Monday, may 19, 2014

Students of Federal Government Girls College, Abaji, during the solidarity visit of the Executive Director, UN Women, Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, to the school over the abducted Chibok schoolgirls in Abuja, yesterday.

Vol. 4 N0. 854 Monday, May 19, 2014 N150

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CHIDI UGWUABUJA

Chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regula-tory Commission, Dr. Sam Amadi, has chal-lenged electricity distri-bution companies to close the metering gap in the power sector.

The Head, Public Af-

fairs Department, Dr. Usman Abba Arabi, in a statement yesterday, noted that the NERC boss also urged for standardisation

NERC orders Discos to supply meters to customers

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5>>Nebo Free inside

Dysfunctional steelsector hampers industrialgrowth NSE

Oilserve undertakes$500m projects

BUSINESSTHE SECTION

ree iinsiiinsidedededeP.A4,A5

Okonjo-Iweala

Insecurity affects economy, restricts investorsLCCI

One dead, 8 injured in fresh Lagos boat mishap

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Explosion rocks Port Harcourt refi nery, kills 7

say more attacks on Abuja could change Nigerias history

Doctors express fears over health of abducted girls

DENNIS NAKUPORT HARCOURT

No fewer than seven persons were feared dead following an explosion that rocked the Port Harcourt Refinery Jetty at Okrika, in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State yesterday.

It was gathered that van-dals had tampered with one of the pipelines of the Ni-gerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, at a

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MARCUS FATUNMOLE, DENNIS NAKU AND LIVINUS MENEDI

The Medical Consul-tants Association of Nigeria, MD-CAN, yesterday said that the schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram sect at Government Girls Sec-ondary School, Chibok, Borno State, are now vulnerable to afflictions, including severe anxiety, intense fear and hyper-vigilance.

The President of the association, Dr. Steven

Oluwole, a consultant at the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, stated this in a statement made available to jour-nalists in Abuja yester-day.

The association con-demned the tardiness of government in rescu-ing the abducted girls, noting that the girls might now be ill, given the psychological trauma to which they had been subjected since they were abducted.

Other possible illness-es likely to have affected the girls, according to

him, are exaggerated startle response, restless-ness, headaches, sleep impairment, nightmares, palpitation, elevation of blood pressure, muscle aches, gastrointestinal complaints, chest pain and several others, as a result of their continued captivity in the insur-gents den.

Long term effects include tension type headaches, migraines, hypertension, myocar-dial infarctions, asthma, peptic ulcers, skin le-sions, diabetes mellitus, depression, arthritis, ac-

celerated aging, memory failure, infections, poor sleep, and depression.

The association also warned that more attacks on Abuja, the nations capital, could change the course of Nigerias his-tory.

Condemning Boko Ha-rams renewed attacks on Abuja, Oluwole said: The sect is closing in on the Federal Capital to achieve its primary objective. A city that ap-peared fortified after the initial wave of attacks appears so vulnerable in the past few weeks.

More threats have been issued by the sect. It is certainly foolhardy to ignore or assume it lacks the will or capability to make good its threats. In other words, a devastat-ing attack on Abuja could change the course of Ni-gerian history.

The insurgents launched repeated at-tacks on the Federal Cap-ital Territory, FCT, last month, resulting in the death of over 100 lives. The attacks came two years after the city had experienced similar cam-paigns.

Besides, the MDCAN frowned at the recruit-ment by the Nigerias military to fight the Boko Haram belligerents, de-scribing the exercise as diversionary.

Part of the statement reads: The Nigerian armed forces can hardly be described as inade-quate to handle a couple of hundreds or thou-sands members of this sect. Any flat-footedness needs adequate explain-ing.

The notion that the military needs to recruit to defeat Boko Haram is diversionary. The arse-nal of Nigeria military is published, so is that of Boko Haram, which no match is. Well, the blames seem to go round, but who is really in charge?

All perpetrators who connived to make the Boko Haram operation successful should be identified, but that will not rescue the girls.

Meanwhile, strong in-dications have emerged that some of the soldiers involved in last weeks al-leged mutiny may have gone AWOL, a term often used for military person-nel that absconded from duty without permission.

This startling discov-ery comes from revela-tion by some relatives of one of the soldiers who might have taken part in the mutiny, suddenly re-surfacing in Yola.

The Nigeria military have kept silence over the disappearance of some of its men after last Wednes-days angry protest by soldiers against Maj.-Gen. Ahmadu Moham-med, the former General Officer Commanding, GOC, 7 Infantry Division

of the Nigerian Army, Borno State.

According to sources close to the run-away soldiers, it is believed that the actual number of soldiers killed in the ambush that resulted in protest by soldiers may be high. Initial report put the number of soldiers killed at 12.

Findings by our cor-respondent revealed that nine of the slain soldiers were from the 23rd Ar-moured Brigade. Their widows were seen wailing over the demise of their husbands on Wednesday after news report filtered into the barracks.

The women, the source said, received phone calls from their husbands shortly before departing for the operations and did not hear from them again.

Our reporter gathered from one of the soldiers who escaped the ambush that his survival was a "miracle" as they suffered heavy casualties, adding that they lost over many soldiers in the attacks.

He blamed the loss of so many soldiers in Muleh, Jere Local Gov-ernment Area of Borno State, on Tuesday on the GOC, who had since been re-deployed by the mili-tary.

Incensed by avoid-able deaths of many of the military personnel involved in the opera-tion, some soldiers at Maimalari Barracks let out their pent-up anger against the GOC, whose action they perceived was purely perfected to railroad many of the sol-diers to their untimely graves.

One widow, according to our source, said her husband had called her a few hours on the night of the operation to speak to his children at least to bade them goodbye and express his love.

The officer might have had a premonition of his own death.

But one soldier, who escaped unhurt, recalled that the mission had its own lacuna.

The unnamed soldier, according to our source, maintained that the soldiers action on the day of the mutiny was

Explosion rocks Port Harcourt refinery, kills 7

Doctors express fears over health of abducted girls

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Youths cheering soldiers on duty in Maiduguri, Borno State at the weekend. PHOTO: NAN

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net2 Monday, May 19, 2014News

jetty near Okrika, leading to an explosion.

Although the casualty figure was put at seven by sources, it was learnt that scores of people were said to have suffered severe burns.

A staff of the refinery, who did not want his name mentioned, said at least sev-en persons were burnt as a result of the explosion, add-ing that most of them were vandals siphoning oil after bursting a pipeline.

The source added that those who suffered severe burns were taken to an un-disclosed hospital for treat-ment.

The Rivers State Commis-sioner of Police, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin, confirmed the explosion to National Mir-ror. He said that the fire was as a result of the activities of oil pipeline vandals.

Also, the Chairman, Okri-ka Local Government Area,

Tamunu Williams, con-firmed that the incident was as a result of vandals trying to siphon oil.

Williams said: The fire incident is as a result of oil thieves who were siphoning oil from NNPC pipelines. As you can see, there is no man-agement staff of the NNPC or persons in-charge of the corporations operations here.

The gates of the NNPC remain closed to visitors, so, we have not seen anybody that we can officially com-plain to.

I am speaking from the gate of the NNPC and I have been advised to come on Monday when the officials of the NNPC who are in-charge here will be on the ground. The number of ca-sualties cannot be properly ascertained as I speak due to the nature of the terrain within and around the jetty.

Those who survived

were said to have been se-verely burnt. A lot of things are shrouded in secrecy. We have seen the fire but the NNPC has not giving us per-mission to go in and verify the enormity of the damage.

The security there is in-tensive, yet no NNPC staff wants to speak with us. Since they are not ready to go, we chose to go there our-selves. There are, indeed, casualties, but the number of casualties we cannot re-ally confirm. We have been to the creek and we saw the pipelines connections.

Williams appealed to the management of NNPC to provide adequate protection and security for their pipe-lines and equipment so as not to endanger the lives of the people of Okrika.

From what we saw, there is negligence on the part of the NNPC in the mainte-nance of their equipment. Their equipment and pipes

are in a state of disrepair. NNPC should take time to invest in the maintenance of their equipment, he added.

Spokesman of the Port Harcourt Refinery, Mr. Ralph Ugwu, however, said the fire did not affect the operations of the company, stressing that the refinery was up and running; even as he blamed the incident on vandals.

The refinery is up and running. We are receiving products and PMM from the jetty too. No member of staff of NNPC or Port Har-court Refinery was affected in the fire. The situation has no impact on our operations at all.

What happened was that vandals came to siphon oil and it resulted in fire. It is not in my place to mention any casualty figure because it happened outside our ju-risdiction, Ugwu said.

3Monday, May 19, 2014National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net4 Monday, May 19, 2014Photo News

L-R: Business Development Manager, Benin 1 branch, First Bank, Mr. Alexander Imosili; Acting Head, Consumer Banking, Mrs. Adebimpe Ihekuna; BDM, Benin 2 branch, Mr. Francis Amuta and Manager, KPMG Advisory, Mr. Martins Olajide, during the bi-monthly draw of the First Bank Big Splash Promo in Benin on Friday.

L-R: Guest Speaker, Mr. Taiwo Akinlami; Executive Director, TLS, Mrs. Olubunmi Egbeyemi; Director, Mr. Oladapo Egbeyemi and Director, Enterprise Development Centre, Pan Atlantic University, Mr. Peter Bamkole, during the launch of the TLS brand in Lagos on Saturday. PHOTO: YINKA ADEPARUSI

L-R: Executive Director, South East, Edo and Delta Treasury and International Funding Group, Skye Bank, Ms. Amaka Onwughalu; one of the award winners, Mr. Olawale Adegbite and Group Managing Director/CEO-designate, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo, during the bank's award for domiciliary account mobilisation for staff in Lagos on Saturday.

L-R: Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Information and National Orientation, Hon. Umar Buba Jibril; Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe; President, Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria, Mr. Charles Chijide; Marketing Director, Nigerian Breweries, Mr. Walter Drenth and Corporate Affairs Adviser, Mr. Kufre Ekanem, during the presentation of special awards to Heineken at the OAAN 8th Exhibition and Poster Awards in Lagos on Saturday. PHOTO: SAMUEL ADETIMEHIN

National News

Boko Haram: Police tighten security around two Benue schools

Insecurity affects economy, restricts investors LCCI

OMEIZA AJAYIABUJA

The Inspector-Gen-eral of Police, IGP, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar has ordered the strengthening of se-curity in all boarding schools in and around Makurdi, Benue State.

Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba in a statement yesterday in Abuja, said the order became necessary as a result of a recent threat letter purportedly issued by elements claiming to be Boko Haram members to two all boys second-ary schools-Government

College, Makurdi, and Mount Saint Gabriel Col-lege, Makurdi.

Consequently, Benue State Police Command, working in conjunction with the state Ministry of Education and the af-fected school authorities, has strengthened surveil-lance in the schools and other boarding schools within Makurdi metrop-olis, he stated.

Mba added that the police have commenced investigations aimed at ascertaining the source and authenticity or oth-erwise of the said hand-written letter now in pos-session of the Force.

The Police High Com-mand wishes to advise residents of all host com-munities nationwide where boarding schools are located to remain perpetually on the alert and report any suspi-cious movement to the appropriate authorities, he added.

The April 14 abduction of over 200 students of Government Girls Sec-ondary School, Chibok has generated a wave of international outcry, with many foreign gov-ernments offering to as-sist the Federal Govern-ment in the search for the missing girls.

ABOLAJI ADEBAYO

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, said yesterday that the prevailing security situ-ation occasioned by long drawn insurgency has negatively impacted in-vestors confidence and limits the realisation of the tremendous poten-tials that the economy presents, especially post GDP rebasing.

In a statement yester-day, LCCI said it would be difficult to attract in-vestors at this time just as the risk of long term investments in the econ-omy has been heightened by prevailing conditions.

It stated that the tempo of economic activities in the north has declined, access to the markets by companies in the south reduced, resulting in loss of sales, while many en-terprises have relocated.

Security of lives and property is crucial to stimulate investment.

In the same vein, invest-ment growth is impera-tive for job creation, pov-erty reduction and social stability.

Persistent insecu-rity impacts negatively on the economy just as declining private sector performance could result in job losses which could aggravate the state of in-security.

It is a case of mutu-ally reinforcing condi-tions, which underscores the strong nexus between the economy, investment, private sector perfor-mance and security situ-ation.

Persistent insecurity creates concerns about safety and aggravates un-certainty, The Chamber said.

LCCI said it is ready to embrace the strong glob-al support and assistance in the fight against the insurgency.

We should take full advantage of this robust support not only to res-cue the over 200 abducted Chibok girls, but also

to address the capacity gaps in our military in dealing with the pecu-liarities of terrorism and insurgency.

Evidently, there is an international dimen-sion to the insurrection, which is why the global support at this time should be embraced and encouraged to strength-en the capabilities of the Nigerian Armed Forces in tackling terrorism, it added.

The Chamber noted that governments at all levels federal, state and local - should intensify efforts to eliminate local factors that predispose the citizens to extrem-ism.

These conditions in-clude poverty, inequality, unemployment and illit-eracy, it noted.

The LCCI expressed the need for increased spending on education and health to improve the quality of the popula-tion and human capital. It also includes greater quality spending on in-

frastructure to enhance productivity of enter-prises in the economy and strengthen capacity to create jobs in a sus-tainable way.

It noted that a literate and productive citizenry

is a strong antidote to fundamentalism of any sort.

The LCCI therefore urges all citizens to rally round the government and refrain from ampli-fying political, ethnic or

religious sentiments on the issue.

The single most im-portant common objec-tive at this time is to bring back our girls and restore lasting peace in the country, it added.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 5Monday, May 19, 2014 News

of customer estimation, avoidance of extortion and exploitation by the utility companies and the

customers.With the wide gap in

metering, which was put at 54.8 per cent in 2012, resulting in very high

estimation, it became necessary to introduce a temporary measure for billing customer who are not effectively metered,

he said.According to him, Cus-

tomer Service Standard Regulation on meters stipulates that if there

is no electricity meter to record electricity usage at a customers supply ad-dress, the Disco must base customers bill on estimat-ed energy consumption, which is calculated in ac-cordance with a method approved by the commis-sion.

According to the state-ment, estimation should be based on verifiable sci-entific method for moni-toring and dispute reso-lution purpose and must also be reflective of local consumption pattern and close to actual readings previously obtained.

The commissions chairman stated that oth-er basis for consideration in estimation was power availability and issues associated with system losses, that is, commercial losses.

Amadi advised the Dis-cos to intensify metering

programmes to reduce es-timation.

He also warned against the practice by some Dis-cos who applied the unap-proved estimation method based on averaging billed energy.

It is recalled that the Minister of Power, Chin-edu Nebo, hinted that the nation's power sector was suffering from a huge me-tering gap of 2.7 million.

Nebo, who noted that the metering issue was suffocating, revealed that the generation companies (gencos) were being ha-rassed by electricity con-sumers because the distri-bution companies (discos) had collected monies from hundreds of thousands of customers, who were yet to be metered.

Now, we have an esti-mated shortfall in meters or metering gap of 2.7 mil-lion, he said.

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Doctors express fears over health of abducted girls No stabilisation fund from CBN in 23 years, says NEXIM

NERC orders Discos to supply meters to customers

L-R: Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke; Chairman, Citilodge Hotel and Conference Centre, Mr. Olufemi Talabi; Director-General, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Mrs. Sally Mbanefo and Chief Executive Of-ficer, International Style Week Ltd, Mr. Bassey Essien, at tourism development workshop in Abuja at the weekend.

to avenge the death of their colleagues, and perhaps get justice for them.

In a related develop-ment, men of the 23 Ar-moured Brigade, Yola, have relocated there op-erational headquarters to Maidagali, to track down fleeing members of the Boko Haram insur-gents who may have es-caped into nearby forest.

About 70 members of the group were allegedly killed by local security operatives who laid am-bush for them in their community.

The spokesman of the command, Lt. Nuhu Ja-far, told our correspon-dent that sequel to the media report that the lo-cal security men in the area killed over 70 mem-bers of the group, the Army quickly deployed its men to the area to track down the fleeing sect members.

As I am talking to you now, the authority of 23 Armoured Brigade, Yola, are already in Madagali Local Government Area of the state following the report we had that local security men laid ambush on the outlawed group and killed over 70 members. Surely, we will

return back to Yola, the state capital on Monday to give detail of what re-ally happen there, he said.

There were reports that vigilantes acted af-ter they were tipped off by a local food vendor that the militants were coming to get food before heading out for a major operation to raid villages in the area, usually car-ried out at night.

The vigilance group mobilised and laid am-bush for the militants, a source in the village said.

The source added that as soon as the Islamist insurgents, number-ing over 100, showed up in the village members of the vigilance group attacked them, killing most of them in a hail of bullets.

Investigation showed that the local security men in the area had sum-moned courage to assist the security agents to re-pel incessant attacks by the insurgents who had killed over 50 members of the community.

Some of the villagers said that they believed that the Nigerian soldiers had not done much to end the activities of the dreaded group who un-

leashed havoc on them at will.

We feel that there are fundamental things wrong in the way our se-curity agents are fighting the Boko Haram insur-gents who terrorise us here.

We have been pushed to the wall and are not afraid to die because they are men like us. And we are tired of folding up our hands and allowing them to kill us, to kill our wives and to kill our chil-dren and the government is not securing us, one of the villagers said.

In another develop-ment, the Leader of the defunct Niger Delta Peo-ples Volunteer Force, Al-haji Mujahideen Dokubo-Asari, yesterday accused Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima of fak-ing the abduction of the students.

Dokubo-Asari, who made the accusation at a rally organised in hon-our of the late Ijaw hero, Isaac Adaka Boro, in Port Harcourt, the Riv-ers State capital, said no student was missing in Chibok.

He described the ab-duction as a propaganda perpetrated by the North against President Good-luck Jonathan, a hoax,

adding that it was an ar-rangement between the All Progressives Con-gress, APC, and Gover-nor Shettima, to put an end to the emergency rule in the three north-ern states.

No girl was kid-napped. We know that no girl was kidnapped. It was an arrangement by APC and Shetima to stop the state of emergency. He (Shettima) has failed. Let Shettima bring back the girls where he is hid-ing them.

He knows where the girls are and when they eventually come back we will conduct a DNA test to march with their par-ents, even as he criticised the bring back the girl rallies across the country, saying they are deceitful.

We are sending a mes-sage to the hypocrites in Abuja some people were talking about bring back the girls. Where were they when Odi was destroyed and thousands of people killed at Obuama. We will not be deceived. Chibok is a scam, he said.

He, however, warned the Boko Haram insur-gents and their sponsors not to dare the people of the Niger Delta region, saying the area was ready for Boko Haram.

The Nigerian Export Import Bank, NEX-IM, said it had not received any stabilisation fund from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, since it be-gan operation 23 years ago.

It said that CBNs only funding of the bank had remained the N50 billion authorised share capital, which it contributed with the Federal Ministry of Fi-nance Incorporated.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Head, Corporate Communi-cations, NEXIM, Mr. Chin-edu Moghalu yesterday in Abuja.

NEXIM said that it was untrue that it received N200 billion stabilisation fund from the CBN as claimed by the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP.

It said that it had over the years continued to manage its operations with the share contributions of the Federal Government through the CBN and the Ministry of Fi-nance Incorporated.

The bank has, in its over 23 years of existence, not received any N200 bil-lion stabilisation fund from the CBN or any other agen-cy of government.

Indeed, the bank has an authorised and called-up share capital of N50 billion equally contributed by the

CBN and the Federal Min-istry of Finance Incorpo-rated, it said.

It stated that although funding from the equity owners of the bank had not been impressive, it had ap-plied prudence, due process and best practice in the man-agement of its resources.

According to it, the board and management of NEXIM have in the last four years completely turned around the fortunes of the bank through posi-tive financial performance and increased developmen-tal impact to the Nigerian economy.

Key elements of this turnaround include the firm entrenchment of a ro-bust risk management and corporate governance as well as highly skilled per-sonnel.

Therefore, it is impossi-ble for loans to be disbursed in the manner alleged by the group, the bank said.

Condemning the claim by CNPP that it received N200 billion from the CBN and had applied question-able style in loan disburse-ment, the bank challenged the group to substantiate the allegation.

It threatened that it might seek legal redress if the group failed to straight-en the facts.

OBIORA IFOHABUJA

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has said that Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathans aborted trip to Chibok is symptomatic of his ad-ministrations policy flip-flop in the fight against the terror group Boko Ha-ram.

The party stated that the botched trip did not come as a surprise to close watchers of the ad-ministration.

In a statement issued in Lagos over the weekend by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Al-haji Lai Mohammed, the

APC said: Just as the Jonathan administra-tion has bungled the fight against the sect, it has ex-hibited sheer cluelessness in handling the abduction of the school girls.

It added: With his ut-terances and actions or inaction, President Jona-than has deepened the pains of the parents and guardians of the girls, and indeed that of the whole nation, when he should have been the consoler-in-chief at such a difficult time for a nation he leads.

To worsen matters, the administration has resorted to lying to Nige-rians, saying the presi-dent never planned to visit Chibok in the first

instance, even when it has been widely reported in the local and internation-al media that the presi-dents advance team had landed in Borno State be-fore the presidential volte face.

Pray, do presidential advance teams deploy themselves at will?, the APC queried.

The party said the pres-ident himself made his ly-ing aides to look squeaky clean when he told the worlds media that he did not go to Chibok because the girls are not being held there and also because the trip will not lead to their release.

APC said a president who was so in denial that critical time had lapsed before world attention forced him to act on the abducted girls, has again dropped the ball at anoth-er critical moment -just the same way he waffled and wavered on the overall Boko Haram crisis before the terror group gained enough strength to be-come a runaway monster that could now strike at a time and place of its own choosing, killing 12,000 people and injuring 8,000 others.

Meanwhile, the chair-man of the Board of Trust-ees of the Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP, Chief

Tony Anenih, yesterday berated the opposition for calling on President Good-luck Jonathan to resign on account of the raging Boko Haram insurgency and the recent abduction of over 200 students of Government Girls Second-ary School, Chibok, Borno State, saying that the call was unpatriotic.

Anenih, in a statement entitled: Let Us Unite Against Boko Haram and issued in Abuja, said that all Nigerians, irrespec-tive of regional, religious or political affiliations, should unite behind the president in the fight against Boko Haram.

He admonished opposi-tion politicians to learn from the Westgate Shop-ping Mall killings in Ke-nya, where the opposition leader, Rahila Odinga, stood right by the side of President Uhuru Kenyat-ta, while the latter was ad-dressing Kenyans on the dastardly attack.

Annenih also recalled how the people of America and Great Britain closed ranks and rallied support for their respective gov-ernments in the aftermath of al-Qaeda deadly attacks on their nations, point-ing out that in none of these cases did the citizens call on their president or prime minister to resign.

ISE-OLUWA IGEABUJA

A lawyer, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, has sued the National As-sembly at a Federal High Court in Abuja over the constitutionality of its decision to unilaterally in-crease the 2014 budget by N53bn.

Abayomi, who is con-tending that the National Assembly has no such power, is inviting the court to nullify the deci-

sion.In the suit, he named

the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives as defen-dants.

Specifically, the lawyer wants the court to deter-mine whether it is within the constitutional powers of the National Assembly to increase the budget es-timate submitted by the president.

He is also asking the court to determine wheth-er the National Assembly

can create a new expendi-ture/budget head in a bud-get estimate submitted by the president for passage/approval.

In the event that the court finds that the Na-tional Assembly has no such powers, he is asking the court to restrain the defendants from creating a new expenditure/budget estimate submitted by the president for passage.

In the affidavit in sup-port of the suit deposed to by Uzoanya Kelechi

Victoria, the plaintiff told the court that the increase in the budget by the Na-tional Assembly amounts to constitutional infringe-ment and abuse, as well as wrongful exercise of leg-islative powers under the constitution.

He also told the court in the affidavit that the budget estimate passed on Wednesday, April 9, 2014 was unilaterally in-creased by N53bn.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the case.

OLSUEGUN KOIKI

The regulator in the countrys aviation industry, the Nigeri-an Civil Aviation Author-ity, NCAA, has warned air passengers against any form of violence whenev-er their flights are delayed or cancelled due to adverse weather conditions.

The airline threatened that any passenger caught fomenting trouble at air-ports would be dealt with according to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations 2012 (NigCAR), Part 19.5.3.

Rather, the regulatory agency urged the air pas-sengers to demonstrate high rate of calm and understanding whenever their flights are either de-layed or cancelled outright because of bad weather.

NCAA noted that the beginning of raining sea-son anywhere in the world is usually accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning and turbulence, especially windshear.

An online media statement signed by the spokesman of the agen-cy, Mr. Fan Ndubuoke, emphasised that when windshear occurs along the flight path, it causes abrupt and substantial displacement of the air-craft from its intended path, which becomes ex-tremely hazardous for aircraft taking off and landing.

Ndubuoke also identi-fied other hazard condi-tions associated with rain-fall to include microburst, hail, lightning, low ceiling and visibility, icing, altim-eter error as well as en-gine water ingestion.

He warned that the rains being experienced now might result in occa-sional flight cancellations and delays, maintaining that pilots are mandato-rily required to obtain en-route/destination weather information before the op-eration of a flight.

Pilots, he added, are also required to abort a flight if the weather condi-tion was unsafe for opera-tion.

Ndubuoke insisted that NCAAs primary responsibility was to ensure safe and secure air transportation in the country and enjoined intending passengers to exercise restraint and understanding in the event of weather-related cancellations or delays.

He drew the attention of both the operators and passengers to the rights, responsibilities and limitations of all the parties, as spelt out in the Nigeria Civil Avi-ation Regulations 2012 (NigCAR) Part 19.5.3

The portion, he stated, affirms that: An operat-ing airline shall not be obliged to pay compen-sation for cancellation if it can prove that the can-cellation is caused by extraordinary circum-stances which could not have been avoided, even if all reasonable meas-ures have been taken.

He said that any air operator who delays or cancels flight due to adverse weather condi-tions was merely uphold-ing the standard and rec-ommended practices in the industry worldwide, and as spelt out in avia-tion regulations.

Lawyer sues NASS over hike in 2014 budget

NCAA warns passengers on violence at airports

Chibok: Jonathans aborted trip not surprising

Members of the Anti-Corruption Network protesting against substandard cement and building collapse in the country, in Abuja, at the weekend. PHOTO: ROTIMI OSASONA

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday May 19, 2014 6 News6

The Independent Petroleum Mar-keters Associa-tion of Nigeria, IPMAN, has blamed the high cost of petroleum products on the non-functional depots in the country.

The Eastern Zonal Chairman of IPMAN, Chief Chukwudi Ez-inwa, said this in Enugu on Sunday while brief-ing journalists on its ac-tivities.

Ezinwa said the price

of petroleum products would fall when all the 21 depots in the country were functional,

He urged the Federal Government to reacti-vate the depots in the country in order to en-

sure availability of pe-troleum products.

The chairman, who also argued that the de-regulation of the oil sector would boost the economy if well man-aged, said:

Steer clear of operational areas, DHQ warns journalists, tourists

CBN earmarks N132bn for women empowerment

IPMAN links high fuel price to dysfunctional depots

L-R: Secretary to the Ogun State Government, Mr. Taiwo Adeoluwa; Australian High Commission to Nigeria, Mr. Jonathan Richardson; Governor Ibikunle Amosun and the Public Affairs Officer, Australian High Commission in Nigeria, Mr. Okokon Odiongenyi, during the high commissioners visit to the governor in Abeokuta, at the weekend.

UBONG UKPONGABUJA

The Defence Head-quarters, DHQ, yesterday, warned all persons, especially journalists and tourists, who have not secured mil-itary clearance, to steer clear of all its operations areas of Borno and Ad-amawa States to avoid un-savoury situations with troops.

The DHQ gave the warning in a statement issued in Abuja, through its Director of Defence

Information, DDI, Major General Chris Olukolade.

Olukolade complained that the Defence Head-quarters has noted the presence of a large num-ber of tourists, journal-ists and adventurers of diverse interests moving about in areas where se-curity operations are cur-rently ongoing especially in Adamawa and Borno States without the nec-essary security cover or clearance.

This trend constitutes unnecessary risk to the persons especially the

foreigners involved. It is also an undue obstruction to operations.

Much as the military has nothing to hide and believes in the freedom of movement in the country, the need for all persons to recognise the status of certain places as opera-tional area is hereby reit-erated.

Anyone violating the existing procedures for coverage or movement in the mission area does so at his or her own peril as the security forces should not be held responsible

for any unsavory outcome of such movement.

Necessary arrange-ment will continue to be made for the protection of persons and visitors whose movement is duly vetted and in line with development in the secu-rity situation on ground in particular mission area. The general public is hereby informed that obstructive, suspicious or risky movement of visi-tors will not be condoned in any mission and opera-tional area in the coun-try, he stated.

ADEOLA TUKURUABUJA

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has disbursed the sum of 132 billion naira under its Micro, Small and Medium Enterpris-es Development Fund, MSMEDF, to enhance women economic em-powerment in the coun-try.

The Acting Governor of the CBN, Mrs. Sarah Alabi, revealed this over the weekend during a meeting held in Abuja between the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Ha-jiya Zainab Maina with officials of the CBN.

She said that the amount represents 60 per cent of the total sum of 220 billion naira set aside by the apex bank under the scheme to ad-dress cash flow challeng-es of financial services in the micro finance sub sector.

Sarah observed that in most cases, women ex-clusion in financial ser-vices was as a result of lack of financial literacy of the women, especially those at the grassroots.

She emphasised the need for the CBN to col-laborate with the min-istry on advocacy pro-grammes that will create the necessary awareness towards greater par-ticipation of women at the grassroots on the various economic sup-port programmes of the

bank, especially the Ag-ricultural Credit Guar-anty Scheme meant for small scale farmers.

Mrs. Alabi, also noted the need to ensure feed-backs during the en-lightenment campaign, to enable the CBN make necessary policy adjust-ments, and guide the bank in fine-tuning the guidelines of the new SMMEDF scheme.

The Minister com-mended the CBN for taking the lead in pro-moting financial in-clusion of women and other marginalised Nigerians through its various schemes such as the Revised Micro-Finance Policy, the Agricultural Credit Guaranty Scheme, the National Financial In-clusion Strategy,NFIS, and the newly intro-duced MSMEDF.

She noted that these schemes if properly harnessed especially by women at the grass-roots will go a long way in reducing the current exclusion rate of women from financial services of 46.3 to 20.0 per cent by the year 2020, and en-sure the much needed economic empowerment of women in the country.

The Minister how-ever urged the CBN to engage gender-sensitive Micro Finance Banks in the disbursement of the funds to the end benefi-ciaries so that the gen-erality of women would not be schemed out.

We are not afraid of deregulation. It is the best thing that can happen to marketers.

The end users will not benefit from it if they can-not buy fuel and kerosene at government price.

Ezinwa, however, com-mended the Federal Gov-ernment over its plan to build two refineries, say-ing that it would go a long way in transforming the country.

When we have our re-fineries, the practice of taking our crude oil out

to refine will be a thing of the past, he said.

On vandalism of pipe-lines, especially in the South East Zone, Ezinwa said it was the respon-sibility of all tiers of government as well as communities to fight the menace.

The Federal Govern-ment is doing its best to reactivate the pipeline from Port Harcourt to Enugu but the problem is the non-involvement of the state governors of the zone.

BOLADALE BAMIGBOLAOSOGBO

Striking academic and non academic staff of the four ter-tiary institutions owned by the Osun State Govern-ment yesterday vowed to continue with their indus-trial action, saying gov-ernment has not met their demands.

The affected institu-tions are Osun State Poly-

technic, Iree, Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke, Osun State Col-lege of Education, Ilesa and Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun.

This stand by the work-ers was contrary to a statement aired on both state-owned radio and television, which directed all striking staff of the affected institutions to re-sume work today.

According to the state-

ment signed by the Per-manent Secretary, Min-istry of Education, Mr. Kunle Oyeniran, govern-ment said it had met all the demands of the strik-ing staff of the institu-tions.

The statement also claimed that the state gov-ernment has approved the extension of the retire-ment age of the academic staff of the affected insti-tutions to 65years from

60years and grant them autonomy through the es-tablishment of Governing Council for each of the in-stitution.

Among others, the striking workers are de-manding full implementa-tion of the new Contribu-tory Pension Scheme, address understaffing in the institutions, alleged high tax regime, full au-tonomy and extension of retirement age to 65years.

Well continue with our strike, says Osun tertiary institutions workers

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday May 19, 2014 National News 7News

Aregbesola unveils OMEALS programme at Abuja summit today

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net8 Monday, May 19, 2014 South West

FRANCIS SUBERU

Tragedy struck in La-gos Saturday night as another boat cap-sized, leaving one passen-ger dead with eight others injured.

It was gathered that the incident happened around 8:30pm at Bonny Camp in Lagos Island.

The boat was said to be coming from Ilashe before it suddenly upturned on the passengers.

Although nobody could as-certain if there were more pas-sengers drowned, it was learnt that only the body of a middle-age woman was found.

As at the time of filing this report, nobody could

also ascertain the cause of the accident but the re-mains of the only passenger who lost her life in the inci-dent had been deposited in the morgue at the General Hospital, Lagos Island.

The lady who died in the unfortunate incident was identified as Claire and she was said to be living around Oregun area of Ikeja, Lagos.

An official of the Lagos State Emergency Manage-ment Authority, LSEMA, who pleaded anonymity be-cause he was not authorised to speak to the press on the issue, said that only one pas-senger died in the incident, adding that the body of the woman had been deposited at the mortuary.

One dies, eight injured in fresh Lagos boat mishap

L-R: Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade; Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola; Orangun of Ila, Oba Wahab Oyedotun and Ataoja of Osogboland, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun, during a two-day conference of foremost monarchs in Osun State on the development of the state in Osogbo.

Ekiti denies funding Social Security Scheme with councils allocation

Tinubus comment about Yoruba royal fathers disrespectful -PDP

ABIODUN NEJO ADO EKITI

Ekiti State Govern-ment has debunked the rumour going round that the Social Secu-rity Scheme for the elderly in the state is being funded with the local government allocation.

Commissioner for La-bour, Productivity and Hu-man Capital Development, Mr Oluwole Ariyo, said that there was a budgetary allocation from the state fiscal plan for the scheme contrary to the rumour that it was being financed with the local government allocation.

Ariyo, who spoke at Er-

injiyan-Ekiti in Ekiti West Local Government Area of the state while moni-toring payment of the N5, 000 monthly allowances to the elderly across the 16 council areas of the state, assured that the scheme would stand the test of time since the law estab-lishing it had been duly enacted.

He said that the due process of passing the bill through the state House of Assembly before being signed by the Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was judi-ciously followed.

The commissioner de-scribed as equally laugh-able the insinuation that the scheme was a Federal

Government programme, stressing that the idea originated from Ekiti State while some other states were beginning to emulate the laudable concept.

He charged the ben-eficiaries and other stake-holders to support Gover-nor Fayemis second term bid in order to guarantee the provision of more divi-dends of democracy and better the lot of the people.

Beneficiaries across the 16 council areas who were visibly happy with the at-tention they received from the state government, prayed for Fayemis suc-cess at the poll.

One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Rachel Ola, from Osan

Ekiti in Moba Council area in the state, said that the N5,000 monthly stipend had assisted immensely in pre-serving the lives of people that were hitherto hopeless, adding that she was now empowered enough to feed herself without resorting to begging.

Seventy-two-year old, Mr Bolaji Ogunlana, from Erijinyan Ekiti said that all reasonable elderly people in the state would support the second term bid of Governor Fayemi if only to pay him back for the laudable scheme as well as encourage the continuation of all his other commendable pro-grammes.

BOLADALE BAMIGBOLA OSOGBO

Peoples Democratic Party, Osun State chapter yesterday said the statement cred-ited to the national leader of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Senator Bola Tinubu about tradi-tional rulers in Yorubal-and, reflected the amount of respect the former gov-ernor of Lagos state has for royal fathers.

The party in a release signed by its Chairman, Alhaji Ganiyu Olaolu-wa and made available to newsmen in Osogbo yesteday, said Tinubu de-scended on the traditional rulers because of their non-partisanship and re-fusal to be dummies in the hands of politicians.

The statement reads: Tinubus statement about

traditional rulers was not unguided but, it was a reflection of his thought and this last assault on the sacred royal stools in Yorubaland has further exposed how much dis-dain he harboured against royal fathers that refused to be dummies and play APC politics.

Yoruba people are known for given due re-spect to elders let alone traditional rulers, whom they ranked next to gods. It is unfortunate that Tinubus view about Yo-ruba royal fathers, which we believe is the same with that of the party he leads, the APC, has not only desecrated revered royal stools, but has also lowered the esteemed position other races had hitherto put traditional rulers from this part of the world.

FEMI OYEWESO ABEOKUTA

Ogun State Police Command yester-day said it has ar-rested four men suspected to be members of a high-way robbery gang.

A statement issued yesterday in Abeokuta, the state capital by the Commands Public Re-lations Officer, PPRO, Muyiwa Adejobi said that the Highway Patrol Team attached to Ijebu Ode -Benin expressway arrested the four sus-pects last Friday while on routine patrol along the expressway.

Adejobi gave names of the suspects to include Oluwaseun Oladapo, Ju-

lius Tepe, Kamoru Moruf as well as Surajudeen Bu-sari.

The PPRO further said that the police had flagged down one Honda Accord marked Lagos AAA 219 BP conveying the robbery suspects at Ososa area along the ex-pressway.

The attitudes of the occupants raised suspi-cion that led to their ar-rest who could not give any satisfactory explana-tion on the ownership of the vehicle.

The command also said that it has uncovered sev-eral nails buried on the highways by hoodlums operating along the Abeo-kuta -Sagamu expressway

with the purpose of punc-turing tyres of unsuspect-ing moving vehicles.

Adejobi said the heavy long nails, which re-sembled iron - rods were uncovered last Saturday by the commands Anti Robbery Team attached to the expressway while on patrol.

He added that foiled robbery attempts in re-cent time had revealed that robbers have de-vised the means as a new technique to destroy tyres and make motor-ists and commuters fall victims of their robbery operations along the highways.

This prompted the command to restrategise

Ogun police arrest four robbery suspects, recover weapons

BOLADALE BAMIGBOLA OSOGBO

Osun State Gov-ernor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbe-sola will today unveil the state School Feeding Programme otherwise known as OMEALS, at a summit in Abuja

At the event where state governors, ministers and international experts are expected to converge, the

governor will share his administrations experi-ences on the programme for the benefits of farm-ers, community and Nige-rian pupils.

After the summit, Aregbesola is expected to play host to delega-tions from states across the country said to be keen on learning from the Osun OMEALS ex-perience to achieve a sus-tainable implementation

strategy for all-round benefits of stakehold-ers. Aregbesola, who is expected to be one of the keynote speakers at the parley, will share the ex-perience of his adminis-tration with other states and Federal Government on how to achieve an in-tegrated benefit chain for farmers to enjoy maxi-mum advantages from the school feeding pro-gramme.

and put the axis under surveillance before their weapons were recovered, he said.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 9 South WestMonday, May 19, 2014

Governor Abiola Ajimobi has said that as the chief security officer in Oyo State, he is not only inter-ested in ensuring peace and tranquility, but also interested in bringing criminals to book.

He made this known in a release issued by his Special Adviser on Me-dia, Dr. Festus Adedayo, against the backdrop of the arrest of a chieftain of National Union of Road Transport Work-ers, NURTW, Mr. Mukaila Lamidi, alias Auxiliary, in Ibadan, by the police recently.

I swore to the good people of Oyo State in May 2011 that I would pro-tect them from the hands of rampaging criminals. I swore that political affili-ations would not colour my judgment.

I detest crime and criminals, and that is why ours is about the first gov-ernment that would open-ly advertise a disconnect with thugs and violence.

We will continue to do this in the interest of the great people of our state, the governor said.

Ajimobi stated that he had mandated the secu-rity agencies in the state to step up the search for every wanted criminal and apprehend their col-laborators, no matter how highly-placed they might be in the society.

He expressed delight at the arrest of Auxiliary, said to be one of the most dreaded thugs in the state, saying that it was a testi-mony to the zeal, compe-tence and determination of the police authorities to rid the state of violent elements.

The police had in June, 2011, placed a ransom of N500,000 on Auxiliary and a former Chairman of the state branch of NURTW, Alhaji Lateef Oloruntoki, alias Tokyo, over the murder of the National President of Ni-geria Medical Students Association, Bala Usman Shanono.

KEMI OLAITANIBADAN

With the country presently facing serious chal-lenges, human rights ac-tivist, Mr. Femi Falana, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan probe the disbursement of over N3trn budgeted for securi-ty between 2010 and 2014.

He made the call at the weekend at a lecture he delivered at the 18th National Delegates Con-ference of the Academic Staff Union of Universi-ties, ASUU, held at the University of Ibadan.

Falana, in the lecture entitled: Nigerias Cri-ses: Corruption, Impu-nity and the Paradox for Democracy, also alleged that most of the 125 pri-vate jets owned by Nige-rians are associated with the N2.3trn fuel subsidy scam of 2011.

He urged Nigerians to demand an end to a policy that allows politicians, who he said constitute only 12 per cent of the

population, to allocate to themselves 74 per cent of the revenue generated by the government.

Falana urged the Ni-geria Labour Congress, NLC, to mobilise Nigeri-ans to compel government to channel the bulk of the nations foreign reserves to fix collapsed social in-frastructures, fund educa-tion, health, transporta-tion and agriculture, as well as create jobs for un-employed youths.

He noted that the rule of law, transparency and accountability in govern-ment serve, not only as means to counter corrup-tion, but also as funda-mental conditions of good governance.

According to him, there is no doubt that the na-tions armed forces can effectively fight the war on terror if they are suf-ficiently equipped and ad-equately trained.

The human rights cru-sader expressed dismay that the Nigerian armed forces that restored peace in hitherto war- torn Libe-ria and Sierra Leone, have

become so ill-equipped that they cannot defeat the rag-tag army of Boko Haram, and now rely on foreign assistance to as-sist in rescuing the kid-napped Chibok school-girls.

He warned Nigeria to learn from the fight

Insurgency: Falana tasks FG on N3trn security budget

Members of The Criterion (Association of Muslim Women in Business and Profession) during a prayer organised by the associa-tion for the abducted Chibok schoolgirls in Borno State, yesterday.

FEMI OYEWESOABEOKUTA

The Ogun State sector of Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, has de-clared that it would from today begin the enforce-ment of the law which empowers it to arrest and prosecute anyone found guilty of abusing federal highways.

This includes those who throw spikes at mo-torists under the guise of collecting revenue for the state government.

Such people, the agen-

cy warned, risk a three-year jail term, with an option of N60,000 fine or both.

At the inauguration of the taskforce arm of FERMA, held over the weekend at Siun Road camp in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area, the Ogun Command Co-ordinator, taskforce, Mr. Segun Kaka, told news-men that the new mea-sure is in consonance with Section 7 of the Act 2007 which established the agency.

Kaka, who spoke be-fore the combined team

of security agencies, explained that the task-force, christened Fed-eral Road Committee on Surveillance and Action Against Road Abuse, FERCSARA, is vested with the power to control and keep surveillance on all federal highways with the view to ensuring san-ity on federal highways.

The event also had in attendance, representa-tives of all security agen-cies which included the police, Directorate of State Security, DSS, Fed-eral Road Safety Commis-sion, FRSC, and Nigeria

Customs Service, NCS.Others are the Nigeria

Security and Civil De-fence Corps, NSCDC, as well as representatives of the state ministries of Agriculture, Environ-ment and Forestry.

Following the inaugu-ration of the taskforce, Kaka said revenue collec-tors on the federal high-ways, under the pretence of working for the state ministries of Agric and Natural Resources, For-estry, or the Environment are under searchlight and risk prosecution should they misbehave.

Stay off highways, FERMA warn LG revenue collectors

Ill bring criminals to book -Ajimobi

against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan by the allied forces of imperial-ism, instead of celebrat-ing the direct involvement of foreign troops in the war on terror.

Falana also asked the Federal Government to sanction the military au-

thorities for exposing the country to undeserved embarrassment over the dubious claims that they had rescued the abducted girls, when they had been located in the den of the terrorists.

The rights activist, who was piqued by what he

called the culture of im-punity and corruption in the country, berated the federal government for lacking the political lead-ership to advance demo-cratic reforms and imple-ment anti-corruption laws consistently and impar-tially.

Were not usurping LG powers, says LagosFRANCIS SUBERU

The Lagos State Government has denied claims that it is usurping the pow-ers of local government councils.

It said that the local councils are as autono-mous as prescribed by the constitution.

Commissioner for Lo-cal Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Ademorin Kuye, made the clarification while

briefing newsmen in La-gos.

Kuye maintained that the powers and au-thorities of the councils and development areas (LCDAs) in the state are very sacrosanct and have always been respected by the state government.

He said the resolve of the state government to collecting advertisement charges is to harmon-ise, create standards and make the payment of the rate uniform and easy.

The commissioner

added that the money is not diverted by the state government, but shared among the concerned lo-cal government authori-ties.

Kuye stated that it had come to the knowledge of the government that some hoodlums are act as local government agents to extort money from the public.

He said anyone caught making illegal collec-tions would be legally dealt with.

According to the com-

missioner, 350 petitions were received from members of the public, private organisations, government agencies, non-governmental agen-cies, among others, on the activities of local govern-ment council in the state in the last one year.

According to him, 36 comprehensive reports were compiled and rec-ommendations made for government imple-mentation, with regards to the petitions investi-gated.

National Mirror www.nationalmir-10 South East Monday, May 19, 2014

CHRIS NJOKU OWERRI

Imo State Government is to construct a multi-million naira diagnos-tic centre in conjunction with the Israeli authori-ties to check the rampant cases of kidney problems in the state.

This is coming just as the Nigeria Guild of Editors, NGE, ends its three-day meeting with a resolve to partner with state govern-ments involved in progres-sive and people-oriented programmes.

The government is also planning to establish one of the best international con-ference centres in the coun-try just as the government has earmarked 637 hectares of land for an oil palm plan-

tation. Governor Rochas Okoro-

cha announced this while receiving NGE members who paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Owerri.

He also debunked specu-lation that his government borrowed a whopping N200bn from banks to fi-nance some capital proj-ects.

The governor explained that what the administra-tion had accomplished in the past three years was through self- determina-tion, selfless service, effec-tive judicious utilisation of available resources to move the state forward.

He said the efforts had given birth to dramatic changes in the industrial and educational sectors.

Okorocha disclosed that the Ada Palm Nigeria Ltd in Ohaji/Egbema LGA which had now metamor-phosed into the Imo Palm Plantation had been re-vived and resuscitated, to net in N3.2bilion monthly into the government cof-fers while the standard shoe industry had since bounced back to business, producing shoes for pupils and students.

The governor enumer-ated some of his achieve-ments to include free edu-cation, construction of the Heroes Squares, Ikemba Ojukwu Convention Cen-tre, Twin House for deputy governor and wife of the governor; Sam Mbakwe Ex-ecutive Chambers, general hospitals in each of the 27 LGAs of the state and re-

habilitation of schools and roads. Others are introduc-tion of new ethics and civil service dress codes, regular payment of salary and pen-sion for teachers and civil servants.

Okorocha added that in all, he had completed over 1000 projects in the state.

He also disclosed that he had established the con-tentious Imo security net-work, saying that the out-fit, which is working jointly with security agencies in the state, had drastically reduced crime, including kidnapping in the state.

He also called for the es-tablishment of state police in the country, insisting that terrorism, kidnapping and the Boko Haram men-ace should be left in the hands of the state police.

L-R: Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano; his wife, Ebele and Chairman, Orumba North Local Government, Hon. Okey Enekwe, at the inauguration of this years farming season at Nteje, Oyi Local Government Area, at the weekend.

FRANCIS EKPONEONITSHA

The Sole Administra-tor of Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ojukwu (Jnr), yesterday welcomed an All Progres-sives Congress, APC, stal-wart, Reuben Mbadiwe Okongwu, back to the rul-ing All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA.

The APC strongman,

who contested for the state House of Assembly in the 2011 general election, re-turned to APGA in a recep-tion at the residence of the deceased national leader of the party, Dim Chukwue-meka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

Ojukwu (Jnr) said that the entry of the

APC strongman and his followers back into the APGA was indeed a big catch for his party.

He stressed that Gover-nor Willie Obiano gave him

a clear mandate to enlarge the party in Nnewi when he was given the job to pilot the affairs of the council area.

Okongwu, who was a commanding officer of the defunct Biafran

Army and current chair-man of the Board of Trust-ees, Nnewi Town Union (Nzukoora Nnewi), said that he decided to dump APC for the betterment of his community.

He noted that his deci-sion was hinged on his

Ojukwu welcomes APC chieftain back to APGA

Imo to set up diagnostic centre, oil palm plantation

intention to give support to the administration of Obiano and attract the governments attention to some deplorable roads and collapsed infrastructure in Nnewi.

The former APC stal-wart recalled that he had always been a member of APGA before his adventure into the Peoples Democrat-ic Party, PDP, and the Ac-tion Congress of Nigeria, CAN, which later metamor-phosed into APC.

DENNIS AGBOENUGU

The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Enugu State, yes-terday took a swipe on the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state for rais-ing the alarm on dereg-istration of voters by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the state.

The APC accused the PDP of being responsible for double registration of voters in the state, result-ing in de-registration of 621 polling units.

The state PDP Chair-man, Mr. Vita Abbah, had last week raised the alarm of the deregistration, ac-cusing INEC of connaiv-ance with some politi-cians in the state to cause the error.

But the APC Chair-man in the state, Dr. Ben Nwoye, in a press briefing yesterday, challenged Ab-bah to a debate for PDP to prove how INEC was cul-pable in the error.

Nwoye wondered how PDP, which he said had been the sole beneficiary from the instrumentality of power, should seek to drag INEC to court on an error allegedly perpetu-

ated by the PDP.Nwoye said: In 2011,

the PDP benefitted from massive rigging, it en-couraged double registra-tion because they invited people living outside Enu-gu State to come back and register and those people went back to their resi-dences to register again.

The PDP never under-stood biometrics and they have caused us this harm or does Vita Abbah want INEC to use analogue vot-ers register? They (PDP) connived and had mul-tiple registration and now the cry wolf.

The APC boss cited Am-uri ward in Nkanu West Local Government where he said that the two poll-ing units affected by the deregistration were domi-nated by the PDP.

He gave INEC a clean slate saying, we now have a most credible INEC. PDP are fraudsters. Vita Abbah should understand its not about PDP and I wonder why they should insinuate that Senator Ike Ekwere-madu was responsible for the error.

They are like people that cheated in WASC ex-amination; unfortunately we have to leave with the effect of malpractice.

Voters register: APC slams Enugu PDP

DENNIS AGBOENUGU

The Centre for Edu-cation Reform Ini-tiative, CREI, a non-governmental orga-nization, has tipped busi-nessman and Chief Exec-utive of Masters Energy, Dr. Uche Ogah as the best aspirant for Abia State governorship race.

The group described Ogah as upwardly mo-bile and development-ori-ented who would lift the state to the next level.

Executive Director of CREI, Hon. Chinwe Ugwu, said that Abia State had attained un-precedented development under the administration of Governor Theophilus Orji, hence the need to look for somebody with the capacity to sustain the tempo of develop-ment.

Ugwu said: Over the years, Ogah has proved

that he is a very good manager of men and re-sources, given the phe-nomenal growth of his business empire.

Abia State would, therefore, benefit im-mensely from the wealth of his corporate experi-ence and burning desire to make the society bet-ter.

According to her, it will amount to a disservice to the people of the state if the legacy of Orji was not sustained after he has left office and to avoid such a mistake now is the time to start beaming the searchlight on Ogah.

Ugwu lauded Ogah for his philanthropic disposition which had transformed many lives, noting that his empower-ment programmes have become a reference point in wealth creation and economic freedom for so many people within and outside the state.

2015: Group tips Ogah as next Abia gov

as editors meeting ends in Owerri

The Standards Or-ganisation of Ni-geria, SON, has ex-plained why it is restricting the use of low grade cement, the 32.5MPA version.

It urged manufacturers to begin the production of the high grade 42.5MPA to enhance quality in con-struction.

Speaking at a just con-cluded public hearing by the House of Representa-tives, the Director-General

of SON, Dr. Joseph Ikem Odumodu, said the restric-tion placed on the use of low grade cement was impor-tant to mitigate the problem of collapse building in the country.

The House of Represen-tatives Ad-hoc Committee on the Composition and Pigmentation of Cement in the country, led by its chair-man, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, conducted a public hearing last week.

It was aimed at address-ing the phenomenon of col-lapse building in the coun-try.

The D-G said Nigeria cannot afford to be a pariah state on the issue of cement quality, adding that worlds progressive countries have since stopped using the low quality 32.5MPA cement.

He added his organisa-tion had restricted the use of 32.5MPA low grade and would enforced compliance.

SON: Why we restrict low grade cement

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 11Monday, May 19, 2014 South South

L-R: Former Director-General, Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, Dr. Tony Iredia; Board Chairman, Delta Broadcasting Service, DBS, Mrs. Theodora Azinge and Acting General Manager, Mr. Godwin Erubaga, during the inspection of facilities at DBS in Asaba, at the weekend.

OSAHON JULIUSYENAGOA

Governor Seriake Dickson, yesterday set up a committee for the prevention of vio-lence against women and children in Bayelsa State.

He said the move became necessary because of the lack of proper legislation and diligent prosecution of culprits of violence.

The governor stated that, with the recent declaration of war against pedophiles and violence against wom-en and children, the first of such committee in any state of the federation, Bayelsa

is poised to checkmate the alarming data released last year by a non-governmen-tal organisation in the state.

In the report, compiled on behalf of the United Na-tions Children Education Fund, UNICEF, by a child rights advocacy group, Op-eration Rescue, Bayelsa was listed a dangerous area, prone to high incidence of child rape, violence and gross abuse, including traf-ficking and labour.

The data made available to newsmen by the state coordinator of the Op-eration Rescue/National Anti-Corruption Volunteer Corps, NACVC, Princess

Elizabeth Egbe, showed that 70 cases of abuse were recorded in 2012.

Child trafficking ac-counted for 11, child abour (7) cases, rape and defile-ment of children and adults (10) and child abuse (17).

Dickson, while inau-gurating the committee, announced a donation of N10m as take-off grant for diligent prosecution.

He said the decision to set up the committee was a critical step in the deter-mination of his adminis-tration to protect women, adding, people do not show enough empathy to

the protection and welfare of women.

The governor acknowl-edged that there had been a worrisome development of weak convictions by the police due to out-of-court settlements, especially in cases of girl-child defile-ment.

He also announced the setting up of a desk to be set up at the ministry of justice, the state police headquarters and the min-istry of health

The desk, he stressed, will handle the report of cases and ensure diligent arrest and prosecution of culprits.

Dickson declares war on violence against women

The Delta State Gov-ernment has said that it has intro-duced an e-registration project to check fraud in the states bursary and scholar-ship scheme for students in institutions of higher learning.

The Executive Secretary of the State Bursary and Scholarship Board, Mr. Pe-ter Amromanoh, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nige-ria, NAN, in Asaba over the weekend.

Amromanoh said the board had discovered that manual registration usu-ally was characterised with frauds.

He said that with the scrapping of the manual registration done through

students unions and insti-tutions, the board is better placed to deal directly with the students.

The executive secretary also said that 21,500 stu-dents had so far benefited from the 2012/2013 bursary awards.

Amromanoh said the payment was ongoing due to the inability of some stu-dents to supply their cor-rect bank details.

On the criteria for ben-efitting, the board secre-tary said that any student with a Grade Point Aver-age (G.P.A) of 2.2 and above was qualified to receive the award.

He also said that the students must also have their admission regular-ised by the Joint Admission

and Matriculation Board, JAMB.

Amromanoh added that over 150 Ph.D. and masters degree students were also benefiting from the bursary and scholarship scheme of

the state government.Meanwhile, some of the

beneficiaries have com-mended the state govern-ment for the gesture, and assured that they would complement it with hard

work.Two of them, Agali If-

echukwude of Obafemi Awolowo University and Ogaga Akpojiyovwi of the University of Benin, lauded the bursary programme.

The Director, Federal Ministry of Agricul-ture in Delta State, Mr. Felix Kehis, has said that 1,500 oil palm farmers will benefit from the Fed-eral Governments Growth Enhancement Scheme, GES programme in the state.

Kehis made the disclo-sure in an interview with the News Agency of Nige-ria, NAN, in Asaba over the weekend.

He said the programme, which would commence on May 19, was meant to in-crease and strengthen the production of oil palm in the state.

The director said that each beneficiary would re-ceive 50 improved oil palm seedlings, two bags of fertil-isers and agro-chemicals, to enhance cultivation.

We are selecting no few-er than 1,500 oil palm farm-ers in the state as benefi-ciaries of the special GES programme.

Each farmer will re-ceive 50 seedlings, two bags of fertilisers and agro-chemical at a total cost of N6,362, he said.

Kehis also said that a special GES programme for livestock farmers would be rolled out in the state later.

He added the ministry had penciled 300 sheep and goat farmers, 100 poultry farmers and 60 pig farm-ers to benefit from the pro-gramme.

1,500 oil palm farmers to benefi t from growth scheme

DENNIS NAKUPORT HARCOURT

Ahead of the 2015 general elections, Rivers State Gover-nor, Chibuike Rotimi Amae-chi, has called on women in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to be more involved in politics by seek-ing elective positions.

The governor made the call when the Local Gov-ernment Female Elected Executives and State Leg-islators Forum, accompa-nied by his wife, Judith, paid a solidarity visit to the Government House in Port Harcourt.

He said there is no law in Nigeria that prohibits women from holding elec-tive positions when voted by the electorate.

According to Amaechi, You are qualified to hold positions men hold. Men always gather women to do the Oyeh to get elective positions.

I told my wife, if you look at the voting pattern in Nigeria, the actual peo-ple who vote are women. So, why cant women take power from men?

What you cant take away from them is that, men are your husbands. There is no law in Nigeria prohibiting women from becoming governors or presidents.

You have been in-timidated, and you have to first and foremost liberate yourselves as women who are ready for politics, he stated.

Earlier, Mrs Amaechi had commended the gov-ernor for building the grounds that has made women a focal point of his administration, especially, the Model Primary and Secondary Schools built by his administration in the nooks and crannies of the state to give free education to Rivers people.

She also indicated the readiness of the women to preach peace, unity and progress, while thanking the governor for being a pil-lar of support to women in the state.

Also speaking, the co-ordinator of forum in Ogu-Bolo Local Government Area, Dame Maureen Ta-muno, commended Amae-chi on his developmental strides and achievements.

Amaechi seeks more women participation in politics

INUSA NDAHIMAIDUGURI

The relative peace enjoyed by Maidu-guri residents was yesterday shattered as youths took to the streets of the state capital to pro-test the killing of a civil-ian at the west end area of the city by a soldier.

The angry youths who were in their hundreds barricaded major roads in the city and also set bon-fires.

Witnesses said trouble started after a soldier sta-tioned in a nearby mili-tary formation allegedly aim to shoot a tricycle op-

erator popularly known as Keke NAPEP for alleged violating traffic rule.

Our correspondent gathered that the soldier missed the target and the bullet hit a road side trader known as Maigoro opposite the military for-mation.

The trader was said to have been hit on the chest and died instantly before help could come his way.

Witnesses said that the soldier was not remorse-ful and that this annoyed the youths who had mobil-ised to the area on hearing the sound of the gunshot.

Another eye witness who is also a road side

trader, Mallam Moham-med Bukar told our cor-respondent that the angry youths chased away the soldier and his colleagues from the area.

People were angry be-cause after the shooting, the soldier did not show any sign of remous. The youths who came to the area started protesting the killing he added.

The soldier was nearly lynched by the youths but for the quick interven-tion of his colleagues who whisked him out of the area.

But he was said to have sustained some injuries on his head and eyes.

The incident created tension in the area and motorists plying the road were made to turn back to take another routes as the road leading to Baga road , Post office and Custom area of Maiduguri were closed for many hours by the youths who set bon-fire.

Military men who were drafted with ar-mored vehicles to the area turn back as some of the youths have started throwing stones at them.

As at the time of fil-ing this report yesterday, smoke bellowing from the bonfires could be seen from afar.

DANJUMA WILLIAMSGOMBE

A renowned Islamic cleric and Com-mander of Hisbah in Kano State, Sheikh Aminu Ibrahim Dawrawa has blamed people he re-ferred to as quack preach-ers who lack adequate knowledge of the Holy Quran for the crisis in the northern part of the country.

The Islamic cleric said Islam in Nigeria has been infiltrated by quack Is-lamic clerics and that

this has resulted in some of them assaulting others and sparking off crisis in the society for personal benefit and interest.

The Hisba Commander who was guest speaker during the opening cer-emony of a three day workshop organised by the Daawa and Relief Or-ganization, Gombe State chapter said that quack clerics are not sound in the Holy Quran and do not bother to acquire deep knowledge of it, but merely concern them-selves with issues of pub-

lic disaffection for rea-sons best known to them.

He stressed that knowl-edge acquisition had no limitation and good Mus-lims are enjoined to be well versed in the Quran and Islamic religion.

H said It was enor-mous disservice for any one with little knowledge to embark on the dis-semination of contrary teachings of the Holy Quran as doing so is of-fensive and against the true teachings given in the holy Quran.

He expressed concern

that such quack cler-ics were allowed to walk about and disseminating faulty tenets and prin-ciples of Islamic religion.

He advocated for the use of social media in propagating Islam add-ing that workshops are also good avenues by which Muslims are fur-ther enlightened about dictates of the religion. He enjoined Muslims to show strong commitment towards the upkeep of its orphanage homes as the reward is big and it is ser-vice to Allah.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net12 Monday, May 19, 2014North

Cleric blames quack preachers for northern crisis

L-R: Kogi State Governor, Capt. Idris Wada; his counterpart from Kaduna, Mukhtar Yero and Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris, during the public presentation of a book, Fasting According to Islamic Law, in Kaduna, yesterday.

Protest in Maiduguri over soldiers killing of civilian

Supporters besiege Plateau senators offi ce over alleged food poisoning

Cabinet reshuffl e aimed at serving governors Interest APC

JAMES ABRAHAM JOS

Supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, PDP, in Plateau State at the week end besieged the constitu-ency office of Senator Gyang Pwajok, represent-ing the Plateau Northern Senatorial Zone in the National Assembly over alleged food poisoning

There have been specu-lations making the rounds that the lawmaker who has been away from public view since April was flown to In-dia and was critically ill as a result of food poisoning.

The rumour which caused panic among his supporters and well wish-ers saw many of them trooping in and out of the lawmakers office located at Korinjoh House, Murtala Muhammed Way, Jos to au-thenticate the rumour

But in a swift reaction, the Media Assistant to the Senator, Mr. Chuwang Dung dismissed the rumour as baseless in a statement yes-

terdayChuwang who denied

ever granting an interview to the media over his boss health condition, described the reports as strange, false and mischievous.

He said: Contrary to speculations making the rounds about Pwajoks health condition, he is alive, hale and hearty.

He added that his boss travelled to the United State of America some few weeks ago for an oversight function and decided to use the opportunity to see his doctor in London for normal medical attention, which has nothing to do with food poison and that he is expected back very soon.

He then appealed to the media to verify their find-ings to avoid feeding the public with unsubstanti-ated speculations.

He also expressed grati-tude to the senators sup-porters for the concern they have showed and urged them to disregard the ru-mour and remain calm.

PRISCILLA DENNIS MINNA

The Niger State All Progressives Congress, APC, has said that the recent cabinet reshuffle carried out by the Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Ba-bangida Aliyu was aimed at securing the political interest of the governor rather than serve the in-terest of the people.

In a statement signed by the party Publicity Sec-retary, Comrade Jonathan Vatsa said, last week cabi-net reshuffle by Muazu Ali-yu was self- serving and not in the interest of the state.

The statement reads: The recent cabinet re-shuffle was mere waste of government time and re-sources because it was just mere recycling of old hands to serve the governors po-litical ambition for 2015 and to give himself safe landing from the years of emperor-like government where hypocrisy, self aggrandis-ement and greed are syn-onymous to excellence and qualify one to be appointed into political office.

The party also challenged

the wisdom behind the cre-ation of a new ministry for Special Duties accusing the government of creating the new ministry which was de-signed to drain the economy of the state.

It is a known fact to all the people of the state that the administration is al-ways out for window dress-ing and cosmetics that are usually embellished with gubernatorial rhetoric to deceive people.

This deception must stop. We urged all Niger-lites not to be deceived by the cosmetics of govern-ment, which beauty is in the rhetoric of governmental pronouncements with no practical achievement to show for it.

The PDP government under Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu in Niger State has only embarked on selective hon-esty while tactically encour-aging corruption and disor-der, the statement said.

The opposition party then called on the elector-ates in the state to embrace APC in order to salvage the state from further misrule, financial recklessness and in-sensitivity to the plight of the common man in the state.

Akinwusi emerges SDP governorship candidate

STORIES: BOLADALE BAMIGBOLAOSOGBO

Former Head of Service, HoS, of Osun State, Mr. Olusegun Akinwusi, has emerged as the gover-norship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, for the August 9 gov-ernorship election.

According to a release issued by The Rescue Team, Akinwusis campaign organisation, copy of which was obtained by newsmen in Osogbo yesterday, Akinwusi became SDP sole candidate among

other three contenders after fulfilling all the laid down procedures at the expiration of Friday, May 16 deadline given by the partys national office.

Other SDP governorship aspirants include Jide Ilugbo, Bibire Abolubode and Babatunde Oralusi.

Speaking on Akinwusis emergence as the SDP candidate, the

state party chairman, Mr. Ademola Isola, said that the former HoS emerged based on the criteria laid down by the party.

Isola said: Only Akinwusi fulfilled the partys conditions including the payment for his intention form. The deadline expired on Friday, May 16 and none of the other aspirants completed the process.

We have fixed Friday, May 30 for his formal endorsement as our candidate and we have communicated the date to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. We are set to win the governorship polls and we are determined to bring better life to the people of Osun State.

Urging other political

DAYS TO GO8282

parties to play the game by the rule for a successful election on August 9, the SDP boss said that his party is set for campaign.

The former HoS served under former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola and the incumbent governor, Rauf Aregbesola for a combined period of eight years and eight months and has since joining

OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has challenged the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, flag bearer in the August 9 governoship poll, Senator Iyiola Omisore, to identify any landmark achievement he has recorded in his over two decades of active participation in the politics of the state, in particular, which qualifies him to challenge Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and replace him in November 2014.

Wanting the PDP candidate to start from his home town of Ile-Ife, the APC said Omisore should first tell the people of Osun what spectacular thing he has done for Ile-Ife which he plans to replicate across the state that surpasses what Aregbesola has done in Ile-Ife in just 42 months as governor.

The APC said that before Aregbesola became governor, most roads in Ile-Ife were impassable; adding that it took Aregbesola inside two years to amongst others, make the following roads

the governorship race, focused his campaign on revival of the state economy and youth empowerment.

L-R: Yeye Bobagunwa of Inisha, Mrs Adetola Babawale; Osun State PDP gubernatorial candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore and Bobagunwa of Inisha, Prof. Tunde Babawale, during the conferment of their chieftaincy titles ceremony on Saturday.

Osun ADC picks governorship candidate

Osun APC challenges Omisore

Osun State chapter of the African D e m o c r a t i c Congress, ADC, at the weekend elected Comrade Gbenga Ojo as its flag bearer for the August 9 governorship poll in the state.

Ojo, who emerged unopposed at the primaries held in the premises of Osun State secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, in Osogbo, was later presented to newsmen and members of the party.

In his acceptance speech, Ojo said he

is contesting the governorship election in an attempt to deliver dividends of democracy and bring good governance to the people of Osun State.

Highlighting some of his programmes, Ojo said if elected governor, he will address the menace of un-employment and socio-economic challenges fac-ing the state, promising to run a modest administra-tion that will be prudent.

He also assured not to derail from the ideology and manifestoes of the party centred on infrastructural and socio-

economic development, employment opportunity, promotion of functional education, provision of water and adequate security for lives and properties.

ADC National Chair-man, Chief Ralphs Nwosu, who was repre-sented by the partys Na-tional Secretary, Alhaji Saheed Baba-Abdullahi, posited that the party opt-ed for primaries to choose its flag bearer in a bid to strengthen its internal de-mocracy.

Nwosu added that the ideology of the party was to give a level playing

ground to all its members interested in using its platform to seek for political office.

He charged Ojo not to engage in campaign of calumny but presents his manifestoes and based on it; convince people to cast their votes for him.

State chairman of the ADC, Alhaji Adelakin Ajao, said the party will approach the governorship poll with the mind to win it, adding that the ADC governorship candidate is capable of returning the state to path of progress.

motorable: Lokore - Okesoda, Mbabi Mbayo, Lofogido, Agbedegbede, Igboya - Fajuyi, and Mokuro roads.

It also added that Baptist Elementary School, Ile-Ife was a dilapidated sorry sight until Aregbesola made it a spectacle to behold, which drew a comment from His Royal Majesty, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade that Aregbesola has performed beyond expectation... I see this.

Saying that this is just a tip of the ice-berg of what Aregbesola has done and continues to do in Ile-Ife alone, not to talk of the whole state, the APC therefore asked Omisore to tell the people of Osun what verifiable thing he has done or influenced to be done in Ile-Ife that surpasses what Aregbesola has done between 2010 and 2014, that should make Ile Ife vote for him to take over Aregbesolas job.

It added: If Omisore can point to one such project in his ward, he may qualify to run as a councillor, but unfortunately, there is nothing in his ward to qualify him run as councillor. He lost that ward in 2011.

PoliticsNational Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net 13Monday, May 19, 2014

EBERE NDUKWU

Conference of Ni-gerian Political Parties, CNPP, has called on the chairman and the entire members of the National Confer-ence to forthwith stop the hidden agenda of tenure elongation unveiled last Friday by Chief Okon Os-ung, representing Akwa Ibom State in the confer-ence, through an unneces-sary doctrine of necessity.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, CNPP said that there is no cogent reas