-
Troops deployed in search of Okonjo-Iwealas mother
OLUSEGUN KOIKI
The management of the Nigerian Air-space Management Agency,
NAMA, yesterday
admitted that the radio frequencies being used by air traffic
controllers, ATC, have some challeng-es, but are not enough to put
the lives of air travel-lers and pilots in danger.
Speaking at a press brief-ing yesterday in Lagos, the agencys
Managing Direc-tor, Mr. Nnamdi Udoh, said that the radios had some
challenges, which were pe-
P.5
Vol. 1 N0. 115 Tuesday, June 7, 2011 N150 Vol. 2 N0. 510
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 N150
Rot in judiciary, cause of terrorismFG ISE-OLUWA IGE AND
EMMANUEL ONANIThe Federal Govern-ment yesterday identified the rot
in
the criminal justice sys-tem as the principal rea-son for
escalation of the culture of self-help and
terrorism activities in the country.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,
Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), who spoke yesterday also disclosed that
the police had carried out extra-judi-cial killings of over
7,195
Were combing nooks and crannies of Delta CP
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5>>
Im not on Facebook, says Jimoh Ibrahim
DPO, 13 others killed in Yobe
Festac Towns decay and fear of epidemic outbreak
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2>>
P.9Fire destroys N40m goods in Ibadan market
Money laundering: EFCC intercepts N15.5bn at airports
Lamorde
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Search for people, places and thingsNAMA admits use of faulty
radio communication equipment
P.2
P.52
P.8,54
P.4
Bank, police station, telecom masts razed
...says police kill 7,169 in four years
Prof. Okonjo
Oduah
Obasanjo lauds Aregbesola, unveils Iges statue L-R: Osun State
Deputy Governor, Mrs. Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor Rauf Aregbesola
and former President Olusegun Obasanjo
during the visit of Owu Development Foundation to the governor
in Osogbo, yesterday.
-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
CONTINUED ON PAGE 52>>
Rot in judiciary, cause of terrorismFGpeople, mostly detainees,
in the last four years.
He made the revela-tions while delivering an address yesterday
at the national dialogue on Torture, extra-judicial killings and
national secu-rity: Human rights impli-cations.
The event was organ-ised by the National Hu-man Rights
Commission, NHRC, in Abuja.
Specifically, Adoke said that the Federal Govern-ment had noted
that the police had, through the years, relied on Police Force
Order 237 to com-mit extra-judicial killings.
He said that the order, which allowed the police to shoot any
suspect or detainee trying to escape or avoid arrest, had led to
extra-judicial killings of 7,195 people in four years, out of which
2,500 were de-tainees.
Although these figures have been stoutly disput-ed by the
police, even the most charitable defenders of the force cannot deny
that some dishonourable officers indeed have taken the law into
their hands in the most barbaric fashion
by killing suspects and in-nocent citizens, Adoke said.
The AGF, however, said that plans were afoot for his office to
take over from the police, the power to prosecute any criminal
suspect in the courts.
He noted that the force was peopled by laymen who could not
tackle coun-sel of defendants in the court.
The AGF explained that henceforth, the po-lice would concern
them-selves with investigations of criminal acts of sus-pects on
the grounds that the inability to diligently prosecute offenders
and the general state of help-lessness for the victims of crime to
get justice had led to cultures of self-help.
Adoke said: According to a school of thought, the spate of
wanton killings and gruesome attacks on persons that has increased
in recent times and the apparent lack of will or capacity on the
part of se-curity agencies to arrest this trend appears to fuel the
incentive for self-help measures that often mani-fest as acute and
barbaric practices.
There is no doubt that the rule of law has taken flight in the
society, which condones a situa-tion where citizens take the law
into their hands and summarily try and ex-ecute suspected
felons.
The apparent slow pace of the criminal jus-tice system
particularly the corruption that perme-ates the system has been
identified as the main rea-son why citizens take laws into their
hands.
I have on numerous oc-casions listened to or read how
disenchanted victims and complainants of an offence speak of
corrup-tion in the police, how the police can no longer be trusted
to conduct a dis-passionate enquiry into a complaint, how many
complainants suddenly find themselves behind bars in a curious
travesty, and how prosecution and trials are slowed by tar-diness
and ceaseless ad-journments.
There is no doubt that a holistic reform of our criminal justice
system is long overdue. In my hum-ble view the issue tran-scends
the police, the Min-istry of Justice and the
courts are also complicit. What we are witness-
ing in the form of self-help by victims and sympathis-ers is
really collateral damage exerted by the rot in the system.
But the Managing Part-ner of the Legal Resources Consortium, Mr.
Olawale Fapohunda, disagreed with the Federal Govern-ment over its
comment on the ills in the police sys-tem.
He said the approach of the government to reform had made the
police an en-dangered species.
Fapohunda, however, dismissed the idea of state police on the
grounds that the solution to the prob-lems of crime, insecurity and
terrorism in Nigeria was not federal or state police but creating
an ef-ficient, honest and profes-sional police service.
The Legal Resources Consortium, which co-sponsored the event
with NHRC and NASS, said rather than the Federal Government
implement-ing police reform, it had been setting up reform
committees.
The inauguration of the Parry Osayande Com-
mittee with terms of ref-erence similar to previous high level
committees on police is a clear indica-tion of lack of interest of
the administration on po-lice reform, Fapohunda noted.
He noted that instead of implementing the reports it was
promoting culture of committee, adding that the police could not
meet the challenge of crimi-nality because of lack of modern tools
to carry out its job.
Are we aware that the police officers are today endangered
species with more than 100 officers killed in active duty in the
past three months? How can we reasonably expect a citizens police,
given its poor level of endowment, possibly expect police to
protect our rights when the right to dignity of ma-jority of its
officers are violated on a daily basis? he said.
Meanwhile, the Nigeri-an Bar Association, NBA, has challenged
President Goodluck Jonathan to commence a thorough in-vestigation
of allegations of extra-judicial killings levelled against
security
agencies in the country. It warned that unless
the killings were dili-gently probed and culprits brought to
justice, alleged impunity on the part of the law enforcement
agen-cies would continue.
The call was contained in a speech by NBAs Presi-dent, Chief
Okey Wali (SAN), to mark this years International Human Rights Day
in Abuja, yes-terday.
In an address tagged, Nigerias human rights outlook: Looking
back and projecting to the future, Wali also advised the po-lice
and the State Security Service, SSS, to ensure that insurgents in
their custody were charged to court within the period stipulated by
law, as that will offer them the needed opportunity for trial.
He added: There is no doubt that extra-judicial execution by the
Nigeria police amounts to a disre-gard of the duty to orga-nise the
apparatus of the state in such a manner as to guarantee the rights
recognised in the African Charter.
It is also our view that
L-R: Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Bayelsa State, Col. Sam
Inokoba; President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Seriake Dickson,
during the Bayelsa State PDP expanded caucus meeting in Yenagoa,
yesterday.
The Group Managing Director of Energy Group, Barrister Ji-moh
Ibrahim, OFR, has dis-sociated himself from Face-book accounts
carrying his name and image.
The business mogul said that he had never opened an account on
the popular social networking website and does not operate one.
In a statement issued yes-terday in response to the fic-titious
accounts, Barrister Ibrahim noted that the ac-counts, which were
created on February 28 and July 27 this year by unknown per-sons
were meant to deceive members of the public.
A visit to the July 27 ac-count triggered an antivi-rus
programme on person-al computers, an indication that it might be
linked to a phishing website set up to steal information from
computer users.
The account, opened in the name of Otunba Ibra-him Jimoh, is
sparsely pop-ulated and only contains a profile picture in the
like-ness of Barrister Ibrahim
with a handful of friends. The earlier account con-
tains several pictures of the Energy Group GMD, which were
obviously downloaded from the internet.
For the avoidance of doubt, I dont use Face-book, I have never
opened an account of Facebook and I dont intend to open an account
just yet, Ibra-him said.
He urged family mem-bers, friends, business and political
associates as well as employees of his com-panies to disregard the
account and postings con-tained therein.
Several other well-known Nigerians have had fake Facebook
accounts created with their names and images.
Last month, the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Baba-tunde Fashola,
SAN, had condemned the use of his wifes name, Abimbola, by
impostors on social net-working sites. .
In a statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media,
Mr.
Hakeem Bello, the gover-nor had warned that the First Lady did
not operate a Facebook, Twitter or any social media account.
Perpetrators of the criminal act should desist henceforth or
should be ready to face the music when the long arm of the law
catches up with them,
the special adviser had warned.
Describing imperson-ation as a criminal offence punishable by
law, Bello warned unsuspecting mem-bers of the public to avoid
falling victims of fraud-sters impersonating the First Lady on
Facebook or any social media platform.
For the avoidance of doubt, the First Lady of La-gos State does
not operate any Facebook, Twitter or indeed any social media
ac-count, he stated.
Also in September, the General Overseer of the Re-deemed
Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, had ex-
posed at least 18 fake Face-book profiles cloning his own
original profile.
He had warned followers and associates that some
criminally-minded people had created several Face-book pages with
his name to make the public believe he was directly connected to or
associated with them.
Im not on Facebook, says Jimoh IbrahimNational Mirror
www.nationalmirroronline.net2 Tuesday, December 11, 2012News
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National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 3Tuesday, December
11, 2012
-
Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency, Alhaji
Mohammed Sani-Sidi (left) and Director, Research and Rescue, Air
Commodore Charles Otegbade, during an emergency response teams
training for corps members in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN
L-R: Author, A Biography, Deacon Abioye Oyelowo; Chairman of the
occasion, Dr. Abayomi Finnih; former Lagos State Deputy Governor,
Alhaji Rafiu Jafojo and book reviewer, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora,
during the launch of the book in Lagos, recently.
L-R: Corporate Services Executive, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Akinwale
Goodluck; Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Larry Annetts; Chief
Enterprise Solutions Officer, Mr. Babatunde Osho and Chief
Information Officer, Mr. Charles Molapisi, with children from the
Lekki Childrens Home, Children of Promise Ministries, Ibadan and
Arrows of God, during the light up of the companys Christmas Tree
in Ikoyi, Lagos, yesterday.
Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade (left) and Akwa Ibom State
Governor, Godswill Akpabio, during the Golden Jubilee lecture in
honour of Akpabio in Uyo, at the weekend.
dure rather than judiciary should be blamed for the problem of
slow pace of trial of corruption cases. Somebody cannot steal from
you and expect that the law should protect him against you the
victim of his crime. Something has to be done. I pray that the new
leader-ship of the judiciary will be able to do something.
The EFCC chairman also reiterated the need for a spe-cial court
to take on corrup-tion cases in Nigeria.
He said: Judges are ei-ther transferred or the wit-nesses dead.
It is not fair on
KAYODE KETEFE
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday
arraigned Nada-bo Energy Limited and its Managing Director,
Abuba-kar Ali Peters, before Jus-tice C. A. Balogun of the Lagos
High Court, Igbosere for allegedly fraudulently obtaining over N1.4
billion from the Federal Govern-ment under the petroleum Support
Fund.
The commission al-
leged that the accused obtained N1,464,961,978.24 from the
government by falsely claiming that the money represented subsi-dy
accruing to which they were entitled under the subsidy fund
regime.
They were arraigned on a two-count charge comprising the alleged
of-fences of fraud and forg-ery in contravention of Section 1 (2)
and (3) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Of-fences
Act, 2006.
Count one reads: That
talk and walk the walk.He said there was the
need for a more concerted effort in ensuring synergy in the
operations of anti-corruption agencies.
Mitee added that perfor-mance in fighting corrup-tion had been
very poor.
He said: However, we cannot continue on this path. We must steer
the ship aright. With the estab-lishment of IATT, synergy is being
built among the anti-corruption agencies. The era of individual
turf is waning, giving room for possible joint investigations
and prosecutions which in turn is expected to result in
effective sanctions and pre-vention of corruption.
Mitee added that anoth-er way corruption could be collectively
and system-atically addressed is by adopting a holistic national
strategy to combat corrup-tion. And I understand that the IATT has
developed a draft national strategy document. This document is most
encouraging and should be given every push for adoption by the
Federal Executive Council, FEC, to translate into policy.
you Nadabo Energy Lim-ited, and Abubakar Ali Peters, between
Febru-ary and April 2012 within the jurisdiction of this honourable
court with in-tent to defraud conspired to commit an offence to
wit: obtaining the sum of N1,464,961,978.24 from Federal Government
of Nigeria by falsely claim-ing that the sum repre-sented subsidy
accruing to you under the Petro-leum Support Fund for the
importation by you of litres of Premium Mo-
tor Spirit, PMS, which Nadabo Energy claimed to have imported
into Nige-ria through MT American Express Ex MT St. Venes-sa and
financed through Form M No: MF878037 which representation you knew
to be false.
The defendant, how-ever, pleaded not guilty to the charge when
it was read to him.
Prosecutions counsel, Mr. Ben Ubi, prayed the court to give a
trial date, say-ing that the EFCC was ready to proceed with the
case.
...Commission arraigns Nadabo Energy, MD for N1.4bn subsidy
fraud
Money laundering: EFCC recovers N15.5bn from airports
LamordeOLUFEMI ADEOSUNABUJA
The Economic and Financial Crimes C o m m i s s i o n , EFCC,
yesterday dis-closed that it intercepted N15.5 billion at the
na-tions airports this year.
The EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, made the disclosure at
the 2012 International Anti-Corruption Day cel-ebrations with the
theme: ACT. Help Detect Cor-ruption Risks Today, organised by the
Inter-Agency Task Team, IATT, comprising anti-corrup-tion
agencies.
According to a statement from the commission, Lam-orde said the
amount recov-ered represented physical cash and not legitimate cash
transfer through the finan-cial institutions, taken out through the
nations airports.
He said N14 billion being couriered outside the coun-try was
intercepted at the nations airports between January and August
while the operation of a Special Task Team which is a joint patrol
of the airport by the EFCC operatives and
Nigerian Customs officers which commenced in Sep-tember, led to
the arrest of illegal cash couriers with over $9 million
dollars.
While linking the illegal transfer and corruption to share
greed, callousness and meanness of the people involved, Lamorde
gave ex-ample of an individual, who was arrested for laundering $7
million cash in a brief case and flying out of the country through
the airport.
He said: Corruption is one of the reasons Nigeria has not been
able to make progress, socially, politi-cally and economically and
we have all agreed that corruption cannot be sus-tained in Nigeria;
all of us must come together to fight corruption.
The EFCC chairman said the funding of the an-ti-corruption
agencies and their operating legislations had to be reviewed to
en-able it perform optimally.
Lamorde explained that between January and De-cember 2012, the
commis-sion filed about 353 cases at various courts across the
country and recorded about 53 convictions.
He said: Criminal proce-
the anti-corruption agen-cies to say they are delay-ing cases.
Let cases not last forever. If you think there is no case, please
discharge the person but where the person has a case to answer, the
case should be conclud-ed in good time.
On his part, the IATT Chairman, Mr. Ledum Mi-tee, said the
problem of corruption had not been solved because of weak
anti-corruption institu-tions in terms of capacity, funding and
coordination; failure of leadership at all levels to genuinely talk
the
National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netTuesday, December
11, 20124
National News
Photo News
-
riodically fixed by its engi-neers.
He insisted that the Ni-gerian airspace was safe for flying,
saying that if the airspace was not safe, inter-national carriers
like Ethi-opian Airlines, British Air-ways and others would not be
operating in the country.
He explained that some of the ATCs were sabo-taging the efforts
of the management, adding that NAMA had embarked on safety-critical
projects, one of which includes the total VHF radio coverage of the
Nigerian airspace.
On the petition written by the National Air Traf-fic Controllers
Association, NATCA, on the issue, Udoh stated that the letter,
which
was written on November 24, 2012 got to his table on the 27th
the same month while others copied on the issue received theirs
before him.
He said: Its the younger ones (ATCs) that are bas-tardising the
system and this is ridiculous.
How can pilots fly blind in the last three months? The radios
are working per-fectly. Our radios truly have challenges, yes, but
they are fixed and not as bad as not being serviceable.
If the radios will not fail, there will not be a need for a
radio engineer. Some ATCs are sabotaging our efforts.
To address some of the challenges we have had in the past, the
agency em-
barked on several safety-critical projects, one of which
includes the Total VHF Radio Coverage of the Nigerian airspace.
It is worthy to say here that the project has been successfully
completed and the deliverables of the project provides VHF radio
services on the following frequencies for both Lagos and Kano ACCs:
Lagos East 127.3MHz, Lagos West 120.9MHz, Kano West - 128.5 MHz and
Kano East 124.1MHz.
He noted that these fre-quencies were performing at optimum, but
for opera-tional reasons in the past Lagos ACC was not secto-rised
and became congest-ed due to high frequency with attendant
challenges
posed to pilots.Udoh added that the
agency had commenced the process of sectorisation of the Lagos
ACC and it is expected to be finally secto-rised on the 17th this
month.
He noted that ATCs and engineers were working on the technical
and op-erational implementation of the sectorisation, which
includes drawing of pro-cedures, gap analysis and safety audit of
the process.
National Mirror had re-ported exclusively yester-day on the poor
radio com-munications between the ATCs and the pilots.
A six-page petition writ-ten by NATCA, an umbrella body of ATC
of NAMA, signed by its General Secre-tary, Mr. Banji Olawode
and
made available to National Mirror indicated that there were at
least 114 reports of unreliable radio communi-cations between Lagos
and Kano between September and November 24.
Also, in the same period, there were 72 reports of erratic
working condi-tion of 124.1MHZ radio fre-quencies of Kano-East as
reported by pilots flying in the route.
Besides, between Octo-ber 17 and November 24, 2012, there were
58 different reports on the frustrations of duty air traffic
control-lers and pilots on 128.5 MHz (Kano-West radio) with six
reports on its total failure.
Olawode had written to Udoh and copied 13 other persons,
including the Min-
ister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah; Chairmen, Senate and
House Commit-tees on Aviation; Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Aviation; Na-tional Security Adviser;
Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority; Commissioner,
Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, and Director-General, State
Security Service, SSS.
Others are the Director of Operations, NAMA; Di-rector of Safety
Electronics and Engineering Services, NAMA; Airline Operators of
Nigeria, AON, Air Trans-port Services Senior Staff Association of
Nigeria, ATSSSAN and Internation-al Air Transport Associa-tion,
IATA, representatives in Nigeria.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
NAMA admits use of faulty radio communication equipment
Uduaghan, yesterday as-sured that the queen would soon be united
with her family and urged members of the public to volunteer
information to assist the se-curity agencies.
Uduaghan, who visited the community in company with top
officials of his ad-ministration, also assured that the hoodlums
would be arrested and prosecuted.
He said: I have been in touch with officers of the various law
enforcement agencies and I assure you that Prof. Kamene Okonjo will
safely return. The per-petrators of such a despi-cable crime will
be brought to justice.
Please do not get in-volve in rumour mongering that will not
help law en-forcement agents. Only in-formation that will help in
her rescue is needed now, Uduaghan added.
The Odafe of Ogwashi-Uku, Chief Olizele Ogo-chukwuka Nkwor, who
responded on behalf of the community, thanked the governor for the
efforts he had made so far to ensure safe and early return of the
octogenarian.
Nkwor assured that his people would collaborate with the law
enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, one of the children of the Okonjo family, Mr. Onyema
Okon-jo, yesterday blamed secu-rity lapses for the kidnap of his
mother.
Onyema told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ogwashi-Uku,
Aniocha
South Local Government Area of Delta that his mother was
kidnapped on Sunday at her residence between 12 noon and 1 p.m. by
10 young men.
They came in two green Golf cars and it all hap-pened very
quickly. I think there were definitely some lapses in terms of
security. It is not what it should have been, the people that were
supposed to have been here were not here.
This gave them the op-portunity to do what they wanted to do,
but at the end of the day; we really have to be prayerful.
I think it is really a sad reflection of where we are as a
society, Onyema, the sixth of the seven children of the Okonjos,
said
He wondered why an octogenarian woman, a grandmother and great
grandmother should be kidnapped.
When contacted, the Commissioner of Police in Delta, Mr.
Ikechukwu Aduba, said that this was not the time to trade
blame.
He, however, promised that any officer indicted would be
punished.
Aduba said that in every case of kidnapping, there was always an
insider, add-ing that investigation was on to unravel the situation
and free the victim unhurt.
We have been holding meetings with the governor and we have sent
out our men to comb every nook and cranny and I am sure we will get
her out unhurt, Aduba said.
Troops deployed in search of Okonjo-Iwealas motherSOLA
ADEBAYOWARRI
Troops were yester-day deployed in the nooks and crannies of
Delta State in search of Prof. Kamene Okonjo, the mother of the
Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was abducted on Sun-day.
Also, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mo-hammed Abubakar,
also deployed a crack team of detectives to complement the efforts
of Delta State Po-lice Command.
National Mirror learnt that the IGs team was led by a Deputy
Inspector-Gen-eral of police.
It was learnt that Abuba-kar directed the team to ensure early
release of the
ministers mother and ap-prehend her abductors.
The ministers mother was abducted at the pal-ace of her husband
and the paramount ruler of Ugwashi-Uku, the head-quarters of
Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State, Obi Chukwuka
Okonjo, on Sunday.
The 82-year-old queen of Ugwashi-Uku was abducted by 10 gunmen,
who invaded the palace.
Her whereabouts was yet to be ascertained as at the time of
filing this report yesterday.
All arms of the security agencies were on red alert in the
state, especially in the neighbourhood of the scene of the
dastardly ac-tion yesterday.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala, had said in a statement on Sun-day that it was
possible that
those behind the kidnap were the same people who have made
threats against her in the recent past.
In the statement, signed by her spokesperson, Paul Nwabuikwu,
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala had said it was also possible that other
ele-ments with hostile motives were behind the kidnap.
No possibility can be ruled out at this time, the minister
said.
Our correspondent, who visited Ogwashi-Uku yes-terday, sighted
stern-look-ing security agents, partic-ularly at the palace.
National Mirror learnt that the troops were de-ployed in the
state from the 4th Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Benin, Edo State
Capital.
The troops were led by the Commanding Officer, Brig.-Gen. Obi
Umahie.
Commissioner of Police, Delta State Command, Mr. Ikechukwu
Aduba, who visited Ugwashi-Uku, later told our correspondent on the
phone that his com-mand was collaborating with the team from Abuja
to free the octogenarian un-hurt from captivity.
Aduba said all security agencies were collaborat-ing to achieve
results, add-ing that the security agen-cies were working on a clue
to apprehend the hoodlums and free the octogenarian.
The Delta State Police Command is working and collaborating with
all se-curity agencies to free the queen and apprehend the
criminals. There is no cover up and we are on course in our
investigation, the CP added.
Meanwhile, Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel
Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen (left) and Minister of
State for Works, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, at the public hearing on
the near collapse of federal roads in the country, as well as a
bill for an act to provide for the maintenance of public
infrastructure 2011 and other matters connected therewith in Abuja,
yesterday. PHOTO: NAN
National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 5 Tuesday, December
11, 2012 News
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Tukur
OBIORA IFOHABUJA
The atrocities, kill-ings and injustices that led to the
Nige-rian civil war re-echoed at the National Eucharistic Congress
held at the week-end in Abuja, as the Catho-lic Bishops Conference
of Nigeria (CBCN) called on those who played promi-nent roles in
the war to publicly apologise for the mayhem.
Though, the war ended 42 years ago, President of the body and
Archbishop
of Jos, Ignatius Kaigama, said except the actors made such
public apology, there would be no end to anger, hatred and
deep-seated ani-mosity among the differ-ent people in the
country.
Since the war ended, there have been claims and counter claims
by key glad-iators with each player giv-ing account of the issues
that led to the war in a man-ner that suited such player and also
the vexed issue of abandoned property in Riv-ers State, which never
led to reconciliation and total forgiveness by the different
ethnic nationalities. Aside from the war is-
sue, the CBCN said other acts of violence in the coun-try,
especially acts of ter-rorism being carried out by Islamic
fundamentalists, the Boko Haram, should be brought to a halt and
the perpetrators and sponsors make public apology over their
mindless killing of in-nocent people.
According to the body; Many people today stress physical healing
but there is a very great need for in-ner healing. A significant
chapter in our history as a
nation, which calls for heal-ing of memory is the unfor-tunate
civil war.
There is need for a sincere public apology by all Nigerians,
with politi-cal leaders and leaders of other stakeholder-groups,
leading the people in the exercise with sincerity of heart and
purpose.
We lost human beings, brothers, sisters, means of livelihood,
etc. The war has so wounded our hearts that we continue to hear of
ac-cusations and counter ac-cusations.
Stereotypes and barri-
ers have been formed and when consciously or un-consciously they
are im-ported into our lives, they can do us and posterity
incalculable spiritual and social harm.
After over 40 years, we still need healing and purification of
memory. Whether we accept it or not, we bear terrible hid-den
grudges against one another: Northerners, Ig-bos, Yoruba, etc,
because of perceived injustices. We keep arguing about who the
victims or the aggres-sors are.
FG seeks Swiss assistance in $6.8bn fuel subsidy probeUDEME
AKPAN WITH AGENCY REPORT
The Federal Govern-ment has sought the assistance of
Switzer-land to assist it in probing the multi-billion dollar fuel
subsidy scam following the refusal of some Swiss oil trading firms
to cooperate with the government.
Chairman of the Eco-nomic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, presently investing the scam told
Re-uters that the request was
sent to Swiss authorities in October after some trading houses
declined to provide documents.
Lamorde, who declined to provide names of the firms said; They
are not forthcoming and most of the information is not in their
Nigerian offices.
He said the commis-sion was making efforts to unmask the details
of fuel importers and corrupt offi-cials that has led to the state
paying for nearly double the amount of fuel it received.
Asked if trading houses
were themselves complicit in the fraud, he said: We just want
information to confirm some of the things the (Nigerian fuel)
market-ers have said ... whether they sold such products to the
Ni-gerians or not.
A parliamentary probe put the cost of the fraud to the Nigerian
state at $6.8 bil-lion between 2009 and 2011, almost a quarter of
the na-tional budget.
As a result of the probe some Nigerian fuel import-ers have been
charged to court but no one has been
convicted yet and most of the targets have been rela-tively low
level, rather than big players.
The judicial authority in Geneva, home to many private trading
houses, said Switzerland had requested additional information on
the probe from Nigerian au-thorities.
An unnamed spokesper-son of the organisation is also said to
have remarked that: This case involves suspected subsidy fraud on
imports of refined products by Nigerian companies.
Nigeria budgeted N1.414trn on roads since 1999
Civil war actors must apologise for their roles
ACN too corrupt to comment on corruption PDP
TORDUE SALEMABUJA
A House of Repre-sentatives panel yesterday alleged that the
Federal Govern-ment has budgeted and spent N1.414 trillion on a
mere 30 per cent of about 350,000 kilometre-roads
since 1999 by the Federal Ministry of Works
According to the House Committee on Works find-ings, out of the
34, 400km of federal roads, only 12, 040 are paved and they are
even in varying degrees of distress and potholes.
Chairman of the Works Committee, Hon. Ogbuefi
Ozomgbachi (PDP-Enugu), made the allegation yes-terday at a
four-day Pub-lic Hearing on the Urgent Need To Address The Near
total collapse of Federal Roads Across the Country, and a Bill for
an Act to pro-vide for the maintenance of public infrastructure in
2011.
Between 1999 and 2012, the National Assembly had appropriated
about N1.414 trillion for the road sector. And yet out of about
34,400 km of federal roads net-work, only about 35 percent (12,
040) is paved and a sub-stantial percentage of it in varying degree
of distress and or pot-holes ridden.
OBIORA IFOHABUJA
The Peoples Democrat-ic Party (PDP) has said that the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) lacks moral justification to attack the
administra-tion of President Goodluck Jonathans efforts to check
corruption as the party it-self was enmeshed in deep corrupt
practices.
The PDP also said that the Federal Government created the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commis-sion (EFCC) as well as the
Independent Corrupt Prac-tices Commission (ICPC) to fight
corruption, agencies which it said had posted de-grees of
successes.
A statement by the Na-tional Publicity Secretary of the PDP,
Chief Olisa Metuh, said the party is optimistic that its battle on
corruption would be won with the bold institutional framework the
PDP-led Fed-eral Government has put in place and with the
collective efforts of all Nigerians.
Metuh wondered what is ACNs contribution to free-ing the society
from corrup-tion as a party controlling six out of the 36 states of
the federation.
KAYODE KETEFE
A judge of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos yester-day,
Justice Okechukwu Okeke, denied the bid by the prosecution to
with-draw the charge against the accused persons stand-ing trial in
the criminal case of the alleged manu-facture and distribution of
an adulterated teething mixture; My pikin by a company, Barewa
Phar-maceutical Company and some of its officials.
The prosecution, rep-resented by Mr. Anthony Ijohor (SAN) had
applied to Justice Okeke, to withdraw the charge with a view to
substitute it with another charge, but the court ad-journed the
case to enable the defence put its house in order.
The need to amend the charge arose as a result of the death of
one of the directors of the company, Gbadegeshin Okunola, who had
been initially ar-raigned alongside the com-pany and other persons
for the crime.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Adminis-tration and
Control (NAF-DAC) had arraigned Oku-nola, his company, Barewa
Pharmaceutical Company, Adeyemo Abiodun and Eg-bele Eromosele in
March, 2009 on a six-count charge.
They were alleged to have manufactured an adulterated mixture
with the intention to cause death or grievous bodily harm to
members of the public in October, 2008.
The first accused person, Okunola, however, died re-cently, a
development that made the court to strike out his name from the
suit at the last adjourned date after an application pray-ing the
court to strike out his name.
At yesterdays proceed-ings, Ijohor had sought to withdraw a
previous amended charge.
He cited the provisions of section 467 (2) and (3) of the
Criminal Procedure Act, he informed the court that the prosecution
had served a letter on the ac-cused company, requesting it to
personally produce a representative to stand in for the deceased
accused.
L-R: Managing partner, Legal Resources Consortium, Mr. Oluwole
Fapohunda; Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission,
Prof. Bem Angwe and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, at the
International Human Rights Day celebration in Abuja, yesterday.
My Pikin mixture: Court denies bid to withdraw charge
National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net6 Tuesday, December
11, 2012News
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IJEOMA EZEIKEABUJA
Eminent scholars and professionals from Nigeria and 14 West
African countries will gather today in Abuja for a workshop on
curriculum innovation and teacher ca-pacity building.
Addressing journal-ists yesterday in Abuja, the Minister of
State for Education, Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, said the workshop
would afford the participants the opportu-nity to examine
curricu-lum content, structure and challenges across countries with
a view to infusing in-
novations to address the is-sues of poverty alienation and
inclusiveness.
Wike hinted that the event would also create an avenue in
sharing ex-periences in mainstream-ing Child Friendly School (CFS)
model for effective teaching and learning.
The minister said: It is expected that at the end of the
workshop, the capac-ity of curriculum work-ers and development of
teachers will be enhanced. A common framework in curriculum
innovation and teacher capacity devel-opment for the sub-region is
also expected to be devel-oped.
ROTIMI FADEYIABUJA
President Goodluck Jonathan has con-gratulated President John
Mahama of Ghana on his victory in last Satur-days presidential
election.
A statement issued yes-terday by Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said Jonathan
welcomed Mahamas success in secur-ing his peoples mandate for a
full term in office, fol-lowing his assumption of presidential
powers after the death of his predeces-sor in July 2012, as an
en-dorsement by the Ghanaian electorate of his leadership and his
partys action plan for further socio-economic development and
continued consolidation of democracy.
Jonathan noted that the very keenly contested elec-tions had
been adjudged as free and fair by observers from the Economic
Com-munity of West African States (ECOWAS) and other international
observers.
The statement reads: On behalf of himself, the government and
people of Nigeria, President Jona-than salutes the people of Ghana
for the successful conduct of the polls
Calling on Mahama to extend a hand of partner-ship to the
opposition, in the spirit of reconciliation and national progress,
Jon-athan urged political lead-ers in Ghana to join hands with the
government to col-lectively deepen democracy in the country in the
over-riding interest of continued peace, political stability and
progress.
IJEOMA EZEIKEABUJA
The Federal Gov-ernment has ex-pressed worry over decline in
students per-formance in public ex-aminations.
Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai, who spoke
while opening the 2012 National
Conference on Examina-tions yesterday in Abuja, decried the poor
perfor-mance of candidates in public examinations.
According to her, a close look at the results over the years
showed that there had been steady decline in the number of
candidates who obtained five credits and above.
She said the develop-
ment was more worri-some because it was the basic entry
requirement for transition to higher education, adding that while
30.9 per cent of candidates obtained the five credits and above in
West African Examina-tion Council (WAEC) in 2011, only 8.06 per
cent had it in National Exami-nation Council (NECO).
L-R: Acting Political Counsellor, U.S. Embassy, Diane Kohn;
Head, European Delegation to Nigeria, Mr. David Macrae; Executive
Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Ben Angwe;
Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary and Human Rights, Senator
Umaru Dahiru; member of the committee, Senator Babajide Omoworare;
Ambassador Svante Kilander of Sweden and oth-ers cutting the cake
to mark the International Human Rights Day in Abuja, yesterday.
PHOTO: NAN
Curriculum innovation workshop opens today in Abuja
Ghana: Jonathan congratulates Mahama on victory
FG worried over candidates poor performance in public exams
Former Peoples Dem-ocratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT)
Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, said yes-terday that he is not the
Chairman of Elders Committee of the Peoples Democratic Movement
(PDM).
He reacted through his Personal Assistant, Mr Peter Abulu, to a
media report which said that
he had been appointed as chairman of the commit-tee.
Abulu said that not only was he (Anenih) not chairman of the
com-mittee, but was also not aware of any such ap-pointment at the
meet-ing of the PDM held last weekend at the Shehu YarAdua Centre
in Abu-ja as he was not in atten-dance.
According to him, Chief Anenih was not in Abuja when the
meet-ing was held. If such de-cision was reached, those who took
the decision would have either con-sulted with him prior to the
decision or briefed him after the decision was taken.
I can tell you authori-tatively that if any such decision was
taken, he
was not consulted on it; and as this official reac-tion is being
made, Chief Anenih has already con-tacted those who attended the
meeting and they told him that no such decision was reached.
Our attitude to the report is that it is mis-chievous and
remains a figment of the reporters imagination. The report-er said
in his report that
UDEME AKPAN
The International Oil Companies (IOCs) have concluded plans to
sell more oil blocks to indigenous firms operating in the upstream
sector, involving explora-tion and production of crude oil and
natural gas next year.
The measure, encour-aged by the Federal Gov-ernment and other
stake-holders, is targeted at promoting indigenous participation,
capacity-building and technological advancement of the indig-enous
firms.
Investigations showed that the IOCs that may sell their oil
blocks to in-digenous firms would include Shell Petroleum
Development Company (SPDC) and Total E&P Ni-geria Limited as
part of measures targeted at en-couraging the indigenous
operators.
Spokesman of SPDC, Mr. Precious Okolobo, said in a telephone
interview that he would not specu-
Im not PDM Elders Committee chairman Anenih
IOCs to sell oil blocks to local fi rms next year
he gathered that Chief Anenih had been appoint-ed chairman of
the PDM Elders Committee.
The reporter had all the time in the world to copiously report
officials of the PDM who spoke on the occasion, but in order to
promote the deliberate mischief into the pages of his newspaper, he
could not spare a couple of minutes to confirm
from the officials if they had taken such decision.
Much as Chief An-enih respects the media, he loathes the
attitude of some practitioners who lend themselves to us-age by
desperate politi-cians and individuals to achieve a devious agenda.
He appeals to journalists to always strive to cross check their
facts before going to press.
late on the firms policy. He said: The divestment
is ongoing. I would not speculate on that.
But an authoritative source at the Nigerian Na-tional Petroleum
Corpo-ration (NNPC), who con-firmed the development in a telephone
interview at the weekend, said the Corporation encourages such
gesture, particularly as it promised to increase indigenous
participation in the industry.
The source said: We at the NNPC encourage the decision because
it is a
government policy aimed at gradually building the capacities of
the locals, in-cluding NPDC to become more active in exploration
and production activi-ties.
The source said this must be done ahead of the post Petroleum
Industry Bill (PIB) expected to put in place adequate struc-tures
as well as completely unbundle NNPC into dif-ferent functional
firms like its counterparts in other parts of the world.
Already, many IOCs have sold their blocks to
indigenous companies. For instance, Shell, To-tal and Eni (Agip)
have raked in $2.569 billion (N411.04 billion) from the sale of a
jointly held stake in seven oil blocks during the past twenty
month.
The IOCs have sold a 45 per cent stake in the seven oil
concessions in five transactions. The oil blocks, which are now
operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, the
up-stream subsidiary of the NNPC, included OMLs 3, 38, 41, 26, 42,
30 and 34.
Jonathan
National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 7Tuesday, December
11, 2012 News
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KEMI OLAITANIBADAN
The Ekiti State gov-ernor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has laid the blame
for the rot in the nations judiciary on the doorstep of
politicians, saying they paid judges and lawyers to protect their
interests.
Fayemi, who stated this in Ibadan while speaking with
journalists during a condolence visit to the fam-ily of the late
Justice Kay-ode Eso, said the judiciary has become the microcosm of
the Nigerian society,
whereby one cannot attack the judiciary without at-tacking the
politicians.
He said if those at the bench could do a quarter of what the
late legal lumi-nary did while in active ser-vice, we will not be
com-plaining of the troubles we have in the judiciary today.
His words: Nigeria has missed a colossus of integrity,
uprightness and decency. I can never find the right word to
describe him, but all I can say is that people should try as much
as possible to walk in the path he tread, because that is what has
been lacking in
our country. If we all do half of
what he did to bring hon-our and credibility to the judiciary,
Nigeria will not be where it is today. We all know what is going on
in the judiciary now.
It is saddening to note that the judiciary has be-come the
microcosm of the Nigeria society, we cannot attack the judicia-ry
without attacking the politicians, because some of them give those
in the judiciary incentives to be corrupt, we cannot isolate all
these things that have bedeviled our country, but
Politicians responsible for rot in judiciary, says Fayemi
Participants at a protest against the Lagos Traffic Law
organised by the Joint Action Forum to mark the International Human
Rights Day in Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: OLUFEMI AJASA
FEMI OYEWESOABEOKUTA
Members of the Ogun State chap-ter of the Nigeria Union of
Pensioners (NUP) yesterday appealed to the state government to pay
their 19 months gratuity that had been stopped since May, 2010.
The pensioners also called on Governor Ibi-kunle Amosun, to use
his position as the executive governor of the state to en-force the
payment of all the outstanding arrears accru-ing from 2007 till
date.
Addressing a press con-ference yesterday in Abeo-kuta, to
commemorate the 2012 National Pensioners Day, the unions state
Chair-man, Chief Kessington Odukoya, called on the au-thorities
concerned to make the report of its 2010/2011 verifications
exercise open, which he said had been shrouded in secrecy.
Stressing that the union has being in good relation-ship with
the state gov-ernment, the chairman further said that it was not
unmindful of the huge amount of unpaid gratuity inherited by the
present administration.
The pensioners, how-ever, appealed to Governor Amosun to gear up
the monthly release in respect of the outstanding gratuity.
We are not unmindful of the huge amount of un-paid gratuity
inherited by the present administration, yet we want to seize this
op-portunity to appeal to the government to gear up the monthly
release in respect of outstanding gratuity. The last payment was in
respect of May, 2010.
Pensioners beg Amosun to pay them 19 months gratuities
He said: Yoruba thrive on federalism. What I want the country to
know is the fact that as far as our au-tonomy and freedom are
recognised, we could be the best any people could have as
neighbours.
But every effort to in-fringe on our freedom and autonomy would
breed tragedy and disaster. For as long as people do not recog-nise
this salient fact to the extent that we even fought ourselves to
defend our autonomous existence, Yo-ruba can be best of people.
We defend our rights, be it political, social or economical or
cultural. This is the essence of our initiative on regional
in-tegration. And I want to believe that in the innate part of
Chief Obasanjos mind, he supports our in-tegration agenda.
Aregbesola also extolled the virtues of the former president,
saying every Yo-ruba man must be proud of his achievements, which
explains why the Osun State Government accord-
ed him honour which he rightly deserved.
He said: It is not for nothing that Chief Obasanjo is a Yoruba
per-son. As a Yoruba man, we must be proud of his achievements.
It is in recognition of your feat as individual as a Yoruba
person that we have deemed it necessary and important to accord you
the respect.
In his remark, Obasanjo said the kingship tussle is an
unfinished matter, say-ing his visit was to intimate the governor
of the prog-ress report on the matter.
The former President disclosed that his mission in the state is
for peaceful resolution of the kingship tussle in Orile-Owu.
He said: I was here to visit and intimate you with the progress
we have re-corded over the leadership tussle in Orile-Owu. When I
was called to intervene, I discovered that things were drifting and
we need-ed to arrest the situation before it degenerates.
Obasanjo lauds Aregbesola, unveils Iges statue FEMI
OYEWESOABEOKUTA
The Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Suraj
Adekunbi, yesterday said that his invitation to appear before the
Head of the Investigation team of the Independent Corrupt Practices
and Other Re-lated Offences Commission (ICPC) over the inflation of
contract was not a convic-tion, but rather a routine exercise of
the commission.
The Speaker, who was re-acting to reports which said he has been
indicted in the process that led to the pro-curement of official
cars for the 28 lawmakers in the state, also said that he was not
wor-ried about the invitation as the procurement of the cars
followed due process.
Adekumbi, who spoke yesterday through his Spe-cial Assistant on
Media, Akinola Waheed, also de-clared that he was ready to answer
to any question bothering on the petition by those he called
faceless petitioners.
FRANCIS SUBERU
The planned protest by commercial mo-torcyclists, popular-ly
known as Okada rid-ers, yesterday met a brick wall as the protest
was halted after an address by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in
charge of op-erations, Tunde Shobulo, who led armed mobile and
regular policemen to stop the protest.
The Okada operators had planned to register their grievances by
protesting against the new Lagos Traffic Law which prohibited them
from operating on 475 routes within the Lagos metropolis.
The riders had con-verged in large numbers at the Labour House,
Yaba, around 8.00am and were planning to march to the Lagos State
Government House, Alausa, Ikeja; but they had only got to Agege
area when the protest was peacefully halted.
The protest was coordi-nated by the Joint Action Forum (JAF) and
support-ed by civil society groups, led by Aremu Abiodun and
Ayodele Akele.
we must restore hope to our country.
Fayemi said Justice Eso represented the very best in terms of
integrity and character and speaks the truth at all times.
He continued: He dem-onstrated what it meant to be a forthright
person. He was always on the side of the truth and justice and he
inspired many of us. He was a rare commodity in Nigeria of today,
he was one of the people you can be re-ferred to as a mentor in the
truest sense of the word, who at all times you could count on to
say the truth.
As somebody who has gone through the crucible of the courts in
Nigeria and in my own struggle as a democrat, papa was our
unsolicited consultant, be-cause he took it upon him-self to
monitor what was going on with my case, as he believed that I was
on the side of the truth, that was why you can see people thronging
here to pay hom-age to truth, courage, jus-tice and decency.
I can tell you that Hon. Kayode Eso, in all respect, I knew how
revered he was in the circle of the internation-al community of
jurists.
N168m scam: My invitation not conviction Ogun Speaker
Police stop Okada riders protest
South-West have always called for true federalism because by
their nature, the Yoruba people flourish on federalism.
Obasanjo came in com-pany with delegate of Owu Development
Foundation, ODF, in respect of a rift over the Orile-Owu stool.
While unveiling the statue, Obasanjo com-mended Aregbesola for
deeming it fit to honour Ige whom he described as a rare Yoruba
personality.
He said: Ige was a na-tional leader. Especially in the
South-West, his im-pact was highly commend-able. It is a
representation of the remembrance of a high calibre Yoruba
per-sonality whose efforts for the advancement of his people will
always remain in the sands of time.
Aregbesola said that once the powers that be recognises in the
Yoruba people a lover of federal-ism and freedom, they would find
the Yoruba the best of people to befriend and be with.
WALE FOLARINOSOGBO
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday commend-ed Governor
Rauf Are-gebesola for the works he is doing in Osun State just as
he showered encomium on his late Minister of Jus-tice, Chief Bola
Ige.
The occasion was the visit of the Owu Foun-dation delegation led
by Obasanjo to Aregbesola in the state capital where he unveiled
the new statue of the late governor of old Oyo State built at the
en-trance of the Governors Office in Osogbo.
This was just as Aregbe-sola said that it is not for nothing
that people of the
Obasanjo
National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netTuesday, December
11, 20128 South West
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Part of the Ifeleye spare part market gutted by fire in Ibadan,
yesterday.
ticed by people living be-hind the building around midnight, but
with no-body sure how it started since electricity has not been in
the area for the past three weeks.
The timely arrival of fire service men from Alesinloye area of
Ibadan prevented the fire from spreading to the adjourn-ing
buildings and shops.
When the National
Mirror visited the scene, sympathisers were seeing retrieving
goods not com-pletely destroyed as the area was cordoned off by
security agents to prevent hoodlums from stealing the salvaged
goods.
One of the victims, Mr. Olusola Olalere, a motor-cycle spare
parts dealer, said that he stocked his shop with goods last Fri-day
and lost everything in
the inferno.According to him, he
was called from his house in Olorunsogo area of the city some
minutes past mid-night and when he arrived at the scene, he could
not salvage anything as all the goods had been consumed.
Olalere, who said he lost goods worth over N25 mil-lion and N1.8
million cash in the inferno, said he was not sure of what could
have
Fire destroys N40m goods in Ibadan market
The traffic manage-ment of the police created some traffic
hiccups along the Ring Road/Mobil/Ade-Oyo Road.
Justice Adeniji, while welcoming the judges, ex-pressed joy at
the choice of the state for the sitting of the ECOWAS Court which
she described as
TERH AGBEDEH
Lagos State Gov-ernor Babatunde Fashola will today launch the
first ever Af-rican City Edition of Mo-nopoly, the popular board
game tagged the Lagos City Edition at City Hall, Lagos.
This was disclosed yes-terday at a press confer-ence held at
Wheatbaker Hotel in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Those who addressed the media were Mrs. Nimi Akinkugbe of the
Lagos-based Bestman Games and the Managing Director of the United
Kingdom-based Moving Moves, which makes the
game, Mr. Thomas Lid-del. Lagos State was rep-resented by the
Director General of LASRAB, Mr. Bolaji Uthman.
Akinkugbe said for many years families have played Monopoly
together while building better relationships and her company was
very excited to bring the La-gos edition to the coun-try.
She said: We hope to enhance the profile of African cities
starting with Lagos. There is so much negativity por-trayed about
Africa and we hope that through this game , we will pres-ent Lagos
to the world in a very positive way.
KEMI OLAITANIBADAN
Cases in Ibadan High Courts located in Ring Road area of the Oyo
State capital yes-terday suffered adjourn-ments as judges joined
the state Chief Judge, Justice Badejoko Adeniji, to re-ceive the
visiting ECOW-AS Court judges.
One of the cases affect-ed was the one between the Celestial
Church of Christ (CCC), Onala par-ish in Ibadan, and the state
government on the demolition of the church a fortnight ago by the
agents of the government.
Security was tightened within the court premises as the
Community Court of Justice of ECOWAS member states, otherwise
called the ECOWAS Court began a week sitting in the state high
court.
An Armoured Person-nel Carrier (APC) and three police pick up
vans were placed in the front of the high court while armed
policemen restricted move-ment of vehicles except those on official
duties into the court premises.
Amosun suspends Ijebu East LG boss, 11 councillors
the principal legal organ of ECOWAS.
The Chief Judge said the court has the main function of
resolving dis-putes relating to the inter-pretation and application
of the provisions of the revised treaty of ECOW-AS and annexed
protocols and conventions.
The president of the ECOWAS Court, Justice Awa Nana Daboya,
ex-plained that the resolve to shift the sitting of the court to
Ibadan was in pursuant to the provisions of Article 14 (2) of the
protocol of the court allowing it to hold one or more sessions
out-side its seat of court.
caused the fire since the building was not opened throughout
Sunday.
The executive members of Ifeleye Market, how-ever, appealed to
the state government to come to the aid of the victims, stress-ing
that the loss was too much for them to bear.
Another victim, Mr. Sina Sotunbo, said he lost goods worth over
N20 mil-lion in the inferno, stating
FEMI OYEWESOABEOKUTA
Ogun State Gover-nor Ibikunle Amo-sun yesterday sus-pended the
executive and the legislative arms of the Ijebu East Local
Govern-ment Area for 90 days.
A statement signed in Abeokuta by the Secretary to the State
Government (SSG), Mr Taiwo Adeolu-wa, announced the suspen-sion of
the council chair-man, Mr. Dare Ogunde, as well as the 11
councillors.
The statement said the governors action was in line with
Sections 39 and 43 of the Ogun State Local Government Law.
The Head of the Lo-cal Government Admin-istration (HOLGA) was,
therefore, ordered to ad-minister the affairs of the council
pending further directives by the governor.
The chairman, his dep-uty, all councillors and political
appointees were directed to stay away from
Wednesday, December 19.The Vice-Chancellor
of the university, Prof. Simeon Ayanlaja, who dis-closed this at
the weekend at a pre-convocation me-dia conference at Igbesa, noted
that 253 students would be formally re-leased and celebrated on the
occasion.
Fourteen of these stu-dents, according to him, would bag First
Class honour with the overall best among them, a fe-male, from
Accounting Department, obtained the GPA of 4.87 out of an
ob-tainable 5.0.
He added that a total of 78, 114, and 45 would be graduating
with Second Class (Upper Division), Second Class lower and Third
Class, respectively,
TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE
Deputy Governor in charge of Opera-tions, Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Tunde Lemo, will deliver this years convocation
lecture of Crawford Uni-versity, Igbesa, Ogun State.
The immediate past Vice-Chancellor of Cove-nant University, Ota,
Prof Obaiyan Aize, delivered the last years edition, which was the
third in the series.
Lemo, a renowned econ-omist, will speak on: Na-tional
development: Youth and entrepreneur chal-lenge and many
manu-facturing companies will also exhibit their products at the
forum scheduled for
while the remaining two would leave the school with Pass.
The VC, who said aside the graduating students, every other
unemployed youth in the society would benefit immensely from CBNs
Lemo lecture at the forum, stressed that all the universitys
courses had been accredited by the National Universities Commission
(NUC).
that he was still in shock over the disaster.
The motor battery deal-er said he received a call around 1.00 am
and on get-ting to the scene, he could not believe his eyes seeing
all his goods in flame.
An official of the state fire service, who did not want his name
mentioned, said men of the service ar-rived at the scene less than
an hour the fire started.
the local government sec-retariat while the suspen-sion
lasts.
While the offences com-mitted by the suspend of-ficials were not
stated, Na-tional Mirror learnt that it might not be unconnected
with the disagreement which had earlier tore members of the
legislative arm of the council apart.
Investigation revealed that the councillors had removed their
leader in an attempt to install another candidate, but the council
chairman intervened in the crisis, which eventu-ally consumed all
of them as they were all suspended by the governor.
Meanwhile, the panel of inquiry set up by the governor to look
into the wrangling was chaired by Chief Wole Adesiji.
Mr. James Omotosho of the Ministry of Justice is the Secretary,
while Mrs Ayoola Afolabi and Mr Bayo Adeyemi are mem-ber.The panel
is to submit its reports within 14 days.
Lemo
KEMI OLAITANIBADAN
Sy m p a t h i s e r s groaned yesterday morning in Ibadan, the
Oyo State capital, as a storey building at the pop-ular Ifeleye
market was gutted by fire with proper-ty worth millions of naira
destroyed.
National Mirror learnt that the fire was first no-
Cases suffer adjournment as ECOWAS Court sits in Ibadan
Fashola to launch Lagos City Monopoly edition today
Lemo to deliver 4th Crawford varsity convocation lecture
National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Tuesday, December
11, 2012 9South West
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FELIX NWANERI
Leaders of Project Ni-geria, including el-der statesmen, Prof
Ben Nwabueze and Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, on Sunday in Lagos rose
from their ongoing national consultation on the state of the nation
with a re-solve to mobilise leaders of thought for movement against
corruption and in-security in the country.
The leaders, who met for two and half hours be-hind closed
doors, said the parley followed an initial
Nothern Elders Forum, which he chairs for the initiative to save
Nigeria.
He further disclosed that others who attended the meeting were
Alhaji Shetimah Yerima, Dr Tun-ji Abayomi and key lead-ers of the
Arewa Commu-nity in Lagos.
CHRIS NJOKUOWERRI
The Imo State Police Command yester-day passed out 127 officers
and men from an intensive two-weeks re-training course in arms
handling and movement.
The training, designed to improve the combat strategy by the
police of-ficers, was in line with the vision of the police
authority in professional-ising the Force to meet the challenges of
modern day policing.
Presenting the gradu-ating officers to the Imo State
Commissioner of Police, Baba Adisa Bo-lanta, the Commander of the
18 Squadron of the Po-lice Mobile Force (PMF), Suo Jephthah Nengi,
said the officers had been ade-quately trained to combat crime,
especially during the Christmas season.
consultation hosted by for-mer Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu
Ciroma, to explore an enduring solution to the worrying state of
the country.
According to the Na-tional Secretary of the group, Sir Olawale
Okun-niyi, the meeting, which was a prelude to a major national
convergence of Project Nigeria in Janu-ary 2013, also resolved to
consult further with groups like the Northern Elders Forum (NEF),
Are-wa Consultative Forum (ACF), Labour and south-ern leaders,
among others,
on how best to bring about national consensus on the stability
and harmony of the country.
He said the leaders also restated their faith and support for
the Adamu Ciroma-led Committee on National Unity set up in Abuja on
November 20 to help fashion understand-ing and consensus between
the South and the North on the modus openradi of Project Nigeria
and how best to save the country from an imminent collapse.
Okunniyi said: Mai-tama Sule at the parley re-stated the support
of the
Nwabueze, Maitama Sule, others mobilise against corruption
L-R: Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (Unizik),
Awka, Prof. Boniface Egboka; Prof. Anene Muoneke; Anambra State
Governor, Mr. Peter Obi and Vice-Chancellor, Anambra State
University, Prof. Fidelis Okafor, during the donation of buses to
universities, yesterday.
Commending the Com-missioner of Police for the success of the
programme, Nengi noted that the ini-tiative was unique and prepared
the first batch of officers and men, who had undergone the training
pro-gramme to be up and doing in their task of protecting the lives
and properties of people living in the state.
Responding shortly
Governor Peter Obi yesterday donated three Coaster buses to
Anambra State Univer-sity, Uli; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka;
and Uni-versity of Nigeria, Nsukka.
He said the gesture was part of his administra-tions policies to
provide infrastructure for institu-tions of learning.
He noted that apart from Anambra State Uni-versity owned by the
state,
after inspecting the pass-ing out parade, the police boss, said
the training was a manifestation of the de-termination of the
com-mand to improve the per-formance of policemen, adding that all
officers and men would undertake the training.
He said the rigorous training was part of measures taken by
the
command to prepare the beneficiaries for the task of providing
adequate se-curity during the Christ-mas and New Year
cel-ebrations.
Bolanta also advised the beneficiaries to go back to their
respective divisions and impart the knowledge on their colleagues
who were not yet to go through the training.
the other two have Anam-bra as their catchment ar-eas and as
such serve the people of Anambra State.
Obi, who lamented the fallen standard of educa-tion, appealed to
students to take their studies seri-ously in other to be use-ful to
themselves and the larger society.
Condemning the preva-lence of cultism in na-tions tertiary
institu-tions, the governor said
anybody planning to achieve success in life must shun all manner
of societal vices.
Obi, who is currently touring all secondary schools in Anambra
State with grant of N20 million to each of them for their
rehabilitation, called on wealthy individuals and corporate
organisations to support the govern-ments effort in develop-ing the
education sector.
Sule
Police train 127 offi cers on crime control
Obi donates buses to three universities
that the police could not be everywhere and would, therefore,
depend on mem-bers of the public to volun-teer information for
effec-tive security watch.
He said: We must be prepared to ensure that we save our lives. I
urge not only the police, but civil-ians, traditional rulers,
vil-lage heads and students on the need to work together to expose
those who pose dan-ger to our security within our communities and
neighborhoods.
Policemen and other se-curity agents in the country are either
magicians or spir-its. So, we need information to carry out our
jobs and we can only do well when we are given genuine informa-tion
and then you see police-men at their best.
In his welcome address, Chairman of Police Com-munity Relations
Com-mittee (PCRC), Ichie Alex Nwaosuagwu, said the workshop was
designed to inform, enlighten and edu-cate the public on the need
to cooperate with the police to render effective service.
Nwaosuagwu said the workshop was to compli-ment the effort of
the Abia State governor, Chief Theo-dore Orji, towards ensuring a
crime free society.
women president general prompted her to mobil-ise women to start
doing something for the college.
She lamented that for 10 months, she was in court trying to
reclaim her mandate from peo-ple who never contested election and
did not want the people of Awka North to have quality
representation.
Mrs. Udoji-Paragon gave insight in to her achievement so far,
say-ing: I have enlisted mo-tions on our road which is the most
important thing to us.
We are not happy that we go through five local government areas
be-fore getting to Achalla, but thank God Governor Peter Obi said
he is go-ing to finish the road from Amansea to Awba Ofemmili and
even con-nect Isu Aniocha, Urum through Amanuke to Achalla to make
our jour-ney to the local govern-ment shorter.
GEORGE OPARAABIA
The Abia State Police Command has reit-erated the need for
community policing as one of the major ways to tackle the raising
cases of violent crimes in the country.
The command also called for a robust relation-ship among the
nations se-curity agencies to achieve maximum result.
The Abia State Commis-sioner of Police, Mr. Ambrose Aisabor ,
spoke at a one day workshop on community policing and security
aware-ness organised for selected groups of people at the Mi-chael
Okpara Auditorium in Umuahia, the state capital.
The workshop was aimed at sensitising members of the public on
the need to be security conscious because of the challenges
confront-ing the country.
Aisabor, who also chaired the occasion, iden-tified security as
an im-portant factor for nation building, adding that no
de-velopment would take place in an atmosphere of insecu-rity and
chaos.
The police chief de-scribed information as a vital instrument
for com-munity policing, stressing
CHARLES OKEKEAWKA
A member of Anam-bra State House of Assembly rep-resenting Awka
North Constituency, Mrs. Re-becca Udoji-Paragon, has donated an
ultra-modern hall to Community Sec-ondary School, Achalla.
The hall was handed over to the principal of the school, Mr
Mathew Aniekwo, at a ceremony held in Achalla, the head-quarters of
Awka North Local Government Area.
Mrs. Udoji-Paragon, who is the House Commit-tee Chairman on
Women Affairs, also donated two wheel chairs to two physi-cally
challenged persons in the local government.
Indigent indigenes of the community and wid-ows were also given
cash, foods and clothes.
The lawmaker said the sight of dilapidated struc-tures in the
school when she was the communitys
Information necessary for police effectiveness CP
Anambra lawmaker hands over hall to school
National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netTuesday, December
11, 201210 South East
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National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 11Tuesday, December
11, 2012 South-South
TONY ANICHEBEUYO
The Chartered In-stitute of Logistics and Transport has blamed
the failure in the transport sector on the draft policy document
that was inadequate.
The National President, Chartered Institute of Lo-gistics and
Transport, Maj.-General Umar Usman (rtd), stated this at a
three-day Round Table discourse on the theme; The Role of Transport
Policy on Na-tional Economic Develop-ment, yesterday in Uyo.
He said it was regretta-ble that Nigeria at 52, could not
entrench effective legis-lation that guides its trans-port
sector.
One of the major rea-sons identified for the
policy document not to have received the required attention and
acceptance was that each time it was presented for approval,
rel-evant stakeholders whose interests were ignored punch hole on
it.
The consequential ef-fects have been that its ei-ther the
ministry is making serious adjustments to the document or it goes
back to the drawing board to be started all over again.
The negative implica-tion is that it would be dif-ficult to
strike a balance between liberty and order in the transport
industry.
He said before Nigeria could have a transport pol-icy that is
acceptable, there is need for the active inter-action of the
stakeholders, which include public, pri-vate and professionals.
ROTIMI FADEYIABUJA
President Goodluck Jonathan has ex-pressed gratitude to
Nigerians for the sympa-thy and solidarity shown to him and members
of his family during the burial rites of his younger broth-er,
Chief Meni Jonathan in Otuoke, Bayelsa State at the weekend.
A statement issued yes-terday by the Special Ad-viser to the
President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati said; On be-half
of the entire Jonathan family, President Jonathan wishes to convey
his im-mense thanks and appre-ciation to all Nigerians and friends
of the country, who showed sympathy and soli-darity with him and
mem-bers of his family as they
mourned and buried the late Chief Meni Jonathan.
According to the state-ment, The President wish-es to
particularly thank former heads of state, state governors, the
entire leadership of the National Assembly, foreign heads of state
and government, diplomatic representatives, members of professional
and non-governmental or-ganisations and ordinary Nigerians who
either trav-eled to Otuoke for the burial ceremonies or
commiserat-ed with the family in other ways.
He prays that God Al-mighty will bless and re-ward them all for
their love, kindness and sympathy which has helped to as-suage the
grief and pain of his family over the loss of a beloved brother,
the state-ment said.
Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan (left) congratulating
Mr. Innocent Esewezie, after taking the oath of office as the
Chair-man, Caretaker Committee of Oshimili North Local Government
Area of Delta State, at the Government House, Asaba, yesterday.
Oshiomhole
Draft policy, bane of transport sector Institute
President thanks Nigerians for support, sympathy during brothers
burial
EMMA GBEMUDUYENAGOA
Stakeholders in the Bayelsa State chapter of the Peoples
Demo-cratic Party (PDP) yester-day resolved that Presi-dent
Goodluck Jonathan remains the leader of the party in the state,
just as the President said that the erstwhile governor of the
state, Diepreye Alamieye-seigha, was his benefactor in
politics.
President Jonathan, who attended the party caucus meeting in
Yena-
goa, yesterday, urged ag-grieved members of the party to put
behind them their differences for the collective interest of the
state, rather than creating undue tension in the pol-ity.
The decision to adopt Jonathan as the leader of the party was
reached fol-lowing a motion by Gov-ernor Seriake Dickson, declaring
total support for him as leader of the party in the state at an
expanded caucus meeting of mem-bers held in Government House.
The motion was adopted by at least 28 members of the partys
caucus after a voice vote initiated by Sen-ator Emmanuel Paulker,
representing Bayelsa Cen-tral Senatorial District in the National
Assembly.
The President denied al-legations linking him with the selection
of candidates for elective positions in the state, noting that he
could not condescend to get him-self in the selection of
can-didates for elections.
His words: I dont want to be in Abuja and be seen as influencing
political
contestants; I will not con-descend to get myself in the
selection of candidates, Im not interested, because it wont be fair
since leader-ship is all about hierarchy.
He reminded the people that politics ought to be viewed as tools
for the de-velopment and service to fatherland, saying that he
could not fathom what went wrong during the last expanded caucus
meeting of the PDP in the state.
The President stressed the need to respect the hi-erarchy of
power in order to build a strong leader-
SEBASTINE EBHUOMHAN BENIN
A member of the Edo State House of Assembly has advised the
upper and lower chambers of the Na-tional Assembly (NASS) to give
strong and neces-sary consideration to the viability of any new
state before it is created.
The Majority Leader of the assembly and rep-resentative of
Etsako West II Constituency of Edo State, Hon. Phil-lip Shaibu, who
stopped short of telling the fed-eral lawmakers not to cre-ate an
unviable state for the mere sake of it, said a state that is not
viable enough to meet its consti-tutional challenges, is not fit to
exist in the comity
Alamieyeseigha is my benefactor, says Jonathan
Consider viability in state creation, lawmaker urges NASS
ship structure, noting that he would not be in Abuja and dictate
what happens in the state.
Earlier, Governor Dick-son said the meeting her-alded a new
beginning in the state chapter of the party, putting an end to
mindless acrimonious di-vision between state-based politicians and
those at the national level.
While describing the schism as unhealthy and projecting the
state in a bad light, Dickson said the caucus meeting was con-vened
for members of the
party to close ranks and form a formidable bloc of support at
the state level.
The most important challenge Bayelsa State has had to contend
with is the issue of mobilis-ing support for President Jonathan,
which is why we want to convene this meet-ing once every
quarter.
On the impending coun-cil poll in the state, Dick-son advised
party loyalists to guard against anything that would threaten the
peace and tranquility that has brought respect to the state.
of states.Shaibu also spoke on
issues surrounding the passage of the contro-versial Land Use
Charge Law 2012 by the Edo State government amidst an unsettled
ball of dusts, controversies, protests and threats by some
resi-dents of the state, who felt threatened by the new law.
The majority leader, one of the supporters of the executive bill
that was passed into law under a very hostile condition created for
the House by owners and sympathisers of targeted properties in
Benin City, said any state that cannot provide or smoothly pay the
salary of its workforce is not viable and, by extension, unfit to
be created.
His words: If a state, including Abuja, cannot provide for the
salary of its workforce, such a state is not viable and fit to be a
state.
If a state cannot on its own generate funds to pay for its
workforce, that state is not viable, add-ing that the need to
func-tion effectively as a state is what makes Edo State government
to tap into the potentiality of taxing rich property owners to
provide for the poor.
Shaibu, who denied the rumour making the rounds that lawmakers
opposed to the bill were being considered for dis-ciplinary action,
further argued; Taxation has been there right from the olden days.
In those days, even for our forefathers
to be able to speak in the public, you must be a tax payer.
Then, there was no oil. The different regions were known for
differ-ent economic activities. But the situation is not so today.
If oil goes today, where are the pyramids etc? Taxing ourselves is
a principle that we all must imbibe as citizens.
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National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net12 Tuesday, December
11, 2012 North
AZA MSUEKADUNA
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has called on Kadu-na State
Governor Patrick Yakowa to sack the Secre-tary to the State
Govern-ment (SSG), Alhaji Lawal Samaila Yakawada, over his alleged
2015 governor-ship ambition.
In a letter to the gover-
nor, a copy of which was made available to Nation-al Mirror,
Kaduna State Chairman of the party, Mallam Mohammed Musa Soba,
accused the SSG of undermining the author-ity of the governor in
his quest to establish himself in readiness for the 2015 race.
ACN alleged that the SSG was exploiting eth-nic divide to push
his
political ambition at the expense of the unity and development
of the state.
It said: It is an open secret that Yakawadas ac-tions and
utterances are always at variance with the collective decisions
reached by the govern-ment he serves, all in an attempt to garner
sup-port and sympathy from the populace pursuant to his political
project.
Clandestine meet-ings of trusted govern-ment aides were
sum-moned through the office of the SSG without the governors
knowl-edge and consent to map out strategies towards achieving his
2015 proj-ect, while money meant for projects and security matters
are diverted and the bridge between the SSGs office and the
gen-
eral public has since col-lapsed.
Since the SSG cannot be trusted to handle state issues
efficiently, due to his personal interest, we urge you to remove
him from office with immedi-ate effect to pave the way for the
appointment of a competent person that will assist in surmount-ing
the barrage of socio-economic, political and
security problems con-fronting Kaduna State.
As members of the opposition, we have a stake in the Kaduna
State project and we will not allow a few people in government to
person-alise and commercialise the operations of gov-ernment in a
manner that is detrimental to the unity, peace and develop-ment of
the state
ACN calls for Kaduna SSGs sack over 2015 ambition
The Kaduna State Government yester-day said it has pro-posed a
budget of N176. 4 billion for 2013.
The Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Saidu Adamu, said the
figure was agreed during the state executive council meeting
chaired by Gov-ernor Patrick Yakowa.
Adamu said the pro-posal would be presented to the state House
of As-sembly at a later date.
He said budget would have a recurrent expendi-ture of N74.4
billion and N102.3 billion for capital projects.
Adamu explained
that the budget, tagged: Budget of Consolidation and
Advancement, was aimed at completing on-going projects.
The Commissioner for Economic Planning, Mr Timothy Gandu said
the budget would focus on the completion of ongo-ing road projects,
con-version of Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital to medical college,
Zaria water project and poverty alleviation.
On his own part, the Commissioner for Fi-nance, Dr John Ayuba
said 33 per cent of the budget would be funded from in-ternally
generated revenue.
Yakowa proposes N176.4bn budget for 2013
AUGUSTINE MADU-WESTKANO
The conflict between the Kano State Gov-ernment and drug dealers
association over the December 31 deadline given to the latter to
va-cate the Kano Central Market in Sabon Gari deepened yesterday as
members of the union shut their medicine stores in protest against
the order.
The issue has been a source of litigation be-tween the
government
and the medicine deal-ers.
The governments po-sition followed alleged sales of counterfeit
drugs in the market.
It was also learnt that the state is uncomfort-able with its
ranking as the highest patron of il-licit drugs, as well as the
rising rate of drug addic-tion among youths.
The dealers closed their medicine stores in order to push the
govern-ment to rescind its order.
The indefinite closure of the drug stores will,
however, not only affect Kano residents, but oth-er parts of the
North.
The patron of the Ni-gerian Association of Patent and
Proprietary Medicine Dealers, Da-hiru Abdullahi Matazu, appealed to
the state gov-ernor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, to investi-gate the
alleged sale of counterfeit drugs in the market, instead of
forc-ibly evacuating members of the drug dealers asso-ciation.
Matazu said: Gover-nor Kwankwaso is our
father and leader, so we have no doubt in mind that he would
ensure that justice is done in this matter as was done in other
controversial is-sues.
Drug dealers protest Kanos quit orderL-R: Kaduna State Deputy
Governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Yero; Governor Patrick Yakowa and Deputy
Speaker, state House of Assembly, Dr. Dogara Mato, at an induction
for newly elected local government chairmen in Kaduna, yesterday.
PHOTO: NAN
JAMES ABRAHAMJOS
The National Associa-tion of Nigerian Stu-dents (NANS) has
raised the alarm over what it called injustice being meted on some
individuals and groups accused of hav-ing hands in the ongoing
in-vestigations in the oil sector of the economy
Addressing a press con-ference yesterday in Jos, the Plateau
State capital, NANS President, Mr. Mohammed Dauda, alleged that the
probe was being manipulated by certain forces to facilitate the
closure of many companies, including Capital Oil and Gas
Limited.
He said the situation could render many Nigerians job-less.
Dauda said: Innocent Nigerian masses, who are employed at the
company, particularly youths who earn their daily bread from the
company, will be the vic-tims. This will pose a setback to the
national economy.
We have had cause to over the weeks observe the raging scarcity
in the availability of petroleum products in the country
and we have come to re-alise that this cannot be easily
disconnected from the alarm raised by our as-sociation some weeks
ago about the likely implication of the prolonged impasse between
some independent petroleum marketers and the Federal Government,
which is represented by the Federal Ministry of Finance in the
impasse.
He, however, commended the House of Representa-tives effort to
resolve the matter, saying: We want to commend the bold step taken
by the House of Representa-tives in finding a resolution between
Capital Oil and Gas and Access Bank of Nigeria.
There is no doubt that the steps so far taken by the bank
against Capital Oil has con-tributed to a huge shortage in the
services being rendered to Nigerians by the company and its now
being seeing as a desperate attempt to force-fully take over the
company from its owners.
We urge the National As-sembly to thoroughly inves-tigate the
matter and come out with resolution that will put an end to this
long drawn battle.
NANS alleges injustice in oil probe
HENRY IYORKASEMAKURDI
Chairman of the Conference for all Nigerian Political Parties
(CNPP) in Benue State, Mr. Baba Agan, has condemned the recent
deregistration of 28 politi-cal parties by the Indepen-dent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), say-
ing the decision was ill-motivated.
Speaking yesterday with National Mirror in Makurdi, the Benue
State capital, Agan flayed the INECs decision, describ-ing the
action as reckless.
The Peoples Redemp-tion Party (PRP) chieftain believes that
Nigerian po-litical system allows mul-tiple political parties
so
as to afford the people the opportunity to choose the platform
that suits their desire.
He, however, urged INEC to reconsider the decision, saying:
Nigeria with her 160 million popu-lation deserves multiple
political parties, even the ones at present are not enough let
alone slashing them.
INECs action on 28 parties reckless
Kwankwaso
Jega
-
At the dawn of democracy in 1999, only three political parties
existed. They were the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Peoples
Party (APP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD). Howev-er, there
was a growing dissention among some members of these three parties
who felt marginalised and who saw the need to build their nests in
a completely different environment where the oxygen of their
po-litical relevance would not be contaminat-ed. This development
led to the growing de-mand to expand the nations political space to
accommodate more political parties.
Hence, the late fiery lawyer and human rights activist, Chief
Gani Fawehinmi, fo