for the year 

ended December 2020 as well 

as Profit Before Tax, PBT of 

N2.22 billion and Profit After 

Tax, PAT of N2.09 billion. 

The bank disclosed these in 

its audited results for full year 

ended 31 December 2020, released 

to the Nigerian Stock 

Exchange. 

The significant growth in total 

assets was occasioned by 

38 per cent growth in Customers 

Deposits as well as 92.2 per 

cent growth in Loans and Advances 

to Customers. 

According to the bank, customers’ 

deposit rose to 

N356.62 billion, up from 

N257.69 billion in the corresponding 

period of 2019, affirming 

the positive market 

uptake of the bank’s product 

offerings, as well as its growing 

customer base. 

The Bank’s gross loans portfolio 

increased to N206.2 billion 

in December 2020 from 

N106.9 billion in December 

2019 reflecting the increased 

commitment of the Bank’s 

lending strategy to support 

the nation’s food agenda, and 

thus the added advantage of 

improving food security 

across the country, providing 

employment to thousands of 

youths and entrepreneurs, 

while contributing to the conservation 

of forex stocks. 

Consequently, Net Operating 

income rose to N25.46 billion 

from N23.21 billion in the 

corresponding period of 2019, 

representing a 9.71% increase, 

driven by 7.6 per cent 

increase in Net Interest income, 

which rose to N17.75 

billion in 2020 from N16.49 

billion in 2019. 

Commenting on the result, 

Unity Bank’s Managing Director/Chief 

Executive Officer, 

Mrs. Tomi Somefun 

stated that the results showed 

the resilience of the bank during 

unprecedented times of 

uncertainties and our ability 

to innovate and focus on key 

balance sheet items that will 

enable us to maintain growth 

trajectory. 

Looking ahead, Somefun 

stated: “we will latch on targeted 

strategies to deploy significant 

investment in technology 

in order to ride the 

waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On the back of this, the 

Bank will increase its focus on 

achieving major efficiency 

gains, deepening its retail 

footprints and penetrating 

identified cluster market segments, 

as bulwarks to tapping 

into various youth markets 

platforms, in addition to the 

mass market”.


SOME fees and charges collected by shipping 

companies and terminal operators from Nigerian 

shippers have pitched them against the nation’s Port 

Economic Regulator, PER, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, 

NSC, for over a decade now. But the importers and exporters 

are still subjected to the huge cost arising from the charges 

while Nigerian economy suffers. 

Some of the charges include; Shipping Line Agency Charges, 

SLAC, Container Deposit Charges, CDC, Container Cleaning 

Charges, CCC, Storage Charges and others. 

SLAC is an extra charge slammed on shippers after it was 

already included in the shipping charges paid by the shipper 

at the point of import. 

The CCC is slammed on all containers even when such 

containers do not carry items that will need a cleaning after 

content discharge. 

CDC is peculiar to only Nigeria. It is paid as a refundable 

deposit in lieu of the container pending the time the content 

is removed and the empty container returned to the shipping 

lines who are the owners of the empty container. However, in 

practical terms, the return is made difficult by the inaccessibility 

of the ports and the shippers are made to incur demurrages 

for delayed returns and end up losing the CDC refund. If the 

shipper returns the container late, he or she loses part of the 

deposit. As a result of the bad situation of the port access roads 

which generates traffic gridlock, trucks returning containers 

spend several weeks on the road while the terminal operators 

are accused of rejecting or causing obstruction for those 

intending to return their containers to ensure that they lose 

their deposit. 

However, an official of one of the terminal operators told 

Vanguard Business Magazine that the shipping lines decided 

to impose CDC because importers and their agents default in 

returning their containers after use. 

Between 2006 and 2020, the accumulated illegal charges 

collected by terminal operators and shipping companies is 

estimated at over N4 trillion, 

as contained in the advert by 

the NSC. 

Following series of 

complaints by stakeholders in 

the Maritime industry, the 

NSC waded into the matter 

and directed that both 

shipping lines and terminal 

operators stop further 

collection as well as return to 

the shippers all monies 

already collected. 

Speaking during a meeting 

with Customs Licensed 

Clearing Agents and 

Maritime Truck Owners in 

Lagos, Executive Secretary of 

the Council, Hassan Bello, 

had said then that his 

organisation remains 

committed to protecting the 

interests of users of shipping 

services in Nigeria. 

Bello also disclosed that the 

Council is working closely 

with the National Insurance 

Commission, NAICOM to 

stop further payment of CDC. 

He said that both parties 

have been meeting to 

strategise on the best 

measures to curb the huge 

costs associated with the 

charges, adding that with the 

difficulty the importers, 

agents, and truckers go 

through to return their empty 

containers, it is not right to 

charge them for the delays 

which is not their fault. 

Bello stated: “People should 

return containers as and 

when due but to be honest, the 

contract is frustrated because 

there is no access for 

returning these containers 

and you are going to charge 

importers and their agents 

demurrage, which is not fair. 

“We have looked at what is 

obtainable in other countries 

where you can have it like an 

insurance service. It should be 

By Godfrey Bivbere 

insured, instead of paying 

N300,000 as container 

deposit, you can pay an 

insurance company N20,000 

and the insurance company 

will make sure your container 

is returned by any means 

necessary. 

“It is because of this rush to 

escape demurrage that you 

see a lot of trucks laden with 

empty containers that are 

meant for return, choking up 

the roads to the container 

terminals around the ports. 

That regime of empty 

containers has to be 

addressed holistically,” he 

noted. 

It will be recalled that the 

NSC published an 

advertisement announcing 

the reversal of illegal storage 

charges at the ports to what 

was in force as at May 1, 2009. 

The Council also ordered an 

extension on the free storage 

period at the port from three 

days to seven days, and 

equally directed shipping 

companies to reduce their 

shipping line agency charges 

from N26,500 to N23,850 per 

TEU and from N48,000 to 

N40,000 per TEU. 

They also directed shipping 

agencies to refund container 

deposits to importers and 

agents within 10 working days 

after the return of the empty 

•Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed 

Economy still groaning 

from arbitrary port charges 

containers. 

But not satisfied with the 

directive of the NSC, terminal 

operators under the auspices 

of Seaport Terminal Operators 

of Nigeria, STOAN and 

shipping agencies under the 

Association of Shipping Line 

Agencies, ASLA dragged the 

Council before the Federal 

High Court, challenging its 

powers to reduce their 

charges. 

In a suit No. FHC/CS/1646/ 

2014 – ALRAINE SHIPPING 

AGENCIES (NIG) LTD & 

ORS Vs NIGERIAN 

SHIPPERS’ COUNCIL and 

SUIT NO. FHC/CS/1704/2014 

– APAPA BULK TERMINAL 

LTD & ORS Vs NIGERIAN 

SHIPPERS’ COUNCIL, the 

Federal High Court in Lagos, 

while affirming the position of 

the Nigerian Shippers’ 

Council, NSC as the 

Economic Regulators of the 

Ports, held that the Shipping 

Line Agency Charges, SLAC 

levied and collected from 

Nigerian shippers by the 

Shipping Companies since 

2006, is illegal and that the 

shipping companies should 

account and pay to Nigerian 

shippers all monies or fees 

charged and collected since 

2006 as SLAC. 

Dissatisfied, the shipping 

companies and the Terminal 

Operators, mostly foreignowned, 

filed suits to 

invalidate the actions of the 

NSC. 

The Nigerian Shippers’ 

Council filed a Counter 

Affidavit to the suits and 

counter-claimed in relation to 

the Shipping companies case 

as follows: 

For 2017 and 2018, the 

amount paid by the 

importers as container 

deposit stood at N66.8 

and N80.9 billion 

respectively, according to 

the NSC 

•Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi 

1. A DECLARATION that by 

virtue of the provisions of 

Clause 2(a) and(b) of the 

Memorandum 

of 

Understanding between 

Providers and Users of 

Shipping/Port and Related 

Services dated 28th March 

2001, the Plaintiffs do not 

have the powers or rights to 

unilaterally introduce and 

impose Shipping Lines 

Agency Charges, SLAC; 

2. A DECLARATION that 

the unilateral introduction 

and imposition of the 

Shipping Lines Agency 

Charges, SLAC by the 

Plaintiffs and collection of 

same from shippers or users 

of shipping/port-related 

services from 2006 to date, is 

illegal, ultra vires, and 

therefore null and void; 

3. AN ORDER directing the 

Plaintiffs to immediately stop 

the collection of the Shipping 

Lines Agency Charges, SLAC 

from users of shipping/port 

and related services; and 

4. AN ORDER directing the 

Plaintiffs to account for and 

pay to the Defendant, with 

interests at the rate of 21% per 

annum, all monies or fees 

collected by the Plaintiffs as 

Shipping Lines Agency 

Charges, SLAC from shippers 

or users of shipping/portrelated 

services from 2006 to 

date. 

Continues on page 21


•Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, 

Hassan Bello 

•National President, NCMDLCA, Lucky 

Amewiro 

5. A Declaration that by 

virtue of Section 5 of the 

Constitution of Nigeria 1999; 

Section 4 of the Nigeria 

Shippers’ Council Act Cap. 

133, Laws of the Federation 

of Nigeria 2004, Regulation 3 

of the Nigerian Shippers’ 

Council (Local Shipping 

Charges on Imports and 

Exports) Regulations 1997 

and the written directive from 

the Minister of Transport 

dated 20th February 2014, the 

Defendant can act as the 

economic regulator of 

Nigerian ports to issue 

directives, ensure fair 

competition; take lawful 

steps to make the ports userfriendly 

and attractive to 

business and regulate local 

shipping charges in 

Nigerian ports. 

Delivering judgement, the 

court, presided over by 

Justice Chidi Uwa dismissed 

the claims of the shipping 

companies and the terminal 

operators and granted the 

counter-claims of NSC. By 

this decision, shippers in 

Nigeria who have paid 

SLAC to the shipping 

•Chairperson of STOAN, Vicky Hastrup 

•Immediate past National President, ANLCA, 

Olayiwola Shittu 

companies between 2006 to 

date, can now seek a refund. 

The private terminal 

operators at the nation’s 

seaports have carried out their 

threat of challenging the 

Appeal Court judgment that 

declared some of their charges 

illegal and a penalty of over 

one trillion naira slammed 

against them. 

The concessionaires, under 

the umbrella of Seaport 

Terminal Operators of Nigeria, 

STOAN, have gone to the 

Supreme Court against the 

Nigerian Shippers’ Council 

and Shippers Association of 

Lagos State, SALS to vacate 

the rulings of the appellate 

court. 

They are challenging the 

judgment of the Court of 

Appeal which on January 16, 

2018, upheld the judgment of 

a Federal High Court sitting 

in Ikoyi, Lagos that declared 

the charges illegal and 

ordered the terminal 

operators to revert to the 

status quo on storage and port 

charges as at 2009. 

The court case which lasted 

over a year had affirmed the 

judgment of the lower court 

saying that the submission of 

the terminal operators lacked 

merit even as it was termed 

to be a mere academic work. 

Delivering the judgment, 

Justice Chidi Uwa, 

maintained that the appellant 

failed to establish its case. 

A reliable source in 

Shippers’ Council confirmed 

that the concessionaires went 

to the apex court and that the 

Council is waiting for the 

summons. 

A document dated February 

26, 2018, sighted by our 

reporter in Lagos, also 

revealed that STOAN has 

also hired a new Senior 

Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, 

to boost the legal team that 

held sway at the lower 

courts. 

Counsel to SALS, Osuala 

Nwagbara, while reacting to 

the development, said the 

terminal operators have 

eventually decided to drag 

NSC to the Supreme Court. 

Responding to allegations 

of not showing concern in 

the face of series of 

unauthorised levies 

imposed on shippers by 

terminal operators and ship 

owners, Bello explained that 

the justice system in the 

country works slowly but 

expressed confidence that it 

will lead to justice for the 

shippers. 

Bello had earlier said that 

importers are annually 

subjected to payment of 

N1.7 billion as container 

deposit fees to foreign 

shipping companies. 

He said that the Council 

will work at stopping the 

payment of container 

deposits before the end of 

the second quarter of this 

year. 

According to the NSC 

boss, “every shipper pays 

N120,000 as container 

deposit fee to foreign 

shipping companies, with 

the estimated total 

amounting to N1.7 billion 

every year for container 

deposit only. This is adding 

to the cost of doing business 

in our ports and is not the 

fault of the shippers, but 

because he cannot return 

the container within the 

specified time due to the fact 

that the roads are clogged 

up, and the holding bays are 

not working; so why must 

the shipper bear such cost? 

“We want indemnity system 

and we have already spoken 

with National Insurance 

Commission, NAICOM to 

bring insurance penetration 

into our port system. 

Hopefully, by the first 

quarter of next year, there 

will not be payment of 

container deposit again.” 

However, from the 

container throughput 

figures provided by NPA, 

importers paid N1.921 

billion container deposit in 

the first quarter. This amount 

is gotten from 192,164 

TEUs multiplied by 

N100,000 paid by importers 

for the period. 

For 2017 and 2018, the 

amount paid by the 

importers as container 

deposit stood at N66.8 and 

N80.9 billion respectively, 

according to the NSC. 

Speaking on the issue, 

President of the National 

Council of Managing 

Directors of Licensed 

Customs Agents, 

NCMDLCA, Lucky 

Amiwero, blamed the NSC 

for the delay after getting a 

favourable judgment at both 

the Federal High Court and 

the Court of Appeal. 

Amewiro explained that 

the Shippers’ Council 

should have executed that 

judgment by ensuring that 

both the shipping lines and 

the terminal operators 

comply with it. 

He noted that the Council 

has approached the court to 

seek the power to collect the 

illegal funds from the 

shipping lines and the 

terminal operators, it should 

go ahead to enforce the 

refund and warehouse it in 

a dedicated account until 

the Supreme Court decides 

the final position. 

The NCMDLCA boss 

pointed out that it is only in 

Nigeria that these kinds of 

charges are slammed on 

shippers, adding that even 

in neighbouring countries 

like Ghana, Benin, Togo and 

others around the world, 

most of these charges are 

unheard of. 

He called on the Federal 

Government to step in and 

correct the huge anomaly 

stressing that it is Nigerians 

that bear the brunt of these 

illegal charges. 

However, a top member of 

the Association of Nigerian 

Licensed Customs Agents, 

ANLCA, who refused to be 

mentioned said that they are 

aware that an out-of-court 

settlement is being worked 

out but insisted that details 

cannot be revealed yet. 

The source, however, 

warned our reporter to be 

careful, noting that though 

“these people” have not 

started harming journalists 

does not mean that they 

cannot. 

C 

M 

Y 

K


VOL. 2 NO. 77 

• South-East governors announcing the formation of Ebubeagu. 

Insecurity: How EbubeAgu 

can succeed —Ndigbo 

• Involve retired security experts —Bishop Onuoha 

• Train, fund them well, work with ESN —Iwuanyanwu 

• Forward exco bill to Houses of Assembly for legal backing —former Abia deputy speaker 

• Personnel must not be owed —COSEYL 

• Proliferation of security outfit will not save Nigeria —Ohuabunwa 

• Create clear, organised structure and central control 

• Proper coordination key to its success—Ohaneze National VP 

By Anayo Okoli, Vincent 

Ujumadu, Chimaobi 

Nwaiwu, Nwabueze 

Okonkwo, Chinonso 

Alozie, Ugochukwu 

Alaribe, Peter Okutu, 

Ikechukwu Odu & 

Steve Oko 

ENUGU — RECENTLY, the 

South-East Governors set up a 

regional security outfit and named 

it Ebubeagu. Though the structure, 

modalities, logistics and other 

operational modalities and effective 

take-off date for outfit are yet to be 

announced, some Igbo stakeholders 

have, however, suggested possible 

tips to make it succeed. 

The immediate past Deputy 

Speaker of Abia State House of 

Assembly, Dr. Cosmos Ndukwe, said 

the first thing is to enact a law to 

give the outfit legal teeth. To this end, 

he urged the governors to urgently 

forward executive bills to their 

respective Houses of Assembly to 

enact the necessary enabling laws 

to give the outfit legal backing. 

Ndukwe said without the necessary 

legislative backing, the outfit 

remains illegal as mere 

pronouncement by the governors 

does not confer any power on it. 

“Without a law backing it, 

anybody could go to court and stop 

it; and before the constitution of the 

land, it is not recognised until there 

is a law establishing it.” 

He also urged the speakers and 

leaders of the Houses of Assembly 

in the region to come together, chart 

the best way to harmonise the bills 

from their states to arrive at a 

uniform law that would give the 

outfit the needed legal protection. 

“First of all, there has to be a 

legislation backing up the outfit. The 

governors and leadership of the state 

Houses of Assembly need to work 

on this fast. After that, they will then 

decide on what type of weapons the 

outfit will use to safeguard our 

territory. Is it a light weapon or rapid 

response weapons? 

“You can’t say you are forming a 

security outfit that will use machetes 

to chase those using AK-47. You also 

ask where the personnel are going 

to stay, inside the bush or are they 

going to stay on the roads to harass 

people?”, Ndukwe suggested. 

Ndukwe who also served as 

Commissioner for Trade & 

Investment in the state, however, 

cautioned that if not properly 

controlled, the outfit “will turn out 

to be another weapon of torture in 

the hands of politicians against their 

opponents,” and stressed the need 

for adequate funding so that the 

operatives would not be owed which 

could backfire. 

He also expressed the possibility 

of Ebubeagu and the Eastern 

Security Network, ESN, synergizing 

in the best interest of the region. 

“What is Ebubeagu Security 

Network and what is Eastern 

Security Network? Are both of them 

not ESN? They are one acronym; it 

is all about giving them legislative 

back-up.” 

Elder statesman and notable Igbo 

voice, Chief Emmanuel 

Iwuayanwu, insisted that the new 

regional security outfit needs 

adequate funding and proper 

training of the personnel, especially 

in the area of intelligence-gathering 

to function effectively. 

“At this point, what is remaining is 

to properly train the personnel of 

Ebubeagu security outfit, mostly in 

intelligence-gathering and fund it 

well. With this, they will function very 

well and produce results. They will 

also work with the Eastern Security 

Network, ESN, to achieve this. 

“Yes, I know that some people, in 

the South-East might kick against 

this move but we want a situation 

where all hands should be on deck 

for us to heave a sigh of relief from 

banditry and terrorism. 

“We acknowledge the interest and 

enthusiasm of ESN to protect our 

people and it would be good if they 

work together with Ebubeagu and 

nobody should say that this is illegal. 

“There should be no conflict 

between them and like I said, the 

governors of the South-East should 

get the IPOB/ESN to work with 

Ebubeagu. Terrorists have different 

strategies of operation. 

“When these bandits and terrorists 

started, I warned the South-East not 

to take anything for granted or to 

be complacent and what is 

happening today is nothing but a 

war against Nigeria as a nation. 

“Their strategies are part of the 

strategies usually adopted for a war. 

Most often, some people say, that it 

is the IPOB and Eastern Security 

Network, ESN, that are behind this 

but I do not think so because the 

IPOB boys are Igbo and no right 

thinking Igbo man can just wake 

up and take arms to kill his fellow 

Igbo man. 

“This is why we should really find 

out what is happening. Sometime 

in 2019, the leadership of Ohanaeze 

Ndigbo met with governors of the 

South-East and they decided to have 

a common security outfit. 

When these 

bandits and 

terrorists started, I 

warned the South- 

East not to take 

anything for 

granted or to be 

complacent and 

what is happening 

today is nothing 

but a war against 

Nigeria as a nation; 

their strategies are 

part of the 

strategies usually 

adopted for a war 

“We held meetings in Enugu and 

Ebonyi, and a retired Army General 

was appointed to head a committee 

that was established to bring about 

the security outfit. 

“Every state in the South-East was 

represented in that committee that 

was set up. We also agreed that all 

state Houses of Assembly in the 

South-East should pass a law to back 

it up and also recruit people into the 

regional security outfit,” 

Iwuayanwu recounted. 

A cleric and former Special 

Assistant to ex-President Olusegun 

Obasanjo on Privatisation, Bishop 

Sunday Onuoha, believed the 

governors acted rather late but he 

still commended them for at last 

floating a regional security body. 

He suggested the incorporation of 

retired army officers and resourceful 

security experts from the South-East 

zone into the outfit to make it 

formidable. According to him, if the 

right individuals were engaged into 

the outfit, it would help to 

checkmate the rising insecurity in 

the zone. 

Bishop Onuoha, however, warned 

against recruiting dubious 

characters into the outfit, saying that 

would worsen the precarious 

security situation. 

“They should be careful in the 

recruitment; they should not 

produce tigers that will turn around 

and start eating the people,” he 

cautioned. 

Onuoha also called for synergy 

between Ebubeagu and ESN 

operatives to make the South- East 

better secured, even as he 

emphasized on the need for 

adequate and prompt remuneration 

of the personnel. 

“Security is a serious affair. The 

governors should not joke with their 

salaries because even the governors 

are not safe. Governor Hope 

Uzodinma could have been 

kidnapped when unknown gunmen 

invaded Owerri recently and 

operated for hours near 

Government House unchallenged,” 

Onuoha said. 

He, however, raised serious concern over the 

proliferation of security outfits by various ethnic 

groups in the country, warning that the 

development is a step towards disintegration of 

Nigeria. 

“Nigeria has to ask herself this critical question: 

Do we still want to stay together as one country? 

There are so many security outfits in the country 

by other regions before Ebubeagu. What does this 

suggest in a country where we have the 

conventional security agencies?” the cleric 

queried. 

The Anambra State Elders and Stakeholders 

Forum, led by First Republic Aviation Minister, 

Chief Mbazulike Amechi and former civilian 

Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka 

Ezeife, said the establishment of Ebubeagu is highly 

commendable but cautioned that the outfit must 

be properly equipped with the necessary gadgets 

such as CCTV cameras among others and 

collaborate with existing local vigilantes to ensure 

effective surveillance. 

Rising from a meeting at Ukpor, Nnewi South 

Local Government Area, Anambra State home of 

Chief Mbazulike Amechi, the Forum in a sevenpoint 

communiqué noted that although ESN was 

necessitated by the absence of a regional security 

network, the governors should do more to secure 

their respective states in particular and the entire 

region in general. 

They urged the governors to work out effective 

and suitable modalities for the outfit to ensure 

adequate protection of lives and property of the 

people of the region. 

However, Chief Obi Oduenyi of Awkuzu, accused 

the governors of setting up Ebubeagu as a parallel 

group with ESN for the sole aim of fighting ESN, 

saying that they were paying lip service to the 

security of lives and property of Ndigbo until the 

emergence of ESN. He warned that there should 

not be any clash between the two. 

The Coalition of South-East Youth Leaders, 

COSEYL, wants traditional rulers and community 

youth leaders to be actively involved in the 

recruitment of the personnel of the outfit to avoid 

infiltration by criminal elements. 

COSEYL President, Comrade 

Goodluck Ibem, said only youths of 

integrity who are dedicated and 

proactive should be recruited into 

the outfit, hence the need to involve 

youth leaders and traditional rulers 

who know who is who in their 

communities. This, he said, is to 

avoid recruiting questionable 

characters who could compromise 

or be involved in unethical conducts. 

“The recruitment should be 

people-based. The people should be 

allowed to choose the best among 

their youths. Politicians should not 

be involved in the recruitment of the 

personnel to avoid flooding it with 

their thugs,” COSEYL warned. 

Ibem also urged the governors to 

ensure adequate provision of funds 

to avoid owing the personnel of the 

outfit as other workers who are 

owed in most of the states. 

He warned that owing the 

personnel could be counter 

productive “because when you owe 

a securityman, he can use his gun to 

fend for himself, and that will worsen 

the precarious situation.” 

On the command structure of the 

outfit, Ibem suggested that the outfit 

should have a central command 

that would be reporting directly to 

the governors and cautioned that the 

personnel should be vigilant and 

gather intelligence about invaders 

and not spy on anybody. 

For a security consultant, Dr. 

Freedom Onuoha, the success of the 

outfit is hinged on factors such as 

legal, political, economic and social 

factors. Onuoha, who is a lecturer 

in the Department of Political 

Science, University of Nigeria, 

Nsukka, UNN, also said there is 

need to assemble a team of experts 

drawn from the academia, security 

experts, activists, government 

officials and leaders of thought to 

fine-tune the mode of operation of 

the security architecture. 

“The success of the regional 

security outfit, Ebubeagu, will rely 

on at least four critical, irreducible 

minimum or factors that are legal, 

political, economic and social in 

nature. The legal aspect borders on 

the ability of the political leaders, 

executive and legislature, to quickly 

come up with an executive bill/law 

to form the legal framework for the 

establishment and operation of the 

outfit, including banning open 

grazing in the zone. 

“The political aspect has to do with 

the willingness of the South- East 

governors to work together towards 

Continues on Page 23


Security crises: Indigenes, residents 

lament effects of attacks on 

communities .…Say life now harder 

By Chimaobi Nwaiwu, 

Ugochukwu Alaribe, 

Chinonso Alozie & 

Steve Oko 

ENUGU—THE recent 

security crises in the South- 

East region have taken its toll 

on the business, political and 

social lives of people in the 

affected areas. Businesses have 

gone down, social life and other 

activities have been badly 

affected and the people now 

live in fear. 

In Isuofia, Anambra State, 

where the former governor of 

Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, 

Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, a 

strong contender for the ticket 

of APGA in the coming 

governorship election was 

attacked while in a meeting 

with youths, life in the 

community has not been the 

same. 

According to Chief Pius 

Okoye, the attack has not only 

painted a bad picture on how 

the Igbo value life but has put 

fear into the hearts of the 

residents of the peaceful and 

quiet Isuofia community. 

According to Okoye, the 

attack has affected the 

political, social, business and 

even religious lives of the 

people of Isuofia as they have 

since restricted their activities 

to a certain period of the day 

and try as much as possible to 

avoid any night activity 

because they now feel that their 

lives are under threat. 

Describing Prof. Soludo as 

an asset to Ndigbo that should 

be jealously protected, Okoye 

urged the Federal and 

Anambra state governments to 

step up action in stemming the 

ugly activities of hoodlums in 

various communities in the 

South-East and Nigeria in 

general. 

“This kind of attack is not 

known to Igbo people and in 

Igboland; it is not in the Igbo 

nature. Igbo don’t shed blood 

because of politics and we are 

therefore warning those 

Continues from Page 22 

getting the buy-in of other 

influential persons, including 

reigning in IPOB-ESN 

elements to ensure synergy. In 

THE TEAM 

SUPERVISING EDITOR: 

Chioma Gabriel, Lagos 

(08052201257) 

EDITOR 

Anayo Okoli, Enugu 

08034046839 

Vincent Ujumadu, Awka 

Chidi Nkwopara, Owerri 

Dennis Agbo, Enugu 

Peter Okutu, Abakaliki 

Chinedu Adonu, Enugu 

Chinonso Alozie, Owerri 

Chimaobi Nwaiwu, Nnewi 

Ugochukwu Alaribe, 

Umuahia 

Nwabueze Okonkwo, 

Onitsha 

Ikechukwu Odu, Nsukka 

Steve Oko, Aba 

stoking violence in Igboland 

to desist from such act or face 

the consequences. 

“Attacking Prof. Soludo, a 

former CBN Governor, an 

illustrious son of Igboland in 

his home town, Isuofia, is an 

abomination, shameful, 

sacrilege and the height of 

stupidity. We urge the eminent 

Professor of Economics not to 

be discouraged in his ambition 

to become the governor of 

Anambra State, nothing good 

comes easy. 

“We urge the attackers and 

all the people that have hand 

in it to desist from further attack 

on people or face the curse we 

will place on them because they 

are destroying the sacred name 

of Ndigbo. 

“The attack on him is 

unacceptable to us; we wonder 

how many Soludos Igboland 

has, that disgruntled 

politicians and their hoodlums 

wanted to kill because of 

politics, we are not happy 

about the development and we 

know that no reasonable Igbo 

man or Nigerian is happy 

about the attack.” 

In Ebonyi State, people 

from the attacked 

communities said thay have 

been living in fear. “Each time 

we see vehicles coming, we 

start running for our lives,” one 

of the victims said. 

They also lamented the 

hardship they have been 

passing through as no relief 

materials have been extended 

to them. They said life has not 

been easy since the incident 

even as they still live in 

complete fear of the unknown. 

According to one of the 

natives of the affected 

communities, Angela Onwe: 

“After the attack, villagers from 

the four villages have been 

living in fear and 

apprehension. Each time we 

see vehicles coming, we will 

start scampering for help. Even 

neighbouring villagers that 

were not affected are still living 

in fear of the unknown. 

“You can see how lonely the 

villages are while you are 

coming because people have 

deserted the place, saying they 

don’t know if the Fulani 

herdsmen will come back 

again.” 

Another survivor, James 

Sunday explained that the 

villagers of the affected 

villages are still afraid to return 

home for fear of falling victim 

to another attack. 

“People are still scared of 

coming back home because 

there is no presence of security 

operatives around the badly 

affected villages. Nobody to 

defend us if they attack us 

again. Both police and the 

military men left that same day 

we were attacked by the Fulani 

herdsmen.” 

In Aba, Abia State, residents 

are also counting their losses 

over the security crises. The 

residents said they now live in 

fear of attacks by policemen 

and hoodlums and lamented 

further that the 8pm to 6am 

curfew declared by the state 

government has also made life 

more difficult for them. 

Business people whose 

activities begin from 7pm daily 

have also been counting their 

losses as residents now close 

by 6.30pm to get to their homes 

before the curfew period or risk 

arrest by security agents. 

South-East Voice reported 

that the fear in Aba heighted 

when policemen from the Aba 

Area Command recently went 

on rampage, shooting, beating 

residents and destroying 

vehicles on the roads leading 

to the Police Command 

Headquarters and the 

Correctional Services and the 

High Court Complex in Aba. 

The policemen were said to be 

protesting an assault on their 

colleague by a motorist at the 

Ama Ogbonna area. 

It was believed that the 

policemen also used the 

shootings to express their 

preparedness and warned the 

hoodlums who have been 

attacking security formations. 

Insecurity: How EbubeAgu can succeed — Ndigbo 

addition, they have to show 

some level of political 

sagacity to contain external 

forces, especially from the 

federal government and 

other influential groups 

that may want to stall the 

operations of Ebubeagu. 

“The economic 

dimension entails the 

willingness and 

commitment of the 

governors and 

politicians from the zone 

to properly provide the 

outfit with personal, 

logistics and funding to 

enable it function 

properly and confront 

evolving and future 

security threats. 

“The social dimension 

has to do with the extent 

to which the outfit gains 

popular acceptance in 

the region given deep 

distrust of the current set 

of leaders by people of the 

zone, against the 

backdrop of their weak 

commitment to issues 

bordering on the welfare 

and security of the people in 

the past. 

“Therefore, there is the need 

for the convening of expert 

team composed of security 

experts, academia, CSOs, 

activists, government officials 

and leaders of thought to 

critically examine the 

Ebubeagu concept with a 

view to working out critical 

details of its operation,” he 

said. 

The former Chairman of 

Nigerian Economic Summit 

Group, Mazi Sam 

Ohuabunwa, however is of the 

opinion that the security 

challenges would not be fixed 

by the proliferation of 

security outfits as being done 

by many regions, but by 

addressing issues of injustices 

in the nation. 

He warned that the country 

might “slide into a state where 

everybody gets armed and 

begins to kill one another 

unless the fundamental issues 

of injustice, lack of economic 

opportunities, and lack of law 

and order are consciously 

addressed”.

24 — VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 

Tempted to try again with my 

ex-wife! 

Dear Bunmi, 

AFTER less than seven 

years of marriage, I’d 

had enough and asked for a 

divorce. That was two years 

ago. We’d sort of grown apart, 

in spite of our son. We recently 

met up in my office to try to 

be friends and discuss ways 

of bringing up our son. 

I was amazed to see how 

confident and sexy my ex 

looked. It was impossible to 

take my eyes off her body, 

which I once knew so well, 

and we ended up having sex 

the next time we met. 

I was really surprised 

because sex was boring in our 

marriage and she went off it 

altogether when she had our 

son, which is one of the 

reasons I left her. But since 

the divorce, she’s had several 

lovers and is now really 

adventurous and hot in bed. 

She’s also lost a lot of weight 

and looks fantastic again. I 

was struck by her beauty when 

I first met her. Now, I feel 

myself wanting to be with her 

again. Do you think the good 

sex will last? 

Taofik, by e-mail. 

Dear Taofik, 

Great sex is a big plus in any 

relationship but, sadly, just 

because you’re getting on 

better in bed doesn’t mean 

you’ll get on better out of it. 

The reason why sex is great 

two years on from the divorce 

is because all the frustration, 

anger and resentment that 

were responsible for the 

demise of your marriage have 

disappeared. You’ve both 

forgotten the bad bits, 

idealized the good and are 

enjoying the lovely sex 

reunited exes often 

experience... temporarily. 

Divorce is often painful, 

messy and horribly upsetting. 

Again, the attraction here is 

physical. She looks great again 

and the lusty sex is back. These 

are dodgy reasons to return, 

because they can change so 

quickly. Successful long-term 

relationships are based on 

qualities that don’t easily alter – 

like personality, intelligence, a 

sense of humour due to kindness. 

The time to try again is when 

both of you have worked out what 

went wrong the first time. 

You’ve both now had the 

chance to recover, licked your 

wounds and feel stronger. 

Seeing each other again when 

you’re both on your best 

behaviour helps to shroud the 

past in a fog of romantic 

idealism. 

Of course, sex is better than 

it was when you left – it’s 

familiar so it feels safe, but 

forbidden as you’re not 

supposed to sleep with your 

ex-wife. Your ex is also eager 

to show off the new tricks 

she’s learned to impress you 

– and reinforce that even if 

you didn’t want her, other 

men do. Your initial attraction 

to your wife was physical and 

yet the marriage still didn’t 

survive. 

Again, the attraction here is 

physical. She looks great 

again and the lusty sex is 

back. These are dodgy 

reasons to return, because 

they can change so quickly. 

Successful long-term 

relationships are based on 

qualities that don’t easily alter 

– like personality, 

intelligence, a sense of 

humour due to kindness. 

You’ve not mentioned any 

reasons for reconciliation that 

are not related to sex or 

appearance. 

The time to try again is when 

both of you have worked out 

what went wrong the first 

time. You must both be willing 

to change and have sensible 

strategies of how to stop it 

falling apart again. I don’t see 

any evidence of that having 

happened here. 

My pregnancy is bound to disappoint 

my Mom! 

I 

Dear Bunmi, 

’M just over 20 and my 

boyfriend is a couple of 

years older. He has a decent 

job with a manufacturing firm, 

and I work as a secretary/ 

receptionist for a group of 

lawyers. 

I have just discovered that 

I’m pregnant and I can’t wait 

to shout it from the rooftop. 

My boyfriend is all for our 

getting married, but I don’t 

know how to tell my mum. 

She’s brought me and my 

younger brother up singlehandedly 

since our dad died 

Should I get pregnant? 

Dear MBunmi, 

Y fiancé and I hope to get 

married soon, but 

haven’t set the date. We’ve done 

the traditional engagement, but 

he wants us to get enough stuffs 

for the flat before marriage. 

I am on the pill, but I would 

rather have kids when I’m young 

enough to cope. I am 25 and he 

is 30, and we have fairly wellpaid 

jobs. 

Do you think getting pregnant 

would hasten his commitment? 

I could go off the pill without 

telling him. 

Fatima, by e-mail. 

Dear Fatima, 

You are better off discussing 

how you feel with your partner 

instead of tricking him into 

putting your marriage date 

forward. Both of you might want 

to make some sacrifices like 

settling for a modest wedding. 

Whatever stuffs you’ll need for 

the flat could be bought as the 

means arise. But believe me, 

taking care of a baby doesn’t 

come cheap! 

Whatever you do, put a date to 

your proposed wedding. That 

would take your mind off the 

anxiety of the possibility of his 

not committing to you. 

and has always encouraged 

me to further my studies. 

I can’t hide this pregnancy 

forever, so please tell me how 

to go about things without 

hurting her. 

Julie, by e-mail. 

Dear Julie, 

I can’t really tell you exactly 

what to say to your mum, but 

I can tell you how to say it. 

Your boyfriend and you 

should meet her face to face – 

you owe her that much – and 

being together shows her 

you’re sticking to each other 

to bring up the baby through 

marriage. 

Say what you have to say 

confidently or she’ll pick up 

your anxiety and think there’s 

something to be worried 

about. Don’t give her the 

impression that you’re on the 

defensive and say whatever 

you have to say with love not 

defiance. 

If she reacts badly, hang in 

there. She’ll just need time to 

adjust to being a grandmother. 

In love with an old friend 

I 

Dear Bunmi, 

’VE been mandated by a 

group of friends to 

organise a congratulatory 

party for one of us. The party 

is to take place at a small 

events’ centre and a close 

friend I’ve known since school 

is to help. My fear now is that 

I might not be able to keep my 

hands off him. We are in our 

late 20s. I’ve secretly liked 

him for ages and would love 

to tell him how I feel. 

Unfortunately, he has a 

girlfriend. 

We’ve been friends for years 

but it’s only recently that I 

have come to realise that I 

am, in fact, in love with him. 

We get on so well and I know 

he is perfect for me. My fear 

now is that I might not be able 

to stop myself from making a 

play for him, after all, girls 

make the first move these 

days. That would likely get 

me into trouble with his 

girlfriend – who will also be 

there. 

Carolyn, by e-mail. 

Dear Carolyn, 

It is natural to feel tempted 

but I wouldn’t go there if I 

were you! He is committed to 

another woman who is well 

known to you, so he’s not free 

to start anything with you. I 

would stay well clear of him 

at the party if I were you, and 

find a free agent to flirt with. 

You’re clearly obsessed with 

this man. He hasn’t 

encouraged you in any way 

and you need to hang on to 

your self respect by leaving 

him alone and moving on. 

At his age he should respect himself 

Dear Bunmi, 

MY current man is 67 

and we get on well 

together. I’m in my early 50s. 

His fault is that he’s 

constantly eyeing young girls 

when he’s with me. 

When I asked him why he 

looks at 16-year-old girls, he 

replied: “They are well 

developed these days.” 

Why does he behave like this 

at his age? I’ve told him a few 

times that I find his behaviour 

annoying. I look after myself, 

have a nice figure and a good 

disposition. Isn’t that enough. 

We’re compatible, 

otherwise, but his lecherous 

way really spoils things. 

Risikat, by e-mail. 

Dear Risikat, 

Like most men, your 

boyfriend tends to behave in 

ways that suit his self-image. 

Most men, just like their 

female counterparts, like to 

think of themselves as 

attractive to the opposite sex. 

Now that your man’s sexual 

attractiveness is declining, he 

increasingly seeks fulfilment 

in fantasy – maybe he used to 

see himself as a stud who had 

sex with young, fertile women! 

Now that has become 

impossible, he chases dreams 

in which his continued sexual 

success as a man is 

guaranteed. 

His behaviour might be 

shocking to you, but your best 

bet is to ignore him. Stop 

competing with the young 

girls he seems to be panting 

over and be yourself. 

For now, the only woman he 

wants and can have is you. So 

humour him – or ogle 

younger men to give him a 

good run for his money! 

Attached to a two faced cheat! 

Dear Bunmi, 

LAST year, my best friend 

spent a week with me, 

trying to get over the shock of 

her husband’s latest affair. His 

latest flame had just phoned 

the house and she was quite 

nasty on the phone. 

When my friend told her 

husband what happened, he 

shrugged and said it took a 

lot of persuasion for her to go 

back, and she told me things 

are fine now. 

But I know they aren’t. The 

grapevine is agog with his 

current escapade and, when 

I go to my friend’s house, I 

can’t stand her husband as a 

result. My skin crawls when 

my friend cuddles up to him, 

and at the way he fawns over 

her, knowing he’s a great 

fraud! 

Gogo, by e-mail. 

Dear Gogo, 

Your view of your friend’s 

marriage is based on what 

happened to her last year, 

when she was angry and 

unhappy – and on the socalled 

grapevine. But you 

haven’t heard the 

conversation they’ve had 

where they were sorting 

things out. 

You’ve not seen what 

concrete changes they’ve 

made to recover from the 

affair, or the effort they’ve 

made to get themselves back 

in love. 

It’s understandable that 

whenever you see him, you 

remember the affairs and feel 

bad. But things have moved 

on for her and she feels 

differently about him and her 

marriage. If you want to be a 

real friend to her, you will 

realize this and start to feel 

differently too. 

You are not married to this 

man, your friend is. Leave 

them to get on with their lives. 

Share your problems and release 

your burden. Write now to 

Dear Bunmi, 

Vanguard Newspapers, 

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

bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 — 25 

Chadian President, Deby dies 

on frontline •Son named Interim 

CHAD’s newly reelected 

President 

Idriss Deby Itno has died 

of injuries while fighting 

rebels in the north of the 

Sahel country. 

The shocking announcement 

came only 

the day after the 68-yearold 

was proclaimed the 

winner of a presidential 

election that had given 

him a sixth term in office. 

The army said Deby had 

been commanding his 

army at the weekend as 

it battled against rebels 

who had launched a major 

incursion into the 

north of the country on 

election day. 

Deby “has just 

breathed his last breath 

defending the sovereign 

nation on the battlefield,” 

army spokesman General 

Azem Bermandoa Agouna 

said in a statement 

read out on state television. 

Deby, 68, had ruled 

Chad for three decades 

but was a key ally in the 

West’s anti-jihadist campaign 

in the troubled 

Sahel region. 

The army said a military 

council led by the 

late president’s 37-yearold 

son Mahamat Idriss 

Deby Itno, a four-star 

general, would replace 

him. 

On Monday, the army 

had claimed a “great victory” 

in its battle against 

the rebels from neighbouring 

Libya, saying it 

had killed 300 fighters, 

with the loss of five soldiers 

in its own ranks 

during eight days of 

combat. 

Deby would have been 

one of the longest-serving 

leaders in the world, 

after provisional results 

showed him winning the 

April 11 election. 

He was a herder’s son 

from the Zaghawa ethnic 

group who took the classic 

path to power 

through the army and 

relished the military culture. 

His latest election victory 

— with almost 80 

percent of the vote — 

had never been in doubt, 

with a divided opposition, 

boycott calls, and a 

campaign in which demonstrations 

were banned 

or dispersed. 

Deby had campaigned 

George Floyd's killer, Derek 

Chauvin convicted of murder 

DEREK Chauvin has 

been found guilty of 

second-degree unintentional 

murder, third-degree 

murder and seconddegree 

manslaughter in 

the death of George 

Floyd. 

The jury returned its verdict 

on Tuesday afternoon 

after ten and a half hours 

of deliberation. 

As the verdict was read 

out Chauvin looked on silently 

in the Hennepin 

County courtroom where 

jurors spent three weeks 

listening to testimony 

about the day Floyd died 

under the weight of the 45- 

year-old cop's knee during 

an arrest on May 25, 2020. 

Judge Peter Cahill 

thanked the jury on behalf 

of the state of Minnesota 

for not only jury service, 

but also ‘heavy duty jury 

service.’ The state moved 

immediately to have 

Chauvin’s bail revoked 

pending sentencing which 

will happen in eight weeks. 

Judge Cahill did so and 

Chauvin was remanded 

into custody taken from 

the courtroom in handcuffs. 

Chauvin faces a maximum 

sentence of 40 years 

in prison on the top 

charge. Floyd’s younger 

brother, Philonise, 39, who 

took a knee at the courthouse 

steps at the start of 

the trial, was in court to 

hear the verdict read. 

Cheers rose from the 

crowds that had gathered 

outside the courthouse 

and down at the intersection 

of 38th and Chicago 

now known as George 

Floyd Square. Cup Foods, 

the store in which Floyd 

Leader by Army 

was last seen alive, shuttered 

its doors ahead of the 

decision. 

The jury sent their notice 

that a verdict had been 

reached at 2.30pm local 

time as Minneapolis and 

the country braced for potential 

violence stemming 

from the decision. Jurors 

had not sent back any 

questions to the judge or 

asked to review any of the 

hours of video or hundreds 

of exhibits entered in the 

course of the trial. 

The verdict came just 

hours after President Joe 

Biden called the evidence 

against Chauvin 'overwhelming' 

and revealed he 

called Floyd's family to 

share his support after the 

jury retired on Monday 

evening. 

on a promise of bringing 

peace and security to the 

region, but his pledges 

were undermined by the 

rebel incursion. 

The government had 

sought on Monday to 

assure concerned residents 

that the offensive 

was over. 

The tanks were later 

withdrawn apart from a 

perimeter around the 

president’s office, 

which is under heavy 

security during normal 

times. 

“The establishment of 

a security deployment 

in certain areas of the 

capital seems to have 

been misunderstood,” 

government spokesman 

Cherif Mahamat Zene 

had said on Twitter on 

Monday. 

“There is no particular 

threat to fear.” 

However, the US embassy 

in N’Djamena 

had on Saturday ordered 

non-essential 

personnel to leave the 

country, warning of possible 

violence in the 

capital. Britain also 

urged its nationals to 

leave. 

France’s embassy 

said in an advisory to 

its nationals in Chad 

that the deployment 

was a precaution and 

there was no specific 

threat to the capital. 

The rebel raid in the 

provinces of Tibesti and 

Kanem was carried out 

by the Front for Change 

and Concord in Chad 

(FACT), based in Libya. 

The group has a nonaggression 

pact with 

Khalifa Haftar, a military 

strongman who 

controls much of Libya’s 

east. 

FACT, a group mainly 

made up of the Saharan 

Goran people, 

said in a statement Sunday 

that it had “liberated” 

the Kanem region. 

Such claims in remote 

desert combat zones are 

difficult to verify. 

Former U.S. Vice President 

Walter Mondale dies at 93 

WALTER Mondale, 

a leading liberal 

Democratic voice of the 

late 20th century who 

was U.S. vice president 

under Jimmy Carter and 

lost in a landslide to 

Ronald Reagan in the 

1984 presidential election, 

died on Monday at 

age 93, his family said. 

“Well my time has 

come. I am eager to rejoin 

Joan and Eleanor,” 

Mondale said in a statement 

to his staff and released 

to the public after 

his death, referring to his 

late wife Joan, who died 

in 2014, and daughter 

Eleanor, who died in 

2011 at age 51. “Before I 

go I wanted to let you 

know how much you 

mean to me.” 

Mondale, the first major 

U.S. party presidential 

nominee to pick a 

woman running mate, 

believed in an activist 

government and worked 

for civil rights, school 

integration, consumer 

protection and farm and 

labor interests as a U.S. 

senator and vice president 

during Carter’s 

troubled one-term presidency 

from 1977 to 1981. 

He also served as U.S. 

ambassador to Japan 

from 1993 to 1996 under 

Bill Clinton. 


:@vanguardnews 

Govt Corporations remit N2.15trn 

as ‘Operating Surplus' —FRC 

By Gabriel Ewepu 

ABUJA—THE Fiscal Re 

sponsibility Commission, 

FRC, yesterday, disclosed that 

government's corporations remitted 

over N2.15 trillion as 

'operating surplus' into the Consolidated 

Revenue Fund of the 

Federal Government. 

Chairman, FRC, Victor Muruako, 

disclosed this while on a 

courtesy visit to the Minister of 

Special Duties and Inter-Governmental 

Affairs, Dr George 

Akume. 

He said: "The Commission 

produced a template for the 

calculation of Operating Surplus. 

The Template has, for over 

four years, helped the Commission 

face agencies with huge 

debt and has reversed the negative 

balance of Government 

finances through operating 

surplus. As at today, the Commission 

had caused over N2.15 

trillion to be paid into the Consolidated 

Revenue Fund of 

Government. 

While highlighting achieve- 

ments of the Commission, Muruako 

pointed out that in line 

with the mandate of ensuring 

prudence, accountability and 

transparent fiscal management 

in the country as contained in 

Section 2: 1 (A) and Section 30 

of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 

2007, the FRC embarked on 

physical verification and inspection 

of completed and on-going 

government projects. 

He added that the projects are 

derived from the quarterly Budget 

Implementation Report submitted 

to the Commission by the 

Budget Office of the Federation, 

and that these projects cover all 

the Ministries, Departments and 

Agencies, MDAs, of the Federal 

Government, and the exercise 

has been going on for over seven 

years. 

He said: "Monitoring and 

Evaluation of the annual budget 

Regular publication of funds 

released to the three tiers of Government 

as well as timeline for 

the audit of the Federal Government 

account; Over N2.15 trillion 

paid into the Consolidated 

Revenue Fund of the Federal 

Government over the past years 

as Operating Surplus from 

government corporations 

against just about N7 billion 

government allocation to the 

agency since inception, Provision 

of technical Assistance to 

states and local governments 

that enact Fiscal Responsibility 

laws and bye-Laws that are 

similar to FRA, 2007". 

However Muruako called 

for collaboration with the 

Ministry of Special Duties and 

Inter-Governmental Affairs to 

organize a National Fiscal Responsibility 

Forum for Local 

Government Chairmen and 

Councillors to basically inculcate 

the principle of prudent 

management of resources, 

transparency and accountability 

Ẇhile responding to the 

FRC boss, the Minister of Special 

Duties and Inter-Governmental 

Affairs, Sen George 

Akume, charged the FRC to 

beam its searchlight on the 

three tiers of government. 

FG launches SOPs for civil service 

By Dirisu Yakubu 

ABUJA—THE Federal 


launched the Standard Operating 

Procedures, SOPs, for the 

civil service. 

The SOPs were developed to 

enhance professionalism and 

quicken service delivery processes 

in the conduct of government 

business. The procedures, 

an initiative of the Africa Initiative 

for Governance, AIG, in 

collaboration with the Office 

of the Head of the Civil Service 

of the Federation, OHCSF, are 

aimed at assisting officers to understand 

and document 

records digitally. 

Addressing newsmen at the 

event, Head of the Civil Service 

of the Federation, Dr. Folasade 

Yemi-Esan commended the expertise 

brought to bear in the 

design of the procedures by AIG 

noting that with the SOPs now 

in place, the service will come 

up "with an effective system that 

complies with industry-specific 

regulations and standards to 

significantly reduce or avoid 

operational errors as well as 

unwanted work variations." 

She continued: "SOPs also 

ensure the repeatability and consistency 

of the performance of 

any type of process. It helps employees 

to perform complicated 

tasks, one in which remembering 

every detail of a procedure 

can be difficult or in which 

a precise sequence of steps is 

essential. 

"It is instructive to note that 

in view of the importance of 

the SOP manuals to the seamless 

implementation of the Enterprise 

Content Management 

Solution, ECMS, and in line 

with international best practices, 

the office decided to take 

the lead and has gone further 

to approve the immediate service-wide 

development of 

SOPs starting with four selected 

Ministries Departments 

and Agencies made up of the 

Federal Civil Service Commission, 

Federal Ministry of 

Finance, Budget and National 

Planning, State House and 

the Federal Ministry of Transportation," 

she added.


Need for a review of justice system – tribute 

to Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, JSC (rtd) 

RECENTLY I had the privilege 

to chair the virtual launch of a 

book published in honour of Hon. 

Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, JSC 

(retd.). I used the opportunity to 

address some issues which in my view 

affect the justice system in Nigeria 

and which require urgent review to 

bring upon an improvement in the 

justice delivery sector. Owing to the 

importance of the judicial arm of 

government, particularly in the light 

of the current shut down of courts 

nationwide as a result of the strike 

embarked upon by Judiciary 

workers, I reproduce below, the text 

of my address at the event. 

Chairman’s opening remarks: It 

gives me profound pleasure to 

welcome everyone to this Virtual 

Book Launch in honour of Hon. 

Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, JSC 

(retd.), CFR.Please permit me to 

recognise the presence of 

distinguished jurists of the Supreme 

Court, Court of Appeal, and the 

various High Courts, as well as the 

highly esteemed Senior Advocates of 

Nigeria and members of the Outer 

Bar. I also wish to specially recognise 

Mrs. Doyin Rhodes Vivour, SAN, his 

wife, the presence of other family 

members, friends, and well-wishers 

who have gathered here today to 

celebrate and to honour one of 

Nigeria’s finest jurists – Hon. Justice 

Bode Rhodes-Vivour, JSC (retd.), 

CFR. I know Hon. Justice Rhodes 

Vivour (retd). I have seen him at work, 

I have interacted with him in the 

court. He is a genial, decent, and 

disciplined person. He is a Judge with 

unquestionable integrity, character, 

industry and dignity. 

A professional to the core, the legal 

colossus is a fervent believer in the 

rule of law. The professional ways he 

conducts himself both at the Bar, on 

the Bench and outside the Bar and 

the Bench will ever remain fresh in 

our memory for ever. Today, as we 

proceed to launch three books in 

honour of Hon. Justice Olabode 

Rhodes-VivourJsc (retd), CFR, I have 

a personal question to ask him. The 

question is simple. My respected 

Jurist, are you fulfilled as you bow 

out from the Supreme Court at 70 

years. I know your answer: “I am 

fulfilled”. But if we ask lawyers to 

answer the question, the answer will 

be “no, he is not fulfilled”. 

The next question is: Why is he not 

fulfilled? Because we believe that 

Justice Rhodes Vivour (retd) is a very 

strong and able young man, he 

doesn’t look 70; we believe that he 

should remain on the bench until he 

becomes Chief Justice of Nigeria. 

Hon. Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour 

spent 11 years as a High Court Judge, 

five years as a Court of Apppeal Judge 

and 11 years as a Supreme Court 

Justice. He should be commended 

because throughout his 27 years on 

the Bench, he served without any 

blemish. More importantly and 

remarkably too, he was never absent 

from work for a single day either due 

to illness or any other reason. 

While on the Bench, he was known 

for his fairness, impartiality and 

compassion. He wrote many lead 

judgements but on this occasion, I 

wish to refer to two land mark cases. 

(1) Ukeje vs. Ukeje (2014) 11 NWLR 

Pt. 1418, 384 at 408 where he 

declared that the Igbo Customary 

Law which disentitles a female child 

from partaking in the sharing of the 

deceased father’s estate is illegal, 

discriminatory and in breach of 

fundamental human right. And also 

the case of JES Investment Ltd v. 

BrawalLere Ltd &Ors (2010) 18 

NWLR (Pt. 1225) 495 at 544 on the 

need to reform limitation laws in 

Nigeria and for judges to be 

conferred with discretion to extent 

limitation periods for some actions. 

Review of our justice system: I 

want to seize this opportunity to 

appeal to the authorities that we 

should review our justice system, 

particularly the age of retirement of 

Supreme Court Judges. Experience 

has shown that a person becomes 

wiser and more experienced as he 

advances in age. Under our judicial 

system today, Justice Olabode 

Rhodes-Vivour JSC (retd) is retiring 

at the young age of 70 when he has 

not shown any sign of physical 

weakness and when Nigeria would 

have benefitted more from his wealth 

of wisdom, insight and experience. A 

brief look at other countries shows 

that appointment to the Supreme 

Court is a lifetime appointment. 

There is no age limit for a justice of 

the Supreme Court to retire. Often 

time, they stay as long as they 

probably can. In fact, many die while 

in office. But those who opt for 

retirement, the average age is 78.7 

years. The average retirement age 

has grown a whooping 103 years. 

Our Constitution is the 

greatest problem of 

Nigeria, a country of 

nations, today 

Practice after retirement: Need 

to reform: I have always advocated 

that retiring judges should be allowed 

to practise law. There is urgent need 

for reform of our judicial system. 

Even, if judges are not allowed to 

return to full practice, there should 

be a measure of participation in law 

practice that will ensure their 

relevance in the nation’s 

development of law. I suggest that 

Nigeria should adopt the quasirestrictive 

style in operation in the 

US whereby a sitting judge may 

recuse himself in the case of conflict 

of interest or allow retiring judges to 

prepare and draft pleadings, motions 

and appellate briefs. 

Appointment of judges: The 

position of the Chief Justice of 

Nigeria is so important that it should 

not be based on promotion but 

strictly on merit. I know from 

experience that the best judges are 

those who have been in active 

litigation, who have interacted with 

clients, who have drafted claims and 

pleadings and who have addressed 

legal issues at different levels of the 

courts. This is why in other climes, 

judges are chosen from seasoned 

legal practitioners. I recall the case 

of the late Hon. Justice Teslim 

Olawale Elias, SAN. He was 

appointed as CJN and President, 

International Court of Justice. He 

was Attorney General of the 

Federation when he was a professor 

at the University of Lagos and was 

invited to the Supreme Court where 

he eventually became the CJN. 

I have always been an advocate of 

a new constitution to 

correct the ills inherent 

in the 1999 

Constitution 

bequeathed to 

Nigerians by the 

military and christened 

a people’s constitution. 

My crusade for 

restructuring and a new 

constitution started as 

far back as November 

4, 2001, when the 

descendants of His 

Majesty, King Abbi 

Amachree IV, the 

Amanyanbo of 

Kalabari gathered 

together in Port- 

Harcourt to celebrate 

the first memorial lecture. The Board of 

Trustees, including the talented Prof. 

Tam David-West, brought together a 

large crowd, including the deputy 

governor and the vice president. I was 

honoured to deliver the first memorial 

lecture titled: “Nigeria in Search of a 

Nation”. 

Since then, I have been an 

advocate of a true federal structure. 

In my articles in the Vanguard and 

Tribune Newspapers on Wednesday 

and Thursdays respectively, I have 

written copiously on the restructuring 

of the country. As a member of 

Constitutional Conferences, I have 

also argued in favour of true federal 

structure. After all, when the military 

took over the reign of government 

on January 5, 1966, it did not abolish 

the then existing constitution, it 

merely suspended it. But curiously 

when the military wanted to hand 

over power to a democratically 

elected government, it foisted on 

Nigerians the 1999 Constitution 

instead of going back to the 

suspended Constitution. 

We truly need restructuring in this 

country today and that will assist us 

in many diverse ways. It will enable 

us have a truly federal constitution 

as a result of which there would be a 

change in the mode of election and 

the type of people we would elect to 

govern us. It will ensure that we have 

part-time legislation, reduce the 

huge salaries currently being earned 

by our legislators in favour of sitting 

allowances. It will reduce cost of 

governance. It will ensure we run our 

elections at cheaper rates while 

women representation in 

governance will be higher. Our 

Constitution is the greatest problem 

of Nigeria, a country of nations, 

today. The operation of the 

Constitution is expensive with its 

attendant over-concentration of 

power at the centre, thereby 

rendering the states and localgovernments 

totally impotent unlike 

what obtained under the 

Parliamentary Constitutions of 1960 

and 1963. 

I say with emphasis that the only 

change that can change the country 

for the better and pave way for the 

enhancement of one Nigeria is the 

change of the structure of Nigeria. It 

is that change that will make politics 

less attractive, make each state to 

develop at its own pace and do away 

with all shades and shapes of 

criminality. It is restructuring that 

would enable the component parts 

of the country to develop their 

resources, provide employment, 

eradicate poverty and make 

individuals to become true 

Nigerians. It is restructuring that 

would enable each state to curb 

insecurity, unemployment, poverty, 

defective justice system and do away 

with failed leaders. 

Conclusion: Hon. Justice Olabode 

Rhodes-Vivour is a firm believer in 

the full tradition and nobility of the 

legal profession. His unwavering 

legacy of discipline, courtesy, 

decency, eloquence and respect have 

endeared him to many at the Bar, 

the Bench and the public at large. 

Writing a book is not like writing a 

love letter or an article in a 

newspaper. I have authored seven law 

books. 

Guild of Editors commends Ugwuanyi's 

rural development drive 

NUGU—NIGERIA Guild of 

EEditors has expressed 

satisfaction with the massive 

developmental strides and other 

people-oriented programmes 

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s 

administration is carrying out in 

the urban and rural communities 

of Enugu State, stressing that 

they are highly impressed. 

Speaking during an inspection 

tour of some projects executed 

by Gov. Ugwuanyi’s 

administration, when the 

standing committee of the Guild 

of Editors held its meeting in 

Enugu recently, the President of 

the body, Mustapha Isah, said 

that the governor’s massive rural 

development projects are 

commendable and worthy of 

emulation. 

“The quality of roads we saw 

in the rural areas, the massive 

dualized road in Nsukka; the 

primary and secondary 

healthcare facilities and even 

tertiary institution for the ESUT 

Teaching Hospital and College 

of Medicine, in Igbo-Eno, are 

impressive and commendable”, 

the President said. 

Isah pointed out that Gov. 

Ugwuanyi’s decision to invest 

massively in the health sector is 

worthy of emulation “in the sense 

that he has interest in the health 

of the people of Enugu State”. 

The Guild of Editors’ President 

added that the governor through 

his administration’s massive 

investment in the health sector 

especially at the rural areas “is 

making huge investments to 

ensure that in case we have any 

future outbreak like COVID-19, 

Enugu State will not be caught 

unaware.” 

He added that "he (Ugwuanyi) 

is already putting foundations in 

place to ensure that the State is 

ready for any such future 

outbreak." 

Also speaking on Gov. 

Ugwuanyi’s rural development 

drive, Martins Oloja, Editor-in- 

Chief of The Guardian 

Newspapers stated: “I am 

impressed by what I saw; you 

know there is something about 

me. I have written extensively 

against mediocrity. I don’t like 

mediocrity. 

By Joseph Erunke 

ABUJA—THE Tertiary Education 

Trust Fund, TETFund, said it has 

spent over N300 million on 

installations of molecular labs in the 

country. 

The agency also disclosed that it 

has made provision in the 2021 

budget, awaiting consideration, to 

fund the establishment of more 

molecular labs and research on gene 

sequencing and phytogenic 

medicine, as well as vaccine research 

and production, as a key area of 

unraveling the lethal COVID-19 

pandemic. 

TETFund's Executive Secretary, 

Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, disclosed 

this yesterday in Abuja while 

receiving participants of Executive 

Course 43, of the National Institute 

for Policy and Strategic Studies, 

NIPS, Kuru, Jos. 

While assuring that the agency will 

double research grants in 2021 from 

over 128 approvals made in 2020, 

he said the approvals will be 

announced as soon the Board of 

Trustees gives its nod. 

He disclosed that qualified 

institutions will draw a maximum of 

N50 million research grants from 

the N7.5 billion National Research 

Fund, NRF. 

Bogoro said: "Under the 

:Vanguard 

News 


“I went inside the newly 

constructed and equipped Type- 

3 Primary Healthcare Centre and 

the Cottage Hospital with 

Isolation wing, the finishing was 

impressive. They considered so 

many things that people in the 

village need. It is very impressive 

and they even built quarters for 

doctors and nurses. 

“It is good that the governor 

(Ugwuanyi) is going to the roots 

of the matter by not being political, 

concentrating development in the 

rural areas. He wants people to 

know that we haven’t been 

having healthcare delivery 

system in this place (rural 

communities) so let’s rebuild; let’s 

revisit the foundation”. 

While applauding the initiative 

behind the Infectious Diseases 

Hospital, the editors also urged 

Gov. Ugwuanyi to remain 

steadfast in his sound vision in 

developing the rural areas for 

socio-economic growth and 

expansion. They enjoined him to 

speed up his actions and ensure 

that he completes all the projects 

his administration is executing 

before the end of his tenure. 

Some of the project sites visited 

were the ongoing first state 

government's flyover bridge 

project at T-Junction Abakpa 

Nike, Enugu, the massive 

construction works at the 

permanent site of Enugu State 

University of Science and 

Technology, ESUT, Teaching 

Hospital and College of 

Medicine, Igbo-Eno, the 

massively rehabilitated and 

transformed Enugu State 

Infectious Diseases Hospital, for 

isolation and treatment of patients 

with infectious diseases, formerly 

known as Colliery Hospital 

Enugu and quality road 

infrastructure in the rural areas. 

Others include, the Type-3 

Primary Healthcare Centres, 

which were newly constructed in 

seven Local Government Areas of 

Enugu State and modern Cottage 

hospitals with Isolation wings 

ongoing in Awgu, Oji River, 

Udenu and Igbo Eze North LGAs, 

in line with its vision to provide 

quality, accessible and affordable 

healthcare services especially in 

the rural communities. 

TETFund spends N300m on molecular labs, 

says Bogoro 

instruction of President 

Muhammadu Buhari, the fund 

provided research intervention 

between N250 million to N300 

million, to set up, at least, a quarter 

of the molecular labs established in 

the country." 

"We discovered that those facilities 

are helpful for both research and 

clinical purposes," he said, adding 

that the facilities will help sustain 

medical research in the country," he 

said. 

He also disclosed that funds were 

made available to some medical 

research institutes and colleges for 

the purpose of research. 

Bogoro also disclosed that 90 per 

cent of lecturers in Nigerian 

universities currently have PhDs, 

noting that nine years ago, only 40 

per cent of university lecturers in the 

country had PhDs, and by 2015, over 

60 per cent acquired PhDs. 

He further disclosed that more 

than 80 per cent of libraries in public 

tertiary institutions are TETFundprovided 

libraries. 

While speaking on NIPS, Bogoro 

said since the institute was carefully 

constituted in 1979, it has remained 

so with representation from the 

military, various ministries, and 

others, who are working on behalf 

of the country with a high sense of 

responsibility.

Continues from Page 5 

national 

conference’ 

“What will national 

conference do more 

than a parliament? 

Anyone who is a 

democrat at heart, in 

practice in their beliefs, 

should believe in the 

tripartite structure of 

government. In 

governments that are 

democratic, there must 

be a parliament, the 

executive arm of the 

government and the 

judiciary, each one 

being independent and 

cooperating with the 

others. 

‘’We have an elected 

parliament, which 

mandate is to be the 

custodian of the 

sovereignty of the 

Nigerian people. 

“Look, a lot of these 

people who are crying 

for this secession are 

unelectable. If you think 

you are electable, go 

around for a 

parliamentary seat, 

whether House of 

Representatives or 

Senate, and come and 

table an amendment to 

the constitution. 

‘’The process is ongoing 

as we speak now 

under the Deputy Senate 

President. They are 

calling for memoranda; 

why can’t you present 

what you want? So the 

issue is that people who 

are not democrats want 

a parallel parliament to 

be set up and this 

constitution does not 

recognize two 

parliaments in this 

country. 

“We have one 

parliament that is 

sovereign, that is the 

custodian of the 

sovereignty of the 

Nigerian people. If your 

member representing 

you has failed to present 

this request that you 

want, whether it is 

change of structure at 

state, local government 

or national level, pull 

him out four years after, 

don’t vote for him. Put 

another representative 

who will do what you 

Naira depreciates to N410.67/$ in 

I&E window 

By Elizabeth Adegbesan 

The naira yesterday depreciated to N410.67 kobo 

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

window. 

Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative 

exchange rate for the naira rose by 34 kobo to 

N410.67 kobo from N410.33 kobo per dollar on 

Monday, translating to 34 kobo depreciation for the 

naira. 

The volume of dollars traded (turnover) in the 

window yesterday rose by 43 percent to $99.49 

million from $69.71million traded on Monday. 

vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguardnews 

Agitators for secession 

can't bully Buhari —PRESIDENCY 

want. This is how 

democracy works — 

periodic elections,” he 

stated. 

He also described 

President Buhari’s 

onslaught against 

corruption and other 

social vices as total and 

unsparing, saying not 

even his family members 

who run foul of the law 

would be spared. 

‘Buhari won't shy away 

from Nigeria's problems’ 

In his remarks, National 

Secretary of the Caretaker 

Extraordinary Convention 

Planning Committee 

CECPC of the APC, Sen. 

John 

James 

Akpanudoedehe, said 

President Buhari would 

never shy away from the 

problems of the country. 

“The President is a 

listening man that a;ready 

knows many of the things 

you complain about. Once 

you bring anything or 

those issues before him, 

he will take it with 

commitment. Another 

thing we have achieved 

recently is the issue of the 

pump price of petroleum. 

“The party said no to it, 

even though they had 

discussed it. It doesn’t 

matter the circumstances. 

The party said the time 

was not ripe. That is the 

position of the party, and 

they listened. We have 

tabled the matter. 

“There has been no 

government like this in 

the history of the nation, 

and I am not playing 

politics. Show me any 

government that has done 

more than President 

Buhari, that has direct 

link with the masses”. 

Chairman of the forum, 

Akeem Akintayo, in his 

opening remarks, said 

professionals in the party 

would continue to 

contribute their quota to 

national development, 

whether they are in 

government or outside it. 

He asked the party 

leadership to look inwards 

when making 

appointments, saying 

there were very many 

technocrats within the 

party. 

Separatist 

agitations loud 

under Buhari 

— PFN 

Reacting to the 

Presidency’s declaration 

yesterday, the Pentecostal 

Fellowship of Nigeria, 

PFN, said continued 

agitations for separation 

by various ethnic groups 

under President Buhari’s 

government had been too 

loud. 

National President of 

PFN, Bishop Francis Wale 

Oke, who stated this while 

hosting members of Lagos 

State Varsity Christian 

Union who paid him a 

courtesy visit in Ibadan, 

said those with the 

President do not tell him 

the truth. 

He explained that 

though PFN held 

President Buhari in high 

esteem and would always 

pray for him, it would not 

shy away from telling him 

the truth. 

Bishop Oke said: 

“President Buhari should 

know that politicking is 

over and governance is 

the thing he should 

prioritize. Govern all 

Nigerians with love and 

be a father to all 

Nigerians. Don’t allow 

any group to lord their 

will on other ethnic 

groups in Nigeria. 

“A lot of people perceive 

that there is nepotism in 

appointments and that a 

certain people dominate 

the security apparatus. 

When a security team sits 

to meet, a larger 

percentage of Nigerians 

whom they are going to 

speak about is absent. 

“It’s people that love 

you that would tell you the 

truth. We are not begging 

for oil blocks or 

appointments. What we 

are asking for is that you 

should govern with equity 

and justice to all. A lot of 

damage has been done 

under this administration, 

particularly in the area of 

security. 

“There is high level of 

insecurity. There are 

killings, kidnapping, rape 

and bandits demanding 

millions of naira from 

their victims. When we 

voted for you, we paid our 

ransom; for bandits to be 

asking us to pay ransom 

means that government 

has failed. At times, 

people pay ransom and 

still get killed. 

“People who surround 

you won’t tell you the 

truth. You have fought in 

the Nigerian army to keep 

Nigeria one. Please, 

weigh in with that 

experience and stop 

banditry and kidnapping 

going on in Nigeria. 

“We, in PFN are 

supporting you; that’s 

why we are telling you the 

truth. Agitation for 

separation under this 

administration has never 

been this loud in our 

country. There is 

agitation in the South- 

South, South-East, 

South-West and even in 

the North. We plead with 

you to rise to the 

occasion. It’s not too late 

to bring Nigeria back.” 

Agitators just 

want Buhari to rule 

well — MBF 

In its reaction yesterday, 

the Middle Belt Forum, 

said secessionists were not 

out to intimidate President 

Buhari as alleged by the 

Presidency but were only 

trying to make him sit up 

and lead the country in the 

right direction. 

National President of 

MBF. Dr. Bitrus Pogu, 

insisted that no one was 

interested in bullying or 

intimidating the President. 

He said: “The issue is 

that for the government to 

make such a statement 

indicates that the 

government is aware that 

there are secessionist 

groups. 

“Secondly, when they 

talk about bullying, I ask, 

who is bullying who? 

Secessionist groups are 

sending a message to 

President Buhari that his 

government and his way 

of governance is so bad 

that people prefer to leave 

the commonwealth called 

Nigeria. 

“So it is a massage for 

the government to change 

its ways so that these 

movements and agitations 

will die down. In essence 

the agitations are there 

because the way the 

President is governing the 

country is not palatable, 

people do not appreciate 

it, as such people prefer to 

leave the country. 

“Therefore, the issue of 

using the word bullying 

does not even arise in the 

first place. It is rather 

better for the federal 


NEWS HOTLINES 

018773962, 

08052867058 

From left, Bri-Gen, Sylvester Oloyede, Leader of the team National Institute 

for Policy and Strategic Study (NIPPS) Dr, Emmanuel Manman, Ag, Inspector- 

General of Police Alkali Baba Usman, Member of the team Pharmacist Isa Ardo 

and Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Mr Sanusi Lemu during the 

management team from National Institute for Policy and Strategic Study (NIPPS) 

on courtesy visit to Force Headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday. Photo by Gbemiga 

Olamikan. 

government to say, 

whatever it is that is 

pushing people to instigate 

secessionist tendencies 

would be addressed, so 

Nigeria can progress as 

one indivisible entity. 

“So the statement by the 

Presidency is an 

indictment of government 

and rather than 

government issuing 

threats, it should look 

passionately at the issues 

and try to address them so 

that Nigeria will be better 

for it.” 

Change tactics, 

Ohanaeze tells 

FG 

Also reacting yesterday, 

the Chidi Ibe-led faction of 

Ohanaeze Ndigbo called 

on Buhari’s government to 

change tactics and hold a 

roundtable meeting with 

agitators. 

Secretary General of the 

group, Isiguzoro 

Okechukwu, said 

Ohanaeze would assist the 

Federal Government to 

bring all Biafra agitators to 

a roundtable discussion to 

foster peace. 

“We hopefully expect 

them to grab this rare 

opportunity and talk with 

them. The best approach 

is to change tactics and 

strategies in dealing with 

secessionist threats rather 

than resorting to an eye for 

an eye. 

“The Federal 

Government should know 

that what is good for the 

goose is also good for the 

gander; it is not fair to use 

carrot and stick policy for 

bandits and Boko Haram 

members in the north and 

use brutal forces against 

agitators in the south. 

“Negotiations are the 

best approach for 

rebuilding trust and 

confidence among 

agitating groups. 

Incarceration and military 

actions are outdated 

weapons used to win the 

battle against secessionist 

threats.’’ 

History'll be 

unkind to this 

govt, if...— CAN 

On its part, Christian 

Association of Nigeria, 

CAN, said history will not 

be kind to the present 

government, if Nigeria 

broke up before the end of 

his tenure. 

CAN’s Vice Chairman 

(North), Rev. John Hayab, 

who described the claim 

by a presidential 

spokesman, Garba Shehu, 

as the display of fake 

arrogance, urged the 

President to tackle the 

factors responsible for the 

agitations, adding that 

things were not working 

well in the country 

“It is not a cheering news 

that many groups in 

Nigeria now are 

clamouring for secession. 

Everyone will desire to see 

Nigeria growing as a big, 

united, strong and 

dependable nation. 

“But, the current 

realities have created 

room for more people 

and interest groups to 

seek secession from what 

they see as a nation 

without hope or future. 

“As our President, you 

cannot expect Buhari not 

to talk tough. However, 

history will not be kind 

to him, if this nation 

breaks up during his 

tenure as President. 

“The challenge now is 

whether all that is 

happening now across 

every state and region is 

just to intimidate or bully 

the President? 

“The truth is that 

things are not going on 

well and the President 

should come up with 

measures to convince 

Nigerians that he means 

well and he is truly in 

charge. 

“Claiming that he is 

not intimidated by 

threats from secessionist 

is only a display of fake 

arrogance that this 

administration is known 

for,” CAN stated.

28—Vanguard, WEDNEESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 

SHAIBU 

I, formerly known as Seidu 

Shaibu, now wish to be known as 

Sheidu Husseini. All former 

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FATOLU FESTUS 

I formerly known and addressed as 

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AMADI 

I, formerly known as AMADI 

VICTORIA CHINYERE . Now 

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ADIELE VICTORIA 

CHINYERE . All documents 

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I, formerly known and addressed 

as MR AZUBUIKE PETER 

ANYIWARA, now wish to be 

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I, formerly known as John Agba, 

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I, AJAGBU JOY. Now wish to 

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I formerly known and 

addressed as EBUKA 

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I, formerly known as 

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SOLOMON 

THAT these names SOLOMON C. 

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CHUKWUEMEKA & SOLOMON 

DANIEL ICHOKU C. refers to one 

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I Formerly known as SHEKARA 

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I, formerly known as AGAH 

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as ABUH KERIM , now wish to 

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take note. 

SULE 


MUHAMMED UBA SULE, now 


MOHAMMED SULEIMAN UBA. 

All former documents remain valid. 

Concerned authorities and the 

general public to please take note. 

WILCOX 

I formally known and addressed as 

miss Wilcox Chidimma Victory 

Enyichi now wish to be known and 

addressed as Mrs Onwukwe 

Chukwuemeka Chidimma Victory, 

all formal documents remain valid 

general public take note 

OKUNBIRI 

My name was wrongly captured 

during my BVN registration as 

Babimine Mitchell Okunbiri 

instead of Mitchell Miebi Tams- 

Okunbiri. I now wish to be known 

by my correct name Mitchell Miebi 

Tams-Okunbiri. All former 

documents remain valid. Banks 

and the general public please take 

note. 


Be mindful of traditions, 

customs, Don urges Christians 

By Ochuko Akuopha 

Uscholar, GHELLI—ERUDITE 

Prof. Richard 

Okorodudu has advised 

Christians to be mindful of 

tradition and customs that 

could sway them from their 

faith and belief in God. 

Giving the advice at the 

Apostolic Church, Nigeria, 

in Ughelli, Ughelli North 

Local Government Area, 

Delta State, while reviewing 

a six-chapter book 

'Christians Beware of 

Traditions and Customs' 

authored by Elder Jacob 

Opute, Okorodudu stressed 

the need for Christians to be 

mindful of the places they 

visit and how they speak. 

While noting that 

"Churches are facing serious 

challenges arising from 

traditions and customs" 

Okorodudu who is from 

the Delta State University 

Abraka, said: "Christians 

should exercise faith in God 

UGHELLI— 

COALI 

TION of Students in the 

Presidential Amnesty Programme 

COSPAP, has 

commended the Interim Administrator 

of the Presidential 

Amnesty Program, Col 

Nixon Dikio (retd) for keeping 

to his promise to pay students 

that were being owed 

their allowances in the program. 

COSPAP, in a statement by 

its Chairman, Gabriel 

Zuobai and Secretary, 

Papems Peter Etolor, said: "In 

the course of various 

meetings with the interim 

boss by the leadership of 

COSPAP , the administrator 

has always affirmed his 

promises that everyone 

especially scholars who have 

been unjustifiably denied of 

their stipends from 24 to 48 

months would be paid. 

"Notable of this was when 

he instructed the leadership 

of the platform to go round 

all affected schools to give 

them a physical headcount 

of which it was successfully 

completed, reported and 

commended by him. 

"However, we are still 

appealing to the Interim 

Administrator to please 

consider what the unpaid 

students of almost four years 

are going through especially 

as it regards to those in final 

year. 

"It is very debilitating and 

enervating for students who 

would have made academic 

distinction but regrettably 

will now graduate with 

abysmal low grades due to 

financial challenges that has 

borne frustrations. 

"We are naturally sad- 

rather than to bow before 

wooden image and 

ornament as idols. 

Earlier in his remarks, the 

author, Elder Jacob Opute 

disclosed that he got the 

inspiration to write the book 

from God in Colossians 2:21, 

which states, Don't touch, 

Don't taste and Don't handle. 

He said: "I am motivated to 

write this book because l see 

in christendom today that the 

faith is falling; it is no more 

there as it used to be at the 

time of old and I see that the 

world has actually creeped 

into the church. 

"What outsiders are doing 

is now being done in the 

church and those we call big 

names in the church have 

indulged themselves in this 

worldly traditions and 

customs and they are 

bringing them to the church. 

"If the Christians of today 

are committed and born 

again after going through 

this book, their faith will 

increase." 

COSPAP lauds Dikio for keeping 

promise to PAP students 

dened by the fact that our junior 

colleagues who also have 

gone through the same constraints 

were paid before us. 

But we are hopeful due to the 

fact that we were promised to 

be paid shortly after the 200 

level. 

"Looking at the 

achievement and the 

footprints of the current 

interim administrator, we the 

student community under 

the presidential amnesty 

program wishes to plead 

with the Federal Government 

to kindly make Col Nixon 

Dikio the substantive 

administrator of the 

Presidential Amnesty 

Programme."

European Super League: City 

withdraw, Chelsea follow 

Manchester City have with 

drawn from the European 

Super League (ESL) and 

Chelsea are also preparing to do so. 

Efforts to leave come just two days 

after both were announced as two of 

six English clubs to sign up to the controversial 

new competition. 

The ESL has been widely criticised 

since being announced on Sunday. 

Around 1,000 fans gathered outside 

Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge home 

ground before their game against 

Brighton yesterday to protest their involvement. 

Chelsea and City were part of English 

football’s ‘big six’ clubs - alongside 

Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester 

United and Tottenham - to have agreed 

to join the new league. 

In total, 12 European clubs announced 

their intentions to form the 

breakaway league, which they hoped 

to establish as a new midweek competition. 

It was condemned by football authorities 

and government ministers in 

the UK and across Europe by Uefa and 

leagues associations. 

Chelsea were the first club to indi- 

cate they will not press ahead by preparing 

documentation to withdrawn. 

City withdrew soon after. 

Chelsea and City were not drivers 

of this plan, they were the last to sign 

and feared being left behind. 

It is not clear how easy it is or how 

binding the contracts are. 

The decision to try have Chelsea 

leave was taken by owner Roman 

Abramovich and the club’s board after 

witnessing negative global reaction 

to the Super League. 

The decision was made earlier on 

Tuesday before protests started outside 

Stamford Bridge. 

President of the Nigeria Football 

Federation, Amaju Pinnick has 

kicked against the setting up of the 

European Super League by 12 clubs, 

comprising Premier League big six 

clubs, Manchester United, Liverpool, 

Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester 

City. Reacting to the development, 

Pinnick, who is a FIFA Council 

The World and European soccer 

bodies, FIFA and UEFA, must 

not prevent 12 of the continent’s leading 

clubs from creating a breakaway 

Super League, a Spanish commercial 

court has said in a preliminary ruling. 

FIFA and UEFA made no immediate 

comment about the case, which is 

likely to mark the start of a prolonged 

legal fight over the proposed league, 

which threatens to upend the longestablished 

order of elite soccer in Europe. 

It was not immediately clear what 

authority the Madrid court, which adjudicates 

corporate disputes, had over 

the Swiss-based soccer bodies. 

The court said in a ruling seen by 

Reuters that FIFA, UEFA and all its 

associated soccer federations must not 

adopt “any measure that prohibits, restricts, 

limits or conditions in any way” 

the creation of the Super League. 

It also warned them not to sanction 

any players or managers taking part. 


Spain court tells FIFA, UEFA 

don’t stop SL 

The Super League project is headed 

by Real Madrid president Florentino 

Perez, and the company that has been 

set up to the run the competition is 

based in Madrid. 

The company applied to the Spanish 

court for an injunction to prevent 

soccer regulators from taking any action 

against its new league. 

The judge slapped a preliminary 

block on FIFA and UEFA at least for 

the duration of the legal proceedings, 

which can take many months in Spain. 

The court intervention came after 

both UEFA and FIFA warned they 

PA News Agency has also reported 

that Atletico Madrid are also set 

to leave, while Barcelona chief Joan 

Laporta has confirmed that they too 

won’t be joining unless their socios vote 

for it – and it’s safe to say they will not. 

Pressure on Milan to pull out 

The Super League was an 

nounced late on Sunday 

evening but it seems it might be 

thing of the past already, as several 

of the founding clubs are now ready 

to leave. In other words, the backlash 

from the fans is starting to show. 

Milan, along with 11 other teams, 

are considered as one of the founders 

of the Super League and CEO 

Ivan Gazidis praised the concept 

Pinnick stands with FIFA, UEFA 

against Super League 

member, carpeted the forming of the 

European Super League as a betrayal 

of trust to the fans of the game. 

Pinnick’s view aligns with that of 

FIFA, UEFA and majority of fans and 

stakeholders, who have vehemently 

criticized the forming of the ESL as 

not serving the interest of football and 

its fans. 

would impose sanctions on clubs and 

players competing in the new league, 

which has been set up as a rival to 

European soccer body UEFA’s established 

Champions League. 

Barca, Atletico Madrid to 

withdraw 

just a few hours ago. However, as a 

result of heavy criticism, several 

clubs are now ready to back out. 

According to Daily Telegraph’s 

Matt Law, following the protests by 

the fans this evening, Chelsea are 

preparing the legal documents to 

withdraw from the Super League. 

The same goes for Man City, as was 

revealed by BBC’s Dan Roan. 

It doesn’t end there, however, as 

Ben Jacobs is reporting that Atletico 

Madrid will drop out of the competition 

as well. Meanwhile, Barcelona 

will leave the decision to their socios 

(their supporters), according to 

president Joan Laporta (via tv3cat). 

The pressure is mounting on Milan, 

in other words, and according 

to TalkSport there will be a meeting 

between all of the Super League 

clubs tonight. They will discuss disbanding 

the competition, per the report. 

*Infantino, 

FIFA boss 

Hopefully these U-turn will continue 

the domino effect and see this 

European Super League halted before 

it’s even begun – although I suspect 

it’s already all but over just 48 

hours on from it being announced! 

PSG, Bayern, Borussia Dortmund, 

Porto and Ajax all refusing to join sent 

out a clear enough message, but it’s 

extremely damning and a huge win 

for football that FOUR of the 12 founding 

members look set to pull out. 

How much longer can the powerhungry 

billionaires behind this continue 

to push when the walls are caving 

in around them? 

Let’s hope this is the first step of getting 

our game back! 

Ed Wood resigns as 

Man Utd chairman 

ED WOODWARD has sensa 

tionally resigned as Man Utd 

executive vice-chairman with the European 

Super League project looking 

doomed. 

Just days after confirming United 

were part of the 12-club breakaway, 

Chelsea and Man City have already 

withdrawn to leave the proposal in 

tatters. 

Club legends Sir Alex Ferguson 

and David Beckham had earlier 

come out and slammed the ESL 

plans.


CAF Confederation Cup: 

Relief for 

Enyimba! 

he Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Fed 

T eral Ministry of Sports and Abia state 

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu have come to the 

aid of Enyimba ahead of their CAF Confederations 

Cup clash against Al-Ahly Benghazi 

at theBenina Martyrs Stadium now Hugo Chávez 

Football Stadium. 

Enyimba had been facing travelling issues ahead of the game 

and were in danger of a walkover loss as they could not get a 

direct flight from Nigeria to Libya due to travel restrictions. 

The only connecting flight to Libya is in Europe (Spain), and that 

would’ve resulted in the team missing the game today. 

However, the team is now set to travel to Libya via chartered flight 

after the NFF, Federal Ministry of Sports and Abia State Government 

intervened. 

It was gathered that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu provided the 

charter flight, and Fatai Amoo’s men left for Libya yesterday 

ahead of the Group A matchday five encounter holding today. 

However, the match could be shifted to Thursday to allow 

Enyimba get familiar with the stadium surroundings. 

Enyimba currently sit second in the group with six points 

from four games, but they are only two ahead of their 

host. 

But the People’s Elephants could seal qualification 

with a win if Es Setif fail to beat Orlando Pirates in the 

other group game. 

NWFL Super Six: Edo Queens lose second 

game, as FC Robo shock Bayelsa 

One of the top contenders for 

the Nigeria Women Football 

League Premiership title and 

ticket for the WAFU B qualifiers 

for the CAF Women Champions 

League, Edo Queens football club 

of Benin, have lost two straight 

matches in the on going Super Six, 

results that narrows the team's 

chances of having their dream 

come true. 

Edo Queens, this time in the absence 

of the Deputy Governor, 

Philip Shuaibu, lost Tuesday's 

game, which was their second 

game in the series, against Sunshine 

Queens of Akure 2-1. 

Edo Queens were not in their 

best character in Tuesday's game 

against a more resolute Sunshine 

Queens. 

Suliat Abideen opened scoring 

for Sunshine in the 8th minute, 

taking advantage of a free kick 

near Edo penalty area, before Edo 

Queens equalised in the 20th 

minute. Sunday Abigail nailed 

Edo Queens in the 22nd minute 

with the winning goal, to keep the 

final scores at 2-1 and a four-point 

top of the table lead for Sunshine 

Guardiola slams European 

Super League 

•Guardiola 

MANCHESTER CITY boss Pep 

Guardiola has blasted European 

Super League plans and labelled the 

competition: "Not sport." 

City are one of six renegade clubs 

trying to breakaway to play in the 

closed shop tournament and 

Guardiola is clearly not a fan and 

thinks it is 'unfair'. 

The announcement has been 

subject to widespread outrage 

across the country. 

Furious fans took to stadiums 

across England on 

Monday to voice their 

anger at the clubs' 

chiefs with more protests 

planned. 

Liverpol supporters 

also hung banners 

outside Anfield aimed at 

their 'money-grabbing' owners. 

Queens before the kick off of the 

Rivers Angels vs Delta Queens 

game. 

Edo Queens coach, Stanley 

Osazee, expressed his disappointment 

on the poor results recorded 

so far by his team. He noted that ; 

"The clubs' top management 

members are not happy that, we 

don't have any point after our second 

game when the plan was to 

come to Ijebu-Ode to win the title. 

Anyway we still have the hope of 

winning our three remaining 

games and amass nine points, we 

should be able to bounce back and 

achieve our aim of coming to 

Ijebu Ode." 

The other big result of the Day 

Two was the shocking result recorded 

by lowly rated FC Robo of 

Lagos. 

The Coach Emmanuel Osahon 

Girls defeated NWFL Premiership 

top rated team and multiple 

champions, Bayelsa Queens of 

Yenagoa 2-0. 

Musa opts-out of Kano Pillars 

away games over unsafe roads 

Kano Pillars have announced that Super 

Eagles captain Ahmed Musa will miss 

most of their away games when the second 

stanza of the Nigeria Professional Football 

League begins April 28. 

This was confirmed in a statement by the 

Chairman of the club, Surajo Yahaya. 

Mr.Yahaya noted that Musa will be available 

for every home fixtures but would only 

attend away games if he could travel by 

air. 

The former Leicester City and CSKA 

Moscow winger, 

who has been a 

free agent since 

parting ways with 

Saudi Pro League 

side Al Nassr in 

October, rejoined 

his boyhood club 

Kano Pillars for a 

second stint until 

the end of the season. 

He is expected to 

make his debut for 

Pillars on May 5, when 

the Sai Masu Gida 

•Ahmed Musa 

welcomes Enyimba. 

Tokyo Olympics: Nigerian relay quartets' 

qualification hangs in the balance 

Nigerian relay teams could 

miss out of the Tokyo 2020 

Olympics if the Sports Ministry 

fails to make funds available next 

week for the quartets to travel to 

Poland for the World Relays billed 

for May 1-2 in Poland. 

Nigeria is one of the countries 

registered to participate in the relays 

were seven finalists would 

gain automatic qualification for 

•Okon-George 

FIFA president warns ESL 

clubs of consequences 

•As UK Prime Minister meets with FA, PL 

FIFA president Gianni Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister 

Boris Johnson met with the 

Infantino "strongly disapproves" 

of the breakaway European 

Super League and says the League officials and fans' repre- 

Football Association, Premier 

12 clubs will have to "live with sentatives on Tuesday, after which 

the consequences" of their decision 

to join. 

"whatever action necessary", in- 

the government said it will take 

Premier League clubs Arsenal, cluding legislative options, to ensure 

the proposals were stopped. 

Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester 

City, Manchester United and Johnson's stance is supported 

Tottenham are part of the proposed 

league. 

crats. 

by Labour and the Liberal Demo- 

"There is a lot to throw away A statement released after a 

for maybe a short-term financial 

gain for some," said League and the 14 clubs not in- 

meeting between the Premier 

Infantino. 

volved said they "unanimously 

"Either you are in or you are and vigorously" rejected plans for 

out." 

the competition. 

the Tokyo 2020 Games. As at yesterday, 

the Athletics Federation of 

Nigeria officials were still in the 

dark with regards to when funds 

be released. 

Meanwhile Nigeria will have 

five teams men and women 

4x100m, 4x400m, and mixed relay 

Blessing Okagbare, Tobi 

Amusan, Grace Nwaokocha, Joy- 

Udo Gabriel and Tima Godless 

made the squad for the women 

4x100m. Divine Oduduru, Seye 

Ogunlewe, Enoch Adegoke, Jerry 

Japka and Usheoritse Itsekiri will 

feature in the men 4x100m. 

The women 4x400m will have 

Imaobong Nse Uko, Patience 

Okon-George, Glory 

Patrick, Abasino Akpan, 

Oke Opeyemi, and 

Osaretin Usembo. 

Bayern Munich, 

PSG reject to 

join ESL, stick 

with UEFA 

B 

AYERN MUNICH and 

Paris Saint-Germain have 

turned down the opportunity to 

join the European Super League. 

The duo were the two most 

notable absentees, when 12 of 

Europe's biggest clubs enraged 

supporters, players, managers 

and pundits alike by announcing 

the formation of a new European 

Super League. 

And while both have been invited, 

neither appear likely to join 

up any time soon. 

Bayern, who are partially fanowned, 

have instead backed 

Uefa's proposed reforms to the 

Champions League. 

Club CEO Karl-Heinz 

Rummenigge said: "FC Bayern 

did not participate in the planning 

of a Super League. 

"We are convinced that the current 

structure in football guarantees 

a reliable foundation. 

"FC Bayern welcomes the reforms 

of the Champions League 

because we believe that they are 

the right step for the development 

of European football. 

"The modified preliminary 

round will contribute to more 

excitement and emotion in the 

competition. 

“I do not believe the Super 

League will solve the financial 

problems of European clubs that 

were caused by the coronavirus 

pandemic. 

PSG chairman Nasser Al- 

Khelaifi, who was yesterday reelected 

to the Uefa Executive 

Committee as representative of 

the European Club Association, 

echoed Bayern's stance.

C 

M 

Y 

K 

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 — 31

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021 

TODAY’S CROSSWORD 

QUICK CROSSWORD 

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION 

TODAY’S PUZZLE 

Sudoku 

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER 

ACROSS 

1 Formal headgear (3,3) 

4 Go aboard (6) 

8 Concerning (5) 

9 Violent whirling wind-storm (7) 

10 Popular cheese (7) 

11 Lifeless (5) 

12 Uncivilised person (9) 

17 Light purple colour (5) 

19 Collection of books (7) 

21 Marine animal (3,4) 

22 Shoulder-wrap (5) 

23 Main meal (6) 

24 Slow down (6) 

DOWN 

1 Roof of straw or reeds (6) 

2 Adage (7) 

3 Performed (5) 

5 Gin and vermouth cocktail (7) 

6 Hard stone (5) 

7 Intricate (6) 

9 Heavy waterproof cover (9) 

13 Lie back (7) 

14 North American falls (7) 

15 Shut (6) 

16 Rode a bike (6) 

18 Gain knowledge (5) 

20 Moisten with hot fat (5) 

How to Play Sudoku 

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

two of the same number). 

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

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

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

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

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

multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination. 

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

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

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

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

21042021

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