19092022

How Nigeria 

dresses in 

borrowed robes 

—ATIKU 

14 

N305bn 2023 

ELECTION BUDGET: 

We are paying 

for lack of trust 

— PROF YAKUBU 22 

COVID-19: Catholic 

Bishops suspend 

30-month ban on 

handshakes 

during mass 7 

VOL. 39: NO. 9,882 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 

Businesses heading for total 

collapse, NECA raises alarm 

•Says over 50 taxes weighing businesses down, warns against further 

borrowing • Calls for harmonised tax system•Economy facing many 

vulnerabilities — Muda Yusuf•Let there be tax harmony, says FIRS boss 

19 

Campaign Council: PDP’s 

move puts APC under pressure 

8 

Queen 

Elizabeth 

was 

monarch 

for all 

seasons 

—OSINBAJO 

Mr & Mrs 

7 

MTN 

begins 

actual 5G 

commercial 

services in 

Lagos 27 

Tinubu appoints 

Gov Yahaya Bello 

Youth Coordinator, 

Campaign 

Council 

COLUMNISTS 

Masquerades 

invade Church, 

flog worshippers, 

destroy property 

in Plateau 

community 

11 2 

19 killed in FCT auto crash 

Strike: Lecturers in ASUU’s 

factional group, CONUA 

demand reopening of varsities 

OWEI LAKEMFA 16 CHIDI ODINKALU 17 DELE SOBOWALE 21 

2 

27

2—Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 

Wife dies while 

chasing 

husband over 

side-chick in 

Calabar 

By Ike Uchechukwu 

CALABAR —The Sector 

Commander, Federal Road Safety 

Corps, FRSC, Cross River State, 

Maikano Hassan, has confirmed a lone 

incident that killed a middle aged 

woman in Calabar, yesterday, who was 

in a hot chase of her husband over his 

“mistress.” 

The Sector Commander, who spoke 

with Vanguard, yesterday, said the 

incident was caused by over-speeding. 

He said the incident involving a Toyota 

Highlander, which occurred on Murtala 

Muhammed Highway in Calabar, 

claimed the life of the lone female driver 

who veered off the road into a ditch by 

the road. 

His words: “Though the woman was 

immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, 

but she was said to have died few minutes 

later due to the injury sustained from the 

incident.” 

Vanguard gathered that the woman 

was said to be in pursuit of her husband, 

who was alleged to be with a “side chick” 

in his car when she lost control of her 

vehicle, killing herself in the process. 

A source who didn’t want her name in 

print told Vanguard that the woman 

sighted her husband leaving SPAR 

shopping mall in the company of 

another female when she tried to block 

her husband’s car with the Toyota 

Highlander she was driving in. 

The source said: “Her husband was 

said to have maneuvered his vehicle out 

of the attempted blockade then took the 

Murtala Muhammed highway, with his 

wife is serious pursuit. 

“In a bid to outrun her husband, she 

lost control of the speeding vehicle, veered 

off the road and slammed the vehicle on 

a tree, damaging the vehicle beyond 

repairs and also killing herself,” the 

source revealed." 

Police kill 

abductors of 4 

pastors who 

got N10m 

ransom in 

C’River 

By Ike Uchechukwu 

CALABAR —Cross River State 

Police Command has 

neutralised two out of the three 

suspects, who abducted some 

pastors in August 2022, at Odukpani 

Local Government Area of the state. 

Vanguard gathered that the 

pastors had gone for church 

planting ceremony in Creek Town, 

but were kidnapped on the 

waterways by the assailants, who 

were later paid N10 million as 

ransom for their release. 

Confirming the development to 

Vanguard, yesterday, in Calabar, the 

state Commissioner of Police, 

Aminu Alhassan, said the 

breakthrough by Awodi 

Abdulhameed-led Anti Cultism and 

Kidnapping Squad, ACKS, sting 

Unit and Op Akpakwu 

(Government House) who carried 

out the covert operation based on 

credible intelligence. 

Aminu said: “It is true that we 

neutralised two kidnap kingpins 

involved in the kidnap of some 

pastors, who went to church 

planting at Creek Town, Odukpani 

LGA of the state. 

“Two couldn’t make it alive, while 

the third who is now at large, was 

severely injured during a gun battle. 

We also want to appeal to locals to 

be on the look out for anyone with 

gun wounds in their community." 

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

:Vanguard 

News 

I prayed before slitting his neck with knife 

— Kidnap suspect 

By Evelyn Usman 

THE Edo State Police Command has 

arrested three suspected members of 

a kidnap gang that abducted and 

murdered a businessman, after 

collecting ransom from his relatives. 

The suspects led operatives of the 

command's Intelligence Rapid 

Response Squad, CIRRS, to a forest in 

Ganaga, Kogi State, where the remains 

of the 34-year-old victim, Babatunde 

Orogu, were buried in a shallow grave. 

Surprisingly, one of the suspects, Abdul 

Shaibu, a labourer, who worked with 

the deceased, was discovered to have 

masterminded the kidnap. 

Late Orogu was kidnapped in Auchi 

area of the state six months ago, from 

where he was taken to a forest in Kogi 

Late Orogu. 

State. Thereafter, his abductors used his 

phone to contact his family, demanding 

N1 million ransom for his release. But 

his family members were said to have 

paid N350,000. 

When news of the kidnap reached the 

Commissioner of Police, Edo State 

Police Command, Abutu Yaro, he 

directed the CIRRS to carry out discreet 

investigation into the kidnap. 

Vanguard gathered that last 

Thursday, the squad traced the victim’s 

SIM card to 32-year-old Shaibu, who 

led the detectives to Lokoja, Kogi State, 

where the duo of Musa Araba, 40, and 

Ugbede Abdul were arrested. 

During interrogation, Araba and 

Abdul revealed that Shaibu ordered that 

his boss be killed so as to cover up their 

track. 

I prayed before 

slitting his neck 

Masquerades invade church, flog worshippers, 

destroy property in Plateau community 

By Marie-Therese 

Nanlong 

JOS 

—Masquerades, 

yesterday, invaded a 

church in the Shikal 

community, Langtang South 

Local Government Area of 

Plateau State and disrupted 

service, as they flogged 

bewildered worshippers, 

destroying the church 

property. 

It was gathered that the 

masquerades arrived at the 

church premises while service 

was ongoing and started 

flogging worshippers as they 

scampered for safety. 

The invaders later turned to 

the church’s musical 

instruments and other 

property and destroyed them. 

Property destroyed in the church. 

However, the state Police 

Public Relations Officer, Alfred 

Alabo, confirmed the incident 

but gave no details. 

He said: “The DPO of the 

area has confirmed that it is 

true. They are working on the 

situation and the area is calm. 

He said masquerades went to 

a church and disrupted their 

activities. The investigation is 

ongoing, we will give full 

details when we have them.” 

3 die as 4-storey building collapses in 

A-Ibom •As Gov Emmanuel orders investigation 

By Chioma Onuegbu 

UYO —A four-storey building 

under construction at Iman 

Street, off Aka Road in Uyo, the 

Akwa Ibom State capital collapsed 

Saturday evening, killing three 

persons, leaving few others seriously 

injured and hospitalised. 

A resident and an eyewitness told 

Vanguard in confidence at the scene 

of the incident, yesterday, that a 

construction worker, whom he 

identified as Enwoabasi, who was 

among the four persons rescued 

earlier died on the way to the hospital 

that Saturday night. 

The resident said: “I was around 

when the incident happened. The 

four-storey building fell on another 

small house beside it. People were 

living inside that house. But when 

that incident happened at about 

6p.m., we noticed that two persons 

were trapped, an Igbo boy, named 

Favour and a lady, who came to visit 

her friend. 

“They were not able to escape from 

their rooms when the building fell 

on it. And I learnt that it was not up 

to 15 minutes that the brother of that 

Igbo boy who died stepped out of 

their room that this thing happened. 

However, they used excavator to 

remove the Igbo boy's corpse in early 

hours of Sunday. 

“As they removed the body, we saw 

the head was cut-off. But the girl’s 

corpse has not been found yet. I learnt 

the girl came just to visit her friend, 

so sad." 

Meanwhile, at Life Care Health 

Clinic, it was ascertained that three 

other injured persons were on 

admission while one person had died 

on the way to the clinic. 

Scene of the building collapse. 

Police say one died 

When contacted on the casualty figure, 

the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. 

Odiko MacDon, said: “The 

information at the command's disposal 

is that one person lost his life, while 

others are receiving treatment at the 

hospital. So far, we have not received 

any additional information of death.” 

Gov Emmanuel 

orders investigation 

Meanwhile, Governor Udom 

Emmannuel in a statement by the 

Commissioner for Information and 

Strategy, Mr. Ini Ememobong, has 

commiserated with the families of 

the victims of the building collapse, 

and directed that a panel of inquiry 

be set up to investigate the 

unfortunate incident. 

The statement read: “Following 

the unfortunate incident of the 

collapse of a four-storey building on 

Iman Street, off Aka Road in Uyo, 

our state capital, Governor 

Emmanuel has expressed his deepest 

condolences to the families whose 

relatives were trapped and 

eventually died in the collapsed 

building, while wishing the survivors 

a quick recovery. 

“He has directed the 

Commissioner for Health to 

immediately take over the 

management of the survivors. 

Consequently, the governor has 

directed the Commissioner for 

Works and Fire Service to 

immediately set up a panel of a 

inquiry to investigate the unfortunate 

incident.” 

Explaining how Orogu was killed, 

Araba said: “After collecting N350,000 

from his family, Shaibu said we should 

kill him since the man had identified 

him. He said if we allowed him to go, we 

would be arrested. 

“But I insisted I must pray first before 

carrying out the assignment. I usually 

pray before doing anything. After prayer, 

I killed him and dumped the body by the 

tree.” 

Meanwhile, Vanguard gathered that 

after killing Orogu, Shaibu used his boss’ 

SIM card to contact his relatives, 

demanding more ransom for his release. 

One of the calls was reportedly made in 

Abuja, where he collected N400,000. He 

was said to have made another demand, 

with an assurance to release the captive, 

thereafter. Negotiation for payment was 

ongoing when the Police swooped on 

him. 

19 die in FCT 

auto crash 

By Fortune Eromosele 

ABUJA—Nineteen persons have 

been confirmed killed while eight 

others were injured in an auto crash at 

Yangoji-Gwagwalada Road in the 

Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, 

yesterday. 

Acting Corps Marshal of the Federal 

Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Mr. Dauda 

Biu confirmed the figures, when he 

visited the accident scene. 

Biu said the crash, which occurred 

minutes into Sunday involved three 

vehicles – two Toyota Hiace buses with 

number plates MUB- 30 LG and DWR- 

985 XJ and an articulated vehicle. 

Biu said 31 persons were involved in 

the accident comprising 11 males, one 

female and 19 others who were charred 

beyond recognition. 

“Of the 31 victims, eight persons 

comprising seven males and one female 

sustained various degrees of injuries, 

while 19 others were burnt beyond 

recognition," he said. 

Court 

discharges, 

acquits 

businessmen of 

alleged N1.8bn 

fraud charge 

LAGOS—An Ikeja Special Offences 

Court, Lagos, has discharged and 

acquitted two businessmen, Ogbor Eliot 

and Kelvin Chris, charged over a N1.8 

billion fraud brought against them by 

the Economic and Financial Crimes 

Commission, EFCC. 

Trial judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, 

cleared Ogbor and Chris of the entire 

five-count charge of conspiracy, 

obtaining money under false pretence, 

conspiracy and forgery, after a nearly 

four-year trial. 

The judge held that the EFCC failed 

to establish any element of criminality 

against the defendants, adding that the 

transaction which led to the charge was 

of a civil nature that could have been 

resolved by the complainant and the 

defendants. 

The defendants were arraigned by the 

EFCC’s Lagos Zonal Command on 

October 22, 2018, alongside Danium 

Energy Services Limited, which the 

prosecution alleged was used to deceive 

Sterling Bank Plc to lend them money 

to finance a Local Purchase Order (LPO) 

for 20,000 Metric Tonnes of Automotive 

Gas Oil (AGO) for supply to Total 

Nigeria Limited. 

Each defendant pleaded “not guilty,” 

following which trial commenced. 

On August 5, 2022, the court adjourned 

till, weekend for judgment. 

In its judgment, the court upheld 

Ogbor and Chris’ contention that the 

charge should not have been brought in 

the first place.

Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 — 3

4 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 

Women explore options 

as price of cooking gas 

hits the roof 

Social Media Conversation 

THE continuous rise 

in the prices of 

goods and services is making 

most companies align 

their products to suit individuals’ 

new choice of 

standard of living. 

A part of this innovation 

is the double compartment 

pots meant to prepare two 

dishes at the same time. 

Vanguard Economy & 

Lifestyle discovered that 

most women now buy these 

double compartment pots 

to reduce cooking gas consumption. 

Mrs Yemisi Idowu, a tomato 

seller, said: "I have 

been thinking of a way to 

save my cooking gas. Most 

of these gas stations just 

fill in air in the cylinders. 

Before now, a 12 kg cylinder 

of cooking gas lasts 

two months and a half for 

me and it costs N11,000 

but, presently, it hardly 

lasts up to a month and a 

half. When I discovered 

these double compartment 

pots, I quickly bought 

three. Now my cooking gas 

lasts for over three 

months." 

Gbadebo Alaga, a civil 

servant, said: "My wife 

has been complaining 

about the increasing prices 

of cooking gas. Even 

the prices of kerosene, 

charcoal and firewood are 

increasing everyday. Some 

people had even resorted 

to using sawdust to cook. 

"When a friend told me 

about the double compartment 

pots, I gave it a trial. 

My wife has been testifying 

about its reduction of 

the quantity of cooking 

gas she uses monthly." 

Sarah Johnson, a 200- 

level student said: "My 

mom got me double compartment 

pots while I was 

resuming this semester because 

I always complained 

to her about the way my 

cooking gas gets exhausted 

and how the price of 

cooking gas is skyrocketing 

in my school. 

“I use a 6kg gas cylinder 

and I use N6,000 to fill it. 

Sometimes I have to borrow 

my neighbour’s stove when 

I can't afford to buy 1 kg." 

Mistura Hassan, a cooking 

wares seller in Idumota said: 

"There are various double 

compartment pots in the 

market. 

“Some even have three 

compartments where you 

can cook soup, sauce and 

boil meat at the same time. 

"Many women are coming 

for this double compartment 

pots. It is affecting the sale 

of single compartment pots 

though there is not much 

sale of pots because people 

are managing the ones they 

have." 

Data from National Bureau 

of Statistics, NBS, showed 

that the price of 12kg cylinder 

of cooking gas rose by 

32.5 per cent to N9,824 in 

July from N7,413 in January 

this year. 

Similarly, the prices of 

cooking gas cylinders has 

increased as 12.5 kg cylinder 

is now as high as 

N23,000. 

Before now, 

a 12kg cylinder 

of 

cooking gas 

lasts two 

months and 

a half for 

me, and it 

costs 

N11,000 

now but, 

presently, it 

hardly lasts 

up to a 

month and a 

half 

Case of water everywhere, none to drink? 

Boomerang! 

Hoping they sink in! 

So, look for money first?

Vanguard, MONDAY, 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 — 5 

POCKET CARTOON 

ASSASSINATION ON EMOHUA-KALABARI ROAD: 

Ijaw youths threaten to shut 

down 4 Rivers LGAs 

By Emma Amaize, 

Regional Editor, 

South-South 

PORT HARCOURT- 

THE Ijaw Youth 

Council, IYC, in Kalabari 

Se-Ikpangi, Rivers State, 

weekend, threatened to 

close down the 

secretariats of four local 

government areas in the 

state, if by November 

28, the chairmen failed 

to tackle the widespread 

kidnapping and killing 

of people on the 

Emohua-Kalabari Road. 

Protesting Ijaw youths 

stormed the Emohua, 

Asari Tolu, Degema and 

Akuku Toru local 

government areas, 

where they submitted 

disapproval letters to the 

chairmen on the 

deplorable and insecure 

state of the Emohua- 

Kalabari Road. 

IYC, in a statement by 

the chief press secretary, 

Seleipiri Dokubo, said,: 

“We expect swift 

response to the above 

request from Thursday, 

September 15, 2022, and 

unequivocally declare 

Monday November 28, 

2022, to shut down the 

four local government 

council secretariats, if 

our expectations are not 

met as stated above and 

the kidnapping and 

killing of our people 

persist 

“IYC, Kalabari Se- 

Ikpangi condemns this 

act in its entirety and 

calls on the state 

government, the four 

local government areas, 

viz Emohua, Asalga, 

Delga and Akulga 

Chairmen, in synergy 

with critical stakeholders 

(traditional, opinion and 

youth leaders), to 

collaborate in beefing up 

adequate security along 

this road to curb this 

ugly menace”. 

The youths, who earlier 

visited the Commanding 

Officer, Nigerian Army, 

103 Battalion, Lt. Col. 

S.O Buhari at Obuama in 

Degema local 

government, demanded: 

“Construction of a 

Nigerian Army Barrack 

along the Emohua- 

Kalabari Road and 

launching of an internal 

security outfit, including 

members of IYC, 

Kalabari, Se-Ikpangi, 

alongside very 

committed OSPAC 

members from Emohua 

local government area. 

“Rehabilitation of the 

Emohua-Kalabari Road; 

acquisition of Sienna 

vehicles for the security 

outfit; hosting a security 

summit in collaboration 

with all relevant 

authorities - traditional 

rulers, youth leaders, 

religious and opinion 

leaders, security 

personnel (serving and 

Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi (right) presenting a certificate to 

renowned oncologist and member of Ekiti State COVID-19 Response Resource 

Mobilisation Committee, Professor Funmi Olopade; while her husband watched 

during the dinner / award event held in honour of members of the committee in 

Lagos. 

retired) in conjunction 

with the four local 

government areas’ 

executive chairmen.” 

The council also paid 

condolence visit to the 

family of a bus driver, 

Mr. Salvation Taylor- 

Harry, who died, 

following injuries 

sustained in the hands 

of kidnappers that 

abducted him, September 

3, on Emohua-Kalabari 

Road. 

Dokubo, said: “We 

expressed our heartfelt 

condolences to the family 

and prayed for God to 

comfort them at this 

moment of grief while we 

Be prepared to protect Benue communities, 

Ortom charges Special guards’ trainees 

By Peter Duru 

MAKURDI — 

Governor Samuel 

Ortom of Benue State has 

asked the second batch of 

trainees of the State 

Community Volunteer 

Guards to be prepared to 

defend and protect 

communities of the state 

from external aggressors. 

The governor gave the 

charge yesterday when he 

visited the training camp of 

the Volunteer Guards at the 

military shooting range, 

near Ikpayongo, Gwer East 

Local Government Area of 

the state. 

Ortom, who was 

accompanied by the 

lawmaker representing 

Benue North-East 

senatorial district, Senator 

Gabriel Suswam, and other 

top government officials, 

also participated in the 

shooting training. 

He commended the 

trainees for exhibiting high 

level of enthusiasm and 

commitment which he noted 

showed their readiness to 

defend and protect Benue 

communities against 

invasion. 

He warned the trainees 

against using “the training 

you have acquired and the 

legal weapons that would 

be provided after your 

inauguration to engage in 

criminal acts because 

anyone who does so would 

be prosecuted.” 

The governor told the 

trainees that their 

recruitment, training and 

eventual inauguration were 

properly backed by the law 

enacted by previous 

administrations. “The 

Benue State government 

under my leadership, only 

amended the law to make 

it more effective in line with 

present challenges,’’ he 

said. 

Governor Ortom further 

noted that due to the rising 

insecurity in the country, 

the 19 Northern governors 

recently met and resolved 

to strongly advocate the 

establishment of state 

police, saying as soon as it 

was approved, the special 

guards operatives would be 

continue consultation 

with critical stakeholders 

to bring this barbaric act 

to an abrupt end.” 

the first to be recruited in 

Benue State. 

Former governor of the 

state, Senator Gabriel 

Suswam, on his part, 

enjoined the Volunteer 

Guards trainees to abide by 

their rules of engagement, 

saying their good conduct 

Is important to convince the 

people that had misgivings 

about the establishment of 

the security outfit. 

He also lauded Governor 

Ortom for taking the bull by 

the horns in setting up a 

security outfit to 

complement the efforts of 

conventional security 

agencies to protect the lives 

and property of Benue 

people. 

Earlier, Special Adviser to 

the Governor on Security 

Matters, Lt. Col. Paul 

Hemba, retd, said the 

Volunteer Guards trainees 

had already undergone 

three weeks of rigorous 

training, with the shooting 

experience being the last, 

saying the visit of the 

governor had boosted their 

morale. 

Assessment of LASG ban on okada in more LGs, LCDAs 

By Cynthia Alo 

The main cause of 

traffic in Lagos is the 

commercial bus driver 

(danfo) but Lagos State 

Government thinks 

banning okada is the 

solution. Someone who 

wakes up by 5:00am to 

beat traffic will have to 

start waking up by 

3:00am. This 

administration doesn’t 

care about the poor 

masses. 

—Omolara Adetuwo Gold, 

Trader 

Most people are now 

used to trekking 

and I am one of them due 

to the ban and my LCDA 

is affected. Buses don’t 

ply most of the roads 

where tricycles (Keke) 

and motorcycles have 

been banned from 

operating. This has been 

so stressful. The ban of 

okada by the Lagos State 

Government is really 

affecting many of us. 

—Mayowa Babatunde, 

Self-employed 

Ban of okada in more 

LCDAs to me, is a 

welcome development so 

as to turn Lagos into a 

mega city. From my 

observation, crime in my 

area and in many other 

areas has reduced. At 

least, all these unnecessary 

accidents we on the roads 

have also reduced. So to 

me, it’s a good one and a 

great idea from the Lagos 

State Government. 

—Okocha Lawrence, 

Electronics retailer 

This okada ban in 

various areas by the 

Lagos State Government 

is a total shame as they 

have rendered 

thousands of people 

jobless without creating 

jobs. These people no 

longer have any source 

of income. Now, armed 

robbery cases are on the 

rise, and we have bills 

to pay. 

—Somto Doris, 

Blogger 

The truth is that okada has 

its own advantages and 

disadvantages. The affected 

areas here are mainly the rural 

communities where you find 

a lot of bad roads which 

makes transportation very 

difficult for the poor ones. 

Although it’s not the fault of 

the masses that some okada 

riders have turned it to a 

means of perpetrating evil, but 

the Lagos State Government 

should also think of other ways 

to prevent this rather than this 

ban. 

—Motunrayo Precious, 

Student 

The Lagos State 

Govt. should rethink this 

decision as it would increase the 

rate of unemployment in the 

country. For me, this is my source 

of income and since the ban, it 

has not been easy. The 

government should employ the 

services of security experts to find 

a lasting solution to the security 

threats we are facing, because we, 

legal okada riders, should not be 

made to pay the price. 

—Matthew Lawrence, 

Okada Rider


:Vanguard 

News 


AWARD: From left, Hakeem Popoola Fahm, Lagos State Commissioner for Science and Technology; Mr. Akin Naphtal, 

CEO, Instinct Wave; Edoyemi Ogoh, Deputy Director, Technical Standards, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC; 

andMr. Reuben Muoka, Director, Public Affairs, NCC, who represented Prof Danbatta, EVC, NCC, at Tech Innovation 

Awards in Lagos, weekend, where Danbatta received the Telecom Leadership Award, while the commission was named 

Innovative Telecom Regulator of the Year. 

Crisis: PDP needs collaborative efforts to 

win 2023 polls, says Gov Emmanuel 

*Why S-West is divided over Ayu — Source 

*PDP‘s campaign council a pointer to victory — Group 

PDP needs collabora- 

*As ex-PDP Reps aspirants target 5m votes for Atiku/Okowa 

tive efforts to win 2023 

polls — Gov Emmanuel 

Speaking on his appointment 

as Chairman of the 

Atiku Abubakar’s Campaign 

Council, Governor Emmanuel 

urged PDP leaders and 

members to bury the hatchet 

and work together for the success 

of the party in the forthcoming 

general elections. 

The governor thanked the 

leadership and members of 

PDP for finding him worthy 

to head the Campaign Council 

for the election and called 

on party members, at all levels, 

to work towards victory 

for the party. His words: “Let 

me thank all our party members 

across the country for this 

confidence they have in me. 

“I also want to say that no 

one person can do it alone. It 

involves everybody in all the 

units, all the wards and all 

chapters of our party to come 

together for the party to move 

forward. “I want to use this 

platform to make an appeal 

that if we had made mistakes 

in the past we cannot wind 

back the clock. 

“We cannot recall what had 

passed yesterday. We can move 

forward in the spirit of oneness, 

unity, prosperity and 

progress for our party, I’ll really 

appreciate.” 

On expected outcome of the 

elections, the governor said: 

“The issue of the Campaign 

Council is a very simple matter; 

our own duty is to do the By Kingsley Omonobi 

campaign and Nigerians to 

vote for us and then God to 

give the victory.” 

By Dapo Akinrefon, 

Harris Emanuel & 

John Alechenu 

UYO—Governor Udom 

Emmanuel of Akwa 

Ibom State, who is chairman 

of the Presidential Campaign 

Council of the Peoples Democratic 

Party, PDP, yesterday, 

urged warring groups in the 

party to sink their differences 

ahead of the general elections 

saying it would take collaborative 

efforts to win the polls. 

The PDP has been engulfed 

in a crisis over the removal of 

its National Chairman, Senator 

Iyorchia Ayu. The party’s 

Presidential Candidate, Alhaji 

Atiku Abubakar and Governor 

Nyesom of Rivers State 

have been engaged in a feud 

over Ayu’s removal. 

It would be recalled that 

Governor Seyi Makinde of 

Oyo State and some PDP 

leaders in the South-West had 

called for Ayu’s resignation 

last week. 

But the Publicity secretaries 

of Ondo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti 

and Lagos, dissociated themselves 

from calls for the resignation 

of Dr Iyorchia Ayu. 

The statement, signed by 

Hakeem Amode, Lagos, 

Kennedy Peretei, Ondo, 

Raphael ‘Wumi Adeyanju, 

Ekiti and Bankole Akinloye, 

Ogun, reads: “On behalf of 

the leadership of the Peoples 

Democratic Party (PDP) State 

Chapters in Ondo, Osun, 

Ogun, Ekiti and Lagos state 

we the Publicity Secretaries in 

these states respectively dissociate 

ourselves from calls for 

the resignation of Dr Iyorchia 

Ayu as PDP National Chairman.” 

But indications, however, 

emerged that there may 

be a crack in South West PDP 

over alleged Makinde’s refusal 

to carry other leaders along 

on Ayu’s case. 

Meanwhile, the Centre for 

Support and Advocacy for 

Atiku Abubakar in Osun 

State, yesterday, expressed 

optimism that with the calibre, 

and experience of the 

members of the PDP 2023 

Presidential Campaign Council, 

PCC, the party is on its way 

to victory in the forth coming 

general elections. 

Why S-West is 

divided over Ayu 

—Source 

Following the calls for Ayu’s 

resignation by Governor 

Makinde and some South 

West PDP leaders, multiple 

sources, however, told Vanguard 

the Publicity secretaries 

in the zone were angry that 

the Oyo governor did not carry 

most of the party leaders 

along before taking the decision. 

A source, familiar with the 

crisis, faulted Makinde’s refusal 

to consult with the governor-elect 

of Osun State, 

Senator Ademola Ademola 

before calling for Ayu’s resignation. 

Another source noted 

that the governor ought to 

have called for an enlarged 

meeting of the South West PDP 

before taking a position on the 

crisis rocking the party. 

Speaking to Vanguard in 

confidence, a top PDP leader 

said: “It boils down to the 

leadership ability of Makinde. 

Even if Makinde is right, 

most leaders and members 

are ready to disagree with 

him because of his leadership 

style. He does not carry everybody 

along and they believe 

that before making such pronouncements, 

there should 

have been a South West PDP 

meeting where Ayu’s issue 

should have been debated and 

we take a collective position 

as the South West. 

“But there was no meeting. 

He believes he is the leader 

and that whatever he says is 

binding on all of us. 

“For the fact that he didn’t 

work with us in Osun State 

PDP, where he allegedly work 

against Senator Ademola 

Adeleke’s victory shows there 

is hatred for him in the state 

till now. He didn’t come to 

Osogbo to congratulate the 

governor-elect. Now that we 

have a governor-elect, who 

will be sworn-in soon, he (Makinde) 

cannot speak for all of 

us without any consultation 

with a governor-elect. “Makinde 

did not consult with the 

governor-elect before taking 

his decision. Even if he had a 

good case, he used his lack of 

consultation to spoil it.” 

PDP‘s campaign 

council a pointer to 

victory — Group 

Meanwhile, the Centre for 

Support and Advocacy for 

Atiku Abubakar, in Osun 

State, in a statement by its Coordinator, 

Mr Edward Olamilekan, 

noted that the combination 

of Governor Emmanuel, 

as Chairman, the 

National Campaign Management 

Council and Governor 

Aminu Tambuwal of 

Sokoto State, as Director- 

General will lead the PDP to 

the promised land. 

Olamilekan said: “We believe 

and have much confidence 

in these topmost PDP 

stalwarts and with their experience, 

capabilities and prowess 

will definitely give us a 

huge success in February 

2023. 

“There is no doubt that the 

combination of leaders that 

made up of the committee is 

satisfactory and we are trusting 

God with the conglomeration 

of the citizen will lead 

us to our promised land.” 

You’ve no right to respond if 

policeman in uniform slaps 

you — Force PRO 

ABUJA — THE Police 

Force Public Relation’s 

Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa 

Adejobi, has said no Nigerian 

has the right to confront a 

policemen or retaliate, even 

if the cop slapped a ‘civilian’. 

Speaking through his Twitter 

account, the Force PRO 

advised any such victim of 

Police brutality to rather file a 

complaint with the law enforcement 

agency. He was reacting 

to a viral video of a 

man dragging a rifle with a 

policeman during a heated 

argument and suspicious 

molestation over his phone. 

Adejobi further stated that 

if a person assaults police personnel 

in uniform, it would be 

seen as ‘an act of disrespect to 

Nigeria.’ He said: “Even if a 

policeman on uniform slaps 

a civilian, the civilian has no 

right to retaliate. More so, if 

he’s on uniform, it’s an act of 

disrespect to Nigeria to beat 

an officer on uniform. 

“The disrespect is not to the 

policeman but to our nation 

and it’s a crime as enshrined 

in our criminal laws 

“So, it’s not a case of what 

the policeman did that led to 

it, but the reaction of the civilians 

who actually assaulted 

the police. If police assault a 

civilian, you report and actions 

will be taken to rebuke 

him, not to take the law into 

your hands. (sic) 

“Let alone, its a matter of 

checking of phones, which 

can be easily reported and 

addressed. Now they are kept 

in our 5-star hotel in Lagos 

and will be in court on Monday. 

Campaign Council: PDP’s 

move puts APC under pressure 

•We’re not under pressure – Keyamo, as party names 

Gov Bello youth coordinator, •Nigeria too important to 

be left to untested politicians – Tinubu •Tinubu-Shetima 

‘ll restore Nigeria to greatness – Kogi Gov 

By Clifford Ndujihe, 

Omeiza Ajayi & Boluwaji 

Obahopo 

THE ruling All Progressives 

Congress, APC, appears to 

be under pressure to conclude 

work on the composition of 

its presidential campaign 

council following the unveiling, 

last week, by the main 

opposition Peoples Democratic 

Party, PDP, of its own council 

Ȯn a day that APC Presidential 

Campaign Council appointed 

Governor Yahaya 

Bello of Kogi as its national 

youth co-ordinator, some party 

leaders are said to be embarrassed 

that the APC is always 

trailing the PDP in the 

line up of activities for the 

2023 general elections. This 

was as Senator Oluremi Tinubu, 

wife of the APC Presidential 

Candidate, Asiwaju Bola 

Ahmed Tinubu, urged greater 

support for the aspiration 

of her husband, saying Nigeria 

is too important to be left 

to inexperienced hands. 

A party official, who is unhappy 

at the development said 

the APC leadership is tardy in 

its response to issues. “This 

was how we were busy doing 

nothing and the time for nomination 

of candidates lapsed 

and we failed to nominate 

candidates for about 25 legislative 

seats. Although, having 

a council in place is not 

something that is a must, but 

we should stop playing catch 

up”, he said. 

We’re not under 

pressure – Keyamo 

However, Spokesman of the 

Tinubu Presidential Campaign 

Council, Mr. Festus 

Keyamo, said the APC is not 

under pressure but doing due 

diligence in carrying all 

stakeholders along, adding 

that the party has “enough 

time to compose the team before 

the campaigns start on 

September 28.” 

He described Governor Bello’s 

appointment as “one of the 

most important and apposite 

appointments by Asiwaju 

Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is strategically 

correct and politically 

calculative. Yahaya Bello 

is the youngest governor 

today in Nigeria. So, this is a 

square peg in a square hole.” 

He added that Bello commands 

a large following 

among APC youths and his 

appointment “further unites 

our house as he was one of the 

formidable aspirants that ran 

against Asiwaju Tinubu during 

our primaries.” 

On pressure over full composition 

of the campaign 

council, Keyamo said: “We 

are not under any pressure. 

Our actions and activities are 

not dictated or prompted by 

the actions and activities of 

the PDP that is collapsing day 

and night. Our actions are 

dictated purely by our schedule 

of activities and ability to 

carry all stakeholders along. 

We will let everybody know 

our campaign council in due 

time. We still have enough 

time to do that before the campaigns 

start.” 

In like manner, a member 

of the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led 

National Working 

Committee, NWC, who did 

not want his name in print, 

said there is no cause for 

alarm. 

“It is better to be late than to 

rush the entire process and 

make existential errors. In any 

case, we are not behind any 

timetable. Even after the lifting 

of the ban on campaigns, 

we can still unveil the full 

complement of our campaign 

council. There is no law that 

says we must unveil everything 

before the lifting of the ban. 

Besides, we already have a 

council in place. What remains 

is just to populate the 

directorates with relevant 

hands,” he said. 

Nigeria too important 

to be left to 

untested politicians 

—Tinubu 

Making a case for her husband, 

the Senator representing 

Lagos Central Senatorial 

District, Oluremi Tinubu, 

spoke at the young leaders’ 

summit, yesterday in Abuja. 

She said: “Right from the 

formation of the APC, young 

people have been at the forefront 

of promoting our party 

and our candidates. Even now, 

with campaigns yet to kick off, 

the youth energy can be felt 

with the many youth-led initiatives 

promoting the candidature 

of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed 

Tinubu and his running mate, 

Senator Kashim Shettima. 

Tinubu, who was represented 

at the event by Nana Shettima, 

wife of the APC’s vice presidential 

candidate, acknowledged 

the role of young people 

in promoting the party and 

urged them to concentrate 

their efforts on grassroots mobilisation. 

Tinubu also stated that Bola 

Tinubu has a track record of 

supporting young people and 

urged the party’s teeming 

youths to engage their peers 

with a view to ensuring that 

they make the right choice at 

the polls. 

“I hereby urge all our youth 

leaders and youth-focused support 

groups, many of whom are 

represented here today, to ensure 

that efforts to mobilise 

support for the Tinubu/Shettima 

presidential campaign are 

targeted at the grassroots – 

right from our polling units to 

our wards and local governments 

– as that is where the real 

voters are,” she said. 

Tinubu-Shetima ‘ll 

restore Nigeria to 

greatness – Kogi Gov 

Also yesterday, Governor 

Yahaya Bello of Kofi State said 

APC presidential candidate, 

Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 

has the capacity to restore Nigeria 

on the path of greatness 

when he becomes president. 

Governor Bello made this 

known at the Government 

House, Lokoja, during an interface 

with APC ward, local 

government chairman, candidates 

and other stakeholders 

from Idah federal constituency 

of Kogi State, consisting of 

Idah, Ofu, Igalamela and Ibaji 

council areas. 

Bello noted: “Bola Ahmed 

Tinubu has been consistent with 

the party. He has shown direction 

and leadership that the 

nation needs to address its challenges 

hence must be given overwhelming 

support by party 

faithfuls and voted come 

2023.”

:Vanguard 

News 

Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 — 7 


VISIT: From left, Managing Director/ CEO, UBA Cote d’Ivoire, Sarata Kone; Executive Director Risk and Finance, UBA 

Group, Ugo Nwaghodoh; Chairman, UBA Cote d’Ivoire, Kouame Kouassi; Group Managing Director, United Bank for 

Africa, Oliver Alawuba; Vice President of Cote d’ Ivoire, Tiemoko Meyler Kone and Regional CEO, West Africa, Abiola 

Bawuah, during the visit of Alawuba and other UBA executives to the Presidential Villa in Abidjan, Cote d’ Ivoire, weekend. 

NLC challenges APC, others to campaign 

with subsidy removal, sale of refineries 

By Victor Ahiuma- 

Young 

AHEAD of the 2023 general 

elections, the Nigeria Labour 

Congress, NLC, weekend, 

challenged the All Progressives 

Congress, APC, and other political 

parties to use subsidy removal, sale 

of refineries and other anti-masses 

programmes to canvass for votes. 

NLC insisted that organised labour 

would mobilise against political 

parties planning to inflict more pains 

and suffering on Nigerians, declaring 

that Nigerian workers, through a 

number of painstaking processes, 

had been able to articulate a 

Nigerian Workers’ Charter of 

Demands, which the NLC and Trade 

Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, 

were using to engage the political 

process. 

The labour movement was 

reacting to a statement by the 

Minister of State for Labour and 

Employment and the campaign 

spokesperson of the Presidential 

Campaign Council of APC, Festus 

Keyamo. 

APC had in a statement, 

challenged the NLC over its seeming 

support for the position of the Labour 

Party presidential candidate, Mr. 

Peter Obi, on the heated issue of 

removal of petrol subsidies. 

But a statement by its President, 

Ayuba Wabba, entitled, “The position 

of Nigeria Labour Congress on petrol 

subsidies has not changed, it only 

got amplified,” NLC said: “We wish 

to commend the Minister of State 

for responding positively to earlier 

calls by the Nigeria Labour Congress, 

NLC, that political parties must focus 

their engagement on the current 

electoral cycle campaigns on issuesbased 

politics. 

‘’We believe that an issues based 

campaign will help sieve the facts 

from fiction, address burning national 

issues, review the performance of 

those in government at all levels, 

especially on the delivery of the 

Sustainable Development Goals, 

SDGs, improve Nigeria’s public 

accountability frameworks, prepare 

voters behaviour on election day, 

away from the destructive lines of 

ethno-religious divide and defuse the 

looming political tension. 

“In furtherance of the avowed 

position of the Nigeria Labour 

Congress, NLC, on issues-based 

campaign in the run up to the 2023 

general election, we wish to state 

that Nigerian workers, through a 

number of painstaking processes, 

have been able to articulate a 

Nigerian Workers’ Charter of 

Demands which the NLC and TUC 

are using to engage the political 

process. 

“A major demand in the Nigerian 

•Says Labour‘ll mobilise against parties with plans to 

inflict more pains on Nigerians 

Workers Charter of Demands is that 

our local public refineries must work. 

We have also demanded that we 

must stop 100 per cent importation 

of refined petroleum products. 

‘’The NLC and, indeed, the labour 

movement in Nigeria has over many 

decades been vehemently 

consistent that the only way to 

address the issue of the so-called 

petrol subsidies is to get our refineries 

to work. 

‘’The logic is very simple: it is 

atrocious to buy from abroad at very 

expensive prices a product that a 

country like ours can easily produce 

at home. 

“If any political party goes around 

saying it planned to sell our refineries, 

remove subsidies, and further 

oppress long-suffering Nigerians, 

they should be ready to defend such 

stance to Nigerians at the 

campaigns. 

‘’The NLC, organized labour, and 

Labour Party’s position has not 

changed. It only got amplified.” 

COVID-19: Catholic Bishops suspend 

30-month ban on handshakes during mass 

•Task INEC on technology deployment for 2023 polls 

By Rotimi Ojomoyela & 

Luminous Jannamike 

ABUJA—The Catholic Bishops’ 

Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, 

has directed the resumption of 

handshakes, popularly known as 

‘Kiss of Peace’, during the celebration 

of mass after suspending the 

Eucharistic practice 30 months ago. 

It also called on the Independent 

National Electoral Commission, 

INEC, to ensure technology was 

transparently deployed to increase 

the confidence of the people in the 

electoral process 

The suspension had followed the 

World Health Organization’s 

declaration of the COVID-19 

pandemic as a global health 

emergency in the year 2020. 

The decision to lift the suspension 

was taken during proceedings of the 

just-concluded second plenary of the 

CBCN, which held in Orlu, Imo 

State. 

The directive, contained in a 

memo entitled, ‘Kiss of Peace’, dated 

September 17, 2022 and signed by 

Rev. Fr. Cosmas Uzoigwe, the 

Personal Assistant to the President 

of the CBCN, His Grace, Most Rev. 

Lucius Ugorji, in Abuja yesterday, 

read: “Greetings to you all, His Grace, 

Most Rev. Lucius lwejuru Ugorji has 

directed that the traditional shaking 

of hands (Kiss of Peace) during 

Eucharistic celebration and other 

events in the liturgical celebrations 

of the church should resume and 

come back to life. 

“The resolution to commence the 

liturgical gesture of shaking of hands 

came, following the proceedings of 

the recent concluded second plenary 

of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference 

of Nigeria held at Orlu." 

Task INEC on 

technology deployment 

for 2023 polls 

The CBCN also called on INEC 

to ensure technology was 

transparently deployed to increase 

the confidence of the people in the 

electoral process. 

It expressed the optimism that the 

new innovation, if properly used, 

would increase the credibility of the 

2023 polls. 

The Bishops said flawless and 

credible elections would be a good 

remedial step to combating some of 

the challenges shaking the nation 

to its foundation and an answer to 

the yearnings of Nigerians for 

credible and reliable leaderships at 

all levels to redirect the nation to the 

path of greatness 

The CBCN stated this in a 

communiqué at the end of its Second 

Plenary Meeting of the the Sacred 

Heart Pastoral/Retreat Centre, Orlu, 

Imo State on September 16, 2022, 

signed by its President, Most Rev 

Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji , and 

Secretary, Most Rev. Donatus 

Aihmiosion Ogun. 

The communique, made available 

to journalists in Ado Ekiti by the 

Catholic Bishop of Ekiti, Most Rev 

Felix Ajakaye, yesterday, applauded 

President Muhammadu Buhari for 

assenting to the New Electoral Bill. 

The clerics added that it would be 

a great disservice to the citizens for 

these technological initiatives to be 

deployed to thwart the 2023 elections 

after rigorous amendment by the 

National Assembly and inputs from 

Nigerians. 

They said: “Elections are fast 

approaching. We commend the 

National Assembly and the 

President of the Federal Republic of 

Nigeria for enacting and signing into 

law the Electoral Bill 2022. 

“We acknowledge the president’s 

commitment to ensuring a level 

playing ground for all candidates in 

the elections. Furthermore, we 

commend INECfor its innovations, 

especially in the area of technology, 

to ensure free, fair and credible 

elections. 

“We, however, enjoin the 

commission to ensure that this 

technology is transparently 

deployed, in order to increase the 

confidence of the people in the 

electoral process. Politics is a noble 

vocation." 

Unemployment: FG to set 

up job centres in 774 LGAs 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru 

ABUJA—WORRIED by the 

high rate of unemployment, 

the Federal Government, 

weekend, said it was setting up 

job centres in the 774 local 

government areas of the country 

as well as improve the Nigerian 

Electronic Labour Exchange to 

match jobseekers with jobs. 

Already, the government said 

the informal sector, especially 

artisans, had been included in the 

National Health Insurance Act 

recently passed into law to help 

those who could not take care of 

sick members of their families. 

The Permanent Secretary, 

Ministry of Labour and 

Employment, Ms Kachollom 

Daju, disclosed this when she 

received members of Labour 

Correspondents of Nigeria, 

LACAN, in Abuja. 

She expressed optimism that 

with the new National 

Development Plan 2021 to 2025, 

which is multi sectoral, the 

Federal Ministry of Labour and 

Employment and other 

ministries were working hard to 

ensure the government policy of 

lifting 100 million people out of 

poverty was achieved. 

She said: “It’s not just Federal 

Government. The private sector 

is supposed to play a huge role 

because we cannot all be 

dependent on government. 

“The private sector has its own 

role to play. And that’s why the 

Federal Government has 

showed that for the development 

plan, a certain percentage a huge 

percentage of what it takes to 

ensure that employment, 

infrastructure and all that is 

carried out by the private sector. I 

know that the private sector is 

going to play a huge role in 

achieving this. 

“So, we will work together and 

for Ministry of Labour, we have 

different agencies and 

departments that have to do with 

employment skills. As you all 

know, and recently, the Labour 

Market Information System, 

which we’re bringing out for the 

citizens to know is to ensure that 

data is collected. 

“Alongside that we’re actually 

going to improve on job 

matching, the Nigerian 

Electronic Labour Exchange 

which has been on but now we 

are only going to improve on 

where you match jobseekers with 

the job. 

Okonjo-Iweala, Dangote, Adesina, others for Nigeria’s global investment 

forum in New York 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru 

ABUJA—THE 

Federal 

Government, in collaboration 

with the Africa Business Roundtable, 

is organising the second edition of 

Nigeria International Economic 

Partnership Forum, NIEPF, a global 

economic investment platform, this 

time in New York, United States. 

The business rountable is in 

furtherance of Federal 

Government’s bid to open up the 

country’s economy to international 

capital and attract foreign 

investments. 

A statement by Senior Special 

Assistant to the President on Media 

and Publicity, Garba Shehu, 

yesterday, explained that the highlevel 

event was scheduled for 

Thursday, September 22, 2022, on 

the sidelines of the 77th United 

Nations General Assembly taking 

place in the American city. 

The statement read: “Holding 

alongside the annual global 

gathering, the NIEPF is expected to 

draw the presence of world leaders 

in politics, economy, media as well as 

Civil Society Oganisations and 

international media to focus on the 

vast economic potentials of Nigeria 

and Africa’s leading economy. 

“Most significantly, President 

Muhammadu Buhari will deliver 

Queen Elizabeth was a 

monarch for all seasons 

—Osinbajo 

VICE President Yemi Osinbajo, 

yesterday, described the late 

Queen Elizabeth II as a monarch for 

all seasons who brought people 

together from all over the world. 

Osinbajo stated this in a short 

tribute at the Lancaster House. 

The Vice President also joined 

other world leaders to pay their last 

respect to the late British monarch 

at the Queen’s lying in state at 

different times on Sunday. 

In the condolence register at 

Lancaster House, the Vice President 

said: “Nigeria joins the government 

and people of the UK, the 

Commonwealth and rest of the world 

in expressing our sincere condolence 

to the royal family on the passing of 

a monarch for all seasons." 

the keynote address at the event 

and will also host a high-level 

presidential session with fellow 

Presidents and Heads of delegations 

on issues that need joint action for 

African countries on the 

development drive such as the Post 

COVID-19 recovery and financing 

priorities; Africa’s investment climate 

and market as well as de-risking the 

continent. 

It further stated that the speakers 

and panelists at the event include 

Later at a bilateral meeting 

between Osinbajo and the UK 

Foreign Secretary, they discussed 

how to improve trade ties between 

both countries especially expanding 

opportunities for Nigerian businesses 

and supporting the country’s climate 

objectives. 

They also discussed the 

imperative of strengthening 

international coalition to tackle 

insecurity in the Sahel and the horn 

of Africa region. 

The UK Foreign Secretary 

welcomed Nigeria’s participation in 

the funeral programme for Queen 

Elizabeth ll, expressing gratitude for 

Nigeria’s solidarity and friendship 

with the UK on the mourning of the 

monarch, and also celebration of the 

life and times of the late Queen. 

Lagos PDP guber candidate, 

Funke Akindele visit owners of 

auctioned vehicles in Lagos 

LAGOS—The governorship 

candidate of Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, Olajide 

Adediran, and his running mate, 

Funke Akindele, have visited 

the homes of two owners of 

vehicles recently auctioned in 

Lagos by the state government. 

The government had on 

September 15, auctioned 

vehicles forfeited to the state 

over traffic violations. 

At the event, traffic offenders 

broke down in tears as their 

vehicles were auctioned. 

Reacting to the development, 

the PDP candidate, popularly 

known as Jandor, visited the 

homes of Lateef Kolapo and 

Osinachi Ndukwe, both drivers 

whose vehicles were up for auction 

on Thursday. 

According to a statement by 

Gbenga Ogunleye, media aide of 

the PDP candidate, Ndukwe, who 

drove against traffic was arrested, and 

imprisoned for three months after 

his car was impounded. 

Adediran condemned the Lagos 

government for the harsh 

punishment against traffic offenders. 

He said though traffic violations 

will not be condoned if voted as 

governor, he will ensure the review 

of laws which enable the forfeiture of 

vehicles as punishment for traffic 

offences. 

Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote 

Group; Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Bill 

and Melinda Gates Foundation; 

Satya Nadella, Chairman Business 

Council of the United States and 

Chief Executive Officer Microsoft 

Corp, Antony Blinken; Mark 

Zuckerberg, Chief Executive Officer 

of Facebook; Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- 

Iweala, Director-General of the World 

Trade Organisation; Dr. Akinwumi 

Adesina, President of African 

Development Bank, AfDB, among 

others,


:Vanguard 

News 

NDDC: Ondo may challenge FG over 

MD slot 

By Dayo Johnson 


ROAD SHOW—From left: Abayomi Oluyomi, Chairman, Marketing Committee, Ehingbeti Lagos Economic 

Summit; Mrs. Adeola Banjo, Dean, School of Management and Business Studies, Lagos State 

University of Science and Technology, Ikorodu; Simi Otuyalo, COO, Ehingbeti Lagos Economic Summit; 

Toyin Atanda, Senior Special Assistant to Lagos State governor on Human Capital Development, 

and Kikelomo Ekundayo, Senior Special Assistant to governor of Lagos State on Internal Audit, during 

the Ehingbeti Lagos Economic Summit Road Show, at Lagos State University of Science and Technology, 

Ikorodu, Lagos. 

AKURE—THERE 

are 

strong indications that the 

Ondo State government may sue 

the Federal Government, if the 

position of the Managing Director 

of the Niger Delta Development 

Commission, NDDC, is given to 

another state in the region. 

A reliable source, who spoke 

under anonymity, confided in 

Vanguard that Governor Rotimi 

Akeredolu has directed the 

Attorney-General and Justice 

Commissioner of the state, 

Charles Titiloye, to file a suit 

against the Federal Government, 

if the state was not given the slot. 

This is coming ahead of the 

possibility of President 

Muhammadu Buhari forwarding 

the list of the Governing Board 

nominees of the NDDC to the 

Senate for confirmation on 

resumption this week. 

It was gathered that President 

Buhari has reportedly dumped 

the recommendations put 

forward by Minister of State for 

Petroleum, Timipre Sylva and the 

Ondo governor in respect of the 

Managing Director. 

The development, it was 

further gathered, caused anxiety 

in the state over the weekend. 

It was alleged that the 

presidency was now looking 

towards Edo State to occupy the 

7m Nigerians sue INEC over 

incomplete voter registration 

By Olasunkanmi 

Akoni 

LAGOS—AT least 24 

Nigerians have sued the 

Independent National Electoral 

Commission, INEC, for failing to 

give them and the other seven 

million Nigerians adequate time 

and opportunity to complete their 

voter registration online. 

The Plaintiffs, who are suing 

for themselves and on behalf of 

seven million other Nigerians, 

wanted to “complete the 

registration process so that they 

can obtain their permanent voter 

cards, PVCs, and exercise their 

rights to vote.” 

INEC recently disclosed that 

out of 10,487,972 Nigerians who 

carried out their pre-registration 

online, only 3,444,378 completed 

the process at a physical centre. 

This represents just 32.8 per cent 

of completed online registration. 

But in the suit, filed last Friday 

at the Federal High Court, Abuja, 

the Plaintiffs sought “an order of 

mandamus to direct and compel 

INEC to re-activate its 

continuous voter’s registration 

exercise to allow the Plaintiffs to 

complete their registration and 

collect their Permanent Voters’ 

Cards, PVCs.” 

Meanwhile, no date has been 

fixed for the hearing of the suit. 

The 24 Nigerians include 

Adeeyo Wasiu; Kunat Amos; 

Tagbo Chidubem; Emeghe 

Grace; Ayoola Ebenezer; Eche 

Otakpa; Olatoye Damilola; and 

Ogunejiofor Emeka. 

Others include Adedotun 

Babatunde; Emmanuel 

Tochukwu; Emmanuel Ternajev; 

Joy Ige; Lawerence Ignatius; 

Agbede Kunle; Eze Ndubisi; and 

Nkemdilim Bassey. 

Others are Omoike Oseine; 

Joshua Ogenekaro; Wisdom 

Emeka; Ukpe Destiny; Abayomi 

Opeoluwa; Ndubuisi Ahanihu; 

Akande Akintunde O; and 

Adamma Rhodes. 

The suit filed on behalf of the 

Plaintiffs by lawyers to Socio- 

Economic Rights and 

Accountability Project, SERAP, 

Managing Director slot instead 

of Ondo State. 

This was sequel to a memo said 

to have been forwarded by the 

Attorney-General and Minister 

of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami 

and approved by the President 

that Delta State is expected to 

produce the Chairman of the 

NDDC, while Edo state will 

produce the Managing Director. 

In the said memo, Ondo state 

will produce the Executive 

Director Finance and Accounts, 

or the Executive Director Project, 

while Imo State will produce the 

Executive Director, Projects, or 

Executive Director, Finance and 

Accounts. 

A top government source told 

Vanguard that “From available 

information that is at our disposal, 

the Presidency is seriously 

following the recommendations 

of the Attorney-General, Mr 

Malami and this is very 

unfortunate. 

“Whether the person to be 

appointed as MD is Mahin or 

Ugbo, it doesn’t matter to us in 

Ondo State. What we need is the 

MD and nothing more. 

Insecurity, economic downturn, bad 

governance, recipe for agitations —YOV 

By Dapo Akinrerefon 

LAGOS—A 

Yoruba 

Diaspora group, Yoruba One 

Voice, YOV, yesterday, said that 

agitations for self-determination 

will continue, if the Federal 

Government fails to address 

issues that have been 

threatening the foundation of 

Nigeria and also pitting the 

ethnic nationalities against one 

another. 

YOV made this known at the 

5th Edition of its global 

conference, held via zoom, where 

participants gathered from all the 

continents of the world. 

While proffering solutions to 

the myriads of problems 

bedevilling Nigeria, the group also 

warned the Federal Government 

against clamping down on selfdetermination 

agitators, insisting 

that it is the right of every ethnic 

nationality to seek justice, fair 

play and good governance, as well 

as self-determination, especially 

when it becomes very necessary. 

Kolawole Oluwadare and Ms 

Adelanke Aremo, read in part: 

“Closing the gates on eligible 

Nigerians cannot preserve trust 

in the electoral process.” 

“According to reports, the 

inability of Nigerians to complete 

their voters’ registration exercise 

or even transfer their permanent 

voters’ card, affected wide 

spectrums of persons, hence this 

class action by the identified 

plaintiffs on behalf of other 

affected Nigerians.” 

The Yoruba diaspora 

organization also identified 

prolonged insecurity, bad 

economy, and loss of hope as a 

recipe for seeking autonomy by 

the various ethnic nationalities. 

In his remarks, 

Aareonakakanfo of Yoruba land, 

Iba Gani Adams, who is also the 

Grand Patron of the diaspora 

group, said the Yoruba quest for 

autonomy or an independent 

nation should not be a crime, 

insisting that there are countries 

all over the world that sought 

their freedom peacefully. 

Adams said: “If Nigeria were 

good, none of us would have 

sought the exit door from this 

country. We would have buried 

the cause of the struggle. 

“But the struggle for the Yoruba 

nation became more prominent 

when it was obvious that Nigeria 

could not sustain the tempo of 

the ravaging unrest and 

economic downturn. 

“When it was obvious that 

things have gone awry and the 

nation we always call ours has 

lost the battle to terrorists and 

bandits. 

“And the country has 

eventually lost its soul. I think 

that is the reason we are having 

agitations from the six geopolitical 

zones. 

“In seeking self-determination, 

we are not ready to destroy the 

hard-earned glory and heritage 

of our forefathers." 

Why Nigerians must instil 

moral values in children—CEM 

By Julliet Umeh 

L AGOS—THE 

C h i l d r e n 

Evangelism Ministry, 

CEM, weekend, urged 

Nigerians to get 

involved in raising good 

children, noting that 

when children are 

directed in the right 

paths, they will not 

depart from them. 

CEM made the call in 

Lagos during the 

relaunch of the Ministry, 

birthed 43 years ago. 

In his remarks, the 

President of the group, 

Evangelist Tony 

Chukwudile, who spoke 

on the significance of 

the ministry’s relaunch, 

said: “After 43 years, 

there is a need to 

relaunch because many 

people are getting tired. 

Some started the 

ministry and are no 

more, while some are 

new. 

“So, there is a need for 

relaunching to remind 

ourselves and the people 

alive what we are called 

to do. And also to remind 

ourselves that these 

children must be cared 

for now before they get 

hardened. 

“Bible says ‘train up a 

child in the way he 

should go and when he is old, 

he will not depart from it.” 

He, however, regretted that 

43 years after, many people 

are yet to key into the vision 

of CEM. 

He said: “Everybody, 

including fathers, mothers, 

teachers and every 

responsible adult in the 

society should get involved in 

evangelizing the children 

when they are young.” 

Also, the Chairman of the 

Christian Association of 

Nigeria, CAN in Lagos State, 

Rev. Steven Adegbite, 

described the relaunch of the 

ministry as the beginning of 

a revolution. 

Adegbite said: “This 

programme is the beginning 

of the revolution and we must 

embrace it. That is why I 

promised, on behalf of the 

Christian Association of 

Nigeria, that we are going to 

support it.” 

Speaking on the negative 

impact of media content on a 

child’s development, he said: 

“The effects of social media 

content on our children are 

enormous and it’s something 

we must stop. 

“We must ensure that our 

children behave properly in 

our society because there are 

many things they learn from 

it, some of them are now gay, 

lesbians. How can we 

continue that way? 

On her part, one of the 

executives of CEM, 

Deaconess Adefemi Taire 

called for collaborations in the 

development of wholesale 

content in the media space. 

Osun gov poll: Overvoting 

occured in 6 polling units, not 

749 —Adeleke 

By Shina Abubakar 

OSOGBO—OSUN State 

governor-elect, Senator 

Ademola Adeleke, yesterday, 

clarified that overvoting took 

place in only six polling units, 

contrary to 749 claimed by 

Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, 

as contained in the governor’s 

petition. 

Adeleke, in a statement by his 

spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, 

berated Governor Oyetola and 

the All Progressives Congress, 

APC, for embarking on a media 

trial, after submitting their 

petition at the Election Petition 

Tribunal. 

The governor-elect said: “We 

have gone into these details to 

show that Senator Adeleke never 

admitted in the polling units 

challenged by the APC/Oyetola 

except in only six polling units 

where there is real over-voting 

as contained in the BVAS 

machine itself and the forms. 

“For the benefit of members of 

the public, there are two aspects 

2.4km Imeko road to boost business 

activities with Oyo —Gov Abiodun 

A BEOKUTA—THE 

commissioning of a 2.4- 

kilometre Oke-Ola road in Imeko 

Afon Local Government Area of 

Ogun State, weekend, by 

Governor Dapo Abiodun, has 

been described as the needed 

tonic to boost commercial and 

farming activities in the area. 

The road, which connects with 

neighbouring communities in 

Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State, 

was constructed by the Ogun 

State government to ease 

movement of farm produce, goods 

and services from farmlands to 

urban centres in the two states. 

Major communities that make 

up Imeko-Afon Local 

Government include, Imeko, 

Afon, Ilara, Okeagbede, Moriwi, 

Owode, Obada, Iwoye-Ketu, 

Okuta, Atapele, Idofa and a host 

of others. 

Prince Abiodun, at the 

commissioning noted that the 

newly constructed road was a 

departure from the past as it 

to the defence concerning APC’s 

claim of over-voting. 

“The first aspect is that the overvoting 

in 750 polling units as 

claimed by Oyetola/APC in their 

petition is false over-voting 

created by the incomplete data of 

BVAS based on the 

unsynchronised BVAS report. 

This does not represent what is 

on the BVAS machine itself and 

the Forms EC8A. The correct 

result is captured in the 

synchronised BVAS report which 

tallies with the data on the BVAS 

machine itself. 

“The defence also affirmed 

further that even if the false overvoting 

in the unsynchronised 

BVAS report is unlikely admitted, 

the PDP will still be leading if 

votes from the affected six polling 

units are removed, adding 

however that “such admission is 

however impossible 

because the Tribunal will 

never rely on the 

unsynchronised BVAS 

report because is at 

variance with what is 

contained on the BVAS 

machine itself.” 

leads and connects Oyo State 

which is aimed at boosting 

business activities in the area 

with consequent increase in 

revenue generation into the 

coffers of the government. 

“For the past 15 years of 

neglect, this road project is 

coming for commissioning as a 

testimonial of our 

administration’s commitment in 

keeping to our promises. 

“Some deceived some people, 

because they had no good 

intention."

VANGUARD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 — 9 

:Vanguard 

News 


CONFERENCE—From Left: Tolani Tayo-Osikoya, Morning Fresh Brand Ambassador; Bimbo 

Ademoye, Morning Fresh Live Draws Host; Chidinma Asomugha, Regional Brand Manager, 

PZ Cussons; Adetutu Oriowo, HRBP Commercial Category and Brands Africa, PZ Cussons, 

and Oluwakemi Longe, Head, Category Africa Personal Hygiene, during the Morning 

Fresh press conference, held in Lagos. Photo: Joe Akintola, Photo Editor. 

Tension as Ebubeagu sacks Imo community 

THE Indigenous People of 

Biafra, IPoB, yesterday, 

released gory videos and 

photographs of the attack on 

Orsu-Ihiteukwa Community, in 

Orsu Local Government Area of 

Imo State, by alleged members of 

the Ebubeagu security outfit. 

The organisation blamed the 

scenario on Governor Hope 

Uzodimma, accusing him of 

ordering the security team to carry 

out the dastardly act, which 

included attacks on buildings, 

killing of citizens, and burning of 

houses and shops. 

Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Legal Adviser to 

IPoB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu, made 

the allegation in a statement, titled 

'Black Weekend in Orsu- 

Ihiteukwa, Orsu LGA of Imo State'. 

But Oguwike Nwachukwu, 

Metuh seeks prayers for Nnamdi 

Kanu’s release 

Women not inferior, second-class 

creatures —Bishop 

By Chidi Nkwopara 

O WERRI—PRESIDENT 

of the Christian Council of 

Nigeria, CCN, Rev. Benebo 

Fubara-Manuel, has urged 

Nigerian women to stand against 

all divisive policies that deny 

them their rightful place in the 

nation's scheme of things. 

Similarly, the Programme 

Executive of the World Council 

of Churches, Rev. Nicqi Ashwood, 

expressed regret that eight years 

after the kidnap of Chibok school 

girls, the matter is yet to be fully 

resolved. 

Fubara-Manuel stated this in 

his keynote address to flag off the 

four-day Fifth Biennial National 

Convention of the Women Wing 

of Christian Council of Nigeria, 

WOWICCN, weekend, in Owerri. 

The CCN president said: "You 

are blessed enough to shame the 

evil antics of people who devise 

policies that marginalise women 

and deny them their rightful 

places in the nation's scheme of 

things. 

Soludo rewards woman who rejected money for vote with road project 

By Vincent Ujumadu 

AWKA—ANAMBRA State 

Governor, Professor 

Chukwuma Soludo, has awarded 

a multi-million naira contract for 

the construction of 26 kilometers 

Awba-Ofemili -Amansea road, as 

a reward to the woman who 

rejected N5,000 financial 

inducement to sell her vote, 

during the November 2021 

governorship election that 

•Gov didn’t order killings, aide exonerates Uzodimma 

Chief Press Secretary to the state 

governor, exonerated Uzodimma 

from the attacks. 

He said: “You know that people 

can allege anything against the 

governor because it gives them 

joy doing so. If there was no salt 

in the food served them by their 

wives, it was Governor 

Uzodimma that caused it. 

“But to answer you directly, 

Governor Uzodimma has never, 

can never, and will never give 

instruction to security operatives 

or anybody for that matter to kill 

innocent people. 

“Please, get in touch with 

security agencies because the 

concern you have raised bothers 

on security. 

By John Alechenu He also decried the 

A 

'maltreatment and systemic 

BUJA—A former National extortion' of South Easterners by 

Publicity Secretary of the unscrupulous operatives in 

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, security agencies and 

Olisa Metuh, has called on government establishments. 

Nigerians of goodwill to pray Metuh said: “In the light of the 

fervently for God to intervene and deplorable security situation in 

grant the Leader of the the South-East, there is a need 

Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, for unconditional freedom for 

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, freedom Nnamdi Kanu to restore peace 

through the law courts. and normalcy to the region. 

Metuh, who was also one time Peace in the southeast will have 

PDP National Vice-chairman a multiplier effect on the entire 

(South East), called for the country. 

unconditional release of Nnamdi “The truth is that many people 

Kanu, noting that doing so will are not happy with the way and 

restore peace and normalcy to the manner Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was 

South East region which, in turn, abducted in a foreign country and 

will have a positive multiplier brought to Nigeria in chains to 

effect on the entire country. face all kinds of charges. Nnamdi 

The former PDP Spokesperson Kanu is viewed by many as 

said this in a statement in Abuja, suffering for highlighting the 

yesterday. 

plight of the Igbo in present 

brought him into office. 

The road was among those 

awarded by the governor, at the 

weekend, as part of the ceremony 

to mark his six months in office. 

All together, 60.34 kilometers 

of road in parts of the state were 

awarded, with the period of 

completion ranging from four to 

16 months. 

Soludo said: "Today, we are six 

months in office. I still remember 

that Ebenebe woman and other 

"However, let me say that it is 

unfortunate that we often ignore 

the operational rule of 

engagement that exists within 

the security agencies, with their 

different hierarchies taking 

responsibility for their actions, but 

resort to mischievous fingerpointing 

at Governor Uzodimma. 

That is not fair.” 

Ejiofor, quoting “verifiable and 

credible eyewitness accounts,” 

said the hitherto peaceful 

community “was this weekend, 

invaded by the combined team 

of Governor Hope Uzodinma’s 

Ebubeagu security outfit and the 

Nigerian Army.” 

He said: “It is heart-rending 

that at this period of economic 

Nigeria.” 

Lamenting the plight of South 

Easterners in Nigeria, Metuh 

said, “It is evident that the Igbo 

still suffer stigmatization and 

unfair treatment in the hands of 

unscrupulous operatives in 

security agencies and the 

Nigerian bureaucracy. 

“South East businessmen 

suffer from systemic extortion in 

the hands of corrupt Nigerian 

supervisory officials and such 

build up resentment by the 

people in the South East. 

“They pay to survive out of 

intimidation and harassment 

because they are very much 

aware of their unfair treatment 

by very hostile officials in 

government agencies. 

“Freedom for Nnamdi Kanu 

will go a long way to calm frayed 

nerves and reassure the South 

East that this country has 

accommodation for them. Let 

there be justice, equity, and 

fairness in our country.” 

people who refused financial 

inducement during the election. 

"Even though there is a dearth 

of funds, we are committed to 

building these roads and more." 

With applause from the 

audience which described the 

governor's action as a true 

meaning of the reason for people's 

belief in a free and fair election, 

Soludo said the Awba-Ofemili- 

Amansea road would be 

completed within a record time of 

downturn, the only available 

daily market in the community, 

where the downtrodden go for 

communal trade, in search of their 

daily bread was completely razed 

to the ground, and homes burnt 

by these evil monsters acting on 

behalf of the state government. 

“Indigenes of the community 

were thrown into this unexpected 

horror, and out of fear, they have 

fled from their very own ancestral 

homes. Right now, Orsu- 

Ihiteukwa is a ghost town. 

“We are asking the Governor 

of Imo State – could there be any 

justification, whatsoever, under 

any known law in Nigeria, as well 

as the international 

jurisprudence, that sanctioned 

this oppressive, barbaric, wicked, 

soulless, and evil destruction of 

the lives and properties of his 

people that he swore to protect? 

“Was it an engagement 

strategy, envisaged, permitted, 

and consequently, sanctioned 

within the operational rules of 

engagement of the Nigerian 

security agents? The answer is 

capital no. 

“Furthermore, if the 

overzealous security agents are 

in hot chase of targeted criminal 

elements, can’t they profile and 

define their targets? Can this 

oppressive conduct occur in any 

other region or part of Nigeria? 

“Remember, Governor 

Uzodimma, that power is 

transient, it does not last forever! 

You must not also forget that you 

will give an account of your 

stewardship someday and one 

day, very certainly, before the 

International Criminal Court of 

Justice. 

“These monumental atrocities, 

genocidal killing of innocent lives, 

destruction of properties, and 

16 months. 

Other roads flagged off by the 

governor included the 26.4- 

kilometer Amansea- 

Ndiukwuenu-Awa-Ufuma road 

to be completed in four months, 

the 600-meter stretch Isu/Igbo, 

Isuofia/Igboukwu section of the 

Ekwulobia/Nnobi Road, 

popularly called 'Isu/Igbo river, to 

be completed in four months and 

the 7.79-kilometer Akpaka to 

Basilica road in Onitsha North 

obvious crimes against humanity, 

brazenly perpetrated and 

superintended under Governor 

Uzodimma’s watch with reckless 

abandon/impunity is extremely 

cruel and the shreds of evidence 

abound. 

“Again, we continue to call on 

responsible foreign governments 

and foreign institutions to prevail 

on the Nigerian government, 

under whose domain these 

crimes against humanity are 

being perpetrated on a daily 

basis, to call their lawless security 

agents to order. 

“The actions of the Nigerian 

security agents in conjunction 

with the governor’s Ebubeagu 

security outfit are not only 

barbaric and wicked but 

condemnable. 

“We, therefore, call for the 

immediate arrest and 

prosecution of all those involved 

in these inhumane, wicked, and 

barbaric acts.Enough is enough! 

We urge the Governor of Imo 

State to retrace his steps and 

embrace peace, for the overall 

well-being of his state and 

people." 

10,000 buildings to go for 

Aba Master Plan —Abia Govt 

By Ugochukwu 

Alaribe 

UMUAHIA—ABIA State 

Government has warned 

that 10,000 buildings would be 

demolished to realise the Aba 

Master Plan, which will improve 

the economic and aesthetic 

potentials of the city. 

Vanguard gathered that the 

state government is partnering 

with the United Nations Human 

Settlement Programme, UN- 

Habitat Team, to restart the state 

local government area to be 

completed in May next year. 

According to him, the 

agreement signed between the 

state and all the contractors 

stipulates that the roads would 

be built to have at least a 

minimum of 20 years of life span. 

He also promised that his 

administration would build a 

bridge across to agriculture-rich 

Ayamelum local government area 

through Awba-Ofemil. 

"You are no second-class 

creatures. You are not inferior 

creatures. You are not 

unimportant creatures. You are 

blessed with enough to spare, to 

dethrone all negative socioreligious 

policies that are 

masterminded by the forces of 

hell, to cut you out of leadership 

and prominence." 

Continuing, the Bishop said: 

"You are blessed enough to 

spare, to lift the lives of women, 

who are presently downtrodden. 

You can lift them and change 

their status. 

"You can empower them and 

help them empower their children 

and generations after them. You 

can change the narrative 

concerning women because you 

are confessing with confidence 

that your cup of anointing and 

blessings are overflowing." 

While urging the women, who 

came from all states of the 

federation, "not to waste God's 

endowment" in them, the CCN 

President also said: "Let those of 

us who have allowed society to 

silence us, rise with courage. It is 

not in vain that God has blessed 

us with all that we have and given 

us the opportunity that we have 

today." 

‘Stop using 

IPOB's name to 

cause havoc' 

By Anayo Okoli 

ENUGU—ONE of the 

leaders of the Indigenous 

People of Biafra, IPoB, Tochukwu 

Obi, has warned criminals, who 

masquerade as unknown 

gunmen, to stop impersonating 

and dropping the IPoB name, 

saying that the group is not 

involved in killings anywhere in 

Biafra land. 

Obi also warned Nigerian 

security operatives against 

tagging the criminals they killed 

or arrested as IPoB members, 

insisting that they were not, 

saying they were only trying to 

give IPoB a bad name. 

"IPoB", he said, "is a peaceful 

and non-violent group out to 

liberate the suffering people of 

Biafra land from the clutches of 

people imposed on them by the 

fraudulent amalgamation by the 

British. 

structural plan, which was initiated 

30 years ago by the first military 

administration of Abia State, led by 

Group Captain Frank Ajobena. 

Commissioner for Lands, 

Survey, and Urban Planning, Dr. 

Chidi Onwuchuruba, who 

disclosed this at a three-day 

stakeholders’ meeting with the 

UN-Habitat Team in Aba, noted 

that successive administrations 

in the state had made efforts to 

demolish illegal buildings and 

sanitize the city according to the 

master plan, but couldn’t achieve 

the dream. 

Describing the structural plan 

as a legacy project with multiple 

positive effects, Onwuchuruba 

commended Governor Okezie 

Ikpeazu for restarting the 30- 

year-old dream for the state and 

charged the people to embrace 

the project. 

He warned residents of the 

state against harassing, 

intimidating, and arresting town 

planning officials who visit 

building sites to monitor 

compliance with guidelines.

10—Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 

:Vanguard 

News 


BRIEFING: From left, Mr Adefemi Olaifa, Logistic Chairman; Mrs Abiola Adewusi, Secretary General; Dr 

Adewunmi Adeyemi-Bero, 2nd Vice President; Dr Preye Fiebai, 1st Vice President; and Mrs Rose Ogbeche, 

Assistanat Secretary-General, all of Association of Feritility and Reprodutive Health, AFRH, during a press 

briefing by AFRH on the forthcoming annual international conference, last Thursday at The Metropolitan Club, 

Kofo Abayomi, Victoria Isaland, Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi. 

Pipeline contract: INC brokers 

ceasefire between Tompolo, Dokubo 

By Emma Amaize & 

Henry Umoru 

WARRI — PRESIDENT of Ijaw 

National Congress, INC, has 

hammered out a ceasefire between 

leader of the defunct Movement for 

Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, 

MEND, Government 

Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, and 

another militant leader, Asari 

Dokubo, who kicked against the 

pipeline surveillance contract the 

Federal Government awarded to 

Tompolo. 

This came as Ijaw Patriotic 

League,IPL, has thrown its weight 

behind Federal Government for 

refusing to revoke the oil pipeline 

protection contract awarded to a 

company in which Tompolo has 

interest. 

Dokubo, who heads the Niger 

Delta People’s Salvation Front, 

NDPSF, caused a stir in a series of 

viral video, last week, when he 

lambasted Tompolo over the contract, 

daring him to step his foot on his 

Kalabari territory, Rivers State, with 

a stretch of 83-kilometre pipelines 

and see what would happen to him 

and his boys. 

Speaking to Vanguard on the 

arrangement, INC president, Prof. 

Benjamin Okaba, said: “The relative 

calm, call it ceasefire, is obviously the 

product of our deliberate intervention 

and strategic engagement of not only 

the key actors but also of their media 

managers. 

“It is true that Tompolo, Ateke, 

Dokubo and others made personal 

commitment to the lNC to stop 

further expression of anger, 

disappointment and misgivings, 

believing that the INC will 

objectively address the remote and 

immediate causes of the fracas. 

“They also pledged to caution their 

respective managers, loyalists and 

supporters, especially the media 

teams, against issuance of 

inflammatory statements and videos 

against one another. 

“We are determined to take some 

more audacious steps to put the 

entire crises surrounding the 

Tompolo pipeline surveillance 

contract behind us soonest. 

“Congress is resolute in advising 

the ljaw nation not to allow these 

crumbs and any other form of 

inducement to destabilise us. We 

have greater challenges ahead. We 

do not have to compromise our unity, 

we cannot afford to succumb to 

divisive tendencies and antics 

orchestrated from within and 

elsewhere by those who enjoy 

holding us to perpetual captivity. 

“Congress considers the 

prevailing circumstances as a litmus 

test of our capabilities to manage 

complex tempestuous situations as 

•Agitated oil thieves, collaborators fuelling media 

attack on Tompolo —Ijaw Group 

this. lt is a test of the leadership’s 

ability to handle and transform difficult 

impossibilities into successes and 

glorious testimonies,” he said. 

Agitated oil thieves, 

collaborators fuelling 

media attack on 

Tompolo—Ijaw Group 

National Coordinator of IPL, 

Jasper Eritei, noted that the decision 

of the Federal Government to 

engage Tompolo to assist in securing 

the nation’s outrageously violated 

pipelines was a well thought out 

decision and also in the public good. 

He said: “We have watched with 

surprise and indeed consternation 

the attacks, deliberately put together 

to blackmail the Federal 

Government to cancel the pipeline 

surveillance and protection contract 

awarded to a firm in which Tompolo 

has interest. 

“We believe that the Federal 

Government and indeed the 

NNPCL have acted positively to 

promote the common good by 

embarking on this deliberate master 

stroke of a step to counter the 

mindboggling theft of the nation’s 

disappearing resources. 

“Logically, those feeding fat on 

odious money from stolen crude 

resources will not welcome the 

government’s action without a fight. 

It is expected that they will commit 

huge resources to sabotage it. 

“It is on this basis that we call on 

the Federal Government and the 

NNPCL to be resolute and dismiss 

this call for cancellation of the 

contract awarded to Tompolo. 

“We call on Tompolo to carry out 

his promise to reach out to various 

interest groups in the Niger Delta in 

the interest of a conducive 

atmosphere for the company’s critical 

operations.” 

N’Delta stakeholders to Buhari, NSA: Allow your 

successor determine life-span of PAP 

TRADITIONAL 

rulers, 

stakeholders and ex-militant 

leaders from Niger Delta have called 

on President Muhammadu Buhari 

and National Security Adviser, 

Major-General Babagana 

Monguno (retd) to allow the 

incoming administration to 

determine the life-span of the 

Presidential Amnesty Programme, 

PAP. 

The traditional rulers, 

stakeholders and ex-militant leaders 

also urged the president and NSA 

to allow the newly appointed Interim 

Administrator, Major-General Barry 

Ndiomu (retd) to use the remaining 

eight months of his administration 

to review the PAP and make 

recommendations to the incoming 

administration by May 29, 2023. 

The stakeholders said the 

Presidency has reportedly handed 

the new administrator, Ndiomu, a 

six-month's timeline to shut down 

PAP by February 2023. 

The convener of the stakeholders 

and former militant leaders, Chief 

Pere Agbeinfa, said: “Though the 

region had sustained the peace for 

many years, and allowed the freeflow 

of oil and gas production and 

sales in our national interest, despite 

the displeasing policies of the current 

administration, the final straw that 

may break the camel’s back, and 

possibly disrupt the peace across the 

region might be the abrupt closure 

of the PAP that provides for over 

30,000 ex-militants and their 

families. 

“While at the same time, the 

presidency is utilising billions of naira 

that have been exploited from the 

Niger Delta for the training and 

rehabilitation of their so-called 

repentant Boko-Haram terrorists, 

and Islamic States of West Africa 

Province, ISWAP, terrorists that have 

killed and maimed thousands of 

innocent Nigerians with millions of 

Nigerians displaced by the actions 

of these terrorists.” 

He noted that the closure of the 

Amnesty Office may lead to an 

unimaginable crisis in the region that 

may lead to the disruption of the 

coming 2023 general elections and 

thwart the renewed campaign 

against crude oil theft from the Niger 

Delta region. 

Agbeinfa, however, congratulated 

the newly appointed Interim 

Administrator, Ndiomu, describing 

him as a man with known capacity 

engulfed in a drive to contribute to 

the development of the region. 

He urged the new administrator 

to sustain the tempo and improve 

on building the bridge between the 

President Buhari led administration 

and the people of Niger Delta. 

Land dispute: Aladja, Ogbe-Ijaw sign peace 

accord 

By Ochuko Akuopha 

U GHELLI—WARRING 

Aladja and Ogbe-Ijaw 

communities, Udu and Warri 

South-West Local Government 

Areas of Delta State, have signed 

a peace accord, following the 

renewed hostilities over their 

protracted land dispute. 

Police Public Relations Officer 

of the state Police Command, Mr. 

Bright Edafe, who disclosed this 

in a statement, said the 

communities agreed to toe the 

part of peace at a conflict 

resolution meeting. 

The statement read: “On 17/9/ 

2022, the Commissioner of 

Police Delta State, Ari Ali, had a 

conflict resolution meeting with 

the leaders of Aladja and Ogbe- 

Ijoh communities. 

“The meeting was held at the 

Government House, Annex in 

Warri and was anchored by the 

Special Adviser to the Governor 

on Peace Building and Conflict 

Resolution, Chief Edwin Uzor. 

Also in attendance were 

Chairman Warri South West 

LGA, Taiye Tuoyo and the Vice 

Council Chairman, Udu LGA, 

Eloho Awinoron. 

“During the meeting, both 

communities expressed their 

displeasure over the ongoing land 

demarcation crisis that had led to 

the death of one Frank Amakiri, 36 

years old, and one other. 

“Though none of the communities 

took responsibility for the incident, 

they both admitted that peace was 

critical for both communities to 

progress and they don’t want to leave 

the crisis for their children to inherit. 

“The Special Adviser to the 

Governor on Peace Building and 

Conflict Resolution noted that the 

state government will compensate 

those who have lost some part of 

their property as a result of the 

ongoing boundary demarcation 

before commencement of the next 

phase of the demarcation. 

“The Commissioner of Police noted 

that any further escalation of the 

crisis between both communities will 

not be treated with levity and 

whoever is found wanting will be 

duly prosecuted. 

Lawyer drags Reno Omokiri 

before EFCC, ICPC over alleged 

criminal representation 

By Davies 

Iheamnachor 

PORT HARCOURT— A Port 

Harcourt-based lawyer, 

Azubuike Ihemeje, has petitioned a 

former aide to ex-President Goodluck 

Jonathan, Mr. Reno Omokri, to the 

Economic and Financial Crimes 

Commission, EFCC, and 

Independent Corrupt Practices 

Commission, ICPC, over alleged 

criminal representation. 

Ihemeje in the petitions sent to 

office of the two anti-corruption 

bodies in Port Harcourt, weekend, 

claimed that Omokiri received 

salaries above his employment 

status and thereby, obtained salaries 

by pretence. 

Ihemeje filed the petitions following 

discrepancies in Omokri’s 

appointment letter and pay slip 

which he (Omokiri) posted on his 

social media handles. 

It will be recalled that a Port 

Harcourt-based social media 

influencer and media consultant, 

Oraye St. Franklyn, had claimed 

that Omokri was not a direct aide to 

President Jonathan, rather a 

personal staff of late Oronto Douglas, 

who was an aide to President 

Jonathan. 

Franklyn had challenged Omokri 

to publish his letter of appointment if 

President Jonathan truly appointed 

him and, to that effect, adding that 

the unwholesome grandstanding 

and misrepresentation by Omokri 

need to stop as they amount to fraud. 

But, taking up the challenge, 

Omokri had reportedly posted a 

redacted appointment letter entitled 

“Appointment as Special Assistant 

to the President” with a Federal 

Government employee payment slip 

that designated his position as Senior 

Special Assistant to the President. 

However, Ihemeje, in the petitions, 

said that Omokri, by his admission, 

was obtaining and receiving salaries 

from the coffers of the FG as Senior 

Special Assistant, whereas in 

contrast from his disclosed letter of 

appointment bears Special Assistant, 

thereby, showing a clear case of 

obtaining excess salaries by false 

pretence. 

2023: PDP spokesman knocks 

Gbagi, says SDP is unknown in 

Delta 

By Festus Ahon 

Aspokesman SABA—PRESIDENTIAL 

of Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, Mr. 

Charles Aniagwu, weekend, said 

some of the children of the Social 

Democratic Party, SDP, 

governorship candidate in Delta 

State for the 2023 general 

election, Chief Kenneth Gbagi 

may not vote for him at the poll. 

Aniagwu, who briefed 

newsmen in Asaba, said: “Gbagi 

has continued to dish out lies 

upon lies. You know that he 

contested primaries on the 

platform of the PDP and because 

of his very unpopular stand, he 

could not secure up to two votes 

in the primary of that election. 

“We also want to use this 

medium to address certain issues. 

We believe that the PDP winning 

machine in the state is not 

weakened and we have what it 

takes to speak to Nigerians and 

win their support by, of course, 

showcasing the many laudable 

achievements of the Okowa’s 

administration which are very 

visible. 

“So, on account of that, the 

candidates of the PDP in all the 25 

local government areas, be they 

those seeking to come to the House 

of Assembly or those who want to 

move to the National Assembly or 

even the governorship candidate, 

we are convinced that the PDP is 

going to re-enact what it has done 

in the last 23 years in the state and 

we are going to show that Delta State 

is PDP and PDP is Delta State. 

“Perhaps, they could have some 

members in other parts, maybe in 

South-West, but in Delta, there is 

none. Just because he wants to be 

called a governorship candidate, he 

decided to run to a party that does 

not have an office in Delta. I don’t 

know if they have a chairman. 

“I know he is a smart man, he will 

not spend his money for any 

campaign, because he knows that 

he will not win. He only just wants 

to waste INEC ballot paper, he knows 

he will not score up to 20 votes in the 

entire Delta. I’m very convinced that 

some of his children may not vote for 

him. 

“Instead of him to proceed to reel 

out the things he intends to do, he is 

busy misinforming Nigerians. He 

claims the administration has not 

been able to execute any project. 

He claims that he is going to bring a 

whole lot of industries, and all of you 

know that the hotel he owns, 

Signature Suites, the one at PTI 

junction, has been overtaken by 

weeds. 

Obaseki hails Igbinedion’s 

contributions to Edo’s devt 

BENIN CITY—Governor Godwin 

Obaseki of Edo State has praised 

the Esama of Benin Kingdom, Chief 

Gabriel Igbinedion, for his 

contributions to the development of 

the state. 

Obaseki gave the commendation 

during the dedication/handing over 

ceremony of the new Catholic 

Church at Okada, built by Chief 

Igbinedion for the Archdiocese of 

Benin. 

The church was blessed by Most 

Rev. Dr. Augustine Akubeze and 

named Archangel Gabriel Catholic 

Church, Okada, after the Esama of 

Benin. 

Other dignitaries present at the 

event were former President 

Olusegun Obasanjo; former 

governor Lucky Igbinedion of the 

state; the Esogban of Benin 

Kingdom, Chief Edibiri and the Iyase 

of Benin Kingdom, Chief Sam Igbe. 

Also present were the Edo State 

Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, his 

wife, Maryann; Chief Judge of Edo 

State, Justice Joe Acha and senior 

palace chiefs representing the Oba 

of Benin Kingdom, amongst others. 

The governor, who commended 

the philanthropic nature of Chief 

Igbinedion, said his government 

would ensure the completion of the 

Okada Road dualisation project. 

He said: “We all know that the 

role of government is to enable allround 

development of the society 

and when you find a person like Chief 

Igbinedion, who in the last 40 years, 

decided to bring development into 

this axis of the state, I believe that 

the government has a responsibility 

to support and enable what he is 

doing in Okada. 

“As part of what we are doing as a 

government, we are putting together 

a 30-year development plan for Edo 

State, so that future governments 

that come will not say they don’t 

know what to do."

VANGUARD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 — 11 

:Vanguard 

News 


VISIT —From left: PS, Lagos State Health Service Commission, Dr. Muyiwa Eniayewu; Commissioner, 

Ministry of Health, Lagos State, Prof. Akin Abayomi; Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, 

Lagos Zone, Dr. Benjamin Olowojebutu; 2nd Vice President, NMA, National, Dr. Adetunji Adenekan; 

President, Medical Women's Association of Nigeria, Lagos branch, Dr. Ibironke Sodeinde, during a 

courtesy visit to the commissioner, by the newly elected executives of NMA, Lagos State Zone, led by 

the Chairman, Dr. Benjamin Olowojebutu, in Lagos, yesterday. 

Defend, protect Benue from external 

aggressors, Ortom urges guards 

By Peter Duru 

M 

A K U R D I — 

GOVERNOR Samuel 

Ortom of Benue State has urged 

the second batch of trainees of 

the state Community Volunteer 

Guards, BCVG, to be prepared 

to defend and protect 

communities of the state from 

external aggressors. 

This came as the governor 

explained that his criticism of the 

federal government was to make 

the government work better for 

the people and not to vilify the 

office of the President as being 

wrongly perceived in some 

quarters. 

The Governor gave the charge 

yesterday when he visited the 

training camp of the BCVG at the 

military shooting range, near 

Ikpayongo, Gwer East Local 

Government Area of the state. 

Governor Ortom who was 

accompanied by the lawmaker 

representing Benue North-East 

Senatorial District, Senator 

Gabriel Suswam and other top 

government officials also 

....Gives reason for criticising FG 

participated in the shooting 

training. 

The Governor commended the 

trainees for exhibiting high level 

of enthusiasm and commitment 

which he noted showed their 

readiness to defend and protect 

Benue communities against 

invasion. 

He warned the trainees 

against using "the training you 

have acquired and the legal 

weapons that would be provided 

after your inauguration to 

engage in criminal acts because 

anyone who does so would be 

prosecuted." 

The Governor told the trainees 

that their recruitment, training 

and eventual inauguration were 

properly backed by the law that 

was enacted by previous 

administrations, stating that "the 

Benue State Government under 

my leadership, only amended the 

law to make it more effective in 

line with present challenges." 

Governor Ortom further stated 

that due to the rising insecurity 

in the country, the 19 Northern 

Governors recently met and 

resolved to strongly advocate for 

the establishment of State Police, 

saying "once it is approved you 

will be the first to be recruited in 

Benue State." 

Senator Suswam on his part, 

enjoined the trainees to abide by 

their rules of engagement, saying 

their good conduct was important 

to convince the people that had 

misgivings about the 

establishment of the security 

outfit. 

He also lauded Governor 

Ortom for taking the bull by the 

horn in setting up a security outfit 

to complement the efforts of 

conventional security agencies to 

protect the lives and property of 

Benue people. 

Earlier, Special Adviser to the 

Governor on Security Matters, 

Lt. Col. Paul Hemba (retd) said 

the trainees had already 

undergone three weeks of 

rigorous training with the 

shooting experience being the 

Tinubu appoints Gov Bello as 

youth coordinator for campaign 

council 

By Gabriel Ewepu 

GOVERNOR 

Yahaya 

Bello of Kogi State has been 

appointed as the National Youth 

Coordinator of the Tinubu- 

Shettima Presidential Campaign 

Council. 

This came as farmers under the 

auspices of Asiwaju/Shettima 

Farmers' Group, commenced 

mobilisation of farmers and votes 

in all 774 local government areas 

and the 36 states including the 

Federal Capital Territory, FCT, for 

the presidential standard bearer 

of the All Progressives Congress, 

APC, Senator Ahmed Bola 

Tinubu and his running mate, 

Senator KashimShettima. 

Governor Bello’s appointment 

was conveyed in a letter 

addressed to him signed by the 

Presidential Candidate of the All 

Progressives Congress, Asiwaju 

Bola Tinubu. 

Tinubu, in the letter, dated 

August 8, 2022, stressed that 

Bello, who was an aspirant in the 

party's presidential primaries, 

held in June 2022, deserved the 

appointment, owing to his 

impressive political achievements 

and the exemplary leadership he 

had demonstrated as governor of 

his state and as a party member. 

The former governor of Lagos 

State added that he was 

confident that the Kogi State 

Governor would do his best in 

the new responsibility given him 

so that the party could run an 

effective, message-driven 

campaign, which would lead to 

victory in the 2023 Presidential 

election. 

It will be recalled that youths 

and women across the six geopolitical 

zones of Nigeria, had, 

during the build-up to the APC 

presidential primary election, 

demonstrated their strong support 

for the Kogi State Governor, 

owing to his youth- and womenfriendly 

policies 

Party members and analysts 

have described this appointment 

as a big boost for the campaign, 

considering the important place 

of youths in the 2023 elections 

and the impressive youthtargeted 

campaigns Bello 

conducted before the primary 

election. 

The letter, titled: 'Appointment 

as National Youth Coordinator 

for Tinubu/Shettima Presidential 

Campaign Council', read in part: 

"By way of this letter, we are 

pleased to formally convey your 

appointment as National Youth 

Coordinator of the Tinubu/ 

Shettima Presidential Campaign 

Council.“"This appointment is 

fitting and appropriate, given your 

impressive political achievements 

and the exemplary leadership 

you have demonstrated as 

governor of your state and as a 

party member.“ 

last, saying the visit of the 

Governor had boosted their 

morale. 

Why I criticise the FG 

Meanwhile, given reasons for 

criticizing the federal 

government, during a 

Thanksgiving Mass in honour of 

the Tor Sankera, HRH, Chief 

Abu King Shuluwa at the 

Catholic Youth Centre Church 

Makurdi, Governor Ortom, urged 

Christians especially those in 

Benue State not to relent in 

praying for their leaders at all 

levels for God's grace to lead in 

the right direction. 

He said "most of the policies of 

the Federal Government which 

I kick against are clearly antipeople, 

especially those that 

effect our people. And my 

criticisms are meant to make the 

government live up to its 

responsibilities to the people and 

not intended to vilify the 

President as being perceived by 

some persons." 

The Governor maintained that 

although he had the privilege to 

contribute financially to the 

medical trip of Tor Sankera 

abroad, his healing was mainly a 

result of the prayers of the people, 

which brought God's 

intervention. 

Also speaking, the lawmaker 

representing Benue North East 

District, Senator Suswam 

expressed gratitude to God for 

healing the royal father, saying 

as a father and traditional leader, 

the First Class Chief needed to 

be healthy to continue rendering 

service to his subjects. 

The celebrant and Tor Sankera, 

Chief Shuluwa who was 

overwhelmed with joy attributed 

his healing to people's prayers 

while his wife, Elizabeth 

Shuluwa thanked Governor 

Ortom for his huge financial 

support to the treatment of the 

royal father both at home and 

abroad. 

In a homily at the Mass, the 

Parish Priest, Rev Fr. Shima 

Ukpanya emphasised the need 

for believers to sustain prayers 

for God to make leaders lead in a 

way that would foster peace, 

progress and development. 

UNICEF, FCDO return Im out-of-school 

children in Kano to school 

By Bashir Bello 

KANO — No fewer than 

one million out of school 

children have been returned to 

school in Kano State under the 

Girls' Education Project, GEP 3 

intervention implemented by the 

United Nations Children Fund, 

UNICEF with funding from 

Foreign, Commonwealth and 

Development Office, FCDO. 

Deputy Director, Junior 

Secondary Schools, Kano State 

Universal Basic Education Board, 

SUBEB, Hajia Hauwa Tanimu, 

disclosed this weekend during a 

meeting organized by UNICEF 

in collaboration with SUBEB for 

stakeholders comprising School 

Based Management Committee, 

SBMC, High Level Women 

Advocate, HILWA, mothers 

association among others on 

sustainability plan of the project 

as GEP 3 phasing out by 

September ending. 

Hajia Tanimu said the children 

were returned to school from 

By Demola 

Akinyemi 

ILORIN—The 

Kwara 

State Gubernatorial 

candidate of the Social 

Democratic Party, SDP, Hakeem 

Oladimeji Lawal, has challenged 

Kwara youths to be prepared to 

take over governance at all levels 

and not shy away from active 

politics as the 2023 general 

elections draw closer. 

The first son of late Governor 

Mohammed Lawal, spoke 

weekend at a meeting with the 

State and Senatorial executives 

of Youth and Student Coalition 

for Hakeem Lawal, YOSCOHOL, 

the six Local Government Areas, 

LGAs of Nasarawa, Sumaila, 

Dambatta, Ungogo, Kano 

Municipal and Gwale of Kano 

State where the project was 

piloted. 

According to her, the GEP 3 

project had succeeded in 

changing narratives around out 

of school children menace hence 

the need for sustainability 

mechanisms in place to sustain 

the interventions by the 

benefitting communities. 

She said "UNICEF under the 

GEP 3 has carried out series of 

interventions which include the 

enrolment drive. With this 

intervention, about one million 

adolescent children have been 

enrolled back to school (Primary 

and Integrated Quranic School/ 

Tsangaya). 

"Other interventions include 

enrolment drive, cash transfer 

program to return girl child back 

to school, school grants, training 

of the teachers and other 

supports to SBMC and others. 

2023: SDP guber candidate 

urges youths to takeover 

governance 

AFRH gives hope to couples 

with fertility challenges 

By Japhet Davidson 

THE Association of Fertility 

and Reproductive Health 

(AFRH) has assured couples with 

fertility challenges of its readiness 

to provide the needed services to 

end their fertility problems. 

The body stated this during a 

press conference to herald their 

12th Annual International 

Conference slated for Lagos . 

The conference with the 

theme: Maximising ART 

Successes and the Sub-theme: 

Individualized Controlled 

Ovarian Stimulation which is 

slated for September 22nd and 

23rd at Marriot Hotel, Ikeja will 

address topical issues relating to 

fertility, factors responsible for the 

highest level of infertility, 

understanding how to improve 

of their services, how to reduce 

the cost of treatment, how to 

handle ultrasound services etc. 

Speaking at the event, Dr 

Adewinmi Adeyemi- Bero, the 

2nd Vice Chairman and local 

organising committee chairman 

stated that “Infertility has 

continued to cause a lot of 

anguish for couples over the years 

and the trend appears to be 

worsening. A lot of research is 

being done to provide solutions 

for people experiencing this 

emotionally and financially 

draining condition. The 

association is therefore geared 

towards the promotion of quality 

education and other areas of 

need for service provision in 

reproductive health, with 

emphasis on fertility services.” 

Also speaking, Dr Preye Fiebai, 

First vice chair, stated that fertility 

care is very expensive all over 

the world, hence, AFRH is 

focused on promoting affordability 

without compromising success 

rates. 

This according to him is reflected 

in the theme of this year’s annual 

conference.The hybrid meeting 

will feature a series of educative 

and interactive lectures by very 

experienced internatrional and 

local speakers. 

Okowa to open DELCOM 2022 

Workshop 

GOVERNOR of Delta 

State and PDP Vice 

Presidential Candidate, Dr. 

Ifeanyi Okowa, will, tomorrow, 

declare open the 4th Edition of 

Delta State Communication 

Capacity Building Workshop, 

Delta State Communication 

Workshop, DELCOM 2022, with 

in Ilorin. 

The governorship hopeful 

while commending the 

leadership of the group, for their 

intellectual contribution to the 

liberation said," We all were part 

of the Otoge struggle because we 

were convinced that Kwara 

deserves better than it was 

getting, we did all we did not 

because of personal pecuniary 

benefits or hatred for personality. 

“Now, we have achieved 

Otoge, but yet to deliver a Kwara 

of our dreams. That is the reason 

why we are not resting on our 

oars not minding the fact that we 

have made relative movements 

away from the past, yet we are 

nothing near where we desire 

and deserve. 

the theme: 'Crisis 

Communication Strategies and 

Management in Political Power 

Transition'. 

The event will take place at the 

Orchid Hotel, DBS Road in 

Asaba, at 10am. 

This was announced by Fred 

Oghenesivbe, Executive 

Assistant (Communications) to 

Governor Okowa.


1ST YEAR REMEMBRANCE AND THANKSGIVING SERVICE FOR LATE 

PRINCE ADEDIJI ADEDOYIN, IN SAGAMU, OGUN STATE, YESTERDAY 

•Princess Adeyinka Dixon (left), with Dr. Koya Adeleke Adedoyin, during 

the remembrance and thanksgiving service, at the Methodist Cathedral 

Church, Agbowa, Sagamu, Ogun State. Photos: Joe Akintola, Photo editor. 

•From Left: Mrs. Olayinka Akinlabi, Princess Adeyinka Adedoyin- 

Odeyemi, daughter of the deceased, and Princess Bolajoko Adedoyin, 

widow, during the occasion 

•Mr. Adediji Ogunfuwa (left) and Yomi Dawodu, 

at the thanksgiving 

•From left: Tosin Aribisala; Raphael Aribisala; 

his wife, Adenike, at the remembrance service. 

•A cross Section of the clergymen, during the 

event.


14 — Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 

By Jide Ajani 

HIS 

Excellency, 

Atiku Abubakar, 

Vice President of 

Nigeria (1999-2007) and 

Presidential flag bearer of 

the Peoples Democratic 

Party, PDP, last Tuesday, 

September 13, 2022, 

presented his economic 

blueprint to the Lagos 

Chamber of Commerce and 

Industry, LCCI. His, is the 

first in the series. The 

Labour Party, LP, 

presidential candidate is 

billed for tomorrow, 

Tuesday, The All 

Progressives Congress, 

APC, presidential candidate, 

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has 

pushed his presentation to a 

later date. In this 

interaction, Atiku Abubakar 

presents his idea of how best 

Nigeria can be rescued from 

the jaws of backwardness. 

Excerpts: 

Why it is important to 

engage 

First, in times of uncertainty 

such as we are experiencing 

today, it is the hallmark of 

leadership for business and 

political actors to pause, 

anticipate, before taking the 

next steps. Our actions today 

will have consequences on 

our tomorrow and the day 

after. 

Second, Nigeria is in 

transition as the APC 

government leaves the stage 

and the PDP takes over - with 

your support and goodwill - 

come May 2023. It is your 

duty, therefore, to take stock 

of the assets (if there are any) 

and liabilities (which will be 

huge!!!) of the APC 

administration. It is also 

your responsibility to 

interrogate those who aspire 

to govern the country. You 

must assess their 

understanding of the 

environment, their policy 

priorities, and their strategies 

for dealing with a plethora of 

local and national issues from 

the mundane to the most 

complex. You should never 

allow political slogans to take 

the place of development 

plans. Political propaganda 

on Facebook, Tweeter and 

Instagram is never a 

substitute for proper socioeconomic 

and political 

agenda. 

Thirdly and finally, the 

private sector is key to any 

government’s development 

agenda and must be always 

listened to. For those who do 

not realise the criticality of the 

private sector in Nigeria’s 

development, the following 

will whet your appetite. 

(1)According to National 

Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 

data, the public sector 

accounts for only 7.5 percent 

and the private sector, 78.9 

percent of national 

consumption expenditure. 

(2) Similarly with investment 

expenditure, a major source 

of economic growth. 

Government investment only 

around to a quarter of that of 

the private sector. Indeed, 85 

per cent of the investments in 

the Medium-Term National 

Development Plan 2021-2025 

are envisaged to be private 

sector funded. (3) According 

How Nigeria Dresses 

in Borrowed Robes, 

by Atiku Abubakar 

•Promises to return Nigeria to the path of prosperity 

to the Nigeria Infrastructure 

Master Plan, Nigeria has an 

infrastructure financing 

deficit of approximately US$3 

trillion over the next 30 years. 

This means a financing 

requirement 

of 

approximately US$100 billion 

per annum which cannot be 

met by the public sector. 

Nigeria’s annual budget is 

only USD30 billion. 

For these and many other 

reasons, a warm handshake 

with the private sector is 

inevitable for any economic 

policy or programme to 

succeed. Indeed, private 

sector leadership in driving 

growth is the first of the three 

key principles of my 

economic growth and 

development agenda, as 

encapsulated in My 

Covenant with Nigerians. 

What is your economic 

policy that can lift Nigeria up 

from the abyss? 

Economic prosperity is an 

integral part of my 5-point 

agenda, soon to be officially 

unveiled, that seeks to restore 

Nigeria’s UNITY, strengthen 

NATIONAL SECURITY, 

foster ECONOMIC 

PROSPERITY, improve 

EDUCATION DELIVERY 

AND RE-STRUCTURE the 

polity. Indeed, economic 

prosperity is the thread that 

runs through the other 

critical elements of the 

agenda. 

So, where is the Nigerian 

economy today? 

I will focus on five key 

deficiencies of the economy 

which all turn out to be selfinflicted. 

Nigeria’s GDP grew at an 

average rate of less than 1per 

cent since the APC assumed 

power in 2015. Compare this 

with an average growth of 6.5 

per cent in the seven years 

earlier. Per capita income, a 

measure of citizens’ wellbeing, 

has progressively fallen 

since 2015 because of 

declining output and a fastgrowing 

population. 

Nigerians are worse-off today 

than they were in 2015. The 

current rate of growth of about 

3.5 per cent masks the real 

challenges facing the 

economy. The economy 

remains very fragile as the key 

sectors are either growing 

slowly (as with agriculture) or 

contracting (as with oil and 

gas). The oil and gas sector, 

which is the economy’s 

lifeline, has suffered decline in 

19 out of 30 quarters since 

2014. 

For many economic sectors 

and for the ordinary citizens it 

still feels as if we are in a 

recession. More than 23 

million people are out of jobs. 

In just 5 years between 2015 

and 2020, the number of fully 

employed people dropped by 

54per cent, from 68 million to 

31 million people. The number 

of unemployed people is more 

than the population of Lagos 

state or the inhabitants of the 

Federal Capital Territory 

(FCT), Abia, Bayelsa, Cross 

River, Ebonyi, Kwara and 

Nasarawa states combined! 

What is even more 

worrisome is that the majority 

of the unemployed are young 

men and women, who lack not 

only the means to survive but 

any hope for the future. The 

number of unemployed youths 

increased by 9 million from 4 

million in 2015 to 13 million in 

2020. 

High youth unemployment 

For the first time in 

Nigeria’s history, 

the FGN paid more 

in debt service than 

it earned! By 

spending more than 

100per cent of its 

revenue for debt 

service, Nigeria is 

breaching one of the 

applicable debtsustainability 

threshold 

and limited employment 

opportunities pose serious 

economic and security 

challenges. Ensuring there 

are enough jobs for Nigeria’s 

youth is therefore already an 

urgent concern. 

Are more Nigerians poorer 

and more miserable today or 

rischer than in 2015? 

Job losses, declining 

purchasing power of per 

capita income and lack of 

citizens’ access to basic 

amenities have pushed more 

than 90 million people below 

the poverty line and created 

more misery for the poor in 

towns and villages. This year, 

around 12 percent of the 

world population in extreme 

poverty, with the poverty 

threshold at 1.90 U.S. dollars 

a day, live in Nigeria. Basic 

commodities are now beyond 

the reach of the average 

Nigerian. A loaf of bread costs 

100per cent more today than 

it did in 2020. Farmers now 

pay more than 200per cent for 

a bag of fertilizer -if they see 

it-than they did in 2020. 

What is the meaning of 

Nigeria is being dressed in 

borrowed robes! 

Nigeria under the APC-led 

government has consistently 

run-on budget deficits since 

it came to power in 2015. 

These budget deficits are 

often above the 3per cent 

threshold permissible under 

the Fiscal Responsibility Law. 

Ironically, this has increased 

the government’s appetite for 

more debts- now more than 

N50 trillion (if you add 

AMCON debts and Ways and 

Means). For the first time in 

Nigeria’s history, the FGN 

paid more in debt service 

than it earned! By spending 

more than 100per cent of its 

revenue for debt service, 

Nigeria is breaching one of 

the applicable debtsustainability 

thresholds. The 

APC-led government is 

dressing Nigeria in borrowed 

robes! This action puts a big 

question mark on the capacity 

of the government to manage 

its rising debt profile without 

endangering macroeconomic 

stability. Indeed, we are 

concerned that this action is 

already exposing Nigeria to 

financial stability issues as we 

slip from a medium risk of debt 

distress to high risk of debt 

distress. 

Capital flight 

Policy incoherence and flipflops 

combined with internal 

insecurity continue to pose a 

significant risk to investment 

and thus output growth. They 

leave potential investors 

confused and weary of the 

Nigerian economy. Foreign 

Direct Investment (FDI) has 

progressively declined since 

2019. It fell sharply from 

US$8.5 billion in Q1 2019 to 

US$5.8 billion in Q1 2020 and 

US$1.9 billion in Q1 2021. 

We have lost our esteemed 

position as Africa’s preferred 

investment destination to less 

endowed nations! 

Why have these economic 

challenges persisted and 

progressively worsened? 

It has become fashionable 

for the APC-led government 

to blame the opposition and 

external factors for Nigeria’s 

economic woes. The evidence, 

however, is overwhelming 

that the country’s underperformance 

is largely 

attributable to leadership 

failures in the management of 

the state. The failure of 

leadership by the APC-led 

government is staring every 

Nigerian in the face as the 

country’s economic, social, 

political and security 

challenges persist and 

assume frightening 

dimensions. 

An unprepared leadership 

fails to anticipate impending 

crises and is always slow to 

react. The first policy 

document designed by this 

government – the Economic 

Recovery and Growth Plan 

(ERGP) in 2017- was a 

reaction to the economic crises 

of 2016. Similarly, the 

Economic Sustainability Plan 

(ESP) was a reaction to the 

COVID19-induced economic 

crises. Even these reactions 

were slow to come and 

economic recovery has 

perhaps been premised more 

on luck, rather than planned 

economic reforms. 

Your vision to get the 

economy on its feet and 

create prosperity? 

The economic growth and 

development agenda: Our 

economic growth and 

development agenda seeks 

primarily to stimulate the 

growth of the economy. It 

envisions an economy that is 

modern, dynamic, and 

competitive, capable of taking 

its rightful place among the 

top 20 economies of the world. 

Nigeria has the potential to 

double its GDP by 2030 and 

achieve a per capita income 

of approximately US$5,000. 

We anticipate growth from our 

policies that seek to revitalize 

Continues on page 15

Continues from page 14 

the real sectors including 

agriculture, manufacturing 

and MSMEs. Re-building 

infrastructure and reducing 

infrastructure deficit will 

enhance the carrying capacity 

of the economy and unleash 

growth and wealth creation. 

We will elevate production for 

export to a top policy priority 

and long-term investment 

priority and promote export of 

manufactured goods 

How would you deliver on 

these lofty goals? 

Here are just a few examples 

of the sort of strategic steps 

we plan to take should I be so 

fortunate to be chosen by the 

Nigerian people to lead them: 

We cannot overcome our 

economic challenges without 

significant reforms to 

restructure the economy and 

to support the private sector 

to unleash its growth 

potential and play a key role 

in the economy. A strong, 

productive, and pro-growth 

private sector is needed to 

create wealth, generate 

employment opportunities, 

and help fight poverty. 

Nigerian businesses are 

significantly impacted by 

business environment 

constraints and cannot 

therefore realise their full 

potential. This government 

has failed to demonstrate a 

strong commitment to private 

sector development: for 

example, the several pledges 

it made to reduce its 

pervasive influence on the 

economy and promote private 

sector-led development 

remain unfulfilled. 

Our administration will be 

different. We will support the 

private sector to drive growth. 

We will establish strong 

partnerships in investing in 

infrastructure, in creating jobs 

and income and in the fight 

against poverty. We will 

listen to the private sector 

more. Understanding the 

private sector and securing 

their buy-in when policies are 

designed will determine the 

success of our economic 

growth and development 

agenda. Through regular 

dialogue with the private 

sector, we will build 

consensus, improve trust 

between us and make new 

reform initiatives easier to 

implement and sustain. 

Investor confidence in the 

Nigerian economy 

There will be more clarity, 

coherence, and consistency 

(the 3Cs) in policy. Nothing 

could be more threatening to 

investment flows than an 

environment that is full of 

policy flip-flops. Our 

monetary and fiscal 

authorities will be better 

coordinated and shall ensure 

a stable macro-economic 

environment with low 

inflation, stable exchange rate 

and interest rates that will be 

supportive of businesses’ 

quest for credit. (Read my 

lips: a stable exchange rate, 

not one Naira to one US$ 

exchange rate!!!). We will 

allow CBN the independence 

to pursue its mandate but 

ensure that such policies are 

not detrimental to Nigeria’s 

An 

unprepared 

leadership 

fails to 

anticipate 

impending 

crises and 

is always 

slow to 

react. 

quest for FDI and to Nigeria’s 

long-term growth. For 

example, we will push for a 

foreign exchange policy that 

encourages capital inflows 

and makes capital outflows 

less attractive to the investors. 

We will take tough and 

difficult decisions on security 

matters without fear or favour. 

Investment is a cowardly 

animal and is fearful of 

conflicts and insecurity. 

Infrastructure financing 

The government is currently 

driving key infrastructural 

programmes with very limited 

private sector participation. In 

the face of dwindling public 

revenues and given the 

quantum of resources 

required to bridge the 

financing deficit, this is 

neither feasible nor 

sustainable. We shall 

incentivize, with regulation 

and tax incentives, a 

consortium of private sector 

institutions to establish an 

Infrastructure Debt Fund 

[IDF] with an initial carrying 

capacity of US$20 billion. This 

will be for the financing and 

delivery of large 

infrastructure projects across 

all sectors of the economy. We 

will establish an 

“Infrastructure Development 

Unit” [IDU] in the Presidency, 

with a coordinating function 

and a specific mandate of 

working with the MDAs to 

fast track and drive the 

process of infrastructure 

development in the country. 

Power situation 

Our administration will 

consider declaring a state of 

How Nigeria dresses in borrowed 

robes, by Atiku Abubakar 

emergency in the Power 

Sector to underscore our 

concerns about the state of 

affairs in the sector. As a 

short-term measure to ensure 

enhanced supply within the 

first year of the new 

administration, I shall initiate 

and implement an emergency 

power programme (EPP) that 

can deliver additional 

capacity in certain key areas. 

Over the medium term, I will 

then go on to propose 

legislation for the removal of 

the entire electricity value 

chain from the exclusive list 

and give states the power to 

generate, transmit and 

distribute electricity for 

themselves. One lesson we 

have learnt recently is that an 

industrial dispute with the FG 

in Abuja should not affect an 

industry in Lagos or a factory 

in Aba or in Kano or even an 

average Nigerian who just 

wants to get home, watch the 

news and sleep under a 

ceiling fan. Secondly, my 

policy shall aim at achieving 

greater coordination of 

investments in the entire 

electricity value chain. 

Investments in additional 

generation capacity are futile 

without consideration for the 

complementary transmission 

and distribution infrastructure 

to wheel the additional 

energy. 

Thirdly, ahead of procuring 

additional generation, both 

transmission and distribution 

capacities would be enhanced 

with private sector support for 

investments. In this regard, 

we shall incentivize private 

investors to invest in the 

development of multiple 

green-field mini-grid 

transmission systems to be 

looped into the super-grid in 

the medium to long term while 

allowing the FG focus on 

policy, regulation, and 

standardization. 

Job creation and war 

against hunger. 

The economy must grow for 

economic opportunities to 

abound. However, economic 

growth will be meaningless 

unless our citizens enjoy the 

benefits of growth including 

access to jobs, higher 

incomes, and enhanced 

access to social amenities. 

Poverty reduction shall be the 

centrepiece of our economic 

development agenda and 

economic performance shall 

henceforth be measured by 

the number of jobs created and 

the number of people lifted 

out of poverty. Within the first 

100 days in office, I will create 

an Economic Stimulus Fund 

with an initial investment 

capacity of approximately 

US$10 billion to prioritize 

support to MSMEs across all 

the economic sectors, as they 

offer the greatest 

opportunities for achieving 

inclusive growth. 

My government will ensure 

transparency in the access of 

farmers to seeds, fertilizers 

and farm machinery, as well 

as processing equipment to 

boost food production and 

bring down food price 

inflation. My government will 

strongly promote private 

sector investments in 


with lower interest rates and 

relatively long-term maturity. 

The government must reduce 

the issuance of short-dated 

debt instruments. 

I will introduce reforms that 

will make the institutions you 

interface with more efficient. 

I will streamline their 

functions and ensure that they 

focus on their core 

responsibilities of policy 

coordination, facilitation and 

standardization and enabling 

the appropriate legal and 

regulatory framework for 

rapid economic and social 

development. The private 

sector is made to deal with too 

many federal agencies and 

actors who often make 

agriculture, from seeds to 

fertilizers, farm chemicals, 

farm machinery to expand our 

competitiveness in national, 

regional and global markets, 

for commodities in which 

Nigeria has comparative 

advantage. We will support 

agro-industrial development 

for major food crops, livestock, 

fisheries, and invest heavily 

in irrigation and climate 

resilient agricultural systems. 

We will add value to all of 

what we produce. 

Steps for fiscal 

restructuring 

First, undertake an 

immediate review of 

government spending with a 

view to eliminating all 

leakages arising from subsidy 

payments. With its current 

precarious fiscal position and 

daunting development 

challenges, can Nigeria really 

afford to forgo critical 

investments in education, 

health, security etc. and 

channel scarce resources to 

subsidizing the lifestyle of its 

elites? Second, stop all fiscal 

support to ailing State- 

Owned enterprises. As with 

subsidy payments, by holding 

onto these underperforming 

enterprises, Nigeria is 

sacrificing investments in 

critical areas, including 

education, health, water, 

sanitation, and rural 

infrastructure. For example, 

the first phase in the 

rehabilitation of Nigeria’s 

refineries is expected to gulp 

US$1.55 billion! Third, take 

steps to improve spending 

efficiency by gradual 

reduction of government 

recurrent expenditure. Over 

the medium term, recurrent 

expenditures should not 

exceed 45per cent of the 

budget. Fourth, undertake a 

review of government 

procurement processes to 

ensure value-for-money and 

eliminate all leakages. Finally, 

focus on non-debt financing 

by promoting a private sectorled 

infrastructure 

development fund for the 

financing and delivery of key 

infrastructure projects. 

On debt 

The revelation by Nigeria’s 

Finance Minister in July this 

year that the cost of servicing 

Nigeria’s debt has surpassed 

the federal Government’s 

retained revenue by N310 

billion in the first quarter of 

the year is very worrisome. 

I will: take immediate steps 

to slow down the rate of debt 

accumulation by promoting 

more Public Private 

Partnerships in critical 

infrastructure funding and 

identifying more innovative 

funding options; review the 

current utilization of all 

borrowed funds and ensure 

that they are deployed more 

judiciously. Specifically, our 

government will ensure that 

all borrowed funds are for 

priority infrastructure projects 

that would generate income, 

boost output, and put the 

economy on the path of 

sustainable growth; review 

the country’s debt strategy by 

focusing on concessional and 

semi-concessional sources 

conflicting policy 

pronouncements as they 

interact with investors and 

businesses. The Federal 

Ministry of Trade and 

Investment alone has 17 

agencies under its 

supervision: NIPC, FTZA, 

NEPC, SMEDAN, BOI, 

NERFUND etc. Many of the 

agencies lack the technical 

capacity to deliver on their 

mandates efficiently. Many of 

the agencies operate in a 

typical civil-service style, with 

cumbersome processes and 

delayed decision making or 

implementation. 

Do you have what it takes? 

Our economy is bleak and 

our challenges daunting, 

there is no doubt about that. 

No one should downplay the 

enormity of the tasks ahead. 

Indeed, I cannot think of a 

more daunting challenge than 

restoring confidence in the 

future of Nigeria as a 

dynamic economy and stable 

democracy. 

First, I have a good grasp of 

the challenges bedeviling 

Nigeria. I know the root 

causes of our problems. I know 

that many of these problems 

are self-inflicted and can be 

reversed if we are determined. 

And we are determined! 

Second, I will not come 

unprepared. It is not in my 

character as a businessman or 

as a public officer to be caught 

off guard. My policy 

document contains the right 

policies that will be timely 

delivered. Yes, timely 

delivery! Without any GO 

SLOW, I can assure you. I will 

assemble the critical skills and 

competencies to implement 

innovative solutions to our 

problems with the desired 

impact. I will provide the 

critical leadership that is 

needed to deliver. Finally, in 

economic reforms and 

economic management 

matters, I am not a novice. I 

have a history of economic 

reform and economic 

transformation. Remember the 

good old days of economic 

growth with macroeconomic 

stability, low rates of 

unemployment and low 

poverty headcount. As head 

of the economic management 

team, (1999-2007) I was 

instrumental in the design of 

a private sector revival 

strategy and advocated for the 

opening of the economy for 

private sector investments in 

the IT sector. Today it is 

undeniably the fastest 

growing services sector in the 

Nigerian economy. 

Experience counts and to 

avoid the mistakes of the past, 

never again should Nigerians 

hand over their future to a 

green horn.


Bagauda Kaltho was not a 

terrorist 

Mahdi Shehu, one of the 

supporters of the 

bloodthirsty Abacha military 

regime, runs around today in the 

outfit of a ‘human rights activist’. 

I don’t have any problem with 

that; anybody can call himself 

anything he wants. He trashes the 

Buhari presidency when he has the 

opportunity. As a Nigerian citizen, 

he has a right to his opinion and 

in any case, I do not hold the Buhari 

administration in high esteem. 

Besides, when the Abacha regime 

was sending innocent Nigerians to 

early graves, forcing some into 

exile, looting our commonwealth 

and employing terror, including 

bomb blasts against Nigerians, 

Shehu and Buhari stood by that 

nightmarish regime. 

In the last fortnight, Shehu has 

gone on air to defend terrorist 

negotiator, Tukur Mamu, who 

the Department of State 

Security accuses of being a 

“logistics supplier, aiding and 

abetting acts of terrorism” and 

heavily benefiting from the 

proceeds of ransom payments. It 

is not my duty to prove or 

disprove such allegations. What 

is, however, clear is that Shehu 

and Mamu are part of a gang in 

alliance with Sheikh Ahmad 

Gumi, the ex-Army Captain who 

campaigns that terrorists are 

“are peaceful people” engaged in 

an “ethnic war”, and should 

therefore be granted amnesty. 

However, in campaigning for 

Mamu, Shehu tried to present 

the patriotic journalist, 

Bagauda Kaltho as a terrorist 

who, he claimed, planted a bomb 

in the bookshop of the Durbar 

Hotel, Kaduna and was killed in 

the process. 

Shehu claimed that he had 

been contacted by an American 

diplomat, Russell Hanks, to 

plant the bomb. He claimed that 

on his way out of Hanks 

Hamdala Hotel room, he met 

Bagauda and two hours later, 

there was the bomb blast. Shehu 

narrated what he claimed 

happened next: “Lawal Jafaru 

Isa (then Military Governor of 

Kaduna State) can confirm this 

– I drove straight to the 

Government House to see the 

governor. For what reason? 

Urgent security reason. I was 

ushered into Lawal Jafaru Isa’s 

office, and I told him what 

happened. The following day, I 

was brought to Abuja. I was able 

to see Abacha in his residence, 

and I narrated the story to him.” 

Before I point out the fallacies 

in Shehu’s narration, let me first 

state that I had known Bagauda 

as a young activist, and over the 

years when we practised 

journalism together. He was a 

humanist who would not engage 

in the mindless bombing of a 

public place. Secondly, he was an 

anti-imperialist youth who was 

Bringing back Benin bronzes 

BY AYODELE OKUNFOLAMI 

Nigerians received the news that 

Horniman Museum in London 

would be returning over 70 artefacts that 

had been looted from the ancient Benin 

Kingdom at the twilight of the 19th century. 

The expected return follows years of 

ongoing negotiations between Nigeria’s 

Federal Government represented by the 

Ministry of Information and Culture and 

the governments of Britain, Germany and 

a few other former colonialists that must 

have been involved in looting of symbols 

of our early civilisations. Personally, I am 

not too excited about it. 

First, there are concerns about the 

notorious maintenance culture in Nigeria. 

If and when these artefacts are given back, 

how decently would they be kept? Is there 

provision for the oils and perfumes that 

should be regularly applied on them for 

them to maintain their beauty and 

durability? What about the museums that 

would house them? Are they well airconditioned? 

Do the citizens appreciate 

such arts, or some people just want to use 

their political offices to tick some 

achievement boxes? 

The National Commission for Museums 

and Monuments, NCMM, Lagos revealed 

it receives less than 50,000 visitors annually 

with a little above 80% of them students 

and just two per cent foreigners. What this 

indicates is that, but for school excursions, 

a museum located at the heart of Lagos 

hosts less than 10,000 adult Nigerians 

yearly. One can only imagine how much 

less would be touring exhibition sites farther 

away from airports with much fewer 

populations and hotels. With that in mind, 

of what economic value would these 

artefacts bring to the nation when the 

inhabitants do not visit galleries? Would it 

not be better it remained in the London 

Museum that welcomes almost a million 

viewers yearly? 

We cannot separate tourism from 

aviation. The many troubles of the aviation 

industry where only the Lagos-Abuja route 

is viable will not help tourism at all. A 

nation where there are more private planes 

than commercial planes will only be known 

more for terrorism than tourism. 

For those Benin Bronzes and the other 

artefacts to attract the needed views, 

Nigeria needs to rework its overall 

infrastructure. It makes no economic 

justification for anybody to leave mainland 

Lagos to spend unpredictable hours amidst 

highway robbery just because he wants to 

visit some ancient sites in Badagry. Or due 

to an absence of high-speed rail, one spends 

over six hours from Calabar airport 

because he wants to visit Obudu cattle 

ranch. Or fear being kidnapped along 

between Abuja and Kaduna just because 

one wants to go and see Gobarau Minaret 

in Katsina. The cost of visiting a tourist 

site in Nigeria is no different from putting 

on generator to charge your phone. Until 

we make the cost of visiting our tourist 

attractions cheaper, more accessible, and 

safer, Benin bronzes and other related 

artifacts will only be in Nigeria for 

sentimental motives. 

Let’s even argue that the homecoming 

of these artefacts is for us to get in touch 

with our history. There has been calls for 

history to return to our schools across the 

federation. Lagos State Government 

followed up the Federal Ministry of 

Education directive with its recent memo 

for the reintroduction of History as a standalone 

subject in primary and junior 

secondary schools which was addressed to 

schools in the state. Besides the fact that it 

was lack of teachers that took History away 

from our schools and I am unaware of any 

deliberate attempt to recruit teachers for 

those subjects, history is not just about what 

children in their formative years learn 

about their land, it is also about what they 

encounter in their everyday lives outside 

their classrooms. Take Civic Education, for 

instance, which is aimed at the 

development and ingraining of national 

anti-American; so he could not 

have carried out a terrorist 

assignment for an American 

agent. Thirdly, Bagauda 

believed not in terrorism, but in 

revolution. Fourthly, about the 

time Shehu claimed Bagauda 

went to see a politically- exposed 

Hanks in a well patronised hotel, 

he was in hiding as he was 

wanted by the Abacha regime. I 

met him in a safe house in Lagos 

and he left for Kaduna in order 

to relocate to Abuja because he 

believed the regime would not 

expect him to be in the city. 

After stating these facts, let us 

examine Shehu’s story. He 

claimed that he met Hanks on 

December 21,1995 and two hours 

later, Durbar Hotel was bombed. 

My analysis is 

that Mahdi Shehu 

and his gang want 

to exonerate 

Abacha, Al 

Mustapha, Zakari 

Biu and their 

notorious killer 

squad from the 

murder of 

Bagauda whose 

corpse they have 

refused to release 

to his family or 

cannot produce 

In reality, the bomb blast at the 

hotel was January 18, 1996, that 

is: 28 days later. 

Shehu’s claim is that the bomb 

blast occurred two hours after 

he left Hanks and Bagauda, so 

the bomber was the latter. Not 

logical. It was possible for a third 

or even a fourth person to have 

visited Hanks apart from him 

and Bagauda. In other words, if 

someone had seen him, Hanks 

and Bagauda two hours before the 

blast, it would not be logical to 

conclude that he had taken part 

in the bombing. 

Shehu claimed he immediately 

sought and secured audience 

with Governor Isa and told him 

the identity of the bomber. He 

claimed that next day, he briefed 

General Sani Abacha about the 

incident. Going by this, it would 

have meant that within hours of 

the bombing, the government 

knew the identity of the bomber. 

If this were true, the same 

government would not have spent 

the next two years desperately 

trying to identify the bomber. 

Mr Umaru Suleiman, the acting 

Police Commissioner of Kaduna 

State testified that 

the stomach of the victim was 

ripped open, his legs shattered 

and face burnt “beyond 

recognition”. So, how was the 

corpse confirmed to be 

Bagauda’s remains? 

To show that Shehu lied about 

Bagauda: as at April 1998, the 

Abacha regime was still trying 

to unravel the identity of the 

bomber. The regime’s Head of 

Anti-Terrorist Task Force, 

Zakari Biu, at a press conference 

on Tuesday August 18, 1998 told 

the press that in trying to 

identify the bomber, 

investigators on April 18, 1998 

secured a statement from Mr 

Babafemi Ojudu, Managing 

Editor of The News Magazine, 

employers of Bagauda, on the 

whereabouts of the journalist. 

Note that Ojudu’s interrogation 

was 27 months after the blast; 

yet Shehu claims to have 

informed the government of the 

bomber’s identity just over two 

hours after the blast. 

Biu said it was from Ojudu, 

investigators got the address of 

Bagauda’s family in Billiri, 

Gombe State. It was from Mrs 

Martha Kaltho that 

and social values in children before they 

attain adulthood. These youngsters 

encounter a contradiction when the school 

bus driver who has a job to protect, breaks 

traffic rules to get them to school on time. 

Similarly, taught history will only be 

effective if these museums and galleries of 

diverse aspects of our culture and past are 

readily accessible and visible. London 

alone has more than 170 museums. What 

we have today is that even a visit to our 

palaces, one gets little or no exhibits of the 

history of the traditions, culture or customs 

they are supposed to be custodians of. Other 

parts of the world, visits to palaces fetches 

Since those Benin bronzes 

and other relics are of more 

economic value abroad in 

terms of people that get to 

see and appreciate them, 

and in terms of security and 

maintenance, I would 

suggest we left them there; 

leaving them abroad does 

not mean they are not ours 

tens of millions of dollars from visitors that 

don’t get to see the royals. 

The Whites are so good in keeping their 

materials that the British Museum 

displays only one per cent of what it has at 

a time. Do the maths. It means they can 

afford to keep 99% away from visitors. For 

a nation like Nigeria that is also, if not 

richer in culture to be able to do likewise, 

I propose that incentives and grants from 

government be made available for 

artefactual institutions that showcase and 

preserve our culture. This way, art centres 

would be a profitable venture for anybody, 

private or any tier of government, that 

wants to set up such. 

By the way, what happened that these 

Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

investigators got her husband’s 

photograph which Biu claimed 

was used to match the face of the 

burnt corpse. So, Mahdi Shehu 

lied when he claimed that the 

regime knew the identity of the 

bomber, at least 28 months before. 

Shehu emphatically claimed 

that the then Governor Isa was 

his witness as he reported the 

alleged involvement of Hanks 

and Kaltho in the bombing to 

him. But the latter, short of 

saying Shehu was lying, said 

last week he couldn’t recall 

such an incident. 

So, why is Shehu concocting 

such story against a selfless 

patriot who paid the price for 

democracy with his life? My 

analysis is that Mahdi Shehu 

and his gang want to 

exonerate Abacha, Al 

Mustapha, Zakari Biu and 

their notorious killer squad 

from the murder of Bagauda 

whose corpse they have 

refused to release to his family 

or cannot produce. On the 

other hand, it might be an 

attempt to link Bagauda, the 

pro-democracy movement 

and the anti-military 

National Democratic 

Coalition, NADECO, to 

terrorism. They can then start 

a campaign that anybody 

linked to NADECO should not 

be voted into office. Don’t 

forget that one of the 2023 

presidential candidates was a 

NADECO chieftain who later 

named a public office after 

Bagauda Kaltho. 

Whatever be the case, the 

attempt to portray Bagauda 

Kaltho, the fierce prodemocracy 

journalist and 

Pan-Africanist as a terrorist, 

will fail. We have civilian rule 

in Nigeria today thanks to the 

sacrifices of uncompromising 

fighters like Beko Ransome- 

Kuti, Alao Aka-Bashorun, 

Alfred Ilenre, Chima Ubani, 

Gani Fawehinmi, Anthony 

Enahoro, Dan Suleiman, 

Ndubusi Kanu and Bagauda 

Kaltho. 

artefacts aren’t replicated? Why are they 

not made as replicas even as toys for 

children or portraits in greeting cards for 

grownups? Did the White men steal the 

technology and science of making these 

items along with them? If indeed, these 

articles are ours in spirit and in truth, we 

should have been able not only to replace 

them but also to improve on them into 

more treasured items that would not only 

showcase our past but would be 

continuous commentary of our evolving 

civilisation and a peep into what our future 

would look like. 

Another reason I am not as excited about 

the returning of these artifacts is the way 

we have handled previous loots. Till today, 

Nigerians are yet to feel the impact of the 

recovery of looted funds. Who says these 

artifacts won’t be looted again, this time 

by Nigerians? 

Truth is that Europeans ravaged Africa. 

However, I don’t think playing the victim 

card asking for the return of these items 

evens up things. What we should work on 

is to ensure our present culture and 

civilisation should either be competitive 

or possibly overtake theirs. Although, we 

may argue it: Europeans succeeded 

because they had a superior civilisation; 

and to achieve a competitive civilisation, 

we must purposefully, progressively, and 

continuously invest in ourselves 

intellectually and culturally. In addition, 

the goodwill of our civil and traditional 

leaders would help citizens and subjects 

alike to help propagate and promote our 

customs. 

Finally, since those Benin bronzes and 

other relics are of more economic value 

abroad in terms of people that get to see 

and appreciate them, and in terms of 

security and maintenance, I would suggest 

we left them there. Leaving them abroad 

does not mean they are not ours. 

Continues online: www.vanguardngr.com 

*Okunfolami, a cultural activist, wrote from 

Festac, Lagos, via: @ayookunfolami

Can Nigeria’s INEC organise a 

credible national election? 

Indeed, it can be claimed with a 

large measure of truth, that rigging 

of elections has become part of our 

political culture.-- Report of the 

Judicial Commission of Inquiry 

into the Affairs of the Federal 

Electoral Commission 

(FEDECO), 1979-1983, Main 

Report, Paragraph 10:10 

(1986) 

THE electoral landslide of 

President Shehu Shagari’s 

National Party of Nigeria, NPN, 

1983 unfolded in instalments over 

different sites of improbable magic 

across Nigeria. This did not occur 

in one day. It involved the 

manipulation of the entire value 

chain of election administration 

over the cycle of four years from 

1979 to 1983. It was both wilful and 

methodical. 

After squeaking through a very 

tight field in 1979 with a mere 36% 

of the votes and not a small helping 

hand from the judicial arithmetic 

of the Supreme Court, the NPN in 

power set about ensuring that they 

were not left in 1983 to the mercies 

of any judges. For the party, this 

meant they had to find a way to 

wrestle some significant territory off 

the hands of Obafemi Awolowo and 

the UPN in South-West Nigeria. If 

they did not have living voters, then 

they had to invent voters by some 

means. 

In places like Oranmiyan North 

1 Constituency then in Oyo State 

but now in Osun, they found just 

the perfect site for this project. This 

was the state where Awolowo left 

arguably the greatest physical 

monument to his political vision 

in what was then known as 

University of Ife (now Obafemi 

Awolowo University). In 1979, the 

register of voters in this 

constituency had 48,216 persons. 

Let the campaigns begin 

BY NICK DAZANG 

On Wednesday September 28, 2022, two 

major milestones will be reached on the 

electoral front. On that fateful day, we would 

have arrived at the ninth out of the 14th 

milestone on the way to the conduct of the 2023 

general elections. By the same token, and based 

on the Timetable And Schedule of Activities 

for the 2023 General Elections issued by the 

Independent National Electoral Commission, 

INEC, in February this year, campaigns for 

the general elections will begin in earnest on 

the same day(September 28, 2022), 150 days 

to Election Day. 

Ordinarily, campaigns are conducted to 

engender a free and open discussion on who is 

the best candidate and which party, based on 

its high-minded agenda, is best poised to 

squarely address our concerns and 

challenges.We expect our impending 

campaigns to be no less muscular and lively. 

We expect them to define and climax into the 

conduct of the best elections in our history. We 

expect them to excite and titillate the political 

firmament. We expect them, particularly the 

rallies, town halls and debates, to be full of 

colour and circumstance. We expect them to 

be agog with pomp and sound bites. We expect 

that the arguments that will undergird the 

campaigns will be reasoned and cogent. 

We expect our media to be suffused with 

messages which stand the candidates in good 

stead. We expect campaign speeches to be 

studded with exalted and ennobling visions of 

a greater Nigeria. We expect campaigns which 

unite, rather than focus on our fault lines and 

things that divide us. We expect the campaigns 

to be civil, refined and issue-based. 

Four years later, in 1983, the number 

of registered voters in the same 

constituency had skyrocketed to 

214,500, an increase of 444.87% at 

an average annual rate of growth of 

more than 111%. 

According to the 1986 Report of 

the Judicial Commission of 

Inquiry into the Affairs of the Federal 

It is well possible 

that the would-be 

president who has 

prevailed over every 

prosecutor and 

politician arrayed 

against him will, in 

office, overcome his 

provenance and 

plunder greatness 

from the jaws of 

infamy 

Electoral Commission, FEDECO, 

1979-1983, chaired by former 

Supreme Court Justice, Bolarinwa 

Babalakin (himself also from Osun 

State), the reason for this was “Mr. 

Stephen Ajibade, FEDECO 

Administrative Secretary”. Mr. 

Ajibade contrived to impregnate the 

register with the names of ghosts 

none of whom came from the 

constituency, most of whom 

probably did not exist, but most of 

whom were recorded as having 

“voted” in the constituency during 

the 1983 elections. These ghosts 

contributed to unseating the UPN 

But if we are to go by the pronouncements of 

some of the enablers of our presidential 

candidates, who before now stridently 

canvassed positions or take issues on behalf of 

their principals, then we have every reason to 

fear or harbour reservations. For they carried 

on as giddy and inebriated enforcers, slinging 

mud and calumnising their principals' 

opponents. They also issued highfalutin claims 

and inflammatory rhetorics, thus setting the 

stage for wild, outlandish and ridiculous 

promises in the mould of unscrupulous 

politicians of yore who would promise to build 

bridges even where no rivers existed or literally 

putting the Atlantic Ocean on fire. 

The grim reality which confronts us and the 

terrible place in which Nigerians find 

themselves today should persuade even the 

most reckless and delinquent politician that 

only well thought out and sombre arguments 

will do. Candidates must thus refrain from 

incendiary speeches or pronouncements which 

tend to cast unnecessary aspersions on their 

opponents. They should abide scrupulously by 

the provisions of the electoral holy grail, 

namely the Electoral Act 2022. Permit me to 

quote from Section 95(1-6) of the Act: A 

political campaign or slogan shall not be 

tainted with abusive language directly or 

indirectly likely to injure religious, ethnic, tribal 

or sectional feelings. 

Abusive, intemperate, slanderous or base 

language or insinuations or innuendos 

designed or likely to provoke violent reaction 

or emotions shall not be employed or used in 

political campaigns. Places designated for 

religious worship, police station and public 

offices shall not be used-a) for political 

campaigns, rallies and processions or, b) to 

and handing the rich harvest of votes 

in Oyo State to the NPN. 

The moral of this tale is not 

merely, as the Babalakin 

Commission report said, that 

election rigging is part of Nigeria’s 

political culture. It is also that the 

Independent National Electoral 

Commission, INEC, as the current 

successor to FEDECO is now called, 

enables that culture. As the 2023 

elections approach, senior officials 

of INEC who appear to have 

graduated from the Stephen 

Ajibade school of electoral 

administration, have dusted up 

their routines. 

Let’s take voter registration in 

Omuma Ward in Oru East Local 

Government Area, LGA, of Imo 

State in South-East Nigeria for 

example. This happens to be the 

home of Hope Uzodimma, the man 

whom the Supreme Court of 

Nigeria installed as the winner in 

January 2020 of the March 2019 

ballot in which he came fourth. In 

2015, this ward had a mere 6,500 

voters. Since 2019, it has become 

the epicentre of ongoing violence 

in the state, leading to an untold 

exodus of people from the locality. 

Yet, over this period, the number 

of registered voters in the 

constituency rose with the alacrity 

of Ijebu garri to over 46,000, a 

factor of over 700% or an average 

annual rate of increase of more 

than 100%. Under any 

circumstance, this kind of trend 

would task credulity to breaking 

point. For INEC, it’s par for the 

course. 

The details of some of the new 

additions to the register of voters 

in Omuma Ward of Oru East bear 

telling. Among the newly 

registered voters added since Hope 

Uzodimma was installed as 

Governor of Imo State is Adesanya 

Nash who was born 122 years ago 

in 1900. He registered at the 

Central School, Omuma II. 

Mr. Nash is only two years older 

than two persons, both identified 

as “Chimzuruoke Daves O” and 

supposedly male but with female 

passport pictures. Both were 

registered in Umuhu Primary 

School II. One is fair complexioned 

while the other one of much darker 

hue. Whether or not they are extraterrestrial 

transvestites is not 

clear. What is clear is that the 

records say that they are 120 

years old, having been born in 1902. 




This register is an incredible peek 

into the healing capabilities of 

Heaven and the Hereafter. 

Also registered in Umuhu 

Primary School II is 108-year-old 

Chidiebube Ozi, who was born in 

1914, the same year in which 

Frederick Lugard worked his 

magic to invent an amalgamated 

Nigeria. From his passport, 

Chidiebube looks like a specimen 

preparing for the athletic exertions 

of the Qatar World Cup. Not for 

any of these the corpulence of their 

brother in the Governor’s Office in 

Owerri or the physiological creases 

from the consequences of Buhari’s 

“Change”. 

It bears recounting that Nigeria 

is a country whose citizens in the 

diaspora do not have a right to 

vote. It is also a country in which 

there are no 123-year-old new 

voters. But, while Nigeria’s 

citizens in the diaspora cannot 

vote, it seems that those who have 

gone to Heaven, at least in Hope 

Uzodimma’s village in Omuma, 

Imo State, can. 

The response of INEC to this 

entire saga has been nothing short 

of a scandal. On September 15, 

Festus Okoye, the INEC National 

Commissioner responsible for 

Information and Voter Education, 

issued a statement in which he 

appeared to suggest that the 

problem was with putting these 

facts in the public domain and not 

with the fact that INEC staff 

without whom this could not have 

happened are still in service. 

Commissioner Okoye claimed 

that the Commission “is 

conducting a comprehensive 

Automated Biometric 

Identification System, ABIS, 

cleanup of the registration data 

by scrutinising every record”, 

pointing out that “after the ABIS 

and clean up, the Commission 

shall appoint a period of seven 

days during which the register 

will be published for scrutiny by 

the public for objections and 

complaints.” 

Three things are evidently 

missing from this release. One, 

Commissioner Okoye did not say 

how long the “cleanup” of the 

register would take or when it 

would end. Two, he did not say 

what degree of accuracy the 

processes of the ABIS enjoy. Third, 

promote, propagate or attack political parties, 

candidates, their programmes or ideologies. 

Masquerades shall not be employed or used 

by any political party, candidate or person 

during political campaigns or for any other 

political purpose. A political party or member 

of a political party shall not retain, organize, 

train or equip any person or group of persons 

for the purpose of enabling them to be 

employed for the use or display of physical 

force or coercion in promoting any political 

objective or interest, or in such manner as to 

arouse reasonable apprehension that they are 

organized-trained or equipped for that 

purpose. 

The grim reality which 

confronts us and the terrible 

place in which Nigerians find 

themselves today should 

persuade even the most reckless 

and delinquent politician that 

only well thought out and sombre 

arguments will do; candidates 

must thus refrain from 

incendiary speeches or 

pronouncements which tend to 

cast unnecessary aspersions on 

their opponents 

A political party, person or candidate shall 

not keep or use private security organization, 

this release did not say what 

consequences would follow if it 

were to be found that staff of INEC 

had in fact been complicit in 

manipulating or inflating the 

register of voters in any place 

through facilitating clear 

breaches of what Mr. Okoye 

called INEC’s “business rules”. 

The Commissioner did not 

forget to disclosed that 3,316 

“ineligible registrants” have so 

far been invalidated in Hope 

Uzodimma’s Oru East LGA. Two 

metrics will put this number in 

context. 

First, INEC’s breakdown shows 

that it found 7,145 of 16,511 new 

entries from Imo State ineligible. 

This means that Hope 

Uzodimma’s Oru East alone 

supplied 46.41% of Imo State’s 

ghost voters. For context, Imo 

State has 27 LGAs and 305 

electoral wards. Second, if the 

number of “ineligible 

registrants” from Hope 

Uzodimma’s Oru East were to 

be applied as a constant across 

the 774 LGAs in Nigeria, it 

would yield 2,566,584 ghost 

voters. That is a mere 5,175 less 

than the margin of 2,571,759 

with which Muhammadu 

Buhari beat President Goodluck 

Jonathan in 2015. In other 

words, even the numbers so far 

discovered as ineligible by INEC 

could easily determine the 

outcome of any election. The 

situation, therefore, warrants 

serious action against the 

perpetrators. 

It should be evident to INEC 

and its leadership that the staff 

who enabled this kind of rigging 

of the register of voters will 

happily enable worse in an 

election. If the Commission is 

interested in a credible poll, 

surely, claiming that it is 

engaged in Spring-cleaning the 

register in the rainy season is 

not good enough. It should say 

how these ineligible people got 

there and what will happen to 

those who perpetrated this. 

Until INEC is willing to 

contemplate this, it must 

remain in doubt whether the 

Commission under its current 

leadership is fit for purpose. 

*A lawyer and a teacher, 

Odinkalu can be reached at 

chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu 

vanguard or any other group or individual by 

whatever name called for the purpose of 

providing security, assisting or aiding the 

political party or candidate in whatever 

manner during campaigns, rallies, processions 

or elections. 

If the candidates and political parties are to 

carry themselves in a sublime and decorous 

manner, the Media and Civil Society have 

salient roles to play in tracking and publicizing 

their promises and holding them to account. 

The Media should give unfettered 

opportunities for the candidates to ventilate 

themselves. This will enable the voters to study 

their pronouncements and make informed 

choices. And in providing these unhindered 

platforms, the Media must be as fair as 

possible, thus giving equal or near equal space 

and time to the candidates. The Media must 

vigorously interrogate the candidates and 

political parties. Assumptions must not be 

erroneously made on the bases of sentiments 

and emotions regarding the candidates. This 

way, we shall avoid the costly mistake of 2015, 

when Nigerians were wowed and beguiled by 

the putative and assumed integrity and high 

sense of patriotic fervor of one of the candidates 

only to be disappointed thereafter. 

“No doubt, peddlers and purveyors of fake 

news will have a field day. But the traditional 

media, with their army of gatekeepers,must 

comport themselves responsibly, playing their 

roles as veritable custodians of the truth. They 

must refrain from amplifying or weaponizing 

pronouncements that fan the embers of hatred 

or incite the people to violence. 

Continues online:www.vanguardngr.com 

*Dazang, a public affairs analyst, wrote via: 

nickdazang@gmail.com 

C 

M 

Y 

K


Watchers of Nigeria’s political history 

would be somewhat amused at the recent 

call by the 19 Northern governors for the 

“immediate” establishment of state 

police. They made this call at their recent 

meeting with traditional rulers in Abuja. 

Over the past 50 years or so, leaders, 

politicians and activists from the 

Southern parts of the country have 

shouted themselves hoarse about the 

need to do away with the centralising 

factors that make nonsense of our 200 million people is policed by 371,800 

federalism and keep power beyond the personnel, with up to a third of them 

reach of the people to whom it truly attached to VIPs. 

belongs. 

At a time when crime is getting ever 

The agitators have argued that more sophisticated, with terrorism, 

maintaining the military command banditry, kidnapping for ransom, 

structure in our federal system is cultism, ritual killings, drug abuse, cyber 

undemocratic, anti-people and does not crimes, human trafficking and others are 

promote good and accountable choking the nation, even the Northern 

governance. 

leaders have seen the foolhardiness in 

A major such centralising factor is our the continued objection to the 

single, federal-controlled police force in a establishment of state police. 

diverse, complicated federation with an The North had strenuously kicked 

exploding population. A country of over against state police, even at the National 

North’s call for state police 

Conference of 2014 convened by former 

President Goodluck Jonathan. Fears 

were, and still rife that the establishment 

of state police would water down the 

establishment ’s monopolistic power to 

control law and order for selfish political 

interests. Some have even argued that 

agitations for state police is a ploy for 

secession! 

This myopic and self-serving argument 

has now given way to reason because of 

the insecurity that has overwhelmed the 

region and other parts of the country. 

Insecurity and poverty have led to the 

daily exodus of thousands of Northerners 

to the South because terrorists, jihadists, 

bandits, kidnappers and armed 

herdsmen have taken over the North’s 

huge ungoverned spaces. 

Even the “almighty” Federal 

Government, which Nigeria’s 

supremacists depend upon to maintain 

law and order, is no longer able to do so 

effectively. It has finally dawned on them 

that unless the people are allowed to play 

a part in their own security, total anarchy 

is unavoidable. 

What we need is not just “state police”. 

We must totally decentralise policing 

such that, not just the states, but also the 

indigenous communities should be 

allowed to have their own security outfits 

and correctional arrangements, as may 

be constitutionally defined. The 

traditional institutions should have a role 

in security, intelligence and law 

enforcement. Every community should 

be able to police not just their towns but 

also their forests and farms to keep off 

criminals and intruders. 

Now is the time. 

OPINION 

A nation possessed by spirit of forced eviction 

BY JEROME-MARIO UTOMI 

If there is any occurrence that further 

supports the belief that in Nigeria’s public 

leadership corridors, once a direction is 

chosen, instead of examining the process 

meticulously and setting the right course; 

one that will allow us to overcome a storm 

and reach safety before we can progress and 

achieve our goals, many of our leaders 

obstinately persist with the execution of such 

plans regardless of the need for a minor or 

major shift in circumstance. A case in point 

is the recent insistence by officials of the 

Federal Capital Territory Administration, 

FCTA, that the ongoing demolition of illegal 

structures in Kuje Area Council was designed 

to curb insecurity. 

The explanation was given when they 

appeared before the House of Representatives 

Committee on Area Councils, in respond to a 

petition by victims of the demolition. Abuja 

Metropolitan Management Council, AMMC, 

Coordinator Umar Shaibu, said the exercise 

was undertaken by the administration to 

quickly respond to identified threats to 

national security, peace and order. 

While the declaration by the FCTA looks 

good in principle, it more than anything else 

shows a bunch that is not ready to study 

history, study the actions of their 

predecessors, to see how they conducted 

themselves in order to discover that the 

eviction option is not the solution to insecurity 

but can only aggravate the situation as it 

renders victims homeless, destitute and 

vulnerable to violence, theft and rape. 

There is glaring evidence that supports the 

above assertion. It will be recalled that 

demolition/forced eviction gained entrance 

into the nation's leadership lexicon in July 

1990 when then Colonel Raji Rasaki in his 

capacity as the Military Governor of Lagos 

State for yet-to-be identified reasons destroyed 

Maroko. Over 300,000 people that inhabited 

Maroko then were reportedly affected. 

About nine years after the Maroko 

experience, democracy came on board. But 

contrary to that expectation, even the dawn 

of democracy in May 1999, did not bring a 

shift in paradigm as successive 

democratically-elected governors, beginning 

with Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu (May 1999 

to 2007), Babatunde Raji Fashola (2007 to 

2015), Akinwunmi Ambode (2015 to 2019) 

and presently Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, stuck 

to the practice. 

But the more government forcefully evicts 

residents, the more it leads to further 

proliferation of more slum and blighted 

communities in the state. 

Another instance, Former Minister of the 

Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el- 

Rufai, in the name of restoration of the Abuja 

Master plan demolished no fewer than 200 

buildings in the FCT and thousands in the 

satellite towns, which left many families 

stranded and unable to regain their balance 

till date. 

Sounding impenitent over his tenure, the 

former minister said in his 627-page book 

tiled, Accidental Civil Servant: “For me, 

restoring order in the chaos that we found in 

many aspect of living in Abuja at the time, 

was simply consistent with my personal 

philosophy in life, a preference for rules and 

orderliness- a burden that I needed to 

discharge personally so I could sleep well at 

night. It was without question worth giving four 

years of my life pursuing. Therefore, I have no 

regrets for attempting to do what we did. We did 

what we believed was right at the time.” 

But the question that begs for an answer from 

El-Rufai is: since after that wanton demolition 

and thoughtless disruption of peoples’ means of 

livelihood, has the Abuja Master Plan truly been 

restored? If yes, why is the present administration 

still pushing for demolition and forced eviction? Is 

that not a sign that demolition/forced eviction is 

but a prescription that only addresses the effect of 

an ailment while leaving the root cause to thrive? 

Broadly speaking, the above sad account is a 

symbol of governments that are unmindful of, or 

consciously decided to flagrantly ignore global 

framework on physical planning of livable 

neighborhood, slum upgrade and urban 

The eviction option is not 

the solution to insecurity 

but can only aggravate the 

situation as it renders 

victims homeless, destitute 

and vulnerable to violence, 

theft and rape; the more 

government forcefully 

evicts residents, the more it 

leads to further 

proliferation of more slum 

and blighted communities 

regeneration. 

To buttress this claim, let’s cast a glance at how 

a similar slum challenge was creatively handled 

in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, without displacement or 

eviction of the original occupants. 



Instead of removing the favelas- a people 

initially considered/described as illegal 

occupants- many of the government’s policies 

were made to focus more on improving the 

infrastructure of the people/the area. The 

Inter-American Development Bank, for 

example, funded a US$180 million “slum to 

neighborhood” project in 1995, which sought 

to integrate existing favelas into the fabric of 

the city through infrastructure upgrading 

and service development. The project 

involved 253,000 residents in 73 favela 

neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro. When a 

favela was selected, a master plan for 

upgrades was drafted and community 

organisations were contacted and asked to 

provide their input. When the final plan was 

approved, incentive plans were implemented 

for hiring construction companies that 

employed local community workers. 

From Brazil to Spain and South Africa, the 

story and experience is the same. 

Comparatively, when one juxtaposes the 

above accounts as recorded in Brazil, with 

that of Abuja and the July 1990 Maroko’s 

experience, there exists a gully of difference. 

Essentially, aside from the imperative of 

drawing useful lessons from Brazil experience, 

why the above examples are important is 

that here in Nigeria, each time the 

government wants to achieve this heinous 

objective (forced eviction/demolition), they 

tag the targeted community as highly 

populated urban residential area consisting 

decrepit housing units in a situation of 

deteriorated or incomplete infrastructures. 

Continues online: www.vanguardngr.com 

•Utomi, Programme Coordinator (Media 

and Public Policy), Social and Economic 

Justice Advocacy, SEJA, wrote from Lagos 

via: jeromeutomi@yahoo.com

Banking stocks drag equities to negative close 

…As investors lost N119bn 

By Nkiruka Nnorom 

earish sentiments continued 

Bto pervade activities in the 

Nigerian Exchange Limited 

(NGX) following sell-off in the 

shares of banking stocks, 

resulting in N119 billion losses 

to investors during the week. 

Specifically, sell-off in banking 

stocks including Access 

Corporation formerly Access 

Bank Plc, (-6.2%), United Bank 

for Africa (UBA) Plc (-6.0%), 

FBN Holdings Plc (-5.7%), 

Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) 

Plc (-4.2) and Zenith Bank Plc (- 

1.5%) dragged the market to a 

second consecutive week of 

losses. 

Consequently, the market 

capitalisation of all listed 

equities declined by N119 billion 

or 0.44 percent to close at 

N26.686 trillion from N26.805 

trillion in the previous week. 

Similarly, the NGX All Share 

Index (ASI) slid by 0.44 percent 

to close 49,475.42 points. 

Activity levels were weak, as 

trading volume and value 

declined by 24.3 percent and 14.1 

percent to close at 719.389 

million units and N8.004 billion 

from 949.819 million units and 

N9.329 billion respectively. 


Sectoral performance was 

negative as all the five sectors 

posted losses with the banking 

sector leading the pack with a 3.3 

percent decline. 

This was followed by the 

insurance (-2.6%), consumer 

goods (-0.3%), industrial goods 

(-0.2%) and oil & gas sector (- 

0.2%). 

In their comment, analysts at 

Cordros Capital said: “We expect 

alpha-seeking investors to rotate 

their portfolios towards cyclical 

stocks that delivered decent 

earnings during the Q2-22 

earnings season amid the yield 

uptick in the fixed income 

market.” They, however, 

maintained that the absence of 

a near-term catalyst would 

likely skew overall market 

sentiments to the negative side, 

particularly as the political 

space gets heated. They 

reiterated the need for 

positioning in fundamentally 

sound stocks, saying that the 

unimpressive macro 

environment remains a 

significant headwind for 

corporate earnings. 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 

Businesses heading for total collapse, 

NECA raises alarm 

•Says over 50 taxes weighing businesses down, warns against further borrowing •As 

FIRS calls for harmonised tax system•Economy facing many vulnerabilities — MUDA 

YUSUF 

By Emma Ujah, Abuja 

Bureau Chief, Peter 

Egwuatu and Victor Young 

The Nigeria Employers’ Con 

sultative Association, NECA, 

has hinted that most businesses in 

Nigeria are now on the brink of collapse 

under the pressures from the 

economic policy environment. 

In a statement in Abuja yesterday, 

NECA lamented that at the last count, 

organized businesses are presently 

faced with over fifty different taxes, 

levies and fees at all tiers of government, 

some of which are duplicated. 

The umbrella body for employers 

and the voice of businesses in the 

country, equally cautioned the Federal 

Government against further 

borrowing, contending that the nation 

is faced with acute and self-inflicted 

revenue challenges and a rising 

debt profile, among many other 

economic headwinds. 

They noted with dismay that 

even with the nation’s current level 

of indebtedness, the Government 

is still poised to borrow over N11 

trillion to finance the 2023 national 

budget. 

NECA stated: “Organized businesses 

have witnessed varied challenges 

in recent months. From 

shortage of FOREX, stringent regulatory 

environment to non-alignment 

of fiscal and monetary policies, 

which when combined makes 

doing business difficult. 

“It is obvious to all discerning 

stakeholders that the nation is 

faced with acute and self-inflicted 

revenue challenges and a rising 

debt profile, among many others. 

Even with the nation’s current level 

of indebtedness, the Government 

is still poised to borrow over N11 

trillion to finance the 2023 national 

budget. 

“Currently, the Government 

had made a cumulative expenditure 

proposal of over N19 trillion 

in the 2023 national budget, a 15.4 

percent increase over the 2022 

estimate. While it is necessary and 

critical to generate revenue to fund 

not only the 2023 national budget 

but also to liquidate the interests 

accruing on the debts, Government 

will do well not to further 

burden the Real sector with additional 

taxes and stringent regulatory 

environment” 

Articulating factors that were already 

crushing organized businesses, 

NECA’s Director-General, Mr 

Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde stated that 

“while debt and paucity of revenue 

are challenges that are acknowledged, 

organized businesses should 

not be made to suffer the lack of proper 

economic planning and political 

will that have pervaded successive 

administrations. 

Businesses face more 

than 50 taxes, levies, 

fees 

“At the last count, organized businesses 

are presently faced with over 

fifty different taxes, levies and fees at 

all tiers of Government, some of 

which are duplicated. 

“Currently, at the National Assembly, 

there are over five different 

Bills, which seek to impose various 

taxes and levies on Organized 

businesses in addition to the notable 

taxes and levies which are of general 

application, such as The National 

Information Technology Development 

Levy (NITDA Levy), Education 

Tax (or Tertiary Education Tax), National 

Social Insurance Trust Fund 

(NSITF), Company Income Tax 

(“CIT”), Television and Radio License 

Fee, Local Content Levy, Stamp 

duty, among others. While taxes are 

global phenomenon, Governments 

all over the world seek to protect 

their most productive sectors rather 

than tax them out of existence. 

“It is strange that at a time when 

Government should do all that is 

necessary to protect businesses 

from total collapse and reduce the 

increasing unemployment rate, 

there are proposals to further increase 

Excise tax on select products, 

including the Spirits, Alcoholic 

and non-alcoholic products. “This 

action will not only reduce the 

competitiveness of the industries 

but will also increase the cost of 

doing businesses and further reduce 

the potential sustainability”. 

While emphasizing the need for 

Government not to over-burden 

Enterprises and also making recommendations 

on ways out of the debt 

and revenue quagmire, Oyerinde 

stated that “it is in the best interest of 

Government to protect the Real sector 

rather than tax it out of existence. 

As the AfCFTA comes into full swing, 

Nigeria cannot afford to become a 

dumping ground for cheap imported 

products because we have refused 

to protect local businesses. Over the 

years, we have urged Government 

to expand the tax net, take a bold 

step towards stopping the oil-theft 

industry, take more than a cursory 

look at national assets that are laying 

waste and address the national 

embarrassment called the petrol subsidy 

regime. 

“There is no justification why the 

Nation’s four refineries are still 

moribund after many Turn- 

Around-Maintenances. It will be 

counter-productive for Government 

to continue tightening the 

noose on legitimate businesses that 

are contributing to national 

growth while there exist obvious 

wastages and inefficiency in Government 

yet unattended to. 

“As a panacea to the ever reducing 

Direct Foreign Investment, rising 

unemployment and multi-facet 

revenue challenges, Government 

and its Agencies must protect local 

businesses and make the operating 

environment more hospitable.” 

Economy facing 

many vulnerabilities 

– Muda Yusuf 

Speaking to Financial Vanguard 

on the current state of organised 

businesses Nigeria, the Chief Executive, 

Centre for the Promotion of 

Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. 

Muda Yusuf, said: “Over the past 

one year, the Nigerian economic 

environment has been characterized 

by numerous vulnerabilities. 

These include: Unprecedented 

surge in energy prices which had 

a very huge adverse effect on economic 

players across all sectors, 

unprecedented level of currency 

depreciation and currency volatility; 

soaring inflation leading to 

depressed purchasing power; low 

industrial capacity utilization; increasingly 

weak fiscal space, characterized 

by dwindling revenue 

and growing expenditure and 

acute foreign exchange scarcity 

with profound effects on investors 

across all sectors.” 

Yusuf who was the immediate 

past Director General, Lagos Chamber 

of Commerce and Industry, 

LCCI, added, “All these headwinds 

have had devastating effects on 

businesses. However, the economy 

continues to demonstrate resilience 

amid these harsh investment 

environments”. 

Amongst the list of the solutions 

to these challenges, Yusuf said: 

“Government has to reduce the 

cost of governance and addressing 

the problem of leakages in government, 

with improvement in tax 

administration, the effective oversight 

on revenue generating MDAs 

to boost independent revenue. 

“Also they should focus on the use 

of debt to strengthen the capacity 

of the economy to be productive, 

especially greater emphasis on infrastructure 

spending and improve 

business environment to 

boost investment and ultimately 

boost government revenue. 

“They should tackle oil theft and 

deepen stakeholder engagement 

and fixing refineries to put an end 

to fuel subsidy and the associated 



FINANCIAL VANGUARD 

Electricity: Azura pays FG 40% 

of $30m monthly invoice —MD 

•Blames poor distribution network for 

low power supply 

By Obas Esiedesa 

ABUJA- THE Managing 

Director of Azura-Edo Power 

Plant, Mr. Edu Okeke, has 

disclosed that 40 percent of the 

company’s monthly invoice of 

about $30 million to the 

Nigerian Bulk Electricity 

Trading Plc, NBET, goes back 

to the Federal Government as 

payment for gas supply and 

repayment of loans taken for 

the construction of the plant. 

Okeke told journalists at the 

plant that the company pays 

$10 million monthly to gas 

suppliers including Seplat 

Petroleum, Nigerian 

Petroleum Development 

Company, NPDC, and the 

Nigerian Gas Company, 

subsidiaries of NNPC Limited. 

He said the company also 

pays the Bank of Industry, BoI, 

for the loan collected from the 

Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, 

to build the plant. 

He explained: “Every power 

plant invoice is made up of two 

By Peter Egwuatu 

N igerian 

Group Plc (NGX) Exchange 

has 

released its dividend policy in 

ensuring that shareholders 

received returns on their 

investment. 

The policy document 

which was approved by the 

Group’s Board of Directors 

and published on the 

company’s website was, 

according to the group, 

formulated in accordance 

with the laws of the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria, 

investment and tax 

legislations, Codes of 

Corporate Governance, as 

well as internationally 

recognized best practices and 

principles. 

The document stated: 

“NGX Group, through its 

Dividend Policy, seeks to 

guarantee shareholder 

rights especially as it relates 

to return on investment. The 

policy is developed to address 

issues relating to the 

determination and payment 

of dividend. The Group shall 

apply the policy, accordingly 

to determine any claim by 

any shareholder, individual 

or institution, regarding the 

dividends payouts by NGX 

Group subject to provisions 

in the Articles of Association 

of the Company”. 

In terms of the 

administration of dividends 

by the Group, the Policy 

document added, “NGX 

Group will apply the policy 

on an annual basis to develop 

a transparent and 

methodological dividend 

consideration and payouts. 

“This approach will 

ensure that NGX Group has 

sufficient distributable profits 

and/or general reserves, as 

determined by a review of the 

Company’s audited financial 

statements as well as 

consideration of other 

financial factors, prior to any 

declaration and/or payment 

of dividend. 

“To this end, the policy will 

guide the NGX Group in its 

approach to distributing 

parts, capacity and energy 

produced. Capacity is what 

you can put on the grid but 

only those companies with 

effective PPAs (power 

purchase agreement) get paid 

for capacity. We have five of 

these in the country: Azura, 

Omotosho, Olorunsogo, Okpai 

and Afam. 

“Then the second part 

which is about 50 percent of 

the invoice is what you put on 

the grid. So if TCN is not 

evacuating us fully we will lose 

money on energy supplied. 

The thing is that they pay us 

our invoice fully because we 

have a mechanism to ask 

them to pay us but they owe 

the others. For the other power 

plants without effective PPAs 

what happens is that if you 

generate 20MW for instance 

they are paid capacity of 

20MW and energy of 20MW. 

“For Azura we have a 

capacity of 452.7MW, so 

charge NBET for 452.7MW 

and on the energy side, I will 

charge them what is 

actually produced. 

“For the $30 million 

invoice, the day it is paid, 

40 percent goes back to the 

government. About $10 

million is used to pay for 

gas which goes the next 

day to Seplat/NPDC. NPDC 

owns about 60 percent of 

that and about $4 million 

also goes to NGC, again the 

government. Of all the 

lending groups to Azura 

which is the biggest 

lender? There are about 16 

lenders, the CBN through 

the Bank of Industry. 

“The challenge Azura has 

is that we need that money 

to be paid so that we can 

pay others but there are 

people who want to be part 

of paying that money to 

our suppliers, and we have 

said no. For gas and loan 

repayment, we pay $10 

million. 

NGX Group unfolds dividend policy 

surplus funds from its 

distributable profits and/or 

general reserves to 

shareholders, as may be 

determined by the profit and 

availability of cash for 

distribution; operating and 

investment needs of the 

Company; anticipated future 

growth and earnings of the 

Company; and provisions of 

the Company’s Articles of 

Association among others”. 

The NGX Group Policy 

document provided guidance 

on the dividend payable in 

cash in a year. 

According to the document, 

“the range of dividend payable 

in cash will range between a 

pay-out ratio 25 per cent and 

75 per cent of the distributable 

profit of same year to which 

the dividend is applicable. In 

addition, the policy indicated 

that the Group’s Board of 

Directors may recommend a 

scrip (bonus) issue in any year 

and in any ratio as it deems 

fit for any year through the 

capitalization of any 

undistributed retained 

earnings, wherein the Board, 

in recommending a bonus 

issue, shall maintain a 

balance between the paid-up 

capital and the undistributed 

retained earnings.” 

In keeping with best 

practice in corporate 

governance, the policy 

delegated the responsibility 

for the decision to pay 

dividends to the Board of 

Directors and the Annual 

General Meeting (AGM). 

The policy document 

stated, “The decision to 

declare and pay dividend, 

including the procedure for 

making dividend payments, 

shall be approved at the 

Annual General Meeting 

(AGM) of shareholders, upon 

the recommendation of the 

Board of Directors. 

Fitch upgrades First Bank 

to ‘B’, outlook stable 

By Babajide 

Komolafe, 

Economy Editor 

Fitch Ratings has upgraded the 

Long-Term Issuer Default 

Ratings (IDRs) of FirstBank 

Limited and that of its parent 

company, First Bank Holdings 

Plc to ‘B’ from ‘B-’, citing key 

performance indices 

including improved 

capitalization, asset quality 

and healthy profitability. 

In a statement announcing 

the new ratings, Fitch said: 

Fitch Ratings has upgraded 

FBN Holdings Plc’s (FBNH) 

and First Bank of Nigeria Ltd’s 

(FBN) Long-Term Issuer 

Default Ratings (IDRs) to ‘B’ 

from ‘B-’. The Outlooks are 

Stable. Fitch has also upgraded 

their Viability Ratings (VR) to 

‘b’ from ‘b-’. 

“The upgrade of the Long- 

Term IDRs follows that of the 

VRs, reflecting that corporate 

governance irregularities 

publicly raised by the Central 

Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in April 

2021, including two 

longstanding related-party 

exposures, have largely been 

addressed and therefore risks 

to capitalisation have receded, 

helped by strong internal 

capital generation since the 

irregularities were raised. 

“Fitch has withdrawn FBNH’s 

and FBN’s Support Ratings 

and Support Rating Floors as 

they are no longer relevant to 

the agency’s coverage 

following the publication of its 

updated Bank Rating Criteria 

on 12 November 2021. In line 

with the updated criteria, we 

have assigned Government 

Support Ratings (GSR) of ‘no 

support’ (ns) to both issuers.” 

Explaining further, Fitch said: 

“FBN is the third-largest bank 

in Nigeria, representing 11% 

of domestic banking-system 

assets at end-2021. A strong 

franchise supports a stable 

funding profile and a low cost 

of funding. Revenue 

diversification is strong, with 

noninterest income 

representing 48% of 

operating income in 2021..

“We have met the enemy and they are [our own 

people]” - O H Perry, 1785-1819, Vanguard Book 

of Quotations, P. 48 

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi 

Sirika, is increasingly creating 

an image of a man who can have big 

dreams for Nigeria; but, who ends 

up with nightmares. 

As one of his strongest supporters 

on his two major initiatives – Nigeria 

Air and Airport Concession – it is 

becoming clear that none of those 

objectives will be achieved by the time 

the Buhari administration comes to 

a dreary end in 2023. 

With Nigeria Air, our Honourable 

Minister has created a situation 

which is akin to the tail wagging the 

dog. Otherwise, how does one 

characterise a company in which the 

shareholder with two per cent stake 

in the business brazenly appoints the 

Managing Director? Nigeria Air is 

heading for a crash before its maiden 

flight – taking billions of Naira and 

unknown amount of dollars down 

with it. 

However, if ever there is a glaring 

case of highly-placed Nigerians 

working in the national interest, the 

way the Ministries and Agencies of 

the Federal Government working on 

airports concession provides a clear 

example. Regular readers of this 

column must be aware that I have 

taken a keen interest in the FG’s plan 

to concession four airports – Abuja, 

Kano, Lagos and Port Harcourt 

international airports. They also 

happen to be the only really viable 

airports in the country. Almost all 

the state-owned airports are 

shedding red ink on their balance 

sheets. 

The FG, in another fit of absentmindedness 

recently acquired the 

moribund Gombe airport. Such 

irrational acquisition of more liability 

by an “Almajiri Government” – 

defined as one going about with a 

begging bowl, summarises why 

Nigeria will certainly be worse in 2023 

than in 2015. No modern President 

runs government on sentiments 

on ethnic considerations. If 

Buhari is looking for ailing 

airports to acquire, he can have 

a choice among the likes of 

Ibadan, Akure, Minna and Asaba 

– among others littering the 

Nigerian landscape. The only 

time Minna airport comes alive 

is when dignitaries visiting 

Babangida fly in with private 

jets. There is no regular flight 

scheduled for that airport. 

It has always been my position, 

one which all patriotic Nigerians 

should endorse, that if we must 

concession the airports, then 

Nigerians must have the right 

of first refusal. As a matter of 

fact, I will go further. Nigerians 

must control those airports; first 

on account of their strategic 

military importance and second 

because they will generate 

foreign exchange. To give away 

four foreign exchange mints to 

foreigners is the worst sort of 

idiocy imaginable. 

I even contacted several state 

governors, especially those whose 

states are directly affected – Lagos, 

Kano and Rivers – in a bid to enlist 

their support for the idea of ensuring 

that Nigerians gain control. 

Shockingly, even those blowing hot 

about their love for Nigeria ignored 

the call. Now, the airports are nearing 

concession, and it has taken an NGO 

and unelected Nigerians to go to 

court in order to put a stop to the 

unpatriotic intentions of Nigeria’s 

officials – especially in the Ministry 

of Justice; which is now swimming 

in scandals from Paris Club refund to 

Ajaokuta Steel contract settlement. 

Saved by the smell; enter our 

saviours 

“Group sues FG over airport 

concession bid irregularities” - News 

Report. 

I almost missed the report; which 

was tucked into the innermost pages 

of a national newspaper. There it was, 

a group of patriotic Nigerians, under 

the aegis of Centre for Transparency 

and Defence of Human Rights, 

continues from page 19 

leakages. Budget benchmark for exchange 

rate should be reviewed upwards”. 

Let there be tax 

harmony – FIRS boss 

Appearing before the Senate Public 

Hearing on the 2023 Medium 

Term Economic Framework 

(MTEF), last week, the Executive 

Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue 

Service (FIRS), Mr. Muhammad 

Nami, condemned the existence 

of what he called “fragmented 

tax systems and agencies.” 

He stated: “In Nigeria we have 774 

Local Governments, each of them 

have a tax authority; each of the 36 

States, too, have revenue authorities 

with their respective mandates; then 

we have the FIRS and Customs. 

What I would advise for efficiency 

and to do things in line with global 

best practices, is that we should 

Airport concession: 

Unpatriotic Nigerians 

at work again 

amend our tax laws to harmonise 

the tax agencies and tax system. 

“With this, when the FIRS, for instance 

visits ‘Company A,’ it can serve 

one assessment on the company, and 


Shareholders unhappy with fiscal, monetary policies 

By Peter Egwuatu 

Equity investor group under 

the aegis of Independent 

Shareholders Association of 

Nigeria (ISAN) have expressed 

displeasures with the Federal 

Ministry of Finance and the 

Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, 

over the policy impacts on the 

economy. 

According to them, “There is 

obvious need for the two bodies 

to use the instrumentality of the 

monetary and fiscal policies to 

stem the ravaging hunger and 

privation in the land.” 

Speaking through its National 

Co-ordinator, Dr Anthony 

Omojola, the group said their 

advise is that the monetary and 

fiscal authorities should emulate 

other nation’s across the world by 

introducing palliatives such as 

un-banning of certain vital food 

imports temporarily, granting 

tariff relief to certain industries 

and reducing taxes for some 

sectors. 

According to him the 

government would be deceiving 

itself if it fails to acknowledge the 

poverty ravaging Nigerians, 

arising from the war in Europe 

as well as the devastating 

insurgency and insecurity in 

Nigeria. 

He said the situation was 

worsened by food crisis, 

education crisis, the fuel crisis, 

debt crisis and the massive ongoing 

theft in the oil and gas 

sector that have ensured the 

country missed the global 

windfall for oil and gas 

producers. 

He said: “OPEC has increased 

its quota thrice since the Russia- 

Ukraine war but we are unable 

to benefit yet, and we have debts 

to pay”. 

ISAN maintains that the 

government should eliminate 

corruption in the system; 

Duplication of charges and taxes; 

and where certain sectors of the 

CTDHR, has dragged the FG to 

court “over alleged irregularities 

in the bid process for the Murtala 

Mohammed International 

Airport, MMIA.” I will come to the 

substance of the charges shortly. 

But, a comment is necessary 

before proceding. 

I certainly hope the allegation is 

untrue; because, if it is true, it will 

prove once again that Nigerian 

government officials cannot be relied 

upon to conduct any business 

transaction involving tons of money 

without the ever-present stench of 

corruption. National interest is never 

the motivation for them to do a 

commendable job. They must leave 

grave doubts about their honesty. 

This particular suit actually points 

accusing fingers at the Federal 

If ever there is a 

glaring case of 

highly-placed 

Nigerians working 

in the national 

interest, the way the 

Ministries and 

Agencies of the 

Federal Government 

working on airports 

concession provides 

a clear example 

economy are being over taxed, 

those sectors should be helped. 

He stated: “FG has to un-ban 

those food products like wheat, 

corn etc that are essential so that 

there maybe food adequacy. Bread 

Ministry of Justice – headed by 

Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN. The 

Attorney-General for the 

Federation, AGF, is already 

involved in three other 

controversial businesses – the 

lack of transparency in 

accounting for items forfeited to 

the FG and Abacha loot, the Paris 

Club Refund to states and the 

Ajaokuta Scheme or scam 

(depending on how you look at 

it). 

Irrespective of which of these you 

choose to study, you have to hold 

your nose on account of the rot you 

will encounter. 

Now, let us return to the allegation 

levelled against the FG by CTDHR. 

The group is urging the court to 

disqualify two of the companies, TAV 

Airport and GMR Airport Limited for 

dishonesty and misrepresentation. 

The two companies, contrary to the 

requirements of the bidding process, 

are owned by the same company – 

Airport De Paris, ADP. The attention 

of the AGF was drawn to this 

infraction as far back as June. 

The Minister of Justice still 

qualified bidders. The court will 

eventually decide on that. I will 

be watching closely. 

Instead, I want to pay tribute 

to Mr Kunle Edun, Executive 

Director, CTDHR, and his 

colleagues for saving Nigeria 

from a fate worse than death – 

metaphorically speaking. Senior 

Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, or 

for instance is going out of reach 

of the masses as a result of wheat 

shortages. But the fear by 

government is obviously that 

imports may negatively effect our 

exchange rate and further de-value 

Shareholders in CWG to get dividends next year 

By Nkiruka Nnorom 

CWG Plc has indicated its 

readiness to commence 

dividend payment at the end 

of 2022 financial years after 

years of non-dividend 

payment given the positive 

momentum being witnessed in 

the company as well as 

strategic innovations already 

put in place by the current 

management to boost the 

company’s earnings. 

The company’s Group 

Managing Director/CEO, Mr. 

Adewale Adeyipo, made the 

pledge at the press briefing to 

announce the commencement 

of the company’s 30th 

anniversary, in Lagos. 

Speaking at the meeting, 

Adeyipo said that revenue to 

be generated from its to be 

launched Fintech subsidiary 

- Fifthlab - would drive 

CWG’s income stream going 

into the future as the earnings 

would be recorded to CWG, 

adding that the focus of the 

current management in the 

last three years has been to 

their equivalents elsewhere, 

apart from being learned, are 

also supposed to be men of 

integrity and patriotic. They are 

also presumed to be highly 

intelligent. It is baffling to me that a 

Nigerian SAN cannot see that it is 

not in our national interest to 

concession our airports to foreigners. 

What happens if in the future the 

US and EU decide to ask all their 

companies operating in Nigeria to 

withdraw; as they did with Russia? 

ADP will leave abruptly and there 

will be nobody to manage our four 

international airports. Does that 

make sense to anybody sane? And, 

to aid foreigners, who should not be 

bidding, to circumvent due process, 

goes beyond our run of the mill 

dishonest practices. This is almost 

treasonable. 

Meanwhile, information at my 

disposal indicates that only the 

MMIA might be offered to foreigners; 

and some highly-placed Nigerians 

have acquired shares in the foreign 

bidders favoured for MMIA. That is 

another development being 

investigated. Could ADP be one of 

those? 

Another prediction coming true 

Prophecy is a gift; nobody can fake 

it or buy it. I made a prediction earlier 

this year, at a gathering of young 

Nigerians, where we were discussing 

airport concessions. I told the young 

men and one young lady present that 

unless the Buhari administration is 

prepared to hand the airports over 

to Nigerians, then this government 

will not be the one to do the 

concession. Two of those present 

asked me why I could be so sure. I 

declined to reveal why at the time. 

Now I can. 

CTDHR only beat another group 

to the punch. They are almost ready 

to also proceed to litigation for 

different reasons. As it is, the Buhari 

administration has lost the chance 

to concession any airport. Even if 

the CTDHR case is dismissed in the 

lower court, the case will go all the 

way to the Supreme Court. And, if 

that fails, the next case will start. Sirika 

should start writing his handing over 

notes. He will not have Nigeria Air 

or Airport Concession to claim as 

accomplishments any more. 

the Naira. 

“That is why we are saying there 

should be a comprehensive review 

of the economy so that we can ably 

weigh the needed changes and their 

impacts on the overall economy.” 

reposition CWG for 

profitability and dividend 

payment. 

He said: “In the last three 

years, the focus of this current 

management has been that 

before the end of fourth year, 

which is the end of my first 

tenure as the leader of this 

executive, we will be in a 

position to pay a dividend. 

Businesses heading for total collapse, NECA raises alarm 

also on the individual that owns the 

Company; it can also ask the company 

to account for the VAT it has 

collected, and ask for PAYE it has 

deducted from its employees as well 

Ehingbeti Summit to spotlight employment 

opportunities, traffic management, others 

he forthcoming Lagos State’s 

TEhingbeti Economic Summit 

scheduled to hold on the 11th and 12th, 

October, 2022 is expected to seek ways 

to provide employment opportunities 

for the teeming unemployed youths in 

the State and country at large. 

The Special Adviser to the Governor 

on Audit who also doubles as the 

Chairman, Marketing Committee for 

the summit, Mr. Abayomi Oluyomi, 

stated this at a pre-event stakeholders’ 

engagement held in the Lagos State 

University of Science and Technology 

(formerly known as Lagos State 

Polytechnic) to sensitise students on the 

summit. 

According to him, other areas that 

would be focused upon include 

transport management to facilitate 

seamless movement of people and 

goods, infrastructure development and 

many more. 

“We believe that when we fix the 

infrastructure and security what 

comes next is that all economic 

activities will begin to boom and as 

economic activities are booming, there 

will be job opportunities for everybody,” 

he said. 

He, however called on the students 

to play their part as responsible 

individuals to the economic 

development of the State. 

“This activation exercise basically is 

just to carry people along. So a 

as the Personal Income Tax of the 

Promoters of the Company. 

“This is currently not the case, and 

as such has created a huge gap in 

our tax system.” 

landmark event is coming and we are 

going to be launching a 30 year 

development plan We have been going 

to the markets, we have been going to 

schools, We have been going to different 

places just to let people be aware of what 

is coming up because engagement is 

key to letting people know what is 

coming and what we are planning to 

achieve with the Summit,” he said. 

He added that the Summit would 

look at relevant resolutions that have 

not been implemented, develop new 

ones, saying that the State has several 

thematic areas such as education, 

health, technology, finance, funding, 

infrastructure and youth 

development.

22 — Vanguard, SEPTEMBER MONDAY 19, 2022 

EETE 

TT 

M 

PPP 

The baseline 

is that in 

stable 

democracies, 

the cost is far 

lower, and part 

of the cost that 

we pay is the 

cost of absence 

of trust in 

public 

institutions 

•Prof Mahmood Yakubu 

N305 BILLION 2023 ELECTION BUDGET 

We are paying for lack of 

trust — Prof Mahmood Yakubu 

WITH approximately 97million voters, who will vote at 176,846 locations scattered around 8800 wards, 774 local 

government areas in the country, and a deployment of 1.4million (one million, four hundred thousand) staff for 

a six-hour election to be held twice or national and state elections, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the National Chairman 

of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, along with his national and resident electoral 

commissioners have their work cut out for them. 

"There are 15 countries in West Africa, excluding Nigeria. The voter population in the other 14 countries as at last year 

was 73 million. The voter population of Nigeria as at 2019 was 84 million. So, there are 11 million more voters than the 

other 14 countries combined. Each time Nigeria goes to the polls, it is like the entire West Africa voting. This will give 

you the idea of the size of what we are facing”, according to Professor Yakubu. 

Being a prayerful nation, INEC needs our prayers. But prayers alone do not make a free, fair and credible election. 

Nigerians must participate and do what is right so that the N305billion cost of the election does not go to waste by being 

complicit in disrupting the process or by not voting for the type of leadership that will provide good governance. At the 

interactive session organised by the Nigeria Guild of Editors, NGE, last Friday, Yakubu fielded questions and expressed 

the desire to deliver the best election in Nigeria’s history: "Our vision for the 2023 election is actually to conduct one of 

the best general elections in Nigeria which is going to be free, fair, credible, transparent, inclusive, and verifiable. 

People can sit down to see the result of their polling units Online from the comfort of their homes. The most important 

place during an election is the polling unit. Once you protect the integrity of the process at the polling unit, what we 

need to do is to protect the coalition. Once the people see the result online, we would have taken a very giant step." 

Doing the yeoman’s job of this transcipt is Olayinka Ajayi who sat through the about four hours of the session. 

By Jide Ajani 

Cost of election 

The Appropriate question to 

ask is why are elections 

expensive or how do you 

determine the cost of 

elections? Elections are 

expensive simply because of 

the way we conduct our 

elections. The baseline is that 

in stable democracies, the 

cost is far lower. And part of 

the cost that we pay is the cost 

of absence of trust in public 

institutions. In France, the 

ballot paper is like an A4 

sheet of paper because it is 

unthinkable that anybody in 

France would snatch the 

ballot paper. But here in 

Nigeria, we print the ballot 

paper to currency quality, 

entrust the ballot paper with 

the Central Bank of Nigeria, 

CBN, for instance, then move 

the ballot paper like the 

movement of the national 

currency just to protect the 

process. This is not going to 

be done cheaply. 

Paying for lack of trust 

So, we pay for the cost of lack 

of trust in the system. But how 

do you measure the cost of an 

election? You spread the 

entire cost per voter and if you 

do so, Nigeria’s election is not 

even the most expensive. The 

last election we conducted in 

Ghana, if you take the voter 

population per capita in 

relation to the cost, it was 

actually more expensive than 

Nigeria's election. Kenya had 

its election last month, it was 

actually the most expensive 

election ever conducted in 

Kenya and the most expensive 

in Africa. What they spent 

was much higher than Nigeria 

for a voter population of 

22million as against our 

Elections 

cannot be 

better than 

the . context 

in which 

they are 

conducted 

projected 94 to 95 million 

registered voters. The cost per 

person in Nigeria I think, is 

$9 as against what happens 

in other countries. Once you 

browse the internet, you will 

see the cost of elections. So 

ours is not even the most 

expensive election. The cost 

of the election in 2023 is 

N305billion of the national 

Budget. The national budget 

this year is over N17 trillion, 

the cost of election is just 1.8 

per cent. it's not even 2 per 

cent of the national budget. 

So, yes, while N305 billion is 

quite a huge amount of 

money, but if you remove 

technology cost, 60 per cent 

of the cost of election is spent 

on logistics and personnel 

allowances. For the two 

elections, we will engage 

1.4million Nigerians. They 

have to be paid, they have to 

be transported to various 

locations. I must also say 

every Nigerian is an auditor 

of INEC. In fact, the Electoral 

Act says that when you go to 

your polling unit the first 

thing you do is to check an 

inventory of all the materials: 

from ballot boxes to the voting 

cubicle, to the result sheet, to 

the ballot papers, to scissors, 

envelops and in one of the 

polling units they'll have to 

see the stamp pad because the 

law says so. All these 

materials are delivered, 

there's a cost associated with 

these materials. There is a 

joke that in a remote area 

where there's no 

development, ballot boxes get 

there. But what Nigerians 

don't say is that the ballot 

boxes did not just get there, 

somebody took it there and 

each time we make 

preparation for elections 

budget because we do our 

elections in two faces, 

(National and State Elections) 

actually some of the ballot 

boxes never come back, some 

stolen, some smashed. The 

last time we conducted 

general elections, we had to 

engage more than 80, 000 

vehicles for the elections and 

in the riverine areas we 

engaged boats for electoral 

logistics. So each time we 

make procurement, we have 

a 10 per cent buffer in case. 

So that is the reality of 

conducting an election in 

Nigeria. As we continue to 

build trust, the cost of 

elections is going to come 

down. 

Support from donor 

agencies 

I know that the commission 

receives support from global 

partners, but we don't receive 

cash from global partners. 

There are areas where we 

never accept support from 

anybody. The core electoral 

activities like election 

technologies, sensitive 

materials, voter registration 

are the responsibilities of the 

federal government. So they 

have to make resources 

available for this. In other 

words, it may look expensive 

once every four years, 

because it doesn't happen 

every year, but we will 

continue to build public 

confidence in the system that 

would have a consequential 

impact on the cost of elections. 


Continues from page 22 

BIVAS and Bandwidth 

On election day, they 

accredit voters, after the 

election, they snap the image 

of the polling units results 

and transmit them to the 

INEC portal. Bandwidth 

comes in only in two respects: 

when we configure the 

BIVAS before we deploy, and 

we take a number of days for 

us to do so. So, it is not 

something that has to be done 

within six hours and when we 

transmit, it is preserved. But 

the thing with the result is that 

once you transmit from the 

polling units, even if there is 

no network, as you move to 

where there is network, even 

if it is a freak network, it will 

transmit the result. On 

election day, some people 

think that we consistently 

operate on connectivity 

during voting. You don't 

require internet connectivity 

during voting. It is done 

offline once you configure the 

BIVAS. If there's a problem 

with the BIVAS and you want 

to reconfigure it then you 

need bandwidth but if it's 

operating normally at the 

polling unit, then it works 

offline. 

CUPP allegation and 

the Suit in Owerri 

trying to stop use of 

BIVAS 

Officially, INEC is not aware 

of it, we have not been served. 

When we are properly served, 

we would respond 

accordingly. And if the matter 

is in court, there's a limit to 

what we can say. Just like you 

read the story in the media, 

that was how we read it in the 

media. 

Attempt to hack INEC 

system 

People are worried about 

what I said last week but I did 

it in a context. All web 

resources are consistently 

attacked, whether it is a voter 

registration portal, or other 

resources, they are 

consistently hacked. It is the 

responsibility of the 

organisation to be fortifying 

and defending the system. I 

also added to the statement I 

made, that the whole attempt 

actually failed and we will 

continue to defend it. But we 

are not under any illusion that 

the system will be attacked. In 

Anambra, there were several 

attempts to attack the portal, 

in fact at one point we had to 

create a dummy portal to 

divert the hackers and we 

successfully delivered the 

Anambra election and posted 

the result online. So far, we 

used the portal to conduct 105 

by-elections, and off cycle 

elections nationwide without 

any incidence. I know that the 

general elections are huge, 

but we have learnt a lot from 

what we have done. As to the 

defences that INEC is going 

to employ to protect our web 

resources, that is not a matter 

of discussion in public. 

Discipline of INEC staff 

and the reward system 

The reward system is 

consistent with what can be 

done under the public service 

rule. They are among the most 

committed public servants in 

Vanguard, MONDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 — 23 

'We are paying for lack of trust' 


I think the 

best thing we 

can do is to set 

an example, as 

a matter of 

principle the 

commission 

doesn't register 

underage 

voters and we 

don't encourage 

the violation of 

our constitution 

this country. As much as 

possible we do what we can 

to take appropriate steps 

against transgression but 

there's no electoral 

commission in the world that 

conducts elections on the basis 

of their regular staff strength. 

Some call it temporary staff, 

in Nigeria we call them 

ADHOC staff. We can't recruit 

1.4 million in INEC simply 

because you want to conduct 

elections once every four 

years. So we rely on 

temporary staff. 

Primary 

Election 

contributing 

to the cost of 

litigation 

We have more 

litigations 

challenging the 

conduct of the 

elections by 

political parties 

and litigations arising from 

the conduct of the elections 

by INEC. The primary 

elections conducted by 

political parties have become 

so acrimonious. But if you 

compare that to the number 

of cases challenging the 

conduct of the elections by 

INEC, it is insignificant. 

What it means is that we have 

to be working with the 

political parties to strengthen 

their own internal democracy 

so that primaries are less 

acrimonious and court cases 

are reduced. 

Challenge of 

underage voting in the 

Northern part of the 

country 

Recall that in 2017 or 2018, 

we were here in Lagos when 

in Kano State the SIEC 

conducted local government 

elections, there were so many 

pictures online of underage 

voting in that election. First, 

it's not an election conducted 

by INEC; and my surprise is 

that when elections are 

conducted by INEC, we go 

around and we don't see these 

underage voters. What I think 

will be helpful to us and to 

this country, when you come 

across this kind of situation, 

kindly draw the attention of 

the commission while the 

process is ongoing. That is 

one of the most effective ways 

of dealing with the problem. 

It is against the laws of this 

country for any Nigerian 

below the age of 18 to vote. 

I f they are voting by 

someone's identity, 

that is a different 

c a s e 


altogether. I think the best 

thing we can do is to set an 

example. As a matter of 

principle the commission 

doesn't register underage 

voters and we don't encourage 

the violation of our 

constitution. 

Electronic voting 

It would cut-out so many 

things, hiring of vehicles, 

printing of ballot papers 

among others. There are 

several conditions attached to 

electronic voting and you 

cannot do just the electronic 

balloting you are talking about 

as the first step. It comes as a 

last step. The first step is to 

have credible biometric 

registered voters. Until 2010, 

when the commission 

introduced the biometric 

register of voters, every 

general elections, citizens 

were required to register. With 

every election, we register 

afresh. But in 2010 when the 

biometric register was 

introduced, those that have 

already registered did not 

register again. For instance, 

the last CVR was open to those 

who turned 18, citizens who 

could not register in previous 

exercises. So, 

we have 

the biometric register and we 

are cleaning it up. The second 

condition is to have a 

biometric accreditation of 

voters and that is what this 

country has been 

experiencing from 2015 

through all the elections, 

initially with the smart card 

readers and now with the 

BIVAS. The third one is the 

electronic transmission of 

results and we have started 

using the INEC portal 

supported by law. When you 

get the three processes right, 

then everything is collated 

with a box called the 

electronic machine. So the 

simple answer to your 

question is that we are almost 

there. But there are steps you 

take before you get there. 

Quality of Elections 

and vote buying 

Elections cannot be better 

than the context in which they 

are conducted. I asked a 

question deliberately at the 

polling unit in Berlin: I asked 

the equivalent of the 

presiding officer, 'are ballot 

boxes snatched here’? He 

looked at me for a moment, I 

repeated the question, they 

looked at one another and 

whispered. They didn't 

understand what I was 

talking about. It is because 

they did not experience that 

in their history, but I was 

talking about the 

environment. The quality of 

election is a direct reflection 

of the quality of the 

environment but it's also a 

chicken and egg. The 

environment won't change 

until we have quality elections 

that produce quality leaders. 

So, if people have confidence 

in the process, why should 

they buy votes? So the 

environment is what I 

emphasised on, not 

politicians. On vote buying, 

there are a number of ways to 

deal with it, the election 

commission has its own part 

to play, and we all in our own 

ways also have a quality part 

to play. We did two things; 

one, we talked about the 

configuration of the polling 

units such that it will not be 

easy for people who make 

their choices in the cubicle to 

express their marked ballot 

papers before they drop them 

into the ballot boxes. But 

remember the law says we 

have to do an open secret 

ballot system. In 1979 and 

1983 we had envelopes and 

so the ballot papers were put 

in an envelope. When we 

tried it in the Ekiti 

governorship 

election in 

2018, we 

introduced a 

ban, not only 

on smart 

phones, but 

photographic 

devices while 

voters are in the 

cubicle making their 

choices.

24 — Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022


Peter Obi: As tough as nails (2) 

By CHUKS ILOEGBUNAM 

From Friday, the piece 

continues, today, the narrative 

of the drama that unfolded 

following news of the 

impeachment of Governor Peter 

Obi of Anambra State 

AS Channels Television showed 

a few weeks later, the House 

reconvened in Awka under heavy security 

cover and the Speaker, Mike 

Balonwu, moved the motion. In one 

sentence he said: “Those in favour 

of the impeachment say Aye and 

those against say Nay.” But even before 

his colleagues had a chance to 

affirm their convictions, he brought 

his gavel down on his desk with a 

thud: “The Ayes have it.” Peter Obi 

stood impeached. 

Peter left office, parked out of the 

Government Lodge, and moved to 

Agulu, his hometown, which was only 

25 minutes away. Dame Virgy Etiaba 

was sworn-in as the Governor. I 

retained my position as Chief of 

Staff. Most of the functionaries remained 

in place and Governor Etiaba 

ran the State until the courts overturned 

Peter’s impeachment. 

Those were momentous days. On 

February 8, 2007, I got summoned 

to report in the Governor’s office. 

With pen and paper in hand, as I was 

wont to do, I hurried to see Governor 

Etiaba. I had known her since 

before the civil war, when we lived in 

Kano, and I attended the Ibo Union 

Primary School. Their compound, 

the home of the Ejimbes, which was 

symptomatic of upper middleclass, 

sat next to one of the goal posts of the 

pitch on which we played football at 

school. If thirsty, we entered the 

Ejimbe compound and drank to our 

fill. They had pipe borne water right 

inside it. For “ordinary level” people 

like us, my siblings and I routinely 

went to the famous Ibo Road to fetch 

water from pumps at street corners. 

Sometimes one of our errant balls 

would fly into the compound and we 

would race in to retrieve it. I often 

saw her in those days, an adolescent, 

but not once did we exchange more 

than greetings. When she became 

Deputy Governor, I told her how we 

used to come drink water in their 

compound and how, at other times, I 

accompanied my mother as she attended 

meetings hosted by Mrs. 

Ejimbe. While the women deliberated, 

I and any other kids I found 

around the school’s pitch played soccer 

with the kind of ball we called 

“olumpik.” She remembered those 

days but could not recollect my face, 

which was not surprising for we used 

to invade the place in battalions. 

To - 

day, 

however, 

the 

mission 

w a s 

stark 

differe 

n t . 

When I 

entered 

CHUKS ILOEGBUNAM t h e 

Governor’s office, there were about 

seven others inside it, all of them seated, 

some clutching files, none of them 

of the Government House personnel. 

I greeted them. Mrs. Etiaba, a 

fair- minded but no-nonsense woman, 

went straight to the point. “Mr. 

Iloegbunam,” she began. Unlike Peter 

Obi who addressed me as Oga 

Chuks or Uncle Chuks, the Dame 

settled for Mr. Iloegbunam. Standing 

there, I listened attentively. She 

said those in her office were members 

of the panel she had set up to 

investigate the matter of unlawful encroachment 

on government property 

in Onitsha. Of course, I knew the 

story. Near one of the markets, Onitsha 

is all markets, anyway, some traders 

were found digging up the outsides 

of the market. Asked by metropolitan 

officials what was going on, 

they lied that it all had to do with 

•Peter Obi 

drainages. But, within a week, brand 

new buildings had been erected there, 

ready to be used as stalls and shops. 

The panel, having investigated the 

matter, concluded that the structures 

were illegally erected. They would 

impede free movement of people and 

goods. The builders deserved to be 

prosecuted. 

Governor Etiaba was indignant 

about the impunity. “Mr. Iloegbunam,” 

she said. “Get adequate security 

and have the structures pulled 

down tomorrow.” 

A Governor’s word was law. I contacted 

Mr. Haruna John, the Anambra 

State Police Commissioner, on 

the score. A fine gentleman, I had a 

great rapport with him. Unfortunately, 

he died in a helicopter crash in 

Jos on March 14, 2012. He had, at 

that time, risen to the position of 

Deputy Inspector General of Police 

(Operations). We agreed that the 

demolition exercise would take place 

in the afternoon. The next morning, 

I sat in the office doing routine work 

Peter Obi again went to 

court, arguing that he 

was sworn into office for 

a four-year tenure 

which hadn’t expired; 

the courts upheld his 

case and he returned to 

office again – until his 

second term of office 

expired on March 17, 

2014 

and looking at the watch. When, before 

noon, I looked out of my window, 

I saw a limousine as long as 

those often seen in Nollywood movies 

parked just in front of the Governor’s 

office. I couldn’t believe it. I 

wondered who permitted the affront. 

Visitors’ cars were normally parked 

outside. Even if important visitors 

were driven right up to the entrance 

of the Governor’s office, their chauffeurs 

invariably drove the cars outside 

until it was time to return and 

pick their employers. Governor Etiaba 

was not in the office; she was out 

on scheduled inspection of road 

projects. So, who had come in? I 

asked Mr. Ayo, the Civil Defence man 

attached to my office, to go find out. 

Standing in my front he told me it 

was Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu 

that came in the car. I 

thought he wouldn’t come unannounced 

and that he would invariably 

be told when the governor would 

be in the office. 

I rose to go meet Ojukwu who was 

well known to me. Midway I saw a 

protocol officer who said Governor 

Obi’s impeachment had been overturned 

and that they were arranging 

the Executive Chambers for a handover 

of power back to him. Inside 

the Executive Chambers, the place 

was full of officials moving things 

about. Presently Mrs. Etiaba arrived, 

dressed in tracksuit, the kind of attire 

we often used for road inspections. 

She went into her office. Maybe 

a phone call had alerted her to 

the developments. Before long, a 

speech had been prepared in which 

the memorable phrase “right now I 

take the back seat again” was included. 

The Executive Chambers was full 

and people, some of whom had hurried 

in from outside Awka, spilled 

into the corridors and adjoining 

rooms. 

Peter Obi was back in office as 

Governor, thanks to his proverbial 

“nine lives” and his indomitable spirit. 

While he survived, Justice Chuka 

Okoli was compulsorily retired on 

the recommendation of the National 

Judicial Council over the alleged 

questionable roles he played in the 

impeachment process. But more 

hurdles waited along the way. A few 

months after the impeachment saga, 

Peter Obi was again forced from office. 

This was in May 2007, following 

the swearing-in into office of Mr. 

Andy Uba as Governor of Anambra 

State. Peter Obi again went to court, 

arguing that he was sworn into office 

for a four-year tenure which 

hadn’t expired, and which fact meant 

that the INEC election that pronounced 

Mr. Uba Governor was invalid. 

The courts upheld his case and 

he returned to office again – until his 

second term of office expired on 

March 17, 2014. 

It was not only in matters of the 

judiciary that Peter Obi proved his 

resilience. When his administration 

started, one of the things that bothered 

him to no end was the low receipts 

by the State Board of Internal 

Revenue. People devised ways of 

evading tax payments. Others paid 

far less than their incomes should 

guarantee. But what vexed him the 

most was the NARTO or National 

Association of Road Transport Owners. 

This body had all the motor parks 

in the Onitsha metropolis under its 

firm control, collecting revenue on 

a steady basis without ever paying a 

dime into the state coffers. 

Governor Obi thought the situation 

was untenable. Upon contacting 

the NARTO officials, he got told 

that there was no point fishing in troubled 

waters. They had absolutely no 

intention of relinquishing their hold 

on the parks. The Governor invited 

them to a meeting in his office. 

They obliged, their head who was 

called Ezeweruka or something, and 

two others. It was a strange meeting 

because there was hardly a discussion, 

just a monologue by the Ezeweruka 

guy. There were just the six 

of us in the Governor’s office, a small 

affair since we were still using the 

Deputy Governor’s office while the 

Governor’s office that was destroyed 

during the attempted abduction of 

Governor Ngige was being reconstructed. 

The NARTO leader looked 

the Governor in the eye and began, 

using his index finger to stab the air 

in all directions, emphasising their 

position: 

“Mr. Governor,” he said in Igbo. 

“I must give it to you straight. No 

beating about the bush. You see Onitsha? 

E get as e be. (Onitsha is a 

peculiar place.) It may not be messed 

with. There have been governors before 

you. And there will be governors 

after you. So, my advice to you is 

this: steer clear of Onitsha. If there is 

a legacy you want to leave, focus on 

it squarely and depart when your 

time is up. You may want to build a 

hospital somewhere. It may be your 

wish to give some local government 

a new secondary school. Or a clinic! 

Whatever it pleases you to do for Ndi 

Anambra, go ahead and do it. But 

leave Onitsha well alone.” 

I know Governors who would have 

been incensed by this kind of insolence, 

who would have risen and plastered 

the impertinent fellow’s face 

with hot slaps, without any repercussions 

whatsoever. But Peter Obi 

smiled. There was nothing else to say. 

He thanked the visitors for showing 

up. We all rose. The Governor 

walked the visitors the few steps to 

the door and bade them farewell. 

To be concluded 

•Iloegbunam, an author, wrote 

via:chuks.iloegbunam@gmail.com 

•From left: Funmi Arabambi, Faith Michael, Ogochukwu Ejiofor, 

Mrs. Modupe Ogunlesi, Naomi Oyeniyi and Taiye Erewele during 

the press briefing at The Content Art Gallery announcing the 

exhibition. At the background is Bruce Onobrakpeya’s work. 

Photo: Osa Mbonu-Amadi. 

Seven female artists painting 

the world through their lenses 

By Osa Mbonu-Amadi, 

Arts Editor 

WHEN a great female art 

lover, art promoter, art 

collector and luxury goods 

merchant, turns 70, it is not a bad 

idea to gather young female artists 

to produce works of art that view the 

world through female lenses and 

then make an exhibition of those 

artworks. That was what inspired the 

art exhibition titled “Through My 

Lens” billed for September 24 to 

October 30, 2022 at The Content Art 

Gallery, within the Adam&Eve 

complex, Isaac John Street, GRA, 

Ikeja, Lagos. 

“This year, I am turning 70, and I 

told Lekan (Onabanjo, artist and the 

curator) that I think we should have 

female artists to showcase women. 

In the first event we organised, we 

didn’t have females – young females 

that are enthusiastic – because you 

have to know that they will stay the 

course. If they are going to drop off, 

then their art will hardly worth 

anything,” Mrs. Modupe Ogunlesi, 

proprietor of The Content Art Gallery 

and Adam&Eve, said. 

Mrs. Ogunlesi said the artworks 

produced by these female painters 

will be unveiled on her actual 

birthday (September 24) under 

private viewing. The artists whose 

works for the exhibition have been 

shortlisted for the event include Taiye 

Erewele, Naomi Oyeniyi, Funmi 

Arabambi, Ogochukwu Ejiofor, Faith 

Michael, Nelly Idagba and Bunmi 

Oyesanya. 

Five of the chosen female artists spoke 

with Vanguard: 

Faith Michael 

“I am an accidental artist. I didn’t 

choose art. Art chose me,” Faith said. 

She went to the University of Benin to 

study Library & Information Science but 

she was mistakenly offered Fine Art. 

With a painting she titled “Ijeuwa” (life’s 

journey), she tells the story of her life as a 

woman. 

Funmi Arabambi 

“I explore mostly female figures. I enjoy 

working with bright and contrasting 

colors,” Funmi said. She will be bringing 

7 works to the exhibition – Monologue, 

Black, Lost, In Anticipation, etc. She said 

she uses ‘Monologue’ (a portrait of a 

woman with a bare back backing the 

world) “to explore that aspect of life where 

you need to be alone and think about the 

way forward in life.” 

Ogochukwu Ejiofor 

I am a story teller and a poet. For this 

exhibition I decided to tell a story about 

somethings that ladies pass through but 

lack the courage to talk about.” 

Ogochukwu said she is exhibiting works 

in form of a diary that deals with how 

things affect women, especially the 

girlchild, and how they deal with those 

things. She is exhibiting 5 works in 

Girlchild series (titled Alone, The 

Thought, Heal Yourself, After the 

Healing and Face your Fears), all of 

which centre around the theme, rape. 

Taiye Erewele 

“Someone said that the cheapest 

commodity on earth are opinions,” Taiye 

said. What fascinates Taiye most are the 

different things going on in different 

persons’ heads (opinions). So, in her 

works she tries to capture these different 

thoughts going in different minds – “the 

essence of their personalities.” One of 

her works is titled ‘A flower in the field’. 

Naomi Oyeniyi 

“I am exhibiting 7 art pieces – All 

hands on deck, Conglomerate, True 

Friendship and then a series of 4 titled 

‘Beyond the eyes’ which focuses on 

speaking through the eyes – the real eyes 

and the third eyes.” 

Lekan Onabanjo, Curator 

“The artists whose works are featuring 

in ‘Through My Lens’ have been selected 

carefully to reflect the dynamism of 

female creative professions in Nigeria. 

The theme of the exhibition provided 

the artists opportunity to share 

individual’s views on women perspective 

of life, in general, but using the medium 

of visual arts. 

“As the art appreciation space within 

Ikeja and mainland in general expands, 

The Content Art Gallery will increase 

our exhibitions from once a year to twice 

or more. We should recall how The 

Content started as just a theme for 

regular exhibition at Adam&Eve 

when the art for exhibitions were 

displayed among the luxury items. 

But now, those exhibitions have 

generated enough interests to merit 

a gallery space to expand the 

growing art appreciation of the 

people within Ikeja and beyond,” 

Lekan said. 

Tim and Carol 

Gallery of Art 

opens in GRA Ikeja 

Another art space, Tim and 

Carol Gallery of Art, was 

formally opened last Saturday in 

GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, at 7a Oba 

Dosumu Street, off Isaac John. 

The proprietor of the art gallery 

is Mr. Wale Fasuyi, son of Pa 

Timothy Adebanjo Fasuyi, a 

renowned artist, art teacher and 

educationist. Although he later 

became a banker, Mr. Wale said 

his life revolved around art, his 

father's profession, hence he is 

driven by passion in establishing 

the art gallery. According to him, 

90% of the works in the gallery are 

his personal collections. Initially, 

he bought artworks for love, and 

later for investment. 

He said his major aim is to 

promote Nigerian art in order to 

feed the black renaissance and 

Afrocentrism which which have 

come into vogue in recent times. 

On the choice of location, Wale 

said GRA is the next frontier of 

growth, and the international 

airport is close by, which is good 

for the business.


Vanguard, MONDAY, 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 — 27 

MTN begins actual 5G 

commercial services in Lagos 

By Prince Osuagwu, 

Hi-Tech Editor 

LAGOS — MTN Ni 

geria yesterday commenced 

commercial 5G 

launch in Lagos, with a 

promise to kick off national 

launch in Abuja soonest. 

Chief Executive Officer, 

MTN, Karl Toriola who 

made the promise, after experimenting 

capabilities of 

the network to the public in 

Lagos yesterday, said his 

company has switched on 

the network in six geo-political 

zones with about 223 

sites which are being accelerated 

very fast. MTN is targeting 

about seven Nigerian 

cities for a start, including 

Lagos, Port Harcourt, 

Ibadan, Abuja, Maiduguri, 

Kano and Owerri. 

He promised that the 

same vigour MTN deployed 

services in second, 

third and fourth generation 

networks is what will be 

applied in the 5G technology 

to make it massively accessible 

to majority of users 

particularly in major urban 

cities in the coming weeks 

and months. 

Toriola said although the 

company was going to 

make decisive investments 

in the roll out of 5G in Nigeria, 

4G is still the company’s 

bread and butter and 

investments, deployments 

for both networks would be 

done simultaneously. 

He lamented the challenges 

of getting the foreign 

exchange to import 

necessary facilities to fasttrack 

deployment of networks 

including 5G but noted 

that as a Nigerian company 

persevering to surmount 

the challenges is part 

of the prices to pay to get 

the country back on the right 

economic footing. 

Also the Chief Marketing 

Officer, Adia Sowho while 

presenting the capabilities 

of 5G said that the network 

will not only help MTN to 

connect, create, collaborate, 

and compete in ways nev- 

Interim Board has retaken control of Benin Disco —BPE 

By Emma Ujah 

ABUJA — The 

Bureau of Public 

Enterprises, BPE, said, 

yesterday, that an 

Interim Board has 

retaken control of the 

Benin Electricity 

Distribution Company, 

BEDC. 

The BPE Director- 

General, Mr. Alex Okoh, 

said in a statement that 

Vigeo Holding, the core 

investors, having 

defaulted on their loan 

facilities and having 

collateralized their 

controlling shares, had 

lost ownership of the 

entity. 

The statement by Mr. 

Yunana Malo, Director, 

Industries and Services, 

said that despite the use 

of non-state actors to 

disrupt activities of 

BEDC, the Interim Boad 

had taken control of the 

finances of the company. 

He said: “The Interim 

Board already had 

financial control of the 

entity and the usage of 

non-state actors by the 

former Board and 

Managing Director to 

forcefully disrupt the 

affairs of the entity was 

unfortunate. 

“The actions if left 

unchecked risked 

plunging the citizens of 

Delta, Edo, Ekiti and 

Ondo (under the BEDC 

franchise) into darkness. 

“It may be recalled that 

Vigeo Holding having 

defaulted on their loan 

facilities and having 

collateralized their 

controlling shares had 

lost ownership in the 

entity.” 

Okoh commended the 

professionalism and 

er imagined, it will also 

help users realise full potentials 

of the internet revolution 

and enjoy communication 

and interactions 

spectacularly. 

She said: “Every major 

technological evolution redefines 

what is possible – 

changing the way we live 

and the way we connect. If 

4G helped you to communicate 

with people, 5G will 

help you feel them closer. 

The possibilities of 5G are 

in such a way we have not 

even begun to imagine” 

Earlier the Executive Vice 

Chairman of the Nigerian 

Communications Commission, 

NCC Prof Umar Danbatta 

commended MTN for 

its pioneering role in the 5G 

deployment in Nigeria, 

promising that the commission 

will continue to provide 

enabling environment 

for businesses like MTN 

which correctly interpretes 

government policies of engendering 

growth in different 

sectors. 

Danbatta said the leadership 

of President Muhammadu 

Buhari, the efforts of 

Minister of Communications 

and Digital Economy, 

Prof Isa Pantami and the 

regulatory prowess of the 

NCC gave rise to the feat 

MTN has achieved in being 

the first to deploy 5G 

in Nigeria 

He however promised 

that the commission will 

monitor the efficiency of 

MTN’s 5G activities and 

will not fail to caution the 

telecommunication where 

the right practices are not 

applied 

MTN and another telco 

MAFAB communications 

won the license to deploy 

5G in Nigeria in December 

2021 and were given August 

24th deadline to deploy 

services. MTN 

switched on test services on 

the deadline and yesterday 

launched Commercial services 

in Lagos 

The 5G spectrum holds a 

promising future for technology 

in Nigeria, and is 

projected to contribute $2.2 

trillion to the global economy 

by 2034, according to a 

2020 GSMA Intelligence 

report titled “The Mobile 

Economy”. 

It is the 5th generation of 

cellular network technology 

designed to offer faster 

speeds per user and can 

easily handle more connections. 

Because of this increased 

capacity, it is up to 100 

times faster than 4G, 

meaning faster connectivity. 

It has low latency and 

greater bandwidth. 

Therefore, real time high 

quality communications 

and experiences can be 

achieved making downloading 

movies possible in 

Strike: Lecturers in ASUU’s factional group, CONUA 

demand reopening of varsities 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru 

ABUJA — A group of lec 

turers, under the aegis 

of Congress of University Academics, 

CONUA has called 

for the immediate reopening 

of universities for the resumption 

of academic activities. 

Recall that CONUA has 

applied to the Minister of Labour 

and Employment to be 

registered as one of the academic 

unions in the universities. 

The group has been in loggerhead 

with ASUU and had 

been making frantic effort to 

be registered as a separate 

union. 

CONUA stormed the National 

Industrial Court of Nigeria, 

NICN on Friday in solidarity 

and support for the 

Federal Government for the 

Universities to reopen for academic 

activities without preconditions 

so that Court proceedings 

and negotiations 

can continue with students 

back in classrooms. 

CONUA is preponderantly 

made up of senior lecturers, 

lecturers and some Professors 

actions of the relevant 

security agencies that 

supported the 

operational takeover of 

the HQ facility in Benin 

and the reinstatement of 

operational control of the 

HQ to the recognized 

interim board and 

management. 

He added that BPE, 

alongside NERC, would 

continue to monitor the 

DiSCO and work with 

the Ministry of Power 

and relevant law 

enforcement agencies to 

ensure no disruptions to 

service occurred, adding 

that the interim board 

and management were 

allowed to proceed with 

their work unimpeded. 

Recall 

that 

restructuring actions had 

been announced on July 

5, 2022, by BPE and 

NERC for the Kano, 

Kaduna, Benin and 

Ibadan DiSCO 

Director, MTN Nigeria, Muhammad Ahmad (OON); Director, MTN Foundation, 

Dennis Okoro; Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (EVC/CEO), 

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta; 

Chairman, MTN Foundation, Prince Julius Adelusi Adeluyi and Chief Executive 

Officer, MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola at the commercial launch of 5G which held at the 

MTN Nigeria Head Office, yesterday. 

seconds, for instance. 

This real time capacity is 

why it can be deployed 

who claimed to be tired of 

ASUU’s strike methodology. 

The suit instituted by the 

Federal Government against 

the striking ASUU at the National 

Industrial Court of Nigeria 

over the prolonged strike 

is expected to continue today. 

CONUA had on Friday declared 

its interest to join the 

case in court. 

Briefing journalists in Abuja, 

its National Coordinator, 

Niyi Sunmonu, who led his 

members to court, said they 

were discussing with their 

counsels to see how they could 

join the matter on point of law. 

He said they applied to the 

Federal Ministry of Labour 

for registration in 2018 and 

were waiting for the handing 

over of the registration certificate. 

“We are interested in the 

case because any matter pertaining 

to the universities, 

teaching, lecturing and industrial 

action is of utmost importance 

to us because the 

outcome will have a bearing 

on us. 

“Because we are waiting for 

registration, we cannot be 

part of the suit. We are talking 

franchises with the 

banks that gave the core 

investors stepping unto 

the Board and the 

appointment of an 

interim management by 

BPE and NERC to 

stabilize the entities and 

avert any operational 

issues arising. 

The entities are to be 

transitioned from the 

banks’ control to more 

financially and 

technically competent 

private investors under a 

structured process being 

monitored by the 

National Council on 

Privitisation, NCP, (via 

the Bureau) and the 

Central Bank of Nigeria. 

While the restructuring 

action in Kano, Kaduna 

and Ibadan took place 

peacefully, the Benin 

DiSCO restructuring had 

faced disruptions by the 

investors that were 

exited. 

for e-health, connected vehicles 

and traffic systems, 

smart home appliances, 

to our counsel to see which part 

of the law will make us come 

into the suit,’’ he said. 

Sunmonu added that their 

members who were from Federal 

and State universities had 

never been on strike. 

Recall that ASUU proceeded 

on one month warning 

strike on 14th February over 

the alleged inability of the 

Federal Government to meet 

the demands of its members 

and had been extending the 

strike up till date. 

Some of the demands include 

the renegotiation of the 

By Clifford Ndujihe 

THE Spokesman of the 

Third Force Movement, 

Dr Yunusa Tanko, berated 

former Edo State Governor, 

Adams Oshiomhole for saying 

that Labour Party Presidential 

Candidate, Mr. Peter 

Obi, cannot fix Nigeria’s security 

challenges because he 

failed as Anambra State governor. 

According to Tanko, Oshiohmole 

left no money when he 

quit as Edo State governor 

unlike Obi who left N75 billion 

and a host of projects in 

all sectors. 

Oshiomhole, a former national 

chairman of the All Progressives 

Congress, APC, while 

speaking yesterday at the progressive 

young leaders summit 

organised by the APC, in 

Abuja that Obi could not fix 

insecurity in Anambra while 

he was governor. 

Obi, in a recent interview on 

CNN, said Nigeria is on the 

verge of collapse, and that if 

elected, he would address insecurity 

and challenges affecting 

the economy. 

However, Oshiomhole said 

Obi cannot convince Nigerians 

that he will address the 

country’s security challenges 

because he did not do that as 

governor of Anambra. 

“For those of you who are 

social media warriors, there 

are issues here that you need 

advanced mobile cloud 

gaming, workplace safety 

among others. 

2009 Agreement, payment of 

Earned Academic Allowance, 

the inconsistencies occasioned 

by IPPIS and demand 

for replacement of the payment 

platform with the University 

Transparency Accountability 

Solution, UTAS, 

among others. 

Although the government 

claimed it had made offers to 

ASUU, the union also 

claimed there had been no 

meaningful offer from the 

government, and had remained 

adamant in calling 

off the seven months old 

strike. 

Oshiomhole can’t be 

compared to Obi in terms 

of performance – Tanko 

*Obi couldn’t secure Anambra, won’t secure 

Nigeria — Oshiomhole 

to speak to. Go to Google and 

look at the first six months of 

governor Obiano’s administration 

in Anambra state. 

“What you will find on You- 

Tube is governor Obiano using 

bulldozers to demolish the 

houses of kidnappers and 

those who were involved in 

what they called Bakassi boys 

or even girls. 

“Who was the governor 

when Bakassi developed in 

Anambra and who solved the 

problem? So, if a man 

couldn’t fix a security challenge 

in his own state which 

requires courage, how can he 

convince us that he would fix 

the security challenges all 

over Nigeria? So, when they 

say ‘I will fix Nigeria’, did you 

fix your state?” 

Tackling Oshiomhole, the 

Third Force spokesman said: 

“On the issue of performance, 

anybody who can synergise 

with the youths, women, and 

majority of Nigerians, build 

hospitals, network of roads, 

link rural areas is a good performer. 

Look at the records of 

Obi in Anambra. I don’t know 

if Oshiomhole left money 

when he was leaving as Edo 

State governor. Obi left N75 

billion in Anambra. These are 

verifiable records. In terms of 

performance what we saw in 

Anambra under Obi will be 

replicated in Nigeria if Obi is 

elected. Obi is a problem solver.”


OMAKO 

IGBETA 

UGBODAGA 

I, formerly known and I, formerly and addressed as Miss I, formerly known as KATE 

addressed as MISS OMAKO Esther Oghogho Igbeta, now wish to IYERE UGBODAGA, now 

DORCAS, now wish to be be known and addressed as Mrs wish to be known and 

known and addressed as MRS. Esther Oghogho Ekokotu. This 

addressed as KATE 

change of name is as a result of my 

DORCAS ISOMINE 

marriage to Mr Raphael Ekokotu. All OGBOGBO. All former 

OGBAKPA, henceforth all 

documents bearing my former name documents remain valid. 

former documents remain 

still remain valid. General public take General public please take 

valid. General public take note. note. 

note. 

OB ABOH 

AVOLUEME 

This is to confirm that the names ABOH WARRI DORIS, I, formerly known and 

addressed as MISS 

DORIS YERI ABOH, ABOH DORIS YERI WARRI, DORIS 

AVOLUEME AKPEZI 

YERI WARRI ABOH and ABOH DORIS YARI, refer to the SARAH, now wish to be known 

and addressed as MRS. 

same person and me. I now wish to be known as ABOH DORIS 

IGBOGIDI AKPEZI SARAH. 

YERI WARRI. All former documents remain valid. Banks, NIN, All documents bearing former 

names remain valid. General 

CAC, NOUN and the general public please take note. 

public, please take note. 

SACKEY 

UMUKORO 

ESE 

I, formerly known and I, formerly known and I, formerly known as WISDOM 

addressed as MISS SACKEY, addressed as MISS 

ESE, now wish to be known 

ESE VICTORIA now wish to UMUKORO, FETA now wish 

be known and addressed as 

and addressed as DADA 

to be known and addressed as 

MRS. SACKEY-ODEH, ESE 

MRS. LEWIS-MONYE, 

WISDOM. 

All 

VICTORIA. All former 

documents remain valid. 

FETA. All former documents former documents remain 

General public please take remain valid. General public valid. General public, please 

note. 

please take note. 

take note. 

ENUNAKPO NNADI IROEKWE 

This is to reconcile that the 

THIS IS TO CONFIRM THAT IROEKWE 

I, formerly known and 

names; Enunakpo Jude, 

KINGSLEY CHIDIEBERE, UWAEME 

Ekanoma Jude and Ekanoma addressed as MISS Nnadi KINGSLEY CHIDIEBERE AND 

Jude Enunakpo refer to one and 

OKPOMESHINE KINGSLEY 

Chioma Maureen, now wish to CHIDIEBERE REFER TO ONE AND 

same person, now wish to be 

known as Ekanoma Jude be known and addressed as MRS SAME PERSON, NOW WISH TO BE 

KNOWN AS OKPOMESHINE 

Ejovwoke. All former Ejim Chioma Maureen. Former KINGSLEY CHIDIEBERE. ALL 

documents remain valid, 

FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN 

genearl public should please documents remain valid. 

VALID. GENERAL PUBLIC TAKE 

take note. 

General public take note. 

NOTE. 

THOMPSON 

JOHNSON 

EDIJALA 

I, formerly known and I, formerly known and I, formerly known as MISS 

addressed as MISS addressed as MISS. JOHNSON EDIJALA JESUTEKEVWE, 

THOMPSON NAFEEZAT EHISIANYA FAVOUR, now now wish to be known and 

OLAJUMOKE, now wish to be 

wish to be known and addressed 

addressed as MRS OWEDE 

known and addressed as MRS 

ISREAL JESUTEKEVWE. All 

THOMPSON-ADEGBITE 

as MRS. STEPHEN FAVOUR. 


OLAJUMOKE NAFEEZAT. All documents bearing former 

valid, any authority it may 

All former documents remain names remain valid. General concern and general public to 

valid. General public take note. public, please take note. take note. 

ALFRED NDUKA ABRAH ESHEGBE 

I, formerly known as ALFRED I, formerly known as MISS I, formerly known as MISS ABRAH 

FAITH OGHENERUKEVWE, NDUKA PRECIOUS EKENE, MAUREEN OGHENERO, now 

now wish to be known and now wish to be known and wish to be known and addressed as 

addressed as ESIPHRI FAITH addressed as MRS IYARE MRS OGHENEOCHUKO 

OGHENERUKEVWE. All PRECIOUS EKENE. All 

MAUREEN OGHENERO. All 

former documents remain former documents remain 

valid, any authority it may valid, any authority it may 

former documents remain valid, any 

concern and general public to concern and general public to authority it may concern and general 

take note. 

take note. 

public to take note. 

JOHNSON 

ULOHO 

OBIEKEZIE 

OKEKE 

I, formerly known as MISS. I, formerly known as MISS. This is to confirm that the 

JOHNSON SARAH CHIOMA. ULOHO OVUOKERIE name; Obiekezie Olivia 

Now wish to be known and ELIZABETH. Now wish to be Chioma and Obiekezie 

addressed as MRS. IMONIknown 

and addressed as MRS. Augustina refer to me. I now 

OGHOJAFOR OVUOKERIE wish to be known as Obiekezie 

OGBE SARAH CHIOMA. All 

ELIZABETH. All documents Olivia Augustina Chioma. All 

documents bearing my former 

bearing my former name documents bearing my former 

name remain valid. General remain valid. General public name remain valid. General 

public take note. 

take note. 

public take note. 

ANDREW 

UDOLU 

OMOWOMA 

ALUYA 

I, formerly known and I, formerly known, called and I, formerly known, called and 

addressed as Ruth Chinwendu addressed as MISS UDOLU addressed as OMOWOMA 

Andrew, now wish to be known GLORIA UJIRO, now wish to BRIDGET OGHALE, now 

and addressed as Ruth be known, called and addressed 

wish to be known, called and 

Chinwendu Ehibudu. All 

addressed as EWEBE 

as MRS. EGBRI GLORIA 

BRIDGET OGHALE. All 

former documents remain UJIRO. All former documents 


valid. General public please remain valid. General public valid. General public please 

take note. 

please take note. 

take note. 

JOSEPH 

AKPATI 

JACKSON 

UZEZI 

I, formerly known and I, FORMERLY KNOWN AND I, formerly known and 

addressed as JOSEPH ADDRESSED AS AKPATI addressed as MISS FAVOUR 

I K E C H U K W U CYNTHIA OTASOWIE, NOW CLEMENT JACKSON, now 

EMMANUEL, now wish to be 

WISH TO BE KNOWN AND to be called and addressed as 

known and addressed as 

O B I U W O V W I N 

ADDRESSED AS IREDIA-OGBE MRS. FAVOUR ABASIAMA 

IKECHUKWU. All former CYNTHIA OTASOWIE. FORMER DICKSON UWAK. All former 

documents remain valid. DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. documents remain valid. 

General public take note. GENERAL PUBLIC TAKE NOTE. General public take note. 

KEHINDE 

AZUKA 

OKWUDI 

AKUDO 

I, formerly known and I, formerly known as Azuka I, formerly known as Miss 

addressed as Miss Busola 

Benita Chidimma Okwudi, 

Onyekachi Gloria, now wish 

Elizabeth Kehinde, now wish 

now wish to be known as Mrs 

to be known and addressed as to be known as Akhalu Benita Chidimma Sameul 

Mrs Busola Elizabeth Simon- Onyekachi Gloria. Former Akpotaire. All former 

Ilogho. All former documents 


documents remain valid. The 

remain valid. General public 

Concerned authorities and the 

take note. 

general public take note. general public take note. 

JELI 

I, formerly known as MISS 

CHINOYE JOYCE JELI, now 

wish to be addressed as MRS 

CHINOYE JOYCE REUBEN 

ARHAVWARIEN. All former 


General public please take 

note. 


addressed as Miss 

AKPOBOME ESHEGBE, now 

wish to be known and addressed 

as Mrs. ETAFIVWE 

AKPOBOME. All former 


General public please take 

note. 

This certifies that the names; 

Ibeakanma Okeke Ifeanyi and 

Okeke Ifeanyi, refer to one 

and same person. I now wish 

to be known and addressed as 

Ibeakanma Okeke Ifeanyi. All 

documents bearing my names 

remain valid. The public should 

take note. 


addressed as Miss Aluya 

Blessing Osamudiamen, now 

wish to be known and 

addressed as Mrs Blessing 

Osamudiamen Onofua. All 


valid. Public please take note. 


addressed as Uzezi Angela 

Elohor, now wish to be known 

and addressed as Oreruerien 

Angela Elohor. All former 

documents remain valid, 

general public please take 

note. 

I, formerly known as Rev, Sir 

Akudo Celestina Amadi, now 

wish to be known as Rev, Sir 

Mary Akudo Celestina 

Nwachukwu. All former 


Concerned authorities and the 

general public take note. 


NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058 

Presidential visit: Uzodimma thanks Imo 

people for honouring Buhari 

Delta community drags SPDC to court over 

ownership of oil wells 

By Festus Ahon 

A urban SABA—OKPOKUNOU 

community in Burutu 

Local Government Area, Delta 

State, have dragged Shell Petroleum 

Development Company, 

SPDC before a Federal High 

Court sitting in Warri over ownership 

of oil wells. 

HRM King Charles Ayemi- 

Botu, Benson Agbai, Prestar 

kodokor and Chief Secretary 

Amgbara in the suit filed on behalf 

of the community and themselves, 

are seeking a declaration 

that "Okpokunou oil field wherein 

SPDC carries out its oil and gas 

drillings, explorations, and operations; 

oil wells 1, 2, 3 and 4, HXWL 

and all the oil wells and installations 

within Okpokunou oil field 

situate solely within the area of 

land belong to the Okpokunou 

Urban Community from time immemorial. 

"A declaration that with respect 

to the operations of SPDC 

in Okpokunou Urban Community, 

the claimants are the persons 

exclusively entitled to 

nominate and/or constitute the 

membership and/or fill the slots 

accruable to the host community 

of Okpokunou oil field and/ 

or constitute the membership 

of the Board of Trustees of the 

Host Community Development 

Trust, HCDT, and/or any other 

body set up by and/or at the 

instance of SPDC in that regard. 

"A declaration that all the oil 

wells, oil and gas installations 

and operations being carried 

out by and/or at the instance of 

SPDC in Okpokonou oil field, 

are situate within Okpokunou 

OWERRI—GOVERNOR Hope 

Uzodimma has thanked the people 

of Imo State for coming out en 

mass to honour and receive President 

Muhammadu Buhari who 

was on a one-day official visit to 

the State on Tuesday, September 

23, 2022, to commission signature 

projects executed by his administration. 

Governor Uzodimma expressed 

his gratitude and that of the government 

on Sunday while addressing 

the congregation at the 

end of Church Service at the 

Government House Chapel 

Owerri. 

He lauded Imo people for their 

show of commitment and the efforts 

they made to identity with 

the epoch-making ceremony despite 

attempts by those he described 

as "agents of the Satan 

to sabotage the visit." 

The Governor said he is not 

in doubt that the prayers of Imo 

people are working, noting that 

"by the Grace of God Imo State 

has been restored to peace and 

order." 

Governor Uzodimma seized 

the opportunity to encourage 

those still in doubt about what 

the 3R government stands for, 

to "come out and be part of the 

government, the vanguard 

which is ready to change the 

old style of doing things, and 

embrace the new style of doing 

things." 

He commended the day's 

homily that harped on sacrificial 

service for eternal gains, saying 

it was in tandem with the vision 

and mission of the Shared 

Prosperity Government of putting 

the interest of the people first 

before individual's interest. 

He therefore urged the congregation 

to reflect deeply over the 

message while praying to God to 

accomplish our goals and aspirations. 

The Imo State First Lady, 

Chioma Uzodimma, the Deputy 

Governor, Prof. Placid Njoku and 

his wife, Bola, the Speaker, Imo 

State House of Assembly, 

Kennedy Ibe, the Deputy 

Speaker, Amara Iwuanyanwu 

and his wife, the Secretary to 

Government of Imo State, Cosmos 

Iwu and the Chief of Staff, 

Nnamdi Anyaehie were in attendance. 

Urban Community, the claimants 

are the persons entitled exclusively 

to all payments, compensations, 

surface rights and all 

or any benefit accruable to the 

host community of the 

Okpokonou oil field and/or emanating 

from SPDC by virtue of 

their operations in the said 

Okpokonou oil field 

"A declaration that any document 

executed and/or any agreement 

reached and/or entered in 

relation to the Okpokunou oil 

field and/or pertaining to the 

claimants, Okpokonou Urban 

Community as the host community 

of the Okpokonou oil field 

without the consent, authority 

and/or approval of the claimants, 

Okpokonou community first 

sought and obtained is illegal, null 

and void and of no effect whatsoever 

and howsoever." 

BEDC: Allow judicial process run its full course, 

CDHR urges govt, stakeholders 

B ENIN—NATIONAL 

President, Committee for 

Defence of Human Rights, 

CDHR, Kehinde Prince Taiga, 

has appealed to government, its 

agencies and other 

stakeholders involved in imbroglio 

with management of Benin 

Electricity Distribution Company 

Plc BEDC, to maintain 

status quo and allow conclusion 

of ongoing court proceedings in 

the case. 

Reacting to recent invasion 

of the premises of BEDC in Edo 

State by policemen who claimed 

to be acting on the directive 

from above in a statement made 

available to newsmen in Warri 

yesterday, Taiga condemned the 

action in its entirety, describing 

it as a gross violation and abuse 

of the judicial process. 

He maintained that there can 

never be any moral, logical or 

reasonable justifications for 

such an uncivilised action when 

By Ediri Ejor 

LNigeria’s AGOS—PPC 

leading engineering 

and infrastructure develop- 

Limited, 

ment company, is supporting 

the local production of smart 

meters through the supply of 

accessories in the drive to ensure 

widespread access to electricity 

in Nigeria. 

PPC through its partnership 

with prepaid meter producers in 

the country, has facilitated the 

installation of about 3,000 smart 

meters to households and electricity 

consumers. 

The company's factory at 

Ojota, Lagos State produces 

high-quality wire sets for prepaid 

meters to drive the quick 

roll out of prepaid meters to electricity 

consumers in the country 

Ṫhe company aims to increase 

the share of local components 

in energy meters as 

required by the Nigerian Electricity 

Regulatory Commission, 

NERC, by supporting local 

manufacturing capacity of Metering 

Service Providers, MSP. 

The Deputy General Manager 

and Head of the Power 

Division at PPC, Kelechi 

Onuigbo, in a statement said, 

“A key part of our vision is in 

the provision of specialized solutions 

to the power problems 

the matter was still pending before 

a competent court of jurisdiction 

who has directed all the 

parties involved to maintain status 

quo in the matter pending 

the determination of the suit before 

it. 

Taiga who decried the role policemen 

who are supposed to be 

law enforcers were being made 

to play in the senseless act, disclosed 

that findings conducted 

revealed that it was an order from 

above that police acted upon in 

the invasion of BEDC premises. 

While questioning the rationale 

behind the decision of a serving 

Minister of Justice who ought 

to be the custodian of law to protect 

judiciary would be the one to 

give directive usurping court process, 

Taiga, urged all stakeholders 

with vested interest in BEDC, 

especially the government, individuals 

and security agents 

mostly Nigeria Police Force, NPF, 

to exercise restraint in the matter 

and allow judicial process till 

the end. 

PPC supports local production of 

smart meters, electricity access 

in the country and one of the 

ways we are achieving this is in 

the local production of key accessories 

for smart meters." 

MF celebrates 

decade of developing 

young leaders 

By Gabriel Olawale 

AGOS—THE Mastercard 

LFoundation Scholars Program 

has supported nearly 40,000 

young people as it expressed 

commitment to double its reach 

to 100,000 young people by 2030. 

Speaking on this commitment 

during the celebration of decennial 

anniversary of the Scholars 

Program which was launched in 

2012, President and CEO of 

Mastercard Foundation, Reeta 

Roy, said that the Program began 

as a $500 million initiative to develop 

the next generation of leaders 

who would drive social and 

economic transformation. 

“The program identifies talented 

young people from economically 

disadvantaged and 

hard-to-reach communities, primarily 

in Africa, and supports their 

secondary and higher education 

as well as leadership development. 

Initially, the Program aimed 

to support 15,000 young people."


Nigera Vs Algeria: 

Dennis 

replaces 

injured 

Onyekuru 

Nottingham Forest striker Emmanuel 

Dennis will replace Henry Onyekuru in 

Nigeria’s squad for the friendly against 

Algeria after the latter sustained an injury in Adana 

Demirspor’s 3-0 victory over Antalyaspor on 

Saturday. 

Super Eagles coach Jose Peseiro named a strong 

25-man squad for the September 27 international 

friendly game against the Foxes of Algeria. 

However, there have been a few changes to the 

squad, with Valentine Ozornwafor replacing Leon 

Balogun. 

The latest alteration to the team would be Dennis 

who comes in for Onyekuru. The latter started for Adana 

Demirspor in their game on Saturday, but he was subbed at 

halftime because of a knock. 

Dennis has had a poor start to the season at Nottingham 

Forest. Since his move from Watford, the former Club Brugge 

man has played only eleven minutes. 

Three –time African champions Nigeria and two-time African 

champions Algeria clash at the 40,000 Stade Olympique in Oran 

on Tuesday, 27th September, with the invited players expected 

to confluence in the city of Constantine today, 19th September. 

Pochettino, Benitez, Dyche 

among favourites to replace 

Rodgers at Leicester 

LEICESTER are being backed to 

make a move for Mauricio Pochettino or 

Rafael Benitez if they sack Brendan 

Rodgers. 

The Foxes boss is under pressure after 

losing 6-2 to Tottenham with Leicester 

bottom of the Premier League. 

Rodgers has taken responsibility for 

his team’s slump, which has seen them 

pick up just one point from seven games 

and concede 22 goals. 

With Leicester already in danger of 

relegation, former Burnley manager 

Sean Dyche has emerged as the bookies’ 

favourite to take over. 

Dyche could offer a short-term solution 

but the Leicester hierarchy could prefer 

a manager who will look to play open, 

expansive football in a similar style to 

Rodgers - Mauricio Pochettino fits that 

bill. 

The former Spurs and PSG boss was 

also tipped to succeed Tuchel at Chelsea 

as he eyes a return to the Premier 

League. 

•Dennis 

Former Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa also 

fits that category and is a frontrunner to 

take over, while former Liverpool and 

Real Madrid gaffer Rafa Benitez would 

offer a safer pair of hands and likely look 

to shore up the defence as his first 

priority. 

Everton 1-0 West Ham 

Maupay strike eases pressure 

on Lampard 

NEAL MAUPAY scored his first goal for 

Everton to give boss Frank Lampard lift off 

for the season. 

Maupay’s classy second-half strike was 

enough to secure the opening Premier 

League win of the campaign after seven 

league games for under-pressure Lampard. 

And a run of four draws now becomes a 

run of five matches unbeaten including 

this important victory, which comes at just 

CAFCC: Remo Stars crash out, 

lose 2-1 on aggregate to AS FAR 

The hope of Nigeria’s representative 

in the Confederation Cup Remo 

Stars to progress to the next round of 

the competition has been dashed. 

The ‘Sky Blue Boys’ proved the 

bookmakers wrong last weekend by 

playing out a 1-1 draw against the 

Moroccan giant AS FAR. 

The Nigeria side played host to the 

second leg yesterday at its home ground 

in Ikenne but their hope of progressing 

was dashed after they lost 0-1. 

They missed numerous scoring 

chances in the first half and they were 

out to curtail the attacking threats of 

the away side to end the half in a 

goalless. 

Cameroonian international Joseph 

scored the winning goal in the 57th 

minute and ended the hopes of Remo 

Stars reaching the next round. 

With the away win, the Moroccan side 

moved into the next round 2-1 on the 

aggregate. 

•Nwaneri 

CHILD’S PLAY 

Nwaneri 

becomes 

youngest 

player in 

Premier League 

history 

ARSENAL youngster Ethan 

Nwaneri has become the 

youngest ever player to compete in 

the Premier League at the age of 15. 

The teenage ace came on for the 

Gunners against Brentford in the 

90th minute as he replaced Fabio 

Vieira at the Gtech Community 

Stadium. 

The Arsenal fans, enjoying being 

3-0 up at the time, chanted: “How 

s*** must you be, he’s only 15.” 

The whizzkid schoolboy was 

promoted to first team training this 

week having made his Under-21 

debut at the beginning of 

September. 

And the attacking midfielder - 

who’s yet to sit his GCSEs - earned a 

spot in Mikel Arteta’s squad with 

the likes of Martin Odegaard and 

Emile Smith-Rowe unavailable due 

to injury. 

Nwaneri, who was born in March 

2007, becomes the youngest player 

ever to make a Premier League 

appearance. 

The record was previously held by 

Liverpool teenager Harvey Elliott, 

who was 16 years and 30 days old 

when he came on for Fulham. 

the right time ahead of the international 

break. 

The three points means Everton climb 

to 13th place with the kind of dogged 

performance that former boss David 

Moyes would have been proud of in his 11 

years in charge at Goodison Park. 

Now in the away dugout with visiting 

West Ham, he cut a frustrated figure as he 

watched his team fail to spark and must be 

worried that confidence is draining out of 

his underachieving squad. 

The Hammers hit the post in the second 

half with a curling shot from sub Said 

Benrahma but were lightweights up front, 

even with Everton forced to play 35-yearold 

Asmir Begovic in goal as cover for injured 

Jordan Pickford. 

Brentford 0 Arsenal 3: 

Vieira stunner seals win as 

Gunners return to top spot 

MIKEL ARTETA once again 

leapfrogged above his old boss at 

the top of the Premier League table. 

Quite how long Arsenal can 

continue this unexpected battle with 

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 

remains to be seen. 

But Arteta, a former assistant to 

Guardiola at City, will be absolutely 

delighted at the way Arsenal swatted 

away Brentford with such complete 

ease. 

Particularly as it came after that first 

defeat of the season, a 3-1 loss at 

Manchester United, two weeks earlier. 

William Saliba, Gabriel Jesus and 

new signing Fabio Vieira scored the 

goals in a thoroughly convincing win 

which came despite playmaker Martin 

Odegaard having to withdraw after 

suffering an injury in the warm-up. 

And so the next fortnight will remain 

terrific viewing for Arsenal fans. 

At lunchtime on Saturday 

October 1, Arteta’s team will be at 

home to Spurs and it has been some 

time since the north London derby 

has featured both teams in the top 

three. 

If Arsenal did win the League, it 

would be second only to Leicester’s 

title success in terms of a Premier 

League shock. 

MANCHESTER UNITED players 

and staff were hit by a bout of 

suspected food poisoning following their 

Europa League victory in Moldova. 

The group travelled back from their 2- 

0 away win against FC Sheriff last 

Thursday straight after the game on a 

private plane. 

But members of the party began to 

feel unwell on Friday. 

It is understood up to 12 of the United 

party were affected. 

The club is trying to look into whether 

it was something the group had eaten 

while in Chisinau or on the plane on 

the way back. 

A handful of players missed training 

on Friday because of it but were ok again 

But what we do know is that we now 

have to take Arsenal as serious 

contenders for the top four. 

Arsenal’s win here in west London 

came at the acne of their embarrassing 

2-0 loss 13 months ago. 

On that occasion, the squad had been 

hit by Covid and here, the squad’s lack 

of major strength was proved by the 

arrival of Ethan Nwaneri as a late 

replacement for Vieira. At the grand 

age of 15 years and 180 days, he broke 

the Premier League record . 

Man Utd stars, staff hit 

by bout of food poisoning 

Kwara United football club have 

advanced to the next round of 

the CAF Confederations cup 

following their 3-0 aggregate win 

over AS Douanes of Niger. 

Despite the blood sprinkling antics 

and pressure from the Nigeriens 

ahead of the second leg tie in Niamey, 

the Harmony Boys didn’t blink as 

they showed doggedness and 

resilience to progress to the next 

round of the CAF Confederations cup 

as they held their 

host to a goalless 

draw on Sunday 

evening. 

Kwara United 

won the first leg at 

the Mobolaji 

Johnson Arena 

Stadium in Lagos 

3-0 courtesy of a 

brace from Wasiu 

Jimoh and a goal 

from Paul Samson 

which gave them a 

huge advantage 

going into the 

second leg. 

Just some hours 

to train Saturday, while others missed 

Saturday. 

Those affected who were due on 

international duty have still been able 

to join up with their countries. 

It is not clear how badly the squad 

would have been affected for their home 

match against Leeds United had it gone 

ahead. 

The match was postponed due to 

policing issues. 

The victory in Chisinau put United’s 

Europa League campaign back on track 

after losing their Group E opener to Real 

Sociedad. 

New boss Erik Ten Hag has now 

overseen five wins in the Red Devils' 

last six games. 

Kwara United dump ‘Juju’ AS 

Douanes, to face RSB Berkane 

to kickoff of the second leg at the Stade 

General Senyi Kountche Stadium, 

Niamey, some Douanes fans were 

seen sprinkling blood on the body of 

Kwara United, a gesture alleged to 

be a sacrifice to ensure them secure 

victory but failed gallantly as it ended 

0-0 at fulltime. 

Kwara United will next take on 

defending champions RSB Berkane 

of Morocco.


Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 

TODAY’S CROSSWORD 

QUICK CROSSWORD 

FRIDAY’S SOLUTION 

Sudoku 

TODAY’S PUZZLE FRIDAY’S ANSWER 

How to Play Sudoku 

C 

M 

Y 

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. 

ACROSS 

1 European mountains (4) 

3 Competitions (8) 

9 Feast (7) 

10 Cost (5) 

11 Hold forth (5) 

12 Gangways (6) 

14 Beginning (6) 

16 Combination of breakfast and lunch (6) 

19 Prior to (6) 

21 Evergreen tree (5) 

24 Respond (5) 

25 Alleviate (7) 

26 Pacts (8) 

27 Scottish valley (4) 

DOWN 

1 Fire-resistant mineral (8) 

2 Seasonal entertainment (5) 

4 Expenditure (6) 

5 Sorts, varieties (5) 

6 Regard with favor (5,2) 

7 Egyptian canal (4) 

8 Sheen (6) 

13 Baker's dozen (8) 

15 Aged between 12 and 20 (7) 

17 Remember (6) 

18 Funeral car (6) 

20 Music for eight performers (5) 

22 Reside (5) 

23 Determination (4) 

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19092022

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